Chapter 92: of Living Dreams: The Nest Grows

“Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“Uhm… I have a… a request.”

“Nn? What kind of request?”

Just as we prepared to go to bed, Karen stopped me from laying down.

“Uhm… I wanted to ask if we could… do it while you are transformed…”

“... Ah.”

Karen wanted… to do that with… Mm…

“Nn… I mean, I’m okay with that but… Do you mean… fully transformed?”

“Yes…”

“Ahhh…”

Basically, where I was stuck on the ground…

“We can’t do that on the bed, though.”

“So… it’s no good?”

“Nn, like I said, I’m fine with doing that. But... “

I couldn’t exactly do that on the bed. It felt like there was way too much that could go wrong if I attempted to do it there. But on the other hand, the floor wasn’t exactly comfortable…

“Nn… We’d have to do it in the other room then, I think.”

I glanced at the door, behind which the tentacles were. The floor covered in tentacles wasn’t as hard and uncomfortable, so it’d be a lot better… On the other hand…

“I just have no idea what is going to happen if we were to do it there… Are you still okay with it then, Sis?”

“What would happen there? How do you mean?”

“Well… It’s not exactly like I am always in control of those tentacles… And you know… They are kind of intended to do… sexual things… They might attack you.”

They might actually see Karen as some form of prey and assault her… That’s what I was worried about the most.

“Ah…”

Having realised what I meant, Karen furrowed her brows.

“Mm… They are still technically part of you, right? So, in other words, it would be like you were assaulting me. Then, everything is okay!”

“No, Sis… That’s not how it works…”

It was more like they used to be a part of me. And as such it wasn’t me who was assaulting her.

“Mm… But I think it’ll be fine. I mean, I don’t think they’ll act against your wishes…”

“I’m not so sure about that…”

“If it turns dangerous, I’ll defend myself, no worries. I very much doubt your tentacles could keep me restrained.”

“... That somehow ticks me off.”

Sure, I agreed that it was unlikely that they could actually harm Karen or restrain her… But the way she phrased it annoyed me. Even if it was correct. Even if it was correct!

“Now, now, don’t look at me like that, Yumi. I’m sure in the future it won’t be that easy anymore. You just have to keep at it.”

“Nn…”

Keep at it, huh…

“Rather than that, are we going now or not?”

“Nn… If you are sure it’s okay.”

“I am. In the first place, I trust you will keep them under control by yourself.”

“... I’ll do my best.”

Apparently, I wouldn’t get to experience the precious comfort of a bed today. Okay, it wasn’t as soft and comfy as the beds in my old world but I still had been looking forward to a wholesome and warm night in Karen’s arms.

And the tentacles were rather far removed from what I considered wholesome.

“Hm, hm, hmm… hm, hmmm....”

After we had decided what to, Karen entered the tentacle room, humming to herself.

“Ahh, they’re still squishy.”

“I’d be worried if they stopped being squishy…”

The only other options were they had dried out or they had become rock hard… Neither of which sounded like a good state for tentacles to be in.

With a wry smile, I followed Karen into the room and closed the door behind me. There was little light in this room in the first place but now I could really not see anything without changing my eyes for the night vision.

“It still looks like something straight out of a nightmare…”

With the tentacles covering everything and even hanging down from the ceiling, it didn’t give the impression of a place you’d ever see in reality. It was flesh and tentacles in every direction.

“It’s like a cave of tentacles… Well, except it’s not a cave.”

It was inside a vehicle… Definitely not the right place for tentacles.

“Speaking of caves, did Lily tell you about tomorrow?”

“Nn? Tomorrow?”

“... So she didn’t. Fenna was apparently planning to take her squad tomorrow to that cave with the ropers for reconnaissance. Lily thought maybe you’d be interested in seeing a roper for real.”

“Ohh… No, she didn’t tell me about that.”

Seeing a roper for real, huh…

“They’re just going there for reconnaissance?”

“Yes. Since they’re still unsure if there is a nest mother. In case there isn’t, Fenna apparently intends to finish the job immediately.”

“Ohhh… Nn, but is it okay if I just come along?”

“Weren’t you supposed help with those tasks anyway?”

“Ahhh… Nn. But… after that incident things got delayed.”

The Captain decided to put a priority on finding Yumelia as well as securing means to protect ourselves from her magic. The magicians didn’t need them but everyone else did.

“Ahh… Right. Well, anyway… Lily said that if we were interested in coming along, we should just tell Fenna tomorrow morning.”

“Nn… Yeah, I think I’d like to go with them.”

