I had cat ears on my head.
“Gaaaaaaah! What’s happeniiiiiing?!”
The other family members came rushing over at my voice.
“Wah! Mommy, you’re a kitty! You’re so cute!”
Falfa hugged me. Okay, that was nice, but this wasn’t the time for that.
Halkara nodded and said, “Oh, Madam Teacher, I didn’t know you were a furry.” Stop. Stop acting like you understand me.
Sandra gently withdrew with an “Ugh.” Ouch, that really stings.
Flatorte calmly said, “Hey, that’s new.” Flatorte, this is not normal!
“Oh, the cat soul’s inside you,” Rosalie commented, offering a concrete analysis of the situation. Now I was really worried.
The most intense reaction came from Laika. At first, she just silently stared.
“L-Lady Azusa… Y-you’re…you’re so cute… You’re so…um…so cute…it hurts…,” she whispered, covering her reddening face with her hands.
“Why does it hurt? What does that mean?”
“I-it means you’re s-so cute that I can feel my heart constricting…”
Should I be happy about that? I wasn’t sure…
“And now I see I have a cat tail, too! What on earth is going on?!”
My eyes locked with Ost Ande’s.
“…I am relieved to hear that you don’t mind.”
Oh, so Ost Ande knew this was going to happen. That’s why she was so apologetic…
“Actually, I meant I didn’t mind you flinging the cat into me. This situation is a whole other matter…”
“…Um… Okay… See you later.” Ost Ande tried to slowly retreat into her ball of hair, but I tore it open.
“Don’t run! Tell me how to solve this!”
“…I’ll pay you damages.”
“No! I want a solution, not compensation!”
I needed her to tell me how to fix this… But for some reason, my attention kept being drawn to strange things.
One of Ost Ande’s hairs started swaying, and I suddenly struck out with my hand to bat at it.
“My body is moving on its own!”
As if driven by some feline instinct, I felt the urge to smack anything waving around in front of me.
Next, I spotted Flatorte’s tail swishing back and forth.
“Mraow!” I pounced and grabbed hold of it. “I did it again!”
“If you’re going to go after my tail, Mistress, at least warn me. Attacking another’s tail without prior warning is against the rules.”
I wasn’t attacking it—it was just instinct…
And then, when I turned my attention upward, I saw several transparent cats floating above me…
The ghost cats… There were way more of them than I’d thought. Now that the cat’s soul was inside me, I could see them…
“I was only away for a moment, but I see things have taken an amusing turn.”
The surprisingly calm voice came from Nahna Nahna, who had returned with my drink.
“This isn’t amusing at all,” I said.
“We are experts when it comes to matters of the soul, so you may consult with us.”
Maybe it was a good idea to rely on Nahna Nahna and the other ghosts for this.
Ost Ande was avoiding my gaze, after all. I bet she had no idea how to solve this.
“…If I simply sit down and write an essay on a subject I am not an expert in, I will only be humiliated later. It is safer not to speak of things with which I am unfamiliar.”
I found it a little strange that the reaper was not an “expert” on matters of the soul. This seemed like a rare case, however, so maybe that was why she didn’t know.
“Miss Nahna Nahna, will you help me?”
“I notice you don’t meow during normal speech.”
Suddenly, relying on her was a less attractive prospect…
We were taken to Nahna Nahna’s house (which was, to be more precise, a large tomb). The inside was an open cavern—a good place for our meeting. It was damp and moldy, but that wasn’t a problem for the ghosts.
“It seems the soul of a cat has entered Azusa’s body. Cases like this occur from time to time.” Nahna Nahna spoke impersonally, but the professionalism made her sound more reliable.
“While you look like a catperson on the outside right now, your soul is something entirely different. A catperson has only one soul—the soul of the catperson. Inside Azusa, however, there is both her own soul and the soul of the cat.”
I see.
“Which means if we extract the cat’s soul, she will return to normal. We will simply be taking one away.”
I nodded. “Oh yeah, like when Rosalie entered Halkara’s body in the past.”
“What an awful memory…” Halkara went pale. She’d been through a lot back then…
“But I thought my soul was too powerful for her to enter.”
I was pretty sure the reason Rosalie chose Halkara’s body was because she couldn’t enter mine. It was a bit rude toward Halkara, but Beelzebub said that those with irresponsible personalities were easier to enter.
“Well, it’s deep in there, so the usual defenses ain’t workin’,” said Muu. “It’s like you’ve got fick walls, see, but it’s already in the city ’avin’ a grand old time.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Walls and moats were defenses meant to keep invaders out, but they weren’t very effective against those already inside.
“Should be easy, innit. We just needa chase the cat’s soul out. If it wanted to leave, it could go anytime. Dunna, though. Wa’eva, innit.”
“Muu, this is the one time I don’t want to hear you say you don’t know…”
Muu stared hard at my face. No—I had a feeling she was looking at something deeper inside.
“I knew it,” she said.
“You knew what?”
“The kitty says it don’t wanna leave.”
“It doesn’t want to leave? Why?! My own soul is in there, too! How can it relax?”
Maybe the cat was a bit of an eccentric, and I’d just gotten unlucky.
“Might be ’ard for a livin’ person to tell, but your soul is warm, Azusa. For a cat, it must be right cozy. Livin’ cats like warm places, yeah? Same fing.”
“Oh no…”
I pictured a cat that didn’t want to leave its spot by the radiator.
Muu then turned to Ost Ande. “You’re the reaper, yeah? Don’cha know ’ow to fix this? You’re the expert ’ere.”
“…I can manage free-roaming souls. But…peeling a spirit away from a living creature…will cause harm.”
