Monstrous Distinction Part 15

There was a deep sinking feeling in his stomach as Fuutarou stood on the stairs to the upper level and looked at the kitchen table.

Miku was floating over the couch reading a magazine while her lamp was gently rocking back and forth with every big move she made. Nino was still behind the kitchen counter, cooking in a way that humans could never dream of, yet her 8 extra limbs let her pull off with ease. Yotsuba was uncharacteristically quiet, kneeling on the floor on all four of her knees, yet clearly happily awaiting a meal that could fill her body which was now almost twice as big.

And then there was Itsuki, who despite having lost her ability to walk on land didn’t seem to react to that at all. She was just sitting on her chair and waiting patiently, almost looking like she was about to drool over the food Nino was about to present.

Yet, despite them all looking quite pleased with the situation, Fuutarou couldn’t help but feel defeated by the curse, and yet… the release of not having to worry about accidentally touching anyone did relieve him quite a lot. Now the only thing he could do was find out as much as possible to help them…

“Uesugi-kun~ Where are you goooing~?” Yotsuba chimed, catching Fuutarou as he was about to go up the stairs once again.

“Good timing, Yotsuba.” Fuutarou said, turning around to gesture at Yotsuba to follow him. “I want to check out all of your rooms once again. All of them have changed when you transformed into extra species, and I wanted to check out what changed and why they have changed. Mind tagging along so that a boy doesn't just waltz into the rooms of 5 girls unsupervised?”

“Eh? Eeeeeh~?” Yotsuba let out, taking a few clopping steps backwards, making Fuutarou let out a laugh because this reaction was looking severely more humorous with Yotsuba’s new and expanded body. “B-B-But…! Would the others be okay with that?!? Or should we do it in secret? But… I can’t just work behind my sisters’ back! Should I…?”

“...he can go. It’s not like we haven’t invited him in already.” Miku stated flatly, averting her eyes from her magazine for a moment and floated over to the two of them, which also caused her lamp to get dragged off the couch and…

Clank

“Uwa?!?”

…Miku to be pulled out of the air and slam to the floor, looking like she had just tripped in midair. Fuutarou suppressed a giggle. They had already tested that, but Miku could float rather effortlessly, though her position was always heavily dependent on where the lamp was. So if the lamp fell, so did Miku herself. Well… at least when she wasn’t expecting it.

“Ouch…”

“Do you need this perchance?” Ichika slithered along, carrying the lamp in her tail while giving Miku a very mischievous look. Miku, with a big pout on her face, floated off the ground and grabbed her lamp, to which Ichika only laughed.

“I would also be okay with it. It might not be much help, but maybe it can give Fuutarou-kun a better idea of what has changed and what hasn’t.” Ichika then continued, seemingly completely ignoring Miku’s pout, which only made her pout even harder. “Besides, it’s not like we have anything to hide. He has been in all of our rooms already multiple times, so it’s not like this idea of him going in is completely new.”

Yotsuba at least seemed to stop worrying as Ichika said that, and even Miku stopped her pout to shyly nod. Though Ichika then turned around to look at the other two girls in the room and asked them the question as well: “Hey, do any of you mind if Fuutarou checks your room real quick for things that have changed? It might help.”

“He was just inside but sure. Look if you feel like looking. Is Yotsuba coming along as well?” Itsuki asked, to which all three of Yotsuba, Ichika and Fuutarou nodded in unison. Itsuki then turned back to Nino’s cooking and waved it off by saying: “Then I don’t really see that issue with it. Have fun with a room that is 80% underwater.”

“What about you, Nino?” Yotsuba asked, looking mighty nervous. Though Nino just sighed and answered with: “He may look, he may not enter. If he touches anything, I'll strangle him. Am I clear?”

“Gotcha. I didn’t want to do more than that anyway.” Fuutarou said and started walking up the stairs again, before looking back at the still slightly confused centaur. “You coming?”

