Chapter 36: Shopping for School!

"Eryn, Eryn. Look at this."

"Oh, is this what you were looking at before, Lofie?"

Lofie was standing in front of a bag display. This same display had captured her attention with its bags that came in many shapes and colors. Her eyes were drawn to the green-colored one.

"I think these are school bags!" Azusa adjusted her glasses. "You can't go wrong with school bags! Everyone needs them to carry their prized possessions."

"These bags do look nice." Eryn grabbed a random bag off the display. Its size was small, compact, and its quality appeared durable. It's quite light, too!

"Come to think of it, do you have any of your old school bags, Eryn?" Azusa asked.

"No, they're all worn out…" Eryn sighed. "All I have is my laptop bag. And maaaybe the suitcase if you want to qualify that as a bag here."

"Right… you weren't much for taking care of your old stuff."

"Ouch." Eryn crossed his arms. "Did you really have to say that?"

Azusa stuck her tongue out. "I jest."

"I really like this bag, Eryn." Lofie took off the green bag that had caught her eyes. Its bright color matched the color of her skirt. Maybe that's why she adored it.

"That's a nice color." Eryn crouched beside her and patted her head. "Do you want to have this bag, Lofie?"

"Ahm…" Lofie looked at Eryn, then looked at the bag. Her tail began wagging intensely as she drew the bag closer to her face.

"Haha, I believe I can take it as a yes?" He grinned. How adorable it was to see her tail express her answer. "I'll get that for you then."

"… Really?" Her fluffy dog ears twitched.

"Of course, you need a school bag if you're going to school, after all." He stood up, looking for the other two monstergirls. "And I believe Iris and Melty will need their own school bags, as well."

"We're here!" Melty popped up along with Iris. The hinezumi's eyes stared at the bag in his hands. "Oh, what's that, Eryn?"

"A school bag." He answered, putting it back on the display. "I figured you two would need school bags to carry your stuff."

"Oh, this one looks cool!" Melty grabbed the red-colored one off the display. It didn't surprise Eryn one bit that she went for this color.

"Oh…" Silently, Iris stared at the selection of bags; she didn't reach for any of the bags as her sisters did which Eryn noticed.

"Don't you want to choose a bag, Iris?" Eryn moved next to her.

"… Can I, Eryn?" She looked at him with upturned eyes, unsure. And yet similar to Lofie's tail, her tail curled around from side to side.

"Why not?" He smiled. "You'd need a nice bag for school, don't you think?"

Iris returned her eyes to the bag display. Those bags looked cute, she thought. Her eyes shifted to Lofie's green bag, and then to Melty's red bag. Their bags looked cute too. Her eyes then stopped at Eryn.

"If Eryn doesn't mind getting it for me…" Iris bowed her head and twiddled with her fingers. Standing up on her toes, she grabbed a seemingly white bag and took it off. At a closer glance, its color resembled her own hair color, a pale purple.

"That's a pretty color, Iris." He caressed her head between the ears. "Do you want this bag?"

"Yes…" Iris nodded timidly. "I like this bag."

"Mhmm, all right then." He stood up. Eryn sensed that Iris probably felt hesitant to buy things for herself. More than that, she might have never gotten opportunities where she could choose. And again, it always makes me think back to what kind of environments they were raised in before…

… Well I can think of that later. Eryn clapped his hands. "Now let's get you some other things."

"W-We're still getting more?" Iris asked, surprise hinted in her voice. She was already grateful to get new bags for herself and her sisters. And Eryn would still buy them more stuff…?

"Of course." He winked. "What good is a bag if it's empty? You gotta fill those bags with school supplies!"

"But Eryn—…"

"Yay!" Melty hopped up in joy, raising the bag over her head. "What kind of school supplies will we get, Eryn? I wanna know!"

"Humhum!" Lofie bobbed her head. "I want to know too."

Before Iris could even voice her hesitance, Melty and Lofie already expressed their excitement at getting new items, interrupting the little catgirl. And even if she hesitated, Eryn would still buy new supplies for her.

