A/N: Hey, readers. Sorry for another slow upload, life has just been very difficult, lately. Been dealing with the family getting the virus, and myself getting it as well. It's not fun, let me tell you. But I hope you'll enjoy the chapter! And I'll also try to get more out a bit more frequently, but that may end up causing the chapters to be smaller in size.

This chapter is setting the tone for the next few, and is getting the ball rolling. Enjoy!

The past few hours before the girls had begun to pack up for the night were spent mostly going over everything that had been happening in the past week. So much had occurred, that it had felt so much longer to Natsuru, but when they had begun to talk, she came to a quick realization: it really had been only about a week.

'Jeez… time really has been crawling, hasn't it?' she complained in her mind, sighing as she helped clean up the snacks that room service had brought up earlier. Placing the juice containers and popcorn bowls onto the rolling try beside the door, Natsuru was surprised when her shoulder was being gently tugged on. Looking behind her, she noticed that Shizuku was looking at her with an expression that was all business.

"I need to speak with you in private. Can we use your room?" Shizuku asked her, making Natsuru concerned.

"Is there something else? Something that Mikoto and Akane should hear?"

"No, it's not a secret I've been keeping, or anything of the nature." Shizuku explained, leaning in and lowering her voice before continuing. "I need to speak to you about what Usagi blurted out in the maintenance tunnels."

"A-ah, what? W-why? P-please, th-that's a little personal, don't you think…?" Natsuru's face erupted into a violent blush, unable to continue looking at Shizuku as she fidgeted with the snack cart. Unable to stop herself from smiling and giggling, Shizuku did her best to quell Natsuru's embarrassment.

"No, while I think it's actually sort of cute, I'm not referring to your 'personal' time." Shizuku said quietly, her smile disappearing as she gripped Natsuru's shoulder again. "I'm talking about what you did before getting into doing that." Shizuku answered vaguely, causing Natsuru to look on in mild confusion as she recalled what Usagi had said she did. After a moment, a look of realization dawned on her.

"Ooh… th-that." Natsuru groaned, still blushing. Now understanding that she was actually in trouble, and not about to be forced into a sensual encounter, Natsuru seemed to shrink a little and appeared meek. Turning around, Shizuku cleared her throat to catch Mikoto and Akane's attention.

"I'm taking Natsuru next door. I need to talk to her in private, and before you ask: no, I am not trying to have sex with her again. This is nothing more than a matter between a Student Council President, and one of her fellow students." Shizuku intoned, once again appearing to be all business.

"Um… okay, I guess…?" Mikoto answered, shrugging, having shared a look with Akane. As Shizuku turned and left the room, Natsuru closely followed, slightly hunched over and rubbing her forearm nervously. Since the rooms were practically next to each other, it only took a small walk down the hallway to get to Natsuru's room, but as they were headed there, a series of small, tiny scratching noises from the other end of the hallway distracted her.

Stopping and turning to look, Natsuru found the hallway empty, only the décor, with a large potted plant sitting between the elevator doors, could be seen.

"Natsuru?" Shizuku called to her from the door, looking at her with curiosity. Shaking her head and turning back, Natsuru pulled out her keycard.

"Sorry, Shizuku, just thought I heard someone in the hallway…" Natsuru mumbled, sliding the card into the slot and opening the door. As the pair stepped into Natsuru and Mikoto's room, Natsuru coughed lightly and closed the door behind them. "Um, do you mind if I grab a glass of water…?" she asked Shizuku nervously, to which the Student Council President shook her head.

"Not at all, in fact, do you mind getting me one as well?" she asked her, smiling gently as Natsuru nodded. Taking only a moment to fill a pair of the glasses provided in the kitchenette, Natsuru wandered over to the couch that Shizuku had sat upon, sitting beside her as she handed her a glass.

"Okay, so, before we begin, I just want to make sure you are aware of what, precisely, we are talking about." Shizuku asked her, watching her like a hawk as she stared with a slight frown. Looking away nervously, Natsuru took a large gulp of water before answering quietly.

"…The alcohol?"

"Yes, the alcohol." Shizuku nodded, pausing for a moment to sip from her glass of water, placing the glass on the coffee table before them before continuing. "I want you to understand, I am in no way trying to be judgmental of your actions in obtaining and consuming liquor as a minor, but this absolutely cannot happen again. Not only is it illegal, but if word were to get out that you had done this, it offers an absolutely horrid representation of Seitetsu Gakuin to the public. One of which is already under scrutiny thanks to Minagawa's antics today." Shizuku began her lecture, looking completely disappointed. "The severity of this is compounded by the fact that you, while transformed, are considered one of the 'Three Beauties' of our school. So many of the girls in our school look up to you like an example, as someone they should strive to emulate. Do you have any idea how crushed they would be if they discovered their idol got her hands onto alcohol and proceeded to get drunk?" Shizuku's tone became sharp, furrowing her brow as Natsuru continued to nervously and sheepishly fiddle with her glass of water, though her expression had started to become irritated. "Worse yet, can you even fathom how many of them would go out and try to copy your actions? Many of them would get themselves into trouble, or worse, hurt."

"I'm sorry I'm not a perfect little angel, okay?!" Natsuru blurted out, looking angry and hurt. "I'm sorry that I had a moment of weakness, and that I convinced a guy to bootleg for me! I'm sorry that I was mad at the world, and just wanted to escape from being a Kämpfer, if only for a moment." Natsuru's volume began to droop, as her expression changed from one of anger to sadness. "I'm sorry I let you down, but you need to understand that I never even wanted this in the first place…" Natsuru began to mumble, looking upset as she stared at the water in her glass. "Just living my life as a quiet, otherwise unremarkable guy. That's what I want…" she finished, taking a sip of her water as the room went silent. The pair of them were quiet as they processed what each other had said, being broken a moment later by Shizuku sighing.

"I understand that you are experiencing something no one has ever gone through in recorded history, and I already know that you don't want to be someone you're not, it's just…" Shizuku murmured, sighing as she bent over, holding the sides of her head as she massaged her temples. "I just don't want you to get yourself into danger and be incapacitated and unable to protect yourself from others who might want something from you, because if that were to happen… I don't think I'd be able to stop myself from killing them." Shizuku replied miserably.

"…Why do you think is would come to that? And you, threatening to kill a normal human…?" Natsuru asked her, suddenly very taken aback, if not blown away at the idea. Looking at her with surprise, Shizuku scoffed before answering.

"Natsuru, the night you drank yourself silly, you let yourself get to the point were you had no qualms about heading to the bath, lighting a few scented candles, and having some 'private time' in the tub, as a girl." Shizuku reminded her, causing Natsuru to blush heavily. Looking confused, Shizuku sat up. "Actually, how much did you drink? Surely it must have been a lot to convince you to do that to yourself."

"…one." Natsuru answered quietly, Shizuku looking as if she hadn't heard her right. "I got four cans, and I drank one…" she squeaked in embarrassment, hiding her face as Shizuku looked at her in shock.

"O-one can… I wonder if Kämpfer react poorly to alcohol…" Shizuku murmured quietly, looking intrigued, before shaking her head gently. "Anyways, I'm assuming that you still have the remaining cans of beer?" she asked Natsuru, who nodded shyly. "When we finish our time here tomorrow, I'm going to confiscate them and empty them into the sink. Understand?" she asked Natsuru, who nodded shyly. Sighing, Shizuku gently placed a hand on her forearm.

"Now that I've said my piece as your Student Council President, I have questions as your friend." She stated, causing Natsuru to give her a quizzical look as she turned towards her a bit more. "Was this… the only time you ever purchased and drank alcohol?" she asked her, looking worried. Doing a spit-take all over the coffee table, Natsuru began hacking out a lung as she tried to clear the water she accidentally inhaled while taking a drink from her cup.

"W-what? Where did that come from?" she asked, wiping water off of her cheeks as she accepted a tissue from Shizuku.

"I'm sorry, it's just… for you, of all people, to suddenly being seeking out alcohol… it's not in your nature. I spoke with Mikoto and Akane about it while you were in the bath, and we are all worried about what this could've meant." Shizuku explained herself, to which Natsuru sighed, before chuckling.

"No, no, trust me. After I woke up and remembered what I did to myself… it was a one time deal." Natsuru promised, blushing again after bringing up her actions that night. "As for what caused me to go out looking for it… a lot of stress, some teenage angst because of a fight with my father, and a pinch of curiosity."

"Well, alright then… that's relieving to hear." Shizuku heaved with a sighed of relief. As the pair of them went quiet, Shizuku looked back up at Natsuru with a look of curiosity, as the latter frowned while returning her gaze.

"I don't like that look you're giving me…"

"I'm just honestly curious as to what made you decide to make your first drunken action be to rush into your bath and work off some of that stress." Shizuku finally began to tease her, only to cause Natsuru to smile back.

"Okay, this is where this line of conversation ends, I guess!" Natsuru exclaimed, pulling against Shizuku's grasp as the older girl began giggling. "Nope, that's it! I'm going to bed now! I'll see you tomorrow, Shizuku!"

'…Where the hell is this?' Natsuru thought, looking around the hallway, which had begun to flash and glow in psychedelic colors.

Examining the hall a bit more, it reminded him vaguely of the halls within the school, littered with doors leading to various classrooms. Seeing a mirror on the wall, Natsuru approached it, wondering what would be seen.

"No way, I'm finally a guy again…!" he exclaimed excitedly, examine every angle of himself as he confirm that he was, in fact, male once again. "Oh, right…" Natsuru grumbled, looking around at his surroundings. "Where the hell am I? This looks so familiar."

Walking down the hallway, he noticed that it would twist and turn seemingly at random, but it never branched off, and the windows always seemed to be on the right side, with doors on the left.

"Now I know that this thing just doubled back on itself…" Natsuru pondered, scratching his head once he realized that he had just taken a forth left turn, with no sign of where he had already walked through.

"Wait a minute, now I remember! This is what I dreamt about last night, too!" he exclaimed suddenly, his voice echoing down the dead, colorful hallway in both directions. "Then that would mean—" he had started to recall, being startled when a door behind him suddenly began to creak open, eerily and slowly. Turning and looking, the hallway behind him had inexplicably turned into a dead end, with a lone, solid brown door, partially opened and revealing a dark room with a wood floor. "That would mean that room… has a giant mirror."

Walking towards the room, Natsuru audibly gulped before reaching out to the handle, pushing the door the rest of the way open. Greeting him was the giant, seemingly endless mirror, and the reflection he had expected to see.

His female form mimicking his movements, looking just as flabbergasted as he was, wearing the same uniform. Walking up to the mirror, Natsuru looked it over, finding that it wasn't quite a mirror after all, besides the obvious fact that it wasn't really showing his reflection.

"She's shorter than me…" he mumbled, seeing his 'reflection' move her lips as well, her line of sight slightly different to accommodate the height difference.

Placing his hand against the mirror, he flinched when he felt the warmth of his reflection's hand against his. Placing his hand against the mirror again, and she hers in perfect mimicry, Natsuru couldn't help but be floored by how otherworldly the dream he was having was.

The door behind him suddenly slammed shut, causing him to whip his head around and jump back, feeling his heart thump away in his chest. Keeping his hand against the mirror, more out of surprise than anything, Natsuru looked around the inky blackness, attempting to figure out what caused the door to slam shut.

As he looked around, out of the corner of his eye Natsuru spied the brown door suddenly fading to the darkness, causing him to gasp in surprise.

"H-hey, wait a sec—!" He began to shout at it, beginning to pull away from the mirror, only to find that he couldn't pull his hand away from it. "What the—?!" He exclaimed in a panic, his shout cut short when he spied someone in a dark, purple cloak, their face hidden, on his reflection's side of the mirror. They were reaching through the mirror, and gripped his wrist tightly, their hand clad in black leather gloves as they let loose an annoyed sigh.

"And just where do you think you are going, looking like that?" the figure asked him, her voice simultaneously that she was likely British like his Mother, and betraying that she was full grown woman though she appeared to hardly be any taller than his female form. Yanking on his arm before he could notice any other details, Natsuru began to shout and panic when he noticed his own hand begin seeping through the mirror to the other side, only to see his female form's hand phase through his, beginning to enter his side of the mirror.

"No, stop! Let me go!" Natsuru yelled in terror, as the woman continued to pull on his arm, pulling him deeper and deeper into her side.

"Let go of this inferior form, Natsuru! Accept your fate!" the woman shouted over his screaming, Natsuru feeling like electricity was painfully arcing all over his body.

"Let go of me! I'm not her! That isn't me, I'm a guy!" he shouted at her, feeling the mirror approaching his shoulder, as he tugged against her pull by bracing against the mirror with his feet.

Next thing he knew, Natsuru was flung against the far wall of the room due to an explosion, fully back on his side of the mirror. As smoke cleared the room, Natsuru was slowly able to see the mirror again, his reflection in the same position he was on her own side. The woman could still be seen, though this time it appeared as if she were glaring disapprovingly at his reflection. It was hard to tell, though, since her face was still obscured by the purple cloak. Turning her attention back to Natsuru, it felt like time was slowing down, and the dream became to fade into a white light around him. Before he woke up, he heard the strange dream woman speak, venom could be heard lacing her voice.

"This isn't over, Natsuru! You can't fight your fate forever!"

Waking up gasping, Natsuru shot up in terror, panting as he caught his breath. Wiping sweat from his brow, he sighed as he realized he was still in the hotel.

Smelling the ocean air coming through the open window, Natsuru could faintly hear the sounds of the night life below, though it was quite clear that it had mellowed out. Since it was still dark out, Natsuru found himself curious as to the time. Glancing at the digital clock resting on the bedside table that separated his bed from Mikoto's, Natsuru noticed that it was five past five.

Cringing, Natsuru realized that he may have woken Mikoto with how loud he had been, waking up from the strange nightmare. Looking towards her bed, he became perplexed when he saw that it was empty.

"Huh… that's weird… she usually doesn't stay up super late. Maybe she went to the bathroom..?" Natsuru whispered to himself. Shaking his head and smiling gleefully, Natsuru looked down at his chest as he pumped a fist. "Well, whatever! I'm back to normal…!" he whispered loudly to himself, looking his old body over in excitement. Seeing his ever-so-slightly muscular upper arms, his faintly-there six pack…

'Hold up a tick… I wasn't ever this fit.' Natsuru wondered, looking himself over more closely. 'I mean, sure, it's not like I'd really be any closer to winning a muscle man contest than before, but still… this is weird.'

As he went to move on to his legs, Natsuru began to shift the blanket he was under, freezing in place when he heard a feminine groan to his left from underneath it. Gingerly lifting the blanket, Natsuru came to see that Mikoto had slipped into his bed at some point in the night.

"Of course you did…" Natsuru whispered, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance at his friend's antics. Deciding to lay down some ground rules since he was now back to normal, Natsuru began gently nudging at Mikoto's shoulder as the girl slept. Grumbling in her sleep, Mikoto shifted slightly, causing Natsuru to recoil as if his bed had just lit on fire as he became immediately and acutely aware of her attire. Or lack thereof.

"Why the hell are you buck naked…?!" Natsuru freaked out quietly, blushing heavily as his mind made sure to remind him of what he had seen slip out from under the blanket.

'Cold shower, cold shower, cold shower…!' Natsuru chanted in his mind, slipping the rest of the way out of the bed and quickly hurrying into the bathroom.

"Oh, hey! Look who's back to normal, finally!" he heard Tora's voice greet him from the bathroom counter. Paying him no heed, Natsuru quickly tossed off his PJ'S and hopped into the shower. Taking a deep breath and cringing, Natsuru flipped the shower on, leaving the temperature on cold.

"AAAYYYIIIEEEEE!" Natsuru shrieked as the cold water blasted his back, nearly causing him to crumple into a heap as his resolve wavered, tempting him into raising the temperature of the water. A moment later, the bathroom door flew open as a transformed Mikoto burst through the opening, ready for battle.

"Natsuru? What the hell is going on?" Mikoto asked him, finding the boy on his knees in the shower, shivering like mad as the water continued to cascade over him. "Why the hell do you have the water so cold?! Moron…!" she grumbled, reaching over and raising the dial for the temperature. Pouting, she stood up as Natsuru panted, feeling the loving embrace of lukewarm water flow over him. "Tora, you told me he was gonna like waking up next to me…" she whined, as Tora got a look in his eye and snickered.

"He did, though." Tora replied, sighing and moving as if he were rolling his eyes when she looked confused. "Why else would he be taking an ice cold shower? Because he did like it. He liked it a lot." Tora explained to her, a twinkle in his eye as Mikoto began to blush violently and twiddle her thumbs. Turning to face Natsuru, who was quickly growing angrier by the second, Mikoto struggled to look at him.

"S-so, Natsuru, I—"

"BOTH OF YOU GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

As he washed the remainder of the shampoo out of his hair, Natsuru couldn't help but let his mind wander back to his nightmare. He remembered having a similar dream the day before, while his bracelet was still malfunctioning. Except that time, he was in his female form, looking back at his male form, and that's all there was to it. It had ended before anything had happened.

This time, he was ambushed by an unknown woman in a purple cloak, who clearly knew who he was. And she was trying to pull him through the mirror… presumably, to force him back into his female form.

'Assuming this wasn't, obviously, just some stupid dream, would I have woken up as a girl if she managed to pull me through, instead?' he wondered, feeling the comforting caress of the warm water flow over his hair. 'And then there was that explosion, right before I was flung back…' Natsuru remembered, recalling the look of complete disappointment right after that the strange woman was giving his female reflection. 'Did my reflection defend us…? But that doesn't make any sense, considering she never showed any sign that she could do anything but be a reflection…'

"Natsuru, are you just about done? I wanna have a shower!" he heard Mikoto's muffled voice through the door, snapping him out of his reverie.

"Yeah, sorry, was just thinking about some things. Give me a couple of minutes." He asked her, quickly rinsing himself off. A moment later, he stepped out of the shower, wrapping his lower half in a towel before wiping condensation off of the mirror.

'Yeah, I've definitely gained muscle tone… was this caused by me spending so much time in my Kämpfer form?' he pondered, looking himself over and noticing that he wasn't imagining things this morning.

Glancing down at his PJs, Natsuru grumbled as he noticed how filthy his shirt was. There were signs that some of the makeup he had brought with him had burst open all over the shirt, something that he hadn't quite noticed in the dark last night, or the early twilight this morning.

"Whatever, it's not like Mikoto or the others haven't seen me shirtless. I mean, we went swimming during summer break." He shrugged, hopping into his sweatpants before opening the door.

"About time you… you…" Mikoto started to yell at him, trailing off quickly as she beheld his changed physique. "W-wow, Nat… you're looking…"

"Fit? Weird, isn't it?" Natsuru suggested, looking himself over again as he missed Mikoto's blush.

"I was gonna say 'good', but whatever, fit works too. Anyways, get out of the door, I wanna shower!" Mikoto practically shoved him aside, closing the door in his face as Natsuru turned to give her a piece of his mind. Quickly losing the motivation, he sighed and brushed a hand through his hair before trudging back towards the bedroom.

"Oh my, breakfast and a show?" Shizuku called out to him from the living room, surprising him as he jumped on the spot. Looking towards her voice, he found Shizuku giving him a teasing smirk, and beside her sat a stammering Akane, her blush giving her Kämpfer form's red hair a run for it's money.

"W-w-why— how are you suddenly—!" her voice caught in her throat, looking extremely confused.

"I don't know." Natsuru intoned, appearing irritated. "But I think it might be related to being in my transformed state for a few days non-stop. It was the only thing different from how I usually operate." He offered, deciding to throw the dirty shirt on anyways. "Besides, it's not that much of a difference from how I looked before."

"With the shirt off, if one knew how you looked before, they'd definitely notice. So there is a noticeable difference." Shizuku pointed out, looking surprised when Natsuru's stomach growled.

"Huh, I guess it is breakfast time… though, after the roller-coaster I had this morning, I'm surprised that I'm not already exhausted…" Natsuru grumbled, moving towards a nearby desk and pulling out a menu booklet from the same location he had found the day before next door.

