At midnight when the date was about to change, I was finally finishing my work and ready to return home.
I don’t remember returning on time recently.
It’s been two years since I started this job. I don’t have any days off, and I think it’s a completely black workplace with constant overtime.
However, I haven’t had time to look for another job, so I’m continuing my current one.
“Ah…I feel a little dizzy.”
Before, when I was working continuously for 3 months without a break, I once collapsed at home.
At that time, I woke up immediately, but I took a day off from work and went to the hospital because I thought this was dangerous.
But when I went to work the next day, my superiors were angry and my coworkers gave me dirty looks.
While this wasn’t as bad as that time, my walking was a little strange.
I wasn’t drinking.
I have just reached adulthood, and while I have drunk alcohol, I haven’t drunk enough so that it seems delicious.
The boss once took me to a drinking party on a day when there was little overtime, and I remember being forced to drink a lot of beer and having to rush to the bathroom many times.
“What is with…this workplace.”
While mumbling to myself, I walked from the nearest station to my home.
“Oh, I should stop at the convenience store. I haven’t eaten anything today… And I can buy something for her and go home.”
I entered a convenience store on the way to my house and bought a lunch box and sausages, remembering that I hadn’t eaten anything today.
She must always feel lonely, and so sometimes I want to buy her favorite food and make her happy.
I left the convenience store and headed home again at a slightly odd pace.
I arrived at the apartment after walking for about 10 minutes, and took out the key from my pocket in front of the nameplate that read Takumi Hirooka, and opened the door.
“I’m home.”
I opened the door and went inside while calling out to her.
I could hear the sound of scratching behind the door, at the back of the corridor leading from the entrance.
“Good, good. You’re lively today. I’ll open it now, so wait!”
I take off my shoes, go up to the corridor, stand in front of the door and open it.
As soon as the door was opened, a white object rushed out from inside.
“Kuuun… Kuuun…”
“Haha, okay-okay. Were you a good girl?”
It was Leo, a Maltese, that jumped at me.
Our first encounter was when I found her as a puppy in a cardboard box that was thrown away a few years ago.
As a student at that time, I had just started living alone, but thanks to Leo, I wasn’t lonely.
When I picked her up, I called her Leo without thinking, but later realized that she was a female. That was a good memory.
I’m sorry Leo, I gave you such a name in spite of being a girl.
“See, I bought your favorite sausage today!”
“Kuun… Wuff-wuff.”
When I showed the sausage, the tail that had been wagging a while ago began to wag even more violently.
She put her nose close to the sausage and was about to open her mouth and bite into it.
“Hahaha. Wait, wait. You can’t eat it like this. …Here, you have to take it out of the wrapper first.”
“Wuff-wuff! …Chomp-chomp.”
I took the sausage out of the wrappings and put it on the floor. She pounced on it and started to eat.
I better eat my own dinner as well.
It had been heated at the convenience store, and so I put it on the table, took off the lid and started to eat.
“Kuuun…kyuun.”
“What? Do you want to play? Just wait a little. I’m almost finished eating.”
“…Kuun.”
I petted Leo so that she would calm down, and then I ate the rest of my food.
Then I put all of the garbage in the convenience store bag and left it in a corner of the room.
It was unburnable garbage day tomorrow, so I would have to remember to take it out before I go to work.
For some reason, today she was pushing her nose into my face and licking me a lot…
Had she noticed that my health seemed worse than usual?
While it was rather odd, I remembered something just as I was considering going to bed.
“Ah, I better take a bath.”
I couldn’t go straight to sleep like this after returning.
Upon hearing the word ‘bath,’ Leo jumped away from me.
She always hated baths…
I chuckled at her and then got up in order to take a shower. That’s when my vision swayed.
“…Is it an earthquake?”
For some reason, it seemed like it was shaking… No, wait, was it me who was shaking…?
“Wuff! Wuff! Wuff!”
Leo was barking loudly in the corner of my vision, but without being able to reply, I fell to the floor.
“Wuff! Wuff! Wuff! …Kuun. Kuuun.”
Perhaps she was worried about me. I could clearly feel that she had come close. But I could do nothing as my consciousness faded.
——————–
“…Hmm.”
“Wuff-wuff.”
I felt the wind blowing as I opened my eyes.
Had I been sleeping? And was this fluffy thing covering my face Leo?
“Sorry, Leo. Can you move a little. …You’ve gotten heavy.”
“Wuff.”
Leo’s voice sounded lower than usual as I moved her away and opened my eyes.
…The thing that entered my vision was a forest that I had never seen before.
“…Where…am I? Is this a dream?”
“Wuff!”
Hadn’t I been sleeping in my room? I remember eating dinner, but I don’t remember getting into bed.
Why was I in this forest…?
Thinking that it must be a dream, I pinched my cheeks, but it hurt.
“So it’s not a dream…? But why am I in a forest…”
“Wuff! Wuff!”
And Leo’s barking wasn’t just lower than usual, but also sounded more powerful for some reason.
As she had been barking next to me as if she wanted attention, I turned my head towards her.
Now that was a surprise.
“What? Hey! So you’re not Leo!”
“Wuff!”
The thing that was sitting next to me with its head tilted to the side was a wolf that I had never seen before. It was also much bigger than me.
“…!”
I tried to get up so that I could run away, but perhaps due to having only just woken up, and the fatigue of the previous day’s work, I could not move my body well.
As I tried to scramble away, the wolf’s face came close to mine.
I was going to be eaten! I braced myself and shut my eyes tightly.
“Kuuun.”
My eyes were closed, but that voice was familiar. And then I felt my face being licked.
Surely you’re not actually…
“You… Are you Leo?”
“Wuff! Wuff!”
She nodded and then barked as if to say ‘that’s right!’
“But why are you so big…”
What I first saw after waking up in a strange place, was that my beloved dog had become very big.