When we exited the gates, I saw the awfully familiar sight: Akagi-sama’s little hideout.

A Japanese-style garden and buildings coexisted with the looming flying mountains and the brush-painted sky and sun.

Elina and Lusa huddled as they looked around the weird place, while Bretagne was drawing suspiciously close to me. Only Kasumi was not acting much different from the usual.

“You don’t seem to be fazed.”

“Should I be? I did not spend my life praying in vain.” The miko clicked her tongue, and headed to the closest house to sit on the terrace.

“I wonder what have we forgotten here?” I asked the Almighty.

The goddess gazed at us, and summoned another gate.

“This magnanimous Akagi-sama allows you to rest for the short while. I will return the artifact into custody.

You, follow me.” I looked around, hoping that she was calling somebody else, but after she nodded, confirming that she called for me, I reluctantly approached the torii.

[Really, why me? Couldn’t you even send us right away and go by yourself?]

“Archangel of Fire might have some updates on the situation, so I would bypass the need of retelling everything to you. And also I hope you will annoy her with your questions.” The loli grumbled, before pulling me inside the gates.

---

On the other side, I stepped into a spacious office room. Something truly worthy of a CEO, with lots of fancy furniture and decorations. A place one could call comfortable for anyone, if not for stacks of paper put absolutely everywhere.

‘The Heaven uses paper too, ha?’

‘The hardcore office slave uses paper, ha.’ (A)

We walked around several high-as-a-person stacks of paper, and stepped out to the CEO’s desk, where was sitting the Archangel, accompanied by several angels who carried papers.

The chief’s pen was moving non-stop, filling papers within seconds. And even though all her attention was focused on the documents, the Archangel lifted her hand for a moment.

[She did notice us, right?

Hello, we are here with the quest completed!]

The chief lifted her hand again.

‘Don’t bother with her. Given another decade we might hear her voice.’ Akagi-sama grumbled.

“Khm-khm.” (A)

“KHM-KHM.” (A)

“Just a mo…” The Archangel lifted her head this time.

But before she could finish, the goddess summoned a fan out of nowhere, and swung it, scattering the entirety of the documents on the Archangel’s desk.

“?!” Fire gazed around with her mouth agape.

“Thank you for giving us your attention, as for the reason we came…” The fox continued as if nothing happened.

“You are so mean…” Fire pouted.

“… the first artifact is here. About the next item. Any news?” (A)

[You truly are something…]

“You would not reach her otherwise.” (A)

“I… I seem to have completely lost the conversation here…?” Fire raised her hand, drawing our attention back to herself.

“About the Shawl of Persistence, have you got any updates on it?” (A)

The Archangel froze for an entire minute, gazing between the ceiling and the emptied desk, before finally answering: “I seem to have forgotten about it. Should I run a check for you?”.

“Yes plea…”

‘Stomp’

“Hyia?”

‘Stomp’

The loli started stepping on my foot, all while keeping the expression of absolute calmness.

“Should I?” Fire asked again, seeing our weird actions.

“Definitely… not.” I corrected myself before my foot was stepped on again.

“But I can…” She tried speaking, but was cut off by Akagi-sama.

“Thank you, but definitely not! I have no need to wait for another century before your schedule clears up. Not for the sake of your own task.” (A)

“I… I see… Yes, that is for the best, … perhaps.

How is Nirna doing?” The Archangel stood up from her desk, but hesitated to approach.

“That angel is fine, nothing would happen to your servants near myself. This one is going to be fine too, no need to worry.” The goddess patted my arm, but then cleaned it like she touched dirt. Fire showed me a smile of sympathy (pity?).

“Are you going to search for the Shawl immediately?” The Archangel cautiously approached, with her eyes kept on me.

“What’s wrong?” (A)

“I… had an idea how to help you.” She approached close enough for me to be able to touch her just by stretching my hand, and the Archangel did so before I could. Fire put her palm on my forehead, and I felt very warm.

I got overexcited from just this much: my breathing turned unsteady, and the heart was pounding like crazy. It was to be expected, the woman in front of me was by any standard a bombshell.

After she drew away her palm, I collected myself before I melted from being lovestruck. It was quite easy to sober up, especially after I noticed the little goddess’ reaction.

Akagi-sama looked like she is about to kill somebody.

“Fire… Have you… Just dared to… Lay your hand on my thing…?” The goddess was like a grenade with its safety pin pulled out, and the katana in her hand clearly was not drawn as a joke.

But Fire was unfazed at all.

“But I did nothing bad, did I~?” She titled her head, and put a palm on her cheek.

“You dare talking back…?” With every second passed, the loli’s eyes were getting scarier.

“I do~.” The Archangel spread her wings and her halo shone brighter.

As the tension between the two increased, I started backing away, away from them. The angels in the room already did the same.

Soon the loli changed her appearance to the androgynous one, and drew a larger katana. The Archangel created a sword of her own.

The longer it dragged on, the more I was concerned they would start fighting for no reason, but all my instincts were shrieking at me not to make a single sound, lest I’d draw their attention to myself.

They stood like that for what seemed like minutes, but then, all of a sudden, the pressure they emanated has decreased.

“You little b*.” The goddess threw down the sword, and it shattered into particles of light.

“My pleasure, dear Goddess.” The Archangel too returned to how she was before.

“Sorry, darlings, I hope we did not scare you too much~.” Fire put her palms together, and bowed her head.

“I did warn you.” Akagi-sama still kept looking at the Archangel, even as she approached me, gripped my collar, and dragged into the torii gates.

“A moment.” Fire stepped closer to me.

“I have a proposal. Should you succeed in retrieving the other artifacts, I can set you free.” She whispered into my ear.

“DO. NOT. OVERSTEP. YOUR. BOUNDARIES.” The kitsune roared, before throwing me inside the gates.

But it will depend on whether you can win her over~.