"Time of death?"

"May 20th, 1:08."

That was today's date, right? Who were the people talking? Were there people in my room?

Wait, what? Death? I wasn't dead. What was going on?

Me eyes were open, but my vision was very blurry, especially on its periphery. Were my eyes damaged? I didn't seem to be able to move them. Trying to do something that would indicate that I was not dead, I realized that I could not move at all. It took me a few more seconds to notice that I was not actually breathing.

Dead? I was dead? What had happened? I had gone to bed but two hours ago, and I woke up... dead? Who were the people around me? Doctors and nurses? The ceiling above me was white, and what little I could see of the room I was in looked vaguely like a hospital.

My heart wasn't beating, but if it were, it would be breaking records. I felt incredibly nervous and scared. I couldn't move at all, but I needed to make some sort of sign to show the doctors I was awake and well alive. Maybe they could restart my heart and save me. If not, my brain would eventually suffocate and I would actually die.

I noticed that I could hear everyone talking very clearly and follow every conversation at once. I could even hear their hearts still racing, probably from their nervous attempts at saving me. From the sounds of it, they had started putting their tools back together to clean the room and had given up on me. I wasn't dead. I wasn't dead!

One of the nurses put her hand above my eyes to close them. It looked so big up close... Way bigger than I would have expected.

"Huh?" She said, visibly surprised.

"What's wrong?" Another one asked.

"I can't close her eyes."

"Let me see."

The second nurse brought one of those small flashlights to examine my eyes and pointed it towards me. I could see myself in the glass before she turned it on. I couldn't see clearly because the light blinded me shortly after, but I was absolutely positive that I saw a short muzzle covered in red-orange fur, with a cute snout and adorable black eyes. Was that me? Was I a fox?

I suddenly gasped for air as my heart randomly restarted. The pain in my chest was unbearable, but was nothing compared to the pain I could feel in my lower gut, as if it had been skinned then covered in salt. The second I started coughing, several of the doctors rushed to me, giving me an oxygen mask to help me breathe. They shouted several words I didn't understand. The mask I was given was changed, and before I could understand what was going on, I lost consciousness.

I woke up slowly, still out from the anesthetic I was given, but well alive. My head felt a lot clearer, but I still didn't fully understand the situation I was in. Was it a dream? Had I really become a fox? What happened between the time I went to sleep and the time I woke up dead? Opening my eyes, I realized I was indeed in a hospital, but my vision was still blurry. Extremely nervous, I raised my hand up to my eyes.

There was no hand. Only a brown paw. I tried closing it into a fist and spreading its fingers to make sure it was mine, and despite the obvious evidence, I had a hard time believing it. I remained immobile for several minutes, trying to feel my body, still trying to guess whether or not I was dreaming. I could feel fur softly skimming my skin - my fur. I could feel that my feet, or my hind paws, had only four fingers that I could control. The more I waited, the more I became aware of this new body of mine, and the more I realized that I was not dreaming and that all of this was actually my body. The paws, the fur, the little claws that I could only partially retract, the muzzle that magically disappeared from my field of vision if I was not focusing on it, the long, pointy ears that I could move around, and finally, the tails.

It took me a few seconds to realize that I did not have only one tail, but six. I couldn't exactly move them independently, but I could feel each one of them separately. Having a tail - or six for that matter - was a weird feeling, which I found strangely enjoyable. I found myself moving them for fun, which happened to help me relax in a situation in which I shouldn't be relaxed at all. I was in a hospital, turned into a six-tailed fox, and had just escaped death, and I had no idea what had happened or where exactly I was. What else had changed? Were my parents aware of this?

Laying on my right side, I forced myself to breathe slowly, trying to calm down and think. I could finally move my head and scouted around, meaning to at least know where I was. The room I was in looked like a typical hospital room. Several electrodes were attached to my chest and lead to one of those machines that beep regularly together with my heartbeat. There were needles in my front left arm connected to tubes full of different liquids, which I assumed were here to help me heal. One of them probably was some powerful painkiller.

