Chapter 8: Weapons and an Answer; Part 2

Previously on The Hiraga Twins…

The strawberry-blonde raised a brow. "There is absolutely no way that something that long is what your family would have as a saying."

Atsuko merely shook her head and shrugged. She wasn't lying, nor was she exaggerating about the saying. How she remembered that entire thing, she had absolutely no idea. Era chuckled then her hazel eyes seemed to have darkened a slight bit as she started to walk past Atsuko.

"Well, then do take care. And be sure to keep a better eye on your little bunny. Lest you want her to get hurt?"

First P.O.V. (Atsuko)

At that moment, my entire body froze. Whatever thought process I had going on then, was thrown completely off track. All sorts of red flags were being waved with red lights flaring, bright and loud. The only question that was being even remotely visible, and just as loud, was: 'How?!'

'How the ever-loving-fuck did she figure that out?! She's never seen me in person before. Plus, I've only met up with Lady Ortega a total of— what?! Five? Maybe ten hours! And that doesn't even count the three days and four nights that I was under her medical care. So how does she know my connection with Katie?'

Right then, as I regained control of my body, I turned around towards the direction in which that Era bitch had gone, only to find that the strawberry-blonde had disappeared completely into the crowd. I couldn't care less that I, Atsuko Hiraga, was scowling with my own navy blues darkening and sharpening. What I didn't completely understand as to why I was behaving this way, but I also figured that I did know the reason subconsciously. That, however, was not my main bloody concern as I simply made a promise to myself.

'I will NOT let anyone bring Katie any sort of harm! I can promise that! I would not be a Hiraga if I couldn't do that much at least. Besides,' My right fist clenched and un-clenched when I remembered that small yet empty smile she gave me when last night. 'She should not have to go through what she went through already…'

But… to be honest, I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep that promise…

I was so deep in my promise, that I didn't even notice Saito and Louise calling out to me. It wasn't until my twin placed his hand on my right shoulder. Next thing I knew, Saito was on the ground, face in the dirt, with me kneeling on the small of his back and held his left arm outstretched towards me, nearly bent backwards out of its shoulder socket. He howled in pain and surprise and the little Lady kept ordering me to release him. The people walking around us making a wide berth, not wanting to get involved.

"OW! OW-OW-OW-OW-OW! Atsuko! Let go! That hurts!"

"Cat— Atsuko! Stop that! Release your brother! This is an order!"

Blinking, my scowl disappeared and was replaced with surprised confusion as I stared down at my squealing twin brother. "Oh." Getting off of Saito, I had released his arm. "Whoops… sorry about that, Sai-chan." Then I frowned a bit, already remembering why it's a bad idea for people to sneak up from behind me. "Although, you should know better than to walk up behind me when I'm deep in thought."

"Yeah, I'm starting to remember that and why."

Louise, standing in front of us, furrowed her thin pink brows in thought and questioned me. "But you never did anything like before, so what was different now?"

I shrugged. "Simple. I was pissed off."

"Huh?"

I shook my head. "Forget it." I turned to Saito and eyed the sheathed sword strapped to his back. "Did you find a good sword?"

Saito shrugged. "Sort of. Louise was able to buy me this really cheap one. Said she couldn't afford any other" He swung the scabbard blade from his back and pulled the blade out a bit. I saw how much it was rusting. I huffed. "Well, I can see why. With the amount of rust it's getting, it's a wonder why the seller didn't just toss it to the scrap heap. At any rate, you had much better luck than I did."

Saito had already placed the sword back in its scabbard before swinging it over his shoulder when the Lil' Shrimp decided to make a pit stop at a small tea house. The building, while looking quite small and cramped from the outside, was actually quite spacious inside (you know, like those magical tents in the Harry Potter series). We took our seat at a window table and continued our talk while Louise ordered for a cup of rose hip tea for herself, a tall glass of sweet barley iced tea for myself, and a mug of non-alcoholic ale for Saito (which is kind of weird considering the place is a tea house), as well as a shared plate of various flavored macaroons for the three of us.

