Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Getting a Kitten

Adam was practising his spells when Jiayi barged into his room without knocking. He paid her no mind and continued his practice. He had gotten used to her brashness in the last few days. However, he did a double-take when he noticed the creature in her arms.

"What's that you're holding?"

"He's a kitten, can't you tell?" Jiayi held up the ginger kitten in her hands.

"I know it's a kitten. I meant, why did you bring it here."

"He! I found this little guy wandering around while I was playing with my friends. Mama said I can't keep him, so I brought him here. Can I keep him here, please?"

He took a good look at the kitten. It looked lethargic, thin, and dirty. Those were signs that something terrible might have happened to the mother cat.

"...fine, but you're responsible for taking care of him." His expression softened."Leave it to me!"

"Don't make promises you can't keep, do you even know how to take care of a kitten?"

"Nope." Jiayi shrugged.

"...come on, let's take him to a vet first." Adam let out a sigh.

***

After the visit to a veterinary clinic and a pet shop, his apartment was filled with cans of wet cat food, bags of dry cat food, a pet carrier, a litter box, a scratching post, a cat bed, a grooming set, a heating pad, food and water bowls, bags of fresh litter, and cat toys. Adam had never own a pet before, so he didn't expect he would need to buy so much stuff. If he hadn't been able to store them in his inventory, bringing them back would have been troublesome.

While shopping for cat food, Adam didn't know which one the kitten would prefer from all the various brands available. Furthermore, the vet told them it was better to feed the kitten a mixture of dry and wet cat food. So, they just bought each product from every brand.

Meanwhile, the kitten in question was fast asleep in Jiayi's arms after the vaccination. According to the vet, the kitten was in the pink of health, other than not having eaten for the past few days.

"So, have you given him a name yet?" Adam turned toward Jiayi while filling up the litter box.

"Riceball!"

"...its fur isn't white."

"Princess?"

"...he's a boy."

"...Cat?"

"...never mind, forget I asked. I'll name him myself." Adam got up and handed her a key. "I made a spare key. Lock up when you're done playing with the kitten, okay?"

"Where are you going?"

"Your school."

"Huh, why?" Jiayi tilted her head.

"You told me you had a cold feeling while you were having remedial lessons, remember?"

Jiayi's school was one of the locations Adam had pinpointed where paranormal activity was occurring. He was originally planning to delay visiting her school since the school holiday was still ongoing and there were no casualties yet. However, the fact that she could feel the spirit's presence in broad daylight concerned him since spirits were usually dormant during the daytime.

"I wanna go too!"

"No."

"I know my school better than you!"

"No."

"I'll secretly go on my own then!"

Adam let out a sigh.

"...fine, you can come with me but you have to listen to me."

"Yay!"

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***

Jiayi's mother operated her noodle stall until the wee hours. Adam was certain they would be back before then but he still made preparations in case they didn't. Using a prototype paper doll he made from studying the paper effigy, he used Glamour to change its appearance to impersonate Jiayi and made the shikigami sleep in her bed. If her mother entered her room, the shikigami would perform simple movements like tossing and turning to fool her. He wanted to use other materials to improve the doll’s durability but the spirits were far too weak to control anything but paper.

After the preparations were complete, the master and disciple headed for dinner first. Adam wanted to try out the hot pot he had heard so much about but Jiayi insisted on eating fast food. When they entered the fast food restaurant, Jiayi drew attention with her kariginu outfit. She was still wearing her own clothes but she begged him to use Glamour to change the appearance of her outfit. Thankfully, they were barely any customers around.

"What do you want to eat?"

"Cheeseburger!"

"Again? Didn't you eat that the last time and the time before that?"

"It's delicious!"

After ordering for Jiayi, he ordered every food item on the menu for himself. As for drinks, he drank from Shuten-dōji's Gourd. However, the food was barely enough to stave off the gnawing hunger. After Jiaqi finished her meal, they left and he bought snacks from the food stalls along the way to her school.

When the pair got to her school, the gates were closed. He held her hand and burrowed into the school grounds. He made Jiayi give him a tour of the place. While he didn't detect the presence of the spirit, he noted down a few locations where the yin energy was stronger: the staffroom, hallways, and some of the classrooms. Those were the areas the spirit frequently visited. He was almost certain the spirit was a teacher.

"Jiayi, have you heard anything about teachers who passed away in your school?"

"I don't think so… Ah, I just remembered, a female teacher fell to her death last month. I don't know much about her since she didn't teach my classes but I heard she was betrothed to another teacher. That poor teacher even resigned after her death."

"Do you know whether she was pregnant?"

Jiayi shook her head.

"Are there currently any pregnant teachers in your school?"

"My form teacher, Mrs Chen, is pregnant."

"Is she the one teaching you during the remedial lessons?"

"How do you know that?"

If the rumor was correct, the spirit was most likely an ubume—women who died during pregnancy or right after childbirth. That might be the reason why there haven't been any victims yet. While ubume were aggressive to pregnant women, they would never harm a child and even protected them from harm. It also explained why Jiayi felt her presence during the day, the ubume was haunting her pregnant teacher. Fortunately, the spirit couldn’t do anything in broad daylight.

"Jiayi, do you know where she died?"

"I think they said she fell down the stairway near the staffroom."

They headed to the staffroom. Adam carefully examined the area near the stairway but the yin energy wasn't that much higher than the other places.

"It's still too early to tell. We might need to wait for midnight."

"Can we eat supper then?" Jiayi pointed toward the shopping bag in Adam's hand. "There's still leftover snacks."

"No, let's go out and eat something. I'd rather not be here when midnight strikes."

Yōkai were at their strongest at midnight. He would rather not face the spirit at its strongest. While the same was true for Adam as well, the strong point of the oni was their physical strength but he was an onmyōji.

The pair went to the nearest night market. Ever since Jiayi started training, her appetite had drastically increased. Since she wouldn't be able to eat her fill on her mother's meagre income, Adam had been keeping her fed. Eating out at the night market had almost become a daily ritual for them.

While Jiayi was busy stuffing her face, Adam was mentally preparing himself for battle. His inexperience showed when he faced the mannequins in limbo. In truth, he could have won against them if he made the right decisions. He retreated partly because he wasn't confident in his ability to protect Jiayi while fighting against the mannequins, and partly because he was caught off guard and panicked after encountering them without any preparations. As a result, he fled without even attempting to the spells at his disposal.

After Jiayi ate her fill, they headed back to her school. It was half past midnight and the atmosphere of the school seemed ominous. Adam could feel something was watching them the moment they entered the school grounds. His intuition was screaming at him to run but he didn't want to just leave without meeting the spirit face to face.

Once again, the pair went toward the staff room. As they approached the stairway, they could hear a woman singing.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star…"

The air felt chilly even though it was still warm a while ago.

"How I wonder what you are."

Adam looked up and saw a woman standing at the top of the stairway.

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