"Why not just have them send up a breakfast buffet? We can all get something, then. Mikoto, too, one she gets out of the shower." Shizuku suggested, causing Natsuru to shrug and nod, and head for the phone.

"Roller-coaster of a morning… what happened?" Akane asked, now curious as she had collected herself. Looking up from the phone, Natsuru cast Shizuku and her a look of suspicion and caution before shaking his head.

"Nope, not opening that can of worms." He denied the pair of them, hiding his face inside the menu. "Besides, the less I can remind myself of what I saw, the better." He murmured to himself, feeling a heat come to his face as he raised the handset of the phone and dialed room service.

Narrowing her eyes, Shizuku shared a look with Akane, Shizuku thumbing towards the bathroom. Akane rolled her eyes and nodded, adjusting her glasses as she grumbled, able to only imagine what stunt Mikoto had pulled on Natsuru since they were unable to keep an eye on her.

As Natsuru began talking to the representative managing Room Service, Shizuku waved Akane closer, leaning in as she obstructed her mouth from him.

"We're still in agreement about what I said to you last night…right?" she asked Akane, who chanced a quick glance towards Natsuru before nodding, whispering back to Shizuku.

"If you're talking about keeping him in the dark about what Mikoto overheard then… yeah. He'll turn into a nervous wreck if he thinks for even a moment that there's a chance Kaede could turn him into a girl for good, never being able to turn back."

Just then the handset could be heard clattering to the floor, and the two girls turned to see a shell-shocked Natsuru staring at them.

"Natsuru, now just hang on, it's not a guarantee!" Shizuku frantically attempted to placate him, as a confused voice could be heard from the phone as it rested on the floor. Natsuru snapped out of it, picking the handset up and hastily ending the call, before rounding on the two girls.

"Not a guarantee? Seriously, that's all you can say?! You were both trying to hide something this critical from me!" he shouted at them both angry as hell, and suddenly terrified beyond belief.

"We were only trying to hide it, because we wanted to avoid… well, this!" Akane shouted back, gesturing frantically at him. "We just didn't want you to be scared!"

"What's her plan?" Natsuru asked sharply, glaring at the two of them as they looked at one another in silence. "What. Is. Her. Plan?" he asked again, much more firmly. Sighing, Shizuku began to answer him, but not without asking her own question.

"Before I answer, how did you hear us?" she asked, to which Natsuru shrugged, glaring at her.

"Dunno, maybe another side effect like my muscle gain. What is her plan?"

"…Mikoto mentioned that she overheard the Kaede and the Whites hatch a plan last night to lock you into your Kämpfer form." Shizuku relented, appearing uncharacteristically nervous as she watched Natsuru's expression darken.

"Yeah, I gathered as much when Akane whispered it to you, but what is her plan?" he asked, growling as Akane and Shizuku glanced at one another for a moment.

"W-well, we don't know for sure, but… we think it involves the relic they found in Greece." Akane answered him, frowning with worry as he began to rub his temples and murmur under his breath.

"Okay, right, of course it's the damn artifact, why wouldn't it be…" Natsuru groaned, moving back to an empty chair and flopping down into it. "I knew that the damn thing coming here was bad news… so what if it mentions Japan, leave it over there, it's Greek!"

"What's Greek?" Mikoto's voice floated out from the bathroom doorway. Looking behind him, Natsuru recoiled and blushed when he saw Mikoto standing in the doorway with nothing but a towel on.

"Go get your clothes on, stupid!" he shouted at her, causing her to smirk and giggle teasingly as she snuck off towards the bedroom. Growling, Natsuru rubbed at his eyes as a yawn suddenly snuck up on him. "God… it's, what, 6:30 in the morning? This garbage already has me ready for sleep again, and Mikoto isn't helping with her teasing..." He grumbled, leaning back in the chair as he ran his hands over his face. Noticing the silence that had replaced their conversation, Natsuru looked up in concern, which was quickly replaced by dread as he realized that Shizuku was eyeing him critically, curiosity dancing in her eyes, whereas Akane looked furious.

"So… Natsuru. Mind explaining what you meant by Mikoto 'teasing' you…?" Akane asked, sounding innocently curious, though her expression betrayed her true feelings.

"Ah, well… um…" Natsuru struggled quietly, sinking back into the chair as Akane's pupils narrowed and her brow furrowed.

"…That bitch." Akane whispered hoarsely, clenching a fist in anger. "I've half a mind to go and put a boot up her ass!" she exclaimed, turning her glare towards the bedroom. Taking a step forward, Akane stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, looking back and finding Shizuku smirking.

"Relax, Akane. Your Kämpfer is showing." She teased Akane, who looked at her in confusion for a moment. As Shizuku tilted her head towards her and raised her brows, Akane understood what she was saying.

"Oh, shit! Er, I mean, um…" Akane stumbled over her words, sighing before sitting down. "Whatever…" Akane mumbled, looking annoyed. As Natsuru was about to ask if she was alright, there was a knock on the door. Standing up to answer it, Natsuru was surprised when Mikoto shot out of the bedroom and got to the door before him.

"Who is it?" she asked cheerfully, spying through the peep-hole as she did so. "Ooh, someone ordered a breakfast buffet! Good call, I'm starving!" she exclaimed happily, swinging the door open as the concierge smile, walking the cart in after and bowing as he took his leave.

"Hey, Mikoto…" Natsuru trailed off, having decided to lean against the back of the chair he had been sitting in as he watched the girl quickly begin to fill a plate with scrambled eggs.

"Yeah, Nat?" she responded, paying more attention to the food than him as she continued to fill her plate, this time grabbing some toast.

"When were you planning on mentioning that you overheard the Whites thinking up some way to force me into being a girl forever?" he asked her, watching her nearly drop her plate in response. Regaining control over her food, Mikoto looked back at him in surprise and concern, before glancing towards the other two with a frown.

"Aw, come on! What's the big idea, telling him after we agreed to keep it quiet until we poked around a bit more?" Mikoto admonished the pair of them, grabbing some utensils before joining the three of them in the living room.

"Don't give us that shit, you under-handed prick! You made a move on Natsuru!" Akane shouted at her, causing Mikoto to smirk, pausing to shovel some egg into her mouth before replying.

It was at this point that Natsuru tuned the three of them out, instead deciding to ponder the current events. Recalling his dreams from the past two days, Natsuru quickly noted that he couldn't recall having a dream even remotely similar to the pair of them ever before, even when he first became a Kämpfer.

It was their sudden appearance that made him wonder if they were connected somehow to the relic that was supposedly on it's way to Japan within the week. Since it had been triggered by… well, whatever had triggered his strange dreams, he also had to deal with the struggles of being stuck in his female form for the last few days. Clearly, this was all connected, assuming the dreams were not just caused by his own stress.

'That lady's voice sort of reminded me of Mom's, whenever she speaks in Japanese… if she wasn't some weird creation due to… I dunno, feeling bad about Mom not getting a daughter? Then who the hell was she?' he wondered to himself, recalling the accent the woman had.

Looking at the girls, he could see that they were still bickering over whatever it was that had upset them earlier. Deciding to keep his cards close to his chest over this, he would tell them about the dreams if he had another one tonight. While them keeping the revelation of the White's intentions with the relic a secret was a bit hurtful, he understood that they did it because they cared enough to try and keep him from worrying over potentially nothing. So, there was no point in giving them more reason to worry about him.

'Now… how are we gonna deal with that stupid relic…?' Natsuru grumbled, rubbing his chin as he sunk deep into thought. 'Logic would dictate that if Mr. Kondou is flying in with it, it will be on the same aircraft. It's probably under some sort of security, as well…'

"Natsuru?" he suddenly heard Mikoto's voice, snapping him back into the world of the living. Looking up, he noticed all three of the girls looking at him with concern. "Are you okay? You were kind of spacing out, there."

"Y-yeah, sorry! Just uh… trying to figure out how I can counter the Whites over this artifact." He admitted, his stomach growling in an effort to remind him that he was hungry. Nodding to himself for a moment as if he had decided something, Natsuru smiled and stood up, moving towards the food cart to get some breakfast.

"Natsuru has a point, we need to discuss what we can do about this artifact, and the White's possible intentions with it. Because, while Natsuru will be more intensely affected, I suspect all of us will be afflicted by it's presence." Shizuku started, moving to join Natsuru at the cart as Akane followed her. Mikoto was already eating her breakfast, having sat at one of the empty couches, flicking the TV on to get the weather for the day.

"So, Natsuru sort of seemed like he had an idea, already." Mikoto pointed out as he moved back to his chair and began eating. "So, what'cha got?" she asked him, quickly shovelling in a heaping spoonful of egg as he took a nibble of his toast.

"Oh, well, I was thinking I could steal it before Kaede did." Natsuru stated calmly, opening his mouth to take another bite of his toast when Mikoto began to gag and cough. Sitting up in worry, Natsuru reached out to her, only for Mikoto to wave him off as she took a drink of water from a glass that had been sitting on the table.

"You're… gonna steal an artifact from my Dad?!" Mikoto shouted hoarsely, her throat still irritated by egg suddenly being inhaled.

"What? It's not like I'm looking forward to the idea, your Dad is an incredible person! But I'd much rather steal it myself and prevent it being misused by the Whites to hurt our team and anyone around us." Natsuru argued, frowning in discomfort as Mikoto glared death at him. Joining the pair of them, Shizuku and Akane sat on the couch beside Mikoto as Shizuku added to the conversation.

"Well… it's awfully drastic, but honestly, I don't see any reasonable alternatives. The only other option is to do nothing and hope that the Whites are bluffing, which we've had previous experience that they do usually attempt to do everything they say they are going to." She intoned, thinking about the issues surrounding their various options of how to approach the problem. "Taking the relic for ourselves gives us the added benefits of being in direct control of a device that can literally ruin our lives in less than a second, as well as seeing about ensuring that it potentially can no longer be triggered."

"Y-yeah, but… stealing from Daddy…" Mikoto mumbled sadly, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"I'm not fond of the idea of stealing, either, Mikoto. But look at the alternative: We all get outed to the entire world as super-powered teenage girls that are able to kill a regular Human in the blink of an eye, if we wanted to. And that's after Natsuru loses his identity as a boy, forever, if the Whites manage to steal the relic and use it, instead of an accidental triggering by scientists." Akane laid it out for her, frown unhappily as Mikoto bit her lip and looked away.

"I really don't want to do this to Dad, but…" Mikoto trailed off, glancing towards Natsuru sadly. "I don't want this Natsuru to disappear, more."

"Well, that settles it, then." Natsuru announced, quickly wolfing down a slice of toast greedily. Looking up with a full mouth at the silence that followed, Natsuru looked to the three girls as they watched him in anticipation. "What? It does, considering we all seem in agreement."

"Oh… well, it's just, usually something follows whenever someone says that… did you have any ideas how we're going to do it, maybe?" Akane asked him, leading him into the conversation and hoping for some kind of answer. Instead, he shrugged.

"Dunno. Hard to say, right now, anyways, considering we know nothing about how it's being kept, and what sort of security it's got." He explained, the three girls expressing varies degrees of exasperation. "Besides, the only thing I'm gonna worry about today, is getting dressed, finding myself a pair of swimming trunks, and hitting the beach." He sighed, leaning back in the chair as he let his breakfast settle. "Gonna enjoy the beach while the weather is still warm enough. It's going to get chilly fast!" he finished, his friends all sighing in annoyance.

"Absolutely not. Not happening." Natsuru grumbled, stepping out of his room, adjusting his jacket as Shizuku followed behind him, smirking widely as she stuck close.

"And why not? Things are infinitely more entertaining at the beach when you are transformed." Shizuku snarked, he smirk growing in size. Motioning back to the other two, who hadn't stepped out of the room, she continued. "Besides, they enjoyed getting some of our extra drinks, right?"

"W-well… I suppose they were nice when I was thirsty…" Mikoto admitted, rubbing her arm as she looked slightly annoyed.

"Hey, you got a love letter with your drink. All I got was the drink." Akane growled, glaring at Mikoto, who suddenly found something in the room very interesting. Cringing a little and feeling bad for Akane, Natsuru was about to change the subject when he felt a someone tug of the back of his shirt. Shouting in surprise and jumping into the air, Natsuru spun around while flailing, only to find Masumi laughing at him.

"Wow, never knew you were so timid! Haha!" Masumi joked, looking very pleased with herself as Natsuru calmed down, now snarling instead.

"Nishino, what the hell! What do you want?"

"Ah! I've been here since yesterday, and I was hoping to talk to Senou-chan again! My Dad told me she was in trouble or something, and I came here since social media groups from our school were freaking out over you being here! I wanted an exclusive with her about the recent issues, for the newspaper!" she exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear as she held up a pen and notepad.

"Wait, he said she was in trouble, or that she was trouble?" he asked her, watching as she froze for a moment, before stepping back and tapping her chin with her pen in thought.

"You know… I can't actually recall exactly what he said. He might have even said she was in danger, honestly. I wasn't totally paying attention. My blood got pumping and I smelled an intense story: Natsuru Senou, enemy of local gangs, or something!" Masumi exclaimed excitedly, pumping a fist into the air. "… Okay, yeah, the headline obviously needs some work." She admitted, seeing everyone's bemused expressions. "So, yeah, where is she?" Masumi asked the four of them, a little calmer now.

"She got a bit flustered and worked up over all the attention yesterday, and isn't feeling well. She's laying down for now, but she might come out later, if she's feeling better." Shizuku lied to her, causing the young journalist to groan sadly.

"Aw, President, you sure she can't answer a few questions?" Masumi pleaded with her, slumping when Shizuku sternly shook her head. Looking back at Natsuru, Masumi suddenly looked curious as she regarded him. "Say, when did you get back in town, Senou? You weren't gone very long."

"O-oh, um, I got back last night. Turns out the Doctors were wrong, my Grandma is going to be just fine. So it was decided that I should just come back so I don't miss much school." Natsuru explained, hoping the fib was sufficient for her.

"Oh, that's great! I'm glad your Grandma is doing okay." Masumi smiled, before sighing loudly. "Well, I guess if Senou-chan isn't able to talk, I'll have to find something else to write about for now… I saw Sakura earlier, I wonder what her opinion on this is…" Masumi suddenly turned away, mumbling to herself as she walked down the hallway she had come up. Watching her for a moment, Natsuru let out a deep sigh of relief, rubbing his right temple.

"Damn, that was close… I was convinced she overheard us." Natsuru whispered, steadying his heart as Mikoto and Akane finally stepped out of the room.

"Well, let's go get you some swimming trunks, then! I wanna hit the beach ASAP!" Mikoto exclaimed excitedly, practically bouncing down the hallway as the other three smiled and shook their heads, joining her as they moved towards the elevator.

The hallway quickly emptied, becoming silent once again save for a faint 'ding!' from an elevator in the distance. Only a moment later, quiet, excited giggling could be heard in the hall as Masumi returned, quickly prancing towards the door leading to Natsuru and Mikoto's room.

"Like hell I'm leaving empty handed! I want some answers from Senou-chan! I know she's in this room, I watched her enter it with the President last night! Aaaand she never came out when they all went to bed!" Masumi whispered loudly to herself. Glancing up and down the hallway, she nonchalantly leaned against the wall beside the door, pulling her phone out and playing a video. Nodding to what she was watching, she smirked as she slid the phone back into her pocket. Glancing up and down the hallway again, she moved towards the door handle once she confirmed the coast was clear.

"Okay, so all I need to do is push on the right side of the card reader, and slowly…" she walked herself through the contents of the video, pressing her body weight into the housing for the door's locking mechanism, slowly and gently turning the door handle up. A moment later, the door suddenly gave in, and she gained access to the room.

"Perfect! Now, to find Senou, and ask her some questions…" Masumi mumbled to herself, feeling a odd sense of foreboding as she quietly moved through the suite. "Wow… I was right, this is really nice. I guess Senou really does have it all… looks, fashion, and money. Must be nice…" she grumbled, feeling a slight sense of bitterness at the thought. Shaking her head, Masumi frowned.

"Come on now, Masumi! Senou hasn't ever bragged about anything, cut her some slack." She lectured herself, looking around again. "Now, they said she was laying down, so she'll likely be in the bedroom, which should be… here?" Masumi pondered aloud, opening the door to the bedroom.

"Senou, you awake?" Masumi asked into the room gently, hoping the girl wasn't sleeping. Not getting an answer, Masumi became impatient, and stepped into the room. "Sen…ou? H-hello?" she stammered, puzzled to find the entire room empty. Glancing around, Masumi quickly felt a little lost.

"What the…?" she murmured, moving towards the beds to find that they were, indeed, empty. Confused, she checked the bathroom next and found it also empty. "The President definitely said she was laying down… but she's not here?" Masumi began to muse over the oddity, a strange sensation settling in her stomach making her uncertain as to if she were nervous or excited. "…What's going on here?"

"Hey, Madam President! Looking good today! Hey… where's Senou? Wasn't she with you?" one of Natsuru's classmates could be heard from a distance, the forth such group in the last thirty minutes to have approached the pair of them. Rolling his eyes, Natsuru looked up from the book he had been reading, having taken up space beside Shizuku, whom had also been reading.

"She's not here, she's laying down because she's not feeling well." He grumbled, feeling like a broken record. The last group had tried getting into his face over it, but backed off when he stood up. He was still confused about that one, since it wasn't as if he were all that intimidating.

"Eh, Senou-kun, is that you?" a familiar voice in the group spoke up, leading Natsuru to discover the owner was none other than Mikihito.

"Ah, Higashida? What brings you out this far?" he asked him, standing up to greet his classmate.

"Well, why don't you take a wild guess, man?" he joked, smirking as he held up his camera, the strap running around the back of his neck. "…And to get the last of the nice weather, as well, I suppose. I hear it's gonna get cold, fast, this year."

"Dang, Senou, you been working out or something?" one of their classmates, who's name escaped Natsuru at the time, asked him. Looking down at himself and shrugging, Natsuru smiled sheepishly.

"Yeah, a bit. It's been a while since I've actually done PT with you guys, isn't it? I've been doing stuff on my own time to make up for it, so…" he lied, waving it off as they laughed.

"Well, that's a good thing! Some of us were wondering if you'd turned into a girl on us and started to hide!" one of them joked, causing Natsuru to sweat bullets and chuckle loudly and nervously.

"Not like we'd be able to tell, since he always uses a stall to change!" another one of his classmates piped up, renewing the laughter at Natsuru's expense.

"You've all seen me during swimming lessons, if I were a girl you'd know!" Natsuru shouted at them, growing increasingly nervous as a couple of them eyed him with sneers.

"Eh, you sure about that, man? I hear that chicks can get all sorts of things to cover up—" the first one began to mock him again, before the sound of a book snapping shut loudly permeated the air.

"I think that's quite enough, you four! Not only are you being needlessly rude to Natsuru, you are also distracting me from my book by being too loud!" Shizuku hissed at the group, standing up and glaring at them sternly. Mikihito and the other three boys all cowed, stepping back as expressions of dread filled their features. "Now, go away, before I find something to write a report on for your harassment of a member of the Student Council."

"Yes ma'am!" the four of them echoed, stumbling as they found themselves unable to get away fast enough. Sighing, Shizuku shook her head and sat back down on the towel she was using, adjusting her sunhat.

"Higashida didn't really do anything, you know…" Natsuru pointed out, looking at her with suspicion. Shizuku simply rolled her eyes.

"Yes, but he was no doubt here to badger me for photographs for his silly little underground club. So he was annoying me, anyways." She explained, moving to open her book before pausing, looking back at Natsuru and pursing her lips while in thought.

"Right, well, you know it's only a matter of time before yet another group of guys gets brave enough to come over, right?" Natsuru said with a relaxed sigh, forgoing his novel and opting to lean back and relax, closing his eyes.

"Yes, I know… you know what kept most of them away last night though, right?" she asked him. Cracking one eye open, Natsuru cocked his eyebrow, thinking for a moment, before shooting upright.

