Schuldig's ear twitched. That should have been impossible. Hands, arms, legs and the things between, okay. They might twitch right after waking up in the morning. But his ears were to remain where they were, thank you very much. He cracked open an eye and spotted something furry next to him on his pillow. He jumped up and out of the bed. The thing followed him as it was attached to his behind.

"What the...a tail?"

Schuldig looked down and caught view of four small reddish brown paws and a white belly. Everything covered in fur. Just as his nose which had become quite long. He licked his lips. Yes, there were sharp teeth, too. He put two and two together and came to the conclusion:

"I'm a fox. Why am I a fox? How? And how do I turn back to normal?"

He decided to put the first two questions aside and stick to the third one. This was unacceptable. He certainly would not stay like this. But first he had to get out of here. He looked up at the door handle and was quite grateful that they did not have knobs on theirs doors. They would have been a problem without hands. But like this he just had to jump up a few times, before he hit the handle just right and the door opened.

Schuldig sneaked out into the doorway and wondered, if he was the only on having this...furry problem. When he heard a small noise just in front of him, he froze and cocked his ears. Man, these things seemed to have a mind of their own. He could not deny that it approved his hearing by far, though.

There were faint scratching noises accompanied by soft snuffling and something that sounded like an angry mouse. Schuldig felt his instincts kick in and fought them back. He certainly would not chase after mice, no matter how tasty that sounded to his foxy brain right now. Instead he decided to peak around the corner to see what was going on.

There was another animal sitting on the floor. It was smaller than Schuldig and had white fur. The body was lithe and agile with four short legs, its head triangled and topped with two rather round ears. It was making disapproving sounds as it kept pawing the kitchen knife in front of it.

"It´s no use", the animal finally said with the husky voice that was normally Farfarello's. "I just can't get it up. Stupid paws."

"So, you are a ferret," Schuldig decided to join in. "It seems we have a similar problem."

"Schuldig!" The ferret turned around and showed something like a grin. Its one eye glistening with amusement. "A fox, eh? Must be your hair color that got you that appearance."

"Seems like that. Anyone else up, yet?"

"I think I heard something from Crawford's room. Maybe we should check."

They went to the bedroom at the end of the hallway. There was indeed something inside and, from the sounds of it, it was not happy.

"Step back," Schuldig growled. "I will open the door."

He jumped up, pressed the handle and turned around before he hit the ground again. The door swung open and revealed an untidy bedroom. There were small piles of things put next to the bed. Papers were spread in one corner. The sheets were disheveled and the cover was torn. By claws if Schuldig was to guess. But where was Crawford?

"I am here," a smooth voice came from the build-in bathroom. "I suppose you are animals, too?"

"I am a fox and Farfarello's a ferret. What did you turn into?"

There was a shuffling and the bathroom door opened wider. Pawsteps came closer and then a black and white face appeared behind the bed.

"A badger?" Schuldig almost laughed at the sight. Almost. Because the expression on Crawford's now furry face did not show approval of any kind of amusement.

"This is a serious issue," Crawford growled and Schuldig had to admit that badgers were more impressive than he thought. "We have to find the source of this catastrophe and get rid of it as soon as possible. I have been thinking about a plan for the last two hours and..."

"What?" Schuldig interrupted him. "You knew and did not bother to wake any of us?"

Crawford muttered something.

"What?" Schuldig leaned forward.

"He could not reach the door handle," Farfarello helped out sitting on his hind legs. He seemed to have a thing for his new appearance despite the problem with picking up knives.

Crawford shot him a look. "Go and get Nagi. He has to do some research. I already have a strong suspicion who is behind all of this, but we need proves."

Schuldig jumped up. "I'll go. I want to see what Nagi turned into."

He went to Nagi's room and looked at the still closed door. "Naggels, are you in there?"

"Yes. Go away!" The voice was still the same but Schuldig wondered. He tried to reach out with his gift and was pleased to feel it still worked. He caught some very gloomy thoughts, but before he could dig deeper, the door opened with a bang. Inside it was dark, the curtains still closed and no light switched on. Schuldig cautiously stepped closer and sniffed. There was only a very faint odor of animal. Very faint and somewhere up above his head. He looked up and saw something huddled in the corner of the ceiling. It was...

"A bat?" Schuldig wished his eyebrows back so he could raise them. "What are you doing up there?"

"Hanging around?" Nagi sounded annoyed. More annoyed than usual. "What do you think I'm doing? I'm trying to get used to this ultrasound thing. It makes my head hurt even if you are not poking around in it."

"Well, Crawford needs you. You need to do some research."

"How?" Nagi's voice pitched up and made Schuldigs ears ring. "I don't have hands anymore."

"You need hands to use your computer? Now that´s new. Use your gift, moron."

Schuldig turned around and made a mental note, that a tail made this move even more impressive. But he still did not approve the situation. Were they the only ones or were other people affected as well? He reached out and caught confused thoughts all around him. There was a torrent of hows and whys out there mixed with anger, fear and disorientation. Normally he would have enjoyed such chaos, but this was serious. They had to turn back into humans as soon as possible.

With a little effort he managed to turn on the TV. Changing the station was more difficult but finally he reached a news channel. There was a baboon sitting in front of the camera.

"Tokio is a mess," it just said. "People have turned into animals everywhere. Specials forces tried to leave the city, but did not manage to do so. Some kind of electric field seems to trap everyone inside. The police is working to maintain the public safety and order. Please follow their instructions and try to stay inside if possible. We will inform you..."

Schuldig turn his attention from the television to the badger that had entered the room.

"So, this is all over the place. What do you think who did this?"

"I suspect this is a revenge. You remember the appointment I had last moth with Dr. Nakomura?"

"The weird science lady who wanted Schwarz to fight for animal rights?"

"Exactly. I refused to work for her and she got a little upset."

"She screamed after you that you will bitterly regret it," Schuldig specified. "You think she is behind this?"

"She mentioned some things that indicate she might have this power. But we will have to investigate further. And there is something else."

"What?" Schuldig perked his ears again. Yuck, this seemed to be habit-forming. More than the tail which twitched with his indignation.

"We have to contact Weiß. I had a vision that we will need them so be successful."

"Weiß?" The fox wrinkled his nose. "You really think this is a wise idea?"

"I don't," the badger replied. "But it is our only chance."

The plot just hit me so I decided to give it a try in English. It has been a while since I wrote something in foreign tongue, so there may be some mistakes especially in punctuation. I hope I got the spelling right, though. Please do not hold back to criticize anyway.

Music: "What does the fox say" by Ylvis