It took what felt like hours, but eventually I had a stable countercurrent flow of lifeforce running through the channels. I’d had a few slip-ups which I’d quickly caught; it had been difficult to persuade the flows to passing alongside without interacting, but once the system was set up it was weirdly stable. Which was helpful in that I didn’t have to worry about being suddenly incapacitated if it failed, but unhelpful in that it took rather longer than I was comfortable with to deactivate.

When the flows randomly fluctuated and came into contact with each other I took a little damage, but not much, barely enough that I’d need to do anything. With the passive regeneration of Solar Flare Armour, a Charm of Myths, and 500 health, I’d only lose about 1 health per minute. 30 seconds sitting or standing still and the Shiny Stone would top off my health even if I had accumulated a huge amount of damage.

As for why I was keeping this up? The counterflow completely nullified my aura, retracting it fully inside myself, without causing any sensation of uncomfortably building pressure like my previous method had. It also made it difficult to manipulate lifeforce and mana without completely dismantling the system, but I was working on that as well as practising shutting down the entire counterflow in a hurry if more power than my passive strength and durability was needed. Both of those were based on my maximum health, so I was still ridiculously strong (without boosting it with lifeforce) and tough (without armour, though I was still going to wear it).

Right, now that I had sorted that, it was time to get some slee- it’s morning?!

I must have been really out of it if the entire night only felt like a few short hours. The flight back to my tower shook most of the cobwebs from my brain. When I landed on my ledge and entered my room, re-entering the high mana density, the remaining mental fugue was cleared. Contrary to my mind, my body was buzzing with energy for some reason. It was definitely not helped by downing a cup of coffee. I spent the next hour or two alternating between making a wide selection of breakfast buffet items and zooming around the tower like an over-caffeinated hummingbird.

After the eighth lap around the empty room on the 17th floor and the third attempt to climb the mirror-smooth walls, it was time to go wake the others up.

I quickly reequipped my usual ninja gear, trotted down one level of stairs, and knocked on the door to Tear's bedroom. There was no response. I knocked a bit louder to much the same effect. I knocked hard enough to leave knuckle prints in the door (oops, but the tower should fix that by itself so it's not much of a problem), and shouted for Tear to wake up. There was no response again. I was now getting a little concerned at the lack of response so I opened the door.

Somehow Tear had managed to half remove her nightclothes, leaving them winding around her limbs and exposing much of her lightly tanned skin. Her top had ridden up as well; though it remained low enough to cover her modesty, most of her flat chest was on display. The bottom half of the pair was hanging low on one side revealing the hip there. However, the catgirl's entangled body wasn't the most eye catching thing, instead that title went to the massive ball of sheets wrapped around her head. How she'd managed that, I had no idea. I would be worried about her asphyxiating except what I could see of her chest and abdomen was obviously rising and falling.

She looked much better than when I first saw her: ribs not so prominent, belly no longer concave, now a smooth plane, some definition to her arms and thighs, some rounding to her hips. While I couldn’t see her hair, I knew both it and her visible tail were better groomed, smoother and more luscious.

With a sigh and a slight smile, I walked over to her bed, and started pulling off the sheets. She woke up pretty quickly and started sleepily flailing whichever limbs were free. Eventually the tangle came off and Tear stared blearily at me.

“Wake up when people knock and shout through your door,” I complained at her. “Now put your clothes on properly, then come down for breakfast.”

She blinked a few times, yawned, attempted to stretch, noticed the reason for her significantly reduced reach, overbalanced, and almost fell off her bed.

I steadied her, then lifted her completely, setting her on her feet next to her bed, then tugged at her sleeves to free her arms.

She made complaining noises throughout the process, and once I was done giving her her use of her arms I actually deigned to listen.

“Out!” she ordered, pointing at the door while covering herself with her top.

“Sheesh, what a troublesome little sister,” I muttered as I left. A muffled thud and an “ow” came from behind me, but she was wearing the Horseshoe Necklace so she couldn’t have actually been hurt.

It was a 20 second stair run, stair trip, and stair fall from there down to the guest rooms, where I picked myself up and knocked on Lupia's door.

After a few moments, she opened it and blinked blearily at me. I immediately fixed my gaze on the ceiling. ”Put some clothes on, then come down for breakfast,” I told her.

She stared blankly for a few moments, looked down, realised she was only wearing simplistic and snugly fitted underwear over her gently curved body with visibly defined muscle, let out an “Eeek!”, flushed, darted back into her room (allowing me to notice her panties were cut low to just above her well rounded rump, allowing some space for her wolf tail to move freely), and slammed the door closed.

“What is it with beastgirls and not waking up properly? Or for that matter, clothes?” I wondered.