In her small room, Hikari awoke twenty minutes before her alarm clock went off. The eleven year old catgirl leap from bed,  not concealing her delight this morning. Her tail wagging gleefully, she rushed  around even with nearly an hour's time spare. Her room was small and her bathroom even smaller, but there was enough room to for a catgirl to swing herself in excitement.

Today was the day she got to make breakfast for The Master, and take it to him.

'Gotta shower quick, can't be late! Need to be clean though!

She paid close attention to her tail, making sure the brown-furred appendage was spotless, and took care washing her hair of her pointed cat-ears atop her head. She brushed her hair after drying it with the same care, then brushed her teeth, and used her nicest-smelling perfume. Once she was satisfied she was ready, she put on her uniform. A spotless, neatly ironed and pressed maid dress. She put it on making sure her tail was lined up right through the small gaps in the skirts that were meant to accommodate it. For her final touch, she put her favourite ribbon on her tail, the pink one with the small golden bells. She looked at herself in the mirror.

"Nya! I'm perfect!" She beamed at her own reflection. She raced out of her room, heading straight to the kitchen.

Her alarm clock, a smiling figure of a Calico cat holding a digital clock, didn't seem too bothered that it was going to go off for no reason in three minutes.

***

It hadn't gone very well.

Hikari stared glumly at the burnt sausages and bacon. At the blackened toast, and charred eggs. About the only thing right was the bowl of cereal and the glass of orange juice.

"Um... I guess I should try again." She said to herself.  

This time things went far better. She had everything ready, on a tray, and wheeled the trolley towards The Master's bedroom. The small clock lying on the tray told her she was just in time, and she realised if she hadn't burnt everything she'd have been early.

'Oh, that's good. I wouldn't want to have woke The Master early!'

She waited outside for a few moments, then heard the beep of the alarm clock inside. She paused for another moment, then knocked on the door and entered, the routine being to not keep The Master waiting as his servants waited on a reply. She had never really got over how impressive this room was. She was sure her own room, including the bathroom, could have fit into the same space as his massive four-poster bed.

"Good Morning, Master! I have your breakfast here!" She said, smiling as she pushed the trolley and tray into the room.

The Master sat up in bed, blinking awake.

"Oh, Hikari... Leave it by the table for now." He said, running a hand through his spiked white hair. She nodded and complied as The Master stood up, putting on a robe as he walked to the small table. Hikari laid the tray down, and stood waiting as he began to eat.

The Master didn't talk much during breakfast, but still she enjoyed it. She got to serve her Master, like she'd done all her life. She couldn't remember a time she'd never served her Master...

"That was delicious, Hikari. Can you send Takeko in now to clean the room while I get ready?" The Master instructed.

"Of course, Master." She replied, bowing. She collected the plates together, put them on the tray, and wheeled it out as The Master went into his own bathroom.  Outside, her blonde sister waited.

"Morning Takeko!"

"Morning." The blue-eyed catgirl said. Hikari and Takeko were close, but then Hikari was close to all her sisters who worked as maids for The Master.

The sister waiting to clean The Master's room though was one of her closest friends too, along with Dai since all three of them were eleven. Their other four sisters were all a year older, so they were closer to each other, and as the little sisters the three banded together. Takeko was one of two blondes of the family, the smallest of the two, and with rounded ears atop her head of long blonde hair. She smiled with her fangs more prone to showing, and Hikari sometimes envied the beautiful shade of blue her eyes shone when she was happy, which was most of the time she wasn't debating or arguing with Dai. Takeko's tail though was shorter and less active than Hikari's, which sometimes had a mind of its own.

"You can go in now. The Master's finished breakfast." Hikari said, and Takeko grinned, her cute little fangs on show again.

"Great! I'll see you later!"

Back in the kitchen she cleaned the plates, and made her own breakfast before going to the small office for the maids. Today, her older sister Mimi was in charge of the roster.

"Morning Mimi. What am I to do today?" She asked as she entered.

Her pink-haired sister looked at her with confusion.

"Um... No idea..."

Mimi wasn't the best with the roster. She was never very good at figuring out who should do what jobs that weren't already taken. She was sometimes a bit clumsy too, but she was usually saved by their other and (by only a few months) oldest sister, Sora. Mimi usually dyed her long straight hair pink, but not her tail, which always stayed the same natural light brown, but was usually covered in ribbons and bows.  She also sometimes dyed the tips of her triangular ears differently too.

"Oh. Well..." Hikari began. If she was honest she was no good with the roster either...

