Foreword:

"Yeah, I'll definitely finish this chapter within the month."

-Me, over two months ago

Chapter 4 – Old Memories and an Old Bunny

Pushing Takao's sudden outburst to the back of my mind, I leisurely began making my way back towards Nagato Station, where I would be meeting Ooyodo for lunch at a nearby café.

I questioned myself as I pulled out my phone to check the time – I wasn't at the Takanashi residence for too long, so I should have plenty of time to spare…

It's 2:14 in the afternoon already?!

I'm 14 minutes late!

Without a millisecond more of thought, I broke out into a sprint down the sidewalk, weaving and dashing through other pedestrians…

Five minutes later, I finally slowed my pace as I approached the front of the café, which was simply named 'Nagato Café', probably since it was right across from the station. The building itself gave off a rustic feel with its ivy-laden brick walls and a well-worn wooden porch with numerous tables set atop.

I made my way to a shady area of the café's porch to catch my breath and wipe the sweat off my forehead before entering. It sure is hot today...You'd think that the temperatures inside these colony ships would be much milder, but whoever is in charge of the fleet's weather really seems to like emulating Earth's historical climate as closely as possible…

After a minute, I swung the café's door open, my vision taking a second to adjust from the bright lighting outside to the much subtler, atmospheric lightning within the establishment. Meanwhile, a bell chimed as I stepped in, and I sighed in relief as I was bathed in the sweet, cool air within. I wanted to relish the feeling for a bit longer, but alas, it was not meant to be.

"Welcome!" A woman greeted from the front desk with a smile. "Just one today, sir?"

I shook my head as I walked up to her, "Actually, I'm meeting up with someone. I believe she's already here."

Before I could provide any more details, she inspected me top-to-bottom as she began muttering to herself, "Hm, young man with glasses…" She stood there in contemplation for a second more before coming to her conclusion, "Yes, I know exactly who you're talking about." The waitress promptly walked around and out of the desk area and gestured for me to follow her.

She led about halfway through the seating area before coming to a stop.

"There's your date, sir," the waitress pointed a table next to a window that seated a familiar glasses-clad woman. She added with a giggle, "It's not polite to keep a lady waiting like that, you know?"

Really? Just because I'm meeting up with a woman doesn't mean that I'm dating them!

But when I turned my head towards the waitress to correct her, she had already taken her leave, and was now making her way back to the front.

Sighing to myself, I turned back towards Ooyodo, whose jade eyes were lost within the pages of a novel. She seemed to still be oblivious to me as I approached her, and soon enough, I soon found myself standing right next to her without her even noticing.

I stood for a while longer, simply observing Ooyodo and wondering when she would take notice of me. She was laser-focused, and I could clearly see she was enjoying her read by the glow of her eyes and the slight smile on her lips.

Unfortunately, her reading would have to wait for later.

"Ooyodo-san." I said, clearing my throat.

In response, she immediately jolted up in her seat and her head snapped towards me. After seeing that it was me, her face relaxed somewhat while, and she quickly closed her book and placed it off to the side before standing and giving me a salute.

"It is a pleasure to see you, Kanchou," she said in her serious tone.

Before I could even open my mouth to correct her, she caught herself and shook her head before transitioning her right hand, which had been saluting me, towards her glasses to adjust them. Honestly, it was quite a smooth recovery…

"Hiroshi-san," she corrected. She said a bit more softly than she had been previously, "Sorry that I keep forgetting what you told me."

I motioned for her to sit down as I pulled out the chair across from her and smiled, "It's alright. We've only known each other for a few days now, so I think you're making good progress with my request."

After she sat back down, I continued, "If anyone should be sorry here, it's me. Please forgive me for being late, Ooyodo-san. I lost track of the time while I was with Atago and Takao-san."

Ooyodo giggled as she nodded with understanding, "I see that Atago must have worked her magic on you then." Her giggling halted as she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "And I hope Takao-chan didn't give you any problems?"

For a split second, Takao's outburst, specifically the part where she pointed her wooden blade at me, flashed before my eyes.

"Well…"

"What did she do?" Ooyodo interrupted with a curious tone, seemingly not expecting for me to respond that her friend had indeed caused me problems.

