The morning sun, with the unique laziness of a weekend, danced on Yuutenji Nyamu's eyelids through a gap in the curtains.
She groggily woke from her warm, nest-like bed, feeling as heavy as lead and her head spinning.
"It's over…" she sighed inwardly.
"Did I really not avoid that rain yesterday? I clearly chugged cold medicine and took a hot bath as soon as I got back…"
She pouted slightly, feeling a bit wronged, and turned her head to the side.
It was Saturday, and Chihaya Anon, who had helped her tinker with the video account and stayed up excited until midnight, was still sleeping soundly in the bed next to her, breathing evenly.
Nyamu tried to shake off the weariness, slowly crawling out of bed like a half-asleep cat, stretching with a big yawn.
She shuffled in her slippers towards the bathroom to wash up.
Cold tap water splashed on her face, bringing a touch of clarity. She looked up at the mirror above the sink—
A sleepy face, messy purple short hair standing on end like a crumpled lavender… and, on top of her head, a pair of soft, drooping cat ears, the same color as her hair, undeniably real.
"Wait… what did I just see?"
Nyamu instantly froze, her pupils dilating in shock.
She stiffly, inch by inch, raised her hand, carefully and gently touching the furry, warm… foreign object on top of her head.
The sensation was quite real; it even twitched sensitively with the touch of her fingertips.
"W-what is this meow?!"
In her horror, a strange meow-like tail end of a word involuntarily slipped from her throat.
"Aiko's prank meow?" (Aiko: Nyamu's nickname for Anon)
"Eh?!" She clapped a hand over her mouth, staring incredulously at her reflection in the mirror, which also had wide eyes and cat ears on its head.
"What the heck is 'meow' meow—!"
Yuutenji Nyamu let out a sharp, distorted, distinctly feline shriek of despair.
Meanwhile, in the bed, Chihaya Anon, startled awake by her scream, merely shook her own fluffy pink canine ears, mumbled an incomprehensible dream-like phrase, rolled over, and fell back into a deep sleep.
============
Inside the Togawa Residence, in Sakiko's bedroom, the atmosphere was as tense as an operating room.
Fuuki, dressed in a full set of medical protective gear, goggles, and a mask, and Wakaba Mutsumi, similarly equipped with only her amber eyes visible, cautiously surrounded the girl's bed as if handling a highly dangerous pathogen.
On the bed, Togawa Sakiko, dressed in a white nightgown, stared wide-eyed in terror.
Between her light blue twin tails, a pair of fluffy, blue cat ears with slightly darkened tips stood erect. A fluffy cat tail of the same color twitched restlessly on the quilt.
"No doubt about it," Fuuki's voice, muffled and chilling through the mask, stated.
"This is a Stand attack."
"Wh-what Stand? What are you trying to do desumeow—ugh!"
Sakiko instinctively retorted, but halfway through her sentence, the sudden cat-like tail end made her freeze.
She finally, belatedly, lowered her head, looking incredulously at the fluffy tail extending from beneath her nightgown. Then she raised a trembling hand to touch the completely uncontrollable ears on her head, her golden pupils instantly shrinking to pinpricks, filled with world-shattering horror.
"Meow! Let me get up! I want to look in the mirror meow!" She struggled to sit up, her voice laced with tears and an uncontrollable meow.
However, she was destined not to get her wish.
Even if Fuuki and Mutsumi didn't intervene, the consequences would be unimaginable if Sakiko's abnormal "beastification" was noticed by other members of the Togawa Family.
She would likely be immediately forcibly controlled, under the pretext of "sudden illness" and "requiring recuperation abroad," and secretly sent to a secluded estate in Sweden.
At that time, the band, whose name hadn't even been officially decided (it shouldn't be "Ave Mujica"), would be stillborn, and Fuuki's meticulously observed Gravity experiment would be completely aborted.
"Don't worry, Sakiko." Fuuki's voice came through the protective suit, calmly reassuring.
He reached out, his sterile-gloved fingertips gently pressing on the girl's head, which was slightly trembling with fear and agitation, covered in soft fur.
"I will protect the band. You can rest easy."
