Chapter 6: The playdate

Ruko stood in the hallway, almost not moving from where she is standing. "Why?" Ruko asked herself, "Why am I the only one not feeling well since I first entered this school?" She remembered the times she had some positive feelings, like helping her grandmother, hanging out with Yuzuki and Hitoe, and having Tama as both her Lrig and her friend. But since she found out the truth about the Selector battles and the battle from Iona's fan event, she began to become distant from Selector battles and Iona. Ruko, feeling down, sits on the ground as she questions about herself, "Am I…really not worth being in this academy?"

She suddenly felt that her uniform is slightly tugged by someone. Ruko turns around notices that Hitsugi is behind her. "Are you alright? You didn't look so good," said Hitsugi. Ruko got back up on her feet and snaps herself out. "It was nothing, really," said Ruko, "Sorry I had you worried back there." Hitsugi reaches to Ruko's hand as she smiles at her. "Don't worry about it. There's still some time for our playdate. Namatame-san is holding the door for us. Come on, let's go." And they both walked to Room 4 before Chitaru closes the door.

Hitsugi and Ruko sat on their knees around the table as Chitaru sits on the couch. "So, how do we play this game?" asked Hitsugi. Ruko took out the playset sheet for the Wixoss cards from her deck and puts it on the table. "The first thing you need to do is to is to check your deck for a Level 0 Lrig card and put it face-down in front of you," Ruko instructed, "The second part is that one of us can decide who gets to go first. However, the person who gets the first turn can only draw one card until the next turn." "You mean it doesn't matter who goes first?" asked Hitsugi. "I thought there would be something like a colored dice that can decide who gets the first turn," said Chitaru. "We don't actually have any of those," Ruko said awkwardly. She then continues to give Hitsugi proper instructions about Wixoss, "The next step is…"


After an hour of working out, Tokaku soaks her head near the sink in the locker room. She then turns off the faucet and dries herself when she notices someone is standing beside her. "Hey there, Tokaku-san," greeted Haruki. "What do you want?" Tokaku asked after finishing washing her face. "What was up with you and Ruko-chan?" asked Haruki, "You didn't hurt her or anything, did ya?" Tokaku did not move after hearing it and coldly answered, "I thought I told you not to stick your nose in my business. It's not our job to have a bystander like her involved." Haruki shook her head back from what she had just heard. "Bystander? What are you talking about?" she asked. Tokaku sits in the bench behind her as she speaks, "Kominato does not have what it takes to be an assassin, nor she is the one we will kill. But, there should be a reason why she is transferred here." Haruki lowers her head as she starts to understand something, "That's probably one of the things why we're not allowed to tell Ruko-chan about this. But, Tokaku-san does have a point. None of us knew why she is attending to Myojo Academy."

Haruki then raises her head before continuing her chat with Tokaku. "Why aren't you at your room with Haru-chan and Isuke-sama?" she asked. "I'm not in the mood for something ridiculous as what they're doing," said Tokaku. Haruki took a bite from her Pocky stick and said, "So, Haru-chan and Isuke-sama are all alone in Room 1, eh? Looks like she might beat us to it." Tokaku slowly turns to Haruki and asked, "What do you mean by that?" "Didn't you hear from Nio? There's going to be a meeting for Class Black tonight," Haruki elucidated, "And it looks like Isuke-sama is trying to get herself a head start on Haru-chan…" Tokaku immediately stands up from the bench and ran out of the locker room to get back to the dorms.


"…Spell: Tri Signal." Ruko puts down the spell card face-up into the Check Zone on her playset. "Oh no, I lost again," cried Hitsugi. "You seemed to pretty good at playing this game, Kominato-san," said Chitaru. "I started to get better at playing it with my grandma," said Ruko. "When did you start playing this game?" asked Hitsugi. Ruko gathers up her cards as she talks to her classmates, "I first played it with a friend of mine after the night my brother, Ayumu, gave me a deck." "Does your brother play Wixoss, too?" Hitsugi asked again. "No," said Ruko as she pouted, "My brother gave the white deck to me because not only he thought I might make grandma worry, but he wants me to have some friends." Hitsugi feels impressed by Ruko's story as she reaches her stuffed bear next to her and turns to Chitaru. "I think it would be more fun if the other classmates would play Wixoss with us. Right, Namatame-san?"

