Chapter 128: ~Chapter 46~ Part 1

It was just a little after nine in the evening. My room was, unusually enough, lit by the ceiling lamp instead of the customary PC monitor lighting, and while it hurt my eyes a little, it was unfortunately necessary. Why, you might reasonably ask? It was so that Snowy could easily move around while she was taking care of me.

Speaking of which, I let out another soft groan, which made my maid... or little sister… let's go with 'maidster'. Anyhow, it made her twitch in apprehension, but I gestured for her not to mind me, and so after a few seconds she continued to change my bedsheets. In the meantime I pulled the blanket over my shoulders even tighter around me and tried to sit straight on my chair, but my body refused to obey my clear and concise commands, so in the end I had to resign myself to stay hunched over for the time being.

Now, my situation might have required some explanation, and as if on cue, my phone on the computer desk lit up, followed by a jaunty little tune. I was a little startled at first, as I was fairly sure that wasn't my ringtone, but after a few seconds spent rummaging through the messy memory-cabinets of my brain, I remembered that I changed it during my sneaky operation at Labcoat Guy's place and I forgot to change it back. That was one mystery solved.

"Uuu… Aren't you going to pick it up?" Snowy tentatively asked me from beside my bed, and after forcing my addled brain to process the question, I responded with a noncommittal grunt.

"I… guess I should?" I spoke a bit more feebly that I tried to and reached out to the ringing device. After spending an uncomfortably long time fiddling with the screen lock, I read the caller ID, and after taking a deep breath I raised the phone to my ear.

"Hi, Dormouse…"

"Eleanor called me a few minutes ago," my dear assistant cut to the chase without even bothering to greet me. "She said you were sick but refused to stay over."

"It's nothing serious," I responded while trying to put enough strength into my voice to sound in the ballpark of being normal. "I think I just overworked myself a little."

"What did you do?" Judy leveled the question at me with the kind of verbal intensity she only showed through the phone for some reason.

"Oh, you know? Stuff?" My brilliantly descriptive answer obviously didn't sate her curiosity, so after a covert sigh I reluctantly told her, "When I got into Sebastian's toybox, I may have overexerted myself a bit. Apparently mucking around with enchantments is hard on your head-stuffing. Who knew? Well, I didn't until I finished tweaking all his artifacts, and now here we are."

"Was this before or after you called me to tell me about plot devices and otome protagonists?"

"Before that, obviously."

"You didn't make a lot of sense back then."

"Yeah… In retrospect, I was probably a little bit feverish and I just didn't realize it yet. Adrenaline high and stuff."

"So you had a fever. What else?"

"Fatigue, muscle pains, mild nausea, headache, enervation," I rattled off my symptoms in quick succession.

"The first and the last one are the same," Judy told me in her usual monotone, which was made uncanny by the fact that she usually wasn't so flat on the phone. "Do you still have a fever?"

"A little."

"Give me numbers."

"Thirty-nine point six."

"Celsius?"

"No, it's obviously Kelvin. Fevers are well known for almost reaching absolute zero." There was a long stretch of silence filled with a distinct sense of displeasure coming from the other end of the line, so I hastily cleared my throat and added, "Sorry, I'm kinda snappy because I feel sick. What I meant to say was that it was indeed Celsius."

"That's not 'a little' fever," Judy declared, her voice still containing just a smidgen of disapproval. "I'm going over."

At first I could only blink in surprise in the face of my girlfriend's categorical declaration, but once I overcame the initial shock, I hurriedly told her, "Wait, Dormouse! There is no need for you to come over this late."

"You are obviously sick, so I am going."

"For what? I told you I just overexerted myself a little, so it's not something you can help with, and Snowy is already servicing me enough as is. I don't need…" It was only at this point that I realized I let an uncomfortable and equally unnecessary detail slip out of my mouth, so I immediately clamped it shut even if it was too late for that.

