A few moments of awkward and uncomfortable silence filled the living room as neither Aria, Kiwi, Sonata, or Justice knew what to do or say next. Aria retreated into her own mind as she desperately attempted to find some way of recovering from her newly exposed deceit; Kiwi continued to stare accusive daggers at Aria as she processed what she saw as an egregious display of dishonesty from the girl; Sonata simply stayed near Justice and kept shifting her gaze back-and-forth between Aria and Kiwi to see which of them would make the next move; and Justice simply remained virtually uninvolved.

“Prinnncesss!” Su-Z’s voice could be heard distantly shouting from outside during this brief period of reticence. “Where are you, Princess?!”

Not surprisingly, Aria had nothing but difficulty trying to find a way to dig herself out of the hole of duplicity that she’d stumbled into. Hundreds if not thousands of possible excuses and explanations for why it was she hadn’t told Kiwi about Justice being a demon raced through her mind at the speed of light, but as quickly as each excuse or explanation entered her head it was just as quickly rejected. In truth, deep down the Dazzling knew full-well that there was nothing she could say that would sufficiently justify her ruse, and after enough unsatisfactory ideas ran through her head she subconsciously began to fall back into her old, inured self.

“Y-Yeah, so I knew all about Justice being a demon and didn’t tell you. Big deal,” The Dazzling defensively told the PostCrush girl. “It’s not like you were entitled to that information or anything.”

“Wh…What was that?!” Kiwi furiously replied.

“You heard me,” Aria bitterly shot back, along with a piercing gaze. “You didn’t have any right or anything to know about Justice being a demon and I wasn’t obligated to share it either, so don’t go acting like I did something wrong by not telling you about who she is.”

“You…you…” Kiwi uttered as she struggled through her fury to find a response to Aria’s incredibly brazen and churlish retort. “You impudent, vulgar, pigheaded bitch!”

“What did you just call me?!” Aria sharply asked as she advanced on the former popstar.

“You heard me,” Kiwi replied, throwing the Dazzling’s own words from a moment ago back at her, as she too began to close the gap between herself and her housemate.

Within seconds Aria and Kiwi were standing only a few mere inches away from each other and screaming in one another’s face, not unlike how they’d been mere minutes ago. The only difference this time around being that Sonata wasn’t also involved in the fiery feud.

“Yep, right back where we were,” The youngest Dazzling restively said to no one in particular as she quailed beside Justice’s chair.

Justice, meanwhile, continued to remain virtually uninvolved in what was transpiring around her and simply watched – so to speak - as the chaotic events kept unfolding. Though this neutrality on the part of the demon-girl didn’t last for much longer, as soon enough she came to the conclusion that her involvement would, in all likelihood, be the only thing that could end all the bickering and feuding; at least before it resulted in bloodshed.

“Okay,” The demon-girl eventually spoke up - with a hint of reluctance in her voice - as she removed the various blankets from her person, got up from her seat, and handed her empty cocoa cup to Sonata. “Intervention time.”

“Intervention time?” Sonata stated quizzically as she took the cup.

Not knowing what exactly Justice meant by ‘intervention time’, the young Dazzling watched on with baited curiosity as the demon-girl quickly cracked her knuckles and then walked over towards Aria and Kiwi.

Unsurprisingly, neither Kiwi nor Aria noticed as Justice approached them due to their intense arguing with one another. However, both girls soon learned of the demon-girl’s closer propinquity to them when she reached out both hands, grabbed each of them by the collar of their outfit, and lifted the two of them up off the floor as though they were no heavier than a couple of newborn pups.

“H-Hey!” Kiwi uttered in shock as she looked down to see herself now dangling slightly above the floor.

“What the fuck, Justice?!” Aria shouted as she instinctively struggled to free herself from the demon-girl’s hold, though to no avail.

“Like I said, intervention time,” Justice simply replied.

Before either Aria or Kiwi had a chance to ask the demon-girl what she meant by ‘intervention time’ Justice took a large step forward and hoisted herself – as well as the Dazzling and PostCrush girl - up onto the coffee table in front of her, much to the extreme consternation of the other three girls in the room.

“H-Hey!” Kiwi once again uttered in shock as she looked up to see herself now only a few mere inches below the ceiling.

“Seriously, Justice, what the fuck!” Aria yelled as she continued to struggle futilely against the demon-girl’s grip on her.

Ignoring both of her bondwomen, Justice took another step forward back down onto the floor, between the coffee table and the couch. Once off the low-laying piece of furniture, she gently lowered Kiwi and Aria down onto opposite ends of the couch and then let go of them – much to both the Dazzling and PostCrush girls’ delight. Though as soon as Aria was free from the demon-girl’s clutches she immediately got up from her seat and accosted her.

“What. The. Fuck?” The Dazzling inquired for a third time, now sounding positively virulent.

Despite Aria’s belligerent words, Justice gave no initial response and instead simply proceeded to plop herself down onto the middle section of the couch.

“So, it seems pretty obvious that you two have some severely unresolved grievances that’re causing a lot of interpersonal conflict,” The demon-girl eventually said, addressing both the Dazzling and Kiwi.

