Chapter 26

Anna and Eliza are sitting in front of me and are glaring at me and at the blonde stuck to my side. No, she's not touching me at all. There's still that strange distance of a thumb between us. No matter how close she is, it's always that exact distance.

"So. Who is that Jane?" Anna's tone isn't really pleasant, full of hostility.

"I'm Luna! I want to eat Jane!" Luna answers with a bright voice before I can say anything.

Pffft

Instantly, the water I was just drinking is spat out on the other side of Luna's seat. I snap my head to the mischievous blonde.

"Luna?! The fuck is that nonsense?! You can't say something like that out of the blue!"

I try to grip her shoulders to shake her but she dodges me before keeping that thumb-distance again, smiling innocently. I still manage to see her expression showing fear for a brief half-second. I'm briefly stunned at that.

Uh? Weird. Gotta understand what's up right here.

I sigh heavily as I let my arms drop on the table.

"Anyway. Don't listen to her. She's Luna. A dagger user I met in class. She's pretty cool and can keep up with me in a spar." My voice is full of tiredness but I still gesture between my girlfriends and Luna. "Luna, meet Anna and Eliza. My... Hum... T-"

"Nice to meet you Luna. I'm Anna. Jane's Twin sister and her girlfriend." Anna interrupt me, smiling brightly at Luna.

"And I'm Eliza. Jane and Anna childhood friend and Jane's girlfriend. Nice to meet you Luna. You seems fun to have around." Eliza's voice is calm as she smile at the blonde.

Of course I find a very interesting part of the table that has been nicked over time. It's amazing how it can show the passage of time. I'm totally not ignoring what they are saying because I'm embarrassed. Nope, not at all. My face isn't warm. I deny every allegations.

Why do I feel two scorching gazes and one full of interest suddenly? And why aren't they talking anymore?

Puzzled, I lift my head to see Anna and Eliza looking at me like they are ready to pounce on me. Meanwhile Luna's eyes are shining brightly. I shrank a bit on my chair.

"Hum. Yes?" I say hesitantly, tilting my head with my ears following the movement.

"Nothing. You are just too cute for our hearts." Eliza answer with a light shrug, a smile on her lips.

I just roll my eyes at that even if I feel my cheeks warming even more as my tail betray the happiness her compliment bring by swishing behind me. Anna suddenly get up, lean over the table toward me, hook her fingers around my tie and tug on it. This makes me lean forward too. I don't have time to ask what she want, her lips are already on mine. My tail decide to go crazy swishing so much I'm sure I could almost fly with it. Meanwhile my claws dig into the table in surprise.

I guess the next generations will wonder what happened...

She doesn't maintain the kiss very long. Just a few seconds before breaking the link. I'm dazed as she let go of my tie, letting me sit back down. My brain take a few moments to reboot, I just feel like smoke is coming out of my head.

"Oooh! So envious! I wish I could do the same!" Luna chirp from besides me.

Those ridiculous words wake me up from my daze and I give her my most deadpan glare.

"Do you flirt with all the girls like that?"

"Hm? Maybe? I don't say I want to eat them though." Luna tilt her head innocently, a finger on her lips.

"Yeah. Sure. Well don't say that to me either?"

"No can do! It's fun!"

With her weird sense of distance, I have high doubts she's serious. There's really something behind that smiling face. But I have no proof, only my impression. I turn my head toward the two girls and see they are observing Luna. I don't think this blondie is dangerous. She seems pretty fun even.

"Anyway. Like I said before, she's a dagger user. Pretty fun to spar with. For some reason she wanted to meet my two girlfriends. Don't ask me, I have no idea why." I shrug as I continue the previous conversation.

"Because you three are the talk of the Academy! So I wanted to see more. And you seemed like some cool people. So you felt like great choices to be friends with!"

Did I dream or I heard something a bit lonely in her tone?

I feel like she almost said 'first friends'. But maybe I'm wrong. Eliza, ever the sweet girl she is, try to put her hand over Luna's. But the blonde avoided it. Eliza didn't react and simply put her hand down on the table, but I still saw her brow lifting for half a second.

"You do seems like a fun person, Luna. Why not then?" She says gently, like her gesture didn't just get dodged rudely.

The rest of lunch passed without much fuss, simply talking and knowing Luna a little bit more. She doesn't really give us much clues about who she really is though, or what she does usually. We do learn she's from the capital though. But she doesn't really say much more than that. So we just switch to hobbies and the like.

At some point it's time for afternoon classes and, sadly for Anna that almost threw a tantrum again, time to go our separate way. Luna... Already disappeared almost the instant lunch finished though. Meanwhile I'm on my way toward archery class.

