Sisters Who Get Along Well
"...Was I a little too harsh?"
On the way to the training center.
The words slipped out of my mouth unbidden inside the car.
As I stared blankly at the traffic light and whispered, several waves rippled through my chest.
The strongest came from Hecate and Nox.
Seiren and Ran also stirred with fainter ripples.
The only one who showed no reaction at all was the chuunibyou chirper, Shinpung.
Maybe because Shinpung had no connection with Nari whatsoever.
I lightly patted my chest to soothe the spirits.
"Kids. If you want to see me throw up while driving, by all means keep going?"
[[[[───]]]]
Silence from everyone.
The violent surges from before had calmed, yet I could still feel them quietly exchanging opinions.
[....Woof!]
"Yeah. Our golden doggy Ran."
The first to step forward was the golden doggy Ran.
Perhaps because her bond with Nari ran deepest, the others willingly yielded the floor.
[Whine.... whiiine... grrrnnn...!]
"I know, right. I feel the same way for sure."
Ran was saying that Nari had changed too much.
That the Nari of before had never been like this.
That she had no idea what could have transformed her so completely.
The deeper the shared past, the deeper the memories.
Recalling their academy days, Ran kept sending me pitiful, pained whimpers.
Even so—
"She has to overcome it herself. What else can I do? Right?"
[..........]
Ran gave no answer.
Deep down she probably wanted to beg.
But she didn't speak. She couldn't.
There was the matter of priorities, and Ran also knew just how much I had already done for her.
After venting to me a few times, Ran retreated inside once more.
"Then next is...."
[Master.]
"...Seiren."
A voice full of force.
Seiren skipped every flowery phrase and went straight to the point.
[Seiren can sleep with Master too.]
"...Then shall we sleep together tonight?"
[Pets are also required!]
"Do as you like."
She seemed a little sulky over the whole Hecate-and-Nox business.
Those two spirits might be unusually powerful, but Seiren was no spirit to be treated as leftover scraps either.
I promised we would definitely sleep together tonight and soothed her.
"Then that leaves...."
[...You go first.]
[Strange? Earlier you said you'd go first.]
[Because I figured that bitch would pull some weird stunt again.]
[Then shall I go first?]
[No. Just don't speak at all.]
[...That's what she says, Papa ♬]
Nothing to say to that.
How on earth did our Hecate regress into such infantility.
"You're the older sister by rank, so cut her a little slack."
[Older sister... A little sister has to act like a little sister before I can play the big-sister role, no?]
[If the older sister plays her role first, wouldn't the younger one follow?]
[Listen to how she talks. Is that even a spirit?]
[Even if Nox isn't a spirit it doesn't matter. As long as Papa looks only at Nox, nothing is a problem...♪]
[You fucking bitch for real.]
They didn't seem to have anything particular they wanted to say.
Anyway, with Seiren and Ran quieted, the churning in my gut had settled enough to bear.
It's not like listening to me would solve anything anyway.
This was a battle against time, I supposed.
Just as I was about to pull my attention away from the two spirits—
[Papa isn't bad.]
"Huh? Suddenly?"
Nox's single line.
Before I knew it she had materialized and plopped herself onto my lap.
I'd prefer she stop while I'm driving.
"It's fine. Even if there's a traffic accident, Nox will protect you!"
"Filthy reassuring, but who's paying the car-repair bill?"
".........."
With nothing to say she beamed a bright smile and rested her head against my chest.
[Dark gloomy bitch... gloomy bitch.... How can a spirit be like that!]
"Nox says it doesn't matter even if she's not a spirit? Even then Papa won't abandon Nox. Right, Papa?"
"Since I'm the one who brought her, I have to take responsibility."
"Yeah. That's it. Even if Nox isn't a spirit, Papa still holds her close. Unlike a certain spirit over there."
[.....Hiccup!]
"Wow."
She tore right into her.
Was it because she was a darkness spirit?
Nox's punchline left even my listening mind spinning.
"Anyway, that's how it is. Papa isn't bad. The bad one is all that bitch's problem. So stop thinking about it and have a fun time with Nox!"
"Fun time? What, should we hit an amusement park?"
"Rather than that... somewhere we can get to know each other's hearts a little more....♥"
"....Nox?"
I was flustered.
Her posture was weird.
Nox, sitting between my legs, had slyly pressed her backside against me and begun to grind down firmly.
I haven't gone crazy enough to get excited over a spirit.
But this—something was definitely something.
The situation grew steadily stranger and more erotic.
I couldn't take my hands off the wheel and had no idea what to do when a lump of mana suddenly burst from my mana hall.
"Cut it out."
"Kyaak! What are you doing right now!"
Appearing in the passenger seat, Hecate seized Nox by the nape and dragged her down.
Knowing that struggling could hurt me, she resisted with words alone and not with her body.
"Before. Yesterday. And now again—I keep saying it: a spirit must act like a spirit."
"Nox says it doesn't matter? As long as Papa looks only at me─"
"─You could devour Sunwoo."
"....What do you mean by that?"
"Foolish spirit."
Hecate settled into the seat and quietly rebuked Nox.
"If it were any other spirit, no problem. But at 'our' level the story changes."
