Chapter 3: Poolside Chaos

I let out a slow breath and sank deeper into the couch, staring out across the expensive emptiness around me. Ten floors. Seventeen suites. Marble. Gold trim. Lighting so flattering it could probably improve your self-esteem by accident. My parents had given me an entire luxury apartment building, which sounded impressive until you remembered I was the only one living in it. At that point, it stopped being impressive and started feeling like I’d been sealed inside a very expensive museum exhibit.

Chester had been nagging me for days about responsibility. He wasn’t wrong, which was probably the most annoying part. Leaving the whole place empty did feel wasteful. My parents had handed me this building like it was some sort of meaningful life lesson, and I had responded by living in one corner of it and ignoring the other ninety-nine percent as hard as possible.

Eventually, even I ran out of excuses.

So I pulled my laptop onto my knees and opened a rental listing page. If I had to pretend to be a competent landlord, I might as well commit to the bit and do something stupid enough to get attention. That was how I ended up typing an ad with all the care and restraint of someone one bad decision away from becoming a legal problem.

LIVE IN LUXURY FOR DIRT CHEAP

Super fancy apartment for rent. High ceilings. Heated floors. Sparkling water fountain in the lobby. Pool on the roof. Bidet sings.

No rent increase. No landlords bothering you (I’m lazy). Just don’t be weird.

1,000 yen/month. Yes, you read that right.

First come, first served.

Please be normal.

(I’m serious.)

–M

I hit "post" and leaned back in my chair, staring at the screen for a few seconds. The ad was... ridiculous. But hey, at least it was something.

I leaned back, shut the laptop, and rubbed my temples. Yeah. Great. I am a landlord now. A deeply unserious one, but still. There. Done. Problem solved.

Or at least postponed.

xXx

The next morning, I cracked open the heavy front doors of the tower and immediately regretted being alive.

Waiting outside like a badly coordinated security detail were Chester, Zach, and Randy, all suited up and standing at attention like I was being transported to a diplomatic summit instead of walking ten minutes to school.

“Good morning, Little Mistress,” Chester said, bowing slightly.

“We shall escort you to school.”

“I can carry your bag!” Zach added, puffing himself up like he was preparing for a heroic sacrifice.

“I brought the umbrella in case of sunlight,” Randy said, lifting what was very obviously a golf umbrella. “Also pepper spray.”

I blinked.

Pepper spray.

For the walk to school.

“…I’m walking,” I said. “Alone.”

“But Little Mistress,” Chester said, already sounding offended by reality, “it is dangerous out there.”

“Very dangerous,” Zach agreed gravely. “There could be suspicious people.”

“I can tase them for you,” Randy offered.

I stared at him.

Then at the taser.

Then back at him.

“You do realize I’m going to a normal high school, right?”

They looked at me like I had just announced I’d be crossing enemy territory barefoot.

“I’m fine.”

“But—”

“Nope.”

I stepped past all three of them before the conversation could mutate into something even more humiliating.

“Go back inside before you embarrass yourselves.”

Their sighs followed me all the way down the path. Which would have been more satisfying if they weren’t the sighs of people who fully intended to try this again later.

Still, by the time I reached the street, I was alone.

Mostly.

Which counted as peace in my current life.

xXx

By the time I got to school, my face already hurt from polite smiling. Yes, I live alone. Yes, my family is rich. No, I am not secretly unrestrained. No, I am not “so lucky.” Depending on the day, I might actually be cursed.

When I slid into my seat, Reina was already there, hunched over her phone like she was personally shielding state secrets. I narrowed my eyes at her. It had been two days since I saw her behind the greenhouse doing… whatever that was. Glowing symbols. Purple smoke. Weird moonlit nonsense. And somehow she was still managing to act like a perfectly normal classmate.

Which only made her more suspicious.

“Morning,” I said, dropping my bag onto the desk.

She jumped.

Actually jumped.

Then turned to me with a smile so bright it should have required electricity.

“Morning, Mio~!”

Too bright.

Too smooth.

Too guilty.

I rested one arm on the desk and looked at her.

“Sleep well?”

“Yep!”

She nodded way too quickly.

“Super normal sleep. Very uneventful. Full of… normal dreams.”

I stared at her for a second.

“Normal dreams.”

“Yep.”

She gave me a thumbs-up.

I did not find that convincing.

I leaned slightly closer.

“No mysterious hobbies lately?”

Her smile twitched.

“Nope! Just homework, school, totally human things…”

Even her laugh sounded evasive.

I let the silence sit there a second longer.

Then—

“So if, hypothetically, someone happened to witness magic being cast behind the greenhouse…” I said. “That wouldn’t be you, right?”

Her face went pale for about half a heartbeat.

Then she laughed.

Awkwardly.

Way too loudly.

“M-Me?! Cast spells? Haha! Wow, Mio, you really do have an imagination.”

Right.

Totally normal answer.

I leaned back in my chair and let her keep smiling through the panic. Pushing harder right now probably wouldn’t get me anything except another weird deflection. And honestly? Watching her squirm was at least a little satisfying.

People like Reina always slipped eventually.

I could wait.

xXx

After school, I climbed the stairs to the rooftop pool with a towel slung over one shoulder and peace on my mind. The city beyond the building was starting to soften into evening, all warm light and glass reflections and distant noise blurred by height. The pool mirrored the sky so neatly it looked unreal.

No guards.

No Chester lectures.

No suspicious red-haired possible witch.

Just me, a lounge chair, and the kind of silence money apparently could buy if you went high enough.

I dropped into the chair, wrapped the towel around myself, and pulled out my phone. One cat video turned into three. Then five. Then one where a cat tried to jump into a cardboard box, missed completely, and rolled off a table with the kind of dignity-killing finality I found deeply relatable.

I actually snorted.

Maybe I was the cat.

Maybe the box was “basic human responsibility.”

Maybe life was just gravity with a personal grudge.

Deep.

I was halfway to convincing myself this counted as introspection when the world exploded beside me.

SPLASH.

Water shot up in a violent wall and drenched me from head to toe.

I bolted upright, hair dripping into my eyes.

In the pool, flailing like she’d been dropped out of the sky by an angry god with no aim, was a girl.

Silver hair.

Wolf ears.

And, just to make sure my evening was fully ruined, a wolf tail whipping behind her through the water.

I stared.

She stared back.

Then paddled frantically toward the edge and grabbed onto the side of the pool, eyes wide and panicked.

“S-Sorry!” she blurted. “I didn’t mean to crash here! I was just falling really fast for reasons!”

I blinked at her.

She blinked at me.

Her tail smacked the water and splashed me again.

That felt unnecessary.

“…You’re real,” I said at last, staring at the ears twitching on top of her head. “I’m not hallucinating. Amazing. Fantastic.”

The girl’s expression brightened instantly, as if I had just welcomed her to a tea party instead of sounding one step away from spiritual collapse.

“Hi!” she said. “I’m Lunaria! Nice to meet you! Your pool is really soft!”

“It’s water.”

“Exactly!”

I looked at her.

Then at the rooftop.

Then at the sky, just in case some invisible cosmic audience was taking requests.

I wanted to scream.

Instead, I sat back down very slowly, towel ruined, soul leaking gently out of my body.

Why.

Why is my life like this?