Chapter 19 / Transformation


A few days had gone by since their departure from Riyute.

They arrived at the next town and started their typical rotation on experience grinding for the heroes, to which it was Motoyasu's turn. He took Sakura alongside him as expected, considering how it felt like the pair had been inseparable since the filolial hatched out of the egg.

Sakura had grown into the typical filolial size between the time. It became the size that was expected at full maturity to which meant that Sakura could start pulling carts to its heart's content. According to the manager back in Riyute, it was important that Sakura had her own cart or the filolial might experience negative emotions. It was one of the first things they did once they reached this town and while outright buying a cart wasn't cheap, Naofumi's bartering skills certainly helped alleviate the monetary pressure.

Motoyasu used his own training time to give Sakura an opportunity to test out the cart, riding loops around the fields as they farmed levels, and Eclair came with him to help teach him the basics as to how to handle a cart as per his request.

When they returned, the others were in for a surprise.

"Wh-what the…?" Naofumi rubbed his eyes, making sure he wasn't going crazy, but he turned to his friends to make sure of it. "Please tell me that I'm not the only one seeing this."

"Nope," Ren deadpanned. "I… see it too."

"Is… that Sakura?" Raphtalia gasped. "I don't think I've seen a filolial like that before."

Itsuki crossed his arms. "I'm starting to think that wasn't a filolial egg at all…"

"Gweh!"

Motoyasu and Eclair strolled up in the cart, but not without not gaining some attention from the passing civilians. They still hopped off to meet up with everyone else at the front of the inn, but the star of the show had been Sakura.

The filolial could be previously described akin to an ostrich, but it wasn't the case anymore. Sakura lost some of its height, exchanging it for a stocky figure. Her legs looked as if they were pushed down by her new body, making its figure look more like an owl.

Despite all of the changes, it was still the pink filolial that they knew, as Motoyasu came up to the bird and started to pet her for a job well done. Even when her voice had changed, Sakura was still lovingly affectionate to her main caretaker and assigned master.

"We were quite surprised as well," Eclair addressed. "I wasn't expecting Sakura to be growing in such a way when we were leveling her up."

"It might actually be the equip bonuses on those [Monster User] spears," Motoyasu pondered, "but to think that it changed Sakura so much…"

"Oh?" Ren raised an eyebrow. "Would you prefer if she stayed small?"

"Well, Sakura is still Sakura! I'll take care of her just the same!"

"Gweh!" Sakura chirped happily.

"Even if the bird became fat?"

"Gweh!?"

"It's feathers! It's all feathers!" Motoyasu held onto Sakura who had looked hurt by Ren's comment. "Don't worry, Sakura! Ren didn't mean that!"

"G-Gweh…!"

"It does appear that Sakura is used to her new cart by now, so we'll be ready to depart tomorrow morning," Eclair announced. "We'll just need to make a few more adjustments to the cart to have Sakura be more comfortable in her reines."

"We'll just bring it over to the guy we bought the cart from," Motoyasu responded. "It won't be that difficult and he did say he'll readjust it for free if Sakura thought something felt off. Apparently, filolials can be quite picky when it came to their carts."

"Gweh, gweh," Sakura nodded, as if agreeing so readily.

"Digressing this matter aside, I guess Naofumi is tagging next?" Ren glanced over to the person in question. "You needed a few levels on yourself, right?"

"Thanks for the consideration," Naofumi nodded, beckoning over to his usual partner. "Alright, Raphtalia. Let's head out."

"Please take care, everyone," Raphtalia said as they left.

However, Ren quietly glanced over to Sakura once again, noting the size of the bird.

Being as big as it was, he was starting to get worried about the food it might need to consume or rather, it might have been the quantity that it needed to stay healthy. With something of its size, he was almost expecting someone to go missing in the middle of the night, discovering that the big bird decided that it could try and consume one of them.

Ren brought himself with a slight shiver, imagining himself to be the victim of choice.

"What are we going to do about food?" Ren suddenly jumped in his place when Itsuki asked the question. "Sakura is going to take up more food than ever, now that I think about it. Increased size means increased appetite, right?"

Motoyasu scratched his head. "I'll think about it. We can cross that bridge when we get to it, but if worse comes to worse…"

Motoyasu silently glanced over to Ren's direction.

"No, absolutely not!" Ren crossed his arms outwards in an X, loudly and defiantly. "You are not thinking of feeding me to that stupid bird! How could you even suggest something like that!?"

"Gweh…!?"

"Huh? Who the hell would recommend something like that?" Motoyasu widened his eyes in disbelief. "I was just going to ask you if you could head off to kill monsters for Sakura if things had to boil down to it. You defeat monsters the easiest out of all of us, while being able to separate the meat and materials apart the quickest."

"O-oh… Th-that's what you meant…"

"And here, we see what Ren was thinking about," Itsuki sighed, off to the side with a bit of snark to it. "You know, Motoyasu wouldn't feed his friend to a bird like that."

Sakura violently pecked Ren on the back, making him jump away in surprise. It didn't hurt at all, but it wasn't a feeling he wanted to feel when his mind was still on the subject of human consumption. Turning around, it looked like Sakura was angrily pouting.

"However, apologize to Sakura for calling her a stupid bird," Motoyasu declared with a frown. "She still has feelings too, you know."

"Gweh! Gweh!"

"What? Are you serious?"

"Gweh!"

"Hey! Watch it! Get away from me!"

