Hirune looked stared at her for a moment, "Well I guess introductions don't matter but alright, what do you want to talk about?"
The silver-haired girl's eyes widened a bit then she giggled, "Sorry, guess I cut to the chase a bit too fast. My names Ellen, the guy that's sitting next to you is named Tundra," Ellen tone suddenly changed as she glared at the other guy. "And the guy who nearly melted my cups is named Clint."
She cleared her throat and continued with the main subject, "Now as for what we needed to talk about, it's quite a long story so get comfortable. Now, where should we start~" Ellen stretched as she took a sip of her tea with one hand and pet Kala's tail on her lap with the other.
Hirune also took a sip of her tea, unsure as to what to make out of it as it was basically just warm water to her, she set it back down, "If you don't mind, let's start at why you called me a witch."
Ellen smiled as a single tear drop rolled down her cheek, "I accidently poured us warm water instead of tea, I owe you a heartfelt apology." Ellen clapped and the teacups disappeared, "Anyways, sorry for the warm water and distraction. Witch thing, right? About that, we've done some digging into your past and we found out that you're 1/4 witch. You see, your mom was a half witch and every other woman on her side of the family was also a witch, so you're a quarter witch. Which also explains your hair color because, again, every woman on your mom's side of the family is related to Namulenza."
Hirune stared at Ellen for a bit before asking, "And who is Namulenza?"
She squinted at her, "You're in high school and they haven't taught you about her yet? School has seriously changed. Well, whatever, Namulenza was an ancient witch known for her tyranny as she managed to conquer three-quarters of the glove. Ironically that's the closest we've gotten to solving world peace, world hunger, the declining birth rate and homelessness.
Now that I've cleared that up let's get to the main subject, you're now stuck in the middle of a war," Ellen said as she leaned in a bit and made direct eye contact with Hirune. "From the moment you went to the mall with Kala, you unwillingly signed yourself up for this. You see, this is a bit complicated, so I'll slim it down a bit to only the important things. You see, recently the primordial goddess of chaos and anomalies broke out of her seal, she was sealed for the soul purpose of keeping the world safe as she would bring an end to it otherwise and now there's an all-out war between the gods and her forces.
"What does that have to do with us? Simple, the gods decided that anyone who has an Artifacts power is immediately a part of this war and they have to assist the gods in whatever way they can. What are artifacts? Artifacts are these things that manifest all of the time, whenever someone thinks of something, an Artifact with the power to do said thing appears somewhere in the world and the simple existence of said Artifact brings other Artifacts that are the same power but slightly tweaked into the world until every change to said power has been made, that's when the Artifacts from that power stop appearing. Artifacts can most commonly be consumed like pill, so if you don't have water with you just force yourself to swallow.
"What does all of this have to do with you? As I said you're distantly related to Namulenza, and we so happen to know where her artifact is. The thing is that none of us can get too close to it without suffering severe consequences, so we were kind of hopping that since, even if it's just the tiniest fraction of you is related to her, you would be able to take it and at least give it to us for safekeeping before someone else does. If you do that, I could pull some strings so that you can go back to living a normal life after this."
Hirune stared at Ellen for a bit before sighing and slouching in the couch, "Well considering everything you told me I'm not even sure if I could completely avoid being involved in it. If what you said about me being extremely distantly related to her still somehow, then wouldn't others try to use me for similar things later down the line?"
Ellen seemed to think about that possibility for a second, "You could be a part of our little group and not do anything while living a normal life. That's what Kala's doing... In a way, she actually does missions and stuff, but she also goes to school and socializes. I should warn you in case you agree, we do travel a lot."
"Give me an example of one of her wrongdoings, I need some convincing," Hirune said as she sat back up, making sure to listen closely as Ellen started up again. "Her name's Demonia, she was- I mean is, a truly malevolent being. She used to be a witch, born into a small peaceful town. Her full story is unknown but what is known is that she burned it all down, leaving not a single soul behind."
Hirune nodded as she stood up, "So where's that artifact? We must find it now."
Ellen seemed a bit dumbfounded as she stared at the confident girl in front of her. She looked at Kala and shook her awake, "Kala! Wake up! Kala!" She whispered, Kala slowly sat up. Ellen not wanting to waste any time with Kala's sluggish awakening pulled her face right next to hers and whispered, "What's wrong with her? I told her of one bad thing that Demonia did a long time ago and she went from hesitant to trusting us to acting like some knight in shining armor ready to lay down her life!"
Kala rubbed her eyes as she yawned, "Yeah, she's just like that. She has a strong sense of justice that makes her a bit delusional..."
'A bit?!' Ellen thought as she looked at Hirune, 'Well I guess she does seem mostly normal.' She cleared her throat and spoke, "Well head there tomorrow, after all it's already dawn. We'll go in the morning."
Hirune nodded in agreement, "We'll strike in the morning!... So where do I sleep?"
Ellen pressed a button on the side of the couch, causing it to fall backwards and turn into a bed. "We don't have a spare bedroom, so we just have couches that can turn into beds instead."
Hirune nodded as Ellen dragged Kala off the couch and into the actual bedrooms. Hirune sat on the couch bed as Ellen brough her a pillow and a blanket, Clint was in the bedrooms as well, and Tundra was just sitting on the other couch looking as though he wanted to say something but couldn't bring himself to actually say it.
***
It was now 3:45AM, Hirune had been lying in bed unable to fall asleep for the past five hours, thirty-six minutes and 22 seconds. Tundra had sat there and watched her for the past five hours, thirty-six minutes and 22 seconds. Hirune wanted to sleep, and Tundra had something seemingly important to say. Hirune slowly sat up, Tundra didn't react and just kept watching.
Slowly sitting on the edge of the couch, kicking behind her own feet to make sure the monster under her bed doesn't dare to grab her, then stood up and walked over to Tundra. Her hair a mess, one eye more shut than the other. Sitting down she asked, "What is it?" her voice sleepy.
Tundra stayed silent for a moment before finally speaking up, "I just wanted to say your hairs pretty and that it smelt good, but I was scared that it'd sound creepy or weird."
She stared at him for a moment, then headbutted him on his forehead. She didn't move her head away though and just rested her head against his after her initial strike, "You're telling me, you kept me up for the past three hours, thirty-nine minutes and 46 seconds because you wanted to compliment me? Thank you but watching someone as they try to fall asleep is creepier than just complimenting them. Also, I'm about to pass out from exhaustion-" She suddenly fell asleep slouching onto both him and the couch.
Tundra didn't move as he felt it was now his life mission to make sure Hirune didn't wake up and got a good night's sleep after keeping her awake for that long.