Chapter Text
Kanade had been having an extremely normal day. Nothing odd whatsoever happened, that’s why, as usual, she was trotting home on all fours towards her house!
Her key jingled, held uncomfortably between her teeth… it felt a little like when you bite on your fork, ouch.
She was getting increasingly warmer as she walked back from Kamishiro’s house… that place was always trouble. Everytime one of her partners, normally Mizuki, returned from his house, there was a funky gadget with them…
So when he asked to try something new on her when she arrived, she wasn’t too surprised. Not wanting to turn him down, she politely agreed. It was meant to be something to make you more confident, to put it simply. Kanade knew her partners would probably like it, and didn’t think much about it being a prototype…
Until she walked out the thing much, much different than how she had entered.
Kanade was a dog.
Rui had apologised profusely, but for now, this was permanent until he found a way to reverse it. Kanade denied his offer to take her home and settled on walking. She believed being a dog should increase her stamina…
Well, right now, she had proven herself very wrong. The thick fur coat and the unusual feeling of her body really slowed her down. She had taken many breaks but the heat was pretty unbearable… plus, everything was so loud, along with her sensitive nose…
Don’t even get her started on the colour blindness! Dogs can’t even see most colours, so Kanade couldn’t do her usual method of getting home by looking for the colourful signs and familiar purple flowers…
Wait..so now she was lost too..!? Now her only hope was reading signs… signs that were too high up to read. She could make out a few letters, but she’d have to move quite far back and often up on something to get a good look at what street she was on.
Eventually, she let out a sigh of relief seeing her house up ahead, almost dropping the key in her mouth… wait, how was she going to use this? Dogs don’t have thumbs. Kanade only had these puny paws, which were cute, but incredibly impractical. Kanade would have to start praying right now that one of her lovers was home early or off work today.
Arriving at the door after dragging herself across the hot pavement, she gently pawed the door, not wanting to scratch it…
That lasted about a minute before Kanade realised there was no way that would work even if someone was home. A whole minute wasted. Kanade was pathetic, of course that would never work…!
Next she tried to get the key in the door, she usually struggled to do this as a human. So now, being wobbly on her four legs, she could hardly even get upright. Getting the key in the door, then having to turn it would be impossible. She smashed into the door accidentally many times, even managing to hit her head on the handle, before…
"Hm?… a dog.."
YELP..!
Embarrassingly, Kanade got shocked at the door opening… she really should’ve expected all the banging to cause attention to the door. Looking up at who she had quickly identified as Mafuyu, Kanade whined patheticly.
"Are you lost..? Do you need to come inside? And, don’t eat that key. Drop it please."
Kanade knew that Mafuyu would know most dogs, especially strays, would have no knowledge of any commands. Mafuyu would have probably just planned to take it after the two went instead, but being Kanade, she dropped the key at the door for Mafuyu to pick up.
"This is… Kanade’s key? Why do you have this?"
Oh yea! It was her key! This was her chance to try and tell Mafuyu she was her Kanade! Words couldn’t possibly fail her now!
BARK!! Bwoof!~ arf arf!!
…
Kanade should’ve seen that coming ten- no… fifty miles away. It still slipped past her sight and struck her down.
"Is Kanade in trouble? This is quite concerning… perhaps you have a tag? Let’s see…"
Ah, now she was worrying Mafuyu.. just how stupid was Kanade? No matter what she was, she found a way to make her friends worry for her!
As Mafuyu checked her neck, she found no collar. Kanade’s sharp ears then heard Mafuyu’s phone pinging from inside her pocket…could it be Kamishiro informing her? She tried nudging at Mafuyu’s pocket.
"Well, no collar..huh?- do you hear my phone?... don’t push it out my pocket, it’ll fall and break. I’ll take it out so you don’t break it, let’s go inside."
Did that count? She took it out but… the notifications… Mafuyu was a very busy person. Even while Kanade appreciated her hard work, it would be very easy for anything to be buried in reminders and other texts.
Even inside, Kanade nudges at Mafuyu’s phone, that had been placed on the side of the couch where the two girls sat.
"What’s it with my phone? You just looked sad, so I brought you in to help with the heat and find if you have an owner, but you seem quite insistent."
Mafuyu picks up her phone… there among the notifications was a few pop ups from Rui. The two of them had gotten quite close over the years.
Kanade watched as she read through the messages, peeping over to confirm they were from Kamishiro and were about Kanade’s situation…
"There’s no way you’re Kanade."
