Lightweaver, You're in a Good Mood?

Qiluo climbed up to the third floor of her apartment building, carrying the heavy bag of cookies, and paused at the landing to catch her breath.

The handles of the kraft paper bag left two light red marks in her palm. She switched the bag to her other hand and shook out her numb fingers.

Before she left, Yuki had stuffed another bag of freshly baked matcha cookies into her bag. Rin had stood in the entryway without saying a word, but while Yuki's back was turned to grab a packaging bag, she had quietly slipped a few moon-shaped cookies in as well.

Both sisters probably thought they had been completely subtle about it.

It was so heavy... So all of these were for her?

Pushing open the apartment door, she set the paper bag on the low table, kicked off her shoes, and collapsed backward, lying face-up on her bedding.

The small light on the ceiling cast a soft, warm glow, looking much more pleasant than usual today.

It was only a few steps from the entryway to her bed. Compared to the Kurokawa household's mansion—where just walking from the kitchen to the balcony could leave someone winded—her apartment was probably only big enough to be their storage room.

But a small place had its advantages.

Resting her head on her arms, she crossed her legs.

Every minute spent at the Kurokawa household had been wonderful, so much so that she had almost forgotten she was actually more accustomed to this kind of carefree, lazy lifestyle.

Sitting up from the bedding, she pulled the paper bag over and began to take stock of her spoils.

How long was it going to take to finish all of this...

Maybe she should share some with the others?

Qiluo set the cookie bags on the low table, pulled a few ziplock bags from her drawer, and squatted on the floor to start portioning them out.

She divided them roughly by type, picking out a few of each to put into each bag.

Squatting on the floor, she lifted the ziplock bags and held them up to the light. The portions were about even, and they looked decent enough.

Draping her jacket over her shoulders, she put the smaller bags of cookies into a clean paper bag, pushed open the door, and walked out.

Taking a deep breath, a warm white light welled up from the back of her hand, and the red streaks at the tips of her hair caught the glow of the setting sun.

Carrying the paper bag, Lightweaver headed along a familiar route toward the Wings of Freedom headquarters.

Tonight, a rare full house had gathered at the Wings of Freedom headquarters.

Kohinata sat cross-legged on the sofa, using a wrench to do some routine maintenance on her hammer. Hearing footsteps, she looked up, her eyes instantly lighting up.

Night Sakura peeked out from behind her computer screen, her mask pushed askew on her forehead, still clutching a half-eaten bag of potato chips.

As for Amamiya, she was fast asleep.

“Lightweaver! What's that in your hand? Is it food? It's food, right!” Kohinata set her hammer and wrench down on the coffee table, scrambled off the sofa, and ran barefoot over to Qiluo.

Qiluo set the paper bag on the coffee table and took out the portioned bags of cookies. “I went to a friend's house and baked them today, but we made too many. These are for you guys.”

Kohinata had already torn open one of the bags.

Amamiya woke up the instant Qiluo started speaking, reaching into the bag to grab a moon-shaped cookie.

She studied the cookie's shape, then looked at the completely unrecognizable blob in Night Sakura's hand. Quietly, she snapped her own cookie in half, handing one piece to Night Sakura and putting the other in her mouth.

Night Sakura pushed her mask up a bit more, revealing her chin, and carefully scrutinized the lumpy, misshapen cookie in her hand.

“Who shaped this one? You can tell at a glance it wasn't made with a cookie cutter. It was shaped by hand. Did you make this one, Lightweaver?”

“...I did. What of it?”

“Nothing.”

Night Sakura popped the cookie into her mouth, chewing with a loud crunch. “It's just that your cookies are even more abstract than Kohinata's. Last time Kohinata tried to make a rabbit, and after it was baked, it looked like it had been stepped on by an Erosion Body.”

“That was a rabbit!” Kohinata protested, leaning over from the other side of the sofa. “The ears just collapsed while baking! Just because they collapsed doesn't mean it wasn't a rabbit!”

“It was a rabbit stepped on by an Erosion Body,” Amamiya added flatly.

Kohinata grabbed a throw pillow from the sofa and hurled it at Amamiya. Amamiya tilted her head, easily dodging it. The pillow landed in the corner of the sofa, bounced once, and slid silently to the floor.

While they were bickering, Night Sakura took advantage of the distraction to grab another cookie from the bag.

After swallowing the cookie, she leaned against the armrest of the sofa, tilting her head to look at Qiluo.

“Lightweaver, you're in a good mood today.”

“...Am I?”

“You are. Bringing us cookies today is basically a national holiday for us.”

Kohinata and Amamiya stopped fighting over the last moon-shaped cookie at the same time, turning their heads to look at Qiluo.

Standing beside the coffee table, Qiluo found herself under the scrutiny of three pairs of highly gossipy eyes.

Although she didn't want to admit it, baking cookies with Yuki and Rin today really had felt a little different.

Lightweaver pulled out one more bag and set it on the coffee table.

“This is for the Store Owner. Save some for her.”

Night Sakura leaned against the armrest, deliberately drawing out her words: “Oh? Then why don't you take it in to her yourself?”

“...I only came to deliver cookies, not to attend a meeting.”

Lightweaver tugged at the collar of her jacket and turned toward the door. “You guys keep arguing. I'm going back.”

“Lightweaver!” Night Sakura suddenly scrambled off the sofa, her bare feet landing on the carpet. “Wait, wait, wait! I almost forgot to tell you—the school festival!”

Lightweaver stopped, her hand still resting on the doorknob. She didn't turn around.

“...What about the school festival?”

“Tachibana High School's school festival, of course! It's in two weeks.”

Night Sakura dug out a crumpled piece of printed paper from the coffee table. It was the public announcement for Tachibana High School's school festival, though no one knew when she had printed it.

“I saw it online. It says it's open to the public, so we want to go check it out. Besides, the Erosion Bodies have been pretty quiet lately, so we can treat it like a team-building trip.”

Whenever Night Sakura used that “wait, wait, wait” tone, whatever followed was usually trouble.

“If you want to come, go ahead. The school is open to the public anyway.”

“But let me make one thing clear beforehand: I won't transform to meet you guys. That day, I'm just an ordinary student. I have to run the booth, carry trays, and deal with customers. I won't have time to play Magical Girl games with you.”

Qiluo certainly didn't want them crowding around her at school calling her Lightweaver. She had a secret identity to protect.

Night Sakura folded the crumpled announcement and stuffed it back into the coffee table drawer. When she turned back, the eyes beneath her mask crinkled with mischief.

“We know, we know. You're just a part-timer. We'll just be ordinary tourists passing by. Who knows, maybe we'll bump into you?”

Lightweaver turned and pulled the door open.

She paused at the doorway, still not turning back. “...Do whatever you want. I won't admit I know you anyway.”

Standing outside, Lightweaver heard Kohinata's hushed but irrepressibly excited voice coming from the other side of the door, arguing with Amamiya about whether they should wear cat-ear headbands to the festival.

Then came Night Sakura's laughter, soft and muffled, as if she were giggling behind her hand.