The sound of the alarm clock beeping brought Iroha’s hand up to the clock to turn off the alarm before getting up so fast despite that Astral didn’t want to tell her that her clock was placed on the wrong time because of a stranger that had constantly entered her room every night.

He didn’t know what to tell her when she got dressed and he kept his mouth shut, plus, it was pretty early and Ui was sleeping at her friend’s house so that didn’t make Iroha worry as she ran the way to the school not even noticing how early she woke up because she was mainly focused on her bagel with strawberry cream cheese as she tried to dodge every trash bot that tried to grab her breakfast as she made her way to school as the janitor opened the gate.

“Thanks!” She said running inside the school which made the janitor scratch his head as to know why a young girl like herself would be here early and also the clothing was odd for her to wear.

When Iroha reached her classroom, she noticed how early she got to class and her outfit wasn’t her own and buried her face in her hands as she waited for the time to go by while Tori and Bronk explained why her clothing was different as she listed off her outfits:

Outfit 1 was a Halloween costume of the Cheshire Cat

Outfit 2 was the exact outfit from the upcoming movie Watashi wa Neko (with the mask)

Outfit 3 was a pink cafe maid outfit from Nekopara.

And now her current outfit was a black kimono with cat ears.

As Iroha listed off the outfits, she noticed a connection between the outfits and that they all relate to cats as Tori also began to explain expensive bentos she’s been receiving along with her swimsuit being shredded up in her locker and her missing bra ending up in a tree as Iroha noticed how long she was getting on clothes.

“If it keeps on going, I may run out of panties, bras and everything.” She mumbled into her hands as Tori handed her an extra uniform for her to change into as she changed out of the kimono before jumping when Astral was looking at her clothing curiously before feeling a chill behind him as he looked to see Iroha holding her book in one hand and the other covering her chest and she seemed to be angry as she brought the book down only for Astral to dodge it.

“I still don’t understand why the female species of your race seem to do that.” Astral said going through the door and Iroha came out wearing the uniform and placed the kimono in her bag as Tori and Iroha talked about shopping and Iroha wasn’t big on shopping when it came to clothes.

Iroha wasn’t a big spender like most girls but she did save money for food when she cooked or had leftovers so she wasn’t all crazy when it came to sales.

Iroha agreed to meet Tori at City Center at 3 o’clock sharp tomorrow since tomorrow was Saturday and Iroha didn’t have anything to do on a Saturday.

The next day, Iroha showed at City Center at 2:50 and waited for Tori with the extra 10 minutes to spare to check how much she had, which shop she knew and the time they would be back to see if the choice was right enough.

20 minutes went by and Iroha was pacing and getting worried for her friend as she found ways to distract herself by counting the windows, the many times the litterbots says ‘trash detected’ and made it into a math problem before she heard meowing behind her as she looked to see so many cats surrounding her as she fell on her back and the cats pounced on her tickling her with the soft fur and rough tongues.

She was laughing hard because of the tickling as kittens were swiping their paws at Astral who was trying to flee from them before noticing Iroha laughing as she held an armful of cats. “Are you afraid?” She asked as he shook his head no with a tsundere like pout as she held a small white kitten to him and he flinched by the sight of something...so...adorable…

“How can any human pass up something so adorable like this?!” He asked nuzzling his cheek against the kitten as it meowed at the affection given to it from the spirit which caused Iroha to giggle before the blue cat ran to her with a note as she unraveled it to read it out loud before gasping out loud when she showed Astral before the cat stole her ribbon as she chased after the cat that took her ribbon as it led her to a cat mansion where she looked around and saw paintings of cats as it made her dizzy by looking around before snapping out of it and realize what she was here for. 

“Tori! Tori! Are you here?” Iroha called out for her friend before another voice called out from the shadows as Iroha and Astral looked to see where the voice was coming from as Iroha saw a cat-like girl with grey hair and emerald green eyes wearing a blue cat mask. 

