[My Story? Well sure, why not? Better sit down though, it's pretty long, but I'll try to keep it interesting. It all started when I was even smaller than you…]

Hailey Potter, aged six. Stared down at the bright white rabbit, who was struggling to free herself from a nasty looking jaw trap.

Her Aunt and Uncle had decided to take their son Dudley to the park to play with his friends, and due to their usual babysitter, Misses Fig being unavailable, they had been forced to take Hailey along.

Of course the minute they got there they told her to make herself scarce, and not wanting to get caught up in Dudleys games, she quickly complied.

Which is how she found herself standing in a thicket of trees, watching the poor helpless animal try in vain to free its leg.

Hailey looked around, trying to work out what to do. She briefly considered finding an adult, but discarded the notion as an adult probably laid the trap in the first place.

Hailey noticed that the rabbit had stopped struggling, and was now looking up at her with its black soulful eyes.

With all the resolve that a six year old could muster, she kneeled down to the trap. "Don't worry mister rabbit, I'll get you out of here."

Examining the trap, she tried to work out how to free the rabbit. At first she gave the rabbit an experimental tug, but a pained squeak discouraged her from that. So instead she looked at the jaws of the trap. She tried to give it a tug, and she felt it shift slightly. She tried pulling a little harder, but couldn't get it to move any further. So she got both hands in the trap, and put as much strength as she could into her tiny malnourished arms, even planting her foot against the trap to get more leverage. With a herculean effort, she managed to pull the trap apart enough for the rabbit to pull its leg out, and limp away.

Then Hailey made a dangerous mistake, she relaxed.

She yelped as the trap's jaws snapped around her fingers, leaving her locked in place. Giving a quiet whimper and trying not to cry, she tried in vain to pull her fingers out.

"Yikes, here let me help you with that."

To Hailey's surprise, a pair of hands grasped both sides of the trap,and pulled them apart.

Gingerly removing her hands, She looked up to see a young looking girl with blonde hair, a simple pink dress and a pair of rabbit ears, grinning at her.

"You ok kid? Sorry, I didn't think you'd end up getting caught as well." the rabbit eared girl said, letting the trap snap on air. "Your hands ok?"

"W-who are you?" Hailey asked.

The girl pouted. "I'm Mister Rabbit, remember? you just helped me get my leg out. Although for future reference, I am a Miss Rabbit, or more accurately Miss Inaba. Nice to meet ya!"

"You are that rabbit…?" Hailey said, confused.

The rabbit sat down and lifted her leg to show Hailey, there was a mark around her ankle, along with some grazed skin, and some swelling. "Yup, still hurts like a bitch too, I'll probably need someone to have a look at it later."

Hailey blinked, trying to work out which of the many questions she had should be asked.

She eventually settled for: "How?"

"Ehh, don't sweat the small stuff." The rabbit said, shooting her down immediately. "So how can I help you?"

"Help... me?" Hailey said, confused.

"Yeah, because you saved me from that trap." The Rabbit girl said. "And as per tradition, when receiving a charitable kindness from a human, we rabbits are to grant them a boon."

"A boon? What's a Boon?" Hailey asked, tilting her head, still extremely confused, but the rabbits easy going way of speech had relaxed her somewhat.

"It's kinda like a wish, or a favour." The Inaba said. "Ask for anything, and provided it's in my power, I'll grant it. So what do you want?"

"Umm…" Hailey hadn't expected she'd be getting a wish, and her brow furrowed in thought. What did she want?

She first thought that maybe she wanted sweets, as she rarely got to have them. But then discarded that thought, as Dudley would no doubt steal them from her.

Then she thought about maybe some toys, but knew that her aunt and uncle would confiscate them.

Perhaps some friends would be nice, but Dudley's gang would probably drive them away.

She'd settle perhaps for not sleeping in a cupboard under the stairs, but she somehow doubts the Dursleys would let her.

She started wondering if she could wish the dursleys nice. But she somehow feels that this is probably impossible, even for magical wish granting rabbit girls.

"Come on kiddo, you can say what's on your mind, I promise I won't laugh or anything." the Rabbit said, looking a little impatient.

She tried to think harder, but she simply couldn't think of any wish or gift that the Dursleys wouldn't somehow ruin for her.