Remembering the immense pain I felt when I could breathe again, I stood up as I could, leaning on my right elbow to be able to see my belly. It was hidden under a massive bandage that covered the entire bottom half of my body, from the middle of the rib cage to the top of the pelvis. I had no idea what was under it, but I could only assume it was responsible for my death, and thought that it would probably be better not to know.

I sighed. What was I going to do ? The only thing I knew was that I was now a grievously wounded mutant fox. I had no idea how to use this new body of mine, I didn't know what I was meant to eat, how to eat, drink, or anything other than what I probably looked like. Although I would be taken care of by humans for a certain amount of time until I healed, I wasn't sure what would happen to me. The nurses didn't seem to be shocked by my having six tails. Did that mean that six-tailed foxes were common in this world? If that was the case, I would probably eventually be released, and I didn't see myself surviving in the wild. My situation was looking extremely bad, if not hopeless.

Trying to learn as fast as I could, I focused on the new senses that I would now have to use. The vision was very bad, as expected from a fox's eyes, but the sense of smell was properly mind-blowing. I could smell so many things I had no idea what most of them were, but I could smell them. There was one very strong odour I recognized to be the odour of blood. Although I could tell odours apart, I didn't know what each of them was for, and I would have to learn that quickly. The sense of hearing was also absurdly good, and I could hear my own heartbeat, as well as vague sounds coming from beyond the door, probably coming from the rest of the hospital. There was another regular and slower heartbeat coming from this very room.

Turning my head towards that noise, I saw a girl sleeping in an uncomfortable position on a chair by the bed. Judging by her clothes, she was not a nurse. I found myself hoping I was her pet, and she was the one who brought me in. Although I didn't like the idea of being a pet at all, I had to admit it was a much better fate than being a wild fox and eventually dying alone in some forest. She was out of my reach, even without the cage put on my bed, probably to stop me from rolling over or trying to escape. I had no choice but to lay down calmly and wait until someone came over to try to learn what had happened to me.

I seemingly dozed off, as I was woken up by one of the nurses who was coming to check on me. She was wearing a white blouse and the typical hat with a red cross on it. Her hair was dyed pink, and had two weird circles on the side. I instantly thought of nurse Joy from the pokemon games I used to play. If that was true, then my having six tails could only mean one thing...

"Oh, hello, Vulpix." She said when she noticed I was staring at her.

So I became a vulpix. Not just a regular fox - a vulpix. My first feeling after realizing that was an intense excitement as I pictured myself fighting other pokemon, jumping several meters high and throwing gigantic flames like in the anime. The idea of having those powers was extremely exciting, so much so that I temporarily forgot how dire my situation actually was.

"How are you feeling?" the nurse asked, carefully removing the cage from the bed so she could touch me. "I am nurse Joy, the head of the hospital. I'll be taking care of you until you recover."

So she was indeed nurse Joy, like in the games and the anime. Did that mean the world I was in was that exact one? If it was the same world as the games, then this was a pokemon centre, and I was in one of the towns I knew from the games. The nurse was talking to me as if she expected me to reply. What was I supposed to do? Could pokemon here understand humans, like in the anime? And if I answered, would I just be saying "vulpix"? How did I even talk with a muzzle? And in what language? The nurse was speaking English. What would happen if I replied in plain English? What if I made a mistake and actually spoke a human language when I wasn't meant to be able to? How would I be treated if they knew I had been transformed into a vulpix? The mysteries surrounding pokemon would be easily solved if I could communicate with them while being a pokemon. Would that mean I would be nothing more than a lab rat until scientists had all the answers they wanted? Would I be exhibited as a circus monster, the human who became a pokemon? Would I be accepted by other humans and pokemon? Turning back into a human didn't seem very likely to happen, and I was probably stuck in this body for the rest of my life. The idea of them discovering the truth scared me. From the looks of it, they were not aware of that, and didn't know whether or not them discovering the truth would be a good thing for me. Did they actually know and were just playing a game with me? How intelligent was vulpix supposed to be? I decided to remain silent and just stare at the nurse. I needed to gather more information before making a decision.

