1.72: ObliviousI swept my noh-eyes across the wrecked kitchen, taking in the destruction piece by piece.

  The oven was dented deeply… its once stainless-steel face warped like soft cy. The dishwasher door hung open at a crooked angle. The pristine marble isnd was unrecognizable, a shipwreck of shattered stone and splintered wood. Pots and pans y everywhere like the aftermath of a tornado, their polished surfaces dented, scorched, or cracked.

  Every wall, every tile, every inch of counter space bore the scars of Akuchi’s explosion… or maybe the echo of my own consciousness power sshing against Enenra’s deathly presence.

  Everything was charred.

  Everything was broken.

  Except for us.

  Rui stepped close to my side, brushing her shoulder against the side of my chest with the softest, proudest smile.

  “We got it done.”

  I gnced down at her. For a strange moment, she seemed a little taller than she had before… but it hadn’t dawned on me until now. Maybe she had grown a little, not in height but in presence. Her courage suited her. Maybe I had grown too, somewhere in these weeks.

  My mind wandered back to Mitsuhiko’s earlier words:

  “You’ll just have me arrested. But what evidence do you have that would find me guilty in a human court?”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  “What are we going to do with him?” I asked, nodding toward the unconscious, bloody heap of rich-man garbage on the floor. “It’ll look like we attacked him in his own home if we call the police. No one is going to believe us. If we tied him up and left, they would just untie him. And he’s right… even if they arrested him, there’s no court that handles yokai crimes. Although he’s responsible for countless deaths, we have no evidence. Enenra did it all for him, giving him a perfect alibi.”

  Rui shrugged and folded her arms tightly, gring down at him, frowning. But suddenly she smirked with deep satisfaction. “We could give him to Rickey, if he was still alive.”

  “That’s… awfully final, isn’t it?” I ughed weakly, running my fingers through my hair. My scalp tingled oddly… I blinked. Had it grown over these weeks more than I noticed? I shrugged. It was probably a side effect of all the spiritual backsh, or of having my face rewritten from a scroll artifact not five minutes ago.

  “I suppose,” she muttered, chewing her lip. “But he deserves it.”Then she cut me a sharp gre. “Why defend him after everything he did to us?”

  “Because,” I sighed, “I hate him. But you’re supposed to be… well… the jurisdictional organ for yokai matters. There aren’t any elite police forces for this stuff. If you’re the closest thing to ‘the w’…”

  “I’m not,” Rui snapped. “I’m just a small girl. I can’t take on that kind of responsibility.” She looked down at Mitsuhiko bitterly. “We should just settle it here once and for all.”

  “He asked to die,” I murmured, “but I refuse to kill. Ev…” I shook my head. That was from Reiko. I wasn’t responsible for… “...N—Not even him. Isn’t there any way we can punish him without becoming his executioners?”

  Rui didn’t answer.

  Before either of us could speak further, a golden blur dropped through the gaping hole in the ceiling.

  “Natalia-sama!!”

  I ran forward and threw my arms around her neck the second her enormous kitsune form nded. I hugged her tightly, burying my face in her luxurious fur. “I’m so gd you’re okay!”

  She nuzzled me back gently, her warm breath puffing against my cheek. Then her eyes drifted around the ruined kitchen… taking in all the devastation, the scorch marks and the unconscious vilin.

  After a moment, her body began to glow, golden light coiling around her like a soft storm. Air swirled as her giant fox form shrank, fur drawing inward, her posture straightening until, slowly and gracefully, her human body emerged.

  She stood nude for a heartbeat… most likely a slip from sheer exhaustion… before her clothes manifested in a soft shimmer of spiritual light.

  I looked up at her with a pleading expression.

  “What are we going to do with Mitsuhiko?”

  Natalia-sama’s soft ugh broke the tension. She stroked my hair with warm fingers.

  “Well,” she said, “I think you should seal him inside Rui’s scroll.”

  She winked at Rui, who rushed over immediately to join our huggle pile.

  Rui’s lip trembled, but her eyes were steelly.

  “I think we should just drop him off the building,” she muttered, pure fury in her tiny body. “He killed Reiko-chan.”

  Natalia-sama shook her head gently.

