Author Note: This is a timeline where SQUAD is kicked from Arius and allowed to roam but not welcomed in Trinity. Also sorry for posting so late after the previous one, real life hit me like a truck hitting an isekai protagonist.
Chapter 2: The 2nd Swimsuit Simposium
A big storm was raging outside. Seven girls are sitting in a circle inside the gym of Trinity's old outskirts annex with the lights out. Everyone's phone is in front of them and the light coming out from the screen is the only source of light, allowing everyone to barely see the face of the other girls sitting around. Also, a big recycling trash can is nearby the circle, but nobody seems to be paying attention to it, maybe because they can't see it with the lack of light.
"So, let's put Mashiro into situation."
Urawa Hanako, member of both Trinity's the Make-Up Work Club and Sisterhood, starts making a summary of how this situation had come to happen to Shizuyama Mashiro, member of the Justice Task Force.
"We members of the Make Up Club did an oopsie and suspended one too many exams so we came to the old annex to have a group study session. Because Sensei couldn't come we decided to go to Sisterhood to get someone who could help with the tutoring and that's how Hinata joined us."
"Hinata? I would understand someone like Mari, but Hinata?"
Hanako, seemingly expecting the question pulls an apple and a glass out of nowhere and hands it to Wakaba Hinata, the Sisterhood nun who always carries a weighty suitcase around.
"Hinata dear, could you get me some apple juice?"
"Eh? Yes, sure."
The nun casually grabs the apple, lifts it above the glass and squeezes. The apple effortlessly breaks and the apple juice sloppily falls into the glass.
"Here Hanako."
The nun with a grip of steel casually hands over the barely half full glass of juice to Hanako as she wipes her hand with a handkerchief. Mashiro stares in silent amazement as the other members of the Make Up Work Club speak in turn.
"We told her that if we're horsing around too much she could give us a slap in the wrist."
"And because no one wants to lose their hand it will become a great deterrence and make us focus on our studies. It's a great plan."
"I honestly wonder who's more of a gorilla, her or boss Tsurugi."
Ajitani Hifumi, Shirasu Azusa and fellow Justice Task Force member Shimoe Koharu, add their own comment about the nun's recruitment to the study group, although one of those comments is just a very rude thought inadvertently said aloud.
"Afterwards while going to the annex we met with Miss Noa from Millenium's Seminar. She wanted to have a talk with us about Trinity and when we told her that we were going to have a study group she offered to help."
"As, you know, an actual tutor."
Hanako and Koharu continued the explanation as Mashiro started to recover from the cold blooded fruit murder she had just seen.
"Then, we finally met you as you were checking the newly upgraded security of the annex."
"Yes, after the damage caused by the Arius raid the Tea Party decided to add some upgrades to the repairs, like the electronic locks that are keeping us inside the annex without being able to go out now that there's a blackout. However that's not what I was asking."
Mashiro points at herself and asks once again.
"Why are we in school swimsuits?"
Indeed, another point in common of the seven girls sitting in a circle was that they were all wearing school swimsuits.
"In the annex's gym, with the Make Up Work Club and in the middle of a blackout, those are all the boxes checked to have a Swimsuit Simposium! Luckily there was an box in the gym with swimsuits for us all!"
Hanako wholeheartedly smiles. She's clearly the one enjoying the situation the most.
"I see. I heard Trinity had a lot of old traditions but I wasn't expecting one like this."
Noa's words may point at her being taken aback by this 'tradition' but she certainly didn't hesitate to put on the swimsuit nor is she looking embarrassed about wearing it.
"No, if Hanako is involved it's not a Trinity tradition at all."
Koharu tried to warn Noa but the Millenium student seemed to just casually enjoy the experience. Hifumi then tried to move the conversation along to some other topic.
"So now that we have started the Swimsuit Simposium what should we do? Tell spooky stories?"
"Uh? In the dark because of a blackout, trapped in a remote building, you think it's time to share scary stories?"
"Yeah? Isn't this the best situation to do so?"
Hinata represented the side that would never want anything to do with a scary story as the Momo Friends enjoyer represented the side that would only play horror games late at night in the dark. As there was no other suggestion, the girls started sharing their stories. The first one to do so was Mashiro.
"I've heard this story from some friends in the Justice Task Force. Every Saturday at night, you can sometimes see a shadow moving around the Trinity grounds. This figure would quickly rush around, and disappear not leaving a trace. At first they thought it was a stray cat, but the figure was too big to be one. Finally, one day, these two friends of mine on patrol let curiosity take the best of them. They started chasing behind the shadow running around. They managed to get close to the figure and then they realized something. It was a person for sure, but the breathing sounded strange, it was a raspy sound with a bit of a whistle, as if the person had some kind of trouble breathing. With the curiosity transforming into something else, they approached the shadow, called out to it and shine their flashlight to see their face. But when they did so my friends… could see no face."
