"So, what kind of Fool did they send to mess up my fun?"
Kallen's right hand clamped down on Sunday's face, her fingers tightening as she forced his whole body back into the café booth.
The cushioned seat let out a muffled groan, and a few feathers burst from the seams and drifted into the air.
Sunday did not resist.
Or rather, the instant he was pinned down, all the strength seemed to drain out of his body. He sank limply into the sofa, without even the will to struggle.
Kallen looked down at him.
At that moment, a subtle change began to ripple across the face that belonged to Sunday.
"You rude brute, let go of Lady Sparkle already!"
That was not Sunday's voice.
It was a sharper, more flippant female voice instead, like a terrible stage actor fumbling her lines and trying to bluff her way through it.
Naturally, Kallen had no intention of letting her off so easily.
She pressed down harder, driving the thing wearing Sunday's skin deeper into the sofa.
"I'll count to three," Kallen said flatly. "One."
"Do you even know who I am?!"
"Two."
"Wait, wait, wait! I was wrong! I was wrong, okay?!"
At last, the expression on that face completely fell apart.
Sunday's features twisted like a crumpled paper mask, and after one final distortion, they reformed into an entirely different face.
Black twin-tails. Pink-violet eyes. And a sheepish grin that hadn't yet been fully retracted.
Kallen recognized her in 0.3 seconds flat.
A Masked Fool. Sparkle.
"My, my, Lady Kallen, you really do have quite the grip," Sparkle said, sprawled across the sofa in a spectacularly undignified position, yet somehow still managing to sound as flippant as ever.
"I wonder... does this count as harassment? Should I scream for help?"
Kallen had finally caught her red-handed, yet she still dared to mouth off?
Without a word, Kallen grabbed the back of Sparkle's collar with her free hand and lifted her up like an unruly cat.
"H-Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?!"
Smack!
The crisp sound rang out through the café.
Kallen's palm landed squarely on Sparkle's backside. The blow was not especially hard, but the sound was loud enough.
Sparkle froze.
Her pretty little face cycled from shock, to utter disbelief, to a kind of shame so vivid it would have impressed a stage performer.
"Y-you actually—"
Smack!
Another one. Kallen remained expressionless.
"What is wrong with you?!" Sparkle cried, rubbing at her reddening rear, genuine irritation rising in her voice. "I was just making a joke! Was that really necessary?!"
But Kallen ignored her completely and continued with her "discipline."
At last, Sparkle broke.
"Help! Help! There's a bully here! A total pervert bullying little girls!"
Her shrill voice exploded through the café, sharp enough to lift the roof.
Kallen could feel the frantic wriggling under her hand now, Sparkle's legs kicking wildly in the air like a cat caught by the scruff.
And yet, no one turned around.
No one looked their way.
The other patrons kept on chatting softly. The barista behind the counter calmly continued making latte art. Even the two girls by the window were still giggling over selfies.
Not a single person noticed the commotion at all.
Naturally, that was Kallen's doing.
With half of the dream's authority already stolen into her hands, something like this was laughably easy.
"What did you do?!" Sparkle bit her lip, tears already glistening at the corners of her eyes.
Not because it hurt.
Because it was humiliating.
She was Lady Sparkle! A proud follower of Aha! And yet here she was, draped over somebody's lap getting spanked?!
If word of this got out, how was she supposed to show her face among the Masked Fools ever again?!
"Just now," Kallen said, finally pausing, "you called this a joke?"
Well, Sparkle had ridden all the way up into her face. There was no way Kallen was letting that slide.
"Y-Yeah!" Sparkle stiffened her neck, trying desperately to preserve the last tatters of her dignity. "I just wanted to see what kind of expression you'd make if I scared you, that's all! Isn't that fun?"
"Fun?"
"Of course it's fun!" Thinking Kallen's tone had softened, Sparkle immediately perked up again, forgetting all about the handprint on her backside. "Think about it—a mighty Emanator of Preservation getting played like a fiddle by a Masked Fool in a café! That script writes itself!"
The more she talked, the more animated she became, apparently forgetting that she was still being held down.
"First I was going to disguise myself as Sunday to test you, then I was going to turn into Robin and see how you reacted, and after that—"
"And after that?" Kallen asked.
"Obviously I was going to record it!" Sparkle said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Material this precious has to be shared with everybody—"
Before she could finish, Kallen flipped her over.
Now Kallen loomed above her, one hand still pinning the back of her neck, thumb resting lightly against her carotid.
"You're called Sparkle, right?" Kallen said.
"W-what of it?" Sparkle's voice was beginning to shake.
"What kind of person do you think I am?"
Sparkle blinked, suddenly at a loss.
She had investigated Kallen for quite a while, sure, but this was still their first real face-to-face encounter.
Still, going by all of Sparkle's glorious life experience, Kallen ought to be the sort who was easy to talk to.
...Probably?
After a pause, Sparkle ventured, "Someone really amazing?"
"And?"
"And... um, you look scary, but deep down you're actually pretty nice?"
"Pretty nice." Kallen repeated the words, a faint smile curving her lips. "Then tell me—when a pretty nice person realizes she's been made a fool of, what does she do?"
