December 24th

Christmas Eve.

The evening day had become partially cloudy but the persistent sun continued to peek out as it slowly crawled across the sky like a spider in its web. The short moment of snowfall had halted, disappointing those anticipating for it to follow through until Christmas day, those including Hashimoto Marina and Tomoka.

They were shopping for ingredients in Shizume City for dinner at their uncles tomorrow, but even so, the twins dreaded meeting with him.

"Stop sulking. We're already in the city so there's no turning back." Tomoka frowned as she looked at Marina, who gives her a pouty look.

"We can just shop for things for ourselves instead" She mutters, glancing away and covering her nose and mouth with her scarf. "It's not like he's waiting for us or anything anyways."

"Don't say things like that, he's our uncle. You know we have to go see him every once in a while." Tomoka retorts, but she understood and felt the same way as Marina with that uncomfortable, anxious feeling residing within both of them; however, the sisters knew that they owed him for taking care of them in the absence of their parents, whoever they were.

"I don't care, let's just go. I'm cold." Marina brushes off her feelings and pulls Tomoka behind her. They didn't find any trouble maneuvering through the crowds of people around them as they made their way to their destination.

"Even after all these years, we still don't even know what kind of food he likes to eat." Marina grumbles and crosses her arms as she glances into other stores as they walk passed them.

"I thought we agreed that he wasn't a picky eater." Tomoka says, pulling out her phone to check the time, keeping her sister within her peripheral so she wouldn't get lost.

"Erk...I guess..." Marina responds with doubt and stops at the edge of the crosswalk, the light just turning red and she looks around, unaware that Tomoka was still on her phone and hadn't looked up since she reading an article covering details on people going missing in the city. At the same moment, Marina looks at the other side of the street on her left, her back turned to her sister, observing the different people around her and she catches sight of a woman with shimmering blue hair hinted with soft purple within. Periwinkle she would describe. Not too blue or too purple. She was familiar with one other person with that hair color. The Iridescent King, Takahiro Shizuka, the 6th King.

Eeh, but that doesn't mean it's her. They can be anybody since I can't really see their face. She thought and then remembered that Shizuka had a strange hair style that stood out more among anyone else, with the left half of it jagged and short and the other layered, long and silky. It made her doubt herself again since she thought of it. It felt like months since they last saw her, but really, it was only a few days ago when they were accepted into the Iridescent.

"Ne? Doesn't that woman over there remind you of Takahiro-san? She has the same pretty blue hair like her." Marina asks Tomoka, turning to her right to look at her sister only to find her still looking at her phone and taking a step onto the busy street, an incoming car quickly approaching. Her heart and throat tightens with fear but she manages to shout with everything she had to call her out. "TOMOKA!"

She jumps at Marina's voice, her phone nearly dropping from her hands and snapping back to reality, but everything was in slow motion and Tomoka sluggishly turned her face opposite from the approaching car to look at Marina, who was reaching a hand out to grab her. Please, please let me make it in time! She screams in her head. Her body was moving slower than reality and her heart pumps slow and hard through her ears, until an arm rushes passed her at a speed almost like a flash from a camera, and grabbing hold of her sister, snatching her off the street and pulling her to the side away from the people piling up by the crosswalk but they all witnessed the scene and were just as shocked as she was from what happened.

"Eh?! Did you guys see that?" Someone behind Marina asks.

"I don't know if it was just me but I swear that guy moved super fast, like lightning. Don't you think?"

"Yeah! God, that was crazy!"

"Should we call an ambulance? She might be hurt."

More mutters erupt around her but she paid no mind to them as she stares at the stranger who saved her sister, a man with black hair streaked with red, his eyes were crystal rose pink color that glowed even though he faced away from the sun and he looked about in his mid-possibly late twenties, maybe even younger.

Tomoka opens her eyes, seeming to have black out in the short moment that everything had happened and feels an arm around her shoulders. Her back is pressed against something warm and she catches a nice scent of cologne.

"Whoa, that was close." A man's voice speaks with a relieved tone and Tomoka was released from his grip. She sees Marina rushing towards her and embraces her tightly.

"Tomoka you idiot! Don't look at your phone when you're walking! You could've gotten hit!" She clenches her teeth to hold back her tears while Tomoka was frozen in place, comprehending what happened and then patting her sisters back.

"I'm...I'm sorry." She replies calmly, but she was confused and jittery, feeling the people at the crosswalk staring at her and she avoided the looks, a little eased that they off to the side instead. "What happened though?"

Marina pulls away from her and sniffs, looking over her other half and feeling relieved that she wasn't injured.

"You just walked out in the street and a car almost hit you! If...if it wasn't..." She couldn't finish her answer and looked passed Tomoka at the man behind her, pressing her lips together and holding back her tears again. "If it wasn't for this man." Tomoka then remembers being pulled backwards by someone strong, but everything was so fast that she can only recall that moment. She then follows Marina's gaze, finding a tall man standing behind her and her sister bowing to him.

"Arigatou! Hontou ni arigatou gouzaimashita!" Marina says with a voice slightly raised and the man was drawn aback, "Thank you so much for saving my sister!" She continues.

"I-Ii e, kinishinaide." He says after a short pause, seeing that the girls were identical twins and then laughs nervously while waving a hand, smiling gently at the same time. "I'm glad I got to you in time. You're not hurt anywhere are you?" Tomoka sees him looking at her with concern and they make eye contact. She feels her heart thudding fast from surprise and she examines her arms and legs, then patting her head and around her face.

