NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 101 – Gap
Sophia and Fey took a break from their training and decided to have a chat and get to know each other better. During their conversation, the two also talked about how to deal with being overprotective before the fox eventually mentioned that she’s become able to use her transformation magic again to turn into a humanoid hybrid, which Chloe had been begging to see ever since she found out her mother could do that.
“Really? Your first and only reaction is to call me adorable?” Slowly shaking her head, the white and red fox-girl stared at Sophia while addressing her in a disapproving tone.
“Here!” Raising her voice, the blonde showed her arm into a portal that opened on her left and then pulled out a full-body mirror. "Look at yourself!” She placed it in front of Fey. “That’s the first reaction anyone should have when first seeing you!”
“…” The fluffy fox-girl looked at her reflection in the mirror for a moment. “I forgot just how much Mira made me focus on the fluffy and cute side of things in her words…” She awkwardly scratched her cheek in return.
“I knew Mira’s tastes were excellent!” Sophia gave her a thumbs up. “Seriously though, you look really nice! There’s absolutely no need to hide from Chloe!”
“That’s reassuring.”
“But still!” The tiger put the mirror away and circled around Fey a few times. “My eyes are blessed! The goddess of fluff has descended!”
“Is it really that much?” The fox-girl sounded awkward again. "In theory, I've spent more time in a humanoid form than you have lived so far, but it still feels awkward to me to put it into words. Mira feels beautiful to me, and my daughter is perfect, but most of you girls all look pretty similar to me.”
“I guess that’s fair.” The blonde nodded a few times. She could see how it would be difficult for her. “All I can say is that Chloe should be grateful that she inherited your cuteness. Her tail is the same as yours, though not quite as magnificent, and it's adorable! She's got your height, too, huh?” She lightly mustered the fox-girl that was slightly shorter than herself. "Her ears are from Mira, though. The shape of yours is quite a bit different. Also, her height is the only body feature she inherited from you, huh?” The tiger took a quick glance at her chest and then also her legs. “You’re a lot more slender. Thighs included, as well.”
“Yes, she’s a healthy mix of both of us.”
“Although, I’m not sure which hair she got.” Sophia focused on her head. "It seems like your hair has a lot of volume, but it's impossible to tell with such a short length. Why short hair in the first place?”
“Long hair is a pain to deal with.” Sounding slightly annoyed, Fey's head suddenly began to glow in a purple light. After it was gone, her previous hairstyle had changed into very long and straight hair. Just as before, it was still white with many red accents and highlights from the roots all the way to the tips of her hair. “Chloe’s hair is closer to Mira’s as the longer mine gets, the smoother it becomes. Mira and Chloe are the complete opposite.”
“Ohh!” The blonde clapped a few times. “How much hair changes a person! You look completely different now!”
“Better or worse?” The fox-girl raised an eyebrow.
“I wouldn’t say that one’s worse than the other, just different. The long hair makes you look a little more elegant but also younger, while the short hair gives you a more mature but also playful image.” Sophia looked a bit confused for a moment. “Somehow, those images are a little cross, and one should cancel the other, but that’s how it feels to me.”
“Humanoid sense of those images eludes me.” Fey wasn’t sure what to say.
“Yeah, true.” Sophia only nodded. “Normally, I prefer long hair, but the short hair also totally works on you.”
“There’s also this style.” The fox-girl’s hair shone again and turned itself into a neatly tied high ponytail at the back of her head in the same white and red color pattern. “How’s this? I kind of like how there’s no hair around my nape because it makes it more breathable and easier to move.”
“Okay, that’s just hot." It had quite a specific effect on the blonde.
“Okay, short hair it is!” Not wanting to deal with that, Fey immediately changed her hair to the initial short style again.
“Aww.” Sophia was disappointed for a second, but it didn’t last too long. “Well, the short hair is cute, too, so it’s okay~.”
“Thanks, I guess?” The fox-girl didn’t know how to react.
“That being said!” The blonde looked right at her.
“Yes?” She tilted her head in return.
“You look nothing like I had imagined you to be!” Sophia scanned her from ears to toe once more. “Well, color scheme aside, that is.”
“How did you imagine me to look?” The red fox got curious.
“Taller!” Her reply was instant. “Somehow, I thought you would be closer to Anna in height. Though, now it makes sense why Chloe is so short even though Mira’s taller than Maya.”
“That’s fair.”
“Somehow, I also imagined you to be super buff and ripped. Like, from all the stories I heard about you and how Fenny is scared of you, I was expecting you to look battle-hardened with a well-defined six-pack, abs, and thighs that could crush someone.” She paused for a moment and looked at the fox-girl once more. “To be fair, I’m happy about it because I much prefer soft and squishy girls, but it doesn't exactly fit the image you had been going for you."
“Well, you can thank Mira for that.” Fey looked a little awkward. “She said that I would look amazing like this, and she really wanted to see it. Her preference in humanoid girls apparently is something exactly like my current looks.”