I gave her an awkward smile as I shrugged, "She was practicing swinging a kendo sword when I asked if she had competed and won any competitions. She may have gotten a bit mad at me because of that question and then threatened me with her sword if I didn't leave…"

Her jaw dropped and she stared at me for a few seconds before crying out, "She did what?!" Obviously trying to restrain herself, she slammed her hands onto the table in the gentlest way possible, "Atago and I will definitely be talking to her about this later…"

Well, with Takao now the main point of our conversation, I might as well use this opportunity to get some of Ooyodo's insight that I wanted.

"Say, Ooyodo-san, sorry if I'm pushing any boundaries here, but why is Takao-san like this to me? It's really been bugging me for the past few days."

"Well, just for the record, Hiroshi-san, Takao-chan is pretty cold to people she doesn't know very well, so it isn't just you." She tilted her head to the right and smiled, "You know, she didn't get that 'Ice Princess' title for nothing."

She continued with a soft giggle, "It took her a while to warm up to me when we first met, and even then, it was mostly due to Atago's influence. I'm sure if you give it some time and take advice from Atago and I, she'll open up to you too."

"Hopefully," I sighed, hanging my head down towards the table. After a second, I realized that Ooyodo had avoided the question I asked her, and I looked back up at her again, "But could you really tell me why she's like this, though? It could really help me figure out how to get closer to her."

She closed her eyes and gently shook her head as she said, "Sorry, Hiroshi-san, but no can do. Like I said last night, it's a very sensitive, personal matter for Takao-chan, and I promised her that I wouldn't disclose that to anyone without her permission."

This whole Takao situation would never get easier then, I guess…

But before I could reluctantly agree, Ooyodo continued, "However, I think I at least owe it to you to give you a bit of context onto why she got so mad at you for asking about kendo…"

Now that's what I'm talking about! Finally, some answers!

She placed her slender hand over her mouth and softly laughed to herself, noticing how much more attentive I had gotten after I realized that she was at least going to metaphorically throw me a ball.

"Do you follow kendo in any way? This will be a bit easier to explain if you do," she asked.

"Other than hearing about Atago being very good at it, no," I admitted, shaking my head.

In response, Ooyodo closed her eyes in order to, I assume, gather her thoughts on what to say next.

After a while, something clicked in her head, and her eyes snapped open.

"Okay, so in essence, Takao-chan and Atago were members of our high school's kendo club," she began. "Even back then, Atago was known as one of the best practitioners of the sport in our local area of the galaxy. Not only did she compete and win tournaments here on the Horizon, but she also achieved similar success at tournaments on the Enterprise, Frontier, and Valiant fleets as well."

As I opened my mouth to ask about Takao, Ooyodo shut me down by moving onto that topic herself, "And as for Takao-chan, while she does have a certain degree of talent, has never won a tournament. She was, and still quite is, I might add, hungry for a trophy of any kind."

"She's never won a competition?" I reiterated, somewhat stunned. From what little I had seen, Takao looked like she was dedicated to her art – how had she never won a tournament?

Ooyodo slowly nodded, "Correct, Hiroshi-san. But getting back on-topic, in the very last tournament that Takao-chan and Atago competed in, Takao-chan had a sort of miracle run." She cut off abruptly and asked, "Oh, and you know Akatsuru Zuikaku-san, correct? I believe she is to be the first watch helmsman of the Yokohama if you cannot recall the name."

"Yes, I spoke a bit to her yesterday," I affirmed. "What about her?"

"So, Zuikaku-san is a longtime acquaintance and rival of Takao-chan's, and they faced each other in the semi-finals of that tournament," she explained. She closed her eyes for a split second, presumably in thought again, before continuing, "At that time, I believe Zuikaku-san was on a 5-match winning streak against Takao-chan. But Takao-chan came prepared. She had furiously studied those 5 defeats and used Zuikaku-san's complacency against her, reading her like a book and perfectly countering her with every strike."

"How could she have lost this tournament?" I commented, remembering that Ooyodo had said that Takao had never won a tournament. "I'd think her spirits would be high heading into the finals after beating Zuikaku-san. What happened?"

"Well," Ooyodo looked toward the floor with a solemn expression on her face. "Atago happened."

Oh. That's right – she also said that Atago participated in that tournament as well. Gossip about her had always included her mastery of kendo, and if she was as good in high school as she was during the academy, then it was easy to put two and two together to figure out that Takao had lost the final match to her twin, and judging from Ooyodo's expression, she had lost very badly.

