The Simulacrum

"All right kids, gather around!" I called out to the gang scattered in my living room.

It was a little after four in the afternoon and, all things considered, our double-date was a resounding success even with the unexpected appearance of a certain creepy monster huntress. After the amusement park, we visited a nearby zoo (in fact, the two were apparently run by the same business, explaining all the various animal mascots), and then we all had a hearty dinner at a fancy restaurant Elly picked for us. We naturally had a lot of weird hijinks on the way, but for the sake of brevity, they will be omitted. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end sooner or later, so after we had our fun, all of us returned to my place as per our prior agreement.

"Uh-oh!" Angie exclaimed while sitting down. "Be careful guys. Leo has that look again."

"What look?" I asked back with a strategically raised eyebrow.

"You know? The kind that you have whenever you are about to say something shocking. Or scary. Like when you told me my cover sucked."

"Or when you told us there were multiple prophecies," Snowy chipped in as she also sat down with a cup in her hands.

"Or that those prophecies were about me," Josh added in a grumble while already sitting on the couch between the aforementioned two girls.

"Really? Do I have a specific 'look' for that?" I directed the question towards my assistant, only to immediately stop and give her a stern look. "What exactly are you two doing?"

By the looks of it, my two girlfriends were in the process of enacting some kind of miniature kaiju battle between their mascot plushies, but I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment and hear out their explanation.

"We aren't doing anything suspicious," Elly stressed while still holding out her komodo dragon with a top hat (because obviously there was a komodo dragon plushie among the prizes) like she was restraining it.

"Indeed. We are discussing very mature and serious topics," Judy agreed while raising her own owl with a monocle up and down in a sweeping motion.

Well, as it turned out, that was my last bit of benefit of the doubt I had on hand, and they just wasted it, so I decided to simply ignore whatever silly new contest they devised between the two of them. I was just happy they were getting along. Speaking of which, Ammy finally sat down as well, and while she was still giving me a hard look, I decided to ignore her too and cleared my throat.

"Let's put aside my alleged looks for a moment. I told you in the morning that we're going to do some light exercise in the afternoon, right?" The members of the gang looked at me funny for a moment, but ultimately they all nodded. "Good, good," I told them while nodding with my best impression of an all-knowing sage. "Did you all bring a change of clothes as we agreed?"

"I did," Angie confirmed with a fair bit of eagerness as she waved the PE bag she left beside the sofa during our morning assembly.

"So did I," Josh seconded with considerably less enthusiasm and a suspiciously similar-looking gym bag.

"I live here now, so my clothes are already here," Snowy muttered, seemingly embarrassed for some reason.

"I can use magic to change my clothes," Emmy finished the series of confirmations with a shrug.

"Oh, right! I can transform too!" Angie once again exclaimed in revelation.

"Now that you mention it…" Snowy began, but I cut her off immediately.

"Oh, no, you won't," I told her in no uncertain terms. "We just got your wardrobe in order, and the last time I saw you transform, you literally exploded your clothes off your back."

"I will take my clothes off before I do that."

"Sure you could, but you shouldn't. I told you we couldn't get the heating working yet, and your Abyssal getup doesn't exactly cover a lot of skin."

"Hah!" Angie let out a short guffaw and elbowed Josh in the side. "Look at that! He's been a big brother for just a day, and he is already trying to cover up his little sister!"

"Speaking of covering up!" I snapped while pointing at the surprised Celestial girl. "Don't talk like your Celestial getup is even remotely winter-ready, young lady!"

"What?" she snapped back with a frown. "Those are the standard Celestial battle garments!"

"It's literally an undersized bedsheet and a pair of boots," I responded as flatly as I could.

"It's not a bedsheet! It also has a pair of bracers too! They are cool, right, Josh?"

"Um... Sure?" my friend responded quite uncertainly, but it was enough for Angie to puff up her chest in victory.

"You see? I told you it's cool."

"I'd prefer if it was warm instead," I stated while maintaining the flatness of my voice from before, earning me an unenthusiastic 'Oh snap.' from Judy on the side. I pointedly ignored her and continued with, "Do you even need to transform?"

"If you want me to show all of my abilities, then duh," Angie answered me, her words further emphasized by a roll of her eyes.

"Okay, so you have to put on your Celestial clothes... Can you at least put a jacket on top?"

"Nuh-hu," the celestial girl shook her head defiantly at my proposed middle ground. "It would get torn off."

"It would?" I asked back for clarification, and it was the class rep who promptly provided it.

"Yes," she confirmed, emphasized by a slight nod. "When the Winged Races unseal their suppressed powers, the excess mana forms a defensive layer over their skin. It tends to vaporize any mundane clothing."

"Then where do the new clothes come from?" Judy interjected, somehow typing on her phone with her left hand while still enacting some kind of miniature monster battle with the owl in her other hand. I was tempted to ask her what she was doing, but I had a feeling she would respond with a deadpan non-answer, like 'I'm multitasking.', so instead I wisely stayed silent and waited for the class rep's answer.

"They are part of their transformation," Ammy stated offhandedly. "I don't know the details though, as our outfits work differently. I'm directly transmuting my own clothes with a spell."

"Um... I have a question?" Josh interjected with a raised hand. "I don't remember my clothes 'vaporizing' at any point last Sunday."

"To be fair, you weren't wearing much to begin with," I mumbled, but then I exhaled hard and continued, "Still, the question is valid. Does that mean that the whole exploding thing doesn't happen to Draconians?"

"That's correct," the class rep confirmed it with another nod. "Draconians reinforce their bodies internally with the excess mana instead of creating a defensive barrier. They still have their scales though, and those are usually more than enough to protect them."

"I see. So instead of magical clothes, you get a power boost," I addressed the princess, only to immediately fall silent, my brows knitting themselves into a frown all on their own.

"Rawr!" Elly let out an admittedly pretty cute growl while pushing her plushie forward, only to stop with a confused expression. At long last she finally noticed that she was in the center of attention, whereupon her face reddened in the blink of an eye. I half-expected her to freeze up, or at the very least she would let out one of her classic strings of cutesy noises, yet instead she lightly cleared her throat and said, in an almost mechanical tone, "Excuse me, but could you repeat the question? I'm afraid I wasn't paying attention."

"... Okay, time out," I raised my hands in a T towards the rest of the group before I addressed my girlfriends again. "You know what? I bite. Could you please tell me just what you two are doing?"

Elly blinked at me with a surprised expression, then she glanced over at Judy. It seemed like they were having a small conversation with their eyes for a second, after which she turned back at me and said, in a mousy voice, "We are playing with our plushies?"

"Yes, I can see that," I answered with a groan. "But why?"

"B-Because plushies are girly, right? So playing with them is girly too, right?"

I slowly narrowed my eyes at her answer, and finally asked, "Is this another of those femininity-point nonsense things you two were going on about last time?"

"That's correct," Judy answered in Elly's stead.

"But then why are you acting like your plushies are battling?" I asked my next, incrementally more exasperated question.

"It's a re-enactment of the finale of the famous sixteenth King of Monsters movie, aka, the best one," Judy told me like it was something self-evident.

I gave my dear assistant a skeptical look, then shook my head and said, "Okay, for the sake of my sanity, let's ignore what it is, and let's focus on why you are re-enacting it with your plushies."

"For femininity points!" Elly suddenly declared, only to shrink back when I glanced back at her, at which point she hastily added, "I-I mean... I didn't get it either at first, but Judy was really confident about it, and she said that if we kept it up then you would get curious, and then it would be funny, though to be honest, it's actually pretty fun anyway, though I still don't understand what it has to do with femininity or points, but… Do… Do I make sense?"

I let the silence after her explanation linger for a few seconds on purpose, then I let out a dramatic sigh before facing Judy again and telling her, "Dormouse, I can't help but feel that you are a bad influence on Elly."

"That's just your opinion, Chief," she answered with an implied stuck-out tongue before she returned to their little re-enactment, now all but confirmed to be just an elaborate ploy to annoy me. At any rate, I decided to once again completely ignore them for the time being and returned to the previous conversation.

"So, my occasionally weird girlfriends aside, where were we?"

"We were discussing a change of clothes, magical transformations, and things being vaporized," Josh reminded me with his face set in an odd mixture of empathy a schadenfreude.

"Right, that," I uttered with a knowing nod before facing the class rep and asking, "So, different folks do the transformation differently, right? Celestials and Abyssals explode their clothes and replace them with their fancy battle garbs or whatever, Draconians only transform their body, while you only transform your clothes. What about the knights?"

"As I said, I don't know the details, but I think they actually have to manually put on their enchanted armors and charms," Ammy answered without reservations.