I still have no experiences with a bow. But that one time in the Dungeon and seeing Claire use her own in a close fight motivated me to learn more. Yes, I know I didn't awaken a bow. But I want to learn.

After walking for a little while, I arrive at a field different than the others. Here it's mostly a large straight line with a row of targets. They are placed at around thirty meters away from the start of the field. There's already a bunch of students presents. Some are shooting at the targets while waiting for class to start.

Of course, all of them have their own weapon. Thankfully I spot a rack of ordinary bows in a rack on the corner of the field. The Academy did prepare for me since I registered for that class it seems. I must be one of the only student, maybe the only one, that took a class not meant for me.

As I look around the field I spot the catgirl I was thinking of just before, Claire. She's standing further away than the other students, her hands are tangled in front of her uniform and her eyes are darting all around. Even her ears are almost flat against her head, her tail twitching nervously from time to time.

Ahw poor girl. Either shy or really nervous. Does she never gets out much?

I don't want to approach her and show pity, but I can't resist. So I'll just reach out normally.

"Hello! You are Claire Tsukiakiri right? I'm Jane Denki. Nice to meet you! I saw you the day of the exam, you were great!" I smile as I greet her while approaching, my tail lazily swishing behind me.

She jumped in fright, her nervousness made her unaware I was approaching. She turns toward me and her eyes looks at me from bottom to top for half a second before settling on my face.

"H-hi. I... Yes I'm Claire. N-n-nice to meet you I guess? I uuuh... Thanks?" Her voice is cracking and shaky but she still answer me, her eyes looking around nervously.

Hm. Shy or simply social anxiety? Maybe a bit of both

After all, a stranger coming to greet you suddenly can only be startling. My goal isn't to scare her. I would really like her to join us as our team's archer. So I immediately lift my hands with an apologetic expression.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to surprise you. I just wanted to talk."

"No no it's okay! I wasn't paying attention at all! You could almost think those ears are useless!" She's now panicking, even her tail is swishing erratically behind her.

It takes a lot out of me to not laugh. She's pretty cute all flustered like that. I guess it's the charm of catgirls? At least she's not stuttering anymore. For now I guess.

"Eeeh, it's hard to get used to it. When we don't want to they catch sounds or whispers. But sometimes we get so focused we totally forgot how much our hearing got better." I shrug, a smile on my lips.

I often try to ignore it, but I can hear a little too much around me. Especially the whispers. Somehow, people always forget how sharp a beastkin's hearing can be. Of course I don't hear everything.

Dang that would be a problem.

I still hear enough though. So I've become pretty good at filtering those. Well, maybe I still listen to be sure nobody's talking too badly about us behind our back. Maybe. Can't blame me for that.

Claire nod at me eagerly.

"Yes! I do tend to do that a lot... Too focused on something. Or, at least here, in a direction."

"It's fine, it'll just take a while to get used to."

At that moment the teacher came to the field. It was a woman with an average build, brown hair and a composite bow in hand. Contrary to the average overall feels she gives, her eyes are sharp.

"Alright. Hello students. I'll be in charge of teaching you archery since the columns decided to grant you various kind of bows." She sweep her eyes across all of us, stopping a brief second on me before looking away. "No matter the bow you got, you will always only be able to shoot a target at around twenty-five or thirty meter max. Why? Because for now you are too weak. I know, some of you did awaken some pulley bows. Those are indeed stronger, normally. Later on, with more training and more power, you will all be able to show the real power of your bows."

She came in front of one lane, drew her bow fully as an arrow materialised on the string and then let go of the string. I can't even follow the arrow at all. One moment it's motionless, the next a 'thunk' ring out and it's stuck deeply in a target almost three hundred meters away.

I suck a sharp breath at that demonstration. She didn't even lob the arrow. She fired in a straight line.

I'm glad I still haven't met any archer that powerful. No way in hell I dodge that kind of shot.

The other students clapped their hands in awe but the teacher didn't really react. It must be something pretty normal for her.

"This, you will all be able to do later on. An archer, in a team, is responsible for suppressing fire. Our arrows needs mana, yes, but less than a mage's spell. So we can sustain our barrage for a longer time. We don't really need a lot of power behind our shots. Being disruptive can be enough. Of course, some Archers do take the role of 'sniper'. More time between each shot, more force behind it. And of course more precise."

"There's also another type of Archer. The close-combat one. They can fight perfectly fine in a pseudo close-combat. They rely on reflexes and smart positioning around the opponent to cribble them with arrows while still maintaining a little distance. Acrobatics are used a lot at that time. The firing rate is also higher than a suppressing fire Archer's."

