"I'm still not sure this is a good idea."

"You worry too much, Dormouse. It's going to be fine," I told my dear assistant while lacing my shoes.

"I wouldn't be worrying so much if you didn't keep getting into hairy situations," she shot back, and I couldn't really say anything to that.

I shared the events of my little jaunt as Bel last night with her, with certain parts naturally omitted, and while she applauded me for managing to mark the grand elder, she was still torn on certain details.

"I still think it would've been better if you hadn't played the Bel card yet," she whispered to me, mindful of the others also changing their footwear in the hall at the end of the school day. "By directly antagonizing them, you might've created a brand new future incident."

"Maybe, but this way at least we know it would happen, and roughly when and where. That's way more than the vague conjectures we could draw yesterday," I pointed out, and my girlfriend fell silent. I interpreted that as tacit agreement and closed my shoe locker, only to notice the sound of someone running in the background.

When I poked my head out to take a look, I nearly collided with a rushing Mountain Girl, but she managed to come to a literally screeching halt at the last millisecond. Huh. I thought only car tires made that noise.

In any case, she was still heaving, but gave me a Faun-style salute nevertheless, which apparently became the standard form of greeting between my associates. Even the Research Society guys started doing it, which was a little odd but mostly harmless, so I let them be.

But back to Rinne. She was wearing a darker colored pantsuit, with Onikiri slung over her shoulder, which was fairly odd. Not the sword; she was carrying that around in its wraps everywhere. No, it was the clothes. While she still preferred masculine clothing at school, thanks to my girlfriends' help, she now had a full set of casual and semi-formal outfits for everyday use. In fact, I hadn't seen her wear her 'creepy huntress' outfit outside the base, so...

"Did you seriously run over to the base to change?"

"N...No?" she answered a touch hesitantly, only to turn on a dime in record time and admit, "Yes."

It's been less than a quarter of an hour since she one-sidedly declared she would accompany me today, and considering the school's distance from the secret base's main entrance... Holy moly! I knew she could jump great distances, but I didn't think she could move around that fast. More importantly though...

"Did anyone see you?"

"Of course not," she declared with an offended huff. "Rinne is the second-in-command of the Kage clan! If Rinne doesn't wish to be seen, Rinne shall remain unseen."

"Yes, yes, you are a very sneaky ninja," I told her a touch flatly, but she took it as a straight compliment and let out a content hum.

In the meantime, the others also finished changing, and Elly came over to our side, closely followed by the childhood friend duo.

"I'll take your bag," she declared and made good on it, prompting me to raise a baffled brow. She shortly explained, "You cannot go to an official meeting with a school bag."

"It's not really official, more of an informal discussion," I pointed out, and she shook her head at once, making her thick twin-tails flop around. She changed up her hair-style in preparation for the concert, thought it was still a project in progress. I hoped that with some luck, we might even get to see her ringlets again. Not that she wasn't pretty as is, but that hair style held a special place in my heart.

"There's no such thing as an informal discussion among rivals," she emphasized, and while I wanted to point out that we were 'rivals' in a very loose sense of the word, Rinne backed her up.

"Precisely. It's imperator that Leonard-dono would not show weakness, therefore Rinne must accompany Leonard-dono as his bodyguard."

"I think you meant 'imperative', but more importantly..." I tried to object, but seeing that she already got her gear and everything, I could only say, "Well, fine. Having you around shouldn't hurt, so long as you don't provoke anyone."

As for exactly what we've been talking about, it all had to do with a phone call in the morning. Dad-in-law informed me that Naoren reached out to him, and he relayed a message saying that the bespectacled Draconian wanted to continue our previous discussion where we left off. I wasn't entirely against the idea, but the timing wasn't the best, since I was still in the process of digesting last night's events.

Unfortunately, if I missed this opportunity to talk with the guy, there was a good chance I wouldn't get another one until the tournament. Or rather, while technically I could Phase over any time I wanted, using the auxiliary marks around him, showing up uninvited could've hampered future negotiations. Not to mention, the school festival and, more importantly, the Christmas ball was quite literally around the corner, so it was best to get this done ASAP before I'd get buried under all that.

