01x05 - I Cannot Return to the Cat Forest

[bunniefuu]

He still isn't awake yet?

This whole thing is such a mess.

I will raise this child by myself.

I know that I can make
him into a magician.

None of us have any idea when that boy
may transform into The End of All Things.

I believe in Luna. I believe in her.

Oh, I meant to ask you.

That Cat Witch that
appeared the other day.

She was a friend of yours?

This story happened before the black
cat Sisi came to live in Luna's house.

Look. Isn't that her?

- The one who moved to the forest

- EPISODE 5: I CANNOT RETURN
TO THE CAT FOREST

- and got a special exemption
to become a black witch?

- The Champignon Witch, Luna?

Ew, look! Everything she steps on or
touches really does grow mushrooms!

Hey, Dorothy! If we're here to spy on
her, could you at least keep it down?

Ew, that's so gross!

Are you even listening to me, Dorothy?

You don't have to tell me, Bat Magician.

We're here as representatives
of the black witches

to spy on the shady new girl.

Hey, hey! A real weirdo moved in nearby!

Imagine the nerve! Let's go find her!

How are we representatives
when nobody asked us to come?

How about you shut up, Mouse Magician!

- Hiss!

- SECOND-RATE BULLY

- I just wanna go home.

- PICKS ON THE WEAK

- You're the one who needs to shut up.

We use our magic to help
cleanse this poisoned world

and protect it from behind the scenes.

We are proud black witches
and black magicians.

In training, you mean.

We'll be official soon enough!

But that Champignon Witch,

I heard she became a black witch
with almost no real training.

How was she able to pull that off?

You're just jealous.

It's way too fishy to be legit.

And just look at that! She's
already noticed we're here!

Dang it! All because you guys couldn't
keep your mouths shut! Get down!

You're the one who's been
doing all the yapping.

I wonder if all the rumors are true.

Rumors?

About her. That she used
to be a cursed youngling.

Huh?

Thanks to the magic she was born with,

she didn't become The End of All Things.

She was a cursed youngling?

It made her breath and body poisonous.

The mushrooms she grows
are all poisonous, too.

Ew! That's so nasty! Gross!
Why is she even here?!

Hey, our cover is so far blown, I
think she's started making tea for us.

This is a disaster. To think that such
a creepy girl is a black witch like us.

She's gonna give all of us
black witches a bad name!

We have nothing to do with her, but the
humans aren't gonna know the difference!

Well, I heard our master, the Beast
Magician, is taking good care of her.

but why don't we back off
and give her some space?

What did you just say?

She gets tons of attention only
because she's such a pain in the neck,

and gets private lessons from our master
when she's not even his apprentice?!

She's backed our poor master into a corner
where he has to waste all his time

rehabilitating this delinquent instead
of tutoring his top students?!

Jealousy, check. Resentment, check.

Talk about biased commentary.

She's unbelievable. I'll never
forgive her for this, damn it!

Why'd you have to bring
up the master, man?

My bad.

That's no way to serve tea to a guest!
Where the hell are your manners?

I'll bully her until she runs crying
from the black witch community!

Uh...

How did we end up in here?

You're the one who doesn't
have any manners.

Isn't this great, Luna? I know you said
you wanted try a tea party for once,

just like the one you read about
in that book the other day.

What?

Oops. I'm not gonna let something
like that make me lower my guard.

You baked these with those
poison hands of yours, right?

Scary! There's no way I could eat one.

Wow, she's terrible.

Isn't this great, Luna? Finally,
a chance to talk to people!

Come on, don't be shy.

Uh, what?

Nobody was even willing to
get close to you before!

She must be so miserable she can't
even tell when she's being picked on.

She didn't touch the cookies with her
bare hands, so they're okay to eat.

We're even learning about
good manners today.

Aren't you glad our first
guests are such nice people?

This is such a wonderful day.

You know, I could eat
this for you if you want.

The Cat Witch was perplexed.

