Dissonance

Event XXXIX

The Chapter of Exceptional Everyday

I must be going crazy… There's no way it's morning already. Flailing about in the dark, she hit wood, then air, then almost knocked a small lamp over the edge. Come on… Come on! Flailing more and more, she couldn't find it. That damn beeping! Swiping broadly over the entire night stand, she still couldn't find it. I'mma throw it out the window.

Someone crawled over her, breasts pushing up against the side of her face, covered barely by a night gown that was more tank top than proper nightwear but functioned as both. And the beeping stopped. The mattress bounced as the someone fell back down, groaning. "Nagisa… please remember where you put the alarm…"

"My bad…" Rolling over, moaning in a pained way, Nagisa put her arms around Honoka. Ready to go back to sleep, she felt her would be wife take her hand, fingers between fingers. Slow, deep breaths were all that could be heard in the room. Breaths that told a story of their own. Reluctance. Acceptance. Knowing. Defiance. Resignation.

"Nagisa…"

"I know… I don't wanna…" Yawning heartily, Nagisa rested the front of her head against Honoka's shoulders. "Just five…"

More deep breaths, followed by more regular breaths. The covers moved, a leg brushed up against other legs, hands moved over a stomach. "Nagisa…" Honoka yawned herself and reached forward, pulling a tiny chain that hung from the charming little lamp on her night stand. A dim light came on, illuminating the very tired face of Honoka and an unruly mess of hair right behind her shoulders. "Come on… you'll be late."

"I don't wanna go… I'm so tired…" Nagisa held on to Honoka with greater passion, greed even. "I'm sore all over…"

A deep deep breath, a slow exhale. She understood. She felt the same. But it was also like this for everyone. Even though some could get up later, it didn't mean they got that much more sleep. Especially for the couples it went like this all the time. Sliding forward slowly, bit by bit, Honoka escape Nagisa's embrace and slipped out from under the covers, sitting up on the edge of the bet, rubbing her eyes in the barely lit room, breathing out strongly and moaning just a little with exhaustion written all over her face. Pulling the comforter back, she lightly tapped Nagisa's hand with her palm. "Come on."

Swallowing nothing but her own spit, her throat hurt a little. Her mouth was dry. "Why… why is my group training when it's still dark…" Nagisa slowly sat up, rubbing thick grains of sand from the corners of her eyes, rubbing longer still just to feel herself become more awake, and to have an excuse to keep her eyes closed.

Leaning back onto the bed, Honoka caressed Nagisa's cheek with the back of her hand. "Morning…"

"I don't wanna it be morning…" She wasn't making a lot of sense yet.

Honoka had been with Nagisa for many years so she was prepared for this. Reaching under her night stand, she lifted up a metallic canister, slowly turning the cap and opening it up. The smell of still hot coffee immediately comforted her nose and she poured the cap full of it. Taking a little bit of a sip from it, she licked her lips. Hot. "Nagisa..." Yawning again, not caring to cover her mouth, Honoka passed the cap over to her girlfriend.

"Thanks…" Putting the cap to her lips and taking a much too big sip, Nagisa flinched a little. "Ow, ow, hot…"

"Be careful. It's still hot." Honoka kept on yawning and received the cap back from Nagisa after a much more careful and smaller sip was taken by the girl with the unruly bed hair. Taking a sip herself, she put the thermos can on her night stand, kept the cap, and slowly crawled onto the bed, careful not to spill anything. Sitting against the head-end's frame with her back, she pulled her legs in close. Nagisa sat up more or less properly, cross-legged, scratching at her stomach through the thin black sleeveless shirt she wore to bed. Passing the cup back and forth a few times, Honoka leaned to the side, against her girlfriend, who was in possession of the cup. "Deja vu…"

"Of what?" Nagisa yawned and wishes to just go back to bed. Coffee kick in please…

"When you were studying so hard… we barely got any sleep then, too…" Resting her head fully against Nagisa's shoulder, Honoka took a deep breath and sharply exhaled. "I forgot how brutal this is…"

"Getting up early is fine… but this is cruel…" Tilting her head so she could touch her cheek against Honoka's hair, Nagisa switched up her legs because they were starting to fall asleep under her. "You smell good… but different. New shampoo?" Nagisa sniffed a few times, as if to make a point of figuring out the flavor by herself. "Sea breeze?"

"Lakeside spring. So close." Honoka smiled as she put her hand on Nagisa's thigh, slowly caressing up and down. Just sitting there, doing that, they needed nothing else for a little while. Off in their own world, they just stared ahead into the almost dark of the room, just over the edge of the bed. The coffee had cooled just enough to drink more of it at once now and Nagisa emptied the cap.

"Refill?" Honoka glanced upwards and could smell and feel the warm coffee breath coming from her girlfriend.

Nagisa just smiled and handed Honoka the cap-as-cup, who then left her comfortable position only to fill it back up with coffee. Taking a sip, then another, from it before handing it to Nagisa, Honoka didn't return to her earlier position and instead crawled back towards the edge of the bed, getting off. Nagisa's eyes followed her and widened slightly when she didn't head for the bathroom and instead the wardrobe. Opening it up, Cure White's and Cure Black's outfits were inside and she pulled parts from the hangers, putting them over her right forearm and then carrying them to Nagisa by walking to the bed. Siting down by the edge closer to Nagisa, putting the clothes next to her, she leaned back and turned just enough to steal a coffee tasting kiss from her girlfriend. "You going to be okay?"

"Now I am." Nagisa smiled happily and chuckled a little when Honoka returned the smile. "You can go back to sleep, I promise I'll get there in one piece."

Honoka lightly shook her head, reached behind and intuitively found Nagisa's knee, rubbing over it twice. "Too late." Yawning just lightly now, Honoka reached for the lamp's chain and turned on Nagisa's light too. "I'll think of this like practice."

"Practice?" Nagisa took another sip just then.

"For when we have kids."

Getting bit of coffee in the wrong pipe, Nagisa coughed several times, seemingly recovered, only to cough a few more times.

Snickering, Honoka got up, walked around the bed again and sat down on her side. "You want to take a shower?"

"Getting dressed while damp is a bother… and I'm really gonna be late then." Shifting her weight, leaning to the side, she held out the cap and Honoka took it, knowing exactly where Nagisa's hand were to be, without even looking. "I love you, Honoka."

Smiling, a quiet exhale accompanying it, Honoka put the cap down next to the bottle and got up to walk to the bathroom. Turning on the light, leaving the door open, she turned the faucet and water started running, turning hot after a few seconds. Cupping it in her hands, she splashed her face, dedicated to actually staying awake now. Nagisa, putting on the bottom part of her Cure Black outfit, joined her a few moments later, standing behind her, leaning against her, arms around her waist, chest against her back, forehead against the back of her head.

A moment passed and Nagisa backed off, taking position next to her and grabbing the pink toothbrush on the sink – the blue one belonged to Honoka, who took her own brush and lightly bumped her hips against Nagisa's. Brushing in silence, looking at each other through the mirror mounted on the walls just above the sink, Nagisa finished first, filled their shared cup with water, gargled briefly and then finished up. Going right back into the bedroom, she started to get properly dressed.

Joining her just a few moments later, Honoka gestured for her girlfriend to sit on the edge of the bed, a hair brush in hand. Slumping a little, lowering her head, Nagisa just let her lover go through her hair a few times, managing the mess, taming it to an acceptable state.

Putting on the last pieces, the shoes, Nagisa turned into Cure Black and went through some rotating movements with her right shoulder. Standing up right as Honoka stepped back, she softly took hold of Honoka's shoulders, kissing her properly, for longing seconds.

Separating at the same time, Honoka just smiled at her. "I love you too, Nagisa."

"Are you staying in the room?"

Honoka shook her head and then pointed at a book that was on a desk right next to the door. "I got some reading to do."

"I'll drop by the cafeteria when I'm done then." Nagisa of course knew where Honoka did her best work and where she preferred to study. Not in the absolute solace and solitude of her own room but a public place that was just a little busy.

Sitting down on Nagisa's side of the bed, Honoka waved gently at her girlfriend as she left. "Tell the others I said hi."

"Will do."

Nagisa was barely out the door when Honoka fell backwards onto the bed. "So… so tired…" She was not the only one.

Hearing quiet rustling noises and dampened foot steps, she opened one eye and saw only the darkness. Yawning, she turned over and knew right away what was happening. "Saki…?" Mai found herself yawning again, softly, and pushed her face into her pillow to muffle the noise. Why is she… oh… her training… ugh… I got training too, later…

"Sorry, did I wake you?" Softly – as softly as someone of her bulk could – jumping on one leg in the dark to get her left boot on, Saki lost her balance, sort of fell to the side and made a loud thud against the wall. "Sorry."

"Just turn on the light..." Mai's muffled words came through her pillow. "I'll just…" She rolled over and looked exactly at where Saki was without being able to see her. "It's been a while…"

"What has?"

Mai yawned again, taking in oxygen for a bigger sentence. Sniffling twice, taking another deep breath, she put her arm below her and pushed herself up a little. "You getting up so early in the morning, leaving while I'm still in bed."

"Not since we got here."

"I kind of… forgot how much…" Mai trailed off. I shouldn't say it.

"You hate it?"

Mai didn't say anything in return, just breathed and laid back down.

"I hated it too. Coming here… getting trapped in this place… I think it let me realize that I don't need some huge goal in life as long as I have you."

"Jeez, who'd give you that line?" Mai was blushing.

"That obvious?"

"You're so cute." Mai rolled over and felt that no matter what she was gonna do now, she was too awake to go back to sleep in peace. "How long do you think I've known you?"

"The best part of my life."

"Come on. Who-"

"That one's mine!"

"Okay."

"I swear!"

"I believe you."

"Do you really?"

"Yeah."

Moving, Saki hit the bed frame with her leg pretty hard and bent over in groaning agony. No amount of might was enough to withstand something like that after all.

"You okay?"

"Hmm! Hmm!" Humming an answer, as one did when pain was too much to speak, Saki sat down on the bed, the mattress denting a little to her side.

Feeling the slight sloping in the mattress, Mai was more at peace. So nostalgic… no- better than nostalgic. "Saki."

"Hmmm?" Her hum was a bit whiny.

"Do you think I'm… boring?"

"That's not a fair question."

"How come?"

"If I say yes, that's bad. If I say no, that is also bad."

"So which is it?"

"I don't like the Mai that is a bully."

"Yeah. That's just… me forcing myself." Rolling over, she levied herself up with one arm and her hips over and over, slowly wobbling over the mattress until she was right behind her girlfriend. "What do you think I should try?"

Saki blushed and felt embarrassed, even though Mai couldn't see her. "Someone that doesn't doubt herself."

Mai playfully punched Saki's muscular back. "Look who's talking."

"That's why I'm saying it. You already know what you want to do… you're… isn't it because, you know… everyone else is so loud?"

"Loud? That's a weird way to put it. Weirdo. Saki you weirdo."

"You said it thrice!"

"Am I really being worried over nothing?"

"Look at Karen."

"What about her?"

"She's… she's someone that doesn't stand out so much. Right?"

"I'm gonna tell her you said that."

"Don't!" Saki turned around, looking overly outraged. "You… you evil Mai! I don't like evil Mai either!"

"So what about Karen?"

"Isn't it fine to not stand out?"

"Says my muscle mountain of a girlfriend."

"Th-That's just because… yeah, I'm the last person that should be saying that." Saki sighed.

Siting up, Mai hugged her partner from behind. "Nope."

"What?"

"There's others that are way more center of the room than you. Big or not."

"Eh? Eeeeh? I don't know."

"Aren't you full of yourself all of a sudden." Mai squeezed herself against Saki, hugging her tight. "You're my center of the room always."

"Who gave you-"

"I'm the only one between us that gets to come up with these."

"No fair!"

"Too bad~." Mai smirked and kissed Saki on the neck. "Are you gonna eat something before going? You know how you get when you work out on an empty stomach."

"The vending machines are always open."

Staying like they were, Mai breathed uneasy for a while and Saki said nothing. "Say… Saki?"

"I love you Mai. You made me have confidence in myself just… being myself. If you need to try out all sorts of things of how you want to be, I'll be there for you no matter what."

Mai blushed. "Even if it's someone even worse than bully Mai?"

"I'll put up with anything. Because at the end of the day, you're still you. And I think you'll… you know. Figure out that trying to change who you are because you don't feel unique enough… that's not gonna really change you."

"Don't just say that. You're killing all my motivation."

"Sorry."

"No. Keep saying it. Let's kill that dumb motivation."

"Mai."

"I know… I'm just unhappy because I'm not happy with myself and… it's so dumb. I bet Honoka and Nagisa don't deal with this stuff."

"You're not Honoka. No matter how much you two hang out or talk or whether someone mistakes one of you for the other." Saki had a bit of a sad tinge in her voice when she said it. "We're us. They're them. I mean, look at Love, Setsuna and Ellen."

"What about them?"

"They're not worried at all they're basically Mana, Regina and Rikka all over!"

"Oh, I'm snitching this time for sure."

"Don't you dare!" Grabbing hold of Mai's arms around her shoulders, Saki prevented her from escaping. "It's also true!"

"This isn't usually how this goes."

"Ha ha! Your Saki has leveled up and become much smarter, hanging around all these brainy women."

"You saying I'm not brainy? That I'm stupid? That these other girls are so much smarter than me? Is that it?"

"Huh? Huh?! No- I- Er- What?! How did that- No! I mean-"

Mai snickered so hard at Saki panicking that her entire body shook. "You're so cute when you panic. I love you, Saki."

"Don't just spring that on me!"

"Maybe being the same as always isn't so bad…"

"You're still bullying me!"

"Just a little bit, though."

"Well… I guess that's true."

Touching her forehead against Saki's bedhead, Mai smiled. "You are so dead."

"Huh?!"

"Do you think Echo will just be like oh you were messing around with your very cute and very artistically gifted dreamy girlfriend whose hair is just great and flows great in the wind-"

"She's not gonna go on like tha-" The realization that Echo might actually get mad at her being late however did put the fear of all things in her. "Oh no."

"I'm joking. It's this early, how could you be late?"

"That's not funny, Mai." Letting go of Mai's arms, Saki was audibly uneasy now.

"Sorry. It really was just a joke to rile you up a bit. Too far?"

"Yeah." Saki felt her hand shaking. "You know how crazy strong she is. She wiped the floor with everyone. What if I end up like… designated lab mouse for Happy, Pine and Windy?"

"Now you're scaring me."

"Me too..." Saki turned on the light, hurriedly got dressed and became Bloom. Kneeling with one leg on the bed, she cupped Mai's face, kissed her and smiled awkwardly. "I love you Mai, don't get all turned around inside your cute head."

Almost storming out the door, Saki left Mai behind.

Oh crap. Mai hid her face in her palms, fell to the side and groaned. She stayed like this for a good fifteen seconds before rolling, over and burying her face in her pillow. "Hmmahgfaaaahhhhh!" Screaming into her pillow, she wanted to punch herself. Saki was so supportive and smart and clever and funny and I just went and said something idiotic like that. What the hell is wrong with me?

Flailing briefly, she hit her foot on the bed frame and rolled around in pain, cursing at nothing. The pain still stinging but subsiding, Mai sprawled out on the bed. Saki's right though… all this… this searching for who I want to be is getting me nowhere. It's like that time I tried for weeks to paint that one lake and it just wouldn't come to me… and then I see the puddles in on the street during a rainy day and inspiration just hits… I can't force this. It just hurts Saki and I think it's hurting me too. She kicked the bed frame with her sole. Stupid wood!

Other people were having a much more normal morning. Itsuki finished her transformation into Sunshine and was about to sneak out the door. Her partner, Hibiki, was more than just lightly snoring, bed hair in full force, lying on her back, her stomach bared and her panties visible for any onlookers.

Smiling, lightly shaking her head, Sunshine quietly sneaked over to the bed, raised her right arm behind her own head and grabbed hold of her twintails. Having them dangle down and tickle Hibiki awake was the last thing she wanted right now. One day she'd change her look as Sunshine and those twintails would have to go. "I'm off." Leaning down, she kissed Hibiki on the forehead – the mouth was far too dangerous a spot right now – and departed afterward in a hurry.

She was not the only one doing so. Setsuna was putting on the second sleeve, almost done, when she felt someone grab her hand. She didn't even need to think about who it was. Her body instinctively knew. Her voice no more than a hushed whisper, she spoke. "Did I wake you?" There was a slight hum, a nod, and fingers being intertwined. "Go back to sleep. I'm off to training."

"So early?" It was Ellen who woke up to Setsuna sneaking away.

"First group and all. You two can get a few more hours."

"… Okay." Ellen yawned, let go of Setsuna and crawled back onto the bed. It only took a few seconds for Love to latch onto her, hugging her from behind, their legs becoming a mingled mess of limbs.

Finishing her costume in the dark – she knew every little part of it by heart – Setsuna became Passion and slipped out the door. I'll have to freshen up down at the cafeteria or something.

Unlike Setsuna, Yuri was getting ready in a brightly lit bathroom, standing at the sink, brushing her teeth. Miki sat on the toilet, waiting her turn and watching Yuri's butt. "This is a pretty rough time to get up."

Yuri said nothing and continued brushing, but she looked over at Miki and acknowledged her.

"Of course we don't have any problem with it. I bet Nagisa and Saki are gonna be late though." Miki switched up her position and crossed her legs. She was wearing a night dress that was very, very white and kind of at least one size too large. Yuri on the other hand wore underwear shorts and a tight fitting top.

Taking a cup filled with water, Yuri took a large sip, rinsed out her mouth, took another, rinsed again and then a third, for gargling. Finally freed from her everyday morning duties, Yuri turned towards her girlfriend. "You didn't have to get up with me."

"Am I a bother?"

"That's not what I meant."

"I know."

Yuri backed away from the sink and sat down on the edge of the bathtub. "You're in the third group, right?"

"With the scariest one out there."

"Who?"

Miki grinned and went to the sink. "Take a guess."

Yuri rested her left cheek into her palm, watching Miki go about her routine. It took half a minute before she just picked someone at random from a narrowed down list. "Pine."

"Inori is scary too, but not the scariest."

"I don't like guessing games."

"Rikka." Miki just paused brushing to talk back.

"I work with the spatial aspect too, so she's not… actually… I can see your point. Being able to do what she does is pretty scary."

"Would be half as scary if I understood more than five words of the explanation of how it works." And then she just replied with the brush still in her mouth, foamed up toothpaste running out the corner of her mouth.

"You coming with me?"

"Partway." Miki spat out the foam and filled the glass with water. "Going to get coffee and then go hit the library."

Yuri just watched as Miki picked up small tweezers for eyebrows. "You? In the library?"

"Don't let my fighting style fool you, I'm smart." Looking in the mirror, pulling a little on the skin for accuracy, Miki set down the tweezers on the tiny hairs, gauging which ones had to be removed, using her little finger to obfuscate part of the brow at times.

"That so?" Yuri smiled a little. Lately I've been… able to be more relaxed around her. I can even joke with her like this.

"But not too smart."

"What does that even mean?"

"I'm an approachable level of smart. I know stuff, but I'm not so smart that I give off this Lady Professor vibe. Like Honoka or Rikka."

"I think you would make a good professor."

"Because I want the entire class looking at me?"

Yuri gasped in surprise. "How-"

"You think I haven't heard that one before? From Love even!" She finally started plucking now, carefully one hair at a time.

"I should ask her sometime what you were like as a teenager."

"Pretty much the same."

"That must have been hard at school."

"Not really."

"I thought about what you said before. About being a team of our own." Yuri brought back a topic from the previous day. "But first I wanna ask what made you come up with that idea?"

"I mean, do you really think that when we all go home, we'll go back to how things were back before all of this?" Miki plucked another hair and without the corners of her mouth even moving, a single tear welled up and ran from her right eye. "No way, right?"

"I mean… I didn't really think about back home like that yet."

"Love and Setsuna are definitely going to do their own thing with Ellen. I dunno what Inori is going to do but we're probably not going to be each other's go-to partner for fighting off any villains or anything like that, if there's any."

"So you want the two of us to be a team? Like Honoka and Nagisa?"

"I'm not sure I'm happy about being compared to Nagisa but yes. And whoever else gets along with us well, if you want more than just the two of us. It's a team, not a romantic partnership. We got that part covered already. Perfectly so." She grinned smugly at the end there.

"Like who?"

Miki stopped and looked over at Yuri. "How do you feel about teaming up with Karen and Komachi?"

"Those two? We don't really talk much."

"I like them. They're quiet."

"So it's like that? You wanna have all the attention?"

"Not all of it. I'll make do with eighty percent or so."

"How generous."

"I know, right?"

"I swear I sometimes can't tell if you're playing your own shtick up for laughs or if you're serious." Yuri smiled and shook her head playfully.

Miki chuckled like a villain would, exaggerated and obvious. "Who can really know?"

"Were you always this sort of person? I swear, while you were trying to win me over, you were a lot more…"

"Cool? Amazing?"

"High-strung and persistent. A little bit annoying sometimes."

"Ouch."

"I didn't mean it in such a bad way."

"You want me to be more intense?"

"No, I do prefer…" Yuri somewhat slowly and casually gestured at Miki with minimal hand rotations. "I prefer this."

"My personality changes a little bit depending on what I'm doing. I've never had someone I went out with and also really wanted to go out with them before, so this is as new for me as for you." Turning about, she clicked the tweezers. "Sit up straight."

"What, are you gonna- close!" Yuri tried to back away, yet there was only the bathtub behind her. "You don't need to- I can do that myself!"

"So you can but you won't. That's even worse. Hold still." Grabbing hold of Yuri's face with her left hand, Miki put pressure just above the cheek and above the eyebrow, slanting her hand to the side. "I've been doing this since I was twelve."

"Twelve?!" Yuri twitched when Miki used her other hand to move her head straight. "Why-"

"To look-"

"Perfect. Of course."

"We have so many ladies here and I don't think a single one of us is a trained hairdresser. This is a serious issue. We've already been stuck here so long that almost everyone is in need of a haircut."

"I can't tell the difference. Not on you or me."

"Nagisa for example got two centimeters on her."

"You really care about looks."

"Don't you?"

"About fashion, but not- ow!"

"Your eyebrows are kind of thick. Who did this before me?"

"My…" Yuri's pupils shifted to the right, glancing at Miki's reflection in the mirror. Like this, from an angle and the back… they're a little similar.

"Your ex girlfriend." Miki paused for just a moment there. "Well that was shitty of me to bring up."

"It's fine."

"Okay. So, anything special she did to distract you?"

"Not really."

"No erotic stuff? You can probably see down my cleavage."

"Typically I was on my back and looked at my ceiling."

There was a pause during which Miki assessed the damage-, that is to say, the state of Yuri's eyebrows or rather the lack of maintenance on them.

Well, I stepped on one landmine, here goes another. "Fashion isn't why you were so upset about that swimsuit."

"That's something else entire- ow!"

"I love you no boobs, small boobs, medium boobs, big boobs, huge boobs-"

"Can you stop saying boobs, boobs, boobs so much?" Yuri frowned. "Now you've got me saying it too."

"Hm… how would Love put it? Your badonkas-"

"Bado- haha!" Laughing, Yuri immediately regretted it. "Ow!"

As a result of Yuri twitching from laughing, Miki plucked at Yuri's skin and made her flinch hard "Sorry."

"Ow… that one hurt a bunch."

"It's a lot harder to do this on someone else for some reason."

"Let's… go back to talking about teams…"

"Who would you want to team with?"

"Isn't that kind of dependent on where I live?"

"Hm, I mean, I would just up and go find an apartment near you. I don't want to do long distance and anywhere I can't reasonably walk over to is too far for me."

"You'd… move?"

Miki smiled softly. "You hang around Love as long as I have and you start to get a feel for when you really hit a relationship that you want to make work, no matter what."

Yuri blushed and felt embarrassed not by that proclamation of love but by the fact that it made her blush like a fourteen year old. "Even if I don't feel that strongly?"

"Yet."

"What?"

"You don't feel that strongly yet. I'll make you perfectly fall in love with me even more."

