I walk around looking for a bed.

With the legs of a kitten, the town, which is already pretty big, feels humongous. Even though I’ve been walking all night, I don’t feel very tired. I guess my physical abilities have improved a lot. I now know that I can beat a dog to death with my bare paws without any weapons…Not that I would do that unless I had to anyway.

That doesn’t mean that my body doesn’t get tired, so I’m going to find a place to take a nap.

The sun will be coming out soon, and a warm place to bask in it would be nice. If it’s a sunny place, that means it’s a place where people can see me…I’d rather not get involved with humans or demons right now.

“Mii…”

Huh…

I give up on having a warm place, and go to a back alley like a normal cat, so people can’t see me.

I enter a small alley between houses.

Once I step off the road, the pavement becomes rough, the atmosphere becomes heavy and the air feels cold.

…It feels like…Well, it feels much better than sleeping on a tree and worrying about falling.

Now, are there any good places I can go?

As I wander around, I reach a dead end in the back alley maze—and there stands three cats.

There is a skinny one that looks like a parent, and the two kittens are probably its children. All of them have grungy fur all over their bodies, and their thin bodies are obviously not getting enough food.

“Meow” “Mii…” “Miyah…”

It only sounds like meowing and crying out…but I can kind of hear what they’re trying to say. The kittens are both saying, “I’m hungry…” and the parent cat is saying, “Who are you?”…I feel like…possibly.

Well, cat’s don’t have clear thoughts or words. Even so, I can understand them because I’m also a cat.

…What should I do? I could walk away without worrying about it, but…I’m a cat now too…As a kindred spirit, I can’t leave them alone…Besides, I’m no stranger to the sight of hungry kittens.

It can’t be helped…

I walk up to them.

The parent cat switches form “alert” to “threatening”.

I place a piece of dried meat (that I was about to eat) in front of the parent, who is about to attack me with its fur standing on end.

“Mii (eat)”

Then, the kittens walk past the frozen parent cat and start munching on the dried meat, dropping their cautiousness.

Even the parent cat, who is in the middle of threatening me, can’t resist their appetite and starts munching next to the kittens.

I decide to wait until the cats are full.

Watching the happy father and sons eating gives me warm and fuzzy feels…Before I know it, I fall asleep.

…………

…………

…………

I wake up on the cold soil of the back alley.

What the…? It seems I fell asleep.

The sun is right above…It seems that the sun rises around six in the morning, so I must have had a pretty good night’s sleep.

I thought I was only taking a nap, but I slept really well, didn’t I? I think this is the first time since I came to this world that I could sleep without worrying about being attacked by monsters.

I stretch my body as I usually do when I wake up from sleep.

I’m…stretch…feeling pretty good again today.

Now, let’s figure out what kind of situation that I’m in.

In front of me are the father and son cats that I fed before I went to sleep. I guess they have been waiting for me to wake up, so they come by and meow.

The kittens are saying things like “I’m happy” and “Thank you”. Their meows are more strident, probably because their stomachs are full and they feel better.

I mean, the dried meat that was a decent size is completely gone…It was about the size of a softball, but these cats were so hungry that  it’s all gone…

It’s sad and troubling that my food supply is gone, but compared to searching for food in the woods while being scared of monsters, getting food in town will be a piece of cake.

Now that the sun has risen and continues to get brighter, I’m ready to go explore the town of another world. Just as I’m about to do so, the parent cat says something that immediately catches my attention.

“The food was stolen.”

When you say “food”…, you mean the dried meat that I gave you, right?

When I ask for more details, it seems that a group of boss cats that had taken up residence on the west side of town came by and took it away. It’s not just today, though. It’s every day, and the boss cats have been raiding the food supply of all the cats and dogs in town.

Because of this, those who don’t become a part of the boss cat gang can’t find anything to eat.  Living in extreme poverty, some of them starve to death every day.

If they don’t have enough food in the town, they try to go outside of the town. When they do, they are attacked by monsters and their lives are over in an instant. In the end, it seems that cats and dogs have no choice but to endure it…

Hmm…

To be honest, I don’t really care.

I’m finding out that the cat world is the same in both worlds: There are only the weak and the strong and nothing more…I feel sorry for those who are forced to live in extreme poverty, but I have my hands full with myself right now.

There is one thing that I can’t overlook, though.

Those damn cats took my food!

It’s no laughing matter for a collector to have the items he’s collected taken from him.

What a joke! I’ll show them first hand how sinful it is to steal something from a collector! I’ll take back what’s stolen even if I have to punch them in the face!

