The Transformation Was Great, but the Situation Is the Worst

By the time I got home and opened the front door, my sister's heels were sitting in the entryway. Looked like she was back from her staff dinner.

"I'm home."

My sister's warm voice drifted out from inside. Then, partway through, it turned to pure panic.

"Otonashi~ welcome ho…… wait, is that a cat?!"

"……So it really did turn out just as you said…."

Peace sounded utterly resigned.

"Yuzuru, this isn't some cat-like beast. Look closely—she's a beastkin. A furry kind of beastkin."

"A furry?! What on earth does that mean?! And you called her this to her face!!"

"Among beastkin, the ones with especially thick animal blood—the ones who look more like beasts imitating humans—are called furries."

"Oh dear, I just called a beastkin a cat… I'm so sorry about that. I'm Shiota Yuzuru."

"Think nothing of it. My name is Peace."

And with that, Peace delivered an impeccably high-class introduction. Come to think of it, we had spoken to her so rudely… but honestly, she seemed to have a genuinely good personality.

More than anything, though—what on earth was she? Even granting that the disguise hid something, I could tell she was no ordinary beastkin. Her mana was far too pure.

And my sister seemed to have noticed she wasn't an ordinary beastkin either, because instead of approaching warily, she was radiating a strange curiosity. Who exactly was this beastkin, really?

First things first, my sister ordered delivery so Peace could have a proper dinner.

"You know, Peace, you give off a fresh forest scent—totally different from an ordinary beastkin. Could you be half elf, half beastkin?"

"Half elf and half beastkin? Is such a thing even possible?"

"Mm-hm. Theoretically, yes. Since the other races are humanoid, even we humans can have children with the demon race or the dragon race."

"That's… interspecies breeding, isn't it…."

"Right. But it's ethically fraught, and the academic council still hasn't decided how half-bloods should even be classified."

"For example?"

"Say I were to be with an elf man and bear his child. Would the child be human? Or elf?"

"That would be…"

"A half-elf, most would say."

Peace cut in on our conversation.

"But from my point of view, a half-elf with blood that runs strongly elven should simply be considered an elf, and one with the stronger human blood, a human."

"Exactly… that's how I think of it too. But the council still hasn't reached a conclusion, and from where I stand, it's maddening."

"Half-elves have their own racial identity, do they not? Then they need only live as whichever race they wish to be."

"What's that supposed to—"

"It is precisely because they are half that this is so. They carry the strengths of both races. Seen from where I stand, the problem isn't that they cannot enter human or elven society—it's that they could instead serve as a bridge between the two."

"Peace… you think about this more deeply than the professors on our council."

Yuzuru blinked at her in wide-eyed astonishment.

For a mere beastkin, her insight was far too extraordinary.

"Could you be, perhaps… a sage from the forest? A hermit?"

"Sis, that's rude to Peace. She's a lady, however she may look."

"WHAT?! She's a woman like me?! By the way she talks, anyone can tell she's some grandfather-sage type!"

"I APOLOGIZE!! It's because I am a 'person' who talks this way!!"

Peace's voice boomed through the living room.

Her usual dignified bearing was nowhere to be found. The denial of her sex and identity had her puffing up so furiously that her tail bristled out to twice its size.

Yuzuru stared at her, eyes gone huge.

"Oh my—you really are a woman? Sorry, sorry. With that voice, and the way you talk, so solemn and all, I just assumed you were a sage."

"Hmph! This body is a noble… in any case, a lady, I say! And calling me a hermit of the woods—what a crude, simplistic judgment!"

Peace sniffed haughtily, but perhaps Yuzuru's apology had softened her mood a little, because she began grooming the fur of her tail.

"Otonashi… that one's not just any beastkin, is she?"

My sister sidled up to me and whispered.

"……You could tell?"

"I can feel mana coming off her, but it's too clean. Like nature itself, distilled and condensed. Where on earth did you bring back someone this extraordinary from?"

There was more odd fascination than wariness in my sister's voice.

And then it happened.

The air inside the house turned heavy in an instant, and all the noise around us cut off as if someone had flipped a switch. It felt as though time had stopped—no, as if the world's flow itself had frozen for the span of a few breaths.

'……So it was you who drew the presence of that otherworldly being here.'

A voice that rang not in my ears, but directly inside my skull.

Don't tell me—was that bizarre phenomenon just now also Peace's doing?

And "otherworldly being"—did she mean the thing the world had been calling a monstrous lifeform lately?

'Do not pry so deeply into my identity or my powers already. However… I say this because I can see a sinister presence clinging to you even now.'

Peace looked at me as though she'd read my mind and let out a shallow sigh.

'Fear not. I have merely touched the flow of time for the briefest of instants. Close your eyes for a moment.'

Peace waved a hand lightly. At once, I felt the unsettling presence that had been pressing against my back melt away like snow.

And then she shaped that sinister presence, as if condensing it into a crystal orb.

My eyes snapped open, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I beheld the figure of a woman.

-CRASH!

