The school bell rings marking the end of high school today, in Japan. Many teens would be having fun doing stuff on their time off; going shopping, playing sports, hanging out with their friends, or even going to work at their part-time jobs.

Some students would often go to cram school as they would like to study, learn more and improve on their education and probably get a job one day, others would just head straight home and spend time with their family or stay home and rest after a long day of studying.

What could be more fun than living a regular and ordinary life?

"Hey, Shouya-san! Got a minute?"

This caught Shouya's attention, who turned to look at their classmate. He subtly looked around the room to see if the boy was talking to anyone. There was no one else present in the room. Everyone else had already left by the time the school bell rang. The only two people left were Shouya and the boy who called out his name.

"What is it?"

"You got any plans for tonight? Tonight is Anime Night at my place, and I was asking everyone if they would like to come by, and I wondered if you're interested in coming."

It would be fun to hang out with someone who has the same interests as him; if he accepted the boy's offer, maybe they'd get to know each other and hang out. That's what friends are for, right?

Of course, he would have.

In response to the boy's question, Shouya shook his head and declined the offer.

"Sorry, I have some things to take care of."

"I knew you would say that."

The boy slumps his shoulders and gives a heavy, dejected sigh in response to Shouya's refusal. It wasn't a harsh answer that Shouya responded with, it was just an emotionless but honest answer he gave to him.

Even though he was saddened by Shouya's answer, the boy kept his head high and stayed cheerful.

"But at least you're honest. I don't want to think about what would happen if I invited too many people. It would be embarrassing."

Honestly, I wouldn't care. Shouya thought, not daring to say it aloud, in case he hurt the boy's feelings.

Without any delay, Shouya grabbed his bag and said "Well, I'm off." as he distances himself from the boy. If he really is his friend, then he would've at least accepted the boy's offer and enjoyed the night watching anime while staying at his place for a while. It would've been fun to have someone to keep him company. But instead, he chose not to go.

"Ah, Shouya-san!"

As Shouya heard the boy call out his name, he stopped and turned as he gave a curious look to him. Even though he isn't friends with him, he still listens to anyone who interacts with him.

"Yeah?"

"I don't know if I should say this, but did you get any sleep for the past couple of days? You don't look so good."

From where the boy was looking, Shouya's eyes were bagged, showing dark circles under his eyes. Maybe the bagged eyes were caused by the lack of sleep. But what made him not get a good night's rest? If he continues like that, his health may be at great risk.

As Shouya noticed what the boy had told him, he wiped away a tear from under his tired eyes.

"Oh, you've noticed?"

"From the looks of it, it seems like you're hiding something."

"How so?"

"Do you mind standing still here for a minute? I just want to check out your condition."

Shouya is both curious and confused about why the boy would want him to stand still for a bit, but decides to go along with it.

The boy approaches Shouya with a curious look on his face. He then begins to extends his hands, both touching and examining every part of Shouya's body; his arms, his face, and even his back. He touched every part of the body while avoiding his private areas. He might as well become a doctor while he is at it.

As the boy searches Shouya's body for what was wrong with him, Shouya gave a look of discomfort, as the situation was getting a bit too awkward.

"C-Can you hurry it up? This is making me feel uncomfortable."

The boy did one last check on Shouya's body until he gave him a little space and said "All done."

"Well, what are the results?"

"Based on the condition and the state of your body, you're gonna be cosplaying for an upcoming convention, aren't you?"

"Huh?!"

Shouya was surprised by what the boy just said. Cosplay. Trembling from the boy's question, he gave a soft nod, flustered by his question.

From all of that body check, he gave the answer right off the bat. But the question is, how? How did he know that Shouya was going to cosplay? Anyone else would have taken multiple guesses to get it right, but the boy had only picked one answer, and he answered it correctly.

"So I am right."

"But how did you know that I was gonna cosplay?"

"It's because of your hands. I can tell just by looking at your hands."

"—Ah."

The boy uses his hand to point at Shouya's slim hands. Shouya looks down to where the boy is pointing and sees that some of his fingers were swollen red. He wasn't wrong. It was because Shouya's hands were swollen from tirelessly working on his costume for the past few days that his hands began to swell. He hadn't noticed it until the boy pointed it out just now and he had forgotten to wear bandages on them. Although if he were to wear them to school, it would be a dead giveaway.

