Foolish. How incredibly foolish she was.
Ginrei should've known that trusting Kurohoro with anything will only be of benefit to her. Revealing the secret of your true name was something even the most cowardly of shinobi abstained from, her doing so willingly has only reinforced that she cannot be relied upon.
Frustrated at her own lack of foresight, Ginrei threw a hook at the figure before her. Its head crumbled, chunks flying into the air and hitting the wall behind.
Not enough. This helped nothing.
Ginrei gripped her lance, Ceres Serritor, and swung it in a wide arc in front of her. Dust and debris filled the air all around.
She grit her teeth. Not satisfying, not in the slightest. Kurohoro got her all excited only to leave her hanging. She had to get all this pent-up energy out, she needed a release.
She held Ceres to the front and pulled the trigger. The drill-like tip spun into motion.
Ginrei galloped forward. The crescendo of mayhem serenaded all around her. Stone ground against metal and bounced against the lance's guard. She danced, step after step, letting herself drown within the rhythm of her own heartbeat.
Charge, twirl and swing. Rinse and repeat.
Sweat dropped from Ginrei's brow, as her boots crunched the gravel littering the floor. The lifeless adversaries did little to assuage that desire. She needed something real. Something that will get her blood pumping.
A sharp light flared throughout the hall, stinging Ginrei's eyes.
"Enough!" A voice like a raindrop pierced across the hall.
A bespectacled girl with short brown hair stepped into the hall, stepping around the debris littering the floor while covering her mouth and nose with a handkerchief.
Ginrei huffed. Thus ended her personal time. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. She set her lance down, tip to the ceiling, and turned to the girl. "Took you a bit to get here." Ginrei said, leaning on her weapon.
Still clad in Star Cross's uniform from having accompanied Kurohoro from academy to the mansion, the girl approached Ginrei with a backpack in her hand. "Ten minutes. I've been gone for just ten minutes. I lose you from sight for that short amount of time and here we are! In the middle of a quarry!" She spread her arms out, gesturing to the numerous, half-annihilated if not utterly ground to dust, stone statues.
"The storage was almost packed full already." Ginrei shrugged and then knelt to pick up a relatively unscathed chunk from one of the statues. An upper half a shinobi's fox mask, with a part of the cranium included.
She crushed it. "And we could always use gravel for foundations anyway."
Syuri rubbed her brow. "Don't expect me to help you clean this up. I'm stacked with studies, it's all on your hands."
Ginrei folded her arms and smiled. "Wasn't planning to. Just a day or two of work and it'll look like nothing happened here in the first place."
Syuri's arms dropped. "You need to take some rest at some point."
"By the way, when do you think we'll get another batch?"
"Why do I even bother?" Syuri sighed, holding her hand upon her forehead. "Unfortunately for you, it's gonna be a while. We're too far out from most schools and we haven't been doing anything big recently. We're not in anyone's sights right now, to put it simply."
"Damn it." Ginrei said, sitting back upon the remains of one of the other statues.
She cracked her neck and observed the cold lifeless hall filled with marble statues and their remains. The Aurum Castle held a number of vacant halls, to misdirect potential infiltrators. Only a quarter of the available space was actually utilized. This was one of the fake halls. However, ever since the higher-ups at the Foundation came up with the "Cockatrice", it's began to serve as a storage for the unfortunate victims of the trap. They used to just sit there, but these days they provided Ginrei with ample targets to de-stress upon.
Ginrei reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a picture of Syuri from the day prior, putting it up against the girl before her. In the picture, Syuri's skin tone held a heavy purple tint to it. "I'm gonna miss your plum self. It would've been fun to get you to dress up and and pose for the pictures to add to the album."
Syuri blushed profusely. "W-where did you get that?" She stammered, reaching out to swipe the picture.
Ginrei gripped her wrist, holding it back. "A certain little angel handed it to me when I came back from the mission yesterday."
"Aimu..." Syuri sobbed in defeat. "I was so certain that nobody's got to see me like this…"
"And, fortunately for us, it's now a precious memory for the rest of our lives." Ginrei grinned, sliding the picture back into it's place. "How did you end up like that anyway?"
"I've happened to pick the losing solvent. T'was a fifty-fifty chance. That's all…" Syuri mumbled out, huddling into herself.
"Is that so? Then I bet you could recreate the results!"
"Oh no, what did you come with?" Syuri said, already apprehensive of the idea.