Feeling confused by Justice’s very systematic-sounding statement, Aria and Kiwi both looked at one another with furrowed brows as if silently trying to see whether or not the other girl potentially understood why the demon-girl was talking as though she were a mental health professional. Though almost immediately after the two of them made eye contact Justice abruptly reached up and pulled Aria back down onto the couch, causing their ocular connection to be broken. And as soon as Aria was firmly seated once more Justice hastily wrapped her arm around the Dazzling and then proceeded to wrap her other arm around Kiwi.

“Fortunately though, you’ve got a trained psychologist here who’s willing to help you!” The demon-girl then said with gentle glee as she gave her once-more bondwomen a light squeeze.

“Oh for Pete’s sake,” Aria replied in a very kvetching manner.

“You’re a…trained psychologist?” Kiwi asked confoundedly.

“Yeah, of course I am. All High Prosecutors in Hell are,” Justice replied. “Being trained in psychology is a major requirement of the job. I mean, yeah, the main reason we have to get that training is so that we can inflict the most damaging psychological punishments possible, but I figure I should be able to use what I’ve learned about the human mind to help you two work through your problems.”

“…What?” Kiwi then said with complete and utter bafflement.

“Gee, aren’t you gracious,” Aria chimed in sarcastically.

“Nah, not really. I’m just doin’ this ‘cause I like you guys,” The demon-girl confessed, clearly not picking up on the Dazzling’s insincerity. “Unless of course you consider being gracious to be synonymous with being awesome. In which case, then yeah, I’m pretty gracious.”

Feeling annoyed by both Justice’s gasconades and the demon-girl’s inability to recognize sarcasm when she heard it, Aria couldn’t help but give a noticeably derisive eye roll in response to Justice’s statement. As for Kiwi, she found herself unable to change her facial expression whatsoever due to the overwhelming amount of discombobulated feelings she now had. Though internally she too was rolling her eyes at Justice’s bombastic declaration.

And as for Sonata - who up until this point had simply been watching things unfold from the other side of the coffee table – she now felt an odd and somewhat morbid curiosity about how things would play out from here, and decided to place the cup that Justice had handed her down on the low-laying table and take a seat in the chair the demon-girl had gotten up from to see what would happen next.

“All right then, let’s get started,” Justice then said as she removed her arms from around Aria and Kiwi. “So the key to these kinds of difficult conversations is to follow three simple rules. First, be honest about what it is you’re feeling. Just lay it all out there, and no sugarcoating anything either. Though I would advise not using any foul language. I know swearing is totally fun and all, but unfortunately it tends to be more counterproductive than productive.”

As though reading one another’s minds, Aria and Kiwi looked at each other with a visage that seemed to silently ask the other girl, ‘Can we both agree to this?’ And in another display of seemingly being able to read each other’s minds, both girls simultaneously nodded their heads.

“Second, prove that you’re listening to the other person by doing what’s called ‘looping for understanding’.” The demon-girl then said. “That means asking questions, summarizing what you’ve heard, and then asking if you got it right.”

Justice’s second rule of looping for understanding, ironically, threw both Aria and Kiwi for a bit of a loop. Neither of them had ever heard the term before and couldn’t help but question if the steps it espoused were necessarily necessary, or would even be truly effective. But given that Justice was supposedly the psychological expert here they each figured it best to abide by the demon-girl’s axiom - or at least try to – and gave one another a silent nod to indicate that they would.

“And third, and perhaps most importantly, don’t try to control the other person,” Justice continued. “I know how important it is to feel like you have at least some measure of control over what’s happening, but trying to control someone else is never a good idea. Especially during an argument. Believe me, I know from experience.”

Based on the way Justice had said to believe her, each of the three other girls in the room couldn’t help but get the feeling that the demon-girl was about to explain in great detail the experience she’d just eluded to. And sure enough, as Justice laid back in her seat and made herself more comfortable it all but appeared that those feelings were not misguided.

“Before I became High Prosecutor of Hell I used to work with this demon named Malina, and I tell ya, the two of us used to get into arguments all the time,” Justice elucidated. “See, Malina had this habit of sneaking off during work hours to play turn-based strategy games and get drunk. So as you can imagine she rarely ever finished her tasks on time, if at all. Now being the awesome friend that I am, I’d try to tell her not to slack off so much so that she didn’t end up on Lucy’s bad side. But you can probably guess how tellin’ her that usually went.”

A brief pause followed, presumably brought about by the demon-girl’s expectation that someone would give a response to her rhetorical statement. Naturally, the PostCrush girl nor the two Dazzlings said anything, although all three of them did exchange confused glances with one another as they individually tried to ratiocinate why it was Justice was sharing all of this with them.

“Yep, that’s right,” Justice eventually continued, as though she had received some sort of response from her audience. “More often than not she’d get all pissed off at me and say something along the lines of, ‘You need to stop being Lucy’s obedient little bitch, Justice’ and then I’d threaten to kick her ass ‘cause I’m not Lucy’s bitch - or anybody else’s - and then -”

“TMI, Justice,” Aria interrupted the demon-girl’s anecdote.

“For real? Oh, sorry, my bad,” Justice apologized as she sat back upright in her seat. “Well the long and short of it is that you can’t change someone or make them see things from your point of view through force, no matter how hard you may try. So, you know, just don’t try.”

