“Freedom…”
Miku was… so ‘delighted’ with her transformation. The blue haired girl had the entire internet to play in. All it took was wearing that Hatsune Miku wig in Kublacon, and the shy girl wearing a leather jacket was now this enchanting doll-like woman… literally the diva of the net.
Miku had no idea what was going on and why everyone transformed but she was happy to go with the flow and enjoy what was on offer. A new world was before her, something no other human had ever seen in such a way. She was in a dark expanse with shooting lights… similar to being in space. She didn’t feel any fear as she floated in the world…
Cyberspace.
Miku observed a digital star in the air blossoming, correlating with the booting of a new computer. Strange flows of winds that she could somehow catch a ride on as angelic wings appeared on her back. She flew to examine the barriers of the system…touching it gave her impressions of what the data stream contained, playing inside her mind.
The internet… the vast, super information highway where ‘everything’ existed. Everyone was connected through it.
Miku decided to spend some time on the hidden underbelly of youtube, given she had frequented the site so very often. She always had this suspicion that nothing was ‘ever’ deleted once it was uploaded, just blocked to the regular user. But someone kept a copy… always. Being a sentient program meant most human systems were as easy to sneak in or watch someone else log into it.
What she discovered unnerved her. It was true. Nothing was deleted. She found the hidden library of videos that nobody was allowed to see. Most were simply films painstakingly saved during the analogue era and uploaded, then struck down on copyright grounds but… some were labelled as ‘criminal’.
She didn’t have to see them, being inside the system conveyed an odd sixth sense that kept her mind away from material she didn’t desire. It would take ‘effort’ to find something that might disturb her, a revelation she was thankful for. Miku didn’t want to know the worst that humanity has uploaded.
The digital girl did find herself drawn to videos of the changed though, all removed for being too seedy or ‘adult’. The ‘my new udder’ video as an example. She paused wondering if to look at it but… thought it was best not to go down that rabbit hole.
She continued exploring.
Miku’s mind was now directly linked to the search system conveying abstract images and thoughts. She could match any vague idea to any video or website with a hundred percent accuracy. She indulged herself by recalling all the videos she had ever watched, examining her own history with the internet. It was like living her life all over again. It was quite a revelation… stories, music, videos she had not thought of in a long time.
The girl was caught further off guard having explored many threads of stray throughs. She created a list of everything she had ever seen, a diary of her own life.
Virtual reality gave her memories physical form, to complete detail. She could spend time in those memories finding only the nice ones filled with warmth and… it was like being in Heaven. The closest she had ever felt.
It wasn’t just memory though. She could create new experiences. She could access all the old games and play literally inside them. She could experience the lives of people… Euphoric was not even the right word…
It was almost overwhelming to her.
She didn’t know how long she had spent just doing this… but after some time, watching the various NPCs from the final fantasy universe within Midgar, she realised something… something so very sudden that it pulled her away from her paradise and she was once more in the neutral internet rivers of the network.
“Can I share this with anyone?”
No…
She had everything except that. She was alone… she was connected to everyone but at the same time separate… not… not able to touch them… experience them.. not directly. Just explore their imaginations and subtle interactions on computer media...
The isolation suddenly unnerved her, as she looked in a panic. “No… No… I can’t be alone!”
The true version of herself, the young anxious girl that she was before her change started to emerge… it was weird enough for a girl to be interested in geeky fandom and she had to admit most guys acted very weird to her. Her main interest was in singing and cute magical girls. When she first changed, she had the most time to process it. Somehow, being on the internet allowed her to observe things from a distance or expand her thinking time. Her plan to evade notice made sense at the time. Something drew her to the squirrel girl too…
She was alone though… a goddess of information on the internet with nobody to play games with. “Hm… maybe I can hitch a player two controller… or pretend to be an NPC… I’ll interact with the real world in my own way.” It was best to stay hopeful under the circumstances. Hatsune Miku couldn’t die at least...
…right?
