You shielded your eyes from the sunlight that blazed its way down around you. Trying to look further away proved an effort in wishing you had sunglasses. The day was right, and the road slow under the crunch of your shoes. It was a steady grind against the twitch in your legs, a forceful slowness to each step that proved a soft screeching on nerves.

The lack of wind made the heat beat down upon your shoulders and head.

The group moved as slowly as Mr Gabriel did. Not that many seemed to care. Kat for her part spoke to Marta, the new Milktits, with wide grins and broad gestures. The monstergirl nodded with a slight irregularity, her eyes shifting away from the young woman from time to time as her tail hung limply from her hips.

Every now and then, either of them would look your way.

You'd said nothing- not that you could at your distance without raising your voice. You hung back from them. Alone.

Diane, Monica, Kiara, and Raven, all of them were balled up. Your hand reminded you they were just a twitch of your wrist away from being turned from formless red energy into solid flesh and blood. But you liked pretending that you were truly, fully, alone. Briefly, in a flight of fancy, you thought of that fateful trip that had gone so so wrong.

How many times have you taken it? Your thoughts drifted towards walks in large groups, the chatter of rowdy half-bored students and the parents that were all too eager to share their opinions about whatever news had last hit the stream. There was some humour to the memory of wishing to be on your own or at home...

Looking back, you realized how little you'd pay attention to your surroundings, how little you cared who was in front of you, how leisurely you'd practically bump into people. Not letting yourself be lost in thought, your eyes strayed towards the grassy fields that stretched near the road.

There was a blur of movement there. The monstergirl you'd spotted yesterday with Tomas was galloping across the field. Metamorphic, it seemed, much like the Arachnae. But where one would've been a spider, this monstergirl had been equine. A centaur in every sense of the word.

Tomas' hair whipped behind his head. A manic grin was plastered on his lips as the blur of brown and black darted off at maximum speed, only to turn back and return once practically out of sight past a hill or slope. The young man's laughter could be heard from time to time, and the woman he rode looked nothing less than ecstatic.

Forcing yourself to look the other way, you tried to ignore the weights that hung from behind your eyes. An old friend of yours, of late nights poring over exams and homework to get everything done before the deadline. You'd just need to push yourself to keep the frayed edges of your focus from unravelling before you went to sleep.

Your focus landed on the mouse that walked next to Mr Gabriel. She was as close to a mousy human as you could've expected the monstergirl to be. She was a waif of a woman, barely tall enough for her large round ears to reach the older man's shoulders, her figure thin and her posture ever nervous. Tessa clung to the taller man's sleeve, her eyes roaming in every direction in short bursts of quick confirmation, and her tail whipped with every swing of her head. With a twitch of her ears, her gaze would turn left, then right. Sometimes the reaction would go through her whole body, nearly jumping as a sound would make her switch sides, placing the older male between herself and the source.

And yet, with just one touch of the man's hand upon her head, the monstergirl's jumpiness would stop. Instantly she'd lean into him, closing her eyes, her tail going limp and her breathing slowing in turn.

And yet, despite every appearance saying otherwise, you knew. She could break every bone on Gabriel's body if she so wished. The Titmouse was a monstergirl easily scared, and yet, desperate ferals would quite often gang up on unsuspecting prey and devour them alive. The thought coursed through your mind like a bad joke trying to force itself into an unwelcome event.

Tessa was a monstergirl. Just as dangerous as every other monstergirl.

Your mind turned towards your own monstergirls as it had every other hour. Diane, Monica, Kiara, Raven.

What did it mean to control them?

Your fingers thumbed the smooth cool surface of the spherical devices latched onto the belt you wore loosely around your hip. Maybe you were looking at the problem the wrong way?

Your attention shifted away from Tessa and back onto Kat. She scratched the back of her head and chatted away, appearing to be awkwardly trying to explain something. The sound brought back a memory.