"You didn't find anything that you liked? At any of the local weaponry stalls?" Louise raised a single brow with her inquiries as she sipped some of her tea. "You mean absolutely nothing at all?"

Munching on what seemed to be a cherry flavored macaroon, I shrugged with my reply, my hand covering my mouth. "Weapon wise? No, not really. I mean, it's not that I found the ones at the display stalls worthless, but I think… I think I want to go by one of our family sayings… at least this once…" I took a gulp of my barley as my brother made his own inquiry quietly, pointing at the bag of goodies sitting on my lap. "Besides, it's fine. I'm willing to wait for a blade of my own. Whether I can make it, or I find it."

"And you bought nothing?" He had already gulped down nearly half of his own beverage.

I rolled my eyes. "I said 'weapon wise'. That doesn't mean that I didn't buy anything." I looked away, slightly abashed, as I rubbed my right earlobe with my hand. "I mean… I might have gotten a wee bit out of hand when buying, um, sweets…" I whispered at the end.

Saito smirked teasingly. "What was that last bit, Atsu-chan? Hmm~? What was that~? Did your natural sweet tooth make you go on a spending spree~?"

I essentially hissed at my twin, flushing quite a bit. "Shut it!"

Louise raised a brow as her lips glided into a small smile, obviously finding some sort of amusement in this. "What's so wrong with having a sweet tooth?"

I let out a huff of relief. "Thank you, Louise-"

"Although I do find it a bit surprising that she has one at all." I then let out an indignant 'hey' when the Shrimp said that. "I always figured that she liked things a bit more bitter."

I reflexively made a face at the word 'bitter' while Saito explained with a pleased grin on his face. "Nah, not really. Even though my sister doesn't really favor bitter treats, she doesn't exactly favor extremely sweet treats either. Rather, Atsuko prefers natural sweets, like candied yams, sugar canes, or plain ol' honey." Saito shrugged. "As for myself, I don't think I have any real preferences when it comes to treats."

Louise hummed as she took a sip from her tea before looking at me. "So?"

My brow twitched. I know what she's asking, but still… "So… what?"

"How much did you buy?" Her pink eyes make a quick glance at the leather bag on my lap. "And, please, tell me that that bag isn't filled to the brim with treats."

My face felt flushed, I blew a small raspberry as I looked away. "What? Pffft—No!" From my left peripheral view, I could see Saito giving me the look— You know the one. That one look that your sibling or cousin or friend gives you when they don't believe your sorry-lying-ass— like the U.S.A's FBI investigating Hillary Clinton… still don't really understand what that was about, but hey, you get the idea. Point is, he doesn't believe me. And from the quick glance I sent to Louise, neither did she.

I huffed. "Okay, no, I didn't buy enough to fill the stupid bag…" I lifted the tall glass of iced barley tea to my lips and took a sip of the cool, sweet liquid. "Besides, I don't really have an acute understanding of this world's monetary system—"

Saito hummed, holding his chin as he pretended to think. "And if it weren't for that," he pointed a finger-gun at me in such a dorky way, with the same dorky-brother grin. "You'd definitely go on a sweets spending spree!"

With no other way to defend my honor of sweets, I stuck my tongue out at Saito like a child. Saito laughed while Louise rolled her eyes with what I thought was a really, really, really small smile (Goddamn, the world just might be ending!). Nearly finishing her tea, the pinkette stood up and walked up to the cashier as she spoke back to us. "Come along, we're leaving. As a treat for the others and Miss Ortega, we'll take the rest of the macaroons in a box to go."

After gulping down the rest of his non-alcoholic ale and my own iced sweet barely tea (me getting a minor brain freeze, which by the way—FUCK!), and one box of assorted macaroons later, the three of us arrived to the spot where our horses were tied. Before we untied them from their posts, Louise turned to me with a slight frown adorning her face, her pink eyes flicking with something like unease, looking at me but at the same time not.

Saito looked at her. "What's the matter, Louise?"

