Suspiciously Suspicious... (3)
The world is full of strange sexual appetites.
Some people get off on having their lovers stolen by someone else; others get off on doing the stealing. And those are the tame ones.
There are people who get excited by non-humans, people who get excited by women with women, men with men. The famous psychologist Freud tried to interpret dreams through the lens of sexual desire — the world of lust truly is boundless. Desire is human instinct, the baseline of every living thing.
But here's the thing.
What if — just what if — a minor slip of the hand unleashed one of those abnormal appetites into another world? And what if it was a kind of appetite that world had never known before? If that were the case…
What the hell was I supposed to do?
Oh, I'm so screwed.
The hand holding my phone trembled faintly. All the "suspicious pictures" I'd bookmarked had gathered in one place, so I'd wondered what was going on — but I never imagined people would assemble this seriously, hang the pictures up, and throw something resembling a ball around them.
Have you ever watched people dressed in obviously expensive clothes laugh and chatter while admiring nekomimi art?
Have you ever seen a noble young lady in a dress stuffed with antique frills and ornament go hohoho while gazing fondly at a portrait of a man with wolf ears?
They looked like classic fantasy aristocrats, and what they were doing in secret was…
A f-furry gathering?!
What the hell had I done?
"Hahaha. Just look at these fluffy ears. Aren't they absolutely beautiful?"
"They truly are. Marquis Perius's collection is enough to make one envious."
The way they laughed and chattered while admiring the beastkin portraits on the walls was exactly like people viewing masterpieces in a museum. In reality, they were just people with extremely suspicious appetites.
I never dreamed it would go this far…
My head spun.
I'd dumped those items without a second thought — and somehow they'd awakened a latent furry instinct in these people.
This was on me. The god of a world, moving carelessly.
And what's he doing here?
Iscal, lurking in a corner of the suspicious banquet in a suspicious outfit. He'd wrapped himself head to toe in a massive overcoat, but his name floated above his head, so the whole effort was pointless.
Don't tell me even Iscal's into this?
Thud.
My karma runs deep. Far too deep…
One guy a pedo, another a furry. What a party. The few men I had, and this was the state of them.
I pressed one hand to my forehead and, with the other, steered chopsticks toward my mouth. Tonight's dinner was cheap pork hind-leg roast and bean-sprout ketchup salad.
I mixed it up and took a big bite. The tartness of the ketchup and the crunch of the sprouts were excellent. I chewed and fretted. How was I supposed to clean this up?
Should I just snatch all the pictures back right now? Taking back what I gave would make a god look petty. So what do I do with them?
I thought it over.
For now it was only animal ears and tails stuck on people — but someone would inevitably sink deeper into the abyss. Once they got used to ears and tails, those alone would stop being enough.
First the arms and legs would turn animal. Then fluffy fur would cover the whole body. Then the face. Then…
I can't handle a future that horrific!
This was a disaster seed I'd planted. I had to stop it. I even felt a kind of mission.
I fretted and fretted some more.
Snatching the pictures from them now and dropping lightning was the amateur move.
Tell a human not to do something and they only want it more. No matter how many thunderbolts I threw, it would spread quietly in the shadows — and then it would evolve into even harder-to-find, more extreme furry forms.
In that case…
…what if I locked it at the current level? What if I made sure they never advanced past animal ears and tails into the deeper abyss?
Thud.
"That's it!"
I slapped my knee at the brilliant idea. Even I had to admit it was genius. To keep the furries from going extreme, I'd just make a body that could be satisfied with nekomimi alone.
…But how?
I fretted again.
How was I supposed to make these suspiciously cultured furries content with nothing but nekomimi?
By what means?
My chopsticks had been still for a long time, and my thoughts were growing heavy, when a notification chimed on my phone. I had a reliable aide: Kenelm.
Ding-dong—!
A descendant of the Forgotten Ones has been discovered!
"The Forgotten Ones?"
The name alone suggested a distant descendant of some ancient race. An arrow appeared, pointing to one corner of the World Exploration Mode screen. I followed it — and there was Iscal, walking down a street.
Was Iscal supposed to be a descendant of the Forgotten?
Ah. The one behind him.
Not Iscal — someone was hidden behind him. A suspicious figure slipping from shadow to shadow, trailing Iscal like a stalker.
Iscal clearly had no idea he was being followed. I zoomed in for a closer look… The figure wore a robe, but the way the fabric curved made it obvious she was a woman.
Ding-dong—!
Descendant of the Forgotten Ones, Selina, has been discovered!
A large quantity of Faith can be used to awaken her bloodline! Proceed?
