Interlude: Another Monster Circus
Interlude: Another Monster Circus
Every port town along the Dragonyu River shared a seasonal phenomenon come late October: the sudden influx of stray cats.
In summer, they roamed the hills and fields, hunting small animals and raiding birds' nests. But as autumn thinned the prey, they drifted toward the docks to cadge off humans. Whenever a fishing boat pulled in, they came swarming to snatch up the worthless bycatch the sailors tossed aside from their nets.
For the fishermen of the Dragonyu, autumn and winter were the prime seasons for the local favorites that drew crowds to the markets. With fuller pockets, they were generous with the strays.
Dewey, a dockhand at the Axville port, loved cats. He found it endearing how they flocked to the pier the moment a new vessel appeared—eyes round with anticipation, hoping it was a fishing boat.
He had just hurried aboard a freshly docked ship, eager to be the first to unload its cargo. Cats were clever; they'd watch a crate or two come down, realize it wasn't fish, and promptly lose interest.
Off in the distance, he spotted the strays who'd wasted their time on a pleasure cruiser now veering toward this boat instead, rushing over en masse to see if this was the real catch. Dewey quickened his pace, intent on claiming the honor of being their greeter. He hoisted a bundle and stepped briskly onto the pier—only to find no cats waiting for him at all.
"Ahaha, stop! Stop, that tickles!"
They had clustered around a woman instead. The cats wove between her skirt and her bare legs, licking her skin and rubbing against her, drawing peals of laughter with every ticklish brush.
Dewey stared. She was young, barely past twenty, and dressed in a way that could not have been more out of place here.
Her short dress openly displayed her legs and the curve of her chest, trimmed with airy white frills, and atop her head sat a cylindrical hat adorned with a ribbon—the unmistakable costume of a stage performer.
Drawn in by the radiance of her smile, he spoke before he could stop himself.
"Good morning."
Her blue eyes turned toward him. The moment their gazes met, Dewey regretted opening his mouth. A nobody like him had no business speaking to someone so beautiful; it felt like a transgression. He fully expected her to dismiss him with a scornful look and walk right past. But to his astonishment, she gave him a bright smile and returned his greeting.
"Good morning. Lovely day, isn't it?"
His heart slammed against his ribs.
"Y-Yes. Yes, a very lovely morning."
"Fufu. What brings you over? Aren't you working...?"
"Ah, well, I, uh... I was curious."
"Curious about what?"
Dewey fought to keep his eyes from drifting down to the neckline of her dress as she tilted her head at him.
"The cats... usually they show up for fish scraps. I've never seen them cluster around someone who isn't feeding them..."
"Oh? Hmm. And why do you think that is?"
"Well, I, uh... maybe they're captivated by your beauty..."
The instant the words left his mouth, he wanted to slap himself.
What is wrong with you, you idiot! Do you want to sound like some creep hitting on a woman he just met?
But to his profound relief, she burst out laughing, seemingly unoffended.
"Fufu. You think I'm pretty?"
"Huh? Yes! Y-Yes, that's right!"
Sensing an opening, Dewey nodded vigorously.
"Aha, thank you. Oh, we haven't introduced ourselves yet, have we? My name's Anna."
"I'm Dewey."
"Ahaha. I appreciate the compliment, Dewey, but sadly, the cats didn't gather because of my looks. Time to reveal the magic trick."
With a wink, Anna pulled a pouch from her bag and held it up. Dewey took one look and laughed. It was dried bonito flakes dusted with catnip powder—a feline delicacy.
The two of them passed the time feeding treats to the cats together. At one point, the port foreman marched over, ready to chew Dewey out for slacking off, but even he wilted under Anna's beauty, retreating with a few gruff coughs and not a single word of reprimand.
Nearly a hundred strays lived off the Axville docks, and Anna had brought enough bonito flakes for every single one. Each time a pouch ran empty, she produced another of identical size from her bag.
"How are you doing that?"
"A little magic I picked up."
"Magic? Are you... from a troupe?"
"I am. Believe it or not, I'm the Deputy Leader of a circus. We're scheduled to perform at the fairgrounds here soon."
At the word "circus," Dewey's expression darkened. Half a year ago, he'd had an ugly run-in with some traveling performers and had come out the worse for it. That incident had marked a turning point in his life.
"What kind of circus?"
A grin unlike any he'd seen from her yet curled Anna's lips—the grin of a mischievous imp.
"A monster circus."
His hands, mid-tear on a piece of bonito, froze. The cats awaiting their turns yowled with impatience before he finally stirred. Anna nodded as if she understood his reaction perfectly.
"Lately, a lot of people don't like the idea."
"No... that's not, I mean, it's just... it reminded me of something unpleasant from before..."
Dewey shook his head, memories flooding back—being made a laughingstock before the Skeleton Clown, fainting at the sight of the Red-Blood Ogre, the Spider Woman toying with him.
"Hmm. So you won't be coming to watch our show, Dewey?"
