| abstract | - Weakly pushing the front door open, Gai Nagareboshi sighed. It was only two hours ago that he had unofficially adopted a child; now, the only thing now to do now was wait for the reactions of everyone else. There was no way in hell that he could pass Eimi off as anything else but an adopted kid. Either that, or call himself a lolicon. …Nahhhh, the former was a more viable option. All seemed right where he was; there was nothing peculiar going on—'This may be easier than I thought,' Gai's brain told him. Of course, he'd soon eat his words—a trudging sound rang out from upstairs. Oh, shit! Someone was coming. Alright, now he had to hide Eimi. Analyzing the area, the Mototsu-Seishin hybrid surveyed the surroundings, before dashing to the closet, stowing Eimi in the cupboard, much to her annoyance. The person who walked downstairs possessed a slender and effeminate build- yet kept a slightly muscular stature. The figure had hair that jutted out in all directions at the back with several blue streaks in his hair. His hair was parted on the right side, and there were a few blue strands in the gap. His bangs framed his face; the young man looked like a male model. This was Mitsuru Inazuma—Gai looking as if he'd been up to something suspicious caused Mitsuru to raise his eyebrows, inquiring, "…Ah. You're awake." He attempted to gaze beyond Gai's figure, which caused Gai to panic, shifting his position to cover the cupboard. "…What are you hiding, anyway?" Heh. Of course he wasn't gonna tell him. Sweat began to trail down Gai's forehead, as he exclaimed, "W-Why, nothing…! Nothing at all, hehe…" "On other matters, Happy Birthday." He continued; hoping to stray Mitsuru from persisting in attempting to find out what was beyond his figure. Mitsuru responded, "Cut the crap, I know you've forgotten. …Ah, well. It's such an obscure date that I don't blame you. That's not the point here. What are you hiding, Gai Nagareboshi?" Gai refused to give in; after a moment's passing, Mitsuru gently pushed Gai out of the way and opened the cupboard to reveal Eimi. He, well, didn't know what to say, other than, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?" Dammit. He thought he'd removed all the little girls from the house the last time Sayaka needed a place to stay. Eimi smiled up at him, "Hello!" She greeted him with an honest smile. Gai's eyes met with Mitsuru, who clearly, was not amused; pissed even. Mitsuru's eyes trailed from Gai to Eimi. Mitsuru's facial expressions froze, as he moved his eyes to Gai again, who avoided eye contact. Explaining this would take hours, really. "Uh…" Mitsuru Inazuma, just like Gai Nagareboshi was at a loss for words. Gai covered his face with his hand. "Alright, alright…" Crap. How could he explain this? Explaining Kurenai was bad enough—now this!? Mitsuru stuttered, "…What is going on? Explain it." Gai stuttered while grasping Eimi's arms, "…Uhm, you see…" He raised her up to meet Mitsuru eye-to-eye; her smile never fading. Now, to think of an excuse. "…Here's your birthday present." Mitsuru grumbled, "A little girl for a birthday present? Who do you think I am, Sayaka?" Ah, shit. He took it the wrong way. "N-No! I, I, I mean, I was thinking…" …Crap. He knew he'd go to hell for this. "…Maybe, we could adopt—" Ah, shit. All the responsibilities that were associated with having a kid hit him all at once like a ton of bricks. Oh, how he wished to take back his words, before Eimi nonchalantly handed him a chocolate cake behind his back. Wait, what? Where'd this come from? He didn't remember buying that from the convenience store, that was for sure. "Wait, never mind. Heeere you go!" Forcing a smile, Gai handed Mitsuru the cake, who inexplicably believed that Gai had actually cooked it. "Wait, did you cook this cake?" Gai sighed. He couldn't lie. "…No, but I found it. Just then." Mitsuru sighed, "Ah, well. At least you're not horrifically injured in the hospital or inexplicably busy for my birthday. That's all I need." Thank god. Gai felt relieved upon hearing those words. "That devil woman sure is taking her time," said Mitsuru as he leaned back in the sofa. Gai and Eimi were checking out what was inside the spacious room. There were card games and board games on some shelves and a video game system was installed next to the large TV. It seemed the TV could also be used to browse the internet. It also had a satellite connection, so there were more than three hundred channels to choose from. This meant that it would take a long time to find something to watch even if there was something you wanted to watch on. Eimi had given up on finding something to watch and the TV was left on news about the end of the Amanogawa City crisis. It was something about the weapons not needed now that the conflict was over being transported to Seireitei for dismantlement. Gai quickly gave up on the TV, sat down on the sofa, and started looking through the road service reference book, but then someone grabbed the edge of his clothes. He looked up and saw Eimi looking bored. At her request, he started looking for a multiplayer game. Thanks to Nika's renovations, there were a lot of party games that could be played with a lot of people. It might have been silly to turn towards hobbies and time-killing devices but if they sat still and went crazy, they would have lost everything. They would win by safely returning to their everyday lives. "I essentially want to play that." Eimi stretched out her hands, but she couldn't reach her target which was on the top shelf. "This?" The shelf had video games lined up on it. "No. Not something as boring as that." Gai pointed at another, "Then this?" Eimi sighed, "To the right. To the right. Farther right. No left. There." Gai moved his finger along the shelf as he listened to Eimi, but then he felt something heavy on his back. Eimi was using him in place of a ladder to get her small frame up to the shelf. "This," she said as she pulled a game from the shelf. "…No, that's…" Eimi smiled. "I wanna play Mad World." Gai stuttered, "What kind of title is that? That just makes it sound like it's full of horrible things! Look, the screenshots on the back of the package are almost all blood red!" It looked like a gorefest where a chainsaw wielding guy carved people up like butter. It practically screamed "For the foreign market!" When he carefully read the instructions, it seemed the protagonist was the one doing the slaughtering. Gai carefully chose his words. "L-Look, doesn't this one with the fluffy pets look fun?" Eimi responded, "Mad World." Gai sighed, "What about Pokémon Coliseum?" Eimi retorted, "Mad World." Gai stuttered, "Hyperdimension—" Eimi snapped, "I want to play it!" Eimi held the blood-red package in her hands, hid her mouth behind it, and stared up at him. Gai paused for a second. "I'm not going to let you, but can I take a picture of that?" "Gyaaoohhh!!" The two of them got all worked up and Mitsuru stood up from the sofa. "…That devil woman is taking too long. I'm going to try to contact her again." While Eimi looked over at the cell phone screen, Gai gestured to Mitsuru with his fingers. The gesture was saying that something bad was definitely about to happen if they waited. "I know that," muttered Mitsuru in what was almost a sigh. "I know that—what does that have to do with anything? …Alright, I'm on my way." As he hung up, Mitsuru sighed, as if telling Gai something was definitely up. "…Sorry, I've gotta leave. Nika needs help with tuning her electric guitar." Wait, what? She's calling him out for something as low-key as that? Gai remained silent, as Mitsuru slowly left.
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