??? woke up with a start. His eyes met a ceiling, just like the one in his home with plain white paint. The sound of a whirring fan met his ears, that twitched and swiveled to find the sound's direction. On the left.
Shifting, he felt the sensation of fabric and folds, and concluded those were sheets. So he must be on a bed. His claws gripped it. Swinging his body around, he sat on the edge of the bed. The room was nothing interesting, a bed, a standing fan, and a window, with white curtains, sunlight filtering through. A metal door door was to the right of the window, closed. It seemed strangely inviting, as the light bounced off the round metal handle.
The most interesting thing was the smell. Smelled normal enough, but there was a strange quality to it. He was definitely not home.
He decided to get up, and found himself a little disoriented and dizzy. His head spun, and he gripped it with a hand. He balanced when his tail swished behind him. Then he stood up properly on his toes.
He went to the window and grabbed the curtains with both his hands, pushing them away.
"A-ah woahhhh…" ??? felt his breath catch. It was an apartment, on an upper floor, overlooking a massive city. "Tokyo?" He frowned. "But the buildings don't look like it…"
The view was familiar, yet strange. A large city with tall buildings, bright lights, and people walking quickly through the streets. It stretched out as far as he could see. He could feel the somewhat cold air leaking through the window, and some cherry blossom petals blew towards the window. So, it's spring. He breathed in the air, its odd and friendly smell tingling his nose.
Masaru remembered being in Tokyo a few times, his school even went to the Tokyo tower for a field trip. The scenery here was almost perfectly the same, but not quite."Weird…" ??? was thoroughly confused. "Maybe this is Tokyo, but I'm not quite remembering it right?"
Then ??? gazed at the door. He felt at once that it was the only thing worth interacting with in this small space. His boredom was quickly making him feel dull, and the door felt alluring in the face of it.
He looked at the door, and went toward it. "The only way to figure it out is to go outside!" Then he outstretched his hand and reached for the handle and …
"WHAT THE HECK?!" He fell to the ground with a thump.
He grabbed his palm with his other hand and the color fled from his face. His hands looked like a human's, but his nails were long and sharp. The skin was the pinkish beige he remembered, but it was missing its fur…
"This can't be real…" ??? was already exhausted by his confused thoughts going wild. "What… happened?" He racked his brain for answers. Then, his memory gave him something: a deafening crash, blood pouring out, wet fur… and two creatures. A cat, Choco, and a human, Masaru.
"I want… to be together forever." As the blood trickled over his eyes, he moved his numb arms stiffly towards Choco.
Choco's unstirring fur made his heart feel stricken. No. This can't be real.
"So… I-we died? Wait…'I' or 'We'? Oh god(s(?)). What the heck am/are I/we?!"
??? decided to thoroughly inspect himself to see if he could find the answer. He brushed his hands all over his head, and found nothing but smooth skin and hair at the sides. He moved his hands up, and found two fuzzy things atop it. Those must be his ears. He confirmed this when he swiveled them towards a small sound. His arms were human, but he had sharp as daggers nails. His torso appeared human, but he found that he could contort himself in various ways and touch his head to his bottom, even.
Then the legs were human on the upper half, but starting a bit above his knee was orange striped fur, and his feet were very much like a cat's, with pads and claws and all that. He stretched his cat toes, wondering at their movement.
Then, he gripped behind him. A long, black, and silky tail. The part of him that was human felt like he would scream.
In fact, he did let out a small shriek, and his whole soul was terrified at the new and missing body parts. Urk.. ??? felt that he would vomit.
Then, he moved back to the window to see his reflection. His face was human, nose, mouth, eyes all in the right spots for a human… He opened his mouth and found a set of sharp teeth and his tongue had small barbs on it for cleaning himself. His hair was the same color as his fur, with subtle stripes. It was about jaw length. His eyes were definitely his most striking feature, one blue, one green, and slitted pupils. He betted if it was darker, they would dilate like a cat's would. His eyebrows narrowed.
