Reine Possessed Shiori!

[Seraph of Thousand Blades] was quite reliable when it came to travel. With a whoosh, once they entered it, they immediately arrived at their destination.

Taking a light breath, Qian Huanyue was pulled by Tohka to the entrance of Itsuka House.

Tohka directly took out her key and opened the door. "Shiori! We're back! We even brought pudding!"

The room was unexpectedly empty.

"Eh?" The excitement on Tohka's face instantly froze. She tilted her head in confusion, her purple eyes sweeping the room. "Shiori? Isn't she home?"

Carrying the bag of pudding, Qian Huanyue familiarly walked into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and placed the pudding on the chilled shelf.

"Looks like Shiori had something come up and went out." As she spoke, she closed the refrigerator door.

Afterward, she naturally walked into the living room and sat down on that familiar sofa, even casually adjusting the cushion.

Yawning.

"Mm... Everyone has seemed really busy lately," Tohka said somewhat dejectedly.

With the feeling that ignorance was bliss, Qian Huanyue chatted with Tohka about recent trivial matters, distracting her while also probing for information.

1. Shiori had regained her female identity while attending school, entering the academy alongside Tohka as a transfer student named Shiori.

That was good, then.

2. Ratatoskr seemed to have been very busy recently. Even matters like stabilizing the Spirits' emotions had not been given top priority for the time being.

Qian Huanyue wondered whether the butterfly effect she had set in motion had caused DEM to take notice of Ratatoskr here ahead of schedule. Attacks, interference, and the like.

3. Shiori had been in a bad mood lately. She seemed especially burdened with worries and had even begun showing signs of insomnia. She was hiding and worrying about something.

Qian Huanyue was not the narcissistic type. Shiori's condition definitely was not because Qian Huanyue had suddenly left that day, or because of something like hissing at Ratatoskr.

There had to be some other reason. Had she seen something unpleasant?

For example, perhaps Kurumi replenishing her time had been discovered. That would indeed be quite shocking for an ordinary person.

Or perhaps Qian Huanyue was overthinking it, and Shiori had merely gone out to buy groceries.

"Oh! So that's how it is!"

Tohka watched the fortune-telling program on television with great enthusiasm. The gaudy crystal ball on the screen and the host's exaggerated tone had completely convinced her. Turning to Qian Huanyue with a smile, her purple eyes sparkling, she said, "My luck rating is five stars today! That's great, Huanyue! Shiori's mood will get better."

No, no, no. That was all probability, Tohka!

Seeing Tohka's utterly trusting, unquestioning expression, Qian Huanyue inwardly facepalmed.

With how innocent you are, you'd be so easy to trick into buying those absurdly overpriced health supplements.

This wasn't China, after all.

Programs and products that exaggerated their effects to heaven and back could not at least appear so openly on mainstream television here, much less have celebrities promote them...

Still, given how simple-minded Tohka was, even with ordinary TV shopping, if she thought something was useful, she would probably believe it without hesitation and call the number at the bottom of the screen, right?

"Um, Tohka," Qian Huanyue felt it was necessary to give this Spirit, who lacked common sense, a little warning.

"Things said on television are sometimes... not entirely accurate. Especially fortune-telling like this. It's more like... entertainment. Just listen to it. If it predicts good luck, happily accept it. If it predicts bad luck, then there's no need to believe it."

Those things were randomly generated or made up based on things like zodiac signs and blood types.

"Oh! Shiori's back!" Tohka seemed to have caught the scent of ingredients.

Sure enough, the door opened with a click.

Shiori looked absolutely terrifying. The dark circles beneath her eyes had not faded in the slightest, making her look ethereal—like she might ascend to immortality at any second.

She looked so weak that someone would definitely immediately offer her a seat if she got on a train.

She was the same type as Reine.

—Was this what a mother-daughter vibe felt like?!

Qian Huanyue was startled, that somewhat impolite yet strangely fitting comparison flashing through her mind.

No wonder Tohka had noticed so easily.