Teanam
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Chapter 317
🕑 Added 2022-09-20 08:39:19 +0000 UTCSophia, Maya, and Chloe were relaxing together in the mansion’s living room when things suddenly took a weird turn. While watching the flirty and comfy couple, the fox-girl was reminded of the times when she used to watch cheesy romance movies in the evening. On the other hand, the tiger seemed to prefer cheap soap operas, and the two had a little quarrel over which of those was better, only to eventually realize the actual issue at hand.
The tiger didn't get to ask what was going on, though. The moment she jumped off the sofa in shock, while dragging Maya with her, the couple was suddenly bathed in a bright white light and found themselves in Canir's domain without prior notice. It seemed like something important had come up, according to him.
“So, what did you do?” Sophia was still suspicious about him having called her over so suddenly and out of nowhere. "Be honest with me, and I won't get angry."
"You know I watch people a lot, right?" Canir looked back at her. "I am well aware that's exactly what every mother says right before she gets angry."
“I’m not a mother, though. It’s safe to be honest with me.”
“I don’t feel safe at all!” It had the opposite effect on him.
“Hehe.” She let out a chuckle over his reaction. “So, what is more important than me finding out whether Chloe is an otherworldler or not?”
“She is.” Canir just blurted it out.
“HEY!” Sophia got loud. “Don’t rob me of the suspense!”
“See?! You got angry!”
“But for a different reason!”
“She wins that round.” Maya had to side with her tiger.
"Fine…" He hung his head. "It sure was quite the surprise that you two met. I look forward to the future chaos~. The stuff Feyanis is up to is quite entertaining, as well! I wasn't expecting her plan at all~."
“What is she doing…?” The cat-girl wasn’t sure if she even wanted to know.
“Where’s the fun in spoiling the surprise?”
“AFTER YOU DID JUST THAT TO ME?!”
“A-Ah.” He just scratched her cheek. “I mean, it was pretty obvious if you even paid a little bit of attention, you know…? Chloe not being from that world, that is.”
“You know that I’m not good at that!”
“But that’s not my fault, is it?!”
"I'm not sure about that!" Sophia had no intention of calming down anytime soon. “My boosts have settled down for the most part, but who knows what your influence on any of this was!”
“Were you good at paying attention to stuff like that before we met?”
“…” The tiger chose not to answer him.
“Case closed.” Canir looked happy.
“So, Chloe is actually… Wait, is she from the same world as I or are there more?!”
“There are more, but you’re from the same.”
“Seriously?!” She hadn’t expected that reply. “Wait, why am I surprised? If there are two worlds, it only makes sense that there are many more…”
“Exactly.”
“Chloe isn’t someone Sophia knew, though, right?” Maya tilted her head. “Judging by how alike they are and think basically the same, I wouldn’t even be surprised if she’s actually her sister in a new, fluffy, package.”
"Eh?" Sophia and Canir just stared at her. "How did you manage to come to that conclusion…?” They were in perfect sync.
“I-I don’t know?!” She averted her head. "Sophia talked a lot about Steph, and looking at everything I noticed from Chloe's behavior and personality, they seem very similar…”
“Those two and thousands of, if not millions of other people.”
“Yesyes!” The duo continued to stare at her.
“Urgh…”
“Do you really think I wouldn’t realize Chloe being my sister is disguise just because she’s a fluffy fox-girl now? Chloe's just similar enough to her that she keeps reminding me of my sister. They would get along amazingly. Nothing more.”
“I-I see…” Maya felt a little stupid while she started blushing a bit.
“Also, Chloe died in their old world about 20 years ago.” Canir continued. “The flow of time isn’t exactly the same, but Sophia’s sister was born around the time the previous life of your fox friend ended.”
“A-Ah…”
“So, other than me… Chloe actually died for real when she came here…?”
“Yeah… That’s the norm. You actually were an exception amongst exceptions because you didn't want to get a new body, and I felt sorry for you."
“Ahaha…” The tiger awkwardly scratched her cheek.
"I don't have much more information on her, though. I only know that Chloe came from the same world as you and died there around 20 years ago. I'm not the one who brought her over, so I was only informed about the essentials. It's quite amusing to watch her adventures here from time to time, though."
“Wait! You aren’t the only one who can bring people from one world to another.”
“There are many with that ability.”
“Seriously?!”
“Yup." He nodded. "Every overseer can bring people from one world to another."
“Maya, I hope you’re taking notes…” Sophia looked at her secretary. "I need to review them later to understand what is even going on."
“Sure.” She wasn’t doing any of that, though.
“Anyway, enough of that fox for the time being!" Canir clapped his hands to get them to the topic. "You can ask her herself all about her past life once you’re back again. There are more important things to talk about now!”
