Monstrous Distinction Part 4 (Draft) (Patreon)

“And why is Mr. Tutor over here looking so down?” Fuutarou was stopped by a familiar voice when he was about to leave the school. And to no surprise it was one of Nakano's sisters that called out to him again.

Lucky for him it really wasn’t that hard to tell who it was, as her 8 long tentacles gave her away from a mile away.

“Hello Nino. Something weird just happened and I feel like everything that I know about that weird power has been shaken up.” Fuutarou sighed, then turned to face Nino who also looked at him concerned.

“What happened?” She asked and moved closer to him.

“Do you mind if I listen in as well?” Ichika called out to them from the other side, slithering over to the pair with her snakelike lower body while giving a brief hand sign to her friends behind her. Fuutarou sighed again, but felt glad deep down that there were at least two of the girls that he could talk freely about a topic as strange as this.

“Sure. Let's go to your place and I’ll explain on the way. We have a tutoring session anyways,” Fuutarou said and held his head as he started walking towards the quin's home that he had honestly been in way too often lately. But at least this time he went there to tutor them again.

As all of them started walking, Fuutarou couldn’t help but steal glances at the two supernatural girls moving on either side of him. It was still hard for him to come to terms with the fact that a snake and an octopus lady were just casually following him. Although one of them had a way harder time than the other…

“Guys! Wait up!” Nino shouted from behind them, causing the other two to stop and turn around as they waited for Nino to catch up. “I have a lot of body and tentacles to keep track of, so even if it's annoying walking faster than this simply isn’t happening. Now, what did you want to tell us, Uesugi? You know, that thing that went horribly wrong or something.”

Fuutarou was a bit distracted for a moment by the admittingly very mesmerizing and skillful movement of Ninos tentacles while she was ‘walking’, but quickly shook his head. The whole situation with Nino was a bit unconventional, with her slow walking speed and the fact that she was actually willing to talk to him, but that was just his situation now. Something he had to accept and move on.

“Okay, listen. I just touched Yotsuba when I ran into her in the hallway. And she did not change in any way. Nothing happened. And I even followed her to the track team just to make sure she is not alone when… you know… it happens.” Fuutarou explained and looked at the two girls following him. Ichika was deep in thoughts, while Nino seemed flabbergasted.

“And you are sure you touched her… on her skin, not just her clothes?” Nino asked, and clearly looked like she was trying to avoid any innuendos with the question. Meanwhile Fuutarou was in way too serious to even consider anything other than what she said.

“We bumped into each other, and I wasn’t completely sure if that would trigger that curse. But she took my hands afterwards and shook them violently, then there was no question about it anymore. Fuutarou answered, making even Nino think for a moment. Suddenly her face lit up.

“Wait… Yotsuba? I thought I saw her dart out of the building right after school ended.” Nino said, looking even more confused than she was before. Fuutarou wasn’t much better off, but Ichika silently nodded to herself, as if she had understood something at that moment.

“I don’t think you ran into Yotsuba in the hallway. Pretty sure that was Miku,” She said.

“Eh~” Nino and Futarou had the same reaction, being surprised at first, but then noticing that Ichika's assumption made a lot of sense given the current situation.

As the three of them arrived at the bottom of the quins' home, Nino pulled her key card out from her purse and opened the door, then turned to Ichika and asked. “That does make sense, but how would you know?”

“Funny story. Actually, Yotsuba had a track team meeting today after school. Because she is so bad at saying no, I told her to go shopping for lunch today and let Miku handle the talking with the track team,” Ichika explained, scratching her head embarrassed.

As the three of them tried to step into the elevator, they quickly realized a problem. The elevator simply wasn’t built to handle a Lamia and a Scylla at the same time. The 8 tentacles and 8 meter long tail just took up a lot of space.

“Guess I’ll be taking the stairs. See you girls up there.” Fuutarou dismissed the problem really quickly, but before he could walk towards the stairs he was, a bit violently perhaps, coiled around by a yellow snake tail and pulled back towards the elevator.

“N-No. I am sure we can all still fit. No need to walk up just because of us… right?” Ichika looked a bit flustered and Fuutarou really wasn’t sure what her deal was. She seemed a bit fidgety…

“He can use the stairs for all I care. But I am taking the elevator.” Nino said stoically as she slowly moved into the lift, making Ichika facepalm. Ichika then followed Nino into the elevator as well, practically dragging Fuutarou behind her.

