Chapter 65 – Itchy

Once Sophia had fully converted back to her younger self, after successfully transforming to her older looks, based on her previous world with appearance alteration magic, she finally concentrated on the actual task.

"P-Putting many regrets aside-" She glanced at her chest while saying so. "Time to get back on track."

"Many..." Maya agreed as her tail flopped lifelessly on the ground.

"Do we need to have another talk?"

"N-No!" The cat-girl immediately turned her head away.

"Good." She looked down at her body. "I'm actually kinda torn here... You know, looks aside... that one definitely is a big regret of mine and makes me wanna adjust them again. Now I know it's pretty easy, actually. But... smaller ones do feel better, or rather, they are more comfortable, at least. I mean, even my old ones weren't gigantic, far from it, but I still felt them on my shoulders and back from time to time, especially when running. I've gotten used to being less restricted when moving around now... Smaller breasts might actually be better, after all? Or maybe a middle ground in between instead?"

"..." Maya desperately tried to hold herself back. "S-Sure..." It almost looked like she was in physical pain when answering. "I-If you think it's... better, I f-feel the... s-same."

"Okay... Let's try to transform into a tiger-girl next!" Full of energy, Sophia simply went on, sat down on the grass, and patted her lap. "Come here for a moment, Maya. I need you for a little something~."

"S-Should I be scared?" She was a little hesitant, especially after what just happened.

"Think of it as redeeming yourself from you know what~." While she ignored Maya's comments before, it wasn't like she hadn't heard them.

"F-Fine..." She had no other choice. Slightly reluctant, Maya walked up to her and got comfortable on the girl's lap. "W-What are you planning, anyway?"

"I need to get a better understanding of how your ears and tail work before I can recreate them for myself."

"T-That means-" She had a bad feeling.

"Lot's of fluffing~!" Sophia, on the other hand, had a bright smile on her lips and a scary look in her eyes.

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Half an hour and intense petting of the poor cat-girl later, Sophia not only looked extremely satisfied, but she also learned a lot.

"Ha... Ha... Haa..." Maya's breath was still haggard when she was finally freed from the girl's clutches. "I-I... I feel violated..." She had tears in the corners of her eyes.

"l-, I finally know why scientists are so engrossed in their studies! Knowledge is fun!" Her take on it was very different.

"Y-You two should get a room already." Even Fen was affected. 

"Ehehe~." Sophia didn't care about any of that. "Alright, I think I now can create my own ears and tail, now that I have a really good understanding of them."

"W-Way too good of an understanding..." There was still a bit of life missing in Maya's eyes.

"Mind if I go on a walk?" The wolf wanted to run away from them. He had enough and felt a little stupid not thinking about it earlier-, way earlier. "You already know how to transform, right?"

"Sure, have fun."

"Thanks."

"Okay, let's give it a go! Cute is a must!" After voicing her preference, she closed her eyes and thought about the beast-girl version of herself for a while. "Just like Maya, but I want to become a tiger-girl instead!"

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A couple of minutes passed, while the girl was concentrating hard on the task, she was eventually wrapped in smoke once more. Soon afterward, an all-new Sophia appeared. Her ash-blonde hair changed to a deep orange hue. She wanted to recreate the color of an actual tiger, after all. It was also decorated with a couple of striped black highlights. On top of her head, a pair of feline ears in the same color appeared, together with a generous amount of pure white fluff inside. They were slightly rounded, just like those of an actual tiger. Out of her lower back, below Sophia's t-shirt, was now a sleek and moderately thick tail sticking out. It had the same base color as her new hair and was covered with black stripes that ringed all around it from base to tip. Once she had fully transformed, the girl did a short and clumsy twirl again to get a feel for her new body parts. After that, she created something similar to a mirror with water-based magic and gave a satisfied nod to what she was seeing.

"C-Cute..." According to Maya's reaction, Sophia's main goal had been achieved. "How does it feel?"

"I-Itchy..." Her response was slightly odd.

"Itchy?" The cat-girl tilted her head.

"Super, super, super itchy! Itchy! Itchy! ITCHY!" Her face grimaced as she shook her body around. "I-I'm feeling parts that shouldn't be part of my body... M-My brain can't process that I have a tail now! Argh, itchy! S-So weird... what is this feeling?! It feels a little like when your arm or leg falls asleep and then comes back to life… the tail and my lower back are all tingly and prickly. Just much more intense! D-Do you have this feeling all the time, Maya?!"

"Err, no? I've been born like this, after all? How about you try to move your tail? Maybe it stops itching if you get used to it?"

"T-That might be the case... urgh... itchy! Wait, how do you move your tail, Maya?"

"How do you move your arms? Breathe? Sorry, I just do?" She had no explanation how she moves a part of her body that had always been there.

"Makes sense... W-Well, I feel it, itchingly painfully so! That means I should be able to control it, right? Let's fight this itch! This itchy, itchy itch!" It really was bothering her to no end. "Move my tail... move it! Gosh, it's sooo weird... Oh? I think I'm feeling the tip now." She stopped for a moment after saying that out loud. "Wow! wow, wow! I NEVER thought I would say these words. Like, ever." She was getting incredibly sidetracked. "Thank goodness it's just because I grew a tail and not because- Anyway!" She stopped herself before her mind wandered somewhere she really wouldn't want to imagine. "For the time being, let's focus on the tip of the thick... urgh!" She couldn't stay serious and facepalmed at her own idiocy in this situation.

