Jun yelped as she was roughly dropped in the clearing outside atop a smooth and flat rock. Wincing at her stinging bottom, she shot a glare at the cat that kept throwing her around using magical telekinetic powers.
"Wha—" Jun began, but she felt the cat's magical force slap over her mouth, preventing her from talking.
Shiori floated back and forth in front of Jun, her tail flicking back and forth as her back paws dangled as if she was mid jump. "Whoever taught you how to cultivate was an absolute idiot." The black cat whirled around in the air and jabbed a paw at Jun, freezing her into place as she tried to quietly slip off the rock and run away. "You managed to reinforce your mind and enhance your vitality, but you did too much, too fast, too sloppily. You not only wasted whatever universal energy you spent on it, but you hurt yourself in the process. You weakened your core even as you reinforced yourself, and the pressure of your own soul could finish the job!"
The cat's rage-filled words hung in air as her presence seemed to grow. No longer was she a cute magical cat that could float around and talk. She had the presence of a wrathful war god. Her very words felt like a thousand deadly weapons were being casually waved about, threatening imminent and extreme violence!
As suddenly as the supernatural feeling of violence appeared, it vanished, Shiori gracefully dropping to the ground and landing on her paws. For a moment, she once again seemed like a mundane black cat, but Jun felt terrified at what she'd seen lay beyond that mask.
Jun shivered as Shiori continued ranting about how bad whatever this cultivation thing was. She still wasn't entirely sure what the cat was talking about though, the only thing coming to mind was a memory of a dreamlike place and a screen talking about her fortifying herself. Maybe that was it?
"Um, hey!"
"—find whatever negligent dumbass taught my kitten such shitty technique and show them—"
"Hey, uh... Shiori!"
"—what real magic is! I'll rip out their spine and heal them and rip it out again then—"
"M-Master Shiori!"
"—so hard their ancestors will—" Shiori paused and turned to look at Jun, her mouth fangs bared and claws extended from her front paws in mid-swipe at an invisible enemy. "Yes kitten?"
"U-um... I don't think what I did was this cultivating, and no one taught me, you see..." Jun quickly told the cat what she could remember about being in the space between lives, how she'd been given the opportunity to reincarnate, the dreamlike sea, and how she'd just done something that helped her deal with it.
Shiori closed her mouth, her whiskers twitching as she stared at the wayward kitten in front of her. "You stupid, reckless kitten!" She hissed, her ears flattening against her head. "Of course that was cultivation! And clearly bad cultivation at that! Sit!" Her command boomed out, echoing across the clearing and bouncing off the ridge above!
Jun flashed back to the summers she'd spent with her maternal grandmother before her family had moved to her father's hometown. How the strict woman would force her to sit on her knees in the "proper Japanese way," hitting her with a thin bamboo switch for every mistake in her posture or position. She immediately tucked her legs under herself and sat up straight with her hands clasped together in her lap, back rigid and her body slightly trembling.
Shiori sighed, her ears returning to their usual perked position as she gazed upon her trembling new kitten. "Not like that. Sit comfortably kitten."
Jun felt the cat's powers reach out and gently pull at her, coaxing her to shift until she sat cross legged upon the rock. She slouched slightly as her trembling faded, her muscles unclenching from the rigid posture.
Shiori nodded in a distinctly human fashion at Jun. "Good, now stick your right hand out." Jun stuck her hand out toward the cat and watched as she floated down until her hind paws rested in the palm of her hand, then placed her front paws upon Jun's forehead.
"Close your eyes, breathe, and relax." Jun did as instructed, closing her eyes and taking several deep breaths. "Clear your mind as best you can." Jun pictured all the thoughts in her head as pieces of paper. One by one, she filed them away in an imaginary filing cabinet identical to one she'd seen in her father's shop in her past life. Idle thoughts and worries continued to pop into her head. What was going on? Why was she here? Is it dumb of her to just go along with everything this cat was saying? What if she just got up and left? Why'd she choose a world with magic? What did the people on Earth think of her death? Did anyone even care? Each thought she did her best to file away, some staying put away but others coming back again and again. Her thoughts pulled her attention so completely that she barely heard Shiori's voice as she spoke again. "This will be uncomfortable, but it needs to be done kitten."
