As always, my curtains were closed, and barely any light entered the room. Only got dimmer as the door closed behind Hecate. We could turn on the lights, but instead I reached for the window to let some light in. Hecate watched from the entrance as I confidently stepped into the darkness…

  “Wo- woah…”

  Everything suddenly became visible. My setup, my shelves filled to the brim with manga, games, figurines, and posters on the walls. Stunning to see the dim room turn so colorful out of nowhere. Hecate remained frozen in place.

  “You weren’t kidding… Every single inch… Ahahaha… I can’t believe it…” She took a few steps forward while taking in all the details. “Is this your living area?” Yep… Just one big desk, filled with consoles and monitors. “How did you live here? Aren’t you missing a bit too much?”

  All in all, not a bad reaction… She’s confused, but at least it looks like she’s having fun… Worth the embarrassment.

  “Don’t judge me, okay? I have what I need in here… Almost all I do at home is play games, so I don’t need much.”

  “Of course that’s all you gonna do! You don’t have anything else here! What’s with this kitchen?” I had a small one that was near the entrance. “You spent so much money on that part of the room that your kitchen is almost bare. No wonder you turned out a microwave specialist.”

  “Hey hey… Don’t judge me! I don’t particularly care about cooking, so why would I spend money on it? I don’t think that’s crazy…”

  I feel like I’ve been grilled by my parents before in this exact way…

  “Oh… Don’t you worry, Iroha… I’m not judging… I’m actually happy it’s that way…” Hecate walked over with a seductive grin. “Your neglect of the kitchen makes it easy for me to tie down those golden locks with my cooking.” And she was about to brush her hand against them when she froze. “Well… Or at least it will be easy when I get used to cooking again.”

  “Don’t start feeling bad now!” I grabbed her hand and let her touch my hair. “You’ll get the hang of it again soon… It’s not the end of the world.”

  “*Nod…* You’re right… Thank you, Iroha.”

  Leaning forward, she placed a quick peck on my forehead.

  “Still… What a collection you have here… And they’re all girls… I would expect nothing else from you.” I let her wander around the room as she pleased. The closer the look she took the more embarrassing it got. Then again, she already saw it, so who cares if she takes a closer look? Well, I do… A little bit… “So… Which of these doors leads to your room? Can we go there next?”

  “Yeah yeah… It’s this one.” I opened the door. “Again, no getting creeped out and no judging.”

  “I already said I can only find this cute, but the judging you’ll have to put up with.” She slowly entered the room, peeking her head through the door. “When you’re squirming this much from just showing me your room, how am I supposed to hold back? It’s just so adorable… And… Wow! Your room’s just more of the same!”

  “Except for the desk, and with a bed added, I know… By the way, don’t put it like that… ‘More of the same,’ like it’s making you roll your eyes… You’re just being mean!”

  “I didn’t mean it like that… I meant that it was just as cute as the room before. You’re too self-conscious, Iroha…” Guilty as charged.

  “But honestly…” She continued… “I’m actually impressed by your sense of aesthetics… The way your figures and posters are organized here compared to the other room is a lot more welcoming. After seeing both rooms one after the other, I can tell there’s a certain flow to the cuteness. Very impressive.”

  “W- wow… You noticed… I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since you can also appreciate cute girls…” On that aspect, she and I are very similar.

  “I can appreciate cute girls, but you wouldn’t catch me falling for just anyone. I have standards. Unlike you.”

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  Sigh… She thinks she’s so funny. “I have standards too, just so you know…”

  “Could have fooled me.” She pulled her out of my room and looked to the other end of the main room. “And what about that door over there?”

  I walked over. “Oh, this…? It’s just another room.” And opened the door. “It’s empty.”

  “Oh… Great! I guess we found where I can stay when I move in!” She clapped her hands with a teasing tone.

  “You want to move in and sleep in different rooms? I’m kinda hurt now…” Fake mushy voice, I looked up at her with sad eyes.

  “Ah! Good point… Forget I said anything. Carol can stay there then.” Throwing her under the bus like that?

  Earlier I said the main room had nothing but a desk, but that was a lie. I had a small couch near one of the shelves that we ended up settling down at now that the tour was over. “Whew… I guess that’s everything… I hope you didn’t have too much fun.”

  “Unfortunately for you, I had a lot of fun. I feel like I now understand why you turned out the way you did. All the cute characters you surrounded yourself with completely melted your brain. It explains a lot.”

  “Stop psychoanalyzing me, okay?” Whose brain is melted? How rude! “Well, since you had so much fun. Now you have to tell me something embarrassing in return. It’s only fair.”

  I was ready to dish out some payback, but she just scoffed at me.

  “No…”

  She just refused… My plan’s not gonna work if she doesn’t speak! What a blunder!

  “You showed me around because you owed me one, not the other way around.”

  “Huh…?”

  “Pfft… Don’t make that face…” She smugly poked my cheek. “I’m only joking. If you want to know more about me, you can ask me some questions.” Yes! I can get my revenge now! What would be a good question? Something she would never tell me otherwise…?

