"Ze."

"Hey."

Marisa just stood in the doorway. Nitori stared at her for a while.

"Look, I'm actually up today. You can go."

Marisa shuffled in place, "You sure?"

"Yeah," Nitori held up a chisel, "I actually have something I'm doing today."

"Oh..."

Nitori glared, "Don't sound so down about that," she sighed, staring at the chisel, "Not much today, but at least it's something."

Marisa shuffled about in the doorway again, "O.k., so uhm, maybe you don't need my help today, but maybe you could also return a favor?"

Nitori put down the chisel and gave her a sideways glance, "That's usually the most troublesome sort of request coming from you."

"Yeah, ze, so, you see, uhm, I can't find my way home?"

Nitori gave Marisa a stupified look, "Are you five?"

Marisa stammered, "I seriously can't find my house! I swear I'm taking the right path home!"

Nitori opened up a box, and picked out a scanner. If Marisa seriously couldn't find her home, it was likely because of some weird magical interference or huge incident caused by one of her many enemies, and not seriously because she kept getting lost. She pushed Marisa aside, "Fine. Stay here for a while."

Marisa looked around at the messy abode, "Alright, but, you seem even worse than m-"

Nitori pointed a finger, "Don't. Don't say it, alright. I have enough issues keeping my own brain in order, let alone my rooms."

And with that she stormed out.

~One moment, girl is searching~

And with that, Nitori immediately found it. She didn't know what Marisa was talking about. Her place was where it always was. Nothing seemed unusual. In fact, Nitori hardly looked at the scanner, and she just walked straight to it. She carefully took her time walking back to her place. Nothing along the way seemed out of the ordinary.

When she returned back to her home, Nitori found Marisa rooting through her papers.

Nitori stomped over, closing a notebook she was reading, "Oi! I haven't finished that yet!"

Marisa pouted, "And here I was hoping for a juicy romance diary."

She rolled her eyes, "For the umpteenth time, there's nothing like that. I'm not like you."

As Marisa giggled, Nitori grabbed her arm, "Come on. I found your place. I want to see what happens when you try to go there now."

"Oh, you have that unusual focus in your eyes," Marisa smiled, "Those eyes that say you're 'on the case' again."

Nitori gently knocked her on the head, "You flirt with enough people as it is already, come on, give me a broom ride."

As they flew, Nitori spent her time paying attention to her scanner. There was indeed something going on. As she collected data, she noticed how as they got closer to Marisa's house, it was as if her compass got scrambled to the same direction. Each time this happened, Nitori called it out, Marisa then noticed, and they changed heading again. But again as they got close, their bearing would drift to the same heading yet again.

Nitori narrowed her eyes. She had a hunch where this heading actually was, "Marisa, how long has this been going on?"

Marisa cast a shady, sidewards glance, "I don't know, maybe a," she mumbled, "Few days now, ze."

Nitori gripped Marisa's shoulder, "Marisa~~~, this has been going on for a few weeks, hasn't it?"

Marisa was silent.

Nitori got her face maddeningly close to Marisa's, "Marisa~~~, you've been staying at Alice's place the entire time, haven't you?"

"How did yo-I mean!"

Marisa went silent before sighing and fessing up, "How did you know?"

Nitori waved her scanner in front of Marisa, "Because every time we get close to your house, the compass heading redirects itself back to Alice's house."

Marisa stopped suddenly in midair. Causing Nitori to scramble for balance to make sure she didn't fall off.

She turned around on her broom to face Nitori, "Are you saying Alice is doing this?"

Nitori gave Marisa an irritated, blank stare. After a moment, Marisa looked down, shifting slightly. Nitori craned her head to see her face, which was blushing and suppressing a large grin.

"You're, O.K. with that?"

Marisa stuttered, "Well, ze, I mean, ze, it means, ze ze ze ze ze."

Nitori sighed, Sometimes, the surest way to kill your motivation, is the realization that you're going to get everything you ever wanted.

She patted Marisa on the head, "Come on, bring us down for a landing."

After they slowly landed, Nitori got off the broom. She glanced over at a furiously blushing Marisa off in her own world. There was a long, silence. Neither said a word. Marisa was talking to herself, trying to say things she was going to say to Alice. After a while, Nitori realized that Marisa had forgotten she was still there. She coughed, she tried to grabbed Marisa's attention; but it got to a point where it just felt awkward.

Nitori sighed, turned around, and slowly trudged back to her own home, alone. Oddly, even though Nitori seemed physically alright, she felt like Marisa had given her a rather hard landing.