"Good to know. That means they should be easy to recognize ahead of time," I mused for a moment before snapping out of it and raising my voice. "All right then! Everyone, grab your change of clothes, just to be on the safe side, and follow me."

"Where?" Ammy inquired with a curious glint in her eyes.

"We aren't going far, just to my magical closet," I told her while trying to keep my smile in check.

"Your magical what?" Josh exclaimed just a split-second faster than Angie. In fact, everyone was equally surprised, save for Judy and Snowy, who were already in on the plan.

"Closet," I repeated while gesturing for them to follow.

Now, that likely requires some explanation. Judy and I spent a considerable amount of time yesterday debating how we should facilitate moving to and from our shiny new secret base without outright disclosing its location. I mean, if we did that, it wouldn't be a secret base anymore, now would it?

Jokes aside, the real issue was that, while we created a few false entries on the Hub discussing how the Magi have discovered several celestial safe-houses, with the abandoned shelter being just one of them, it still didn't mean that our base was completely off their radar. As such, I really didn't want to have any visible signs of use that could betray our presence.

That meant just hitching a ride on the bus to the mountainside was out of the question, which left us with utilizing my teleportation ability to ferry people as the most obvious solution. Unfortunately said ability was also supposed to be a secret, leading to a long series of back and forths between the two of us resulting in the final compromise.

As Sun Tzu once said, in order to deceive your enemies, first you have to deceive your friends. Or at least I think Sun Tzu said that. It's kind of vague, and I don't think it's from the Art of War, but it's kind of beside the point.

Anyhow, while I was pondering on the widespread misappropriation of various famous quotes, I reached the small closet under the stairs, and I waited for the rest of the gang to catch up to me before I put my hand on the doorknob and told them in a low, conspiratorial voice, "Listen up guys, what I'm going to show you now is a huge secret. I expect everyone to keep it."

I waited until everyone, including my fellow accomplices, gave me a nod or some other kind of confirmation, then after a satisfied grunt I threw the door open, revealing… a fairly mundane coat closet, about one meter by two meters in dimensions and just high enough for me to enter without having to bend forward. At the moment it had no clothes or any kind of lighting inside, and the latter in particular was because I removed the light-bulb beforehand so that everyone could clearly see the softly glowing circle of sigils on the floor.

The last bit was all thanks to the hard work of Snowy. I asked her to make them visible for everyone, and although it was just a series of meaningless magical marks that didn't actually have any effect, I hoped they would look sufficiently authentic at first glance to convince, say, a grumpy mage girl that it was a genuine magic circle.

"That's not an authentic magic circle," Ammy declared the moment she laid her eyes on the insides of my closet.

"Like hell it isn't," I countered indignantly without much thinking.

"Then why isn't it connected to the ley-line? And where's its control array? Not to mention—"

"Hey, class rep? Would it actually kill you to listen to my explanation first?" I asked her with a slight strain in my voice.

Ammy gave me a skeptical look, but in the end she shrugged as if to say, 'Be my guest.'

I let out a small breath and then pointed towards my closet again.

"So, as I was about to say before I got interrupted, this is my magical closet," I recited my pre-planned explanation. "It cost me an arm and a leg and quite a few favors to set up, but it was a necessary investment."

I paused here on purpose, as this was the point where Judy was supposed to ask me about what the circle did, but instead it was Josh who voiced his question first by saying, "Hey, is this one of those teleport circles we talked about when meeting Ammy's grandfather?"

"Bingo!" I exclaimed and gave my friend a grateful thumb up.

"This? A teleport circle?" Ammy muttered while glancing between me and the glowing symbols on the floor.

"Yep," I confirmed with what I hoped was a confident smile.

"You're joking," she stated quite categorically. "That's not how a teleport circle looks like."

"Well, probably because this is kind of a special one," I replied with a coy smile as I stepped into my closet. "You see, this circle allows a maximum of two people to move between this place and our secret base."

"Wait a moment!" Josh suddenly cut in with a surprisingly enthusiastic voice. "You have a secret base? Really?"

"Yup," I told him, this time with one hundred percent honesty. "It's a super-secret hideout I just recently obtained."

"A hideout? Like the ones in those spy movies?" Angie elbowed her way to the front to ask her questions. "With henchmen? And traps? And torture rooms?"

"Yes, yes, kinda, no, and hell no," I answered her in order. "Why would we even need a torture room? We are not the bad guys!"

"Oh, right," Angie whispered like she just realized that, but before she could say anything more, Ammy once again wedged herself into the conversation.

"So you want to tell me that this garbled circle, unconnected to any ley line, is actually a long-range teleportation conduit?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you, miss arbitrary skeptic," I shot back at her.

"I don't believe you," she said outright, making the atmosphere a little tense for a moment.

"Okay, then I'll prove it," I told her while inviting her in. "Unfortunately the circle is keyed to me, so you have to hitch a ride with me."

"Fine by me," Ammy huffed and stepped inside as well. "So?"

"Just a moment," I responded while sending a sneaky wink at the rest of the group, then closed the door on us.

"… Why did you close the door?" the class rep asked, apparently quite startled by my sudden action.

"I told you, it's special," I answered with a grin, probably barely visible in the dim chamber. "It has a few inconvenient rules. First, it can only transport at most two people at a time. Secondly, it's keyed to me, so only I can use it. Thirdly, it also only works with the door closed. Finally, you should step a little closer."

"… Why?" She sounded quite suspicious, but I only shrugged at her, which she most likely also couldn't see in the dark.

"Because you need to be closer for the circle to register you." Saying so, I extended a hand towards her shoulder and pulled her towards me, eliciting a tiny, surprised 'Eep!' from her. I naturally ignored her protests and quietly wrapped my phantom limb around her waist in preparation. Speaking of which, just when did things like wrapping phantom limbs around people become so normal for me? Was I getting weird? I let out a silent, self-derisive snort at the thought and decided to worry about it later.

"Okay, this should work. Close your eyes for a second," I instructed my passenger, and while at first she gave me such an intense glare I could feel it even in the dark, she still followed my directions faithfully, though not silently.

"I swear to god Leo, if this is just some kind of prank, I'm going to charge you for harassment and—" she began to grumble, but before she could gather any steam, I already let her go with my extra limb.

"All right Amelia, we arrived!" I raised my voice high, cutting her tirade short and making her eyes pop right open in surprise. She quickly glanced around and tried to step back, but I held onto her shoulder for the time being.

We were still in a small, dark compartment, though this one was slightly larger than my closet at home. To be perfectly honest though, this was also a closet. A utility one, to be precise. I had the Fauns empty it out and then Snowy set up the same faux magic circle in it as she did back at my place. Speaking of the Fauns…

"I will now open the door! Don't worry! There should be no one on the other side!" I exclaimed again, but I still held onto Ammy's shoulder and waited until I could hear the sound of a series of heavy footsteps followed by scraping metal noises coming from outside. Only then did I let out a small breath and unhanded the increasingly baffled class rep.

I wordlessly pushed the heavy steel door open, revealing a large, fairly bare concrete room on the other side. It used to be one of the smaller side rooms of the shelter, and based on the remaining furniture, it was most likely supposed to be a recreational or communal room. Not that anyone could tell that at this point, as I had the Faun, led by my enthusiastic little sister, completely empty it and it clean it up as well. I'm not going to lie; considering that they were literally designed to be terrifying, muscle-bound warriors and shock-troopers, I was shocked by how well they were doing as housekeepers.

None of them were around at this point though, as having them wait just outside the 'teleport room' was just a bloody incident in the waiting so, for the time being I told them to remain in the central hall.

"Wow…" Ammy drew my attention back to her by sounding abnormally amazed by the empty space. "Did we really teleport?"

"What does it look like?" I responded with a provocative smirk, but she didn't seem to mind, or possibly notice.

"That's amazing… I didn't feel any disturbance in the ambient mana. I didn't even notice when you activated the circle…" Suddenly she looked at me with a strangely fervent look in her eyes and took a heavy step forward, making me almost flinch in reflex. "Hey, Leo? Did we really use that circle? Did we?"

"Y-Yes," I answered her a little less decisively than I wanted, still a smidgen off-balance by her sudden spike of passion.

"Really? Can… Can I study it?" she requested, suddenly turning bashful in a second. "Please?"

"Um… no?" I told her, once again a little less decisively than I originally planned. Since I figured that wasn't enough to convince her, I proceeded to give her some of my pre-written excuses. "I mean, I told you it's a special one, right? It wasn't exactly cheap, and I have no way of replacing it."

