Chapter 2: The Girl in Black (1) (2/2)

“I’m sorry I’m late …..”

“Are you finished with buying everything?”

Rin lowered herself to Miku’s line of sight as she came running up, and revealed herself, hiding her wings. In this way, she would make herself invisible whenever she wasn’t with Miku, to avoid “recklessly being around humans” as much as possible.

“Yes, quite. The Glosse Market is very crowded this year, and so much fun.”

Miku had brought Rin along, wanting to share the experience of this festival, which happened just once a year. It was especially exciting to see the various items brought to the marketplace on this huge Belchstein Bridge, most of which were rare goods you wouldn’t normally be able to find. Today’s highlight was a traditional, handcrafted item a merchant from a foreign country in the far east had brought, a piece of clothing with an original design, called a kimino. Miku had chosen several different ones to buy as souvenirs for Lily. From clothes to miscellaneous goods, perhaps she had bought just a little too much, as both of her arms were laden with bags.

In a split second, Rin took all of her bags from her.

“Now then, let’s get going,” She said and started walking, with Miku one step behind her.

“Um, Rin! It’s alright, I’ll carry them.”

“Eh?”

“The bags …. You don’t have to carry all of them. I’ll carry some, as well!”

“Ahh, these …..? It’s not much, so it’s fine. They’re not heavy at all.”

Seeming not to mind at all, Rin swung both of her arms easily, despite carrying so many bags.

“….! R-really? But, I thought they were rather heavy …..”

Miku herself, even, thought that she might have bought too much, and tried to take some of the bags from Rin, who had walked ahead, but she wouldn’t allow her to.

“It’s fine, really. More importantly, let’s hurry and go back. I want to eat Miku’s homemade apple pie~”

Rin continued walking with a light step while whistling. Contrary to her appearance, she was rather strong and muscular. Just the other day, when she had been helping Miku remodel her room, Rin had single-handedly moved all the furniture, and very quickly.

From an angel’s point of view, it could simply be said that humans lacked in strength, but when Rin helped out with physical labor like this, Miku always praised her physical strength in an exaggerated manner. The look Miku gave her, which was both grateful and envious, tickled her a bit, and was also very comforting.

After walking for a little while, the bridge’s Rest Square came into view. Usually, it was a relaxing place used for resting, with a fountain in the center and benches, but during the festival, it was bustling with the many stalls and crowds of people. Deciding to take a short break, they stopped walking, and in one corner of the square, there was a place that stood out with how it seemed almost conspicuously crowded. All around it, there were two to three times as many crowds as anywhere else.

“What’s going on ….?”

“Who knows …. Shall we go take a look?”

Pushing past the continuous flow of people to move closer, what they saw was a huge shooting range stall. At first glance, it appeared to be just an original shooting range stall, but upon closer inspection, all of the prizes were gorgeous, breath-taking decorations with rare designs. For one round, there was the usual amount of ten targets, but all the customers were captivated by the splendor of the aligned prizes, and playing all at once. However, not one person had been yet able to hit a single target.

It wasn’t surprising, as the rules for the game were fairly difficult. For one round, the challenger was given ten rounds of ammunition, one for each target. In this huge shooting range, there was a large distance to the targets, and furthermore, the targets were small. It would be exceptionally difficult, even for a gun master. And what was more, it was very costly just for one play, so it wasn’t something that you could try numerous times. In short, it was a “get-rich-quick”-type of set-up.

While watching several people take the challenge, she glanced at the line of prizes. Although there was still much she didn’t understand about human culture, they were certainly all very eye-catching. Nodding as she looked on, Rin then noticed that Miku had her eyes fixed on a single point for some time now. When Rin followed her gaze, she saw a ring with a flower motif. The beautiful, white flower petals looked like they were in the midst of blooming, as if they were the real thing.

“Miku, do you want that?”

Unable to pull her eyes away from the ring, Miku seemed a bit unfocused when she answered.

“Eh? Ah, yes …. It’s very pretty …..”

Miku’s gestures and behavior were fairly mature, but age-wise, she was still a teenage girl, and in terms of trends and fashions, she loved cute things. Looking around once, there were many other women that were staring intently at that ring, just like Miku was.

“Hmm ….”

Without showing much interest in the ring, Rin pulled out some human paper bills from her pocket. During her stay with Miku, she’d studied a bit about the monetary value currency in the human world, but she still didn’t understand it very well. For some reason, these paper bills seemed to have more value than gold or silver coins.

“Hey, how many times do I get with this?”

Rin asked, holding up a bill with many zero’s written on it for the stall keeper to see.

“’ey there! Li’l Miss, are y’gonna have a go?”

“Yeah. Is this enough?”

“Hmm! Yeah, ‘nuff for one round.”

As he said this, the smiling stall keeper took the money, and passed her the gun for shooting the targets.

“Here ya go. It’s a wee bit heavy, so be careful~ ‘though it’s a toy for playin’, if you do hit someone by mistake, they could get hurt. You get one practice shot, and ten for the real deal. Altogether, tha’s ten shots~ The li’l miss is ‘specially cute, so I’ll give ya one extra shot as a service.”