"Sophia...?" The cat-girl had gotten slightly confused while she was watching her.

"Don't mind me, and especially don't listen to the nonsense I'm spouting!"

"Can I ever talk to you again, then?" She just had to use this chance to be sassy.

"Okay, that one was good. I don't even want to get back on you for that."

"Hehe."

"Enough with the distractions! I need to focus on my tail! For the itch! Uh, against the itch!" Sophia closed her eyes and tried her best to move the tip of her new tail. A few minutes passed, and it suddenly twitched. "Oh, I felt that! I did that! Alright!" Motivated by her small success, she continued to get used to her new body parts.

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Once she stopped facepalming herself after saying she wanted to move down the tip and use the whole thing, Sophia finally regained her concentration once more and actually made some progress. Eventually, she became able to, at least clumsily, move her entire tail after a lot of training.

"Oh, seems like you're getting the hang of it." Maya was watching the somewhat choppily yet gently swishing orange and black tail of the newborn tiger-girl. "How does it feel now?"

"Less itchy, but still very itchy!" One could mean she had taken a liking to the word. "But yeah, it's getting better, I think? I might get used to it eventually. It looks way too cute to give up!" Sophia clumsily moved her tail to her side to get a look at it. "So very cute~."

"Yep, cute." Maya wasn't looking at the girl's tail but rather at her bright and adorable smile while she was doing so.

"Let's see how walking or running works with it! Here I go-"

"Ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you- Aaand I was too late." She wanted to warn her about something but didn't get the chance to finish her sentence.

"Huh? Eh?! O-Ouch!" Sophia accelerated as usual, but she managed to move at best three meters before she tripped and skillfully planted her face into the dirt. "W-What was that?!" She got up and took a couple more steps. "Ehh?! I-I can barely walk at all!" She looked really wobbly and unsteady while moving. Her new tail was also twitching and swishing all over the place while doing so.

"Ahaha..." The cat-girl watched over her with an awkward smile.

"W-What is going on here, Maya?!"

"The tail is an integral part of our balance. If you, who has absolutely no control of it, try to run, your tail's all over the place and destroys said balance. It'll work against you in that situation."

"Urgh, this sure is complicated. And itchy!" She definitely had taken a liking to the word.

"It would probably be the other way around for me. If I were to lose my tail, I would have some serious problems, as well." Maya looked at her own snow-white one while saying so.

"Want to try? If magic can add tails, it probably can temporarily remove them, too."

"Yeah, no." She wasn't a fan, and her tail, as if having a mind of its own, angrily swished around and twitched a couple of times. "I'm quite fond of it."

"Yeah, me too." She stared at Maya as a whole, though. "So, how do I use my tail for balance?"

"That's... hmm? That's actually a good question. Wait? Seriously, how...?" The cat-girl had confused herself over the question. "I-I never thought about that before... I just do it. Eh...?"

"I am so happy that I'm not the only one that gets distracted by trivial stuff while thinking!"

"Okay! Sophia, I will walk around a bit, and you watch me! We're going to find out how this thing actually works!" She gave her tail a slight glare while saying so.

"S-Sure..." She was a little confused why the cat-girl was so motivated about it. As said, she watched Maya walking around and focused on her backside while doing so. While she paraded around, Maya made some extravagant movements with her hips, getting a better understanding of how her tail compensates for that kind of walking.

"And? What did you find out?" She stopped walking around and faced her.

"S-Sorry..." Sophia awkwardly looked away with a slightly red face.

"E-Eh? Why are you apologizing all of a sudden?!"

"All those fancy extra movements of your hips-"

"Yeah?"

"I-I ended up staring at just your... legs and b-butt. Sorry."

"Pervert." While she seemed a bit embarrassed, Maya didn't look angry.

"P-Please do it again. I'll do it properly this time!"

"Okay." With a slightly doubtful expression, she walked around some more. "And?"

"Hrmn..." Sophia was seriously thinking about it. "I believe I found a pattern, actually. Whenever you move or take a step, your tail swings in the exact opposite direction."

"Oh? Really? I never paid attention to it." Maya was learning new things about her own body. "Fascinating, but it actually makes sense, improving your balance with a counter-movement."

"Oh, kinda like when you flail around your arms when you try to balance on a narrow object?"

"Exactly! Well, I use my tail for that, now that you mention it... but, I guess that's precisely it."

"Interesting. So you don't have a tail just to make you look even cuter. It has a practical use as well!"

"T-Thanks."

"Time for more training! I at least need to be able to walk and run properly... And get rid of this itchy itch!" Sophia was still greatly bothered by it.

"Sure, break a leg... Not literally, please, though!" She had a feeling the next hours would involve a lot of stumbling and falling for the alleged tiger.

Now that the girl had a rough understanding of how her new tail was supposed to work, she became motivated.

A couple of hours passed, and as predicted by the cat-girl, Sophia had kissed the dirt more than just a couple of times. Mainly because she always got overconfident once she could walk a couple of steps and directly tried to run, which didn't work out. At all. After a lot of trial and error, though, she was slowly getting a better feel of her tail and became able to use it for slightly more refined movements.

Once the sun began to set, and it was getting time for dinner, Sophia had become able to walk again, albeit clumsily. That she occasionally seemed like a grown-up newborn, just learning how to walk, didn't bother her much because the tiger-girl was having way too much fun with her new tail. Sophia still complained about the lingering itchiness during their dinner, though. More than once, actually.