  “Your emotions are clouding your judgment,” she said. “Trust me… I wouldn’t mind doing that after what he put us through.” A shadow crossed her eyes. “Especially after he captured us like that. But I’ll settle for imprisonment. We’ve been marked by that tainted scroll he used to capture us. There’s no telling what that means. Regardless, we should leave his fate to the yokai neighborhood council. They can convict and punish him appropriately. If necessary, a Kami-sama can be called to intervene.”

  She pced a firm hand on Rui’s head.

  “For now, be a good girl… and don’t kill him. He deserves at least that much justice.”

  I nodded quickly, beaming.

  Yes.This was Natalia-sama’s wisdom.

  And for the first time since this nightmare began…I felt like we truly had a path forward.

  Rui flushed a deep red as she crouched beside Mitsuhiko’s unconscious body. Her face scrunched in disgust as she rummaged through the pockets of his ruined suit. She looked like she was digging through a biohazard bin.

  After a few moments of pained hesitation, she finally yanked something free.

  Her scroll.

  She held it up triumphantly… and then lifted it above her head.

  The parchment glowed.

  A corona of light enveloped Mitsuhiko’s prone body.

  His eyebrow twitched at the contact.

  Rui grit her teeth and pushed harder. “C’mon… seal! Seal, damn you!”She stomped, frustrated tears stinging her eyes. “Why isn’t it working?!”

  Natalia-sama let out a soft, indulgent sigh.

  “Ah. That one’s my fault.”She gave Rui a warm, motherly smile that practically radiated sunshine.“You don’t have enough spiritual energy to seal a mortal, RuiRui. My bad. If he was a yokai, there wouldn’t have been a problem.”

  Rui blinked. “H-Huh?!”

  Natalia-sama pointed gently. “I have an idea. Susumu, dear… please put your hand on hers. Pour your consciousness power into the scroll. With the both of you, it’ll be done in a blink.”

  She folded her arms thoughtfully.

  “Do you remember how he sealed Reiko’s face in his scroll? It is possible to seal away something human, but that requires the use of spiritual power. That power must be abundant enough to get the job done.”

  Her eyes slid meaningfully toward me.I freaked out.The idea of being trapped inside that scroll made cold sweat bead on my back.

  Natalia-sama continued, her voice calm, almost nostalgic.

  “Hence, a mortal without consciousness energy cannot activate a yōkai-binding artifact when the person using the scroll has no spiritual power of her own.”

  A pang tugged at my chest.Those words carried history. Old wounds. Abuses in long-ago eras.Mitsuhiko wasn’t the first to weaponize yokai for his own ends.He was just hopefully the st remnant of an ugly tradition.

  Natalia-sama saw the sadness on my face and tousled my hair gently, affectionately.

  “It isn’t as bleak as you’re imagining. Yes, there was darkness. But these scrolls also birthed many yokai. Where there is shadow, light eventually follows.”

  Rui looked between us, fidgeting anxiously with the scroll.

  “C-can we please finish this before he wakes up again?” she begged.

  I flushed, nodding and rushed to her side.

  I pced my hand over hers gently.

  Her blush deepened… her eyes widened just a fraction.

  I closed my eyes and focused deeply on Mitsuhiko, on his spirit, on the image of him being locked away like a sketch trapped inside parchment.

  I had seen Reiko-chan’s sealed face before… depicted as a soft, detailed illustration, her eyes closed as though peacefully asleep. I remembered every line of that portrait the moment Rui pressed the shadow-filled scroll against my faceless head.

  “People must turn into sketches when sealed,” I murmured. “I’ll just… picture what he should look like as one.”

  Warm energy surged from deep inside me… more than I realized I still had.

  The light intensified.

  When I opened my eyes, Mitsuhiko’s body shimmered… faded… then dissolved entirely into the radiant glow.

  A soft, almost imperceptible smile tugged at his lips before he vanished.

  I exhaled shakily and staggered backward, lifting my free hand to wipe my brow……but Rui’s grip on our joined hands didn’t let me pull away.

  Her eyes sparkled.

  Full of tears.

  Full of relief.

  They rolled down her cheeks like gss beads catching the light.

