Chapter 338 – Filling in the gaps
As they had been up for quite a while already, Sophia had finally run out of steam after being tense for a long time and fell asleep while cuddling against the side of her little sister. Not only had she nuzzled her head against her shoulder, but the tiger had also tightly wrapped her tail around the shorter blonde's waist. She was unconsciously signaling how she didn't want to let go of her again. While she was asleep, the other three continued to chat about all kinds of things. Maya also included a warning that Steph has to be absolutely sure that she knows what she’s doing because the well-being of her girlfriends was the cat-girl's biggest concern. Once that was taken care of, and Maya was happy with Steph’s dedication, the mood between them relaxed quite a bit.
“Okay, now that she’s asleep… Maya, please tell me everything our girl skipped when she told me everything about her life in this world.”
“I wonder if she’ll stay asleep for that long~.” The cat-girl's expression changed into a slight smirk. "This idiot hadn't even told you half. Though, she did an excellent job telling you the important and nice bits to show you what’s going on, I have to give her that.”
“Alright, fill in the gaps, my dear!”
“With pleasure~.”
"Poor Sophia…" Chloe felt a little sorry for the tiger, who was still peacefully asleep against Steph's shoulder.
“Feel free to leave if you want to feign innocence later on.”
“And miss it? No way!” The fox-girl shook her head while looking at Maya. "It doesn't feel like she told me anything, either, and I'm most curious!"
“Hehe.” The cat-girl’s smirk just got bigger. “Hmm… Where to even start, though… Wait!" She suddenly stopped and looked at the shorter blonde. "Am I still being tested whether I’m worthy of Sophia?”
“You’ll always be! That’s my duty as the little sister!” Steph smiled at her. “Though, the more embarrassing details I will learn of Sophia, the more points you gain.”
“I guess you’ll be accepted in the family then, huh?” Chloe had a feeling of what that would lead to.
“My chances are better than ever!” Maya agreed with her. “Well, I doubt she minds you knowing at this point, so I might as well start with those boosts she got from Canir.” She glanced at the fox-girl before telling the two about them.
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"Woah, still... If I hadn't known old Sophia, I would never have believed it... It's sooo freaky that anyone’s capable of messing with your personality... or stats like that... Is it really alright for such a being to actually exist...?”
“Well, he is why Sophia ended up here and is still alive in the first place, so... Also, from the two times I have met him, he is a bit weird and likes to be entertained by some questionable things, but he’s definitely on top of things. He seems to be knowing what he’s doing. Most of the time, at least.
“I am a little envious that Sophia got so many cheats, err... much stuff when she came here... That vast amount of magic, too...” Chloe wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
“Yeah, it’s absolutely unfair, miss who got raised by one of the most powerful beings on this planet, is unusually healthy, immune to alcohol poisoning and probably any other toxin, has more magic than almost every normal being and recovers her magic even faster than Sophia does.” Maya just rolled her eyes. "Unfair."
“...” She needed a moment. “I-I guess I did get lucky, too...”
"Not to mention that even with all those boosts, our tiger only ended up being as eccentric as you at times. I’m not exactly complaining, by the way.” The cat-girl felt the need to add that part. “You two make my life very complicated at times, but it’s clear the both of you just want to make the most out of what you have. You are able to do that on your own, or maybe even got a little help yourself, but Sophia needed a serious push to get over herself...”
“She needed a serious push." Steph nodded a couple of times while repeating Maya's words.
“I guess it’s fair that she got a little more, then...”
“Then, there’s the bad side of those boosts... They don’t fail anymore, and Sophia’s become able to handle pretty much anything now. Still, her boosted anger can be quite something... I mean, you heard what she did in Talaga, right? The place with the pizzeria.”
“Ahh... Fair point. S-Still better than my mom, though...”
“Is it really a competition, though...? It means something if I’m the one saying that...” Maya usually always was a fan of good competition, after all.
“What did Sophia do...?” Her little sister naturally got interested.
“Err... Earlier, she mentioned how most humans in this world are extra no good here, right?”
“Yeah, it seems like they’re slightly worse than the, uhh... elite of my world...”
"Well, our tiger has some personal experience with them... Some of them tried some shady stuff with her when she tried to approach them shortly after coming here... Didn’t end well at all.” She didn’t feel like going into detail. “Then, a few months ago, shortly after we arrived in the capital and ended up getting involved with the royal family, the humans felt like playing war over a city not too far away from here...”
"A war...?”
“Yeah, and the humans made some... disgusting demands regarding the children about the beastfolk in their proclamation that made Sophia angry. She likes kids quite a bit, after all. Not that it was a requirement for wanting to punch those humans...”
