Volume 5 - CH 5.5

“Why didn’t anyone help you?!”

Couldn’t something have been done before she became a cat?

Someone should have reached out to them before ■ became ■.

I wiped away my tears. Yuri was watching me blankly. Suddenly, she extended her hand.

Slender fingers touched my head.

“Meow.” She smiled.

Human hands ruffled my hair. She stroked my head as you would a child and moved her hand down. She then pinched my face and pulled it.

My cheek twisted.

It was quite painful.

“What are you… doing…”

She laughed. “From an outsider’s point of view, my situation is pretty hopeless. I guess it’s tragic in some way. There’s a word for that, though: inevitable. Then again, maybe not. There’s one thing I didn’t tell you because it was embarrassing. So you shouldn’t be all gloom and doom. In fact, I want you to vilify me.”

Yuri let go of my face and abruptly rose to her feet.

Her hand lost its shape and reverted to a cat’s paw. She walked backwards. Her left ankle suddenly turned into the cat’s. She stopped before she tumbled and put her weight on her right leg.

“I guess I can share you a secret so you can hate me even more.”

Yuri put on an innocent smile and spread her arms wide.

Part of the skin on her neck had turned to fur. Her animal body was encroaching on her human skin. But she didn’t seem to mind. Careful with her left ankle, she bowed gracefully like a stage actor.

“Once upon a time, there was a lonely cat,” she recited in a sonorous voice.

She was narrating what sounded like a fairy tale.

“The cat had eyes blacker than obsidian, and fur blacker than night.

The cat was kept in a large cage and raised with great care.

The cat was always alone, surrounded by girls.”

Her voice was pleasant to the ear. I listened quietly.

There wasn’t much time left, but I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt her.

I couldn’t ignore the words of the departed.

“The cat laughed, holding its belly.

It’s time to play. Get ready!

There was not much time, though.

The cat had never played with anyone before.”

The cat saw the events that transpired in the past few days as nothing but a game. My gut churned at the thought. But there was no point in taking out my anger on her; she was already dead. Yuri told the rest of the tale. She even alluded to us.

“And now, the cat had gained lovely playmates.”

To the cat, it was probably a fortunate coincidence that the academy contacted the Mayuzumi clan. But it was also inevitable. The school took in many girls with supernatural abilities. If something bizarre were to occur there, the appropriate authorities would be contacted. When the cat met the playmates she saw in the fox’s memories, she was overcome with joy.

And so she decided to play.

For the first time in her life, she decided to have fun.

“The cat did not know what it meant to be sad.

Nor did it understand that they were not happy.”

I had no idea if she was lying or not. But one thing was for sure: our sense of values was far too different. The cat continued her story. As the tale neared its end, she raised her voice high.

“Oh, there will never be a happier creature in this world than I!

I’ve cursed this life numerous times, but now I feel grateful to the gods.”

But that couldn’t be joy. There was no way it could be called happiness.

I watched her suspiciously. No matter how much she claimed she was happy, I would never acknowledge it. She met my gaze and smiled. A smile that said she knew. She shook her head.

“There was one thing, however, that the cat regretted very much.

The cat, in truth, wasn’t able to…”

She took a deep breath. The fairy tale was ending.

The cat smiled awkwardly.

“The cat wasn’t able to profess its love to the fox.”

She paused.

“And that is the end of the cat’s story.

This might mean nothing much to you, dear reader.

The cat died. That is all there is to it.”

The corpse’s belly would tell the rest of the story.

The fairy tale concluded. Complete silence fell. I stared at her with wide eyes. Yuri’s cheeks were flushed red. Wearing an expression typical of an ordinary high school girl, she turned her face away from me and nodded.

“Do you get it? The cat fell in love with the fox.”

She scratched her cheek, smiling. I had never seen this look on her face before.

“He was the only monster I knew. But that’s not all. When I saw him through the computer, how do I put it… I knew he was the only one for me. Apologies if it’s so boring. I attended an all-girls high school, so I’m not exactly accustomed to romance. Yes, I fell in love with him. It was love at first sight.”