  “I-It feels good to finish it… right?” I offered with a weak smile.

  “That’s not it!” Rui shouted. “BAKA!”

  Then she lunged and nuzzled into me.

  I yelped as she bowled me over, pressing her forehead against my chest like a clingy little oni trying to burrow into my very soul.

  Natalia-sama giggled behind her hand.

  “E-ehhhhh?!” I gasped. “D-did you lose your mind?!”

  But Rui kept burrowing, sniffling, shaking, her tears soaking straight through my sentai suit. Her tiny fists clutched my chest as if I might disappear.

  Her warmth made something tighten painfully in my chest.

  I’d never had anyone snuggle against me like this.

  Well… not exactly true.I remembered the rainy night and the morning after… Rui and Ume were curled beside me like two exhausted guardian spirits.… But that felt like a dream.

  …

  This felt completely real.

  Rui breathed in deeply, sighing against my chest.

  I finally relented and gave her a soft, bashful ugh.My face burned.I patted her back.

  “It feels… weird, but if it makes you feel better… I guess it’s fine.”

  Natalia-sama ughed warmly. “Why don’t I go look for—”

  Her sentence was cut off by a sudden explosion of splintering wood.

  Ume burst through the remains of a cabinet, a sweet gremlin reborn, chunks of wood flying from either side of her. Her dress was torn, showing fshes of pale skin beneath soot and powdered marble.

  She leapt at us like a feral vampire-cat and glomped the entire pile of us two… fanged grin first.

  “Whaaaaaaaaaa!”

  Her fangs were still stained with Mitsuhiko’s blood.

  Her expression was terrifyingly frightening……for about half a second.

  Then she blinked and smiled happily, even baring her bloody, adorable, nightmare grin.

  “Something smells good…” she purred, her voice rumbling.Her nose twitched.“Oh my. You’re blushing more than usual, Susumu… Oh… KAMI… you smell even nicer now.”

  She licked her lips in a way that made my soul leave my body.

  “I agree!” Rui chimed, still nuzzling me, still leaking tears, still soaking my suit.

  Natalia-sama sighed dramatically. “Now if Akuchi returns from her apparent death, this moment might actually be perfect.”

  “No! She’s mine!” Rui huffed possessively.

  “Don’t be so greedy, RuiRui-chan!” Ume huffed, tightening her arms around me as if I were a giant plush toy she intended to guard with her life. “She’s my room freshener! Plug her into a socket and she spreads the best fragrances ever! I couldn’t live without this delicious morsel!”

  Wh–what?!

  My brain was severely short-circuiting in exhaustion.

  Before I could process Ume calling Akuchi an air freshener—Another explosion rattled the kitchen.

  “HE’S MIIIIINE!!!”

  It was Akuchi’s voice.

  She emerged from the rubble like a phoenix made of chaos and questionable life choices.

  Her clothes were in tatters… almost strategically, very suspiciously scraps barely concealing her...It was the kind of artful shredding that framed curves, hinted at danger, and seemed scientifically engineered to short-circuit my remaining brain cells.

  Considering she had probably been vapor, fire, or pure spiritual nonsense for the past few minutes… these “clothes” were almost certainly something she consciously reconstructed.

  Which meant she chose this look.

  I blushed so hard I worried I was about to ignite too.

  A bit of nipple was definitely showing.

  What a dirty mind she had!!Or maybe I…

  I tried to cover my face… But my arms wouldn’t move.

  Because they were pinned.

  Not by debris.Not by Mitsuhiko.Not by injuries.

  But by two possessive lolis.

  Rui and Ume were pstered to me, one on each side, fighting over my chest like it was a premium seat at a concert.

  A full-blown snuggle war.

  And now…

  A third combatant entered the arena.

  “Akuchi-chan! I’m gd you’re alright!” Natalia-sama began stepping forward…

  But too te.

  Akuchi shoved her way in with the unhinged enthusiasm of a sentient chaotic plushie… albeit one with dangerously high sexual appeal… muscling Rui and Ume aside to steal her spot on me.

  My lungs colpsed.

  “Uffffffffffffffffff!”My vision dimmed.My soul was threatening to evacuate my body.

