Uncanny Feelings of familiarity with a Dying Catgirl Part-1

A gross stench invaded my nostrils as the door jutted open, making me scrunch and cover my nose subconsciously but failing, and then realizing I had a bloody mask on and so I couldn't do so.

"Ugh, fuck. Is this a toilet or something?"

Judging by the singular hole in the middle of the small cupboard-like room and the shit-like stench, that was most likely the case. Though, it was clear that nobody had used it to actually dump a load in decades. But there was still a terrible stench coming out of it.

"Ugh, gross."

Quickly looking around, it didn't take even a few seconds for me to find a body lying on the ground in one corner of the room. The place was very dim, so I couldn't tell if the little kid lying on the floor was even alive. It was too still.

'Is she…'

Clenching my fists, I cast a quick 'Observe'.

[Name: Kara

Age: 15

Gender: Female

Race: Demihuman[Cat-kin]

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Tier: 0(No Foundation)

Talent: Darkness element

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Affection/Obedience/Reputation: 0/0/0

Capture Difficulty: E-

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Remark: On her last breath; Has lost all hope in life; Doesn't want to die.

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Status: Severely bleeding, Gravely injured, Partially Unconscious, Scared, Distressed, Heartbroken, Pained.]

'Good, she's alive!'

Ignoring everything else, I moved instantly, picking her up from the disgusting filth she was lying in, into my arms. It dirtied my clothes, smearing blood and dirt on them. But my attention was on the little girl.

She was dying. I had to heal her if I wanted to save her.

I was on autopilot, quickly placing her up on the cleanest and brightest place I could find in the dungeon-like place. It wasn't really that clean, but I had a towel, so I used it as a sheet to place her over.

Once she was settled, I pondered for a second.

'I need to clean her first. The dirt, the smudge, and anything that's not part of her body needs to be cleaned off.'

'<Cleanse>'

In an instant, a white mist surrounded the little girl, cleaning all the dirt and smudge on her body. Only the girl's naked body remained, along with the bruises and blood which WERE technically part of her body. The Cleanse didn't target the blood—

'—wait, oh shit! Her clothes melted too?!'

I had to stop my observation momentarily to instead look into my Inventory to see if I had any spare clothes.

Luckily, I did. An under-shirt.

'This will do.'

I didn't pick her up to make her wear it, instead, covering her up from the top, for the time being, so she wasn't buck naked at least.

'I'm sorry, Kara. That wasn't intentional. I swear.'

After a short apology to the almost unconscious and dying girl, I finally pulled out the thing I should have pulled.

An Advance Healing Potion. One of these bottles cost millions in the Empire's currency. Thanks to my worrywart mother, I had a few of these with me.

Pulling the cap, I lifted her head, keeping it on my lap, and opened her mouth to pour some of it.

"Drink it."

'Please don't die on me. I'll feel terrible if something happened to you now.'

Yet, much to my distraught, she didn't listen— She probably couldn't, judging by the blood coming out of one of her ears. Instead, most of that drop slid down her throat directly, making her shake and then reflexively cough weakly a few times.

I patted her head and back realizing it was going in her windpipe; her animal ears weakly reacting to my touch.

'Damn it.'

"Hey, listen to me. Drink this properly. It'll heal you. If you want to stay alive, drink it. Don't breathe while I pour it, okay? Just gulp."

I wasn't sure if that little drop of the advance healing potion healed her a little bit or if it was my words or her own survival instinct, but the next moment, I felt a bit of moment from her as she groggily opened her eyes, just a little, and opened her mouth a little on her own, trying to say something. But instead of words, only weak coughs came out, along with the little bit of the red liquid. Initially, it looked like a healing potion, but part of it was clotted and deeper, darker texture instead of the light texture of the healing potion. It was blood.

Tears leaked from her eyes, one of the drops mixing with a bleeding wound on her left upper cheek to create a tear of blood. My heart wrenched a little, seeing her like that.

"Hey, don't try to talk. Just drink this. It'll be okay. You'll be fine. Just… drink it, okay? Slowly."

I had no idea, but at that moment my eyes were probably the most emotional they'd ever been; they'd started to tear up a bit looking at the pathetic state of the little catgirl and her half-lidded eyes that barely showed two pitch-black and extremely dead-looking eyes. My voice contained as much comfort for the dying girl as I subconsciously could muster.

Slowly, she opened her mouth wider, her small but sharp canines coming into view. I let out a few drops of healing potion in her mouth. She gulped, taking it in. This time with much more success. Though she still coughed, what came out was her saliva and coagulated blood instead of the healing potion.