The saviour arrived, their red-haired sister Sora. Her shoulder-length firey-red hair and the way it hid her ears below itself made her look the most tough of all the sisters, and in a way she was the mother figure of the family. She kept everyone in line, and solved all the arguments, especially between Taiara and Yatsumi, or Dai and Takeko. Her somewhat fluffy tail only ever moved when she was cross.

"Okay, Mimi, I've done polishing the table in the dining room. I can do that now if you want." She announced.

"Oh, thank you Sora!" Mimi beamed.

"Are you the only one finished, Hikari?" Sora asked. Hikari nodded.

"I think so."

"Okay... Well, I guess you can go help Dai was and polish the statues. And remind her to do it I guess."

"Is she even awake?" Mimi wondered.

"Okay, wake her up first." Sora corrected.

"Okay. Um, why is Dai doing the statues? You know how clumsy she can be..." Hikari asked.

"You can stop her smashing anything. You always do."


***

She decided to go through the garden to get to the dorms. If Dai was still asleep, she'd wake up her lazy sister and drag her to her job if she had to, but for now, Hikari wanted to enjoy the short walk. She went past her favourite spot, the Gnome Garden.

This was where her favourite garden ornaments were, large gnome statues. There was the little hamster with bat wings, the cat with big paws, the two birds, the seal-like thingy on the lillypad in the pond, the little dinosaur... She loved sitting here with the twelve little statues on the bright red bench beside them.

Each of them was painted in a rannge of bright colours, some of them not even painted to look anything like the animals they resembles.  This spot made her feel relaxed when she could get out here. She sometimes rearranged the gnomes when she had time off, so they didn't get bored (the seal-thing though seemed "happy" where it was, she joked with herself) and she remembered what she and her two sisters her age had used to do in the past, telling stories about them, playing statues and pretending to be gnomes themselves...

But she was working now, and she had to pass by.

"Hi everybody! I'll see you later!" She waved to the concrete figures. They watched her pass with their permanent smiles.

She found Dai was actually awake, but only just a few moments before Hikari had arrived.

"Muuh?" Dai groaned. Her short-haired brunette sister wasn't a morning person. She always looked at her worst this early. Her hair and fur on her tail was unkempt. It didn't help she was about to try and shower using toothpaste either.

"Uh, morning..." Hikari said, gently swapping the tube for the bottle of shower gel. Dai didn't seem to notice.

Hikari waited as her sister...

"Aaaaa! Cold!"

...turned on the wrong tap...

"Aaaaa! Hot!"

...then turned the hot water on set too hot. Eventually, Dai stopped yelling out at the wrong temperatures and was done.

"Blaag!"

But even the shocks of the shower at the wrong temperatures hadn't made her more alert. Hikari sighed, knowing that Dai had managed to use the shower gel as the toothpaste now. Still, at least Dai was ready to do any job you gave her... Even if she might have needed a little more help than the somewhat accident-prone tomboy would admit...


***

Dai was still sleepy as they walked to the gallery. Her hair was more in order, but the tomboyish young sister was rarely neat with her messy, spiky hair. Her long tail dragged behind her as she walked, Hikari careful not to stand on it.

"How do you do it, Hikari?" Dai asked.

"Do what?" She replied

"Wake up so easy."

Dai yawned, to prove the point once more.

"I don't know. I guess because I go to sleep early." Hikari pondered.

"I sleep early. I'm in bed at one every night." Dai protested.

"Well, one isn't at night, it's more the morning..."

Dai shrugged.

"It's still dark outside, it's night."

Hikari decided there wasn't much point to argue. Dai was Dai. Besides, they were at the gallery.

Hikari tried not to shudder when she went in. Something about this place made her hair stand on end. Maybe it was all the shadows...

"You still scared of this place?" Dai teased.

"I'm not scared..." Hikari muttered, looking at the gallery. It was big, and dark, with the only lights dim except above the statues. They had floodlights pointing at them, but it only made the rest of the gallery room look darker.

"Oh, you're jealous of the statues then."

"What's there to be jealous of? They don't move around."

Dai waved a duster at the chest level of a nearby statue. Hikari frowned.

"You're one to talk." She muttered, knowing if anything Dai was just as poorly-endowed in that department as she was... for a brief second she was reminded of how jealous all the sisters were of Taira and her early blooming... But she shook her head and moved on.

"Hey, I'm secure being a girl, just not a girly girl. Besides, when we grow up we'll both put these lumps of rock to shame!" Dai grinned.

"Whatever. Let's clean the lumps of rock and get on with our day."

"Scaredy cat?"

"I told you I'm not scared!" Hikari snapped. Dai giggled.

"Jeez, lighten up, sis. I'm just joking around."