"There is the relentless Miki I know."

"You prefer this?"

"No, go back, go back."

"The heck? What's that supposed to mean?" Miki laughed. "I think Karen and Komachi would be good. They're a couple too and the way I read them, either of them is gonna uproot and go to the other."

"We don't know what our living situation will be like, though."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you remember? When we went back, and we met Mana and the others."

"Sometimes my memory is not as perfect as I'd like."

"Things were really, really different even looking back at old news stuff. I only saw a little bit but… a lot of us were dead."

"I wouldn't worry about that."

"I'm not so much worried about ending up dead, more… who knows to what kind of world we go back."

"We're here to fix that, right? So we'll go back to a normal place. Not bad, not good. Just normal."

"I hope my mother didn't lose her job…"

"Is money a problem?"

"Not really and… it feels a bit bad to talk about this."

"Just so you know- hold really still, this is a really thick hair."

Yuri braced herself but it still felt painful and she twitched after Miki plucked the hair. "Ow…"

"Sorry. Anyway, what was I saying… right, I don't care who of us brings home more money. If I made little and you made a lot, I'd ask you for spending money without being ashamed."

"That's kind of amazing."

"I hope my studio is still around back home."

"Probably not."

"Stop. I don't want to confront that reality before dawn."

"You brought it up!"

"Okay… that should do it." Putting down the tweezers, Miki admired her work. "Long, thin, smooth, with just a little bit of a sharp decline at the end. That scary secretary that can do anything look."

"What kind of look is that?" Yuri frowned a little and rubbed her eyebrows. "Hurts quite a bit…"

"How are you for time?"

"I just need to put on clothes I guess. It's not like I'll run around as myself inside the arena."

"Come." Grabbing Yuri's hand, pulling her up, Miki dragged her back into the room and forced her to sit down on the bed in a hurry.

Yuri didn't blush at all. If I was Tsubomi I'd probably think she wants to have sex or something… but this is Miki we're talking about. "You wanna do my hair?"

"Bingo." Miki grabbed a large brush. "We both have long hair and no matter what we do, it'll need smoothing out in the morning. Just a fact of life."

I'll never tell her I used to just ponytail it together and call it good. "You need me to do yours after?"

"If we had a leisurely morning, sure. But I can't let you go out like this. It's almost bed hair."

"When it comes to looks, you're… a bit intense."

Crawling on the bed, Miki got to work. "You got such nice hair, it would be a shame to not take good care of it."

"I wondered about this before, but why does your hair get put into twin tails when you transform?"

"Remember those rings that tie my hair together?"

"Uh huh."

"I can use them to balance myself out."

"Oh."

"Also bait."

"Bait?"

"You definitely thought about grabbing me by my hair, right?"

"Not just you, but yes."

"Imagine how close you have to be for that."

"Make sense. You lure them in but fighting you in melee range is… unpleasant."

"Like you're one to talk. But thanks."

"You said you're going to the library?"

"Yeah."

"What for actually?"

"I want to read up on the effects low frequency sound waves have on human bodies."

"You're not Muse."

"My [Impact] works similar to that in that it transmits shock waves through the body. I'm going to read up on that so I can refine that."

"You're really aiming for perfection."

"I have my strong suits. But honestly, I'm glad we are working out."

"You had doubts?"

"I had confidence in myself, but… dating hasn't been a great experience for me. Not for Inori either."

"You and Inori try dating each other before?"

"No need. We can tell we're not a great couple even without that. Just like you know that… for example, you and Tsubomi wouldn't be a great couple."

"That's difficult to even imagine."

"See?"

"Not to hurry you, but how much longer-"

"Done. I was thinking I'd go down with you for coffee, but-"

"Can't go outside like that, right?"

"Didn't even need to say it." Miki beamed. "Good luck."

"Gonna need it. This is back breaking."

As Yuri stepped out into the hallway, in another room there was her little sister, still loudly snoring in bed. Alice was very quietly and also somewhat slowly getting dressed in the dim light of a lamp covered by a black shirt that belonged to Yami. Getting up this early makes me feel like I am back on the jet… but with Yami here, that feeling goes away really quickly. She's so… so overwhelming in many ways, so full of energy that I don't get to stop and feel bad about the past. Someone like that… honestly I didn't think I'd be attracted to someone so… Regina. Much less thought that it would be good for me.

Quietly slipping on her outfit, she struggled with her boots – something she refused to let go of were the boots that completed her outfit. I should have them be something… simple. Ha… Being around Yami with all her energy has me melancholic for when I could go around like that. Not that I did. That is unbecoming of the heir to the Yotsuba. I wonder if when we go back… if Sebastian will be there. He saw to so many of my needs, when he got caught up in everything… the next time I'll do my best to keep magic away from everyone.

Slowly sitting down, using one arm to buffer her movements, an almost dressed Rosetta put on one boot, then another, grabbing into the bed frame to get up. I'm not even that encumbered by my legs, just… always in the back of my head that if I push it, I'll end up making it worse. Maybe. I do wonder if Tsubomi could maybe heal my legs, but then… I would feel too guilty.

Tapping her foot on the ground, with a full flash of light, Alice became Rosetta proper and she got back up. I'm doing it again. Makoto would scold me if she knew. It's kinda funny though… Makoto of all people scolding me. I kind of miss it. Looking back at Yami, Rosetta blew a kiss towards her.

Out the door in a hurry so she would not dare steal a kiss from the sleeping Yami and wake her up, lest she be late from the resulting chaos, Rosetta almost collided with another sneak; Sunshine.

"Mornin'." Sunshine smiled a little and raised her hand. She was going very slowly to not create huge sounds from her heels hitting the ground.

"Good morning." I forgot that Sunshine is not only on the same floor as Yami and I but also in the same group as I.

Taking a step forward, Sunshine nodded towards the wall. "Yami still asleep?"

"As the proverbial log." Both of them spoke very quietly. "Hibiki too?"

"Thankfully."

"Thankfully?"

"Don't tell her."

"I shan't."

"You understand?"

"I think I do."

"Thanks."

"It is the same for me."

Itsuki smiled. I love Hibiki, but this early in the morning she's too… much. And judging by Rosetta's reaction, Yami is the same.

Both of them turned when they heard a very loud thud – and they found Mint to be on the ground a dozen steps behind, full flat face down and likely dying of embarrassment.

Rewinding the clock, it was more than thirty minutes before that Mint woke, all on her own, fumbling in the dark for her alarm clock, her fingertips hitting the square box in a bad way and knocking it off. Oh come on…

The cover rustled, the woman by her side turned over, pulling the sheet just a little closer to the face.

"Sorry~." Komachi whispered as quietly as she could. Moving her legs over the edge of the frame, she felt around the ground. Where did that alarm… ah. She found it. Reaching down, she lost it again. What the… stupid- alarm- She leaned too far and fell, the alarm squeezed under her and flinging away, under the bed.

"Komachi… what are you doing…"

"Sorry, sorry~!" A hissed whisper, she wanted to slap herself. Get a grip. Sitting up, getting up, she just gave up on the alarm clock. Karen is horrible with getting up early, you know that. Let her sleep. Maneuvering herself through the dark room, she made a step forward where she should not have.

Grunting, teeth gnashing, awful and agony suppressing groaning suppressed only by the utmost desire to be quiet.

A sigh. A deeper sigh, now accompanied with an air of resigning oneself. A long, slender arm reaching out from under the covers. A light that came on. Covers that were pulled over a head. A dimly lit room revealing one very suffering woman, and another that hid away from the coming of dawn soon. Limping into the bathroom, closing the door, Komachi groaned through her clenched teeth. Oooowwwww! The wooden frame of the wardrobe had won out clearly over her foot.

Sitting down on the toilet, she raised up the pained foot and looked. It left a hole?! Between her big toe and the one next to it, she had a very slightly bleeding wound that was barely able to cover the toes to either side with a bit of red. Karen is never gonna let me live that down. I shouldn't have tried. Stupid me.

Switching to sitting on the bathtub rim, she turned on the water, waited a moment for it to get warm and rinsed off her foot. It stung enough for her to flinch. And I have training… just my luck. She grinned in wild desperation. This is like that time… She frowned and grimaced together. Turning off the water, she looked through the little cabinet under the sink for a band aid but found nothing. 'Course not. Wanting to punch the cabinet, she held off, took three really slow, really deep breaths and stood up. Looking in the mirror, she asserted one important detail. I gotta fix that bed hair…

Not that it would really matter much when she transformed, but she just didn't feel good without getting her hair in order. Even when she lived alone and did only the absolute minimum for appearances, she still took care to not sit about with bed hair. At least not past three hours after getting up.

Taking up a brush from inside the hanging cabinet above the sink that also doubled as a mirror, she started to fix the many strands that were seemingly trying to escape from the rest of her head like a separatist uprising. Feeling some discomfort on her foot, she lifted up the front only, standing with one foot basically on her heel.

Getting up this early is murder… I could write a novel out of someone dying from having to get up too early. No wonder Karen didn't want to get up with me. Looking into the mirror, Komachi opened her mouth and looked at her teeth. I'm gonna get breakfast at the vending machines anyway so… Opting out of brushing her teeth semi-pointlessly, she straightened out her night dress and took it off by pulling it over her head. There's no way I got time for a shower or a bath even… but this is a must.

A few minutes later, the toilet flushed and the bathroom door handle moved as slowly and quietly as possible, the door slowly swinging open. A freshly washed Komachi stepped out, stark naked, tip-toeing through the barely lit room. I kinda expected her to turn off the light but… thanks, Karen. Opening up the drawers of the wardrobe, she took out underwear and hurriedly put it on. Tugging on the edges of her bra to get it to sit right, she lost control of one of the straps and it made a loud snapping noise on her shoulder. Gritting her teeth, an expression that spelled out uh-oh, she turned towards the bed, finding just a dome of sheets under which Karen sought solace from light and morning.

Taking her Mint uniform from the wardrobe, she went back to the bathroom, trying to avoid a disaster by getting dressed in the main room. Putting it on part by part, the adrenaline of hitting her foot dispersed and she felt the grogginess of an early morning hit her like a hammer. If I have to do this every day… please, mercy.

Putting on her boots, she took great care to only set down the front part of her feet, wobbling a bit as she did, leaving the bathroom. "I'm off~ I love you~"

A grunt came from the sheets, a hand emerged from the dome and the light was turned off.

Leaving the room behind, Mint saw Sunshine and Rosetta down the hallway. Hurrying her steps to catch up, her right foot got caught on her left and she managed to flail in surprise just enough to land flat on her face. I hate mornings.

"You okay?" Sunshine had come over in a hurry, holding out her hand to Mint, a helping hand in the truest sense.

"Not really…" She yawned, took Sunshine's hand and got up. "This morning is already a disaster."

"It's rough." Sunshine gave her a knowing look. "Sneaking around so you don't wake up Karen?"

"Uh huh."

Both of them walked to where Rosetta waited for them. "I have never seen someone manage to fall quite like that." Rosetta was quite impressed with Mint's display.

"Wish my Cure powers would prevent me from doing klutzy things."

Sunshine snorted a little. "That'd be nice. On the other hand, it makes it pretty funny if we do things like that. Overwhelming magical powers can that crush a city and yet-"

"Spare me." Mint groaned. "There's torture waiting in the arena already."

"Fair enough." Sunshine still smiled.

"Shall we go?" Rosetta waited for them to take a first step before following suit.

"Who else is in our group? I feel like yesterday is just… a blur." Sunshine still felt sore and ouch all over.

"Black, Bloom, Passion and Moonlight." Mint answered almost immediately.

"Right, right…" Sunshine groaned. "Maybe I should have gone into shields like you two."

"You can make those?" Mint sounded curious.

"I did as a teen. But honestly, all of us have good speed so I figured just evading would be… easier. So I never really developed it any further. Why'd you two focus on barriers?"

"I started with that and… I never even thought about not improving what I am good at." Mint looked embarrassed the thought never even crossed her mind.

"That's good though. You're probably not who comes to mind when someone asks who is the most powerful around here, but I think that you are absolutely one of the worst to have as an opponent. Those damage returning barriers of yours are a nightmare for any of us that attack close up and anyone with ranged attacks still has to deal with getting through them."

"They do work on ranged attacks too, but not as well."

"See, now I want to fight you even less than before." Sunshine smiled broadly and it made Mint's heart beat a bit faster.

Why is she so handsome? "I wouldn't know how to beat you though."

"Encase me in a barrier?"

"That is difficult to aim with and also not instant. You would definitely escape unless someone kept you busy. I'm… painfully aware of where I come up short."

"How is that?" Rosetta asked and when the other two just looked confused, she clarified. "I mean, is it not impossible to cover every possibility? Diamond is incredibly powerful but she requires assistance in defense. Heart is very difficult to defeat but at the same time she is not someone that easily defeats others either. We might all be developing our powers, but I think it is important to keep in mind or partners and the powers of others to work together with us."

"Listen to professor Cure over here." Sunshine grinned. "She's exactly right."

"You think so?"

"Trying to be able to deal with everyone is just gonna leave you with a hard time fighting everyone because you lost specialization."

"I do not know about other groups, but all of us from Mana's team, we begun with similar powers and capabilities. But specializing and having each other cover our weaknesses proved far more effective than having everyone be versatile." Rosetta was quick to press the elevator button as they approached the end of the hallway.

"Everyone arrived at that conclusion. So there's probably a lot of truth in that." Sunshine confirmed what Rosetta was saying.

"I know, I know… it just feels bad to know that if I am on my own, there's some match-ups I am never gonna win, ever." Mint continued to be mopey.

"That's the same for all of us. There is not a chance in hell any of us win against Pine in a one versus one. Fighting either of you in one versus one as a close range specialist is also basically guaranteed to end in tears. I don't think any of us can say they'd always win a one versus one. Other than Pine."

"Happy and Windy might contest with Pine." Rosetta had thought of this before.

"You think so?" Sunshine couldn't quite see it.

"They are both wielders of mental influence powers. If they can shield their own mind from Pine, then Pine has little in her defense against their powers other than speed."

"That's true."

"Anyone else terrified of what Pine is gonna come up with next?" Mint raised her hand.

"Here." Rosetta also raised her hand.

"Same." Sunshine was with them.

The elevator arrived and a very groggy looking Passion was slouching against the wall in a corner. So much so that she didn't have the energy to fix her posture when the others walked in. Nodding at them, opening her mouth for a Mor- she yawned and the rest was garbled together behind her hand covering her mouth.

"Oh no, why'd you-" Sunshine immediately yawned as well. "Passion, come on…"

"Sorry."

Mint followed suit and yawned as well. "Great. Echo's gonna kill us."

"That was gonna happen either way." Sunshine yawned again and then Passion followed up with another. "First we gotta get there without falling asleep."

As the elevator ride took them down and toward their destination, Honoka saw them walk past the windowed doors of the cafeteria. Gotta pace myself so I don't end up all tired out when it's my turn to show up for torture. I appreciate the chance to really improve, and quickly at that, but I really could do without… this. I'm not sixteen anymore, getting up this early is killing me. Grabbing not just a cup of coffee but the entire jug from the machine, she put the container with the much too hot brew inside down on the table and sat down. Having brought a rather thick book with her, she flipped it open, revealing English words from top to bottom. The title of the book was written as Introduction Theorems to Applied Photonic Energy and Honoka knew she was going to struggle comprehending what the book was talking about.

Going over the first page, her eyes glossed over quickly and she trailed off, staring blankly at the page without really reading it for a solid minute. Taking an extremely slow and deep breath, she closed up the book, poured herself some coffee into a cup, added three cubes of sugar and a bit of milk from the breakfast condiments present on the table, and just stared at the entrance to the cafeteria.

Her hands snugly wrapped around the cup, she shifted and changed their position when the heat became too much, but she let it warm her from the outside for a while. Then and only then when her hands wouldn't take on any more of the warmth, she put the cup to her lips, blew on the top a few times and sipped carefully. The mild scorching of the tongue, the taste of beans and slight bitterness that was so welcoming as always, she enjoyed as the heat spread through her insides, fist down her throat, then in her stomach, properly warming her from within. Hearing only her own breaths and shuffling of her hands for a while, she noticed little noises, tiny tiny hammering that was ever so pleasant to hear from inside, where it was warm. It's raining.

Having brought a small handbag from her room and hanging it from the backrest of the chair, she pulled out a small novel with a heavily wrinkled bookmark prominently extending from the middle of it. Resting the much smaller and lighter, in many aspects so, book on top of the bigger one, she let the easy words and still easier to follow plot take control of her mind, letting it indulge on something that was even at the best of times still just mindless entertainment.

Reading slowly, paying not too much attention to what was happening in the book, over many separate sips her first cup of coffee became empty and was then refilled. Flipping pages, then flipping them back because nothing she read of the previous page had really stuck, Honoka enjoyed a leisurely morning. Preemptively unwinding from the dread of training and the impeding study session, she did not even notice when someone walked through the cafeteria doors.

Only minutes later, when a chair a few tables over was moved did she look up and see Urara, slouching in a chair in front of a cup of coffee that was still so hot that just seeing the steam of it made Honoka recall the hot tingle of just barely drinkable coffee on her tongue. Looking back down on her book, she kept quiet. Urara was not someone she went along with particularly well or badly. And even if she did get along with her especially well, this now was not a morning one would call out and share a table for small talk.

Honoka would never know of this, but Urara saw her notice of being present and was thankful she simply went back to her book. In truth, she sat alone, without Ako and anyone she kept close, because she knew to manage herself. It was one of the things she came to understand after thinking more seriously about a future with the girl she loved. Frowning, staring somewhat hatefully at the cup, she directed all her negative energy, all her grumpiness, at it. To get the bad mood out of the way, to tire herself of being like this now, that was key to interacting with others in a more well rounded way. Or at least as well rounded as she was capable of.

As waiting for the coffee to cool got tiresome, she left her chair, angrily, and yet without energy to do it loudly so, stomping towards the magical buffet. Urara grabbed several bread rolls, a few bagels, donuts, a few croissants, and generally way too much food for someone her size, fitting all of it into a basket that she just took from the buffet. It was a breakfast that the likes of Nagisa and Saki would have felt bloated about just looking at it. Carrying, almost dragging, it back to her table, she went back to grab almost one of every condiment available to put on breakfast, everything from jam, thin slices of meat, cheese to more exotic things like peanut butter and something fried that positively looked like it would end up in bad breath.

Eating away her anger at countless little annoyances and often nothing specific in particular, she made surprising progress before going for a coffee refill.

Just as she waited by the coffee machine, two became three; Kaoru joined the assortment of pre-dawn occupants of the cafeteria. Knowing better than to talk to a scowling Urara, she simply waited a few meters away for the unfriendly girl to leave before taking action to procure coffee for herself.

Finding a table for herself all the way at the edge by the wall, she sat with her back towards the entrance, focusing entirely on the swirling steam from her black coffee. Taking a single cube of sugar, she slowly lowered it into the cup with a spoon, not turning and just slowly letting the coffee soak into the cube until it was an almost dissolved, mushy mess of a half fallen apart brown cube. Blowing on the hot spoon a few times, she put it to her mouth and licked up the cube, the already weak structure falling apart in her mouth, dissolving, releasing almost a thick coffee like syrup that was extremely sweet.

And then she repeated the process. Doing nothing but this, mindlessly, thinking of nothing and doing naught else, she rested both body and mind for the near future. One cube, two cubes, at five cubes she finally stopped toying with it and emptied almost the entire simply hot cup in one go then before turning her attention toward the buffet. While her sister was a glutton for meats and the protein therein to sustain that strong build of hers, she was much more delicate. Piling up no breads at all but layers of cheese and small cups of Jam, she returned to her table, leaving her tray there, and stopping by the coffee maker again.

Returning with the second cup and plans to feed herself more sugary coffee cubes, Kaoru sat down, took her coffee spoon, licked it clean inside her mouth and used it to smear jam just directly onto the slices and pieces of cheese. For the slices, she would roll them up, creating something like a roll of pure cheese that contained jam in the center. For her, this was an indulgence. Michiru always insisted that it was just slightly to egregiously gross to do it, but she did not care for her sister's complaints on her eating habits. The pieces were lathered on thick with jam, primarily of ones that had a slight acidic bitterness to it like orange jam, and eaten like pralines. The sweetness of the jam, with the tinge of bitterness in the aftertaste, pairing with the strong flavor and the intensity of chewing sensation of the cheese was a delight to her. Breaking away from eating, she toyed with her coffee again, almost dissolving a cube before eating it, making her palate focus entirely on the extreme sweetness of the sugar and the coffee, before feeding herself more of the cheese and jam combination.

While Kaoru indulged in what many would call culinary vandalism, Honoka saw another person enter; Reika.

Short nights were nothing unusual for her, but even so, combining training of such intensity with the efforts to change oneself was tiring her out. She simply had not bothered to fix her hair, showing up with what could only be described as a waterfall in the midst of a hurricane, passing as hair. Her face was showing obvious signs of exhaustion and her neck was covered, on just her right side, in enough hickeys that she looked bruised more so than loved. Wearing only the simplest of clothes, a camisole and sweat pants, she did not make even an effort to appear presentable to the public.

Skipping coffee – she was an adamant believer that reliance on coffee to wake would one day prove to be a terrible mistake – she headed straight for the tea instead. Now tea, despite sharing many properties with coffee, was on a pedestal that no science or conviction could touch. To separate Aoki Reika from tea was to cleave the sun from daybreak. To rip the moon out of the night sky. To take the heart of the Japanese from Japan. For Reika, to go without tea was unthinkable in any kind of circumstance.

Rummaging through the available teabags – something that was already making her grumpy – she sniffed each of them, able to tell which ones were of superior quality. Of which there were none, so she made do with the least inferior one. I need to visit Mamo and see if she has high quality tea for sale. This is unacceptable.

Boiling water in a small, electric water cooker, she took the entire device, minus the plugged in station, with her to a nearby table and made a return trip to get as many of the tea bags as she could stomach. Reduced to tea bags directly in a cooker… Perhaps the path that took me here was not the one I should have… oh well. Inori would scold me for getting so upset about this. But it's still inexcusable! Most, if not all of us here are Japanese, how can there only be this… this abomination to drink!

Reika felt her forehead hurt and she realized that she was scowling terribly the entire time, putting her thoughts and mood in plain view. Embarrassed, trying to fix her expression, she looked around. Kaoru is… I am not entirely sure what it is she's doing there. Honoka is reading. Urara is consumed by her consumption of food. Saved by chance…

Sitting down, she first needed some tea before she could think about eating. I've made do with even the most terrible of foods but I made sure, always, to have quality tea available. Surely Mamo will be able to procure some. Even Inori has to understand that this is not me being irrationally focused on tea. One has to honor the Japanese spirit.

Patiently waiting, mostly patiently, and trying to banish thoughts of crusading against coffee, Reika could tell time with precision at ease, even so early in the mornings. I'm glad that Inori decided to stay behind. I'm not really… I can't really understand why one would bathe in the morning, but- A revelation hit her. Do not- could it be? Trying to be as subtle about it as possible – which was a terribly conspicuous thing by itself – Reika sniffed her arm and then her armpit. And sure enough, as she feared, she smelled the same way her bed did. That is to say, heavily of sex. I… perhaps should pay more attention to my personal hygiene. Now I understand the look of disbelief that Inori showed when I said I would just go down for breakfast now. It was because I reek like a pleasure hall. I'll… have my tea and take at least a shower before the training in a few hours.

Hyper aware of her own smell, Reika's eyes shifted around the room every now and then. Little did it do for her nerves that none of them showed any sign of smelling her scent from the night before. If anything, it made her more paranoid and unable to be patient. Tasting the tea as it was time, her expression turned to disgust. This isn't tea. This is… an affront to tea. This is to tea what a light bulb is to the sun. What a keenly honed sword is to a butter knife. What- She interrupted her own thoughts as she got up in a fury and walked away, leaving behind the half drunken tea and water cooker on the table. I will not stand for this. Smelling like a whorehouse or not, this situation is untenable and this cannot continue. She was well out the door and halfway across the plaza, on her way to Mamo, when anyone even noticed she was gone.

