The Witches and the Smile

(Adapted from the chapter Laura Nissinen, from the manga series Witches of Aurora by Kyougoku Shin.)

Since Hasse got shot down, the activity of Neuroi had been calming down. After all, they lost a great number of units in that battle, so they might be struggling to recover.

Hasse had been hospitalized for several weeks. Until her discharge, Laura Nissinen was going to serve as the substitute battle commander of the 24th Squadron. She was a good leader and everything was in order and falling into place under her management. The thing was, her training was too hard. Not only the rookie witches but also Eila and Nipa couldn't take it.

"You're already done? If you go on like this, you'll end up getting completely exhausted just like in the last battle. You're our ace. I'm worried about you," said Laura when she saw Eila stopping running and bending over to catch her breath. She was talking about the time Eila got too exhausted from the long fight to dodge enemy fire perfectly and then needed Nipa to put up a shield for her through the battle.

However, Laura was not only tough on others, but also herself. After she reprimanded Eila, she added, "But, perhaps you could say that about me too," and carried on with her own training, her long ponytail swinging left and right behind her back as she jogged.

Eila understood why Laura acted like that, though. Hasse's being shot down greatly shook the whole squadron, as Hasse was not only a great asset to their team, but also their emotional pillar. No one knew when the Neuroi would strike again, so they had to rebuild their troops as soon as possible.

Today's training was finally over. Eila and Nipa were sitting in the sauna, enjoying the relaxation.

"AAHH—! I'm beat!" Eila exclaimed as she spread her four limbs out. She was sitting on the bench at the lowest height, looking aimlessly at the ceiling with a birch branch in her hand.

"Yeah, today's training was really hard," said Nipa, who was sitting next to Eila. Unlike Eila, Nipa was in a quite ladylike position. Her upper half was straightened up, her legs were closed and her hands were resting on the surface of the step.

"Freaking Lapra added five more laps after all that..."

"But you see! It feels so good to get into a sauna after running around!" said Nipa as she patted her sweaty naked chest and smiled at Eila. Again, Eila noticed that Nipa smiled more and more often since they went to the hospital to visit Hasse.

"Ehhh… I'm fine with sweating in just the sauna, but this here isn't fine. I'm too tired…"

"I'm not talking about sweat! It's about the refreshing feelings after exercising!"

At a corner of the sauna were a wooden bucket and water ladle, steam rising from the ladle.

Eila exhaled, sweat drops rolling down her rosy cheeks, "Hey you know, isn't Lapra's training a little too rigid? I'm not talking about us, but the rookies will end up falling behind."

Nipa started to ponder, "Yes, Indeed. She already had that Spartan style. It's gotten even worse since she became the temporary commander. It feels that she's being as strict with us as Hasse was gentle."

"Yeah," Eila replied as she adjusted her posture and turned to face Nipa, "But it's not just that. If she took it easy and received everyone with a good smile, things would be a bit better, but Lapra's not that kind of person."

"Well, I've never seen her crack a smile."

"Same here," said Eila and immediately a sly smile appeared on her face, "That's it!"

Seeing Eila like that, Nipa had a sinking feeling. Nipa knew this expression all too well. Whenever Eila had this face, she was plotting a prank. Inside the top ace of Suomus inhabited an inner prankster. Her pranks always involved Nipa's help, which was usually more of sacrifice.

As expected, the rest of the sauna time ended up as a conference on Eila's "Smile Manufacture Project."

"Now listen, Nipa. I want you to grab Lapra's attention as much as you can. I will use that moment to go and give her the tickling of her life!"

"Using this kind of method? I think we should do something to make her happy or something like that instead."

"Nipa, you idiot! That won't work! And this ain't something for us only!" said Eila in an oh-so-serious tone. "If we manage to get her to laugh in front of everyone, we might improve the squad's mood! It will rid her Spartan image from the newbies' minds and ease their anxiety!"

The way Eila said it made it like that it was the truth. No one knew if it was really the way she felt or just a glorified excuse to justify her actions. According to her understanding of Eila's personality, Nipa believed it was half the former and half the latter. The only thing she knew for sure was that she was doomed to be party to it, because — she was Eila's best friend.

