Aren't You Forgetting Something? (Part 3)

"—I'll definitely be back to catch Kyomi though, so don't go anywhere!"

The diminutive Overseer dashed away, leaving Maihime confused and perhaps a tad disappointed.

On one hand, she did her job... On the other hand... there was a bound criminal on her doorstep, Kaguya would come back for another round, and Kyomi may or may not dock her pay thanks to Maihime's big mouth giving their location away.

As she scratched her fluffy ears and mumbled to herself about her next step, the criminal below her finally turned around and laid on his back.

"H-Hey! Let me go before that crazy runt comes back! I promise I'll pay you back later!" he begged.

"With what? Weren't you out there stealing purses?" she asked innocently, but it still struck a nerve.

"It pays the bills, you nosy fox! What the hell would you know about making money, anyway?"

"Hey, watch your tone! I'm employed right now, aren't I?"

"By a scammer! What's she paying you in? Mortal currency? Maybe she's lending some of those mannequins so you can use them to—"

In a flash of light, a blade of Soulbound Steel manifested in Maihime's hands, making the criminal freeze in panic.

"Igneous Armament, silence this poor soul."

"W-W-Wait!" he stuttered, eyes wide as saucers. "I didn't mean it—!"

However, his fears went unanswered as she simply used the weapon's newly forged chain to gag his mouth and sunk the blade deep into the ground to keep him pinned.

Then, she turned around and barged through the temple gates, calling for her employer.

"Kyomi~chan, can I leave for a second?! Kaguya left a criminal on our doorstep, and he's bugging me!"

No answer came. Crossing the yard, Maihime passed by the mannequin staff in the courtyard and inside the hallways, then knocked on the door to Kyomi's room before entering.

Deep inside the streamer's cave, she met many obstacles. Life-sized plushies of the streamer, smuggled mortal world items, the bed which was oh-so-comfy... still! She braved through and got one step behind Kyomi, who was squatting on her gamer chair, immersed in her own world.

"—Thanks for the sub, TrvthCvlminationSvpernova, and for the last time, I don't have any plans to sell my bathwate—"

"Kyomi-chan~" Maihime called again from behind, and her employer paused, large ears twitching in annoyance and making her headset fall off.

"Mods, rupture his meridians, thank you."

Finally, Kyomi turned off her model, put on some ads, and turned around to glare at her bodyguard.

"Did you lose your last pair of brain cells on that commotion outside?" she hissed, "Why the fuck are you interrupting my stream to even ask about this? Use your common sense, scrub."

"Hm, hm. Got it, boss."

Ignoring the barrage of insults that had been commonplace since she got this job, Maihime gave a two-fingered salute and left with a slight miscommunication.

By using her common sense, Kyomi meant picking up the garbage and throwing it away. Or leaving it to the mannequins. Maihime understood it as permission to leave. Kaguya made it her problem, so if she made it someone else's problem, it would just escalate until the criminal ended up in Limbo, deserted, bound, and gagged. Someone would call it an exaggeration, but it happened to her once. She didn't want to make someone else go through that, even if they were really annoying!

Thankfully, the Spines were close to... well, everywhere. After a short trip to The Bureaucratic Quarter, Maihime returned to her post, patting herself on the back for her compassion.

However, as she crossed her arms and leaned against the gate, a strange scent filtered into her nostrils, giving her pause. It was not the sterile, antiseptic-like odor from the mannequins, nor the salty smell of instant food from inside Kyomi's quarters... no, this was a hint of sweet perfume with a subtle undertone of expensive ink used on scrolls... it was the smell of a voyeur!

Maihime stormed inside the temple, spotting the pervert amongst a pile of fallen mannequins. How far-reaching was Madoka's network for her to sniff around this place minutes after Kaguya found it?

"Out, trespasser!" she barked, swinging twin blades attached to chains. Madoka casually twisted away from the assault, a childish pout pulling at her lips.

"Come on, Maihime," she whined, "I just wanted to get a good luck blessing."

"I'm surprised you can even set foot in a temple without combusting. "

"Rude. I didn't even trespass, you know. The gate was open."

"You killed the staff!"

"It was self-defense."

"They were instructed to attack you on sight, so maybe that should've been the sign to turn away?"

"How could I call myself a proper Stalker if a few threats of bodily harm made me flee?"

Maihime's pace slowed down.

"... I'll be sure to do more than threaten you, then."

Silently, she stalked forward, chained blades blurring around her as she spun them.

Madoka put her hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright, I'll leave," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "When did you become such a dedicated bodyguard, anyway?"

"Excuse you?" Maihime muttered, offended as she dragged the other woman outside the atrium and closed the gate behind them. "I was always dedicated, but people didn't notice it beneath my... bold and outspoken nature."

Madoka snorted. "If that's what you wanna call it." Then, she crowded Maihime's personal space, slinging an arm over her shoulder. "But... would you still be so dedicated if I told you I knew where you could get your hands on some high-quality booze? I'm talking Hellion Mob's private stash, left to mature for a few centuries."

"Nice try, but I can't afford the expensive stuff right now."

"What if all you had to do was break into an abandoned shrine cellar?"

"... then we can set a date after I'm done with my shift," the fox-girl huffed, crossing her arms.

"Ah, but if you leave me waiting for too long, I might get lonely... what if I end up going there alone and drowning my sorrows?"

Maihime grit her teeth, eyes clenching shut in agony as she failed to banish that mental image. Madoka... drinking her booze... maybe even pouring it on the ground out of pettiness...

The devil drummed her fingers on her victim's skin, her smirk widening. "I mean, think about it. If you go with me, there won't be any other stalkers here..."

"B-But Kaguya—"

"The Overseers are too busy right now. I checked. You can even bring some of it back to Kyomi if we go now. In and out. Twenty-minute adventure."

"..."

Twenty minutes later, a pair of drunken ladies stumbled inside the Crimson Iris Cult's temple, bouncing from wall to wall with their arms wrapped around each other's waists.

"Kyomi-chan~!" Maihime slurred out with flushed cheeks, waving a sloshing gourd around before sipping its contents. "You need to have a sip of this... they musta mixed this with the blood of thirty-six dragons... it's that liver-slaughtering, nefarious evil sorcerer moonshine...!"

Madoka giggled as she got dragged directly into her target's room, gesturing cheerily at the flabbergasted streamer. "Hey, Kyomi-chan, hey chat!"

"Maihime, you drunkie piece of shit. You brought the Stalker right to me?"

The bodyguard pointed at herself, blinking slowly. "I did?"

Then, she noticed the weight pressed on her side and palmed her face. "Oh damn, I forgot to drop you off at the gates..."

"Get out of my room, you freaks!"

"Nope. We're turning this eco—" Madoka covered her mouth to muffle a hiccup. "—economics lesson into a party. Mods, throw everyone to the Greyflesh Corpses, thank you~"

"Don't order my mods around!"

"My bad, Kyomi-chan... I'll escort her out so you can have your share of the booze in peace..."

"I don't want your booze!"

Not hearing, or perhaps not caring, Maihimi stepped back, pulling Madoka with her. In her drunken stupor, she stumbled slightly on a stray cable, landing with the Stalker on top of her.

One of Kyomi's monitors flickered off.

"Oopsie..."

"That's it. Both of you are getting liquidated."

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Pub: 24 Feb 2025 22:40 UTC

Edit: 25 Feb 2025 01:15 UTC

Views: 241