Despite the oblique and arguably unnecessary way that Justice had gone about getting her point across, neither Aria nor Kiwi could deny that it was seemingly a good point. When the two of them – along with Sonata – had been arguing earlier they’d both made numerous remarks aimed at controlling the other girl’s actions, and not once had any those remarks achieved their desired results. In fact, those remarks had achieved the exact opposite results and made the argument even worse. So given the apparently better alternative to communicating that Justice had laid out before them they each gave one another a final nod of agreement.

“Well then, since no one has said anything in disagreement I’m guessing that means everyone’s on-board,” The demon-girl then said. “So, who wants to talk first?”

At this, Aria and Kiwi broke eye contact with one another and awkwardly looked off elsewhere in a clear indication that neither of them wanted to be the one to break the proverbial ice. Of course, this went unnoticed by Justice due to her being blind. However, the optically-unimpaired Sonata was fully able to, and did, take notice of her sister and housemate’s pusillanimity.

“Oh come on, you two,” The youngest Dazzling crisply said. “One of you has to say something first.”

Sonata’s remark elicited no visual response from Kiwi, but it did elicit a rather disdainful glare from Aria. One so sharp and intimidating that as soon as the pony-tailed girl made eye contact with her older sibling it caused her to wince ever-so-slightly.

“How ‘bout you, Kiwi?” Justice suggested right before playfully jabbing the former popstar’s arm. “Speak your mind, girl.”

If Kiwi hadn’t already been anxious about speaking up first she most certainly was now after being put on the spot. Despite her long career within the limelight, the PostCrush girl didn’t like it when all eyes were on her whilst she was in a therapeutic setting. The idea that stressors, painful memories, or negative feelings that she had could come boiling up to the surface like an erupting volcano in such a setting was unnerving in-and-of-itself, but the idea that such things could come boiling up in front of a group whose attention was completely on her was downright frightful. Especially if she had to be the one to kick things off.

However, as Kiwi discreetly shifted her gaze back on over to Aria all of those anxious feelings precipitously began to dissipate.

In spite of all the cold and bitter feelings the PostCrush girl had had towards the Dazzling as of late, the sight of her friend right now filled her with feelings that were warmer and more amiable. Feelings that were not unlike the ones she’d felt after Aria had consoled her after her first day working on the farm or when she’d given Aria some moral support when the girl was having difficulty finding a job. At first the reason for this mysterious and sudden change-of-heart was lost on Kiwi, but almost as if being struck by a bolt of lightning she soon came to a great and electrifying realization; despite her trepidations about partaking in an ameliorative discussion, she wanted nothing more in that moment than to evanesce the bad blood between herself and her friend.

“A-All right,” The former popstar said right before taking a subtle yet deep breath to steel herself. “Well, I guess if I’m being completely honest, I’m…upset with Aria. And not just because she didn’t tell me that you’re a demon, but also because…because she…”

“It’s all good. Take your time,” Justice chimed in to try and calm Kiwi’s clearly frazzled nerves.

“…Because she went back to work for Lucy,” The PostCrush girl timidly finished her declaration.

Upon hearing Kiwi’s demure promulgation Aria quickly developed a very characteristic urge to make some derogatory remark or gesture in response, believing that the girl’s acerbity towards her employment under Lucy to be utterly unfounded. Thankfully though, the Dazzling was able to resist such a crude impetus - mostly out of concern for how Justice might react to it. But also somewhat out of a sense that just maybe Kiwi’s feelings were not as completely unwarranted as she believed them to be.

“All right, so why are you upset that I went back to Lucy?” The pig-tailed girl replied back instead – though rather insipidly – in an attempt to follow Justice’s rule about looping for understanding.

“Because she clearly doesn’t care about you!” Kiwi responded emphatically as she looked up at the Dazzling.

The moment Aria and Kiwi’s eyes met once more the Dazzling immediately became visibly abashed. In all honesty, Aria hadn’t quite known what sort of answer she’d get from the former popstar in response to her arid question, but one thing she did know was that she hadn’t expected the answer she’d just gotten – and with such fervor.

“On that first pick-up you did for her you said that she told Justice to poison you so she’d know if the item you were picking up was genuine or not!” Kiwi continued, right before diverting her gaze away from Aria and down towards the floor. “I just…I don’t get why you’d go back to working for Lucy after something like that!”

A small but not unnoticeable twinge struck Aria’s heart as soon as Kiwi finished divulging her lack of acumen for her decision to continue working for Lucy. As per her usual manner the Dazzling didn’t display this visibly, but internally she couldn’t help but feel a tad touched by the PostCrush girl’s disquietude in regards to her well-being.

“So what I’m hearing is that you don’t like that I’m still working for Lucy,” She addressed the former popstar as she moved onto the second part of looping for understanding. “And you don’t get why I’m doing it even though you think it’s dangerous. Is that it?”

Rather than give a verbal response, Kiwi simply brought her head back up and gave the Dazzling an affirming nod.

“All right then,” Aria then said as she prepared to rebut, all the while trying to be mindful not to inadvertently use any foul language. “Well first off, for the record, the majority of pick-ups I’ve done for Lucy haven’t been dangerous. It was only that first one where things got ugly.”

Both Sonata and Kiwi each breathed a mental sigh of relief when they heard Aria confess that she hadn’t been placed in any further peril whilst working for Lucy.

“And as for why I went back to Lucy after that first pick-up I think it’s pretty obvious,” The middle Dazzling continued. “I did it because of the money. I mean, you where there when Lucy said what she’d pay me per pick-up, Kiwi; it’s a lot of dough.”

