Chapter 26

Monster Musume: Everyday Life with Monster Girls (モンスター娘のいる日常, Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou) Chapter 26 is the twenty-sixth chapter of the Monster Musume: Everyday Life with Monster Girls manga series.

Written and drawn by mangaka Okayado (Inui Takemaru), this chapter was released in Japan on July 31st, 2014, by the Japanese publishing company within the seinen manga and anime magazine,.

The chapter was later gathered as part of the series' tankōbon volume Monster Musume: Everyday Life with Monster Girls Volume 6.

Plot
The chapter begins with Rachnera dreaming about the time with her original host family and how she accidentally hurt the daughter of the family. Startled, Rachnera wakes up in her room in the attic of the Kurusu house and comments that it has been a while since she had a dream like that. Annoyed, she thinks to herself that she really hates this dream and goes back to sleep while it's already early morning outside.

Rachnera comes down to the kitchen and, still tired, greets everyone with a good morning, though Centorea surly corrects her that it is actually past 10. When Rachnera wondered where was the breakfast, Centorea tells her that Miia is attempting to make "something" and that it should be done presently. Meanwhile, while reading the receipt from a cooking magazine, Miia puts Worcestershire sauce in the cooking pot instead of oyster sauce since it "sounds the same anyway". Rachnera, well aware of Miia's terrible attempts at cooking, decides to wait for lunch.

Rachnera then wondered where Kimihito was and Centorea tells her that he is out, filling out paperwork so he can be reimbursed for all the past food expenses. Rachnera says that it must be hard to be the host family of seven people, although Centorea reminds her that she is one of them. Lala then suddenly appears behind the two and tells them that they got mail, surprising them.

As Rachnera says to Lala that she scared her, Centorea asked why she sneaks up on people, whereupon the Dullahan turns away in embarrassment. Centorea notes that it is rare that they (namely herself, Miia, Papi and Rachnera) receive mail when she receives the four letters from Lala. She asked for something sharp to open her envelope but when Lala offered her scythe Centorea declined; Rachnera watches and wonders what they are doing as she opens hers.

Rachnera then read her letter and freezes for a moment before she crumples it up. Centorea then asked Rachnera if something is wrong and notes that Miia's "something" is finished; Miia angrily asked why she called what she cooked that. Rachnera tells her to feed it to Suu and that something's come up and that she is going to her room. As she goes to her room she tosses her letter in the trash can. Meroune wonders what happened and Miia guesses that Rachnera wants to laze around her room until lunch.

Then suddenly Suu appears in her blob form out of the trash can, with Rachnera's letter on her antenna, surprising the two. As Miia asked Suu what she was doing in there, Meroune notices the letter. Suu urges her to read it which she does. Astonished, Mero reads the letter and says that it is a host family transfer notice and that it looks like there's someone who wants to be Rachnera's host family. While the other girls react to the news with shock and disbelief, Mero adds that it looks like this letter is from the people who hosted Rachnera before. Distraught, Papi asks Centorea if that means Rachnera will leave them, to which Centorea tries to reassure the Harpy, saying that it's undecided, although she's not entirely convinced herself.

However, while all the other girls are worried about this news, Miia has a dark moment thinking that there might actually be a great chance if Rachnera went somewhere else as it would decreased the number of her (Miia's) rivals to Kimihito. She also tries to dissuade herself from guilt with empty words, thinking to herself that there's reason to act sadder than she needs to, since it's not like Rachnera is getting deported to her home country. As Miia mischievously thinks that it's wonderful that she doesn't have to get her hands dirty to get Rachnera out of the way, she is watched by Centorea and Mero, who notices that she's thinking about something evil again and ponders this must be why snakes have a bad name.

When Centorea is also pondering that Rachnera might be going to leave, Mero asks her if she is against it. Embarrassed, Centorea quickly denies this, adding that there would merely be one less thing to be cautious around the Kurusu house. Mero says, she simply thought that because of Rachnera's usual habits but Centorea insists that Rachnera's original host family would be asking her to leave again shortly. The two discuss that it's not like that either, that Rachnera is going to leave immediately and that Rachnera's host family will have to talk it over with Rachnera first as well. As Mero and Centorea look at the date of the letter, however, they sees incredulous that the meeting is for today when suddenly the doorbell rings.

In front of the door stands a young human girl with a bag who introduces herself to Centorea and Mero as Ren Kunanzuki and explains that she is part of Rachnera's original host family. Surprised, Centorea asks Ren if she is alone as she expected Ren to come with her whole family. Deeply ashamed, Ren tells her that her family wanted her to come on behalf of them because she was the reason that Rachnera left. Unsure about this emotional outburst, Centorea tries to calm Ren down and tells her, while she explains to Ren that the master of the house (Kimihito) is not in, that she better come in first because that's not something they may quickly discuss on the porch.

