Author's note: Hey guys. Been awhile, hasn't it? In celebration of the upcoming new year, eat a few chapters.

When I was released from the Magic Organization, Mother came to pick me up from outside the headquarters and Hideaki personally came to see me off. He even smiled at Mother and said, “Your daughter is welcome at our headquarters anytime~”. Hey, is that really okay? Isn’t this place supposed to have top security? Not to mention, this is the first time you’ve seen me since day one.

…Putting that matter aside, I wasn’t surprised that Charma―Akira didn’t come to see me off. Well whatever, I didn’t want to hear his ugly voice anyway.

When I went back to school I was bombarded with questions. There was also Miu who stared at me like a hawk during class. She sits next to me, meaning her neck was turned towards me for seven hours. I feel bad when I think about how much her neck will hurt after this. The teacher even said, “Miu, are you listening?” five times before giving up.

Needless to say, everything went back to normal, and the end of school came faster than a bullet. Without even noticing, it was already time for the Summer festival.

“Done. What do you think, Sia?” asked mother. She was referring to the yellow koi fish printed yukata that I had on, accompanied by an orange obi.

“I love it! Thank you, mother.” Truth be told, the yukata was a bit loose. I’d rather not mention that though, because I think two hours spent on trying to figure out one children’s dress was enough. Seriously, the festival already started an hour ago!

“Wonderful! Then, let's go,” said mother.

The festival was a mere 10 minutes away from my house. The bright yellow lights stood out from the night sky, and the lively chatter gave off a festive mood. Most noticeable to me though, was the various smells of spice coming from the booths. Candy apples, takoyaki, dried squi-

“Sia? What do you want to do first?” asked mother.

Oops, drool was escaping from my mouth. I think I’ve been eating too much lately. Well, might as well while I have a child’s metabolism.

“Mother! Candy apple!” I said while pointing to the booth with the sugary deliciousness of what we call candy apples. After replying with a, “Yes, yes,” Mother gave me 400 yen to buy the apple. Since the booth was too tall for my height, I knocked on it. The old man behind the booth looked over his stall and made eye contact with me. Checkmate!

“Old man, I’ll have a candy apple.” I held out the four 100 yen coins in my hand and attacked him with every child’s secret technique- sparkly eyes!

“Haha, of course,” he said as he gave me two candy apples. “The second one is for your mother. It’s on the house.” See? Works like a charm.

“Thank you, old man!” I said. I went back to my mother who was watching over me from a close distance.

“Oh, you got one for me? Thank you, Sia-chan,” said mother.

We walked around the festival while eating our candy apples, and my eyes couldn't stop moving from one booth to another. Everything here looks fun! It’s been awhile since I’ve played at a festival like this. One time I went to a festival with Lily, who dragged me there. It was funner than I thought it would be since everything was new to me. I actually got lost at that time, but Lily found me when I was crouched on the floor crying. I thought I could see her on a white horse, and the aura around her was shining like a goddess.

As I was thinking such things, I saw the booth where you catch fish with a paper net. The game was one of the child-friendly ones, so I thought, why not?

“Mother, let’s play that!” I said, which she replied with, “I understand.”

After paying the man 300 yen for 3 nets, I concentrated on one fish. Must filter everything out… I can hear the breathing of the fish, the sound of the moving water, and the air around me… I am the fishing master, Sia!

“Let’s do this!” I said with all the manliness I could muster from within me. If you look at the trajectory of the fish that swims at a speed of about 1 mph, then the fish will go… there! After reaching towards the fish with the thin paper net that seemed like it could break any minute, the fish was skillfully caught in the net.

“I did it!” I said. I showed my mother the fruits of my hard work and the owner of the booth put the goldfish in a plastic bag for me.

“Oh? Well if it isn’t Sia,” said a voice I knew all-too-well. The voice sounded like Fuyukawa-sensei’s, but I was desperately hoping it was someone with good voice imitation skills. When I looked backed I saw Fuyukawa-sensei, Daichi, and pink-ringlets. What bad luck… Wait, what is pink-ringlets doing with them? When I looked at her she had this shocked look on her face.

“Hello Fuyukawa-sensei, Daichi, and…” when I looked at pink-ringlets she turned her head away.

“Pink-ringlets?” I said with hesitation.

“Yes! I-I-I mean, my name is Sumire, nice to meet you!” she said as she bowed at a perfect ninety degree angle. I don’t remember doing anything that deserved her kindness? I actually expected her to be shouting at me right now.

“Nice to meet you? This isn’t our first time me-” I tried to say, when pink-ringlets threw her dried squid at my face. The dried squid stuck nicely to my face. The sudden action of hers stunned me for a full 30 seconds. I wasn’t the only one who was stunned it seems, pink-ringlets was flustered at her own actions as she muttered nonsensical things beneath her breath.

Flash

Did I just hear the sound of a camera? When the dried squid slid off my face I saw Fuyukawa-sensei with his phone in his hand and a mocking grin.

“Ah, can you send that picture to me?” asked mother.

“Of course!” said Fuyukawa-sensei. While I was still lost at what was happening, mother and Fuyukawa-sensei were exchanging email addresses.

Wait, what?! For the beautiful Sia to have that kind of picture captured, how shameful!

“Fuyukawa-sensei, please delete that picture! And mother, aren’t you supposed to be on my side?” I reprimanded them, only to end up being ignored by the two parents who seemed to be hitting it off rather well despite it being their first meeting.

