Chapter 1: A New World
... A blinding white light hit my eyes.
Lighting up the room behind me, followed by a warm breeze brushing my hair, colors paint my view.
Beyond the sliding window were giant trees protruding from the buildings the size of skyscrapers. No... Comparing them to such things were an understatement as I could see those massive pillars reaching beyond the skies.
As everything I saw was so massive, I stood still on the tip of my toes peaking my head to the window in. Frozen in place with my mouth agape by such wonders, I was only broken out of my daze by the sudden appearance of floating white particles rising from below.
"...!"
I silently stepped back to the corner of the room and watched a portion of the swarm enter through the window. They scattered and floated around, making my head turn to follow their direction.
"...?"
Few flew past some dusty lab equipment, some through the pile of boxes, and most went to the puddle nearby.
I tried catching one of them as they seem harmless enough, but they immediately dispersed and left through the window.
With arms stretched forward, I blankly stare at the unfamiliar small pale hands in front of me.
"Eh?" Leaking a soft childish voice from my loosened lips.
My entire body flinched as I realized something wrong. With strands of white hair covering my face, I looked down on the pair of quivering small hands. My eyes widened as my focus shift towards the slit between a pair of smooth pale white legs.
I shook my head and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm my nerves. The last thing I wanted to feel is to be stressed.
"C-calm down Masako... Calm down... This m-might be a weird dream for all that matters."
My eyes dart around and my hands fidgeting as I tried to deny reality.
"H-here! You'll be back on your usual messy room and go back doing things as normal."
Like a light bulb appeared from thin air, to make sure I'm not dreaming, I immediately pinched my cheeks...
"...Ho—okay! It's not a dream!"
As the harsh truth starts to kick in, tears fell as I remember my messy room where I stay cooped up, cooking terrible meals for my friend and having fun like we used to. Those weren't memorable to any, but to me it was already paradise.
However, that had been taken away from me just like that while the memory of my death flashed through my mind.
"..."
With the view I see in front of me, the old room with water flooding the pattern tiled floor, the dusty shelves and moldy cabinets, the desk with its documents scattered as the stools are toppled over.
As much as it hurts, all of this is my new reality and there's no changing that. With no other choice, I decided to face my situation head on.
...
After calming down a bit, I took a quick glance around me. Noticing the unusually large cabinet, I went towards it as there might be clues to where I am.
Pulling the handle with a creak as it opened, there were rows of folders packed like sardines. I took one randomly just for the sake of it.
"'F'? —and umm... Is that a 't' or something...? 113 and... some wiggly letters... God... I'm going to have a stroke reading this..."
I tried reading the label but couldn't, however, I was familiar with the writing as it reminded me of the letters of the Western region.
The summary of how I knew this was: The world I knew was divided into 5 regions each had their own written language. Though we have different writings, our spoken language was similar to one another due to various cultures mixing, too much so that it almost merged into one language.
Going back to the folder, although I finally found a clue on where I'm at, I was more confused about those things that float around and how I got here with a different body. Not only that, I heard that the Western region should be packed with people but somehow it was eerily quiet ever since I got here.
Finding the clue that I wanted from the get go, it didn't help as much since I don't know what to do with this information.
"Haah..." I sighed as I did something pointless.
[Well there's still the boxes from the other corner... This might take a while...] I complained imagining the effort to unpack and return those items.
Lazily going there as my steps splish and patter. I passed under the dusty vials on the counter and rummaged inside the boxes in hope to find something useful.
"... Junk... Trash... I don't know what this is... Whose eye is this? ... Uhh... let's pretend we didn't see that..."
As the set of bizarre items kept on piling, I found some sort of picture frame.
Inside the frame appeared an 11 year old girl furrowing her brows in displeasure. Her untidy white hair still looking soft and fluffy along with some strands of strawberry pink showing behind her back, she looked human at first glance, but the her noticeable feature was a pair large droopy foxlike ears and shining sapphire blue eyes.
