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You always wondered the same thing with each new doll that was donated to the orphanage. Every month there would be a donation of new toys and you’d be the most excited one for them. You’d always be the first one to look into the box, many kids complained that you had an advantage because you were an animal. Ms. Ranai told you to pay no mind to them as you’d continue to be first and look at all the toy cars, building blocks, figurines, animal plushies, and dolls. Pretty plastic dolls. Like mini runway models of— humans, of course. Back then when you were younger you’d assume the ears and tail fell off of it and you’d search the box or boxes to see if you could find them. You never did. The caregivers suggested you the animal plushies instead but, was it really the same? You aren’t an animal; but you aren’t a human either. Oh, how complicated it was to be a hybrid child.

You remember hiding in the corner of the playroom, behind the toy box with a pair of scissors, glue, a mouse plush, and a pretty, perfect, plastic doll. You’d cut off the ears and tail of the plush and glue them onto the doll. The stuffing would get everywhere, but you slid them into the corner so that the caretakers wouldn’t notice them. You’d finally have a doll that looked like you. It had the ears and the tail, the hands and the feet, a pretty, hybrid, plastic doll.

You were snapped out of your thoughts by the calling of your name. You peek your head from your hiding spot to see Ms. Ranai, one of the older caretakers, spotting you. “That’s where you are, I’ve been looking everywhere for—“ She notices what you have done to the toys, “What in the world did you… nevermind. Come on, girl, your friend is about to leave for his new family. You have to say goodbye,” she pulled you out from behind the toy box by your wrist and dragged you down the hall to the entrance. You don’t remember a friend though.

Outside was the boy sitting on the steps, a backpack in hand, stuffed full with all his stuff. He heard the click of the door opening and whipped his head around, his gaze meeting Ms. Ranai then down to you. He smiled brightly.

“You came!” He scrambled to stand up.

Ms. Ranai smiled at the cheery boy, then down to you. Tapping your back, making you respond, “Yeah.”

“She couldn’t let you go without seeing for one last time.” Ms. Ranai smiled for you. The boy knew better though. “Oh! It looks like your family is here to pick you up now.” You raise your head to see a car pulling up to the curb. You glance away as the parents step out of the car.

“Ah—“ he turned his attention back to you, “Thank you for seeing me before I go,” the boy pulled out a bracelet from his pocket. He lent out a hand for yours. Hesitantly, you took it. He brought your wrist up and tied the handmade bracelet around your wrist. It sparkled with every pretty bead he could find in the bead box. “There,” he took a step back, “it’s for you! A friendship bracelet and something to remember me by.” You stared down at the bracelet, seeing it sparkle in the sun.

“I don’t have anything for you,” you mumbled

“Oh! Don’t worry about it! I never expected anything back,” he reassured but it made you feel more bad. You gripped tightly onto the doll you forgot was still in your hand before holding it up to him.

“For you— to remember me by.” You looked at the boy’s surprised face. He smiled softly as he gently took it out of your hands.

“It looks like you.” His small finger stroked the ear, “Thank you, nothing in the world would make me forget you though!” He smiled. Ms. Ranai reluctantly stopped the moment between you two as it was time for him to go. Ms. Ranai and you waved him off. That was the last time you’ve seen him. The first gift you ever got and first friend. Everytime you remember this day you feel bad. You never remembered his name, let alone his face. Ms. Ranai would tell you he’d be the boy that played with you during play time. All those moments were lost to time now.

Once the car was finally out of view, your smile dropped slightly, “Ms. Ranai?” You began, “Why do parents always pick the humans?”

“They don’t always do. You just tend to not be what they’re looking for.”

You knew what that answer meant though. Parents come to adopt a kid, not a pet.

———

“Doesn’t she carry diseases and stuff?”

“I heard you’d get rabies if she bites you.”

“Wha?! That’s so scary!”

“I feel bad for Chisaki, she’s the one who always has to sit next to her.”

“Who are we whispering about?” Your presence startled the three girls. You peered down at them from the window.

“O-oh! We didn’t see you there..”

“We were talking about another girl from class 2-B.” Another made up an excuse. One girl whispered to the other two girls.

“We— have to get going now uh- see you,” the girls scampered away like they were scared. One looked like they could shriek like they saw a rat. No rodent in sight but you.

You remember Highschool being fuzzy memories as not much happened. It was uneventful at most, except the times people spoke about you behind your back. No one bothered saying it to your face or put their hands on you because they feared a disease from you. When you were younger, it was a stupid thought, but you sometimes hoped it’d be like in the movies and people would say nasty words to your face. Someone would finally say something to your face. At least you’d come home with something to talk about. It was such a stupid thought every time you looked back on it.

