It was finally Saturday. Two girls were sitting in a café table, with her drinks in front, half-full, staring challengingly at each other.
"Hey, Dia..."
"What is it Mari-san?"
"Do you have any idea what would your sister possibly want?"
"I don't get it."
"No. I'm not joking. Did you do anything to upset her?"
"Nothing comes to mind. Why are you bringing my sister to the conversation? Is this your shameless way of evading questions?"
"That's not it!" but it was, Mari wanted to avoid this conversation as much as possible. "Perhaps you're hiding something from her?"
"Not as much as you're hiding from me."
"Dia, don't get upset. I didn't bring it up without reason. Don't turn back yet and you'll see soon."
Dia obeyed and stood still while Mari stood from the table and walked past her. She was starting to regret it because it had been several seconds and Mari has not said a word. "Mari-san if you're not here at this moment you better..."
"Shhhh. Gimme a sec."
Dia started tapping the floor impatiently.
"Alright. After I count to three, you turn back and face me, and then look into the distance. From your perspective it's a little bit to the right. One, two..."
Dia turned and did as she was told. She was ready to burst and tell Mari to behave herself and stop running from responsibilities. But she stopped when she saw pink hide behind a corner past the window.
"Did you get it?"
"Ugh. Yes. "
"So, are you going to answer now?"
"I honestly have no idea. We've barely even talked lately so I doubt I did something wrong"
"Ohhh..."
"What do you mean 'Ohhh'?"
"It's so obvious it's not surprising you don't get it."
"Huh? Whatever could you possibly mean?" Dia wanted to give her a second chance. Mari outright rejected it.
"I said you're surprisingly oblivious sometimes."
Dia hated this part of her. Mari could push Dia's buttons whenever she pleased and it'd benefit her. She's been running from Dia this way since she came back.
"How long since you found her out?"
"Since the very beginning. She's been sure to hide from you but not the person you're talking to. That's pretty weird. Even waved a few times."
Dia could not keep up with this, and with Ruby following she'd get nothing out of this conversation except more stress.
"Well, it seems that's as far as we'd get today. I thought that in a free day and with a nice drink you'd open up but you're stubborn as always."
She stood up.
"Wait up, Dia."
Dia stopped in her tracks and turned with an expression that demanded that it better be important.
"Wanna find out why Ruby followed you?"
Dia dropped her shopping bags into the kitchen counter and headed into her room. She had seriously expected this encounter with Mari to bear fruit but it didn't depend on only Dia's efforts. Mari had to give in as well.
Her surprise was that it wasn't only Mari, but her sister was behaving strangely too.
Another thing to add to the pile of problems. Laying on the floor and letting out deep breaths, she tried to meditate. She had been successful at it until the doorbell rang.
She moved towards it and opened it. "Did you forget your keys again? That's no good. You're at high-school already, you should be more responsi- Hanamaru-san?"
Hanamaru stood on the doorway with a surprised look. Perhaps she was not expecting Dia's presence, much less her scolding.
"Good morning. How are you Dia-san?"
"Morning. Good. Come inside" Dia said while moving out of the way so Maru could get in.
"Excuse my intrusion. Sorry for coming without being invited. Is Ruby around?"
"She's not here, she's with Mari-san right now and I'm not sure when she's coming back."
"You mean the director?"
"Err…yes." that was such a big title, it was awkward to use.
"Oh no, Ruby's in trouble. We have to save her. We have to save out club!"
"What? No, she's not."
"Why is she speaking with the director if she's not in trouble… scholarship? But her grades are not that high either. Hmmmm..."
"Nothing of the sort. Remember that Mari is also a normal high school girl. Like me."
"That example doesn't help, zura."
"Is that so? Hmmp". Rude kid.
"Your grades are absurdly high."
"Huhu- of course. Hard work never lets you down."
Such a drastic change. Good save, Hanamaru.
"I'll get some tea. Please take a seat"
"Thank you."
Dia headed to the kitchen, poured two cups and took a glance to the bags she had brought earlier. Next to them was Maru's phone. She made a mental note to tread lightly around that subject and headed to the living room again. When she arrived she found Hanamaru with a math book. It was something she didn't read for entertainment, that's for sure.
"Want some help with your homework?"
Hanamaru tilted her head "Are you sure?"
"I'm free right now and you seemed like you needed some help. No good?"
"Yes please!"
Dia could get a distraction. For Maru this was a golden opportunity too, getting tutored by the highest grades in the school.
It's been 5 minutes since 'the penguin' separated from 'Sam'. Agent R followed 'the penguin', while keeping her distance. She was very careful of not being seen by 'the penguin'. Her target entered a convenience store, and agent R took advantage of this time to see if she's got any messages from her partner and rival, agent D. She had none, so she resumed her wait. After a couple of minutes, 'the penguin' got out of the store and took a turn. Ruby, or rather, agent R, assumed she was finally going home.
Result of the mission so far: no information.
Agent R decided to message agent D. "The penguin has started to migrate", the text read. By the time she finished typing such a ridiculous message, 'the penguin' had gotten a generous head start, making Ruby speed up on her chase. This, in turn, made her crash with a stranger. Ruby fell, but the stranger seemed to be okay. This was good enough for her. "I apologize", she said quickly before getting up again and preparing to continue her chase. She did not, as the stranger grabbed her wrist. She turned her head to look at him, eyes watery. When she did, the stranger immediately released her, much to Ruby's comfort.
"Ruby-chan it's me, Mari", the stranger said.
Ruby wiped her tears and finally recovered from such a distressing situation.
"Hi there, Mari-san."
"What are you doing?"
"Following my sister, making sure she's okay."
Mari felt guilty about ratting her out, getting in her way on purpose, and now about grabbing her. Especially about grabbing her.
