Chapter 11 - Cats Hate Clinics (2)

Ch. 11 Cats Hate Clinics (2)

My nerves failed me. The sound I made was no different from a human trying to imitate a cat, and it only served to make the situation more awkward.

As my gaze whipped around the room, the vet watched me with keenly shining eyes. I wanted to go “Wacha!” and draw my claws to run forward, but my body was being held down to the table for the purposes of examination. My claws screeched unpleasantly against the metal.

Kagagak! Kaka!

The vet tried turn my face with his hands to make eye contact with me, but I stubbornly refused. I swiped at him and tried to make my escape, but in the end I was still in an animal’s body. I was rendered helpless as he grabbed me by the scruff, and a feeling of terror came over me as I was lifted in the air. The vet tried to rotate my body to look at me, but he soon gave up.

“Hey!” he said.

“Keukya!” I yowled.

I put on a terrified expression, baring my teeth and claws at this man who was trying to talk to me. I hated that he was holding on to my fur and trying to force eye contact with me, and I thrashed wildly in his grip.

However, I noticed that he was looking at me as if I were something amazing, and a chill shuddered through me. Dangerous! my instincts screamed.

“Try speaking again,” he asked with wide eyes. He seemed convinced that what he heard earlier was real.

“Me~o~w~?”

I tried mewling as cute as can be, but it sounded every bit as ridiculous as a human trying to make a cat sound. I diverted my eyes elsewhere, but the plump, pink soles of my feet were sweating.

“…”

My attempt to dispel suspicion was met with only a deathly silence, and then he used his hand to tug my tail.

“Ugyak?!”

His eyes told me he knew it was a very unpleasant sensation for cats, and that I should simply give up and speak. As a vet, he was very good at handling cats, as well as very smart. He knew what he had heard and where he had heard it come from. And horribly, he wanted to confirm the fact no matter what.

“You spoke just a moment ago, right?”

As both a human being and a doctor, he had an intense desire to explore this curious matter. Whatever the case may be, this was an emergency for me.

I placed my two front paws on the vet’s wrist and drew out my claws. Then, I scraped downwards as hard as I could.

“Ack! Ow!”

Blood burst from his skin. I was planning to use my teeth if he didn’t let me go, but he reflexively tossed me away. I landed gracefully on my feet and bolted to the door, but I soon found my escape attempt was in vain.

“You!” the vet snarled.

Hot on my heels was the devil in the white lab coat, grinding his teeth. I called for help like my life depended on it, but it seemed that the door was soundproof. I jumped and clung to the door handle, but it was too heavy for an animal to open.

“Myak!” (Damn it!)

Unless I turned into a human being, escape seemed impossible. I landed back on my feet, and, helpless, I cried out like a cornered animal as vet mercilessly closed the distance.

Thinking I would get caught, I leapt to the right, but I was blocked by a large leg. I dodged to the left, but was blocked there as well.

Bang. The two human legs in front of me were like the bars of a prison cell. Trapped, I closed my eyes and began shivering.

“Heu, heunyanyanya…!” (S-someone save me…!)

The vet, with blood dripping from the back of his hand, was staring at me like he was going to devour me. He picked me up by the scruff again, and I could only tremble as he controlled my neck so I couldn’t bite him.

“Stop pretending. I know you can speak.”

“Mi…mi, miyaaag! Myamyakmyakmyak! (You…cr-crazy bastard! How can a cat speak!)

Crazy bastard! I managed to swallow back the human words that threatened to burst out of my mouth, and kept meowing and feigning ignorance to the end. However, I already knew it was a pointless exercise to keep pretending.

The vet carried me back to that damned examination table. After pinning my body down on my back, he wrapped a heavy belt around my waist and fastened me to the table.

“If you won’t listen, then I have no choice.”

He tightened something around my four legs, and I found I couldn’t move an inch. When another belt was fastened to my neck, I realized what sort of nightmarish situation I was in. I was tied up like I was in a violent military punishment. My flexible, slender, black body was no different from that of an alien on an experiment table.

After I was fully restrained, I blinked as a bright light hit my eyes. Was this what a captured alien would feel like? It was frightened to see the light when trapped on the table, even more so when the experimenter was used to the sight of blood.

The vet pushed aside the exam lamp. As I looked at the vet’s wide smile, and I wondered if he really was human.

“Do you want to talk, or do you want to be dissected?”

Was he testing me if I understood him or not? Or was he serious? Either way, it was a creepy sight.

I trembled at his question, and he seemed convinced that the animal in front of him understood his words. I stayed silent as he pressed my paws to see if my claws came out, and checked the inside of my ears. He carefully touched my ribs to see if they were all there. It was as if he really were going to dissect me.

I waved my tail in reconciliation, which was the only part of me that could move. I’m sorry, I was wrong, I shouldn’t have scratched you, and other thoughts went through my head. My tail touched his hand. The gesture said many things, but he completely ignored me.

Instead, he moved away from the examination table, and there were rattling noises as he sorted through a display cupboard I couldn’t see.

“Do you know what a scalpel is?” he said. “It’s a tool for cutting things open. The suction tool is used to suck away blood…oh, but first I have to start with anesthesia. Do you know what an injection is?”

Poisonous bastard! Villain! Pervert! I ground my teeth and tried to summon the spirit of an independence fighter, but it was forced to retreat after the vet came into view with a shining blade. The fear I felt was beyond imagination. This was it, I was going to be cut open alive. It might have been an illusion, but I saw the devil above me.

“Well, there is the dissection, but I’ll have to make preparations first…”

“I…I…don’t want this!”

“Oho.” The vet looked pleased.

“No! Don’t dissect me, you perverted bastard! I don’t want it! Aaaagh!”

It was too much for me. Overwhelmed by fear, tears fell from my golden eyes and I had no choice but to surrender. I vowed to curse this man and his family for generations to come.