Ginrei raised a finger. "Did you hear of a family in America that possessed blue skin pigmentation? I don't remember how it worked exactly, but I bet that with such a gimmick, we could turn you into a hit ido-"
"No! Nope! Not a chance!" Syuri vigorously placed her arms before her in a cross, slowly backing away from Ginrei. "You know how I panic in front of crowds! I'd rather drop dead!"
"How about an internet streamer then? They're popular right now, I bet you'd get famous really fast."
"That's the opposite of what I should be doing as a shinobi!" Syuri protested vehemently, backing further away until she tripped on a lonesome marble arm and fell to the floor, landing on her butt.
"Geez, you're not such a bully usually. You hardly even talk of business" She said, levelling her eyes with Ginrei's. "What's eating away at you?"
Ginrei froze and sighed immediately after. "That easy, huh? What gave me away?"
Syuri pointed in toward Ginrei. Ginrei followed the direction until her eyes met the felon.
It was her own left hand, holding onto a statue's jutted out arm. Or rather, what remained of it. She gripped onto it so hard, she unconsciously pulverized the section she held into dust.
She grimaced. "Good shinobi make for poor sparring partners and poor stone both."
"Actually, a few of them came all the way from Hebijo, I think." Syuri said, getting back up on her knees.
"Same thing really. Hanzo, Hebijo, Gessen, whoever comes to these grounds under my watch is getting drilled to smithereens."
"You're avoiding the question." Syuri narrowed her eyes. "What's the problem? Did you get into a scuffle with Kurohoro already?"
Ginrei winced. Right in the bullseye. When Syuri's right, she's right.
"Perhaps. I tried to be courteous, you know. She started it." She blustered, turning her gaze over to a setting sun, poking into the room from in-between window covers. It looked much more welcoming than whatever disappointed stare Syuri was giving her right now.
"You can't keep being jealous of her simply because she's getting along with Leo, you know? You can't sequester her away from the outside world forever." Syuri spoke, away from Ginrei's eyesight.
Jealousy. What an outrageous accusation. She's not jealous, she's merely being cautious about her, unlike everyone else. A strange girl with no known records of prior shinobi activity suddenly shows up before your doorstep, less than a week before the school year begins, asking to join your school. Were it someone around a middle schooler's age, she wouldn't bat an eye. Yet that girl, still without a shinobi name at the time, was nearly an adult. A natural response would've been to execute her on the spot, something she's carried out plenty of times. Yet, for some unfathomable reason, she's been allowed for an evaluation from the faculty, ultimately resulting in her joining their ranks. As her upperclassman, no less. Watching this Kurohoro— no, -, blend into their ranks without anyone even batting an eye at how little they know about her pissed Ginrei off. It made her feel like the world's gone insane.
"You weren't like this when Aimu or I came here." Syuri walked back into Ginrei's field of view, obscuring the sun. "What's the difference between her and us, Ginrei? Or between you and her?" She spoke, resolute in her trust in Kurohoro.
Ginrei stood up with a groan, she already didn't like the course of this conversation. "For one, all three of us came here before we were meant to become shinobi at the Foundation's call. In fact, I've been here the longest of us three, so I get the seniority privilege on this matter. I do not have a single good feeling about her."
Syuri cast her eyes down, cowed before the ever stalwart Ginrei. After a short moment, however, she matched her gaze once more. "Maybe so, but that's no reason to try and remove her before she even does anything to raise suspicion. You've seen that she's a model student so far. Can't you try and get along with her? Or at least feign doing that?"
A corner of Ginrei's mouth twisted. Had Kurohoro done nothing off so far? No. Was she about to wager the risk of trusting her? No. She couldn't afford even the slightest possibility of Leo coming to harm on the premises. Aurum Castle was to be her place of rest, a reprieve from the pressure of the world. She had to prevent such scenarios at all costs.
Then again, if she truly doubts her intentions, she can always use one of the needles she just gave her to get the truth. But then she would have one less opportunity to catch her in the hot water when it really matters. Curse that woman, she's too smart.
"If she doesn't do anything questionable, then I won't act." Ginrei yielded. "That's the most I can promise you for now. Will that suffice?"
"I guess that's as good a start as any…" Syuri said, her trail of words wandering off as she looked from side to side. "Can you also try to not feed her cement again? I had the staff complain to me about a missing bag this morning. They thought that I took it."
A sting of panic arose within Ginrei's chest. "You have no proof that I was the one who took it."
