Kitty Parade

"Yoshi! You need to wake up!" Shoji yelled upstairs towards his sons bedroom. "do you plan to sleep the whole day?"

Hideyoshi sat up slowly, he felt groggy from staying up to late the night before. He was determined to finish a biology book he had barrowed from the library a few days ago. Thankfully Hideyoshi managed to finish it before passing out.

Hideyoshi crawled out of bed, unto the dark wooden floor and stretched his body. He looked around his room, it was already cluttered even though they have only lived here a short time, between all his books scattered all over the place, and all his musical instruments laying around with him being to lazy to put them away after playing them; his room already looked a mess. "I should probably take care of this….. Tommorow…." he sighed to himself.

His neck slightly hurt from sitting poorly while reading the night before, he tried to rub it out but the stiffness was most likely going to last all day.

"I'm up old man, quit your yelling." Hideyoshi yawned out down the stairs just loud enough for his father to hear.  

The morning had already past, and it was close to lunch time; however Hideyoshi wasn’t hungry quit yet. He dragged his feet to the bathroom to begin his morning routine. After showering and brushing his teeth he started on his hair. This was always the most time consuming part of his morning since he was so careful not to break any of his long yellow hairs. He combed though it delicately till all the knots from sleep were gone is it fell straight and perfect behind him.

He pulled his hair back into a low ponytail with his everyday black hair tie. He got dressed in a pair of plain black pants and a white button up shirt, leaving the top few buttons undone. And checked himself in the mirror. "alright looks good!" Hideyoshi smiled to himself in the reflection.

Hideyoshi went back to his room and began gathering up all the books he had barrowed from the library, one biology book, and several herbology books. He placed them one by one into his brown bag and closed it. He slung, the now heavy bag over his shoulder and headed down the stairs.

Shoji was in the kitchen cooking, which was rather unlike him but Hideyoshi didn’t mind; his father was a good cook whenever he actually bothered to make anything. The whole down stairs smelled like chicken and vegetables, Hideyoshi could hear them sizzling in the pan.

"What's the occasion, old man? Who ya trying to impress?" Hideyoshi said as he walked into the room placing his bag on the table.

"The very, beautiful lady Akane from down the road is coming over for lunch in a bit; if you must know." Shijo shot back with a wink.

"Good to know." Hideyoshi grabbed his bag and turned towards the door. "I'll be out for awhile, if you don’t want me intruding on anything….personal, just leave a note on the door or something and I'll come back later." Hideyoshi waved as he walked out the door.

"Thanks kid!" Shoji yelled after his son as the door closed.

Hideyoshi stepped out into the busy street, there was plenty to people around today, most likely enjoying the warm air. He stopped at a street vender and bought a bite to snack on from the cute girl working it. Before continuing to the library.

He reached the building on the other side of town and walked up the steps, though the doors, and straight to the front desk to hand the lady behind the desk his books. The library was quiet, and almost empty, only a few older ladies sitting at a table on the other side of the room were there.

Hideyoshi went straight to the medical books and began scanning for one that he hadn't already read. He picked up one about poisons and remedies before heading to a table in the back that was unoccupied. The book was green and rather boring looking, and it wasn't very big but he was getting hungry and didn’t feel like reading a larger one so he wouldn’t be there all day.

He reaching into his bag and pulled out a notepad and pen that he used to keep facts in. Hideyoshi opened the book and began reading; writing down notes that he deemed extra important as he read. Hideyoshi finished reading and put the book back where he got it. Then grabbed his bad and headed toward the door.

"not taking any books today young lady?" the older woman behind the desk asked.

"uh, nah…maybe next time." Hideyoshi replied. He had told the woman several times that he was a guy but to no avail, by now it was easier to just go along with her.

Hideyoshi walked out the door and down the steps back into the crowded street. He started walking down the road back towards his house; but slowly taking his time knowing all to well that his fathers company was most likely still there.

Hideyoshi stopped in his tracks hearing a commotion down an alley. He picked up his pace and started towards the sound. Hideyoshi froze immediately at what he saw. A young blonde boy probably around his age, was beating a cat. The small fail body laid limply on the cold alley floor, desperate to keep whatever it had. The little creature was pathetically trying to crawl away from the boy when he kicked it into the brick wall.

Hideyoshi instantly became enraged "Hey! Whats going on?" Hideyoshi yelled from the other end of the alley.