Papi happily greets Ren in the hallway, but asks her what was her name again, which she immediately forgets. Ren introduces herself to Papi again, who then asks her her name again, while Centorea notices the bag Ren is carrying. Ren says she brought them some sweets as a gift and hands them the bag. Papi happily accepts the gift, but she then asks Ren what her name is for the third time, because she immediately forgets, much to Ren's confusion. Annoyed, Centorea reprimands Papi for not asking someone their name over and over again when she first meet them.

However, Ren then says, to everyone's confusion, this must be one of the problems with Liminal people. In a kind of passionate enthusiasm, Ren tells Papi to show all her "mentally impairedness" (to Papi's confusion) and assumes that Papi would try to test her if the can put up with her problem. The girl then holds a paper under Papi's nose with her name written on it, says her name again and adds she won't fail this "test".

Confused, Miia wonders what is wrong with Ren and is about to tell her that this isn't really a test, when Centorea suddenly covers her mouth and leads the Lamia away to talk to her privately. In a whisper, Centorea explains to Miia how she heard from Ms Smith that Rachnera's old host family sold her to another person, much to Miia's shock. Centorea admits that she can understand that living with Rachnera may be difficult with the way that she is, but that doesn't mean someone can sell her like that. The Centauride adds that therefore this is a good chance to test Ren to see of she's prepared to take Rachnera in.

Miia hesitates before a agreeing to Centorea, adding that while losing rivals is good for her, it wouldn't feel right if Rachnera had to experience the same drama again. She asks Centorea how they'll test Ren, to which Centorea says they're not going to do anything special and that Ren should just experience their everyday lifestyle with them. So something like cleaning, or laundry or eating, although the last point is met with scepticism.

The scepticism turns out to be justified because, as usual, Miia cooked "something" that looks anything but edible. With a queasy feeling, Centorea wonders how this food can even be called "normal", while Mero says that this is not a problem with Liminal people, but a problem with Miia herself. Deeply outraged and offended, Miia tells Mero to don't call it a "problem". With a apologetic smile, Centorea tells Ren that they better don't partake in this, but turning to Ren, she gets a terrible shock when she sees the girl passed out at the table with a plate of Miia's "something".

Horrified, Centorea wonders if Ren ate it and poisoned herself, although Papi thinks that it looked like the girl passed out from the smell. Depressed, Miia says that this is kind of getting her down a little. Suddenly, to everyone's shock, Ren suddenly starts up, apologizes for her fainting and asks if that's an Extraspecies cultural dish.

Determined and believing that being able to eat something like this is important to her when going to be living together with a Liminal, Ren takes two more spoonfuls of the stew, but also faints briefly two more times in the process. Eventually, Ren puts the plate to her mouth and scoops it all up like a maniac, although Centorea tells the girl in dismay that she needn't have to eat it. Miia is now deeply depressed that everyone thinks her home-cooked food is so terrible.

Just then, Ren accidentally spills some of the stew on her school uniform. While she worries about her seifuku getting stained, no one notices Suu sneaking up on Ren under the table in her blob form. Due to Ren's stained clothes, the Slime pounces on the shocked girl and begins licking her body with her usual tentacle groping. Distraught, Mero tells Centorea that perhaps they should stop this, but Cerea insists that they must watch this a little longer, since the Centauride is of the opinion that if Ren cannot handle this, she also cannot handle Rachnera's bondage.

Ren is now lying on the floor, exhausted from the Slime groping while she asks if this is how Liminals communicate their feelings. She then resolutely rips her uniform off so she's only in her underwear and passionately proclaims that this is exactly the kind of "test" she can handle and that they can "communicate" with each other even more. Ren throws away her skirt and seifuku, which land on Miia. However, since the stained school uniform was what caused Suu to pounce on Ren, the Slime girl now considers Miia as a new target and now groping the Lamia, much to Ren's confusion.

While Kimihito's homestay girls are cleaning Ren's school uniform, Mero temporarily gives the girl one of her gothic lolita dresses. While Mero is of the opinion that the dress looks great on her, Ren is rather unsure and asks if this is traditional Mermaid clothes. Mero denies this and says that it's just the kind of clothes she likes. Embarrassed, Ren pulls the wide skirt of the gothic lolita dress down as her panties are clearly visible.

Suddenly, in another enthusiastic tone, Ren asks Mero that this is surely a test to check if she can endure the fashion tastes and hobbies of Liminal people, much to Mero's confusion. Ren resolutely asserts that she's fine with anything and that she can wear any outfit, no matter how embarrassing it is, even bloomers or a bunny outfit. Shocked, Mero asks what Ren means with "embarrassing", but Centorea and Miia also agree that gothic lolita fashion is kind of embarrassing.

