Chapter 6: Pink Haired Cat Girl
"Nui, if something's happened to you then you should let us know, we can help you." Shia called out softly in a gentle voice that she never used with Zhan.
Nui seemed to hesitate for a moment, but in the end, she slowly opened the door and tentatively stepped outside.
"S-see, I, I'm fine." Her eyes darted about the corridor, she clearly wasn't fine.
Zhan noticed two things right away. Firstly, she had her hood up quite tightly and there seemed to be something on her head, hidden beneath the hood. Secondly, she was wearing loose fitting pyjama bottoms, but he saw some strange movement from just behind her…
Shia was trying to be tactful with Nui as she was clearly feeling nervous, but Zhan just frowned and directly said:
"Nui, you're clearly hiding something. Come on, I'm genuinely just curious, there's no reason for you to worry."
"N-no, what if, what if they want to do experiments on us?!"
"Nui, that's just you being paranoid, you-" Shia started talking, but Zhan cut her off.
"No, that's a valid concern. But there are so many mutated humans that I guarantee they won't be able to round everyone up, so they won't act lightly." Zhan said, then smiled and added: "Besides, I won't let anyone interfere with the residents in my place, not even the government."
Shia looked at Zhan oddly after hearing that. How exactly would he stop the government from interfering with them…? She felt like somehow, he was not just saying empty words.
"Well, o-ok…" Nui nervously stepped backwards into her bedroom and left her door open, then slowly pulled back her hood. Once the hood was pulled back past the protrusions on her head, both Shia's and Zhan's jaws dropped.
"Cat-girl!" They both exclaimed at the same time.
As Zhan remembered from the previous day, Nui's hair remained pink following her mutation. This shade of pink was very light and even bordered on a pure silky white when viewed in the bright daylight, but the pink glimmer couldn't be missed.
That wasn't the main point though, what was far more shocking than this unique hair colour, was her ears. Her ears…were cat ears.
Zhan stared with wide eyes, unable to remove his gaze from the twitching pink ears atop Nui's head.
Zhan swallowed slightly.
'This girl…every time I see her, she turns into something even better than before…my preferences are being ruined, sigh…'
Nui felt extremely ashamed and embarrassed being stared at like this, she felt like a freak. She had thought that she could handle showing her secret to the apartment manager and landlord, but quickly realised that this was too much for her.
Nui scrunched her eyes shut and covered her ears with her hands. She lowered her head and looked extremely nervous, to the extent that she was visibly shaking.
Shia and Zhan recovered from their shock after noticing Nui's extreme reaction. Zhan remembered that this girl was already quite shy and anxious, this sudden physical transformation must have left her feeling distraught and lost.
Shia didn't know Nui very well and was a bit bewildered. Her reaction was quite extreme after all, but Shia was smart and often dealt with a broad range of different people, so she quickly guessed that Nui might have some problems with anxiety and shyness.
"Nui, you don't need to worry, we promise to keep your secret." Shia comforted her softly. Even though Nui was covering her ears, her hearing had become more sensitive overnight so she was able to clearly hear Shia's gentle voice. She looked up uncertainly and her eyes darted between Zhan and Shia. After seeing that they didn't seem to be lying, she finally looked up properly.
"It's, I, I don't know what to do…" She trembled as she spoke, then took a deep breath and finally managed to calm down slightly.
"Hmm…perhaps it would be best to avoid going out for a few days. We don't know how people will react to all of this after all." Zhan suggested. His calm attitude seemed to wear off on Nui and she nodded along with him.
Shia looked like she wanted to disagree with him, but she paused and in the end decided to hold her tongue. She realised that Zhan was right…human history showed that people didn't treat those who looked differently to themselves kindly…especially when they discovered these new people for the first time.
There were many instances of 'mutated humans' being mentioned on the news right now, and the world was still coming to terms with that fact that within Blackwater City, there were now thousands of humans who differed greatly from the norm.
"How can I ever go out again?" Nui muttered miserably. "I'm, I'm a freak, a monster…"
"Stop exaggerating, you still look cute Nui, even more so really." Zhan rolled his eyes. He thought that compared to those people who had grown extra limbs or had multi-coloured skin, Nui was still relatively normal.
