As Shōhei was admiring the place, his jacket had shifted enough for the gun to be seen. Alina had then taken the opportunity to take it when he was talking to Chihaya. Not only that, while him, Chihaya, and Korū were busy talking, she had waved it in everyone's faces and made it a point to dance around with it.
"You're gonna bleed if you keep biting your lip like that," Korū told Cayne.
Cayne stopped biting his lip, only to immediately collapse into a heap on the floor as the laughter wracked his body.
None of them realised that Alina had just slipped the gun into Korū's bag.
She was bored.
"Okay, everyone here's flipping crazy. I'm out." Korū sighed and walked off.
"Where… wh… where i...is he go….ing?" Greta choked out.
"To find Kaguya." The cat had ditched Chihaya and ran off somewhere, the latter following close behind, and Korū was merely following Kaguya's trail.
"Sure." Greta's mom said, not at all weirded out by all the people standing in the middle of her living room.
"Uh- hi-?" Shōhei said uncertainly.
"Hello. Greta filled me in earlier, and-"
"I only told you that I had friends coming, Mom."
"-we'll wait for your other friend to come back before we get you to tell us what we need to know." her mother said.
Greta's jaw dropped a little. "Wait, how did you...?" She shrugged in response.
"Sounds good, I guess. Thank you, ma'am." Linda responded, still smiling slightly as they all came down from their high.
The woman returned the smile, "Just call me Mrs Ishikawa, by the way."
They all stood around for a moment, before Korū returned a while later, carrying Kaguya, Chihaya trailing behind. "I'm back."
"Follow me." Mrs Ishikawa led them to a sitting room, before going to hunt for Mr Ishikawa.
In the meantime, the teenagers left in the room continued their previous conversation.
"So, did you find the gun?" Chihaya asked.
Korū glanced at Shōhei, who shrugged because he didn't actually care. "Apparently not."
"Isn't that a little more than a little dangerous?" Greta asked cheekily.
"Nah. Plus Korū isn't gonna let me die, so I honestly don't have anything to worry about."
"There's always someone better than us at fighting out there. How is Korū supposed to make sure you won't die if he might not even be able to protect himself?" Linda asked.
"I'd rather I die," Korū responded. "I'm not kidding. But he's also not gonna let me die, so."
"Aw, that's sweet." Alina cooed, her eyes twinkling as she watched Cayne's reaction. He had all but twitched.
Korū nearly snorted at Alina's words.
Alina felt like snorting too, because Korū hadn't tried to kill her yet. Interesting developments. He didn't even try to say anything.
At that moment, the master and mistress of the house entered the room. There was a beat of awkward silence where no one knew what they should do next, before Greta stood up from the couch she was lounging on and started to introduce people.
"So, you want us to lead you to the alcove?" Mr Ishikawa asked. They nodded. "Why?"
"Whose turn is it to tell the story again?" Alina asked.
"Uh… Cayne?"
"I'd rather it be you, Linda. You're probably more clear of the situat-" Linda was glaring at him. "-okay, fine."
When Cayne finished, the Ishikawa family was nodding thoughtfully in understanding.
"How did you manage to contact us, though? I'm curious." Chihaya asked, his eyes glinting as he eyed his younger sister.
She coughed.
"Apparently Alina here has lots of contacts."
"What's going on here?" A boy, about thirteen, was standing by the doorway, taking in the sight of everyone chilling on the couches.
Greta blanched. "Nothing at all."
Her parents eyed her suspiciously.
"I'll join you guys, then." The boy said, flopping down beside his parents.
"Alina, how did you get to know Greta?" Mr Ishikawa asked her.
"Well, last year, a friend and I thought it would be a great idea to hike up Mount Fuji." Alina said, not at all feeling sorry for Greta, who looked like she wanted to be swallowed by the couch.
"You've gone to Fuji?" The boy asked. Alina nodded.
"The bottom of it, at least. We kind of got sidetracked. We reached there with no problems, but we met a girl as we were walking around the village."
Greta groaned.
Korū was like, "What friend?"
"Richard."
"The same guy who sent the note?" Mr Ishikawa inquired.
"Yes." Akina gave a nod, "He couldn't come."
"Ah. Okay, go on."
"We noticed the girl because she was going towards the Suicide Forest, a stick in hand." Alina grinned evilly at Greta.
"So that's where my wand went!" the boy exclaimed.
"...wow." Korū muttered. "Okay, sure, I guess that happens."
"Richard was pretty indignant." Alina commented.
"I know he was." Greta said.
"If he's a wizard, I can totally imagine that happening." the boy said dryly.
"He was going to expose me!" Greta exclaimed.
"We only have one wand in our lifetime! What if you lost it?"
"You're exposed now, anyway, young lady." Her mother said, looking mildly amused. "You know how much a wand means to a witch or wizard."
Greta nodded, relaxing slightly since she hadn't died yet. "Anyway, Alina convinced him not to, so I kinda owe her."
"And it's great that you haven't changed your number in a year." Alina said.
"Should have."
"Anyway, moving on-"
"Wait, you're not gonna scold her for taking it?" the boy asked.
"Katsurou, the only reason you realised someone even took your wand was because Greta didn't have the brain cells to stick it back where you left it." Mrs Ishikawa said.
"I did." Greta claimed, "He just didn't have the brain cells to remember where he left it."
"Why did you take the wand in the first place?" Mr Ishikawa asked.
Greta was silent for a moment. "I wanted to see if I could do magic, you know? Like, growing up around you guys, you would think some might have rubbed off on me." she confessed quietly.
"We could arrange something." Linda suggested.
"A werewolf doing magic?" Korū snorted disbelievingly. "Is that even possible?"
"I was hoping, okay? Anyway, I hadn't shifted at that time, and I was like, gonna be fourteen then. It was Alina who assured me that some people shift late." Greta snarled defensively.
"Okay, and?" Korū was unimpressed.
Linda glared at him. "Have you ever reached a phase where you were worried that you would never shift?"
"Nope."
"C'mon, Korū, be nice," Shōhei chided.
"Dream on."
"I'm officially out of this conversation." Greta said, getting up and walking out of the room.
Chihaya sighed. "I'll make sure she doesn't do anything stupid," he said, following after Greta. "Wait," he turned back around, picking up Kaguya before he continued on his way.
"Leave my cat alone, you little-" Korū leaped up from his seat.
Chihaya glanced back at him, "He'll come back to you eventually anyway, so." and continued walking.
"Oi, bastard!" Korū went after him. Shōhei sighed.
"I think we want a favour before we let you into the alcove." Mr Ishikawa mused, looking thoughtful.