I splashed a handful of cold water against my face. That sure woke me up. I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked presentable now, but I still felt just the tiniest amount of apprehension at the thought of going back to the club room. But at the end of the day, eventually, I'd have to go back.

I slammed my fist on the sink and walked over to the Seminar storage room to find a clean jacket. I found my old clothes and stuffed them in a plastic trash bag so I could take it home later for cleaning.

Coming back to the club room, Rio, Noa, and Loremaster were waiting for me. It looks like they've cleaned up the mess I left behind and were simply idling around the table.

I tossed the bag of clothes into a corner and sat down at my usual spot.

"Alright. I'm good to go," I announced. "What's next on the agenda?"

I looked at Loremaster. Loremaster took the cue and cleared her throat to bring attention to her.

"That headset that you all put on knows the future and displayed it to you. Your own individual futures specifically. Judging by all of your reactions, it hasn't been pleasant."

I couldn't help but chuckle at this. "The future? Don't make me laugh. There's no way a headset can show us the future."

"Au contraire. It just did. This uses special AI generated models to predict the future to an accuracy of 99%. Even I don't quite understand the programming involved. But its effects are real. I guarantee it."

"Additionally, research that I'm doing into future prediction is also bearing fruit," Rio added. "If I can do it, then an outside organization must also theoretically have the capabilities to predict the future."

Loremaster nodded. "Precisely. However, even setting aside the engineering capabilities of this technology, I possess something even more primitive that allows me to back up my claims. Time travel."

"Time travel," I said.

"Yes. I'm not sure how much more proof you could want, but I can do it. Although I can only send myself through time. That's why I needed this with me. To help others see too."

I placed my elbows on the table and rested my head on my hands. "Ugh. What's the deal with that anyways? Everything I saw in there just felt so real. Like I was living it. I've used VR headsets before. I can tell when something's fake. But when I was wearing that…"

"Hmmm," Loremaster hummed. She seemed to ruminate on the answer a bit before replying. "The simplest explanation I can give is that the AI pulls information from your brainwaves to match it to information taken from the 4th time dimension."

I nodded. "Oh okay. That makes sense." I looked around and saw Noa and Rio nodding in agreement too.

Noa took out a notebook and wrote down some notes. "So if I'm getting this right, what we saw just now are what we saw in alternate timelines."

"Correct," Loremaster said. She scratched her head in bewilderment. "You three sure understood that quickly."

I smiled. "Of course we do. The theory of higher dimensions isn't a hard concept to grasp. It helps that we all understand that time is just another aspect of space, which leads naturally into the 4th dimension. But what's really bothering me is how you accomplished this. Breaking into the 4th dimension should be astronomically difficult for people like you and I."

Loremaster chuckled. "Ohoho. You'd be surprised at just how easy it is with the right tools. Getting over that first hurdle from the 3rd to the 4th dimension is the hardest part. But once you've cleared it, it's so much easier to use."

Rio spoke up. "Excuse me. This is all quite fascinating, but we're not here to learn about 4th dimensional space-time hopping. We have a more pressing issue to attend to."

"Oh yes, of course. I'm quite glad too, my teaching ability for the 4th dimension is rudimentary at best. At least compared to you geniuses." Loremaster looked at Noa and I. "So, what did you two see when you put on the headset?"

Noa explained her story. "I saw the sky over Kivotos turn blood red. A monster came through the heavens, and all of the schools had to band together to fend it off. But when all was said and done, everyone I knew was gone. We all died a horrible and painful death."

Loremaster nodded. "A truly apocalyptic event. Okay. And you?" she said, motioning towards me.

I explained to them a brief overview of my experience with the headset on. That I saw glimpses of what I presumed was the near future. What happened with Aris, Rio's experiment with Eridu, Key and Divi:Sion, and how ultimately Sensei and the other girls all died.

Rio blushed and looked down at the table. "Oh. So you saw that."

"What?" I slammed my hands down on the table. "Don't, 'Oh' me! What the heck are you doing with our funds?"