"Let's start with…" Eryn's eyes scanned around the store. What should we start with? A lot of items caught his attention. What would constitute definite necessities for the monstergirls? His eyes stopped on something that answered this question. I think we can start with this! "… some books!"

Eryn walked to several stacks of books organized on a white table. The books were sorted based on the color of their covers. Picking up one of the display books, he opened it up and flipped through the pages. The lines are organized and it looks neat! "I think you'll each need a notebook you can write into."

"Oh!" Melty and Lofie's animal ears twitched with curiosity. They stood next to the table. It especially intrigued Lofie since she liked drawing in her sketchbook. Seeing that Eryn had no reservations about getting them more supplies, Iris huffed and followed her sisters.

"And to write into these notebooks, you'll need…" Eryn then picked up a case, "… a set of colored pencils!"

"Ah!" Melty's eyes sparkled with joy. The colored pencils interested her the most. There were so many colors!

"It's as if you're also going to school, Eryn." Azusa joked, patting his shoulder. "You look just as excited as them."

"Haha, do I?" He scratched his reddened cheek. That's a bit embarrassing to hear. He simply wanted to make sure the monstergirls had everything they needed. Oddly enough, this brings me back to my early school days…

Back then, his mom would bring him to a school store and let him choose what he wanted. It brought his kid self joy, having a cool-looking sharpener, the latest set of colored pencils, or even a bag based on his favorite cartoons. It was the simple joys in life, really…

Who would have thought that two decades later, he'd be doing the same for his monstergirls? If he received that joy in his life, then he wanted to deliver it to them. I wonder if this is what my mom felt…?

And so, Eryn and the monstergirls spent some time choosing the school supplies. They'd be getting bags, books, colored pencils, and other school stationery items. Iris eventually warmed up to the idea of accepting these items, but she still felt Eryn was being too kind to her.

...

After shopping around the school store for a while, Eryn got all the supplies the three monstergirls would need. All that's left is to buy them! Carrying all the items in a shopping bag, he walked up to the cashier who, to his surprise, looked like a human. Her hair bangs covered her left eye. Long wavy hair of a purple shade flowed down her back. Her visible eye also matched the color of her hair, being a vivid purple.

"Hello!" The woman greeted Eryn politely. "Would you like to make your purchases?"

"Yes." He returned the smile and placed the shopping bag on the counter. For some reason, I thought a monstergirl would be working behind the counter. But it wasn't so out of place. In Azusa's own words, she mentioned this was the grandest mall ever made for both humans and monstergirls; why wouldn't humans be helping here too?

"Awww…" her eyes stared at the contents of the shopping bag, then darted to each of the three monstergirls. "If you don't mind me asking, are these school supplies for your adorable kids?"

"U-Uh…" Eryn blushed at her question; he scratched his cheek. "Y-Yes, you could put it that way."

"Well, isn't that cute!" The woman clasped her hands. "Allow me to sort through these items first."

She grabbed one of the bags with her left hand, and then another bag with her right hand. It made sense; her two hands could hold one item each, as one would expect.

Then she grabbed the third bag with another hand, then grabbed the books with another different hand. Another set of hands picked up the colored pencil set. Wow, she could pick up a lot of the items at once…

… Except those weren't human hands nor did they even at all resemble hands. They were slender and cylindrical, curving at the tip with bright white coloring its smooth and seemingly slippery skin.

In fact, Eryn counted and found eight additional extra "hands".

"W-What…?" He blinked a few times, processing what he was witnessing. They look like… tentacles? And each of these eight tentacles moved independently of each other. As if they possessed free will. That's kinda… mesmerizing to see.

"Oh!" Melty's eyes widened at the woman's tentacles; she pointed at her, which was an all too familiar sight for Eryn. "You're a Scylla!"

"A good guess!" The woman winked. Two more tentacles rose from behind the counter, these tentacles having purple gradients as opposed to the other white tentacles. She had 10 extra 'hands' now. "I'm actually a kraken."

"Woah!" Melty exclaimed in awe, then turned to Eryn. "Did you know that, Eryn?"

