A/N: Well here it is, the long time coming Arc 2 Chapter 1. Sorry for the delay on this one, editing it took almost two weeks all in all and I hope the result ended up being worth it. As always, love it, hate it, see something that can be improved or just have a comment? Leave a review! I feast upon your reviews! And because I feast on said reviews, I'm leaving replies to the ones from Arc 1 Chapter 3 at the end of this chapter.
Disclaimer: Still don't own anything
Arc 2, Chapter 1: Accompanying an Arachne
Ren Kunanzuki had problems. Three problems, to be clear. The first was that, while she hid it from everyone who knew her, she was rather terrified of spiders. The second was the liminal that had been picked to be her family' homestay. The third was her friend's reaction on hearing the second.
It was that last one that was currently pestering the redheaded girl.
"You have to let me meet her at least one time!" The man that was walking between classes beside her said. With scruffy black hair, thick rimmed square glasses, and a surprisingly fit physique for a biology student, Kimihito Kuruzu had been Ren's classmate since highschool. Both of them had been interested in biology, but while Ren was focused more on the human body, Kimihito had taken an interest in entomology. It was still the first year though and they shared many classes as a result.
The redheaded woman sighed, and her twin pigtails bobbed as she shook her head. "I still don't get how you can be that excited. She's a giant spider!"
That was really the root of Ren's problem. The liminal that her family had been assigned was an arachne, a being that was half human, half spider. Needless to say Ren's hidden fear had been plaguing her for the last two weeks, almost as much as Kimihito had been plaguing her to meet the spider-woman. Arachnophobia was easy to suppress when the only potential bump-ins could be ran from or squashed, but this? This one was too big for any newspaper in Ren's budget!
Ren had been avoiding it so far, mostly because she was still adjusting to the drider's presence, and really didn't need to deal with the liminal plus her excitable friend in her already somewhat crowded household. The alternative would have been to bring the arachne out with her, but the young woman hadn't managed to muster up the courage for that yet.
She actually hated herself for it, Ren could see how it was hurting her homestay when she left the room the moment the arachne stepped into it. At the same time though she couldn't break past it, and she couldn't tell her parents or they'd boot the spider woman right back to where she came from. As much as that would have solved Ren's problems, the arachne had been so excited to be in Japan that she couldn't bring herself to do it.
Now though, she had finally had enough of both her friends endless asking. At the very least maybe she could kill two birds with one stone. If Kimihito started to come over then there would be someone else around to help keep her homestay entertained, and maybe he could even take her around town.
"Okay fine!" Ren half-shouted with a huff. She turned on her heels to poke Kimihito in the chest. "You can come over after class and meet Rachnera. But I swear to god, if you get all weird and bring, like, lab equipment or something I'll send you home in a stretcher, you got it?"
"Great! Thanks alot Ren, I can't believe I'm going to get to meet an actual spider person!" Kimihito brushed off the threat with an almost dozy lack of concern as he always did. The man was made of iron, he'd even been hit by a car once and handled it without anything worse than a few scrapes. Ren's impatience was less scary to him than paper airplanes.
With another exasperated sigh, Ren stepped into class and pulled out her notebook, ready for another boring few hours listening to the teacher drone on and on.
Kimihito Kuruzu hadn't felt this excited since he had been accepted into his city's most accomplished university. It had been one of the few times his parents had flown back to Japan in years, and having them there to congratulate him in person had made the moment all the better.
Thinking of his parents made him pause for a moment. While he wouldn't really call his relationship with his parents 'good' by any stretch, it definitely wasn't bad. They worked overseas and were only able to come back to visit him on rare occasions, but at the same time it was their work that allowed him to go to university and he knew that. At the very least they kept in touch, always telling him about whatever new things they were doing and he'd tell them about how classes went. While it was good to be able to talk to them, that constant distance did nag at him. He did wish they could come home more often though.
The thought only lingered for a few moments before the excitement came back. The man had severe difficulty focusing on classes as he started taking notes of everything he wanted to talk to the liminal about. Ever since the integration of the human and liminal worlds had begun, he had wanted to take in a liminal himself, but the government had determined that due to his university enrollment and with his parents being overseas, he wouldn't be able to 'put in the required time' to have a monster-person assigned to his house. It was a true catch-22; oh, how envious he was of those who had the time to take one in.
Everytime he had seen one walking by on the street he had felt a bit odd. It was something like excitement, but he was more at the idea of seeing humans and what effectively amounted to near aliens, getting along peacefully. On top of that, just the idea of liminals drove him wild with curiosity! When they had arrived it had completely turned science on its head. By every account of biology they shouldn't have existed, they shouldn't have even been able to exist! Yet here they were, and now everyone had a chance to learn how they function and what makes them tick.
The teacher ended his lesson, and Kimihito practically materialized beside Ren. "All ready to go when you are!"
He couldn't help but laugh a bit at Ren's surprised 'eep' as the redheaded girl nearly lept out of her seat. His longtime friend had always been fun to tease, it really helped that he was very much immune to the girl's more 'tsundere' side due to whatever quirk of biology had given him his unnatural bodily resistance.
He had met the red-head back in the first year of highschool when they had been assigned to groups in their biology class. Both had had similar interests and hit it off within minutes. They had been close enough that most of their classmates joked that they were the most likely to hook up year after year, but the two had never had much an interest in dating the other.
"Okay so some ground rules." The redhead beside him began as they rode the bus back to her home. "No asking to do any scientific tests on my homestay, no randomly touching her because you wanted to closer examine something, and just in general no acting like you usually do when you're excited about something."
"You act like I don't even have the slightest concept of social norms." Kimihito sounded mildly affronted even if his face spoke that he wasn't bothered by Ren's rules.
Unfortunately for him, Ren was not having any of that, and glared at him. "That is because you don't. I'm not kidding Kimihito, I don't want you freaking out my homestay because you forgot yourself." She really didn't want an accidental murder to further her fears of spiders.
"Fine fine." Kimihito raised his hands in surrender. "I'll keep my scientific curiosity on a leash. More than a reasonable trade off for an opportunity like this."
"Good. Who knows, if you and her hit if off well enough maybe you'll finally get yourself a girlfriend." Ren joked,nudging Kimihito in the side, reminding the man of his rather terrible track record in the romance department.
"Not like you're one to talk Ren."
"At least I've had a boyfriend before. Now stop arguing before I decide to call this little visit off!"