  “I–I can’t breathe… I’m going to die!!” I squeaked, foaming at the mouth, a nosebleed geysering up like some tragic harem protagonist in an ecchi anime.

  “Drat you annoying brats!!” Akuchi compined at full volume, despite literally being one of said brats.

  “Please… this is excessive!” Natalia-sama pleaded as the three of them rolled and clung and climbed on me like feral kittens fighting over the World’s Last Warm Lap. “You might really kill—”

  “Fine!” Akuchi decred, frustrated enough to make a decision that chilled me to my core.

  “This spot isn’t taken!”

  She leapt upward with the vertical jump of a rabid squirrel…——… and nded directly on my head… in her too voluptuous form.

  “Ooooooooooooofffff!”

  My entire life fshed before my eyes.

  After a great deal of shrieking, snarling, elbowing, and what I’m pretty sure was a tactical hair-pulling attempt by Ume…Natalia-sama finally peeled all three of them off me.

  When my vision finally returned, Natalia-sama’s sunny, elegant face filled my world. She was princess-carrying me the right way, cradling me with both arms like I weighed nothing.

  I drooled.A little.Possibly a lot.

  Since it was her, I was completely fine with it.

  My brain was still rebooting from Akuchi’s lucha-libre-from-hell routine.Honestly, I was just grateful Akuchi didn’t have enormous male genitalia anymore.I was very gd for it.Imagining if she had was very painful…Getting body-smmed by those tennis balls of doom would have killed me on the spot. At least, that would have been more traumatizing than Reiko’s memories of lying with… EWWWWWWW!!!!

  Actually, come to think of it…Wouldn’t that maneuver have backfired on her too?

  “There, there, you’ll be okay now, dear,” Natalia-sama murmured, stroking my hair with effortless gentleness.

  I’d never been held by a girl like this.

  It took everything in me to not say it… Don’t say it… Don’t say it…

  Don’t say MOMMY!

  This in itself was nearly overwhelming.

  K-kyaaaaa… I’m in heaven…!!

  “Let’s leave now,” Natalia-sama said, still carrying me as if I were a fainting Victorian maiden. “Akuchi, how much energy do you still have?”

  “Enough to transform a few more times,” Akuchi answered sheepishly, giving me a very apologetic look for nearly suffocating me into the afterlife.

  “Good. Given the wealth Mitsuhiko accumuted through his… unethical activities, he must have a helicopter pad.” Natalia-sama shifted me in her arms. I instinctively snuggled closer. She didn’t push me away. If anything, she wrapped her arm around me a bit tighter.

  “Akuchi, once we exit the building, transform into a helicopter and fly us home. We’ll rest at my pce.”

  “T-there is one…” I murmured drowsily, cheek squished against Natalia-sama’s soft chest. “If we go to the elevator bank… there’s an H button. It takes you to the rooftop. There’s a garden up there. It’s kinda nice up there. Even though Mitsu was a total asshole… His pce was kind of the only silver lining…”

  Natalia-sama paused and blinked at me like I’d said something unexpectedly adorable.Then she smiled warmly and stroked my head again.

  “Thank you, Re... Susumu.”

  I barely registered anything after that.

  We left the building with Natalia-sama supporting me, Ume keeping watch, Rui clutching her scroll, Akuchi clicking dramatically as she walked.

  When we reached the rooftop, cool night air washed over us.Akuchi immediately transformed into a helicopter… sleek, sturdy, and definitely overdesigned for dramatic fir. She struck me as the kind of girl who would give even her vehicle form eyeliner.

  We boarded her.The rotors spun up, a thunderous whirl shaking the rooftop.Natalia-sama eased me into the collective p-pile of my friends.

  And the moment the helicopter lifted off…… the moment the city lights became a shimmering mosaic far below…… the moment Rui’s small hand slipped into mine…

  …I finally let go.

  My consciousness dimmed.The engine’s thrum faded.And I fell asleep in the warmth of the people who had become my strange, chaotic, ridiculous, irrepceable family.

  As the darkness of sleep wrapped around me, one final thought drifted through my mind…

  Everything about my life has changed forever.Change is terrifying.But sometimes… even the strangest ones are for the best.

  “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” --- Albert Einstein

  Relwing