Ah. Well that’s a problem. She couldn’t blame Mafuyu. Kanade herself didn’t believe it quite yet either, but she had to prove it wasn’t another joke of his to her!
"You had her keys, but teaching a dog to carry something isn’t hard. Do you understand what I’m saying? Go… find cup noodles or something."
Kanade let out a… dog noise. She could do that easily, especially since she used to have so many in the past that she still owned cup noodles from back then!
And so, to prove she was indeed Mafuyu’s girlfriend, she headed to the kitchen to try and open the cup noodle cabinet!
…That cabinet being one Kanade cannot reach in her human form, but now especially one she cannot reach in her new shorter dog form. Her partners put them so high for a reason, especially back then. There was little reason or motivation to move them back considering how many were kept in that cabinet.
"You can’t reach the cabinet, right? You still seem to understand… what flavour do you like?"
Mafuyu easily reaches the cabinet, placing a few flavours on front of her. Kanade recognises the blue packaging from anywhere, and the delicious but now more overwhelming scent of soy sauce… classic soy sauce had always been her favourite. She easily pushed it to her purple haired lover.
"So you are Kanade…? interesting, but I wouldn’t put it past Rui. Anyways, he told me that you can be a dog girl, you don’t have to be a dog, but he only just worked that out."
Bwork..!?
She could what..? How!?
"Apparently you just think about it and it works. I want to see this.. it’s very…strange. You’re very cute though, Kanade."
Kanade does what Mafuyu says… what would she even look like as a dog girl? How many features will she keep..?- Whatever. After this experience, anything where she can talk is better.
A loud almost comical poof sound filled the air as Kanade felt her (small amount of) height suddenly regain, her head and tailbone feeling odd and out of place. Still all round weirdly sensitive…. So, not much different. Even her puny hand paws remained, just bigger..!
"Ah.. it worked, thank goodness you’re home, Mafuyu.."
"No problem, and you’re lucky I’m off today, especially considering you couldn’t even unlock the door."
"Urk…don’t mention that, it’s hard to adjust too..and I had to jump and it was hot-"
"I see, just don’t do what Rui says next time, or ask him first…he probably knows you don’t go outside much so any malfunctions won’t be nearly as bad. He still told me to send his apologies to you many times."
"Oh, Kamishiro did apologize a lot. I’ll send him a message later and let him know he’s forgiven. He’s already working something out so I can be normal again…"
"That’s good, then… this is kind embarrassing.."
"But you’re cute like this."
That cut off her thoughts quickly. Did Mafuyu really just say that…? Kanade knew she understood herself better but…Kanade wasn’t cute, was she? In fact, most people would describe her as "pathetic"… that normally didn’t mean cute, right?
"Huh..? What are you doing, Mafuyu..?"
A familiar hand placed itself on her now fluffier hair, touching the base of her ears… was Mafuyu… petting Kanade..?
"M-Mafuyu..wait up- ah..!"
It was sensitive. That was the first thing Kanade noticed even as all the blood rushed to her face… it felt really good though, even calming, she (barely) didn’t focus on how utterly embarrassing this was for her.
"Sorry. I should’ve asked before petting you. My mistake, I just couldn’t help myself."
"I-It’s fine, Mafuyu, just makes me feel a little embarrassed..- arf..!?"
Kanade heard a noise out from the window, her new instincts leading her to said window, despite Mafuyu’s words of confusion coming from behind her as she wandered off…
Looking outside, she saw a familiar sight of two of her neighbors! She hadn’t seen them in forever, and apparently they had been married recently! Perhaps they were on their honeymoon and that’s why…
Either way, Kanade felt a sudden need to alert Mafuyu of this SUPER exiting news, so she called out to her!
Instead of simply shouting Mafuyu, her puppy brain thought of a more effective method, she was part dog now after all…
BARK! BARK BARK!! ARRF!! RUFF!!
A series of barks erupted from the front window, luckily for her human mind, the neighbors didn’t look, likely assuming it was another neighbourhood dog from inside another houses backyard.
Mafuyu, on the other hand, knew exactly where it was coming from. She had been behind Kanade after following her to see where she was going…
"Kanade, please stop barking…I am right here. I see the neighbors too."
Ah? So barking was unnecessary? Kanade was really too focused on the neighbors to notice Mafuyu follow her. Her puppy instincts finally freeing her a tad…- did Kanade just bark at her neighbors…!?
Whine... "I’m very sorry Mafuyu! I didn’t notice what I was doing until you spoke…I can’t really help it, apparently.."
