The next morning, Juniper was already up, stretching dramatically in the center of the room like she owned it. "Rise and shine, sleepyheads~!" she chirped, clapping her hands loudly right next to Tenzing's ear. "Pride ain't gonna fight himself today! Up up UP!"

  Tenzing jolted awake with a violent snarl, immediately grabbing a pillow and hurling it directly at Juniper’s face with terrifying accuracy. "I WILL END YOU."

  Alice groaned from under the covers, her voice muffled but clearly pained: "...Five more minutes..."

  Juniper laughed and dodged the pillow like it was nothing, catching it easily with one hand. "Oh come onnnn, we're on a time schedule here, guys!" she teased, smirking down at the buried Alice. "No more lazy time!!"

  Tenzing was already sitting up in bed, her eyes still narrowed from the assault. "You are insufferable," she grumbled, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "No one wants to be up this early, you maniac."

  Juniper called back with a giggle, "Y'know, for a monk, ya sure go from zero to a hundred real fuckin' quick~”

  Tenzing's expression twitched like she was resisting the urge to chuck something else at Juniper, but she just exhaled heavily instead, opting to glare instead. "And for an idol, you are exceedingly obnoxious. You'd think someone in your profession would be a little more self-aware or something, but nooo. You're just a ball of endless energy and pure ego.”

  Juniper just grinned at the insult, completely unbothered—if anything, she looked weirdly proud. "Pffft—nahhh~! I'm not ego," she corrected with a playful wink. "I'm self-love in its purest form!"

  She struck a dramatic pose, one hand on her hip and the other pointing skyward like some kind of idol deity.

  "And y'know what? You can't even be mad ‘cause it's true~! My fans agree 100%!"

  Alice groaned and buried her face back into the pillow with a muffled: "I regret waking up..."

  Juniper cackled victoriously, clearly enjoying the chaos too much to stop now—but then paused as an idea struck her. A slow, wicked grin spread across her face.

  "...Y'know what? Fine." She flopped onto the bed between them uninvited, draping herself over both Tenzing and Alice like some kind of obnoxious blanket.

  "If y’all wanna be grumpy about breakfast...then I guess we're napping again~!”

  Alice squeaked as Juniper flopped onto the bed, her sleepy reflexes making her jolt and immediately try to scoot away, only to be trapped under Juniper's dramatic sprawl.

  Tenzing froze like a deer in headlights, eyes wide with pure "what is happening." Her voice came out strangled:

  Stolen story; please report.

  "Get. Off."

  Juniper just cackled and snuggled in deeper, wrapping an arm around both of them like this was perfectly normal behavior. "Nahhh~! You're stuck with me now! Suffer!!"

  Alice let out a tiny whimper, her face burning red at how close Juniper suddenly was (and also at Tenzing's full-body tension beside her). "J-Juni...please..." she begged weakly.

  This was not how she expected breakfast prep to go.

  Chie beamed as she saw Alice, Tenzing and Juniper approaching, her hands rubbing together as if concocting the biggest scheme ever...well, at least one a mantis shrimp girl possibly could.

  "Hiya, gals! Y'all ready to head and track down Pride? I got a lil' intel while y'all were nappin'~ Turns out ol' Pride's been holed up in an old theater district since yesterday! Sneaky bastard thinks he can hide there!"

  Juniper’s trademark grin returned tenfold as she cracked her knuckles:

  "...Ohhhh-ho-hoooo!! A battle on stage, huh?! Now THAT'S my kind of showdown~!”

  "...Not the worst plan I've heard..." Tenzing admitted cautiously. She was still a bit leery of running off to fight a literal god—but at least Chie's enthusiasm was encouraging.

  Then her gaze fell on Juniper and her expression darkened again. "But PLEASE tell me you're not planning to go all...idol mode and start singing to win the fight?"

  Juniper feigned a gasp and placed a hand dramatically to her brow like Tenzing had just insulted her. "Oh, Ten~! Do you really think so little of me?!”

  Tenzing narrowed her eyes at the mock-gasp. The fact that Juniper didn't immediately agree was a good sign, but she still wasn't convinced.

  "Of course I do," she grumbled. "You're an idol. Your whole moveset revolves around singing. I'm half-expecting you to kill Pride solo with the power of cringe pop lyrics alone."

  That was probably an exaggeration. Probably.

  Juniper let out a bark of laughter—loud and unhinged—before slinging an arm around Tenzing’s shoulders like they were old drinking buddies.

  "Cringe pop lyrics?! Pshh, I invented cringe pop lyrics, it's the ultimate clout machine!" she declared proudly, shaking Tenzing slightly for emphasis. "But nahhh~! Not this time! Gotta save the big performance for when it actually matters!!"

  Alice blinked between them: "...You guys are weird."

  Chie clapped her hands together with way too much energy: "Okay okay okay!! Enough chit-chat! We got a theater to storm and a Sin God to wreck!" She pointed dramatically down the street toward the city's entertainment district.

  Juniper flashed Chie two thumbs up while still dangling on Tenzing (who looked ready to combust). "Let's move out then~!"

  …

  The theater district was eerily silent—far too quiet for a place that was usually bustling with life and sound.

  The streets were empty and the buildings abandoned, like everyone had suddenly decided that this area sucked and left all at once.

  The only sign of life was the flicker of shadows in a few windows and the faint sound of...music? The melody was faint and slow, almost like a lullaby.

  Juniper froze mid-step, her smirk vanishing as the eerie music slithered into her ears.

  "...The hell is that?" she muttered under her breath, instinctively reaching for a weapon (or maybe just sheer survival mode).

  Tenzing conjured her paintbrush, her expression darkening with suspicion. "That’s not normal."

  Alice shivered beside them—the lingering sleepiness gone in an instant as goosebumps rose on her skin at the sound of something so wrong. "It feels like...like it's calling us..."

  Chie clapped a hand over Alice’s mouth before she could say anything else and leaned in close to whisper: "SHHHH!! We do NOT acknowledge creepy godly lullabies unless we wanna get eaten!!" Her tail lashed anxiously behind her.

  ...Pride wasn't hiding here.

  He was waiting.

  A shadow shifted unnaturally from one alleyway to another ahead of them—and then there was no more doubt.

  A deep voice rumbled out from nowhere and everywhere at once:

  "Ahhhh~! My little rats finally came crawling..."