Snake's house

The whole way to the snake's apartment Sora and Kiyo chattered about men being assholes. Maki's head was a bit busy, but he mostly agreed. He also wanted to talk about his experiences but was too shy to interfere. Plus, sometimes their dialogue seemed insane.

"Sora-chan, I think it would be better in a world where men did not exist, what do you say?" Kiyo was in a playful mood, so far Sora had agreed with all her ideas, and thus, the snake was pleased.

"Oh, I agree! No men, no assaults, no creeps, and no problems!" Sora laughed.

Maki glanced at her.

Sora didn't notice, continuing, "Kiyo-chan, tell me, were those men who stole your powers? I assume that happened after the Underworld visit?"

"Yes, I regained a lot of it, and returned to Tokyo, only to see how different the city was. Those were yokai, who attacked me, but I assume they were men, you know? Who else would attack someone like me?"

"I agree. I absolutely agree with all you say. I think we can be friends, Kiyo-chan?" Sora clapped her hands enthusiastically, eyes wide.

"Wait, for real?" Kiyo seemed flattered, "I never had friends... I think it might be nice to be friends!"

Sora smiled slyly, "Kiyo-chaaan, but how can we be friends, if you eat me?"

Maki smirked.

Kiyohime's mouth dropped, she was puzzled. She contemplated for a minute. "Sora-chan, you are so right. I am not sure how to be in this situation. If I don't eat you, I am weak. If I do - no friend?"

Sora took her hand, and looked her in the eye, serious, "Kiyo-chan, I know what we should do!"

"Yes? Tell me then!" Her eyes were spinning around.

"You don't eat me, we become BFFs, and you can hang out with me and my friends. You gradually build up your powers back, no need to eat me. We will protect you in the meantime, see Maki-kun here, he is very strong!" she nodded toward him, "We also have Yoshi, who is even stronger. They are men, of course, but they are not your typical men, you can trust me on that. You will be fine! And I am not a man, I will not betray you like they do."

Maki frowned, unconvinced and unwilling to get into that conversation. Kiyo looked back and forth at them. She thought about it, seriously weighing the options. Then a smile appeared on her face,

"Agree! You are so useless and weak anyway, I would have to wait a million years for you to return to your true power potential. I think I will be happy if I am less alone. I am done with this lifestyle. But you have to promise me to be my main friend, and that I am your main friend."

Sora ignored the "weak" remarque, smiling with as much charisma as she could. "I am not sure I know what "main friend" is, Kiyo-chan?"

"It is the main friend, no other friends are as important as I am."

"Oh, I mean, I have many friends..."

"Or I eat you right now!" Kiyo frowned and switched her tongue to a long snake tongue, fangs appeared too.

Sora concealed her fear with a nervous laugh. "Okay-okay, main friend it is! Maki-kun was a witness of you agreeing not to eat me."

Maki narrowed his eyes. "I am not a part of this."

Sora switched her attention to him, trying to sway him too. "Oh, Maki-kun, you are such a good person, I trust you are totally involved in this now, Yoshi would say so too."

Maki was not moved. "I am not."

Kiyo stopped their conversation with a gesture: "We are here!"

They were in front of a weird old-looking building. It seemed that it had been abandoned a long time ago. Sora felt sympathy for Sobue for a second, and even bigger sympathy for the snake, who had to live here. This building needed to be renovated badly. Images of mice and cockroaches flew in her mind, and she shivered. She had to be on good terms with the snake, so she kept her mouth shut. When they entered though, it appeared that the inside was not looking too bad. The wooden paneling looked old but cared after. Kiyo was a good housekeeper it seemed. The house was silent. Sora cleared her throat,

"Where is Sobue?"

"Oh he's upstairs, in the bedroom, he is tied to the battery. He won't be able to escape, no matter what he thinks he came up with while I was gone. The wires I used are from the other realm, so he won't be able to free himself."