“Yeah, but how can you put a price on your life?” Kiwi promptly and incredulously replied.

“I just told you, none of the pick-ups since the first one have been dangerous,” Aria retorted, now sounding a tad hostile.

“But that doesn’t change the fact that the first one was dangerous,” Kiwi shot back, now sounding somewhat hostile herself. “Or that any pick-ups going forward could end up being just as dangerous too.”

Unsurprisingly, the first riposte that came to Aria’s mind in response to Kiwi’s speculative remark was sarcastic in nature. Something along the lines of insinuating that they should no longer farm emus because someday the large birds could become unduly dangerous. Thankfully though, the Dazzling realized that such a suggestion, however mordant, would most likely be construed as controlling and managed to hold herself back from expressing it out loud.

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t matter if they start being dangerous again,” She said instead. “We need the money so I’m not gonna stop doing them.”

“What do you mean we need the money?” Kiwi asked in a very aporetic manner. “Su-Z’s sister got us all that money from Banyan Capital, remember? We’re fine now.”

“The Banyan money helped but we’re not fine!” Aria replied testily. “Our finances still aren’t great and we can’t afford to lose what I’m bringing in!”

“Oh, bull!” Kiwi shot back just as testily, if not more so. “I’ve seen Adagio’s numbers and they show that the Banyan money has been more than enough to keep us afloat! We’re not at all reliant on what you bring in!”

Aria had also seen the numbers Kiwi was referring to, and she knew that her older sister’s calculations of them were entirely accurate and did, in fact, show that neither the farm’s continued operation nor their livelihoods depended on what she made working for Lucy. Every dollar she was bringing in was strictly surplus. At least, that was how it appeared on paper. In reality, the situation wasn’t so straightforward.

The agreement the Dazzlings had made with Eclipse and the rest of Banyan Capital stated that they would receive enough money to keep the emu farm running for approximately three years, with additional funding potentially available to them should the farm’s operations grow more than anticipated during that time. All-in-all it was a fairly good deal, one that even Eclipse admitted was unusually generous for Banyan. The only real downside to it, at least as far as Aria was concerned, was that the money they were promised was to be delivered to them in twelve equally-sized payments distributed quarterly, meaning that they’d only receive enough money at a time to keep things running for three months before receiving more funds. The Dazzling understood that this was how it had to be in order for Banyan to maintain a healthy cashflow, but she also understood that not receiving everything in one lump sum left them with some potentially substantial risk on their end.

“Oh, we’re not reliant on what I bring in, huh?” She replied indignantly. “And what happens if Banyan gets into some legal trouble and our agreement with them ends up getting terminated, hmm? What will we do then?”

As soon as Aria finished speaking Kiwi could feel the urge to give the Dazzling a derisive eye roll come over her, though thankfully she was able to exert enough self-control to not act upon that compulsion. It came as no surprise to the PostCrush girl that her housemate was resorting to purely speculative ideation - and a rather far-fetched one at that - to try and justify her working for Lucy. In fact, she’d more-or-less been anticipating such a response from the girl to come up sooner or later. And because of that relative anticipation she already had an ideal retort to it ready.

“Well, what if you get hurt while working and wind up in the hospital, hmm?” She fired back with just as much indignation as she’d been given. “I doubt Lucy’s providing you with any kind of medical insurance, so how would we pay your hospital bills and still have enough money left to keep the farm running?”

“Oh, for the love of -” Aria began to reply irksomely before cutting herself off. “How many times do I have to say that none of the pick-ups since the first one have been dangerous?! I’m not going to end up in the hospital by doing them!”

“You don’t know that!” Kiwi countered, also sounding as though she were tired of repeating herself. “Your job has already proven that it can be dangerous, and just because it hasn’t been like that since -”

“I think I know my job better than you do, Kiwi!” Aria chimed in over the PostCrush girl. “And I’m telling you for the hundredth time, it’s not -”

“- insane!” Kiwi continued despite Aria now talking over her. “You were injected with black mamba venom and yet you’re just writing that whole thing off like it was -”

“- boring!” The Dazzling went on. “Every pick-up I’ve done since that first one has been completely uneventful! You know what the most interesting part of the pick-up I did today was? The woman at the front desk of the auction house mistook me for someone else at first and tried to give me a box of -”

“- baloney!” The PostCrush girl continued to ramble. “I’m telling you, this whole courier job sounds like nothing but hogwash, and if you keep doing it long enough I’m all but certain you’ll end up getting seriously hurt!”

Although it was painfully obvious that Aria and Kiwi were irritated with one another as they continued to yammer on it was difficult to classify their conversing as an argument. Not only because of the fact that they were simply talking over each other as though neither of them were aware that the other was even speaking, but because their voices lacked a certain amount of tempestuous energy that had been present when they’d been fighting earlier. However, these minute differences weren’t enough to keep Sonata from fearing that her sister and housemate’s one-sided discussions were eventually going to turn into a two-sided shouting match again.

As the young Dazzling continued to watch Aria and Kiwi blather on-and-on she briefly contemplated intervening before things reached the point of no return. Though as soon as she remembered how successful Kiwi had been at trying to intervene in hers and Aria’s arguing earlier she quickly dismissed the idea as nothing more than inane. The only two people who’d had any success at quelling all the fighting that’d been going on today were Su-Z and Justice, and right now only one of those two people was still present within the house.