"Huh…I really am both of them." He concluded he was an "I" because he had one body, and one consciousness, that was composed of Masaru's and Choco's thoughts combined. "But I think I do feel more human… I mean, I have intellect, and Masaru's memories are a lot clearer…hm… but i'm not him. I'm someone new I guess." Just as he was feeling miserable and at his height of confusion, ??? suddenly had a thought. " Ah! This is like a manga where the main character is reincarnated and keeps their memories, but starts a whole new life! That makes perfect sense! Though I haven't seen one where two souls are combined like this… Eh, whatever. I feel relieved if I think of it like a reincarnation manga! Oh… wait reincarnation…Yeah that's what happened! I remember the girl… and the guy came in and… he did this to me. Hm." ??? wasn't sure whether he should be upset about it or not. He felt very upset, and bit his lip, but… "Well… Masaru did say he wanted to be with Choco forever… and Choco felt the same… so I guess this works? It's probably not what Masaru had in mind, though." He bit his lip harder with frustration. "Hey! Gods! Come fix this!" he cried.
"..."
"Must be busy or something." He sighed.
Suddenly, a swirling noise caught ???'s attention. He looked behind him, and from beneath the bed spread a black liquid, like the ocean in that place he was before. Out of that liquid, rose a girl, like she was in some sort of invisible elevator. It was Arte!
"Ah! Arte it's you!" ??? was actually quite glad to see her. She gave him much comfort to see, and she was the one who carried out his reincarnation, so she would probably be able to help him.
"'Arte'??'You'?? You would address a god with so little respect?!" Arte scowled, but it quickly turned into a grin. "Nevermind I've decided it doesn't matter! I like you!" She flew onto ???, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Oh. Thanks I guess?" He accepted his hug awkwardly.
"Be more grateful! I, a god, am willing to befriend you, a human-" She paused, and looked him up and down. She saw his soul, which swirled multi-color with the essence of Masaru and Choco."Ah. Right. My brother did that. I should get him to apologize." Arte actually felt sort of guilty. "B-but I-I'll admit it!" She really did not wish to admit this. "It was my fault for bringing you into that place together! I'm… sor..ry" Her lips moved slowly, and the words were practically being dragged out of her. This is so irritating and embarrassing! A god should not have to apologize to a mortal!
"Well… If you're really sorry, could you fix it?" His tone was a bit desperate.
Arte looked away "Oh…I… actually… can't." A suffocating dread loomed over her.
"Ah. Ok." ??? seemed unbothered, his face stiff. His eyes were blank and unfeeling.
"Ok?? You're not upset or anything?" She jumped with surprise.
???'s eyelashes trembled, and he shook. His lip bled, and he turned away, gripping himself in a hug with his arms.
"I mean," he choked out a sob, as tears began flowing down in strong streams. "There's nothing else to say is there?"
The clear, silent streams fell from his eyes, and he continued to sob, and choked as his lungs constricted. He wailed with despair.
Arte was startled by his tears, and frantically reached into space, grabbing tissues from nowhere. "P-please don't cry! It won't solve anything! Please don't." She felt uneasy. Mortals were so prone to crying.
"Then what will solve this?!" He exclaimed, ears flattened, and his posture low. "Masaru and Choco… are together, but at the same time… they're gone, aren't they?"
"What? I mean, as a combination of the two, aren't you them?" She narrowed her eyebrows. She wasn't following ???'s logic.
"I'm-. I'm not. I can tell. I have their emotions and memories, but It's because they have been mixed so thoroughly, that I'm not either of them…"
Arte stared and reached out a hand, but retracted it in fear of upsetting him further.
"Huh. You're pretty smart. I still don't get it, but- I'll believe you. Sigh. The thing is… the only thing we gods don't do is tamper with the soul." She almost wanted to bite her tongue, because she knew this was exactly what he didn't want to hear. "It's our only rule, to keep things in order."
"Didn't your brother do that?"