Syuri smiled gently. "You're the only person I know that'd try to kill someone by stuffing them with rocks, Ginrei. Quiet takedowns aren't your forte at all."
"A-anyway," Ginrei stammered, looking away in attempt to hide her blush. "Have you got what I asked you for?"
"Mmhm, got everything right there!" Syuri said, setting the backpack on the ground and opening it up. Sticking out the top was a pink, toy-sized rod tipped with a heart-shaped ornament, hollowed out on the inside. Set in the center of it's ornament was a string of translucent gemstones, connected together in a shape of the Gemini constellation. "Could you hold it for me? I'd rather have both of my hands free to search well." Syuri said, handing the rod to Ginrei.
Ginrei took hold of the rod, it's deceptive weight showing itself the moment it fell into her hold. At three kilograms, it could easily serve as a makeshift club. Bashing skulls, however, was not it's intended function.
"Would you mind repeating what we're searching for again?" Syuri inquired, pulling her bag in front of her.
"We're searching for an eighteen karat pendant that holds a photograph inside it. Does that tell you everything you need?" Ginrei said, handing off the scepter to one of the untouched statues for the moment.
"Yeah, I've got it. In this case we're going to need a golden leaf, silver chloride, maybe a touch of bronze for better reception…" Syuri trailed off, mumbling to herself while rummaging through her bag. Suddenly, she stopped and looked back up to Ginrei. "Say, what kind of scent would you say is the most nostalgic to Leo?"
"A scent, you say?" Ginrei crossed her arms and fell into thought. Leo was raised in Aurum Castle since birth, so anything she'd have contact with nowadays would be no good. A nostalgic scent, related to the golden pendant…
"Beech firewood." She spoke up after a moment.
Syuri raised her eyebrows. "Really? How so?"
"Before her father's passing, she used to often fall asleep by the fireplace that burned with that kind of wood. Would you believe that she actually used to be nigh impossible to put to sleep in her childhood?"
Syuri chuckled. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're lying to me."
"Things used to be a lot different back then." Ginrei lamented, a bitter smile spreading across her face. "Does that help?"
"Yes. I think I have a beech splinter somewhere in there. It should suffice for the search. After that, I'll just need..." Syuri continued to mutter to herself.
Ginrei decided to leave Syuri to her work and looking back to the sun that is setting behind the window. It painted the sky in warm shades of a summer afternoon. The days have been getting longer and longer these days and yet, somehow, it felt as if they've been passing by in a matter of moments.
A little over a year ago, she and Syuri have joined Leo on her training to become a shinobi as per her father's last will. The moment Leo graduates, she will inherit the position as a leader of Star Cross Foundation. How much will her life change with that moment? Hers and everyone else's in the Committee? Would their bonds as they are now last through such a change?
Ginrei bit her lip. What a nonsense question to ask yourself. She knew exactly what she's going to do when that happens, she always has. She will give her all to be Leo's pillar of support, now and in the future, even if it comes at the cost of her own life. That was her resolve.
"Awwight!" Syuri exclaimed from her left, her speech slurred for some unknown reason. "Ah've 'ot evewythin' I knee!"
Ginrei turned to her sharply, puzzled by the sudden change.
The girl held a number of small, bullet-like canisters with her teeth as well as in-between her fingers. Each of the canisters held something different, as Ginrei could see through their tiny glass panels. A piece of wood, a dried mangosteen rind, a gold flake and so on.
"'imme the wod." She slurred, clear enough to tell that she was familiar with having things in her mouth.
Ginrei took the rod back from the statue's firm hold and presented it to Syuri. The statue's fingers didn't survive the transfer of goods.
Syuri twisted her head repeatedly.
Ginrei furrowed her eyebrows. "Are you alright?"
Syuri nodded at the rod and turned her head again.
Ginrei took the canisters from Syuri's mouth. "Just a thought, maybe I should just take these and leave operating this thing up to you." She said, taking the rest of the canisters and shoving the rod into her hands.
Syuri paused and slumped over. "You're so cruel. I was hoping for a display of trust and coordination between us…"
"Let's just get to it, alright? We haven't got all the day and we've still got a welcome party to do." Ginrei said, stuffing all canisters into her pocket.
Syuri sighed and twisted the rod's tip with a firm grasp.
The very middle of the handle sprung up, pushing out the ornament and exposing the rod's loading mechanism. It resembled a revolver, equipped with three spinning cylinders capable of holding three cartridges each.