Shifting her attention over towards Justice, Sonata wondered why the demon-girl hadn’t made any attempt to stop Aria and Kiwi’s squabbling thus far. She’d shown no reservation about stepping in to end the two girl’s bickering earlier, so why was she letting things play out now? Was it because they weren’t necessarily at each other’s throats right now, or because they weren’t breaking any of the rules she’d established? The Dazzling wasn’t sure, but as she stared at Justice for a few seconds and noticed her strangely rigid seated-posture there was one thing she did become sure of; the demon-girl was primed to jump into action again at a moment’s notice.

After about another minute of Aria and Kiwi talking over one another Kiwi ceased her ranting and began to take a few short, measured breaths to try and repose herself. Aria, however, clearly needed no such respite as she continued to prattle on and on.

“So, what?! You’re okay with potentially losing this farm?!” The Dazzling asked her panting housemate, as though the PostCrush girl had been following along with her discursive discourse this whole time. “You’re okay with being homeless again and having to go back to living in a van down by the river?!”

“If…if it…” Kiwi tried to reply as she attempted to catch her breath. “If it means that…that you don’t have to risk your…your life working for Lucy anymore, then…yes.”

Once again, Aria felt a twinge within her heart upon hearing Kiwi’s words. Though this time, the Dazzling found it impossible to keep herself from displaying it visually. Her eyebrows instantly raised and curved and her eyelids opened up exposing the white sclera above and below her iris, making it clear to all in the room – except for the visually-impaired Justice - that the PostCrush girl’s statement had had an unexpected and profound effect on her.

“S-Seriously?” She meekly asked her housemate.

“Yes…seriously!” Kiwi replied, right before taking one final, deep breath to settle herself. “For crying out loud, Aria, do you really think I care more about this stupid farm than I do about you? Do you think any of us care more about this farm than about you?”

The stupefied Dazzling gave no answer.

“I know this place means a lot to you,” Kiwi continued, though now more emotionally. “I know you care about making sure we don’t lose this house or the emu, but all that shouldn’t come at the expense of caring about yourself, Aria.”

Just then, the sound of a small sniffle emanated from the PostCrush girl as a couple of petite teardrops began to form in the corners of her eyes.

“I just…I don’t understand,” The former popstar continued as she tried to hold back her tears. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this; why you’re willing to risk your well-being for money you know we don’t need.”

Sonata too was curious as to Aria’s true motivations for continuing to work for Lucy Beel, though she didn’t voice her officiousness aloud. It wasn’t surprising to the young Dazzling that her sister was being her usual stubborn and cantankerous self during this whole situation, but what did surprise her was that she was also being rather fatuous on top of all that. There were plenty times over the years she could recall Aria being either pigheaded or foolish but next to no times she could recall when she was both of those things simultaneously, as she appeared to be now. And as she looked over towards her sibling and noticed Aria’s now averted gaze and distressed expression she couldn’t help but get the feeling that her sister was keenly aware of her current asininity.

“I have to do it because it’s all on me,” The middle Dazzling dejectedly admitted, though far too softly for anyone to hear.

“What?” Kiwi asked as she gently wiped the tears from her eyes before they rolled down her cheeks.

“I said I have to do it because it’s all on me!” Aria vociferously reiterated, now sounding as though she were the one on the verge of tears.

The sudden increase in volume with which Aria gave her restatement visibly startled the other girls in the room – including the up until now unperturbed Justice – and caused each of them to instinctively wince ever-so-slightly away from the Dazzling.

“W-What’s all on you?” Kiwi then asked in a measured tone.

“This! All of this!” Aria answered as she shot up from her seat and extended her arms out as widely as she could. “The house, the farm, the emu, everything! Making sure that we don’t lose any of this is my responsibility! I’m the one who got conned into spending all our money on this place, and I’m the one who’s in charge of making sure this farm keeps on running. So this whole situation we’re in is on me!”

Just then, the boisterous Dazzling looked Kiwi square in the eyes with a stern and acute stare as she vigorously pointed towards the window that faced the driveway.

“And I’ll be damned - damned - if I’m gonna allow anything to happen that’s going to force us all back into living in that van!” Aria concluded before putting her hand down and suddenly starting to huff and puff in a rapid manner.

Kiwi, Sonata, and Justice all found themselves at a loss for words. Each of the three girls felt completely taken aback by the way Aria had so fiercely just spoken, but for Kiwi it was more than simply that. The PostCrush girl’s disconcertment stemmed just as much from the fact that it appeared the middle Dazzling felt that she and she alone bore responsibility for the farm and all their livelihoods.

“S-So,” The former popstar calmly began to say as she overcame her speechlessness, all whilst maintaining direct eye contact with Aria. “What I’m hearing is that you feel that keeping the farm and the house rests solely on your shoulders. Is that right?”

Feeling confused as to how Kiwi could possibly need to loop for understanding after everything she’d just said Aria simply gave a small, silent nod in response.

“Okay then,” The PostCrush girl said solemnly right before rising from her seat.

Despite their already being a fairly narrow gap between them Kiwi took a couple of small steps forward until she was standing almost directly in front of Aria, causing the Dazzling to raise her brow in bewilderment – as well as causing Justice to scooch herself over to where Kiwi had just been sitting.