"Wow, sounds cool!" Sora got excited about a magical item she could see soon. She didn't care that Sobue was a hostage unable to escape due to said item.

Maki looked at Sora, thinking that she was heartless.

Sora took her shoes off and ran upstairs before the others. The house wasn't very big, so it wasn't hard to find Sobue. He sat on the floor, one hand free, one hand tied to the battery. He didn't try to escape, just sat there with a journal, reading. Sora stopped in the doorway, sizing him up, an expression of surprise on her face. She touched her glasses nervously not sure what to do.

"Em, Sobue?!"

"Oh, Sora, thank god you found me." His voice was pleading, "I don't even know how, I was walking from the store, and some crazy woman just yelled at me, and I couldn't even understand what she was saying. She was yelling about the pigs. I am lost. At least she gave me a magazine to read?" He showed her the magazine, it was new Shonen Jump. "I am so done with this. I am so over this whole situation, when she said she would eat me, I thought that I was done for, and almost peed myself. I have no idea how you found me, thank God you did!"

She thought that in terms of a hostage situation, this wasn't too bad. She wondered how he went to the toilet.

"I need to pee badly, actually," he said, "is she here? She needs to let me go already. I simply can't live here anymore, she's insane!"

Maki and Kiyo appeared behind Sora.

Kiyo said, in a sweet voice, "Oh, hostage-kun, are you okay? You see, I was stopped by these two, so I couldn't return fast enough. I will let you go now, but don't try escaping! Remember, I am way faster than you are!" She ran towards him, untangling the wire.

Maki and Sora looked at each other. This tone was a turn. They had no idea what to do with it. Maki remained detached, standing next to the door, Sora also ran up to Sobue to check on him. Briefly noticing the magic wire, thinking how she can get it for herself.

"You okay, for real?" She asked, concerned.

He looked at her, tired, "Yes, just this hand hurts, " he massaged the right hand.

Why is he playing cool all of a sudden? Is it because there is a man in here, or is he pretending to be cool in front of her? She glanced at Kiyo.

"Oh, do you want me to massage it for you?" Kiyo's attention was solely on Sobue.

He looked at her, hostile, "No thank you. You did this, why would you want to make me suffer less now?! Good, I see you brought some clothes. I am stinky as hell. I will take the shower now." He took the bag from Maki, bowing slightly. Then he left fast, turning to the bathroom as if he was at his own house.

"Em," Sora turned to Kiyo, "what's with the tone? What about the revenge and stuff?"

"What, I am still planning on eating him," Kiyo folded her hands, "leave me alone. I think he is much more interesting than that pig from the past. Maybe it is him, after all. Maybe I should try again?"

"Oh jeez, this is a curse. You know he is not nice to you at all, and you still behave like a wifu?!" Sora rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I am all for the girls, but this is stupid behavior. You contradict yourself. Now I want you to eat him."

Maki observed in silence, only making some noises in agreement.

Kiyo frowned, "What's a "wifu" anyway? I want to eat him, but what if he is different now? He doesn't remember his past lives, so I wonder if this is even his soul."

"Just let him go, wouldn't you. He is not him." Maki couldn't hold it anymore. "He is a human. I hope you didn't expose yourself in front of him. There are rules."

"Oh, sure sure. I didn't, he thinks I am just very strong. Well... I teleported with him once, but I think I knocked him out back before that."

"Oh my god, this story gets worse and worse," Sora sat on the couch. She turned her head around. "The room looks nice, and you actually gave him Shonen Jump to read. Maybe you are not evil after all."

"That journal? Yes, he said he was bored. So I had to go to the store to buy it. He was so happy to have it, so I figured it was something of value."

"It is to some," Maki said looking around too. "Your house is strange, did you use magic?"

"I did when I had more power. But it might fall apart soon, I can't sustain it anymore. It's not as good looking IRL. But I renovated it. Still, some of the things are holding by a thread."