“Mmm...” I slowly started to wake up from a deep sleep. I had been trapped in a bizarre dream before I woke, where two tigers had assaulted me and I was helpless to escape. I had been immobilized by the wild animals and devoured.

Luckily, this was only a dream.

As I came too, I found my left arm trapped under a heavy weight, and my right leg equally pinned to my bed. For a brief moment, I thought the dream had been real, but I could see I was in my own room.

My right hand free, I grabbed my heavy blanket and tossed it aside.

A set of powerful arms dragged me back down into the bed, and a human figure pressed their body against me. Releasing their hold on my left arm, they instead wrapped their arms around my upper body. The sensation of two very large, very soft spheres pressed against me made my mind go blank.

Wait, this was really bad.

“Hey, S-Stop it, mom!” She moved in closer, bringing her face right up to mine, moaning gently in her sleep.

“Gon...” she whispered my father’s name, her mouth dangerously close to my ear.

“Wait, Mom, stop it! I’m your son, your son, not dad!” I struggled against her, but I couldn’t get the leverage to free myself, as there was another sleeping tiger in my bed.

“We can’t… Zen… your mother would have my head… ahhn, n-no, don’t put your fingers there!”

Xinyi’s hold on my leg tightened so much I felt like it might snap in half. Her petite body rubbed against me in the midst of her own inappropriate dream.

Yan, still in a sleep state, crawled to her knees. Unfortunately, she also chose to sit directly on top of me. My face flushed red faster than Yan’s Lightning Flash Skill, as I could now directly see her body, which was barely covered in the thin robe she usually slept in. Xinyi was wearing one of my old shirts, and from the feeling of her legs against my own, not much else.

What was wrong with these two, how have they still not woken up? And how am I so weak I can’t escape from two sleeping girls?

“Gon… let’s make another baby...” my sleepwalking mother put her index finger to her lips seductively, saying something I really never wanted to hear my own mom say to me, even if she wasn’t aware of what she was saying at the time. She ran her other hand over my chest.

While this was going on, Xinyi had started to crawl up the bed as well, looking a lot like a cat that had just been jolted out of a nap.

“Zen...” she muttered, kissing me on the cheek. I'm sure she was aiming for my lips, but I managed to dodge the attack.

My salvation came in the form of my mother’s intense jealousy, so powerful, so overbearing was her sense of protectiveness towards me, that as soon as Xinyi’s attack came into her field of view she snapped. Still asleep, she moved to pin the advancing girl, her rival.

“You harlot... get off my husband!” as she sleepily fell against Xinyi, I managed to roll out of bed and onto the floor.

By the time I had crawled back to my feet, both girls were deep in their dream again, their arms and bodies intertwined with each other. I felt dizzy, and my face was burning up. And, as much as I would like to deny it, there was definitely…

A reaction.

My brain hurt from what had just happened, so I distracted myself by preparing breakfast. I’m sure the smell of food will rouse those sleeping tigresses in my bed, so it serves two purposes. I began to chop the ingredients, my mind wandering back to the events of the previous day.

“Eeeeeeeeh?! Your dad?!” Xinyi gasped in surprise at my answer, looking quite confused. “The one who went missing when you were a baby?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

When I was barely six months old, my father Yi Gon had been called by the Emperor himself to investigate some disappearing civilians, believed to be the work of a roaming monster. He had set out to the border to find the creature, and never returned. This is the story I was told growing up, and I had never had a reason to believe otherwise.

But I was almost eighteen, my father disappeared when I was less than one. But Xinyi said she met him when she was around seven, things didn’t add up. Things made more sense when I thought he had died, but now he was still alive several years after going missing… what gives?

“Xinyi, how long did he stay in your town?”

“Uhh, only a couple of months, but after he broke up a fight with me and another orphan kid, I started following him. I trained with him for about a year, and then one day I woke up and he was gone…” she replied quickly.

“Is that why you headed to the capital?”

“Mmm, he told me that if we ever got seperated, I should come to the capital and find a woman named Xuan Yan.”

Things were making even less sense now, why would he take a street urchin under his wing, teach her his personal combat style, and then point her towards my mother? What were you doing out there… dad.

“I see, I see, I understand why you knew my mom’s name then.” I nodded in response, crossing my arms and closing my eyes in thought.

“Sorry, I wish I knew more…” she sulked, squatting down and staring at a wild flower by her feet. She looked back up towards me, her large, earnest eyes feeling like they could peer right into my soul. “But he was strong, one of the strongest people I’ve ever met, so I’m sure he’s still out there!”