"U-Uh, Y-Yeah...I think so." She says quickly.

"Yaa~ That's a relief." He laughs again and Tomoka feels her face turning red as she glances up to him, immediately drawn to his rose pink eyes.

Wow...they're really pretty. She thought, her heart thudding faster against her chest.

"Is there anything we can do to repay you? We caused you so much trouble." Marina asks but the man was just as generous.

"No no, it's fine, there's no need for that, all that matters is your sister's safety." He says and Marina wanted to cry.

"I won't accept that! You probably pushed through a lot of people just to get to her in time!" She argues with a raised voice, drawing more attention to them as people pass by.

"M-Marina!" Tomoka grabs her sister's arm to calm her down, feeling overwhelmed with embarrassment and the man looks at the two, seeming a little surprised and then gives them a smile again.

"I appreciate the thought, but I was just a little bit behind you two so I didn't push through anyone, really." He explains but the twins were still amazed "...also you'll have to forgive me. I didn't mean to eavesdrop but, did I hear you mention someone name Takahiro? A woman with pretty blueish purple hair?" He looks a Marina and her eyes widen with surprise but Tomoka was lost with their conversation.

"H-How do you...I don't...what?" Marina stutters, unable to find words and conflicted between confusion, fear and doubt, until he laughs.

"Perhaps this was meant to happen because we're from the same Clan?" He takes off the glove on his right hand, holding it out in the sun with the palm faced down and on the backside of his hand was the Iridescent insignia shimmering in the light, almost like a gemstone. The sight of the marking made Marina reach up to her upper left arm with her right hand and Tomoka mirrors her, both feeling a strange sensation from their own transparent tattoos.

"My name is Midorikawa Kotaro. I am also a clansman under Takahiro Shizuka. The Iridescent King." He says, slipping his hand back into his glove, "And you two are..?"

"E-Er, I'm Hashimoto Marina and this is my sister Tomoka." Marina makes the introductions like usual.

"I-It's nice to meet you." Tomoka says softly, feeling even more nervous knowing that the man who saved her is also a fellow clansmen.

Kotaro was drawn aback hearing their names, realizing who they were.

"Oh, so you two are the twins I heard about." He comments and the girls pause as he confirms the rumors he heard. I was pretty confused when I first looked at them. He thought, recalling how he stalled in answering Marina when he got a look at the sisters. Seriously...the only difference is their hairstyles...I can imagine how easy it would be to fool people if they switched identities for a day. No one would suspect a thing. He continued thinking and then clears his throat. "I thought I would have met you two at the party last night but you didn't show up. Such a shame. Most of our fellow clansmen were there so you would've felt more at home getting to know everyone."

"Ahaha, Iida Raeno-san said the same thing to us too. It was all so sudden for us when we joined and we just moved in too so we just felt like a little crammed with things... Sorry." Marina explains but Kotaro waves a hand.

"You don't need to apologize!" Kotaro says quickly, "It doesn't hurt to take things slow since there isn't a lot of us not to mention that Iris isn't really much so I hope you two found everything alright moving in and all." He says but the girls had to disagree.

"No way, it's more than what we've had before." Marina says.

"Mn, and so far, everyone is really nice..." Tomoka adds.

"That's good to know. We try to look out for each other since Takahiro-san is always busy...which reminds me, you might not see her as much as you think you would. Things get really busy after the break, but as long as you have her contact information it should be fine." He explains.

"Right...but I still kind of feel a little intimidated texting or asking Takahiro-san for things...she is a person of power. Don't you think?" Tomoka looks at Marina.

"Eh? But she seemed so laid back when we met with her."

"Ah, that's right...but still..."

Kotaro laughs, finding the young girls rather amusing while they debated about Shizuka but at the same time, he felt pity. Well, I guess they'll have to learn for themselves of Shizuka's condition. I guess it's gonna be something every Clansmen will have to go through with now so might as well make it some sort of secondary initiation into the Clan. He thought, remembering his experience of the King forgetting who he was and chuckling to himself secretly, then playing out a scenario in his head, noticing that the girls weren't paying him any attention anyways.

"Ah! The light is green!" Marina points towards the crosswalk and then grabs Tomoka's hand. "Come on we should hurry."

"Eh? Y-Yeah, but..." Tomoka pauses and looks over at Kotaro who was also looking at her from hearing them talking about the light being green and her heart pounds. "U-Um, thank you again for what you did Midorikawa-san. R-Really. I'll make it up to you! I won't forget this!" Tomoka could feel her cheeks flushing as she looks at Kotaro, her eyes were bright and serious like her words. If he's also an Iridescent...that means I will see him again. She thought.

Kotaro sensed something else in her words and felt a little uneasy; however he goes ahead and smiles so she wouldn't feel like she was hanging, but before he could say anything, she gives another quick bow and runs off, Marina already ahead of her and he was left alone, stunned with their sudden departure.

He felt accomplished and his bod was still rushing with adrenaline of what happened, knowing that he had saved someone's life-someone from his Clan, but he couldn't help to maintain an open mind of what would come in the future. Ja...I hope this doesn't become some shoujo manga. He sadly thought. It soon didn't matter anymore when he realized the situation he was in at that exact moment and his jaw drops when he sees the cross light turn red after the girls had crossed over, going in the same direction as him.

"GAAH! I MISSED THE GREEN LIGHT!"