I think it goes almost without saying that when considering where this is published, my name doesn't have Omori in it and I don't own the rights to Danmachi/Dungeon ni Deai O Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka?, this is a fanwork written out of passion for and with a love of the original work and a desire to test for myself my ownabilities to write a work of fiction, that all being said, thank you in advance for reading. -Kitsuneguy17
I sighed and quit out of Skyrim, shutting the computer down, having tried for the fourth time in the last two hours to give myself some break from the drudgery of my life.
Nothing appeared to be working 'Maybe I should just go to bed' I thought. Video games and fantasy novels had always been my escape of choice, along with the occasional
DD game with friends. It had been a month since my boss called me up to let me know that we had just gotten short-handed and I had been slotted into the open spot and
my hell of eleven hour work days, five days a week, began.
Leaning back and blowing out a long breath, I turned my computer chair around and levered my tired body up until I was standing 'One more day, then it's a three day
weekend, still I'd give just about anything to not have to go into work tomorrow' I thought as I worked my way past the narrow spot where my unused mountain bike making
it to the bedroom I grabbed the book on the bedside table and collapsed in bed, opening it up at the bookmark, my jaws opening in a long yawn shortly after my head hit the
pillow 'On second thought, no book tonight, was more tired than I thought' I barely put the book down and closed my eyes before I felt sleep overtake me. Tonight was
different however from my usually dreamless sleep, bringing with it a strange dream: A man with a headdress that made it look like he had a birds head working in what
looked like a lab inside a pyramid when a woman with a cat-like headpiece walked in, both with skin like copper, where she was dressed in something that reminded me of
that one Egyptian looking chick from Queens Blade, he was dressed in something that looked like a cross between a lab coat and a robe. "You are so boring,we're down on
Gekai now, learn to live a little and not spend all your time with your nose in a book!" she rebuked the man as she walked around, her voice sounding strangely distant and
distorted, the only real noise I could hear in my otherwise silent dream. Her lip curling as she half sneered at an open book on a table with what looked like a cross between
Egyptian hieroglyphs and Norse runes. Turning she climbed up a large bookshelf that stretched almost to the ceiling, there being just enough room for her to and balance on
all fours while on top of it, she crawled catlike along the shelf, knocking things off on to the floor like an irritated feline when something was in her way. The man looked up
from the book he was writing in with great distress as a glass jar hit the floor with a loud crash and sent broken glass skittering across the floor. With a shout he tried to stop
her, but failed, jars, stone tablets, and things I couldn't identify all met the floor, usually not surviving whole, finally she reached the end of a line of shelves. "Oops" she said
with a grin"was all that important?" she laughed, then turned her eyes to another shelf, this one having only one thing, a large, man-sized glowing crystal, she wiggled her
butt like a cat judging the distance it has to leap, the man followed her eyes and started really freaking out, grabbing what looked like some pole that was used to retrieve
books from the upper shelves, it reminded me of one of those grabber tools that Billy Mays used to sell, and tried grab at her with it, trying to get her off the shelf while also
trying to get himself in between her and the crystal, a 'fight' he quickly lost as she dodged him and leaped onto the shelf and with a laugh put both hands on the crystal and
shoved, causing it to shatter in the middle of an inscribed glowing circle on the floor, the circle flaring brightly and making a tremendous noise, overpowering the man's
screams of anger "YOU DAMN CAT, NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" as shelves swayed and toppled, the whole building seemed to shake before the dream faded.
An unknown amount of time later
'What is that noise, it's not the pigeons, sounds like someone knocking' "Go away!" I roared at the source of the noise, rolling over I tried to grab half my pillow and fold it
over to block out the noise that had brought me out of my much desired sleep. What followed was the sound of my door being kicked in and the sound of heavy footfalls.
"What the f-" I cried out and tried to bolt out of bed, reflexively grabbing at the wall hanger sword I kept at my bedside for home defense. The knife block was probably a
better choice and was admittedly right out my bedroom door, but right now there was a guy in between me and it, and even more strangely, he was in a mix of what looked
like thick sturdy clothing that didn't match and armed with short sword, I was half naked, having worn a pair of flannel sweatpants to bed, and armed with a cheap $20 sword
that I'm pretty certain didn't have an edge and was meant only to look pretty on a wall.
