The last thing Haumea had expected to encounter while on patrol had been a nest of kittens. And while part of him had been ready to dismiss them as unimportant, he couldn’t help but stop and sit a little ways off to watch them mewl and bumble about. Okay, so they were cute. Not as pretty as the koi he used to raise, but cute. And so very small.

Frowning a little he looked a bit more closely into the nest. When animals were this small, shouldn’t the mother be nearby? Creeping closer, he bit back a curse. There was enough snow laying undisturbed to show that if there was a mother cat, she’d been gone for a bit. No tracks coming or going in the snow.

“Has she abandoned you,” he murmured softly, inching even closer to the kittens. “Or did she mean to come back and something happened?”

This was foolish, he chided himself. He had a patrol to run. And yet. And yet, he couldn’t leave those poor, bereft kittens alone in the snow. It would get colder and they would freeze. And that was on top of them probably already entering into starvation. By rights, he should just let it happen. That was how nature worked. The strong survived. But listening to those tiny meows and watching the little furry bodies worm together to try and keep warm… Damn it. No, Haumea might be a corrupt senshi of the Dark Kingdom, but he wasn’t the sort of monster to let babies die. And though he would likely be chided for wasting his time with this, he didn’t think he would be punished. He had such vague memories of that future and leaving bodies out where they would be found. To terrify, yes, but he’d known then that he was also providing meat for stray dogs and cats.

Sighing, Haumea sat beside the nest and gently began to lift each kitten into his lap. He’d already spotted two teeny tiny bodies at the dark edge of the nest.

“Not strong enough to survive the cold or loss of Momma, I suppose. Poor, wee things.”

As he carefully cuddled the three remaining kittens, he felt a swelling of hot anger. This nest wasn’t so far from the sidewalk or people who would normally travel past during the day. Someone should have seen or heard these wee ones. Someone could have stopped and helped them before those two kits had died. These poor babies could have been out of the cold and with full bellies hours ago.

“And people call me evil,” he spoke softly to the kittens. “But I have never left a baby to die. I may kill, but the ones I take pass in peace. The harvesting of energy does not cause pain. It doesn’t even cause fear. I am honest in my killing. Yet all those who ignored you and left you to starve and freeze would call me a monster. Madness.”

It was pitiful how they were trying so hard to suck on his fingertips, to snuggle into the warmth his body generated. Poor, poor babies. As he allowed them to warm up, he considered his options. There was an all night veterinarian somewhere around, wasn’t there? They would have the means to help. Especially since he doubted the humane society was open at this late hour.

“I would take you home with me, but I’m afraid the youma would mistake you for snacks. The Dark Kingdom is a poor place to bring kittens in need of rescue.”

Powering down, Kekipi was very grateful that he’d worn a thick hoodie. Tucking the kittens inside carefully, he zipped up just enough to keep the cold out and hurried in the direction of the emergency vet. One way or another, he would save these little lives.