EP.8 My Pets Are Getting Obsessed -2
EP.8 My Pets Are Getting Obsessed -2
The next morning.
The next morning, we gathered around the table for breakfast.
"Haaah..."
"Sniffle..."
"Ugh..."
The lively atmosphere from before was gone, replaced by a funeral-like gloom.
I hadn't gotten a proper night's sleep, too busy agonizing over what to do about the two of them.
Miho's face was swollen tight from crying all night, and the tail fur she groomed daily was a tangled mess.
Yata was equally haggard — she seemed to be spiraling from all her worries about the future.
Anyway, with the three of us like this, sitting together for a meal, there was no way the mood could be good.
"Kkyuii..."
The only one in a normal state was Tia.
As she looked back and forth between the three of us, she seemed to be getting gloomy too.
I felt sorry for Tia.
"Thanks for the meal."
"Ah! I'll clear the dishes."
"No, it's okay."
I'd stopped ignoring them.
After seeing their despairing reactions, no matter how I thought about it, ignoring them was the worst possible choice.
I realized I could get angry, but at the very least I must never ignore them. So I changed my thinking.
I could not keep ignoring them when it would hurt them so deeply.
"Husband, about what happened yesterday..."
"Yata, I'm sorry, but can we do this later?"
"Okay, I understand..."
I had stopped ignoring them, but I still had not figured out how to resolve their conflict.
So until a proper solution came to me, I decided to keep some distance from them for now.
If I got closer to them in my current state, they'd just end up fighting each other again.
"Hwaaa! I'm going crazy...!"
"Kkyuit!"
"Sorry, Tia. Because of me, even you couldn't have a proper meal."
"Kkyuii!"
As soon as I took Tia back to my room, my companion dragon gave me a thorough scolding.
Why'd you do that! Tia fumed, puffing up her cheeks.
She started diligently smacking my head with her tiny hands.
"But if I don't do this, the two of them will just fight again, you know?"
"Kkyui! Kkyuit!"
"Stop them every single time? You know perfectly well how hard that is."
The two of them were Divine Beasts. Meanwhile, I was human.
With our base specs completely different, stopping them was incredibly difficult.
Especially when Miho started using her abilities, the difficulty of suppressing her rose exponentially.
"Even if I stop them, they just fight again..."
And even when I barely managed to pull them apart, they'd be at it again before long.
After all that effort to stop them, they'd fight as if my struggle meant nothing. Of course I got angry.
"Kkyuit! Kkyuiit!"
"You're saying there's a good method to make them reconcile at times like that?"
At my question, Tia nodded her head several times in affirmation.
Then she suddenly raised her hand and confidently proposed a live demonstration.
"Alright, show me what you've got."
"Kkyuit!!"
Tia was a young dragon who hadn't been born long ago, still ignorant of the ways of the world.
Nevertheless, she was still a Divine Beast dragon, and the books said dragons were among the most intelligent of Divine Beasts.
That naturally left me hopeful.
If the method Tia demonstrated was truly good, then all the worries I'd been carrying would vanish at once.
"Kkyui!"
At her signal, Tia climbed onto my shoulder.
What was she planning?
Just as I wondered, Tia suddenly spread her little arms wide and squished my cheeks in a tight hug.
Then she rubbed her cheek against mine or even kissed me hard enough to bury her face in it, looking blissfully happy.
"Kkyuit!"
"Uh...? That's it?"
"Kkyu!"
The sheer confidence of the baby dragon as she answered yes left me a little baffled.
I'd thought she was going to show me something special, but all she did was a simple act of affection with zero specialness whatsoever.
"So you're telling me to do the same thing to Miho and Yata that you just did to me?"
"Kkyu!"
Tia's affection had certainly lifted my mood.
Who wouldn't enjoy receiving affection from a cute baby dragon?
But for me to pull that same stunt... there were a few... no, a lot of problems with that.
If I had to pick the biggest one, first of all, I'd probably die of embarrassment.