Ren tucked himself behind Itsuki for protection, but he was still trying to act as if he wasn't scared of the bird. He wanted to play it off with his usual aloof attitude, but Itsuki could hear the slight chattering of his friend's teeth in his words. The dissonance left Eclair to stare silently at what type of mundane banter had been occurring before her.

It wasn't as if she expected the Cardinal Heroes to be perfect models. They were people with their own personalities, but from the way they acted, it truly felt like they weren't taking any of their circumstances seriously enough.

"I'll be off to do some sword practice."

With Motoyasu trying to translate for Sakura, Ren being too fearful to pay attention to anything else outside of Sakura, and Itsuki being used as a shield against Sakura, Eclair's words drifted along with the wind as she walked off to find a good place to train herself on her stances.

They were the Cardinal Heroes, but sometimes, she had to wonder about the selection process.

-/IV/-

The inn had a stable for anyone with mounts to leave them there for the night. Considering how big Sakura became, the filolial could no longer sleep next to Motoyasu. Although that only lasted for a few days, it appeared that it grew accustomed to being nearby Motoyasu whenever it wanted to sleep. This wouldn't be a problem when they were sleeping underneath the night sky, but it might have been inside a closed room.

"I think I'll rest in the stable for a bit."

Motoyasu brought this up during dinner.

"Are you really choosing to sleep in the stables?" Eclair asked. "It's not a very comfortable place for people to sleep in, especially when we have beds as alternatives."

"I'm not going to be staying there for the night. I feel like Sakura might get lonely, so I'll be there only for a bit until Sakura dozes off in sleep."

They already had a difficult time parting from Sakura simply to have dinner. Sakura would have broken down the gate holding her back, simply to follow Motoyasu into the inn, if it hadn't been so obedient to Motoyasu's commands.

Even now, Sakura was probably wallowing with the fact she had to put up with being alone. The mere thought of that pained Motoyasu. It honestly surprised him how attached he got to the pink filolial over the last few days, but he enjoyed that fluffy feeling in his heart whenever Sakura was around.

He guessed that this was how owning a pet was like.

"Do whatever you want," Ren sighed. "I don't think you need our permission to sleep where you want. Just wash yourself up before you get close to anyone in the morning."

"Hey, I'm only going to be there for a short time!"

Ren's eyes rolled as he tried to finish up the last of his food.

"Well, I probably have to go off and give Sakura her food now."

"Are you planning to leave it raw for her?" Raphtalia asked.

"Might as well." Motoyasu stood up from the table, shrugging. "I did want to cook up everything before giving it to her, but considering how much I would have to cook up, for more or less the same result…"

"Indeed, it is best for you to provide the meat as is," Eclair nodded. "Sakura will get her full either way and you wouldn't have to waste as much time on it."

"Took the words right out of my mouth."

Motoyasu laughed as they departed from the table. He already kept a portion of the monster meat that was obtained during their level grinding today off to the side for Sakura's dinner, so he was hoping there was enough for the filolial. Being next door, it wasn't too long of a trip, so he was approaching Sakura's little "room" within minutes.

"Gweh!" Sakura looked excited to see Motoyasu again.

"Don't worry. I got your dinner right here."

Motoyasu glanced around to check if there was anyone nearby beforehand. Once he confirmed there hadn't been any stray eyes, he unloaded the monster meat from his inventory, collapsing an entire pile right in front of the filolial. With a contented cry, Sakura gladly munched on what was offered and bent down to start on its dinner.

Motoyasu then sat himself down next to Sakura. Seeing that her master had been closely watching, Sakura thought he was still hungry, pushing a little bit of its own portion over to him. It seemed like it didn't completely understand that humans couldn't digest raw monster meat the same way as monsters could, so Motoyasu softly rejected the offer. He was simply content to watch it feed itself.

It didn't take too long for Sakura to completely finish everything, leaving not even a sliver of meat left on the ground, but it cried out with a tired yawn. Even though there was space for Sakura to sleep in the stable, it still went over to Motoyasu to push itself up to him. It practically forced him to use its feathers as his pillow, to which it was probably softer than any pillow he could imagine.

If he wasn't careful, he might accidentally be the one to fall to sleep before Sakura could get the chance to. It was almost like bliss, lying against the bloated Sakura like this. It added on top an extra layer to this fantastical adventure in another world.

However, a stray thought entered his mind.

Was someone like him deserving to have such an adventure with his friends, despite what he had done? Fugitive or not, he was still having fun while being partied up with his friends like this and while it all seemed natural, it felt like he didn't exactly deserve any of it.

When Motoyasu was alone like this, these thoughts always seemed to return back to him.

"Gweh…"

Sakura seemed to somehow always know when he was feeling down, pushing its body closer to Motoyasu to ease the trembling heart. Some pets can feel human emotions just as easily as other people can, but without the social barrier that humans are restricted to, those same pets would do what they could to cheer up their owners if needed. He remembered how his classmates would say how great their pet would be whenever they were having a bad day and from the looks of it, Sakura was no different.

Motoyasu wondered if it was Sakura that needed its owner to sleep or if it had been the other way around. He couldn't get close to finding an answer, as his mind drifted off from Sakura's warmth.

-/IV/-

"Motoyasu said he would come back last night, but I think he dozed off before Sakura."

"You two didn't go to check on him?"

"Why would you think that I would go check on him?"

"Ren literally shrugged and went to sleep when I brought it up. It's not like he's in grave danger by spending the night with Sakura in the stables or anything, right?"

"You guys are terrible."

