In the middle of the day, the cafeteria was filled to the brim with students from various year groups and the disharmony of their clashing discussions drowned out the banter at Nini's table. With a deadpan look to rival a rattled skeleton, Nini glared directly at Ano as he stared at the novel in his possession, using it to obscure his face from Nini in particular.

"You wanna run that by me again?" Nini asked in a competitively defensive manner, clutching at her creme puff with such vigour one would think it was about to be stolen. Ano sighed disparagingly, sharply raising his novel over his head before shutting it with a musical clap.

"As I have said thrice already, I overheard the Shogun and the Headmaster mention something about having a food fair at the end of the next school week," Ano explained unamusedly while giving Nini a disappointed stare mirroring the intensity she stared at him.

"Oh... thought you said you wanted my food," Nini uttered before placing her creme puff in her mouth. Ano's scoffed at the notion, reopening his novel before continuing from where he left off.

"I'd prefer not, partaking in an action which would lead to getting fat is far from-". With a slick flick of Nini's wrist, Ano's snarky remark was swiftly cut off by receiving a barrage of creme puffs to the face, followed by them sliding down his face and platting against the table.

"How mature," Ano grumbled through the frosting covering his face, his voice muffled by the popping of the frosting. As he raised a hand to his face, a small pale transparent turquoise hand popped up from the side of the table and offered a handkerchief to Ano.

"Appreciated Avol," Ano said before retrieving the handkerchiefs from his spirit partner and wiping the frosting off his face.

(Avol is a short seven-year-old humanoid with goat features and a green coloured spirit pact mark [a triangle-shaped mark with a bell inside it] on the right side of his chest; he has short scruffy black hair, dark lavender eyes, pale transparent turquoise skin, four large creme-coloured goat horns, and one large fluffy black goat tail)

(Avol is wearing a black butler suit and a knee-low dark lavender feather scarf)

Avol nodded, his posture prim and proper as he bowed to Ano before turning into pure orange spirit energy and phased into Ano. Nini narrowed her eyes, her mind filling with the image of two Ns with one in a maid uniform and the other a butler uniform. As she started to lean towards liking the maid option, a spirit energy silhouette of N appeared beside Nini's head and angrily murmured under his breath.

"For the last time, I will not be doing any roleplaying, not even if the school coincidentally made it more likely to happen now," N's wavey voice stated before his spirit energy silhouette fizzled away. As the brief chaos on the table died down, Moxiloph raised her gaze from her seared steak briefly before returning to eating it.

"And knowing those goblin sisters, those chances are almost certain for all you short people," Moxiloph remarked, snickering slightly to herself in the knowledge she'd be safe from the twin's antics. While the smaller members of Nini's table wallowed at the prospect of the dreaded maid outfit, a dishevelled Gale could be seen being dragged by the Linyorath twins past the cafeteria window, their sinisterly giddy grins sending shivers through Nini and N.

On another table, Lumina, Camellia, and Erinabeth watched the dying down chaos of Nini's table with each of their demeanours being starkly different from each other; unamused, confused, and amused respectively. Swirling her iced strawberry smoothie cup in her hand, Camellia mulled over the potential people joining the Linyorath sisters' food stand.

"What are the chances they'll try and get Nebula in on their food stand?" Camellia asked, cheekily giggling at the amusing mental image of Solus getting jealous like a defensive cartoon character at people seeing Nebula in a maid dress.

"I suggest you replace that mental image you got there with a hospital," Lumina remarked, causing Camellia's mental image of rows of students to be replaced by piles of their battered bodies beneath a furious Solus with blazing eyes.

"He wouldn't do that, would he?" Camellia whispered to Lumina while sparsely glancing around to check for any ease droppers.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"As a kid, he tried to fight grandfather because he complimented Nebula's drawing," Lumina responded in a snarky manner while playfully waving her hand at the now-flabbergasted Camellia to back up from her.

After their final class and leaving the academy grounds, Solus clasped his face, lazily covering his baggy eyes. He groaned in agitation from feeling Camellia's bubbly eyes staring at the back of his head and sending ripples of unease through him as Camellia increased the intensity.

