Monstrous Distinction Part 3 (Patreon)

“Grr… I can’t get my head clear enough to learn.” Fuutarou complained and closed the notebook in front of him. He briefly rubbed his eyes and stood up from his desk while stretching. He honestly was used to studying in longer sessions, but he was so distracted the entire time that he barely managed to get anything done.

“First Ichika grows a snake tail and tells me to act normal. Then Nino becomes an octopus and chases me out.” Fuutarou thought out loud while holding his head. Then he let out a big sigh and spoke. “Maybe Ichika was right and we should just sleep a night over the whole situation.”

Brrrrrtt

His phone vibrated briefly. He flipped it open and saw that Miku, of all people, had texted him. The message read: ‘Tomorrow is Friday, so all of us have some time in the afternoon. Do you want to give us a tutoring session tomorrow after school?’

For some strange reason, he could not help but smile at that message. It was incredible how much he had forgotten about that because of everything. That's right. He was hired to tutor those girls, so damn right he was going to tutor them. Even if two of them were less human now.

‘Sure, I will prepare some materials for all of you. Be ready to study!’ When he sent that message, he noticed that he was still smiling. It was interesting. Even if those girls were a headache most of the time, he found himself smiling way more often ever since he accepted the job of tutoring them.

He nodded to himself. That message from Miku had instantly lifted his spirits again, so it was time to try to study once again. It wasn’t that late yet, he could still get a lot of things done if started then.

Riiiiiinnnngg

His phone rang for real this time and there went his spirits. Especially when he saw that Nino was calling him. So, with a heavy heart and slight scare, he picked up the phone, ready to get yelled at from the most explosive one of the quins. “Hello? What can I do for you, Nino?”

“Hi. I took the advice you gave me and talked a little bit with Ichika. She basically told me the same story that you told me. So here I am, sitting in the pool of my room that I apparently had since we all moved here, calling you, just like you asked.” Nino spoke, in a much calmer voice than Fuutarou anticipated. But he certainly wasn’t going to complain.

“May I ask how the others reacted to your new looks?” Fuutarou asked, moving over to his chair and sitting down.

“Ichika and I had pretty much the same reaction to each other. We both felt like nothing was wrong with the other and that everything looked just like it should. But there was that nagging feeling at the back of our heads that just kept telling us that we should have been human.” Nino explained. “But the other three didn’t notice a thing. Eight tentacles? Snake tail? Swimming pool in room and new chairs? Everything seemed normal to them.”

“Yeah, both me and Ichika already found that out as well.” Fuutarou answered and thought for a moment. Then he asked. “Say, now that you believe me, how are you faring in your new body? Is anything drastically different?”

“Hmm…” Nino sounded like she was thinking for a moment. “I have noticed that I am far slower than I was before. I wasn’t the fastest of us anyways, but now I can’t really run with these things at all. But cooking got a lot easier. I had always wished for a few extra hands and these do just fine.”

“Also I can breathe under water now. And it is really relaxing to be under water, so I can understand why I would want to sleep there and not on land.” Nino added, seemingly thinking of more things she had noticed.

It was actually kind of refreshing for Fuutarou to hold a normal conversation with Nino like that. That was one thing he never knew could be so interesting.

“I see. Considering you are part octopus now, I guess that does make some sense. But that also means that you are probably the first human to be able to breathe under water too.” Fuutarou stated, being kind of amused at the notion.

“From what I heard, I am not the only scylla on the planet… Oh! Yes, give me a second.” Nino said, sounding like she was not talking to Fuutarou. “Sorry, I have to go now. Has Miku talked to you about learning together tomorrow?”

“Oh? Yes, she just has. But how would you…? Oh!” Fuutarou asked and immediately regretted his question as the answer was pretty obvious.

“We just had dinner together, idiot.” Nino said and Fuutarou could almost hear her rolling her eyes on the other side because of that stupid question. It was painful for him to make a mistake like that, but before he could react she added. “Anyway, see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, good night to you too.” Fuutarou said as she hung up the phone. He shook his head as he leaned back against his chair and stared blankly into the ceiling for a moment.

Maybe he really shouldn’t study for the rest of the day. It was evening, he was tired and most importantly of all, he was just way too distracted. Maybe he could research a bit more about those extra species the two girls had become, but not much more. He had school tomorrow after all.

And some weird part of him was really curious how the school had changed. He was sure that he would find out tomorrow…

—--------------

The next morning came, and nothing of interest happened on Fuutarou’s way to the school, though he already mentally braced himself to walk into a heavily changed place again. And the school definitely didn’t disappoint him in that regard.

From the outside, the building looked just like he remembered, but it was the subtle changes in the school that alienated him to an uncanny degree. He tried his best to not think about them too much and just walk into his classroom as usual, but his perfectionism really worked against him.

