Delinquent Student and his Pet Teacher

A week had passed since Puss took the place of the maths teacher and had classes with the wolf and more than a week had passed since he was caught stealing. For Puss, nothing had changed. He wasn’t really worried about getting found out so far, after all, he had no evidence, right?

Another morning like every other, 

As usual Puss slept without any clothes in his bed that was way too big for one single cat. He stretched himself out on his four paws clawing himself into the sheets before kneading them for a short moment. He jumps out casually out his bed, not a single worry in his mind as he casually strolls towards his fridge to get a nice cold glass of leche. Right in the morning you might think? It was the best and only way to give him a good start to the morning. Nothing else like it.

On his way back to his room to get dressed, he sips his drink and notices something was different in his hallway. He couldn’t quite tell what it was until he saw something dark laying right at his front door.

On his way towards it he sees that it’s a little card that had been shoved underneath his door. Before he even picked it up shivers ran up his arm and down his spine. He recognized it immediately before his paw even reached it. He blinks at it. It couldn’t possibly be what he thought it was? It was a blood red card with a black dot in the middle seeping into the red. Everyone who knows the underground or anything about it knows exactly what this card means. 

“The mark of death?” His breath shakes and with the same shakiness he picks the card up from the floor. It was real. It was actually in his home.

He turns the card around to see a stained cream coloured back side. Puss swallows as he sees the reddish brown text on it.

“I’ll be waiting for you, Puss in Boots.” Is what it says. Seeing his name being handwritten with this ‘ink’ that he immediately recognized to be blood drove the shivers through his whole body and made his fur stand. His paw twitches in shock and he drops the card.

It was personally signed by ‘ La Muerte ’ themselves.

Such a normal morning. Like every other, he wished .

The whole day long Puss in Boots seemed to be deep in thought, his mind couldn’t stop thinking about what he could have possibly done to make the most well known and feared person in the underground mad at him. This was incredibly unusual for him and everyone around him noticed. As his thoughts raced he noticed how nervous he had been and this unusual feeling down in his gut… this couldn’t possibly be…

“Puss in boots!” He shoots out of his trance and finds himself in a classroom. One of the students had called him. “You haven’t said a word since you came in here, Teacher . Are you gonna… start the class or not?”

Oh yeah, right, school. He was too deep in thoughts to even notice the usual enthusiasm of the class fade when he took his seat.

He coughs to compose himself, enough of this, he has to at least pretend to do his job. 

As he gets back into his usual character and gets the class ready he notices that he’s in the same class as the wolf again. This time he’s attending, not like last week where he was mostly gone. Again, that ever so faint smile on him. 

Puss couldn’t care less about it as he had much worse troubles on his mind right now. He just sets up a movie for the students and thinks about what he’s going to do about this now.

He huffs annoyed as he stares at the card which he was careful to not hold up for anyone to see. Were there at least some clues on the card explaining the situation? Or at least a place where La Muerte would be ‘waiting’ for him? He didn’t understand but he couldn’t stop mulling it over in his mind.

He knew of this curse. He knew people who had gotten the card before and he surely knew that whoever received it was surely found dead only a short while later.

La Muerte never let anyone escape their grasp.

Knowing he didn’t have much time left he couldn’t possibly stop thinking about this, even as the class ends and break time begins he stands at the door waving at his students while still being caught deep in his thoughts. He lets out a relieved sigh, his students were one source to give him strength, if not for him then who would they have to cheer at when he was gone? A white furred tail appears next to him like a shadow. “You seem distracted today.” The wolf spoke as if to taunt the little cat.

Puss only wanted to roll his eyes at him, he couldn’t handle even more annoyances in the day and didn’t want to give him the energy nor attention to continue this conversation.

“And what’s it to you?” Puss fired back immediately without even looking at him.

Out of the corner of his eyes he can see the wolf eying him in surprise. He huffs with a chuckle before he leaves. Puss couldn't believe the timing of this guy. First in the alley and only now he wanted something from him after a week of dead silence. He waved the thoughts of the wolf away as he made his way back towards the desk. The mark of death was discreetly hidden in his folder when he picked his stuff up from the desk to leave himself. 

A long sigh escaped him. He wouldn’t let La Muerte get the better of him, would he? He probably had worse fights to fight and bigger enemies to fry in the past, hasn't he? It’s not like Puss in Boots was an easy nut to crack after all. But he didn’t know his enemy this time. Nobody knew anything about La Muerte and that was what made Puss a little unnerved about this whole thing.

—

With his hat and his cape on full display this night, Puss tried his best to shove those little worries in his mind away and get to work. He knew a place where he might get some answers, a bar downtown in an underground basement. 

All kinds of people meet there, all kinds of criminals and more, so it would be the perfect place to gather up some information. Puss knew the place only too well.

Being a ‘humble’ substitute teacher has its perks, even if he was adored in school, the students themselves didn’t pay him too much attention, especially outside of school and surely none of his students would ever know about this place.

