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Cat Reincarnation: A Simple Solution
🕑 Added 2025-03-08 03:35:10 +0000 UTCIt was the best of times to be a cat.
But unfortunately, a cat just can't get certain things done. A panther can do many things, but, unfortunately, eating a face wasn't exactly the most useful talent to have.
So learning I could transform, not just becoming bigger from absorbing energy around me, but also changing my proportions from those of a house cat to those of bigger, nastier and more lethal cats, well, that just wasn't good enough to solve the problematic situation we found ourselves in.
What was that situation?
Well, Marina's parents were still terrible people. Even actively intimidating them had only stemmed their bullshit for so long, and I've seen Marina becoming increasingly worn down by their demands, as they rode her coattails to fame and fortune.
I wasn't foolish enough to mistake her desperation to get even crumbs of approval and affection, dishonest though it might be, from her parents for consent. She would do anything they asked and even though initially they had been too frightened of my wrath to push her too much, eventually they seemed to regain confidence and now, they were pushing for appearances on TV all over again.
It was time to do something drastic, something that tested every moral fiber of my being, that pushed my tolerance to its absolute limits... it was time... to get legal.
Now, don't get me wrong.
Even I am leery of involving the bloodsucking leeches that are lawyers into any of my problems. I've been burned too many times by greedy pricks capable of condemning a child to an abuser's home just for a couple coins, to ever trust a lawyer again. Dealt with a fair few who participated in some of their clients' debauchery as well.
But there just wasn't another way to do this.
I've, unfortunately, found myself having to strain myself, to cast off this superior form of mine to instead take on the inferior form of the beings whose servitude I enjoy so much.
"How do I look?"
My voice was familiar to myself, but only so much. I couldn't, wouldn't, recreate the disheveled disaster of a man who had once been. I looked at myself in the mirror. Some details weren't correct. My pupils dilated and contracted as the light around me changed when the old human entered the room, tapping his cane.
"The tales of the Guardian Beasts taking human form served you well, I see," the balding old guy said, closing his eyes and chuckling. "You remind me some of my son," he spoke, idly. "Although I suppose," he said, looking me up and down, "that might just be an old man's nostalgia."
"Hardly, I used the pictures as a reference," I stated, as I looked into my eyes and tried to concentrate, willing my shape to remain consistent, even down to the way my eyes reacted to the light. A mere illusion, as I could literally feel my perception changing in real time chasing shadows and following dust caught in a sunbeam. "Beard? Or no beard?" I muttered.
"No beard. It'll make you look more professional."
Right. While I had used the old man's son as a source, I didn't look quite like him either, I couldn't quite figure out how to properly reproduce the asian cast to his features correctly so instead I looked like a mishmash of different features, enough to pass of course, but some might consider my ancestry suspect. "I think this should work."
I adjusted the tie sitting on my chest. I didn't know how to tie one, never had a parent to teach me see, but the old man graciously tied mine and even lent me one of his son's formalwear suits. Raising my left arm, I used my right hand to adjust the cuff. My form was slim, sleek, nothing like the haphazard, half muscle, half malnourished, all beat up collection of old wounds and scars I used to be. Even my skin was clear.
I already miss my fur.
Receiving an appreciative and approving nod from the old man, I got out of the bathroom and he followed me. The old man would then drive me to court, which, thankfully, wasn't too far. The lawyers met us there. Old acquaintances of the old man. So was the arbiter, for that matter.
The situation would unfold exactly as we predicted. My sole task was to look professional, trustworthy and reliable. While I didn't really have an identity to speak of, creating one didn't take that long, and I had a really important advantage. The meeting started off smoothly, I was shown the way in by the lawyers, who made some boring small talk as the other side arrived.
Marina's parents.
Immediately, a back and forth between the layers, outlying the nature of the deal, would go on.
Now, what had we done? It was quite simply the consequences of the actions of Marina's shitty parents coming to bite them. To begin with, getting evidence of their neglect was as easy as pie. While talking was a horrible chore, I had managed to do it enough to basically get the story with the lawyers, Marina's parents were terribly neglectful. The next step was to trace their steps and learn what they were doing when not caring for Marina.
