"I should thank you, Mikazuki. It's rare to see Lady Malina leave her house."

In truth, Mikazuki wouldn't consider this an outing, but eh. If holding a drunk lady over one's shoulder whilst walking through Hell was considered a good experience, then so be it, he supposed.

The former ace pilot, plus Fumitan and Malina, had left the Sour Demon's house about an hour ago, with the aforementioned Demoness drunk off her horse and slung over Mikazuki's shoulder like a ragdoll. She kept moaning and groaning as they walked on, no doubt regretting her afterlife decisions as they marched onwards. Thankfully enough, Fumitan was able to dig up a map buried under all the games Malina had in her home, and with it, she began leading them out of the Melancholy Circle with relative ease.

"... so, how'd you meet Mali?" asked Mikazuki after a few moments of silence, to which Fumitan eyed him in bemusement before responding.

"When I arrived in Hell, I entered the Melancholy Circle because of how I died, and I… stumbled upon Lady Malina's home. I entered… and when I saw the state it was in, I just felt compelled to clean it. By the time I was done, Lady Malina had woken up, and though she seemed somewhat wary of me at first, after she saw what a good job I had done, she decided to hire me as an assistant," hummed Fumitan with a smile, with Mikazuki nodding as Malina shifted a little, only to smack him in the cheek with her booty all the while. Augus didn't know how to feel about that.

"What does she pay you?" asked the former pilot out of general curiosity.

"She doesn't kill me. That's good enough for me," replied Fumitan.

"Fair enough."

And with that, the trio continued to walk/be carried off towards the Vanity Circle, with Fumitan leading the way all the while. On the way, however, Mikazuki frowned a little as they walked past various walls infused with the souls of the damned, with him pausing briefly as he stared at one such wall with a raised brow. Something about this one seemed familiar to him… but he couldn't quite put a finger on why as he reached out towards it and…

"I would not suggest you do that. The souls banished here are… volatile. They have suffered in life, and although it may not be their intention, they will try and spread their suffering in death as well. Touch the wall of souls and you may be pulled in alongs-"

Mikazuki ignored Fumitan's paraphrased warning almost immediately as he plunged his arm into the wall of souls, reaching in and grabbing ahold of a soul with great strength. Several ghostly appendages sprung out to grab ahold of him moments later, with all of them attempting to pull him in to join them in eternal torment, but even so, Augus was able to resist their hold.

And when one of them accidentally touched Malina's butt, they all flinched back in terror as they realized that the one they were trying to drag in had the master of their realm in his grasp.

That momentary lapse in resistance allowed Mikazuki to yank both his arm and the soul he was holding onto out of the wall, and when he did, he staggered backwards before regaining his footing, where he stared down at the soul and eyed it closely. It was mostly dull, with a faint yellow glow, and with a frown, Mika held it close as Fumitan looked at him, annoyed.

"Seriously?" asked Fumitan, annoyed.

"Seriously," answered Mikazuki as he eyed the soul in his hand warily. Honestly… it looked like a gacha ball. Not that he knew what those were, anyways, though he didn't dwell too much on that as he grabbed at it and began to rub his fingers across its surface with a frown. There seemed to be a layer of magic that needed to be dispelled in order to restore the soul to its original form… but Augus couldn't figure out how to get rid of it…

… and then, Fumitan held a hand out, offering to take the soul gacha ball, and Mikazuki gave it to her. Once it was in her hand, the lady took a needle out from her hidden back pocket and poked a small hole into it, causing the soul inside to come out of the gacha ball like the air leaving a balloon, and as it left said ball, the hazy innards of the soul gacha ball coalesced into a humanoid shape, distinctively female, as bone, flesh, skin and (thankfully enough) clothes formed from smoke, and moments later… a very much familiar blonde teenager landed on the ground in front of both Mika and Fumitan rather gracelessly, and in an instant, Augus greeted her.