"Just remember: never cower before Naoren," my Draconian girlfriend emphasized while fixing my collar, which was odd, since Judy already did that before we came out the classroom. Maybe it was a nervous tic? In any case, she firmly stated, "If you feel like it's necessary, never be afraid to punch him in the nose! No matter what happens, remember that you have the whole family behind your back."

"Please don't encourage him," Judy whispered in exasperation, and I raised my hands.

"I'm not planning to punch anyone today, don't worry. Everything's going to be fine."

"Hey, Josh? Care for another bet?" our friendly neighborhood Celestial poked her friend with her elbow, and the guy promptly rolled his eyes.

"Thanks, but no thanks. Let's just go and figure out how to put the stage together and leave Leo to his business."

"Right, we still have to do that today," Elly commented and gestured for the others to follow after her. "Come on guys, I'll show you how it's done!"

I waved the group goodbye, and they soon left in the direction of the gymnasium, leaving me alone with a silent yet attentive Mountain Girl. After a beat, I gestured towards the main entrance.

"Let's get going."

"Are we walking?"

The weather was fairly mild, especially considering we were in the middle of December, so I figured going by foot would be fine.

"Yes. Let's discuss a few things on the way," I proposed, and she nodded with entirely undue solemnity.

Even though I just said that, we remained silent until we left the school grounds, and while the way Rinne was sticking to me have turned a few heads, I doubted the placeholders would even remember the event a few minutes from now. At worst, the four creepy amigos might pester me a bit about it, but by this point I was used to their antics.

Anyhow, once we were on the streets, I waved for her to walk next to me.

"Have you managed to track down the new Knights?"

"Rinne's afraid we couldn't. By the time we found the building based on Leonard-dono's instructions, their trail was already gone."

"That's a shame, but I expected as much. I wish I could've given more accurate directions."

"It wasn't Leonard-dono's fault!" After vehemently stating that, Mountain Girl took a deep breath and continued in a more level voice. "Brand-sama recommended that our Kage ninjas form squads with his subordinates and patrol the city and try to catch them while on the move."

"If they're following in the same footsteps as Penny's group, it's likely they're holed up outside of the city. Tell them to make sure they're careful nobody notices them. Tensions are a little high because of the Draconian conference, and the last thing we need is some kind of contrived misunderstanding."

"Understood!"

After that exchange, we walked in silence for a while. I dictated a fast pace, and I didn't have to worry about her not being able to keep up, so I figured it would take about half an hour to get to the hotel where the Chinese Draconians set down their headquarters on the island. As such, I decided I might as well broach another subject I had on my mind for a while.

"Say, Rinne?"

"Yes, Leonard-dono!"

She responded more vigorously than expected, grabbed hold of her sword, and her eyes scanned the streets around us. There didn't seem to be anything suspicious going on in the vicinity, so I had no idea why she was so high-strung.

"Easy there. I just wanted to ask something." I waited for her to stop fretting and have her full attention. "The Kage clan specializes in hunting supernatural nasties, right?"

"Yes, we track and spill the lifeblood of malevolent youkai," she stated with a puffed-up chest.

"You haven't done anything of the sort lately, have you?" It was just an innocent question, but she reeled back like I just punched her in the gut. "Hey, don't misunderstand. I'm just saying because I'm worried the rest of the Kage clan would complain that I'm keeping you from your job."

"We would never!" she proclaimed with an increasingly uncommon 'Is this guy pulling my leg or just a natural airhead?' kind of frown on her brows. "Leonard-dono is the chief of the clan, therefore the clan does what Leonard-dono says."

"I'm sure that makes sense on paper, but I'm only the clan head due to a technicality, and the very first thing I did was to pivot the clan's core activities from monster-hunting to espionage and logistics support, and I'm a little worried about how they feel about that."

"The clan is, and always will be, loyal to Leonard-dono, so don't worry about such things," Mountain Girl emphasized with what felt like an undue amount of confidence. "Everyone knows that if they do not follow Leonard-dono's orders, Rinne shall cut them down where they stand!"

"That's not loyalty. That's fear," I pointed out while channeling my inner Judy, and she looked at me like I just repeated the same word twice. "Remind me to put together a supervision session one of these days."

"Rinne won't forget!"

