Monstrous Distinction Part 7 (Patreon)

Fuutarou sighed as his gaze drifted upward towards the ceiling of his room. The goal of what he needed to do was clear, though that was about it. After a heartfelt confession like that it was obvious that Ichika had very strong feelings about being a Lamia, and surprisingly very positive feelings at that.

He let out a sigh and looked at the small mountain of papers he prepared for the Quins already, to take his mind off the image of a crying ichika that just kept reappearing in his head. Today had been a rather unproductive day for the girls, though who was to blame them?

Three of them had lost their humanity and two of them had to trust them that their own memories were wrong. A rather complicated meeting to say the least.

There was still hope that tomorrow would be a better day for the five, though Fuutarou would rather not hold his breath on that. After all, with Ichika’s confession, it became abundantly clear that probably each of the girls had some deep emotional struggles at the moment...

“Gahh!!! Why did I go ahead and say that to her?!?” Fuutarou suddenly screamed, realizing that he probably wasn’t going to shed himself of the image of the crying Ichika for the rest of the day.

“I told her that I’ll speak with Miku and Nino in private, but how in the heck am I going to do that? Miku probably never wants to talk to me ever again after this, and Nino hates my guts so much that she would probably rather poison me than tell me the truth.” Fuutarou shouted, burying his face in his hands.

He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. After all, panic would get him nowhere. He needed some sort of plan of operation. Just something that he could use as a jump off point to ask the two extra species sisters some personal questions…

…

“This is getting nowhere.” Fuutarou sighed after a few minutes of silence, but then suddenly he remembered something. The last time he had talked to Nino over the phone, she was surprisingly cooperative. Like, she was not even evil in the slightest and answered all of his questions truly and honestly. If he disguises his actions under the umbrella of ‘wanting to help them in their new bodies’, then maybe those two would actually be willing to meet him solo.

“Should I just ask them again? I guess it’s worth a try.” He sighed, briefly looked at the book about extra species anatomie real quick again and reached for his phone. To say that he didn’t have high hopes for them to even pick up the phone at 10pm while being probably pissed at him was an understatement.

Ring Ring…

“Yes? Miku Nakano speaking. Is that you, Fuutarou?”

Fuutarou really couldn’t believe it for a second, but she actually picked up. Now he just needed to somehow wing it and organize a meeting with her tomorrow.

“Ah, yes. It’s me. Say Miku, I wanted to talk to you about something.” Fuutarou said and took a deep breath, before continuing. “But first, do you mind telling me how mad you and your sisters are at me right now? Because it's hard to learn tomorrow if half of them would rather that I don't come over.”

“Mad at you…? I don’t think they are…? Nino didn’t seem to mind today and the others usually welcome you. Why would they be mad…?” Miku replied, making Fuutarou breathe out in relief. That question wasn’t part of the plan, but he needed to know.

“Just because of that curse. I just wasn’t sure if any of your standings to me had changed because of that.” He said, nodding happily along. “Anyway, the real question I wanted to ask you: Do you have something planned for tomorrow before the tutoring session?”

“Huh? Uhm… Not much. I did plan to visit the library with Nino in the morning. I was planning on borrowing the next few books in the historical drama series I was reading.” Miku replied, making Fuutarou blink for a second, before realizing that this was a great opportunity.

“Listen. Do you mind going with me to the library instead of Nino? I have read a lot about genies just now and want to help you adapt to your body if you don’t mind. Among other things.” Fuutarou asked eagerly, but tried to hide it as much as possible.

“Uhm… I think that should be fine…? Nino wasn’t exactly thrilled about going to the library with me, but she said she wanted to go shopping or something, so she was just kinda coming along to not have to go alone.” Miku replied. “I could ask her, if you want?”

“That would be great! Thanks a bunch, Miku!” Fuutarou let out in relief. That whole conversation was a whole lot easier than he imagined, and that was definitely a good thing. “Then please just shoot me a message if Nino is willing to swap with me and when you want us to meet tomorrow.”

“No problem. I’ll do that. See you tomorrow Fuutarou.” Miku said, sounding somewhat excited, before hanging up the phone.

Fuutarou needed a few breaths to gather his cool again. He didn’t know why he was so nervous about that conversation now that it was over, yet his heart definitely appreciated Miku being in such a good mood. She definitely held less of a grudge against him than he thought.

“I need something to drink…” He said, standing up from his chair. There was a lot he still needed to do that night and getting a headache because he drank too little was the last thing he needed.

Ring Ring Ring

“Huh? Is Miku calling me back already…?” Fuutarou asked, slowly walking back to his phone on the table… and nearly lost it when he saw the name on display. “NINO?!? Oh no!”

One deep breath and a bit of gathering courage later he finally picked up the phone. “Hello Nino…?”

“Hi. Miku told me that found out a few important things about her body as an extra species just now. Is that true?” Nino asked, straight to the point. Luckily for Fuutarou, that was not actually a lie, as he had indeed read a lot of books about myths and facts about all sorts of extra species girls today.

“I did, and I wanted to ask you if you would be willing to let me accompany Miku to the library tomorrow?” Fuutrarou countered with a question of his own, trying to be just as straight to the point as Nino herself.

“Huh? Yeah, no problem. No, I just wanted to ask you if you as ‘Mr. I have read every book about extra species under the sun by now’ have some time after your little trip with Miku?” Nino asked, much to Fuutarou’s immediate surprise.

“I think I do. Why do you…” Fuutarou answered.

“Listen. I don’t like you nor do I think I ever will. But I can respect you as someone who knows and researches a lot. There are a few things that I don’t really want to talk to my sisters about, nor do I think they would understand. So I will ask you, but only once: That thing where you help Miku get to know her species better. Can you help me with that too?” Nino asked.

Fuutarou was speechless for a few seconds, trying to think real hard about if this was another one of Nino’s traps. Though no matter how he sliced it, Nino just seemed way too genuine at the moment for him to do anything but accept. So he answered with. “I will do my best. Let’s meet after Miku is done in the library.”

“Sounds good. I’ll go with Miku into the city and leave you two at the library afterwards. Just shoot me a message when the two of you are done. I need to get some shopping in anyway.” Nino replied as Fuutarou heard some shuffling and splashing in the background, reminding him again that Nino’s new room was half flooded all the time. “I go and tell Miku. Good night, Uesugi.”

She hung up on the phone, and Fuutarou immediately collapsed on his bed. Lately he really got the feeling that maybe with her being part octopus now, it also made Nino much more understanding and not hate everything Fuutarou stood for. Though it was still hard to tell. In any case, that conversation went astoundingly well.

“Now then… I better read up a bit about scyllas soon, or Nino is going to fry me tomorrow.” Fuutarou joked and sat up on his bed, opening the book about extra species again.

While it was getting really late by now, that meant very little to Fuutarou, as he often studied deep into the night, especially right before important exams. Though this was the first time he stayed up so late researching things not for himself or his grades, but for friends that he wanted to help.

It felt surprisingly rewarding to a guy that never really thought much about friendship before and even motivated him to give his all more than his perfect grades usually do. When had Fuutarou suddenly become a social person that cared about others so much?

The whole situation was odd, but here he was, reading up everything about genies and scyllas that he possibly could. This was going to be an interesting day tomorrow…