When she opened her eyes, she realized that it was snowing. The park was empty and she found herself all on her own. Her clear blue eyes surveyed the surrounding area, reaching out with her senses to see if she was indeed by herself.

The trees rustled and from it flew a couple of birds towards the gray clouds above. She could see her own breath smoke while following the birds with her eyes, it was starting to get colder and colder. She got off the park bench and decided to do what she came to this city for.

Zipping her thick fur jacket and fixing her snow white hair, Verniy pulled out the list of items she needed to buy for her sister back at the Naval District. She briefly wondered what this was all about given that her sister wouldn't usually get her to follow up a mail order for a new oven. That was the Heavy Cruisers' job but given that she was the only one available during this point of time, she might as well do it. It shouldn't be that hard.

Verniy unconsciously reached for her hip yet she clicked her tongue once she noticed she didn't have her flask with her. Right, that's because the humans weren't used to seeing a 'little girl' like her ingest alcohol from a personal flask and would question her for days on end. She disliked getting her Admiral involved with this when she was just out here for a minor errand.

Hm… Didn't Akatsuki say something about this..?

…..

….

…

Several Hours earlier

"Hibiki, I need you to get out," the dark haired Akatsuki put plainly as she looked down on her hung over sister, "Please, I need you to get out and leave."

Verniy groaned from as she kicked her futon off her legs while giving her elder sister a bleary look, "You're… kicking me out..?"

"Yes, you need to stop rolling around my bed while drunk. My futon is starting to smell. At least clean your room before coming to mine, it's a rather improper way to conduct yourself! You're a Lady, Hibiki so you need to act like one," reprimanded Akatsuki as she tried to drag her sister from the room. Verniy simply narrowed her gaze and clung to the floor as her sister struggled to drag her away. In the end, Akatsuki found herself sweating and despite the cold weather, her yukata only made the heat worse.

"Let me sleep. I'll leave… Later. Gonna have to savor Akatsuki's smell before it gets drowned out by the vodka…" grumbled the white haired girl as she embraced a big clump of the futon. The elder sister blushed bright red at this and tried prying her sister off her futon.

"No Hibiki, you musn't do that! That's bad! Bad Hibiki! Now I have to clean my futon too! Nooo, don't get your alcohol on it!" cried the elder sister as she sat on her sister's back and tried pulling her away. Verniy remained unmoving where she was lying as her sister didn't have the strength to move her.

"Heh," she chuckled at her sister's struggles given how futile they were and once Akatsuki realized this, she stopped pulling on the back of Verniy's shirt.

"You're stubborn," huffed Akatsuki as she fell down Verniy's side with a look of exhaustion, Come on, Hibiki…."

"What is this about?" asked Verniy as she finally faced her sister, "Is… there something wrong..?"

"Eh? Uh, well… You see I need you to go buy things for me," replied the elder sister with a weak chuckle.

Being given a rather flat look by the other girl, Akatsuki nervously tried explaining, "W-W-Well you see, I think you needed some fresh air and holing up in my room is fine and all and I like you being here but it's starting to smell really weird so I was thinking of getting you out first so I can clean the place. Please don't get mad!"

Verniy relaxed her expression as she closed her eyes and sighing.

"Not only that," added Akatsuki as she cleared her throat, "But you seem to have some things on your mind. Why don't you take this opportunity to unwind?"

"Is it that obvious?" questioned the white haired girl as she glanced at her sister.

"If the increasing number of bottles within ten feet of your room was any indication, yes," Akatsuki then stood up and dusted her deep purple yukata and offered a hand to her little sister, "Come on, let's not be stubborn."

Verniy stared at Akatsuki with her piercing blue eyes before cracking a light smile, "This sort of Akatsuki is fine too."

Grabbing hold of her confused elder sister's hand, she got up.

…..

….

…

The Present

Verniy found herself standing before a crosswalk while the pedestrian lighting glowed a heavy shade of red. A crowd began to mill about her and she noted that a few of them were giving her strange yet curious looks. She pretended not to notice and simply tucked her hands within her jacket as the lighting went green. She took the first step across the street as she met with the other crowd on the other side of the road. She was quite far off from home having taken the train to get to this city.

