Kurai Yoru (Darker Night)

12: Just A Plaything

"Dum, da-dum, dum dum, ba-dum." Ani sang another random tune as she skipped around their palace.

The human child is currently looking for something, it seems. She keeps on peeking at everything, moving chairs, sofas and tables out of her way.

"Where's my knife...? I know I left it here in the lobby somewhere." Ani scratched her head.

The little girl kept on looking, not noticing the glinting metal strapped to her waist, the knife. Suddenly, Celleya appeared from a nearby hallway, the one that comes from the library. The white-haired girl looked on confusion at Ani as the younger girl almost wrecked the whole place unknowingly.

"Eh, Ani-chan, what are you doing...?" Celleya spoke up. This time, she's now wearing a school uniform, the uniform her school uses. The school is just right beside Light Year Academy. Even though she's a demon, she chose to attend a normal school.

"Mou, I can't find it Celleya-chan! I don't know where I left my knife!" Ani whined as she flop down on a mispositioned couch.

"A knife?" Celleya rose her eyebrow.

"I always carry it, it's my personal toy, given by Sitri-nii!" She beamed a smile. But then, she deflated again as she remembered that it was currently lost.

'A knife for a gift? What are you thinking onii-chan?!' Celleya thought, slightly annoyed at her brother's 'stupidness'.

"I'm sure you'll find it somewhere..." Celleya said. Ani turned around to look at the same table for the twentieth time, and there Celleya saw the 'missing' toy. "... like, in your waist?"

"Ani blinked, then stared at Celleya like she grew another head. "What are you talking about, Celleya? If it was here, I would have noticed it already!" She grumbled. "Just help me find it instead." Then she went back on tossing random furnitures around.

Celleya sweatdropped, then shook her head. She walked up to the restless child, and grabbed the knife from Ani's waist.

Ani turned around and saw Celleya and the knife. "Eh, you were hiding it Celleya? How mean!" She grabbed it and harrumphed away from the shocked demoness.

"Ani, you're really something." Celleya spoke to no one.

=≠=≠=≠=≠=≠=≠=

The door to Thalia's room suddenly opened, and out came a decently dressed Thalia. Rubbing off the sleepiness from her eyes, she closed the door behind her and walked away to an unknown destination.

Strangely, a weird smile is plastered on the vampire's face.

"What a dream..." The vampire didn't noticed the aura-less kitsune in front of her and bumped into Tamamo.

"Ow!" Tamamo dropped down on her back. Waking up from her own daydream, she saw Thalia on the ground, similar to her. "Thalia?"

"Oops, sorry Tamamo. I wasn't looking where I was going." Thalia apologized.

"I-It's okay. I wasn't looking too." Tamamo sat up, and cleaned her kimono. Then, she stood up, offering a hand to the still cleaning Thalia.

"Thank you." Thalia accepted it and stood.

"Oh, where were you going, Thalia?" The goddess asked.

"Um, I was gonna check Sitri at his room." Thalia smiled suspiciously.

"Oh? But Sitri isn't there right now. He said he was gonna visit a friend of him, back at your world. Don't worry, I can get him back." Tamamo assured the vampire.

"So you can teleport us back there? Why did you teleport only Sitri?"

"Well, I don't have enough power to do a full Dimensional Reset just yet, though I can do a weaker version of it. When I get all of my powers back, I will teleport you all back to your world." Tamamo smiled.