It was dark. Too dark to see anything. Where was I? What even happened, for that matter? Someone was picking on me for being a celibate sage or something, and then…
That was enough to jump-start my mind again.
My name was Satoru Mikami. Just another thirty-seven-year-old in a suit. And when I shoved my coworker aside on the street, some random maniac stabbed me. Good. I remembered all of that. Which meant I must be fine. No need for panic. That wasn’t like me anyway. I was known for having a cool head. The last time I panicked, it was grade school and all I did was wet my pants, just a little bit.
I tried looking at my surroundings. Then I noticed—I couldn’t open my eyes. Odd, I thought as I tried to rub them and my arms didn’t respond. And more to the point, Where’s my head, anyway?
This was getting confusing. Like, whoa. Wait a sec. I needed some time to deal with this.
Whenever I start freaking out, I always find it helpful to sit still and start counting prime numbers until I calm down. Let’s try that. One, two, three—
Wait, one doesn’t count as a prime number, does it?
Ugh… Now wasn’t the time for this. I couldn’t let myself think about this stupid crap. This was bad, wasn’t it? Like, what’s going on, here?! Was I…like, past the point of no return, unless I did something?
Panicking, I checked to see whether I was hurt anywhere. I didn’t seem to be. Physically, I felt terrific. No cold, no heat—perfectly comfortable. That, at least, came as a relief. Now for my hands and legs… Oop. Not so hot there. No response from any of my limbs. What’s up with that? Getting stabbed in the back wouldn’t force the doctors to amputate all my extremities, would it? I’d kind of like those back.
Then there was the whole “can’t open my eyes” thing. I was in a world of darkness, where I couldn’t see a thing. An anxiety like none I’d ever felt before began welling up in my mind.
Am I…in a coma or something?
I was conscious, certainly, but had I gotten detached from my central nervous system, maybe?
Oh, man, anything but that! I mean, think about it. When you throw a guy into a dark, enclosed space, it takes practically no time at all for him to go insane. And that was exactly where I was—and I couldn’t even die in peace any longer, it looked like. If insanity was all that waited for me here, that was enough to take the wind out of anybody’s sails.
Just then, I felt something brush against my body. Hmm? What’s that? I focused all of my senses on this unknown sensation. It felt like grass against what might have been the side of my stomach. Concentrating on the sensations, I slowly began sussing out what was around me. I could feel the pointy edges of some nearby leaves prick against my body.
It made me a little happy, really. I was in total darkness a moment ago, but now I had my sense of touch back, at least. It made me so overjoyed that I made a beeline for the grass, and—
Creep.
I could feel my body sliding flat against the ground. I… I moved?!
This, at least, was clear evidence that I was not on any kind of hospital bed. The feeling beneath my stomach (?) took the form of hard, jagged rock. Hmm. It still didn’t make much sense to me, but I appeared to be outdoors.
So I headed toward the grass, keeping my senses keen against what I touched, although I still wasn’t quite clear on where my head was. There was nothing to smell; I wasn’t sure whether I had that sense or not.
Really, I had no idea what I was shaped like. I felt…flowing. Jellylike. Kind of like a certain fantasy monster I was well familiar with. In fact, the idea had been running through my head for a while now.
…No. Come on. That’s just silly. Anything but that. I decided to leave that anxiety-inducing prospect behind for the time being and instead try out the final, untested one of my five human senses. Not that I knew where my mouth was. So…now what?
Suddenly, a voice ran across my mind.
Use unique skill “Predator”?
Yes
No
Huh? Wh-what? Unique skill “Predator”?
And what was up with that voice? I thought I heard something weird when I was talking with Tamura earlier. That wasn’t just me imagining things? Was someone there? Something didn’t seem quite right with it. It wasn’t that I thought I had a visitor, so much as…well, as I just had words floating into my mind. Cold, unfeeling words, like a computer-generated voice.
Let’s go with no for now.
No response. I waited a while for one, but no further voices came. It appeared there wouldn’t be a second question. Did I make the wrong choice? Was this the kind of game where you got stuck if you didn’t start giving “yes” answers? I was assuming the question would just repeat forever until I said yes, like any normal RPG. Guess not.
Kind of rude of that voice, though. Showing up, asking a simple question, then disappearing forever. It was nice hearing someone for a change, but…the hell, man?
Oh well. Let’s go on with what I was trying before. My sense of taste.
I moved toward the grass I felt earlier. As it brushed up against me, I leaned forward, feeling the whole of my weight settle over the field. It was definitely grass of some sort.
Once I was sure of that, I suddenly realized that the area where the plants met my body was starting to melt. I thought it was myself melting at first, but apparently it was only the grass. And with that, I could now tell that the components of the plant life beneath me were being taken into my body.
So that was how it worked? Instead of having a mouth to eat with, I just ingested plant matter with my whole body? It sure didn’t taste like anything.
From this, there were a few conclusions I could sensibly make.
First, I was no longer human. That was a given by now. So did I really get stabbed to death? It didn’t seem like much of an open question at this point. It’d also explain why I was resting on a rocky patch of grass instead of in a hospital room.
What happened to Tamura? To Sawatari? Did he scramble my hard drive for me, like he promised? I was full of questions—but also a suspicion that, by this point, none of them really mattered anymore. I had to think about what came next.
So…is this it? Am I really a… You know… With the kind of tactile feedback I’m getting at the moment…
I trained my senses back inside my body. It responded with a rhythmic motion. Boing. Sproing. Slowly, inside the total darkness, I took the time to ascertain the exact boundaries of my form.
…Heavens! I used to be such a handsome, attractive man, and now I’m so…fluid! So aerodynamic!
…Yeah, right! You think I’d accept this just like that?!
As far as I could feel, there was no longer any doubting it. I could picture it in my mind.
I mean…what else could it be? Not like I had a prejudice against it. Hell, it was kinda cute, if anything!
But was it for me, though? If you took a poll, I think at least nine out of ten people would have the same answer.
I would just have to accept it, though. Accept the fact that my “soul,” or whatever you want to call it, had been reborn inside a monster from another world. The odds of such a thing seemed astronomically low to me, but…