Sunday morning.
Hayasaka Ai found a dying cat in the courtyard.
"Meow~"
A white cat. Beautiful in form, but now close to death—its body covered in wounds, with no trace of its former elegance remaining.
"Something about to die." Ai-chan looked down at it, her voice flat. "Do you want me to save you?"
She had just finished discussing the gardening plan with the head gardener. This cat, spotted at the edge of the mansion's courtyard, had likely snuck in.
Ai-chan hated cats.
She and Kaguya Shinomiya had been scratched by a cat when they were young. Even now, she didn't dare touch such creatures. Most people found felines cute, but to Hayasaka Ai, they were anything but.
The white cat's eyes widened in a distinctly human expression of shock.
Cats can't talk! Is this woman crazy? Asking if I want to be saved? She should have picked another target!
The white cat was an anomaly called an Obstruction Cat. Its usual method was to feign death, then possess any human kind enough to bury it. After a successful possession, it would use its "spirit absorption" ability to drain the host's essence. This particular Obstruction Cat was female and highly intelligent—she understood the value of sustainable harvesting. She never drained her hosts dry.
In other words, she had never killed anyone.
Meow~ Stupid human.
Her accident faked, the white cat continued its act, crawling toward the mansion entrance with agonized slowness.
Hayasaka Ai stepped in front of it. Extended her foot. Blocked its path.
"The Shinomiya estate isn't a place you can come and go as you please, little cat." Her lips curved into a faint smile. This was the first time she had encountered such a clever creature. It understood how to exploit human sympathy.
She had found an interesting toy.
"Meow!" The white cat's patience snapped.
It lunged directly at Ai-chan.
Hayasaka Ai was afraid of cats, but not to the point of paralysis. Her reflexes were sharp—she sidestepped the ambush with a fluid pivot, watching the cat skid past.
"You seem to like me quite a bit?" She tilted her head, amused. "Don't worry. I'll save you right away."
Keeping this interesting creature as a pet might be pleasant. Stray cats weren't valuable, and they were easy to care for. She had rented a house nearby recently; if the Shinomiya estate didn't allow pets, she could keep it there.
She crouched down.
The Obstruction Cat's white fur bristled. It was genuinely furious now.
"Hmm? Did I guess wrong? You don't actually like me?" Ai-chan laughed softly, thoroughly enjoying herself.
Then—
"Meow…"
The cat convulsed violently.
And collapsed.
Hayasaka Ai initially thought it was continuing its act. But minutes passed. The small body remained motionless.
She moved closer to inspect.
It appeared to be genuinely dead.
…How boring.
Life was truly fragile. Yet something felt strange. The cat had been so lively moments ago. Even with its wounds, it should have survived until she could take it to a veterinarian.
She didn't dwell on it.
She felt no closeness to stray cats, no particular sympathy. Still, she found a spot in the garden and buried it properly.
The Obstruction Cat followed the hands that buried it—sliding into Ai-chan's body. More precisely, into the depths of her mind.
Under normal circumstances, it would have possessed Hayasaka Ai temporarily, drained her energy, and eventually released her.
But these circumstances were not normal.
The moment the Obstruction Cat entered her consciousness, it dissolved. Instantly. Completely.
More than a decade of suppressed mental strain—daily stress, guilt toward Kaguya Shinomiya, the relentless pressure of her position—had been festering inside Hayasaka Ai. She yearned for the youth a normal girl should have, but her identity as a Shinomiya servant made it impossible. Even dating her boyfriend required squeezing time from an already overfilled schedule.
This immense pressure, accumulated over ten years, had never been released.
Now, under the anomaly's influence, it converged into something else. Something destructive. Rather than dissipating, it consolidated. It grew.
Hayasaka Ai had become very, very dangerous.
Outside Kaguya Shinomiya's room.
Hayasaka Ai pressed a hand to her aching temple. Her head throbbed with a pain she couldn't identify.
She breathed. Steadied herself. Forced the expression of discomfort from her face.
A few seconds later, the perfect maid's demeanor was back in place.
She couldn't eliminate the pain. But she didn't want Kaguya Shinomiya to worry.
If she were going to cry, she would only do it in her mother's arms. Or Sakurai Saki's.
Night fell.
In Hayasaka Ai's private quarters, her breathing was slow and even. The room was dark, quiet, undisturbed.
Then—
Two white cat ears emerged from her hair.
