Prologue: Peridot Tears—The Black Cat’s Dream

Prologue:
Peridot Tears—The Black Cat’s Dream

 

“DO YOU KNOW what the most beautiful thing in this world is?”

A world of perpetual night into which not a single ray of sunlight shone; a world where inhuman beings crawled through the darkness, where many eerily glowing eyes eagerly awaited their prey; a world full of blood and flesh and the tang of beasts…

The spirit realm.

The old cat who spoke had spent a daunting amount of time there. His crusty, clouded eyes were trained on the black cat sitting directly in front of him.

The old cat had six tails. The black cat had only two. This was proof that the latter had only just been transformed from a simple beast into something stranger—proof that she was a newcomer.

As she spoke, the old cat looked into the black cat’s eyes—one sky-blue and one golden—and saw not a trace of cloud in them; it warmed his heart. Educating the newcomers was the eternal responsibility of elders like him.

“The most beautiful thing in the world are the tears that a person sheds at the point of their death. They’re as lovely as gemstones. Don’t you want to see them? I’m sure you do. Cats are curious creatures, after all.”

Saying this, the old cat told the black cat of all the tears he had seen before.

Tears that reflected the heat of fire were garnet. Crimson tears that captured the flickering of bright red flames, bursting forth as though they would soon burn out completely.

Tears that reflected the moonlight were diamond. Jeweled tears filled with a light cold enough to cut that slipped away and scattered.

Whether the person who shed them was young or old, of high standing or low, their tears flowed like gemstones. They died and faded away, leaving behind only a momentary glimmer. Spirits considered seeing this light their greatest pleasure.

“Young cat, you must devour people. Slurp up their entrails, make them your food. Whoever they might be, do not hesitate. When you have successfully finished your hunt, gemstones of emotion will be waiting for you, more beautiful than anything.” When the old cat had finished speaking, he closed his eyes tightly.

Cats have lived alongside humans since ancient times. For this reason, many cats tried to snuggle close to people even after they had been transformed into spirits. But that had caused many tragedies through the years, and so the old cat told the younger: “Humans make delicious prey. You cannot befriend them.”

The black cat was only silent for a moment; in the next instant, she stared straight at the old cat and said, “You don’t have very good taste, do you?”

The old cat let out a deep sigh. Then he resumed his tale again in a warning tone. “You say that because of your youth. Even you, as you grow older, will come to realize the truth in the natural course of your maturation.”

“Speak for yourself. What makes you think you know anything about me?”

Irritated, the black cat looked away. Then she leapt up into the heavens, wreathed in flames. Looking down at the old cat, who in the blink of an eye had become nothing but a speck beneath her, she bounded forward through a sky that was quite different from that of the world of the living.

Fear. Despair. Sorrow. How could tears painted with emotions like those be considered beautiful? To the black cat, who had spent a long time in the human world, it was inconceivable.

But now that she had decayed and come into her spirit form—and had developed a taste for human corpses—she had a hunch that little by little, she herself would be tainted by that same way of thinking.

She would eat humans, laugh at the misfortunes of others, and think only of herself. That was what spirits did.

I’ve lived longer than other cats. Despite that, will I still end up as he says?

The thought terrified the black cat through and through. Thinking of humans as nothing but prey, her mouth watering as she sprang at them.

How repulsive. Surely I’m not a real monster? …Either way, that’s a long way off. My heart is still with humans.

And so the black cat dreamed. She dreamed of tears that the old cat would never be able to see. Tears that were full of warm emotions.

“I wish… I wish I could see them, someday.”

But the black cat’s wish was not easily fulfilled. A length of time passed, one that would have felt like an eternity to a human. Only then, after the cat had grown a third tail, and after her heart had been dyed exactly the color of a spirit’s, did an opportunity to see those tears arise.

It was summer in the spirit realm, and the cicadas cried insistently.

This was before the black cat had been given the name Nyaa. On that day, shooting stars rained down wildly in the deep green summer night sky of that other world.

It was then that, in the forest, she came across the swarm of glowing butterflies that lived only amongst the spirits: glimmerflies.

 

***

 

That day was somehow special. Special? No, perhaps it would be better to say it was bizarre.

Those shooting stars sent out their dazzlingly beautiful light, painting the night sky a shade of green particular to summer. Although it wasn’t the right time of year for a meteor shower, star after star fell to earth, ending their fleeting lives.

It made the inhabitants of the spirit realm restless. A shooting star was proof that a human life had burned itself out.

In the human world, shooting stars were a romantic symbol, but in the spirit realm, they were, in all sincerity, a symbol of death.

