Rosa's eyes glide from one corner of the room to the other.
Her leg can't stop fidgeting. The smell of baking sweets does nothing to calm her.
Erika's and Werner's jaws still hang open from Akira's words.
"Like I said. We're having a change of plan. We will save the beast."
Rosa was sure they were retreating to regroup and plan.
Saving the beast was never on the table.
Erika blinks several times as she seems to be freezing.
"...Let's slow down for a second, can you fill us in why?"
"Agreed."
Rosa taps her own elbow as she crosses her arm.
"Weren't we going to regroup and discuss our findings before deciding what to do?"
"We're going to save it and I'll explain the why."
Akira doesn't blink.
"I still reject the idea, but I'll hear you out."
Erika slides her gaze to Rosa, then to Akira with her sharp eyes.
"If the beast managed to drive both of you out, then it must be that tough."
"Nah, we weren't driven out. I chose not to chase. Squeak was having it rough."
"Um..."
Lilia's hand goes up, slow, as if the air itself weighs on it.
"Let's hear it from Rosa first, she probably spent quite a time with it."
Then her green eyes meet Rosa's.
"Rosa, what was the beast like?"
"Exactly like a werewolf, but skinny with broken chain shackles on its wrists and ankles."
The answer comes immediately. Rosa doesn't hesitate.
"Uneven fur all over its body, head like wolf, standing on two legs, red glowing eyes."
"You didn't tell me anything about the chains."
Erika retorts, snapping to Werner.
"Cut me some slack, okay? I was drunk!"
Rosa pauses as she recalls the fight. The taste of defeat still sour to her.
"And its claws, they're sharp. Incredibly sharp. Shredded the roof like it was paper."
Her tone then gets heavier as she clenches her jaw.
"The most dangerous part was it could use magic, nullify my casts, and was incredibly fast."
She drags the next words out of herself.
"I was cornered... If Akira didn't find me just in time... I..."
Her jaw tightens. Her gaze shifts to Pauline, reaching for something else to say.
"I also know why the plants wilted. Every time it cast something, the plants around it wilted."
"Wait a second, wilted? So it is undead draining mana after all?"
Erika leans forward, her eyes sharper.
Rosa shakes her head.
"That's what I thought, but I splashed holy water Akira gave me. The creature licked it."
"Before ya say anything, yeah, it was a proper holy water I bought from church. Not a faulty one."
"Right, also, Akira might have something to share with all of you..."
Akira sighs as she closes her eyes, ears and tail flicking. Fast.
"Y'all better brace for it. And better don't look at me the weird way."
She pauses, eyeing each person one by one.
Then, Rosa's nose twitches as something hits it.
"Took me a while, sorry for the wait. Ho ho ho ho."
Her gaze snaps towards Ursula who carries a tray of cookies.
The maid beside her also carries cups of tea, enough for everyone.
"Hm? Everyone's alright? You look like when the bureau just knocked the door."
Ursula chuckles softly before her face turns serious.
"No one from the bureau just knocked, is there?"
Pauline faces Ursula with a complicated expression.
"Well..." Pauline's gaze darts between Akira and the others.
"It's about the monster. Akira thinks she knows what it is. But... I don't think any of us expected this."
"Rite, I was about to spill it for ya. Here we go..."
Akira steadies herself, eyes focused.
This time, ears as still as her tail. Frozen.
"The creature might be a kemomimi..."
"Eeeeeh!?"
Lilia screams first as she frantically looks at Akira, up and down.
Not surprising. Akira and the creature couldn't look more different.
"Didn't I tell ya to not look at me the weird way."
"Right... Sorry."
Rosa glances at Werner and Erika, who look equally shocked.
No, she swears she saw Werner's lips tremble for a second.
"Wait, what!? A kemomimi?"
Erika leans in further, she almost stands up from the chair.
"Beast folk. Like me. Nichigetsu Island. You heard it right."
Ursula's hand glides to cover her mouth.
"My... dear... You are saying it's a person?"
"Definitely, if they are a kemomimi. That's why we save 'em."
"I said I'd listen, not that I'd agree to saving it!"
Erika raises her voice as she shoots to her feet.
"Dear, how about you sit for a bit and cool off with the tea?"
"Sorry... I was just..."
Erika lowers herself back into the chair. Her fingers find the tea, grip it tight.
"Even if you think it is a person, they are too dangerous to be left alone."