“There is an additional teachers lounge that is way bigger than the others, a third type of bathroom stall labeled large extra species, some doors are larger, some lockers too…” Fuutarou quietly whispered to himself, losing more of his cool the more stuff he noticed.

“This is maddening. Nothing is what it should be.” Fuutarou was holding his head at that point, but he had to press on. He just had to play it cool and get to the class. Just get to his class, before…

“Huh? What’s so wrong here?” Fuutarou quickly turned himself around and saw that one of the Nakano quins was standing right behind him, munching on a hamburger. And she probably heard him too.

Now came the hard part for Fuutarou. He knew that she couldn’t have been Ichika or Nino, as she was still human. So that left only three. She had long hair, and wasn’t as energetic as Yotsuba, so she was probably…

Wait! A hamburger this early in the morning? No doubt about it, that had to be Itsuki. Fingers crossed…

“Nothing, nothing… I was just thinking to myself about the next test. I take it you will come to the tutoring session today after school as well, Itsuki?” Fuutarou asked, more interested in if he had guessed the quin correctly than the actual answer.

“Huh? Yesch…” Itsuki swallowed the last bite of her meal, then continued. “I was the one who suggested it, since I want us to keep up our good scores for the next test.”

Fuutarou celebrated internally that he had guessed the quin correctly and tried to play it off as casually as he could. He wanted to say something, but Itsuki interrupted him.

“Yeah, yeah, I know that all of us only barely passed. But all of us did pass, so that is a really good thing and I want to keep it that way. Oh! That reminds me…” She said and opened her bag, fishing out a stack of papers from inside. “The history teacher gave those to me to hand out to our class. But since you are our class rep, I am not sure if it would be better if you did it.”

“Oh? Sure, I can d…” Futarou instinctively reached out with his hand and completely halted everything he did in an instant. She was holding the papers in her hands and he almost touched her without even thinking about it. But he had learned his lesson. There will be no second Nino accident.

“I can do that.” He repeated, reaching for the papers and making sure to stay as far away from her hands as possible. Itsuki gave him a confused look for a moment, but just shook her head afterwards.

“I get the feeling that you are not quite awake yet, Uesugi-kun. Did you have trouble sleeping last night?” Itsuki asked, looking a bit concerned about him. And honestly, he could not blame her considering how weird he had to look like in her eyes with all the things he had said and done in the last 5 minutes.

“Yes. I stayed up a bit longer than usual to work out material for us to go through today. I might have overdone it a bit, but that won't stop me.” He said, realizing that ‘acting as if everything was okay’ was harder than he had anticipated.

“If you say so…” Itsuki sighed. She was quite perceptive from what he knew, but all he really needed from her was to not question him any further. Part of what he said was true after all.

As the two of them entered the classroom together, Fuutarou had to give it his all to not react at all to what he saw. In a seat in the back row of the classroom was a desk that was roughly twice the size of a normal desk. But the real kicker was the person behind it, as behind the desk sat a girl with giant wings for arms, just casually chatting with other girls around her.

There was a second extra species girl too on the other side of the classroom that had what looked like dog ears and a tail sticking out from behind. These were the first non-humans Fuutarou had seen, and that he wasn’t directly responsible for. He couldn’t remember if those two girls were in the class before as humans as he had never actually paid much attention to anyone besides the quins.

While he was briefly stunned at the sight and pretended to look through the papers Itsuki had given him earlier, she went along and made her way to her seat alone, not paying much attention to Fuutarou.

After taking a deep breath, he walked in front of the classroom and cleared his voice.

“If I could have your attention for a moment.” Fuutarou shouted into the classroom, making the entire room quiet down in an instant and look at him. “These are the papers that we will work through in today’s istory lesson. There are two different papers, so please everyone take one of each. I’ll put them right here.”

After taking two papers for his own use, he made his way to his seat, quietly observing the two extra species girls for a while. At least until the teacher came into the classroom, which really drove home how much the world had changed.

“All right everyone, quiet down please.” A woman spoke as she entered the room, though even at first glance it wasn’t hard to tell that she wasn’t human. Even though her upper body was upright and she was holding a purse over her shoulder, she had four legs and had the body type of a centaur, only way more feline.

For the first time in forever, Fuutarou didn’t pay that much attention in class. There were just too many things on his mind and thankfully most of the things the teacher talked about he already knew beforehand.

Contrary to the students in his class, he knew the names and faces of all teachers he had. And he had nevers seen Miss Nehres, who was giving them history at the moment, ever before.

From the booklet he borrowed from the library yesterday he found out that she was a so-called Sphinx. A human upper body with a feline lower body on four legs, plus she definitely gave off a bit of an Egyptian vibe. And most interestingly of all, she seemed like one of the better teachers Fuutarou’s class had had this year.

