Once in a Blue Moon
Chapter 1 of a long series I will write. The main plot won't have any yiff, but they'll be plenty of room for sidestories later on.
Have you ever wanted to be someone else? Somewhere, sometime else? Look in the mirror. Is the image looking back really you? Is this really your life? Is it everything you want, everything you dreamed of, is it just good enough, or did it betray everything you believed in? Do you know that person staring back at you in the mirror, is it really you, or is it just an illusion? One man is about to discover that the face in the mirror, may not be true.
Once in a Blue Moon
Ch1
A young man sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose as he stared longingly into the night sky. The bright stars of the serene country sky contrasted greatly with the emotional torrent raging within his mind. There were so many things he did not understand, so many desires left unfulfilled. All he wanted was love, but that love seemed so far out of reach. His mind formed an image of a beautiful blonde woman, with blue grey eyes that out shined the stars of the sky. She would never love him, not the way he wanted, but no matter how much he reminded himself of that fact he could not shake her from his mind. His friends' love did little to dull the pain she caused him, and his guilt drove his spirit down farther. He was at his limit, and could feel his mind caving in around him, but could do nothing to stop it. He didn't want to die, but there seemed so few possibilities left.
He shut his eyes against the tears and tried to force his discipline back into place. He hated crying, the feeling of vulnerability. But as he tried to force down his emotions once again he could see a light against his eyelids. He opened his eyes to see a glowing sphere hovering in front of him, not a few feet away. His instinctual curiosity overrode his conflicted mind and he cautiously reached for the glowing white ball. He felt it crackle with energy and pulled away, fear and fascination warring with his consciousness. The ball expanded into a glowing disk, and an arc of light caught him in the shoulder, burning through his t-shirt.
His instincts screamed to flee, but he couldn't, his curiosity was too overwhelming. He felt a force pulling his body towards the white disk. His mind finally gave in, and he turned to run, but the pull grew. It felt like a great vacuum sucking him in, and the sudden surge threw him off balance. He flipped backwards but dug his fingers and steel toes into the cold winter ground. He couldn't escape it. The more he resisted the stronger the pull became. Finally, it lifted him off the ground and drew him in feet first.
He barely even registered the immense burning sensation as the vortex swallowed him; too many things were running through his mind. This wasn't what he wanted. His friends, his family, he didn't want to hurt them. This wasn't how it was supposed to end. He couldn't die, not when there were still people that cared about him. He reached out his hand desperately as the light enveloped his peripheral vision, and cried out the name of the lover that had forsaken him, and then everything went dark.
***
He could still see her face, but he couldn't move, couldn't see anything else. He could feel nothing, hear nothing, see only his love's face. His mind seemed to reform around the image, and the emotional pained welled back up as strong as ever.
So I really did get sent to Hell. He told himself. I guess it wasn't just the depression then.
However, as he stared into her shining eyes he began to feel warmth against his body. The warmth quickly built into an intense heat, then the intense burning sensation he had felt when being pulled into the vortex. The pain was too intense for him to handle, and he lashed out at the image with all his will.
He heard a woman's scream and felt his arm lash out where the image had once been. He opened his eyes, just to be blinded by a bright light, and heard the woman's voice call out in pain again as he pressed his hands to his eyes. He could feel the familiar texture of his long hair against his back, but nothing else felt right. Instead of his favorite soft flannel bed sheets, he felt course, stiff material against his body. Where his fingertips should be he felt cat-like claws pressing into the flesh of his forehead, and he felt a sensation in his spine that he had never imagined before and had no idea how to comprehend. Instead of his flabby stomach and hairy chest, he felt flat muscle and a softness he had only felt a few times before.
Something clicked in his awareness once again and despite the possibility of getting blinded again, he opened his eyes and looked down. Instead of the familiar sight, he was used to, his eyes focused on a woman's figure. His eyes shifted to his hands, and his fingers ended in sharp feline claws and a blue with black striped tail curled around his newly feminine leg. His hair fell into view as he tried to comprehend what had happened to him, and instead of the dark brown that he grew up with, it was as blue as the tail.
His mind flew into a frenzy and he grabbed onto a lock of unfamiliar blue hair and tore it from his skull. His mind barely registered the pain as he latched onto the tail and yanked on it as hard as he could, sending severe pain shooting up his spine. He heard the woman's cry of pain from before, and finally realized it was his own voice.
