Soothing the Spirits
"Hmph."
"Seiren?"
"Bad kids get a hmph!"
"...Tch."
No helping it, then.
I asked the clerk for a can and brought it over.
Crack!
"...!"
Seiren's ears pricked at the sound of the lid peeling back. She kept her head turned away, pretending not to care, but the fin trembling at her side gave her away completely.
"Seiren. Look at me?"
"...Still hmph."
One wasn't enough, was it.
I went back to the clerk and came away with more cans.
Crack.
"...H-hmph!"
One more.
"Nngh... u-uuuh...!"
And the last one. A light dusting of dried anchovy powder over the top, and—
"...Still hmph, though...!"
"Ohhh?"
She was holding out. She was actually holding out?
This wasn't the Seiren I knew. Normally, by this point, she'd accept with a halfhearted show of reluctance and move on.
I sat still and watched her. Seiren flicked her fins and thumped the floor with them.
"Seiren likes good kids."
"I'd say this counts as pretty good, doesn't it?"
Just this much had already run past thirty thousand won. These weren't ordinary cans—they were the expensive kind. And with the anchovy powder on top, they'd be nice and savory...
"...I don't want anything a bad kid gives me."
"A bad kid?"
Why was she suddenly refusing like this?
I turned it over in my head, and at last the answer clicked into place.
"You... don't tell me you thought I'd just brush this off with food?"
"............."
Silence. No answer.
Only then did I understand what Seiren really wanted.
Getting in the water's a bit much, but...
It wasn't summer anymore—autumn was settling in—but I could always ask Seiren to wring the water out of me later.
I stood, peeled off my socks, and stepped into the portable pool.
"....?"
"Seiren."
She glanced at me sidelong. I opened my arms and spoke softly.
"Come here."
"U... uuuuuuuh!!"
"Gwooooooh!!!"
Seiren flung herself at me with both arms wide. She hadn't shrunk herself down the way she usually did—this was her full body, and that massive bulk drove me straight under the water.
"Master! Master, masteeeeer!!"
"Glug—glug—glug!"
I sank. Water poured mercilessly into my ears and nose.
Air. I needed air!
I grabbed for the wall of the tank and tried to haul myself up, but it was useless. Seiren kept thrashing on top of me, and my body only sank deeper.
"Masteeer~~~!"
"...Glug."
Her master was one breath from drowning, and still she nuzzled into my chest like this was the best day of her life. If I'd been an ordinary person instead of an Awakener, the rough affection alone might have finished me off.
Ah... at this rate...
I might actually die.
I tapped her belly with my foot—a clear plea to be let up.
"........."
Hey.
Don't sit there thinking about it. I'm going to die for real.
Looking faintly disappointed, Seiren caught my collar in her mouth and hauled me to the surface.
"I wanted to play a little longer..."
"Pffhah! Cough! Ghk—ngh...!"
Look at the state of me and say that again.
I braced both palms on the rim of the tank and dragged in ragged breaths.
Ah... my head's spinning.
I'd expected it, but it was still brutal. The main culprit was how much she'd grown after becoming an Upper Spirit—more than double her old size. Back when she was mid-rank, I'd been able to manage somehow. Now her whole frame was different.
"A-are you okay...?"
"...Does this look okay to you?"
Harin fretted from the other side of the glass. I waved her off and asked her to bring the bowl of opened cans from earlier.
"Masteeeeer~~~♪"
"Yeah... good for you, I guess."
Seiren rested her face against my knee and started happily munching the cans I'd opened. When I stroked her head on top of that, she finally seemed to forgive me, crooning with pure contentment.
That took care of the biggest problem, more or less.
Golden doggy Ran and the chuuni chirper seem fine enough.
Only one variable left.
I laid a hand on my chest and knocked on the door.
"What is it, im?"
"Want to come out too?"
"...Looking at this body of mine, you're telling me to eat canned junk like that, im?"
"Got it."
She was fine, then. Hecate would make her own demands when she felt like it; I could leave her alone.
I leaned back against the wall and let out a breath. This time Yeonhwa came over.
"You... okay?"
"...Are you actually worried about me?"
"Bullshit. You just looked like you were about to drop dead any second."
"Haaah..."
I pressed both hands down on Seiren's head and answered.
"When something like this throws itself on top of me, how okay do you think I am?"
"...She didn't look this big last time I saw her."
"Yeah, well—there wasn't any water then. And she was dialing her output way down."
"..........."
Yeonhwa looked back and forth between me and Seiren with an odd expression. Around then, Seiren finished the cans and mashed her face into my chest.
"Feeling better now?"
"Yeah! Master's a good kid now!"
"Glad to hear it."
In that case, time to climb out of the tank and—
"...Master."
"...Hey."
Seiren wrapped both arms around me.
"Master... is a good kid... right...?"
".........."
Don't go, that voice said. But if I stayed like this, hypothermia or a waterlogged gut or something else was going to put me under for good.
"Let me rest on your back for a bit."
"Okay! Got it, Master!"
