"Yaya~" The girl turned away and ignored her.
"My dear Yaya~" She turned away again and ignored her.
"My dearest Yaya~" She still turned away, stubbornly refusing to face her.
"All right, what do I have to do for you to forgive me?" Chu Lian was out of options. When faced with an angry girl, all she could do was compromise, compromise, and compromise some more.
After all, this entire matter had been her fault from the very beginning. Yaya had every reason to be angry. The only thing Chu Lian could do now was find a way to calm her down.
"Yaya is very angry..." The girl, who had remained silent for a long time, finally spoke. Yet her very first sentence made Chu Lian smile bitterly. Yes, she would have been angry too if their positions were reversed.
But what Yaya said next left Chu Lian slightly stunned. The main reason for the girl's anger was not that Chu Lian had thrown her into the summoning space, but something else entirely.
"No matter how Yaya came to be, Yaya is your doll, Chu Lian. Your safety is entirely Yaya's responsibility. But when you were discussing how to deal with the enemy, you threw Yaya into the summoning space because you were worried Yaya would get jealous. Did you ever think about how Yaya would feel?"
"The most important person to Yaya is Chu Lian. Yaya's only reason for existing is to protect Chu Lian. If Chu Lian doesn't care about that, then it means you don't need Yaya anymore, and Yaya... Yaya..." As she continued speaking, her voice gradually choked with sobs.
What was there left to hesitate about? Chu Lian stepped forward. Ignoring the girl's struggles, she pulled Yaya into a face-to-face embrace and gently stroked her long hair, comforting her.
"I've never said that Yaya isn't important. Never. Yaya sees me as the most important person in her life, and I've never ignored how you feel. I never could. This time, I didn't think things through. I handled it badly. It was my fault."
"But Yaya, you must never say that I don't need you. I need you very much. I need you far more than you imagine, so don't cry, okay? You won't look pretty if you do."
A faint pain came from her shoulder. Chu Lian knew Yaya had bitten her. When had this girl learned to bite people?
"It doesn't hurt anymore..." Her words fell just as Yaya released her shoulder from between her lips. The girl drew her head back slightly and looked at her. "Yaya's heart hurt just now, so Chu Lian had to feel some pain too."
"Yes, yes. Your heart hurt." Chu Lian smiled. Yaya's temperament was ultimately still that of a child. She would gradually grow out of it.
At the same time, Chu Lian felt secretly relieved. Fortunately, Yaya had merely become angry this time instead of turning dark and going berserk. Otherwise, Chu Lian had no idea whether she would have been capable of calming her down.
"If you ever exclude Yaya again when it comes to matters involving safety or combat, Yaya will leave your side. Because that kind of Chu Lian doesn't need Yaya. Rather than waiting to be driven away, Yaya would rather leave on her own." Wiping away the tears on her face, the girl spoke softly.
"There won't be a next time. You can rest assured." Chu Lian pursed her lips. This was an easy promise to keep, wasn't it?
Beneath the moon, one girl in white and another in black spoke quietly with each other. Cold moonlight spilled across the rooftop, seemingly adding another layer of chill to the night.
"Time... It's been far too long." The awakened girl sat curled up on the bed with her knees drawn close. Taking out a cloth, she gently wiped down the pair of guns before her, one long and one short, while murmuring words no one else would understand.
"The hunting mission failed. That was within expectations. Otherwise, why would the difficulty of her mission be permanently fixed at the highest level?"
"Even if I'd had the ability to kill her at the time, it still would've been impossible, wouldn't it? After all, there were three people stronger than me watching hungrily from outside. If she hadn't been capable of dealing with me herself, they probably would've intervened already."
"This world is terrifying. Powerful experts are everywhere. I wonder whether this world could withstand it if Judgement ever invaded."
"But all of that concerns the future. Soon, it'll be time for the verdict. Between the Devil Archduke and them, I can only choose one side."
"Tohka, when all of you are resurrected, don't blame me for making you no longer Spirits. Spirits were never supposed to exist in the first place. All of us disappearing is what should have happened."
The place was empty and silent. The girl spoke entirely to herself, with no one but herself to hear.
"Meow~ Sleeping in really is the best." Tina, the nocturnal creature, lazily stretched herself along the edge of one of the building's floors. She had been resting for quite a long time.
A few days ago, after the women who had suddenly appeared at home got into a fight and were punished by the matriarch with cleaning duties, Tina had become completely idle.
There was no busy work, no fighting, and no teasing from her idiot master. Apart from leisurely visiting the stray cats every day and hoping they might eventually be allowed into the house, sleeping was probably the only thing she really did.
Still, whether it was Chu Lian or anyone else, they could all understand her.
Although her combat strength was already quite impressive, she was ultimately still a girl who had not been born for very long—at least by the standards of a spirit cat's life cycle.
What she needed was not endless combat, but a long period of growth. Like every race born with an exceptional bloodline, time itself was the best means for them to become stronger.
Most of the time, fighting was merely an interesting diversion in life. Resting, slacking off, and sleeping were their true nature. Only after reaching a certain stage of growth would they need to venture outside and gain experience.