The lessons passed one after another, and before he knew it all 6 lessons had gone by and Fuutarou had never felt so unproductive in the last few years. It was a good thing that it was Friday, and he now had the weekend to cope with everything that had changed.

He left the classroom as fast as he could and wanted to make his way out of the school. He knew that he had a tutoring session with the quins as soon as all of them returned to their apartment, but for now he just wanted to exit the school. And as he walked through the hallways…

“Uesugi-kun, wait for a second!” Itsuki shouted as she ran after him. He really didn’t want to talk with her at the moment, but he couldn’t ignore her either.

“What is it this time, Itsuki? You know I have some stuff to do before the tutoring today.” Fuutarou said in an annoyed tone.

“I am just telling you that you are bad at pretending and lying.” Itsuki said in an equally annoyed tone, catching Fuutarou off guard. Then continued. “Ichika and Nino acted rather suspiciously yesterday, and now you too. Don’t think I didn’t see you reading through your own books and taking notes from it.”

“Uhm… that was…” Fuutarou was at a loss. He really didn’t know what to say.

“What could possibly be so important that our tutor didn’t pay attention in class?” Itsuki asked, her eyes staring holes into Fuutarou. Until he finally sighed.

“You are correct. Ichika, Nino and I have a secret together. But we can’t tell you just yet.” Fuutarou answered, sighing again afterwards.

“Huh? Why can't you tell me?” Itsuki tilted her head, the look in her eyes shifting from suspicion to just plain curiosity.

Fuutarou thought a lot about what he should answer again, and as he was about to open his mouth…

Boing~

“Uwawa~'' One of the other quins crashed into Fuutarou, though thankfully with not very much force. Both had to take a few steps back, but no other harm was done.

“I’m sorryyyy~ I wasn’t looking where I was going… Oh! Hi Uesugi-san and Itsuki~” The girl said after regaining her composure.

“Huh? Yotsuba? Where did you come from?” Itsuki asked, after having quietly watched the crash unfold. “And more importantly where are you going?”

Fuutarou scanned the girl he crashed into again. She looked very energetic and had a big green bow on her head, and Itsuki had already told him who it was. Yep, that was Yotsuba alright.

“I have to quickly visit the track team and do a bit of stuff there. They said they needed some help.” Yotsuba said, then turned back to Uesugi and quickly grabbed both of his hands. “I am so sorry again for being so clumsy all the time, but I really have to go now. See you later!”

“Wait! We have a tutoring session today!” Itsuki yelled after Yotsuba, who didn’t stop walking, but turned around and shouted. “I know, I know. This won’t take long~”

In the meantime Fuutarou was still staring at his hands that Yotsuba had grabbed a moment ago. He remembered having wondered if that crash would have been enough to transform her, but with how she grabbed his hands there was no way that she didn’t.

“Yotsuba! I’m coming with you!” Fuutarou spoke and ran after the energetic girl.

“Huh?!?” Both Itsuki and Yotsuba had practically the same reaction, and now he realized that he had to say something to justify himself. After all, he couldn’t just say out loud in the middle of the school, that Yotsuba will transform in a moment.

“This is a good opportunity for me. I wanted to talk with the track team as well.” Fuutarou said and patted Yotsuba on the back, bringing her beaming smile back in an instant. As he walked away with her, he added. “You go on ahead, Itsuki. And tell the others that we will be there in a bit.”

The walk next to Yotsuba was nerve racking to Fuutarou. He didn’t exactly know what to expect, since the results of Ichika and Nino were so different. But he did know that he was expecting something. So the two of them quietly walked next to each other for a while, with Fuutarou trying not to stare too hard at her.

“Is there something you wanted to talk to me about? It kinda looked that way to me.” Yotsuba asked, and Fuutarou had to agree.

“Yes. Uhm… exactly! You… You looked a bit pale today. Are you feeling already, Yotsuba?” Fuutarou asked, getting ready to help her if she were to collapse at any second.

“Do I really? No Sir~! I am feeling on top of my game today~ I am motivated to give it my all in today's tutoring thingy!” Yotsuba beamed, looking more energetic by the second.

And they were almost at their destination already. The courtyard was right in front of them already and Yotsuba showed no signs of changing… at all. She even had to apologize to the track team leader for solid five minutes afterwards about not having time today, and still nothing.

At that point Fuutarou was pretty sure that Yotsuba was not going to transform from that touch anytime soon. But he had a hard time figuring out why. According to what he knew, that shouldn’t happen.

“Oki~ I am done. Lets get home for a tutoring session~” Yotsuba cheered, then looked shocked all of a sudden. “Oh no. I forgot something in my classroom. You go on ahead, I’ll catch up with you on the way home~”

Fuutarou nodded and off she went, walking towards the school building while he turned to leave it. Did he lose that strange power after just one day?