"Gyaaah! A headless ghost?"
"Maybe a dullahan?"
Hinata and Noa threw their guesses but Mashiro denied them.
"It was not that it had no face, they just couldn't see it. My friends could only see two lights were the eyes should be. Two lights that shone bright in the darkness of the night, staring directly at them, as if staring directly at their souls. Unmoving, just staring while letting that raspy breath out. After a moment that lasted for an eternity, the both of them started running away. However the figure gave chase. Those two eyes didn't lose sight of them as the figure kept pace with them. And when they lost the strength to move their legs, when they resigned themselves to whatever fate the figure might have for them, said shadow… was no more. After they went back to the Justice Task Force HQ and told their story it seemed that some other people had seen the shadow but no one else has been brave enough to face it like them."
Almost all of the girls could feel their tension rising as Mashiro's story had ended up coming out a bit stronger than they had imagined, except for Azusa that took something and put it on her face.
"Did the ghost look like this?"
When Mashiro took her smartphone and pointed it at Azusa she only saw two round big eyes staring at her. Paralyzed by the unexpected sight, she stared at Azusa until her eyes managed to make out the surrounding of those two bright eyes.
"Uh? Is that… a gas mask?"
The guess proved right. Azusa had just put on her trusty gas mask on.
"When making rounds around Trinity to check if my improvised traps are still operative I wear a gas mask. However, if the eye lenses are so recognizable at night I'll have to buy a new one. "
Mashiro, still coping with the surprise, managed to squeeze some words.
"Gas mask? Traps? And why did you chase my two friends back then?"
"I remember a night where two students got close to me and then started screaming and running away. I thought they might have seen some danger that I had not noticed while I was busy with the trap so I ran behind them for a bit until I saw they were getting tired so I decided to stop and be the rear guard. However, I had the wrong idea, huh? "
"But, you could like not go around at night with a gas mask. And seriously, why are you putting traps around the campus?"
While Mashiro and the rest felt their tension lower as the mysterious shadow's identity had been revealed Noa let out a chuckle.
"If it's stories like that we have them at Millenium too."
The Trinity students settled down and paid attention to Noa, wondering if Millenium scary stories would have a technological taste to them giving the fame of the science school. The Seminar secretary opened up her notebook, probably just to give it some mood because in the dark it would be hard to read anything, and started her story.
"So one day I entered the Engineering Club room and found one of the club's students laying on the ground in a pool of blood."
The straight gut punch caught everyone by surprise.
"It's a murder story right out of the bat?"
"Then the student started groaning and she unsteadily got up."
"It's a zombie story!"
"The engineering student approached me with her hands outstretched reaching out to me."
Wondering what would be the next twist, Noa didn't disappoint and delivered it immediately.
"She got closed to me, grabbed from my shoulders and then, asked to help her put the railgun back in place."
"The… railgun?"
"Yes. She tried to see how much ketchup a railgun could shoot in a single shot so she modified one but when she shot the recoil made her hit herself on the head and knocked her out."
"Ketchup?"
"See? We also have stories that start scary but have a funny punchline at Millenium."
The main theme of the stories quickly started spinning out of control so the rest tried to bring it back without much success. Hinata's story spoke of a ghost that wanders the campus with only socks and a veil, causing Koharu to scream 'Burn the impure ghost!' while the other two members of the Make Up Work Club to avoid looking at Hanako because there are things better left unknown. Azusa's story told of dolls and plushies that moved by themselves at night, causing Hifumi to start thinking new ways to sneak back into Trinity after going out late at night to the Black Market district in order to acquire out of season Momo Friends limited goods. Two meter tall white Peroro-sama dolls weren't exactly made for stealth. Koharu had a story about the Tea Party current host having a secret spell that blew away all her stress if chanted in a certain rhythm, something that started with 'Hi' and ended with 'fumidaisuki' but it was more gossip than a horror story. Hanako went with a story about weird shouts coming out from the Justice Task Force HQ's Confiscated Goods Room that ended up being unjustly blamed on the president of the club, but after Hanako whispered something at her ear, Koharu started sweating bullets. The last story was from Hifumi, that narrated and old Trinity legend.