Rio replied, "You saw what happened with Divi:Sion, yes? Surely you know that Eridu is a weapon against them. Although-" Rio glanced at Loremaster, "-I know now that this is a fool's folly. At least the approach that I'm currently taking."

Rio looked at Noa and I. "That's why we've assembled here today. Together, we need to stop Divi:Sion before it ever gets to that point."

Noa sighed. "I feel like you could have avoided a lot of headache if you were just upfront with other people about your plans."

Rio nodded. "Noted. So, any suggestions?"

Noa crossed her arms. "Well, if everything we saw is true…" Noa closed one eye and looked at Loremaster. "...then it seems like we already have a step up from our counterparts in the other timeline. We have knowledge of the future, so we're inherently more cognizant of what's going to happen and how to prepare for it."

I sighed. "No risk for paradoxes here? Time travel…"

Rio asked Loremaster, "Have you confirmed that knowledge of the future won't lead to a paradox? That would be quite unfortunate if it did."

Loremaster shook her head. "Well, I haven't done a lot of testing myself. Despite my abilities, I'd still consider myself really young and inexperienced compared to what most people would expect from a time traveling entity like me. But to answer your question, I have no reason to believe my presence and your knowledge would lead to a paradox. Think of it less like time travel and more like traveling to a different universe that's almost the same, just a few months behind."

"Great," Noa said. "So to get down to business, we have to stop Divi:Sion from gaining power."

Rio nodded. "This I seem to have figured out already. In the other timeline, my method was to simply break the halo of the Princess of the Nameless Ones, but I found myself with no allies, leading to my downfall. But now, I have a second chance to do things right."

In that timeline, Rio tried to… kill Aris.

I objected to Rio's implications. "Are you saying we should get rid of Aris here too?"

"That is correct," Rio said.

"But that didn't work last time! What makes you think it will work now?"

Rio closed her eyes. "I can see you're confused, but with this new knowledge, I have now gotten rid of all incalculable variables in the equation.

Sensei. At this point I am well aware of his capabilities and how he can challenge me.

We now have the element of speed and surprise on our side. We can choose when to get the Princess and not have the other students be on edge.

I am aware of the capabilities of the Princess and Key. Clearly, simply breaking her halo is out of the question for the time being. Eridu was my attempt, but it's simply too dangerous for me to consider using now.

Perhaps most importantly, I might be able to convince other people to join my cause. Starting with you two, you've seen firsthand the destruction of the city and the deaths of students. Naturally, I would like to request an olive branch for you to join me. I'm sure you don't want to relive that future again, and now we have the power to stop it."

"Forget it," I scowled. "I won't let you lay a finger on Aris."

"It's her or the rest of us. I don't understand how you think you can claim the moral high ground when you've seen firsthand what leaving her alone will do."

"Ugh, but…"

She was right, of course. Against my impulses, I actually agreed with Rio that it would be better to get rid of one student to save everyone else. Of course the ideal would be that nobody got hurt, but it didn't look like Rio was entertaining that idea at all. Always a binary choice with her. It's so frustrating.

Still, I think there's one variable that's missing here.

I looked at Loremaster. "So, what do you want to get out of this exchange? We're businesswomen, here in Seminar. We deal in transactions between equals. So how does all of this benefit you?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Loremaster remarked. "I merely want to stop my bad future from ever happening again."

"But surely there's infinitely many points of divergence you could have picked to change. Why come to us now?"

"Well…"

Loremaster hesitated to answer. Noa watched her face closely.

Loremaster continued. "Getting rid of Divi:Sion is only the start. I also need the full cooperation of Millennium and the technology you can produce even after that. Believe me, if I could have chosen a less icky route to go down, I would have."

"Really? Because I get the feeling that you don't actually care at all," Noa said. "Just that this time and place is the most convenient for you."

Loremaster grimaced before responding. "Well, yes. I've already explained my reasoning for being here."

Noa shook her head. "I know. But I'm willing to bet that you're after something different entirely. That cooperation with Millennium you're talking about. I say this because if you just wanted to stop Divi:Sion, you could go back to before any of us even met Aris and eliminate her then. So why aren't you doing that?"

Loremaster stood there in silence.

