Adult cats are peculiar creatures — they firmly drive the little cat away, then bring her back with no room for argument.
Yimi sat barefoot on a stool, glancing over at Origami, who had closed her eyes and was neither chasing her off again nor offering any comfort.
In front of her was a steaming bowl of noodles. Perhaps finally taking into account that she couldn't use chopsticks, a longer fork had been placed in the bowl.
Yimi ignored the noodles.
The steaming noodles, however, would not ignore her — their tempting aroma kept luring her over.
The kitty had declared she wouldn't eat, and she wouldn't eat — but since the no-freebies person hadn't opened her eyes to witness the eating, that meant the kitty hadn't eaten.
"Sluurp." She made quite a loud noise trying not to burn herself.
"..." Origami still didn't open her eyes.
So much had happened tonight that it was already past two in the morning and she still felt no drowsiness, though eye fatigue was settling in.
"You were eavesdropping." The little cat pointed at her.
"I didn't hear anything," said Origami.
Scraaape—— The sound of a chair shifting — the Spirit in front of her had gotten up.
Origami opened both eyes. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making my own food. I'm not eating yours."
Having been caught eating and making noise, she seemed embarrassed.
"What food?" Origami said, just to say something.
"Millet porridge."
Millet...
Using her longer legs to her advantage, Origami sprinted to the kitchen ahead of Yimi, pulled the door shut to block the little cat's view, then retrieved the bag of millet she'd thrown into the trash and put it back in its place.
She reopened the door and let Yimi in.
Standing off to the side, watching the little girl's busy silhouette as she stood on a small stool, Origami closed her eyes again.
Her tolerance for Spirits was increasing.
But only to learn their weaknesses.
"A pure-white Spirit — have you ever seen one?" Origami asked out of nowhere.
"Mew?" The little cat's tail flicked; she reflexively pinned it on the First Spirit. "Probably the First Spirit."
Anything bad was the First Spirit.
"The First..." Origami clenched her fist. She was one step closer to revenge — this confirmed that bringing her back had been the right call. "How do I find her?"
"Don't know. I've only been in this world a few days." Yimi counted on her fingers, unable to remember exactly how many days she'd been here.
"..."
Does she mean she was just born a few days ago? And she can already cook?
Origami thought of Tohka Yatogami — she too had the air of someone who understood nothing, so Origami had often exploited that, like lying to her that underwear was a biohazard weapon designed to eliminate Spirits.
To say they understood nothing wasn't entirely true — no one is born knowing how to talk, and Tohka's speech was actually a bit smoother than Yimi's, so there was nothing strange about being able to cook right from birth.
"Spirits..."
Origami murmured the title she had despised for five years.
No — the hatred had actually been fading. It had begun fading when she and Tohka reached something that could be called "friendly coexistence" at school, and it was precisely that realization that made her unable to forgive herself for saying one thing and doing another.
"I don't know." She murmured softly — not knowing what, exactly, she didn't know.
These two had nothing to do with the murderer who had killed her parents.
Tohka had descended multiple times before Shiori sealed her — the exact count Origami didn't know, but on the day Yimi had descended alone, the day "the Songstress" made her debut, there had genuinely been no casualties. The large-scale property damage from Spacequakes was generally covered by accident insurance anyway.
In all these days she hadn't seen Yimi trigger another Spacequake — perhaps Shiori had already sealed her.
Thinking of the method Shiori used to seal Spirits, then looking at the little girl who, no matter how you looked at her, seemed no older than a first- or second-grader, Shiori's image underwent a subtle shift in the white-haired girl's mind — something distinct from simple resentment over being deceived.
Turning a blind eye to sealed Spirits — that was a promise she'd made to Shiori long ago. The one thing that would never change was that the pure-white Spirit was her mortal enemy. That was enough.
The girl who had just been tangled up in contradictions felt her mood ease a little.
DEM likely knew about the First Spirit; their records on Spirits were far more complete than AST's.
While she sorted through her own thoughts, Yimi had finally finished cooking her millet and pumpkin porridge — one of the few dishes she actually knew how to make. With her small hands awkwardly gripping the ladle, she served two bowls, then carefully held one and began to drink.
Origami stared at the stovetop for a long moment, unable to tell if the other bowl was meant for her.
What she did notice was the little girl's completely undried hair — water droplets falling straight into the bowl, and she drank them with the porridge.
Origami plugged in the hair dryer and quietly walked around behind the little girl, aiming it at her head.
"Mew? Purrrrr..." A very contented sound.
Compared to bathing, the blow-dry stage was clearly much more tolerable for a cat — or rather, cats were naturally drawn to anything warm.
Although it had been several days since the first bath without another one, Yimi had never really been very dirty beforehand. Whether it related to a cat's habit of grooming itself or something else, she couldn't say — come to think of it, Tohka had appeared so many times before being sealed and had never seemed particularly dirty either.
Setting aside her inner prejudice against Spirits, Origami had to admit the little girl was genuinely adorable. Baby fat and soft, dewy skin aside — her large, bright eyes and delicate features were more striking than any child star's at her age.
Her hair was on the shorter side, not even reaching her shoulders. Pinned under a baseball cap that was rather large for a child, it did nothing for her hairstyle — which was why, with the right clothes, she could easily be mistaken for a cute little boy.
Drying it didn't take much effort.
Afterward, Origami moved the hair dryer aside, intending to use it on herself.
Only for Yimi to snatch it back, continuing to blow warm air on her own head, eyes squinting in contentment.
Fine. She can have it.
Origami picked up a towel and dried her own hair.
"Mm——"
Her anger seemed to have finally passed. The little one turned the hair dryer toward Origami's head, catching the white-haired girl off guard with a blast of hot air that left her squinting.
"Mew?"
After a moment, the cat noticed Origami had already dried her hair fairly well on her own.
The little girl's gaze drifted lower.
She aimed the hair dryer at a thinner patch and helped finish the job.
"...Let's go to sleep," said Origami, expression unchanged as she watched Yimi dry her hair for her.
"Hmph." The cat made a small sound through her nose, then padded in tiny steps toward her cat bed.
Origami didn't stop her — there was no spare bed in the apartment to give her anyway. Another question surfaced in her mind, one that had been nagging at her: she'd assumed that even if Yimi ran off, she would end up back at Shiori's place. Perhaps the two of them weren't as close as she'd thought.
"The First Spirit..."
Because the Spacequake alarm had gone off at such an ungodly hour, the school mercifully pushed the start of classes back to ten o'clock.
Unlike usual, Origami hadn't brought the cat to school this time.
"G-good morning, Origami." Shiori happened to cross paths with her and greeted her as always.
"Good morning."
"Origami, you didn't bring Y... Rolly with you today?" Shiori still remembered yesterday's phone call.
She couldn't figure out why Origami had suddenly asked her about that — maybe Yimi's cover had finally been blown.
Origami held her gaze for a long moment before responding. "Stewed her. Didn't taste that great."
"Huh???"
"Just a joke. Was it not funny?"
"Not even a little bit!"
"Oh." Origami turned her face forward — toward Tohka, who was running toward Shiori.
Then, in a murmur that was just loud enough for Shiori to catch: "I will kill the First Spirit."
Reine Murasame, passing by: "..."