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Description
Remembrance

“What’s wrong?” Kara asked, staring down at me mockingly, smugly. “Don’t tell me that you’re scared?”
“I’m not scared of anything…” I said softly. “I just have no idea what I’m doing here…”
“Then at least stop tossing and turning. Geeze…you’re keeping me and my sister up!”
“…It’s not my fault…the floor’s too hard.”
“You’re the one that decided to sleep on the floor! If you don’t like it tough! I offered you the chance to sleep here in bed with me! You’re the one that got all wimpy!”
“…I’m not saying it’s your fault…I just…” I sighed, and sat up, stretching the kinks out of my already stiff back before walking out the door.
“Where are you going!” Kara called after me, but I ignored her out of spite and stormed out to the nearby river, where I sat staring down at my reflection in the water, dimly lit by the light of two moons and dozens of hundreds of thousands of stars. The scene seemed to me to be at once both romantic and desolate. It was a bit of an odd feeling, and got me nauseated, so I kneeled down and started to play in the water with one hand, making little waves and splashes. I was trying not to think about the fact that I wasn’t at home in Tokyo anymore, because I knew that once that fact sank in, I would be completely devastated. Still, it was hard NOT to think about it. I was in fact so nervous about it all, I hadn’t been able to sleep, and had been tossing and turning for the past hour or so. I spent an hour or more, playing around in the water, but the more I did that, the more I started to think about the people that I’d left behind; my parents, my best friend Jenna, my cats…
“Is everything all right?” Kara asked behind me, sounding almost sympathetic.
“It’s…It’s fine…Nothing’s wrong at all,” I replied, astounded by the fact that my voice was cracking.
“…You’re thinking about your family and friends, aren’t you?” she pressed, sitting down beside me.
“What makes you think that?” I replied, as soon as I had my voice under control. “I was just thinking about how beautiful everything looks.”
“Right, that’s why you’ve got tears in your eyes,” she replied, wiping them off with the tip of her tail (why hadn’t I noticed that sooner?) before smiling. “I don’t see you getting teary-eyed over such a thing. How about you tell me about this place you’re from? Tell me about Tokyo.”
I jumped startled, almost telling everything I could remember, but I caught myself just in time. “I’m not sure what you mean. I couldn’t have lived in Tokyo. It was destroyed over a hundred years ago. You said so yourself.”
“I’ve heard of stranger things happening,” she replied, scratching the tip of her nose. “You don’t have the scent of a native. So would you mind telling me about the place you’re from?”
“…Why the sudden interest? I thought you hated me.”
“Well, we’re gonna be living together for a while, so I figured that me and my sister oughta know a little about you. If you don’t mind, of course.”
“…” I stared at her incredulously, nibbling on the end of a blade of grass. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, it struck me that she was leaning on my shoulder, and that it sounded like she was purring. I couldn’t hear it too clearly, due to the murmuring river, but it certainly sounded like a purr. I forced myself to snap out of my thoughts in time to catch the end of what she said.
“-ke it look like that.”
“Hm?” I asked, snapping my focus back on her, trying to figure out what it was that she’d said. “Uh, yeah of course.” I replied, trying not to reveal the fact that I hadn’t been listening at all. I’m not too sure it worked though, because I noticed that her purring stopped, and it looked like she was glaring at me, which really got me wondering what she’d really said, but I figured that, since I was on thin ice as it was, I’d just let well enough alone. After a few minutes of tense silence, I decided that I’d pet her on the head, like she was an actual cat. I froze after I realized what I’d done, but she just closed her eyes and sighed before resuming her purring. I stared up at the night sky, lying on my back on the grassy ground and started, for the first time that day, to seriously consider the possibility that I was dreaming. It all felt too real to be a dream though, so I tossed that possibility almost as soon as it came up in my head.
I tried to consider the possibility of time travel, but, of course, since I’d had no previous experience with time travel, I had no idea how that would work, or if it was even a serious possibility.
“Why’d you stop? I was kind of enjoying that!” Kara whined.
“Huh? Sorry…I thought you wanted me to stop…” I replied before petting her head again, wondering why she enjoyed being treated like a cat. “…Then again…it does make sense why you’d enjoy that…I think…”
“…What are you trying to imply by that? That I’m something less then you are because you’re a human? Are you trying to say that somehow, you’re so much better then me because you’re a pure-blooded human?!” she yelled at me, grabbing me by the neck of my shirt, and scratching me somewhat seriously with her claws.