You could say that her toxic
attitude had been washed away,

defenseless against this
sudden shower of goodwill.

The cruelty she was so used to flaunting

could not find suitable footing

in an atmosphere drenched with such
a profound sense of loneliness,

and that seemed to have
thrown her off her game...

especially because she had
never once associated herself

with the words "nice people"
before in her life.

Here comes that black witch again.

She goes around feeding all
those thieving stray cats.

They're so noisy at night!

She isn't even helping us
get rid of all the mice!

That's all your fault, you know!
I had to cut back on the mousetraps

with you around, so now I get blamed!

Grr.

What's he gonna do? It's not like
he can do his job without familiars.

And we can't do our job gathering info
if we don't get along with the townsfolk.

Thanks for being so considerate.

It's hard enough here already,

where black witches have
such a bad reputation.

Hey. Isn't that...

So you must be the mushroom
witch I keep hearing about.

Recently I have noticed a suspi... uh,

a very inquisitive-looking person
passing by the store.

So you were friends with
the Cat Witch all along?

I wouldn't say we're friends or anything.

She is a little hard to
get along with, though.

Has she been picking on you at all?

Hiss!

It's your own fault! Ow, ow, ouch!

She isn't like that at all.

She talks!

Huh?

She is a wonderful individual.

Thanks to her, I finally got
to visit this bookstore today.

She keeps doing nice things for me.
I think she is a very kind person.

Huh. "Kind" isn't a word that comes
to mind when I think of the Cat Witch.

Starting around then, whenever the
Cat Witch was showered in compliments

such as "kind" or "nice,"

she'd get a blissful
expression on her face,

as if she was under some kind of spell.

In time, she started to visit
the mushroom house more often

in order to get another helping of
this new and still unfamiliar feeling.

Luna, aren't you glad she's lending
you the book you wanted to read?

The birds in town were singing, "the
Cat Witch has a twisted, evil soul,"

but that isn't true at all, is it?

She's a kind witch, and she's been
coming to visit us a bunch recently,

so every day has been lots of fun.

It was as if these
unadulterated showers of praise

yanked the teeth out of
the witch's cruel bite.

Sure, Luna has a poison body because
she was once a cursed youngling,

but it's also because she absorbs
and cleans poison from the world.

Did you know that?

All these people who talk trash about
her don't even care. It's unbelievable!

They're the worst! They don't
even try to get to know her.

She should try saying all
this to her old self.

She's more likely to cast a spell
to forget her bad behavior.

Before, all the trees and animals of this
black forest were contaminated with poison

and it was home to all sorts
of pests and evil spirits.

But once you moved here,

it changed from a black forest
to a poison mushroom forest.

I can feel safe letting
my cats play here now.

Hey, it sounds kind of impersonal
when you call me "Miss Dorothy."

Just call me "Dorothy"
as if I was your sister.

Well, that came out of nowhere.

Um... Dor... Sis... Miss Witch? Um...

Yeah, this is what happens with someone
who's not comfortable with people.

Can you tell me why you decided
to become a cat witch?

It's simple. Obviously
because I love cats so much!

Wasn't it the same for you,
with mushrooms?

This is such a nice place,
though. But did you know?

They say there's also a legendary
cat forest that only cats live in.

Sometimes, the more distinguished cat
witches even get invitations to visit.

A cat forest...

I really want to go see it myself, but
I guess because I'm still inexperienced,

the forest's chief won't
give me permission.

Shucks, why am I not good enough?

Dorothy? Not her. Furr-get it.
She's hiss-terically loud.

She's a blabber-meowth. A real purr-oblem.

But I can imagine what it's like
from what these guys have told me.

Almost like I've been there before.

In fact, I bet I used to live
there as a cat in a past life.

Still, I hope I can visit
the cat forest soon.

You know what my dream in life is?

It's to put this silly, poisoned world
behind me, move to the cat forest

where nobody hassles me and
I can be with the cats I love

and live there happily ever after.

