Of all the ways to spend a Friday night, falling into a feudal Japanese shrine through my computer was not on my list of first choices. But here I was, wherever here is. Some sort of garden? There was a small pond too, with a little bridge and everything. 

The kitsune girl I had landed next to was frantically typing away on floating blue screens. Her dark blue fox ears were pressed to the top of her head, and her matching tail swished back and forth wildly. Strands of light blue hair flowed around her, ending around her mid-back. She looked like she was in her teens, and was wearing some official-looking red and white Miko attire lined with gold trim.

“Um, excuse me?” I croaked. My voice was a lot higher pitched than normal. It kinda sounded like it did when I was a kid. I mean sure, I was pretty short for a college grad, but I didn’t want to sound the part too! It also gave me this weird feeling of deja-vu, which puzzled me. This wasn’t the kinda thing that just happened daily, after all.

“What’s up, Sylvie?” The kitsune responded, not bothering to look away from whatever she was doing.

“Uh, where am I?” I asked. “Also, why do you know my name?”

The teen froze. “Uh… lucky guess?”

Okay…

As I formulated my next question, an elf with short, silver hair snuck up behind the kitsune girl and wrapped her arms around her partner’s waist. She appeared to be a young adult, though my fantasy knowledge reminded me that Elves mature slower than humans do. She was wearing the same uniform as the fox girl. Maybe she was this girl’s mentor or something?

“Hey, little fox, what am I killing you for?” The elf scanned the garden, her expression twisting into a frown as she made eye contact with me. “Again, Nina!?”

“It was an accident this time, I promise, Kei!” the fox girl protested. “It was only one more day before we could see them again anyway, so I thought-”

The elf, Kei, sighed. “Alright, I get it. You’re lucky you’re cute, y’know. I’ll go get Anna,” She wandered off back in the direction she came, leaving me alone with this strange girl again.

“Um, what do you mean, ‘one more day?’” I asked.

Nina’s resolve seemed to waver for a second. “Look, Sylvie, I’m in enough trouble as it is already. At this point, it’d probably be better to wait for Kei and Ama- Anna to come back.”

I obliged, standing up for a quick stretch, almost losing my balance in the process. As I flailed around, pastel pink strands of hair swarmed my vision, despite the fact that I’d never dyed my hair before. I wasn’t expecting to have to look up at Nina either, which explained my sudden lack of balance.

I stifled a yelp when something very fluffy and pink slapped my leg. To make matters worse, the perpetrator kept moving just outside my peripheral vision, making me spin in circles to try to get a look.

Nina started to giggle as she watched. “Uh, you know you’re chasing your tail, right, little sis?”

My… tail? My cheeks began to burn as I reached behind my back to confirm the existence of a new appendage. I felt my cheeks flush as I realized what was going on. I’d been chasing my tail. Like an idiot.

With my pride in shambles, I pat the rest of my body down for any other additions, from which I was able to glean that I now had a new set of animal ears on my head. Going off the fluffiness of my tail, I concluded that I’d probably been transformed into some sort of kitsune like Nina. Despite all that, I still wasn’t all that freaked about any of this. This form felt pretty familiar to me, actually. 

A melodic voice drew my attention away from my personal examination. “Ah, Sylvia. Welcome back,”

Kei had brought back a human woman who I assumed was Anna. She was dressed in a very fancy white kimono with a deep red ribbon and golden flowers lining its trim. A magatama fastened around her neck, glowing softly and shifting between an infinite number of colors. Just looking at her filled me with a sort of divine warmth.

“Thanks?” I answered cautiously. “But, I’ve never been here before. Where exactly is here anyway?”

Anna smiled knowingly. “You made a very important decision here several years ago. I would like to remind you of that, if you’ll allow me,”

“I don’t think there’s anything to remind me of,” I replied flatly. “Please, just tell me  what’s going on.”

“Then allow me,” Anna walked up to me and lightly pressed her finger on my forehead. Her touch felt warm and comforting. It was almost blissful, and I could only vaguely hear her chanting quietly. And then-

I staggered as memories of a different life flooded my thoughts. Or was it two different lives? Or one life that split into two lives, which somehow led to my current life?

…What?

I folded my ears, covering them with my hands as I struggled to process everything. “Okay, someone please walk me through this,” I whined. 

At some point during my confusion, Nina had caught me and had set me in her lap on the grass. “Okay. About ten years ago- well, ten years ago for us, I cast an incomplete spell that was supposed to swap our minds for a week. You were depressed, so it was supposed to be a fun experience for you. Instead, it brought you into Soulseeker Online as yourself.”

“Okay, I remember that. But I was a cis guy at the time, right? But I had this form when I got here?”

“Your body here was created as a reflection of your true self,” Kei said. “In other words, you may have thought you were a cis guy, but your soul certainly wasn’t.”

“My spell severed the link between your soul and body, so we decided to travel to Kin no Kaigan to ask the goddess for help,” Nina continued. “Kei came with us, and we met Alec on our way out of Tanbomachi.”

“Okay, I’m still following,” I said. “I have a question though. Why do I remember living in Tanbomachi with Nina?”

Kei frowned. “Well, we almost made it to the shrine, but the Knight Watch- the anti-cheat guards that were chasing us the whole trip- they captured you and Alec during the harvest festival, and Nina’s spell wore off. Your souls merged together and bam, memories about living together that you both insisted were the truth.”

“Then you and Nina called Karyl here to rescue us, and then Karyl, Alec, and I went back to the mundane world while Amateratsu dealt with all the side effects of the spell,” I finished. “There’s a lot still swimming around in my head, but I think I got a grasp on the basics. Although...”

Kei was watching my expressions closely. “Something wrong, Syl?”

“Well, a lot of the dysphoria and depression stuff from the past is going to take a while to pack away, but I’m kinda struggling with the fact that I guess I’m trans?”

A soft, almost cat-like purr escaped my lips as my sister stroked my hair, and every last thought in my head went out the door.

“It’s okay,” she cooed. “Don’t get too caught up in labels and stuff. There will be time to sort that out later if you really feel the need to.”

Anna spoke up, “I should apologize for overloading you like that, Sylvia.”

“It’s okay,” I reassured her. “Thank you for returning my memories, Anna.”

Thinking about it, I gave the goddess my memories ten years ago, right? Which meant Anna was actually...

“You’re Amater- mmmph!” Nina abruptly covered my mouth with her tail, and I got a mouthful of blue hair for my trouble.

“You are correct, little one,” Anna said. “Though, we should move somewhere safer before we discuss more. Come, follow me.” She led us out of the garden, towards the haiden on the far end of the shrine. The goddess waved her hands in front of the door, and it glowed briefly as it opened up. Anna gestured towards the door, and the four of us stepped through.