Anything
The tanuki was a strange but still familiar looking creature to me. I had learned about tanukis while I was helping Gilda remove the two she had from stasis. Seeing this one walk around felt similar to my experiences with monsters in the first simulation. Those were all familiar creatures that were somewhat alien and unfamiliar at the same time. This tanuki was just like that to me, even though it knew it was a perfectly natural, and not even particularly rare, Earth creature.
Still, I couldn't help feeling the disconnect. The fur markings around its face were very much like the familiar raccoon I knew so well from being out in the woods. However, the shape of the head and body was more like a fox, except the body was longer and a bit stout, with short legs. It was harmless looking and even cute in a way. The information I had learned said they were omnivorous eaters and could be friendly to humans who fed them.
Who knows how long it had been since the creature had last eaten. So I decided to grab a snack bar and try to feed it. As I knelt down, it made some quiet high-pitched noises, which reminded me of a small dog's whine. I tried to move slowly and non-threateningly. After a few seconds of hesitation, it came over and pulled the bar from my hand with its teeth. After it stepped a little distance from all of us, it began eating.
I turned to Cordelia and quietly resumed the conversation.
"So, what is it you wanted us to see?"
Cordelia's eyes darted over to the eating tanuki as she answered.
"That creature is definitely magical. I noticed a huge amount of mana coming from one habitat I had set up and found that this was the source."
I couldn't help showing my shock as I looked between Gilda and Cordelia.
"I thought Earth didn't have any magical creatures."
Gilda spoke up. As usual, her tone was even and businesslike.
"My sensors cannot detect mana, so if the creature never displayed magic, there would be no way for me to know it was magical."
Of course, she was right. Mana couldn't be seen, except for with my Aura Reading skill. While the dungeon functions had some way to measure the mana output of a creature, even Cordelia couldn't see mana unless she learned to use my skill.
When I used my Aura Reading skill, I was amazed by the variety of colors billowing from the creature. It was like a tie-dyed rainbow that constantly shifted. But more important was the intensity. This small dog-like creature had a large amount of mana.
"I can see the mana. It's really vivid and looks like a swirling rainbow. Judging by the intensity of the mana, I'd say it's probably powerful."
Cordelia nodded. Gilda's face took on a thoughtful look for a few moments before she asked me to do something unexpected.
"Willie, try speaking to it in Japanese."
"Huh? I don't speak Japanese. And besides, it's an animal."
She shot me an exasperated look, but her tone was even as usual.
"You can speak any language you want by using your onboard AI's translation functionality. Just download Japanese and try to speak to the creature. Perhaps it will understand you if you speak the language that was used in its homeland."
That sounded pretty far-fetched to me, but it was easy enough to install a Japanese language, so I was able to try it out within a few seconds. In my mind, I still understood what I was saying in English. But the words and structure of the sentences coming out of my mouth were definitely Japanese.
"Excuse me, Tanuki-san. Do you perhaps understand what I am saying?"
To my shock, the animal immediately locked eyes with me, showing an unmistakable look of understanding. For a long moment, it seemed to be looking each of us over, considering something, before it replied.
"Indeed. I understand very well, Human-san. However, what I don't understand is how I found myself in this situation."
I nearly fell over from shock. I never expected it to answer me with human language.
My reaction seemed to amuse the creature because it chuckled. From the voice, I could tell it was male. It sounded a bit older than me, though I had no way of knowing how that would translate into tanuki years.
The creature didn't seem hostile, and we still had a lot to attend to, so I told Gilda and Cordelia that I would deal with this while they got back to work. Once they left, I sat on the ground Indian-style and caught the furry critter up on the events that had led to it finding itself aboard this spaceship. During the process of our conversation, I learned his name was Idomu.
Understandably, he was shocked to find out that he and his mate were abducted by aliens to potentially start a new tanuki race, should the earth be destroyed. However, he seemed like a good-natured type who was able to take it all in stride. Actually, if anything, I thought Idomu was a bit too easy-going. Partway into the conversation, he ended up letting me pet him as he laid down and relaxed his head against my leg. When I asked how he could be so calm, he gave me some philosophical sounding answer about how life was too short to spend time worrying about stuff you couldn't control.
Eventually, the conversation turned to me and how I ended up here. Idomu's impression of the situation was that I was on a grand adventure and that I should try to live it up. Especially since I was surrounded by attractive women. But his tone shifted a bit when he found out we all might die soon. I explained that he would be safest inside Cordelia's core and that he would be doing us a great favor just by allowing us to use some of his mana for the battle. However, he seemed to get a bit grumpy when I said that.
"It would be disgraceful for me to allow a pup like you to fight alone to protect Byakuren-chan and me."
I had to assume that Byakuren was the name of his mate. I was kind of amused that he referred to me as a pup, even though he was currently blissed-out, letting me scratch under his chin.
"It's no issue, Idomu-san. I'm a magical warrior now. Also, it was my decision that got us all into this mess."
He suddenly sat up and looked at me carefully.
"You are a magical being now, Willie-san?"
I nodded and gave the slight affirmative grunt that was the appropriate response in Japanese.
"Then I suppose there is no harm in showing you my magic as well."
Idomu glowed slightly and then rapidly changed form into a lean Japanese man who looked to be in his late twenties. He was well dressed and decent looking, not that I cared much about how guys looked. Still, you would never assume that this relatively normal-looking Japanese guy was a tanuki a few seconds ago.
"Ah, so you can turn into a human then. That's a handy skill."
He just shook his head slowly, with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.
"No, Willie-san. You misunderstand. I can transform into anything."
I just stared blankly at him as my mind tried to process the meaning behind that statement.
"What do you mean by anything?"
"Anything means anything. If I can visualize it, then I can become it."