Rachnera's fingers clicked together, the sharp tips proving themselves to be all she needed to work on the outfit in her grip. It was a hobby she had gotten much more experience with recently thanks to her hosts being so terrified of her.
They had tried to hide it, but they did a poor job, and Rachnera had never been one to be fooled easily. She had seen it in how they avoided looking at her spider half and forced their eyes to focus on her humanoid half, but even then her multiple eyes made the young lady of the house flinch. Then it showed in how they flinched away when her armoured hands went anywhere near them, and how she was just generally left to her own devices in her room. She hadn't even gotten to leave the house since she arrived a week ago.
With a sigh, the spider girl stopped her knitting for a moment. One of the near invisible threads she had set around the house had broken, telling her that Ren had come home for the day. Strangely, as she felt from the stronger vibrations of the thread, there seemed to be a second person with her. Rachnera had started to think her youngest host didn't have friends given she hadn't seen a single one show up since she had moved in. Even stranger was that the two were heading toward her room.
Putting her project away, Rachnera waited for the knock at her door.
"Hey Rachnera, can we come in?" Ren's voice came through the wall.
Interesting. Usually Ren avoided her the most. To the point that she rarely was ever in the same room as her even during dinner and the like. The girl tried to hide her loathing, but to one as scrutinous as the spider woman, it was clear like a fly caught in a cobweb. "Please do, the door is unlocked."
Rachnera had expected Ren to show up with a female friend, not the somewhat lanky, messy haired boy to come in behind the redheaded wanna-be scientist. The black-haired man stopped dead as he entered the room, staring at her with a slack jaw. Her raised eyebrow was all the question needed for Ren to answer.
"Rachnera, this is Kimihito. He's my friend from university and was extremely interested in meeting you."
Before Rachnera could say anything, Kimihito blushed and then bowed, awkwardly formal. "Hello, miss. I'm sorry for the intrusion, but after Ren told me she was host to a spider liminal, I just really, really wanted to meet you."
The spider woman's eyebrows rose again, but despite her surprise, a smile crept its way onto her face. While it was nice to have someone actually interested in her for once, it was...extremely awkward to meet someone that had apparently been interested in her before she even knew he existed.
"Umm, nice to meet you?" The spider woman tentatively extended a hand, a bit interested to see if he'd actually shake it.
Straightening himself out, Kimihito grabbed her hand and shook it without even a slight bit of hesitation and completely uncaring for her sharp claws. Rachnera actually flinched a bit when he tightly wrapped her hand in his grip, almost certain he was about to come away with a few bleeding cuts from the sharp edges But...nothing happened when he pulled back. No blood, nor even a sign of injury.
"It really is! I know humanity and liminals are only really getting to know each other, but that's so strange since we've been fascinated with animals and insects since we were advanced enough to tell stories! How could we not? We walk with two legs wherever we want while you climb with eight and make cobwebs! Like, there's this one American story about a man who gets the powers of a spider, and everyone loves it, but then I read the lore of it and I zoned out because it's a complete handwave! There's no real connection to arachnids, it's just a handwave for some sensationalist gimmick. But you, you're the real deal. I cannot possibly deny you are a human-spider hybrid! Nor would I want to! And that leaves me with so many questions! Like where did you live before this? Are you just a carnivore or can you eat vegetables? Are your lungs in your abdomen? Are-" Kimihito's string of questions was cut off by him getting a whap on the back of the head by Ren, at the same instant a gag of webbing wrapped around his head and covered his mouth.
"What did I say about being your normal self!"
"Woah, slow down there."
The two girls spoke simultaneously, and for a moment they paused to look at each other, but before either of them could sense what that meant for them, Ren bapped Kimihito on the back of the head again. "You look like you have this well in hand Rachnera, so I'll just...go get tea!"
With that Ren quickly escaped the room and left the gagged Kimihito and Rachnera standing there awkwardly. Kimihito blushing a bit in embarrassment about things getting the better of him, Rachnera just thrown off by the barrage of questions.
Eventually it was the spider woman that broke the silence, if only because Kimihito couldn't. "I'm not about to say that wasn't a bit creepy and or dorky, but I'd rather you be yourself around me than try to be someone else." Rachnera left the gag as it was, her convictions somewhat trumped by her aversion to that much chattering. "As for your...questions. Italy, just meat, and yes, respectively. Now I have a few of my own. Why were you so interested in meeting me?
With that the gag was cut and Kimihito was able to talk again, though to his surprise he found his feet firmly affixed to the planking below him by silk she must have wrapped while he was babbling. "Well, I'm an entomology student and the idea of a human-spider person really got me super excited. Though really just getting to talk to a liminal at all is so cool!
Rachnera let his words hang for a moment before, almost incredulously, leaning in, eyes narrowing suspiciously, "And you don't find me terrifying, as Rin and her family do?"
Kimihito's response came simple, and equally confused. "Why would I?"
Rachnera was even more thrown off, mostly because to Kimihito, the idea of anyone being scared of her seemed alien.. She refused to show her surprise, instead she smirked and came back in a semi-teasing, accusatory tone. "Ohh? You got 'super excited to see me?' Maybe I should be worried you'll try to do something to me while Ren's not here."
"Uhh…well I can't move my feet, so I can't come over there and like... Try to see how thick your carapace is or anything..." Kimihito was completely oblivious to the tone of Rachnera's statement, and the spider girl frowned for a moment. "Though Ren made sure I didn't bring any of the lab equipment anyways. She said it would freak you out."
"Well, she's right, but…" She frowned, giving him another suspicious look. "Would you actually do something like that?" The spider woman's left claws tapped her right arm in consideration. She wasn't sure if this was any better then Ren fearing her. While Kimihito could at least look her in the eyes and really didn't seem to be worried about her spider parts, he was almost...too interested. It was like her being a science experiment.
"Nah, that was mostly just when I'm trying to tweak Ren or one of my other friends." Kimihito said with a joker's grin. "Unless you volunteered, then I might."
That settled her worry a little bit, but she couldn't help but say with her smirk still in place. "That's good, but word of warning; You're coming on a bit strong. Boys shouldn't be trying to get that touchy just after meeting a girl, you know. They want you to care more for their character than their body." She winked with half of her eyes.
"Ah," Kimihito bowed at the waist again. "I'm sorry if I got really weird there. I do have to admit I got way too excited."
It was at that moment that Ren walked back into the room with some tea cups and a kettle on a tray. She seemed rather relieved that no one was hurt. "I've brought the tea. How have you two been getting along?"
