The Hunt (1)

Judgment made, all that remained was action.

For two days, I studied the cat's daily patterns, observing and investigating them methodically.

After meticulous analysis, I reached a single conclusion.

That thing lives like an emperor.

I'd stake my life on it — even the captain of this ship wasn't living more comfortably than that cat.

Watching the crew for six days had shown me that most of them lived below average. Their meals, for instance, consisted entirely of cheap food — artificial meat, genetically modified grain, nothing with a single virtue beyond its low price.

Meanwhile, that cat hit the jackpot with its owner and stuffs itself with nothing but meat every single day.

And not just any meat — fresh raw cuts butchered the same day.

This ship had an agricultural section dedicated to farming and livestock. It existed originally to provide premium cuisine for the vessel's top brass and distinguished guests arriving from outside. Handing such precious meat to a mere cat was anything but normal.

Kisaragi Yujin is definitely no ordinary person.

My best guess was that she was either a Prime Capital, the Martian corporate nobility, or a Noble Capital, the supreme tier of Mega Corp. Both constituted the core ruling class of Mega Corp — factions wielding dominion on a planetary scale.

Troublesome people, the lot of them.

Both castes were possessed of staggering pride, and once you earned their grudge, they never forgot it. They were the vindictive sort who would remember even the pettiest slight and repay it a hundredfold, a thousandfold, when the moment came. They'd given me no end of grief back when I played the game.

Even if I'd killed someone other than Kisaragi Yujin and escaped this ship, she would never have let it go. She'd hunt me to the ends of space and try to kill me one way or another.

One more reason she has to die, then.

But her standing aside, the crux of the matter was how to get my claws on that cat.

"Meow."

Bored, the cat yawned with its mouth stretched wide open. Watching it roll around on the most luxurious of cushions, I couldn't help thinking I'd never seen a lazier layabout in my life.

This was Kisaragi Yujin's bedroom.

I was crouched inside the ventilation duct where it met the wall near the floor, watching the lazybones through the wire mesh. The sheer idleness on display made me want to sigh.

It looks so dull that killing it shouldn't be hard.

Cats, unlike dogs, retained their wild instincts even after millennia of domestication. They were also innately superb hunters by nature.

That was why I'd expected this to be a formidable opponent for a mere Hatchling like me. Not a losing battle, perhaps, but one that would cost me my share of injuries.

Yet seeing the creature with my own eyes, I realized I'd worried for nothing. One look at that fat, bloated belly, and I could think of nothing except how delicious it looked.

The problem is just how lazy it is.

The thing spent most of its day sprawled on that cushion. It didn't move a muscle except at mealtimes and when it strolled the garden with its owner.

Not that I can just kill it here.

The funny thing was, security here was actually tighter than in the cargo bay.

To the naked eye, the ventilation duct I occupied looked no different from any other.

But through my Super Sense, I could tell that the bedroom's owner had a borderline-paranoid obsession with security. Laser transponders were installed throughout, monitoring for intrusions from the outside.

What would happen if I slipped into the room like this? The AI would instantly notify the guards stationed outside the door that an unknown visitor had entered.

And then it's lights out for me.

They ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wouldn't even need a gun. One kick from a guard, and I'd die with my guts burst open.

Stalled out right here, huh.

The cat itself would be easy, but the approach was unexpectedly tricky. I was fuming about it when I absentmindedly gave my tail a big lash.

Oh no!

My tail cracked against the duct wall, and the cat's ears shot upright.

"Nyaa?"

The cat bolted to its feet and came sprinting straight toward my hiding spot — surprisingly nimble movement for such a fat thing.

Its body slammed into the wire mesh, and the laser transponder activated.

I could feel the guards outside stiffening as the signal reached them. I couldn't stay here a second longer.

After one last glare at the thing frantically clawing at the mesh, I slipped away. The moment I withdrew, the guards burst into the room.

"What the hell? What got in this time?"

"Tch. The cat's throwing a fit again."