"I'll be careful," she insisted. "I won't break it; I only want to look at it. And maybe take a few mana samples…. and an imprint. No, two imprints!"

"I said no, and that's final," I stood my ground, not at all bothered or wary of her torrent of uncomfortably zealous gazes. "For now, stay inside this room until I get the others. Don't go outside yet."

"Can I look at the circle while you are gone?"

"No!" I exclaimed in exasperation, then I toned things back a little and spelled out, "I mean, I need the door to be closed, so no."

"Aw," she sighed, sounding genuinely dejected. Honestly, the longer I knew her, the less of a grasp I had on the class rep's character. Was she a shrinking violet? A strict honor student? An overburdened secretary? An easily excitable researcher type? None of these? All of the above?

Either way, I once again told her to stay put as I all but escaped into the 'teleport room' and promptly returned to my closet. I let out a relieved sigh and opened the door, at which point the whole gang (or at least the ones not in on the scheme) let out a collective gasp. Were they holding their breaths until now?

"Wow! Ammy's really gone!" Angie exclaimed while sticking her head into the closet, then she faced me with a grin that revealed even her molars. "Awesome! I'm next!"

"Sorry, but nope," I told you with a fake grin mirroring hers before gesturing for Snowy to step up. "You were supposed to be first, so let's get moving."

I wasn't lying. Originally Snowy was supposed to serve as a 'gatekeeper' of sorts, so that she would be on hand on the other side to mediate between the Faun and the gang in case something unexpected happened, but the class rep's challenge threw a minor monkey wrench into the works.

Snowy squeezed between the others to get into the closet, accompanied by a disappointed 'Muu…' from Angie. After moving her over without any incident, I ferried the rest as well one by one, starting with the eager Celestial and concluding with Judy. As I came back from the last return trip, I found my assistant standing in front of the door with a conflicted expression.

"Chief?"

"Yes, Dormouse?"

"I was curious," she began as she glanced around. "If we both move over, how are we going to come back?"

I couldn't help but let out a deep and not at all ominous laugh I prepared well in advance.

"I'm so glad you asked!" I told her with a grin and gestured for her to follow after me, which she did, though for some reason a bit reluctantly. Anyhow, I led her to the back door of the kitchen, which incidentally opened to the garage, and I knocked on it three times.

There was a short but meaningful pause, and then, just as my assistant was about to say something, the door suddenly opened, revealing a large, hairy shape on the other side.

"[Is it time, boss?]" Karukk, one of the friendlier members of Snowy's retinue, asked with an upbeat grin, but then he noticed Judy standing next to me, at which point he quickly added, "Oh? To you, I say evening," in our native tongue. His voice was incredibly deep, raspy, yet well-defined, and his words were accompanied by a polite nod that made her shiver for some reason.

"[Aye, the time is nigh indeed,]" I answered while gesturing for him to come into the kitchen. "[I shall entrust my domicile to your care and vigilance. You may find various forms of nourishment in the frigid box yonder, though I warn you! You shall wash your hands, and wash them well, before reaching into its bowels. You also possess my permission to peruse the various channels of the device of audiovisual telegraphy within the lounge, and to do so in any manner you may find suitable for your tastes.]"

"[Got it, boss. When are you coming back?]"

"[That, I cannot say, nor can I fathom. We shall return when our activities are finished, and no sooner.]"

"[Okay. Have fun,]" the Faun gave me a casual wave before taking a few steps to the side and hunching down in front of the fridge.

"You can't be serious," Judy complained behind me, and I only just noticed that she was hiding there the whole time.

"That's my line," I responded with a tired expression. "You still act like this is the first time you met Karukk. Or any other Faun, for that matter."

"It's because they are scary," Judy said with a huff, but then the Faun by the fridge glanced at her and she hid behind my back again.

"Come on, they are not that scary," I told her while patting her on the back to reassure her.

"Can we just get going?" she urged me with a pleading look so obvious maybe even someone else could recognize it. I couldn't help but wonder though…

"You know that there are even more Fauns at the hideout, right?"

Judy gave me a conflicted look for a moment, but then she bravely(?) declared, "Don't worry about me, I'll just hide behind you again."

"You do that," I told her as I tried to grab her by the waist, but she stepped back. "What? Didn't you want to get going?"

"We are not in the magical closet," she stated while pointing towards the stairs.

"No, we aren't… but that was just part of the charade. We don't actually have to be there to teleport."

"I know," Judy huffed softly. "But Elly already got to hug you in a dark room, so now it's my turn."

"Are you serious?"

Instead of answering, Judy gingerly grabbed hold of my hand with just three fingers and began to pull me after her… well, 'pull' was a strong word. 'Attempting to lead' might've been a more accurate one. At any rate, I had no reason to resist, but as I followed after her, I glanced back and my eyes met with Karukk's.

The Faun, who just happened to have an entire salami in his hands, gave me a knowing smile and softly said, "[Women, am I right?]"

At first I was quite surprised by his comment, but then I let out a small chuckle and answered, "[You most certainly are,]" before following after Judy for an unscheduled cuddling session. At least it seemed like she finally got over her grudge from before, so I decided to put on a stiff upper lip and endure her snuggling like a man. Oh, the crosses I had to bear!

"Hey, Leo! Leo!" Angie rushed up to me with sparkling eyes the moment I opened the door of the 'teleport closet', almost pushing me back in with her childlike fervor. "We're really underground, right? Right?"

"Um… Yes?" I answered after a moment of understandable hesitation.

"See, I told you!" the hyperactive Celestial girl flashed a victorious grin as she turned to the only other guy in the room. "It's a secret underground base! It's so cool!"

"I already told you that," Snowy quietly sulked on the side after apparently being ignored by the childhood friend duo, and I found it my big brotherly duty to pat her on the head to reassure her… except a certain deadpan girl was just a step quicker than me. Judy ducked under my arm as she exited the closet, then she began to woodenly tussle the Abyssal girl's hair with an equally flat 'Don't worry about it.'

I didn't have time to be bothered by her stealing my thunder though, as the moment I stepped forward, I was startled by a certain class representative abruptly popping out of my blind spot, and she immediately requested, "Can I look at the circle now?"

"No!" I denied her on the spot after the first fright. It had been a while since she caught me off-guard like that, so it took me a moment to collect myself, but then I told her, "We have more important things to do."

"But… this could revolutionize transportation theory! If I could figure out how it works, I could even get a research grant from the Assembly!" Ammy pressed on as she pleaded with upturned eyes and her hands in fists in front of her chest. "Come on Leo! Just a tiny-little look! I will only take four… no, wait, seven! Seven samples! You already promised you would help me with my psychic research!"

"I don't remember ever doing that," I answered her after just the briefest of baffled pauses.

"Actually, you are right. You never helped me, so now's the perfect time to make up for it! Just nine samples, it's all I ask!"

"No, I meant I don't remember making a promise!"

"The number of samples also went up," Judy casually added on the side while still petting my new sister.

"Judy, please don't interrupt the negotiations," Ammy suddenly lapsed back into her strict authority persona, only to turn back at me and continued in a pleading, "Please, Leo! If I get a research grant, I can finally have my own workshop! Then I'll no longer have to do grandfather's paperwork! Speaking of which, you owe me this much for all the paperwork you caused!"

"I thought we were over this already," I groaned and took a step away from the class rep, but she followed right after me.

"Come on! Just ten samples!"

"The number of samples rose again," Judy helpfully informed me while not even trying to help me. So typical.

"I said no, and that's final," I told the class rep on no uncertain terms. "I told you already, but I cannot replace this circle, so if it's broken, we are screwed. No tinkering with it. Are we clear?"

If glares had weight, I would've been flat as a pancake under the one Amelia was sending my way, but after a fairly short stalemate she finally relented with a dispirited, "Yes, we are clear."

I had a feeling that she would hold a grudge, so I was just about to give her an olive branch. Unfortunately, my efforts for upholding something even remotely resembling a coherent conversation were once again torpedoed, this time by the princess all but pushing Ammy to the side just to stand in front of me and declare, "Leo, this place smells weird!"

I gave my draconian girlfriend a wry look (which was, I would like to stress, fairly low-key considering the circumstances), and after taking a huge breath I courteously asked her, "Would you please elaborate?"

Elly scrunched up her nose as she took a few overt sniffs, then she stated, "This whole place smells like Abyssals."

"Well, that's not surprising at all," I told her with an affectionate voice, as she just happened accidentally hand me the cue required to move things forward. "You see, this place originally belonged to Crowey," I revealed our cover story with just the right amount of nonchalance to make it sound legitimate.

