The Curious Case of the Fantastic Feline Figure (ON HOLD)

Chapter 1- Gil and Bakeneko Academy

A glorious sunshine rose over the town. Beams of solar light shone through the window into the sleeping eyes of Tom Chester. He stretched, yawned, rose out of bed. His eyes slowly opened, and his ears twitched atop his head. Wait, hold on, what?

Rushing to the bathroom, Tom hoped that he was wrong. He had certainly gone to bed with ears in the normal places. Looking down at his hands, they were his regular, normal human hands, which gave him just the slimmest hope that he was just somehow mistaken about all of this madness. As he nervously flicked on the light switch in the still dark bathroom, he caught sight of himself in the mirror. The face that stared back was not his own, but that of a cat, slitted blue eyes and white fur. His ears twitched again, his whiskers flickering in stress. This wasn't right. He wasn't a cat, he was a human, last he'd checked, just like every other seventeen year old in every way. Wasn't normal seventeen years old stress enough? A normal human, that was the way he had gone to sleep and it should have been the way he had woken up too. But he could tell through the fog of his mind that all of this was real. Not an illusion, nor a dream. This was him now.

About an hour later, Tom was in the local town. There wasn't anywhere else he could think to go for help, but he had hoped that once he was in the town, he'd figure out somewhere. But even now, he didn't know exactly where to go. For as long as he could, he wandered the streets aimlessly, just trying to think who he could even see about this. He had hidden his face in vague shadow with a crimson hoodie, and he kept his head down and eyes to the floor. No medical ward would be able to do anything for him, Tom reasoned, and there was really nowhere else that he could go. So with no other option, Tom resolved to give up and go home. He'd figure out his options as whatever demihuman he had become, tomorrow.

As he passed through another sparsely visited back street on his way home, Tom suddenly felt a chill on his back. A very specific chill, the sort of chill that only the feeling of being watched can bring on. He didn't want to be seen as is, but whatever presence Tom thought was watching felt... malicious to him. Drawing his hoodie as tightly as he could around his face, Tom turned around to see who- or what- was watching him.

The dark figure walking down the road behind Tom was certainly unnerving. Beneath the brief flashes of light as they walked, Tom saw flashes of features. Piercing grey eyes, a rugged, short beard of indeterminable colour. Tom could very clearly see the man's trench-coat, black and down to the man's knees. As Tom continued to walk away, still observing the follower, he noticed the man lift his hands from his sides. As he did, small chunks of rock and pebbles rose from the ground and floated alongside the stranger, whose pace seemed to have picked up. When Tom saw his follower stop, so did he. The man pulled off his trench-coat and dropped it on the ground. And before Tom could question what he was seeing, a second figure rose from the trench-coat, and both began encroaching faster than ever. When Tom turned back to his front, he suddenly found appreciation for how much loose gravel was on the road as it had lifted into the air into a solid wall in front of him. Tom pressed his back against the surprisingly solid wall as the two mysterious individuals approached further. They stopped about a foot in front of him. Whilst Tom was frozen in shock, the bearded man reached above Tom's head and pulled down his hood.

"Well, damn, we were right to come here, Jak." he enthusiastically exclaimed to his partner.
"When has the Mad Monk ever been wrong, Cal?" returned Jak, a clean shaven man about an inch shorter than Cal. Jak's eyes flickered across Tom's face, before he asked "What's your name, kid?"
Tom tried to respond, but his voice caught in his throat, made dry more suddenly than he would have liked.
"Just tell us, kiddo." Cal followed on, his voice deepening into a threatening tone. "We have ways of making you spill information way more important than who you are, so why don't you just give us this one for free?"
"T... Tom..." the terrified adolescent choked out, pressing himself further into the wall but not feeling it budge even slightly. Ignoring him, Cal turned back towards his accomplice.
"So," Cal began, speaking in a hushed tone but still loud enough for Tom to hear. "Do we get him on our side? Or do we let the boss feed?"
"A wimpy power like this?" Jak heckled. "We might as well let the boss snack a bit."
"You bag him, I'll carry." Cal ordered. With that they both turned back to Tom.
"Sorry about this, but business calls and we've been here too long." Cal sighed, stretching. Just them, Tom saw the beam of a flashlight from further down the dark alleyway.
"This is the police! What's happening down there!" a loud voice came from the source of the light. Cal muttered something to Jak, and with that, Jak jumped onto Cal's back and with that Cal alone ran off, trench-coat flowing behind him.