"I'd like to think she'd consider me at least something of a friend," he said as he straightened up, again slowly so as not to startle. "But I wouldn't speak for her, though at the very least I apparently have the interesting and probably unprecedented challenge of figuring out how to teach her martial arts." To judge by how pleased he sounded, it was a challenge he more than welcomed.

"Two. Chibi Kami-sama, and Sephy. I've had them both for years now."

And they were probably atoms at best, at the moment. That grim thought threw him off his stride for a moment.