In a completely dark space.
A small, snow-white fox was lying motionlessly on the ground. The only thing that made it seem alive was the slight heaving of its little chest as it breathed.
Suddenly, it twitched, and its eyes slowly began to flutter as it tried to open them. After it finally managed to open its eyes, it was greeted by the sight of nothing but complete darkness. It couldn't see anything.
The little fox tried to look around, but it was in vain. The place it found itself in was completely dark.
'Where am I?' Such a question appeared in the little fox's mind, confused as to where it was. It couldn't understand the current situation. As its thoughts raced with different possible answers, a sudden flash of light woke it up from its reverie, and then...
*Rumble*
A loud sound resounded from the distance, reverberating throughout the seemingly confined space the little fox found itself in. It was lightning and thunder.
The instance of light provided by the lightning was enough for the little fox to at least catch a glimpse of its current location. Cold stone walls, like those of a cave. Combined with how the thunder echoed once it reached this place, the probability of it being a small cave was considerably high.
'But even if that was the case, how did I get here?' Though it received an answer to its previous question, the little fox now felt even more confused.
'Now that I think about it, where should I be? Maybe this isn't weird?' Its own thoughts begin to seem foreign to the little fox. For some reason, it didn't seem to be able to recall where it was previously. Actually, the little fox couldn't remember being anywhere before it suddenly appeared here.
'Ugh, my head.' As a sudden wave of pain kicked in, the little fox reached out to its head to clutch it, or at least it tried to. What the little fox didn't realize was that its 'hands' were too short to reach its head. Actually, it didn't even have actual hands.
This wouldn't normally be weird; after all, a fox shouldn't have hands but rather paws, but this seemed like something unbelievable to the little fox.
*Rumble*
'W-what?' With another flash of light, the little fox caught a glimpse of its front paws, finally realizing that something was very wrong. 'P-paws? What happened to my hands?'
This definitely wasn't a reaction a normal fox would have, and indeed, this particular fox was anything but normal. Though it was a fox in body, its soul was that of a human—a woman, to be precise.
The woman inside the fox's body couldn't understand how this happened. She clearly remembered being a human, or did she? As that slight doubt appeared in the little fox's mind, it, or rather she, quickly shook her head.
'No, I was definitely a human, stupid.' The terrifying thing was that the more she thought about it, the more she started to doubt she was a human.
'What is happening to me!?' As desperation kicked in and tears threatened to fall, the little fox, as if it were magic, abruptly calmed down.
The little fox, who was starting to freak out due to her own confusion, suddenly calmed down and just continued to lie on the floor. Even stranger, she didn't seem to notice this abrupt change.
As if nothing happened, the little fox just lied on the cold, stone floor without moving at all. This continued on until the sounds of falling rain subsided and the storm calmed down.
Only when the storm seemed to have passed completely did the little fox finally get up and walk to where she thought was the exit of the cave.
'It should be around... here!' As she wandered around the darkness, she finally managed to catch a glimpse of a few rays of sunlight that managed to get inside through the stone walls. And sunlight means an exit to the outside!
With newfound energy and vigor, the little fox ran towards the light, and soon, it finally saw it—the outside world. It was a beautiful sight, full of greenery untouched by human hands.
'Amazing, you would have to look very hard to find a place like this on... wait, what was the name of the planet I lived on? No, no. Why am I even assuming that I'm in a different world in the first place!?'
It seemed that after the little fox got out of the cave, her intense emotions finally returned, but even then, something was still undeniably different.
Though it may have seemed like the little fox was panicking and freaking out, in reality, she was actually rather calm. Yes, she might be disturbed by the fact that she can't remember the name of the world she came from or by the fact that she thought she was in a different world, but she didn't panic.
Taking a deep breath, the little fox decided to put those aside and instead walked outside the cave. The place she found herself was a clearing surrounded by high trees. At its center was a considerably small lake.
The fox approached the lake and gazed into the crystal-clear water. The lake's water was amazingly pure, without any signs of pollution. And since the lake was so clean, it served as an amazing mirror.
As the little fox gazed into her reflection, she couldn't help but be momentarily dazed. What stared back at her from the water was the small head of a furry creature.
Its fur was snow white, seemingly without a speck of dirt in it. A pair of fluffy-looking ears of the same color popped up from its top. Its blue eyes shone like a pair of the most precious aquamarines, and under each eye, a light blue mark sat proudly on display.
Turning around to the side a bit, she could see the rest of the creature's small body. Just like its head, the rest of the fur on its body was snow white; the same could be said about the creature's fluffy tail.
The little creature was undeniably a fox, but it looked unlike any fox the soul inside it could remember. The fox looked magical, giving off a mystical vibe. But none of that mattered to the soul inside at the moment; what mattered was...
'Cute! So cute!' The fox squealed happily as proof of its excitement. But this excitement died out almost immediately as the fox began to feel pain as if its head were being split apart.
"Kyuuuu!" What were before squeals of happiness now turned into those of pain as the fox writhed on the ground. The pain caused its mind to go blank, and its vision slowly started to blur out. Soon, it blacked out completely, and the fox fell unconscious.
-----
In an empty space that was whiter than a piece of paper.
A silhouette of a person was floating in the vast emptiness. The silhouette was completely black, without any visible details. Based on the shape of its figure and the length of its hair, it most probably belonged to a woman.
'Where am I?' The woman thought. It was, in fact, the same woman whose soul was inside the body of the little fox. Moments later, after she passed out due to the sheer amount of pain she felt, she woke up in this place.
She couldn't move, and all she saw was a completely white emptiness. She couldn't feel or hear anything either; she couldn't even speak. The only thing she could do was stare and float.
Who knows how much time has passed? For the woman, it felt like she was there for but an instant, yet eternity at the same time. How was this possible? She didn't know.
Despite the strange situation she found herself in, she was calm. The emptiness that gently embraced her body made her mind feel at ease. She felt as if a part of herself, which she never knew even existed, had finally returned to her.
After an unknown amount of time, something has changed. She didn't know when, but at some point, the little fox she saw in the lake's reflection appeared in the woman's field of vision.
The two stared at each other for some time, but then suddenly, the woman's vision started to blur again. At this point, the little white fox smiled, and before the woman's vision blacked out completely, she heard a soft, happy-sounding voice.
"Welcome back. Now we'll never be separa-"
She couldn't hear it all.
-----
The little fox's eyes fluttered, and the next moment, she jolted awake, looking around warily. Only once she saw that she was back at the familiar clearing did she finally sigh in relief.
'I'm back.' The fox calmed down considerably; actually, it felt better than ever right now. She felt as if she was finally complete.
But this relief and comfort didn't last long, as before the little fox could even do anything, something strange happened yet again...
[Installation complete. Greetings Aurora.]
'Huh?' Huuuuuuh!?'