“Uh, what are you -” Aria began to ask, only to cut herself off as soon as Kiwi wrapped her arms around her in a sudden and unexpected hug.

“It’s not all on you, Aria,” The former popstar said tenderly as she held her friend tight. “I get that you feel like it is because you’re the one who bought this farm and you’re the one in charge of operating it, but that doesn’t mean you’re alone in all this.”

Still feeling surprised by her housemate’s sudden embrace, Aria said nothing in response.

“She’s right, Aria,” Sonata gingerly chimed in as she too got up from her seat. “No one expects you to be the only one responsible for making sure we don’t lose all this, even if it is because of you that we’re here in the first place. We’re all doing what we can to bring in money and make sure our business does well.”

As Aria continued to hear words of support from the people closest to her she could once more feel herself on the verge of tears. Only this time rather than coming from a place of agitated confession her tears were coming from a place of grateful reprieve, and because of that she found it next to impossible to hold them back.

Eventually Kiwi released the Dazzling from her compassionate hold, though when she did she placed her hands atop the girl’s shoulders to maintain a small, physical sign of support for her.

“We all care about you way more than we do about this place,” The PostCrush girl then said, now shedding tears of her own. “So please, don’t feel like you have to keep working for Lucy just so we can continue living here. We’ll be okay, even if something does happen and we end up living in the van again; because we’ll all have each other.”

Both Aria’s mind and heart began to feel heavy as the full weight of what her housemate and her sister had just said to her sank in, and it took just about every ounce of willpower the Dazzling had to keep her already emotional self from crossing over into the realm of pure neurasthenia. Kiwi and Sonata’s words had had a surprisingly strong and unprecedented effect on her, despite the fact that the things they’d said were largely pieces of information she already knew. She knew that her sisters and housemates cared about her and, like herself, were doing everything they could for the farm, but for some reason actually hearing them say these things aloud touched her tremendously.

However, what touched Aria greatest were the two things that she hadn’t already known: that neither her sisters nor her housemates expected her to be solely responsible for making sure they didn’t lose the farm, and all of them seemingly felt that they’d be all right living in the van again so long as they had each other.

For so long the Dazzling had felt that because she alone was culpable for buying the emu farm it meant that she alone bore the burden of guaranteeing that it remained within their possession no matter the cost - even the personal cost of her having to work for someone as unscrupulous as Lucy Beel. But now, hearing Sonata and Kiwi say otherwise, Aria began to feel as though a great and terrible weight were being hoisted off of her. Additionally, hearing Kiwi say that they’d be okay if they wound up back in the van because they’d have each other tugged at her heartstrings as well. Obviously none of them had any desire to go back to being essentially homeless, but just the belief that even if they did they’d be all right on account of the fact that they’d all still be together was something that Aria found incredibly uplifting.

As the Dazzling wiped the tears from her face and pulled herself together as best she could, her heart and her mind began to atune with one another in a single, succoring belief that up until now she’d hadn’t presumed possible: she didn’t need to keep working for Lucy to ensure they didn’t lose the farm. And as that sole tenet radiated and glowed within her she started to feel a sense of felicity and ataraxia that she was strikingly unaccustomed to – so much so that it almost made her feel perturbed.

“Y-Yeah, okay. I guess I don’t need to keep working for Lucy,” She confessed to her housemate as she tried – and failed – to sound like her usual tsundere self instead of the emotional wreck she’d just been. “I mean I know what I said earlier about Banyan getting into legal trouble and whatnot, but it’s not like I think that’s actually going to happen or anything. We should be fine without the money I’ve been bringing in.”

Kiwi said nothing, but the exultant smile she gave Aria communicated more than words could have. Sonata, on the other hand, rushed around the coffee table and swiftly gave her sister a great big hug from behind, much to the elder Dazzling’s surprise and chagrin.

“Ugh,” The pig-tailed girl simply uttered in response.

Feeling touched by the display of sisterly love, Kiwi decided to join in on the comity and once again moved in to embrace Aria. An act that, much like it had with Sonata, surprised the middle Dazzling. However, unlike Sonata’s hug Aria didn’t find this one so irritating. In fact, she found it to be rather nice. Enough so that she even reciprocated it slightly by wrapping her arms as best she could around the PostCrush girl’s waist.

“Awww, such a sweet sight. I mean, I’m assuming,” Justice chimed in amicably as she got up from her seat. “Welp, it seems like my work here is done. So if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna head on out before I hurl.”

“Huh?” All three of the other girls in the room said as they let go of one another and each looked over at Justice bewilderedly.

“Yeah, things are starting to get a little too sappy around here for me,” The demon-girl explained as she made her way over to the front door. “So I’m gonna go before you guys break out into a song about the importance of always being there for each other or something.”

Aria, Kiwi, and Sonata could only stare in silence as Justice left. None of them had even remotely considered singing a song, and the fact that the demon-girl had assumed that they were going to do such a thing was nothing short of perplexing to each one of them.

“Oh, and don’t worry ‘bout telling Lucy you’re quitting the courier job, Aria. I’ll tell her when I get back to Chaus,” Justice then said just before opening the front door and walking out it. “Later!”

After the door closed behind Justice the three remaining girls all found themselves staring at the wooden egree in a nonplused state, unable to believe that the demon-girl had just up and departed as nonchalantly as she had.

