“Very well, since the wisest of us all said as much, then I suppose you can come along,” the Hero responded poutily. “I suppose it’s fine as long as I have five powerful women. You can be the packhorse.”
Just as I was about to snap at him, I heard a thudding sound. I turned to see a giant muscular person walking toward us.
“Ahh… our next party member has arrived. Terra, my beautiful!”
Terra was as tall as me, and her shoulders were as wide as three me. She was a massive wall of muscles, and she didn’t have a neck. She looked like a weight lifter, although one exaggerated to the extreme. As soon as she arrived, she flexed her biceps.
“Terra has come to fight!” She declared while flexing in a loud booming voice.
Master walked up and hugged her, even though he was much smaller than her. “My cute and sexy little Terra, you don’t need to act that way with me.”
She barely reacted, but she yelled out. “Terra appreciates Master’s attention!”
“You’re into that?” I cried out.
Hero frowned at me. “What are you saying? All women are beautiful, no matter their size.”
“I mean… I said that once… but…”
“Terra confused! Who is this scrawny man?” She boomed.
I had a headache. Rubbing my head, I wanted to know what was going through Miki’s mind.
“Master, you needn’t think about it too hard. It’s not like Miki means you any offense. These are more personifications of the features she values the most from her friends. Lydia was her sexual guide, so why wouldn’t she be eros personified. She always envied Celeste’s simple way of thinking and cutting to the point of things, so she imagines her as intelligent. I mean, even you appear as a foxkin. Perhaps, in her idolized version of you, you’d be the same race as her. Well, animalkin have always been tribal, so don’t blame her too much for that.”
“I understand. Thank you, Shao…” I nodded thoughtfully and then jumped. “Shao!”
“Shao!” Hero cried out, “You’re here!”
Hero began to run to her. Shao suddenly leaped up and kicked him in the face. Hero went flying away, slamming into a wall.
“Stay away from me, you piece of $%^@!”
I stared with my mouth open. The other girls only rolled their eyes as if this was expected of Shao. Is that how Miki saw our relationship? Shao and I were in a sadomasochistic relationship?
“Shao!” Hero peeled his face from the wall and gave a bloody smile. “You’re the same as always. I love you!”
She spat. “Trash! My real man is here. Stop embarrassing yourself!”
She suddenly grabbed onto my arm. That’s when I remembered her words earlier.
“Y-you called me Master? Wait, you’re not the real Shao, are you?”
She licked her lips. “I wish I was. Regrettably, I’m only another one of Miki’s duplicates.”
“You seem… strangely familiar with this?”
“For that, you need to understand how Miki saw me. Remember, I was introduced as having come from another world. I saw through your mind, and you saw through mine. That created a bond between us, where perhaps I understood you and you understood me more than anything. I understand the nature of this world because you understand the nature of this world. It’s something like that.”
“Of course, there might be a second part to it…”
“Even Miki’s mind can’t keep me from my true love. Even she can’t imagine me accepting anything less than my real Master. This just proves you’re mine forever!”
Her eyes started turning slightly scary. Of every girl here, Shao was the only one she imagined exactly how Shao was in real life.