"And I'm telling you, that commander totally has a stick up his ass, did you see the glares he was shooting at us during the examination?" A brazen voice practically shouted, making the girl sitting beside her wince and cover her ears in distress.
"For all that is good and holy, can't you at least quiet down during dinner," The other girl chastised, before continuing, "And stop trying to talk with your mouth full for the goddess' sakes, were you raised in a barn?"
"I may have been, why, want to get down and dirty with the cowgirl?" The first girl teased, with a wiggling of her eyebrows, her blonde hair hanging over one shoulder, secured by a small green ribbon. thanks to the white t-shirt, brown leather vest, and tan shorts, the girl really did look the part of a country girl.
The other girl, equally blonde, though with a much shorter pixie cut, and a red hair band as a minor decoration, blushed at the insinuation, and turned away from her friend, before scowling at something, "Honestly, must you act so depraved, even now?" she moaned. She reached down to straighten out some creases in her blue dress as a way of busying her hands while she tried to ignore her friend.
"I'm beginning to wonder if that's just her default setting," Another girl, sitting across from the two suggested, taking a large bite from the piece of skewered octopus she had taken, her short blue hair hidden beneath a large green cap. "I mean, considering her upbringing, you can't expect her to be some saint. Not like miss monk over in the corner there," The girl stated, pointing off to one end of the mess hall where a woman with two-tone hair was sitting cross-legged, in a deep meditation.
"Oi, don't you two start ganging up on me. And what's with all this surprise, we've known each other for years, it's not like you aren't used to all this," The long-haired blonde stated, gesturing to herself.
"It's not being used to it that's the problem, it's drowning it out," The two girls moaned out in chorus, making the blonde wince away as if burned.
Sitting at the other end of the bench from the three was another girl, who took small spoonfuls of soup from her bowl occasionally, while pouring over the book she had laid out next to her tray. Her eyes never seemed to stray far from the thick tome, and she seemed entirely able to ignore the three. her purple and white dress was heavily ruffled, and said nothing good about her personal hygiene.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for her companions, "Oi Patchy, ain't you gonna take a crack at me too, since these two are already doin' it?" The blonde asked, "C'mon, the more the merrier!"
"Cease your harassment and get back to eating Kirisame, else I will show you why you are many years too early to challenge me," The slightly older-looking girl warned in a monotone, her eyes still not moving from her book.
This seemed to only encourage the blonde, who chose that moment to lean into her mate, and clutch her chest, "Oh, thy words wound me fair bookworm, The world grows dark! Alice, my beloved, tell Nitori, I always liked her best."
"Tell her yourself you goofball," Alice shoved Marisa off of her, blushing, while Nitori was holding her sides laughing.
Unfortunately the strength of Alice's shove was mildly miscalculated, and sent Marisa toppling off the side of the bench. While under normal circumstances this would have been no big deal, the girl had gotten back up after some rather ridiculous situations, This time there happened to be someone in the way.
Bowled over by the sudden weight attacking her, this brunette girl's tray was launched into the air without hope of being recovered, and the pair hit the floor of the mess hall in a heap, followed soon after by the remains of the girl's meal, a large bowl of soup that soaked both from head to toe.
Alice was almost immediately on her feet to help out with the mess that she had inadvertently caused, and was quickly offering apologies, as she tried her best to get both girls back in order. Nitori didn't think twice before jumping in as well, and Patchouli watched on in curiosity at the spectacle unfolding.
The mysterious recruit was the first to recover, and pushed the blonde off of her unceremoniously and without a word, before climbing back to her feet, ignoring the frantic apologies and attempts for help from Alice, pushing away her hands with no small amount of force, before simply walking out of the room in silence, her head downcast, not allowing any of the four, or the rest of the mess hall, to get even a glimpse of her face, due to the long bangs that hid most of it from view.
Under normal circumstances Alice would have chased after the girl and continued to apologize, but considering the very clear fact that the girl obviously did not require, or want, help, she redoubled her efforts to helping Marisa back onto the bench, and cleaning her up to the best of her abilities.