"She is 'servicing' you," Judy stated a little incredulously, and since the cat was already out of the bag, I decided to just tell her what's going on, if for nothing else than to get ahead of any future misunderstandings.

"Yeah. She is dressed in her maid outfit and she cleaned my room, changed my bed sheets… she even made me chamomile tea! I'm positively pampered right now!" After saying all that I paused for a moment, realizing that I was getting worked up over something silly again, so I took a deep breath and quietly added, "I'm not going to lie; I think she is actually enjoying the situation more than strictly necessary."

"Is she there with you?"

"Not right now, no," I replied while glancing around. "She went downstairs not long after you called. I think she is making some kind of porridge with milk and cinnamon and… Oh, speak of the Abyssal; I think she is coming back."

Snowy entered my room a few short seconds after I said that, and she was carrying a wooden tray I was pretty sure I've never seen in any of my kitchen cupboards. On it sat a medium-sized plate with a milky white porridge in it, topped by a fine layer of brown powder. It actually smelled surprisingly nice.

"Is there something wrong?" my still fairly new little sister questioned me a tiny bit uncomfortably, and I immediately shook my head.

"Nah, Judy was just curious about what you were doing and—"

It was at this point that my dearest assistant interrupted me by pointedly clearing her throat.

"I gather she is in the room now. Can I talk to her?"

"Err… Sure?" I responded and granted her request by gesturing for Snowy to come over. She placed the tray onto the desk next to me, and after some extra gesticulating she gingerly took the phone from my hand.

"Hello?"

She took a step back before she spoke up, so I couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but based on how serious she looked, they much have been discussing something important. Like me.

Jokes aside, I decided to use this opportunity to squirm around a little on my chair in order to get myself into a more comfortable dining position, and once I accomplished that, I picked up the spoon before Snowy would try to feed me as well. I mean, being pampered was nice and all, but there was a limit to everything.

That said, the odd cinnamon-y porridge she made was actually surprisingly good. It had a smoother consistency than I expected, and it was really sweet. As I absentmindedly ate, I also continued to observe this side of the phone conversation, and while it wasn't exactly riveting, the way Snowy kept seriously nodding to whatever Judy was saying was actually a little amusing in its own way.

Before I knew it, I finished up my late-evening meal, and as per the unwritten rules of convenient timing, the conversation on the phone ended right around the same time. I mean, I really hope it was an 'unwritten rule', since if it wasn't, it meant that Judy's interpretation of the narrative was not only true, but it had way too much time on its hands to spend on silly stuff such as conveniently timing completely trivial events like this.

While I was ruminating about that, Snowy carefully handed my phone back to me and I immediately raised it up to my ear again.

"So?"

"We reached an agreement," Judy stated emphatically, and I was just about to ask her about what they agreed upon when she readily provided the answer by telling me, "I won't go over tonight and I will leave you in Neige's care. Listen to everything she says like it's me telling you."

"… Are you my girlfriend or my mother?"

"Your concerned girlfriend who is getting tired of you getting into trouble the moment she takes her eyes off you," she snapped back, and for once I had nothing in return.

"… Got it."

"Good. Now go and rest up. I'll see you the first thing tomorrow morning."

"Okay then. Good night Dormouse." I waited for her to say her goodbyes as well, but then on a whim I added, "I love you."

For some odd reason there was a several seconds long pause on the line, and I was just about to ask if everything was all right when my dear assistant blurted out, "Chief, could you repeat what you just said?"

"I said I love you," I did as I was told, if maybe a little more awkwardly than the first time, resulting in another unnecessarily long bout of silence.

"Chief, I might need to go over after all. I think you might be delirious."

"Oh, ha-ha!" My reply came packaged with an annoyed roll of the eye, which she naturally couldn't see, so I narrated, "Just so you know, I am rolling my eyes so hard they kinda hurt."

"Then stop it."

"I already did," I responded while rubbing my aching ocular organs. "But anyways, what's wrong with me telling my girlfriend I love her? Is this that toxic masculinity thing I keep hearing about?"

