Leila found Hakuren’s answer to her question rather incomprehensible, much as expected. It was loaded with conditions and speculations and metaphors, and concluded with "Well, it's not wise to try making conclusions just yet".

Which, Leila could only reasonably translate to, “I have no idea either”.

She did agree, though, that the presence of shoes would prove a significant barrier in examining whether one had cold feet.

Leila continued to think about the Siren’s song as the two of them approached to inspect the first house.

*	*	*	*

“That’s why I never visit my grandmother” was, uttered by the boy, a very appropriate way to sum up their visit at the Anaisiuol’s. The cameleon and the crocodile were and interesting couple, to say, but as far as Leila noticed, there was not much significant information to be gathered.

Leila eyed Hakuren as he scribbled into the notebook he had in hand - an action that had been observed more than once. Back on the Star Fisher, in the cabin...he seemed to be writing stuff into that little stash of paper at the most peculiar of times, and she couldn’t help but wonder what exactly he had written down - that compulsion to read whenever there was something to be read had always been a part of her: the subconscious urge to lean in and make out characters she couldn’t see quite clearly on pieces of paper nearby, or the attempts to memorize the sequence of bus stops on signs in those few times she went outside. The need of revealing a message when it is made clear that there exists a message to be revealed.

Leila then reminded herself of the task she was assigned. And it was not randomly speculating what the boy was writing down.

Signs. Verbal and gestures. Yeah.

Leila actually had no idea what she was supposed to look for.

[b]“Twenty two times she touched her forehead when delivering a sentence. Eighteen times she scratched her neck or nose. Eight instances in which she appeared to have decided to go off and take care of or look for something but then changed her mind against it afterwards...”[/b] Almost as if compensating, she immediately started to recite much random facts about the events that occurred throughout the conversation[b] “...Eleven parts of her various stories conflict mutually in chronological sequences, five of them circularly.”[/b] She decided to leave out the parts about the ones which contradicted themselves [i]logically[/i](Turned into a hotdog? what.)[b] ”The support for the stairs leading the second floor is likely partially rotten. Might collapse the next time the crocodile fetches tea. ”[/b] That should raise the odds about enough, she thought. And then, almost as an insignificant afterthought, Leila added one last comment: [b] “A pot of liquid has also been boiling in the kitchen throughout the course of the latter half of our visit and hadn’t been attended to.[/b] 

That must have been one of the largest sequence of words she had delivered in a monologue in a very, very long time. She didn’t have many chances to do so since after the time when she was a bit obsessed with reciting decimal representations of transcendental numbers. Leila smiled weakly, looking at Hakuren, with the hope that at least [i]something[/i] in there was what he was looking for.

"I found the sweets far better than the tea. And you?"

She did not remember when exactly that question was dropped - perhaps before, perhaps after her rant. She only remembered that it was placed and not yet answered.

Might as well do that now.

[b]“The tea wasn’t bad.”[/b] She said. Her opinion was probably biased, though, since she was a fan of tea in general although really lacking the taste to distinguish good tea from bad tea; and also because of the fact that she only tried one of the sweets under the urging of the overly enthusiastic host.

The two of them continued to walk along the road. Do they call the investigation of the first household a success? Leila could barely tell.

She persisted to make efforts to resist the urge of kicking the cobblestones that littered the roads, and that of trying to peek over at the writings in Hakuren’s notebook.