I crossed my arms. "Can't talk, eh? Well you can count me out of your little scheme if it involves hurting one of our students."

Rio asked, "So I take it you won't help me?"

"Have you been listening to me?" I snapped back. "This girl's obviously shady. I don't know how you can trust her, time travel powers or not."

"This all lines up perfectly with my predictions. And I can assume that she's telling the truth, or at least part of it, because of that. A normal person would not be privy to these secrets we discussed today. Not even my personal assistant knows the full extent of what I'm doing. So somebody comes here, full knowledge and even foresight, of course I will take advantage of that. But do I trust her? No. There is the possibility that I am being taken advantage of. And I would put being backstabbed by her within a high probability."

"I'm right here," Loremaster said in response.

"A high probability," Rio continued. "But that doesn't mean that for the time being, our goals are aligned. An alliance of convenience, if you will. And I always come out ahead. This will be no exception."

I sighed. "I can't change your mind, huh?"

"I should say the same to you." Rio tapped on her tablet. "I had hoped I wouldn't have to detain more than one Seminar member, but I can't risk you snitching. Not to Sensei of Schale. So I'll detain both of you here for a day. Don't worry, my maid will attend to your needs while I take care of outstanding business."

The office door opened and a blond haired girl wearing a maid uniform entered the room.

…Do I know her?

Ah, from the visions. Toki, the secret 5th member of C&C. Although I've never even seen her in person before now. Well, in real life, anyways. So if she is the same as that person, then she's absolutely loyal to Rio. But more importantly, she can kick my ass if I try anything funny. Looks like Noa wasn't looking on fighting her, either.

Rio stood up from her chair and walked beside Toki. "Meeting adjourned. It was convenient getting the two of you here in one spot."

Toki bowed. "If you three need anything, please let me know."

Rio turned to leave the room.

I said, "Wait," to her.

Rio stopped, but didn't turn towards me.

I asked her, "What are you planning on doing to Aris?"

"What do you mean? Shouldn't it be clear by now what I want to do?"

"Kill her? You can't do that. We've seen what happens when you try."

Rio sighed. "You're right. Killing IT isn't an option. But we can detain it. Sometimes simple is best. I doubt it can hack its way out of a sealed chamber in a hole in the ground. Certainly not a permanent solution, but in the meantime, I can get back to work on upgrading the defense systems of Eridu."

This might be the last time I ever get the chance to see Aris. But I just couldn't let my last memories of her be what I just witnessed today.

So I spoke up. "Let me do it."

Rio finally turned around.

"Oh?"

"Give me the location of the containment chamber and I'll bring her to it."

"And you'd do that?"

"...Yes."

Noa said, "What are you saying, Yuuka?"

"I don't want Aris's last memories of Millennium to be of fear. So I'll be the one to take her out. She trusts me."

"But wouldn't that make it worse?" Noa looked at the floor, probably out of shock and confusion. "Ah. I see. You're being quite selfish, aren't you?"

Silence fell over the room. I walked out and brushed past Rio before I would be able to reflect on what I just signed up to do.

"Hey girls, I'm back!"

I waved at the group in front of me. The Game Development Department, Engineering Club, and Veritas were all in the Engineering Club's room playing Counter Terrorists.

Maki bit off half a potato chip before saying. "Well guys, party's over. Yuuka's here."

The nerve of her! "Gee, thanks for the warm welcome," I replied back.

"So what happened, Miss Student Councilor? I thought you were too busy to hang with us commoners," Maki said, finishing off her chip.

"Finished work early, no thanks to the damages your clubs do daily. But it's fine. I'm here now, and that's what matters."

Hare leaned back in her chair and sipped down a juice bag. "You didn't miss much. Other than me demolishing everyone by myself."

"Banned!" I heard Momoi scream. "She's banned from playing against us!"

Sounded like Momoi was having a rough night. To be fair to her though, I've heard rumors that Veritas were quite good at gaming. I guess it came with the territory of being around computers all the time.

"But you don't have a problem with me on your team, I assume?" Hare said back.

"Uh. Well… Yes. In the name of fairness! "

"Tsk. They won't let me play. I'm too good for these normies apparently. Hey, ain't Yuzu pretty good too?"

