8-10 minutes
The cat’s face wriggled. Black fur rippled, and flesh swelled like a tumor. The fur ripped open, revealing a white skull. There was human skin on top of it. It stretched and stretched, slowly covering the bare cranium.
Meow.
The cat cried again. Its head did not match the size of its body.
Yuri’s face was looking up at me. Her unstable head shook. There was a crack, the sound of neck breaking. Fur stretched out, and the heavy head fell to the ground.
Yuri stuck her tongue out and stopped moving. Her eyes remained open, bloodshot. My jaw dropped. I pulled my eyes away from the strange corpse lying at my feet and turned my gaze back to Yuri.
But she was gone. She was supposed to be sitting there.
“Why are you panicking, cutie?” A voice came from my feet. “This is the spirit world. Anything can happen here.”
I looked down again and saw a completely normal Yuri. She was on all fours, looking up at me. She pressed her head against my leg like a real cat.
“Meow,” she cried.
I retreated back.
Licking her lips, she rose back to her feet. She studied me, giggling.
Suddenly she put her hand on the bottom of her short skirt and lifted it up.
Her thighs trembled. Small rashes appeared on them, countless red dots covering her skin. Several thick needles protruded from the inside.
Blood dripped. Numerous black needles filled Yuri’s legs. A closer look, however, revealed them to be animal hair. Cat fur blanketed her slender legs. Bones fractured. Yuri’s legs bent and changed shape.
Inside her skirt were a pair of cat’s legs, supporting her weight unsteadily.
Her skirt fell. Yuri’s upper body did not change. It was still that of a young girl.
Which made it all the more hideous. Cat legs jutting out of a human body looked like a twisted work of art, created solely to blaspheme humanity. The legs moved as if dancing. Suddenly, she lost her balance.
Yuri pitched forward and fell face first to the ground.
As she crashed hard, her back contorted. Her spine arched, and her clothes ripped.
Thick black fur had grown underneath.
“Haha… Hahahahahaha!”
She laughed out loud like a madwoman. I retreated a few more steps. What I was seeing was almost too much to take. It felt like part of my brain was being destroyed without my knowing.
I should be used to oddities by now. But this sight was too much. Seeing the body of someone I knew being destroyed brought me pain. Yuri became human, then an animal, then human again. Her appearance became more and more grotesque.
She was a complete monster.
“Stop it, Yuri. Stop.”
Bones snapped. Her mouth split open, and her lower jaw fell.
“That’s enough!”
“How mean. It’s not like I’m transforming at will,” Yuri said indifferently. “Well, if you hate it that much, I can put in a bit of effort, I suppose. Ah, I’m so considerate.”
She stopped shape-shifting. In front of me stood a girl with her hands clasped behind her. She sat down as if nothing had happened.
And everything was back to normal.
It was as though the bizarre transformation from earlier had never been. Yuri rested her chin in her hand once more, wearing a cat-like smile. We stared at each other silently. She beckoned with her hand, and I sat down before her.
Seconds later, she spoke. “Sorry you had to see that. I didn’t transform on purpose, so I’d appreciate it if you could cut me some slack. I’m barely able to keep this form. The spirit world is a stomach that breaks the soul it swallows down to its essence. Mentally I was a monster and a cat while I was still alive. My human form has been dismantled to the limit. In fact, it’s hard for me to maintain this form. The sheer effort makes my brain boil. It might just turn into delicious soup. Not that I still have a brain, of course. Laughable, to be sure. Completely absurd.”
Yuri shrugged. There was no sadness in her voice.
Her pupils were those of a cat. A human face with the eyes of an animal.
She narrowed her golden eyes. “But at the same time, it’s also handy. I have to stop you, cutie. I need my wish to come true.”
Yuri stood up. Her red lips parted slowly, revealing rows of feline teeth. Drool dripped from her sharp fangs. Unlike my body, hers was diluted, but it was there, right in front of me. In the spirit world, the line between flesh and soul was blurry.
I recalled the sensation of the cat pressing its head against my leg.
She could touch me. Tear off my windpipe.
I sat still and waited for her to come closer. A pale hand was placed on my shoulder; I felt weight. It was terribly heavy. Yuri slowly opened her mouth. She brought her face dangerously close to mine.
I didn’t brush her hand off. The smell of animals and blood drifted to my nose.
The moment her teeth touched my skin, I said, “Can we just stop this?”
Yuri froze. She gently let go of my face. Raising her head, she blinked curiously, cocking her head in surprise.
“…Oh?”
She slowly extended a hand, a hand that had transformed into a cat’s. A soft paw touched my cheek. Hard fur rubbed my cheek again and again.
“You’re such an idiot, you know that?” Yuri said with a chuckle.
I said nothing. I just kept staring into Yuri’s golden eyes. She touched the skin below my eyes.
Her black fur became wet.
“You have nothing to cry about.”
She was right. There was no need for me to cry. Nor did I have the right to.
I came here to crush her hopes and destroy her wish.
I hadn’t forgotten what she did to those girls. I would never forgive the cat for toying with them.
But the tears wouldn’t stop. Tears spilled from my eyes and soaked into the cat’s fur. Warm paw pads caressed my cheeks. Animal arms slapped my face repeatedly.
“Come on. Stop making that face. You’re making it hard for me.”
Yuri laughed. I didn’t know how she could make such a face. Her eyes were that of a cat’s. Her hands, her fangs, too.
She was no longer human.
She claimed to have been a monster while she was still alive. She might’ve had nonhuman blood in her.
But to lose even her human body was horrific.
Wasn’t it heartbreaking for an ordinary girl to turn into something ghastly?
To not even see it as horrifying was tragic.
“Have you never been told not to pity people according to your own standards?” Yuri asked, concern in her eyes. “It’s pure arrogance, cutie. And it hurts others,” she added admonishingly.
I shook my head in silence. If Yuri wanted to bite my windpipe off right now, she could. But she didn’t.
Tears seeped into her fur. I steadied my breathing.
“Because it’s all fucked up!” I roared.
Pain stabbed me in the chest. I remembered what I saw back in the real world.
An unusual corpse with a swollen belly was lying on a bed, its broken neck swaying as if it were a burden. The belly pulsated despite the death of the body.
Her words played in my head. She said it was her duty to give birth to a monster. But it was her family that created those values. If Yuri had lived in a different environment, she would not have had to face a horrific end.
What she did was heinous. But who made her what she was?
All of this was the result of people’s evil intentions. It was madness. Everything about this was wrong.
But fixing it was impossible.
“Why did it have to be like this?! Why did you have to give birth to a monster?! You’re human, aren’t you? Your mother was a human being too! You let rules tie you down, you manipulated others, you killed people, and this is what you get!”
I grabbed Yuri’s arm. Her eyes widened in surprise. Her cat hand, attached to a human arm, was warm, blood circulating inside.
“I don’t care if it’s arrogance! If you don’t think there’s anything wrong with this, then you’re the crazy one! Every single one of you people… Why…”
An animal will give birth to an animal. Don’t you think so?
I bit down on my lip. Blood trickled down my chin. The reality that I chose to look away from confronted me once more. The cat and the fox were the same. Corrupted environments gave birth to them.
I will not forgive the fox. I will not approve of the cat’s wish. What they did was inexcusable.
Never.
But still…
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