"No, nope, no way, not after I just got back to being myself!" he exclaimed angrily, hopping to his feet. "That is not happening!"

"What's not happening?" Mikoto's voice called out from behind him. Turning slightly to look, Natsuru watched as Mikoto and Akane approached from the water, Akane trying to shake the water off of her glasses so as to not have everything distorted.

"Shizuku is already trying to convince me to transform again, just so she gets harassed less and can read her book…!" Natsuru whispered angrily to her, expecting her to be just as upset. He gawked, however, when Mikoto tilted her head and thought about it.

"Well, she has a point, you know. When you two stuck close to one another last night, the boys were usually too intimidated to come talk to you two directly. I think that's why you had so many drinks get delivered to you."

"I don't want to be dealing with that, either! It's mortifying, getting drinks from guys trying to hit on you while being a straight dude!" Natsuru argued with them, growing increasingly irritated.

"Yeah, but, Natsuru: free drinks." Akane decided to throw in her two cents, keeping it brief. "Don't lie, it was nice, not having to leave to beach to get something to drink. And sure, even though I only got one drink just for me, I still enjoyed the ones that you and Shizuku pushed off on Mikoto and I."

"Seriously? You think I'm lazy enough to go thirsty, just because I couldn't be bothered to get up and buy a drink?" Natsuru asked the two of them, looking flabbergasted when Mikoto and Akane nodded in agreement with one another.

"Not to mention the added benefit of actually getting the chance to read your book in peace. I can tell you are getting just as fed up as I am." Shizuku added, smirking as Natsuru rolled his eyes and looked at her with just a hint of suspicion. "As Mikoto said; if you transform now, the boys will become intimidated, and only the minor, fast interruptions of free drinks to pull you from your book."

"If dealing with annoying guys coming over to talk to you is the sacrifice I have to pay to keep from transforming, then I guess that's just fine with me." Natsuru sneered, holding steadfast in his desire to stay male for at least the next 24 hours.

As a silence fell over the group, Natsuru quickly grew nervous and opened one eye, looking towards Shizuku. Shivering and now looking at her full on, Natsuru saw that she had an evil, twisted smile on her face, one that gnawed at his confidence and urged him to flee.

"Well, I suppose it is your choice. It's your body." She spoke innocently, opting to settle back down onto her towel. "Oh! I forgot to mention to you, Natsuru. Your Class Rep had forwarded an interesting proposal to me last night…" she trailed off, adjusting her sunhat as Natsuru's eyes narrowed, monitoring her every movement.

"O-oh…? What did she want?"

"She and her girls had been pondering a way to help Seitetsu Gakuin with its image problem that its begun to suffer under, since the recent issue of the Military watching our every move and sounding the alarm yesterday. They had the idea that you could be the subject of a series one-on-one photoshoots with your adoring fans. The proceeds would then be donated directly to local charities in the school's name, and since the allure of having their photos being taken with one of their local idols would be great, they estimated a rather substantial return. And considering the clients would have a series of choice garments for you to wear, such as the maid outfit you wore during our last festival… the interest alone would likely be quite high."

"You wouldn't…" Natsuru groaned, already knowing exactly why she was bringing this up, causing him no small sense of frustration.

"Surprisingly, she asked me to pass the idea on to you, to ask if you would be interested. Something about not wanting to make you angry again…?" Shizuku asked coyly, unable to help but smirk as Natsuru ground his teeth. "Naturally, I told her I couldn't see why you wouldn't be interested, but that I would at least ask you."

"Damn you…" Natsuru growled, watching as her eyes danced with humor.

"So… what sort of answer am I giving her, Natsuru? The choice is entirely yours to make, after all." Shizuku finished, looking up at him innocently as Natsuru fumed, his face growing redder as the seconds ticked by.

"God dammit…!" Natsuru hissed, snatching his bag off the sand violently as he stormed off towards the hotel. Staring after him for a moment, Mikoto and Akane looked back at Shizuku in disapproval, the Student Council President appearing quite pleased with herself.

"That was actually super mean, you know! Not to mention petty and low!" she tried to lecture Shizuku, who simply shrugged.

"You wouldn't actually… do that to him, with how things are right now, right?" Akane asked her warily, watching as Shizuku looked at her like she had sprouted a second head.

"Of course not, do you think me insane? Something like that would have every last alarm bell ringing that the Police and Military will have likely installed by now. I wouldn't ever send Natsuru into something like that, willingly." She replied vehemently, appearing quite sincere.

"Well, then why imply to him that you would?!" Mikoto exclaimed, clearly confused. Shizuku sighed, looking down at her book for a moment.

"Because he clearly expects me of being capable of it… so I reasoned that I may as well make use of that suspicion." Shizuku said quietly, picking up her book and reopening it. Sharing a look of concern, Akane and Mikoto both went and sat beside Shizuku, each of them hugging an arm and surprising her.

"Aw, come on, Shizuku! You know Natsuru knows you're a good person, deep down." Mikoto tried to cheer her up, smiling at her as Shizuku looked down at her.

"Who?"

"…Who, what?" Akane asked her, confused.

"Does Natsuru know, deep down in himself, that I'm a good person? Or does he know that I'm a good person, deep down in myself?" Shizuku asked them cryptically, confusing Mikoto greatly as Akane gave her a look.

"Deep down in himself, obviously. Don't sell yourself short, Shizuku. You tease people a lot, but it's obvious you do that because you like them. I've seen enough of your interactions with Sakura and the Whites lately to know how you behave when you don't like someone."

"…I hope so." Was all Shizuku replied with, quietly returning to her book as she sighed. Rolling her eyes, Akane leaned on Shizuku and patted her arm as Mikoto shrugged, getting to her feet to get drinks for them all.

'Damn her… what's her problem?!' Natsuru shouted internally, though his body language showed a sort of indignant defeat, slouched over with a scowl. Sighing as the elevator door opened with a 'ding!', Natsuru dragged himself towards the room, a sense of revulsion spreading through his body as he realized the whole reason for him transforming today was, quite simply, to essentially get free drinks all day.

"It's fine, it's fine… this is all just to keep the guys away from us…" he mumbled to himself as he rummaged through his bag, pulling out his keycard. Sighing again, he held the card above the slot as he hesitated.

"Well, it's either I do this now and get a modicum of peace and quiet at the beach, or Shizuku forces me to do it later and likely do something lewd…" he murmured with a shiver. Sliding the card into the reader, Natsuru waited for a response from it. When none was forthcoming, he became confused. "Wait, what's wrong with this thing?"

Sliding the card up and down the reader a few more times, Natsuru became annoyed and shoved on the door, greatly surprised when he found it swing open easily. Glancing back at the card, Natsuru grabbed a hold of the handle and pulled it closed. Pushing on the door had no affect, but sliding the card in again worked as expected, unlocking the door and allowing him to gain access.

"Dammit, Mikoto, learn to close the door properly…" Natsuru muttered, moving into the room as his sour attitude returned. As he went to close the door, he heard something in the hallway fall over, once again distracting him. Looking out, he was confused to find that nothing had looked out of place. Glancing around in suspicion, he was about to step out to investigate when his cellphone began to ring out a jingle. Pulling out the (regrettably) pink phone, Natsuru stepped back into the room, closing the door.

'Hey, what's going on? You okay?' Natsuru read the text, Akane having sent it. Grumbling, he quickly punched in a reply.

'Yeah, sorry, just not exactly keen on transforming again so soon after getting my male body back. Also, eating some food. Be back down soon.' He responded, waiting for an indication that she had read the message. Realizing that he had taken his time getting to the room, and that he should pick up the pace in case Shizuku decides to sign him up for the charity drive without his consent, Natsuru growled and held his bracelet out. With only a minor thought, Natsuru was suddenly surrounded in a flash of blue light, and where once a teenage boy stood, again stood his female form.

"You know what? Shizuku owes me for this…" Natsuru growled, looking over her swimming-trunks-turned-Bikini. Finding the solid blue of both suited her, she moved to her room and grabbed the rest of her ensemble from yesterday. Taking only a moment to slip them, Natsuru quickly left the bedroom after grabbing her bag again.

Stopping for just a moment at the breakfast cart, Natsuru grabbed a handful of cold bacon, popping a few pieces in her mouth and chewing as she stepped towards the door. Grabbing the handle with her free hand, Natsuru pulled the door in and stepped up, shoving the rest of the bacon into her mouth as she pulled the door closed.

"Oh… oh my God." a familiar voice practically whispered from behind her, causing Natauru to jump and choke on the bacon. Coughing and wheezing, Natsuru spun around as her eyes watered, being greeted by the sight of Masumi staring, shaking, wide-eyed, and slack-jawed as she dropped her notepad and pen.

"N-Nishi-no, wh-what are you-doing here?" Natsuru asked her, coughing and pounding her chest in an effort to clear the obstruction.

" Y-y-you're both Natsurus, aren't you? H-how is that even p-possible?!" Masumi stammered out, appearing frightened. Natsuru's eyes went wide, and she waved her hands frantically as she chuckled loudly.

"Hahaha, w-what? What are you talking about, Nishino? That's absurd, how could you even think—wait…" she began, stopping a moment later and looking back at the door before growing pale. "…It was you who accidentally left the door ajar wasn't it! You broke in, didn't you?" she asked Masumi angrily.

"Y-yes… a-all I wanted was to ask you some questions, but even after Madam President said y-you were laying down, I still needed answers for my story! But when I got in there, and you weren't there, I was confused." Masumi began to explain, as Natsuru's mind raced in an attempt to give a plausible explanation for everything.

"So I waited out here, just like I did last night, hoping to see you. And when the m-m-male you walked back here a moment ago, I honestly didn't think that I was still looking at you!"

"That's still the most insane thing I've ever heard, Nishino, and you think up some crazy stories!" Natsuru laughed nervously, latching on to her original escape for dear life, unable to calm her panicking mind enough to figure something else out. "How on earth could I be both genders, or even two people at once? And besides, how do you know I didn't just sneak out earlier?"

"Because…! W-well, that's because…" Masumi began to falter, suddenly pacing the width of the hallway with gusto. It didn't take long, however, as she stopped in her tracks, slowly lifting her head and dropping her hand from her chin. "That's because you're one of those Magical Girls." she realized quietly, not looking at Natsuru, who felt her stomach begin to flip around violently as she rolled her eyes.

"Wrong! Totally wrong, Nishino! I just told you that I snuck out. Not to mention, if I were one of those Magical Girls, I'm pretty sure the Military would have captured me by now, don't you?" Natsuru countered, crossing her arms and doing her best to look annoyed, though underneath it all she was freaking out. Turning and giving Natsuru a savage sneer at her rebuttal, Masumi stepped up next to Natsuru.

"Oh, that's right, you're supposed to be ill with, what was it? Some kind of gastrointestinal disease? You sure seem healthy right now, to me! Being 'sick' sure makes for a convenient excuse that happens to let you avoid the authorities while they're supposedly looking for a bad guy with illegal hardware!" Masumi shot back, still wearing her wide, trademark smirk, knowing that she was on the right track when Natsuru physically recoiled, sputtering as her face turned white. "And it works out, too, with what my Dad said! I remembered before that what he actually said wasn't to me, it was to my Mom! He said that you could be in danger, but that you were just as dangerous all by yourself!"

"That's a lie! I don't hurt people! And I was sick, I… I'm just feeling better, is all!" was all Natsuru could attempt to fight back with, grasping at anything to prevent the lie from unravelling. "Besides, If I was so dangerous, considering your Dad knows where I live since he's been to my house, why didn't he arrest me then?"

"Well, to keep from making you scared and lashing out, obviously!" Masumi snorted, acting as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

"Ugh! Nishino, you sure dream up some wild stories, but this one really takes the cake! Do you have any actual proof of any of this? Of me being both Natsurus, or of me being a dangerous Magical Girl? Do you have anything at all, or is it all just coincidental?" Natsuru, just about fed up and utterly terrified of just how precisely Masumi had nailed nearly everything. Masumi stayed silent, as her smirk faltered, causing her to tilt her head to the side and to look to the floor as Natsuru tapped her foot on the floor impatiently. Snorting, Natsuru turned on her heel and moved for the elevator. "I thought not. Maybe stick to actual school news stories, and not science fiction novels from now on, Nishino! You're lucky I won't report you breaking into my room!" She snapped at her, beginning to storm away, running her right hand through her hair and catching the sunlight with her bracelet. She was beginning to calm down slightly, until she heard a blood-curdling giggle behind her.

"I don't have proof with me, per say, but you do!" She offered cryptically, smirking again as Natsuru just glared back at her from over her shoulder.

"…What do you mean, 'I' have the proof?"

"Two reasons, actually…hang on." She looked away for a moment, fidgeting with her pants pocket, only to fish out a cellphone. Tapping at it for a few seconds, she eventually held it out to show Natsuru a video. Rolling her eyes, Natsuru walked over a took a hold of it.

"What is this, what am I supposed to be looking at?" Natsuru deadpanned, unamused.

"It's one of the videos that leaked out onto the internet, showing some of the Greek Magical Girls fighting in the street. I paused it at a specific point. Why not take a closer look at the girl on the left, in particular…" Masumi trailed off, pointing not to the video, but instead, to Natsuru's Bracelet of Oath "take a gooooood, long look at the blue bracelet on her right wrist!"

Recoiling again, Natsuru shoved Masumi's phone back to her, now thoroughly frightened.

"So, what, wearing my favorite bracelet on my wrist makes me one of these Magical Girls?!" Natsuru snapped at her in an effort to discredit the idea. Masumi smirked again, shrugging.

"No, I suppose not, but let's ask Senou-kun! He has the exact same bracelet you do, and on the same wrist. I mean," Masumi snickered, moving in for the kill as she thumbed towards the room, "you said that you're different people, so he should still be in there, right? It would be cool to see you two in the same room, for once."

"I… I…!" Natsuru struggled to responded, beginning to shake as the fear of Masumi ruining her life with this revelation turning into a story shot through her. Unable to answer, Natsuru suddenly felt light-headed, collapsing to her side, barely registering Masumi's surprised shout as she passed out.

"Oh no, I didn't mean to cause this…!" Masumi panicked, rushing over to Natsuru and sitting her up against the wall. "Senou, I'm sorry! I just wanted some answers for the school's latest mystery, please wake up!" she pleaded with the unconscious girl, gently tapping her cheeks in an effort to wake her. When that failed to have any effect, she frantically pulled her phone back out of her pocket, finding an entry on her contact list, and dialing it, beginning to sniffle as the situation started to feel a little too real.

"Hello, Masumi? How's it going?" Akane's happy voice came through cleanly.

"I, uh, Akane, I, or, I mean, um…" Masumi began to panic, her voice shaking as she began to wonder if she had been wrong, and Natsuru really was fragile, and that she had just really screwed up.

"Alright, alright, just breath! What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Akane asked her, now clearly worried, as Akane's other two friends could be faintly heard asking her questions in the background.

"No, no, it—it's Senou, he—I mean, I… she…!" Masumi continued to panic, with Natsuru showing no signs of coming to, her face having gone pale.

"Are you both up by the rooms?" Akane asked her, suddenly sounding very different, an aggressive edge to her tone, as Masumi nodded, forgetting for a moment that she needed to answer verbally.

"Yes…"

"Be right there, hang tight." Akane instructed her, her voice sounding like she was running as she spoke. Masumi's phone let her know that the call had ended, and she quickly slipped it back into her pocket before tending to Natsuru again.

"Senou, I'm so sorry… I didn't know it scared you this much…" Masumi fretted, once again attempting and failing to make Natsuru come to.

"Natsuru, Masumi?" she heard what sounded similar to Akane's voice call out from around the corner, causing the journalist to jump up, surprised and a little confused as to how Akane was able to move so fast. "Oh, Masumi! There you are!" a red-headed girl with a semblance to Akane, clad in a red bikini and around her age called out to her, running at great speed towards the pair of them. "Shit, Natsuru!" she exclaimed suddenly, dropping to her knees as she slid towards Natsuru. Taking a good look at her, Masumi felt like she'd seen this girl before, somewhere.

"Uh…" was all Masumi could utter, unsure of who this girl was, or why she was calling both her and Natsuru by their first names, since she obviously didn't know Masumi. She still seemed awfully familiar, though.

"Oi, Masumi! You awake?" the girl suddenly yelled at her, causing Masumi to flinch as the red-head glowered at her. "Great, now that I have your attention, what the hell happened? Why is Natsuru on the floor, looking like hell? Was she attacked?"

"N-No! All, um… I… all I did was ask her some questions, and…" Masumi trailed off, very confused about who this was. "I'm sorry, but who are you? I don't think I know you…"

"What? What the hell're you talking about? It's me, Akane! You literally just called me for help?" Akane reminded her, looking at Masumi with a cocked eyebrow. Seeing Masumi eye her with a look of wonder, having spied the bracelet on Akane's wrist, Akane glanced over to the mirror at the end of the hallway, only to find her Kämpfer form staring back in confusion. "God fucking dammit, again?! I'm busted again?!"

"You broke into our room?!" Mikoto shrieked at Masumi, who looked down guiltily, having expected to get reamed out by the girls. What she didn't expect was that all four of them would be Magical Girls, all three conscious girls surrounding her as they raged.

Admittedly, Madam President looked more intensely annoyed than angry, but it still wasn't something you wanted to see from her, particularly if you were on the receiving end.

"Remember the part where I said Natsuru was laying down because she wasn't ill?" Shizuku started with her, rubbing her temples as she felt a headache coming on.

"You mean the part where it was a lie?" Masumi shot back, immediately regretting it as Shizuku narrowed her eyes, finding little comfort as the strange, gruff Akane returned from the bedroom.

"You had better watch yourself, Nishino, you are on thin ice." Shizuku growled, her gaze feeling like it were piercing Masumi's very soul. "The only reason you even know that little white lie for what it is was due to you breaking and entering this hotel suite. I sincerely doubt your Father would enjoy learning that his daughter broke into an upscale hotel room and terrorized one of her peers into passing out. A peer, who by official accounts, is suffering from chronic illness and came here to de-stress."

"Masumi, just… shut up for now." Akane interjected, just as her friend was about to argue further with Shizuku. Looking towards the girl in question, Akane sighed. "She's still out cold, but at least she's more comfortable, now."

"Actually, I have a question for you, and I really want an answer." Shizuku rounded on Akane, turning her cold glare on her, surprising Akane for only a moment before she returned the look with a glare of her own. "Why in all of God's creation did you transform in front of her?!"

"You know what? Fuck you! It's not like I meant to!" Akane shouted back at her, the two girls' friction filling the air with a palpable tension. Masumi, shocked that Akane would say anything like that, let alone to the Student Council President of all people, shrunk back from the pair, bumping into a white-haired Kondou, whom regarded Masumi with extreme malice as she crossed her arms. Cowed, Masumi kept quiet and kept her head down.

"Not that you meant to? How could you possibly accidentally transform?! You're not a rookie, Akane! You transforming was something Mikoto and I picked up on, that's why we showed up transformed!" Shizuku snapped at her, Masumi unable to help but be mesmerized by her two-tone hair.

"I don't fucking know, okay? One moment I'm running up start of the stairs, wheezing like an out-of-shape smoker, because the Elevators were jam-packed. Next thing I know I'm rocketing out of the fuckin' staircase on our floor, somehow transformed without knowing it, and freakin' the fuck out because Natsuru is pale and out cold on the floor with Masumi panicking and trying to wake her up!"

"How do you miss the bright blue flash, Akane, how?"

"How do I miss the flash of light? That's an easy one: there fuckin' wasn't a flash of light this time!" Akane snarled, really response surprising Shizuku greatly. "And I wouldn't have needed those goofy-lookin' glasses, either! It's not that I missed the light, it's that it didn't happen at all!"

Shizuku's expression flipped from being angry to one of worried thought, as she rested her chin in her hand, turning away from Akane.

