Year of the Rabbit

Ch1 - Rebirth

When she opened her eyes, she was momentarily confused. She could swear that she wasn't supposed to be doing that - actually if she remembered correctly, she was supposed to be laying on the ground of a cold alley, bleeding to death from the two bullet wounds in her stomach while Ara ya made it to safety.

Still, when she stared up at the crumbling dirt ceiling above her, she didn't feel the slightest bit of pain, not the chill of the world as the warmth slowly leeched into the cold, unyielding stone beneath her nor was her mind as fuzzy as it was while her mind went blank. She decided to try sitting upright, only to squeal as she toppled over.

This is not the configurement I remember for my limbs, she thought to herself dumbly, reaching out one of her arms. Then she froze immediately, twisting it around in open disbelief at the short, four toed limb coated in silken black fur with a white sock. A glance to her other side confirmed a similar situation. She flexed the fluffy little digits, inspecting the tiny, needle-sharp claws at the ends of her fingers - or would it be toes now?

She chose to sit up again, this time listening to the underlying instinct conveying how to do that correctly. She was made aware of the long, powerful legs she was now in possession of as she slowly rose herself into a more upright form. It felt right and wrong at the same time, kind of like she was squatting on her thighs. She curiously examined her lower body, the same fluffy silken black fur coated her belly, even forming a gentle collar of fur around her neck. Despite the fluffy softness of her paws, she noted a distinct lack of pads and there was a dewclaw attached to her arm... or foreleg... she twisted around once, peering down at her backside as the thought ran through her mind, the short little tail giving a slight wiggle under her direction.

...am I-

Something twitched atop her head, confirming her suspicions.

"I am a rabbit," she confirmed aloud, tilting her head in reflexive curiosity.

[Skill Created - Observe]

Observe? she recognized, her ears perking up immediately. There had been a really popular web-story, The Gamer that she'd been periodically interested in but more importantly, spawned fan works she had been even more interested in. She'd devoured the various works that she'd come across and all the different forms the ability adopted in the hands of different authors.

"Does that mean I'm the Gamer now?" she mused to herself. If that was all there was though, why did it apparently change species - moreover, she doesn't remember anything about the main character dying to acquire his powers. In fact, in the source material the main character specifically was trying to avoid dying as his primary reason for growing stronger during the first arc. But then again, when the ability was used in different fan works, it would change in minute ways to best fit the world - perhaps when she died, she'd entered a world where the default variant of ability didn't fit this universe's rules?

Well, given her ambiguous status as recently dead, it wasn't like she had anything else to do but experiment.

"[Observe]," she said aloud, focusing on herself. Much to her pleasure, a semi-transparent teal screen appeared in front of her.

[Observation - You are a Dire Rabbit. Danger Rank - E]

"Okay," she mused, filing the information away as she mentally closed the screen. She presumed the use of 'dire' in this circumstance was like a 'dire wolf' - so a scarier, much more dangerous version of a rabbit. It would be good to keep that in mind - ordinary rabbits could be dangerous all on their own with their powerful incisors and the dirt beneath their claws could easily result in bad infections and sicknesses. She couldn't imagine what a dire rabbit could possibly do to humans. Though... she was still a rabbit and based on the media she'd consumed, 'Rank E' was never very high.