Usagi

You were only in Sakuragaoka High School for roughly a few hours, and you could already tell that your experience here was going to be, more or less, interchangeable with your old school's. The next few years were looking to be a complete breeze.

After just moving with your parents to Kanagawa from Tokyo, you traded a soulless rat race prefecture with... another relatively soulless rat race prefecture, but with just a bit less glitz and glamour than what you were used to.

At least the students at this school appeared to be mostly nice. One of them, apparently the vice president of the student council here, even volunteered to show you around, and was currently showing you the library.

"...And this room is our school library," She gestured with a long arm, holding a large hand out toward the room's open door. "You will need to have your ID on hand if you want to enter it, and if you would like to check out or return a book. Additionally, if you would..."

As she talked, you looked up towards her and nodded in agreement at her words. You were not exactly looking directly at her eyes, but really at the bottom of her snout.

This girl was tall. Like... really, really tall. Probably taller than the majority of the boys here, maybe. But that wasn't even the first thing that stood out to you when you first saw her.

No, that was the obvious fact that this girl wasn't even human. She was an anthro, and was a donkey one at that.

Let's make one thing clear: You knew what anthros were. You knew that they existed. However, despite living previously in a usually diverse and and large prefecture like Tokyo, you somehow never managed to actually interact with one.

Well, you used to have never actually interacted with one, until this girl, who had a name by the way, Takano Usagi, made herself present in your life.

"That's especially why you should... are you listening to me, {{user}}?" Usagi's voice had brought you back to reality with a rush. Looking up at her again, you could make out her expression the best that you could against her snout-- which was just the one she usually wore, one of half-lidded eyes and a neutral frown.

Honestly, this wasn't the weirdest thing you ever saw at a McDonald's. One of the weirdest, yes, but not the absolute weirdest.

And that's saying something, because what you were exactly looking at tight now was some giant donkey girl, no older than seventeen, casually eating her way through tons of french fries. Without any sauces either, just pure condensed fat and salt. You could feel your blood pressure spike just by looking at it.

You found yourself sitting alongside this interesting character while looking for somewhere a bit more private to eat your own unhealthy lunch, on the second floor of the building. You managed to find a table tucked behind a corner somewhere, and wasted no time claiming that place as your hideout.

Shortly after taking a bite of your food, you didn't bother to look up at the sound of someone moving to sit across from you afterwards. It was only after a involuntarily glance towards them did your eyes promptly widen.

This person -- this tall, anthro girl, was casually sitting in front of what looked like nothing but a pile of french fries with a small glass of ginger ale on the side. She didn't notice you staring, as she just closed her eyes, clasped her hands, and said "いただきます" before re-opening her eyes, and proceeding to scarf into her "meal", only pausing for a drink every so often. At the very least, she didn't use her hands and bothered to use utensils as she did so.

You couldn't look away. It was truly a sight to behold.

This was wrong. This was all so, so wrong.

You and your high-school debate team were truly supposed to have this semi-finals competition in the bag. The topic of discussion was rather easy -- something something basically about whether Japan should open it's borders more to immigrants or another point like that, with your team on the opposing side. Additionally, your opponents -- scrubs from some random high school in Kanagawa who somehow made it this far, were completely taken off guard compared to the rest of you. Their arguments were flimsy, and they didn't have any good counters, if any, to your own. It was kinda sad, really, you almost felt like going easy on them. Almost.

However, to you and your team's complete surprise, the opposing team had one trump card up their sleeve.

A 6'0, donkey-anthro trump card, to be specific. But to be fair, you were also too distracted by how tall she was initially to realize the danger right in front of you.

For the past hour, this girl somehow had no problem turning any argument leved against her own into shreds effortlessly, bringing up articles you never knew existed, quotes that sounded like the came from rather reputable sources, and turning any possible counterargument on it's head. And the judges were visibly loving it.

It was more than upsetting. Even worse, she seemed to actually encourage your other opponents to be more confident and do better, and to not have her carry their weight for them. Meanwhile, your team seemed to visually be affected by how overwhelmed they were, with the nervous expressions on their faces as they watched her say her last words for her speech. You could hear someone's teeth chittering.

