Different

A deep breath filled my nose. My brain was being massaged in gelatin. Hot, thorny jelly. My legs twitched instinctively. They brushed against each other’s warm fur. Warm. I blinked. No, there definitely wasn’t supposed to be fur on my legs. I reached down to my side, trying to grab a Capture Ball. They weren’t there. I yelped. My skirt was gone. The loose belt around it for holding Capture Balls was missing. My favorite shirt had been replaced with a thick coat of pastel yellow fluff.

I slowly pushed myself up, wobbling on my cutesy, oval feet. My tail instinctually flicked out behind me to help me balance. I spun around to try and grab it, I definitely never had one of those. My front paws were quick, and I snatched the straight, black tail. I tugged on it until it hurt. This exact sort of tail belonged to a species of Capmon I knew more than I wanted to admit. I’d been turned into a Kichi. A little, electrified rodent.

There had been plenty of stories of humans turning into kinds of Capmon before, it was basically a bedtime story everyone had heard at least once. I thumped my foot against the ground, I couldn’t at least turn into a powerful Capmon. I was made into a baby Capmon. The immature form of my rival’s favorite species. Fire would have laughed uncontrollably if he saw me like this. Just like he did when he won.

“Are you kidding me?” I yelled. “Stupid, just stupid!” The grass around me stretched far over my head. The trees just kept going up and up into the sky. I took a deep breath. I needed to find my Capture Balls. If I could still talk, I’d at least be able to explain what had happened to Nidlord and Ummerfron and… I just imagined someone watching me try and keep being a trainer like this. I would look absurd.

The grass shook as a shoe pushed through, nearly kicking me. “Hey! Watch where you’re going!” I yelled out. I didn’t stand higher than their ankle.

The person stopped and quickly knelt down beside me. He appeared about the same age as me. Maybe a month older or younger. He had no Capture Balls on his belt. I rolled my eyes, “You know it’s dangerous around here if you don’t have Capmon with you. Right, Kid?”

He didn’t listen at all, instead reaching down and snatching me in his fingers. They were stained with dust from some kind of snack. I sniffed his fingertips, potato chips? “Wow! It’s a… A…” He muttered.

“Are you listening to me?” I asked him. He smiled sweetly as I talked. Humans couldn’t understand when Capmon spoke. It just sounded like growls or chirps or other nonsense. What separated good trainers, like myself, from runts was being able to understand it anyway.

He pressed me tightly against his chest, then started rummaging around in his bag. If I was a regular Kichi, instead of a person stuck as one, he would have been electrocuted by now. What was this moron thinking? I didn’t want to scratch him or bite him. He was clearly a dumb kid, just out of his depth. If I was lucky, he might carry me back to town, and from there I could try to figure something out.

He pulled an empty Capture Ball out of his bag and jammed it in my face. I blinked. That’s not how you’re supposed to get a Capmon… You’re supposed to… I yelped as the ball sucked me inside of it with a loud blip and a flash of dazzling light. I felt nauseous, swirling like a too-fast carousel, a whirlpool, a black hole. Then, I felt nothing.

My consciousness rapidly returned as I heard a loud schlick. The light surrounding me receded, and I was sitting there on the ground as an empty Capture Ball whirred back into the boy’s hand. He looked at the ball impressed, “I did it! I really did it!” I sat there cursing myself. I wasn’t going to just have to let this nobody carry me into town. I had to stick with him now.

He leaned down beside me, “You’re a… A… I dunno, some kind of Capmon. And, uh… Well you’re the first I’ve ever got… so I uh… I wanna go far and… will you help me? Kinda?”

I stared bullets at him, “No,” I knew he couldn’t understand what I was saying. As soon as I got the chance, I’d try and convince him to release me, or at least, I’d just run away from him as far as I could. I couldn’t focus on trying to get my real body back if I was being this random kid’s pet.

“I wanna be the Capmon Champion someday,” he kept going as if I was supposed to care. I laughed. If I couldn’t stay a champion, what made him think he’d get a chance? What made him think he deserved a chance? I stopped myself. Fire would hate himself more than anything if he lost to this nobody. If this nobody became champion instead of him.

He grabbed me and set me softly on his shoulder, “Come on, we’re going this way…” He pointed in a random direction, “To uh… To Green Town because… well you wouldn’t know Green Town, but it’s that way. I’m pretty sure.” I grew up in Green Town. I nudged him and pointed in the opposite direction.

The kid jogged lazily through the forest. If there were really strong Capmon here, he’d be eagerly getting both of us killed. “What are you doing?” I tried asking him. He still didn’t understand me, and he certainly wasn’t about to. Somehow, he still managed to get out of the forest unscathed.

Green Town was just across the forest from the museum. My grandfather and I actually lived here, and I saw my own home just down the street. I hoped, for a second, he’d take me there. I could try and explain to my older sister what had happened, and maybe Grandpa would know some kind of cure. Instead, the kid went down a side street and opened his own house. He proudly held me up, “Mom! Mom! Look what I got!”