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"Back when we followed Rossi around, fighting was inevitable."
She sighed, drawing out the sound.
"Now that he's joined the Charlotte Family through marriage, he probably won't need us to come along anymore, will he?"
A faint licking sound came from beside her.
Gary, the cat-eared girl holding a drink, turned her face toward her, a little milk foam still on the tip of her tongue.
"Do you have feelings for him?"
"What nonsense-"
Oni tossed her straw aside, buried her face in her folded arms, and shook her head from side to side.
"It's just that thinking about not being able to hide behind him when we fight anymore makes me feel uncomfortable all over."
"Like someone's taken your favorite toy away?"
Gary's words struck right at the heart of it.
To Oni, Rossi was the bastard who had caused her mission to fail when she was young, and also the savior who had dragged her out of the deep-sea prison.
As their Navigator, she had accompanied him on several voyages.
If there was another woman around from now on...
"Tch, this is so irritating."
"Push! Harder!"
"Brother Oven, hang in there!"
In another hall, two burly men sat facing each other on chairs made of sturdy candy.
Their hands were locked tightly together, the muscles in their wrists taut as forged metal. Veins bulged and snaked beneath their skin as strength poured steadily from their arms.
It was an arm-wrestling match.
On one side was Oven of the Charlotte Family, and on the other was a man from the Family named Pica.
Daifuku, Cracker, Trebol, and Diamante stood around them with their arms crossed, watching.
Farther out, a ring of younger Charlotte Family members shouted their encouragement.
Faint creaking sounds came from their clasped hands.
Yet