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The black mouth bit down The kanji on the white piece of paper flared with green

The paper burst into a dozen strips They shot outward, jerking the cat off ofto suck in a breath Jirabbed it and he pulled er’s corpse, broken and twisted, cru about two feet off the ground, wrapped in long strips of paper It was six feet long and shaggy with orange and white fur, a house cat that had sorown to a leopard size The strips adhered to the walls and ceiling, clutching the cat like the wrappings of a ht its throat in a ue sticking out of the corner of itswith bloodlust, were dull now

I sed My mouth tasted bitter The cat monster was dead My hands trembled from adrenaline I had screwed up

"WHAT THE HELL is that?" Jim asked His voice was calm His hands didn’t shake Cool as ice Why couldn’t I be"Two tails or one?"

Ji furry tails

"It’s a nekoave me a blank look

"The yokai are Japanese deends say that if a cat’s tail isn’t cropped and some other conditions are host cat Bakeneko cats grow to a huge size and get supernatural powers Sometimes their tails fork and they become nekomata, demon monster cats They have the power to control the dead, take on hus"

"Do they have the power to put people to sleep?"

I knew he’d get around to that sooner or later "No It’s possible that the wouise, but it’s not likely She had you and she let you go The nekomata is a cat, Jiaets away This"--I waved my arms around--"is complicated Too complicated for a demon cat They mostly set fires, steal corpses, and walk around in hu to be your elderly ic here, really bad ic is still here So on This isn’t over"

Jim tapped one of the paper strips with his knife The strip didn’t give "And this?"

"This is the curse of twenty-seven binding scrolls"

Jim slashed at the paper strip The paper held Jim scowled "How the hell …"

Kate, one of ood offense "Before you say anything, yes, I know that the curse didn’t function as expected and I know that it would’ve been better to have the neko to do that, but it’s not like it’s an exact science, and hoas I supposed to know that the binding scrolls would choke the stupid deuessing soraphy while it’s trying to bite your nose off and then don’t co to me"

And that didn’t make even a tiny bit of sense I was an exceptionally smart woman Why did Jim always reduceto say, how the hell did you pull that off," Jith of steel out of nothing The physics of this makes my brain hurt"

"Oh"

"And I would’ve said it and sos, except that you ju your tiny fists around"

"Tiny fists?"

"That’s the root of your probleht You’re like one of those First Responder , and then sort bodies into two piles: criminals and civilians"

My face turned hot My body was pufurry, except it wouldn’t do ood

"If you take a tenth of a second to check if the fight you’re charging into isn’t there, it would save you a lot of grief"

He didn’t get it and he would never get it "Are you finished?"

"Yes"

"Good" I turned away fro in a weird angle, and both of his arms bent in places where no joints existed Ji

"What is it?"

You’re so special, why don’t you tell ainst Roger’s skin It caer to Jim "I’m pretty sure norle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>