After a short break, I made her drink another drop. Another fit of cough came; no potion, only blood, and saliva. Then another few drops. And another fit of cough. This time no blood came. I noticed as her wounds started to heal, first very slowly, then a little bit more noticeably as I made her slowly drink more of the potion. When she had finished more than half of the potion, her eyes had opened up a bit more; they still had no light to them though. And her wounds were noticeably decreased. She twitched and shuddered a few times, groaning and moaning weakly, and then slowly moved her right hand, weakly touching my hand that held the potion in front of her small mouth.

She also tried to speak, but for some reason, she couldn't. Her voice just wouldn't come out. I wondered if it was because she was still hurt from the inside.

So, instead, I spoke.

"It's okay. Don't talk right now. You're not fully healed. Drink the remaining potion and you'll be fine."

She moved her eyes to stare at my face, but it was still covered with a beast mask, so instead, her dead eyes stared at the only visible part, my golden eyes. They were slightly wet and, without my knowledge, they held a kind and protective gaze.

Looking at her small, skinny, and weak body subconsciously reminded me of my little sister from my previous life. The same black hair and black eyes, a small but cute face, and a matching skinny frame. Of course, she was much older and taller, and more developed than my sister. And she had cat ears and a tail that was hidden from my sight till now. But still she, for some reason, reminded me of my younger sister. Maybe she would have looked something like this when she grew up.

A sudden pain started pinching at my heart, reminding me of some sad memories, while also making my heart feel heavy as I felt a lump building in my throat. Clearing my throat, I tried my best to speak normally, but my voice that came out was low, almost a whisper.

"Drink it… please."

The girl continued to stare at my eyes for a while, unmoving. Then, she finally did. She opened her mouth, and gave a weak push on my hand, signaling me to continue what I was doing.

I took the hint and poured the remaining potion slowly, allowing her to gulp it down drop by drop until it was completely empty.

The potion had already started showing its full effect by the time she was gulping down the last drops but with the entire potion down, the effect almost doubled, healing every single bit of wound and scar from her visible body. I almost pulled the shirt covering her naked body, to check if her entire body was healed, only to quickly realize my blunder, and pull my hands back before making another big mistake.

Meanwhile, the now fully healed girl continued to stare at me. I also turned my attention to her cute and small face now. Dried lips, somewhat deflated cheeks, and very dead-looking eyes. She was cute, but not in very good condition, physically. The remaining blood from the now healed wounds on her face and body didn't help make her look healthy either.

Time seemed to flow slowly as she blinked a couple of times, her eyes roaming around momentarily, trying to take in her surroundings. There was a deep fear clearly etched in them now. But as soon as her obsidian-like black irises turned to me, she seemed to settle, her eyes staring directly at mine. No words had been spoken, even though she was supposed to be healed. She didn't move, instead, opting to stare at me in confusion and… mild fear. It hurt, seeing her afraid like that, afraid of me. But I could understand. She must have gone through a horrible experience. Feeling unimaginable pain and the fear of death as she was laying on the dirty floor of that room.

My right hand subconsciously moved to her head, momentarily covering her gaze and blocking her sight of me, making her flinch. But she still didn't speak.

Soon, my arm moved out of her vision and found her small head, adorned with the same pitch-black and unkempt long hair and her now healed cat ears that matched the color of her hair on the outside but had soft pinkish white skin on the inside.

I began to softly stroke her head, trying to calm her down.

"It's okay. You're safe now. I'm here. Nobody will hurt you… ever."

It was at that moment, that her body shuddered as blobs of tears fell one after another from her eyes.

"… hu…"

And she finally uttered her first words. Though, it was hard to hear her properly. Her voice was too coarse and too mute.

"What?"

I leaned in closer, momentarily stopping my gentle strokes on her head but still keeping my hand on her head.

After a short while, she spoke again.

"… hurts…"

She shuddered and shook momentarily on my lap, as more tears continued to fall from her eyes.

"Hurts? Where?"

I leaned back to look over her visible body parts. There were no visible wounds left, only partially or fully clotted blood. I even went ahead and partially pulled the shirt covering her body to see if she had any wounds on her chest or stomach. I only saw her skinny frame, her ribcage quite apparent, and her small but fair breasts adorned with small pink nipples.

Covering her back, I looked around her legs and even her back. But I only got a glimpse of her black tail and some more blood stains.

'There's no wound remaining as far as I can see. Then why?'

"it… hurts…pleas…."

Her low and coarse voice made me panic a little.

'Damn it, where is she hurt?! Is it internal? But the potion should have healed her completely.'

I pulled out her 'Observe' page again, noticing that the two dangerous statuses "Severely bleeding" and "Gravely injured" were completely gone. She was no longer on the verge of dying or physically hurt, instead, she was "healing."

But those were the only good points in her 'Status' and 'Remark'. The rest were… disheartening, to say the least.

***