"What? What the hell now? This obviously rung some sort of bell if you're acting like that. Spit it out, already!" Akane prodded her, now more concerned than angry. Shizuku was about to answer, but stopped right as she was about to start when she spied Masumi still standing there, fidgeting nervously.

"Not with her here. She needs to be elsewhere."

"Oh, come off it, Shizuku." Akane snorted, shaking her head. "She obviously figured some of this shit out herself. I doubt she was able to make Natsuru pass out by doing anything short of calling her out for being both Natsurus. And if she figured that out, she probably figured out that Natsuru was also a Kämpfer." Akane pointed out, giving Masumi a deadpan look as the little journalist shrunk back, again bumping into Mikoto, making her cringe.

"Relax, it's not like I'm going to eat you. I'm just angry that you broke into my room." Mikoto sighed, giving Masumi a look of disapproval.

"So whats your point, then, Akane? The less she knows, the better." Shizuku argued, not wanting to let Masumi know more than she needed to.

"Look, I get that, Shizuku, but let's face the facts: she already knows what we are. She already knows that Natsuru is living two lives. That might not seem like much if you write down on paper, but even you have to admit those are basically the two key secrets we have. Everything else is just filler, and if I know Masumi, and I do," Akane said sternly, casting another look at Masumi, who looked away. "She's just going to badger us and follow us for more information."

"There's more than one way to fix that." Mikoto interjected darkly, casting a glare at Masumi and causing her to look at her in fear and confusion, as Akane and Shizuku stepped in front of her.

"Are you fucking serious, Mikoto? Are you suggesting we stoop so low as to kill civilians?!" Akane yelled at her, feeling her trigger finger itch as she was tempted to summon her weapon.

"No, no, no! Gods, no!" Mikoto backpedalled, waving her hands. "I honestly meant something like bribing her! I mean, everyone likes money… right?"

"Oh my God, you three are too LOUD!" Natsuru suddenly yelled from the bedroom, throwing the door open as she slouched past them all, heading for the kitchen. As she filled up a glass of water, Natsuru massaged her right temple. Looking up, she was confused to see her friends all transformed, only to spy Masumi amongst them. "…why is she still here with you all like that?"

"I somehow transformed without the flash of light between the beginning of the staircase on the ground floor and our own when I came running. The other two sensed the transformation and followed suit." Akane gave a rough explanation, cocking an eyebrow as Natsuru choked on the water slightly before swallowing.

"That sounds just like how it happens to you and Mikoto during the night!" Natsuru announced suddenly, looking at Akane in curiosity.

"Natsuru, honestly!" Shizuku rounded on her, furious that Natsuru would just announce something sensitive like that in front of an outsider. Natsuru simply shrugged.

"What? She already basically knows everything. What's something minor like that going to change?" Natsuru defended herself, returning to her glass of water "Definitely knows enough to ruin my life…" Natsuru added, grumbling quietly.

"See? That's what I'm saying! All Masumi needs to do now, is go running to her Dad, tell him everything she knows, maybe spice it up a bit with the part where Mikoto made herself sound like a Psychotic Slasher killer, and boom: we get taken out, mostly because a civilian knows who we are."

"I'm not a psycho killer… I really just meant a bribe…" Mikoto pouted quietly, slouching and retreating towards Natsuru.

"…Anyways, what are you suggesting we do, then?" Shizuku sighed, not at all comfortable in leaving their fate in the hands of an excitable first-year school journalist.

"Simple: instead of doing what we can to silence her, we let Masumi write her story." Akane suggested, ignoring Masumi's sudden star-struck expression as she turned to her. "But on one condition! We call the shots! First one being, no writing about Natsuru!"

"… I wasn't going to, actually." Masumi responded, shrinking back slightly as all four girls stared at her in shock. "W-what? I saw how badly it scared her that I found out, I couldn't stand being the reason she gets hurt if I wrote about it."

"Huh, so you do have a conscience." Akane commented, coughing into her fist for a before looking to Shizuku. "So, uh… thoughts?"

At first Shizuku was silent, glancing between Akane and Masumi, the latter of which looked as if she were ready to burst. Looking towards Mikoto, who shrugged, and then to Natsuru, who nodded encouragingly, Shizuku closed her eyes and sighed.

"Fine, go for it… I trust you to know what to have her keep out if the story. But if this blows up in our faces, I will personally hold you responsible, even after my dying breath."

"Fantastic! Thank you, Madam President!" Masumi cheered, pulling out her pen and notepad from a pocket, grinning from ear to ear for a moment as she regarded Akane, before frowning and tapping at her chin with her pen. "Say, Akane, since you're in a bikini, why not take this to the beach?"

"Wha—huh? Okay, I guess…" Akane began, raising her bracelet before Masumi rested a hand on her arm.

"No, no, like this! No one besides myself will know that there's more to you than meets the eye, but people will notice me interviewing you. By the time the story hits with some properly edited photos, they won't recall any key details besides your hair color, so their own memory will serve to add credence to the story!"

"…uhh…" Akane uttered nervously, looking towards Shizuku for advice. Looking at her for a moment, Shizuku shrugged.

"Don't look at me, this is your can of worms." She answered simply, moving towards the living room in a flash of red light and sitting down to a muted TV.

"What're you so nervous about? Like I said, no one will recognize you." Masumi coaxed her, tugging on Akane's arm excitedly.

"Well, that's where you're wrong… probably."

"Ah… that's right. I had my suspicions about that stuff. Dad didn't help at all when he mentioned Senou was possibly dangerous." Masumi mentioned offhand. "Hmm… maybe we shouldn't do that, then…"

"No. If you're going to do this, go all-in." Shizuku piped up, having unmuted the TV since she last spoke. Everyone in the room looked at her as she stared at Akane and Masumi. "It's fairly evident that if the authorities thought we were dangerous enough, they would have made a move on us by now. Barring their reaction at the school yesterday, it's clear that they are content with just monitoring us while we're in the public."

"So then what was the deal at the school?" Mikoto asked her, having opted to remain transformed as she sat in a chair, joining Shizuku in the living room.

"I'm beginning to wonder if they are simply trying to ensure there isn't any combat at the school. And if that's true, then…" Shizuku trailed off, growing conscious once again of Masumi's presence. Rolling her eyes, she continued. "If that's true, then they likely don't know about the Whites."

"Whites?" Masumi asked, looking at Akane.

"I'll explain in a bit. We should..." Akane trailed off, swallowing nervously. "We should get going to the beach."

"Watch for trouble, Akane. Give us a shout if 'they' show up." Natsuru told the pair of them, pulling some ice out from a tray that had been in the freezer of the fridge, placing it into a small towel.

"Not joining me for some more time down at the beach?" Akane asked her, looking uncomfortable.

"Nope, splitting headache. Thanks to someone frying my brain." Natsuru spat venomously, glaring at Masumi with narrowed eyes, causing the younger girl to shrink behind Akane slightly.

"I'm sorry, Senou, I just got all excited that I figured it out. I didn't mean to scare you…" Masumi apologized quietly, cringing slightly as Natsuru scoffed, applying the makeshift ice pack to her throbbing head.

"Right, I'll consider that apology sincere when I don't get hounded at school tomorrow for secretly being a girl." She snapped, joining Mikoto and Shizuku in the living room.

"Come on, let's go." Akane said quietly, as Masumi rubbed her arm nervously. Akane made sure to grab a pair of the beach towels on her way back out of the room, slipping her flip flops back on. The pair of them walked in silence to the elevator. Pressing the call button, Akane rested her hands on her hips, admittedly feeling a bit exposed, since she didn't want to leave Masumi exposed to the uncomfortable atmosphere the other three were adding to just to get something to cover up a bit.

"Um, Akane—" Masumi began, before Akane stopped her.

"Let's not use my name for now, yeah? Maybe just use… Red. Just use Red for now." Akane asked her, smiling as Masumi nodded in understanding, though giving her a look of exasperation over the name. "And you were going to ask about Natsuru, right?"

"Yeah… I know I stepped way over the line, but—"

"Don't sweat it. Natsuru's just disgruntled that you figured out her secret. Probably also embarrassed the fact that she passed out over it. She'll get over it soon enough."

"…And the others?" Masumi asked her, waiting for a reply as the elevator door opened. The pair of them stepping into the empty elevator, Akane pressed for the ground floor.

"For the most part, I'd say Mikoto is mostly just mad that you 'hurt' Natsuru, Shizuku might be a bit upset about it as well. They might not realize it, but Natsuru is tougher than she looks… passing out today notwithstanding. And I'd know, since she basically kicked my ass the first time we met, and that was her first fight." Akane admitted, before pointing a finger at her. "Do not tell her I said that. She'll never let me live it down."

"Tell her what?" Masumi joked, eliciting a chuckle from Akane as the elevator continued it's descent. "Um, you mentioned that hurting Natsuru was only a minor reason Madam President was upset with me?"

"Hmm? Oh, right. Yeah, it's because she doesn't want any of the other students at our school to be in harm's way." Akane explained quickly, initially taking Masumi's silence as acceptance, only to see that she seemed a bit confused. "Okay, so, she takes her position as the Student Council President very seriously. She's always, and I mean always, thinking about the well being of the students. She's mad at you for forcing yourself into something so dangerous that even we might not survive."

"O-oh… I didn't think of it like that…" Masumi murmured, looking down at her note pad as she began to wonder what the interview was going to be like. This Magical Girl Akane was hardly recognizable as the somewhat meek, lovable Akane she used to play with when they were little. When she was like this, Akane became brash, loud, hot-headed, and any of the applicable synonyms, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind, and she became one heck of a potty-mouth as well. It was like night and day.

Looking at her now, Masumi noted about the only recognizable things were her overall body shape and hairstyle. Sure, Red-head Akane had some lean muscle-tone that normal Akane didn't, and Red's hair may have been a bit more wild, but if you were to look at silhouettes, they'd be nearly identical.

"Hey now, don't be getting any dirty thoughts about me!" Akane joked, as Masumi jumped in surprise, being dragged out of her thoughts. Processing what she said, Masumi blushed holding herself out at arms length.

"Wow, wow, wow, no way, Ak—er, Red! I was just noticing how similar, yet different you were when you're not… you know." Masumi motioned to her, leading Akane to turn and look at herself in the mirror inside the elevator.

"Yeah, I guess I do look a bit more fit when I'm transformed, huh?" Akane commented idly, her self admiration being interrupted when the elevator doors slid open. Looking back at Masumi, Akane smiled nervously. "W-well? Shall we?"

"Wow… that's really scary… I'm really glad I wasn't picked." Masumi said nervously, have written page after page of notes as Akane had recounted essentially everything that had happened, save for some selective modifications. It wouldn't do to have all of them directly blamed for the damage caused in the school during their fights with Shizuku. "I don't think I'd be able to fight another schoolmate if I was a kempfer…"

"Masumi… it's Kämpfer. Look, it sort of sounds like 'Kem-fah' if you had to say it in English." Akane corrected her, rolling her eyes since it was her forth time doing so.

Thankfully, it had been quiet so far. No one came running over with their weapons out as if Akane were some kind of beast, and it seemed as if Masumi was right on the money earlier: their schoolmates, that they could recognize, seemed only mildly interested in her in passing, before moving on.

"So, um, I know you've told me about a lot of the fights you've had already, but… what's your mission, exactly? And what happens if civilians like me get in the way?"

"Well… I mean, if you're talking about what the Moderators expect of us, then I'm technically supposed to be trying to put a pair of slugs into Shizuku and Mikoto's heads, while helping Natsuru do her part, and those two are supposed to be running us through with their blades.

"But we don't want to do that. It's utter bullshit that we're being forced to fight in a proxy war that has nothing to do with us, or even Humanity as a whole." Akane explained, watching as Masumi wrote down everything, leaving little notes in the margins of her notepad.

"So, eventually Shizuku approached Natsuru n' me once we found out that Mikoto got dragged into this as well, and she suggested we form a truce, to rebel against the Moderators. We really want to try and find more information about their motives, and how they operate, but we've been mostly busy doing our best to keep Natsuru from being captured, and the rest of us alive. It was only thanks to those jerkoffs poking around some ruins in Greece a few days ago, that we found out this mess wasn't just localized here in Japan."

"So, that thing that happened affected you four as well?" Masumi asked her, writing down more of the details Akane was giving her.

"Yup. We all got lucky because of our distance from the epicenter, we managed to get to cover before we were forced into transforming. Natsuru actually covered for me to buy me time by lying, and saying she had her period come on suddenly."

"Oh, so that was a lie, then?" Masumi asked her, temporarily putting her pen down. Bodily functions wasn't something she was going to write about. Akane's answer hung on to her tongue for a moment, trying to figure out how to approach the subject. Shrugging, she just went for it.

"Yeah, at first it was. Then she had a panic attack a bit later, and we found out that she was actually having one." Akane answered dryly, remembering that she had dodged the bullet of mentioning it to Natsuru by leaving Mikoto to her fate.

"Wait a second… you're telling me Natsuru's actually a boy... right?" Masumi asked her quietly, looking slightly confused. Akane leaned back and sighed.

"Yeeeaaaah… Natsuru is veritably 100% female when he's transformed. If she got even remotely curious… she could definately get knocked up."

"Okay, so… that would mean, based on what you told me before, about the Moderators not letting boys be Kämpfer, that she's not really a boy." Masumi concluded, causing Akane to do a double-take.

"What the fuck? How did you figure that?" Akane asked her, cocking an eyebrow.

"You said it yourself: boys can't be Kämpfer, it's a Moderator rule. So Natsuru's a girl… right?" Masumi asked her, squinting as she thought about the semantics.

"No, ugh, okay… look," Akane began to explain, frustrated, "When Natsuru is NOT transformed, he is 100% male. He has the plumbing and all, Mikoto's his childhood friend and can confirm that. You with me so far?" she asked Masumi, who nodded. "Okay, and like I just said, when Natsuru IS transformed, she is 100% female. Baby making parts and all."

"That's… that's…" Masumi began, being blown away by the implications.

"Yeah, tell me about it. That's why she's always so keen on not being transformed, but it's very hard to do because the Whites attack us so often."

"Right, yeah… anyways, back to my original question… what about civilians?"

"Oh, yeah, no. No dice. We don't even want to kill the Whites, so I think it would crush us if we accidentally killed a civilian. I know in the beginning, I was willing to take out anyone who got in my way, but now… now, it would mess me up really bad." She admitted, shaking her heard as if to get rid of the thought. "Generally speaking, I think the Moderators prefer us and themselves doing our best to avoid killing civilians, since it starts shining a spotlight on them, which they are freaking the hell out about right now, thanks to Greece."

"Right… I would have been worried if you had said they were 'collateral damage' or something." Masumi giggled nervously, to which Akane winced, since he had that mindset once.

"Right, so, Red… one last question." Masumi began, thinking of a way to best get the sort of answer she wanted. "If you could say something the Military, what would it be?"

"Short version? Fuck off and leave us alone." Akane answered quickly, chuckling before taking to answer for real. "But in all honesty… I'd ask them to have some sympathy, and leave us alone. Not a single Kämpfer asked for this, we were forced into it. And while I can't speak for all Kämpfer, none of our group wants to hurt anyone, and we're all really scared that the Authorities are going to kidnap us if we approach them, and turn us into secret science experiments against our will. Our bodies might not be entirely Human anymore, but we're still Human where it counts, in our hearts." She finished, staring out at the sea as a pang of fear washed over her, Akane finding herself hugging her knees tightly.

"Wow, that was…" Masumi trailed off, struggling to find the words to describe what Akane has just said.

"Corny, right?"

"Articulate and deep, actually. After spending some time with you like this, I wasn't expecting that."

"Oi! I don't grow friggin' stupid when I transform, I just lose my filter!" Akane snapped at her in irritation. Sighing, she looked away as she puffed up her cheeks in annoyance. "… Okay, maybe my temper gets a bit shorter, too, but it's still me under it all."

"Alright, alright! Relax… I believe you." Masumi chuckled nervously, holding her hands out placatingly as Akane frowned. "And with that, I need to get going! It's gonna take me all night to edit this, but it'll be my best story yet!"

"Uh, hey… I mean, I told you a lot of stuff today that really should have come from the other girls, so—"

"I don't normally do this sort of thing, but I'll sanitize the interview and keep it to just key details, no personally identifying stuff." Masumi promised her, Akane feeling a bit better about the whole thing.

"And the photos?" she asked Masumi, causing the younger girl to smile and roll her eyes.

"I'll edit them so the top is cropped out just below the nose." Masumi recited, giggling when Akane nodded, though still appearing very nervous.

"H-hey, Masumi, l-listen..." Akane trailed off, just as Masumi got to her feet. Listening intently, she watched as Akane struggled to say what she wanted. "Um… this whole thing… it could go sideways stupid fast, and I… might not ever see you again. Just know that if you remember me… then I'm still alive, somewhere, alright?"

"What's that mean? If I remember you, then you're alive? Akane, you're sort of scaring me, here." Masumi practically whispered, gripping Akane's shoulders tightly. Ignoring the fact that she called Akane by her name, Akane just coughed lightly before answering.

"Well, uh, you see… when a Kämpfer dies, they fade away. And all signs of them having ever existed are wiped from the earth, including people's memories of them. So if I disappear, but you remember me… then I'm still alive. But if I'm gone, and you don't… well, not like you're gonna know, so that won't be a problem." Akane finished sadly, unable to look Masumi in the eye.

"I promise to try everything I can to always remember you, Akane, as long as you promise me something in return?" Masumi asked her, watching as Akane looked up at her. "Just don't die! We might not see each other as much these days, but you are still one of my best friends!" she smiled, beaming widely as Akane looked on, mouth slight agape before she broke down and laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, sure thing. I'll do my best. Besides," Akane paused, discreetly flashing her 1911 to Masumi, "they're gonna have a hell of a time while I've got this sweet little thing by my side!"

"..Ahaha… um, Akane, if the Police do come for you, could you… not hurt my Dad?"

"Remember what I said? We don't want to hurt anyone. That goes doubly for your Dad. He's a good guy, I don't want to do anything to harm him." Akane assured her, stretching from her spot on the beach, quickly standing after. "Anyways, you'd better go! You've got a lot of propaganda to write up for us."

"Yeah, I can't wait until tomorrow! You have no idea how much you've got me set for life! The world's first interview with a Kämpfer! This is going to get me noticed by news outlets across Japan! No, across the planet!" Masumi danced excitedly on the spot, before suddenly jumping onto Akane and hugging her tightly. "Eeeeeee! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Alright! Alright already, you're making a scene!" Akane hissed, quickly become aware of various locals, tourists, and even some faces she recognized from school looking over at them in alarm and curiosity. Apologizing and blushing, Masumi quickly bowed before sprinting off at high speed, kicking up sand as she ripped up the beach towards the nearest bus stop. As she kept an eye on the girl, Akane became aware of a shadow blocking the sun from behind her, causing her to turn around in surprise.

"Uh, hi!" the boy said, smiling as he stepped closer. "I'm not sure we've met before. Are you a friend of Nishino's?"

"Acquaintance." Akane answered, being cautious as she wasn't used to being approached by boys. "...Aren't you the Baseball team captain at Seitetsu?"

"Yeah, you know who I am then! I guess my reputation precedes me!" the boy exclaimed happily, handling a volleyball as he smiled.

"Sorry to rain on your parade, but I don't know your name. Just your face." Akane corrected him bluntly, losing interest in the conversation quickly as she tried scanning the street for Masumi.

"Uh, r-right. So... my name is Reo Itsuki, what's yours?" Reo continued, attempting to revive the conversation.

"…Red." Akane answered lazily, fully aware that the guy was likely attempting to hit on her. Most of her attention was still on trying to locate Masumi. The bus couldn't have come already, could it?

"…Just Red?" Reo asked her, a teasing tone escaping with a smirk as Akane rolled her eyes, still opting to avoid conversation. Growing a bit embarrassed, he glanced back at his friends, all of whom were chuckling and laughing at him. "Uh, right soooo… you knew I was Seitetsu's baseball team captain, do you go to Seitetsu Gakuin?" he asked, though he quickly tilted his head and squinted his eyes after asking. "Actually, you look sort of familiar, to be honest… maybe I have seen you there, before?"

