Chapter 2 - Volume 1 (1/2)

Volume 1, Chapter 2: I became a Demon

The black panther and I began our cohabitation.

Saying that, since my identity is that of a girl, and the black panther speaks in that wonderful masculine voice, doesn’t this mean we’re like a couple living together? Or so I hoped, but I’m his pet.

Thinking about that makes my heart beat a little faster.

“[…… What are you thinking about?]”

“[No, nothing really.]”

This panther has surprisingly good intuition.

“[Ah, right right, there’s something I wanted to ask you about.]”

“[…… What is it?]”

The black panther unexpectedly replied without reluctance, albeit in a suspicious tone.

Although the area we were in was the black panther’s territory, he didn’t have a home in it. Since we didn’t require neither sleep or meals, we had no need for a location that guaranteed safety.

Nevertheless, although I did wish for a safe place, due to my body being that of a kitten. However, the stronger demons that would normally attack me wouldn’t draw near, fearing the black panther.

“[This place we’re at…where is it?]”

In response to my vague question, the black panther slightly narrowed his eyes… but still replied after several seconds.

“[By this place… you mean, rather than within my territory, where we are within this world?]”

“[Right right, that’s it.]”

He’s so smart~….. I’m alone in my idiocy huh.

“[Even with enough intelligence to allow you to converse, you don’t know…? Didn’t you learn words after being summoned?]”

“[Su-summoned? No, I was born just recently……]”

“[What?……]”

While still nervous from the black panther’s surprised growl, I decided to explain. Of course, what I explained was the dream world, but since he mentioned the word [Summoned], I felt that it was better not to speak of the part where I was a human.

“[Memories of a dream……how strange.]”

“[I know right~.]”

A huge black panther and a golden kitten, seriously nodding at one another… Pretty surreal.

Surprisingly, the black panther easily accepted my explanation. Well, he is highly intelligent, but more than that it must be that the strong didn’t fuss over such small things.

“[So, about this world……]”

“[Ah, yes…… this world has many different names. The truth of the matter is that you can’t truly understand unless you’ve existed since the beginning of this world.]”

T-that kind of technical answer isn’t what I wanted to hear….

“[But the humans use a mere few words to portray this kind of world. They call it the [Spiritual Plane].]”

“[……Spiritual plane…?]”

The black panther explained in simplified terms so that I could understand.

The [Material Plane] was where the beings with life existed, such as humans, animals and the like.

In this world, the [Spiritual Plane], those that were the exceptions… the beings that possessed no flesh or bones, existed.

“[Take a look above.]”

“[Above, you say…]”

When I did as the black panther said and looked up at the sky, what I saw wasn’t the sun and the blue sky that I knew from my memories, but the usual hazy, dark emptiness.

“[Try to look far up there,  [Something] is there.]”

“[………Ok』

Upon being told that something exists up in the sky, I tried searching for it… in a place that was considerably high up, I saw shiny clouds that were spread out.

“[Do you see it?]”

“[……What’s that?]”

“[The spiritual plane doesn’t consist of a single layer, but is divided into several. That is one of them… the border into the fairy realm.]”

I was surprised, hearing that, but it made sense.

Ever since learning about summoning, I had already grasped a feeling for this world…. This is that, isn’t it. The domain of myths and fantasies. I vaguely remember reading such books among the ones that my siblings brought to me in my hospital room.

The black panther hadn’t personally gone there before, but apparently, even further above, there was also the afterlife realm.

“[Then, is there a celestial realm?]”

“[…… I’ve never heard of it.]”

I wonder, is it that it doesn’t exist, or that he just hasn’t heard of it? Or, rather than that……

“[……Hey…]”

“[Yes?]”

“[This place…..or rather, what do humans call us…?]”

I questioned the black panther, ignoring the bad premonition I felt.

“[Let’s see…… if you mean how our existences are called as a whole then… the humans call us [Demons].]”

“[………]”

A-as I thought…. I was hoping that, at the very least, we would be some type of dark spirits, but the truth was a dimension apart huh~.……

＊

For a demon, the black panther unexpectedly had quite the calm personality. ……Or so I thought, but he really was a demon after all.

On one occasion, we were roaming far and wide in search of snacks.

“[Don’t fall off.]”

“[……Okay.]”

Today, I wasn’t being held in the black panther’s mouth, but was riding on top of his head like a blond wig.

Even if I were to fall off, I mustn’t cling on with my claws. If I did such a thing, I would get munched on.

“[There it is.]”

“[……Eh.]”

In the next moment, the black panther was racing across the ground at an unthinkably fast speed towards a tiny gray colored monkey and in a flash, snapped it up into his jaws.

In the place of flesh and blood, the bittersweet scent of apple wafted in the air.

“[Is it tasty？]”

“[……It- it’s delicious.]”

Certainly it was delicious but…I thought I recognized something of a will from the mini monkey when the fear-filled eyes of the monkey met my gaze, right before the moment it was bitten to death.

Even after that, the black panther continued to slaughter. Truly, it was delicious.

But you know~…… this place we’re in is something like the demon realm, and, seeing as we’re one of those demons that exist here, doesn’t this count as cannibalism?

“[Hey, Black Panther-san.]”

