I have bound two systems.

Monday morning, six o'clock sharp.

Yukinoshita Yukino sat in the middle of the bed with a dull look in her eyes. She had been sitting like this for a long time, ever since she woke up in the morning and understood the current situation.

The whole person... no, the whole cat would have looked like a lifelike simulation model if it weren't for the slight floating movements of its body caused by breathing.

That's right, she turned back into a cat's body.

In fact, after the previous experience, she had developed some resistance to such an incredible thing the second time. She was no longer so surprised, uneasy to the point of being almost scared.

However, no matter how high your psychological expectations are, you will still be confused and at a loss.

Just like when you are sick, you can only take the right medicine for the disease.

A high school detective was not surprised to find that his body had shrunk after waking up from a coma. That was because he knew that he had taken the poison code-named aptx4869. Although the efficacy of this drug was a bit ridiculous from a scientific point of view, he had found the source of his condition after all.

But Yukinoshita Yukino had no idea what she was facing.

She stayed at her home yesterday and never left.

Before going to bed last night, she went to the entrance and watched the surveillance video of the past ten hours from the camera outside the door at double speed.

The result was just as she expected. Except for Chisato Suzumiya at night, no one had ever approached her door, let alone sneaked in.

It is not realistic to break in through the window because her apartment is on the high floor, not a single-family building with only two or three floors.

To break in through the window, it is extremely difficult unless you are on the top floor of the apartment and use a wire to lower yourself down like a special forces soldier.

If they really did that, the street outside the apartment would be so busy with traffic that it would be easily noticed by passers-by or the property management.

The main problem is that Yukinoshita Yukino can't imagine that anyone would do this to her for such a reason.

She did not witness the Black Organization's transaction. She was usually a law-abiding student who did her own thing. There were some people in the school who didn't like her style of doing things, but at most they would just hide her shoes in the shoe cabinet and watch her make a fool of herself in secret.

And that kind of thing happened in elementary school many years ago. Now that I have entered high school, the thinking of the people around me has gradually matured, and no one would be so naive to do such a thing.

So...is this really an unnatural ghost incident?

Although she had vaguely realized this a long time ago, Yukinoshita Yukino had always been reluctant to admit it, because if that were the case, things would become very tricky.

Something beyond her understanding really happened, and she had no idea how to solve it. This feeling of powerlessness and frustration had a huge impact on her mentality.

However, there is no point in just sitting here.

Yukinoshita Yukino jumped off the bed. Even though she turned into a cat, her clean habits did not change.

I jumped onto the sink in the same way. I couldn't brush my teeth normally, so I could only hold up the faucet and rinse my mouth.

The faucet on the sink was designed to be pressed down to close and lifted up to release water, so she was able to use it easily as a cat. However, the door lock design on the front door required her to not only pull the door handle down, but also turn the small rotating lock button a circle.

This is an absolutely impossible task for a cat.

In other words, she can't even leave the house now.

Forget it. I was originally planning to ask for leave from school today, so I’ll just not go out for the time being.

After simply rinsing her mouth, Yukinoshita Yukino returned to the room with an elegant cat-like walk.

She found that she was in a slightly more relaxed mood than yesterday, which might be related to her sudden return to normal last night.

Now that I know it can be changed back, even though I haven't figured out the rules, I have a rough idea in my mind, and my way of thinking is not so obscure anymore.

After asking for leave from her school teacher with great difficulty via mobile phone and receiving a response from the other party, Yukinoshita Yukino stopped paying attention to her mobile phone. She lay down on the bed again and started to daydream.

I was so panicked yesterday that I didn't really experience the feeling of turning into a cat.

Come to think of it, it actually feels like this to control the tail. What a strange feeling.

Yukinoshita Yukino played with her tail for a while out of boredom, then rolled over on the bed a few times while suppressing her shame, and her mood surprisingly improved.

Without wasting much time on such self-entertainment, she quickly jumped onto the desk and thought about the words she had written down last night.

She focused on what happened during the time before she recovered last night, using her smart brain to try to analyze the possible connections between them.

She first thought of a possibility, that after she turned into a cat, she might return to normal over time.

She lost consciousness around 1:00 p.m. yesterday morning and opened her eyes again around 3:00 p.m. At this time, she found that she had turned into a cat. At around 10:30 p.m., she suddenly returned to normal.

If we consider the period of time when she suddenly fell asleep, the total time she turned into a cat was about nine and a half hours.

If my guess is correct, then at the latest after nine and a half hours, I might be able to change back to normal.

The current time is half past six, which means we have to wait until four o'clock in the afternoon. By then, we can verify whether this guess is correct based on the changes in itself.

Yukinoshita Yukino lacked a lot of key information points, so she could only take the dumbest approach and eliminate all the connections she could think of one by one.

However, more than nine hours is indeed a bit long, but there is nothing we can do but wait patiently.

Read a book for a while, which is something a cat can do easily.

"Meow~"

I wanted to sigh, but unexpectedly a very cute sound came out instead.

Yukinoshita Yukino returned to the room, picked up a book from the bookshelf with her mouth, spread it flat on the desk, squatted down and started turning the pages with her paw.

While waiting for verification, time passed very slowly.

At around ten o'clock, Yukinoshita Haruno sent a message asking about her health. Yukinoshita Yukino typed a reply just to get by.

At noon, Yukinoshita Yukino took some effort to open the refrigerator and took out some toast.

She was full after eating less than half of the palm-sized toast.

After eating, she continued reading, but changed the reading location to the bed. She leaned the book against the pillow and raised her head so that she could read more comfortably.