"Political joke, abort at once," Judy warned me, and then she explained, "I honestly didn't expect you to say that. Did something happen at Eleanor's place?"

"A few things. I'll tell you in detail tomorrow."

"Did it involve lewding?"

"… I'm pretty sure we both agreed that's not a word, but even if it was, no, it didn't."

"Good." I could totally picture her resolutely nodding to herself as she said that, an image that easily managed to bring a small smile to my tired face.

"Let's try this again: See you tomorrow, Dormouse. Sleep well."

"Good night, Chief," Judy said her farewells and cut the line, and I involuntarily let out a pent up breath when she did so. Cruel as it might have sounded, I felt really exhausted already, so I didn't want her to come over. No matter how much she would try to take care of me, at the end of the day I would probably not be able to keep myself from playing around with her, which was not beneficial to recovery of any kind.

Speaking of which, I turned to my patiently waiting sister and inquired, "So, what exactly did you two agree upon?"

"Judy told me to make sure you don't go anywhere, that you drink plenty of fluids, and that you rest without any disturbance," she told me without the barest hint of reservation.

"That's… surprisingly normal," I mused while deliberately narrowing my eyes in my best impression of a suspicious detective probing a witness. "Are you sure there wasn't anything more specific than that?"

"Uuu…" After letting out a hesitant noise, followed by a short but intense bout of fidgeting, my dear sister ultimately abandoned even the pretense of resistance and she quietly told me, "She said I shouldn't let you meet with the swordswoman."

"Meet with the swo— Hold on!" I exclaimed in a mixture of realization and alarm. "Dammit, I totally forgot that I was supposed to go out hunting with her tonight!"

"You can't!" Snowy declared in turn in a rare moment of steadfast determination, which I, unfortunately, made a little redundant by immediately agreeing with her.

"Of course I can't! I feel like a particularly worn-out washcloth at the moment. I am in no shape to go out and hunt for tiny shape-shifting monsters."

"That's… that's right! So don't even think about it!" Snowy doubled down with what remained of her previous gusto, though instead of a determined and steadfast, by this point she felt more like an angry puppy. An angry puppy in a maid outfit. Who was also my adopted sister. I think if I could squeeze just one more random fetish in there, I could make the whole concept completely collapse on itself, but I couldn't be arsed to do it at the moment.

Nor could I let it show that I wasn't taking her seriously, so I acted reasonably cowed in front of her and told her, "I'm not thinking about it, I swear! I promise I won't even leave the room."

"That's good," Snowy declared as she proudly puffed up her chest, kind of like a puffin, but even cuter. On an unrelated note, why was I so fixated on animal comparisons today? It must have been the fever.

Unfortunately she quickly deflated when she noticed I already ate all the gruel she brought.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" The question inadvertently escaped my mouth. "I obviously didn't need feeding, so I ate it while it was warm."

"Was it good?" my dear sister tentatively asked while twiddling her thumbs, and I couldn't help but exhale sharply at the silliness of her question.

"Of course it was. I wouldn't have eaten it otherwise."

"Are you sure? I thought you are the type who would eat it even if it was bad and tell me it was good so that you wouldn't hurt my feelings."

"What a silly notion," I scoffed at her completely incorrect and borderline slanderous assumptions, but for some reason she only giggled at me as she nimbly packed my empty plate and utensils, no doubt in preparation of heading out and doing something maid-y, like the dishes.

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I decided not to bother her while she worked, so instead I obediently headed over to my bed and sat down on it while making sure that I still had my blanket tightly wrapped around me. I had cranked up the thermostat already, but I still felt cold even then. Fevers suck, amirite?

But putting my body temperature aside, since I had nothing better to do at the moment, I decided to do a Far Sight roll call, just to see if I could catch something important happening. First I leafed through the rest of the posse. Snowy needed no lookover, as she just left the room. Nor did Judy, as we just talked, so I switched my perspective over to Elly, and she was actually studying in her room. How diligent.