Ginrei passed the rounds back to Syuri, who loaded each and every one of them into the rod with a deftness nigh comparable to a true sharpshooter.
The silver-haired girl whistled in awe. "It's been a long time since I've seen you load it. Once a minute, now mere seconds."
Syuri blushed, as she closed the rod again. "I practiced a lot while you and Leo were away on business trips. I can't afford to fall back behind you."
"Perhaps it's time for a spar then. It's been a while since our last time, after all." Ginrei smiled, patting Syuri on the shoulder. "Not today though. We've got a job to do right now."
Syuri gave a gentle smile and nodded. Then, she went dead silent and held the rod before herself, focusing intently upon it's tip.
There exists a certain misunderstanding present among the lower circles of shinobi. They are so focused upon their preexisting war struggles that they presume themselves the only one. The sole entity in the whole world capable of reaching beyond a normal human's limits. There was, however, a correction to be made.
They are the most deadly, yes. But the world is far bigger than Japan alone.
The rod's gemstones flashed. A trail of light coursed through them, beginning at Alhena, coursing all the way through Pollux & Castor, and ending on Propus.
A glimmer began to emanate from the rod. Dark like the night sky and shining with short glints of light.
Syuri stood up on the toes of one foot and spun herself with the other, waving the rod out to the side as she did so. "Panacea: Absence's Vestige!" Syuri called out at the top of her lungs.
The glimmer spread, covering the room and blotting out the light. For a brief moment, walls and ceiling ceased to exist, replaced with an ever sprawling horizon of stars.
Syuri - At once a Shinobi Student as well as a Scholar of another great tradition. The Great Work, cultivated all over the world for thousands of years. The Star Cross Academy's edge above the competing shinobi schools in Japan in action.
Alchemy.
The horizon faded, giving a way back to the desolate riches of the hall.
"It's present within one kilometer radius. Still on Aurum's premises." Syuri stated, her eyes duly focused upon the rod. "Loading in the next set to tighten the range."
"Wait, wait, waitwaitwaitwaitwait, what's that?" Ginrei cut in, hanging over Syuri's shoulder and pointing at a nearby wall. A smear arise from a point at the wall, crawling a shaky line as it moved across.
"If it's that visible..." Syuri began, her arms trembling from the rod's active energy output. "It has to be near. Very near. Right behind the wall even."
"What are we waiting for then? Let's go!" Ginrei said, taking off toward the door.
"Hey, wait! Let me deactivate the rod first!" Syuri called out after Ginrei, straightening up to follow. Alas, the rod's constant vibration, combined with an extended unconventional position, robbed her of balance in her feet. Which led her to trip upon a detached leg, sending her flying back to the floor.
At the sound of collapsing stone, Ginrei stopped in her tracks and looked back to her friend. "Are you alright?" She said, before coming eye to eye with Syuri's newfound predicament.
She was stuck in a cold hard tangle with a group of miraculously untouched figures. Her frame was cupped by their hands and the scepter got lodged firmly between her thighs, still vibrating. "Go without me, I-I'll manage!" She sputtered, in a vain attempt to preserve dignity.
"I'll get you out as soon as I can! I promise!" Ginrei proclaimed, giving her fallen sister a quite salute. Only a soft moan followed in response.
She turned back to the door and scrambled to get out afore she lost track of the smear.
She pushed the door open, ripping it off its' hinges and sending it flying until it fell a short distance to the side.
The pendant was right before her eyes.
Floating. Suspended in mid-air. Hanging above ground, with no strings attached.
Two curling pig tails bobbed up into Ginrei's view. They belonged to a smiling girl with golden eyes, dressed in a plain, black cotton dress with white collar and cuffs.
"Greetings and salutations, my fellow apostle of the horoscope. How do you fare on this most resplendent of days?" Aimu waved to Ginrei, tearing her eyes away from the pendant. Her mouth was dirtied with chocolate cream.
"Aimu," Ginrei began, laying her hands on the younger girl's shoulders. "Did you eat the pie?"
"What pie?" She blinked innocently.
"The pie I made this morning. The pie that I made for Kurohoro's welcome party. The pie that I left in kitchen not long ago and found missing when I got back to it. That pie."
"Ooooooooooh, that pie…" Aimu said, nodding her head in understanding.
The girl slid off Ginrei's grasp and bolted down the hallway without the slightest hint of hesitation. The pendant trailed right behind her.
"Get back here right now, young lady!" Ginrei roared, reaching out for her. She grit her teeth and ran right after her. She's done it yet again.
