White top. White top. White top?

I held the white top to my chest. Wait no, there was a stripe down the back. Wah, why was this so hard!

Tamaki collapsed on the floor. We had been bouncing from store to store for hours.

"It doesn't even look that good!" Tamaki complained. If it were up to her, she'd cut the sleeves, not the bottom.

"White?" I tried, holding up another shirt.

"Beige."

I tried again. "White?"

"Ivory."

"White!" I exclaimed. It shirt fell down to my hips. I looked at Tamaki with pleading eyes. "Can we use scissors?"

Tamaki sighed. "That won't work. You need a hemline, or the threads will come apart."

I pouted. As I was putting the shirt back, an idea came to me.

Excited, I took Tamaki's wrist and dragged her down three blocks. We entered the fabric shop.

"Mr. Shopkeeper!"

A head peeked up over a spool of cloth. "Little Ayae, is that you?"

"Is Emi here?" I asked.

"Out back!"

Grinning to Tamaki, I took her out back. There, Emi was snipping through fabric. Her little brother, Hiro, was humming while flipping through a comic book.

They noticed me.

"Sister Ayae!" Hiro waved.

"Why, hello Ayae," Emi said. "How's your dad doing?"

"Great!" I said. "How'd your mom like the pudding?"

"Wonderful. That bakery is our next go-to. Hiro only goes for chocolate now."

"Good taste," I told Hiro.

Hiro gave a fat grin.

I gestured to Tamaki. "This is Tamaki, my best friend! Tamaki, Emi and Hiro. Emi's a tailor, and Hiro's her helper. They made all my yukata and dance clothes!"

Emi smiled. "Nice to meet you, Tamaki."

Tamaki blushed. "H-hi."

I laughed, scratching my cheek. Emi's smile tended to cause that reaction.

"Anyway, we were wondering if maybe you could help us?" I said, rubbing my neck. "Tamaki and I are going to normal school now, but our clothes aren't right."

They listened patiently to our story. Lowering her scissors, Emi said, "Of course. But you'll need new measurements. Hiro, can you get my tape?"

"Roger!"

After Emi took our measurements, she got to work.

Tamaki and I waited on the bench. I assured Tamaki it wouldn't be long; Emi was very fast.

Tamaki just nodded. She didn't look as excited as I thought she would.

"What's wrong, Tamaki? Didn't you want to go shopping?"

"Oh, yes!" She paused. "I… I'll pay for your shirt."

"Huh?"

"As a belated birthday gift. I never got you a present," she said.

"Oh, don't worry about that. You had a concussion."

She grew quiet.

"Ayae…"

"Hm?"

"Can I tell you a secret?"

I grew serious. I could tell from Tamaki's troubled expression that whatever this secret was, it was important to her. I wondered if it was about her mom.

I was ready.

"Yes."

"I like Itachi."

I… did not expect her to say that.

After coming around, I lowered my voice and whispered, "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

Even as I said that, I sweated a little. Dai, on the other hand…

Tamaki just stared at me. She opened her mouth.

"It was a secret I was keeping from you."

"Me?!"

"You already knew?!"

Since, like, second grade! None of my friends were subtle about it. Only an idiot-

I buried my face into my palms. "My best friend thinks I'm an idiot!"

"No! Well… but no!" Tamaki struggled. "I just… you never…"

"I never what?"

"I thought you couldn't have known because you never… you know… stopped being friends."

"If I stopped being friends with everyone who liked Itachi, I'd have no friends," I deadpanned. I softened. "Tamaki, you aren't feeling bad over this, are you? You can like whoever you like."

She crossed her arms. "Except it's bad manners to like who your friends like."

"Then the rest of the Dropouts is bad mannered too." I huffed. If anything, it meant my friends had good taste in boys. Itachi was very thoughtful and kind. He tried to make everyone happy. I'd be more annoyed if someone said they didn't like him because of bad rumors.

"No, they're different," Tamaki insisted. "You are different."

"I don't get it," I whined.

