Chapter 19 Dog and cat

(Charlotte POV)

Charlotte had made up her mind. Sure, she didn't want to take part in this show in any way, but on the other hand, she had to change clothes at some point, so she might as well try to get some POVs now that would allow her to buy POVs later. Catching a cat shouldn't be too hard, should it?

About 3 minutes after Anna and Iris had gone off to conduct their interview in their corner, Nicole spoke up.

"I don't know about you, but there's no way I'm going to play that woman's game," said Nicole.

"So what are you going to do?" asked Karine.

"I'm going to go and watch the rest of the anime at the library, at least maybe I'll be able to think of something else. If anyone wants to follow me, you're free to do so", said Nicole before heading for the library.

Only 6 more to go. Now it was time to see who else was going to go cat hunting.

"William, you said we were free to choose, but you didn't say what you were going to do. Do you have any ideas in mind?" asked Karine.

"I thought I'd take the opportunity to have a chat with Elisa. I didn't think you'd enjoy chasing a cat," said William.

Elisa looked embarrassed at this and replied, "I'm sorry, William, but I thought I'd try out all the energy I've got now. I haven't done any sport for years. And I thought it would do me good. But if you'd like, we can talk."

"No, we don't have to. You're right, sport is important. I guess I should make an effort to get into it," says William.

"Something tells me you'll soon have more than enough physical activity to keep you busy," Karine said sarcastically.

"Very funny, Karine, very funny," replied William.

Charlotte was astonished by the complicity between these two. Karine didn't hesitate to tease him, even though she'd only met him yesterday. Had they gotten that close last night?

"Can I come with you, Mr Hamon, if you like?" said Hélène, raising her hand and sounding more like a primary school pupil than a student.

_"Please call me William like everyone else. At least as long as we're in this show, I'm not your teacher anymore," _said William.

Hélène simply nodded. Had she even listened to what he'd said?

Without another word, they both headed off in one direction. Was Hélène going to confess her love for him? Who knows, maybe she had a chance.

"Well, Elisa's already said she's going to chase the cat, and what are you going to do about it?" asked Marion, addressing Karine and Charlotte.

"I thought I'd go and finish reading at the library and then have a chat with Nicole. I think she really needs to vent," says Karine.

"As for me, I also thought I'd go and find Matamune. I must admit it'll be the first time I've ever tracked down a cat," replied Charlotte.

"Well then, I guess there'll be 3 of us looking for him. Please try not to get in my way," said Marion, not even realizing that her words could be offensive or that she didn't care.

Which is why Charlotte was now wandering the streets of Konoha at random, hoping to bump into a cat. It wasn't the best method, but she hadn't found any others. A cat couldn't be any harder to catch than a criminal, could it?

After an hour wandering the streets of the village, Charlotte had to face the fact that it wasn't going to be that easy. It was strange to be wandering alone in an empty village. Charlotte was used to a noisy town. Here, she felt like she was wandering through a well-kept ghost town.

Lacking ideas and motivation, she decided to sit on the ground with her back against a building. If her colleagues saw her, they'd probably laugh at her. She couldn't even find a cat and she wanted to catch the big bosses of the underworld? It was just laughable. She was ridiculous.

Her dream of becoming a great detective had fallen through anyway the very moment she'd been chosen to take part in this show, hadn't it? If anything, it was just fate's way of telling her that she had to give up her career.

It wasn't as if she had any friends at work she'd regret. It was just a bunch of macho guys who thought she was incompetent. But maybe, in the end, they were right.

"Meow!" Charlotte suddenly heard in the distance.

Huh? What on earth was that? Why was that cat meowing now? Were they taking pleasure in giving her hope, only to take it away again?

Despite her gloomy thoughts, Charlotte got up and headed towards the noise. Curiosity wasn't just dangerous for cats. The scene she found was surreal.

Marion and Matamune (that's what the cat was called, right?) were running in a circle. The remarkable thing was that Marion had a knife in her hands and was waving it around as if trying to touch the cat, which in return was meowing wildly.

"Will you stop moving, you dirty cat, so I can skewer you!" she screamed/ordered at the cat who hadn't agreed to end up on a skewer.

Charlotte was so surprised by what was happening that she couldn't even think. Why was Marion trying to **** a cat? Had seeing William's whole life driven her mad? If so, then she really had to worry about William. Otherwise, Charlotte couldn't understand what Marion was after.

Suddenly Charlotte snapped out of her thoughts. Marion had just managed to corner Matamune.

_"You can't escape me now," _Marion said, cackling like a Disney villain.

Charlotte stopped thinking and let her instincts speak for themselves. Whatever her doubts, she hadn't become someone to be murdered before her eyes (even if that someone was just a cat.).

_"Ahhh!!!" _cried Charlotte before throwing Marion off as quickly as she could. Suddenly, they were both on the ground. Marion had the knife in her hand and Charlotte was doing her best to grab it out of her hand. Meanwhile, poor Matamune had his tail caught by Marion's free hand.

_"Let him go!" _screamed Charlotte.

Although Marion didn't know whether she was talking about the knife or the cat, she was determined to keep both.

"Leave it to me. Get lost." replied Marion, who clearly didn't appreciate the policewoman's intervention.

Charlotte, concentrate exclusively on the knife. Without a weapon, Marion couldn't hurt anyone. She was almost there - just a little more effort. Suddenly Marion let go of the knife completely. Charlotte grabbed it and held on tightly. There was no way Marion was going to take it away from her. Marion had another plan, however, which Charlotte didn't understand until it was too late, when blood spurted down her cheek.

Marion had just impaled Matamune on the knife Charlotte was holding.

"Victory", Marion said with a smile.

In Charlotte's mind there was only one sentence: "Fuck it!"