The next morning, Clara was still making breakfast when she received a phone call.
“Huh? Miss Kamui?”
Even with a pot and spatula in hand, it wasn’t a problem for Clara. She used her flexible touch tentacle to curl around the phone on the counter and swipe to answer.
“Hello? This is Clara. What’s up?”
Clara dragged out her words in a lazy tone, but the caller got straight to the point.
“Clara, has the Association contacted you?”
“Huh?”
Clara thought it over. Alice had come to see her in a personal capacity, and her only purpose was to ask about that button.
But strictly speaking, the “Association official” hadn’t contacted her yet.
“No. Did something happen?” she replied.
Clara already knew what was going on, but since Alice’s meeting with her was a personal matter, she figured it was best not to make a big deal out of it. So she asked knowingly.
Kamui’s voice sounded helpless as she answered.
“Seems like something was stolen, and they want me to cooperate with the investigation… Apparently, it even alerted the Administration Bureau. The situation is pretty serious, or else they wouldn’t have called me this early.”
‘After all, it’s the relic that was supposed to be handed over to the Abyssal Administration Bureau that got stolen.’
Woken up by the authorities early in the morning, Kamui seemed really troubled. Fortunately, she had explained the button situation to Alice last night, so even if she got questioned, she didn’t think it would cause any trouble.
“Watch out. Probably every hero who visited the Association yesterday will be called in. That includes you.”
Clara wasn’t worried.
“Oh, I know.”
Since Alice was planning to vouch for her, she wouldn’t run into any trouble. Even if she was called in for questioning, it would just be a formality.
“So, do you want me to accompany you during the day today? After the questioning, try taking some requests from the hero network? Since I have work today anyway.”
Clara asked, then proactively suggested.
“We can go together.”
“No, I have things to do during the day.”
Kamui refused.
Kamui’s voice sounded tired, haggard.
“Okay, then I’ll study it on my own for now.”
Though she didn’t know what Kamui had been through, Clara thought it would be best not to bother her.
Just as she put down her phone, Clara’s back was “attacked.”
Clara knew exactly who it was, after all, only two people lived in this dorm.
“Lucia, good morning.”
It was Lucia, still groggy from just waking up, hair disheveled, sticking to her like sticky candy.
“Senior Clara~ Good morning~”
Her voice was a soft, muffled whine. She hugged her small senior from behind, buried her face in the loose hair to sniff, and even used her mouth to catch a tentacle that hadn’t escaped.
‘This girl… is she acting spoiled?’
Lately, her attitude toward Clara had become very ambiguous.
Clara couldn’t quite pinpoint the cause of this change, but the boundaries in Lucia’s interactions with her had become increasingly blurred. She had become very clingy.
‘Wait, could it be that she’s developed a crush on “Senior Clara”?’
Whether by coincidence or not, Lucia let out a soft murmur.
“I really like senior~”
That alone was enough to make Clara’s face turn pale.
‘No way! A sibling relationship like that would lead to the end of the world!’
Clara, after all, had the physical fitness of a Mutant. If she struggled and twisted her body, she could definitely break free from Lucia’s embrace. But Lucia was still her sister, her treasure—if she used too much force, she might hurt her…
So she just retrieved the tentacle from Lucia’s mouth.
“You’re this big now, don’t be so clingy.”
“But senior is still small, like a doll. It’s really comfortable to hug.”
Clara hated being treated like a child. She wrinkled her nose immediately, half-annoyed, half-angry, and said in a petulant tone.
“Don’t say things like that!”
Only then did Lucia let go of Clara and asked with blinking eyes.
“Senior, are you going out again today?”
Even though she’d said on the phone she’d take requests alone on the hero network, now that it came to actually doing it, she found it troublesome. Clara just answered.
“No, I’ll just go to the Company today.”
‘After all, I’m not a real hero anyway.’
On the subway during the morning rush hour, Kamui was very troubled.
She hadn’t expected that just accompanying Clara to register on the hero network at the Association would land her in such a hassle.
That girl really was a disaster magnet, just as she claimed.
Although for a hero, getting continuously dragged into incidents might not necessarily be a bad thing.
“Ugh, rotten luck.”
She complained.
To deal with the Association’s summons, she had taken an early subway to the Association, praying that the Administration Bureau’s questioning would go quickly so she could make it back to the publishing house before noon.
But just thinking about her editor-in-chief’s sour face made her not want to go to work at all.
However, what else could she do if she didn’t go to work?
She needed to eat, pay rent. Her income from part-time hero work wasn’t enough to cover her expenses, and she couldn’t just drop her job as an editor…
“Ugh, rotten luck.”
She complained again.
Then she remembered Clara’s previous suggestion.
‘Join the Dream Witch Manpower Dispatch Company, huh…’
Clara not only needed “Kamui” as a hero, she even wanted to invite “Nangong Xiwang” to be the Minister of the Publicity Department.
For Kamui, being needed like that didn’t feel bad at all.
Joining the Dream Witch would also make it easier for her to understand Clara—it was a win-win choice with no downsides.
It was just that stubbornness typical of a Tsundere character that kept her from immediately accepting Clara’s olive branch.
She had chosen to operate as an Independent Hero for a reason.
In the past, she had also been a Magic Girl affiliated with a certain large organization.
But some unpleasant incidents happened back then, which made her quit the organization in a fit of anger.
‘But joining a small startup might mean I won’t run into that kind of trouble again?’
The station arrived.
Leaving the subway station, the inconspicuous building of the Association was still there.
But unlike the situation when she came yesterday, around it were many black-clad agents in Administration Bureau uniforms keeping watch.
‘What exactly was stolen?’
‘To make the Administration Bureau go to such lengths?’
Thinking this, Kamui, under the gaze of the Administration Bureau agents, walked straight toward the Association’s entrance.
But at the door, she was stopped by an Association staff member.
“You’re Miss Kamui, correct?”
The male staff member with glasses asked politely.
“Yes.”
“I’m very sorry for taking up your time.”
The staff member started with an apology, which made it hard to vent any frustration.
He continued.
“The Association has run into some trouble. Since you visited yesterday as well, we need you to cooperate with the Administration Bureau personnel and answer some questions… Please sign here.”
He handed over a form as he spoke.
Kamui took the paper and pen, but her gaze went past the staff member, catching sight of the waiting area in the lobby, where quite a few hero-clad people were sitting.
“I have to queue?”
“Yes.”
She had thought she came early enough, but there were already so many heroes ahead of her in line.
“So what exactly was stolen from the Association?”
The staff member smiled bitterly.
“Well… I don’t really know the details either. The higher-ups say it’s a very important item…”
‘Something the lower-level staff don’t know about.’
Kamui thought about it, and recalled the glass jar from that laboratory.
“A god’s relic?”
She muttered it under her breath, and the agent at the door glanced over.
Looked like she hit the mark.