Your awkward first lesson, a substitute trying to reign in a rowdy class. How long ago had that been? You've had thousands of classes ever since, and the patterns became clearer with each one. The rowdy students stayed in the back, the attentive ones in the front, and everyone else in the middle. Interruptions, conversation, sometimes the odd paper ball bouncing off of the blackboard. How had you learned to make sure your students didn't interrupt? Didn't step out of line?

How did you avoid violence from emerging? Could the students in your classroom kill you? If they wanted? It was an intrusive question, and the first reaction had been to roll your eyes at the inwards consideration. Of course, they could have, they outnumbered you forty to one. Not that it had ever been a consideration before.

You blinked.

Fingers rubbed a little more strongly against the front-most capture ball; there was a scratch on the edge where both halves met. This was Diane's. Your eyelids were heavy- a deep breath, focus shifting back to Mr Gabriel and Katherine before you stopped your steps entirely. Eyes closed, ignoring the heat all around you, you felt the soft cool breeze nudge you slightly forward.

With a click of the button, the device squeezed and twitched. And with a burst of red light, the nurse materialized right next to you.

As she had every previous instance, the first thing she did upon becoming physical was to look around quickly and carefully, hands on her hips very close and ready to dive into her pockets, her legs slightly bent and ready to pounce. It was only when she looked your way that she relaxed.

There was a little grimace, face turning downwards, her shoulders slumped. "Master," she muttered quickly.

"Follow me," you declared, returning some inertia to your body and moving again, keeping your distance from the others even as you spotted several looks shot your way.

Diane kept quiet, her head remained slightly downcast. The shadow of the sun hung against her expression, her eyes pointed at the ground only slightly ahead of her but flickering in your direction from time to time. Her hands clenched the edges of her pants with a white-knuckled grip, and there was a slight pause of hesitation behind every step.

Sucking in some air, you stifled a yawn. "Gabriel got his first medal."

Your words might as well have had physical force. Diane tripped a little, her eyes moving towards the diminutive Tessa, and then at you.

"He just pointed out he'll die before he can get an actual harem... at least that's what he said."

"I... I see..."

Hearing the crunch of steps, you looked over your shoulder. Diane's violet's eyes met yours and immediately you both looked the other way. The nurse looked downwards, and you turned towards the fields. The sigh escaped her, barely audible. In your mind, the question burned brighter than it had before.

How could you tell if you were in control of the situation? Your thoughts turned to Kiara, at how she pushed Tomas and Freya away from one another ever so slightly.

A frown came to your face. "I'm... really angry at you." The words were soft, your brows knitted slightly. "And scared."

Diane recoiled away from you, eyes wide. "Master, I-"

"I'm not sure you properly understand where I'm coming from, maybe you do, but this whole thing we have is..." A deep breath. "When Kiara threatened me, I knew where she was coming from. I knew exactly what to expect. If Monica or Raven threatened me, I would also know where things would be coming from. But not you."

Glancing at the nurse, you paid close attention to how she looked into your eyes and quickly averted them downwards, how her shoulders tensed and her steps shortened, how she clutched her hands against her body.

"The threat you pose to me is... different." You glanced away. "I could wake up one morning having been lobotomized by my own modified brain chemistry. I could develop some sort of cancer that slowly eats me from the inside because some gland or whatever got amped a smidge too high or too low." Nose wrinkling for a moment, you kept your hands in your pockets. "It could be entirely accidental too. If Monica loses her focus I'll get a broken arm, a snapped pelvis, maybe I end up paralyzed because my spine got snapped like a twig. But you? You have an accident and I could not find out about it until I'm convulsing and frothing from the mouth two months down the road."

"Master, I never thought-" She burst out, looking at you with wide eyes, leaning as she clutched her hands against her chest. And yet, the words stopped with a gesture of your hand.

"Breathe." Your word was a singular command that made her tense, you nodded. "And try it again, slowly."

With a twitch of her head passing as a nod mirroring your own, she stopped her steps only long enough for her to let out a very slow sigh. Immediately after she quickened her pace as she returned to your side, her lips pursed and her brows furrowed. "Master," she spoke with a firmness that immediately faltered. "I'm sorry. I thought you... didn't know better."

