The Neko Savior

Yusei and Nozomi slept soundly through the night, Nozomi curled up next to Yusei’s warm chest, Yusei protectively and possessively holding her slight build in his arms, tail leisurely laying across them both. Unfortunately, they had both forgotten while in the moment that Nozomi’s absence would be easily noticed when her parents woke up in the morning...
~*~*~
“She hasn’t come back yet!” a chocolate-haired woman with green eyes cried, frantically rousing her husband out of bed. The blond-haired, blue-eyed man sat up, quickly rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
“You mean she didn’t stay at Sakura’s hose last night?” he asked, frantically looking for warm clothes to fight the morning air’s cold bite. The woman shook her head.
“No, she never made it back after volunteering to go into the forest and look for wild strawberries,” she answered, her panicked voice showing barely contained hysteria. “What- what if that demon got her? Remember, ‘if it looks human, but isn’t-’”
“‘It isn’t safe,’” her husband finished, grabbing his shoes and heading to the bedroom door. He turned and placed his hands on his wife’s shoulders, looking the frightened woman straight in the eyes.
“I’ll find her and bring her back, I promise,” he said gently, pecking her on the forehead and racing out of the house. His wife fell to her knees, silent tears falling down her face.
‘Please be okay, Nozomi... please...’ she thought desperately.
~*~*~
Nozomi’s father silently followed the panicked trail Nozomi had torn through the underbrush the previous evening, swearing that if he found that Neko, he would shoot him at first sight. His grip tightened on his shotgun, hand shaking with anger. Finally, he came across the mountain lion’s carcass on the ground. It had been ravaged by the wildlife during the night, but the man’s biased mind believed the Neko had killed and eaten it as an appetizer. He saw a cabin not too far off and slowly approached it.
A twig snapped. Quickly, the hunter hid behind some bushes, staying downwind of the creature that made the sound. A large black tiger with golden stripes came out of the underbrush, carrying a small fawn in his mouth along with a basket of edible herbs and berries. The man raised an eyebrow. Nekos at plant matter? That was news to him.
Yusei set the ingredients gently on the ground and shifted to his humanoid form. He then carried the food over to a fire pit and began cooking, tail twitching nervously. He sensed danger close by, but he wasn’t going to allow that to distract him. He’d protect Nozomi at a moment’s notice, keeping his senses on high alert as had fix her breakfast.
Nozomi’s father was quickly getting over his shock and was infuriated at the sight of the Neko fixing breakfast, still mistakenly believing he had killed and eaten his daughter during the night. The man raise his shotgun, aiming at the Neko’s heart, not noticing his daughter coming through the forest from the direction of a small stream, her hair damp from bathing.
A shot right out through the forest’s silence, Yusei barely managing to dodge enough to avoid a fatal blow. He roared loudly as his shoulder erupted with intense pain, his chest becoming stained with his own blood. Nozomi saw what had happened, letting out a horrified scream and rushing of to the Neko. She tore off her blouse, placing it over the wound on both sides, attempting to stop the heavy bleeding. She kept him in a sitting position, applying as much pressure as she could on the two sides of the through-and-through wound. Her father watched from the bushes in horror at what he had just done because of his own prejudice. He stood up and ran through the forest back to the village, cursing himself and hoping he would be able to bring the town’s doctor back in time.