No one was awake in the Nonoka residence on that fateful night, meaning none of them saw the grey fog that rolled in and enveloped the whole house. Not Rika, who barely even stirred as it filled her room. Not her mother Rumiko, who was oblivious to it drifting in. not Seiko, Rika's grandmother and Rumiko's mother, who still slept as the mist covered the house. Not even Renamon, who would have instantly recognised it as a digital field, woke as the fog appeared. By the time any would rise from slumber, the fog would be gone and they would have no idea why what would unfold had happened...

***

It was about twenty minutes later when Rika awoke, feeling a strange tingling sensation all over her body. Like something ticklish, but some parts felt different. A strange irritated sensation around her mouth, on the side  of her head, and at the base of her spine.

"Ugh... I feel weird..." She mumbled out loud, putting her hand up to her face.

She froze for a moment, feeling something strange about both face and hand in the action. she switched on her light and cried out in surprise.

Her hand was covered in small hairs, the same firey-red as the rest of her hair, but growing even as she watched. before she could even think what was going on, the irritated feeling became pain. she cried out at this, as she felt her face begin to feel like it was stretching. She fell from her bed, and looked in the nearest window. To her surprise, the reflection she saw was covered in the red hair, and her face was elongating. Like she was growing a snout. Something was also growing out of her head, her ears seemed to be shrinking, and it felt like something was growing out of the base of her spine. She quickly realised it would get trapped in her pyjama bottoms and managed to free it as it was growing, fearing either that it could be painful or rip her pyjamas. She'd had a good idea what it was, but seeing it still surprised her.

"A... a tail?!" he said aloud as she turned to look. As it grew, the hair around it grew as well, and there was no doubt she was growing a large furry and somewhat fluffy  tail. It didn't take her long to overcome the shock of this event and realise what was actually happening.

Most girls, upon realising what Rika did, would have felt panic or fear. They would have been concerned with the implications of the changes. But Rika, upon realising this, was more irritated. It was half her personality and half tiredness from waking suddenly, but nonetheless, she was simply annoyed.

"I'm turning into a Renamon..." she sighed.

'What happened here? Is this a dream or something? Is Gogglehead behind this?! Well, I doubt he'd do it deliberately but doing something stupid to cause something like this fits him to a t!'

Her thoughts were interrupted by a jolt of pain that caused her to groan. The alterations were not being especially painful, but she was simply wishing it would hurry up and finish so she could figure out what had happened. Her hands and feet began to hurt as they rearranged into paws, causing her more irritation.

Eventually, it was done. Rika had become a mostly red-furred Renamon, looking unusual for she still wore the pyjamas she had put on before going to bed as a human (luckily, it seemed she hadn't changed in size so apart from having to squeeze the fur in, they still fit and seemed not to have torn anywhere), not to mention that she still had her human hair in the same style as before, which at this moment, was down rather than scrunched up like a red pineapple. Rika stood up, a little uncertain of her new feet, and looked at the window again. She was confused for a moment at what she saw. The reflection was a surprised looking normal Renamo...

"Oh. Uh..."  Rika said, realising.

"Rika?!" Renamon said, still staring in surprise.

"Renamon... do you have any idea how this could have happened?"

"I... I'm afraid not... what happened to do this?"

"That's what I want to know. I just woke up, then I started changing into... well, a Renamon like you. " Rika realised.

"But this is..." Renamon said, but to her surprise, Rika grinned.

"Hey, at least I'm not a Guilimon!"

"Uh... you seem to be taking this pretty well..." Renamon said, truly surprised at her tamer handling this so well.

But before Rika could reply, a piercing shriek came from elsewhere in the house.

"That was your mother!" Renamon realised.

"I know. Wait, you don't think..."

But Renamon was already heading for Rumiko's room. Rika followed, not bothering to put on her slippers. If she had tried though, she would have found they were not quite compatible with her new feet...

***

Unlike her daughter, Rumiko was very shocked by the change. and unlike her daughter, she wasn't taking it well.

"What happened to me?! I have a tail! I have fur!" The sandy blonde Renamon that Rumiko had become was shrieking as Renamon entered, followed by Rika. Rumiko, like her daughter, retained her human hairstyle, but thanks to her night dress, they saw the purple patterns on her legs that were identical to those that Renamon had.

