Chapter of Magic Growth: A relaxing Bath

Something warm and soft was enveloping me when I came to. I heard some birds chirping in the distance.

The morning had come already. That was truly unfortunate. It seemed like Karen was still holding me in her arms as I could hear a quiet sleeper's breath from close by. I looked around to see her lying on her back while I was on top of her, being held in her arms. I apparently had become her body pillow. Unfortunately, for that, she had dragged me on top of her in a way that I had entered a considerably weird position, one that also probably wasn't the most healthy on my spine. I moved into a slightly more comfortable position and continued to enjoy Karen's softness.

I knew that, no matter how much I wished for it, we couldn't stay like this for too long. Morning came and with it, the responsibilities of the day. Not like we had any real responsibilities.

But for now, that didn't matter. The only important thing was this warmth.  Much to my chagrin, Karen started stirring and moving.

I lifted my head and stared into her sleepy eyes.

"Good Morning, Karen."

"Mmmmm...Good... Morning..."

Closing her eyes again she went back to sleep. That was quite fine with me. A few minutes or so passed when Karen suddenly half opened her eyes again, staring at me sleepily.

"What did you say just now?"

Was she still asleep then? Must have been the case. It also wasn't 'just now', it was already a few minutes ago.

"I said 'Good Morning, Karen.' to you."

"Mmmm..."

After hearing my reply, her gaze went towards the admittedly low ceiling, most likely she was thinking about something.

"Karen?"

"That!"

"What?"

"The way you called me yesterday!"

Oh, that was it? I did call her 'Sis' yesterday before went to sleep. Did she dislike that? Or what was up with her?

"Did you maybe dislike that I called you 'Sis' yesterday? I'm sorry." I said with an apologetic tone.

"Ahhh, don't look so down, I beg you. That wasn't what I wanted to say! I didn't dislike it or anything!"

I tilted my head to the side and thought about it. She didn't dislike it? If so, then...

"Do you want me to call you 'Sis' again?"

"Ah, well..."

She was fidgeting around and her eyes went all over the place. Such an obvious reaction. It didn't take her long to come to a decision though.

"If... If you are fine with me, then..." she stuttered.

Making a decision apparently didn't equal to being able to say it, I thought.

But really, how troublesome did she have to make this? She was so proactive most of the time but now she decided to become like a meek little girl that was trying to confess to her first love.

"Okay, shut up for a moment," I declared.

"Eh? Eh?"

Tears were suddenly gathering in her eyes. I worded that in a bad way, didn't I. I had to reflect on this.

"Whether you want me to call you 'Sis', your opinion doesn't matter. I already decided to become your little sister anyway, so you will be 'Sis' from now on, even if you don't want it! The End!"

Okay, now it should be fine, definitely! Little sisters have to be a bit cheeky after all.

Karen's eyes went wide again. I saw this reaction quite a lot since yesterday, but was I saying so many surprising things? I was, wasn't I?

A really big smile appeared on her face and she started to suddenly tighten her grip on me. She tightened it a real lot.

"Is that so, is that so. So I got another little sister to take care of, hmm?"  with the big smile plastered on her face she embraced me tightly and rolled around, as much as space permitted, with me.

At some point she completely left reality and entered her own little world, occasionally calling out to me and then giggling to herself. It was quite adorable to watch and I thought she deserved at least that much for a while, so I left her to do as she pleased. It made me quite happy, too.

I came to this world just over a week ago, but I already had someone I could call family. It felt quite unbelievable, and I feared this happiness would leave my grasp if I were to look away for but a moment. I couldn't allow that to happen, so I wrapped my arms around Karen and hugged her back with all my strength.

"Yu, Yumi?" stuttered a surprised Karen.

"What is up all of a sudden?"

My sudden assertiveness was taken with a surprise.

"Nothing, I just felt like holding you, so you don't leave."

"Is that so, is that so. Then we should keep holding each other, right?"

She seemed a bit too clingy now, but surprisingly, I didn't dislike it that much. I never had the experience of someone spoiling me this much.

Alas, good things needed an end as well, so I poked her a few times to get her attention.

"Ka-, Ah, I mean, Sis. We should get up."