"I see that you've figured out what I mean, Hiroshi-san?" She asked, her tone still containing just a hint of somberness, after a few seconds of silence

"The gist of it, I suppose. Mind giving me a fuller picture?"

She lightly shrugged, "Well, as context, Takao-chan has never defeated Atago in an official match."

"Wow," I gasped without thinking. Never? Never winning a tournament was something reasonably understandable, but never winning against another person, not even once? Well, I guess that Takao had probably defeated Atago in a non-official setting like a practice match because of Ooyodo's phrasing, but nonetheless, that was a shocking and impressive stat…

"Ah, sorry, Ooyodo. Please continue," I apologized after I wrapped up that thought, realizing that I had cut her off.

She waved it off, "It's fine. Everyone always gets caught up on that statistic whenever it gets brought up. But getting back to the story, Atago was well-prepared for her match with Takao-chan, even more-so than Takao-chan was ready for Zuikaku-san. She knew that Takao-chan was desperate for the trophy, and after only a minute of fighting, Atago feigned fatigue getting to her. Takao-chan saw an opening and went all in without having even a second thought, which Atago easily dodged and converted into a hit. The next round, Takao-chan just wasn't in the zone, so she was taken by surprise from an uncharacteristically aggressive attack from the usually defensive Atago, ensuring that her winning streak against Takao-chan would not be coming to an end."

"So, I guess I shouldn't bring up kendo competitions with Takao-san anymore, huh?" I said with a sarcastic chuckle.

She swiftly nodded her agreement, "Definitely. At least until she begins to feel more comfortable around you."

Before we could say anything else, the same lady that had brought me to the table earlier walked up to us.

"You two lovebirds ready to order?"

Really? Didn't I already tell her- oh, wait. She left before I could correct her.

In the meanwhile, Ooyodo had begun to wave her hands in front of her while she shook her head furiously.

"Ah, no, it's not like that between us!" Ooyodo erratically stammered. "We're uh… Co-workers! That's it. We're just here for business."

"Exactly," I followed up. "We only just met a few days ago. We're just friends."

"Aw, is that so? What a shame – I think you two look very cute together," she sighed melancholically.

As she said this, I instinctively broke eye contact with to look at Ooyodo – did we really give off that kind of impression?

Apparently, Ooyodo had the same thought as well, as our eyes locked onto each other simultaneously. In response, she jolted slightly in her seat, her cheeks turning slightly red, while I immediately averted my gaze sideways, back towards the waitress.

A smug smile radiated from her face, "See what I mean?"

As I rolled my eyes, Ooyodo spoke up in an annoyed tone, "Uh, I think we're ready to order…"

For some reason, it was this statement that finally caused the woman to come to her senses, "Oh my… I don't really know what overcame me over there – you two really are just too cute!"

A synchronized glare was shot from both of us towards her, which she responded with a nervous giggle, "But let's just forget that happened, shall we? What'll it be for you two friends?"

"Ooyodo-san," I began as I placed my glass of iced coffee down.

"Yes, Hiroshi-san?" Ooyodo gently placed her sandwich down and acknowledged with a tilted head.

"I'm sorry for having you talk so much about Atago-san and Takao-san," I bowed my head. "I realize that I was supposed to be getting to know you, but I ended up letting my curiosity on those two get the better of me."

As I peeked back up at her, she shook her head and replied with a gentle smile, "It's quite alright with me, Hiroshi-san. I like talking about my friends. Takao-chan and Atago are quite an interesting pair, wouldn't you say?"

"Quite so," I agreed before changing the subject, "But enough about them – I want to talk about anything but the Takanashi twins now. What about you, Ooyodo-san? Or maybe we could even talk about me if you want?"

"Very well," she acknowledged with a nod. She then blurted out, "What do you think of bunnies, Hiroshi-san?"

I sat there for a second, dazed at the suddenness, as well as the randomness, of Ooyodo's topic. Well, at least we aren't talking about Atago or Takao anymore…

"I think they're pretty cute…" I blankly answered as my mental image flooded with the animal in question.

Before I even had the chance to add in a 'Why do you ask?',Ooyodo jolted up in her seat, and she began to dig around in her bag. Milliseconds later, she retrieved her phone and practically slammed it onto the table, before looking up at me with sparkles in her eyes.

