"Ugh..." I groaned pitifully as consciousness slowly and painfully returned to me, bringing with it a pulsing headache that felt like someone repeatedly slamming hammers into my skull.

  With trembling hands, I pushed myself to my feet, swaying in place as I opened my eyes, blinking repeatedly as everything blurred together for what felt like hours but was more probably just a few far too long seconds.

  And yet, as my surroundings finally revealed themselves, my confusion about everything only worsened as I beheld a sight that left me blinking in dumb astonishment.

  I was in a strange yet beautiful cave. Glowing moss dotted the ceiling, shining a gentle silver light down on the floor below and illuminating a small pond that rested at the back end of the cave. Pieces of both intact and damaged yet nonetheless very expensive-looking furniture decorated the place, giving it a homey feel despite still obviously retaining a cave-like look.

  "What... What's going on?" I murmured under my breath as I observed my new surroundings. I didn't remember falling asleep in such a place, and yet, despite the confusion, I felt no alarm or fear, strangely enough. No, if anything, this place felt... Familiar.

  And then the sound of my voice finally registered in my ears, and I abruptly realized that it was... wrong. Husky, smooth, and undeniably feminine, it sounded nothing like what my voice should be, which was... Was...

  I shook my head as more confusion crept in. Wait, no, my voice sounded fine, didn't it? And this room was my personal cultivation chamber, so of course I would wake up here. It was the room I'd probably spent the most time in throughout my whole life, after all.

  My headache worsened. That wasn't right. I'd never seen this room before. Before I even knew what was happening, I found myself stumbling blindly around the room, eventually collapsing chest-first into an intricately carved table with a missing leg that had been set off to one side of the cave.

  I winced as my weirdly sensitive chest sent strange and foreign sensations up my spine. Craning my head down, I stared blankly as two huge mounds of flesh greeted me back, each one perhaps a bit larger than my head.

  I grasped my head, letting out a pained, gasping moan as my skull throbbed in agony. Conflicted and sometimes outright contradictory feelings raged through me as my mind struggled to adjust to whatever the hell was happening to me.

  Thankfully, the headache eventually subsided into 'merely' a dull, aching throb rather than the burning-hot agony it had been before. With a tired huff, I forced myself to my feet once again, and without wasting a moment, immediately beelined it towards the crystal-clear pool in the back.

  I had a stark suspicion as to what had potentially happened, and as more clarity returned to me with each passing moment, I felt increasingly certain that my fears were correct. Sure enough, as I came to a stop right before the pool and gazed down at the reflection before me, those fears were confirmed.

  An extremely beautiful woman clad in a gold-colored kimono that could only barely avoid being called obscene stared back at me, her eyes wide and bloodshot. Long, perfectly kept golden hair streamed out behind and to the sides of her, or rather, me, but even more noticeable were the two equally golden foxlike ears that popped up out of my skull, and along with them, the faint reflection of golden tails swishing behind me.

  Unconsciously, my hand trailed up and grabbed at my head, the reflection before me doing the same. I winced slightly when I grabbed my fox ears, the sensitive appendages feeling warm and soft to the touch as I idly toyed with them while also forcefully tearing my gaze away from the reflection and redirecting it to my back.

  Sure enough, sprouting from just above my butt, nine long golden tails idly swished, and despite myself, I couldn't help but feel fascinated by the new, strange, fluffy body parts. Hesitantly, almost fearfully, I reached back behind me, grabbing one of the tails with the hand that wasn't already busy toying with my ears.

  Unsurprisingly, it was just as soft and warm as I'd imagined it would be, and before I even knew it, I found myself sitting right in front of the pond, hands running all over my body as I curiously explored every inch of it.

  Time passed by, although how much of it exactly, I could not tell, being far too engrossed in my self-exploration.

  As all things must, however, even that curiosity eventually passed. With a far smoother movement than I'd managed yet, I smoothly stood up, brushing a strand of hair away from my face and tucking it behind my ear in a motion that felt both familiar and not.

  With my headache having pretty much gone away at this point, my mind felt much clearer and my thoughts far more coherent. However, even with all of that, my memories were still a complete jumbled mess. With a soft, breathy sigh, I walked away from the pond, crossing my hands under my... very generous chest as I quietly pondered my situation.

  I couldn't remember who I was, not really. There were snippets of information here and there, flashes of simultaneously natural and unnatural habits and beliefs, and perhaps more importantly, conflicting feelings of both familiarity and unfamiliarity that said far more about what was happening than mere words ever could.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Whatever had happened, whatever was happening, I felt rather confident in saying that this wasn't my original body. However, with that being said, I could not even faintly recall what I used to look like, much less who I'd truly been. Hell, even my name was lost to me.

  It was funny, in a sort of macabre way, I thought to myself as I walked around the cave, half exploring and half lost in thought. I couldn't remember my name, but the knowledge of what a name was and what it meant came easily. I could also recall tons of other random information, but personal stuff was frustratingly elusive.

  I was fairly sure that wasn't how amnesia worked, so I doubted that was the answer to all of this. Then again, I was no doctor, so who really knew?

