Being a cat was not an easy job, let alone a magical one. Oh, but you just laze around all day doing nothing! Every time I look at you, you're shaped like a loaf of bread! Humans never actually vocalised those things - or perhaps they did behind his back; he wouldn't know after all - but he could always feel the same attitude, time and time again, no matter where he went or who he met. That was of course, until he met Peyton Parabel III.

Butler didn't remember when it was he gained the understanding he had now, but like all the other yokats he had ever met, one moment he was a dumb, mistreated, wayward feline and the next, he understood the world. He could feel the winds of magic that blew from the corners of the universe and allowed humans to do miraculous things, but more importantly that he could too. With a bit of effort, any magical creature can alter the bounds of its being, given the right circumstances. And circumstances would be a fickle mistress, as Butler came to discover. He remembered being a kitten, but nothing else before that. A chubby, grey little thing wandering the streets of the city they called Hecate, running into and away from what seemed like larger, more dangerous creatures that made the world an awfully frightening place. Days would crawl by at a snail's pace, full of skirmishes with okuri-inu and other alley animals over food and territory and walking until his feet hurt because there was not yet a safe place away from the hustle and bustle to sit down and rest his burning mind. Interactimg with humans was veritable suicide, and for all their love of his kind, he hardly fit the idealised image of a lovely house pet rife through their minds and the depictions he had seen on billboards and bus stop advertisements and holocasts. He learned of human tribalism and preconception in the worst way possible: on the receiving end of their ire. But he remembered following the winds, linking up with a few of the others - he could feel it in their bones that they were just alike - to a cold apartment one rainy day, only to be shooed away by the strange woman who dressed differently from everyone else, the abode covered in mysterious sigils that Butler felt resonated with his very being like nothing else had before. He must have been shooed away by his previous owners too, to become a *bakeneko*, but this time it felt...different, somehow. For the first time since he gained awareness, he was...tolerated.

In time, as he kept going back to that flat, he came to learn that Parabel was just like him and the others. Ostracised by the people of this world, gifted with a level of magic hitherto unknown to them, but also still fighting, still carving out their own paths in spite of what fate had cast for them. They became family then, crammed in that old dusty apartment, keeping each other the company they never knew they needed.

Well, him and a dozen others. Eventually there were too many cats and not enough space, and Parabel and her roomate came to a decision: there were opportunities elsewhere for the cats to grow, and loving homes they could belong to. Little grey Butler chose not to object on account of the roommate's extensive collection of throwing knives, and so off he went to Ravenscar Manor.

Life as Lucas Walker's pet was like nothing he could have anticipated. On one hand, he now lived in a massive mansion and got really nice food from time to time, and sometimes he went to live with Lucas’ old vampire grandma for a few days while their team was out doing work. Seeing the way they returned sometimes inspired Butler in a way. If Lucas would risk life and limb and come back to look after him at the end of the day  then maybe it was time he returned the favour. No more would he accept being the chubby little grey kitten mascot of the team. He was going to help, and that began with exercise. Some days it felt like he was dying all over again. Some days he ate too much and threw up on the expensive sofa in the foyer and got taken to the vet against his will. Other days he threatened the cat-sitter they hired by tearing up the photo of his family he hid in his wallet, and some days he memorised the details Lucas' card to order himself an entire smoked brisket as a reward. But every day he got bigger and bigger, until he was bigger than any cat he had seen, save the floppy one that visited sometimes. He started following Lucas around after work, helping him with little things like charging his laptop and making his bed now that he had the strength to, finally living up to the random ass name Parabel had assigned him in lieu of any characteristic abilities he had.

All of that had led him here, to a pub in the middle of nowhere, on a third planet he still had little proper conception of. The rest of the troupe, some new, some old, had moved in too, and now they were all in danger. Butler had been behind the counter when the giant lobster thing had broken through. He held his breath, waiting for the laser blast from Gorgon that eventually never came; that was the last straw. Arthur and the others were cowering scared upstairs, but he had always known he was different. Even by yokat standards he saw and understood more than the others, which meant it was up to him to do something. While he had no idea how he was going to kill a giant crustacean, he was smart enough to know that he wasn't enough. While the others talked about faeries and things he couldn't manage, he unlatched the back door and ran out when Marcello wasn't looking, taking the path up the slope of the mountain where Lucas often took him on patrols, off the beaten path and up to where the men with dark feathered wings often came down from. With the relative peace of their years up here, Butler had hoped it wouldn't have to come to this.

And that was how he found himself sitting before Tor Barrett, monster hunter of renown, eyeing him curiously.

“What…are you doing here?”

Butler could not physically answer, of course, lacking the right vocal cords. But he had learned to talk in other ways. He craned his neck to see the gate behind him, where the tengu had taken the yuki-onna.

"You are yokai too, aren't you?"