I let loose a wordless cry and went on the offense, aiming a stab for his face and in my head the thoughts suddenly intruded 'What is going on? Why is he here? Was my
voice higher just now!? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!' he countered, falling back and backing up into my fridge, thinking that this gave me an opening, I pressed the
attack even more, but he countered my next attack with an almost contemptuous ease and I recoiled as his blade caught my hand leaving me with a nasty cut and making
me drop my weapon on reflex. I grabbed at my hand from the sudden explosion of pain, only to be grabbed and thrown down on my bedroom floor, my head hitting into a
pile of books, and I must have hit something else because I felt a sharp pain in my tailbone, his sword quickly ending up at my throat, shortly followed by a large firm hand
around my neck "Hold still you crazy bitch! I only want your valuables! I don't want to hurt you but I will if you try that again!" I could barely hear all that though, my mind
was racing, my rage at this invasion of my home was reaching a crescendo, but my body was frozen, unable to move. I hadn't been much of a fighter when I was younger,
but now when my life was truly in danger, when of all times I needed to move, I was frozen in fear.
Hearing a grunt, I looked at his face, the look I saw there disgusted me, he was liking something he saw, roughly kicking me legs apart he leered down at me in an
expression I had never seen before on a man's face, and I didn't like what I saw "Well now that you're calmed down and I've got a good look at you...not bad, not bad at all,
somebody in Orario will definitely pay a good price for an exotic woman like you" he withdrew the blade only an inch or so, turning to the side and calling "Hey! We got a
good one in here! get your ass in here an' help me tie her up!" Getting on his knees, his blade still far too close to my throat for my liking 'What did he say, a woman!?' the
thought shot through my mind, without the immediate threat of a new hole in my throat I had the brief time to look at my chest and saw that indeed I was not the man I had
gone to sleep the previous night as. Two bulges on my chest were plenty of evidence of that, and seeing as how I wasn't a virgin, I could imagine what I had gained in
addition to what I had lost. Realizing for the first time both what he intended and the severe danger I was in if I let him continue, I panicked and tried to cover myself while
screaming as loud as I could "LEAVE ME ALONE YOU SON OF A BITCH!". With a loud shout of anger and something that sounded like "Shut the fuck up!" my assailant stabbed
into the book next to my head, I think hoping to scare me, or maybe silence me at the very least, but with a mental click something had changed, his plan worked for about
half a second, but then my rage snapped the chains of my fear and self control and I was NOT going to tolerate this shit going any further, I grabbed his wrist and pulled him
in, stiffening my fingers I put a pair of them directly in one of his eyes, feeling the orb of tissue give way as blood started pouring down his face, he recoiled and tried to stab
me, but I immediately pushed on his arm, trying to open the distance so I could find some room to breathe, sending him off balance. I grabbed the nearest thing at hand,
another book (as it turned out later, my hardback copy of Bulfinch's Mythology) and hurled it at him, hitting him right in the face and from the blood and pained yell, I must
have done some damage, I moved in and grabbed his arm, narrowly avoiding a stab in the gut, as he was trying to pull his arm back at the same time I was trying to turn
the blade, the result was him being stabbed in with his own weapon. He cried out at the same time I let loose a howl of rage and started to pummel him with my fists, the
power of my fury lending me strength, when he went down to the ground I hit him several more times for good measure, then my eyes landed on my sword, I picked it up
and stabbed him over and over again, the blade hitting something inside him, the point sticking in his corpse and not coming out no matter how hard I pulled.
I heard another male voice calling out in what sounded like a question, I stopped trying to pull the blade of the body at my feet and just listened, I couldn't understand what
was being said but it made my blood ran cold and I quickly looked down, it would take too long to pull the sword out, like a flash I quickly hurled aside my closet door and
grabbed my most expensive weapon, a battle ready ninjato that I had picked up when a local blade store had been going out of business several years ago at one of the local
malls, it came out of the sheath with a dry rasp as the polished high carbon steel left the wood of the scabbard, the pain of my hand forgotten, blood dripping to join the first
of my attackers.
If I had anything to say at all about the fate of the second, he would be joining him shortly. As I heard the sound of boots striking my kitchen floor I readied myself, knowing
that his companions silence might give me away I let out what I thought sounded like some pitiful cries even as I readied a blind stab for where I thought the general area of
his mid to upper torso would be and luck was with me, as his companion rounded the corner with a look of utter horny stupidity, he started to say something as he rounded
the corner, and had just long enough to realize his mistake when the tanto point of my sword tip caught him right between the ribs around the sternum and it sank in him so
far the guard hit him in the chest as I powered into him with an incoherent yell, I saw his eyes cloud over in death as his last breath rattled out right in my face, strangely, I
noticed how good his teeth looked. I quickly pulled my sword free and listened carefully, every fiber of my being straining to the limit, but finally it appeared that I was in fact
alone.