She looked at him intently as she asked. He flushed scarlet and waved his hands.
"Ah, well, I, uh..."
Before he could stammer out an answer, Anna pointed past his shoulder and changed the subject.
"Oh, what's up with that one? She's not eating—she's just leaving."
Grateful for the escape from an awkward topic, Dewey turned to look. A female cat with a limp was hobbling away, the catnip-seasoned bonito clenched in her jaws, unlike the others who devoured their shares on the spot.
Dewey recognized her and clicked his tongue.
"We call her Gimpy. She's got kittens. I think her nest is somewhere deep under the port office where people can't reach..."
Just then, several cats converged around Gimpy—ones who'd already finished their own portions. Sensing their intent, she flattened her ears and let out a savage warning growl.
Dewey, familiar with this routine, strode over and feigned stomping the ground at them. The would-be thieves scattered at once. From how quickly they fled, it was clear this wasn't the first time he'd rescued Gimpy from an ambush.
"You chase them off every time?"
"Yeah. She reminds me of my mother, somehow."
While Gimpy was still hissing her threats, Dewey scooped up the flakes she'd dropped and nudged them back into her mouth. Even after all the times he'd saved her, she still refused to let her guard down entirely, eyeing his hand sharply before snatching the food and trying to bolt.
Anna stepped into her path. She knelt and extended an arm toward the cat.
"Here now. Gimpy, was it? Come here for a moment."
"Anna? That's dangerous. She'll—"
Dewey was sure the cat would rake her arm. Instead, Gimpy stood frozen, as if pinned in place. Her body trembled with the desperate urge to flee, but some unseen spell seemed to lock her limbs.
Anna ran a gentle hand over the cat's injured leg, then released whatever force had been holding her.
"Mrrrowwwl!"
Gimpy lashed out viciously, claws slashing for Anna's forearm. Anna pulled back swiftly. Blood welled up on her skin, and Dewey rushed forward in alarm, but she only smiled as if it were nothing.
"Never mind me—look at that."
"Look at wha—what?"
Dewey's eyes went wide. Gimpy was standing—and walking—squarely on all four legs. The cat herself seemed stunned by the change; she darted left and right in short, springing bounds, testing her sound leg.
"What... what happened?"
Anna gave him a light, smiling look.
"A simple bit of magic. I can mend injuries. See? My arm too—ta-da!"
Anna held out her bloodstained arm. The wound had vanished without a trace. She smiled and waved at the limping cat as it hobbled back toward its nest. The cat kept pausing, glancing back at her with hesitant steps.
Watching this, Dewey steeled himself and finally gave his answer to the question he'd dodged earlier.
"I'll… go see it. If it's a performance Anna's putting on, I think I can trust it."
"Ahaha, thank you for saying so."
That night, Dewey went to the carnival grounds. Half a year ago, he'd sworn he would never return to this place after the Monster Circus Troupe had given him such a brutal fright. Even he found it hard to believe that the very same Monster Circus was what had drawn him back.
To be precise, it wasn't the Monster Circus that had pulled him in, but its Deputy Leader, Anna…
He watched the Monster Circus with a calmer demeanor than last time. The show she ran was similar to before, and yet different.
The Blue-Blood Ghost, the Centipede Old Man, the Siamese Twin Sisters, the Flesh Heap Woman, and the Invisible Man were introduced in turn.
Last time, the Monster Circus had packaged its monsters as threatening, powerful entities and focused on terrifying the audience. But now, the monster circus portrayed them as wretched outcasts rejected by society, nudging the crowd to mock and sneer at them. Because of that, Dewey didn't end up pissing himself or fainting like before, but the monsters just looked pitiful now, and that unsettled him in a different way.
Dewey met with Anna afterward and gave her his honest impressions. He also had an ulterior motive: he wanted to score some points by presenting himself as a warm-hearted man.
"You didn't find it funny?"
But Anna's expression as she listened to him seemed off somehow. Her mouth was smiling, but the light in her upturned eyes had gone completely flat.
A chill ran down Dewey's spine. Just then, the sound of a cat's meow came from the corner of the tent. He recognized the source and broke into a glad smile. It was the limping cat. The creature had a habit of approaching, on its own, people it had opened its heart to.
"Looks like the little guy trusts you, Anna. Up until now, it only ever did that with me… Oh, look at that. Those are its kittens!"
Dewey's jaw dropped at the sight of the kittens trailing in behind their mother. For her to show this much trust to someone she'd just met today, after hiding her young so fiercely until now—it was astonishing.
"Unbelievable. This is all thanks to you healing her, Anna."
"Myaa! Myaa!"
"Eeng!"
The kittens clustered around Anna, peeping like chicks. The mother cat gazed at her with expectant eyes, as if hoping she might bestow something good upon her babies too. Anna scooped up the kittens that were clinging to her. A wide smile spread across her lips as she looked down at them.