"I understand, you have dog instincts because of what happened. Perhaps I’ll leave the blinds closed, as much as it was cute, I don’t want anyone to see you barking at them."
Mafuyu understandably closed the blinds, leaving Kanade more sad than she should have been about such a simple action.
"Thank you, Mafuyu. I really don’t know what came over me there…"
"It’s no problem, just forgot about the blinds for now. Are you any hungry? How about I feed you. I’m assuming you’re tired from all this."
"Um, a tad…"
"What can you eat, then? I doubt you’ll want dog food."
Yes. Kanade definitely didn’t want dog food, her face scrunched up at the thought.
"Definitely not…just give me anything."
"How about human food that’s safe for dogs? I’d rather be safe than sorry right now, no? There’s every chance that trait passed on too."
Mafuyu was right, so Kanade simply nodded and trotted to their kitchen island to sit on her stool.
After waiting… not for long, the scent of deliciously cooked eggs filled her nose.. Mafuyu made really good eggs, and dogs were allowed them in moderation.. plus! She was part human too!
"Kanade, can you stop whining please? The eggs only just started boiling but it’ll just be a few minutes…"
Whining? Kanade was whining?… she hasn’t noticed it.
"I’m sorry, Mafuyu, I didn’t even notice I was whining… it’s a subconscious habit I guess..?"
"I didn’t know that… it’s still quite cute. Considering you didn’t mean to it is also quite funny…"
At least Mafuyu found it entertaining..? Although Kanade wasn’t sure why it was funny, she was glad.
Mafuyu went over to sit next to Kanade, looking at her for a minute…
"Kanade? May I touch your tail please?… it looks rather soft. Considering you may not have it for long, I’d like to see how it feels.
"Eh..!?"
Kanade thinks her noise of confusion was very reasonable, Mafuyu had just asked to pet her tail! As much as some scratches would’ve felt nice, her tail and her ears…
"I guess… it is a little embarrassing, though…"
Whatever, who was Kanade to deny Mafuyu? With all her hard work at her recently, she especially deserved it.
"Thank you, I’ll try and continue to be sure you’re feeling okay."
Mafuyu had always been very considerate like that, Kanade really loved that about her… she felt the fluff stick behind her shift a little at the thought…
"Your tail wagging..are you perhaps excited about this?"
"Ah, I suppose it is a little exciting..? Being part puppy means I can’t help it, sorry.."
"No need to be sorry. It’s very cute."
And with that, Kanade felt her girlfriend’s familiar warm hand on the base of her tail that just poked out of her shorts. It definitely let out some kind of chemical in her brain, because Kanade felt like she needed to purr, even if she wasn’t a cat girl…
She felt calm yet her brain was running at least 1000 thoughts per second with Mafuyu’s other hand joining in and stroking her tail.
Kanade let her head rest over her arms on the cabinet, drooping her eyes as her tail settled to a still as she bathed in pleasure from all the pets…
Mafuyu seemed to pick up Kanade’s enjoyment, staying quiet and gently petting her. With the brief touches of her own fur, she was very soft, so Mafuyu should like it. Kanade knew she enjoyed fluffy blankets.
Kanade felt herself fall further and further into slumber, eyes finally closing as a hand also starts scratching at her ears. She yawned pitifully before finally succumbing to sleep.
…
She was only able to sleep for half a minute before the stool Mafuyu was on let out a loud screech across the floor, the comfy petting gone.
It scared her enough to run away to the couch, yelping in fear from the sudden noise. It wasn’t exactly new for Kanade to be jumpy, but running off was definitely new.
Kanade pondered what happened as she peeked up from the couch to get a look at the kitchen. Mafuyu was by the- the eggs! She must’ve just realised that the eggs had been left boiling and boiled over. An extra minute shouldn’t be too bad for them.
After finishing taking the eggs out from the pot and taking it off the heat, she presented the bowl to Kanade.
"Sorry for scaring you, the pot was boiling over and I panicked. Your eggs are ready. I figured seasoning wouldn’t be a very good idea either."
"Thank you Mafuyu… it tastes really good."
"I’m glad. Sorry for waking you up, again. Would you let me continue petting you? I really liked it."
"Mm, I liked it too, though maybe after I’m done eating..? For whatever reason, I wouldn’t like you near my food."
"I see, that makes sense. Dogs are often protective of their food, after all."