"Hey there, Lafter," hummed Mikazuki nonchalantly as the blonde, Lafter Frankland, blinked as she wobbled around on her feet, only to be supported up by Fumitan, and moments later, she looked around warily, taking in her surroundings all the while.

"... Mikazuki? What… w-where…? F-Fumitan?! WAIT I THOUGHT YOU DIED!" yelled Lafter, with her swinging her arms about crazily as she spoke. "OH GOD… I… I-I REMEMBER! I… SOMEONE SHOT AT ME AND… A-AND…"

"Yeah, it's a long story, so-"

Mikazuki didn't even get a chance to finish that statement as, without warning, Malina jolted up from his arm and got onto her feet. In an instant, she moved to pin him against the closest soul wall, and with a snap of her fingers, a few ghostly hands sprung up and restrained the former pilot, much to his chagrin.

"What the hic fuck do you think you're doing?" asked Malina, with her frowning as Lafter flinched at the exchange. She was still hopelessly confused by everything that was going on, though Fumitan was getting her up to speed, and likewise, the maid was also interested in seeing where this would go…

"Helping a friend?" hummed Mika, eliciting a frown from the Sour Demon as he spoke.

"You would hic disrupt the natural order of hic Hell… the natural order of hic my fucking realm… hic in my presence… with-hic-out a second hic thought…?" groaned Malina as she glared at Mikazuki with an annoyed glare, and to his credit, Mikazuki matched her gaze with one of his own as he nodded firmly.

"Yes," was his immediate answer. There was no hesitation behind his words as he maintained eye contact with Malina, and moments later, she offered him a half-grin as she snapped her fingers, dispelling the soul appendages restraining him all the while.

"You have balls. I like that in a man," praised Malina half-heartedly as Mikazuki dropped awkwardly onto his feet. "But still, hic you pulled her soul out without hesitation. hic is she important to you or something?"

"No. But she is to a friend," responded Mikazuki flatly, eliciting a hum from Malina as she turned to face Lafter curiously. The once cheerful and sarcastic girl seemed rather melancholic as she watched Malina approach her and stare at her intently, observing every curve of her body and every angle of her frame. At one point, she cupped her bust as she observed Frankland's much larger pair of chesticles, but aside from that, she didn't do much else of note as she shook her head.

"Kh, usually I'd just shove her back into the soul wall, but I guess she can stay. Not like losing a single soul out of several trillion-plus is gonna be much of an issue to me, anyways," hummed Malina dismissively as she turned to Fumitan with a bemused expression, prompting her to reach behind her and pull a bottle of alcohol out of nowhere, offering it to her master all the while. Malina chugged it without a second thought before offering it to Lafter, who, despite appearing reluctant, accepted it regardless.

"Uh… thanks?" hummed Lafter as she took a swig of the alcohol, and with that, they continued on, with Mikazuki walking beside the blonde whilst Fumitan and Malina took point. Frankland only stopped chugging after a few moments before she turned to stare down at Augus. "So… uh… is this really…?"

"Hell? Yeah. it's weirder than I expected," admitted Mikazuki, with Lafter huffing as she allowed the ghost of a smile form on her face.

"You can say that again."

"It's weirder than I expected."

And when he took her words literally, Lafter couldn't help but give out a somewhat melodious laugh that made her sound more like her older self, and off in the distance, Akihiro stopped walkin briefly as he felt a shiver go up his spine.

"Something wrong, Aki?" asked Shino as he glanced back at the muscle man, with Masahiro staring at his big bro worriedly as well, though much to their surprise, the big guy was… smiling as he shook his head in response.

"No… everything's fine. I… just have a feeling that something good just happened, that's all."

And although they were confused, the others simply nodded as they went after the demonesses leading them on, with Modeus and the Cerberus trio yelling at them to pick up the pace so that they could find their boy toy faster.

For once, Shino wasn't jealous that he wasn't the one that they wanted to smother with lust/wrath.

LOOK!

IT'S HER!