60 - Coming Clean III

"Your class … turned a monster … into a person," Elise said slowly. Her eyes flicked to Claire, who was visibly uncomfortable with the situation. Ari felt briefly bad, again, about dropping Claire into this without warning her in advance. She didn't seem upset, at least—just awkward.

Imagine how Ari felt.

And she hadn't even gotten into the crazy stuff. The … lewd aspects.

"Yeah," Ari said. "It let's me do it for anyone. Um. Any monster, I mean."

Ari glanced at Claire, who gave her an encouraging smile. She'd seen Ari's nerves, and, completely consistent with Ari's understanding of Claire, was trying to help her through things however she could. She seemed to be stopping herself from stepping forward and comforting Ari physically, grabbing her hand or tucking into her side; she recognized it would be inappropriate. Claire, and the rest of the Menagerie, might have gaps in their knowledge and a lack of practical experience, but they were perfectly fine in social situations, and reading a room.

Ari took the tenth big breath of the afternoon. Nothing to do but to get to it. "So. Your question is, I'm assuming, 'why does your class let you transform monsters into … monster girls'."

"That would be a safe place to start," Elise said, seeming lost. Whatever she'd expected, being lugged out into the Forest, this hadn't been it. Obviously. Nobody could've guessed Ari's class.

"That question … is also best shown, instead of answered. Go ahead and inspect me."

[Monster Layer].

You know, Ari had already been annoyed at her class name, because what kind of class name was a pun? So absurd. But now that she was about to show it to Elise, it was ten times as mortifying.

Sure, she'd been having fun with her class in the past several days, and grown to like it, but some of her initial apprehension was returning. Why did it have to be so embarrassing?

The odd tingling in her stomach that announced someone's attempted [Inspect] arrived, and in an inexplicable way, she accepted it, rather than rejected. It was the first time it'd happened, even if Ari knew how it worked. Ari had only received her class at eighteen—the same as everyone—so she'd never been inspected before.

Elise paused, absorbing the block of information that came with Ari's class.

Then her face slackened, and Ari knew she'd gotten to the most relevant part.

[Monster Layer].

Seriously … so embarrassing.

Elise's eyes flicked to Claire, then back to Ari. Ari could feel her face burning red. Ari tittered, and it was a bit hysterical.

"So," Ari said. "That, um, explains why I was being weird after my awakening, too, huh?"

Elise stared at her. "Monster … layer," she said slowly. "Layer."

"It's a … novel way of fighting, that's for sure."

"What?" Elise said. "I don't … but … what?"

Ari wasn't used to seeing Elise be anything but eloquent, but if there was ever something that could break that, it was this. Ari forced down her mortification and launched into the full explanation. Now that it'd been broached, she might as well dump it all into the open, and they could sort through the mess together.

Honestly, she was relieved. Her face might be a few degrees away from the temperature of the sun, but at least Elise knew, now. She didn't have to keep hiding it.

"So. My class is [Monster Layer]. One of my first-level skills lets me transform a target monster into a … monster girl. Claire was a member of the Honeybee Colony. We, um, fought, and I won. Another skill let me … link with her. Make it permanent." There was a lot to get into about how her [Charm] skill worked, and the dynamics behind it, but Ari would save that for later. There was too much to get through, even if she glazed over things. "She's not the only person I've joined up with. There's three others. And I'd like for you to meet them. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I guess letting you take the lead would be easier. Ask what you want." Elise's brain had to be spinning over about a million things, and an extensive monologue would be lost to the wind. By the way Elise was gaping at Ari, Elise had missed plenty of what she'd said already.

Finally, Elise composed herself. Her mouth clicked shut, and she wrestled back her typical stoicism. Ari was impressed; she doubted she herself would've been able to do so, in these circumstances. Ari would've stood there with her jaw on the ground all day.

Her eyes flicked to Claire, who was remaining quiet, not knowing how to handle this—and Ari didn't blame her.

"You two … ?" Elise asked.

Ari paused. She cleared her throat. Slept together, Elise hadn't explicitly said. It wasn't the most important thing to bring up, but it was reasonable to latch to. It was, in a way, the weirdest part of everything. "Um. It's part of my class. So … yeah."

"And … others?"

"Uh," Ari said. "Others, too. Lots." That last clarifier probably hadn't been needed. Her face continued to burn. Even with an excuse of 'it's part of my class', admitting to having slept with more than a dozen monster girls over the course of a few days was kind of embarrassing. Not that getting around was embarrassing—Ari knew Elise didn't think that way either—but rather, that it was Ari. Ari hadn't been some womanizer. Ari, sleeping around? The idea was ridiculous, hence her embarrassment.

And girls as cute as Claire, too. Elise had surely noticed that. Claire was a stunner, and it wasn't Ari's affection making her think that.

Plus, admitting to sleeping with a bunch of girls to her best friend was embarrassing in its own right. There were whole slews of reason for Ari's face to be burning.

"Okay," Elise said, putting a hand over her face. She was, of course, overwhelmed. "Okay. Um. Let me … let me think."

"We can walk and talk?" Ari said. "Like I said, I want you to meet the others. And it'll give you time to adjust."