"Well, I think we're getting along okay, but I that's just me." The humbled student said as he tried to move to accept his cup. He was rapidly reminded of the silk bindings that the spider had wrapped around his feet when the sudden tension sent him arse over elbow to the floor with a loud thud. "Oof, that smarts a bit..."
"...Yes, it was a bit weird to start but I think we're getting along well enough." Rachnera chuckled after a moment of watching the human shake off the fall, and a moment later she cut the binding on his feet.
"That's good!" Ren said, absolutely unconcerned with Kimihito's fall; If a speeding Toyota 2010 didn't hurt him, a little fall certainly wouldn't. "Uh, while I was out, I got an idea. Since my parents and I can't really take you out too often, Rachnera. Do you think you'd be fine with, uh…" She trailed off awkwardly, bawking internally at the idea of passing her homestay off on a man who practically slept with a specimen jar. "With Kimihito taking you around town?"
Rachnera could rather obviously tell that Kimihito hadn't been informed of this plan ahead of time given his squawk of surprise, but she wasn't about to turn down the chance to go around town, even if she wasn't really sure on her opinion of the black haired university student. "I'd be fine with it. Would be nice to get out and stretch my legs."
Kimihito, for his part, wasn't about to turn down an offer to spend more time with a liminal, to say nothing that he was still a man, so there was also little chance he was going to turn down the opportunity to go out with such beautiful girl. "Oh, right, okay then."
So Rachnera was outside, on a street corner just a block from Ren's house. The big, open world was waiting for her once more. There was something slightly liberating about that, but only slightly.
"Well...where do you want to go?" Kimihito asked. It took that long before he even figured out that there was precisely zero plan to this excursion. He was rubbing the back of his head a bit nervously as he looked around and waited for a reply.
Rachnera put a clawed finger to her chin and hummed. "Well, I do want to see this city's sense of fashion…" She paused, looking thoughtful. "And it will soon be dinner-time. Soooo… A mall?"
Kimihito perked up brightly, gesturing for Rachnera to follow as he started walking. "Great, there's one not that far from here. Just follow me and we'll get there right quick."
The arachne donned an amused smile at his eagerness and set about following the black haired man, looking at his back as they walked through the crowds. As they went she could see the other people on the street move away from her and avert their eyes from her abdomen and sharp legs. That didn't surprise her, as liminals went, driders couldn't help but be conspicuous, but what did was Kimihito's own reaction. He didn't even seem phased by her, and now that he had had some time to calm down after the initial rush of data-to-the-brain, he had stopped treating her like a specimen too. If anything he seemed to be treating her just like...well anyone else.
It was very odd, especially given his former obsession, and Rachnera didn't like odd. She would get to the root of Kimihito, and figure out if this was a polite mask or if he genuinely was fine with her. If it was the former she'd take great delight in tearing him down and showing who he actually was. The thought brought an unconscious and worrying smirk to her face as they passed a particularly gaudy storefront. But if it was the latter? Well, maybe he'd be worth an extra look….She did have six eyes afterall.
For now, they had arrived at the mall, passing through the busy parking lot was a bit difficult given Rachnera took up more than a sidewalk, and most of a lane if she was on the road proper. Despite it, Kimihito didn't seem to mind when they had to slow down to let cars pass or take the long way around a maze of automobiles as she couldn't fit between parked cars. Even at the entrance he acted like the nice guy she was slowly getting used to, and made sure to open both doors for her via the somewhat humorous act of him half-sprinting between the two handicap buttons.
"Okay! This place has a few fashion outlets, and a pretty big food court…" He paused, then, somewhat sheepishly added, " Also if you don't mind there's a hobby store here too and I… Er... kinda want to pick up some more models." Kimihito chuckled quietly as Rachnera stepped into the mall, and saw the large, glass-roofed building in all its glory.
Coming from a town where the largest building was two stories, the seven stories of the mall, each one crowded with people and stores, was a sight to behold for the arachne. It was such a wondrous vision that she didn't respond for nearly a minute, before a small laugh from Kimihito shook her out of her daze.
"Sorry, but I guess you haven't seen a place this big before?" Kimihito's hands were raised in mock surrender at the glare the spider woman threw his way.
"No." Rachnera shook her head as she looked at the masses of people moving by, unsure if she felt mildly ill or incredibly impressed. "I think there is more people in this building than in my entire hometown. It's a bit strange to see so many, to be honest."
"How many people live in your home town anyways?" Kimihito asked, and Rachnera was about to answer him when she caught something out of the corner of her eyes. A flash of white and what looked like furious scribbling, but when she turned his hands were buried in the pockets of his pants and he had an air of innocence around him.
One half of the six eyes of the spider girl all widened a bit in the best representation of raising an eyebrow that she could do. "...What was that?"
"Nothing." He shot back a bit too quickly.
Rachnera didn't dignify that with a response, she just narrowed her eyes at him, lips curling slowly upward in an almost predatory way. The staring contest would go on for almost two minutes, with some passersby giving them odd looks but most people just purposefully ignoring the terrifying looking spider person.
Finally Kimihito caved with a strained sigh. He pulled out a small notepad and pencil, with somewhat sloppy writing scrawled across the page. "I was just taking notes. I hope that's fine." The black haired man looked embarrassed, and shuffled on his feet.
Rachnera looked at the notepad from where it was in the human's hand, eyes passing over the mostly innocuous scroll with a quiet, inward suspicion. After a moment's pause, she shrugged. "Eh, at least it's better than before. Still a bit weird though."
"Sorry, I can't help myself. It's just so exciting." Kimihito said, the small grin on his face barely hiding that he looked as if he were about to squeal like a schoolgirl. He pocketed the notepad again and scratched the back of his neck. "But uh, yeah, let's go do that shopping."
Rachnera couldn't help but chuckle softly and nod, and the two headed deeper into the mall. The multi-floored layout proved easy for Rachnera to handle, as, though the elevators and escalators were somewhat beyond her reach given her size, she was quite able to scale and jump between the open floors, much to the security's terror, and Kimihito's notepad's rapidly approaching end.
Given a few minutes for her fascinated tour-guide to catch up, they found their way to the first fashion store on the level. It was mere moments before they were ushered out by the confused and terrified attendant behind the counter, much to Rachnera's second place they tried was a bit better, but a store clerk tailed them and keep asking if they had found everything they needed in a most nerve-grating fashion.