"Long ago, during the times when the Saint Justina Council still existed, one of its members went overboard on her duties to protect Trinity and ended up breaking someone's halo. For it she was heavily punished and condemned to be exiled from the district. But so was her sadness at being repudiated by the very place she loved, that while she was being transported she died from the grief, not even having reached the border of the district. In her last moments she screamed, looking for someone to tell her if she really was guilty and deserving of such punishment when her actions had been guided by Trinity's best interests, whether she was really at fault or not. People say that nowadays her spirit still roams, asking people 'Is it? Or is it not?' trying to find an answer to her last question in life. However, if you hear those words you must never answer back, for if you answer yes she will unleash her rage and sorrow upon you dragging you to the afterlife with her, and if you answer no then she will possess and take over your body in order to continue her work for Trinity's prosperity. That why, if you are at Trinity and you hear a voice out of nowhere asking 'Is it? Or is not?' what you must do is run without looking back."
Hifumi ended her turn, satisfied with her story being the only orthodox one, without funny punchline and all. With everyone having shared a story, before the topic could shift to another one, a voice cut into the girls swimsuit clad gathering.
"Then, is it my turn now?"
Everyone looked around confused. They had already heard a story from everyone and yet, a voice nobody recognized was asking to tell a story. Surely, this mysterious voice that came from nowhere wouldn't begin to tell a story about a member from the Saint Justina Council of long ago in which she was the main character, right?
The disembodied voice, receiving silence as an answer asked for confirmation again.
"Is it? Or is it not?"
At that moment the voice finally got an answer. Chaos. Hinata opened her bag and started mounting her grenade launcher while reciting all of the prayers she could remember, surely, if she is to shoot 360º she would hit the ghost. Mashiro screamed 'Justice!' as she frantically shot around but alas, justice is blind and not a single shot hit the ghost. Noa was looking in her notebook for the 'How to exorcise a ghost' page while the little reasoning she had remaining told knew that there was no such page, while Hanako asked the voice if she was also wearing a swimsuit like the rest of them. Hifumi simply clicked the 'Log out' button of her consciousness and left her mind blank to escape reality, but a holy hand grenade thrown blindly from a Koharu shouting 'Perverts and ghosts should burn!' hit her straight in the head. Thankfully, she was an ally so it healed her instead of hurt her. However the most decisive of them all was Azusa. She had a plan and the will to go through with it. She started tapping at her smartphone and announced loudly.
"Don't worry everyone! I've got traps all over this gym! I'll have this building become the ghost's grave so it can rest in peace!"
A now conscious Hifumi could only scream.
"Wait! You'll make it our grave as w-"
*click*
*KABOOOM*
Four hours later eleven girls were sitting on their knees with their heads held down after being scolded by Hanekawa Hasumi, the Vice President of the Justice Task Force. The eight girls wearing swimsuits were there from the beginning while the other three had been brought in the middle of the admonishment. After letting one big sigh, one of the newcomers, Gehenna Academy's leader of the Gourmet Research Society, Kurodate Haruna, pointed at Hifumi and asked.
"So, is wearing nothing but a school swimsuit a new Trinity fad?"
"Yes! That's right!"
"No it's not!"
Hanako excitedly answered but was quickly denied by Hifumi. Koharu tried to close Hanako's mouth with her hand to avoid further outbursts, but she quickly pulled it away after it got licked.
"This is and the scolding is just the result of some unfortunate circumstances."
Mashiro muttered with dead eyes, the scolding had taken the biggest toll on her as it had come from one of her adored seniors from the Task Force. The other person that had taken it the hardest was the person that had the craziest appearance, as she not only was wearing only a school swimsuit but she was pairing it with a rabbit eared diadem. Kasumizawa Miyu, the designated sniper of SRT's RABBIT Platoon had been the mouth of the mysterious voice, voice that was now stuck on and endless loop of self derision. Scavenging for resources she had somehow ended inside a very comfy trash can close to the Trinity annex building, and when the storm had started to rage she hid inside the gym. Once the Swimsuit Symposium had started, probably from the fear of being stranded in a foreign district with a bunch of strangers and in a terrible storm, her brain had shortcircuited and she had ended up participating in it, but her shyness remained and it had made her stay inside the very posh Trinity trash bin, all the while keeping her presence hidden until the fortuitous moment.
"Then it's just as us, the victims of some unfortunate circumstances. We just wanted to have a picnic in the aquarium after all."
"At the aquarium? Picninc?"
Hifumi got stuck in the weird choice of place for a picnic so the president of the School Lunch Club with currently dead eyes, Aikiyo Fuuka, gave out some context.