As everyone met back up to prepare their departure from town, Naofumi noticed Motoyasu was nowhere to be found in the room. Although Motoyasu thought the plan was foolproof, Sakura might have been able to sense if Motoyasu was leaving her side during her sleep.

"Sakura was quite fluffy, so perhaps Mister Motoyasu found a comfortable position to doze off," Raphtalia said, meaning it to be a little joke. "Mister Motoyasu might have gotten a cold from the night's air, but if he was right up next to Sakura, he might not have fallen ill."

"Either way, we need to check on Motoyasu immediately."

"Indeed," Eclair nodded. "We might not want others to see the unusual sight and accidentally bring some attention to ourselves."

The group headed down the stairs with Naofumi leading the way and without much deliberation, they headed over to the next-door stables where Motoyasu should have been. There weren't many other monsters hanging about, so it should have been easy to find Sakura's pen.

Besides, it was a giant pink bird. There wasn't a way that they could miss it.

That's what Naofumi had thought.

"Hmm? This should be the place…"

Naofumi frowned, not noticing any monsters in the assigned pen for Sakura. He did, however, find Motoyasu lying down in the hay which would confirm that they had the right location. Nevertheless, Sakura was nowhere to be seen, but that was when Naofumi noticed something else, lying right next to Motoyasu.

Or rather, someone else.

Time probably stopped for him in order to recognize what was in front of him.

"Hey, Naofumi?" Ren frowned. Naofumi's eyes widened, his jaw dropped, and a heavy gulp was audible for all to hear. Concerned, Ren and Itsuki walked up to see what the problem had been. "What are you stopping there for—?"

"[Air Strike Shield]!"

"...!"

"Grah!"

Naofumi suddenly fired his shield to block their way. Ren reacted quickly, being able to jump back before he could collide into it, but Itsuki wasn't so lucky. His face smashed into the surface, bouncing him backwards and crashing him onto the ground. Itsuki held the back of his head dramatically, grunting in exasperated pain while rolling slightly.

"Wh-what the hell was that for!?"

"Don't come any closer!" Naofumi nervously spat.

Raphtalia furrowed her brows. "Is there something wrong, Master Naofumi?"

"Yes! I mean, no! Th-there's nothing wrong, so please just leave right now!"

Both Eclair and Raphtalia looked at each other in confusion. Naofumi raised his shield quite defensively, trying to keep his eyes inside the place Motoyasu had been staying at. He was certain there must have been some reasonable explanation for all of this, but he wasn't sure if the others were going to jump to conclusions or something worse than that.

They merely took a curious step, only for Naofumi's shield to be raised higher.

"Ugh…" Motoyasu's half-conscious voice croaked from the stable. "What's with… all the commotion…?"

"Motoyasu, hurry up and wake up!" Naofumi's sweat dripped down his forehead, glancing over to the groggy friend. "You, uh, have some explaining to do!"

"Hmm. Tell me about it."

The second he took his eyes off Ren, he was as if he teleported right behind Naofumi to see what all the fuss was about. It almost scared him, but it did enough to break down his guard and allowed everyone else to run up to see for themselves. Itsuki followed behind from his fall, but something told him that he should have stayed down once he looked.

"Huh?" Motoyasu lazily opened his eyes and slowly lifted himself off from the haystack. His yawn released itself with a pause. "You guys…? Oh, right. I said I would be back, but I guess… Yeah, it's morning already, right? Must have accidentally fallen asleep here with Sakura."

"Sir Motoyasu?" Eclair's voice was very cold, almost waking up the hero with the chills she was providing. Her eyes narrowed at him with stoicness. "As Sir Naofumi had said, I'd like you to explain yourself. You get one chance to give a satisfactory response."

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

"To think…" Raphtalia averted her gaze. "I didn't believe… you were that type of person."

"Seriously? What are you guys genuinely talking about!?"

Itsuki held his forehead, pressing against his temples. "At times like these, we would have to call the authorities, but I don't think we have the circumstances to be able to do so for ourselves…"

"Are you guys intentionally leaving me out of the loop here…? It's not funny."

This certainly gave him a chance to wake up, but this wasn't the type of problem he was predicting when his friends found him sleeping in a stable. What would they be so concerned with such a thing anyways? It was just a location to sleep, so there wasn't a need to make it sound like an interrogation.

Only then did he notice that there hadn't been a giant pink bird sharing the pen with him. His heart skipped a beat in fear. He tried to stand up from his devastating surprise.

"Wait, where's Saku—Huh?"

"Mmm…"

Only to find out that something had been latching onto his arm.

It felt like a pair of small hands, human hands. He slowly looked down to see a random little girl, holding herself against Motoyasu. Her lush and soft pink hair was beautiful with one side being wound up in the natural shape of a flower like a corset.

Her pink eyes slowly opened up as Motoyasu did, and yawned just as he did.

Something about her seemed familiar, but Motoyasu's mind was racing too quickly to carefully think those things through. Actually, it was just an internal screaming of panic, distress, and more confusion, all rolled up into one mess of emotions.

As Motoyasu short-circuited, the little girl looked up with a drowsy expression, almost as if she didn't get enough sleep. When she looked up to Motoyasu, she gave off a very soft smile, as if being in peace. She spoke up to Motoyasu, having her voice be as soft as her smile.

"Good morninggg…"

"Good… morning…?"

However, that hadn't been the main problem here.

She was naked. Absolutely no clothes.

"Thank you for sleeping with me last night," the mysterious girl said, holding herself closer to Motoyasu. "It was warm being with you."

Motoyasu took a few seconds to register what she said.

"... Huh!? What!?"