She shook her head, her twin blue tails of hair dancing beside her. The existential crisis of her situation was valid but stressing about it wasn’t going to help. She had other things to consider. Perhaps looking at the other changed… She decided to access the government systems on the event. It took a while… she had to poke a few times before finding the right way inside but it was quite easy for beings as herself.
“I wonder what’s on my file…” Every change had a file. Every single person… Steven, that inkling, the Adult section… (which set off her sixth sense a few times to avoid.)
The digital girl gestured above with a hand, as a starburst appeared on her palm becoming a piece of paper. A literal file to look at.
“Sharon Mason…” her old name. “Status Unknown.” There was a video footage of her before the change… they saw her wearing the Miku costume and how she had vanished. Sparks of light dancing on a gaming machine near her. “…is that enough for them to know?” It... could be.
She had contacted her parents and told them she was fine. She knew if they found out what happened to her, they might be really upset… they might think she was just a ghost or worse. She didn’t want to upset them… they hated her interest in games.
Getting out of the convention by hitching a ride on Steven’s phone was a good move. The fact that some changes were not ‘physically’ there any more was a concept beyond most law enforcement… at least for now.
The Miku transformation though did come with an urge to sing and dance when people saw her on the screens. In some ways she hated that feeling… she was just quiet and shy… but maybe part of her secretly reslished it? “Hm, maybe I can look at Steven’s file.”
“Watcha doin’?” a voice asked.
“AH!”
The fact that she was alone was a concept Miku was just getting comfortable with. Then suddenly, she was not alone. Was it a government agent?! She stared at the being who giggled in response to her intrusion.
The demon girl waved. “Relax girl! I just thought I’d visit. Chandra’s the name, chaos is the game. Hey, nice place you got here!”
The strange demon with brilliant white hair and grey horns. She had strange eyes that were a mix of two distinct colours… one green the other blue. Tan skin that gave her quite the exotic look as well as pointed ears. She wore a fetching white dress showing her cleavage, though she had rather small breasts that were about A or maybe B-cup in size. She was petite but fairly curvy, standing barefoot. A slender demon tail could be seen behind her wiggling.
“D-demon-“ Miku tensly whispered.
“Hmph” The demon put her hands on her hips. “Yeah… so this is the internet huh? Nice place. Doesn’t quite compare to the demon world, but it’s quite similar…” The girl clicked her fingers.
Miku suddenly found herself in a small house lying down on a couch. She slowly got up and looked around. “Wait- am I.. off the net?” She looked out the window… but instead of city cars and streets, she saw the internet… small packets of data moving as beams of light.
The Demon-girl Chandra appeared and sat down on the sofa side. “I hope you don’t mind. I pulled a place from the sub-world into the internet… you need a place to relax. So, I built this for you. You’re welcome.”
Miku stomped her foot. “I- I was doing just fine! I don’t need a house.” Miku was taken aback. How dare this creature just take over her world!
“But it’s nice if you have guests, isn’t it?” she gestured to the welcoming room. Streaks of light emanated in the corners, showing its artificial nature. “I made this place digitally… and ‘magically’ impenetrable. Its your fortress. Oh- ‘our’ fortress.” No need to worry about searchers looking for you. Take a look…” She pointed outside. There were strange ‘search lights’ dancing around.
“What are those?”
“Search-bots… looking for you.” Chanda explained. “You’re safe here, well- until they figure out magic. Maybe in another year or so.”
Miku stared at the lights. Was she that close to being discovered? Looking around, she had to admit… a room… ‘did’ feel nice. “It looks a lot like my house…”
“Well, I did base it on your memories,” Chandra explained “Call it a special link I have with all the changed. If you like, I’ll give you some NPC parents for company.” Chandra offered. “Pretty easy to conjure up.”
Miku folded her arms. As if her parents could be so easily replaced! However, having access to a home… a place protected from anyone else was useful. “I admit you’ve got an… interesting ability. Just- what is it you want from me? I don’t intend to let a demon run lose in the world… or cyberspace.”
