"Study hard!"
"Work hard to get along with your classmates..."
Clutching their textbooks, Illya and Samael were pushed out of the house. As they watched the two figures standing in perfect sync at the doorway, faces tense with stiff expressions as they waved goodbye in unison, their heads spun.
Bang!
As the door slammed shut, the two little girls came back to their senses and looked at each other.
"Samael..."
"Mm..."
"Do you think we'll become sisters someday?"
"If, if it's Illya, I wouldn't mind..."
"Then it's settled. You only get half of Dad. Odd numbers are yours, even numbers are mine."
"Um, then Mom too!"
The two little girls looked at each other and solemnly made their promise. They gazed at one another with both tragic resolve and relief, their four hands tightly clasped as their bodies unconsciously drew closer and closer, nearly pressing together.
"Illya..."
"Samael!"
Ring-ring-ring...!
Just as the two were about to make contact at zero distance, the hourly alarm on the pink wristwatch startled the pair of little girls—who had nearly recognized each other as family and burst into tears—from that inexplicable mood.
"Huh? This is..."
"The alarm we set for class..."
"Wah—! We're going to be late! Oh no, oh no! It's Tiger's class today!"
Illya snapped back to her senses at those words, her little face turning deathly pale as she let out a miserable wail. She hurriedly grabbed her bestie beside her and rushed toward Hoguen Garden Academy.
"Quick, quick, quick! Samael, run!"
In an instant, the two little girls, dragged back into cruel reality, vanished in a panic at the end of the alley.
Meanwhile, the pair of parents standing behind the window and watching their respective daughters gradually disappear into the distance simultaneously let out long breaths, their stiff smiles