"What in the name of the Gods are you doing?!" He heard another woman's voice yell and felt a pair of hands grab his arm. He released his grip on the tail and swung his arm out, wrenching free of her grip easily. She must have had claws too from the sharp pain on his skin. He rolled from the bed onto a wooden floor and growled as he would if he were agitating his friend. His vision hadn't recovered enough to see where he was or what was happening, but he could see someone burst through a door. Something deep in his mind took hold, and lunged for the door. He felt a force like the one that had pulled him into the vortex, and was thrown back against the bed. The next thing he knew, the warm and serene feeling flowed through his mind. The darkness took him again.
***
When Keith awoke again, he reminded himself to open his eyes slowly. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he was amazed to find that he didn't need his glasses anymore. His vision was perfect, better then perfect even. He looked around the room, and was mostly sure it was the same place from before. The walls where made out of wood and what looked like plaster. It reminded him of ancient Japanese architecture; it even had the sliding door Japanese liked.
He sat up in bed and took a deep breath before examining his body again. The covers had fallen away from his chest, revealing two large feminine breasts. His stomach, that before had been hairy and distended was now flat and smooth. The shape of his arms and hands had changed, and if anything, they looked more muscular then before. He sighed and lifted the covers off his lower body. Sure enough, he found that he was a woman, and naked. He rolled his eyes and shook his head, not wanting to believe it, but not truly bothered by it either. He spotted that tail again, flipping back and forth annoyed. He grabbed it, gentler this time, and the strange feelings rushing up his spine confirmed it was his.
He eyed a small table sitting by his bed and grabbed a small hand mirror. He hated looking at himself normally, but this was a special situation. The reflection that greeted him wasn't his own, but that of a cute girl about his age. He glared at himself, that really was his reflection, just different. His brown hair and eyes was replaced by vibrant blue and deep violet. His ears were now long and tapered like a cat's, and even covered in fur. He looked at his fingertips again and flexed, bringing out the claws he remembered from before. He noted a very unpleasant feeling as he did so, and relaxed them back into his fingertips.
He hugged his knees to his chest as questions flooded into his mind. It didn't matter much to him where he was, but what would he say when he got back. His friends wouldn't be much of an issue, they already knew him as being overly feminine and that he had dreams about being a woman, but his parents and co-workers, and... His eyes went wide at the realization and misery overcame him. He fought to keep himself from crying, but the thought crashed against his self-control. If there had been any sliver of hope of being with his love, now it was gone.
The door slid open and he instinctively pulled the covers over his chest. In the door way stood a black haired girl with ears and a tail like his. She was dressed in traditional Japanese clothing, and carried a large bowl of water with a cloth. She smiled gently at him, and slid the door closed behind her. Her face structure was decidedly Asian, which made him realize that his still carried predominantly American features. She placed the bowl on the table and sat on the bed next to him.
"I see you're awake again," she said very gently. "How are you feeling?"
He just looked away from her and shrugged, not wanting to hear the sounds of his new voice. He wasn't sure if she really was speaking English or something else was going on. The girl studied the pain on his face closely for a second.
"It's alright, whatever they may have done to you out there," her words were measured and careful. "You are safe in here. No one is allowed into this room but me."
Her tone and careful words hit a cord in his mind, and he tilted his head and looked at her.
"What do you mean?" He could stop himself from scowling at the new sound of his voice. The girl hesitated, searching for a proper answer for the question.
"You were found," she started. "On the side of a road, near the border to the human lands of Albion. You were naked, and your injuries were very severe. When they brought you here we could only wonder how you were still alive... We've had a lot of trouble with the humans attacking, especially women. So..."
"So you thought that I had been raped and brutalized and left to die." He growled and shook his head with anger over the very thought.
"You mean you weren't?" She looked shocked. "Then what happened to you?"
"I don't know. I was staring up at the stars; trying to sort my emotions, then some kinda... portal I guess, opened up, and sucked me in. Next thing I know I'm here with someone else's body." He sighed and hit his head hard against the wall. "If I was so fucked up then how am I still alive anyway?"
She stared at him, unsure of what to make of anything he had just said, and she shook herself back into focus.
"We used a restoration spell on you... it's meant to restore the body to its true form no matter how bad the damage is. It's a stroke of luck that you ended up where someone can actually cast it."
