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The world is mad. Bonkers. Completely insane. And way more scary than Toby had ever thought possible. First of all, just to get it out of the way, magic is a real thing. Or, well, something like magic. That in itself boggled his mind. But worse, there was some kind of crazy secret war going on. Okay, fine, sure. But it seemed one of the sides in that war liked targeting people. Regular people, who couldn’t do anything about them.


He’d seen somebody die. It was a new friend he was just getting to know, but it still hurt him. Immensely. (Not to mention the hurts he got from the same incident.) It all just seemed so unreal. So unfair. He had to do something about it, but…there was just no way to do it. What could he do? These people could jump on top of buildings like it was a step up a staircase. Had crazy magical powers. And could yank your very essence out of your chest.


Seriously. What the ********, he couldn’t sit still. That’s how he’d end up dwelling on it all, and crying and shouting his frustration. So, any spare moment he was outside, running, biking, jumping, getting himself tired. And more fit. Maybe he never could run up a building, but dammit, he was going to try.


With that in mind, or rather, trying to not have it in mind, Toby was out running one day. A bright day, and nowhere near the evening. He was thumping along hard, pushing himself, trying to go faster and farther than the day before. Nothing mattered around him, although he did take note of things he’d see. People walking more slowly, skaters, bikers, a girl with an impressive set of tattoos, a guy with rainbow hair, one particularly fat cat dozing in the grass. None of it really registered as something he needed to pay attention to, though.

After a while, Toby stopped at a spot with a water fountain, so he could get himself a drink, and rest for a few minutes. He flopped himself down on a bench, and leaned back, letting the cool breeze blow across him. He was sweaty, and wearing perhaps not quite enough clothing for late November, but he didn't care. It felt good, and he'd be moving again soon enough.

Toby had been sitting on the bench for a few minutes when he decided to get up, get one more drink from the nearby fountain, then keep running.

As he got his drink, he heard something odd...like someone wheezing from exertion. He looked around, and for the moment, nobody was close enough for that. Lots of people around, but nobody especially close.

Just...a cat? Coming toward him. He frowned quizzically, but was too curious to start running. The cat was definitely the source of what he was hearing. As he watched it approach, he realized it was the one he spotted a ways back in the grass or something. He scratched his head, wondering why that cat was running all this way.

At the sound of the first two words spoken, Toby frowned, not quite believing he just heard a cat speak. But when it--he--started talking completely, he just stared, open-jawed.

It took him a moment to realize he'd been asked a question. He glanced round to see if anyone was hearing this...and there were other people on this biking and running trail, but definitely none close enough to hear what was being said. "Erm...I'm Toby," he replied, somewhat lamely, though he did manage to stop staring with slack-jawed amazement. Still staring, though. "Are you...okay?"

This was...very surreal, Toby thought, but he had to admit, it wasn't even the weirdest thing that had happened recently, so...he shrugged. "Well, uh, alright," he said, and started following the cat as it moved slowly along. "You're right...that'd be a bit weird, wouldn't it?"

He laughed, in spite of himself. It was a rather rueful laugh, all told, though if he thought about it, it was actually the first time he did since...all that happened.

To say Toby was mystified would be a bit of an understatement. He had no idea what this cat was doing, although he had to admit the rolling around was a little cute. Is this why he wanted me to--Oh, he thought, though the line of thinking was sidetracked by a little...stick-pen-thing popping out of nowhere and landing on the cat's fluffy belly. Toby thought he saw a little sparkle or something right before it appeared, but he wasn't sure.

He blinked a couple times in confusion. "Uh...mine?" he echoed, and squatted down to pick up the thing, and turn it over in his hands a couple times. Still squatting over the cat he asked, "What...is it? And do you need help there?" He nudged the cat lightly with the pen.

The frown of the cat told Toby his answer, and he pulled the 'henshin pen' away to let Bernard rock back up.

As it happened, he did know what the cat was talking about, so instead of confusion, his face showed amazement. "Wait, I am one of them? Really?" He sounded almost excited for a moment, but then his shoulders slumped. "Wish I knew that a week ago," he muttered forlornly. It was possible he wasn't 'ready' then, but he didn't know that. All he knew is that he couldn't do anything then...but now maybe he could?

"What a weird thing to say," he remarked, shaking his head and pushing back dark thoughts creeping up on him. He stood up again, and his gaze shifted from the cat, to the pen, and back. "And what's a Nix?"

He shrugged, figuring he'd find out, and did as he was told. Images of random animes came to him, so he struck a pose, and held it out before intoning, "Nix Power, make-up!" It felt almost silly to say, but the effect of it...not in the least bit silly. There was a sort of whirlwind (at least, that's what he pictured it as, there wasn't really any wind), and his clothes, well, they were gone, but before he had a chance to worry about that, it was rapidly replaced with, well, a white leotard, and then blue tights. Neither felt quite like he'd expect that stuff to feel, though. Hard to describe. Harder, but...not? Either way, green gloves, frog-like boots, a sash, a little...bow-collar-thing, and then finally a circlet of some design formed up under his hair in rapid succession...and it was done.

He stood, dazed for a moment. "Wuh...?" He looked down at himself, arms up, then he looked at the henshin pen. "That was cool," he managed to say softly.

The paw on his...frog foot? He'd have to prod at that thing later...it was oddly comforting, and Toby nodded his understanding. It still sucked, though.

"That's, uh, a lot of stuff. I heard about, er, some of that from a couple senshis that talked to me before, but they didn't seem to want to be too specific about it. I guess that'd make sense." He touches a hand to his face. "So, people don't see me as me, is that right?"

He considered the idea of magic, and looked up and around at the trees. "How do I, uh, use that magic?" he asked. "And...do I need to do something special to jump up in a tree? I saw those guys do stuff like that, so...that means I can too, right?"

The desire to know many things was, at least temporarily, keeping the dark thoughts at bay. He had so many questions now...and he just wanted to run and jump and see what he could do. But clearly the cat wouldn't really appreciate that, so he held off on that for now...Though he did sort of rock and bounce from foot to foot in anticipation of moving quickly again.

Toby listened to the explanations, nodding some....and he could not suppress the grin that came from the suggestion that he jump on top of a tree.

He nodded. "Oh yeah, I really do," he said, and looked up at one of the trees. "Here goes..." he breathed out, squatted down a bit, then launch! He shot up in the air, and couldn't help but go, "wooo!" as he did it. With a few thumps, he actually ended up dangling from one of the branches rather high up, laughing. The spot looked pretty precarious, all told, but given what he just did, he wasn't even slightly worried about that. He waved to Bernard below, then let go again after a breath to get ready.

He landed with a thump, and only a little wobble, and looked back up at the trees.