A Gift

The room rang with a clatter, and only after five successive crashes of heavy objects did it finally fall quiet.

I felt Suigintou wriggle in my arms, her soft little body straining as she poked her small head out from below. "Idiot human! Why did you suddenly hug me?!"

Her voice held seventy percent anger and thirty percent happiness. It seemed my instinctive action had successfully earned quite a bit of goodwill. In the past, if I had bear-hugged her without her permission, this Girl would have already launched a steel-fanged strike straight at my carotid artery.

"Hiss—you really went for the kill," I said, somewhat awkwardly loosening my arms around the soft little body beneath them. The moment I raised my hand, my back twitched painfully. I wasn't injured, but the corners of the Rozen Maidens' boxes were seriously hard. If an ordinary person had taken that beating, they'd probably be receiving end-of-life care by now. "Especially you! Suiseiseki! Is there anyone who aims for someone's tailbone when throwing things?! Don't play dumb. I put labels on your boxes ages ago!"

"Suigintou said you can't be smashed to death anyway!"

The doll girl with red-and-green heterochromatic eyes gave up pretending and pushed open her box as she spoke with perfect confidence.

The culprit beside her immediately burrowed under the blanket. "I'm sleeping!"

I suddenly felt that I might have spoiled her too much. How had such a fine chairman turned into such a troublesome little brat?

I waved my hand, telling the doll girls who were fooling around instead of sleeping in the middle of the night to place their packaging-box-cum-charging-sockets in the corner. Then I looked seriously at the little heads surrounding me. Suigintou was still hiding under my blanket beside me, with only the upper half of