That night I slept on the floor; but when I woke up, I was being hugged by the sleeping Nugu. Being her, I was sure she picked me up off the ground.

After so much time alone, a feeling of joy filled me and I settled into her chest.

“Disgusting,” Tis alluded with a despicable look, lying on one of her balls.

I was dying of shame and would order Nugu to hit her; but that was prepared in advance, it was impossible with this body that recovered and deposited so little energy. It was abnormal.

Tira was not in the bedroom.

“Good morning, Tis,” greeted the sleepy Nugu. “I'm going to water and shower.” She stood up with me in her arms.

“Wait, Nugu.” She separated me from her and threw me on the bed. “I'll be down right away.”

“H-Hey! Be more delicate, will you!?” I recovered my posture immediately and pointed at her.

“Do you want me to prepare you something to eat?” Nugu asked me with a smile; as always, with a heart that didn't fit in her chest.

“It's a stuffed, you'll stain it,” she clarified for me. “Forget it, prepare something messy.”

Honestly, I wanted to eat their desserts.

“It's true…, I'm sorry,” she apologized and left.

“Why don't I recover energy? That's what you were thinking, right?” she said, showing an evil smile.

“Y-You could also read minds like Tira!?” I backed away and fell on spikes.

“Except for Nugu, we knew you would show up, little tick.”

“My name is Usei, have the decency to remember it!” I revealed, getting defensive; when I realized this, I retracted it. “J-Just kidding.” Tis got up and approached me. “Why are you approaching!? What are you planning…!?”

⸎

“Tis, I have already prepared lunch. Has something happened? I felt a pain in my chest,” Nugu warned after opening the door and sticking her head out.

“Nugu!” I jumped onto her blouse and held on. “Let me return to your body! I promise I will treat you well! Please don't leave me alone with Tis again, please! I'll tell everything, so please don't leave again, please!”

“What happened?” she asked, stunned, to Tis, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed.

“Nugu! Actually, Tis…!”

“Speak and next time it will be worse,” Tis interrupted me; my snout lowered.

“Actually… nothing has happened…” Some tears, which should be impossible for a stuffed animal, came out of my sockets.

Our attention was caught by several breaking glass and squawking noises on the lower floor.

“Tira!?” Nugu called; when she turned her gaze towards the stairs, the window of the room was broken by the headbutt of a crow that entered along with two more.

Luckily, Tis quickly sealed them inside bubbles.

“Did you really think that animals could beat me?” Tis asked me.

“No, no; you're wrong! They will be from Peroth; this time I have nothing to do with it.”

Tira hurried up the stairs with three other crows locked in her shadow:

“Are you okay, Nugu!?” said Tira; Nugu nodded. “Tis, you should go outside, there is someone surrounded by crows; I will stay with Nugu.”

When I saw Nugu frightened, I struggled to escape from her arms and ran down to the entrance; Tis, walking, caught Tira's crows, followed me and opened the door.

I took a few steps and saw a boy with red hair and purple eyes on the road, with a scratched red poncho and surrounded by fourteen crows; rather, his hair and clothes were covered in blood.

“Who are you!? Don't you know who you're messing with!?” I asked angrily. “If you don't want to become energy, get out of here!”

Any being, compared to us, was insignificant as energy; it was like comparing an ant to a whale.

Tis stepped on my head.

“What are you stupid doing !?” I reproached her.

“Are you want to break Nugu's stuffed?” she responded with an overwhelming look.

Without any response from the boy, five of them charged towards us.

As expected, Tis caught his stocks in bubbles. They pecked at their cage.

Still being stepped on, I was amazed to see what the child was doing: he was tearing, although with great effort, Tis's ball with his fingers.

“This is not normal!” I alerted; she locked it inside another one.

When he seemed to have stopped, some crows began to pass through his bubble one by one; but they were not going towards us, but rather they were fleeing through the TIS.

The important thing was that the boy was trapped and seemed to have given up.

“This is strange, he hasn't moved in a while. Would you have asthma?” I doubted; when we just stared at him, his body began to fade. “A Peroth specialty? At least he knows when to run.”

“Who was? Why did he do this?” asked Nugu, who came out with fear.

“Why haven't you deleted it!?” I pointed to Tis. “He was dangerous! Haven't you seen what he did!?”

“Abusing a power to eliminate someone… what was it called? Ah, yes: murder! Have you seen us looking like murderers?” Tis suggested.

“Of course I see it for you! If you hesitate, you will lose what you love,” I advised her from experience.

“Why did you run outside?” Nugu asked me.

“Curiosity got the best of me…” I responded, drawing back my limbs.

Tis reached down and picked me up, then threw me against the wooden railing.

“What are you doing!?” I asked him, angry at so much abuse.

It created a bubble that lifted Nugu's shirt, revealing the splash:

“Our lives hang on a stuffed animal, and your curiosity is dangerous. If you want to die, do it alone.”