"Again?"

"Unbelievable. That damn thing!"

Leaving the guards' grumbling behind me, I returned to my nest.

...That was way too close.

My life had nearly ended. Swinging my tail around out of sheer irritation — I couldn't believe such a blunder.

Had the comfort of my cozy nest dulled my edge? Now that my body was comfortable, maybe I'd gone numb to danger.

Luring attention with my tail, what was I thinking, I must be cra— wait. Wait a second.

In the middle of berating myself, something clicked in my head.

Fragments of an idea began popping up one by one, seemingly at random. Like assembling a puzzle, I carefully sorted through the thoughts as they surfaced.

The bored-looking creature. Stimulation. The guards' reaction.

Those three were the key words.

At last, I had the beginnings of a strategy.

Caesar the cat was, as always, whiling away the hours on his cushion.

When he'd first learned he was to leave his homeland and entrust his body to a hulking mass of metal that reeked to high heaven, he simply hadn't believed it. He'd rebuked his feeding human, Kisaragi Yujin, with all the stern dignity he could muster, but she had only worn an apologetic expression and brushed his objections aside.

Caesar had been terribly disappointed, but his suffering hadn't ended there. The sleeping arrangements were unbearably uncomfortable, and the food was even worse.

For a creature who had lived his entire life on the finest cuts of meat and freshly caught fish, the ship's meals were nigh unendurable. That a gourmand of his magnitude had once gone a full day on hunger strike said everything.

Only because his owner had fallen to her knees and begged him so desperately had he grudgingly consented to choke down the inferior meat after all.

Before long, in spite of all his early resistance, Caesar had adapted perfectly to his new environment. Life aboard a ship where nothing ever changed suited his lazy temperament to a tee.

Emerging from his boredom, Caesar stretched. Movement was a bother to him, but even so, he was never short of feline curiosity.

Wouldn't it be nice if something interesting happened for once?

Just then, a rustling sound reached his ears.

He raised his head to check — the noise was coming from beyond the vent where the breeze flowed in. Come to think of it, not long ago, a strange presence had emerged from that very spot and caught his attention.

Caesar slowly rose. Last time, he'd rushed over too eagerly and lost the mysterious creature entirely.

This time I won't let it get away.

So resolving, he crept forward with care. As he drew near the vent's opening, his eyes caught sight of a small object.

A cockroach, its body half-severed. Despite having no hope of survival, the insect was wriggling frantically, desperate to escape.

At the sight of it, Caesar felt a predator's instinct stirring from a long, long slumber. Before he knew it, he had pounced on the bug.

Having pulverized his prey under his forepaws, Caesar felt an unfamiliar emotion wash over him.

It was fun. The thought that he wanted more toys filled his little brain to bursting.

Through the wire mesh, Caesar spied yet another bug. He deflated. He'd tried the mesh last time, and it hadn't budged an inch.

But when he gave it a frustrated little tap, remarkably, the result was different this time.

The mesh toppled forward.

Delighted, he crawled into the duct after the bug.

"Hey, it's going off again."

"Probably the cat. What a pain — we'll check it out in a bit."

"Fair enough. Where's a cat gonna go anyway? We're standing right here."

Being a cat, Caesar couldn't understand the conversation the guards were having outside.

And even if he could have, it would have been useless — his mind was entirely occupied by the bugs.

His eyes, following the insects scattered here and there along the duct, caught a bright light. Tracking it, he emerged into a wide, open corridor.

"Nyaa?"

Stepping out into the hallway and looking around, Caesar found himself somewhere he'd never been before.

For a moment he wondered if he should turn back — but then another bug appeared, and the sight scrambled his reason.

Behind the insect's corpse, a dark space yawned open, black as a void against the corridor's light. Caesar, fearless as only a fool can be, leapt right into it.

It was the cargo bay.

Here it comes.

I watched the creature from my hiding place atop a container. The foolish cat had followed the trail of bugs straight into the cargo bay without a trace of suspicion.

