Ch. 246: The Catnip Kicks In

"Cough! Cough, cough..."

The fit doubled Lily over completely.

Damn, her lungs can't handle this!

Mo Fei hurriedly pulled Lily outside and shouted back into the house, "Toby, open all the doors and windows!"

Toby's flustered reply came from inside, followed by the sound of windows being shoved open.

The cold wind swept past, but Lily kept coughing, her face paler than usual. Mo Fei stood beside her, his hand rising and falling again.

"Sorry, sorry. Are you okay?"

Lily waved a hand. Once the coughing eased, she held out the small cloth pouch she'd been clutching the whole time.

"Herb pouch."

Mo Fei took it, watching her shoulders still heaving.

"You choked that badly and still remembered this."

Lily gave him a look. "Try it."

With that, she went back to her shop next door.

Smelling the acrid stench still seeping from the doors and windows, Mo Fei figured it wasn't going to clear anytime soon.

He simply went back inside and grabbed a few doses of rat poison, meaning to hand them to the Brotherhood for a trial, and shoved the catnip into his pocket while he was at it.

---

In the shed, Barney was counting crates.

"Something up?"

Mo Fei set the rat poison on a crate lid. "Rat poison, made specifically for rat-hound monsters. Try it out."

Barney glanced at it. "How much?"

"It's a trial batch. No charge."

"Fine." Barney pushed the poison aside and made a mark on his manifest. "More of the guys came down sick. The ones wearing masks are all fine, though."

Good. The masks didn't go to waste.

"One more thing." Barney's pen stopped. "The guys we sent to patrol that alley say there've been a few unfamiliar faces around there lately, catching strays."

Mo Fei frowned, but then remembered that all four kittens wore ribbons around their necks.

"Those must be Chimimi's people. I talked with their volunteers. If there's a ribbon, they won't take it."

Even as he said so, his steps quickened on the way out.

When he reached the alley, the kittens burst out from behind the crate at the sound of his footsteps, ribbons swaying at their necks.
The black cat lay sprawled on top of the crate as usual. It lifted its eyes, saw who it was, and laid its head back down on its front paws.

Mo Fei crouched down, crumbled the catnip in his palm, and scattered it on the ground.

The kittens crowded in to sniff at it. The little orange one was the first to flop onto the shreds and start rolling, and the others piled in after it, rubbing against one another in a heap.

A soft thump came from the crate. The black cat had jumped down.

It squeezed in among the kittens and buried its face in the shreds, rubbing it again and again. Then it flipped over completely, all four paws in the air, and writhed on the ground. After that it slammed headfirst into Mo Fei's hand, hugged his wrist, and purred without stopping.

Mo Fei froze, not daring to move a finger.

Is this really that aloof guardian cat? Jimmy said a cat gets its soul hooked the moment it catches a whiff. Turns out he wasn't exaggerating.

He tried stroking its head. Instead of pulling away, the black cat pushed its head up into his palm.

Mo Fei held back a laugh and simply sat down beside the crate, letting it rub against him for a good while.

Just then Magda walked up to the mouth of the alley with a cloth sack in hand. Seeing him sitting there, she stopped.

"Well, well, if it isn't young Mo Fei. Back to see them again?" She grinned and nodded at the kittens. "These ones have gotten awfully friendly lately. Anyone passes by and calls, and out they come. The other day one even followed someone all the way to the mouth of the alley."

Mo Fei was stunned.

They used to hide behind the crate the moment they heard footsteps. Now they're not afraid of strangers anymore...

He looked down. The little orange kitten had climbed onto his lap at some point, and was lying on his knee, kneading away with its front paws, left, right, left, right.

I figured leaving them here would be fine... but like this, I should just take them back to the workshop.

Just as he was about to scoop up the little orange one, he thought of the choking smoke still lingering in the workshop.

"Once the Adamantine is done, I'll take you all back to the workshop."

...

Not long after leaving the alley, a familiar scrap of cloth in the roadside dust made Mo Fei stop. He picked it up. It was a ribbon.

This looks like the ones the little guys were wearing... Why would it be lying here?

He glanced back at the alley.

---

By the time he got back to the workshop, most of the smoke had cleared, leaving only a faint acrid smell.

Mo Fei tossed the herb pouch Lily had given him into the pot of stewing meat. After simmering for a while, the aroma smothered the acrid smell.

"Not bad. There's actually something to this."

He ladled out two bowls, pushing one over to Toby and carrying the other next door.

"Sorry for choking you this morning. Here's my apology."

Lily took the bowl and sipped.

"Good," she said, cradling the bowl, the corners of her mouth curving up.

In the afternoon, Mo Fei carried the shallow basin holding the Adamantine into the side storage room.

He fired a small bowl from white clay, with tiny holes left in the bottom, set it over the mouth of the basin, and poured in the Aqua Fortis.

The Aqua Fortis fell through the holes into the basin one drop at a time, and each drop sent up a thin wisp of smoke.

"Makeshift IV drip, done."

He stood on tiptoe, pushed open the small vent window in the wall, and watched the wisps drift out one after another, nodding in satisfaction.

"Just let it wash slowly like this. Should be ready by tomorrow."

As he pulled the door shut behind him, Mira arrived at the workshop.

"Mr. Mo Fei, good afternoon." She sniffed, looking toward the storage room. "W-what's that smell?"

Toby spoke up first. "Mr. Mo Fei's refining Adamantine with Aqua Fortis. This morning the whole place filled with smoke. I choked so hard my eyes watered. He's moved it to the storage room now."

Mira nodded and sat down at a corner of the workbench to keep researching the new printer.

By evening, a stack of scrap paper had piled up in front of her. Every sheet was either entirely gray or showed nothing at all.

"The flowing light covers the whole sheet at once... How do I make it shine only where it should..."

Even as she left, she kept staring at the stack, muttering under her breath.

---

At night, moonlight spilled into the house.

A scratching sound came from the door.

Mo Fei pulled it open. A black cat was crouching on the threshold.

"What are you doing here?" Mo Fei blinked, then chuckled. "Don't tell me you haven't had enough of that stuff?"

The black cat ignored him and walked straight inside.

"Close the door."

A woman's voice suddenly spoke.

Mo Fei flinched. "Who's there?!"

The black cat rose to its feet, its form stretching out under the lamplight, its limbs unfolding.
In the blink of an eye, a woman stood in front of the workbench.
She took the chance to stretch lazily, her full-figured body on full display.

And she wasn't wearing a thing.

"W-wait a second! You're being way too honest!"

Mo Fei frantically turned his head away.

She glanced down at herself, as if only now noticing. With a flick of her fingertip, a wisp of black mist rose from her feet and wrapped around every spot that would get her reported if left uncovered.

"Oh my, oh my. Your reaction is adorable, cutie," she said. "I'm a witch. You must have come across my kind before."

Mo Fei was about to say something, but he stopped short.

That voice, that tone. He had heard it before. It was the voice that came out of the shadows after the rat-hound monster tumbled out of the alley that night.

"...It was you." He stared at her. "You're the one who blasted that huge rat-hound monster out of the alley last time?"

The woman only smiled.

Mo Fei hung his mouth open for a long while.

"Alchemist, I need a favor from you."