Tokyo, Beika Ward.
Inside a villa.
Creak.
The study door was gently pushed open.
A girl with amber eyes and a cool, detached face pushed the door open and walked in slowly.
Her silver-white hair cascaded over her shoulders. Though it wasn't tied up, it wasn't the least bit dishevelled, clearly meticulously styled.
In contrast, the green-haired girl slumped over the desk in the study looked as if she had been sleeping in a hen's nest.
Not only was her hair a complete mess, but the desk was also littered with crumpled paper balls. On the floor, there was even an overturned inkpot and an ink-stained pen.
Coolly eyeing the human-shaped creature slumped on the desk, Shizuka Hio kicked the other's chair away.
With a thud, the chair toppled over, and Takatsuki Izumi, who had been sitting on it, fell to the floor.
Only when her head hit the floorboards did Takatsuki Izumi drowsily open her eyes, mumbling under her breath:
"What's going on?"
"Is it morning already?"
"To be precise, it's 5:20 in the afternoon."
As she spoke, Shizuka Hio walked over to the window and drew back the heavy curtains, revealing a relatively rare sunset over Beika Town:
"Nice weather."
After Shizuka Hio finished speaking, Takatsuki Izumi, nearby, grabbed her messy hair and sat up, squatting on the floor as she yawned:
"Is it night again?"
"No wonder you came to my room, Shizuka."
As she spoke, Takatsuki Izumi rummaged through the paper balls on the floor, throwing the useless ones into the trash and keeping the useful manuscripts, then continued yawning:
"So then, what's the matter this time..."
To this, Shizuka Hio simply replied calmly:
"Today is Saturday."
"Eh? Saturday?" Takatsuki Izumi scratched her head, looked around, found her phone from the pile of manuscripts nearby, opened it and saw May 27th, exactly Saturday: "It really is..."
Takatsuki Izumi scratched her head, then said with distress:
"So it's time for the weekly blood kin development again?"
"Really, do I have to go out tonight?"
Hearing Takatsuki Izumi's complaint, Shizuka Hio said indifferently, "You can propose changing the work to the Chief God."
"How could I do that?"
Upon hearing this, Takatsuki Izumi refuted without thinking:
"You should know, I have to report the blood kin development surveillance to Luo Shu every week. If that changes, wouldn't I lose this job where I only need to work once a week and can just take it easy?"
Hearing Takatsuki Izumi's words, Shizuka Hio simply maintained an indifferent expression:
"If that's the case, then what are you complaining about?"
"I'm complaining about you rushing me."
Takatsuki Izumi retorted, directly took off her short-sleeved shirt, took out a black tracksuit from her spatial ring, and started putting it on:
"Our great Chief God hasn't even set up attendance tracking. Why are you so enthusiastic every day?"
Hearing this, Shizuka Hio said calmly:
"Because I'm very bored."
"Eh?" Takatsuki Izumi was stunned for a moment, turned to look at Shizuka Hio: "If you're bored, why don't you just go out and have fun?"
"Don't know where to go." Shizuka Hio said calmly.
"Don't know where to go..." Takatsuki Izumi gave Shizuka Hio a strange look, then complained: "You can go to the Hidden Management Department's garrison, the training ground in the Dream Simulation Chamber, the cafeteria, the game room - aren't those all available there? You can even find a whole bunch of Familia members to play with."
"I don't know them." Shizuka Hio said expressionlessly.
"Ah, this..." Takatsuki Izumi couldn't help but scratch her head at this point, suddenly feeling that Shizuka Hio might be a bit too lonely.
She herself rarely went out because she was a non-human race, and she was inherently lazy, preferring to stay home and write. Even so, she usually chatted online with people like Utaha Kasumigaoka and Eriri Spencer Sawamura, since they were all creators and had some common topics.
But Shizuka Hio was different.
This person was truly too solitary.
Usually, she would at most tidy the flowers and plants in the courtyard, had no desire to become stronger, had no friends to socialise with, and as a vampire, had no need to go out shopping.
Counting it all up, the only thing Shizuka Hio needed to do was actually the task Luo Shu had assigned her - developing blood kin in Japan's grassroots society and searching for potential Familia candidates.
But because Shizuka Hio could only separate a limited amount of blood capable of transforming normal people, this task could only be performed once a week.
Thinking of this, Takatsuki Izumi couldn't help but scratch her cheek, then said lazily:
"I suddenly feel that letting you live with me was a wrong decision."
"Why don't you apply to live at the garrison instead? It should be livelier there than here."
"I hate noisy places."
Shizuka Hio said this lightly, then turned and walked towards the door:
"I'll wait for you outside."
"This woman..."
Takatsuki Izumi covered her face, then sighed:
"Why did they assign me such a troublesome woman as my partner..."
After complaining, Takatsuki Izumi changed her clothes, didn't bother with much makeup, and set off directly.
When she arrived at the courtyard's main gate, a white-haired young man wearing a black mask was already standing at the entrance, and behind him was a black Honda.
"So you're leading the way this time, Tatara."
Casually greeting him, Takatsuki Izumi walked to the car, opened the door, and sat directly in the back seat, next to Shizuka Hio, who had already gotten in, then asked:
"So, who is the candidate selected by Aogiri Tree this time?"
Since Shizuka Hio only develops blood kin candidates once a week, the targets naturally had to be carefully chosen, and the ones responsible for investigating the targets were naturally the former ghoul organisation Aogiri Tree under Takatsuki Izumi's command.
Almost every week, Aogiri Tree would arrange for someone to come and take Takatsuki Izumi and Shizuka Hio to the target's location, looking for an opportunity to convert them into blood kin.
Takatsuki Izumi referred to this operation as the 'weekly routine'.
Hearing this, Tatara, who had just gotten into the car, took a file from the front passenger seat and handed it to Takatsuki Izumi.
Seeing this, Takatsuki Izumi took the file, glanced at the target information described on it, and softly read it aloud:
"Asagi Aiba?"
Looking at the photo of the girl in the file, Takatsuki Izumi couldn't help but show a slight smile:
"Surprisingly quite cute~"