The boy turned to face him smugly "Just showing this flee bitten pest it chose the wrong lunch."

Hideyoshi glared at the boy and then looked to the poor cat; which was obviously in pain. "dude…its just a little cat…." Hideyoshi was burning with anger but knew that, well….he wasn't a great fighter and positively didn’t want to get his ass handed to him today, but he had to do something. His brain was swarmed with possible outcomes to any plan of action in seconds as he tried to put together a plan of action before anything else happened.

Then Hideyoshi heard "Tch, tough luck. It still stole my lunch and now I'm going to put it out of it's misery." and looked up from the cat just in time to see the boy pulling his leg back to kick the small animal again. Without a second thought Hideyoshi ran, as fast as he could to the cat and took the kick. The boys foot landed right into Hideyoshi's side knocking the wind out of him. However Hideyoshi didn’t stop, he grabbed the cat and bolted out of the alley.

Grabbing his side in pain Hideyoshi ran until he was sure the boy wasn’t fallowing him. He practically collapsed to his knees and hugged the cat. "don’t worry little girl, I wouldn’t let him get you!" Hideyoshi stroked the small fluffy head which rewarded him with a sweet but pitiful purr.

Hideyoshi looked the cat over, she was light gray and stripped; a plain old tabby cat. She was thin and from the looks of it she just had a litter the way her stomach hung down. She released whatever she had taken, it looked like a simple piece of fat really, and began to crew on it desperately trying to fill her starving tummy.

The chunk of lard was gone in a mere moment and the cat began hobbling away. Unable to just leave the thing alone Hideyoshi followed it. The cat walked slowly into the woods, just a short distance and lead Hideyoshi to its litter, three small little balls of fur were laying under a bush, hidden from sight.

Hideyoshi sat down on the ground next to the bush and petted the momma cat carefully. It still looked in pain and was still clearly hungry; but was trying to feed her kittens with what energy she had. Hideyoshi got up quietly, as if to not disturb her and walked to the nearest shop.

Hideyoshi opened the door, the store was a small little bakery and everything smelled sweet and light. "welcome Miss, can I help you with anything?" a small young girl from behind the counter asked, she was just barely tall enough to see over the counter, only about 6 or some most likely.

Unable to get mad at such a small little kid Hideyoshi smiled to her even though his pride was once again wounded. "nah, just looking for a small simple snack." Hideyoshi proceded to look around, then picked a sandwich. "I don’t suppose this is tuna is it?" Hideoyshi asked the little girl.

"yes it is Miss, I helped my mommy make them this morning!" the little girl seemed so excited that she was able to help.

"well ill take this then sweetie, it looks delicious!" Hideyoshi smiled at her sweetly, "and I'm a boy sweetheart, even though I know I look kinda girly…" he continued.

"OH! I am so sorry sir! I didn't- I didn’t mean to-" she started before Hideyoshi cut her off. "it's alright, just don’t forget me next time alright." Hideyoshi smiled and placed the money for the sandwich on the counter before walking out.

"thank you sir! Please come again!" the little girl called as he was leaving.

Hideyoshi hurried back to the bush that hid the kittens and their momma, luckily it only took a minute to get back there.

He sat down calmly and reached out to pet the mother again, she stretched up her head to increase the petting and purred into his hand; the cat was so sweet and gentle. "I got you a little something kitty." Hideyoshi said while ripping off a small bit of the tuna. The little cat instantly got up and was at his side, begging for more food as if it was the greatest thing in the world. Hideyoshi fed her small bites one after another till the snack was gone. The Kittens were all up and wobbling around now, meowing small like sounds calling for attention. There was a white one and two gray tabby ones that looked like their mother. They all had the long fluffy hair the mother had and their eyes were all a soft blue.

Hideyoshi laid there in the tall grass playing with the babies while the mom slept, taking a well deserved rest for awhile.

By now it was afternoon, the sun had officially began to set although it was still fairly light out. As Hideyoshi stood up the small white kitten clung to his pants and meowed as it tried to clime his leg like a tree. "Oh my goodness, you are just the cutest little thing ever!" Hideyoshi squealed picking up the kitten. For not being somebody's pet they were oddly friendly.

The mother cat had woken up and was licking her other two babies clean and loving on them when Hideyoshi stood up and help the third baby. The mom got up and meowed at his feet as well practically begging him for more attention.