Indeed, it was enough that Rachnera turned from looking at a mannequin to glare at the clerk. "You know, I can pick out clothes myself."
"I'm sorry ma'am, but we thought that your...unique…" The clerk clicked her tongue, tone none-too diplomatic. "Body-type would require an assistant to help make sure outfits will fit you." The clerk shot back defensively.
The ensuing confrontation was cut off before blood was spilt by Kimihito, who cut into the developing staring contest in a surprisingly apologetic tone. "You know, you really are putting an arm..." Kimihito began as he handed the clerk a...plastic arm? She accepted it almost mechanically, mouth hanging open as she tried to reply. Rachnera was doing much better.
"And a leg..." Which was quickly followed by another equally plastic limb. "Into being a complete ass." He piled the mannequin's lower waist into her confused arms. "Now could you please get out of our face..." A plastic head completed the pyramid in the poor summer-employee's distraught arms. "So that we can just shop in peace?"
The feuding pair of women caught up to reality at precisely the same moment and their eyes went immediately to the mannequin that Rachnera had been looking at. Somehow in the space of the short argument, Kimihito had manage to render the synthetic person to its component parts, the outfit it had been wearing folded up neatly beside it.
Needless to say, they weren't in that store much longer, yet at the same time Rachnera was laughing the whole way out. Her soft voice made her laughter almost melodic to Kimihito's attentive ears. The man took a single note, but only got as far as two words before returning all attention to the almost hypnotic sound he was rapidly becoming enamoured with: 'great laugh.',
Eventually Rachnera stopped laughing, and she put a hand on Kimihito's shoulder. "Oh, that was great! The look on that lady's face when you handed her the ass was priceless! Of course it could only have gotten us removed, but what better way to leave than that! Oh, you are a creative boy, Kimihito. It was totally worth it."
"Wh-why, thank you." Kimihito chuckled himself, unworried about the hand on his shoulder. While Rachnera didn't actively notice that, she did subconsciously, and it continued to chalk up points in the man's favour. It was miniscule compared to that little stunt that got her laughing in the first place, though.
"Okay, we still have two more stores to try, hopefully one of them will be reasonable at least." Kimihito said as her laughter finally died down. "They're on the next floor up, my hobby store is up there anyways."
Kimihito started towards the stairs, but found Rachnera's hand on his shoulder didn't move, keeping him there. "Uhhh, Rachnera? Are you going to let go?"
"Well I figure there's a way we can get there faster." The spider woman said with a grin that sent shivers through the black haired boy's spine.
He noticed her legs tense, and just at the last moment before drider and company went sailing gaily through the air, he heard himself start to say. "Wait..."
Then Rachnera leapt up to the next floor, Kimihito kept tow by a one handed grip, and a copious amount of webbing. Rachnera's aim was a bit off though, and instead of the boy landing in one of the massage chairs she had aimed for, he crashed head-first into the potted plant beside it.
"Oh dear... Sorry 'bout that!" The spider girl said and, while she tried to hide it, there was rather obvious worry in her voice as she pulled him out of the pot and looked to see if he was okay.
Shaking his head to get the dirt out of his hair Kimihito flashed Rachnera a shocking cogent thumbs up considering the flying act he'd just finished. "Not a problem. Might be a bit sore but it'll go away in a few minutes."
"Okay?" Rachnera wasn't sure how to take that. It wasn't the first time she had seen Kimihito's semi-legendary resilience, but it was really the most obvious. At the speed she was going, he probably should have at least been bruising, but it didn't even look like that was going to happen as the redness on his face dissipated while she was watching. Ironic that he would be the greater biological abnormality of the two.
She decided to chalk it up to a fluke and moved on. Luckily the next store was right there, and this one was much more accepting of her spidery form. Rachnera actually even purchased a few things, though Kimihito had been stuck outside while she had dealt with a clerk for the fitting. Truthfully none of them fit her really, mostly for her impressive bust size that put something like 90% of clothing made for humans well out of her reach, but she could easily enough modify them accordingly in her spare time. The absolute worst she could say about the otherwise kind clerk was the blatant envy she'd done a rather poor job hiding over the drider's predicament.
Finally they went to Kimihito's hobby shop, and Rachnera had to admit she was somewhat surprised that it appeared to be a tabletop game store. She had been expecting something like RC cars, or some science kits or something to fit his ambitious first impression, but instead the man had walked out of there with a few boxes of excessively overpriced miniatures and some new paint and glue.
"I swear, the prices of these things goes up every day." Kimihito said with a sigh as they stepped outside.
Rachnera looked at the boxes, then back to Kimihito. "So much money for such tiny figurines. Why do you buy them if you know how expensive they are?"
"Ehh," Kimihito shrugged. "It gives me something to do with my hands. It's nice to have something to keep your attention for a few hours or days. I figure you like your knitting for the same reason."
Rachnera was thrown for a loop at that, she had thought she had hidden away her clothes before Ren and Kimihito had shown up.
"I saw the incomplete sleeve of a shirt poking out from your storage chest." He offered sheepishly when she looked as if she was going to ask how he knew. "And I figure none of the clothes around here would fit you, so you'd have to tailor them anyways." Kimihito explained, trying to avoid looking at the generous assets that cause Rachnera her clothing difficulties.
The spider-woman gave a small laugh and it was Kimihito's turn to be caught off guard. "Well, that was a rather astute observation of you." Rachnera, much to his relief, switched the topic after a moment's silence. "Let's go to the food court, I'm getting pretty hungry and the crowds getting to be a bit much."
If it were just the sheer volume of people, that'd be bad enough, but Rachnera was starting to feel suffocated by the number of people bumping into her, murmuring about how much space she took up.. She could only ignore them for so long, so she really did just want to get something to eat and go.
Unfortunately, her haste to get away from the crowd did little to ease poor Kimihito's second, hapless, trip on elevator Rachnera. The pair found themselves in the greatest abundance and variety of food that Rachnera had ever seen. It wasn't really anything special for Kimihito, but while he already knew where he was going to eat, he first spent the few minutes to give Rachnera a basic rundown of each booth and store, and what they served.
He never thought he'd have to explain what McDonalds was to anyone in his life, but that day he did, along with explaining many many other places.