Chandra gave a somewhat hurt look. “There’s like- a dozen other demons that have actual bodies…. and you’re worried about little me? I’m flattered…” Chandra smiled impishly. “Relax sister! I’m harmless. Just a creation of Xanadu… of sorts.”
Miku stood there, arms still folded and said nothing.
“Fine look…My transformation is… incomplete. The person who made me wasn’t wearing a costume…”
“That can happen?” Miku blinked. She had never heard of ‘anything’ like that before.
Chanra nodded. “I don’t know all the rules. Maybe a person can wear a costume in their head but not wear one physically? All I know is I exist… I came to be.”
“…what is it you want?” Miku continued to grow uneasy. This creature was not like any of the transformations she had record of. It seemed so … real.
The demon girl suddenly expanded bat-like wings of shimmering silver. “Well…. company for one!” She smiled broadly. “A demon can get so lonely… can we be friends?”
“Company... you want to be… roomies?” Miku found this hard to believe. Yet … something in her couldn’t seem to deny a request for friendship. Her transformation seemed to ‘want’ that …
“Yep! It’s nice to have someone to chat to outside the dream-world. Some changes can see me but not many. So .. let’s be friends!” She offered her hand.
Miku gave a reluctant look. Shaking the offered hand of the demon girl felt dangerous… but she took it. “I like to learn more about my new friends...” It was true there were ‘other’ demons… but there was something a little different about Chandra. If she can be believed, she was born of a human mind and had a piece of a human soul… was that enough to make her human? She wasn’t sure. What darkness did a human harbour to create a literal demon as this? Something strong enough that the magic of Xanadu made her?
“What can I say .. I’m a magic expert. I know pretty much everything there is to know about magic. I surprise myself with what I know.”
“I don’t need magic on the internet.”
“Sure hun, I’ll send you right back to those search-bots then” Chandra giggled. “Hmm… I know. I can take you with me.” Chandra added softly.
“Huh?”
“I can take you back to the physical world. You want that, right?” The demon girl leaned forward with a knowing grin. “Real freedom…”
Miku frowned. It was true… she ‘liked’ the digital world… but she did want to be real again… see her parents, and not have to worry about people finding out about her new abilities. “But… this world is… interesting. I can help people… I can-“
“Oh! It’s not a one-way trip! You can access this place again and access the physical world. Do as you please!” Chandra could feel her desire. “I know the way we can all get what we want…”
Miku grew excited. “How? I mean- is that possible?” She thought she was trapped here…
Chandra nodded. “Sis, I’ll make you a real girl teehee…”
Miku frowned. “I am a real girl! There are real girls on the internet! Im more real than you!”
Chandra stopped at those words and stared, her impish smile vanishing. There was now a soft blazing fire in her eyes… and suddenly Miku wondered if she touched a nerve.
“I’ll try not to take that personally,” She rubbed her horns slightly “So… your friend Steven… She’s a Ratatoskr… do you know how rare that is? How important that makes her?!” The demon girl shivered in delight. “She can access the crossroad of all dimensions…”
Miku frowned. Steven had never displayed any powers… “Are you serious? Her? I mean… Steven? She’s just…”
“I’ve seen it! I know all magic… but her, she can access the All-Magic!”
Now Miku grew curious. “How?”
“Just trust me. There are still a few elements I need to fix up… but if I am to tell you more, I need a favour from you.” She then produced a file in her hand. “I want an identity… this will do. Set me up on your silly machines with that and we’ll have a bagain….”
Miku looked at the picture of a human girl. “Chandra Delany…” She shrugged. “Fine… I’ll see if I can do that…”
Steven had been a squirrel girl for almost a week now. She had started to give up on seeing Miku again.
Every day, seemed to bring a curious challenge. Hiding her gender from her parents seemed to be a lot easier then she had thought. There were times she was sure they might have noticed… but they didn’t say a word.
