Taking another sip of his tea, Doctor Gareth sat back and looked up at the ceiling. "Reviving creatures from the prehistoric times for everyone to see has always been my dream. It's a shame things turned out this way."
"Don't think too much about it sir. You tried your best to make it a reality and that's all that matters." Douma replied, both Shinobu and Yushiro agreed with him.
He mustn't forget that Ruby is still someone important to him if Doctor Gareth continues dwelling about these problems it's not going to get him out of this mess. No matter how furious everybody was with Doctor Gareth he was still willing to put an end to this, he just didn't know how to completely detach himself from it. Douma hoped the man could overcome this for the sake of his family.
Ruby walked over to Doctor Gareth with a smile that he hadn't seen in years.
"He's right. I'm glad you're no longer stressing yourself out whenever we talk about your work dad. Even though things didn't turn out great after a while you still appreciate your hard work so please don't be too hard on yourself."
Doctor Gareth got up from his seat and looked at everyone in the living room. A smile formed on his face which made Ruby proud of herself; she managed to get him out of that continuous state of despair.
"Thank you all of you for your understanding. Perhaps this is a better way for me to move on and do justice for my family who had nothing to do with these unfortunate events. I hope you will all forgive me, from here on I shall await what the future holds."
~~~
Ruby waved at her new friends. "Thanks for everything guys! Do stop by the next time you're here!" She told them.
"Oh definitely!" Yushiro replied.
Douma and Shinobu saw Doctor Gareth's expression turn into a bright and hopeful one. The last bit of sorrow he was holding onto disappeared. A good sign that things were about to change for the better.
After about an hour of walking they finally got to the port beside one of the parks. Douma saw the familiar fountain that he and the others passed by several times during their trip.
While Douma and Shinobu were discussing about their departure from Kyoto, Yushiro glanced at the direction leading to the park and saw the bushes surrounding the area rustling vigorously.
"That's strange." Out of curiosity, Yushiro ran towards the bushes to get a better look at what was causing the bizarre movements.
The further he ran, Yushiro realized he was wandering away from his two friends but it wasn't that much of a problem, he had time to return before they even noticed his disappearance.
For a split second, Yushiro saw a large bushy tail emerge from the bushes before disappearing beneath them again in shock. Yushiro knew that whatever was hiding in the bushes knew about his presence, and it definitely wasn't human.
The minute Yushiro got closer, a large towering figure emerged from the bushes and spun around in shock from the intrusion.
That is one big cat... Stepping away, Yushiro looked up to see a large calico cat staring at him with amber eyes. This was odd and terrifying at the same time. Yushiro wasn't here to become the cat's meal, perhaps he shouldn't have let his curiosity get the better of him.
"What is this human doing here? You sure are sneaky!"
Yushiro gasped in shock. "It talks... You can talk?"
"Of course I can! Hi how are ya! Nice to meet ya, not." The cat sat down and crossed his arms, giving Yushiro a glare.
The boy didn't understand how this large cat could sit around at a place like this in a relaxed manner, let alone go from one place to another without getting caught. This feline was sharp but he should know it was risky for him to be roaming around like this.
"This has to be a prank of some sort, and whoever is behind it sure is a professional!" Yushiro snapped, as much as he didn't want to believe it, this giant cat seemed very real and there was nobody else around except him.
"Oh yeah?! Tell you what, before I claw your ears off I suggest you leave me alone and forget this happened! Causing trouble is the last thing on my list and I don't want you ruining anything so scram!"
Yushiro wanted to leave this spot but at the same time he wondered why this cat was here all alone and he wasn't a normal cat. There were so many questions he wanted answered and this cat didn't seem that bad he was just fierce for whatever reason. Not surprising since he had the instincts of a hunter but maybe there was something else that Yushiro might have stumbled upon which was important? None of this made any sense but Yushiro was sure he couldn't let this off that easily.
"Look if you're trying so hard to put up this brave and mighty impression why are you hiding?" Yushiro retorted which made the feline furious.
"Do you think I wanna get caught?!" The feline challenged back.