I raised a single brow as the Pink Shrimp grumbled her response. "Are you sure that you're willing to wait?" I blinked twice. She elaborated. "You know… you said you're willing to wait to either find or make a blade. But, does it necessarily need to be a blade?" I hummed while Saito put on his thinking face. Uh-oh, that's not good. Saito's actually using his brain to think. "I mean, think back to your fight with Guich: while your brother, Saito, fought with the sword you requested for him, you fought with a small staff of sorts. Why?"

I blinked once. Twice. Then thrice. 'Huh…'

"Well, to be honest, I wasn't really thinking when I requested to borrow those weapons for us. I mean, for Saito it was easier to get him the sword because back home he was slowly but surely learning our family's swordsmanship. I, on the other hand, was actually already being taught how to fight with other weapons — you know, like the bo-staff from before — mostly dual weapons, like batons, sai… uh, tonfas, and knives— what else?"

Saito started to rub his chin, thinking before pointing a finger gun at his sister. "I think you were trying to learn that one chain-weapon-thingy." He shrugged carelessly, eyes closed. "But I don't really remember the name of it though. As for the kendo classes? Pfft!" The ravenette boy blew a small raspberry in amusing remembrance. "No matter what you did, you just never seem to be able to get to class on time! The complete opposite of how you usually are!"

I shrugged just as carelessly, my navy eyes still on our small pink charge, choosing to be deaf over what Saito said. "Point is; For that fight, the bo-staff was an automatic choice because of how difficult those lessons were for me, so that weapon was at the front of my mind. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I was knocked on the head or had gotten poked. Hard." I rubbed the crown of my head, finding it hard not to wince at the memory of those lessons. And that sadistic teacher. What was his name? "And, yeah, I can work with other weapons. But I think that since we, being my twin brother and I, are currently stuck in a semi-second-world world, then I would feel relatively better if I had some sort of bladed weapon that I either bought or forged myself."

The Valliere girl raised a brow. "And none of the weapon stalls within the two-block radius I set up for you had anything that caught your eye?"

I shook my head, myself having what Saito later told me was a sort of 'innocent' cat-like smile. "Nope." The 'p' ending with a loud pop. "Although I was recommended by someone to go check out this one weapons-blacksmith shop. But if I don't have anything else to use as a weapon, then I'll use my fists. You know what that is, right? Hand-to-hand combat?"

Louise flushed in irritation at that. Then suddenly, she turned back to that pink Medusa: forked tongue and snake hair, etc. as she hissed at me while I smirked. "I know what it means to fight with your fists!" She went back to normal, with what I have to assume is small worry and contemplation. "But if that is going to be the case for you, then wouldn't it make sense to buy some gloves and wrappings?"

"Yeah, but we could buy those next…" I blink, making a confused face, looking at Saito. "Sorry, what's today again?"

My twin shrugged, as forgetful as myself, while Louise rolled her pink eyes and huffed. "It's 'Void-day'."

I snapped my fingers once. "Yeah! Void-day! We can buy the gloves next Void-day."

Louise hummed before nodding. "Very well. Then we can check out that blacksmith shop on the same day."

'Cool.' Saito and I gave an affirmative nod, we then proceeded to mount the horses after we untied them, Saito and Louise on their chestnut mare and I on my straw color buckskin stallion. From where I sat on the saddle, I looked back out at the crowded street, opposite of the town exit, looking for that girl. Just thinking about her, her warning about Miss Ortega, makes my blood boil. I growled, softly. In fact, I had growled so softly that normally even Saito wouldn't have been able to hear me and with all the noise, I didn't expect for the horse to hear me.

The equine whinnied and uneasily pawed the ground, but no real rough movements. Feeling a little bit guilty, I leaned forward a bit and gave the young buck a gentle pat on the neck, as I whispered softly in the direction of it's ear turned my way. "Hey, fella. Sorry about that. Just a lil' on edge, not your fault." I sat straight and directed the horse via reins towards the exit following Saito and Louise. "I'll visit you after dinner and give you a treat, as a reward for behaving well today. Thank you."

