Léon: The Cat Killer

Although the white-haired woman's voice calling Nana was hoarse, magnetic, and attractive, Nana's reaction was to sway slightly and take a small step back...

The main reason is that, to be honest, Nana doesn't have a good feeling about this person in front of her... In the past, Nana sensed hostility and analyzed situations through the magic of the Tikaz and the aura of the Sarkaz...

After obtaining Kate's eyes, due to a minor incident involving the halo, Nana switched to using the cat's mind chain to handle the important task of providing warnings about past spells.

Even with Kal'tsit, although the thought chain did not read her thoughts very deeply and clearly, her general 'attitude' could still be sensed to some extent.

But what's wrong with this person in front of me?

Her attitude... was very casual.

If this feeling of being treated like a pet could be attributed to his carefree or even morbid personality, then the way this white-haired man, who had no racial characteristics, judged Nana like an object... reminded Nana of the mercenary groups outside Sarkaz.

The way this white-haired man was looking at her was very similar to how the Sarkaz mercenaries outside were looking at her... like they were appraising food or something for sale... It could only be said that if it weren't for his close relationship with Kal'tsit, Nana would have turned and run away the moment she saw him.

"...Hmm...The more inspired little ones don't like me...That's normal...But little one, you should be an adult now...You should have some adult responsibility...At least you came to me because you needed my help, right?"

"...That seems to be the case..."

She subconsciously touched the top of her head, but before asking about the halo, Nana shivered, suppressing the eerie sensation of not being treated like a human being.

What do I need to give in return?

"No need... Just take this with you... I'll check some basic things..."

As he spoke, the 'Doctor' grabbed Nana's cat ears, removed the in-ear headphones from her head, flipped Nana's ears inside out, and cleaned them with cotton swabs... This sudden action startled Nana so much that she almost pulled out her weapon and attacked the Doctor.

It seemed that Nana's "meow" was really not in line with her identity as an assassin. After seeing Kal'tsit peeking out of the window with a frown, Nana blinked and made a "okay" gesture... While the assassin's ear was being cleaned, she gave her boss, who was clinging to the potted plant by the window, a thumbs up. It's unclear whether Kal'tsit got the idea that she was okay.

The doctor's examination didn't pay attention to Nana's actions. This unkempt woman cleaned Nana's cat ears and earlobes, using a cotton swab for the former and a hard ear pick for the latter... both very professional equipment...

While the sampling tools were being analyzed by the instrument, the 'Doctor' also had Nana put her fingerprint on the sample, undressed to examine her skin condition, cut off a small amount of hair as a hair sample, added it to the medication, and then put it into the centrifuge...

This complex examination made Nana feel as if she had returned to the day she first came to Rhodes Island, when Kal'tsit had examined her in the same way.

While Nana was lost in thought, the Doctor seemed to have temporarily finished his series of preparations for some unknown reason. The silver-haired woman pulled up a small stool and sat down in front of Nana, then solemnly shone a small flashlight into Nana's eyes... Finally, she nodded with a complicated expression:

"...It seems to be healing quite well...all the indicators are normal...except for the weight...well, weight isn't important. Kal'tsit said you wanted to talk to me?"

"...How about...you tell me what you were doing before?"

Following Nana's questioning gaze, the Doctor also looked at the operating equipment:

"Those things... were just for your incomplete examination... After all, Kal'tsit only sent you here so I could treat your wounds and then take you away... I haven't even finished the file I was supposed to create for you..."

"file?"

Seeing Nana's curious expression, Dr. White Hair smirked, slid his chair over to the creaking printer, took out the first page, glanced at it, shook it, and handed it to Nana.

The assassin was completely baffled at first glance:

"...Desert...Black-footed Cat...Nana Ivy's File..."

"Yes, this is a file I created for you."

"Although I don't know what category 'Blackfoot' is... isn't it incredibly rude to directly use Felin's beast relatives as a species to refer to humans?"

Listening to Nana's soft, seemingly concerned yet repeatedly indifferent narration, the Doctor's smile froze for a moment, but then he grinned, feigning complete nonchalance:

"Ha~ yeah, but... it doesn't really matter, right... Of course, if you think it's inappropriate, that's fine too, I won't change it... Also, is your profession an assassin...? That's really your old niche job..."

As the doctor rambled on about her medical records, Nana couldn't understand most of it, but comments like, "You're one of the smallest cat breeds," "Growing taller? You probably won't grow any taller," and "So what? Being small is cute too," made Nana's expression increasingly stiff...