By some miracle or experience Barrett had understood. He knelt down in front of Butler, placing a coarse hand on Butler's fluffy head. He purred into the hand, leaning into it for a moment before pawing it away. "Meow," he said, turning back to look at the red gate and the darkness beyond. I have to do this.

"Does Walker know you're here?" Barrett asked.

He shook his head. It would take too long to explain. There is not much time.

Barrett nodded. He smelled like death to Butler, but at the same time he was nicer than what his reputation implied. "Good luck." He stood up, and started back down the trail. Butler watched until he couldn't see him through the trees anymore.

He turned back to the gate, taking a deep breath...only to inhale a little snowflake and let out an explosive sneeze and startle something soft and blonde out of the corner of his eye. He snowled. You followed me.

A round cat that looked almost exactly like how Butler remembered himself as a kitten, just tinted a slight golden, flipped itself over in the snow. You snuck out. You never sneak out!

Go home, Junior, he said to his son in a series of sharp yowls. Before Lucas notices you're gone too.

You're not helping to fight?

I am helping. He returned his gaze to the gate. If I don't come back...

What will you do?

What I should have done a long time ago. Go back. I won't be long. He felt Junior languish in place in his peripheral vision for a moment, becoming a blur of blonde as he sped back down the mountain at incredible speed.

Butler gave his paws a lapping for confidence, and then strode into the gate, not really knowing what to expect. It didn't feel like anything physically as he passed through and the sky above turned a more unnatural inky black than the dome already was, but he felt like a weight had just been lifted off his heart. Here he felt oddly free, without the stifling confine of expectations, and the winds swirled around him, pulling at his fur...but Butler did not falter, hopping swiftly up the stone steps and onto the dirt path beginning at the top. He was beginning to smell food wafting from the vendors in the distance, but he ignored that too, trotting past the houses and directly into the large gathering in the main square. On thr way, a group of horned children pointed him out to their parents, and more than one tengu knight eyed him with their bird-like orbs, but none moved to stop him. Here, he was one of them.

There was a crowd surrounding a figure in the centre of the square as she read out announcements for the week that Butler had no context for. Instead he ducked between legs and hooves and tail and politely inched past a mujina smaller than he was, to get to the front. The fox-woman reading from her list didn't notice him, but as soon as he inched past the literally bull-headed man in the front, a bright red light shone on him.

The announcer stopped, turning to look up at the dark shape and its trio of red eyes in the large tree overhead, aimed squarely at Butler. Behind him, the crowd of yokai seemed to visibly recoil at his presence.

"Bold move coming here," the cacophony of voices from the large owl in the tree boomed down to him, punctuated by childish laughter behind the words. "You may be yokai, but make no mistake: you are not one of us."

Butler spun around. Neither the bull-man, the person with the snake-like neck, or the little mujina met his eyes. They seemed more afraid of the thing in the tree than him, at the very least. Easy for you to say when you isolate yourself.

Another cacophony of laughter came down from the tree. "You wish to judge us? You cling to your human masters and for what? Some insignificant feeling of being safe and fed? That is nothing in the face of true freedom."

Nothing wrong with stability.

"Even at the cost of your truth?"

Better than running from the problem brewing in that lake.

"That little thing is none of our concern. The realm protects us against all of it. Your human masters can handle themselves."

Butler looked at the crowd again. His body felt abuzz with expectancy like he had never felt before. This is your leader? No wonder you resent those that moved to the cities. They do not have the same faith. Faith is exactly what we need now: if you do not help them, then why would they help you?

A loud, scoffing noise from the elders. "It is the humans who have sought us harm first."

And there it was, just as Butler had expected. They didn't understand, not truly. How long ago?

"That is irrelevant. They never change."

You cannot know that. How many of you died young? Slowly, Butler was letting go of the new feeling. This place was different, and he was beginning to understand. There was one more card up his sleeve.

The three-eyed owl tilted its head, the red light from its eyes growing harsher. "And what do you know of the ones that coddle you and push you into forms that restrict you to a creature of lower standing? What do you have to say about your masters?"

Something clicked in his mind, and Butler stretched his back. Slowly but surely, he was on his hind legs, front paws dangling over his chest as he rose to meet the light. "I didn't come here asking you to help my masters," he said in his newfound voice. It sounded a little like Lucas, with Raya’s inflection. "Please have a little faith. Kindness goes a long way. I wouldn't be here if I had other options."

The elders fluttered in the tree, many voices echoing among themselves. "So you are honest at last."

"You think living among humans is to compromise yourself. Your forms may be altered but it doesn't have to change who you are. I chose to be what I am of my own volition. So no. I'm not asking you to help your oppressors out of some vain desperation." He stepped further out, the light following him. "I’m asking you to make a choice for your future and more importantly…I'm asking for a friend."