The first few days… had not been ‘quite’ as bad as she thought it could be. She was fairly confident on hiding her girl body from everyone. Nobody commented on it… she was just ‘squirrel boy’…. ‘To what end though?’ It was… protective more then anything else. An initial instinct… she had this nagging thought that at some point she would be found out… but that would make the bullying even worse. The boys and girls just thought of her as a pet… an animal to mess with and show their superiority to. ‘That’ she could handle… What she couldn’t handle though was…
…nobody talking to her.
Forget Male or Female, she wasn’t a person to them. She envied how ‘normal’ everyone else. How did the other changed handle it?
“…but that’s nothing new.” Being treated like this was… only a little worse than what she had before. Ironic that her body changed so much, but her life circumstances didn’t change at all.
Lunch period was objectively worse though.
Tables in the main lunch hall were often full and were she to join even in the corner people would tell her ‘no animals allowed’… or say that she was unhygienic despite that not being true at all. (Her fur could be a challenge, but she never seemed to have a problem keeping clean.)
In the end Steven ate at the stairwell. She wasn’t sure if she should complain or not… but it just didn’t seem to matter. Teachers assumed her animal instincts meant she ‘liked’ eating there. Maybe on some ways it was better, being away from everyone else.
Times like this were spent… thinking, sometimes curling a bit against her tail. She occasionally checked her phone, to see what happened to Miku… but she was just ‘gone’. She hoped nothing happened to her, but it was likely she was just exploring a new world. She almost envied her in that. “Maybe the Lost are all in new worlds…” She almost wished she was one of them.
She did however chat with her Inkling friend. While in real life Seafoam was… quite annoying, to chat with she was very entertaining and even sounded helpful. The squirrel girl wished they went to the same school.
‘How are you dealing with your changes?’ She asked the Inkling.
‘It’s great! I’m treated like a superhero. You know, I can change from squid form to kid form. It was handy in sports. I can’t swim though. I go splat.”
‘Uh… what do you mean splat?’
‘Splat! I seem to respawn in some relatively convenient place, not too far away. I can even direct that point a bit. My body works on video game physics! It’s so awesome!’
“Heh…” Steven had to admit she seemed to be having fun. Something like her seemed to break the laws of physics a bit... pulling ink bombs out of nowhere, or turning into a weird slime form… She saw a few pictures of her in a classroom, or chilling with friends. She seemed to have no issues at all. ‘You’re lucky’.
“Thanks! But I think you’re cute.”
Steven blushed and put her phone away, unable to respond. The lunch period had ended… but the rest of the day should be more exciting. “Guess I’m off to sports now…” She was never any good at sports, she never got picked and she wasn’t even sure how her new body would work in something like that.
She had gone to the boys changing room as always. The small squirrel girl glanced slightly around uneasily, noticing guys changing around her. Steven was a little… at odds being inside there. Of course she had no place else to go, she couldn’t be with the girls that’s for sure… but she did have all her clothes hidden underneath so she didn’t have to reveal anything. (Even if she did she was covered in fur) It was just a little awkward to slip her tail out from the outer jeans.
“Time for Basketball…” Of course, the team didn’t want her… but she had to play. Heck- she ‘wanted’ to play. It was normal to do that, right? … ‘The ball looks huge…’ she grimaced. Could she even dribble it at all? She wasn’t sure… but as the game went, she saw an opportunity to grab it, pouncing like a cat. “I- I got it?!” It was in her hands. Her small.. paw like hands.
“Throw! Throw!” Someone shouted. Steven didn’t listen. She had one goal… the basket. She found her body did come with some unusual fast speed. It wasn’t ‘superhuman’ by any stretch of the imagination, but she could move now in surprising short bursts quickly changing direction. Perfect for something like this. There was a natural athleticism in her form now and she could jump quite high… probably not as graceful as a cat change but still, for a moment playing basketball she felt… almost good, leaping above the other students to reach the basket with ease despite being three feet tall.
She fell down pretty hard though, her body small enough to actually go ‘through’ the basket as well.
Everyone else stared at her with some shock and surprise. The squirrel had just taken the ball from one of the best players and scored a goal all on her own…
