137 – Growth (7)

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“Shouldn’t you say it’s pretty first?”

Pia slowly got up from her seat.

When I stood up straight with both feet on the ground and my back straight, I could see the growth much more clearly than when I was sitting.

When Pia stood next to me, her perked ears were usually positioned slightly below my waist, but now they seemed to be rising up to my navel.

I could see that the snow-white, smooth legs extending from under the jacket had become noticeably longer, and compared to Pia just a few minutes ago, her arms had also become longer, as if they had been stretched out.

“…Where are you looking?”

Pia pulled down the hem of her jacket to hide her exposed thighs.

The jacket was long enough to cover Pia’s buttocks, but without any other bottoms, it looked quite precarious.

Pia turned her sharp face away and glanced at me with a slight frown.

“… pervert.”

“…Oh, sorry,”

I answered blankly.

Honestly, just keeping up with the current situation was already overwhelming and I felt like my head wasn’t working properly.

It would be more surprising not to be surprised that Pia, who was just a little child until a moment ago, had grown into a little lady in the blink of an eye.

Height has become slimmer. Hair has become much fuller.

Slightly sharper, longer fox ears, a more robust-looking tail, and a slightly longer face.

These were such big changes that it wouldn’t have been strange even if someone else had been brought in.

Even the slightly more distinct facial features, including those sharp eyes that glared at me, were still the face of Pia I knew, yet at the same time very unfamiliar.

But, hidden within that unfamiliar face was clearly something very familiar and nostalgic.

I stared intently at Pia’s face as if trying to find traces of the Pia I knew in the girl before my eyes.

My stupid face was reflected transparently in the eyes that were long and sharp and had pupils that were slit vertically.

And at that moment,

I covered my mouth and sat down at the sudden jolt of excitement.

“Ash?”

“Ugh, ugh,”

“What, what’s going on all of a sudden? Am I that bad?”

“Oh, no, that’s not it… Ugh,”

“…”

I was trying to breathe slowly, sweating profusely in an incomprehensible manner while denying Pia’s self-harm.

What is it?

Why do I suddenly feel so uneasy?

At that moment, while she was thinking like that, Pia seemed to realize something and raised her head with a sigh.

Then, soon after, he made a sad expression and came towards me, muttering softly.

“… Oh, I see.”

“Pia… Wait a minute… Huh… Huuu… Why am I… Why am I like this…”

“Ash…”

Pia slowly reached out and covered my eyes.

Surprisingly, that alone seemed to make me feel a little better.

As I slowly exhaled my slightly more relaxed breath, Pia quietly hugged me with her other arm.

I called out the name of the little fox girl I had given her in a panicked voice.

“Pia?”

Pia hugged me tightly for a long time without saying anything.

Pia, who had been waiting for my body to stop shaking, finally opened her mouth quietly after a long time.

“That reminds me of Layla.”

“… Ah, no…”

“That’s right. I can tell. Because I’ve been watching Ash.”

From childhood,

Pia has been watching me since I was very young, before I could even see her.

was by my side.

And it seems that because it was that kind of Pia, he was able to notice.

Pia easily discovered the cause of my abnormal symptoms that even I was unaware of.

＊

Taking advantage of a brief moment of calm, I asked Pia.

“How… did you know?”

Even though there were no other modifiers or explanations, Pia seemed to know what I was asking.

Pia spoke softly.

“I’ve been watching you all along. I know that much.”

Pia said just that and then closed her mouth again.

But I, like Pia, could fully fathom her heart without any further explanation.

My heart, which had been pounding hard, began to calm down, and my breathing became more even.

As my confused mind slowly calmed down, I felt the inside of my throat burning as if it had been hit by a hot lump of iron.

It’s probably because I vomited and the stomach acid came back up.

I let out a sharp cough because of the sore throat.

Pia flinched in surprise and hugged my shoulders even tighter.

When I realized that a little girl was hugging me tightly, I felt embarrassed for some reason and changed the subject, forcing my hushed voice to come out.

“…Why did you grow up all of a sudden?”

“I’ve grown up.”

“I don’t understand. Everything happened so suddenly today…”

“Everything that has happened to Ash over the past few months has been so sudden.”

“Ha, that’s true…”

As I let out a faint laugh, Pia slightly moved away from me and looked at me.

I also slowly raised my head and looked at Pia.