Soon enough the two had their food, with an increasingly uncomfortable Rachnera insisting they get something to go. Kimihito walked out of the food court with a sandwich, and Rachnera, two hotdogs without the buns. The spidergirl being completely unable to digest anything that wasn't meat had made getting anything a bit difficult but they'd managed it. One advantage of the armoured carapace that covered her hands was that she could hold them without worrying about the heat as she ate, but it did earn her more than a few extra stares as she'd quite happily discarded the paper the dispondant attended had tried to wrap her 'meal' in.
Not long after they left the mall, Kimihito dropped Rachnera off at Ren's house. The two walking up to the steps with Kimihito carrying a number of bags, both his own and Rachnera's.
The spider woman took her own bags though when they stepped up to the door, grinning slightly. "Well that was fun. It was nice meeting you, Kimihito. Thanks for being willing to chaperone me."
"It wasn't any problem. If you ever feel the urge to go out again just ask. Ren'll probably tell me at school and I can come over after. Not like I really do anything with my days after I finish studying." Kimihito said, then blushed a bit as he realized he was being a bit presumptive.
He was about to retract his statement when Rachnera gave a small laugh and said. "I think I will. You better be ready next time though, I'm thinking we're going to go somewhere more interesting than just a mall." With a grin the spider woman went into the house, and left Kimihito to head home himself, with her laughter ringing in his ear a little longer than could easily be considered normal.
Meanwhile inside the house, a certain redheaded woman had been waiting in anticipation for the news of what she was hoping was a 'first date' of sorts, and with a relieved sigh pulled herself back in through her bedroom window. It was good to hear it went well, if only because she felt a bit less guilty about her terror of her housemate since she found someone that would be willing to take her around town.
Now she just needed to work herself up to having an honest conversation with the woman, and all would be great.
Rachnera was true to her word, as the next 'date' was indeed to a much more interesting place than a mall. It was almost two weeks after the first outing when Rachnera, through Ren, requested that Kimihito take her out somewhere. Even if he had been of the mind to refuse, the black haired man was fairly sure he wouldn't have been allowed to judging by Ren's demeanor at the time.
As it was, the student had actually spent most of the intervening two weeks agonizing over the prospect of another 'date.' Not because of his companion, more that he was utterly terrified that he might have zero prospects with her at all, that perhaps Rachnera had just been nice to him at the end there.
It wouldn't surprise him really, it wasn't often that a random science student managed to actually get the attention of an attractive woman. Let alone one like Rachnera. If he had been willing to admit such things, he might have said that the shockingly curvy drider had caused him a few restless nights, because he had woken up in the wee hours of the evening to make new notes, brought up by his mind at the most random times.
So when Ren had come up to him before class and told him that he'd be taking Rachnera out on another excursion that afternoon, he had practically been jumping for joy. Even if he had done his best to suppress that, he didn't want Ren to think he was creeping on her homestay or something…
He showed up right after classes, only stopping to dump his bag off at his house. He actually arrived early enough that he had to wait a few minutes for Rachnera to get ready.
Once she was though, the spider woman did not hesitate to drag him down the end of the street. Now that the outing wasn't so impromptu, Rachnera had taken the time to plan out the venture beforehand, and all that was actually needed was Kimihito to accompany her, not lead the way.
So it was that he found himself at the first stop on the list, which was of all things, a doujin store.
"Uh, why are we here? I didn't really take you as the type to be into this kind of stuff Rachnera." Kimihito said as he stood with the arachne, looking at the….less than child friendly doujin around them... with a trepid gaze.
Rachnera though didn't seem phased at all by his question, or his own rather apprehensive look around the place, instead actually seeming quite casual about the massive quantity of erotica they were immersed in. "I signed up to come to Japan for a few reasons, the rather open selling of pornography was one of them. I'm looking for any new techniques to try out with my webs."
"I...see?" Kimihito asked, not sure if he felt worried or turned on by that information. Though given he still barely knew Rachnera, he was currently leaning towards the former. After a few more minutes of sheepish silence he asked, "So you like doujin then?"
"Ehh not really, most of its dreck, but there are a few good ones out there, it just takes a while to find them." Rachnera didn't look up from where she was flipping through the various books. "You're a boy right? You've got to like some of this stuff."
"Eh, I prefer non-fiction and science fiction, really. Never could get into comic books much myself." Kimihito shrugged. He had gotten into a few anime, but nothing that would come from this section of a store. He wouldn't ever let anyone see him here by choice.
"Then here, you can read this." Rachnera said with a sing-song voice, tossing a...porno for a rather popular anime series into his hands. "I'm feeling a bit bad with you just standing there like a nervous dork while I'm reading away."
"E-E-Eh?" Kimihito fumbled the catch and had to take a second to reach down and cram it back where it came from. "Don't be Rachnera! I'm fine, it's… just a bit awkward being here, fairly sure I've seen a few of my schoolmates already…"
"If they're here then there is nothing to be embarrassed about." Rachnera said almost nonchalantly, though she was hiding a teasing grin using her current read. "They're just as big of perverts as you are then right?"
Kimihito squawked in protest "Hey I'm not a pervert!"
"Oh? You drag an poor, defenseless arachne to a porn store and try to convert her to your strange fetishes by making her read doujins about them? Sounds pretty perverted to me." Rachnera practically bit her lip to hide the laughter that was trying to push it's way past her malevolent grin.
"B-But you're the one that dragged me here!" Kimihito stumbled over his words trying to rebut her..
Rachnera put the book down at that point, her grin now clear for him to see. "But they don't know that, do they?"
"That's not funny Rachnera! Not like I really have much of a reputation around school, but whatever I have is probably going to go down the tubes now. Besides, if they think I'm somehow dating an attractive woman like you then they'd probably be asking themselves why I'd need porn at all, wouldn't they?" He spoke in a rushed and somewhat humiliated whisper, his thoughts becoming words before he could subject them to the mental censor that was his thinking mind.
The moment he realised what he said, he tried to catch the words as they left his mouth, while Rachnera grin intensified, transforming into a delightful, spine-chilling stare. His eyes turned to the floor in embarrassment.
"A-Ah, sorry about that…"
Rachnera just continued to stare, for what felt like an eternity for the black haired man.
Then she blinked, and looked away, blushing a bit herself. "Well that's nice of you to say, but there is no need to talk me up. I know my spider bits are terrifying for most humans."
"I'm being serious!" Kimihito suddenly felt the need to defend Rachnera from herself, even though they were in the middle of a doujin store, and it was a rather awkward thing to talk about in public let alone a place like that. "Your spider-bits just add to how good you look Rachnera, I mean your abdomen is perfectly proportioned to your cephalothorax." On top of that, he added mentally that she had killer legs, eight of them, and none of those urticating hairs that tarantula girls had, it really was a massive turn on for the science student, and the scientist hiding in the science student.