"Then cut the act! You're lucky I haven't told anyone about you being here."
"Oh yeah you're right."
Both of them fell silent. The large calico feline sighed and looked at Yushiro who was also facing him.
"Hey human what's your name?"
"Yushiro, what's yours?"
"Chachamaru. I was actually an ordinary cat but due to unfortunate circumstances I became this large menacing beast."
Yushiro winced after hearing what Chachamaru just told him. The feline sounded upset, whatever happened must have been really awful from the sound of it.
"What happened to you?"
The feline stared at the grass beneath him. "Well it all happened twenty years ago on that dreadful day. I was wandering down the streets, a usual routine of mine. Us strays would just take a stroll. Sometimes I'd pass by the neighborhood and stores."
"There was this suspicious truck parked by the walkway and then this man who was arranging the load of the truck approached me and started bickering about me being there. It started off friendly and then that's when he took me away."
Hearing Chachamaru mention the "suspicious truck" reminded Yushiro of something disturbingly familiar. Could it be that organization? He wondered.
"I was raised at that organization for a few months it was a horrifying experience honestly. Everything seemed normal for a feline like myself until the unfortunate happened."
Yushiro paid close attention to what Chachamaru was about to say next.
"There was one time they left a tray of food in one of cages. I was hungry so I went into that cage and took a bite out of that food, didn't I know that it was a part of an experiment they were conducting." Chachamaru continued on.
"That's when I felt these waves of changes surge through my body in a span of a few minutes as I went from a twenty-three-year-old to a literal two-year-old. It makes sense since that's how you'd convert the ages but I never knew it'd bite me back."
"Since then, I spent decades of my life in a cage. I was deemed a monster, that meal was supposed to be for the other animal behind the bars. Sometimes they'd put me up against other creatures under their captivity and make us fight to the death. No doubt I was a brilliant fighter but it was a continuous cycle of bloodshed where your life was always on the line." The feline glanced at Yushiro who now had a look of pity for him.
"That's awful. Nobody should ever go through something like that." Yushiro replied sadly.
"I would never hurt anyone, that would only prove to them that I am indeed the monster they want others to believe."
Chachamaru realized there was something else important that he forgot to mention.
"Wait how did you end up here?" Yushiro's question was exactly what the feline was going to touch on.
"Actually, I got out of there." That's when Yushiro noticed the red bandana on the feline's neck, now it made sense as to why it was there.
Even though Yushiro felt better knowing that Chachamaru didn't have to suffer anymore, he couldn't help but wonder where he was going to go from here. A large cat roaming around was out of the ordinary. He was starting to get a little worried about Chachamaru's wellbeing.
"Hey Chachamaru, what's your plan after this? Do you have somewhere to go?"
"That's something I've been thinking about for a while-"
The feline was interrupted by a small rock thrown at him.
A group of children were snickering at both Yushiro and Chachamaru, especially at the feline who was the target of their game. The large cat hissed at them in fury, Yushiro grit his teeth he couldn't stand them, this was downright cruel. Chachamaru did nothing to them.
They continued throwing rocks at the feline giggling and keeping up with their actions nonstop. Yushiro shouted at them a few times to stop but they didn't listen. He continued holding onto Chachamaru who was growling and hissing at them. Yushiro didn't want Chachamaru to go out of control just because of a few pipsqueaks, he was a kind cat.
"Chachamaru don't! It's not worth please, you'll get into trouble!" Yushiro cried.
Apparently, Chachamaru had no plans of pouncing on them, he was trying to protect Yushiro. Since he was the bigger and tougher one in this situation, he might as well use that for good.
"Please snap out of it!"
One of the children began running towards them raising his badminton racket. Both Yushiro and Chachamaru braced themselves for the worst, they were surrounded with nowhere else to go.
Before the racket could even land a hit, something sturdier got in between them, stopping the boy with the racket in his tracks.
"Douma!" Yushiro was glad to see the blonde with his fan preventing the racket from hurting both he and Chachamaru in this spot.