"You've changed too?" Rika said in surprise. Rumiko simply screamed again when she saw her daughter. Rena and Rika both held thier ears at this shriek.

"...I think if we check on your grandmother we should try and break this a little more gently..." Renamon advised. However, Rumiko was calming down a little. She sat on her bed, Rika standing nervously in the door.

"How did this happen?" Rumiko said softly, staring at her fur-covered hands, still in shock.

"I don't know." Rika replied, as she realised glancing at her own hands which now only had three... Were they still fingers? Either way, three digits instead of five. It made her feel uneasy until her mother next spoke.

"My shoes are going to be useless..."

Rika sighed as it seemed her mother wasn't grasping the full implications of this change only for them to really hit home in her head. They either needed to find some way to change back, or... Well, they'd be in serious trouble because the physical changes, though not to be ignored, would be the cause of huge social problems for them. How could they explain their appearances in school or at her mother's modelling roles? What other changes might it mean? Was it even finished?

"Was it just us that changed, or has it affected anyone else?" Rumiko then pondered.

A little brief selfish ray of hope emerged. What if this was global? Rika then hoped it wasn't. If her mothers response was anything to go by she dreaded the likely outcomes from other people who learned they had changed. The social problems she'd considered would be null and void, because if everyone was changed, Rika had a feeling that there would be rioting and mass hysteria...

"I'll check." Renamon said without thinking, and teleported away. Rumiko stared in confusion, her stunned mind trying to distract her from what was going on with anything trivial.

"Can we do that now?"

"I'm not sure. I don't even know how." Rika said honestly, only for Rumiko to vanish in the same way. Rika sighed, for in the process, her mother's night dress was left behind. Not willing to check the patterns on her own legs just yet she walked.

***

A few hours later, Rumiko had calmed down, after a second panic fit caused by the accidental learning of her ability to teleport (and its ability to forget to bring clothes along for the ride), along with the surprise of finding her mother had transformed too into a similar Digimon, albeit with browner fur than her or Rika, and it seemed the pattern on her legs was green and like Renamons, but with the lower of the markings somewhat larger than the upper mark.

Rika had learned that she had ironically been given markings on her legs that resembled the hearts on her t-shirts . It seemed though that on the whole, they were the same sizes, but clothing of course now had to deal with the new layer of fur that made some things a little tighter. Rika hadn't bothered to put her hair into the normal style, while none of the family had bothered to change out of night clothes, Rumiko of course had to put her nightgown back on. Seiko had on the other hand not teleported herself into the fur, and Rika was being very careful for the moment to avoid learning how to teleport by mistake.

Renamon had concluded whatever had transformed the family had only affected the area around their home and therefore no one else she knew of had changed. Now, the three women turned Digimon were trying to think of some way to resolve their situation.

"Until we can figure out what happened and if we can change back, I think we should just lead normal lives." Seiko suggested.

"How can this ever be normal? This fur isn't even very attractive..." Rumiko moaned, staring at herself in a mirror. Rika sighed.

"I'm pretty sure this isn't going to end well if we try that... How do we even prove who we are?" Rika said.

"You can't just hide away though." Renamon pointed out.

"Renamon is right. Your mother would be missed, and if you were absent from school for too long someone would find out in the end." Seiko noted.

Rika sighed, but the sigh turned into a yawn. she glanced at a clock, realising it was 4am. the family had not had very much sleep tonight.

"It might be better though if we go back to bed and try figure it out tomorrow... I'm sure we're all tired." Renamon noted. Rumiko simply nodded, Rika doing the same. Seiko agreed, but proved the point by yawning in mid-sentence.

***

For the family though, going back to sleep caused them to dream. These were fairly usual dreams, their old human selves in some major event of their life. For Rika, this was quite a simple dream of a past event...

The human girl in the blue jeans and white broken-heart motif shirt watched the pink-feathered bird and yellow-white furred fox feeling frustration. It was just a Biyomon. so why was Renamon struggling so much?! This had been going on for ages! Modify card after Modify card and the pink pest dodged or shrugged off anything Renamon did.

"Renamon! You can't let this thing beat you!" Rika shouted. Renamon nodded, only for another Spiral Twister to just miss her.

Though this Biyomon had dodged most of Renamon's attacks, Renamon in turn had dodged the return attacks. But this constant exchange of attack-dodge-counter-dodge-attack was getting frustrating to tamer and Digimon alike. A few more missed attacks happened before Renamon's Diamond Atorm hit the biyomon head on. Unfortunately, the Biyomon then glowed.