"True form?!" He yelled, his anger building again. "How do you call this true form? I'm a fucking guy godammit. The only thing you got right was the length of my fucking hair!"
She jumped back and he felt a surge of power that made the fur on his tail bristle. Then he realized this girl wasn't the one that had tried to hold him down, she was the one that had come through the door.
"Look," he jumped. "I'm sorry alright. I'm just so confused. I have enough problems to deal with without getting turned into a girl and sent to a world I don't belong." He buried his face in his hands and tried to keep himself from crying again. He felt her stroke her hand down his hair, and he voice came as softly as it first had.
"I don't know why you are a woman, but if you didn't belong here you wouldn't be alive right now."
"What the hell does that mean?" He asked as he sniffed and wiped his eyes.
"When a soul is released in a different realm than where it was formed, it immediately absorbs its host body and uses that energy to shift back to its home realm. Your soul was born in this realm, otherwise there wouldn't have been anything left of you to restore."
"Then how is it I wasn't born here?"
"I don't know honestly, but Eimaitsukai Saikaku will. I'm just a simple priestess." He just nodded and rested his chin on his folded arms.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Kei... I," he looked down at his chest and thought a minute. "I guess it'll have to be Kari for now." He gave her a weak smile before resting his head on his arms again. She returned a sympathetic smile and stood, taking the bowl.
"Well, before I had thought that you would want a bath more then anything, but now what you really need is some food and clothes."
"Thank you." He smiled again. "I feel like I haven't ate in days."
He watched the priestess leave, unable to keep himself from examining her body as she walked away. He looked away as she turned and closed the thin paper door behind her. He sat there, curled in on himself, his mind reeling trying to comprehend had happened. Somehow he wound up transported to an alternate dimension that was in the past.
On the other hand, it could very well be that the timeframe was the same, or even in the future. Magic was probably to blame, an accident maybe... who would do this on purpose? The dimensional shift apparently nearly killed him, which would explain the pain of the trip. The priestess, or maybe not her, had saved his life by turning him into a girl with a tail, and that was supposed to be his true form. The more he thought about it, the less unlikely it seemed. He had always felt out of place in his life, alone. There had even been times where he had felt totally alone, even amongst his closest friends. He hated to admit to it, but his mindset was decidedly more feminine then it should be, leading him to wonder if being born a man had been some kind of mistake. He even dreamt about being a woman, though only a few people knew about that. Then there was his obsession with anime catgirls, which now he was.
His temple started to throb under the weight of the torrent of thought, and he lay back down in the bed, unaware of the blankets not covering his chest. He closed his eyes, using the black backdrop of his mind to pin up his thoughts, separating them so he could think. His sense of time drifted away as he tore into his new problems, and one goal cut through the entire haze; fuck it, change back, and go home.
The sound of movement tore through his mind and he sat up with quick jerk. His eyes focused on the feline priestess as she stepped into the room and slid the door behind her. A wonderful smell drifted up from the ceramic bowl she was carrying and it made his mouth water. His stomach growled loudly as if to remind him of what he already felt. She smiled at him as she walked over; she was quite the beautiful woman, though she showed a little age.
"You sure do like to sleep like a cat." She said with a slight giggle. He smiled up at her and shrugged, not really sure what to say to her. She set the bowl down on the little table, and he bent over to get a look at what it was, but she stopped him.
"Clothes first, then you can eat." She said with a stern but teasing voice. He looked down, finally realizing that he should be covered, and pulled the sheets over his chest.
"Guess I haven't gotten being a girl down yet." He grinned while blushing. "Um, think you could turn around for a minute?"
"Of course." She replied, handing him the clothes and turning her back. He unfolded the clothes and gave them the once over to see what she had given him, which managed to surprise him. He had a sports bra and shorts panties that were made of some material that was incredibly soft yet elastic. The actual clothes were Japanese hakama and a thigh-length kimono that felt like they were made of cotton. Although the clothes style suited everything he'd see so far, the underwear and materials seemed completely out of place. He put it out of his mind and dressed quickly, making note of the extra ties in the back for his new tail. It was a good thing he was a fan of Japanese culture, though as he dressed he realized that already there were plenty of differences between Japan and this place.
