My name is Airi Nekomiya, and right now, I'm in a place I've never seen before.
The scenery around me is so beautiful that it almost feels unreal, like something straight out of a storybook.
There is no city noise here. No horns, no engines, no crowds. Only towering trees, dense shrubs, steep green slopes, and an endless stretch of ocean in the distance.
For some reason, it reminded me of a certain two-word game I used to play...
But to explain how I ended up here, I have to start with yesterday.
Airi only remembered that after a full day of work, he was on his way home that night.
Under the dim yellow glow of a streetlamp, he spotted a small black shape lying in the middle of the road.
When he got closer, he realized it was a little black cat, trembling in fear right there on the asphalt. Cars rushed past on both sides, while the poor thing stayed curled up in the middle, too scared to move.
It looked pitiful.
And so, Airi's soft-hearted side got the better of him, and he decided to help it.
He climbed over the roadside barrier and hurried into the middle of the road during a gap in traffic. Reaching down, he grabbed the kitten gently by the scruff of its neck. The little thing trembled, but did not resist. Maybe its legs had already gone weak from fear.
Airi did not have time to think about anything else. There was no crosswalk here, and even stepping into the road like this was frightening enough. He had to get out of there immediately.
But just then, a black car sped toward him from the left.
Airi wanted to get across as quickly as possible, so instead of stopping where he was, he kept moving, thinking...
The car would yield.
Cars were supposed to yield to people, right?
But apparently, the driver was thinking the exact same thing.
There was no sign of slowing down.
By the time the car was right in front of him, Airi's body reacted instinctively to the fear. He froze.
That helpless feeling, when your mind goes blank and your body refuses to move.
And then the black car suddenly accelerated.
"Bang!"
The impact sent both Airi and the cat flying.
Oddly enough, the pain did not come right away. As he was thrown into the air, a wave of regret hit him first.
What kind of rookie driver was this...?
Did she panic and stomp on the gas instead of the brake?
I should have just let her pass...
Airi crashed to the ground and rolled several times, but the car still did not slow down. It drove right over him.
"So not braking properly wasn't enough..."
"Why are you even following up with a finishing blow...?"
"Pfft..."
And just like that, after one last round of complaining, Airi and the cat collapsed into a pool of blood.
As feeling faded from his body, his consciousness began to slip away too.
"I think... I only made things worse..."
"Sorry, little one..."
Then everything went dark, and he was pulled into the embrace of death.
Silence swallowed all.
Who knew how much time passed before he felt something slowly returning to his body...
The instant his consciousness reentered, Airi felt a dizzying whirl in his mind. He slowly opened his eyes.
Above him was a vast blue sky, and all around him were unfamiliar plants he had never seen before.
Looking at the strange surroundings, Airi could not help but feel confused.
"Where... is this?"
"Who am I?"
"Didn't I die?"
"Or..."
The texture of the ground beneath him felt real. His senses sharpened, and his mind gradually cleared.
"I think... I came back to life..."
"Did I reincarnate?"
After all, he had read plenty of novels before he died. Scenarios like this were common enough in fiction. It was only now that Airi finally realized he had truly come back to life.
"So this is... the wilderness?"
But it also seemed he had arrived in a completely unfamiliar world.
The grass and trees around him felt real to the touch. The birds overhead and the chorus of insects did not sound dreamlike at all.
And this definitely did not feel like the place where he used to live, a place full of urban noise and industrial pollution.
Everything here was real.
"Don't tell me I got reincarnated into another world..."
"Is this one of those stories where I'm chosen by a goddess to become some hero...?"
Then he would get tricked into helping a bunch of strangers, forced to play the role of some self-sacrificing do-gooder.
After that, a long string of miserable events.
Then he would slowly grow stronger, fight the Demon King in the end, and die together with him.
Or maybe he would defeat the Demon King, only for the locals to grow wary of his power and kill him once he had outlived his usefulness.
But there was another possibility.
Maybe some part of a hero's body would be so useful that drinking it could raise levels and improve talent or something.
Then he would get locked away and endlessly harvested in some dark prison, only escaping after pretending to be stupid for years.
Then gather companions.
Then take revenge.
That kind of story.
"Even if that is the case..."
"Just thinking about it makes my head hurt..."