This caught Akane's attention. This mostly one-sided conversation was suddenly going somewhere dangerous, fast, and she didn't like it.

"No, I don't, you won't find a student like me at Seitetsu Gakuin!" She urged him, now looking directly at him.

"Hey, you do talk!" He laughed, smiling at his joke as Akane looked at him in irritation. "And are you sure? You do look awfully familiar…" he said again, causing Akane to begin sweating bullets. "Yeah, I know now! You totally look almost like Akane Mishima! Hey, even your names are super similar!" he laughed, unaware that Akane was now panicking greatly.

'Shit, fuck, fuuuuck! I knew coming out like this was a horrible idea!' Akane screeched in her mind, as she watched this clown laugh mindlessly.

"Man, you two could totally pass as twins, or something! If it wasn't for the fact that you obviously do more than lift books all day, I'd have honestly just guessed that you were her sister right away!" Reo laughed again, before gasping in surprise when Akane yanked on his collar.

"There something fucking wrong with being a Librarian?" she hissed angrily, narrowing her eyes dangerously as Reo looked back in shock. Shaking his head rapidly, Akane let go of his shirt and gave him as light a shove as she could, still sending him stumbling backwards into the sand and onto his rear. "Your pickup lines are worse than trash, now piss off." Akane sneered, picking up her towels and bag, storming off towards the hotel. Gently reaching for the collar of his shirt, Reo could still faintly smell what he thought was 'Red's' perfume, a hint of lavender. Looking back towards Akane as his friends all howled in the background, doubled over in laughter, Reo couldn't help but swallow nervously as he felt a faint heat in his cheeks.

"You must go to my school, I never said Akane was a librarian, and yet you knew she was somehow…"

"Yeah, but, I still feel like a jerk, you know…" Natsuru grumbled, grabbing some of the fish from her plate with chopsticks before shovelling it into her mouth.

"Trust me, Natsuru. Masumi didn't take how you gave her the cold shoulder to heart. If anything, she'll just want to apologize again when she sees you next." Akane tried to make him feel better, cleaning the lenses of her glasses with a cloth she kept in her bag. "If I still know her well, she's probably forgotten about it already and is ignoring dinner to write her article in time for tomorrow." She continued, slipping her glasses back on in time for her phone to sound off a notification in her bag. Pulling it out, and reading it, Akane snorted. "Scratch that, she's definitely forgotten about it and is ignoring dinner. She just accidentally added me into a mass text to the newspaper club, asking for help with printing."

"Well, I hope this works out the way you intended, Akane." Shizuku sighed, no longer upset about the situation. At this point she was mostly just exhausted, it seemed. "I'm more worried right now about Nishino's safety, from both the Moderators and the Military. I'm sure the fact that her Father is a Police Officer will give her some level of protection from the Military, as the Police Force will protect one of their own ferociously, even if it's likely to be nothing more than intense questioning. But the Whites… they could easily end her life."

"I dunno… I feel like the Moderators will still be distracted with the larger fire of global exposure to be all that interested in a school newspaper." Mikoto added her two cents, similarly popping some fish into her mouth, chewing it as she stared at Natsuru.

"What? Something on my face?" she asked Mikoto, who shook her head as she shoved more fish into her mouth.

"Naw, jush wonderin' why you're shtill a girl." Mikoto asked with a full mouth, earning her a reproachful look from Natsuru.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, it's rude!" Natsuru growled at her before wincing from a twinge of pain in her head. "And to answer your question, it's because I'm still shaking off the headache. I don't feel like trying it as a guy, that would probably be torture."

"Kind of loud here for that, though, isn't it? Recovering from a headache, I mean." Akane asked her, gesturing to the hotel's restaurant that they found themselves in, to which Natsuru shrugged, having returned to her meal.

"Doesn't actually seem to be affected by volume all that much, honestly…"

"Oh, good grief. Don't look now, Natsuru, your number one fan is coming over." Shizuku groaned, with Natsuru feeling a pit form in her stomach as she slowly turned to look to her left, spying the elated, yet immensely nervous Kenji Nakazawa approaching their table.

"Oh God, why now? I was enjoying my evening…" Natsuru groaned, cursing her luck quietly as she looked back to Shizuku, a green hue overtaking her features. "Is it too late to ask you to sink one of your daggers into my heart?"

"A-ah, um, good evening, S-S-Senou!" a nervous voice stammered beside her, causing Natsuru to cringe quietly as she forced her stomach to calm down. Taking a deep breath, Natsuru forced a smile as she turned around and faced Kenji.

"Hi Nakazawa, how's your evening going?" she asked him pleasantly, hoping he would leave soon.

"Oh, you know, it's no too bad. Yup, preeeety good! No real complaints, heh!" Kenji replied awkwardly, attempting to be indifferent but blushing intensely. Meanwhile, Mikoto, Akane, and Shizuku all shared looks quietly before trying to tune out the conversation, focusing on their food.

"Riiight. So, what brought you here tonight? As in, here, specifically." Natsuru asked him, keeping up the pleasant smile and tone as he continued the act of being somewhat indifferent.

"Oh, you know, I was in the area with some friends, it was dinner, and we thought we might try the food here. Nothing crazy." He explained, occasionally stealing looks at Natsuru, who strained to hold her smile and not just scowl.

'Bullshit, you've probably been here since yesterday.' Natsuru thought to herself, grumbling in her mind. The conversation suddenly died, neither party saying anything as if they were in a moment of remembrance. This was fairly normal for Natsuru, as many of the conversations Kenji tried to strike up with her ended this way due to her reluctance to keep things going, which she was fine with. By extension, this was also normal for Kenji, but he found it absolutely mortifying, feeling like he was letting Natsuru down.

"Um… I…" Kenji tried to say something, struggling as Natsuru continued her act of being pleasant, though looking a bit perturbed by his behavior. "Igottagobye!" he exclaimed nervously, speed-walking away as Natsuru watched him, not at all surprised since this was fairly common as well.

Turning back to the table and slouching in her seat, Natsuru let loose a groan and rested her head in her hands before the silence was broken by Shizuku's sudden, small giggles. Not a moment later, Mikoto and Akane burst into full blown laughter, with Mikoto pounding the table as tears rolled down her face.

"Girls, we're in a restaurant, have some respect for our neigh…bors…" Natsuru began to admonish them, only to find that their neighbors were all fighting back laughter of their own.

"Ah, young love is so cute…" an older woman told her husband, who reached across and held her hand. Natsuru promptly slammed her forehead against the table and groaned even louder, renewing Mikoto and Akane's laughter. Lifting her head and glaring at the pair of them, Natsuru suddenly had a nasty idea, even if it was going to possibly end with her suffering as well.

"Mikoto snuck into my bed last night completely naked while I was a guy, and then forced her way into the bathroom while I was showering." Natsuru whispered to the three of them quietly, the laughter ending immediately.

"You what?" Akane asked her, her tone dangerous as she glared daggers at Mikoto, who glanced between Akane and Shizuku, who was staring at her with a neutral expression, though her eyes betrayed just how amused she had become at the news. Eyes brimming with anger, Mikoto turned and glared at Natsuru.

"Sure, I might have done that, but I only forced my way into the bathroom because Natsuru was screaming bloody murder! He had the water temperature on full cold!" she declared, smirking as Shizuku raising her eyebrows and smiling devilishly, whereas Akane continued to glare at her.

"Why does that matter? Still doesn't excuse you from being a scheming bitch." She muttered quietly, only tearing her eyes away from Mikoto when Shizuku reached across the table and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Akane, boys have cold showers for one of two reasons. The first is to wake up quickly, and the other is to… calm something down." Shizuku explained in a suggestive manner, snickering as the gears in Akane's head began to turn.

"I don't know why you brought that up, but if I'm going down, you're coming with me…" Mikoto growled at Natsuru, who simply wore a winning smile.

"And I'm going to be the one laughing all the way to hell." she promised Mikoto, causing the girl to grind her teeth some more.

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you girls tomorrow at school, since I'm able to go now, and all…" Natsuru said with a sigh, thankful to be getting out of the tunnels again as their footsteps echoed through the dim amber light being cast off by the service lights. Nursing a sore cheek that still had a faint outline of a hand print, he looked over at Mikoto, who was still quite upset with him. She was nursing a bump on her head, both of their wounds given to them by Akane, who had since calmed down.

Noticing that Natsuru was looking at her, Mikoto huffed and turned away. He had obviously wounded her pride sufficiently enough that she would need to be buttered up later.

'Fortunately for me, that's usually pretty easy to do with her.' he thought to himself, smiling as he shook his head.

They had already gone their separate ways with Shizuku, Natsuru having discreetly suggested he record himself dumping the alcohol out and send her the video so that she wouldn't have to waste her time coming all the way to his house. She seemed quite thankful that he would do that for her, since she had quickly realized the enormity of what Akane had set out to do that afternoon, and just how unbelievably hectic things were about to get.

"Say, Natsuru, shouldn't you be transformed right about now? Your Human identity might get compromised if you show up at your house like that." Akane pointed out, causing Natsuru to stumble before regaining his balance.

"But, we're in the tunnels, who's going to see me enter my house? I feel like I only just transformed back a moment ago." Natsuru asked her, having gotten back into his stride as a male.

"Okay, one: we already passed your door, moron! And two: you can't open it to get into your basement from this side anyways! Remember how you made sure of that, genius? Besides, you changing back into a guy was a few hours ago, after we got in here." Mikoto chided him, her anger now giving him cause for concern. Had he really made her that mad?

"F-fair enough, I guess... um, one second." Natsuru had mumbled, shooting a glance towards Mikoto as he raised his right wrist in front of him. A split-second later, his female form appeared from the flash of blue light, taking a moment to adjust her clothes. Having chosen a gender-neutral set of clothes made being a guy for the past few hours infinitely more comfortable, but she did notice that the shirt pulled a bit oddly while she was a girl.

"Okay, let's take a peek, then..." Akane whispered, stepping up the cement staircase towards the door, easing the handle down and gently pushing it open enough to take a look outside. Looking around her limited view, Akane sighed when it appeared empty, save for a few large, wooden boxes blocking the door. "It looks safe, but the door needs a good shove, some heavy boxes are in the way."

"Okay, let me give it a shot, I guess." Natsuru whispered back, stepping up to the door and pressing her weight into it. With a light grunt, Natsuru gently pushed against the door, sliding the box away. As she gained some freedom, Natsuru braced her feet against the door sill, giving one last good shove. The box, having been moved a considerable distance, no longer stopped the door from opening, allowing the girls to leave the tunnels with relative ease.

"Come on, Akane, let's get to my home." Mikoto insisted, pushing past Natsuru as she was trying to clear the back collar of her shirt of dirt and rust. Annoyed at having been shoved aside, Natsuru opted to just glare at Mikoto's back for a moment, before shaking her head and motioning to Akane to go ahead into the night. As the trio exited the nearly pitch-black alleyway, Mikoto ran on ahead slightly, stopping at the far end of a T intersection.

"Akane, let's go, I'm getting tired!" Mikoto called out to her, pointing down the street to the right and causing the young librarian to look back and forth between Mikoto and Natsuru with concern.

"But what about Natsuru? She'll be all alone to get to her house." she asked Mikoto, clearly worried.

"Natsuru's a big girl, she can take care of herself. Besides, her house is just down the street, take a look." she pointed down the left street. As Natsuru and Akane stepped out past the houses, Akane was relived to see the familiar sight of Natsuru's home.

"You two have a good night, then. Stay safe, and don't be afraid to come back to my house if something looks weird at Mikoto's place." Natsuru instructed them, sighing as Mikoto rolled her eyes and stepped off, grabbing Akane by the sleeve and pulling on her.

"Oh! Um, see you tomorrow, Natsuru!" Akane called out to her, the pair of them waving to each other. Mikoto stayed silent, opting to continue down the street without looking back, causing Natsuru to frown.

"Gosh... I guess I really did make her madder than I thought I did." Natsuru mumbled to herself, tilting her head and resting her cheek in a waiting palm. "I wonder how hard it is to make curry..." she wondered aloud, watching the pair of them until they went around a corner. Shaking her head, Natsuru turned around and walked towards her home.

'Ah, whatever. I don't have time to think about that right now. I have to get that video made for Shizuku, and get ready for school.'

Natsuru's morning was pleasantly uneventful, for once this week. He went to bed as a guy, didn't have any weird dreams, and unlike Mikoto or Akane, didn't appear to transform during the night. He got ready for the day without anyone storming his house, he was able to make and eat breakfast using the leftovers from the other night, and he was able to copy his answers from his female form's homework over to the workbooks that were left for him while he was 'out of the country', completely uninterrupted.

Natsuru was also able to dispose of the empty beer cans discreetly in his neighbor's garbage can after sneaking out of his house through the tunnels, all without getting any of his school uniform dirty, as well.

Naturally, since things were going so well, he was completely suspicious and paranoid.

'I even managed to catch the bus with time to spare!' He thought to himself, glancing around the bus to watch for any hidden Police officers or anything of the sort. Just as he was about to let himself relax some, he was frightened when a finger tapped on his shoulder.

"Natsuru, I see that you're back!" Kaede exclaimed happily, having just gotten on the bus while he was looking towards the rear seats in suspicion. "How was your Grandmother? You weren't gone very long."

"Oh, K—Sakura! She's, uh, she's doing okay. Tougher than an ox, that one." he chuckled sheepishly, as Kaede smiled, taking an empty seat beside Natsuru as he continued to stand.

"I'm so glad! I was wondering how long you were going to be gone, honestly." She commented, looking pleased at the news.

'Well, that wasn't subtle at all, if everyone knew the context.' he noted to himself, deciding to just chuckle, nervously, as he could tell if they were in private, she'd be likely upset.

"Oh, did you hear about the newspaper club?" she suddenly asked, causing a pit to form in his stomach as his thoughts immediately went to Masumi and the interview she had with Akane.

"No? What's going on with the newspaper club? Are they finally being reined in by the faculty over their insane stories?" he asked her calmly, with feigned curiosity as he worried about everyone's safety.

"No, actually, they just went on social media and started going on and on about an exclusive scoop about what's really going on at the school, and how they're going to hand out advance prints at both entrances." she explained, looking up at him with sudden scrutiny. "You... wouldn't happen to know what they're going on about, would you?"

"Me? No, why would I? I've been gone for the past few days, remember?" Natsuru fibbed with a straight face. Technically, he wasn't exactly lying, since he didn't know the details as to what Akane even leaked to Masumi. "Besides, it could be anything, knowing them. Add in the fact that those guys at the Girl's side gate sound like anything but your everyday sociologists from how they've been described to me, and I can only imagine what sort of insane conspiracy theories that club has cooked up."

"Yeah, I suppose so..." Kaede admitted, her tone sounding sincere, but if one were to look at her expression, they'd be able to tell that she didn't buy a single word of what he had said. "Oh, we're here already? I wanted to talk more..." She griped, sighing as the bus came to a stop. Standing while Natsuru gave her room, the pair of them stepped off the bus while fellow students milled around them, making their way towards their side's respective entrances. As the sidewalk cleared, Natsuru was startled when Kaede pulled down on his shoulder, and she stood up on her toes to whisper into his ear.

"I know you spoke to Nishino. I let her live because I know it would break your heart if she died because of you." she whispered softly, her warm breath tickling his ear and causing him to blush as his stomach roiled in fear. "I let her live, in return for allowing us to... correct an error in her notes." she continued, punctuating it by exhaling into Natsuru's ear, making him shiver. "Just know that your messengers were lied to." she finished whispering in his ear, stepping away slightly as he looked at her in shock, the bus finally rolling away and exposing the pair of them to the street.

"I miss the real you, Natsuru. Please don't make me wait too long to see her again." Kaede cooed, smiling with a slight blush as she walked across the street towards the girl's entrance. After watching her walk away for a bit, Natsuru collected himself before crossing the street himself, heading for the male entrance.

Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly thanks to her anger towards him, Natsuru didn't encounter Mikoto at any point on his way to the Boy's entrance. She usually made it a whole thing to at least say hello before school started.

Regardless, he pushed the thought away as he walked through the gate into the school, seeing a few of the male members of the newspaper club packing up. Wandering over, Natsuru began to bid them a good morning, though partially distracted since he was still going over what Kaede had whispered in his ear a moment ago.

"Sorry, could you say that again?" Natsuru asked the boy he had been talking to, who chuckled.

"Wow, two days and you get Jet lag, eh, Senou? Anyways, I said that we're out of print. This paper exploded in popularity, and we ran out. Honestly, I think the guys mostly got it because of how hot the red-head is, but seriously, the interview is mind boggling. God damn Aliens! Who would have thought?" he boy exclaimed, laughing ecstatically. Just as Natsuru was about to join him, what sounded like a screeching riot of banshees exploded out of the girl's side of the school, causing many of the boys to run over to see what the commotion was about.

As Natsuru sprinted over at high speed, concerned that something terrible had happened, he burst through the wall of boys in the street in time to see tons of Military computers and equipment being tossed out onto the street, with the casually dressed scientists and Police running away while being battered by hundreds of female students, all of them yelling and screaming out in war cries as they ran the personnel out of the school. The two stray scientists that were running minimal scans on the male side witnessed the entire spectacle from the back of the pack of boys began to nonchalantly wander down the street, whistling nervously as they did so.

"Hey, there's two more right there! Get them!" a random girl shouted at the top of her lungs as the two that were trying to get away screamed in terror, running away as quickly as possible as a stampede of screeching and hollering school girls split off from the main group and ran after them.

"...Oh my God." Natsuru croaked, a feeling of awe washing over him as he was able to witness the combined and coordinated efforts of the female body of the school completely overrun trained military personnel and police.

On another note, he was fairly certain he had seen Ms. Suzuki in the main body beating one of the soldiers over the head with a notebook.

"Uh... you boys had better head on inside." The Principle suddenly told them, having walked in behind the group during the chaos. Shaking his head, he sighed. "God damn, this is a mess... why couldn't this have just happened next year? I retire this year..."

"Oi, Senou, don't you know this hottie Red?" a familiar voice called out to him, barely giving him a chance to even enter the classroom before being harassed by someone. Sighing, he looked over at the source of the voice to find Higashida waving him over from his seat.

"What the hell are you talking about now?" Natsuru groaned, dropping his bag off on his seat before walking over to Higashida. "I haven't even had a chance to read the paper yet, all of you horny bastards took them all before I got a chance to read it."

"Here, take a look at mine, then. You still haven't answered me yet, either." Higashida sighed, handing over the newspaper. Looking it over, Natsuru was blown away when he noticed that the leading photo was of Kämpfer Akane, without the promised edits of cutting it off just below her nose. Taking a moment, he calmly pulled his phone out and began texting Akane.

'You see this, Akane?'

'OF COURSE, I FUCKING HAVE! YOU THINK I'M FUCKING BLIND?! I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL HER!' she responded. Deciding to leave it at that, lest he accidentally trigger a transformation in her, he tried to continue on to reading the story before Higashida's finger curled over the fold and dragged it down gently.

"Senou? Don't you know this girl?" he asked Natsuru again, irritating him as he pulled the paper away.

"No, I don't! Why does everyone seem to think I know a bunch of random girls lately?" Natsuru grumbled, only to roll his eyes as Higashida gave him a look.

"Becaaaause, Watanabe claimed he'd seen you arguing with her in the street a few months back. Not to mention, she's clearly the chick who took Mishima's spot during the beauty contest a while back, and Senou-chan was in that, and we all know how tight you are with those two!" he pointed out, smirking as Natsuru was initially at a loss for words.