"Your constants are good, at least," she commented, looking at the beeping machine, apparently not upset by my lack of verbal response. "I think you're out of danger now. Still, that was quite the night for us. And for you, I suppose."

She stretched her arm forward to pet me, but I dodged the hand by pushing myself backwards.

"Shhh," she said, moving her hand slowly towards me. "There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm here to help you."

Her hand looked a lot too big now that I was a vulpix. It felt a bit scary, but at the same time, had a weird friendly scent that I could not describe. I eventually decided to allow her to touch me, and she gently stroked the back of my head. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing feeling, especially in my state of anxiety.

"Are you still in pain?" she asked, apparently surprised. "Can you hear me?"

I still wasn't sure what to do. It seemed she was expecting an answer, and I remembered that in the anime, pokemon could nod to say either yes or no, but this couldn't be the anime. I had to take a risk, or the nurse would start asking herself questions that might be dangerous for me. I nodded to mean that I could hear her and understand her.

"Ah, good!" she sighed, relieved. "You've lost a lot of blood. I thought there might have been brain damage. We will need to test that anyway, but for now, you need to recover. You'll be staying here for a while, I'm afraid."

She stopped petting me, which disappointed me greatly, and proceeded to touch my body in various places for reasons I wasn't too sure of - probably checking if my muscles were alright after the blood loss. She carefully avoided the bandaged part of my belly, which I assumed was where the wound was.

"You are still very tense," she noticed. "Sorry, I can't give you more morphine. You're already close to the limit. You'll have to bear with the pain for now. Are you hungry?"

I wasn't hungry at all, and the prospect of having to eat food in front of her was scary and embarrassing. I had no idea how to eat, and if she noticed that, she would start asking herself questions.

"Can you stand?"

I stood up from my lying position as best I could. Standing on all fours felt extremely embarrassing - all the more so because I realized I was completely naked. My tails were down, covering my bottom, and my ears kept moving towards every new sound they could detect. I didn't stay in that position for too long, for my legs soon became very tired and I just fell back on my side.

"That's pretty good news. Unfortunately, you're going to feel very weak for a couple more days. You're barely recovering from the operation. I don't know how well you will heal. Time will tell. At least your life is not in danger anymore."

She stretched an arm and pushed a button by the head of the bed which I had not noticed. I heard a bell ring far away, and a nurse who was not wearing that weird pink hair soon came.

"Give her some food and water and have someone watch her while she eats. If needed, help her stand still. Have someone watch her night and day. If any journalists come, you have my permission to insult them, but do not let them anywhere near her and do not answer their questions. Call the security if they are being pushy. They'll have to deal with me if they want to learn anything about this, and I'll be damned if I let them disturb this vulpix."

"Yes, nurse Joy," the other nurse replied politely.

The nurse with the pink hair turned to me and smiled.

"You can push that button if you need something, but do not push it for no reason or you will be punished! I have other duties to attend to, so I can't stay here, but I will visit you soon again. You might not be aware of it, but surviving this made you special."

Surviving what? Special? Was I some kind of survivor of some catastrophe? What had happened? Why did everyone play the pronoun game to make sure I didn't know what was going on? Why would journalists be interested in my case? Was there anyone able to answer my questions? Did they assume I knew?

Or did they know? Were they aware I was a human and wanted to keep journalists from visiting me for that reason? Why else would journalists want to see a wounded vulpix, anyway? Was that why nurse Joy seemed to be expecting an answer from me earlier, and not because pokemon were on average more intelligent than animals? Did they know my actual name?

The other nurse came back shortly after with two bowls, which she put by my side, and nurse Joy left. The nurse sat on the chair the girl was previously sleeping on, but had left.

"Are you not hungry?" she asked. "Maybe you're thirsty. Can you drink? I have a feeding bottle, if you can't drink from the bowl."

