Kagero sheathed her katana at her side and took a deep breath. The bodies of defeated
enemies lay strewn around her - she was seldom impressed by numerical superiority.
"The lion does not fear to walk alone among the sheep."
A series of explosions followed by joyful, childish laughter echoed from deep within the
massive production hall, reassuring Kagero that her companion also had no major problems
with facing an entire enemy squad on his own. Nevertheless, she advanced toward him - he
had to be protected; after all, he was still just a child.
When Kagero located Baby Cat, the battle had already concluded. However, the kitten
continued to maneuver his giant combat mech around, firing rockets at any piece of the
environment that seemed insufficiently damaged. With a spray of bullets from his machine
gun, he had etched the shapes of butterflies and smiley faces into the walls.
- “Enough, little one,” the assassin murmured, jumping onto the mech.
- “Do you understand why we're doing this? Why do we fight?”
- “For fun!” Baby Cat squealed with delight, his answer to every question always the same.
- “It’s more than fun. Let me tell you.”
Kagero signaled for the little one to open the cockpit hatch and then perched herself on one of the robot's mechanical arms.
- “We cats are not like other animals,” she began. “We don’t hail from this world. Long ago, we had a paradise of our own—a cat paradise.”
- “What's paradise?” Baby Cat asked, furrowing his brow.
- “A place of harmony. True harmony, whose goal isn't to balance opposites but to break free from their eternal dance. It's an indivisible and omnipresent unity that...”
Large, shiny eyes gazed up at her, filled with unwavering incomprehension.
- “Still too young for philosophy, huh?” she sighed. “Very well. Picture a realm where there's
no death, no worries. Even better! No standing water to drink. Rather, a place abundant with
everything delightful.”
- “Exlplosions!” the little kitten exclaimed. “Boomies are the bestest!”
- “And what if I told you about food that is always fresh, moist, and perfectly in the middle of
a bowl so wide that its edges never ever touch your whiskers? A private beam of afternoon
sun for anyone who wants a nap?”
- “I don’t wanna sleeeep” Baby Cat whined, his mouth pouting into a sad horseshoe shape. “I want booooms!”
- “Hmm, let me think... Sometimes, stars would break away from the night sky and fall to the
ground, glowing red-hot. They would bounce all around the land like mad. Catching one of
the Red Dots was a real feat! I guess shooting it down would count, too. As a reward, you’d
get a wreath made of fresh catnip...” the assassin daydreamed so heavily that her pupils
dilated. “Ah, to get high once again... up there, to heaven, I mean!”
- “What's get high mean?”
- “I'll tell you when you're older.”
- “But...”
Suddenly, Kagero's ears turned like satellites towards a dark corridor leading deeper into the
factory.
- “Never mind,” she cut him off. “It seems the wind is about to bring another storm.”
The enemy's greatest strength lay in their number. Mechanized rodents didn't pose much of a
threat individually, but now they pressed from all sides, and for every fallen soldier, two more
appeared.
Baby Cat was in his element: he launched rockets left and right, laughing out loud
when the enemy projectiles bounced off his mech’s protective field like mere pebbles. But the
pebbles kept coming, more and more of them.
- “More story!” the kitten called out, utterly oblivious to the gravity of their predicament.
“About the cool paradise!”
- “Now?” Kagero gasped, dodging an enemy strike.
- “I’m bored!”
Once again, raising the little kitten proved to be a challenge greater than any battle.
“Well...” the cat started but halted abruptly, vanishing into the shadows and reappearing
moments later in a wholly different spot, where she swiftly neutralized a laser turret.
“In our paradise, there were boxes. Countless cardboard boxes of every size! And each one was
empty, just perfect for...”
“For shoots! Rat-tat-tat! Pew pew!” Baby Cat illustrated his point with a real burst from his
machine gun. A few enemies fell.
“It would be a waste of perfectly good boxes... but you could shoot at yarn balls! In paradise,
there were whole herds of rolling yarn balls.”
“I likes yarn. Yarns go whoosh!” the kitten rejoiced. Unnoticed by him, the energy level
powering Baby Cat’s mech's shields had plummeted to a critical low.
Suddenly, the radio connection between the cats became fractured and filled with static. From
a distance, Kagero could only see Baby Cat's robot forming into a ball and disappearing into
a swarm of charging enemies.
“Little one!” she cried out, dashing toward him.
“And wha- do you lik- in pa- dise?”
Kagero slashed with her katana in a frenzy, completely forgetting her training and discipline.
Her stamina was diminishing.
“Tel...l me.”
Then the comms channel got silent, and the weirdest thing happened. The assassin couldn't
tell if it was sheer exhaustion or fleeting glimpses of the fabled cat paradise blurring her
vision, but instead of a rodent army, she now saw scores of adorable plush mice before her.
And Kagero secretly loved everything sweet and cute - so much that she couldn't bear it and
would often give up to an urge to tear the object into pieces.
“Kawaii!” she squealed, overcome with lust for murder.
After a few moments of pure fury, the enemy unit eased to exist. Kagero, breathing heavily,
reached the mech, still coiled on the ground.
“Little one! What's with you? Answer!” She pounded on the impassive metal shell. “You
can't... Speak up... Please...”
As if on cue, the robot unfolded. The kitten sat behind the controls - unscratched, perfectly
fine, and very pleased with himself.
“Supper Baby Cat reporting for duty!” he shouted, saluting crookedly.
Kagero was still in shock. But she didn't have a moment to gather her thoughts and calm her
racing heart - like children of all species, Baby Cat had no mercy for adult concerns.
“More story, please?” he pleaded.
“Do I even have a choice?” she sighed, her exhalation heavy with resignation. “Alright,
listen. The paradise was tended by the almighty Ancient Cats - our gods...”
“Ourgods...” the little one echoed, his eyes wide with fascination for all things grand and
powerful.
Kagero shared with Baby Cat all she knew about the Ancient Cats. How they were born from
chaos and possessed great power, each embodying a chosen aspect of feline power. About
their divine abode, the Sacred Scratcher, a towering construction full of houses, platforms,
and shelves, one for each Ancient Cat. And about the day when it all came to an end.
“Other animals learned about our paradise and went mad with envy. They couldn't stand our
happiness.” Kagero said, her voice tinged with resentment.
“So they broke in, toppled theSacred Scratcher, and destroyed everything. The cats were either taken captive or forced to hide in other worlds. Over time, they forgot about the lost paradise; some even forgot how to speak! Can you imagine? But deep down, they all long for it. That's why every cat still wants a miniature Sacred Scratcher at home, even if they don't remember its divine origins. And when sometimes they stare off at presumably nothing? That's when they’re trying to piece together the elusive memories of it all.”
“And Ourgods?” Baby Cat asked.
Kagero's gaze wandered through the wreckage of the hall to the next part of the factory,
where their mission objective awaited. She rose to her feet and headed in that direction.
“Well, about that...” she said, smiling. “Get up, Little One! We have a god to liberate.”