Rachnera stared at him again, six eyes somehow meeting two evenly. The stare gave the arachne a look into the human's soul, and somehow, she could tell he was being serious. For some reason, it made her laugh a little bit, which soon turned to much louder guffaws. "So you aren't just a pervert, you're a fetishist! Getting turned on by spider parts? There isn't any other way to describe you."
Kimihito cried out again. "Hey! It's not just the spider p-"
Further words were cut off when Rachnera put an armoured finger against his lips, shushing him. "Oh I figured that, I noticed the way you were sneaking looks at me at the mall. But I didn't think you'd find armour and sharp edges attractive."
The finger pulled back and stroked her chin. "Though I don't know why I didn't expect it, you are going into bug sciences from what Ren told me. So you got so fed up with not being able to grow your own bug girlfriend you just went and fell for the first spider girl you saw?" At this point Rachnera's grin was filled with 'danger.'
"H-Hey it's -" Whap! Kimihito's rebuttal was cut short when a gag of webbing covered his mouth and silenced him.
Rachnera didn't even appear to notice what she did, or that they were in public as she boxed him into the aisle with her large form, her fangs were bared rather noticeably in her odd smile. Leaning down to put her face just a bit above his, she patted his cheek a few times in such a wonderful, malevolent way that triggered ancient instincts to put as large a volume of space between himself and the drider as possible. He was loathe to admit it, but that wasn't the only primal instinct triggering right now. "Well I'll have to disappoint you." She punctuated the statement with a chuckle that was a little too dark for the restrained student's liking. You'll have to work a bit harder if you want to get in my loincloth, got it? Though I do need a willing practice dummy for my webbing." The spider girl patted his cheek one last time, before cutting the gag and backing away. The mood dispelled in an instant as she picked up another doujin, leaving Kimihito wondering if he had just had some sort of odd fever dream, given literally no one else in the place seemed to have noticed.
It was only the knowing grin on Rachnera's face that kept Kimihito's mind from relegating it to his overactive imagination. Oddly enough, while that little incident did startle him, he couldn't help but admit a small part of his mind found it oddly thrilling, imagine the notes he could get on arachne webs! What was significantly more thrilling was that the arachne had more or less outright said he had a chance if he put in the effort. That small part of his subconscious that had been driving him mad at night was jumping in joy and he couldn't stop it.
The rest of his synapses were expending themselves just trying to keep him on his now quaking legs.
Another few 'dates' passed without much incident, and nothing like what had happened in that doujin store occured again through them. At the very least nothing as blatant. Kimihito had been subject to a battery of small touches, bumps, and other things that he was fairly sure was Rachnera fishing to make sure he really wasn't freaked out by the feeling of her smooth armour against his skin.
Indeed, while Kimihito had only been guessing, it had been a very accurate guess. Rachnera had indeed been testing Kimihito over the last few outings. Each one targeting a different one of her interests, and at the same time meant to deliberately cause him some issue to overcome.
A walk through the forest had turned into her carrying him along as she jumped from tree to tree, just to see if that time in the mall had been a fluke. That had left her wondering just how he had become so indestructible, as even when he had slipped off her and crashed into a tree, quite by accident, he had been fine with only a small lump that quickly faded away.
Then came the trip to a temple at the top of a nearby mountain. That had mostly been out of her own interest to see the secluded place, but it also served as a good test for Kimihito's stamina and physical ability. He had actually managed to make it to the top of the stairs before he had practically collapsed in a tired heap, but it was better than she had expected given his science background.
The way back down had been even more worrying(Read, entertaining).Kimihito had made it halfway before his exhaustion finally overcame his will not to make a complete ass of himself, and he was sent end-over-end, tripping forward and rolling down a few flights worth of stairs before finally coming to a stop. Rachnera had almost been worried that he had finally been done in, but, face still planted firmly in the brickwork, he raised a thumb and started to pull himself back upright.
Rachnera hadn't been sure if she should have laughed or not, but in the end she couldn't stop herself, laughing her abdomen off with such force that she nearly fell down the stairs too.
That brought them to their current date, because at this point Rachnera and Kimihito were willing to drop the apostrophes. What else could they call what was essentially just two interested people walking through the park near Kimihito's home, just so they could enjoy each other's company in the world? The size of the natural area meant there was plenty of empty space, something that the black haired biologist had learned his spidery companion liked.
That kind of unspoken consideration the two were showing had become more blatant, in this date and those before it. Walking through the tree lined paths, that tension was weighing on each step they took. Both of them had realized they were getting into complicated territory in what counted as their 'relationship.'
Objectively, they were dating like as much as any romantic couple, but neither had actually gone so far as to admit such a thing to the other. It left them trapped in what amounted to relationship-limbo as they waited for something to happen to push them one way or the other.
Rachnera was kicking herself at ending up in this position. Such fidgeting hesitation really grinded on her sensibilities about always being open. The problem was that she had tried to bring it up! Multiple times! But every time she started to, her tongue tied into knots tighter than she could manage with her webbing.
Kimihito would have used much less poetic wording himself, but it was crushing him all the same. When he first heard of Rachnera, he had more questions than he had air in his lungs to ask her. Now, there was only one question on his mind, but his voice box scrunched up tightly when he thought of it. Everytime he had tried to bring it up with Rachnera, he hadn't even gotten started toward asking her. His mind just hit a brick wall like he was studying a new chapter, and would promptly end up switching the subject to something else out of necessity.
Today was pretty much the same, with both Rachnera and Kimihito trying to think up ways to approach the subject, but neither was having any more luck than usual. The two were quickly approaching the lake at the center of the park, and more specifically the paddle boats that were rented out for people to cruise around the lake with.
Like it was inevitable that a fly would stumble into a spider's web, it was inevitable that Rachnera would finally bring herself to a self-ultimatum.
Kimihito had passed all her tests to this point. He hadn't been thrown off by her body and its strength, her taste for more isolated adventures, or even her silk play, though she rarely used it with him, didn't seem to phase him at all. Indeed, she was fairly sure he was actually starting to get turned on by it a bit but she wasn't exactly sure there. On top of that, he was just a generally 'nice' guy, he held open doors, he didn't complain when they had to take alternate routes due to her large size, and he never failed to compliment her appearance when she switched outfits for outings. He still occasionally slipped into bouts of weirdness, mostly whenever he saw something new and interesting - but it wouldn't be a success if he didn't have a few faults, either, so maybe she could live with ones as increasingly adorable as those.
