Big Book of Mythology (Yokai Edition)

Bakeneko

Translation: Ghost / Monster cat

Other names: Bishagatsuku

Type: Animal

Prefecture: Niigata, Kanagawa, Tokushima, Saga

Habitat: Towns and cities

Diet: Carnivorous (fish, birds, small animals, and occasionally humans)

Danger zone: Blue (Difficult)

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About Bakeneko:
You might want to be careful when you come across cats around cats. When cats live to old age, they begin to develop supernatural powers and transform into yokai. Bakeneko begin their supernatural life looking almost identical to an ordinary housecat. Soon they begin to walk about at on their hind legs. As they age and their powers increase, they can grow to be very large, sometimes as big as a full-grown human.

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Appearance:
Most of the time, they appear as a small house or stray cat, but thanks to their shapeshifting abilities, they can disguise themselves as humans, sometimes as their owners. 

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Behavior/Interaction:
Bakeneko possesses great shape-shifting abilities and frequently disguise themselves as smaller cats or humans – sometimes even their own masters. While in disguise, they like to dress up as humans with a towel wrapped around their head and dance around merrily. Many learn to speak human languages. They can eat things that are much bigger than they are, and even poisonous things, without any difficulty at all. It is even possible for a bakeneko to eat its own master and then take his form, living on in his place. If they do not kill their owners, they often bring down great curses and misfortune upon them. Either way, they're not too nice.

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Abilities:
*Shape-shifting: They can change their appearance into regular cats or humans

*Pyrokinesis: They can summon ghostlily fireballs, using their tails as torches

*Reanimation: They can bring back fresh corpses to do their bidding

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Target:
Anyone 

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Escape plan:
Unknown

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Origin story:
Bakeneko can come into being as a result of a number of things, but the most common reasons are by being long-lived (over 13 years old), growing to a certain size (over 3.75 kilograms), or by licking up large quantities of lamp oil. A telltale sign that a cat may be close to becoming a bakeneko is believed to be an exceptionally long tail. The older and wiser a cat gets, the longer its tail becomes. This superstition led to the custom of bobbing cats' tails at an early age to prevent them from transforming into yōkai.

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NOPE Rating:
4/5