“See! We can surely all fit. If i just stack myself right… and if you lean against the corner Nino… There.” After Ichika pushed both others around a bit, she somehow managed to fit all three into the cabine. Although barely and while she was still coiled around Fuutarou. And she quickly realized her mistake when the door closed.

Then followed the most awkward few seconds all of them had in a long time. The cabin was practically completely filled, so none of them could move at all. So Ichika also couldn’t let go of Fuutarou, because there was no space for her tail to go. So there they were, Fuutarou coiled around by a giant snake between two ever more blushing girls.

“Just for your information. Ichika, next time, could you not coil around me and then squeeze into a tight space?” Fuutarou broke the silence, making both girls blush even further. Though it was not quite clear if Fuutarou had noticed any of the blushing yet.

“...I’ll make a note of that. I don’t even know why I did it or why I didn't even think about letting go.” Ichika answered completely flustered. She continued but whispered almost inaudibly. “I guess it just felt too nice to let go.”

“What did you say?” Fuutarou asked and Ichika immediately regretted whispering and answered with a quick. “Nothing.”

What felt to them like an eternity later, the door of the elevator finally opened again. A little bit of slithering and finally letting go of Fuutarou later, all three of them were safely out of the elevator again.

“Hey, Mr Tutor. How was it being constricted by a beautiful girl for an entire elevator ride?” Nino said with a mischievous grin as she stepped out of the lift and softly jabs Fuutarou with her tentacle.

“Wha…? I…,” Fuutarou started.

“Shut up Nino. I already told him that I was sorry. Or do you want to be coiled around too?” Ichika answered for Fuutarou in her usual playful manner, but with a bit of an angry undertone. Nino just rolled her eyes and shook her head in response.

“Hi, Ichika and Nino. Oh! And hi Uesugi-kun too.”When the three of them opened the door, they were greeted and that alone was unexpected for them. One of the Quins had actually managed to get home before Fuutarou’s little group.

And the guessing game started again. Okay, let's see… That girl could neither be Ichika nor Nino, for obvious reasons. She is also way too calm for her to be Yotsuba. And Miku definitely left the school building after the three of them and didn’t overtake them on the way here. So that could only be…

“Nice seeing you here too, Itsuki. You were here surprisingly early.” Fuutarou said, having reasonable confidence that his guess was correct.

“Huh? Was I…? I mean I just left after class and came straight home.” Itsuki answered, looking a little bit confused. Fuutarou celebrated internally as he was on a roll of telling the quins apart. Most of his guesses were correct lately.

“Some students just have some sort of after school activity, for example Miku and Yotsuba both run a bit late today because of stuff they have to do.”  Ichika explained, but Nino just scoffed.

“Pretty sure she just came home early to plunder the fridge before we would notice.” Nino shook her head as she moved behind the counter of the kitchen. And closed the fridge door that was still open a crack.

Itsuki blushed a bit.

“I’ll whip something up for you real quick. Do you two also want a quick bite?” Nino asked as her tentacles zoomed around behind the counter with incredible precision. She pulled out two bowls, a pan, a few ingredients from the fridge and from the drawer next to the fridge without even averting her gaze from the rest of the people.

Fuutarou had to do a confused double take as he watched her work at about the speed of 4 top ranked chefs combined without even breaking a sweat. Ichika looked almost just as impressed, but Itsuki not so much.

“Oh yeah, I could go for something to eat,” Ichika answered and gave Fuutarou a soft elbow to his side to snap him out of his amazement.

“Hmm? Yes, food sounds good. I’ll take something as well,” Fuutarou spoke and walked over to sit down on a chair in the girls living room.

“Don’t expect too much. I’ll just make a small salad and reheat the leftover meat we had yesterday. And I should probably cook a bit more so that Yotsuba and Miku also have something to eat when they get home.” It was really impressive watching Nino cooking meat in a pan, cutting salad and other vegetables while talking so casually with them.

The reason why this hit Fuutarou so hard was because, for all intents and purposes, Fuutarou was a realist. He was never one to believe in superstition or mythical creatures, thus seeing an octopus lady work at completely inhuman speeds just was hard to swallow for him.

He was never one to be interested in watching people cook and yet he couldn’t manage to peel his eyes away from Nino’s strange movements in the kitchen. Heck, even she didn’t seem to look as hard on what she was doing as Fuutarou was.