I’d probably never stop having mixed feelings about being close to ropers but… There might be something interesting to learn from them.

“I see. Then, we should go to her before breakfast.”

“Nn.”

Karen sat down on the floor—or rather, the tentacles—and let herself fall back.

“Ahh… I really like this soft and warm feeling. It’s like being enveloped by Yumi.”

“... You’re being enveloped by tentacles, though.”

I sat down as well, right in front of the rather thick tentacle in the middle of the room and used it as a backrest.

“I can’t really get used to this… It’s comfortable but…”

Ignoring that it was a little ticklish having them move beneath me, they also… brushed past my more sensitive areas.

“You think so? I like it.”

Karen was smiling, enjoying the situation to the fullest.

“Haa… Then, Sis… I’ll change now.”

“Ah, wait, I want to watch.”

Before she had even finished her sentence, she was sitting upright again, looking at me. Having her watch me was a little embarrassing, but fine by me.

“I’ll start now.”

First would be… my legs. If something were to happen, I could still catch myself with my arms.

Once my legs had turned into tentacles and I could confirm that I wasn’t falling over yet, my arms were next. And after my arms, I had to deal with the bo—

“... Yumi? Is something wrong?”

“...”

“Yumi?”

“... Hey, Sis.”

“Yes?”

“You said, these tentacles are all just part of me in a way, right?”

“I did.”

These tentacles had grown because I had transformed and stuck myself on the floor of the wagon. But, why had they grown there? Just because of some residue mana? What if… What if there was an actual reason for it?

“Sis. I’m going to try something.”

“Okay?”

Not just connecting with the floor. No, the floor wasn’t the goal. After all, this was a room full of tentacles. Then… Then… Could I instead connect with them? With the tentacles?

No, rather than could… I feel like it definitely should work out…

Taking a deep breath, I concentrated on my lower half… And on the tentacles surrounding me, even the tentacle I was leaning against. Rather than getting stuck on the floor I should… shou—

“Ah!”

“Yumi? Yumi?”

Karen was moving, leaning forward, her weight shifting onto her arms. She called my name, then moved closer, crawling on top of… of…

“Yumi?!”

Information. Lots of information. Dozens of tentacles, each and every single one, moving and feeling. Karen touching and squishing the tentacles beneath her. My own body doing the same. A large amount of information surged into me, overwhelming me without any prior warning.

So much that I couldn’t comprehend it, deal with it. Until all went black.

---

“Nn…”

“Yumi?!”

“... Sis?”

A familiar voice called for me… From right above me.

“Ahh… Yumi, are you okay?!”

“Nn…”

Karen was… Was Karen mounting me? She was sitting right on top of me… I could clearly feel her butt and her legs.

Still a little groggy, I opened my eyes.

“Sis…”

“Yumi!”

She… wasn’t mounting me. She sat right next to me. In fact, I wasn’t even lying down, I was still upright, once again rooted on the ground. There’s no way she could have mounted me like this.

Then…

“... Hyah?! Yumi?!”

“... I can move them.”

“Did you have to try it like that, though?”

I thought she liked the tentacles, so why was she mad now? Well, okay, I’d probably be mad too if the person I worried about woke up and grabbed my butt within half a minute.

“How long... was I out?”

“Barely a minute.”

“Huh... “

That was a bit shorter than expected… Honestly, this was… a very weird situation. I had… not yet completely transformed, but mostly. The important part was that I was connected with the tentacles of this room. And every tentacle's sensation of touch was directed to me. This was… Overwhelming. And a weird and alien situation. I could move and feel every tentacle in this room. Without the need of moving them with mana or anything. As if they were part of my body.

It was a little similar to how I moved the tentacles that replaced my arms and legs but… Just with dozens over dozens more tentacles.

“So, Yumi… What happened?”

“... I seem to have joined the tentacles. Or more like, they joined me? Either way, they’re… like a part of my body now.”

I moved a few tentacles, caressing Karen’s legs. It was incredible. The tentacles were as sensitive as if I was touching her with my hands. I could feel every little bit of her skin.

“And the first thing you do is feeling me up?”

“Nn. It’s great.”

Also, I still had to get used to this a little. There were just… so many tentacles… Getting used to the overwhelming sense of touch was one thing but… I could also move them. And moving was...

If someone asked me to tap dance, juggle with both hands, recite a poem from memory and follow a moving point with the eyes, it still wouldn’t do justice to this… Disregarding that following a moving point was probably about the only one I could do. Never remembered any poems, really.

“This is a little too much…”

“What is? Did you get tired of my butt already?”