"Zhan! Stop being so insensitive, of course she's feeling self conscious and afraid right now!" Shia turned to glare at him.
"C-cute…? You…really think I'm cute?" Nui fell into a daze and mumbled after hearing Zhan's words. Shia paused and stopped reprimanding him, realising that his words had actually managed to comfort this self-conscious girl.
"Mm, of course." Zhan nodded seriously. "You're a real cutie Nui, totally cute."
"I agree Nui." Shia quickly added. "You know, lots of people like cat-girls!"
Zhan felt like that last bit was unnecessary and Nui looked bewildered.
"Cat-girls…?"
"Ah, it's…it's from anime…" Shia murmured and turned slightly red. Nui nodded and decided that she would definitely look into this later.
"Nui, if you need anything, then call the manager on the in-room phone." Zhan said, then glanced around the room. "You shouldn't go out for a few days, but in case you get fed up staying in this little room, then you're free to stay with me for a while. I have the entire top floor to myself, so there's plenty of space."
"O-ok, thank you!" Nui felt stunned that Zhan was being so generous and hastily bowed…this was not any sort of traditional formality in Blackwater City, so she felt even more embarrassed immediately afterwards.
'Adorable…' Zhan thought to himself as he smiled at Nui. Nui blushed slightly, glancing at him before looking away shyly. Shia on the other hand, felt like she was watching a wolf pursuing a rabbit, she made a mental note to keep an eye on both Nui and Zhan.
Before Shia and Zhan's arrival, Nui had been panicking heavily, unable to decide on what she should do. Should she tell someone about her mutation? Her parents maybe, or her sister? Or should she keep it a secret and try to hide her change from the world?
She simply didn't know what to do! Shia and Zhan took care of everything for her. Well, mostly Zhan. Not only did he clearly state that she should remain in her room for the next few days, but he even called her cute, then offered her the chance to stay in his apartment!
Such kindness almost left her feeling dizzy, so she ended up bowing awkwardly out of gratitude.
After Shia and Zhan left Nui to herself, Shia eyed him suspiciously.
"Inviting her to live with you, just what are you planning?"
In the year that she had known and worked for Zhan, she learned one or two things about him. She was pretty sure that this suspicious guy didn't care about anyone aside from himself…no, he might not even care about himself, based on his constant extreme injuries.
"I always wanted a pet cat, but since I'm often away for periods of time, I could never get one." Zhan sighed to himself, shaking his head sadly.
Shia knew that he was only messing with her as always, but it still made her frown deepen.
Out in the reception area, people were beginning to gather and chat amongst themselves. Even if they didn't know one another before today, they had all been through the same traumatic ordeal the previous day and felt the need to discuss it further.
"What's your plan now?" Shia looked around the room and sighed. There was still so much mess to clean up, a job that would no doubt fall onto her to organise.
"I'll be in my apartment for some time…I might leave at some point." Zhan carelessly replied as he turned away with a wave and left all the tedious matters to Shia.
"As annoyingly mysterious as always…" She mumbled, but then was forced to ignore Zhan as multiple members of staff found her and came to her for help.
Now that Zhan had observed Nui and secretly took a look at the other people in the downstairs lobby, he returned to his apartment and immediately called someone on his mobile. He was unsure whether or not this person would answer today, but they actually picked up after the first ring.
"Zhan, is that you?" An old voice came through the speaker. From the tone of the voice, he sounded excited.
This alone was enough to make Zhan grin. He was already able to predict what was to come. The old man naturally knew why Zhan had called him too. After all, there was only a single reason that Zhan ever called him. Even in the current situation, this would be no different.
No, it was exactly because of the current situation, and because he knew Zhan so well, that the syndicate leader could predict Zhan's intention.
"Yeah, it's me."
"Haha! I was planning to call you soon actually, though I was wondering if you had survived. Well, given that it's you, I was sure that you would be fine."
"Somehow I figured that you'd survive too, what with your group and all." Zhan laughed. "So old man, I'm guessing that you've found something fun for me to play with?"
Zhan heard an excited chuckle through the speaker, followed by the words he loved hearing more than anything else in this world:
"When can you fight?"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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