Touma's hands fell to his sides. He blinked rapidly, as though his brain was burning through all of its energy trying to process the sight before him.

"It's... a girl", he said to himself, as though confirming that what he saw was indeed the real thing. "What's she doing on my balcony? And that clothing... She looks like a sister!" He gulped, trying to clear his thoughts. Nothing in his repertoire of knowledge or common sense was able to provide any answers for him. He clasped his hand onto his forehead as his mind raced. "Well... I'm guessing she's not from around here..."

Then her eyes opened.

Touma gasped, his train of thought screeching to a halt. Her eyes were a brilliant shade of blue-green, and gazed forward with a blank, sleepy expression. He couldn't even tell if she was aware of his presence, but he remained motionless, just to be safe. Then her mouth slowly opened, and she spoke. She had a quiet voice, barely even above a whisper, but her words were clear.

"I... I'm... I'm so very... hungry." Touma blinked again, utterly confused. Then he jumped at the sound of a fierce rumbling that echoed from the girl's stomach. Her eyes widened, and she spoke with more conviction, her eyes trained squarely on him: "I'm very hungry."

"Er... What was that?", Touma asked, still seemingly unable to fathom her words, or decide whether she was talking to him or herself.

"I said I'm hungry", she repeated, matter-of-factually, this time very clearly speaking directly to Touma. He took a step back, a bead of nervous sweat appearing on his brow.

"What the...?" He began to move backwards, as though to retreat into the house and forget that anything out of the ordinary had happened.

The girl furrowed her brow. "Are you listening to me? I said I'm hungry", she repeated again, this time more firmly. Touma stopped, but now he was beginning to feel that he needed to sort this out.

"So, uh... just out of curiosity... Is this just something you do? You know, randomly appear draped over a student's balcony?", he asked, trying not to sound impolite. She was possibly a sister, after all.

"It's also called curb-croaking", she replied.

What?

"Say, do you have any food in there?", she chirped, suddenly very cheerful. "I'd be really grateful if you'd feed me!"

Okay, clearly this person isn't all there, Touma thought to himself. I think she'd probably be better off elsewhere. Then again, I can't just tell her to get lost. What should I do?

"Um... Well, if you'd like, I might have a sandwich or something in the fridge-"

"Thank you so much! Sandwiches are my favorite!" The girl beamed, clearly overjoyed. With a sudden motion, she gracefully jumped off the railing and landed upright before Touma, then sprinted past him into the apartment.

"Uh, hey! Wait up!" Touma followed after her, a bit annoyed at her suddenly barging in while he was talking.

As he entered the apartment , Touma saw that the girl had already made her way to the fridge. He walked up behind her as she grabbed the handle, then halted mid-step. Wait, he realized, the power got knocked out last night, which means that the fridge-

The girl yanked open the fridge door, and a burst of air rushed out that Touma swore was tinted green. The entire apartment instantly fell under a stifling atmosphere of rotting meat, rancid condiments, and soured fruit, all breathable oxygen instantly wiped from reality. Choking, Touma plugged his nose and bolted towards the living room window, desperately fighting back a cavalcade of dry heaves.

He ripped the window open and shoved his face out into the open air, gasping for breath. The putrid smell, coupled with his already dry throat, plus the sweltering heat of the apartment, made it feel like his lungs were actively self-destructing. Why didn't I check the fridge before?! I am such an idiot!, he exclaimed inwardly. He was worried about whether the girl had made it out alive, but his legs were shaking so much that he was pretty sure he would collapse if he tried turning around to look.

After a minute or so the smell began to subside, and he felt as though he could hear a choir of angels singing as the normal scent of his apartment returned. At last able to turn around, he stumbled back into the middle of the room, trying to wipe the tears from his eyes so he could check on the girl.

"Look, I understand that you're hungry, but you can't just barge into someone's house and try to open-" He stopped mid-sentence when his vision cleared. The girl was digging through the fridge and grabbing all the food she could, apparently not bothered at all by the noxious gases it had released, but that wasn't what caught his attention.

His other guest was awake.

