My Life as a Teenage Neko

Chapter 2: A Rude Awakening

Chapter 2 A Rude Awakening

            I followed Tiger out of the bathroom and towards my bed and sat beside him on it. A thousand questions were running through my mind, but I couldn’t find the words to match with them. I mean imagine waking up and discovering that you had cat ears. Hold on a second, cat ears. Did I still have my own human ears? I felt the side of my head and sighed in relief when I realized there were two perfectly normal human ears attached to me. Thinking perhaps it had all been my imagination; I reached up into my strawberry, blond hair and discovered that it was no dream. Sticking up on the top of my head were two cat ears.

            I looked at my strange companion, who was just looking at me, studying me. Deciding I wanted answers, I made the first move. “So, Tiger…”

            My question was cut off by the voice of Tiger. “No. My name is Kyubei, not Tiger,” he interrupted. “I’m sure you are wondering what is going on and I will explain it all in due time.” He closed his eyes, looking very pensive, and just stayed like that for what felt like forever. With each passing second, my impatience was growing. Finally, I screeched in frustration and started to whine. Why was this happening to me? Suddenly, I heard what sounded like laughing. I looked over and saw Kyubei looking at me with a grin. I turned my eyes and glared at the feline. He should be thankful looks can’t kill. When he noticed my face, he visible shuddered and gulped down the rest of his laughter. “Um… Yes, I should probably continue,” said the cat nervously. “You showed me a great kindness yesterday and I thought it only fair to repay you.”

            “What?!!!!!” I shouted. The sudden volume of my voice caused Kyubei to jump off the bed in fright and fall to the floor. I jumped up and moved towards him, but the cat started moving backwards in terror. “You did this to me?! What am I?! Why do I have cat ears?” The cat kept moving back until he was in a corner. I didn’t relent and stood over him in a fury.

            “Quiet,” pleaded Kyubei. “You don’t want to alert your mother.” I stopped my shouting and just stood there, realizing he was right. “Thank you,” he said. “As I said before you’re now a neko, a half human, half cat mix to be exact.” He moved around me, glancing over my body. “Also, it isn’t just cat ears. You have a matching tail.” I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. Reaching behind my back, I grasped a thin, bushy object. I pulled it around and saw he was right. It was the same color as my hair, except for the tip, which was a snowy white. It was sticking out from the waist of my pants. Following its length, I discovered it was protruding from the small of my back. I couldn’t believe it!

            “Is this all the changes?” I asked Kyubei in a shaky voice.

            At this, Kyubei squirmed nervously and looked away, abashed. “The only way to know for sure is to do a full body search. You’ll have to get naked.”

            “You pervert!” I shouted, crossing my arms to cover my chest from the cats gaze. He was trying to check me out. My face began to blush with both embarrassment and fury.

            The lecherous cat jumped ten feet in the air at my words. “No! You misunderstand me. You just have to go into the bathroom and examine every part of your body. It is hard to predict just how a person is affected by these changes.” If a cat was able to blush, Kyubei would be pure scarlet.

            Without answering, I ran into the bathroom and closed the door behind me. Locking it, I ran to the mirror, I started with my face, gazing at it hard in the mirror. The first thing I saw was that my eyes hadn’t changed color, thankfully. They were still the same hazel color. It would have been difficult to cover up my eyes changing color over night. However, I did notice that my pupils looked slightly larger. I then opened my mouth and stuck out my tongue. My teeth were slightly sharper and the incisors looked elongated, but it was unnoticeable if you weren’t looking at them. I came to the realization that my tongue hadn’t been dry when I woke up, but instead were covered in small spines. Being the cat lover that I am, I knew these were called filiform papilla and what their purpose was. I don’t care if I have them, there is no way in hell I’m licking myself clean.

            With my face out of the way, I began to examine the rest of my body. I took off my clothes and began looking over my 5’7 body. I examined every part of my alabaster skin and discovered no aberrations, minus the growth of my finger nails, which were now sharp like claws. At least there was no fur. I shuddered at the thought of trying to keep that hidden.

            I signed and looked at myself in the mirror. I was starting to feel less frustrated and more depressed. At this point, I noticed that my new ears seemed to change with my emotions. They were now drooped down, expressing my distress. How could this get any worse?

            I sucked it up, got dressed and walked back into my room. I saw Kyubei had moved back to the bed and was looking at me as I entered. I sat down beside him and began my interrogation. “How can an ordinary cat talk anyway?” I asked my companion.

            “That’s just it. I am no cat, but a spirit in the shape of one. I have mystic powers and I’ve come to earth to master them. I am what is considered a trainee and to become a full fledged member I have to use them to benefit the life of one human. That’s where you come in.”

            I felt my anger bubbling up in me, but I tried to contain it. “Let me get this straight”, I said through gritted teeth. “You used powers you don’t fully understand to turn me into a cat.” Kyubei just nodded, sensing my anger. I clenched my fist and I felt a vein throb in my forehead. “Well change me back,” I demanded in a voice shaky with rage.

            Kyubei hesitated for a second, avoiding my gaze. “Well, you see,,, I can’t . There is no way to reverse the spell, which is known to me anyway. I suppose my masters might know one, but I can’t return to the spirit realm until my task is complete, even if I wanted to.”

            “So, where does that leave me?” I asked resisting every urge to skin the animal before me. Knowing he wasn’t a real cat made it all the more tempting. “So, are these all the changes?” I asked, clenching my fist so hard that my new claws were now digging into my palm, drawing blood.

            “I can’t be sure. There may be a few psychological changes, but the only way to discover these are to examine them through time. A cat has more heightened senses than normal humans. Try focusing and see if you can hear or smell anything downstairs.” I closed my eyes and tried to focus, inhaling deeply. I could hear my mother moving around the kitchen downstairs, something I normally wouldn’t be able to hear. I also could smell the bacon cooking in the frying pan and hear it sizzling from the grease. This was starting to get weirder than I ever thought possible. Suddenly, I heard something that made me gulp nervously.

            "Sara, wake up. Breakfast is ready,” shouted my mom from downstairs.