With the sight of Lola dragging Zalroth fresh in her mind, Nini clasped her head and crouched down to her knees in bewilderment. Despite having met the guy before, she still couldn't believe she'd just seen Zalroth in such a situation. She groaned weakly, dropping her hands to her sides while Ano sighed exhaustedly.

"It just doesn't make sense... how can my mental construction of him have been so wrong," Nini uttered, defeat filling her eyes as she shook her head.

"Where you expecting him to be the stoic monster he is on the news?" Tsarina asked cockily while wagging a bat wing at her. But as she continued to tease Nini, Tsarina was soon met by one of Solus' tails, slamming down on her and pressing her down against the tiled ground. The vampire shadow spirit briefly squirmed under the lime kitsune tail, flailing her exposed arms in a vain attempt to escape before she flopped them against the ground with an aggravated huff.

"Don't listen to her, gramps just becomes a complete pushover when kids want something from him, and especially when it's his own kids," Solus stated as he wrapped his lime tail around the pouting Tsarina, ensuring his grasp was tight and giving the girl no chance of escape. Nini feebly raised her head and looked up at Solus with solemn eyes, letting out a low huff as she pushed herself off the ground and onto her feet.

"But still...," Nini uttered, rubbing the side of her head to ease her bewilderment. As Nini went to speak again, Ano sighed before raising a hand and lightly chopped Nini in the back of her head, making the ghosty shibaru utter an eep in pain. She clasped her head with a whimper before saying under her breath, "Fine... I give.".

Ano rolled his eyes as he grabbed the back of Nini's tracksuit.

"To be fair, the only time he's on the news is when reporters catch him fighting uber-strong monsters and never sticks around for long enough for interviews," Ano remarked unamusedly as he walked off, his voice barely audible within the sea of people as he dragged Nini behind him.

Metsu stared at the spot in the crowd where the duo disappeared, her gaze a ticked-off glare.

"There's no need to be so reserved Metsu," Zalroth mentioned cheerfully as he approached, carrying a gleeful Lola on his tails. Metsu huffed indignantly, crossing her arms at the older kitsune's statement while side-eyeing the large box in Lola's limbs and tails' clutches.

"Easy for you to say...," Metsu grumbled, making the kitsune chuckle amusedly while looking to the side. Zalroth couldn't help flickering his eyes between the many citizens in the plaza, focusing his attention, particularly on the vaguely glassy layer over their eyes.

"Oi!" Lola exclaimed angrily. Lola poutfully jumped to her feet and began lightly pounding her fists against her father's back. Despite her attempts to stop him, Lola's attacks only managed to get her father to laugh. While still snickering, Zalroth playfully pleaded for Lola to stop tickling him, which angered Lola further and made her increase the frequency of her punches.

"Ok-ok, I get it, no direct interfering," Zalroth remarked with a smirk forming on his face, "And I suppose I should also leave the influenced people be then?". Pausing mid-punch, Lola narrowed her eyes and frowned at Zalroth.

"That's not what Lola meant!" Lola stated as she pulled at Zalroth's kitsune ears, not getting even a wince from the guy. While vaguely listening to the kitsunes' conversation, Camellia turned to Solus and discreetly leaned towards him.

"I can't tell if Lola wants him to help or not...," Camellia whispered. Solus dragged his slightly baggy eyes in the demon's direction before uttering an exhausted sign.

"Hmnn...agree," Nebula added, her cheeks slightly flushed as her head wobbled. Lola raised her arms and disappointedly gestured to Nebula, pointing directly at her torso area. The group glanced at Nebula, her blush brightening at the sudden shift of attention and babbling out seemingly incomprehensible gibberish. Zalroth intently listened to the spirit's garbled message, his kitsune ears slowly arching sideways as their strength waned.