"It's Digivolving? great..." Rika noted as the Biyomon changed into a Birdramon.

"Just a bigger target." Renamon noted.

Sure enough, more of Renamon's attacks hit this time, while Renamon was just as able to avoid the meteor wings as she had avoided the Spiral Twister. The constant beating inflicted onto the Birdramon took its toll, and soon, it fell to the ground, devolving back to an exhausted Biyomon, and was soon assimilated by Renamon.

***

In another room in the house, Rumiko also dreamt of the past, the anxiety and worry reminding her of one of the times she had felt this kind of way.

What if she got it wrong somehow?

What if Rumiko Hata's first attempt at being a model went wrong?

There were a million things that could go wrong, she knew. She was still young, and she had the support of her mother and a loving boyfriend, but every time she looked in the mirror she had doubts. Was she pretty enough? Was her face that kind of face people wanted to see modelling clothes, or fronting some kind of product in an advert?

Did she have the kind of body people expected to see from models? She wasn't so sure. Her mother said she was perfect, but she was sure her rear was too big, and her chest was too small.

She had to focus. She had to give this her all. Tthis was her dream, and she knew if she let worries about her bra size ruin it she'd never forgive herself.

She took a deep breath, looked in the mirror at that worrying face of hers. That face looked calm enough, but then again, she was the owner. She just hoped she looked calm to others as she went to leave the dressing room...

***

Seiko's dreams were simple like her daughter and granddaughters, memories of the past.

Her daughter's excitement at her first day was evident. when she returned home, she babbled about the praise she had received from the agency and the photographer.

"They said I was perfect for some products they're advertising! a new range of clothes, they even said I was the right shape too!"

Seiko nodded, knowing her daughter's insecurities about her figure all too well. it had been all Rumiko had ever seemed to worry about since she was twelve...

It was years later now. Rumiko's star had risen, but at some cost. Her relationship with her husband had fallen apart, and Seiko's granddaughter was now left in her care often. The sullen young red-haired girl sat quietly, bored and looking at the clock. It was raining, and that meant Rika couldn't go outside. It would rain often that summer, and Rumiko would have dozens of photoshoots, some of them taking her far from home. All of them ensuring Rika grew ever distant from her mother while she had to stay inside.

***

Rika's slumber was interrupted suddenly, and rudely. By a very fluffy and very enthusiastic Rumiko.

"Rikamon, look at this!" Rumiko chirped, waving her tail around madly.

"Ugh.. why did you wake me... wait, Rikamon?" She said, puzzled.

"Well, we're 'mons now, aren't we? Renamon, Rikamon, Rumikomon, Seikomon!"

"Yeah, but... what's that smell?" Rika asked, noticing the powerful smell of lavender, and missing that her mother had just included Renamon in the list.

"I washed my hair. All of it." Rumikomon noted. Light dawned on Rika.

"You washed your whole body with shampoo?!"

"And conditioner. I'm a Digimon now, not an animal." Rumikomon grinned. Light dawned again.

"Wait.. you're naked!" Rika almost shrieked, her human side equating this with her mother being nude. Of course, thanks to her fur this wasn't truly the case, but old habits were not to die in a few hours sleep.  

"I've got fur though, so have you. we wouldn't really be naked..." Rumikomon said.

"You freaked out earlier!"

"I was just surprised at teleporting out of my dress, that's all."

As Rumikomon explained this with her tail still wagging,  Renamon entered the room, having heard Rika's yelling.

"What's wrong?" She asked in alarm. Both mother and daughter tried to explain at the same time. Eventually, Renamon was informed.

"Well, I'm glad you're adjusting to it, Mrs Nonoka but..."

"Call me Rumikomon." Rumikomon added.

"Don't call her Rumikmon." Rika noted.

"...But your daughter does have a point. Maybe it's better to try and stay human?" Renamon suggested.

"I am staying human. I like my hair to be nice. You wouldn't know, being bald, but nice hair keeps womon like me happy." Rumikomon said proudly.

"...Womon?" Rika groaned.

"Bald?!" Renamon yelped.

"Yeah. look, I've got hair on my head, Rikamon's got her hair, but you've just got the same fur as everywhere else. so you're kind of bald."