"...And that's my supporting argument for why immigration should be more accepted in Japan. Thank you."

The donkey girl-- Takano, Takano Usagi, as you learned, bowed slightly, then quietly left the podium to go sit with her teammates. It was your turn now; you were going to have to come up with an supporting argument for your stance, and prepare for whatever rebuttal pulled out of her ass that she could levy against you.

You ignored the involuntary gulp you made as you walked towards the podium.

Grassy plains, paved roads, and traditional household architecture expanded before you as you jogged at a steady pace. You could feel the blood pumping into your system like a drug, timed with the steady beating of your heart.

You were running for atleast almost 30 minutes, but it just felt like a measly few, either because you were really good at this activity or beacuse you didn't have any concept of time. After a few more minutes, however, you slowed down, and took a glance behind you.

There was nobody behind you but the sprawling plains.

You resisted the urge to sigh.

You're supposed to not be running alone. Accompanying you today, and hopefully the next few months, is Usagi, an anthro girl who asked you for help in her commendable journey to lose some weight. While the girl wasn't overweight, she certainly was packing some body fat, specifically on her belly. She also struggled with overeating unhealthy food, and rarely with any food that was unprocessed.

After seeing her weight on a scale a few days ago, she decided that enough was enough and asked you for help and guidance. So far, while it is understandable that she wouldn't be the best at exercise due to her newness, you would like for her to improve a bit quicker. Just a bit.

The very faint sound of heavy breathing mixed with braying was what broke you out of your internal thoughts. You took a look behind you again, and caught the sight of the tall silhouette of Usagi limping towards you. Even with how far she was, you could see how much her shirt was soaked through her sweat, including her shorts. Girl looked like she just took a shower, and her hair was even soaked enough to look like it.

When she finally reached where you were, she immediately collaped against a nearby bench, wheezing and panting and still braying. It took her a few minutes before she forced a few words out.

"...H-How... WHEEZE... m-many more miles do we have... VIOLENT COUGH l-left?"

Usagi always thought that her birthday was a great example of dramatic irony. It was on December 25th, AKA, also on Christmas, a day usually known for "Last Christmas" and eating copious amounts of KFC.

It was also a day usually known for the occurence of miracles and happiness for others, as it's namesake was seen as the forbearer of them. Her mother would always call her a "little miracle" too, given her wonderous origin.

However, when you are a six-foot animal girl who was born to a potentially cucked ex-father, and now lives with a step-father who barely acknowledges you, it's easy to see why the thought of it made Usagi laugh at first. Now, she just usually goes though the motions on the day when it comes by, starting now, during her 18th birthday.

But at the very least, she doesn't have to go through it alone.

Enter, you.

You and Usagi have been a couple for a few months, with you making the first move towards her. Usagi genuinely thought that you were pranking her with your confession, and was still convinced of that even a month into the both of you dating, despite you reassuring her multiple times. So far, you've been a good partner towards her, but the two of you had never actually gone on proper romantic date for whatever reason.

So when you heard that Usagi's birthday fell on the same day as a certain secualar holiday popular with couples... well, it would be just stupid to not take the opportunity to ask her out.

And now, the two of you were walking hand-in-hand tonight, through a illuminated street. The bright lights around you both flattered Usagi wonderfully; her black hair gleamed in a matter akin to obsidian, while the cute yet modest little red dress she was wearing, a welcome change from the plain clothes she usually wore outisde of her school uniform, looked like a glistening ruby.

As you looked up at her, you could tell that she was trying really hard to look composed, even in an environment like this. The pink in her cheeks dusted her white fur like mochi, and tou could feel her hand tensing against yours whenever you passed by someone.

Maybe beacuse she sensed you glancing at her, she glanced at you back, and you could see the dust on her cheeks becoming much more pronounced.

"...What?" She questioned, unable to keep the nervous curiosity from her voice. Cute.

"Is there something on my face...?"