Chapter Text
An icy pall of unease and uncertainty hung in the early morning air as Kimihito Kurusu laid his arm on the back of the couch in his living room.
It was far too quiet in the house this morning.
Despite the fact that many of the monster girls whom he hosted were early risers, Miia was still in her room getting ready for the day, and Mero, Rachnera and Lala had not made a peep all morning. Cerea was out of the house on her customary morning run, as Ms. Smith had allowed Polt to be her chaperone/training partner in order to promote Polt’s fitness center. Suu was somewhere in the house doing God knew what (what ever it was, she seemed to be doing it quietly).
The young human’s brow furrowed as his mind tried desperately to sort out what each of his charges might be doing, lest he be caught unawares under the onslaught of more shenanigans as the denizens of the house vied for his hand in marriage.
A long sigh escaped his lips as his mind reeled over the sheer amount of chaos that had befallen his life since he had agreed to take Miia in as part of the Interspecies Exchange Program. In the flash of an instant, he had gone from a normal, boring, unassuming, average twenty-something to a guinea pig in an unprecedented anthropological and intercultural experiment dictated by the whims of an irresponsible government agent. To top it off, not only did he have to learn to live with seven women of vastly different cultural backgrounds, but he was expected to marry one of them to determine whether interspecies relationships were possible.
God, how many sleepless nights had he spent thinking about that subject?
Five months had gone by since Smith had presented that impossible choice to him, and he was no nearer to a solution than when he had started. Part of the problem was that he knew he could not make a wrong choice. Despite how problematic they could be, and the vastly different personalities they all possessed, nothing about them was inherently unappealing, off-putting or disgusting to him. He liked them all. Each of them had personality quirks and nuances that he found utterly captivating and would have loved to explore further in the confines of a committed relationship.
It did not hurt that, for reasons he could not fathom, they were all utterly smitten with him and were ready, willing and able to commit to such a relationship. All he had to do was say the word.
But, that in itself was what had held him back thus far.
For whomever he chose, he would have to bear the heartbroken and disappointment of the other six, a thought that terrified him to his very core. He loved and respected them too much to put them through that, he could not bear the thought of hurting them so.
The irony was not lost on him.
He was in a position most men, human or otherwise, would have given anything to be in, to be loved and practically worshipped by seven beautiful women living under the same roof as he.
Why did it weigh on him so heavily, as if it were a curse?
Worse still, his dilemma was not limited only to the girls who lived with him. He had successfully “dated” all four members of Ms. Smith’s M.O.N. Squad, and it didn’t seem like a stretch to think that any of them would turn down an offer of marriage as part of the experiment.
So, why then? He was nothing special, of that he was certain. It seemed like every demi-human he came across seemed to follow him as if he were a magnet.
Well…except for one…
His mind suddenly flashed to a moment not so long ago when he had been attacked by a certain girl who had been brought to Japan against her will and still utterly despised all humans for the cruelty and hardship she had endured. Even her friendship with Papi and Suu could not Trump her distrust of the people in whose country she now resided…
Suddenly, his attention was drawn to the other end of the couch by the clack of a game controller being laid to rest on the coffee table. Papi, the plucky, petite Harpy-girl and primary source of youthful energy in the house, was the only one who seemed to have her usual amount of energy this morning, but it seemed as if even that had started to waver.
She had spent most of the morning engrossed in her favorite racing game as usual, utterly oblivious to the outside world. Now, it seemed her notoriously short attention span had run its course as she let out a sigh, picking up the remote control into the crook of her clawed wing and turning the TV back to “cable” mode.
“Ugghh…why I am I so sleepy? I can’t concentrate!” Papi complained, stretching her light-blue wings out as she flopped down on the couch, her head facing Kimihito.
A small grin wormed its way onto the young Japanese man’s face as he absorbed her antics. Despite being an adult for her species, she acted so much like a little kid, he could not help but find it endearing. It was much the same way with the other girls in the house, and it was almost instinctual for him to be supportive of them no matter what their problems were.
“Well, you did put yourself through a tough workout yesterday at the fitness center. You’re body’s trying to tell you that it needs to rest and recover to build itself back better than before. Maybe you should take a nap today?”
A thoughtful expression worked its way onto the young harpy-girl’s face as she considered for a moment. However, as the moments ticked by, a grey pit of disappointment trickled into Kimihito’s soul as her expression grew more and more vacant and puzzled.
“Hmmmm…you sure we worked out yesterday, master?”
“Ugggh…yes, I’m sure, Papi…”
A single bead of sweat ran down Kimihito’s forehead as a long sigh of defeat blew out of his lungs. Despite how much he liked and respected the young harpy and judged her by her positive traits, a sharp memory was not one of her species’ strong points. He could not help but feel a sharp twang of annoyance when she acted like a stereotypical “bird-brain” as the others had put it.
“Maybe you’re right, master…” Papi sighed as she shifted on the couch.
“Too bad though, I was hoping to fly over and visit Kii today. The weather’s so perfect for flying…”
Kimihito’s muscles instantly tightened at the mention of that name, and his mind unwillingly returned to the thought of the angry, mistreated young Dryad. His heart seemed to sink as he remembered the time she had nearly killed him when under the influence of toxic fertilizer waste that had been dumped in her forest. Worse still, though he had succeeded in saving her, the…vulgar method he was forced to use to do so won him virtually no favor with her.
“I’m home!”
Mercifully, Kimihito’s thoughts were interrupted as the front door slid open and shut and the clack of four strong, proud hooves resounded on the hardwood floor.
