Naoki was used to waking up and finding a woman lying beside him.
No need to look far—just take the most recent example. During the Train Collection Mystic Eye incident, Rei was almost always by his side. It would've been strange if he woke up and didn't see her.
But that was because Rei had been following him for a long time. Naoki distinctly remembered that last night, there was no one beside him when he went to sleep. So why, when he woke up now, was there a woman next to him?
And—
"Why are you staring at me, Arcueid?"
At this moment, the person lying beside Naoki was none other than Arcueid herself. But rather than lying down, she was sprawled on the edge of the bed, gazing at him as if studying him, with the innocent smile of a girl, as usual.
"Observing you." Arcueid said with a perfectly natural expression. "I'm a True Ancestor. By nature, I'm an individual of the same race as you. But compared to you, who will surely become a perfect fairy, I'm an individual with flaws."
That flaw was her blood-sucking urge. Every True Ancestor had this flaw, and Arcueid was no exception.
"So, I want to observe a true fairy to see how I should fix my flaws. That way, I won't have to keep sleeping in the Millennium Castle and can come out to play with you anytime, Naoki."
As she spoke, Arcueid reached out with both hands, shamelessly feeling Naoki's body as if trying to find the differences between them.
However, as Arcueid's hands moved, Naoki could clearly feel them creeping toward a rather dangerous area. He hurriedly jumped out of bed and swatted her hands away. "Alright, that's enough. Stop there."
"Huh? Why? Did I hurt you?"
"No, it actually felt kind of nice when you touched me… Anyway, it's not your fault, it's mine. Unlike you, who's so natural, we humans have a bit of shame. There are some parts we don't want others to touch."
"Is that so?" Arcueid looked slightly puzzled. "Well, if you say so, I guess that's how it is. I see, shame… I need to pay attention to this knowledge if I want to live in the modern world."
Though she could access all sorts of knowledge from Gaia, Arcueid mostly used it to track Roa's location and gain basic understanding of modern society. Beyond that, she didn't care much for other knowledge. After all, in the past, her mind was solely focused on eliminating Roa, and she didn't care about anything else.
Seeing Arcueid's thoughtful expression, Naoki suddenly felt she might have misunderstood him, but also not entirely.
(Whatever, as long as she stops. If Rei and the others aren't around, I need to be more careful.)
Naoki wasn't an automatic flirt machine.
Getting out of bed, Naoki put on the clothes hanging on the chair. "By the way, when did you get back, Arcueid? I sensed you came here a few days ago, but you returned really late last night, right?"
"It's all your fault! Stupid Naoki!"
Arcueid, who had been as quiet as a literary girl a second ago, instantly transformed into an extremely annoyed cat-like girl. "Do you know how long I waited for you at that factory? Since we hadn't seen each other in so long, I deliberately planned the best way for us to reunite. I wanted a memorable reunion with you!"
"In the end, I picked the perfect spot and waited under the moonlight for hours. Instead of you showing up, I got ambushed by a bunch of small-time ghouls. After dealing with them with minimal effort, I decided to come back and sleep. I didn't expect you to already be fast asleep!"
Arcueid grew angrier. She strode forward, cornering Naoki against the wall. "I'm so mad! I'm really mad right now! Stupid Naoki! I tried contacting you through our connection, but you didn't respond at all! You could've at least picked up the phone!"
"Or do you want me to cut you into eighteen pieces?!"
(That would actually kill me!)
Naoki was now the inheritor of the Holy Sword. The Avalon within his body could heal any wound quickly, as long as it wasn't fatal—just minor injuries. But that didn't mean he could survive being cut into eighteen pieces. The Holy Sword couldn't bring him back to life.
"Arcueid, calm down. I had a reason for not meeting you last night. Honestly, I'm not lying!"
"Hmm~?" Arcueid's brow twitched slightly. "Tell me. If it's not a convincing reason, I'll send you to the Mariana Trench."
(Isn't that the deepest trench in the world?!)
Naoki felt a chill. He didn't think Arcueid was joking, because she was fully capable of doing it—not sending him to the actual trench, but creating one on the spot. Though it would take time, she could manifest a trench with her empty imagination.
Probably.
"Listen, Arcueid. Last night, I actually ran into some things…"
To avoid being sent to soak in Mount Fuji's lava tomorrow, Naoki recounted in detail his encounter with Tatari last night. Naturally, he also mentioned Ayaka.
After listening to Naoki's explanation, Arcueid, with her arms crossed, fell silent for a moment. Then, she instantly dropped her angry expression and smiled brightly. "Hmm, I can accept that reason. Naoki didn't intentionally stand me up. I'm satisfied knowing that."
"But based on what you said, you really didn't sense me calling you last night?"
Naoki nodded. "Not at all. I think there are two reasons. One is interference from Tatari. I don't know how it works, but it wasn't just our connection—my fairy senses were blocked too."
"As for the other reason, it's definitely the parallel world issue. The Wizard Marshal said there's a problem with the axis of the two worlds, causing them to overlap. That might be the cause."
"I see…"
After thinking for a moment, Arcueid clapped her hands. "Alright, then. Let's take down that Dead Apostle called Tatari, Naoki."
"How dare it interfere with our reunion and create a bunch of fakes last night. Even if it's an Ancestor, it's so low-class—I don't like it."
"So, Naoki, let's take down Tatari~~~"