“Good job, Mira!”
“Overall, I agree with your assessment, though.” The fox-girl nodded once. “Without Mira’s input, I probably would’ve tried something like you described. It's not like I cared about my humanoid looks back then, though, so I thought making Mira happy was more important than looking accurate to my image.”
“Aren’t you the sweetest?!”
“I have to match my look, don’t I?” Fey showed her a slight smirk.
“Touché!” The blonde liked her reply.
“In all seriousness, though, I think it was a lucky decision.”
“I think so, too!” Sophia agreed. “Fluff is justice, after all! Though, I have the feeling that’s not what you meant.”
“I was thinking about Chloe.” She shook her head. “She ended up absorbing all my cute traits. Imagine her personality, but having inherited, in your words, my tall and buff version, which likely would’ve led to her getting muscular with little to no effort thanks to Mira having made sure that she’s always going to be healthy.”
“Interesting thought, but yeah, would’ve been weird.” The blonde nodded along. “I mean, as long as you aren’t unhappy with your looks and how everyone will call you adorable when they see you, all is fine, I guess.”
“I’m neither happy nor unhappy.” Fey took a neutral stance. “Mira is happy, though. Chloe ended up perfectly, as well, and I don’t really care.”
“Sounds like a net positive to me.”
"Exactly." The fox-girl came to the same conclusion.
“Speaking of Chloe, where did the pink come from?” The blonde noticed an odd detail about their daughter. “She got a healthy portion of both of you, but neither of you has any pink going on.”
"Well, simply speaking, red and white combines into pink, but we’ve wondered about the same, too.” Fey scratched her cheek. “The only explanation that made sense to us was the mixing. I'm half white and half red, and Mira is ¾ white. The extra bits of teal in her maybe added some shading to Chloe’s colors.”
“Makes sense.” She could live with that explanation. “Anyway, back to you! It looks like there’s just one downside with your looks, huh?” Sophia went back to mustering Fey.
“It not fitting my image, huh?”
“Yeah,” The blonde nodded. “I can’t take your achievements seriously now. Fen’s being scared of a cute small fox? The human capital fallen and seized by a short girl with a tail so big and fluffy she probably gets stuck in a doorframe a lot? The serious and no excessive fun allowed fox is actually the most adorable individual in our group? I bet if you start pouting, everyone’s first thought will be to pinch that cute little puffed cheek!”
“Oh? Is that so?” The atmosphere suddenly changed as Fey’s wholly flat and ice-cold voice reached Sophia’s ears. It even seemed cold enough that the temperature dropped because the tiger started shivering a little. “That’s unfortunate.” Her expression did change, but it, unfortunately, wasn't a pout. It was a glare so powerful that half her face turned dark. Not only that, but the ground below her was turned dark, as well, as black nothingness began to ooze out of the adorable small fox-girl. While her lower half was slowly being eaten by darkness magic, her upper body was wrapped in magic particles that were so dense that her hair was affected by them and started moving up and down as if possessed. “Really, really unfortunate.” Her blood-red eyes had lost all of their shine, and they seemed like they were staring right into Sophia’s very soul.
“Ha.” The tiger was frozen in place for a few seconds but then instinctively took a few steps backward to get some distance between them. “You, err… win that round.” She raised her arms in defeat. “If anything, your new looks make you even scarier when angry.” The gap between her appearance and feeling only made it more intense.
“Happy to hear~.” Fey clapped her hands while replying to her in a cheerful tone, and the oppressive aura and expression, as well as the black nothingness, instantly disappeared, leaving behind the adorable short fox-girl from before.
“Wow.” Sophia had no idea what else to say.
“You know, back when I first went into public in this form, many had the same reaction when they found out who I was.” The fox-girl looked like she was reminiscing of a better time. "A few days later, no one did that anymore, and the rumor of my red accents being the dried-up remains of the blood of my enemies began to circulate over the continent. Linking me together with Mira, some even called me her goddess of war, but she happily corrected her on that front because that wasn’t something I wanted to deal with. The blood of my enemies bit was something I took a liking to, though. It’s very poetic if you ask me.”
“Again, wow!” The blonde still had no other words.
“In the first place!” Fey then stared at the tiger. “You’re widely regarded as cute, as well. Even so, you regularly threaten the king of the beastfolk, and the entire upper echelon behind him is scared of you. On top of that, you went to war against a massive human army and won without breaking a sweat. By brainwashing them with darkness magic, no less. You made an entire army cry and wet themselves while cowering in fear in front of you. What made you think that cute short girls can’t be scary when you’re a part of that trope? You’re on the short side, after all.” The fox slowly shook her head while saying so.
“Ah.” Still at a loss on how to deal with the adorable bundle of feistiness that packed way too much of a punch, Sophia needed a break to collect her thoughts.