Luckily, the boy was the only one who noticed it. If anyone else noticed it, then it would've been hard for Shouya to explain as to why his hands were swollen.

"I know a friend of mine who cosplays, too. He told me everything that he experienced: going to conventions, meeting some voice actors, and he even taught me how to make a costume."

He sounds like a very nice guy. Maybe if get a chance to see him, maybe we would get to know each other.

If he ever saw the guy that the boy described in person, they would've been friends from the start. They would talk about their favorite food, favorite anime, and even their favorite video games. Not only that, they would probably work together to make the best costume they would ever make. It would be a dream come true.

Except, this isn't a dream, this is reality.

As Shouya gave a painted expression, the boy's joyful look slowly disappears while a troubled one takes its place.

"But I'm serious, you need to take care of yourself."

"I know that, but…"

Shouya paused and took a brief moment to come up with an excuse for why he is overworking himself. He had worked on it for four days and it never seemed to trouble him. The boy, however, is worried that Shouya might die from the lack of sleep.

As Shouya was lost in thought trying to find the right excuse to say to him, the boy extends both of his hands and rests them on Shouya's shoulders.

"Listen, the only thing I care about is your health. So no matter what you say, no matter if you want to deny it, I'm always there for you no matter what."

"You sound like as if I was planning to kill myself."

"That's because you looked like it."

"Well, I wasn't going to!"

Both Shouya and the boy kept rambling back and forth for several minutes at the same argument. They finally dropped the topic and moved on to a different topic.

"Say, Shouya-san, Can I ask you a question?"

"What is it?"

The next moment, the boy clasps both of his hands together as he asks him a question.

"Can I see who you're cosplaying as?"

It was a question that made Shouya's body tremble. He was shocked because he wasn't expecting that specific question. He has always been alone, so he isn't used to answering questions at all.

"I-I can't. It's not done yet."

"Can you at least tell me who you are making?"

"T-Tell you?"

Shouya was fazed when he heard that the boy wanted to know who is he going to cosplaying as. He barely knows the boy, so he is unsure how to reply, but at the same time, he doesn't know anything about him either. This situation corners Shouya. He begins to ponder to himself as he tries to think about how to reply to his question.

Should I lie to him? Maybe I can lie that I'm going to be the main character from an anime and get away with it. Yes, I think I should tell him that.

"I'm going to cosplay as Arthur."

"From Royal Blades? That's amazing! You really have a good taste in anime."

"Yeah, you could say that."

He was astonished on Shouya's reveal regarding who he was going to cosplay. Shouya's plan has now come into play. He has told the boy a character that he is going to cosplay as, but not the real character that he chose.

Now that he took the bait, this would probably leave Shouya alone and finally, he can be at peace—

"Hopefully, I'll get to see it at the convention."

Shouya had snapped back to reality when he heard the phrase "I'll get to see it at the convention."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you this."

The boy reaches down to his own pocket and says "Ta-da!" as he shows Shouya a familiar pocket-size, rectangular paper in front of him. It is not just an ordinary piece of paper, it is an entry ticket to go to the convention.

"I'm going to the convention, too. This may have cost me almost my entire allowance, but it was worth it. Now we can go to the convention together."

Upon hearing this, Shouya feels a mix of happiness and jealousy towards the boy, who had bought a ticket for the convention. Tickets usually cost more than eight-thousand yen per ticket, so getting one is a hassle. Not only that it's expensive, but it's also hard to get since it's mostly sold out and hard to find in some places where they sell them.

Aww crap! Shouya thought as he realized something.

Not only had Shouya told the boy a lie, his plan had also been backfired. He had remembered that he said he was going to cosplay as Arthur from an anime called Royal Blades. It was a huge mistake on Shouya's part, now it is too late to call it back.

"Hey, there's something I should—"

"I thought I heard something."

Before Shouya could say anything, a middle-aged man opened the door with an annoyed look on his face. Shouya and the boy weren't expecting anyone to still be in the school. Most of the students already had left the campus by the time they had started talking. This could only mean one thing, the homeroom teacher.

"Kirikage, Daira, school already ended fifteen minutes ago, You two should've been home by now."

"Oh jeez, it's already late?"

The boy looked at the class clock to check the time. It was already a quarter past three. Shouya should've left the school a couple of minutes ago and worked on his cosplay, but those plans had been delayed because the boy interacted with him and kept talking for a little while.

