Irradiation | I Am a Black Cat 3 feat. YOASOBI | Awai Palm-Sized Story Collection 8

I am a black cat. A girl cat named Kuro. One day, while playing with a Kesaran-pasaran drifting in the void, I broke a decorative duck. It was my master's favorite piece of pottery, shaped like a mandarin duckling. I must keep this hidden from my master. Because I, the perfect and lying cat, am a genius idol cat.

The moment I thought that, I heard the sound of running footsteps in the hallway. My master, who clings to his study as stubbornly as an oyster and spends his time indulging in the strange game of stylistic imitation, had emerged from the room with superhuman speed for that one moment and picked up the broken mandarin duckling.

“...Are you hurt?”

Having said only that, my master did not utter another word. Yet, his eyes were wavering. In that wavering, I caught an emotion I had never felt from my master before. It was far more terrifying and far more painful than any shouting I had endured elsewhere. And my whiskers, too, trembled slightly.

Though I am a girl cat, in the face of that sinking emotion, I even forget the destiny of my afternoon nap.

“...This, you see, was left behind by someone. They are in a far-off place now.”

My master spent the rest of the day as if nothing had happened, breaking a tea bowl, missing an appointment, making apologies to various people over the phone, breaking a paperweight-like mouse, taking much longer than usual for his time of fantasy, and just now entered the bedroom.

The lights in the study are already out, and only the white light of the full moon leaks through the thin curtains by the window. The wind blowing through the gap in the window gently sways the thin curtains, brushing against my sensitive whiskers. Each time, I felt something changing its shape deep within my chest.

My grandmother cat, while she was alive, once stared into my eyes when I had been mischievous and said, “A girl cat must face her own sins.” I am a perfect idol cat. Therefore, I must face my master's silence.

A black cat is a creature that departs on a moonlit night. To meet that person's person. To pick up the fragments of my master's heart. I must go to a far-off place. However, this is not a retreat or running away from home. It is my proud free will. Just so my master doesn't worry, I left plenty of scratch marks in the bathroom. And I rubbed my bottom all over the strange glass that reflects a perfect girl cat like me in reverse. Surely, this will help my master cope with the loneliness of my absence.

A message of scent sacs in the bathroom. Yes, scent is my ultimate love.

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