“How was school?” Ms. Ranai would ask you as you finished preparing coffee for her, right after preparing dinner for the other kids. Over the years her skin sagged lower and her gray hair thinned. You hated being part mouse. You could hear her heartbeat slow every day.

“The usual,” you replied bluntly, placing a cup of coffee in front of her. You take a seat across from her.

“You always say that but never elaborate,” She took a sip of her coffee.

“Go to school, class, lunch, class, go home. There’s not much to really talk about,” you yawned, watching Ms. Ranai places down her cup with a soft thud, “My grades are good if that’s what you’re wondering about,” you smiled subtly and reassuringly.

“Don’t you think you should be having some fun with friends right now and still not at this orphanage with this old lady?” Damn.

“Hey— you tryna say I’m a loser, Ms. Ranai?” You raised a brow at her with scoff.

“You’re already gonna graduate in a few months, you’re going to head off to college, I can’t be the only person you’ll still talk to by then. I’m not gonna get any younger,” She furrowed her brows at you. The cold reminder made you quiet. You leaned back into your chair with crossed arms.

“I don’t think I am going to college,” you responded quietly as you glanced away, expecting some scolding. Ms. Ranai’s expression turned neutral, leaning closer with interest.

“Then what are you going to do, girl?” Her voice was eerily calm.

“I don’t know.” You rolled your eyes, “probably work here,” you waved your tail, gesturing to this place.

“I’m not going to hire you just because I know you.”

You frowned, “Then I’ll find a job somewhere else. Retail or fast food.”

“Are you gonna be happy with that?”

“I’ll be lucky enough to find a retail job to take on a rodent hybrid as an employee. It’s already a luxury for hybrids to have a stable life,” you shot back, leaning onto the table as well. Ms. Ranai paused, taking a deep breath. The silence made you assume you won in this conversation. She looked down and swirled the liquid in her mug.

“Your coffee is good,” she commented.

Your tense shoulders relaxed, “Well I hope so. It’s the only thing I like doing, along with making some light meals,” you shrugged.

“You should do something with that. A cafe of some sort,” her voice softened.

You let out a small laugh in disbelief, “Yeah no, no one is going to eat the food from a hybrid let alone I somehow get enough money to even open a place.”

Ms. Randi shrugged with a soft and faint smile, “food connects us all in more ways you could imagine, girl. You should give it a shot one day.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll probably be taking of you when I graduate, Ms. Ranai,” her smile faltered and she sighed.

“You need to dream bigger, you stupid girl.”

You frowned at the disappointed sigh. Did she really expect you to take on that idea?

A cafe. How stupid.

———

“Scram! Ya’ damn rodent, before I call the cops!” The bar owner threw you out onto the hard and snow covered asphalt, before slamming the door on you.

“Jeez! Fuck. I heard you for the first time! jackass. Didn’t need to throw me onto the ground…” You muttered to yourself through clenched teeth. You got up, brushing the snow and dirt off of yourself. You picked up your beanie that was hiding your big mouse ears from the snow. You caught a glimpse of the “No Hybrids allowed” sign hooked onto the door.

You frowned at the sign, tearing your gaze away from it as you walked away with your hands shoved in your pocket. It’s not worth it.

You walk back, tearing the sign off the door, and tossing it into a nearby trash can. Now you begin walking home. You never even liked that bar anyway. It was just the closest one after a long day of working at a crummy gas station. The scent reeked in there, you’d remember. The whole city reeked. Maybe it was because of your heightened senses of being a hybrid it bothered you more than most. But cities are supposedly the most hybrid friendly places in the country, not many options for someone like you to go.

The city. You’d hear each step made on the cement. Each crunchy step made on the snow. Every whisper and laughter. Every shift of gears in each car passing through. The faint music playing in each restaurant. Each flap of a bird’s wings flying high. Sucks, no? And it’s only night. During the day it’s worse. That’s just being a hybrid though. Heightened senses. “Superhumans.” That’s what hybrids were created to be eighty years ago. Now you all roam the streets as other humans, suffering from what is supposed to deem you as “better.” It’s a joke to ask to be equal to a human. It was biologically and socially impossible.

