My Childhood Friend Meows Under My Skirt. (GL) - Chapter 1

It was a pleasant morning, waking up without a jolt to the head. As I descended to the living room, I found traces of my mother’s return home, and I quietly finished my breakfast so as not to wake her, who was sleeping in the next room behind the sliding door. Just before leaving the house, my father, fiddling with his smartphone, let out a loud sneeze that woke my mother, who scolded him. “That’s strange, is it allergies? But that can’t be it,” he muttered, bewildered by his sudden nasal congestion and sneezing. Of course, I hadn’t mentioned that my childhood friend, who had worn cat ears until yesterday, had been here.

On my way to school, I passed four cats. A brown tabby walking along the fence of a house, a slender calico quickly crossing the road, a black cat fighting with a crow in a garbage dump, and a Siamese cat on a walk with a red collar, presumably someone’s pet.

I made several detours to look for that white cat, but it was nowhere to be found.

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I ran into Maki in front of the classroom. She was just about to enter the classroom first. I hesitated, wondering whether to greet her with a “good morning” or raise my hand, but in the end, I did neither, and she turned her face away and entered without saying a word.

When I entered the classroom after her, Maki quickly sat down and didn’t move an inch. A boy and a girl, each with something to say, approached her, but both ended up awkwardly laughing and retreating. It was just like yesterday. I began to worry that everything that had happened in the room was merely a figment of my imagination, a lie. When I accessed the cloud, the photos I had saved were indeed there. Maki, sitting on the bed, blushing and looking down, with cat ears sprouting from her head.

Maki still didn’t talk to me. She didn’t even turn to meet my gaze.

The words she had said on the way home were completely forgotten. Perhaps she really intended to do as she had declared.

“Good morning, Ichika.”

I snapped back to reality at the sound of a voice.

Looking up, I saw Sakura standing there. I hurriedly replied, a bit louder than I intended, “Good morning!”

“Did you do your committee work without slacking off?”

“Yeah. It was a job to find cats that had wandered onto the school grounds. Surprisingly, it wasn’t boring at all.”

I wasn’t lying. But if I were to delve deeper, I felt I would start to make excuses, and eventually, I would slip up, so I changed the subject.

“How was your club activity?”

“Nothing special, as usual. Today, we have new students trying out.”

“You seem like you’d fit well as a senior, Sakura.”

I was almost choked by her smile. Why? I had complimented her. But thanks to that, it seemed the topic of the committee work had drifted away from Sakura’s mind.

The bell rang, and the first class of our second year began. The first subject was Japanese. The newly distributed textbook hadn’t been opened even for a second. Because of that, I struggled a bit to turn the pages at the beginning. I tried to use it carefully, but in the end, I gave up and folded the pages.

“The first lesson of the second year will start with a reading of the novel ‘Kirigiri-su.’”

The Japanese teacher standing at the podium said as he opened the textbook.

“Just reading aloud would be boring, so we’ll play a little game. If you stumble even a little while reading, you have to share an embarrassing story of your own.”

“What’s that?!” A lively girl protested, and the surrounding students began to stir. Glancing at Maki, I saw her staring blankly at the blackboard, her mouth slightly open. She was facing the same direction, but nothing was written on the blackboard yet. It seemed she was staring at something invisible to me.

“The author of ‘Kirigiri-su,’ Osamu Dazai, often speaks about human shame in his works. This is a little penalty related to that. See, you’re not sleepy anymore, right? Let’s begin. Starting from the window side.”

I made eye contact with Sakura, who was sitting further back by the window. She made a gesture as if to cut her throat, pleading, “Give me a break.” I responded with a laugh.

The boy sitting at the very front by the window began. Amidst giggles, the reading commenced.

“‘I bid you farewell. You have been lying all the time.’”

No stumbles for the second person.

“‘I might have some faults as well.’”

The third person.

“‘But I don’t understand what’s wrong with me.’”

And then the fourth person stood up, just then.

At the same moment, another person stood up.

It was Maki.

At first, I thought she might have stood up to go to the restroom or something. But a moment later, that assumption was overturned.

She began to stand on her chair.

“What’s going on?”

The Japanese teacher, sensing something unusual, finally turned his gaze. A few others followed suit and looked at her. The girl who had been about to read froze. All eyes in the classroom were drawn to Maki, the only one standing on her chair, and before anyone could react, Maki jumped up from that spot. A groan escaped from the boy sitting next to me.