"Would you like to see my bunny?!"

"Yes," was the only thing I could say.

On cue, the holographic projector on Ooyodo's phone burst to life, displaying a collage that may as well have contained a million pictures. After a few more inputs from Ooyodo, the phone selected one of the pictures and zoomed in on it, revealing an aesthetic picture of a white rabbit amongst a field of flowers.

"This is my bunny, Raisin! But I usually just call her 'Rei-chan'," Ooyodo proudly proclaimed.

The displayed picture switched to a one containing a glasses-wearing child, obviously Ooyodo as a kid, holding up a small rabbit who I assumed to be Rei-chan.

"I've had Rei-chan since I was 5," she explained as the display switched to a picture containing a much younger Ooyodo holding up her rabbit to the camera. "And we've been best friends ever since!"

We spent the next 15 minutes looking over Ooyodo's various pictures of and with Rei-chan over the past 15 years. It was crystal clear just how much she cared for her pet, as it seemed like she remembered the context behind every single picture she showed me.

Another slide. This time, it was a middle school aged Ooyodo and Takao were sitting at a table side-by-side, concentrating on a single textbook, while Rei-chan stared blankly at the camera.

"Hehe," she giggled, "I know I said that I would stop talking about Takao-chan, but you know, we've known each other for so long, so it was inevitable that we would see her here… I believe in this picture, I was helping her-"

Ooyodo suddenly cut herself off, leaving a slight awkward feeling in the air as she composed her next words, "Actually, let's move on before I get carried away and make this talk just about Takao-chan again, shall we?"

What was there to hide about studying, though? But it's not like I have a choice anyways…

"Okay…"

A few minutes later, she continued onto a new slide – this one containing a slightly younger Ooyodo, which I could only distinguish from her modern-self because of the shorter hair, recreating the same pose as she was in the picture taken when she was 5.

"Aw, this one was taken on my 17th birthday," Ooyodo explained with a hint of melancholy in her voice and tears just barely forming in her eyes. Her voice began to break when she added, "It was my favorite picture from that day…"

"Are you okay, Ooyodo-san?" I asked, unsure of whether she was just being hit by a wave of nostalgia or if it was something more serious.

"I'm sorry you have to see me like this, Hiroshi-san," Ooyodo answered, her face scrunched up, trying to hold back tears. "I should have known this would have happened if I started looking through all these pictures."

"There's no need to be sorry, Ooyodo-san," I assured. "Everyone gets nostalgic looking at old photos."

She buried her face into her arms, "It's not like that at all…"

I guess today just wasn't my lucky day – I had inadvertently brought a woman to tears not once, but twice! Carol, Akashi, and Kirishima would be having a field day if they were here right now! At least Ooyodo wasn't telling me to get out of her sight like Takao did… But what could this be about then, if not nostalgia?

"I know you don't know me as well as Atago or Takao-san, but do you want to talk about it with me, Ooyodo-san?" I asked a moment later. "I want to be someone you can rely on as well."

She looked up and sniffled, a few tears rolling down her cheeks. She said quietly, "Well you see, Hiroshi-san, my entire family is descended from clones…"

She briefly stopped to look at me for a second, judging my reaction, which I believe was neutral at that point – in the aftermath of the First Interstellar War, with only a few million survivors of the bombardment of Earth, the UN had decided on using Zentradi cloning vats to bolster the human population back to pre-war numbers. Thus, families who could only trace their lineage to the aftermath of the war were quite common, far more common than families like mine, who had definite history from before the war. That being said, why would she have any reason to be insecure about that?

I didn't have time to dwell on that thought for much longer as she continued, seemingly satisfied with my silence, "I'm sure you're aware of the Cloning Act of 2030?"

"Of course," I answered. The real question was who hadn't heard of it? Due to a large spike of genetic diseases – oh. I see where this is going now…

"Well, my father, Nakano Sadatoshi, inherited an incurable immunocompromising genetic disorder from his parents, so he was always quite frail," Ooyodo began to explain, tears once more forming in her eyes. "He gave me Rei-chan on my 5th birthday as something to remember him by in case he departed earlier than he wanted. My 17th birthday was the last one he was there for… His health just started fading away after my birthday, and then just 5 months later, he was gone…"

What a bombshell…

"I don't know what to say… I'm sorry, Ooyodo-san."