Hitsugi notices that Chitaru is thinking about something as she puts her hand to her mouth. "What's wrong, Namatame-san?" asked Hitsugi. "I've been wondering," said Chitaru, "While you were playing with Kirigaya, how come you didn't use the card from last night?" Ruko looks down and did not say anything. She tightens her fists as she refused to answer. "Ruko-san?" Histugi began to feel curious about Ruko's sudden behavior. "What should I say?" Ruko silently asks herself, "They'll think I'm crazy if I show Iona to them." "It's alright, Ru," said Iona. Ruko lowers her arms as she takes the card out of her pocket. "They may not be Selectors, but they have some special…instincts." "Are you sure about this?" asked Ruko, "If they do see and hear you, things could get worse." Iona simply grinned and replied, "There's no need to fret. Just make sure they won't tell anyone about what they saw."

Ruko sighs as she raises her head in front of her new classmates. "Could you two promise not to tell anyone about this?" Both Hitsugi and Chitaru were left puzzled as they look at each other. Ruko places Iona at the center of the table and starts to introduce her Lrig to them. "Hitsugi-san. Namatame-san. This is my new Lrig, Iona-san..." The two roommates look at the card closely as they started to become skeptical. Chitaru suddenly notices something that is unexpected. The black Lrigs looks up at Chitaru and blinks and the princely girl falls back to the couch out of shock. "What is it, Namatame-san?" Hitsugi asked perplexedly. "I thought I saw the person in the card looking at me!" cried Chitaru. Hitsugi looks at the card again. Her eyes began to widen as she understands what her roommate meant. Iona looks at the small girl, smiles, and said, "Hello there."

Hitsugi yelps as she jumped from the floor after hearing the voice of the black Lrig. "The Lrig is alive!" exclaimed Hitsugi. "Yes, but she's still in the card," said Chitaru, "How can a person in a card actually move?" Ruko puts her finger close to her mouth and shushes at them. They both calmed down after hearing it. "I can explain…" said Ruko. And she began to tell them about the meaning of the 'Eternal Girl.'


Tokaku runs back to the dorms and heads upstairs. "Dammit, I knew I smell something suspicious about Inukai," she thoughts to herself, "I have to get to Ichinose before it's too late!" She hurries to the door of Room 1 with one arm reaching to the doorknob. Upon opening the door, Tokaku was shocked to see something unexpected. She sees Isuke sitting on the floor next to Haru's unconscious body. "Don't you think returning to your room so fast is a bit rude?" Isuke asked indecently. The blue-haired assassin walks forward as she angrily asks, "What are you doing?"


Haruki continues eating her Pocky stick to ease her boredom. "You're more than a schemer than I thought, Haruki-san," says Nio as she walks into the locker room, "You shouldn't have Isuke-sama beat you to it, but it would be a pain to have bad blood between you and your roommate, too." Haruki sighed and said, "It might be too late, though." "That's not necessarily true," said Nio as she grins, "You may not know this, but she has killed a decent amount of people." Haruki turns her head to Nio as she nibbles on her stick. "Who did? Azuma-san?" she asked. Nio grinned even more and replied, "No. I'm talking about…Haru Ichinose."

Haruki stands up and hits her on the head. "Hey, this isn't funny, man. Cut it out," she chastised, "Besides, didn't you tell us that she's the target?" "I'm telling the truth, hear me out! That girl is a devil!" says Nio as rubs her head, "She has killed both of her siblings and her parents." Haruki takes another Pocky stick from her small red box. "I don't think it is normal, killing your family members like that." Nio keeps on grinning and noted, "Trust me, no matter how many enemies are there, she would mow them all down. That's how dangerous she is."

Haruki takes another bite while thinking of Nio's words, "Haru-chan didn't look that dangerous to me at all. Does that mean I'm wrong about her? But she looked like she was depending on Azuma." Something then pops into Haruki's head. "What about Ruko-chan?" she asked, "She's not a killer or anything, is she?" "No, she's not," Nio replied, "But she does have a troubled past." Haruki raised one eyebrow and asked, "Troubled, how?" Nio covers her mouth as she was almost about to laugh, "She just told us her terrible life, right in front of us in the first day." Haruki shook her head in disappointment after hitting Nio in the head again. "Not cool," she said in a serious tone, "You laugh at someone's troubled life? You're so low." Nio rubs her head to recover her bump before facing the tall student again. "By the way," says Nio, "You've got a lot of siblings too, right?" Haruki angrily kick Nio in the ankle and caused the little trickster to fall down. "Don't ever stick your nose in other people's businesses." Nio gets up on her knees and salutes lightly, "R-roger that! I'll keep that in mind!"

