My Girlfriend Turned Catgirl (Part 1)

April.

The entrance ceremony. 

Humans are complex creatures.

I found that fact perplexing because their behaviour is so indescribable. They could innovate great inventions such as windshield wipers and flush toilets, yet most humans were forced to spend most of their time with mundane formalities. 

Troublesome, trivial formalities. 

The entrance ceremony had not changed since I was a freshman. 

The principal's hairline had receded some more, but his mouth seemed to have grown bigger. A lot of jibber-jabbering and annoying thanking. Even more standing. 

It was tiring. 

I knew I should have built up my earwax. 

I craned my neck, looking around. It was getting stuffy. 

I needed to sneeze, but there was no place to. 

Hundreds of students packed into such a small space gazing up at the podium.

I wondered how no one finds the sight reminiscent of a cult. It was strange that no one else seemed to notice.

But that was not all I wanted to say. 

Humans are complex creatures.

They have cognition. Higher-order thinking. They feel emotions and the capacity for self-fulfillment. Together, they have self-interests, greed, desires, ambitions. 

Society was like this. A system for humans to exploit humans. 

Power and influence. Material wealth. Social status. 

All constructs designed to fulfil selfish wants. To continue the pursuit of egoistic wants. 

I glanced at the principal's animated gestures. 

Shallow. Superficial. I felt the condescension with every wave of his arms. 

What a motivational speech. This was nothing more than blatant brainwashing. 

How easy was it to be inspired when you were not disheartened by the order of the world? 

Ah. It seemed that the principal cut the ribbon.

Applause roared from around me. Cheers echoed. 

I sighed at the crowd. There was no saving them. They were a herd of sheep. 

Conformity. A direct phenomenon of human vanity. 

I shook my head, but still raised my hands. 

I, too, was human. 

I clapped. 

A couple shallow, light claps, with improper form. 

It was a pretence. I was secretly scratching my itch. 

I prefer not to follow the crowd and preach my own philosophy, but this was not the time. 

Standing out would be troublesome. Not that I cared about being made a mockery of or harassment, it would deprive me of a laidback and easy-going days at school. 

I was also not a masochist. My allergies were driving me crazy.

I clapped (scratched) myself a little harder as the entrance ceremony drew to an end. 

Was relieving myself the discomfort of hives a selfish, egotistical act? 

I pondered that question during the long journey to my new classroom for the sophomore year. 

The answer eluded me, but not my seat. I found it easily and hung my bag on the chair. 

There it was, by the back of the room and near the window with my name, Kazumio Hitogawa, inscribed on the nameplate. 

If one were to care, the font would be tacky. I did not. 

I sat down, satisfied that I was in a good spot. 

Then I noticed there was no nameplate on the desk next to me. 

Nevermind. It was a perfect spot. 

I did not need to interact with anyone. 

I did not need to talk to shallow and stupid people. People who beneath the surface don't care about others and lose interest when it doesn't suit them. 

I did not need to invest time and emotion only to end up with betrayal. 

I did not need to be fed up with small talk and superficial niceness. 

Ah. How enviable. 

The classroom was half-full when I looked around. It seemed that the source of my envy should be kept to myself. 

Students were either looking at their class materials by themselves or were talking to acquaintances. The topic of discussion was trying to make new friends. 

Friends. 

That was the big word for every new school year. 

I did not understand the whole ordeal. It sounded like trouble and disappointment. 

I did not even understand the notion that students must make friends to enjoy the rest of school life, or they would be miserable. 

Following my philosophy, friends were another weight. Another product of human motives and mass society. 

People want friends to not feel lonely. An egoistic need.

People want to meet up with a friend to have a good time and experience a positive emotion. An egoistic need. 

People want to go do things with their friends to share an experience. An egoistic need. 

I think I said enough. 

I cannot stand the idea of being forced to partake in "leisure" activities with someone so self-serving. 

Imagine great inventions such as the wheel and microprocessor in their times and what more they could have become if they were not limited by the self-interests of society.

Transportation and technology have now become tools for selfishness. 

The wheel, made for more efficient transportation, ultimately became a means of pleasure known as convenience. 

The microprocessors made for information processing became a means of entertainment.
Entertainment was made by the selfish with interests to satisfy the interests of the selfish. 

I must have fallen into quite the daze lamenting the ultimate meaninglessness in humanity, for I missed when the classroom became full. 

There was quite the chatter going around until the teacher stepped inside. 

She was wearing a suit and carried a clipboard along with a handful of pens. She looked stern with her thin frame of glasses and tied ponytail.

"Good morning, Year 2 students. My name is Fukami Hanase and I am your homeroom teacher this year. I teach Mathematics. I hope I get to know all of you. Best regards."

She continued. 

"The principal has gone through the rules and code of conduct during the entrance matriculation ceremony, but I want to reiterate my expectations for behaviour in this classroom..."

Ah. She was that type of teacher. 

Rules. Expectations. Guidelines. 

Such a sorry excuse for someone who wanted to play an authority figure. 

I zoned out. The landscaping around the school was more interesting than this. 

When there were no other flowers and trees to survey, I found the class in the midst of self-introductions. 

Humans are complex creatures.

They quickly sized each other up. 

Facial shape. Vocals. Body language. Attractiveness. 

They tend to get attached to their first impressions of others and find it difficult to change their opinion, even when presented with lots of evidence to the contrary. 

Stubbornness. 

I described it as greed, narcissism, selfishness, and envy. 

Lots of animals were stubborn creatures. 

Wolverines. A ferocious little weasel. Little in size but big in temper. They will fight anything that crosses its path, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Food. Territory. Because you interrupted its Sunday walk.

Humans. They were the same. Throwing their temper around for the same or less "provocation". 

Badgers. Related to weasels and skunks. Docile when left alone, ferocious when bothered. They become extremely upset when defending their home and are known to attack predators 10 times its size. 

They do not accept any outcome except victory or death.

Mules. The saying wrote itself. Stubborn. 

They have great instincts for self-preservation. Once the idea of being overworked gets into their head, the only way to make them move from that particular idea or place is superior force. 

Humans. 

They were the intellectual equivalent of the mule. They make up their minds and will not change them. 

They would fight. Kill. Anything to justify their own greed, narcissism, selfishness, and envy. 

Murder. Crime. Vanity was the source of all evil. 

I could not unsee it. 

The desires. The disdain. 

These self-introductions were so laden with desperation of decadence. To present a doctrine of their self-worth and status. 

"Good morning, everyone. My name is Rinka... my favourite food is gelatos, especially the ones from the shop at Baker Street..."

"I want to be an entrepreneur and change the world..." 

"My name is Tatsuo. I want to be a world-class soccer player..." 

"I want to be a model, or a fashion designer..." 

How sickening. 

Wealth flaunters. Materialistic desires. Attention-seekers. Plain vanity. 

I wanted to stray far away from these people. They were all the same. Motivated by innate evils. 

I tried to close my eyes, but the next introduction startled me.

"Hello. My name is Yurime Kyoharu. I like seafood and, um, knitting." 

I raised my head at her strange remark. 

She was sitting at the desk in front of me. 

I watched her fingers twiddle behind her back. 

That was it. That was her introduction. 

She was nervous. She sat down quickly and bowed her head into her desk.

The class gave her a light round of applause that echoed dismissal. 

Ah. What a disgusting sight. 

I joined and gave her three strong claps. 

Head Teacher Fukami called for the next student to stand, so I did not expect her attention to fall on me. 

I clapped too loudly.

Kyoharu turned her head around. Our eyes locked. 

They were languid. Clear. 

I saw no motivation for worldly possessions from them.

She was strange. 

She was different from other people.