Kanade supposed it made enough sense. Dogs used to live in the wild, and were domesticated or something? Kanade wasn’t too sure but that would be why she was protective over her meal..
She ate pretty quickly, who knows if she’d get cut off from her food. Likely not, but also possible. Dog instincts were really strange.
"I’m finished, thank you for the meal. They were better than usual."
"I’m glad, then. How about we go on a walk? do you need some exercise, Kanade?"
Absolutely not happening. Mafuyu was totally just looking for an excuse to get Kanade to go outside! She’d already done that today! And look what happened!
"Urk..definitely not. I walked here from Rui’s already. No more walks. My stamina is hardly better.."
"Even as a dog, your stamina remains terrible.. I’m not really surprised. Maybe if this stays for a while I can walk you."
Whine…
Always finding opportunities to mess with me, huh Mafuyu? Kanade supposed it was inevitable with Mizuki around. Even Kanade couldn’t help but join on the occasional light "Ena teasing time".
"Well, I’m going to give you a bath then. I don’t know how long this will last so…at least let me wash you? You haven’t showered in a while anyway."
Kanade knew that was true, especially the last part…to be fair, she normally let one of her parters bathe her, and they’d been too busy lately. Kanade was still learning to do it herself but still highly preferred being bathed by them.
"I guess, dogs aren’t normally known to hate baths but just be careful.. I’m not sure how strong my instincts can get."
"I understand. I’ll be careful. Perhaps a bath is better today then..?"
"Yea..I’m just gonna get a change of clothes. Can you run the bath?"
"Yea, see you soon, Kanade."
———
As Kanade approached the bathroom after gathering some clothes (it was hard with her paws..), likely not hers but fine nonetheless, she opened the door to the bathroom. The bath had been mostly filled with warm plain water, the normal soapy bubbles on top missing.
"Hello, Kanade. I figured I shouldn’t use normal soap just in case it irritates the skin near your fur. We still have some puppy shampoo from our dog sitting days, so I’ll just use that on your fur and conditioner on the ends of your hair."
Mafuyu turned away to allow Kanade to get undressed.
"Thank you, Mafuyu, that’s a good idea… I guess I’d rather be safe than sorry."
Kanade got undressed (also extremely hard with paws) while talking, her ears were a tad dropped, but she had always been somewhat nervous for baths without having much rhyme or reason to why.
"I’m done getting undressed, you can look now. I’m assuming it’s ready, too."
Mafuyu tuned back, nodding gently as she turned the tap off.
"Here, it’s full enough. Get in the tub, please."
As Kanade stepped into the warm water, her body calmed from its nerves quickly. Her tail felt heavy from the water, she didn’t mind her wet heavy fur too much though…
"Can I clean your tail now? Does the water feel ok..?"
Ah, yea, Mafuyu… Kanade thought it would be fine.. she’d just have to use human words! If she did resort to dog noises, she wasn’t sure the message would get across.
"It should be fine, just… it’s a little more sensitive and heavier when wet, so don’t be too hands-on..?"
"Got it, please tell me if you’d like me to stop."
"Mm."
As Mafuyu’s hands made contact with her wet tail (only after Kanade moved up onto her bath stool so it wasn’t completely underwater), Kanade yelped a bit, but quickly adapted to like the feeling of Mafuyu gently massaging her fur in a way that was both comfortable and effective.
Along with the soap in her tail smoothening the fur, it smelled really good. It reminded Kanade of apple pie, which was a scent she didn’t think came in dog shampoo, meaning she was probably wrong.
Mafuyu used a cup to get the water on and through her hair, spreading the conditioner through the ends and middle. Her hair had grown longer recently, and while Kanade didn’t really want to cut it, at some point she knew she’d have to.
As Kanade was lost in her thoughts, Mafuyu finished rinsing her hair. Kanade the felt a sudden NEED to shake. To dry off, of course. She knew she would just get wet again, but Kanade still wanted to.. (Plus, her top half would be dry!)
"Mafuyu, I think I need to shake..ehe..sorry.."
So embarrassing…
"Go ahead, it’s fine."
Kanade can’t hold back much after that, shaking herself to the best of her abilities while sitting in a bathtub.. the water sprayed everywhere, and despite it being her house, Kanade was still embarrassed… at least Mafuyu had been smart and covered her face.
Kanade had to admit though…
"That felt… strangely, very relieving in a way."
"Considering you have dog instincts, I understand exactly what you mean. You even smell a bit like dog."
