¹ eliminate | the soldier game trio ✓

"The Bakery"

"Hanamaru-chan! I could have gotten her signature!!"

Ruby whined and her head flopped onto her desk.

"I don't even know if Onee-chan will let me go past the bakery later, let alone even let me talk to her,"

Hanamaru looked slightly guilty and eventually, she placed her hand over Ruby's.

"It's okay, Ruby-chan, I'll bring you back to the bakery later, after school! Besides, there's no practice today and I could do with some more bread in the morning, zura. Kousaka-san really has her way with baking. Dia-san will most likely follow, so will the rest of Aqours."

Ruby looked at her best friend, and her face broke into a smile, immediately jumping up to hug Hanamaru, her green eyes sparkling with happiness.

"Thanks, Hanamaru-chan!! Anyway,it doesn't seem like Kousaka-san was the one baking, it looked like her foster daughter is doing all the work."

Hanamaru nodded, and sat down on her chair next to Ruby.

"There's something odd about her though," Hanamaru whispered.

"What?"

"I recognized her eyes, zura."

Ruby stared at Hanamaru enquiringly.

"They seemed similar to the eyes of a creature I saw in one of Yoshiko's books the other day-"

"IT'S YO-HA-NE!"

Yoshiko shouts from the other end of the classroom.

Both girls casually ignored it, which led to Yoshiko storming over to the two, her dark blue hair seeming to emit the same dark flame she used to "conjure" black magic.

"You lowly humans must have been talking about thee. However, I shan't bring myself to stoop to your level." She says in an eerily low tone.

"Anyway, Hanamaru-chan that can't be-" Ruby was cut off by Yoshiko desperately trying to redeem herself.

"However, I will grant any questions being asked from this moment onwards."

"Thanks, Yoshiko-chan! Now, what was that book's name again..." Hanamaru's eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

Yoshiko flinched slightly at being addressed so casually and informally, but offered her help nevertheless.

"Thou must be talking about 'Dark World', that contains the ancient secrets of hell's monsters."

She sat back looking satisfied, her pink eyes surveying her two friends' reactions.

"Ah, that's the one, zura."

"Wait, Hanamaru-chan, she's just a young girl who Kousaka-san raised, you can't possibly think that she's linked to dark magic of any sort,"

Ruby locks her gaze onto Hanamaru's worriedly, causing the golden-eyed girl to falter.

"It's nothing, Ruby-chan. I'm not accusing her of anything, zura. I was just noting similarities between--ah, never mind. I must love books too much, zura."