  Exhaling in half amusement and half frustration, I eventually gave up on trying to find some sort of clue by exploring the cave's limits, which I had by now determined was mostly just filled with a whole lot of beautiful-looking junk ranging from intricate furniture to paintings to even random pieces of jewelry.

  In short, it was all very nice to look at, but not good for much else, even ignoring the fact that half of it was damaged in some way or other, and most damning of all, pretty much none of it was in any way useful in terms of cultivation.

  Which, speaking of cultivation, I couldn't help but feel a strange mix of emotions at the thought of it.

  Part of me felt it was an utterly mundane and banal topic, something so basic it was hardly even worth thinking about, all the while the rest of me was left utterly stunned.

  I mean, come on. It was cultivation! Rising through the realms, slapping young masters, seducing all the jade beauties, becoming immortal... It was like a tale straight out of a cheesy novel, and yet, from what little I could tell based on my memories, it was also my new reality.

  It was exhilarating, terrifying, and amusing all at once, and it was also why I was thoroughly leery of leaving the relative safety of this cave before at least getting a basic handle on myself. I might have memory issues to the gills, or fox ears in my case I suppose, but that hardly meant I wanted to die, or worse.

  Suppressing a shiver at the thought, I shook my head and strode my way back to the center of the room, half-remembered memories and instincts guiding me there. Unlike my first stumbling steps when I'd awoken, my stride now was an almost ethereally graceful thing, my nine long tails swaying in increasingly perfect harmony behind me as I got more and more used to this body, or perhaps merely remembered more of what I'd already known.

  Inhaling sharply, I dropped down into a crossed-leg position, holding my spine straight with my hands on my knees while my tails extended fully behind me, forming a fan shape with their tips just barely touching the ground.

  Then, with only a little bit of hesitation, I closed my eyes, took a couple of deep breaths, and then focused fully inward, and a whole new world opened up before me.

  It's hard to fully and truly describe what I was feeling. I could feel every cell in my body, could feel the line of spiritual energy running all through it, reinforcing and supporting the physical form even as it in turn contained and directed the spiritual, all working in perfect balance and harmony. It was like a thousand roads all emanating outwards from a great bastion, and as my attention focused on that metaphorical bastion, I couldn't help but feel a surge of awe.

  Because at the very center of my being, in a place at the spiritual center of my body and soul, there stood a mini-sized me, sitting in the same position as me, her eyes closed. Holes dotted her form, and as I stared down at her, I watched as they slowly yet visibly began to close.

  She looked radiant, and this time I didn't mean it metaphorically. My mini-me shone brightly enough that it should've been blinding, and yet, as her/my eyes opened and she/I stared at myself, that small detail went ignored.

  My mind and my soul stared at one another, sight and feeling comingling together until both were one and the same, and it was meaningless to try to distinguish one from the other.

  With a thought, my physical body's eyes opened, and my inner awareness dimmed, but it didn't fade. I blinked, and with a thought, my soul flew out from my chest, and I watched it even as I watched my body right back.

  My soul looked better already, the holes in it having already vanished. It looked exactly like a shining mini-me, all the way down to the little details like the texture of the fur on my tails and ears, to the little mole I apparently had near my left elbow.

  Meanwhile, I also examined my physical body, this new perspective making the affair a much simpler one. And, despite the confusion and uncertainty about everything that was happening, it was hard to deny that I'd lucked out. I was an eleven out of ten hottie now, apparently. My soul stifled an airy giggle even as my body smirked, but it was a stiff, awkward expression, and despite myself, I couldn't help but sober up.

  It was hard not to notice, but separated as we were, I could feel the... tension wasn't quite the right word, but it was the closest one that I could name, that doing this put on both my body and soul.

  Both felt lesser without the other, even if both were still me in every way that mattered. My body felt empty, frigid, and stiff, while my soul felt adrift and untethered, unknowable forces pulling at it slowly yet inexorably, draining it of energy and power every moment that passed by a minuscule amount that it couldn't recover from without my body to support it.

  Exhaling from both mouths, one spiritual and one physical, my soul darted back into the safety of my body, and despite myself, I shuddered and let out a relieved sigh as the tension quickly faded away, allowing me to relax.

  My mind felt clearer now, the holes in my memory less noticeable. It wasn't so much that I'd regained my memories, I mused as I stood up, stretching my back and feeling it pop pleasantly. I was now more... me, and less of a Frankestinian, stitched-together mess from whatever had happened before.

  And perhaps more importantly, I now had a... I wouldn't say knowledge of my capabilities, because such a thing implied learned understanding and practice, neither of which I really had. However, I did have an instinctive intuition, the sort of thing that made someone look at a pebble and go 'yeah, I can pick that up' or look at a boulder and instead say 'nope, definitely cannot'.

  In short, hardly the most reliable thing, but also the most primal one. And judging by what it was telling me... Well, my earlier fears had mostly dissipated.

  So, after spending a few moments to smooth out my dress, I forced myself to take a deep breath, gather my courage, and then marched my way out of this cave and into the unknown beyond, unsure of what I would find but curious to see it all regardless.