Since I was already in the mansion (I wasn't really, but I think you get the point), I decided to glance at Sebastian and the Dracis parents too. The former was having a night sack in the kitchen by the looks of it, so there was nothing to look at, while the latter were… um… they were busy. With the birds and the bees, if you get my meaning. I was no voyeur, so I quickly left and gave them some privacy.

Moving on, I checked Amelia, and to my shock and surprise, she actually wasn't doing paperwork! A real bombshell, I know! As for what she was actually doing, it appeared she was having a discussion with a group of distinctly placeholder-looking older men. I had a hunch they might have been the rumored artificers, if for nothing else than because all of them were wearing those odd jeweler's monocles with multiple lenses strapped to their heads. I think they are called 'loops' or 'loupes' or 'lopez' or something.

No matter what their official name was, the important part is that each one of the balding, bearded men were wearing identical ones either over their eyes or pulled up to their foreheads. I only listened to their conversation in passing, but they were apparently discussing how hard modifying an already placed enchantment was without specialist tools. Yup, that was totally going to bite me in the ass when the class rep's going to inevitably interrogate me about it tomorrow. At least I had advance warning, so now I had a whole night's time to come up with reasonably plausible excuses.

Moving on again, this time I checked on Angie and Josh. To my surprise, the hyperactive Celestial was already in dreamland even though it was barely half-past nine. Maybe that was the secret of her boundless energy? How did the idiom go again? 'Early to bed, early to rise, makes a young girl hyper and nice.' Yeah, that sounds about right.

There was nothing to see there, so it was Josh's turn, and I found him… hunched over his desk and writing a diary? That was unexpected enough to tickle my interest, so I… well, I suppose 'floated over' would be the right term to use, and I took a closer look, and it didn't take me long to realize that what he was writing was nothing as mundane as a common diary.

The visible pages of the standard A4 spiral notebook on his desk, the same kind we used for schoolwork, was almost completely filled with tiny letter interspersed with odd diagrams and arrows pointing every which way. It took me a little while to figure out what all of that was about, but the longer I looked at it, the more it reminded me of those game plans you sometimes see in movies and games about American football (or, as people of culture like to call it, handegg), and then it finally clicked with me: I was looking at battle plans!

Well, okay, maybe not 'plans', but considering some of the circles representing people had our little collection of supernatural misfits' initials in them, I figured Josh was either documenting and analyzing the 'battle' that took place earlier today, or he was making up tactics in advance. Both options were equally surprising, and I had to admit that I didn't think Josh had an interest in this kind of stuff, yet judging by his notes on the sides, he was actually doing an admirably good job at pinpointing the strengths and weaknesses of the people in our group.

Oh, speaking of which, I just noticed that he had notes on me too! It said I was… 'unpredictable'? Well, okay, I can live with that, but what's that under it? 'Shady'!? And 'stingy'? What does that even have to do with combat roles?

If I had a head in my disembodied viewpoint mode, I would have probably shaken it at this point. Anyhow, I decided to leave Josh to whatever he was doing and move on to the bad guys. Well, okay, not all of them were 'bad' or 'guys', but my first target definitely qualified for both, as it was Crowey. He was… catatonic as usual.

I have been wondering about this for a while, but the more time passed, the fewer things seemed to happen around him. I joked about him being catatonic, but in reality he seemed to be in much better shape than he was immediately after our altercation, yet nowadays all he did was eat, sleep, and stare at the ceiling. It got progressively worse to the point where I wondered if whatever underlying system was running this world simply put him on 'low priority' to save resources because he was 'out of sight' at the moment, and I was only half-joking about that.

