"Hah... I hate numbers..."
"Deal with it, not like we got a choice anyway. The president won't let us go out unless we can pass her quick exams and pop quizzes..."
"Then why are there also letters!? Isn't this math!?"
"..."
Hearing the teal-haired girl crying out in complaint, Misaki would've comforted her better... if not for the fact that she also agreed with her sentiment.
Silently, Misaki sighed to herself as she pulled up the answer sheet to compare her answers to the correct ones.
"Hah..." As expected, not even remotely close to the correct answers. "Let's take a breather. Hime and Leader should be returning from the president's office soon with new textbooks."
After saying that, she lay back on the chair and placed a sheet of paper over her face; her hand rubbed against her clean neck, free of bandages.
It was only a couple of months ago that her body was covered in injuries, self-made and accidental ones.
But not much time had passed, and suddenly, it felt like she had never received any injuries.
The living conditions now compared to then were just too vast, absolutely incomparable.
'What is she thinking, giving children high school-level math questions?' Misaki yawned slightly, her eyes moistening.
From under the paper, she wiped her eyes, feeling a bit too comfortable. At this rate, she might accidentally fall asleep in this weird position.
Fortunately, it didn't turn out that way, as the sound of the front door opening could be heard from the living room.
"I'm home." Saori's voice sounded. "Hime decided to stay with Azusa to study under the President; she'll be home a bit late."
"Really? How brave." Misaki said, a bit surprised. "Then, dinner will only be with the three of us?"
"That's not certain. If possible, I'd like it for the five of us to have dinner together. For that, I've done an arrangement." Saori responded, "This textbook, subjects one through three."
Dropping a math textbook, Saori flipped through the pages as she picked up a pen and drew a couple of stars next to the important topics.
"They're simple ones, an hour of study should be enough for us to breeze through, or so the president had said."
"...Right, they're suspiciously easy. No, just a glance is enough for me to understand them. What kind of agreement did you come to for this?" Misaki said as she pulled the paper away from her face and glanced at the pages.
"Just... a small trip to a restaurant in Trinity. Apparently, they opened a brand new café there. Ah, also, the president said she'd sponsor all of our spending for the night if we did well in her paper." Saori remembered.
"And?"
"What?"
"There's no way you'd think that's everything. There's got to be a catch somewhere." Misaki squinted her eyes. "She's an adult, remember? What else do they know other than taking advantage of children like us? There's probably a wordplay going on that you didn't catch."
Saori nodded her head, agreeing with Misaki. "...You're right. But if I missed them, then do you think anyone else would be able to catch it?"
"Now you're changing the topic."
Saori laughed hoarsely at the fact that she was caught mid-act. "Haha... I just wanted for us to experience something new together..." Her voice lowered until it almost turned into a whisper.
Fortunately, Misaki could still hear everything just fine. Due to that, her face contorted slightly. Most of the time, this leader of theirs wouldn't act like this, seeking pity and all.
But after that happened, she decided that cherishing the moment alone isn't enough. Now, she's actively seeking to make more memories together.
At some point, Hime even found an old camera with a memory card that was still in use, allowing them to take a picture together.
Of course, Misaki was against doing such an embarrassing thing, but she could never win against four different people doing the puppy eye against her...
Reluctantly, she allowed herself to be in the frame. Saori even secretly held her hand to make sure she didn't run away. 'She really didn't have to worry too much...'
"Fine. Just brief us on what kind of questions she'd present. We'll revise on our own. You can go back there, just tell us the time we need to be there." Misaki waved her hand listlessly, pushing the shoulder of the teal-haired girl beside her, who had fallen asleep at some point.
"Wake up, time to study again. If we do well this time, she might buy you some new magazines and books."
"What did you say!?" As if she had never fallen asleep, Hiyori stood up, her eyes seemingly fired up out of nowhere. "Let's study! What are we waiting for?!"