I figured that was about as far as this conversation would go, but just out of courtesy I asked, "Do you have anything else to report?"

To my surprise, she had. A lot. Let's skip over the small talk, and summarize the main points, shall we?

First off, the 'senior staff', which included her, Brang, Arnwald, and Fred finished discussing their plans for the next expansion of the base. I never got around to talk to her about it last night due to the whole kerfuffle with the grand elder and the new batch of Knights, so this time I listened to her attentively. They apparently decided on the layout of the new training rooms, plural, but I'd have to approve of them in person the next time I was in the base.

The side-project to try and utilize the mini-shoggoths and their various abilities as camouflaged deployable anchors for my Far Sight and Phasing capabilities were progressing surprisingly smoothly. Ichiko had a good rapport with the creature or creatures or what have you (I was still unsure how to address a hive-mind), and she'd been teaching various tricks and 'ninja arts' to the little menace... menaces? In any case, so long as they remained docile, the day could come when I could finally upgrade my ability so that I would no longer be anchored to people.

Last, and most certainly least, she attempted to update me on the progress of the organization of our internal tournament, but I naturally shut the topic down with extreme prejudice.

Like that, we reached our destination in Timaeus's... well, I called it Chinatown in the past, but that wasn't quite accurate. Oriental district? Asian district? I had no idea which was the proper term for it, but this was definitely in that ballpark, from the neon signs tightly packed with Chinese letters to a frankly ridiculous number of noodle restaurants and laundromats. That was kind of stereotypical, and potentially bit iffy if you asked me, but Rinne didn't seem to mind, so maybe it wasn't that big of a deal. But then again, she was Japanese, so maybe I was stereotyping her by even associating her with this place? Damn, I was really bad with these 'ism' things.

So, I stopped thinking about all that and led Mountain Girl up the stairs leading to the high-rise hotel shaped like a pagoda smack dab in the middle of the district. Naoren and his company (in this case meaning an actual company, apparently operating in the tech-sector) reserved more or less the whole building for the duration of their stay, and security was obviously tighter than the skin of an especially ripe gooseberry. Case in point, before I could even reach the door, a pair of suits built like brick shithouses stopped us on our tracks.

"Entry is restricted, please move along."

"I'm here to visit Naoren. I should be expected."

The two security guards shared a glance, and this time the other one spoke up.

"Master Naoren didn't mention any visitors."

"You might be out of the loop then. Could you check?"

My polite suggestion was met with guarded looks, and it was only at this point that I noticed they were looking behind me. I followed their example, and found Rinne giving the duo a blood-curdling glare.

"Mountain Girl, stay," I warned her, and her expression turned on a dime as she directed a hurt puppy look at me.

"But they were disrespectful to Leonard-dono! Allow Rinne to discipline them!"

"... You see? This is exactly the reason why I didn't want to take you along at first," I grumbled before turning back and flashing a reassuring smile at the security personnel, who in the meantime grew to four members. Where the other two materialized from while I wasn't looking, I had no idea.

However, before I could even attempt to salvage the situation, a new voice joined the fray behind us.

"What's the meaning of this?"

Turning around again, I found myself locking eyes with a petite girl walking up the stairs behind us. She was wearing a fiery red Chinese dress that seemed entirely too light, mild winter weather or not, and by eye I'd have said she was just about as tall as Ichiko. Meaning short. As for looks, she was naturally pretty, but she still had a bit of a puppy fat on her, so she was more cute than attractive. She also had her hair in two buns, which meant...

"Stay back, princess Xiao! These ruffians are—!"

"How dare you call Leonard-dono and Rinne ruffians! I shall turn you into rust on Onikiri's blade!"

"Look out, she has a weapon!" one of the guards exclaimed and, with a flick of his wrist, produced one of those telescopic batons from somewhere.

"Ah! Evildoers!" the young girl exclaimed and assumed some kind of pose, where she was standing on one foot, with her other leg raised till her knee almost touched her abdomen and she spread her arms wide. "I'm not afraid of you! I'll show you the power of the Feilong clan! Our kung-fu is the strongest there is!"

"Okay, that's about enough!" I yelled out to get everyone's attention, then reached out to flick Mountain Girl's forehead.