The boy quickly grabbed his bag and headed out towards the door.

"See you later, teach! And good luck with your cosplay, Shouya-san!"

"But I was going to—"

"You can tell me next time. Anyways, see ya!"

Not before long, the boy had already exited the room without giving Shouya the opportunity to say anything, leaving Shouya by himself.

Things weren't going as planned as Shouya had hoped for. He wanted to tell the truth to the boy about what he is actually going to cosplay, but instead, he told a lie that he'll regret. The boy will be attending the same convention that Shouya has been preparing for. If the boy sees what his cosplay really looks like, he'll lose his trust in Shouya.

While Shouya tries to find out what to say to the boy, the teacher breaks the silence by clearing his throat.

"You do know that you're still here."

"Ah, right. Sorry, Sensei."

He quickly grabbed his bag and left the classroom, leaving the school grounds.

After he had left school, he took a train ride to get to his home. It took him fourteen train stops—roughly around twenty minutes—to travel back home from his school. Luckily, with modern technology, he does not need to worry about being late for school for the next day.

"Finally, I'm home."

Shouya breath a sigh of relief when he finally arrived at his house. He pulls the key from his pocket and unlocks the door, then he preceeds to his home. From there, he walks past the living room and heads straight up the stairs in front of him. He sees an already opened door on the second floor with lights flashing and loud noise coming from the other room, he sees a girl sitting on a chair, playing a video game on the TV.

Ah, it's Hina-chan. I guess she's still playing video games even though I was gone.

The only reason why Hina lives here with Shouya is because she's Shouya's sister, the only major difference is that she is younger than Shouya—five years younger, give or take.

Both of their parents are always working every day and they barely have any time to have fun together as a family. Hina is often home alone because Shouya goes to school every day. When she is alone, she often spends her time by playing video games non-stop until Shouya gets home, then spend some time with each other, provided that Shouya is not busy with something.

Should I let her know? Actually, on second thought, it's for the best if I don't bother her. Wouldn't want to ruin her concentration.

Instead of talking to his sister, he walked out of her room and began to walk to the door that is right next to Hina's room and begins to open it.

His room is not too small, but not too big, either. Shouya's room has a flat-screen TV hanging on the wall, a video game console that is under the TV, a computer, and a collection of manga, anime, light novels, and video games that are stacked on each shelf.

Outside of his home, he is nothing but an ordinary student. But in his private life, he is a hardcore otaku. If Shouya had any free time, he would be doing most of this stuff; but right now, he is working on completing his cosplay.

Shouya walks to the closet and finds some cosplay equipment and the costume that he is going to wear. Of course, it's not completed, not yet anyway. He brings the costume from the closet and lays them down flat on top of his bed.

He sits on the chair and spins his chair around towards the computer and turns it on. Shouya began to move the mouse and pointed to the browser. The browser opens and he types on his keyboard: "Frank Berkler" and images of him pop up on the screen.

He clicked on the image and found a full body of Frank's battle pose. Based on the image, he's a large six-foot tall beast-man covered with bright, brown fur and wields a large battle-ax at hand, getting ready for a bloodthirsty battle.

Shouya looks at the unfinished costume and back at the image to get the idea of how he is going to make his costume.

"Alright, let's continue where we left off."

He gets the materials he needs and starts preparing to make his dream costume turn from dream to reality.

After several hours had passed, Shouya had finally finished making his costume. The head, the hands, the tail, the feet, all the body parts for his costume are perfectly replicated.

"Whew! It's finally finished. It took me a couple of days to get it done, but it was totally worth it."

It was no surprise that making a costume from scratch was a difficult task. Even with his hands blistering from making the costume, he had been working on it all day and night to finish making it.

"Now that the body is done, it's time for the weapon—ugh."

But before he can prepare to make the paper-mache battle-ax, Shouya has tumbled into his bed. This was due to the fact that he was up all night making his costume for four days without any sleep. The boy that was in the school with him was right. He had warned him not to overwork himself, now he has paid the price.

"How about I'll do it tomorrow. I mean, it's just paper-mache, it isn't going anywhere. I can make it any day I want, right?"

Instead of actually going to make the battle-ax, Shouya laid down on his bed with his weak and tired body.

