Fox, She Became a Fox
It had been fifty years since towers and gates, the sort of things one only used to see in comics and novels, had first appeared in this world.
Awakened individuals had begun to emerge, hauling countless relics out of the towers or bringing back mana stones from the monsters inside, fueling the country’s development...
...
Putting aside the winding, pretentious version of the story, the short version was simple: awaken, climb the tower, and a bright future awaited you.
But the ratio of Awakened to ordinary people was only one in a hundred, which made Awakened individuals quite rare.
I was an ordinary person who had been praying for awakening with all her heart... no, maybe not exactly ordinary.
I had only just graduated from high school, and the people who were supposed to be my parents had abandoned me, leaving behind only debts amounting to hundreds of millions of won before fleeing.
They had even taken everything worth taking from the house, and when I found out they had stolen the money I had worked so hard to earn at part-time jobs, all I could do was laugh in disbelief.
Bang, bang, bang.
"If you borrowed money, you should pay it back!"
Then men who looked like loan sharks started pounding on the door, and I ended up abandoning the place and running away.
Walking the streets with nothing at all in my hands felt truly miserable.
I wandered without a destination, and before I knew it the sun had begun to set. My body and heart both exhausted, I slipped into a narrow alley, laid down a cardboard box abandoned nearby, and sat on it.
"..."
Time passed, and night fell, but the city around me glowed brightly and dazzlingly.
On a billboard, an advertisement featuring an S-class Awakened as the model flashed across the screen.
The contrast with me was so complete that I only felt even more pathetic.
Grrr...
As if the oblivious stomach in my body had to go and growl too, I let out a sigh of my own.
"I'm hungry... I'm cold..."
I had no friends or acquaintances to ask for help, and tears welled up in my eyes. I roughly wiped them away and looked up at the sky.
The bright moon seemed especially hateful tonight, and yet I still prayed desperately.
"Please give me a chance..."
And then, the next day.
You have awakened.
"...Huh?"
When I opened my eyes on top of the box, a translucent window was floating in front of me.
"Aw...aken?"
It was only after staring at it for a moment that I realized this was a status window, and that I had awakened.
"W-whoa!"
I jumped to my feet in delight, but then I suddenly noticed that my field of vision was lower than usual.
It was so low that I could tell even before I could properly see around me through the status window.
"What?"
Slowly looking down, I saw tiny hands, and below them, the pants I had been wearing were slumped down around my legs.
"Kya!"
The sight of my pants falling off made me scream in a strange voice, but that was not the only odd thing.
My shirt had also become far too large and was slipping down little by little, and there was a strange sensation on top of my head.
"What on earth is going on?"
I carefully moved toward a place nearby where rainwater had pooled on the ground.
"What is this!!"
There, a small fox beastman was staring back at me.
Fox ears with an eye-catching orange hue, like the evening glow, had sprung upright, and a fluffy tail that looked soft and plush swayed in the wind.
Her eyes sparkled gold, eyes that seemed as though they would never lose their light, even in a dark alley.
It was as if someone had trapped the sun inside amber.
Her face looked young, small and delicate enough that I could have believed she was still in elementary school... no, even younger.
In short, she was incredibly small, incredibly cute, and looked incredibly weak...
A young female fox beastman.
The problem was that the girl was me, reflected in the water.
"Calm down. Yes, if I think of it as a new start, it might not be so bad."
Forcing myself to stay calm by lying to myself, I looked back at the status window.
"First, I need to check my status."
I decided to properly inspect the window in front of me.
It was shocking that my body had turned into this, but if I had grown stronger, then maybe I would never have to sleep on a cold floor or go hungry again...
"Is someone there?"
"Kya!!"
Startled by the sudden voice, I leaped into the air, then looked around in a panic.
And then I spotted the box I had been sitting on yesterday and immediately threw myself into it.
Thanks to how small my body had become, I fit perfectly inside.
It's surprisingly cozy.
For some reason, the box felt very snug and warm.
At this size, I'm invincible!
"I could have sworn someone was here... oh?"
A middle-aged woman who had entered the alley looked flustered after seeing the pants and shoes lying on the ground.
"Goodness, who would just leave clothes near a shop..."
Not long after awakening, I didn't know it at all, but my tail was bigger than I expected and stuck plainly out of the box where I was hiding.
On top of that, it was slowly swaying back and forth, and the woman saw it and froze solid.
"..."
The woman stared blankly at my tail, then cautiously reached out and grabbed it.
"KYA!!!"
"Eek?!"
The moment she caught my tail, an unfamiliar sensation shot up from my tail along my spine, and I screamed.
And then instinct shouted at me.