Werner's gaze slides to Rosa as he crouches further down in his seat.
"Especially if what miss Caster said here is the truth."
Rosa keeps tapping her elbow.
"I agree, keeping a dangerous beast around isn't exactly wise in my book."
She reaches one of the cookies hesitantly.
"Besides, a month with no casualties beyond livestock? That's a miracle. Miracles don't last."
"Who said anything about keeping it? Save, not keep, ya hear?"
"Do you have a plan for that?" Lilia asks.
Akira rubs the back of her own head, her ears flicking.
"Well, I do in fact. We need to drain the creature dry. Make it run out of mana."
Erika puts her cup down.
"You make it sound so easy. Do you have any idea how much effort it would take?"
Akira clenches her teeth as she clicks her tongue. Faintly.
If Rosa doesn't sit beside Akira, she would probably miss it.
"That's why I need y'all to cooperate."
"Miss Akira..."
Erika's voice hardens.
"I believe your contract here is to deal with the creature disappearance and the crops wilting."
"We save the creature, the farm problems disappear as well. Root cause is the same."
"Then why not choose the most effective method? We slay the creature and call it a day."
Akira inhales, rough.
"Ya sure? That kemomimi... they, or rather, she might be yers..."
The room goes silent. Rosa looks at Akira, then the others one by one.
Lilia's fist curls on her chest, eyebrows even more furrowed.
Pauline has her eyes cast down, to the point where Rosa can't see her face.
Werner and Erika have gone pale.
As if both of them have just seen a ghost.
"Dear... If I may ask, what makes you think that?"
Rosa exhales slowly. Too many conclusions, not enough evidence.
"Ursula is right, it's too early to assume, let alone conclude who the kemomimi is."
She takes another sip of the tea.
"Let's take a step back, shall we? First, I have a question."
She sets the cup down and looks at Akira.
"I know you said not to look at you the weird way, but..."
Rosa's gaze traces Akira from face to toes.
"You said she is a kemomimi, but I notice the glaring difference between both of you."
Ursula nods, as if something lifts off her chest.
"Right, dear, I believe our Reiko isn't as feral as this lady has described."
"Yeah, bout that. Y'all might not know, but there's one form not many of us possess."
She raises her hands, looking at them carefully.
"We kemomimis have beast blood in us. That's why the beast ears and tails."
She looks at Rosa.
"Squeak, prepare the mana reading sigil."
"Huh? Why?"
"I'll show you something."
She swallows her questions and checks the paper. Lines steady, color normal. Akira gives her a soft nod.
"Don't try anything funny..."
Erika squints her eyes as her hand grips her staff.
"I won't. Watch."
Her hands begin to move. One sign, then another, forming a sequence of signs.
Rosa's eyes widen at the spectacle before her.
The motion she makes is one Rosa is familiar with by now.
Then the sigil reacts. The line drops, the color changes to yellow.
Rosa scans around her for any house plant they might keep.
She finds a pot quite far from the table. For a brief moment, it seems to wilt.
"Ryuusoku no Jutsu..."
Akira softly says as she holds her palm upward in front of her face.
A constant stream of ember gently flows out of her mouth as she breathes it out.
Shortly, the ember flickers out as she takes another deep breath.
"There, this is what the creature probably used. We call it ninjutsu."
Akira's eyes snap to Lilia, who is already leaning forward with a finger raised and mouth agape. The glare lands. Lilia's mouth shuts.
"As for the why, long history, better not to dwell in it for now."
Lilia deflates into her chair. Her finger twitches once, but her lips stay sealed. Barely.
The hand signs, the mana drain, and how the creature uses magic.
The creature is definitely a kemomimi, except for the fur and wolf head.
"Well, that explains a lot. But what about the fur and wolf head?"
"I was about to get to that."
She turns to Erika and the others.
"Unlike ya mages from here, we ain't using mana from ourselves."
Her hand gestures towards the sigil, which now returns to green.
"We use mana from the air, soil, water, everything. But some of us can go even further."
Her tail flicks as she leans forward.
"When we are under extreme stress or cornered, our body may enter a blood-released state."
"Blood-released?"
Lilia asks, tilting her head.
"Blood-released. Means we push our blood closer to a beast's. Far enough, and the body changes with it."
Akira raises two of her fingers.
"Only two lineages are capable of doing that. Few can actually do it. Even fewer can control it."
She pulls one of them down.
"Wolf clan is one of the two. Which is what the creature probably is."
