Hoppy Easter everyone!

Nozomi was on a mission. She had found out that a certain wolf kin was attending the school as well from her brother.

Tracking down Jack was much easier compared to Vil. As it turned out, he had taken to going on morning runs with her brother.

"Are you Jack?" she asked.

"...You're the girl Vil always talks about. His baby sister."

"Thank you for being my brother's friend. I know a lot of people misunderstand him because of the roles he plays," said Nozomi, giving him a proper bow of respect.

Jack blushed deeply, not used to that.

"Are you done embarrassing Jack, imouto?" said Vil teasingly.

"Nii-san!"

Vil laughed, and Jack had to stare. He wasn't used to seeing Vil act so...cheerful. Normally he gave off an air of cold indifference, but around his little sister there was a protective aura around him.

It was clear Nozomi adored her older brother, and Vil doted on her. It was cute.

"Are you going to join us for a run?" asked Jack.

"Can I? None of my friends ever wanted to join me on my morning jogs," said Nozomi hopeful.

"Go get changed, we'll wait," said Vil fondly. They weren't that far from the dorm. Nozomi was off like a shot, and returned within five minutes.

The two taller males slowed their pace slightly so that the smaller Nozomi could keep up.

"So what's Pomefiore like, now that you've been sorted?" asked Riddle.

"Yeah, what was the deal with that? I thought the mirror said you didn't have magic?" said Cater.

"Actually it got confused because of my pendant," said Nozomi. "And Pomefiore is really fun, especially since I finally get to spend time with my nii-san properly."

"That was hilarious," said Ace, snickering. "The look on that upperclassman's face was hysterical."

"It's more amusing than you think...the guy she tackled was the Pomefiore housewarden, and he's usually a major prima donna," said Cater snickering.

"As much as I'd love to defend my brother..." said Nozomi, "He's the reason I know so much about fashion and make-up in the first place."

"It's good that the mix-up was sorted out," said Riddle.

"Yeah, that other dorm the headmage put you in looked like it was barely standing," said Trey.

"Tell me about it!" said Grim. "I didn't mind the ghosts, but at least this new dorm doesn't creak as much!"

"Yeah, Nii-san took one look at how run down the place was and said there was no way I was staying another night there, even if I wasn't sorted into his dorm."

"So how are you related anyway? Last I checked, Vil was an only child," said Cater. And he had looked it up, after she called him "big brother" and he hadn't disputed it.

"Same grandmother, different grandfathers," shrugged Nozomi. "She remarried after her first husband died. I'm from the second marriage."

"That explains it," said Riddle.

"Uncle Erik brought Vil over to meet me when we were little, and we hit it off. We've kept in contact via letters and calls over the years, but due to the fact he's so busy we rarely got to spend time with each other," said Nozomi. "Vil used to send these little care packages with all sorts of samples that he got from his work but didn't want, and he taught me how to use them once we got a stable enough internet connection to do video calls."

"You forgot to add that it was because of our calls that you were able to utterly shred a female teacher's reputation to the point she was fired," said a voice from behind her. It was Vil.

"You got a teacher fired?" said Riddle.

"It's not what you think," said Nozomi, shaking her head. "The woman was utterly vile and would spring surprise inspections on us whenever one of her marriage interviews failed, and then deliberately expel any students who had 'undesirable' items in their personal belongings. Considering how cutthroat Japanese education is, that would have effectively prevented them from ever attending higher education or getting scholarships."

"Yikes," said Ace.

"She made the poor mistake of pulling this when a close friend of mine was confessing to his crush in an unusual way, so I decided enough was enough and basically called her out on the fact she was using substandard products to cater to her ego and to hide the fact she was pushing forty in a few years," said Nozomi.

"How did he plan to confess?" asked Cater, curious.

"Grandpa sold him a blank puzzle, and he asked my help in writing a poem to the girl in question to hopefully earn her affection. The idea was that once she opened the box, she would solve the puzzle and see the poem once it was done," said Nozomi. "Grandpa said it was how he asked grandmother out on their first date, and she apparently found it so romantic she agreed to it."

"I always found that story rather interesting myself," admitted Vil. "Flowers and chocolates are nice, but they are a bit overdone. Giving your crush a handwritten puzzle for them to solve shows far more effort."

"Never mind how easily letters can be destroyed by callous people. When you tell others about a love letter, they immediately assume it's an actual letter, not a puzzle," said Nozomi.

Unnoticed by the group, a certain merman was listening in on the whole thing and making plans.

Nozomi only had to hear the words "board game club" before she made a beeline for the room it was held in.

Vil spent a full hour before sighing and asking Rook where she was.

"Roi du Ombres overheard Cater talking about the Board Game club and..." started Rook, and Vil held up a single hand.

"I can guess from there. Nozomi loves games, after all," said Vil fondly. "I'm not surprised in the least that she made a beeline for it."

He asked around to find out when the club ended, and went to find his little sister.