You got back home sighing in relief from the quietness of Ms. Ranai’s apartment. You shut the door behind you, shuffling for your keys to lock it. “I’m home!” You called out and slipped out of your shoes and into house slippers, “The bar found out I was a hybrid and kicked me out. The owner was nasty about it though, the asshole dragged me out of there and threw me onto the pavement,” you hung up your jacket on the racket. It was quiet, eerily so, “Ms. Ranai?” You called out. A cold and tense feeling welled up in your chest. You ran down the hall to her room, “Ms. Ranai!—“

You hate being a hybrid. You hate how you had to watch every human make friends with one another and you’d get left out like some freak. You hate how all the boys and hybrid boys all crush on the human girls. You hate how you couldn’t even get a job at a fast food restaurant because of lack of experience but the next morning you saw a little high schooler work there instead. You hate how you can’t even get a drink at a run down bar with average tasting alcohol because of your ears and tail. You hated how you couldn’t hear Ms. Ranai’s heart beat anymore.

You remember Ms. Ranai’s funeral was on a beautiful morning of snowfall. You stared out the window, watching each flake slowly fall down onto the cement. You left the responsibility of what happens to her body to the other caregivers at the orphanage. It was something you wanted to do but wondered if it was the right thing. You could see all the kids from the orphanage were in the other room, crying, confused, or neutral. You saw yourself in all of them. You lost the only person who was close to you. You lost a caretaker. You lost someone who was just there for you because you never got adopted. You were snapped out of your thoughts as you heard your name get called out.

“Yes? That’s me,” you spoke softly, turning your head to see a woman approaching you.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you miss,” a woman bowed respectfully to you, “I am sorry for your loss. Are you already aware that Ms. Ranai has left everything to you in her will?”

“Yes, I’ve heard already.”

“Mhm, she also wanted me to deliver this to you as well,” the woman handed you an envelope.

“Ah, thank you,” looking down at the envelope in your hands you open it slowly. You slip out a piece of paper, unfolding it to reveal a letter. You read through it quickly, letting out a chuckle. The amused sound caused the woman to tilt her head curiously, “that persistent old woman…” you mumble to yourself, “thank you miss, again,” your sorrow filled eyes replaced with a friendly gaze as you nodded at her while placing the letter back in the envelope.

“Yes, of course, miss.” The woman smiled back softly at you before making her leave.

You guess you could give it a shot.

———-

“Last night, two Highschool girls were reported to be missing from Ine, Kyoto, adding on to the overwhelming increased amount of missing persons cases from the beginning of last month—“

The News played from the small TV hung up in the corner as you stood from the counter, rubbing a glass clean with a cloth. The warm, orange rays of sun shined harshly through the windows, giving light to each empty booth. The glass gleamed with a glossy-like surface after you pulled the cloth away. You turned your attention fully on the TV as there were no customers to serve.

Another missing persons case? That’s the fifth one this month. At least it’s only from the town over.

“There were no signs of a break in but reports of hybrids found around the same area of the disappearances.”

The TV showed a low quality image of a blurry silhouette knocking over a trash bin. You clicked your tongue and frowned at the sight, placing the glass down with some force. Your tail flicked angrily as you muttered to yourself, “Now that’s just a lot of bull crap, that easily could’ve been some stray alley cat not a hybrid.”

“I know right?”

You shrieked as you jumped from the sudden other voice that was right next to you. You whipped your head around to see a buff and lean snow leopard hybrid sitting on one of your barstools. His hair was spiky and as white as the clouds. He wore near pitch black rectangular sunglasses and a smug smirk. He looked like a big guy, how in the world did you not hear him come in? Maybe you really do need to get a bell…

You muttered a curse to yourself as you held your chest, “I am so sorry sir— how long have you been there?”

“Not long so don’t worry,” he flipped out a flier, “I’m here to apply for the job!” He grinned widely as presented the near faded out print of the flier.

You never expected to hire someone at all, truthfully. Who would want a hybrid as their boss? You didn’t expect to even see another hybrid so far from Tokyo either. Let alone this weirdo that appears out of thin air waving your old flier you put out the first week you got here, looking for workers. Some people tore it right off the walls once they saw it. Not like you were surprised, but still offended. Hybrids are usually not welcome in towns in the countryside, but at least it was far quieter than the city. It’s why you went out here so far with the money Ms. Ranai left for you. A chance to give yourself time to find something to dream about.

You glanced up from the flier to him, his boyish smile made your eyes narrow skeptically. Looking back on it you don’t know why you eventually allowed such a man to be your first employee. But…

You don’t regret your decision.

Bolded tags are people who requested to be tagged but I am not able to tag or people I cannot tag anymore! Msg me soon to fix any other issues ^^