“Um, holy faust beast, I’ve been thinking about it, and having your head remain a beast is still very eye-catching…”
“I will not show my face.”
“–! So! How do you feel about a mask?”
Mercy sounded like she was desperate, and I felt a little bad for no reason.
I agreed with the proposal and watched as she scurried off into the forest. The boy, who I had learned was named Michael, sat on a nearby rock hemming the garment with stiff fingers. I had transformed one of my fingers into a claw so that he could poke holes in the fabric with it and lead a dull stone needle in and out without trouble.
Originally, I was also sitting by his side, but perhaps my habits were too strong as a beast and I ended up lounging sideways on the ground with my clawed hand laid out in his direction. Occasionally, he picked up my claw and cut off excess fabric, well accustomed to doing so.
The other children had also begun to relax and inched ever closer to myself. I was reminded of a particular group of forest animals in this way.
Please do not comb through my hair or my fur while I sleep. Seeing humans again lately has reawakened my fear of balding.
One child somehow ended up right in front of me and began to stammer. I recognized this one as the crier who was often scolded for crying.
This child was very small and had short and fluffy light brown hair that looked as though it was cut with a hand razor. Such hair grew sparsely like a newborn’s head. It was probably very cold at night for this child.
Oh, we’re staring at each other. I suppose it’s natural for me, who was doing nothing up to now, but why is this child also staring at me? Look, you only have one glove on and it’s backwards. Hey. Hey. Fix it.
Then, “T-Thank you for saving us, holy faust beast!”
The child bowed deeply as they spoke in a high, almost crying voice.
“I was really scared to be sold to the Duke’s mansion, but I’ve lived long enough and was able to get out because of you! I-I’m going to make something of myself and repay you for all you’ve done for us!”
I looked the child up and down.
“No need.”
Too skinny. There’s no point in eating it.
My needs are too boring to be repaid. Just figure life out on your own and leave me alone.
“S-still! I will let you know how grateful I am!”
Again, be grateful elsewhere. Oh, but we’ll probably be stuck together since I’m leading these kids out to a city I’ve never been to before and can’t possibly predict whether they will be taken advantage of for our combined lack of common sense–
“My name is June. Do you have a name?”
Name? Do I have a name? Hey, do I?
Is a name important?
“...Ako…”
“Yes, you. Do you have a name?”
“Ako.”
“Yes.”
“Ako.”
“Eh? Do you not remember?”
“Ako.”
“...It’s probably a forbidden name that humans can’t hear.”
I closed my eyes.
At this time, a familiar child came up and kicked June’s leg, saying, “It just told you its name.”
“Huh? Can you hear the forbidden name? Are you special?” June asked in a slightly choked voice.
“It’s Ako.”
“You mean your name? That doesn’t make sense–”
June was kicked in the other leg as the attacking kid said, “Not me, it’s ‘Ako’.”
“Oh.” June squatted in pain. “Oh! Thank you for telling me your name!”
Won’t they call me ‘beast’ anyways? What was the point of giving a stranger my name?
Anyways, my awareness of these kids was getting too high. It’s bad enough that I have to look at them, but if I also know their names, I’ll definitely get attached. It’ll be hard to say goodbye if that happens.
Mercy returned shortly after this inexplicable exchange, dragging behind her a thick branch. It had not yet rotted like most of the other fallen branches and was still free of the sticky sap that coated the broken ends of some of the others.
Sending out a flash of red, she cut the branch roughly to make a lump that would be proportional to my human shaped head. She asked politely for me to provide her with one of my claws and gently held it to scrape away at the lump, shaving thick layers off one by one.
The soft resistance of the wood against my claw felt very satisfying. I didn’t get to relish the feeling earlier when I was chipping away at the tree. What a delight.
Probably because the branch had recently fallen, my claw was soon coated with a bit of sap and would no longer slide through the wood as smoothly as it did before. Mercy made to wipe the sap off with the hem of her skirt, but I thought that was gross so I brought my claw to my mouth and licked it clean instead.
Hm…
It doesn’t taste good.
Soon, the lump became a disc, and the disc had two circular holes for eyes. There wasn’t as much creative vision here as there was for the garment, and I realized who among Mercy and Michael was doing the actual styling.
