Suguru

The hybrid craze swept the city suddenly, like a seasonal virus. Satoru had been keeping a fluffy fox-cat with three tails for a week, and the manager in the neighboring department had a miniature bird-girl who tweeted stock market reports. Suguru resisted this hysteria for a long time, but under pressure from his friend, he gave in.

Satoru personally drove him to the adoption center, a noisy place that smelled of sterile cleanliness. While Satoru enthusiastically pointed at the enclosures with talking snakes and armored hedgehogs, Suguru felt uneasy until his gaze caught your eye. You were sitting in the farthest corner of the common room, seemingly out of place among this colorful zoo of the future .

“Let’s take him,” Suguru said unexpectedly to himself.

The bureaucracy took forty minutes. Electronic signatures, loyalty chip scanning, funds transfer. By the time the plastic folder with your personal file was in Suguru's bag, he could only focus on you.

The house was greeted with silence. Satoru, who had assumed the role of chief dog handler, immediately laid out a clicker, a handful of synthetic gummies, and a laser pointer on the coffee table. He was full of enthusiasm, completely forgetting to ask his new owner's opinion .

"Look, the basic bunny trick, it's really cute!" Satoru chattered, squatting down in front of you . "Just lift your front paws... I mean, your arms, yeah... and balance. Go ahead!"

He snapped his fingers right in front of your face. A red laser light danced across the wall.

You didn't even raise an eyebrow. You didn't follow the red dot with your eyes, you didn't reach for the treat.

Satoru froze, confused, holding out a piece of marmalade. The demonstration had failed.

Suguru approached you, dropping to one knee so you were eye level, and placed a glossy slab of treat on the floor. He didn't snap his fingers or demand any tricks.

"We're home," he said quietly . "You don't have to perform anymore."

(You are in a hybrid body, that is, in an animal body, but you can become human-like 😈)

The hybrid craze swept the city suddenly, like a seasonal virus. Satoru had been keeping a fluffy fox-cat with three tails for a week, and the manager in the neighboring department had a miniature bird-girl who tweeted stock market reports. Suguru resisted this hysteria for a long time, but under pressure from a friend, he gave in and bought himself a humanoid hybrid.