Hajime leaves, and the others visit Chiaki.

Hajime felt bad about leaving Chiaki's fate to the others, but he'd been right, hadn't he? There was no way he could rescue Chiaki from whatever had happened to her. He had no power to affect the outcome. Even the conversation he'd held with her earlier and the game he'd managed to postpone felt like they'd only happened at Chiaki's whim.

"Chiaki... do I even call her that, now? Am I going to have to get used to calling her a new name...? Or am I going to turn into one of those things before I even have to worry about it? Man... is it too much to hope this whole thing will be resolved before I get back? Besides being Ultimates, those three are Chiaki's close friends! They'll find a way. They've got to..."

In a rush as he was, Hajime barely registered the large, colorful tour van that was a new addition to the parking lot. The idea of the three traveling together in that vehicle seemed nuts to him. It was decorated in eye-catching splashes of color and had an enormous, terrifying Hannya mask painted on the side, like a horned demon with a leering grin... Surely, that was Ibuki's taste? How had she gotten the more traditional Hiyoko to go along with it? It was all a reminder of how little Hajime knew about the girls he was entrusting Chiaki's care to.

As he climbed onto his bike, he noticed a much less distinct, dark-colored car alongside it. His first thought was that maybe Mahiru was traveling separately in such a vehicle... Then, he saw the long, nearly-silver hair of the person sitting in the driver's seat. She wasn't facing him, but he had the distinct feeling of eyes on him, regardless. Was she watching him in the car's mirrors...?

Hajime decided he didn't have time to worry about it now. It couldn't be more important than either the troublesome Tome or being hours late to his work. He biked off, trying to forget about imps and mysterious strangers so he could focus on his daily grind...

Once Mahiru and Hiyoko had managed to rouse Ibuki from her imp-induced slumber, they hastily made their way over to Chiaki's, not bothering to lock the door behind them. This was mostly because Ibuki was the last one out, and she was still groggy from being shaken out of the best sleep of her life. "Gmgugh... My dream band, the wild and hot friendship of four quirky gals playing four totally different instruments... One was an alien, one was a robot, and the other was a girl who'd never tasted ice cream! If I go back to sleep now, maybe I can still-!"

"Keep it together!" Hiyoko chided her, clapping her hands together to keep Ibuki in the world of the waking. "We've got crazy enough stuff to deal with out here, no dumbass dreams required."

"Aaaaah!!" Ibuki shrieked, banging her head to awaken her energy. "You're right! You, me, Mahiru, and Chiaki are the ultimate dream team! All I need to do is teach Mahiru to play the harmonica, and-!"

Mahiru shushed her with the gentleness of a friend but the loudness of someone who had to speak over Ibuki, then rapped on Chiaki's door. "Everyone, calm down. In just a moment we'll be speaking with Chiaki."

The three waited impatiently. They wanted to imagine their friend sleepily rousing herself from a nap or a gaming session to open the door for them, but none of them heard any footsteps. Ordinarily, Mahiru would respect her friend's privacy, but considering the circumstances, she instead put her ear to the door, listening carefully. All she could hear was cheerful-sounding video game music, as if Chiaki had left a game on... Quickly, Mahiru realized the music was getting louder. Bizarrely, Chiaki's voice could soon be heard, as if she'd been turning it up along with the volume of her game. "The door's not locked! You can come on in!" the ordinarily soft voice yelled.

This behavior was refreshingly Chiaki-like, setting Mahiru's mind at ease and recalling memories of the girl who'd always walked around with her face buried in a portable console during her time at school. The leader of the group opened the door to a dark room with the television going, gingerly stepping out of her shoes as she scanned the apartment for an inhabitant. The game's volume had been reasonable when heard through the door, but was quite loud standing next to the entertainment center. Mahiru called out in an attempt to be heard. "Chiaki? Are you playing games in the dark, now? We've talked about how that's not good for your eyes..."

The three of them were now uneasily peeking around in search for Chiaki, and all three of them jumped when her voice suddenly sounded out. "Boo!" They turned around to see a close up of her face staring at them from the screen, holding its hands to the sides of the face with the fingers spread out in a "peekaboo" gesture. She backed away from the "camera," revealing the entirety of her short, pink, interestingly-proportioned and clearly inhuman body, including her curved horns, angel wings, and pom-pom tail. There were a couple of major differences from her earlier appearance in Hajime's room, however: her chest was now wrapped in a relatively tiny version of her traditional white blouse, bound by a single button at the chest and revealing both belly and cleavage, along with a beige skirt too short to properly be called a skirt, more of a decoration around her hips that failed to hide more than the top half of her incredible lower body. From the front view as she presented herself, everyone could see a detailed pixel pattern on her bra and panties, like an 8-bit pixel rendition of bunnies doing... something. With a satisfied smile, evidently in the mood for showing off, Chiaki did a quick spin for them, revealing dark pink pixel-block letters simply reading "WOW" printed and stretched across her wide butt. Her thin tail extended from a small heart-shaped cutout near the top of the "O," slightly lifting the skirt. Finally, she returned to facing forward, floating with her wings flapping lightly and her hands up in double peace gestures. The backdrop behind her seemed to flash between different images of unrelated locations in 10 second intervals, almost like a screensaver: the vacuum of space; a blue sky full of clouds; a hotel bedroom; a roller coaster ride. All of them were low-resolution images, making her stand out in sharp contrast.