From the other side of the room, Yuzu could barely be heard squeaking out an, "I am?"

Kotori smirked and said, "Yeah, but she didn't clutch a 1v5 4 times in a row. Statistically unlikely, unless of course you're amazing."

"Compliment taken," Hare said.

"This is what skill-based matchmaking in modern games lack," Kotori continued.

I could tell that she was about to go on one of her famous lectures about something.

"A sense of progression. In normal lobby-based games, you're paired against players of all skill levels. And sure, it feels awful to be constantly at the bottom of the leaderboard when you're starting out, but as you slowly gain more and more experience, you'll surely start climbing that leaderboard until you too start stomping on noobs. Whereas with skill-based matchmaking-"

"Agh! It's not fair! How come I'm never on her team?" Momoi shouted. Kotori kept rambling on about skill-based matchmaking, but nobody paid her any more attention.

Midori patted Momoi on the back to sit her down. "Maybe if you spent all your energy getting good instead of complaining, you'd be good at video games."

"Oh shut up! You're not good either!"

"I'm perfectly average. Constantly third on my teams. And you know what? I am content with that."

Midori radiated perfect zen energy.

Hibiki remarked, "So this is the power of the oldest sister of the Game Development Department…"

Momoi shouted back. "Hey! I'm the older one and you know it!"

"Fufu. When it comes to age, it's not how long you've been breathing on this planet for. Rather, the mental maturity you exhibit." Midori couldn't possibly shine any more than she currently was. Turning to me, she said, "Isn't that right, Yuuka-senpai?"

I thought it would be funny to play along so I did. Besides, Midori really did act like the older sibling. "Haha! You are truly wise beyond your years, Great Sage of Millennium."

"-and that's just one part of the explanation behind why nobody takes eSports seriously." Kotori paused, then looked at me. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Haha! I get it! Because Midori's the green one! And sage is often used to refer to sage green. Unless you're talking about some sort of in-joke that I never had access to. In which case I don't know what the joke is."

"There is no joke! I'm being made fun of!" Momoi shouted.

"Yeah. Because you are the joke," Midori said.

Everyone started chuckling at Momoi's expense.

Chihiro emptied a can of Monster MAX and motioned over to me.

"Yuuka, wanna take over for me for a bit? I think I'm about due for a break."

I walked over and smirked. "Sure. But it's been a while since I've played an FPS game, so I might be a bit rusty."

I looked over at everyone else.

"But since today's special… and to even the playing field, I've bought a little something for everyone."

I reached into my bag and paused. What if what I was doing was a bad idea?

…I decided it wasn't and grabbed something. I nearly took out a small hand-sized mechanical ball but quickly put it back in.

That thing from the Black Market that I picked up today was definitely not what I wanted to take out.

Instead, what I was going for was another thing from the Black Market, a bottle of clear liquid, and I took it out and placed it on the table.

Chihiro narrowed her eyes at this curious object. "Isn't this…?"

Utaha walked over and chuckled. "Heh. This is certainly unexpected."

I smiled. "To celebrate the successful launch of the Engineering Club's latest and greatest brain interface headset! And, might I add, a rather fun launch title, courtesy of our very own Game Development Department."

I thought back to that sequence of events that occurred in the headset back in the Seminar lounge. That party I didn't attend…

Momoi's spirits lifted instantly as she nodded her head. "Of course. Of course. We are the greatest."

Maki picked up the bottle and stared at it. "Holy shit," she said. She looked over at me in surprise. "Is this real?"

I crossed my arms and winked. "'Course it's real. Sourced from the Black Market. Seminar's got connections all over the place. Naturally."

Kotama, ever paranoid, had to confirm what she was seeing. "This isn't some sort of sting, is it?"

"Hey, if someone's gonna get in trouble for this, it would be me!" I responded. "I'm putting my neck out for you guys."

Aris, from the other side of the room, tried jumping over the computer screens to see what all the commotion was about. "What did Yuuka bring? Why's everyone acting weird?"

Maki turned towards the other first years and held the bottle out. "A prime bottle of viking themed honey mead!"

