"Suki Emiya, we meet at last for the first time for the fiftieth time."
"I’m Emiya? Alright Rin, let’s see if I can raise your flag!"
"I’m Emiya? Alright Rin, let’s see if I can raise your flag!"
Tsubomi would need to be a little patient. While Suki could cover a lot of ground, her speed was entirely dependent on how eager she was to get to her destination. And it became apparent early on that she was not eager to return. When Suki finally turned up, her head was hunched forward. Her bangs covered her eyes, and her lips were pursed. She swayed side to side like the walking dead, and held an unconscious frog in one of her hands. It was natural for Suki to be covered in blood, but she had dirt caked in the folds of her dress and leaves sticking out of her hair.
She dragged her feet in front of Tsubomi . "I don’t feel like eating out." Her voice was weak.
Tsubomi, for her part, came to the conclusion from the way Suki carried herself and the lack of the Light Girl, that she must not have captured her. ”That’s rare, for you. Isn’t that your whole shtick?” A bit of a low-hanging fruit, but it would hopefully perk her partner up. ”Besides, I don’t think we won. Who knows where we’ll be eating.”
”There’s only so many places to eat in Hibusa. It’ll be one of them." She placed her thumb on top of the frog’s head and rubbed it side to side. ”How long were you waiting here? Did you see me enter the forest?"
”Probably. And yeah, I saw you go in the forest, but I tried to go around after that and only came back here a little while ago. What’s with the frog?”
”This guy?" Suki tipped her head back. Her crimson eyes were locked on the amphibian in her hand. ”He and about fifty of his friends jumped me. I can confirm that none of them were princes, but I think we can make this guy talk." She turned the frog over in her hand. ”I think it’s a guy anyway. He might be a girl. I’m not sure how you tell with frogs." She used her pinky to stroke the side of the frog.
”I think if you got hit by that many frogs, the blonde girl is to blame. She seemed to have some sort of frog based magic, which is weird, but maybe we actually can get some info out of it.”
She shrugged. ”I’m not hopeful, but I couldn’t return with Homura, or I guess Lycoris is her magical girl name. I thought this would be better than nothing."
”You learned the new girl’s name!?”
The pitch change in Tsubomi’s voice caused Suki to jump. ”Uh-um, Maybe?.I mean-" She rubbed the back of her head. ”We introduced ourselves. I was surprised she gave me both of her names. At first I thought she might have been into me, but that was before the frogs jumped me. On my way back here I figured she probably gave me a fake name to keep me stunned with surprise. The timing seemed a little too perfect." Her eyes darted between the frog and Tsubomi. ”W-why, ya think she was telling the truth?"
Oh, they had talked to each other. ”At the very least, I think we can figure she gave her magical name. But if she goes to our school, we can easily find out if that’s her real name too. Besides, I don’t… I don’t think that girl would make a good liar.” After a moment’s thought, she pressed on. ”Also, I don’t think the frogs mean she’s not into you. You’ll have to find that out later, most likely.” Chances being what they were, Lycoris probably didn’t like Suki that way, but maybe the thought would help cheer her partner up.
It did seem like that was the case. Suki was looking straight up into the night sky with a finger on her chin, considering Tsubomi’s words. ”You know what, Rainbow? You’re right!" She hugged Tsubomi and spun fast enough for the centrifugal force to lift her legs into the air. Even the poor frog’s limbs shot outward from Suki’s grasp. But her geas did nothing to Tsubomi, who was unable to feel emotions the same way others could. ”That’s why I try to let you do all the thinking for me!" Once Suki set her down, she took a long look into her eyes. ”I guess we should talk with the others then. Maybe we won’t get to eat what we want, but I know we didn’t kill the fewest miseria. And not eating a free meal would just be silly!"
Well, that went well, at least. Tsubomi was about to turn back into her regular form as she was spun around, when she realized that maybe there was still a Light Girl around to see that. She let Suki continue her happy moment and did her best not to ruin it. ”Yeah, I wonder what it’ll be.” With the relatively little time they’d known each other, Tsubomi had found that faking empathy went a long way with her partner, and with people in general, which she had to thank her for showing her someday. But for now, it was enough to stop her from moping so they could get back.
”I’m curious though." Suki kept her hands on her partner’s shoulders. ”You saw me enter the forest, but you decided to wait here after the text. What would you have done if I didn’t come back?"
”If you were giving off the feelings of dread people usually do when they’re about to die, I’d have come in to find you. You seemed more bothered than scared.” It wasn’t untrue, at least.
”You can do that?" Suki folded her arms behind her back. The frog was still unconscious. ”I guess we do need to spend some more time working together. Next time we’ll go out at the same time. I just had to uh, tell Boss Baby something once everyone went ahead. Heh!" She started to walk back with Tsubomi. ”Wonder what was with Eyeball’s text. ‘Changed my mind’? What does that even mean?"
”I have no idea what it means. Maybe she meant about eating? Or about going after Lycoris?” She hadn’t felt anything super out of the ordinary from Evil Eye, which might have been a warning sign in and of itself, if she had stuck around.
Suki pouted. ”If she’s thinking about skipping, we’ve gotta force her to come!"
”Right. Let’s go back then.”
”But I wanna know what’s happening now!" Suki sighed. ”Let’s keep gossiping until we get there. So, do you think the new girl and Bedshaker are going to get along? She’s not very good at holding partners."