Ibaraki wakes up in an excellent mood as she completely puts off the flames of desires inside of her thanks to Shuten and Marisa.
But strangely enough, the desire seemed a bit longer to put off than usual.
"Seriously, I blame the one who made the equivalent of desire to flames..."
She muttered helplessly. There were two ways to trigger her flames: anger or Passion, if not for her Madness Enhancement, she doubted she could trigger her flames so easily.
That's why in her past life she needed to be hit first, so her flames could trigger; it's a downside of her ability, but her flames could go to the fourth phase of matter, which is plasma.
Normal ability about flames can't reach that phase. Such a simple restriction could ignore if you have an IED (Intermittent Explosive Disorder) or you could hold grudges.
She is very good with the latter. Ibaraki looks at Marisa and Shuten, who are sleeping; she kisses them and then turns into a wisp of flames.
At the doorway, the flames gathered and became humanoid again.
"Well, might as well cook the leftover food into something new"
She hums as she goes into the kitchen and opens the cupboard to retrieve all the food.
"I'll probably make the Moonshake, I'll chop up the duck into small pieces and make it sweet and sour, and some stir-fry noodles with nuts and lotus roots for garnish"
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*Knock* *knock* *knock*
Hearing that sound coming from the door, she comes closer to the door, and her nose caught the familiar scent of a bird; she opens the door and looks at her guest.
"What do you want, Aya?"
She welcomed the guest like she welcomed the IRS.
"Don't be so cold Ibaraki~ I heard that Marisa went and fight the princess of the moon. I wanted to interview her"
She enthusiastically said it with brimming energy, making Ibaraki roll her eyes.
She clutched the door, intending to hold it, and Aya panicked.
"Okay-okay! In truth, I smell something good so I'm here to see it but also I might as well interview Marisa!"
Aya tried to whistle her way in, but Ibaraki stood like a wall, seeing she couldn't do anything; she decided to be honest.
"I decided to see you since I didn't see you for weeks"
Aya shyly said her intentions while trying her best not to blush, seeing that Ibaraki sighed as she was busy making clothes for the festival. She cooped up in the store.
"Come in. If you decided to be honest in the first place, you should be inside by now"
Ibaraki considered Aya a friend who messes around too much; she is a quite simple-minded person whose grind focuses on gossip and writing nonsense.
"Help me retrieve the food and rice from the kitchen and put them on the table because I'm going to wake them up"
"Sure~"
Ibaraki walks towards the bedroom and looks at the two people who were still sleeping peacefully.
Ibaraki gently nudges Shuten to wake her up.
"Hmm... good morning..."
Shuten said it in a raspy voice that sounded like she screamed so much yesterday.
"You should wash your face after that go to the table because there's food ready"
Ibaraki said while fixing Shuten's hair, making Shuten nod and kiss Ibaraki before leaving the room.
Ibaraki nudges Marisa, making her grab the blanket and cover herself.
"Wake up Marisa, let's eat together"
She said it in a gentle tone, making Marisa pull the blanket down and looked at her with loving eyes.
"Good morning Ibaraki..."
Marisa's softly spoken greeting made Ibaraki feel smitten by it.
"You should wash your face because we are going to eat now"
She said it with a smile. Marisa's face had a shade of red on them and she wanted to be carried.
"Jeez, you are so spoiled now..."
Ibaraki Indulges Marisa and carried her towards the bathroom, Aya who witnessed it becomes a bit jealous.
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Marisa and Ibaraki walk towards the table, and it surprised Marisa to see Aya this early morning.
"Ibaraki, why is she here?"
Marisa looked at Ibaraki, wanting to get an answer.
"Well, she said she missed me also she wanted to interview you"
Marisa becomes wary of the Tengu as she regarded her as a threat to her relationship.
Ibaraki sees Marisa's mood sink as she decided to reassure her.
"Don't worry, we are just friends. I'm sure she just sees me as friends as well"
Marisa, look Ibaraki in the eyes.
"I'm sure you see her as a friend, but can you assure me that she only sees you as a friend as well?"
Ibaraki knows the answer is no, she knows that she carries some charisma that could easily gain the favorability of a person very easily.
That's why whenever she tried to interact with someone, she tried to emphasize the wall in the conversation, only to make the other party more intrigued (Yukari) or make the other party want to stick with her more (Aya).
It's a good thing that Reimu didn't get affected by it and treated her like a bank of some sort.
"No..."
Marisa, who heard it, had a thought-so expression.
"Well, we should eat first before tackling that problem"
Marisa said as they approached the table.
"You guys are slow, the food is cold now"
Shuten is complaining about how slow they are, but in actuality, she feels awkward talking to Aya, who is a very chatty person.
"Sorry we just have a long talk inside the bathroom"
Marisa said it made Shuten's eyes twitch because of the possible underlying meaning of it. Seeing the sudden look of aggression from Shuten, Marisa tilts her head.
Making Shuten blushed from the misunderstanding and shakes her head.
"Well, I just need to reheat it"
Ibaraki lets out a wisp of flames surrounding the dishes and lets out intervals between pulses that act like a microwave. Seeing the food emit some steam, she retrieves it.
"Let's eat now~"
They eat breakfast without any interruptions.
"Say, can you tell me how did you solve yesterday's incident?"
Aya asked Marisa, who was leaning toward Ibaraki and acting coy.
"Sure why not"
"Well, Alice and I started flying toward the village when we met this fire-fly youkai. We beat her up regardless".
"Then we fly towards the path to the village, yet an annoying night sparrow decided to annoy us, so we beat her"
"Then we meet a half-beast and complain that we are noisy and accuse us of attacking humans, so we beat her and gain the information where the perpetrator is"
"Then we meet Reimu who accused us of being the one who's behind the incident so we made her go back home"
Aya and Ibaraki sweat drop hearing that they keep beating people up if they cross paths with her.
"We entered the mansion inside the bamboo forest and a rabbit youkai attack us and lead us to a room to another rabbit youkai that is taller than the last one"
"A weird person comes in and said we are not returning from the moon or something along those lines"
"We beat the rabbit and we didn't enter where the weird person goes in because that's fishy"
"We choose the door on the other side of the corridor instead of the slightly opened one"
"When we entered it, the weird person blocks us but we beat her and continue inside, then we saw the moon and a crazy person that likes hide and seek"
"We beat her and the moon becomes normal, the end"
Ibaraki facepalms because of how little to no information she could get from Marisa's story, but she deduces the important figures by it, while Aya just writes some things.
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