Compromise. What else could I do? The second I said "Yeah, screw that!" and climbed out, I'd have a sulking spirit on my hands with no idea how to soothe her.
I lay back on Seiren's back and stared at the ceiling.
"Haaah...."
A sigh slipped out on its own.
Right now, we were in a pet café.
After we finished the hospital visit, we headed straight into a pet café.
The reason was simple.
Just look at their faces.
Every last spirit looked thoroughly rotten. If we tried to train or run event schedules in that state, an accident was guaranteed the moment we started.
So, to knock their stress down a notch, we picked the pet café as our after-party spot.
And the result:
"You... do you actually like this? You're a complete trash pervert, you know that?"
"Hiss... hiiiiiss... pow♪"
A fire lizard blissfully happy under Yeonhwa's foot.
"Nyaahit...♪ Nyarung... nyaaaa....♪"
"...This is definitely not some weird weed, right?"
An electric cat completely wrecked on catnip.
And then—
"Ojou-sama, this way, please."
"Ren-sama...!"
"Peep...!"
We'd gone to all the trouble of coming to a pet café, and these two were parked in a corner watching anime. At first they'd tried a few different things; eventually they'd just settled into this.
And the real masterpiece? They weren't just watching—
"It's delicious...."
"Peeep...."
Sujin quietly stuffing snacks into her mouth, and an otter next to her chewing on a minnow.
Spirits take after their contractors, sure, but this was something else. It belonged on a freak-show stage.
Still, looking at the relationships... it's not all bad, is it?
This was what happened when both sides knew exactly what the other wanted. Same energy as Yeonhwa's fire lizard, happy to be stepped on.
Which meant, of everyone here, only one person really worried me.
"Instructor... what do I do about Nitro? Her eyes rolled back all of a sudden and she won't move!"
"Leave her. She'll come around on her own. Don't worry about it."
I sat in a chair, toweling my wet hair dry, and spoke.
"Sit over there for a second."
"Huh...?"
"I said sit."
"..........."
Sensing something was off, Jeon Harin quietly took a seat. I looked at her and asked evenly,
"Why do you think I brought you to a pet café?"
"Um... so we could get closer with our spirits...?"
"Right."
She knew. So why had someone who knew done what she did?
"You're supposed to build a better relationship with your contractor first. Pulling out catnip in here—what exactly were you trying to accomplish...."
"Ugh... I-I was still trying something, though...!"
If that "something" was bribing her with catnip, I had no choice but to give her the lowest possible score.
"You're the one who nearly ruined everything spraying Churu around like that, and you're saying this?"
"Augh! B-but still...."
"But still nothing. What if you wreck her personality again—can you handle that?"
"...I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to future you."
Of course it wasn't strange to be drawn toward the easy path when one was right there. But a Spirit Contractor—someone who would walk with their spirit for a lifetime—needed to choose the long, hard road over the easy one in front of them.
Still... yeah.
Browbeating someone who genuinely didn't get it wouldn't produce anything useful.
I laid a hand on my chest and murmured quietly,
"『Ran.』 Go be nice to your little sister for a bit."
"──Woof!"
Electricity gathered with a crackle, and golden doggy Ran appeared. He bolted straight over and shoved a front paw into the face of the electric cat still high on catnip.
"Nyaat?! Shaaaaa!!"
"Woof~~♪"
"N-Nitro?!"
A cat that hated it with every fiber of her being, and a golden doggy happily trailing after her. They ran, they sprinted, and when they naturally drifted back to Harin's side, I settled Ran down.
"When she comes outside, that's when you pounce."
"Woof!"
Ran nodded like he understood. I stroked his head in praise—and suddenly my hair was soaking wet again...?
"...Seiren?"
"Hmph."
"Hey! Are you seriously doing this?!"
"Bad. Kid."
The jealousy was something else. Must have decided today was the day.
I towel-dried my hair again and asked Ran for another favor.
"That's it. Good boy."
"Nyaaaa....!"
"Grr, woof!"
"Huh...?"
Keep prodding the cat, and of course she ended up nestled in Harin's arms. Around then I called Ran back to my side.
"...Nitro?"
"......Meow."
She didn't seem too put off. There were snacks, the lap wasn't bad, and she knew Ran would jump her the second she left—so she settled in.
"I spoon-fed you this far. The rest is on you, got it?"
"Ah.... Yes! Thank you, Instructor!"
Only then did Harin face her spirit the way a real Spirit Contractor should. At this point, she'd figure it out somehow.
If she still can't take it after I've done this much...
She might as well quit being a Spirit Contractor.
I soothed Seiren again and threw a ball around with Ran. Thanks to that, the spirits' moods improved and everyone looked a little more recovered—so it was about time to move on to a proper after-party meal for ourselves.
Which was when—
"Woof!"
"...Yeah."
Maybe it was the long stretch indoors, but golden doggy Ran took off on his own again.
"Kooo...."
"...The forsythias are blooming."
With uncanny timing, I found Nari collapsed on the floor, fast asleep.
And what, exactly, were you doing sleeping out here?