Well, I can't call it stupid, exactly.

The cat was simply following its instinct.

And to an animal, instinct was absolute.

Domesticated by human hands or not, the wild genes within its body remained untouched. The genes of a hunter. The genes of a predator.

"Meow."

The creature drew closer to the containers. I readied myself to pounce.

My blood surged faster than usual, tight with tension. The thick, supple tail at my rear screamed that it was ready to strike at a moment's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠notice.

The muscles of my four pairs of legs coiled tight, my stance dropped low — my whole body announced it was ready for combat.

While my body prepared itself, my faithful servant, my Super Sense, was executing its master's orders, calculating the perfect moment to attack.

Amorph's transcendent vision pierced the darkness beyond the unlit cargo bay and locked onto the cat with unerring precision. Observing the movement of its muscles and bones, its habits and tics, I discovered something: the cat's right eye had poorer vision than its left.

"Nyaa?"

The creature turned its head to the left. With its failing vision, it couldn't spot me hidden in the dark.

Now. This was the moment.

I snapped my coiled legs outward with explosive force, and my body rode the momentum into the air.

I deliberately left my wings folded — they made noise. Gravity alone was more than enough to close the distance quickly.

The gap between us shrank in a heartbeat.

The cat's ears pricked at the whistle of wind. Its head swung toward me, pupils dilating wide. I could feel its body tensing as it registered the danger.

But it was far too late.

My tail became an assassin's stiletto and drove into its flank.

Venom potent enough to paralyze a grown man in seconds raced through the creature's blood vessels, spreading through its entire body. With a frame far smaller than a human's, there was no way it could withstand the paralytic toxin. Within moments of the strike, its heart stopped beating.

The hunt was a complete success.

Stepping over the trophy sprawled motionless on the floor, I let out a low roar.

The predator's cry of triumph rang through the cargo bay, and its inhabitants trembled in fear and awe.

Good. Now, time to eat.

Ceremony concluded in triumph, it was time to collect my reward. I sank my teeth ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into the cat's corpse.

Hm?!

A texture unlike anything I'd tasted with the bugs or the calorie bars struck me like a thunderbolt.

The first thing to flood my mouth was the warm blood unique to mammals. Before I could even savor its sweetness, springy muscle and rich, savory fat came surging in after it, toyed ruthlessly with my sense of taste.

It was shocking enough that I felt as if my spine were being sucked clean out of my body.

All this time I'd thought cockroaches, spiders, and calorie bars were decent enough eating. I had been dead wrong.

This — this is what the word "delicious" was invented for.

Gripping the trembling leg of the cat with all my might, I bit down once more.

Insane.

It hadn't been a fluke. It was so good I could happily eat nothing but cat for the rest of my life. My meager vocabulary simply couldn't capture how magnificent an animal cat meat truly was.

Without a single thought in my head, I gave myself over entirely to the meal.

It took me less than five minutes to make a cat carcass bigger than my own body vanish without a trace.

Mmm.

I crunched through the bones, licked up every last drop of blood that had spattered the floor, and smacked my lips.

Having finished my frenzy of gluttony and come back to my senses, I finally understood why the Amorph was so obsessed with meat.

Because it's this damn delicious.

It was a flavor so staggering that curses of awe escaped me unbidden.

Set aside the goal of harvesting Genetic Essence entirely — if meat tasted this good, it was worth hunting down for its own sake.

I was licking the flecks of flesh and blood from my forelegs, awash in regret that it was over, when a text box suddenly materialized before me.

Oh?

I was already riding high off the meal, and now a Genetic Essence on top of it? I hadn't even known I could gain one from eating a creature for the very first time.

'Wild Instinct,' huh. Never seen that trait before.

After all, this was my first time eating a cat, so I'd had no idea it carried a trait at all. I had no clue what its effect might be, but there was no downside to having it — I pressed ACCEPT.

Whoa?

I stared at the text box, utterly lost for words.