In short, there was nothing going on with everyone's favorite (sic!) Abyssal, so I promptly moved on to my next target in the form of Labcoat Guy, and to my immediate shock and confusion, I found him not in his hidey-hole, but just in the process of leaving Lord Grandpa's office! My first reaction was to curse out loud for missing such a great opportunity to catch them red-handed, but then I realized something: the old man was actually leading him out! And they were still in front of the door of the study! This was the perfect opportunity to Phase over and rummage through the old man's stuff while he was away! Who knew what kinds of juicy blackmail mater*cough* I mean, vital information I could find there! And it was just a quick jump away, so I… immediately slapped some sense into myself.

"No! Bad brain! No ideas about going outside! Bad!" I whispered under my breath while shaking my head. I just promised Snowy I wouldn't go anywhere, so I obviously wasn't going to teleport away and make her sad. … But then again, this was a rare opportunity with just a small window to exploit it, so maybe… "No! Very bad brain! Stop thinking bad things!"

"Is there a problem?"

I shuddered in surprise and hastily looked around, only to realize Snowy was already back in the room.

"Um… nothing?" I told her a little weakly, hoping that she didn't hear me muttering to myself, but if her awkward expression was any indication, she sure as hell did. But then again, Snowy was often awkward even if there was no weirdo whispering stupid things in the room, so I decided to try to sweep things under the carpet by rapidly switching the topic. For example, to the tray in her hands, so I pointed right at it. "What's that?"

"Ah, this?" My little sister angled the tray in question so I could see it better and told me, "I didn't want to throw this out, so I wanted to ask you if you wanted seconds."

"Well, I am mostly full, but I guess I have space for one more plate."

My reply pleased her more than it had any right to do and she immediately pattered over to my side with an unusual spring in her steps. I found that the situation called for it, so I flashed her my Brotherly Smile™ v0.8, which she also seemed to appreciate, so I figured I could soon take it out of open beta.

While I considered that, she put the second helping onto my lap, tray and all, and then took a step back while continuing to stand ramrod straight and attentive to my every move. It was the most maid-like behavior I have ever seen, and considering that I was actually on first-name basis with an actual, flesh-and-blood chamber-maid, that said something.

"Is it just me, or are you actually enjoying yourself?" I leveled the question that was on the tip of my tongue for a good while at her, and unexpectedly enough she immediately nodded in confirmation.

"My brother never got sick, so I never had the opportunity to take care of someone. I always wanted to try it once. … Am I doing it right?"

"You are doing great," I reassured her with Brotherly Smile™ v.0.8.1 (the difference was in the angle of my head), and she let out a breath of relief.

"That's good. I think I have done everything on the list."

"You have a list?" I was prompted to ask, and she nodded with her usual innocent sincerity.

"Yes. I made chamomile tea, I changed the sheets, I made porridge, I moisturized the air…" She counted each one on her fingers until she came to a stop, paused, and then quietly added, "I hope I didn't forget anything."

"I don't think there is much else you could do," I told her just to keep the conversation going, but then her words actually reminded me of something and I clicked my tongue in frustration. "I, on the other hand, have forgotten something. Give me a minute."

My request slightly startled Snowy, but she dutifully took her 'attentive maid' posture again and waited for me to finish my business. Speaking of which, I quickly Far Glanced over to Labcoat Guy and, regrettably, he was already on his way back to his super-secret mad scientist lair. Peculiarly enough, instead of some kind of oddball transportation method befitting his aesthetics, he was riding a simple family sedan driven by the trigger-happy android (who was actually dressed much more sensibly this time around).

I waited for a little while, just to see if they would drop something relevant to my interests, but since they staunchly refused to discuss anything more riveting than what they would have for dinner. It wasn't particularly riveting to watch, so I was just about to return to my room when I belatedly realized that there was one more elephant in the room I consistently ignored ever since Snowy brought it to my attention.

Oh well, there was no sense in delaying the inevitable, so I decided to just bite the bullet and look into Rinne's whereabouts. In fact, it felt like she was fairly close by, so I quickly found her and… wait. Is that my…?

"Snowy! Open the window, now!"