Shuddering as my adrenaline levels stopped being somewhere just south of the stratosphere I took stock of my situation and quickly vomited, both from the shock but also
the smell of freshly released bowels, I worked hard at keeping myself from heaving again at the sight and smell of my own vomit, moving away and gulping air like a fish
trying to find water.
Desperate to distract myself from what I had just done, I latched onto the first thing I could think of 'I suppose I should look in a mirror now, hope I have something that still
fits and while I'm at it I probably should prepare just in case I REALLY have a woman's body, 'cause nothing I think could suck more than starting my period right now' legs
wobbling a bit, I walked into my bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror and was shocked, I now had fox ears with a faint covering of fur on them, it looked around the
same shade of black as found on a red fox, my hair had doubled in length, it now hung now around my mid back as I swept it out of my eyes with one hand, with my hair
now out of my eyes I could see the whole of my changes much more clearly, my eyes had turned a much brighter shade of blue and my stomach had gone from the muffin
top I was used to into flat with the barest hint of muscle showing, along with the ears the most shocking change had been the tail I was now sporting, it was around arm
length or so, it's exact size was hard to determine as the fur had poofed out and was covered in more fur that again reminded me of a member of , the common red fox, with
a mostly red fur with a white tip.
If I had to gauge my level of fitness, I would describe it as fit but not overly so. My skin had cleared up and had shifted tone to an even paler tone 'Damn! I'm pretty fucking
hot!'' I thought as I took several moments to admire my new appearance, poking, prodding, turning this way and that in the mirror. I giggled, finding the sound much more
pleasing than my laugh from before I had been turned into a fox-woman, in my excitement I jumped up a bit only to regret it as I did not account for Newton and after I
landed I felt something stretch painfully inside my body 'Ow! never doing that again!'
Now in a bit of pain, I hunted through my large pile of clean clothes and found that I had indeed managed to have some good fortune, my regular clothes still fit me relatively
well, though some of my smaller shirts wouldn't be able to fit anymore, my feet in contrast had become quite small in comparison to how large they had been before 'Damn, I
may have to walk barefoot at this rate'. I continued to search through my pile of clean laundry as I thought on the problem 'Hmm, if I just layer socks on top of socks that
hopefully will work to bulk up my feet, it's worth a shot' I ended up using about 6 pairs of socks until I was able to fit into my hiking boots, it was around this time that my
stomach made it's presence known with a loud growl, checking my battery powered alarm clock I saw that the time was around 9:30am. I looked out my front door, which is
a straight shot from my bathroom and saw a sight that conversely shocked me and at the same time didn't, instead of the other apartments and other urban scenery that I
would have expected, a bunch of trees and forest undergrowth was what I saw. 'What-the-fuck?' my mouth hung open as the sight registered in my brain for a moment
before I simply looked down at my breasts, shrugged, and continued with what I was doing.
Eventually I returned to important matters, searching each of my attackers for anything that might be useful 'They chose to attack me, I defended myself, they don't deserve
any respect in death' quickly I stripped them of everything I could, placing anything that looked useful in separate piles: weapons, equipment, clothes and a strange looking
gold amulet that looked like some kind of bird, that my first attacker was wearing on a cord around his neck, it looked valuable, and maybe I could use it to find out more
about him, at the very least, it looked valuable.
The sun was rather bright as I actually stepped outside and looked around, paying closer attention to the details 'whatever happened, it brought my apartment and part of
the neighbors too, this looks like some kind of temperate zone, that looks like a pine, but I don't recognize any of the birdsong' My search was cut short when my stomach
growled again and I realized just how hungry I was getting, 'I should eat, but first things first' I turned to the two now naked bodies in my apartment, I grabbed number two
and dragged him out the door by the arms, feet leaving a visible drag mark in the forest floor, I dragged him until I was satisfied that he was far enough away that I wouldn't
have to smell him if he started turning 'Hopefully something opportunistic and hungry, but still afraid of me takes care of him before that happens if I have to stay here' my
arms and shoulders had started hurting from the effort, so I dropped him and went back for the other one, 'Yep, definitely not as strong as I used to be' Afterwards I shut my
now broken front door, dragging my lounge chair in front of it, hoping that would be heavy enough to at least slow someone down, for good measure I added my snow tires
in a small pile behind it to give my makeshift barricade some additional weight.
