The Guide with a Little Sea Otter Has Logged In

Author's setting: All Sentinels and Guides feed their mental energy to their own spirit companions.

The higher the mental compatibility, the better one person's spirit companion can digest the mental energy fed to it by the other. With low compatibility, it can easily get indigestion and an upset stomach.

Kindergarten was out for the day. Yu Xiaoke hugged his chubby little otter, its arms short and stubby, and obediently waited at the entrance for his older brother to pick him up. Oh, and his dad too.

Once in the car, he hung his otter around his neck. It was too fat to stay there, so it slid down with a splat onto the seat. Yu Xiaoke didn't bother with it. He scooped up his brother's spirit companion, a cat with long fangs, and stuffed a ball of spirit energy into its mouth. After all, the little orange cat hadn't eaten in hours. It must be starving and losing weight.

"Xiaoke! Stop feeding your brother's saber-toothed tiger!"

"Chubby cats are cuter!"

Picking up the otter, which was as chunky as a ball of dough, his biological father was so worried his head was about to go bald. He turned and yelled at his eldest son, "Why aren't you doing something about this?!"

Ye Yushi smiled. Wasn't it great to see him so carefree and chubby?

Yu Xiaoke was a rare A-rank Guide, extremely rare. Since he was still a minor, if he reached adulthood, the kid might even be an SSS-rank. But for Xiaoke, born on a resource-poor garbage planet where Guides were scarce, that might not be such a good thing. So the whole family kept it secret and told people he was only C-rank.

When he was five, his dad adopted the son of a comrade who had died in action. From that day on, he had an older brother and a scrawny little orange cat just like its owner...

Little Yu Xiaoke decided he would fatten up his brother and the little orange cat together.

And so Xiaoke began secretly feeding his dad's and brother's spirit companions behind their backs.

Old Yu Ningzhong stared at his spirit companion, which had gotten so fat it could barely fly, and fell into deep thought. "Did I raise a hen or an eagle?"

Ye Shiyu sighed. "I think I raised an orange cat..." It certainly wasn't some terrifying, savage saber-toothed tiger of destruction.

Note: The story is told from Xiaoke's perspective (the younger brother, and the uke).

Saved on 12/21, though it's already been on hiatus for over a month...

Theme: Growing together