Chapter 149: Cat
Hugh saw Beru cozying up to him, so he decided to give it a treat. He took out some metal pieces from a discarded technology and gave them to the dog.
Hugh saw that Beru noticed the silver metal before Hugh even took it out. This meant that Beru had a good sense of smell.
It made sense since wolves always had a good sense of smell, and combined with a dog's instincts, almost nothing could hide from it.
"Can you understand me?" Hugh said to the dog.
The dog responded to Hugh by nodding its head and licking Hugh's hand. It seemed that Beru had a smart head that could understand basic human language.
"Then, can you help me find something?" Hugh asked.
With Beru able to smell things from a far away, he would be a good detector for the black cat. Just by himself, it would take a much longer time than he was given.
"Ruff! Ruff!" Beru shouted. He seemed to be very enthusiastic about going out for a walk.
Beru walked away from the room and rushed to the door. He then started to scratch the door as he was very anxious to go out.
"I'm coming!"
Hugh took out Beru for a walk outside. He did not have a leash, but he knew that he could control Beru since Beru was not a normal dog.
Hugh opened the door and Beru immediately sprinted out of the room. Hugh was speechless as he saw Beru run off towards the left like it was running a sprint.
It was not long until Hugh could no longer see the dog anywhere. This was the point where Hugh regretted not getting a leash for Beru. It seemed that Beru was also as impulsive as a normal dog.
"Beru!" Hugh called out. He was jogging and looking around at the same time for any sign of the disobedient dog.
Hugh activated his eagle eyes and looked at the ground for clues. He squatted on the street and took out a single strand of black fur. This closely resembled Beru's fur, so he knew that he was going in the right direction.
Hugh followed Beru towards the central area. At this point, the sun had already gone down and the night took over.
There were a lot of students coming and going from the Central Area. He asked some of those students if they had seen a black puppy, but they did not see him.
Hugh continued to look around until he suddenly heard a voice.
"Hey! Stop fighting!" a voice said. Hugh listened to the voice and realized that it was familiar. He looked around the corner and saw Serena bending down.
Right in front of Serena was a black puppy and a black cat. Hugh immediately recognized Beru, and he rushed towards him.
"Beru!" Hugh called out. Serena heard this, and she turned towards Hugh. She was surprised to see him, and even more surprised to know that Hugh had a dog.
"Is he yours?" Serena said as she pointed at the black cat.
Hugh shook his head and picked up Beru from the ground. "No, this is Beru."
Serena nodded her head in affirmation. She was happy that Beru finally stopped arguing with the black cat.
"Is this black cat also yours?" Serena said as she pointed to the black cat. "He looks familiar," she continued as she had a flash of familiarity with the cat.
"No," replied Hugh. However, as he observed the black cat, even more, he realized that the black cat was also looking at him.
"Wait a minute," Hugh said as he pointed at the black cat. "This cat is the omen!"
The black cat omen was the creature that Ace wanted him to kill. This cat was a weapon of disaster that created chaos where ever it went.
The last time that Hugh saw the black cat, Sebastian lost his will and became a murderous criminal. Then, he lost sight of the cat since he was busy dealing with Sebastian's wolf form.
The cat carefully stepped back as Hugh pointed at it. It seemed very wary of the current situation, and it instinctively wanted to run away.
Not wanting to spook it, Hugh put down his hand and just stayed calm. He looked at the cat and carefully approached it.
Beru wiggled out of Hugh's hands and started to chase after the black cat. It seemed very angry at the black cat like they were enemies for life.
The black cat tried to ignore Beru and continued to stare at Hugh, but Beru continued to pester the cat. The cat and the dog-wolf faced each other and circled each other.
"Hugh, what's up with that cat?" Serena asked. She seemed to notice that the cat was not normal. "Your dog is also something else. Where did you get it, I want it too. Also, why does it look so familiar?"
Serena barraged Hugh with questions, so Hugh could not answer all of them in time. He did not want Serena to find out that Beru was a clone of him, so he had to lie.
"I just picked him up," Hugh replied. His answer was flimsy, but Serena did not question it.
"Ruff!" Beru shouted out. "Meow!" The day replied.
Although the cat and the dog-wolf were in equilibrium, it was only a matter of time until they tackled each other.
That fated moment came when the cat and the dog-wolf attacked each other at the same time. They launched at each other and struggled with each other's presence.
Hugh and Serena saw the fight and thought of it as adorable. The fight was not serious, it looked more of a sibling fight than did not result in serious injuries.
A dust cloud started to form around the fight and clouded the toe of them both. However, the cure fight was soon destroyed when a third party got involved in the fight.
Somebody took a hold of the cat by its tail. The cat seemed less than happy being held up like this, but it had no other choice. The cat struggled hard, but the person had a hard grip.
Hugh looked up and saw that it was another familiar face. It was Ace, the member of the student council who ordered him to deal with extraterrestrial threats.
"Finally found it," Ace said as he observed the black cat closely.
It was only now that Hugh realized that Ace had gloves in his hand. Seeing that the black cat affects everything it touches, Ace had the right idea to use a protective layer.
"Ace, why are you here?" Hugh asked as he picked up Beru from the ground. He held Beru tight as he feared Ace taking bEru away from him.
"Hugh, you know Ace?" Serena asked. She knew who Ace was, but she did not know why the two of them seems to know each other.
"I'm here to catch this stray cat," Ace replied.
Hugh was confused as to why Ace had acted by himself since Ace had instructed Hugh to do it.
"Oh, forget what I said before, Hugh. It turned out that we need this little guy for ourselves," said Ace as he looked at the black cat.
Ace's previous mission for Hugh was to kill the black cat omen. Now, Ace seemed very reluctant to kill the cat. Hugh guessed that they had better uses for the cat before they killed it.
"Now that I have what I came for, I'll go now," Ace said as he turned around.
"Meow!" the cat shouted. It looked like the cat was shouting towards Beru like it was asking for help.
"Ruff!" Beru replied. It jumped out of Hugh's arms and chased after Ace who had the black cat. Then, it started to bite Ace's pants to prevent him from running away.
"Hoh…this puppy is interesting," said Ace. He looked at the puppy with clear and curios eyes since he could sense how powerful Beru's jaws were.
Before Ace could even try to pick up Beru, Hugh picked up Beru and retreated away a couple of steps away from Ace.
"Ruff!" "Meow!"
The two animals who seemed to hate each other seemed very reluctant to part ways. The cat would be retained and used, which would be considered torture for the free-sprouted animal.
Hugh let Ace walk away. He also prevented Beru from chasing after Ace because he knew that this was not the time to defy the student council.
Disappointed, Beru melted back into Hugh's skin. It seemed to be mad at Hugh for not letting him out.
Hugh sighed as he got on bad terms with Beru. Hugh decided that he would give Beru a high-quality metal piece for dinner later.
Now that his mission was canceled, Hugh had nothing else to do for the day. He decided to turn around and go back to his house.
As he turned around, he saw Serena with her jaw wide open. It was only at that moment that Hugh realized that Beru's identity was busted.