Monstrous Distinction Part 10 Draft (Patreon)

It's been a solid minute since Fuutarou had split up with Miku and was now heading down the street with the other, much more explosive Quin at his side. He never really thought about it all that much yesterday, but this might have been a mistake, seeing as he was still fearing every word that Nino might spit at him.

“You have become awfully quiet since Miku left. Do you have nothing to say to me?” Nino asked passive aggressively, moving next to him skillfully with her eight tentacles, yet nearly taking up the entire rest of the road while doing so. It was also important to say that Fuutarou had to walk considerably slower than he usually would, as Nino’s walking speed was a lot slower.

But to be honest, that kinda was his fault as well. While Ichika’s actions might have cursed Fuutarou and Nino’s aggressive nature triggered the curse, there is no denying that he really should have been a lot more careful about that whole situation.

“Haa…” Fuutarou breathed out, trying to relieve some of the tension that seemed to come up whenever he was talking to Nino. He then opened up his eyes again and turned towards her. “Look, I already told you I am sorry about that whole thing. I should have been more careful, I know. But can we put this behind us and move forward…”

“Just so you know, I have already come to terms with my new body.” Nino interrupted, looking away from Fuutarou for a moment. “You wouldn't know it, but that's surprisingly easy if you can’t recall what you looked like before.”

“Yeah, not remembering what you used to look like must be hard on you.” Fuutarou sighed, though Nino immediately bumped him with one of her tentacles, causing Fuutarou to flinch backwards. Partly because of the pain, but also because he just was surprised by her sudden punch.

“Didn’t you listen to me? I just told you that this is surprisingly EASY for me.” Nino repeated and stared at Fuutarou slightly pissed off, before her expression softened up again. “You might think that I desperately want to go back to being a human and that I feel miserable having eight tentacles and whatnot. But that simply isn't true.”

Nino let out a brief chuckle, before looking up at the sky. "It's funny, but I just don’t feel that way. I probably should, but I just don’t. Usually I don’t mind trying out new stuff and I can be quite adventurous at times. I can’t speak for myself back when I was a human, but I think if someone gave me the option to turn into a scylla for a day just to try it out, I probably would have done it.”

“Wait. You would have turned yourself into an extra species?” Fuutarou asked, looking in shock at what Nino had just let out, though she just let out a sigh.

“Listen.” Nino said, giving him a stern look. “We live in a world where extra species might be rare, but not unheard off. There is nothing embarrassing to wonder what it would be like to gain traits of a bird, a snake, or yes, even an octopus for a day. Except…”

“...” Fuutarou said nothing, just listening eagerly to what Nino had to say. Her eyes trailed off a bit and she chuckled a bit to herself.

“My feelings towards this have changed. At first, I really thought about my new form as just that: A temporary body that can do some new cool things. Something that I can have a little bit of fun with before you and Ichika find that magical reversal drug to fix this mess. I thought that it would help me cope with the situation better.” She followed up as determination filled her eyes again.

“But when I think about it now, the situation is completely reversed. What I mean is: I wouldn’t mind being a human for a day, just to try out what my previous body must have been like, but I wouldn’t want to stop being a Scylla anymore. Like at all.” Nino said as she crossed her arms under her hefty chest. “To keep it simple: I like being a scylla now and if you still want to feel bad for turning me into one, be my guest. I for one will not complain to you about something I genuinely prefer anyway.”

It was pretty clear that Nino was being brutally honest here, and that she really did mean everything she just said. With a slight nod, Fuutarou looked back up at Nino. “I can’t say I fully understand, but I can respect your opinion. Let’s change the topic. Where did you want us to go to talk more about what I have been able to research?”

“I was thinking of going to a cafe I know pretty well. When I go shopping with friends, we usually go there when we all need a break. It’s pretty good and cheap as a pitstop. It’s right around the corner up there.” She pointed forward towards one of the many side streets the road had to offer.

It wasn’t hard to guess with that explanation why she thought of that store when you look at the shopping bag she casually carried with her with one of her tentacles. Now that he thought about it a bit more, Nino did say that she needed to do some shopping before she wanted to meet up with Fuutarou and her sister. So it was safe to assume that she already bought a thing or two while Fuutarou had been hanging out with Miku.

As the two of them arrived at the cafe, Fuutarou immediately noticed the odd structure of the building. The entrance door was surprisingly wide, the ceiling was tall, and they offered a wide variety of chairs for all types of species, at least, according to the sign in front of the store.

“A table with two seats please, outside if possible. One for a scylla and one regular.” Nino ordered by the cassiar near the entrance, who just nodded and wrote stuff down on a piece of paper. Then Nino continued with. “Let’s go with two hot chocolates. You got a problem with that?” and looked expectantly at Fuutarou.