Hideyoshi looked down at her, the frail body was still thin, and fragile. "how would you like to come home with me momma cat?" Hideyoshi asked while sitting back down and pulling his bag over to him. He set the white kitten down and picked up the mom and gave her a few pats before opening up his bag and laying her inside, followed by her kittens. They all fit, sort of; four little heads stuck out so the bag wasn’t about to be closed but as long as they weren't in danger of falling out Hideyoshi assumed it would be okay.

Hideyoshi stood up once again and picked up his bag, instead of throwing it over his shoulder like usual he help it like a child, cradling the fur babies to protect them. He walked home slowly, going down back roads to avoid the crowed; he didn’t want to bump into anyone carrying such little guys.

As his house came into sight he passed the Lady Akane leaving, "thank god." Hideyoshi thought to himself, if he had to wait longer he wasn’t sure what he would do with his new pets.

Hideyoshi opened the door carefully and walked straight to the living room where he sat down his bag on the wooden floor. "hey uhh….we got a cat dad." Hideyoshi yelled to his father, not knowing what room his dad was even in.

"what the hell do you mean we got a cat?" Shoji walked into the living room and looked down to see the momma cat and the kittens crawling out of his sons bag and onto the floor. "looks like four cats if you ask me." Shoji crossed his arms and looked down at his son "how many times have I told you not to pick up every damn stray that you pass Yoshi." Hideyoshi looked down, many times in the past he has brought back hurt animals to take care of and his father was never to happy about it. "some asshole was kicking her….. I couldn’t…just leave her." Hideoyshi looked up hoping that his father wouldn’t throw them out. However what he saw when he looked up was Shoji holding the two tabby kittens, one in each arm laughing. "well at least these ones are pretty cute! I bet the chicks will love the fact that I'm such a caring guy I bring home little animals!" Shoji laughed out. "yea dad, you have such a kind heart for picking them up." Hideoyshi stuck out his tongue at his father taking credit for his act, but he didn’t really care since that meant they could stay.

"what are their names kid?" Shoji sat down on the floor and gave the mom a few pats.

"hmm, I dunno. I haven't thought that far ahead I guess. What should we call them?" Hideyoshi picked up the small white kitten again and laid it on his lap. "first off I don’t even know their sexes. The mom is obviously a girl and I'm pretty sure this white one is a girl too, but I haven't checked the other two." Shoji lifted them up together and checked "looks like two boys over here!"

"Alright, I guess we should start with the mom, what do you thi-" Hideyoshi started but was intrupted.

"Sutorei!" Shoji laughed out hysterically. "its perfect!"

"dad, that really isn't funny" Hideyoshi looked down at the momma cat that sat next to him, the name while it was slightly in bad taste didn’t sound all that bad. "Sutorei huh, what do ya think momma?" Hideoyshi asked, but the cat simply meowed in response. "Sutorei it is then….I cant believe we literally just named her stray….whatever I guess." Hideyoshi picked up the white kitten from his lap and held her up to look at her.

"you’re a real cutie so you need a super cute name….Kirei." Hideyoshi kissed her nose, and she licked him in return " yep, Kirei is prefect!"

"Kyo and Ryo" Shoji cut in. "that’s their names!" he continued while putting them down to play.

"uh okay, but which one is which?" Hideyoshi looked at them, there were almost identical but one had a small white patch of fur on his head while the other didn’t. "the one with the spot is Kyo" Shoji continued.

"Alright, we I need to take care of something real fast; can you watch them for just a moment?" Hideyoshi stood up kind of strained, the pain in his side becoming more apparent now that he wasn’t focused on just the cats.

"sure, do you need help with anything Yoshi?" Shoji asked his son, but he was already up the stairs.

Hideoyshi went to the bathroom and removed his shirt, his side was scraped and little droplets of blood had clotted where his skin had ripped from the kick. Other than that and a little bruising it wasn’t bad. Hideyoshi washed away the dried blood and held a warm washcloth to the area until he was sure it wouldn't keep bleeding.

Still holding the cloth Hideyoshi went to his room and then to his desk. Hideyoshi pulled out some homemade antibacterial salve and began layering it on his side. It was cool and sticky, but unlike most it didn’t burn at all when applied to an open sore. After it was covered Hideyoshi placed a gauze over it and wrapped it around his torso to keep it in place.

"it should heal in a day or two" Hideyoshi thought to himself. "I'll make that little bitch pay for this someday!"

