A school bus stopped right in the middle of the road.

"Hey- what's going on here?" the bus driver asks.

There is a huge hole blocking out the road, and as he gets out to observe the scene, several masked figures appear from the woods. They're all wearing animal masks and cloaks, though the center one is dressed up as a giant ogre.

"What's the meaning of this?" the bus driver asks.

"We'll be the ones asking questions around here," the giant ogre says. "Just let it be known that you all... will be our guests for the time being."

Meanwhile, on the bus, a blonde-haired girl observes the scene from the window. Somehow unnoticed by any of the other schoolchildren, a ball of light emerges from her backpack.

"Kiiroi, these guys, they must be-" the ball of light begins to exposit.

"-working for the Grandmaster of Everything Bad." the blonde-haired girl said.

The screen then fades to black, with the girl now dressed up in a blue dress with golden frills. She's wielding a pink staff adorned with a green jewel on the top. Angelic wings now sprout from her back. Music is playing in the background.

"You won't get away this time- Magical Girl Kiiroi!" the giant ogre said. "This time, it'll be your end!"

With that, the video ended with the announcer saying that you should tune in to the next episode.

I had pulled up a trailer for an episode of the show when I heard that Filo was in it- and it was just as corny as I had imagined it would be(like seriously? What kind of name was 'the Grandmaster of Everything Bad?'), though I supposed that Melty was at the age where she would like these kinds of things.

Melty, meanwhile, was humming the tune I had heard in the trailer- it was probably the show's theme song.

"Mel-chan, do you like that song?" Filo asked.

"Yeah," Melty said.

Filo then started dancing around the place, holding a microphone and singing the lyrics. "-when you gaze upon the clouds in the blue sky-"... wait a minute, where did she get that microphone from?

I then recognized it as MY microphone, which I used for recording my streams. She had unscrewed it from its stand when I hadn't been paying attention.

"Filo! Hand me that microphone back right now!"

"Hey!" Melty snapped at me. "Don't talk that way to Magical Girl Kiiroi!" Rather than snapping at her and telling her to mind her own business, I instead replied with a snarky comment of my own.

"You really like the show don't you, you little chuuni?" I asked her.

"Indeed she does," Eclair said. "Her bedroom is littered with memorabilia from the show..." She let a small smile sneak through her poker face. "It is quite heartwarming to see Melty-sama so happy to meet her idol!"

"Hey!" Melty protested, face nearly as flustered as Raphtalia's had been yesterday. "Eclair! You didn't have to tell Naofumi that!"

"Oh? But I though that Naofumi-san here was your friend," Eclair said. "You looked really excited to meet him on the way her-"

"No I wasn't!" Melty yelled out indignantly. "I was just happy to be out of the house is all! Naofumi's a grumpy old grouch most of the time! I don't like being around him!"

I ignored the insults directed at me and tried to pry my microphone away from Filo- that thing was almost as expensive as the rest of my streaming gear put together! However, she continued to bounce around, making hand signs and dancing like a well-rehearsed pop idol- then again, from what I had seen, she likely was one and had done this dance many times before.

"Well, " I told Melty when I had finally managed to retrieve my mike, "as you can see I'm a bit too busy handling Filo right now, so we're going to have to work on our project some other time." Implicit in this sentence was the sentiment of 'go away now.'

"Ah, but can't Mel-chan stay?" Filo asked, now pouting. Filo ran up to Melty sand said, "Mel-chan, you should totally sleep over!"

At these words, Melty looked like she'd be about to explode from excitement as she turned and grabbed onto Eclair. "Oh! Oh! Can we? Can we? Pleaaaase!"

Eclair looked a bit hesitant. "Melty-sama, I, well, I need to speak to your mother first, and moreover, don't you think that we might be inconveniencing Naofumi-san?"

Finally, someone in my life who spoke sense.

I still couldn't get over the fact that she had pink hair though.

"It's fine, Papa doesn't mind at all!" Filo said.

"Hey, hey, stop unilaterally making decisions in my house!"

Filo tilted her head. "But isn't this an apartment... so it's not technically 'your' house right?"

"Useless semantics!" I groaned before I felt a tug on my arm. It was Eclair.

"Naofumi-san, can we speak outside for a moment, please?"

We kept the door open a crack as we moved to the hallway outside the apartment. Eclair had a very serious expression on her face, the earlier joviality now gone. She took off her sunglasses while talking. "Naofumi-san, I don't know how much you know about Melty-sama," her voice had dropped to a whisper, though with Filo singing inside, I doubted that the two girls would be able to hear anything. "But suffice it to say that she spends most of her time tending to her duties. She is a diligent child, and almost never complains. I've seen her work and study hard though..." her eyes shifted away. "I have rarely seen her as happy as I have today. For the first time in what seems like an eternity, she is behaving..."

"...like a girl her age?"

"Yes," Eclair said. "And... I do not want to take away this moment of happiness from her. I... am not at liberty to discuss things further, but there is internal strife going on within her family...she may appear to be strong, but she is also still nothing more than a little girl at heart. I was worried that the stress might be getting to her, but she hasn't let it show ever... not yet at least. But there's no way that it isn't getting to her in some way. I have no right to ask this of you... but could you let her stay over tonight?"

I wanted to groan. I wanted to refuse. And yet, I couldn't. Mainly because I agreed with what Eclair said- Melty should have the opportunity to grow up like a regular girl. And no matter how the brat annoyed me, I couldn't help but see the image of my little brother reflected in her. I knew just what kind of damage that could do to a person- to load them up with the weight of responsibility at a young age.

"Alright, alright," I said.

Suddenly, Eclair's eyes darted towards the road. "What is it?" She didn't answer for a good thirty seconds, for the first time looking like a genuine bodyguard while scanning the area for danger. Then again, she usually wore sunglasses, so it was possible she was always doing that and I just couldn't notice because of the shades.

"Nothing... I thought I saw someone there... but it might've just been my eyes playing tricks on me," she said.

"You seem to care a lot for Melty," I said. "More than just as your employer... are you related to her somehow?"

"No," Eclair said. "But I have been watching over her ever since she was a six-year-old girl. My family owes hers quite a debt..."

"It seems you spend more time with her than her mother does," I said, though after the words left my mouth I realized just how mean they sounded.

A sad expression dawned on Eclair's face. "Unfortunately... it was not always like that... but recently..." she trailed off. "Ah, again, I'm-"

"-not at liberty to say, I get it."