Still, it looked like it would fit, and I wasn’t too picky. Mercy dyed the entire mask a black color that matched the color of my hair so that it would be difficult to tell which way I was standing from a distance. I don’t know if that would be particularly helpful, but she explained it to me as such, and so I assumed that she was accounting for something that I didn’t know about.
Looking at the pitiful wooden mask presented to me, I didn’t know what to say. So, I took the mask from Mercy’s hands and sent it down my throat.
“Holy faust… beast…”
“Its name is Ako! It told me its name was Ako.”
“A-Ako?”
Mercy stared at her empty hand with a blank face. I noticed that the mask didn’t go to my stomach as expected, but instead into that strange non-space that I felt when I swallowed all the children. A flash of inspiration struck me, and I tried to switch my face.
How strange. My vision had narrowed to that of a human’s perception, but I had no mouth or nose.
Mercy perked up after seeing this and exclaimed, “So that’s it! Oh dear, can you still speak if you have no mouth though? Can you breathe without a nose?”
Somehow, I knew that I could do both.
I nodded to reassure her and felt the mask with one hand. It felt like there was a wooden plate stuck to my face, but it would not be removed no matter how I tried to pull it off.
“I suppose you could do the same with the garments then! So long as you have these articles stored in your belly, you will be able to change into them whenever you like as a human.” Mercy deduced cheerfully. “How is the mask? Is it okay? It’s simple, but I still did a fine job, haven’t I?”
A fine job is two holes in a plate? I rolled my eyes to look over at Michael, who had his gloves pressed limply against his lips, aghast.
Very perceptively, Mercy coughed and began to chip away at another lump of wood, presenting the rough plate to Michael before taking over his hemming duties.
Michael, having less control over his fingers, took a much longer time to trace a rough sketch of the mask and carve each edge. A far cry from Mercy’s avant-garde mask, Michael sculpted a faintly human prosthesis with distinct facial bones as his inspiration. The finished look was a mask that covered the forehead and hung slightly over the nose with a tall and straight extrusion that exaggerated its likeness. The brow bones were carved to curve upwards, which formed a subtle semi-circle upon the forehead, a layer thicker than the rest of the mask. Right beneath this were a pair of eye slits that followed the curvature of the semi-circle. They did not appear to be eyes, but simply a pair of generous slits in which eyes were to be, leaving an air of mystery. The general shape of the mask curved snugly against the natural contours of the face, ending a little beneath the cheekbones to leave the mouth unobscured.
After having Mercy turn the mask the same shade of black as my hair, Michael declared his work finished and looked expectantly at me to receive it.
I turned into the shape of a beast in an instant and swallowed the mask whole, not forgetting to spit out the previous pitiful attempt by Mercy. Perhaps because I too was excited, I forgot to change into the shape of a human and simply had my face replaced with that of the mask.
Well, now I had the face of a human on the body of a beast. Such a feeling, as an ex-human, could not be expressed in words, and I quickly changed the rest of my body to match my face.
Ah, yes, now this was it! I felt very beautiful with my hair down and a handsome mask on my face. My lips curved involuntarily as I relished the moment.
“Ako, please put this on as well.” Mercy held out the finished garment – a light robe of several layers – and looked away respectfully.
I turned my head into that of a beast so that I could swallow the garment quickly and reverted back with the clothes on my back in an instant. Perhaps by Michael’s input, the final garment was entirely dyed a faint green color and had an elegant, shapeless silhouette. The skirt of the robe looked to have many layers at a glance, but was in fact the result of the same fabric being folded over itself several times, creating a deceivingly textured hem look. The upper part of the robe was simple and tightly enclosed my throat and arms, leaving enough space for movement without becoming cumbersome.
The bottom of the robe reached the floor, perhaps because the children did not know how to make cloth shoes and wanted to obscure my feet. I didn’t care for this detail, for my skin was impenetrable and it hardly mattered whether I had shoes or not. Still, I found that the weight and flow of the fabric to be quite satisfying to wear and patted the tops of Mercy and Michael’s heads in thanks.
All this in a day? Made with the use of untuned prosthetics as well!
I wondered what their usual days at the orphanage consisted of to have made such a fine ensemble and more.