Peeking open one bleary eye, he looked for his alarm clock, remembered he’d disassembled it for parts a year ago, and swore. If he wanted to know the time, he’d actually have to get up.

Cursing more out of habit than conviction, he sat up, rubbing his eyes, and looked for the covers he must have kicked off during the night.

They were nowhere in sight.

“The hell…?” Lurching out of bed, he grabbed for the pair of pants he’d thrown carelessly on the floor. Then he stumbled out into the main room.

The first thing he noticed was the empty milk bottle, lying beside the still-ajar refrigerator door.

Then he realized the experiment-room door was open, too.

“Oh, shit!” Rushing over, he glanced inside. The room was empty.

“Fuckfuckfuckityfuck…” Had Toshiya gone in there this morning and left it open? The idiot! When I get my hands on him, I’ll wring his skinny neck…

A sound from the couch dissolved his strangulation fantasies. Kyo turned around, and there was the not-cat, curled up on in a ball, wrapped in the blankets that should have been on his bed.

Kyo must have made some noise, for the creature opened one sleepy eye, and then the other.

“Hello, Kyo,” he said.

Supremely startled, Kyo could only manage a weak “hello” in reply. He knows my name? Wait, wait, Totchi must have told him or something. Don’t freak out, Kyo.

“How’d you, uh, get out?” he asked finally.

The not-cat looked guilty. “I was hungry, and Toshiya said to tell you when you woke up, but you didn’t wake up and I sat there for hours being hungry. So finally I tried the handle and it was open.” He frowned slightly. “You’re out of milk. And whatever was in that package, you’re out of that, too.”

“What package?”

“The one with the food in it. It wasn’t very good, by the way.”

Kyo looked around; he spotted the empty container not far from the fridge. Picking it up, he inspected it for some clue as to its contents; no “BIOHAZARD” labels, but that didn’t mean it was safe. Finally, he sniffed it.

“GODDAMMIT! That was my cheesecake! I was saving that!”

The not-cat made a face. “Why would you make a cake out of cheese?”

“I can’t possibly explain it to something like you. From now on, let’s stay out of Kyo’s fridge, hmm? Some of the stuff in there could kill you.”

“If it’s all as nasty as your “cheese cake”, I believe you.”

Kyo gritted his teeth. I will not throw him over the balcony, I will not throw him over the balcony… “I made that cake myself, thank you.”

“Oh. You’re not a very good cook, are you?”

Kyo started up a stream of colorful language and stomped back into his bedroom. From there he yelled, “I am taking a shower. Stay OUT of the fucking fridge.”

“I’m full now anyway,” said the not-cat.

“ARGH,” said Kyo.

Toshiya smiled as he sat down. “Morning, Boss.”

The man across from him sighed. “It’s two in the afternoon, Toshiya.”

“Like I said.”

This elicited a laugh. “You’re looking well, I have to say. Except, what happened to your hair? It looks like you just rolled out of bed. Somebody else’s.”

Toshiya mumbled something that sounded a lot like “fuck you”.

“You’re supposed to suck up to the boss, Toshiya. You’re really bad at this.”

He grinned at that. “If it weren’t for a few minor faults, Yoshiki, I’d be too perfect for this world.”

Yoshiki gave an un-boss-like snicker and sat back in his office chair. “If you weren’t one of my best employees, I’d smack you.”

“I take it, then, that I’m about to get a glowing review?”

“Naturally. Except for the Kitchen Incident, your work has been stellar.”

“I explained the Kitchen Incident, Yoshiki. There are some things rutabagas were just never meant for.”

Yoshiki looked pained. “Well, yes, but did you have to break both of his hands?”

Toshiya made a dismissing gesture. “I hear he’s doing quite well in physical therapy. He’s sure to relearn how to use a spoon eventually.”

Yoshiki gave a long-suffering sigh and ran an elegantly long-fingered hand through his chin-length gold-brown hair. “Sure, that makes it okay. In the future, do you think you could avoid maiming the customers?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you.”

“As long as they don’t make any more suggestions involving vegetables.”

Yoshiki massaged his temples. He could feel a headache coming on, suddenly.

“Was there anything else, Boss, or can I go? I need a shower. And more coffee.”

Yoshiki waved a hand. “Fine, fine, get out of here. Keep up the good work, blah blah blah.”

Toshiya smiled. “You have such a way with words.” He got up to leave, but paused at the door, remembering something. “Oh, Yoshiki?”

“Hmm?”

“About last night’s client…”

“Was he too rough?” Yoshiki suddenly wore his “concerned parent” face.

“No, no, nothing like that. I was just wondering, do you have any info on him? Current residence and so forth?”

“You know that information is strictly confidential.”

Toshiya nodded. He made no move to leave.

Yoshiki sighed. “Why do you need it?”

“That’s strictly confidential.”

“Goddammit, Toshiya.”

Toshiya’s mouth curved downward as he frowned. “Look, I really can’t say. I just need to find out something, okay? I promise I won’t disgrace the company or anything.”

Yoshiki studied him for a too-long moment. “Okay. I’ll send you what we have. For your sake, though, I hope you’re not getting attached.”

“Boss! Don’t be stupid.”

“You know we can’t afford that in this line of business.”

“It’s not like that at all. This is strictly business,” Toshiya said.

Yoshiki nodded, eyes gone solemn. “Go home, Toshiya. I’ll have it sent to your apartment.”

Toshiya sauntered back to the desk. Leaning over, he pressed a quick kiss to the older man’s lips. “Thanks, Yoshiki,” he whispered.

