Happy holidays everyone! I hope you all have a nice Christmas eve. Consider this an early present. I was gonna upload it Christmas day but I just couldn't wait! So I hope you like it please leave a comment they validate me.

In the end we let Koro choose the movie and he chose a romance comedy called: Casual Romance. It was a decent movie, Manami and Aguri liked it well enough, but just before the trailers even started Aguri and Manami made sure to give me some aspirin for the inflammation and a glass of cool water to rehydrate myself. Not barley ten seconds after the end of the film I saw a blur of colors and before I could blink the snacks and dirty tub ware were all cleaned up.

"All done~!" Koro proclaimed as he happily lifted his leg in joy…

It should be noted that he was still wearing the maid's uniform and it wasn't until now that I noticed he was also wearing black stilettoes. My left eye twitched involuntarily as did the corners of my mouth.

"Well then let's go!" Koro said.

"Go…?" Manami asked confused as she rubbed her tired eyes. Poor Manami must be tired.

I am well aware of the fact that she isn't much of an extrovert so all those social activates at the beach plus the movie must have drained her.

"Yes! We must start on your training immediately so that you will be ready for the Bonding ritual!" Koro explained.

"So where's your cove Aguri?" I asked as I try remembering the house's floor plan in order to figure out where Aguri's cove might be.

It would have to be somewhere that's well ventilated as the fumes of the cauldron are often overbearing…Though Manami doesn't seem to mind them guess she developed a tolerance to them or something. It would also have to be pretty big in order to contain all the basic necessities like: enchanting books, wands, potions, cauldron, ingredients, etc.

"Oh I think you're gonna like it! Come on, come on!" Aguri exclaimed excitedly as she began to beckon us with her hand.

Manami and I exchanged a confused look before slowly getting up from the blue couch and following Aguri's lead.

"Check this out!" Aguri said with a large toothy smile.

I directed my attention to what Aguri was motioning at…It was a…full length mirror? Could it be…?

"Aguri is this…Aguri..?" I looked over to where Aguri used to be only to find she wasn't there anymore.

"Aguri?" I called out again.

Koro simply motioned his head back to the mirror. With furrowed brows I turned my attention back to the mirror. Suddenly Aguri's head popped out and I instinctively jumped back like any normal person would do. She was looking at me with a goofy smile as she outstretched her hand from the other side of the enchanted mirror. The mirror's surfaces shifted and rippled like water when she did.

"Well come on!"

Manami gasped excitedly with renewed vigor. She gave me this starry eyed look before slowly making her way up to mirror. Aguri had already disappeared back into the mirror again and Koro wasn't too far behind. Manami slowly placed her hand on the mirror and watched as the mirror jiggled and rippled like water before walking in but not before offering me her hand. I took it and hesitantly made my way through the mirror.

On the other side was a room that was the exact same size as the room we were just in. It even had the same light brown wooden floors and white walls, but that was where the similarities ended as the contents in this room were significantly different from the other. The blue couch with the colorful pillows was gone alongside the yellow furry rug and small brown coffee table. In fact none of the original furniture seemed to be here at all and there seemed to be no windows either, but despite that the room was actually very well lit.

Various white and yellow orbs of varying sizes illuminated the room with light as they floated high above the ceiling alongside the hanging strings of glimmering crystals and seashells. The ceiling was so high up that there was a large loft up above that was only accessible through the set of floating stairs near the wall. The loft seemed to be covered in little cupboards that were filled with books and little knickknacks alongside various small bookshelves. No doubt that's where Aguri did her research and enchanting. There might even be a small desk and enchanting circle up there.

In the empty space between the floating stairs and the ground pushed against the wall were two large vitrine cabinets one of which was filled with potions and the other with jars of ingredients like sage, pickled spiders' eye, frog's breath, crystals you know the usual. Further in the back there was a small fire place where the cauldron was located. Just besides it was a long wooden desk filled with various tubes, flasks, weighing scales and burners….I glanced over at Manami.

Her eyes where filled with stars as she swooned over all the alchemic equipment. She was holding her cheeks as a large smile formed on her flushed face. She looked like a kid that was ready to receive the most delicious piece of cake alongside a large present. Or more like me when I look at pudding.

"Behave Manami." I whispered fully knowing that the witch was already concocting up various elixirs and potions in her head.

She just let out a squeal as she nodded her head.

"I-I will!"

"Come on girls take a look around and once you're done you can come to the cauldr-.."

Before Aguri finished her sentence Manami whooshed past me to the center of the room, spun around in a quick circle and then made a bee line towards the cauldron.

"Okay done! Now what size cauldron is this? Is it a standard size? Oh it's very nicely maintained too!"

"Thank you I make sure to clean it three times a day!" Koro said proudly.

"Good, good yes but do you clean it with fire or electrolysis? Oh hey also is this enchanted with the light weight spell?" Manami asked as she inspected the cauldron and the various other alchemic supplies like an overzealous artist analyzing classical art.