Her first love. A pure love at first sight.

A twisted, yet truly simple form of love.

“I’m sure he doesn’t know how I feel. Pathetic, I know. After introducing myself as his messenger. Not that he was aware of it.” Her voice betrayed sadness.

I just listened to her, stunned. I couldn’t comprehend what she just said. She looked embarrassed, like a normal girl.

Odd words to be uttered in the spirit world.

“I wished to bear the child of the person I loved. And I wished to bring him back into the real world if I could. It was only natural, since I was in love. So, you see…”

Yuri spread her arms. She smiled happily in the dark and distorted world.

She threw her chest out like a child. For a moment, she reverted back fully to a human being.

“This isn’t a sad tale. You’re allowed to be outraged at my selfishness.”

I just listened, speechless.

That was her motive. Her reason for risking her life.

She was smiling. I tried to say something, but no words came out. I couldn’t be angry at her, hate her, or laugh at her. I didn’t even know what to say about her confession.

Yuri’s hair grew gently and took the shape of animal ears. Her long hair fused with her back, creating fur. My hands trembled.

I squeezed the words out. “I…”

My lips were plugged shut.

I smelled blood and animal scent. Yuri pressed her lips against mine, then pulled her face away. I was petrified. She stood up, bewildered.

“Weird. It doesn’t make any sense. You came here to kill my child and my beloved. But I… I have no intention of killing you or hurting you anymore. We were bound by a strange, inexplicable, and mysterious fate,” she sighed.

She turned her back to me and walked away. Her tail, which had grown out of her hips, swayed. Her back transformed into a huge cat’s, leaving only half her body human.

“If you want to go to the fox, go ahead. And if you can kill him, feel free to do so. Trample my wish underfoot and say it was the right thing to do.”

She stopped and turned around. Her cheeks were covered with fur. Whiskers had grown under her nose. But her eyes had reverted to a human’s.

“I don’t want to eat, drink, breathe, love women, men, children, or animals anymore. I don’t want to die anymore. I don’t want to kill anymore.”

She was quoting a script, reciting the lines out grandly.

“You’re that kind of person, aren’t you?” she scoffed. “You don’t want to die, you don’t want to kill. You’re naïve. You think that saving people is the only thing that matters. Well, knock yourself out. If you’re determined not to get lost in the spirit world, you will arrive at your destination. But if you hesitate, you will be lost forever. You’re just so hopeless that I lost interest in killing you.”

Yuri looked oddly calm. I reached for her, and she took a step back. Her pupils narrowed, and her eyes turned golden.

Should I get angry? Should I hit her? Or should I grieve?

I didn’t know what to do. My mind was a jumbled mess.

“Yuri… Can you go back?”

She laughed. “Go back where? My neck’s broken. I really don’t get you. It’s over for me.”

Crack.

Bones cracked, and her body folded up. Crawling down on all fours, Yuri looked up at me. All traces of her human self were gone.

“I fell in love with him, but you were my first kiss.” The cat spoke. Its vocal cords were the only part of her that remained human. “I wouldn’t kill the person I shared my first kiss with.”

The cat smiled like a human being. I touched its small head, and it purred.

“Goodbye, cutie. Goodbye, Odagiri Tsutomu.” Her voice was muddled. She was gradually losing her ability to speak the human language. “I only hope that you will let my child, the man I loved, live.”

The cat meowed loudly. Golden eyes watched me curiously.

The cat took a step backward, growling warily. Its whole fur bristled.

Then it turned away from me and scurried deep into the spirit world. The black shape disappeared at bullet speed. The warmth in my palm was gone. Clenching my fist, I stood up.

The landscape shifted again. Each step I took produced a hard sound. I took out a cigarette from my pocket and put it in my mouth, but I didn’t have my lighter. I must have dropped it from when I fell. I continued on.

Papa?

The child in my belly sounded concerned. I didn’t respond.

Salty drops of water trickled down from my eyes, wetting the cigarette. A bitter taste spread to my tongue.