The Door (6)

“What the hell—what is this!?”

The photo FallingForever had posted.

It was blurry enough that the other gallery users dismissed it as a crude photoshop, but no matter how I looked at it, it was unmistakably the exact spot in this corridor where I had lain down, in a pose so similar it had to be real — a photo that could only have been taken directly.

FallingForever had said, don't underestimate the power of angels~, but.

Thinking it over and over again, I had never once seen a winged person.

“No way something like this is actually possible?”

Other Backrooms photos — is this real?

“Kgh!..”

But now was not the time to be debating that.

My arm, deeply gashed and burned, looking like it had received only the crudest of first aid. My back, where splattered molten metal ached as if I'd been impaled through by a long spear. A searing, stinging agony that felt like my whole body was on fire.

I was already a wreck among wrecks.

On top of that, I'd thrown one of my shoes away somewhere, and the remaining one had burned and melted here and there to the point where I half-wondered if it even counted as a sandal anymore.

“Treatment. Treatment first..”

Dragging my legs, nearly crawling, I moved slowly toward the door of Room 3I2.

The small door, still open with the fox tail poking through. I crawled inside and looked down — the melted, wrinkled skin all over my front legs, fur scorched, stood out all the more vividly.

Slowly, gritting my teeth against the pain ringing through my entire body, I made my way to where the pond had been.

“..Kyang?”

What the..?

There, in front of the pond, sat a single black fox that had definitely not been anywhere in the room before.

Perhaps it had seen the horrific state of my body, because the black fox tilted its head and kept staring at me.

Don't know. That's not what's important right now.

One step at a time into the pond.

Splash!

“Kyeaagh..!”

The pond water touching my burned skin made the pain even worse, and I screamed.

Sploosh!

But I didn't climb back out — instead, I swallowed the water, washing away the burning thirst, and submerged my entire body in the pond.

And then, before I knew it — barely any time had passed since I'd started enduring the pain underwater — the agony that had felt like it would last forever vanished without a trace.

“Kyaaang..”

It worked.

My body, hovering on the edge of death, had been restored to full health.

Sploosh!

“Kuhooh!”

When I poked my head out of the water, I could feel ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it completely — the crisp forest air filling my lungs, utterly different from moments before.

I was splashing around in excitement when I spotted the black fox staring intently at me, and I calmed down at once.

“Kyang..?”

What are you saying? I became a beast, but I don't speak beast.

Or maybe beasts just act on pure instinct and don't have conversations at all.

If you're curious, ask the beasts and find out.

When I approached, it retreated; when I backed off, it came closer again.

It kept a certain fixed distance from me at all times.

Maybe it was in a Scanning.. state.

Then again, where had it even been?

I hadn't dug up the entire ground, so maybe it had been sleeping somewhere inside, with the entrance blocked off by brush?

And could this fox even leave this room?

Thinking of the machines, it shouldn't be able to — but it's not a machine, it's a living creature, so maybe it can. Then again, that giant eyeball couldn't get out either, and calling that a living creature is a stretch, isn't it?

But saying nothing inside a room can ever leave doesn't hold either — that invisible thing from the glass door followed me freely, passing through doors wherever I went, didn't it?

I really want to ask, but I don't speak fox.

“Kyang-kyang.”

“????”

Behold the dumbfounded expression that question left on my face. To you, I am a true beast among beasts who speaks zero languages.

The original plan was to go back to the flat rock where I'd slept and rest there again.

But I had no way of knowing whether this creature was friendly or not, so I couldn't bring myself to move.

To put it bluntly, in the world of predator-position animals, everyone is like a person holding ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a kitchen knife — a savage place where a claw or tooth to the throat or another vital spot earns you nothing but mealtime for the sake of destroying the evidence.

Then the fox slowly approached me.

What kind of reaction would it be? I parted my lips slightly and clenched my paws tight.

It circled around me once, then came even closer.

Is it going to bite? Tear me apart? If it does, I can handle it now. Unlike me, who kept turning my head to keep it in view, it had lowered its head, baring its own neck openly.

But.

Flick.

The fox didn't open its mouth — it stretched out its tongue in one long line and gave my nose a little lick.

Okay. Whew..

The tension drained away all at once.

So it doesn't turn hostile toward its own kind (or the appearance of one).