He jumps onto a bar stool and spins around once before he stops and orders his usual, one glass of heavy cream. He takes a look through the room while he waits for his order, scanning it for anyone suspicious. Not a lot of familiar faces around today as it seems. “Has… Kitty been around?” Puss asks as cautiously as he can and even when he meets the bartender's eyes he doesn’t immediately answer him. A small sigh leaves the large man that prepared his drink before he answered him. “Not after… your last visit together.” He sideeyes him quite judgingly.

Oh. yeah. Puss really messed up that one, didn’t he? No matter, Puss shakes his head, not what he came here for.

With his drink gliding over to him he thinks about the best way to ask for information. He knows this is a delicate subject in the underground and he should do this carefully.

“Do you know… where one could find La Muerte?” 

Nevermind that, if there was anyone that knew about Muerte he’d want them to hear him. He needed to know if there was anyone in the room with him who could offer some knowledge.

But the room just went silent.

After the moment passes the bartender leans down to him. “Señor Puss… I didn’t think you’d be the one to throw away your life so easily…” The usual banter behind him starts up again. “No, It’s… quite the opposite, amigo.” Puss sets his drink back down and lifts his gaze. The bartender goes back to cleaning the glasses as he answers. “You know… that everyone who went to meet, “ he hesitates, “ La Muerte,” and then gulps, “Never came back to set foot into this establishment afterwards.”

“Tch.” So nothing. Puss downs his cream in one foul sip, wipes his snout and slams the glass onto the table. The room behind him got a bit more nosy, Puss notices movement towards him out of the corner of his eyes.

Here they come. Puss has had the occasional fights in this place, every time it was some criminals who he had stolen from once before, by accident of course. Or the one or two bandits who just wanted to see if they could beat him in a fight. Surely Puss wasn’t above the occasional drunken fight as well, it just happens in this kind of career.

“So this is the rumoured Puss in Boots?” Two bigger looking humans approached him, but Puss wasn’t worried or paid them any mind. “Señor…” the bartender pleaded.

“Not to worry, Mi Amigo, I wouldn’t ruin your fine establishment,” Puss exclaimed. “Again, that is.”

“Why don’t you come with us for a second, little pussy cat?” One of the brutes said while taking one step too close to Puss.

Puss turns around, overly confident as ever. “Now now, my friends, can’t it be something we can talk about in here?” His cape flutters further for a moment and all of the sudden the fly of one of them shreds open making their pants fall to the floor, his partner's shirt being torn to shreds and a P being sliced into the undershirt. 

They shriek in shock. While one tries to gather his pants back up the other's face lights up bright red with anger. “Careful, one step closer and it’ll be something else that’ll be torn to shreds.” Puss flicks his hat up and stares him right in the eyes.

“So the rumours were true…” A third voice chimes in and Puss couldn’t quite figure out where it came from.

Puss shifts his attention a little too late and a sudden blow to his cheek catches him off guard, that wasn’t at all the direction he thought the voice came from. He landed cleanly on all his paws after falling from the chair, the blow wasn’t that hard but it surprised him that he was so caught off guard by it that it actually made him fall off the chair. Offended by that he raised back up but these human goons took their chance with him and struck him down before they carried him off.

With his mind still fuzzy he was sure it must’ve been Kitty, only she could land a blow on him like that. Dangling in their hands Puss regains consciousness before they enter some building, he couldn’t really make out what it was. He takes a chance to glance at- that’s not Kitty?!- Absolutely disappointed in himself that he was taken out by someone's grunt, his paws wander through his face.

It seems like they’ve entered some kind of warehouse, the place seems huge and hollow, the sound travels harshly through the air, the sound of something being torn open to be precise. Before he gets the chance to check and see where the noise comes from he gets thrown to the ground with force. “Hey, hey, hey, hey! Careful now!” He hisses as he gets himself up from the dirty ground. The growling he could hear in front of him got louder with a snap and turned his full attention towards it.

“Stay still, I said.” The growl yells and Puss watches a knife being struck into someone's throat. He turns away from the gruesome act but he can clearly hear the sound of liquid pouring onto the hollow metal floor. He was thrown into this way too quickly for his mind to catch up to what was happening, he hides the sight behind his paws as his eyes widen with shock. Questions started to fill his head. These weren’t just some random brutes it seemed.

“Muerte.” A voice from behind him called out. “We’ve got him here.”

Muerte?!

His heart beat increased tenfold instantly. He was already in his grasp? They say he’s quick but this was something else. His mind went blank when he heard the footsteps from the raised platform in front of him coming his way.

“Ooooh, Hola, hola, Mr. Teacher.” The voice rings through the air, the cheery tone makes Puss shiver. “What brings me this pleasure?”

Grabbing his chest tightly in shock, Puss is left completely speechless.

What?

He lifts his gaze hesitantly to first see white paws splashed with blood, instantly he looks up to meet the person's gaze in front of him to make sure he isn’t dreaming.

He stared right into the white wolf’s bright red eyes, blood painting half of his face, his creepy smile now a wide grin staring down at him.

“You…!?” Puss gasps.

“You’re Muerte?!”

notes

Yeah there is no beating around the bush, we all know the movie, I'm gonna includes some beats of the story but lets just get straight to the point shall we èwé