Ruby knew she was going against every rule agent D told her, but since the mission today failed and this was her only chance, she decided to ask 'Sam' anyways.
"Umm... Mari-san, c-can you tell me what you talked about with her?"
"About nothing, really. She got mad because I kept wasting her time."
Probably not the answer Ruby was expecting, because she nodded and started pondering.
"Hey, never mind all that. Do you want some ice cream? I know a really good place."
"Really?"
"Yeah, take it as an apology please."
"Huh? What for?"
"Nothing."
One ice cream is not going to be enough, Mari. You'll need much more if you want to ease that guilt.
Mari took Ruby to the promised ice cream place, and then they paraded through the stores in Numazu. Making sure to notify Dia, of course.
Mari, even though her hunch had been correct, still had some questions about Ruby following Dia. She was particularly concerned about the waving. Did the tiny redhead actually trust Mari that much? Mari cunningly led the conversation into the subject, not that Ruby made it any difficult, and tried to make Ruby spill the beans about it. For Mari's surprise, Ruby mentioned that she was actually not waving at Mari, she was just waving at her direction. Taking her surprise further, Ruby added that the waving actually saved Mari. She refused to speak any more about it. This left Mari with more questions than answers. The blonde just let it go lest it turn into something more complex.
She instead focused onto another thing that bothered her, but this time it was not mining information for Dia, but for personal interest. She planned her setup, speaking about her adventures in America while Ruby heartily listened, she was stopped every now and then whenever the redhead had questions. Things were going where Mari wanted them to. She finally spoke greeting friends. Hugs and kisses on the cheek were commonplace, personal space was much smaller, and it was not considered rude to become "this" close, she explained while reducing their distance to demonstrate. Mari then hugged the distracted Ruby, still speaking but neither of them were paying attention. Mari was focused on studying Ruby's reactions, and ruby was trembling in place. She did not push Mari away, but she was very unsettled. Mari let go, still talking about irrelevancies. She played it off as if nothing had happened, and ruby soon enough calmed down and forgot about it.
Mari noticed two things, the first one was that Ruby didn't actually scream like she usually did. That much had changed about her these couple of years. The second one was confirming that when Ruby went into fight-or-flight mode, and she seemed like, if out of escape routes, she might actually fight. It was the second time Mari had seen Ruby with ill-intent, the first one being when she grabbed her early. Satisfied with the information she had gotten out of this encounter, Mari dropped her work-mode and started genuinely having fun.
The third year had not noticed it yet, but this was the first time she was having fun ever since she came back and started working as the director. Mari enjoyed Ruby's innocence and Ruby enjoyed Mari's doting, something she clearly missed from her sister. Without ulterior motives anymore, Mari enjoyed herself, removing her mask and feeling free of all judgement, especially with someone as pure as Ruby.
Ruby walked home, with a grin on her face.
"Good job today", came a voice from behind her, belonging to a black-haired classmate.
"Yoshiko-chan!" Ruby turned around. She was not expecting a compliment from her at all.
"Ahem…" Yoshiko warned her with her gaze.
"Datenshi Yohane!" Ruby addressed her again with the same amount of delight.
"Better, but still wrong."
"Umm… Agent D?" Happy with the answer, 'Agent D' started walking alongside her.
"Finally. Congratulations on employing such an advanced tactic even though you started today. You might have it in you after all. I was getting a bit uneasy after you denied my approach several times and went against my instructions but I now see that you had a much better plan."
"Huh..."
"It's time to share the loot. What did you get? Come on."
"I got new clothes but I don't think you and I are the same size. Maybe we can get You-san to-"
"Ehh? Information, agent R, in-for-ma-tion."
"Ohhh… Well I didn't get much on that."
Yoshiko laughed, "There's no need for humility. Pretending to be a bad spy, then 'accidentally' getting in contact with a secondary target, and using cutesy charm to extract information. You deserve nothing but praise."
"I just didn't want you to torture my sister for information."
"Yeah, that was probably important. I was so close several times, but you, for some reason, revealed our position"
"I don't think they noticed you hanging out at the café anyways."
"That's right, you made a good distraction."
"As I mentioned, t-torture is not good."
"Have you ever watched a movie about criminals, Agent R?"
"Umm…"
"Never mind that, we went off-topic."
"Right, so, as I was saying, we failed the mission."
"Come on agent R, the joke stopped being funny. There's no way you could spend 3 hours with a target and not get anything. Or did you actually…?" But the silence told enough. "I WAS RIGHT, YOU'RE THE WORST SPY EVER. My followers will probably find this funny." Yoshiko burst into laughter.
"I'm still grateful for the opportunity, thanks for playing with me today, Yoshiko-chan." The blunt honesty struck Yoshiko like a hook to her cheek.
"O-of course you wouldn't be an expert with such little time. Right?"
"Yes."
"Let's practice again sometime."
"Of course." Ruby beamed a smile at her.
After a long day of time-wasting, Ruby finally arrived home. She found Hanamaru sleeping in a futon and her sister reading next to her, paying no mind to the snoring.
"Good evening. How did it go?" Dia looked from behind the hard cover.
"I'm tired but I had fun."
"What a coincidence. Oh, I saved you dinner, it's on the table. Get to it before it turns cold"
"Thank you. When did Hanamaru-chan come here?"
"She came to get your help on math but you were gone. I helped her instead. She fell asleep and I brought her here yet again. Apparently still has nightmares."
Poor Maru. Ruby nodded and left to get dinner. Perhaps she'd pat her head and pray for her as she had done in the past, after eating dinner.
When Ruby came back, she found that Dia was not in her own room anymore, there was only Maru and another empty futon.
"Right, Mom does not come today so she can sleep in hers instead."
That night only Ruby and Maru slept in that room.