"Wow!!" Ibuki reflexively repeated, reading off Chiaki's underwear.

There was a brief silence after that as everyone tried to find words. Mahiru was the first to speak. "Chiaki... This isn't some kind of prank with a pre-recorded message? Or... s-some kind of AI designed to look sort of like you? Is that... really you?"

The imp on the TV nodded in response. "Well, I go by Chichi now, but otherwise, yep. It's me. You can call me either Chichi or Chiaki. It's fine... for now, probably. I'm so glad you all stopped by to visit! Hajime's a really swell guy for calling you all over, huh?"

Mahiru wasn't sure where to start. She didn't think there was any point in mentioning that Hajime hadn't called them over so much as make a claim too ridiculous for the three of them to ignore, especially now that they were learning every word of it was true. "Yeah, um... Hajime's great! He, uh, filled us in on some of the stuff happening to you right now. There's this Tome, he said? And you... turned into a magical creature, right?" Mahiru asked, as if that was a question at this point.

Chiaki patiently nodded for her, shifting to a sitting stance and slowly rotating in place in front of a sunset backdrop. "Yep. I embraced the power of the Tome. I help it out by giving it a Tome Mistress, and it helps me out by giving me a fun-filled life. The only problem was I was getting bored playing with myself... Ah! By myself, I mean," Chiaki corrected her slip. "But now all of you are here! I bet you wanna play a game, right? Right?" She leaned in towards the "camera" with shining eyes.

"Wrong!" Hiyoko interrupted, leaning in towards the screen, looking equal parts shocked and disturbed. "Chiaki, are those freaky antlers weighing down your brain?! We're here to save you from... the, um, the TV or whatever!"

"The Tome?" Chiaki corrected her.

"Yeah, that thing! It's using its magic to make your game-damaged head all fruit-loopy! There's no way you actually want to be this kinda messed-up dinky little creature, right?"

Chiaki pouted. "I'm not a little creature, I'm an imp. You can't tell cause I'm in the TV, probably, but I think I'm a lot bigger than you in a few ways..."

Hiyoko reeled, then leaned forward harder to grab the sides of the TV, pressing her nose to the screen and gritting her teeth. "Why don'tcha come out here and say that to my face, Chichi?"

Chiaki only stared at Hiyoko impassively, as if thinking. Finally, she raised a finger. "I have a better idea. Why don't all of you come in here and play a game with me? The game is Shortstack Imp Attack Party Pack: Volume 0. It started out a little, mmmm... content-light, I think? But now, I've finished unlocking a bunch of stuff. If you play as the imps I created for you, I think you'll really get a feel for how much fun this game can be."

Ibuki held up a hand to call attention to herself. "I have a question! Are you sayin' we should go inside the TV? Like in that one famous mystery game slash dating game slash role-playing game with cool teens that's all the rage?"

The Tome Mistress nodded. "Just reach your arm on through and I'll get the rest of you in."

When Ibuki seemed like she was going to immediately rush forward, Mahiru grabbed the neck of her jacket to hold her back. "Wait a minute, everyone! Chiaki, we might have gotten a little off track, but, um... This isn't you! I firmly believe this, uh, silly sexed-up version of you isn't something you'd choose to be. The three of us aren't interested in playing any game with you unless that also results in you getting free of whatever influence that Tome has and turning back to normal."

Chiaki tilted her head curiously, having rotated enough now that her body was upside-down in front of a photo of Stonehenge. "But I don't wanna turn back to normal... But I reeeally wanna play a game with you three... What to do?" She paused thoughtfully, although nobody was quite sure watching her blank expression just how hard she was thinking. Just when everyone was starting to worry she'd fallen asleep with her eyes open, she raised a finger again and spoke. "How's this sound? We'll play some fun co-op games. You don't have to play as an imp if you don't want to, although I think it'd be more fun... Then, if we successfully clear the game together, you can tell me if you want the Tome gone forever. I won't like it, but I'll send it somewhere else without me, and I'll turn back to normal..."

Everyone's face lit up with this newfound hope.

"... Probably," she added, tilting her head again.