The following day, as Eila had told, Nipa approached Laura and tried to keep the temporary commandant talking with her while she was internally praying that Eila, who was hiding in ambush, could finish her job as soon as possible. When Eila jumped up to sneak up on Laura from behind, a shade of salmiakki dropped from her pocket onto the ground. Laura squatted down to pick it up, causing Eila to fail to catch her, falling from midair and bumping into Nipa forehead-to-forehead. "I don't care how chummy you are, but come on, do things in moderation." Laura just commented so and left, leaving Eila and Nipa stumbled on the ground with a bump on each of their heads.

Seeing that Plan A didn't work, Eila applied Plan B, which is having Nipa dress as a doll to amuse Laura.

"That's because it's YOU, so it's fun! If our Nipa appeared out of nowhere wearing such clothes, no one would be able to keep a straight face!" said Eila as she pushed a reluctant Nipa out.

And—

"It's pretty. Suits you perfectly."

Instead of laughing, Laura left this one compliment with her usual cool, expressionless face, giving off a majestic aura, raising a refreshing breeze along the way she walked on… So awesome! Nipa was completely held spellbound with red cheeks, while Eila, who was peeking in the corner, was hopping mad. When she walked up to Nipa and was about to give her a punch on the head, Nipa just giggled and said, "She said it suits me, hahaha..."

The one who was meant to amuse others ended up being amused...! Eila lost the intention to punch her friend, as it would be a total waste to spend strength on such an incurable dummy.

Time after time, Nipa fell victim to this oh-so-great "Smile Manufacture Project," which had yet to come to success. To make matters worse, Laura seemed to have noticed their plan and gave them dirty looks more and more often.

Therefore—

"It's none of my business no matter how it turns out!" said Nipa resignedly as she draped a white cloth all over herself, disguising as a ghost. She and Eila were in Laura's bedroom, preparing to strike her when she was asleep.

A few minutes ago...

"Aren't you frustrated? We tried so hard to make her laugh and she didn't even bat an eye! Don't you want to win against her at least once? Fufufu… My prized collection of occult stuff will definitely make her drop in fear! Her tearful face will be a mark in our history!"

Nipa could almost see fierce fire burning behind her friend.

"That's a completely different goal than before..." Nipa was completely rendered speechless by Eila's craziness.

Eventually, Eila decided to play horrible beings to scare Laura. Therefore, they two sneaked into Laura's bedroom in the silence of night, one of them dressed up as a ghost and the other a demon.

"Hey, we're ghosts, Lapra—"

When Eila was going to pounce on her comrade's sleeping form on the bed, a pair of spookily sharp eyes popped out from under the covers. A huge monster with loosen hair wormed out and stood up on the bed, staring at the invaders at her feet.

"Who dares disturb my sleep? Who's trying to interrupt my peaceful sleep?"

There was no wind but Eila and Nipa felt a freezing snowstorm was going on.

"W-wait a minute! Illu, something's not right! She's acting really strange!" Nipa, tears of fear in her eyes, whispered to Eila, who had stumbled on the floor in fear.

"Hhhhhhhey, Lapra, calm down! We're your friends, Illu and Nipa!" Eila tried to appease Laura but her stammering betrayed her nervousness.

"Illu and Nipa?" Laura's voice seemingly softened a little bit, "So what's it?"

"Nahh, it's nothing! We just wanted to give you a surprise! But maybe it's not the best time, hahaha… Look, we're already regretting this!" Before she had realized it, Eila had seated herself in the most formal position, so had Nipa.

"Is that so?" Laura, with the hint of softness still in her voice, said something even more frightening, "Well, I thought I was overdoing it with your training but… If you can pull pranks, it must mean you have some energy left…" Her lips curled upwards and her eyes closed into two curves. "All right. From tomorrow on I'll prepare a special kind of training just for both of you. Let's just say you won't even be able to stand up after it. Please look forward to it."

"NOOOOO WAAAAAAAAY!"

Finally, Eila and Nipa achieved their goal — they successfully made Laura smile. At the same time, however, they learned that smiles could not only be seen on a happy person, but also an angry one.

As such, Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen and Nikka Edvardine Katajanen underwent the most nightmarish days in their lives, until Hasse got discharged from the hospital and rejoined their squadron.