My Cat Came Back as a Hot Guy (And He Remembers Everything)
Sakura Tsukishima, a 21-year-old college student, has lived with her black cat Kuro for five years. One morning, she wakes up to find a tall, ridiculously handsome guy with black hair and golden eyes sleeping in her bed. He has a crescent-shaped mole on the back of his neck — just like Kuro.
"Good morning, Sakura. It's me. Kuro."
Sakura runs. Kuro calmly opens the fridge and eats a tube of cat treats. There's no doubt. It's him.
Kuro's first declaration? "I'm here to pay back five years of gr
My Cat Came Back as a Hot Guy (And He Remembers Everything) - The Morning That Disappeared and the Untouchable Hand
Yesterday at Utse River, in the sunset, Kuro's fingers looked transparent for a moment——Sakura tried to convince herself it was just her imagination, but it didn't work. She faced the morning with that thought still clinging to her.
May 25th. When she opened her eyes vaguely in her futon, the room was strangely quiet.
(Kuro...?)
Usually, he'd already be there. Sitting in the chair at the table, waiting for Sakura with those golden eyes fixed on her.
Sakura sat up and looked around the room.
No one was there.
"Kuro?"
No answer. She checked the balcony. No one. She checked the entrance. The shoes were lined up neatly. The wallet, the phone——not that Kuro had either of those anyway——everything was untouched. Nothing had moved.
Sakura stood and opened the unit bath door. Empty. She opened the closet. Empty. She went out to the balcony. Empty.
Kuro wasn't anywhere in the 22-square-meter room 201 of Corpo Minazuki.
(He was here until yesterday.)
Something stirred in her chest. The image of Kuro's right hand at the riverbank in the twilight——the outline of his transparent fingers——flickered in her mind.
"I think it's because time is short."
Kuro's voice that night on the balcony. Words she'd let slide past her then suddenly took on shape and weight in this moment.
Sakura headed for the entrance. She started to put on her shoes, then stopped.
She just opened the door and ran out barefoot.
＊
It was the time when people were starting to fill Hoshizora Arcade.
A fruit vendor called out when he saw Sakura running barefoot in her pajamas.
"Sakura!? What's wrong, barefoot like that!"
"I'm fine, I'm just looking for something!"
She wasn't fine. Not fine at all. But her feet wouldn't stop.
She ran past Kousaka-do. The sweet scent of crescent moon mochi. Ren wasn't out today. She passed Drugstore Yotsuba. The memory of Kuro coming to buy Churu on his own made her throat ache.
She ran all the way to Minase University. She searched around the lawn where about fifteen stray cats lived on campus. She checked behind the library. She walked around the courtyard.
Nothing.
She made it back to Utse River's riverbank. The cherry blossom trees were already in leaf, and May's green leaves swayed in the morning breeze. She walked along the promenade, checking each bench. The stone pavement was cold against her bare feet.
Her feet stopped in front of the place where she'd stood yesterday.
The place where Kuro's right hand had looked transparent.
"Sakura?"
A voice from behind. She turned around.
Deep red-purple hair. Amber eyes. He was carrying a paper bag, apparently coming back from Kousaka-do. Kousaka Ren frowned when he saw her.
"Why are you barefoot?"
Sakura went silent for a moment, not sure where to start.
Ren took a step closer.
"What's wrong. Did something happen?"
The words spilled out.
"Kuro's gone."
"...What?"
"I woke up this morning and he wasn't there. All his shoes are still there, and I can't find him anywhere."
Ren paused for a moment.
"He's a cat. He might just wander off on a whim."
Sakura shook her head.
"The shoes are there. He doesn't go out without shoes."
"...I see."
Ren adjusted the paper bag in his hands. His eyes looking at Sakura changed slightly.
Sakura hesitated, then spoke.
"Hey, Ren. Kuro said himself...that time might be running out."
Ren's expression froze.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I don't know. But yesterday, by the river, Kuro's hand...for a moment, I thought I saw it become transparent."
Silence.
Ren looked at her face. He understood she wasn't joking. His amber eyes narrowed, then straightened.
"Kagura Ridge. Should we go?"
"Huh?"
"There are three stray cat colonies there. Even as a human, he probably moves on cat instinct."
Ren started walking ahead. Sakura stopped for just a second, then followed.
＊
Kagura Ridge was twenty minutes by bus from Tsukimi Station, then another fifteen minutes on foot. Elevation: 210 meters. By the time they got off the bus, Sakura's bare feet were at their limit, but Ren silently bought disposable sandals at a convenience store.
"Put these on."
"Thank you..."
Neither of them spoke after that.
They climbed the slope of the hill. Evening was approaching. The light filtering through the trees was turning orange. The presence of stray cats increased. Eyes glowed in the grass.