And so Tina, who was still in her childhood stage, had more or less been subjected to intentional and unintentional "neglect play" by everyone. It was certainly an amusing situation.
"Master said that once the special space is finished in a few days, they'll be allowed inside. Mm, but only cats with spirituality can come. After all, if they can't develop spirituality, that means they won't be able to grow. In that case, rather than keeping them here, it would be better to have other families adopt them and let them live out ordinary lives."
Covering her mouth with a paw as she yawned, Tina looked up at the moon and recalled what she had heard today. Tonight, they were fighting a boss. Everyone was to assemble immediately.
"It's already almost time to fight the boss? That was fast." With a light leap over the wall, Tina transformed into a little twin-tailed maid and darted upward. She wanted to wait on the rooftop for everyone else to arrive.
"Challenging a Heaven Rank powerhouse... Just how insane are we supposed to be? But I can barely contain myself anymore. Fighting someone strong is what I crave most..." Hiyori sat in an open space inside Kurosaki Satsuki's room, running her hand over Xuanlong Xiaoyue. Looking at the cold reflection along its surface, she could not suppress her excitement.
"It's dangerous. Be careful." The white-haired girl remained as taciturn as ever, but she also strongly approved of Chu Lian's proposal. So what if their opponent was a Heaven Rank powerhouse? If one person could not beat him, couldn't an entire group fight him together? Without his aura and without magic protecting him, she believed her weapon would be capable of harming the Devil Archduke.
"Hmph. Those filthy creatures from Hell already irritated me to death last time. This time, it's about time their boss learned what the wrath of an Umbral Knight feels like." It was common knowledge that the undead and Hell had never gotten along, and Umbral Knights in particular despised demons with a passion. They hated them even more than those disgusting zombies of their own kind.
"Don't get careless." Kurosaki Satsuki knew those words were little more than a token warning. Hiyori ultimately had the same temperament as her. Once the fighting actually began, she would throw all caution aside. Yet that was precisely why the two of them got along so well, and why Hiyori was willing to follow her.
"The moon tonight feels a little cold." When Inori opened her eyes, the girl beside her had already left, just as expected. Only Chu Chu remained on the other side.
Her wine-red eyes gazed at the moon in the sky. Inori's mood was faintly soft and tranquil.
Soon, there would be another battle, though whether it would become a brutal fight or a farce remained unknown. In truth, she quite enjoyed her current leisurely life.
With Mana and Eve accompanying her inside her mind and Chu Lian beside her, the girl who was gradually rediscovering her humanity did not particularly desire a turbulent, spectacular life.
Of course, if Chu Lian wanted such a life, then Inori would accompany her through it. That was the vow she had made back then, and it was something she would continue doing now.
"Lian..." Murmuring that person's name, Inori rose and straightened her clothes before walking out the door. She needed to head to the rooftop as well. It was the most open area, yet also the most secluded, and it was still part of their home. If anything went wrong, it would be extremely convenient for Li Mingxue to intervene and rescue them instantly.
They might be reckless, but everything they did was built upon the premise of their own absolute safety. None of them were fools. Most people who treated others like fools were already dead.
"Why do I have to act again? There's obviously no need for this. Just let that woman appear." Eve's complaining voice had never stopped. Once she exhausted her soul power, she would have to enter a lengthy period of dormancy. She had been perfectly content simply observing this world, yet now she had to go through something so unnecessary. Her mood could hardly have been worse.
"Just let her fool around. Haven't we always indulged her anyway?" Mana was far calmer. What she said was indeed true. After all, whatever Chu Lian did, they were the ones indulging her. Otherwise, Chu Lian would never disregard their opinions and go through with those things.
"That's true, but you're not the ones whose power is being drained, so of course you don't care. If someone gave me a body, I'm confident I could reach the Transcendence Realm. Seriously, I was originally at the Transcendence Realm myself, but after merging, I'm not anymore. How frustrating."
Eve actually wanted a body now? It seemed Mana's earlier words had affected her quite deeply. But thinking about it, that was only natural. The longer they spent together and the more familiar they became with one another, the more they wanted to appear in their true bodies.
Presumably, the girl who had always remained inside Chu Lian's sea of spiritual consciousness would soon start thinking the same way. When that happened, Chu Lian would have plenty to keep her busy. Still, this kind of happy problem was probably something she would gladly welcome.
"Hm? Everyone went out?" Chu Chu was the last to wake. Whenever she was beside her big sister, she only needed to breathe in her scent to easily fall into a deep sleep. Since no one had awakened her, she had slept until now.
She sat up and checked the time. It was almost time for everyone to assemble. Stretching lazily, she climbed out of bed, slipped on her little boots, and headed outside after the others.
"A Devil Archduke who uses magic? Sounds interesting..." Compared to fighting a boss, Chu Chu was far more interested in watching someone else use magic and extracting whatever she needed from it.
One girl after another gathered on the rooftop. When Kurumi Tokisaki was the last to step onto it, battle was on the verge of erupting...