chi2lyn: Let's put more emphasis on 'almost'. She's still very much alive.
AshuraX: Chika and Honoka are not the same age. I almost made that mistake, but then remembered Riko was supposed to be the same age as Maki and thus adjusted all of Aqours's ages accordingly. Though with the newest Sunshine episode...I'm not sure what the timeline is…
Resta U: Honoka would probably just drag them along on her plans just as she does the rest of Muse.
Revengermajestyliberator: I've never played Fallout but I heard it's an apocalypse survival game (or something…? I'm not sure.) They won't be too harsh on Ruby, though some of them will hold a grudge for a while.
iamrailgun.20: Sorry for the lack of HonoMaki in this chapter.
Dessert Maniac: Honoka's leadership consists mostly of a "I'll do whatever I want" attitude and sometimes "Let's do what helps the most people" attitude. The Aqours bunker actually lost power a few years prior to the story, so they were let out into the world sooner. They did reboot the bunker with the hydroelectric plant, but the programming to keep them in and educate them was terminated. As such, the girls in that bunker did not develop as close a bond as the girls in the Muse bunker did. More details later, when the Aqours chapter comes out.
I really don't understand what the timeline is in Sunshine. I mean, I thought that Riko and the Muse first years were in the same class, but when Maru was reading the magazine, it said 'Muse Fifth Anniversary Edition'? Someone explain this to me, because I feel like I'm messing up their ages now. Is there five years between the events in Love Live and in Sunshine? What do you think?
"So…why are we out here again?" You whispered into Chika's ear. The other girl shrugged, not knowing the reason why either. Even Riko had been brought out, despite Maki's protests that she wasn't ready for any physical activities.
"Today we're going to be playing a survival game!" Honoka announced as Umi and Eri dutifully handed out guns that looked very similar to the ones they could find in the target range within the bunker. Upon closer examination, Chika realized that they were the guns from the target range. "I took these from the Range-they'll hurt but it won't penetrate the skin. There are three stations somewhere in the city. One has nine talismans, the second has five talismans, and the third has three. Your goal is to collect all three talismans without getting hit by another team."
"Wait, there are teams?" Chika asked, voicing the question that seemed to be on everyone's mind.
"Yes. Two members to a team, nine teams in total. One Muse with one Aqours. Oh, and I have a map of the city for each team!" Honoka handed out the folded pieces of paper. Chika opened hers. Three circles were drawn onto the map, along with the kanji for 'school' next to a building. "The circles are the approximate locations of the stations; you'd still have to find them within that area. If you get lost, make your way back to the school-it's marked on the map too. Everyone understand?"
"Who's running the stations anyway?" Umi asked, folding up her map.
"I had A-Rise do it. Now the teams are-"
"At least Honoka had the sense to put me with you." Maki sighed as she trekked through the rubble with her partner during the game. "Are you sure you're doing okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine." Riko was having trouble keeping up any pace faster than a walk, but it wasn't as if Maki was trying to win. To her, she was just getting dragged along into Honoka's pace once more. "Thank you."
"For what? Oh, you mean saving your life? I didn't get any sleep last night because of you." Riko's fever had come back during the night, while the girl was unconscious, and Maki hadn't been able to sleep due to her sense of duty. She had fought Riko's fever through the entire night, and just when it finally went back down to a normal temperature and she thought she would get some time to sleep, Honoka burst in with a desire to play her 'survival game'. "Speaking of which, let me check. Sit down." Riko obeyed, tilting her head upwards and closing her eyes. Maki pressed her forehead to her partner's; the lack of a portable thermometer for her to carry outside the bunker meant that she would have to rely on less reliable methods of telling temperature. "I don't feel a fever."
"It's because of the medicine you gave me this morning before we left." Riko was quite grateful to Maki for taking care of her, even if the redhead was grumpy sometimes.
"Even so, tell me if you start to get tired or if your leg aches. We can even rest here for a little bit." Maki opened her map, looking for their current location. The map didn't help much, as it still showed buildings that were standing and had the names of the streets printed on it, though all the streets the two of them had traveled through no longer had names.
"No, let's keep going…" Rin looked back at her partner, who was already out of breath from their initial sprint to the closest station.
"It's fine if we rest a bit! It's not good if you push yourself too hard!" Hanamaru bit her lower lip, not wanting to be a burden. But she couldn't deny the fact that just trying to keep up with Rin on the run was hard for her. The other girl didn't even look winded; was she really just that weak?
"We're almost there, right? On the map." It looked to her that their target was just a couple streets away.
"Yes, but some of these streets, like this one-" Rin pointed. "-and this one, we can't go through. There's so much broken stuff that it blocks the entire street. We'd have to go around, and then find the station in the circle area nya. Can you do it?" Hanamaru looked at the map once more, calculating what route they would have to take to avoid the blocked off streets, and realized that she would have to take a breather.
"Sorry about this." Eri ignored her, focusing more on bandaging the reopened wound. It was lucky, really, that Maki forced all the teams to take basic first aid kits before they split up. "If I had watched out.."
