Echoes

The first thing I felt was pain… not just physical pain. No… it was an agonizing emotion… one that I had not experienced yet… but it felt so… so familiar. It was rage… and it burned. But it didn't feel like my own… yet not someone else's either. It was a presence. A wrath so powerful its incendiary pain coursed through my body and heart, searing and scorching the inside of my body… my soul. I couldn't even scream or shout from the overwhelming emotion… it was simply crushing me. Someone… help…

The last thing I could make out before I thought I was going to die was a roar… a thunderous echo of voices upon voices all in unison so inconceivably monstrous and deep… so full of pure despair and fury… yet… I can hear my voice among them.

*Kyuu-san's POV*

I woke up not so refreshed thanks to a certain someone. Damn her cute naivety and sweet talks! After turning my back to her I realized I made a fatal mistake of exposing my tail… but the pervert thankfully heeded my warning. I stayed awake for a while worried about what she might do until I eventually fell asleep from fatigue. Taking care of her must have taken a real toll on me cause my head hurts like hell right now.

When I first saw her, I was ready to give her a beating if it weren't for my mother explaining to me the situation. Seeing how she acted afterward, it leaves little doubt that she was rather innocent… still a pervert though. I, excluding my clumsy mother, really took someone in… of course I did. I couldn't just leave someone like her alone… sure the others in the village would have helped but she is now my responsibility and I won't abandon her.

Still laying in my bed I suddenly feel a massive amount of unnatural heat to my side. I bolt up and look at my side where the pervert slept… what? She's… glowing… her skin was glowing from burning red energy in her body as boiling steam rolled off of her. It seems she is still asleep. But the pained expression on her face looked as if she was enduring suffocating agony as she gripped tightly on the pillow I gave her. Her clothes must've been shaken off at some point during the night as she is trembling and shaking in her nude state.

"Mom! Something is wrong with the kid! Bring me a pan of cold water and towels as well as healing potions for burn damage… no bring all of the other ones as well!"

My mother was outside already making breakfast as I heard the sizzling of the morning eggs when I woke up. She frantically stopped and started rushing around the house. I have no idea what this pervert is going through so I might as well bring all the healing potions just in case. At this moment, my heart was beating rapidly and I felt panic take over. Is she going to die? What is the world is happening? What should I do!?

I looked at her again and rushed to her side. Upon seeing her back I was shocked by the sight of blood… but it wasn't normal… no, it didn't even resemble blood. Bright and shimmering fluid seeped from four open wounds on her back. Four fire orange, ethereal limbs in the shape of… petals emerged from the wounds. The still flowing blood dripped onto the mattress but did not get absorbed by the fabric but instead stayed there. The blood was a golden fire in color and emitted streams of evaporating energy. What… the hell is this?

"What's wrong Kyuu-chan! I brought everything! Oh my gods!"

My mother rushed in through the door with a pan of cold water, towels, and several healing potions in her arms. She looked in horror as she gasped at the sight of the girl's suffering and knelt down next to me putting everything on the floor.

She was burning to the touch but thanks to my quantum training I coated myself in protective energy for safety. Mom was visibly shaken and tearing up at the sight, her face deathly pale. She is soaking the towels in cold water and pouring some of the healing potions onto the towel. If only we had some higher grade healing potions or known healing quanta it could have probably already fixed this, but who would've expected this? In the meantime, I put my hands onto her shoulders and shook gently in hopes of perhaps waking her up. She seemed to sense my touch as her body twitched but she continued to contort in pain.

"Pervert! Hey! Wake up! Damn it you are not allowed to die on me when I don't even know your name yet! Ah fuck you don't even have a name!"

Right as mom handed me the towel her eyes opened and for a moment I saw a flash of crimson orange before her glowing golden eyes returned. As soon as she awoke, the glowing heat from her body began to dissipate. When she saw me, she burst into tears and tackled me in a hug wrapping her legs around my waist toppling to the floor.

"Uwaahh! What are you doing! Get off of me you pervert!"

"Kyuu-san! Big sister… I… I was… so scared!"

She exclaimed this between sobs burying her face into my chest. Where do you think you're touching your brat! I wanted to smack her on the head and pry me off of her but damn is her grip tight!

"Ok! Ok! I get it! Calm down!"

Well, that didn't help cause the brat just clung to me tighter. Ahh! What is with this absurd strength! It's starting to hurt! What the hell! For a good time I was genuinely worried she was dying and now look at this! I looked towards the only person so far capable of calming her down, my mother.

