Metamorphosis

October 1st
11:00

My mother was standing at the door of her office, she was quite insistent that she wanted to go into her office and check on Xi'an's condition, she was worried about her friend. I stood outside the door and tried to stop her going in after what had happened, it was for her own good, the last thing I wanted was for my mother to have a seizure at the sight of a very large spider.

"You said a while ago that you were going to finish and yet you only came out to get in my way."
"What the fuck are you doing?"
"Xi'an is fine, isn't it?"

"Yes, of course, everything is good, excellent even."

"Then why are your eyes red?"

"Because I like them?"
"Nothing happened, really!"

"Is that the same nothing that ended up breaking down maria's door  two weeks ago?"

"No, this nothing is a whole different nothing"

I could see the look of complete disbelief on my mother's face, she wasn't believing me in the slightest, I knew it, she knew I knew it, this was a situation that had happened many times in our lives, the question was only who would give in first.

"Why the hell do we have to clean all this up?"
"I saved her life!"
"Blood is very too hard to get out of a carpet!"

And unfortunately, it was Lisa who was the one who got it all messed up when she started talking loudly.

"I don't care what happened!"
"You two just clean up!"
"Clean up until that place is perfect! That's an order!"
"Obey your master!" I said to the two girls inside the office.

"CESAR! WHAT THE FUCK!"
"Just open the fucking door!" Said my mother even more hurriedly.

"I can't!"
"It's really ugly in there."

"What the hell did you do to Xi'an!?"
"Answer me now! I'm your mother! Obey me!"  Said Adelis really upset

"Alright, let's take it slowly, alright!"
"The good news is that Xi'an is alive!"

"And the bad one?"

"......."
"......."

"........"
"You’re hiding another monster girl in the office, aren’t you?"

"........"
"To be honest, the girl part isn't really there right now."

"Cesar, are you serious?"
"Why is it always the same?"
"Xi'an was also a monster girl? Really?"
"....."
"She's your teacher."
"Are you going to tell me you're planning to marry her too?"
"That's exactly what I was afraid of."
"We don't have room in the house for anyone else anymore."

"Hey wait don't get ahead of yourself"
"In my defense she was a monster girl even before I came back from the continental war, technically this is your problem, I'm just helping."

"....."
"At least tell me what animal she is"

"......"
"Not a pretty one"
"Remember that spider we saw at the zoo?"
"The ugly ugly one, well now imagine her the size close to a car."
"Turns out she's an arachne and by mistake we cut off the girl part of the monster girl."

"Oh..... a giant.... spider...."
"..... you know.... forget about the door....."
"Now that I remember today I was supposed to do a surprise inspection of the garden and watch the paint dry in the storage room." My mother said oddly quietly

"No! wait don't go!"
"I need your help!"
"We can't leave poor Xi'an here!"

"Xi'an? who is Xi'an?
"I am not familiar with that name"

"Look just borrow the ammunition transport truck."
"Drive it away and then ask Cedric to pick it up as close as he can to the west emergency door."
"Lisa, Tamamo and I will take it without anyone seeing it."
"Once in the truck we will take her to the garage of our house, since we don't have a car, the place is empty and it is big enough for her to be comfortable there."

"Wait, are you really planning to keep Xi'an too?"

"Xi'an is as surprised as we all are about what happened."
"Just imagine, you live your whole life as normal and then all of a sudden you are a spider your whole life without even realizing it."
"I have no doubt that Xi'an is also in shock right now."
"The poor girl can't even talk"
"What she needs is people to support her."

"...."
"Yes you are right...."
"I'm going to order the truck...."
"Just don't expect me to help you push her there."

"It won't be necessary"
"Thank you"

Shortly after that my mother told me that the truck was waiting downstairs, so after telling poor Xi'an the plan we started trying to get down the stairs to the emergency truck, and after some problems with the doors not being big enough, after a little pushing we were able to mount the now giant spider on the truck and close it so no one could see inside. Lisa and my mom stayed in the office and tried to finish the disorque we did and make sure everything was in its place, I think Adelis really just wanted to be alone and mentally prepare herself to accept that now she knows that giant spiders exist.

When we arrived at the house we left the truck almost next to the garage door, we managed to leave it inside without leaving any angle for anyone to notice the new monster tenant of the house, at least for now. After Cedric left, we finally had some time to think about what to do next.

