...Atop a cafe in downtown Namimori was the nest of a snake...

Minase Hideaki was a man of simple tastes. He liked plain button-down shirts, foods with a high level of pungency, archery and monster girls. He disliked... a whole lot of other stuff, and Asuka. It was certainly hard being Hide, especially after the previous night's taxing events. Ideally he would've spent all day at home, dutifully helping his mother out with the shop before spending the rest of his time practicing archery or playing video games. Still, the two-faced bastard awoke with a sense of vigor, ready to maybe take on the challenge laid out for him last night. And so he pulled open his blinds, took a good look out his window, and after seeing the weather, declared: 

[color=a187be]"Today's gonna be a really shitty day!"[/color]

Sighing, Hideaki dropped the blinds again and opened up his closet. He surveyed his immaculately arrayed clothes, picked out something he liked, set it to the side, and went through his morning routine. It was not a process dissimilar to what most people would go through, except it was completed in a manner that was very much like the scent of the sea. That is to say, salty. He was now clean and wearing a dark-blue button-down T-shirt, black pants and socks. Hide took a seat at his desk and stared at the blank screen of his computer. He still had a good day left before he would be forced to come to a final decision for whether or not he wanted to join Reckless Idiot's crime organization. If he was being frank, he would know that doing so would likely disappoint his mother. If he was still being frank, he would know that he was probably disappointing his mother all the time, so it would be fine either way. 

Unfortunately, Hide needed more answers before he could come to a final decision about whether he wanted in on this 'Vongola Famiglia' business or not.  It seemed almost like student council, especially since their leader and their inner circle were made of goddamned middle schoolers, except with illegal activities and violence and racketeering. Though if Hide was being completely honest with himself, this Vongola Famiglia business couldn't really be called something that was almost like student council. No, it was [i]exactly[/i] like student council. Unfortunately for Luca, Hide's experience with student councils made him wary, [i]especially[/i] when Asuka was involved. He could almost see it now: Asuka leading a coup and establishing herself as the 12th Vongola Boss whilst horribly executing Luca, the other Guardians, and anybody else that would stand in her path to becoming Our Glorious Leader. 

...Maybe he was being a little bit too overdramatic.

Either way, Hideaki could tell that last night was the bare-minimum explanation and that there was more to be learned, both mentally and physically. Fortunately, Hide was not some kind of fool who would be satisfied with making a life-changing decision knowing only that level of exposition. He'd have to find someone to give him a better info dump. He couldn't get them from The Fluffy Fox since that would involve hunting her down, and after last night's shenanigans, she might think he was some kind of weirdo if she learned he was all of a sudden trying to stalk her for reasons unknown. That meant his only suitable alternative was to find the peculiar Asiatic talking baby. Hideaki closed his closet and plopped inelegantly onto the floor. [color=a187be][i]'...But where did he go...?'[/i][/color] he thought, going through all of last night's events retained in his mind's eye.

[color=a187be][i]'...festival...'[/i]

[i]'...farce...'[/i]

[i]'...firework...'[/i]

[i]'...fox...'[/i]

[i]'...Fon...'[/i]

[i]'...fight...'[/i]

[i]'...fluffy tail...'[/i]

[i]'...facts...'[/i]

[i]'...farewells...'[/i]

[i]'...'[/i]

[i]'................................................'[/i]

[i]'[/i]Fuck[i].'[/i][/color]

And so, Hideaki reopened his closet and armed himself with his bow and arrows.

[h2]A Short While Later....[/h2]

A sense of unexplainable foreboding permeated the body of Minase Hideaki. It was like the frightening feeling that one gets in anticipation for a particularly difficult boss battle, or when the episode of an anime ends on a cliffhanger that leaves the fate of your favorite character up in the air for another week. The world here was wrong, as if he was standing in the threshold of another realm. The place he had visited as a child and the place he was now were like two separate existences, each occupying the same space yet not coalescing into a coherent image. [color=a187be][i]'No,'[/i][/color] Hideaki thought bravely, tightly gripping his quiver's strap and shaking his head before taking another step into enemy territory. And another. And another. [color=a187be][i]'This is a trial.'[/i][/color] He grit his teeth, his nerves finally becoming as steel. [color=a187be][b][i]'AND A REAL MAN DOESN'T BACK DOWN FROM A TRIAL!'[/i][/b][/color] And so, Minase Hideaki did the only thing suitable for kicking off such a perilous excursion into the den of a demon queen:

He rang the doorbell.