(How did this happen?)

I held my head as I wondered.

Looking down, I unwrapped the blanket I was holding against my body before promptly pulling it tightly against my body again.

(Those are definitely boobs, aren't they?)

The unmistakable mounds that pushed out the top of my pyjamas had to be those.

But even more startling, was what was peeking even below them.

Despite being covered by the blanket, something moved further down my body.

Through the thin blanket, it looked like my legs were moving, yet when I actually tried to move my legs, it didn't move at all.

I knew what they were. A part of my brain had registered it the second I questioned it.

(But I shouldn't have something like that. Even if they feel completely normal to have.)

Above everything else, what was most disturbing was the fact that everything which should have been weird, which should have been alien to me, felt completely normal.

(That too. Even that didn't feel surprising.)

I looked up, and was faced with a transparent white wall.

Or rather, it was just a white sheet that stretched down from the ceiling and across my room, supporting my body. All around me were numerous white sheets, made of countless thin strands.

My room shouldn't have had anything like this in it, yet it did, and it was so familiar that when I first woke up, my mind didn't even register it.

"Yuki! Wake up!"

"I'm awake Mom!"

(Ugh. What the hell's even going on?)

Despite being unable to understand any of it, I threw off my blanket and got out of my hammock like bed.

Standing in front of a tall mirror, I sighed as I looked at my own reflection.

What I saw was a pretty girl looking back at me. She had back length white hair and a matching night gown that stopped just under her navel.

That alone was stunning enough, that somehow despite my last memories being that of a pretty average guy, the person reflecting off of the silvered surface looked like someone completely unrelated to him.

But as shocking as that was, what was even more incredible was from the hips.

Or rather, what was supposed to be my hips.

My middle suddenly flared out, surrounded by four large and black disks that shined with a mirror polish. Those orbs were built into a wide surface of thick white hair-like bristles, the same shade as the hair that fell from my head.

Touching the thick strands, I could feel each individual finger pressing against them due to their sensitivity, and when my fingers reached the bottom, I could feel the smooth chitin that was barely visible through the bristles.

*Sigh*

(This really is my body?)

Even the feeling of hot air as I sighed spreading from below my body due to my second set of lungs was confirming that fact.

"Ouch!"

In a vain, last attempt, I pinched my cheek, leaving a red mark on my smooth skin, no traces of the patchy stubble I usually had when waking up.

In fact, beyond just that, the fact that I used my fore leg to pinch my cheek so naturally that I was barely aware of doing so until it was already done was a bit more shocking.

(This...really is reality huh?)

I had turned into an arachne, and a really cute one at that.

Though the part of me which remembered being one didn't think she was that cute, the human part of me concluded that she was definitely wrong and that she was incredibly cute! Cute enough that she could become an idol once she grew up!

"Yuki! Hurry up, or you'll be late for school!"

"Yes Mom!"

But no matter how absurd it all was, life would continue on as cruelly as it ever has.

Giving myself one last look in the mirror, I threw off my night gown and tossed it onto my bed, which was just a bunch of silk threads woven together into a heavily reinforced hammock. It was far more comfortable than any normal bed anyways.

Especially the one I had as a human.

As an added bonus, it was 100% biodegradable, renewable, and all natural, as I had woven it with my own threads.

I could even eat it if I wanted to make some changes, though arachne threads weren't very tasty.

Tossing the rest of my pyjamas onto my bed using my rear legs, I dug into my dresser drawer and pulled out a bra. It was a white one.

Unfortunately, due to my colouration, anything but white had a tendency of standing out a lot if any of it became visible by accident, so it was too embarrassing to wear anything else. Fortunately, this one had some cute flower patterns running across the strap.

"Oh?"

As I closed the strap, I noticed the slight tightness of the cup. It wasn't like this yesterday.

(Maybe it's almost time to get a bigger size?)

Pushing my chest out as far as I could, I tried to feel out the tightness. If I was lucky, I might need to buy some new bras this weekend.

(Maybe not that soon.)

My mood dipped a bit at the realization, but the fact that it shouldn't be too long before I needed the upgrade still made me happy.

That was, until I realized just what it was I was feeling happy about.

(I really am a girl now, huh?)

