Resta U: Muse will fight to protect their school...even if they don't go to the school in this story. :D

Warning: I have like zero experience writing combat scenes.

Aqours gets their first appearance in the story, but it will still be a while before they meet Muse.

The girls regrouped on the first floor. They were satisfied with what they had seen so far of the school building and were about to head back to the bunker with the report.

"Oi, ya brats. What'd ya think ya doing, trespassing on OUR territory?" A group of men stood between them and school gate, most of whom were brandishing baseball bats/wooden clubs studded with nails.

"We didn't know this place belonged to anyone now. But if you're talking about who it should belong to, it would be my friend. Her mom was the headmistress of this school." Honoka spoke confidently. They were outnumbered by one person, but their weapons were far superior to the men's. Still, she preferred to avoid bloodshed if she could. That was one of the things her entire group had agreed on before they set out.

"Psh, who cares 'bout that?! Listen here, brat. I'm the leader of this here gang, and if I say it's my territory, it's MY territory!" There was no point reasoning with them, Honoka realized. If it was truly theirs, then she and her friends would have to leave. She reached behind her and squeezed Kotori's hand, apologizing silently for being unable to reclaim the school that had once been her mother's.

"Okay. We're sorry for trespassing. We'll leave now." Honoka started to lead her friends around the group of men, but a club stopped her in her tracks. Staring at the sharp metal points mere centimeters from her face, she half-turned to glance at the man blocking her way. "Is there something else?"

"Ya didn't think we'd let ya leave that easy, did ya? Trespassers must be punished! Boss, can I have my pick of them?!"

"Ah, sure, whatever. Just know this one's mine." Their leader, now that Honoka could pinpoint which one of them he was, jabbed a dirt-covered thumb at Nozomi. "One of ya's gonna have to serve two of us."

"Ooh, I like this one!" One of the shorter men reached out to touch Maki's hair. With movement that only came with years of practice, Maki grabbed the man's arm, wrenching it far away from her. Then with her other hand, she drew one of her pistols and thrust it against the man's throat. He didn't dare move after that.

"Don't touch me, you-" She didn't get to finish her insult as she was backhanded away from her captive by the leader's baseball bat. The pistol flew from her hand as she fell, crashing down on the bricks of the courtyard. While Eri knelt to check on her, Honoka glared at the leader.

"Ya angry, bunker brat?" Now he was teasing her, tapping the underside of her chin with his bat. "Yeah, we know what you are. Bunker brats coddled underground, ya don't know what the surface world's like. Yer lives are ours now, so ya better listen up!" He was forcing her head up with the bat. She knew what he thought of them: nothing more than weak and useless girls that would fall obedient to his desires. And she knew her friends. The only reason they had not all drawn their weapons yet was because they awaited her orders. Fighting would inevitably cause blood to fall, which she had told them to avoid.

"Yes." Honoka managed to say, with the baseball bat pressed against her throat. "It's time to fight!" With a cry, she kicked upwards into the leader's arm, forcing him to relinquish the baseball bat. She ducked and rolled backwards to Maki's side as her friends voiced their outrage. The redhead was coming to, though her eyes were crossed. "Stay down, Maki-chan." She turned back to the fight, unsheathing her katana. Umi and Kotori had retreated to a safer distance where they could snipe from. Eri and Rin were holding the most attention, being close combat fighters. She ran in to help them, her katana held out to the side to trip up whoever she ran by. Nozomi and Hanayo shot whoever went down once in the leg to prevent them from getting up and rejoining the fight.

Honoka spotted the leader of the group pick up Maki's dropped pistol and she shouted, pointing in his direction with her katana. The rest of his group were downed, in various stages of pain, and all with one or more bullets in their legs. He would be the final enemy they would have to defeat to claim their school. The tip of her katana created sparks as she dragged it across the courtyard bricks, determined to have the final blow.

"STOP! Or she's dead!" She would have punched herself in the face if that wasn't the appropriate thing to do at the moment. How had they let him get so close to Maki?! The disgusting man held the girl in a headlock, the dropped pistol aimed at her head. Maki struggled weakly, still recovering from the concussion she had recieved earlier. He dragged her up with him as he stood, gun still pressed against her head, finger ready to pull the trigger. "Ya sniper brats join yer friends in front!" Maki whimpered as he tightened his lock around her throat. Umi and Kotori reluctantly walked around him to meet up with the rest of their friends. Honoka's anger seethed, unable to do anything but stare with Maki held hostage.

Maki's left hand moved slightly, pointing at the holster still on her belt. A pistol still sat within its pocket; Maki tried to unclasp the strap without getting the man's attention, but it was hard for her do. Honoka would need to distract him. She tossed her katana out, glaring at the man. "All right, you win."

"Drop all yer weapons!" The man barked. Honoka glanced at her friends and motioned for them to do as he asked. Their guns and blades joined her own on the brick floor between themselves and their enemy. Maki had managed to get the pistol into her hand. She locked eyes with Honoka. "Heh, stupid brats thinkin' ya get the better of us. But we have no need for any of yas anymore, not after what ya did to us." He took the point of the pistol away from Maki's head and lowered it at Honoka instead.

"Do it." She said, loudly. It threw him off, just as she hoped it would. "Oh, I'm sorry. You thought I was talking to you?" Maki thrust the pistol in her hand up against the man's arm and fired. Shrieking in pain, the man dropped the pistol and released Maki; Honoka ran forward to intercept her before she and the ground had another intimate meeting. The rest of her friends scrambled forward, picking up their weapons and immediately aiming at the man. Honoka pointed her katana, which had been handed to her by Eri after the blonde picked it up for her, in his direction. "Take your men and get out our sight. If you should trespass on OUR school, you will face consequences." The man clutched his bleeding arm and sprinted out the school gate.

With the courtyard now clear of their opposition, Honoka laid Maki back down to let her rest and recover fully. While the redhead rested under the guard of Umi and Rin, Honoka led the rest of her friends around the perimeter of the school to eliminate the possiblity of any other assailants within the area.

The school was now theirs, with no other person on the grounds. Honoka watched as Rin and Nico worked together on a canvas to make their mark visible. Originally, Rin had suggested paintballing the front wall of the school, but Kotori had not allowed them to vandalize her mother's school. So the compromise was to paint their mark onto a canvas they had found within the school.

Their first adventure in the outside world over, the girls returned to the bunker to plan their next one. "I say we head to the ocean next!" Honoka proclaimed, back in the safety of the War Room. Some of the other girls in their bunker were going to clean up the school; their job was to continue exploring. "Look, there's a rail that leads to one of the cities. Um...Nu...Numa…"

"Numazu City." Eri read, looking at the tiny dot on the map Honoka was pointing at. "But how are we going to get there?"

"It's simple! We take a train!"

"Hah...hah...any luck?"

"No...no water."

"Aahhh...this sucks! Living by the ocean sucks!" Chika shouted at the sea, innocently glittering in the sunset. They, she and her friends, had been searching their town all day in search of fresh water. Their bunker still had some in store, but it would be best if they could find a source of water in the outside world, now that they had been freed from their bunker. Not that any of them actually hated the sea; it was where the majority of their food came from. "We're going to have to call it quits for today…"

"We could try moving more inland." Riko suggested, trying to ease her friend's mood. "There may be more fresh water if we follow the train tracks."

"Good idea, Riko-chan! Okay! We start tomorrow!"

While Muse plans to go to the beach (by train, of all ways), Aqours plans to head inland in search of water.

Please review!

Also...sorry for the shorter chapter. I'll try to make the next one longer.