Had to get used to changing my way of calling her. I was sure I would get used to that fast, though. Even without cleaning up her face, that expression that seemed as if the world had ended, couldn't be hidden in the slightest. I didn't want to see it more than necessary.

"Do we really have to get up...?" lamented Karen, refusing to let me escape from her embrace.

"I don't like it either, but we can't lie here all day, Sis. So please let me go, Sis."

Calling her 'Sis' a few more times than really necessary worked surprisingly well. With an "I got no choice, huh..." she reluctantly let me go, upon which I crawled out of the small cave.

The suns were shining brightly down on us and it was a lot warmer than the day before. It felt more like it was in the middle of summer today.

Karen followed me out and stretched herself. A lot of dirt and dry mud fell down upon that, revealing some of her skin at places. That was it.

The decision was made.

Today, we shall bath!

"So, Yumi, I understand that you want to take a bath, but can't we do this after we ate breakfast?"

"No, this is of great importance!"

Standing with my feet in the water I told her a while ago about the great importance of being clean, which, of course, would include herself. The suns were being reflected in the surprisingly warm water. It must have warmed up quite a bit thanks to all the morning light.

With a sigh, Karen finally resigned herself to her fate. I won! No matter how you looked at it, I won, didn't I?

"I understand, I understand, let us take a bath together."

Karen approached me. A bad feeling crept up my back all of a sudden with those words. It felt like I forgot something really important, but I just couldn't recall what.

By the time Karen reached me it was too late anyway. And then she grabbed me, or rather, my robe.

Oh right, that's it, I forgot this part...

"Off it goes!"

With those cheerful words, I was stripped naked. Completely and entirely naked, down to my birthday suit. I actually didn't really mind when Karen saw my important maiden parts by accident once in a while, but being stripped all of a sudden, that was quite the new experience for me. And an incredibly embarrassing one.

"Wh, wh, wh, wh, what are you doing suddenly?" I screamed with all my might, crouching down and hugging my knees in an attempt to hide my body.

"What, you say. Did you maybe want to bath with your clothes on? Oh, but we could do the laundry while we're bathing."

How could you be this dense, my dear sister? Who in their right mind would just approach a maiden and strip her down? You casually complained about me being an airhead but you were pulling quite the thing as well. Full with the intent to complain I faced upwards, only to be too stunned to react. There it was, the most important part, the part I shouldn't have forgotten under any circumstances.

"Yumi? Is something the matter?"

Karen stopped in her tracks and looked down to me, who was still hugging her own knees. I saw something white. An adorable tummy was facing me. A similarly cute navel slightly moving about with every one of her moves. Karen, visibly confused why I stared at her stomach, decided there was no sense in continuing to hold up her shirt and took it off, revealing the rest of her upper body. Her modest breasts with the adorable tips were freed from the constraints of her clothing.

"You know, it is quite rude to stare that much, Yumi. This is quite embarrassing."

Karen held up her arms, hiding her breasts, looking quite shy. Realizing that I had been staring rudely I hurriedly averted my gaze.

"I, uh, am sorry. It was just so sudden."

I already expected Karen to be a considerable beautiful girl, but such a surprise attack was unfair. What would you do if I fell for you? I would have to make you take responsibility in that case.

"It's okay, you don't have to worry about it yet, you still have plenty of time!"

Plenty of time for what? I should rather stare during or after the bath, was it that? I might die of an overexcited heart first,  surely.

Somehow, this didn't seem right. Karen meant something else. But for now, I had other priorities.

Returning to reality I faced Karen again, who was in the middle of taking off her skirt. This time I prepared myself, but it was still taking my breath. The skin below the clothes was white and unblemished. The softness unique to a young girl could be found in her, but her rough lifestyle was still displayed through her developed muscles.

Karen, who finished taking off her clothes, approached me again.

"Are you taking a bath huddled up like that?"

Right, I was still crouching down and hiding my naked body. Embarrassing things were embarrassing, after all. But I had to collect my courage for this, for the sake of this cute girl in front of me, who already overcame the initial embarrassment of my stares and fully displayed herself. Which resulted in a certain thin line being directly in front of my face.

Sending my last prayer to some unknown higher entity, I lost all strength and fell backwards into the water. It was still in a shallow part though, so it wasn't dangerous.

"Yu, Yumi?"

