Yuki’s head turned to the door as Akira walked in with a couple bags in hand. She paused as she stepped through the doorway and gave Yuki an inquisitive look. Yuki only gave her a small smile and a shrug, trying not to disturb Erica who had fallen asleep on Yuki’s lap.

[Shouldn’t it be the other way around?] Akira asked.

‘My headache is nothing compared to what Erica is dealing with,’ Yuki replied. She looked down at Erica who was sleeping peacefully. ‘She’s scared. And hiding something, or at least didn’t tell me everything.’

[What do you think that is?]

‘It’s something she did. I don’t have enough to assume and I don’t want to assume. I’ll let her tell me when she’s ready.’

[I see. Do you know why she’s scared?]

‘I have a guess. It has to do with the two of us and why she was so sad as well. She lost someone, someone she loved. The two of us reminded her of that person. And ten it felt like she was afraid of that happening again.’

Akira placed her bags on the floor and walked over to where Yuki was sitting, placing her hand atop of Erica’s head. 

[She’s afraid of losing someone? Who do you think that is?] Akira asked. 

‘Either you or me.’

[Why? It’s not like we’re going to leave her here and run away,] Akira frowned. [Unless she’s afraid that we’re going to ignore her. But why would we do that?]

‘She’s afraid that she’s going to be a third wheel between us,’ Yuki explained. ‘She has a tendency to blame herself as well, so that isn’t helping.’

[What can we do then? To help her?]

‘I don’t know, honestly,’ Yuki sighed. ‘I’m not even sure if I managed to comfort her, though she does seem better.’

[She does. We’ll have to let her go at her own pace then.]

‘Yeah.’

“So, cooking,” Akira said, looking at Yuki. “How are we going to do that?”

“Want to switch positions?” Yuki asked. “I don’t want to wake her up.”

Akira agreed and with some awkward maneuvering, they managed to get Erica’s head to rest on Akira’s lap. Now free, Yuki went to the kitchen and began to prepare for the night’s meal. She went about the usual motions of meal preparation and thought to herself as her body went on autopilot.

‘Erica said that her partner was important. But now she’s dead.’ Yuki splashed a bit of oil into a pan. ‘If this person was really important, she might have been targeted. And Erica blames herself for not protecting her. But who could it be?’

The term important was too broad. It could have been someone who was the daughter of someone else important, thus making the daughter important. It could be someone who was important because she was famous. It could be a number of things.

‘I don’t know how succubi organize their communities, so that leaves even more things that are unknown,’ Yuki frowned as she flipped a steak. ‘Too many things I don’t know. I’ll have to let Erica explain it to me later. Or it’ll reveal itself. Whichever comes first.’

She went to the fridge and a little gold pin that was stuck to the front door caught her eye. It was a gift that Mathali had given Yuki a few days after he had sworn himself to her. He had said that it was for Yuki saving his life, but Yuki didn’t see how that was needed. Mathali had basically given Yuki his soul with his oath. Yuki was fairly certain that a soul was worth more than a magnetic gold pin.

But the gift reminded Yuki of something. Mathali had recently messaged Uriel that he was returning from his reconnaissance mission that Yuki had sent him on and that took longer than Yuki had expected. Mathali promised that it was for a good reason, and that it would be explained when he returned.

‘Which was when again?’ Yuki racked her mind until the date appeared. ‘Oh. Tomorrow.’

The food was finished and she brought it over to where Akira and a now awake Erica were sitting. Based on how they were sitting, they had been talking while Yuki was cooking and lost in thought. But they had stopped now, turning their attention to Yuki as she brought with herself three plates.

“Time to eat,” she said, handing them each a plate. “What were you two talking about?”

“This and that,” Akira replied, Erica just smiling. “Thanks for the meal.”

“Thanks for buying the food,” Yuki said as she sat down. They ate for a bit as Yuki collected her thoughts. “So um. I know I just got better.”

“What are you planning?” Akira asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It won’t be for a few days,” Yuki said.

“Okay. But what are you planning?” Akira frowned.

“So you remember how I sent Mathali out to investigate the border between Libra and Keynal?” Yuki asked. Akira nodded. “Well, this has to deal with that. He’s returning tomorrow and is bringing information with him.”

“Alright. What do you expect from this report?”

“Nothing good. So I’m preparing myself to deal with things. He did say that it’s possible that a war of sorts would happen.”

“You don’t need to be involved with such a war though,” Akira said. “It doesn’t involve you.”

“True,” Yuki nodded. She didn’t. But a sinking suspicion gnawed at her. “It all depends on what Mat tells me tomorrow.”

“What do you expect?” 

“Well, Mat said that rapid evolution was happening,” Yuki recalled. “I think it’s probably artificial as well. So if someone has discovered a way to artificially create higher ranking monsters, then that is going to probably be weaponized very fast.”

“Weaponized,” Akira repeated. She mulled over it for a bit before something clicked. “Oh. I think I know who you’re worried might weaponize this.”

“Yeah. If they get to it, then realistically we’re looking at something that will probably involve us.”

“Are you two talking about the Shikaku?” Erica interrupted. Her voice was a bit muffled from the food in her cheeks.

“Yeah,” Yuki nodded. Erica’s eyes seem to light up briefly at Yuki’s response. 

“So we might have some battling coming our way?” Erica asked.

“Mhm. We’ll know for sure when Mathali returns tomorrow. For now, I’ll hold off coming up with conclusions. I don’t know enough.”

“But what are your suspicions?” Akira said. 

“Well, if there’s a way to rapidly evolve monsters, then it would seem logical that someone would do that to create invasions,” Yuki replied, tapping her chin. “Just make a few monsters rank A and up and then you have a force that would require a bunch of people to fight against. Small towns could be destroyed within an hour.”

“A few monsters though wouldn’t pose a threat,” Akira thought out loud. “If you gather multiple monsters together, they will fight each other and the force would implode.”

“Yeah. I don’t know the limit to which this accelerated evolution goes, but what if it went all the way up to rank S?” Yuki said. She frowned as she thought about the chaos that would follow. “There haven’t been many rank S monsters in history.”

“Four,” Erica replied. Yuki tilted her head. “There have been only four rank S monsters in recorded history. Fenrir is one of them. He took a small army to take down.”

“Do you know why?” Yuki asked, focusing her attention onto Erica.

“Yeah, of course,” Erica nodded. “It’s because of Fenrir’s fur. It’s super protective in both the physical and magical sense. Attacks bounce right off it. Add that with the monster’s incredible strength and agility, and you have a rank S threat.”

“How did they kill it?” Akira said.

“Oh, it took a small army to find a way to restrain it briefly which was difficult since it was a huge wolf, and once they had it restrained they blasted magic down its throat. Literally.”

“That sounds violent,” Akira frowned.

“It was the only place that wolf was vulnerable,” Erica shrugged. Yuki stared at her and Erica’s cheek pinkened. “What? I like these things.”

“I can see,” Yuki smiled. “What about the other ones? Do you know about them as well?”

“Not as much as Fenrir since Fenrir was the more recent one,” Erica replied. Then her eyes sparkled. “Why? Do you want me to tell you?”

“That would be great,” Yuki nodded.

Erica clapped her hands and launched into stories about all of the rank S monsters that had appeared in Ethros in recorded history. She smiled constantly and her hands and arms waved about as her excitement her voice couldn’t convey leaked through her body. And Yuki watched with a smile of her own, listening carefully, and interrupting only to ask questions.

‘I’m glad she seems better now.’