“But of course, there’s nobody out there who could kill my husband.” Yan walked over to us, putting her hands on both of our heads and pulling us close to her. “Not once in these last seventeen years did I think he was dead, I knew he would come home to us eventually… I’m sure he has a good reason for his disappearance.”

Normally, I would resist her attempt to comfort me, but there was too much going through my mind for me to put up any sort of defense. Besides, I could tell mom was just putting up a strong front, and so I decided to let her have this moment.

“Xinyi, the reason I took a liking to you, let you into the school so easily, was because I recognized my husband’s movements on your own.” Yan ruffled the already messy hair of the redhead girl a bit, smiling at her. “I thought that maybe, if I stayed close to you, I could learn more about what happened to Gon.”

“I-I’m sorry, I really don’t know any more.” It looked like Xinyi was about to start crying, but my mother pulled her tighter, and she calmed down quickly. Xuan Yan used her ultimate skill, her motherly instincts. “Since my husband took you under his apprenticeship, I guess you really are my responsibility now… I always was cleaning up his messes!”

After we bought the sword, my mother refused to say how much it cost, but it must have been extremely expensive. And then we went home, nothing else of note happening that day, which leads us right back to the present.

I flipped the simple egg and vegetable omelet in the pan in front of me, making sure it was cooked evenly. As I predicted, my mother shambled into the kitchen like a zombie as soon as she smelled the food. Xinyi, who had a remarkably similar personality to Yan, followed soon after.

“G’Mornin…” Xinyi yawned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Both women took a seat at the dining table right as I slid two plates of food down in front of them.

“It’s rare to see you in the kitchen, Zen.” my mother commented between bites of omelet.

“I woke up a bit early…” I replied, some unwanted imagery floating through my thoughts.

I sat down with them and we ate in silence. There was still a somewhat awkward air around us from before, at least from my perspective. Neither of them seemed to remember it in the slightest, which was probably for the best, or I might have died of embarrassment.

Finally, Xinyi spoke up.

“Hey, Yi Zen…” she looked nervous about what she was about to say, and was fidgeting in her chair. “Wanna… go on a date?”

“A date?!” I shouted in unison with my mother, who slammed her hands against the table.

“Umm… do you… not want to?” she looked away from me, her voice quivering. “I know I’m not very cute…”

If Lei were here he would probably be kicking me for even hesitating to say yes. But in front of my overbearing mom… it wasn’t so easy to just agree. My indecision probably made it look like I wasn’t interested, and while I couldn’t say it was something I really wanted to do, it’s not like I had no interest in her in that way… Ah! What am i doing sitting here like an idiot, I have to say something before it’s too late!

I glanced back and forth between Xinyi and my fuming mother. I wasn’t sure what to do, I was going to upset one of them, there was no way to make both of them happy at the same time, was there? My personality that always sought out the path of least resistance had no escape route for me this time.

But in the end, there was only one choice that made sense. She would be angry and upset, but she would get over it, she had to… right?

“S-Sure, let’s go on a date.” I accept Xinyi’s offer, making sure not to look over at my mother, who I’m sure was heartbroken. But what kind of weirdo would I be if I picked my mother over a girl my age? There was absolutely no way I could do that, not in a million years.

Xinyi’s dejected face lit up, and she almost tackled me out of my chair. But as she approached, my mother shot her a dangerous look, and she managed to stop herself from touching me.

I could feel her eyes burning a hole in the back of my head as I got out of my seat and walked towards my room. The intense pressure she was exuding seemed more deadly than her sword at the moment, and I really just wanted to escape.

“Well, I-I should get dressed, should I meet you outside?” I asked Xinyi, my body trembling from fear but also… excitement?

“Yeah! I’ll go get ready too!”

I quickly changed into the new dress uniform my mother had bought me, as it turned out the only clothing I had without holes or stains on them was this. Attaching my Father’s sword to my belt, I didn’t look like I was doing anything out of the ordinary, so the whole idea of a date seemed distant and alien to me.

I quickly darted out of the house, planning to avoid my mom, who would definitely try and stop me. But for some reason, I couldn’t see her anywhere in the house.

After a few minutes, Xinyi emerged, also in her new combat uniform. She must have had the same idea as me, since all of her other clothing was either my hand me downs or her original tattered rags.

“S-Sorry for the wait… are you ready to go?” she looked like she was so embarrassed she wanted to die, wasn’t this her idea?

“Yeah, where do you want to go first?”

“I-I don't know my way around the city very well yet, so you decide!” she waved her hands, flustered, and avoided eye contact with me.

I tried to think of somewhere a girl would want to go, and couldn’t. She was a pretty weird girl though, so anywhere was likely fine.

“Okay, follow me then.”