One tentacle was moving the pan on the stove, one was adjusting the temperature in real time, two were carefully mixing the salad while another two were adding the salad sauce to it bit by bit.

And all the while she was looking at her phone that she was holding with her real hands. When Nino told him yesterday that cooking got a lot easier for her, she definitely wasn’t lying.

“...have you never seen Nino cook before?” Itsuki asked, snapping Fuutarou back into reality once again. Ichika giggled, but clearly understood perfectly why he was so impressed.

“No, I have not seen her cook like that before.” He answered, making sure to word it in a way that he wasn’t lying. And looking at Ichika, her gaze clearly said. ‘I have only seen it yesterday for the first time as well and I was just as impressed.’

“Weird. I could have sworn we had you for dinner at least once before. Nino almost always cooks when we have guests.” Itsuki said, making Fuutarou a bit uneasy, but it was nothing he couldn't talk himself out of.

“Hey, Itsuki. Can you do me a favor?” Nino asked as she moved out of the kitchen and towards the three of them in the living room. Itsuki turned away from Fuutarou and that made him feel like Nino might have wanted to help him out from getting questioned further.

“I believe that I have left my hair bands in my room today. Could you go and get them for me?” She asked, pointing at her long and open hair behind her that was notably missing her two hair bands that she usually wore.

“Huh? Thats odd. I feel like I should have noticed that they were missing sooner, but sure, I’ll be right back.” Itsuki said, stood up and hurried up the stairs, mumbling a bit along the way. Once everyone could hear that the door to Nino’s room closed, Nino came a bit closer to Fuutarou.

“I am not going to tell her that you pocketed your hair bands just now.” Ichika silently laughed and Nino glared at her for a split second in a way that told ‘you better not’ way more than any words could convey.

“Okay, listen. I have been thinking a bit about that Miku, Yotsuba thing again and wanted to make sure I am on the same page as you.” Nino aggressively whispered to Fuutarou, who backed off a bit when she got even closer. “And we obviously can’t talk about it when she is around.”

“I get why Yotsuba didn’t turn. You touched Miku presumably, so why would Yotsuba turn? The better question is, why didn’t Miku turn?” Nino asked, her voice still aggressive but low.

“That is… a good question.” Ichika whispered and sank deep into thought. Nino did even seem the smallest bit relieved that Ichika didn’t know.

“I remember that the weird lady said there were two conditions for this curse to activate. One was touching and the other was…” Fuutarou gave his best to remember, but luckily for him Ichika spoke up.

“...you needed to know who you are touching. Since Fuutarou didn’t know that it was Miku, she was safe from the curse.” Ichika answered, satisfied with her explanation.

“What curse? And why are you whispering down there?” All three of them winced as Itsuki’s voice rang out from above. And as they shifted their gaze up they saw that Itsukis face was getting progressively more angry.

“Wups…” Ichika let out, realizing that she might have spoken too loudly in her last comment. Nino just let out a soft ‘Ugh…’ and held her head, while Fuutarou had a hard time coming up with any solid responses.

“Seriously guys, what are you hiding? And since when are the three of you so close?” Itsuki asked as she walked down the stairs again, looking more disappointed than anything else. And when she finally stood in front of them, even Ichika couldn’t look directly into her eyes anymore.

There was a moment of silence. All of them just looked at each other.

Surprisingly, the one who broke the silence was Nino, but she didn’t exactly make life for the others any easier.

“I am going back to cooking. I am just in this by assoziation anyway, so you two deal with Itsuki.” She said and moved back behind the counter of the kitchen. And while that didn’t exactly help the situation, Ichika and Fuutarou gave each other a brief look, before Ichika took a step forward. Or rather, slithered forward a bit.

“Okay, Fuutarou. I think it's a good idea to have her on our side as well. After all, she knows almost everything about the current situation.” Ichika briefly turned back to Fuutarou, then looked at Itsuki, who looked even more confused than before. It even took him a few moments to realize what she was talking about.

“So Itsuki, this might be a story that is hard to believe for you, but these two and I can guarantee you that it is true. You might want to sit down while I explain.” Ichika took Itsuki's hand and slithered over to the chairs with her. Fuutarou also sat down, curious about what Ichika was about to tell her.