Kanade didn’t want to say it out loud, she knew Mafuyu wasn’t trying to be mean but… Kanade definitely didn’t smell like a dog! At all! Fur wasn’t the thing that made dogs smell bad anyways.. was it? Whatever- Kanade didn’t comment on it.
"Ah, my clothes are over there. I’m just gonna get the towel on…"
Kanade starts wrapping her towel around her, trying to get the ends to meet at her tail to prevent an inconvenient bump in the side. This takes an unfathomable amount of time with four puffy, fluffy, and uncoordinated fingers…toes?..
"Kanade? Are these Ena’s clothes..? This shirt is covered in paint… and these beige sweatpants are definitely hers. I see her use them in those… brown and white "coffee" outfits.."
Mafuyu had never been one for fashion, neither had Kanade. Coffee coloured outfit was a new word for them though.
"Ena’s clothes? Ah, yea. Ena’s clothes fit me a bit bigger without being super oversized, too."
Kanade had a very good reason for choosing Ena’s clothes, they definitely weren’t just the first two things she saw that looked like they’d fit her well enough. The bigger size thing was definitely a benefit for her tail, though.
"I suppose that makes sense, though knowing you, you just took what you saw. I’m going to blow dry your hair and…"
Busted.. anyways.. huh?- why did Mafuyu just stop?
"Mafuyu…? And..?"
"Never mind. The blow dryer would be too loud, no? Dogs hear things much louder, and despite them being used to it, you’re still part human, and that is a loud noise. I’ll use a towel."
"M-Mafuyu! There’s no need to compromise.. you know how long towel is drying takes… remember before we got the hair dryer?…"
Before they had it was a time neither of them like to think about. It was the worst chore in the house. As much as Niigo REALLY loved talking to Kanade, having to go through all of her hair with a towel was torture. Kanade even did it herself sometimes, much to the others protests… she understood why they complained so much after a few times doing it (but if they complained about doing it, why couldn’t Kanade do it herself?).
"I suppose being a dog might decrease your patience for things like that. How about just today we let it air dry? Being a dog girl seems to have affected your hair a bit seeing the shaking did good."
Touching and stroking fingers through her hair, it was rather dry and also fluffier.
"I guess so, I think I’m just gonna sleep now then…"
"No problem. I’m tired from studying, so we can both rest."
Wait…
"Mafuyu, this is your day off..."
Kanade didn’t carry the same stern tone as Mafuyu or Ena telling Kanade off, and loosely held Mizuki’s worry that they tried to hide (but failed miserably) voice. It was its own tone of concern unique to Kanade.
"Ah. My mistake. I hadn’t meant to tell you that."
Don’t hide that from me was Kanades first thought.
Kanade hoped that she hadn’t been the reason for Mafuyu’s recent overwork, with how much Kanade did it herself. It seemed Kanade would have to let the other two to keep a closer eye on her…
"We can sort it out later, Mafuyu. Let’s just go to bed. I’m tired.
It was true, Kanade was overwhelmed. She didn’t want to worry on this even more. When Rui- ping!
"Mafuyu? You have my phone right?"
"It’s Rui. He says to come over tomorrow morning early as possible so he can fix it. I need cuddles now."
Well, speak of the devil and the devil appears? Kanade was glad that he would be able to fix her soon…this was fun and she was cute but…-
Yelp!
"M-Mafuyu..!"
Mafuyu hoisted her up and over her shoulder gently, but still high for Kanade when you see ther height difference (Kanade stopped growing, Mafuyu continued).
"Let’s go to bed. If this is gone tomorrow, I want to pet you a lot now so you’re happy and sleep well… also cause I’ll miss it."
"You can pet me anytime, Mafuyu. Ears tail and paws or not. I really appreciate your love and affection towards me, yea..?"
"Thank you, Kanade. You mean a lot to me. I can’t keep track of how many times I’ve really wanted to pet you. You’re just so loveable, I’m glad you found me, really."
Kanade almost cries, but then starts falling asleep on Mafuyu’s shoulder as she feels the familiar sweet scratching at her ears…
Kanade’s eyelids slowly fall as she lets out a tired whimper, feeling herself be lowered onto the bed and getting pets…she was such a lucky girl. Kanade didn’t deserve any of this… but maybe just for tonight …she.. would…
With a few final forehead kisses, Kanade fell asleep, still receiving an also very tired Mafuyu’s pats on her head and tail. She dreamt of some weird herding dreams overnight. Was she even a herding breed? Whatever.. let her dream well tonight. Just this once.