He was also quite a dork at times, especially around any of his hobbies. When he had his glasses on, which he only ever really wore occasionally, he looked like a complete nerd, but really she didn't mind that much. If anything his dorkiness, while occasionally annoying, was more endearing than anything else most of the time.
Regardless, her self-ultimatum was that if he passed one last test, then she'd not let herself avoid asking him. She'd ask him to take a boat ride with her, even though the boats were very much not designed for her body shape.
Passing the place she initiated her plan. "Hey Kimihito, can we go out on the lake? I haven't ever actually been on a boat."
Kimihito paused for a moment, looking over at the various paddlers, and then at the price for a rental. Passing test part #1 in that he didn't even send her an apprehensive glance at the idea. "Okay!"
Heading into the building he went to pay for a rental. While Kimihito didn't let Rachnera see it, he was worried about just how he was going to make this work. He would make it work, though, or his name wasn't Kimihito Kurusu!
Rachnera couldn't help herself, she laughed, and laughed and laughed. The chime like sound was music to Kimihito's ears, even if he was the target of it. For he had come up with his idea to make the paddleboat work. He had let Rachnera get herself seated in the swan boat first, the spider girl taking up more or less the entirety of the sitting area. Kimihito meanwhile was standing, but he had to bend awkwardly to get his feet to the petals, making him look more like he was riding the swan head like it was a horse then sitting on a paddle boat.
"Hey, it works, doesn't it?" The black haired man said as they started to get underway.
Rachnera noticed the boat wobbling as they started to head out into the water. "Bit unstable, though."
"It'll be fine! The water's only like three feet deep anyways." Kimihito waved off her concern as he continued to peddle toward the center of the lake.
Rachnera was loathe to admit it, but there was method to the man's madness. The water was much too shallow to harm anyone, and if she stood atop the boat - were it to crash - then her abdomen lungs would stay above the water. The water was unnerving, all the same, for a drider. Yet Kimihito's doggedness met with his ingenuity. She had a hard time not wanting to trust him.
Or at least trust the webbing line she had secretly put on the back of his shirt, so she could fish him back into the boat if he fell off. Which she had to do not a moment too soon.
The black haired man on the swan boat over peddled on one side, and promptly lost his balance. Before he could actually touch the water, she tugged on the string and pulled him back. He was safely suspended and his clothes were dry.
Unfortunately, or fortunately really, she underestimated just how much strength she was using, and instead of pulling him upright, she instead pulled him back enough that he fell into her. His head ending up resting between her large breasts while her predilaps instinctively grabbed him around the waist and holding him tighter to her.
This was too intimate a spot for seasoned lovers, never mind the two of them.
Needless to say, the blush on both their faces was near nuclear meltdown levels. If anyone looked they could almost swear that steam was floating off them both.
Now, Rachnera could quickly lift him back up and they could forget about this moment.
Or she could be a woman of her word, wrap her human arms around him, and sink him deeper into her deep cleavage.
"Aah, well might as well take advantage of this while I can. Do you remember way back on the second date? When I told you that you'd need to put in more effort to get in my loincloth?" She chuckled, still blushing, as his eyes visibly sparkled in mixed terror and delight. "Well, you're not just quite there, but you are close enough that I think we can just call today's outing a date." Her bosom gently rubbed against him rewardingly. "But next time, I want to go to a fancy restaurant." Rachnera tapped Kimihito's nose preciously with an armoured finger.
Kimihito was about to say something, but whatever it was, along with even the memory of whatever it was, were wiped from the earth when Rachnera turned him around in her grip and kissed him deeply. When she pulled back with a blush Kimihito had more or less been reduced to a temporary mental coma.
"Heh, such a dork, it was just a kiss." Rachnera started, before she grinned to herself. "Though while we're at it…" She leaned back in, his eyes widening like an adventurer feeling the first pull of a hidden snare around his ankle.
The two wouldn't get off the boat for a good half hour, and Kimihito's brain would not recover from Rachnera's surprisingly adept tongue until the day after.
Kimihito and Rachnera's outings happened much more regularly from then on. They had at least one every week, if not twice a week, and as such Ren's plan was a complete success. She'd watch her spider homestay even go so far as to dress up for most of her outings now instead of throwing on one of her usual outfits, perhaps to hear Kimihito go into analytical detail on how the dress would look on her. Of course she had worn a 'The Boss' cosplay outfit more than once, so Ren really had no idea where the two were going at any given time. She occasionally asked Kimihito how a date would go, but she had tried to avoid prying too far.
She was planning to wait a little longer, before moving onto the next stage of her plan. While she had started to grow a bit more capable with holding a conversation with Rachnera, she knew the spider girl wasn't exactly going to flourish in her house any longer. Between her own still existent nervousness, and her growing relationship with Kimihito, she had decided to go out and acquire the papers officiating a transfer of a homestay.
Still, while she had begun to fill them out and everything, she had not been planning to bring it up with her parents, or take the process any further for at least a few months. To make sure her friend and the spider woman both really were into each other.
Unfortunately, time was not on her side. It was another one of Rachnera and Kimihito's date nights when the doorbell rang, and her parents moved to answer it. Ren, sitting in the living room heard what was happening. Some greasy, short man had shown up, and had heard from somewhere that the family was having issues with their homestay. Who told him he wouldn't say, but she heard her parents agreement on the issue.
Then he said something that nearly chilled Ren's bones.
"Well, I could take her off your hands, I'll even give you some compensation pay for taking care of her and there won't be any paperwork." Came the voice of the guy at their door, and Ren was immediately on her feet. She needed to stop this, her parents knew what was happening between Rachnera and her friend but she really didn't know if they'd take the money or not.
Sliding into the hallway on sock clad feet, Ren nearly crashed into her mother and father. "Wait! Don't do it!"
The pair were surprised at their daughter's words. They hadn't been about to accept the man's offer out of hand, but they had been rather sure Ren would have wanted the spiderwoman out of the house by any means necessary.
The sleazy man, too, seemed surprised, both by the entrance and the words out of Ren's mouth. "But this is an opportunity for you to remove this troublesome element from your house." His ichorous smile spread further, in the way that made her skin crawl. "Your family could even make some pretty good money off of this."
