It was a strange thing, sound. So many ways in which it could be used; to make music, to detect the existence of children before their birth,

to alert observant listeners to strange sounds coming out a friend's purse.

"Rin, what is that?" Maki asked. Her training to be a doctor and her expertise in music led her to be most in tune with sound, and what she had heard sounded suspiciously lik-

"What is what, nya?" Rin replied. Despite her seeming innocence, had she just moved to deny her purse from Maki's eyes?

"What is that thing you have inside of your purse, Rin? Is it what I think it is?"

"I don't know what you think it is, nya. What do you think it is?" Rin made a definite move to put her purse out of sight, that time. Maki was sure of it. Now, how to get to the bottom of this? The first years were at the park together, so there was someone else she could rope in to help her, but would Hanayo help her over Rin? She needed an incentive…

"Say, Hanayo, I heard the new A-Rise single came out yesterday."

"Mhm! But, it was sold to lottery winners only, so I couldn't get it." Hanayo had perked up at Maki's reference to her favourite idol group, but remembered why she was at the park with her two friends instead of at home being serenaded by UTX's idol extraordinaires, ending on a note of dejection.

A dejection that lasted all of three seconds, as Maki whipped out a winning ticket.

"You mean people like me? It's not like I'm enough of a fan of them to need this, you know. I totally didn't spend all of yesterday after practice buying tickets or anything. You could have it. Just, could you do something for me, first?"

Maki knew Rin was done. Throughout her execution of her cunning plan, she'd made sure to speed up to walk on Rin's right in order to box her in with Hanayo on her left, where the purse was. The hook had been attached, the line had been thrown, now for the sinker.

"I just need you to see what's inside Rin's bag for me, and this winn- Hey! I changed my mind, catch Rin first, then we'll talk later!" Rin had taken off midway through Maki's checkmate, feverishly running from the both of them. She knew they wouldn't catch her, either; being a track star had its benefits.

Maki had planned for this. There had been no way catching Rin would be easy. She'd set up a trap, sending the text while bribing Hanayo, and she was about to call in.

"Nozomi, she's coming to you, we're 100 metres behind. Do it."

At her cue, The absolutely pure mother figure of µ's popped out from the parfait shop she had been staked out in and prepared her hands for her patented

"Washi Washi attack!"

groping manoeuvre. Rin was caught off guard, but the center of balance advantage she had served her well as she managed to duck under the top-heavy death machine barreling towards her.

At that moment, Nozomi realized she should have thought this one out, or have played more tag when she was little. Either way, her momentum carried her to the ground. Rather, she dumped herself unceremoniously onto the sidewalk as her prey ran jovially past.

"Can't touch this! Nya nya nya nya!"

Nozomi picked herself up and took a casual look around. There had been no one in the vicinity besides Rin, so her total failure would be kept a secret as long as her kohai was caught.

"Nozomi... I thought I could trust you the most out of everyone, but I haven't seen a dive that bad since the time papa made me watch the World Cup with him." Maki said from above her.

"You tell nobody and I'll call in Elicchi to help you catch her. That's nobody including Hanayo, if she ever makes it here." Nozomi looked back to see if she could find the girl in question, casting her eyes up and down the street before finally finding the aforementioned girl, still at the park…

"That's a big if, isn't it? Anyways, i accept your offer. How soon can you recruit Eli for our cause?" Maki asked.

"As soon as tomorrow morning. I might even throw in a Nicocchi for the low, low price of watching you guys express your undying-"

"I could always just tell everyone how you dolphin dove in the middle of an empty street for no apparent reason. Maybe I'll even hint that it's your fetish or something like that." Maki threatened.

Nozomi realized she had made a grave mistake with regards to the girl in front of her. As recently as autumn, Maki had believed in Santa, and had otherwise been an innocent and pure soul, but the months of exposure to the part-time miko had matured her greatly. Usually, Nozomi would feel pride, but at this moment, Tojo Nozomi felt true fear for the first time in her life.

"I'll bring Elicchi to the rooftop tomorrow morning. No one else, I swear." she said nervously.

"Good," replied Maki, "Hanayo and I will see you guys then to get to the bottom of this."

Nozomi's last thoughts as she left Maki to return home were that while finding a student council president amongst the second-years had proven difficult, the president for the year after was pretty much set in stone already.