C2...

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“Normally it’s impossible. I was told

thousands to tens of thousands of souls were needed to make one Jewel

of Life. While soul eaters are quite the gluttons, they

don’t have much power. There are only a very small number able to

create a Jewel of Life. Spells like reviving the dead are

essentially forbidden. However, there are a lot of humans and

ayakashi who wish to be reborn or to revive someone from death who

fall for their sweet talk. Although extremely rare, there are soul

eaters with immense power. Since they can turn into any of their

victims, they are pretty difficult to catch. They are cats, foxes,

raccoons—they’re not just one breed. The feature they all have in

common is that they eat their victim’s souls—in short, anyone who

eats the souls of humans or ayakashi are called soul

eaters.”

Somehow it seemed to become a rather disturbing

conversation.

“Your ears have folded down.”

Kiri

pointed out as Touya trembled.

“I heard from Mimizuku that

you were reading a Youkai Dictionary, but you wanted to know

about soul eaters, huh.”

“When I heard they take on the

forms of their victims……since I don’t know what I am—and

can’t take on the form of a cat. I thought, what if.”

Talking

about his doubts disgusted him. However, he had the feeling he was

something a little different from Mimizuku and the children. At any

rate, Touya was still unable to change into even a cat, nor could he see Mimizuku and the other’s true cat forms while they were in

their human forms. The only thing he could say when he woke up was

meow, he didn’t even know about the taste of sweets, and felt

off having his level of vision so high the first time he walked

outside. Even so, those cat-like sensations were fading day by

day……

“There’s no way. If you were a soul eater, I would

know right away, so it’ll be all right. You were worried about that

sort of thing? Well, you may also be……a sort of special

case.”

“Huh?”

He asked back, but Kiri merely

smiled at him without answering.

“Anyway, soul eaters

wouldn’t be mentioned in a human world Youkai Dictionary.

Humans and ayakashi see things differently after all.”

“Mimizuku

said the same thing. But, I wanted to know even just a little more

about this world……”

“You said earlier that you wanted

to stay the way you are now. What if you were able to return to your

previous self?”

That question had a curious sound to it. If his memories returned—would he want to go back to being a

his original self, a normal cat, not an ayakashi cat? Wouldn’t

that be easier for him?

Didn’t he love that boy who was his

owner?

Even though he knew only that vague scene, he must have

been attached to him. Wasn’t it possible he was worried about his

pet cat?

Still—there was an indescribable sense of loss

remaining in the depths of his heart. As if that scene he saw before

he awoke was already missing something……as if he had been

alone……