She silently nodded and shut her eyes as she took a deep breath.

"What about you, Ooyodo-san?" I asked as she opened her eyes once more. "Do you have any health issues that I should be aware of?"

"I don't think so," she sniffled, shaking her head. "I underwent genetic therapy when I was still in the womb to fix disorders common in clone bloodlines, and I was always screened for them throughout my childhood. I'm perfectly healthy, Hiroshi-san."

"That's good," I sighed in relief.

For a few moments, we returned to eating, albeit in an awkward silence this time because of the heavy atmosphere…

However, the silence between us did give me some time to think about what Ooyodo had said about her father and Rei-chan. Most notably, while genetic engineering was, at least as I understood it, one of the main factors in Ooyodo's father's untimely demise, it was also quite ironically the reason why so many, including animals, enjoy a much longer lifespan today…

Oh, that gives me an idea to get back to talking…

"You know," I started saying without any further thought, "I'm glad you have Rei-chan to remember your father far into the future."

"I'm glad I have her too. She'll live a long, happy life just as father intended," she agreed in a rather blank tone before going back to her food.

Ouch. I guess it would take a bit more than that to lighten up the mood, then. Thankfully, that wasn't all I had to say…

"Hey, Ooyodo-san, do you remember Captain White from the academy?" I asked to get her attention back. I added a bit more to refresh her memory in case the name wasn't immediately familiar to her, "He was the super old Pacific War veteran that always did a bunch of guest lectures."

"You mean Captain Philip White?" She responded, a bit more interested this time. "Obviously – he's the oldest person I've ever seen, and he always had interesting tales and opinions from his absurdly long military career. What about him?"

I moved onto my main point and asked with a tilt of my head, "Well do you remember his service dog?"

"Of course I do!" She answered enthusiastically.

Bingo! As expected, cute animals were her soft spot!

As I mentally patted myself on the back, she began recalling, "I remember this one lecture of his I went to… I think it was 'Naval Aviation Tactics from Wildcats to Messiahs' or something like that, where he spent 20 minutes bragging about and letting students play with that old cocker spaniel of his before getting started." A split second later, she began to wave her hands in front of her as she added in, "Not that I didn't mind, of course," as if it wasn't already obvious.

"That's exactly the sort of thing I was going to bring up. That quality of him really reminds me of you, Ooyodo-san – gushing all about your pet to others," I chuckled, which she responded to by smugly nodding along. "Maybe one day, you can replace Captain White's guest lecturer position. You'd even have an old pet to brag about, too!"

Ooyodo giggled along before sharing her thoughts, "Perhaps. I'm sure that Rei-chan would be a huge hit with tomorrow's youth. But on the other hand, I think that Captain White is a much more interesting speaker than I'll ever be... It's hard to top a person who has lived through every major event in modern history."

Now that she says it, the Captain sure had seen a lot over his 140 years of life. From the Depression, the Second World War, the Space Race, the crash of the Macross, the Unification Wars, the First Interstellar War, the reconstruction of Earth… And those events were just scratching the surface!

But if he had lived that long, what was to say that we wouldn't live as long, if not longer, than him? What kind of humanity-defining events would happen over the next hundred years?

"Well, when you think about it, won't we be in the same boat experience-wise when we get old?" I voiced my thoughts aloud. "In our two decades, we've seen the reorganization of the UN Government and the Vajra War already, and we still have a lot more time until we're at the stage where we lecture kids for fun like Captain White."

She sighed deeply, "It just won't be the same. Captain White lived during a time when those ground-breaking events truly affected all of humanity because we were all on the same planet. Whereas today, things like the Vajra War only really affected the Frontier and Galaxy fleets – not us, who were hundreds of light years away from them."

Silence once again took its place between us as she finished, but it didn't last long…

"Enough about Captain White," she announced, a certain familiar sparkle reappearing her eyes. "Let's finish looking at Rei-chan's pictures!"

"Do you have any pets, Hiroshi-san?" Ooyodo asked in-between slides of Rei-chan pictures. "I realize that we've only been talking about me and her for a while."

