The scenery outside was a stark white, and the mountains in the distance looked like giant scoops of ice cream.

“Aaand done!” said the girl as she stuck in the last arm, a thin branch, on the snowman.

The girl had practically forced her to come out and play, and they had made that snowman together.

She totally learned that from TV…

That cheers was something I remember seeing a recently elected official doing.

The girl tilted her head to the side, and then went for my sister's hands.

“… Hurraaaay~?” my little sister repeated.

“Hurray~!”

“Hip hip hurraay~!”

I turned my attention back to my own snowman, not even half done.

It was a small fragment of memory.

◆ ◆◆― ――― ――― ◆◆ ◆―― ――― ―― ◆◆ ◆ I heard the chirping of birds from outside.

“… So bright… ” I rubbed my eyes.

“N… n…” breathed Filly, her face right in front of me.

Her large eyes simply looked at me for a while, she was not fully up it seemed.

“Good morning.”

She hastily lifted up the sheets covering her, hiding away her mouth―― her lips.

“… Ehehe.” Filly quietly giggled, much less nervous now that she realized that I shared the same feeling as her.

“Good morning, you two.”

Rakel was sitting on a chair by the window, combing her hair.

Filly and I sat up on the bed.

“Hm? Why are you talking like that?” Rakel asked.

“Huh,” Rakel said suspiciously, then, running her eyes over the two of us, “you two sure seem friendly today.”

“You were sleeping holding hands,” she explained, “found you two like that when I woke up.”

“(Secret!)” She whisper-shouted.

But Rakel didn't seem interested in hearing my response, as she finished her grooming and stood up.

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” I offered.

Now, just us 2, Filly and I, once again looked at each other.

“Yeah.” She went.

“He hehe”

Honestly, I was so into it last night that I didn't remember much of what happened.

… I kind of still felt that way, even now.

Like an aftertaste.

“Auh… Jacky?” She hesitated.

My fingers felt through her silky hair.

I needed it, I needed it badly.

My lips were lonely.

She'd started it yesterday, so how should I…

“It's okay.” She gave me the go ahead.

Filly's long eyelashes――

Her cheeks that carried a faint blush――

―― Beautiful, she was simply.

This might be the first time I've felt like this, even counting my past life.

I gulped once, then started bringing my face closer.

I was close enough that her warmth transmitted to me.

And――

I'd retreated so fast that I fell off the bed and landed hard on my back.

“… Jack, what are you even doing.” Rakel said to me from the door, disappointingly.

“Your senses are dull.” Rakel said matter-of-factly. “If I were an a.s.sa.s.sin, you'd be dead by now.”

I wasn't just dull, I'd shut pretty much everything else out just now.

Filly said, practically saving me from any more awkwardness, to which Rakel went, “Ah yes,” and went on to state her business.

“What thing?” I lifted myself up and asked.

“See you then,” Rakel said again, and left for good this time.

“Jacky.” Filly called as I was pondering, still sitting on the bed.

My face once again went boiling.

“… … M-maybe later…” I squeezed out, my face completely veered away.

Just goes to show, in a single day, in a single night at that… relations.h.i.+ps can change drastically.

“― ― Ah, that's right!” She suddenly said, jumping off the bed. “Master said she'll be out all day, right~? So now's our chance!”

“You don't remember? We promised to go buy a present for her together~!” She claimed cheerfully.

The stuff that happened right after was so intense, I'd completely forgotten.

“It does! I can't wait~!!” Filly said excitedly, returning back to the happy-go-lucky Filly I knew.

◆ ◆◆― ――― ――― ◆◆ ◆―― ――― ―― ◆◆ ◆

― ― Roughly 6 hours later.

“Ugh… my head…!” I had a severe headache.

Wait…? Why, was I, on the floor like this…

Filly was there, collapsed.

“Ow… hua? Jacky…?” Filly said in a daze.

“Jacky… where, are we…?” Filly asked slowly, looking around her surroundings.

We'd woken up in a dark, dreary, stone jail cell.

As in, there were iron bars that caged us. I could make out a dim hallway beyond it.

It was positioned high up near the ceiling, at more than double my height.

Somehow of other, we'd been caught and imprisoned in this sort of place.

Which was when we were surprised once more.

The one who spoke to us was a boy sitting in front of them.

“Wait, you don't remember…?” He said. “You two were kidnapped too…”

I tried to search through my memories from today.

I… remembered what happened…

We'd looked through a bunch of shops… and I think, at the 4th accessory shop we tried, we bought a hair ornament. We'd bought it using both our allowances…

We were using a shortcut to return to the manor.

That was when I noticed their presence.

Something hard hit my head and… I woke up here.

“Who took a nap?” Filly said, tilting her head.

“Our dads warned us about this yesterday remember?” I explained, “The Crimson Cats. I bet they're the ones who did this.”

“You're gonna need to learn to lie better than that.” I chided.

“Wait why!?”

“… ah, oh.”

“…… No helping that, I guess.” I admitted.

I can't say I didn't have a constant supply of b.u.t.terflies in my stomach since then either.

Anyway…

But that wasn't to say we'd lost all hope.

I turned to talk to the boy again, “So, I'm guessing all of you were kidnapped too?”

