"Is no one gonna stop Korū from killing the guy?" Shōhei cut through. He definitely wasn't gonna get in Korū's way.
"Don't kill him, if not it will defeat the purpose of finding out how to reverse the ikrar." Shizuna answered, sounding annoyed by how her guests seem to keep wanting to kill people in her house. Where were their manners?
"Great." Tsukiyama said. "The promise is annoying, anyway."
Alina looked at him in disgust. "You really have no sense of dignity, do you?"
He just shrugged, to which Alina curled her lip and turned away.
"You're disgusting," Ichika said suddenly. She looked pissed.
"So are you," Hikari and Korū commented.
Shizuna sighed and angled her body away from Tsukiyama, as if the mere sight of him was torturous..
Ichika glared at the twins. "You-"
"Have every right to not like you," Hikari interrupted.
"Don't-"
"Talk right now, Fujihana." Korū's gaze was icy.
"Bitch-"
"Shut the fuck up." Cayne muttered.
She shut up.
From where Alina was sitting, she could make out the smirk that had found its way to Shizuna's face.
"I'm back." Rihito announced, entering the room again.
Shōhei glanced at him. "So, we're gonna reverse the ikrar and make him talk?"
"The ikrar is a serious spell. It's not going to be that easy to reverse it, but yes, that's the general idea." Rihito said.
"Does he get his nail back, at least? It looks disgusting," Hikari said with a cringe.
"Uh," Rihito said, "no…?"
"Ugh." Hikari's gaze flicked to Tsukiyama's face. "You're a dumbass, you know?"
"Just shut up and get on with it already," Korū grumbled.
"We still don't know exactly what happened just now." Cayne pointed out. This was absolutely not systematic. At least, not the way he would normally do things himself.
"Honestly, I think that should have come first." Shizuna conceded, "Now that I come to think of it."
Shōhei sighed and downed the truth potion, wanting to get this all over with.
"So, what happened after you guys went out of the room?" Linda asked first.
"Korū just dragged me around the halls. We were wandering around and bam, we saw Fujihana over there attacking Alina."
Alina tossed back a portion of the potion too. It had a metallic, sweet taste. "I went to search for the two of them. Told the others I could find them myself. After I left, I heard footsteps not long after. I turn around and see that pathetic excuse of a wizard, who explained that he was taking 'precautions' to make sure I don't get lost. A few moments later he conspicuously draws his wand and tries to paralyse me. Next thing I knew, they appeared." She said, jerking her head towards Korū and Shōhei as she said the last part.
"Akui turned up not long after. He nearly killed Korū," Shōhei added.
"Mh. Why the hell did you threaten to kill yourself?" Korū cut in, turning to Alina.
"What?" Linda exclaimed.
Alina replied, "I had a suspicion after we discovered the Saeki curse. Apparently, in 120, Delphine went to a convention for inter pack relations or some shit, which also involved the Earthling packs."
"Holy-" Linda started.
"Wait-" Cayne said.
"Yes, I think I'm related to Hikari and Korū. How Akui knew, I have absolutely no idea. I'm not even hundred percent sure my suspicions are correct but ah... yeah."
"What?" Korū blinked. "Moonbound?"
"No idea."
"Great. Now there's one more person to worry about." Shōhei sighed.
"I mean… as long as there's one other person around, we can threaten to commit suicide." Alina pointed out.
"That's gonna be very effective if he kills all of you in your sleep or something."
"Eh." Alina said, "Nothing's ever foolproof, so."
"Someone was grumbling about how my plan wasn't foolproof," Hikari stated.
"That was nowhere close to mildly safe!" Alina protested.
"We were just gonna sit there in the End Abyss! What else could happen except maybe murder? The risk's just as high as yours!" Hikari retorted.
"I'll correct myself; that's hardly a plan."
"How is threatening to kill yourself whenever Akui appears considered a plan?"
"I never said it was!" Alina argued.
"Can the two of you shut the fuck up?" Korū growled.
"I think it's time we moved on." Rihito suggested. "The method to reverse an ikrar is somewhere in here." He gestured to the book that now lay on the table. "This contains all the Fujihana family spells and potions. While it isn't a lot, it's precious. So I have no idea why I'm even allowing you this close to it, since I've only known you for a day."
"That's kind of you." Cayne commented to Rihito.
"I feel like it'll be my downfall-"
"You were never above rock bottom in the first place." Shizuna jokingly interrupted.
Rihito glared at her.
"Alina kinda left him with no choice," Shōhei chipped in.
"I didn't." Alina denied.
"Yes you did."
"I asked nicely!"
"Yeah, but you didn't give him a choice, what with that look you had on your face."
"He did it on his own free will." Alina insisted.
"Let's move on, shall we?" Linda butted in.
"Yeah, shut up," Korū grumbled.
"Okay… so. Book. Confidential. You tell anyone and we hunt you down." Rihito said. Linda chuckled. "I'm honoured enough that you guys are even helping us."
"Mh," Tsukiyama muttered.
"You get no say in this, you piece of shit," Korū hissed.
"I don't." He concluded, then blinked, a confused expression crossing his face. "Damn it."
Hikari snorted.
Rihito flipped through the book and set it down, open, on the table. "Let's finally get on with this."
"Actually, can we do that tomorrow?" Shizuna asked. "I have an hour of sleep left at this rate."
"You're actually getting sleep?" Korū was pretty much dead.
"It's an attempt." she answered.
"Wait, if we all go sleep now, we can leave this guy tied up here right?" Cayne asked.
"Wait, what?" Tsukiyama said, "You can- damn it, please don't."
"I vote we leave him here," Shōhei said.
"Agreed." Alina said.
"I'm not objecting." Shizuna muttered, and Tsukiyama widened his eyes at her.
"You really deserve it, honestly." Linda told him. "And that's an understatement."
Rihito nodded too.
Kaguya meowed in agreement, and Hikari snickered.
"Yeah, let's get some sleep." Rihito said, turning and walking away, "Good night."
Ichika glared at Tsukiyama, then went off to her own bedroom.
Shizuna sighed as she watched Rihito's figure disappear into the corridor, and beckoned for the rest of them to follow her.
Korū dragged himself up from the floor, Hikari getting up after him, then reached out to tug Shōhei after them.
'Are we sure that Tsukiyama won't like, escape or anything?" Linda asked as they trailed after.
"I did a sweep of the manor. There's only ten people and one cat." Shizuna replied.
"Really? When?" Alina asked.
"During one of your arguments."
"Fair enough." Alina muttered as they temporarily went their separate ways.