"It did?" Elly and Ammy leveled the same question at me almost simultaneously.

"It's true. Right, Snowy?" I threw the ball into the court of the Abyssal girl, and while her acting was quite wooden (to put it very mildly), she followed her script to the letter. Maybe even too closely…

"Y-Yes. This abandoned u-underground facility was m-most certain a hidden hideout that my other older brother, who is not Leonard Dunning, ap-appro…" she paused here for a moment, then she suddenly exclaimed, "Appropriated! That's the word!"

I gave my relieved sister an appreciative nod, then smoothly continued my explanation to the rest of the gang… although, technically it was only Ammy and Elly, as Judy and Snowy were already in on the gig, while Josh and Angie were too busy marveling at a pile of old tables in the corner to pay attention to us. Those two were weird.

Anyways, I began to confidently recite my own script, saying, "So, as she said, since Crowey is out of town, and we are not exactly on good terms anyway, I decided I might as well take this place and make it our little secret base where we can plan, train and just generally hang out without any prying eyes hovering over our heads."

That last comment was mainly aimed at the class rep, but instead of responding to me, she faced Snowy and said, "Was this where you were hiding?"

"I… um…" Snowy stammered for a moment when faced with the unexpected question and sent a helpless glance at me. I lightly shook my head as a signal, so she answered in kind. "No, I wasn't."

"And since when did you have this secret base on our island? Was house Inanna preparing to establish a foothold here? What was your plan?" came the next series of increasingly incriminating questions from Ammy, not even bothering to respond to the first answer.

"I… I don't know," Snowy muttered with round eyes, just about to cave under the pressure. I figured it was about time I intervened, so I quickly inserted myself between the two of them without further ado.

"Easy there, class rep," I reproached her while gesturing 'tone it back' with my hands. "You already know about Snowy's situation, so you can't expect her to be privy to Crowey's plans."

"She was still her sister," Ammy countered, making me shake my head at her defiance.

"Yes, and now she is mine, so I would appreciate it if you stopped bullying her."

"I'm not bullying her; I'm asking perfectly legitimate and reasonable questions!" Amelia protested as she, for the first time in a while, reached her hand up to her face and tweaked her glasses in a strangely ominous fashion.

"Here, here," I turned my back on her as I reached for my visibly confused adopted sister's head and gently rubbed its crown with my warmest smile on my face. "Don't worry about the mean class rep. Your big bro won't let her bully you."

"I'm not bullying her!"

"You better not," I told her with a stern voice hiding my satisfaction. Another day, another uncomfortable topic derailed. Anyhow, after confirming that I still had my touch, I cleared my throat and raised the hand previously on Snowy's head over my own to get everyone's attention. "Listen, guys! At this rate, we'll be stuck in this room till the cows come home, so how about we leave the legitimate and reasonable questions for later and focus on why we came here for once?"

"That reminds me, why did we come here again?" Josh inquired as he returned with Angie, who somehow already managed to get a giant smudge of dust on her face.

Judy also noticed it and was already taking care of the spot, so I decided to only focus on Joshua, thus I told him, "I think I already mentioned this, but just to be clear: we're here to experiment with our abilities and train for the possible dangers we might face in the near future."

"Train?" Elly, who was in something of a strange stupor while I was talking with Elly, suddenly perked up at the mere mention of the word. "Are we going to work out?"

"Not really," I told her, at the risk of disappointing her. "My plan was to dedicate the rest of this day discussing our abilities, testing any synergies, experimenting with Josh's transformations, and if we had the time, we would then do some light sparring to put things into practice."

"You want to spar here?" Elly looked around, and I could tell by her expression that she wasn't exactly satisfied with what she was seeing. "We don't have enough space."

Actually, the cleaned-up communal room we were standing in easily had an area of fifty square meters, minus the space that was taken up by the furniture in the corner. For normal people, that was probably more than enough for 'exercising', but considering how high-spec the gaggle of supernatural scions I had around me, the chamber did feel a little stifling.

"Well, it's a good thing we aren't going to be training here then!" I responded with a flippant voice and a toothy grin, and Elly's eyes opened wide for a moment, but then she averted them with a blush. I had no idea what I did to make her embarrassed like that, but I decided not to dwell on the mysteries of her mind for long, and instead I raised my voice again to address everyone at once, "Listen up! We are now going to move on to the main hall. I want to remind everyone that this place used to belong to Crowey. Everyone got that?" I waited for them to voice or gesture their confirmation before I continued with, "Okay then. I just want to warn you that the place came with staff, so don't get too surprised when we go over, okay?"

"Staff? What kind of staff?" Ammy latched onto the word, but for the time being I only waved for her to follow me.

"It'll be quicker to show you," I responded with a fairly clichéd (yet accurate) line and gestured for everyone to follow after me. I led the group to the steel blast door separating the two areas, and after some fiddling (I had Brang and company oil the hinges, but they were still a little stiff) we found ourselves face to face with a row of Fauns.

Now, to be perfectly clear, I did not actually tell them to form an orderly line in front of the door, and while I did find their display imposing, at the moment it was pretty much the worst impression they could've picked to convey, as the surprised gasps behind my back testified. In the end, I couldn't help but let out an involuntary groan.

"[General,]" I addressed the big bloke in the middle, and he immediately responded with a toothy grin that made the guys behind me audibly inhale once again. I held back another groan and instead told him, "[Your display is impeccable, yet entirely unwarranted.]"

If his expression was any indication, Brang obviously had some kind of fitting answer on the tip of his tongue, but before he could grace us (or, considering only I seemed to be fluent in Faunish here, just me) with its brilliance, we were once again interrupted by the class rep dryly asking, "Aren't these the Faun from last Sunday? Didn't they go back to the Abyss?"

"… Why do you have to be so damn observant today?" I glanced over my shoulder in exasperation, only for Ammy to once again adjust her glasses and reply with a question of her own.

"I don't know. Why do you have to be so uncooperative today?"

My instincts told me to say 'Touché', but that would have been as good as admitting defeat, so at the end of the day we just stared daggers at each other for a few seconds. It didn't serve any purpose though, as I couldn't come up with any snappy retorts at the moment's notice, so I ultimately just clicked my tongue and told her, "Yes, they are one and the same, but no, they are obviously not in the Abyss. You can think of them as Snowy's retinue."

"Are you sure they are not spies," the Magi girl questioned aloud, and to his credit, Brang's only reaction to the accusation was his left ear swiveling in a curious manner.

"They are definitely not spies," I replied by filling my voice with so much conviction I hoped it would browbeat her into compliance.

"Are they safe?" came the next question, this time from Angie, who was for some reason hiding behind Snowy of all people.

"Yes, they are," I answered her, this time a bit more naturally. "They might seem scary, but they are nice guys." Saying so, I stepped forth and began to introduce the group one by one. "This is Uncle Brang, ex-general and the current leader of this group. The others are, from left to right: Gram, Rabom, Hrul, Vurrok, and Pip." I could hear Josh mutter 'Pip? Seriously?' in the back, but I ignored him and continued, "They can understand you perfectly, but for some reason they can only speak in caveman-syntax. Don't ask why, nobody knows. Still, you should be able to communicate with each other well enough. If you hit a roadblock, call for me and I will translate."

"Actually, that reminds me: since when can you speak their language?" came the next unwanted question from the class rep.

Judy must've realized I was getting quite fed up with her questions, as she stepped up to the plate and told her, "The Chief is a man of many talents. Linguistics is just one of them."

"I think I've heard that before…" Josh pondered, but before anyone else could cut in again, I promptly turned my back on them and gestured for Brang to come closer.

"[I'm afraid our training excursion shall forever be akin to a fish aground so long as your kin is present. If I may be so presumptuous, might I request that you vacate the premises of this hall, if ever so temporarily?]"

The large Faun let out a slow, subdued chuckle and gave me a small bow, much to my surprise.

"[Nay. There lies no presumption in thine words. We shall follow thine command.]"

I wanted to point out that it wasn't really a command per se, but I had a feeling his insistence most likely had to do with my adoption of Snowy and consecutively wedging myself into their hierarchy. I really wasn't in the mood to clear that up at the moment, so I let it slide and instead told him, "[I require your aid shortly, so please equip yourself for battle and return to my side at your earliest convenience.]"

Instead of a proper answer, Brang and company gave me a salute, followed by another one aimed at their actual liege in the back, then they turned around and marched out of the main hall and into one of the side chambers with a striking and yet at the same time borderline comical lockstep. I waited for them to close the door behind them before I faced my friends again and clapped my hands to hype myself up, making them shudder so hard I was afraid some of them (read: the princess) might fall over.