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"That... seems more down Chronia's alley," Zalroth mentioned meekly. At that moment, Zalroth abruptly disappeared in the blink of an eye, leading Lola to find herself situated on Abigail's kitsune tails. Briefly confused, the young kitsune swiftly clasped her tails, dejected that her mother had got Zalroth and uttered, "At least Mama didn't steal my console.".

It took her a moment, but when it clicked in her mind what she had said to Zalroth, Nebula's entire body lit up like a beacon, a testament to her shame-fuelled embarrassment.

"Did you spill that the suppression crest was damaged during Tsarina and mine's practice?" Solus asked mentally to Nebula.

"No...," Nebula said back.

"Then what?".

"... ... ...".

"Nebi.".

"May have... accidentally said I was... you know," Nebula stated, her voice turning squeakier and squeakier even when using telepathy. Solus lightly nodded in response, not wanting to freak anyone else out by physically reacting like Nebula prior. Solus was stunned, not by Nebula wanting such a thing but by Zalroth having been so flustered from Nebula's outburst that he couldn't tell she was lying.

"... at least it wasn't something dumb like saying she was pregn-". Mid-thought, Solus snapped his head to the sky, followed shortly by Camellia and the others, his eyes turning into a firm scowl. He focused his gaze on a sign, watching the space around it warp and colour-shifting the viewable objects behind it.

Solus scoffed, closing his eyes in disappointment, and Nebula tightened her grip on him. He raised a hand, his palm radiating a daunting glow as he channelled spirit-aligned light mana through it. With a single blast, he fired a concentrated beam of light mana and pierced through the completely transparent object. The transparent creature screeched in pain, its see-through body convulsed and spiked up like soundwaves as the silver jellyfish yokai became visible.

"I woke up early for that?" Solus grumbled unamusedly as he lowered his hand. In opposition to Solus' lax reaction, Camellia watched the yokai in confusion, its movements growing sluggish, before it crumbled away and leaving the glassy-eye civilians to snap back to their senses.

"I wouldn't be so quick to complain when dealing with mind controllers if I were you," Abigail remarked as she walked past while carrying bags upon bags of textile supplies with her tails. Solus rolled his eyes, his demeanour radiating annoyance and displeasure at Inaka putting Nebula in a predicament, especially with the elder spirit's insistence on waking up early to deal with the jellyfish yokai in particular.

"Whatever her reason was had better be good...," Solus uttered. But as he complained, a thought occurred to the guy, Lola's mentioning of her mother and Zalroth's reappearance clicking for him as he held his chin in contemplation.

"...whatever," Solus said as he turned away, deciding he'd let the compulsive sleeper off the hook, knowing how ruthless Lola's mother can be when public safety is involved. Camellia puzzledly looked between the sign and Metsu, who in turn looked to Tsarina and her to Nebula.

"Seems like a step back from the last few encounters we've been in," Camellia remarked slightly nervously, hoping to break the accumulating heavy tension Solus was generating.

"Not that I'm complaining," Metsu grumbled smugly. After breaking free from her confines, Tsarina narrowed her eyes at the catty spirit, small surges of irritation overcoming her as she found Metsu's comment obnoxious.

"We didn't even do anything," Tsarina snapped back, her bat wings flapping aggressively with her growing pouty expression.

"Exactly," Metsu retorted before walking towards Camellia, flicking her tail in such a way to barely graise Tsarina's nose. Tsarina's entire body tensed up in a shiver, her prior grievances for the cat spirit pushed to the side as her newfound drowsiness overtook her. Before she could even form a pair of letters, Tsarina swung forward like a sack of potatoes but was caught by Solus with his telekinesis.

"Let's just go now," Tsarina mumbled before fully conking out, leaving her arms to dangle like noodles as Solus rolled his eyes.

However, the group wouldn't have the chance to leave on their own turns as a spiral of rainbow-coloured mana formed beneath them. Solus and Nebula widened their eyes in shock and minor glee at the portal's emergence. On the other hand, the others didn't get the opportunity to register the situation, plummeting straight into the portal with Solus and Nebula before closing.