I refused to drink from the feeding bottle, offended and ashamed at the idea, and tried to drink from the bowl. Unfortunately, my shaky legs couldn't support me and I dropped my muzzle into it, knocking it over and spilling water mostly over the floor. I eventually resolved to drink with the nurse's help, as I was unbearably thirsty. The nurse was nice enough not to take me on her lap and just held the bottle at a comfortable height for me to drink while laying on my side. My pride took a violent hit when I did that, but the circumstances were special, and I had no other choice. Once repleted, I pushed the bottle away with one of my front paws and sighed.

"Hey, it's not so bad!" the nurse said, trying to cheer me up. "You'll heal eventually. I hope your stay here won't be a bad experience. We'll keep someone by your side to play with you if you want!"

I didn't want to play. I had no idea what games foxes or pokemon played, anyway. I wanted explanations. Why was I a vulpix? Why was I wounded? Who was the girl sleeping by the bed when I woke up? Where was I? And most importantly, was I really in the anime's world? Who could answer these questions if the humans didn't know I was victim of a transformation?

Thinking about it, this world couldn't be the same as the anime's world, for the physics in the pokemon anime were close to non-existant. It was probably some kind of realistic version of it, where pokemon did make sense, and I was trapped in it with no knowledge of it whatsoever. It couldn't be the same as my previous world either for obvious reasons. I had no clue what kind of world I lived in and I had no way of gathering information about it. I was stuck in this small room, bound to machines meant to check on my health, until I was allowed to finally leave, but that would be too late to learn anything and I would be left to my own devices. Despite being firmly atheist, I found myself praying to any god that could possibly exist to help me out of the mess I had found myself in. And I didn't even know why or how...

While I was thinking, the nurse took the bowl of food away, understanding that I would not accept to eat. She gently petted me and stroked the back of my head like nurse Joy did earlier. She looked sad.

"It's sad that you have to go through this," she eventually said, noticing I was staring at her with curious eyes.

She then started talking about herself, probably to try to entertain me, but I was not listening. Was it common for humans to talk to pokemon like that? It was obvious by now that pokemon were supposed to understand human language, but I still had no idea whether or not I was supposed to be able to answer. I knew I could answer yes or no by nodding, which was a form of communication, but I didn't know how much further it could go.

"You're not listening, are you?" the nurse asked, acting upset to guilt me. "Maybe you want to sleep? It's barely 8pm, I didn't think you'd be sleepy yet, especially after sleeping so much today!"

That meant that a full day had not passed yet. It was still the... 20th of May, if I remembered correctly. Why was it so difficulty to remember that single date? Was it the drugs?

"There's someone who wants to see you!" the nurse said, excited.

She stood up and opened the door to let the visitor in. I had no idea how I did that, but I instantly recognized the odour of the girl who was sleeping on the chair a few hours before. I was actually surprised she was allowed to stay by my side after the operation that seemingly saved my life. Wasn't access to the recovery room usually only granted to nurses, or occasionally visitors?

"Hey Vulpix." the girl said.

I could hear in her voice a lot of different emotions. She was obviously relieved that I survived, but I couldn't say she sounded very happy. She sounded more like she was just about to break down in tears.

"Do you remember me?" she asked, sitting on the chair the nurse had brought for her - the very chair she was sleeping on when I woke up from the anesthetic.

I slowly moved my head from left to right, staring at her. She was a very pretty young adult, probably twenty to twenty-five at most. Her brown hair was cut rather short, probably around the base of her neck, and tied into a small ponytail behind her head. Her blue eyes wer shaking slightly. I expected her to start crying at any moment.

"Ah," she said, visibly disappointed. "I'm the one who... found you. I brought you here. You don't remember what happened, do you?"

I moved my head again. If she said she found me, then I couldn't have been her pet in the first place, which meant I was a wild vulpix, which made all my fears about living in the wild come back to me. The girl started petting me slowly. Her hand had unladylike short nails and she was not wearing any jewellery or perfume.

"She's breathing fast," she noticed. "I think I'm scaring her. I should leave."