=== DISSONANCE ===

As the clock's hands turned and turned, the darkness gave rise to the sun. The first group's training session had started and was well underway, consisting of Black, Bloom, Sunshine, Passion, Moonlight, Rosetta and Mint.

Most others woke to various grievances, whether it be being sore, headaches or just a strong desire to not go back to the terrible yet effective experience that was training under Echo. Belonging to all three categories was Regina, who just steadfastly refused to do anything.

"Regina, don't be a slob." Ange was cleaning up the mess of clothes that her sister had left behind the night before, while Rikka was spending time in the bathroom, showering. Not because she was in a situation similar to Reika – Regina had been strangely docile the entire night actually – but because it was the best way to wake up her brain and body alike.

"You're ten years late on trying to prevent that." Laying on her back, her head slanting off the edge of the large circular bed, Regina watched an upside down Ange pick up her underwear without even so much as a hint of embarrassment. "You know, you'd be cuter if that sorta thing made you blush."

"Really? Remind me to take advice from my goth little sister the next time Makoto thinks I am not cute enough."

"What's ruined your mood already?" Regina kept a brave face but felt just a bit vulnerable, lying down and all, when Ange walked up to the bed and stopped right in front of her.

Dropping the pile of clothes right on top of her sister's chest, Ange strongly exhaled through the nose. "We are both up for training in the group after the next. I want to spend my time taking a shower, getting something to eat. That sort of thing. Not clean up after you."

"Okay. Point taken." Regina knew when to not push her sister any more than she did. "Probably shouldn't leave my stuff all around so Rikka doesn't fall over it either."

"If you need that as a reason to practice some common sense, sure." Ange was very gnarly this morning. Makoto woke up late and had to hurry down to make it in time, leaving no time for more than a quick Love you, bye before she was out the door and Ange had any opportunity to even process what was happening.

"Someone is short on Makotonium today." Regina grabbed the mess of clothes and put it down on the bed before rolling over, finding it entirely too much trouble to get up properly and just fell off the bed to move things along. "Maybe-"

"Put a sock in it, Regina, seriously." There was a tone that Ange had that made it unmistakably clear to Regina when she really needed to zip it. It wasn't one she heard often, which meant she knew to also take it seriously. Being unruly and on the wild side didn't mean she was emotionally inept or stupid.

"Will do." Picking up her own slack, she took her clothes and then paused. "Wait, what am I supposed to do with them? We don't have a washing machine, right?"

Ange stopped as well, standing in the middle of the room and just a few steps away from Regina. And she started to think, hand on her chin. "Where do we put our old clothes?"

"I always figured you knew where they go."

"What, why?"

"You've been picking them up, right?"

"No?"

"Uh…"

"There's definitely an explanation for this here."

"Sure. Ghosts. Or scarier things than that."

"Don't be silly. Something not supernatural."

"Do you hear yourself, miss magical girl two for one deal?"

"Okay, I stepped right into that."

"So… they magically become clean?"

"Are they dirty or smell?"

"What? Of course they-" Regina frowned and sniffed what looked like a sleeveless top from the pile. "Oh you got to be kidding me."

"They're clean?"

"Even smells like lavender. I hate lavender."

"Good for you."

"This is one of those lets not think too hard about it or it'll break things, right?"

"Normally I prefer that to be in my fiction but… yeah." Ange turned about, headed to the bathroom and knocked on the door. "You alright in there?"

"Am I taking too long?" Rikka's voice was distorted over the sound of the water prattling out of the shower head.

"No, just checking. Not a bathroom you're that familiar with and all."

"It's fine."

Leaned against the tiled wall inside the shower stall, Rikka enjoyed the adjustable shower head just raining steaming hot water down on her. It warmed every bit of her and standing there, eyes closed, she didn't have to worry about taking in her surroundings at all. She knew where the controls were, the dials and knobs, the edge of the shower; all of it. She had always been blessed with good memorization and it helped her now more than when she was at school.

"I worry about Mana but I don't think even something like Echo could keep her down. She'll show up, with a big smile, all brazen like did you miss me and act like it was a fun excursion." Talking out loud, hearing her own voice, kept her mind clear. She was too often in her own thoughts recently and it just helped giving voice to them. "She'd get a kick out of this training, too, although I have no idea what she could possibly come up with. She's already nigh indestructible as-is. And she's not the type to be able to confer that to others."

Reaching to her right and grasping air, she adjusted her angle and with precision she caught hold of a big fluffy sponge. "Regina's been saying my skin is kind of dry… I ought to give myself a good scrub."

Starting with her arms, Rikka looked straight up, letting the water hit her right in the face, then sputtered and looked back down. "Okay, maybe that's a bit too much." Enjoying a shower was one of her delights but having it hit her right in the face was unpleasant. Moving wild and rebellious strands of hair off her shoulders and chest, slinging them onto her back, she switched the sponge from one hand to the other, scrubbing her right arm now. "This feels kinda nice actually. I should ask Regina to join me so I can do my back."

Being cooped up on an airplane, the nature of her powers and her disability made Rikka a bit of a shut-in. That in turn resulted in less than ideal flexibility. "Maybe I should try and ask Itsuki for yoga advice… aw, now I feel bad. She does martial arts… I think. That's a pretty big leap. Hm… who else would do that? I've only seen them as normal girls a couple of times." Using her powers as Diamond, her visor, she could read the vibrations of molecules; the shapes of things and people. It was a heavy strain on her mind and body both, so she didn't really do it other than when she felt it necessary.

"I'll ask Ange. Regina is just gonna be crass about it." Pausing, she snorted. "I'll ask Regina, then ask Ange. Regina can be pretty funny. Not that I'd ever confess to that."

Knocking on the door, loudly. "Rikka, you were fine but you've been in there for forty-five minutes, other people have to shower too." Ange didn't sound pissed yet, but there was a clear how much longer is this gonna take connotation to her complaint.

"Okay, five minutes! Just gonna rinse off!" Of course that was a lie.

"Five minutes!" Ange sighed and knew it was gonna be closer to ten minutes than five, but at least she saw a free bathroom on the horizon. Being cursed did not mean that one could get away with everything. For all intents and purposes, other than making sure Rikka could get around, she received no special treatment. Although for her, that by itself was special treatment, the good kind. She didn't want to be treated like a cracked egg. She could still fight, still think and do things. She just couldn't see.

Turning off the water, she briefly paused. Where did I… There? She reached for an iron bar next to the stall and found it to be just that, an iron bar, mounted to the wall. Hm. Sometimes even Rikka simply forgot things and then this happened. There then? Reaching for the top edge of the stall's glass walls, she found them to be just smooth glass too. Where the heck did I… oh, right. Pushing open the glass door, she held onto the edge of the glass wall with one hand and reached out with the other, leaning more and more forward. Crud. Her arm just wasn't long enough.

Having left the towel, folded over, on the toilet seat, she would have to step out to get it. Turning off the water, she was assailed by the sudden silence that the rushing water had kept at bay. Leaving the stall behind, she dripped all over the tiled floor. It wasn't the first time she showered there of course but the heated floor always made her feel very comfortable. Forcing her soles flat against the ground, she squatted down and put her palm on the ground too. So warm and cozy… Stepping onto the specially water absorbent extra fluffy carpet, she ruffled it with her feet, enjoying the slightly tickle it provided.

Reaching for the towel and just overextending a little, she touched the wall and went back and down from there. Still just a little off everywhere. I should take a quick look as a refresher later before heading down… The towel unfolding on its own as she pulled it up, she dumped it on top of herself.

More knocking. "Rikka." Ange started to sound peeved.

"I'm already drying off!"

"What about clothes?" Ange knew that Rikka, nine out of ten times, just forgot to bring a change of clothes with her.

"Can you-"

"Yeah, what kind?"

"Something easy and lazy."

"Lazy?"

"Camisole and shorts."

"Regina's rubbing off on you the wrong way."

"Hey!" The voice was quite faint but belonged clearly to Regina. Rikka grinned to herself.

Drying off her hair with the rather oversized towel, Rikka's stomach growled at her. "I really don't wanna go down to the cafeteria but… if I show up to training hungry, I'm not going to get anything done." Stepping over to the door, she opened it just a bit. There was no need to keep it locked. She was sleeping with Regina and Ange had seen her naked on more than one occasion. "Ange, what are you doing for breakfast?"

"Don't be such a shut-in, Rikka." Ange knew exactly where this was headed. Rikka was speculating they'd bring her something back.

"Am not."

"Then you won't have a problem coming down with us."

"Regina, are you-"

"I'm taking Ange's side on this." Regina was talking loudly, out on the balcony and airing herself out, standing about topless. Brrr, that's enough of that. Walking back in, she saw Ange pick out some plain clothes. "Why'd you not ask me?"

"Why do you think?" Rikka could hear Ange getting closer by her steps, opened the door up more and held out her arms about halfway to fully stretched.

"How am I supposed-"

"Because instead of getting normal underwear and clothes I'd get something crazy that consists of strings and about a third of the fabric clothes should have."

"Hey!"

"What? Tell me it's not true." Turning to Ange, Rikka sort of looked at her but with her eyes closed. "Thanks. I wish your sister would learn from you."

"You and me both." Ange turned away and walked over to the bed to straighten out the sheets. Meanwhile, Rikka retreated back into the bathroom to get dressed.

"Wow, what is this today, the pile on Regina morning show?"

"It's that or do all the chores yourself."

"Keep piling then." Regina walked back inside and grabbed the previous day top that was just magically clean again from the chair. That being just inside the glass wall partition cutting off the balcony from the penthouse interior. "What'd you do with my bra?"

"Haven't found-" She stopped and pulled the item in question from under the pillows. "Here you go."

"Thanks."

"You really should be doing this yourself."

"I probably would if I didn't have such a dependable sister to do it for me."

"You mean if you didn't have such an easily exploited sister."

"I didn't say that."

"But you meant it."

"If it bothers you that much, I'll do it."

"Don't. I'll have to double check it anyway."

"So what do you want from me?"

"Attempt to do it and then step aside so I can do it properly."

"I'm not doing that."

"What?" Rikka had just come out the bathroom, wearing plain clothes, camisole and short pants. She still had the towel on her head.

"Ange wants me to pretend I wanna fix the sheets and then not do it so she feels like I was gonna do it but does it herself anyway."

"You shouldn't mess with Regina so early in the morning." Rikka saw this immediately for what it was.

"She messes with me plenty."

"You were- oi, remember our rules? No fucking around before breakfast."

"That was then."

"You really wanna do this now?"

"Okay, okay, enough." Rikka clapped her hands. "One day of training and this is where we're at? Come on."

There was just brutal silence after and Rikka took a deep breath. "If you think I don't know you're pulling grimaces at each other-"

"Am not." Regina denied it a little too quickly.

"I get we're a bit squeezed in this place but you have got to stop bickering before I had anything to eat. Or after. It's not a comedy routine."

Ange looked sullen and so did Regina. Getting told off by Rikka had a certain energy, like being scolded by the teacher that expected better of you and was disappointed it had come to this. "Sorry." Ange apologized first.

"Yeah, my bad." Regina was a rough kind of girl but Rikka was the absolute highest authority for her when it came to this; when she was being obnoxious and had to dial it all the way down.

"Okay, if you're both sorry you can-"

"We're sorry, not stupid." Ange glanced at Rikka and walked past her. "You get your own breakfast. Regina, she's all yours."

"If you'd just stop worrying about the way you look for five minutes-" Regina shrugged as she said so.

"That's easy for you to say." Rikka pouted. "I have to trust you on whether I look fine." Rikka foresaw, with perfect accuracy, what Regina would counter to that. And before her girlfriend even fully opened her mouth, she cut her off. "And don't tell me I always look fine. I still remember that time in Kannagawa."

"Oh come on, that was one time and because you just wouldn't stop fretting over using a ponytail making your forehead look huge!"

"You look fine, Rikka. And then I found out I was walking around all day showing off all the hickeys you left on my back."

"That was my fault but it's unfair to hold that against me forever! I apologized, right?!"

"Rikka!" Ange was shouting through the bathroom door. "Just trust her!"

Rikka sighed. "Okay."

"Hey, wait a second there! She says to trust me and that gets an immediate okay, but when I, your girlfriend ask you to trust me-"

"It's because you're my girlfriend."

"How-" Regina stopped and gave up. "Whatever. Camisole, shorts… well, you should probably finish drying off your hair and wear it down until it isn't damp anymore."

"This okay?" Rikka pulled on the top of the camisole. From what she could tell, it was kind of small, showing off her stomach and definitely showing off her cleavage.

"Honestly, anyone who has spent a week or more in this place is gonna be so desensitized to random sex appeal stuff that you could be walking around in a bikini and nobody would care."

"I'm asking you."

There were a couple of footsteps, Regina went around Rikka, pulled on the top from the back and it suddenly expanded both down and up. "It was all wrinkled and sure enough it got stuck on your back putting it on because you're all damp." Reaching past her arms, Regina tugged on the top part and got it to be a more conservative look. Still definitely very casual and lazy, but not two sizes too small anymore. "Now you're fine."

Rikka reached for Regina's hands and took them between her own. "I'm happy you're always here to help me out."

It was just in her favor that Rikka couldn't see, because Regina was blushing quite strongly and it was a point of embarrassment for her how easily Rikka got her to do that. "S-Sure."

Of course Rikka could tell with ease when Regina's face flushed. Whether it was the almost imperceptible short sharp inhale or the small change in the pitch of her voice that got just a little bit higher and then quite a bit deeper from overcompensating. But she would never tell her that. It made her happy that even after years of being together, Regina loved her so much. That her being blind had done nothing at all to diminish Regina's feelings. "I love you."

There was the bit of air being drawn through the nose. "I love you too."

"Enough to bring-"

"Nope." Regina audibly grinned with a light chuckle, pulled her hands free and walked around Rikka. "Any preferred shoes?"

"Eh… just gimme some sandals."

"Sandals?"

"My feet are still all damp. I don't wanna squeeze into socks or boots like this."

"I can always count on you being the smart one in this relationship."

"Seriously can't tell if that is sarcasm."

"Isn't. Promise."

Taking two pairs of sandals from the wardrobe, Regina walked over to the bed where Rikka had sat down and was now going to town on her hair by means of towel. "How's training with Ange going?"

"It's been one day." Regina sat down next to her partner, just waiting for her.

"And you were already bickering."

"That's really not related. Honest."

"Hm… okay, I believe you."

"Might be a while before we have that breakthrough we're hoping for."

"Yeah… I think that might apply to everyone here."

"You too?"

"My ability is already really complex."

"I still don't understand what a vibration frequent… whatever is."

"Vibrational Shift Frequency. Basically the force that dictates when a shift in the vibrational rotation of the individual molecules occur."

"I'm happy you love me even though I'm way past even trying to understand what you're talking about."

"You're so cute when you play dumb."

"I'm not playing and this isn't dumb. I'm just not..." She silently gestured at Rikka with both hands. "This smart."

"Yes, I know. But I also know that if you really tried, you'd understand the principle of what I am doing."

"Do you really want me to?"

"No. I think it's fine if you don't know. Mana tried to understand and it ended up frustrating her how understanding one thing just made her realize how she didn't understand the five things supporting the one."

"I… know that everything in the universe kind of vibrates. And you apply your powers to that to make it vibrate differently, which causes stuff to fall apart or get erased entirely."

Leaning to the side, Rikka rested her head against Regina's shoulder. Slowly, she put her hand on top of her partner's, sliding around it, until she could grab hold from below. Raising Regina's hand up, towards her own face, Rikka kissed the fingers that did so much for her. "I know you're smarter than you want everyone to believe. You don't have to play that up with me."

"I know." Regina was blushing furiously and leaned against Rikka. "I could learn it. But I like who I am. Mana is the responsible, goodhearted one. You're the smart, reliable one. And I'm the wild one that grasps the tedium of our daily lives and pulverizes it. That's who I want to be."

"And we both love you for it."

"Hm." She nodded quietly.

Sitting side by side, they listened to nothing but each other's breaths and the dull sounds of the shower running in the bathroom. A minute passed, then another, as they held hands and supported each other in body, mind and soul. Regina broke the spell first, turning to the side and stealing a peck from Rikka's lips. "I'm gonna die if I have to show up for hell spartan training on an empty stomach."

"Okay, okay, I'll come."

As they prepared to go down to the cafeteria, another already arrived there. Yami, in a look that could only be described as the aftermath of a mugging, staggered into the cafeteria in an ultra large shirt, a short skirt and an expression that likely not even three cups of coffee would have fixed.

She made it to the second row of the round tables spread all across the room, sat down and immediately planted her head firmly on her crossed arms, going back to sleep at the table. Not a sound, not a single movement indicated that she was still awake. Honoka witnessed the living catastrophe but decided not to intervene. She had seen that before, with Nagisa. Just letting them sleep in a social place was fine, no matter how badly in need of a can of coffee and a change of clothes they were.

Only a few minutes after Yami, another arrival graced the cafeteria with her presence. Mai, in sweatpants and jersey, looking like she would have preferred to sleep a few more hours, walked in. Seeing Honoka, she hesitated. Taking a deep breath, she recalled something that had been impactful on her before. Today is always the best day to do what you want to do tomorrow. It was from a fortune cookie, and although Saki considered it silly, Mai felt there was a lot of truth to it.

Walking over, she stood in front of the table and Honoka looked up at her. "Can I sit?"

"Sure. I won't be much for conversation though."

Mai looked at the heavy, in more ways than one, book that was under the smaller, much lighter book. "Studying?" Pulling on a chair and sitting down, she glanced left and right. Kaoru was there, building little stacks of sugar cubes up until they fell down. Urara was also there, leaned back in her chair with her stomach bulging a little.

"Tried to."

"Too much for even you?"

"The book, maybe. This morning, definitely."

"Ah… same."

With nothing to retort of her own, Honoka looked back down at her book. Mai went quiet as well, looked around a little more before she got up and walked back to the coffee machine. Getting a cup for herself, as she waited she felt a little sad for Yami being all on her lonesome. Unlike the others, she didn't seem like the type. I'm… not exactly the type to strike up funny conversation with personalities like that though. Putting her coffee cup aside, she got a second one.

On her way back, she just placed it on the other end of the table from Yami, out of immediate reach of her arms. If she should wake up again, she'd have something to drink at least. It wasn't much, but she felt good doing it.

Returning to Honoka's table, Mai sat down and stared at her coffee. She knew what she wanted to do, to convey, but the exact words were escaping her. Who… who cares if its clumsy. I'm never gonna figure out how to say this right. "I'm sorry for… my behavior lately."

"Saki talk to you about it?" Honoka didn't look up.

"Hm."

"It's not as bad as you're thinking. Saki bore most of it and she forgives you, right?" Now she looked up and smiled. "And she's who really counts."

"Still… I worried about us being too similar and… I can't believe how stupid this sounds when I say it out loud."

"So?"

"So what?"

"So it sounds stupid. What about it? That's not the end of the world.

"I guess it isn't." Mai felt strangely relieved. "Still… I'm not sure what to do."

"Do without thinking. That's probably what got you so caught up in all of this. Thinking too much. So what if we are sort of similar? That just means we have a lot of common ground, right?"

"Now I feel even more stupid for not coming to you with this earlier."

"That's fine. Going through this, realizing it isn't you that you're trying to become, making that mistake and realizing it is one. That's all important."

"When did you get so wise anyway?"

"Nagisa's words. Not mine."

"No way."

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing either."

"Saki said something really similar."

"Those two might not have our academic or artistic smarts, but they're a lot smarter than they're given credit for."

"Weird feeling."

"Do you feel better?"

"Maybe. Sort of? I don't know."

"I do think that mean streak was unbecoming of you."

Mai covered her blushing face with her hands. "I know. It makes me wanna die in shame."

"It wasn't that bad, but it did feel very unnatural."

"Aaaarrgghh…" Burying her face in her arms down on the table, Mai hid from the world. "I need to do something nice for Saki to apologize."

"I'm sure it's fine."

"I want to do something nice for her to apologize."

"You'll think of something."

"Any ideas?"

"She's your girlfriend."

"So-"

"Mai."

"Okay, okay, I get it." Looking up, Mai's face was still red in shame. "I'll figure something out."

"Mai."

"I said-"

"I like you better this way."

"I get it already, jeez!" Mai grabbed her cup, put it to her mouth and about a second later she screamed. "Hot!"

Honoka chuckled and giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. She had a solid sense of time and the first group was more than halfway done. "I think I'm awake enough now to actually study."

"Want me to leave you be?"

"If you could. It's nothing-"

"Honoka. Who do you think you're saying that to?" Mai smiled. "I know. I asked just to be polite." Picking up her coffee, briefly sticking out her tongue to let some air on it to ease the burn, Mai took for herself a seat a few tables over.

While Mai looked deep inside to sort out everything she'd just heard in the last few hours, and also deeply at her coffee with a grudge forming, someone else was looking up at the sky.

Miyuki was walking in large stride through the garden that was in full summer bloom. Small birds were flying from the bushes and low branches, a fish flopped briefly to the surface of the small lake in the center of the circular environment. The sun was shining warm, having barely risen above the horizons and she took in the morning warmth and chill alike. "Ngghhhhh!" Stretching and giving voice to it loudly, Miyuki bent down, then stretched again, then bent down again before she squatted down on the spot. "Nature is nice."

Unlike most of the others, Miyuki was one of the few whose training left her physically fine but emotionally and psychologically exhausted. And for her there was nothing quite beating a walk through nature to clear her mind, literally.

Sitting down from her squat, she stretched out her legs, running the heels of her sandals against the dirt ground for a moment. Using her toes of one foot to ply off the sandal on the other, she got herself barefoot and slammed her bare soles right onto the path. "Ow, ow ow… okay, maybe some things were invented for a reason." Grabbing her sandals, getting them back on was a lot more work and with just one of them equipped to her feet, she fell backward, lying about in the middle of the path, looking up at the sky. "That cloud looks like Yayoi." It really was just a small sphere on top of two larger spheres.

Taking a deep breath, Miyuki scuffled about, her back not appreciating the roughness of the ground under her. Rolling on her side, pushing herself up, she dusted off her clothes thoroughly and picked up the missing sandal. Trying to get it up while standing on one leg only proved to be a challenge and after nearly losing her balance twice, she managed to sort of slip it on.

Nodding satisfied, she took two steps, grimaced and sighed. Sitting down, she adjusted the sandal properly before getting back up and spotting something incredible. A pair of squirrels were sitting just by the edge of the road, watching her with curiosity. Moving as slowly as an extremely excited person could, Miyuki held out her hand and made quiet clicking noises with her tongue.

Looking at her like any animal would have looked, one of them slowly came closer, one step, four steps, halfway to closing the distance. Then the other ran into the bushes. After a moment of consideration, with Miyuki standing perfectly still and beaming her glee through her expression, the squirrel that had gotten close also ran off, after its friend.

Considering chasing after them, Miyuki pouted briefly and then went on her way along the path. She got a whole ten steps before the next distraction hit her in the form of an earthquake that was actually just the vibrations of her growling stomach. "I should have something before training… I wonder if Ayu will come out for a break!" Pushing onward with that thought in mind, Miyuki turned about, went two steps and realized that going back the way she came would take longer than just following the path back. So she turned again, went two steps and then stopped again. "I don't have to hurry back so..." Turning again and again, unable to decide which path she wanted to take, her stomach growling again just as a large fish broke surface on the lake. "Stay strong, Miyuki… no eating the fish…"

Miyuki was not the only one out and about. Inori, or rather Pine, sat in the crown of a particularly and majestic tree a good twenty steps off the beaten path, dangling just her left leg from the large branch that effortlessly supported her. Halfway between lying down and sitting, she saw Miyuki through the leafs and branches in the distance, spinning on the spot. "What is she doing?" Smirking to herself, Pine stretched and returned to what she had been doing. Letting the mostly calm winds, the ever quiet rustling of the leafs, lull her into a relaxed state of thinking of nothing, wanting nothing. She already had plans to head straight for training after and just eat at the vending machines.

