In an upscale apartment near Akihabara, equipped with comprehensive amenities like a concierge and coded locks, the surprisingly large interior was chaotically filled with stacks of manga resembling small hills.
Navigating a 'corridor' barely wide enough for one person, Kurumi and Ryuya were met with an even more exaggerated sight in the bedroom.
There were no bookshelves. Instead, layers upon layers of books turned the room's walls into a sea of manga. Even so, many volumes still had no place to go.
This chaotic state extended to the large double bed, which was also buried under comics, leaving only a person-shaped hollow… a 'coffin' just big enough to fit someone.
Faced with this shocking environment, both Kurumi and Ryuya frowned.
"I say... Honjo Nia, are you really still a woman?"
While not particularly fond of cleaning herself, Kurumi was still very hygiene-conscious. After getting together with Ryuya, she often kept her Shadow Domain neat and tidy.
After all, she frequently dragged Ryuya into the shadow space to 'battle' her clones for hundreds of rounds!
Now, suddenly confronted with such a dirty, messy, and poor environment, Kurumi stared intently at the Second Spirit, Honjo Nia, whom she had caught red-handed half an hour ago.
"Hmm... If you mean biological sex, of course I'm a girl."
"But if you mean psychological gender, I think I belong to a unique, special gender that only loves Ryuya-nii."
Smiling at Kurumi, Nia had spotted Ryuya while he and Kurumi were queuing.
Following them with suspicion, she never expected the Ryuya-nii she had been searching for all these years would appear before her just like that.
Hurriedly clearing out another person-sized 'coffin' space in the cluttered room, her intention seemed to be for her and Ryuya to spend the coming time together in this room, seemingly completely ignoring Kurumi's presence.
"Hah? You think you can just swoop in and eye someone else's husband? Who do you think you are?"
Kurumi's love for Ryuya was no less than anyone's. Although she knew Ryuya had other women, they had come before her.
Coupled with the fact that she hadn't met Gilgamesh, Artoria, and the others, and thus out of sight was out of mind, she hadn't had any extreme reactions.
But right now, looking at the proactive Nia, Kurumi was clearly jealous.
"Hah? Wife? You just happened to run into Ryuya-nii by chance."
"If we're talking about who knew him first, Ryuya-nii and I met twenty-three years ago."
Having changed out of the strange, concealing tracksuit at some point, the newly dressed Nia possessed stunning beauty and a holy, saintly aura.
Yet, contrary to that excellent and magnificent aura, the demeanor she displayed now gave off a bewitching, seductive charm.
This mix of sinister allure and purity created a sense of contrast while also having a captivating, vortex-like force.
"Twenty-three years ago? You... just how old are you?"
Her eyes scrutinizing Nia, Kurumi had initially thought the other girl looked around eighteen or nineteen. Even if she had a youthful appearance, she couldn't be older than twenty-five.
But now, she claimed to have known Ryuya twenty-three years ago.
Judging by her clear memory of him, even if Nia was only seven or eight back then, she would now be...
Thinking this, a look of shock appeared on Kurumi's face.
"Hehe, now you know how old I am? And, Tokisaki Kurumi, I know about you. I know a lot of things about you."
Placing her hands on her hips and humming proudly, Nia's Angel, Rasiel, was an all-powerful search engine capable of querying any information.
Before Kurumi met Ryuya, Nia had looked up a lot of information about Kurumi.
Knowing much about Kurumi's affairs, she looked quite pleased with herself, until she noticed Kurumi's gaze slowly sweeping over her body and settling on a rather... specific area.
"Hehe, thought you'd be something impressive. Seems you're just so-so after all."
Quite satisfied with her own physical advantages, no matter who Nia was, in Kurumi's eyes, she was just that. After all, in certain aspects, Kurumi had made significant progress over the past year!
"You... you... What a rude way to look at someone!"
"Really now, is being flat-chested a crime? It's not like I chose this!"
Looking down at her own flat chest, Nia seemed to wail as if hit where it hurt.
Spinning around, she ran to Ryuya's side, tightly grabbing the man's hand with a tearful expression, "Ryuya-nii, you definitely don't mind that Nia is flat-chested, right?"
"Uh..."
Looking at Nia clinging to his arm, Ryuya actually had several flat-chested individuals around him, like Yukino, Enkidu, Ereshkigal, etc., but he couldn't very well say that out loud.
He could only shake his head slightly, not directly responding. Instead, he snapped his fingers.
Snap!
With Ryuya's action, all the manga in the room seemed to gain consciousness and began arranging themselves orderly.
In moments, the comics were neatly organized, and dust and miscellaneous items obediently returned to their proper places.
"What kind of magic is this?"
"Ryuya-nii, are you my savior?"
Watching her pigsty instantly transform into a clean, tidy room, Nia's eyes shone with light… it was hope!
"Just a minor cleaning spell. But never mind that, Nia, it's been a long time."
Seeing that Nia was actually in a state of self-protective stress, Ryuya guessed that long periods of solitary living had caused the girl to develop a careless, joking personality as a shell.
Just like Kurumi initially, the persona Nia displayed now was actually a protective facade.
Guiding Nia to sit down, Ryuya looked at her for a long moment before sighing softly, "I'm sorry, Nia. I originally didn't want to drag you into the conflicts surrounding Spirits, but in the end, you still couldn't escape this fate."
"Huh?" Blinking, looking at Ryuya, Nia showed no trace of resentment.
She just smiled and replied in a tone completely different from the one she used with Kurumi earlier, "It's fine, Big Brother. I never thought becoming a Spirit was a curse."
"Rather, I think becoming a Spirit is actually a form of happiness."