I waited for the echo of my clap to die down, then finally told them, "All right guys, I had it with these distractions! I want you to change into your spare clothes and then we'll get started! The girls will change in that room, Josh and I will change here. Any questions?"

"Do I have to change?" Judy raised her hand, and I gave her a deadpan glance in return.

"Why would you?"

"Just checking," she answered unabashedly before grabbing hold of Snowy and pulling her back into the room where we came from. They were just about to close the door behind themselves when I remembered something, and I quickly called out after them.

"Just a reminder: don't let the class rep mess with the magic circle!"

"Understood," my assistant responded, followed by some unwarranted protests from the Magi in question cut mercifully short by the closing of the door, leaving just me and Josh behind. I glanced at my hapless friend, and I couldn't help but let out the mother of all groans. If I was already this tired before even got started, I had to wonder just how busted I would be by the end of this day…

"At last, some progress!" I exhaled in relief when the gang assembled in the main hall once again.

As per my previous request, my companions all changed into something more... well, I wanted to say 'practical', but considering Snowy was wearing her Abyssal outfit made of black leather strips held on by magic (or double-sided tape, one or the other), it probably wasn't the right word. 'Comfortable'? No, it didn't look that either. How about 'appropriate'? Well, considering she had high-heeled boots on a transformation/uniform that existed (supposedly) for high-speed, high-stakes supernatural combat… I have to say, I really wanted to meet whoever designed it and give him a friendly pat on the back with a fireman's axe.

A broken-ankle-in-the-waiting and justified homicide aside, I was getting ahead of myself again, so I'd say we should start from the beginning. Or, in this particular case, from left to right.

First in line was the already discussed Abyssal sister of mine. She looked just like the last time I saw her transformed, with the fetish outfit, horns, and all else. On second thought, maybe not 'all else' after all, as she didn't have her wings out. I didn't even know those were retractable.

Anyways, it was hard to tell if she was uncomfortable with the amount of skin she was showing or if she was simply feeling cold, but judging by the way she was sending bashful glances at Josh (who was naturally unaware of this, as he was conspicuously averting his eyes from her with a blush on his face), my money was on the former. Speaking of him, my friend was wearing his gym uniform, and would've probably stuck out of the group like a sore thumb, if not for Elly being dressed in the same manner... Which, in retrospect, made both of them stick out of our group of supernatural misfits showing off all their fancy and highly impractical attires.

Speaking of fancy and highly impractical clothes, the fourth person in the line was Angie, in her equally familiar white Celestial outfit, complete with her retractable bow-armguard-thingy. She didn't have her wings out either. On the bright side, at least her footwear didn't have high heels. At this point I took my silver linings wherever I could find them.

The one closing the line was naturally Ammy in her eminently frilly white and green dress. She didn't have her huge witch hat on, nor did she wield her staff, so as of now she only looked like an unusually brightly dressed gothic lolita, which actually came across as fairly tame in this context. As they say, everything is relative, including supernatural fashion.

When taken as a whole, our little group looked as eclectic as ever, but I decided not to let it bother me anymore and just get started with the serious business.

"All right, everyone, let's get things on track! Judy, you are on record duty."

"On it," my assistant responded while lightly waving her phone.

"Good. First, let's discuss your transformations again. In particular, I want to know a bit more about that barrier you guys mentioned earlier." After saying so, I directly addressed the class rep, as she was the most knowledgeable about these subjects. "You said something about it forming upon transformation and shredding clothes. What else does it do?"

"It is in the name," Ammy stated the obvious.

"I want specifics. What does it protect against and how? Is it static, or can it be recharged? And more importantly, does it vaporize clothes even after the transformation?"

Our resident Magi gave me an intrigued look and contemplated for a moment before she presented me her answer.

"It is a passive form of protection, so it naturally cannot be compared to active defenses."

"Like the one Neige's brother used," Judy spoke without glancing up from her notes.

"Precisely," Ammy confirmed with a nod. "It was a multi-layered directional shield, as opposed to the Winged Ones' omnidirectional barrier."

"We saw it was pretty resilient. I guess the passive barrier is less so," I added while observing Angie to see if I could detect any trace of the subject of our discussion on her. Unfortunately, I couldn't see anything unusual beyond a very weak glow surrounding her. But then again, it might have been exactly what I was looking for.

"It depends on the individual, but it should be able to greatly reduce incoming physical impacts."

"Define 'greatly reduce'," Judy chimed in again, causing our resident Magi to frown.

"As I said, it's different from person to person."

"All right, then let's particularize the question," I told her and then pointed at Angie. "Let's take her as our baseline. What would happen if Josh punched her?"

"Why am I getting punched?" Angie complained with a hint of alarm in her voice

"The better question: why am I doing the punching?" Josh cut in with a skeptical look and an equally displeased voice, but I ignored both of them and waited for Ammy to give her answer.

"Well..." she began while giving a furtive look to the Celestial girl. "Her barrier would absorb a lot of the force behind the blow, and then spread the rest over a larger area. In practice, it would reduce a violent punch into a stiff shove."

"I think I get it," Josh suddenly declared with an expression that said he just received a minor revelation. I signaled to him to share it with us by tweaking my brows, and he did so by clarifying, "Last Sunday, when I punched Lili's brother, it felt like I was hitting a bag of molasses. I thought it was because I had scaly hands and what have you, but it was probably this barrier thing you're talking about."

"Very likely," the class rep confirmed after a moment of consideration. "As a Lord of the Abyss and a powerful individual, Noire's passive barrier is likely leagues beyond Angie's. It is safe to say that the only one of us who did any damage to him was Eleanor."

"Oh, man," Josh slouched his shoulders and then continued, with an exaggerated pout, "And I thought I was doing fairly well for myself back there."

"What if Josh had a weapon, like a knife?" I voiced the next logical question that came to mind. "Would the barrier protect Angie against cuts or stabs?"

"Why is it me again?" Angie grumbled, but she was summarily ignored by us.

"Depends, but passive barriers are slightly less effective against those than blunt force attacks," Ammy answered, this time a little uncertainly.

"Bullets?" came my next question.

"It's… fairly resistant to small caliber firearms, but it would still hurt a lot."

"Magical attacks?" Judy took the words out of my mouth, but I clarified after her all the same.

"Let's say we throw a fireball at Angie. What would happen?"

"That also depends on the person, but at a glance, Angie's barrier seems decently resistant against mystic phenomena. However—"

"Do barriers get weaker as they absorb damage?" Judy threw the next question without allowing any breathing room.

"Naturally, yes."

Ammy's response made my assistant let out a satisfied grunt, then she looked at me and stated, with perfect seriousness, "HP."

"My thoughts exatly. We'll discuss it later, please pay attention for now," I told her in response before once more focusing on the increasingly befuddled Ammy. "We are going to test the durability and efficacy of those barriers later. For now, let's continue with the most important question: do they shred clothes after the transformation is already done?"

"They shouldn't," Ammy answered with an expression that said she had no idea why I considered that so important.

"Unless the person gets attacked," Snowy contributed to the conversation in a quiet voice. I gestured for her to speak up, and after a little more encouragement she added, "It's as Amelia said. If you get struck by an attack while transformed, the barrier spreads out the damage, and if you are not wearing special clothes, it will cause large tears."

"Chief," Judy called out to me while gesturing for me to lean closer. I was a little skeptical of her, considering her recent track record, but I decided to humor her for the time being and obliged. "People have HP, and now we have clothing damage," she whispered to me while pointing at her notes. "I believe… we live in an eroge RPG."

I gave my assistant a wry look and told her, firmly, "Not now, Dormouse."

"It's a valid hypothesis," she pouted, but didn't press the issue.

I shook my head at my assistant's outburst of weird conclusions and faced Snowy again.

"So, if I understand this right, if you have your barrier up while wearing normal clothes, and then get hit, then the clothes get damaged." Snowy ruminated on my words for a moment, then she ultimately nodded with conviction. "Okay, so if I turn that around, does that mean that if you don't get hit while your barrier is already up, the clothes won't get damaged?"

"I… suppose they won't," my sister confirmed my words, this time around with slightly less conviction.

"That's what I wanted to hear!" I exclaimed happily as I quickly peeled myself out of my customary black long coat and then promptly draped it over Snowy's shoulders. Since it was about five sizes too big for her, she looked a tad ridiculous, especially with the lost look on her face, but it was better to look silly than to be cold. Or to look like a shy dominatrix. That's just too bizarre. In any case, I flashed her my brotherliest smile and told her, "I figured you were feeling chilly."

