Chapter Text
To say Arisa was nervous was an understatement. She could barely sit still the whole day and checked over her list of necessities at least 20 times. Why am I so nervous? It's not like Ako-chans a stranger, and I even got some advice from Sayo-senpai and Rinko-senpai! Just as she was placing down some last minute snacks, someone practically jumped down the basement staircase.
“BAM! The Dark Princess Ako has arrived uhmmm…..something something Heed my call!!! Fufu how’d you like that entrance! Cool right!” Ako had arrived.
“Uhh yeah, cool...i guess…”
“Yay! Ooo! Are those snacks?!” Ako quickly sat down on the couch and took something from the bowl.
“So um...Ako-chan do you-”
“Do I have any ideas for the decorations? Totally!” Yikes! She stole that line before I could even think it. Ako reached around and took off a small backpack she was wearing, it was all black but the zippers were a bright red and there were, what looked like small bat wings attached to the front.
“Here!” She pulled out a big sketch book. How can that even fit in that tiny bag?! “But before we begin I have a very important question for you…” Arisa gulped, what was the question? What was so important Ako had to derail the meeting?! Arisa didn’t have a clue why, but she was a tiny bit hopeful it was-
“Are you a witch?!”
“Hu-What?!”
“You totally are, aren’t you! Fufu you can’t fool Dark Princess Ako’s cursed eye! I perceived your….uh what were they called again? Those mini trees?”
“Y-You mean bonsai?”
“Yes! I perceived your bonsai that you kept hidden from...uh...mortal eyes!” Arisa figured it would just be easier to just go along with whatever she was saying, but she couldn’t deny her stunts were just a little cute….
“A-Ah! You got me, you must be uh pretty powerful to see through my disguise?”
“Ah! Really! I was right!” Her eyes lit up “U-Uh! I mean...fufu of course! Dark Princess Ako is the most powerful….uh demon ever!!”
“Well, ‘Dark Princess Ako’, what ideas do you have for the decorations for our dark masquerade?”
“Whoa! You’re super good at this! Ah yeah! Actually I just came up with a new idea! Why don’t we do a witch themed Ma-? Masqu-? um! Live!”
“A witch theme? How would we do that?”
“Well we could use some of your mini trees and make the stage look like a forest!”
“That's..not a bad idea..but i doubt just my bonsai could make that effect..”
“Then we’ll get more! I want to do roses in Roselias colors too!”
“Huh, wait roses? Can you even get your hands on flower arrangements?”
“I know a person! Don’t worry! More importantly do you want to add something?” she flipped open her sketchbook and started to doodle something. Something I want to add? Suddenly her mind went back to Kasumi and stars “Actually I do have something….”
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The flashing lights in the arcade were hurting Arisa’s head. How can someone be in here for one minute? Let alone an hour! She was quickly thrown out of her thoughts however when Ako took her arm and pointed to a very flashy game.
“Thusd isdd thfds thsdfd oneffdas arsdisa”
“Huh? What did you say?” the noises of beeping and computerized voices drowned out Ako’s voice.
“I SAID, THIS IS THE ONE ARISA!” Ako shouted right in her ear.
“Ouch! Ok, Ok i get it! Don’t shout in my ear like that.”
Ako just ignored her and dragged her to the game. It was a big circular screen with buttons on a panel near the bottom, they were brightly flashing their colors, blue, purple and red. At the top there was a sign that read NFO, and the screen was flashing the same sign, with the added words ‘the RPG adventure’ and ‘play game’.
“The level I was telling you about is the third level, so be ready to take notes!”
Somehow, Ako had convinced Arisa to go to the arcade with her. They were having trouble with discerning what exactly a ‘witch theme’ was and disagreed with each other's ideas, so Ako mentioned that the new NFO arcade game had a witch themed level and promptly decided that they were going to the arcade to “research”.
“I’m ready!” Arisa held out her notebook as Ako started up the game. She was pretty focused for the first couple of minutes, but Ako continued through the level slashing monsters at inhuman speeds she became entranced.
“How are you doing that?!” she exclaimed, when Ako hit the second level.
“I'm tapping the buttons.”
“I can see that, I meant how are you doing that so fast?”
“Fufu...I can't let all of my secrets escape to the public!” Guess I should have seen that coming.
“Um..did you think that was cool…?”
“Hm? What was cool?”
“NOTHING! Let’s get to the third level!” Ako kept playing and the third level came….and went Arisa hated to admit it, but she was so pulled into Ako’s playing that she completely forgot to take notes and only realized on….
“WAIT! How’d we get to level 20?!”
“Huh? AH! You’re right! We can probably stop playing now…” Ako looked a little sad saying that and Arisa also felt a pang of regret.
“Well let's look at the notes you took!”
“Ah-” Arisa looked down at her completely blank page “I think I forgot..”
“Uuuuu” Ako played with her hands “Well I guess this was useless…, but I still have free time, do you think we could stay here a little longer...pretty please!”
“Auh!” Arisa was a little taken aback by Ako’s sudden request, normally with Kasumi or O-Tae she could just say “no” normally but, for some reason when faced with Ako’s big puppy eyes….
“I guess so! I-I mean we can’t just waste the day!”
“Yay~ you’re the best Arisa!” Arisa felt her face heat up, and she turned away.
“It’s no big deal! No need for all of that!” Ako’s attention had already shifted to some other game.
“AH! Look at that!! They have that figure here?! We have to try and get it!” Arisa smiled at her as Ako dragged her to a claw game machine...there was just something about her...Arisa couldn't put her finger on it, but she knew Ako was special somehow…
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Ako parted ways with Arisa at the station in front of the mall, and started making her way home. I gotta think about what I should text her when I get home! Ako thought. Arisa had suggested swapping phone numbers just before they left the mall and Ako was all too happy to oblige. When she entered her house and took off her shoes, she immediately booked it to Tomoe’s room and threw open the door.
“ONEE-CHAN, ONEE-CHAN! GUESS WHAT!”
“Whoa, Ako! What’s the rush?”
“Onee-chan! Ako’s in love!”