"Girl!" in the distance she could hear her uncle calling for her, it was probably time to go home, and she would probably be punished if she delayed too long.

With the impatient rabbit girl in front of her, and her uncle calling for her she suddenly realised something, something she wishes for more than anything. But even then she was tentative to voice it.

"Don't got all day kid, and by the sound of it neither do you." the Rabbit said, as Vernon's bellowing continued in the distance.

"I mean, if it was possible…" Hailey started, suddenly very nervous as to what the rabbits response would be.

"Spit it out already." The rabbit said impatiently.

"I wish… I had a family that loves me." Hailey finally said.

The rabbit looked mildly taken aback, making Hailey almost want to retract her wish, but she stayed silent as the Rabbit's expression became slightly apologetic.

"Geez, really put me on the spot here." The Rabbit said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm not sure I can magic a family of existence though, I usually do simple errands and good fortune."

Hailey tried not to look disappointed and failed completely.

The rabbit looked rather guilty, before an epiphany struck. "Wait, I might not be able to help, but I know someone who can. The head of my family is super wise and knowledgeable, she'll probably know how to grant your wish."

"She will?" Hailey said, her spirits lifting somewhat.

"Sure she can, she's my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-"

"GIRL!" Her Uncle shouted again, this time much closer, making Hailey jump.

The Rabbit turned to where the sound came from, and with the knowledge of Hailey's wish, she frowned in grim determination.

"Come on, I'll take you to meet her!" she said, standing up, and outstretching her hand.

[Now Perhaps if I had been older and wiser, I would have been more sceptical of the magical rabbit promising , I had never been properly educated in stranger danger.]

After one more bellow from her Uncle, this time accompanied by some threats. She took the rabbit's hand.

"This way, we'll be there in a jiffy." The Rabbit said, limping away deeper into the trees, with Hailey in tow.

Uncle Vernon never did find her, no matter how hard he looked.

"Alright, here we are." The rabbit said.

Hailey looked around. As far as she could tell, this was no different from the rest of the woods they just walked through.

"Ok, not here here." The Rabbit said, "but it's how we are going to get there." She then pointed out a rabbit burrow under the roots of a tree, "you see that?"

Hailey nodded.

"Now you see, we youkai rabbits, that's what I am by the way, have a special way of getting around. All our burrows are magically linked to one another, in what we call the rabbit express way, pioneered after one too many of us took a wrong turn at Albecuky."

"Ohhh." said Hailey, impressed.

"Now the head of my family lives all the way in Japan, so if you wanna meet her, you gotta go down there."

"Eh?"

"Come on, you go first, I need to make sure you can get through ok." The rabbit said jovially.

In the face of the rabbits expectant gaze, Hailey tentatively got onto her hands and knees, and crawled up to the rabbit hole.

[Now if this had been a serial killer, or indeed most other kinds of youkai, I would already be dead and probably someone's lunch. However Rabbit youkai are largely vegetarian, and the few that do eat meat, don't eat human flesh, or otherwise I probably wouldn't be here telling this story.]

Hailey stared into the hole dubiously, she somehow doubted she could fit into the rabbit sized hole, but just as she was about to vocalise this, she felt two hands on her butt, and a sudden forward motion that had her plunging head first into the hole.

"Hmmm… Maybe I need to widen this hole a little…" the rabbit said ponderously as she watched Haileys thrashing legs sticking out of the burrow. "Oh well!"

Grabbing Hailey by the ankles, and giving another solid push, Hailey disappeared down the burrow with a 'Fwoop!'. The rabbit herself then dived in after her with considerably less difficulty, despite being bigger then Hailey.

Foomp!

With an indignant squark, Hailey shot out like she was spat out, landing arse up in the dirt.

Hailey lay dazed on the ground. It was possibly the most disorienting experience in her life, like she had been just sucked through a straw, for what simultaneously felt like five seconds and forever.

"That's not a good look for you ya know," said the indistinct blur that Hailey assumed was the rabbit.

The blur helped her to her feet and handed her back her glasses, and the world came back into focus.

To her surprise, it was dark out, night having already fallen. And she seemed to be in a forest of densely packed weird looking green trees.

[Actually it was Bamboo, but I didn't know that at the time. So it might as well have been another planet to me.]