Okay, I know this is an unexpectedly tense moment and all, but if I may go on a tangent, I wanted to mention one of the many reasons why I (platonically) loved my new little sister. Most people, when they were suddenly yelled at in a situation like this, would have frozen up. Maybe they would quickly glance around, and say something like 'What?', or 'Why?', or even just Okay?', wasting precious seconds in the process.

Not Snowy. The moment I exclaimed, she immediately leaped over to the window and threw it open without a moment of hesitation. It felt so nice to be in the company of someone who followed instructions even under pressure.

That tangent aside, let's get back to the present situation. The window was open, and the cold air coming inside immediately sent a chill down my sweaty back, but at first nothing happened. This time the rules of convenient timing must have been out of lock-step, as the two of us had to stare at the window for several long, awkward seconds before anything happened.

But then, in the span of a blink of an eye, there was a sudden gust of wind, followed by a dark figure soaring through the open window before landing on my floor, rolling forward and then coming to a standing halt about five centimeters away from the opposing wall.

Needless to say, the shady figure was no other than everyone's least favorite monster huntress, who then proceeded to spend several seconds staring at the wall right in front of her nose, as if in a trance.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" I burst out at last, making the other people in the room jolt in surprise.

Rinne turned on her heel on the spot and looked at me with a neutral, almost disinterested expression.

"I have found you, Leonard of the clan Dunning," she stated as she took a step forward, and I only just noticed that she had her weapon drawn. In an uncharacteristic display of common sense, she followed the way my eyes were pointing, and after she let out a noncommittal grunt she immediately re-wrapped her weapon, after which she forcefully cleared her throat and told me, "Good evening," with a straight face.

"Don't you 'good evening' me!" I exclaimed again while wildly gesturing towards the still open window. "What the hell were you doing flying through the air towards my room?!"

"I used a combination of shunpo and kage no—"

"I didn't ask 'how' you did it! I asked you why!"

"Oh." My unwanted guest let out a disappointed noised before she answered, "Since you didn't come to participate in the hunt, I resolved myself to seek you out myself. Upon my arrival, I found your house's entrance warded by some form of omyodo, so I concluded that if I wished to employ your assistance in the efficacious slaughtering of the creatures of the underworld, I must enter into your lodge by other means." At this time she glanced down at her sword, nodded to herself, and only then did she turn back to me. "Onikiri wishes to know why you have sealed off the main entrance of your lodge."

"Because someone broke down my door and destroyed my furniture a few days ago," I snapped back at her, but she once again proved her complete lack of self-awareness by giving me a shallow nod in return.

"So it was to prevent the spawn of the underworld infiltrating your territory again. I understand. Very sensible of you. Even Onikiri agrees, and she says even a dead timekeeper tells the correct time twice." She paused, again, and after silently wrinkling her brows for a while she added, "I do not understand how a dead person who keeps the time can say anything, but Onikiri is wise, so she must be correct."

I opened my mouth to respond, but I simply couldn't find the words to adequately describe the way I felt about her answer, so instead I just closed it again and proceeded to rub my temple in exasperation. In the meantime Rinne looked around the room and finally noticed Snowy.

"Who is that?" she asked me with the bluntness of an ACME anvil dropped on a roadrunner by a coyote.

"She is my sister. Her name is Snowy," I told her more or less on autopilot, and my flying home invader immediately stepped up to her and looked her over from head to toe.

"Uuu… Hello?" my sister awkwardly greeted her, but the creepy huntress completely ignored her in favor of continuing being creepy. At last, after a couple of tense seconds, she turned back to me.

"She has a funny name," she stated with an odd smile that was neither genuine nor one of her slasher grins. "Onikiri says she also likes her clothes. We might like her."

"That's odd, but I am still happy to hear it."

"Are we also taking her with us into the blackest night to quench our thirst for the hunt by the blood-drenched cadavers of our prey?"

"No."

My categorical denial apparently took her aback for a moment, but then she quickly shrugged it off and stated, "In that case, let us embark on the warpath on our own!"