Well, that was what I always wanted,
until I met this Champignon Witch,

who fights so bravely to
rid the world of poison.

Now that I've seen how pretty
the black forest has become,

as your big sister and
senior as a black witch,

I can see I still have
a lot of work to do.

The cat forest. A homeland
she has not yet seen.

But she cannot return to
the cat forest just yet.

Dorothy, the tabby who got
into the white witch's castle

has been missing for two days meow!

I bet mew they caught her!

How many does that make meow?

What meow?

Now what do we mew?

The tabby's dead fur sure! There's
no point trying to save him meow!

We don't know for sure yet.

But either way, if they
suspect us of spying now,

all of the cats and I are
in danger of being purged!

There's also several black witches in the
castle who are being unjustly detained!

Sisi, you guys need to get away!

Go tell the master and our
friends what's happening here!

I'll use the confusion
to sneak into the castle,

rescue the tabby and other cats, and give
the white witches a little surprise!

No, Dorothy! It's too dangerous!

I need to distract them
so everyone can get away.

I'll be all right, Sisi. I'm not afraid.

When I remember what she said...

She is a very kind person.

It makes me want to live up to
those words, and protect everyone I can.

I want to collect every bit
of this strange feeling,

and clutch it tight, close to my heart.

I don't want to return to the cat forest
until I've truly become that person.

This is the town square where
Dorothy was ex*cuted the other day.

Thank you for coming, Champignon Witch.

Mouse Magician...

Sorry to show up like this,
but I need to stay undercover.

The ground here is stained
with the Cat Witch's

grief mushroom, pain mushroom,
anger mushroom,

fear mushroom, misery mushroom,
solitude mushroom...

Look, Sisi. All of Dorothy's pain is
growing into mushrooms to be cleansed.

Kindness mushrooms?

Oh, come on. Stop crying, okay?

Bye now!

Luna, these guys are saying that
the Cat Witch is in the cat forest now.

I believe in Luna.

I believe in her.

My darling Noah.

Please, hurry and die for me.

You will never be allowed
to be reborn again.

For the sake of this country,

indeed, for the sake of this world...

You are the one who should
never have been born.

Eliminating you is a duty
I inherited from my late sister,

who left you in my hands.

If it is any consolation, I shall
allow you to pass on in ignorance.

Mother...

Why?

Why?

Who's there?

Somebody is draining my memories...
all of the agony from my body?

Painful memories, depressing
experiences, dark feelings,

whirlpools of uncertainty, constellations
of suffering, flashbacks of fear,

and everything illuminated within.

Wait, if you take all of that away,
I'll barely have any memories left.

I see. I suppose this shows

just how deeply my path in life
has been stained by sadness.

It's actually beautiful...

the light cast by the sadness
as it flows away from my body.

No, come back!

I cannot allow myself to forget
this one precious memory

of the promise I made

to my late mother.

Noah, Noël, Emile...

you have multiple names.

He who is destined to be king

must alternate between many
pseudonyms throughout his life.

You absolutely must not reveal
your true name to anyone.

Revealing your true name
would expose you to a curse.

When a king reveals his true name, it
immediately compromises the throne.

When the throne is unstable, it sends
the country into darkness and confusion.

You must only recite your true
name silently, in your mind,

when you need to use your magic.

No matter the curse, if it
knows not your true name,

it can never pose a mortal threat to you.

This true name that I have given you is
one thing that you must never forget.

Lock it tightly within your heart.

Your name is...

Luna! He just woke up!

Hey, who are you? Hey, are you okay?

Look, you know what you have to do, Luna.

What? This is my body?

Was it always this small?

What was I like before this?

These first moments are crucial. If you
can't make this kid into a magician,

he's going to be put down.

So set your feelings aside
and don't cut him any slack.

You. Tell us your name.

You must never forget

that your name is...

LIZEL

Lizel.