Deep breaths.

Okay. I can do this. Me complimenting her work has probably gotten her interest. She’s clearly part of a group that is discriminated against, so she may be curious why.

Okay, remember.

She’s curious, I’m curious.

People mistake curiosity as attraction all the time.

Focus on that.

Even if I am attracted to her, she doesn’t need to know that. Better to let a relationship progress naturally.

I got this.

Clearing my throat, “I’m very… grateful for the hospitality and to be honest, am curious about you. You are the first demi-human I’ve ever met, s…”

She cuts me off, as she leans forward, “T-that’s not what I mean. Are you attracted to my body?” As she says that, the squeezing together of her arms causes a large crevasse to form, just visible through the top opening of her clothes. I gulp, as my eyes unconsciously drift to… Ah dang, that doesn’t help my stance, does it?

She has a wide smile on her face. In a barely discernable whisper, she says, “I knew I smelled it.”

Oooooookkaaaayyyy.

Looking more confident, she wiggles around to show off her spider abdomen and spinneret is revealed. While still a little wary about her spider side, it doesn’t frighten me now, especially since she just seems like a regular woman.

Well, one that could instantly kill me with a thought.

She looks back at me, staring for a little. Then she twists around so I can see her human butt, positioned just above the connection between the two portions of her body.

Then she slaps it crisply.

It ripples magnificently. I gulp. She sniffs again.

Oh. Wait a second. When she was sniffing earlier, was she was testing the air for pheromones?

With a sure smile, she turns back around and comes close to me.

“Okay, you are definitely attracted to me. You’re weird.”

Okay, fair… but ouch.

Her face twists, as it seems she realizes how that could come off wrong. She raises her arms and flails a bit in defense, “I mean different! From the others, people, I mean…”

She exhales, recollecting herself.

“So you know, I can tell people’s emotions based on their smell.” She pauses.

“When you look at me, I can smell that you are attracted to me, with a tad bit of cautiousness.

“Most humans just feel automatic disgust when they see me. Not only that, but they tend to be dismissive. At best, wariness. Only if I display myself as a genuine threat to them, do they feel any fear. It’s not their fault, though. There’s a curse on all of us demi-humans, where any human can automatically ‘know’ that we are a demi-human and gives them a deep feeling of disgust.”

She looks down.

That pretty much fits what I was thinking. She’s probably wondering why I don’t feel that way about her.

“Going back to you. If it was only the attraction, that would be one thing. While it’s extraordinarily rare, there are perverts who get off that feeling of disgust.”

Who are you calling a pervert?!

She suddenly reaches out and grabs my hands, holding them in hers.

“But that’s not what concerns me. Not only do you have no disgust, but why are you so kind to everyone? You even have regularly risked yourself, by revealing power after power. It’s obviously not in your best interest to do these things, but you keep doing it to help people who have near to no benefit to you.”

“Well, that’s not exactly true. There’s a lot I don’t know, and it’s not like there was any choice in revea…”

She cuts me off again, “With the amount of money you have and the powers you have, you could easily get into a good position anywhere. You could bide your time in an inn and learn about the world yourself. Even if you had decided to learn from Lin, you didn’t have to intervene in their affairs. You didn’t have to heal them, either. And most importantly, you didn’t have to bring up your SECOND skill when we were talking.”

Her voice was raising a bit towards the end, but she softens her voice again.

“But you did. And it was clear it was for our benefit… not yours.”

She grips my hand a little tighter, “Not only that, but you came into my home and have been constantly trying to engage with me, even when I already know my home is frightening for even demi-humans, not to mention humans… So, I’ll ask you again. Why are you so kind, when it could hurt you so badly? I know you’ve been told of the dangers and I don’t want to believe you are incompetent.”

I look down, my eyes resting on our clasped hands subconsciously.

Well, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that incompetency wasn’t a factor… but I don’t think this is the right mood for that. *Sniff* She raises a good point, though. I need to Really consider how and where I show off my powers. I think my main issue, is naiveness. *Sniff* Once I get a chance to relax, I’ll sit down and really hash out what I can do to fix this… For her, I’ll make an exception on this new rule. *Sniff* Anything that I see in hers, I’ll try to fix. She’ll be the last one I do like this.

As I think through this, I notice her hands have traveled up my arms.

Her eyes are looking unquenchable as her arms wrap around my body. A pillowy sensation envelops my front. Her head nestles into my neck as I sit in shock. Nuzzling a little deeper, I can hear a long and conspicuous sniff. *Snnniiiiiiffff* “Mmm… this smells sooo much better than disgust.”