He found Nozomi in a surprisingly animated discussion with the Ignihyde housewarden and the Octavinelle housewarden.

They were having an in-depth discussion regarding some older game or another and the rules it had. It was odd to see Shroud talking to anyone without using his tablet once.

He froze slightly when he registered Vil's presence. Vil ignored him and walked up behind Nozomi.

"Having fun, imouto?"

Nozomi had a massive smile on her face.

"I absolutely love this school! My old one only had a chess club, and no one wanted to play games with me at all," said Nozomi.

As the two walked back to the dorms, Nozomi cheerfully chatted about her day while Vil listened. He was glad to see his sister so animated...she had only a few close friends back in her old school, but she was clearly thriving here.

"That reminds me! I promised to video call my friends later and let them know how things are going in this school. They were all pretty surprised I got into a college."

Later that night...

Vil stayed out of camera range, as he wanted to get a feel for his sister's older friend group. So Nozomi picked up Grim and introduced her friends to her new 'cat'.

Their reaction to a talking feline was comical, but from what Vil recalled of the area it was predominantly a nonmagical city.

That being said they welcomed Grim without a second thought, since Nozomi was the one vouching for him.

Vil's first impression of them was somewhat favorable. While their appearances could use a great deal of work, it was clear they were incredibly loyal to his sister. And honestly, that was all he cared about in the long run.

Anzu was incredibly generic in terms of appearances, not really that attractive but had been friends with Nozomi the longest. She had the physic of a dancer, which made sense because that was what she planned to do once she graduated. She had a strong personality and had been one of Nozomi's strongest supporters, even if she personally had no interest in dueling.

Honda was incredibly dull looking, had little to offer in terms of friendship, but had stayed with the group regardless.

It was the third member that had Vil's full attention. He had once suspected Nozomi had a slight crush on the somewhat older boy, but that had shifted rather firmly into 'family' territory and had remained that way since he had more or less moved into the spare bedroom of the shop.

Jounouchi, a former delinquent that had become a partial rival to Nozomi after extensive tutoring from their grandfather on how to play the game. He had gone from a rookie with little sense of strategy to a proper contender in a surprisingly short amount of time. His loyalty was unquestioned, as he had once fought against his former gang when they threatened Nozomi.

In regards to appearance, he had all the pedigree of a common mutt. He wasn't even a respectable wolf, like Jack.

Vil ignored that and saw how the boy acted around Nozomi, even via a video call. It was clear he was the sort of dog that once you earned his loyalty, it was for life. He would defend Nozomi with his dying breath, without hesitation.

When the call ended, Vil couldn't help but comment.

"I noticed you made no mention of me," he said.

"And ruin the fun we'd have when they get to meet you in person later? No way. I'd rather get their reactions on camera first," said Nozomi cheekily.

Vil smirked at that. Nozomi was generally sweet and kind, but there was a bit of a devilish side to her. He was proud to say he was responsible for her darker side, which had been present long before Yami even showed up.

Like hell was he going to allow anyone push his sister around...she was just too nice to unleash it unless someone either pissed her off.

He had been waiting ages for her to unleash it on a certain rich boy who was obsessed with Dragons. Vil did not like the fact that this Kaiba kept stalking his baby sister because his ego couldn't handle the fact he kept getting his ass kicked by someone long dead who happened to be possessing her.

"Nyahaha. Your friends seemed really nice!" said Grim.

His life had taken a definite turn for the better the day Nozomi agreed to take him on as her familiar. Not only was he eating better than he would have in that other dorm, but she kept his fur as nice as that annoying Lucius.

Sure, he had to tolerate being turned into a dress up doll by Vil who insisted that he match her outfit at all times, but that was a small price to pay.

"I'm just glad Grandpa said that you could stay at the store. He wouldn't let me have any pets before now because they would get into the store and cause a mess," said Nozomi.

"That reminds me, I'm doing a commercial next week," said Vil. He had her complete attention. "I know you've always expressed an interest in seeing me work..."

Nozomi's eyes were sparkling.

"Really?" she asked.

"You'll have to wake up early, but I see no reason you can't join me for a while. Just try not to duel anyone, okay?"

He had seen how flashy duels could be, as the Ignihyde students had dusted off their decks and had found a way to duel his sister using their make-shift duel disks.

Nozomi had accepted their challenges with aplomb, and he wouldn't be surprised if she started up a dueling club before the year was out. Apparently the game was more popular than he thought among the other students.

Nozomi pouted at her brother's request, but nodded.

"If you can keep from dueling while the commercial is being filmed, I'll break out my old deck and we can have one later, okay?"

"You kept your deck?" said Nozomi with delight.

"Of course I did. It wouldn't do for me to fall behind my adorable imouto, would it? Especially after you earned that title. Though I might need help tightening up the deck itself," said Vil.

You couldn't sandblast the smile off her face. She was so glad that she was able to spend actual time with her big brother in person.