Affection.

At night Lena said her goodbyes and went with octan and kouko to the inn they were staying at. For the first time since they started adventuring together, they talked the entire way back. When they reached their rooms octan and kouko entered their room while Lena entered hers. As soon as she got into her room and closed the door she opened her little bag and took something out of it. Later into the night, Lena heard knocking at her door, she started panicking and went to open it right away without much thinking.

It was kouko, "h-hello, h-how can I help y-you?" said Lena while stuttering nervously. kouko immediately caught on Lena's strange behavior, usually, she would move out of the way inviting her in without saying anything, and never ask anything. "... are you hiding something?" kouko says. "n-no, of course, I'm not haha... why would I hide anything from you big sis kouko..." said Lena nervously. Even though she was happy Lena had called her big sis, kouko forced her way in and saw what Lena had been hiding, she couldn't help but laugh. "h-h-hey now it's not that funny!" said lena embarrassed with a fully red face. "S-S-S-Sorry i-i-i j-just can't hold it in... I was totally not expecting this." said kouko with an after laugh smile on her face. there was a puppet on Lena's floor one which she had been practicing on. "I just wanted to get better at it..." said Lena. "come on now if you wanted help I would be more than willing. I'm pretty good at this you know." said kouko while flawlessly making the puppet that was once on the ground make a backflip, and with glowing eyes, Lena asked her for help.

After practicing for a while Lena had gotten the grasp of it so kouko went back to her room for sleep. Octan was already asleep so she just slept without doing anything else. The next morning Lena wakes up to someone knocking at the door, she goes to open it immediately after waking up and is greeted by something she had never expected. It was a laughing octan, Lena who he saw as a person who's always ready and prepared for anything had stood in front of him with messy bed hair and half-opened sleepy eyes while saying "ahh?" as she opened the door. She immediately closes the door and runs to her room's bathroom, she wets her hands and starts putting down standing hair strands with nothing but her wet hands, and then washes her face like 5 times with water and goes back to the door. Octan was still laughing. She stood there staring at him with a red embarrassed and slightly mad face while he laughed without a worry in the world.

Once he was done laughing he says "s-sorry about that, that was just too good, too unexpected, holy shot I can't believe that's how you look out of bed. ahh.... anyway, I came to tell you we are going for breakfast so get ready." octan said with a hint of a laugh behind his words. Lena's face that was completely red had been completely returned to normal while Lena just nodded and closed the door. Octan surprised by her sudden change of expression says nothing and goes back to his room where kouko was waiting. She had been listening in on them two and had a completely disappointed look "did you really just laugh at her for like 5 minutes straight?" kouko said disappointed, and octan remembering how Lena looked started laughing again.

They had their breakfast as usual and each left to do their own thing for the day. kouko and octan went towards the market again while Lena went to where she had been with the girl the day before. When she arrived there was no one so she felt kind of lonely as she practiced her doll control on the side of the road. After practicing for a bit she heads deeper into the festival and looks around. About 2 to 3 hours later Lena had eaten all types of sweets and tried all types of stall games, she had a lot fun and enjoyed watching everyone have fun as soon as she was leaving she was interrupted by someone pulling on the end of her ponytail she turned around to see it was the girl from yesterday.

Lena's face which was angry at the slight pain of pulling her hair turns into one with a huge smile as she bends down to hug the girl. "I KNEW YOU WOULDN'T BETRAY ME, TEACHER!" Lena said as she lifted the girl while hugging her. "haha of course I won't betray you my star pupil," said the little girl as she gasped for air from Lena's tight hug. The girl wasn't with her mom this time but a couple of other kids around her age, she introduces them to Lena and then introduces Lena as a student who is learning the way of puppet control from her. "teacher look at this trick I learned yesterday" Lena said with a smile as she pulled out the puppet from her bag. they all bent down and stared at Lena's puppet which went from laying down on the ground to standing. Lena was expecting big applause for this but instead, only the little girl clapped for her. She then pulled up her sleeves and focused (this time they will all scream) she thought to herself as she started hyping herself up, and out of nowhere, the puppet raised one leg and then lept attempting to backflip just to fall face first. All the kids did scream, but scream as they laughed. The girl alone was in awe since she was impressed by how fast Lena had improved compared to yesterday.

One of the kids took out his puppet and started doing all kinds of tricks with it while mockingly looking at Lena. After all the kids had shown their skills Lena had now figured out that the world is much more than just exploring, and without lena noticing at some point octan and kouko had shown up. while kouko was waving at Lena who had finally noticed them, Lena was focused on octan. He was looking at her and the kids with a smile on his face one that felt warm and gentle, it is something that she has never seen octan with so she couldn't remove her eyes from it. it even made her think that her judgment might've been right.

After playing with the kids for a bit more Lena leaves with octan and kouko back to the inn. Lena entered her room and immediately went back to practicing puppet control. that night again Lena heard a knock on the door, it was kouko who she let in. Kouko greeted her with a smile and asked if she wanted to more puppet control training, Lena nodded and they continued. After finishing kouko sat down on the bed and started talking "I've never told you much about myself right?" kouko asked Lena. Lena nodded. with a smile, kouko continued "you see Lena I used to have a place I belonged to... a place I could call home... people who I cared for and they cared for me... but you see lena, in a world like this nothing stays the same. I used to have a little sister, a mother, and a father. Each day we would eat together at the same table and exchange pointless conversations that would lead nowhere, but it was fun in its own way you know... I had always taken for granted what I had so I never paid much attention, god... how old was I back then? 16? 17? I was almost as old as you when I lost it all. it all happened so suddenly I was convinced it was a bad dream. But it wasn't. all of it. gone. we didn't even receive a warning of what's happening, not a single soul had survived that attack. at first, I had blamed the world and the kingdom but over time I learned the reason and decided what my life's purpose was and I will make sure it's completed no matter what I must do. so if someday our ways collide. please understand me lena" kouko said in a depressed tone.

midway through her talking, Lena stopped playing with the puppet and instead just lowered her head as she continued to listen to kouko. Lena nodded to kouko's last sentence and then was jumped by kouko. "now now why the serious look. you wanna show him your newfound skills, right?" kouko says while teasing Lena. Lena nodded silently. kouko then pulls on Lena's hand and takes her to octan and kouko's room. Octan was silently laying on the bed when they raided his room. For a split second before octan could react Lena noticed a smile on his face which motivated her. "here now octan look she wants to show you something." kouko said while looking at octan. Lena then pulled out her puppet which she used to do some of the stuff kouko just taught her, when she was done she slowly raised her head towards octan who with a smile slowly approached her and patted her head saying "you did great Lena." it made Lena feel warm and left her with a smile.

later that night octan was trying to head asleep when he noticed that something is crawling onto his bed. it was kouko. "don't you want to continue where we left off," kouko says. octan who for a second debates with himself makes his move.