Ren held him hand over mouth, trying to hold back all of his hysterical laughter.

"I suppose this then constitutes a crime," Eclair emotionlessly said.

"There's no way I could protect Motoyasu from meeting judgment, now that the evidence is clearly laid out in front of us," Itsuki sighed, heading his head away dejectedly. "I knew Motoyasu liked playing around with girls, but to have a strike zone so low like that…"

"Whoa, hold on a second! We have a misunderstanding here!"

"Just explain yourself already and clear all this up!" Naofumi pleaded, trying not to keep his eyes on the sights before him for too long. "You got a reason to be like this, right?"

"Well, I'd love to explain if I myself knew what the hell is going on too!"

Ren walked up, leaning onto the railing once he managed to get his laughter out of his system. Even though everyone was preoccupied with the little girl's appearance, Ren was concerned about the filolial that seemingly disappeared.

"So where did Sakura go? Did you trade our filolial for this little girl?"

"Why would I ever do that!?"

"Hmmm?" Before Motoyasu had a chance to piece things together, the little pink-haired girl tilted her head before embracing Motoyasu again. This time, it was as if she was trying to protect him from Ren, pouting a bit in defiance. "Don't bully Master like that."

"Master…?" Itsuki raised his eyebrow. "I didn't know you were into that type of play."

"I'm not! Stop jumping to conclusions!"

Suddenly, a pair of small pink-feathered wings extended outward, but it was better to say they were always there, simply blending in with her long hair. It was almost as if they belonged to an angel, but the feathers themselves looked awfully familiar in its color.

Motoyasu noticed it as well, which is when he was able to have things click.

"Wait, are you Sakura?"

"Yep, I'm Sakuraaa…" The mysterious little girl nodded, smiling brightly as if she was happy that her master was able to figure it out first. Her voice, paired with how her eyes were shaped, made her look drowsy, but Motoyasu could still feel the familiar excitable energy. "Tee hee. Thank you for always petting me all the time. It always feels really niceee…"

Everyone was in utter shock and disbelief, not knowing what happened overnight for this to happen. In essence, Itsuki was able to summarize what all of them had been thinking.

"Excuse me, but what the fu—"

-/IV/-

They brought Sakura into one of the rooms they rented, giving her a cloak in order to hide the fact she was naked underneath. No one was exactly sure what to make of the situation, but apparently, Sakura was able to transform back into her usual appearance whenever she wanted.

Eclair couldn't explain the phenomenon, being the first time she has ever seen or even heard of something like this happening. Having a monster suddenly turn into a human was absurd as it was. They tried asking Sakura about the details, but she didn't really know much about it herself. All she was saying was that she was glad she can properly talk with Motoyasu and the others now, even in her filolial form.

Her appetite still retained itself, making it such a striking contrast while they tried to eat breakfast. Despite her small body, she ate more than triple the portions of what anyone had.

As they talked between one another to decide what to do regarding Sakura, as she sat right on top of Motoyasu's lap, Eclair was pondering about the clothing situation. She would have to transform back into a filolial in order to pull the cart, but whenever she chose to transform back into a human, she would end up destroying her clothes and become naked again.

It was a severe problem that they obviously have to deal with as soon as possible.

That left them in a turmoil of trying to constantly find clothes for her everytime she had to transform, but if she remembered correctly, certain skilled mages had the ability to transform in the shape of monsters. There was a mage back in the capital, a middle-aged woman who had her own magic shop, that was allegedly able to do the very same thing, or so she had heard from her former allies-in-arms.

Although the required magic was difficult to pull off with various circumstances, it was entirely possible that they could play it off in that regard. There must have been clothing that existed for those instances, to ensure that public decency was kept whenever using that magic.

"Perhaps we should go to a clothing shop and ask a bit about clothes that won't rip through transformations?" she suggested. "My only concern is the price. We've already burned through a large fraction by simply buying a cart for Sakura."

"But it's not like we can leave Sakura to run around naked like that…" Naofumi groaned.

"This filolial is starting to become more trouble than she's worth," Ren scoffed. As he glanced over to Sakura, she stuck out her tongue out of her displeasure towards him before being lightly reprimanded by Motoyasu. "Why can't Sakura just stay in her filolial form indefinitely?"

"Sakura doesn't like that," she pouted, referring to herself in third person. She kicked her legs, being a bit aggravated. "If Sakura is like this, she can be closer to Master. Stupid Ren can't see that."

"St-stupid…?" Ren widened his eyes, a bit stunned by the retaliation.

"In that case," Itsuki said, trying to hold back his amusement, "we'll have to try and find some clothes that match the description of what Eclair's talking about."

"It's worth an attempt," Raphtalia sighed. "It'll be better than always buying new clothes for her.."

"Then it's a plan."

Naofumi glanced over to the newly-developed pair.

It looked like both Motoyasu and Sakura had been enjoying themselves extremely, especially Motoyasu himself. Ever since he saw the wings on Sakura's back, the man wouldn't stop smiling to himself. He hadn't even let go of Sakura the moment that she hopped into his arms. Likewise, Sakura looked as if she liked being glued to him like that. It was as if they were two peas in a pod.

"Hey, uhm, Motoyasu…?" Naofumi tried to call his friend, but he was too busy having his head in the clouds. His smile seemed to be permanent. "Earth to Motoyasu? Can you not hear me? Hello?"

Without a response, he glanced over to his friends to ask if they could help, only for Ren to pull out a coin. He intended to flick it right into Motoyasu, only for the holy sword's restriction to shock his fingers. He gritted his teeth as the coin fell onto the table as Itsuki quickly swiped it for fun.

