Monstrous Distinction Part 14 (Patreon)

Tension was high. Nobody dared to talk. In fact, Fuutarou didn’t even understand why he was here in this room to begin with, sitting next to a single one of the quints, who looked just as stumped to speak as he did.

That was, until she seemingly finally made up her mind about something, turned to face him, looked Fuutarou into his eyes and said: “Fuutarou-kun, I need you to touch me!”, which of course, immediately took Fuutarou aback quite hard, as that was not a response he was expecting at all.

It really just kinda came out of nowhere with no explanation whatsoever that he could think of. Even thinking back there was nothing that could have prepared him for this and there really was no tell that she was going to do it either.

The girls and Fuutarou sadly had to leave Nagisa’s store relatively empty handed, as they did not gain her help to turn them all back, which also just happened to be one of the only reasons why they went there in the first place. Though the words of this weird shopkeeper girl still lingered inside of Fuutarou’s head, which made him think about this topic on his entire way home.

Was it so bad to be turned into an extra species? When he first heard her ask that question out loud, the answer seemed so obvious, but the more she talked and explained the more he saw her point. Ichika for example would definitely rather stay lamia than turn back, and Nino also seemed to have more positive to say about her new form than negative and Yotsuba loved her newfound strength and the ability to carry people so easily.

It seemed like all of their lives had been improved after this curse, which kind of begged the question of if this was even a curse to begin with. Or if he was just looking at it from a wrong angle out of the simple fact that it was something new that he had no experience with.

In any case the six of them wandered home from the shopping street where nothing special really happened. Ichika and Nino definitely talked a lot with each other about unrelated matters that Fuutarou had already forgotten since his thoughts were somewhere else. Yotsuba was happily carrying a human form Miku on her back, all while making sure that her massive body was a clear safety wall between Itsuki and Fuutarou.

In fact, this situation was so ordinary that Fuutarou didn’t even realize that he had walked to the quints' home instead of his own, because of him being lost in thought, even though that hadn’t been his intention that day.

So when he suddenly stared at the super high, mega fancy hotel, Fuutarou obviously snapped back to reality and explained that he only meant to bring the girl home and then return to his place, because that just was courteous of him. And that even was the truth, all except the last part.

Yet he was stopped by none other than Itsuki herself, who asked him to stay a little bit longer at their place as she needed to talk to him about something. Ichika and Miku also agreed that it was a good time to talk about this mysterious topic and Nino even offered to cook dinner for one more person, just so that he wouldn’t need to worry about missing dinner at his place. Though honestly he was more scared about this sudden collaboration of the sisters than anything else.

But it was not like he could compete against the combined will of those five combined, so he went along with it, even if he wasn’t quite sure if that was the correct choice or not. All of them had this intense look in their eyes which made him question his decision a little bit… except Yotsuba, who most likely didn’t even know why those girls were so intense either.

As they all arrived up in their home with Fuutarou following closely behind them, they all more or less scattered to different parts of the place, with most of them going into their respective rooms, Ichika throwing herself onto the couch then grabbing a magazine from the shelf a good 5 meters away from her with her tail like it was nothing and Nino slowly crawling into the kitchen where she began cooking while checking her phone the entire time.

Yotsuba meanwhile carefully trotted up the stairs… or rather, skipped up it, as on further inspection even with her massive weight and much bigger horse body she seemingly had no trouble at all climbing up the ladder. Miku was also just casually floating up the stairs, though significantly slower than the energetic quin was. It seemed like even with being able to float Miku wasn’t very sporty or fast in her new form.

Surprisingly Itsuki, for the first time ever he was pretty sure, invited Fuutarou into her room on the top floor, which took Fuutarou by surprise at first, yet he decided to follow her anyway. After all, she looked serious about wanting to talk to him about something and that seemingly included not talking about it in front of her sisters as well. So rather than talk back at her like he usually would, he decided to hear her out… which is how this situation came to happen.

“Fuutarou-kun, I need you to touch me!” Despite him playing the entire evening in his head again, he couldn’t find a reason why Itsuki would say something like that. Both of them were sitting on her bed, dangerously close to touch by accident, but they were both painfully aware of that and paying attention that something like that wouldn’t happen.

It wouldn’t happen by accident, Fuutarou was at least sure of that. But…

“What?!?” He let out, shocked at the insane proposition. Then he had a revelation. He couldn’t fully remember what happened inside of Nagisa’s shop, besides him getting chased out of the room where everyone was talking midway through the talks, so that must have been it. “What did this lady say to you to make you want to be cursed?!?”

“I… She…” Itsuki stuttered, her determination never wavering while her thoughts definitely were.

“You do know that one touch and it's over! You can never go back!” Fuutarou added, standing up from her bed and taking a step towards the door, making sure to keep even more distance between him and Itsuki as before. He definitely wanted to avoid another Yotsuba situation if he could.

“I… Uhm… WAIT!” Itsuki suddenly shouted, standing up herself, her face entirely red in embarrassment and fear. She had a hint of tears in her eyes as she looked up at Fuutarou with shaking hands. “Please, Fuutarou-kun. Let me explain! It's really important for you to listen to me. I started this conversation on the wrong foot, please give me another chance!”

