"I need to work today."
Those words made my heart skip, then sink, and flutter. Until my mind got clouded with doom and gloom.
"Will you be late?"
"It will be a night job."
I sighed. But worries remained.
Miho has stayed with me for a few days now. We never discussed how long she would stay at my place, or even why. It just worked out to be that way.
The girl who broke into my apartment made herself home. We went shopping for her clothes, but we didn't buy any pajamas for her to sleep in. It was like we still didn't consider it normal that she'd sleep over. But every night she was still at my house, sleeping on the couch.
Sometimes she'd bolt up from sleep, looking agitated. Shaky hands, eyes scanning the darkness for a danger that did not exist. I know. Because sometimes I half open my bedroom door to get a peek at her.
Then she'd spot me, and she calmed down. 'Oh, it's you.' She doesn't ask why I was looking at her, but instead, she goes back to sleep. Sound asleep. I then return to my bed.
But this was the first time Miho said she would be out working.
"Don't you need a new suit?"
"I'll get one from my place."
"Where do you live?"
"Can't tell you."
Unfair. I pouted.
I picked up the plates from the dinner table and brought them over to the sink. I didn't feel like doing the dishes now. Something was bothering me. And I think Miho sensed it.
"Don't worry. I will be back."
"What if you get hurt?"
"You have the first aid kit. I should be fine.", she smiled.
Then Miho took out a knife from under the pillow I gave her to sleep on the couch. I once heard that it wards you from evil spirits and nightmares. But I also read somewhere that in some folklore it helps you conceive. Something about cutting away the obstacles that prevent you from conceiving. It was probably the former for her for I couldn't imagine it being the latter.
Or maybe she had more practical reasons for it.
"Do you have some sharpening stones?"
"No."
"Right. I gotta get my gears prepared. I will leave now."
She stood up and headed toward the door.
"Hey.", I wanted her to stop.
"Yeah?"
"Why don't you bring your luggage over?"
Miho turned around and looked at me. Expressionless. She nodded her head without a word, turned again, and walked out the door.
Will I ever see my killer cat again?
I did the dishes and sat on the couch. I picked up Miho's pillow, buried my nose in it, and tried to smell it.
It smelt pretty bad. She didn't seem fond of taking shower.
Silly cat.
Then I noticed a note that was placed below the pillow.
"Thank you for everything."
I read those four words over and over.
She wasn't coming back.
I sat on the couch hugging my knees, my face buried deep.
I wanted her to come back.
I sat like that for an hour or so. Or maybe it was longer.
And then I heard my apartment door clack open.
"Hey."
It was Miho, and to my delight, she came in rolling in two big trunks. One black and one silver, both of them metallic.
"Don't ever touch the black one."
That's all she said.
Then she went to the bathroom. I could hear the shower run. Then the water stopped and she came out rubbing her hair dry with my towel.
"Phew. That felt good."
"Are you still going out tonight?"
"Yeah."
"Who will it be this time?"
"Don't ask me such things."
Miho then sat on the wooden floor of my living room and opened her black trunk. It was opened in a way that my view was blocked and I couldn't see what was inside. Probably tools - gears as she called them. Gears of death.
She took out two knives that were in sheaths. Those weren't sashimi knife-looking naked blades she'd used before. She unsheathed them and examined the blades. They had a beautiful dull glow.
"Seems good enough for today.", she spoke, but I didn't respond. I didn't know much about these things.
She then placed them on the coffee table between us. Unalarmed. Shouldn't she be more cautious? What if I took them and attacked her?
Pfft. As if I could.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing."
"Don't touch those. They are sharp."
"I'm not a child, you know."
"Those are sharp even for adults."
"Roger."
She then opened the silver trunk and took out a suit. Impeccably folded. She laid them on the table and started to get changed. Her skin was pale, almost as pale as her white underwear, like marbles.
Miho then put on her shirt, buttoned it, then put on her trousers. I stood and walked toward her, grabbing her black necktie off the table on my way. She stopped and looked at me. I lifted her collars and put the tie around her neck, like a noose. I did the tie for her and made a knot.
"Gees. Thank you."
I said nothing, turned back, and went back to my couch. I sat and watched her put on the black jacket. Her suit was so finely cut, looking comfortable yet perfectly following her silhouette. Now she looked like a black cat, a bad omen.
"Don't wait for me."
That's all she said before picking up the knives off the table and heading to the door.
I wondered who would be unlucky enough to be killed by Miho today. Or maybe he was a lucky one. I wondered how Miho feels when she plunges those knives into someone's body. A living, breathing body, and what she feels when she's looking into the eyes of the man that she's just stabbed as the life starts to get drained out of him.
I would probably never get to experience those feelings.
But if I ever get killed, it would be nice if it was by Miho.