In this way, time slowly passed and finally it was four o'clock.

Yukinoshita Yukino held her breath and felt her body.

The wind blew in from the window, ruffling the hair of the extremely elegant and beautiful cat on the bed, and everything seemed so warm and peaceful.

But nothing has changed.

Yukinoshita Yukino waited calmly for more than an hour, but at around five o'clock, there was still no change in her body.

The momentary dizziness I felt last night before returning to normal has not yet appeared.

Well, now that things have come to this, Yukinoshita Yukino has to admit that her speculation that her body will change over time is wrong.

But if this speculation is wrong, then what is the truth about her recovery?

Yukinoshita Yukino began to feel restless again, pacing back and forth on the bed, thinking hard.

Recalling what happened last night before she recovered, she jumped out of bed and went to the living room.

Yukinoshita Yukino remembered that she was very panicked at the time and planned to contact her sister to tell her what had happened, but later she didn't want to make her worry, so she held back for the time being.

This part should be irrelevant.

Then, she came to the balcony with an extremely melancholy mood and stared blankly at the street scene outside for a long time.

Speaking of which, the moon was very big and round yesterday. Could my recovery be related to the moonlight?

It's a very wild idea, but since Yukinoshita Yukino has encountered such a thing, she must think about the problem in a more casual and free manner.

She classified this idea as "doubtful" in her mind and planned to go to the balcony to try again when it was darker, but at the same time she did not stop reviewing her memories.

She walked slowly from the balcony to the living room, continuing to think about what happened last night before she recovered.

I remember that there was a sudden knock on the door. She walked through the living room and came to the entrance with doubts. After that, she clicked on the surveillance screen and saw that the person outside the door was Chisato Suzumiya...

.

...

.....

kindness? !

In an instant, inspiration struck.

There was no reason, but Yukinoshita Yukino felt that she seemed to have suddenly found the reason for her body's sudden recovery.

Why didn't I think of it immediately yesterday? The cause and effect relationship couldn't be more obvious. The moment I saw Chisato Suzumiya on the surveillance screen, she changed from a cat to a human!

It's incomprehensible and doesn't make any sense at all, but it happened.

Yukinoshita Yukino stood in front of the entrance and thought quietly for a while. After making up her mind, she quickly ran back to the room and opened her mobile phone.

------

Sapporo.

Yukinoshita Haruno followed her mother to this city to handle some family business matters, and accompanied her to visit some old friends.

After finishing these things, she returned to the hotel alone at around five o'clock in the afternoon. While she was soaking in the bathtub and watching videos on her mobile phone, she received a message from her lovely sister.

Yukinoshita Haruno clicked it and saw the content of the message. Her originally smiling expression gradually froze and she blinked in confusion.

[Sister, do you have Chisato Suzumiya's contact information? ]

However, although she was confused, she still responded truthfully.

[Yes, there is. What do you want to do? ]

【Regarding the medicine he sent me last night, I want to express my gratitude to him. Sister, you should not have given him money, right? 】

So it was because of this.

I don’t know why, but Yukinoshita Haruno felt a little relieved.

[That little bit of money is nothing. My sister has a good relationship with him. Let’s talk about it after my sister returns.]

[No need, sister, let me thank you myself, this is very important to me. ]

Very important?

What does it mean?

[Please, sister.]

Yukinoshita Haruno fell into deep thought as she looked at the message sent by her sister on the phone.

She felt that something was wrong with her sister, but she couldn't tell what it was.

But in the end, she still sent Chisato Suzumiya's contact information.

Yukinoshita Yukino replied with a "thank you" and nothing else happened.

Yukinoshita Haruno stared at her phone for a while, clicked on the contact list in the address book, and wondered whether she should inform Chisato Suzumiya in advance. However, after thinking for a long time, she finally chose to give up.

It's not a big deal, there's no need to notify him specifically.

If you want to know what Yukino said and did afterwards, you can just go back and ask them directly.

------

At around eight o'clock in the evening, Chisato Suzumiya, who had just returned from Touma and Kazusa's place, stepped out of the elevator. Just like last night, she did not go straight home, but came to the door of Yukinoshita Yukino's house and rang the doorbell.

The other party suddenly sent him a message in the evening.

The words she chose were very neat and polite. She first introduced herself, then thanked him for his help last night, and finally stated her intention, saying that she had forgotten about it last night and hoped to return the money she had spent on medicine to him tonight.

Although Suzumiya Chisato repeatedly stated that she did not need it, Yukinoshita Yukino was very stubborn and insisted on giving the money, and even used the words of personality, dignity, and her own ideals to show her determination.

Chisato Suzumiya looked at the densely packed messages on the screen of her mobile phone that looked like a short essay. In the end, she had no choice but to let her do as she pleased. She sent her an account number and amount and asked her to transfer the money directly.

However, after waiting for a while, Yukinoshita Yukino replied with a message saying that she had never been exposed to online transfers.

Are there still young people in this era who don’t know how to transfer money online?

No matter how much she complained, there was nothing Suzumiya Chisato could do but to ring the doorbell of Yukinoshita Yukino's apartment again when she returned home at night and ask her to give her the money in person.

Waited a little while.

“…Please wait a moment!”

Well, the same reply came from inside the door as last night, but the tone seemed a little more excited than yesterday.

But why do I have to wait every time?

Suzumiya Chisato was confused, but she remained patient and waited.

After a while, the door was opened.

"Um... please come in."

What was different from yesterday was that this time, Yukinoshita Yukino did not block the door. Instead, she took a step back and moved aside, obviously wanting Chisato Suzumiya to come in and talk in detail.