Next, Centorea has a private conversation with Ren in her room, explaining to the girl that not only does Rachnera live with her and the other homestay girls, she is also part of their family. Centorea tells Ren that she knows more about Rachnera than Ren does and that she now will see if Ren and her family are fit to take in Rachnera once again. A little hesitantly, Ren agrees.

Outside the doors of Centorea's room, Miia and Papi watch the conversation, with Miia finding it quite odd seeing a gothic lolita (Ren) in a Japanese-style room, e.g western clothes on top of a Japanese-style seat. Centorea, meanwhile, asks Ren why she and her family chose to abandon Rachnera as a host family, to which Ren hesitantly responds and then guiltily says that it was her fault.

In a flashback, Ren tells how Rachnera tried to climb the ladder to the Kunanzuki family's attic, but notices that the ladder wasn't very sturdy. Ren wanted to help Rachnera and carelessly got a little too close to her. Rachnera slipped her hand off the ladder, accidentally cutting Ren's face with her chitin claws. After this incident, Ren's parents thought it would be impossible for them to live together with Rachnera, and then when Kasegi came to them and claimed that he was a "free agent", Ren's parents sold him the rights to host Rachnera, with Kasegi also giving the family some money in return.

Centorea then asks Ren why she and her family want Rachnera to live with them again and if they plan to sell the Arachne again for money. Ren denies this, dismayed. Centorea then says that if she's being completely honest, she doesn't think that Ren is fit to be with Rachnera. She says that even she herself cannot handle the Arachne and that her bones are on the verge of breaking when Rachnera "plays" with her. Basically, Centorea doesn't think that anyone could have complete control over Rachnera.

As Centorea continues to speak sternly to Ren, Papi turns to Miia and asks if this type of conversation is a stress interview, a type of interview in which the interviewer ridicules the applicant and makes them feel terrible as a kind of hazing. Miia agrees that Centorea is scary right now, although she also notes that Centorea is having this kind of conversation with Ren rather unintentionally, as she's not even meaning to do it to the girl. Meanwhile, Centorea asks Ren if she thinks that she can beat Rachnera, to which Ren says that she won't lose to her. Centorea then wants to asks, perplexed, how Ren won't lose to Rachnera if she can't beat her, but Ren interrupts her by proclaiming, louder and with more emphasis, that she won't lose to Rachnera.

In another sudden burst of fierce determination, Ren loudly proclaims that even if she doesn't win, she still won't lose to Rachnera if she can endure it all forever and that she's prepared to tackle and endure "any kind of test". Unsure by this fierce and almost uncanny determination, Centorea doesn't really know what to say in reply. Ren further proclaims that she will endure this pressure interview and any further "challenge" that comes her way, even the "barn-like smell" of this (Centorea's) room. Deeply shocked and offended by these words, Centorea asks what Ren means with "barn-like smell".

While Papi leads Ren out of the room, Mero tries to calm down Centorea who is still stunned at Ren saying her room has a "barn-like smell". Shaking her head, Miia says what a pain it is that Ren doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut either. After she calmed down a bit but is still shaken, Centorea, embarrassed, asks Miia if her room might actually smell like a barn. Miia then says it's fine since she's "used" to it, to which Centorea, dismayed, asks that her room actually smells.

Meanwhile, Ren asks Suu if Rachnera is in the attic, which the Slime girl confirms. Miia asks what they should do now as nobody was able to stop Ren, with Papi turning to Lala reproachfully. The Dullahan embarrassedly says that it's not that she likes Ren and therefore has no reason to stop her. Centorea agrees with a sight that Ren is truly a rude person, but that she is also truly prepared to take Rachnera on and therefore there is nothing they can say to stop Ren. Papi sadly asks if they'll then let Rachnera go. Centorea isn't worried about this, however, and while Ren and the other homestay girls climb the attic ladder to Rachnera's room, Centorea tells Papi that she doesn't think that Rachnera would go back to the people who sold her for money.

In the attic, however, the girls are in for an unpleasant surprise, as to everyone's shock, Rachnera has actually packed all her belongings into moving boxes and is ready to go. Unbelieving, Miia asks the Arachne if she really wants to go without any resistance at all. However, Rachnera claims that she doesn't really care where she lives and since the paper's all set and in order, so all that's left for her is to follow along. Ren tells Rachnera that she knows what happened before, but is ready to take on this new "test". Rachnera dismissively tells Ren to cram the emotional speech for now, although she does wonder about the gothic lolita dress Ren is wearing.

Rachnera asks Ren about the paperwork, which officially testifies that the Kunanzuki family is her host family again, and Ren hands her the paperwork. Rachnera puts her signature and says they just need the signature of her current host, Kimihito. The other homestay girls stare at the scene in shocked silence, unable to believe that Rachnera is actually leaving them. The next moment, however, they are suddenly startled out of their regid state when Kimihito's voice suddenly rings out from the hallway when he finally comes home. Kimihito says he brought something for everyone, but immediately falls silent as his homestay girls all give him expectant looks.