  “Hmm… Well… Your looks are something you did because you wanted to copy vampires, right? Because you wanted to become stronger.” She nodded… I wouldn’t get the details about my precious girlfriend wrong. “Your yellow eye was a part of that… And I bet your name, Hecate Bloodblight, is also fake. So… what’s your real name?”

  “Ughh… You’re going straight for the throat… I don’t think you could have asked something more embarrassing.”

  Muahahahahaha! Just what I wanted… “Don’t say that… Come on~ Tell me. I’m really curious~!”

  Her cheeks grew red as she tried to forcibly calm herself. “I’ll tell you, but you’ll have to promise you’ll keep calling me Hecate.”

  “I promise! I swear on my life, my girlfriends, and my waifus!” I meant that one hundred percent. I could see she wanted to make a comeback there for a second, but my honesty made her change her mind. She steeled herself, blushing harder before forcing out the answer.

  “Haruka… Haruka Fujiwara…”

  “Ehhh…? That’s so cute!” She’s so cute! The way she’s blushing is too much! Someone needs to hold her right away before the cuteness runs away! And that someone is me! “Haruka to Hecate… I can see it! So cute!”

  “Shut up! And let go!” She struggled but failed to escape my grasp. “I won’t say it ever again, and I don’t want to hear you say it either, got it?”

  “But I think it’s actually a cute name… You don’t like it?”

  “It’s just not my name anymore.” Her tone turned indifferent. “That name is from my past life. From before I joined the House. It doesn’t suit me or who I’m trying to be.”

  “Someone strong?”

  “Yeah…”

  “Hmm…” Does she really need to discard her old name just to become stronger? Can’t anyone become stronger if they try? I mean… Just look at me… I used to be a complete wimp. But if it works for her and she’s happy, who am I to say anything? “Then… what made you want to get stronger?”

  “Meeting Katja and Narumi…” A nostalgic smile appeared on her face. Now I have to know more.

  “How did you meet them?”

  “It happened around five or six years ago. When we were all still kids. There was this construction site in my hometown that never got started, and I used to always play there on my way home from school. It had these metal sheets surrounding it, and I had to crawl through a hole to get inside. There was almost nothing there but some forgotten construction materials, but it was a wide enough place to run around.”

  Hecate but tiny… How cute! I can almost imagine it! Oh… But I guess she wouldn’t have been wearing a dress at the time. Maybe something sportier? She might have been a tomboy if she was crawling into places like that…

  “Then one day, once I got there from school, Katja and Narumi were there, fighting with wooden swords. And they were good… I had never seen something like that, and I couldn’t believe two girls my age could move like that. I was instantly hooked. But they were very wary of me… They weren’t supposed to be seen by anyone. But we managed to strike a deal. We became friends, and in exchange, I wouldn’t tell anyone about them. I couldn’t be happier, and from there, we spent the next few weeks playing together. They would train with each other while I’d watch, and then we’d talk afterwards. It was a lot of fun… Like peering into a world that I thought was pure fantasy.”

  “Then one day they weren’t there…”

  “I crawled inside, but the sound of wood clashing was nowhere to be heard. They were only in town temporarily, probably because Shinji had some work there. When he was done, they all left. I thought I was all alone, and I thought I’d never see them again. But then a monster that looked like a werewolf showed up. A portal opened up between the construction materials, and our spot had turned into a high-danger zone.”

  “From there my memories turned hazy… A group of soldiers rushed in before I was hurt. They protected me, but they also ended up getting wiped out. They didn’t have the right weapons to deal with monsters. I was alone among the pool of bodies when Katja and Narumi took care of the werewolf. They showed up out of nowhere with real weapons and cut the monster into pieces in a long, hard-fought battle. It was their first time in a real fight. By the end, they were both exhausted. Physically and mentally. Narumi was on the verge of breaking from all the blood around her, and Katja was cursing herself for failing her duty.”

  “That’s what did it for me…”

  “Seeing the two girls I thought were stronger than anyone in that state… They were not that different from me, were they? I hugged both of them to calm them down, and a single thought forced its way into my head. I had to become stronger… To protect them…”

  Hecate leaned back on the couch, stretching a little. “And the rest is history… Shinji picked me up not long after that, and I joined the House officially. I’ve been taking care of them ever since…”

  “Wow…” What a story… “I don’t know how to say… Sounds rough, but… I guess it’s also kinda sweet…”

  “Don’t say that… How embarrassing…” She pouted. “But I definitely won’t complain. Joining the House made my life a lot harder, but also very fulfilling. I’m glad I met them back there…” Hecate stood up, looked around the room, then turned to face me. “Well, now that we’re done with that, why don’t we have some fun? Since we’re already here.”

  “What do you mean by already here? At my place? You want to do lewd things?!”

  “No! Why did you have to go and ruin the mood?” After stomping, she let out a sigh. “I meant games… You have a lot of games here… I thought we could play something together… Your room is filled with games, so why would that be the first thing that comes to mind?”

  “Well…” In my defense… “It’s also filled to the brim with scantily dressed girls…”

  Ughh… “Fa- fair enough… I can see why your mind would head in that direction. Either way, let’s do it. I need you to teach me first, but let’s do it.”

  “Le- lewd things?”

  “IROHA!”