“Welcome home, Cerea. How was your run? It’s certainly a great day for it,” Kimihito said with a cordial smile, turning around on the couch and taking in the sight of the loyal blonde-haired centaur girl.
Her hefty body was clad in a skin-tight black jogging suit, and her ample bosom heaved lightly from the exertion.
“I heartily agree with you on that point, master, but alas, it was not the most enjoyable run I’ve ever experienced,” Cerea replied, a look of mild frustration adorning her face.
“Well, I suppose it was enjoyable until Polt and I ran through Kii’s forest. It’s strange, I didn’t think she would have a problem with us, as I am a centaur and Polt is a kobold. However, she wouldn’t stop ranting about the damage the humans have done to her forest and how we both have the nerve to associate with them. Try as I might, I couldn’t get her mind off of it. She was so agitated, she walked away in disgust before we were finished talking.”
“But I thought Ms. Smith took care of the people who dumped that waste in Kii’s forest?” Papi said quizzically, popping her head over the couch.
“Well, she-“
Just then, the fanfare of the morning news report began to blare from the television and the attention of human and demi-human alike was drawn to the screen as a young female anchor with long black hair stared evenly into the camera.
“Our top story this morning, Tetsuya Matsumoto, CEO of the Donyokuna Rokudenashi Heavy Manufacturing Concern and several other board members have been indicted on fifty-five counts of illegal business practices, negligence, willful environmental damage, and violating local ordinances of the Saitama prefecture. This comes two months after an estimated five hundred kilograms of industrial waste was discovered in a protected area of Chichibu Tama Kai National Park…”
“Well, that certainly answers that…” Kimihito said with more than a fair amount of surprise and exasperation.
“Looks like Ms. Smith actually followed through on something for a change…?” the young human asked, looking over to Cerea for validation.
“Hmm…indeed. But that’s not what Kii was angry about. Apparently that waste had been left to sit there for a long time, and as a result, that region of the forest has been damaged almost irreparably.”
“That’s terrible!” Papi exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise and dismay.
“What do you mean, almost?” Kimihito asked suspiciously.
“Well, despite the influence the young maiden has over the forest, she cannot repair the damage herself. At this rate, it could take months, perhaps years for anything to grow there again. Kii has such a strong connection to all living things in the forest, she says it feels as if she has lost a part of herself.”
Kimihito’s brow furrowed as his gaze turned away from the blonde-haired centaur. A black, sticky pit of regret began to form in his stomach as it seemed Kii was everyone’s favorite topic of conversation this morning.
True, he didn’t exactly have a good reason to feel so bad for her. It was not as if her distrust of humans were his fault. He had nothing to do with bringing her to this country or the hardship she had suffered as a result. He had tried his best to be himself around her and treat her as a person, just as he had all the other girls who lived with him.
Still, he could do nothing to stop the floodgates of compassion from bursting within his soul. Despite their rocky start and relatively icy relationship up until this point, he considered himself a good judge of character, and knew beyond the shadow of a doubt the kind of person the young Dryad truly was.
Though she could be cold and was not exactly friendly by nature, she also had a kind, generous and warm side that came out most often when she was around her closest friends like Papi or Suu. She had even allowed him and Suu to pick mushrooms and other roots and plants from her forest to cook for the girls in the house, though this was almost entirely out of loyalty to Papi for rescuing her from the humans all that time ago. Still, the smile she had given he and Suu as they left the forest that day told him everything he needed to know about the person she truly was.
Where most people would have seen an angry monster, he saw a young girl with a beautiful spirit who had been dealt a bad hand in life.
Just then, Kimihito’s attention was caught by the television again as the camera cut to an aerial shot of the damaged section of the forest. It was as if an entire square kilometer of the forest had been utterly devastated. Bare, dilapidated trees stood like gravestones in the air, with debris and dark, mud-ridden earth lining the spaces in between them. Kimihito’s eyes narrowed in shock as he found he couldn’t look away from the sight. Though it was only a small section compared to the vast expanse of forest that lay around it, it looked utterly like death, devastation and horror, and soon Papi and Cerea found they could not look away either.
Kimihito’s fingers bound themselves up into a fist as if on their own, his fingernails threatening to pierce into his palms. If it looked this bad and got this kind of reaction out of him, he could not even imagine how it felt to Kii to have what was essentially a part of her damaged so badly.
“How horrible…”
“Ohh…poor Kii…” Papi breathed, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
Shock began to transmute into anger as the young japanese man looked at the horrible scene in front of him. He would not have wished the misfortune Kii had suffered on anyone, much less her. She was far to beautiful a person, inside and out to have such horrible things happen to her. Worse, the people who had the power to help her and restore life to the forest seemed to be doing nothing. The human world was content to simply let the forest do whatever it did while they got on with their lives and benefitted from a system that harmed the forest and others like it every day.
It wasn’t fair. Regardless of her mistrust of him, no one deserved this, to be hurt and then left to lick her wounds alone.
Finally, he released his fists and looked over at Cerea and Papi, both of whom were still glued to the TV, their faces the picture of shock and disgust.
“Cerea, can you go find Miia and Rachne for me? Papi, you go get Mero, Suu and Lala.”
“Master?” Cerea asked quizzically.
“Wait, are we…?” Papi echoed, excitement building in her voice as a wide smile formed on her face.
“Exactly. It’d be a shame not to be outside on such a beautiful day…”