“Ah, yes! I am right behind you!” Yotsuba yelled, standing at attention for a moment before clopping up the stairs right behind Fuutarou. And that's when Fuutarou realized something that he had never thought of ever before in his entire life:

Walking upstairs right in front of a horse was kinda scary.

“Very well, then I guess I’ll just present the rooms one at a time.” Yotsuba announced, opening up the first door on the upper floor of this actually huge apartment. “This is Ichika’s room and it's… messy, to say the least…”

Fuutarou was actually somewhat surprised by how the room had changed, because it definitely looked much different than it did before. Though now it was time to figure out why that magic had changed the room in those ways and how they would tie in with Ichika being a Lamia now.

To start at the top, the room wasn’t really any bigger than it was before, or at least not noticeably so. Her bed, however, definitely was a LOT bigger than before. Like about one and a half times as long and about two times as broad, judging by the estimates Fuutarou made in his head on the spot judging from the size of your average, everyday bed.

Every other piece of furniture seemed to be roughly the same, except for her desk having a lot more foot space than Fuutarou remembered. Though that didn’t address the elephant in the room. Or rather, the trail of the snake in the room.

The room was very tidy… for Ichika standards. The floor was not only visible, but there was a clear path along the ground leading from the door to the bed and table where almost nothing was sitting in the way. Though he had a feeling that he knew why.

“I see… With her being a lamia now, I guess she doesn't have feet anymore to carefully step over her own mess. So naturally now there would be a path along the ground, where you can tell she would always move across...” Fuutarou pondered out loud, shocking Yotsuba way more than he expected.

“Wait! You can already tell that something has changed?!?” She yelped, then stepped into the room into the clear path and started picking a few pieces of clothes scattered around. “I can only tell that she still hasn’t put any clothes from the last time I washed them into her drawer.”

“Yes. It's much cleaner than before.” He just responded while shrugging his shoulders.

“Cleaner…? But this room is a mess on so many levels… How could it be…?” Yotsuba seemingly grew spirals in her eyes as she tried to imagine a room even messier, to which Fuutarou only shook his head. Her unsteadiness also caused her to drop a few of the clothes she was carrying again, which she also seemingly didn’t notice.

“She already dropped everything everywhere… If I don’t clean it up… then who…?” Yotsuba looked at Fuutarou confused, who simply shrugged his shoulders again.

“I would say that a lamia just simply needs more space to use…” He answered, before stopping to stare at the centauress. “...what are you doing?”

“Be honest with me. Do you think I should wear more mature… stuff as well, like Ichika does…?” Yotsuba asked, already distracted by the most virgin killer bra Fuutarou had ever seen, which she was holding over her own chest to demonstrate. Fuutarou naturally just furrowed his eyebrows as he didn’t know where to look, when Yotsuba suddenly spoke up once again. “...did Ichika’s bra’s shrink? I thought we all had roughly the same breast size…Eep!!!”

Fuutarou had enough from this very derailed conversation, so he gently patted her on her shoulder, startling her so much that her horse tail stood perfectly straight for a couple seconds, before Fuutarou spoke up again.

“No, it was you who grew. Now come on. I have seen what I wanted to see.” Fuutarou gestured with his head to leave. “Now make sure I don’t enter Ninos room because I am not in the mood to be strangled by an octopus today.”

“Ah, yes. Of course.” Yostuba yelled once again and turned expertly on the spot, lifting her forelegs up and spinning just on her hind legs, though that made Fuutarou really start to fear sudden movements of girls that weigh over five times more than him and are over twenty times as strong as him. Yotsuba, however, just looked at him slightly confused after he suddenly stopped.

“Anyway, right next door is Nino’s room.” Yotsuba announced, happily trotting over to the next door over. “And according to her you can’t…”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Don’t step inside. I know what it looks like inside anyways.” Fuutarou said and slowly opened the door, Yotsuba seemingly staring intently at him to watch for any misstep on his part.

Nino’s room was definitely an interesting sight to behold. It was half submerged in water that reached to around Fuutarous' knees, if he were to step into it. There also was a very different bed that he didn’t really notice before, because it was very clearly fitted with some very waterproof sheets to protect it from the constant wetness.

