Mira’s response was immediate. She shot out of her seat and glared at me.

“Silence!”  The collar burned ferociously at her words, causing me to cry out. My legs buckled under the pain, only increasing it further due to the earlier command from Mira forcing me to remain in place.

“Stop, this is inhumane.” Charlie snapped at the woman, clearly not fearing her in the same way I did.

“My apologies, Hero.” Mira immediately backtracked and the pain around my neck lessened significantly. Despite it diminishing, the pain was still present, although much more bearable.

“Please give me the room, I would like to examine her in private.” At Charlie’s words, a lecherous expression appeared on Lord Wheymouth’s face.

“Right away, Sir Hero.” The fat man nodded knowingly.

Mira and Lord Wheymouth left the room, leaving Charlie and I on our own. As Mira closed the door behind her, the collar went off completely. I took a step towards Charlie, tears forming in my eyes.

“Y-you’re alive?” I sputtered; my tail began to swish hopefully.

“Who are you and how do you know my name.” Charlie spoke harshly, stopping me completely in my tracks. In my overwhelmed state, I had forgotten briefly about my current appearance.

“It’s me, Noah. You disappeared months ago, and I ended up here after some fucked up reincarnation magic.” I pleaded looking into his eyes.

“Noah? Seriously…” Charlie took a step towards me, “Holy shit man, is that really you?”

“Yeah, I promise – remember we were coming back from that holiday. Some blue magic took you…” I began to hyperventilate, fearing he wouldn’t believe me.

“No way.” He burst out laughing. “No fucking way.” He continued to move towards me before embracing me in a hug.

I couldn’t control myself any longer, I bawled into his chest. Had it been a normal situation, he might have made fun of me for acting like this. However, this wasn’t a normal situation. I finally saw my friend after three months of hell, followed by a week of even worse hell. The relief was indescribable.

“You…” I collected myself, “You vanished in front of me, man. I thought I was going fucking crazy. Then I died, then I got accused of murder, and then-“ He cut me off.

“You’re good now, chill.” He said, despite the clear concern evident in his eyes. I realised I was acting strange. I took a step back, followed by some calming breaths before shifting the topic of conversation.

“Y’know that girl you ordered around, she’s crazy powerful and she just did what you told her to.” I said, bewilderment beginning to wash away my feelings of anxiety.

“Bro, they treat me like a noble out of those fantasy mangas you made me read. It was weird to get used to at first but after a year of it, it’s not so bad.” Charlie’s words gave me pause.

“A year? It’s only been three months, four tops…” I was slightly puzzled but reasoned that time must flow differently between worlds.

“I mean, I’ve definitely been here for a year now. Maybe there’s some weird time-dilation stuff going on.”

“That’s what I’m thinking. Either way, I can’t tell you how good it is to see you man. Speaking of, why the hell are you even at a place like this?” I didn’t think of Charlie as someone who enjoyed watching animals and people maul eachother to death.

“About that; one of my party members begged me to come here yesterday. I saw you fight and thought you might be a good edition to the team based on your berserker-like style. I’m gonna have to thank her for dragging me along after this.” I sighed in exasperation; his words brought a question to my mind.

“Your party members… they’re all chicks, aren’t they?” Charlie looked away at my quesition.

“Maybe.” He responded with a laugh. I almost screamed in jealousy. This asshole was living the fantasy nerd dream, and I was stuck in some random beastgirl’s body. Did he intend on adding me to his harem? I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

“Dude, you were gonna get me to be another one of your side pieces, weren’t you?” I spoke between bursts of laughter.

“Maybe.” His gaze never left the ceiling as he went along with my banter. It felt nice to act like my old self again. That thought seemed to bring me back reality though. I had definitely changed in the short week I had been in this world, on more than just a physical level too. I wondered how much Charlie had been changed by this harsh new reality.

“How’ve you found it? A whole year in this shithole must’ve sucked.” If Charlie’s experiences were even close to my own, I was sure he would want to get out of here just as much as I did.

“To be honest, it’s been great. I’ve been getting that VIP treatment from day one. Not to mention, I’m kinda OP. Plus the girls are all fucking awesome bro, let me tell you.” Charlie then proceeded to go on a small recounting of all of his sexual escapades across the last year. I listened with jealousy before eventually interrupting him.