Danger.
Run.
So I surrendered my body to instinct and bolted from the spot with the box still on my head.
I couldn't see ahead because of the box, and I crashed into things several times, but I still didn't stop running.
When I finally came to my senses, I realized I was already far from where I had started.
"This is definitely near Back Mountain... so when did I run all the way here?"
The box I had been wearing was completely wrecked, and I was a little sad that my cozy little space was gone, but when I looked around and confirmed that I had shaken her off completely, I let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness..."
Then a sudden question surfaced in my mind.
Why had I even felt relieved in the first place? And why had I run at all?
"..."
It felt like my head was full of a pale, foggy mist... but it wasn't uncomfortable.
Hmm... now that I think about it, being wary of strangers I'd never met before does seem like the right call.
Besides, I had found my perfect hiding place, and she had gone straight for my weak point, my tail, so I gave myself a stamp of praise for getting away so well.
Grrr...
"...!"
Just as the tension left me, my stomach growled again, and my ears and tail drooped listlessly.
"Come to think of it, I haven't eaten properly in days."
Even if I had awakened, I was still a person, and I needed something to eat if I wanted to live. Unfortunately, right now I had absolutely nothing.
On top of that, while running away just now, I had lost my shoes and socks, along with my pants.
I still had the shabby shirt I was wearing, but since I had gotten smaller, even that seemed like it might slip right off.
As if refusing to lose even this, I tugged hard at the shirt that was threatening to slide off and made up my mind.
"It's fine. I never really had anything proper to begin with anyway. Yes, this is familiar."
I had awakened and ended up with a body like this, but maybe that was actually a good thing, since I could escape a life that was nothing but debt. Even if I had no ability at all, hadn't I already gotten out from under a debt of hundreds of millions of won?
And if I had awakened, then I should at least be able to do manual labor. Surely I could live a life more comfortable than before.
"All right, I've decided. I'm starting a new life!"
To commemorate this resolution, I decided to throw away my name... or rather, my surname.
It was the only thing I had inherited from my parents, but I was not kind enough to keep using the name of the people who had abandoned me.
If I ever ran into them again, I would bite their hands clean off!
And I would succeed so spectacularly that they would regret everything!
"My name is Naru... just Naru! I'm going to succeed brilliantly in my new life!"
Grrr...
Even as I was making my grand, magnificent resolution, my tactless stomach protested again, demanding food.
"I'm hungry..."
Then, from somewhere, the rich scent of meat drifted past on the wind.
When I was little and hungry, I used to pass by restaurant alleys and endure the craving by only smelling the meat, so I could practically call myself a meat-scent expert.
And this was a meat scent I had never smelled before.
How should I put it? It was a rich, savory meat fragrance, but mixed into it was the distinct smell of fish, a very unusual yet somehow elegant aroma.
Gulp.
Without meaning to, I swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth and, following instinct, slowly walked toward the source of the scent.
Stones dug into my bare feet and hurt, but that was still not enough to stop a hungry predator in her tracks.
I had no money and nothing to my name, so there was no way I could eat the meat giving off such a tempting aroma, but I still wanted to know what kind of food could possibly smell like that.
...
I absolutely did not intend to steal it.
Of course, I had also considered the possibility of taking some now and promising to pay it back later with interest... ahem, promising to pay it back later.
Besides, who in the world was the owner of this smell?
Since I was near Back Mountain, was it a soup rice restaurant?
Or maybe just a regular barbecue place?
Or could it be one of those fancy Western steak restaurants?
The closer I got, the faster my steps became, and at last I found the source of the smell.
And I despaired.
"..."
The identity of the irresistible food I had been smelling.
It was nothing more than cheap cat food someone had left out on Back Mountain for the stray cats.
"No way something like this could smell that good..."
Shocked that I had been drooling over the smell of cat food, I dropped to my knees, only for that even more seductive scent to keep luring me on.
No matter what, I didn't want to give up my human dignity, but before I knew it, my right hand was already reaching toward the food.
"Right... this is an experiment. I'm just curious what it tastes like, that's all, just a little... no, just one handful. And anyway, what if it's dangerous for cats? I'm only checking it."
As I lied to myself and slowly reached out to grab the food,
smack.
"!!!"
A black stray cat slapped my hand away and looked at me with an expression of utter contempt.
"W-what?"
"Meow."
"Don't tell me this is your territory?"
The black cat, with a scar over one eye, glared at me sharply, and I tensed up, wary.
Judging by that attitude, it was probably a cat of fairly high rank around here.
How dare a cat block the path of Naru, an Awakened...
Fine. I shall defeat you and take this territory for myself!
Bring it on!!