This other me, who lived her whole life as a girl. All these things that she felt, that she remembered. It was as if the memories of the human me was just forcibly inserted into her brain.

I wasn't even sure how much of my thoughts were of the male me, and how much the female me.

*Sigh*

Letting out another hot breath, I went back to digging through my dresser.

(Huh? Where's my panties?)

After a few moments of absentminded searching, that concerning thought filled my brain.

Finding and putting on a bra was almost as good as instinct, but panties on the other hand I couldn't find no matter how hard I looked.

(Are they somewhere else?)

I dug through my thoughts as I flickered my consciousness between the many eyes at the base of my human looking torso. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't come up with a location for where I stored my panties.

(Why can't I...oh.)

Wanting to hit myself, I realized the problem. As an arachne, I didn't wear panties. My anus was right beside my spinnerets, so panties weren't a viable piece of clothes. They were such a foreign idea to my female memories that I didn't even recognize that fact until I thought about it.

Suppressing the embarrassment, I grabbed my school uniform hanging off of some silk loops stuck to the ceiling and quickly put it on. A white dress shirt with a madder red blazer over top and a blue and white ribbon tied around my neck. Covering my spider abdomen was a plaid skirt.

The human part of thought that it was a bit weird that arachne would cover their abdomens, yet leave their cephalothorax and legs exposed, but the arachne part of me thought that it would be a pain to cover each of her eight legs and didn't want her lower eight eyes to be obscured.

Considering how I could now see all around me, albeit with limited clarity in all directions but forward, that was a feature which I wouldn't want to be suppressed just because of fashion.

Now that I was ready, I opened the door to my room to head downstairs.

Pausing right before going through, I looked to the corner of my room.

There was several empty cans of beer there. Something which I was able to buy because the convenience store clerk was especially lazy and didn't ask for my ID.

Those beer cans, they was the same one from my human memories as well.

Last night, after buying them, I snuck them home and drank them in my room before going to sleep.

Since I was drunk for the first time, my memories were hazy, but I distinctly remembered seeing a shooting star through my window.

I think...I wished for something, just for fun.

That wish was...

"I wish everyone was a pretty monster girl."

I've always thought that wishes were something you made because they couldn't come true.

But somehow, that joke of a wish actually did come true.

And somehow, I forgot to exclude myself from it.

It did make me wonder though, if the human me made that wish, yet those beer cans were still in this changed room, what did the arachne me wish for?

That wasn't something which I could remember for some reason.

(Maybe that's because she didn't wish for anything?)

I wasn't sure what the truth was, but at the very least, I would likely have to live my life as an arachne from now on.

But for some reason, I couldn't feel anything bad about it.

Mom was still mom, even if she looked different now.

Even if things had changed, life would keep going on.

I kicked my pyjamas on top of the cans before heading downstairs.

As long as mom doesn't snoop around my room, she shouldn't find the cans before I had a chance to throw them out without her knowing.

When I reached the first floor, I saw mom washing the dishes in the kitchen.

The sight of it was strangely quite the relief.

My dad died in an accident before I was even born so it was always just the two of us. Seeing her familiar back like this was reassuring that some things really hadn't changed.

Apparently my dad was the reason why I was even named Yuki in the first place. Mom always said how much he liked the snow, and so combined with the fact that the say I was born it was snowing quite heavily, she named me that.

"What are you standing around for? Are you still sleepy Yuki? Hurry up and eat breakfast before it gets cold."

Without even turning her head, she called out to me.

"Ah, okay Mom."

(Now that I think about it, my name's still Yuki in this version of the world too.)

It was an androgynous name, so it luckily worked out.

(But, it really was a haphazard way to name your daughter. Just because my colours were the same as my matron's...huh?)

The conflicting stories behind my name made me pause.

Despite the result being the same, the cause was different.

The fact that things could be so different in such strange places sent a chill down my spine.

Even mom looked different now that I thought about it. Not just the spider lower body, but her hair was now orange instead of black with a hint of brown. And there were black and white stripes here and there on her lower body.

The realization to how different she looked scared me.

(What if she looked completely different?)

I knew in my mind she didn't, but at the same time, I couldn't tell if it was because my two sets of memories might have jumbled up in a weird way.