Jun felt pinpricks of pain as Shiori's claws dug into her skin and a cold energy trickled into her, radiating out from the claws in her forehead. At the same time, Shiori's invisible energy wrapped around her body, firmly but gently holding her in place. The energy surged into her brain and she could feel it consuming something, her thoughts moving slower and slower, memories fading bit by bit. She couldn't move, only feeling a muted sense of horror and wrongness as the cold energy multiplied as it gorged upon her mind, The energy then moved down through her body, filling her veins with an icy chill, where it began to feed again, but at a slower pace. Her body grew weaker, her muscles beginning to ache in places as the energy did its work. As suddenly as the vampiric energy had begun its feeding, it ceased, slowly withdrawing from her body until she felt it get sucked up into the cat's claws.
As soon as the vampiric energy was gone, a gentle warmth began to flow from the Shiori's claws into Jun. The energy began to concentrate in her forehead, the heat slowly growing as the energy built and built. The warmth had crossed from pleasant to uncomfortable, and sweat started to bead out of Jun's skin.
"Kitten, you need to cycle the energy. Grab it with your will, guide it to your pathways, and will it to aid you!" Shiori's shouted command filled her ears and she struggled to obey, but how? How did someone grab energy with their will?
The energy began to sear and burn as it grew stronger and stronger. Jun's body felt like it was on fire, just like when— images of a sneering face staring at her through roaring flames filled her head. Jun mentally recoiled, fleeing as the thoughts hounded her. She felt an alien mind wake in the dark corners of her mind and flex it's presence, shrouding everything in shadow. The crumpled balls of memories she'd shoved deep down flew out of the dark, their appearance wrinkled and black and surrounded Jun's mental image of herself.
The crumpled balls slowly unfolded, flattening out into wrinkled black papers upon which were shown her deepest fears and most painful memories. The papers began to swirl around her, slowly closing in as they increased in speed until they formed a tornado of black papers that trapped her in place!
A gust of wind suddenly burst through the tornado and disrupted it, sending the wrinkled papers flying away from her to fall in haphazard piles around her mind. "So that's what's going on." Shiori's calm voice reverberated through Jun's mind as a second massive presence made itself known. A large panther emerged from the shadows of Jun's mind, its fur black as void and marked with twinkling white lights, and wrapped its long tail protectively around her. As the panther's tail touched her, Jun felt Shiori's presence in the alien intelligence, it's thoughts hard to follow and understand.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
The piles of paper trembled and rushed into the air, shooting and writhing together, forming into the shape of a sinuous dragon with jagged black and red scales that seemed to drip blood. Obsidian black claws flexed and dripped an oily sludge that burst into flames as the black dragon bared its teeth and snarled at them. "You dare interfere! You do not belong here, cat! This is my territory! My lair! Mine!" The dragon roared and reared back, then suddenly breathed orange, red, and black flames at them!
Jun trembled and curled into a ball as images of her flesh burning and melting assaulted her mind and froze her with fear. She felt the heat of the flames rushing at them and closed her eyes, preparing to feel the searing pain of burning alive all over again!
The flames never arrived.
Shaking, Jun opened her eyes to see a thin purple barrier surrounding them, the dragon's flames wrapping around the shield as the dragon roared with rage! The dragon sent blast after blast against the purple barrier, but it held firm, the flames doing nothing but dissipating harmlessly against it!
The panther flicked it's tail in irritation and the purple barrier began to quickly expand outward, steadily pushing the blasts of flame back. The dragon raged, sending stronger and stronger blasts of fire that shook Jun's mind with each explosion, but the barrier advanced unimpeded. Strands of purple energy shot out from the barrier and wrapped around the dragon, suddenly restraining it and tying it down. The dragon thrashed and struggled against its bindings, but the bands of purple energy were unyielding. The rest of the barrier closed in around the dragon, forming a perfect sphere around it that began to constrict and compact down! The ball of energy shrunk down to the size of a baseball, shaking as the dragon roared and fought, before it suddenly stilled and shot off into the darkness, dragging the shadows shrouding her mind with it.