"Stop talking. You're making it harder for me." Dia fell silent. Eri fiddled with the bandage a little bit longer, then stepped back to see her work. It looked like the other girl was wearing a headband, with the white strips of fabric stretching over her forehead wound. "You took a nasty fall."
"Yes…" The two of them had attempted to climb a wall of rubble that blocked off the streets. Dia lost her footing on the way up, and Eri had been unable to catch her in time. Thanks to that, her forehead injury had opened up anew to pour blood over her right eye. Already the bandage was starting to turn brown from it. "I'm sorry…"
"Don't worry about it. I shouldn't have suggested climbing up to begin with." Eri consulted her map while Dia tested to see if the bandage would prevent any more blood from flowing onto her face. "Looks like we'll have to backtrack and go around."
"No, I want to try one more time." Nico sighed, just wanting to get the game over with.
"Suit yourself. Let me know how it goes." She took a seat on the flat side of a piece of rubble and watched as Yoshiko, or Yohane, whatever her name was, tried once more to climb over the blockage. She had already slipped and fell once before, and had the bandaged legs to show for it. While she waited for her partner to fail again, Nico consulted her map. "Wait, Yoshiko!"
"It's Yohane! Or fallen angel!" Yohane snapped, nearly losing her grip on the wall of rubble to retort.
"Whatever! You'd be going the wrong way if you keep going! Get back down here!" Nico stood at the base of the rubble as Yohane slid down the wall to rejoin her.
"What? I thought you said that we had to get over the wall!" Nico scowled; it wasn't like Yohane had done anything besides listen to her orders.
"I was looking at the map upside down." Nozomi looked out over the grassy plain before them.
"No wonder we ended up here. The city is behind us, isn't it?" Mari nodded silently. The two girls turned as one and headed back to the city. "I was beginning to wonder why Honoka-chan put a station so far away from the bunker."
"Does she do these sorts of things often?" Hanayo hadn't expected a question after walking in silence for so long.
"Honoka-chan likes to have fun, but I'm sure it's so we at least know our way around this city." Ruby nodded, going quiet once more. "Um, listen, I don't blame you or hate you or anything."
"Eh?"
"How do I say this…" Hanayo wasn't used to cheering others up and she wondered what she should say next. If Eri or Umi was in her position, they would surely say something cool. "You shot Honoka-chan, but I can forgive that. I mean, it's not like we weren't prepared to fire back. So...some of us might be a little..irritated, although Maki-chan's always like that, but we won't hold it against you. You don't have to be scared."
"Hanayo-san…" It felt like a heavy weight had been lifted off her chest. She hadn't been aware how much the guilt had been weighing down on her until now.
"But...I think we're lost." Umi admitted to Kanan. They kept ending up in the same blockage over and over again. It wasn't hard to tell, as there was a red splotch on the rubble that looked very similar to a blood puddle.
"We have been walking in circles for quite a while, Umi-san." Kanan agreed, stepping closer to Umi to look at the map. "Look, we should have turned here."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" The girls backtracked to where Kanan had suggested they should turn off.
"It was quite fun watching you." Umi grumbled, making the turn onto the street they needed to travel on.
"I thought you said you had no idea where to go." Honoka shook her head at her partner's naive way of thinking.
"I made up the game. Did you honestly think I wouldn't know where A-Rise are stationed?" They had already picked up the talisman from the station with nine such objects and were on their way to the second one.
"But isn't that cheating?" Chika asked, trailing after Honoka as they picked their path across the building lying on its side.
"There's enough for two other teams to win. Besides, we might get picked off if someone finds us." There was that other part of their survival game. Chika had forgotten about their weapons.
"Is it safe to be out in the open like this?"
"Shh...you never know if someone's nearby." Kotori silenced her partner as she peered down at the empty streets. Any movement and she would be able to hit them from where she knelt on the rooftop of a collapsed building.
"But no one would be able to hear us anyway! This is boring, sitting up here. I thought we'd be walking around to find these things, not sitting around and waiting for someone to steal from!" You protested.
"Tell you what, you stay quiet and help me, and I'll get Honoka-chan to fix the pool at school."
"...I'm in."
Short recap of the situation:
-Honoka decides to organize a game and gets everyone in Muse and Aqours to participate.
-Maki and Riko are moving slowly to account for Riko's infection. Maki might head back to the bunker instead of finishing the game.
-Rin and Hanamaru are taking a short break. They're close (?) to the first station.
-Dia is bleeding again. Also, Eri seems to be lost.
-Nico and Yohane are heading in the right direction. To one of the stations. Not sure which one they're going to yet.
-Mari and Nozomi made it back into the city without too much trouble.
-Hanayo and Ruby are somewhere. They might also be lost.
-Umi was most definitely lost. Kanan seems to be having fun though.
-Honoka cheated by already knowing where the stations are.
-Kotori decided to take talismans from those that already have them. You wants to go swimming.