"Okay Xi'an, I'm really sorry for what happened."
"I really had no idea that this would happen."
"If I had known I wouldn't have done this in the first place."
"It's my fault that you had to realize in such an ugly way what you really were."

I sincerely apologized to the real victim of all this, I even bowed to her, the spider did not move at all, I had no idea what it meant.

"All right, first let's put everything in order."
"Look, I know you are Xi'an and I have full confidence in you, I know you don't want to hurt us, you are a great friend of mine, I appreciate you very much."
"....."
"But to be honest .... your current form is not very cute right now."
"I don't mean to offend, not at all"
"It's just that being near you, gives the feeling of awakening the need to fight or flee."
"So for now let's just try to keep our distance and don't make any sudden moves."
"Also no spider webs please, if you leave any Adelis will kill us both."
"We don't mean to offend you or anything! It's just that well ....."
"For example if you walk out of here into the living room and my mother sees you, the neighbors will call the police and an exorcist."
"....."
"I guess you're hungry, we'll get you something to eat."
"Something tasty of course"
"....."
"But now, what the fuck do spiders eat?"
"Tell me do you like crickets?"

"Darling, I don't think Xi'an likes crickets."
"She's lived as a human all her life, so I don't think she'd like what spiders usually eat." Said Tamamo at my side advising me.

"Yes you are right, I'm sorry"
"But what can we give to Xi'an?"
"I don't think it would be easy to eat something like soup."

"For now let's try to go slowly"
"How about some fruit and water"  my wife recommended.

"Yes, I think that would be a good idea, in one of the cabinets there is a big pot that you could use for water."
"In the meantime, well I'm sure being stuck in this garage will be boring, I'm going to bring you a TV at least."

Tamamo went to the kitchen to cut some fruit for our new guest while I quickly installed the TV, we also got a couple of extra beds to put on the floor and some pillows to make the place at least a little more comfortable, I also managed to get a tin from a pile of garbage near the house that could serve as a toilet if you cut it in half, I think, I don't really know what spiders do. Xi'an on the other hand although she could not speak seemed to be quite understanding and gave us space according to what we needed to do, she seemed to be aware that her new appearance was quite intimidating but we still tried to be friendly with her but she refused to eat, at first I did not understand why but when Tamamo insisted me to go outside and close the garage door I could hear the poor creature squeaking and moving around the place. It seemed that a alone moment to cry was also necessary, when I came back later the plates were messy and the fruit was quite smashed, an attempt to eat it, but at least a moderately successful one.

"Okay, now the question is what do we do with teacher Xi'an?"
"We can't let her go to school like that."

I started talking to Tamamo while standing close to the spider so she could be aware of it. The same creature began to chirp strangely, this time with no idea what it meant.

"Xi'an I'm sorry but I don't speak Arachnid."
"Besides, with those screams we could make the neighbors even more suspicious."
"Let me see...."
"....."
"How about for the moment you tap the floor three times to say yes and twice to say no?"

* Knock**Knock**Knock*

"Excellent!" I said excited to see how quickly she understood.

"I think I can pretend to be her for the time being at school."
"The problem is that in that case it will be Tamamo who misses classes." Said the goddess in thought.

"It doesn't matter, you have good grades and you could miss school and still not have any problems."
"And if you wear the pin on your clothes Haru will know it's you, so she might even be able to help you."
"....."
"I'm the one who's screwed ....."

*knock**knock**knock*

"Ha...ha...ha...ha... how funny, damn eight-eyes."

"Are your grades really that bad?"

"They're not bad, just not the best either."
"It's just that I need to get good grades on my exams."
"Which means studying and being present on those"
"Which right now I don't think I'm doing."

"You're right, you've been missing a lot of classes lately."
"But if what you need to do is get good grades on tests and I'm pretending to be the teacher."
"Couldn't I just do your exams afterwards and just sneak them in with the rest of them?" Said Tamamo, proposing a not-so-terrible plan.

"Yeah, that's a good idea!"

*knock**knock*

"????"
"Why not?"

"......."
"......."

The spider stared at me without knowing what to do, and I don't know what reason she wanted to give, but with no way to speak, she simply couldn't explain why it was a bad idea. But right now, I would not allow myself the luxury of losing a week just to do the right and fair thing, right now, what I needed was to kill Xian Fang, the sooner the better.