"Yuki, what are you doing just standing around? Are you alright? You don't have a fever?"

Mom turned around and came over to me, pressing her hand against my forehead.

(Ah, she's a bit different, but still the same.)

Finally being able to see mom's face, I could tell she was the same person. She looked prettier than I remembered, but she was still recognizably my mom.

Of course, her voice, the way she talked, and the way she was annoying here and there was all the same. Aside from her appearance, she was the mom I always knew.

But seeing that face I've been looking at all my life, even if it had changed a little bit, it was reassuring. Even if I looked like a completely different person, I could be sure that she was the same person.

"Hmm...you don't feel warm. Did you just stay up late last night or something? Stop being such a sleepyhead and go eat your breakfast!"

"Ow!"

Mom slapped me upside the head before going back to the sink. I, on the other hand, made my way to the dining room table while lightly grumbling to myself.

Breakfast was...I wasn't sure, so I picked it up.

(Ah, an omelette.)

This smell, it was probably ham, cheese, mushrooms, and bell peppers.

I bit into my breakfast, but glanced over at the wall clock overhead.

(Ack! I'm gonna be late!)

"I'm going to school! Bye Mom!"

"Yuki! Wait! Don't run with food on your palps!"

But ignoring her, I grabbed my bag and headed out, my breakfast still held in my mouth.

Once outside in the hallway to our apartment, I hopped over to the next door and rang the doorbell.

A few seconds without a response, I kicked the door. The number of scratches on it increased by one.

(It's not my fault. They should make these doors stronger or something.)

Giving a half-assed excuse in my head, I called through the metal door.

"Hey! Ren! It's me!"

"Oh, Yuki. Good morning."

"Ah, morning ma'am!"

I bowed my head when the door finally opened. Ren's mom was standing there. Her eyes looked as sleepy as they always did.

"Ren's almost ready. Oh my. It's not good to eat while walking, you know?"

(I don't want to be told that by you!)

My cheeks twitched as I held back my words.

It wasn't like she could help it anyways. Alraune like her ate via photosynthesis in the first place, so any time they were exposed to light, they were automatically eating.

I continued to munch on my breakfast while Ren's mom covered her mouth and let out a huge yawn.

(Geez, she really doesn't do well in the shade...huh?)

Once again, I was struck at how odd things were, and yet I didn't even notice.

First of all, the omelette. I was eating, I was able to talk without problems despite my mouth being full. It was because the mouth of my spider half was doing the eating, so I eating didn't block me from talking. Or breathing, as neither of my lungs were blocked while I ate, unlike when I was a human.

Second, my breakfast, while I called it an omelette., from the outside it just looked like a white cocoon. It was a bit embarrassing that my mom wrapped my meal for me with her threads even at my age, but that aside, I was holding it in my palps, which were halfway between spider arms and extended mouth parts. They also let me smell and were quite sensitive as long as I touched what I was smelling with them.

Finally, it was a bit weird that I was eating vegetables despite being a spider. Though I think I heard that some spiders ate plant matter, almost all were mainly carnivores. The eggs and ham were fine, and the cheese could get a pass, but the fact that I was eating mushrooms and bell peppers along with all that was strange.

It was tasty though.

Speaking of vegetables, Ren's mom was as pretty as usual. Despite her green skin, even I could appreciate her looks. Her draping pink hair, her smooth curvy figure that was telling even under her loose shirt. And of course she wasn't wearing anything aside from that. Her lower body didn't accommodate such things as it was just a bunch of green roots connected to a thick stem and an enormous pink flower where her upper body sprouted from.

That said, I turned my head trying to avoid staring.

(Oh, that's convenient though.)

Having more than one set of eyes, I was able to continue staring despite having turned my head away. In fact, my central eyes were even sharper than my upper ones, and I could really get a good look.

"Fufufu. Do you like what what you see? Sorry, but I'm taken. But you know who isn't...?"

"Ma'am! I'm a carnivore, not a vegetarian!"

I turned my body away while protesting, despite how good those mushrooms tasted.

(Geez, this woman still won't stop teasing me.)

Even the human me had to suffer that. She was pretty sexy even in the old world though, though she had a son rather than a daughter then, so she never suggested me hooking up with her kid.

