Even though there was the awkward silence that hung in the air, Kyoko's dad just kept staring at me.
In the end, it was Kyoko herself who broke the silence by saying, "Hey, old man, what kind of nonsense are you saying?"
As she said this, there was a trace of worry in her voice as she kept peeking at me.
It was as if she was afraid that I would be getting the wrong message from this.
But I didn't look at her as I looked right at Kyoko's dad.
After a long silence, I took a deep breath and revealed a smile to say, "She's my childhood friend, of course I would take care of her."
All of them revealed stunned looks when they heard this.
The looks that they gave me without a doubt hurt, but I chose to ignore them since I knew what the consequences of addressing them would be. There was nothing to gain from me addressing them, so I did all that I could to ignore them.
After another long moment of silence, Kyoko's dad just shook his head and said, "Let's eat then."
The others also gave a sigh as they looked at me with a strange look before turning to eat as well.
I just gave a bitter laugh deep down when I saw them like this, but I didn't say anything in the end.
However, halfway through the meal, there was a distraction.
"We're home!"
There was this voice that came from the entrance of the house.
I couldn't help looking in the direction of the entrance with a surprised and confused look. After all, as far as I knew, these were all the members of Kyoko's family, so there shouldn't be anyone else that lived here.
But I also could see the strange looks that Kyoko's family had on their faces.
Kyoko's dad looked at Kyoko and said, "Didn't you tell them not to come back today? I told you to tell them."
Kyoko revealed an awkward look and said, "I forgot…I was too excited about inviting him that I forgot."
Her mother and brother both sat there with awkward looks on their faces, but they also seemed like they were accepting what was about to happen.
I couldn't help being even more confused when I saw all of this.
During this, the door to the living room opened and there were two figures that walked in.
One was a familiar one and one was one that I wasn't familiar with.
The one that I was familiar with was a handsome young man.
He was the same one who had appeared when I had met Kyoko that one time. He was the one that had appeared to send that young man who had suddenly appeared to the hospital.
I knew that he was one of Kyoko's shikigami, but the strange thing was what he was wearing.
He was wearing our school's uniform.
It was the same for the girl that I didn't recognize, she was also wearing our school's uniform.
This girl was a gyaru girl with a fake tan, blonde hair in pigtails, and various forms of jewelry on her face.
She was the perfect example of a gyaru girl, she even wore those loose socks on her feet.
When the two of them came in and saw me sitting at the table, they both revealed shocked looks before turning to look at Kyoko as if they were asking what they should do.
Kyoko gave a sigh and said, "Un, I think that you've met them before. These two are my shikigami."
I looked at the young man and gave a nod, but when I turned to look at the gyaru girl, I revealed a confused look.
Kyoko didn't find it strange when I looked at the gyaru girl like this and just said, "Un, you've met her before, but I don't think that you've ever seen her in this form before." She turned to the gyaru girl and said, "You should change back to your normal form."
The gyaru girl pouted her lips and said, "But Hime Hime looks so cute like this, how could anyone not like Hime Hime like this?"
Hime?
That did sound familiar, but I just couldn't remember where I had heard this before.
Seeing the way that Kyoko glared at her, the gyaru girl did transform in the end.
When she transformed, I immediately recognized her since she had left a large impression on me when we had met the last time.
She was the shikigami who had charged into the group of yokai with Kyoko, swinging her spiked bat and sending all of them flying.
This was the crazy demon who had laughed while swinging her club that sent all those yokai flying.
This was not someone that I wanted to mess with.
After she finished transforming, her tone completely changed as she said in a soft and serious voice, "It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Hime."
The handsome young man also took this chance to introduce himself, "I'm Hachibe, nice to meet you."
I gave a simple nod back as a form of acknowledgement for their introductions before turning to Kyoko to ask, "Why are they wearing our school's uniform?"
Kyoko revealed a confused look before saying, "Why else would they be wearing the uniform? They go to our school."
"Huh?" I couldn't help exclaim in a shocked voice before saying, "Can shikigami go to school?"
It wasn't Kyoko who answered this, but rather Kyoko's mother, "They're officially registered as our relatives, so it's not a problem for them to go to school. Besides, I feel safer having them by Kyoko's side while she's at school. They can protect her if anything dangerous happens to her."
Kyoko's father just gave a simple nod of agreement.
Kyoko revealed an awkward look as she turned her face away.
I looked back at Hime and Hachibe before slowly giving a nod.
This situation was a bit strange to me, but since everyone else accepted it, was there anything that I could say?