I turned to Aguri and saw that she was a bit surprised with Manami's sudden change of attitude from tired and shy to outgoing and energetic. I just gave her a sheepish smile in return.

"She's just really excited." I explained.

"Oh! Well…I do love passionate students! Go have a look around Akari we won't start without you okay….Yes, Okuda it is enchanted!" She said as she made her way to Manami.

I smiled…That's just like Manami…Her and her tunnel vision. Always focusing on her passions and blocking everything else. I decided to take just a real quick look around as I highly doubt Manami will be able to stop herself from making potions.

On the opposite side from where the Cauldron was, was what seemed to be an inside garden; to which Koro was already attending. There were lots of herbs and flowers aligned in neat rows with labels while others were placed in labeled pots. Right beside the plants was a small round desk. On top of it was a crystal ball and what looked to be a log book. Opposite of that was a fake skeleton display and the wall beside the skeleton was covered in various anatomy diagrams of not just human anatomy but also of various magical creatures.

On the wall in front of the mirrors entrance running all the way down towards the round table with the crystal ball where a few geographical maps and various astrological star maps and ripped alchemic pages tapped to the wall. Right in front of that map filled wall was a small work desk that had a laptop on top of it alongside a small fax machine and a telephone and on either side of the desk were two small filing cabinets.

"Done looking around or would you like a tour guide?" Koro asked as he approached from behind.

When the fuck did he…? I thought he was tending the plants! When did he? Oh yeah speed demon duhh…

"Oh no I think I'm done looking around I better hurry over to the others before Manami starts making deadly toxins without me." I said.

"Your friend sure is interesting. I cannot wait to see what kind of familiar she gets." He said cheerfully as he smiled…He had those one of a kind smiles…those smiles that make you feel happy and safe…

"Yeah me to…she's really amazing…uhh hey Koro…I uhh… Well I just wanted t-to apologize…" I said awkwardly as I didn't know how else to bring up the subject.

"For what Mrs. Akari?" He asked as he tilted his head his smile slightly fading as he furrowed his brows in confusion.

"For well…assuming you were a jerk…I mean for making you think you were at fault….a-and I just wanted to say….I don't think you're a jerk…I'm actually really, really thankful that you saved my sister from her abusive relationship…."

"It was nothing, your sister means the world to me…She's my master after all…" He replied sincerely with a modest smile.

"Yeah well thanks anyway…b-but uhh yeah that's all I wanted to say so uhh I'm just gonna you know."

"Go one they're waiting for you….besides La Blanca Rosa is about to start! And they just found out Carlo's twin brother, Juan is actually alive but he has amnesia!" He said excitedly.

"Well you have fun with your soap opera!" I said cheerfully as I quickly made my way towards the other side of the room.

I took a quick glance at the walls and saw that instead of diagrams and maps filling the walls there were mostly shelves on the wall alongside some tapped alchemic equations.

"Hey guys hope I didn't keep you waiting." I said mainly directing my statement for Manami's ears.

"So what do you think?" Aguri asked.

"I like it! But why is it here? I mean why not use a room in your house?"

"Oh well two reasons! One it saves up space and it lets me bring normals in without them accidentally finding my cove as only beings with magic can enter the mirror and two…because S-Shiro didn't know about it…" She said her voice growing softer when she said the second reason.

I frowned at Shiro's name…This must have been Aguri's safe haven…her sanctuary….Damn that Shiro for making Aguri so scared for her own well-being that she actually needed to create a place to hide from him.

"Hey I heard what you told Koro…" Aguri said trying to change the topic once she noticed my frown.

"O-oh…" I flushed… "Y-yeah will I mean I felt bad and I thought he needed an apology…"

"Thanks…" She said

"For what?" I asked

"For giving him a chance he's a really good guy."

"Yeah…I know…He did save you after all…"

"Multiple times…I don't think I can ever repay him." She said with a small smile her eyes looking out into the distance as if she was reminiscing about something…

"Hey where's Manami?" I asked suddenly noticing Manami's absence…

"Well she's already upstairs looking for some recipes to help with your sunburn….Sorry I couldn't hold her back." Aguri sheepishly admitted.

"When it comes to alchemy no one can hold her back." I confessed as I let out a laugh.

"At least she's excited!" Aguri chimed.

"If you think she's excited now wait till she actually starts brewing. I remember one day back at school she started making potions in the morning and didn't stop till the sun started setting and she only stopped because she was missing ingredients and the next day she made me go with her to help her find some special ingredient for one of her potions! We spent all day looking for it!" I said as I smiled at the memory.

"Well then it's going to be a long night isn't it..?" Aguri said.

"You bet it is!" I exclaimed before Manami's laughter came from upstairs.

I loved her laugh. It was as sweet as she was and it started out as an innocent giggle then a hearty chuckle before going from one to a hundred in a matter of seconds. I love her laugh but right now she sounded like a crazy mad scientist.

"…"

"…"

"…."

"You hold her down and I'll get the sleep powder." I said.

"Got it…It's on that top shelf over there." I nodded in response…this was going to be a looooong night.