"I'm feeling cold too," Angie quietly muttered on the side, yet the target of her comment was apparently too lost in his thoughts to respond.

"Me too," Elly added on with an even quieter mumble. Fortunately for her, I wasn't lost in my thoughts, so I gestured for her to come over.

"I don't have more coats, but I can keep you warm."

After a moment of incomprehension, she gave me a bashful smile and she pattered over to my side, at which point I grabbed hold of her waist and pulled her closer. To be fair, with her draconic metabolism it felt like she was the one keeping me warm like this, but she was happy enough, so I decided not to dwell on it too much (and to ignore the annoyed whispers of 'showoff' coming from a certain dense harem protagonist) and instead I turned to Snowy again.

"Okay, so we are clear on the wardrobe-shredding properties of your barriers now. I have two more questions." When I said that, I also glanced over to Ammy to let her know they were mainly aimed at her. "So, these barriers initially form upon transformation. Does that mean that, conversely, you don't have any such protection when you're not transformed?"

"That's correct," Snowy confirmed with a serious nod.

"That sucks, but it's good to know in case of an emergency," I declared solemnly. "My last question is this: can this barrier be recharged or replenished in any way?"

"Once again, it depends," Ammy stated while adjusting her glasses in a contemplative and yet peevish manner. "The strength of the barrier depends on the amount of mana released during the unsealing process. It's usually impossible to reinforce it after the fact, but it can slowly regain its peak strength over time."

"How much time are we talking about? Is it applicable in battle?"

"No," this time the answer came from Snowy. "The rate is too slow, at least for us."

"Now that you mention," I spoke while glancing at the silent Celestial girl in the back. "Hey, Angie? Come here for a moment."

"No," she replied and took a long step away from me instead.

"Um… Is there a problem?" I asked her with a puzzled frown, but she only shook her head at me.

"No way!" she declared again while crossing her arms in front of her chest, probably as a form of self-defense. "I don't want to get stabbed!"

"Those were just hypotheticals," Judy told her, but the Celestial girl only shook her head again.

"No! You guys are scary!"

"Okay, then you don't have to come closer, just stop complaining and answer my question," I compromised, then to further emphasize the importance of this discussion, I added, "What we are talking now about can save your life one day."

She gave me the stinkeye for a few seconds, but then she finally relented and gestured for me to ask.

"I was curious if your barrier works differently from Snowy's."

"I don't know," she shrugged after a moment of thinking. "Actually, a lot of this is news to me too. The first time I ever got into a fight was last Sunday, so I have no experience with my barrier taking damage." At this point she paused and hastily added, "Nor do I want any, so don't punch me!"

"I'm not going to punch you," I wearily told her before I focused on Ammy again. "Can you add anything on the topic?"

She was deliberating for a few seconds, then told me, "As far as I know, Abyssal and Celestial barriers are similar in strength and utility, with individual differences far outstripping the racial ones in this regard."

"I see," I whispered as I considered all the new information I learned. "I suppose the best way to make sure no one gets hurt is to avoid getting hit in the first place, but it's good to know that Snowy and Angie have some emergency defenses. Speaking of which, we already discussed how draconians are tough even without a barrier, but what about the Magi? Do you have anything similar going on?"

"You could say," Ammy answered while gesturing at her clothes. "My conjured robes contain a few shielding enchantments that automatically trigger when I'm about to be injured."

"How does that work?" Judy inquired in my stead while I was busy reigning back the impulse to tell her that what she was wearing wasn't even in the same ballpark as a 'robe'.

"It's a form of reactive defense," Amelia stated while patting her chest. "It possesses five charges, and when triggered, it deploys a directional shield that can neutralize most incoming attacks."

"I have a question," my assistant interjected with a raised hand. "Why didn't you use it against Neige's brother?"

The class rep gave her an odd look before simply stating, "I was grabbed."

"Wait a moment," this time I cut in with a hint of alarm. "I'm seeing a trend here. Do you want to tell me that all of these defenses are only against getting hit? No protection against grappling whatsoever?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Ammy asked back like it really was, prompting me to groan aloud.

"Oh, that also makes sense now!" Josh interrupted us with his exclamation, then he quickly clarified, "I remember putting Crowey or whatshisname into a scarf hold a few seconds after I threw him, and it actually worked! Then he sprouted wings and pushed me away, but… it still worked. For a while," he finished, a bit less enthusiastically than he began.

I gestured towards Judy and told her, firmly, "Dormouse, please make note of that. It should be one of our first priorities to do something about that."

"Grappling-practice?"

"Exactly my thoughts."

"Understood," she promptly responded without looking up.

At this point I took a huge breath and used my free hand (the other one was still around Elly's waist) to massage my temple for a few seconds, then once I felt ready, I stated, "I think I have a good grasp on everyone's defensive capabilities now. Let's move on to individual skills." I looked at each of my friends in turn, only pausing when I landed on Josh. "You are a bit of a joker card right now, so we're going to come back to you later. For the time being, let's start with…" I paused for a moment, then I swiftly pointed at Angie and finished with a simple, "You."

"Me?" The Celestial girl blinked in surprise while pointing at herself.

"Yes. I mean, we have to start with someone. Please explain your abilities to the rest of us."

Angie was a little startled at first but, after a few seconds of hesitation, she took a step forward and began with an unusually serious expression.

"Well, at this point everyone knows already, but I'm a Celestial, so I can do a lot of Celestial stuff. So… I can fly?"

"Why was that a question?" Judy inquired as she stopped tapping on her phone for a second.

"I mean, I can fly, I'm just not very experienced with it," Angie admitted, then exhaled hard and continued with, "More importantly, I can use harmonic magic to a degree. I was told I had a talent for healing hymns, so I practiced those a lot."

"I'm very thankful for that," I spoke absent-mindedly, earning me a happy grin from her in return.

"You're welcome! Where was I? Right, harmonics! So, I can also do utility stuff, like detection spells, but I'm not that great at those."

"Do you have any offensive spells?" came the question from, surprisingly enough, Ammy of all people.

"Nah, I really suck at those," Angie responded with a face like she just bit into a lemon. Maybe she was reminded of a bad memory? It didn't last long though, as she let out a pent up breath and continued, "For offense, I mainly use this," saying so, she waved her left hand back and forth a few times, at which point the bracelet on her forearm unfurled in real-time into a pretty, if flimsy-looking, short bow. "It's a family heirloom. I got it in the mail together with my orientation kit when I turned twelve."

"Wait just a moment," Josh suddenly raised his voice. "So back in middle school, you didn't get obsessed with archery because of that book series where a bunch of kids fight over food or something? It was because you got that as a birthday present?"

"A little bit of option A, a little bit of B," she replied with an impish smirk.

After saying that, Angie reached out with her right hand and her fingers gently plucked at the glowing line between the limbs of the bow. It made a low yet strangely melodious sound, kind of like a harp-string, then it was abruptly silenced as she pulled it back while aiming at the ground. As she did so, a softly glowing, ethereal arrow materialized into existence on it, already nocked and ready to be fired.

"Does that bow use ambient mana to form the arrow?"

The question once again came from the class rep. She had a really intrigued look on her face and she even took a step towards her and leaned forward to get a better look.

"Yes!" Angie confirmed with a proud grin, for some reason, before she slowly returned the string to its initial position without releasing the arrow, which incidentally also made it grow dimmer until it completely disappeared. "Because of this, I have infinite ammo. It's a little hard to aim it because the weight of the arrow depends on how long I keep the bow fully drawn, but I think I'm a pretty good shot with it," she stated with a grin that said she actually considered herself more than that, but I decided not to point out her fake modesty.

"You say it increases its 'weight'," Elly spoke up for a change while also eyeing the bow. "Does it mean it hits harder the longer you aim?"

"Kinda. If I hold it too long, the arrow can get too dense and shatter on impact."

"Shatter? As in, explode?" Elly asked again, seeming very cautious all of a sudden.

"Well… you could say that."

"How big of an explosion are we talking about?"

"How should I put this…?" Angie began, then she poked Joshua in the side to get his attention. "Hey, Josh? Do you remember that old oak tree in our backyard?"

"The one that got hit by lightning last summer and split in two?"

"Precisely," Angie answered with a smug grin.

"I don't get it," Josh muttered, but then a split second later the proverbial light bulb finally lit up over his head and he hastily declared, "No, wait! I got it! I totally got that!"

I stealthily rolled my eyes at him, then gently pinched Elly's waist to get her attention.

"Is there a problem with that bow?" I asked her after she looked up at me, and she seemed conflicted for a moment.