Karen bent down and caught my shoulders, holding me in place.

"Don't scare me like that!"

She was a bit angry judging from her tone.

"I'm sorry."

"Geez, come, sit up, I'll help you wash your hair."

"Nn."

I figured it would make it only worse, were I to explain my feelings, so I took advantage of Karen's obliviousness and faced away from her the moment she let go of my shoulders. My back was now facing her while I sat on the ground. The water went up to my thighs at this spot. If we were to go deeper we would have been in danger of being swept away by the currents.

I felt something tugging my hair. Karen sat down behind me and started cleaning my hair, occasionally combing through it with her hands. My hair was really long and there was quite a bit of filth between the strands as well as plenty of tangles. I heard that prior to more modern times only a few people could afford to grow out their hair because it needed a lot of care. Sometime, it would probably become necessary to ask Karen or someone else about proper hair care. Maybe I could grow it even longer as well.  At least that was what I thought...

"Yumi, what is up with your hair..."

"What's wrong?"

Karen had stopped at some point combing and washing and instead was inspecting a strand of my hair. I turned around, trying not to look at Karen's body, to see what she was doing. She held a thin strand of hair in her hands, slightly tugging at the ends.

"Look at this."

With those words, she grabbed the strand with both hands, each hand around 20cm apart.

Sis, please don't do what I think you are... Please, at the very least, if nothing else, spare my hair!

Of course, she never heard these laments. And then, she pulled the strand apart with all her strength.

"Ahhhh...!"

"Ouch!"

My desperate sigh was drowned out by Karen's sudden cry of pain. Her right hand was bleeding in the palm, where the hair had dug in.

"What's up with this..."

Karen muttered again, completely ignoring the wound. Just then I realized what she meant. The strand in her hand was completely fine, despite that she was pulling with all her strength. And Karen had a lot of strength. Additionally, the strand was so thin that even I was sure that I could break it. Instead, the only difference from before was a few drops of blood where it had cut Karen's hand.

"Sis, let me see your hand."

"Please don't try to dodge the issue."

Despite that, she still showed me her hand. The cut wasn't deep. It was a long, but clean, cut, so it probably wouldn't leave a scar. I still wanted to make sure somehow. Someone once told me that saliva could be used to promote healing because it had components that aided healing and defended against infections.

Lick!

"Yumi?!?" Karen shouted my name in surprise.

"What are you doing?"

"Licking your wound?"

"I can see that, that's not what I mean!"

"Saliva helps with healing. I don't want it to leave a scar, so..."

Realizing that I just meant well, Karen relaxed. I felt a soft sensation on my head. She was petting my head with her other hand.

"So that's it, thank you."

The rubbing on my head was great. Being thanked with a head pat like this was new to me.

This feeling, I might become addicted to it...

After I got my share of pleasant head pats, we returned to the topic on hand, my hair. I had no idea what was going on, but it seemed my hair was quite resilient. Taking a strand I pulled at it with a bit of strength, taking care not to injure myself. But no matter what I did, I couldn't break off apart. It was like steel wire.

"I was already surprised when I saw how your hair looked completely healthy and glossy just after washing off the dirt, but to think it was this strong as well..."

"I didn't know either..."

Maybe I wouldn't have to worry about hair care after all.

"Give me a moment, I want to try something."

Leaving those words Karen got up and went to our belongings. Something black entered my sight. It was slightly twitching and had a cute inverted heart at the end with a silver tip.

Let's... Let's just ignore this for now...

Yes, there were other things to talk about now. It wasn't the only thing that had been bothering me today anyway.

Moments later Karen returned with a knife in her hand.

"Let's try if we can cut it."

She held up a strand in her hand again, then formed a small sling so she could put the knife in. It was at the end of my hair, so even if she were to cut through, I wouldn't lose much of my hair. Frankly, I was still feeling a bit reluctant, who knows after all how long it would take to regrow that.

Karen put the knife in the sling and attempted to cut it. It was strained to the maximum possible and didn't seem like it would give in any time soon. It wasn't that the knife was bad, apparently, it was one she took from the demonkin country and was surprisingly high-quality despite looking quite plain. She told me later that the one she gave me, originally belonged to her little sister.

