[Short Story: Purpose / Journal Post]

[soundofarmor]

"Ya know, puss, I thought again 'bout endin' it all, yesterday." Hibiki said, crouching, putting down the bowl of salmon and the coaster of milk in the back alley. The cat with the red metallic prosthetic front right leg circled around a bit, as was its habit and ego, before taking a tentative licking at the milk.

The sandy blond haired young man ran his hand through his hair, crouching still, looking at the cat, and then at the brick and mortar wall, and then through it, into space.

"Ya' ever feel like you're in a world ya don't belong, kitten?" The young man said, with a wistful nostalgic tone to his voice. "I mean ya probably are, since if you're here out on the streets, ya ain't got nowhere to go now. Heh."

The cat tilted its head, as almost as if in imitation of understanding. Hibiki wondered where the damned thing had gotten that monocle. Or its torn and beaten red cape for that matter. A prop from a previous owner, maybe? Whatever was up with this cat, it had fallen on hard times. But it almost felt like it didn't belong to the world, just by being so. Outlandish.

"That's how I feel. Woke up one day in a world that stopped bein' mine... A world where my guiding star no longer mattered. A world where my mom was a joke." Hibiki said, sighing, stretching as he stood up.

"At least you don't think I'm one." He checked his phone. No new messages. Great. Hayate wasn't thrilled after the recent escapade with that girl. No hunt. No revelations from his mother. No real. Point. To keep going.

He mulled over his thoughts again. What was the point driving him. He didn't see one. There was nothing. He didn't care for his work, other than it gave him a hollow sense of fulfillment that ever so briefly filled the hole of the apocalypse his mother wrote about. Went mad over. That had come and gone like a dream. What did that leave him?

Nothing.

The cat moved onto the salmon nibbling at it, slowly.

How did people live like this. Adrift. Without a goal. Without purpose. He didn't know. And he never could figure out how to ask. He'd tried messaging Aisu and Yumehiro one or twice, but they couldn't tell him much either. They seemed to have their lives. More or less figured out.

Hayate had his.

Hibiki looked at his hands, flipping them back and forth.

"At least all you gots to worry about, puss, is your next meal." He said, "I wish that was as simple for me." Looking at his hands too much like that started making him feel like he was in a movie theater. He'd mentioned it once while doing Top Team stuff. Ended up talking to a Shrink. Didn't like it. Bein' told he needed to be fixed. 'Treat'. He didn't need to be fixed or treated, Hibiki mused to himself. He needed a purpose.

The cat playfully poked at the fish before chewing at it again, stretching itself out as it did. Hibiki shoved his hands back in his pocket, watching it finish its meal, before taking the dishes back, and placing them in a bag.

"Anyways, maybe see you again, cat." The young man said, walking off, bag in hand.

When he had disappeared from the cat's sight, it stretched out once more, and started licking and matting its fur, before giving a self assured look. "I think we very much well, young mister. I can guarantee it." And for once in months, it grinned widely and happily to itself.


Journal Post

So, is there any way ta like, adopt a stray you keep running into? Like a stray cat.