"Illegal in more ways than one," Kotori started. "Mead contains alcohol. Specifically the kind of alcohol that you can drink without poisoning yourself, with some major asterisks. It's important to note that alcohol is inherently poisonous in any amount, big or small. But that's a whole other tangent that I'll get into later. What's important in terms of legality is that as underaged students, we're not allowed to consume it in any capacity. What's extra illegal in terms of this specific bottle is that it's branded as Valheim honey mead. Now while the concept of Valheim as a setting within Norse mythology isn't trademarked, its branding is now. And I don't think they gave licensing permission for use in this-"

"Holy shit, that's a motherfucking Valheim reference!" Momoi shouted. "THE Ruthless Arithmetic got us a bottle of mead? What kind of cursed timeline are we living in right now?"

"My treat as a member of the student council to all of the hardworking students of Millennium! I picked it up because you all won't stop talking about your Valheim server. I started playing recently and I have to say, yeah, it is pretty fun," I said as an explanation.

"No, something doesn't add up," Chihiro said, resting her chin on her thumb.

I looked at Chihiro and feared that I would be busted right there. If anyone was gonna snitch, it was gonna be her.

She stared me dead in the eye for a long few seconds, then smirked. "When the hell did you remove that stick up your ass?"

"Huh?"

Chihiro reached around my back and lightly punched me in the arm.

"Yuuka! Didn't know you had it in ya! Whatever happened to Sensei's model student, huh?"

"M-model student?"

"Smart and hard-working. Then she goes and brings alcohol to us. Man, Sensei will kill us if he finds out! Work hard, play hard, huh?"

Aris looked a little concerned. "I don't know about this. Sensei always tells me to stay far away from drugs." Yuzu nodded in agreement.

Chihiro picked up the bottle and tapped on it with the barrel of her gun. "Alright, everyone listen up! Obviously, we're not supposed to be drinking alcohol. Therefore, drinking this is completely voluntary."

"But we will call you a coward if you don't," Utaha said.

Chihiro raised her rifle with one hand and fired a single bullet into the Engineering Club President's skull.

"Ow!"

"Quiet, you. I'm being serious here."

I'd say she deserved it.

Maki clapped her hands together. "Well, if Chii-chan of all people's giving us permission, I don't see why not!" Maki stood up and lightly elbowed Hare. "What do you say?"

Hare shrugged her shoulders. "I am a little curious to see what it tastes like."

Kotama smiled. "I bet Prez is gonna be pissed when she finds out we drank without her."

"Bah, her fault for not coming. That ain't on us," Maki replied.

Himari, most likely. She was probably busy with some asinine task that Rio assigned to her out of spite.

Utaha crossed her arms. "Think she's still mad at us for putting a bidet in her wheelchair?"

"Oh yeah. She is," Kotama said.

Hibiki said, "I still don't understand why she's so mad. Having a toilet on you 24/7 with an automatic water dispenser sounds so convenient. And it's not like we put the bomb dispenser in an easily accessible location."

"Well that's because the bidet automatically turned on while she was with Sensei. I didn't hear all the details but I assume she got very… wet," Kotama explained.

Kotori scratched her head. "That's kind of weird. It's only supposed to turn on when you… well, you know."

"Well she still hasn't gotten over that," Kotama replied.

Utaha sighed. "That girl can hold quite the grudge, eh? I myself am a little miffed that we had to take out all of our enhancements instead of fixing them."

She then eyed the bottle of mead. "As for the alcohol, I think that as members of the Engineering Club, it is our duty to learn more about the world. So I'll have some."

Hibiki said, "Plus this might give us inspiration for future projects."

Kotori jumped up and extended her arms. "I've read up all on the effects of alcohol, but there is a difference between simulating the data and getting real-life field experience. So I'll do it for science!"

Each member of Veritas and the Engineering Club raised one fist and yelled, "For science!"

Momoi turned to the rest of the Game Development Department and asked them. "Well, what do you think? This sure is interesting."

Midori rested her elbow on a table and placed her head on her fist, in a philosopher's stance. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. To climb the steps to adulthood. Of course I'm gonna take it."