“No, I’d never get tired of it. But… there are too many tentacles. I can’t control all of these.”

This wasn’t a matter of saying ‘Practice more!’ anymore either. This was simply impossible. What kind of mind was needed to deal with this many tentacles?

“You say that, but you still keep touching my butt.”

“Nn. Of course I do.”

Her butt, her thighs, everything of her resting on top of the tentacles… Who could tell me not to enjoy this?

“Pervert.”

“Says the person who wanted to come here.”

“We’re both perverts.”

“Nn. We are.”

Right, we were just two rather perverted girls that actually intended to do something else.

Yet, here I was, trying once again to figure out what was happening. Even if I was tired and wanted nothing more than to hug Karen.

But, there was something else bothering me, apart from my complete lack of ability to control this mass of tentacles. Something that seemed too much to ignore right now, even if I wanted to.

“Nn… There’s a lot of mana…”

“Mana?”

“Nn. Like, inside the tentacles… It feels like… they stored it? A lot of it.”

“Hmm…”

I had thought that they used most of the mana from the mana crystals for growth but seeing this—or more like, feeling this—kind of threw me for a loop. Did they really use the mana for growing at all? Or… did they maybe just grow to store even more mana?

“I can’t really see all that much mana.”

“Nn… I think a lot of it is stored in those mana eggs but there’s also a real lot in the tentacles themselves. It feels… Similar to how I hide the mana from my mana crystal.”

But, why did they even store that much mana? A normal monster would probably use it for propagation or for growing stronger, right? This mana, though, was left completely untouched. Maybe they’d just suddenly use it up all at once when it reached a certain threshold. Or… there was something else.

Nn… Let’s see if I can access that mana.

Technically, this was part of my body now. So I should be able to do this.

I reached out to the mana below me and… I could, indeed, access it without any issue. But, now what? Should I take the mana for myself? That’d feel a bit like a waste, though. Not like I got any stronger from it anyway so far. Then, maybe the tentacles could do something with it?

Let’s try pushing it to one of the mana eggs.

They could contain a lot of mana, so that should be okay, right? Taking grasp of the large amount of mana, I pushed it to the nearest mana egg, the one to my left. Why the left? Cause Karen was to my right. Better safe than sorry.

Nn? This is... 

Barely had I pushed the mana into the mana egg, an odd… sensation… overcame me. Something like an intent. This… This wasn’t the same as when I knew something from instinct. It was more like… the mana egg itself was trying to tell me something. It… wanted me to decide. Decide on its… nature?

“Hey, Sis.”

“Yes?”

“If you imagine a cave with tentacles and traps… What kind of trap would you think of?”

“Trap?”

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“Nn.”

Karen tilted her head at my sudden question, repeating the word ‘trap’ several times.

“Something like a pitfall?”

“... I don’t think a pitfall is… Wait…”

The moment I imagined a pitfall, I could feel the mana being drained from the other mana eggs and the stored mana as well. Even a little bit from me was taken away. Not a lot though.

“No, no, no! This is bad! Really bad!”

A pitfall meant someone had dug into the ground. In other words, if the tentacles tried to make a pitfall here… That’d be absolutely catastrophic.

Oh for the love of…. Don’t! Don’t destroy the floor!

I closed my eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable sound of the floor breaking.

But it never came… Only the distinct sounds of the tentacles squirming, growing and… doing something. Which finally came to an end as well.

“Yumi… What is that?”

Forcing my eyes open in response to Karen’s question, I took a look at the tentacles, the spot where the mana egg had been.

A pink and fleshy yet smooth plate was on the floor. No tentacles were covering it. There were two slits in the form of a cross. I could feel it, as it was still connected to me. And… I could also open what looked like a plate.

Taking a deep breath, I braced myself for the inevitable.

“... It’s a pitfall.”

“... Ahhh… I screwed up. I screwed up really bad.”

Korwen was going to tear me apart… First that explosion, now this.

“Did you not want this, Yumi?”

“No it’s… the floor, Sis.The floor.”

“The… Ah!”

Realising what I meant, Karen shot up on her feet, then ran to the door, opened it, and dived for her clothes. It took less than a minute until she was clothed again. Then, she dashed out of the wagon, probably to check from the outside.

Ahhh… What do I do now? Can I get rid of this thing? Actually, I’d have to get rid of all of this, wouldn’t I? Before someone notices.

Just then, I could hear someone knocking. Probably Karen. Another knock. And another. And...  Wait...

Did she knock against that pitfall?