＊　　＊　　＊

Fifteen minutes later, I am on the west side of town, which is the base of the boss cats…I’m in the darkest back alley.

So this is the cat’s house…No, not a house. It’s just a back alley.

I step into the dimly lit, damp back alley.

To the casual observer, it probably looks like a cat taking a walk, but to me it was like a hero breaching the Demon Lord’s castle.

…Except, both the role of the hero and the Demon Lord are played by cats.

The ground is moist, probably because the morning dew hasn’t dried yet. Since I walk through the forest a lot, I feel a little more at home in a place like this.

As I walk straight ahead, I see two cats standing in the way.

Their bodies are not as dirty as the cat family and the dog that tried to attack me. They have a good bit of meat on their bones too. If they are eating well, they must be a part of this boss cat gang.

“Meow.”

“Meow.”

You can’t understand what they’re saying in cat language, so I’m taking the liberty of translating them into human language here.

“I haven’t seen you around before, have I?”

“Did the new face in town come to say hello?”

It would be selfish of me not to, so I’ll just continue to translate like this.

“I’m not here to say hello, but I’d like to meet the boss cat.”

“Huh? What do you mean, kid?”

“What do I mean? It’s obvious what I said—”

I put all the strength in my four legs and jump with my foot in front of me at the cat on the right.

“It’s a kick!!!”

Before my opponent can react, I slam my tiny little paw, covered in fluffy fur, into his body.

—Cat punch (soft)!

The cat’s body is warped by the blow.

“Oooh!!?”

The cat on my left is startled and jumps back to put distance between us.

His decision to run away was correct—but too late!

After turning around, I give chase to the cat that’s running away. Sorry, but a mere cat is no match for my enhanced abilities.

I hit the cat in the side before it could take another step.

“Argh!?”

He is blown away and rolls across the ground.

Okay, two cats defeated.

No reason to even check whether they are good or bad anymore. My iron fist of anger will not stop. I’m not afraid of being yelled at by animal rights groups because I’m a cat!

“Oh, shit!”

“Hey, boss!!”

I walk after the two cats as they stagger deeper into the alley.

I turn three corners and come to a slightly open area in the alleyway.

This is the throne room of the boss cat who runs the town.

A slightly chubby black cat is curled up on top of a brand new sake barrel.

Underneath the barrel, there are three cats guarding the black cat. Surrounding that were five more, including the ones that I had nearly beaten to death.

No matter how I look at it, the black cat on top has to be their boss.

The curled up black cat looks down at me and opens his mouth.

“It looks like this young man is well taken care of, doesn’t it? Who the hell are you?”

“I’m just a drifter.”

“So, you wanted to see me…What did you come to ask me?”

“The food you stole from me is mine, give it back.  I want it back, and if you have any other items, go ahead and give those to me too.”

“You’re a funny little fellow…You think I’m going to agree to that?”

“No, not at all.”

Note: I’m making this seem like a serious atmosphere, but in reality it’s just cats meowing at each other.

“You look pretty well off yourself, don’t you? How about you come under me? Then you won’t have any trouble eating. You could become an absolute king in this town.”

“What the hell are you talking about? You’re just a thief who steals food from cats and dogs. You aren’t the absolute strongest, you’re just a cat, you know…”

“What are you trying to say? Are you telling me that you are somehow different?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t you dare!! You’re a little boy who can’t even unfurl his tail and you’re trying to pick a fight with me!?”

“So the fat cat finally notices.”

Note: I may sound persistent about this, but this is actually just cats meowing at each other.

“You’ll regret talking to me that way!!”

The cats around me start moving at once…At the same time, I prepare a shot.

Let’s try to narrow down the power of Slingshot considerably by using water as the bullet. A few ounces should be enough.

I have less than a second before the cats reach me. That’s more than enough time to aim and fire a single shot.

I aim at the black cat’s face—Slingshot!

The shot is well-aimed and hits the cat directly in the face. The impact of the collision causes the water ball to pop, soaking the black cat’s face.

“UMYAAA!!?”

The black cat rolls down the sake barrel.

His cronies stop moving.

I’m not going to miss this opportunity!

I close the distance instantly with the black cat trying to stand up. I land a Cat Punch (mid-strength) from a jump without slowing down!!!

“Oof!!!”

The black cat falls to the ground, motionless.

I didn’t kill him, but he’s knocked out completely.

KNOCKOUT…I won by KO.

I turn around and the other cats are still frozen in place.

“I win, motherfuckers!!!”