The light shone down from the window, enhancing the image. Appearance wise, she looked really cute with her faint rosy cheeks and pouty mouth. It made me want to give her some headpats.
Even with her cute appearance, I instinctively dropped it as she was nude.
"WHY THE HELL IS SOMETHING LIKE THAT HERE?!"
Thinking I picked up something I shouldn't have, I wanted to burn it for good measure. However, I noticed picture cracked, splitting the image with the girl mirroring my movements.
I blinked, she blinked. I tried raising my hand and so did she...
[Wait... Is this me?!] As the bolt of realization struck me, a glimpse of her ears twitching made me curious about something.
Raising my hands I reached out towards my ears.
...
"Haa~ Hnaa~"
My mind went blank as my fingers dived under the thin fluffy coat was a warm thin skin layer. In a daze with this fluffly warm feeling swelling up inside, I had hoped that I'm still dreaming about this weird scenario I've been put through.
"Fuuahh~"
Seeing my reflection from the mirror below me, with her flushed face under her blurry eyes, she finally gave in to the stress and let those tiny fingers do its work.
As my fingers dug deeper, I slowly lose track of time as I kept fiddling with the soft bristles deep inside my ears. It was like someone masterfully cleaned your ears with a cotton swab, wrapping you pure bliss.
With the heavenly feeling embraced by fluffy clouds like all my problems are fading away, I remembered a show of cat girls being touched inside their ears and comparing it to what I currently feeling, I thought they were overreacting...
"Nghue—"
That was until my fingers accidentally slipped past the wall cotton-like fur which caused my entire body to tense up from the sudden surge of pleasure that came right with it.
I couldn't remember anything as everything went black from that point on. But the moment I regained consciousness, I was already laying on the ground drenched in sweat and drool. With a satisfied expression on my face, I wanted to go for another round but—
Growl~
—my stomach complained about not being fed yet.
"... Huh?... What time is it?... "
Returning my sense of reason, I looked outside the window where the sky was dyed to red. The stars starts to shine and the gust that came in was freezing.
My legs still weak from what I've done, so I decided to wait for my body to fully recover. As I'm waiting I glanced around the room if there is something edible-aside from those weird things that came from the boxes.
"I could go outside this room but... Why is it so quiet?"
There were no human activities, no noises from any sorts of vehicles. Only the rustling of leaves and the cluttering I did were the only things I heard so far. Unless I missed something during my fluff time.
Turning my gaze towards the exit, I could feel my guts telling me to not go beyond the door despite it rumbling, demanding for food.
After I wasted my time, food and the abnormal silence are not the only problem...
My body starts to shiver as the temperature starts to drop inside the room. The only thing that's keeping me warm was my long fluffy hair barely covering both my front and back.
"... It's getting dark... I'll just bear with it until tomorrow..."
With the cons of me starving and freezing, I already had experiences with those as I could probably bear with it for this time being.
Regaining a bit of my strength, I emptied one of the boxes and grabbed pieces of papers to my best to squeeze them dry without tearing them.
"T-time to sleep..." I went inside the box along with the papers serving as my blanket.
Curling into a fetal position while hugging my hair like a body pillow. I shut my eyes as the soundless night filled rustling of the leaves outside.
Everything was dark as no light passed through my eyes. With only rugged breaths inside a void-like dream, I wanted to escape from reality, so I reached for my ears again and let the warm feelings of bliss devour me once more.
...
Morning came and my body felt stiff. The consequences was more than I thought I could handle, reminding me I have a new body and my constitution would be so much different to what I'm used to.
"... urgh..." I groaned towards the door with my joints popping. Seeing everything was blurry, it wouldn't really be strange for me to collapse right now but I decided I shouldn't.
I leaned towards the boxes to recover my strength before I try to remember what I wanted to do yesterday.
Growl~
"Oh right... Food." I slowly made my way to the door, then I pulled it to the side with needed strength I could muster.
With shrieking noises, I stopped when I opened the door just enough for me to pass through. Rubbing my ears, I froze at the sight in front of me.
"... Now I see why everything is so quiet..."
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