I Found a White Cat

[A little note: My next novels, After I Messed with a White-Haired Ghost and An Encounter in the Rain, have started updating. Feel free to check them out if you happen to pass by.]

Liunian found a cat, a white cat with blue eyes. When she found it, it was huddled beneath a tree, filthy and covered in blood. She felt sorry for it, so she took it home.

At first, she thought that in such a remote village, black cats were common, but a beautiful white cat like this was a rare sight. She had the village head announce it over the loudspeaker. Sure enough, someone came looking for it two days later. To save herself the trouble, she ignored the white cat's struggles, shoved it into the person's cage, and waved goodbye.

Less than an hour later, she heard that the person who'd just come by owned a restaurant and often sold signature dishes made from small animals like dogs and cats. She'd only sent the cat away to save herself the trouble, but in the end, she braved the rain and tore the man's restaurant apart in the middle of the night, then paid a hefty sum in damages.

"All right, all right, I didn't know back then! How was I supposed to know he wanted to make 'cat dishes'?"

In the nearly demolished kitchen, people stood nearby counting up the money she owed. She crouched in a corner, soothing the white cat, whose fur was standing on end. In just over an hour, the cat had gotten filthy all over again.

In the end, Liunian had to let the cat bite her before she could finally calm it down.

After all that, Liunian decided to keep the cat.

She'd originally come here to recuperate. She hadn't expected to end up with a cat who didn't like leftovers (the story is set in the countryside, where, in my hometown, cats and dogs eat leftovers), refused to sleep in the "cat room," stole her food, gobbled up her desserts, and hogged her little bed. The cat's appetite was especially "astonishing."

Before long, Liunian was struggling to make ends meet, and the organization she belonged to was "broke" too. She had no choice but to return to her old line of work.

"Miss, want your fortune told?"

Liunian sat on a little stool, looking completely out of place among a group of white-haired elders.

The little girl in front of her didn't want her fortune told. Instead, she stared with shining eyes at the white cat snuggled in Liunian's arms, holding and eating mung bean pastries with both paws.

Liunian immediately caught on.

The white cat was utterly bewildered as Liunian pinned it onto the red paper on the ground.

"Fifteen yuan for half an hour of petting the cat, thanks (*°?°)=3"

Of course, petting the cat wasn't Liunian's only source of income. Whenever she had free time, she took the white cat around to do a variety of (scam) good (swindling) deeds (cons). By relying on her own two hands to feed herself, Liunian soon started living comfortably.

But it didn't last. The white cat disappeared, and Liunian sighed, thinking that the cat she'd found had gone back to where it belonged.

That night, a landslide hit the village. Thanks to Liunian rushing around to warn people, almost everyone survived. But when she went back to retrieve her things, Liunian vanished without a trace. Many people said she'd died in the disaster.

The following year, Tokyo Jujutsu High held its first exchange event since the great battle. Principal Yaga sent Gojo Satoru to pick up the visitors.

Liunian, who'd been saddled with new teammates, looked miserable. She glanced at the white-haired man staring at her and asked, "Hey, friend, do we know each other?"

The other man smiled brightly. "Maybe we do."

The next day, someone found out Liunian liked cats and gave her a black cat in front of everyone. Liunian had sworn never to keep a cat again, but took it for the sake of "friendship," then turned around and gave it to one of her teammates.

That night, she opened her bedroom door and saw the white cat she'd not seen in ages sitting on her bed, swishing its tail at her.

I must have opened the door wrong.

Liunian took a step back and slammed the door shut.

"..."

Gojo x Liunian

Not canon-compliant. The early part of the story doesn't cover many Jujutsu Kaisen characters. The Tokyo jujutsu world won't come into focus until Liunian goes to Tokyo. Thanks for understanding.

Lots of original worldbuilding.

Text in parentheses is the cat's inner thoughts.

Welcome, everyone, to the world of this story.

Theme: Pursuing a better life