Amber

Document Name: Novians and Monoliths Word Count: 1413 Time: 4:33 Average Speed: 310 WPM Fastest Speed: 352 WPM Accuracy: 1413/1413 Rank: 1st Nickname: CatTreat1911

Noya: Wow! The shopping mall had this huge cat food ad. I wonder if it tastes good. Dying to try it! Iris: Calm down, will you? Just who the heck eats cat food? Amber: That would be me! ^_^ Noya: Really? How was it? Amber: Monolith's cat food had the right texture but no flavor whatsoever. United Harvest copied Monolith but it tasted as bad as Tawny Nightingale. Oh, and there was a kind of cat treats very popular in the Ash District. No quality control so it was a real toss up. Do not recommend. Iris: ... Wow, Amber, you weren't kidding. Noya: None of these sounds appetizing. If we encounter strays, let's just share our food with them. Iris: So basically, Tawny Nightingale is cat food. Isn't it?

Comfort Ratings

1. Trekker Association Hall Beam: Average Pros: Good for hiding, excellent for scouting. Cons: The beam is very hard and uncomfortable.
2. Emor Ash District Waterway Bridge, Second Arch: Poor Cons: The interior of the arch has an ecosystem of its own, critters and whatnot. Too dusty, not recommended as a resting spot. Currently under reconstruction.
3. Philae United Harvest Campus, Greenhouse Area 2, R&D Department, 3rd Floor, Behind the Landscape Plants: Good Cons: Often gets noisy when employees slack off by the vending machine. Pros: This morning, Fuyuka was squatting behind the plants and talking to herself. Next time... I should try to hug her.
4. Roof of the Lucky Oasis: Perfect Pros: Very comfortable to the point of being a bit distracting. Prone to fall asleep there. More pros: Iris put a small cushion on the roof just for me. It's got a kitty pattern on it. ... It's my favorite spot.

Claw Machine Battle Records

1. vs "Lord of the Prize Claw" Nazuna 109:58 That claw machine is really good; the grip of the claw is always very powerful. Yay! After the match ended, Nazuna was crying and laughing all at the same time. So ... was she happy or not?
2. vs "Emor Claw King" Jackpipi. 10:0 This one's claw is quite useless. You can only throw with it. All I asked was, "are you sure you're the real Emor Claw King"? Jackpipi burst into tears. ... Um, was it something I said?
3. vs "Philae Claw Machine Expert" Mimi 56:56 A draw. Ran out of tokens. True to her name, a real expert. We made a pact to have one final showdown as soon as we get some more spending money.

Monolith Calendar Year 9██, Calor Month, 8th Single entry into cat cafe (one bag of cat treats included) Amount: 5,700 Dorra

There is a line dribbled on the back of the paper: They're all caged up... They don't look happy at all.

That night, Amber had a dream, in which she turned into a cat.

As it turned out, through the eyes of a cat, humans were huge and terrifying creatures. The black cat named Amber tried to control her clumsy limbs as she arched her back, trying to dodge the bustling crowd. Every encounter felt like a brush with death. Stress made all the fur on her body stand on end. Even if someone did notice this black cat at their feet, they'd probably just mistake her for a stray cat's fur ball—tumbling around the dirty, muddy ground of the Ash District, blown by the winter wind.

"Chirr, meow. (Come here.)" Amber shook her left ear—after turning into a cat, her hearing had become exceptionally sharp. She pinpointed the cat's call as coming from a pile of abandoned cardboard boxes across the street. All she needed to do was cross the street. Then, perhaps, she would be able to find a companion. Despite this, Amber hesitated when she came to the edge of the street. Even though it was only a few human steps away, in the eyes of a cat, the distance seemed impossibly long, like an unbridgeable ravine.

Suddenly, something lifted her up by the scruff of her neck—before she could react, some creature had grabbed her from behind. The powerful gusts from the giants' legs as they walked brushed past her nose, making her whiskers tremble. Amber the cat, who had been flailing her limbs in panic, instantly stopped struggling. "Meow. (Hah.)" A cat's sound came from above, both mocking and comforting at once. The cat who had picked Amber up deftly traversed the street that looked so intimidating to Amber.

"Meow, purr. (A newbie. Never seen her before.)" Several round heads poked out from the shaking cardboard box. "Purr, meow! (Nobody's gonna mess with you, not with us here.)" The golden head at the bottom meowed twice before a paw pressed it down—a paw which belonged to a purple cat with a tuft of white fur on its forehead. "Meow! Purr... (Don't talk so big, you runt.)" The cat's words were aimed at her companion, but her narrow pupils were fixed directly on Amber.