Slowly. Deliberately. As if they had always been there, waiting.
Her exotic golden hair began to change. White bled into gold, spreading like paint spilled across fabric. The transformation was gradual at first, then accelerated.
Within moments, the gold had faded entirely.
Her hair was now pure, luminous white—the color of fresh snow, the color of the cat she had buried that morning.
She slept on, unaware.
Ai-chan—no, a new name was needed now.
Hayasaka Meow? Little Hayasaka? Dark Hayasaka?
The name was yet to be decided.
But first, an explanation of her origin.
Inside Hayasaka Ai's body, the Obstruction Cat that had died that morning had dissolved—but not vanished. Under the influence of the mental energy accumulated over more than a decade, it had reconstituted into something new. Something peculiar.
To use a more understandable term: a second personality.
This was a second personality born from immense pressure. She possessed all of Hayasaka Ai's memories, yet she was fundamentally different. Similar, but not the same.
"Meow?" Hayasaka Ai—or rather, the entity now inhabiting her body—licked her right hand experimentally. A slow smile spread across her face. "Finally out~"
"It's been... one, one, one..." She paused, brow furrowing. "Anyway, a long time."
As a second personality mutated from an Obstruction Cat, Hayasaka Meow—provisional name—couldn't count. She only understood the concept of "one." Anything beyond that blurred into incomprehensibility. Sentences longer than three lines were equally impossible for her to parse. And unlike Hayasaka Ai, who lied as easily as breathing, this new personality was incapable of deception.
Innocent. Pure. Cat-like in her simplicity.
Hayasaka Meow pressed a hand to her forehead, assessing the body she now shared. Then she changed clothes, pulled on a mask, opened the window, and slipped out into the night.
She was going to help Hayasaka Ai release stress. Otherwise, this body would break apart under the pressure it carried.
She leaped. Dozens of meters in a single bound.
Night. Shibuya. An alley in Yoyogi.
Several delinquents had cornered someone. A woman in revealing clothes backed away from them, fear twisting her features. The group had agreed on a price, then reneged at the last moment. When she refused to comply, they decided to take what they wanted by force.
"Hey! Ten thousand yen for the night—that's what we agreed on, right?!" One of them grabbed her arm. "You bitch!"
The woman's expression curdled with disgust.
It was supposed to be thirty thousand. Now it's ten thousand. And five of you together? Do I have that many holes? What a joke.
Before the situation could escalate further, a clear, cold female voice cut through the alley—
"Hey. You. What are you doing?"
At the far end of the alley, a white-haired girl walked in. She wore a baseball cap pulled low, a color-blocked outfit that fit Shibuya's chaotic aesthetic, jeans, and a white short-sleeved inner shirt. Even with a mask covering half her face, her beauty was unmistakable. Her figure, visible under the neon lights, drew the eye.
The delinquents turned.
"Beauty." One of them raised an eyebrow, his gaze traveling over her. "You joining us?"
Hayasaka Meow's eyes—Ai-chan's eyes, but somehow different—fixed on his face. She saw where his attention lingered.
"Close your eyes," she said. "Don't look at things you shouldn't."
Her voice was ice. Perhaps only Kaguya Shinomiya from a year ago could match its coldness. She wasn't looking at creatures called "humans." She was looking at garbage.
She had inherited Hayasaka Ai's memories, but the older ones didn't register deeply. She was, after all, a cat at her core. Only a few people truly interested her now.
Ten minutes later.
The alley contained an additional pile of garbage. The pile groaned frequently, sounds like wounded animals emerging from its depths.
The compensated dating girl, now free, bowed deeply. "Thank you."
Hayasaka Meow walked past her without acknowledgment, without a glance.
She hadn't touched the delinquents. She had used the mental energy coiled within this body—the pressure, the stress, the accumulated weight of a decade—as a weapon. She was afraid of dirtying her hands. Afraid that Sakurai would dislike it.
"...So mysterious."
The girl pulled out her phone and captured a photo of the white-haired figure walking away. Flowing white hair. Baseball cap. A dignified posture that somehow radiated danger.
She opened Instagram, uploaded the image, and typed a caption:
Mysterious hero appearing in Shibuya.
Hayasaka Meow knew nothing of this. She was a cat; she didn't use phones, didn't browse social media, didn't track her own legend.
She was already moving to her next location, leaping across the Shibuya nightscape, the wind catching her white hair.
Tonight, Hayasaka Ai hunted.