Gambling, drinking, partying, even swinging, those two were jewels really, while everything they had done was, strictly speaking, legal to a degree, it was very badly seen, especially in a society in which having any sort of misbehavior made public was shamed even harder than the misbehavior itself.
The next step was to lock down the reason why they were so eager on making money off of Marina's popularity as a magical girl. Obviously, it didn't take long to figure out, just following them as a cat revealed they didn't just gamble, they lost gambling. Not just one, but both of them, had large gambling debts.
Throwing a camera on a collar, no matter how disgusted I was at wearing said collar, netted me all the blackmail evidence I needed. This, bit by bit, was presented to the parents and the lawyer, leaving them a sputtering mess, and getting them to agree to anything, if it would get them out of trouble. The option of being buried in legal and social debris or the option of, effectively, selling their daughter to escape their problems.
They sold their daughter.
I had half a mind to turn into a panther and eat their faces, when they talked as if they owned MY human. But I ignored that, restraining myself, and managing to get through, signing with the fake name provided to me by the lawyers, and effectively, transferring Marina's legal guardianship, after some legal nonsense and bullshittery, to a non-existent man.
I was actually a little disappointed with how easily they capitulated. It was... bad really. They just cared so little about their daughter, that the moment that getting rid of her became more convenient than keeping her, they just threw her away without even verifying my identity. I wanted, so badly, to arrange an accident for them. I wanted to ensure that the next time they were going to a gambling den something would curiously fall from a high ledge on their heads.
Every urge that a cat has to knock something off a ledge wanted me to wreck them.
But I held it in.
The next step was to break the news to her.
The old grandfather had already convinced Reiko to invite Marina over for the night, and after a lot of work, Marina had managed to get over her doubts and hesitation and, after becoming convinced there was no point in waiting for her parents because as usual they wouldn't come, she agreed to sleepover at Reiko's house.
It would be the first time, however, that we would meet like this, as I arrived with the grandfather at the large castle of a home. Marina and Reiko were eating dinner, Reiko was covered in flour, the kitchen was a mess, and the smell of burnt food was in the air. The dining room went unused, they instead were eating on the kitchen, alongside the mess they had left.
Marina was pretty deft in the kitchen out of necessity, but clearly, they'd been focusing more on having fun, than on cooking. Some sort of fried chicken meal, alongside what I suspected to be some sort of noodle based dish. Ramen, I believe.
"Children."
The old man's voice cut through the air, getting the attention of them both.
"Grandfather, I-" Reiko turned to look at him, then, she noticed me. Seeing as I usually look up at them, it's rare to have to look down instead. The uncomfortable feeling of the shoes constricting my feet, of the suit that didn't fit me quite right, became secondplace to the sensation of being scrutinized by the two of them.
I closed my eyes for a moment, and then stepped forward.
"Marina, Reiko," I said, trying to modulate my voice as best as I could. I still sounded a little bit low and gravely, growly even. It was better than hissing speech at least. "I suppose this is the first time we've met in these forms."
"Wait, in these-" Marina's brow furrowed and her nose wrinkled as she tried to put her noggin' to work. "Mister, you know us, but, I don't think I know you?"
"Of course you do," I said. "Of course, you wouldn't know me by the name of Gerald Chloe," I said, pronouncing my fake name in English, "but perhaps if I said it," I decided to be unsubtle then-
"Kuro!" Marina cut off, managing to catch on immediately when she tried to repeat the name I had given her. "Kuro, that's, that's you isn't it?"
"Kuro?" Reiko asked, her eyes opening wide and her hands putting down the chopsticks that were bringing a small piece of fried chicken to her mouth. "Like, our Guardian Beast, Kuro?" she asked.
"One and the same," I said. "Don't get used to this. I'm already itching to discard this cumbersome human form," I said, "but it was necessary for today," I said. "Marina," I said, stepping up to her, "today, something very important happened. And I need to talk to you about it," I said.
"Come along now, Reiko. They need a moment," the old man said.
Reiko looked at Marina, both of them wanted to say so much, but, it was important.
"We'll finish eating later okay?" Reiko said.
"Okay," Marina agreed. Reiko got up off her chair and then headed out of the kitchen with her grandfather.
And me, well, I sat on the dinner table, opposite Marina.
"Kuro, you look really handsome!" she said.
Not the first time she had said this, I suppose from her end, I look the same, cat or human.