Finally, Nana could no longer tolerate the Doctor's nonsensical file creation and harassment, and asked in a somewhat stiff tone:

"...Kal'tsit said I could get the reason for the aura's disappearance from you...Please tell me, then I should set off."

"Ah... the halo... wait? The halo is broken?"

Seeing the doctor's surprised expression, Nana pursed her lips and nodded. The doctor then frowned, hugged the cat's head, and ruffled it... turning the girl's soft black hair into a bird's nest.

"It seems so... But that shouldn't be the case. I saw that thing working perfectly fine before... Could there be a problem with the 'terminal'?... But that shouldn't be the case either... If that thing malfunctions, wouldn't the whole Lateran be blown up?"

He continued speaking in words that Nana couldn't understand at all, while the doctor hugged Nana's head and rubbed it repeatedly...

"...So, you don't know what happened either?"

"Hmm, it's not that I don't know... it's just that your current state is abnormal... do you want to try some abnormal correction methods?"

As he said this, before Nana could react... the doctor gestured with his hand as if performing a chop to Nana's head, then slapped her forehead twice.

"……PhD?"

"Hmm...it doesn't seem to be a problem with the link...open your mouth."

Next came the strange ritual of removing medical gloves and stuffing fingers into Nana's mouth.

For Nana, having her cheeks stretched open wasn't a comfortable position. Her little fangs were exposed, and the other person's fingers were pressing against her tongue. To be honest, it wasn't a pleasant position... But because Nana was reminded of Jessica being held down in a similar position three years ago, she didn't think too much about it...

After all, you're bound to run into ghosts if you walk on the dark too often. Since it's a 'check' by the halo, Nana naturally has no reason to refuse... The only thing the girl did was tilt her head back slightly to avoid drool dripping onto herself from the doctor's fingers.

"...Is it done?"

"...No...but I think I can guess why your aura of power...was wiped out..."

"You know?"

"You can probably guess it."

"Solution?"

"...Hmm, let's keep it simple... Just bite me..."

"bite?"

"Hmm, wasn't my finger in your mouth? I told you to bite it in the first place... I just didn't expect you to be so obedient~ You're unusually well-behaved for a black-footed cat~"

Although the other person was excitedly patting her head with their other hand, firstly, Nana was no longer the little cat who would be happy just from being patted on the head, and secondly, although the other person was praising her, whether it was their eyes or their description... it seemed that the other person only saw her as that inexplicable 'black-footed cat'...

She didn't care about 'Nana' and had no empathy whatsoever for Nana's troubles.

The guy called "Doctor" just tapped Nana's head like he was hitting a household appliance, and then casually and irresponsibly said things like "Just bite me" and "I'll put my hand in so you can bite me."

Although out of respect for Kal'tsit, Nana placed this 'Doctor' on the same level as her manager, unlike her manager and Kal'tsit... Nana couldn't treat this Doctor the same way she treated the other two.

"...So, Doctor, you're not joking...I have to remind you...being bitten hurts a lot..."

"I know, but that's the effect I want... Just tell me if you still want your halo... Remember to bite until you bleed."

Seeing that the doctor had no intention of changing his mind, Nana no longer hesitated. She gently touched the doctor's finger with her canines and then bit down hard.

The moment Nana tasted blood in her mouth, she released the doctor and hurriedly reached for medical supplies to treat his wounds, but the next moment, Nana stopped.

A strong light filled the room, and the doctor silently used his other hand to hold the kitten that had collapsed.

As Kal'tsit appeared behind the Doctor... the bonsai-colored cat didn't even bother to glance at the halo that had reappeared above the girl's head. She instinctively prepared to lick the Doctor's injured finger, but then immediately realized that her behavior was inappropriate... and took the bandages and medicine that Nana was holding in her hand.

The medicine prepared by Nana seemed to be very irritating; Kal'tsit only had to apply the medicine for the Doctor to grimace in pain.

"...So you still feel pain..."

"That's a terrible thing to say!"

Ignoring the Doctor's hesitant tone, Kal'tsit glanced at Nana:

"...This child's aura...has been 'elevated' directly because of your authority...What are you going to do?"