"Well, yeah, I mean, I guess I am good friends with those two. But while I also recognize her from the contest, I don't know who this girl is! And I recall what Watanabe claims to have seen. It wasn't this girl and I arguing, since it was someone else entirely." Natsuru brushed him off, turning back to the newspaper. Pulling back down on it again, Higashida was about to pressure Natsuru again much to his chagrin, when their teacher walked in and called for the class to sit.

"Oh, welcome back, Mr. Senou. I trust your Grandmother is well?" his teacher asked him, to which he nodded. "Wonderful news! Now, I know this... news this morning is interesting, but I trust you can set that aside for now and focus?"

"Yes sir..." Natsuru grumbled, handing the paper back to Higashida, who looked apologetic as he took is back.

He'd do his best, but with what Kaede said to him about the news story being edited to correct an error... he'd only be able to wonder about that until their next break.

It turned out that the Girl's side of the school was still in an uproar by the time lunch had started, and news spread fast that the Police had sent in armored units to quell their anger. Unfortunately for them, they were caught unawares that the girl's side of the school had a very well equipped gun club, and were completely able to match them blow for blow to the point that they had basically given up and just stuck to remaining by the front entrance of the Girl's side.

The anger the girls felt over 'Red' admitting the Kämpfer's fears of being kidnapped and abused by the Military in the interview had even managed to override Shizuku's natural ability to command obedience from the students, which had shaken the faculty to the core and left Shizuku speechless, having never been so brazenly and openly disregarded by her peers before.

Thankfully, a number of areas had been deemed 'Neutral' zones by both sides, such as the Library. So it was at this point, during lunch, that Natsuru quickly made his way into the library in an effort to search for Akane, and perhaps Mikoto as well.

Looking around the main lobby of the library for any sign of his friend, Natsuru became very concerned when he spied a gaggle of girls crowding around someone sitting at a desk and being loud. As he approached the group, he began to pick up on what they were saying.

"Hey, hey, Akane, are you sure you're not related to her at all? You two look so similar" one of them asked her, clearly excited as Natsuru could hear Akane's shaking voice refuting the claim.

"N-no! I don't k-know h-her!"

"Don't be dumb, Nakamura! She has to be Red! Their names are almost the exact same, they almost have the same hairstyle, they almost look the same, and she has the same blue bracelet!" a second one declared suddenly, causing Akane to gasp in fear as the girls all elicited excited cries of excitement.

"That's enough!" Natsuru suddenly shouted at the group, surprising them as they jumped back from Akane.

"Natsuru?" Akane gasped, hopping out of her seat a moment later and running to his side gripping his shirt tightly.

"You see this?" Natsuru raised his right wrist, showing off his bracelet of oath. "I also have one. Does that make *me* a Kämpfer?"

"Duh, of course not. You'd be killed by it. Didn't you read the article?" one of the girls asked him, rolling her eyes as she texted on her phone. Raising an eyebrow at this, Natsuru decided to ask Akane about it in a moment.

"I bought this, as well as Akane's, the first time we hung out outside of school. I was her first male friend, and she was nervous, so I wanted to get something to mark the occasion." Natsuru lied to them all, wondering for a moment how many times he was going to have to lie today. "It's actually part of the reason that rumour went around for a while that I was cheating on Senou-chan. Which I'm not dating her in the first place, but that's a whole other mess I have to deal with..." Natsuru trailed off, grumbling.

"A-anyways, you can't just assume that she's this 'Red' person with something as flimsy as her having a similar bracelet!"

"Okay, sure, whatever. But what about how similarly they look?" The one he thought was called Nakamura asked him, still not entirely convinced.

"Coincidence, obviously. Wouldn't you say the same thing about Senou and I having the exact same names? Not to mention, similar hair color." He countered, smirking as the girls all stopped and looked at each other in uncertainty.

"I... I guess..." the first girl answered quietly, rubbing her arm sheepishly. "We're sorry, Akane... I guess we just got all excited with this story, and how much Red looks like you..." she apologized, looking at Akane this time, who was still clinging to Natsuru's shirt.

"...It's okay... I guess I do look a lot like her..." Akane forgave her, being fairly quiet. As the girls filtered out of the library one by one and offered their apologies, Akane let out a loud sigh of relief once they were all gone. "I was so scared that they were going to insist that I was... well, myself." Akane panted, having held her breath. "Thank you so much, Natsuru. You really saved me there..."

"Hey, no worries. You're my partner, remember?" Natsuru gave her a thumbs up and a wink. "I just hope this works again in the future. I'm sure they won't be the only ones who point the finger at you."

"Yeah... I'm so unbelievably fucking madat Masumi! How dare her, I trusted her!" Akane growled, pulling out her phone as she hit a redial button, only to growl as it went to Masumi's voice mail.

"Hang on now, Akane, I think... I might know what happened" Natsuru whispered to her, looking around and pulling Akane into an aisle with no one inside.

"Explain, please." Akane instructed him sternly, still holding her phone.

"Well... Kaede snuck up on me this morning on the bus." Natsuru started, wincing as he saw Akane narrow her eyes. "Nothing happened! We just talked, you know, the usual façade of her saying one thing, and me knowing it means something different. Anyways, she pulled me aside once we got off the bus, and told me that she already knew about Nishino and you talking, and about the story, before we even got to the school."

"...What? Oh no, is she okay? Is that why Masumi isn't answering?" Akane began to panic, leading Natsuru to grip her shoulders firmly.

"Hey, Nishino is fine, according to her. She promised me that they didn't hurt her, okay? They just forced her to make some edits under duress."

"Those rotten fucking bitches... that explains the front photo looking like I belong in a swimsuit calander." she growled again, calming down when Natsuru gave her a look of warning. "But that also explains the other part that's weird..." Akane mumbled, looking up at Natsuru a moment later when she noticed he appeared confused. "Haven't you read the article?"

"Haven't had a chance, surprisingly... does it have to do with boys being Kämpfer, by any chance?" he asked her, recalling what one of the girls said when she sassed him earlier.

"Yeah, actually! I told her that boys couldn't be Kämpfer because it was against the Moderator's rules, for some stupid reason. But the article says that a Moderator approached her after and told her boys can't be Kämpfer because their physiology can't handle the transformation process, and when it's forced, the transformation magic just outright kills them. I honestly thought she made that up to make it more interesting..." Akane explained, beginning to wonder why they would force Masumi to write something like that. And that's when a horrible, awful realization began to dawn on Natsuru.

"You know... Kaede mentioned something else to me, right at the end." Natsuru murmured, catching Akane's attention quickly and making her nervous when an expression of dread filled his face. "She told me, before walking away 'Your messengers have been lied to'. One of the first things Tora ever told me when I woke up that first morning as a girl, was that I was a girl because Kämpfer have to be girls."

"Because it was one of the rules..." Akane finished for him, unable to understand why the Moderators supposedly decided to lie about that. "But that makes no sense! How would you even be here if that were true?"

"Because it isn't. It's a bold-faced lie." Natsuru stated, with Akane looking at him in confusion. Turning around, Natsuru shouted in anger and punched the end of the bookshelf. Ignoring the pain, Natsuru sighed as he turned back. "Kaede turned our PR move into a weapon against maleme."

"I don't follow..." Akane whispered, appearing more like she didn't want to understand where he was going than anything else.

"She's getting the student body ready to accept both me's being the same person by making them think that it would be physically impossible for me to be male when I'm not transformed." Natsuru explained, slumping against the shelf in defeat as he slid down to the floor. "She's getting ready to out me as a Kämpfer."

"I knew this was going to end horribly..." Shizuku groaned, slumping in her chair in exhaustion. Her office was silent for a time, as the other three weren't sure of what to say to her. Akane was running through a gauntlet of emotions, blaming herself and her ego for hurting Shizuku with the stress of the fallout of the news story, and for putting Natsuru's social life in a terrible position. A smaller part of her wanted to find and destroy that damn baseball team captain for distracting her from keeping an eye on Masumi, though she also realized that none of this would have happened if she had simply sworn Masumi to secrecy.

Natsuru was busy brooding in his seat, his mind running through multiple scenarios of some sort, about which none of the girls could determine.

Mikoto was simply feeling awful about the situation, wanting to do something, anything, to help them. There wasn't much she could do for Natsuru, since he was clearly very busy with something, and she doubted that she would be able to do anything to help Shizuku, beyond not getting involved in the angry riots below.

Akane on the other hand...

"Hey, Akane... I—" Mikoto began, interrupted when there was a knock on the office door.

"You may enter..." Shizuku raised her tired voice. The four of them watched as the door opened, and in stepped Masumi, clearly very, very scared as she gently closed the door behind her.

"You...! You b...!" Akane began to shout, holding herself back, before shouting incomprehensibly in rage, transforming in a flash of light. Grabbing a large pillow off the plush chair she had been sitting in, Akane tossed it as hard as she could into the wall before summoning her weapon, firing at it and placing four rounds through it before giving it a chance to fall to the floor. She would have continued, but Shizuku had ensnared her right wrist with her chains, pulling back on it as Akane fought her in an attempt to fire at the pillow more.

"Akane, Akane stop...!" Mikoto urged her, gently reaching for the gun as she tried to coax it out of her grip. A moment later, Akane's grip on it went limp, and her tough exterior crumbled as she began to bawl, collapsing into Mikoto, who eased her to her knees and began to rock her gently.

"I understand you were coerced into doing this under threat of your life, but you couldn't have reached out to us?" Shizuku asked Masumi quietly, gently removing her chains from Akane as she looked at Masumi in exhaustion.

"I-I'm sorry, I was just scared, I didn't... I d-didn't w-want to die..." Masumi cried, looking back to Akane, who continued to sob into Mikoto's chest. "A-Akane... Akane, I-I know I promised, I-I'm sorry...!" Masumi tried to apologize, looking absolutely terrified as Shizuku looked away with a quiet sigh, and Mikoto shook her head sadly.

"Nishino..." Natsuru suddenly spoke up, having discreetly moved Akane's 1911 away from her. Catching the scared first year's attention, he began to walk towards her, causing her to back away as he got close. Flinching, Masumi prepared for him to strike her, only to gasp in surprise when she felt him hug her. "I'm so, so sorry you had to go through that... everything that's happened from yesterday up until now... I feel like it's my fault."

"W-what...? Senou... what do you...?"

"I should have known better than to let you wander around after without someone keep an eye on you. I knew for a fact that the local Moderator was watching us at the hotel, but I was busier simply being upset with you over you simply figuring out the truth. Of course, she was going to see you with Akane in her Kämpfer form, interviewing her." he explained, shivering as a lone tear slid down his cheek. "The only thing that saved your life last night was the fact that she is in love with my female form, because she was convinced that I would hate her if she had you killed."

"I... I still should have said something..." Masumi replied quietly, slowly returning the hug as Natsuru shook his head.

"No, you did everything you had to, to survive. You can't be blamed for that." he said to her softly, the younger girl sniffling as she began to calm down. Giving them some time, Shizuku opted to clear her throat as the pair of them broke off the hug.

"Well, I know I hadn't called for you, Miss Nishino, so what brings you to my office?"

"Right, um... I was going to tell you that the Police have been pressing on, telling us that my story is a hoax, and... some of the students are beginning to believe them." Mishima reported what she came in for in the first place. "I wasn't sure if this was what you all wanted, but... I thought I'd say something."

"No..." Akane suddenly declared. Pulling herself off of Mikoto and standing up, sniffling. "I've put not only my safety on the line for this thing, but yours as well." Akane spoke sternly, looking towards Natsuru. "Sorry, partner, but her nearly dying isn't just on you. It's on me, too, because those two warned me against this whole thing."

"Akane? What are you doing?" Natsuru asked her, watching as she transformed back to normal. Looking at him with a smirk that was better suited for her Kämpfer state, Akane continued.

"I'm going to give them irrefutable proof that we exist. This story disappearing works out too much for the Moderator to buy them time. If they're going to abuse it to sell out my Human identity, and to prep the student body into thinking you were a chick pretending to be a guy, then I'm gonna make sure that we don't lose out on the benefits this story going viral would give us, as well."

"Akane, don't be rash...!" Shizuku warned her, prepping her daggers again in-case she needed to restrain the girl.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything too dangerous. Just gonna give them all something to look at to prove that Red the Kämpfer exists!" Akane promised her, looking around the room at everyone. "...But I think I'm gonna need some help from you all."

"Do you think this is even a good idea? Exposing yourself like this to the rest of them?" Shizuku asked her one last time, hoping she might get her to reconsider. Admittedly, she could no longer think of anything that could be done to prevent any further fallout, on account of how utterly burnt out she was, but it pained her to see Akane risk herself like this.

"No... No, I don't think it's a good idea. But it's the only one we have." Akane replied nervously, doing her best to keep her mind from going over every conceivable way this would end poorly for her. Peeking out the window both Shizuku and herself were crouched under, Akane felt the bottom of her stomach fall out as she spied handfuls of Police and Military vehicles surrounding the entrance to the school, being peppered with the odd News station, as well as a pair of helicopters buzzing around in the air. The front courtyard of the school was completely devoid of life, dotted only by the odd piece of damaged equipment abused by the female student body's initial assault.

"Oh God, this is so much more real that I'd like..." Akane croaked, finding her heart rate skyrocketing out of fear.

"You still have time to back down, you know. This may even be a ploy by them to draw us out." Shizuku reminded her, placing a reassuring hand on Akane's shoulder. Smiling, Akane tapped her own hand against Shizuku's.

"Yeah, I know that, but... I can't back down now. Sure, we'll all stay just that little bit more secret from the school, but that paints a huge target on Masumi's back. I dragged her into this, so she deserves this much from me."

"I don't think Masumi will be in that much danger any longer. Kaede got what she wanted out of her." Shizuku pointed out, to which Akane thumbed towards the Military and Police vehicles out front.

"Yeah, maybe, but they sure didn't. And she just called them all out on their bullshit very publicly."

"...You're right, I'm sorry. I've no real excuse, but I can't seem to think straight right now. I've been struggling just to find the energy to fret over you three." Shizuku apologized, suddenly yawning as if to prove a point.

"Hey, sorry for being such a handful. If it helps, you're the best team Mom we could have asked for." Akane teased her, smirking as Shizuku gave her a deadpan expression.

"...I'm only a year older than you." Shizuku growled, causing Akane to nearly burst out laughing as she chanced another peek outside.

"Hey, I should probably do my whole song and dance, soon. It looks like they're organizing another push to break through the gun club and talk everyone down." Akane mentioned, eyeing a large group of SWAT officers forming up just outside of the entrance. "Are Natsuru and Mikoto in position?"

"Yes, Natsuru's just reported in. He's waiting for the signal from Mikoto." Shizuku advised her, watching Akane stare out the window intently. A moment later, Akane gave her the sign.

"Yeah, go time, they're making a move."

"Everyone, let's just calm down, please! I understand that there is a question about the authenticity of Miss Nishino's story, but if we can maintain level heads, and speak with the Police in a calm and respectable manner, everyone gets to go home today!" Natsuru did his best to fill in for Shizuku, though the unfortunate fact that he was not her didn't help matters. Nor did being male, for that matter.

"I get you're Madam President's assistant, Senou, but what the hell do you expect to know about any sort of girl problems!" one of the girls at the front yelled out at him, causing him to fight with every fibre of his being not to roll his eyes.

'I seriously know a lot more than you'd like to be aware of, I'm sure.'

"Hey, Natsuru!" Mikoto shouted at him, breaking through the line. This was the sign that the ball was rolling, and Akane wanted them to play their part.

"Oh, Mikoto, how's Akane?" he asked her, loudly enough to make it seem like he was just trying to be heard over the din of angry girls. He could tell that the girls nearest him had heard, because at the mention of Akane's name, he noticed they became mildly concerned for the librarian.

"She's doing better. Madam President is with her now in the infirmary, getting a description of the girls who attacked her..." Mikoto replied at a similar volume.

"Wait, Mishima was attacked by someone?" one of the girls up front asked. Looking, Natsuru recognized her as one of the girls who were fanatically identifying Akane as Red earlier. He nodded in affirmation.

"Yeah, some other girls came around after I left, I guess, and they tried to get her to 'transform' by punching and kicking her..." Natsuru informed her, sighing as he feigned an expression of guilt. "I knew I shouldn't have left her alone... regardless, I'm glad I was able to set you and your friends straight, but you understand the dangers of baseless rumours now, right?" he asked her. Before he could get an answer, however, one of the gun club girls cried out after sighting the next wave of Police moving in.

"Get 'em!" most of them cried, girls stampeding through the doors towards them with a few straggling behind as they found themselves doubting the news article from this morning.

"No! Stop!" Natsuru screamed out, sprinting ahead of the back as they ran out the front door. Feeling his lungs burning, Natsuru poured on the speed as he managed to eke out in front of the girls, quickly holding his hands up in both directions, one to the girls, and the other towards the Police. He cringed, waiting for the crashing of bodies, only to sigh in relief when he heard Akane's voice yell out over a P.A. speaker.

"Oi, what the FUCK are you all doing?!" she shouted into the device, causing the girls to stop running directly at the Police and look up at the second floor. "Did I ask you all to beat the snot out of those guys and chase them out? No! In fact, I ONLY remember asking THEM to leave us Kämpfer the fuck alone!" Akane shouted at the girls, all of whom cringed, and shied away, looking guiltily at one another. With an audible grunt, Akane leapt from the window, landing perfectly on the bough of the tree below, almost perfectly situated between the two groups. Looking towards the Police and Military, she snarled.

"I ALSO sure as shit don't appreciate hearing people being told that I don't exist, OR that Nishino is full of shit! Fuck out of here with that, if I didn't exist, then why the hell are you fucking clowns responding to a little school riot like THIS?!" she called them out, a few of the people behind the lines, scratching the back of their heads in embarrassment. Further back, she could see News cameras focusing in on her, causing her a moment of nervousness that distracted her.

In a flash of light, Akane heard a crack of a small rifle from a nearby building as one of Shizuku's daggers flew out beside her, splitting a fast-moving object into two and causing it to fly perfectly around her. Snarling, she pointed her handgun towards the window the sound came from, the sudden flashy appearance of her weapon startling the Police below into firing their beanbag weapons at her. In a series of movements that hardly anyone could follow, Akane proceeded to disable every single weapon being fired at her, the rigger pulling sounding almost like an automatic weapon at the speed in which her 1911 fired.

Once the final weapon was disabled, Akane made one last burst of movement before ending up at the last landing before the front doors, panting as if she had run a marathon.

"You... Mother... Fuckers...Using a sharp-shooter... to tranq me?!" Akane shouted at them using the P.A. Speaker, her gun having been replace by a destroyed tranquilizer dart. "Clearly... you expected me out here! But I have backup, too, you know!" Akane screamed at them, stomping her feet as she tossed aside the destroyed dart. Still panting, she looked out at the Police and Military, all watching her like a hawk. "What do you want from us?! Just leave us alone! We don't want to hurt anyone!" she shrieked, her fear and nerves starting to get the better of her as tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "We don't... We're just kids! We just want to live, too..." she sniffled, looking towards the ground. When she noticed some movement out by the front gate, Akane saw the one man she had already asked to leave them alone step out of a van: Colonel Smith. Yelling, Akane tossed the speaker and bolted, right into the school, ducking and weaving the other girls who were all frantically calling out to her in excitement.

"I said it once, Gentlemen, I'll say it again: the way you all handled this is a fucking mess." Adrian sighed, watching as the defenceless SWAT officers ran from the onslaught of tear gas and smoke canisters the gun club launched at them.

"Oh, please, do tell us how you would have handled this? I would just love to hear an American tell me how to protect my own damn country!" a Japanese officer snarled at him, nearly ready to get into a brawl with him. Unphased, Adrian turned and stared him down.

"I already told you how, once before, and you didn't listen, then. It's just as that young lady already said: They are young women." he answered his Japanese counterpart, who looked at him like he grew a second head. "Put the weapons away and approach them with open arms and understanding, you fool! Not everything needs to solved with weapons!"