Tamaki breathed. She closed her eyes. She had another secret to tell me.

"Itachi doesn't like them back. But I think… I think he might like you."

Oh.

That wasn't a might. "He does!" I confirmed, nodding.

"You know?!"

I was beginning to get offended. "Well, yeah! We hang out. He comes to my dance recitals. He takes care of me when I'm sick. He gets me gifts. And money. He gives me lots of money without question… Tamaki?"

Tamaki had her head pressed against the wall. "That… sounds like a boyfriend. Are you sure you two aren't together?"

"I wouldn't lie about this, Tamaki!" I exhaled. Jeez. "Itachi has a big heart. If he had time to be with more people, I think he would like them too. I think he would do the same things for them as he does for me."

"You think that?"

"I know that!" I said, kicking my feet. "Anyway, now that your secret's out, you want to talk about it?"

Blushing, Tamaki averted her gaze.

"Come on, you know you want to," I teased, nudging her with my elbow.

She caved.

"It was first grade."

Tamaki told me they met on the first day of school. Everything had been new and different. Everyone was crying or shouting. She hated that day. She had been so nervous, she felt like she was going to throw up. And she spent the whole morning being scared she would.

But then, he sat in front of her. They shared the same table.

Immediately, Tamaki saw he was different.

He was so calm. His eyes were so clear.

He didn't look like a boy, but a spirit in the shape of a boy. A spirit with the power to bend the world, to stop time with a single touch.

Whatever came across his way was just… solved. Fixed. Done. He handled every obstacle so effortlessly.

He was so unlike everyone else.

Their table had several loudmouths. They liked to talk often. They liked to talk big. Whenever Tamaki tried to speak, they easily talked over her. It had been a frustrating experience.

On the other extreme was Itachi. He never really talked. The few times he did, he spoke very softly. You'd think such a soft voice would get drowned out at such a loud table. Hers always was.

But no.

His voice, as soft as it was, silenced the whole table. Tamaki noticed with awe how everyone listened, how they gave their full attention, how they differed to him when the teacher came, how the teacher listened to every proposal, how the teacher agreed wholeheartedly and said they would implement those ideas immediately.

The level of composure, of command, that he had was… incredible.

But the moment that Tamaki remembered the best was the moment they made eye contact. And to the teacher, he said, "The ideas were Tamaki's."

Itachi rarely used his voice in the class. One of the few times he did, it was to make sure everyone heard hers.

"It was so silly… like a water break and sharing pencils and switching chairs and stuff I don't even remember anymore… but those things had meant so much back then." Tamaki covered her face.

Tamaki said she had lied. She never doubted me whenever I said Itachi was nice. After all, he was the first person who was ever nice to her.

"Oh screw it, I don't care if you're not bothered by it! I am! I don't want him to marry Lady Tomoe!"

"Hey! Who said I wasn't bothered?"

"Then why didn't you take the ring back?" she cried, shaking me. "Why didn't you put up a fight! It's one thing if it's you, but this is just unbearable!"

"Okay, first of all, I don't want to die," I slurred. Tamaki let me go. I steadied my head. "And Itachi gave it to her. If he wants to do that, I'm not going to tell him no."

That said… I'd be lying if I said I was happy about it.

I lowered my gaze. Since Tamaki was so open with me, it was only fair I was open with her.

There were parts of the Miyako story that I had exaggerated, but there were also parts that I had downplayed. Like the fight. Or how Itachi was out cold for three days. I hadn't seen him hurt that badly since his dad.

Tamaki's eyes widened.

I shrunk. I didn't want to cause gossip or badmouth anyone. I didn't want to say anything that might hurt Itachi's reputation. I knew Itachi never wanted me to see him like that.

But I didn't want to hide the truth and pretend none of that happened either.

"I just don't like Itatomo," I said, shaking my head. "I think Itatama is way cuter."

Tamaki came around.

"Itatomo… I swear, I wanted to slap whoever came up with that," she growled.

"I felt sick," I said seriously.