This made Renamon feel a strange twinge of self-consciousness, leaving her unable to think of a reply until Seiko entered.

"What's all the noise?" She asked. All three began to try and explain...

***

Since they were up, and not as tired, they felt it might be best to discuss their situation again.

"I think we might have to own up to people about all this, but right now I'm not sure about calling ourselves -mon. Maybe we should keep our names normal." Seiko said.

"Well, we could change our last name to Nonokamon instead?" Rumiko suggested.

"Grandmother's last name is Hata." Rika pointed out.

"Well, if it keeps you happy I suppose we could do that as a compromise. I could change my last name for the time being to keep things simpler." Seiko decided.

"how is that simpler..." Rika wondered aloud, not realising Seiko's entire idea was to try and calm Rumiko down.

"well, I could live with it. maybe we can call Renamon rena-nonokamon too?" Rumiko suggested, surprising Renamon.

"Why?"

"You'd be like an adopted daughter if we did try to live a normal life, so why not? You're the same level as Rika."

"Why did you say level?" Rika asked

"That's what Digimon have as ages, right? Like, you and Renamon are both Rookies." Rumiko said.

"How do you know that? You never took any interest in Digimon... Wellm until now, I guess."

"I just do. I know I'm Champion level."

Rika just stared at her in confusion.

"Um... your mother is right, Rika..." Renamon said.

"Our mother. You can call me mother too. Unless you prefer Rumiko." Rumiko added, before catching something in the corner of her eye. Renamon sighed and finished, though Rika wasn't looking at her anymore.

"...Okay, Rika, your mother is champion-level. Maybe you don't have the kind of senses I do since you were turned into a Digimon rather than... well, born as one, but I can see it that she's a Champion, your grandmother is a Mega."

Rika stared for a few seconds, Renamon remaining oblivious to what she was looking at.

"Are you sure my mother's a Champion?"

"Yes. It's obvious to me at least." Renamon said.

"She's chasing her own tail!" Rika said in despair at what her mother was now doing. At least blushing wasn't so obvious with this fur...

Renamon shrugged.

"I'm not sure why she's doing that but she's definitely Champion-level. Possibly because she was an adult. Your grandmother is Mega-level maybe because she's older than your mother."

"So we're both Rookies, like we're the same age?"

"Yes. And you might as well be sisters, if it makes this change easier to handle." Seiko noted.

"Except Renamon is bald." Rumiko helpfully added, causing Renamon to feel embarrassed.

"Well, putting that part aside, maybe we need to think how we explain to people what happened..." Rika said.

"I'm not bald..." Renamon mumbled.

"We should have gloves too, like Renamon does." Rumiko added.

"Well, I guess I can agree with that... maybe it'd be better to give me full-fingered gloves though." Rika said.

"Why?" Seiko asked.

"Because I'm very tempted to use these claws to slice things right now! I've got a feeling that if we tell everyone about what happened things are just going to get worse...' Rika sighed.

***

Revealing their change turned out to less of a bother to Rika than she had imagined, but it had still been a pain. First came the media sensation it caused. Rumiko lapped it up of course,  and Renamon and her grandmother tolerated it, but Rika just wanted to be left alone rather than asked questions or have photographs taken of her.

Second was the tests. Doctors and scientists had tried to find the cause of the change, leading to sometimes painful, sometimes very embarrassing, but mostly tedious tests being run over a couple of weeks on the three. Rika was at least thankful they still understood they were human, and that the Government had acted quickly to declare they had the same rights as any other person as they had been born here. It had allayed a small fear Rika had gained shortly after the first few tests, that some group like Hypnos might have tried to lock them up for experiments for the rest of their lives. Some people of course had tried to argue against this, but they were a tiny minority.

Renamon's status however caused a small bump. Since she was  not a human turned Digimon, the Nonokamon family had to very quickly try and arrange for her to be regarded as an adopted daughter. Once again, the government, spurred on by the wave of public sympathy generated by the nation that was both intrigued and worried by what had happened to the family, had stepped in to fast-track the process. But it wasn't long until the surprise and the media attention had faded, and to Rumiko's dismay the focus was not on the Nonokamon's any more.

