#snowxwhite

By the time the last bell had rung, Mariko could feel her bun, frazzled at the edges, trying to escape its scrunchie. She pulled her hair back and redid the knot while the students--her students--filed out one by one, chatting about one thing or another. What they wanted to do for the weekend, complaining about homework. It was a nostalgic sight that brought happy, memorable feelings. Mariko envied them, to some extent: being carefree, without worries of responsibilities, just being able to have fun with friends. Being a teenager really was great.

That only served to remind Mariko how old she was exactly. She sighed and pulled her things together, barely catching a stack of papers when she saw--not heard, she didn’t hear her light footsteps--Snow White--or rather, Koyuki Himekawa--walk up to her desk with her bag. She wasn’t on cleaning duty?

That’s when she asked her if they could meet after school. This usually meant the roof, and Mariko was the only one of them who could get the key without raising suspicion. She didn’t even let her nod or say “okay” before walking off, and Mariko watched her, confused. She didn’t let it stay long and shrugged her shoulders, gathering her materials.

After soliciting the keys from the gardening club, she unlocked the roof and stepped outside. Mariko had somehow become a temporary supervisor in the short time she’d been there, most likely because she was incredibly knowledgeable about the subject, and frequently tended to the plants when nobody else could. She decided to check the petunias while she waited for Snow to show up and crouched down by the flowerbeds. Her lab coat scrunched around her ankles as she delicately fixed their supports.

For a long time, Ripple had been running. Motivated by an overpowering mix of fear and anger she worked on putting as much distance between herself and those she cared about as possible. The people important to her... her friends... they deserved better than her. It was for their sake that she had to leave.

At first, Ripple had been too disoriented to really think about it too much. She had known that she couldn’t be around Snow, and so she had ran. When she had ran out of energy and had to stop, her mind finally stopped racing and she had rationalised her actions. Justified it. Snow White deserves better than me, she had thought. A murderer doesn’t deserve to have friends.

And with that in mind, she continued to keep her distance.

In all honesty, Ripple didn’t know what she was going to do. She knew that someone had to stop Pythie Frederica, but she had no idea how to do that. Even if she could find her, as long as she had that sword there was nothing that Ripple could do.

As more time passed, one worry kept cropping up in her mind. Frederica’s real target had never been Ripple. The one that she had always really wanted was Snow. So... what if Snow White was in danger? What if Frederica got her hands on her? What if she used that sword on her?

Ripple did not believe that she deserved to have friends. She did not believe that she deserved to be around anyone, especially Snow. But Snow deserved to be safe. If she wasn’t... if something happened to her when Ripple wasn’t there to protect her, Ripple knew she would never forgive herself.

So finally, after months of self-imposed exile, Ripple started to work. Finding Snow White was difficult while still trying to keep a low profile, but eventually she managed it.

Though investigating magical rumors was a past time than Negi seldom had the time for, it was something the child had penciled into his schedule for the day. The matter wasn’t one of idle curiosity this time, as the rumor that spurred this investigation in question had been of an apparent monster lurking in some caves on a hill in the country side. Concerned over the safety of the towns nearby, Negi took it upon himself to look into the problem.

Following his magical senses, Negi quickly located the cave, teleporting there a moment later. Briefly glancing around the entrance, Negi couldn’t see anything visibly out of the ordinary, but his magical senses could detect what his sight couldn’t, this was certainly where the creature was residing. However, that wasn’t the only signature Negi detected, he could feel someone approaching.

Shifting his gaze toward the new presence, Negi smiled at the new arrival, greeting them warmly with a friendly voice and wave. “Hello! Are you here about the rumors as well?” The presence of a weapon didn’t worry him, as whoever came here must’ve been hunting the monster and ready for a fight.

There was no conceivable way Mariko Fukuroi could knock on the front door.

Well, that was a lie. It was certainly conceivable, because it was do-able, but every time she thought of doing it, her palms turned sweaty and, suddenly, the room spun. She had sat in her chair, viewing a newly-matured blue wood aster (its scientific name far too long for Mariko to remember) under a microscope. A small family of butterflies had gathered in her greenhouse, and she shooed them away. Where once the sun had crested, it now receded and in its place came a purple-and-yellow checkerboard sky.

Mariko sighed. Lonely. It was really lonely.

There was no way Mariko Fukuroi could do something this crazy, but certainly Marika Fukuroi didn’t give two shits.

And that was why, by the time she’d arrived at the right neighborhood and found the right house, night had long since fallen. Yet, the question of whether or not Snow White–or Koyuki Himekawa, as she was now–was awake completely slipped her mind. Perhaps it didn’t even concern her at all.

So:

She knocked. Rather, she pounded. Loudly. On the window to what she assumed to be Koyuki’s room.

“Let’s test it out!”