“C’mon man, you can only make me so envious. I haven’t exactly had a great time here, so expect me to be a little sour over our current positions.” I spoke with a tinge of sarcasm which unconsciously leaked into my voice.

“Fuck, yeah, you’re right.” Charlie’s brain seemed to short-circuit for a moment as something clicked in his mind. “So why are you a wolf-girl?”

Charlie’s words hung in the air, causing a slight tension to build. That tension immediately shattered at the sound of my own laughter.

“How the hell did it take you so long to question that?” Charlie would sooner go on a tangent about all of the girls he was sleeping with than realise his friend had been turned into a beastgirl. The stupidity of it all amused me to no end, my tail swung wildly behind me.

“Hey man, I’ve seen some crazy shit. It didn’t even register. So… are you like… fully a girl then?” His eyes roamed my body, pausing on my ears, breasts, and tail. I suddenly felt incredibly self-conscious. Charlie noticed me shrink in on myself and saw my tail stop before drooping behind me, causing him to speak again.

“Cuz man, that’s fucking dope. If it makes you feel better, you’re totally hot. Super exotic.” He gave me a double thumbs-up and a cheesy grin. I knew he was joking to try and cheer me up, but my body was somewhat of a touchy subject for me still; his words only made my distress worse.

Seeing his attempt to cheer me up fail, Charlie moved to put an arm on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry. I touched a nerve. I can’t imagine the stuff you must’ve been through to end up in a place like this. Maybe you’ll tell me about it someday, but until then, I’m here for you, bud.” My heart was soothed by his words.

“Thanks, sorry for being such a fucking pussy. It hasn’t really been easy recently.” I let out a pitiful laugh in an attempt to abate my emotions.

“I can tell, man. Speaking of, that shit you did with the lizard was cool as hell. You were like one of those chestbursters from alien… except not as gross… okay maybe a little as gross, but still cool as fuck.” He had his characteristic smirk as he patted my shoulder. Despite my trauma from that fight, I found myself cheering up again.

“Yeah?” I probed.

“Fuck yeah! I may be OP but you’re pretty damn strong in your own right. Oh yeah, that reminds me. You get any cool Cards? I got six Blessings, but I can’t see a couple of them yet though.” My eyes widened. How he managed to luck out with six Blessings completely eluded me.

“I got one of each, the Curse is pretty strong, but I don’t really know about the blessing…” I trailed off, realising something, “Wait, let me check something. Invocare.”

I hadn’t been able to fully go through my newly revealed Blessing Card, so when my eyes finally landed upon my Aspects, I was shocked.

Along for the Ride

Your soul was tainted by a powerful summoning magic belonging to a foreign plane adjacent to your own. It has rooted itself deep into your being, causing you to be inexplicably tied to its intended target. This blessing serves as [REDACTED]’s apology for your cruel fate at the hands of [REDACTED].

Aspect I: The durability of your soul is greatly increased.

Aspect II: You have access to the same chantless magic as the Summoned.

Aspect III: You have access to the same dimensional storage as the Summoned.

My tail thumped wildly against my legs as my excitement grew with each word I read. I had finally gotten a cheat skill with no catches. The attached paragraph somewhat explained why I also ended up transmigrating too which was an added bonus.

“Charlie, how do you activate your dimensional storage?” I asked, my words stumbling over eachother as they raced to get out of my mouth.

“I just imagine it opening and it works, why? And how did you know I have a dimensional storage ability?” I payed his question little mind and immediately began imagining an inventory from a game appearing in front of me. Like the water in the bath, there were no theatrics. One moment, the only thing that was in front of me was Charlie, the next a large, segmented box appeared.

Strangely, a lot of the boxes already had items in them. I looked back over at my card.

Aspect III: You have access to the same dimensional storage as the Summoned.

I reasoned that the dimensional storage was shared. I hadn’t heard of a magic system like this in any of the media I had consumed but I wasn’t going to complain over the clear boon I had just been granted.

