"Oh, a customer?"
Hitomi noticed Morpheus and forced a faint smile.
Rui, sensing her sister's mood, hurried out from behind the counter.
"Hitomi, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Hitomi shook her head. "Just feeling a bit down."
"What happened?" Rui recalled Hitomi leaving in high spirits—how had she returned so dejected?
Not wanting to worry her sister, Hitomi explained.
"I was actually in a good mood today, but on my way back, I saw a cat crushed by a truck."
"I buried it, but for some reason, I'm still really upset. I can't shake it off."
Rui sighed in relief. She'd thought it was something serious.
Just a cat.
"You've always been kind-hearted, Hitomi. It's normal to feel sad about this, but it's not your fault. You buried the cat and did what you could."
"Don't let it get to you. Cheer up, it'll be okay."
"You're wrong there," Morpheus interjected, overhearing the sisters. "This isn't nothing—it's a big deal."
Both Rui and Hitomi turned to him.
Hitomi couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean, sir?"
"Don't mind him, Hitomi," Rui said. "This guy's unhinged."
"Nee-san?" Hitomi was stunned. Her usually polite sister calling a customer unhinged? What had he done to earn such disdain?
Morpheus ignored Rui's jab and turned to Hitomi. "If I'm not mistaken, you've encountered a Sawarineko, Miss Hitomi."
"Sawarineko? What's that?"
"A low-level oddity, a tailless silver-white cat that preys on human conscience and sympathy."
Drawing on his knowledge from the Monogatari Series, Morpheus explained slowly, "The Sawarineko pretends to be a roadkill cat, attaching itself to humans who bury it out of pity, causing their personality to shift abruptly."
"It's an oddity that repays kindness with malice, the opposite of a Manekineko."
"It's not the cat turning human, but the human becoming cat-like."
"It has energy-draining abilities. Humans touched by it lose stamina and vitality, sometimes fatally."
"The Sawarineko's draining is a passive, contact-based ability, independent of the cat's will."
"If I'm right, you're possessed by one right now."
Hitomi's face paled at Morpheus's grave tone.
In a world with vampires, oddities weren't far-fetched.
Ordinary people rarely encountered them but knew they were real, not myths.
That's why Hitomi was so scared.
Rui, skeptical of Morpheus, suspected he was exaggerating to scare them.
But with her sister's life at stake, she couldn't dismiss it outright.
She hesitated, torn.
Hitomi, unaware of the tension between Morpheus and Rui, didn't sense malice from him. She instinctively felt he wasn't lying.
They had no bad blood—why would he make this up?
Then she remembered: the cat she buried didn't have a tail.
More crucially, she'd only told Rui she buried a cat, not that it lacked a tail.
That convinced her Morpheus was telling the truth.
"Sir, am I really possessed by a Sawarineko?" Hitomi stepped closer, asking cautiously.
Morpheus scanned her, detecting a non-human aura within her.
"Yep, you're definitely possessed."
"What do I do?" Hitomi panicked. She was young—she didn't want to die.
Morpheus waved dismissively. "It's not a big deal. The Sawarineko's just a low-level oddity. No need to worry too much. You're not Tsubasa Hanekawa."
"Huh? Who's Tsubasa Hanekawa?"
Despite her life being on the line, Hitomi couldn't help but ask.
She was a beautiful woman—being compared to someone else sparked a twinge of rivalry.
"Like you, another unlucky soul possessed by a Sawarineko," Morpheus explained. "But her head's full of bizarre knowledge, which supercharged the Sawarineko possessing her, making it several times stronger."
"You're different. Your mind doesn't have that kind of weird knowledge, so the Sawarineko won't get a boost."
"And even if it did, it's no match for me."
Hitomi caught the confidence in his tone and studied him closely.
"What do you do, sir? Are you an onmyoji?"
"Nope. On the surface, I'm a student. My real identity? A god, currently saving the world."
"Huh?"
Hitomi was dumbfounded, finally understanding why Rui called him unhinged.
His words were wild.
It was easy to peg him as crazy.
For a moment, even Rui wondered if he was delusional, making it all up to trick her.
But then she recalled the tailless cat—hard evidence.
"Kami-sama," Hitomi said, clasping her hands and pleading, "Please, have mercy and save me."
Morpheus nodded. "Sure, but—"
At that moment, a message from Erina popped up.
[Lord Morpheus, I've entered the Gourmet World again.]
Morpheus was thrilled. The Gourmet World! Erina entering it again was great news.
He replied instantly, "Good, wait there. I'm coming."
Looking back at Hitomi, he said, "No rush on your issue. I'll handle my follower's matter first, then we'll talk."
With that, he cast a teleportation spell and vanished before the Kisugi sisters.
"!!!"
"!!!"
***
Bonus Chapter:
100 Power Stones = 1 BC
300 Power Stones = 2 BC
500 Power Stones = 3 BC
700 Power Stones = 4 BC
1000 Power Stones = 5 BC
***
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