"Ah, Yuki. Morning."

"Morning Ren. Let's go!"

I grabbed my childhood friend's arm and pulled her out into the hallway.

"Bye Mom."

"By ma'am!"

"See you later you two."

I turned to leave when Ren grabbed one of my legs.

"Wait a sec."

"Fine. Hurry up."

I didn't want to, but there was no way we'd get to school on time if I didn't.

Probably the fastest she ever moved, my childhood friend climbed on top of my abdomen, forcing me to use all my strength to support her body.

(Heavy!)

"Hey, I keep telling you to lean forward. I don't want to drag my butt on the ground."

"Okay, okay."

I watched as Ren wrapped her tentacle like roots around my abdomen before my rear eyes went dark as she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around my torso to secure herself. I couldn't see her anymore, but I knew she was growing to look just as beautiful as her mom was.

Despite us both still being the same sex, for some reason the way she pressed her chest against my back made my heart race.

"Are we going to go? Or were you planning on playing hooky and having some fun instead?"

"Wh, wh, where are you grabbing me?!"

I grabbed Ren's arms, but they were already on my chest, squeezing through my bra. I clenched my teeth in order to avoid making a weird sound.

"Did you get bigger again?"

Annoyingly, her noticing made me feel a bit happy.

"Hyah?! Not under the skirt you pervert!"

"Ow..."

But Ren went too far by prodding underneath me with one of her roots, so I stabbed it with the claws on my leg. Despite the fact that I was sure I broke the skin with that, the girl's response was as sleepy as usual.

(Seriously, this girl...)

For as long as she knew what the term sexual harassment meant, she's been doing this sort of thing to me.

But thinking about it, in the old world since we were both guys, he wasn't that different back then. Just that his sex jokes tended to be more verbal than physical.

The worst part about all of this though, was that in this world, she really did make my cheeks flush red with her jokes. And it wasn't just because it was embarrassing.

(Like mother like daughter, I guess...)

"Oh? Did I make your heart race?"

The alraune stroked the top of my abdomen with one of her root tentacles.

"Stop that!"

I bounced her up and down a bit. Having someone stroke the exoskeleton over my heart didn't feel good at all. Frankly, if I wasn't so used to carrying her on my abdomen like this, I'd have hated have anyone ride on top. I wasn't a centaur or something. That wasn't a place for people to ride.

Once she stopped with her harassment, I quickly scurried over to the closest supporting pillar bisecting the concrete barrier that lined the apartment's hallways overlooking the streets beyond. With a quick flick of my rearmost legs, I tied a thick strand of silk around the pillar before launching the two of us over into the open air.

"Wahoooo!"

"Aaaaaah!"

The two of us screamed as the wind rushed past us. Ren held my waist so tightly that it was a little hard to breath, but it didn't diminish the adrenaline rush I was feeling in the slightest.

I weaved out my silk as fast as I could until it felt like I had strung out enough, then tightly held the strands with my spinnerets. Very soon, the silk strands grew taut and we swung back towards the apartment.

"Woooo!"

"Nonononono!"

I let out another scream as the ground came rushing towards us despite my threads being taut, but even my voice got caught as Ren tightened her grip on my belly and squeezed all the air from my upper lungs. Deep down, I was pretty glad I had two pairs of lungs and there was nothing the alraune could do in her position to stop my book lungs from working.

As we swung back towards the apartment, I stretched out my legs and made a perfect eight point landing, arresting all movement in almost an instant.

Stretching out my hand, I could barely touch the concrete ground below us.

(Hmm...I should have let out a bit more thread.)

As I let out that idle thought, I lengthened my all natural organic bungee cord until I could reorient myself onto the ground, then made the end sticky and stuck it to the wall behind me so I could use it again before throwing it out on the way back home.

"Why can't you ever use the elevator like a normal person?"

"I'm a jumping arachne, so I gotta jump."

I stuck my tongue out angled so she couldn't see. Only half of it was because I like doing it. The other half was revenge for embarrassing me like she usually did in the morning.

(Or was she embarrassing me every morning in revenge for these bungee jumps? I forget.)

Not minding the details as it would entail digging into my memories further back than I could probably remember with any reliability, I started our journey to school.