Suddenly, she freezes… realizing what she’s done. Shakily, she grabs my hands and places them around her back.

“Y-you can smell me too, if you want?”

I’m not sure whether to be weirded out or aroused.

A quick look into her shaky, but stimulating gaze answers my question.

Well, I suppose it took going to another world to get a look like this, so I might as well go for it.

As I lean in to continue this strange exchange of sniffs, I can see just into the back of her shirt.

What I see completely stops the arousal train for me.

Wounds after wounds crawl all down her back. Just from a brief look, it is clear that some of them still haven’t fully healed.

Covered in webbing, it appears she’s been constantly replacing them. With a now critical eye, I look down at her spider abdomen at the webbing covering spots. It might be that she’s been covering up all of her wounds with webbing. If so… that’s a lot of wounds.

Sensing the shift in my demeanor and apparently smell, Gong pulls away a small distance.

She then notices the spots I’m looking at and attempts to hide some of the bigger webbed areas.

“Hey, don’t hide them. I want to help you…”

She pauses for a moment.

Hopping off the bed, I go over to her and grab her hands.

Looking up at her, “Will you let me help you? You already know that I can, just let me try.” Her mouth tightens a little, and she relaxes slightly.

She moves her hands and clothes away, to allow me a closer view. Seeing that she isn’t resisting anymore, I switch to taking a deeper look at her wounds.

Before touching anything, I just look around at her body.

Now that I know what to look for… it is clear that many of these weren’t accidental.

It was torture.

For example, there is a long thick line of web at the area separating her spider and human form. Previously, I thought that was just a design choice. Looking closer, it is clear someone hurt her deeply, acting as if they were severing the two halves of her body. My question is, why haven’t these healed? Let me do a quick scan:

Gong

Female, 32

Cursed Spiritual Root - 0

Proficient Languages: Common Speech (English)

Literate Languages: Common Speech, Street Signs (Demi-Human)

Demi-Human – Spider Traits

Conditions:

Racial Curse – Demi-Human

Cannot cultivate or use qi Automatic recognition response from humans

Deep Chronic Lacerations - Thighs

Mental Instructions on how to direct healing

Deep Chronic Lacerations - Back

Mental Instructions on how to direct healing

Abdominal (Spider) Rupture – Sealed (temporary)

Mental Instructions on how to direct healing If not healed, will lead to depressurization

172 Additional Entries/subentries

Wow. That’s a lot of entries. Though it makes sense, considering the number of wounds she has. Also, she’s bigger. So, more surface area… I guess. Not only that, but some of my questions have been answered with this. It really looks like Demi-Humans, as a whole, have been cursed by humans.

Coming out of my scanning mode, I can see that Gong looks embarrassed by my intense looks at her body.

“Most humans automatically feel a strong revulsion toward me, while I felt nothing from you… Are you really human?”

Oh no. Another weak point. That curse affects everyone, not always with revulsion but some kind of feeling. Maybe it doesn’t affect me because I’m not from this world… How can I word this so it doesn’t sound suspicious?

A little uncomfortably, “I hope so… though I remember little. I feel like I maybe different from other people, at least in terms of how I view things. Though I think everyone should hang out with Demi-humans more, if you represent other spiderfolk.” Her face reddens, and she goes quiet. Alright, I think I passed.

Changing the subject, I direct her attention to the wounds just below her hips. “Gong, sorry if this brings back bad memories, but when did you get these wounds?” Automatically, I can see stress lines forming across her face.

I hurry to add, “If you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine, I was hoping to get some context so I can heal them better.”

She is clearly masking her stress and trying to relax, keeping her voice low and steady.

“When I was basically a hatchling, I was caught by some humans. They wanted to see if they could separate my upper half from my lower half, as a joke. Luckily, I was able to get away before they could finish the job, though they managed to cut other parts of me as well from it. I still remember the knives they used, ripping into my skin as they sawed back and forth… I tried to fill it with webbing, which helped a bit, but they just turned into giant sores.”

Looking away, she continues, “I would’ve used medicine, if anyone would sell them to me. I can’t even get medicine through black market channels now from humans, since I don’t have enough money. Humans make most medicine and it is kept out of the hands of demi-humans,” She had her head down the whole time she said this.

Raising it to look at me, “Now you can probably see why I wanted your help so badly. Demi-humans won’t get healed by humans and can’t get access to anything to heal themselves, so we typically just try to manage as best we can… Until we can’t.”

She falls silent, but has a hopeful look on her face.

Well.

If I was going to heal her before, now I really can’t deny that I want to help.

Alright.

This doesn’t change anything. Time to focus.