Huff! Huff!

“Gah !” The first to wake up was Inuchiyo. The sound of her heavy breath echoed as sweat dripped down her body. 

She felt as though she had been stuck in a terrible nightmare and had just woken up from it. 

‘Why am I on the ground? Why are my clothes torn? Where am I?’ Inuchiyo questioned, her mind a bit jumbled up. 

Slowly, bits and pieces of what had happened to her began entering her mind, sending chills down her spine. 

She struggled to cope with the sudden surge of various emotions that were currently swirling and building up within her. 

‘Wait, where is Goemon?’ Inuchiyo questioned herself as she started frantically looking around. She didn't even get up when a voice spooked her. 

"Welcome to your new life, Inuchiyo," a voice suddenly reached her ears, prompting her to instinctively jump to her feet and enter a defensive stance. 

"Relax, it's just me," Ginryu said in a soft, calming voice. 

"Ginryu-sama?" Inuchiyo questioned. For some reason, she felt different but couldn't quite put her finger on what had changed. 

Suddenly, the memory of Tsukiko ripping off her breast hit her mind, prompting her to inspect her chest. 

“Eh, it's still there and my hands aren't broken," Inuchiyo muttered upon inspecting her body. 

She now noticed that all her injuries had been healed. 

She felt confused now; what she had experienced felt too real to be a dream, therefore Ginryu must know something. 

Now more calm and clear-headed, she soon spotted Goemon lying on the ground and she seemed to be struggling with pain. 

She hurriedly rushed to Goemon's side. "Ginryu-sama, do you know what happened? I remember running from a monster then..." Inuchiyo questioned and began narrating what she believed she had experienced. 

She was still confused if this was reality or a dream as there were so many unexplainable things that had happened. 

"Hmm, I see. I am going to ask you to turn around and not panic," Ginryu said after listening to Inuchiyo. 

Inuchiyo was a bit confused about the instruction given by Ginryu but complied. 

Turning around, her gaze soon landed on Tsukiko. The various emotions that were swirling within her suddenly burst. 

Fear and rage were the most predominant emotions within her. 

Her mind started fading as if sinking into a dark swamp. She didn't notice that her body was transforming. 

"Wake up," she suddenly heard a voice calling, jolting her mind awake again. 

Coming to her senses, she felt her body being held firmly in a very strong grip. 

‘That was close,’ Ginryu thought as he inspected the transformed Inuchiyo. 

“A feline-type transformation, a tiger perhaps," Ginryu thought after inspecting her transformation. 

"Are you calm now?" Ginryu asked Inuchiyo. 

"What just happened to me ?" Inuchiyo asked. 

She felt completely different from before. She felt a strange sense of calm; her body felt different, and so did her mind. 

Looking down, she saw her clothes were completely torn, her body felt bigger, she was covered in fur, her senses felt enhanced, she felt this euphoric sense of superiority. 

Ginryu didn’t waste any time and proceeded to explain what he had done to her and Goemon. 

Inuchiyo was just left stunned as she was suddenly made aware of a world she didn't know existed. 

While standing there trying to digest what was made known to her, Goemon woke up in a panic. 

The last thing she remembered was being stabbed by Ginryu's arm. 

Unlike Inuchiyo, Goemon woke up in a transformed state, leaving her in a panic. 

‘Another feline, a leopard no, perhaps some cat breed, it's hard to tell in a humanoid form,’ Ginryu briefly pondered upon seeing Goemon's form. 

Goemon's transformation was much smaller than Inuchiyo's, she had a long tail and her fur was grey with black striped patterns. 

Ginryu quickly proceeded to explain things to her like he did with Inuchiyo. 

Whether they liked it or not, now they were his blood kin. 

"Thank you for saving us," Goemon said after listening to Ginryu's explanation. She fell to her knees and bowed her head in gratitude. 

She had thought that her life was forfeit a few hours ago, but for now, she was just glad that she got to live. 

Inuchiyo, who was watching this, also fell to her knees and thanked him. 

‘I probably shouldn't tell them that I caused all this in the first place, maybe in the far future” Ginryu thought, he felt weird when receiving gratitude for something that was his fault.

"No need for that. I simply came to like both of you so I granted you my gift," Ginryu shamelessly replied while gently caressing their furry ears. 

Unaware to him, both Goemon and Inuchiyo interpreted the word 'like' and his actions in a different way than Ginryu intended. 

It didn't take them much effort to adapt to their new bodies as it was already ingrained in their instincts.

"Sorry to interrupt, but can we begin? There is only a few hours left till sunrise," Tsukiko suddenly interrupted. Her life was at stake here after all. 

"Ah, how could I forget about you," Ginryu replied. Both Inuchiyo and Goemon turned to Tsukiko, feeling a mix of emotions gazing at her. 

Ginryu proceeded to explain the decision he made about Tsukiko. 

Both Inuchiyo and Goemon surprisingly accepted it easily and even seemed eager to hunt Tsukiko down. 

Inuchiyo quickly picked up her spear from the ground while Goemon grabbed her pouch filled with her Ninja tools. 

"Well, I guess that settles it. Tsukiko, Run !!," Ginryu suddenly announced with a savage grin on his face. 

Tsukiko immediately dashed away as soon as she heard this; she had been prepared for a while now. 

Yin, Yang, Inuchiyo, and Goemon began their chase immediately after Tsukiko left. 

Watching them disappear out of sight, Ginryu decided to walk back to camp to stay with Tora, who was probably bored.

When Ginryu returned to the camp, he noticed Tora curled up by the fireplace, resting. 

The man he had bandaged up was exactly where he had left him and didn’t seem like he had woken up yet. 

Ginryu decided to take a seat close to the fire but was a bit startled when Tora suddenly jumped on his lap. It seemed Tora had been waiting to do this for a while now. 

Ginryu just chuckled at his antics and began roasting some meat. 

He knew that the girls would be quite hungry when they returned. 

Unlike him, the girls would probably not want to eat a demons flesh. 

A demon looked too much like a human, at least most of the time, for them to want to eat it. 

He also wasn’t sure that they could absorb the demon to gain strength like him; it was an experiment for another time. 

He had informed them of the weaknesses of demons, so they would probably figure out what to do with the demon. 

Yin and Yang were with them and would probably consume the demon when Inuchiyo and Goemon were finished. 

Ginryu only had one major concern about Inuchiyo and Goemon. 

From his observations, Inuchiyo and Goemon hadn’t undergone any extreme mental changes from their transformation. 

“I hope this remains true for the foreseeable future,” Ginryu muttered as he gazed at the moon while caressing Tora’s soft fur.