"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The small apartment that the high-school boy lived in was dead silent--notably so with the extreme lack of a certain blue-haired sister and her kitten. The one who had sent them off elsewhere was, of course, Kamijou Touma, the one person sitting in front of his table and staring at his empty wallet. At this point, it may as well have had a fly buzzing out of it--he was
that poor right now. After Kakeru had returned from his disappearance to who-knew-where and with the city still under heavy repair, Leivinia had offered to watch over Index--y'know, just to make sure that something didn't try to up and kidnap her again.
Granted, it had been a fair while since something had actually threatened Index's life, but with the city as hectic as it was, a bit of time away would do her well. It was like a vacation for her!
...
And a vacation for his budget. Or, well, it
would be...
"Well? Do you have any solutions?" the small doll-like figure sitting to the left of his wallet asked the high-schooler, her eyes staring daggers into his soul.
Magic God Othinus. Or, well
former Magic God, to be specific. Her power had been brought to near-nothing following that incident in Denmark, and as punishment for her crimes against the world, she was to live alongside Touma in her new 15-cm-sized body.
...
Or something. There was probably a formal document for him to read or something, but there was no reason why he, a 16-year-old high school student, should have to slog through what would likely be an order the size of a small book.
"...Ah, DAMN IIIIIIIIT!" the spiky-haired boy finally shouted out in exasperation before slamming his fists on the table, causing Othinus to bounce into the air for a moment at the force. "All the food in the fridge went bad, all my money disappeared while we were running for our lives, and the local grocery store isn't getting another shipment for a daaaaay!"
"Don't you have any friends you could borrow from?"
"Well, Tsuchimikado's been missing the last few weeks or something, Aogami's been too busy being... Himself, Komoe-sensei has been really busy with restoration efforts around the city..."
"So, in other words, you're--"
"Yeah, I can't get us any food for a day. Sorry 'bout that."
"Thank god Index and that cat aren't here, then, else you'd be the next thing on her menu."
"Don't even joke about that."
With a heavy sigh to match his heavy heart, Touma slipped his wallet back into his pocket. Othinus, noting the change in behavior, took the chance to grab onto Touma's arm and climb her way onto his shoulder.
"Well, if anything, I oughta throw out all that rotten food. No sense keeping it around any longer," Touma said, standing up from his place at the table and, after taking a deep breath, walked over to the fridge and opened it up. Without a moment's hesitation, the high-schooler deftly tossed everything inside into a plastic trash bag and opened the door outside. Compared to the blazing heat of the city just a few days ago, the cool air now was a much-appreciated change of pace.
It didn't take long for him to toss his trash in... Well, the trash, so that was considerably simple to handle. Just as he was making his way back up, though, Touma realized one very bitter fact.
His door locked from the inside automatically, and he had forgotten his keys when he had left.
"What misfortune..." he lamented, cupping his face in his hands for a moment before the little Magic God on his shoulder began to tug at his ear.
"Touma. Head. Up. You've gotten wrapped up in something strange," she said, pulling at his ear a few more times before the boy finally responded. The strange figure in front of him defied most degrees of logic by his face alone, but to Touma it wasn't
too strange, at least.
Okay, it was still pretty strange, given how something had actually managed to teleport him with Imagine Breaker's effects still active (as far as he knew), but for the moment it seemed as if it'd be the smart thing to shut up and see what this mess was all about.
Or, well, he would have, if some weird little girl that spoke in the third person (vaguely reminiscent of the Sisters, in fact) asked everyone to introdu-
Wait, were those
doll joints?
"...Uh... Right... My name's Kamijou Touma, a high school student at Academy City. This is Othi--wait, hold on, what the heck is going on here?! How--I mean--Wait, what's even going on heeeeere?!"
A peaceful day in the Palace of Earth Spirits, tea steeping and a book she had Orin borrow for her from that Suzunaan store in the Human Village--this was a fine way to spend the day, all things considered. No unruly guests, no obnoxious noises--just her, a drink, and silence.
This was Satori's way of spending this fine spring afternoon, and though it was a tad
mundane in terms of how to live her life, it was far preferable than the chaos that her pets seemed to love subjecting themselves to day in and day out.
"...I certainly hope my sister is doing well..." the youkai mused as the water she had placed the tea leaves in turned a nice shade of light green. Perfect.
Walking over to the chair and desk she had prepared earlier, though, a strange sense of vertigo caught her, causing the youkai girl to nearly fall to the ground. Instinctively closing her eyes and bracing for a fall, Satori found it quite strange that there was no impact for a good few seconds afterwards... Which, given how falling usually worked, wasn't all too common.
The sudden shift from her dim home to the brightly-lit and mostly-artificial locale (along with the uncomfortable chair she now found herself spontaneously seated on) was by no means pleasant. At all. The strange man in front of them who introduced himself as 'The Entertainer' did no better in soothing her anxiety at the spontaneous teleportation to... Wherever this was. To say nothing of the sudden influx of voices blasting inside her head...
"Rather than an introduction, I would rather not leave my tea to cool... Or anyone to worry about my sudden absence," she responded to the suggestion of one girl to have everyone introduce themselves. "You are aware, then, that we have lives to attend to? Or was this all done on a whim to satisfy your own desires?"
She was honestly less worried about the entire situation and more annoyed than anything else. A pleasant day ruined by bright lights and noise. How vexing.
