Little Pink Starfish

M City was in chaos. Yuan Yuanyuan had been running who-knows-how-long before she finally made it to the city outskirts.

When she spotted the road ahead, she finally relaxed a little. She didn’t rush on but instead stood at the edge of the city, looking back toward the noise and commotion behind her.

The cat in her arms was perfectly silent—so well-behaved it was almost suspicious. Wrapped tightly in her scarf, his little paws clung to the fabric, his head still tucked inside without poking out once.

Yuan Yuanyuan glanced down at “Cat-dried” and thought, Damn, you’re actually pretty clever when it counts… Why don’t you act this smart more often?

Behind her, angry shouts from pursuing demons echoed. Yuan Yuanyuan still didn’t know exactly what Fat Cat had done to enrage the demons of M City like this. The whole thing felt like he’d… stolen someone’s wife or something. She wouldn’t be surprised if he actually had.

“Hey, kitty, what did you do?” she poked the cat.

“…” No response. He just curled deeper into the scarf.

Yuan Yuanyuan figured he probably couldn’t even speak at this point—still pretending to be all innocent. But something about the way he curled up just made her feel he was full of crap.

She glanced at the demons chasing after her and calmly looked back at them with the bulging bundle in her arms.

“Yuan…” One of them gasped when they saw her stop. And in turn, they all stopped too, freezing at the boundary between M City and C City.

They faced each other from across the city line. Yuan Yuanyuan stood coolly, the wind whipping through her hair. The demons didn’t dare cross.

She scanned them, then said in a low voice, “Everyone’s got a lot of energy tonight… hanging out this late?”

“Yuan,” a high-level demon snarled. “Don’t think you can just do whatever you want in M City.”

Yuan Yuanyuan stood at the edge of the road, hair blowing wildly as she narrowed her eyes and looked over.

“The demons in M City…”

…are all idiots, huh.

She swallowed that last bit. Mostly because, seriously—how had none of them realized the person they were chasing wasn’t actually Yuan?

She didn’t waste more time chatting. With Cat-dried in tow, she quickly retreated from the area. The longer she stayed, the more demons would show up.

Yuan Yuanyuan used all the demon power she had left to cast an illusion spell. Then she carried Fat Cat into C City, finally reaching a safer area and tossing him down.

After that, she went home, shapeshifted again, took off the clothes she’d worn out, and tossed them aside. She bandaged the long scratch Fat Cat had given her.

Then she sat down and mindlessly scrolled her phone. Around 4 a.m., she suddenly heard a knock at the door.

She felt nothing strange about it, and calmly opened the door.

At her feet, a thin little cat was scratching at the door with his paw.

Well then—Fat Cat had made it back.

Yuan Yuanyuan composed her expression, instantly switching from dead-fish eyes to a dramatic face full of panic and worry.

“Fat Cat! You’re finally back!”

“Yes… I’m back,” Fat Cat croaked. “Hurry and take me in…”

Yuan Yuanyuan scooped him up, placed him on the table, and laid down an old towel underneath.

“How did you make it back?” Fat Cat asked weakly, lying on his back, belly exposed. When Yuan Yuanyuan came back with hot water, she saw several bloody gashes on his stomach.

“Damn, what the hell happened to you?” She quickly grabbed antiseptic and cotton swabs to clean him up.

“I actually came back a while ago… I got surrounded again just now. Thought I was done for. But then someone showed up halfway through—he picked you up and said he’d bring you back… and dropped me off first.”

Yuan Yuanyuan cleaned up his wounds as he spoke.

“…” Fat Cat lay silent on the towel.

“You still alive?” she asked, prodding his belly and confirming he was still breathing. “Was that guy a friend of yours?”

“…No,” Fat Cat rolled over and revealed his nearly bald back. “I think I might be in serious trouble this time.”

“Well yeah. What were you doing in M City pretending to be Yuan?” Yuan Yuanyuan said in a steady tone, laced with subtle disdain.

“I figured Yuan and Fa Ning would meet soon, so I wanted to intercept that opportunity. See what Fa Ning really looked like,” Fat Cat said with a dreamy expression. “Didn’t expect…”

“Didn’t expect what?” Yuan Yuanyuan asked.

“…someone,” Fat Cat suddenly sat up with excitement, whispering, “Do you know who that guy is?”

“Who?” Yuan Yuanyuan—

But before she could finish, he flopped over again.

Yuan Yuanyuan twitched. Great.

So Fat Cat ended up crashing at her place. The next day, she went out and checked the area—no one from M City had come looking. Things in C City were calm, and she didn’t want to risk poking around M City for now, so she let it be.