"Huh, forgot about time zones, I hope she's still awake…" the Rabbit said, before taking Haileys hand, "come on, this isn't the kind of place you wanna be after dark."

The rabbit led her through the bamboo, which allowed Hailey to spot a huge building surrounded by wooden walls that was closeby.

The gate seemed to be guarded by another rabbit girl in similar apparel with blue hair, who waved jovially and said something in a language Hailey didn't understand, but the rabbit guiding her did, and said something in return.

After a brief conversation she led Hailey past the open gate and into the courtyard, where she became aware of music being played.

There were a lot of rabbits loitering around the place, both normal looking rabbits and a bunch of rabbit girls all wandering around, chatting with one another, dancing, pouring each other drinks, or just lazing around in heaps.

"We are in luck, they are having a party tonight, so Tewi should be around here somewhere." The Rabbit said.

"Tewi?" Hailey asked, feeling very overwhelmed by all this.

"The Family matriarch, everyone here is either her descendant, or related to her in some way. She's the oldest rabbit alive today." The rabbit said. "Like I said, she's my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grea-oh there she is!"

With the description, and the huge amounts of greats, Hailey was expecting some super old woman rabbit made entirely of wrinkles, but instead, she found Tewi to… look exactly like everybody else, barring her hair, which was black, shoulder length with a natural perm, and the carrot shaped pendant she wore around her neck. She was dancing in a circle of rabbits, bottle in hand as a few rabbits played instruments nearby.

As she twirled around laughing with her fellow rabbits as they clapped along to the beat, their eyes briefly met, and Tewi's wine red eyes had an unfathomable depth, speaking of countless eons of life lived, yet twinked with youthful mischief.

Hailey had never seen someone quite so… Alive before. The sheer vitality of the display seemed to retroactively make everyone else she has ever met seem hollow and empty compared to the ancient rabbit before her.

["Did you really think that? Really?"]

[Well… maybe not in so many words, I was only six after all, but you get the jist of it.]

As they approached, Tewi jumped out of the circle, and another, much drunker, rabbit immediately took her place, who wasn't so much dancing but rhythmically staggering, but the other rabbits cheered on regardless. She stepped away from the group to meet them.

She started speaking in the same forein tongue that everyone was, and Tewi and the Rabbit who brought Hailey here started having an animated conversation.

After a few minutes of standing awkwardly as a conversation was had both literally and figuratively over her head, the Rabbit Matriarch turned to her, crouching down to her level, and thankfully spoke in English, albeit heavily accented, but still passable.

"So, Stella here tells me you're in the market for a new family. Is that right?" Tewi said.

"Hailey nodded, but then caught something. "Stella? She said her name was Inaba."

Tewi laughed, "Every rabbit here is an Inaba, including me, Tewi Inaba, in english naming conventions. But anyway, how about you tell me about yourself?"

Hailey looked worried. "What do you want to know?"

"Oh just where you come from, who you are." Tewi said, "the more I know, the better I can help you."

Hailey felt nervous, as she wasn't supposed to talk about her living arrangements outside the Dursleys, on threat of punishment. But then again, if she gets a new family, then she might never need to see them again, so steeling herself, she started telling Tewi about her life.

As the story goes on nearby rabbits stop in their revelry, and start listening in, slowly crowding around the unaware Hailey as she explains the ongoing tragedy that is her life. Stella behind her grew steadily more horrified as the story continued.

Tewi however, just kept the same encouraging smile, nodding to continue whenever Hailey started faltering.

As Hailey finally closed the story with her wish to Stella, she became aware of someone blowing their nose, and was quite taken aback when she found herself in the centre of a carpet of sad looking rabbits and rabbit girls, half the party having gravitated over to listen to her story. Hailey shrunk under the attention.

Tewi, still wearing an encouraging smile, patted her on the shoulder, "You were very brave to tell me all that, thank you." She then barked something to the surrounding party goers, and they dispersed, many sending pitying glances in Haileys direction before rejoining the festivities, no doubt to spread the story they just heard to the rest of the party, probably adding one or two embellishments along the way.

[By the end of the night Uncle Vernon had become an evil usurper king and myself the rightful heir who lived in the dungeon and was only let out to clean the castle with a toothbrush. But that was neither here nor there.]

