Chapter 9: Ep 9 - Third Star
Kurumi Ogino stood frozen in Akira's ruined apartment, eyes wide, chest heaving from the adrenaline of the fight she'd just witnessed. Moments ago, she was an ordinary second-year student with a nosy habit of checking in on her reclusive neighbor and classmate. Now?
Now she had seen her childhood friend radiating golden energy while a gorgeous, barely-dressed cat-eared girl launched spells in a made-up language to destroy a monster straight out of a nightmare.
"What... what just happened?" she gasped, brushing glass shards from her skirt. "You—Akira—you glowed! And she spoke, like, elf language or something!"
Sera Rymer dusted herself off, her hoodie slipping off one shoulder. She wore a smug grin and little else.
"You caught us during our little nightly bonding ritual," she said teasingly. "We usually save that for after dinner, but the Rift Beast was very rude."
Akira coughed violently. "I-It's not like that! She's not—I mean, we're not doing—"
"He means the Pact. I'm his servant. In the magical sense." Sera winked. "But it's also fun teasing him in the other sense."
Kurumi's fists clenched. Her face was scarlet.
"So all this time, you've been hiding a magical catgirl in your apartment?! And fighting monsters?!"
"I didn't know either until she fell from the sky!" Akira protested.
Kurumi glared. "And I suppose her ridiculous... anatomy is part of her magic too?"