Looking through the storage, I noticed some relatively mundane items: underwear, socks, and a brush, among other things. However, there were some interesting looking items which I assumed would have their uses. What caught my eye though was a lethal looking leather whip. I pulled it out of the inventory and looked at Charlie with a raised eyebrow.

“How did you get that?” He asked, looking nervous.

“My Blessing gives me access to a shared dimensional storage with you but that doesn’t matter right now. What the fuck are you doing with a leather whip, kinky bastard.” I struggled not to laugh, trying to maintain the façade of a disaproving elder.

“Alicia asked me – y’know what its none of your business…” He instinctively started answering but stopped after thinking it through.

“Oh? But it was my business just a minute ago when you were telling me all about your ‘adventures’ with your friends.” The need to laugh won out and I hunched over, slapping my knees.

“You fucker.” Charlie said with a chuckle as he reached out to place a hand on my head, rubbing it affectionately like I was his kid sister. My tail happily swished back and forth at his touch and the same warmth I felt from the last time my head was pat flowed through me. I quickly swatted his hand away in horror.

“Piss off, don’t do that again.” I looked at the whip in my hand. “Or else.” My words were spoken with as much intensity as I could muster. This subsequently led to Charlie immediately moving to do it again. My eyes widened as I moved to dodge his outstretched palm.

For the second time today, I was running for my life. This time, however, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. My sopranos laughter resounded through the room in harmony with Charlie’s. I obviously wasn’t actually going to use the whip on my friend, but I brandished it threateningly whenever he got to close.

“Time-out!” I said, motioning for him to stop. “This isn’t really the time or place to be messing around, let's get out of here first.” We had gotten carried away and forgotten about my current predicament.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s break you out, Noah.” Charlie paused. “Are you still using that name, or…” He spoke, motioning to my body.

“You can if you want, but having a new body means it makes sense to have a new name to go along with it. A guy I met came up with Cavia, I kinda like it.” I said with mild embarrassment.

“Fair. Cavia. Cavee-aaa. Sounds strong, it suits you.” He said, testing out my new name.

“Anyway…” I awkwardly tried to move the conversation elsewhere, “you wanna grab those two? I’ll put away the whip.” Charlie walked across the room towards the door, and I reopened the dimensional storage to place the whip back inside, briefly wondering how well it would synchronise with the second Aspect of my Curse.

When Mira and Lord Wheymouth walked back inside, the atmosphere shifted again. The lardy giant looked me over with a slight look of confusion before assuming a salesman-like persona.

“What do you think, Sir Hero.” The man bellowed, clasping his rubbery hands together.

“How much?” Charlie responded curtly, his voice lacking any of the amicability from just a moment ago.

“I was thinking twenty gold, but for you… fifteen?” In response to the giant’s words, Charlie slapped a leather pouch on the table.

“Deal.” Lord Wheymouth eyes widened at Charlie’s immediate acceptance of his offer, clearly having expected a need to haggle. He regained his composure and unceremoniously snatched the pouch from the table.

After counting the coins, Lord Wheymouth took the silver orb from Mira and placed it on the table, gesturing for Charlie to take it. My heart pounded in my chest at the sight of it.

“That is the controller for her collar, simply grasp it and utter your command; she will be forced to comply.” The man instructed.

“I won’t be needing that. Please have her collar removed.” Charlie responded with venom laced in his tone.

“Are you sure?” The man questioned before seeing the look on Charlie’s face. “Right away. Mira, if you would.”

I flinched subconsciously as Mira approached me. I couldn’t read her expression as she grasped the collar. A small click could be heard before she turned and walked away with the metal contraption in her hand. I tried to maintain an unbothered appearance, but my tail wagging betrayed me.

“Thank you for your patronage, Sir Hero.” With those words, Charlie and I left the negotiation room. I did not look back. On our walk out of the colloseum, my smile never left my face.

I was finally free.

Mitozen

This is definitely a chapter I would love feedback on as it likely has a slightly different tone to the rest of the story so far. I mentioned it previously but this is practically my first attempt writing discounting a dropped story from a while ago so being made aware of my own shortcomings in writing will only help improve the rest of the chapters. Thank you all for your patience.

 

:D