The panther turned to look at Jun, nodding once before padding behind her. Jun whirled around to follow it, but it was gone, along with the alien minds she'd felt.
Jun's mind space began to brighten, revealing a sheltered clearing with a dry spring nestled against bare stone ridges as she felt a warm energy flowing into her. Instinctively, she grabbed the energy and directed it at the dry spring in the clearing where it seeped into the cracks of the dry, dusty spring bed. Crystal clear water began to gush from between the cracks, quickly filling the spring bed until it overflowed. The crystal waters flowed across the clearing, filling organic lines that were hidden beneath the dust of the bare earth. The golden energy followed the water, pushing the dust along the channels until the energy infused waters reached the edge of the clearing, where they burst over the side in a waterfall, expelling the dust!
The flow of warm energy slowly waned and vanished, but the spring continued to flow, gently pushing more and more dust and debris along the channels until fell over the side of the waterfalls at the edge. A mix of lightness and exhaustion filled her as she looked around the clearing, before spotting a small bench set against the bare stone wall of the ridge above. She sat upon the bench and leaned back, closing her eyes to the sound of the bubbling spring and roaring waterfalls, and let the exhaustion take her.
----------------------------------------
Jun opened her eyes as Shiori retracted her claws, leaving her skin unmarked as she did. Her entire body ached, but her mind felt light and clear. Her status screen was still open in her vision and several more screens had popped up beside it.
Your karmic fortification has been consumed! -5 MIND, -1 CON.
WARNING: Hostile entity detected! Soul under attack!
Trait [Affinity Hoarder] has been sealed and is no longer available!
You have assisted in the defeat of a [Soul Parasite]!
Advancement proportional to your contribution granted!
Congratulations! You have gained a level!
+1 to MIND, CON, STR, AGI, DEX, CHA, SPR!
Core stabilized.
Beginning automatic repair... Repair successful. Inject karma to restart.
Injection successful. -350,000,000 karma
Standby for expulsion of karmic debris.
Your skills have advanced!
You have developed new skills!
Congratulations! You have gained a level!
+1 to MIND, CON, STR, AGI, DEX, CHA, SPR!
Karmic Balance: 149,864,661,343 (-350,000,000) World: Merinthia (Tier 1) Name: Jun Titles: Adopted Kitten (HIDDEN) Level: 2 (49/100%) Race: Human (Balance) Gender: Female Mana: 07/110 Core Status: (HIDDEN) Stable (Tier 0) Stats: MIND - 13 CON - 13 STR - 13 AGI - 13 DEX - 13 CHA - 18 SPR - 13 Traits: (5/5) [Touched by Karma] (Hidden) [Born of Karma] (Hidden) [Magic Touched] (Disguised; [Affinity Hoarder]) SEALED [Fast Learner] [Charismatic] Skills:
[Karma Manipulation] (Novice 2)
[Body Cleansing] (Novice 1)
[Mental Resistance] (Novice 1)
[Soul Sealing] (Novice 0)
Quests: Introduction to Magic 101
Jun read over the screens. That dragon was a [Soul Parasite]? She'd lost stats? One of her traits was sealed?! She'd gained levels and skills? What did "expulsion of karmic debris" mean?
"Congratulations kitten. Now you're ready to begin learning magic." Shiori sat on the grassy ground, no longer hovering.
Jun opened her mouth to reply when her stomach gurgled, and she felt the beginnings of a cramp in her abdomen. A foul stench began to fill the air and Jun retched. The smell was worse than anything she'd ever smelled before! Looking around for the source of the stench, she saw thick black gunk beginning to bead on her pale skin and puddle upon the rock she sat cross legged upon. Her boots began to feel squishy as they filled with some kind of sludge. A wave of disgust and embarrassment came over her as she realized that that smell came from her! Panicked, she looked up at Shiori, only to see that the cat had retreated across the clearing, and a clear purple barrier of energy had sprung up around her, enclosing Jun, the rock, and all of the sludge that continued to pour out of her!
"But first," Shiori's voice whispered in her ears with a hint of a smile, "you need a bath, my unhygienic little kitten."