Chapter 566: Chapter 391: Tamako the Cat
"What if we can’t find any companions?" the gloomy boy asked.
"Only ’humans’ worry about not finding companions; how could a rabbit worry about not finding a good friend?" Minamoto Tamako shook her head, pouting, and putting on a serious face: "If this world is a vast forest, just keep walking, and one day, you’ll meet companions going the same way."
After speaking, she stretched out her arms, forcibly picked up the little deer child, and encouraged loudly, "So don’t be afraid to set out, just think of it as a grand forest adventure!"
The gloomy boy couldn’t resist her and was dragged downstairs.
Voices came from the living room, where the hostess was entertaining guests and hadn’t noticed them coming downstairs yet.
Minamoto Tamako raised her little hand to signal a hush, then lay on the ground, attempting to crawl toward the front door. The gloomy boy thought it was a bit ridiculous and didn’t want to crawl, but Minamoto Tamako kept beckoning him to lower himself, so he sighed and complied.
Two turtles crawled one after another down the hallway, trying to reach the door and escape.
The gloomy boy picked up his crawling speed to catch up with Minamoto Tamako, moving alongside her, and whispered, "We’ll be seen by surveillance if we go out, what do you plan to do?"
"What are you afraid of? It’s so dark, the surveillance can’t catch us." Minamoto Tamako’s understanding of surveillance cameras was still stuck in the 1990s.
It was her first time being sneaky, sneaking a kid away from someone else’s home, and she was so nervous her palms were sweaty, sticking to the floor like Spider-Man.
"They can see at night," the gloomy boy informed.
"Huh?" Minamoto Tamako was shocked. She suspected that the little deer’s family were either high-ranking officials or maybe it was some kind of military base; otherwise, how could they have night-vision surveillance at the door? Being able to install something so advanced, it must mean the little deer’s family was powerful!
"So, what now?" the gloomy boy found them in a dilemma.
"Easy, do you have garbage bags in your house?" Minamoto Tamako asked.
"Yes, in the kitchen," the gloomy boy answered.
"Let’s go!"
Minamoto Tamako changed direction, crawled to the kitchen, peeked around the door to confirm the nanny wasn’t there, and quickly got up, rummaging through the trash can like a thief.
"What are you doing?" the gloomy boy didn’t understand.
"Putting on a garbage bag!" Minamoto Tamako shook out all the trash, planning to wrap herself in a black bag.
Rich people are great, with smooth floors and a spacious kitchen, even their garbage bags are like those in restaurants, ridiculously large, more than enough to cover her.
The gloomy boy silently opened a cupboard, revealing a big roll of new, unopened garbage bags. Seeing this, Minamoto Tamako exclaimed ’Great,’ tossed aside the bag she’d just emptied, and each with the little deer child ripped a bag and put it over themselves.
To keep their vision clear and movement easy, they poked a few holes in the bags, letting their limbs through and peering through the small hole, looking more like turtles.
"Not bad, let’s go!"
Minamoto Tamako was very pleased and tiptoed out of the kitchen, leading the little deer to the door once again.
The sound of plastic bags rubbing against the floor was quite loud. After crawling for a while, they heard footsteps behind them. Minamoto Tamako looked back to see the hostess leaving the living room, and their eyes met.
"What are you doing?!" the hostess roared word by word.
Minamoto Tamako was shocked. She didn’t bother with the disguise and yanked up the little deer, sprinting away. The hostess shrieked and gave chase, and the nanny, hearing the commotion, blocked the front door, trapping them between a rock and a hard place.
"Are you ready?!" Minamoto Tamako shouted while running.
"—For what?"
The gloomy boy was baffled, the next second, Minamoto Tamako responded with her actions — he was pushed and stumbled onto the ground, and she pulled his hand with all her strength and flung him forward!
The gloomy boy spun dizzily, sliding from the nanny’s legs, who bent over and stared between her legs at him.
Minamoto Tamako seized the chance and leaped up, pressing the nanny’s back, executing a standard leapfrog: "Get up!"
