My Little Kitten

Chapter 21 - Cats

"Argh!" I groaned as I tried to keep my breakfast down on a train with Lucy, Gray, Erza and Happy. "Every time..." Gray sighed while playing with Lucy on his lap. "Would you like me to knock you out Natsu?" Erza asked. "Yes...urg please" I groaned then I saw darkness.

Let me backtrack and explain why I'm on the death trap, sorry I mean train. Earlier today, Erza and Gray wanted to go on a job request and dragged me along with Lucy and Happy. The request was to get rid of an infestation in a village called Koneko for 100,000 jewels although the flyer didn't specify what the infestation was. We were on our way to where the client was which was a campsite inside the forest.

"Oh thank you for accepting our request! My name is Akira Otaka, chief of Koneko" the client which was the village chief said. He was a kind elderly man with a long white beard and he held a cane in his right hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you and to help your village. What is this infestation you mentioned in the flyer?" Erza asked. "Our village is called Koneko from the number of cats that lived in our town and we used to live along side with them. Although lately, for some reason there has been an increase of cats where it has become a problem. We had to camp out here to get away from them" Akira explained.

"Where might we find your village?" Erza asked. "You will find our village not far from here" Akira replied as he pointed the way. "You have nothing to worry sir" she said and we were about to walk away when, "before you leave" Akira spoke up. "Yes sir?" Erza asked turning to face him, "is that kitten and cat your companions?" he asked. "Yes" we replied, "I was just wondering...Well, I hope you can fix our problem" he replied and walked away.

I was getting a strange feeling but it might be because I'm hungry. After walking a few minutes, we found the village and they weren't joking when they said their village was infested with cats. There were cats, with different colours and sizes, littering the streets and the hut roofs. The cats were either napping or playing around. I noticed Lucy was looking around curiously at all the cats around us from my shoulder.

We carefully stepped over all the cats but after a few steps the cats around me looked up and tackled me to the ground. I was covered from head to toe with cats and Gray was laughing hysterically. I didn't understand why they only tackled me as I sat up and removed all the cats off of me. As I stood up, I noticed that Lucy wasn't with me anymore. I frantically looked around at my feet, searching for her but I couldn't see her. "What's wrong Natsu?" Happy asked, "Lucy's missing" I said urgently, not looking up to them. Everyone looked around for her but there was no sign of her.

"We'll keep an eye out for her while we look for the reason behind the increase in cats" Erza said as she put her hand on my shoulder. I felt anxious but agreed and we walked around the town. We had a look inside some of the huts and there were cats all over the place. All over the floor and the furniture.

"I estimate there are approximately one thousand cats in this village" Erza stated. "Where did all these cats come from?" Gray asked to no one in particular, "do you think they will share their fish?" Happy asked. I still searched the ground for Lucy in case she showed up but she didn't and it's hard to catch her scent with other cats around.

"Lets split up and search for any clues on why these cats are attracted to this village" Erza instructed. "Aye!" we replied and went in different directions. I went into one of the nearest huts and began my search there. It was hard to search with all these cats everywhere. I eventually gave up because there was nothing here that could explain why cats would be infesting this village.

As I exited the hut I was in, I smelt another human other than my team mates coming from the main hut and decided to investigate. As I entered the main hut, which was the size of a hall, there were more cats inside where I couldn't see the floor. My sense of smell was correct as there was a woman sitting on a throne surrounded by cats on the other side of the hut with one white cat on her lap. She had long midnight black hair with cat ears and vibrant green catlike eyes. She wore a long sleeveless navy blue dress with a slit up the side, showing her leg. "Welcome to my cat kingdom, human" the woman greeted with a glare like she was the queen.

"Who are you?" I asked, "I am Kimiko, the Neko Queen now bow before me" Kimiko ordered as she stroked the cat on her lap. She looked more and more like a villain with every stroke. I didn't bow and her glare became harsher. "Did you not hear me human? I said bow" she said. Again, I didn't bow and stayed silent. She growled, "this is why I despise humans" she said to herself, "but you're human too?" I stated confused. "SILENCE! I am nothing like you pathetic humans!" she exclaimed with rage.

"Why do you hate humans so much?" I asked. "Why shouldn't I? Humans are selfish they don't care about anyone other than themselves. My parents abandoned me when I was little and the only friend that helped me was Masumi here" she explained, looking down at the white cat on her lap. "From that day forth, I vowed to myself to turn my back on humans and create a cat kingdom where all types of cats can live in harmony away from humans" she said with a clenched fist and a scowl.

Masumi meowed up at her and Kimiko took a deep breath. "You're right Masumi, I need to calm down. Play with your kittens while I remove this human from our kingdom" Kimiko said as she lowered Masumi into a cardboard box that sat beside the throne. "Meow!" I heard a familiar meow coming from the cardboard box and Lucy's head peaked out of box, "Lucy?!" I exclaimed.