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Having only been in Destiny City for roughly just about a month now, Hina wasn't certain as to if she had truly managed to adjust to her new surroundings just yet, though, given her tendency to go along with what everyone else wanted to do, perhaps she was already blending in just fine. When it came to school, at least, Siegfeld was not as intimidating as she may have thought it may be, though it possibly helped to have a relative already attending, to help show her around.

Speaking of which... Tochi, ever delighted to have her cousin finally here in person rather than exchanging letters back and forth, had invited Hina to spend the night at her house, for the purposes of 'girl talk', or something like that. Frankly, Hina had simply been happy that her older cousin wanted to spend time with her, and thus had easily accepted the offer, despite not really sharing much of the same interests as Tochi did. The guest room had been prepared, both for Hina's privacy, as well as Morie's firm stance on not trying to cram anyone else into her and Tochi's shared room, after a certain past incident. Hina, for her part, didn't mind, and all was well, at least for the time being.

Nighttime, however, was a different matter; Hina, having awoken in the middle of the night, found herself unable to get back to sleep so easily, perhaps feeling a bout of sudden restlessness. Feeling that maybe a cup of tea may be the answer to helping with that, Hina got up with the intention of heading for the kitchen, only to realize, halfway down the hall, that she really didn't remember which direction the kitchen was, exactly. With everyone else asleep, this made things even more difficult, because she couldn't very well just ask Morie or Tochi to show her the way. The Shimotsuki household was moderately spacious enough to where she didn't want to go wandering around into random rooms on her own, in the dark, where there was the possibility of disturbing everyone...

But it seemed that she wouldn't get much of a chance to dwell too much on it, as Hina suddenly found herself staring down a fluffy white kitten, that happened to be sitting in the middle of the hall she was currently going down. Blinking in confusion, Hina thought back to Tochi's letters- she hadn't ever mentioned owning a cat, had she? Then, was this like those 'I don't own a cat' posts Tochi always was texting her? It was just a kitten, so hopefully it was friendly...

"... Hello, little kitty, are you lost, too?" Hina asked the kitten, most certainly not expecting an answer.

Hina said nothing for a good long moment, and instead stood there, staring at Rune in shock. Was she still dreaming? There wasn't exactly a language barrier that was the issue here- Hina had been learning English in school since she was a child- but at the same time, Rune may have well been speaking in some alien language because the young teen couldn't bring herself to do anything but continue to stand and gawk at the fluffy white talking kitten.

(Perhaps, very far down the line, she'd realize that she wasn't too off the mark with Rune being 'alien')

…She had to be sleepwalking, Hina was pretty certain of this, no matter how illogical it was to be as self aware of this. This was just a strange dream, no doubt the result of all those vtuber vods she and Tochi had binge watched earlier, and she should go back to her room, and try not to think too hard about it.

"I, um... no...?" Hina managed out, still trying to process how a talking cat could even be possible. Was she sure she wasn't sleepwalking? This was still way too surreal to be truly happening; incidentally, her reaction, while normal for most people who encountered a talking cat for the first time, was probably the opposite of what Rune was accustomed to...

... Save for that time her very first awakened senshi mistook her for a certain alien cat that offered people contracts in exchange for their souls, anyway.

"Tochi- she knows you?"

Sure, this was Tochi's house, and she had been wondering who this very fluffy white kitten belonged to, but they were acquainted? As in, Tochi knew that this cat could speak English?

That... all of what Rune said sounded absurd, at least if it was anyone else, but Hina realized that if anyone would befriend a talking cat, that it would happen to be Tochi, and it would happen to be a cat that was into singing and dancing like her cousin. It didn't make things any better, but Hina was starting to come to a sort of understanding, or at least an attempt at trying to make this make sense.

Of course, that was before the cat asked her if she wanted to hear her thoughts. What was the little cat thinking of doing? Or what was it she wanted to say? Hina couldn't quite wrap her head around what kinds of things a cat that was a friend of her cousin Tochi would want to involve her in.

"I, um... maybe? I think I might like to hear..." she answered.