"This right?" He asked just to make sure. The priestess turned and gave him the once over, then smiled.
"Why yes, are clothes like this where you are from?"
"Well," he chuckled, which came out as a soft giggle. "There was an ancient culture in my world that dressed like this. Their lands where far across the sea from my country, and it was thousands of years ago. Don't see anything like this much anymore."
He sat back down on the bed and eyed the bowl, the smell tantalizing him. The priestess handed it to him along with a set of chopsticks, and sat next to him. He stared at the bowl, which was filled with all manner of seafood: jumbo shrimp, lobster, what he thought was crab, and things he didn't even recognize, all soaked in a butter and garlic sauce. He had to swallow to keep himself from drooling. The bowl was as big around as his head, and nearly six inches deep, filled the brim with the seafood. He fumbled with the chopsticks, never have been used to the things, and managed to grab a shrimp a thick as his thumb and twice as long. He'd never seen one that big. The sauce coated it, slowly dripping back into the bowl, and for a moment, he was too mesmerized to eat it. His stomach growled in protest, sending a strong impulse at the base of his spine that made his jaw cramp, and he bit off one end of it. He had never tasted anything so good, and couldn't stop himself from tearing into the bowl, wishing he could lose the chopsticks and eat with his fingers.
"Lord, I've never tasted anything so good in my life, this is amazing." He said between mouthfuls. The priestess laughed.
"I am glad you enjoy it, seafood is a major staple of our society. No one in the world can match our fishing and fish farming industries." The word industry struck a cord in his mind, but he didn't really feel like pursuing the matter. There was one thing he did want to know however.
"So when will I get to meet this Tsukai whatever you were talking about?" He noticed her glare at him, and decided that showing respect was going to be important in this world.
"Eimaitsukai Saikaku is traveling from his home in Akita. You will meet him tomorrow."
Funny, he lives in my last name. He thought.
"I have other things I need to attend to." She said standing up. "You are free to walk around the grounds as you wish, but I would not leave the temple. My name is Tamaki, but if you need me then ask for Nisou Koetsu." She bowed and exited the room, sliding the door closed behind her.
"Hell, I hope I didn't piss her off too bad..." He sighed, and continued eating, with much less enthusiasm now.
***
Keith's thoughts circulated as he stared silently at the huge koi pond in the center of the temple courtyard. He found a sense of serenity listening to the trickle of a small waterfall, watching the colorful fish, and the smell of the flowers surrounding him. He felt good that Tamaki had forgiven him for accidentally showing disrespect for one of the highest figures in their empire. Somehow, even though his thoughts where dominated by getting home, preserving his limited friendship with the woman was important. However, things hit a speed bump last night. He couldn't sleep, a combination of his burdened mind and the fact that he couldn't get comfortable with his large breasts, so he had taken a walk. When he stepped into the courtyard he was greeted with a sight he though he would never be able to see, the night sky, free from the lights of "civilization". It was one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen, thousand of stars filled the night sky, and the galaxy was in clear view. He had always loved the stars, but never had seen anything like this except in books. Seeing the sky in all its glory had been overwhelming, nearly enough to push him to tears. Aas he lay out on the stone bridge that crossed the koi pond, staring at the sky, his hard edged desire for home tapered off. Even now, sitting next to the pond, with people constantly shooting him suspicious looks he felt a peace that had eluded him on Earth. If he went back to his home, things would be the same as they had ever been, but here he had a chance for a new life...
"Hello there." The voice caught Keith off guard and he jumped, flipping around and subconsciously unsheathing his claws. What he found was a frail old man dressed in a formal looking black kimono. Keith noticed the text on the man's left breast, reading Eimaitsukai, Great Magi. The man had a fierce look to him, but didn't seem threatening in any way. His hair was mostly white, but still carried an orange tint. His ears were long and tapered to a sharp point, which were still orange and tipped in black. His tail was massive at first glance, but Keith's sharp eyes quickly noticed that his tail split into nine segments. Then it hit him, this man was a kitsune. At once, as if something had awaked in his mind, he could feel the power emanating from the small frail man, and it scared him. This was not a person to screw with.
"Relax cub," he said gently, but his voice carried a powerful tone that one would expect from someone much younger. "I am Saikaku Hideki, first Grandmaster of the art of magical power, Eimaitsukai."
