In the morning, white rays of light illuminated the stone-gray room through its cotton-woven curtains.
Struggling to wake up, Ran could only do so after the light continuously disturbed him. Feeling groggy, he removed the crust in his eyes as he shook his pillow. Still, it merely continued snoring. He could only massage the skin and fat on its neck to try and soothe its apnea before freshening up.
Once he came out, his natural scent of sakura was replaced by that of the ocean. A nice change, he thought; it would not last long.
Still seeing it sleeping, he shook it gently again.
"Fluffy, wake up. You're going to miss breakfast."
Knowing there would be food, she pried one eye open to see if Ran was lying by his expression.
He was not.
Immediately, Ran found himself toppled over by a several hundred pound cat, her weight bearing on him like a paperweight on paper. Her tongue licked his face, almost scratching it. He could only pet her until she was satisfied.
"Alright, alright, I'll ask for second helpings."
"Meor!"
"What, you want three helpings!? Do you want to die of a heart attack?"
To that, she kind of gave him that 'really' sorta look. Who was the one who didn't have a heart again? After all, she was there when threw his heart up, which confused and terrified her. And wasn't that, like, a plot-hole? It's not like the heart is connected to the stomach to be thrown up. Well, I guess we'll just never know.
But Ran knew what she was getting at with her expression that she couldn't make to begin with because she was a cat.
"Oh, how cruel," he spoke with a sad face. He held his chest tightly, as if his heart felt pain. It did not.
"Meor!"
"What, you're sorry?"
"Meor."
"Eh? You love me? But I'm into cats… wait! You're just buttering me up aren't you?"
To that, the Almighty Fluffy merely smirked.
So, you're not into cats? Hehe… this isn't even my final form!
Indeed, the transformation or anthropomorphization of a soulful being occurs during the achievement of rank-5. At that point, whether or not Ran's attracted to her, it won't be up to him anymore.
In the meantime, she could only continue her plan of fattening herself up for that momentous day.
To achieve that, she just had to continue buttering Ran up.
Unfortunately, Ann used a lot of butter in her cooking.
…
Upon entering the bar on the first floor, the two of them discovered that it was no longer empty. A few early birds had come to eat before resuming their work; they were primarily other anglerfish with only few outliers. Many of them frequented this place, but when they had arrived, they were startled to find a mysterious robed figure quietly sitting in a corner. They gossiped a little, but stopped when the figure turned towards them with a hideous grin under their hood.
And now, the two of them walked towards this person. Seeing the gaze some people gave this figure, Ran was confused though.
"Bob, why are people looking at you funny?"
Bob: "..."
"No reason."
"Oh please, you should know better than to scare people with your smile. It's too wholesome to not seem creepy."
"But they looked at me like that since they came."
"What? When they came… are you saying you've been here this whole time?"
Bob stayed silent.
"No… Don't tell me. Did you not sleep at all? Did you just down here this whole time? Isn't a warm bed better than a cold-ass chair made of solid stone?"
"What's a bed? You mean those hypnotic devices that make you fall asleep? As if! If only they had a rock I could lean against, that would be pure bliss."
Bob was adamant, and indeed he merely sat on this chair the entire night, quietly waiting for morning to arrive. He only took naps here and there to maintain complete function, which was completely different to the norm of just sleeping through an entire third of any given day.
The real question was how weirded out was everyone? The answer—everyone. Even Shirley's father was troubled and could not convince him to sleep on those evil things they call beds.
Seeing this play out the same as always, Ran could only silently lament. He feared for his brother's back. But funnily enough, Bob had a much better posture than Ran himself.
Soon, the others would awaken, joining the rest to have breakfast before leaving. Queenie was the last and she was quite late, but no one said anything bad about it. She came down with fairly dark circles around her eyes; it was clear she had gone through a lot and was trying her best.
So, they enjoyed breakfast together, which was just seasoned frog meat wrapped in fried seaweed; it looked quite similar to a burrito. But, they soon noticed something was off and soon enough, they remembered. They had forgotten about Shirley. This was her father's inn, so they assumed she would be here helping.
After eating, they approached the father in the front of the bar about Shirley's whereabouts. They didn't want to just up and leave without at least saying goodbye.
"Shirley is helping out at the nursery today, why?"
They then explained that they were leaving for good and that they wanted to bid her farewell, which was fine by him.
But it was then that the atmosphere changed.
"Sir," Ran called. Speaking to the father caught his attention, and the moment they exchanged glances, the overall aura in the bar became stifled.
"Yes?"
"Do… do you know something… about me?"
Ran was hesitant to speak about his personal matters to other people, specifically when it pertains to this area of his life. He doesn't like keeping secrets, so he'll speak in general about events in his life, but not when it comes to this. He doesn't want to involve other people, but then he remembered that the father seemed to involve himself to begin with.
That would only happen if he was extremely ignorant and happened upon it… or he knew something.
But the question threw the father through a loop. Was this a threat? Or was this genuine?
Did Ran really not know anything? He did seem like just a young man, so maybe he doesn't know. Would saying anything even hurt to begin with?
He sighed and eventually released his thoughts.
"You disgust me."
Oh… well, ahem, that was… straightforward.
Sensing the awkwardness in the air, the father elaborated.
"I don't mean like you as a person. It is literally a physical response; I want to puke myself empty every time I see, hear, or smell you."
Was that… supposed to be any better? He even remembered his mother saying eerily similar things whenever he was around her.
"You're even worse than that other person."
Oh?
At this, Ran's eyes lit up.
Was there another person who was like him?
He didn't even know what was truly at the heart of the problem. He supposed that maybe he had some sort of mental condition that dissected his personality into multiple people, but that was just conjecture. After all, his memory was perfect and he clearly remembered his childhood. He might seem relatively stable now, but his life as a kid was more hectic than hell itself. Let's just say that the entire palace had its work cut out for it.
"Sir, do you know who this person is?"
The father glanced at him once more before looking away. Ran's eyes seem sincere enough.
"Well, no, I only met them once and that was a long time ago. They were an incredibly wicked being and merely standing around them had everyone on their knees, holding onto their cramping stomachs. If you ever meet them, you'll know what I'm talking about."
"Wait… but then how am I worse?"
Ran was confused. No one was on their knees now, so how was he worse?
"Don't worry, I see you for who you truly are. They packed more of a punch, like crushing mountains on people, but you're much more potent, like a noxious gas suffocating people."
Ran was still confused by the analogy though. How exactly were they similar? Everything he said was too vague and there weren't even straws to grab at. But this only meant that the father didn't really know much and only had a single vague memory of someone to go on.
"Well, I suppose that was helpful, thank you sir," said Ran as he bowed slightly at the father. The father merely waved his hand, indicating that they should probably leave, else everything will just get more awkward.
But right before they left Ran remembered an important question.
"Sir, was this person a woman?"
"No."
"Oh. Do you remember what they looked like?"
"No. Don't worry; just like I said, you'll know when it's him."
Ran pouted—he was grateful for any answer, but now he only has more puzzle pieces to try and connect.
Worse yet, he didn't even know what the end picture was supposed to look like, so he could only keep collecting pieces in the hopes of it coming together… one way or another.