“Right!” Sophia focused her attention on him again. “You wanted to tell me how you messed up, right?”
“I did not!” He got loud. “I didn’t mess up at all! I just wanted to relay this information to you as fast as possible!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, then.” She was surprisingly apologetic. “Please go on.”
“It’s always so unnerving when she suddenly gets reasonable…” Canir looked at Maya instead.
“Tell me about it…”
“HEY!” Once again, she got loud. “That’s what I get for trying, huh?!”
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“Your letters have reached your family.” Canir had enough of getting sidetracked.
“E-Eh?!” Sophia immediately gave him her undivided attention. “When?!”
"A little over a week ago. I was pretty busy, so I hadn’t had the chance to put them into the post box thing earlier. Afterward, I watched them for a few days to see their reaction and all that…"
“A-And…?” Her entire body tensed up. “How did they take it…?”
“Do you really want to know?” Canir looked straight at her. "Isn't it enough for you to know they've gotten your message and move on?"
“…” The tiger needed to think about it. “W-Will I regret if I want to know…?”
“A definite maybe.”
“Not helping!”
“What do you want to hear, then?" He tilted his head. "If there's nothing for me to tell, you will be sad, but if there's a lot, you will be just as much affected."
“…” She took another pause. “Tell me…”
“Are you sure?”
“No!” She shook her head. “Still, do it…”
"How do you understand this girl...?" He looked at Maya with a questioning expression.
"Who said I do?"
"Fair point." There was nothing for him to add. "Well, you asked for it." Canir wasn’t going to keep it to himself. “Your mother took it the way you wanted it. She was quite sad, but it also seemed like it made her a little happy because it gave her the closure you wanted it to be.”
“I-I see…” There was nothing else Sophia could say.
"It also helped her to give her undivided attention to her new child. From what I’ve picked up, your fate was still weighing down on her a little. She looked less tired with each passing day I looked over her before they went on a vacation or something like that."
“That’s good to hear… Wait, what?” The blonde needed a moment to process it. “Mom had another child? I mean, she had me pretty early, and she's still young enough, I guess, but… Am I even nine months gone already?”
“Pretty much exactly nine months, going by earth time, yes.” The overseer nodded. “It seems like she was already pregnant when you left, though. The child is a little over two months old now.”
“I-I see…” She was back to her one-liner. “I had no idea… Still, it looks like she’s doing fine, huh? I’m glad my letter helped a little even though it also hurt…” The tiger didn’t want to dwell too much on it.
“Yes.” He nodded. “Your mother seemed to be able to move on.”
“What about Steph…? How is she doing…?” Her voice turned more somber again.
“…” Canir paused for a moment. “Anyway, how are you enjoying the new world during fall? Might be a bit too cold for a tiger right now, huh?"
“HEY!”
“Is it bad…?” Maya didn’t have a hard time guessing why he was trying to change the topic.
“Well… Her sister is a little, no… quite stubborn…”
“It is Sophia’s sister we’re talking about here.” It wasn't a surprising claim for the cat-girl. "Anything else would've been surprising."
“True.” He nodded. “Compared to her, our tiger is low maintenance, though.”
“Seriously?!” This was surprising for her. “I foreshadow trouble…”
"Steph is quite the personality~." Sophia looked strangely proud before glaring at the overseer. "Now tell me what is going on!"
“Fine…” He gave up on stalling for time. “It seems like your sister never believed you died in the first place. From what I’ve gathered, she hasn’t stopped searching for you ever since your disappearance… She refused to accept that you were gone. It also drove her a little apart from your parents as she thought Stephanie's behavior was unhealthily and only made a bad situation worse. Still, she didn’t care about any of that.”
“G-Great…” Even though she used that specific word, her expression was the complete opposite of great. If anything, she looked devastated.
“The letter probably made it worse, too. After getting the confirmation that you're, in fact, not dead, she got even more motivated about finding you.”
“So… The exact opposite of what I wanted with the letter…?” Sophia hung her head in defeat.
“…” Canir didn’t answer.
“You can’t do anything to, uhh… prevent her from doing anything stupid, right…?”
“Not really…” He shook his head. “My influence on earth isn’t that strong, after all. I mean, if something happens while I'm watching over her, I have some options, but you can't expect me to watch her all day, every day.”
“I… I wasn’t going to ask you…” The blonde paused for a moment. “Well, Steph can be even more stubborn than I, but other than me, she knows when to give up for good. Once she notices that she can’t find me, she’ll eventually give up… She has a good head on her shoulders, other than me, again… It'll work out, and she'll get over it soon enough.”
