I decided to have the characters answer any questions that applied to them.
RestaU: And for their first adventure in the world...their destination is… (No spoilers. It's in the chapter. :D)
AnimeGrim: I'll update as frequently as I can. Usually around 2~3 days between updates if I'm not busy.
Yukiho: Our birthdates? They're the same, yeah.
Arisa: We don't have official birthdays like the rest of the cast. To get around that, we were given the same birthday.
Yukiho: No date is specified though. I think the story went something like 'Arisa didn't have her birthdate registered in the system when she was put in. She needs a date to turn fourteen and enter the Range with Yukiho. Let's just give them the same date.' ...or something like that.
Eri: We don't have that much hope in finding them, and Honoka seems more interested in exploring the city now anyway. And regarding that event last chapter… *shudders* Maki offered to stick a suppository in for me to help with the cramps. It wasn't funny!
Maki: I thought it was. And I gave you the proper medicine afterwards, so it's not like any harm was done.
Dessert Maniac: It's just me trying to push pairings as (not really)subtly as I can while still maintaining the actual plot of the story.
Maki: I don't really know why I'm interested in medicine. I just really liked looking at the bottles when the infirmary first opened up. And then I found the books relating to them in the library. I guess it just happened.
Honoka: Ehehe~ I led our group for the most part. Like that time we played tag! Then everyone started following me.
Umi: If I left it all to Honoka, she'd surely get us in trouble. Someone level-headed needs to be in charge, so I ended up taking the second position next to Honoka.
Honoka: Yeah, but I do a pretty good job on my own, don't I?
Umi: Only because me and Kotori are working behind the scenes.
chi2lyn: I'm not sure how you managed to review twice on the same chapter…
Nozomi: Believe it or not, that's actually how Nico-chi reacted.
Nico: You didn't wake up with a blood stain on your bed.
Nozomi: Okay, I'm sorry. I take it back. It was funnier when I had my first one.
Nico: You try waking up to blood dripping from the top bunk!
Nozomi: The pain was worth it, laughing so much at Nico-chi freaking out.
Eri: Wasn't that the same day that Maki passed out?
Nico: Yeah. She came in, looking for Nozomi, only to see both her and me covered in blood. I don't blame her for passing out.
And now to the main story.
After their initial look at the surface world, the girls returned to the bunker. Not that they didn't want to explore their new surroundings, but faced with their suddenly enlarged world, a certain fear set in. It wasn't the city that they had remembered from their memories or that they saw in the few pictures that they had of their city and proved too daunting for most to remain outside for longer than a few minutes.
So Honoka entered the War Room the next day with her eight friends the next day, with the intention of arming herself and the rest for a true exploration. "Hm...What do you think suits me?" There was an amazing arsenal of guns to pick from, unlike the plastic weaponry they had practiced with. Umi walked over to a rifle, taking it off from the wall. "That?"
"No, I was thinking of taking this for myself." The bluenette lifted it to her eye level, looking through the scope attached to the top of the weapon. "My aim is better than most, so this suits me best." She hung the strap of the rifle over her shoulder and swung the weapon onto her back. "We'd best not use too much ammo since we don't have the ability to make more right now." That being said, she only took a single cartridge of spare ammo and clipped it onto her strap.
"I'll take this, then." Maki slipped a belt on herself, taking two pistols and putting them in the holsters on both sides of her body.
"You sure that's enough?" Umi questioned her.
"I'm the medic. I'd rather not carry heavy weaponry." She grabbed box labeled 'pistol' ammo and turned to leave the room. "I'll be in the infirmary. Someone come get me when we leave."
"Why do we have swords here?" With all the guns in the room, it surprised Eri to find blades hidden away in the drawers. Honoka shrugged, not knowing either. She was still trying to figure out what weapon she should use. "Ah, well. I'll take one. It's easier than carrying ammunition with me." The strap that her chosen sword was attached to was too large to be used as a belt, so she slung the weapon on her back.
"Rin will take these nya!" Rin said, lifting her hands out of another drawer to show off the black gloves she now wore, whose knuckles were studded with metal. She looked around for somewhere to test the effectiveness of the metal braces, but decided against breaking any walls while they were in the bunker. "Oh, and this. For far away targets." She took a gun from the wall and examined it. "It's ammo looks weird."