Fuutarou looked at her for a second, though her eyes definitely didn’t give him much of a choice, so he just sighed: “I’ll be taking a seat over here by your desk. I don’t want any physical surprises, but otherwise I'll hear you out, IF you answer my question.”

"Okay. Deal." Both of them sat back down again, Itsuki on her bed and Fuutarou on the chair by her desk. Once again, they both stared at each other for a bit before Itsuki took a deep breath again. “Before I go into detail about anything, I want you to know that Nagisa suggested a ‘game’ to play with us and that she wanted you to be kept out of it as much as possible.”

“Kind of hard when I am the guy that literally changed your bodies…”

“No, she meant it in a different way. We are playing a game with her that is really hard to lose for us, but one of the ways for us to lose to her is to tell you what the game is about, the rules and conditions and such.” She explained, looking at Fuutarou with honest eyes.

“Then is it okay for you to tell me even this much?” Fuutarou asked, looking a bit concerned.

“Don’t worry, I know everything I can and can’t tell you. But just making the right sentences is hard so I hope you can forgive me if I struggle to put my thoughts into words.” Itsuki replies, making Fuutarou take a deep breath for a moment, before looking back at her.

“Alright. And part of the game is for you to get cursed?”

“No, it's not part of the game. It's how we start the game.” She instantly replied. “It's to put all five of us on an equal playing field. And to put you out of the equation as a whole. Also to satisfy my curiosity… to a degree. Do you understand?”

Silence broke out between the two of them once again, with Itsuki just eagerly staring at Fuutarou with her honest gaze. She could have just stood up and touched him right now, or even on their way home, or even just when they came home. But she didn’t, because that is just how honest this girl was.

And because of that honestly, Fuutarou was inclined to believe her, even if it was somewhat blindly. He sighed once again, stretched out his hand forward for her to grab and answered: “...Do what you think is right. If you can’t tell me, then I’ll leave the judgment of what is best to you. I just ask you to go in with a plan, okay?”

“Don’t worry.” Itsuki spoke resolutely, standing up from her bed and walking over to where Fuutarou was sitting. “I have been thinking this over ever since we left that weird shop. Trust me, I know what I am doing.”

With that she slowly reached out her hand, the simple act carrying so much weight for both of them. Yet finally, she placed her hand on top of Fuutarou’s, wrapping her fingers around his hand and looking at him expectantly. But nothing seemed to happen… at first anyways.

“Hmm. Did I do something wrong? How long does it usually take until…? Eep?” Itsuki suddenly yelped, as if someone had pinched her.

“Not that long. For the others it usually started less than a minute after the touch.” Fuutarou answered, flashing a slight knowing smile considering that he already knows why Itsuki would yelp like that.

“Uhm thanks.” Itsuki slightly lifted her shirt, revealing that what looked like red gems had placed themself just above her waistline and were clearly proliferating. Though those probably weren’t gems, but scales, reminiscent of those Ichika now sported. Was Itsuki also turning into a lamia?

Rumble Rumble

That's when a gurgle could be heard from the room around them, making both panickingly look to see what was wrong. The entire room seemed to move and shift, somehow feeling like the floor was slowly descending as if they were in an elevator.

And it didn’t just feel that way, as when Fuutarou looked back at the door it was very clearly being lifted much further off the ground and still going. It was like her room was being divided into two levels, and the two of them just happened to be on the lower level.

“Uwa~” Plop

Fuutarou’s gaze instantly darted back to Itsuki, who had seemingly just tripped and fallen to the floor. She was patting her butt in pain, but then looked up at Fuutarou with a small blush on her face and said: “I don’t know what happened, but my feet suddenly gave in due to the rumbling. Don’t worry, nothing happened to me, I’ll be right up again.”

“Keep sitting. I have a feeling that the rumbling wasn’t the thing that knocked you off your feet here.” Fuutarou replied coldly and pointed at her legs, then looked a bit more around the now much weaker rumbling room. It seemed like the big change was over by now, but that still meant that the door to exit Itsuki's room was now a solid 3 meters over their heads, which meant that the both of them were trapped in her room for the time being.

“Hnnn…! I can’t…!!!” Itsuki huffed, trying her best to get off the ground, but failed repeatedly, her stubbornness really annoying at times when you know that there is no point. “Fuutarou-kun! Do you know what is happening or why I can't get up? Is there an extra species that is forbidden from even getting up?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. There is no such thing and also, of course I have no idea what's going on. Do I look like a Wizard to you?”

Pssshhhhhh…

“Uhm, Fuutarou-kun…? Do you hear that…?"

“I do and I don’t like it. Any idea where It might be coming from?”

Pssshhhhhh…

“Did the ground just get… wet?” Itsuki asked, prompting both to immediately look down at the floor, which was somehow now completely made out of tiles instead of wood. It really was starting to have a water level just above the ground that Itsuki was sitting on. And it looked like it was starting to rise as well.

