For a moment, I just stood there, near-speechless. I felt the color drain from my face as I gently set the phone down.

Filo looked at me questionably, but I ignored her and walked slowly to Raphtalia.

She still seemed miffed about what I had said about her earlier, but her expression changed as she saw my face. "M-Mister Naofumi! Wh-What happened? You're as white as a sheet!"

Looking back, I probably should've answered differently, but at that moment, my scrambled-up brain could only think of one thing to say: "Raphtalia! Please raise Filo together with me!"

"WAH!?" Raphtalia exclaimed, her face turning as red as a tomato. "M-Mister Naofumi! What're you saying all of a su-"

Filo began hopping and doing a little dance at that. "Yeah! Filo found a Mommy and Daddy!"

I didn't know it was possible for Raphtalia's face to become even redder, but it did somehow. She grabbed me by the collar and began shaking me, trying to snap me out of whatever daze I was in. "Explain yourself now!"


"And that's what happened," I said, explaining to Raphtalia what that woman had said to me over the phone.

The two of us were standing in the small courtyard leading up to my apartment complex- Filo was currently munching on what I had made for her, so I didn't think she would run away- though I still locked the door from outside just in case.

"Alright," Raphtalia said, arms crossed, and face no longer so bright that you could probably heat up a teacup just by holding it to her forehead. "But why do you need me? And why are we outside here?"

I sighed. I didn't want to do this, but there was no beating around the bush now. "Raphtalia, I never told you why I quit streaming myself, did I?"

"No.'

"Did you ever try to look me up online?" I asked. She probably would've been able to find the story if she really wanted to.

"No," she said. I guess she wasn't the type of person to go around snooping.

"You see, a while back, when I was still in high school was when I started," I told her. "And things really began to pick up when I was in my first year of law school. But- I wasn't alone. I had a partner, in more ways than one." Even now, the memory of her made my blood boil. 'We kind of worked together occasionally, but then... out the blue, I don't know why... she... well, basically accused me of touching her inappropriately. She filed a complaint with TwitchTube and they just banned me- no investigation, nothing. There was never a police investigation of course, because she wouldn't have been dumb enough to do that- given that whatever she said would've never lined up with the facts but still, it ruined my reputation."

"I dropped out of law school for a while," I told her. 'I was even about to quit- I went back to my parent's house and just remained shut-in for over eight months. Eventually, it was my younger brother who- quite literally- had to punch my lights out before I got my act back together." I smiled at that particular memory. To think that our roles had been reversed at that time- with him being the responsible one to put me on the right path now. "I came back, and they let me rejoin though I was a year behind everyone who had started at the same time as me. But, I never did get my account back. And even now, if you go to my campus, you'll hear rumors about me, though in a way I guess it was for the better that I was held back because most of my current classmates don't care or know that much about it."

I looked up at the sky, lost in memories. That whole year I had lost felt like a blur.

"I see," Raphtalia said. I couldn't read her expression- did she believe me, or was she like the others who had judged me on nothing but her word alone? "So... that's why you never show your face or voice."

She looked at me with sympathetic eyes.

My voice nearly croaked. Was I just imagining sympathy- or was she looking at me like I was a grade-A creep? "D-do you believe me?"

"Of course I do!" she said firmly. "Nothing you've done to this point has been bad!" She glared at me. "Though you really should have just believed me earlier..."

"Again, I'm sorry for that," I said. "But- Raphtalia, I think you can understand why I can't keep Filo with me here. The kind of rumors that would start about me... I mean, this isn't an anime you know?"

"Huh?" she asked.

"Oh, there was this anime where a dude took in a high school runaway and- never mind, forget about it," I told her. "It would be a lot more comforting if you would stay over for two nights until Fitoria gets here. I can't take her to my place, it's too far- and I don't have any female friends or relatives in the nearby area."

Raphtalia sighed. "If that's the case, I think I can take her back to my house instead."

The idea hadn't occurred to me. "I wouldn't want to burden you like th-"

"Don't worry about it," she said with a smile. "I don't want someone like Filo to be abandoned either."

I felt as if the weight of the world had been taken off of my shoulders. "Alright."

"However," Raphtalia said, "that really doesn't explain the whole 'Why Slavery Is Justified' paper that you were writing."

I groaned. "That's a whole different story... but I promise it does make sense in context..."

"Alright, I think we've talked enough for now anyway," Raphtalia said with a sigh.


"Yay! Momma and Pappa are back!" Filo yelled out, jumping up and down on the sofa.

"Stop jumping on the sofa!" I yelled at her. She stuck out her tongue and began jumping up and down even faster.

"So, what did Mommy and Daddy talk about outside?" she asked. "Were you maybe trying to get lovey-dovey?" She then imitated a kissing face and giggled.

I couldn't see Raphtalia's expression but I heard her make a noise reminiscent of a vacuum cleaner being turned on behind me. 'Listen, we're taking you somewhere else, okay?"

"NO!" she shouted back, suddenly losing her happy-go-lucky demeanor and becoming quite hostile. "Filo doesn't wanna go!"

It was a long and heated argument, but Filo made such a ruckus that we gave up on trying to convince her to go with Raphtalia.

So much for that idea.