I glance toward Claire. This fighting style seems quite suited for her. At least with what she showed us that day of the exams. As I thought before, having the confidence to let a melee fighting get so close to her and survive is impressive.

"Between each of those 'specialisations', if can say that, the close-combat is the hardest to master. First of all because you need courage to do that. Second you need a high dexterity and coordination. Of course each specialisations have their own difficulties. But please remember: don't try to master them all. Don't bite more than you can chew. Being a jack-of-all-trade, master-of-none isn't really something glorious. Chose the fighting style that belong to you, and the team that will let you bloom."

That makes sense. A team wouldn't accept someone that know only a bit of everything.

"Now. Each go in front of a line please. We will view the basics. Without a good foundation, even if your awakening gave you some, you will never be better."

The rest of class passes with the teacher correcting some mistakes in stances, the way we hold our bows. She spend a little more time with me, since I didn't awaken a bow, but not too much. She's not trying to show favouritism, just helping enough so I don't fall behind later one.

I'm not sure how often I'll use those skills. But that's mostly in case we do need them in a dive. Even if I manage to get Claire to join us.

A funny, kind of, 'incident' happened though. I had the marvellous idea to try and draw the bow with my claws. It didn't work. The string straight-up snapped and I had to take a new bow. Well, at least it made Claire and a few girls giggle. When the boys tried to laugh they got a full girl's side of class glaring at them. It snuffed the laughs in their throats.

At the end of class I approach the catgirl. We didn't talk much. She mostly gave me a few pointers when the teacher wasn't near me. I still wonder if I can get her number so we stay in touch. Break her shell a little so we can all hang out.

"Claire? Do you mind exchanging contacts? I'm sure my.. Uh.. Girlfriends... Will really like you. We could all hang out sometimes. Outside of class" I say, a big smile on my face and my tail swishing behind me, ears angled outward.

"U-uh... Y-yeah... Erm... Why not? You all seems nice... I saw them too... Wait are they really your girlfriends?!" She first answer hesitantly, then perks up immediately at the end.

"I... Uuuh... Yeah. They are. Not sure I deserve them. They at least deserve way better. Anyway! They are amazing."

My face is warm as my tail keeps swishing, betraying my embarrassement too. Claire simply smile gently at my display.

Hm? It's the first time I see her smiling now that I think of it.

We finally exchange our numbers before parting ways. I have one last elective to do. 'Dungeon survival'.

It's not a very complicated class. The teacher mostly explained what kind of basic preparations we needed. I felt like he was mostly describing a simple hike in the mountains. It's not really far from the truth though. We do need tents, ropes, things to cook our meals. We also need dry rations etc. Apparently he'll let us enter a Dungeon at some point to see if we can survive a day and a night without preparations. Using our environement to survive.

"Ugh. Finally. That day was tiring." I say as I open the door to our dorm after a looong day of class.

It wasn't more than the other days of course. But still quite physically tiring. And mentally because of a certain blonde that seems pretty adverse of other's contact.

I let myself plop face first on one end of the sofa, wriggling forward like a worm so I can lay on it with my whole body. My tail is, for once, limp and dangling out of the sofa as it brush the floor a little.

"This tired?" Anna voice ring from somewhere.

"Yeah. Thanks, in part, to a certain Luna. Wait a second."

My ears perks on my head, listening intently to where does Anna's voice and the sounds accompanying her comes from.

Oh no.

I scramble out of the sofa instantly when I manage to pinpoint from where she's sounding from. Then I sprint to the kitchen. Here she is, in front of a... Mass that comes straight from the abyss?

She has her hands on her hips, her brow furrowed in annoyance and confusion. Her wings are fluttering out of frustration.

"Anna. What are you doing?" I ask, my voice tinged with fatigue and fond exasperation.

Her head turn toward me before she offers me a timid smile.

"Herm... I'm making dinner?..." Her voice is barely a whisper.

I sigh heavily before taking her hand in mine. I smile brightly at my dear useless-in-the-kitchen twin. Then drag her out before she manages to summon a demon with perfectly normal ingredients.

"You. Are. Banned. From. The. Kitchen." I enunciate every word clearly, one by one, without losing my smile.

Of course Eliza is giggling softly in her hands. I snap in her direction as I point at her, eyes narrowed.

"Why didn't you stop her?"

"I tried. She didn't listen. Wanted to 'please you' with a dish she made" Eliza immediately throw her hands up in innocence.

I have no help in this family. None. At least not on that front.

Dinner is mine to make. I don't mind at all though.