“I’ve been waiting for you, Iroha.” The girl said taking her mask off and placed her cat eye glasses on as Iroha tried to know who the girl was before the cat girl introduced herself to Iroha. “You may not know me, but I know you. I’m Cathy Katherine.” She said as Iroha gave her a blank look.

“I know her.” Astral whispered into her ear as she listened to what the spirit had to say as he told her what he knew about Cathy. “She attends your school, she is often alone and standing in the back.” Astral said as Iroha felt guilty about Cathy before mentally slapping herself and getting back on track. 

“Let’s get to the point, where’s Tori and what have you done with her?” Iroha asked as Cathy scowled at the mention of Tori before she snarled at the name which shocked both Astral and Iroha. “Tori, Tori,Tori! Is she all that you think about?!” Cathy asked angrily as Iroha gulped and answered.

“W-Well no, there’s my little sister Ui and um…” She thought as Cathy looked at her with a blank look as she cleared her throat and smiled.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll let Tori go if you can beat me in a duel.” Cathy purred as Iroha took a step confidentially and took out her new duel disk that was given to her by Shark who bought it for her after hearing that her duel disk caught fire and nearly burnt her arm and her cards.

Iroha activated the duel disk along with the new duel gazer she also got along with as the duel disk opened like a rose as each ‘petal’ came out and flashed online.

“DUEL!” The two girls shouted at the same time as the augmented reality came online as Cathy started her turn first as Iroha waited to see what she was up against.

“First, I’ll play the spell card ‘Inviting Cat’ card from my hand!” Cathy said as she held up a green card which surprised Iroha a little by how her opponent started the duel off as she gave a small smile at the other girl as she ended her turn with two monsters on the field with only 100 attack points as Iroha drew a card from her deck and smiled at it.

“I summon Rose Witch in Attack Mode!” Iroha said as a virtual woman with leafy hair, green eyes with a giant pink flower on her head appeared, the clothing she wore was a green, yellow and red striped outfit with the sleeves covering the hands.

Iroha smirked as Cathy smirked back as she explained the effect of Stray Cat since she had two which made Iroha sweatdrop at the low attack points they had as she saw how confused her Rose Witch was when she looked between both cats but it would still deal damage to Cathy as she choose to attack the one on the left as the one on the right dove in and took the hit.

“My kitty!” She cried as Iroha broke the sudden sadness for Cathy. “You do realize that you still get damage right?” Iroha asked as Cathy looked at her with a blank look realizing that she was right.

“It’s not fair! You hang out with that Tori Meadows girl and yet, I’m standing right here and all you care about is Tori?!” Cathy said angrily, almost yandere-like behavior which creeped Iroha out as she took a step back.

“Chill.” She said in a whisper as Cathy activated a spell card and summoned another level one monster as Iroha took 800 points of damage due to the effect of Monster Cat as she activated the second effect and got her second Stray Cat from the graveyard and began to XYZ summon her monster.

This made both Iroha and Astral confused at the XYZ monster Cathy summoned and began to question each other why the cat themed girl didn’t summon her number and then a thought struck Iroha as her eyes widened.

“What if...she doesn’t have a Number card?” She asked in a low whisper that Astral heard and he could tell that Iroha was right, he sensed no Number card from Cathy and he knew that they would have to finish the duel to set things straight with Cathy after the duel.

“I activate Twin Tail Cat Lady’s special ability! Once per turn, by using an overlay unit, she can increase her attack power by 800!” Cathy said as Iroha saw the ATK on Cathy’s monster go up and did the math, Iroha knew she was gonna lose if she didn’t think of something quick before Cathy activated a Field Spell, Cat World as the area around them changed into a meadow full of meowing cats and kittens that made Astral gush at them before focusing on the duel first.

“Welcome to Cat World, a world where cats can play in the grass and lie in the sun!” Cathy said with a smile as Iroha saw that Cathy was right, all of the felines were happy where they were and Iroha felt a little guilty for if she won, she would take away that happiness from them.