Keith froze in place, trying to contain his unnatural fear of this small man. He made himself bow down, and hoped his voice would be steadier then his nerves.
"I'm Ke... Kari, Grandmaster." He said, working to keep himself from shaking.
"You have a powerful magical sense young one, one that has just awaked now. It must be overwhelming to someone unused to the unique flow of magic."
He looked Keith in the eyes, seeming to stare through his soul, then turned to one of his companions and whispered something Keith couldn't hear. The other man nodded, bowed, and left. The emanating power seemed to trail off, and Keith allowed himself to relax some.
"Come with me young one. We have much to discuss." He motioned for Keith to follow him, and he did so, fearing what the mage would do to him. Hideki led Keith to an isolated room towards the rear of the temple where no one would interrupt them. Then he examined Keith from a distance.
"Before me I see a young, powerful, blue coated tigress, one that could easily have been in the military for years, maybe even an officer. Tell me cub, last time you looked in the mirror on your world, what did you see?"
Keith hated mirrors and photos, hated having to look at himself, his self-esteem amounting to very little. He lowered his eyes, thinking about his real life.
"A fat, pathetic, long haired loser." He sighed, not looking at Hideki.
"Excuse me?" The mage arched an eyebrow at him and flicked his ear.
"Uh, sorry. I'm a human man, long brown hair, brown eyes, hardly in shape enough to walk around."
"Quiet an extensive transformation to say the least. Most interesting."
"Interesting my ass!" Keith yelled. "How the hell could this happen to me? If this is some kind of interdimensional practical joke I'll fucking kill someone!"
"Is that so?" Keith felt the power rise again, and backed down.
"I'm sorry." He said. "I'm just really confused and freaked out."
"I can understand your... confusion." Hideki said softly. "I can assure you that this is no joke, but a mistake, my mistake."
Keith looked up at him and glared. "What do you mean?"
"For decades I have been searching for a method to travel between the various planes of existence, including the afterlives. The spell that brought you here was but another of my failures, but I can see that this attempt has defiantly come closer then any of the others."
"You did this to me?" He growled and the claws came again. "Give me back my body now, and send me home!"
"That is unfortunately not possible."
"The fuck it isn't!" Keith lashed out with his claws but struck something solid. It chipped the tips off his claws and burnt his fingers badly, like striking a wall of solidified flame. Keith recoiled back, grasping his injured hand.
"You should be wary of a fox's fire." A small smile crossed Hideki's face, and he held up a small vial with a blue liquid. "If you should decide to relax, then I shall treat the wound."
Keith's mind raced through all that had happened to him since coming here, and compounded with the pain of the burn overwhelmed him. Tears started to roll down his cheeks.
"I don't understand why I'm here, why me? I don't want this, I don't want to be here, and I want to go home."
"Now now, is your life there really worth killing me over?"
"No, I hate my life! I wish I could die, but I don't want to start over again just to suffer somewhere else!" He finally broke down completely, and sunk down against the floor, crying hysterically. It didn't matter if he got home or not, no one would care, no one would miss him. This was the perfect place to die, he had no ties to anyone here, and it wasn't even his own body.
Someone came through the door and he looked up seeing his love's face. The illusion of the woman he loved drove him over the brink, and he lashed out at the swords she carried. He ripped her wakizashi from its sheath, closing his eyes against the pain and driving the blade at his heart. He thought he should be dead, but he couldn't move the blade, and through tear-clouded eyes, he almost saw an elbow land dead center between his eyes. However, unlike with his mind and the sleep spell, his new body was built to stand up to this punishment, and despite the pain, he didn't even loose his footing. He lashed out at her with his claws, in that moment wanting nothing more then to tear the scornful look from her face. She was faster then he could have ever guessed, catching his arm. She yanked him forward off his feet, driving another elbow into his face while simultaneously driving her knee into the back of his own elbow. The first thing his mind noticed with the sound of bone shattering. Then before the pain sapped the consciousness from his body, he saw his elbow bend in the opposite direction of the joint.
***
"You overdid it Grandmaster Kikaida." Keith heard the voice of the nine-tailed fox in the back of his mind, and heard a deep growl in reply. He groaned and sat up, shaking his head. He didn't feel any pain, but suffered a massive headache.