Going her separate way from Reika in the early morning was basically required. Getting hot and passionate after the last day had been her outlet for all the psychological stress the training and her ability put her under. Not thinking and just letting her body act was the perfect way to relieve that burden. Thinking about it briefly, her face flushed red like a stoplight. I did go very overboard… some spots on her looked like I was beating her… I'll have to tone it down a little bit. I feel bad for her. I can't just turn into someone that disregards my partner and focus entirely on my own. I'd end up like Akane.

Shaking her head, trying to banish thoughts of the very sexy naked Reika, Pine kept on staying red like she'd been painted on by an entire kindergarten. Remember your training, training… Acepromazine and Telazol… Diazepam for anxiety… Butorphanol for when it hurts a lot… Phenobarbi- oh screw it. Opening her eyes, sighing loudly, Pine clenched her fist, grabbed the bark of the tree and held off on snapping it with her Cure strength. Slapping her right hand straight across her face and forehead, she jumped down. I'll go see Reika. Nothing but Reika is gonna take my mind off Reika now. Is this what everyone else feels like all the time? How do they get anything done? Especially ones like Love or Mana who have double the amount of girlfriends. Not to mention Yayoi… Trying to banish her blush from her face, Pine thought of the most dry, most boring things she had ever studied, only for her mind to start fantasizing about Reika in a suit teaching her about it.

Back at the hotel, someone else was just finally giving up on fighting the morning any longer. Opening her eyes, squinting immediately and retreating back under the sheets, she knew that this was futile. That the appointed time, the promised time, the ultimatum was upon her. There was no escape, no retreating, no excuse she could think of that would work. Because the one that would come to get her, the devil that would hunt her, was one of unimaginable power and relentlessness. Why does Ayu have to be so gungho about this… Breathing hard, exhaling like she was being forced to clean old bubblegum out from every seat in the class, Karen's head extended out from under the covers. Komachi's probably already being put through the… thing. What's the name again… squeezer? No… uh… Rolling over, Karen clicked her tongue. Now I'm wide awake thinking about this nonsense…

By any measure, Karen was not a morning person. When she traveled, she never managed to book a single appointment of anything before nine in the morning and that was after the staff started to drag her out of bed at seven. She even had a dedicated assistant whose sole job was to be a demon and prevent her from getting enough sleep by making sure she didn't sleep until eight-forty five, just enough to rush into the bathroom, do the bare essentials, and rush out.

Rolling to the other side, Karen buried her face in the pillow left behind by Komachi. How does she smell so nice… Running her arms under the pillow, Karen hugged it tightly and squeezed her face into it. We didn't really get to do it yesterday… I'm so tired still I don't think I'll have any energy after today either. Maybe I'll just eat a big lunch and go to bed… but then my sleep schedule will be all messed up and I don't know if Komachi wants to do anything. She's been more proactive lately but right now I'd rather have the stay home and cooped up Komachi back. Just laze around when we're not training. No pointless stuff like picking out coordinated outfits and whatever… just stay in our room, cuddle, sleep, maybe have some sex if we can muster the energy… Ah… Sniffing Komachi's pillow and thinking about it, Karen started to feel a tingle.

Wanting to masturbate while thinking of Komachi, but also feeling incredibly sluggish, the excitement passed when she started to sweat from being covered in too much blanket and pillow. Raising her face and breathing air uninhibited, Karen glanced to her side of the bed, at the clock.

Panic and a sudden spike in awareness took hold of her, the likes of which know only people who constantly oversleep while thinking they have plenty of time left. Karen had tremendous oversleeping problems and her alarm was showing that she had only ten minutes left to get dressed, shove something into her mouth and then get bullied by Ayumi.

Rushing out of bed and into the bathroom, she turned on the faucet on full power, water splashing everywhere. Cupping it hastily into her hands, she splashed her face with no hesitation – it was like having a bucket of water, including the entire bucket, hit one's face. "Niiiyyyyyy!" Screaming over how cold it was, she hastily pulled open the wall cabinet, took out her toothbrush, smeared toothpaste on it, left the tube open and didn't care when it fell off the sink, she shoved the brush in her mouth and moved her jaw about while using her hands to pull up the toilet cover and sit down.

Being on the toilet and brushing teeth at the same time was something she'd done dozens if not hundreds of times before. There was a huge gap between Karen in the morning and Karen during the rest of the day. Once she was properly awake, she knew that this was not exactly behavior she was to be proud of, but she just hated mornings so much that there was no changing it.

Brushing, cleaning, spitting, she couldn't find the glass for water and just bent down, squeezing her face nearly against the sink itself, greedily sucking water into her mouth and spitting it out again to rinse her mouth of any foam. Letting the water run still, she splashed her face again, making no attempts to dry it off, and she grabbed a large brush. Going through her hair just twice on each side she rummaged through the cabinet for hair ties but couldn't find any. I'll borrow one! Her hair still a mostly unkempt mess, she hurried back into the room, almost stumbling as she threw off her negligee on the way and onto the now chaotic bed. Bothering not to put on more than the bare minimum, panties and bra, she slammed open the wardrobe and grabbed her outfit as Cure Aqua. Why, why, would this become more cumbersome after being so convenient?! Pulling on a glove, she got stuck because her hands were still wet. Pulling harder, she lost her grip and slapped herself in the face by accident.

Hurrying harder and harder, finally she had put on enough of it to make the transformation apply the rest. Using her considerable speed as a Cure to almost fly out the door and then door the hallway. Hammering the elevator button, she turned around and tried to see if transforming had fixed her hair. Normally it does. It should. But I've never transformed this early… I think. I was sure I had more time left. Why didn't anyone- Ah. Aqua sighed. I guess now I know why Milly was always so stern. So this doesn't happen. As much.

About two minutes later, Aqua flew through the reception and didn't stop until she was at the arena – to find nobody there. "Huh?" Confused, she glanced around to find the nearest clock. "I'm sure I didn't take so long that they went in without-" Her eyes widened and air was sucked into her nose with the power of a vacuum cleaner. "You have got to be kidding me."

She had misread the alarm. She had set an alarm the previous night, for about half an hour before she had to be there. The arm for the alarm indicator itself was, she realized now, annoyingly similar to the hour indicator. It wasn't fifteen minutes before the appointed time. She had over an hour to spare still.

"Aaaaaarrrgghhhh!" Aqua couldn't help but scream in fury.

"Keep it the hell down!" Northa was screaming back from the entrance.

Back in the cafeteria, Inori, not Pine, had picked up Reika's trail and followed it all the way back to their room. Staying as Pine would have been more convenient for later, but she was entertaining a lot of horny thoughts and if she was going to take Reika back to their room anyway, she could also just dress again right there.

She found Reika in the middle of boiling water on what looked like a camping stove, in a pot that looked remarkably like she had nicked it from the cafeteria.

"What's all this?" Inori was not one to be perplexed easily, but with how quiet and emotionally secluded as Reika could be, Inori didn't ever imagine seeing her do that.

"This- uh… I will return the pot once- I used some of my money to buy-" Reika's face became more and more an expression of guilt and anxiety as she kept going with half finished sentences.

Inori had great circumstance awareness from birth, further improved by working with animals and paying attention to little details to be able to tell what it is that their bodies were communicating without words. "Was the cafeteria too busy for you?" Inori smirked with a big smile. That is kind of cute, really. But you really should be more forward about just mingling with-

"Oh. Not at all."

"Eh?" Inori just froze. No? What does she mean not at all? Then what? Is this a quirk of hers? To make… what even is she making? Is she going to eat cup ramen? But why would she get a camping stove and…

"The… tea on offer was… it was unacceptable! Diluted, made with tea bags and generally weak in flavor and showing no signs of being properly stored or aged! Tea the likes of which you'd find in busy offices in the morning, that people only drink to receive the vague nostalgia of proper tea served at home, in an attempt to satisfy their longing for-" Reika stopped and covered her face. "I'm sorry, I am somewhat passionate about tea."

Uh huh. "I can tell. It's just a little unexpected." I'm about to question every judgment I have ever made regarding Reika.

"I… will return the pot when I am done."

"There's probably nobody missing it."

"It contained some kind of paste that smelled quite unwelcoming."

"Definitely nobody gonna miss that."

"Should I move outside?"

"Why?"

"Is this not a bother?"

"Not really. I'm organized but not a neat freak." Finally moving from the spot the sudden reveal of Reika's tea issues had rooted her to, Inori walked around Reika, who was in the open space between bed and bathroom, and sat on their bed that was in absolutely dire need of changed sheets, she could tell that much. "But why are you making tea in our room?"

Reika said nothing and just looked down on the pot. The water was starting to heat up, showing countless little bubbles at the bottom, a sign that it wasn't far from boiling.

Inori liked tea but not nearly enough to be able to tell what the various sieves and, she assumed, filters were used for, or how. Reika definitely feels like someone that would fit right into a tea ceremony club of sorts."You thought this was going to bother the others?"

"Focus is also important."

Come to think of it, I really don't know the first thing about her life before all of this, much less her living situation. I mean, I know some things, like what she did for… well, kinda a living. Sort of. But I have no idea where she actually lived or what she did outside of busting bad guys. "Can you make enough for two?" Any moment now she'll look up, fascinated that someone shows interest and-

"This is Kashiwaki Premium Half Dry."

I have no idea what that means. "Is it expensive?" It sounds like that.

Reika blurted out a number that didn't fully register with Inori because her eyes started rolling with Yen signs up front. H-How much?! Inori stared down at the admittedly tiny container containing actual tea leafs. I've never seen them whole like this. She was a practical person that didn't really indulge in many luxuries. Definitely not ridiculously expensive super high-end tea like what Reika was preparing. "Are you sure this… setup does the tea justice?" Maybe I can get her to return it… this is ridiculous. Might as well throw your money into the pot directly.

"The equipment is not really important. For pouring a well made, hand crafted pouring kettle for tea is best, but even Mamo didn't have that. Preparing the tea the proper way is the most important. A pot and some basic equipment will suffice."

She's barely the same person. Just how passionate is she about tea? I mean, we are Japanese so to some degree I understand, but… I don't think I am this passionate about my work. "Do you have any recommendations for someone that would like to learn more about tea?"

"Yamagiri Aoikaze is a good starting point. But the path to being a true tea connoisseur is a long one and cannot be trodden without sacrifice."

No kidding, I'll have to sacrifice my entire wallet. I think I'll pass. "Do you want to focus on this?" Any horny thoughts I had are about as dead as those leafs.

"Yes." Reika hadn't looked up and faced Inori even once ever since she recovered from the initial surprise. She was completely dedicated to what she was doing the moment it became clear that Inori wouldn't object to it.

Guess I'll go back down and have some… coffee. That doesn't cost an entire arm and leg. "Don't forget training time in about-" She glanced at the alarm. "Forty-five minutes."

Reika just nodded and used a wooden spoon to stir the heated water in a semi-circular fashion. Inori just walk out the way she came in, closed the door and her eyes went wide. Who the heck is that in there? Is that the same Reika? Shaking it off best she could, she headed for the elevator. I'm gonna have to digest that somehow…

Still reeling for her new discovery, Inori didn't even notice that the elevator wasn't empty until the sole occupant raised her hand and greeted her. "Morning." It was accompanied by a gentle smile that was reserved just for her close friends.

Focusing, recalling her mind to reality, Inori looked ahead. "Miki." Her expression brightened a little. "Morning." Stepping in, the bottom floor button was already lit, she just took position opposite to Miki in the other corner.

"Just going down now? No early rising?" Miki knew that unlike some other people, Inori dealt with mornings the same way a dog dealt with the prospect of a long walk – excitement.

"Second trip."

"Oh?"

"I was already changed and-" She paused and sighed. "I just realized I have to go back up and get changed."

"That's not like you."

"After what I just saw, anyone's mind would be all over."

"You're sharing the room with Reika and-" Miki paused and eyed Inori for a moment. "You two are really going at it. She into some weird thing?"

"Yeah." Inori stopped and realized what Miki was saying. Blushing a little, she rectified that mistake. "No, not that. She's huge into high quality tea. She was literally boiling a pot of water on a camp stove in our room."

"But you two are sleeping together."

Inori knew when to deflect and when to admit. "So?"

"Nothing. Happy for you actually. Reika is a looker but she doesn't seem much for conversation."

"Yuri doesn't seem that talkative either."

"She's surprisingly wordy if you get her to warm up to you actually."

"Really?"

The elevator stopped and both of them walked out. "When's your slot?"

"One after you."

"And you're already up?"

"I got up with Yuri actually."

"And you used to call me a morning person. You even compared me to a dog once!"

"I apologized for that, didn't I?"

"For saying it out loud."

"Hey now, I wouldn't keep thinking it."

"Reminder that I can quite literally check."

"You would never abuse your powers like that."

"Lucky you."

"Lucky me."

They both grinned at each other. "Going in or-?" Miki pointed at the double doors to the cafeteria.

"Yeah."

"Wanna sit together?"

"We haven't had breakfast together in… well, obviously since we got here, probably."

"It's honestly weird how used we've gotten to all of this."

"You think so?"

"You don't?"

"People adapt. And it isn't so bad."

"You shoulda seen the face Yuri was making when I got up with her." Miki grimaced, looking equal parts surprised, exasperated and resigned, similar to what peopled looked like when they got up and found out that one of their cats had, again, as usual, puked in the hallway.

"Miki."

"What?" She was still making the face.

"You gonna be okay?"

"How do you mean?" She finally stopped.

"Yuri is gonna find out that-"

"So?" Miki cut her off. "I doubt nobody else has ever seen it. If she's ever slept over at Erika's or Tsubomi's place, or had a sleepover with the other Heartcatch girls, they will know. It's her default face for a solid five minutes."

"Reasoning a defense?"

Miki just stopped dead in her train of thought for a good ten seconds. "No. I think Yuri isn't that small minded. I wouldn't hold it against her if she told you about a funny face I make."

"I was just winding you up a little for drilling too hard about Reika, but good to see you're actually… secure? No, that's not it…" Inori couldn't think of the right term.

"Confident. I'm confident in my relationship with Yuri surviving a little sharing like that."

"Food?" Inori changed the topic with all the delicacy of a pneumatic drill.

"It's killing me, you know?" The two of them headed into the cafeteria, side by side.

"What is?"

"You and Reika."

"Don't be so curious."

"How am I supposed to not be curious? We both spent a long time looking for someone and I finally know you're getting laid. And I don't even know how it happened."

"I didn't know it bothered you that I wasn't sleeping with anyone." Inori's voice took a few steps back on the volume meter. She was trying to be more daring but in front of Miki this was particularly difficult. The closer she was to someone, the better they knew her, the easier they'd be able to tell she was behaving very differently from normal.

"Are you kidding?" Miki took two large steps, which put her ahead of Inori, and grabbed hold of a chair. They were at least three tables away from anyone else. "This place is all couples. Even those of us who weren't dating before started to date. It's not pity or anything like that but I felt bad that everyone managed to snag a girlfriend but you didn't, not for lack of trying."

"That sounds really condescending."

"I don't mean it like that. It's more that… I felt guilty."

"And now you sound stupid." Inori sat down and so did Miki. "Never feel guilty just because you're lucky to find a good partner."

"In my head I know that of course. It's an irrational guilt. So it's nice to see you find someone."

"Gotta see if it lasts." Inori saw the look on Miki's face and made an exasperated sigh. "Oh come on. Kanade and Hibiki didn't last. Karen and Kurumi broke up after being together for years. Nao… well, Nao's whole fiasco with Akane and Reika. Not every relationship works out."

"If I get an anxiety stomachache-"

"That's your own fault."

"It's a bit unfortunate we didn't get a bigger influx alongside the Doki girls."

"Given the world they came from I'm not sure I could handle someone with that baggage."

"I definitely couldn't. The situation with Yuri and Yami is already a lot."

"Still don't fully understand what exactly happened."

"I've held off on asking."

"Food?"

"Yeah. Before we end up chatting the hour away and it's time to dress up."

"Oh I like that."

"What?"

"Dress up. Sounds nicer than transform or suit up."

"Well, in most cases it's a dress and not a suit… transform is kinda right though."

"Right now it doesn't feel very transform-y."

"Tell me about it. My boots and leg armor? A pain to put on."

"Yeah, our clothes are very clearly not designed for this."

"Makes me wanna ask Ayumi to do something about it."

"She's not a-" Inori put her hands on the table and pushed the chair back. Without another word she went to where the plates were stored. Miki really has this… gift to just get people wrapped up in conversation.

"I've always meant to ask this, but aren't you hot under that mask?" Miki had followed her. The height difference translated to real ease of catching up.

"What mask?"

"Your Pine mask?"

"Oh. It has a psychological dampener factor woven into it-"

"In plain terms please."

"I don't even notice I got it on unless I think about it."

"Nice."

"Isn't the leg armor heavy?" Inori grabbed four croissants and an entire block of butter to go with it. She saw Miki looking queasy at the mere sight. "Not a word."

"If you got the calories to burn-"

"I said not a word!" Inori blushed.

"They all go to your butt, too."

"Miki!" Redfaced.

"What? It's a really hot butt."

"Why am I friends with you?"

"I'm perfectly charming? Good looking? Smart? Dashing? Attentive?"

"How do you even need to eat if you're that full of yourself."

"Ahahaha, ouch." Miki laughed it off because she owned that trait of hers. "It's what gives me my excellent balance."

"The whole calories thing is a myth anyway!" Inori was still redfaced.

"Only in part. That big booty of yours-"

"I swear I will tell Yuri you called my butt big."

"Go ahead."

"I will."

"I wonder whose butt is bigger, you or Komachi."

"Pray there are no live trials for next abilities, Miki."

"Okay, see, that's really scary when you say it. I'm pretty sure I can take any physical punishment the others can doll out but-"

"Uh huh. But I don't use my fists or legs to beat you up. I'll have you flash the entire audience!"

"You wouldn't."

"Wouldn't I?"

"I… I wanna say no. But you're awfully on the offensive today. Must be the influence of finally having a girlfriend."

"You on the other hand haven't changed at all since you started going out with Yuri."

"Of course not. I was already-"

"Perfect. If I had a hundred yen for every time you say that."

"I don't say it that much."

"Enough so that I could make a hefty down payment on my own place."

"Speaking of which-" Miki redirected the conversation abruptly to get away from Inori making some pretty enforceable threats. "When we get back, I wonder what my living situation will be like."

"You could be living in a mansion."

"I'd hate that."

"You'd hate that? Why?"

"Getting something that large set up just the way I want would drive me completely nuts."

"Your perfectionism can get in the way, huh."

Miki's expression shifted towards anxious for just a moment before switching back to smug and teasing. "I'd let Yuri take care of that."

"From what I've seen and heard of Yuri, she'd sell the place, buy you a flat and run you on a budget living from the interest of the money."

"What?"

"What?"

"No, no, no, you don't get to say what. And to begin with, what do you mean, what you have heard of Yuri?"

"That she's good with money, frugal and financially helped out her mother?"

"Oh." Miki rolled eyes at herself. "I thought you meant like… she's a miser."

"Maybe she is."

"No way." There was a tangible pause. "Probably."

"You don't know?"

"We haven't been going out that long!"

"It does feel like a trend that we Cures jump ahead in the physical department of our relationships."

"Not everyone can subsist on cute smiles and handholding the way Kurumi does."

"How does she do that…" Inori seemed extremely perplexed.

Returning to their table with a light breakfast – for Miki – and a much heavier breakfast that really spoke to extraneous activity at night – for Inori – the two resumed their conversation.

"Why is your skirt so short anyway?"

Inori looked down on instinct; she was wearing long pants. She realized that Miki meant Pine. "Aesthetic."

"Aesthetic?"

"Yes, the sense of-"

"I know what it means." Miki gestured wildly with her right hand. "That is the reason? There isn't a practical one?"

"Is there a practical reason for your midriff?"

"Bait!"

"Uh huh. For Moonlight?"

"For enemies!"

"Enemies… that are attracted to you?"

"You know what, hindsight is always twenty-twenty."

"Same."

"What?"

"You ever consider there is nowhere to put my Ninjato blades on my outfit?"

"Oh."

"But fixing that is really hard."

"I know what you mean. I've been trying to change my top to be less clingy on my chest."

"No success?"

"Giving me a really hard time."

"Right now I would just be happy with instant transformations being back."

"Oh yeah."

"Maybe asking Ayumi isn't such a bad idea."

"She's really strong but this seems more like a smarts issue."

"It's magic."

"Magic still follows rules."

"Fair point."

Miki paused and then groaned lightly. "Watching you eat what amounts to croissants and butter instead of buttered croissants is giving me heartburn…"

"If it bothers you that much I can eat at another table."

"If it bothered me that much, I would have asked you to."

"Sometimes I can't tell if we are really close or don't like each other very much."

"Really?"

"No."

"I'm voting for really close."

"Unanimous then."

"This conversation would be so much more complicated if Love was here."

"Don't invoke her name. I love her to bits but I'm not Setsuna or fourteen anymore, I can't put up with that level of energy in the morning."

"And I thought you liked mornings."

"I do."

"What's training in your group like?"

"Hellish."

"That's the same for all of us."

"I'm with Kaoru and Miyuki because we all have abilities that target the mental sphere."

"The what?"

"Consciousness. But because it gets kinda vague and muddled with different abilities, I'll call it that."

"The others don't know about that yet, do they?"

"It's a good name!"

"Uh huh."

"So what'd you call it?"

"I'm not a mental ability user though."

"I see how it is."

"I like simple names."

"Everyone knows. Impact is as simple as it gets."

"It's exactly accurate though! Short, concise, beautiful! And like you're one to talk. Domination is pretty on the nose too."

"Never said simple is bad."

"That… well, that's true. It sounded like it though."

"No. Simple can be good."

"What kind of ability are you working on?"

"I haven't quite worked that out yet. For the time being I'm trying to issue subconscious auto-triggers for behavior-"

Miki fell back in her chair. "Inori, easy words. Have some mercy."

"Basically embed a command in their head that forces them to do a specific thing when it activates and it has a specific requirement to activate like attacking Pine followed by kill self."

"I regret asking. That's nightmare material."

"I could use that as a lie detector. Imagine if I could use that on an enemy and get information from them that way."

"Or force them to betray their boss."

"That'd be convenient too."

"So how is that going?"

"It isn't. Yet."

"Sounds difficult."

It was now Inori's turn to fall back in her chair. "Very. Kind of demotivating actually." A pause during which Inori sighed. "What about you?"

"Trying to improve the power and duration of [My World]."

"The power?"

"It's short duration and needs line of sight."

"I know that much."

"So by power I mean I wanna change those aspects."

"Sounds hard."

"Very."

"We got our work cut out for us, huh." Inori had not even considered asking what Reika was working on. It was probably something completely insane.

"Let's not even think about it over breakfast."

"I didn't bring it up."

"Was that me? Sorry."

"So how are things with you and Yuri?"

"It feels so good to have someone my size to cuddle with."

"You are a bit on the tall side."

"I like that, though."

"It suits you."

"Thanks."

"Feels so weird to compliment you on your height."

"Does a bit." Miki grinned. "Yuri is a little bit different from what I thought."

"Good or bad?"

"I wanna say good. She's more open and less cool and aloof type than I expected. I like it."

"She does give off a vibe like that."

"That was part of her charm when I kept asking her to go out with me."

"I could never have the gall to chase after someone that hard."

Miki ignored the comment and looked at her empty plate. "Watching you eat all of that makes me hungrier than usual…"

"You sure you don't have calories to burn?"

"Very funny." Miki rolled her eyes and got up. "Be right back. If I gain weight, you are going on a diet with me."

"Not a chance." Inori shut her down instantly and leaned back. I still have a little bit of time but I should probably get away before Miki chews off my ear. The first group should be done pretty soon.

=== DISSONANCE ===

Two more books, books so thick they could have doubled as a heavy blunt weapon, landed on the table and Ako groaned. "Still more?"

Ellen looked at her princess, with eyes full of misery; misery that was returned. "There's an entire section back there that just goes from Verr falli va Hymmnos some number all the way up to some much bigger number." Numbers in Hymmnos script, especially in the Forte Key used for almost all the more readable books, were something Ellen didn't grasp yet. The title of that book read, in Hymmnos, as Collection and Records of Hymmnos.