It was shortly after what would have been the final period of the day when the Military and Police finally backed off, announcing that while they would still be maintaining a presence at the school, they wouldn't approach anyone with an intent to take them away anywhere. After a small victory speech amongst the girls, most of them gloating and teasing the ones who called Masumi's story false, they all went home happily.

They had claimed that the Kämpfer in the school had demonstrated the intense desire to simply be left alone and avoid combat altogether, and so that any sort of threat that they had felt was initially present had been proven inconclusive. Although that was the case, they also stated that they wouldn't rest until every Kämpfer had been identified, so as to keep an eye on them and ensure everyone played nicely, and that no fighting erupted. All the while, they kept asking them to come forward, with the promise that all Kämpfer would be given a guarantee of personal safety, and that they wouldn't be whisked away without their consent, and that it was a guarantee not to just the Kämpfer of Seitetsu Gakuin, but all of Japan.

Needless to say, this still wasn't good enough for a number of parents, and there was a noticeable number of transfers requests that the school had received that afternoon.

Sighing, Natsuru stamped and signed another one of such forms, moving it to his 'Out' pile. Seitetsu Gakuin was a massive school, with a very large campus. It technically rivalled that of nearby Colleges, meaning it taught thousands of students. Because of this, it meant that the number of students being pulled out still left a healthy number of students attending the school.

Unfortunately, it also meant that there were still a large number of forms to deal with, to the point that the administration had begged Shizuku to help out. She had passed the invitation on to Natsuru, who begrudgingly accepted, since he really had nothing left to do that afternoon.

"Thanks again for...helping..." Shizuku started to say, trailing off mid-sentence as she was overtaken by a massive yawn. "Oh, goodness, excuse me!"

"No problem, Shizuku. I'm glad to help out... besides, I technically am your assistant. So people should see me doing some Student Council stuff occasionally, otherwise they might start asking questions."

"Fair enough, Natsuru... say, why don't you go ahead and get us some coffee? I enjoy mine black." Shizuku asked him. Grateful for the opportunity to stand, Natsuru stretched and stepped back from the desk he had been sitting at. The faculty had offered him the desk of a teacher while he helped, since she had fled in terror at the sight of Akane single-handedly disarming the Police at super-human speed. Apparently, she had vowed never to return so long as 'Super-Human mutants created by Aliens' attended the school.

'Good riddance, Mrs. Ito. Your class was so boring, it was enough to make me join in on makeup conversations. No major loss for the school, there.' Natsuru chuckled, remembering how Akane had given a wide-eyed look of shock when he began adding his two cents on lipstick brands in a conversation the girls in front of her were having.

'Thinking back, that might have been when I started having those weird 'girly' moments...' Natsuru frowned, pondering the idea for a bit. 'Oh, great, now I've gone and made myself depressed.'

Sighing, he made his way back to 'his' desk, handing Shizuku her black coffee easily, since she was sitting in the desk across from his.

"Ah, thank you..." Shizuku sighed happily, taking a small sip of her coffee. Looking over at Natsuru's she raised an eyebrow when she noticed how tan colored it was. "What did you do to yours?" she asked disapprovingly, shaking her head.

"Hm? Oh, it's got Hazelnut creamer with some brown sugar... why?" he asked, glancing between his coffee and Shizuku.

"Oh, I was just wondering... seems awfully effeminate, how you drink yours..." she teased him. Rolling his eyes, he took a sip of the hot beverage, recalling that his first real experience with coffee did happen while he was transformed. Based on that, he supposed Shizuku was technically right. Shaking his head, Natsuru pulled out another transfer request from his 'In' pile as he took another swig of his coffee.

"By the way, it appears as if Akane slipped away cleanly. No one's been asking questions beyond what she's 'told me' about her attackers." Shizuku told him discreetly, since there were still a few teachers in the room, also handling transfer requests.

"Right, that's good... Mikoto really hated doing that last bit to Akane, hitting her and kicking her to sell the idea of her being assaulted." Natsuru mumbled back, looking over the form to ensure the correct student was being transferred out of the school. Surprisingly, this one was male. It was his first male student, in fact.

"Yes, well, thankfully the scanners were all damaged and destroyed in the riot, since it only took a few slaps and one kick while Mikoto was transformed."

"Yeah, well, she's still really torn up about it. I'm going to try to make her some curry tonight to cheer her up." Natsuru returned to a more normal volume, noting an error on the form, and slipping it into his small 'Needs Correction' pile.

"I thought you couldn't handle curry?" Shizuku asked him, moving another completed form to her 'Out' pile.

"I'm not a fan of it, but I'll eat it if I have to." Natsuru admitted, pausing to look up at her. "Don't you ever tell her I said that, or I'll be eating curry for the rest of my days. Which might be short, if that comes to pass."

"It'll be our secret." Shizuku giggled gently, frowning as she read a vulgar note from an enraged Father on his daughter's transfer request. Out of spite, she marked the message as 'Needs Correction' and slipped it into a folder similar to Natsuru's. "Have you considered perhaps she'd be happier making you some curry? She admitted to me the night we went to the hotel that she enjoys cooking for you."

"She would be, but then I'd end up in the same boat, always eating curry."

"Ah, right. Goodness, I've not been very astute in the past two days..." Shizuku yawned, shaking her head before sipping on her coffee. "I've not been this tired since..." she trailed off, suddenly looking very morose.

"Shizuku?" Natsuru asked her, pausing on one line of his current form as he looked across the desks.

"…Since the first time I took a life..." she mumbled, suddenly very distracted. Looking towards one of the teachers, Natsuru cleared his throat to get her attention.

"Sorry, Sensei, we just need to step out for some fresh air for a moment, the coffee isn't cutting it." he chuckled, as the teacher smiled and nodded.

"Just don't run away on us!" she laughed, before looking very serious. "Please."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Natsuru promised her, now pulling up on Shizuku's arm and coaxing her out the door. Walking down the hallway a ways, Natsuru opened a pair of windows, allowing a breeze to flow through, bringing with it a faint autumn chill.

They simply stood there for a while, Shizuku leaning on the window sill as she let the breeze rush past her, while Natsuru outer to simply lean with his back to the wall.

"We were both first years. It was around the end of February, I had only been a Kämpfer for about a week, so I didn't have perfect control of my daggers." Shizuku had started recounting, Natsuru opting to remain quiet and listen, since it seemed that she needed to tell him about it. "She, on the other hand, seemed to have been doing this for a few months, as she had wonderful control of her wind magic."

"Zauber, then." Natsuru said quietly, showing her he was listening, though wondering what wind magic looked like. Nodding, Shizuku continued.

"She ambushed me, on my way back from a Student Council meeting, in which at the time I was nothing more than a class representative. I refrained from summoning my weapon, because I was too busy pleading with her, asking her why we had to listen to the moderators in the first place." Shizuku recalled, the look of disappointment growing as she continued. Natsuru was now completely attentive, as this was an eerily familiar story to his own first real fight, with Shizuku.

"I'll spare you the blow by blows, but I eventually realized that I wasn't going to be able to reason with her. Eventually, our combat put us into a position where one of my daggers were swiftly flying directly towards her throat." Shizuku sighed, beginning to shiver as she continued to stare out the window.

"All I wanted… was to incapacitate her. So, I started to pull back on the chain, just as she began using her magic to push it aside, and…" Shizuku paused, a hitch in her throat as Natsuru began to rub her shoulder. The memory playing back in her mind, of the young first year Zauber, with a cocky smirk as she called up her wind to push the dagger to the side of her throat, only to be surprised when Shizuku shifted the dagger's trajectory. "I slit her throat open, Natsuru. I swear I tried to help her. She was terrified, you could see it in her eyes, but… she died, seconds later." Shizuku spoke wearily, suddenly sitting down on the floor as she closed her eyes. "I'll never forget that awful, horrible sound, of her trying to breath." Shizuku finished groggily, before suddenly sliding along the wall as she fell unconscious, only being prevent from hitting her head on the floor by Natsuru grabbing a hold of her.

The prolonged absence caused the teachers to come investigate, finding Natsuru holding Shizuku and shaking her gently. They fretted over her extensively, quickly buying the idea that Shizuku was exhausted from the events of the day, and torn up about how some of the students she was tasked with helping as the Student Council President had to suffer such horrible fates, neither of which were far off the mark. They gently moved her to the nearby Teacher's lounge, laying her down on the couch where she seemed much more comfortable.

"Poor thing is completely exhausted… doesn't look like she got a single wink of sleep last night."

"I recall Madam President telling me that Nishino sent her an advance copy of the interview with Red, so that probably had a lot to do with it." Natsuru lied, causing the teachers to click their tongues in disappointment. "Right, well… I suppose I should get back to work…"

"Yes, as should we. Let's let the poor girl get some sleep." The second teacher said, with the three of them moving away from the lounge and back to their desks. Grabbing Shizuku's incomplete pile, Natsuru stacked it atop his and went to sit down, before spying her still warm coffee. Shrugging, he grabbed it, sitting down before taking a sip. Instantly recoiling in disgust, Natsuru glared at the offending drink before placing it on his desk, beside his own.

'Maybe the other me is on to something with that creamer and sugar.'

"Hey, Shizuku… Shizuku, wake up. It's time to go home."

"Nnggh… huh?" Shizuku groaned, shaking her head as she sat up slowly. Getting her bearings, Shizuku realized she had been laying on a leather futon, a pillow and a blanket to keep her comfortable. Looking in front of her, she realized that it was Natsuru that had woken her up.

"The school is closing up, we need to leave." He explained. Casting off the blanket, Shizuku stood and stretched for a moment, before gasping.

"The transfer forms!"

"Relax, Shizuku, I already finished them all." Natsuru chuckled, holding out his hands placatingly as Shizuku sighed, dropping down onto the couch.

"I'm so sorry, Natsuru. I asked for your help and then fall asleep on you, leaving the work all to you." Shizuku groaned, looking around for a clock. Finding one on the wall, she noticed that it read 7:15 PM. "Worst of all, I know you planned on making some curry for Mikoto tonight, and I ruined your plans."

"Hey, don't sweat it! You needed sleep; you know? Yeah, Mikoto's down in the dumps, and it would've been nice to get a chance to cheer her up, but these things happen sometimes. You need to learn to forgive yourself when you come up short, Shizuku. Particularly this time, since it's not like you meant to fall asleep." Natsuru admonished her, stretching himself. "We should get going, now. Don't want to get locked in here and draw attention by busting out using our Kämpfer forms."

"Forgive myself, huh…" Shizuku mumbled, snorting and chuckling. Raising an eyebrow, Natsuru looked at her in confusion. "Nothing, sorry. Maybe you have a point. Anyways, let's get out of here."

The pair of them walked in silence through the school, occasionally running across a straggling teacher, or the odd group of Police officers or Military personnel. More than once they had to be scanned, which always ended with a negative result, though the process always unnerved Natsuru.

"So, um, why do I have to get scanned, anyways? I'm a guy, so…" Natsuru asked one of the Military members once, earning him a shrug for his efforts .

"Sorry, kid. Orders are that we scan everyone. If I had to guess, someone's paranoid that a Kämpfer could be running around dressing like a boy."

"It would be pretty easy, too. These days, you can get makeup to look like just about anything." A female soldier piped up, monitoring the output of an odd, two-piece scanner that her partner was now using on Shizuku.

"Yeah, I suppose that's true…" Natsuru admitted, inwardly relieved that it wasn't due to someone suspecting that he was both Natsurus. Though, since reportedly Masumi had been accompanied by her Father as they were escorted to the nearest Military facility for a debrief of her interview with Akane… someone finding out the truth wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

"You wouldn't happen to know who I can file a formal complaint to about how the events of today were handled, do you? A few of my fellow students were injured when they were simply trying to stay out of this mess." Shizuku suddenly asked the pair of them. As they scrutinized her for a moment, the female soldier snapped her fingers.

"Right, you're the Student Council President. Yeah, I mean, we could get you that information, but I wouldn't worry about it. The commanding officer in charge is already going through a court martial for authorizing the use of weapons on children." She advised her. "I've heard about how ruthless you can be in defence of your students, so trust me when I say you can go ahead and get some rest. This guy is getting nailed to a wall."

"Even if those weapons were non-lethal?" Natsuru asked, mildly surprised. The male soldier scowled for a moment, lowering the scanner.

"No one should be using weapons on kids, lethal or otherwise. It's disgusting, and I know for a fact those Police Officers involved wouldn't have followed those orders if they didn't feel like their jobs were at risk. That Red girl had better self-discipline than a fully trained, experienced Military officer. From what I saw on the news, she could have killed every officer in that courtyard thanks to her agility, but all she did was disable their weapons before yelling at them a bit more and taking off. That guy is gonna fry, and good riddance, I say."

Thanking them for the information, Natsuru and Shizuku moved along, stepping out the front doors of the girl's side of the school. Normally, he would have had to present his fresh, new Student Council ID card to the security systems to get passed the sensors, but they were disabled due in part to the Military and Police presence.

The other was due to the fact that it needed repair, since it portions of it were damaged during the repeated failed attempts by Police to push past the Gun Club's defences.

As the duo quietly walked towards the front gate, where all that remained of Police and Military vehicles were a handful of vans, neatly parked along the curb, they were surprised when a familiar voice called out to them.

"Miss Sangou! I'm a little surprised to see you here so late!" Colonel Smith called out to them from the back of a van, it's rear doors partially open.

"Colonel Smith… color me surprised that you're still so heavily involved with this, since the SDF appears to have taken operational control." She responded politely, approaching him as he stepped away from the van.

"Yes, well, considering the interesting approach that was used today, your Military asked for my assistance in cleaning the mess up until a suitable replacement can be decided upon. At this point, it may be a joint task force." He explained, clearly not at all concerned about spilling out information he shouldn't be. "Listen, I'm not going to beat around the bush any longer… this 'Red'. You know who she is, don't you?" he asked Shizuku suddenly, surprised her as well as Natsuru. Collecting herself, Shizuku shook her head.

"Of course not. But even if I did, I wouldn't tell you." Shizuku stated, Colonel Smith pursing his lips in response.

"Could I ask why?"

"Of course. It's simple, really: Miss Red is, quite clearly, a student of Seitetsu Gakuin. And, having witnessed her 'violent actions' as having been that of self-defence, in which none of the officers involved were ever injured, as well as protecting her Peers, I'd honestly have had no qualms about protecting her identity, should I end up learning it." Shizuku explained herself, frowning as the Colonel shook his head, gesturing towards her as he sighed.

"Figured you'd say something like that. No offense, but you sure know how to throw a wrench or two into the works, Miss Sangou."

"Yes, well, I apologize if me doing my job of advocating for, and working towards, the welfare of my peers is inconvenient for you." She replied, her words dripping with sarcasm. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Colonel Smith took a deep breath before looking at Shizuku again.

"Look, cut the crap. Between you two and I, I know that you know who she is. I know who she is, and I am also aware that you girls are fully cognizant of that fact, otherwise you wouldn't have bothered finding a way to hide yourselves until reaching that hotel." He began to rant, suddenly pointing towards Natsuru as Shizuku looked on in surprise. "And don't take me for a fool. I know who this young man is, and if he's at all involved with the four of you, then he knows what's going on, as well." He finished, looking between the two of them, finding Natsuru looking flabbergasted, and Shizuku glaring at him with a cold, angry expression.

"I am not appreciating what you are attempting to imply, sir. Should I be contacting my family's lawyer? Because this is sounding more like an interrogation than a discussion." Shizuku retorted, her eyes narrowed as Adrian huffed, looking towards the sky as he worked to calm himself down.

"Look…" he sighed a moment later, slipping his hat off as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm just... concerned about everyone's safety. Personally, if I have to fight to make everyone give up on researching a Kämpfer if it meant stopping young women from slaughtering one another, just because some damn Aliens told them to, then I will. I Just… I can't stand the thought of little Mikoto getting hurt. I know she's not my child, but I'll be damned if I lied and said that girl didn't have a special place in my heart." He spoke quietly, the sudden explanation for his behavior surprising Natsuru and Shizuku. "Christ, Aliens… Aliens! And here I thought this had something to do with ancient Greek Gods or something. And only young women, seriously? You'd think they'd be able to figure out a way around that, if they're able to do that to young women, let alone travel the universe from God knows where..."

"...Uh, are you... okay, sir?" Natsuru asked him, nervously scratching the back of his neck as Adrian looked back to him.

"I'm… I'll be fine, son, just... finding myself a little out of sorts, I guess." Adrian grumbled, sitting down on the bumper of the van as unease sweat through him. "The enemies I'm used to have always been from this planet, and the victims I'm used trying to help are not usually women who are able to snap a grown man's neck with negligible effort before he even understands what's going on." he groaned, dropping his head into his waiting hands. Rubbing his face, Adrian looked back up at the pair of them.

"Alright, I no longer care if this is a bad idea or not, and you lot can refute it as much as you please, it's not going to change anything. The elephant in the room needs to be dealt with." he groaned, exasperated, sitting up and looking the pair of them dead in the eye. "We know Miss Mishima is a Kämpfer. We also know that Miss Senou is a Kämpfer, though we don't understand why she's decided to stay in her transformed state constantly. We can only guess as to why at this point." Adrian began to recite the Military's knowledge of them, causing both Shizuku and Natsuru to become increasingly nervous. "We suspect Mikoto and you, Miss Sangou, may be Kämpfer, but we have absolutely doubts that you are both involved somehow. The latter goes for you, as well, Mr. Senou, considering we know you never left Japan."

Natsuru and Shizuku were silent, not moving their eyes from Adrian as a million-and-one thoughts screamed through their minds. Sure, it was shared suspicion amongst them that the Military had to know who they were, essentially. Or that, at least, Akane was Red. And it was yet another mutual suspicion that, if their behavior prior to slipping out to the hotel hadn't made the Military aware that they were on to them, then the whole thing of sneaking through the tunnels to avoid detection had to have raised a red flag.

But having it aired out in the open by a senior Military Official was heart stopping, no matter how prepared they were to hear it.

"Right, that tells me everything I needed to hear. So, those are the facts as both parties now know them." Adrian said of their silence. "I won't press the matter. It's not likely you'd say anything, anyways."

"Colonel, you have it all wrong, we're—!" Natsuru began to argue, panicking, only to freeze up and cringe when Adrian held up a hand to silence him.

"Mr. Senou, I already said I don't want to hear it. The brass in the Japanese Government is nervous as hell about you lot, but they do agree that none of you have given the indication that you are dangerous to the average citizen. That surprisinglyincludes the mysterious Miss Senou, of whom we are aware, I might add, suddenly popped into existence in the last six months, using your name, and living in your house." Adrian narrowed his eyes, watching the pair of them closely. "So that I've shown my cards, maybe you two can at least let me know who Miss Senou really is? Clearly she has a secret identity that has some baggage. "

"That is enough!" Shizuku shouted at him, looking absolutely furious. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a small purse and opened it. A moment later, she pulled a business card out and held it out to Adrian, who sighed and took it. "That is the business card for my Family's lawyer! If you wish to speak to either one of the Senous, Miss Mishima, Miss Kondou, or myself, about anything, you will arrange for this through them. If you don't, I will be filing a formal claim of harassment with your Military, as well as the Police. This conversation is over!" Shizuku instructed him, absolutely fuming as she roughly grabbed Natsuru's hand, storming off and yanking him behind her, causing him to stumble as he numbly followed.

As they left the area, Shizuku rounded the end of the street before looking around, ensuring that they were decently alone. Stopping, she turned back to Natsuru, who looked like he was on the verge of having a breakdown.

"Shizuku... Shizuku, what the fuck! They gonna find out I'm both Natsurus!" Natsuru croaked, cringing as he leaned his back against the wall that shrouded the side of a business from the street. Pressing her hands against the wall, Shizuku leaned against it as well, catching her breath as she panted like she had just run a marathon.

"Y-yes, well... good news is, they actually know a little less than we thought they would have, by now. Bad news is... you're probably right, they are going to figure it out. They're understandably questioning who the female you really is, while not transformed." Shizuku groaned, running her hands over her face. "And since she's been 'gone' since yesterday, somehow 'disappearing' into the night while you appeared at school the next morning... I don't think you can go back to your house as a girl."

