+AMDG+

Marshall Kagura heard someone screaming from the balcony. Or rather it was a laughing scream echoing from below the Conference Room balcony.

She scrunched up her face, ignoring it as best she could. Pen in hand, she pointed to a large map she and Chiyo placed on the table. Here and there, the Marshall showed the ten year old Chairperson where new border warning posts would be built after the winter passed. Yomi and Sakaki stood opposite of her, taking mental notes and keeping still.

"BWA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" Yukari bellowed again. "LONG – LIVE – THE – MAAAAAAAAD!"

Yomi stifled a yawn, took off her glasses to rub her eyes. "What's she doing now?" she moaned.

"Going from past history," said Sakaki, "I'd say she's running off her sugar high."

"Her what?" asked Kagura.

The tall, lithe brunette nodded. "Too many of those Western high-energy drinks too early in the morning. Only place she works off the high is running around Scarlet Circle."

"Oh? How fast?"

"Very fast."

"And for how long?"

"Too long, as far as I'm concerned," said Yomi, putting her glasses back on. She walked up to the double-doors in front of the balcony and opened them. The January chill shocked the sleepiness from her eyes and her brain all at once.

She looked below at the wide expanse of Scarlet Circle, spied Yukari running around, flailing her arms in the air. Her face was wide-eyed, her smile huge and unnatural. Her long coat was open to the winter cold, with athletic shoes on her feet. Her exhaled breath fled from her mouth like steam from an old-style locomotive.

"Hey, Yukari," Yomi yelled from above. "Stop acting like an idiot and get in here."

"No," she yelled back. "It feels good to be stupid. WHA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

"How long have you been out here?"

"Twenty minutes," she barked. "And now...the grand finale!"

Yukari stopped in mid-run, turned ninety degrees toward one of the ancient thick brick walls. She galloped toward it as if she were going to pole vault over it. With another annoying scream, she leaped up into the air, smashing face first into the wall. Yomi flinched away, as if she felt the aftershocks from the collision of woman and bricks.

Yukari hung there for a few seconds, until gravity pulled her away from the wall onto her back. Her face was bruised, her body in pain. Yet she smiled, a low giggle escaping her lips.

"Did you just kill yourself, Yukari?" Yomi yelled, grasping the balcony rail and gazing at the fallen commissar.

"Heh-heh-heh," she half-sang. "I'm...in...my...happy...place..."

Yomi turned away, embarrassed and disgusted. "Sakaki?"

"I'm calling the ambulance now, comrade."

"I wish she'd eat a good breakfast instead," Chiyo sighed. "It would be less...ah...painful for her."

"She's Silly Faction, Chiyo," Kagura added. "It's like asking Santa to shave off his beard. It'll never happen."

Chiyo sighed again, made the Sign of the Cross over herself. "Thy Will be done," she murmured.

THE END