"Kkyuuit!"
"They'll definitely love it, so just do it?"
Well, I did think they'd like it if I did something like that for them...
But that approach did not solve the underlying problem.
The fundamental problem of reducing their fights!
"Kkyuit."
But Tia, as if she'd shown me enough, climbed down from my shoulder and went on her way, unwilling to demonstrate any more.
"Ugh..."
I wanted to believe it too.
I wanted to believe my companion animal's advice.
But this kind of affectionate act...
"It's impossible after all!"
I felt sorry for Tia, but I'd have to look for a different method.
A good method only I could pull off...
***
"Mmm...?"
On the bed.
A memory surfaced—being so sleep-deprived from brooding since yesterday that I'd gotten drowsy and unconsciously lain down and fallen asleep.
"I ended up sleeping like a log after all..."
My body was already tired from training.
The situation had exhausted me mentally as well, and I must have passed out once I could no longer hold on.
Still, given how sleepy I was even after waking, the exhaustion seemed considerable.
But if I kept sleeping, I figured I wouldn't be able to fall asleep at night. So I opened my door to at least wash my face, and...
"Whoa?!"
I spotted Miho standing right in front of the door, got startled, and fell backward.
"M-Miho?! What are you doing there?"
Something seemed off about my companion fox.
The atmosphere around her was chilling, and her eyes seemed dead...?
"Dear husband, I spent all of yesterday in tears, thinking and thinking. How could I get you to accept my apology? How could I make you love me again...?"
"A-And...?"
"A simple method came to mind."
Miho stepped closer, cupped both of my cheeks with her hands, and opened her eyes in a spine-chilling way.
Her madness-filled pupils made me feel like I was losing my mind.
"I'll just change the past with my ability! I'll overlay your memories with a false past—one where I've been your companion animal ever since you were born! That's all it takes...!!"
"W-Wait! You're saying you'll alter my memories and change the past?!"
"Yes! I'm truly sorry. I swore I'd never use my ability on you again, but... I have no other choice now, do I? If I'm going to be unloved by you anyway!! I'd rather do this and receive your love, no matter what...!!"
Miho, willing to deny her entire past just to make me look at her, could only be described as insane.
No, she was just insane!
She'd gone mad from extreme love deprivation!
"Stop it! If you do something like that...!"
"Yes, I know. If the illusions come undone later, there'll be problems, right? But I don't care! As long as I can receive your love right now, anything goes...!!"
As Miho's crimson eyes grew even more blood-red, my vision blurred and my consciousness began to haze over.
Ah, it's too late now...
"Step aside, you animal bitch."
Just as that thought crossed my mind, someone's leg kicked Miho away and saved me.
A bare leg with sleek chocolate skin—there was only one person with legs like that.
"Hey, Yata?"
"Are you okay? Dear husband?"
"That was close! Thanks to you, I'm ali—huh?"
Wait...? Something's off.
"What's wrong, husband?"
"...Why are you holding a kitchen knife?"
"Ah, this? Why, obviously~"
Yata had been grinning.
Then she wiped the smile clean off her face and slammed the kitchen knife into the wall right next to my face.
"Hic...!!"
"I brought it so we can be happy together~!"
"H-Happy? What's a kitchen knife got to do with being happy...?"
"Because you and I have to die together, right now!"
Was I the only one not getting this?
Dying together for the sake of happiness...?
What kind of logic was that?
"You see, husband, ever since you got angry at us, it's stopped showing up. The future where you and I live happily..."
"I-It was true?!"
A fact I'd never imagined.
I'd only guessed at the reason Yata was so anxious, but for it to actually happen...!
"Ever since I gained my future sight ability, all I've done is dream of a future where I'm happy with you, and I've loved you for it...!! But I can't see it anymore, that future! The happy future of you and me, I can't see it...!!"
"Calm down for now! Yata! It might suddenly reappear, you know?"
