POV Maria
"Phew"
With this, I can now at least control my mana properly. After all, I want real control over it, not just some vague feeling. But it certainly is difficult. I'd barely be able to move it at all if I wouldn't have the {Innate mana control} skill. I wonder how long it'll take Mark to do it.
Speaking of Mark, I really can't believe that he turned into a little girl. I mean the difference between his usual personality and the look he has now is just so big. And he even acted more friendly than he did previously. Still, I wonder how this is going to turn out with him. The Mark I know isn't the type of guy who accepts such things easily.
Anyways it's already 17:00 and our parents still aren't home. It's getting way too late. I mean I can understand that it takes quite long for our mother to return from Stuttgart, but our father should be home already.
Let's text him and ask what's taking so long and when he'll be home.
*boom
Suddenly, I heard a noise like someone slammed into a wall.
I immediately open the door and rush to Mark's room. The noise came from there after all.
I rip the door open.
I thought that maybe Mark hurt himself accidentally because he misjudged his new strength, but instead I see how Mark's tail has slightly embedded itself into the wall. Apparently, his... her tail hit the wall while she was asleep.
However, he doesn't seem to have woken up from that. But I can see that she throws her body around while sleeping. She seems to have quite some turmoil as she also slightly cries.
Sigh, I was already wondering why she acted so composed all this time, but it seems that she just pushed all her worries into the back of her mind so that she doesn't have to think about them.
I sit down on the edge of her bed and gently stroke her head to calm her down.
"Shh, it's okay. Calm down. It's going to be just fine."
Slowly, she stops thrashing around, and eventually, she stopped crying.
However, her facial expression didn't relax much.
"Just what am I going to do with you. Always trying to suppress your emotions and never show weakness. You will only destroy yourself like that you know?"
Mark always tried to be some kind of machine after all. I noticed very early on that he hated it when people saw his weak side after all and he also tried to hide it all the time. As if that's possible.
But that is just how he is. So I sometimes do this to help him calm down, even if he doesn't know it.
But she has really become just so adorable. It's going to be difficult for him from now on, with all these changes that are even more extreme for her than for most others, so I hope he will come to terms with his new appearance as fast as possible. And I will teach him everything she has to know. There's a lot he has to pay attention from now on after all.
Well, now that she has calmed down I will write father. It would be better for him to return as soon as possible. There is still a lot to clarify after all.
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POV Mark
I naturally woke up this time around. As I waited for thoughts to clear up I thought about the reassuring presence I felt while sleeping. I didn't notice it previously but now that I did, I remembered several times where I felt it. I wonder who is behind it.
Now that my thoughts cleared up, I noticed that there was a dent and also a hole in the wall. My tail also had some fine dust on it, so I immediately knew what happened.
"Sigh, let's hope there isn't any extensive damage."
Luckily there wasn't any more than that. I managed to not completely rip apart my blanket and bed while sleeping. That's good.
Now then...
I got up and looked at my alarm clock to check the time.
"17:22, huh."
So I slept for a nearly one and a half hour. Well, that's better than nothing.
"Let's see if my father got home already."
So I opened my door and walked downstairs.
"Mmmh you've changed quite a bit, Maria."
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"As if you stayed the same. Besides this much is to be expected I guess, after all, we changed races!"
"Weelll yeah. But In the end, we are we."
"Ohh believe me your "son" changed quite a bit."
"Which one do you mean?"
"Oh, he is here already. I guess there wasn't much sleep to get this time around?"
The person who apparently is my father turned around to take a look at his "son".
However what he saw wasn't his son but a girl with long, black hair, carapace on her limbs, some claws and a long tail swinging behind her.
Obviously, this girl was me.
"Maria, who is this girl?"
"Well, that is your "son" Mark."
The grin on the face of my sister told me that she is enjoying this situation plenty.
"I don't remember... no, wait, if we're talking about race change then..."
"Hi, dad. You changed quite a bit, huh. Well, not like I am on to talk. Haha..."
"Sigh, well this is unexpected. Especially that it is Mark. Mark would be the last person I would expect to ever transform into a girl."
Just like I said, my father, changed quite a bit. Just like my brother, his eyes turned red and he also got some horns on his head. His body also got some more muscle and no longer has the beer belly. His face remained mostly the gentle one I know though.
"So Mark, what happened? I don't think this is some common occurrence after all."
"Wait, you are not surprised or at least not that much?. Also, why don't you even question it?"
"I know who my son is if I see him. Also, I knew that something like this is possible."