"But it's not legal!" Ren exclaimed, knowing quite well what was legal, given she had spent a good month just getting her hands on the paperwork.
"Of course it is." The man said. "I'm a registered employee of the interspecies integration unit. It's perfectly fine."
"Then show us your badge!" Ren pointed at the man, unconsciously replicating a pose she had seen in a number of shows when she had been younger.
"Okay, okay," The man said, putting his arms up in a placating gesture, reaching into his pocket he pulled out a card with a 'Interspecies Integration Unit' logo on it. Before the man could put it away Ren snatched it out of his hands, eliciting an irate "Give that back!" from the man.
Given the card was literally printed on poster board and wasn't laminated, he definitely didn't want people to actually touch his 'card.' "This is a fake! You're trying to scam us!"
"Dammit, give me that, you little brat!" The conman growled and grabbed the card out of Ren's hands before beating a hasty retreat to parts unknown as Ren's father turned to the phone in the entrance hall, threatening to call the police.
Silence rang out over the doorstep for a few moments after, before Ren's father closed the door and said. "Good job, Ren, your mother and I nearly fell for that. Though," he scratched his neck, "I must admit, I wouldn't have expected you to react like that. Given your...fear of spiders and all that."
"Fear of what? I'm not…"
She sighed. Apparently Ren had been much worse at hiding her fears then she had thought, but she stood relatively strong at the moment. "Well...It's not that, I've kinda been working on a solution of my own for that."
Ren ran up the stairs, to her room, grabbing her stack of papers and bringing them down. "Here, I figure we might as well do this sooner than later now, before something else like that might happen." Ren handed the stack to her parents, who promptly looked through it, looking at each other, then Ren. Her father spoke first.
"This... could work, and already most of the paperwork is done. I guess we could talk to him later tonight and finalize everything..." Her father hummed as he continued skimming, more than reading. "And I doubt Rachnera would even mind the change."
Rachnera woke up late into next morning. Without any work, she had a habit of sleeping in, and on top of that she had had coffee the night before while out at a nearby bar and grill with Kimihito.
What she wasn't expecting though, was to find all her stuff packed in boxes. Utterly confused, slightly concerned that perhaps Ren's arachnophobia had finally overcome her, she went downstairs to find her boyfriend sitting in the living room, along with Agent Smith, the woman who had been in charge of finding her hosts, as well as Ren and her family.
Kimihito waved to her and the spider girl stepped into the room with a tiny hint of nervousness, not exactly sure what the reason everyone was here for, but worried none the less. Standing behind the chair Kimihito was sitting at she noticed the knowing look Smith directed her way. She felt there was bound to be a talk with the woman at some point, but she figured there was some other reason for today's meeting then her relationship with Kimihito.
Ms. Smith spoke first, a teasing smirk on her face. "Don't worry, Rachnera, it's all good news today I think."
"Oh?" The spider girl tilted her head.
"The first news is that you're moving out-" Smith started before Rachnera exclaimed
"Wait, moving out? But then where am I going to go!?" Rachnera started to panic, before being calmed down by Kimihito putting a hand over one of her chitin plated ones.
"If you would just let me finish." Ms Smith continued. "The good news is that you'll be moving in with your little honey here. He volunteered to take you in."
Rachnera held still for a moment, before looking over at Ren. The red haired woman looked a bit nervous, but gave Rachnera a thumbs up. She had more or less set the whole thing up, she was sure. "Well...how could I say no..?" She raised a slightly skeptical eyebrow which had the rather strange effect of making the secondary and tertiary sets match the expression on her human...ish... eyes. Despite it, she still sounded hopeful. "Especially since you don't seem to have a problem with what we're doing?" Rachnera emphasised what she meant by trailing a finger along Kimihito's jaw line, much to the embarrassment of Ren's family, and poor Kimihito himself.
"Eh, I should, but honestly I can't bring myself to start filing the reports. Anyways, I think you two look good together." Smith grinned over the lip of a cup of coffee she materialized from apparently nowhere. "Though if you could try to keep the more blatant things at home it would make my life a lot easier. I had to do a ton of damage control after that little incident on the lake, or that time at the dance hall…"
The latter mention brought up a rather significant blush from them both, though they didn't elaborate on the topic despite the questioning look from Ren. Smith didn't elaborate either, and the topic was quickly discarded when Rachnera obliged. "Okay okay, I'll try to keep myself in check. Though if you don't mind, I have to give my boyfriend a celebratory kiss."
Even with the warning, Kimihito was caught off guard when Rachnera bent over him and planted a kiss rivaling the one on the lake on him. It went on longer then anyone was really prepared for, and everyone else in the room started to get a bit uncomfortable when two started moving from 'questionable' to 'cover-the-children's-eyes'.
Eventually Ms Smith coughed, and the couple broke it up. Kimihito rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, scarlet still painting his cheeks. "Er… Sorry about that…" He changed the subject as quickly as humanly possibly, and stood, stumbling only a bit, considering how much a kiss like that would stagger the average person. "Come on Rachnera, I rented a truck so we can get all your stuff over to my place in one go."
With the drider returning a practically radiant smile, clearly less embarrassed than the poor black-haired student at their show of infatuation, the young couple headed upstairs, leaving behind a chuckling Smith, a smiling Ren, and the rather uncomfortable, but still happy for the result Mr and Mrs Kunanzuki
A/N 2: Review responses!
Doc Slendy: I was very tempted to have Kimihito do this, but figured it wasn't quite something he'd do, though another iteration had Zombina punching his lights out instead.
RedGargoyle09: I actually have a plan for if the Kimihito/Cathyl arc ends up being voted up. (I actually have outlines for more or less every character at this point because I get bored and work them out.) Hopefully it'll be good when the votes get there.
Ichifell: Glad you liked the pairing so much! I have to admit Zombina really did grow on me as well while I was writing the arc. Sorry I missed getting this up in May though D:
lightkirinhuruname: Glad you liked it so much! Hope you like the next arcs just as much.
Hyperion52: Luckily the next chapter is Rachnera. Though I must admit I'm not terribly sure I hit Rachnera's personality right. Glad you liked the last arc!
AnknRms: Hope you didn't forget to vote also :P
GioM-Meow: Glad you liked it! Hope this chapter lived up to your hype.
And last note, remember to vote! I see 66 follows for this story but we only have 35 votes! (Centorea is currently winning with Kii in second and Ms Smith in Third. Lots of other girls to vote for too if you don't want one of those three to win!)