She had seen souls before.

It should be obvious that she was quite knowledgeable on the matter of souls - she had developed a safe haven for young souls. Such a task doesn’t get done without a certain mastery over souls. That cat having certainly accomplished a lot more in her time than many species ever managed before their extinction.

This was why she was sure that (what she was looking at) was most definitely the soul of the human man who just got beaten to death. Not a very hard conclusion to arrive at but certainly one that would make those less confident second guess themselves. So it also wasn’t what got her attention.

What did get her attention… Was the chain.

|That chain seems like a tether of spirit energy, likely what keeps the soul in the body, which is certainly an interesting change from what I am used to. Unless we’re discussing necromancy. Although I guess it’s not too strange that a universe with certain factors would be an anchor for the soul & body?|

Her little paw pounding on her chin as she thought about the soul of that man. Promptly deciding to begin bounding across the rooftops to follow after him - she did say she wanted to retire yet she could already feel the eyes of Cheshire on her. That old cat’s curiosity is a driving factor in her actions.

|It’s a possibility but I believe that is just a hypothesis so let's find out more!|

|Oh me~ oh my~ dost thou not think that a little bit of gen~o~cide, therefore, would help some little kittens like us learn more about our slot in life~?|

|Do shut up.|

Both her “other selves” didn’t seem to get along due to a fundamental difference in personality that can be easily seen being expressed in how they talked. Cheshire being slow and methodical thus allowing anyone to understand her. The other was constantly shifting pace and tone to get the opposite effect.

Seemingly this “aspect” of her soul had fully embraced her role as an avid researcher; desiring to use their new freedom to dive into the mysteries of the world. Desiring to know about the unknowable. Likely also why she kept that other crazier cat in line.

Too much chaos would make for a rather shitty experiment.

True scientific progress could only be achieved by one's ability to reliably repeat the phenomenon through replicating the conditions.

Something chaos and chance would interfere with.

Shaking her head as the curious cat decided to forget the old adage as she tailed that unknowing soul who ran through the streets. He was so focused that he didn’t even seem to realise he sometimes partially phased through other people when he would have otherwise barged into them. Believing it was just luck.

Evidently the kitten didn’t believe the same and was far more observant than the panicked perished as she made note of it mentally. She perhaps would have physically noted it if she could. Lacking paper, pen & opposable thumbs to make use of either.

|We could also just transform into a humanoid as it would also make many matters more convenient.|

Silence spoke louder than words, just receiving a hum of acceptance, but the last of the trio did not seem to care about what her other selves thought. By luck or design she was the one in the driving seat. So she acted with a certain amount of grace despite being a kitten who was stalking a seemingly homeless man.

That kitten eventually noticed that the chain on his chest was slowly dissipating into ash. Seeing something decay like that couldn’t help give her thoughts to a certain wolf - she was actually starting to get annoyed at him keep coming up. Either Way elements of his M.O could be seen lingering about.

It seemed like it was actually the negative karma of the man that was eating away at the chain - not helped that merely existing in the mortal realm after death was a “sin”. As such the speed of the chain was slowly but surely getting faster. That begged the obvious question that got Cheshire excited.

|What will happen to his soul when those juicy chain links completely decompose; the obvious answer would be their soul gets destroyed but that’s impossible since souls can’t be destroyed Perhaps they go to hell? That is also unlikely on account of… No he could be hiding more shit from us..|

The main cat couldn’t be arsed to wait long enough to find out; narrowing her eyes as she could easily tell that it’d take a few months for that chain to finish the process unless the last quarter randomly sped up.

Even then she had better things to do than follow around some randomly grown man as he learns about his new afterlife. Although she did doubt that it simply ended like that. Personally she was of the mind that the chain vanishing would lead to him entering the cycle of reincarnation as that was most obvious.

She knew her other self likely thought the same but didn’t mention it due to “being too obvious” so she too never brought it up. It was strange that they had their own unique thoughts. When she first awoke she thought she may be Cheshire yet that was clearly not the case… So who was she?

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

This wasn’t some sudden existential crisis… She just didn’t have a name yet.

Shrugging her fuzzy shoulders as she bounced off to once again follow her nose - not taking too long to find the sisters since they also lived in the outer part of the city. There she found that they lived in what was best described as a hut. It had four walls and a roof but that was about it.

Truly more of a hovel than a home.

Shaking her cuddly head with an audible sigh; an unusual little sight considering she was a kitten arguably only slightly bigger than a grown man's palm. Sadly no one was there to see it. Her ability to skulk around may as well have not diminished since the “good old days”.

At least against plain humans who only had to worry about their kidneys getting a little metallic tickle if they weren’t paying attention. Compared to a proud cat like her who had to worry about all sorts of troubles over the years. You never knew when a random hawk was going to swoop down!

That little hut unfortunately didn’t have a window yet it did have a chimney of some kind since some smoke could be seen rising into the air. Seeing this made the cat frown. Such little kids should not be making fires in such a small space especially with the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

She highly doubted that the two of them were using clean fuel - even if it existed in this era a bunch of poor little urchins were far from being able to afford it. Steal it maybe but they didn’t seem the type who had fallen that far. Yet.

It was a risk to their health; both long term & short term!

This just wouldn’t do. Fortunately, even if Hisana wasn’t willing, she had no qualms about stealing from some rich pigs to give to some poor little girls. If anything she’d love to do it; she did have to find some hobbies even if she plans going to live a far more peaceful life this time.

Still she didn’t leave since she had to make sure that the girls didn’t pass out from their improper health & safety standards. Jumping down from the roof she was upon to approach the ranshack door. Easily being able to squeeze her little body under the gap between the door & floor.

Entering allowed for her to instantly see that Rukia was excitedly using her finger to draw something in the dirt while Hisana was watching over a boiling pot. Clearly the girls didn’t have any spices. So all they had to throw into the pot were the bamboo shoots they managed to scavenge.

“Rukia, food is nearly done.”

She said gently with the warmest smile a girl in her situation could provide - it kind of shocked the cat that a girl had managed to keep that kindness. It was refreshing. Just two sisters finding strength in one another's presence however that also meant a single upset in the status quo could ruin that bond.

Shaking her head as she headed to see what Rukia was drawing, the girl happily bound towards her older sister, with curiosity. Perhaps that girl was a genius in the arts. Allowing her to drag her elder sister out of the slums and finally grant them the ability to enjoy all the simple pleasures of life.

Peeking on the artwork revealed a…

Even that cat (who had smiled since she was child with barely a twitch in her life) couldn't help finding her expression strained as she tried to find a compliment for the child’s artwork.

Shaking her head after spending a few minutes of contemplation on the artistic abilities of Rukia; at the end of the day it was just a child finding something to do to amuse themselves. Especially hard to do when one is as unfortunate as Rukia is. As such, she could hardly dissuade the kid from doing what she liked.

Instead she took one last glance at the surprisingly innocent pair of sisters - seeing the oldest happily laugh at their younger sister's actions. In turn the youngest laughed. Not sure why her sister was laughing but was more than happy enough to just see her older sister having fun.

Such a scene reminded her of her own silly brother. Unlike her he won the genetic lottery, likely being the strongest of their race even without her teachings, yet was such a goofball. It was these innocent scenes of kids just being kids that reminded her why she held no regrets in her long life.

Because she gave kids a place to just be kids.

Letting out another sigh at the folly of man.

.

With her thoughts mingling about, realising she probably needed more information about this kingdom before she learned about the world as a whole, she squeezed under the door again.

Ready to head out & explore once more.