She relaxed her arm for a moment and inspected the part she tried to cut.

"Mmm... I think I might be able to do this." she murmured.

"Let me try again."

Another attempt was made. At some point, I heard a small ripping sound, and with a huge jerk, the knife went through and cut the strand.

Looking at the loose hair in her hand, Karen seemed to quite impressed.

"Really, how resilient is your hair. If you were to weave this, it must be on the level of high-quality chainmail, or maybe even better."

"Is it really that strong?" I asked with some doubts left.

"Yumi, even if I say so myself, I'm quite strong, you know? And this knife is quite sharp. It still took me quite a lot just to... Yumi, what's wrong?"

A weird feeling assaulted me, it wasn't quite something I felt in my body. As if it was a slight distance away.

"Something feels weird," I told her. "Really weird, as if it's not in my body..."

"Not in your body? But that's... Wait, Yumi, your hair, look!"

I followed her line of sight and saw the strand that was cut. Somehow, it was twitching and then all of a sudden it grew longer at a slow pace. Astonishingly, it grew from the very tip and not from where it should actually grow, namely my scalp. I also could somehow feel how it grew.

It barely took a minute and the cut strand was completely back to its original length.

"Incredible, the hair just regrew. Did your body count it as a wound and healed it?"

"I think that may be the case, but... Why did it grow from the tip? It's as if this isn't hair but a kind of body part or limb..."

"You aren't possibly able to move your hair, are you?"

"I don't think so, but I never tried either."

I closed my eyes and concentrated on my hair, trying to get back the feeling I just had when it regenerated. Alas, it was already gone and I couldn't get the feel for it back.

"Sis, could you cut it again? Maybe a slightly longer part this time."

"Are you sure? Maybe it won't regrow again?"

"Please do, I'm sure it will grow back again!"

Karen humoured my request and cut another strand of hair, this time, one, that was a lot longer than before. It took her a few minutes again but eventually, she cut it.

I prepared myself and concentrated on my hair.

This time, the weird feeling came to me a lot faster and stronger, but it was still hard to grasp. As if I had my hand inserted into a gigantic cube of jelly even though I was trying to push the cube itself.

And then the feeling disappeared again. Maybe I couldn't grasp the feeling because it was only a single strand?

"Sis, try cut a strand as thick as you can, I feel like I'm really close to something!"

"Don't you dare regret this, okay?"

"It'll be fine!"

A sigh escaped her mouth and she took up the knife again. The strand she grabbed this time was significantly thicker, to the point I wanted to ask if she was sure if that would work.

"Won't your knife chip with a strand that thick?"

"No worries about that, the knife is from a magical metal, even if a dragon were to step on it, it wouldn't break."

That was really sturdy. I wondered what the story behind those knives was.

"Here we go."

And with that, Karen began cutting it again. This time she used all her strength and the tugging felt quite uncomfortable, but it must have been really consuming her strength. I kept watching her, I couldn't keep track of how long it took, but she eventually succeeded in cutting it.

I hurriedly closed my eyes and concentrated. I couldn't let this chance go now, could I? Barely a second after I closed my eyes the feeling returned, much stronger and clearer than before. There were more parts to my body than just what my human appearance would suggest. Like scales falling off my eyes, I grasped the part that was my hair. I was sure I wouldn't lose this feeling again, this time.

But that came with a different problem now. Even if I was aware of my body part, I didn't quite know how to 'move' it, if it was possible at all. For now, let's try ''pushing' it as I did with my mana.

"Woah, Yumi, whatever you are doing stop, quickly!"

Karen's panicked voice reached my ears and I stopped 'pushing' my hair.

Opening my eyes I checked whatever got Karen so surprised, only to be stunned by the sight.

I did consider growing my hair out, but this was a bit beyond my expectations. Someone up there must have gotten the kicks out of it, taking my wishes and granting them to me in quite a roundabout fashion.

As you might have guessed, my hair grew longer, by quite a lot from the looks of it.

I stood up to see how long exactly, but the ends of my hair were now still floating in the water. Notably, the water reached just above my ankles. From the looks of it, it was most likely that the tips would still reach the ground when I stood on the ground, but the sandals were probably enough to prevent it from doing that directly. It would still strafe over grass and other things like this, though.

