Finding the spirit?

Easy.

There was possibly nothing easier (even if his spiritual energy somehow permeated throughout the entire structure) as she just needed to follow the point of highest concentration. At the very least; that would be where he stayed the most. Meaning it was the place most important to him.

Her tails carelessly waved behind herself as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Even with the size of the building and her lack of size - it only took a little while to arrive towards her destination. At that point the wailing practically erupted from behind the shattered door.

Said door looked to have been kicked open from her side.

“Nobody can have a single coin - I've spent all my life building this wealth!”

In front of a half-open vault was a semi-transparent man in the finest robes that the cat had seen since she placed her mittens on this world’s soil. Lavish to the point of exaggeration. His face wasn’t exactly luxurious but he made up for it with a finely trimmed moustache that seemed sharp enough to draw blood.

She didn’t care much about that, though, as she had seen far more opulence in her long life. What caught the kitten’s attention was the chain that appeared to be coiled around the door of the vault - keeping him chained to the vault door which was slightly open. Not that the spirit seemed to care.

His face deranged as he looked around like a mad dog; looking for the next passerby that he could savagely maul for the sin of just getting too close.

Fitting as a trail of blood still stained his chest as if it had dribbled down from his chin.

|So many questions, so little time~!|

Since she was a cat - or at least she assumed that was the case - the spirit paid little attention to her as she leapt atop the ruins of the door to look at him. Studying one of these closely allowed her to see that the chain was attached to their chest. Hanging off something you’d expect to see nailed into a prison wall rather than someone's torso.

|Not like this is the first time we’ve seen ethereal chains attaching themselves to people.|

It was then that something really interesting happened.

“I refuse to-Urgh n-no ARGH!”

Suddenly that spry middle-aged man fell to his knees while clutching his chest; eyes practically bulging out from his skull while he’d likely be covered in sweat if not for a lack of a physical body. His screams were no longer born from insanity but of pain. Causing the kitten to shiver in pain yet remain out of intrigue.

Those sensitive ears atop her head are not doing anything to help her out. Her large, practically glowing, eyes silently observed as the arrogant man pathetically rolled on the floor in tears like a big baby. It made her wonder if he was truly wretched or the pain was enough to make anyone break.

What is more interesting was the source of the pain - that man clawing at the metal on his chest while the chain seemed to be set alight. Visibly turning to ash under some invisible fire. A sight that truly got the cogs in her head to begin spinning with countless questions.

|This appears quite similar to that decay thingy that the bastard’s undead do…|

|Certainly; else his butter fingers would be wrapped around our neck again chehehe.|

For quite some time the cat just sat there watching the man as his chain slowly burned away - neither cat said anything to the other but they felt those chains were… Familiar. As if their true name was something they should know and they had some guesses.

But they also assumed she wouldn’t be so quiet if she saw something like this as she appeared as if she’d love to spout about her winnings.

Those annoying red strings of fate being among her favourites.

Sadly that mad cat was the only one who could make that kind of judgement and it appeared she was giving them the silent treatment. Neither of them were going to go out their way to ask her, either. They didn’t understand her enough to make those kinds of requests.

As such they could only watch on until the man finally stopped squirming.

The chain also stopped shortening.

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Her kitten lips lifted up into a smile as she chose to ignore the heavily breathing man; that lord completely focused on catching his breath after his harrowing experience. He was still aware enough to notice the little black figure that pranced past him. Mind clouded by the pain, still, he lost his composure completely.

“Now even mere animals dare to steal from this lord!”

Due to not recovering he couldn’t get his legs under himself however that didn’t stop him from charging towards the kitten. His hands clawed at the ground as he opened his mouth wide with incoherent screams that promised a slow death. Spittel flying from his mouth making him look like a rabies infected beast.

Most people & animals would be scared at such a situation nevertheless the kitten was far from being average in any regard.

Lightly tapping her paws against the ground all at the same time; sending her into the air just as he attempted to grab her. Helping her land atop his head with all the grace of a… Cat. From there she just jumped up and let the weight of her body crashing down slam his head into the hard floor.

Having his head bounce like a ball against the ground after going through an ungodly amount of pain seemed to be enough to turn the lights off upstairs. That cat didn't seem to pay much attention to him as she just hopped off. Easily squeezing her little body through the metal reinforced door.

Sure enough, she found herself in a room full of bank notes & a wide collection of coins. There did seem to be someone in earlier as (while a lot of the vault was quite well organised) there was a section where banknotes littered the ground. Some of which were dyed in red.

|It seems your assumptions were correct, chehehe~.|

Although she did suddenly realise something.

She didn’t exactly have pockets nor did she bother learning what all the various denominations meant in this time period. That cat (obviously) didn’t even know how much a loaf of bread cost. In fact she didn’t bother checking if they even had bread in this land.

As such she just stood there looking at the large assortments of money without a clue on how much to get nor how to get it out. If she ended up giving Rukia 100k sin worth of coins by accident… Well the girls would likely die within the night with every inch of their home being torn apart.

Whether by the authorities of some gangsters was a question she’d rather not find the answer of.

It had to be a significant amount of whatever type she wanted yet not enough to be noticeable whenever the new feudal lord finally recovers the vault. She also couldn’t make the type of coin worth too much or people would question where two little girls could get it from. That or they’d just forcibly take it away.

|Spoken like a true granny.|

That cat just clicked her tongue at her otherself’s nonsense.

With no other choice she did the only thing she could do… She returned back to the first room she had managed to enter through. If she was right, and it contained glorified receipts, she’d be able to get a landmark for the worth of at least the base currency. Then it was just a matter of how to get that currency.

This would also give her the chance to look around the place; she doubted there wasn’t a single bag in the whole building.

Especially when someone as materialistic as that dead man apparently built it.

Fortunately she had already inspected quite a lot of the building so it was very easy to recall where a bedroom was. Finding an abandoned coin purse which she opened to inspect the coins. It seemed like a servants quarters so it should give her an idea of what denomination to nab.

After that she made her way back to her entry point where she pawed at a random book to study the pages upon pages of numbers.

…

It didn’t, in fact, take too long.

She just needed to find a page on daily necessities to learn all she needed - from there it was as easy as grabbing enough coins to the point where the bag bulged. Carrying it in her maw by the strings was easy enough to accomplish. Though she chose to exit from a different place.

Following the tunnel would likely lead her out of the city or into a random house while climbing the walls to go back through her own little tunnel may prove difficult with the jingling coin purse. Would also be a good way to get the guards attention. As such she just found a window which she could escape out of.

Glass was a rare commodity in this era which made it as simple as just undoing the latch of a window cover and squeezing her little body through.