As Sakura walked, she kept thinking about Kuro.
(Even if I was scared, I wanted to be alone——is that what this is?)
She didn't want to think about it. But she couldn't help it.
Rocky ground came into view. Several stray cats were gathered on a place where large stones overlapped. At the edge——in the shadow of a rock, she saw a black figure huddled.
"Kuro!!"
She ran. She scrambled up the slope and fell to her knees.
Kuro slowly lifted his face. Black hair with thin red streaks. Golden eyes. It was definitely Kuro.
And then Sakura saw it.
Kuro's right hand——from the wrist down, completely transparent.
The sunset light passed right through it. The rocks, the grass, the sky beyond the hill were visible through the outline of Kuro's hand. The arm was there. The wrist was there. But from the wrist down, it was the same as air.
Sakura's fingertips trembled.
She tried to wrap Kuro's transparent hand in both her hands.
Her fingers cut through empty air.
It was there, but she couldn't touch it. Even as Sakura's hands traced the shape of Kuro's hand, she felt nothing. No warmth, no weight, nothing.
"...!"
Tears came. She couldn't stop them.
Kuro looked at Sakura with his golden eyes. Those eyes trembled slightly.
"...I'm sorry."
Sakura looked up.
"When I woke up this morning, my hand was gone. I was scared...I wanted to be alone."
His voice was shaking slightly.
Sakura froze.
That sharp-tongued, carefree Kuro who wrote "remember this" in notebooks and insisted Churu was justice. He said he was scared. With a trembling voice.
Something burst inside her chest.
"Why did you go out alone?"
Kuro's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Why didn't you tell me? You should have said something!"
"...I didn't want to worry you."
"If you didn't want to worry me, you should have said so from the start! I woke up and you were gone, all your shoes still there——I looked everywhere——"
Her voice broke. Tears spilled again.
Kuro looked away.
"I didn't want you to cry."
"If you didn't want me to cry, don't disappear...!"
Kuro said nothing.
Sakura couldn't say anything either.
The anger and worry were both real, and she wanted to throw it all at him, but the words wouldn't connect. Kuro's transparent hand was there in the sunset, and yet Sakura couldn't touch it. That fact made everything hurt more.
A little distance away on the grass, Ren had been watching the whole scene.
He wasn't looking for the right moment to speak. He simply couldn't move.
Every time Sakura tried to touch Kuro's transparent hand and her fingers cut through empty air, every time Sakura's crying grew louder, something in Ren's chest sank quietly.
(Ah, so that's what it is.)
Sakura was crying for Kuro. For that stubborn, slightly off-kilter cat, she'd run barefoot through the streets, climbed the hill, and now she was crying.
Ren thought of ten years of unrequited love.
Since elementary school. Always beside her. He'd seen Sakura's smiling face eating crescent moon mochi at Kousaka-do hundreds of times.
On the grass, Ren quietly clenched his fist.
＊
As the sun set, Kuro's right hand slowly began to regain its outline.
It didn't return completely. But in the twilight, the shape of his fingers was visible.
Kuro stood up. Sakura stood up. There were no words between them.
Ren approached.
The three of them started down the hill.
Partway down, Ren said quietly.
"I won't forget what happened today."
Neither Sakura nor Kuro turned around.
Ren didn't say anything more.
＊
When they got back to the apartment, the three of them parted at the entrance. Ren said a small "see you tomorrow," and that was all.
Only Sakura and Kuro went inside. She turned on the light.
Kuro's right hand had almost completely returned. Under the white bulb, it looked like a normal hand.
But in Sakura's palm, the sensation of her fingers cutting through empty air still lingered.
She tried to touch him. She couldn't. That feeling.
Sakura sat next to Kuro, unable to move. Kuro said nothing and looked out the window.
From outside Corpo Minazuki, the faint sound of Utse River's water could be heard. A May night. Quiet.
"...Kuro."
"What?"
"You said time was running out. ...I want you to tell me properly."
Kuro paused for a moment.
"...There's still a lot I don't understand myself."
"But if something like today happens again——"
"It might. I'll be honest about that."
Silence.
"...I won't be alone anymore."
His voice sounded a little more settled than it had on the hill.
Sakura said nothing. She just looked at Kuro's right hand. The hand that was there, clearly visible.
She tried to touch it.
This time, warmth reached her fingertips.
Sakura's hand rested gently on the back of Kuro's hand. Kuro stiffened slightly.
But he didn't pull away.
Outside the window, Utse River flowed. The words about time running short sank slowly through the room. There were still no answers. But the fact that they weren't alone——that was all that existed here tonight.
Sakura remembered that tomorrow she would pass by the used bookstore "Kujira-do" on Hoshizora Street several times. The rumor was that the shop owner, Shouzou Umino, was knowledgeable about local mysteries.
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