"I'll take Itaayae any day."

"Ew, that sounds terrible!"

Tamaki sounded out other combinations. "Ayaeita, Itae… your name really doesn't work, does it," she said, sweat-dropping.

"Somehow, I don't think my mom was thinking of that when she named me."

We broke down giggling.

Hiro found us, a bunch of measurement tapes hanging off his shoulders. "Sister Ayae, Sister Tamaki! Come, it's done!"

Tamaki blinked. "Wow, that is fast."

Tamaki and I stood in front of the mirror in our new not-uniforms. The shirts were mid-sleeved, with the bottom cut just above our hips. There was a cute collar and scarf. And they were white!

"This is perfect!" Tamaki said, doing another twirl. "How much for both?" she asked Emi.

Emi tapped her cheek. "Hm, what do you think, Hiro?"

Hiro thought hard. Then, he held out his open palm. "Five ryou!"

Tamaki nearly dropped her wallet. "Five?"

Hiro gave a toothless grin. "To buy another choco-pudding!"

We gave him ten ryou, so he could get a choco-bread on top of the choco-pudding.

After waving goodbye, we hit the streets again.

Our new shirts gave us a huge boost of confidence. We laughed and added a twirl or skip in our step whenever possible. If I raised my arms, I could show my belly button. It felt good in the hot sunny day. We understood why the short shirt was popular now.

Next on our agenda was getting me a pencil case. Several convenience stores sold those, so we went into the closest one. Tamaki found me a cute one with strawberries. Hungry, we also grabbed some of the onigiri from the shelves, as well as two milk cartons.

The store bell chimed.

"Tamaki? Ayae?"

We turned around. It was our classmates — Yuuka, Reina, Nanami, and Masae.

"Oh my god, that's so cute! Where'd you get those?"

Tamaki beamed. We showed off our shirts.

In the end, our groups joined. We became good friends easily, especially since some of them were already friends with our friends. We got nikuman together.

While at the cafe, Reina taught us this card game called Magical Girl Veda.

Tamaki and I were immediately entranced by the cards. They were filled with beautiful human-like spirits in holographic paper. They were also very scandalous, some in revealing clothes or no clothes at all. We couldn't help but blush a little.

"You can play the game in two modes," Reina explained, shuffling the decks. "Love mode or power mode."

I flipped the cards and saw the two sides were different. On one side, all the spirits looked peaceful, with a little story about them. On the other side, the spirits looked fierce. Below their pictures were no longer stories but a number and an icon.

"Which mode is easier?" I asked.

"Power mode, for sure!" Yuuka said. "If you're a beginner, you'd probably want to go with that."

They explained that power mode was simple and a lot of fun. It was a competitive game. All you had to do was keep attacking until you destroyed all your opponent's cards. Once all their spirits were gone, you attack directly and they lose.

"And love mode?" Tamaki asked, curious.

"Love mode is a collaborative game," Reina explained.

Love mode was more complicated. Instead of destroying all the cards, you had to save all of them. You did that by playing hidden abilities, but they had to be performed in the right order. It was a giant puzzle in which every player had crucial pieces of information but was blind to what others knew.

"Love mode is hard," Masae said, frowning. "We've been trying for months and only saved about half. The rules are very unforgiving. You only win if no cards gets destroyed, which is near impossible."

We decided. Power mode it was!

I faced Reina. Behind my divider, I drew five cards.

RED ARCHER. 50. RANGE.

AVENGING ANGEL. 100. COUNTER.

PRIESTESS OF THE MOON. 80. SUMMON.

LITTLE SOLDIER BOY. 20. SACRIFICE.

DARK ILLUSIONIST. 40. STALL.

We faced off. Well, here goes nothing. I picked up the RED ARCHER card and played it.

On the card was a cute spirit carrying a bow and arrow; I liked her immediately.

Grinning, Reina revealed her card: FIRE JUGGLER. Her card destroyed mine.

"Wah!"