"That's a paintball gun, Rin-chan." Hanayo said, reading off the side of the weapon. "Why is it here? Paint isn't dangerous."
"But it sounds fun! I'm keeping it nya!" Rin posed with the weapon, making Hanayo smile at her silly actions.
"I'll take these." The brunette decided, taking a pistol and a flare gun. "One for defense and the other for signalling. I'm not a good shot anyway."
"I'd rather use blades." Nico announced, coming up with a handful of what looked like silver needles. "Look, I can wear this." 'This' turned out to be two belts that overlapped one another as they were worn on different shoulders, with small holes for holding the needles. She threw one at the wall and it stuck in place, quivering. "Yep, I'm going with this."
"I'll take this shotgun then." Nozomi plucked the gun off the wall.
"And I'll use this." Kotori held up a pink rifle with the decal of a white cat on the end. "It looks cute." At the same time, though, the thoughts 'who the hell came up with that as a design for a gun' and 'why the hell is something like that here' ran through the rest of the girls' minds but they decided to stay silent on the matter.
"Ahhh...I still don't know what to use!" Honoka grumbled, unable to make up her mind. Umi placed a calming hand on the ginger's shoulder. "Umi-chan?"
"I don't think you need a weapon." The bluenette said, smiling. "Your leadership is what's important." 'Plus, I get the feeling she'll use up a lot of ammo if she takes anything.'
"But I don't want to lead if I can't protect all of you!" Honoka protested. Umi sighed, rummaged in a drawer, and held a sheathed katana out towards Honoka.
"Use this then." She took the blade, unsheathed it, and stared in amazement at its sleek form.
"Wow...this is...not something I can use to protect you from long range though…" Honoka sheathed the katana, looking disappointed.
"Yes, but most of us have long-range weapons, so we need some close combat fighters." Just a little further and she would have Honoka convinced to use the katana. "You should use it."
"Hm...Okay then. I'll go get Maki-chan, so everyone else wait on the top floor, okay?!" Honoka strapped on the belt that the blade's sheath came with as she ran off to the infirmary.
Maki lifted the small red backpack by its straps, testing its weight. "I can still put more in...so...I'll take this too…" She put several more bottles into the back and, with minor difficulty, zipped it shut. "Carefully…" If she moved the pack too quickly, some of the supplies would get jostled.
"Maki-chan!" Honoka bounded in. Thankfully, the bag was still on the sickbed so it wasn't affected by her surprised jump. Glaring at the ginger did absolutely nothing, so Maki just sighed and pulled the backpack onto her back. "We're all ready to go now!"
"Sure…" She said, eyeing the katana that Honoka now carried. "Why a katana?" She just couldn't come up with a reason for the blade, considering they had little practice with such sharp weapons.
"Umi-chan said I should use it. Come on, let's go! I want to explore the city!" Honoka was bouncing up and down like she was a child about to embark on a field trip. Not that any of them knew what that felt like, considering their childhood in the bunker.
"Okay, okay. Did you tell Yukiho that we're going though?" She sighed again, this time at Honoka's blank expression. "I'll go with you. I think they're at the Range right now."
"Oh! Okay, then we'll go talk to them first!" Honoka walked off with Maki in tow (quite literally, as she was holding onto the younger girl's hand now) to the Range. With the surface opened to them, their normally scheduled lives were no longer as organized. That meant that any person could walk into the Range at any point in the day without getting barred from it. The two fourteen year olds were taking their first shots at the targets positioned at various distances from them. "Yukiho! Arisa-chan! We're going up to the surface to explore! Want anything?!"
"For you to come back safely probably! We don't know what's up there!" Yukiho shouted back-it was always loud in the Range with the girls practicing their aim.
"Okay! Keep practicing and you can join us someday!" Honoka clapped her little sister on the shoulder before dragging Maki back out of the Range and up the spiral staircase to where the rest of her friends were waiting on the topmost floor. "Let's go, everyone!"