"You knew? What does that mean?"
My sister decided to also ask some questions.
"It's a bit of a long story and I think it's better to say this when all family members are present."
"Sigh ok, since it is something that influences us all it's only fair that we all get to know it. But still, you aren't surprised?"
"Hahaha! It takes more than this to surprise me."
What the hell?! Your son suddenly turning into a little girl isn't enough to surprise you? Then what would be necessary to surprise you?
"So where is Jacob? I haven't seen him since I came home."
"Ah well, he is sleeping."
"Then why haven't you woken him up yet?"
"You do know that he inherited your demon blood, right? So what do you think he turned into after he awakened it?"
"Ah right. There was that. So he became a demon of sloth?"
"Yes, he did. I already tried slapping him a few times to wake him up but it didn't work."
"Even that isn't enough?"
Considering his personality I'm not even surprised that he became a demon of sloth. I am more surprised that we have demon blood in our family.
"So, what are we gonna do now?"
I asked because I wasn't sure what was going to happen now.
"Well, I think I'm just going to enjoy a beer for now. After all, I don't want to start any lengthy explanations before your mother is not home and Jacob hasn't woken up."
"Then that leaves us with wither just enjoying our free time for now?"
"Not really Mark. After all, there is still some stuff that you have to learn. Also, We will have to do some online shopping for you. The system said that sooner or later monsters would appear so I want to do that before The roads are blocked for one reason or another. It also shouldn't take too long until most of the civilians can start working again, so I want to get you some clothes as soon as possible. I bet you also don't want to run around in dirty clothes or don't have any at all."
Ugh. I don't really mind the shopping part but...
"Can't we just do the online shopping for now? Besides I wanted to finally learn how to control my mana so that I can switch forms as soon as possible. So I wanted to try that a bit more."
"Sigh you know that you are just delaying the inevitable, right? You will have to learn all the stuff every woman has to sooner or later. It's not something you can just ignore."
While that is right, we don't even know if my body will develop the same way the body of a human does. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out my race is quite long living and it will take forever for me to mature. Many fantasy races live longer than humans do and my new race is straight out of fantasy.
"Yeah yeah I know."
"You just don't want to accept it, do you?"
"Would you do it that easily? I don't think you understand what all this means to me properly so don't talk like you do! Also, don't try to console me like your my mother!"
I stormed out of the kitchen and ran back up the stairs.
Opened my door entered my room and slammed the door shut.
Shit, I lost control.
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POV Maria
"You know you pushed him too hard there, right. You have to take on things like these slowly."
"Sigh I just don't want him to close his eyes to reality. It's necessary that I push him constantly otherwise he will only live in his own delusions, denying reality. You know that he tends to be stubborn and if people really want to, they can believe their own lies. I just don't want that to happen to him."
"You talk like some real big sister that cares too much for her little brother, you know?"
"Maybe because I am a big sister that really cares about her little brother, well sister now."
I really do after all. especially with the way he is. He just requires someone to help and console him. Even if he doesn't want it because then he would need to accept his flawed self and his own weakness, which is something he just can't. He really tries to hard to fulfill the expectation of others even if they don't actually have them. in the end, you cant say he just thinks too much of the possible opinions of the others. Someone has to help him here and there.
Also, he doesn't even realize that he still behaves like when he was a child. He just tries harder to hide it.
"Just don't push him too hard. Let him come to terms with it on his own. if you try too hard he will just hate you after all."
"Sigh he just tends to think too much about opinions even though emotions are what really matters."
"You know exactly that he doesn't even understand his own emotions and you expect him to understand the ones of others. Don't ask the impossible."
"if he wouldn't try so hard to not have any emotions then he would also understand them better and he would be able to understand others."
Ever since he's been 11 he has tried to seal shut any emotion. And while it did give him the ability to think logically, he lost the ability to understand why people act the way they do, when they act on emotions.
"If you want to stop the little devil in him, be my guest. You know that even when he was still 10 he was able to contend an 18-year old in strength when he was enraged. It is natural that he tries not to get enraged or anything else. Now that mana has reappeared and he awakened his heritage I don' know if we could stop her at all."
It certainly is troublesome. But then again, why was he so strong, even back then. If it was his heritage influencing him even back then, wouldn't that mean that many other humans also act weird because they are influenced by theirs? But I never noticed anything from my heritage.
Anyways, with the way things are right now, I think it is better to leave him alone and cool his head.
Meanwhile, I can start picking out clothes.