"Oh, what the hell..." He shook his head again and opened his eyes to see Hideki crouched in front of him and standing over him was a female samurai, and she still had his love's face. Almost, her face was the same, but her features were leaner, more defined. A pair of dark stripes ran from the back of her neck, curving up slightly to tip at her cheekbones. Her ears were small and round like a tiger's and covered in black fur, and her hair, while still the dirty blonde he remembered, now had black streaks that reminded him of stripes. Her eyes were the same though, the light blue-grey he had always loved. Only, where he had always seen caring and compassion, all he saw in her eyes was contempt and anger. Whoever this woman actually was, it was clear that she hated him.
"It is not wise to try and steal a blade from a samurai, let alone attack one. You are lucky to be alive." Hideki warned him sternly. Keith felt the tears build up behind his eyes again and noticed the girl's hand resting on the hilt of her katana.
"I just want to go home, please just send me back." He whimpered, the thought of actually dieing suddenly striking a hidden fear within him.
"I am afraid that is not possible, even if I could give you back your original form." Hideki replied sympathetically.
"What do you mean? If you brought me here then you have to be able to send me back. I don't even care about being a guy anymore, just turn me back to a human, and send me home!"
"It is not that simple. The spell that brought you here was just an experiment. Unfortunately I am decades from perfecting it and I am afraid I do not have much life left to offer."
"What does that matter?" Keith glared at him, trying to hold back the tears.
"If I were to attempt to send you back now, the magical forces would do the same thing to you that they did bringing you here. Judging by your unfamiliarity with magic you would not survive the second trip. Not only that, but the odds of you landing back in your home are limitlessly stacked against you. There is no way for you to go home, and no way to permanently alter your current form. Illusion spells are uncompromisingly short in duration."
Keith jumped to his feet and growled instinctively. "No! I won't believe you, there has to be a way of getting home, magic doesn't have limits!"
"Wrong! Magic is a science that manipulates the natural forces of the world through understanding how they interact. There are limits, compromises, complications, and repercussions. Even the simplest of spells could cost someone their life if handled improperly, and I am working with the very forces of the universe! This is your home now, as it was in the beginning, learn to accept that or I will let Arishia end your life now!"
Keith sank back against a wall, overwhelmed be everything that Hideki had just said. His mind was set on going back to his home, his friends, and his family. It wasn't perfect, it was ungodly painful at times, but it was still his home. This wasn't right, he didn't belong here. He started crying, unable to contain it anymore.
***
Keith didn't know how long he sat curled up against that wall crying, but it felt like forever. The fox was there watching him the whole time. Now his mind and body just ached, and as much as he wanted to, he just couldn't cry anymore. He would never get out of this world, and never get out of this body. Neither of which bothered him really, but the thought of never getting to see his friends again tore at him. He didn't have many friends, but the few he did have meant everything to him. Now he was here, alone. The only ties he had were a few short conversations with a middle-aged priestess and the samurai who looked like his ex-lover. He had nothing left, no one left.
"Finally calmed down some, girl?" He heard the Hideki ask quietly. Keith didn't have the will to speak to him, just looked up. "Well? Willing to listen?"
Keith just nodded absently.
"I am going to tell you, cub, just why you belong in this world. You see, every living thing in existence has a soul. While at the same time, everything else, even artificial creations carry a spirit. The soul or spirit contains everything that we are, our memories, our personality, our desires, everything. You understand?"
"Religious bullshit." Keith murmured. "Everything that makes up intelligence is merely electrical impulses created by the brain and stored both in the brain cells and nervous system."
"Ah, I see then. You already understand every aspect of how the brain operates completely. Then maybe you an enlighten me." Hideki's mocking tone irritated Keith, setting his tail flailing.
"No... no one understands exactly how anything works, there are always mysterious things which can't be explained with current technology. Hell, most of us only use ten percent of our brain anyway."
"Yes, and it is that unused portion that is the essence of a person's soul."
"Bullshit. Then how do you explain things like muscle memory and amnesia?"
"I will admit that 'muscle memory' is not something I am familiar with, as for amnesia, the brain is just the tool the soul uses to interact with the world, much like a hammer or sword. Damage to the brain can sever the connections of the soul to the body, weakening a person's visible mental state. The brain on its own can maintain the body, but without a soul it is nothing more than a breathing corpse; unable to speak, think, or even move."
"Sad that actually makes sense. Then what happens to the soul when a person dies?"