“D-Don’t tell me Sophia participated in a war...?”
“Can you call it participating in this case?” Maya tilted her head. “She was so angry that she told the king’s army to take a day off and took care of it herself... Thanks to her magic, she beat a couple of thousand humans into submissions in like 15 minutes. Then, she threatened their defeated army that she’d destroy their capital if any human would ever try to do anything to a member of the beastfolk.”
“N-No way...”
“Only to later find out that Chloe’s mom’s already on the way to the human capital because they tried to do something mean to our fox, as well, and the capital might be gone already...”
"A-Ahaha...” The pink-haired girl wasn’t sure what to say. “Feyfey also can get a little angry at times...”
“Y-You can’t be serious...” Steph obviously had a hard time believing it. "I-I mean, Sophia could get angry at times, mostly at herself, but that is something else entirely!”
"That's the bad side of the boost, plus having enough power to destroy a continent. She hates it herself, though, so you don’t really have to worry about her going rogue. She’s way too easygoing for that, too. Also, there have been some exceptions like that, but she has gotten good control of her anger, so I doubt it will matter much anymore.”
“T-That’s good, I guess?”
“Certainly isn’t bad.” Maya nodded a few times. “I get that it sounds overwhelming. It was even more so having witnessed it, but our tiger did it because she deeply cared about everyone around her. That should be all that counts.”
“T-True... It’s just that it’s unbelievable for me that she’s been in a war.”
"In the end, I can't even call it one... The humans had the numbers of soldiers for it, but it was over before it began because Sophia completely stopped them in their tracks without killing or seriously hurting a single one of them.”
“Hmm.”
“Anyway, she’s doing fine! Don’t worry about some slight mishaps!” The cat-girl smiled at her. “How about we switch to some actual embarrassing stories instead?”
“That sounds better!”
Afterward, Maya told Sophia’s sister all the embarrassing little things the tiger had skipped when telling her about her journey before. She spent a lot of time on the days when they had just met and got together on the way to the capital. Back then, the taller blonde was still quite a wreck, after all, and heavily embarrassed herself on a daily basis as her shyness was still relatively strong those days.
Their travel towards to capital got some more mentions, as well. Things like the frozen lake, the exploded dungeon, and many more things had to be properly relayed to the little sister, after all.
The cat-girl also went over the many friends Sophia has made so far, how everyone enjoys teasing her in a loving way, and how the older sister usually reacts to that. Pouty, but rarely actually angry because she does enjoy it herself a lot. She still gets embarrassed way more and often than she wants to, which everyone enjoys greatly, as well. Maya also mentioned many more positive things, though. Like, how Sophia is usually the center of attention wherever she goes because everyone gets interested in that crazy tiger, and absolutely no one means that in a bad way. She had become an extremely popular girl, and everyone absolutely loved her.
Maya went on for about an hour but eventually went out of things to tell.
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"..." Having listened to all that, Steph needed a minute to let it sink in. Eventually, though, a tear or two ran down her cheeks.
“E-Eh?!” The cat-girl started panicking. “Did I say something wrong?”
“N-No...” She shook her head. “I’m just way too happy... I can’t believe all of this is happening. It’s a weird one, but my idiot finally has the life she deserves.”
"A weird life for a weird girl. Seems believable to me." Maya chuckled a little.
“Ahaha, you win that round.”
“Well, anyway, that’s all I can think of right now. I’m also pretty tired, as it was far from an easy day for me, either... Almost two days, to be exact...” The cat-girl let out a small yawn. “Do you mind if we call it a day? Tomorrow will be far from relaxing, either. I'm sure of that already... You can keep Sophia for the rest of the night, as well.” She glanced at her girlfriend, who definitely still had no plans of letting go of her sister in her sleep anytime soon.
“Ah, no, that’s totally alright!” Steph smiled at her. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to sleep because of...” She just pointed at basically everything around her. “I am really tired and exhausted, though... I’m okay with the sofa, by the way. No need to prepare anything right now. I doubt I’ll be able to peel her away from me, anyway.” The shorter blonde looked at the tail wrapped around her waist. “Not that I want to in the first place.”
“Okay, we’ll prepare a room for you tomorrow, then. Alright, Chloe, let’s leave the sisters on their own for a while. Good night, Steph.”
“Night!”
“Yes, I’m also tired.” The fox-girl nodded a few times. “Good night, Steph. Try to get some sleep, regardless.”
“Thanks!” The shorter blonde smiled at her. “Night, Chloe~.”
Afterward, the duo left the sisters alone in the living room, and Steph cuddled closer against the tiger while closing her eyes. Even though she had doubted it before, it took her about two seconds to fall asleep.