"Well, Hailey." Tewi said. "I don't think it will be too difficult to find you a better family. Hell, it would be harder to find a family that's worse than your aunt and uncle. But unless I am mistaken, your wish was not asking for a better family, but rather one that will love you. Am I correct?"

Hailey nodded.

"That's a little harder, as love is a tricky thing, it might take a bit of searching… oooor… say how would you like to be an Inaba?"

"Eh?" Hailey blinked.

"EH?" Stella said, slightly more surprised.

"I've decided I like you Kiddo. So if you like, I could adopt you into the clan as my daughter. It's been awhile since I've had kids, so I wouldn't mind you being my tyke. We rabbits are also pretty free and easy with the whole love thing, so you'll never be short of that here."

Hailey stared incredulously at Tewi. "You… want me?"

"Yup, I think I do." Tewi said, grinning. "You're a good kid, a little fragile, but that's probably because you just need someone to build you up properly. I kinda wanna be that somebody."

Her smile became one full of maternal warmth. "So how about it Hailey, you wanna be a rabbit?"

Hailey studied Tewi, before giving a brave little smile. "Yes please."

Tewi reached forward and ruffled her hair, "That's my girl."

"Umm… I'm real happy for you Hailey, and not to disturb the happy moment, but how are you gonna make her a rabbit?" Stella asked

Tewi gave a dismissive wave. "Oh that's easy. Somebody owes me a favour or two, Isn't that right Yukari?"

Hailey's eyes boggle and Stella yelped as a hole full of eyes opened in the air, and a blonde woman leaned out. She said something in the other as-of-yet unknown language.

"Sorry, but can we keep this english for the moment? Hailey can't speak Japanese." Tewi said.

"Very well, but I can fix that for you if you like." the woman said, in far better english than Tewi's, with barely a hint of accent.

"What will it cost?" Tewi, said sardonically.

"Hmm… that will depend on what you called me for." Yukari.

"Simple." Tewi said, manoeuvring behind Hailey and grasping her by the shoulders. "I'm adopting this small child, and I want you to make her my daughter."

"Ohho~" Yukari said, smirking with a deadly glint in her eye.

"Just change her species Yukari, none of that weird unbirth stuff." Tewi said flatly.

Yukari clicked her tongue.

"What's 'unbirth'?" Hailey asked.

"Weird fetish Garbage, I'll explain later if we still care." Tewi said dismissively. "So can you do it?"

"Can I do it? Honestly it's insulting you even need to ask." Yukari said, almost looking offended. "I'd barely consider this a favour."

"Does that mean this is a freebee?" Tewi asked.

Yukari seemed to think about it "…I'll tell you what, I'll throw in Japanese Language comprehension and create a direct blood relation, so she really is your daughter. Combine that with calling me in for something so trivial, and we might consider that a whole favour."

"Deal-Ow!" Tewi rubbed her head where Yukari had pulled out a hair.

"This will only take a moment," Yukari said, before leaning forward, delicately opening Hailey's mouth and placing the hair in there, before closing it again.

Hailey stood there confused, until there was a loud poof, and her vision was filled with white smoke. After a moment of coughing Hailey opened her eyes again.

Something was drooping in front of her face, she tried to brush it aside, only to get shocked when she felt her own hand on it. That was when she realised it was her new ear.

She tried to wiggle it, and it twitched.

She also became aware of something uncomfortable in the back of her underwear.

"Ohh, a black rabbit, cute! Don't have a lot of them in the clan, my genes are a little too strong." Tewi said, who was now circling Hailey. "Looks like you got my fluffiness though." She then noticed the look of discomfort. "What's wrong?"

"My butt feels weird." Hailey admitted.

Tewi blinked, before slapping her forehead. "Oh right, your tail, give me a sec."

Tewi, lifted the back of Hailey's ill fitting dress, and yanked the back of her panties down, making Hailey yelp, but then sigh in relief as the discomfort stopped.

Hailey tried to turn around, and managed to glimpse the tiny black cotton ball that was her new tail. She gave it an experimental wiggle.

Tewi dropped the dress again. "That will do for now, we'll see about getting some proper rabbit clothes in your size later."

Hailey felt the weight of the dress against her tail, and hoped that would be soon.

"Will that be all?" Yukari said, examining her nails critically. "I'll have you know my day has just started, and I have plenty to do."