She even bought big bones to nourish Fat Cat. But as she opened the door, she heard Fat Cat’s voice inside.

For some reason, his voice had taken on this weird, greasy tone… and somehow it sounded familiar.

“My name is Lucky Rain… but that’s not important~ You can just call me Lord Cat~”

“L-Lord Cat?” a soft girl’s voice replied.

“That’s right~ I can transform into a mighty demon~ My last master was a blond-haired youth, meow~”

“Blond… youth?” The girl sounded freaked out.

“Yes~ But Lord Cat here normally doesn’t associate with humans~ That boy had a book filled with demon names~”

“Wait! I know that book! Don’t tell me… you… you’re…”

“Hehe~ Didn’t think you’d guess~ I pretended to be nice to him just to gain his trust… and steal the book…”

Yuan Yuanyuan silently opened the door. Fat Cat, perched on the table, and Xiao Ying both turned to look at her.

Without hesitation, she hurled the giant bone straight at Fat Cat.

“Stop making up weird cat lore for yourself! And quit scamming my neighbor’s kid! She’s not bright, but that’s not her fault!”

…

Xiao Ying sat beside Fat Cat on the fabric sofa, her face stone-cold. Fat Cat was licking his fur with spit, as if nothing happened.

In just one night, he had fattened up again. His fur was growing back—but unevenly, so he looked like he had mange.

Yuan Yuanyuan stood frozen for a moment. Is he seriously putting on weight just for fun now?

“Fat Cat, if you scratch up my sofa, you’re done for,” she said through gritted teeth, heading to the kitchen to cook the bones.

“Meow~”

“Cut the cat act. You were literally scamming that poor girl a minute ago.”

“What? I’m sick and bored out of my mind. Can’t I tease a dumb human for fun? Besides, she’s the one who came asking if I was a demon,” Fat Cat replied, suddenly switching to a full northeastern accent. His fluffy tail wagged aggressively. “Pfft, hypocritical humans.”

“By the way, Yuan Yuan-jie, what did you just say about me?” Xiao Ying, still pale, asked.

“That you’re dumb. Why can’t you use that brain of yours?” Yuan Yuanyuan said with a tinge of disappointment. “Can’t you think? San San and that fat cat—what do they have in common besides being fat?”

“Uh…”

“And…” Yuan Yuanyuan continued with exasperation, “One has yellow-and-white fur, the other black-and-white. And you didn’t even wonder?”

“….” Xiao Ying’s expression went totally blank.

Yuan Yuanyuan stirred the pot, then covered it. She checked the time—planned to return in an hour. Then she glanced at Fat Cat and Xiao Ying. “What’s going on here?”

“I was napping on the sofa when this human just sneaked in and started poking me, asking if I was a demon. Woke me up. Honestly, she’s lucky I didn’t scratch her,” Fat Cat said with disgust.

“I was just… asking casually…” Xiao Ying flailed awkwardly. “I was having a chūnibyō moment, okay? Then you talked and I totally freaked out.”

“Sigh… You two really have too much time on your hands.” Yuan Yuanyuan suddenly remembered something. “Oh yeah—Fat Cat, why did you scratch me last night?”

“Huh? Why?” Fat Cat blinked, then answered after thinking for a while:

“Well, you couldn’t get into the building, right? I figured if I scratched you, you could pretend to be some poor girl attacked by a stray, then go get a rabies shot or something…”

He lowered his head and licked his fur. “And if you could act better, you could’ve even tossed me out and pretended to be pissed at the stray—maybe slip away during the chaos… But clearly you didn’t get what I meant. I blacked out after that, didn’t know anything else.”

“…Alright. I definitely missed the point,” Yuan Yuanyuan admitted, a little embarrassed. She hadn’t realized Fat Cat was trying to help her like that.

“It’s fine,” Fat Cat said, sitting up.

“What… are you two talking about?” Xiao Ying asked.

“Shut up, foolish human. This is far beyond your comprehension,” Fat Cat huffed, full of disdain.

And just like that, Xiao Ying’s look toward Yuan Yuanyuan grew even more suspicious.

“Ahem.” Yuan Yuanyuan cleared her throat awkwardly.

“But I might really be in trouble now,” Fat Cat muttered slowly. “Just a matter of whether someone’s gonna come looking.”

“No worries. If anyone comes after you, I’ll beat them to a pulp,” Yuan Yuanyuan declared.

“You?” Fat Cat gave her a look full of deep meaning, then flopped down for a nap again.

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at his fluffy little tail, silent for a moment—then shook her head.