The Next Chapter: 7

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The Next Chapter
Chapter 7: What Is That Power?

Late in the afternoon on Wednesday, L'hoxifel opened the front door to the OZK house. Slightly to her surprise, there were not two but three people waiting there. All the same, she greeted them with a friendly wave. "Hi there~! You must be Polaris? And, Mary?"
"That we are," the blue-haired celestial said. "And allow me to introduce my friend Kyosuke."
"Yo," he said, waving and giving back a big grin. He looked human, but she could feel him reeking of a fox's magic, probably hiding his ears and tail(s) with an illusion. Not that that was really her business.

"Are you interested in joining OZK too?" she asked.
"Maaaybe. Anyway, Pol dragged me along, so I hope it's not too much."

"Well, come on in," she said, gesturing to follow, then turning with the door left open to go toward the lounge.

The girl in black said nothing, being apparently too busy playing on some kind of game console; if anyone seemed to have been "dragged along", it was her. But as she led the way, L'hoxifel slowly realized that there was something odd going on. She had been able to see—and could still hear behind her—three people. So why did her more magical senses only feel two?

They made it to the lounge, where Nancy was waiting. "Hey—we've got an extra visitor," she said. "This is Polaris and Mary, and Kyosuke."

"Well," she said, hopping to her feet, "I'm pleased to meet all three of you~. Jay seemed to like you two, at least." She hurried over to offer handshakes.

"What's not to like?" the celestial said with a big grin, gladly shaking her hand. Mary just quietly grunted, so Nancy moved on to the probably-kitsune, who seemed happy enough to return the gesture.
"I've heard this is a pretty nice place. Is Jay around right now?" he asked.
"I think she has classes at the moment. Please—take a seat, if you'd like?" she said, gesturing at some of the seating surrounding them before going back to the chair she'd been in a moment ago. Looking around at the four other people present during this exchange, L'hoxifel was increasingly sure there was something odd about...

"..You're tilting your head pretty hard at Mary," Nancy said. "Something wrong?"

The goth girl turned her gaze away from the console for the very first time of this entire encounter to glance very briefly at the demon-girl. "Oh—I'm sorry. I dunno how to put it, but..I don't feel any emotion from you at all? I mean, I can technically only feel 'anger' and 'rage' and stuff, but nearly everyone has some of that going on."

"That's normal for me," Mary said. "I've been practicing for like, six years now."

"Practicing, uh..?"
"Suppressing that sort of emotion, naturally," Polaris clarified, going and taking one of the offered seats; Kyosuke had already done the same.

"That sounds..unhealthy?" L'hoxifel said, feeling like she was being left out of some sort of joke.

"It's not. Anyway, I have to, 'cause of this."

Suddenly and without warning, something like the upper half of a hulking, humanoid shadow seemed to lift itself up out of Mary's torso, its stature enough to make the room appear too small, and its very presence seeming to make the overhead lights flicker and to block out the sunlight from the windows. Then, just as soon as it had appeared, it was gone, withdrawing itself back into the seemingly unassuming human girl. L'hoxifel could feel during that moment a brief but immense pressure, the kind that she'd only perceived once or twice before from some of her very oldest relatives while they were casting some serious, dangerous magic.

"GaAAAaah!" Kyosuke jerked forcefully away from this sight, completely dropping his illusion to reveal some black vulpine ears and two tails. "Warn a guy before you do that, will ya!? Gonna give me a heart attack!" Even Nancy flinched; only Polaris seemed basically unaffected by this display.

"Huh. I thought I was doing a pretty good job toning it down," she said with a slight shrug, dropping onto a chair and returning her focus to the game as if nothing of note had happened.

Nancy quietly cleared her throat. "Aaaaaaanyway, I've heard a little bit about you two already, but I'd appreciate if you could tell me a little bit about yourselves? As well as your reason for wanting to join OZK. We're not being exceptionally picky about new members necessarily, but I at least like to feel like I know a little bit about everyone who joins. We are all meant to be friends here, after all~."

L'hoxifel quietly went over to a seat off to one side, taking some deep breaths to get herself over the shock of Mary's brief display of power. She'd always thought of herself as a pretty powerful and capable magic-user for her age, but clearly some people were just born different. When she glanced the kitsune's way, she found the illusions that made him look fully human back in place again.

Mary spoke up first: "I'm studying math. My roommate this year sucks, and Polaris says he'll room with me instead."