Hibiki was snoring loudly under a table a few meters away while Kanade was struggling to keep her interest from waning reading An introduction to Hymmnos via the common tongue that was in, for her, somewhat readable Japanese but might as well have been gibberish. She wasn't a star student. Not bad, not great, above average definitely. But not the kind that could pick up a new language that used scripture that was completely alien to her native one.

For Ako and Ellen, the dry, studious research was as much part of their training as the actual training sessions. Hibiki made the suggestion in jest that their power being so similar, they should join them. She didn't last long.

"Princess, this is… impossible." Ellen plummeted into her chair and the stack of books on the table wobbled, in danger of causing an avalanche of deadly paper weight.

Ako looked at Ellen like she was from another planet. "Since when are you calling me Princess again?" It was technically correct but for Ako that didn't matter.

"All of this really… drives home that you still are the crown princess of Majorland, and as a resident-"

"You are my friend before you're my subject. And between those two, you're a fellow Cure. So unless you want to stop being both of those, drop that." Ako frowned and looked back down at a book that would have been indecipherable to anyone else. It detailed something called delta waves and pure blood harmonium lineage and she had already forgotten why she had picked this book of all the others.

"But-"

"I'm not above giving you a royal order to not treat me as royalty."

"That's…. how-!" Ellen's mouth went agape and she couldn't find the words to talk back.

Propping her head against her right hand, loosely forming a fist, Ako continued to go through the text. Every so often she had to pause, point at a certain sentence, flip through a book that was just the ancient equivalent of a dictionary and search for the phrase in hope of finding it where it should be and not in any of the over a hundred addendum pages.

Kanade came staggering over, looking like she was fostering the ancestor of all headaches. "Lunch?" It was that time of day.

Ellen had just returned to reading but was not shy about finding a reason to escape it. For every word Ako had to look up, she had to look up five. She was, in those terms, a high ranking person in Majorland and had a solid education on Hymmnos, but nothing like Ako did and even said princess was struggling. What is even a cellophane…

"I'll join you in a bit. If I stop here I won't be able to remember any of this. I need to know what payoff this… this topic has." Ako groaned at herself and rubbed her nose bridge. I need other glasses… the ones I have were definitely not made for my body being this age.

"Lemme grab Hibiki… seriously, why'd she even come?"

"Your powers are at best adjacent to what we're studying." Ako had been telling Hibiki that a few hours ago. "Without knowing where and how the lineage from Majorland went to Earth we have no idea what kind of derivative key we're even looking at for your powers."

"Uh…" Kanade was struggling to understand the point of any of that. "We do sing in Japanese…"

"Some of our Hymmnos uses our native language too, Princess." She was ignored. "Ako."

"That's because not every Hymmnos is a rigid extract." Ako hand waved the notion away.

"A what?" Kanade touched both her temples with her fingertips. "Okay, stop, lunch. Ellen help me get Hibiki."

"Get her… you mean carry her?"

"If I wake her up, she'll just argue that she's only been asleep for 5 minutes and we should keep going and all that."

"I'll wake her up, you go ahead." Ellen could read those two. If Kanade was already gone, Hibiki would not stick around on her own.

"Thanks." Kanade looked at the table that was housing Hibiki. "I should have known it'd turn out like this."

"To be fair to Hibiki-"

"I know. It's putting me to sleep, too."

"The princess-" Ellen twitched when she heard someone clear her throat loudly. "Ako is right, I don't think this is the right approach for you two. Hymmnos is a very specialized type of song magic, what you do is probably… unique. I think. I'm not too sure on what it is exactly you do."

"Power ourselves up with songs and… uh… make the song magic manifest stuff I guess? At least I'm planning on having it do that."

"That is still similar to Hymmnos but only in effect…"

"Weren't you gonna get lunch? You're distracting." Ako didn't even look up from her book.

A few minutes later, a loudly yawning Hibiki was following Ellen and Kanade out the library. Of course, no food and drinks inside. Half-asleep, Hibiki didn't put up much of a fight. She couldn't even remember that it was her idea to join the Majorlander study group.

"How are things with Rin?" Ellen managed to ask directly without stuttering or blushing excessively. Love was rubbing off on her in a good way.

Kanade, to the surprise of both Hibiki and Ellen, also managed to keep a straight face. "Really good."

"Hoh?" Hibiki sped up and grabbed hold of Kanade's shoulders, neither of them stopping walking. "That good?"

"What are you smirking so much for?" Kanade couldn't see it but she could assuredly hear the smirk.

"What? Happy for you."

"Uh huh."

"Really!"

There was a pause. "Really really?"

"You think I want you to be unhappy?"

"No, just… it's weird, coming from you."

"The heck's that supposed to mean?" Hibiki let go of Kanade and joined her left flank. "I'm not some terrible petty person!"

"You can be pretty petty."

"You mean pretty pretty!"

"Petty means-"

"I know what it means! I'm definitely not that!"

"What does it mean then?"

"Someone who minds the small stuff!"

"That's totally you though."

"Coming from you!"

"What? I'm not petty!"

"Totally are!"

"Am not!"

"Do I need to go grab Itsuki and Rin and mediate this?" Ellen already understood how to deal with them. This was not Love but Setsuna's influence.

Both Hibiki and Kanade stopped dead on the spot and looked at each other with obvious dismay. "We're just joking, right?" Hibiki put on her biggest fake smile.

"Yeah, little messing around!" Kanade did the same.

"Hm… really?"

"How- How's Itsuki anyway?" Kanade forcibly changed the topic.

"I wanna say pwnd is really accurate." Hibiki silently nodded repeatedly to herself when she saw the other two not understand. "Bruised all over. She came back and just wanted to shower and lie in bed. Not even a hug."

"Wow… And she's so tough too." Ellen didn't know Itsuki that well, but well enough that she had an okay grasp that if she was acting like that, training must have been horrible.

"Yeah. I went down and bought the largest pack of mixed nuts and other protein-y stuff I could find and left it on the night desk." Hibiki looked away from nobody in particular. "You know… I wanna be a good girlfriend, too."

"Now you got me all self-conscious about Rin…" Kanade was visibly worried.

"I don't think her training involves having Black and Bloom beat her silly so she'll probably be fine."

"How's things going for you two anyway?" Ellen interjected.

"I really like her. You can't tell anyone but I'm thinking of asking her to move in with me when we get back to-"

"Our training! Not you and Itsuki!"

"How am I supposed to know that's what she meant!"

"It's fine, I was curious about you and Itsuki anyway. Moving in together… I wonder what'll happen with Love, Setsuna and me."

"First we gotta actually get back." I don't wanna admit to them that I'm worried about whether Rin would ever consider living with me…

"Not like we have any real influence over that." Hibiki shrugged.

"That's not the most reassuring thing, I admit."

"This place does have some benefits. We can be all together and we don't have to worry about jobs or school."

"Instead we get hellish training." Hibiki snorted and went up the short flight of stairs to the hotel entrance. "Beats school any time though."

"Either way you're asleep." Kanade quickly went past Hibiki to escape an angry retort.

"I'm going to eat alone if you two keep squabbling." Ellen was suddenly the tail light of the combination.

Finding food was a matter of about ten minutes of going their separate ways. Kanade obtained a mixed salad, white bread, sparkling water, pickled cucumbers, seasoned fresh tomato slices and some little bits of fried corn in a bowl.

"You're gonna be hungry during training with that vegetable field." Hibiki couldn't help but see issue with Kanade's lunch.

"You are going to have an upset stomach." Kanade looked at the mess that Hibiki put together. A mountain of deep fried nuggets, dark bread, a jug of soda, a bowl of some kind of condiment, mashed potatoes, fish sticks and a second bowl with a different condiment. "What is this, Daidokoro PANIC?"

Ellen didn't stop to have her lunch inspected by the, again, squabbling duo and just sat down. She had fried fish, three of them, a bowl of mixed salad, sparkling water, hard boiled eggs, cheese slices and two apples.

Both Kanade and Hibiki shut up when they saw the rather balanced lunch that Ellen put together, gravitating away from that in their own extremes. Sitting down, they pretended to never have said anything. "How's your studying going with Ako?"

"It's a disaster." Ellen pinched some fish with chopsticks and was already eating. "It's like… you master addition and subtraction in math and think you have complete control over numbers and then someone throws stuff at you that doesn't even look like numbers anymore but it's still math."

"That bad?" Hibiki felt bad for asking.

"That bad." Ellen sighed really, really hard. "Honestly it makes me feel… a bit incompetent."

"Come on." Kanade thought that was being too self-deprecating. "We both know what you can do. There is no way you're even a little incompetent."

"Smooth." Hibiki flinched when Kanade kicked her under the table.

"The princess is struggling too." Ellen ate one of the hard boiled eggs almost like a snake, stuffing it into her mouth whole.

"It feels really wrong to call her that." Hibiki started to eat as well, using just her fingers to dip the nuggets into what was likely to be some sort of tomato based sauce.

"I'll fix it, just hits home really hard right now… There is so much depth to this that we are never going to understand or even get close to understanding. And the pri-"

"Ako."

"Is so much more knowledgeable about it than me and she's still struggling."

"Okay, this might sound really stupid- Hibiki stop smirking. But why exactly this studying? Can't you already sing Hymmnos?"

Hibiki was chewing loudly and then interjected. "'s like this, probabl'y. Y'know, cover sing'n on niconico 'n stuff. Sounds good t' us but 's clear to trained 'eople they're no pro."

"Eat or talk. Gross." Kanade had half a mind to throw a tomato slice at Hibiki.

"Hibiki is sort of right. I can sing Hymmnos and for who I am, for what I learned, I… do good. The… Ako does good too. She's still so young but-"

"Oh yeah." Hibiki swallowed like a snake. "That totally slips your mind after a while, right?"

"You mean that Ako isn't as old as she looks? Yeah, kinda."

"I've gotten so used to it. It's a bit weird when I think about her and Urara."

"Ako's got both of us beat in being an adult at least."

"Maybe you-"

"I will bite both of you." Ellen did not want fighting at the table. "Anyway, better understanding the how, why and how to and everything will make a huge difference in actually using Hymmnos. I already learned a little bit that helps."

"Like what?" Kanade pretended that she and Hibiki had been cordial the entire time.

Ellen paused. "I'm not sure how to explain that without it sounding way too technical."

"There is no way we'll remember anyway so be as technical as you want." Hibiki glared at Kanade. "I dare you to kick me again."

These two… they can be so good to each other but they're just at home with fighting like this… it doesn't bother them but it's really annoying for everyone around them. "My pronunciation of everything was off. The Hymmnos I use are different from the royal family ones because… it's just that way. The royal Hymmnos use, as far as I know, mostly the Crescendia Key, while us song fairies use the Major Standard Key."

"The what." Kanade got a I told you so look from Ellen.

"Think of it like… really intense regional dialects of Japanese."

"You mean like someone from Aomori trying to talk to someone from Kumamoto?"

"Uh… sure." I have no idea what that means but trying to explain this in more detail is beyond me anyway.

"Giving lessons at lunch?" Ako walked over to them, putting down a trey that was loaded with a huge bowl of spaghetti and an almost equally huge bowl of salad.

"Kanade wanted to know."

"I did." I'm not sure why I'm acting like I have to defend Ellen, but… sure.

"Hymmnos keys are basically splits in language. Think of Japanese and Chinese. A lot of the kanji and hanzi are read similarly, mean the same thing but are pronounced very differently. Now imagine that with five or six variations instead of just two."

"Uwah…" Hibiki was getting a headache just imagining that.

"Not all of them are even used. There's probably a lot of Hymmnos in keys that nobody uses anymore or that were recreated in a more modern key. But there's also those that you can't recreate or adapt without losing power or lowering the efficiency. Think of it like being able to fluently read Japanese but reading something translated from Chinese. Being able to read it in Chinese is of course better because it is the original text."

"So what Ellen is using is not the original?" I hope that's right, Kanade thought.

"Basically, yes. But not just Ellen. The royal family too."

"But don't you use the Crescendia Key for that?" Ellen seemed surprised, which made Hibiki and Kanade both wary of what conversation was gonna follow that question.

"There is less of a loss than what you're dealing with, but the Crescendia Key we have and understand is like a book that has pages torn out all over. And in place of the torn pages of the original, we put pages copied from memory in there."

"So it's not accurate." Hibiki felt very smart.

"Yes." Ako poked her spaghetti, twirled up a huge blob of it and shoved it into her mouth. She gave Ellen a You continue look.

"A-Anyway. So… we non-royal family Majorlanders, those of us that can use Hymmnos anyway, are all taught the Major Standard Key. Basically modern Japanese. But it always felt a little bit… off? Yeah. Off. When I used that. Like I'm singing a Japanese translation of an English song. The lyrics don't flow as good as they should and so on."

There was a moment of pause. "I don't get where the improvement comes in."

"Oh, sorry, uh-" Ellen got some water and exhaled slowly. "I've figured out what the original key for some of my Hymmnos are. Purger, or the official extract name being Execution Hymmnos PAJA-"

"What's an extract?"

"Uh… Ako, can you explain?"

Ako gulped down another sphere of spaghetti and cleared her throat with still water. "An extract is the core form of a Hymmnos. Think of it like the master record of a song. You record the song, then make copies of it. Hymmnos works the same way."

"You can make Hymmnos?!" Kanade was in disbelief. It was only seconds later that she realized the problem. "Okay, I hear it. Where else would Hymmnos come from."

"We don't actually know where most of the Hymmnos we have now originate. We assume that most of the ones in the royal family are from past queens. But the ones that are not used by the royal family are shrouded in pretty deep mystery." Ako shrugged off the confusion that was directed at her from Kanade and Hibiki. "It is what it is."

"That's so… fantasy game-like." Hibiki was kinda in awe.

"This isn't a game." Kanade definitely was not.

"Obviously, I said like!"

"Ellen was not finished." Ako had an air of authority about her, more so than most other Cures. At the time, Hibiki and Kanade both wondered if that was the whole royal presence thing. It wasn't.

"Purger isn't a Hymmnos originally writing in Major Standard. I don't think any Hymmnos are, despite all the Hymmnos I can use working through it. Figuring out it came from the Impriavo Score means I know what to look at to fix my pronunciation and maybe even reconstruct the original lyrics."

"That sounds ridiculously complicated." Kanade was looking straight at Ellen, who fell quiet. Ako did, too. "Oh." That's why they're so demotivated. It is ridiculously complicated.

"Ellen at least has a basis for her research. I'm not so lucky." Ako somewhat angrily forked up salad and stuffed it all in her mouth in one go.

"Why not?" Hibiki knew it was probably a stupid question. I don't care.

"There are allusions to some kind of original, progenitor type Hymmnos language in the book I am reading. That basically confirms that our scholar's theory on the Reyvia Measure is correct. That is the original key, so to speak."

"And your Hymmnos were written in that?" Kanade just guessed wildly.

"The problem with the existence of the Reyvia Measure is that I cannot know for sure if the royal Hymmnos were made using the Crescendia Key, which is to say, the key that records allege to be Musica's key, our kingdom's founder. If the Crescendia Key is basically just a deviation from the Reyvia Measure and my Hymmnos were made that, there is no way I can do what Ellen is doing and arrive at an original version by reconstructing. Even if I knew for sure, the Reyvia Measure is basically as different from every other key as Japanese is different from Russian."

"I'm sorry but I kinda lost track of what's going on…" Hibiki felt bad for admitting it but she also didn't wanna see Ako try even harder to explain something she had no chance of properly understanding.

"That's fine, it's difficult for even us to understand. And don't even get me started on what I am reading right now."

The way Ako said it carried distinct do ask energy with it. And so Kanade took the plunge. "What are you reading?"

"Basically a biology book for Majorlanders."

"Huh?" Hibiki didn't understand. "Aren't you just like… people?"

"I'm with Hibiki on this one actually."

"We are mostly like humans. A very large percentage. Same organs, same life expectancy, that sort of thing."

"So…?" Hibiki was not seeing where this was going.

"Something in our genetics is different, I don't really understand all the advanced terms. I'll have to ask Honoka for help. Maybe Rikka as well."

"How does that help your training?"

"From what the book describes, Hymmnos users are separated into two categories; the Reyviatails and the Infa Phera Deficient." Ako sighed. "I'm just going over it so I can remember later, you two can tune it out if you want." Ako was usually very frank but this was a level of being blunt that made clear that Ako was struggling with the material a lot more than everyone expected.

In a place far, far away, the mood was much more conductive to relaxing before going to the grinders – training.

Picking up a measuring cup, blonde hair kept at bay by a tightly wrapped cloth, Hikari poured sugar into the cup, stopping exactly, without any adjustments being made, at 57 grams of it.

The girl by her side quietly clapped, her head too wrapped in a cloth that kept any stray hairs from entering and flying where they had no business to. "The expertise of a pro."

"I can do as much." Saki was pouring water into a large bowl that stood on a digital scale, getting to 225 out of 230 milliliters. But Saki was Saki, and so she brushed it off with a smile. "You didn't see that!"

"Asking me to use the kitchen is fine and all… and believe me, I've seen my share of bruised up Cures. Should you not be taking it easy?" Mamo, wearing a full apron plus the head cloth that everyone else had, looking over Saki's shoulder. Or rather, past her from the side.

"This is my means to relax. I hurt all over but that's nothing some freshly baked bread rolls can't solve." Also Mai would absolutely fuss over me being all bruised… I don't wanna worry her, she's already dealing with her own thing and she gets a little overprotective when I look like I'm hurt. Even though most of the time it looks five times worse than it is. I did take a few really hard kicks from Sunshine but I didn't break any bones and Echo fixed me back up.

"If you say so…" Mamo walked over to where Hikari and Kurumi were, maneuvering past the rather bulky Saki and making sure not to get her apron caught on all the appliances that Hikari and Saki had excavated from her kitchen. "You sure this stuff was all here before?"

Kurumi tilted her head. "You watched us take it out of the cabinets."

"I watched you take stuff out of the cabinets. I have no idea what most of those do."

"You're even worse in a kitchen than I used to be…" Kurumi definitely had developed enough self-awareness to look back on herself and cringe.

"Hey, I'm letting you use the kitchen, be a little thankful!" Mamo frowned at Kurumi.

"Mamo, come here for a bit." Hikari was calling for her.

"What now?" Glaring at Kurumi and stepping past her in a kitchen that was absolutely too small for four people, never mind having someone like Saki in there.

"Do you want to try cookies first? I can guide you through every step so they'll be your cookies." Hikari's smile was brilliant enough that even Mamo couldn't stay mad. But there was now a much more emergency like expression on her face.

"Huh? No, hold on, I'm just here to observe, I didn't say I was gonna make anything." Mamo tried to back away but Hikari was like a helpful cobra, grabbing hold of Mamo's wrist. Her positive demeanor and bright smile were such a powerful force that despite her physical grasp being incredibly weak, Mamo couldn't possibly pull away now.

"It'll be fun."

"What made you wanna look in anyway?" Saki was at a different table, kneading dough now.

"Nothing in particular. Just… bored."

"Hm… and here I was thinking there'd be a nice lady you're interested in."

"Well, not right now…"

"Oh?" Saki grinned.

"What?" I didn't say anything weird.

"So you're open to the idea?"

"Having spent time around you lot? Anyone'd be open to that."

"Is that how it works?" Kurumi looked back over her own shoulder, at Mamo. "I think any of the other ladies would be lucky to have you." Her eyes went wide when wild embarrassment and a bright red flush found their way to Mamo's face. Wow, that is not the reaction I expected her to have.

"I didn't know glamorous ladies like Mamo were also your type, Kurumi." Hikari's voice didn't have even a hint of snark in it.

"She's- no, I mean- objectively speaking she's really beautiful- but I don't, I have you, I like-!" Kurumi's face and demeanor devolved rapidly into a hot mess, something she shared with Mamo.

Glamorous, objectively really beautiful… I mean o-obviously… but having one of them say that about me. "About those cookies-"

"I can show you how to make croissants if that is more your style." Saki offered from across the room.

"Cookies have a much bigger impact on girls!" Hikari was absolutely going to fight Saki on that.

"For most of us, yeah. But serving someone a still warm, handcrafted croissant is very romantic."

Kurumi hadn't recovered yet and an image of her serving Hikari a heart shaped croissant – ignoring the fact that being heart shaped would make it not a croissant – popped into her mind, exacerbating her condition.

"You sure about that girlfriend of yours, Hikari?" Saki was smiling wide and her tone made very clear that she was just poking fun.

"Hundred percent. Look at how cute and hard working she is now!" Hikari smiled back and snickered a little when Kurumi's head hit peak glowing tomato.

C-C-Cute! Hikari called me cute. And not just cute but how cute she is! And hard working! I knew all that effort would pay off!

"Kurumi, earth to Kurumi- well, not really earth but… oh, right. Ground control to Kurumi~!" Saki tried to get through to her.

"Forget about her. You were gonna show me how to make… what was it? Croissants?"

"No, that's me over here. But I'd be happy to." Saki was feeling pretty good about her decision to just attach herself to Hikari's date with Kurumi despite Kurumi's initial objections.

"Cookies are all about versatility. There are as many forms of cookies as there are forms of love. Like my love for Kurumi would be cookies made from a very sweet dough, topped with-"

"Hikari, I think you need to give Kurumi a break or her head will explode. Shishshshsh." Saki couldn't help but laugh. I remember when I first started going out with Mai and we were both over the moon at every little thing. I must have looked like that countless times. It's nice to see but I honestly prefer what I have now. My heart felt like exploding so much and the stress over worrying over every little thing is something I don't miss.

"Yes~. Will do." Hikari turned to Kurumi and without hesitation kissed her on the cheek. "No more overheating, we got prep work."

Saki could almost see the steam come out of Kurumi's head as she turned, grabbed a measuring cup and then froze, unable to process what to do. "You still got warranty on her?"

"I would never return my darling." Hikari's words were like a spear of happiness that went right through Kurumi's chest. "It took so long for us to open up to one another, I'll never ever let her go."

"You have to be doing that on purpose. She's gonna faint."

"And I'll catch her!"

"I give up." Saki was just laughing now, unable to focus on kneading or anything.

Mamo watched with impressive disgust. I'm never gonna be like that. Ever. No matter who comes along. I'll always be more… cool. Like… like one of the others. Maybe like that girl that's always with Urara. What's her name… uh… she's Muse, I remember that much, but… Someone tugged on her apron. "Fueh?"

"Come on, we'll start with something really simple. Even simple can impress, you know?"

"Right… no, wait. If I am doing this, it must be fancy. Someone like me cannot do with a drab look or drab cookies."

"So you say but those are the same clothes you wore yesterday and the day before." Saki was attentive to such details.

"Zip it! I… have my reasons!"

"Don't know how to do laundry?"

"I said zip it!"

"It's not that hard. I bet you think Mai does the laundry at our place, right?"

"As if I'd believe you do the laundry."

"I produce five times the amount of dirty clothes Mai does, so you better believe that I do the laundry. I'm not putting that on her."

"Nagisa could learn a thing or two from you," Hikari mused.

"Hm? I was under the impression she does laundry and basically all the other housework."

"She does, but not for a noble reason like you do."

"I wouldn't call it noble. I just fix my own mess without unnecessarily burdening my partner."

"Maybe I can count on Kurumi to do kitchen clean up when I cook~?"

"Absolutely! I'll do it! I'll always do it!" Kurumi was almost shouting.

"Kurumi~." Hikari was gently waving at her girlfriend to look at her. She had barely turned when Hikari leaned to the side and kissed her right on the lips. "You're so sweet. But we can should take turns with cooking and clean up. I wanna eat Kurumi's home cooked meals."

The thermometer was finally hitting peak and Kurumi wobbled to the ground, her face so blistering red that she looked more like a comics characters than a human being. "Huaaa…."