And to top it off, another detail that stood into his eye was that nearly nothing in her room was made out of wood. Even her table seemed to be made out of solid stone, which made a lot of sense, since not only did it fit Nino quite well, but wood also really shouldn’t be put in a room that is constantly wet. That would just be asking for her furniture to rot. Must have been difficult to acquire all of those…

Then again, their father was loaded. So it probably hadn’t been an issue.

“...and?” Yotsuba asked, still staring intently at Fuutarou to make sure he didn't make a wrong step. “Did anything change from how it looked when she was human…?”

“You mean except the whole room being underwater and the furniture being made of stone now? Nope, not really. Just the way it always was.” Fuutarou shrugged his shoulders and turned around to go to the next room.

“Thank goodness. I was afraid something might have… wait. Humans don’t need a room filled with water and stone furniture!” It seemed like Yotsuba had finally realized. That was surprisingly quick.

“Yep, like I was saying.” He said, giving the very tall girl a quick pat on the head.

“Ehehe~”

“Okay, onto Miku’s room. On that one I am curious if I can even spot any differences.” Futarou let out as he approached the third room. Yotsuba, being the great host that she was, naturally opened up the door for Fuutarou to give them both insight into the new genie's room.

“Here is Miku’s room. Is anything different from before…?” Yotsuba asked hesitantly. It was very much clear that she had no way of knowing how that room originally looked anymore, so she was very much more curious about how a human room would be different from a genie's room.

And indeed it honestly looked almost completely the same to what he had seen before. She was definitely the biggest video game player, the stash of her historic dramas were peeking out from under her bed and her desk was honestly moderately tidy compared to the other two girls. There really was only one thing that he was pretty sure wasn’t there before.

“Yotsuba. Do you know what Miku uses that little lip above her bed for?” Fuutarou asked, pointing to the little tacked-on wooden ledge right next to and slightly above the bed. It had some sort of very specific holder form on it.

“Oh! That's Miku’s lampholder. She says she sleeps better when her lamp is safe and securely mounted somewhere.” Yotsuba explained, then paused for a moment, before yelping. “AH!!! So that thing must have changed! What was there before this thing?!?”

“I am sorry to report, but it simply wasn’t there before. Everything else is pretty much the same. Probably because Miku still has the ability to turn into a human as she is now…” Fuutarou reasoned and Yotsuba nodded, though he really wasn’t sure if she really understood.

“Well then. Do you have something to hide now in your room, Yotsuba?” Fuutarou asked, giving a slight smirk to the centauress.

“Uhm. Ah. I d-don’t think so?!? Am I hiding something?” Yostuba asked herself, panicking a little bit. She really wasn’t that great with pseudo tense situations, which was honestly slightly amusing for Fuutarou at this point.

“Then let's find out.” He said, walking over to her door with a smile on his face and opened the door… only to find a completely unfamiliar room on the other side.

“And…? Did something change?” Yotsuba asked, completely unaware. So much so that Fuutarou didn’t even know where to start.

First off, there was no bed, only a way larger and way more sturdy looking futon that looked like it could easily hold Yotsuba two times over. Also there was no regular working table, but a very low table right next to her futon which was only slightly messy and not a single chair in the entire room. Also the mirror that hung in her room was suddenly absolutely massive, maybe three to four times wider than how Fuutarou remembered it.

“Simply put, a lot has changed.”

“Ehhh?!?”

“Let’s try to make sense of it. So I am guessing you can’t sleep in a raised up bed because it just wouldn’t hold you. Am I right?” Fuutarou asked, noticing afterwards that this question might have been slightly offensive. But he already said it, so he was sticking to it.

“Maybe? Though I like lying on the floor more because what I have noticed is that I really am not that great at moving around if I am not standing upright. I have seen Miku and especially Nino crawl off their beds and I am kinda envious of them.” Yotsuba responded, having definitely not noticed that comment about her weight.