“I can’t believe she just left like that,” Sonata confessed aloud.

“I can’t believe all that psychology mumbo-jumbo of hers actually worked,” Aria then confessed.

Kiwi similarly found it difficult to fathom that all of Justice’s precepts had been successful in helping her and Aria overcome their clashing, but she was grateful that they had. And as the PostCrush girl began to think about how the relationship between her and the Dazzling was going to return to normal she couldn’t help but feel a small smile cross her face.

That is, until she came to a daunting realization that immediately wiped that smile away.

“We never interviewed Justice for the part-time farmhand job,” She stated very matter-of-factly.

Aria and Sonata said nothing in response, though they did look at one another with worried expressions brought about by the thought of how they were going to explain to Adagio why it was they hadn’t interviewed their job applicant.

Within a flash both Dazzlings bolted towards the front door to try and catch Justice before she fully departed, followed soon after by Kiwi. But by the time they reached the doorway they were too late, as the only person they saw on the other side of the threshold was Su-Z, who was crouched down on the driveway near the van.

“Come on out, Princess. It’s all right,” The younger of the two PostCrush girls could be heard saying as she presumably tried to coax her pet out from beneath the large vehicle.

“Damn it,” Aria uttered.

“So, which one of us is going to break the news to Adagio?” Kiwi inquired.

“Not it!” Sonata swiftly answered.

Much to both Aria and Kiwi’s surprise, neither one of them shouted ‘not it’ after Sonata.

“Fuck it, I’ll tell her,” Aria said right before she stepped onto the porch and started to head towards the van. “But not until after I help get the mutt out from under the van first.”

“I’ll help you,” Kiwi said as she followed behind the pig-tailed girl. “Both with Princess Thunder Guts and Adagio.”

“Whatever,” Aria replied dismissively, though with just a hint of relief evident within her voice.

“Wait, I’ll help too!” Sonata shouted as she clamored to catch up with her sister and housemate, feeling a tad guilty for trying to fob off notifying Adagio of their blunder just now. “I-I didn’t mean to say ‘not it’! It just came out!”

Aria and Kiwi both simply chortled lightly in response to Sonata’s sudden about-face. And though neither of the two girls said so aloud, each of them felt glad to be sharing a laugh with the other again.

“Hmmm,” Lucy Beel uttered as she stood near one of the empty pedestals in her office and stared intently at the antique firearm in her hand. “Even if this isn’t actually Chekov’s gun I could probably just say that it is. After all, who’d be able to prove that it isn’t?”

The Devil then studied her new pistol silently for a few moments as she contemplated the idea she’d just mentioned to herself.

“Well regardless of its authenticity, there’s no denying it’s certainly a well-made gun,” The woman spoke up again as she brought the item up closer to her face so she could further admire its craftsmanship.

With the barrel of the gun now only a couple mere inches away from her face, Lucy’s nose detected a whiff of a small yet unmistakable odor.

“Huh?” She uttered, right before giving the firearm’s barrel a good long sniff. “Is that -”

“Yo!” Justice hollered as she entered the room and approached Lucy. “I’m back, Boss!”

“Ah, Justice. Perfect timing,” The Devil said as she extended the firearm out towards the demon-girl. “Do me a favor and smell this for me, would you?”

Unable to see what the ‘this’ that Lucy was referring to was due to her blindness, Justice furrowed her brow in confusion as her mind conjured up about a hundred different things that her boss could be alluding to – most of them obscene.

“Uhhh, you want me to do what now?” Justice replied with no small amount of unease.

“Oh get your mind out of the gutter,” Lucy replied somewhat testily, knowing full-well where it was her subordinate’s thoughts had gone. “I’m asking you to smell the barrel of the gun Aria brought me earlier.”

“Ohhh. Okay,” Justice then said before doing as instructed and giving the firearm a couple of quick sniffs. “Hmmm. Smells like…sulfur?”

“You smell it too then,” The Devil said as she removed the gun from Justice’s face, allayed that her companion had detected the same smell that she had. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that means that this thing is loaded.”

“Loaded, huh?” Justice replied somewhat gaily. “You gonna try firing it to find out?”

“Absolutely not,” Lucy answered as she carefully placed the gun on the pedestal. “With as old as this pistol is it could very well explode if I tried to fire it.”

“Eh, I suppose,” Justice dolefully ceded, feeling a tad disappointed.

“But enough about the gun,” The Devil then said as she turned around and headed back over to her desk. “Tell me how things went with the Dazzlings. Did they hire you?”

“Hire me?” The demon-girl asked perplexedly before suddenly remembering why it was Lucy had sent her to see the Dazzlings. “Oh, right, the part-time farmhand job. Nah, they didn’t hire me. But then again we never really got to talking about all that.”

Upon hearing Justice’s reply, Lucy abruptly stopped dead in her tracks and immediately turned back around to face her subordinate.

“…Pardon?” The club owner inquired with a quiet intensity.

“We never got to talking about all that,” Justice reiterated. “After everyone started arguing and I nearly turned into a demonsicle we all just, ya know, forgot about the whole farmhand thing.”

Feeling mystified by Justice’s summarized statement of events, Lucy silently turned back around and headed for her desk once again. And as soon as she reached the escritoire she took a seat behind it, placed her elbows atop of it, and then interlaced her fingers in front of her face.