"Saki, sleep." Mutsumi also said softly, her voice somewhat distorted by the mask.
"Huh? Why aren't you protecting me—ugh!"
Sakiko's final protest was forcibly cut short.
Fuuki's palm pressed down slightly, as if an invisible gravity emerged from its center. A circular disc shimmering with a dark purple glow—Sakiko's memory disc—slowly peeled away from her head.
"Cats that hiss randomly can be annoying," Fuuki murmured to himself, his actions not pausing for a moment.
He skillfully manipulated the dark purple energy gathered at his fingertips, quickly and precisely modifying Sakiko's memory disc.
The objective was simple: until the "beastification" phenomenon was resolved, she needed "quiet recuperation," temporarily losing interest in the band and everything external, becoming a docile "patient."
The rewrite complete, the memory disc was gently pushed back. The fear, anger, and unwillingness in Sakiko's eyes receded like a tide, replaced by a bewildered calm.
She blinked her golden cat eyes, let out a small yawn, her body relaxed, curling into the covers, her fluffy tail unconsciously wrapped around her calf, and soon she was breathing evenly.
"Fuuki, don't you like cats?"
"It's not that I don't like them, it's just…"
Fuuki was about to explain to his friend the deterrent power of felines against "snakes," but his words suddenly stopped as his gaze swept over Mutsumi's head.
Beneath the protective cap the girl had removed, between her light green strands of hair, a pair of small, delicate cat ears, soft as new spring shoots, stood silently erect.
The ears twitched slightly, as if sensing vibrations in the air.
"Mutsumi, you're affected too?"
He quickly stepped forward, carefully checking Mutsumi's protective suit for any damage and ensuring her mask was tightly worn, confirming all protection was intact.
Just then, his phone vibrated urgently in his pocket.
It was an emergency report from [Spider].
[Large-scale anomaly outbreak in central Ikebukuro.]
[In Toshima Ward, centered around Ikebukuro, a large-scale "beastification" phenomenon has occurred. Preliminary statistics show over five hundred residents exhibiting varying degrees of animalistic feature mutations.]
[Symptoms include: limb beastification (claws, hooves, wings), organ mutation (horns, scales, feathers), partial body transformation (animal tails, animal ears), with severe cases showing three-quarters of the entire body having non-human characteristics.]
[Chimeric individuals with "multiple transformations" (e.g., simultaneously possessing cat ears, dog tails, bird wings, and other mixed features) have also been found.]
["Beastification" cases are still increasing, and the affected area is rapidly spreading from Ikebukuro to surrounding areas such as Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Itabashi.]
[The mode of transmission is currently unclear, but there is a high probability it is waterborne. Please avoid consuming drinks and food from unknown sources.]
"It seems we can only eat sealed packaged food and water for a while…"
Fuuki's voice was low as he quickly made a judgment. He put away his phone and looked at Mutsumi, who had cat ears and still a calm expression.
"Mutsumi, I'm going out. You stay home for now and don't touch any suspicious items. If anything happens, we'll…"
"Fuuki."
Mutsumi gently interrupted him.
"…What is it?" Fuuki looked at the girl beside him.
The girl had already removed her mask, her amber eyes quietly gazing at him.
Then, the girl tilted her head slightly, and the tender green cat ears on her head twitched gently along with her movement.
"Meow—"
The girl lazily twitched her cat ears and rubbed against the boy's arm.
============
Ikebukuro, Sunshine Avenue.
A businessman in a suit, but with huge elk antlers, was frantically kicking a vending machine with his hoof-like feet, letting out incomprehensible roars.
On the street corner, a girl with pure white wings growing from her back tried to fly, but clumsily crashed into a utility pole, scattering feathers everywhere.
Inside the convenience store's glass window, the cashier's face was covered in fine snake scales, flicking his tongue, watching the chaotic, wild street outside in horror.
In the sky, several "creatures" with crow wings but human heads circled, emitting piercing screeches.
Chaos, like a plague, spread wildly through the neon-lit streets of Ikebukuro.
Police sirens approached from a distance but were drowned out by more beast-like roars and terrified screams.
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