The sound of muffled voices greeted his ears as his consciousness began to return to him. He could hear a heart monitor beeping steadily beside him. Was he actually alive? Bits and pieces of the previous night flooded his mind, alerting him to the fact that he was indeed still breathing, albeit it made absolutely no sense. There was a woman, tall and beautiful and—for whatever reason—purple with long flowing blonde locks, an enticing pout and dangerously alluring onyx eyes that made his heart leap. All he could remember was the look in her eyes and the feeling of her lips on his after she'd pressed her body onto him. A bittersweet memory considering the fact that his feet were frozen to the floor and his first kiss was stolen by a woman who no doubt tried to kill him. 

Cold. That's what he remembered feeling suddenly after the warmth of her lips embracing his. He remembered feeling tired, more tired than he'd ever felt in his life. And then everything went dark. The voices he was hearing began to become more clear and less garbled. His eyes began to slowly open, his vision blurry at first before adjusting to the lighting of the room he found himself in. 

"Hey, I think he's waking up!" Amanita exclaimed as she stared down at him while adjusting her glasses. 

He blinked as he was met with the ever curious gaze of a young teen. She had on an over-sized lab coat and had long, brown twin-tails. Her eyes lit up as his fully opened. The young man's eyes widened and he sat up swiftly to look around. 

"What the hell!? where am I?" he asked, panic and confusion written on his face as he glanced about wildly. 

His gaze went from person to person until finally landing on Freya. She was a familiar face, and for whatever reason, put him at ease in spite of the fact that she had resting bitch face. 

"What. Is. Happening?" He asked, his eyes darting over to Fennel as she adjusted her own specs to look him over. 

"Let's see... vitals look normal," Fennel began, placing a hand on his forehead as she continued. "Body temperature feels fine too, not as cold as it was before so that's good."

"Um, excuse me but—"

"Heart rate checks out too and your innards are no longer frozen, even better," Fennel muttered while scribbling on her notepad.

"Are you even—hey!" he exclaimed as a light flashed in his eyes.

"Light sensitivity appears to be normal as well. Looks like we did it everyone," Fennel said with a bright smile. 

"Can somebody please tell me what is going on here!?" he demanded, granting him the attention of the entire room. 

Freya sat down at a nearby work station and crossed one leg over the other and rested her chin on the back of her left hand. 

"You almost died," she said bluntly, a bored expression on her face. 

"I gathered that much, I just wanna know why, or how—in this case—I'm still alive."

"You can thank Freya for that. She brought you here after the incident. She may be standoffish, but beneath that cold exterior is a caring soul with a penchant for stuffed animals," Mr. Fuji spoke up.

"Old man, I will gut you," Freya warned. 

"I see... so it was you. But, what happened to your horn? the tail—everything!?" He exclaimed, pointing at Freya in disbelief. "You had claws and everything, I saw it."

"I believe I can provide you with some insight on that," Fennel answered, raising an index finger. "Simply put, she's what you'd call a Poké-human or Gijinka, take your pick. She can hide her Pokémon-like features if she wants and also has all the abilities of whatever Pokémon she's an anthropomorphic form of. In her case, an Absol."

"So she's a humanized Absol? That's amazing," he said with a certain degree of awe in his voice. 

"She is pretty amazing isn't she? one of our best in fact. But enough about her. Let's talk about you. For starters, what's your name?" Fennel asked. 

"Oh, it's Hikaru..."

"Hikaru huh? Kanto native I assume?" Fennel inquired.

"Sinnoh actually, but close enough I guess," Hikaru said with a shrug. 

"Sinnoh, you're pretty far from home. Do you live around here?" Fennel continued to ask as she wrote down the information.

"Er... not exactly. I'm staying at a hotel in Castelia City. I'm sorta touring," Hikaru said sheepishly. 

"Touring?" Fennel said, leaning in to get a closer look at Hikaru before recoiling, realization dawning in her eyes. 

"Is something the matter?" 

"Hikaru, as in Hikaru Kazuki!?" Fennel stuttered. 

"Yeah? is there a problem?" 

Fennel scuttled behind her desk and shuffled around in the drawer to pull out a single CD case. She darted back over to him and held it out for him to look at. Staring back at him was a picture of him and his saxophone. 

"Oh cool, you've got one of my albums," Hikaru said with a slightly nervous laugh. 

"Not just one. My big sister is a big-time music buff and has a music collection as big as her research archive. You just happen to be a favorite artist of hers," Amanita elaborated. 

"I must say, I wasn't expecting to have someone so famous on my doorstep," Fennel chuckled. 

Hikaru blushed slightly and shook his head.

"Thanks, but I'm afraid I'm not exactly as big as the other artists. But I'm happy you like my music," Hikaru added. "And thank you, Freya, for saving me."

Freya nodded and looked away, her cheeks tinting pink.

"Don't mind her, she's just not that great at accepting gratitude," Mr. Fuji inputted, stepping up beside Hikaru and giving Freya a sidelong glance. 

"I figured as much. So... anyone mind answering my questions?"

"Of course, after all, you'll be needing to get used to your new body," Mr. Fuji said with a smirk.

"New body? it doesn't feel all that—why the hell do I have paws for feet!?" Hikaru exclaimed after looking under the sheets.

Throwing them off he got a good look at the lower half of his body. While it had some semblance of humanity still, his feet were undoubtedly paw-like. Looking down at his hands, he could see that they too had become that way as well. 

"Wh-what is this?" Hikaru stammered. 

"Ah, it looks like it's finally kicked in. Took it long enough," Fennel giggled. 

"What's kicked in, what is this!?" 

"Calm down Hikaru, you're fine. What you are seeing is the reason you are still alive right now," Mr. Fuji explained. 

Hikaru looked at his hands and watched as they slowly became normal, along with the rest of his body. 

"So does this mean I'm a—"

"Gijinka. Just like me," said Freya with a faint smile. 

"And not just any Gijinka either. You, Hikaru Kazuki, are a Lucario Gijinka," Fennel declared with a grin. 

Hikaru wasn't certain what to make of all this. One minute he was an ordinary saxophonist whose only dream was to perform music and make his siblings happy. Now, life just became a little more complicated than he could ever have imagined.