“Oh no… sorry Daichi, even though you got dried squid for me it ended up being wasted,” said pink-ringlets. Pink-ringlets and Daichi were also ignoring me, even though I was the victim. Any sign of remorse that I saw from pink-ringlets earlier was gone.

“Ahaha, don’t mind it. We can just share,” said Daichi as he held his dried squid towards pink-ringlets’ mouth.

“E-ehhhh?! T-that would be an... i-indirect kiss,” said pink-ringlets who was blushing profusely. I could see the hearts that she was subconsciously sending and the pink atmosphere that was somehow produced from a primary-schooler’s first crush.

What is this? Grosss. So the reason why pink-ringlets didn’t want me to say anything was because she didn’t want to show Daichi her bad side, huh? Well that explains one mystery but…

When pink-ringlets was taking her sweet time getting her indirect kiss, I jumped in between them and took a bite of the dried squid myself. Mmmmmm. It sure tastes great. The revenge, I mean.

“Hey! That was mine!” said pink-ringlets.

“Don’t worry, pink-ringlets. I made sure to leave some for you,” I told her with a smile. I took the dried squid from Daichi’s hand and force fed it to her.

“Mah indireckt kish…” Pink-ringlets murmured as she chewed. She hung her head low in regret and had teary eyes. What’s so great about that idiot anyway? The only thing he can do is smile.

After Fuyukawa-sensei and mother finished exchanging email addresses and my embarrassing photo, he seemed to remember something.

“Since we’re here, let’s play some games!” said Fuyukawa-sensei.

“We’re not even in school and yet you still want to play… Fine, but don’t cry when you lose,” I said.

“You’re the one who’s gonna lose! I may have lost every single strategy game against you, but today we’ll be playing a shooting game! The one who knocks down the bigger prize wins!” he said as he pointed towards the shooting booth.

“Hmph. Don’t underestimate me just because we’ve only competed in one category! I’m good at every game there is! I’m a master of games!” I said as I handed over my new goldfish, Bobby, to mother.

After paying for three rounds we picked up our respective guns. Since I was too short I stood on the stall and shot from there. I aimed for the biggest prize first which was a foot-tall bunny. Even though I was aiming for it… my aim was way off, and the bullet went too high. My second bullet hit the bunny’s ear, but as expected, the force wasn’t strong enough to knock it down.

Judging from the vulgar remarks I was hearing from Fuyukawa-sensei right next to me, he hasn’t hit anything either. Since the last bullet wasn’t centered, I aimed a bit to the right. When I pulled the trigger, the bullet didn’t hit the bunny, but it knocked down an ugly ogre next to it. It was only about 5 inches tall, but the real problem was that Fuyukawa-sensei’s bullet hit the same target that I hit at the same time.

“Congratulations! You won this mini-ogre,” said the owner of the booth. The ogre was a dark green color with black fuzzy hair and button eyes.

“”Thank you!”” Fuyukawa-sensei and I reached towards the mini-ogre at the same time.

“This is my prize, which means you lost,” said Fuyukawa-sensei as he took the stuffed ogre and held it up so I couldn’t reach it.

“What are you talking about? Shouldn’t you be ashamed to be acting this way in front of a child? Be an adult and give it to me!” I said as I kicked him. He dropped the ogre because of the pain and I picked it up.

“My bullet hit it first!” said Fuyukawa-sensei. I hid the ogre behind me to protect it.

“Our bullets hit it at the same time! Mine was the one that knocked it down!” Fuyukawa-sensei got through my strong defense and grabbed hold of the ogre, and from then on it was a tug-of-war. The mini-ogre couldn’t handle the momentum from being pulled from both sides and was ripped in half.

“”Ah…”

The cotton was falling out from the ugly ogre, which was even uglier now that it was half of what it used to be. The button eye from my half fell off, while the half that sensei was holding had an arm that was falling off. We looked to the owner of the booth who stayed calm the whole time and had a smile plastered on her face.

“Um…” said Fuyukawa-sensei.

“No,” said the owner of the booth. Fuyukawa-sensei didn’t even finish his sentence, and he was rejected. Despite the harshness of the denial, the owner continued to smile refreshingly.

“If it’s possible…” I said while executing my secret technique.

“No.” Even my sparkly eyes didn’t work?! H-how could this be...

“Consolation prize…” said Fuyukawa-sensei, who tried once more after suffering a harsh battle.

“No.”

““...We understand.”” Fuyukawa-sensei and I gave up. Getting through to her would be like trying to get through the Great Wall of China.

“Please come again.” Despite her strong rejection, she still had the gall to say that...

When I came back with my head hung down, my mom comforted me right away by saying she’d buy me a stuffed animal. Mother is really nice, but buying a stuffed animal is different from winning one. It’s the rush of satisfaction that you get that makes the animal worth it.

While sensei and I were still sad over losing our prize, out of the corner of my eye I could see a red firework blast into the sky. Other fireworks of different colors soon followed after to illuminate the night sky. Pink-ringlets’ was taking advantage of the romantic atmosphere caused by the fireworks and held Daichi’s arm. Mother was taking pictures with her phone. The fireworks were more comforting than anything else, and any bad feelings that we had were soon forgotten.

“Sia, let’s play the shooting game again next year,” said Fuyukawa-sensei.

“Sounds good. Although, I’ll probably beat you next year too,” I told him.