Possession? TS? Ah, I Get It Perfectly!
Possession? TS? Ah, I get it perfectly!
"Uwheeeeng, thank goodness... No. 594! You're awake!"
I just patted the back of the white-furred fox-eared beauty who was clinging to me, sobbing her eyes and nose out. ...But who the hell was she?
My last memory was clear: walking down a street in the heart of Seoul, South Korea, when some lunatic stabbed me in the back with a knife. I'd writhed in agony before blacking out and losing consciousness. It was one of those random knife attacks that had been all over the news lately. Horrific experience, sure, but even if I'd died, I wouldn't have had many regrets about life. As an orphan with no one close, there'd be no one mourning me. I was your average(?) twenty-something Korean dude scraping by day-to-day as an otaku. No savings or anything before I kicked the bucket... My hard drive was kinda embarrassing, but no one would go digging through it anyway.
So, the end of my old life didn't shock me much. I was just kinda dumbfounded. Where was this? Who was I? And who was this cute girl bawling her eyes out in front of me? The moment I opened my eyes, I was thrust into a situation where I knew nothing.
Of course, I had a rough idea. Call me an expert! In my past life, I'd devoured manga, anime, games, web novels—you name it, every genre under the sun. I'd seen this setup plenty of times.
Aaah, possession, huh.
It didn't take long to realize I'd possessed someone else's body. Judging by the girl crying in my arms, the original owner of this body had probably died... and my soul had taken over instead. Or something like that.
Ah, I got it perfectly... I mean, I got it perfectly, but...
Something felt off with my senses. My ears felt like they were perched on top of my head, and there was this fluffy clump of fur attached to my butt... And where the hell were the two balls and one pillar that should be in my crotch?
I tried making a sound: "Aah," and out came a voice like jade beads rolling—clear and crisp, but way too thin for a guy's. Got it. TS, huh.
Ah... yeah, I got that perfectly too! I must've become a beastkin cutie with animal ears and a tail, just like the girl in front of me.
No mirror to check, so I couldn't confirm if I was a total babe... but TS tropes being what they are, probably.
"Um... sorry, but who are you exactly?"
"Uwaaaah! No. 594! You forgot me?!"
Aside from the fact that I was apparently a beastkin girl(?), I had no clue about anything else. Who was I? Who was this kid crying her heart out? Where the hell were we? And what did "No. 594" even mean, the way she was calling me?
"It's me, me! No. 727! We met five hours ago and became friends!"
"...Five hours ago doesn't make us besties. Calling me No. 594 is weird too, and No. 727? That doesn't sound like a real name. What gives?"
"Huh? No. 594, you don't remember...? Did the exam proctor's ninjutsu hit you too hard and mess up your memory?"
"Ninjutsu?"
"Yeah, we're here for the ninja exam, right? So they wiped all our memories except basic knowledge with ninjutsu. And No. 594 and No. 727 are just our assigned numbers."
"Nin... ninja?"
Ninja? What the—? This some bullshit? The ninjas I knew? NINJA: superhuman physiques, magic-like powers, lurking in the shadows as Japanese superheroes. Dropped into a story outta nowhere, massacring characters left and right—a postmodern blast of pure fun for readers! Shooting chi blasts and whatnot from their palms in epic chest-thumping battles... uh, copyright infringement? Anyway, that ninja!
From what the white-furred fox beastkin girl calling herself No. 727 told me, the situation boiled down to this:
First, me and this girl were from the Inari fox beastkin tribe. There were apparently various fox clans, but the Inari had something special: an elite class handling politics, security, combat, espionage, assassinations, and more. That was the "Inari ninja," according to her.
Second, we'd been dragged into this exam. To recruit new blood, the Inari ninjas tested nearly 1,000 kids at a time... but it was so brutal they couldn't recruit volunteers. So, forced conscription it was. Often, they'd buy "useless eaters"—kids who weren't much help with labor—from their parents for peanuts. And there were more girls than boys, since families sold off daughters first for better labor from sons.
She figured we'd been sold here by our parents.
Third, our memories—except basic knowledge—had been erased to mold us into ninjas. No past experiences, no parents who sold us, not even our own names. So she had no choice but to call herself No. 727... and me No. 594. We had no names.
Hmm...! Got it perfectly.
And while training as ninjas, the original owner of this body died in that "exam," so I'd possessed it instead. All clicking into place.
Hmm, so that's how it went down...? But what kinda exam kills you? If it's deadly enough to off someone, wait... am I screwed too?
"Huh? You don't remember the Trial of Fire? Look at that cave."
"Whoa, smoke's billowing out..."
"They lit a fire pit inside and locked us in. To learn Fire Escape or whatever..."
"......"
Apparently, in this world, you learned Fire Escape by jumping into a fire pit. Holy shit... the original kid in this body must've burned or suffocated on smoke.
Wait, so my face... it's fine, right? No burn scars?
"Hey, um... no skin damage from burns or anything, right?"
"Nah, you're fine, fine... The flames avoided you, so you must've mastered Fire Escape. But you inhaled all that cave smoke and just keeled over."
"Hmm..."
Mastered Fire Escape? Hmm... Come to think of it, there was this hot energy simmering in my chest. Hard to describe, but it was there.
I pushed it to my palm... Paat! A flame burst to life.
Oh ho... so this is Fire Escape...
"Woooah! Amazing, how'd you do that?! Not just controlling fire—you made it yourself!"
"That's the Inari ninja's basic ninjutsu, Fox Fire. You hone it too, No. 727."
"E-exam proctor!"
As I ignited a flame in my palm, someone scolded No. 727 for her outburst. Unlike our ragged sacks, she wore luxurious Japanese-style robes and a white fox mask covering her face except her mouth—an ageless woman.
From No. 727 calling her "exam proctor," she must be one of the big shots running this trial. A real ninja, probably.
"You're No. 594, right?"
"Y-yes...? Um, yes..."
"Black, huh. Rare for fox beastkin... They say it's either auspicious or ominous."
"......"
"Igniting Fox Fire without instruction—impressive. I'll be watching you."
Somehow, I got praised... Bonus: No. 727 was going "whoaaa" next to me. Ehehe, feels nice getting props...
But the good vibes didn't last. Minutes after kids started coughing their way out of the cave, no one else emerged. Exam over.
Then laborers went in, hauling out... charred corpses. Burned child bodies.
"How many died?"
"Uh... around 500-plus inside, milady."
"So at least 400 survived. Excellent... Almost a shame to cull them all."
......Over 500 dead? And what the hell was with those reactions?
500+ kids dead, and she's just appraising them...? Even saying she'd kill all the survivors from that hell?
"Can't be helped. Only one ninja emerges per exam. It's proof of superhumanity."
Just one? Meaning everyone else dies?
No. 727 said nearly 1,000 kids per exam. Over 500 dead already. Around 400 left... gasping after crawling out. All normal fox-eared, tailed kids like us—except one, all doomed?
What heaven? What thanks to god...? This was hell. A living hell that ground kids to dust without blinking.
Talk about bad luck—I'd possessed into a brutal, hopeless tale.
......
....
That's what I thought back then. It was much later—after ages passed—that I realized this world was full of dreams, adventures, hope... and academy youth.
In a group of over 1,000 kids, I was the sole survivor in this world.