I woke up. My conscious still a daze I sat up and was met with the silky texture of sand against my skin alongside the rocks and shells that poked it. My vision was met with the sunset against the ocean, slowly the sun kept falling as my attention was completely drawn to it. Only snapping out when a sudden wave of drowsiness hit me.
Holding my head, I was unable to resist and ended up blacking out again.
---=[PoV: 3rd Person]=---
A girl, with an average button nose with a mix of ocean and cobalt blue almond-shaped eyes and a thin mouth opened her eyes on the beach. She was dressed in men's clothing, consisting of a fancy suit and pants. She attempted to stand up and failed, as if she was a young baby.
She spoke softly before leaving.
"I guess I still need some getting used to this, don't I."
---=[PoV: Rose]=---
I woke up to the sound of barking, Fred's barking.
'Hmm? It's the weekend Fred, not the week, I need sleep.'
I absentmindedly pulled the covers over me, this was utterly futile. I did that only to have Fred jump onto my bed and lick my face until I got up.
"Stop, stop! Fine, I'll get up Fred, I'll get up!"
Laughing at his actions, I pet him until I realised. My hands were small. My voice was that of a girl's. I could see strands of cerulean and electric blue hair, dangling in front of my face. Fred licked me again, snapping me out of my daze.
I got up, ran to the mirror and looked at it.
A girl of 5'8, 4 inches shorter than my height before, entered my view. She had cobalt and ocean blue mixed color eyes, hair the same color of the strands I saw and average facial features. The second weirdest feature was a blue teardrop right below her left eye. Rather, it was shaped like one but, it wasn't one.
I stood there for a few seconds trying to comprehend the weirdest feature.
I was in a onesie. A blue onesie with dolphins on it. A sudden influx of information inside my head caused me to back up.
[What in the world are you doing? I'm really questioning the reason you were chosen at this moment.]
I backed up into the bed, falling on it and seeing the familiar Fred looking at my face afterwards.
Very confused but somewhat able to understand I thought up a question in my head.
{W-who, who are you?}
I stuttered a bit but got an answer nonetheless.
[A System that will tell you about any animal you meet and let you understand them and all their habits instantly. Here's an example.]
A screen showed up in front of my vision, causing me to jump away but it didn't move from where it was in my sights.
〘System: Ver-01.01
〚Species: Dog, (Labradoodle Breed: Red-brown fur) {Wolf Bloodline: [23%]}
Name: Frederick, Fred, Fiefie.
Family: Blood: Deceased. Considered Family: Rose Riso
Further Details: Locked.〛
Please Upgrade for Further Details.〙
My jaw dropped instantly. The only thing that kept me from shock was a weird instinctually lingering question.
{Are you the system or, are you a human?}
[...]
Seemingly surprised, there was silence until.
[...I used to be human. Let's leave it at that.]
Sighing, I said for some reason.
{Phew, I don't have to call you system-sama or sister system or something like from the webnovels then.}
An imaginary vein popped and the person rebutted instantly.
[Keep shit like that up and you'll be wishing you had to call me system-sama.]
With an additional chill down my spine as motivation, I got it in my head not to provoke her and said nodding.
{I'll stop! Please don't do whatever it is you were going to do.}
[Calm down and get ready.]
{Hmm? For what?}
I regretted asking that question.
Information flooded my head about the last two days. Yes, I had been unconscious for two days. No wonder Fred was worried.
From shopping to acting as my non-existent sister taking care of a sick me, the person in the system sorted everything out before coming back to my apartment and sleeping. All while avoiding my girlfri- my ex and her boyfriend.
{Thank you.}
[...what?]
{Thanks for doing this stuff.}
[...]
After a few minutes of silence I went towards my bathroom.
Seeing the familiar marble tiles, bath, shower and cabinets, I felt... nostalgia? It felt like I hadn't been here for weeks. I still haven't figured out what it was that I felt seeing that room but I know it was a positive feeling.
I sat down on the floor near the bath on my knees and ran the hot water. The time for the bath to fill during the awkward silence felt excruciatingly slow.
'Fill, fill, fill already damn it!'
It was finally filled a minute or so later, although that minute felt like a year to me.
Stopping the tap, I went back to my cozy bed and picked up the new phone the person in the system bought for me.
Thinking back to her, I realised something embarrassing.
{Now... now that I think about it, I don't know your name...}
She was silent for a while before speaking.
[...no, no I suppose you don't. My name is Janice.]
{Nice to meet you Janice, I'm, well, you know my name already.}
With my phone, I went back to the bathroom and set it on top of a cabinet and played my favorite song (A/N: False Confidence By Noah Kahan.) and sat in the bath, laying down and enjoying the sensation of water against my skin.
I felt as if I was in the most relaxing place in the world, at peace.
At home.
It made me wonder.
{Say, didn't I die? What exactly am I?}
[...Now you're asking? Really?]
A bit embarrassed I responded.
{I didn't really have time to ask earlier did I, with Fred licking my face and you feeding me information.}
[Not a bad point I suppose. If you want you can just say 'status' like in the webnovels or you can assign a keyword or phrase for it.]
'A keyword or phrase...'
Jōtai was the first thing I thought of. It was Japanese for status but then again... I thought it'd be a bit mainstream like that wouldn't it...
Eventually I thought of something.
{I'll go with 'situation' as the keyword.}
[Not going mainstream I see.]
{Nah, it'd be a bit boring wouldn't it?}
[True. Anyways, it's registered. Try it out.]
'The situation please.'
»Loading Command«
»Command Successful«
»Displaying 'Situation'«
»Name: Rose Riso
Species: Embodiment of Water (Quarter Goddess)
Current Forms: Human, Mermaid, Dragonoid, World Serpent (Aquatic Variant), Water Dragon
Locked Forms: »Error, Unable to display«
Family: Blood - 17, Considered - 3
Talents: Visualization, Water Breathing, Water and Illusion Control, Teaching«
All that got out of me was a single and simple word of shock.
"Huh."