Time: after episode 8, before episode 10

Characters: Yuri, Yusa, various SSS members

Nighttime had a tendency to creep up on the occupied mind. Yuri was sure it was noon five minutes ago, but when she looked up from the laptop, she found herself in a pitch-black room lit only by the glowing screen in front of her. With a deep sigh, she took off her glasses and rubbed tiredly at her eyes.

Today had been a rare off day for the SSS members, and Yuri had given them a free reign on the campus. With Angel unconscious in the infirmary and no one else there to take up her role, there wasn't much the Battlefront could do. Yuri herself had stayed in the headquarters all day, trying to figure out how they would continue to wreak havoc in this world. It would admittedly be difficult to rebel against divine power without a physical spokesperson for said power.

The walkie-talkie next to the laptop suddenly bursts to life, startling her out of her stupor.

"Yurippe?" A voice issued out of the radio.

Yuri picked it up and pressed a button. "Yuri here."

"It seems like another cold night," came Yusa's voice, calm and emotionless as always. Yuri turned, rolled her chair up to the window, and touched the glass with her fingertips. It was indeed cold. "Your orders?"

She opened the window and stuck her head outside, feeling the chilly air. As far as Yuri knew, there were no seasons in the world of the afterlife. She was sure she had spent at least six months in this world, and she had yet to see a sign of snow or feel the agony of a heat wave. But every now and then, there was a temperature shift as if God wanted to mix up the climate to keep things interesting. Granted, it was never a monumental change that would unpredictably affect their operations, but it happened often enough to keep them guessing.

It honestly pissed Yuri off enough for her to start rebelling against the weather.

"All right," she said into the radio as she put on a light jacket. "It's time for Operation Tuck'em In. I'll meet you at the front in ten with the necessary supplies."

Operation Tuck'em In was something Yuri had come up with months ago when she had realized a slight flaw in the whole "fight the system" routine she ran; the members sometimes refused to sleep in their dorms. And since it counted as breaking the school code, Yuri encouraged it without hesitation, but on chilly nights like tonight, she didn't feel comfortable leaving them out to freeze. Of course, they wouldn't get sick or die from hypothermia, but it still sucked to sleep in the cold.

Whether it was a tradition or not, none of the Battlefront members would sleep in their beds after enjoying their rare day off. Yuri guessed it was because they had spent the whole day breaking rules and whatnot, so for morons like them, it was hard to turn off the anarchy when going to sleep. Whatever it was, Operation Tuck'em In became a chore when it fell on a cold night after a day off.

Yuri stepped out into the cool air and found Yusa waiting for her by the steps. Both of them had a pile of folded blankets clutched in their arms.

"Ready?" Yuri asked, to which Yusa nodded. They headed towards the closest school building, eyes peeled for slumped forms and ears open for snores. Even before they got to the doors, they had found no less than five members passed out on the floor. As they covered the unconscious members with blankets, Yuri noticed the serene (yet still blank) expression on Yusa's face.

"Is something wrong?" she asked as they moved on.

"I'm just a little surprised," Yusa replied.

"Why?"

"You never pass up the chance to say, 'Operation, start!' whenever you assign the Not-Yet-Dead Battlefront with an operation. I thought for sure you would scream it back there."

Yuri wasn't sure if she should splutter with indignity or flush with embarrassment. And of course, she had to do both. "W-w-what…no! Are y-you making fun of me?" she stuttered, throwing a blanket on a member's face without even unfolding it.

"I was merely making an observation," said Yusa without a change in her tone. She bent down to fix the blanket Yuri had chucked. "I'm not sure why you're taking it so personally, but I meant no offense."

Flustered by her stammered outburst and unsure of what to say, Yuri made a sound in the back of her throat and moved on into the cafeteria, Yusa following close behind. They found Matsushita the Fifth and TK asleep on the dining tables, stacks of empty and not-so-empty plates piled high next to them. Takamatsu lay some distance away, shirtless and snoring.

"Pigs," Yuri commented, rolling her eyes. She covered them nonetheless, wrapping the blankets around their shoulders. Yusa pointed at the steps leading to the upper levels, where Ooyama and Fujimaki lay slumped on the railing. Yuri really couldn't help but to wonder what the hell these idiots were doing when they were awake; that would answer her question of why there was a member hanging from the top balcony railing like a dead body.

"They threw a wild party and urged the NPCs to cut class," Yusa answered Yuri's unasked question. "For the record, a good number of them showed up when Girldemo made an appearance."

"And where's the band now?"

"Probably in their practice room."

"The gym is on the way. Let's stop by there too," Yuri said.

As usual, Shiina was hidden away in the depths of the gym storage room. She was, however, very much awake. And very much surrounded by wind-up toy dogs, barking their mechanical barks and inching their way across the floor.

"Hey, Shiina," Yuri called.

She turned slowly and regarded Yuri with sharp eyes.

"Aren't you cold?"

She shook her head.

"Well, here's a blanket anyway," Yuri said with a smile.

She took the blanket wordlessly and nodded in thanks before turning back to the toys.

