September 27 A stray cat wandered into my room. The windows were closed, so how did it get in? The window wasn't locked, so did the cat open it and close it by itself...?? I didn't think much of it and played with the cat.
October 30 The cat came back for food again. It's a smart thing; when the window is closed, it scratches at it with its claws as a signal for me to open it. I love animals. The cat leaves as soon as it finishes eating. I try to make it stay longer, but my attempts always fail.
October 2 It seems to like Mino Monta [a Japanese TV host] and canned herring. When Mino Monta is on TV, it stares intently at the screen. It didn't seem to like being touched and scratched me.
October 4 At noon, the cat came over to watch Mino Monta? When the TV wasn't on, it stepped on the remote and turned it on itself! I tried to turn it off again and film the exact moment, but maybe it got mad that I turned it off, because it scratched me again.
October 5 Maybe it got angry, because it didn't show up today.
October 7 Still not here...
October 9 The stray cat came! It quietly eats the herring. I'm completely smitten.
October 10 When I got home, the cat was already inside. Even though the window was locked... The TV was on, too. Maybe I just forgot to turn it off. While we were watching TV together in a daze, someone other than me said, "No way." It was clear as day. It sounded like a response to something the TV host said. I was extremely surprised, and the cat seemed surprised, too. Without saying anything else, the cat left.
October 11 The cat came!! I started talking to it... (though I always talk to it). I tried desperately to make conversation, but it ignored me. Was it all in my head after all???
October 12 Unusually, the cat came by in the morning. I haven't decided on a name yet, so is it okay if I ask for suggestions here? It's a female tabby.
October 14 While having drinks with friends at my place, the cat appeared. It went around getting snacks from everyone. Just for fun, I decided to give it some shochu mixed with milk. It drank it surprisingly well and fell asleep immediately. While we were deep in a mahjong game, "Ah... mmm... ugh..." A groan reached my ears. The cat was moaning. Everyone was shocked. Even my friend who used to own a cat said he had never seen anything like it. How should I put it? The voice sounded human, like a middle-aged man. It sounded like something a drunk old man would say.
October 15 At dawn, my friend left on the first train, and I fell asleep with the cat. Around 9 AM, the cat started sneezing repeatedly. I woke up to a splash of water. It was hacking and coughing, looking distressed, so I asked, "Want some water?" and it replied, "Yeah." I was still hungover like the cat and my head was foggy, so I wasn't all that surprised. As I handed it some water like it was nothing, I said, "Hey, you can talk." And it meowed like a cat, as if saying, "Meow" (What are you talking about, I'm a cat).
October 16 The cat caught a cricket. While I was making a fuss thinking it was a cockroach, it let out a chuckle, "Puff-haha." It's supposed to be a female, but its voice sounds like a middle-aged man. Why???
October 17 It hasn't shown up this morning yet.
October 17 The cat's name has been decided as Herring. I wrote various names on pieces of paper and placed them in front of it, and it sat right down heavily on the paper with "Herring" written on it, so that's what it became. Though maybe it just wanted to eat...
October 18 Cat goods are piling up in my room... When I got out of the bath, it was playing with the underwear I'd discarded. It wouldn't even look at the cat teaser toy, but this...
October 19 Another pair of underwear ruined. Annoyed, I let out a loud fart right in front of it, and it made a disgusted face and cried out, "Ugh, gross." It was an old man's voice again! And then I got bitten.
October 22 It used to come every day, but I haven't seen its face at all... Was the fart a mistake?
October 23 I'm starting to get worried. Did it get taken to the animal shelter...?
October 24 At 4 AM, when I was leaving the house, a middle-aged man was sprawled out in front of my room. (Probably just some drunk.) I was genuinely terrified. I was cutting it close for work, dealing with the cops is a pain, and normally I'd just leave him there, but I thought, what if this is Herring!? So I dragged him inside my room and left him there. He might turn into Herring by the time I get home (*´∀｀) Exciting.
October 24 When I got home, no one was there. The room hadn't been ransacked, and Herring wasn't there either. Disappointing...
October 26 In the morning, I heard a knock on my door. Finding it annoying, I opened it, and the guy from the day before was standing there. I thought Herring had turned into a human and come back, but it was just to thank me... He seemed to have taken a strong liking to me.
October 27 Worried about Herring, I went looking, but it was nowhere to be found. It often showed up at the local supermarket to get leftovers, but it wasn't there either. I asked the lady at the tasting booth, but she said she hadn't seen it lately, as expected.
October 28 The apartment door and windows were locked. And a black cat—not Herring—was in my room, watching TV all by itself, watching Mino Monta. When I gave some food to this one, it gobbled it up, grinned, and walked out. Has Mino Monta become a trend among stray cats lately??
October 30 When I went to the usual supermarket to buy booze, the tasting lady spoke to me. "That cat you were looking for. I saw it dead by the side of the road the other day. It must have been hit by a car..." Hearing that gave me a huge shock, and I dragged myself back home in a daze. When I unlocked the door, I heard the sound of the TV. Judging by the sound, it was a rerun of *Who Wants to Be a Millionaire*. As I crept inside, an old man's voice said, "What an idiot, that's C!"!! Panicking, I rushed into the room, but it was just the black cat. The black cat startled, but then put on an indifferent face and went back to watching TV. Its movements and meows were just like Herring's (do all cats act the same?), and it was watching the same TV show.
October 31 Waking up in the morning, the black cat flashed a grin and hopped out the window. When did it even get in? The window lock was open, too. And the TV was on, and three pairs of my underwear were ruined...
My own speculation. I used to think Herring could talk because it was a legendary, long-lived cat monster. Maybe it was just a regular cat possessed by the spirit of some old man...
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