Thank you. You look very handsome, yourself.

It's fun to try new styles.

Hehe, thank you! And yeah, it is! It's a good way to express yourself, too.

[ don't say that and then wear a fedora to a party ]

That's right...

... In the manor, I always had to wear the same clothes every day, because clothes are one of the few ways shadows can distinguish themselves from one another. But if there's no one else here like me, then... I should think about what else can be expressed with clothes.

[ she will not wear a fedora. ]

The manor? That's where you usually live?

Yes. At the Shadows House, where the Shadows family resides.

And that's... your family?

[ since you... look like a shadow... is that racist ]

[ yes. but also, ]

Yes.

Okay.

[ nods ]

That sounds complicated.

[ though lmao he knows all about dressing a specific way to distinguish yourself from people who look exactly like you!! ]

Family often is.

[ in a somewhat lighter tone. ]

But mine may be more so than most.

Yeah?

[ I MEAN HE BELIEVES IT BECAUSE HE HAS NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON WITH HER...

if she wants to talk about this he'll listen, but he'd personally rather stab himself than the eye than talk about his family, so he will also understand if she changes the subject. ]

[ ...... ]

... It's difficult to explain.

[ thanks kate, good talk ]

Yeah. I get that.

[ good talk.

abrupt subject shift... ]

...Uh, so I did talk to Pesto-san about those questions we had the other day.

... Oh! What did they say?

Well, as far as the monster thing goes, it actually is a coin flip thing. So even if you've found your partner, if they summon your monster, only one of you should be affected.

...I mean, supposedly, I feel like no one really has that good a handle on what's going on here, so I don't think there's any guarantee we won't find out in a few weeks that they were wrong about that, but. Seems hopeful, at least.

That's... good.

... I'm not sure if good is the right word for it. But it's not as horrible as I feared.

Although... if someone is affected, and we have to dispose of them... the end result may still be the same.

It's less bad, at least, but yeah. All the more reason not to try to find your partner, honestly...

...Also, now they think the second killer — the one who killed Death — really was part of the cult.

[ she gasps. ]

You mean, someone from outside the fog came here to kill them? It wasn't one of us?

[ nods ]

That's what they think, anyway. Wish they'd figured that out a lot earlier...

... As do I. I feel terrible for bringing suspicion on Karma.

I don't think you need to. I mean, on top of the evidence making sense, he was acting suspicious as hell, and he already had a track record of being violent and unpredictable.