“Now, go! Attack Iroha directly!” Cathy shouted as the red jumpsuit monster jumped at her before activating a trap with the picture of a person with a rainbow in front. “I activate my trap! Rainbow Life! By discarding a card from my hand, I gain life points equal to the damage I almost took!” Iroha said as a rainbow light covered her and regained life points.

“And that’s not all, I activate Aromaseraphy Angelica’s effect from the graveyard, by selecting one plant type monster in the field, I gain life points equal to it and I can special summon her to the field but banish her if she leaves it.” Iroha explained as a small green fairy flew out.

“I end my turn.” Cathy said as Iroha drew a card and smiled. “And now, I summon Aromage Jasmine in attack mode and I tribute Rose Witch, Angelica, and Jasmine to Synchro Summon!” All three monsters entered into three green rings as Iroha held up a white card with a dragon.

“A cold flame envelops the world, black flowers bloom!” Iroha said as rose petals surrounded the area and cats yowling to get away. “Come forth, Black Rose Dragon!” Iroha said as her ace monster roared loudly before Cathy spoke up in shock.

“You didn’t bring out your XYZ monster?!” Cathy shouted as Iroha sighed. “Because, I feel like I should use both XYZ and Synchro and also, I activate Black Rose Dragon’s effect! When this activates, she can destroy, spells, traps and monsters on the field!” Iroha said as the rose petals destroyed the spells, traps and monsters on each field as she held up a spell card. “I also activate Monster Reborn to bring back Black Rose Dragon and attack you directly!”

Black Rose Dragon sent vines at Cathy as she shielded herself from the attack with her arms only to receive damage from doing so as Iroha won the duel as she took her duel gazer off before walking to Cathy. “That was a great duel, so, if Tori isn’t here...where is she?” Iroha asked as she took Iroha where Tori was.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Ready? Okay...one, two three...green light...and red light!” Tori said as she turned around to see the cats frozen as she heard Iroha call her name. “You were playing red light, green light with the cats, I thought you were kidnapped or something.” Iroha said as Tori blushed.”Sorry, they’re so cute!” Tori gushed as Astral agreed as a swarm of kittens walked over and mewed around him as he felt liquid running down his nose.

Iroha was about to say something to Astral about the liquid running down his nose but kept quiet about his nosebleed as Iroha smiled when she gained another friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So this girl, Cathy? She’s...interesting...I guess.” Bronk said as the four of them walked down the street afterschool before Caswell spoke up. “So did you ever find out who was pranking you?” He asked as Iroha felt like Cathy was watching her as Iroha gave a small smile and shook her head. “No, I guess not.” She said as Bronk and Caswell groaned. 

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Iroha said as she waved goodbye to them before Baby Tiragon chirped at the sight of Iroha coming home like a dog would as Iroha giggled before calling out for her sister only to receive no reply as Baby Tiragon led her to the living room where Ui was asleep on the couch surrounded by her work as Iroha carried her sister to her room as she set Ui down in her bed and walked to her room before kissing her little sister’s forehead and closing the door slightly.

Iroha let out the breath in her lungs as she walked back to her room without the feeling of hunger nor the desire to cook, she was completely exhausted and spent of energy as she undressed to only her panties and bra and pulled the cover over her body and yawned as she snuggled to the thick comforter as Baby Tiragon snuggled under when Astral watched before disappearing into the key.

Astral looked at the cards he and Iroha collected together since they met as he was in deep thought after seeing the birthmark on Iroha’s back when she undressed, the shape of a shooting star was unique and often mistaken as a tattoo when he thought back to Tori talking to her about the birthmark when Iroha explained about it.

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“My mom and dad told me I was born during a meteor shower and I guess I was their wish coming true.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Astral was ‘born’ on the night of the meteor showers, at least he thought so, so he placed his hand on his right shoulder where the ‘birthmark’ was and let out a deep sigh as he slowly let his hand down. 

“I wish she would know…” He said in a soft whisper as he closed his eyes and floated away from the cards and stared beyond the vast star filled void within the key.