"Shhhh... it's ok, I'm so glad your okay I thought you were leaving us"

Opening her arms in a hug, mom emitted a saintly aura. The pervert finally let go of me and pounced into my mom's embrace… tch… couldn't be satisfied with me huh? She continued to cry into my mom's well-endowed bosoms… it couldn't be because of that right? I looked down at my unimpressive chest… sigh… pervert.

"Can…I...can I floof and hug your tail mom?"

She then proceeded to look up with tear-filled shimmering eyes and quivering lips… and of course, it worked as my mom could not even muster an ounce of resistance at this display and caved in.

"Oh of course you can! Are you okay honey?… floof all you want!"

I had a hard time resisting the urge to beat the pervertness out of that kid as I watched her indulge herself with a blissful smile, although this time there was certain tiredness and fear in her expression. It was hard to imagine the pure pain she appeared to be in not minutes ago… speaking of which what happened? I've really been asking that question too many times today. The burning, the pain, the unnatural flow of energy from her all stopped after she woke up. But first I need to address the wounds on her back.

"Hey pervert. Sit on the bed where there is no blood with your back turned to me. You're bleeding on your back. I'm going to try to treat your wounds so sit still."

She reluctantly crawled back onto the bed only after the promise of more fluff time later by my mom. My mom held her hands and looked intently at her back.

"Any idea what that is?"

"No clue, never have I read about nor encountered a situation like this before."

The four ethereal tails or petals still hung from her back. It was surreal, there existed concentrating one's quanta energy into various structures, but the way the tails was pulsing… it seemed almost biological. Intricate looking veins in the tails pulsed with orange energy. There also exist creatures and few races of people that possess such traits but this was too much of an outlier, its growth and host (pervert) do not match any of the similarities of those cases. As I carefully cleaned her back with the towel the healing potion applied helped close up the wounds as a green light glowed on her back but the ethereal tails did not disappear

"Is this… blood? …. from me?"

"It would seem so…"

She seems to have no idea what she has been through so I doubt she is hiding anything from us. When I brushed past one of her ethereal tails she giggled a bit.

"Hey! that tickled! Huh? I think it felt something on my back…"

Suddenly one of the ethereal tails shot backward and smacked me in the face.

"Ow! Watch it you idiot!"

"I think I feel four things on my back… what are they?"

Ignoring my warning, she began moving her ethereal tails around, stretching and changing their shape seemingly at will. Shapeshifting… biological quanta energy? Is it even quanta energy?

"Oohh! I got four new limbs I guess? I wonder what I can do with them?"

The rascal continued to practice and experiment with her extra set of appendages while my mom watched in awe at the display. She didn't say anything well… what are you supposed to say after everything that just happened?

I'm having a serious headache from the anomaly that is the pervert. I'm… glad to see she is well… but on a serious note, it is strange… too strange. I was suspicious and cautious of her upon meeting her for the first time. I have never seen someone like her before with her features. She resembled elves and that was the guess I went with but when I heard from my mother she was born from a flower, she thought she was a unique dryad. Adding on top of the current situation I have no idea what or more importantly who she is. Never in the records of people nor any creatures I have encountered resembled her to any degree within my knowledge. I couldn't even sense any trace of quanta energy from her. But I did sense energy upon closer inspection, one that shouldn't be found on her… primordial energy. But… how? I doubt she has any ill intentions considering her genuine naive nature and lack of worldly knowledge but I can't be sure. I'll need to ask Mokuren and perhaps even Goddess Myriam if they can discern anything about it. Perhaps I need to be on my guard for now. I'll meet up with them on today's deliveries and tasks in the village… gotta take the pervert along too since I promised my mother… need to make sure she dresses up properly before going out. *Sigh* What is this? Take your child to work day?

"Here let me wash you up and clean you. Are you sure you're not hurting anywhere? Do I need to get Goddess Myriam to come?"

My mother was still overly concerned.

"... No problems! Can I continue to floof your tail in the shower?"

"Sure… try not to get my tail wet though and don't flail around too much with your new limbs? Ok?"

My mom asked to clean her up… I'm too mentally and emotionally tired to object at this point. But I was sure I saw her hesitate to answer so enthusiastically as a brief-expression of fear crossed she realized I was still here.

"Here."

I toss my mom a healing tonic for internal injuries.

"Make sure she drinks it just in case… and make sure she puts on some clothes!"

My mother took it and shook her head in response before leading her out of the room. I looked back at the still glowing, dissipating blood on the bedsheets. How am I going to clean this up? Not to mention there are burn marks on the sheets where she lay. Going to have to buy new bedsheets while I'm at the village center… what a high-maintenance, strange brat.