Third P.O.V.

After returning to the Academy and leaving the horses to the stable boy, just as we were about to enter the dormitory tower where we stayed, Atsuko saw Mister Jesse from the corner of my eye, making her remember that she had to meet up with someone. Although, Jesse seemed kinda out of it. 'Hmm…' The caramel-brunette turned to her brother and the Pink Shrimp and told them that she'd meet up with them later.

Louise raised a brow. "Why? Where are you going?"

Atsuko fibbed. A little. "Miss Ortega asked me earlier to meet with her in the library, said she needed to talk."

"Can't it wait?" Saito whined, his eyes were closed so he didn't see the look of irritation his sister was sending his way. "I'm getting kinda hungry!"

Atsuko rolled her eyes as she reached into her bag and pulled out the wrapped candied yams. She ripped off a piece and handed it to him. "Here. Eat this. It should stave off your insatiable appetite."

Taking the piece, the younger ravenette twin began to eat the piece while the older twin turned to Louise, who was watching the entire thing with… a jealous look? 'Weird…'

"Anyway, since you are our 'Master', would it be alright with you if I went?"

The pinkette sighed. "Yeah, sure. Go ahead. Just be sure to arrive in time for dinner. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Heya, Mister Jesse!"

Atsuko guessed that Jesse wasn't paying attention to… anything really, 'cause— hahaha, boy, can that guy jump! It seemed like he jumped almost four feet in the air! The brunette knows that it's probably not nice to laugh at the poor guy, but it's not like he was working or anything— I mean, he was, Atsuko thought… like he was just standing at the back of an open wagon, with a box of supplies loosely in his hands, looking off at nothing. Thankfully, he didn't drop it.

"Sweet Goddess! Wha' da HELL is wrong wit'ya?!" Jesse turned towards the teen, olive face red with excitement. With the way he was flushing so much, the cat-like twin could see that the valet boy actually had some faint freckles on his cheeks. "Ya can't jus' go about walkin' up behind people an' spookin' 'em out'ta their skins!"

Atsuko snickered. "Well, sure I can. And I'm pretty sure I just did that!"

The lavender-head started to grumble. "Whatever! Anyway, wha' ya want!"

"Oh! Well, just wanted to ask if you're alright?" He gave her an incredulous look with his neutral green eyes. The brunette rolled her navy eyes, "Well? Are you okay? You were looking really out of it."

Jesse then looked to the ground, his face tight with uncertainty. Atsuko almost didn't expect him to say anything, until he actually opened his mouth and spoke with a tone she has heard from herself before. "I-it's jus' that… have ya ever had something ya had to keep as a secret? And ya wanted to tell it to the people ya trust? Right? But can't?" He stopped, collecting his thoughts. Atsuko allowed him and waited for him to continue. 'Yes. Always. Even now, I still do.'

"Like, da more ya wanna tell 'em, da harder an' scarier it gets— a-an' it—it get just so, so heavy righ' here…" She watched as he lifted a hand to his chest, clenching at his shirt. "A-an' som'times it gets so heavy that ya can't…"

"That you can't breathe, or that you can't think right." Atsuko knew that Jesse was looking right at her, surprised, but the brunette already felt herself looking elsewhere, a different time. "That eventually you ended staying awake for so many sleepless nights. You end up staring at the ceiling of your room, watching every crack that appears. You go on long midnight 'strolls', hoping that if you're physically tired, then maybe your brain will just shut down and let you sleep." The younger teen started to remember doing exactly that; walking the empty, poorly lit neighborhood streets; at one point doing that until nearly the crack of dawn for an entire week, only getting three-and-a-half to four hours of sleep each time. "Sometimes that heaviness attacks you during the daytime; during work, study, with family, with friends, or when you're just trying to relax. It sneaks up on you and can makes you feel like absolute shit and so fucking tired!" She clenched her fists until she felt a slight prick. "And all because of one stupid secret, that was so small before! Then the longer you kept it, the more it no longer seemed small. But was in fact so large and seemingly terrifying!"