She turns to Ursula.
"This Reiko girl, can ye tell me the color of her hair or tail?"
"Her hair and tail... they were black..."
Akira nods.
"Called it. Ears big and pointed, tail probably moderately furry, two pairs of fangs."
Werner casts his gaze down.
Erika's grip on her staff tightens. Her knuckles whiten.
"So, still planning to slay it?"
"Reiko..."
Ursula's voice trembles, a faint glint forms in the corner of her eyes.
"Ursula... she's been missing for years. Decades, even. The chance of it being her..."
"I'm afraid I must agree with Erika."
Werner interjects, jaw set.
"We can't possibly endanger our men or our guest further."
His gaze lands on Rosa.
"Especially when she almost got killed..."
Rosa nods at him.
"If she can't control the form, then what we fought wasn't a person making choices. You can't negotiate with that."
"Squeak, you forgot one crucial thing."
"Which is?"
"The beast was starving, remember? Also, when she looked at me, you know how afraid it was."
The sight floods back.
How the beast was crouching on its knees, holding its belly as it growled.
"Rosie..."
Lilia lowers her voice.
"I also don't think slaying the beast is a right move, now that we know it is actually a person..."
Pauline nods as she looks to Lilia.
"Me too... especially if the possibility of it being aunt Reiko exists..."
Her fingers press together. Her gaze drops.
"She might also know where uncle Beringar is..."
Ursula's hand finds Pauline's shoulder.
Rosa grips the fabric of her skirt tighter.
"Akira, wolf clan with black hair. That narrows it, but it doesn't pin it to one person. How do we know it's her?"
"You're right. I'm merely saying it as a possibility..."
Akira brings her cup to her lips.
"But consider this, squeak. Let's think in reverse. Let's say this kemomimi is Reiko."
She takes a sip and places the cup back down.
"Then everything else would make sense."
Her right hand glides up to the air as she lifts a finger.
"One, the transformation requires a ton of mana. She would actively hunt for mana-rich place."
She lifts another finger.
"Two, she chose this specific place, even though other mana farms exist."
She drapes one of her legs on top of another.
"Feldmann's got bigger yields and they're all over the place. Ursula and squeak probably know that."
She tilts her head.
"So why here? Why this farm?"
Another finger.
"Third, why does she know anything about the basement?"
Fourth finger.
"Lastly, it's been a month, yet no casualties... Coincidence?"
Everything Akira said makes sense.
If it were someone else, they would choose higher yield.
If they somehow chose this place, there should be casualties.
She almost didn't make it. The beast was feral, relentless, but it also showed fear and restraint.
Yet something doesn't sit right. Particularly about Akira.
Not about what she said, she can't fault the logic.
She takes a look at Akira's demeanor once more.
How she carries herself, how she talks, how her eyes are.
As if knowing everything while looking down from far above.
It reminds her of a certain woman in that inn.
"Say... Akira. Just to make sure. What's your actual game? Why do you want to save her so bad?"
"Yer going to make me say it? After all we've been through together?"
Akira's smile doesn't waver.
"Ya know how I am, I ain't letting someone starve. Beast, person, don't matter. Gotta problem with that?"
"...No. Not at all. Sorry. I was being over suspicious."
She gazes at Ursula.
"That's also why you took them in, right? Reiko and the others. Probably Erika and Werner too."
Ursula wipes her eyes with her arm.
"Ho ho ho ho. You're going to make me flood in tears, dear. Also, yeah. I like this plan better actually. Just make sure to think it through. We don't want actual casualties."
"Werner..."
His shoulders jump the moment Akira mentions his name.
"Let's say I have a surefire way to turn her back. We fail, and we finish her without waiting for casualties. What do ya say?"
His knuckles whiten before he meets Akira's gaze.
"Anyone gets hurt and we'll finish the beast. Any objection?"
"I'll make sure it won't happen. We have our master planner here."
A light slap hits Rosa's back. Then another.
"ME!?"
"Yeah. You. Who else?"
"Well... as long as we have the kill plan as contingency..."
Akira turns to Erika, who hasn't looked up once. Her hat covers her face completely.
"That leaves you, I think we have a solid rough plan. Waddya say?"
The silence stretches.
"Erika..."
Ursula calls out.
Erika pulls her hat down.
"I'm... I'll have no part of this..."
Her voice trembles.
She turns and storms out of the room.
"...Erika."