JaphetSkie: Thanks for the idea but I refuse. I intently made them shorter to make them easier to read and to easier to upload daily. 2k words is my limit record per chapter.

EDIT: Fixed the flashback scene. It seemed to be the mobile Fanfiction app's editing fault when using italics and finally fixed it. Thank you for reminding me, Azhure raven.

Chapter 33: The Drama

Yoshino was so absorbed to what she was watching right now. She was currently inside of a sealed room somewhere safe. When Shidou is done on that island, then she could join them back to their house. Yoshino never minded it, in fact, she just enjoyed.

She was sitting on the sofa and a remote on the table in front of her. Yoshinon the puppet was sitting beside her, also watching the the television. The room was cozy all in all.

Today's series on the television was about a drama regarding to a twin who loved the same man and it entertained Yoshino to an extent. She was so absorbed by it that she didn't noticed Jackie was now present in the room once more.

"Hello."

Jackie greeted her, causing Yoshino to turn back and stared at her curiously. Yoshino squinted her eyes as she tried to remember who she is. Yes, she was aware she was visited by someone back and no, she can't remember who it was, even her gender. The only idea she could get was that whoever it was, they are very friendly.

Information Erasure folks! If Jackie confirmed her identity to her truthfully, then possibly, Yoshino could recover her memories of Jack infiltrating her sealed area before.

Yoshino face lit up in familiarity before she greeted her back.

"Hello to you too." Yoshino said with a glee. Jackie then shifted her gaze toward the television in curiosity.

"Oooh, what are you watching?" Jackie said as he leaned forward behind the sofa. Her abdomen pressed against the comfy stand of the sofa and tried to pretend she was flying. Her balance was flawless as a Servant Assassin. Doing this, she has the tendency to fling her legs up in the air as he continually.

"…It's a real—oh…?" Quickly, Jack's gratification was instantly dropped. She instantly hated the show that are not cartoons. Her face showed a pouty frown. She shifted her gaze toward Yoshino again and Yoshino quickly understands.

"You don't want to watch drama?" Yoshino asked her carefully asked her and immediately Jackie swayed her head in refusal. Yoshino loved watching the drama since it's the only currently favorable channel at this time. Others, well are just too complicated or others are just news and news.

Also, why do Jackie kept on returning to Yoshino? Well, Jackie reminded Yoshino fo Nursery Rhyme, her one of the bestfriends back at the Chaldea.

Luckily, Jackie brought a disc for cartoons and stuff for kids, and yeah, she kept nagging Rider to buy it until Drake eventually concedes. Then Rider mourned her reputation of being a famous pirate that would be story for another time. In simple terms, Jackie have found a method to convince Rider totally to buy her a disc for cartoons.

Anyways, Jack showed off the DVD to Yoshino, who upon seeing the cover, seemed to be happy again. Yoshino also know how to operate the DVD player which happened to be in the same room too. She quickly took the DVD from Jackie and begun operating the player.

After a minute or two, the operation was success and now Jackie and Yoshino jumped onto the sofa and in front of the television, which was now showing Jackie's favorite cartoons.

They've watched other shows as well until the time for Jackie to get out comes.

Shidou was frowning perpetually for himself. His skin was basically hot red and was suffering from a skin burns due to longer exposure to the hot bath and its not his fault. Various part of his body were covered with band-aids due to having a tender skin; easy to scratch.

Reine was observing him carefully as she caressed her chin in examination. She's the one responsible for checking his entire body for any wounds so far.

"Shin, your healing capabilities will deal this but I recommend not to abuse it…" She remarked.

"I-I know that! It's just an accident." Shidou stuttered. Reine just remained nonchalant. He was so tensed while sitting on a stool, still can't stand up due to having his joints stinted and his skin burning like hell. He trembled as a result.

"Still, I'm curious how you ended up being piggybacked by Tohka."

"W-what? Why I didn't know of it?"

"I'm telling it to you, didn't I?"

…

The Spirit Twins totally forgot Shidou as they tried to search for the Goddesses. After the mishap with Twins, Tohka proceeded to the hot baths on her own. Thanks to the Twins themselves, they ruined her momentum when she entered the women's bath. The Twins meanwhile ran away from the hotbath, leaving Tohka on her own, as well as Shidou drowning awkwardly in the bath.

She was about to enter the bath when she found a naked body and she shrieked awkwardly from the fright (watching horror movies really made her scared a lot…), before she could have recognized whose body is it.

It is actually Shidou, still alive but unconscious, slowly cooked alive in the hotbath, as what Tohka realized. She was dreaded by it and tried to help by any other means, naked be damned.

She was aware that other girls will be coming here any minute while she was here dragging Shidou outside the bath.When she was now at the entrance, several girls were now entering the girl's hotbath with glee. Tohka must improvise the situation or else, Shidou will further suffer from these.

The girls have now entered the hotbath and wondered why Tohka was here in a towel section. The girls must have included Ai, Mai, Mii as well as her adversary, Origami. They all looked at Tohka awkwardly, as Tohka shifted from where she was standing. Little did they know was that Shidou was fully covered with various towels in order to hid him from them. For the unsuspecting girls, they could only see a messy mound of towels. They attempted to clean it generously but Tohka aggressively denied them and made up stupid-ass excuses. The girls bought them anyway, but Origami just became more suspicious than ever.

Eventually, they've decided to enter the hothbaths for real and before Origami could act on the suspicious mound of towels, Ai, Mai, and Mii have dragged her away from the towel section, leaving Tohka to act as swift as possible before any girls could enter the towel section.

Several minutes later, Tohka could be seen dragging Shidou along the way. They are already far from the bath house. If someone could see her already dragging Shidou, they could have terribly mistaken it for a murder, but fortunately and miraculously, no one has encountered for a meantime.…until now.

Yamura Circe happened to be in the way and Tohka was shocked when she saw her. Little did Tohka knew was that Circe already knew what happened to Shidou and was secretly observing them at the distance. She was also responsible for making their way seemed to be scarce of people. Circe simply placed hidden, temporary ward that made people steer away from that place, sans Tohka and Shidou. Cheap but effective. The Caster has a good time watching them, to the point she was giggling between sessions.

She finally tried to help him in the end by pretending to be an innocent bystander who is the sole witness of this enter charade. Tohka felt the hair on her nape stood from fright as she saw Circe. Of course, Tohka already knew her.

Circe immediately tried to calm her down and she became successful from it. Without even questioning her, Circe helped Tohka lumber Shidou to the vacant room where Ms. Reine was currently residing. As expected, nothing bad happened during their journey.

Tohka really wanted to stay for Shidou but she was still eager to to go the hotbath and she was still in her towel. Ms. Reine can easily read her thoughts and through her body language and just urged her to go.

End of the story…I mean the flashback...

…

"It's just so, unbelievable." Shidou commented, with his mouth opened wide from shock while Reine just sipped from her daily coffee while sitting on a revolving chair.

"Surreal and yet that's what happened to you." Reine said with assurance. Then she stood up from her own favorite chair and checked again Shidou's condition.

"The burns are healing rapidly as expected." Reine remarked. "But I still recommend that you rest for a bit. You spent the entire night restless and burnt."

"But what about the Twins?" Shidou asked her. When Reine heard him asked, she immediately looked beyond the window and, speaking of the devil, the Twins are just right outside, peeking inside and waving to Shidou and Reine. Reine thought for a moment and then proceed to go outside.

"Shin, sleep well. I will talk the Twins myself instead, regarding to your situation."

"Thank you, Reine." Shidou said before he was fell into a quick slumber. He snored later on.