"The girls of the Gourmet Research Society took me an brought me to an aquarium in Trinity. Then they gave me a knife, pointed at a fish and said 'Let's eat some sashimi' just like that. But you know the worst part? The worst part was the looks of the two dozens of elementary school children on excursion. They huddled together, half crying and whispering 'Is the horned lady going to eat Mr. Bubbles?' Of course I'm not going to eat Mr. Bubbles! I'm not a cold blooded psycho like the professional kidnappers of the Gourmet Research Society! "
"To think that they would notice the most beautiful pair of horns in all of Gehenna even when they're from Trinity. Not bad children."
"Flattery will get you nowhere."
Fuuka's tone when answering Haruna's comment had thorns in it, but her face seemed a bit more relaxed after it, so maybe flattery could get her somewhere. After that exchange, Azusa tilted forward and asked the last member that had received the scolding.
"What about you Saori? Were you hungry for some fish as well?"
Surprisingly, Arius' leader of SQUAD, Joumae Saori was the last member to be added to the scolding. She directed a deathly glare at Azusa and explained her circumstances.
"I saw some Gehenna students being pursued by the Justice Task Force and my trigger finger got kind of itchy and suddenly before I could realize I was also being pursued by them. The big breasted one told me that given the circumstances she was okay with letting me go with just a scolding so I decided not to get into more trouble and accepted. I wasn't expecting a three hour scolding though."
Midway through her explanation, Saori's deathly glare had become a look of introspection, searching for the point in time where she had gone wrong. In contrast, Noa's eyes were shining as she matched the names she heard with the info she had. Wasting not a second, she approached the non-Trinity girls and explained her idea.
"I came here looking for the elusive master thief Faust but this must be fate at work. Would you girls listen to my slightly indecent proposition?"
Fuuka covered her modest chest with one of her arms and Hanako's eared perked up even though she was busy teasing Koharu until now, but for now the three girls were looking at Noa, waiting for her next words which she delivered getting even closer and whispering in order to not be overheard.
"Would you like to become bank robbers in order to catch Sensei's attention?"
The three gave her varied looks of surprise.
"The Gourmet Research Society and their personal chef are known as especially talented at picking up a storm wherever they go and Saori is a one woman army. If we got Azusa as well we would be undefeatable in urban warfare. And you could rekindle your old friendship."
"What do you think Saori? My training has been a bit lacking recently."
Azusa had been paying attention to Saori and had heard the whole conversation. Even though she was directing those words to the Arius student, her eyes were swimming around unable to look at hers directly. While it wasn't the animosity that they had directed at each other not so long ago, it wasn't as if things weren't awkward between the two. Maybe this was her clumsy attempt at following up Noa's words of patching up things between the two.
"Wait, before that. First of all, whose personal chef are you saying I am? And second, why do you think we would actually become bank robbers?
Fuuka cut in as she could not pick up the weird mood between Azusa and Saori, she was busy sending her own version of death glare at Haruna, who seemed to be giving the ludicrous proposition some thought.
"You see, Haruna could invite her fellow club members to whatever restaurant she wants, you could check on Sensei to see if they're eating properly and given SQUAD's circumstances the money would surely be much appreciated."
While Fuuka was busy going 'Nooo, Haruna. Nooo.' Saori scoffed.
'It's exactly because of SQUAD circumstances that I can't do something flashy and stupid like that."
"Oh? Are you scared? Don't worry Saori. I'll be there to cover your back. And also it's just robbing banks. Armed robberies are dime a dozen in Kivotos everyday."
Azusa seeing that Saori wouldn't be easily convinced, threw what could only be called a desperate verbal assault.
"If they're so common how are you going to catch the attention of Schale's Sensei?"
"We'll just have to be the very best of them all. And with you on our side I think that's inevitable."
Noa nodded at Azusa's bold words and Saori closed her eyes for a moment to think. After some seconds, she opened them and turned her head away.
"Tch, okay, I'll do it. The money will certainly be much appreciated. And I'm not doing this for you Azusa nor because I fell for your cheap provocation. Is that clear?"
Azusa and Noa's faces had a smile bloomed on them.
"Then allow me to be convinced as well. I've always wanted to treat Akari to a restaurant tha's not all you can eat."
Thinking of her gourmet friend whose stomach was a bottomless pit, Haruna also agreed to join Noa's bank robbing party.
"Knowing she is participating I might as well join before she drags me unwillingly. Maybe I can stop her from doing anything too crazy."
With Fuuka also agreeing, the number of bank robbers had increased by four in a single day. While she had not had the opportunity to search for the mysterious criminal Faust, Noa was happy with the result of her visit to Trinity, and she thought that the day Kivotos knows the might of the most powerful band of bank robbers was getting close.