The boy from the previous night was still lying on his back, but his eyes were open. He stared up at the ceiling, his expression blank, his breathing slow. He lifted his left hand and held it over his face, turning it forward and back as though inspecting it, before letting it fall back to his side. Then, very slowly, he turned his head until he could gaze at Touma out of the corner of his eye. Touma remained still, his dark blue eyes locked with the boy's inhuman yellow ones, their expressions equally unreadable.

Finally, the tattooed boy broke the silence.

"You're that boy from the bridge", he said, "the one that was doing battle against that electric woman." He sounded dazed, but Touma could tell he was trying to wake himself up. His voice was deep and mature, with a slight reverberation to it that didn't seem to match the acoustics of the room.

"Um, yeah", Touma responded, raising an eyebrow. Battle? I wouldn't call it that. We were just having a little disagreement. "My name is Touma. Touma Kamijou. This is, uh, my apartment."

"Apartment?" The boy's eyes widened and focused, as though he wasn't expecting to hear that word. His eyes turned and stared back at the ceiling. "An apartment... Interesting... I barely even remember...", he trailed off, becoming lost in thought and muttering too quietly for Touma to hear.

Suddenly the mysterious girl strolled around the corner into the living room, arms loaded with food. Now that she was standing, Touma got a better look at her. She was definitely in a nun's habit, like he had thought, but it was all gold and white, with intricate designs stitched around the edges. She was shorter than him, almost by half a foot, and her robes seemed too big for her body. Her hair was a shimmering silver color, with a hint of blue to it, but it was hard to get a read on her age. Enormous green eyes shone from her face, and her expression was one of joyous satisfaction, not that it was easy to see her expression with half of a sandwich protruding from her mouth.

Completely ignoring the boy laying on the couch, she made her way to the table in the center of the room and dropped into a seiza position between it and the sofa, laying everything in her arms out in front of her before pulling the half-eaten sandwich out of her mouth.

"You have so much delicious food!", she exclaimed, turning to face Touma with stars in her eyes. "If you had mentioned it sooner, we wouldn't have had to sit on the balcony for so long!"

Touma's attention was still on the boy with the tattoos. "Well, yeah that's great and all, but-"

"I'm surprised a guy who lives alone in an apartment would even need this much food!", she interrupted, sampling herself to something between a grape and a raisin. "I would hate to be a terrible guest and not eat what's provided, so I'm taking every last bite!" As she spoke, the boy on the sofa once again turned his head slightly and looked at her, his eyebrows raised in confusion. The girl didn't notice. "It doesn't even taste like anything I've ever had! Everything has this delicious tang to it that's really riling up my taste buds! I can't believe-!"

She stopped short as the mysterious boy clapped his hand onto her shoulder, still laying on his back. "Can I ask you something?", he inquired, clearly wide awake now, "Are you actually enjoying the food, or are you just being polite? I can smell it from here, and it's not making me feel like I want to chow down any time soon."

The room was silent.

Touma stared at the tattooed boy, shocked. Really? He finally wakes up and that's the first thing he decides to say? The girl shakily turned her head to look at the boy behind her, noticing his presence for apparently the first time, an expression of terror frozen on her face. The boy looked at her for a moment, clearly waiting for an answer, then turned his eyes to Touma once it became clear there wasn't gonna be one. He still had yet to lift his head even an inch off the couch.

"Excuse me, Touma, was it?", he asked. Touma nodded slightly, his brain seemingly giving up on trying to make heads or tails of the situation. The boy looked at him with a new expression, one that seemed almost... pained.

"Can you help me up? I think my horn is stuck in your couch."

Author Notes:

Yay! Finally got another chapter written! Sorry it's taken so long, and sorry if the quality isn't as good. I'd forgotten how bad writer's block can get if you haven't written anything in a while.

This chapter was really challenging to write, because it suddenly occurred to me that I had no idea how to get all three of these people to meet each other and have their first conversation, while still trying my best to keep the behavior and personalities accurate to the characters (conversations have always been my weakness, as well as most scenes where no action occurs).

If anyone would be willing to leave their reviews and feedback, as well as ways I could improve this chapter and future chapters, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope the rest of the story turns out to your liking!