With care, the pair soon cleaned the statues. In the gallery, there were three larger bronze statues. A male angel, a female angel, and a fairy. Hikari preferred them over the others, because they looked angelic. They weren't as detailed either as the others.

The other seven were all female nude humans, all in marble. They were exquisitely detailed, and all her sisters and The Master admired them for that detail. But for some reason it made her nervous when she looked at the perfectly sculpted collection. She also didn't get the names below them. Like the one that wore glasses. Why was that one called Love and Sincerity? It just seemed to be a woman to Hikari. Or the short one with the bowl haircut. It didn't seem very knowledgeable or reliable, so why was it Knowledge and Reliability?

Eventually, they were done, and the two sisters left the gallery. They found their other sisters in the garden, Taira and Yatsumi not doing very well at all. Well, it sounded that way at least. They were heard from very far away...

"Well, how was I to know what the weed whacker was?" Taira protested.

"It's the pole one! Not the one with the big bladed teeth!" Yatsumi shouted.

"Oh. What's this one?"

"She's not using what I think she is..." Hikari muttered, as they neared.

"That's the... I'm not sure..."

"Well, it might be the weed whacker then!" Taira said triumphantly.

"No, Taira, that's the hedge trimmer. " Hikari corrected her sister, sighing with relief. She was glad Sora had hidden the chainsaw before these two were gardening...

"Oh, well if little miss smarty cat knows what's what maybe she can do it?"

"She can help!" Yatsumi growled.

Her two elders sisters were a long haired brunette and a blonde who wore her own hair in a long ponytail, and were always arguing. It always got silly too. Taira's pointy ears meant she mocked Yatsumi's rouned ones, and Yatsumi mocked how Taira's tail was always going crazy.  The two also had their differences in how they worked. Taira jumped right in, Yatsumi hung back and planned first. It meant the two didn't work well together for the first half hour of any job. Both however, feared Sora. Their red-haired sister enforced the rules sternly, and neither wished to be on the receiving end of her wrath.

"If I help will you stop arguing over whatever it is you're arguing about?" Hikari sighed.

Taira and Yatsumi glared at each other.

"Fine. But just so you know, she started it." Yatsumi said.

"Nuh-uh, you started it."

They then bickered back and forth.

"You started it times a million!"

"You started it times a million and three!"

"Three? Why three?"

"It's more still!"

Hikari sighed.

"Dai... get Sora..."

The bickering sisters stopped immediately.

"We'll be good." Taira said.

"You're in charge, Hikari." Yatsumi bowed.


***

After they averted a gardening catastrophe, Dai and Hikari went inside with their sisters, who still glowered at each other. Taira had sprayed Yatsumi with the hose, so Yatsumi had charged her sister into the hedge. The bickering pair had leaves and twigs in their hair and uniform, and had only stopped fighting when the threat of telling Sora had been raised.

Lunch was the responsibility of someone else to take it to The Master, in this case Sora, and so Hikari made lunch for some of her sisters. The cleaned-up but still simmering pair of Yatsumi and Taira as well asTakeko and Mimi were ready for lunch, and waiting as she cooked. Dai tried to help, but Hikari thanked her and convinced her to sit down at the table with the others after the third time she had to use the extinguisher.

The group were joined by Sora as Dai and Takeko washed the plates.

"Hikari, The Master wants to see you in his office."

"What for?" She squeaked. Was she in trouble?

"I'm not sure."

Nervously, Hikari made her way there. She knocked.

"Come in."

She walked into the office, again still impressed by the size, but nervous. She glanced at the piles of papers and boxes, then met the gaze of her Master.

"You w-wanted to see me, Master?" She said, stuttering.

"Yes, Hikari. Could you please stand straight and twirl?"

Twirl?  She did it anway.

"Hmm, no, a little slower..."

She complied.

"Hmm, yes. As I thought. Hikari, how would you describe your uniform?"

"I love it!" She said quickly. The Master stood and looked her over. She couldn't help but blush a little.

He looked at the short-heeled shoes, the white stockings, the frilled and flared skirt and black dress, the also-frilled apron and headwear.

"It is nice, yes, but perhaps as summer draws in, a little unsuitable. The white stockings... And maybe a shorter skirt. Something more comfortable, perhaps?"

"That would be nice, Master." Hikari agreed. She felt too hot sometimes as it was and it wasn't summer yet.

"Anyway, I had hoped to clean my office tomorrow, but I realised the issue of uniforms this morning. I noticed you seemed rather warm in yours while you waited. So, tomorrow, in the morning, you'll clean my office, and after lunch, you'll model the new uniform ideas I have for summer.  I'll work on them as you clean the office.

'I get to wear the new uniform first?!' She thought with glee.

"Of course, Master." She bowed.