"Yeah, thanks for that Yukari. Until next time." Tewi said, giving a wave.

"Try and make the next one harder." Yukari said playfully. But just as she was ducking back into her portal she stopped, and turned into Hailey. "A word of warning, young Potter-Inaba. The past may come and find you in the most interesting of ways… And that was a freebie by the way, no need to thank me."

She slipped into the portal, pulling it shut behind her.

"...should we be worried about that?" Stella asked nervously.

"Nah," said Tewi. "Yukari's always sprouting cryptic stuff, we can worry about it when it happens. She does have a point though, Potter-Inaba has a nice ring to it."

She then gave a whistle that was higher pitched than Hailey had ever heard before, or was even possible for her to hear until now.

All of a sudden the party ceased, and all the bunnies turned to Tewi.

"Gather up everybody, I got an announcement to make!" Tewi shouted.

There was a rumble, and suddenly Hailey was standing in front of a sea of Rabbits, both Human and bunny shaped.

"I'd like to introduce you to Hailey Potter-Inaba, who I have decided to adopt!" Tewi said, putting her arm around Haileys shoulder. "Let's give her a warm welcome!"

There was a cheer from the general assembly, ranging from jubilation, to drunk shouting.

"Now Hailey here came from a rough household," Tewi said, and there was some muttering in the crowd at this, mostly along the lines of 'poor princess' or similar sentiments but Tewi wasn't finished. "So I need everyone here to make her feel loved and supported. Is that clear?!"

There was another cheer, and Hailey was growing red under all the attention, not noticing Tewi had taken her hand off and had backed away

"Alright, love and support on your mark, get set!" Tewi shouted, before blowing another impossibly high whistle.

Hailey looked confused, in the brief moments before she was buried in a mass of fluffy bodies, drowning in a sea of tiny rabbit hugs.

Tewi nodded in satisfaction at her handiwork, and the new rabbit mound where Hailey had been standing.

"Why are you whistling so much? What's going on out here?"

Tewi turned to look at the Compound's only moon rabbit, who had opened one of the paper doors, to stare critically at her smaller colleague.

"Hey Reisen, just welcoming a new member of the family." Tewi said, before clapping, "Alright, that's enough everybody, let her breathe."

The Rabbits disperse, and Tewi pulls a thoroughly dizzy Hailey off the ground. "Ya see Kiddo, love is in no short supply around here."

"Love is heavy." Hailey weezed, struggling to stay standing.

"You'll get used to it." Tewi said. "But look lively now, I'd like to introduce you to my co-worker, and the only rabbit outside of my clan who is an Inaba, Reisen."

She turned Hailey to face the moon rabbit, and was surprised to see how tall she was, as most rabbits seemed to be the same height, while Reisen is as tall as a normal person, if not taller. "Reisen, this is my new daughter, Hailey Potter-Inaba."

Reisen bent over to reach Hailey's level, and examined her critically, before turning to Tewi. "Another one of your bastards Tewi?"

"Rude, she's adopted." Tewi said sardonically, "And you are supposed to greet someone when you meet them for the first time."

"Oh!, right." Reisen said, blushing. And turning back to Hailey. "Hello, I'm Reisen Udongein Inaba, as Tewi said, we are not related, our shared surname was due to an eccentricity of our master. But still, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you." Hailey parroted.

Reisen straightened up. "Polite kid, where did you get her from?"

"Probably somewhere in England, Stella was the one who found her." Tewi said, pointing out the blonde rabbit.

"She speaks Japanese well for a foreigner." Reisen remarked.

"What do you mea-" Hailey began, only to realise that she was indeed speaking a different language.

As she marvelled at this, speaking both Japanese and English words, Reisen cocked her head, before shrugging, and addressing Stella, "By the way, Stella was it? What's wrong with your leg?"

"I got it caught in a rabbit trap." Stella said.

Reisens eyebrow rose. "How did that happen?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Stella mumbled, looking mortified.

"Our stella is a bit of a clutz." Tewi supplied.

"Well you should probably get that looked at, Master is currently busy, but I can probably manage this much." Reisen offered.

"Heh, I'll take you up on that, thanks." Stella said. "This thing hurts like a bitch."