"...That's the spirit." Misaki smiled gently.
Saori handed a small piece of paper to her as Misaki opened it and read through the contents. It was the example questions, written by the president herself.
"Do you have yours?"
"She'll give me another one. I'll go study with Azusa and Hime. Are you sure you don't want to come with us?"
"Hiyori still can't handle an adult; there's no helping it. It's fine." Misaki said as she pulled out another piece of paper. "Go, we'll make sure we arrive earlier than the time provided."
Saori nodded and patted Hiyori's head a couple of times before turning back to the front door. "Take care."
"You too."
Thud
The door slammed shut.
"What subject will it be? Is it PE?"
"...Another math."
"...Nooooooooo--"
---
Misaki looked at the paper in her hands. A massive number written in red ink at the top right of her paper announced her score to the world.
A staggering 86.
She flipped through them as she took note of the questions she got wrong, making sure she remembered to revise them when she got back.
"How'd you do?" Saori arrived at her side as she glanced at the smaller girl's paper. She smiled brightly at the sight of the number, "Good job, if we combined mine, Hime's, and yours, we should be able to meet the minimum requirement for a free-spending... that is, considering whether or not Azusa and Hiyori's grades were above 50..."
Having said that, she glanced at the two people of interest, who were absentmindedly looking through their own papers.
From afar, Misaki could see Hime approaching them, and as she glanced at their papers, her eyes widened, and her smile brightened.
She turned her eyes to the two of them, showing a thumbs-up.
Seeing this, Misaki heaved a sigh of relief, and Saori chuckled right beside her.
"Stop laughing, I was quite nervous when I taught Hiyori earlier. Can you imagine how frustrated I was trying to convince her that divisions and multiplications are actually so much more complex than she thinks?" She remarked. "Now turn that to eleven."
"Haha, at least now we know who has the talent in studying and who doesn't," Saori said as she waved to the three people in the distance.
Azusa had caught her breath and apparently started crying in joy at seeing her marks being so high... Her score was 51.
Hiyori looked like she had achieved enlightenment after cultivating for a thousand years; her skin was shining... her score was 54.
"Hah..." Misaki sighed.
"That's that, let's put all past worries behind us. The president said to just visit any restaurant in Trinity and tell the waiter to put the tab on 'Mrs. Verraterin'. She also gave me this small picture frame..." Saori pulled out a small wooden picture frame as she said so.
Looking at the size, it was just the perfect fit for... the picture... Wait, how'd the president know they took a photo with this exact resolution!?
Huh!?
"Now we can make it official!" Saori smiled.
"Give that thing to me!"
"Nope! We'll be putting this on display, whether you like it or not." Saori said as she pulled the frame up into the sky, preventing the shorter girl from grabbing hold of it.
"Tch!" Misaki clicked her tongue. "Whatever, you'd better not leave me alone with that thing, otherwise..."
"Otherwise?"
"...Tsk." Misaki turned her head as she turned to walk back home.
Saori chuckled at this as she called the others to come back and clean themselves before preparing to go out.
After a long walk home, they arrived back home as they entered the shower room at different intervals, one at a time.
Saori went into her room and pulled out a piece of paper, the picture she had taken, one that included every single one of them.
Outside their old home, the place was very much rundown when compared to their current one.
"..." Her smile became slightly stiff, but that loosened as she inserted the picture into the frame.
"Saori, the shower is free!" Azusa called out from the living room.
"Coming." She gave back a response, placing the picture onto the shelf next to the study table.
Her finger grazed the image once more, the picture of five people, so close to one another, perhaps closer than some families in the world. Most would envy their relationship.
But she was feeling melancholic.
Yes, the picture was definitely a happy memory she had managed to capture
But it was also very incomplete.
And there's nothing she can do about it.
---
Author's Note: An update, I ran out of ideas once again, so here's another extra story for Arius Squad. (Note, this takes place around a year after Beatrice died.)