I tried to stammer out a response, feeling my blood chilling at the sight of her suddenly blood red eyes...eyes filled with malicious intent.
“That’s not it!” I shouted, trying hard to keep my voice from cracking. “I wasn’t trying to imply that you’re somehow inferior to me! I was just…just…just…” I stammered, unable to look away from her eyes.
“Really? You sure about that?” she asked, much too calmly for my rattled nerves to handle. “You wouldn’t be telling a lie, just to keep your head would you?”
“No! No! Of course not!” I yelled, feeling something hot and wet sliding down my chest.
“…” Kara stared me in the eyes for a few moments more before setting me down, sighing. “Your-“
I didn’t catch the end of what she said, because I was already running as fast as I could, not even caring if I slipped and broke my leg, just knowing that I had to get away…if I didn’t get away, I’d be killed…at least that’s what I thought at first, although I soon enough calmed down enough to look at the situation rationally; as rationally as I could anyway, since this was still a fairly new experience for me.
“Hm…what was that all about? Something’s fishy about this…”
“Whatcha thinking about? Something on your mind?”
I managed to keep myself from jumping, much, as I heard Kara sigh behind me. “Idiot…didn’t you notice that open wound on your chest? Don’t you should get that fixed right away?”
“What…?” I grimaced, feeling what she was talking about as sweat dripped into the cuts on my chest from her claws. “Oh…right. How’d I get that?” I stammered, surprised at how badly it was bleeding. Kara kneeled in front of me and rested her hand on my chest, over my wounds. I instinctively started to move away, but stopped when I noticed how warm and soft her hands felt. There was a bright flash, and when the spots disappeared from my eyes, I gasped in astonishment at what she’d done. The cuts that had been on my torso had all but disappeared, leaving no trace that they’d been there, besides some drops of blood.
“Does that feel better?” she asked, seeming a bit depressed for some reason.
I didn’t really bother to respond, just looked away over the expanse of the river, studying the landscape as well as I could in the darkness of night.
“…Are you mad at me? I really am sorry. I shouldn’t have let my temper-“
“Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have said anything,” I interrupted coldly, and perhaps a bit harsher then I’d intended.
“…” she sighed, staring up at the night sky with a serious look on her face. I sincerely hoped she wouldn’t disrupt the silence, because I wasn’t really in the mood for talking. Unfortunately, I hoped in vain.
“It sure is a beautiful night, isn’t it?”
“Yeah…I bet it’d be even more beautiful if it was a silent night,” I remarked with a bit of a smirk.
“Hey! It’s not that bad hearing my voice! You should be honored!” she replied, playing along and playfully smacking me on the back, almost knocking me into the river.
I couldn’t help it, so I laughed as loudly as I could, because the situation that had seemed so serious five minutes ago, had suddenly underwent a complete transformation, becoming something more playful and infinitely more enjoyable. By the time I’d finished laughing, Kara was staring at me terrified, as if she’d thought I’d snapped.
“That was a good laugh! I needed that.”
“…Are you ok?”
“Yeah of course I’m ok. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“…You just don’t seem to be the kind of person that’d start laughing over just anything.”
“Maybe it’s cause everything seems so surreal right now, but I actually feel really good right now. I don’t know. I’ll probably be back to normal by tomorrow though.”
“Oh…” she looked down sounding depressed, which piqued my curiousity.
“What’s wrong? Why do you look so depressed all of a sudden?” I just had to ask, although I seriously hoped that she wouldn’t explode again like she did earlier. She did, but not exactly in the way I’d thought she would. Instead of getting angry, she started shaking uncontrollably, as if she was trying hard not to cry but couldn’t quite manage it.
“There’s no need to cry! Will you please just…” I sighed and shook my head, annoyed by this sudden change. Woman are such odd creatures, I thought. And this one’s even weirder cause she’s part cat!
I sat quietly, listening to her sob, and trying to see if she would say something that would give me some clue as to what exactly she was crying over. I couldn’t discern much, but it seemed like she was crying because some guy was treating her so coldly. I idly wondered who that guy was, but brushed it from my mind an instant later after I carefully wrapped my arms around her shoulders in a tight hug. I didn’t really know why I did that, but it calmed her down enough that she stopped crying so hysterically.