"Ow!"

"You, behave yourself." After that, I turned back and pointed at one of the guards. "You, go get Naoren, or failing that, talk to someone who can contact him. As for you..." This time I turned to the young girl on the stairs, and sternly told her, "You're on a set of stairs, so stop balancing on one leg before you slip and hurt yourself."

"I won't slip!" she objected, but at the same time she obediently planted both feet on the ground. "Who are you to address brother Naoren so flagrantly anyway?"

"Right, we never actually got to the point where we could introduce ourselves, did we? I'm Leonard Dunning, and this is my bodyguard, Rinne..." I paused here and turned to my current companion. "Do you still not have a surname?"

Before she could tell me, if she even wanted to, we were interrupted by the young girl scampering up to us and exclaiming, "Wait! Wait! Are you really Leonard? Leonard Blackcloak?"

Weird as it might sound, I was feeling a little intimidated by the way her eyes were sparkling, so I modestly answered, "Some... or rather, lots of people call me that, yes."

"You fools!" Hearing her suddenly lash out at them made the three security guards (one of them already left to look for Naoren, as per my instructions) shudder and shrink back. "How could you not recognize the esteemed Leonard Blackcloak Dunning? You bring shame to our ancestors!" I momentarily debated whether or not I should point out that she didn't recognize me either, but before I could come to a decision, she turned back to me and did a martial arts salute, with one tiny fist against an open palm in front of her chest. "Xiao Feilong greets senior."

For a moment I didn't know how to react to that. Was I supposed to return the gesture? Or do something else entirely? I was pretty sure I wasn't supposed to bow, but at this point, who the hell knew what the etiquette in this context was supposed to be. In the, I settled on my practiced Big Brotherly Smile™.

"You must be grand elder Xinji's granddaughter."

"Ah?" The little girl's eyes opened wide and looked at me as if mesmerized. "Has senior heard of Xiao?"

"Yes. You're going to participate in the upcoming tournament, aren't you?"

"Y-Yes! This insignificant junior will try not to embarrass herself!"

She looked oddly tense, so I reapplied my smile and gently told her, "Now, now. Don't put yourself down. I'm sure you're going to do great."

"Does senior Blackcloak really think so?" she beamed me, and I nodded.

I wasn't just randomly flattering her either. She was obviously a major player and part of the annoying grand elder's plan, so I'd bet my hat she was going to reach at least the semi-finals, potentially even further. In any case, the girl in front of me was giving me a worshipful look that uncannily reminded me of Ichiko when I first met her. Was I popular with mini-moes, I wondered?

In any case, I was afraid she would be annoying, but she turned out to be surprisingly agreeable. More importantly, she was a prime candidate to mark for future Far Sight application, but before I could get around to figuring out how to do it, the large door leading into the reception room opened without a sound, and a familiar bespectacled young man walked out, with a mortified security guard behind him.

"Good afternoon, Leonard. I expected you would arrive later in the evening."

"I figured I'd strike the iron while it's hot," I answered with a smirk, doing my best to keep the wave of irritation washing over me show up in my voice, and he returned the gesture.

"I see you've met Xiao Xiao," he noted as he glanced at the girl at next to me, and a moment later she was already by his side.

"Brother Naoren! Senior Blackcloak said I was going to do great in the tournament!"

"He has discerning eyes," he responded with just the hint of a smile and rubbed the girl's head before his attention returned to us. "And who might the lady be?"

"I'm Onikiri no Tsukaite Rinne, Leonard-dono's retainer," Mountain Girl answered before I could, and the young clan head let out a satisfied hum as if that explained everything.

"I see. Please come in and make yourselves at home."

"Don't mind if we do then," I told him in return, and our small group finally entered the pagoda hotel.

Once we were out of the cold and the door closer behind us, Naoren turned to me and uttered a single word.

"Tea?"

It took me a second to process that simple question, and responded with, "Always," drawing a small chuckle out of the odango girl frolicking around us, and making me once again revise the bespectacled man's placing in my annoyance-o-rankings. After all, hopeless theoretical love-rival or not, anyone who realizes that a warm cup of tea is an absolute necessity for a productive meeting can't be that bad, right?