"I wanted to move my hair, but I seem to have caused it to grow instead."

"That's not quite funny, Yumi. We're lucky it stopped there and didn't become even longer. Imagine it had become so long that it would drag on the ground. Also, it would become really heavy and hard to move then, wouldn't it? And it would grow back every time you cut it."

"It actually doesn't feel heavy at all, but I don't want people to step on my hair either..."

"That would be troublesome for you, yes. Well, we can't do anything about it anymore now... It looks cute on you, so I guess it is fine... is it?"

Seemed Karen wasn't quite sure what to think of it. Maybe I could retract it like I could grow it out. I tried concentrating on my hair and instead pushing I tried pulling it in this time. Unfortunately, it didn't grow shorter, but it started twitching instead.

"This honestly looks horrifying, Yumi. Please stop making it twitch!"

"Bear with me for a moment, maybe I can get it to move like this!"

Pulling it in seemed to somehow cause it to twitch. Working around that feeling I tried to move it in different directions but it was like swimming through mud, hard and sluggish. It was similar to how I moved the tentacles that my arms transformed into but a lot less smooth like I was moving a sluggish mass of something through the cube of jelly.

"I got the feeling necessary to move it, but it feels sluggish and hard to move, not really something I can move freely."

"Isn't that because, you know, your hair is wet and heavy from the water?" suggested Karen.

"Oh..."

That completely escaped me.

"But really, to grasp something that vague so quickly, I can't imagine it at all. Is that the difference in thinking between a monster and a humanoid?"

"Uh,... but I was originally a human before?"

"Eh? No way."

"Eh?"

I forgot to tell her about that, didn't I. Actually I planned to tell her later, we just got sidetracked once again.

"Uh, let's talk about me later, okay? There's plenty of things I have to tell you in regards to that."

Karen paused for a moment, probably wondering whether she should push the issue or wait.

"I understand, but I expect that you tell me every little detail later, okay?"

"... Nn, I'll tell you."

That meant I had to tell her about the other world and that I was a man as well, right? But that was fine.

"For now, let us just continue bathing."

"Nn."

Some minutes later, my situation had become dangerous. At some point, Karen had the sudden idea to not just my hair but my entire body. That was fine if it was about my back, but the front was something I wanted to wash myself. In the end, I only managed to postpone it by saying that until she cleaned up herself, it would only stay dirty.

She reluctantly agreed with me on that point and then decided, that I should wash her instead. I achieved that I only had to wash her hair and back, but then, I was left with a small problem.

It was currently twitching right in front of me, a small black something with an inverted heart at the end and a silver tip. One end was moving about freely while the other end disappeared into the white back in front of me.

A goddamn tail... Karen... had a tail...

"Yumi, is something the matter?"

"No, everything is fine..."

I had to face reality. No matter what I did, this tail wasn't disappearing. With a deep breath, I braced myself.

"Hyah!?"

Curiosity won and I caught the tip.

"Y, Yumi! Stop that! Hya!"

I rubbed the tip between my hands, upon which Karen let out cute shrieks and started squirming. In fiction it was often said that tails are sensitive, to think it was true.

I was playing with it for a minute when all of a sudden and with a lot of force Karen turned around and caught my arms. She was busy cleaning her front while I was doing the back, so her face was freed from all the dirt and the white skin was once again showing its beauty to the world. Together with her now cleaned up, silver hair, that seemed to faintly glow, it was a sight for sore eyes. That was my first thought, my second thought was that I had screwed up. Precisely that cute face was now wearing an angry expression. It may have been hidden by a smile, but there was no room left for doubt.

I was screwed.

"I wonder what you were doing, Yumi?"

"Uhm,... I just saw a cute tail and I... couldn't help it?"

"So you couldn't help playing with someone's delicate parts, could you? I guess you need to know how that feels, don't you."

"Eh?"

While I was still stupefied, Karen pushed me back and I fell on my butt into the water. The next moment Karen was above me, holding my arms to the ground. Due to the water the ground was considerably soft and now my arms dug into it while half of my head was submerged into the water.

"Sis... I'm sorry, so... could you let me off?"

"I refuse! It is time for payback!"

A smile as bright as the sun adorned her face. Maybe I should think of what I should do better in my next life since I would depart soon.