“…Why are you holding me…” she mumbled through my shirt, kind of tickling me.
“It just seemed like you really needed someone to lean on. Sorry.”
“Idiot…don’t apologize for trying to comfort me.”
“I see, sorry.”
She grumbled something and sat up, moving to slap me on the face, but stopping just short of the mark.
“We really should get to bed, it’s late enough as it is,” I remarked offhandedly, staring up at the moons, one of which was setting. “At least, I think it’s late. It’s got to have been at least 5 hours by now. Hey, I never asked, but what’s your sisters name?”
“Didn’t I tell you earlier? It’s Kit.”
I tried not to let my surprise show, but I’m not sure how well I hid it. “Kit? That’s a bit of a weird name isn’t it?”
“It’s short for Kitara….Our mom named her that, before she…” she paused, looking away with haunted eyes. “It’s nothing. Forget that I said anything. You’re right, we should get to bed.”
“…I’ll stay out here for a while more before turning in, ok?” I replied, staring back down at the river. Kara nodded and left, heading back towards the house. I stood up a moment later, but I was almost knocked down again by a tremor. It could’ve been just an ordinary earthquake, but something about it didn’t seem natural to me at all. Instinctively, I knew that something had happened to Kara’s house, so I ran there as fast as I could, once I could stand securely again after the tremor ceased.
When I did get there though, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The house that I’d seen earlier, that had once seemed so safe and secure despite its small size, was completely destroyed. I stood there frozen, for what seemed like forever, before I managed to catch a slight voice on the wind.
“H-help…please…”
That small voice, which was undoubtedly Kara’s, managed to get me to move again, and I rushed over to the wreckage, moving aside whatever I could to try and find her.
“Hey! Kara! Where are you! Say something! I can’t find you!”
I heard a small sound come from underneath a fallen pillar, and realized belatedly that I was standing in what remained of the main room. I braced myself and pushed as hard as I could on the pillar, managing to free Kara enough that she could crawl out, shaken and bleeding from her arm, but otherwise, surprisingly ok. Unfortunately, her skirt and shirt had been shredded, so much so that they barely covered anything. I didn’t really notice this right away, being a bit more concerned about her sister. “Do you know where Kitara is Kara? We need to get her!”
“S-S-She’s gone…” Kara replied, tears brimming in her eyes. “S-She…men…kidnapped…” she fell to her knees, pain, disbelief, and despair etched on her face.
I looked around searchingly, trying to see if I could find any clue as to which direction the kidnappers had gone, when Kara flung herself on me, sobbing on my leg.
“She was kidnapped! Soldiers took her!” she shouted heartbroken. “I couldn’t…I couldn’t protect her! I was helpless! Why’d they take her!?” she bawled loudly, shaking viciously from the force of her sobs, and the fact that it was a little cold.
“Calm down! Kara!” I tried to get her to calm down, but nothing I said seemed to get through. She just kept sobbing and crying, and try as I might, I couldn’t extricate myself from her grip. Eventually, I just gave up and started petting her on the head, letting her cry until she finally managed to calm down.
“We can’t just give up,” I said soothingly, brushing a strand of hair from her tear-soaked face. “There’s got to be something we can do! We just have to calm down.”
“W-what can we do?” she sobbed, looking like she was going to start crying again. “There’s no way we can catch up to those soldiers, and there’s no way that we can get her back even if we could…it’s hopeless…”
I sighed and shook my head, restraining my desire to buffet her on the head to bring her to her senses. “Listen to yourself. Crying and whining like some victim isn’t going to change anything. We can’t be sitting here all day wasting time. We need to figure out a plan, and quickly. Your sister is counting on us.” Kara looked at me as well as she could from her position on the floor, her eyes red from tears and exhaustion. Chin up, back straight. We’ve got a sister to save, right?”
She looked up, smiling slightly. It didn’t last though, and her face fell, her hair falling forward to cover it. “You’re right…I need to save Kitara right? I promised my mom…”
I nodded, petting her on the head smiling. “Come on. Don’t want to let your mom down, do we?”