In the living room, Ren introduces herself to Kimihito and explains that her family is Rachnera's original host family and that they are embarrassed that they sold their rights to host Rachnera to someone else. However, while Ren keeps talking undeterred, Kimihito doesn't seem to be listening to her directly, since he gives each of his homestay girls (strangely except Lala) a coffee that suits the girls' preferences like a soy latte for Centorea and a black coffee for Rachnera. Ren ends her speech by firmly declaring that the Kunanzukis want to grow as a family by overcoming the problems that Rachnera will bring into their life and that they will endure this "challenge".

Kimihito looks at Ren thoughtfully, then says he understands, to which Ren happily perks up, hoping he'll agree to relinquish his rights as host of Rachnera to her. However, Kimihito calmly and directly announces that he refuses. Stunned by this answer, Centorea spits her soy latte at Miia, while Rachnera looks at Kimihito with wide eyes. In disbelief, Ren asks Kimihito if she did something wrong and that she passed all the tests, but Kimihito, annoyed, interrupts her and asks if she's still going on about that. In the background, Suu lunges at Miia again with her tentacle groping as the Lamia is covered with Centorea's soy latte, despite Miia begging her to stop.

Kimihito sternly tells Ren that she keeps calling Rachnera a "problem" and a "challenge", and that she treats her like a hurdle to jump over. He asks Ren if she thinks Rachnera is some quest to gain experience from and angrily adds that's just rude and that he can't let someone like her take charge of Rachnera. After these words, Ren is silent for a while before she suddenly jumps up and announces that she understands and that she will try again from the start. She runs out of the Kurusu house, proclaiming that she'll definitely overcome this challenge. Startled, Mero calls after her that she forgot her school uniform (and dismayed that Ren is still wearing her gothic lolita dress) but Ren doesn't hear her.

At the Kurusu house, Rachnera suddenly has an unusually emotional fit of laughter, seemingly tipsy saying that what Kimihito said to Ren about her was so good to hear. She wraps Kimihito in her spider silk and hugs him lovingly, saying how annoying Ren and her family are and how she hates dealing with annoying subs. Confused by Rachnera's sudden intoxication, Miia wonders if the Arachne drank alcohol, although Centorea said it should have been coffee. The reason for Rachnera's state is that spiders get drunk from caffeine, which is also found in coffee, and due to the spider-like biology of Arachne, caffeine affects them the same way.

As Rachnera cuddles with Kimihito, she becomes more and more honest about her true feelings for him. She lovingly tells him that he doesn't worry about both the little things and big things. She adds that Kimihito just thinks that Liminal girls are "girls with big bodies", and that the reason why it is so easy to get along with him is that for him, everyone's equal and everyone's the same. While Kimihito doesn't know what to say in reply, Rachnera bends down and gently says that she loves that part of him.

The next moment, Rachnera is finally overcome by her drunkenness and falls asleep, still holding Kimihito in her arms. After he breaks free from her embrace, Mero notes with amusement that Rachnera said she didn't really care where she went, but was actually happy to stay at the Kurusu house. Miia comments this with a "hmpf" as she thinks, slightly disappointed, of the missed chance to get rid of one of her rivals.

Suddenly Mero thinks of something else and she asks Miia, Papi, and Centorea if they didn't get letters too, which the three totally forgot about in all the excitement. The three girls open their letters, but the next moment they start screaming in three voices when they see who sent them the letters. Kimihito asks where the letters come from. Miia, Papi and Centorea hesitate before announcing that the mothers of all three of them are coming to visit.

Key Events

 * The daughter of Rachnera's previous host family is introduced, and it's revealed exactly why they sold her.
 * Rachnera was sold because she accidentally slashed Ren with her claws when Ren startled her.
 * It's revealed that Arachnes, like regular spiders, get intoxicated from caffeine.
 * When Rachnera gets drunk from coffee she drank, she openly revealed her true feelings and affection for Kimihito.


 * Miia, Papi and Centorea get letters from their respective mothers, who plan to visit them.
 * Centorea's room apparently smells like a barn.
 * This is odd, because the odors of a horse barn are made up of horse waste, namely decomposing solids, ammonia from the liquids, bedding soiled by the previous two and potential bacteria growth. Cerea obviously uses a toilet, so this statement was probably made for comedic effect.
 * Miia's cooking smells like bug repellent.

Trivia

 * Kimihito is wearing ⑨ with nine T-shirt (Touhou) [Easter Egg].
 * The coffee brand "Stertbooks Coffee" is a parody of the famous real-life coffee brand "Starbucks Coffee."
 * Miia strikes Lelouch's close-up pose from the end of Code Geass' season 1 closing credits in this chapter.