Disclaimer: Check the first chapter.

Someday I'll do a chapter early, instead of squeezing in at the last second.

Money brings leisure and leisure brings sloth. But being lazy turned out to not do well for Uranai, as she found much earlier in her rich life. A few months of wallowing in it without shame brought unfortunate consequences. She saw herself turn her every bit as cranky and fat as her mother was—unthinkable!—and it took months to recuperate from the horrid, self-destructive behavior.

Since then, she has tried to keep herself active and entertained… for even the multitude of dead (which rises every few seconds) could grow dull. And besides, it wasn't like she had to stay at her mansion all the time. She didn't cook and clean (ghostly servants did that for her, and there was no way she would lower herself to scrub just to make herself more "active"), and she made more than enough to "set her own hours" and take vacations whenever she wished… so long as some pushy noble doesn't come in demanding an answer to the puzzle his dead father had left with his final breath.

In any case, there were plenty of chances to get out and enjoy life… if you could convince a fortuneteller at her age that there's still something left that she can enjoy, that is. The most difficult part was finding something new that wasn't boring.

A little brother came with plenty of activity… at a price, of course.

Uranai had decided—partially on whim from looking in the mirror and declaring "Look at all the blubber. I disgust myself."—to join in the "fun" (folly of follies) when she pushed Turtle into learning martial arts. It was easy enough to convince her mother that she was just bringing her little brother out for a little weekly spin through the city. Sibling quality time and all that crock. Her father believed it a little more wholeheartedly, but the mother just seemed happy do be given a free day of babysitting a week.

Then, it came to finding a teacher. The sensei of the dojo she took him to was an old monk that taught out of a cellar which looked like he lived in as well. He didn't have many students, but the ones that came were pushed hard, no matter their age. Turtle himself was hardly the age most people would think would be appropriate for learning martial arts. But the sensei didn't seem to think so, and that's why Uranai chose him.

But, since she joined in on the lessons, Uranai found herself pushed just as hard and always came out with an aching body that suddenly felt as old as she actually was. Turtle, however, took it with the boundless stamina children have and was still able to chirp happily to his sister after the lessons.

Uranai groaned as they left from the cellar-dojo. "Why is it that you're so energetic while I feel like dying?"

Turtle smiled sunnily and shrugged. He's a cute kid, she thought to herself. It'll be a shame when he grows up. "Lets go get some iced sweets."

"Yay!"

This was a time where ice wasn't too cheap, but it was obtainable and money wasn't an issue to Uranai when it came to buying luxuries. They got some shaved ice, Turtle getting a sweet cherry-flavored cone, and Uranai getting a more adult one that had been flavored and sweetened with treacle. Treating her little brother was, compared to her mother, a joy. He appreciated what he was given, even if he did seem to have the bearings of a mooch in his future, and he enjoyed simple things.

The place they bought their ice was busy, due to the hot day. People bustled through, back and forth, and the old man who ran the place opted to stay home, since his leg hadn't been healing quite right. His son wasn't yet used to a harried summer day alone, and more than once cried out in frustration as he served the patrons. Uranai didn't think much of it and enjoyed the cool shop until he finally threw down his paper cap in frustration.

"I would do anything to get some peace and quiet around here. Anything, I swear!"

Uranai hummed to herself in interest, scooping up the last of the shaved ice into her mouth. "Hmm… Bold declarations like that can get you in trouble, sonny."

He didn't quite hear her, but he knew enough that he was being spoken to directly. His eyes centered on Uranai with confusion, trying to decipher what she might have said before finally asking, "Excuse me, ma'am?"

"I said you shouldn't say things you don't mean. You said you'd give anything for peace and quiet? Don't be so quick to give up something for a plentiful thing such as 'silence', especially when you don't set the price of something yourself."

He took on the indignant look he preferred around the witch and turned away from her to pick up his paper hat.

Turtle had finished his own ice and had a very red mouth to show for it. "Sis, can we go through the bazaar?"

"I suppose. But no big toys, got me?"

.-.-.

The sun was close to setting by the time they left back towards their mother's house. After a good leisure to follow the blistering training, Uranai felt in good enough spirits to walk Turtle home instead of take a taxi or go to the station like they usually did. Turtle seemed to appreciate the change. The path out over the countryside went through forests, was delightfully overgrown, and patched with cobblestones, bricks, and the occasional uneven strip of cement. Clearly, it was an old road that had been rebuilt and repaired several times… none of this care actually being very permanent, or even well done. Still, it made for an interesting walk for a curious, explorative child, even if it wouldn't be kind to a car or even a horse.

The landscape tinted a slight red as the sun sank, and the stretch of land didn't seem to be just outside of a city anymore. Although mostly pastoral, the surroundings were picturesque, the fey, magical side of Nature, precious in how it's common. Rather poetic thoughts for the old fortuneteller to be thinking, eh?

Turtle made a nuisance of himself by running about and messing with anything a child can possibly mess with in and nearby the road, but Uranai wasn't much interested in corralling him back into step with her, and allowed him to run freely, only giving an occasional shout if it looked like he was branching a little too far to where she might not be able to sense him.

Halfway through this walk, as the red deepened and stained more of the grass, an odd feeling came to Uranai. She couldn't quite determine it until her ears perked up. "What's that?"

Turtle was close enough to hear his sister's question. "Huh? What's what?"

Uranai stopped walking and went still, eyes searching around. "Listen carefully. Can you hear that?"

The child followed his sister's example as a whistle grew with the wind. Something that sounded like a hunting whistle. Then he looked at his sister.

"I'm going to see what it is," she said, somewhat surprised at herself that she was so curious and that Turtle wasn't already running towards it. In fact, as she walked into the grass, she felt him hesitate before he followed.

Some tall, but otherwise sparse trees started to flank her as she went further away from the road. The whistle had stopped and she was scanning around, trying to remember which direction it was coming from. Turtle lagged behind her a few meters.

A gunshot echoed through the trees and her head flung her vision towards the sound, just in time to see a red fox, looking as if almost on fire from the sunset, run past with such a flurry she could barely make it out before it disappeared in the emerald-green bushes. A rumble followed, and two men on horseback galloped by, each holding a rifle. Another man followed, calling after them to halt and come back, but finally stopped and shook his head as others either ran past him or stopped by his side.

"What is wrong, mi'lord?" A man with a long, black mustache asked, looking confused at the stop, his own horse still stepping back and forth in anticipation.

The man he spoke to—a middle-aged man with a Western coat and a scowling, beardless face—put away his own rifle and turned his glare towards the trees. "I am surrounded by morons."

"Mi'lord?"

"They won't get the fox like that. Not to mention blasting off the way they did… I have half a mind to demote each and every one of them. If they're that easy to fall away from my orders for a mere fox, I don't know if I'd much like them to approach the situation if we were to fight the dragon."

"Dragon, mi'lord? We will be hunting a dragon?"

"No, not a such. The green dragon… will be hunting us."

"Excuse me!" Uranai called out and waved her hand, pulling a bewildered-looking child to her side with the other hand. "May I ask you to hold off your fire while we get out of this forest? We seemed to have wandered into your hunt accidentally."

The man ignored her and turned to the horizon with a brisk trot before he vanished.

Vanished, like an apparition.

Uranai blinked and took a moment to process what she had seen. "Oh. They weren't here." She looked down at her little brother. "Did you see that?"

"See what?" Turtle whined. "You're acting funny, sis."

"Huh, I suppose you didn't. Well, let's get out of these woods before it gets too late."

"M'kay."