Description
Remembrance

“What’s wrong?” Kara asked, staring down at me mockingly, smugly. “Don’t tell me that you’re scared?”
“I’m not scared of anything…” I said softly. “I just have no idea what I’m doing here…”
“Then at least stop tossing and turning. Geeze…you’re keeping me and my sister up!”
“…It’s not my fault…the floor’s too hard.”
“You’re the one that decided to sleep on the floor! If you don’t like it tough! I offered you the chance to sleep here in bed with me! You’re the one that got all wimpy!”
“…I’m not saying it’s your fault…I just…” I sighed, and sat up, stretching the kinks out of my already stiff back before walking out the door.
“Where are you going!” Kara called after me, but I ignored her out of spite and stormed out to the nearby river, where I sat staring down at my reflection in the water, dimly lit by the light of two moons and dozens of hundreds of thousands of stars. The scene seemed to me to be at once both romantic and desolate. It was a bit of an odd feeling, and got me nauseated, so I kneeled down and started to play in the water with one hand, making little waves and splashes. I was trying not to think about the fact that I wasn’t at home in Tokyo anymore, because I knew that once that fact sank in, I would be completely devastated. Still, it was hard NOT to think about it. I was in fact so nervous about it all, I hadn’t been able to sleep, and had been tossing and turning for the past hour or so. I spent an hour or more, playing around in the water, but the more I did that, the more I started to think about the people that I’d left behind; my parents, my best friend Jenna, my cats…
“Is everything all right?” Kara asked behind me, sounding almost sympathetic.
“It’s…It’s fine…Nothing’s wrong at all,” I replied, astounded by the fact that my voice was cracking.
“…You’re thinking about your family and friends, aren’t you?” she pressed, sitting down beside me.
“What makes you think that?” I replied, as soon as I had my voice under control. “I was just thinking about how beautiful everything looks.”
“Right, that’s why you’ve got tears in your eyes,” she replied, wiping them off with the tip of her tail (why hadn’t I noticed that sooner?) before smiling. “I don’t see you getting teary-eyed over such a thing. How about you tell me about this place you’re from? Tell me about Tokyo.”
I jumped startled, almost telling everything I could remember, but I caught myself just in time. “I’m not sure what you mean. I couldn’t have lived in Tokyo. It was destroyed over a hundred years ago. You said so yourself.”
“I’ve heard of stranger things happening,” she replied, scratching the tip of her nose. “You don’t have the scent of a native. So would you mind telling me about the place you’re from?”
“…Why the sudden interest? I thought you hated me.”
“Well, we’re gonna be living together for a while, so I figured that me and my sister oughta know a little about you. If you don’t mind, of course.”
“…” I stared at her incredulously, nibbling on the end of a blade of grass. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, it struck me that she was leaning on my shoulder, and that it sounded like she was purring. I couldn’t hear it too clearly, due to the murmuring river, but it certainly sounded like a purr. I forced myself to snap out of my thoughts in time to catch the end of what she said.
“-ke it look like that.”
“Hm?” I asked, snapping my focus back on her, trying to figure out what it was that she’d said. “Uh, yeah of course.” I replied, trying not to reveal the fact that I hadn’t been listening at all. I’m not too sure it worked though, because I noticed that her purring stopped, and it looked like she was glaring at me, which really got me wondering what she’d really said, but I figured that, since I was on thin ice as it was, I’d just let well enough alone. After a few minutes of tense silence, I decided that I’d pet her on the head, like she was an actual cat. I froze after I realized what I’d done, but she just closed her eyes and sighed before resuming her purring. I stared up at the night sky, lying on my back on the grassy ground and started, for the first time that day, to seriously consider the possibility that I was dreaming. It all felt too real to be a dream though, so I tossed that possibility almost as soon as it came up in my head.
I tried to consider the possibility of time travel, but, of course, since I’d had no previous experience with time travel, I had no idea how that would work, or if it was even a serious possibility.
“Why’d you stop? I was kind of enjoying that!” Kara whined.
“Huh? Sorry…I thought you wanted me to stop…” I replied before petting her head again, wondering why she enjoyed being treated like a cat. “…Then again…it does make sense why you’d enjoy that…I think…”
“…What are you trying to imply by that? That I’m something less then you are because you’re a human? Are you trying to say that somehow, you’re so much better then me because you’re a pure-blooded human?!” she yelled at me, grabbing me by the neck of my shirt, and scratching me somewhat seriously with her claws.