“I guess that makes sense. Now that I think about it, crawling as a centaur really does seem like a tall task.”

“Yep, that's why I need a bed that I can stand on. Though I really don’t mind just taking a blanket and sleeping on the floor as well.” Yotsuba proudly chimed, making Fuutarou nod.

“Then I am guessing the reason why your table is so low is because you can only work on your desk when you are kneeling?” He followed up, to which Yotsuba's ribbon kinda drooped.

“I will be honest… normal human desks just have the wrong size no matter what I do.” She laughed weakly. “If I stand, they are way too low. And if I kneel, they are way too high. I know that they are designed for humans to sit on chairs while working on them, but even with the dedicated chairs… They are kinda uncomfortable. I know, we have one down in the living room.”

“I see.” Fuutarou said, then took another look around the room. Everything else just generally speaking looked a lot bigger than before, but not really much different to what he would expect. The room just really looked like the room of a massive little girl. Very fitting for Yotsuba, at least in Fuutarou’s mind.

“Okay, then let’s quickly check back to Itsuki’s room as well. It might have changed right in front of my eyes, but I didn’t really have time to take a good look at it yet.” He said as the two of them approached the final room of the five.

“Here we go~” Yotsuba chimed and happily opened up the last door on the second floor, which immediately gave them the soft waft of an ocean when they opened the door.

The room was rather small, but that was very misleading. There was a big squared body of water in the middle of the room, which might not look like much, but Fuutarou knew how deep it was. Easily five or so meters, if not deeper, were the waters that Isuki seemingly was going to live in starting today.

Though not everything was underwater. Her wardrobe, her working desk and a lot of towels were all above the waters, which kinda make sense to Fuutarou. Though there was one question he still didn’t quite have an answer for yet.

“Hey Yotsuba.” He asked, to which Yotsuba immediately chimed. “Yes, sir~”

“How did Itsuki get down to the lower floor? She just told me to go ahead and then appeared on the lower floor before even I did.” Fuutarou asked, looking at Yotsuba expectantly. Yotsuba, to the surprise of Fuutarou, answered instantly.

“Oh Itsuki’s room is the only room with 2 exits. She has one up above and one underwater.” She replied.

“Underwater? How is that supposed to work without flooding your living room?” Fuutarou asked, slightly confused. He wasn’t doubting Yotsuba's words, he just was a little bit stumped by her answer.

“I remember Itsuki telling me in the past that there is a U shaped tunnel from her room into the bathroom, and there are two doors, one on either side of the tunnel. And then she just goes into the tunnel, closes the door, opens the door to the bathroom and jumps out of the water.” Yotsuba explained, to which Fuutarou had to think for a bit.

Though that did make surprisingly enough a lot of sense. As long as Itsuki couldn’t open both doors at once, the water pressure would actually never become an issue, as long as the doors are strong enough to hold it. Fascinating.

“And I am guessing it exists to spare Itsuki from using the stairs?” He followed up, which Yotsuba painfully giggled.

“Yeah… Nino, me and Itsuki all really dislike stairs, but Itsuki definitely has it the worst. After all, she basically is pretty slow on land without her wheelchair, and that thing doesn't work on stairs.” Yotsuba shrugged, then giggled.

“So have you seen everything you wanted to see?”

“I think so. I also think I have a way better idea of what sorts of things changed when the curse happened.” He nodded to himself and could also watch as Yotsuba stared at him with wide and impressed looking eyes.

“Amazing! I couldn’t see any differences. Like at all!” Yotsuba gasped, to which Fuutarou rolled his eyes.

“Alright, come on, Yotsuba. Let’s go down and check on the others.” He said, taking the lead and started walking down the stairs to the living room where the others were waiting.

Though the one thing that made even him smile was Yotsuba, the sportiest girl he ever met and turned into a centaur, moaning behind him with an almost silent “Uhg… stairs…”

Never thought he would find a physical activity that he was better in than Yotsuba…

—

Casual tour through the rooms after everything is said and done? Sure. Might be insightful.