“Tell me exactly what happened,” The woman then acutely instructed her companion.

“All righty,” Justice replied as she took a seat in front of Lucy’s desk and placed her feet atop its surface. “So when I got to the farm Aria answered the door but Kiwi yanked her away and got all up in my face. Then Sonata came up and -”

For the next 10 minutes or so the demon-girl regaled Lucy with the details of what she’d gone through earlier with the Dazzlings and PostCrush girls; some of which Lucy found interesting, but most of which she found tedious and farcical to the point that by the end of Justice’s tale she was slumped back in her chair and having trouble maintaining focus on her subordinate’s yarn.

“And then things started getting all touchy-feely and I had to leave before I puked up my apple pie,” Justice concluded her story. “So, yeah, that’s what happened.”

“I see,” Lucy replied in a very enervated manner, seemingly unperturbed by the news that Aria was no longer going to work as her courier. “And at no point during any of that did you once think to steer the subject of conversation towards the job you were there to acquire?”

“Nope,” The demon-girl answered nonchalantly. “But it’s cool, I’ll just go back to the farm tomorrow and talk to Aria and everyone else about it then. No biggie.”

“No biggie?” Lucy parroted the demon-girl, now sounding anything but enervated. “No biggie?!”

“Uh…yes biggie?” Justice replied with a mixture of confusion and apprehension.

“Yes, yes biggie!” Lucy hollered as she vehemently got up from her seat. “What if by tomorrow the Dazzlings have found someone else to fill that job?! What then?!”

“Then I…find a job elsewhere?” Justice half-answered, half-asked as she removed her feet from her boss’ desk. “I mean, what’s important is that I make my own money so I can start pulling my own weight around here, right? It’s not like that money has to come from the Dazzlings or anything.”

“It’s not about the money,” The Devil replied. “It’s about -”

Lucy quickly stopped herself as the conversation she’d had earlier in the day with Justice regarding the demon-girl’s employment came rushing to the forefront of her mind; the conversation where she’d made it sound as though the reason she wanted Justice to find a job was so that she could earn her own money.

“It’s about what?” Justice asked her boss.

“It’s about making sure that you’re simply able to get a job,” Lucy precipitately answered. “The unfortunate fact, Justice, is that you don’t have a lot of options for employment available to you up here since you’re a demon, so you need to take advantage of this opportunity that the Dazzling’s have open.”

Initially, Justice furrowed her brow perplexingly in response to Lucy’s words – much to the Devil’s trepidation. But almost as soon as the demon-girl’s brow was raised it was lowered right back down.

“Yeah, I suppose all that’s true,” The demon-girl acceded as she got up from her seat and gingerly rubbed the back of her neck. “Guess I’ll be heading back out to the farm now then.”

“Excellent,” Lucy said as she sat back down. “And please try not to get distracted by other matters this time.”

“Sorry, what was that?” Justice inquired. “I was distracted by the awesome-sounding beat coming from the club downstairs.”

“You and your damn sharp hearing,” The club owner remarked disgruntledly. “I said, please try and -”

“I’m totally kidding, Boss,” The demon-girl said mirthfully as she turned around and headed for the elevator. “I heard you, and I promise I won’t get distracted this time.”

Lucy said nothing in response though she did shoot Justice a rather sour glare, feeling distinctly unamused by her subordinate’s convivial antics.

“Later!” Justice shouted back before she entered the antechamber and disappeared from Lucy’s sight.

Once again, Lucy said nothing in response.

For the next minute or so the only sounds heard within the large office were the faint echoes of the elevator at the other end of the antechamber chiming; the first chime indicating that the elevator had arrived and the second one indicating that it was departing. And as soon as Lucy heard the second chime she relaxed a bit more within her seat and let out a soft yet heavy sigh.

“Well that was a close call, now wasn’t it, Lucy?” The Devil chided herself aloud. “You almost slipped up and told Justice why it is you need her to stay close to the Dazzlings. And if you’d done that, well, you’d almost certainly have had her and every other demon in Hell rising up and rebelling against you.”

Just then, Lucy let out a small but hearty chuckle.

“Wouldn’t that be the mother of all irony,” The woman said right before spinning her chair around to look at the various objects sitting atop pedestals along the back wall, all while simultaneously dawning a wickedly gleeful smile. “But no matter, you caught yourself before it was too late and Justice remains as blissfully ignorant as ever. And hopefully, with any luck, you’ll soon have everything you need to finally see Xekáno brought to fruition.”

Almost instinctively, Lucy began to chuckle in a maniacal manner after finishing her soliloquy but soon stopped herself, finding the act to be both hackneyed and below someone of her genteel standing. However, the woman’s demoniac chortle was neither brief nor quiet enough to keep its sonic vibrations from making their way through the office’s antechamber and all the way to the elevator, where Justice was standing with her back leaning up against the wall.

“Dammit, Lucy,” The demon-girl said softly to herself after hearing everything her boss had just said.

Author's Note

What is Xekáno? Why does Lucy need the Dazzlings for it? Will the girls manage to get Princess Thunder Guts out from under the van? Answers...next chapter! Same bat-time, same bat-channel!

Disclaimer: Next chapter may not contain any answers to these questions.

Next chapter - El Espectáculo de Lucha Libre en la Granja de Emúes