Operation: Peaceful Night
That night.
I set my phone on the nightstand and set an alarm. After stuffing the earplugs I'd prepared deep into my ears, I had everything ready for optimal sleep. The lunchbox to eat before school was already waiting in the fridge.
You might think crawling into bed at nine was early, but this tiny little body of mine demanded even more sleep than that. When the hour was right, the drowsiness that poured over me couldn't be explained any other way.
A child's body is inconvenient to a terrifying degree.
"…"
I dreamed.
It was some space I didn't recognize, packed full of monsters. Swept up in a rush of exaltation, I burned everything around me, smiling brightly while surrounded by blood-red gore. Sprawled atop a mountain of corpses, enjoying a peaceful deep sleep — that was the dream.
Ahh. This is it.
This is truly the peace I've been longing for…
"Mari!"
"Uung…?"
And just like that, I was yanked straight back to reality. The pitch-black surroundings gradually pulled my mind, hovering between dream and waking, back into the real world. Siyeon's hand grabbing and shaking my arm as I lay there reminded me that what I'd just experienced had only been a dream.
I wanted to stay in that dream a little longer. Even knowing it's something that could never happen, a dream is where you can just shrug everything off and go with it. Still, someday — just once — I'd like to carve through monsters that satisfyingly. They wouldn't bleed, but it'd be good stress relief at least.
"Haahm…"
Putting the wishful thinking from the dream aside for now, I yawned briefly, kept my eyes closed, half-turned my body, and cracked one eye open. Looking toward the ladder leading up to the top bunk, I saw Siyeon's face poking out from the stairs, looking somehow anxious. Leaving behind the one earplug that had vanished while I was tossing and turning, I asked her:
"What's wrong? What is it…?"
"I can hear a baby crying."
"A baby crying…?"
What came back was the rather creepy answer that she could hear a baby crying. Wondering what nonsense this was and about to ask if she'd been haunted by a ghost or something—
"Aooooong-"
From beyond the curtain came a faint sound like a baby's cry. Hearing it ring out at regular short intervals, it was clearly a cat's meow. That unpleasant mid-low meowing must have sounded like a baby's cry to her. If you haven't heard it much, it could sound that way.
"It's a cat meowing. Cat meowing."
"…Really?"
When I waved it off like it was nothing, Siyeon double-checked.
"Yeah, really."
Even after I spoke with enough conviction to assure her it wasn't a lie, Siyeon — who I'd expected to go right back down — hesitated and watched my reaction. Then she said something unexpected….
"Can I have some earplugs too?"
"…"
Hearing Siyeon ask for earplugs as well, my body, about to lie back down, froze solid. Thinking I wouldn't need them, I'd only bought one pair. Her asking for them was, to me, the same as saying hand over what's left of your sleep tonight.
"You crumple them by pressing here, then stick them in your ears."
After finding the one earplug that had fallen out while I was thrashing around, I blinked my sleepy eyes and still fitted earplugs into both of Siyeon's ear canals. With that, Siyeon retreated to the bottom bunk.
With even the remaining single earplug gone, the surrounding sounds that had been so quiet mercilessly slammed into the eardrums inside both ear canals.
"Aeoong-!!"
Shit…
From beyond even the curtain and the veranda window, a cat's cry rang out, sharp as if tearing, and scraped at my ears. Sleep was completely out of the question. Looking for even a little more information, I turned on my phone. As the max-brightness screen flashed into eyes that had just woken up dazed, I automatically closed one eye.
Searching again for the keyword "how to deal with cat moms." Filtering out methods someone under fourteen couldn't use, and filtering out the quasi-criminal stuff written in fits of anger, a good method finally caught my eye.
A capture cage?
A helpful anti-cat post that even included a link to buy a cage made of metal bars. It went on and on, but the core point was that capture for the purpose of relocating them isn't illegal. At a solution that made my drowsy eyes snap wide open, my mind cleared instantly.
"Oho."
This is it.
Lying on my stomach, I flicked my small middle finger and thumb together with a short snap. This is it. Without this, there's no other way. Looking toward the upper right of my phone, I checked the time. It was 2:47 AM. Truly the perfect hour when not a single person would be walking around this shabby apartment complex.
