In the earlier hours of the day, the ever-present presence of the snowfall, giving the city its individuality, crawled down to only sparse snowflakes within the confines of a particular section of the city despite the shrouded snow cloud sky persisting, instilling an unusual energy within the area. The resilient snowflakes soldiered on, breaking through the invisible barrier and dived down to the untouched ground, evading the many shopgoers within the plaza before striking the spot before Nebula-Armatized Solus' feet. As he scanned his surroundings, Solus noticed he caught a little girl staring at him puzzledly, who Solus recognised as a regular visitor to the shrine and figured she was the one Lumios mentioned had asked about him and Lumina a few days ago.
"Honestly, the way she phrased it. I was expecting to get at least one day before I had to deal with the yokai," Solus grumbled to himself mentally. He raised a hand to his face and rubbed his eyes in hopes of mitigating his exhaustion, knowing full well it wouldn't but did it regardless as he eyed Camellia through his fingers with silent indifference. In stark contrast to her peers, Camellia excitedly took in her surroundings, her eyes sparkling to overwhelming levels that blinded passersby; she inspected each of the many stores and stalls each owning a singular theme; from food stores with animal-themed food, time period-themed clothes stores, and of course a New York hot dog cart stand.
"I still don't understand why the ground in this city never has any snow," Abigail mentioned, deeply humming as she mulled over many possibilities but simply couldn't come to a single conclusion, despite filling her mind to the brim with her theories. Throwing his hand to his side, Solus turned his focus to Abigail, still focused on theorising, and tapped her on the head with one of his completely dark royal blue kitsune tails, inadvertently getting a mild tremor from Abigail as he startled her.
"H-huh? Eh?" Abigail mumbled, her face lightly flushed from Solus' action before puffing up her cheeks in a pout and swatting at Solus' offending tail.
"I can see why Camellia came with me but why did you tag along?" Solus asked with mild annoyance as Abigail repeatedly threw punches at Solus's kitsune tail which startled her. Momentarily halting her battle with the tail, Abigail raised her head, her pout never leaving her face as she stared down Solus while standing on her tippytoes in a vain effort to intimidate Solus.
"For your info, I'm not a tag along, I just came at the same time as you since I need some supplies for my shop," Abigail explained in a pout, proclaiming she'd be out of Solus' fur before he even finds the yokai. Solus blinked, one of his eyes only half blinking as he couldn't get over the part about her having a shop.
"You mean the pillow fort in the living room?" Tsarina asked, popping her head out of the tail Abigail was clinging to before fluttering her way out and plopping herself on Solus' shoulder. Abigail huffed, deciding Solus wasn't worth the effort of being mad at before Forge appeared behind her, plucked Abigail off the floor like a cat, and hoisted her away into the crowd. Solus rolled his eyes before sighing as he felt Tsarina narrowing her eyes at him with a playful twist in her eyes.
"How come you're still blue?" Tsarina asked. Solus abruptly choked on his breath, finding her question unnecessarily vexing even though she wasn't doing it intentionally. Even if wanted to which he most certainly didn't, Solus knew stating the truth would certainly spell disaster and frantically tried to come up with a lie. But despite his efforts, nothing he thought of seemed like enough, knowing Tsarina would only be emboldened to probe further if his lie was too exaggerated or below mundane; Solus begrudgingly sighed, making Tsarina smugly tilt her head at him.
"Hard... to say. Nebi has been quite quiet since this morning," Solus mumbled, swiftly averting his eyes as his cheeks turned ever so slightly dark royal blue to match his hair, putting on an embarrassed front in hopes of diverting Tsarina's suspicion.
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"Hah, no need to be embarrassed at not having all the answers, buddy," Tsarina said, her voice upbeat as she repeatedly patted Solus on the back in an attempt to comfort him. Solus scoffed at the notion of being embarrassed, throwing up a jazz hand at Tsarina as he told Abigail to hurry up and get her supplies. Placing her hands on her hips, Abigail told him in no certain terms she'd take as long as she'd like, her tone fiercely booming over the surrounding crowd as Forge carried her into a plushie store with exclusively witch-themed plushies.
After getting her fill of her surroundings, especially the floating energy bottles of different sizes and colours, Camellia turned to Solus, her eyes filled with intrigue as Metsu swatted at one of the energy bottles, hoping to capture it for her trinket collection.
"Say, Solus, why can't we just get rid of the spirited chakra in the air before it can form into a yokai?" Camellia asked, the underlying unamused tone in her voice giving away her true intention of wanting to get out of waiting so she could explore the stores at her leisure. From atop Camellia's head, Metsu glared down at her spirit wielder, a dishevelled scowl on her face and mentally condemned Camellia for her atrocious reading comprehension. Sensing Metsu's disapproval of her offer, Camellia sheepishly closed her eyes and mumbled to herself.
"That's like trying to hydrate yourself by breathing," Tsarina explained smugly; however, Tsarina's tone came off a little too condescending for Metsu causing a vein to form on her forehead, finding the audacity for Tsarina of all people to talk down on Camellia unforgivable. Raising her behind and doing a silly wiggle, Metsu sprung from Camellia's head like a ballistic missile and leapt directly for Tsarina, her face stoic with her eyes trained on the vampire spirit.
Metsu blasted past Solus, snagging Tsarina on her way but leaving Zu behind, with a whistle slicing the air, rocketing out of the confines of Palooza Plaza and past Nini in the middle of her morning jog before the two spirits plummeted off the side of the road and crack into the nearby river channel with a loud rippling splash.
The sound of the two spirits squealing at each other, the duo's noises imparted Solus and Camellia with the image of a stylized purple bat and a dark purple cat yelling at each other; the two-spirit wielders sighed in contempt and Solus covered his eyes as his horns began to glow.
"Wished I hadn't said anything," Camellia murmured as the drenched spirits, coated in Solus' telekinetic energy and slap-fighting each other, were floated back from the nearby river channel. Solus flicked his hand to dispel his telekinesis on the spirit duo, followed by the spirits falling to the floor with a wet slap. With the slap rippling through her mind, Camellia uncontrollably puffed up her cheeks to the point they reddened as she violently quivered from holding back her laughter.
"Oh no... don't laugh, Camellia," Camellia spurted out between her words as she covered her mouth, her strength and resolve waning before she completely folded into a fit of laughter at watching Metsu shooting a jet of water out of her mouth, only catching more of the crowd's attention. Raising his hand to his head, Solus defeatedly slumped his shoulders unable to believe those two could and would cause such a scene while on a mission. As he pondered on how to deal with the duo, the unmistakable voice of Nebula rung in Solus' mind only it was significantly more sinister than her usual demeanour as her sinister and sultry giggles made Solus' hair violently bristle.
"Can I come out now, Solzi? I won't cause too much trouble, promises~," Nebula pleaded energetically. Despite pleading, Nebula's playfully nefarious and sultry demeanour made it obnoxiously apparent to Solus that Nebula in-her-current-state had absolutely zero intention of honouring her word, and Solus became even more adamant about keeping Nebula contained in the pair's armatized state.
"As if, I can't have you causing an incident in your current state," Solus responded in his mind, eliciting a cheeky coo from Nebula.
"Oh? But aren't you the one responsible for my current condition after smudging the seal on my back and now you're hiding me away because you're embarrassed ~.". Solus lowered his head, Nebula's relentless coos hammering the inside of his head like a hammer to a vase, the impact of the coos was only elevated from her previous statement. Without much of a retort, Solus grumbled a response and got a confused look from Camellia, bewildered as to what was going on with Solus.