Yusa led the way back out of the gymnasium. Both of them noticed the dwindling amount of blankets in their arms.

"How many more are there?" Yuri groaned, pulling her jacket tighter around herself.

"Only a few," Yusa assured. "And the Girldemo members."

"Is it really that hard for them to—yah!"

Yuri yelled out with surprise as her foot caught on something solid. She stumbled like a dork and almost slammed into a streetlight before catching herself.

"Noda, you moron!" She screamed, kicking the halberd she had tripped over out of his hands. It clattered away but its owner didn't so much as twitch. "Why can't these morons stay in bed?!"

"Because you encourage them to stay out," Yusa said reasonably.

"That. Was. A rhetorical. Question," Yuri seethed, whirling to face her. "I can't deal wi—wait, is that…a light up there?" she pointed, melting out of her anger.

It was. There was a small light coming from the library building, not bright enough to be anything other than a computer screen. They broke in and headed towards the source, a private computer room at the very corner of the building. Yuri rapped her knuckles on the door and poked her head in to find Takeyama typing away on his laptop.

"What're you doing here?"

"Just updating some files into my laptop," he replied. "The school computers have an interesting hard drive that doesn't naturally correspond with the—"

"Do you want a blanket, Takeyama?" Yuri interrupted, holding one up for him to see.

He straightened his glasses. "No, thank y—"

"Good."

"And please, call me Chr—"

Yuri slammed the door. "All right, onto the band."

Girldemo's practice classroom was in building A, a far distance from the faculty building. Although Yuri wanted to return to the warm comfort of the cozy office, she would die before finishing the whole operation. She marched on, her operator following silently behind her.

"Here," Yusa said finally. Yuri peered into the classroom through the window and found the room lit with a dim desk lamp. They entered and looked around. Irie and Sekine were leaning against the wall, fast asleep. Sekine had her head on Irei's shoulder and was mumbling something in her dream. Hisako was curled up on top of the desks, back to them. Only Yui was awake, sitting by the light of the desk lamp and writing furiously on a sheet of paper.

"New song?" Yuri asked. The replacement vocalist nodded sluggishly, clearly in severe need of sleep.

"Hisako…wrote the…melody and I-I-I'm…supposed to write…words," she mumbled, punctuated by a yawn. "But so…tired."

"It would seem Hinata was tired also," Yusa said, pointing to a figure on the floor. Yuri flinched back with surprise, noticing him sprawled facedown on the ground like a murder victim.

"He came in and…said something stupid…?" Yui half-asked, scribbling down more words. "…And then he got me mad and I…I think I knocked him out."

"Well, at least we found him," Yuri shrugged, covering him from head to toe like a funeral shroud. She glanced at the pink-haired girl nodding off in her seat. "Maybe you should take a break," she suggested, turning the light off and putting a blanket around her shoulders. Yui didn't waste a second complaining. She pitched forward onto the desk and started snoring like a pig.

The other members were good to go. Yusa held up a thumbs-up and they exited the classroom, shutting the door quietly behind them.

"It seems like Otonashi is the last one," she reported. "And we're all out of blankets."

"Figures," Yuri sighed, "We're always one short."

"I suppose that means you never learn from your mistakes, Yurippe."

"You pickin' a fight with me?" she growled.

"Quite the opposite."

The infirmary. He wouldn't be anywhere else.

"I'll find him," Yuri said. "You go on and get some sleep. Preferably in your dorm."

"Sounds good. Good night, Yurippe."

"Good night…"

The infirmary was even farther from the faculty building than the school building A was, which meant more walking in the chilly night. Yuri huffed out a breath that fogged up in the air. Stupid Otonashi. Stupid Angel. Stupid infirmary. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

She stormed into the building and all but kicked the door to the infirmary down. Sure enough, Otonashi was there, sleeping soundly in a fold-up chair with his head on Angel—no—Tachibana's chest. They both looked so peaceful together, with the soft light of the moon illuminating their faces and making them look younger.

It had been two days since that sacrificial incident down in the Guild. Tachibana still hadn't woken, and Otonashi hadn't left her side. Yuri didn't know when…or if the girl would wake up, or if she would be the same, innocent girl as before. It hurt that she was essentially the one to cause this kind of fate to a seemingly helpless girl, but Yuri knew it had been the right actions as leader, as Otonashi had said.

That didn't stop her from feeling guilty.

She shrugged out of her jacket and draped it over his shoulders as a substitute for a blanket. Oh, sure, there were tons of blankets on the unoccupied beds. But somehow, it felt right to lend him her jacket, just as he had done for her some time ago.

"Good night, Mr. Not-So-Amnesia," she whispered, patting his head.

The coldness of the night made her shiver violently when she stepped back outside, but she felt herself smile as she ran back to headquarters.

A/N: now as lame as it is, this idea came from a fanart that I cannot find the source for (which is slowly killing me) but it's honestly the cutest picture ever so I just wanted to write something for it.

oh, and a special shoutout to Nihlius, whose reviews are doing a tremendous job of keeping me motivated with continuing these random snippets. so kudos to you.