As she withdrew her hand, I put one of my front paws on it to tell her not to leave. She tried to take it back from me, but I pushed the hand onto the bed and weakly applied pressure to it. The girl smiled.

"That's not a surprise," the nurse commented. "After all she's been through, it's a miracle she is still alive. And she's probably in pain right now. You should stay with her, she seems to like you."

I honestly had no clue who that girl was, but if what she said was right, then she had saved my life by bringing me to the hospital - or should I call it a pokemon centre - after finding me wounded and dying. The least I could do was show some gratitude and allow her to pet me. I knew how she felt - I was always upset when I saw stray cats and they refused to be touched.

At least, I thought it was my life she had saved. Or was it? If she had "found" me as she said, then it was safe to assume that my body was actually moving before being wounded and eventually dying, which meant that it was not my body. I had taken possession of a vulpix's body. How? And what happened to the original body owner? What if she... died, and I somehow revived the body by taking control of it, which would explain why I was unable to breathe and was considered clinically dead, then started breathing again out of nowhere? What if they were aware of that, and the girl witnessed it and reported it? Then, they would know I was actually human. The way they acted towards me didn't feel like they considered me to be human. They were petting me and talking to me as if I were a child, not a young adult, and as if I were less intelligent than them. If they knew, wouldn't they hesitate before petting me or globally treating me like a normal vulpix? And if they knew I was human, they would know I was not going to try to escape, so why the cage?

Those were too many questions I couldn't answer, and I tried my best to get them out of my head. I didn't need any more things to worry about. I was a vulpix and I had to accept it. I could at least try to enjoy this girl carefully petting me as I held her arm between my front paws, but the feeling of being petted bothered me. Thinking back about it, I was questioning my early wish to be her pet. I didn't like the idea of being someone's pet. As a human, I enjoyed having pets a lot, and I truly loved my pets, but now that I was a vulpix, I didn't want to be a pet. There were a lot of people who did love their pets, but some of them - like my parents - did not, and considered them to be nothing more than furniture. I could only assume the girl who had saved me was more like than like my parents, but even then, being a pet didn't sound like an enjoyable thing. I didn't want to be bound to someone, to have to obey them, and have little to no freedom to do what I wanted. What would I be doing anyway? My cats spent their time sleeping, and my dogs spent their time wallowing alone in a corner hoping one of us would stop being busy on their computer and come play with them. The life of a pet didn't seem fulfilling at all. At least if I were wild, I'd have the freedom to go where I wanted, sleep when I wanted, eat when I wanted, and do what I wanted to. But I would have to hunt for food, and I would probably spend most of my day doing so, which sounded like an immense hassle. At the end of the day, I didn't actually know what I wanted, whether or not they knew I was a human, and whether or not being a pet was the best option for me, but it did feel like a much easier life.

The girl who had apparently saved my life was carefully stroking the back of my head and under my ears as I was lost in my thoughts. Raising my head to her, I noticed she was keeping that sad look in her eyes. I couldn't have been her pet, so why was she so sad? What she said implied we did not know each other. Did she love pokemon that much, or was she shaken by whatever she had seen when she found my body? Was she still worried? Was it because she knew I was a human?

I interrupted her petting with a long yawn. She stood up, understanding it was time for her to leave. She thanked the nurse for allowing her to see me and exited the room. The nurse petted me, put the cage back on my bed, said she would be monitoring me via the beeping machine and a camera, and left the room, switching the lights off. Staring at the void, I laid down as I could, but most positions I tried were painful because of whatever was under the bandages I was wearing. The least uncomfortable one was to lay down on my side, my back straight, a bit like my labrador used to sleep in his old age.

I felt very depressed. In barely a day, my life had completely changed and taken a turn I would never have believed possible. I still had no idea what happened, but I was now certain that I was not dreaming. I had turned into a vulpix and was grievously wounded, and was stuck in a pokemon centre for an unknown amount of time. I didn't know what was going to happen to me in the future, but all I could think of while trying to fall asleep was that despite the dire situation I was in, I felt relieved, for unlike I thought when I woke up, I was well alive.