"No, he used time manipulation. Ya see, the space you were in was made for only one reincarnating soul at a time." She gestured with a finger, and put another finger up, and brought them together. "It was my mistake to bring you both there. The Void of Beginnings, as it's called,tried to "correct" my mistake, by merging your souls together into one. My brother only made the process faster." She crossed her arms and tried to gauge ???'s reaction. Her gaze swept over his depressive form.
He had stopped crying, but it wasn't that he wasn't still upset, but he couldn't find any more tears left from crying so much. His eyes stung and his head pounded. His throat felt raw due to his wails and sobs. It was hard to focus on Arte's words, but he understood. "I see… I guess I can't be mad or anything. You were just trying to keep those two together, right?"
Arte knit her eyebrows, confused because he didn't seem disappointed or angry with her at all, even though she was definitely the one to blame. But…I did have good intentions. Maybe he can sense that, so he's not blaming me. "Yeah. Gods like to try and listen to a mortal's final wishes most of the time, so they can be happier in the next life." She looked at him sincerely. "I'm… new at the whole reincarnation thing, and was left to my own devices… I just wanted to do whatever I could to fulfill your…final hope."
???'s lips twitched. Then he smiled, warmly, and it felt like pure daylight, but it was still full of pain. Arte truly had never met a soul like this before. "Thank you. Something deep inside, hearing your words, I'm truly happy. I'm a bit scared and wary, but I feel that this situation might not necessarily be bad…" He bowed at the waist. "Thank you so much!" A few more tears escaped him though, and his lip trembled.
Arte was speechless. She couldn't believe he was thanking her! But really, she felt relieved. She smiled warily, her lips tight. Maybe it is really alright? She could tell, though, deep down that he was not going to get over this quickly. She realized, though, blaming her probably wouldn't help him. She sighed.
"But. If I'm not Masaru. And I'm not Choco…who am I?" ??? muttered under his breath. Then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. A small, black, moving thing on the window, on the outside of the glass. His tail began to swish slowly, and his pupils dilated.
His demeanor changed at once, his small posture and misery filled eyes seemed to sharpen, and he became someone else. His ears perked up, and swiveled, his tail made a loud noise as it moved, and he opened his mouth to make a weird chirping noise.
With a small gasp, Arte realized why he was different. He was a cat now, but more importantly a predator. His prey, the black dot, was a housefly. She then felt a bubbly feeling rise within her, and she snorted out a laugh. It's too funny!
He moved slowly, carefully. His hand moved to the glass. He smacked the glass, and the bug flew away. He hissed, and grabbed his hand. He shook it, and seethed. "Argh…"
"Uh… Is something wrong?" She covered her giggling with a hand.
His attention snapped back to Arte. He shook his head, and his eyes went back to normal, pupils widening to a normal circular shape. "Sorry. There's was… a bug. My hunting instincts must have kicked in." He laughed a bit, dryly.
Arte chuckled a bit. "Hm… I think the best way to cheer you up is to introduce you to your new world! You need a tour guide, don't you think? And maybe you'll get to catch a bug or two…"
??? stood straight, and nodded.
His face looked uncertain, but his tail wished back and forth with excitement. He knew some more tears were inevitable, but now he just wanted to get out there and move on, beginning this new adventure.
"But first thing's first… I don't know what to call you." She stared at him inquisitively. She wondered what he would say.
"Hmm" He closed his eyes and thought, furrowing his brows." I don't think I'm ready to pick a name… you can just call me uh…" He seemed to blank. "Kitty… or something. I can't think of anything…"
Arte grinned and let out a loud laugh. " Kitty! Ok. You sure you don't want to be called 'human'?" She pffed, and giggled uncontrollably.
"That'd just be weird…" He sighed.
"I see no issue with it! It is the same as calling you 'kitty', no?" She laughed and raised an eyebrow.
" To you it would be, I guess… Being a god and all. But where I am from, it would be super weird." He let out a laugh. He felt a bit of a pain in his heart, as he was reminded of his home.