"Ah, Mary does have quite an interest in playing video games, as well—which we saw on the tour this place is rather well-equipped for?" Polaris added.
"True enough. The original chapter of OZK had a large population of gamers, and some of the planning for this building consisted of imitating their house's amenities," Nancy said.

The demon-girl sat up a bit. "My roommate's into that stuff too, and her boyfriend." She realized after saying this that there were two ways that second phrase could be interpreted, both of which were technically true.

"My area of study is magic," Polaris said. "I was created with a fair bit of expertise in it already, but have found ever more fascinating things to study. If I may be so bold as to tell the truth, this abode's enchantments are what attracted me to it at the first, and I would be exceedingly happy to get a detailed look at their makings at some point."
Nancy nodded. "Our sorority has deeper connections to the magic world than most GLOs for sure. You might be very interested to meet a few of our alumni in the field. And if you do join, well, maybe I'll see if I can get permission to let you peek at what's handling the enchantments on the building."

"All very exciting prospects," Polaris said, rubbing his palms together like a supervillain.

"Is it my turn? Great," Kyosuke said, sitting up. "I'm pulling a double major in magic and theater, which is so much work that I'm a third-year sophomore. I guess you probably already noticed I'm a kitsune; I wanna use my illusions for special effects on the stage. Any stage—concerts, plays, movies, whatever." He lifted his left hand palm-up, and used some illusions to make a glowing red rose seemingly bloom itself up from his palm. "I'm developing a visual style all my own with 'em, so I can offer stuff you just can't get without a touch of magic." The flower erupted into some brief, miniature fireworks.

Nancy leaned in just a little bit to watch this display. "Very interesting. Come to think of it, we must have passed each other a few times before, huh?"

"I..guess so? You're a theater major?"
"Not entirely—like yourself—but I've been around some of the productions," she said. "So, what's your interest in joining OZK?"

"Weeell. Polaris is kinda leaving me without a roommate, and he made this place sound really nice to live in. I also met a couple of your newest members the other day, and they seem pretty cool too," he said.

---

After a day fairly packed with classes, Ed met Jay at the entrance to the campus dining hall. "Hey."
"Hiii!" She waved cheerfully, then followed the wolf-girl inside.

She waited until they were in line to ask the fox-girl: "So..what's it like dating a guy?"

"Huh? It was fun, I guess? I mean, I might as well ask you what it's like to date a girl."
"..Huh." Ed hadn't really considered that. It was true: Neither of them had really gotten any dates back in high school. "I mean, though—are you..do you feel attracted to him?"
"Sure. He's cute, and I am a girl now," she said. "Kyo flirted with me just a little bit, y'know, compliments and stuff..and I do think I like how that made me feel. But we mostly just, like, talked! He's got some really cool ideas about using magic for like, visual performance. And he didn't say Monday, but he's actually double-majoring!"

"That..sounds like a lot of work."
"I guess? He seemed pretty relaxed about it, though."

They picked out their meals, and continued on to a booth to sit at. Ed had started to notice, since Monday, some of the guys in the cafeteria looking at the two of them. Almost definitely admiring their looks. She wasn't..sure how she felt about it, and Jay seemed completely oblivious to it. It was maybe lucky that the first guy to actually approach one of them was, apparently, relatively nice. She'd feel more comfortable about it if she weren't so small and weak...not that she'd been strong as a guy, but there seemed to be less need for that, too. On the other hand, it meant Ed was attractive to other people, for maybe the first time in her life..which rubbed those worries up against her kind of enjoying that prospect.

"What'd you do while we were out at supper, huh?" Jay said. "Anything fuunn with L'hoxifel?"
"H-huh?" As usual, her friend knew exactly how to completely derail Ed's train of thought. "No, I ate in my room, and did homework." It was like Jay could unconsciously sense when Ed was bothered about something, and then knew what to say to make her think about something else, all without even realizing it. "I think she was..busy with something else last night; I didn't see her around."
"Whaaat? You're not gonna see her if you just hide in our room all night! You should ask her out again."

"M-maybe.." Ed didn't really like to admit it, but she liked the way the demon-girl had been looking at her that afternoon, in the coffee shop. Maybe she'd just been staring at the wolf-girl's ears for part of that time, but her focus had definitely been toward her face, or the rest of her body, at others...and she was slowly warming up to the idea of allowing a little touch or two, if only to find out what that felt like on the receiving end. Not that she'd admit any of that to Jay.

"Pfft. Your tail's wagging," Jay pointed out, giggling.
"I-it is not," Ed said, putting some effort into forcing it to be still, but feeling the heat on her cheeks stick around all the same.

"Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm really happy if you've found someone you like," Jay said. "We should both be looking, right? And lots of people marry in the college years~."
"I...that is seriously way too far ahead. You, don't like Kyo that much, do you?"
"I admit I don't know him anywhere near well enough to guess," she said. "I'm just saying, though. If you like her, there's no good reason to be shy!"

A couple of minutes later, Ed said, "So..I guess you're enjoying going uh..all-in on being a girl, huh?"
"Yep! I mean, it was really weird at first, and there's still some times it's weird. But there's something I kinda like about the feel of skirts and dresses and fluttery stuff, I dunno. Besides..." Jay smiled. "I feel like I look good, you know?"
"I..get that part, sure. But the same kind of magic could make us look good as guys, too. For me, I..almost forgot to put on a bra this morning. And wearing one is still, weird and distracting. Besides...other things, feeling weird too."

"Well, around this weekend, we can both ask for some rings like the one Rob got," Jay said. "Then I can find out if I like how I feel as a buff guy or something, you know, better or worse than this. But I really like having a totally different singing voice to play with, so I'd definitely wanna keep going back and forth sometimes even if I like that better. And you—well, you could be a guy all the time, except when you sleep. Problem solved, right?"
"Yeah...I guess you're right."

What bugged Ed a little bit about that solution, even though she insisted to herself that it really shouldn't, was: If she turned back into a guy most of the time, would L'hoxifel really look at 'him' in quite that same way?

---

Rob walked into the OZK house, his catlike ears picking up on some conversation roughly off in the direction of the lounge. But he wasn't nearly as interested in that as the sound of activity over in the game room, so (after a brief stop by his own room to put away some things) that was where he went instead.

"Hey, babe," Camilla greeted him as he came in, her eyes still on the screen for a moment. "How're things?"
"Pretty good. The guys are starting to get used to me having a tail. And—you know—it does kinda help with balance on the court and stuff."

"Sweet. Maybe I should ask L'hoxie to give me a tail, too," she said, half-joking.

"Uh, I guess Nancy's interviewing some new people over in the lounge," he said.

"How'd—oh, never mind," she said. The question had been how he could know that, with the answer obviously being his big kitty ears. She finally reached a reasonable point to stop, and hopped to her feet, the two of them coming together for a close embrace and kiss.

It was a great kiss; Camilla had always been amazing at them. Rob still wasn't sure he believed her when she said she'd had no practice in high school. Near the end of it, however, she had her hand around his, and gently, with her thumb and index finger, slipped his ring off. "Mmphf!"

The transformation into a catgirl while he was asleep had seemed fairly gentle and gradual. But "returning" to that form was swift and kind of jarring. No sooner was the ring off of his finger than Rob's height shot downward—or kind of upward, with his arms around Camilla keeping his torso up there and his feet being lifted off the ground. "Mm~mm~mmh..!" And his voice completely changed in around one second. She let him out of the kiss with a loud smack just as he felt his clothes tightening around his shrinking frame, his manhood tugging rapidly inward..and with a soft, high "Aa~ah!", Rob became "Robyn" once again.

Camilla's hands were already on her ears, even as her curves settled into place and that strange, fuzzy feeling down between her legs took over where the kind of thing a boy could feel had left off. "Aammh..! Mrrm...mrr~rrrh....!" She found herself helplessly purring and nuzzling the taller girl as her bust pressed out into Camilla's, her eyes fluttering shut and her tail flicking around excitedly behind her. They stayed this way, Robyn's girlfriend petting her ears and stroking a hand down through her extremely long hair—this touch making her shiver as it went most of the way down her back—for a minute or two before she was finally let free, gently set down on the floor.

This was the fifth time so far that Camilla had done something like this—and since she had Robyn's ring now, the catgirl would remain a girl until she decided otherwise. At least her clothes changed to fit, she guessed.

"Y-you're really enjoying yourself with that, huh?"

"Whaat, you mean you don't like it?" Camilla said, reaching a hand over to gently rub the top of her head.

"Mew~...hrmph." Not long after they'd first met, the wolf-girl named Ed had talked about how weird being a girl felt. Robyn hadn't thought it was that strange at the time, but the more Camilla made him change into her, the more she kind of understood. But at the same time...it was nice sort of strange. Camilla seemed able to make both "him" and "her" feel some very nice things more or less at will, ever since Rob(yn) had turned part-cat.

"Sooo, you wanna play some games?" she offered.
"Uh—sure," Robyn nodded. And she thought: Even if the rest of it were less pleasant, living under the same roof as Camilla would've been worth it to her.