The Moonlight Requiem
Sounds.
From every corner come the cries of people being torn apart.
The wails of children robbed of their parents, the shrieks of those writhing over lost arms and legs, the curses of the burned and shredded whose very shapes could no longer be recognized, the fury of victims cursing a helpless hero.
It all masses into one and climbs higher and higher.
A requiem, streaking across the beautiful night sky.
The requiem rises without end, seeping into the brilliant moon hanging high above.
Ah — the requiem bleeds into the moon.
And down from the moon, brilliant moonlight shines upon the world.
Onto the man who lost consciousness. Onto the old man who lost an eye. Onto the child who lost their parents.
And onto the hero and the villain — the ones behind it all.
Darkness bleeds into the moon, and it wanes into a crescent,
as though it could never forgive the hero who failed to protect them.
And the crescent moon chose one girl — staring blankly, quietly weeping.
Oh child who has lost all that was dear — may you bring that bond to its end with your own hands.
The crescent moon engraved in her eyes shall prove she is the child the moon has chosen.
Ah — at the girl's gesture the ruins stand again, and those who had crossed the river of death return.
Every soul who witnessed the miracle falls to their knees, overcome, bowing to the girl and the moon.
And the girl, now the moon's messenger, turns her power upon Comet — who has only just finished off the villain...
"Hold on. Now that I actually think about it, something here doesn't add up. In Doomed World, Lee Yuri never did any hero work at all before the protagonist transmigrated — that's how I remember it."
"...This is a story that was never written in Doomed World."
"What's even weirder, if something like that had really happened, there should be people grateful to Yu Sia. But even after she became a villain, not one of the people she'd saved ever tried to stop her. That doesn't make sense either."
…
"And there's no time-reversal or restoration power anywhere in the story. If there were, she'd have just rebuilt her heart and kept fighting."
"That's... haah... true. But you know, Oppa, people used to say you're hopeless at taking a hint?"
Yu Sia sighs.
Hold on. Used to say?
Cra-ack!
Cracks split across the buildings, the sky, the people — even across the hero Comet himself. Everything crumbles along those fissures, scattering into drifting motes of moonlight.
The dust of moonlight reshapes itself into cats and goes dancing through the air. In the pitch-black darkness only the moonlit cats remain, countless of them prowling across sky and earth, until one of them presses itself flat against a wall. Whether out of imitation or simple instinct, one after another they stick themselves to the walls too — and in moments, everything in every direction has turned into a pristine white wall.
A single finger pokes out of the wall — pop — then the rest of the fingers, thumb still tucked inside. The hand clenches, unclenches, clenches again... then slides smoothly out. The arm emerges to the elbow and pumps up and down, and with a boing, a face pops free.
"Hi there, Oppa. This is the Illusion Realm. What do you think? Do you like it?"
"Hnng—hnng—" Her legs are wedged tight and refuse to come out, but after a few good tugs she finally works herself loose from the wall and comes walking toward me. A table and chairs appear, then teacups, cookies, cake — everything a proper tea party could want blossoms into being, and as Yu Sia settles into her seat, an elegant teapot floats up on its own, fills her cup, and drifts back to where it came from.
I glance back and forth between the teacup, brimming with green tea, and Yu Sia's face, and she stares at me as if I'm the strange one.
"What's the matter, Oppa? Sit down already. What, can't bring yourself to sit because Yu Sia's just too pretty? If that's it, don't you worry — Yu Sia understands your heart perfectly, Haram Oppa. Blegh, it tastes awful."
She takes a single sip of the green tea, wrinkles her face, and sets the cup down.
"...Hold on. Aren't you saying my real name just a little too casually?"
Catching my expression, she puts on the most insufferable grin.
"Surprised? You should be. I even went so far as to lie because I didn't want to tell you, so having it figured out this easily — I'd be pretty shocked too, honestly. Right, Lee Haram Oppa?"
"How did you know?"
"Curious? Then try saying, 'Please tell me, Lady Yu Sia~'"
"Nope. Not curious."
I'd sooner live the rest of my life not knowing than beg a girl far younger than me.
"Ehh~ Liar~ You're really not curious? Because from what I've seen, you were the type to charge headlong after anything you wanted to know."
She knows my personality inside and out too... In that case, there's exactly one explanation, isn't there?
"Soul Binding and Memory Sharing. That's it, isn't it?"
"Wow! Correct, Oppa! You took over my body, and while Yu Sia was wandering around as a spirit, the moment you used your hallucination, your memories came pouring into Yu Sia's head. I mean, to think Yu Sia's the villain from a manhwa called Doomed World — it's like her entire life got spoiled."
Giggling, she poofs a manhwa volume of Doomed World into existence, flips it open, and swings her legs back and forth in obvious delight.
Going by her behavior alone, you'd never take her for the worst villain in the story. She looks more like a little sister.
"I do have a question, though. Holding the Asiatic black bear plushie lets you use your power in the morning too — so why did you never use it?"
"It works on a charge. Part of the moon's power I gather at night gets stored in the bear, and I spend that stored-up charge to release it. It's simple, but it has to be refilled every single night."