“Well, the short of it is, Fuutarou-kun over here is currently cursed. It happened because of a little mishap on my part and I still don’t quite get every detail about it.” Ichika explained while she took a seat on the much bigger chair that could store her tail underneath to a large degree.

“Okay… And when you say curse, what exactly do you mean by that?” Itsuki seemed at least willing to hear them out. That was a relief for Ichika and Fuutarou.

“Well… to put it simply: If he touches any of us quins, then we will turn into mythical creatures, like Lamia’s and Scyllas.” Ichika continued and quickly hushed Itsuki before she could even speak up. “I know what you are about to say. Hear me out to the end.”

Itsuki looked even more skeptical than before and almost stood up from her chair, but leaned back again and gestured Ichika to continue. Ichika took a deep breath.

“This curse also has a weird effect on everyone that isn’t affected by it. Besides Fuutarou and the person that transformed, no one seemed to remember anything about the real us being human once. To be honest even I have a hard time recalling what Nino looked like as a human. It’s not hard to guess, but hard to remember.” She said, looking a bit down.

The room went quiet for a moment and Itsuki looked like she was thinking very hard. The only sound that could be heard was Nino still frying some meat in the kitchen next to them.

“So you are saying that all five of us were human once? That's hard to imagine.” Itsuki mumbled, still looking like she wanted to recall something desperately.

“Even more than that.” Fuutarou added, making Itsuki briefly look up to him. “Before yesterday, there were no mythical creatures at all. No extra species as you are calling them.”

“Just as a side note, I never asked for this. Those two dragged me into this and now I am just kinda with them by assoziation. Also food’s ready, by the way.” Nino spoke and moved over to the table with two big bowls of salat in each of her hands.

“Okay, you were right. This is a crazy story.” Itsuki spoke as Nino brought the food and proceeded to join them on the living room table. Itsuki took a brief look at Nino, before asking another question. “I don’t feel like you are lying to me, all of you are way too serious for that. But before I blindly believe you, could you explain to me how Nino is so good at fully utilizing her tentacles, despite her only having that body for a day if I were to believe you.”

“I don’t know and I have no explanation for it either. I was really shocked by that as you might have noticed.” Fuutarou admitted. He hated not knowing the answer to an obvious puzzle and he was sure that Itsuki knew that too. Under normal circumstances he would never scoop up a fantastical story like that, and he was really hoping that Itsuki was able to see that.

“I have a gut feeling why.” Nino said quietly, which was completely uncharacteristic for her. Everyone just looked shocked at her. She took a deep breath and clarified. “Don’t expect too much, it's just a gut feeling.”

“Itsuki, you probably know why I am so good at this, right?” Nino said and looked at her younger sister, who slowly nodded. “I mean, for you, it's not hard to guess. I have been loving to cook for my entire life, so I have a lot of practice. And even if I don’t remember ever having cooked with ten limbs before, it seems that my body does remember. I wasn’t moving consciously, I just moved on muscle memory and it usually works.”

There was a brief silence in the room, but it was clear that the rest of the people at the table did generally agree with Nino’s proposition.

“To be honest, a similar thing happened to me.” Ichika said, still looking like she was thinking. “Until Fuutarou-kun told me, I didn’t even realize that I had just perfectly adapted to my snake body and was slithering around like a champion. And that was right after I lost my legs.”

“So even if you don’t, your body remembers? That's a weird explanation.” Itsuki remarked and scratched the back of her head. “But even if it is weird, it’s better than the alternative. It would have been really tedious for you, Nino or even Miku to learn walking again from scratch just because your body changed. Now I am kinda glad you all…”

“MIKU!?!?!” Ichika, Nino and Fuutarou shouted at practically the same time.

“Wawawa…? Huh? Did… Did I say something wrong?” Itsuki whispered as she was stared down by the other three members on the table.

“What about Miku? I thought the curse didn’t…” Fuutarou spoke as suddenly…

BANG

“Girls! Something horrible happened!” Yotsuba stormed into the apartment, looking oddly out of breath, as if she made a mad dash towards her home. “Oh hi, Uesugi-san. I mean, we don’t have time for this!”

“Calm down.” Ichika said as all of them stood up from the table and slowly walked towards the panting girl that was still standing by the entrance.

“It’s Miku. She… she…” Yotsuba started to fumble around in her bag, until she pulled something out to show to everyone. “Miku has turned into a Lamp!”