The gloomy boy quickly got back on his feet and fled with Minamoto Tamako. They dashed toward the front door, the gloomy boy unlocked it with a fingerprint, and Minamoto Tamako delivered a sharp shark kick that flung open the door, breaking out of the standalone villa.
Outside was a community garden, pitch-dark, with the streetlights casting a blue glow, making the red characters on the artificial hill look like blood. They ran recklessly along the path, with the woman’s shrill screams trailing behind, "Security! Security!!"
Minamoto Tamako glanced back, and in the unlit corner appeared a group of men dressed in black uniforms, looking like a swarm of black ants at first glance, swarming and rushing amidst the night like a black tidal wave, rolling in mightily.
"So many people!!"
Minamoto Tamako was utterly shocked. Despite being a wealthy daughter, she’d seen homes with a dozen servants or a dozen security guards but had never seen a place with hundreds or thousands of them. Could it be that the little deer’s family was a military warlord? These hundreds or thousands of people almost matched the entire Tokyo riot squad!
Recently, she’d been persistent with long-distance running, feeling great, not even out of breath in her dreams, just extremely nervous, her heart beating faster, always feeling like she was about to be caught... Running, Minamoto Tamako felt like she stepped on something, but she couldn’t delve into it, dragging along the little deer and bracing forward.
In reality, she lay sideways on the bed, eyes tightly shut, a tense little face, her lower body kicking frequently, eventually knocking Nishino Fuyu off the bed.
The night wind brushed her face, the streetlamps raced by, the wind roared in her ears, and the gloomy boy tilted his head back, staring at the endless long road, sprinting on.
Minamoto Tamako followed him, noticing the mood value above his head climbing from deep red to a warm yellow, and she laughed, asking, "How do you feel!!"
"Fantastic!" he answered.
Minamoto Tamako caught up, running alongside the little deer. They seemed to have forgotten the danger behind them, or maybe they were enjoying the feeling of breaking free from a cage, like the moment from Shawshank clinging to the rain, relishing the freedom they fought for.
In the distance, the sun began to rise, morning rays pierced the horizon, darkness as thin as paper, shredding on touch. The first light of morning was extraordinarily bright, fire clouds marked the end of the road, the rosy glow like an uncertain dream.
The day was about to break.
Minamoto Tamako didn’t know why it was getting light; perhaps they just made it in time, or perhaps because the little deer finally escaped.
They ran wildly toward the morning light, charging across the community fence, darting across the road, through the shrubbery of the greenbelt, and finally crashed heavily onto the park’s grass.
Minamoto Tamako gasped heavily, lifting her head, no one pursuing anymore, all those mean people completely left behind.
Wonderful.
Finally free.
Minamoto Tamako showed a genuine smile, couldn’t help but glance sideways; the gloomy boy didn’t look so gloomy anymore, just like an ordinary boy, his sweat-drenched hair and clear eyes making his pupils glisten brilliantly.
"Have you figured out what animal you are?" Minamoto Tamako asked.
"Yeah." The boy lay on the grass, looking up at the sky.
"Not bad, what is it?" Minamoto Tamako straightened up.
"A deer." The boy said.
"Huh, why?" Minamoto Tamako was curious: "Because you can run fast?"
"No, in Shakespeare’s works, deer often represent untamed natural strength, like in ’All’s Well That Ends Well’..." he said, turning his head to ask, "Have you seen Shakespeare’s plays?"
"Um, no..." Minamoto Tamako wasn’t interested in drama.
"Makes sense, since you’re just a cat." The boy also sat up.
Minamoto Tamako wanted to refute, trying to prove her taste, but when she opened her mouth, all that came out was ’meow.’
"Meow? Meow meow!! Meow meow meow meow..."
She lowered her head to see her hands turned into pink paw pads, the low grass rising to her chest... she saw warm yellow fur and her tail.
The boy picked her up, lifting her high, finally revealing a smile.
—Ah, I’ve turned into a cat.
The boy seemed to see a colored world, while the cat’s pupils also held the entire universe, possessing each other as if they had everything.