Atsuko closed her far-away, navy blues and breathed. She then looked back at the valet, suddenly feeling exhausted. "Does that answer your question?"

Jesse looked at her with surprise, then gratitude as he nodded. "Yeah. It did." He looked up at the sky, seeming more relief. "Funny enough, when ya started to go off like that, it felt like through your words my shoulders just became a little more lighter. Is that weird?"

Atsuko shrugged. "Dunno. Never happened with me. But let me tell you this, Mister Jesse." He looks back at her. "That weight won't lessen anymore than it already has until you tell the people you trust what it is you are holding onto. But until you are ready, I'm okay with being your companion in all this. I won't ask what your secret is, I won't go digging up your past. I'll wait. As your friend, I'll wait."

Jesse looked straight at Atsuko, with a look of surprise, wondering. 'What the hell has she gone through? This caramel kid is younger than me—maybe only a year or two younger, yet here she is, with incredible understandin'...'

Instead of thanking her immediately, Jesse tentatively asked, "I'm… I'm your… friend?"

The brunette raised a brow. "Yeah! Unless you don't really want to be friends?"

The valet rapidly shook his head. "Nah, this is fine. Thank you. And much obliged, Ms. Atsuko." The younger teen nodded back, "Yeah. You can drop the honorific with me. We're friends now, Jesse."

The young man hummed before he spoke again, teasingly. "By the by, don't ya have an appointment wit' a certain, violet-eyed someone~? Wit' loooonng chocolate brown hair an' real fair skin prob'ly as soft as a sweet peach~?"

Atsuko's face flushed, but pulled in the reins. She hissed at the older boy. "Shut up, Jesse! And thank you for reminding me about that. Did this talk do you any good?"

Jesse nodded.

"Alright. Then I better get going. She said at the library right?"

"YeP. She didn't say what floor though."

And with that, Atsuko walked away towards the main building, crossing fingers, praying that Katie would agree.

Once she arrived at the library, Atsuko noticed that there were a few more students in there than the other night that she'd been there. She also notices that she recognizes practically none of the Noble students on the first floor and figures that there is less of a chance for the brats on the second floor. Just as she was about to walk off to begin her search for the certain brunette, the caramel girl felt someone tapping her on her shoulder, and since she didn't want to get in trouble just yet, Atsuko reigned in the urge to do what she had done to Saito earlier in town: flipping them over her shoulder and pulling their arm towards her and press it against their back.

And suppress the urge she did. Instead, Atsuko turned around and actually recognized a blonde girl with huge hair-drills, who wore a second-year cloak. 'Oh, I know her… sort of… but what's her name again?'

"Hey, you're that Familiar girl belonging to Louise the Zero, right?"

Atsuko felt a twitch at the corner of her lip when she heard her say that. 'So that's really the slandering name this student body is giving the Shrimp? I thought the redhead bombshell was just messing around in that class.'

The caramel didn't realize that her face was slowly turning into a scowl, that is until she noticed the blonde before her was starting to show some uneasy. Atsuko sighed as she rubbed the back of her neck. 'Easy there, Atsuko. Why are you even getting protective of the Pink Shrimp?'

"Yes, I'm one of the two Familiars belonging to Miss Louise Valliere. My name is Atsuko Hiraga. And you are?"

The blonde huffed. "Well, the manners with you and your brother! Surely you remember me?!" Atsuko gave the girl a blank look. "I'm the other girl besides Miss Katherina Ortega, to whom you and your twin brother had exposed Guiche's debauchery!"

"Oh, I do remember you." Atsuko spoke matter-a-factly. "I just don't remember your name."

The blonde huffed. "Seriously! Well, then, you best remember this name well, since it could help you out later in the future!" Atsuko diverted her eyes, just a bit, as she thought sardonically. 'Yeah, i doubt that…'

"My name, Miss Hiraga, is Montmorency Margarita La Fère de Montmorency!" The caramel brunette raised a brow. 'Her first name is also her last name?' "But you can call me "Montmorency'."