"Meow, meow, purr. (Cat Two, Cat Three, be nice to the newbie.)" The one who helped Amber finally spoke—she was much larger than the rest of them and seemed to be in charge. "Meow, meow, purr. (I'm not the one in charge here.)" As if she'd could read Amber's thoughts, the large cat flicked her tail and jumped up to the ruined staircase above the cardboard box. ...At that moment, Amber realized that even more cats were emerging from the shadows of the stairs, their glowing eyes all fixed on her.

Troupe... Such a familiar word. Amber tilted her head but couldn't figure out why. "Meow, meow, purr? (So...the long-haired blue cat who brought me here, is she also from the Cat Kingdom?)" Amber found herself asking in the same language. "Purr, meow! Purr, meow! (Of course, she's the strongest warrior in our kingdom—Cat One!)" Upon hearing her name, the large blue cat emerged from the group and cheerfully waved her paw at Amber. "Meow. (Then, I'll join.)" Amber answered without hesitation. "Meow, meow meow. (Good. From now on, you can call me Boss Cat.)" Around here, the Cat Kingdom Troupe is a vast underground organization of cats. Cats Two and Three, who Amber had encountered earlier, were also strays picked up by Cat One and raised in the Cat Kingdom's sanctuary for kittens—that cardboard box in the corner, its official name being the "Cardboard Cat Castle." Nobody had told Amber these strange details, but they came into her head all the same.

Amber shook her head, clearing away these thoughts, and focused on playing with a magical mouse puppet. This was a daily training routine for the warriors of the Cat Kingdom. "Meow meow, meow. (Don't let your limbs grow rusty.)" Boss Cat would remind her warriors daily: "Purr...meow, meow! Meow! Meow meow! (Soon, we'll face a great battle. We shall liberate our brethren at the cafe!)"

That's right. The mission: Liberate the cats inside the cat cafe. This was Amber's first mission after she joined the Cat Kingdom. It also served as a test given to her by Cat One the big blue cat after she applied to join her team. Cat Two was already on the team, but Amber was determined to not fall behind Cat Three, who only ever thought about games. She swatted her paw against the mouse's tail and watched with satisfaction as her ranking rose above Cat Three's. To her surprise, that single act seemed to change more than just the ranking. The entire training ground began to shake. Above the field, a giant, featureless human face appeared. "Purr! Meow meow, meow! Purr! (No! The humans from the cafe have acted first—we've been discovered!)" Boss Cat's voice came to her from afar.

Amber's eyes flew open, her heart pounding as she glanced up at the sky— No human face. And she...was not a cat. After all, Amber knew how cats communicate—with glances, scents, and body language instead of "talking" back and forth with meows. Only humans spoke.

"The Cat Kingdom Troupe, the Cardboard Cat Castle, Cats One, Two, Three, and Boss Cat... Was it all just a dream?" The starlight had no answer for Amber. She closed her eyes, hoping she'd find out the truth someday.

It seemed that one day, when she woke up, they were already there—spotlessly clean and neatly placed by her pillow. "Cat Treat-1911," Amber read out the unfamiliar name as if she'd always known it. Loading, aiming, pulling the trigger—it all felt so familiar, as if her muscles knew them better than her mind.

"I feel like I've forgotten how I came to have these pistols." After the formation of the New Star Guild, Amber said this to her companions. "Knowing they're yours is enough, isn't it?" The blonde girl answered. Then she pulled Amber away to watch a rare sight—the Shrubshrew migration.

"It looks like they are made by NGO. Look, the bullets are actually filled with Neo Solution... Oh by the way, whatever you do, don't carry these guns openly in the cities. If someone from the Grace Imperium see them, you'll get fined." The girl warned Amber repeatedly with a most grave expression on her face. She didn't stop until Amber promised not to take the guns out.

Later, a new member joined New Star Guild. Clutching her pistols, Amber asked the same question to the newcomer. The amnesiac newbie was surprisingly at home with the grip and aim of these guns. If not for the inability to use magic, they could undoubtedly become an excellent sharpshooter. But even the "Boss," who was an expert on Artifacts, wasn't sure if this pair of guns was one of them.

Amber didn't let this get her down. Because she'd already found a clue that will lead her to the truth— On the day she met the newcomer, inside Emor City's Ash District market, she'd spotted a mark that resembled the bullet holes made by her Cat Treat-1911.