"Good. Well, I'm sure you have work to do, so please don't let me detain you. Oh, and Hikari, thanks once again for the wonderful breakfast." He said, smiling. She bowed, and tried not to race out of the room, blushing at the compliment and her excitement at the new uniform. She paused.

"Um, Master... Can I tell my sisters?" She asked nervously.

"Of course. They will have to decide on the uniforms too."


***

"A new uniform?"  Dai asked.

"Yes. The Master said I get to model his designs!" Hikari beamed.

She, Dai, and Takeko were in the Gnome Garden. Their duties for the day had ended after dinner, and so they chatted away. Hikari had mentioned what The Master had said.  She and Takeko used the benches, while Dai simply flopped onto the grass.

"They're for summer, right? I hope he gives us a shorter skirt. And maybe a lighter blouse..." Takeko sighed.

"No, why can't we wear shorts?" Dai wondered.

"The rest of us like skirts." Hikari noted.

"Well, why can't I wear pants?"

"Because then it's not a uniform any more." Takeko said.

"We still do the same  job in a dress, in pants, or naked! What difference does it make?"

"Um, doing it naked would be a big difference. It'd look silly. And what if The Master saw you?"

Hikari sighed, and let them debate a little more, before giving up.

"I think I'm going to go to my room. Maybe get an early night."

"Okay, goodnight Hikari." Takeko said.

"It's only eight!" Dai protested.

"Yeah, but I'm wanting to get some rest." Hikari said, as she bid her sisters goodnight.


***

"Let them go!"

The black haired boy was furious. The white-haired boy was contemptuous. The view was from behind, facing forward. For some reason moving or speaking was impossible.

"Or what? Face it, you're not in charge. I rule now. This is my world. I can do what I like..." The White-haired boy said, waving the object in his hands.

"We'll stop you." Someone said, confidently.

"Oh, sure, blondie. Sure. Like you stopped, say, Piedmon? Running away, losing everyone else one by one?"

She felt angry at this, but the other voice spoke first.

"I'm done running."

The white-haired boy smirked.

"A shame. None of them ran. Look at them now. But this thing can do more. You two are the last..."

"And the last thing you'll ever see if you don't let them go!" The black haired boy repeated. The white-haired boy sighed.

"For a genius, you're a moron."

He raised the thing in his hands and...


***

"Um, Hikari... Are you doing anything tonight?"

She stared at the brown-haired boy, the goggles on his head glinting in the sun. He had asked this a million times.  She'd given him a million excuses.

"Well, uh... I have... Homework."

"We can study together?"

"It's... Math homework. I'm on a different book."

The boy frowned.

"I sit next to you in Maths."

"I mean, uh.... Science!"

I said that earlier to... She thought


***

She blinked awake, this time to the buzz of the happy cat alarm.

"Oh... What a weird dream..." Hikari muttered. She couldn't remember much, but she knew it had been odd. She remembered the face of the black-haired boy. It had looked familiar. And somehow so had the other two faces in her dream.

"Oh, that's right! I have to clean The Master's office!" She yelped, and raced to get ready again...


***

Embarrassingly, though, she had to wait for The Master to remember she had no key. Dai brought it to her.

"He says sorry he forgot, and to just get started." Dai said, before racing off, wheeling the trolley round the corner. Hikari ignored the crashing noise a few seconds later as she went in.

"Wow, this is a real mess..." She muttered. Yesteday she had been nervous, but today, she saw all the papers and boxes, all disorganised.

She began clearing up, filing all the papers away and making the boxes neater. As she worked, her mind wandered to her dream.

'So weird.... Having odd dreams a lot. Like the time I dreamt about the gnomes...'

She had enjoyed that dream, actually. She'd went into the garden at midnight, and found to her delight the gnome garden had come alive. She'd played with the creatures, all friendly, all able to talk, and before she had woken, there had been a really strange ending.

"Help us" The former gnome-cat had said.

The dream went on, with everyone, even the gnome-cat never mentioning the statement again, but when she woke not long after, the cat-gnome was on her mind. Help us? Help who? How?

She sighed. She'd maybe worked a little too hard lately.  She wasn't all that alert as she nudged a cabinet. It shuddered.

"Oops..." She said, then realised. There was a box on top! Too far for her to reach now, but bumping it... It was going to fall!

She reacted fast, catching it.

"Phew. Nothing spilled..."

She looked inside at the... the strange things. They looked familiar... Many colours. Some small things with little screens and a few buttons, others slightly larger. Where had she seen these before?

...Had she seen these before? She shrugged, and, climbing carefully onto the desk, put the box back up on top of the locker, further away from the edge this time...