Eclair sighed, deciding to be the normal person here and tapping Motoyasu onto the shoulder. It seemed to have snapped him out of his pleasant mood. She pointed over to Naofumi who had wanted to get his attention, but his mouth still held a ditzy smile to it.

"Did you want something?"

"Did you listen to any of what we were talking about?"

"We… were having a conversation?" Motoyasu wryly chuckled, leaving Ren to groan in the background. "Sorry, I must have zoned off in the middle of it, but it was something about getting clothes for Sakura, if I had to guess?"

"Eh, more or less," Naofumi shrugged. "We were about to set off to find a place."

"Sakura needs to wear clothes?" Sakura asked, looking up to Motoyasu. It seemed like she was just as off-and-on in the conversation as him. "Does Sakura really need clothes?"

"Of course you do, Sakura," Motoyasu nodded.

"Does Master want Sakura to wear clothes?"

"Of course! I think you'll look cute in them!"

"Okayyy, then Sakura will wear cute clothes…"

"Hey." Itsuki leaned in closer to Naofumi. "Is Motoyasu alright…?"

"Yeah," Ren mulled. "He's been acting a bit weird, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't worry about it if I were you…"

Naofumi was probably the only person here that understood what was happening.

The story was already known to him the moment he saw Sakura's wings on her back. It frankly made Naofumi more worried about the problem that might ensue, but Motoyasu looked more happy than how he was acting since they left the capital.

Naofumi didn't answer further than needed.

It was better that Itsuki or Ren didn't know. After all, Naofumi discovered the reason a long time ago before they moved in. And honestly, he wasn't even sure how to say it without making it awkward, even if he did want to tell them. It was already very awkward when he first found out about that.

Having their plans of departure be delayed, they headed over to follow Eclair's recommendations to the nearby clothing store. The sound of a door swinging open, rolling out their entry into the building as Eclair scanned the area first.

It was empty of customers for now, but the quality of the clothes were already breathtaking from a mere sight. Ren and Itsuki even tried to push Naofumi for some wardrobe changes, letting Raphtalia be the judge of some of the outfits they picked out. They weren't well-versed in fashionable clothes like Motoyasu had been, but that really hadn't been their priority here.

Ren and Itsuki wanted to have some fun in teasing Naofumi and Raphtalia, as they left Eclair and Motoyasu to approach the shop clerk that was present at the front desk.

Eclair, in the meantime, asked for clothing that wouldn't rip upon a transformation, but the clerk didn't have any. Apparently, that wasn't something that the clothing stores would carry, but magic shops. That little tidbit made things click inside of Eclair's head, being the clothes would technically count as magic gear rather than civilian clothing.

Thankfully, the clerk gave directions and it was quite close to their current location.

"Hey, we're leaving for—"

"C'mon, Raphtalia! What do you think of this one on Naofumi!?"

"Makes him look pretty cool, right? The black jacket is a great touch, if I say so myself."

"I-I, uhm… Yeah, it looks very nice on him…"

"I feel like you guys are having too much fun with this for some reason…!"

Eclair emotionlessly blinked as the four had been engrossed in their own model-making wardrobe session of the Shield Hero. Even Raphtalia started to join in, trying to find stuff that would look nice on Naofumi. It didn't look like the victim had been completely against it; he had been willingly changing in and out of the different clothes.

The former knight immediately turned her head away.

"Let us leave them to that, Sir Motoyasu."

"They look like they're having fun, so we can pick them up afterwards."

"Sakura wants to find cute clothes for Master to see already…"

"Don't worry, Sakura. Soon, I promise."

"Okayyy…"

Eclair did her best to recompose herself, but a stray mutter escaped from her breath.

"Why am I even here again?"

After a quick existential crisis, Motoyasu, Eclair, and Sakura walked over to the magic shop and they were welcomed by the woman that worked there. To Motoyasu, she looked almost like she could fit inside one of those witch class characters from Emerald Online.

"Welcome to my magic shop," the woman said. "What can I do for you?"

"We're looking for clothing that won't rip when someone goes through a transformation."

"Now that's a rare request. I haven't had to make clothing like that in a while."

"You can make them?"

"Of course I can, but it will be considerably expensive due to the custom order's nature."

Eclair grunted, but she knew that it would have been inevitable. However, it might have been wise to ask either Ren or Naofumi to come along with them, considering that they were the ones who held the rest of their money in their inventories. It was still within their budget, but they would be essentially broke after all of this.

"We don't exactly have much of a choice," Eclair sighed.

"Alright, I'll need to take the measurements of the person receiving the clothes."

"Alright, Sakura. You're up."

"Okayyy…"

The woman widened her eyes, hearing the third voice come from seemingly nowhere. She leaned forwards over the counter to see the little pink-haired girl standing right next to Motoyasu, causing her to scratch her head for a bit.

"Is there a problem?" Eclair asked.

"Are you suggesting to me that this young girl can use transformation magic already?"

Eclair completely overlooked what it might have looked like to the unsuspecting civilian. Trying to figure out a way to explain this without looking crazy, Motoyasu ended up being the one to answer within her period of silence.

"She is a filolial, after all."

"Sir Motoyasu…"

Eclair bit down on her lips, feeling like that was not the best explanation to provide. They might as well roll with it as Motoyasu's words were blatantly slapped down on the poor woman, forcing her to think for a moment.

"A… A filolial, you say?" The woman was surprised, but her eyes sparked a debated interest. "This young girl's true form is a monster?"

