Chapter One

The birds sailed lazily above Haru's head as she headed for the hospital. She had started volunteering there after the Cat Kingdom incident a few months before. The dark brunette had decided to keep her hair short, so that she wouldn't be tempted to hide behind her locks again. Her personal life had picked up as well; Machida had started asking her out, but Haru always turned him down. Hiromi had given her a lot of static about it. The two were walking towards the hospital after school.

"Come on, Haru. Machida's practically at your feet." The brunette shrugged.

"So what? I already told you, it doesn't matter anymore."

"You're crushing on someone else, aren't you?" Haru's back went ramrod straight.

"What would give you that idea?" Hiromi rolled her eyes, since it was plainly obvious.

"Oh, I don't know. How about the fact that you were crushing on Machida for almost two years, and before you even know that he's dumped his girlfriend, you suddenly don't care? Plus there are other things about you that have been changing."

"I'm well aware that I haven't been late to class in forever."

"Not just that, it's everything else! I already know his first initial is 'B'." Haru wheeled around fast.

"How did you know?"

"When you were crushing on Machida, you scribbled his name all over your notebooks. When you changed them out, you started writing 'B' in calligraphy all over the new ones." Haru smiled softly as her eyes faded once more.

"Then I stand guilty as charged."

"And what about your tendency of getting involved with other people's problems?"

"I did that before, Hiromi."

"But never to this extreme! What is the point of teaching a kid how to skate or baking birthday cupcakes for a little girl who had a sick mom if all you get is the occasional warm fuzzies? And what about this volunteer work obsession?"

"You know, if more people were willing to do those kinds of things, the world would be much better off."

"You can't change the world, Haru."

"No, but I can try to make it a better place, just like you can. Here's my stop, good luck with your lacrosse match."

"You still haven't told me the guy's name."

"Maybe later, bye!"

Haru felt like a coward for dodging out of a question like that. But what was she supposed to do? Tell her best friend that she got kidnapped and almost married to a cat after she became one, and the only reason she's still alive and human is because a cat doll, piggy cat, and a stone crow came to her rescue? Or that she fell in love with the cat doll?

Baron…Haru thought as she changed into her volunteer uniform and washed up. You would have thought that I'd have stopped thinking about you by now, at least romantically. Every time she tried to distance herself from his memories, her mind would wander back to that amazing waltz that she occasionally hummed, or to how his arms felt when he carried her up the side of the cat tower. Not to mention how her heart leapt into her throat when she first saw him in the window. Haru knew she should give Machida a chance, since there was no way in heck that a relationship like the one she was thinking about could ever work between a figurine and a human.

Even a human that cats found more attractive than other humans. Oh, well.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Baron was enjoying a cup of tea while he reviewed his paperwork. There has been considerably less of it with each passing year, as more and more people turned to other sources or themselves in order to solve their problems. In fact, he hadn't had a client since Haru Yoshioka, and hadn't had one in the five years preceding her arrival at the Bureau.

Haru…Baron couldn't help but be pleased that he had managed to help her with more than her unwanted marriage proposal. He occasionally sent Toto or Muta to check in on her, but they needed to keep their distance so that she could return to the ordinary life that she had fought so hard to keep. He knew that she had started helping others with their problems more actively than before. Baron placed his quill back into the inkwell and closed his eyes. He would have seen Haru himself by now, but then her words would float back to him.

"Baron, just for the record, I think I may have a little crush on you." He wasn't all that surprised, considering how she had blushed or had turned more cat-like each time he had held her close. He hadn't done that with his other clients. Of course, none of his other clients made him want to, since they were usually cats that wanted help finding a gift for a mother or boyfriend, or had just needed someone to listen to their problems.

Perhaps that is why he couldn't stop thinking of Haru. In many ways, she was a scared little girl when they had first met, so scared of causing someone else problems that she had tried to leave twice before she fully accepted his help. Baron grinned widely when he remembered the way her face had lit up after recognizing Yuki and her admittance that maybe she had done the right thing after all. He was even more entertained at remembering the way Haru had defended herself from the Cat King. The look in her eyes was enough to silence his fears about her confidence. Any one that can tell off a king of any sort could handle whatever life threw at her.

"Also for the record, I admire a young woman that speaks from the heart."

Okay, maybe it wasn't the best thing to say to a girl who admits her feelings like that, but what was he supposed to do? He was promised to another, and he didn't want to tell Haru that instead of admiring her honesty. Why did he feel hesitant about telling the human girl about his fiancé? He had hadn't seen her in years, and had been keeping himself busy with Bureau business. Baron conjured up her image in his mind; an elegant white cat figurine, built much like himself, and wearing a lavender summer dress, holding a frilly white parasol over one shoulder as she smiled warmly at him. Then, for some reason, she shifted into Haru, who was smiling at him the exact same way. He groaned and put his head between his hands. He tried to forget how his heart reacted when he first saw the human girl through the window.

"All right, Baron?" Toto had just flown in from the balcony window to stare at Baron. "You getting a headache?" The cat doll shook his head in an attempt to clear it.

"Possibly. How's Haru?"

"Doing well, but I just caught a bit of interesting information." The orange cat raised his head.

"Oh?"

"Turns out that there's a young man who's pursuing Haru relentlessly." Baron stood from his chair quickly, his green eyes aflame.

"Indeed?" His tone sounded more like a statement.

"Yes, but Haru's been discouraging him. He doesn't appear to be listening though."

"I see." Baron sat back down, wondering what was wrong with him. It's good that Haru is attracting men of her own species, but why had he reacted like it was a bad thing? Why had he been so relieved that Haru wasn't interested in other men?

"…I may have a little crush on you." Could that have been why she was turning the young man down? She couldn't be waiting for Baron; they weren't even the same species. Truth be told, even if they hadn't gotten out of the portal in time and she was stuck as a cat forever, they still wouldn't have been able to have a relationship. He was wood, and therefore never aged, but Haru would. How would things be when she's old, and he still looks young?

Why am I pursuing this line of thought so thoroughly? I am promised to another. But he had felt her death some twenty years before, and so would be unlikely to raise objections. Our maker created us to be together, to never be whole apart. I was lucky that I received a whole soul eventually, but it still has ties to my fiancée. Toto tried to talk to him.

"Why don't you go see her, if you're so concerned?"

"…crush on you." That would have only complicated matters further. Baron sighed.

"Perhaps another time."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

In another part of Tokyo, two men barricaded themselves in an old hotel room, so as not to be disturbed.

"This had better not be another dead end, Toroth."

"Of course it isn't. The tremors were coming from this island country, so logically; it is the best place to perform the spell." The other man sneered.

"Of course, you couldn't be saying that because your kid happens to live here," the first man continued, drawing the last lines of a complex circular design in chalk on the wooden floor.

"Like you have room to talk, with that pretty wife. There will be plenty of time for a family reunion later. Right now destiny is calling our names." The two men stood at opposite ends of the circle and started chanting.