“I am fine. I don’t have the luxury for so much unneeded expendi…”

“Ugh… Yes, two hot chocolates. I am paying for both. Just shut up.” Nino once again cut him off and handed the cassier the cash, while shaking her head in disappointment. The cassier then quickly responded with. “Right away miss. Your drink will be ready momentarily.”

As the two of them waited next to the counter for their seat and drink, Nino looked at Fuutarou and asked. “Can we go back real quick to what happened before when Miku transformed into me. Do you have a guess why you were able to tell us apart? I for one found her imitation hilariously unfair. Like it was a real shock when you suddenly effortlessly pointed out Miku.”

“I don’t have anything concrete.” Fuutarou shook his head, then wondered out loud. “I still don’t understand why I could see Miku’s mist, even when it should have been invisible. Though I do know that Miku is always connected to her lamp, something that doesn’t change when she takes the form of another. I was just able to keep seeing that connection. Maybe it has something to do with that curse that's on me…?”

“Why the heck would the curse make you able to see that one specific thing?” Nino asked, taunting Fuutarou at that idea. “Ah yes, the classic ‘If I touch a girl, she becomes an extra species’ curse, that has the known downside of ‘If said girl gains the ability to transform, then the cursed guy can see through it’. It’s a well known fact in magical christmas land, I am sure.”

“Hmm… It does seem like a weird cobbled on benefit, I agree.” Fuutarou continued to ponder, but ultimately stopped when their drinks finished and they were called to the counter again.

“Thanks for your patience. Two hot chocolates ready to go. Your table number is 8 and it is fully prepared for you, miss. Please enjoy.” The cassier smiled and Nino gave him a small nodd, before taking the tablet with the drinks and starting to move outside.

It was clear at first glance that table number 8 was quite a bit bigger than what two people would usually need, looking like it was more suited for four people. Fuutaour was fairly sure that Nino would have no problem sitting at a normal 2 person table, but the cafe seemed like they didn’t want to risk it. So they just gave her a bigger table and a big seat, where she can both sit comfortably with her tentacles all around her and have an armchair back where she can lean against. Quite impressive, to be sure.

The two of them sat down on their respective chairs and Nino started sipping from her drink, while Fuutarou still wasn’t 100% sure if he should or shouldn’t drink from something Nino offered him. So he tried striking up a conversation again with something that has been bothering him for a while now.

“Oh yeah, Nino. When you escorted Miku, you seemed really tired and out of breath. Do you mind telling me now what happened?” He asked, causing Nino to stop slurping her drink and look at him for a moment.

“Ugh… Like I said, I tried something stupid.” The octo girl sighed and took another big sip from her drink. “I asked Miku to ‘Just walk at normal human speed. I’ll try to keep up with her’. After losing track of my tentacles many times, tripping five times and falling flat on my face twice, I gave up on the idea of walking fast. Do I need to explain any further?”

“Oh. No, if you don’t want to.” Fuutarou replied, imagining the sight of Nino tripping like a toddler over and over again because of her stubbornness. Somehow, it wasn’t really hard to imagine.

“So, let's talk about the thing why I invited you out here today. What did you manage to find out about Scyllas?” Nino asked and continued to slurp on her drink, looking at Fuutarou with slight interest.

“Hmm… where to begin? For starters, Scylla’s are land and sea creatures, and as such can survive very, very long underwater and in fresh air. From what I read they have no trouble breathing in either medium for over a week, but it is also recommended that they switch from land to water and back at least once a day, just to make sure their gills and lungs don’t get damaged.” Fuutarou explained with a flick of the wrist.

“Given that my bed is underwater and my school is on land, I don’t think I need to worry about this too much. Interesting to know though. What else do you have?” Nino said, resting her head on one of her arms. She might look a bit bored, but somehow Fuutarou had the feeling that she was really interested.

“Honestly I don’t think many of the myths I read up on are very accurate to be honest. In fiction, Scyllas are mostly used as the bane of sailors. At first captivating them with their beautiful looks before crushing their ships with their tentacles, similar to what a kraken would do.” Fuutarou rubbed his head and gave off a soft laugh. “Somehow I doubt that your tentacles can crush steel.”

“Oh? Do you want to test it?” Nino smiled evilly as all eight of her tentacles raised up behind her menacingly. “You’ll never know until I try~”

“Could we… not destroy the cafe you like so much because of something so meaningless?” Fuutarou asked in return, shaking his head.

“Geez, it was just a joke. I am not so violent that I would destroy stuff on a whim, you know.” Nino spoke, yet Fuutarou had his doubts about the truth of that statement. Regardless, she then asked. “So, Scyllas are usually evil. I get that. Did you hear anything good about them too, or just bad things?”

“I probably don’t need to tell you this, but from what I found out, Scyllas should be incredibly talented with their tentacles. This goes even so far that the range of motion, strength, speed and accuracy far outclasses their own human hands. I have found statements of Skyllas online that said that they really only use their human hands anymore when they desperately need fingers, like when they are doing their hair for example.” Fuutarou shrugged and gave her a brief smile, though Nino averted her eyes.