Or maybe not. We're in the pond right now, so maybe it figures any attack would just heal anyway?

Doubt has no end. I need to restrain myself.

And looking into those clear eyes, I didn't think it was thinking that deeply at all.

I climbed out of the pond, shook myself with a shiver to dry my wet fur, and climbed onto the flat rock.

The black fox followed and settled down at one side of the rock.

Man, so much has happened to me, seriously..

It couldn't have been more than a few hours, but I couldn't tell whether the drowsiness came from being in a fox's body or from how exhausting everything had been — I decided to think about it later, curled up, and closed my eyes.

“Ka-haam..”

After some time had passed, my eyes opened naturally — and the black fox sitting beside me woke up along with me.

Hm. I'm leaving. Can you follow me out?

I pushed through the brush and walked to the door.

When I crossed through it and looked back, I saw the black fox inside the doorway, flustered, glancing around in confusion.

“Can it not see the door?”

Unlike the eyeball, the machines, or the transparent thing, maybe it simply couldn't perceive the door itself and only felt like it had vanished into thin air.

But it soon confirmed my presence and realized this was no time to dwell on that.

“It got worse..?”

Before, only my forearms had turned fox-like, and the return trip had taken an hour — no wait, 4T0 runs at double speed, so two hours.

But now?

My arms and legs had all transformed into fox ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠limbs.

The skeleton still looked human, but there was reddish-brown fur and paw pads, and sharp claws on every single finger.

And considering I'd slept inside that room and come back out — could it be that far more of my body had turned fox and then reverted..? Could I even call it reverted?

“Doesn't look like it's going back..”

Unlike before, it didn't seem to be returning to normal?

Wait.

Could it be that I only revert to human limbs inside 4T0?

“Time to borrow the power of 4T0.”

I took out my phone, set a timer, and stepped inside 4T0.

The timer: two seconds ticked up for every one.

The clock on 4T0's wall: one second per second.

“The area from elbow to shoulder was doubled, so that's x2, the legs are newly added, so another x2, and time itself flows at double, so multiply it all together — eight hours to recover, maybe..?”

Except, unlike before, there was no sign of the human form pushing its way back in little by little from the extremities.

Since I was in 4T0 anyway, I used the bathroom and took some food out of the refrigerator.

“No clothes, though..”

For now, I'd have no choice but to keep wearing my clothes, burned and torn and ragged as they were.

What I took from the fridge was curry. I microwaved it until it was piping hot, and a delicious aroma bloomed from the steaming bowl.

“But there's no rice.”

No, seriously — it gave me a fully prepared dish, but only the curry itself. Curry counts as a dish on its own.. technically.

There was buckwheat soba, so I pulled out just the noodles and mixed them into the curry.

The refrigerator never could have imagined it would become a soba-curry fridge.

“And no kimchi either.”

Kimchi with curry is a god-tier pairing even foreigners acknowledge.

How on earth does she take them?

Is there some kind of magic that lets you see other Backrooms?

The Main Mod flat-out declared that space-type magic and the like can't be used inside the Backrooms.

But something like the method the Main Mod used to create the gallery — a way of making things visible — might be able to pass between Backrooms.

Ta-da-da-dan~

So I ate my meal and idly browsed the gallery while waiting out the endless eight hours, until the eight-hour alarm went off.

The result:

“Didn't come back.”

My limbs, still fox-transformed.

So I just can't go back to human limbs? And these shoes are so uncomfortable I can't even wear them. Tsk, whatever.

As I was thinking that, the moment when my body healed and the pain vanished completely suddenly came to mind.

Still, healing is healing — my whole body didn't transform, after all.

And the moment I realized that, my limbs turned human again.

“Huh?”

Once it reverted, a thought struck me.

If I recalled that feeling from back in the pond — when the pain vanished as if it had never been —

“Whoa..?”

Reddish-brown fur sprouted thick and fast from the skin of my limbs, wrapping them entirely, and my claws sharpened like well-honed daggers.

And just like that, my limbs were fox-shaped again.

Along with the Limb Fox-Transformation, it felt as if I'd acquired some kind of on-off ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠switch in my mind.

“Seems like the gallery's full of fur lovers, but no fur gallery posters.”

Somehow, I found myself wanting to make a list of gallery users I absolutely never want to meet.