With a shattering sound like a breaking glass, the world snapped back into its proper pace.

It had felt like quite a long moment to me, but my sister was blinking along as if nothing had happened. Apparently it had been a truly vanishingly brief instant for her.

'What… what on earth was that just now?'

'I'll tell you when the chance arises. For now, the delivery food comes first, wouldn't you say?'

Before I could even answer the voice in my head, the doorbell rang right on cue.

Ding-dong.

"Coming~ just a moment~"

Yuzuru went out and brought the food in. Tonight's dinner was boneless fried chicken—the kind that becomes legendary with a single sauce.

Charcoal-grilled chicken, chosen specifically for me, since greasy food doesn't sit well with me.

"This is… what manner of food is this…?"

For the first time, Peace's usual stern tone wavered slightly.

"Ah, this is the savior of mankind! The dish they call Chi-nus! Chicken!"

"But Peace, you're a beastkin of nature, so you can't really eat mea—"

"The world of survival of the fittest is a cold, impartial place."

Cutting me off, Peace proudly declared that she, too, was a carnivore.

"Then~ let's dig in~"

"Let's eat."

"Let us eat."

Peace grabbed a piece of the boneless chicken, took one bite—and wore the face of someone utterly addicted to the drug that is flavor.

That hint of spice wrapped in sweet-and-savory charm—there was no better food for a day like today, after everything we'd been through. And it was delicious, which boosted the recovery efficiency considerably.

"By the way, just before the food arrived, I felt a burst of very strange, alien mana, if only for an instant. What was that about?"

The moment Yuzuru asked, Peace flinched violently.

'To sense a distortion in the flow of time, even one that brief… that human is no ordinary woman either….'

"Oh, that was just Peace smelling the delivery food and having a momentary mana overload."

"KWAHAHA! Is it because she's a beastkin who lived in the forest? What a keen sense of smell!"

"……So unfair…."

And so Peace wore an expression that was half amazement at my survival tactics, half genuinely wounded innocence.

And that was how I came to understand, if only secondhand, the emotion called injustice.

While we cleared away the finished chicken, I handled the cleanup and set Peace up in front of the TV.

"Otonashi~ I'm going to wash up first. When are you going to bathe?"

It was about time for me to wash up and get to bed too.

'Hoh? A bath, you say… Might I too partake of this era's human civilization?'

'Um, excuse me… Peace, big si… ster…? A beastkin's fur must be so hard to wash and dry….'

'Big sister…? Did you just call me big sister?'

'Well, judging from the way you talk, you're a lady, but not a grandmother—more around Yuzuru's age, so I just…'

'……Not bad, that. The extermination of that otherworldly being has returned a measure of my power. Not all of it, but I can at least take on a form close to yours.'

'Um… you're still a furry though, right?'

'I AM NOT!!'

"Oh, then Sis, I'll go wash up with Peace~ She's been rolling around in the forest, so no matter how fresh she smells, she's bound to have germs."

'Do you truly feel no remorse toward me whatsoever?'

'Regrettably, I seem to have lost the capacity for such emotions, so I really couldn't say.'

'……'

'Let us go wash up, then.'

"Otonashi!! Peace is a LADY! However furry she may be, you be careful in there!!"

"You two truly do owe me an apology……."

Peace wore an expression of profound, honest injustice.

I set out a towel for Peace and one for myself. That was when a light ripple of mana came from behind me, followed by a soft fwump.

Wait. Did that sound just go fwump?

I turned around and there she was… not a furry… but Peace in the form of a standard beastkin—human in every way but the animal ears and tail.

It was the very figure of the mysterious woman I'd glimpsed for that instant earlier.

"Hmm… so I'm at roughly half my original strength… well, I suppose that's only fair, adjusting the flow of time twice in a single day… hm? What are you gawking at?"

The reddish-brown was gone, replaced by hair that shimmered with a faint pink luster, and a fox-tail as long as her hair swayed lazily behind ordinary, elegant fox ears.

And… she was stunningly beautiful. In all my memories, the only women prettier than her were Mizuki and Shiro.

The problem, of course, was that we were in the bathroom. Right now. And I had definitively recovered the emotions of bewilderment and flustered panic.

Not to mention that I was, at present, a red-blooded young man in his late teens.

And above all, Peace's figure was gloriously, outrageously curvaceous. The single biggest problem was that she didn't have a single thread of clothing on!!!

AAAAGH!! Sure, her long hair covered the important parts, but her hips were far too wide for it to…

My brain appeared to have seized up and shut down from overload.

All that stood before my eyes now was simply… one lady, possessed of flawless proportions.

"Otonashi? Why is your face so red? You were the one who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠insisted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we bathe, were you not?"

As Peace tilted her head, her long hair slid down along her shoulders, tracing an even more dangerous curve.

"In this form I have no fur save for my ears and tail, so grooming is far easier, you see."

"Please… please just hold still, Peace."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Straining to lock my gaze firmly on the ceiling, I resolved to first find a way to escape this hellish(?) bathroom.