Haruki closes in on the blond-haired girl and intimidates her, "Something tells me that you're the type to know everything about Haru, Azuma, Ruko, and me too." "No, you're wrong," Nio denied nervously. Haruki leans towards the blonde-haired girl with a cold glare. "Let me give you three little things you need to know," the tomboy says intimately, "One, I was raised to be a good girl, so no matter who Haru was if she is the target, I will finish her. Two, I don't know what kind of stunt you're trying to pull on Ruko, but I'll make sure no one hurts someone like her. And three, don't hate me."

"Roger that," Nio replied. Haruki walks away from her as she heads back to her dorm room. "Haru Ichinose. Ruko Kominato. Who are you two, really?"


"Really? That's how you become an eternal girl?" asked an astounded Hitsugi. Ruko nodded and said, "Yes. And none of the other Selectors and Lrigs didn't know about the horrible truth either." "That must have been why you tried to stop Kirigaya from opening her deck last night, because you didn't want her to meet the same fate like one of your friends did," Chitaru said notably. "Are you actually okay with this, Iona-san?" Hitsugi asked Iona. "Of course," the Lrig said stoically, "I wanted to find someone who is worthy of battling other Selectors. And now I have."

Chitaru looks at Ruko with pity after learning about Ruko's days as a Selector. "I'm sorry about what happened to your other Lrig, Tama," she said. Ruko lowers her head in woe since she doesn't feel like herself since Tama left her. Hitsugi walks to her and puts her hand on her shoulder. "Don't be sad, Ruko-san," Hitsugi said kindly, "I'm sure you will be able to find Tama someday." Ruko raises her head and looks at Hitsugi after listening to her comforting words. "Thank you," said Ruko as she smiles. Chitaru looks at the time on the alarm clock and stood from the couch. "Kirigaya, I'm afraid the playdate is over," she said. They looked at the time and noticed it's already passed 6 p.m.

"Oh, no! I've got to get back to Room 7," cried Ruko. She puts Iona back in her pocket and picks up her deck before heading to the door. "Come back and visit us whenever you feel like it," said Hitsugi. "See you tomorrow," said Ruko. She opened the door and leaves the dorm room.

By the time she got to the hallway, she noticed that Room 1 is open. "That's strange," Ruko thought to herself, "Why is Azuma-san's room still open?" She walks slowly toward the room without making any sound. Suddenly, she heard a voice coming from the room, "You're a virgin, aren't you?" Ruko stopped after hearing it and recognizes whose voice it was. "Was that…Isuke-san?" She then heard footsteps that are closing in on her. "This is bad," she said quietly, "I can't let her see me for what I had heard."

She quickly looks around before Isuke sees her and notices the door next to Room 1. She runs to the door and quickly hides behind it. Ruko then squatted and covers her mouth. She listens to Isuke's voice as she leaves from the room. "Isuke is leaving. Both my mouth and nose hurt. Don't forget to turn off the water. Later." After Isuke closes the door, she looks around the hallway to check for any eavesdroppers. "Funny..." said Isuke, "I thought I heard someone trying to get into this room. Probably my imagination." She walks to the room across Room 1 and went back in before closing the door behind her.

Ruko uncovers her mouth and exhales after Isuke went back to Room 2. "That was a close one," Ruko said to herself, "I thought I was going to get hurt if I went in there." "Why didn't you go in?" asked Iona. Ruko takes Iona out of her pocket and looks at her. "Weren't you going to see what was happening between Azuma and Inukai? You might learn how to defend yourself," said Iona. Ruko sighs and silently answered, "How can I protect myself if I face someone like Azuma-san and Isuke-san? I'm not as strong as any of them." "If so, then why were you about to walk in? You could have helped this Azuma girl before something bad might happen to her or this Ichinose person," Iona says serenely. Ruko shook her head and defensively replied, "I said I'm not strong enough to go against them! Why would you let me get involved in something like this?"

"Hey there, Kominato-chan." Ruko raised her head and sees Suzu playing a game of Shogi by herself while Kouko is sitting in the desk, writing notes on her notebook. "Care to play a game of Shogi with me? Kouko-chan is pretty busy, so I thought you might join in," Suzu said brightly. Ruko raises her eyebrows as she realized what she did. She just went in the wrong room without even knocking.


*Note: For those who are reading this, I do not own Selector Infected/Spread Wixoss and Riddle Story of Devil. Both of these shows belong to their respective owners.