"She'll die one day from a heart attack." Saki was trying really hard not to laugh. "

While Mamo's kitchen was turning into a melting pot for Kurumi, things were a lot more calm in Tsubomi and Erika's room. Staying in bed, sort of, Tsubomi was relaxing by reading a novel she had bought from Mamo's shop. It was about a magical garden maze, in french victorian style, that on each day, led to different places in the world and back. And so the young lady of the house went on exciting adventures all across the world for just one day at a time.

Erika was right by her side, in the literal sense. At least her body was. Upside down on the bed, her legs going up the wall with her feet lightly tapping against the wall, she kept murmuring to herself in indecipherable, chaotic nonsense spur of the moment sentence pieces. She had been doing that for over two hours, not taking any breaks, even for the bathroom. Tsubomi had been bothered by it for about five minutes and then her Erika-acclimation kicked in, making her deaf to the murmuring and insensitive to the wall tapping or the allure of Erika's naked legs right up there by her face.

Finishing a chapter, Tsubomi closed up the book, put it under her pillow and look down on Erika's face that wildly switched between enlightenment and frowning, back and forth. "No luck?"

Erika's face gained volume until she looked like a balloon, ready to pop, and she started flailing with arms and legs while screaming like an upset child, for a whole two seconds before falling flat on the bed and looking dejected. "Tsumiiiiiii, this is super impossible. Suuuuuuuu-"

Tsubomi put her flat hand on top of Erika's mouth, shutting her up. "Okay, no more tantrum." She stared at Erika until she saw what she thought was an okay look in Erika's eyes. No sooner had she removed her hand that the short girl's mouth went off.

"Buuuuuuuuuuut, it is impossible! Copying one ability is already super hard-"

"You do it pretty effortlessly."

"Because I'm awesome!"

"I won't really argue with that, but why is the next step impossible?"

Erika rolled over, then back and continued to do so until she was spinning harder than that of a sushi roll in the hands of a professional chef. "The poowwweeerrrrrrr-"

Tsubomi waited, aimed and then moved fluidly, with precision, so she sat down right on Erika's back, straddling her. "I love you so much Erika but the way you deal with setbacks is super annoying."

"Eh… Uh… sorry." Erika was surprised, startled and turned on by this sudden assertiveness of Tsubomi.

The girl on top on the other hand felt like her heart was going to explode out of her chest because she was really trying very hard to be more assertive. "The power of what?"

"The others! And mine!"

"I won't understand without an explanation."

Erika felt all tingly from having Tsubomi on her back. This is… hot. If I wasn't so-

"Explanation, not daydreaming." Tsubomi did her best to hide the crack in her voice. B-Be strong. Assertive! Like Ember! Like… like Itsuki! And Yuri- maybe not like Yuri exactly, lately she's- She shook off the thoughts.

Erika sort of deflated like a balloon toy that was being put away. "I don't have the energy to copy the big stuff."

"Aren't you able to copy everyone right now?"

"Just their signature moves! Part of the puzzle doesn't make a whole pie."

Tsubomi knew Erika too well to not understand what that meant. "So… now you want to copy everything?"

"Not just copy… make! Like a printout!"

"So instead of copying part of their power you want to make a full copy of it?"

Erika nodded twice. "Exactomundo! But copying their full powers means I need at least as much power as they do… but there's just so many problems… like… like Bright. Her power is… punching real hard, basically, right? But even if I copy that power, without her body, it'll be so much weaker. Or like… Mint. There is so much energy behind that, it's way more than I have. It's not fair."

"Do you really have to make a one to one copy?"

"Huh?" Erika tried to look at Tsubomi but given her position the most she could do was catch glimpses of her girlfriend from the corner of her eye.

"This is to make costumes that others can use, right? If you made a one to one copy of Mint's powers, would I be able to use them?"

"Eh? What do you mean? Why wouldn't you?" Erika didn't understand what Tsubomi was getting at.

"Or with Bright, if you managed to copy her physique too… I wouldn't know how to move or do anything with a muscular body like that. Or using a punching ability."

"What?!"

"What she says all surprised…" Tsubomi tried her very best to stay on top, both mentally and literally, of Erika. "Did you think everyone is gonna be able to intuitively use everyone else's powers like you can?"

"Of course!"

Tsubomi sighed and ruffled Erika's long hair. "I love that you have so much confidence in all of us, but you're special. Most of us struggle with just mastering the one thing we have. Trying to use some other ability that we don't understand at full power would be impossible."

"But-"

"No buts."

"Then what am I supposed to dooooooooo?!" Erika started flailing again and then deflated just as quickly, almost sinking into the mattress somehow.

Getting down from her girlfriend, Tsubomi laid down next to her. "I believe in you figuring that out."

"That's easy for you to say…" Her muffled voice came through the comforter.

"Yeah." Tsubomi smiled and blushed. "It is. Because it comes from a place of confidence."

Now Erika was blushing too, albeit Tsubomi couldn't have possibly known this as Erika was still face down. "Thanks."

About to push herself up, Tsubomi stopped when Erika, with pinpoint accuracy, grabbed hold of her left wrist. Don't go? Staying like she was before, Tsubomi reached to caress Erika's neck for a bit before leaning to the side, holding off the long hair and kissing her exposed nape.

"Tsubomiiiii…"

"Hm?"

"What should I do?"

She's asking me… I'm not the genius inspiration type. "Do you really want to go with copying stuff?"

"Hm."

"Absolutely sure?"

Erika nodded and the mattress wobbled a little. "Huh hmmm."

"If you want others to use the ability you're copying… I think you need to have some kind of… uh… explanation? No… like… how to use it, uh… what's the word." Her assertiveness was falling apart.

"Instruction?"

"Yes. Thanks." Tsubomi felt her elbows start to hurt a little and she shifted to lying on her side, facing Erika. "You need to include some kind of instruction."

"How?"

"I don't know."

"Hm…" There was a moment of silence during which Erika fumbled about and grabbed hold of Tsubomi's hand, slowly locking their fingers together. "Sure?"

"You understand how they work, but others don't."

"Oh."

Here it comes. "Oh?"

"If I know… I just have to copy what I know to others."

That's not as out of the box as I expected. "You can do that?"

"Maybe!" Erika pushed herself up. "But that'd work, right?!" Her face was beaming with that certain I just know this will work smugness that Erika had almost an exclusive right of usage to. "If I can make others understand the copied power like I get it… then they'll get it!"

"You have to copy the power once to understand it first, right?"

"Easy-peasy! I can just ask everyone to let me have a go!"

She could have worded that a lot better… "I don't think some of them will be too happy about that, but given that you could just sneak up on them during training and copy their power anyway-"

"I'd totally do that!" Erika looked mightily like an imp at that moment.

"Yeah." Tsubomi smiled, averted her eyes for just a moment before leaning forward and quickly, and briefly, kissing a rather surprised Erika. "I know. But do be careful. Some of them would not appreciate that."

"Like who?"

"Rikka. Urara. Yuri. Michiru. Kaoru. Yayoi. Rin. A lot of them actually. Maybe most."

Erika returned the favor and kissed Tsubomi without warning. "I'll be careful so they don't notice!"

"Just ask them first."

"Booooo."

"Not Boooo, just ask them. Who do you think has to smooth things over with them and apologize for you if you overstep? Me. I do." Tsubomi did her best to pout the way Erika often did but it only made her look like a very big hamster.

"You're so cute, Tsumi."

"I still don't like that nickname."

"Too bad!"

"Erikant."

"Hey!"

"See how that feels?"

"Booooo!"

"Booooo is banned from now on!"

"Booooo!"

"That's a fine to pay!"

Erika rolled against Tsubomi, so close that they could feel each other's breath on their faces, and kissed her with a lot more fire than before. Lips pressed together, a soft sweet and familiar wetness to be shared between them, Erika let up after a long moment of almost silence. Licking her lips with a slight flush on her face, Erika grinned. "Paid in full."

Tsubomi did her best to not turn into a mess but she was struggling. Her face lit up like a light and she was incredibly turned on. "You criminal."

"Master thief Erika stealing the hearts of the pure and innocent girls."

She definitely stole mine. "B-Back to your, uh… copying."

"But I figured it out! I just gotta copy my own understanding of it!"

"What about the power?"

Erika blinked a few times, her mouth opened, and then- "I forgoooooooooot!" Rolling back over the bed, she overdid it and collided with Tsubomi, essentially headbutting her. Both of them groaned and rolled to the side, away from each other. "Owww… ow, ow, ow… sorry, sorry, Tsubomi…"

"It's… it's… fi… fine." Tsubomi was holding back tears. It huuuuuurts. I knew Erika was hard headed but not like this!

Erika sat up, a red glowing bruise on her forehead. "Wanna go eat lunch?"

"N-Now?" Tsubomi sat up as well, holding her forehead and gently rubbing over the hurting spot. That's gonna leave a mark…

"My treat?"

"The food is free, Erika."

"Then-"

"You don't have to make up for it." Tsubomi tried to play it cool but her voice was quivering a bit. "I know that wasn't on purpose." Seeing the guilty look on Erika, a rare thing indeed, Tsubomi knew her partner was not gonna feel better until she let her do something for her. "The room could do with a bit of clean up though. Changing the sheets, airing out the comforter and pillows, cleaning the sink and tub…"

"G-Gotcha." Erika was very much not familiar with doing any of it.

I'll have to help her, but if its something not so easy, she'll feel better… hah, she is such a handful. How come I have to come up with ways for her to feel less bad for accidentally hitting me? "But lunch does sound good."

Erika's stomach roared as if on command. "Right?"

"Have you talked to Mamo yet?" Tsubomi asked while she crawled off the bed, so she could put on some shoes.

"Hm? About what?" Erika on the other hand was completely complacent just going bare footed.

"Eh?" What was it… "Didn't you say you wanted to talk to her? This morning."

"No… wait… did I?" Erika stopped and starting making low pitched hums as she tried to remember. "I could… have… not? Maybe?"

"I need to get a planner from Mamo so I can keep track of what you forget to do…"

"Just like home!"

"You'll be paying me an assistance fee for that."

"That's not like home! And paying my girlfriend is super weird!"

"Better get used to it." Tsubomi tried to recover and go back to assertive mode but it wasn't quite coming out right.

"How much?" Erika looked like she was gonna have to budget and she hated budgeting.

"At least one hour in bed without any sudden inspirations that make you dash off." Tsubomi said it so quickly that she nearly bit her tongue, knowing full well that she could never get herself to say something like that slowly without her head starting to steam. Which happened anyway. Red-faced, she put on some ankle height pink middle thing between boots and sneakers, taking great care to avoid Erika being able to see her face.

A wump on the bed and a subsequent embrace from behind only made things worse for her. Erika's breath on her neck and her arms over her shoulders, her chest pushing against her back, Tsubomi got so red that it was visible from behind on her ears. "Should I pay up front?" Erika was all set up to kiss Tsubomi's nape when her stomach growling in protest.

Forcing herself free by energetically standing up, Tsubomi rapidly walked around the bed to the door. "Lunch."

"Okay."

Walking through the hallway side by side, Tsubomi had to think of something complicated to take her mind off of doing erotic things with Erika. Not that she didn't want that. She very much wanted to. Just not in the middle of the day and with Erika's stomach constantly growling at her. "What are you gonna do about the power issue?"

"Fueh?"

"Your copying. The power issue."

"Oh…" Erika made a motorboat noise all on her own, went a few steps ahead and started to twirl like a dancer. "I don't know!"

"If copying the full power is impossible, what about copying it but scaled down?"

"Boooo… that's like making an outfit out of subpar materials!"

Tsubomi frowned. "Making an outfit out of materials you can't afford and that others can't wear is not an outfit at all."

"But…" Erika's cheeks blew up, her signature pout. "So what then… just copy the powers but only as much as I can manage? That's so lame!"

"How is trying your hardest lame?"

"Trying my hardest?"

"What else would you call it?"

"I… didn't think of it that way."

This is a problem she has a lot. She has a vision and gets so focused on it she loses track of anything around it. It's fine when it's something she can do but in some instances it just leads to issues like this. "What about foregoing the power aspect entirely?"

"Huh? But… what… what do you mean?"

Here it is, the disconnect of her vision. "Instead of trying to make it as powerful as the original, why not let whoever gets the copied power determine with their own power how strong it is."

"Like what?"

"Copying my ability and giving it to Nagisa would result in a much weaker one. But giving it to Komachi would probably make it a good deal stronger."

"Oh… Oh! That's really smart! You're so clever, Tsubomi!"

"If I didn't know you so well that would sound like sarcasm."

"It's not."

"I know."

"I love you, Tsubomi!" Flying at her girlfriend with a leaping jump, Erika was caught as if it was a practiced act.

"I love you too, Erika." Ahhhhh, I caught her! I didn't fall! Yes, yeessss! Trying to look calm and collected didn't work out so well for Tsubomi. Her lipline was all curly and her eyes were burning bright with pride.

While all that was going on, Hibiki had taken some lunch back up to her room. She felt bad about multiple things. One, that she had no idea what Itsuki actually liked to eat because she'd never paid attention to that. Two, a consequence of the first, that she felt like a bad girlfriend because she wasn't paying attention to something like that. And three, that she just left Itsuki on her own, even if she wanted her to.

Carrying a large bento box with her, she had opted for some really basic choices. Rice, wieners, egg omlette, some pickled plums and pieces of fried veggies. Surely nobody could dislike any of those. Feeling as nervous as on a first date, Hibiki suddenly hesitated opening the door to her own room. We've been hitting it off so well, I never even stopped to think about how lucky I am to have her… or that I'm being really inconsiderate. I can't remember a single meal she's had since we got here. Or what kind of music she likes. Or movies. Or books. Or really anything. It's all just live in the moment with me… I need to do better than that.

This was prompted largely by Ako bringing up her own future prospects and how she had been thinking about how she could introduce Urara to her parents. Hibiki had never really thought about that, much less how she'd tell her parents she was into women. She had just gone day to day floating on a new romance cloud and not thought about anything. That realization hit her like a surprise test determining seventy percent of her final grade.

Knocking twice, she swallowed. "Itsuki?"

There was no answer from inside and after knocking one more time, she slowly opened the door. The room was dark, the window shutters closed and the lights off. The light entering from the hallway illuminated a messy bed on top of which Itsuki was lying, sprawled out in a much messier way than usual. "Itsuki?"

Groaning quietly and still mostly asleep, Itsuki did respond.

Going in, quietly closing the door behind her, Hibiki needed a moment to adjust to the darkness. Slowly stepping forward, her foot got caught on Itsuki's discarded clothes on the floor. She hadn't looked naked, so that had to be her jersey and pants.

"Itsuki." Hibiki spoke really quietly. "I brought some food."

More groaning and Itsuki turned over, as if to signal go away. She groaned louder after that.

"I'll put the bento box on the dresser." I should probably leave her… right? I don't know what Itsuki is like when she's really exhausted or angry or in a bad mood either… uhwah… I'm a terrible girlfriend. I don't know the first thing about her and-

"Hibiki…" Itsuki exhaled really loudly and slowly.

"I'll go, I'll go!" Backing away, hastily putting the bento box down, she stumbled on the discarded clothes and hit the ground like a bag of beans. Ow! Shit damn!

"Don't." Itsuki breathed in deeply, then exhaled slowly. "You brought food?"

"Lunch. Bento box." Hibiki tried to be as quiet as possible without becoming inaudible.

"I love you…" She rolled over. "My body feels like… crumbled up paper."

I can tell. "I… thought you should eat something."

"Hm… feed me."

"E-Eh?"

"Too tired to eat… feed me?"

Hibiki immediately lapsed to mental images of Itsuki going Aaaah~ and it being very cute and somewhat erotic but that was definitely not what this was gonna go like. Shaking it off, she struggled to get on her feet and grabbed the bento box. "S-Sure."

"Sorry to be a bother."

"You're not. I'm… happy you don't want me to leave you alone."

"Can't really rest if I'm right next… to my sexy girlfriend."

Stop making me blush when you're barely able to move! "Y-Yeah…"

Sitting down at the edge of the bed, Hibiki opened up the box in the dark and Itsuki rolled over, opening her mouth like a baby bird. Picking up a wiener – on the third attempt – with the included chopsticks, Hibiki fed her girlfriend.

"Chewy."

Going for the rice next, Hibiki dropped half of it on the sheets before getting it to Itsuki's mouth. This isn't working. Propping up her own pillow, then taking the one that Itsuki wasn't even lying on anymore and doubling them up, she put the bento box on the ground, then shoved it aside gently with her feet, and leaned toward Itsuki. "I gotta get you to sit up. I… don't want you to choke on anything."

"Eh…" Itsuki sounded less than willing.

Touching Itsuki as gently as if she was a house of cards, Hibiki pulled, lifted and supported her girlfriend until she sat up, using the doubled up pillows as a backrest. Woah… bruised all over was really no exaggeration. She looks like one of those shonen anime characters after being destroyed by the final boss. "Is this okay?"

"Hm… I think I gotta ask Tsubomi for a little help later."

"Yeah. I agree." Hibiki couldn't imagine trying to snuggle with someone who had more bruises than a dalmatian had spots. And snuggling was integral to her well being. Probably Itsuki's, too.

Moving off the bed, Hibiki got on all fours, very slowly and very carefully feeling for the edge of the bento box. Why the heck did I pick a black box? I'm such an idiot! Finally finding it after what felt like long enough for Itsuki to go back to sleep, she sighed, and got back on the bed.

"Sorry to be such a bother."

"Not you! I wasn't sighing about you! I brought a black bento box like an idiot and then couldn't find it! I'm not bothered by you at all! I love that I can take care of you for once!" The words just gushed out of her with no filter whatsoever and she was oh so thankful for it being dark because she wanted to hide her super embarrassed face after.

"You're so cute."

"Don't say cute."

"Sexy?"

"No talk, eat." Hibiki couldn't handle any more heart throbbing feelings right then. Feeding someone sitting upright was a lot easier.

Silently doing so, Hibiki shifted onto the bed, placing the box in her lap. Before she knew how, she was holding hands with Itsuki with her left, feeding her with her right hand. "Isn't this… too harsh?"

"It's actually seasoned pretty well."

"Not the food!" Hibiki chuckled. "Stop making me laugh, this is serious!"

"It is really hard."

"Shouldn't you take a day off?"

"I'll be good as new after Tsubomi heals me."

"Is that really okay… I worry about you."

"Didn't you blow yourself up yesterday?"

"I was healed!"

"See?"

"That's… is that the same? You're all battered even now."

"Each time I was healed by Echo I had just a couple bruises left, but… I had to be healed a lot."

"Aren't the others taking advantage of you?"

"This is what I want. My next step is… the height of martial arts. To sense attacks without thinking, to have the perfect defense."

The box was getting pretty empty at this point and Hibiki had to turn on the desk lamp to see the leftovers. Seeing Itsuki's bruising in the light made her feel even worse. "That looks so painful."

"You know what would help as much as Tsubomi's healing?"

"A massage?"

"Oh, I was thinking a kiss, but a massage after healing would be nice too."

"Uh… I've never actually… given anyone a massage."

"Unless you punch me it'll be good for me."

Hibiki had forgotten how insanely suave Itsuki could be. Stupid sexy handsome lovable… "How do you feel?"

"I had some tasty lunch and my girlfriend is here."

Keeping on blushing little by little, Hibiki clenched her fist. "Be serious."

"I am."

"How-"

Itsuki leaned forward, using her free arm to support herself, stealing a kiss from Hibiki. "Why would you doubt I'm serious? Having you by my side is the best mental health treatment I can think of."

"If my head explodes some day, it'll be your fault!" Hibiki's voice was a few notches short of hysterical by embarrassment.

"I can carry that burden."

"Bet you can!"

"Are you okay for time?"

"For what?"

"Your own training."

"Plenty. Last group."

"I'll have the bed clean and warmed up when you come back."

Hibiki smiled and then looked down. "Do you… think I'm a good girlfriend?"

"Did someone say something to you?"

"I just… realized I don't really know what you like to eat, or your hobbies, what music or movies you like, how you get along with your family… It's all me, me, me and-" Hibiki was shut up by Itsuki pulling her close, turning her half around. "Stop, stop, stop, the box!"

"It's almost empty." Hugging Hibiki from behind, Itsuki rested her forehead against the back of Hibiki's head. "I don't know those things about you either. We're stuck in some other time and space place. Those things have to come up naturally."

"You think so?"

"Even if I asked you to make a list, I wouldn't remember most of it because it's just information dumped onto me."

"I should at least know what you like to eat… we ate together so many times."

"If someone asks me what you like to eat I would just say Pizza and pretend that's right."

"I do like Pizza."

"So does everyone. The point is I haven't paid attention to what you have been getting for lunch or dinner either."

"So we're both bad girlfriends?"

"I do like me a bit of a bad girl."

"How do you even do this?"

"What?"

"Turn anything I say into some… thing that sounds good!"

"Well, maybe I'm a ray-"

"Of Sunshine? Even I could see that one coming!"

"How mean, stealing my pun from right under my nose."

"Are you feeling better now?"

"Lots."

"But you still hurt all over like crazy."

"Well-"

"I can feel your arms and hands shaking." Hibiki very gently plied herself free. "I love you Itsuki, but I don't want you to try and console me when you're obviously gonna suffer from it."

"I've gotten beaten up worse than this before. I can handle this much just-"

"Bet you can handle it, but I don't want you to."

"How did I ever snag myself such a good girlfriend?"

"Didn't I snag you?"

"You kind of just intruded into my room, yeah."

"Best mistake I ever made."

"Come here, you-"

Hibiki grabbed both of Itsuki's wrists and felt the bento box slipping from her lap. It had been a miracle it stayed on there until now in the first place. "If the bed gets all covered in bento leftovers, I'll go sleep on someone's couch."

"Okay, okay." Itsuki chuckled and immediately regretted it. "Ow, ow, ow…"

"I'm getting Tsubomi. Watching you all bruised up and ignore it is making me queasy."

"You're not helping me put on clothes?"

"I know you worked with Tsubomi in the fashion club. She's no doubt seen as much of you as I have."

"Maybe not as much but probably close… I never thought of it that way but I have a pretty good recollection of what those three look like with basically nothing on…"

"I'd die of embarrassment."

"Erika has a way that makes you feel stupid for even thinking that."

"I'm… not sure what to do with that information."

"Neither do I."

"Don't go back to sleep."

"I'll full and charged with girlfriend energy, no promises."

"Lucky that Tsubomi is in the same group as me, so I know she's around somewhere."

"Good luck."

"Be right back."

"Love you, my precious bad girl."

"Don't call me that!" Hibiki took the box in her hands, got off the bed and hurried to the drawer to put down the box. Escaping before Itsuki could say even one more nice thing, she took the deepest breath she had ever taken. I am definitely marrying that woman no matter what. I can't even imagine doing better than this.

=== DISSONANCE ===

"I hate her." Yami was wobbling in her chair a little, barely able to focus on her pasta. "Everyone else is doing this cool stuff and I'm just doing practice shooting range every day… I hate Echo."

Sitting at her table with her were Yuri, Alice and Miki. On behest of Miki, Yuri made an attempt to spend some more time with Yami and Alice tried her very best to not put Yuri in a difficult position and so she made scarcely a single overtly affectionate gesture towards Yami during dinner.

"You say that but you'd be singing a different song if she actually put you through the paces like the rest of us." Yuri felt Miki kick her foot. What?

"What Yuri means to say is that with your powers being new and open for development, you'd fracture your capabilities and end up with a weird hodgepodge instead of a solid basis."

Yami looked at Yuri with a scowl and then at Miki. "I can tell who the better-" She shut up when Alice cut her off rather abruptly.

"How is it going on your end, Yuri? Any progress?"

"I made a twig disappear." Yuri looked like she was eating a teabag.

"That's better than me." Miki couldn't even bear to look at anyone.

"Looks like it isn't going that well for any of us." Alice deliberately skipped on telling everyone how much she managed to not achieve today.

"Is… that how it goes for everyone?" Yami was genuinely looking surprised.

"Peach managed to turn herself green." Miki brought up one of the less gross examples. "She was trying to swap a cut on her finger with a plant. Did not go well."

"I feel bad for what happened with Passion…" Alice sighed.