I tried to stammer out a response, feeling my blood chilling at the sight of her suddenly blood red eyes...eyes filled with malicious intent.
“That’s not it!” I shouted, trying hard to keep my voice from cracking. “I wasn’t trying to imply that you’re somehow inferior to me! I was just…just…just…” I stammered, unable to look away from her eyes.
“Really? You sure about that?” she asked, much too calmly for my rattled nerves to handle. “You wouldn’t be telling a lie, just to keep your head would you?”
“No! No! Of course not!” I yelled, feeling something hot and wet sliding down my chest.
“…” Kara stared me in the eyes for a few moments more before setting me down, sighing. “Your-“
I didn’t catch the end of what she said, because I was already running as fast as I could, not even caring if I slipped and broke my leg, just knowing that I had to get away…if I didn’t get away, I’d be killed…at least that’s what I thought at first, although I soon enough calmed down enough to look at the situation rationally; as rationally as I could anyway, since this was still a fairly new experience for me.
“Hm…what was that all about? Something’s fishy about this…”
“Whatcha thinking about? Something on your mind?”
I managed to keep myself from jumping, much, as I heard Kara sigh behind me. “Idiot…didn’t you notice that open wound on your chest? Don’t you should get that fixed right away?”
“What…?” I grimaced, feeling what she was talking about as sweat dripped into the cuts on my chest from her claws. “Oh…right. How’d I get that?” I stammered, surprised at how badly it was bleeding. Kara kneeled in front of me and rested her hand on my chest, over my wounds. I instinctively started to move away, but stopped when I noticed how warm and soft her hands felt. There was a bright flash, and when the spots disappeared from my eyes, I gasped in astonishment at what she’d done. The cuts that had been on my torso had all but disappeared, leaving no trace that they’d been there, besides some drops of blood.
“Does that feel better?” she asked, seeming a bit depressed for some reason.
I didn’t really bother to respond, just looked away over the expanse of the river, studying the landscape as well as I could in the darkness of night.
“…Are you mad at me? I really am sorry. I shouldn’t have let my temper-“
“Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have said anything,” I interrupted coldly, and perhaps a bit harsher then I’d intended.
“…” she sighed, staring up at the night sky with a serious look on her face. I sincerely hoped she wouldn’t disrupt the silence, because I wasn’t really in the mood for talking. Unfortunately, I hoped in vain.
“It sure is a beautiful night, isn’t it?”
“Yeah…I bet it’d be even more beautiful if it was a silent night,” I remarked with a bit of a smirk.
“Hey! It’s not that bad hearing my voice! You should be honored!” she replied, playing along and playfully smacking me on the back, almost knocking me into the river.
I couldn’t help it, so I laughed as loudly as I could, because the situation that had seemed so serious five minutes ago, had suddenly underwent a complete transformation, becoming something more playful and infinitely more enjoyable. By the time I’d finished laughing, Kara was staring at me terrified, as if she’d thought I’d snapped.
“That was a good laugh! I needed that.”
“…Are you ok?”
“Yeah of course I’m ok. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“…You just don’t seem to be the kind of person that’d start laughing over just anything.”
“Maybe it’s cause everything seems so surreal right now, but I actually feel really good right now. I don’t know. I’ll probably be back to normal by tomorrow though.”
“Oh…” she looked down sounding depressed, which piqued my curiousity.
“What’s wrong? Why do you look so depressed all of a sudden?” I just had to ask, although I seriously hoped that she wouldn’t explode again like she did earlier. She did, but not exactly in the way I’d thought she would. Instead of getting angry, she started shaking uncontrollably, as if she was trying hard not to cry but couldn’t quite manage it.
“There’s no need to cry! Will you please just…” I sighed and shook my head, annoyed by this sudden change. Woman are such odd creatures, I thought. And this one’s even weirder cause she’s part cat!
