Of Cats and Curiosity pt. 3

-Two weeks later-


One autumn morning, Rika walked in on a quite unusual sight.

"What is it? Please, you've got to... Oh my- did it just move? Get it off! Get it off!"

Masuyo was leaning over an older man who was currently screaming and struggling in his seat as the young woman calmly examined his left arm. Rika blinked and took a step towards the door, thinking maybe she should just turn around and go- pretend she was never there.

"Oh good, give me a hand Rika-chan." So much for that idea.

"A-are you sure? This really looks like a job for a witch." she offered, to no avail.

"Nonsense." she assured her before turning back to the still yelping man. "Alright mister, this is my assistant. Now let's take a look at that arm."

Arm? The hesitant girl took a closer look and almost jumped. The man's left arm was marked with what at first looked like a serpent shaped tattoo- except when it was moving. Yes, a dark green, two-dimensional snake was slithering- and quite possibly hissing- on another human being's arm. Just another day.

"What should I do?" she asked the inappropriately calm witch, trying not sound as alarmed as she was.

"Oh, it's moving again." commented Masuyo as she poked and prodded at the skin-bound serpent. "Okay, you'll have to be quick. Go to the garden and get those flowers, the blue ones with the really long stems. I'll also need... hmm... red bottle, back room, third cupboard on the left, bottom shelf. Got that? Oh oh oh, it's going in his shirt. Not good, not at all."

Rika stared, frozen in place, as the snake made its way from the just below the screaming man's wrist into his shirt sleeve.

"Rika?"

She snapped to attention. "Huh? Oh yeah, got it." And took off at a sprint.

The little shop was actually much bigger than it looked. How Masuyo managed to fit so many rooms in such a small space, her assistant would never know. The room known as the "garden" was actually more of a green house than anything, almost like a real garden but quite a bit more unique. Pushing through the extensive plant life to find the cyan-colored flora proved to be quite difficult, but the unnamed red bottle was a much easier target as the very back room contained nothing but a few dusty cupboards and numerous cobwebs.

Rika ran back to the front room of the shop just in time to see the customer fall out of his seat and begin writhing on the floor. It seemed that the tattoo-like affliction had moved off of his arm, down his chest, and onto his right leg. Its head reared back as if preparing to dig its fangs into the tiny area of exposed skin below the man's ankle.

"Quick quick quickly, Rika-chan." Masuyo beckoned the girl over and took the flowers, which she then crushed the petals of between her palms and combined with a sloppy handful of whatever liquid was in the red bottle. "Let's do this before it takes a chunk out of our dear customer's heel, yes?"

She rolled up the man's pant sleeve and as soon as she placed her hands on his skin, the serpent separated from the man's flesh and became a tangible form, wiggling and hissing in her grasp. The customer finally stopped panicking, mainly because he had already passed out on the floor.

"There we go, all better." the young witch chirped happily. "Well, except for snakey here, but that's simple stuff. Could someone open the door, please?"

Rather than trying to question or argue with her, Rika ran for the door. It opened with the sound of chiming bells as always, and when the girl turned back towards Masuyo, the snake was limp and one-hundred-percent dead in her hands.

"Much better. One 'anguis vindictae', dead as dirt." she grinned. "I'll never know what these things have against bells but it's pretty convenient."

Rika looked at the young shop keeper- debating her sanity quite a bit- and then at the unconscious man on the floor. "Putting aside how incredibly weird all that was, what do we do with him?"

"Hm? Oh, we'll just wait 'til he wakes and then send him on his way. The venom still in this snakey will serve as perfect payment for the curse removal." She paused and smiled suggestively. "What on earth are you staring at, koishii? Are my charms finally getting to you?"

The girl shook her head. "Just wondering how you do it."

Masuyo laughed. "I just do." Her brightly-colored eyes narrowed for a moment. "And you could too, you know. I could teach you."

For a moment, the raven-haired girl didn't know what to say. She had expected a joke, and for Masuyo of all people to look so deathly serious would startle anyone who knew well enough.

"I-I don't think I could do what you do. So... thanks, but no thanks."

The young witch frowned for a moment, then dismissed whatever thought was running through her head and walked away, swinging the dead snake as she walked.

"Maybe another day."

Another day, she thought, she'd just have to be patient.