"Hurry back." Tewi said, "Otherwise you will miss Hailey's welcoming party."

"Is that what this party was about?" Reisen asked.

"It is now," Tewi said impishly.

Reisen shook her head. "Whatever, come on Stella, let's get you fixed up so I can go to bed. But no more whistling, please?"

"Sure, sure," Tewi said, waving her off.

Hailey watched Reisen leading Stella away.

Tewi put a hand on her shoulder. "I know this is probably super overwhelming, and that's kinda my intention. But still, you'll get used to it, and then you'll find this a pretty cool place. You can have your own things, you'll sleep in a proper room, you'll be fed properly, no-one will bully you unless they want to be bullied by me, and you'll be surrounded by family at all times. Doesn't that sound good?"

Hailey didn't really need to think about it. "Yeah... that sounds pretty nice."

Tewi ruffled her hair, and Hailey decided she liked that. "Come on now, this party is for you now, so let's have some fun, then we can put you to bed, and tomorrow we can introduce you to the princess."

"There is a princess?" Hailey's eyes were full of wonder.

"Ah-ahah!" Tewi said, waving a finger in front of her face. "That's tomorrow, sometimes you just gotta live in the moment, that's how you get the most out of life. Now let's find you something to drink that isn't alcohol."

Tewi lay down in her futon, Idly stroking Hailey's hair as she curled up beside her, sleeping peacefully. Hailey being completely tuckered out by the earlier festivities.

In truth, Tewi didn't really put much thought into the decision to adopt Hailey. She didn't really need to.

It wasn't that she had saved one of her clan and was owed a boon. It wasn't that she felt sorry for the kid, and wanted to give her a chance. It wasn't that she was impressed by her selfless act of kindness in freeing a trapped rabbit without even knowing there would be a reward. She didn't really feel like she owed the child anything at all, because she didn't.

She just saw a kid who needed a family, and decided to be that family. That was it.

The idea to turn her into a rabbit was a spur of the moment decision, and it might have been partly the fault of the alcohol. But still it turned out well, and humans are such a pain to raise, give her a litter of bunnies any day.

She gave a small smile to the child next to her. "Welcome to the family kid, we may be a noisy lot, but given time, I'm sure you'll fit right in."

Chapter Notes:

Second one of my plot bunny releases, along with the copypasted disclaimer from that one in case you didn't read the London Margatroid story released yesterday…

And to address the concerns people have about overextending, and trying to keep too many stories in the air, don't worry. You see, exercising plot bunnies is how I deal with writer's block, by clearing up the head space by committing ideas to paper helps me make make room to actually come up with more chapters, it also helps keeps me writing in general, because If I am having trouble writing for one story, having another story to work on means I'm less likely to stall.

… Now for the chapters actual notes.

This one had ten reviews declaring preference, which somewhat surprised me as this is one of the weirder ideas I had. Then again, maybe that's why it caught people's interest.

The thing about Hailey being given a gift for her unsolicited kindness, was in reference to the legend of the white hare of Inaba, which is potentially Tewi's inspiration, I just thought it would be a neat idea to consider that Tewi's family considers it a tradition.

Tewi is actually one of the oldest confirmed characters in the touhou project, and I kinda wanted to bring that across by making her seem playful and silly, but wise in her own way.

I should also warn you though, most of the characters on the touhou side are still rabbits, so prepare for some very blunt conversations about what rabbits get up to.

As you might have also noticed, the occasional metanarrative commentary from an Implied Future Hailey, I wanted to try and play with giving a narrative voice, and maybe occasionally a few cases of unreliable narrator as implied future Hailey embellished things, attempts to skim over boring or embarrassing bits or gives fun tidbits about certain events with the benefit of hindsight. Let me know if it gets annoying.

One last tidbit, With the Yukari bit with the 'unbirth' comment (if you don't know you are probably too pure for this story (don't Google it)), part of my characterisation of Yukari is she always tries to help in the most annoying or inconvenient way possible. So with Tewi's request to make her a daughter, the most inconvenient and obtuse way possible would be for Tewi to carry Hailey to term. But Tewi, also an ancient being with an imp of mischief and too much free time, saw right through that and nipped it in the bud.

These notes got long, so I'll stop now.

Ps. prepare for a loooooot of Bugs Bunny jokes.