"Honestly, I thought you were human." He chuckled, drawing a hand to his waist. "But I should have expected much."

"Haha, it always amusing to see humans react to my tentacles popping out of nowhere." The woman let out a cute laugh as her tentacles wiggled around her. "It's not obvious from where you're standing, but the lower half of my body comprises completely of these tentacle lovelies."

This reminded Eryn of the time he went to that bakery with Melty. He thought that woman was human, but seeing her spider legs indicated she too was a monstergirl—an Arachne. Whereas the Arachne had many legs, the kraken woman had, in a sense, many hands. Having this many hands seems pretty useful for multitasking!

After scanning the items and totaling the price, the kraken turned to Eryn. "Is there anything else you'd like to add?"

"Ah…" Eryn put his hands on his waist. I don't think so…? He stroked his chin, figuring he could ask the monstergirls. Maybe they'd like something more! Turning around, he directed the question to the little trio. "Would any of you like to buy something else?"

"I'm happy with whatever Eryn gets me!" Melty grinned, hopping up and down.

"Eryn has already bought a lot of stuff for us," Iris answered in her still hesitant manner. She rubbed her elbow. "I think I don't need anything else."

Eryn smiled at their cute answers. If they were okay with this, then that was fine by him. However, he only heard two answers. He saw Iris's cat ears. He saw Melty's mouse ears. No fluffy dog ears in sight. Again.

"… Wait, where's Lofie?"

...

"This sketchbook might be just what I need…"

Nona stood in front of a bookshelf imbued with magical powers. Books were flapping around the shelf as if they were living birds. In her hand was a sketchbook and in her other hand a crayon.

She began scribbling butterflies on the page; seconds later, the butterflies glowed and phased out of the page, flying around Nona's owl ears.

"Fascinating…" Nodding to herself, Nona swiped her hand across the page and the page faded into nothingness, returning to a blank state. As if nothing was ever drawn on it. "Convenient… hmm?"

Her owl ears perked up. She sensed a pair of eyes studying her closely from behind, prompting her to turn around and find a little Anubis looking up at her—or rather, looking at the sketchbook.

"Oh, little Lofie." Nona gently smiled and crouched. "Are you fascinated by this sketchbook too?"

Wanting to show off the sketchbook, the owl mage scribbled random flowers on the page. The flowers glowed out of the page, translucent in color and floating in mid-air.

"Woah…" Lofie's green eyes were fixated on the floating flowers. How did they come out of the page? Did this sketchbook have magical powers?

"If you like drawing and coloring, I would recommend getting this sketchbook. It's very fun to use!" Nona smiled sweetly, finding Lofie's interest adorable. "This magic certainly didn't exist when I was as little as you."

Lofie's tail wagged from side to side at the idea of having this magical sketchbook. She indeed liked drawing and coloring; it would be so cool to show this to Eryn!

"Although…" Nona sighed once she checked the price tag which spilled over into the generous triple digits. "It's a pretty expensive item…"

"… Oh." Lofie's ears draped down, her tail stopped wagging. Seeing the price blew away whatever interest she had in the sketchbook. She wasn't foreign to the values of items. She couldn't ask Eryn to get this for her, could she? Maybe this time, she'd take a page out of Iris's book and not ask for more…

"Mhmm…" It saddened Nona's heart to see the little Anubis's rapid change of expression. Considering the amount of innate magic she sensed within Lofie, this sketchbook would suit her.

"Lofie!" A cheery voice called out to her. Lofie turned around to see her fire mouse sister waving back. "Why are you over there? Eryn doesn't want you away."

"Ah!" Lofie quickly walked away to return to Eryn, the sketchbook leaving her mind.

Nona stared at the little monstergirl trio from afar. I wonder… just how much magical energy do they possess? She's taught many monstergirls over the years. Many monstergirls who demonstrated exceptional prowess of their abilities. And yet, there was something about this little trio that stood out to her. Even the seemingly magically-inept catgirl radiated with mystical energy. Something that she'd never sensed in all her years of teaching. What could this be…?

These monstergirls are much more than they appear to be…