Another ominous line from the reaper…
“…In the worst-case scenario, Azusa will die. If a reaper has chosen a soul to capture, that is not a problem, but this is different… If she dies because I made a mistake, then I will be liable.”
“Oh, then please don’t do that,” I said.
It sounded terrifying.
“Miss Azusa.” For some reason, Nahna Nahna was smiling. I didn’t know she could do that. It was a rare sight. “You must give up,” she said.
“No! It’s too early to give up! And didn’t you say you were an expert? You just said that!”
“It is precisely because I am an expert that I will not offer baseless statements to soothe your conscience.”
That might seem like a sound argument, but in this situation, I was sure it was just an excuse.
“It’s not as though you are being inconvenienced. Your soul is preserved, and the cat is simply staying with you for a while. It shouldn’t tire you out mentally or physically, either.”
“But I have cat ears and a tail!”
“That’s hardly a problem. Your words and actions may become more catlike, as well, but that is all.”
Nahna Nahna held out a plant. It was a stem of foxtail or something similar. She waved the stem around like it was a cat toy.
Fsh, fsh, fsh!
*That’s the sound of me batting at the foxtail.
“Gah! It’s happening again!”
“Sometimes, the feline instinct will come to the forefront like this, but you will become accustomed to it in no time.”
“I don’t want to get accustomed to it! There’s a cat in here with me, you know! I think this counts as an exceptional circumsta—”
Nahna Nahna shook the foxtail again.
Fsh, fsh, fsh!
Once again, I pawed (?) at it.
“Dammit! I try not to react, but my body keeps moving on its own!”
“I get it, Mistress. Sometimes I get so angry I can’t stop myself.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not the same, Flatorte.”
Blue dragons were just quick to pick fights.
“And it seems to be popular with a few members of your family,” said Nahna Nahna.
Falfa’s and Shalsha’s eyes were sparkling. Laika’s face was beet red. If anything, this only made me feel even more embarrassed.
“Um…I’m very sorry, but I don’t intend to stay like this…”
“Falfa likes you this way, too, Mommy~”
“Even if you turn into a cat, Sis and I will take care of you, Mom.”
My daughters did not seem to understand my plight.
“I…um…I can’t calm down, so I would appreciate it if you could return to normal…,” said Laika. “If this continues, I will be unable to face my training with a clear mind…”
At least Laika wanted me to turn back. But what did she mean by “unable to face her training with a clear mind”…?
Ost Ande said, “…If you’ll excuse me,” and tried to leave, so I grabbed one of her tendrils and stopped her. I needed her to stay a little longer. But if even she didn’t know how to eject the cat soul from my body, then there wasn’t much more we could do.
“Well, we could coax the cat soul out.”
“Sigh… I guess I’ll have to live my life with cat ears for a little while… I’ll need to wear my hat all the time so that Beelzebub doesn’t laugh at me when she visits… But I can’t hide the tail— What?”
I rushed over to Muu and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“There’s a way? There’s a way?!”
“Calm down, calm down! Yeah, but it’ll take a whole fortnight!”
What on earth kind of process would take two weeks?
“The cat god festival will be takin’ place ’ere in the Thursa Thursa Kingdom in two weeks’ time. All the ghost cats will get togevah as part o’ the celebration.”
I guess the ancient civilization really did worship cats as gods.
“And that kitty inside ya won’t be able to resist the festival. Basically, if anyfin’ attracts its attention more’n you, it’ll leave.”
“So I’ve gotta wait until the festival…”
Two weeks. That was an odd chunk of time. I had a feeling Beelzebub might show up at least twice… That said, I didn’t think I’d be able to come up with a way to get the cat to leave on my own.
“Fine… I’ll wait for the cat god festival.”
Desperate situations called for desperate measures.
“Then it’s settled—” Nahna Nahna’s hand came to rest on Muu’s shoulder.
“—Your Majesty, this is the perfect opportunity to bleed her dry.”
“I don’t think a minister should be saying things like that,” I pointed out.
She was definitely plotting something.
“No need to worry. It’s not scary, and it won’t even hurt.”
Whenever Nahna Nahna told me not to worry, I couldn’t help getting nervous…
“I guess there’s nothing I can do for now…”
My head drooped. So did my new tail.
“…And now. If you’ll excuse me.” Ost Ande left, still refusing to meet my gaze.
I sensed that she was ready to do anything to avoid getting involved…
Afterward, the whole family went back to the house in the highlands, and we resumed our daily routine.
“Hi, everyone! G’morning!”
“It’s so strange to see you wearing your hat at breakfast, Madam Teacher…,” Halkara pointed out right away.
“It’s because I have cat ears…”
Reluctantly, I decided to remove my hat going forward.
It didn’t seem like the ghost cat had any plans to act recklessly, so at least on the surface, everything was normal. The main differences were the cat ears and tail.
But even that proved to be a huge problem.
“I’m here~!”
Just as I was killing some nearby slimes, I ran into Beelzebub, who was walking toward the house from Flatta.
She’s here already.
“O-oh, um, hi… It’s me, normal Azusa…”
“…………”
A brief, awkward silence settled between us.
“……Gah! What is this? I’d no idea you were into that sort of thing!”
“I’m not into anything! There’s a very complicated reason for all of this! Actually…I suppose it’s not that complicated, really.”
I explained the whole thing to her. As a result, I ended up telling Beelzebub about the reaper, too, but it was probably fine.
“And that is why you are living as a catperson, hmm? You are quite a magnet for trouble. Almost as much as Halkara is.”
“I think Halkara has it much worse. And you’re not one to talk, since Pecora’s always getting you wrapped up in things, too. Pot, kettle.”
“’Tis simply my boss’s nature. It has nothing to do with my own disposition. In fact, perhaps I should tell Her Majesty about—”
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