I often use the New York subway.

Every time I go to work in the morning, a homeless man would be in the station mumbling to himself about something.

I leaned against a nearby wall and listened in on what he was saying.

A woman passed in front of us. “Pig,” the man whispered.

What? He’s just insulting people, comparing them to animals?

Next, a businessman passed by. The man whispered “Person.”

Ah, I guess that man must seem like a regular person.


On another day, I listened to him again to kill some time.

A man who was wasting away passed by. “Cow.”

Cow? No matter how you look at him, the man is skin and bones.

Next, a typical obese man walked by.

“Vegetables.”

Vegetables? He must be a pig, right?


I thought about the homeless man on my way home.

Is it possible that he is talking about reincarnation? Saying what our souls will become in the next life?!

After that, I watched the homeless man several times. I became convinced of my suspicions.


One day, I got the courage to go up and ask him how to acquire this ability.

He looked at me with lifeless eyes and then held his hands over my head.


He never came back after that day. Was he a wizard? Or maybe a god?


I now have the ability. It isn’t what I had expected. It’s simply the last thing the person ate.


I laughed at the inanity of it.