"That is not entirely understood. We know the soul transitions out of our realm, and through magic we have found a sort of spirit realm, but do not know anything about it. We believe this is where the souls and spirits of the world travel to await reincarnation."
"There's the religious bullshit I knew it was coming. Just when I was starting to think too."
"This is not 'religious bullshit'." Hideki stated firmly. "We have magic that can examine a soul without harming it. We have examined some that are ancient, from long before the conception of our race, and others that are practically newborns. We know the soul exists, we know there is a realm that shares similarities with the soul, and we know some of the mechanics at work, but we do not know everything."
"What does this little sermon have to do with me anyway?" Keith shook his head, part of him wanted to believe it.
"There has been a theory that great cataclysms in our realm can impact the spirit realm, disrupting the natural forces at work. Such a cataclysm happened near four hundred years ago, during our clan wars. Fighting between the seven clans broke out into one of the most brutal and bloody wars this world has ever seen. The utter desire to destroy each other led to the creation of magic so powerful that we destroyed our homelands. The last spell cast burned away the landscape and sundered the land that we called home, reducing it to a few small islands. Those that survived banded together, helping each other, and set out across the sea to find a new home.
"It is my belief that in that moment the power of the spell interrupted the natural flow of the spirit realm, knocking some of the souls nearest into other realms. It sounds farfetched, even to those who believe, but we have evidence of it. A colleague of mine decades ago, a strange man, always told me he didn't think he belonged in this world. It drove him to the brink of madness, and he eventually committed suicide. When he died, his soul did not transition, as it should have. Instead it consumed his body completely, leaving not a trace of him behind. Others and I believe it consumed the body for energy to shift back into its natural realm. I believe that if you had died in your realm the same thing would have happened."
"What makes you think that my soul belongs in this dimension, and not some other?" Keith was feeling better now having something else to occupy his mind with rather then his lost life.
"I examined you after your confrontation with Grandmaster Kikaida. Your soul does match with the natural spirits of our world. I have also found traces of your past life."
"What? Seriously?" Keith's ears perked up instinctually and he looked at Hideki, curious.
"Your perceptions of yourself have changed significantly in your new life, but there is no mistaking your heritage. There has not been a blue in four hundred years, the last died in the Ragnorak spell. Come here."
Keith stood and walked over to the table Hideki sat at, his curiosity peaked. Hideki opened the pages of an old book, to a page with an ancient Japanese style drawing of a samurai riding a horse. The figure in the drawing had blue hair like his own, but was an anthropomorphic. While Keith was mostly still human looking, just with an added tail, ears, and some body markings, the figure was fur covered and had a face like a tiger. Something caught his eye; she had two tails.
His mind snapped and his eyes widened. In the darkness of the deepest reaches of his mind, he saw a pair of red glowing eyes. They were like nothing he had ever seen, no iris, no pupil, just a solid swirling of reds. It filled him with terror as the figure faded into view. She was a tigress anthro, with thick white fur covering her entire body, and dark blue stripes. Her head hair was the same color as her stripes, and shown like blue steel in the false light. She was clad in a white vest and skirt of plates that resembled samurai armor, and had a nodachi at her side. Along with her tiger appearance was a set of horns that started at her temples, curving slightly down then straight back following the contours of her skull. Her hair partially obscured them, but they stuck out past the back of her head. Out of her back sprouted a pair of dragon like wings, translucent but with swirling red, yellow, and orange energy giving them their shape, and the twin tails.
He gasped as he snapped out of the short trance, realizing what dwelt in the reaches of his mind.
"I see I was right. This picture is of Nekomata Chinoumi, one of the most ruthless and brutal military leaders we have ever known. She was also the last known to bear the blue coat, and the Ragnorak finally killed her. I don't believe that you wish to carry on her legacy, but remember, you are Nekomata, and that may color peoples perceptions of you."
Keith sighed, reigning in his mind once more. "Well, I guess I'm going to have to read up on her."
"Yes," Hideki nodded. "I believe you have great capability in this world. I have talked Arishia into teaching you the sword, and you will be living with her from now on. You will also come to me to learn magic, history, and the ways of our culture. I also can arrange for you to study any other subject you wish. This is your home now." He reached up and rested his hand on Keith's shoulder. Keith only nodded somberly.