Pia said, buttoning up the collar of the jacket that had been her armor until a few minutes ago.

“The more I receive from Ash, the stronger I become.”

“That’s why you took things out of my drawer and swallowed them.”

“Yeah, other than that, there was nothing I could do at that time.”

Pia slowly waved her hand in front of my eyes.

A pair of faded red fur mittens were placed on Pia’s long, slender hands.

The gloves that Pia found and swallowed in my room,

These were the very gloves my mother had knitted for me when I was little.

I slowly leaned back against the wall and spoke in a cracked voice.

“… Then I should have brought something more from my room. Of course, I didn’t have the presence of mind to do that.”

At my words, Pia slowly shook her head.

“Not everything you receive will make you stronger. I found everything in that room that could help me.”

“What is the standard?”

“Something precious to Ash. Or something that connects Ash and me.”

“…”

Pia began to explain slowly.

I was grateful for Pia’s improved speaking skills as much as her appearance.

If Pia was six years old, she would have stuttered and broken down while trying to explain something complicated.

“When Ash couldn’t see me, I only received a little bit of Ash’s magic, and when Ash could see me, I received a name.”

“Does it count as receiving a name as well?”

“Because Ash thought of it for me.”

“…’

Pia continued her explanation, bringing her index finger to my lips as if telling me not to interrupt.

“It was a big deal to receive the name. I thought I could grow if I received a little more. But Ash didn’t think about giving me anything after that. Of course, Ash was probably out of his mind at the time because he had just reunited with the hero.”

It was definitely after I left Sylvia’s side, when I was alone with her at this lake when she was still a cub, that I named her Pia.

Pia, the little fox who would light a fire on my body every night to warm up the cold night air.

I still remember clearly its fluffy fur and warm body temperature.

“So I drank Ash’s blood.”

“…what?”

“To be exact, I licked it.”

Looking back, it was after she licked the wound on my knee that she became a six-year-old child.

“You drank my blood and became human.”

“Probably so.”

“And, you grew up like this because you received things that contained my memories?”

“maybe?”

Pia tilted her head and answered.

I laughed in vain as I saw Pia suddenly answer vaguely.

Pia puffed out her cheeks and spoke to me in a hoarse voice.

“Actually, I don’t know either. Do you remember what Ash ate to grow taller?”

“No… that’s not it, but…”

“Me too. Honestly, I feel like I grew up at some point just because I was with Ash.”

I nodded slightly, tilting my head at Pia’s answer.

Perhaps the body doesn’t mean much to the spirit, so it would be difficult for her to explain.

In fact, it was difficult to be sure whether the form of Pia that I was seeing now could be called Pia’s physical body.

Sylvia still won’t be able to see Pia, and Pia can disappear from my sight whenever she wants.

It was frustrating that this fairy tale-like spirit was still full of mystery, but at the same time, I was glad that it still had a strange sense of mystery.

That complex emotion was partly due to my anxiety about whether I could properly handle this power and partly due to my anticipation that if I did properly, it would become an incredible ability.

“Then what was that look of pain just now?”

“I don’t know. I was so hungry that I don’t remember.”

“Hunger?”

“Yeah, I was so hungry my stomach hurt.”

“I was startled. I thought you were sick because you were lying down and groaning.”

“I was sick.”

“…Is it like growing pains?”

I came to a reasonable conclusion.

Perhaps the last piece of growth was just missing.

The thing that filled that one piece was the armor I made.

I asked Pia.

“So now that you’ve grown up, you can use things like the teleportation you used earlier multiple times?”

“…”

“Pia?”

“That won’t do.”

“What does that mean?”

Pia crossed her arms and gave her an angry look.

Although he had quite sharp eyes, he only looked like he was complaining cutely because of his age.

“Ash, remember when I was mad at you earlier?”

“a moment ago?”

“Before I go to Ash’s room.”

“… Yeah, I remember.”

“Do you know why I’m angry?”

“…”

I don’t know.

To be honest, I just gave a cursory apology because I found it annoying to deal with, and I didn’t even think about why Pia was upset.

In fact, who would take seriously the anger of a six-year-old child?

I hesitated and slowly turned my head.

“Yeah, that’s why.”

“this?”

“…See.”

Pia said to me, showing me her reddened eyes.

“Ash only comes to me when he needs something.”

“… Oh, no, that’s not it.”

“Ash uses me like a convenient tool. I hate that.”

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