Girls Only

Leilei insisted on staying up all night with me.

Being a Night Witch meant I was beholden to the night, due to the passive buffs and debuffs that came with it. So I told her that I would get my own room so I wouldn't disturb her sleep. 

Instead, she took my hands into her own. "I'd rather be a night owl anyway," she said with a cute smile.

Thus, we sat together in her room. She painted, and I worked on my doll making with supplies I'd bought with my quest bounties.

I had to constantly hide my face from her because I still had something in my eye. 

I definitely wasn't crying. 

Quite the contrary, I hadn't been this happy since I was playing with my real dolls as a small child.

I was so focused on my Kraft that I managed to reach level 15 in doll making, and had made 10 other Sock Monkeys besides Kosuke. I was definitely starting to get a little bored of them. 

Finding new schemata was my first priority once we reached the capital, which we were setting off for at dusk tomorrow.

The new Sock Monkeys were all empty vessels, of course. I was planning to sell them on the auction house. Although Doll Makers were the only ones who can keep doll minions permanently, anyone could use them temporarily. You just infused them with mana and they would fight by your side for up to an hour, if they weren't killed first. I didn't do that before because it was my only doll and I had no money or supplies to make another.

I could probably get a silver for each of them after I put them up for auction, but for now I used them as an insurance policy to keep Kosuke in check.

He was in a drawer in the dresser—which I'd locked shut—and told not to try anything funny, under threat of being scrapped and replaced.

What?

Don't act like I was in the wrong here.

This was a girls only room and we deserved privacy. Although Leilei was always naked, it seemed particularly scandalous to have a boy in her room with her in such a state of (un)dress. Even if I wasn't sure how taboo that would even be at this point, with him being a stuffed sock and all.

 Either way, he was still an unwanted remnant of my past. I didn't want him constantly bringing up our past life together. Especially in front of Leilei.

At first I was waiting until we were alone so that I could ask her about how she got here, and if she had another life from the same world as me, but honestly, it was such a cozy vibe just hanging out with her in her room, with each of us working on our respective Krafts, that I didn't want to disturb it. And the more I immersed myself fully into this world, the more I just wanted to leave the past behind me and enjoy the present.

That's why I told Kosuke, who had been pestering me nonstop since the binding ritual, that he'd better drop it, and especially not bring it up in front of Leilei, or I'd scrap and replace him with another Sock Monkey without a second thought—before I locked him in the drawer.

Leilei was nodding off while painting a portrait of me. It was marvelously detailed and super flattering. My blue bangs were curled in over my eyes, with the two long strands at either side coming down to my chest, the same length as the rest of my hair in the back. However, I would have preferred if she'd taken liberties to paint me in something other than this hideous burlap sack riddled with moth-bitten holes.

"Hey, I appreciate you staying up with me, but I think maybe its best you go to sleep," I whispered in her ear as she nodded off for the upteenth time. 

It must have been the witching hour at this point. Ideally we didn't want to go to sleep until after dawn, so that we could sleep through the day and then wake up and prepare to venture out by evening.

"No, no! Don't worry about me, Minori. I just need some tea," she was about to climb to her feet but I put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll get it, it's the least I can do."

She looked like she wanted to protest, but then nodded sweetly, closed her eyes and keeled over onto the floor. 

Out cold.

I sighed, then took the blanket and pillow from her bed and readjusted her into a cozy sleeping position. I wiped a tear from my eye (whatever stupid thing had gotten in my eye just refused to get out.) It had nothing to do with her being so adamant in readjusting her entire sleep schedule just to bring it in sync with mine.

Honestly, I was really surprised that I was still here. And now, even after she fell asleep, I had no plans or desire to escape in the night and go off on my own, which is what I was sort of planning in the back of my mind. I thought there was no way that I would want to form a party with anyone, that my only companions would be my minions which were magically compelled to obey me.

But after everything she was willing to do for me...

It was too much, I slid down onto the ground, buried my head between my knees, and began to sob uncontrollably.

I was crying.

There, I admit it.

I'd been through a lot, okay? And honestly, I don't remember ever crying in my past life since my father had my dolls burned. I didn't even cry when I lost my crush to my ex-best friend. Everything I had bottled up came flooding out of me in that moment.

"Minori, what's wrong?!"

I lifted my head to see Kosuke poking his head out of his drawer which he'd somehow managed to open. He flinched as I met his eye. All my sorrow immediately turned to anger at the thought of someone seeing me like this.

"Sorry, Minori, I just thought something had happened to you, so I picked the lock with this needle I fou—woah hey!"

I picked him up by the throat.

"How dare you break into a girl's private space!" I slammed him against the wall, then threw him to the floor.

"Minori, please, I'm sorry I just—ugh!" he was interrupted by me stomping on his face.

"Now," I said, pinning his hands down with my knees, my hands around his throat, "I'm going to rip you apart with my bare hands. Then I'm going to burn the remains. I don't even want to sell you for scraps because I don't want any piece of you to still exist in this world!" 

Okay, even I was shocked by all that vitriol.

Was I possessed?

Or was all of that already in me to begin with?!

I continued snarling as I strangled him with all my might. Tears, snot and drool all pooling together it dripped off my face and began saturating his socky flesh. "Minori... please..." he said.

The choking sound he made seemed off. Like it wasn't due to being physically choked, but as though he were choking back tears of his own. Maybe that made sense since he didn't have an actual windpipe. I pushed away that overachieving, scholarly side of my brain that began hypothesizing how in fact he was able to breathe or live at all, and refocused all my thoughts on how best to destroy him.

Seemed like literally ripping him apart, which was a hyperbolic threat before, was the only practical way. I readjusted so I had one knee firm against his belly, and an arm in each of my hands.

I began to pull.

"Minori..." he repeated pitifully.

"What?" I growled, staring straight into his button eyes. Even though they were nothing like real eyes, there was still.... something there... A certain light. And within that I saw that it truly was Kosuke, gazing back into my soul.

Ugh!

I let go and stood up off him.

"Oh thank heavens Minori, I was seriously starting to get a little worried, but deep down I knew you couldn't hurt—" he was interrupted by me kicking him into the wall.