Sparkle's face changed immediately.
"You forgive me?"
"Wrong." Kallen leaned down until her lips were almost brushing Sparkle's ear. "A pretty nice person ties the Masked Fool up and hangs her upside down from the tallest clocktower in the Golden Hour, so the whole city can see what happens when you toy with an Emanator of Preservation."
Sparkle's eyes went round as saucers.
"I'm sorry, Lady Kallen! Sparkle was wrong, totally wrong! Please, mighty and magnanimous Lady Kallen, forgive Sparkle!"
The apology came fast, and very sincerely.
With the tears still sparkling at the corners of her eyes and her twin-tails all rumpled from being stuffed into the sofa, she really did look pitiful in a soft, adorable kind of way.
Kallen gazed down at her and said nothing.
Sparkle dared to raise her head a little. Seeing no expression on Kallen's face, she hurried to pile on more.
"Sparkle was just curious, that's all! A major figure like Lady Kallen suddenly showing up in Penacony—of course I couldn't help wanting to make you laugh a little!"
"Make me laugh?"
"Yeah!" Seeing a crack of opportunity, Sparkle lit right up. "To be honest, Sparkle has always deeply revered Preservation. Being able to meet an actual Emanator of Preservation in person? Obviously I got a little overexcited and wanted to get close!"
"Sparkle's a professional, you know! I can absolutely make you laugh!"
She was getting so into her sales pitch that she even tried to wriggle free and demonstrate.
"I can do magic tricks! Tell jokes! I can even—"
Smack.
Another slap.
Sparkle's eyes instantly turned red. "Why did you hit me again?!"
"Because you still haven't told me the truth," Kallen said evenly.
"I am telling the truth!"
"Are you?" Kallen finally released the back of her neck and sat across from her, crossing one leg over the other.
Kallen still remembered this Masked Fool's role in the original plot perfectly clearly.
"So tell me, who sent you?"
Sparkle's eyes darted this way and that. Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again.
"Oh? Not talking, huh? Fine. Just wait."
This time, Kallen stopped wasting words and used the power of Nihility directly.
In an instant, a black-violet miasma surged up and wrapped itself around Sparkle from all sides.
Sparkle's face turned deathly pale.
She recognized that aura the moment she saw it.
Wasn't this woman supposed to be an Emanator of Preservation? Since when was she dual-wielding Nihility too?!
And worse still, Sparkle could clearly sense that this aura carried a contagious quality.
If she really got tainted by this Nihility, she would turn into some shut-in Self-Annihilator.
Lady Sparkle, reduced to some joyless, dead-eyed Nihility wreck?
Absolutely not!
"S-Sorry, Lady Kallen, I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! It was the Stellaron Hunters! They gave me your information and told me to test you!"
"The Stellaron Hunters?"
Kallen's movements paused. The black-violet aura halted just in front of Sparkle's nose.
Sparkle went rigid, hardly even daring to breathe.
"Y-yeah! The Stellaron Hunters!"
"There's this one called Silver Wolf—she gave me a file on you and told me you were a variable that wasn't supposed to exist in Penacony, someone who might disrupt their plan, so she had me come and test you!"
"Oh? Silver Wolf. The hacker?" Kallen raised an eyebrow.
Sparkle nodded frantically. "Y-yes, exactly! That hacker Silver Wolf!"
"She said Sam had already infiltrated Penacony too, and I was supposed to help provide cover in the dream!"
"Sam?"
The black-violet aura at Kallen's fingertips stilled for an instant before slowly retreating back into her palm.
Sparkle collapsed backward in relief, slumping into the sofa and sucking in huge breaths, her bangs soaked with cold sweat.
"Y-yeah. The one in the mech," she said, rubbing the marks on the back of her neck while stealing glances at Kallen's face. "Silver Wolf said the Family has some huge conspiracy going on in Penacony, so Sam came here to investigate, and I was supposed to help out in the dream."
"Oh? So you lot know quite a bit," Kallen said.
"Not me! I really don't!" Sparkle immediately raised both hands in surrender.
"Lady Kallen, I'm just a runner! The Stellaron Hunters are all secretive and weird. Why would they tell some outsider like me the actual core plan?"
Kallen looked a little surprised.
Judging by Sparkle's reaction, she had clearly filed Kallen under heroic righteous character. She was even promising her she would definitely not do anything evil.
Though, to be fair, this time Sparkle was not actually lying.
After all, the bombs she had planted, while seemingly dangerous, would in the end break one layer of Sunday's triple-dream construct during the decisive battle.
Which, looked at that way, really did make this Masked Fool the sort who had come to Penacony to do good deeds.
Thinking that, a small smile finally appeared on Kallen's face.
And then she stared directly at Sparkle.
Even if Sparkle had come here to "do good," Kallen herself was here to do bad things.
And for some reason, a sense of foreboding began to creep up Sparkle's spine.
"...Lady Kallen?" Sparkle called out in a soft, sticky little voice.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 30
I'm Definitely Not the King of 35
After Maxing Out Every Class 35
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