Watching the radiant glow atop the kitten's head, sparks flying as if forged, the light blue eight-pointed star embedded in the halo even caused the Doctor to fall silent for a moment… but only for a moment… Then, the Doctor immediately shrugged nonchalantly:

"Nothing much, just the authority of a 'guard'... She was reset because of my blood, and you want her to return to that system, so I'll let her return to that link... It's just that she'll carry my mark... Haven't you always wanted me to have more connections with this world?"

"...But you...didn't have any expectations for her...you just...treated her like a small animal...even though we've become similar to you...you've never looked at us properly..."

Kal'tsit carefully tied the bandages, then took Nana from the Doctor's arms... In this room where there was no one else, Kal'tsit and the Doctor looked at each other with eyes full of grievance:

"You remain detached from the world... Doctor."

P.S.: I have a fever... My temperature has been over 38 degrees Celsius for a whole day, and my brain feels like it's boiling water... I managed to write one chapter. I originally wanted to write about a certain character, but then I thought better of it... My brain turned into porridge... It's not well mixed, and I feel like there's a problem with the timeline, so I'll leave it alone.

PS+: Also, at this moment, Kal'tsit is not the old lynx who kept the Doctor as a girlfriend... The current Kal'tsit... is more like the Doctor and Precys's daughter.

As for her doctorate... she now considers herself the last employee of the animal sanctuary.

Nana's character is based on the black-footed cat, which has been hinted at many times...

PS2: Meow Meow Cat

3rd This Land: 078 Second Awakening

It was that empty space again. Nana took the teacup from the white-haired woman opposite her and looked at the world in her consciousness.

Here are rooms representing conscious activity, libraries representing memory records, and the Bruce family connected to my soul... Yes, this is a dream, but it seems I can't wake up for the time being.

Being able to consciously perceive dreams is a novel experience. Before Nana experienced all of this herself, Cole said that they already existed in Nana's consciousness... But at that time, they were experiencing reality through Nana. Even now, they still do not have the ability to actively enter this 'daydream' state.

No one knows when or how Nana's consciousness came to be, or how it constructed such a clearly defined 'world'... Seven

However, based on experience, this state seems to only occur when Nana loses consciousness, or rather, is in a coma… This raises a new question, such as… if Nana's subconscious constructs this symbolic 'world,' then in Nana's conscious state, what sustains this world?

Nana didn't know, and when Cole was asked, he could only awkwardly shrug and spread his hands.

Whether it's a former ICA assassin or a current security agency agent, even adding the elements of a fallen heiress and her life as a housewife before her death, the topics of consciousness formation and material interference still seem too technical.

After realizing that overthinking was pointless, Cole took out a celadon tea set—a gift from the Yan Kingdom to the last royal family of Victoria, which Nana remembered as being in the Victoria Museum—and solemnly brewed Nana's supposedly authentic Sichuan green tea…

He brewed the tea with the precision of Victorian dessert-making, down to the millisecond, but while the tea Cole brewed was clear in color, Nana felt something was off... it felt like something was missing. Nine

"Could it be that you, Nana, have never used this kind of tea set to drink such high-grade tea, causing your memory of that tea to become distorted?"

"...Perhaps next time I go to my agent's office, I'll savor those teas properly... Also, as far as I know, this kind of porcelain is mostly used as decorative items... People from Yan rarely use teaware with so many zeros at the end to brew tea."

He put down his teacup, picked up a cookie from the dessert plate—the first one he remembered teaching Kate how to bake—and took a crunchy bite. A mischievous glint tinged his satisfied smile. :(

"Nana, you're not suggesting the taste is off because you've never drunk tea from this kind of porcelain before... Well, disposable paper cups, ceramic cups, and even glass cups all taste different... That's possible... Anyway, it's definitely confirmed that only things from our memories can be recalled here."

As he spoke, he shrugged, and then an electric guitar with a sticker on its upper left corner and a missing corner at the bottom fell into Cole's arms.

"...It seems so. I've completely forgotten what this instrument looks like, and I can't even remember if the stickers on it are cats or rabbits... But from the world of memories, I can still hold it in my hands... This feeling of familiarity yet strangeness is truly...nostalgic...If I were to wear my high school uniform again...Nana, look~"

Witnessing the person before her transform from long hair to a ponytail, and the career woman don her decades-old suit and school uniform... the white-haired girl picked up her guitar and launched into a series of smooth rock solos. Clearly, Cole's repertoire extended beyond folk, leaving Kate, watching from the kitchen, utterly dumbfounded.

"...Mom, you never told me you played rock music!"