This time, she took a different exit, coming out into the city in a different place. They were right next to a large staircase, that led up the hill. Small trees lined the sidewalk, next to the decomposing logs of what Honoka supposed were the trees that lined the place prior to the storm. With no real idea of where to go, she led them up the staircase. A large brick building stood in front of them, covered in moss and vines from the lack of care. "Wow…" Honoka was astounded by the building, the first she had seen that wasn't horribly damaged in some way.
"I wonder what this used to be?" Umi asked aloud, running her hand over a metal gate and looking at the reddish rust come off on her fingers. Honoka started walking over to the entrance she could see, partially hidden by the vines. "Honoka?"
"I want to explore this place, Umi-chan. Think about it. We could use this as an outside base if the inside is good." Honoka unsheathed her katana and swung it at the vines in her way. The vegetation fell to the ground as the ginger put her blade away. Glancing back at the rest of her group, she asked, "Are the rest of you coming?"
There was vegetation growing even in the halls of the building. Faded boards lined the walls opposite the broken windows, some of which were covered in yellowed papers. More of the yellowed papers littered the floor, and Honoka picked one up to examine. "'Tennis Club'...'members wanted'...I think this is a school. Or at least, it used to be."
"They built it pretty well then. To stand a storm that knocked the entire world out of order." Nico commented, walking ahead of the group to a door. The sign above the door read '1-2', but it went mostly ignored as the nine girls entered the classroom. The desks were all blown to the side closest to the door, with the windows on the other side of the room broken. Maki picked her way across the tangle of tables and chairs to look at the torn and ripped apart books that had ended up on the floor. Some had been soaked through from the rain coming through the window during the storm, and were subsequently unreadable.
"These are textbooks. Classic Literature, English, Math…" Maki unzipped her backpack and tried to shove a few of the books into it.
"What's so interesting about them?" Rin asked. The orange-haired girl had crossed over to Maki and took one of the textbooks out of her hand. "...I can't even read this."
"That's because it's in English. You would be able to read a bit if you studied a bit more." There were some books in the bunker library that were written in English with Japanese kanji above the words.
"I don't like reading that much nya...Some of the kanji is hard." Rin admitted, scratching the back of her head.
"More reason to take these then. Maybe it'll help you learn if you had actual books to teach you." Maki zipped up her backpack with more difficulty now before rejoining the rest of the group that had not crossed over the desk barricade. "Alright, where to next?"
"Up the stairs. It looks like there are more floors here." Eri said, pointing at the staircase. The steps creaked as they walked up, finding only more partially opened doors and broken glass. "Looks to be the same. There's another floor up, so I'll go check that out."
"Then I'll go with you." Nozomi followed the blonde up the steps to the third floor of the building. After a few seconds, Nico sprinted after them, not wanting to be left behind by her two roommates.
"We'll go down this hall. Scream if you need us." Maki set off down the hall, closely followed by Rin and Hanayo. Honoka was left with Kotori and Umi; the three looked at each other and then walked down the other hall.
"Hey, doesn't this door look different from the rest? It's not a sliding door." Honoka commented, knocking her fist on the heavy wood doors. With a sound not unlike a great sigh, the doors fell inwards, landing with a soft thud on the carpeted floor.
"Honoka, look at what you did!" Umi scolded.
"It's not my fault! I didn't know they were going to fall!" Honoka retorted, upset at what she thought of as false accusations. Kotori ignored the two's bickering, intrigued by the room itself, which seemed weirdly familiar to her.
She walked towards the wooden desk, touching the cool wood with her fingertips. She traced the edge of the wood as she walked around the desk to the chair. A plaque on the desk, made immobile by the glue that had stuck it there years ago, caught her eye. She leaned closer to read the characters that had faded over time. "Umi-chan, Honoka-chan...I remember what this place is." Tears built up in her eyes. "This is my mother's school. Otonokizaka Academy. She said...that one day...we would come here to attend." Kotori sat down heavily on the leather chair. Looking down into the half-opened drawer of the desk, she spotted the bottom of what looked to be a photograph. She pulled it out to see it better.
The photo floated down onto the floor, landing face-up to show the smiling faces of Kotori with her mother in front of the school's newly painted sign, an event that had taken more than eleven years ago.
How should I end this?
Oh, I know. With more feels. (I tried…)