Motoyasu glanced around, seeing that there was enough empty space surrounding them. He walked Sakura over to the middle of the room and took off her cloak, such that she was naked.

"Alright, Sakura. Transform for the lady here to see."

With a soft nod, she did immediately as she was told. Her transformation took the woman by surprise, but she hadn't been overreacting. It was more like a pleasant type of surprise, as she held against her cheek, keeping her lips circle-shaped.

"Oh my…"

"Don't move around too much. You might accidentally knock something over."

"Okayyy…"

After the magic shop lady got a better look at Sakura, Motoyasu asked her to transform back into a human for convenience and wrapped the cloak around her again for decency.

"Quite the interesting girl you have there, but I can still produce clothing for this situation. Come to the backroom with me for a moment."

The three of them followed the woman into the back. There was a separate room that contained something like a spindle. Motoyasu noticed that there was a crystal embedded within the machine itself and the woman tapped her hand onto it, showing it off to them.

"This machine helps produce the special thread needed to create the required clothing. It has the ability to turn someone's magic power into that thread."

"So in essence," Eclair nodded, "it's their own magic power that creates this equipment. Whenever the user is in their transformed state, the threads would return to them as magic power, but the moment they turn back into a human, the threads would pull that magic to materialize as clothing."

"That's exactly right." The woman held her hand over to the seat next to the machine's wheel. "That's why we'll have to have Sakura here to make the thread. She'll just have to spin the handle here until we have enough thread to produce your order."

Motoyasu brought Sakura to sit down next to the handle and she grabbed it. Briefly glancing over to Motoyasu to see if she was doing it right, she started to spin it and almost immediately, a thin thread started to spill out on the other side of the machine for the magic shop lady to collect.

"The machine does consume the magic power of the user as they make the threads, so it's not out of the question that she might be tired from spinning it," the woman chuckled. "While I would say she's going slower than I expected…."

Sakura glanced at Motoyasu out of the corner of her eyes.

"Master? Do youuu want me to turn faster?"

"Take your time, Sakura. I don't want you to rush yourself."

"Okayyy, then I'll go slowww…"

As Sakura nonchalantly produced more thread, the magic shop lady turned to Motoyasu.

"Do you have anything in mind for the custom order?"

"Do you mean I can design it?"

"Of course," the woman giggled. "You're the customer, after all."

"Hmm…"

Motoyasu took a good look at Sakura, tilting his head for a bit. He structured his hands to make a frame to help him focus on her. A few seconds later, Motoyasu nodded. He didn't have a definitive answer in mind, but he certainly had ideas he needed to see on paper first.

"Do you have something for me to draw on?"

The woman nodded and got Motoyasu sorted right away. On the nearby desk in the same room, Motoyasu sat down, twirling the pencil on his hand and started drafting up possible outfits that Sakura might look good in. He must have gone through various designs over the last few minutes as Eclair walked up to see what he was working on.

"Sir Motoyasu? These designs look incredible." She picked up some of the papers that Motoyasu set aside as he was sketching the current one. "Were you a tailor in your world?"

"I did have a part-time job at a clothing store myself, but I mostly helped more with repairing and sewing." Motoyasu paused, trying to imagine the next part of the sketch. "In any case, it became a hobby of mine. The job helped me figure out the trends on what looked good. Over some time, I started to make clothing designs for myself and some of my friends at my university. I even made them from the ground up, from its design to sewing it all together, so I have a good amount of practice."

"You never tried to sell them for money?"

"Never really crossed my mind."

Eclair continued looking through the few papers in her hand. Although she herself hadn't been knowledgeable in the world of clothing, she could appreciate the quality in Motoyasu's visions here. And for him to conjure a handful of them up in a relatively short amount of time, that itself was incredible.

"Is there something you're looking for here?"

"Since Sakura's still a child, I'm thinking of something along the lines of a one-piece dress for her, but I'm still trying to figure out the exact details. A good design is more than just fancy elements. If the foundation of the dress does not work, it would throw the entire outfit into shambles, regardless of how much one tries to salvage it with distractions."

To be honest, Eclair's mind tapped out the moment he said "a one-piece dress".

"The color palette is important as well. Anyone who tries to throw colors together randomly is making a crime against design, so since Sakura has pink hair, I want to try and pivot around that base color. Something to pop out and catch people's attention, announcing her appearance without overstating it. She has assets that I want to show off, that being her cuteness, so eye-catching colors are the main attribute for that."

Motoyasu did a few more sketches on the older designs he made, trying to imagine the right colors blending together. He had a color wheel, printed out on his desk back at home for these types of occasions, but without it, he would have to base it off his experience.

"I want to avoid black and gray… No, not even anything too dark, so I need to eliminate any crimson colors… Sakura's hair color is of this shade, so perhaps if I consider…"

After mulling it over himself, he finally figured out what he wanted for Sakura, but that's when Eclair started to see a common trait between all the clothes, aside from the aspect of a one-piece.

"You keep leaving the backside unprotected by cloth. I understand that you would want to have Sakura's wings be liberated, but isn't this a bit too much?"

"You don't understand! That's the most important part!"

"I'm sorry...?"

And back to work he went, as if he didn't just have a giant outburst.

Eclair immediately placed all the papers back down on the table, deciding not to question any further than that. She did not expect such a powerful response from Motoyasu like that, making her sweat a bit within its aftermath.

"Did you finish your design?" the magic shop lady asked, twenty minutes later.

"Yep. Right here."

