Cats and the Camellia Train - Chapter 8

[bakemonoremy]

Location: Cat Café in the Streetcar

- A few days later, in the cat café -

Leo: Wahahahaha ☆ Don’t lick my cheek, it tickles ♪

Hm? What’s wrong? You want me to pet you, too? Of course, I’ll pet you lots and lots, too!

Ooh, you’re laying down with your belly showing… You trust me, huh? That makes me so happy~! Fluff fluff, fluff fluff...♪

Keito: Tsukinaga, don’t bury your face in that cat’s belly, it’s shameful.

Leo: Who cares if it’s shameful~♪ Keito, come on and join in! It feels so good I might just fall asleep like this~ ♪ Aah, this is pure happiness...☆

Keito: Hmpf, I’m used to cats thanks to Little John. There, there...♪

Leo: Huh? As soon as Keito approached him, he turned the other way and ran off somewhere?

Now that I look closely, it’s only around Keito that there are no cats whatsoever… Could it be you’re being hated?

Keito: Don’t say weird stuff like that. If I were hated by cats, it’d be strange for Little John to be attached to me. It’s just by chance that there are no cats around me.

Leo: Eh~. But there’s so many cats here, so shouldn’t there be at least one of them approaching you?

Leo: You’re making such a scary face, that’s why the cats are scared of you. Smile, smile, good fortune and happiness will come to those who smile~♪

Keito: H-Hey now! Don’t pull on my cheeks! Incorrigible.

Good grief… When it comes to how bad our facial features are, Kiryuu is above me, though.

Kuro: Hasumi no Danna, I heard that. I was born with this face, so I can’t help it, okay.

But I wonder why these guys are so attached to me. They’ve been crowdin’ around my legs for a while and I can’t move.

Uh-oh, here comes another one… Sheesh, you’re still just a kitten. It’d be awful if you fell and got yourself hurt, so I’ll hold you.

Hm? Little Miss, why are you gigglin’ to yourself?

Aah, are you tryin’ to say I was being needlessly anxious about the cats hatin’ me? Certainly, rather than bein’ scared, they seem to be real attached to me.

Maybe they’re not afraid of me because they’re used to people?

Well, for now I’m just glad the cats aren’t scared of me. I’m not so sure about the people, though?

 

Kuro: Hm~. If I keep standin’ the cats are gonna climb up my legs, so I guess I’ll sit down for now.

Sheesh… Respect the order of things and wait on my lap, you guys. Don’t cut in line, get along.

Arashi: Kyaan! What’s with this heart-pounding scene!

Kuro: Uwah, Narukami. Don’t come closer while wiggling your hips like that. I got so surprised I almost dropped the cat.

Arashi: Ah, I’m so sorry. Ufufu, seeing the cats being so attached to Kiryuu-senpai made my heart beat faster.

Look, that kind of thing often happens in shoujo manga, right? You think he’s a delinquent, but then you see him picking up a kitten that’s been abandoned in the rain and realize he’s actually a kind person~, scenes like that ♪

Kuro: Shoujo manga? I don’t really get what you’re sayin’...

Arashi: Oh my, could it be that Kiryuu-senpai doesn’t really read those kinds of books?

Kuro: I guess so. I have a little sister, but she’s more the type to read shounen manga rather than shoujo manga… So I’ve never really had the opportunity to read one.

Anyway, Narukami, can I entrust some of these cats to you? They’ve swarmed me completely, and I’m at a loss for how to deal with ‘em.

Arashi: Ufufu, that’s an easy task. Neko-chans, come on, come o~n ♪

Keito: (Hrm~m… I have a tendency to be overly meddlesome, so maybe that’s why I’m being hated.)

(Thinking that, I’ve been keeping still and waiting for the cats to approach me, but they still don’t come near me.)

(Just what is the cause of this? The cat café is going to open soon, and we’ll be working as waiters.)

(It’d be unfavorable if the cats kept avoiding me, so I need to find the reason for this and come up with a countermeasure.)

Nazuna: Keito-chin, what’s wrong, you’re looking gloomy? There’s a wrinkle between your eyebrows~?

Keito: I’m the same as always. That aside, Nito, you seem to be well-liked by the cats, too.

Is there a trick to being liked by them or something?

Nazuna: Hm~m, you mean like avoiding their gaze? Just like humans, they can’t calm down when they’re being stared at.

Keito: Aah, that’s certainly true. Apparently I make people nervous just by standing there, so that’s something I pay attention to every day.

Nazuna: Sniff, sniff… Keito-chin, did you burn incense?

Keito: Incense…? Aah. This morning, I burned an incense stick while chanting sutras, so that’s probably what you’re smelling.

Nazuna: Hmm, so that’s what it is. Wait here just a moment, Keito-chin.

Keito: H-hey! ...Hrm~m, there he goes. What did he suddenly set his mind on doing?

………………

(A whole bunch of cats followed behind Nito. If I got close, they’d all run away, so I hesitate to go where the others are.)

(It can’t be helped, guess I can only sit in my chair and watch the others frolic with the cats.)