Dewey, who had been beaming along with her, suddenly froze when he caught the look in her eyes. Her pupils were wrong. They'd gone cold and dark, just like before.
"Anna…"
Just as he sensed something was off and tried to speak, her hands moved.
With a dry crack, she seized one kitten by the neck and snapped it. The creature died instantly, without so much as a yelp. Before the mother cat or Dewey could even process what had happened, she was already reaching for the rest.
Crunch.
She crushed a kitten's skull with monstrous, impossible strength. Bone and brain matter burst through torn flesh.
"Myaaang!"
Crrrack.
She grabbed the tail of a kitten that had sensed the danger and tried to scramble away, then slammed it onto the ground. The spinal column tore free along the tailbone she held, and the kitten's body smashed into the floor, spilling blood and viscera.
She turned back to face the frozen Dewey and the paralyzed mother cat, grinning so wide her mouth seemed to reach her ears.
"Did you see that, Dewey? You said our show wasn't fun, so I wanted to show you something a little more entertaining! How's this? Isn't this funny? Look at that mother cat's expression!"
"Kyaaang!"
The mother cat snarled, her eyes shot through with blood, baring her fangs. She looked ready to lunge at Anna right then and there. But the moment she sprang, a hand snatched her out of the air. The owner of that hand opened his mouth wide, swallowed the cat whole, and crunched it down.
"That was careless of you, Miss Anna. You nearly got yourself hurt."
The bizarre figure who had gulped down the cat flashed a grin. Dewey recognized who it was. The troupe leader of the Monster Circus who'd emceed the show earlier. A squat old man with a protruding belly, a grotesquely long nose, and pointed teeth.
Anna pouted and scolded him for what he'd just done.
"What'd you do that for? I was going to keep that one!"
"With your taming skills?"
"As long as people are satisfied, what does it matter? Isn't that right, Dewey? Wasn't it fun?"
"Aaaaagh!"
Dewey couldn't take that atmosphere a second longer and bolted out of the tent. He fled the circus with his face smeared in spit, tears, and snot. He'd come here hoping to get over his Monster Circus trauma, and instead he carried away one even worse.
Igor clicked his tongue, watching Dewey flee.
"I told you. Ordinary humans like that can't comprehend Kirkeus's will."
"I still had a little hope, though."
Watching his Deputy Leader fold her arms and sigh in displeasure, Igor recalled the events of last September in Alamo.
Wonderstein had tried to seal away Igor's Avatar power by surrendering his own. Igor far outstripped him in raw strength, so he'd had no other choice.
Sensing the Eyes of Kirkeus he'd absorbed so far closing one by one, Igor had hastily fled the scene. But that hadn't stopped the eyes from shutting down.
"Wonderstein!"
Without the Eyes of Kirkeus, he could no longer generate Devolut on his own. Even if he tried to collect Devolut through the Monster Circus, it required an Eye of Kirkeus to actually watch before Devolut could be produced.
Desperately racking his brain, he finally hit on one idea: to transfer his remaining Eyes of Kirkeus into another living creature. The human closest to him at that moment was Anna. She'd been caught up in the fight between him and Wonderstein and lay dying under the rubble. Igor appeared before her just as she had cast aside her attachment to life, having already confessed to Ella.
"A pleasure. I never expected to see you again. Miss Anna, was it?"
"Y-you're…?"
"Heh heh, the power of bonds is a terrifying thing. Well, explanations later. There's no time right now."
He had one pair of Eyes of Kirkeus left. He hurriedly embedded them into Anna's eyes.
"Aagh!"
It was a gamble even for him. He couldn't predict what would happen if he transplanted the Eyes of Kirkeus into an ordinary human. He carried her to a safe location, then poured his remaining Devolut into her to revive her.
And when she finally came back, she successfully fulfilled the role of an Eye of Kirkeus. Devolut spread through the bodies of those who watched the Monster Circus in front of her and laughed in contempt.
Of course, there were side effects. Having received transplanted Eyes of Kirkeus, she had become someone who could feel no emotional response from an ordinary performance. The only thing that could satisfy her now was cruel entertainment built on mockery and humiliation.
She knew she wasn't the same as before. But she was satisfied. Thanks to this, she had another chance to meet Ella again. As a fellow acrobat.
"Look at this, Ella. I'm pretty good at acrobatics now too, right?"
She trimmed the kitten's spinal bones she'd pulled out and threw one. It flew across the tent and embedded itself in a target set up on the opposite side. She threw the next vertebra, seating it precisely into the joint cavity of the previous bone. She flung them in sequence, reassembling the entire spine exactly as she'd pulled it out, down to the tailbone.
Her dream of becoming a critic had only ever been a fallback, forced on her by a lack of talent. But now she'd gained the power to stand on the same stage as Ella.
"I can't wait for that day to come…"
The day when the greatest acrobats in the world would gather and put on a performance delightful enough to satisfy Kirkeus.
Anna shook the blood from her hands, picturing the face of the beloved friend she would someday meet again, and smiled brightly.