Airi was a lazy person by nature. If he could sit, he would never stand. If he could lie down, he would never sit.
Save the world?
Yeah, that was probably not happening.
Airi looked around and let out a breath of relief.
"Thank goodness there is nothing like a summoning altar nearby. I probably wasn't summoned here..."
And there had been no goddess either.
That meant he could probably avoid the whole hero route.
After that, he patted himself down and confirmed there were no injuries on his body.
He was still wearing the same white short-sleeved shirt from before his death. Printed on it was an image he had custom-made:
Crimson Witch of Flames
Pyro DMG Bonus
46.6%
+20
HP +269
ATK +4.7%
Elemental Mastery +23
CRIT Rate +19.7%
Shimenawa's Reminiscence
2-Piece Set: ATK +18%
4-Piece Set: When casting an Elemental Skill, if the character has 15 or more Energy, they lose 15 Energy, and Normal Attack, Charged Attack, and Plunging Attack DMG is increased by 50% for 10s. During this time, this effect will not trigger again.
"Mhm... this really was my favorite artifact."
"I even pulled for Yoimiya just because of it."
But the clothes that used to fit him perfectly were now hanging loosely off his body. His pants and shoes had grown too big as well.
It looked like he had gotten shorter.
Judging by his line of sight, he was probably around 165 centimeters tall now.
He had not been that tall to begin with, and somehow, after reincarnating, he had become even shorter. But what Airi cared about more was his face...
With that thought in mind, he hurried over to a nearby stream and splashed water on his face. Then he looked down at the reflection in the water.
"Wha... how can this be?!"
Looking back at him from the water was a young boy.
Messy black hair framed his forehead, with a loose strand falling on each side of his face, making his features seem even smaller and more delicate.
His skin was pale, his face soft and smooth, and his clear blue-black eyes shone like gemstones.
His thin, rosy lips were slightly parted in shock, revealing a tiny sharp canine beneath them.
His small nose tilted upward just a little.
But most importantly...
On top of his head were two furry black ears.
Dense white fluff lined the inside of them, and they looked completely real.
That face...
At a single glance, it was hard to look away.
Airi stared blankly at his own reflection, completely stunned.
Only after a long moment did he snap out of it and drop to the ground.
"Who put makeup on me while I was asleep and even gave me cat ears?!"
"No, wait. I got reincarnated..."
Before he had time to really process the ears, he suddenly felt something strange behind him, near his backside.
He turned around and looked.
There was a long black tail too.
"Wahhh?!"
A slightly youthful voice cried out loud.
"Whose body is this?!"
His facial features still resembled his old self, but his age and body had clearly become younger. His skin was paler too, and now he had added a pair of...
"Cat ears?"
"This is way too cute..."
(Of course, not as cute as my readers.)
Airi looked down at his own fair, spotless arms and fell into deep thought.
"..."
"How can a boy be this fair, this pretty, and even have a voice this nice?"
"Don't tell me..."
"Did I turn into some kind of beast-eared girl?!"
Panicking, Airi hurriedly checked.
"Thank goodness... it's still there..."
He let out a huge sigh of relief.
From now on, it was probably better not to look in the mirror too often. If he stared at himself any longer, he might actually get bent by his own looks...
Finally calming down, Airi stood up. The ears on top of his head twitched, and he stretched his limbs.
His first impression was simple.
Light.
His body felt incredibly light.
He decided to test the mobility of this new body.
After taking a deep breath, he ran forward.
He was fast. His body felt agile and weightless.
His coordination was excellent too. At the very least, he still moved like a normal person...
"..."
His ears could pick up sounds from far away, and his tail helped him keep his balance.
Compared to his old body, this one was much better suited for movement.
"So this is what being a beastkin feels like!"
"This is actually not bad. I guess I can accept it."
At that moment, he almost wanted to shout:
"Beastfolk will never be slaves!"
Once the excitement faded, Airi looked around again.
For some reason, the scenery felt strangely familiar.
"That tree... I feel like I've seen it somewhere before, but I can't remember where."
Forget it.
Since he had arrived in another world, he should focus on surviving well here.
As long as this was not the kind of opening where he got brutally killed right away...
Then revived over and over at the starting point, only to relive death again and again.
That kind of thing would be a nightmare.