Ginrei chased the young rascal through the mansion's sprawling corridors, lined with luxurious carpets covering the rich wooden paneling and hand-crafted paintings adorning the upper walls. Closing the gap between her and Aimu was merely a matter of time. She was older, stronger and taller than her. The chase's conclusion was all but assured...
Up until a maid with a broom suddenly crossed their path from just behind the corner. Aimu breezed past her and seized the tool from her hold. Then, she hastily thrust it ahead of herself.
The broom slid forward, unaffected by gravity just like the pendant.
Aimu leaped into the air and landed on the broom, the handle held tightly between her thighs.
"Fly, my steed!" Aimu commanded. The broom obliged, sending her flying through the air.
"You can't run away from me forever." Ginrei seethed through her teeth. She couldn't let her get away. She switched from a brisk run into a sprint to keep up with her.
Aimu sailed with little to no control of her course. She dipped and weaved all throughout the corridor's space, just barely avoiding impact with walls or ceiling. The pendant followed her all the while, like a bird flying after the rest of the flock.
"Get down from there! You're gonna break something! Or yourself! Both are bad!" Ginrei called out to her.
"I can't!" Aimu screamed back. "I don't know how!"
Curse that telekinesis of yours. Ginrei swore to herself in thoughts. "Okay, Plan B! Focus on getting outside without smashing your face into something!"
"I'm already trying that!" Aimu choked, clearly on the verge of tears.
A turn arose in their path. Just barely, Aimu managed to steer her broom to avoid crashing into wall. The pendant smacked into her face. With a jittery movement, she bit onto it and hanged the chain over her head.
A mere moment later, Ginrei heard a yelp. She understood once she came out into the same direction.
A dead end. The hallway ended in a large closed window.
Aimu had neither the space or time to turn around. She was on an inevitable crash course.
Ginrei felt a knot form in her stomach. The girl couldn't simply break through the window before her. Nevermind the costs of repairing, the wounds she'd suffer from the outburst could be catastrophic.
The wailing has abruptly cut off. Ginrei shot a glance up at Aimu, who held her hand out. From within it's hold, came a tiny glint.
A marble. She held a glass marble between her fingers.
She aimed and flicked the marble straight ahead.
It hit not the window. A single marble would not be make a big enough hole for her to fly through safely, no matter the velocity. Instead, the marble hit its latch.
A fresh breeze of air swung the doors inward, freeing a way out.
Relief came over Ginrei. Yet, it moved on just as quickly as it came, for another problem quickly took roots.
Aimu's broom began to dip in altitude. Her telekinesis took a lot of brainpower and if she was losing her focus now, then…
She would not let this happen.
Determination fueled her, pushed her to the utmost limits of her speed. The carpet slipped from under her feet, the floor's paneling creaked under the force of her steps.
In moment's spell, she closed the gap between them. Just a few meters split her away from reaching Aimu. A few meters and a few seconds that could end everything.
Aimu flew out the window, her flight nose-diving drastically.
Ginrei set her foot atop the window frame and launched herself off of it. She reached her arm out toward her, as far as she possibly could.
Aimu's telekinesis petered out. She, and the broom, fell down at full force.
Ginrei grabbed Aimu's hand at the last moment. She pulled her close and spun around, facing her back to the ground.
They landed about as gently and softly as a cannonball. Ginrei hit the ground and scraped across the surface. Dirt and foliage beat against her body before coming to a full stop underneath an oak's canopy.
A stillness washed over them as they laid under the shade, their fervor drained completely. A gentle evening breeze brushed their bodies, as setting sun peeked through the trees upon the horizon. For a fleeting moment, harmony reigned in the world.
The peace ended briskly, with Aimu pushing her head out of Ginrei's bosom, grasping for air in a wide gasp. Cold sweat poured from her brow, shivers all over her body.
Ginrei took her hand off Aimu's back and pushed her bangs away. "Done with such stunts for the day, I hope." She smiled, glad to see no harm come to the girl.
Aimu nodded, her eyes red from the speed she had traveled at. "I'm sorry." She mumbled out, tears racing down her cheeks.
Ginrei pulled a handkerchief from her breast pocket and wiped her tears away. "What's important is that no harm came upon you."
Aimu nodded timidly, still in shock after her disastrous runaway.
Ginrei sat up straight, pushing Aimu down onto her waist. She caught a glance of her shirt while. It was dirtied with chocolate, rubbed off from the face of the hellion in front of her.