"It just reminds me of one of the knightly weapons Sebastian told me about in the past."

"It had explosive arrows?" I asked for clarification, and she gave it with a nod.

"It could also make arrows out of thin air," she added before her pretty brows descended into a frown. "It is too much of a coincidence."

"It's not really a coincidence though," I told her absent-mindedly. "The original weapons of the knights with the unnecessarily long name were given to them by the Celestials, so it makes sense they'd be similar."

"Wait, what?" my draconic girlfriend's eyes opened wide in shock. "Is that true?"

"That's what my sources tell me," I answered a bit more carefully, realizing that this might not have been common knowledge.

In the meantime Ammy continued to scrutinize the bow while muttering, "I noticed it was an unusual weapon before, but it might actually be relic grade," then she looked its owner in the eye and requested, "Can I have a closer look at it later?"

"Um… Sure?" Angie responded in the positive, even though her expression was more than a little skeptical of the prospect.

"Okay, I think we're done with Angie," I spoke to get their attention again, then addressed the class rep. "It's your turn now."

"All right," she responded surprisingly vigorously. She faced me in particular, straightened her back, looked me in the eye, and finally she told us, "As a junior Magi of the Assembly, I'm well-versed in the theoretical aspects of most magical fields. As for the practical aspects, I am classified as a 'conjurer'. I've studied the subject since I could read." While talking, Ammy also extended her hand forwards, and a moment (plus a few flashes of magical light) later she held a familiar silver staff in her grasp. After a dramatic pause, she struck the end of the staff against the concrete floor and, following another flash of light, an equally familiar bulky figure arose from the ground. Strangely enough, even though it looked like it literally clawed its way out of the concrete, once Ammy's golem stood straight, the floor under it looked none the worse for wear.

"This is my primary familiar," the class rep stepped forward and introduced us to her golem. "It is a variant of the standard Mahozan-patterned semi-autonomous artificial humanoid. Its base material is andesite with an etched brass core. It uses my staff as its summoning catalyst, which allows me to summon it repeatedly, so long as I can withdraw the necessary amount of mana from an accessible ley line." She finished her explanation by tapping her staff against the ground again, but then she let out a small 'Ah', and hastily added, "Also, I call it Petra."

"Fitting," I told her with a smile. "So, aside from summoning this big guy, what else can you do?"

All of a sudden, the class rep fell completely silent.

"You have other spells, right?" I asked, feeling more than a little doubtful.

"Of course I do!" she glared at me while angrily fiddling with her glasses. "I can use dozens of utility spells. I can also create magical lights! Like this!"

Saying so, she waved her staff in the shape of the number eight while very quietly reciting something that sounded like mangled Latin, and once she finished, the tip of her staff got covered in soft, green light.

"Very impressive," I told her without even the tiniest smidgen of ill will in any possible shape and/or form, but she must've read something into it, as she immediately snapped at me.

"What? Do you have a problem with my light spell?"

"None at all," I answered her on the back-foot, but before I could add anything else in my defense, Ammy's shoulders suddenly drooped and she let out a sigh so depressed it was almost physically painful to hear it.

"Fine, I admit it! I'm not very talented as a Magi! So what!? That doesn't mean that all I'm good for is paperwork and helping with other people's research notes! Who needs fireballs!? I don't! Petra alone is good enough!"

"… If you say so," I told her diplomatically, concluding that it wasn't a good idea to poke this particular hornet's nest in the future.

"What about defensive spells?" my dear assistant inquired with an egregious lack of tact.

I could already see Ammy's already flushed face turn an even deeper shade of red, so I quickly came in between them and said, "Well, I think Petra is solid enough to take a few blows, so we can count it as a shield, right?"

"Yes! That is entirely correct!" Amelia declared with so much confidence I was actually tempted to believe her for a moment.

"Great. I'm glad we are in agreement," I told her before swiftly moving onto my next subject. "All right Snowy, since the class rep already showed us her trump card, it means you're next."

"Oh, o-okay," she responded a little uncertainly, no doubt due to Amelia's previous unexpected outburst. She took a deep breath, then she began with, "So… I can fly. Or rather, I can hover. I can use somatic magic, and I specialize in ice and frost. Aside from those… uuu… how should I say…" She paused here for a moment, obviously distressed. "I'm a Seducer from House Inanna, so… our family is famous for its Seducers. I… used to think I was also good at it."

"As far as I understand, being a Seducer is kind of a constitution thing, right?" I asked a question that had been on my mind since I first read it on the Celestial Hub. "So when you say you are one, it means you were born with the ability to, you know, seduce people, right?"

"Yes," Snowy responded with an attentive look.

"So, I was just curious, but how does the whole 'seduction' thing work?"

"Uuum…" my sister blinked at me, then she swiftly averted her eyes and explained, "W-Well, when it works, it's like… first I create a link with someone. For some people eye contact is enough, others need… um… physical contact. Then once I'm linked with them, I can use it to make them fascinated with me and then do what I tell them." She paused here as she glanced back at me with a really embarrassed look on her face, probably because she was recalling our first encounter, and then in a whisper she added, "It doesn't work on everyone."

"I know that," I told her with a grin. "Does that mean it requires conscious effort?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"So it's not like you can accidentally seduce, say, Judy?"

"What?" my assistant glanced up from her notes, and I flashed a grin at her.

"Just making sure you are paying attention," I told her unabashedly before facing Snowy again, who was actually deeply contemplating my question.

"No. I don't think I could do it if I try either," she shook her head at this point and added, "I mean, it is hard to create a link to someone who already holds a deep affection for someone else."

"… So it's not because you are both girls?" Instead of answering, Snowy averted her eyes again. I decided not to press the issue, so I re-railed the conversation into its original topic by asking, "So, seduction aside, what other powers do you have?"

"Well… I can create sigils."

"That's right," Ammy intruded into the conversation like her previous flustered outburst never happened. "You were the one who created the grand barrier inside the school grounds, right?"

"Y-Yes."

"It was really impressive. Can I have a look at them later?"

"Um… sure," Snowy responded, mirroring Angie's earlier reaction to the same kind of question.

"So, what can your sigils do?" I moved the conversation forward by the next obvious inquiry.

"Many things," my sister told me with an unusually proud look. "Sigils are based on the old Celestial runes. They are like a magical alphabet, and if you know the right combination of words, you can get a lot of different effects. You can seal off an area, you can use them to dispel enchantments, you can hide things with them…" After saying all that, her mood abruptly deflated, and then she added, "Unfortunately it takes a long time to make a single sigil, so they can't be used freely."

"Just a moment," I gestured for her to pause, then asked, "You mentioned hiding things. Does that also work on people?"

"Um… yes," Snowy nodded after a moment of thinking.

"Could it be that it is how this guy and his fellows can turn invisible?" I asked while pointing at my side with my thumb, visibly confusing everyone else. It wasn't unexpected, as I figured that they would be seeing nothing more than thin air.

That changed a moment later, when a mirthfully chuckling Brang casually decloaked, startling everyone in general, and my assistant in particular. In fact, she went as far as to wedge herself under my arm on the opposite side of Elly's.

"What the…!" Josh exclaimed while automatically pushing Angie behind him. "Since when was he standing there?"

"For about five minutes," I told my surprised friend with a smirk on my face, then I turned to the Faun in question. "[Your mischief is unexpected, yet amusing. I grant you my approval.]"

The ex-general responded to my comment with a silent smile. Unlike the last time we met him, he was now wearing his full armor, cape and all, and he had two spears strapped onto his back. One of them was his usual weapon with its rhombus-shaped head, while the other was a training spear with a blunt end that I ordered online. I had to admit, with all that gear, he looked quite imposing… then he immediately ruined the image by unbuckling his armor in order to show off his shoulder, and he pointed at the magical mark on his skin under his spaulders.

"[Aye. My liege graced us with this power. I have also been granted—]"

"[Halt, general. No need to disrobe, we shall trust your words all the same,]" I interrupted him just before he was about to completely take off his armor.

"What are you two growling about?" Judy whispered to me while sticking to my side like she was glued there.

"Brang just told me that he got his ability to turn invisible from Snowy. Also, he said he had something else."

The implied question made Snowy let out a barely audible 'Oh, right!' before she raised her voice and said, "Yes, I imprinted those on them! The others only have the one that hides their presence, but Uncle Brang has two more. You see, he let me use him to experiment with my sigils when I was learning, so they ended up very compatible with him. The second one lets him move quietly, and the third one lets him slow down his fall."

"That's pretty fitting for a scout-general," I mused, then I tempered my expectations and asked the most obvious question ever. "Do you think you can put those sigils onto us?"