The ego—a spirit's will.
If that exceeds a certain degree, it can directly harm the Spirit Contractor.
"The fact that Sunwoo's soul is being dyed in darkness right now is also for that reason. Does that bitch. Arbitrarily. Think she has the right to soil Sunwoo's soul?"
"U... what the hell! You didn't say a word earlier!"
"It's because of this body's karma. Because of this body, Sunwoo nearly fell into danger."
"........."
What exactly do you want to say.
Nox wordlessly stared at Hecate.
"I acknowledge that you care for Sunwoo. But if you cross the line, this body will not stay still either."
"..............."
"What. Jealous? If you're jealous, come at me. This body will thrash you."
"....You."
A trembling voice.
At the end of it, Nox spoke.
"You're actually a good kid, huh?"
"What...?"
"Yeah! Nox was wrong! Nox likes Papa, but I don't want to see Papa having a hard time because of Nox!"
Thank you, unnie! Love you!
"...Haaa?"
Hecate was hugged just like that.
The Nox who had been growling at maximum wariness earlier was gone; now there was only a Nox calling her unnie and clinging, sucking up to her.
"What, what kind of nonsense is this?! Let go! This body has not yet permitted that bitch!"
"Eyy. You permitted it earlier! Don't be like that, unnie. Both I and unnie like Papa, right?"
"Why would this body like that dense guy?!"
"Yeah yeah. Nox understands. You're just embarrassed to say it, huh?"
"No! I said no!"
"If unnie likes Papa, Nox is fine even sleeping together!"
"You fucking bitch!"
K.O.
As the saying goes, what strips a traveler of his coat is not a fierce typhoon but a warm breeze.
Fed up with Nox's endless affection offensive, Hecate was half-buried in Nox's breasts.
"Crazy bitch. Crazy bitch for real.... Mother and daughter both—a pair of mad bitches....!"
"Unnie. There are things you should say and things you shouldn't in this world."
"...What? You wanna fight after all?"
"Hecate unnie."
Even if she's unnie, calling "that bitch" Nox's "Mama" is something I will never forgive.
"...Sorry. That was this body's fault."
"It's okay, unnie! So what did unnie want to say?"
"Ah."
Only then did Hecate come to her senses, approach me, and speak.
"That Nox bitch is a dangerous one."
"Unnie?"
"Not that she's bad. I realized it from this incident. Sunwoo needs 'darkness' too."
"...Hoooong."
Nox quietly glanced at Hecate.
Well. Even watching, I found it a little surprising.
Hecate wasn't the type to apologize so often.
"Anyway, to put it simply: the current Sunwoo is like a blank white sheet of paper."
And blank paper—white paper—is all too easily dyed by dark colors.
"It was this body's mistake. I admit it. So I'm telling you now at least."
Hecate quietly, calmly addressed me.
"Have a firm sense of self. A Spirit Contractor handles spirits; he must not be swayed by them."
"...Is that something you should be saying?"
You're the spirit who sways me the most.
Hecate merely pouted her lips. With nothing left to say she returned to the passenger seat and sat down.
"You know too, Sunwoo. What happens if you get devoured by a spirit."
"Ahh, yeah. Morgan, right?"
The worst witch, Morgan.
I recalled her once more.
The living example of how a Spirit Contractor changes in the absolute worst case.
"Don't simply reject them, and don't simply get dragged around either. With that, this body has finished what it had to say."
""..........""
"...What. Why look at me with those eyes? Something something. A warm, lukewarm gaze that feels unpleasant."
Hecate shrank into herself.
Nox and I lightly nodded.
"Noble."
"Noble, yes."
"And cute."
"Cute, yes."
"What to do? With the current Nox.... I feel like even if it's unnie, it might be okay!"
"Hey hey, that's going a bit too far."
In short, Hecate was still Hecate.
Even after we arrived at the training center, nothing particular happened.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang!!!
"...Instructor. Did you get mad because I provoked you yesterday?"
"Mmm."
A minor problem occurred—my output spiked a little too high and I smashed a wall of the training center—
"Aaak! You are mad, you son of a bitch! Instructor! Stop! It hurts, you bastard!"
"What is this? What the hell is this really?"
Should I say the mana control was fitting snugly into my hands more than usual.
"Oppa. How about retaking the rank examination?"
"...Was it that much today?"
"Normally it felt like a northern warlord; now it feels like Oppenheimer."
"What kind of analogy is that."
In the end we decided I would take the rank examination tomorrow.
The situation really is chaotic, yeah.
As a side note.
On the way home.
At Nox's request we decided to walk back holding hands.
She said she wanted to walk through the world she was seeing for the first time at least once, or something like that.
Knowing the story of Nox's birth, I couldn't refuse.
"Ah....?"
"....You right now."
But if there was one thing I hadn't expected—
"Ah... no. No! I—it's not like that──"
"Nari-ssi? ...No way."
"Well. How should I put this."
By pure chance we ran into Nari.
Granted, with no home of her own she had nowhere proper to return to, so something like this wasn't strange—
"Have a nice love, you two."
"──!!!"
Right beside Nari stood a man I didn't know.