At The Carnival
The next day, everyone was getting ready. The carnival was going to be given in a large open area, because it was quite large even for an average sized leisure event. The only person who was not getting ready was Ikaros.
While everybody was preparing Ikaros was sitting alone in her room with her watermelon, as usual, on her lap. As she was rubbing the large fruit, Ikaros kept thinking about what had happened the day before.
'When master was holding my hand I…I was so happy…I didn't want him to let go of my hand.'
Ikaros thought about what had taken place to make Tomoki let go of her hand.
'He let go because the President called him out and he felt embarrassed…but I didn't feel embarrassed…so why did he?'
Her wings, which were largely visible, slummed to the floor, manifesting Ikaros' clear melancholy. She looked like a cotton candy dove with an invisible wound.
"Master why don't you want me?" Ikaros said in a soft yet broken laying her chin on the watermelon.
She felt herself begin to cry again but quickly composed herself when the bedroom door slid open.
Astraea poked her head through the door.
"Hey Ikaros are you getting ready the President's going to be here soon." the blonde Angeloid said.
Chaos appeared right next to Astraea.
"Yeah come on onii-san we're going to go to the carnival. Hurry up." the little olive-haired Angeloid said with great excitement.
"Hey I'll be down soon." responded Ikaros quietly. "Please leave so I can get ready."
"Okay?" Astraea and Chaos said at the same time.
Astraea closed the door to give Ikaros the time needed to get ready.
"So she's that upset over Tomoki?" Astraea asked.
Chaos put her finger up to her chin in thought.
"Yeah onii-san is not doing too well. I wonder how she is going to act around Tomoki at the carnival?"
"I don't…but I know how we are going to act at the carnival!" Astraea said with a bright smile.
"Yeah! I can't wait for it!" Chaos smiled, following Astraea downstairs in delight.
Left alone by herself, Ikaros starting getting ready. She put on a clean tank top and shorts.
'Nothing too formal it's just a carnival…but what do people do at the carnival?' Ikaros asked herself in thought.
Finally dressed, Ikaros was about to walk out of the room before she turned and looked the watermelon on her bed.
'No I shouldn't bring it…it will only distract me and I don't want that.' she thought to herself concerning the large fruit and then walked out.
As she walked down the hall Ikaros met Tomoki.
"Hey Ikaros." Tomoki said surveying Ikaros' figure. "You look nice."
A light pink coloured her face as Tomoki complemented her. "Thank you master."
"Don't mention it." Tomoki replied.
As they walked to the staircase the young boy made a gesture with his hand for the Angeloid to go down first.
Ikaros obliged and began to descend down the steps with her master following close behind her.
As they walked down the final step, Mikako the President walked in.
"You could at least knock before you come in like that." Tomoki commented moving from behind Ikaros.
"Well the door was unlocked so I thought I might as well come in." Mikako responded in a condescending voice before speaking again. "What have you two been doing?" Mikako asked addressing Ikaros directly.
"N-nothing…we were just coming from upstairs that's all." Tomoki blurted out his face glowing cherry red.
"Ohhh…is that it?" asked the President disappointedly.
"Pretty much." Tomoki said.
Mikako then turned from Tomoki and looked at everyone. "Well is everybody ready?" she asked.
"Yeah." everyone said happily.
The carnival was ways away from the city and Mikako being in her own way, courteous, brought a large limo since everyone numbered eight.
While everyone else was discussing in happiness about what they were going to be doing once they got there Tomoki sat silently in his seat looking out of the window at the sea that the limo was passing over on a bridge.
'Great now I have to deal with the possibility that I might be humiliated out in the open. This is going to be a great day.' Tomoki thought sarcastically. 'And another thing, Mikako's been teasing me about becoming intimate with Ikaros and that's not something that I want on my mind.'
"Master?" Ikaros asked.
"Huh?" Tomoki said picking his head up from his palm and turning from the window.
"Are you alright master?" Ikaros asked with her deadpan facial expression.
"I'm okay." the young boy replied. "I was just thinking to myself."
As the limo arrived at the carnival, Mikako had the driver pull up to the entrance to let everybody out.
Getting out of the limo, Tomoki walked a few paces before putting his hand in his back pocket and pulled out a medium-sized wallet. Opening it, Tomoki looked to see how much money he had on him. Scanning the various sections, Tomoki saw that he had around five hundred yen on him and two of Ikaros' techno-magical cards which he had kept hidden away for a rainy day.
'Good looks like I'll have enough for this trip.' Tomoki thought closing the wallet and putting it back in his pocket.
As he was doing that, Mikako came up and said that she would pay for the tickets as a treat for the day but that everything else was their doing.
'Well it's a good thing I checked anyway.' Tomoki said to himself before grabbing his ticket from the President.
"Thanks." Tomoki said to Mikako.
The President looked at him with a sly smile. "Try not to get carried away with her okay?"
Tomoki ignored the comment albeit with a struggle. Looking out from the corner of his eye, he saw Ikaros standing alone away from everybody.
Tomoki walked over to her. "You must love being the outcast Ikaros." he said to the pink-haired girl, trying to get her attention.