As the gravekeeper, Yuuka was dressed in a cloak with a black hoodie. Laughing evilly, she snatched my card away. She also took my next card. And the card after that. I never saw them again.

My deck grew thinner and thinner, while Yuuka's piled higher and higher.

Before I knew it, I was facing an army of Reina's spirits.

I panicked. "Ah! Um!" My hand went back and forth between my cards. I had to keep playing, but I didn't want to lose any more spirits!

"No, not that!" Tamaki shouted, pushing my hand back down. "That one, play that one!"

DARK ILLUSIONIST. 40. STALL.

"Now that one!" Tamaki said, already pulling it from my hand.

AVENGING ANGEL. 100. COUNTER.

All of Reina's cards got destroyed in one blow.

Sweating, I let Tamaki play for me. She picked up the game faster than I did, already combining powers and enhancing attacks and setting traps.

"Oh wow, for newbies, they're not bad," Yuuka said.

Tamaki countered Reina's attack again.

Soon, both our decks were depleted. Reina had three cards in her hand while we had two. But we had three spirits alive on the field while Reina had none.

Reina looked stuck, biting her thumb. By her side, Nanami whispered something in her ear. Reina's eyes widened. She grinned.

From her hand, she revealed THE ICE QUEEN.

"I use her summon," Reina declared.

Opposite of Yuuka was Masae, the gatekeeper. She also wore a cloak but had a white hoodie. She swapped Reina's card with the one she wanted: COLD SPITE. Reina revealed one more card from her hand: DRUNKEN MECHANIC.

With the two cards, she performed a combination. We blinked at the new card on the field.

TIMEBOMB. 0. MAD.

Confused, I got out the rulebook and read the description for the MAD role.

"Eh?!"

"What?" Tamaki said.

"It destroys the whole field if hit!" I cried.

Tamaki tried to hide her panic. Our most powerful cards were on the field. The two cards left in our hand, NOVICE MAGICIAN and LITTLE SOLDIER BOY, were too weak to defend us.

Behind her divider, Reina looked smug. She still had one more card.

Flustered, I flipped through the rulebook some more, looking to see if there was something in there that could help us. Nothing. Our spirits on the field were all attack-centric. Once played, there was no way to make them retreat back into our hand.

I looked at the two cards we kept.

NOVICE MAGICIAN. 10. TRICK.

LITTLE SOLDIER BOY. 20. SACRIFICE.

I noticed Tamaki staring at the latter card.

"Ayae, hand me that rulebook?" she asked.

I did.

"It won't help," I said, already knowing what she was thinking.

SACRIFICE. Destroy this card to save the destruction of one weaker card.

I decided it was best to just not do anything. Reina would not be able to play anything either while TIMEBOMB was on the field. We could call a draw.

Tamaki closed the book. Staring down at Reina, she picked up the NOVICE MAGICIAN card. Before I could object, Tamaki had already played it.

Tamaki didn't want a draw.

"We attack Timebomb," she declared.

"Okay," Reina said calmly.

Giddy, Yuuka wiped the field, sweeping all our cards.

Before Yuuka could put them in the destroyed pile, Tamaki revealed LITTLE SOLDIER BOY. "We use his sacrifice."

"Oh. Sure thing," Yuuka said. She handed back our NOVICE MAGICIAN.

Tamaki took it before handing it right back. "We use her trick."

TRICK. Transfer the aftereffects of this card to another card.

Ignoring Yuuka's shock, Tamaki took back our AVENGING ANGEL.

COUNTER. Increase the power of this card by the damage suffered in the previous turn.

Tamaki looked at Reina, waiting.

Tamaki had fought too hard to settle for a draw. She wanted a victory. And with only one card left, we got it.

We won.

A/N: And this concludes my 12 updates before Christmas. I will now be taking a small break to enjoy the holidays and focus on some of my other works. When I switch back, I will continue onto the second half of part IV - the Gift arc, the President arc, the Police arc, and the Goodbye arc. Feel free to ping me with any questions or comments in the meantime.

Warm wishes and happy winter!

Lily