41, Iroha/Sana (Magia Record)
Me not mentioning many specifics because I haven't read arc two yet, and it's been a while since I read arc one.
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If you asked Sana what her favorite type of cat would be, she might say it was a soft, gentle gray one like Miss Purrs had been, but in reality, she wasn’t exactly picky. She just loved cats.
Maybe it was that there was something about them that she saw in herself; they seemed at first shy, like they wanted to be alone, but when you reached out to them, when you offered them your companionship and were genuine about it, they loved intensely.
If Sana could make those she cared for as happy as the affection of a cat made her, she’d consider it a job well done. It was hard though. Sometimes, she felt as if she took much more than she gave. Iroha and the other girls of Mikazuki Villa were always there for her; when she struggled, when she bled, when she just needed to cry. Iroha usually caught on when she was sad, sometimes even before Sana realized how upset she was herself.
It didn’t necessarily take anything specific to make Sana sad. There were days she just woke up with a deep melancholy in her heart, and nothing could shake it. On those days she felt particularly useless. She knew she was welcome. She knew she was loved, but— had she earned that?
Yesterday had been one of those days. She woke up feeling as if her head was throbbing, but it wasn’t a physical ache; it was an imaginary pressure that seemed to almost overwhelm her. Things felt blurry and frustrating, sad yet numb. She wondered if this was common for other people. She didn’t think it was. If only she could have slept the day away.
She went to bed early that night.
Iroha had clearly noticed, as she dragged her to Kamihama’s newest cat cafe the next morning. One good thing about being invisible was that it meant she didn’t have to pay admission, so at the very least, she didn’t also have to be a financial burden on her friends. The cats were so cute, and all of them were up for adoption as well. Sana longed to adopt one of her own, but she refused to even bring up the possibility until she could pay for it herself.
She sat next to Iroha on a small, soft bench that doubled as cat furniture. A fluffy orange cat was spread across both their laps. Its purrs were steady, calming. Iroha had rested her head on Sana’s shoulder, which caused a flush to rise up on the younger girl’s cheeks.