“They came so fast, I had no idea what was happening and ended up here before I knew it,” he said, “the others all have similar stories. “I've been here 3 days now… but for some of them, it's been more than a week now”

A whole week in here…

They all looked dirty and ragged, but not starving. Guess they're at least getting food.

It was hard to make out in the dark… but those arms and legs looked a lot shorter than they were supposed to be.

This had been done to them―― fairly recently.

“… Uh, that…” The boy tried to say bitterly, but before he could, we suddenly heard footsteps coming from the hallway outside.

The other children were also shaking in fear.

The sound of footsteps became louder, and soon, the person making them was standing outside the bars of the cell.

She looked to be in her late twenties, early thirties.

Because of her minimal clothing, I could see that she had a well trained body.

She was so buff, she looked like she could wrestle a bear.

The leader of the Crimson Cats was a woman, and a powerful spirit master at that.

“Oh, I see I see.” The woman's eyes licked over me and Filly.

She was veritably―― taking stock of us.

So she knew that I was n.o.bility…?

The lady chief turned around to a man standing further back.

“Oh ho!” the man in question cheered, “How many, boss ma'am?”

I could feel their fear rising from that.

The lady chief pointed to the one sitting in front of the rest, “That one. We'll do those 3.”

His jaw dropped――

Like he'd lost all hope, like he was an empty husk――

“No… No no… no… No no no no nooooooooooo!!!!”

He reached his hands out to the lady chief, snot and tears drenching his face, desperately, he begged.

“Quiet.” went the lady chief.

Suddenly, the boy was violently thrown back.

The lady chief had only swished her hand as if driving off a fly.

That woman had blown him away without so much as touching him.

What spirit art could do that?

“… Well aren't you calm, brat.” She mocked. “Didn't that scare ya? Or do you still not understand your situation?”

“Nah, I was just holding my breath you see.” I said to her challengingly. “You should really do something about that old lady stench of yours.”

“… Who should do what now?” She said in a low tone.

The man, her lackey, looked like he was about to p.i.s.s himself.

Then, the lady chief swung her hand.

Before I could get a good look, I was mysteriously knocked away too, landing on the stone floor.

“Next time you do that, remember who you're messing with, f.u.c.king brat. I am the chief of this here Crimson Cats, b.l.o.o.d.y Tigress Vicky. Anyone crosses me, and I make sure they see just how red their blood is. And I take no mercy to brats.”

Once the footsteps were completely gone, Filly quickly came to me as I was still in the fetal position.

“I'm fine.”

Filly went, “Feh?” in confusion, “You're… not hurt?”

“I… I did too!”

I've had to endure Rakel attacking me anytime and anywhere for months now.

I touched the spot on my stomach where she hit.

But the lady―― Vicky's fist wasn't even close to me.

“Filly, I'm surprised you were so quiet the whole time.” I said. “I was honestly scared you'd do something stupid in front of the scary lady.”

“… You? Scared? I find that pretty hard to believe.”

For me, the most surprising turnout for today might just be finding out that this girl was actually scared of something.

“Hm~” Filly looked away.

The air leaked out of Filly's mouth making raspberries.

“Oh okay~♪”

The other kids were also looking at us dumbfounded.

“You alright? Here, stand up.”

“Oh, that. Well,――” I was about to explain when,

Three small birds flew in through the window and came to her.

“Yeah, something like that.”

The boy looked at the whole exchange, completely perplexed.

“That, was Filly's spirit art in action.” I explained. “We just sent a message to our guardians, so… by my estimate, it should take about 4 hours for my dad to get here with his knights.”

“Oh, you're right.” I agreed. “So we should get rescued in an hour and half tops.”

“You,” I said to him, “…what's your name?”

“Alright, Benny, listen to me.” I looked to the 10 children in the cell. “The rest of you too.”

“Ummm~…” having the question thrown to her, Filly pondered on it, tilting her head from side to side, “When the rescuers are fighting the bandits, the bandits might… try to take us hostage! Did I get it?”

“Woohoo~! You can praise me by patting my head, okay?”

Looking at us talking like it was an everyday affair, the boy―― Benny, and the rest of the kids, looked completely baffled.

“Oh we're―― huh, what are we?”

Which was true and all, but kind of lame to say outright.

“… What? Heroes?” I asked, confused.

… That Rakel, making things up again.

Heroes… a hero huh.

“She's right,” I accepted, “we're heroes.”

I gave hope to the children s.h.i.+vering in fear.

Crimson Cats?

Who gives a d.a.m.n. They're just names, lame ones too.

I've got experience being tied up and imprisoned for 5 d.a.m.n years.

a.s.suming readers of this series don't completely overlap with NNY readers, I'm this late because I was swamped with commisions for other series (KnM and Shaman)

Excuses aside, since last chap, I've read all the jp chapter's available, a little over 200 chapters, and not finished. Author is taking some time before posting what should be the final arc. Anyway, here's some food for thought: the X's in x.x.xX-chan little sister indicates the number of english letter's in her name. In the original it's XX-chan since in jp it's 2 characters (minor spoilers for muuuuch later.) It's for faster chapters. Before paying, be sure indicate a series. If not, the money will go towards chicken nuggers.

The average amount for a series is listed below.

Shaman/Jujutsus.h.i.+ - 30

Kuro no Maou - 30

Nidome no Yuusha - 23

Nii-san - 27