Yuzu looked a little bit more hesitant. "I don't know if I should be doing this… But if it helps me become an adult… then I'm gonna do it!"

"Woah, hey, no pressure!" Momoi said. "Nobody's forcing you or anything. If one of the senpais tries to force you, then I'll kick their butt!"

Yuzu nodded. "Okay. Thanks."

Aris said, "I'm with Yuzu on this one. Sensei will get really mad at me if I drink!"

"I wonder if it would even be a problem for you…" Midori quietly said.

Considering I now knew the truth about Aris's origin, I was also a little curious to see what her reaction to alcohol would be. For science, of course. I did go to Millennium after all.

"Well, nee-chan, what about you?" Midori asked Momoi.

Momoi fist bumped her chest. "Fufu. I will partake in this extravagant party. Feast and ale! Just like a medieval RPG!"

"Ah right. Because nothing bad ever happens at parties in medieval RPGs," Midori sarcastically remarked.

"You're gonna jinx these good moods we're having!"

"We haven't even started yet."

"Ding, ding, ding!" Maki said. "Alright girlies, gather around. We're gonna start pouring this stuff out now. If you're not drinking, uh, get a cup of Gehenna Dew over there."

Aris and Yuzu walked over to the table with Gehenna Dew and poured them into disposable cups.

"Gehenna gamer juice!" Aris yelled.

As they finished, the rest of us gathered around the table surrounding the mystical bottle of mead. And we waited.

"So, uh," Kotama said. "Does anyone here know how to drink?"

Everyone gave sideways glances to each other. But it seemed like nobody was stepping up.

Chihiro shook her head. "Not me. Never got invited to those third-year ragers. Maybe Utaha did?"

"Afraid we never got access to DRINKING alcohol. At least not without synthesizing our own," Utaha replied.

"It was bad," Hibiki said.

"And you're not really supposed to drink from lab equipment anyways," Kotori added. "Just that we might have."

"For science," Hibiki said in response.

"Naturally," Utaha confirmed.

Honestly, I bet the Engineering Club would have fit right in at Gehenna.

"Yo, Yuuka bought the stuff, shouldn't she know how to do it?" Maki said.

All eyes were on me, but I quickly deflected. "All I did was get the bottle. I wouldn't know how to drink either."

"If anyone did know, it would probably be Kotori," Hibiki said.

"Yeah, she knows everything!" Aris yelled out.

The bespectacled girl in question looked absolutely flustered though. "I, uh, I don't know! I don't like teaching things unless I can accurately verify the information. And, well, it's just a little hard to get experience with this sort of stuff without going to some shady places."

"So you don't know?" Maki teased.

"W-well, I do know that you're not supposed to drink pure alcohol. It's always diluted by whatever liquid it's contained in. This is because alcohol tastes like… alcohol."

"Wh-what does that taste like?" Momoi asked.

"Like… alcohol?" Kotori said, seemingly unsure of that answer.

"Oh, like hand-sanitizer," Chihiro said.

"Sounds gross," Midori remarked.

"Well, like I said, that's why it's diluted. Because people say alcohol does taste gross. But 100% pure alcohol isn't added to the liquid. The alcohol gets there as a natural result of fermentation. The different types of beverages are because of differences in ingredients and methods to get that fermentation," Kotori explained.

"Yeah, that's nice and all, but how does that help us get drunk?" Maki asked.

"Well, there should be a label somewhere on the bottle that says the ratio of alcohol to everything else in the drink by mass. I think."

"You think?" I asked. Whatever. I was the closest to the bottle so I picked it up and scanned the label.

"Says here it's 20% alcohol. I did say I wanted the strongest mead from the girl who sold it to me."

"Is that a lot? 20% is like, 1/5 of the drink," Kotama asked.

"Doesn't sound like much. Monster MAX has like 69% caffeine in it, and I can barely feel it," Hare said.

"Yeah, and you're a monster yourself," Momoi said to her.

"20% sounds like child's play," Hare added.

"Come on, aren't we overthinking this?" Midori yelled out. "It's just something we drink right? Like water. So we each just get a cup, pour some for each of us and just drink it normally."

