Sounds more like contrived convenience to me.Yes... a mask on a 6'2" leopard woman whose mask would totally not be in the shape of her head.
Even the dumbest people the MC has dealt with would put things together.
Shifting her to a human form without lose in strength is the strategically smart thing.
Shifting her to human form was lame as shit, no matter what justification you try to push.
The face wraps she had on were enough.
Yeah, it's fucking believable that the 6'2" Leopard woman could've been a different person, jackass. It's not like there was only one of those ever. You are also severely underestimating how stupid the characters in this world can be.
Spare me the Watsonian explanations, honestly.
Fuck the human form, it sucks, it's not even good as a human form for her, it's so fucking generic.
The human form shapeshifting is just a garbage idea on the conceptual level. It SUCKS.