Taichi threw his arms open and caught the tiny Cerberus in his embrace. Its coat was silky and soft against his skin. Aww! I could go straight to heaven! He cradled the pup in his arms, tears sprouting at the corners of his eyes. Luke’s coat was incredible, of course, but the Cerberus was no less cuddly!
“So what’s your name?”
“I want a name too!”
“Yay! Now we don’t have to be lonely anymore!”
“Uh, right... My name is Taichi.” He was having a hard time keeping up, since all three of them were talking at once. Should I give it one name? Or does each head need a name? He was really struggling with what to do. It took a moment, but he finally settled on giving them each a unique name, in case the need to differentiate between them ever came up.
“As for the left head...you’ll be Nord.”
“Yes, sir!”
“The middle head will be Pino.”
“I like that name!”
“And the right head will be Chrollo.”
“Thanks for the name!”
Each head beamed happily at him, releasing tension in Taichi. “I’m surprised a Cerberus like you can shrink this small! You’re adorable.”
“Yay, we got complimented!”
“We’re a really strong Cerberus, so of course we can shrink ourselves this small!”
“Yeah, and being this small lets us get closer to you!”
While Luke was more reserved about showing his affections, the Cerberus lacked such reservations. Not that Luke didn’t love Taichi too, of course he did—and Taichi knew that, but this was an entirely different reaction than he was used to.
“Oh, right. We need to do something about those wounds of yours.” The poor pup was pretty banged up from its battle with Luke. “Um... Heal!”
“Wow, you healed our wounds! Incredible!”
Luke sniffed in dismay. “Hmph, those wounds would have healed quickly enough on their own.”
Heal was one of the Tamer skills the cat god had bestowed upon Taichi. It allowed him to speed the recovery of a tamed monster’s wounds.
“Yeah, but no one wants to be in pain, right?” said Taichi as he stroked one of the Cerberus heads.
“Yay!”
“We like being pet!”
“Hee hee!”
“Aww, you’re so adorable.” Taichi’s health bar was hanging by a thread at this point, overwhelmed by the Cerberus’s cuteness and sincere affection.
Luke snatched the hem of Taichi’s jacket into his mouth and tugged, sensing he was losing his own master to the new pup. “Enough of that. We’d better get back to the café before those humans wake up.”
“Huh? Oh! The adventurers that were keeping a lookout!” Taichi sensed Luke was right to be concerned; it would only cause further questions if they saw him. He promptly hauled the adventurers’ unconscious bodies to a safer location before he took off.
✦ ✦ ✦
The following day, Taichi awoke to find an unfamiliar warmth tucked inside his bed with him. “Hm?” He peeled the blanket back.
“Zzz...”
The Cerberus was sprawled onto the mattress, fast asleep.
“Gosh, you’re so cute.”
Luke slept on his beanbag chair, while the bunnies spent their night in the café space downstairs. This was a novel experience. Oh man, what a way to greet the dawn. This is making me emotional.
“It was the middle of the night by the time we got back. We fell asleep the second we got home,” Taichi said to himself as the monsters continued snoozing.
He had a lot to ask the Cerberus about, such as why it was at those ruins in the first place, though he already knew the answer. The Cerberus had mentioned last night how lonely it had been, so it may have moved to those ruins to escape isolation.
Cerberus were classified as a walking disaster and seemed to be extremely rare. Living among their kind would be ideal, but a pack of Cerberus would cause a stir if discovered. A rough world for Cerberus, indeed.
Taichi reached over and gently stroked his hand down the pup’s back. Its relaxed, sleeping faces warmed his heart.
“Ngh...?” The left head, Nord, groggily opened its eyes.
“Oh, did I wake you?” Taichi asked.
Its little mouth cracked open to let out a yawn. “Nah, don’t worry. It just feels really nice when you pet me.”
“I’m glad to hear that. You have really soft fur, Nord, so I enjoy petting you.”
“Hee hee!” Nord grinned at him, happy to be praised.
“So I guess one head can wake up while the others sleep, huh?” asked Taichi.
“Yup! We share the same body, but our minds are independent.”
“Huh.” What a curious monster this Cerberus was. “Say, Nord, you were living in those ruins, weren’t you? Are you sure you wanted to come back here with me? I know it’s a bit late to ask now that I’ve already brought you back.”
“It’s fine! We’re targeted by humans no matter where we go, so we’ve always had to hide. We only recently took up residence at those ruins,” said Nord. “So it doesn’t really matter where we live. You tamed us and brought us here, and we’re really happy about that!”
“Oh okay.”
This little guy must have longed for connection. Taichi’s heart ached for Nord. The emotion must have been evident on his face because Chrollo—who had apparently awoken at some point—chirped at him, “Don’t worry! We had lots of humans attack us, but we never fought back!”
“What, really? You didn’t?”
“Nope! We heard a long, long time ago that there are good humans out there like you, Taichi. We always hoped that someday, we could find one to befriend.”
“Really...?”
Despite how endlessly humans had antagonized them, the Cerberus still somehow held affection for Taichi after he tamed them. That, more than anything, demonstrated how much they wanted to believe in humans. Taichi swore to himself that he would take good care of them. Aww, crap! When you get older, your tear ducts just seem to leak! He rubbed his eyes with his sleeve as he shot up from his bed.
“You guys can sleep in a little. I’m gonna go make breakfast,” he said.
“Sounds good.”
He stroked the pup on the back one more time, and Nord and Chrollo closed their eyes. They must be really exhausted.
“I’d better make them something extra delicious for breakfast, then!” He stretched and strode toward the bathroom.