I'm Just a Cat! (P.S. My Stand is a Menace)

Chapter 364: Chapter 9: Concert (Bonus Chapter for 100 Power Stones)

B-Class had picked up several promising prospects lately.

Fubuki began each new day by applying expensive lipstick in front of the mirror, as usual.

The Fubuki Group’s budget was often running on empty, but to maintain the group’s image—and partly because of her own tastes—she had always adorned herself with luxury goods.

After all, it would be far too embarrassing to build up a reputation like before, only to finish off a monster and then squeeze into a rented fish-headed car in public with several of her closest followers.

"Meow?"

Yimi, dressed in dinosaur pajamas, came closer, hooked her paws over the vanity, and tilted her head at Fubuki. She vaguely remembered Kaname Junko putting this stuff on her lips every morning too.

"You want to try it too? Hold still." Fubuki bent down and drew a stroke across Yimi’s lips.

Yimi promptly licked her lips.

"Rua~"

She did not like the taste.

After finishing her own makeup, Fubuki carefully started fixing Yimi up. With how fashion-conscious she was, making Yimi look adorable was naturally no problem. That tail did limit quite a lot of clothing choices, though, and on top of what Fubuki already spent on luxury brands, she had to pay extra to have things altered.

Now that the child had learned Flight, there was no way Fubuki would put her in a skirt and risk an accidental flash. A T-shirt with a cute cartoon print worked, the pale-yellow jacket naturally stayed unzipped, and paired with light-blue shorts, she looked like a cool little girl as long as she stood still.

Her socks only needed to come up around her calves. Shoes had to use hook-and-loop fasteners; they looked good and would not come untied, since the child did not really like tying shoelaces.

"I’m heading out. Be good and watch TV at home. Don’t run around outside by yourself. If a stranger rings the doorbell, don’t open it. Remember to finish your homework before watching TV. If you want something for lunch, order delivery instead of cooking by yourself. It’s too dangerous."

Only after saying all that did Fubuki tap her cheek, remembering something. "Oh, right. You made plans to go out with your friend today, didn’t you? Don’t do anything dangerous."

It was the weekend, after all.

"Okay." Yimi sat obediently at the table doing her homework, looking every bit like a good little child.

She would be fine... right?

Fubuki closed the door extremely slowly, keeping her eyes on Yimi until the very last moment.

The last time an alert had come in during her break and she had gone out to deal with a monster, she had come back to find the little thing climbing the bookshelf to reach something on the top shelf. Apparently, if there was any way to climb somewhere, Yimi could not even be bothered to fly.

Flight...

For someone born with this kind of talent, Fubuki really did not seem to have much she could teach her. The only thing left might be the Telekinetic Whirlwind Storm that her sister had violently dismantled before.

No. Teaching her how to be a person was the most important thing. Fubuki would raise this child into a polite, justice-minded good girl.

She nodded at her reflection in the elevator wall. Once her signal returned, Fubuki answered a call.

"Fubuki-sama, we found that kid’s address."

"Good. Drive over and pick me up."

Promising B-Class talent was exactly what she wanted to recruit. If they refused to join, the Fubuki Group would simply beat them up.

Auntie had left.

Yimi lay against the window and watched Fubuki get into the car.

"Auntie" seemed to mean some kind of relative, but Yimi did not really care.

Fubuki had given Yimi a key to the house. She probably figured there would not be much danger even if Yimi went out on her own, so she was fairly at ease despite Yimi only looking seven years old. Going out with friends and developing hobbies was good for a child’s growth too.

Yimi opened the window and flew out using psychokinesis.

She really was still very unfamiliar with controlling this new Adaptive Power, just like when she had first turned human and had no idea how to use those nimble little hands.

It was still difficult for her to grab objects without damaging them, but Flight was an ability she had possessed back when she was a spirit, so relearning how to control it was fairly simple.

"Wah-woo, wah-woo."

Yimi deliberately opened her little mouth and let the rushing air stream through as she flew. Running had never given her this kind of novelty.

At last, she landed safely at the agreed meeting place.

"That’s terrifying! Why did you come down from the sky?"

Zenko put away her phone, grabbed Yimi by the shoulders, and looked her over from side to side. "You have psychic powers too? Come to think of it, your auntie is Hellish Blizzard."

Perhaps because Zenko’s family also kept a cat, the two got along quite well at school even though Zenko was a grade ahead.

Yimi stared behind Zenko. "Where’s your big brother?"

At the mention of him, Zenko stomped in anger. "Forget him! He clearly promised he’d come with us, then suddenly said he had something to do and left."

"What a shame." Yimi patted Zenko’s shoulder to comfort her.

She would just have to beat up Zenko’s brother next time.

As an elementary-school girl, Zenko was also an Amai Mask fan.

With her well-off family, going to see a concert in person was hardly difficult. So she and Yimi, who had ulterior motives of her own, had agreed to go together. Naturally, Zenko was the one who provided the tickets.

"The person printed on both tickets is Amai Mask. I heard he could’ve moved up to S-Class ages ago, but he stayed in A-Class to guard the threshold between A-Class and S-Class. And yet the S-Class heroes who already get special treatment—like my brother—look down on him. That’s awful, right?"

"Mm."

"Two deluxe concert tickets. After they’re clipped, the remaining stubs can be exchanged for exclusive Amai Mask merchandise. Little girls, didn’t your guardian come with you?"

"It’s just the two of us," Zenko replied angrily as she took Yimi’s hand.

The ticket attendant smiled apologetically. "What an enviable friendship."

"We’re partners in crime, good friends." Yimi answered with an idiom she had forgotten where she learned, except she mangled the phrase as she said it.

"That’s not really how that phrase is used, and you said it wrong anyway... Please enter from this side, and watch your step."

Sniff, sniff~

An unusual scent flashed past. After spending so many days in this world, watching so much television, and encountering monsters herself, Yimi could roughly tell it was the smell of a monster. Her human-form sense of smell was not especially strong, though.

Amai Mask was one of the biggest stars in human society, to the point that most other celebrities treated him as their goal. Naturally, the venue for his concert covered a huge area.

Aside from the stage near the center, the place was packed with people as far as the eye could see, and the gender ratio was not especially skewed either. Plenty of people were sitting down with snacks they had bought after entering, and all those mixed smells made it even harder for Yimi to tell where the monster scent was coming from.

"Where are you going?" Zenko looked at Yimi in confusion when she tried to leave before they had even found their seats.

"Going to fight, a monster."

Yimi was a good kitty who eliminated threats for the people.

"Huh? Wait!"

Zenko tried to stop her, but adults who paid no attention to children blocked her path. By the time she squeezed through, Yimi was already gone.

"Seriously!"

She did not give up and headed in the direction Yimi had probably gone.

* * *

"Enough! Let me do my makeup alone!"

"But..."

"I’ve made myself perfectly clear."

Dissatisfied that the organizers had tried to fob him off with third-rate makeup artists, Amai Mask—whose temperament was actually extremely peculiar—threw every last one of them out.

"Tch."

He glared irritably at the mirror. Even with anger written across his flawless face, there was not the slightest blemish to be found.

He might as well go on like this. Barefaced would be fine.

As he examined himself, he caught something moving in the mirror from the corner of his eye. Amai Mask focused on it and saw a strange cat that had somehow slipped inside, jumped onto the vanity behind him, and sat there neatly.

"Meow?"

The monster scent was coming from this man. Compared with other monsters, though, it was so faint it was almost impossible to smell.