Finally I leaning back against the door, I tipped my head and rested it for a moment on the door, feeling the cool metal against my back, 'Whew, I hope that is enough
weight! In any case, I should get some food' with a small groan I plodded over to my fridge, it was still cold, though without power that wouldn't be the case indefinitely. I
quickly ate last nights mango-habanero chicken wings, the flavor different, more pungent than before, my mouth left burning in a way that I thought I had long stopped
feeling, but I pushed through 'New body, new taste buds apparently' I mentally shrugged and chewed stoically.
Stomach full for the moment, I sat down, unable to keep moving as some of the reality of my situation hit me 'Okay...I am a woman, or at least have a body of one, I have
been attacked by people who look like they just left a renaissance fair, whatever happened brought me and my whole apartment with me' I got up and searched around for
one of my notepads and started writing
1. Where am I?
2. What happened to make me a woman?
3. Who attacked me and why?
4. Where to now?
I sat for what must have been half an hour doing nothing but sitting still, rolling these questions around in my head, not really able to come up with any answers. Tired of
sitting around wondering about questions that don't have any answers that weren't staring me in the face and realizing that I would have to go out into the world to find
those answers, I focused on getting myself ready for travel, I checked on things I thought wouldn't keep in the fridge, the dairy products, the non-frozen meats, and the
couple of one pound blocks of cheese. Remembering suddenly the bug out bag I tried to assemble during the last election in case law and order failed, call me paranoid but
I'd rather have that and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
I opened my closet and there it was still, I hadn't gotten around to replacing the MRE's that I had originally bought for it, I had subsequently eaten them to make sure I could
both function and stand the taste, but I still had plenty of canned food. Looking at the time it was around 10 am, by 10:30 I had thrown in everything I could think of like my
food, my hatchet, and almost everything else that my decade plus old education from the Boy Scouts told me I'd need. I sat on my floor with my packed tent in front of me 'I
don't know how far it is to the nearest town, it could be a ways, so I should take it in case I need to camp, but if it isn't, it might just be dead weight that slows me down, I
suppose in that case I could trade it even if it is getting a little on the old side' Getting up, I looked around one last time, both outside and in, "I'd hate to wonder how much
I'd be up shit creek if whatever brought me here hadn't brought all my stuff with me" I quietly said to myself, echoing my inner thoughts. "I don't know if this weather is
going to hold or not, I don't know where I am, and I'm not entirely human now... fuck it, for all I know this is another world" I then set about assembling a full set of my
clothes, ending up with some denim pants, a sleeveless shirt that fit my new chest without much difficulty, under which I was wearing a knock off Under Armour compression
top to hold said chest in place, my breathing hampered only a tiny bit, though as I lacked a bra my nipples were quite visible under just the two layers of clothing, and my
London Fog raincoat that I found in a thrift store years ago. I stuck my tongue out in thought as I stood once again in front of my bathroom mirror 'This alone might be
enough, but it doesn't pay to underestimate the distance or the weather, I better make sure to pack for winter just in case' I sighed 'but I should also hurry, I don't know if
those two had friends or not, I might have more company soon.' I looked outside 'Sun looks like it's moved a little bit, I think it might be afternoon now, maybe I should just
barricade myself in for the night and start off fresh tomor..' my train of thought was interrupted by a noise I didn't recognize coming from the direction that I had dragged the
bodies, a loud inhuman screaming and what sounded like the sounds of two creature quarreling.
'Damn, guess I better fortify and hope whatever that is or whoever doesn't notice me' Rushing, I moved everything that I could into the bedroom, tossing a few more cans of
food and ramen packets onto the bed along side everything I thought i might need when I left, leaving the barricade at the front door alone I started packing the backpack
with the food and extra clothes just in case I needed to be out quickly, putting my attackers clothing, as disgusting as some of it was, over what I was already wearing, if
whatever it was had claws or something, hopefully the extra layers would provide some protection, though at this point I'd have killed for some plate armor, ditching the tent
in favor of the tarp the backpack already had with it.
I heard what sounded like a very loud jabbering group approaching. I hurriedly shut and locked the bedroom door and made sure the blinds were fully drawn, I even tried to
get one of my bookcases moved in front of the rooms only window, barely succeeding in getting the fully loaded shelves moved even an inch before I realized the stupidity of
that action 'What if I need to leave in a hurry? Better to leave this as is' I heard what sounded like a fist hitting the front door, quickly followed by several more impacts on
the walls, eventually I heard the glass in the living room shatter and what voices I could hear didn't sound anything near human. I gripped the ninjato tightly ' Please God,
Don't let them look in here! Don't let them look in here!' I desperately begged.
End Ch 1