<h4>Chapter 258: THE RETURN</h4>


    "Well" said Kat hoping to break the silence "Is there anything else you guys want to do before I leave? I don''t want you to think I''ve just secured payment and run off, but I really will have to leave soon and get on my way"


    "Wait!" said Major "We want to try something first… hang on"


    A look of concentration passed over Major''s face. It was scrunched together and her tails were twirling around each other as if in agitation. Kat didn''t notice Major was holding her breath until finally after a minute of trying Major started panting and trying to regain the lost oxygen


    "What was that?" asked Kat and Enuko together


    "We''re trying to see if I can swap ces with… Minor" said Major, carefully stating Minor''s name with only a slight shiver.


    "Well I suspect you are going about it wrong" said Enuko


    "What do you mean?" asked Major


    "Well, I don''t want you to think I''m equating Minor to an evil spirit but… when dealing with evil spirits and possessions if you want to avoid them taking over you need to keep your mind alert or asleep. The most dangerous time for someone like that is when they are rxing and trying to go to bed


    "As such I suspect, if Minor focuses on trying to gain control while Shizu- how do you want to be addressed Shizuru? Wait we can get to thatter. The one in control should rx while the one only in the mind should try to force the body to move" said Enuko


    "Ok let''s try that" said Major as she went toy back down on the bed. Once she was there, she tried to rx but she was still feeling excited. The joy of knowing her sister had returned still bubbling under the surface.


    After a moment Major tilted her head to the side and said "Minor wants you to use your calming aura to see if that helps"


    Kat nodded and carefully pushed some of her aura over to Major. Major''s eyes went wide "Woah, ok… this might be really useful. I can… we both can… sort of see the barrier between us. It''s so strange and I think… wait… ok, hang on… on three" said Major


    Major didn''t say anything else out loud, but five secondster her fur shifted. It happened slowly. The body seemed to rx further sinking into the bed more as the fur swapped slowly, as if a fresh coat of paint was being rolled out.


    Once the blue had changedpletely to red, the body, now likely Minor sat up. Even the scar that Major had seemed less prevalent. Minor''s eyes went wide as she moved, and then ran and attached herself to Kat.


    "Aura please…. it''s still too much" said Minor with a shaking voice.


    Kat frowned. *I do have my aura on you, that''s how you managed to swap.* Still Katplied, pressing her aura further towards Minor, who visibly rxed. "Thank you… this is all… quite a lot and… and the aura helps. I have to… I have to concentrate to stay in control" said Minor


    "What do you mean?" asked Enuko


    "Eh… um… well, so when Major is in control it''s natural, I can tell… like… um she just sort of is? But when I''m in control… it''s um… sort of like I have to grip tightly onto the inside of the body. Like… like I''m about to be pulled out. And with everything being so… real? I guess… it''s very hard. I''m not sure I could do this at all without Kat''s help" said Minor


    "That''s ok" said Enuko carefully walking forward to stroke Minor''s hair. Minor kept a hold on Kat''s kimono the whole time but seemed to happily nuzzle into Enuko''s hand as she patted her head. "We can practice"


    "Well, would you guys like to practice a few more times before I go? It does have to be soon, but I can stay for a bit longer" said Kat


    "I-it''s fine" said Minor "You''ve already sp-pent plenty of time with me, and you really need to go so you don''t get in trouble, so it''s fine"


    Kat gave Minor a hug "Ok. Don''t be afraid to message me using the system then. Goodbye to all of you" said Kat as she stood back further away.


    Enuko nodded "I will arrange that teacher for you"


    Minor swapped to hugging Enuko and slowly let her control slip, changing back into the blue haired form of Major. "And I''ll see youter as well. I think when you''re talking to me privately, you should go with Shizuru, but too many diplomats know me as Shizuka so in public you''ll have to go with that"


    Kat nodded and smiled. *I''ll remember.* "Goodbye" *system do the thing.*


    And mes enveloped Kat.


    After the rush of brilliant fire Kat found herself back in her room. The bed looked freshly made and there was no dust to be seen. Well, ok, she had super vision and could see that a few spots were missed in the corners, but no human would be able to tell. Taking a deep breath, Kat carefully opened her door.


    The house was quiet though. She could hear faint sounds of typinging from Callisto''s room but nothing else. *Interesting. Does that mean that only Callisto is home?* Heading downstairs, Kat found what she expected, an empty house. Checking the various rooms just reinforced this fact.


    In the end the only rooms she hadn''t entered were Sylvie''s, Callisto''s, and Vivian''s, but that was plenty. She boosted her hearing outside each door and still only Callisto''s room leaked any sound.


    Knocking on the door in question Kat heard the sound of typing stop, followed by the shuffling of cloth as Callisto presumably stood up and made her way over to the door. When it opened to reveal Callisto, in her standard maid attire Kat smiled. "Hello Callisto I''m back" said Kat


    "Of course, it would indeed seem that you have returned to us, however it falls to me to inform you that the other three are currently not on the premises. They decided to go shopping for ingredients to celebrate your return and I suspect they will be back in an hour or so." Said Callisto


    "Huh, I''m surprised they wanted to go to the trouble" said Kat


    Callisto nodded "Yes, they were rather happy to hear from you the other day. Despite the assurance they supposedly received from that system of yours they were not fully convinced until you sent that message.


    "Personally, that message of yours isn''t really confirmation of anything to my eyes. It could just as easily send it considering theck of information, but I did not wish to share my doubts with them. s, it seems that you are present and the message was from you so it seems my worry this time would bebelled as unfounded" said Callisto


    Kat tried not to rub her head in embarrassment. She half seeded by keeping her hands still, but having her tail start the process of smoothing out her perfectly smooth hair. "Yeah… sorry about that it was a bit of a strange thing. I promise that during this next job I have to go on soon I''ll remember to message you guys more often" Kat said.


    Callisto shrugged slightly "You''ll need to exin that to them not me, however I am interested in this new ability of yours" said Callisto


    "Ah… well… apparently I can enter dreams sort of? I don''t know how it works" said Kat


    "Interesting interesting. That has some ratherplicated implications. Do you physically enter the dream or do you connect your mind with the target to influence the brain into thinking you are also included within the dream?" asked Callisto


    "Ah… I don''t know? I mean… to me it''s like I''m really there but… that might have just been the spell? Um… can we do thister though? I''ll exin it to everyone I promise" said Kat, somewhat nervous to meet the others after bailing on themst time and dropping out of contact.


    "Sure thing. Though, I will say, could you do me the favour of cleaning up the kitchen downstairs? Just to have it done before the others return" asked Callisto


    *What? But the kitchen waspletely clean.* "Are you sure it needs cleaning?" asked Kat


    Callisto shrugged and said "Perhaps not, but if I''m going to be cooking a lot for the celebration, it would be nice to know everything is clean"


    Kat shrugged. "Sure thing. It will give me some more time to rx"


    "Thank you" said Callisto, right before closing the door in Kat''s face and returning to whatever it was she was doing.


    *Right… Callisto is just like that I suppose. Maybe she''s a little mad I disappeared in her own way?* Those were Kat''s thoughts as she headed downstairs to start on her assigned cleaning.