"I'm fine with you talking about yourself and Rei-chan. I really do admire how passionate you are about your pet, Ooyodo-san," I assured her before answering her question. "But no, I don't have a pet – my apartment doesn't allow them. Although, I wish I did have one when I was growing up. You see, my parents usually didn't get home from work until late into the night, so it got lonely at times."

"Oh," she said with a frown. "What do your parents do, if you don't mind me asking?"

"They're both engineers at Touyama Heavy Industries," I answered. "At that time, I believe that they were on the VF-171 program, but these days, they're a bit busier since they're on the VF-32 program now."

"Wow, really? The VF-32?" Ooyodo repeated in an excited tone. "They must be pretty gifted at their work then, huh?"

I inadvertently let out a deep sigh. I understood that Ooyodo was just excited since she frequently worked with Valkyries and their pilots because she was an operator, but still… It's always about how good they are at their jobs… If only I could see it that way.

"Forgive me, Hiroshi-san," Ooyodo immediately apologized before I could cover up my sigh. "I didn't mean to offend you by talking about your parents."

I shrugged, "No worries. I'm not on bad terms with them or anything – I just think they're too dedicated to their jobs than they should be."

"I know exactly what you mean," she nodded with an understanding smile.

I guess her parents were workaholics as well, although I wouldn't press that topic further since I didn't want to bring up her family again so soon…

Some minutes later, we had finally reached the final picture of Ooyodo's slideshow – it depicted Ooyodo holding Rei-chan while she sat in a bed, obviously in her quarters aboard her previous station, the carrier Hayase, judging from the narrow room and the cap she was wearing that had 'UNS Misa Hayase – CV-1049' written on it.

"I usually have Rei-chan stay with me on the Hayase when we're on escort duty for the main fleet," Ooyodo explained, not looking me in the eyes. She slowly drew her eyes to mine akin a begging puppy and asked, "Might I ask if you're okay with me continuing to do that on the Yokohama, Hiroshi-san?"

"Obviously," I immediately answered, looking at her with bewilderment. "Do I really seem that uptight to you?"

She rapidly shook her head, "No, sir. Not at all."

"Good," I nodded, satisfied with her answer, "Because I just had an idea - how about we have Rei-chan be the ship's mascot?"

And as with most things involving her bunny, this got Ooyodo's complete attention.

"Really?!" She gasped, leaning towards my side of the table.

"Mhm," I calmly affirmed.

"It would be my honor!" She exclaimed, holding her hands to her cheeks.

I couldn't help but smile in response – it was great to see Ooyodo in higher spirits again.

"I trust your 'friendship' is coming along well?" the familiar voice of the waitress from earlier said to my left.

Caught by surprise again, Ooyodo and I snapped out of our previous thoughts simultaneously to look at the lady. Just how much of our conversation did she overhear?

She giggled, "Ah, I'm just messin' with you~ I'm just here to get these," she said as she picked up our finished plates. "I'll be right back with the check – separate payments, of course," she looked over her shoulder and winked.

A/N

I had a lot of trouble coming up with and writing the dialogue on this one. I tried to make it sound as natural as possible, but I can't really tell how well it turned out. This chapter sounded a lot nicer in my head to be honest. I'm also kind of winging this. I have a general idea of what to do written down in notes, but I'm really struggling to write down the smaller details and individual chapters, so that's why I always take so long to write these.

Ooyodo is a bit OOC here, I guess. She's a bit more livelier than she's usually depicted, and that's mostly because I liked her depiction in the doujin series Lovely Wife the best (you can find it on Mangadex. It's really good.). There's also the fact that both she and Takao have a serious personality type, so I toned it down for Ooyodo to balance the two of them out.

For the past few months, I envisioned this chapter taking place at a café. Only recently (as in like, a month or so ago when I actually started writing out the chapter, instead of filling up random notes about the chapter) did I realize something – do cafes really have waiters and waitresses? Wouldn't this just be a normal restaurant? I definitely didn't spend a day or two overthinking about this, but whatever. I'm sure that there's a few cafés out there that operate with table service. And, it's just fanfiction anyways...

To end this with, I want to try writing a short oneshot before the next chapter of this, so maybe you'll see something from me sooner than a month or two from now, but no promises, lol. I don't see this fic ever dying, so if I don't update in a while, I'm probably just being lazy with writing (as was the case this chapter). That's about it. Thanks for reading. Cya.