Everybody present pondered that.

"Oh yeah, why didn't we think of that?" Maki asked on behalf of everyone.

"In that case, we might have something that we want to show off," Utaha said.

"Oh, are you talking about Eve?" Hibiki asked her.

Utaha nodded her head. "Yes, I am. Can you bring her out?"

Hibiki blushed. "Ugh, okay."

"What's going on?" I asked them.

"We built this really cool beverage dispenser. You have to see it for yourself," Kotori exclaimed in excitement.

"Eve, turn on!" Hibiki yelled into the cluttered hangar of the Engineering Club Room.

Off in the distance, we all heard a slight beep, then scuttling across the smooth floor. Something popped out from behind a box, and then…

"Is that?" Kotama said as she squinted and adjusted her glasses.

"A puppy!" Midori squealed.

"Puppy! Puppy!" Aris yelled as she rushed over to greet it.

A lot of the other girls also started walking over to the "puppy." When I got a good look at it… it wasn't exactly a dog, but a mechanical robot with a bright blue halo that stood on four legs and resembled a dog.

Even so, yes, it was just the darn cutest thing ever!

I had to force myself to not push everyone else out of the way as I swooned over the pup.

Utaha and Kotori stood behind it looking proud, while Hibiki looked mortified.

"I wanted to give her a nicer paint job and cute clothes…" the bashful girl with dog ears said.

"But she's already adorable!" Maki said while aggressively pushing Momoi off the robot dog to be able to hug it.

"Just didn't have the time. It could have been so much cuter!" Hibiki shouted in anguish.

The Engineering Club President smiled at her blond underclassman. "Kotori, why don't you do the honors?"

Kotori's eyes flashed with excitement. "Ahem. The Engineering Club at Millennium presents: Eve. Girl's best friend!"

Eve. The name sounded familiar to me.

"This state of the art robo-companion has all of the cuddly joy and energy of a real dog, with none of the downsides from having to maintain it!"

Despite Kotori's proclamations and the fighting of the first years over who gets to hug it, Eve wasn't reacting to any of that at all. At least, not in the way you'd expect a dog to. It was sitting completely still and staring at me.

Actually, looking back, if it was a real dog and it knew what I was trying to do, I suppose it would have good reason to be suspicious around me.

That's besides the point. Still cute.

"Yuuka!" Kotori shouted, snapping me back out of that trance. "We owe a lot to Seminar too for this. Thanks to their bleeding-edge AI research, we found a way to make this dog just as intelligent as a regular dog, if not way more!"

Seminar. AI…

I've heard about Seminar's program to install an AI in every school to assist with management and maintenance, but I've never actually seen or interacted with ours. It surely would have helped a lot to lighten my workload, that's for sure.

Come to think of it…

I remembered at that moment that Millennium's AI's name was Electronic Assistant Epsilon, Version 3. Codename: Eve.

"Come on Eve! Stand up!" Kotori ordered the dog.

Eve ignored her and kept staring at me.

I wondered if this Eve and the Millennium AI named Eve were one in the fact, the same AI.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was. Although I never got an official confirmation.

To think that the Engineering Club stole our AI and put it into a dog. It's just a little infuriating in hindsight.

"I think she's just a little shy, come on Eve!" Kotori crouched down and patted the dog, but it made a whirring noise and activated rocket thrusters connected to its back, bashing into Kotori's finger.

"AH! FIDDLESTICKS!"

Kotori clutched her injured hand with her other hand and rolled around on the floor.

Utaha picked up the raging puppy with ease. "Aha, she can be quite feisty when it's time to fill her up."

Chihiro asked her, "You said you made a beverage dispenser, right?"

"That is correct," Utaha replied.

"So…"

"Yes, Eve is the beverage dispenser."

The first years stopped wrestling with each other when they heard Utaha drop that logic bomb on them.

"Uh, hey, when you say that Eve is a beverage dispenser…" Midori started asking.

Kotama finished her sentence for her. "What does that mean… exactly?"