Mahiru facepalmed, then crossed her arms in front of her. "Okay, well... if you're willing to be reasonable and keep your promise, we'll play along. What kind of party games did you have in mind?"

"Hmm... I want you three to have fun, so I'll pick games I think you'll have fun with. That means they'll also be ones you have a high chance of clearing, maybe? I bet they'll be addictive, win or lose."

"I see. Well, do we all need to come in at once?"

Chiaki shook her head. "One at a time is better. We can all play together later, but... well, I wanna be fair, so lemme say this. You have a lower chance of clearing each game if all of us play at once. You'll have a _higher _chance... and more fun, I bet... if each of you plays only the game I picked for you first, and the others watch."

"Okay. Thanks for being fair, Chiaki... So, we have to carefully consider who we send in first. We need to think about who is the best at gaming, and who's-"

Mahiru had released Ibuki earlier to cross her arms, and before the photographer could finish her thought, Ibuki had already hurried ahead with a big, bright smile on her face. "Put me in coach! I always wanted to play a game made just for me, and I always wanted to be a knight in shining armor for a cute gamer girl! This is my moment- it's Ibuki's stage to shine on!" As she declared this, she thrust her arm towards the TV in a move that would surely topple the entertainment system and injure her arm under normal circumstances.

The circumstances weren't normal, obviously, and Ibuki's arm disappeared into the television up to the shoulder, leaving the ordinarily loud-spoken vocalist speechless, staring at the continuation of her arm now projecting flat on the screen. As promised, Chiaki grabbed the arm on her end and continued pulling on Ibuki, causing more of her to disappear from the real world and reappear on the TV's display.

Finally, when the musician's kicking legs had disappeared from the living room and her wailing voice was clearly emitting from the sound-system's speakers, Mahiru and Hiyoko stared slack-jawed at the image on the screen. Chiaki was holding the screeching Ibuki in her arms in a princess carry, while Ibuki clung to the imp for dear life. It was unclear, but not having wings might make the space Chiaki was in difficult to traverse for a human. At least, Ibuki seemed to think so. Regardless, the main thing that made the scene strange was their proportions relative to one another. Now that everyone could see it clearly, it was evident that Chiaki was almost half Ibuki's height unless you counted the horns, and with womanly proportions that dwarfed her friend's slender body. In spite of her short stature, Chiaki was the one supporting Ibuki.

Although everyone waited, Ibuki's alarmed screaming understandably wasn't coming to an end. Finally, something happened that made her shut up: Chiaki swung her arms to her left, bringing Ibuki's head low and closer to her proximity, then reached in to plant a quick kiss on Ibuki's cheek with her plump, hot pink painted lips.

Everything was silent for a moment as the three human girls gawked at Chiaki with flushed faces. Ibuki's long-nailed hand moved to touch the new lipstick mark, as if expecting to feel something unusual. Chiaki continued to smile at her in an inappropriately friendly way, but when she ducked in for another kiss, Ibuki held her horned head back with both hands. "Uh... Uh uh! Uh uh uh! Wh-what the heck got into you, Chiaki?! Trying to put Screaming Beauty to sleep with a kiss, izzat it?!"

"Ah! Sorry... When I saw you up close and got my hands on you, I couldn't resist. I haven't seen you three in a while... I forgot how cute all of you were," Chiaki told her in a conversational tone, wearing a dreamy smile. "As imps, I think you'd be even cuter, though... Say, you wanna become an imp right now? I know you'll love it!"

"No thank you," Ibuki said with uncharacteristic brevity and wide eyes, shaking her red face and long, colorful hair wildly. "So how 'bout that game, Chiaki? Honestly, I've been missin' gamin' seshes with you a ton! I'd be happy to go with you long in the night, so long as we're both doin' it as our pretty human selves, y'know?"

"Hmm..." Chiaki seemed to give Ibuki's statement some thought. "I'd be happy for a long session with you as a human or an imp, but... I keep saying this, but I think you'd find all our sessions more fun if you were an imp. Gaming sessions, makeout sessions, sleeping sessions... Yep. All more fun when you're an imp."

"Ggghh, you know I've got too hyper an imagination to just say stuff like that around me!" Ibuki cried, digging her nails into her bare shoulders under her coat. "Cuz... cuz..."

"Cuz you'll wanna do it?"

"Cuz I'll wanna write a song about it!! Damn, you oughta know there's nothin' for the lyrical brain like bein' horny as heck, and right now... I-I think I'm allowed to say my head ain't the only thing that's horny! Imaginin' bein' a curvy cutie like you is a weird kinda fantasy... but let's make that the final fantasy for now, cuz this quest is draggin!"

"Hmm... That attitude's good enough, I think," Chiaki noted with a simple nod. "We ought to play a fun game before you get more distracted... My arms are getting a little tired from carrying you, too. Let me set up the stage and put your feet on the floor."