Once he was taken care of Hideyoshi pulled out one of his biology books and started looking for things to give to an animal in malnutrition and how to take care of it in general.

After Hideyoshi felt comfortable that he could actually take care of them he went back down stairs.

"Yoshi! What happened to your side?" Shijo jumped up and looked at his sons bandaged side. For as lenient as Shoji was he didn’t like the idea of his boy getting hurt.

"oh, its nothing dad, just a scratch; it looks worse than it is" Hideoyshi reassured him and smiled. "it doesn't even hurt!"

Hideyoshi went straight to the momma cat and picked her up carefully. "I'm gonna check her out first, she took a few nasty hits from that jerk in the alley."

He carried Sutorei up to his room and placed her on the bed. He went back to his book to make sure he used the right things, then rummaged through his bottles of herbs until he had everything he needed. Thankfully the list was fairly simple and he already had everything since he had been gathering herbs in bottles for a long time now. Even while on the road in the past Hideyoshi had to take care of his rather clumsy father so he got good at making home remedies for bumps and bruises.

He mixed them together and added some hot water to make it into a liquid. While that seeped Hideyoshi began examining Sutorei, she would wine whenever Hideyoshi touched her side but that was about it. "most likely a broken rib, not really much I can do about that." Hideyoshi though to himself.

Hideyoshi pet the cat while the herbal concoction soaked a little longer. "I'm sorry Sutorei…if I had got there sooner, you wouldn’t be in pain at all." he said apologizing to the cat, honestly upset that he had failed to protect such a small animal.

Sutorei just continued to purr softly though, not seeming to mind her pain at all; simply happy that she was getting loved on.

After a few minutes the medicine was ready, it smelt good and was a light green color, it looked almost like tea. Hideyoshi went back to the washroom and grabbed a small cloth and soaked it in the liquid. Once he had rang it out enough that it wouldn’t drip but was still wet enough to damp Sutorei's side Hideyoshi laid it on her. She wasn't thrilled about getting wet but after a little coaxing she laid still again on his lap and allowed him to drench her hurting side with the medicine. The concoction wasn’t anything to advanced, just a small remedy for relieving pain and reducing swelling.

Hideyoshi smiled down at the momma cat that seemed to be feeling  little better after a few minutes. Hideyoshi touched her side again to see if she still winced at the pain, while she didn’t particularly like it she didn’t cry out like before so he felt pretty good about letting her get back to her babies down stairs with his father.

Hideyoshi cradled Sutorei as he carried back down stairs and into the living room where his dad was now tying a blue ribbon around Kyo's little neck. Ryo already was running around sporting his own green ribbon and Kirei was sitting on the ground looking annoyed at her own pink ribbon tried in a cute little bow. As Hideyoshi walked in his father handed him a purple ribbon "this one is for her." he said while standing up now that he was finished with Kyo's ribbon.

"uhh thanks dad, but I kinda doubt they will stay on them that long" Hideyoshi said while looking at the kittens fighting with their bows in efforts to remove them.

"its just until we get them real collars, don’t want our neighbors thinking they are just some starys and shoo them away." Shoji replied looking as if his idea was ingenious. Hideyoshi had to admit was a good point, he would have to get them collars soon.

Hideyoshi placed the momma cat down and tied the purple ribbon around her neck, leaving a small cute bow behind her head. "There ya go Suturei, officially a part of the Hitachiin family!" Hideyoshi smiled and loved on her some more.

They stayed in the living room until late playing with their new pets until it was dark out and the little ones began slowing down. Ryo was the first to give up on playing as he laid down next to his mother and relaxed.

"Alright kid, your old man is pretty tired too, tomorrow I will give you some cash and you can get them everything they need." Shoji stood up stretching as he yawned "good night Yoshi." he continued as he headed towards his door and disappeared behind it.

Hideyoshi yawned too and looked down happily "we should probably go to bed to guys." Hideyoshi stood up to go to bed, and the mother followed him, not leaving his side. Which in turn led the other three kittens to follow their mother, creating an adorable kitty parade up towards Hideyoshi's bedroom.

Once in the bedroom Hideyoshi picked up his new pets one by one placing them on his bed before climbing in as well. He situated himself comfortably and the kittens littered themselves around him; quickly falling asleep after their long day. Hideyoshi turned slightly, just enough to reach his lamp without disturbing the cats and turned off the light before closing his eyes and falling asleep as well.

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