"Husband... for a future to no longer be visible means the erasure of that future! So the happy future of you and me no longer exists!! It's gone!! So die with me. Since the future where we'd be happy has vanished, die with me so we can be happy right now...!!"
Yata's black eyes had lost all life.
Her pupils, which once shone like a bright night sky, could no longer see the future and had become completely shrouded in pitch black.
It was what happened when she, who had lived dreaming only of bright futures, rejected the rest of them.
Yata had gone mad as well.
"Yata! S-Stop!!"
"I'll send you off in one blow so it won't hurt, so please stay still...! After I kill you, I'll follow right behind so you won't be lonely...! So...!!"
Yata's kitchen knife, so well-sharpened it left clear cut marks in the wall.
A blade that sharp was now rushing toward me.
Ah, I was going to die...!
"Have you lost your mind, you birdbrain?!"
This time, Miho was the one who kicked Yata away, letting me narrowly keep my life.
"What are you doing! Don't interfere, you animal bitch!"
"You're the one who shouldn't interfere! You avian bitch!"
The two companion animals began glaring at each other.
I'd suspected as much, and sure enough, their meeting sparked yet another fight.
Oil and water, ice and fire, soup-dunkers and soup-dippers.
These two Divine Beasts, who shared a relationship of absolute incompatibility, seemed to want to exclude each other's existence by any means necessary.
"You insane animal bitch...!"
"You insect-like avian bitch...!"
Uwaaa...!!
The problem was that both of them were currently in a severely unhinged state.
One was suffering from love deprivation, the other from future denial. They were both extremely on edge.
And in that state, they were going to fight?
Until then, they had always pulled their punches, keeping the damage to a minimum. This time was different.
The two Divine Beasts, pushed to extremes, had blinders on.
So it was only natural that the worst calamity yet was about to unfold.
"What should I do?! What on earth should I do!!"
Ah, I seriously felt like I was losing my mind...!!
"Hah...!!"
Suddenly, Tia's face flashed in my mind, and the solution she'd proposed came rushing back with it.
"Ah, so it really does come down to that method...?"
With things having come this far, I couldn't afford to be choosy about methods.
I didn't want to, but I had no choice.
Now that the two of them had lost their minds, I had no choice but to join them...
"Huuuh...! Haah...!"
After taking a deep breath, I grabbed the arms of my two companion animals, who were in the middle of a fierce staredown.
"Huh? Dear husband...?"
"Husband...?"
"Shut up and follow me!"
I forcibly dragged the two of them to my room and, telling any consideration to go fuck itself, threw them onto my bed.
"Eek...!"
"Kyaat...!"
"Both of you, listen up carefully from now on."
If scolding doesn't make them listen, then discipline them with love.
"You bitches are running your mouths right now, blabbering about the past being wrong or the future being wrong... but shit! You think I give a single fuck?"
I tossed off my pants.
"Every time I see you two fight like this, it seriously disgusts me and pisses me off! How is it that you two never go a single day without fighting?"
I threw off my top too.
"What are you doing, you bitches in heat! Hurry up and strip!"
"Yeess...? Yes, sir!"
"Nn...! Nngh!"
I even threw off my remaining underwear and took another deep breath.
Otherwise, I did not think I could keep myself in this unhinged state...
"Starting now, I'm gonna make sure you bitches in heat don't give a single fuck about whatever past or future! Got it?"
"Aahh...!!"
"Hahht...!!"
The two companion animals, well aware of what was about to be done to them.
They flinched once as they stared at my crotch, then gradually turned into docile females.
So much so that it was hard to believe they were the same feral bitches from just moments ago...
Tia, my clever little daughter... you were right.
"The one who's ready first, spread your legs. Today, I'm gonna pound you bitches in heat as much as you want!"
"Yesh, yeshh...♡"
"Haah!! As much as you want...♡"
A saying you've probably heard at least once in your life.
Normally, I would have laughed it off. Given the situation, however, it did not seem entirely wrong.
Instead of fighting, just fuck.