Chapter Text
Cherry blossom petals dance in the spring air as X travels to Sakuratogaku High School. The air is so lovely, it feels like she’s in an anime, her hands folded over her skirt- it’s such a lovely day that it doesn’t feel real that it’s finals week. It's the last school week of the year and everything comes down to the wire. Her lucky blue hairbow doesn’t feel very lucky. Usually, she can fiddle with her phone keychain in her pocket for some support but even that doesn’t feel like it’s helping.
She sighs, rubbing her dark circles under her round-rimmed glasses.
She was out all night last week, with barely any time to study. It was like every witch in the surrounding area was active… It’s not as though X isn’t academic and struggles with the material, but she isn’t a prodigy in school like her friend is-
Long blonde hair pinpricks the side of her vision. Suddenly she is standing in a neatly pressed uniform, hands behind her back like in a military drill. Her hair sweeps along in the wind, strands of it flying this and that way, framing her pretty blue eyes.
“Zero.”
Zero simply acknowledges her with a nod. Her eyes drift to the hand in her pocket and she gives her a knowing smile.
“Did you get any studying done?”
X sighed again, “Barely, it was super hard…” She yawns, lifting a hand to her mouth. “I’m so tired…”
“I feel you there,” Zero’s eyes glance at the perfect blue sky. Her eyes match it. Her long delicate eyelashes reach even higher than X can reach.
X feels her face start to burn and she looks away.
She starts to feel Zero’s stare. “If you pass I’ll get you another keychain.”
X shakes her head, “Come on you don’t need to do that.”
“No? But you like the other keychain I gave you.”
X fiddles with it again in her pocket, she can feel the little red ears.
“Hm… If you pass I’ll get you a keychain so we can match.”
“Zero smiles at her, “Like we’re a couple?” she teases.
“N-no!-”
“I’m just kidding,” Zero lightly taps her shoulder. “That sounds nice. I wouldn’t mind matching with you.”
Her face burns again. “I don’t know what else to get you to be honest. I mean… that could be a reward.”
Zero shrugs, “Yes, if I wanted it that badly I would just buy it.”
Zero’s always been that way. She doesn’t wait for the things she wants, she blackmails one of her brothers talks to Wily, or gets a part-time job. She’s calculative, decisive, and cold to people she doesn’t know very well. She’s so many things, but all of them belong to her- if that makes any sense. There are no contradictions, everything about her is perfect and orderly.
The bell rings as they enter the school grounds, as dozens of people around them file to their classrooms, the perfect day disappears as they are swallowed by the right lights and perfect geometric shapes that make up windows and hallways and doors.
Even now, when she should be worried about the exam a question she simply can’t leave alone gnaws at her brain.
Zero disappears into the crowd with a handwave, but she still stands out—her long blonde hair in a sea of black and brown.
I know you better than anyone.
X thinks.
But even I don’t know what you wished for. What was so important you would sacrifice yourself and become a magical girl?
X looks at the scar on her wrist and turns her head sharply to the right, filing into her homeroom period.