"Which one do you think will look better this cat or this cat?" Abigail asked in a huff, bringing the two most obnoxiously similar cat plushies to Forge's face. Turning away from the plushies with the only difference between them being one wearing a bowtie, Forge rigidly swivelled her floating body away from her user, looking at the mountain of practically identical cat plushies with disdain as she wondered how her user didn't realise she and Abigail share the same preference given Forge is nothing more than a manifestation of Abigail's Azure Ability.
A little bit outside the cat plushie store, Solus remained led against the store's window, his eyes firmly shut in solemn silence as he focused all his attention on monitoring the ambient spirited chakra levels.
"Now?" Nebula asked her voice no less energetic and erratic than the last seventy times she asked the question with the frequency of them shortening after Solus stopped responding after the fifty-seventh one. Begrudgingly breaking his silence, Solus sighed aggressively inadvertently shulking his shoulders as he realised he wouldn't get anywhere if Nebula were left as she was.
"No funny business until the yokai appears, got it," Solus demanded, conjuring a gleeful squeal from Nebula at the taste of freedom being near. Even to Solus' surprise, Nebula abruptly halted her squealing before replacing it with a meek murmur, and Solus in abstract relief as his body glowed.
In a flash, the duo slit, launching Nebula into the air before she fluttered downwards like a leaf, deflated in both mind and spirit. With her beet-red face on full display, Nebula landed on Solus, locking her legs around his neck as she sat on his shoulders and buried her face in Solus' hair with a pitiful moan.
"I take it the antics will return the moment the yokai forms, ey?" Solus asked smugly, feeling the heavy burden of restraining Nebula's energy being lifted and wanting to get back at her a little by teasing her. Solus remark only served to skyrocket Nebula's shame, causing her to turn fully red and push her head even harder into Solus.
"I didn't know she could change colour," Nini stated teasingly, trotting her way up to Solus with swagger in her step.
"If only it was a visual change," Solus grumbled under his breath as he opened his eyes, flinching and wanting to close them again in frustration upon realising what he said. Nini's amusement swapped to concern, believing Nebila's colouration wasn't caused by embarrassment given Solus' response.
"Oh, is she sick?" Nini asked with a mix of concern and worry on her face as she stopped next to Solus, leaning forward a bit to enter Solus' field of view. Solus shook his head before he pushed himself away from the wall using his kitsune tails and strolled past Nini.
"Saying she's sick is a bit of a stretch but I don't have the energy to get into it right now," Solus muttered, pressing the joints of his thumbs into the spots above his eyes. Nebula quieted her murmuring and tightened her grasp on Solus as the tip of her hair briefly flickered a dark pink, a matching ember of energy flaking off her hair as she rattled her head. With a disinterested roll of her eyes, Nini lightly slapped the back of her hand against Solus' chest, startling Solus slightly as he lowered his hands.
"Look, Solus, I get it, family drama and whatnot, not that I can relate," Nini remarked smugly before tapping Solus' chest once last time, a fair bit firm to make Solus jolt forward. Still soaked head to toe, Tsarina turned her head from Camellia as she controlled the fire magic circle below the spirit duo and slowly dried the duo off, commenting on why Lumios even knew a drying spell.
"Why do you sound so proud? You must be lying," Tsarina whined, the mini jet streams frizzing up her hair mildly while the mass of fur that Metsu had turned into began to overtake Tsarina. Nini uncontrollably grinned at Tsarina's whining, feeling a sense of vindication at being questioned on this particular topic before throwing a hand to her chest with a drum-like bang.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Nope, family life is completely drama-free, one of the many perks of being an only child," Nini said teasingly while patting her chest, frowning as her patting sounded like she was knocking on wood.
"A self-burn, how rare," Ano joked teasingly as he approached the group in ill-fitting clothing for the current climate: consisting of a black shirt, blue jeans, and black fur slippers.
"Only one getting any burns will be you getting frostburn with that get-up," Nini barked back in a pout before Ano swiftly retorted by banging his wrists together, getting a musical ding from the collision and an even bigger pout from Nini. As the Ano continued to press more and more of Nini's buttons without even trying, Solus couldn't shake the feeling something was off, the chances he would run into two people from his class added with Abigail coming here on a whim being too much of a coincidence.
"Ok out with it, why did you come to Palooza Plaza?" Solus asked abruptly to the bickering duo, briefly halting the close-to-breaking brawl. Nini repeatedly blinked at the odd question but as she mulled it over her eyes widened slightly in shock.
"Say... I dunno, I was doing my morning jog and before I knew it I was suddenly seeing those two flying into the river," Nini mentioned while pointing to the orb of Metsu's hair and fur as a frantic Camellia struggled to keep it in check with her hairbrush.
"As for me, I was on my way to Rockie's Gallos to buy the next volumes of the novels I'm reading but I ended up here instead," Ano explained with Nini pointing out he'd have to be an airhead to walk halfway across town and not realise he went the wrong way. Ano didn't deny Nini's insult, mentioning it felt like he was in a daze until getting to the plaza before off-handedly hitting her with a verbal jab by pointing out she seemed to have blacked out.
Her mouth agape, Nini was left starstruck at Ano's remark, wanting to deny it but arched her body back in a slump at realising she didn't notice the gap in her memory with the shock turning to dread as she couldn't handle having it pointed out by Ano.
"Say it isn't so!" Nini whimpered, clasping her head in defiance as N manifested beside her before floating up to Solus. N leaned towards Solus' ear, cupping his hands around his mouth as he whispered to Solus while making sure Nini didn't hear.
"My Plain Text says these two were under the influence of a yokai's ability," N whispered to Solus, inadvertently telling Nebula in the process and making her blushing flare up to a radiating red. Solus shook his head, finding it hard to believe the influence of the yokai at the plaza had so much range with its ability but knowing nothing was off the table as he recalled the stories his mother told him, Lumina, and Nebula about the crazy magical shenanigans his grand father's been through.
"I'd hate to ask...," Solus uttered to N. N defeatedly lowered his head, sending a clear message and confirming Solus' question in one go. Solus deeply exhaled before flicking his eyes with a faint slap, getting the attention of the other spirit-wielders as N disappeared back into Nini.
"Got something to say?" Tsarina asked cheekily, her words muffled from within the mass of Metsu's fur, making it wobble before her head popped out the top of the fur.
"Yeah... it seems a-". Solus held his tongue as he noticed the lost look in her eyes, the line of her sight shooting right past Solus and leading Solus to turn around. With a sense of awestruck weariness, Solus found himself in the same state as he watched the crowd of people part, bestowing the group the view of Lola dragging an amused Zalroth across the ground and towards a gaming store covered in advertisements for a new console.
"Was... that THEE Ten-Tailed-Disaster-Nullifier getting dragged around by a kid?" Nini muttered, gathering enough brain power to form a coherent sentence. With her complexion turning ever so slightly red from the exertion, Lola heaved with all her might, dragging Zalroth a few inches closer towards her goal before Lola collapsed onto her two kitsune tails and let out a burst of strained breath.
"Papa... come on, we're basically there, can't you throw me a bone and walk the rest of the way; I can hear the games calling me," Lola grumbled before adding, "If we take any longer we're going to be in Nephew Solus' way.". The muttering of the crowd only increased, the flashes of the many cameras bombarding the duo increasing in matching amounts as Solus and Co watched the scene from a distance.
"I don't know what's more shocking: that girl being your aunt or that you're related to the number one ranked adventurer in the world," Nini uttered in utter shock, the bizarre revelation crushing her common sense into a bland paste. Solus raised one of his kitsune tails to his face and groaned into it while thinking Nini had no idea how right she was.