"Right…" Atsuko stretched out the sound of the word. "By the way, did you need something? Or~?"

"Oh! That's right!" Montmorency gently slams a fist into her open palm, a light bulb turning on, as if remembering something. "Miss Ortega is waiting for you at the furthest back table of the second floor."

"Oh! Thanks! Have a good evening, Miss Montmorency."

Quickly, Atsuko climbed up the stairs to the second floor and searched for the table Katie could be at. There weren't that many students laundering on the second floor as on the first floor. All except for one bluenette student Atsuko knew as 'Tabitha', the caramel brunette didn't know any of the few there. After walking through the shelves all the way to the back, Atsuko found the table and there sat the very same brunette she was looking for. On the wall behind the table were some windows showing that where they sat was facing the westbound part of the surrounding mountain range.

From what she could tell, the twilight hours were about to end. In fact, the first evening star was already beginning to shine some ways above the mountain peak. Atsuko hadn't realized how late it had gotten. The caramel brunette turned away from the window and proceeded to walk towards the Noble bastard girl, who's back faced the window-wall, which in turn was against her.

Suddenly, a mischievous thought popped into the Hiraga girl's head and an equally mischievous grin spread across her lips. Proceeding to stalk up to the girl stealthily, Atsuko now stood just behind Katie, looking over her shoulder. Although she figured that the girl was studying for whatever reason, Atsuko couldn't tell for sure because the writing in that book was nothing more than mumbo-jumbo to her. Atsuko scrunched up her face, being careful not to make any noise. 'So this is the language that Miss Katherina Ortega will probably agree to teach me to read and write? Thank God I don't have to learn to speak it. That would be a nightmare!'

Atsuko then leaned down, just above the younger girl's left shoulder, and with a grin, softly blew on the outer shell of the girl's ear as she whispered with an unintentional huskiness, "Hello there, Bunny~."

Initially, Atsuko thought that Katie would have given the stereotypical girly shriek or a squeal or even a tiny "Eep!". That was not the case, however. Especially when the younger brunette's first reaction was actually a strong left back-hand across the older girl's face. The smack was loud and shortly echoed.

With a small yelp, Atsuko stumbled backwards and fell on her ass. Holding the left side of her face, Atsuko held back the yowling that was beginning to well-up inside of her throat, eyes screwed shut. As she rubbed her stinging cheek, Atsuko could have never known the brief fearful glare that masked Katie's face, until she realized her mistake.

"Oh, my Goddess! Miss Atsuko!" Katie gasped, panic covering her face, as she quickly went over to Atsuko, who still sat on the floor. "I'm so, so, so sorry! Are you okay?!"

Even with her eyes closed, Atsuko could already imagine the panicky, guilty look on Katie's face. 'Well, that wasn't embarrassing at all…' the older brunette thought to herself, sarcastically, feeling the sense of embarrassment enveloping her.

Atsuko nodded nonetheless, peaking at the young Noble with a single navy eye. "Yes- I'm fine." The older brunette could see that the younger girl was absolutely flustered and embarrassed, yet couldn't help think Katie was cute, what with how hard the lavender-eyed girl was blushing. 'Okay, yeah. She is cute.'

"Again, I'm really, really sorry, Miss Atsuko!" Katie was now covering her flushed face after helping Atsuko stand back up. "It's just that, you startled me a-and you had that weird voice and you said that word in that voice a-a-and— w-well, that's a word that, um, Miss Era would use on me whenever she catches me… by herself…"

Katie had whispered that last part so quietly that Atsuko thought she might have misheard her. And now she wished she had misheard her. 'That's right- that Era chick used that word 'bunny' to describe Miss Ortega.' When Atsuko realized that that was an unwanted pet name, it made the older brunette frown in anger. Which then turned into a frown of concern. 'And Miss Ortega said "whenever she catches me by herself"... I am going to-'

"Does she catch you often?"

"Huh? Oh, n-no. Not too often. Why?"

