A fanfiction based on the film My Neighbour Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki. A children's film in which two girls meet the spirit of the forest, Totoro. This fanfic is focused on a cat that has a bit-part in the film.
Satsuki and Mei's mother was in hospital. Dad had said that she was sick and had to get out of the city to get better. Satsuki and Mei didn't complain when they moved house, even though it tired them putting all the stuff in boxes. Hairpins, kimonos and other trinkets reminded them of their mother and made Satsuki's eyes fill with tears, but she put on a brave face for Mei and wiped them away. They were moving closer to the hospital in the country. Their new house was only a two mile cycle away.
Their house was unmistakable. Shrouded in overgrown vines and hidden under avalanches of cherry blossom, Satsuki was thrown by it's character. "If Dad was a house this is what he'd look like. It must be a thousand years old! " she thought to herself. The pillars were falling down, their weathered paint and rotted wood decayed from its years uninhabited. The grass in its fields had become so overgrown all of Mei but the bow in her hair disappeared into it. "SATSUKI! SATSUKI! There is so much gardening to do!" she yelled, darting in and out of the bushes, picking up acorns and throwing them back onto the ground.
It didn't take long for Mei, Satsuki and Dad to make the new house a home. Granny, who lived in the next field over, helped with the chores and Dad steamed rice every night. He was getting better at cooking since Mum got sick. Mei rinsed the dishes and Satsuki put them away because Mei was too short to reach the cupboards, even on tip toes. "One day I will put the dishes away and YOU will rinse them!" Mei accused. "It's true, Mei" Satsuki teased. "But I will always be older".
During the day Satsuki attended school and when Dad worked at the University in the town Granny would keep Mei company. Mei loved Granny but she missed her old friends. At her play school she had cared for a pet goldfish with her best friend Masumi, and gazing into the pond at the back of their new garden one afternoon she watched tadpoles swim circles blindly through the murk, and she wondered how the fish was doing. She wondered if Masumi remembered to only feed him once a day and she hoped that he hadn't grown too fat.
Mei's train of thought was broken as a handful of hard stones dropped into the pond. She jumped with fright and stuck her fist into the water, feeling around for the stones. Mei could only just reach the shallowest edge of the pond floor, but leaning as far as she could, holding onto the long grass behind her to keep from falling in, she could touch the deep middle where the stones had rolled to, and grabbing one tight she yanked herself back up. "It's an acorn!" she realised, bemused, and looking up to see where they fell from she saw another handful hurtling towards her. They struck her one by one in the face, each bouncing into the water next to her with a hollow splash. It hurt. Sore and embarrassed, Mei wanted to cry, but her curiosity kept her calm.
Mei looked to the tree above her where leaves were rustling and saw what seemed to be an animals paws curled softly around the lowest branch. "Hey you!" Mei shouted. The creature startled and two pointy ears pricked up through the leaves, followed then by two bright yellow eyes shining like headlights onto Mei.
It was a cat.
It was chewing an acorn. It's teeth snapping and sliding like a nut cracker. "Cat's don't eat acorns" Mei announced brazenly. The cat grinned and jumped down stealthily next to Mei, it's paddy paws hitting the tall grass with four thuds. The cat purred and smiled at Mei with a knowing look that shut her up. Mei feared the cat for a moment, but it's purrs grew louder and she felt safe with the animal. In fact she was becoming enamored with it.
Mei threw herself toward the cat and wrapped her arms around it. "I'm so glad to meet you!" she cried, "I've been so bored! Dad is always working and Satsuki goes to class. Will you play with me, cat? Granny is too old!". The cat's fur began to part and its skin started to change shape, moulded like fleshy dough. Its skin opened like a door to reveal cushiony fur seats inside the cats body. Windows popped open down the side of the cats ribcage and Mei shrieked with joy. "I have heard about you! The cat that is like a school bus! Nekobasu!" The cat meowed to Mei and pointed its tail to its door, ushering her in. Mei climbed inside the cat and ran her hand along its fur interior. It was now filled with rows of living seats, moving up and down with each breath the cat took. The door sealed behind her, growing back its skin, leaving no trace that it had been there at all. "Dad read me stories about you".
Mei and the catbus drove together across the countryside whenever she felt lonely. Mei sat up front looking through the window in its chest, laughing as they leapt through fields and across rivers. The cat climbed the tallest trees and often they'd spend entire days in the canopies, watching over the village and taking naps when the sun grew too hot. The nekobasu even took her to visit her mother. Though she couldn't go inside she left gifts for her. She tied corn and other vegetables from their garden in bows of string and put them on the windowsill of her room. She sat with the cat and watched her mother discover them. Mei cried silently when her mother read the notes she'd etched in the corn with a rock. She wanted to hug her more than anything in the world, but instead she hugged the cat.
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