"But I have to! Everyone at school thinks it's HER house!" Natsuru fretted, beginning to pace the width of the sidewalk as he stressed out.

"I actually don't think either yous should be going to that house, anymore. Worse still, I don't know if you could even stay in anyone else's home, either." Shizuku doubted, biting her thumb as Natsuru groaned, resting against the wall again as he slid down into a seat on the cement. "I also can't see putting you up into a hotel. You certainly couldn't afford an indefinite stay, nor could any of us pay for you, since our parents would likely notice fairly quickly if their credit cards started getting repeat bills for a hotel stay."

"Well, then what do I do?! I can't live on the street!" Natsuru shouted in frustration, throwing a stray, empty soda that rested beside him into the street. When Shizuku remained silent, he looked up at her, desperate for an answer. The expression he saw was not one he had been expecting, witnessing Shizuku appear as if she wanted to say something, but was holding back like she were nervous. "What? What is it? You obviously have some sort of idea, and I can't help but think at this point that whatever it is, short of working in something lewd, it has to beat living on the street." he growled, getting to his feet.

"Well, it's... you could probably..." Shizuku hesitated, clearly not liking her idea in the slightest. Frowning, Natsuru raised an eyebrow. "Since we're in a ceasefire... you might be able to safely stay with... Kaede." Shizuku sighed, almost looking like she were feeling sick for even suggesting the idea.

"Ooooh no, no way! I... I am so fucking mad with that stunt she pulled about getting Masumi to write about guys being killed by bracelets of oath, that I don't even want to look at her right now!" Natsuru boomed, puffing out his chest as he became enraged.

"Yes, you do." Shizuku deadpanned.

"…Yes, I do." Natsuru agreed quietly, pouting as he kicked at a pebble with a sigh.

"I know what I just suggested, but even after everything she's done to you, you're still harboring a crush on her. What on earth do you see in her?" Shizuku asked him, causing Natsuru to look away in embarrassment.

"I dunno... I mean, yeah, I'm definitely upset with her, but it's like... I can see the person underneath it all. Underneath all of that... evil, I guess it would be? That person she pretends to be while in public... it might sound weird, but I feel like that's the real her, and she's still there when she's busy being a Moderator." Natsuru explained in an obscure manner, looking like he was a bit confused himself. "I know what it sounds like, but I am past that whole 'she's possessed' thing I was stuck on for a while. I'm sorry if they sound almost the same."

"...No, I think I can see what you mean. At least, when it comes to you." Shizuku added, snorting as Natsuru gave her a look. "No, honestly. She's one of the most devious people I've seen, myself notwithstanding. But when it comes to her interacting with you, even if she's learned from her mistakes of trying to force you into doing anything, even with mind control, she still acts so much like a school girl in love. She's been making mistakes, as well."

"How do you figure? Kaede always seems like she's one step ahead." Natsuru grumbled, wishing just once to be able to hold a strategic victory over the Whites for once, rather than the small-scale tactical victories of escaping their attempts to capture him.

"Back at the hotel, when she left Mikoto untouched after accidentally letting her hear about a part of their plan. Not to mention all the gloating she did prior to Mikoto leaving the changing room." Shizuku pointed out, causing Natsuru to scratch his chin in thought.

"True, but how do we know that she hasn't expected us to make a move on the artifact, first?" he argued, still scratching at his chin.

"Simple: because she's so blinded by her love for female you, she's placed you on a pedestal and would never expect you to stoop to theft. It's possible that Hitomi and the others are expecting something of this caliber, since they're only after you to please Kaede, but they usually won't make a move without Kaede's prior approval."

"W-well... maybe, maybe not..." Natsuru murmured, thinking about Hitomi and blushing slightly.

"Maybe, to what? That the Whites will suspect us, or that they will try to intercept us?" Shizuku asked him, not having noticed his blush.

"Uh, the former. You see... apparently, Hitomi has a crush on female me." Natsuru said quietly, embarrassed as Shizuku looked at him in disbelief. "Don't look at me like that, it's not like I want her to have a crush on me!"

"How did you find this out?" she asked him, incredulous that yet another girl was vying for his attention, and secretly infuriated about it.

"Oh, well... remember when they ambushed me last?" Natsuru asked her, coughing as she nodded. "Well, like I said a few days ago, I hid from them somehow by sneaking behind an old dumpster in an alleyway. While I was there, the other girls started teasing her about it, and it made me wonder. So, when she came up to me in the bath at the hotel, I got self-conscious and hid my body from her, causing her to get all flustered and defensive once I called her out on it."

"That's... oh, good grief. Female you is very pretty, and cute, certainly, but the amount of people vying for your heart is getting a little ridiculous." Shizuku groaned, pulling out her phone and punching something into it. "Well, it may be handy information, regardless..."

"Yeah, sorry I forgot to mention it. Just didn't seem like a huge deal, with everything else that's been going on." he mumbled, suddenly surprised when his stomach growled loudly. "I guess I'm a bit hungry, now..."

"Yes, I was actually just texting the girls and asking if they'd like to get some Pizza. I know of a quiet place a bit out of the way."

An hour later, Mikoto and Akane both arrived at the Pizza Parlour that Shizuku and Natsuru were waiting for them at. Unfortunately, the pair of them had looked suspiciously nervous and paranoid when they walked in, initially causing the staff to be concerned, since Akane was sporting a fair-sized shiner on her right eye.

After convincing the staff that Akane hadn't just been attacked and not to call for Police, the four of them moved to a back-corner booth, feeling very uncomfortable as they noticed that the staff had begun to eye them with suspicion, instead. Shizuku and Natsuru had to bring the pair of them up to speed in bits and pieces, since they constantly being interrupted from doing so by one of the waitresses repeatedly loitering near them.

After approximately half an hour, the two Student Council members finally relayed everything, from their nerve-wracking conversation with Colonel Smith, to the news that Hitomi had a small crush on female Natsuru, and finally stopping after Shizuku's poorly received idea of dropping Natsuru on Kaede, to keep at least his human identity a secret.

"Are you fucking crazy? She'll brainwash him into loving cute things, frilly pink dresses, you name it!" Akane whispered angrily at Shizuku, eyeing the waitress as she brought a nearby table their pizza. "Do you want to lose male Natsuru for good? Because that's a fantastic way to do it!"

"Yeah, why can't he just stay at my house? It's still near his own house, which is a bonus!" Mikoto demanded, similarly whispering. Akane appeared as if she wanted to argue the point, but looked down at the table with an intensely grumpy expression as she dabbed a napkin in her cold water and held it to her injured eye instead.

"We can't do that. They're definitely watching us all as much as they can. It's painfully clear the time for us three working towards hiding our Human identities from the Government and Military has come and gone already. At this point, the only one of us they don't know, or at least suspect, is Natsuru here." Shizuku spoke softly, sighing somnolently as the other two joined her in her dour mood.

"Give it time, Shizuku... I feel like they are just going to eventually figure I'm actually a girl experiencing gender dysphoria. The only thing I can hope for, is that they keep it to themselves..." Natsuru commented bitterly, propping his elbow on the table and resting his head in his hand, idly playing with a salt shaker as he contemplated Shizuku's last-ditch plan to protect his identity.

The four of them all sighed listlessly, simply staring at the table as the thoughts of their freedom slowly being chipped away by current events brought them further down the rabbit hole of depression.

"So, um—" the waitress called out to them all, recoiling when they all jumped. "I-I-I can tell something is obviously bothering you four, b-but... are you ready to order, now?" she asked them, clearly very nervous of Akane, since she kept glancing at her before looking away at the table.

"...Just a large pepperoni, for now." Shizuku ordered for them all, with the waitress confirming drink refills. When she left, Shizuku turned towards Akane. "That's going to be a problem, moving forward..."

"Yeah, I know... you'd think the black eye would convince them otherwise, considering I never got punched by anyone during my rant while on camera."

"Speaking of, take a look over there, the TV on the wall." Natsuru observed, watching the TV as the girls all looked at it. There, on the TV, was Akane, from a recording made by the local news outlet, being played out on an American news station. They couldn't make out what was being said, however the caption on the bottom of the screen told them essentially what the news anchors were talking about.

"Kämpfers: Unwilling Victims, or Devious Predators? Are they for real, right now? I even cried like a sissy, dammit!" Akane grumbled, turning away and glaring at her water. As she was about to drink from it, her phone began to ring. Pulling it from her jacket pocket, she groaned when she saw who was calling her. "Sorry, everyone, this will only take a moment..."

"Akane Mishima, where the hell are you?!" Kumeaki's voice could be clearly heard shouting from the tiny speaker as she leaned away from the phone.

"With my friends, where it's safe, Dad." Akane groaned, looking more annoyed than embarrassed.

"Safe?! Safe, my foot! You being out and about while that psycho classmate of yours is running around with a gun is not safe!" her father screamed over the phone, his comment about her Kämpfer form's sanity causing her to look as if she were silently snarling at him through the phone. "You will come straight home, Akane! Do you hear me?"

"Oh — oh no! Are... are we losing the signal? Dad, Dad! Can you—hear me?" Akane half-assed pretending to lose her signal, Kumeaki absolutely losing his mind in the process.

"What has gotten into you lately, Akane?! Why are you rebelling so much?! Akane? Akane!" he shouted at her, just before she ended the call emotionlessly.

"Uh... just putting this out there, but maybe you shouldn't have put that on speaker..." Mikoto mumbled, looking a little embarrassed for her as Natsuru and Shizuku found something on the table more interesting than Akane's phone call.

"It wasn't on speaker." Akane replied flatly, returning to her water and calmly sipping from it.

"Oh...kay, well, um, don't you think what you did is just going to make the fallout worse...?" Natsuru asked her, causing Akane to shrug.

"Honestly, if my personality shifting to be more like my Kämpfer form has shown me anything, my Dad is pretty easy to control." Akane explained, taking another drink from her glass. Looking at the other three, Akane frowned when she noticed the looks she was getting. "What? It's not like I abuse it, I only do it when he gets annoying, which is… um…" Akane trailed off, think about all the arguing and yelling she had been having near nightly for at least a week, and how she'd been playing his emotions often to get him to leave her alone, sooner. "Holy crap, I'm kind of a bitch…"

"H-hey, Akane… I couldn't help but notice that you're very… um…" Mikoto started, unsure of how to broach the subject she wanted to. Picking up on it, since it was fairly obvious, Natsuru spoke up.

"She's wondering about why you've slipped into your Kämpfer personality and haven't come back out yet." He advised her, taking a sip of his soda. "I have to admit, I'm actually pretty curious, as well."

"I... wow, I can't hide it at all, huh?" Akane sighed, smiling sadly before, tapping her fingers against the table as she thought about what to say next. "So, uh... yeah, I've, uh, kinda been like this since this afternoon."

"Since you last transformed?" Shizuku asked her, a curious expression on her face as Akane took a swig of her water.

"Yeah, since I went back to being just a regular old Human. Zipped over to the infirmary after my little shitfit in the front courtyard, popped back to good ol' Regular Akane in front of Mikoto, and realised right before she bopped me that my filter hadn't come back." she confirmed, looking at Mikoto, who had an expression akin to someone finding out a friend had died. "What?"

"B-but... if Human Akane is gone—" Mikoto had begun, tearing up until she recoiled in surprise, Akane having yanked the salt shaker from Natsuru's hands before tossing it at Mikoto.

"Are your ears plugged, or do you just have selective hearing?" Akane growled, as the Natsuru and Mikoto stared at her in surprise. "How many god damn times have I already told you all that this me isn't a sort of split personality? This me, is how I've always talked in my head. Before all this Kämpfer shit, I had the mixed-blessing of having a mental filter, which kept all the nasty little thoughts I had to myself. Had the crappy side-effect of making me all nervous of saying or doing the wrong thing, though, which is why I was so shy around people I didn't know."

"Are you sure that's all it was? You seem to make some pretty dumb, spur of the moment decisions when you're transformed..." Natsuru tactlessly asked her, causing Shizuku to snort and distracting Mikoto from being upset as she watched Akane glare at him angrily, reaching for a steak knife beside her.

"Hey, before we continue that line of thought, quick question for ya." Akane asked him, twirling the knife around as Natsuru nodded at her. "Do you know what it feels like to get stabbed, Natsuru?" she asked him, innocently

"Uh... no?" He replied, somewhat nervously as Akane suddenly stabbed the table.

"Ya wanna find out?" Akane seethed, not at all pleased about essentially being called stupid.

"Alright, Akane, relax, or I'm going to have to replace the table." Shizuku warned her, frowning sternly as Akane continued to glare through her fake glasses, this time at Shizuku. "Look, I'm confident this fool meant to say that you react more on your emotions rather than your intellect when you are... like this." she gestured to Akane before continuing. "You do have a bad habit of making rash decisions when you're in this state of mind."

"I'll ignore the fact that was a subtle dig at me saying I get dumb when I'm mad. Because you're technically right, I guess..." Akane grumbled, slouching in her seat as Shizuku hid a smirk behind her glass of cola. "Anyways, I guess this means I need to work on my acting, a bit... nearly everyone seems to think I'm Red just by looking at me, so acting like her suddenly would end in a pretty crappy way."

"So... you promise that you're, like, not a dominant personality that pushed original Akane out of the way?" Mikoto asked her, causing the librarian to roll her eyes and sigh, frustrated.

"Anyways, about this plan of yours, Shizuku... I still say it's insane. You remember what happened with the two of them being left alone in the science lab, even with us just outside, right? If Natsuru wasn't so damn nervous about getting it on as a girl, Kaede would have probably had Natsuru stripped naked right there and gone to town." Akane argued crudely, causing Natsuru to inhale his drink and begin coughing violently.

"What... the fuck... Akane...!" he grunted, still coughing roughly as he did his best to glare through his intense blush.

"What? It's true, considering you were completely getting into that little makeout session of her's and your's." she sneered, chuckling as his blush deepened and his glare more intense. "But for real, if we drop Natsuru off there, we are literally leaving the two of them alone together. The next time we go up to get her, we might be getting wiped the fuck out by Natsuru." she sighed, her comments causing Natsuru to become indignant.

"Do you really think I'm that weak minded that I can't withstand her badgering to become a girl full time?" He asked her, clearly upset as she looked at him in exasperation.

"Did you forget the whole thing where she brainwashed you into attacking us?"

"That was one time, and it hasn't worked since!" he growled, getting angrier as she propped her elbow up on the table and supported her chin with her hand.

"Can you name a single time since then where she's tried to brainwash you?"

"Yeah, down by the canal!" he yelled out, crossing his arms.

"Actually, that was me." Mikoto interjected, quickly finishing her soda as Natsuru looked at her in confusion, thinking back on the night as he was certain that Kaede had tried to convince him through suggestion to have his way with her.

"Hush, Pizza is here." Shizuku commented quickly as the waitress, still nervously glancing at Akane, arrived with a piping hot Pepperoni pizza. She silently placed it on the table, in the middle of the four of them, before staring intently at Akane..

"Yes...?" Akane asked her, quickly growing annoyed as she snagged a piece of the pizza and slid it onto a plate.

"A-are you... u-um... I-I'm sorry, but a-are you... Red?" she asked her, wincing as Akane dropped her head into her hand. Sighing, she ran her hand down her face as she looked back at the waitress.

"No! God, I... ugh. No, I'm not Red..." Akane began to shout, her complaints quickly reducing to that of quiet murmurs. "I'm getting so tired of that..."

"O-oh, uh, s-sorry. I'll leave you all be, just let me know if you need anything else..." the waitress mumbled, embarrassed as she walked away.

"So, anyways, we were discussing how I'm going to be forced to be homeless, here." Natsuru spoke calmly, as if it were an everyday topic.

"Fuck sake, we really don't have any safe options, do we?" Akane groaned, angrily shovelling a slice of pizza into her mouth. "Even if it was technically safe for him to be there, I doubt my Dad would let a boy stay the night, let alone allow anyone to spend the night at the moment, considering I just blew him off."

"I can't believe we don't have any other choice, here..." Mikoto worried, furrowing her brow as the thought of leaving Natsuru alone and vulnerable with Kaede made her stomach squirm.

"Well, unless you object to it, then... we're going to have to leave you in the hands of our enemy, and trust that you can get away if she tries anything." Shizuku groused, looking as if she just ate something disgusting as she looked at Natsuru.

"... Right, yeah." Natsuru mumbled, staring at the Pizza as a dark expression overtook him. Groaning, he tussled his hair with his hands in frustration before pulling his pink phone out. Tapping on it a few times as the girls watched, he stopped and raised it to his ear, having started a phone call.

"...Who's he calling?" Mikoto whispered to Akane, who shrugged, unsure herself as she watched him.

"Yeah, hey, it's Natsuru. You're outside the Pizza Parlour, right? Can you come in? We have something serious we'd like to ask you." Natsuru spoke into his phone, the girls very curious as to who he had waiting outside. "No, no, we're not trying to ambush you or anything, I'm being honest. Besides, there's ordinary people in here, that would be stupid of us. … Alright, fine, tell you what, I'll step between you if they try something, okay? … Yes, I promise." Natsuru sighed, ending the call.

The girls all watched the front door, curious as to who was so nervous to be near them. A few minutes passed in silence as Natsuru waited patiently for his mysterious guest, the girls all growing more and more curious as time went on. After Akane huffed out of impatience, the front door finally swung open to reveal Ryouka standing at the entrance looking very nervous as she looked around for them.

"What the fuck?!" Akane whispered loudly, gripping Natsuru's shoulder painfully tight as she yanked back on him, the movement catching Ryouka's attention. "How the fuck did you know she was there?!"

"Huh? I could have sworn I told you all that Yamakawa's been watching me from a distance when I got back from the bath at the hotel.

"I mean, I know that, but still! I thought that they would have given that up once we knew!" Akane growled, watching the girl like a hawk as she approached them, growing more nervous with each step.

"U-u-um... h-hi..." she greeted them all quietly, feeling very out of place as she scratched at her arm.

"Hello, Yamakawa. Please, join us..." Shizuku greeted her in return, sliding into the booth a bit more to get her some room to sit, as Natsuru got up and retrieved a chair from an empty table. Still fairly nervous, Ryouka accepted the invitation, but opted to sit near the edge of the seat, sticking closer to Natsuru.

"U-um... could you all... please not tell Kaede that you spotted me...?" Ryouka asked them quietly, looking very scared. "She'll get mad..."

"We didn't spot you, though. Natsuru just called you." Mikoto spoke quietly, eyeing the girl with suspicion as Ryouka shied away from her.

"Relax, Yamakawa, please. I invited you in here, because I guessed that Kaede would have you still watching me. And, like I said, I have a... well, a question. And it's kind of weird..." he explained, motioning to the pizza on the table. Ryouka glanced to Shizuku for a moment, as if to ask for permission. When she nodded, Ryouka nervously reached for a slice before devouring it hungrily.

"S-sorry, I'm just really hungry... I forgot to make a lunch this morning, and, um, Sayaka wasn't able to slip out from her home to bring me some dinner..." she complained, looking at Shizuku again for permission to grab another, which she hastily did when Shizuku nodded again.

"It's alright, go ahead. I owe you for that pizza from the other night, anyways." Natsuru chuckled lightly, before growing serious, and a bit nervous himself. "So, uh... I'm just gonna cut straight to the point." he sighed, scratching the back of his neck shyly as Ryouka watched him, now more relaxed as she bit into her second slice. "Would Kaede be opposed to me spending the next few nights with her?"

Immediately, Ryouka gagged and retched, having inhaled a large portion of her pizza that she had bit in shock from his question. Thumping her back, Shizuku offered Ryouka a glass of water, which the White Kämpfer hastily accepted, gulping it down before coughing a bit more.

"What?!" was all she asked, looking at Natsuru incredulously as he laughed nervously.

"Eheh... I told you it was a weird question..." he offered weakly as Akane snorted derisively.