As soon as he left, Yoshiki put his head in his hands. “I knew that brat would end up being trouble the minute I hired him.”

Kyo emerged from the shower feeling clean, refreshed, and perky.

Well, he felt clean, anyway.

The not-cat was still on the couch and still wrapped in his blanket. Kyo tossed the towel he’d been using to dry his hair into the nearest corner, then put his hands on his hips and said, “Look. I know you’re confused and all—“

“Not really,” it said.

Kyo paused, his train of thought coming violently off the track. “Excuse me?”

“I am sort of hungry, though.”

Kyo stared. “You just ate my whole cheesecake and the rest of my milk.”

The not-cat gave him a rather disgusted look. “That was two hours ago.”

“And how can you not be confused? I mean, I just performed a transfiguration on you!”

The not-cat nodded, matter-of-factly. “I was a cat.”

“Right.”

“Now I’m not.”

“Right.”

He shrugged. “Seems pretty basic to me.”

Kyo smacked his palm into his forehead. “What’s the point of turning things into other things,” he wondered aloud, “if nobody is impressed?”

“I don’t know,” said the not-cat.

“I wasn’t asking you!”

“Oh. Why’d you say it, then? I’m the only one who can hear you.”

Kyo stomped over to his worktable and began rifling through his notes, which were smudged and badly out of order. “Look, I don’t make a habit of talking to cats. Or not-cats. Or whatever the hell you are now.”

“I’m Die.”

Kyo almost dropped his papers. Looking back over his shoulder, he said, “What?”

“I’m Die. Just like you’re Kyo. And Toshiya is Toshiya.”

The blond shook his head, expression disbelieving. “Did Toshiya name you or something?”

“No…” Die frowned, obviously having difficulty with the words. “It’s… what the other cats said when they meant me. Die is me. At least, I think that’s what you’d call it in words.” He made a face. “Words are so in-the-way. Why do you bother with them?”

“We humans kinda like them,” Kyo replied weakly.

Die shrugged. “Well, I guess they work okay for you. Can I have something to eat now?”

Kyo massaged his temples. “I should have known you’d be trouble when I brought you in. Cats. Hmph.”

“Yeah,” said Die, “that’s what we always say about people.”

At the heart of the city there was a platform, circular in shape and over a mile in circumference. Supported by countless girders, buttresses, and cables, the entire surface had long ago been covered in a thick layer of soil. Centuries past, seeds had been planted there, and saplings had been nurtured by careful hands.

The fruit of those labors showed now, in the grass-covered, tree-shaded Interior Park.

It was the only place to find living trees for over a thousand miles.

Shinya walked slowly down one of the broad, paved avenues. Wide-branched oak and maple trees formed a leafy canopy over his head, their leaves still lush and green thanks to the temperature-controlling glass dome that protected the Park from the harsher elements outside. High above, the sun filtered mutedly through, making the Park seem softly-lit and slightly surreal.

Here and there, other people strolled—mostly well-dressed, well-to-do Interior residents. Only the rich and powerful could afford to live at the city’s center. Poorer residents found themselves shoved out to the fringes of the city, where the buildings had fallen into disrepair and creatures from the Empty Lands sometimes lurked.

The poorest of all often ended up in the abandoned Lower Levels—those desolate floors at the bottom of the buildings, where light rarely penetrated and monsters crawled in abundance.

Life expectancy wasn’t very long down there.

Shinya sighed. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on the plight of the less fortunate. He had a job to do, quarry to hunt down.

But to do that, he’d need some information.

The shadowy figure detached itself from the darkness of the branches of a solid elm tree up ahead. Shinya waited; it wouldn’t help to rush the man.

Apparently sensing no threat, the figure wound its way to where Shinya stood, pausing every now and then to crouch in a peculiarly feral way. Head swiveling about in a habitual lookout for danger, he finally made his way to the Hunter.

“Greetings, Hunter Shinya,” he rasped, peering up from his crouching position at Shinya’s feet. Under the over-large hat and the obscuring fringe of hair, Shinya could just glimpse a pair of bright eyes, a strip of red-painted skin, and the glitter of metal piercings.

“Greetings, Seek,” Shinya replied formally. “Thank you for coming when called.”

This elicited a snicker. “Always wanted to see the Park. Smells awfully good here, eh? Think I’ll come back every now and then.”

Shinya folded his arms. “I need information, Seek.”

“Who don’t?”

“I am willing to pay.”

Seek grinned, bouncing like a freakish and oversized monkey. “’Course you are. Everyone is. Bwahaha!”

Shinya’s expression did not change, but somehow the air around him seemed to take on a chill. Seek went still, sensing the other’s irritation.

“What you wanna know?”

“I am looking for someone. Two someones,” he corrected. “One is a scientist who lives near the Edge. He is called Kyo. The other is a man named Kaoru, with a Hunter’s skills.”

Seek whistled softly. “Lost one of your own, eh?”

Shinya’s generous mouth compressed into a hard line, and Seek cowered, body low to the ground. “Right, none of the business of me. Right. Just find info. Will do.”

“I don’t have a lot of time,” said Shinya.

“It’ll take as long as it takes. The Lower Levels hear the whispers of the city, but it takes time to find those that’ll talk. Or can talk,” he added.

Shinya nodded, expression cold. “Hurry anyway,” he said.

Seek took this as his cue to leave.

Afterward, Shinya found a bench beneath a carefully pruned cherry tree. It was too late in the season for blossoms, but he could imagine what the branches would look like in spring, heavy with pale pink petals.

Kaoru, he thought, you won’t stay hidden forever.

He had a feeling that Kaoru knew it, too.

.

.

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