At that moment, Tom suddenly remembered Hannah's unfinished sentence from earlier. She seemed to have mentioned... a Chocolate Frog wrapper?!
His expression changed instantly. He even forgot about his limited communication abilities and demanded directly:
[Hannah! What exactly have you been feeding me?!]
Hannah's gaze immediately became evasive, her voice was dropping lower and lower.
"J-just Cauldron Cakes, chilled pumpkin juice, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and Chocolate Frogs and such... you tried a bit of almost every snack. But it's been so long and nothing happened, so you should be immune to chocolate... right?"
[...Though I appreciate your honesty, couldn't you have just lied to me!
(つд⊂)]
Learning the truth, Tom instantly felt like his entire feline existence had taken a turn for the worse—not figuratively, but in a literal, physical sense.
Before he realized what he'd consumed, he'd felt perfectly fine. But knowing he'd eaten chocolate, Tom immediately sensed something was wrong with his entire body.
His stomach began to ache, his heart started racing, his muscles began twitching, and even his head felt dizzy. Worse still, he felt his soul slipping uncontrollably from his body.
[Now you've actually killed me! (๑१д१)]
Tom wrote this sentence in utter despair.
No, seriously—you already fed it to me, why couldn't you just pretend not to know?! Why did you have to tell me?! And I'm just as bad, why did I have to go and confirm it? Wouldn't playing dumb have been better?
Now look what happened. The moment he realized he'd eaten chocolate, the theobromine and caffeine immediately began wreaking havoc in his system.
'I hope I don't miss tonight's Sorting Ceremony... (;一_一)'
With that final thought, Tom's vision went black, and he lost consciousness completely. In that last moment, Hannah's tearful cry echoed faintly in his ears:
"Tom? Tom! Don't die! I really forgot you couldn't eat chocolate!"
'If you forgot, then don't remember!'
Though he desperately wanted to retort, Tom was already beyond making any response.
"An unfamiliar ceiling... wait, where is my ceiling?!"
After an indeterminate time, Tom's consciousness gradually returned. However, what greeted his vision was neither the Hogwarts Express compartment nor the Hospital Wing's ceiling.
He wasn't worried about being unable to return. Though this was his first time dying from chocolate, it certainly wasn't his first "death"—not even in this world.
When he'd saved Pandora, he'd died once before. His soul had literally been blasted out of his body, yet he'd ended up perfectly fine, hadn't he? So, death really meant nothing to Tom.
Besides, honestly, if Hannah hadn't told him he'd eaten chocolate, he wouldn't have died at all! After all, Tom was fundamentally a comedic character, and comedic characters were quite adept at that universal ability: Schrödinger's state.
'Though it's not really Hannah's fault, is it? If I hadn't reflexively questioned her, she wouldn't have told me about it. Thinking about it that way, ending up like this is actually my fault?! (:3」∠)
No wait, it's totally that girl's fault! If she hadn't sneakily fed me chocolate when I wasn't paying attention, I wouldn't be in this situation! Right, I'll definitely make her compensate me properly when I get back! o(´^`)o
But... where exactly is this place?'
With that thought, Tom surveyed his surroundings. He appeared to be standing in a purely white world. Above stretched an empty, equally white sky. Dead or not, this was his first time in such a place, and he had no idea how to leave.
If he had to describe it...
"This place looks like heaven," Tom murmured to himself.
It reminded him of that place he'd once visited whether dream or reality, he couldn't say—that resembled heaven.
But unlike that place, there was no ticket gate here, no train to the afterlife, no queue of cats and humans waiting in line. This space contained nothing—only pure whiteness.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, something different entered his field of vision.
In this white world, a black dot appeared in the distance, startlingly conspicuous against the blank canvas.
'Well, I have no idea when I'll be able to return anyway, so why not go take a look? (๑•₃•๑)'
Gazing at that lone anomaly in the environment, Tom thought for a moment, then ultimately walked toward it.
This white world seemed to lack any concept of time or space. He'd barely taken two steps in that direction when he found himself beside the black dot.
The dot wasn't a smudge in his vision, nor was it the platform for souls to pass on as he'd speculated—it was an ordinary little wooden cabin?
"(°ー°〃) A wooden cabin? Why would there be a cabin in a place like this?"
Examining this seemingly antiquated wooden structure, Tom felt utterly bewildered. He'd considered countless possibilities, but never imagined finding an ordinary cabin here!
After standing at the door contemplating for a moment, however, he simply pushed it open and walked inside.
'What's there to be afraid of? Worst case, I die again~ Oh right, I'm already a dead cat, so there's even less to fear! (￣▽￣)'*
Since he hadn't woken up yet, he might as well investigate what this place actually was.
The interior furnishings were quite ordinary. No matter how Tom looked, he couldn't find anything special. It seemed like a plain, lived-in house.
How did he know someone lived here? The cup of steaming hot tea on the table served as the best evidence.
"Hello, is anyone here?"
Unable to understand why the homeowner would hide, Tom simply raised his voice and called out.
"A-a talking cat?!"
Before his words fully faded, a timid girl's voice came from upstairs. The voice carried a tremor, but listening carefully, one could detect within it a trace of... relief?
"Hello, my name is Tom. I'm a cat who accidentally wandered into this place. May I make your acquaintance?"
As he spoke, Tom looked up toward the second floor, wanting to see what the person upstairs looked like. Unfortunately, the upper level was shrouded in darkness—forget seeing anyone, he couldn't even make out what was up there.
"..."
He was met with prolonged silence. That voice seemed to vanish, making no further sound after Tom suggested they meet.
"Are you still there? Is it inconvenient? If so, I could come upstairs instead!"
Since she could communicate, he might be able to gather some intelligence from her! Tom was full of curiosity about this strange place.
"N-no need! I can come down myself!"
Hearing Tom's suggestion, the voice immediately became flustered.
Then came the sound of "thump, thump" footsteps echoing from the stairwell. Soon, a blonde girl of about thirteen or fourteen years old came running down from upstairs.