“Yeah… I can definitely say that I am guilty of that as well. Is probably part of the reason why I wouldn’t want to stay human for too long. Just the thought of not having my tentacles sounds so… inconvenient.” Nino giggled, seemingly a bit in thought.

“It makes me wonder though… Are you really that skilled, even though you have only been a scylla for a couple of days?” Fuutarou asked, which was immediately followed up by an evil giggle from Nino.

“Do you want to see it?” Straight after she said that, Fuutarou could feel something slithering up his legs, coiling around them and pinning them together. As he looked down, he naturally saw Nino’s tentacles that wrapped around him, but also that one had aimed for the pocket of his pants, precisely slipped inside and before he could react, pulled his walled out and slammed it on the table. After that display of skill, all of her tentacles retreated at once.

“Okay, I get it.” Fuutarou let out, still shivering a bit from having his legs tied in place by tentacles. That was definitely not an experience he needed to go through, but it's too late for that. Though he did notice that Nino was now fiddling around with his wallet for some reason… Oh no.

“Hey, I remember this picture.” Nino yelped, making Fuutarou cringe. Of course she found that one picture of his wild and stupid youth in his wallet. And despite how embarrassed Fuutarou was internally, Nino seemed fascinated with the picture…again. “I have a feeling that I have asked this last time, but why do you have a pic of such a cool, bad boy in your wallet? The badass aura he emanates together with his unflinching looks and blond hair… Seriously, why do you have that?”

“Would… would you believe me if I said that was just a relative of mine? My… ugh… Cousin Kintaro. Yeah…” Fuutarou lied, rolling his eyes as he tried to keep a straight face, though Nino looked at him skeptically.

“There is no need to be embarrassed about having a cooler cousin. In fact, if anything, he should be embarrassed of you to be honest.” She retorted and sipped her drink until there was nothing left. “Maybe you should try to be cool too. Just don’t be such a killjoy, be more badass and dye your hair blonde. Maybe then you will have more luck with the girls. Hehe.”

“I will not dye my hair blonde!” Fuutarou slammed his hands on the table, uncharactaly aggressively. “I have left that chapter of my life behind me and I won’t EVER go back there! And that's final!”

“Then how about a wig~” While Fuutarou and Nino were just staring at each other, both unsure what to say, a cheerful voice rang out from behind them , catching them both off guard. And the next moment, something soft was pulled over Fuutarou’s head, making him almost want to throw it off instinctively. Though on closer inspection… Did someone really just put a wig on top of his head?

“Oh, Yotsuba. Why do you have… a wig…?” Nino spoke, though her voice suddenly sounded a whole lot softer and more unsure, though Yotsuba’s laugh quickly banished the awkwardness.

“Ahaha~ I was out getting supplies for the big school event thingamajig. They wanted some props for the test of courage, and I volunteered as the material gatherer. Hehehe~” Yotsuba proudly announced, then turned towards Fuutarou. “Hehe~ Uesugi-san really does look quite good with that wig. I heard from the others that you will help us out with the test of courage and all, since you are class rep. Do you wanna be the one who wears this thing?”

“Uhm… Sure? But we don’t actually know if the rest of the students would…” Fuutarou tried to answer, but Yotsuba interrupted this time.

“I don’t think anyone would object to you wearing that thing. Like take Nino for example. You think it looks good on him, right?” Yotsuba asked, looking at her eight legged sister on the other side of the table.

Though Nino didn’t seem like herself at all. She was blushing heavily, her eyes were barely able to focus on Fuutarou for more than a second while her tentacles wiggled uncontrollably. She only barely managed to answer. “Ah.. Yes… it… it definitely looks good. Ahahah…”

“See~ See~” Yotsuba chimed, having a full smile on her face. “Then… uh… Then let's go and meet the others right away. Yeah~” Yotsuba shouted, pointed forward then reached for Fuutarou’s hand.

“WAIT!” Fuutarou yelled, almost falling off the chair as he dodged backwards. “Y-Yotsuba, be careful! You shouldn’t…”

But Yotsuba didn’t listen and just grabbed his arm regardless of Fuutarou’s warning. Though he didn’t have much time to panic or react, as Yotsuba’s sheer strength pulled him up from his seat and started dragging him on behind her as he struggled to keep up. Nino stood up as well, but she was way too slow to reasonably give chase to the two humans.

“Yotsuba! Stop! Don’t touch me, or you will…” Fuutarou yelled, trying to somehow get Yotsuba to listen. But then Yotsuba slowed down a bit, turned around while running backwards and smiled wholeheartedly.

“It shouldn’t matter anymore, right? One touch is more than enough~”

—

Finally it’s Nino’s time to shine. Ho boy, can Fuutarou survive another conversation with the most explosive Quin?