Jasmine’s eyes wavered as she stared at the gray mutated rabbit with white streaks.
She knew it.
A rabbit like this had existed in her world too. Rabbibi had been raised by the Assassin Bureau, originally just an ordinary rabbit before the mutations changed him. Jasmine pressed her face closer to the glass, trying to get a better look at his hind legs.
She was searching for a small black circular mark on his right rear leg.
But the rabbit was facing the opposite direction.
She couldn’t see it.
Still, the body shape was unmistakable. It looked almost exactly like Rabbibi, though this one seemed thinner.
Did he follow me here? And did he spend the whole trip starving?
The thought was ridiculous. But so was waking up in another body.
Jasmine followed the rabbit’s gaze.
At the far end of the room, a female researcher was hiding behind a large cabinet. She was trembling, one hand clutching her injured arm. From the way she held it, Jasmine was almost certain the rabbit had bitten her.
Jasmine narrowed her eyes.
She must have done something to make Rabbibi turn wild.
"We need you to inject this sedative into the back of that rabbit monster." The professor’s heavy voice made Jasmine turn.
He handed Oleander a syringe nearly as thick as her arm.
Jasmine stared at it.
"So you want me to use my teleportation to ride that monster and inject this into it?" Oleander asked, looking equally unimpressed. "Why not just shoot it with a tranquilizer dart?"
"This monster is different. Its weak point is at the hump on the back of its neck, and tranquilizer shots from a distance keep missing. It has to be done at close range."
Jasmine blinked. In her ears, sedate it at the weak point and kill it sounded dangerously similar.
Either way, Rabbibi could end up dead.
She wasn’t going to let the first familiar thing she’d found in this strange world disappear before she even had a chance to confirm it.
"No." The word came out sharper than she intended.
Jasmine stepped toward Oleander and the professor. "That won’t work either. Rabbi—" She stopped herself. "I mean, the rabbit monster won’t let Oleander ride it for more than a second."
Several people nearby looked at her strangely.
Oleander raised an eyebrow.
"Are you saying I would lose to that slow, ugly monster?"
"No. That’s not what I mean."
Jasmine turned to the professor instead. "Was it shaped like a normal rabbit before this?"
The professor frowned, considering the question. "It wasn’t as small as an ordinary rabbit, but it wasn’t anywhere near this size either. The injured researcher over there was responsible for caring for it. It suddenly became this large and attacked her while she was feeding it."
Jasmine’s gaze shifted toward the researcher.
That confirmed it. Something had triggered the transformation.
"Where did you find it?" Oleander asked, watching the giant rabbit as it turned in a slow circle, seemingly confused by its surroundings.
"Near District Five this morning. We brought it here because it was unusual. Three eyes. We wanted to study the mutation."
"If that’s the case, it hasn’t been registered as a legal experiment subject yet, right?" Oleander asked coldly. "Then we can just kill it."
"We haven’t studied it thoroughly yet." The professor looked through the glass, his expression strangely hopeful despite the danger. "So... I hope we don’t have to kill it so soon."
Jasmine recognized that look.
She knew exactly what kind of person looked at a dangerous specimen that way—the kind who couldn’t let go until they understood it, the kind who loved their work enough to turn obsession into motivation.
She’d been that person once.
Back then, she’d been promoted to lead a special team studying monster plants and figuring out how to turn their toxins into edible deadly poisons. She hadn’t stopped until she’d successfully extracted one.
Jasmine looked at the rabbit again.
She understood the professor. So she wasn’t giving Rabbibi up.
"Then let me try to tame it."
The declaration made several people gasp.
Oleander closed his eyes for a moment and sighed, as if wondering what kind of trouble she was planning to drag him into this time.
"What did that useless E-Rank just say?"
"She really has lost her mind!"
"Let the monster eat her. At least Rosalie will have justice."
The crowd erupted again, their mockery filling the hallway.
The professor didn’t look much more convinced.
"Um... I heard you have some trouble with your head. Oleander told me. So perhaps it’s better if you don’t take unnecessary risks. You can wait in the examination room if you’d like."
Jasmine turned toward Oleander.
"Oleander."
He looked at her.
"I saw this in my dream." She held his gaze, her expression unusually serious. "I was good friends with that rabbit. So I know how to tame it." She paused. "You trust me, right?"
Oleander still looked unconvinced.
But her nonsense had already produced results he couldn’t explain. She’d identified the evacuation situation before anyone told her what happened. She’d recognized the rabbit’s behaviour. And now she was standing there with complete confidence, claiming she’d seen all of this in a dream.
He didn’t believe her story. But he was curious.
"What are you going to do?"
The question only made the surrounding crowd erupt into another round of whispers. Even the professor frowned at Oleander’s willingness to entertain her idea.
Jasmine ignored them. And focused on speaking with the professor.
"Give me a carrot blended with chicken liver. You have both, right?" She smiled with complete confidence.
The request sounded absurd.
But Oleander managed to convince the professor that Jasmine might possess some kind of ability that allowed her to predict things through dreams. With no better option available, the researchers quickly prepared the puree according to her instructions.
A few minutes later, Jasmine held the bowl in both hands.
The puree was a deep orange-brown, the colour of carrots mixed with chicken liver.
She stared at it. A flash of memory crossed her mind.
Rabbibi sitting beside her in the old kitchen. His little body bouncing impatiently whenever he smelled his favourite treat. The days when things had still felt almost normal.
A faint smile appeared on Jasmine’s lips before she even realized it.
Oleander stood beside her. "I know your fascinating way of seeing food is kind of amusing, but I’m pretty sure that combination tastes terrible."
"For us, certainly." Jasmine’s gaze landed on Rabbibi, who was still chasing the researcher around the room. "But for him..." Her voice softened. "It’s his favorite treat."
Oleander scoffed. "You two must have been really good friends in your dream."
"So much more than that," Jasmine muttered.
Before Oleander could ask what she meant, the professor and several assistants approached them.
"We’re ready!" the professor announced eagerly. "Once Oleander brings the researcher out, we’ll shut off all the lights."
Jasmine nodded, then flinched slightly when Oleander reached toward her ear with a small earbud.
"For communication," he explained.
She relaxed and tilted her head toward him, letting him fit the earbud into place.
"Please make sure there isn’t any artificial light left on when I approach the rabbit to feed it," Jasmine reminded the professor.
He nodded firmly.