He handed it over to the woman as she took a look at Motoyasu's deposit. She nodded to herself, being quite impressed with how much thought was placed into the appearance, comparing it to the young child that had been in the middle of the magic thread process.

When Sakura said she was going to take her time, she really meant it.

In the end, Motoyasu drafted a one-piece dress. There were the frills on the end of the sleeve, though not as much as the bottom of the dress, with hearts outlining a pattern as it circled the rims. Nothing too complex about the outfit, but he thought that would have perfectly complemented Sakura's child-like appearance. For good measure, Motoyasu sketched a bow to be worn on her chest while giving her an anklet with a cherry blossom on it.

It all came together when he thought about the thematics of the colors he wanted for her. Given her name was Sakura, he wanted to illustrate a story by making the clothes white and green, adding in a tint of blue to the edges. Since those colors already worked well with Sakura's pink hair, he wanted to emphasize the feeling of the spring season, the time of new beginnings. Since cherry blossoms bloom during that time, he knew these must be the colors that she'll wear the moment he figured it out.

"Wonderful. It won't take too much time for me to finish this once I—"

"Oh nooo…"

Sakura's distressed cry pulled everyone's attention. Motoyasu ran over to see if Sakura was alright, but it was the machine that had been broken. The crystal in the machine had shattered to pieces, leaving the woman to inspect what the problem had been. She picked up the remnants and sighed.

"Oh my, this isn't good."

"What's wrong?" Eclair aked.

"That jewel is what powers the machine. Without it, we won't be able to make more magic threads. I could try and find the jewel on the market, but it's far too expensive nowadays, given its rarity."

"Is it possible that we could try to find it?"

"I appreciate the offer, but the cavern that has the jewels is not a short distance from here. It is located on the other side of the capital, so it'll take a few days to manually get a jewel for ourselves."

"Damn it." Eclair clicked her tongue.

"What are we supposed to do?"

If they went out of their way to get the jewel for the magic shop lady, they would have to travel the opposite direction to where Eclair was guiding them.

The only possible method is for Naofumi to see if he could find the jewel in the marketplace and haggle down its price. He asked the magic shop lady about the identity of the jewel, telling her of his plan and she freely gave them that information. It was something called a crystal ore, so they planned on pulling Naofumi to the side to see if he could find one.

However, they came across Ren, waiting in the lobby of the magic shop.

"Oh, Sir Ren. Everyone is finished at the clothing store?"

"No, Itsuki, Raphtalia, and the clerk are still playing dress-up on Naofumi. I tried to keep up my energy, but I got tired really quickly." Ren grumbled as he crossed his arms. His shoulders dropped a bit, having a lack of energy on hand. "I got pointed over here once I decided I had enough."

"Well, we'll have to go back to find Naofumi. We need something from him."

"What for?"

Motoyasu explained the situation for Ren, telling him that they needed something called a crystal ore and they needed Naofumi in order to barter for a lower price on the mar—

"Here."

"... What?"

Ren quickly approached Motoyasu and slapped out an ore into his hand. As he was trying to figure out what happened, he glanced down to the gift to see that Ren had just given him exactly what was needed, all without finishing the story here.

"How did you—!?"

"I picked it up while I was still traveling with my former party. A decent stack of it in my inventory, but if you're saying that they're actually worth quite the sum, maybe I should start having Naofumi sell them on the markets."

"What else do you have in your—"

"Don't ask that."

"Okay then."

Needless to say, that was much easier than he thought.

He returned to the magic shop lady, handing her the crystal ore much to her surprise, and the routine was back into action. The thread was finished and the woman said that it should be finished by the end of the day, so they had to stick around town for a little longer.

-/IV/-

"Master! How do I look…?"

"Wonderful! Cute! Amazing! Adorable! Best in the world!"

"Heh heh heh!"

Motoyasu was lightly clapping for Sakura as she twirled around to show off her new clothes. It looked as if interrupting their moment would have stirred anger between them, so the others decided to pay it little attention. Both Raphtalia and Naofumi were both impressed by how it ended up while Ren sighed, leaning against the counter to ask for the price for the clothes.

It should have been expensive, but the magic shop lady considered the jewel replacement into the price and it was lowered by a decent amount. Ren reluctantly paid the price from his pockets.

"I'm glad you liked how it came out," the woman said, approaching Motoyasu and Sakura.

"It's perfect! Thank you!" Motoyasu replied cheerfully.

"Thank you…" Sakura imitated a similar tone.

"No problem. It's my pleasure to be working with you." She glanced between both of them, watching how Sakura leaped into Motoyasu's arms. "You know? If you never told me she was a filolial, I would have thought that she was your daughter."

"My daughter…?" Motoyasu considered what type of position he was, carrying Sakura in his arms. "I guess it does look like that."

"Considering how you've been doting on her," Itsuki chuckled, "it's difficult not to see that. Technically speaking, aren't you actually her father? I mean, you were the one to mainly raise her when she was a filolial, right? Wouldn't that make her your real daughter?"

"Oh no." Itsuki blinked from Naofumi's grunting whisper. He looked over, seeing that Naofumi's head was collapsing into his hands.

From what Itsuki said, Sakura tilted her head before glancing over to Motoyasu.

"So instead of calling Master by Master…"

She made a little smile.

"Daddy?"

A switch flipped inside of Motoyasu.

His eyes sparkled. His heart quivered in excitement, seeing the innocent angel girl referring to him as her father with such a beautiful smile. He couldn't hold himself back from holding her tighter, to which Sakura had no complaints about.