“Up there! Water is getting pumped into this room from up there!” Fuutarou pointed upwards, showing Itsuki the engine that was pumping water into Itsuki’s room at a rapid pace, as the water level was already going past Fuutarou’s ankle.

“Wa-wa-wa- What should we do?!?” Itsuki asked, panicking even more than she did before, especially since she seemingly still couldn’t get off the ground. Though Fuutarou tried to stay calm and analyze the situation, trying to come up with some sort of plan to get out.

Even though the water level climbing up his claves was really distracting…

“Wait, what?” Fuutarou looked down at his own feet and noticed something unusual. Yes, the water was kind of rowdy, but he could tell that he definitely wasn’t wearing any socks anymore. His feet were just entirely naked, which was strange indeed since that definitely hadn’t been the case when he entered her room.

“Hey Itsuki…”

“What do we do? What do we do?!? Should we call for help?”

“Calm down.” Itsuki was really scattered at that moment, which prompted Fuutarou to just try to keep calm and collected in this situation and try to explain what he knows to Itsuki. But that’s when he got distracted as well.

Itsuki was also no longer wearing any sort of clothes to cover up her lower half, besides panties. Which also gave Fuutarou a very clean picture of why it was that Itsuki had such a hard time standing up.

Turns out, her legs had almost completely been covered by those ruby red scales as well as mostly lost their human-like form. They had started to fuse together, turning into a similar appendage to what Ichika as a Lamia had. Though not quite, as gills that grew on Itsuki’s neck and the room that was filling with water came to tell him. He knew now what she was turning into.

“Itsuki, I want you to stop panicking.” Fuutarou said as the waters started to reach up to around his hips, making him feel like even his pants had disappeared, but that didn’t deter him. “The water level will keep rising and I am pretty sure that after a certain point, I will need your help to get out of here. Water will be your greatest ally. Are you ready?”

Itsuki just stared at him for a bit like a fish out of water, though when the level reached to above her neck, she started to float off the ground. It was then that she finally realized her new strength.

“Understood, I’ll get you out of here safely.” she replied and dove underwater, quickly trying to get a feel for her new appendage. Fuutarou took a deep breath and dove below the surface as well, trying to get a glance at what Itsuki was about to become.

She was a bit unsteady at first, but even right off the bat much faster underwater than a human could ever dream to be. With only a single appendage covered in red scales, she shot through the waters, quickly trying to gain more and more speed and control as before. And she finally seemed to get the hang of things, when what was left of her feet turned into a single large fin, which then gave her a true massive fish tail as a lower body.

Swimming right in front of him, Itsuki gave him a good look over her new body while she was seemingly trying to clear her voice. Itsuki herself was also no longer wearing any human clothes, instead wearing two starfish on her chest as if the water had washed everything away and placed those two on her as a compensation. That’s when Fuutarou realized that his shirt was now gone as well… and he was wearing his swim trunks… for some reason.

He couldn’t even recall having brought them into the Quint’s home… ever.

“Ca… Can you hear me?” A beautiful voice rang out under water, cutting even though the constant noise was the engine pumping water into the room. Looking back at Itsuki, Fuutarou could clearly tell that she was trying her best to speak with him underwater, yet had no idea how well she was actually doing it already.

So he nodded, knowing full well that trying to talk to her underwater wasn’t the best idea for a human.

“You can?!? That's great! Hold on! I am going to keep you at the surface!” Itsuki spoke and shot like a torpedo towards him, grabbing Fuutarou around his waist and dragging him upwards, breaching the surface in no time flat.

Fuutarou had to immediately gasp for air, having held his breath for an uncomfortable amount of time. The water level was so deep by now that he had no chance of standing on the floor anymore and the current was strong enough that he probably wouldn’t be able to not be whirled around.

But for Itsuki, it seemed no problem at all. She just swam steadily in one place in the middle of her room, holding Fuutarou tight, patiently waiting for the room to be completely filled. Normally Fuutarou would have reacted to a girl pressing her very large boobs against his chest, but this just wasn’t the time for it. He really didn’t want Itsuki to notice and drop him into the current.

And what seemed like an eternity later, the rumbling of the machine finally came to a halt, causing the current to quickly weaken. The two swimmers briefly looked at each other, before Itsuki effortlessly started to push the two of them towards the door, which was now around the water level.

Fuutarou was the first to hop out of the water and onto the ledge, which Itsuki jumped next to him right after. With both being exhausted and relieved, Fuutarou decided to ask a question, while poking her on her new scales of her lower half. “How do you feel, now being a mermaid and all?”

“Hungry.”

“Of course you are…” Fuutarou laughed weakly, then shook his head and stood up. “Well, then we have no choice but to see what Nino is cooking, right?”

“Right! I feel like after this ordeal I really deserve some good freakin food~” Itsuki happily beamed, though one question remained to Fuutarou.

How was he going to get Itsuki out of her new pool into the kitchen downstairs?

—

Unexpected meetings lead to unexpected results. Makes you wonder what’s on Itsuki’s mind after this encounter.