A few moments after Yuri and the gang rushed to Ashley’s house, Ashley regained consciousness. The way her red eyes fluttered open, coupled with her small stature, made her look like a tiny animal. “Uhh? I…”
“Good morning, Ashley,” said Filia, rubbing Ashley’s shoulder gently. “I’m sorry about this.”
Filia’s actions were so fluid and natural that Ashley was completely at her mercy. “Huh? H-hey, Big Sis?!”
“Okay, there don’t seem to be any problems, thank goodness!” Filia had such a carefree smile on her face.
When Ashley saw that, she realized that Filia had just been genuinely worried about her. “Ah…o-oh, that’s what you were doing! I was a little shocked.”
“Huh? What did you think I was d—” The moment Filia read Ashley’s mind, her face turned the color of cherry blossoms. The silver-haired, rosy-cheeked elf looked for all the world like a painting. “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do that!” she stammered, waving her hands to hide her pale face.
Ashley realized that Filia had peeked into her mind and flopped face down on the bed in sheer mortification. “Eek! I’m so embarrassed!” she wailed, her twin tails swaying around as she kicked her legs up and down.
This was going to put a damper on their conversations for a bit.
✦ ✦ ✦
Weird. There were loud voices coming from inside Ashley’s bedroom. After Filia had gone to make sure Ashley was okay, we were going to explain the situation with Loli Loli, but now there were all these weird sounds coming through the door. Like “I’m sorry” or “I’m so embarrassed”…
“Hey, is it all right if I come in now?” I asked.
“Uh, ah! P-please wait just a minute!” Filia shouted in a panicked voice.
Aw, man… Filia was concerned that Ashley might be confused if she found Loli Loli in her house without an explanation, so I’d been waiting in the living room with Loli Loli. Just the two of us. Yeah. It was bumming me out. I wasn’t really good with kids. They had a habit of crying when they saw my face.
Loli Loli held my hand tightly though, swaying back and forth. Man, her hands were tiny. They were the color of burnt amber. As I examined her hand, she looked up at my face with the sudden shock of an animal.
“Whoa, Yuri! Your hands are huge!”
“Ah, yeah. It’s a result of my training.” When I had grown to my current size, I had learned how to change the size of my hands at will. Even though the person I was talking with right now was a child, I guessed I could be happy for the praise? Still, I was taking care not to scare her.
“Oh, training? Soooo…if I train, will my hands get huge too?”
“If you put in effort, sure.”
Loli Loli let go of my hand and began to look down at her own hands. Her shoulders were trembling. Her voice quivered with sadness. “No… I don’t want my hands to get huge…” Tears started welled in her eyes.
Argh—she was always so volatile, it was really stressing me out! “H-hey, Filia. Can I still not come in?!”
“Please wait just a little longer!”
No, Filia, save me! Were they still not done talking? Oh, no, and now there was this little girl who looked like she was about to burst into tears right in front of me. What was I even supposed to do?
Okay. It was time for my last chance attempt!
“Hey, Loli Loli, check this out—hooah!”
I flexed my pectoral muscles and exploded my clothes off, leaving me exquisitely half-naked! The remnants of my outfit fluttered to the ground like falling cherry blossom petals. Ah, what a wondrous spectacle!
It took a few more minutes before I was allowed into the bedroom. Filia opened the door and invited us in.
“Huh? Yuri, what happened?”
There I was, just half-naked and chilling. I’d meant it as a sort of desperate gag, hoping that Loli Loli would like it. At the very least, I had hoped it’d stop her from bursting into tears or something. I’d figured that if she did like it, well, then maybe there was some hope for her. If she didn’t, I knew I was probably in trouble. Such was my muscley gamble. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d broken out in a cold sweat outside of battle.
“His clothes, they just exploded like bang!” said Loli Loli. “It was just too much! Like, it was revolutionary!”
“It’s been…a lot,” I said dejectedly.
After hearing Loli Loli’s explanation, Filia looked over at me with a baffled expression, but I didn’t have the energy to explain. It couldn’t remember the last time I had been this mentally exhausted.
“More importantly,” I said quietly, “have you finished explaining things to Ashley?”
