For most of that half hour, Suigintou had been squirming around as if she had nails under her butt, until her Artificial Spirit finally cleaned out the keyhole. During that time, Lilina had been pinned into a basket by me and made to recite the Seven-Colored Mary Sue Anthology for half an hour. The two little midgets each had their own personal hell—the difference was that one suffered from being routinely tricked, while the other had it coming.
"B-Boss..." Lilina poked her head out of the basket and looked at me with tear-filled eyes. "I can't memorize any more. I still want to eat later..."
I casually pulled out the little runt, who would not even be as tall as Pandora if stretched straight, and tossed her in front of Suigintou. "Apologize. Now."
Lilina hesitated, glanced at the basket, then at me, and apparently decided life inside the basket would be worse. She obediently bowed to Suigintou. "Sorry. I shouldn't have squeezed shampoo into your keyhole."
Suigintou was directing her Artificial Spirit to scrub and rinse inside her keyhole, humming comfortably. At that, she gave an "oh" in response. Then the eyes of the two little girls, whose combined age predated the Industrial Revolution, met—and a few seconds later, sparks flew again.
"Hehe, those two get along so well," Older Sister said with a hand over her mouth, smiling happily.
I looked suspiciously at Older Sister. "How do you figure they get along? Every time they meet, it's like Obama meeting Bin Laden."
Older Sister raised one finger and wagged it. "Suigintou never trusts anyone outside her family, and Lilina never pranks strangers. With that child's personality, every nonlethal joke is reserved for family."
Cold sweat ran down my forehead. So Lilina only had two attitudes toward outsiders: either she