“It’s fine. I’ll just have ten like everyone else.”

“Oh, but with those delicate arms of yours ….”

Bang!

Silencing the stall keeper’s voice, the sound of the toy gun rang out and echoed around the square. The bullet that Rin shot hit the target dead center. At the sudden hit, all the people gathered there began to stir slightly.

Bang! Bang! Bang! —— …….

Two shots, three, four … Without wavering, all the toy bullets that were fired were drawn to the exact center of the targets.

“Ten.”

She hit the last target. Just few seconds before, none of them had a single scratch, but now, all ten targets had been hit with bullets right in the center, and were deeply gouged. All the surrounding onlookers were so stunned by this miraculous act, they had forgotten how to blink. Everyone had their mouths hanging open, frozen on the spot without saying a single world.

“…. Um, I finished.”

Turning around like it was nothing, the stall keeper was frozen with the same smile he had on earlier.

“Heeeey!”

Perhaps because he was incredibly shocked, he didn’t react even with Rin waved her arm in front of his face.

“Rin! That was amazing~!!”

Breaking the silence of the audience, Miku rushed up to Rin and threw her arms around her. Stunned by the sudden embrace, Rin’s cheeks reddened. It made her panic so much that she’d forgotten about how composed she’d been firing the gun earlier.

“Um, Miku …..!”

“Amazing! You’re amazing, Rin!!”

As Miku blushed and looked at Rin with a sparkling and respectful gaze, Rin tried to suppress her throbbing heartbeat, and cast a sideways glance at the prizes. According to the rules, since she’d hit all ten targets, she should be able to receive any prize that she liked.

“Could I have that one?”

She asked the stall keeper, pointing at the beautiful ring with the flower motif that all the women, Miku included, had been staring at with glittering eyes. All around, there were already loud shouts of praise and cheers for Rin.

“….. Yeah, s-sure ….. That was quite a sight, Li’l Miss.”

The stall keeper finally returned to his senses, and although still in a daze, he began to pack up the ring that was the most remarkable of all the prizes. He was surprised about seeing the first prize winner from Glosse Market, and seemed to be re-evaluating the simplicity of the rules. After taking the prize from the stall keeper and while being seen off by the cheers from the onlookers, the two walked towards the entrance to the main island. On the way, she was scouted by a royal guard who had been watching the shooting range challenge, but Rin politely refused.

* * *

“Haah …. There sure were a lot of people …”

Passing through the gate, they reached the Alphine urban area. The Cyrinpt Mansion was near the center of the island, atop of a small hill. It would take about an hour to go back from here. They decided to take a small break on the bench in the garden of a small church nearby. Once they’d sat down, Rin gently took Miku’s hand.

“Here.”

Rin placed in Miku’s palm the ring she had won as a prize earlier.

“Eh …..? You’re giving it to me?”

Opening her eyes wide, Miku stared intently at the ring in her hand.

“…. Eh!? Didn’t you want this ring? C-could it be that I got the wrong one!?”

“N-no, that’s not it. It’s very cute, and I thought it looked so wonderful, but …. Since Rin was the one who won it, I think you should wear it.”

Miku smiled, took Rin’s hand, and fit the ring on her right ring finger. It seemed to be a little bit too big.

“I can’t! I won this so Miku could have it!”

Rin took off the ring, and just as Miku had done moments before, she took Miku’s hand and fit the ring on her right ring finger. The ring fit perfectly on Miku’s thin and supple finger, as if it had always been there.

“Wow ……. It suits you, just as I thought it would!”

Looking at Miku with the ring on, Rin grinned with both hands clasped loosely behind her head. Compared to the gallant expression she’d had when shooting the targets earlier, her now unfathomably friendly smile made her seem like an entirely different person. The angel that was smiling triumphantly like she’d just pulled off a prank, really didn’t seem to have much interest in the ring itself. Perhaps she should simply presume upon this favor.

“….. Thank you, Rin.”

Miku smiled shyly, feeling a bit tickled somehow, as if she had had something bought for her just because she’d selfishly said she wanted it. It was as if she were a spoiled child. A long time ago, when she was still a little girl, her mother had bought for her a toy she had wanted, in much the same way. When she thought about, she had never taken anyone’s kindness for granted before. She wasn’t good at all with being spoiled like this.

“Thank you …. I’ll … treasure it.”

She gently stroked the beautiful, blooming flower on her right ring finger with her left hand. Rin was smiling beside her, scratching her cheek in slight embarrassment. She decided she’d try depending on her just a little more.

“…..”

She rested her head on the delicate angel’s shoulder and leaned against her. Perhaps because she’d been walking since early in the morning, or because of the peaceful sunlight, her eyelids became naturally heavy and she didn’t have the energy to keep them open anymore. The warmth she felt beside her was of a pure and holy presence.

It was so warm——

The gently smiling face that seemed both shy and a bit embarrassed, slumbering in the comfortable weather, looked just like the smile of an angel.