With a mighty crash, the huge fish was pulled out of the river, thrashing about on the line. The girls were breathless for a moment.
"Yes! We did it, Yukiko!" Chie cheered, breaking the silence.
"Thanks, Chie," said Yukiko, taking in the marvel in front of her. The fish was indeed huge, its length reaching down from her neck to her knees. "This is definitely the same type of fish Yu-kun had the other day."
"It's so big," Chie said, staring longingly at the fish. "But eating it like this without cooking it first? That's crazy,"
"Well, that's the plan. Oh!" Yukiko gasped. "It's that late already?"
The sun was already low in the horizon. When did it get to be so late? Fishing really does take it out of you.
"Huh? But it feels like we barely did anything at all!" Chie said as they went back onto the shore.
"Oh, sorry Chie. I didn't mean to take up your whole day like this..." Yukiko said remorsefully. "Ah! How about you come over and I can cook this up for us to have together? It's the least I could do."
"Ah!? Uh, no, no that's fine," Chie suddenly paled. "I gotta get home and, you know, study and all that. We can walk together on the way, though."
"Oh, of course," Yukiko answered, busy with wrapping the undulating prize in newspaper she brought in her bag. She had hoped to treat her, but if she was busy, she was busy. She would just have to store it for later. Unfortunately, it seemed that the fish was too big to put inside her bag. At least not without folding or cutting it up, but that would ruin everything. "Guess I'll just carry it," she said aloud to no one in particular.
And so, pride in her head and wrapped fish in her hands, Yukiko set off for home with Chie alongside her. She noticed the telltale odor of fresh fish start to come up after they walked for a while, but she paid it no mind. As they continued through to downtown Inaba, making small talk along the way, Yukiko couldn't help shake a forboding feeling...
*Meow*
"Eh?" Yukiko gasped, turning around, seeing that a small orange cat was following her.
"Huh? Oh!" Chie turned as well. "Hey there little guy," she reached to pet the cat.
The cat shrugged off Chie's pets and meowed again, staring up at Yukiko.
"What does he want with me?" Yukiko said nervously.
"Duh, the fish," Chie said in realization.
"He can't have that, we worked hard for this!" Yukiko said, clutching the fish defensively.
"Yeah, but he looks so hungry," Chie said sympathetically. "I feel kinda guilty just leaving him to starve like this."
"But we don't have any other food to give them."
"Yeah... Oh, wait!" Chie had a sudden burst of inspiration. "Maybe you can give them some of that extra bait? The fish went for it, and cats eat fish, so maybe they'll like that too."
"Chie, that's brilliant!" Yukiko nodded. It made perfect sense after all. After a little digging around in her back, she brought forth one of the strange meaty blobs the old man gave her. "Here you go," Yukiko said, presenting it lovingly in her hand towards the cat.
The cat crept forward and gave the bait a sniff. It wrinkled its nose, seeming to flinch back, but soon leaned back in and gave the bait a lick.
*HISSSS* it went, crouching down and baring its teeth.
"Um, I don't think that worked Chie..." Yukiko grimaced. "We should just go."
*Meow* *Meow* *Meow* *Meow* *Meow*
A chorus of meows suddenly echoed around them. Instead of one cat in front of them, there were now ten cats all around them! Did that leader just send out some sort of cat signal?
"Uh, Yukiko..." Chie whispered nervously.
"Do you think they're mad?" Yukiko asked, stating the obvious.
In that instant, the cats all leapt towards Yukiko, claws and teeth bared.
"AAAAAH!" Yukiko screamed, first out in fear, then out in pain as their tiny cat claws sunk in.
"Yukiko!" Chie cried out, springing into action and pulling away at the cats.
The felines' attack was ferocious, scratching up and tearing all over Yukiko. She did her best to shake them off, but the advantage belonged to the hungry horde.
"Oh no!" Yukiko screamed. One bad grab knocked the fish out of her hands! No sooner than it hit the ground, the cats immediately detached themselves from Yukiko and clamored over the parcel, clawing away at the wrapping.
"Guess they only want the fish!" said Chie. "Let's go while they're distracted!"
"No!" Yukiko shouted.
"Yukiko, don't be stupid! They've messed you up a lot already. Do you want them to take another bite out of you!?" Chie said, pointing at Yukiko.
Yukiko glanced down at herself and couldn't help but gape. In the short time the cats had attacked her, they quickly caused a lot of superficial damage. Frankly, she looked like she had been put through a blender. Her pantyhose was severely shredded with some red lines running along her legs as well, and several rips have been made along her skirt and sweater, in addition to the buttons having been torn out of the latter. She was a complete mess.
But Yukiko just shook her head. This wasn't just about the fish to her. This whole exercise was meant to improve herself, which would be made useless if she turned away now. "I'm not giving up to this!" she yelled, and dove towards the fish.
The cats had torn away most of the newspaper and had almost reached the fish when Yukiko charged into them and picked the fish back up. "Get off!" she shouted, reclaiming the prize.
This only made the cats angrier, as they readied themselves and pounced towards Yukiko once more,
"HII-YAAA!" Chie shouted, bursting in and delivering a devastating kick to one of the cats.
*MREEOOWW* the cat cried as it was knocked far away.
"You want some of this? Bring it on!" Chie yelled, standing between Yukiko and the cats.
"Chie!" Yukiko gasped.
"Go! I'll be right behind you!" Chie said, wincing as the cats began to cling to her.
"Got it!" Yukiko replied, clutching the fish and running away, cats, Chie, and more cats in hot pursuit.
With the sun nearly fully set, not many people were out at this time. But there were still a few passersby witness to the strange cat chase. Yukiko was running fast enough to avoid getting cornered, the cats continued to leap at her and deal glancing damage to her. Unfortunately for the girls, the further they went, the more cats seemed to be joining the fight. Just how many stray cats were there in Inaba!?
By this point, Yukiko was no longer focused on running home, just on running away, and hopefully finding some shelter. Miraculously, her aimless fleeing found herself at a familiar location, which even though it wasn't the Inn, it would at least be an improvement. She found herself at-
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author