A person in the human world had died. A whole lot of people!

Although it was nothing to do with the spirits, they didn’t have a good feeling about it. The black cat, too, resented it. She couldn’t settle down, so she wandered about outdoors, going nowhere in particular.

She finally arrived at a forest a long way from the towns of the spirit realm, thickly overgrown with trees. There, she found innumerable glimmerflies fluttering about.

“Waaah, waaah…”

In the midst of the butterflies was a little girl. She seemed to be about three years old. Her brownish hair was tied up in two buns, and she was wearing a dress patterned with tiny flowers. For some reason, she only had one shoe on. She was furthermore soaked to the skin, and her bare arms and legs were all scratched up. She hugged herself with her little arms, crying big fat tears.

Oh! It’s a human!

The moment she saw the little girl, the black cat let out a silent shout of joy.

Glimmerflies… These beautiful but ephemeral butterflies were known to be drawn to humans. If one went to a place where they gathered, there was a high chance one would find a human there.

But humans were rarely seen in the spirit realm. It wasn’t uncommon for them to stumble their way here, like this little girl likely had, but many denizens of this world liked to eat those interlopers. Normally, unless the human was very lucky or very strong, someone would chance upon them straightaway and devour them.

I’m the first one here! I’m in luck today.

Narrowing her eyes with pleasure, the black cat walked toward the girl, muffling the sound of her footsteps.

A little girl in a gloomy forest, illuminated by butterflies. The blood dripping from her arms and legs was terribly vivid.

When the black cat suddenly began to purr, her nose twitched. As it did, she smelled the mellow scent of blood, and her face instinctively relaxed. Then she swept her eyes over her surroundings. Establishing that there was no one moving in the vicinity, she chuckled to herself and deliberately let out a coaxing, “Mroooow.”

As she did so, she saw the little girl’s body stiffen with surprise. Unperturbed, the black cat drew nearer with a dispassionate expression on her face. Her head was full of thoughts about how to make a meal of the little girl.

Fresh innards, fresh blood. I’m not interested in that. After I’ve killed her, I’ll leave her for a few days until her meat is nicely cured. Then I’ll munch on her, starting with her head. Ooh, my mouth is watering!

By this point, the black cat was already fully steeped in the spirits’ way of life. Humans were a delicacy. She couldn’t go her whole spirit life without ever tasting one again; their delicious flesh was the greatest of pleasures. Their screams made her heart thrum, and chasing them as they clumsily ran from her was even more entertaining. Eating a human in the world of the living risked attracting the attention of exorcists if she wasn’t careful. But when a human fell into the spirit realm, no one could blame her for gobbling them up. They were the most prized of prey.

Licking her lips, the black cat slowly advanced on the little girl. She could tell at a glance that her opponent was weak and wouldn’t be able to put up a fight. The girl wouldn’t stand a chance against the black cat’s sharp claws and murderous fangs.

So, the black cat let down her guard. She sauntered up to the girl as casually as if she were about to pluck fruit from a tree. She had never imagined that the moment she neared, the little girl would cling to her.

“Gah!”

As the black cat’s neck was encircled by the small arms, her mind went blank. This was a counterattack she hadn’t foreseen. Ashamed of how careless she’d been, she instantly bared her fangs.

The girl didn’t seem to react to the threat. Impatient, the black cat turned her face toward the child’s head.

I don’t know what she’s trying to do, but I’ve got to kill her before she kills me. I’ll bite her little head in half, she thought.

But in the next moment…

“Waaahh…”

At the same time as the black cat heard that frail voice, a warm droplet dripped onto her fur.

It was a tear. A droplet that had overflowed from those big round eyes. It was transparent—but it captured the scene all around, and it held within it countless different colors.

The night sky, tinged a green that shifted from moment to moment. The shooting stars that fell without pause. The black cat, looking up with a discouraged expression. Those tears, which fell like rain, reflected everything and sent their fresh, twinkling light out into their surroundings.

These must be what the old cat spoke of… “Tears like gemstones.”

The cat let out a shocked exhalation as the old memory resurfaced. Her heartbeat picked up and her whiskers stirred involuntarily as her tail stood straight up in the air.

How lovely they are.

In an instant, the black cat’s heart was captured by those fleeting tears that lasted only a moment before disappearing. The beauty of those tears far surpassed any expectation she had built from the old cat’s tales. As they burst on the surface of her coat and disappeared as if they had never been, they seemed like the most precious thing in the world.

The black cat was fascinated by that endless rain of jewels.

When she remembered the tiny dream she had harbored back then, she immediately sprang into action.