“Yes, generally,” she whispered.
After Filia and I had that brief, hushed exchange, I stood on the sidelines and watched Ashley walk out. If Ashley decided that there was no way in hell she’d allow a majin into her village or something like that, then there’d be no way to show Loli Loli the festival. It wasn’t like I really felt that strongly about Loli Loli or Ashley, but we’d been traveling with Ashley, and Filia loved her like a sister. Loli Loli was practically a stranger.
I crossed my arms and watched Ashley. She approached Loli Loli with fierce intensity and…
Bowed her head. “I’m sorry! About what I did, I mean, I’m…really, really sorry!”
“It’s okay!”
An immediate answer, huh? Ashley looked up in surprise.
Loli Loli just looked back at her with a bright, sunny smile, and flashed a peace sign with her fingers. “There’s no point in worrying about what happened in the past! Besides, uh…Ashbee, was it? Uh, you apologized! That’s good enough for me! Loli Loli’s heart is all cleared up!”
What the heck? Was she a saint or something?
Ashley’s eyes widened, but she responded with a relieved smile. “Thank you…”
“Loli Loli?” said Filia gently. “It’s not Ashbee, okay? It’s Ashley.”
“I see, my mistake! Sorry, Ashley!”
“N-no, I’m the one who…I’m sorry…” Ashley stammered, struggling to get the words out and shrinking away. I never thought I’d see Ashley shrink away from anybody. “Ah! I started crying! I’m so sorry, I made you see something so embarrassing, Big Sis! Yuri! And Loli Loli too, I’m sorry for suddenly crying!”
Ashley put her hand to the back of her head bashfully after she finally got a hold of herself.
At that, Filia, she bent down and made eye contact with Ashley. “Well, you saw me when I was sleeping in the morning, all groggy and such. The way I see it, we’re even. Got it?”
Oh, I’d forgotten about that.
Loli Loli furrowed her brow thoughtfully. Then she patted Filia on the head, messing with her silver hair. “You sleep in? You gotta wake up in the morning, sleepyhead!”
“Um, sure,” said Filia. “I’ll, uh, be better about that…”
“Ah ha ha! Big Sis got scolded!”
“Ugh, how many humiliations must I endure in one day?” But Filia smiled mischievously and stuck out her peach-colored tongue.
The two girls laughed at that for some reason. I didn’t really get it, but at least things had worked out peacefully.
It seemed like Loli Loli was the type of person who didn’t put up any walls around herself. Maybe it was her openness, or maybe all three of them were just on similar wavelengths, because they were soon fast friends.
As for me? The three of them gave me sidelong glances as they chatted away happily, maybe because I was spinning around upside down. You gotta train your vestibular system, after all. As I was training, I listened in on their conversation. They were talking about the festival and inviting Loli Loli.
“A festival? Is that a fun thing?” asked Loli Loli.
“Yes, it is!” said Ashley. “I’m sure you’ll love it, Loli Loli.”
Before I knew it, Ashley was talking to Loli Loli like she was a close friend. They’d been blasting each other back and forth with magic just hours ago too. Man, did kids these days just have like super high-level communication skills or something?
“If this is your first time at a festival,” said Filia, “I think you’ll have tons of fun. Why, even I’ve only even seen my own village’s festival. I suppose I’m looking forward to it too.”
“This is my first festival, ever, of any kind,” I chimed in, as I continued spinning.
“Oh? You’re all festival newbies?” said Ashley. “Tee hee hee! Well then, I guess that means I’ll just have to take the lead!”
“Thanks,” I said, “we’ll be countin’ on ya!”
Ashley, riding high on her expertise, got fired up like she was on some kinda mission. She was such an enthusiastic kid, it was really just totally cute.
“If you’re taking the lead, Ashley,” I said, “then we won’t have to worry about anything.”
“I’m excited!” shouted Loli Loli, spreading her arms out wide. She couldn’t wait, and neither could I.
Except—wait a minute, we still hadn’t explained things to the villagers, had we? They were the key players in this event, after all, so we definitely needed their approval or this would all be for nothing.
I wanted to bring that up, but they all seemed so happy. Nah, we’d…we’d figure something out. Definitely.