"Eh?" Miki hadn't heard about this. "What happened?"

"She was screaming at herself and… things did go a little out of control from there."

"I think I heard her screaming once." Yuri got out of her chair. "Anyone else need refill?" She picked up her glass.

"That would be nice of you." Alice put her tall glass forward.

So did Yami. And when Alice gave her a quietly scolding look, she found the appropriate word. "Thanks." She murmured the next bit. "Yuri-nee."

Blushing at that, Yuri felt her heart beat a lot faster. "S-Sure."

She had barely left earshot when Miki could no longer hold in her laughter. "I wish I could get her to blush like that."

"I shouldn't have said anything." Yami felt just as embarrassed now.

"Don't get me wrong, Yuri loved that." Miki smirked wide. "That was her I don't know how to deal with this look, in a good way."

"Seriously?" Yami looked towards where Yuri was.

"She's still struggling with how to be a good sister. She doesn't really have any experience in that."

"Yami is going to do her best to be a good sister to Yuri, too, right?"

Bridging her fingers for a bit, Yami looked down at the pasta, hoping that Alice and Miki would just forget about this if she said nothing. But of course that didn't happen.

"Right?" Alice reiterated.

Nodding quietly, Yami looked almost shy about the whole affair.

"I wish I had a little sister like you." Miki on the other hand wasn't shy at all.

"If you marry Yuri, she will be." Alice suggested it with a big smile.

"That's true. A nice bonus. And if you marry Yami, that would make us not quite related but still somewhat related." Miki was just forcing the gag along now.

"Having such a tall and confident relative could be convenient for social gatherings." And Alice supported that.

"Hoh? I wouldn't come to those for free though."

"I'd make sure there would be… compensation and contacts to be made."

"Now we're talking."

"What are you talking about?" Yami was completely lost.

"Mostly joking around." Miki smiled at Alice but there was a glint of seriousness in her eyes. Alice returned that in spades.

"I still hate Echo… I'm so bored and tired and it doesn't make for any funny story like Peach turning green…"

"Itsuki was so bruised up that I worried she had internal injuries. Saki had to carry Komachi back because she was so exhausted that she couldn't even stand anymore."

"I get it, I get it… shit."

"Yami, language."

"I'm not even allowed to say shit?!"

"Cut her some slack." Miki shrugged when Alice briefly glared at her.

"I want you to be able to attend high-society events by my side when we go back to earth."

"Someone is very serious about this."

"I've only been with Yami for a little while but if something happened to her, I would-"

"Nothing is gonna happen to me." Yami frowned.

"What's happening to who?" Yuri finally got back, carrying two glasses in one hand and a third in another. "Here."

"Thank you." Alice, again, glanced at Yami.

"Thanks… Yuri-nee."

"You should probably limit that to two or three a day or she'll explode." Miki ducked away when Yuri took a swipe at her. "It's true!"

"Shaddup!" Yuri was so embarrassed she slurred her words.

"How long is this training stuff going?" Yami yawned loudly.

"It's only been a few days." Miki moved her shoulders back and forth a little bit. "Coming up with new techniques is not that easy."

"I'm already tired of trying to hit a target I'll never hit…"

"Should I ask Setsuna for help?" Alice wanted to be helpful.

"Setsuna?"

"She has short-range teleport capabilities, but she isn't nearly as fast as Echo. Maybe you can land a hit on her."

"Shooting at Setsuna is kinda…"

"That line of thinking might be a problem when fights resume." Miki looked to Miki, who had stayed out of the whole conversation about Yami being tired of shooting practice.

"Fights are different!" Yami clenched a fist. "I could shoot even Yuri… nee."

"Y-You don't have to call me that if you hate it." Yuri could barely look up under the heavy weight of what she was feeling.

"I don't hate it though… it's just a bit… you know." Now the younger Tsukikage was blushing too.

"I'm gonna be jealous if you two keep that up. You're making a shoujo manga heroine look like an amateur."

"As usual I don't get your references…" Yuri was not the manga reading type.

"My, I do! And you're absolutely right. Their routine does feel reminiscent of it. Particularly the main couple from Watashi no Tamachi to Kodoku!"

"Wow, that's a real old one. Isn't that from the eighties?"

"One should not ruffle their nose at the classics."

"True."

"Yuri-nee, what in the world are they talking about?"

"Manga. I assume." She groaned a little. "Honestly I have no clue."

"When we get back, I'll introduce you to some really good manga, Yami."

"What do you have in mind?" Alice's eyes widened a little at the prospect of non-curated manga content being brought to Yami's attention.

"Everyone likes different things. I do like shoujo but I also like sports and some seinen things."

"I really don't understand the appeal of a sports manga. Wouldn't it be better to play sports yourself then?"

"Isn't that the old argument you can make against anything manga? Why read shoujo if you can experience romance for yourself? That kinda line of arguing."

"I suppose you have a point."

"So first we gotta ascertain what kind of manga suits here. I'm thinking, we show her the big hitters of the genres. Things like Dragon Ball, Waga Jinsei e Koi Suru-"

"This tastes kind of bland…" Yami was not even listening to Alice and Miki anymore.

"Want a fried egg on it?" Yuri offered. They were both tuning out their girlfriend's respective obsession fueled chatting.

"On pasta?"

"It's good."

"Really?"

"It's fine if you don't-"

"No, I wanna try. If you really think so."

"Only a terrible person would play food pranks on their little sister."

"I probably would." Yami smirked.

Yuri shook her head. "Guess you're still a little bit evil."

"Not as evil as Urara."

"That's true."

"So… where do I get this fried egg?"

"Come." Yuri got up. She was having a cold dinner to begin with so the frequent leaving the table didn't bother her at all. And getting Yami away from Alice for a moment was a nice bonus.

Following her sister, Yami just blurted out stuff. "Is it true that me calling you Yuri-nee makes you happy?" Yami could see Yuri's ears get red from behind.

"Y-Yeah… I honestly didn't know how this was gonna play out and… I'm not the best at communicating my feelings."

"That's okay. Everything Alice says has two meanings."

"That's… who taught you that?"

"Alice did. But I'm glad you're just awkward."

"Can we not call it that…"

"Do you want Yuri-nee or Nee-san?"

There was a prolonged pause. "Y-Yuri-nee is better."

"Then, Yuri-nee, I think we just passed the fried eggs." Yami turned halfway and pointed at a hot plate front that had fried eggs sizzling on it.

Yuri groaned loudly, made a heel-turn and rushed past Yami. "I'm so not used to all of this!"

"I prefer you like this. Not always nagging and telling me what I should do or can't do."

Yuri's shoulder slumped. "I… have no experience being a sister. And my only reference is Momoka and she's Erika's sister." Even though Yami is quite a bit like Erika… I can't be like Momoka. No way.

"Alice said we might fight a lot because I'm, her words, brutally honest. I really don't think so, I just don't like that double meaning way of talking that Alice does. I don't wanna guess what someone means when they say it."

That's what being brutally honest is. "We… might fight quite a bit. I accept you and Alice are in love but… if that doesn't work out, just know I'm still your sister."

"You're still my sister even if it works out. And you'd be Alice's sister-in-law."

"I mean… Uh… forget it."

"Okay."

"I… have to say that you're not at all what I expected when you first… got to us."

"You wanted someone more evil?"

"No, I mean… the Yami that was… I mean, Dark Cure, what you were-" Yuri struggled for words. Why am I so awkward with just her?

"Aren't ex-villains kind of really diverse? Kaoru and Michiru are the teasing but mysterious type, Setsuna is extremely kind and caring, Urara… wait, she's not an ex-villain. Ellen is kind of timid but also really cool. And Regina is just ultra cool and absolutely badass."

"You really like Regina a lot huh."

"She's my role model!"

Could be worse… at least Regina is in an extremely stable and dedicated relationship. "She does seem rather together."

"Huh?"

"I mean… let's just go back to the table."

"It's kinda funny to see you like this."

"Like what?"

"Messy!"

"Messy…"

"Not the usual Yuri-nee that's all cool and on the moral… high-horse? Something. You're much more sister-like now."

"I'm not sure how to feel about that…"

"I'm happy though."

"Well, at least that's good."

Back at the table, Miki and Alice was watching the two sisters with incredible fascination. "This went a bit better than I expected." Miki didn't have such great hopes that getting dinner together would improve their relationship much, but small steps.

"I'm glad you and I are of the same mind in this."

"I want Yuri to be happy and I think her having a good relationship with her little sister is important in that."

"That is much how I feel about Yami."

"We might make great in-laws."

"Yami brings a very refreshing breath of new air to my life. If at all possible I will absolutely consider marrying her."

"Have you told her that?"

"At this stage? Of course not. She'd probably feel burdened by that."

"You've kind of changed."

"I have?"

"You're using a lot of contractions now."

"Yami's influence no doubt." Alice smirked.

"If Yuri and I keep working out like this as a couple I would like to marry her, too. But I don't want to talk to her about that yet. She's very cool and serious but beneath all of that she's kind of emotionally fragile."

"I'm surprised you have that kind of insight."

"I'm pretty and smart."

"On that topic-"

"Yes?"

"Having you attend one of the functions hosted by the Yotsuba conglomerate was not entirely for amusement."

"Figured. But until we actually get back, there is no way to know what sort of economical climate you're dealing with, right?"

It was at this point that Yuri and Yami came back and Yami had loaded four fried eggs onto her pasta that brought new life to it. Sitting down, they didn't even try to understand what was going on after hearing economical climate just seconds before.

At another table, the mental squad was doing everything in their power to avoid going mental. Inori was on her fourth cocktail, Miyuki was chewing on the plastic straw that came with hers and Kaoru was already on her sixth. After experiencing the dulling of mind once – Kaoru's words – she had decided to tell her compatriots about the wonders of getting hammered to recover from the mental anguish they inflicted on each other during training. A hangover was nothing compared to the horrors of remembering everything and being able to clearly remember the waking nightmares.

"We need a guinea pig." Inori played with her long glass and emptied out the rest, raising the glass further so the ice cubes slid into her mouth. Crushing them with her teeth and and serious sound, she felt sort of evil and very cool.

"If only." Kaoru played footsies with Inori until she got kicked hard. "Nobody's gonna volunteer for that."

"I'm so done slobbering over the floor." Miyuki was a mean drunk, in theory. What qualified as mean for Miyuki was just normal for everyone else. "I don't wanna feel like my eyes are going to come out of my nose anymore."

"Don't even mention that. Nasty." Inori clicked her tongue.

"I know right?" Miyuki grabbed some of the peanuts that were in a large bowl in the center on the table. She had eaten an entire bowl already and this was the refilled one.

"We could ask Echo if she can make a guinea pig but the problem is also feedback." Kaoru had thought of that before but there was an obvious drawback.

"Yeah, yeah… having someone random give us feedback on what exactly is happening is just… useless. Why's there only three of us anyway?!"

"Shadow clones!" Miyuki threw out a random idea.

"The damage would either come back to us or the clone would just go poof and we'd have no feedback at all." Kaoru shot that idea down.

"Boooo…"

"Actual clones would work but then how do we get rid of them? How do we tell them apart from the original?" Kaoru had a follow up.

"That's serious villainy territory, I'm not comfortable with that." Inori waved her hand at Kaoru. "Gonna get seconds."

"Second-second-second-second-seconds!" Miyuki cackled, grabbed a single peanut and fired it at Inori who deflected it effortlessly, brought the remainder of an ice cube to the tip of her lips and took aim at Miyuki.

"Ieeeeeeee, gross!" Miyuki turned away and covered with both arms.

Licking it up and crushing it, Inori sneered. "You're ten years too early to play games with me."

"Scary, scary." Kaoru smirked at the obviously display of low tier villainy. Very, very low tier.

"Everyone the same thing?"

"Give me something else, this is starting to taste like dish soap. Anything else." Kaoru was playing with the glass and then shoved it away. A light blue remainder was inside.

"Got it. One whatever for Kaoru. Miyuki?"

"Anything pink."

"There really is nothing but pink in your brain. I bet your brain is pink too." Inori rolled her eyes and walked away, swaying a little.

"'Course it is! Brains are pink!" Miyuki was shouting after Inori.

"They're only pink in movies and anime." Kaoru enjoyed toying with Miyuki a little but not nearly to the degree to which she played with Yayoi.

"No way. You're lying."

"We can go check out the training group and see if someone cracks open their skull."

"Barf." Miyuki made grimaces at Kaoru. "Barf."

"You did do plenty of that today."

"So did you!"

"Fair." Kaoru appreciated it when Miyuki could talk back.

"You also peed yourself!"

"Did not."

"Did!"

"That was one of your hallucinations."

"Nuh uh, I remember-" Miyuki felt the chill of death. "I remember all those fancy colors and… wait… maybe it was a hallucination."

"See?" Kaoru's smile was maximum danger zone.

Inori came back, putting down the glasses with enough force that the contents nearly spilled. Falling into her chair, she flapped her lips. "Mental attack training sucks."

"Really does!" Miyuki raised her fist in a ey-ey-oh fashion. "It suuuuuck!"

"So what are you two gonna do about naming?" Kaoru sipped on her stark green drink and nearly felt like breathing fire. "The hell is in this?"

"It said Anaconda Devil on it." Inori shrugged.

"Tastes like the devil for sure." Kaoru eyed it with mistrust and then hammered down a good quarter of the glass, slamming down the container and making a noise that was half snake hiss half toad croak and as unpleasant as one would imagine. "Ghhrraaaaaarrkkkkk!"

"You're not human." I got that as a joke and she's putting it away.

"T'chnic'ly am no'. Guragh." Kaoru wildly flung her head side to side. "It's like drinking demon lord blood."

"You ever meet an actual demon lord?" Inori knew the answer to that.

"Di'dn call 'imsef un, but-"

"Hahahahaha, Kaoru ya slurring slurry slurry slurring everything!" Miyuki was laughing loudly.

"Shuddududup pink brain."

"Yeeeeah, I'm pink brain and I'm pink all all over!" Getting to her drink, Miyuki hammered the entire thing down, breathed out like a lung cancer patient, slammed down the glass and fell off the chair.

"Look what'ya did, dumbass." Inori cursed at Kaoru.

"'s no me faul' she-"

"Just own up to it."

"Ya, ya, ayrighto. 's me goin' tso far."

"Miyuki. Miyuki." Snapping her fingers repeatedly in front of Miyuki's face, Inori cursed under her breath.

Gagging twice, but keep it down, Miyuki rolled onto her back. "Every… thing turning…"

"You're not used to drinking, you can't go downing cocktails like that." I hate that I have to be the responsible one even now. But I can't leave her alone.

"S'ryy." Kaoru was squatting next to Miyuki all of a sudden, wobbling so much she had to hold on to the table.

"And you, why'd you put away that obviously not safe for consumption thing?"

"'ths 'at I want." Kaoru breathed out hard and the smell of her breath was like straight out of hell.

"Michiru!" Inori shouted, way over the required volume. It only took a few seconds before Kaoru's sister was there, picking up the worst of the three drunkards. "Keep 'n eye on her."

"N-nooooeeeee… m'h drink…" Swiping at her glass as Michiru pulled her up, Kaoru was taken away by force and against her will.

"Now what do I do with you…"

"I can make sure she gets to her room at least." Saki appeared from behind Inori. "You okay?"

"Just getting drunk."

"Is that really a good idea?" Inori scowled at Saki as a response and the big well meaning Cure shrugged and picked up Miyuki. Her head was turning funny in all directions.

"She might puke on you."

"Eh…?"

"Wah… spinny spinny spinny…" Miyuki gagged and kept it down a second time.

"Already two down?" Urara, who had chain impressions all over her skin everywhere, walked right up to Inori. "Can't leave you for ten minutes."

"Oh shut it." Inori pulled herself up and into her seat, looking at the now almost abandoned table. "Shit… one of them a stupid daredevil and the other a rookie who has no idea what pace is…"

Pulling Kaoru's chair back to the table, Urara sat down and only sniffed on the green drink. "No wonder she goes down when she downs something like this."

"What's this, what's this, we drinkin'?" Regina had appeared as if summoned by the prospect of a drinking party. "Oh peanuts." Grabbing a whole fist full, she fit as many into her mouth as she could.

"Regina, what are you doing?!" Ange was shouting from the distance.

"Be right back, don't start without me." Regina bolted, leaving a sour looking Inori with Urara.

"Don't worry, she and I know how to have drinks without people having to cart us off."

"You saw?"

"Hard not to."

"Tsk…"

"I get how you feel."

"Doubt it."

"Doesn't really matter if you believe it or not. You want company or not?"

".. I do."

"Drinking alone is miserable. I know. Don't worry, you'll be down and unconscious long before Regina and I had enough."

"Reassuring." Inori paused. "Huh… it actually feels reassuring."

"You're all messed up in the head from training, huh."

"You could say that." Inori couldn't ignore the chain impressions all over Urara's body, including her face. "How'd that happen?"

"That's something I've been asking myself for a few hours. Best I can tell I made a mistake in allocating the spatial coordinates."

"What."

"Instead of making chains in the air, I made them on myself."

"Trying to make chain mail?"

"Aren't we funny today. That's the third time I heard that gag."

"Not a gag."

"No, I wasn't."

"Huh… does that hurt?"

"Hurts my pride more than my body."

"Yeah I know what that feels like."

"What, what, what? We sharing stories?!" Regina appeared on the scene, pulling up Miyuki's chair. "What, no drinks?" She spotted Urara's green something. "You not drinking that?"

"Neither are you, that's just a knockout drink."

"Ew. Why'd anyone get that?"

I'm not telling them I got it as a joke. "Drinks are over there."

"Be right back." Regina was high octane all over, like she had too much energy.

"She better bring something for me, too." Urara looked back to Inori. "So what's your embarrassing story of the day?"

Inori tilted to the side, groaned and buried her head in her arms on the table for a long moment. She pulled back up when an enormous clink-clank sound rang in her ears. Regina had filled fourteen glasses and then carried them in her arms like a bunch of vegetables by just pushing down hard enough to keep them from falling. "What's all this?"

"I'm not getting up for every drink." Regina pulled out a glass with something see-through and ice cubes inside and took a deep and loud sniff of it. "That's a good starter."

Urara looked over the glasses and grabbed an orange drink. "Good taste."

"Right? When we were flying all over the world, I always pocketed some booze whenever I could. Helped fall asleep when things got though."

"Inori here was about to tell us about her fuck up of the day."

"Wasn't."

"Don't be lame."

"Okay, I'll do it if you go first."

"I blew my arms off. Twice." Regina pulled up her shirt's arms and revealed really irritated skin just below her shoulders.

"What do you mean, 'blow off'?" Inori didn't quite parse that.

"What do you think happens when you fire something that has way more oomph to it than you can handle?"

"You literally blew your own arms off?" Inori couldn't believe it.

"Yeah. Twice. Ange was so pissed after the second time she nearly kicked my precious gorum nova. Oh yeah, I also blew off Ange's arms obviously. Duh."

"Your what." Urara was already one third through her first drink.

"My spear. That's what it's called."

"Silly name."

"Like I wanna hear that from you of all people."

"You bring my Cure name into this-"

"Who said anything about that? It's so unoriginal to name your chain stuff after an iron maiden."

"It's named so for the band!"

"That makes zero sense! Who the hell is Iron Maiden the band?!"

"What?!"

Inori snorted. "You two are fun."

"Course we are." Urara was almost done with her first drink now and Regina was on her second. Inori grabbed the one closest to her, a faintly blue one.

"Your turn." Regina pointed at Inori and grabbed more peanuts. They were almost gone now. "Where do I get more of these?"

"two stations from the drinks in the back. There's like a big barrel of 'em."

"Your story, now. You think I'm daft?" Urara didn't like it when someone was trying to weasel out of a promise.

"Just answering her question, calm down." I knew she was sorta intense but until now we never really interacted this much. "So I was trying to implant a subconscious command that would activate on a trigger… I had that spring on myself and the command was to execute my next audible command."

Urara snorted. "You turned yourself into a vegetable?"

Inori felt her face flush. "Like yours was any less embarrassing!"

"Sure wasn't." Urara kept snorting. "So how'd you get out?"

"Windy shut me down…"

"Better than me. I squeezed myself to death."

"Uwah…"

"Obviously I also died both times our arms got torn off." Regina just added that like it was nothing. "Normally stuff like this would take a hundred times as long because we can't take real risks."

"Well, yeah." Urara nodded. "But I can't say I enjoy the dying prospect."

"Miyuki had her own ability backfire on herself and she gnawed into her hand until we restrained her. That was really gruesome."

"Awesome. That had to be horrible." Regina could see the humor in dark stuff like that.

"Definitely wasn't awesome." Inori leaned back in her chair, glass in hand. A single peanut hit her on the forehead. "Hey…"

"Grhahaha." Regina laughed in a way only someone with villainous traits could.

"How'd Kaoru do?" Urara was mildly curious about those two sisters.

"Windy? She paralyzed herself twice and knocked Happy and me unconscious without wanting to a few times."

"Nothing too flashy huh." Not that I was hoping for any big explosions or anything.

"Mental attacks are scary as hell." Regina balanced a peanut on her nose tip while looking straight up. "You can struggle against chains, dodge a big beam and just out-range someone wanting to punch your lights out but you three are just as scary as Rikka is."

"I'd put Diamond a tier above them actually." Urara grabbed some peanuts for herself. There was at most a single handful left. She immediately flung one with full power across the room. She couldn't see where it landed but a few tables over, Nagisa was suddenly very confused and touching the top of her head. Snickering to herself, Urara ate the remainder of what she had in hand.

"You think we're scary?"

"I have no idea how Yayoi or Ayu manage to date two of you three. I'd be totally paranoid you're mind controlling me." Regina pushed back her chair and sat cross legged on the chair. It was incredibly slovenly.

"You do realize we're Cures, we don't do that sort of stuff…" Inori felt like that joke had gone a bit too far now.

"Let that one go, Regina. Imagine if I talked shit about how you're only with Rikka and Mana so they don't kick you out of the team."

"Fair. Sorry." Regina grabbed the entire bowl that previously contained a lot of peanuts and hastily ate the remainder of it. "Barrel?"

"Barrel." Inori confirmed.

"You know, you always struck me as one of the… you know the type. Karen, Tsubomi, Hikari. The well-above-board fun only types."

"That's… not entirely inaccurate."

"Making an effort?"

"Aren't you?"

"I am. I wanna be a good partner to Ako so I'm trying to be less… well, I got a bit crass over the years."

"For Ako, huh…" Inori scowled really hard.

"You have a problem with that?" Urara scowled back.

"My problem is that I don't have someone that would go that far for me."

"Make a wish that the world gets all messed up and a bunch more Cures appear."

"As if something so ridiculously contrived would happen. There's like forty of us now. That's already a number so big that if I told someone there's forty legendary warriors of light they'd laugh me out of the room."

"That's true but what other choice do you have?"

"Make work what I got now."

Urara leaned back and put two and two together pretty quickly. "Reika's good looking. But personality… does she have one?"

"What a stupid question." Inori downed a good third of her drink. She had forgotten how many it was now. "Course she does. She's just… not great at expressing herself."

"You seem to have your own problems with that."

"How figures that?"

"You must think everyone around you is stupid to not see you're forcing yourself to act in a way you don't normally do. Even I can tell and I don't really know you."

"Bravo, you figured it out. Pachi pachi pachi pachi pachi." Saying it out loud instead of clapping made it all the more obnoxious.

A metal bowl slammed onto the table and peanuts went flying into Inori's hair, who didn't even have the energy to be upset at that anymore. Regina plopped down into the chair and gasped in a low voice when Inori threw an entire handful of peanuts at her in retaliation, with the most deadpan face possible.

While Inori was getting smashed with Urara and Regina, others were getting ready to suffer just as all before them had done so.

Each group lasted for four hours precisely, starting at four in the morning, long before dawn, while the last group finished right at midnight. It was now after seven, with the fourth group's time almost being up.

"Is she not gonna wake up?" Ellen whispered, sliding on one of her boots, getting ready to be Beat and leave for training a little early. There were a few things she wanted to ask Ako still.