The sounds came from there. Was the outside of the pitfall solid? That’d be a little weird.

Just then, the door from the wagon opened again and Karen entered.

“Yumi…”

“Nn? How screwed am I?”

“There’s nothing outside.”

“... Huh?”

Nothing? But the pitfall was right there?

“There’s nothing outside. The floor is still intact.”

“No, Sis, look. There’s a huge hole there.”

“It’s not there on the outside.”

“... Then what is this hole?”

If it wasn’t visible from the outside… Where was the space of this hole?

“... Sis, is there magic that can distort space?”

“There is.”

“... Wait, seriously?”

“What are you surprised about, Yumias keeps using it, doesn’t she?”

“... That monster is not normal, though.”

But she was right, Yumias not only kept moving between worlds, but she also appeared out of nowhere. But that was more akin to teleportation, wasn’t it? Well, it was in a way related to space, so that was fine. No, it wasn’t. Messing with space sounded like something that could only end catastrophically if you made a mistake. And that was really scary.

“Well, I have no idea if this is normal either… But either way, the hole is here so…”

“So it has to be like that. Seeing is believing.”

I sighed. If I had my arms right now, I’d probably rub my temples.

“Yumi, what exactly did you do anyway?”

“Nn? Well, when I moved the mana to the mana egg over there I… I had this kind of feeling like I could tell the mana egg to… grow something. Or change into something? Rather, the mana egg told me to do it? I’m not quite sure how to describe it… But when I thought of the pitfall you mentioned, the mana egg immediately used up all the mana and… changed into that.”

It wasn’t quite like the urges I had had before. Rather than an urge guiding me to do something specific it was closer to an intent telling me there was something I could do.

“So, you can change them into… different things?”

“Nn… Seems like it. Though, I didn’t exactly expect this to happen.”

Karen walked up to the pitfall and peeked inside.

“It’s pretty deep. And there are a lot of tentacles inside.”

There were… I couldn’t see them but I could feel them. The depth was… probably a bit under two metre? I could only guess though. But if Korwen were to stand inside there, he’d probably still be visible, if just barely.

“Mm… Yumi, can I go inside there?”

“... Eh? Inside?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, Sis. Disregarding whether you want to be in there or not, what happens if that is some weird unstable magic and you get injured or worse?”

There was a space that shouldn’t exist. Who could tell me not to be suspicious and cautious about it?

“... Then, let’s test it out.”

With those words, Karen undressed again and promptly threw her clothes into the hole. The clothes landed softly on the ground. They were still warm.

“Seems fine to me.”

“... I still don’t like that idea.”

“Yumi, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“You’re awfully confident about that today.”

This was the second time within less than an hour where she said that things were going to be fine.

“Well… how to say it… I simply have this feeling that there is no danger? Also, I trust you, Yumi. And you can feel those tentacles, too, can’t you? Then, if something were to happen, you’d surely notice.”

“Uhhh…”

Leaving her own security up to a feeling… I was relying a little on these questionable feelings and instinctive actions as well but… I was a rather odd creature already. And chances of me dying were probably lower. Not that that made it any less scary.

But… Maybe Sis started having these weird feelings as well after she got stuck with me?

It was just a possibility, of course. We didn’t know the full extent of how Karen’s body would change. Or how it had already changed. Except for the weird issue with her hunger.

“If you don’t have any further complaints, I’m going now.”

“Ah.”

Just as I was contemplating what to do, Karen was already slowly climbing down into the hole. The tentacles on the walls were brushing past her as she steadily lowered herself, until her feet reached the bottom.

“Woah… Yumi, this is… Actually quite spacey.”

Karen was touching the walls to both of her sides. She couldn’t stretch out her arms but it was still rather comfortable. As comfortable as a tentacle pitfall could possibly be. Which seemed to be quite a bit, actually. For Karen.

“Yumi, can you do anything interesting now?”

Pieces of clothing were thrown into the air from inside the pitfall, landing right in front of me. Then, Karen sat down, leaning against the wall.

“Nn… I don’t really know. Give me a moment.”

I only really imagined it to be a pitfall. There might be something I could do, though. After all, there were plenty of the tentacles inside.

“Tentacles…”

The strong tentacles that grew when I first rooted myself onto the floor… They hadn’t come out this time, maybe because I was already stuck with the others. But maybe I could make them come out? Or rather, maybe I could change any of the tentacles inside there.

“Nn, Sis, do you see one tentacle, uhh, peeking out?”

“You mean this one?”

Karen grabbed the one tentacle that I was moving separately.

