"Give it back, Atsuma!" Yuki shouts in the living room of her new residence in Yokohama.
"No," Atsuma denies, holding the speed gem high above his head where Yuki can't possibly reach, even after jumping.
"That's not fair! You're taking advantage of my height!"
"What height?" he continues to tease, holding his pose as though ready to summon Phoenix in battle against the Queen of Ice.
"You two are cute," Karin admires the brother-sister relationship she sees in her friends while paying careful attention to a recipe given to her.
"Atsuma! Don't make me fight you for it!"
"It's cute how determined you are after I've beaten you in every fight you started," Atsuma taunts with a devious smile.
"That does it!" Yuki cries out, charging at the boy.
"No weapons in the house, please," adds a distracted third resident who hovers over a measuring cup filled with flour, continuing to talk despite the lack of attention paid to her. "I told you what Raigar did to the castle staircase. Don't repeat his mistakes."
"Atsuma, you're gonna pay for this!" the short girl cries out as she draws her fists back. To negate her rage, Atsuma simply flips his hand upward as she draws near, knocking off her hat. She continues to attack, but it isn't as strong as he was expecting or as long-lived. While Yuki is distracted with the task of regaining her hat, and Karin's back is turned while she gathers more ingredients from the refrigerator, Atsuma slyly tosses the gem off to the side, and it lands exactly where he had intended: in the batter. As the little girl puts her hat back on her head, she charges at Atsuma once again, only to end in the same result.
"Will you cut that out?!" she screams to the boy.
"No. Battle tactics, Yuki. You can't be distracted by making sure you always have your hat. That's how the enemy wins. Remember that golem we fought together in the Holy Beast Shrine?"
"Omega?"
"No, the one on the fifth floor."
"There's like five on each floor, Atsuma!"
"Ground Breaker," Karin butts in.
"Thank you, Karin!" Atsuma says before turning his attention back to the energetic young girl. "How did we win that fight?"
"It was too distracted with negating Raigar's barrier on every turn," she answers.
"Yes! And you're too busy making sure you always have your hat. See the problem?" he teaches her before knocking it off once again just to see if she'll chase it down, which she doesn't.
"Atsuma, stop it!" she demands with a shove to the chest which barely moves him. He returns the gesture with both palms open, knocking her to the floor. She lands on her bottom with palms down on the carpet, noticing empty hands. "The gem. Where'd it go?"
"I hid it!" he proudly tells her.
"What? When?!" she demands to know while pushing herself off and searching his body for it.
"When you were busy looking for your hat."
"Aaaahhhh!" she cries out in fustration, proceeding to lower Atsuma onto the floor by wrapping her arms around his calves and tripping him.
"Ugh. What did I do wrong this time?!" Karin asks herself after tasting her awful concoction and completely ignoring the fighting going on in the living room. "Guys, I'll be back later. I'm gonna consult Makoto."
"Yuki! Why I oughtta!"
"You oughtta what, Bro?" she interrupts the boy above her as she quickly and slyly pulls out a piece of fabric from her belt bag, quickly tying his hands in place.
"What the-?!"
"Haha! Think you can outsmart Yuki, the greatest golem hunter in the world?"
Karin quickly dashes out the door with a bag full of ingredients, the recipe, and the bowl of batter with her before she can be dragged into this nonsense.
"I wasn't trying to, Yuki! I was trying to overpower you and I still can!"
"Oh yeah? Prove it," the confident girl beneath him dares, and he accepts the challenge by pinning her arms down with the free limbs on the lower half of his body.
"Ugh. This doesn't mean anything."
"Are you stuck?" the boy teases with a smile on his face that says both confidence and victory.
"Not at all. I can get out any time I want."
"Then get out now," he dares the girl who then pushes against him with her head cocked sideways as if running out of air.
"Okay, seriously Atsuma. You're crushing me. You need to stop eating so much."
"Hey, that hurt you know!"
"So does my ribcage! Now move!" she whines as the boy above her wiggles around, afraid of using his hands to help since she tied them together and they rest only hairs away from her chest. After a few wiggles and setting the girl's arms free, he loses stability and starts to stumble. If not for her recently freed up hands, he might have injured her on his fall down, but Yuki is stronger than she appears and manages to catch his hands before he crushes her even more.
"Ah, sorry," he apologizes as he quickly tries to wiggle the rest of his way off of her, but is only able to do so from one direction, and that direction is sliding down the rest of her body.
"Let me untie you," Yuki tells him with a sigh, realizing why he might be so restricted. The colorful eyed boy above her moves his hands forward just enough to let Yuki undo her previous work. "BUT ... only if you give me the gem."
"Fine. I'll tell you where it is after you untie me."
"You're trying to outsmart me again! Atsuma, you have to have a brain to do that."
"What are you talking about?"
" 'I'll tell you where it is, after you untie me,' " she mimics in a poor impression of a male's tone, putting emphasis on the word after. "How long after, huh? You were planning on telling me what, a year after I untie you?"
"You know I'm not smart enough to have thought of that."
"Good. So you'll tell me immediately after I untie you."
"Okay, Yuki! Now hurry up and untie me so I don't crush you and kill you!" he reminds her of the hurry in the first place. She picks apart the fabric, trying to use a fingernail to get in the tiny crevices but without much success, and so begins using her teeth to pull it apart.
"Almost there..." she announces with an intent look on her face but soon dropping the effort as if in a trance.
"You okay?" Atsuma checks.
"Yeah ... I just noticed Karin's gone."
"Ha. Okay. Can you untie me?" One dainty hand remains on the fabric covering the boy's wrists, while the other stealthily finds its way to Atsuma's neck above her. "Yuki?"
Before he can get another word in, she pulls herself up from his neck and meets him at the lips, stunning the boy who paralyzes himself with wide eyes and a shocked expression when this occurs. She leaves him no room to pull away and goes on with several attempts, in hopes that maybe he would do or say something in return, but the shock acts as a barrier.
" ... Sorry. I uh ... got carried away. I just really wanted to ... sorry."
" ... It's okay," Atsuma tells her. "Just ... untie me, please."
" ... Right."
She uses her fingers to pull on the fabric loosened by her teeth, and his hands slam onto the floor as soon as she lets them go. Still not knowing what to do, brainless Atsuma politely removes himself from above the girl.
"The gem is in the batter that Karin took to Makoto's," he realizes upon noticing the bowl missing, and informs Yuki nonchalantly as promised.
"Atsuma!" she cries out before Atsuma locks the door behind him, leaving him somewhat to himself inside his bedroom.
What in the world was that all about? ...