"For now we'll do that."
"Meanwhile you Xi'an...."
"You just stay here and relax, try to recover quickly and not scare my mother to death."
"I don't know if spiders are good for the cold or the heat."
"But if you're cold throw that toolbox away or if you're hot throw those pots in there."
"We'll see what to do in each case."
"Oh, and this one, if you see a little fairy out there, don't move or touch her for anything in the world."
"Let her scream with fear and go away."
"Shit I forgot about Tifa ......"
"She's gonna lose a screw when she sees her"

"I'm gonna go make a nice relaxing  tea  cup of  already."

We leave the garage for a moment to try to put Tifa on notice, but not before turning on Xi'an's T.V, as I think the last thing she wants right now is to think about her current situation. On the other hand, the fairy was nervous when she heard what was in the garage, but when she saw who it was, she was understanding and did not do anything, but although she did not leave her little dollhouse, I think she took it very well for someone who had been running away from them all her life. When my sister Maria came home from her shift in the cafeteria, she noticed that something else seemed to be there, so she started to investigate the house and opened the garage door herself, looked inside for a second, and immediately closed it with a scream.

"Cesar! Why is there a giant spider in the garage!?"
"What the hell are you doing now?"

"I found it under your bed, it looked like it had been there for a while already."
"I left it there so you can see I'm not lying."

My sister passed out traumatized after hearing me speak, it seemed my job as a brother was done, although of course after watching her cry for twenty minutes I had to explain what was really going on, which calmed her down a bit, enough to stop her crying, but she didn't go back to her room for the rest of the day. Later, much later than usual, at night, my mother finally came home, I thought she would try to keep her distance like Maria or Tifa, but instead she came determined and attacked the problem head on, when she asked herself to go and talk to Xi'an, even though she didn't have the courage to go into the garage alone, it was a big step for her, it was a real step for her.

"Is it really you Xi'an?"
"Oh Xi'an, I'm so sorry about all this."
"I'm so sorry" my mother said wanting to cry for her friend.

The spider on the other hand just stood still without moving, she didn't want to disturb or scare her. But instead my mother slowly reached out and touched one of her legs.

"Don't worry, we will help you as much as possible."
"You are still the same Xi'an no matter how you look okay"
"We will get through this together, I promise."

"Don't worry, it's only temporary."
"According to Tamamo it will take her at least a week or two to become a human again."
"So I guess she'll have to stay here until then." I informed my mother.
"Although according to her, Xi'an was first a spider who was forced to evolve into an arachne and pass herself off as human."
"...."
"Did you know you were not a human Xi'an?"

*knock**knock*

"Did you even suspect it?"

*Knock**Knock*

"Did your family ever mention anything suspicious?"

*Knock**Knock*

"Fuck this isn't getting us anywhere."

"Cesar, one question, what is in that green garbage bag and why is it human shaped?" My mother pointed to a part of the garage.

"Oh, that's the top of Xi'an body over there, the one that was human."
"Obviously we couldn't leave that in your office."

"There's a dead body in my garage!?"

"Dead body, as in such no, is not in full definition of that word of dead person."
"I mean the owner of it is right there still alive."
"...."
"But yeah."

"Get that out of my house!"
"I don't want that here!"

"We're already on it, I've already called Inspector Yamamoto."
"He'll come later on a patrol car and we'll bury it in the mountains."

"You called a detective to go and hide a corpse in the mountains from the police."
"I don't know whether to praise you for being so brave or scold you for being so stupid."

"It's precisely because he's a cop that it's a good idea!"
"Who better to make sure it doesn't get found than the one in charge of discovering them in the first place?"
"Sometimes I stagger even myself with my genius"

"....."
"Just make it work and don't give me the details."

That same night was a busy one, digging a hole with a shovel, although at least the inspector didn't ask any questions, as you would expect from someone who had done this several times here and there. When I got home it was a little late and everyone was already in bed, so I went to check on Xi'an one last time, the toolbox was on the floor, so Tamamo and I found a blanket to cover it with, we also left the TV on all night in case she didn't want to sleep because of what happened. After I went to bed, I got up again early in the morning to check if everything was okay, and at least the giant spider was still in the garage, concentrating on watching the TV, so I think she was at least okay enough not to cry. I really felt sorry for the poor girl, I really wanted to avenge her for the cruel trick her mother had done to her.