His body feels light, his mind becomes hazy, Shouya's eyes start to close as he slowly begins to fall asleep. The fatigue has gotten to him really badly; he is too tired to get himself to move a muscle, or even speak loudly. But since he had been working for four days straight, he finally deserves some rest.

"I just needed...a little sleep. That's all. Yeah, a good night's sleep should do it."

Shouya's field of vision became darker and darker, surrounding the light that is around him with darkness. And then, it fades to black. Silence is all he could hear, darkness is all he sees, and all he is feeling, is nothing. He had spent so much time working on that costume that he had forgotten to sleep. Now he has finally gotten the chance to get a goodnight's sleep.

 

❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋

 

Hours had passed since he slept. Small light rays shine into the room from the gaps of the window, meaning it is already dawn. Shouya pulled up the blankets at his face to avoid being irritated by the sun's rays.

"Please Mr. Sun, just ten more minutes."

Shouya mutters to himself as he uses the blankets to cover his body in his sleep. It is probably because he worked all night in completing the costume for the convention. Shouya is not a morning person, he always overworks himself while working on a costume or stays up all night to watch an anime that is past his curfew. But he deserves some extra time in bed after working on his costume all night long.

It was rather short lived after a knocking sound behind the door.

"I'll be down in a minute."

After he voiced his upcoming arrival, he went back to sleep on the soft bed. But that didn't stop him for long. The knocking continues to sound in the room.

"I said I'll be down— Wait, no one in my family ever knocks."

But before he repeats the same line that he said before, Shouya paused mid-sentence before he realized that something was off. His vision becomes clear as he slowly opens his eyes only to see that something is wrong. The room where Shouya slept is significantly different to what it used to be. The interior of the room is slightly bigger than his room.

Shouya places his feet on the cold, wooden floor below him, he even shivers just by touching it. Both the floor and the ceiling above him are unfamiliar to him. What once existed in his room; his TV, computer, video games and even his collection of anime and manga, are now missing.

What is this place? This doesn't look like my room at all. But more importantly, just who is behind that door?

Just as Shouya tries to figure out where he is, someone continues to knock on the door from the other side. They must have been knocking while Shouya was still asleep. He had thought that it was his sister or his parents who were trying to wake him up, but wasn't them.

Shouya lifted himself from the bed as he cautiously approached the door. Just who—or what—is behind that door? He wants to figure out what is going on. He swallowed his own saliva as he is ready to open the door and see what's behind it.

Just as he opens the door, a bright light shines at Shouya's face, blinding him for a moment. As the light started to fade, his vision slowly returned to normal as he regained his barings.

"—ning sir."

"Huh?"

There is an unfamiliar voice calling out to him. But whose voice is it? A young girl? An old man? Or a middle-aged woman? He couldn't tell who was calling for him. That is when his sense of hearing becomes clearer and clearer.

And then...

"Good morning, sir."

"H-Huh?!"

It was not a man or a woman—or to be more precise, it is not human, either. It appears to be a large, anthropomorphic, human-like fox—who has the exact the same height as Shouya—standing right in front of him,

"A-Ahhh!"

Shouya, surprised by this turn of events, shouts and falls into the floor by the fox's surreal physical appearance.

"Are you ok, sir?!"

Not only the fox-human is capable of walking on two legs like a human, but it can also can talk like a human too. It wears a maid-like uniform as clothing on top of its bright red fur. Based on the fox's attire and the fox's feminine voice, it appears that this humanoid fox is a female.

"Wh-What are you?!"

"What am I? Well, I'm a Foxien, but I guess it's pretty obvious that I am. But never mind about me, are you alright?"

"'Foxien'? But never mind that, you're a fox! Foxes can't talk!"

"What do you mean? Yes, we can. You're like me, too, aren't you?"

"That's ridiculous! How am I— Wh-Wha...?"

Just before Shouya can even give a rebuttal the fox-girl's statement, he pauses and looks at his hand. His hand—no, his entire arm—is covered with dark, black fur around him. Shouya ran over towards a nearby mirror to see that the fox-human was not lying.

He looked at the reflection of the mirror to see the truth of what has happened to his body.

"This can't be happening!"

His entire body—his arms, legs, and even his face—is covered with black and white fur. In addition, his ears are on top of his head instead of on the sides of his head, a bushy tail located on the back of the pelvis, and a dog-like frame.

"Just what happened to my body?!"