The next day, Asa went back alone, steeling herself as she knocked on the manor door. When there came no response, she knocked harder.
This time, Tsumugi’s annoyed visage revealed itself. “Yeah? What do you want?”
“Is Uta there?” Asa asked, poking her head in through the open door to look farther inside.
“Is that Asa? What’s going on?”
“Uta!” she called out, and he looked up at her from the living room as she got his attention. “I, ah, figured I might as well try my hand at some embroidery too! Would it be all right for me to join you?”
In response, Uta said, “You’ll have to ask Tsumugi.”
Apparently she wasn’t going to be able to just ignore Tsumugi’s presence. “Hey, old bag. Lemme join in.” She folded her arms, demanding instead of asking, in no mood to kowtow to a human, let alone an old lady like her.
Tsumugi shrugged ambivalently and said, “Don’t make a mess.”
Asa’s face lit up, and she scooted past Tsumugi to make her way over to Uta. He was at a large table in the living room, seemingly looking over Tsumugi’s design sketches, some of which jumped right out at Asa.
These were polished designs, and Asa was so overwhelmed by their beauty that the sight of them stopped her in her tracks.
“Pretty, eh?” Uta murmured.
The words snapped Asa out of her reverie. “Well, yours are even more amazing!” she said on reflex.
“What would an amateur brat like you know?”
Asa turned to look at Tsumugi, sitting on the sofa behind her. “I’m not an amateur!” she snapped, a competitive impulse blazing to the fore.
Tsumugi glared at her. “You’re a mask maker, too?” she asked.
“I am. And here’s proof!” Asa said, reaching into her bag and pulling out one of the masks she’d made, holding it up to show Tsumugi.
Tsumugi narrowed her eyes to look at the mask before snorting out a nasal laugh. “What’s this? Your stitching is loose, and your sense of symmetry is poor. And did you try to stretch out the fabric this much? Look how it’s all warped. You messed up your measurements and then tried to compensate afterward, didn’t you? What a cheap-looking piece of junk.”
“H-hey now, you old bag! My mask making is …” But Asa’s rebuttal didn’t come. Tsumugi’s words had hit too close to home. Instead, she spit out an annoyed, “Just shut up, you hag.”
Ignoring Asa’s angry outburst, Tsumugi scrutinized the mask carefully as she laid out a sheet of paper. She then began to briskly sketch something. Asa tried to get a better look, and saw that Tsumugi was putting together a pattern for Asa’s mask going by sight alone. Moreover, it was a simpler and more refined pattern than the one Asa had used when she’d made the mask herself.
“Whoa, how’d you do that?” Asa picked up the sheet of paper, curious as to how Tsumugi had been able to identify all her mask’s flaws. Tsumugi set her pencil against her chin and turned away with a huff.
“This old hag’s a real pain in the ass, Uta,” Asa said, hoping for some backup, but Uta was engrossed in the design sketches. Ideas were probably blossoming in his mind right now. Tsumugi stood bolt upright to stop the interruption, and she tossed something to Asa.
“Huh?” Asa looked in her hands to see a scrap of cloth. “What’s this for?”
“If you’ve got the time, you can help me with some cutting. I’ll even pay you a small sum.”
Asa’s face contorted in confusion at the sudden proposal. “Huh? Why should I have to work under some old bag like you?”
“What, are you scared that I’ll see that you’re not as good as your dear Uta?” Tsumugi said as Asa was about to toss the scrap of cloth right back at her.
Asa bristled at being called out, but merely snapped back, “Fine, I’ll do it! It might even be fun.”
Several hours later, Asa had grown weary of the boredom and the repeated drudge work. “How come I’ve gotta do like fifty rows of backstitching? What are you even going to use this cloth for, anyway?”
“Your impatience is what makes your work so crude. Now be quiet and work with your hands, not your mouth. I won’t accept sloppy work from you.”
Asa was ready to throw in the towel then and there, but a casual “Hang in there, Asa!” from Uta kept her from bailing. She reminded herself that she was here to see Uta’s workmanship in action, and so she’d find some way to get through this work.
The day wore on until it got dark, and Tsumugi stood up. “That time already, huh …”
“What, you goin’ to bed already? Man, you old folks really do turn in early,” Asa scoffed.
“Fool,” Tsumugi replied. “I’m going to do some shopping.”
Well, at any rate, this meant Asa was free of Tsumugi’s boring busywork now. As that thought was setting in, however, Uta looked up. “Let me go with you,” he said, getting to his feet as well.
“You’re going with her, Uta?”
“Yeah. Could use a breather.”
Well, that changed things a bit. Asa glared over at Tsumugi and called out, “I’m going too then!”
After they got outside, Uta said, “I’ve got a lot to think about, so I’ll walk farther behind.” He then let himself drop back. He probably wanted to flesh out the designs he had in mind. Asa wanted to walk alongside him, but she might wind up distracting him, and so without much other choice, she fell into step alongside Tsumugi.
“So where are we going, old lady?” Asa asked, realizing she didn’t know where they were even heading yet.
“The market district,” Tsumugi replied. “We humans get our food by going out and buying it, unlike your kind.”
That was right: Tsumugi knew Asa was a Ghoul. That being the case, Asa pressed the subject. “How come you’re not scared of us, old lady? You’re not worried about getting eaten?”
“Would you want to eat the flesh of a shriveled old woman? Besides, I’ve been dealing with Ghouls for a long time, starting with Uta.”
“But he might have a change of heart and kill you. You are pretty aggravating, after all.” Asa reached out and threateningly grabbed the old woman’s neck from behind, but Tsumugi simply slapped her hand away.
“I trust Uta,” she said. “It would be uncouth for me to doubt the people he keeps company with.”
The old woman seemed pretty indifferent toward Uta, but apparently they had some foundation of trust in their relationship that Asa couldn’t see. Asa snuck a look back at Uta, then asked Tsumugi, more quietly this time, “Are you and Uta close friends?”
“Hmm. I’m not sure. I do appreciate his craft, though.”
“I know, right? Uta’s such an incredible mask masker!” Asa was pleased to hear Uta complimented so, her expression suddenly brightening up, but she then hurriedly wiped that look off her face when she remembered she was dealing with Tsumugi.