Marisa, had no such tact, "What the hell was her problem? all I did was knock her over, and she was acting like she'd been burned," The blonde grumbled, while Alice tried her best to wipe the girl's face with a napkin.
"Maybe she's one of those special ones, who manifests their abilities through touch," Nitori theorized, "Or maybe her powers made her into a mute, or maybe."
"Or maybe she simply does not like physical contact, and did not know how to respond to Kirisame's unprovoked attack upon her," Patchouli suggested idly, "Thus, she instead chose to make herself scarce instead of causing a scene, which the two of you are now inadvertently causing."
Both girl's blushed as they took furtive glances around the room, and soon realized that all conversations in the mess hall had ceased the minute the incident had began, and now 45 heads were turned to face them.
Luckily there were no whispers beginning to sound out, yet, so Marisa breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed her tray, "Well c'mon, we'd better go find that girl and offer her a proper apology."
The other three gaped at her in disbelief, making the blonde wince, "Hey, what's with those faces. I can tell when I did something wrong, ya know!"
"I never thought I would see the day Marisa would take responsibility for her actions," Alice stage-whispered across the table.
"I never thought I would see the day Marisa would apologize to someone," Nitori responded, making Marisa growl, warning them that they were playing too close to the explosives with matches and lighters again.
Laughing awkwardly, the two girls gathered up their own things, and prepared to leave, before Alice turned to regard their bench mate, "Patchouli, would you care to join us?" She asked softly, ignoring the faces Marisa was most likely making behind her, and the renewed laughter from Nitori.
For a moment, Alice thought that she had seen a brief smile flit across the face of the bookworm, before she looked up at the blonde girl and shook her head, "No, I should most likely get acquainted with my roommates at my earliest convenience, but I wish your continued sanity the best of luck."
Alice blinked twice at the strange wording, but still smiled and waved at her new friend, before following the two troublemakers out into the cool evening air of the island base, codename: Gensokyo.
"Ugh, you'd think they would've picked a better location than a remote island to host their top secret military operation," Marisa commented, though the stupidity of her statement made her companions give her odd looks.
"So where do you think she went?" Nitori asked, quickly changing the subject and looking up at the taller blonde. Unfortunately Alice had no more idea that her friends, so she could only offer a small shrug.
"And what are you three lovely girls doing out of the mess hall so quickly?" a cold voice, warning of danger, echoed behind the three, "Oh dear, this is the second time this evening alone, I do hope none of you recruits think that you have absolutely free reign of the base at your leisure."
"C-Commander Kazami," The three whimpered, but turned to face the titanic green-haired woman, who had a wry smile upon her face.
"Oh but girls, there's no need to be making such faces at me, I know exactly what the three of you are after," Yuuka practically purred, though it offered no comport to the girls.
"She went that way, towards block D," The green-haired woman stated as she straightened up, "I believe she was assigned to room 2, along with her three roommates to be."
Taking a step away from the trio, The green haired woman turned her back to them and smiled, "Don't stay up too late ladies, the boss wants everyone ready to go tomorrow, and despite you all being legal, you're still under our orders," The woman sang as she walked away, waving over her shoulder.
Remaining still long after the woman had departed, the three suddenly shared a shudder running down their spines.
"That was scary, I swear, I'll never get used to commander Kazami," Marisa muttered, and her friends mimicked the sentiment.
"Anyways, we know where to go now, so c'mon, we have to make it up to that poor girl," Marisa unceremoniously grabbed Alice's wrist, and began to pull her along the base, leaving behind a still floundering Nitori, who had yet to recover from her encounter with the monster commander.
Luckily she did eventually notice her friends ditching her, and jumped, chasing after them while crying, "Wait up guys!"
Around a corner, a woman hid her small smile behind a large folding fan, and quietly thanked Kazami for her assistance, though she knew if she ever told the woman in person, Yuuka would never let her live it down.
Behind her, everything flashed for a moment, and the woman was gone from sight, only the cold wind remained, heralding change.