Her words caused you to arch an eyebrow.

"Tamers don't... know, medicine," Diane continued, fidgeting with her fingers. "So when they're told about the prospects, many become too... eager." Her mouth twisted in a grimace. "I have seen Rapha owners having forced their monstergirls to push their bodies over the limits of what's healthy."

A pause. "You thought that, if I knew you could do that, I'd ask for more changes."

"Some people think that flesh crafting could help them become immortal," she whispered under her voice, face paling slightly. "And would not take no for an answer."

"And does it?"

Diane shook her head strongly, pink hair whipping around in a whirl of little silky smooth strands. "Flesh crafting can help with some of the issues brought about from age, if you know enough, it can slow a few down, but even under ideal conditions... it would maybe add a decade. If the monstergirl is knowledgeable and skilled enough, she might even properly allow the body to remain functional for longer even if it'll mean the inevitable collapse happens more quickly."

Eyes closing, you turned away. "So when you told me it was a slip of the tongue, huh."

Her steps came to a halt, her face lowered as her eyes looked up at you in hesitation.

"I'm not going to add punishment, Diane," you muttered with a slight yawn, your left hand reached down and held onto her sphere and making sure it remained out of her sight. "I am, however, going to ask you to alter my pinky finger."

"...Master?"

Stretching your hand towards her, you looked into her eyes. "Sensitivity, I'd like you to amplify my pinky's finger sensitivity as high as you can bring it." Your words caused her to frown further. You frowned back. "I wasn't asking, Diane. And I left pretty clear how you ought to react to an order."

With a slight skip to her step and a gasp, she nodded, grabbing your hand for a moment. "Master, there's... several ways I could do this. Do you mean merely pressure sensitivity? Temperature?"

"Pressure," you said. "And only as far as you can undo it."

This time the nod came a little easier to her.

As you walked, you made sure to pour every ounce of attention to the warm glowing sensations within your hand. It would be a while before it would be time for the group to rest.

Kiara came out of her device yawning, barely taking a moment to glance over her shoulder before focusing on you like a hawk. "What happened to your finger?"

Of course she'd seen how you held the pinky finger out so as to avoid it touching anything. The skin was also noticeably redder and it felt no different than if you'd had a localized sunburn except less painful and more 'tingly'.

"None of your concern." You replied, sitting down. "I want you to take a trip above, check the perimeter."

The infernal monstergirl narrowed her eyes at you, to which you returned the look with every ounce of impassive boredom you could muster within you. Several seconds passed before she scoffed, looking away, batting her wings and taking to the sky.

You could tell the others had spotted her, but you didn't turn to look their way, instead, you focused back on Diane. "Where were we?"

"I'm not sure?" She replied.

"Ah, no, it's just my own head." You pulled your backpack closer to you, using your unchanged hand to rummage through it. Eventually, you found what you were looking for and pulled out the first-aid box Diane had brought from her apartment. "You had some tools of your own, right?"

"Yes?" She nodded, pulling out of her left pocket a bundle of cloth. "What would you need them for?"

"Do you have a scalpel?"

A shake of her head. "I don't need one, at least not for light things, I can use my fleshcrafting to cause the cells to break apart from one another in a straight line. It's neater and easier to heal... unless you meant for fighting? For that, I have a pocket-knife."

"Pocket knife?" You asked.

The nurse dug into her right pocket, pulling out a foldable knife. Your eyes widened as she unfolded the piece, it had a blade at least twelve centimetres long. With a twitch of her hand she folded it back and returned it to her pocket, the gesture smooth and seamless. You didn't even remember having seen the knife before.

"You... have had that around?"

"Yes, Master, it was a gift from Doctor Hale on my second naming day," Diane nodded enthusiastically. "Would you need to use it?"

