Once the light faded away and I could see again, I found myself in the middle of a grassy plain. I looked down and noticed that my hands looked more delicate than they had been before. When I looked to my right, there was another good-looking elf who was also inspecting her own body. She was a beautiful girl with long blonde hair, and her face reminded me of someone I knew.
“Um, you’re Haruka, right?” I asked.
“You’re Nao, then?”
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. After a closer look, I found some resemblance to the Haruka I remembered, despite the different appearance she had now. She looked shorter than she had been before. Haruka’s height had been around the high end of the 160-centimeter range, and she had been quite voluptuous too, but the elf that was in front of me right now was definitely shorter than 160 centimeters, and as for the rest of her body—well, she was a lot more slender now.
“What? Do you have something to say?” Haruka glared at me after she noticed where I was looking.
She sounds kind of scary right now! “Oh, well, uh, I was just thinking that you’ve become really beautiful! As you’d expect of an elf!” I shook my head in a panic and did my best to change the subject. Haruka had already been pretty before, so the difference now didn’t feel off or weird, but she was inhumanly beautiful now. Well, she’s an elf now, so I guess she is literally inhuman.
“Hmph. Didn’t you choose the elf race too, Nao? I knew you would.” Haruka looked away from me right after she finished her sentence. I saw a little bit of a blush on her face, so maybe she felt embarrassed. Yeah, I never called her beautiful on a regular basis before, so that makes sense.
“Hey now, I know you two get along quite well, but I wish you’d notice me too!”
I heard a voice from behind me, and when I spun around, I saw a beastman. He had animal ears that resembled a dog’s on top of his head and a fluffy tail protruding from his butt. As for his face—Oh, I recognize this face. It was definitely Tomoya. His eyes looked a bit sharper than before, but otherwise, his face looked more or less the same.
“Ah, Tomoya,” I said. “What did you choose? You look like a dog.”
“I’m a wolf, not a dog!” Tomoya replied. “Every fiber of my being told me to go for a beastman!”
Tomoya happily wiggled his ears and wagged his tail. He seemed very proud of them. Oh, right, I knew he’d make decisions based on his fetishes, but I forgot that this was the main one.
“Honestly though, what’s the point of a male beastman? Did you ever stop to think about that?” I asked.
“True, I don’t care for male beastmen at all,” Tomoya agreed emphatically. “However, think about this! What if the beastmen in this world have a tradition where marriage with other races is forbidden?! Would I give up?! No, never! I couldn’t let my only chance of marrying a girl with animal ears slip away from me!”
Thus Tomoya firmly declared his reasoning for picking a male beastman as his race. It seemed like he had actually thought through his choice carefully. I wasn’t sure if it was really a good use of brainpower, though. Well, I feel you, bro! I wouldn’t exactly say no to a wife with animal ears!
“Hmm, Tomoya, you’re here too, eh?” Examining Tomoya’s body, Haruka nodded to herself.
“Wh-What, did I interrupt something?”
“I never said anything like that. But anyway, you’ll be useful as a meat shield.”
“Wait, what did you just say?! Did you just call me a meat shield?!”
“Oho ho ho, of course not!” said Haruka. “Believe me, I’m counting on you to be our frontline fighter!”
Tomoya was shocked and objected to Haruka calling him a meat shield, but Haruka smiled with grace and dodged the subject. I’m pretty sure I heard something about a meat shield too, but Haruka was probably just trying to put Tomoya at ease with a joke, right?
“That reminds me... As childhood friends, we have a really strong bond,” said Haruka. “We could tell each other apart even in soul form.”
“Yeah, I had a feeling it was you two!” replied Tomoya.
“Y-Yep!” I chimed in hastily. “N-Nothing beats the bond we forged over the years!” I was panicking and doing my best to play along with what Haruka and Tomoya were saying. There’s no way I can admit that I didn’t notice at all!
“Hm? Yeah, of course. It looks like none of our classmates are nearby, so I’m glad we were able to group up here.”
Haruka might have been a bit suspicious of my behavior, but she seemed to decide to ignore it. She then turned to examine our surroundings. Tomoya and I looked around as well, but there were no signs of anyone at all. I could see much farther than before thanks to my Hawk’s Eye skill, but all I saw was more of the grassy plains we were in and a forest. There were also some wild birds, but that was it.
“Well, we’ve really gotten ourselves into a crazy situation,” I said with a sigh. “Is this misfortune? Or are we really lucky?”
“Let’s just say it could’ve been worse,” said Haruka. “There’s no changing the fact that we got into a bus accident, so we might as well try to stay optimistic instead of the opposite.”
“This might be a lucky situation for me!” Tomoya chuckled. “Now I actually have a chance to find a wife with animal ears!”
Haruka responded to my sigh with a shrug and a wry smile. Tomoya was upbeat about the situation due to being an optimistic guy, but I was a bit worried about my parents. Well, even if I hadn’t ended up in this world, it wouldn’t change the fact that I died. I may as well accept that it could’ve been worse, like Haruka said.