The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 177: The Nobodies in Heaven

Delicious smell. Sniff sniff. Fresh bread. Fresh buns. Fruit. Sugar. Meat. Must eat.

Scurry scurry freeze.

Shadows? No shadows. Footsteps? No footsteps.

Scurry scurry scurry.

Scary smell. Why scary? Just scary. Gone now.

Scurry scurry scurry.

Hot bread. Crunchy, then soft. Fluffy. Nibble nibble nibble. Crumbs falling. Must eat them all.

Munch munch munch. Sweet fruity smell inside bun. Eat eat eat eat eat – steam! Hot! Bubbling liquid!

Lick paws. Lick lick lick lick lick. So good. Sweet and thick. Like berries but not like berries.

Scary smell again! Right above! Freeze.

Look up slowly.

Giant black monster. Giant black paws. Giant pointy teeth. Giant sharp claws. Run!

Run run run!

Pounce.

Glitter's sense of humor was in serious need of repair, I decided when I regained consciousness, my sense of me, in the archival box. That furry black monster who'd attacked and tortured me to death before presumably leaving my mangled corpse on the baker's bed had been Boot. I was sure of it. Which meant that Glitter had reincarnated me in the North Serican bakery that doubled as the cat spirits' spy school.

Why??? I screamed uselessly at the Superintendent of Reincarnation.

I could almost see her sour, wrinkled face, her malicious eyes. Because it was funny, she'd say with no hint of amusement.

Or maybe it hadn't been Glitter who'd selected the spy school for my latest home. Maybe it had been Cassius, toying with me as if I were one of his courtiers. I gnashed my teeth. No, wait. I didn't have teeth. With great effort, I ground together two fragments of my recoalescing soul.

This had to end. I had to find something that Cassius wanted, that only I could give him (that was not my soul's suffering), in exchange for a return to the status quo. The problem was that I knew so little about Heavenly politics that I had no idea where to start. I'd have to winkle intelligence out of him this time.

Except that this time, the one time I actually wanted to see Cassius' face in Flicker's office, he wasn't there.

Hey, Flicker! Where's the Star of Heavenly Joy?

The clerk rubbed his temples, mussing his hair and making it stick out like fluffs of starlight. "The Assistant Director was required elsewhere."

Hope bubbled up in me. Had Cassius gotten bored of tormenting me? If so – So if he isn't here, does that mean you can go back to reincarnating me with my mind?

Flicker didn't look straight at me, but at a point behind me. Unless the door had developed fascinating new properties in the minute or so since I entered the room, that was not a good sign. Just in case, I checked. Nope. It was still just a door.

"Piri...I can't. I'm sorry, but I just can't."

I promise I'll pretend to be mindless. I won't do anything that a normal rat wouldn't. I've gotten plenty of practice!

"I know...but he'll find out. He could be watching you at any instant. One slip, and he'll know."

I don't know how he dared revoke the Goddess of Life's decree in the first place. I can't imagine she wouldn't feel insulted. Seems like he's throwing in her face that she was wrong.