"No, no. I don't even know what she is and you want me to just wake her bloodline?"
The Faith cost was playing in the thousands. I had plenty stashed away, so that wasn't the problem — but I needed to know what I was dealing with first.
Kenelm moved briskly and opened a new message window.
Ding-dong—!
Selina is a distant descendant of one of the five races that existed in the age of myth. They are said to have shifted freely between beast form and human form, and every member was an exceptional hunter.
However, countless ages have thinned the bloodline, and in the present day only the faintest traces of power remain — a lithe body, greater strength, thicker body hair, and the like.
In Selina's case, the blood is so diluted that her full power cannot be awakened. She will gain only fragments of her ancestors' bodies — ears, a tail, and a mere sliver of their abilities.
So she won't turn into a full furry?
This… was perfect. Better than perfect.
To keep the furries content with nekomimi, I would put real nekomimi into the world.
Was there a more flawless solution?
I had no idea what kind of animal ears Selina would grow — but whatever they were, nothing could beat this plan right now.
I pressed Execute with decisive force.
To stop my own karma. To stop the abyss spreading through another world!
Thump—!
Nearly six thousand Faith drained away, and from the screen that had been showing a dark night street came a sound like a great drum being struck.
And then—
Slip, soft-slip—!
Selina moved quietly and secretly, wrapping the night's darkness around herself like a cloak. No one had taught her; she had never studied it — yet her body moved by instinct.
How to kill the sound of her footsteps. How to vault obstacles and melt into shadow. Even her eyes, which could pierce dense darkness.
Without all of that, she would never have survived the slums.
The Empire's poor quarters were no gentle place. An orphan with no parents — and a pretty girl at that — had it even worse.
Because she could move more nimbly and cunningly than any of her peers, she stole bread. Because she could walk without a sound, she stole purses.
That was how Selina had lived. Like a stray cat.
She went wherever her feet took her, stayed wherever she liked, then vanished. This time, the Holy City was her home.
How far is he going?
She padded after the man in silence, eyes fixed on him. The man she'd met at the banquet — the one who gave off that strange, intriguing scent.
Her interest was piqued. Just as the dull banquet had begun to bore her, she'd found an amusing new toy.
Between the folds of her robe, Selina's green eyes gleamed with wicked light. She might have grown up on the streets, but whatever she wanted, she took.
She stole, she robbed, she lied.
She kept things until she grew tired of them, then threw them away — but she had never felt this way about a man before.
Lick.
Why did that man give off such a scent?
I'm dying of curiosity.
She'd only meant to lightly confirm where he lived tonight — yet he kept heading deeper into the heart of the Holy City.
Could he be some high-ranking figure of the Holy City? If so, Selina found that a little unsettling. She had never killed anyone, but at her core she was still a petty thief.
A holy knight? Or one of those warriors with the famous weapons of that new god?
Either way, getting closer was too risky. With a twinge of regret, Selina turned to leave.
In that instant—
Thump—!
"Nngh?!"
Her heart pounded with violent force. Every vessel in her body swelled as if it would tear; her heart hammered even harder.
Her whole body throbbed. Her head pulsed as if it would split. Her temples bulged, ready to burst at any moment.
She was burning. She wanted to throw herself into cold water right now. Her vision flushed red, then cleared, then flushed again.
Blood raced through her body.
"Nnnngh?! Kyaaaah!!"
A shrill scream tore free. It wasn't deliberate — it came from the pure instinct to survive.
"What—what's going on!"
The man walking ahead of her came running. He must have heard the scream and turned back. Selina felt the strength draining from her body, her consciousness growing hazy.
Thud.
Suddenly a fragrant scent filled her nose. A warm embrace. Had the man caught her as she fell?
"Wha—? Th-this is—! To the temple at once—"
"Th-the temple… no…"
Not the temple. Even as her mind blurred, Selina forced the words out. If she went to the temple, she would be caught. That, above all, she had to avoid.
Huff— huff—
Labored breathing reached her ears. Was it her own? The sky seemed to spin; the man in front of her doubled and overlapped. He was shouting something at her, but it only roared and she couldn't make it out.
The scent…
Selina felt herself losing the fight against her fading consciousness. Unconsciously she chased the man's fragrance, nuzzled her face into his chest, and closed her eyes.
And then, as if she had simply fallen asleep, her memory cut off.
When Selina opened her eyes again…
Twitch. Twitch.
"…What is this."
Cat ears and a tail had grown from Selina's head.
Pitch-black and fluffy, the exact same color as her hair.