Maki moved to the desk. She got down on all fours and began to sit. Her skirt hiked up, and depending on the angle, her underwear could be seen. Surprisingly, the boys looked away, while the girls continued to stare.

The Japanese teacher said something again. Maki ignored him, turning her back, sticking out her tongue, and began licking her wrist. An abnormal silence enveloped the classroom. No one could even speak. They couldn’t laugh it off or make eye contact with each other to confirm what was happening. They could only continue to stare at Maki, who was so detached from humanity.

Right now, she was like—

“…a cat.”

As I whispered, Maki reacted. At least, it seemed that way. She stopped licking her wrist, turned her face toward me, and began to move along the desk, approaching me on all fours.

“W-wait. What are you doing? What is that? Um, Maki!”

The Japanese teacher flustered, checked the attendance sheet, and called her name, but Maki didn’t stop. The silence shattered, and the classroom began to murmur. I could easily pick up the voices in my classmates’ minds. What’s happening? What’s going to happen next? Who is that again? Oh right, it’s Maki Matsuhara. I won’t forget anymore.

Maki jumped onto my desk. She stopped there, looking down at me while showing me the inside of her hiked-up skirt. Even though we were childhood friends, it was the first time I faced her groin at this distance. I shouldn’t be having such thoughts right now. What is this?

No, I know. I realized what this was.

“M-Maki?”

As I called out, Maki leaned in closer.

As I stood there, unable to move in confusion, she licked my cheek. A nearby girl let out an excited scream. Maki continued to rub her face against mine, ignoring the commotion in the classroom, the teacher’s attention, and the screams. The desk Maki was on was shaking, teetering as if it might topple over.

Maki opened her mouth and finally spoke.

“Meow.”

That was unmistakably the voice of a cat.

Though the sound was certainly Maki’s voice, what was there was undeniably a cat. It wasn’t a cat’s voice that a human could mimic.

A premonition turned into certainty. On impulse, I stood up and took Maki’s hand. She got off the desk and followed me awkwardly on two legs. Just as we were about to exit the classroom, I made eye contact with Sakura. It was the first time I had seen such an expression on a classmate’s face.

Once we stepped into the hallway, we took off running. Maki, holding my hand, kept up with me. Occasionally, she stumbled and almost fell, but she would leap high to regain her balance.

We continued up the stairs until we reached the landing in front of the rooftop. Ideally, it would have been great to go outside, but a few years ago, cigarette butts were found there, and since then, it had been prohibited, now secured with a heavy padlock.

Breathless, I sat down on the landing, and Maki sat beside me. The way she sat, with her skirt hiked up and legs spread, was, if you looked closely, just like a cat. I gazed at her profile. There were no changes in her appearance. No cat ears sprouted from her head.

But it was there.

It was certainly there within her.

A being that was not human.

A cat.

“Meow.”

Changing her tone from earlier, Maki (or whatever was inside her) rubbed her face against me again. It was as if to say, “Hurry up and pet me.” When our eyes met, she slowly blinked. A gesture of trust and relaxation.

Her outstretched hand rested on my thigh. The tips of her fingers dug into my flesh, a sharp weight pressing down.

“Maki… stop…”

“Meow.”

It was right after Maki’s breath tickled my ear.

In the middle of her meow, her tone dropped, and she fell silent.

When I pulled back to look at her, she was staring at me with a dazed expression. It was the face of my childhood friend that I knew.

“Maki?”

“Ichika, I…”

She had returned.

At the same moment she returned, Maki screamed. “Nuuuuwaaaaaaaah!” It was almost a war cry, and I instinctively covered my ears. Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes were teary as she muttered something, but I couldn’t understand a single word.

“Why did I do that? That wasn’t me, I would never do that! No, no, no, that wasn’t me! Oh no, everyone was watching me! It’s over! I can’t go back! My high school life is ruined!”

From her demeanor, it seemed she remembered everything she had done just seconds ago. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t Maki who had done those things, but the thing that had been inside her. She was sharing memories while her body was taken over.

“What should I do, Ichika… It’s not over yet. I’m not gone…”

Her flushed cheeks had completely returned to normal, and now they had turned pale, as if all the bl00d had drained from her face. This was the first time I had seen her lose herself to this extent. But it was understandable. If I were in the same position, I might be screaming even more.

The truth known only to me and Maki. Everything began when I rescued that white cat.

In a trembling voice, Maki revealed.

“Inside me, that cat is there.”

And then.

We would soon come to know that this event was merely the prologue.