So that's why her power only ever activated when the bear plushie was in her arms.
Yu Sia keeps staring down at the manhwa. With a lonely look on her face.
"What are you looking at?"
"Yu Sia's future. So Yu Sia really does die in the end. Does that mean you'll die in her place, Oppa?"
"No. I'm not dying. I'm going to live a nice long life — until I die of old age."
Nobody wants to die. Even having become a woman, I've still got to live my hardest.
"Ugh... cringe. I know you love lines like that, but Yu Sia's not so sure."
The book vanishes, and the tea set with it. Humming a little tune, Yu Sia drifts in close.
"Your memories are all so much fun, Oppa. So new, so fascinating. Especially 'The Disobedient—'"
"Wait..!"
One more syllable and I know I'd place the title instantly. It was a little-sister novel I read back in my last year of middle school. Of the, ahem, that particular genre.
She tilts her head at me.
"Hm? But that's not all — there's also My Maid Is Cute, and Mother Is So Youn—"
"Okay, okay, I get it — stop..! Just how much of my memory did you actually go through?"
Every one of those was something I read as a kid, their contents half-faded by now. The works that first opened my eyes to... that side of things, and...
She smiles. The smile of someone so utterly hateable that I'm itching to teach her a lesson.
"All of it. Every memory from the day you were born up to this very moment. Isn't that right, weakling Oppa?♥"
So now she's graduated to full-on mesugaki... At this rate she's going to work her way through every last thing I've ever read.
"Wait a second... then you know all of my tastes too, don't you? If I asked you to give me cat ears, would you do it?"
She hesitates.
Her tiny hands clench the hem of her skirt and let go, over and over. Her lips push out into the smallest pout, her gaze refusing to settle anywhere, darting this way and that. And then she opens her mouth.
"If you want them..."
"Yeah, figured as much, of course you'd say n— what?"
I'd braced myself for a refusal, but what came out of Yu Sia's mouth was a yes. Why on earth...?
"Wait, seriously?"
A moment of silence. And then...
"..Dummy."
Yu Sia's figure blurs. No — more precisely, the space itself is blurring. Everything washes out until I can't make out what's in front of me; with a throbbing headache I squeeze my eyes shut, and when I open them again, there's Yu Sia's room, exactly where I started.
So this is why Hallucination ranks second on the threat scale. That is seriously dangerous...
—Tap! Tap!
Something behind me keeps striking the floor. Curious, I turn around — nothing there.
—Tap! Tap!
And yet the sound of something slapping the floor behind me keeps going.
—Perk. Perk.
Something up on my head is moving too. I lift a hand and touch it.
—Swish, swish.
Soft. Thin. What on earth could thi—
Clap-clap-clap-clap!
Yu Sia pops into existence out of thin air, flapping her hands together like a seal.
"Sooo cute! Kitty Oppa?"
A cat... ha... So that's what it was. This feeling — cat ears and a tail, huh. I said I wanted to see them. I never said I wanted to become one.
I turn my gaze on Yu Sia.
"Undo it. Right now."
—Tap! Tap!
The tail tracks my emotions, smacking hard against the floor.
This has to be a hallucination too, right? No way this is real.
Granted, animal-type ability users are hardly rare. Giraffes, cats, tigers, rhinos, hippos — people like that genuinely do exist.
But Yu Sia, first and foremost, is a user of the moon's power. A transformation ability that turns people into cats is—
"Hm? It is the moon's power, and yes, the moon's power can do transformations too."
"What?"
"I've never once seen you use anything like that?"
"Well, 'transformation' just means things like giving my own body a tail, or changing my clothes. Using it on Yu Sia would be boring. But using it on you, Oppa? So much fun. Your reactions are absolutely adorable!"
"Adorable reactions," my foot. I'm a man. Whatever body this is, I'm still Lee Haram.
"Hmm... actually, I do have a question, Oppa. Yu Sia knows you used to be a man. But looking at you now — do you think anyone in the world would guess it?"
At her question, my eyes drift downward on their own.
Flat-chested, sure, but unmistakably a girl's body. A girl through and through, without a single trace of anything masculine.
Hold on. Flat-chested? That's rude, you know.
No matter how loudly I insisted to anyone that I was a man, not one soul would believe me. So am I really going to have to live like this?
"..It'll work out somehow."
"Well, the way Yu Sia sees it, you need to get properly used to my body. The closest you've ever come to seeing a woman's form is the internet, no? So Yu Sia shall grant you the honor of beholding Yu Sia's body."
...Does she have any idea what she just said?
"I do."
"Uh... right."
If she knows, then there's really nothing left for me to say...
"You've taken Yu Sia's body, so you're going to take responsibility for it in my place. Only three days left until my period, so until then, you'll be learning how to wash properly, and how to take care of your business in the bathroom. You've got plenty of studying ahead, don't you, Oppa?"
She's... not wrong, but...
"You admit it, then? Great — let's start with how to take care of business in the bathroom!"
Yu Sia floats off ahead of me, practically buzzing with excitement.
But wait — hadn't something slipped our minds?
—Tap! Tap!
The tail slams against the floor, hard.
Oh..!
"Turn my body back to normal first!"