The following morning, a ray of sunlight fell across Sebastian's backside and the warmth of it forced open his not-yet-rested eyes.
"Why did I black out again?"
Sebastian muttered to himself as he rolled over and sat up. Something on his chest had been digging into him painfully. He reached a hand up to feel.
The moment his fingers touched that cool, hard surface, his eyes flew wide open.
"The gem!"
Hands trembling, he pulled the leaf-wrapped teardrop gemstone out of his breast pocket.
Mercifully, the deep-blue Ocean Gem was intact — not a scratch on it. The material was clearly very hard.
"Phew."
Sebastian let out a long breath, stood up and looked around, and concluded that keeping the Ocean Gem on his person was probably not the safest arrangement. He tucked the gem under the pillow Nanaka had laid out for him the night before.
He hadn't yet worked out how to make use of the gem's ability, but for now keeping it hidden was the prudent move.
With that sorted, Sebastian pressed a hand to his still-throbbing head and wobbled out of the room.
The moment he stepped outside, he found Nanaka in the courtyard, aproned and sweeping.
"Morning, Nanaka — you're up early."
"It's not early at all, Sebastian — breakfast is already done. Even Iori is up eating. Go get cleaned up and come eat."
"Oh — thanks, Nanaka."
Sebastian cast an appreciative glance at Nanaka's back as she bent down to keep sweeping, remarked privately that the view was quite pleasant, then headed inside to wash up and made his way toward the shop.
He pushed the door open. Iori was sitting at the table facing the entrance, bleary-eyed, holding a sandwich stuffed with a soft-yolk fried egg — holding it, but not eating it. He appeared to be somewhere else entirely.
The table in front of him held several servings of breakfast: toast, fried eggs, ham, that sort of thing — simple enough items, but preparing this many of them was no small effort.
"Morning, Iori."
Sebastian pulled a chair up beside him, helped himself to a plate, and said hello.
"##@¥*&!"
Iori, expression vacant, produced something that was technically a response but could not be parsed as human language. Sebastian looked at him with a mildly unsettled expression.
"Did you break?"
"He just didn't sleep well last night. When I went to wake him this morning, he was face-down on the floor — hadn't touched his room at all."
Nanaka came in at that moment, finished with her sweeping, set her things aside, and took her own seat at the table with a smile at Sebastian.
Sebastian turned to look at Iori again.
So this one, apparently, had also lost consciousness without warning last night. Though looking at him now, the after-effects seemed noticeably worse than Sebastian's own.
Sebastian's mouth curled at the corner.
"Hmph. Just a regular mortal, after all."
At that moment, the front door of the dive shop was pushed open once more.
Sebastian continued chewing his sandwich as he turned to look at the door.
He was starting to feel that over the past two or three days, that door had been opened a suspiciously high number of times.
Standing in the doorway were Kotobuki and Tokita, each wearing nothing but a grey tank top despite the early hour.
The two large men grinned from ear to ear at the people inside.
"Morning — eating already?"
"Oh, it's you two. Since you're here, would you like some breakfast? I made plenty."
Nanaka kept her gentle smile and called out to them from the table.
"We'd be honored, Miss Nanaka."
Kotobuki and Tokita, who were clearly very familiar with this particular routine, walked straight in without hesitation and sat down on either side of Sebastian and Iori.
"Ha — you two are actually up this early. That's unusual!"
Kotobuki said this and enthusiastically threw a large arm around both Sebastian and Iori.
"Wghh—!"
Iori, who had appeared to be somewhere between sleep and waking, felt the crushing weight arrive on his shoulder and snapped instantly to full alertness.
"Settle down, senior — we're eating. Whatever it is, it can wait until after breakfast."
Sebastian, for his part, continued gnawing at his sandwich without so much as a flinch, as though completely accustomed to this.
Getting a proper meal hadn't been easy for him lately. Recent experience had impressed upon him a clear lesson: every meal life offers you should be received with gratitude.
"Ha — Sebastian makes a fair point. We did come with something to tell you, but it can absolutely wait until after breakfast."
Tokita nodded approvingly at Sebastian's words and reached over to pull a plate toward himself.
The slices of toast, which were already roughly the size of a normal person's palm, looked more like oversized crackers between his fingers. He opened his mouth, took a bite, and half a slice was gone.
Kotobuki ate at much the same pace. The two of them consumed everything in their path. Within a few minutes, half the breakfast that had been neatly arranged on the table had ceased to exist.
"Seniors — could you leave something for the rest of us?"
Iori looked at the rapidly emptying table and raised a mild objection.
"Ha ha, sorry about that — we just finished our morning workout, appetite's running high. We'll treat you to something proper at the next party."
Kotobuki scratched the back of his head with a mildly sheepish laugh.
"It's no trouble at all — if there isn't enough, I can put more together easily. These things are simple to make, just need a quick heat-up."
Nanaka, sitting across from everyone and elegantly cutting her toast, smiled and offered.
"No need to go to the trouble, Miss Nanaka — we're about full."
While the group was still exchanging pleasantries, a voice drifted down from the staircase leading to the second floor — a lazy, mid-yawn sort of voice.
"Haaah~ good morning, Sis—"
Everyone's gaze swung to the staircase at once.
Coming down was Chisa, wrapped in a pink pajama set, one hand raised to cover a yawn. Her chestnut hair was somewhat loose and disheveled — she clearly hadn't had a chance to brush it yet.
"Good morning, Chisa! You're adorable even this early!"
Iori, with no regard for self-preservation, greeted her first, eyes practically glowing.
"Hm? Wha—! Why is everyone here?!"
Chisa startled at Iori's voice, turned her head, found that practically the whole household was sitting downstairs having breakfast, and — still in her pajamas — immediately flushed red, dipped her head, and bolted back up the stairs.