The Fourteen Years I Spent as a Cat

Chapter 5: I became a part of their family

The days I spent in the Itou house quickly passed by.

After the man finishes his breakfast every morning, he would shut himself inside the room called the Study, and the woman would leave the house with the girly, wearing her navy blue uniform, and wouldn’t come home until the evening.

Speaking of me, I normally slept bathing in the sunlight. If I was hungry I would eat the food they prepared for me, and if I was bored I would walk around the house, sometimes playing with the man who left his room every now and then.

I knew that the world had a thing called seasons.

Spring and Autumn, were the seasons I liked.

All the seasons and their activities hurriedly went by, and each time I would also eat some delicious foods.

The girly had grown up surprisingly quick, but my body grew and matured at least double that, and at some point the growth of my body caught up with my mental age.

※※※

The third Spring, the girly entered High school.

Her hair, tied up in two, had become shorter, and she had gotten even cuter, looking like the woman. After starting school, she quickly joined something called “Afterschool activities”, and a lot of the time she would come home even later than the woman, who was out working.

Perhaps she had also become stronger, since whenever she would hug me with her tanned, straw-coloured skin, I would be in pain and without thinking let out a strange “Gya!” sounding noise.

“Is tennis fun?’’

Sitting at dinner, the woman asks the girly.

While I was yawning on the man’s lap, the girly relaxes her energetic gaze and answers.

“Of course! I want to go buy some new shoes, so could you come pick me up tomorrow?”

“Fufu, alright. And on the way, we’ll also buy Dad’s suit.”

As soon as the woman says that, the miso soup that man was drinking, got stuck in his throat, and he started coughing vigorously.

At this time, since my seat, the man’s legs, started shaking vigorously, I got down as it disturbed my rest. The man looked disappointed as he saw me get up and rest my knees down onto my favourite cushion, and the woman and girly pair, both started laughing happily.

“Dad, you have a dinner with your fellow writers, right? I think that it’s about time that you get a new suit.”

“It’s just as Yuuka says, dear. Sagami-sensei and the others will be there as well, right?”

“Um… yea…”

The man ends the conversation with a quiet mutter, and resumed eating.

As usual neither the man or woman have grown up a single bit huh, was what I thought as I saw that spectacle in front of me. If you keep at this for a few more years, you’ll be outgrown by the girly you know?

“By the way, I sure would like a signature~ I’m Sagami-sensei’s fan after all.”

Hearing his daughter say that, the man looked like a tragic youth.

“Umm… what about Dad’s signature?”

“Don’t want it. We’re always together after all.”

Hearing his daughter’s words, the man looked as if he had received a massive shock. I looked up from the cushion and sighed to the man.

The girly is someone who will eventually leave her nest, youngster.

“Don’t look like that, Dad. Even though I say that, you’re still someone I’m really proud of you know, Dad? I went to see that thing that was turned into a movie lately with my friends, and it was awesome. Though, I think that the book was better since it was easier to understand the heroine’s feelings.”

The girly knew just how to handle her dad. The man relaxes into a smile, and seemed to return to normal as he moved his chopsticks.

The woman and girly looked at each other and laughed. He asked, ‘Why are you laughing?’ puzzledly, and the dining table they were sitting at was surrounded in a sense of warmth.

I liked nothing more than watching that. Every time I think that I’m one of them, one of the family, it would slowly fill my chest with warmth.

“Kuro, come here.”

Finishing his dinner, the man says, as he pats his lap, while seated.

I get up from the cushion, and gracefully jumped onto the man’s lap. I lie down comfortably as the man gently strokes my head, and I shut my eyes as if to thoroughly enjoy that warmth.

I have come to like him so much that I even surprised myself.

※※※

After that, another two months passed by, and the third June since I had met the man arrived.

The girly who had come home early, sat down on the sofa in the living room, and spread out several textbooks and notebooks on the table in front of her. For a little while, she made a complicated expression as she held her pen.

What’s wrong, girly?

I call out to her, as I sit down next to her. Looking at the things lined up on the table, I realised that those were the study materials that she had received from the school. I thought that it was homework, but I couldn’t see any of those familiar looking printouts.

“Geez, why is the test covering so much material. And it’s so annoying that there won’t be any club activities for a week… even Eri-chan’s school allows club activities to continue until the day before the exams~”

Following her sigh, she sank into the sofa. Bouncing onto the sofa with a ‘Don’, my body jumped up slightly.

The woman who was preparing dinner, called out to the girly as she wiped the dining table clean.

“It’s a university prep school so it can’t be helped right? Come now, if you’re free enough to complain then go study. If your grades aren’t good then you’ll have to quit your club right?”

“…..Muu, I know.”

The girly sat back up looking unsatisfied, and looked towards the table.

Girly, try your best. It definitely won’t be a bad thing if you do your best now. It should be able to help you in the future.

I call out to the girly encouragingly, and curled up next to her. The girly looks at me in surprise, and suddenly relaxes, patting my head.

“You’re right, this is something I decided to do. I have to keep at it.”

Yeah. I’ll be by your side during this time.

I say to myself, not looking at the girly as I close my eyes and felt the warmth flowing through my head.

She was the child of the man and the woman, and so these past three years I had decided to call her “Girly”.

Who knows when, but I had come to think of her as if she was my own daughter.

My mind had started to mature a lot earlier than my body, and was now starting to surpass them.