"Aimu, it's time to be straight with me. Why did you eat the pie? Haven't you got your artisan choco pies still?"
"Doom of Shaggai disposed of them." She ate her entire reserve, she just didn't want to admit to it.
"Which is why you," Ginrei poked Aimu square in the chest. "Sneaked into the kitchen when I wasn't looking to curb your sweet touch with a dessert I prepared for tonight's welcome party."
"I'm not to blame here, tis' your err for leaving such delicacies exposed." She pouted, putting her hands on her hips. "You ought to hide them better."
Ginrei sighed, lounging her head back. "I guess you've got a point there. I've yet to hammer in that you're part of the Committee too these days. I never would've thought you'd get in right from the start."
Aimu's smile beamed with pride as she puffed her chest out. "Nothing else would be on par for the The Moon's Fallen Angel! And yet, what you've bore witness to so far is but the beginning of my grandeur myth!" She boasted, slipping back into her usual, pompous speech pattern.
So young. Ginrei couldn't stay mad at her, no matter what she did. Aimu was like a younger sister to her. No, not just to her but also to Leo, Syuri and, as much as she didn't want to admit it, Kurohoro. When the gravitas of Leo's obligation felt crushing, she was a twinkling star that lightened the weight. So much so that she didn't want her to become a shinobi. She felt it too dangerous, too macabre for her to become a part of the shinobi society. Alas, Aimu proved to be stubborn as always and couldn't be swayed from her decision to become a shinobi. Not by Leo, not by her, not by anyone.
Aimu let out a soft yawn and slid off of Ginrei's waist. "The sandman has come upon me, I must return to my asylum and rest ere I miss the ceremony." She said, standing up and dusting herself off. "Farewell, sis." She bowed and turned to leave.
The pendant jingled from her neck.
"Wait for just a second!" Ginrei stood up in a half breath. She had almost forgotten about it in that whole rush. "Aimu, where did you find this pendant?"
Aimu turned back, with a sly cast to her eyes. "Oh, this?" She held the pendant up. "I found it this morning in the hold of a Dark Messenger and seized it with the power of my devilish arts."
"Aimu, darling, sweetie, honey, mon trésor." Ginrei spoke, stepping closer to her with each word while pointing at it with a shaky finger. "You don't happen to know who this belongs to now, do you?"
"Hmm..." Aimu held it up close to her eyes. "It bears a sun on the front, so I guess it belongs to Leo. No idea how to open it though, the latch won't move." Aimu eyed the jewelry with a skewed head. "Do you want it?" She asked, sticking it out to Ginrei.
Ginrei took a step forward and tried to grasp it. Aimu swiped it back at the nick of time.
A cheeky grin grew on Aimu's face. "Not so fast. I think we ought to have a little trade between ourselves. Something for something, you know?"
Ginrei wheezed, exhausted not so much physically as she was mentally. She fell to her knees, hands clasped together in a prayer. "Please, let me have it. I beg of you, o merciful one!"
"Hmmm… I don't know about that." Aimu said, dangling the pendant before Ginrei. " If you ask me, I probably should just give it back directly to Leo… although she might be taking a nap, so I shouldn't bother her. Maybe it'd be better to hand to someone else for safe-keeping, like Kurohoro? She wouldn't lose it, she keeps a lot of things on her and I've never seen her lose anything."
Ginrei bowed, head down and hands to the ground. "I'll do anything. Name your price." She would not let that wench win!
"How about eight boxes of gourmet choco pies, crafted by the finest confectioners you at your disposal and delivered by the end of the week?"
"Three and no more."
Aimu looked behind her back. "Oh, hey! I think I can see Kurohoro walking by in the window, I should wave to her."
"I'll do ten by tomorrow." Ginrei declared, bowing so hard that her hands dug into the ground.
"Goes once, goes twice and we have a deal." Aimu cheered, taking the pendant off and putting it around Ginrei's neck. "Pleased to do business with you, sis." She said, before turning and joyfully skipping her way back to the mansion.
Ginrei didn't follow. She slowly stood up and wiped her hands off on her jacket. Her suit was ruined already, she could only hope that it could salvaged in the laundry later on. She undid the chain around her neck and held the pendant before herself.
Tears welled in her eyes. She played right into Aimu's hands, but she could not care about the choco pies she'll now have to pay the price with. She pulled the pendant to her chest and allowed herself to cry from relief.
All that mattered now was reuniting Leo with it.