Love used the foot end of the bed like a seat and looked back over her shoulder. Setsuna was already under the covers, fast asleep and completely out of it. The room smelled of hot water and shampoo and it was pretty clear she had gone straight to bed after a hot bath. Love was pretty damp herself, wearing only a large dress shirt and some very thin cloth short pants.

"Not a chance. When she's this tired, Setsuna can sleep through a storm." Love whispered back. "Better safe than sorry though."

"You shouldn't wait for me to come back." Ellen pulled up the other boot and smiled when Love stood in front of her, spreading her arms and legs to be as big a shield for the inevitable magical flash of light. Completing the outfit, Ellen became Beat. Getting up very slowly, she tip-toed across the room very slowly, making sure her heels didn't hit the ground.

Love was barefoot so she could sneak silently without issue. "I'll wait. Setsuna going to bed early is one thing but I don't want you to come back and find both of us already asleep and have to undress all alone and stuff."

Beat smiled happily. "I really appreciate that Love, but when I come back I'm going to be hoarse, if I have any voice left at all, and I'm gonna need a shower and probably eat a snack before I come up. It'll be one in the morning before I get into bed."

"So?"

"So-" Beat hesitated just a moment before stepping forward, holding onto Love's shoulders so she didn't topple over, and kissing one of her two girlfriends. "So don't wait. You have training at twelve. If you stay up till one, sleeping eight hours will leave you barely three to wake up, spend some time with Setsuna and me, eat, get ready, all of that. Also I'll feel guilty and won't be able to focus."

"Wao~." Love smiled wide. "So assertive."

"I-I am the lead vocalist in a band… I'm not always gonna be shy. I just… needed time to get used to everything."

"That makes me like you even more." Returning the favor, Love kissed Beat without hesitation, with quite a bit more fervor than Beat had used. "Promise you won't feel lonely?"

"There will be a warm bed with two wonderful ladies waiting for me to slip into." Beat managed to avoid being any embarrassed or blushing at saying it. "How can I possibly be lonely knowing that?"

"Wow, you're making me fall for you all over again."

"Says the second most charming girl in this place."

"Who's the most?"

"Setsuna of course."

"A one-two finish, nice."

"Don't worry about me and go to bed love. I know you're really tired." She took Love's hands between her own. "I can feel your hands shaking a bit."

"Ahaha… ahaha… I am exhausted."

"See you tomorrow." Beat kissed her again and then quietly stepped back. "Can you-" She didn't even have to finish asking. Love stepped up and held the door handle, to close the door silently behind her.

The door closed without a sound, Love yawned, knowing that Ellen would not lie to her and planning to go to bed. Bathroom first… Heading into the brightly lit room, she brushed her teeth first before using the toilet and checking the laundry basket that was empty as usual. I asked Setsuna and Ellen and both of them said they don't do the laundry so… what exactly… She shook her head and deleted the thought from her mind.

Sneaking through the room, which really just meant walking slowly, she sat on the corner of the bed, slowly raised her legs up and little by little dove under the comforter. It only took a moment for Setsuna's partner instinct to kick in, her posture changing a little bit, her stomach free, her arms aligned in front of her chest, legs angled by the knees. After years of sleeping together always, she did this subconsciously when she felt Love by her side.

Yawning into the comforter, Love felt the exhaustion really hit her really hard. Kissing Setsuna's hair obscured nape once, she just closed her eyes, almost immediately passing into the realm of deep sleep.

In another room, Itsuki was already deep asleep and Hibiki had long since prepped herself as Melody and left so she would not wake her up. Like Setsuna, Itsuki had to get up at four in the morning. And with how intense training was, there were not few of them that used a couple of extra hours of sleep over what they would need normally.

Meeting up in the arena waiting area, Beat found Melody, Rhythm and Muse to be already there. Melody was eating cup ramen, some quick calories before working out, while Rhythm was inspecting all the vending machines. "What would Rin want after a workout… calories? But she'll probably go to bed pretty quickly after this, so something not so heavy… Soba maybe? Does Rin like Soba? Should I just wait and ask her? But then she could just get it herself… maybe that's for the best though, what if I get her something strange and she feels compelled to eat it because it'd be a waste otherwise?"

Muse was by herself, flipping through some notes she had written down onto a block of paper. Noticing the blue Cure, she waved. "Beat, come here."

Oh great, more studying. I already can't remember what a cellophane is. "Still studying?"

"If I ever want to get through it, I have to put in the hours. This isn't really any different from studying for being queen back home."

"It was that tough?"

"Why do you think I was spending so much time on Earth?"

"Oh."

"There's something I want to discuss before we start."

"What?"

"I read up a lot more on lineage factors-"

"Muse… please, no more complicated things. I can already feel my headache from earlier coming back."

"Okay. I'll give you the full explanation another day. The end conclusion was that I think you are close enough to me in terms of Hymmnos power usage that you could serve as my amplifier."

"That's still complicated."

"You're so strong you can sing the same Hymmnos as I do, with me, to boost the effect of it."

"I can't possibly use the royal Hymmnos."

"Yes, you actually can't. I am using them and using you to boost my singing by having you sing the same thing I do."

"Can we… try this another day? I think I won't get what you mean without the full- yes, yes, I know I just said I was getting a headache." Beat was not up for any more studying. "You're so impressive Muse…"

"I'm good at studying because I have to be." Muse sighed. "I was not going to suggest we should try this today, but it could be really useful in the future."

"I'll try my best to study more."

"You two are still talking about studying?" Melody was coming over, on her second cup of ramen. "This is really good, you should get some."

"I ate before coming here." Muse knew the importance of making time for meals.

"And I had dinner with Love." Beat gently denied it, too.

"Rhythm!"

"Already ate, thanks!"

"And you're browsing!"

"For Rin!"

Melody shrugged and sat down next to Ako in one of the metal chairs. "Is… all of that Hymmnos study stuff?"

Muse flipped over several pages and everything was top to bottom filled with notes.

"That's terrifying." Melody felt like all her energy was being sucked out just looking at that. "I'm not bad at studying-"

"Hah!" Rhythm laughed.

"Am not! Just not as good as you are!"

"I can agree to that."

"Tsk…" Melody clicked her tongue quietly. "That's… a crazy amount."

"I have barely scratched the surface." Muse looked tired out.

"Shouldn't you relax a bit? Have you spent any time with Urara today at all?"

"She was in training when I got up and came out just as we got lunch so… not really."

"That's no good." Beat shook her head. "I know studying is important but so is Urara."

"I know." Muse sighed in that specific I know I shouldn't be doing this way. "Being with Urara just… makes me want to be lazy."

"So?" Melody didn't see the problem.

"How am I ever-" Muse couldn't even finish her sentence before Melody interrupted her.

"Slowly! That's how."

"Time is-"

"We got all the time in the world in this place!" Beat insisted and interrupted Muse this time.

"If either of you cut me off again I am blasting you with a Hymmnos." She saw in their eyes that they understood this to be a real threat. "But… you're right. I just get really wrapped up in things when there is something I don't understand but want to understand."

"School doesn't try to teach you years of math in a few days." Melody managed a good point.

"And the books don't run away. But Urara is gonna feel neglected. I know I would." So did Beat.

"Are you two done piling up on me?" Muse was getting a bit feisty now.

"You asked me to not treat you like my future queen."

"And if there is one thing I learned in this place then it is that you have to pay attention to your partner."

Muse admitted defeat. "I'll cut back on the studying." Melody looked at Beat and in total sync they high-fived behind Muse's back, literally. "Annoying."

"What are we celebrating?" Bright showed up, with soaking wet hair and her face positively glistening like she had just scrubbed it. There was also a bit of a pungent smell coming off of her.

"Defeating Muse's study mania." Beat felt Muse glare daggers from her back. I should probably lay low before she really lets me have it… She is still my future queen so I shouldn't be pushing my luck too much with her.

"You're thinking something stupid again." Muse could just sort of tell from the shrinking back and collapsing posture of Beat's.

"Study mania?" Bright walked past Rhythm who reacted with disgust.

"What is that smell?"

"Not sure." Bright grimaced. "Must be whatever Kaoru had for dinner."

"She puked on you?" Melody looked disgusted.

Bright smiled and the smile spoke volumes over how bad it had been. "Worse."

"Worse? What could be worse?"

"She went for a kiss and then puked on me."

"Oh… Ooooohhh…" Rhythm contorted in disgust. Beat and Melody grimaced heavily too.

"That is pretty horrific." Muse couldn't imagine what she'd do if Urara did that to her.

"You have no idea." Bright swiped through her wet hair. "So I showed myself and then threw her into the bathtub and had to keep an eye on her."

"Isn't Kaoru like… really good at drinking? She's one of the ones that always hang out with Urara and Regina, right?" Melody tried to remember but it kinda blurred together. She didn't interact with any of those three all that much.

"Normally, yes. I need to tell Yayoi before she goes to our room."

"That'll be a conversation to miss." Rhythm kept her distance from Bright.

The day was winding down with the final group entering training. The first and second groups had largely gone to sleep, having to be up and ready for training in about eight and twelve hours then. Some of them were used to this harsh schedule, others struggled. Mai belonged to those that struggled.

Staggering into her room, Egret nearly fell face down into bed, not even bothering to undo her transformation. "Careful." Saki, in pajamas and looking visibly exhausted, caught her partner, sitting her down on the bed. Pulling off one of her boots, Egret turned back into Mai and she looked almost asleep sitting up. She didn't say anything to her. Letting Mai lie down, she slowly stripped her down to her underwear and then nothing. Mai was leagues away by the time Saki had gotten even halfway to undressing her.

Yawning loudly, Saki rubbed her own eyes, forehead, then temples before she put Mai's clothes on top of the dresser. Throwing her own clothes on the foot end of the bed, knowing she'd need them in about eight hours, she crawled into bed with Mai.

The lights were off and Saki was slipping away already when Mai turned about and snuggled up to Saki in her sleep. Happy about her decision to wait for Mai to come back, Saki peacefully went to sleep.

Yayoi had far less of a pleasant evening than that. Tired out, much like Egret, Peace entered her room and found the bed in disarray and horrid gagging noises were coming from the bathroom. I really didn't need this… Instead of transforming back, Peace went into the bathroom to find Kaoru hanging over the toilet, another wave of feeling sick hitting her just then. I'm not good with this… "Kaoru? You… obviously not okay, the heck am I asking… You sick?"

Kaoru looked up, her hair messy and hanging all over her face, tears running out the corners of her eyes and wobbly despite holding on to the toilet and sitting legs spread on the ground. "Peace… ugh… too much to drink…" She gagged and looked back into the toilet.

Stepping through the thankfully clean bathroom, Peace picked up Kaoru's hairband on the way, knelt next to her and got the assorted collection of strands back under control. Making sure the hairband sat right, she got back up, grabbed a wash cloth from under the sink and turned on the hot water.

As much as they teased and toyed with her, Yayoi didn't really bemoan her lot. Over time it had become a lot less truly objectionable and more of an affectionate thing. Seeing Kaoru like this didn't invoke even a hint of anything but worry. Heating the wash cloth up to the point that it felt almost unpleasant for her, she knelt back next to Kaoru and held the cloth right over the upper half of her face, like a hot face towel. This always helps me when I get really bad migraine…

Kaoru stopped gagging for a little while and started to breathe a bit easier. "And this was your chance…"

"To be mean to you? I know you tease me because you like me and I'm okay with that. But that's not how I show I like you." Peace grabbed Kaoru's left hand, raised it up and pushed it against the cloth. "Stay. I'm only going down to grab some… dry bread? I think that's what I'm supposed to get…" I really wish I knew about this sort of thing from real life and not just manga about two middle aged office ladies in love…

Peace was gone for what felt an almost intolerably long time to Kaoru. She would never admit to it to anyone, not even her sister, but she cried a little into the wash cloth over how nice Peace was being despite how she and Michiru always teased her. I… gotta talk to Michiru and we have got to figure out a way to better show how much we care about her.

Coming back with an entire french bread – she just didn't know what to get and it was the first obviously bread thing she saw – Peace put it on the night desk and went into the bathroom. "Any more… uh…" She didn't want to say puking.

"Looks like I'm empty… the wash cloth really helped." Putting it down, Kaoru looked at Peace's worried face. "Don't look like that. I just drank too much…" She felt a little sick from the light and put the cloth back on her face. "A lot too much…"

"Want to go to bed?"

"Michiru left me a bucket just in case… I got to the bathroom in time though… ugh…" Talking too much might be a bad idea…

Peace – she still hadn't canceled her transformation – effortlessly pulled Kaoru up and then carried her, in princess style, to the bed. The three of them squeezed in there and it was still a mess. "Hold on."

"Sorry to make you do all that…"

"Hm…" I… don't mind as much as I thought I would. Seeing Kaoru gagging and miserable made it really impossible to be mad at her. Fixing up the sheets, Peace went around the bed and pushed the bucket closer to the edge, right to where Kaoru was lying down. "Eat some of that."

"I'd kiss you but-"

Peace sat down right by Kaoru's feet and pulled off one of her gloves, canceling out the entire outfit. Sighing deeply, she looked back at Kaoru. "I'm not mad."

"You should be."

"Being mad is only going to create drama… that is nice to keep the readers hooked on how it plays out, but we're not characters in a story."

"You're my main character."

Yayoi blushed. "No Michiru?"

"Hm… you're both equal."

Yayoi felt exhaustion hit her like she had just overcome a brutal deadline. "I should shower but I'm way too tired."

"I definitely won't complain." Kaoru munched on the french bread. It was a little stale but she couldn't taste much right now anyway.

"I'll just bathe tomorrow…" I went to sleep without a bath plenty of times when deadlines were forcing me to crunch. And Kaoru said she won't complain.

"Yayoi."

"What?"

"We do love you."

She blushed at that open, brazen declaration. "I-I know."

"We love you."

Yayoi could tell that Kaoru was genuine. It was the same tone of voice, the same gentle passion in her eyes that she knew from herself when she looked back on her absolute favorite work. "I l-lo-lo… I love both… both of you too." For Yayoi it was easy to write the most intense romantic dialogue into her manga. But being the main character of her own romance was still giving her great difficulty.

Plucking pieces out of the bread, Kaoru kept on eating. "I need to make this up to you and Michiru both. Michiru even more than you…" Kaoru looked away like she had done something horrible.

"You… didn't…" Yayoi's expression turned from fearful to pure horror when Kaoru didn't deny it.

"It's even worse than you're thinking. I tried-"

"Ah, la, la, la, Cha-la, head-cha-la, nani ga okite mo kibun-!" Yayoi started singing anime song lyrics as loudly as she could and ran off into the bathroom. She was very much not great with gross stuff. She couldn't handle gore heavy manga at all.

Kaoru smiled and immediately felt worse. Closing her eyes and leaning back, she stuffed a huge piece of the bread into her mouth and kept on chewing on it. I need to ease up on Yayoi… teasing her is fun and all, but I… want her to be by my side for a long time. Groaning, she wished Yayoi had turned off the lights. If I get up on my own I'm going to spew all over the room.

Inside the bathroom, Yayoi was just flushing the toilet. Then she washed her own face and hands, and decided on skipping brushing her teeth because she felt the bathroom was a little gross right now. Using the toilet herself, she went back into the main room, finding Kaoru seemingly asleep. "Kaoru?"

"Eyes hurt." Yayoi took just one step towards the big lights switch before Kaoru turned on the small desk lamp. She didn't say anything else, but it was very clear that this was so Yayoi wouldn't fall all over the room.

With the big light off, Yayoi went around the bed to the other side. Her spot was in the middle. Lying on her back, Kaoru was always by her left, Michiru by her right. She enjoyed this even. No matter which one way she turned, she would have two beautiful women hug her all night long. Despite their teasing, both of those somewhat weirdo sisters were very clingy and affectionate.

Getting into bed without really washing up was not that unusual for her. Sure, if possibly she always took a bath first, but sometimes the urge to go to sleep was just too much. All her research on overworked office workers showed that this was prevalent all over Japan, too.

There was shuffling under the comforter, something was knocked off the night desk and hit the carpet below. Expecting the same, familiar entanglement of bodies as usual, Yayoi was left wanting. And as if she could read her mind, Kaoru provided an explanation. "Still queasy… and I stink."

"It's not that bad." Yayoi had dealt with deadlines and crunch work that left her smelling a lot worse than this. Kaoru had managed to avoid getting anything on herself so as long as she didn't try to kiss her, Yayoi didn't really notice it too much.

Turning on her side, Yayoi rested her head against Kaoru's chest, putting her arms around her girlfriend's waist. "Was… Michiru mad?"

There was a really long pause and Yayoi thought that Kaoru had fallen asleep while thinking of an answer. But then; "Probably."

"Make sure to apologize to her."

"Uhuh…" Resting her forehead against the top of Yayoi's head, Kaoru audibly grimaced. "Maybe…"

Yayoi caught a whiff of something really unpleasant and she suddenly wasn't so sure about just going to sleep anymore. She wanted to and she needed to, but whether she could… "Uh…"

"A shower is good for sobering up a little…"

"My head feels… kinda itchy." It's been a pretty long time since I last tried to go to sleep without a bath after sweating this much…

"I don't want to…" Kaoru, no matter how gross she felt, didn't want to get back out of bed.

"Same…" Yayoi kept her eyes closed and just tried to ignore it.

They were almost able to fall asleep when Kaoru burped and Yayoi caught a whiff of powerfully concentrated sweat from her own cleavage.

"Nope." Yayoi crawled backward and out of bed.

"Yep." Kaoru pushed away the comforter and felt immediately like the room was going upside down. Normally she would be too proud to ask for help, but she was discovering that having a less lopsided relationship with Yayoi was looking to be the definitive road forward. "Yayoi-"

She had barely said anything when Yayoi was already in front of her, holding out her hand. "Just don't fall on me…" Without her powers as Peace, there was no way she could carry or even keep Kaoru fully upright on her own.

"Will try."

Not much later than this, up in the penthouse, Ange dumped her sister onto the large bed. She didn't think there existed a single person in the world that could have matched her on the table, but despite her doubts, Urara had proven to be just as powerfully defiant to alcohol as Regina turned out to be.

Rolling over while giggling incessantly, Regina got abnormally loud and then immediately very quiet before bursting into laughter. She was a bit of an unhinged drunk, but amusing to watch.

"Thank you, Ange." Rikka was there as well, sitting down on the bed, feeling the weight on the mattress shift and catching hold of Regina's arm right as she rolled by. "Regina, you had too much."

"Noooooooo way…!" She laughed and laughed and then sucked in air like a vacuum. "Wow, wow, wow… yeah… Urara sure can drink… haha… ahahahaha…" Regina could grasp moments of clarity like that, flooding her system with oxygen for a brief moment, but the daze always came back right after.

"Ange, can you help me throw her into the shower? She smells like half a theater concessions stand and half bar."

"Nah. 'm gud." Regina rolled off the bed and landed face first on the ground before crawled, sitting then pushing herself to her feet and wobbling towards the bathroom.

"I'd be dead if I drank like that. Or completely passed out." Ange looked after Regina and after seeing her sister crash into the wall more than three steps to the left of the bathroom door, she went after her. "I'll handle her."

"Should I help?"

Ange hesitated. "Given this is what she's at now… she'll probably start to get overtly horny in a bit, so having you in there-"

"Got it." Rikka usually left dealing with drunk Regina to Mana or Ange and in some rare cases, Makoto. She was really bad at dealing with Regina like this and honestly didn't like her drinking all that much. But given that Regina always retained just a little bit of sensibilities and self-control, albeit not all that much, and rarely drank this much, she didn't really let it bother her that much.

"Ange, you coming?" Makoto had already gone to the pool house – that was what they called the sectioned off part now – and was looking out the door now.

"Gotta handle Regina real quick."

"Need help?" Makoto was not really bothered by handling Regina and she was always there to give Ange a hand.

"Just for company, that okay?"

"Is that a real question?" Makoto smiled and walked over to her girlfriend, who was pulling up Regina by her shoulder now.

"Next time… I'll be more careful." Regina burped and both Makoto and Ange gagged almost. "S'rry."

Rikka sighed and pulled off her top. Today didn't go great either. We still have no idea when Mana will be back, none of us made any real progress in training and there's something that's been bothering me all day but I can't remember what. Like I left to go somewhere, knowing I need a thing, but I don't remember what thing I forgot until I'm there and realize I don't have it. Like going to the library, reading a book, wanting to take it home and only then realizing I forgot to bring my library card so I have to go get it, come back and hope the book is still there.

Starting to fold her clothes up, Rikka stopped. "Clothes… I think it had something to do with clothes. Was I gonna buy an outfit from Mamo?" It drove her nuts. I wish Mana was here, she'd just know somehow. Why is she the only one that gets sent on a training journey on her own? I don't believe for a second that Regina and I would be distracting her like Ayumi said… well, maybe a little. Mana does have incredible trouble focusing on herself when there is anyone around. And exponentially so if it is Regina and me.

The bathroom door opened and Makoto came out, soaking wet. Throwing off her top and shorts, then her underwear, she went right back into the bathroom. "Now she's getting it."

Ange was heard shouting from inside. "Regina! Stop tha-iighhhhyaaa!"

Maybe I should have insisted I help… Rikka got up and made her way to the bathroom, on a mission to stop Regina from flooding the apartment.

=== DISSONANCE ===

Opening her eyes, she felt like she was dead. Weak. Beaten. Numb. Strangely enough, not cold but kind of hot. Her head was killing her. Everything was pain. She could smell dirt. Grass. Rain. She was looking straight up. The sky was dark and countless stars shone in the distance. A full moon was rising, or descending, not that she could tell.

She was definitely soaking wet. She had no strength to even turn. What… where… She closed her eyes. I can't… remember. I was at the hotel and… what did I do… There was… someone?

"Oh, coming to?" Opening her eyes, she saw someone kneel down next to her, looking down. Someone she recognized but was very much not happy to see. Not her. "You're lucky that they found you all the way out there. Make sure to say thanks to Namaki for sneaking off to skip out on work!" Why did it have to be her? Mana was talking to her. Cure Heart.

"I did not skip out on work!" Someone else was shouting at Mana from nearby.

Mana just smirked, looked away and showed someone the ok hand sign. "You can relax now. But how did you even end up out here?"

She opened her mouth and her throat burst into flames of pure pain. Fuuuck. She cursed in her head and squinted from the agony that her body was experiencing now. Her lips were so dry that they hurt. Her tongue felt like dried out jello. Her eyes were so dry she couldn't even shed tears.

"Here." A second person knelt by her other side now and put a metallic something to her mouth, making really cold water very slowly trickle inside so she wouldn't choke. She couldn't move her head, so she moved only her eyes. Karen?

"How's the corpse?" A familiar sounding voice came from behind Mana and a third person was now standing right behind her. Looking past Mana, she felt her mind race. Miyuki?!

"Can't you be nice for five minutes?" A fourth person was there, somewhere, but she couldn't see from her position.

"Gimme a break, Yume." Miyuki complained to her. "The way Namaki described her, what else am I supposed to call her?"

"How about using her name? It's not like you don't know it." The fourth person was berating Miyuki. She just couldn't place the voice. Sounds like… Reika?

"Eh… feels kinda weird and wrong."

"Sometimes I don't understand you."

"Can you two give it a break?" There were even more people now, it was becoming a crowd. "Mizuki, how is she?"

"Probably annoyed by all this." Karen answered and looked up, toward the fifth person. "But once we get her some more water and something easy to eat, she'll live."

The fifth person now walked over, she could see her legs and then her full body. Rin?! She was looking directly down on her.

"Hi. We found you on the verge of death out in the woods and brought you back. Now, this is definitely not the time for long winded explanations, but we're not who you think we are. Or maybe we are. That depends on what you think. But you're safe here. I'm not Rin. And I'm also not Dark Rouge, not quite. I'm Natsu. Although that-" She pointed to her left. "That is Mana. And over there, we have Nozomi. Once you're back on your feet we have a lot of questions for you."

She couldn't process any of what was happening and passed out.

=== END OF CHAPTER XXXIX ===