“I'm not a stuffed animal because I want to! It's all Koly's fault!”

“And we don't share a destiny with you because we want to. Face it, she doesn't exist anymore.”

“I know, and I was glad when you deleted it! But I was waiting so long that you even stole my job! So much time for what?…” I bent down, desolate, my muzzle.

Nugu came over, picked me up, dusted me off and looked at me with her arms outstretched:

“You always stayed by my side, right? Then you experienced the same thing as me: there are people who ruined my life and those of my loved ones, there are others who accepted me and never betrayed me; you don't have to carry everything alone or blame everyone for the crime of a few.”

“Nugu… I just used you…”

“Alright.”

“I have hurt many…”

“If I can forgive you, so can the rest. I'm sorry for not showing you a better life.”

This was wrong; my goal was wrong from the beginning.

“Nugu, I love you,” I expressed respectfully, stretching my limbs; she brought me closer and we hugged.

“Everything very beautiful; but we don't even know your name,” Tira confessed, covering her smile.

“Usei, it's the first name I got; I am, from what they insinuate, the weakest reality,” I revealed; but Tis ignored me with her cell phone. “Have you heard, Tis!? Learn to respect!”

“Since yesterday, my existence has the same value as that of a plush, and today I had to protect it. Do you know how to do something useful?”

In addition to being angry and embarrassed me, I had nothing to fight back with:

“And what are you doing!?”

“She's warned the others that there's a psychopath on the loose,” Tira revealed. “The question is, who did that child come for?”

In my opinion, he could only come after Tis, just like me.

…If only I had my body… Why don't I regain energy?…

“Let's go after him, Tira,” Tis proposed, descending the porch stairs. “They will protect Nugu.”

Nugu did not seem to be against it; but it was clear that we were a burden. I realized her feelings when she squeezed me tightly: that helplessness.

She immediately recovered her spirits when she saw her beloved Chiouri and another girl with golden hair.

“Chi!” Nugu named and pounced; she caressed her head:

“Let's go… inside.”

They came in and Nugu left me on the table:

“Wait, I'm going to collect the crystals,” she said, going to the kitchen.

“I'll help… you.”

The golden-haired girl was the only one who stayed with me and sat on the chair.

“You were Mega, right?” I asked about her halo. “You are my memory, my legend, I am your… mother?” I clarified with my limbs in a thinking pose; she inhaled and exhaled air, picked me up and turned me around. “I'm not a battery operated plush!” I hit her hand and fell on my feet on the table.

“Em… Nugu? Right? Did you create this plush?” she asked with the green megaphone.

“Yes, I sewed it myself,” she confirmed, sweeping.

“It is true that she sewed it; but that is not the point! Pay attention!” I pointed it out.

“I have experienced strange things; but for a plush to say it's your mother… it's laughable.”

Lowering my limbs, I realized she was right.

“What she said… is true.” Chiouri helped me achieve truthfulness.

“You know Tis, right? I am also a reality and I lived with the original humans, those who did not have a soul; due to some circumstances, right now I am this hedgehog. Believe me, my body is beautiful, like a quarter of yours.”

“Really? Are you calling me ugly?…”

“N-No, no! A quarter of me is enough to consider you one of the four wonders of this world.”

She scratched behind her hair and made a happy face:

“Thank you, mother,” she thanked me with a squeeze on my limbs.

“One moment! How do you know I 'm telling the truth!?” I pointed to Chiouri.

They had both finished cleaning up and sat down.

“I modified… the cotton of the plush…”

Frightened, as well as surprised, I lowered the limbs. Chiouri was restricting my power: to a reality.

“Chiouri, you are human.” I approached her and jumped on her chest. “Thank you for being alive.”

My gaze chanced to meet Mega, who was gaping:

“Human, with a soul?…” she whispered and hesitated; Chiouri looked at her.

“Tis told me that she was Filia's daughter, and that you also appeared from him.”

“Filia told me…” Chiouri confirmed. “Although I didn't know… about Mega…”

Still gaping, her cheeks were covered by tears and, at the fourth, her face wanted to express a smile that was difficult to pronounce. She stood up, clutching the chest of her shirt and her other hand with a closed fist, as if she were going to hit the table that never happened.

Mega, without hesitation anymore, hugged Chiouri tightly next to me; the three of us were the closest to the humans I loved.

“I feel like I can trust you,” I confessed sentimentally, returning to the table with a push on her chest. I scratched my nose with my limbs. “Nugu already is; but I also allow you to be my servants,” I offered confidently. “Help me exterminate the souls.”

“Eh?…” The three of them said, looking at me expressionlessly.

“I also offer you to be my servants,” I repeated. “Filia can be too. I won't delete all of them, only the bad ones; that's what you said once, right? Nugu.”