“[……Black Panther…? What’s with that.]”

He glared at me.

“[We demons have no names. Demons naming each other will end up causing us to deny our own existence.]”

The inhabitants of the spiritual plane had no names.

According to the black panther, it’s because if you were to be given a name that caused you to doubt yourself, your existence would weaken.

However, if you are granted a name from the material plane, it will further strengthen your existence, apparently.

“[… S-so you have no name?]”

“[I do have a species name. Like how you would call humans or wolves. The other beings call me a [Dark Beast].]”

Dark Beast…. Like what he said, I felt like it was more of a name that defined a type name rather than a species. But, isn’t it inconvenient since there’s no way of differentiating between other Dark Beasts? He said that there was no problems, though, since he was the only existing Dark Beast.

Incidentally, the mini monkey he had killed was just an ordinary [Demon]… broadly speaking anyway.

“[Well then Dark Beast-san, what about me?]”

“[Don’t use the “-san” with my name. Also, it’s troublesome so you might as well speak casually.]”

“[G-got it. ……so, what about me?]”

“[A species name huh? ……Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen something like you…』

It seems that beings like the dark beast and I are rare. When I transformed, he was expecting me to turn out as a monkey [Demon Type]. How cruel.

According to him, the other intelligent beings calling him dark beast was something that had naturally happened over the long passage of time.

“[For you, seeing as how you’re similar to my species, let’s go with “[Golden Beast].]”

“[……Th-thank you.]”

Golden beast huh~……That’s pretty half-assed, oi. I couldn’t say it out loud, though, after seeing how confident he looked saying it.

＊

I’ve become used to the lifestyle of a demon.

When facing up against a kitten like me, as expected, even the mini monkeys that were usually so full of fright displayed hostility, although they were surprisingly easy to defeat. I’ve even gotten used to the terrified expressions they show before their moment of death. I’m sure that demons don’t have the heart to mind such things.

The reason they’re aggressive towards me must be because my kitten form has no dignity. Yup, it can’t be helped.

I got to talk about various things with the dark beast as well.

It’s been on my mind since the first mini monkey we saw, but regardless of whether the beings we run into have more or less purpose and intelligence, the dark beast would always just mercilessly kill them all.

Somehow I ended up asking him about it, and he replied that he disliked them because the large majority of those beings were either [Stupid], [Fearful] or [Haughty], so they didn’t make for good conversations.

That was why it had been such a long time for him to find someone like me who could converse normally, counting up till the present, it seems he had known of only five beings that he had enjoyable talks with.

“[Is it fun talking with me…?]”

“[It is. Your talk of the dream world is interesting.]”

I also find talking with him to be fun. He has a lovely voice after all.

Once in a while there are times when we don’t talk as well.

Probably because we’re both beasts of the cat family, our enjoyment of playing and frolicking about closely resembles each other.

“[Funya]”

He was *mofumofu*ing around the top of my belly with the tip of his nose.

It tickles.

I thought that if he went as far as licking then I would claw him good, but I won’t lash out if it’s just to the degree of nudging with his nose, rolling me over like a ball of fur and sniffing me.

After all, he let’s me mofumofu as well.

His fur is naturally silky, but the area around his chest was especially plushy. I have the privilege of plunging myself in there to the point of being buried and enjoying a full body mofumofu.

It smells good in there as well.

I sense a slight… sweet scent, and a sense of intoxication like you get from sipping alcohol.

I wonder, does my stomach give off a similar feel?

It was in that manner that we passed away a considerable amount of time.

It might have been just a few days, or perhaps even several years. There was nothing to measure the time with. To begin with, the very concept of time in the spiritual plane was vague.

But, to a certain extent, I felt the passage of time through my body.

My body had grown from the size of a kitten to the size of a slender adult cat, and although I was still the size of a regular cat, I could run at the same speed as the huge dark beast.

Although I could only just barely bring out the same speed when using my bat wings.

My strength had increased by quite a fair amount as well. ……A passerby monkey-san that was bigger than I was took a look at me, only to become stiff in the face before slowly backing away with inching steps.

Ahh……please don’t make that face. It makes me feel all excited, I want to chase you down.

When I gambol around with the dark beast, though, I’m always the one to get blown away and end up surrendering my belly for him to mofumofu.

Muu……next time for sure I won’t lose.

“[Hey, what’s that?]”

I was being *mofumofu*’d by him since I lost in our previous contest, until I lost patience and bit his nose, so he was now letting me mofumofu him as an apology for being obnoxious.

It was when I was mofumofuing on his chest when I noticed something.

“[What is it, you say… it’s a summon circle. Didn’t I teach you?]”

He replied while also looking at the summon circle.

He was in a good mood until just moments ago, but he abruptly fell into ill humour. Is it that bothersome to repeat something you’ve explained before? I wonder.

“[Not that~. Why is that tiny demon that was nearby suddenly being pulled away?]”

Summoning circles. I’ve heard about them from the dark beast.

In short, it’s a gate that’s made through the use of summoning magic from the material plane, and if a demon from this side of the realms steps onto it, they would be summoned to the other side…or so it goes.

By the way, I’ve never entered one before so I don’t know. The first time I heard of it, I was happy in thinking that I could go to that world of light, but I couldn’t enter.