Quickly you shook your head. "No, no, it's the 'cutting skin' part I was interested in." You tucked the little datum of the explanation she'd provided away. "I'd like you to make a cut on my palm."

Diane frowned at you, her hands tucking the little bundle back into her pocket.

"Just a little cut, and heal it."

"...why?"

"I told you to," you answered, unamused. "And that's going to have to be reason enough for now. Especially considering it's not something that's putting me at any actual risk."

Her lips thinned, a nod left her. "I hope you're not thinking of making it a habit to ask to be cut up, Master."

"I don't plan to." With your words, your right hand extended towards her once more. "All yours. And do make sure the healing is slow please."

"I don't think you should cause yourself pain like this, Master." Her eyes flickered at your eyes before focusing on your hand. "We also don't have anything to disinfect the surface."

"If it gets infected I'm sure you'll be able to handle it."

Her lips thinned further, jaw tightening and clenching, and her gaze lowered to focus on your extended palm. She held onto it with her left, and as she did, she brought down her extended right index. She didn't touch your palm, but you felt a spreading warmth that was followed by a stinging sensation. Slowly she moved the finger only three centimetres before pulling back.

Raising your gaze to the place she'd touched, there was barely anything seeming wrong. Yet as soon as you clenched your fist a little, a droplet of blood appeared. The sensation was slightly similar to getting pinched by a needle. "Huh," you muttered, opening your palm again. "Ok, heal it slowly."

Diane's eyes narrowed at you before she looked downwards, her finger returning to your hand.

The sensation was that of warmth but... "Ok, cut me again."

"Master, you said you didn't plan to make this a habit."

"It won't be."

A deeper scowl, she repeated the actions, and you paid closer attention. "Now I'd like you to reduce my finger's sensitivity."

With a startled shake of her head and a look of disbelief, she took a moment to comply, moving to grasp your finger and allowing the glow to spread from the area she caressed.

"It's different," you muttered after a moment.

"Master?"

"Fleshcrafting and healing," you said. "Isn't it?"

"Yes?" She frowned, confused. "Fleshcrafting is a command for a change in behaviour of a living being's tissue. Healing is the application of elemental energy to speed up the existing healing process."

"Try explaining that in 'science'," you chuckled.

"Fleshcrafting alters the composition and structure of the cells. Healing makes them go faster," Diane pouted ever so slightly. "Fleshcrafting is complex because it needs an understanding of the desired alteration. Healing is complex because it requires to also create certain substances such as hormones, and then remove the byproducts."

A little nod- that was interesting, and you'd make a mental note about it. "And the sensation is different," you said.

Diane's eyes widened. "Did you... order for this for that reason?"

"I told you I don't trust you anymore, Diane." Your words came in a low voice, and the monstergirl flinched. "If I can't trust, I might as well understand. And now I know that when you're trying to change me, the sensation is different than if you were trying to heal me."

The nurse nodded her head, letting it droop, looking down at your hand as she applied her fingers upon your pinky. Eyes closing, she bent forward slightly, lowering her head further, until her forehead pressed against your palm. Slowly, she sighed, moving her head so her cheek would rub against your hand. Eyes closed, she breathed deeply.

There was a slight clench to her fingers before she opened those deep pools of violet. Quietly, she looked up at you. Your pulse hastened as she spoke.

"If you don't trust me, Master, if you think I lie, then you could put me through a level four-cycle." There was a little shudder in her voice as she spoke. "I would prefer that to... this."

"This?"

"You were so warm." A slight whisper. "Now you're... cold."

Absently you nodded. "That was my mistake, Diane." You didn't pull your hand from her touch, your thumb stroked her cheek. "We both didn't know better, so live and learn. At least you have a chance to earn things back."

"Earn what things?" An amused chuckle followed the words.

Your head whipped upwards, seeing the Succubus as she floated a good three meters above you. Her eyes had a smile hidden within their glimmering pools of gold as she floated downwards. Her foot gingerly touched the ground with barely a sound, her whole body seeming to lose the weightless quality it had held a moment prior.