"You'd look really good with some cat ears too!" she said with a giggle.
Thoughts for later. "Marina," I said, as I sat down, meeting my fingers, tip to tip. "Today, your parents renounced custody over you, and passed it over to myself."
There was a moment's pause.
"W-What..?" she asked, her voice small. "Kuro, what, what's that mean?"
"What it means is that your father and your mother no longer are your legal guardians," I said. "I am."
"N-No, no, that doesn't, that makes, my, my mom, my dad, I- I should-"
She got up, but I caught her as she wanted to rush off. I'm not good with comfort. I don't really know what to do or how to do it. I grabbed her arm and stopped her, even as she tried to walk out of the room.
"K-Kuro, let go, I, I have to, I have to go, mom and dad, mom and dad can't have, they wouldn't, they didn't, there's no way, I- they promised, they promised this time, a-after, after I went on TV, w-when I completed that, that tv deal, mom- dad- they would-"
While Marina, transformed, was strong enough to easily manhandle an adult, without the extra strength from her magical girl form she was only as strong as she looked, so I could easily use the form of a grown man to stop her, even as she tried to fight me off, even as she tried to break out of my grip, to escape.
Whether she was escaping me, or the cold hit of reality that was her parents abandoning her for real now, I didn't know for sure. "W-What happened, how- why!?"
"Your parents are in a lot of trouble. We offered them a way out. The price was you," I said. "They sold you."
"No no no no-"
She was crying already, her face turning red. She was in denial, but her struggles were growing weaker.
"There's no way, no way, no way! It's a lie! A lie! It's a liee!!"
I got off the chair myself, and tried to help her the way I had seen other adults comfort children. I can't do much, I can't say the right words, all I can do is just... be there, just, hold her even as she clings to me and cries. There's not much I can say to her, I don't know how to, I don't have the words, I don't know what... what she used to say to me those times, I've buried and burned that part of me.
She sobbed and balled her hands into fists and then pushed me, the surprisingly strong push almost shoving me off of her, but I managed to catch myself, and she huffed, angrily, a tremble running through her body as she stepped back. "N-No, no, no, I won't, I won't cry!" she said, sniffing and rubbing at her eyes with her hand. "S-So what!"
I frowned as she turned around, raising her hands and affecting a poorly imitated laugh. "This, this is, this isn't s-so bad!" she called, her voice trembling a little as she stepped towards the table. "L-Look at me! I did good didn't I?" she asked. "E-Even though, mom was never there t-to, to teach me how to cook," she said, "I learned anyway didn't I? E-even though," she coughed, her hands slamming against the table a little harshly, causing the bowls, cups and chopsticks on it to rattle.
"Yes, you did," I interrupted, trying my best to affect a smile, I wasn't very good at it.
She coughed, stepping off and slightly disturbing the table again, clenching her fists. "I did it... by myself! I became a- a Pure Heart, I helped everyone! I saved the city! I defeated- we defeated the corruptor," she said, shaking her head, "a-and, that's- that's all me! I didn't need them! Did you, did you know, they never even showed up to my birthdays?"
I did.
"Not even once!" she giggled a little nervously. "S-So! It doesn't matter! I don't need them!" she said, moving frantically, stepping back and forth nervously. "I don't need them at all!" she giggled. "I'll have my own family!" she called. "With, with Reiko, a-and Kuro, and grampy, and, and everyone, my friends, my family," she said. "Right?" she asked.
She was brittle, then. Fragile.
"Right," I said.
"So that's good! I'm good!" she called, giggling a little hysterically. "We're good!"
"Yeah..." I said, closing my eyes and sighing.
She turned around to walk past me but I stopped her. I was still crouched, and I caught her by the waist.
"K-Kuro, I'm fine, it's fine, I-"
I turned her to look at me. Her face was red, she was crying openly now, she was desperately trying not to break down.
"Why didn't they like me..?" she asked, her voice very small. "Was I... not good enough?" she asked. "Was it my fault?"
I pulled her into my body and carefully hugged her, as she broke down, sobbing, crying and screaming her rage and her despair all at once, wailing into my chest, as I could do nothing but feel her pain as if it were my own.
Comments
Noah Andrulis
Oof. The road to healing is long, but now it is one she can walk.