“Yes, that one. Could you tell me if something changes with it?”

“Changes? Okay, I can do that.”

Okay, now… Time to concentrate. Changing my limbs and the tentacles on my body had been something I could easily do. But this time I was trying to change one specific tentacle among… hundreds of them. This posed to be a little challenge… Singling out the tentacle and then trying to replicate that feeling of transformation onto it.

“Oh, it looks like that breastsucking tentacle now.”

“... It works, huh.”

Somehow, I succeeded. Then, next wa—

“Yumi, I’ll come out.”

“Eh? Already?”

Just after she had declared to leave, Karen quite literally jumped out of the hole. How the heck was this pitfall supposed to restrain anybody if everyone was a superhuman who could just jump two metre into the air? Who was the monster here, really.

“Yumi, let’s do the rest tomorrow. Or the day after.”

“Nn? That’s a bit surprising. I thought you’d like to continue.”

“Mm… I just realised I don’t like it.”

“You… don’t like it?”

Now, those weren’t words I expected from this resident pervert taken by the tentacles.

“Yes. I couldn’t see you. And then I noticed, if I can’t see you, there’s no point, even if it’s technically part of you.”

Karen squatted down in front of me and hugged me.

“I like you the most, not the tentacles. And I only like the tentacles because they belong to you. So, if I can’t hug you and feel you close, there’s just no point.”

“I… Is that so…”

I finished the transformation I had left somewhere in the middle halfheartedly, so my arms were back and I could return the hug.

“Yeah, this is what I like the best.”

“Hehe, I felt a little sad that I couldn’t see you either.”

In the end, we still liked each other the most just as we were, huh.

“Hey, Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“I know this is a little late but… Let’s do some more fun things, okay?”

“Nn.”

We shared a short but warm kiss, then we broke out in small giggles.

“Seriously, the heck are we doing?”

“Good question.”

“Speaking of which…”

Karen backed away a little and then pushed away the tentacles below me.

“Sis, what are you doing?”

“... I want to know how much of you is still there… Ah.”

A disappointed look appeared on her face. Well, just below my navel, my body quite literally became a mass of tentacles. In other words, the part she was looking for below that wasn’t there right now.

“Yumi. Let’s go back to the bed.”

“... Seriously?”

“Well, there’s no point if I can’t make you feel good as well.”

That was… It did make me happy to hear that. Though, as often was the case, she really tended to be quite blunt about something I was writhing in embarrassment with.

“Nn… Are you sure?”

“I am.”

“Well, if you are…”

Apparently, I would, after all, get my wholesome night on the bed with Karen.

“I mean, we just started to do different things anyway. And… That’s not quite what I wanted to do.”

“Nn. True.”

“Also, it’s late.”

“... That’s true, too.”

We did have to get up pretty early. Especially if we wanted to join Fenna. And about this whole thing, we’d just tell Ria and Korwen tomorrow. It was late and this wasn’t planned anyway. This wasn’t work time.

With that in mind, I undid my transformation. Except for one part.

“Yumi, what is up with your arms? Why are they pink?”

“Hehe, I have no idea why or how, but when my arms are like this, they’re a bit stronger.”

“Huh…”

Karen turned and grabbed my hand, abruptly pulling it upwards.

“Wah! Sis, what are you doing?”

“Oh, it really is stronger.”

Clearly, it wasn’t strong enough.

Karen let me go again after confirming that she was still the stronger one.

“Can you do that only with your arms?”

“Nn. Haven’t figured out how to transform only my arms to this either. But weirdly, I can keep them like this.”

“I see…”

We left the tentacle room with the new addition of a pitfall, returning to the regular room with the bed. Karen made a beeline to said bed and let herself fall down on it.

“Mm… The tentacles were comfier but I guess a bed is good too.”

“It’s better than the floor.”

I laid down next to Karen, or attempted to. Karen immediately pulled me into her embrace on top of her.

“Ehehe, caught a Yumi.”

“Oh no, whatever am I going to do now?”

“Mh, if you are a nice kid and become my pillow, I might let you go.”

“I guess I got no choice.”

A big grin on her lips, Karen hugged my waist and pulled me as close as she could, then kissed me.

“Mh, I like this the best, after all.”

“Is that so?”

“That it is.”

I liked this more as well. Being close, feeling her body heat as well as hearing beating heart. This was the place I felt the safest and the warmest.

”Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“I love you.”

“Nn. I love you, too.”

We shared another kiss and then indulged for a short while in each other’s embrace. Then, finally, we fell asleep. A long, comfortable, and warm sleep.

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