End of the Round (2)

Chapter 81: Episode 35 - End of the Round (2)

I could tell that Kaidou Rui was making Fraise become antsy for some reason. He had blue eyes and blue hair that is to neck length and to be honest, he was good-looking. He had some sort of nutty smell coming from him, like almonds.

"Well, farewell, Team Michiko." Team Tennouji bade farewell and we waved goodbye.

"W-wait! Ah-AHHH!" Fraise announced, popping out of my toque, but somehow managed to lose her balance from my head. Before I could even react, Fraise had already hit the ground. She called out to Team Tennouji but they were already far away to even hear a petite fairy.

"F-Fraise? Are you okay?" I asked her worriedly. Before I could squat down to pick her up, someone else already had.

"Hee, so you're called Fraise?" Someone picked up Fraise in their hands and presented the distressed sweets spirit to me. "Keiko's sweet spirit, that is."

It was Natsuki who picked Fraise up. I could see her analyzing the cute sweets spirit that would normally be calm and collected.

"Natsuki, you can see her?" I asked in surprise as she handed me back Fraise.

"I can see her because…" As Natsuki explained, four sparkling fairy wings appeared out of nowhere. One from each group member of her team. "We have sweet spirits with us too!"

"Hello! I'm Orange!" Natsuki's sweet spirit greeted us while flying around.

"I'm Peach," Mika's sweet spirit flew around us as well.

"And we're Cherry and Black Cherry," the twins, Emi and Rina's spirits introduced.

I and the sweets spirits were amazed at this sudden turn of events but we didn't remain in awe for too long.

As the girls' sweets spirits came out, they all locked their eyes onto Fraise who sat in the palm of my hands. As if they recognized her, their eyes widened in disbelief.

"MISS FRAISE? IS THAT YOU?!!!" The four new sweets spirits quickly crowded around Fraise who was unable to comprehend the situation.

"It's been so long! Where have you been!"

"It's nice to see you again! How are you!"

"I and Natsuki just came up with a new dessert. Can you try it?"

"Has it already been 6 years? Oh my!"

Being bombarded with questions, I could slightly feel bad for Fraise but then again, I couldn't do anything.

"Ah, y-yes. Hello Orange, Peach, Cherry, and Black Cherry," Fraise reacted with surprise, unsure of what to do.

"You've been gone for 6 years and so has Master Sucre! What happened?!" Orange asked, pouting her small mouth.

"Um, about that—" Fraise began.

"—You see, right after you left for the human world, we did our best to catch up to you and meet with our partner as well! So, we teamed up with Natsuki and the others but we only met a year ago," Orange quickly explained and the three others nodded.

"Oh, is that so? I'm glad to hear that," Fraise acknowledged with a sincere smile.

"Fraise, you know them?" I asked her and she nodded her head.

"Yes. Originally, they were my seniors by one year and so I got to know them in the Sweets Kingdom as I was progressing through the ranks," Fraise explained.

'Wow, she speaks as if progressing through the ranks is a piece of cake. I heard about it before but Fraise continues to get recognized by others… Just how amazing is she?'

For a moment, I could feel a smug smile form on my face as if my child was being recognized for her amazingness.

The sweet princes' spirits also came out to say hi. They felt relieved to finally be let out of our hats and to fly around freely.

"So are you going to tell us why you've been gone for so long? We've been so worried!" Cherry and Black Cherry asked but Fraise had a troubled look on her face that I knew what it meant.

'Oh boy, not this again. She only has that face when she's unsure of whether she should break the news of her disappearance for 6 years and how Sucre is missing.'

"It's a bit of a touchy subject for Miss Fraise right now!" Chocolat defended, along with Caramel and Cafe.

"But what happened?" Peach questioned.

"All you need to know is that Miss Fraise experienced a lot of trouble for those 6 years which is why she disappeared," Cafe briefly stated but the three new spirits pondered for a second.

"This sounds oddly familiar… To be gone this long—could it be?" Orange seemed to have come to a conclusion, which alluded to the other three seeming to have caught on.

"Did you—" Before they could even begin to ask questions, Fraise interrupted them.

"—As I'm sure you have all presumed, it happened but there is no need to go into any further details about it, am I clear?" Fraise said sternly and the four sweets spirits nodded their heads. Natsuki and her Team members looked at the sweets spirits in confusion, but even they felt a bit of fear from Fraise's tone of speaking.

'I'm sure the others will tell them later,' I thought to myself.

"Ah, well, anyways—We missed you, Miss Fraise! Right after you left for the human world, Sir Almond never seemed to be the same again! After being gone for 6 years, we all waited for you to come back with Master Sucre, but I think your disappearance affected Sir Almond the most..." Peach brought up which forced Fraise's eyes to harden in guilt.

"Is he in the human world already?" Fraise asked sadly but she did her best to speak up.

"Since he's only a year older than us, he completed the exam before us so I'm sure that he's in the human world somewhere. We just don't know who he's partnered with or which St. Marie branch he's a part of," Cherry explained and Fraise could only barely nod her head.

"Ah, is that so?" She said sadly and the sweets spirits looked at her with pity.

"For a split second… I really thought he'd be here…" She murmured to herself which only I could hear.