Stepping down the bed ladder, I opened the wardrobe. Clunk — the magnet came free and the wardrobe door opening sound rang out. Along with that noise that had no business sounding in the dead of night, I felt a presence from behind.
"What… are you doing? At this hour?"
Without even needing to turn around, the owner of the voice was the teddy bear bastard. Treating that flustered voice as no big deal, I casually grabbed my balaclava as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"A sudden plan has come up. If not at this hour, it can't be executed."
"What exactly are you planning to…."
"Operation name: Peaceful Night."
"??"
Even after hearing the answer, the teddy bear tilted its head with a puzzled expression. How lamentable, that denseness that couldn't figure it out even after hearing this grand operation name. In the end, that guy got dragged outside too, perched on my shoulder.
The cats' meowing that had been so noisy just moments ago went silent the instant they sensed a human presence at the entrance. They've got sharp instincts, at least. Cocky little wild beasts.
"Sun."
Along with the short word of transformation, I pressed my finger joints until they cracked and loosened up my hands. The flustered teddy bear, hanging from my shoulder, yanked on my clothes with all its might to express that fluster.
"Hey, if you transform right here…!"
"It's fine. I've got the balaclava on, and nobody's watching."
That's why I said this is something I can only do at this hour. I don't need something like a capture cage — not after transforming. Today. I'm going to show those beasts for certain that a magical girl's power can also be abused for personal gain.
"Where oh where are you hiding~?"
Once a cat starts running full speed, catching it isn't easy. Of course, that's by ordinary human standards. After transforming into a magical girl, it's on the level of a child chasing ants that are running away.
"Haaahk-! Haaaaahk-!"
I could hold two at most in my arms. The ones I successfully captured that way were one black-furred cat from the flower bed, and one orange-furred cat that had been naively picking at the food at the entrance without even noticing a person approaching.
Tucking both under my arms, I bent and straightened my legs to finish my warm-up, then soared high into the sky.
Right up until takeoff, they'd been scratching my arms with their claws or hissing at me. But the moment we took off, as if they knew with their whole bodies that it'd be a disaster if they got dropped in this state, they froze solid as if time itself had stopped. Is this that wild instinct thing? Amazing. To get so good at reading the room so quickly.
"Hoo."
This should be far enough?
I released the two cats on a mountain path like a walking trail quite far from the apartment complex, then returned. Even while frozen solid, once the ground got close they started thrashing, and the moment I let go they scrambled away at full speed. Doing that kind of round trip about three times….
They're not gathering here anymore.
The empty first-floor entrance. The meowing reduced to a degree you could actually feel. They must have started thinking of the place with the food bowls and water dishes as a trap now, because the cats no longer showed any intention of appearing at the entrance.
Think that means I can't find you? The places beasts hide are pretty obvious.
"Found you~"
Whether dirt got all over my body or not, I squeezed into spaces no adult could crawl into and caught every last one of those persistent cats.
Under the first-floor verandas of the apartment, the empty corner spaces beyond the flower beds—thoroughly. Then another three round trips between the apartment and the walking trail, steadily reducing the cat population.
"Hoo, done!"
Finishing the refreshing street-cat disposal, I prepared to go inside with a laugh so bright you could feel it even through the balaclava. I didn't know how much time was left until school, but I could at least catch a nap until the alarm went off.
"Kkeuuuuk-!"
While stretching with a middle-aged-uncle kind of groan— in this beautiful world with its striking blue sky, I could see the bright light of the sun filling the sky from below the horizon. Checking the time, it was 4:41 — too late to even call it dawn.
Just as everything started to feel hollow at the fact that I'd spent over an hour doing nothing but cat relocation service— a sense of relief that starting tomorrow I'd at least be able to sleep comfortably wrapped around my body.
But that was only about the comfort that would continue from the next day onward. That tonight's sleep had been completely ruined was a certain fact that needed no further comment.
"Lady Mari, the sky's fully bright, you know."
The teddy bear who just had to put that certain fact that needed no further comment into words. Only after taking that confirmation kill did my previously refreshing mood suddenly plummet deep underground. The only thing you can do in a situation like this is….
"Goddammit."
Curse.