Part IV: Of Pixies and Flyswatters

Unknowingly, you had kept a conversation with Ren up for longer than anyone had in the past six or seven years. Without him knowing it, you had gotten him to tell you about everyone staying at the inn, good traits and bad. Ren could be quite a chatterbox if he got going on a topic, provided Horohoro wasn't there to interrupt. According to Ren, Horo would do just about anything as long as it got him attention; Yoh was the laziest person on the face of the earth; just about anything could make Lyserg cry; Anna bitchslaps at random; and so on with unflattering traits.

As you were setting the food on the low table in the dining room, you noticed the one Ren called "Horohoro" stick his head in the door, sniffing the air like a hungry puppy. He couldn't possibly be as bad as Ren said he was, but then again, Ren struck you as more of a glass-half-empty kind of guy, so it probably wasn't true.

Horo caught sight of the steaming food on the table, then scrambled over to the table, crashing down onto a cushion before screaming into the house, "BREAKFAST! COME AND EAT IT BEFORE I DO!" A slight rumbling was heard throughout the house, and you became a little nervous. Ren, who was ambling almost merrily into the dining room, seemed to not even notice; and Horohoro was gazing intently at the piping breakfast. Before you could even ask what this rumbling noise was, the populace of the inn was seated around the table on purple cushions, eating rapidly. With their constant chattering and consumption, they reminded you slightly of the nematodes on Spongebob Squarepants.

Before you knew it, Ren was motioning you over to the table rather rudely. A snap of his fingers in the air clearly signaled he had dropped his Mr. Social mood, and you huffed irritably before trying your best not to stomp over to the table. You glared down at him before he shoved a glass milk bottle under your nose.

"Get me more," he all but commanded. You scowled, before realizing the noise in the room had gone down a few decibels and there were many pairs of eyes watching your every move. The only noise in the room was the few whispers of "Who's that?" and "I don't know." You turned slightly red after you remembered the doll-sized dress you were wearing and forced a very cheesy smile in the direction of Anna. Did she forget to tell the inhabitants of the Asakura household that they were getting a maid? She probably wanted them to find out about you on their own, just so she wouldn't have to take the time to introduce you to anyone.

"Right," Anna said through her teacup. "Everyone, this is Miryoku Katsumi. She's the maid now." You waved slightly at your new superiors, then laughed a little nervously. Most of them smiled back or said a quick "hello." In order to escape the few who still stared, you went back into the kitchen to fetch Ren some more milk. You brought it to him, then quickly returned to the kitchen to wash the pots and pans from cooking breakfast. From looking at your list of things to do, you had a lot to clean before lunch, which you also had to cook. Might as well get a head start on it while you could.

Soon enough, breakfast was over, which meant there were more dishes to be washed. Dishes proved to be quite heavy as you lugged a huge stack from the dining room into the kitchen. You were moderately surprised at how efficient you were once you got used to the scalding water and slick dish soap. Once the dishes were done, you pulled out the list Anna had given you. Vacuuming the bedrooms. After searching the whole house for the vacuum cleaner, you then lugged it up the stairs and into the first bedroom, which happened to be Lyserg's. If the overall greenness of it wasn't annoying enough, there were plenty of dirty clothes on the floor to either pick up or maneuver around.

After deciding that it would be easier to pick the clothes up as you went along, you switched on the vacuum and began to scour the pale green carpet with the noisy machine, scooping up or kicking aside pairs of pants and such. When you were almost done, you picked up a green Sherlock Holmes-ish cape from the corner. As you did so, an enormous bug-ish thing flew out from underneath. Letting out a small scream, you leapt backwards from the cape and landed with a thud on the other side of the room.

Your vision a little distorted from fright, you peered across the room at the giant bug, which looked like a gigantic pink firefly. Barely knowing what you were doing, you ran out of the room, only to return a second later with a flyswatter. Creeping up on the bug, which was now flying in confused little circles near the bed, an evil grin cracked across your face as you raised the flyswatter slowly. Just as you were doing so, Lyserg appeared in the door, now changed out of the robe from earlier this morning. The pink bug shot across the room and nestled itself in Lyserg's hair. Why didn't he notice it? Or rather, why didn't he seem to care that there was a four-inch-long firefly nesting in his hair?

"Lyserg," you said in a harsh but hushed voice. "Don't. Move." Lyserg's eyes grew slightly larger than before.

"Why?" he squeaked. You could see his muscles tensing underneath his poofy, white shirt.

"There's a big bug in your hair," you replied in the same whisper as before. "You stay there, I'm gonna smack it." You inched over to Lyserg and, holding the flyswatter's handle at the very end between two fingers, lightly tapped him on the head. As soon as you had done so, he began to flail mercilessly, his nose scrunched up.

"Eww! Don't put that nasty thing in my hair!" he yelled, still flailing. "You don't know where that's been!" You, on the other hand, were chasing the pink firefly back over to the bed, flyswatter still in hand. You smirked evilly at the bug, which had landed on the pillow. Just as you were about to hit the bug, Lyserg, who was now finished with his little gross-out session, half-yelled half-squeaked, "Morphine! No, don't hurt Morphine!" and lunged himself at the bed to shield the bug. You lowered the flyswatter.

"Lyserg, what are you talking about?" you asked lamely as Lyserg picked the bug up off his pillow.

"This isn't a bug, Katsumi," he said meekly, cradling the tiny pink form to his chest. "It's Morphine."

"Morphine? Like the drug?" you asked, trying to make some sense of this.

"No. Morphine is my spirit."

End Part IV.