For some strange reason Snowy looked like she didn't expect the question at all, and it took her several seconds to respond.

"I… don't know. I only ever used them of the Fauns and myself, so I don't know if they will be compatible with anyone else..." There was a moment of silence, during which she awkwardly glanced around, and after seeing the expectant looks we were giving her, she said, "I'll try."

"That's more than enough for me," I reassured her before glancing down at my draconic girlfriend. "What about you, Elly?"

"Huh?" she let out an undignified voice as she looked up, and after a moment of awkwardness, she cleared her throat and said, "I mean… I'm not that complicated, really. In my Draconic form, I can use my claws, my scales can deflect both blades and bullets, and now I can breathe true dragon flame, and that's about it."

"That's it?" I asked her to be sure, but she only nodded, and then subsequently she snuggled even closer to me. I let her, but not without a silent sigh. "If you say so. I suppose that leaves only me."

To my sincerest surprise, that actually got a huge reaction out of the rest of the gang.

"Really? Are you finally going to tell us about yourself?" Josh questioned me with a scarily intense look in his eyes.

"You already know about me as much as I do," I replied with a frown. "I'm only going to explain my abilities just like the others did."

"We're listening," Ammy declared, and I am not going to lie, the way she staring at me without blinking got me a little unnerved.

At the end of the day, I exhaled a mildly bemused sigh and began my explanation.

"So, this might not come as a surprise to you, but I can see magic. Furthermore, if I can see it, I can dispel it by cutting it with my fingers."

"Like that time when you blocked brother's attack," Snowy noted, and I confirmed it with a nod.

"That's all?" Elly suddenly asked with a curiously cocked head, apparently being completely oblivious to the fact she was mirroring me from before. After some hesitation, I decided I might as well reveal another card in my hand. Not completely, of course, but hey, at least I was making an effort.

Thinking so, I gestured for my girlfriends to let me go so that I could move around, after which I took a step forward and said, "Actually, there is one more trick up my sleeve."

I took a deep breath and leaned a little forward, like a sprinter who was waiting for the starting pistol. It was the first time I did this in reality, but I spent several hours practicing the motions with Brang using the multi-tasking support provided by doing Dominance, and so they felt completely natural. I sharply inhaled, then I lunged forward, but a split-second after I started to move, I teleported a couple of meters ahead, which put me just behind the group, where I came to an abrupt 'stop'.

I let out a deep breath and glanced over my shoulders, only to find the gang giving me completely amazed looks.

"What was that!?" Angie exclaimed while glancing between my starting position and where I was standing at the moment.

"Well," I began with a satisfied chuckle, following which I gave them the explanation I prepared with Judy, Snowy and Brang. "I call this trick 'Phasing'. It allows me to rapidly move in a straight line while ignoring any obstacles in the way."

"I knew it!" Ammy abruptly yelled out and rushed up to me. "This is what you used to escape from the gym storeroom when we got locked in last month!"

"Exactly," I agreed with my unwitting collaborator. "It's also what I used to outmaneuver the Chimera," I added another white lie onto the pile.

"How's the range?"

"A couple of meters."

"Can you really ignore anything in the way?"

"Most things."

"Does it have any restrictions?"

"I can only move in a straight line. I also can't use it repeatedly, because it strains my legs. Finally, if there is any obstruction at the endpoint, I can get hurt," I continued to deliver my pre-packaged deceptions with so much conviction even I was starting to believe them. "It's tricky to use, but it is a great skill from getting out of a pickle."

"Do you have any other hidden abilities?" Ammy asked with expectant eyes, but I immediately let her down.

"Maaaaaaybe? Or maybe not." I paused here for purely the sake of dramatics, then turned towards the last member of our group and declared in a loud voice, "But enough about boring old me! It's time for today's main attraction!"

"Oh boy," Josh muttered with an apparent mixture of dread and expectation.

"Relax, I've things planned out for you," I attempted to reassure him, but when I reached into my back pocket, he still flinched.

I didn't comment on his reaction, and instead I took out the cylindrical case I had on me since the beginning.

"What's that?" my friend asked nervously while visibly hesitating between coming closer and taking a step away from me. In the end curiosity must've won over, as he eventually walked up to me with a guarded expression.

"It's a blood lancet set," explained as I opened up the case and showed off its contents. "It's usually used by diabetics for blood glucose testing, but it'll do for us as well." I looked at each of our four supernatural girls in turn and asked, "Who wants to help with testing Josh's transformation?"

"I already did it once, so I pass," Elly mumbled while conspicuously looking away.

"I'm not good with needles," Angie pulled out of the race with a weak excuse as well, leaving only Snowy and Ammy.

"I… I will do it," Snowy declared with a flushed face.

"All right then. Please come here and give me your hand," I instructed her, and she followed suit. I took her tiny hand into my own and began my explanation. "First, I'm going to disinfect your finger, like this. Then we take this lancet here. You see, it has a tiny little spring in it, so when I press it against your fingertip, like this…" I did as I said, and the thin needle in the lancet pricked the surprised Abyssal so fast she didn't even have time to flinch. When I removed it, there was already a small bead of bright red blood growing on her white skin. "You see, it's already done."

I gave her a reassuring pat on the back, but Snowy just kept staring at her fingertip like she didn't understand what just happened. Then, after a few long seconds, she gave me one of those scared bunny looks and asked, "W-What now?"

"Now Josh is going sample your blood, obviously," I told her, earning me a thoroughly petrified look in return.

"How exactly am I supposed to do that?" Came the skeptical question from my friend, and I couldn't help but shake my head at his selective obliviousness.

"You suck on her finger, obviously," I told him while delicately taking hold of Snowy's hand once again and offering it to him.

"You can't be serious," he protested, but I didn't have any of it.

"Come on, man! Don't be a pansy and drink my sister's blood."

"You are just making this weirder than it already is!" he whined while shaking his head.

"Well, you either do this, or you kiss, and considering we already pricked her finger…"

The moment I mentioned kissing, Josh's face flushed crimson and he averted his eyes, then after a moment he weakly nodded and said, "Fine, I'll take her blood."

Leave it up to the harem protagonist to get cold feet the moment a kiss is involved, am I right? Jokes aside, since Josh finally made up his mind, I once again offered up my self-conscious sister's finger.

"There you go. Bon appétit."

"And now you are making it even weirder," Josh grumbled while grabbing hold of Snowy's hand, then after an audible gulp he whispered a limp, "Excuse me."

"It's okay," she replied with a bashful flutter of her eyelashes. Or maybe her eyelids were just cramping from the tension? Either way, Josh gulped again, closed his eyes, and then he finally placed her finger into his mouth.

It took less than a second for the first change to occur. Josh's chest gave out a strange creaking noise, following which his body slowly swelled up to the point where he was almost as tall as me. His gym clothes, unfortunately, didn't survive the ordeal, and while they didn't get as far as being 'vaporized', by the end of his quick transformation, Josh ended up only wearing the patented Hulk-pants.

Overall my friend's new appearance didn't look as drastically different as when he took Elly's blood, but it was still distinct enough to make it easy to realize he was an Abyssal now. Most glaring of all, his temples were adorned by a pair of horns the same color as his hair, and the way they curled around his head made his face look wider. In fact, his face might've actually been wider for real, as now he had a much more defined jawline. Below the neck though, the transformation was less pronounced. Sure, he got bigger and bulkier, but he didn't grow cloven feet or wings.

Anyhow, when he finally opened his mouth and took Snowy's finger out of it, his first words were, "Oh for the love of…! This was my only set of PE uniform!"

"I'm glad to see you still have your priorities in order," I told him with a wry smile. "How do you feel?"

"I don't feel very different," he mumbled while glancing around. "Did you get smaller?"

"It's the other way around," I replied while gesturing towards Judy. "Start the timer."

"Started," my assistant promptly responded.

"Good," I nodded in satisfaction before looking at Brang next. "[General, I request that you proceed as we agreed in advance.]"

The Faun let out a grunt in the affirmative, after which he stomped his feet against the ground, startling everyone for a moment. More importantly though, when he did that, a hazy bubble spread out like a wave with him as its epicenter, and after it washed over us, we found ourselves standing in the same bare hall, except dressed in various shades of purple.

"All right, kids!" I exclaimed, and then further startled everyone by clapping my hands, my lips automatically parting into a grin. "We don't know hold long this transformation will last, so…" I raised one of my hands to the side, and without need for any further prompting, Brang calmly handed me the replica spear from his back. I took it, set its butt against the floor with a resounding thud, and then finished by saying, "Let's start the physical examination, shall we?"