"Hmm~ I was a total rebel back then, you know. I smoked, drank, got my hair permed, and even held rock concerts in underground music halls... I did a lot of silly things to rebel against your grandfather's arrangements for me, and I met your father in a band... Back then, I seemed to think that as long as I ran fast enough, nothing outside my world could catch up with me."

With a sigh, Cole seemed to be recalling something, and made several gestures as if he were hitting something with an electric guitar... Nana, who was drinking tea and chewing on a biscuit, roughly estimated that Cole's gesture was probably beating up something the size of a human.

"But later, because of some things that happened because of my hobbies, I miscarried my first child out of wedlock, and the electric guitar my father gave me was also broken and disappeared in that incident... After that, I became quiet... But it seems that it was too late, and misfortune had already caught up with me."

"My father's business plummeted due to his illness. And because I had absolutely no experience in Victoria's business activities, my father's employees were quickly poached by other shops, our supply chains were completely severed, and we had to reluctantly clear out all the goods in our warehouses at low prices, but the proceeds weren't enough to repay the bank loans..."

"My last memory of the old man was a pile of bills almost as tall as me. I even remember being so frustrated that I wanted to take the spell unit and burn the bills, myself, and the house down... But the bank tellers were good at sweet-talking, and Andy was always by my side, so I didn't do it."

Seemingly to reminisce about the past, Cole, dressed as a JK (high school girl), styled his hair into the exaggerated waves typical of his rock and roll days in college, and then casually strummed a few chords... While Kate listened with great interest to these 'glorious years' that Cole had never mentioned before, Nana's attention was drawn to the strange and wonderful fact that electric guitars in the realm of consciousness don't actually need to be plugged in.

Under Kate's persistent questioning, Cole seemed to realize that there was no privacy to talk about with the dead, and he openly recounted things he would never have said before, including a series of embarrassing incidents that Cole and Andy had during their teenage years. It's unclear what Mr. Andy, on the other hand, thought about this.

But ultimately, decades of life experiences become a story, which can be told in just a few sentences.

"...After selling the old manor house in Victoria to pay off debts, the hostility around us increased...because we couldn't deal with the people eyeing that money...Andy and I had to leave Victoria...Later, we got married in Colombia and carefully had you, Kate, born...but how come you didn't live as long as I did?"

Watching Cole angrily poke Kate's head with his finger, Nana's gaze drifted to the side... Yes, why didn't Kate live as long as Cole?

Fortunately, Kate was very resilient to her early death. The young girl, with her white hair but youthful appearance due to her baby face, stuck her tongue out at her mother.

"You're dead, so why blame me? It's not like I had a choice..."

"What I mean is, you could have had a much more exciting life."

"How exciting? Like you, Mom, smoking, drinking, playing rock music, and trying to hook up with men? I'm actually forcing myself to study hard according to what you and Dad want... I even said that if I get into the university in Tremont, I'll take you and Dad to Colombia's largest mobile city..."

Looking at his dream of becoming a scientist, but the reality being that he only became the eldest daughter of the baker in front of his house, Cole clicked his tongue, his expression full of pity:

"Actually, it's not necessary. After all, we're not like you. Our university is in Tremont... Although Andy didn't get into my music academy, he did get into the police academy. It's just that it's inconvenient for him to travel for several hours from the city's military district to the university campus on the other side every year when he comes to see me during the holidays... We've been playing around there for several years, but there's really nothing fun about it."

Watching Cole, dressed in JK uniform, nonchalantly pick up his teacup again, Kate, still wearing an apron, puffed out her cheeks and wiped her hands as if she wanted to fight... Of course, Kate still had some self-awareness; when it came to fighting, she couldn't beat her mother, and even Andy from the police academy couldn't compare to Cole in terms of strength... After all, Cole's ability to read minds alone was enough to dominate family-level street brawls.

Seeing that she had nothing to say to her mother, Kate turned her head and took down the bun she had made while baking. As her waist-length white hair fell down, Kate asked:

"Nana, do you have any interesting skills you can share?"

Following Kate's question, suddenly the space of consciousness shifted dramatically, and a cloud transformed into something resembling a movie screen...

Cole and Kate stared in disbelief at the various images flashing on the screen... Even though the speed was extremely fast, the two of them could still clearly see that although the people and locations were constantly changing, the essence of the matter remained completely unchanged.

To put it simply, that's the job of an 'assassin'.