Tokyo was supposed to be safe.
Kazuki Hayashi never imagined his life would end in the middle of a Tuesday rush hour, crushed between a delivery truck and a vending machine full of canned coffee.
One moment he was scrolling through job alerts on his phone, dreading another rejection email. The next, he was airborne—briefly—and then everything went black.
"Is this it? Did I really just die like an extra in a low-budget drama?"
Even in the afterlife, Kazuki's thoughts were laced with sarcasm.
There was no tunnel of light. No beckoning ancestors. Just a vast, endless void and an overwhelming sense of stillness. He expected fear. Instead, there was... peace.
And then pain.
His whole body pulsed with it—raw, sharp, primal. Like every nerve had been plugged into a lightning socket.
When Kazuki awoke again, everything felt wrong.
For one, he was cold. Not the "Tokyo-in-winter" cold, but the "naked-in-the-wilderness-while-wet" kind. His limbs were short, stubby, and covered in silver-gray fur. His nose twitched, taking in the scents of moss, bark, and something musky nearby. His ears—wait, when did he have such huge ears?—twitched reflexively.
"What the hell?" he thought. Or tried to. What came out was a soft yip.
Yip.
He tried to sit up and immediately faceplanted into dirt.
"No no no. This isn't happening. This is a dream. A coma, maybe. Or I'm hallucinating in some hospital bed with tubes down my throat. Right?"
Another yip. And this time, a growl—nearby.
Kazuki froze.
Rustling. Then a blur of movement. Another creature—slightly larger, just as fluffy—appeared from the ferns, its golden eyes narrowing.
It sniffed him.
Then licked his ear.
Kazuki shuddered. "Okay. Not Tokyo. Not a hospital. Definitely not a dream."
His new body, he quickly realized, was that of a wolf pup. Tiny paws, short tail, awkward motor skills, and all.
And he wasn't alone.
The den was nestled beneath the roots of a massive tree—its trunk twisted like ancient muscle, pulsing faintly with blue light. The air was rich with unfamiliar magic, humming faintly at the edge of his senses. Above the canopy, twin moons hung in a violet sky.
A larger wolf—sleek, silver-furred, eyes like molten steel—appeared. Its presence made the ground feel heavier. It glanced at him, expression unreadable.
Kazuki whimpered instinctively, but inside, he was panicking.
"What kind of insane fantasy RPG did I get reborn into?! And why a wolf? Couldn't I have at least been a swordsman or a prince or something?!"
The large wolf walked over and—of all things—nuzzled him. Warmth flowed from her touch, tinged with something deeper, older. A soft voice—alien yet familiar—echoed in his mind:
"You are safe, little one."
Kazuki blinked.
"Was that... telepathy?"
The she-wolf—his new mother, presumably—turned and lay down, curling around her pups. Kazuki, still dazed, found himself drawn to her warmth.
As he nestled beside the others, his thoughts spun.
"Okay. I'm a wolf. In some magical forest with glowing trees and psychic moms. Don't panic. Think, Kazuki, think."
His memories of his human life came in fragments. A boring office job. A messy apartment. A goldfish named Honda. Loneliness.
His heart ached. Not from the pain of dying, but the sheer absurdity of starting over. As a pup, no less.
"Maybe this is a second chance. Or a punishment. Either way... I can't go back."
A sudden howl tore through the forest.
Sharp. Predatory.
The mother wolf's ears perked. She stood, eyes scanning the darkness. The magical hum in the air shifted—growing colder.
Kazuki felt it too. A presence. Something massive. Watching.
A crack split the earth nearby. Vines recoiled. The sky darkened.
Then he saw it.
A silhouette, tall as a tree, made of shadows and bone, stepped into the clearing. Its eyes glowed with sickly green light. Its breath withered leaves.
Kazuki's instincts screamed run. But his body was too small, too weak.
The mother wolf stepped forward, hackles raised, fur bristling with silvery energy. The forest responded. Trees groaned. The air trembled.
The monster lunged.
And then—
BOOM.
A pulse of raw power erupted from the she-wolf. A shockwave flattened the ferns. The shadow-beast screamed, body unraveling into mist.
Kazuki gawked.
"Okay. Mom's a badass. Noted."
She turned back to the pups, eyes glowing faintly, her body still crackling with energy. Then she looked straight at him.
And for a moment—just a flicker—her gaze lingered longer than necessary.
Like she knew.
Like she saw him.
Not just a pup.
But something... more.
Kazuki swallowed hard.
"I don't know what this world is. But if monsters like that exist… I need to survive. Grow strong. Figure out what I am. And why I'm here."
He looked down at his paws.
Small now.
But not forever.
"Alright. Let's do this. From Tokyo salaryman… to magical wolf. Level one fluffball. Starting now."
To be continued…