'Good…' "No real reason. Just a bit worried." Atsuko then became silent, deep in thought. In fact she was so deep in thought that she had subconsciously placed on a perfect poker face and was clenching and unclenching her right fist. This made Katie begin to worry.

The younger brunette waved a hand in front of Atsuko's and received no reactions. Then Katie placed a hand on Atsuko's right arm, just above the elbow joint, which resulted in Atsuko grabbing Katie by her wrist as an automatic reaction. When the young Noble yelped loud enough for the older girl to hear, Atsuko snapped out of her thoughts and released the younger girl's hand.

"Sorry. Are you alright? Did I hurt you?"

Katie shook her head as she rubbed her wrist, amazed that the girl before her didn't actually make any bruises, nor was her wrist sore. "No, I'm fine. Though I shouldn't be too surprised."

Atsuko raised a questioning brow before taking a seat at their table, her eyes closed, almost as if knowing. "Oh? What do you mean?"

Katie took her seat next to the older brunette, facing her, shyly lightly biting her lip. Atsuko had briefly opened a single navy eye, watching the girl and she found herself liking it when the young Mage did that. Finding it both cute and sexy. Atsuko then proceeded to mentally slap herself to the equivalent of kingdom come.

"Well~, when Miss Valliere and I were tending to you and your brother, Mister Saito, I noticed some… other scarring. There weren't many scars on your brother, but there were enough more on you to raise some concerns with me." The younger brunette shook her head, as if scolding herself. "But with how intrusive my schooling schedule is into my personal life, it slipped my mind and I wasn't able to ask you about it."

The young Mage looked back up at the older brunette sitting next to her. "I'm not sure when you intend to tell me about it yourself, I only know that I have to be patient. Just know that my curiosity about those scars of yours did not, and will not, affect my decision regarding your favor. Got that?"

Atsuko opened her eyes and, with a hint of amusement in her navy pools, smirked softly. "Crystal."

Katie sent a small glare in response to the older girl's smirk, before sighing, getting serious, "Okay, well, on to business!" Turning the other way in her seat, the young Mage bought her satchel onto her lap as she rummaged through and brought out certain items on to the table. Books, paper, writing quills, an inking well, etc.

Atsuko suddenly became a small chibi with a pair of cat ears and a tail poofing into existence on her. She then tilted her head to the side rather cutely with a cat's smile on her lips. "Hey, Miss Ortega, what's that ya got there, nya?"

The younger brunette raised a brow at the older brunette. "What are you? Forgetful? These are the necessary tools for me to teach you to read and write. You know, so you can understand what you are reading whenever you are trying to find a clue back to your world?" The young Noble girl huffed as she shook her head, muttering under her breath, "I had pegged you to be the more focused and at the ready between you and your twin brother, but clearly, you are just as scatterbrained as he is."

Chibi Atsuko returned to normal with a tick mark and a twitching eyebrow. Smacking lips, Atsuko crossed her arms and looked away with a small frown. "Yeah, well, okay! But, like, j-just start the lesson alre- Wait! You agreed?!"

In response to the caramel-brunette's flabbergasted expression, Katie sent her a deadpanned look. "Well, I'm still sitting here with you, with writing tools on the table, and a somewhat complete lesson planned laid out in my head… so, yes, I would suppose that means that I agreed. Now," she waved a hand at the open book, paper, and quills on the table, "Can we start already?"

Pushing through her surprise, Atsuko nodded.

Silently, the girls prepared their material when the older teen spoke up, although never really looking at the younger one. "Hey, Miss Ortega?"

Katie glanced at the older girl and she could see that the other was blushing ever so slightly as she played with a piece of her side-bangs. 'Cute.' "Yes, Miss Hiraga?"

The older brunette quietly gulped. "Um… T-thank you… for helping me with this. So, yeah! Thank you!"

The younger girl blinked thrice times before a soft smile appeared. "You are very welcome, Miss Atsuko."

A/N: I'm not dead… next chapter will be a while. Take care everyone!