“You’re taking it quite well.” Canir was a little surprised after she had turned so emotional the last time the topic came up.
“Well… I’d like to cry right now… Cry a lot, actually, but… What good will it do?” She sniffed once before continuing. “I’ll always love and never forget her and what used to be my home, but I belong to the world Maya and the others come from now…”
“Seems like both sisters have a good head on their shoulders.” The cat-girl liked her reply.
“It sure seems like it.” Canir agreed.
“T-Thank you…” She got a little bashful. “While we’re at it… thank you so much for delivering the letters and giving me an update on them. That was very generous of you.”
“I accept payment in fun events and semi-catastrophes~.” He was glad that she seemed to be mostly fine.
“Only semi?” Her mood really was improving.
“I also take big ones. Okay, at least to the size where I don’t have to intervene to literally save the world, that is.”
“That’s fair.” The tiger nodded a few times. “I can do without that, as well. That was too scary for my liking.”
“Good.”
“I’ll try my best with the semi-catastrophes for a while, though!”
“Looking forward to it!”
“You also have to come down and visit us again!” Sophia smiled at him. “Last time was a lot of fun! Let’s get comfy in our living room with the wolves and drink a lot! A LOT!”
“With your enjoyment for alcohol boosted?”
“YES!”
“Sounds fun!” He smiled back at her. “I’ll put it onto my to-do list.”
“With a priority marking, please!”
“Sure.”
“Great!” Her mood was great again. “I can’t wait to get stupidly drunk and tease you all night long!”
“Sounds like a plan!” Maya was immediately on board with the plan.
“You two are the worst…”
“We know!” The couple was in perfect sync.
“I won’t hold back!” The blonde’s smile started to turn into a grin.
"I'm incapable of doing that when teasing others in the first place~."
“Yeah, yeah…” He just waved his arm. “Well, it seems like you’re doing good, so go back where you came from and take your sassy cat with you!”
“Ehe---” As he didn't want to look at their smug expressions for even a moment longer, Canir didn't even let Sophia finish and teleported them out of his domain with a snip of his fingers.
“E-Eh…?” The moment he was alone again, his expression immediately changed, though. “W-Why did this cost me so much authority that I actually felt it just now…? Wait! After we talked about her sister and her old world… I sent them back to where Sophia came from… Uh-oh…” He started properly panicking. "Their sass threw me off, and I didn't concentrate properly... I did a Sophia! T-That world is a one-way destination, too… oh no…"
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The state of panic Canir was going through was nothing compared to the situation of a certain couple, though.
“Mommy, mommy, look! Those weird girls have animal ears and even a tail!”
“D-Don’t look, Billy! They’re a bad influence!” A woman in her late twenties put away her smartphone to cover the eyes of his roughly five-year-old son, who was pointing and looking at a totally out-of-place-looking tiger and cat-girl.
“E-Eh…?” It was the only reaction the couple had because they had slight issues processing the situation.
Comments
Teanam
Well, that wasn't my intention there, just wanted to have some fun, but enjoy your time here!
Baba Vader
I subbed because of the last cliff. Glad I don't have to wait on this one!
Teanam
Yeah, this was a good one, huh?
Le Sparkle
You've managed to refresh my unending hatred for cliffhangers. Congratulations.
Andrew Poe-Bowdren
I’m almost certain if time was paused it unpaused when he sent them to earth, since it seems like it’s part of the same magic.
Deltanz
My question to this is did canir pause time when he pulled them to his location and is it still paused.
Teanam
Kinda miffed I hadn't thought about that...
Black Unicorn
ROFLMAO
Anderz Draconian
Just had a thought: Will we be seeing a side story of what the friend crew is up to while Sophia and Maya are missing? Because I feel like if Ari and Anna come by looking for Sophia and all Chloe has to say about their whereabouts is "we were talking and they suddenly poofed out of existence. Haven't seen them since." The royal family (or at least Menzie) would go into a glorious state of panic.
Teanam
Ahh Well, we'll see how she deals with that~.
ImaginarySmasher
word missing.... thx for pointing that out.
Teanam
Is there a word missing, or am I missing something? @ImaginarySmasher
Yeuromain
portal (if it works) > her space > home ?
ImaginarySmasher
Sophia should be able to get herself back soon enough.
Deltanz
Uh oh. I knew there be another cliff in this one but I wasn’t expecting that. Glad to hear her family got the letters though.
Teanam
Well, a rather eventful chapter... The Chloe 'mystery' is out~ (Not that it wasn't mostly obvious since the moment we met her.) I loved the theory of Chloe actually being Steph, but I just had to use this chance to take a jab at it~ -- So, who had seen the end bit coming?