"Nebula would never!" Nebula exclaimed in lowercase, aggressively crossing and swiping her arms around as her face turned redder and redder. At the sight of everyone staring at her, Nebula's voice became higher and squeakier like a mouse; continuing to deny the question, Nebula tried to cross her arms over her chest but failed as Camellia continued questioning Nebula with her eyes.

"But wouldn't you look great in one, especially a gothic Victorian one?" Camellia asked. As she imagined the perfect maid attire for Nebula, Camellia couldn't help herself from showing a faint smirk, leading Nebula to huff angrily and dive into Solus' tails to hide from view. Camellia, Metsu, and Oshi gathered around the spot Nebula sunk into, ogling the messed up section of Solus' tail whilst the spirits commented on Nebula's energy signature completely vanishing.

Solus briefly clasped his forehead, itching the base of his horns, before dropping his hand to his side and inadvertently head-patting Abigail. Realizing his error, Solus attempted to remove his hand before things got awkward but received opposition when Abigail grabbed his hand with both of hers.

"Not so fast, let me indulge in this a little longer, for inspiration of course," Abigail muttered as she lightly squeezed her fingers against the back of Solus' hand. Her wriggly finger movements sent ripples of discomfort through the other girls, itching their primal disgust of all things creepy and crawly.

As Abigail continued moving her fingers in a scuttling manner and the others grew even more freaked out by it, all the girls quickly skedaddled like frightened children and booked it down the street, leaving Solus alone with the preoccupied Abigail. After a few seconds and getting her fill of self-imposed affection, Abigail begrudgingly released her grip on Solus and allowed him to retract his hand.

"Happy now?" Solus asked, starting to walk again before Abigail could even respond. Abigail closed her eyes and massaged her head, basking in the tingling sensation in her brain as it kicked itself into overdrive.

"I just got a cool idea for... a... sword?" Abigail said, her voice trailing off as she noticed Solus was gone. She awkwardly chuckled while rubbing the back of her head, "Guess he didn't like my indulgence back there, heh.". Abigail continued to rub her head, feeling a mild sense of shame for her stunt before walking after the others and narrowly avoiding stepping on the small bundle of cosmic energy mist on the sidewalk.

A little while later, Solus and co arrived back at the Sakamoto residence without further incident or another weird shenanigan occurring. The group dispersed heading off to their respective rooms whilst Solus tossed himself onto the closest sofa in the living room in exhaustion, shortly followed by Tsarina and Oshi fluttering down onto his kitsune tails. Feeling the exhaustion coagulating in his brain, Solus let out a strained exhale and Tsarina meekly lowered her head.

"Sorry, Solus, for little ol' me being so inept," Tsarina said disheartenedly while clutching her hips and doing a pitiful dance at her expense.

"The only inept people are the ones who believe they're bad after only a few attempts," Lumios remarked as he emerged from the hallway, commenting Tsarina's dance was goofy and she instantly immediately stopped. Tsarina crossed her arms and sat herself on Solus' tails before scooting around until facing away from Lumios. Solus lightly exhaled as he pushed himself to an upright sitting position.

"He's not calling you dumb, Tsarina," Solus stated.

"I know...," Tsarina grumbled poutfully. The mouths of Lumios' miruku tendrils curved up into wicked grins while his mouth remained neutral as he propped himself on the kitchen counter.

"So, would you like some pointers?" Lumios offered whilst his miruku tendrils rattled in a wave. Without even thinking it over, Solus and Tsarina sprung up from the sofa like lightning bolts before defiantly raising their fists.

"As if I'd cheat!" Tsarina exclaimed with vigorous pride, "Besides, you'd probably subtly manipulate me into altering the design I made for our scythe!". Solus slowly lowered his hand at hearing Tsarina's remark and turned his head towards her with mild, but unsurprised, disbelief.

"As much as I should be annoyed at your reasoning, I can't say I'd put it past him to do," Solus uttered as he placed a hand on Tsarina's head and ruffled her hair. Tsarina threw her head down to hide her mildly creepy smirk while pretending to swat at Solus' hand to make him stop.

"At this rate, Nebi's going to get jealous with all your head patting, Solus," Tsarina remarked cheekily.

"Speaking of Nebula, Inaka said she had something for her," Lumios said, leading Nebula to partially emerge from one of Solus' kitsune tails, like a fish emerging from the water and eyeing Lumios with enough judgment to put a criminal to death.