Karen shifted her body position a bit, her knee between my legs. Then she lowered her head, to a spot below my head.

Lick!

"Hii!"

A weird sensation shot through my spine when Karen licked my collarbone. But without waiting for my shock to fade, she continued licking, slowly moving downward. Reaching my chest she licked around at various spots but purposefully evading the centre. In the meantime her knee had reached my lower parts, grinding into my privates.

My body became hot and I started squirming under her grasp. An unknown feeling was building up in the area around my stomach.

"Oh, you are quite lewd, aren't you, rubbing yourself that strongly against my knee."

"Huh...?"

I looked down and realized, it wasn't Karen who was grinding her knee into my lower body but I was rubbing myself on her knee. I didn't have time to wonder about that, though, as Karen suddenly bit the tip of my breasts. An overwhelming feeling rushed through me and I lost all strength in my limbs.

With my eyes wavering, I searched for Karen in my field of vision. She was seemingly satisfied with my punishment and wanted to let me go now.

Don't...

My freed arms were stretching towards Karen.

"Yumi?"

Karen's reaction showed her confusion, she didn't know what I attempted to do.

"Take responsibility..." I whispered, then I held her head between my hands and pulled her to me, stealing her lips. 

Around 10 minutes later, there was an awkward silence between us. Both of us, having realized what each of us had done respectively, were sitting a few meters apart in the water, washing our clothes.

I didn't have much to wash outside of the shirt and my robe. The shirt was already falling apart so it required a bit of extra care so that I wouldn't accidentally rip it apart completely, but I was still done a lot faster than Karen, who needed to wash each piece intensively due to all the dirt.

"Yumi," she suddenly called out to me which caused me to stiffen in response.

"Let us just forget what happened, okay?"

I glanced towards her. Seeing her red face I already knew, that was impossible. She was my big sister, that's what I said, and I still firmly believed in that. I didn't know whether I held romantic love towards her, but if you asked whether I was attracted to her, then I would have had to answer with a firm yes.

"I can't." Thus I answered.

"Of course, you can't, can you..."

Karen probably expected that answer.

"Still, I am sorry... I don't know what came over me, either..." Thus she apologised.

"It's okay. But Karen... Uh, what was up with your tail...?"

I had to know. I couldn't leave this question unanswered, especially since it was at the root of the problem.

"Wait, Yumi. You did that without knowing?"

"Yes, I was just satisfying my curiosity."

Karen went beet red, hugged her head and crouched down, making herself as small as she could.

"Yumi... A demonkins' tail is well..."

The ball of Karen was stuttering while trying to explain it to me.

"It is a place to, well, feel good, like your privates. And you only let, uhm... a lo, a lover touch it."

So, it was an erogenous zone. I did a really bad thing, didn't I. That probably was as if I had touched her privates and played with them. Yeah, that was bad. No wonder she did kind of assault me as payback.

"Sis, I'm sorry. Really. I'm sorry."

I apologised with all my heart.

"It is okay already, yes, it is. We both had our misunderstandings, didn't we?"

"Yes,... we did."

"So let us just forget it."

"Impossible."

"So it was impossible after all..."

Karen was taking it quite badly. I folded my robe and the shirt, put them next to my other belongings, and then walked towards Karen, who was still sitting in the river washing her remaining clothes. Before she could react I sat down behind her and hugged her.

"Hya, Yumi? Wh, what is it now? Why did you suddenly hug me?"

"Karen, could you... listen to a little story of mine."

I had to tell her, we couldn't allow more misunderstandings to happen like just now.

"Yumi, you are oddly serious, what is wrong?"

"Karen, I want you to know about what happened to me and who I am."

"Yumi, could we at least wait until we are wearing something again?!"

I ignored the panicking Karen and started to tell her everything. Everything about the other world, about how I changed, about my experiences until we met, about what I knew of the kind of monster I was, everything I could remember.

The warmth of her body was oddly comforting to me while she silently listened.

For the sake of our rapidly changing relationship, so that we both might find a ground that we agreed on, I revealed it all to the only family I still had.

Rinne

Incidentally, saliva contains components that may promote healing and defend against infections, but it can also cause infections itself.

Please do take care not to lick the wound of someone with a compromised immune system.