I awoke to the sound of knocking at my door. “Haru? Are you up, sweetie?”

“Miyu!” Yuki mewed, licking me helpfully.

“Yeah, I’m awake,” I groaned, only realizing that my voice sounded different after the fact. Shit. How was I going to explain this to mum? There was no time to figure that out. Mum opened the door as I sat up, taking in girl-me for the first time this week.

“Haru…?”

“It’s Miyu!” Yuki mewed.

“Um… I can explain?” I tried.

Mum took a seat at the edge of my bed, sighing. “So your kitten really is a magic spirit, huh?”

I jolted up. “Uh- Yes…? How did-”

“I met this nice woman during my closing shift last night,” she explained. “She mentioned that you and her daughter - I think her name was Sachi? - had become friends. She offered me a job at her restaurant on the spot, with full benefits and a better wage!”

That’s what Sachi meant by ‘good fortune?’ I smiled. “That’s great, Mum!”

Mum squeezed me in a gentle hug. “After that, she sat me down and told me about what you’ve been going through this week. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you through it… but I promise I will be from now on!”

I hugged her back. “Okay… thanks, Mum.”

Mum squeezed me one more time before releasing me. “So, are you okay with this? And not just physically! Are you okay mentally? Tell me everything, hun.”

So I did. Once I started talking, the words just kept flowing out. I told her everything, starting from the beginning. How I started to notice small changes at first, how I made a friend going through something similar, meeting Sachi and Ada, and even showing her the care package items I got. Mum took it all in stride, amazingly. Though I guess it’s hard not to accept everything when your former son-turned-catgirl magics their cat parts away and talks to their spirit cat while cuddling with a magic blanket and a shark plushie.

“And… I guess I’m okay with the changes?” I finished. “I don’t really mind being a girl nyow… and I get the feeling that I might even prefer it, deep down. Yuki blessed me with good fortune, right? So… maybe being a girl is part of it. Sachi is going to teach me about taking care of the cat parts of me today, so that should help, too.”

As I finished, I caught Mum smiling at me with the beginnings of tears in her eyes. “I’m so, so, proud of you for being so open-minded and resilient, Miyu. I’ll always support you as best I can, no matter what decision you make. Tell you what: as soon as I get my first paycheck, I’m taking you on a shopping trip for some new clothes. Sound good?”

Wow, okay. I was not expecting to wake up and cry this morning, yet here I was. “Y-Yeah,” I sniffled. “Sounds good, Mum.”

Mum pat me on the back reassuringly. “That’s my girl. Now come on, you’ve got a cute girl to meet at the queer center, don’t you?”

“Ack! Mummmmmmm!”

***

Sachi waved to me as I ran up to the cafe entrance. “There you are! I was starting to wonder if you wouldn’t show!”

“S-Sorry!” I panted. “My mum got carried away this morning.” After our chat, Mum had decided to go all out on a makeup session. Admittedly, I looked really cute, but it came at the cost of being late. Or “fashionably late,” as Mum called it. I still had to wear my school uniform though - there wasn’t exactly time to buy a new wardrobe, either.

Sachi gave a purr of approval. “She did a good job. You look cute.”

“Nyeh!?”

“Good girl.” She pat my head and gently dug her nails intoohgodthatfeelssogoodnyaaa…

Yuki climbed her way out of my backpack to intercept the headpats and ear scritches. “Miyu! Snyap out of it!”

“Ah!” I jerked my head away from Sachi’s shoulder right before she trapped me in a bear hug. She grinned.

“Lesson number one,” she lectured, “Build up your resistance to headpats, and nyever accept headpats from strangers. Using your spirit cat to avoid danger is fine, but don’t rely on her.”

“N-Noted. Thanks, Yuki.”

“Hmmph. Nyu need to be more careful, Miyu.”

Sachi smiled at me. “In all seriousness though, you do look nice.” She gestured for me to follow into the Haven as she continued to chat. “You seem to be taking the whole ‘girl’ thing a lot better than Emma is.”

“Well, it was a gift from Yuki, right? I figured it’d only happen if this is what I really wanted, so I’m giving it a go. And… isn’t rejecting a gift from a youkai like, really stupid?”

“Oi,” Yuki hissed. “Don’t talk about me like I’m some malicious, troublemaking demon. Hmmph!” She paused, jumping down into my arms as we walked. “...I would be really nyangry though.”

Sachi wound through the halls, eventually leading us to a small office reminiscent of the band practice rooms at school. “Here. This place is soundproofed and out of the way, so we can talk serious and practice some magic. So? What’d you want to know?”

There’d been only one question on my mind since our conversation yesterday. “So… New Haven didn’t exist until recently, right? So… are all the people here real?”

“Depends on how you define ‘real.’ If you ask me, they’re all just as real as we are,” she answered. “Their memories, their lives - all real, even if they didn’t technically exist a few years ago. Think of it like… have you ever played The Sims? They have premade families and towns and stuff, right? Just because we weren’t there to witness their histories doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.”

“I think I get it… that makes me feel a lot better. So, what else do I need to know about being part cat?”

“Wait, that’s it?” Sachi asked. “You don’t have any more questions?”

I shook my head. Nyo- No. It’ll be dangerous if I know too much, right? So… I’m trusting you. I just want to live a normal life for right now. If something happens and I need to know, you’ll tell me then, right?”

“Right. Thanks, Miyu. Now, whaddya say to a catgirl training session? We start with learning how to suppress that nyaccent.”

“Oh thank god.”

***

When Sachi said training session, she meant training session. She was a merciless instructor. It only took about fifteen minutes of nyaccent training before I learned to despise spray bottles. We took turns trying to bait each other into speaking nya’d words, and I’m pretty sure that at least half that bottle ended up on my face. Admittedly, it was pretty fun to hang out and get to know her, though.

Besides the nyaccent stuff, we also covered a bit of magic. The first thing she taught me was how to enchant my clothes to make room for my tail to stick out without actually having cut a hole in the fabric, which would definitely come in handy on Monday. I’d decided to commit to the “Go to school as a catgirl for Halloween” plan because extra credit is extra credit. Oh, and apparently I could become a full cat now! If I ever managed to do a midair backflip, that is. Things to work on, and a reason to exercise, I guess.

Speaking of exercise… Sachi introduced me to parkour and freerunning. Holy shit, that was that fun. We ran around a park on Sunday, and let me tell you - being able to move like a cat made freerunning so satisfying! Did you know there’s a whole competition for a sport called parkour tag? Mind. Blown.

All in all, things were looking up. I was starting to get more comfortable being who I was, and I’d made some good friends, too. Though, I never did hear from Emma after we finished our project on Friday. I hope things were going well for her, too. She wasn’t responding to any of my messages, so all I could do was hope she was okay. I guess I’d find out at school tomorrow. I wish I could make something to cheer her up. She seemed pretty upset by being turned into a girl. If only there was something I could make to help with that. Actually… maybe I should text Sachi and ask.