Ikaros turned her head towards her master.
"Did I do something wrong?" she asked confused.
"No but everybody else is over there and you're over here."
"I was just thinking to myself." she said and stood silent for a moment being speaking again.
"M-Master?" Ikaros said stumbling out.
"Yeah?" Tomoki said.
"I—"
Before Ikaros could continue speaking Astraea came up in between them. "Hey guys what are you standing around for?"
Before either of them could speak Astraea tugged at Tomoki's arm. "Come Tomoki let's go play!"
"Okay, okay…hmmm Ikaros what was it that you were going to say?"
Ikaros shook her head. "Nothing…it's nothing."
"Oh okay." Tomoki said before allowing Astraea to drag him off through the carnival arcade and games.
"Well they ran off fast." replied Sohara coming up to Ikaros who didn't bother to give Sohara her attention only looking in the direction that Astraea and Tomoki left in.
"Hey Ikaros want to come walk around with me?" Sohara asked.
"Nothing I'd rather just walk around by myself for awhile." Ikaros replied walking off in a random direction.
"Hmmm okay?" said Sohara who was left concerned…and alone.
Ikaros walked around gazing every now and then toward a ride, game, or food stand that was in her range of vision. Turning down a pathway in which there were stands on both sides, Ikaros saw Nymph at a whack-a-mole game booth.
"Nymph what are you doing?" Ikaros asked walking up to the blue-haired Angeloid.
Nymph turned her attention to Ikaros. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm playing Whack-A-Mole."
"Whack…A-Mole?" Ikaros asked in her usual confused tone of voice.
"Yeah it's a game where you have to use a rubber mallet to hit as many moles over the head as you can in a given time limit. The more moles you hit the more points you get."
"Oh. Can I give it a try?" Ikaros asked.
"Sure give it a whirl." Nymph said moving out of Ikaros' way.
Ikaros moved up to the game and giving some money to the operator, started the game. Which she played the game at a steady pace.
'Got to hit the moles.' Ikaros mentally told herself.
Ikaros' accuracy began to sharpen and she began to hit the moles even harder. The point score increased more and more rapidly to the point where the game itself began to malfunction and break down.
"Alpha I think you should stop now." Nymph commented in a voice of worry.
Ikaros didn't stop and the game soon collapsed on itself and exploded as a result of the pressure. The manager told them to leave; if they didn't then they would have to pay.
"Nice going Alpha." Nymph said sarcastically as they walked.
"I'm sorry…I was just having fun." Ikaros replied.
"Well that is a weird way to have fun."
In another part of the carnival, Astraea and Tomoki were running and playing every type of carnival game and ride that they could find.
"Hey can we take a break?" Tomoki asked Astraea after getting off of a pirate ship ride. "Why getting tired of being beat." Actually on most of the games, Tomoki was the winner.
"No it's not that I just want to walk around for a bit." Tomoki said.
"Oh okay." Astraea said.
"Actually I wanted to ask you something." Tomoki said as they started to walk.
"What about?" Astraea asked.
"It's about Ikaros."
"Ikaros?"
"Yeah."
"What about Ikaros?" she asked.
"Has Ikaros been acting strangely around you, Nymph, and Chaos?"
"What do you mean?"
"I feel like Ikaros has been somewhat distant lately and I don't know why."
Astraea became annoyed at Tomoki's oblivious nature.
"Idiot!" Astraea shouted before walking off in another direction.
"What do you mean!? What did I do!" Tomoki shouted before being left alone.
'Really what is wrong with people today?' Tomoki said mentally. "Well nothing can be done now except to keep walking."
Tomoki kept on walking for some distant before he unintentionally ran into Nymph and Ikaros literally.
"Ow." Tomoki said rubbing his side.
"Sorry master."Ikaros said.
"It's fine…could you help me up?" Tomoki asked Ikaros.
Ikaros held out her hand and Tomoki picked himself up. "Thank you."
"Where's Delta?" Nymph asked.
"She got angry and left me."
"Why did she do that?"
"I don't know."
"You're impossible." Nymph commented, frustrated.
"Me! Why am I impossible?" Tomoki asked. "Astraea just stormed off for—"
"It's not about Astraea." Nymph said.
"Well then what is this all about if not her?"
"You so stupid this is not about Astraea it's about I—" Nymph stopped herself. "You know what? It doesn't matter."
Nymph walked off.
'What is going on?' Tomoki thought to himself.
Ikaros just looked at her master and lowered her head.
"Master?" Ikaros asked.
"Yeah Ikaros?"
"Could we go somewhere…somewhere alone?"
"Alone? Where? Why?"
Ikaros although trying to be patient with her master was being increasingly agitated by his apparent idiocy.
"Please master…please…can we go somewhere…where it is just the two of us?"
Tomoki saw Ikaros' expression as she was saying this. "Of course. Wherever you want to go. Just please tell me what is going on."
Ikaros held out her arms towards Tomoki. The boy walking toward her wrapped his arms around her as Ikaros put her arms around her master in a tight grip.
Then she flapped her wings and took to the sky with Tomoki to an unknown location.