~ Chapter 25 ~

Apartment: Obtained!

            "Arigato no da!" Chichiri waved to the man as he shut the door behind him, leaving the man to stare at the door.

            "…What?"

            We had finally stepped outside, and gathered ourselves; noticing it had just turned to nightfall, the sky was a hue of dark blue and black. Tasuki and I tapped our feet impatiently.

            "Okay … okay …" He put his hands together to start the spell. "Since it's dark enough and there aren't people around that much, we'll just do it quickly right here no da." He chanted a spell, and in a second we were all engulfed in smoke, returning to our regular forms.

            Mits ended up almost falling over as she forgot to put Mitsukake down, and she had a hard time carrying him now that he was his regular old self again. She grinned nervously and let him go and faced Tasuki and I, who stood side-by-side, happy that we were ourselves again, but not because of past events that still haven't been cleared up.

            "Hehe…gomen no da …" Chichiri scratched the back of his head nervously. After a few seconds of no reply, he turned around quickly and started to march off towards the new apartment.

            "Let's go no da!!" He urged Mits and Mitsukake to start walking, and right away.

            "O-okay …"

            We still stood in place, until we noticed that they were walking ahead, and we couldn't catch their attention anymore.

            "Oi! Matte!!"

            "Yeah … where th' hell do yeh think yer going?!" We chased after them, who started to run, and we ended up chasing them the short distance up the blocks and across the street: to our new apartment.

            It sure seemed in better shape once you got closer to it. I couldn't believe our deal we got on it, too. I bet it looked just as good inside than it did on the outside.

            Yeah, I was a little pissed at Chichiri, but I guess I can forgive him again. I really can't keep a grudge on him … no matter how much I tried. So I decided to throw it away and forget about it … after all, the whole thing did get us this apartment, didn't it? I patted his shoulder heartily as Mits, Mitsukake, and Tasuki walked around on the porch, examining everything.

            "Yeh did good." He grinned in reply and followed me up the steps, unlocking the door. I peeked under his arm with Tasuki and Mits, while Mitsukake looked above Chichiri.

            The inside was prettier than we imagined. This was an apartment?! I wasn't about to complain, we got a really good deal on it, after all.

            "Wow …" Mits walked in, gaping in awe as she examined the living room. She grinned widely as Mitsukake walked into the room too and checked for dust on the windowsills and on top of the TV.

"It's really clean here, too!"

"I'm gonna like it here!" Mits flopped onto the couch.

            "You ain't kiddin'!" I yelled from the kitchen. I had opened the fridge and looked inside. "This is a bigger fridge than the one I had back home!!"

            Chichiri followed me in. "Oh great, so we have to support your endless hunger no da?" He looked over the refrigerator door and at me, an eyebrow cocked. "I thought this was gunna be easy no da!"

            "Aw come on … I don't eat that much!" I patted my stomach and grinned with a fang poking out. "I mean look at me, the gluttony doesn't show, ne?"

            He sighed. "Iie no da … come on, let's go find everyone else no da," I followed him out of the kitchen and into the living room. Mits and Mitsukake were checking out the TV. Of course, she let Mitsukake handle the remote, so he was changing the channel every half second.

            "Where's Tasuki na no da?"

            Mits looked over from the TV frenzy. "I think he went upstairs." She turned back, face faulting at his TV madness. He was still a little new to all of this …

            "Tasuki! Yo, Tasuki! Where are yeh?" I called down the hallway. Chichiri was checking out the rooms ahead of me. Soon after, Tasuki's head popped out of one of the rooms on the end.

            "Over here!" He waved us to him. "Check it out! This is my place!" We looked in. It was a nice sized room, and it would fit Tasuki well.

            "There are enough rooms here for all of us no da!" He ran to one of them and looked inside. "This one seems to be okay no da …" He smiled broadly. "I'll take this one I guess no da!" I ran to the room across from him.

            "Of course, this one already has my name on it,"

            "But you didn't even look to see if it was okay for you no da…"

            "I already know it's okay!" I leaned against his doorframe, and, with my finger, made a path from his room to mine. "See? THAT'S why!"

            He blushed. "N-no daaa…"