I'm in Love with the Gorilla Sitting Next to Me - Volume 1 Chapter 4.1

The Cursed Cat Senpai 1

“The beginning of the matter seems to trace back to the Meiji era.”

It was right after the server had brought our drinks and left the room that Tora-senpai began to speak.

——After that, realizing that the problem wouldn’t be resolved immediately, we decided to meet again after school to discuss it further. We exchanged contact information and hurried back to the classroom where our LHR was held.

Our homeroom teacher had already arrived, and I thought we would be lectured, but it turned out that some classmates had testified that ‘Saiki was taken away quite forcefully by upperclassmen’, so I was spared from being scolded.

With no other issues or messages to attend to, LHR ended without incident, and after school arrived. I left the classroom immediately, pulled my bicycle along, and as planned with Tora-senpai, headed to the front gate. After waiting a bit, I successfully met up with Senpai.

Then, as Senpai commutes by bus, we decided to meet again in front of the station, and that’s how we ended up in this karaoke place. Unlike the cheap stores I sometimes go to with friends, this one is quite expensive and doesn’t have a drink bar. That’s probably why there are fewer high school students here and less chance of bumping into someone you know.

Since the other person was older, I followed her suggestion and tagged along, but now that we were alone, it felt strange. Today was the first time we met, and I was with someone else who is currently under a curse.

As I was feeling uneasy, Tora-senpai took a sip of her matcha latte—a drink I wouldn’t have expected someone to order at karaoke—and began to speak with a somewhat melancholic cat-like expression.

“It’s a story from over a hundred years ago. At that time, one of my ancestors was about to get married and was apparently being stalked by a strange man. Suddenly, the man started making a fuss, saying ‘I fell in love at first sight, so marry me’… Hey, are you listening properly?”

“…Yeah, I’m listening to the story, but I’m also distracted by your change in tone.”

At my all-too-natural reaction, Tora-senpai let out a troubled ‘Ah…’ and said,

“I speak in a masculine tone outside, but with my family, I talk like this… i-is it weird?”

“Nah, it’s not weird at all.”

To me, it’s like an animal talking anyway. Well, that’s weird enough as it is.

As I was thinking that, Tora-senpai stared at me intently and said,

“But you’re the strange one. Your use of honorifics is awkward… you don’t need to force it.”

“Ah. But, you’re a Senpai, so I can’t just speak casually…”

“It’s fine. We’re going to have a deep conversation, so it’s not a shallow relationship.”

“Is that so… then, I’ll take you up on your offer.”

Honestly, it’s a huge relief. I tend to forget formal speech because women look like animals to me.

“Then, let’s get back to the story. The strange man’s proposal was firmly rejected, and my ancestor got married without any problems… or so it should have ended.”

“…And that guy?”

“Yes, naturally, the man who was rejected cursed my ancestor. However, the curse didn’t activate immediately. It only struck the children once they had grown to a certain extent, suddenly becoming victims of the curse one day.”

Tora-senpai’s cat ears twitched. It was unclear what emotions were behind it, but the sharpness in her eyes made it clear that they were negative.

“So, that curse is also on Senpai…?”

“『The eldest daughter of the main family will only be recognized as a male』——that’s the curse that was placed on me. More precisely, it’s a curse that was placed on my family.”

“I see… Seems like there are similar stories everywhere, the world is really small, huh?”

“By the way, what’s your curse?”

“It activates at the same time as you when I had grown to a certain extent. I have the curse of ‘seeing women as animals.’ Regardless of age, women appear to me as various animals. It’s not related to their personality or characteristics.”

“…Hmm… It’s a type that affects oneself?”

“Seems like it. For example, if they’re not covered by clothes——”

Tora-senpai, intrigued, listened intently as I explained the details, then crossed her arms and murmured thoughtfully.

“Hmm… The common points are that the curse activates after a certain age and that it’s the family line that’s cursed. What does it feel like when you touch them?”

“Oh, that’s normal. Also, even though I can see tails and bunny ears, I can’t actually touch them.”

“It’s only natural since you’re just seeing hallucinations and they don’t actually exist. But then… it means I don’t appear as a human girl to you…”

“To me, you look like a brown tabby cat. Your voice is a normal female voice, though.”

“Others say they hear it as a calm, low-pitched voice… Since the curse has already activated, my curse was repelled… maybe?”

Tora-senpai muttered in a tone mixed with understanding and disappointment, letting out a sigh.

For me, it felt like I had unexpectedly found a fellow victim or comrade who was also cursed, but Senpai seemed to feel differently. I couldn’t tell what had failed to meet her expectations, but her reaction was intriguing.

As Tora-senpai assumed a thoughtful posture with her arms crossed, I took a sip of cola to moisten my throat before asking a question.

“By the way, Senpai, how did you manage to get into our high school?”

“…Hm? What do you mean?”

“Well, even though it’s a curse, it activated later, so your family registry must be normal, right? It would be impossible to enroll as a male student, I thought.”

“Heh. You think that because you don’t understand the trickiness of the curse.”

With a somewhat disheartened face, Tora-senpai picked up her smartphone, came over to sit next to me, and took a selfie with the front camera.

Then, after fiddling with the phone, she showed me the screen.

“As you can see, because of the curse, I appear as a male in photos. Even though I see myself as a cute high school girl.”

“…I see.”

“Hmph. You seem dissatisfied.”

“No, I just can’t empathize at all because I only see a cat.”

“Ah, so your curse also has a wide range of effects. But my curse is really troublesome, you know? Apparently, even my old photos look male. People who knew the original me get confused, and explaining about the curse only makes things more complicated, so I had no choice but to leave school.”

“Huh…!? So you transferred schools because of the curse…?”

“That’s right. Not only that, but I can’t even contact my old friends. My family has a certain amount of influence in my hometown, so they arranged another family registry for me as a male, and now I’m using that one.”

Arranging another family registry is really a thing in this world?

…Wow, this is on a different scale from mine. This is clearly a protagonist’s situation.