Dawpers woke up in the same bed he'd been in. The same old bed, in the same old room. There was nothing but the dark wooden walls to keep him company. "Man... I feel like I've been in this bed my whole life." he thought. He tried to sit up, but immediately fell back down. He winced in pain as he pulled the covers off him. His left arm was bandaged, but he couldn't remember why. He tried to lift it up, but it was extremely painful to do. "Did I get drunk last night? What happened?" he asked himself hoarsely. He lifted up his shirt to see another bandage wrap around his stomach. "Damn, was I in a car crash? Wait, no, because this world probably doesn't even have concrete roads for them to drive on." he thought. He slowly got up and waddled to the door, slipping on some sandals and walking to the bathroom.
As he limped to the bathroom, he locked the door behind him and walked to the sink to brush his teeth. As he looked up, he saw two tufts on his head. They matched his hair color, besides the white fluff inside. "I-wait, what?" he stumbled. He reached for the top of his head, feeling the fluff between his fingers. "How did this happen? Why do I have Gorou's ears?" Dawpers panicked. As he slowly trailed back and forth, he looked back into the mirror, recognizing another area of fur on him. He had a tail, too. "How did this happen?!?" he screamed to himself. He started panicking further. "My mom's going to kill me." he first thought. "Wait...even if this is reality, I'll still have time to get rid of it." he reassured himself. He shrugged it off as he finished washing his face and brushing his hair as he left the bathroom.
The boy closed the door behind him to the fresh, crisp air. He closed his eyes as the sun beamed on his face. "Dawpers! Over here!" the general yelled. The boy opened his eyes and looked around, finding the general at a table on his porch. He held his wound as he walked over to Gorou. "Sit down. I want to talk to you about a few things..." Gorou said as he pointed to the chair across from him. "I could say the same thing... What happened that put me in this condition?" Dawpers asked as he pulled the chair back and sat down. "Why do you have ears and a tail similar to mine?" Gorou whispered to himself. "So you don't remember? We got into a fight yesterday with Ryko, and you got injured quite a bit." Gorou told him. "Ryko... Oh yeah! That asshole who fought with me during practice." Dawpers recalled.
"It's my turn now... What happened? Why do you have my-" Gorou asked before he was cut off. "I don't know either, Gorou... My best guess is that it has something to do with yesterday." Dawpers said. His ears perked up as he remembered something. "Back to yesterday, what happened after I got knocked out?" the boy asked. "That reminds me; look at what you got." Gorou told him, placing down a gray trinket with a gold rim. "That looks like the thing on your back... Why'd I get one?" Dawpers questioned. "Well, you were blessed by the gods. This is what we call a Vision." Gorou said.
"A Vision? So we can view a point in time or something?" Dawpers theorized. "No, silly. Visions are much better than that. Visions allow us to control the elements." Gorou explained. "Is that why my eyes felt like they were struck by thunder and stabbed by rocks in the fight?" Dawpers asked. "Say what now?" Gorou said, as his ears conveyed his confusion. Dawpers explained how he felt during the fight yesterday. He talked about how the thunder and rocks felt, while Gorou added on what happened in the fight at the time. "So, you can control multiple elements..." Gorou said. "There's seven elements that can be used. Pyro, cryo, hydro, electro, dendro, geo, and anemo." the general explained. "I think I've got a good guess on what some of those are, but what are dendro and anemo?" Dawpers asked as one of his ears lowered. "Dendro is like controlling plants, and anemo is controlling wind." Gorou responded. "I guess that makes sense... Could you teach me how to use the elements?" Dawpers asked him. Gorou hesitantly agreed as they walked to the training grounds.
As they walked to the training dummies, an orange fox sat by a training sword. "Oh, it's you!" Dawpers said as it chirped back at him. Gorou flinched as his ears lowered. "That's the last place I'd want to go..." Gorou mutterd under his breath. "Hey, you're not hiding anything from me now, are you?" Dawpers said, rubbing the general's left ear. "H- hey! S... stop it..." Gorou whimpered as he backed up from the two. "A- anyways... The reason why this kitsune is here is because of the Guuji from the Great Narukami Shrine." he said, regathering his composure. "Sounds like you're needed over there. Mind if I come?" Dawpers asked the embarrassed general. "Really?" Gorou asked. His tail wagged as his ears perked. "Sure!" Dawpers responded. His tail also began to wag as he picked up the sword. "Anyways, what's first, coach?"
