It was a nuisance that Oshiki was being pegged for a mission like this, and he definitely was a little bit annoyed by it. It was nice to know that his love for animals was becoming more well known, because that might mean that people would stop looking at him like he was going to rip out their inner organs when he came over to pet their dog, but it was also getting him annoying things like this. Whoever gave him the mission clearly knew that he loved animals, but they either didn't know how he felt about cats, or they knew and they were doing this to fulfill some unknown need for vengeance. Shiki hated cats, they were selfish and cruel and kept fucking scratching him every time that he tried to pick them up. It wasn't that he had started hating them unreasonably, they had started hating him first and it was only natural that someone who was hated would hate back. That was the way of the world, and it was something that the kages had yet to notice; If you want people not to hate you, you have to first not hate them, secondly make sure they're okay and thirdly establish a friendship with them. Unlike cats, people could be worked with, they had a mind and soul and for the most part they were reasonable. Although, having said that, he knew a lot of people in the human race that he wouldn't call either reasonable or intelligent, but maybe that was just his dark side talking again. It needed to learn to shut up.

So, he had until midnight to find five cats. What he was going to do with each of them until then he had no idea, but he was sure he'd be able to think of something. It was, ironically enough, exactly when he was thinking about this that he found the first cat. Or rather, heard the first cat. Looking up from the ground, he noticed where the cat had got itself in it's annoying stupidity - stuck up on a high branch of a tree. If a child fell from there, they might not expect anything worse than a cut knee or something similar, but something like a cat... well, they would actually get injured. He wasn't allowed to injure them as much as they might annoy him, and he wouldn't have taken any pleasure in it anyway so he was going to have to get it down sensibly. Easier said than done, as a strong breeze suddenly blew through the area and knocked it out of it's perch. It was only the intervention of Shiki catching the little bugger that stopped it from hurting itself. Stupid cats, he thought as he turned back to the owner's house. Always getting in danger.

The next cat was also easy to find, and was even quicker. He found it as he turned the corner from the woman's house, the cat was being chased down the street by a doberman. He could instantly tell what breed the dog was simply by looking at it... well, he would like to say that, but this was one he'd actually played with before. Giving a sharp whistle, he called it over.
"Rover, bring the kitty!" he didn't know why the dog was trained to herd cats, maybe it was just a strange hobby of the owner, but nevertheless the cat was herded towards him, when he picked it up and took it back to the lady. This was a pretty damned easy mission so far.

Finally, he found the final three in a cove of the same tree that the cat had fallen from. The tree, it turned out, was hollow and was where they were keeping calm. So, the cat in the branch of the tree was there as, what, a guard? A scout? Whatever the reason was, he now had the five cats and all he had to do was take it back to the crazy cat lady and he'd get his money. Easiest 60 ryo earned yet.

684/600