Training

"Well then, guess I'll call it a day."

"Same here, yo. Got work tomorrow. See ya, Penpen, yo."

"Yeah. Good night!"

The spirits departed, and control of their bodies was lent back to the Spirit-Possessed girls.

Of course, what they had to do was already decided. As Spirit-sama instructed.

Today's task was Home maintenance. Tending fields and looking after the ranch's cows across two Spirit-samas' Homes.

They were also continuing to dig further into a new hole, still believing something else might be buried ahead.

The 2nd characters were focused on self-improvement. Miitei was synthesizing mystery potions left and right for no particular reason, and Ginko was hunting monsters to level up. Nika… Nika alone was sprawled out sleeping to recover her energy. Her Spirit-sama was in the middle of grinding SP toward a Home, which meant gorging on Defilement for SP Quests nonstop. On Auto Mode, she couldn't recover fast enough. At this point, snacking on sweets and resting was her actual job.

And so, the 1st characters had simple enough duties that they could chat while working.

Alto spoke to Tria while shoveling out a hole.

"About when the Spirit-samas are talking… you and Miitei sometimes cut in, don't you? Isn't that disrespectful?"

"Hm? … It shouldn't be. Spirit-sama enjoys talking with Tria and the others too."

"Um, w-well, Tria-chan's Spirit-sama is kind, so… maybe Spirit-sama's just, letting it slide? It's still, disrespectful though, you know?"

"Muu. Even you, Penpen."

But it was true. When the Spirit-samas were conversing among themselves, Alto's group and Penpen's group never interjected. They only joined in when directly addressed.

"So. What do you think about this disrespect, Tria?"

"… Tria respects Spirit-sama… all the Spirit-samas, of course."

"That goes without saying. I'm asking what you're thinking when you're being disrespectful."

To that question, Tria answered with a question of her own.

"… Do you and Penpen not want to talk to Spirit-sama?"

"Of course we do!!! That's exactly why it's unfair that only you get to!!!"

"W-we're, obviously, holding back, from doing that…"

"Have the Spirit-samas ever wanted you to hold back like that?"

Put that way, they thought back… No. They hadn't.

Come to think of it, they'd never once been ordered to stay quiet.

"In fact, they said, 'I'm happy Miitei talks so energetically.' So it's not disrespectful. If anything, it's following Spirit-sama's wishes."

"B-but what if they thought we were being a nuisance by barging in!? I wouldn't be able to go on living!"

"Alto. That itself is disrespectful. Whether it's a nuisance is one thing, but whether you go on living is for Spirit-sama to decide."

"Ugh, true, we don't have the authority to decide our own life and death…"

"Th-then, does that mean, we can also just, j-join in on the Spirit-samas' conversations, whenever we want?"

Alto and Penpen wore conflicted expressions. Their shovels, however, never stopped turning dirt.

"… To join the Spirit-samas' conversations, you need to gauge the right timing."

"Timing. Y-yes, of course. It would be awful if your voice overlapped with theirs."

"I-if, if if if, that could happen, th-then it's better not to talk at all, right?"

"For that, there's a really useful training method. A training method Spirit-sama taught Tria."

"… Let's hear it, then. We've all been told to train. There's no problem with that."

"I-I want to hear it too! Let me try!"

"Okay, then Tria will teach you. Let's stop digging for now and start training."

With that, she put away her shovel and set about preparing.

"… This is the training?"

"Yep. You can't do it alone, so Tria couldn't try it until now. This helps."

It was a thin, long rope. The other end was tied to a fence.

"… What do we do with this? Pull it?"

"Like this. You turn it."

Whrrr, whrrr. Tria turned the rope. It traced a lemon-shaped arc, slapping the ground with each revolution.

It was, in other words, long-rope jump.

"You time your entry and jump in. Jump a few times. Then time your exit and jump out."

"… I see. You need someone to turn the rope, so you can't do it alone."

"So you learn to gauge conversation timing by getting a feel for it with your body!"

Penpen clenched her fists with determination.

"Let's try right away… !?"

"Oh."

Thwack. The rope swept Alto's feet out from under her. She executed a magnificent cartwheel, pivoting around her navel.

"… Hmph. It's harder than it looks."

"That looked more like you walked straight into the rope."

"Grr, your turn, Penpen!"

"O-o-okay… Here I go!"

Penpen slipped smoothly into the spinning rope.

"Y-yay… Bgyah!?"

"Oops."

The rope smacked Penpen on the head, and she went down.

The arc of the rope as Tria turned it was apparently too small for Penpen's body.

"… You okay? Hitting your head was unexpected."

"I-I think I made the rope, too sturdy… Ow…"

"Tria, you're too short. Give it here, I'll turn it next."

And so it fell to Tria to demonstrate.

Tria slipped into the rope with ease, hopping in perfect rhythm. Hop, hop.

"… Hup, hah, hup. See? Easy for Tria. After all, Tria's skilled enough to join the Spirit-samas' conversations."

"Wha… That's just a physical ability difference! What's your Agility stat right now!?"

"Let's just say it's over 300."

"Tch, I shifted to Strength and Dexterity once mine passed 100…!"

Tria couldn't help thinking the Dexterity wasn't exactly pulling its weight, but she kept that to herself.

"I'm speeding up!"

"Bring it."

Bwn bwn bwn bwn. Alto cranked up the speed. Tria bounced and tapped, bounced and tapped, matching every revolution.

The afterimage of the rope traced the shape of a lemon, or perhaps a rugby ball.

"W-wait, hasn't this turned into, something totally different?"

Alto was whipping the rope at breakneck speed, and Tria's toes now merely kissed the ground, making her look like she was hovering in midair.

Penpen gave up trying to follow the rope with her eyes. It was making her dizzy.

"Actually, this might be pretty good training in its own right. I can really feel it in my arms!"

"Tria's getting a good leg workout too. Let's keep going."

"… Um, I also, wanted to practice timing my way into conversations, y'know? … Wait, this isn't…"

After that, Penpen realized this had nothing to do with conversation timing and started a different training exercise. Meanwhile, Alto and Tria kept spinning and jumping for quite a while, until the fence couldn't take it anymore and broke, putting an end to it all.

As for the broken fence, Penpen apparently repaired it without a word.