She didn't have much choice, it was either Akatsuki used the internet for mail ordering or she had Verniy go get the things she needed for her. Now Akatsuki and the internet never mixed and Verniy made sure to keep the World Wide Web out of her sister's reach. Not after that incident with Akebono got around two years ago, she was a bit wary introducing much of modern society's better blessings. Akatsuki may have matured over the few years but she was still a fool, who knew what she would do with information just being a click away.

Nonetheless, it seemed that Christmas was just around the corner. The decorations were gradually being put up throughout town it seems. Unfortunately the familiar echoes of Christmas songs have yet to resound from within the town at this time. She caught sight of some youths going about their business, wandering inside café's or heading for the mall. If she wasn't mistaken, it should be Winter Break around this time, she wondered if the malls would be packed due to the increase of customers.

She quickly entered one of the malls and brought up her list again.

First up was that oven. Verniy looked for the closest appliance store with her list in hand and found one immediately right beside the entrance she just went in. The cold weather was immediately moderated to a tolerable level the farther she went inside the mall, passing by other people as she went. Unfortunately just as she was about to walk inside the appliance store, she was stopped by a person getting in her way.

Coming to a halt and looking up, she was greeted by the sight of a woman in a business suit smiling down at her.

Taken aback, she immediately grew suspicious as she narrowed her gaze, "May I help you?"

"Excuse me, Miss but can I take a moment of your time?" asked the woman with a bright smile.

Verniy knew these sorts of people. She wasn't like how she was a couple years back anymore so there was only one way out of this situation. And that was to run away!

"I apologize, but I have places to be," thinking quickly, she crossed her hands before her and tried to make a quick getaway past the woman.

"Not so fast! My Talent Eye knows a potential when it sees one and you're about to get away that easily!" snapped the woman as she mirrored Verniy's sidestep and got in her way again. The white haired girl scowled and clicked her tongue as she exchange glares with the woman before her. Cracking a smile, the woman then said, "Now, why don't have a chat instead of playing this game? It'll only take a minute."

"Clingy, aren't you?" murmured the Ship Girl.

"I wouldn't last long in this job if I wasn't aggressive, young miss," replied the woman with a smirk, "Now stay still."

"I'm not buying what you're selling nor am I interested in joining cults," Verniy put plainly.

"And I assure you that I'm not an agent of any of those organizations," the woman coughed at the Ship Girl's words yet maintained her composure, "Now please would you just listen for a minute. I'll even buy you something if you'd stay put."

That made Verniy stop and think. The woman was about to go in and seal the deal when the girl spoke once more, "Will you buy me vodka?"

Wait, what? Okay, this kid may be a delinquent. Heh, people like that too, thought the woman in surprise. It was in her job description to be decisive but she also had her responsibility as an adult, "Maybe we can settle for something else?"

"Rejected," answered Verniy as she tried breaking through—

"Miss Producer, are you harassing people again?!"

Verniy stopped at the last second and turned to see a blur of light brown hair dance by.

…..

"Ah, it's just you. Well I wasn't harassing but recruiting—" the woman tried explaining yet the newcomer shut her down.

"If it's going to bother people, I'd say you should just give up no matter how much potential they have! You and your 'Talent Eye' are going to cause more trouble than it's worth, please consider the rest of us in our unit," huffed the newcomer as she reprimanded the older woman.

"Gah, what are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be preparing yourself at the backstage?!" squawked the Producer woman.

"I was thinking of helping out and making sure you got someone competent," was the new girl's reply. She then turned to face Verniy whom had been standing still, looking stupefied during the entire exchange, "Um excuse me? Are you okay?"

Are you okay, nanodesu?

The Ship Girl's brain seemed to have paused for a split second before she found her voice again, "I'm… I'm fine…"

"Ah, I'm sorry for whatever the Producer did. She's aggressive like that but please don't call the police on her just yet! I do hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive her!" pleaded the new girl as she bowed apologetically before Verniy.

Verniy for her part was taken aback by this and said, "No, no it's fine. I was just surprised but… What's this all about? And… Who are you?"

"My name is Saya, nice to meet you," greeted the girl with a kind smile as she held a piece of paper towards Verniy, "In the place of my dumb Producer, we were wondering if you're interested in becoming an Idol?"

Wait…. Wait what?!

(To be continued...)