“Hello, Sister.”

“I trust you haven’t changed your mind, Sakura.”

“No, sister. I haven’t.”

Good. That means our deal still stands. I walk up to her and hold out my hand for a handshake. She takes my hand and shows me her smile. I can clearly see the sincerity in her eyes. I nod my head in return.

“Wait. Master, what is this?” Changer suddenly materializes and comes closer. Sakura quickly retracts her hand and takes a step back.

Come to think of it, I haven’t told Changer about this, have I? Oh well, he’s learned it now. I make a gesture toward Sakura to not worry her and swing my hair in a large arc as I turn towards him.

“We are allies now. Sten, this is Sakura. Sakura this is Sten. Get along, now.”

I put a smile on my face and stare at him directly in the eyes. There is no room for discussion and I want him to understand it.

I expected him to ask more questions, or object, put forward a condition, or something. Instead, he shows me a wide eyed expression for just one second. Then he simply nods, takes a step back and returns to spirit form.

It’s nice having an obedient servant.

“Sister.” says Sakura. She brings her clasped hands to her chest. Such a shy gesture.

“You haven’t told your servant, err, Mister Sten, about our prior arrangement?”

“No, but as you saw, he has no problem with it.”

After hearing you are sisters, why would I?

“Well then, Sakura, what do you say? Shall we go somewhere more private to further discuss things?”

I’d prefer not to stay here. Even here, on this rooftop, we might get unlucky and have someone overhear us. Sure, putting up a field to prevent ordinary people from coming up here would be easy, but it would also carry with it the unnecessary risk of giving out our location to other masters. Going to my house would be much safer.

“Ah, sure. Where shall we go, sister?”

She looks glad. Even in school, we don’t get to talk much, so this is a nice opportunity to be together. Who would have thought a fight to the death between maguses would have an effect of bringing two sisters together? In any case, I’m looking forward to it too.

“You have your grandfather at your house right? Maybe even Shinji might stop by. I’d rather not have to deal with him, so let’s go to my place.”

 “Brother isn’t that bad.”

I shrug. “If you say so. Still, he wouldn’t shut up if he saw me there.”

She slightly blushes and looks down. She is so cute, I just want to cuddle her. But I remember that there are two invisible spectators around us and stop myself.

“Then let’s go to your house, sister.”

I grin and turn back towards the door, but I’m stopped by Changer who once again suddenly materializes and comes forward.

“Leave that to me ladies.”

He kneels down and puts one hand on the ground.

“What are you-“

Donna daika, shami suvar, sha suva.

I hear Sakura screaming at the same time as me. Why? Because we suddenly rose into the air. I reflexively stretch out my arms to the sides, as if that will stop me from falling, and I see Sakura do the same. I also see a purple haired weird woman next to Sakura.

“Don’t worry ladies. No one below can see us. Not even other maguses.”

Changer is kneeling in the same position. He has his hand on the… ground. Yes, ground. I can feel the ground beneath my feet, although I can’t see it. My reflexive scream dies down as I try moving my feet. I can step on the air as if the ground is still there. I glance at Sakura and see that she is also examining the invisible ground. The purple haired woman is standing next to her, presumably staring at Changer. Although staring is not the right word, since her eyes are covered. She must be Sakura’s servant.

“Have you ever heard of warning!?” I shout at Changer.

It’s not like there is any sound from the wind that requires me to shout. In fact there is no sign that we are moving other than seeing everything around us moving downwards. It is as if what I am seeing and what is happening don’t match. I can see that we are going up, but I can’t feel anything that indicates so. My hair isn’t fluttering about, I don’t feel that wind one feels when moving fast, and I can still feel the hard ground beneath my feet. But, we are certainly moving upwards, and fast.

Changer looks me in the eye. With a serious expression and in a deep, dramatic voice says:

“Warning beforehand would lessen the reaction I receive from you ladies.”

“You-”

I somehow stop myself. I don’t want Sakura to see me shouting at my servant in anger.

“Sister?”

I see Sakura looking at me questioningly. She seems a lot calmer than I would have guessed.

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“We are just flying home.” I tell Sakura and smile. I try to look like I’m in control of the situation, but I’m not sure that it is working.

“Stopping now.” He at least warns this time.

We slow down and finally stop in the middle of the air. Just like when we were moving up, I don’t get that feeling of stopping. Only my vision allows me to understand that we stop.

“Taking off horizontally in three, two, one, and now.”

Na Donna Daikao.

Just as he says, we start moving towards the European residential district, where my house is. I don’t feel the movement and I can feel the ground. This is a lot like watching television, rather than flying for real. Perhaps that is why Sakura seems like she has already gotten comfortable with it. On the other hand, I don’t own a television. I think it will take me more to get used to this.

The town beneath our feet look spectacular. Well, actually the town is nothing to look at, just one house after the other, but the way we view it makes it a spectacle. This might actually be nice.

As I’m viewing the scenery, I see the purple haired servant by the still-kneeling Changer. I can’t hear what they are talking about from over here, and I hope Changer doesn’t say anything unnecessary, but before I go over to them, Sakura approaches me.

               *                             *                             *

[Interlude]

This was a bad idea. I just heard the girls were on our side and panicked. Taking them for a ride, my ass! This isn’t the time to be fooling around. Sure, we are invisible, but a decent caster should still be able to detect us. If Caster has a long range attack, we’ll be sitting ducks out here. Anyway, calm down, what are the chances? Besides, I can’t just take us down now. I’ll just have to hope we are not attacked.

Right, I should focus on detecting. If I find a servant first, I can take us down without losing face.

And, she is coming this way. Don’t ask me something like what the hell I am doing; I have no answer to that. She is even more beautiful from up close. Just why?

“How fast can you go?”

Thump-thump. Oh Lord, that is dangerous. She could have had a frog-like voice, but no. She had to have this low and alluring… Calm down. Just-just, say something cool.

“As fast as you want me to.”

Oh lord, I want to die. What was that? Has my time to get slapped come this fast? No? She seems… Damn, I can’t read her expression with that eye patch.

“How is the shape then? And size?”

THUMP-THUMP! She must be doing it on purpose. Alright. Time for a witty and charming comeback.

“I’ll show you if you show me your eyes.”

What? Really? You sounded like a fool or a pervert, or both. You didn’t even properly answer her question. You’re guessing she has eyes that can turn you to stone and you asked to see them. I give up. Lord, can you pretty please send me back in time? Not much, just a few minutes.

“You won’t get to see my eyes.”

She’s not slapping me. That means I myself will…

Foolish mod: off.

Rin? Talking to her sister. Servant? Haven’t realized.

“Master! I detected two servants. They have just started fighting.”

Near the bridge. Good, they have a field set up. Well, that is something.

“What? It is the middle of the day! How foolish can they get? Where are they?”

“At the park near the bridge. They have a field set up.”

“By the bridge?” That was the servant. I guess it is too far for her to sense.

Can you get us close without them noticing?

If you wish to watch, we don’t need to get close.

“Sister. I think this is a good opportunity to observe.” The sister thinks so too, it seems. The sister? Nope, bad way to address. The sister and the servant. I should ask them how to address them sometime.

“Then let’s watch them. Sten, do your thing.”

“At once.”

I don’t remember ever using it this way before, but it is in the records, so let’s do this. Just extend the hand and:

Karan suva.

Annnd, success. Just zoom in on what can already be seen, and have it shown on a section of the side of my cylindrical flying field. Wouldn’t this work wonders for sailors? I wonder if they invented something similar yet.

“Wow!”

I don’t know from whom that exclamation came from, but honestly, I’d rather just focus on the fight which can now be seen by all of us, as if we were there.