Left With the Power of Zero

Just One More Step

The next day came. Now the girls have about 3 days to master the, 'closed contract'. And as usual, another day of school came.
"Ughh…it's so tiring to wake up." Akane moaned.
Aoi stretched and yawned, "Sister. Why do you have to wake up so early every morning？"
Akane asked as she reached for her black alarm clock, "What do you mean？"
Before Akane could reach for her alarm clock…Aoi threw her white alarm clock at Akane.
"Look at the time." Aoi told her as she snuggled back into her bed.
"5:00 a.m！？" Akane surprisingly yelled.
She laid in her bed trying to fall back to sleep. She could hear Kaa-san getting her keys and leaving the house.

A few minutes later Akane woke Aoi up because she couldn't fall back to sleep.
"What is it Akane？" Aoi mumbled.
Akane dragged Aoi out of her bed, "Wanna hand out in our secret garden like old times？"
Aoi laughed, "How can I say 'no' to you？"
Akane and Aoi grabbed the bell on their table and rang it.
Suddenly Shou ran into their room, "What is it？"
Bring us breakfast in the garden.
"Yes. Akane and Aoi-sama." Shou said bowing.
"A while ago…Kaa-san commanded Shou to be more formal with us." Akane snickered.
Aoi and Akane laughed at they were escorted towards the secret garden.

When Aoi and Akane made it to the garden…they commanded the servants to return to their jobs.
When everyone left Akane asked Aoi, "Do you want to skip school？"
"Why？" Aoi asked. "Wouldn't that ruin our reputation？"
"Eh…the teachers won't care. Kaa-san paid them a lot of money for their equipment." Akane laughed.
Aoi replied, "I thought that was you hacking into her account and making her pay the money."
"Yeah…true. Anyways, what do you wanna do？" Akane asked Aoi.
"Okay then, let's skip school. Plus, we need to master that closed contract." Aoi replied.
Shou knocked on the door and entered the garden.
He placed the food on the table…as he was about to leave the garden, Akane said to him, "Shou…phone the school and tell them that Aoi and I have the cold and, that we will not make it to school today."
"But-" Shou began to say before he was cut off by Akane.
"Remember that mother told you to respect us." Akane snickered.
"Y-yes Akane-sama." Shou replied.
He secretly sneered at Akan while he was bowing. Shou left the room and phoned the school.

Meanwhile, Aoi and Akane were eating their breakfast.
"I hate eating." Akane said after taking one bite of her croissant.
"Sister…don't waste food！" Aoi exclaimed.
"Okay. Okay." Akane agreed.
They quickly finished their meal so that they could finally complete the closed contract.
"Wait a second Aoi…I need to tell Shou and the servants that we don't wanna be disturbed." Akane said as she left the room.
After assuring that no one could see them…Aoi and Akane began to draw a magic circle. They spoke some magical words and suddenly two boys about their age came out.
"Wai-wait. WHAT？！" Aoi and Akane yelled.
"Who are you？" Aoi asked as she backed away from them.
"Oh…Leo. Our identities have been exposed！" One one them cursed.
"Okay whatever. We'll just tell them what's going on." The other one said.
"Greetings, master." They both said bowing.
Akane replied, "Just hurry up and tell us who you are."
"I am Toki. Your contracted spirit. The nine-tailed fox." Toki explained.
"I am Leo. The lion that has been serving you, Aoi-sama." He said bowing once again.
"Shh. Quiet down…our servants will hear you！" Aoi said alarmingly.
"We apologize." They both replied.
"Anyways. Can you please help us complete the closed contract？" Akane asked them.
"Certainly." Leo replied, "Please offer us a piece of candy that contains a bit of your life force."
"But-" Aoi began to complain before she was cut off by Toki.
"You vulgar girl shouldn't even have Leo as a contracted spirit. You have no right to reject us. Either way, you can regenerate your life force." Toki sighed.
"Don't talk like that to my sister！" Akane said as she was about to slap Toki.
Toki pointed at Akane's hands and they froze in mid-air.
"Sorry, m'lady. Even contracted spirits have powers." Toki laughed, "I can't let you harm me."
Akane gritted her teeth at Toki. After she calmed down, Toki undid the spell.
"Okay. We'll make the candies as long as you will help us." Akane sighed.
"Deal！" Leo and Toki said agreeing.
They shock hands and Aoi grabbed a book that taught them how to transfer life force into objects.

It read:
"1. Close your eyes and visualize the object.
2. Imagine the amount of life force you want to transfer into the object.
3. Make sure that the amount of life force you are transferring into the object is not to large, or else the object might break."
So, Aoi and Akane visualized the candy and got a perfect image of it in their heads. Since they didn't know how much life force should be transferred…they imagined placing 5% of their life force in it. Now they just need to actually transfer the life force in it. Just one more step.