“Don’t cry.” The cat gave the child’s cheek a lick.

“Eek!” Taken by surprise, the little girl let out a hysterical cry.

I should talk her down. “It’s all right. There’s nothing to be frightened of.”

The voice that suddenly emanated from the black cat’s mouth was gentle, like a mother’s.

How long has it been since I last spoke like that? The cat’s chest felt pleasantly warm. It’s just like I’m back in the world of the living, when I used to snuggle up to people…

As the cat was secretly surprising herself, the little girl blinked her tear-drenched eyes incessantly, as if she had forgotten that, up until now, she had been crying. Then she stared at the black cat…

“Nyaa-chan!” She laughed airily, like a flower blooming.

Tears still escaped from her crinkled eyes. Those tears reflected even more than the ones before them as they slipped down her face and disappeared.

They had all the brilliance of jewels. Just like emeralds made of summer days heated until they dissolved…

Poetically, they were tears of peridot.

Yes… Just as I thought, these are more beautiful, the black cat thought as she gazed steadily at the tears that had begun to rain down upon her again, completely forgetting that, until a short while ago, she had intended to eat the girl.

 

***

 

“Huh…?”

When she opened her eyes, the black cat was in the bookstore in the spirit realm.

She heard the bubbling sound of water boiling. A little ways away sat an oil stove with a kettle on top of it. Unlike an electric stove, it gave off enough heat to make her skin tingle. It warmed her body thoroughly, and as her consciousness wandered back and forth over the boundary between dream and reality, it almost dragged her back into her dream.

“Nyaa-san?” said a familiar voice beside her.

Someone was stroking the black cat’s back with a gentle hand. As she slowly raised her head, her gaze alighted on a lone young woman. The cat blinked rapidly. Unable to respond to the girl, she stared at her with round eyes.

The girl chuckled in amusement. “Morning! What’s up? Are you still half-asleep?”

She tickled the cat’s chin with practiced fingers.

As she softly stroked her, the cat half-closed her eyes with pleasure. “Not really. I was just thinking about how big you’ve grown, that’s all.”

“What are you on about?”

“I had a dream about the first time I met you, Kaori.”

The girl, Kaori, blinked her large chestnut eyes and smiled, a bit vague, a bit melancholy. “You were the first to find me when I fell into the spirit realm, weren’t you, Nyaa-san?”

“You remember that?”

“Well, not really. After all, I was only about three, right?”

Keeping her expression calm, Kaori shifted her gaze. The cat was drawn to look at the same spot. What she was looking at was the courtyard, blanketed in snow. White snowflakes were beginning a fluttering dance. Oh, right, it was winter now. Amused to have forgotten that obvious fact, the black cat smiled broadly.

“But I do remember that the first spirit I met was really warm and soft,” said Kaori.

The black cat took a long time to answer. “Huh.”

“You found me, Nyaa-san,” said Kaori, “and then Shinonome-san took me in. That’s how I started out in the spirit realm. I had nowhere in the world of the living to return to, so I’m grateful to you both for giving me somewhere to belong.”

Nowhere to return to, huh…?

Kaori had no blood relatives. There was no one waiting for her back in the human world. That was why she lived in the spirit realm.

At least, that was what Kaori thought.

The black cat thumped her three tails on the floor and rolled over onto her back. “Hey, Kaori, you can pet me if you want.”

“Whoa, that’s unusual! I’ll take you up on that, then.”

Chuckling, Kaori stroked the black cat’s belly. Giving herself over to the pleasant sensation, the cat glanced casually out of the window. It seemed as if the cold outside had deepened considerably. The window was clouded with condensation.

“Ah, I’m so happy…”

Being able to spend a peaceful moment in a room made pleasantly hot by a heater even in this pitiless season, and with someone around whom she could just relax? To the black cat, that was what happiness meant.

Turning only her head, she asked, “Hey, Kaori. Are you happy right now?”

“That again?” Kaori chuckled, amused. That question was practically the cat’s catchphrase.

The cat would check whether Kaori was happy at random, whenever it occurred to her. She repeated the same question over and over. She did so again now. The heater kept her heart comfortably warm; since the beginning of winter, she had asked this question frequently.

Grinning, Kaori said, “Of course.”

“Hmmm…” said the cat. That was all right, then. “If you’re happy, Kaori, then I’m happy.”

Through half-closed eyes, the black cat gazed at her old friend, who had given her the new name of “Nyaa.”

“Hey, rub my underside a bit more,” she coaxed.

“Sure thing!” Kaori responded to her best friend’s demand in the way only she could.