"No," I repeated again, in the exact same manner.

That stopped her on her tracks for a bit longer than just a moment, but she bounced back all the same with a disappointed, almost whiny "Whyyy? Do you not want to shed the crimson essence of the monsters that lurk in the deep dark corners of the city with me anymore? Was Onikiri right about you? Are you really a male version of a small female dog?"

"Would you please stay silent for a moment?" I asked her, though considering I was already running a deficit on my available fucks to give, my voice was considerably more commanding than I originally intended. "I can't go with you because I am sick. I cannot hunt for tiny chimeras like this."

"Sick, you say?" Rinne's expression suddenly changed into a curious one and she extended a gloved hand towards my face, stopping about a finger's width away from my forehead.

"… What are you doing?"

"I'm affirming your justification by examining whether you have a feverous condition," she replied while lightly waving her hand in front of my face again.

"… So?"

"I can't say I feel anything."

"Maybe… you should take the gloves off?" Snowy weakly interjected from the sidelines, and Rinne grunted in approval.

"The little sister is right. I am became error." Saying so, she flung her sword over her shoulder and began to take off her glove, but then she abruptly paused halfway, glanced between the two of us and added, "Onikiri suspects that you two might be working in nefarious tandem for the sake of tricking me into touching your disgusting manflesh with my tender fingers to satisfy your depraved hand fetishism." There was a long, incongruous beat of silence in the room, during which she cocked her head to the side in a display that might have even been cute if it was anyone else, after which she asked, "Are you?"

"Obviously not." My barely restrained indignation might have bled through my words a little, as she took them at face value without any further malarkey and she gingerly touched my forehead with her fingertips.

"It appears you indeed possess a feverous constitution," she commented on my state while she quickly put her glove back on. "It must be a sickness of the most vile variety to cause harm to one such as you."

"I don't know about that," I stated after a dog-tired sigh. "I'm pretty sure I just accidentally overworked myself."

"What an unbecomingly silly notion," the annoying huntress honest to goddess scoffed at me. "The obviousness of the fact that you have unknowingly fallen victim to the malicious machinations of the vile denizens of the underworld is downright blinding."

"Is it?"

"Certainly," she responded in the company of a huge nod before, for some reason, she turned to Snowy and told her, "Pay attention, little sister! Your older brother was most likely poisoned by the abhorrent dwellers of the underworld. It must be part of yet another wicked plan to stop us from clearing their filthy existence out of this land by righteous slaughter. Were they to attack now, it will fall upon your shoulders to protect your kin! Are you prepared?"

"Uuu…" Snowy was completely overwhelmed by Rinne's fervor and she was sending me pleading glances for help, so I gestured for her to just agree with whatever she says. "Y-yes?"

"Good." After affirming her answer, my unwelcome guest faced me again and told me, "They must be waiting for you weaken even further and then slay you when you are most vulnerable. But fret not! I shall find them and strike them down as they approach, pain the city streets in the red of roses with their blood! Rest in peace knowing that even if the venom of their hidden blades may cut the thread of your life short, Onikiri and I will give them a death to remember in kind."

"How are they supposed to remember something if you…?" I wanted to ask her, but before I could finish, Rinne took a running start and dived right out through the window without saying anything else, leaving behind the two of us and a decidedly confounded silence.

At long last it was Snowy who broke the ice by awkwardly pointing at the still open window and asking, "Was… that really the monster hunter?" I confirmed the obvious with a nod. "She is rather… odd."

"That is by far the most diplomatic way you could have described how balls to the wall cuckoo for cocoa puffs she is."

"If you say so…" my sister muttered under her breath, but then she looked me in the eye before asking her next question, "What do we do now?"

"Well, there are a couple of things to consider," I mused as I glanced at my barely lukewarm food, but at the end of the day I simply stated, "I think we can both agree the most important thing at the moment would be to ward the windows..."

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