Couple: Hiromitsu x Jinpei
[Blurb]
Until now, aside from having a deadbeat father who drank every day and a "lofty ideal" of wanting to beat up the superintendent general, Jinpei had never thought he was any different from the countless other people in the world. They were all born crying and walked through lives, long or short, on two legs.
But he never dreamed that this ordinary belief he'd held for more than twenty years would one day be shattered without mercy.
He never imagined that an ordinary person like him would inexplicably have his "human status" revoked.
And it all started when he and his childhood friend Kenji passed the civil service exam and entered the police academy, where they met another pair of childhood friends. One was a blond, dark-skinned jerk who got into a fistfight with him on the very first day, and was evenly matched with him. The other was a blue-eyed man who seemed easygoing.
Originally, compared to the blue-eyed man, Jinpei thought he would care more about the blond jerk he'd fought. But for some reason, whenever he ran into the pair on campus, there were several times when he was arguing nonstop with the blond jerk, yet his eyes would keep drifting to the blue-eyed man without him realizing it.
It was as if that man had an inexplicable hold on him, which gave Jinpei the creeps.
Later, he learned the blue-eyed man's name: Hiromitsu. The four of them gradually grew closer and more familiar with one another.
But the strange things didn't go away. They only got worse.
For some reason, Jinpei found himself getting sleepier and sleepier. He yawned all day long, and sometimes had bizarre, surreal dreams. Yet at night, he was wide awake and couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard he tried.
He started eating more meat than before, especially fish and chicken, and would devour them greedily while shunning vegetables more and more.
His body became more agile and flexible. During a simple long-jump test, he barely even tried, yet jumped almost twice the length of the sandpit, leaving the whole class staring in shock.
Even more inexplicably, his ears and tailbone started itching intensely from time to time, as if something were about to break through the surface. It left him restless and irritable.
This threw his daily training at the police academy completely into disarray, and he was powerless to stop it.
By chance, he discovered that the only way to ease the seemingly endless, unbearable itch inside him was to stay close to Hiromitsu. When he did, his whole body felt more comfortable than ever before.
Just as Jinpei began to wonder whether any of this had something to do with Hiromitsu, the very person he suspected came looking for him and said he wanted to speak with him alone.
He agreed.
When Jinpei arrived at the meeting place, he saw Hiromitsu already waiting there. The other man's expression was clearly conflicted and troubled, with a hint of something subtle... anticipation?
Just as Jinpei was starting to feel completely confused, Hiromitsu spoke first.
Hiromitsu: "Matsuda, I need you to believe what I'm about to say. Please don't think it's strange or be afraid."
Jinpei: "Go ahead."
Hiromitsu: "Well, actually, you might... possibly... not be human. You're a newly awakened nekomata... I can tell."
Hiromitsu: "As for why I say that, well... I am too."
With that, a pair of fluffy cat ears appeared on Hiromitsu's head, and a forked tail formed behind him, right in front of Jinpei.
Silence.
Jinpei: "...Huh?"
Jinpei: "Huh!!!"
Theme: A gentleman may be slow to understand himself, but he trusts those who know him