"Yes! Yes! I'm your father, Sakura! I'm going to make sure you grow up into a wonderful girl under my wing! Like the angel you are, I'll make sure you're cherished all the time! Whatever you want, I'll get it for you! I'll make sure you'll always be happy!"

"Tee hee hee…! Daddy!"

As Motoyasu had the biggest grin on his face while hugging Sakura who was laughing with joy, both Eclair and Raphtalia thought it was quite the beautiful sight to behold. However, those who personally knew Motoyasu had different opinions.

"Seriously?" Ren asked, raising his eyebrow. "What the hell is going on?

"I feel like I made a mistake," Itsuki whimpered.

"At least Motoyasu looks really happy now."

Naofumi knew that his friend had troubled thoughts for a while now, but with Sakura coming into his life, it felt like those problems might have been fleeting away so carelessly. In one regard, this was something he wanted for Motoyasu, to keep his mind off those troubles and start accepting some pieces of genuine happiness into his life and Sakura was the key to all of that.

On the other side, he wasn't going to be the one to explain to everyone that Motoyasu had an angel fetish.

Maybe it was best to ignore the issue for now…


[SKIT 085 : Ren and Sakura]

[Raphtalia] : "It feels like Sakura hasn't been getting along with Ren."
[Raphtalia] : "Perhaps it's me, but I find it slightly weird that Sakura gets along with everyone else though."
[Naofumi] : "As far as I can see it, I can't see any reason why Sakura would dislike Ren."
[Naofumi] : "Maybe it was the little things that caused Sakura to dislike him so much. I feel bad though, because although Ren doesn't like spending time around Sakura, he's been doing his best to help Motoyasu take care of her from the shadows. Going out to buy whatever Motoyasu needed for her, letting Motoyasu take his grinding time, so that Sakura can stretch her body in the fields..."
[Raphtalia] : "I'm sure Sakura will come around eventually..."
[Itsuki] : "Yeah, not as long as Ren keeps playing defensive like that."
[Itsuki] : "As much as Sakura needs to come around, Ren needs to do the same."
[Itsuki] :
"They say that it takes two to tango, after all."

[SKIT 086 : Biased Response]

[Sakura] : "I'm hungry."
[Ren] : "Already!? You just had breakfast!"
[Ren] : "Hold on for a moment while we finish up here."
[Sakura] : "No. Sakura is hungry and Sakura wants food."
[Ren] : "Ugh, listen here, you little birdbrain. You can't just get food whenever you want it."
[Sakura] : "Stupid Ren. Master would give me food whatever I asked, even if they were just beans."
[Ren] : "Then why don't you run over and ask your Master!?"
[Motoyasu] : "Is something going on here? I heard Ren making a commotion."
[Sakura] : "Master? I'm hungry. Can I have food?"
[Motoyasu] : "Later. We're trying to get clothes for you right now, but if you can last until then, I'll cook up an amazing meal for you to enjoy! You won't regret it!"
[Sakura] : "Okayyy..."
[Ren] : "Why is okay that Motoyasu denies you!?"
[Sakura] : "Because Stupid Ren is stupid."
[Ren] : "I feel like I lose brain cells after every interaction with her..."

[SKIT 087 : Clothes in Minds]

[Naofumi] : "Don't you think you guys are going a little too hard on the clothing choices here?"
[Naofumi] : "Are we even going to buy any of this?"
[Itsuki] : "It could be fun to have as a casual outfit. It's not everyday that we do something like this."
[Ren] : "Ironically enough, Motoyasu isn't joining us here."
[Itsuki] : "Enough of that. Now, Raphtalia. What do you think about this outfit on Naofumi?"
[Raphtalia] : "Handsome...? M-maybe...?"
[Raphtalia] : "I think a lot of things would look good on Master Naofumi."
[Ren] : "Wait, throw this on too."
[Itsuki] : "Don't you think this hooded jacket is a bit edgy?"
[Ren] : "I-I think it looks cool! What are you saying!?"
[Itsuki] : "Actually, you've only been providing suggests on jackets this entire time."
[Ren] : "Sh-shut up!"
[Naofumi] : "This is getting ridiculous. Sorry about dragging you into this, Raph..."
[Naofumi] : "Uhm, Raphtalia?"
[Raphtalia] : "..."
[Raphtalia] : (I wonder what Master Naofumi in a fancy suit would look like...)

[SKIT 088 : Too Relaxed]

[Eclair] : "I'd like to ask you of something, Sir Naofumi."
[Eclair] : "Are things always like this?"
[Naofumi] : "I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you're talking about."
[Eclair] : "I'm talking about how nonchalant the heroes, your friends, are about the situation."
[Eclair] : "Despite being on the run, it's as if I'm simply looking at a whimsical group of adventurers on the streets. There's no sense of urgency anywhere detected."
[Naofumi] : "Well, it's never good to panic, and I don't think we were too relaxed."
[Naofumi] : "I think keeping up our morals is better than anything now, and if we need to constantly banter around with hijinks, I don't think there are any innate problems with that."
[Ren] : "Hey, why is Sakura pecking me!? Don't tell me she wants to actually eat me!?"
[Motoyasu] : "You haven't apologized to Sakura from yesterday, right? I think it's deserved!"
[Itsuki] : "What did you say this time, Ren?"
[Ren] : "Why am I the culprit here!? I'm clearly the victim!"
[Itsuki] : "That's what they always say."
[Naofumi] : "..."
[Eclair] : "..."
[Naofumi] : "... I'll go resolve that."