I sat quietly, listening to her sob, and trying to see if she would say something that would give me some clue as to what exactly she was crying over. I couldn’t discern much, but it seemed like she was crying because some guy was treating her so coldly. I idly wondered who that guy was, but brushed it from my mind an instant later after I carefully wrapped my arms around her shoulders in a tight hug. I didn’t really know why I did that, but it calmed her down enough that she stopped crying so hysterically.
“…Why are you holding me…” she mumbled through my shirt, kind of tickling me.
“It just seemed like you really needed someone to lean on. Sorry.”
“Idiot…don’t apologize for trying to comfort me.”
“I see, sorry.”
She grumbled something and sat up, moving to slap me on the face, but stopping just short of the mark.
“We really should get to bed, it’s late enough as it is,” I remarked offhandedly, staring up at the moons, one of which was setting. “At least, I think it’s late. It’s got to have been at least 5 hours by now. Hey, I never asked, but what’s your sisters name?”
“Didn’t I tell you earlier? It’s Kit.”
I tried not to let my surprise show, but I’m not sure how well I hid it. “Kit? That’s a bit of a weird name isn’t it?”
“It’s short for Kitara….Our mom named her that, before she…” she paused, looking away with haunted eyes. “It’s nothing. Forget that I said anything. You’re right, we should get to bed.”
“…I’ll stay out here for a while more before turning in, ok?” I replied, staring back down at the river. Kara nodded and left, heading back towards the house. I stood up a moment later, but I was almost knocked down again by a tremor. It could’ve been just an ordinary earthquake, but something about it didn’t seem natural to me at all. Instinctively, I knew that something had happened to Kara’s house, so I ran there as fast as I could, once I could stand securely again after the tremor ceased.
When I did get there though, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The house that I’d seen earlier, that had once seemed so safe and secure despite its small size, was completely destroyed. I stood there frozen, for what seemed like forever, before I managed to catch a slight voice on the wind.
“H-help…please…”
That small voice, which was undoubtedly Kara’s, managed to get me to move again, and I rushed over to the wreckage, moving aside whatever I could to try and find her.
“Hey! Kara! Where are you! Say something! I can’t find you!”
I heard a small sound come from underneath a fallen pillar, and realized belatedly that I was standing in what remained of the main room. I braced myself and pushed as hard as I could on the pillar, managing to free Kara enough that she could crawl out, shaken and bleeding from her arm, but otherwise, surprisingly ok. Unfortunately, her skirt and shirt had been shredded, so much so that they barely covered anything. I didn’t really notice this right away, being a bit more concerned about her sister. “Do you know where Kitara is Kara? We need to get her!”
“S-S-She’s gone…” Kara replied, tears brimming in her eyes. “S-She…men…kidnapped…” she fell to her knees, pain, disbelief, and despair etched on her face.
I looked around searchingly, trying to see if I could find any clue as to which direction the kidnappers had gone, when Kara flung herself on me, sobbing on my leg.
“She was kidnapped! Soldiers took her!” she shouted heartbroken. “I couldn’t…I couldn’t protect her! I was helpless! Why’d they take her!?” she bawled loudly, shaking viciously from the force of her sobs, and the fact that it was a little cold.
“Calm down! Kara!” I tried to get her to calm down, but nothing I said seemed to get through. She just kept sobbing and crying, and try as I might, I couldn’t extricate myself from her grip. Eventually, I just gave up and started petting her on the head, letting her cry until she finally managed to calm down.
“We can’t just give up,” I said soothingly, brushing a strand of hair from her tear-soaked face. “There’s got to be something we can do! We just have to calm down.”
“W-what can we do?” she sobbed, looking like she was going to start crying again. “There’s no way we can catch up to those soldiers, and there’s no way that we can get her back even if we could…it’s hopeless…”
I sighed and shook my head, restraining my desire to buffet her on the head to bring her to her senses. “Listen to yourself. Crying and whining like some victim isn’t going to change anything. We can’t be sitting here all day wasting time. We need to figure out a plan, and quickly. Your sister is counting on us.” Kara looked at me as well as she could from her position on the floor, her eyes red from tears and exhaustion. Chin up, back straight. We’ve got a sister to save, right?”
She looked up, smiling slightly. It didn’t last though, and her face fell, her hair falling forward to cover it. “You’re right…I need to save Kitara right? I promised my mom…”
I nodded, petting her on the head smiling. “Come on. Don’t want to let your mom down, do we?”