As suggested, the three women-turned-Digimon indeed did receive gloves like Renamon, but also specially tailored clothing. Their tails and altered forms were now more compatible with the new clothes, though of course apart from fur and tail related discomfort most of their old clothes still fit. This had been seen as the biggest hurdle to a normal life by Seiko, noting that Rika especially wouldn't have much fun trying to stuff her tail down her jeans or letting it hang over the waistband.

Things did normalise to a point after that. No results came from the tests, no answers to the mystery of "why". Within the few weeks after the transformation, some social changes, small and large, would take place. First was the responses from their friends and fellow Tamers. Juri had sympathy, while Henry was thankful that Rika's early theory of blaming either his father or Takato for this had been dismissed by Rika. He had been concerned that Rika's new form might have been a lot more dangerous to annoy. He was proven right when Takato wouldn't shut up about how cool he thought it was and promptly discovered that Rika had not only the same Diamond Storm as Renamon, but the ability to control it to be weak, but extremely painful.

The others had their own version of the attack too, with increased power. Rumiko's effort to swat a wasp had blown a hole in the wall it landed on, and Renamon was thankful Seiko had more restraint when she saw a cat digging in her garden and merely chased the hapless feline out of the yard rather than attacking.

The most notable of these though, was that Renamon, now legally Rika's sister and with the full name of Rena-Nonokamon, was told she would then have to attend school with Rika. This of course meant both had to wear the uniform, and to Renamon's discomfort, the pair were not permitted to wear their gloves in class.

To Rika's surprise, Renamon actually liked school and soon got used to not wearing her gloves, even though she now felt herself hate it even more now summer had really started. Fur and even the light summer uniform was too much, and she found herself hiding in the shade when it was too hot. Renamon often joined her.

"I didn't used to mind the sun before. I wouldn't mind them if I didn't have to wear a uniform." Rika complained.

"We've got to wear clothes outside of the house though." Renamon said, not voicing her worry over the fact that the position on clothes had changed slightly. She still remembered Rika's response to Rumiko's pseudo-naked appearance post-whole-body-shampoo when this had all started.

Seiko, as the oldest, had effectively reinforced her position as matriarch of the family without a word, and now what she said was almost law. Before, she and Rika had agreed that to wear clothes was needed, but even Seiko had begun to feel it was better only to wear them in public. Maybe it was just because it was too hot, but even Rika was prone to removing her clothes as soon as she got home now, and Renamon was concerned Rika would try removing them elsewhere someday. She was under no illusions that, covered in fur or not, it would pose a problem.

As the school day was ending, it began to rain. Most of the girls in the classroom watched the grey clouds with dismay, but Renamon noted that Rika seemed almost... excited. This was proven true when she practically bolted out as soon as the bell rang.

"Come on, Renamon!" Rika urged on her former Digimon partner, now adopted sister.

"You're going the wrong way..." Renamon noticed. When it rained, Rika normally took a train home rather than walking and getting soaked.

"What do you mean? Our house is this way..."

"I mean... the train..." Renamon tried to explain.

"We can get home faster than the train.  Besides, it'd be too hot." Rika said, running off. Renamon hurried to catch up.

***

Renamon arrived a few minutes behind Rika, and was unsurprised to find the rain-soaked uniform already discarded, a soaked skirt lying right beside the door, and rain water pooled in puddles all across the path Rika had taken into the house. Renamon tried to dry herself off a little before going in. Before, when she was human, if Rika had walked home in the rain her mother and grandmother would admonish her, especially if she didn't dry herself off. But now they didn't care. Seiko was in fact sitting out in the garden herself, "in the fur", and Rika soon joined in. Renamon wondered why they didn't just switch on the air conditioning. In fact she wished they would. It was warm inside this house, and more importantly, she didn't know how to do it herself.

Eventually they retreated indoors, the two former humans apparently now relaxed having overcome the discomfort of the warm day it had been. It was soon enough time to go to bed, which Renamon noted was another change for her she didn't mind. She'd been given her own bedroom, and her own bed, which she found much more comfortable than how she had used to sleep. But she knew that the others now were more prone to simply lying on the floor instead of using their beds.

These changes to the former humans that had occurred over the last few weeks worried Renamon. It seemed as though  she was starting to act a little more human, her adoptive family was starting to be more Digimon. She wondered if anyone else had noticed, and maybe dismissed it as the family simply coping with the change. However, it worried her to think what could still be on the way, for it was certainly clear to Renamon that the family was still changing, even if they themselves didn't seem to notice….