"Well, when we were designing her, we wanted to closely replicate real life to push the boundaries of technology and nature ever closer together."

No.

"No," I heard Chihiro say beside me.

"No," I heard Momoi say a distance away.

Utaha beamed. "Looks like you all don't believe me."

Knowing the Engineering Club, I'm pretty sure everybody in the room did believe her. Which is why we were all saying 'no.'

"Looks like it's time for a demonstration. Hibiki, get the alcohol for me!"

Hibiki nodded and grabbed the bottle on the table and walked back to Utaha. Eve was squirming around in Utaha's arms and making all sorts of bleeps and whirring sounds while staring at me for help.

Sorry little one, I can't help you now.

Hibiki opened the bottle of mead and placed it into a slit on Eve where a dog's mouth would normally be. She raised the bottle and the liquid began draining.

The scene made Hibiki look almost motherly. Almost.

The rest of us could only watch in silent horror as we each foresaw what came next.

Hibiki emptied the bottle into Eve then placed the bottle on a nearby table. Utaha lowered Eve down to the ground, where it looked noticeably… less balanced than before.

Utaha asked, "So how many of us are drinking?" She poked her pointer finger out and started counting.

"...Ten. That's twelve of us here minus Aris and Yuzu."

"Ten glasses." Hibiki produced ten regular-sized cups from a cupboard and laid them out on the ground.

"No," I heard Midori, Kotama, and Hare say in unison.

"Go on Eve, you can give us our drinks now."

Eve made one last pitiful look at me and chirped sadly. Sadly, I couldn't bring myself to stop her.

Eve walked directly over one of the cups and spread her legs apart. A yellow stream of liquid ran from her body and into the cup, filling it to the top with yellow mystery fluid.

Utaha picked it up and gave it to the person closest to her: Maki.

"Ah, rank! Why the fuck is it warm!?" she exclaimed.

This cycle of Eve… dispensing beverages into the cups repeated nine more times.

When all was said and done, each member looked down into the massive amount of poisonous water they held in their hands.

"I… suddenly don't really feel like drinking anymore," Midori said.

"It smells funny," Kotama commented.

"Seriously, is mead supposed to be warm?" Maki asked.

As for myself, I didn't care too much about the smell, or the societal taboo of underage drinking, or even about the… implications of the dispensing method. What bothered me was the amount of liquid contained in each cup. I'm pretty sure you were supposed to use much smaller glasses to drink alcohol this strong…

"Well, Yuuka's the person of honor here," Chihiro suddenly brought up.

"What?"

"You bought us this bottle, so maybe we could hear a little speech from our future valedictorian before we all become adults."

"Why you!"

Chihiro smirked at me. Of course our little inter-club rivalry would seep into this party.

"And it better be good enough to convince us to forget that we're drinking dog piss."

Kotori raised her glass. "Speech!"

The other girls also looked at me and said, "Speech," perhaps less enthusiastically at first, but then it evolved into real chanting.

"Speech! Speech! Speech!"

Being put on the spot like that surprised me a little, but in actuality, I didn't mind. I cleared my mind and my throat. I chose to speak directly from the bottom of my heart for this one. Because I knew it would be the last chance I would have to talk to each of them.

"Today we're celebrating the accomplishments of the Millennium Science School. The work done by the Engineering Club and the Game Development Department today is impressive and a milestone, for sure, but it's still just one drop in the pool of accomplishments that we've made together. Each one of us here has worked on and been responsible for many improvements in society throughout all of Kivotos! When somebody thinks of Millennium as the greatest academy in the city, as the school filled with smartypants overachievers, they're thinking of us! Because we are overachievers. And that's fine, because we wouldn't do what we do if we couldn't. But when we put our minds to it, we can do anything together! So this toast is for you, Millennium!"

I thought it was corny when I was finished, but everyone enthusiastically raised their cups. Aris and Yuzu's were filled with soda, everyone else the mead. We all clinked the cups together.

"Cheers!"

A/N: I needed a break from the nonstop depression of the last few chapters, so here's something more lighthearted lol.

I mean not that lighthearted if you look at the subtext, but there's literally a robot dog pissing alcohol into party cups.