After settling down on Crossbell, Estelle, and Joshua were ready to start their day as members of the Crossbell branch's Bracer Guild. They were here because a certain someone pointed out that the girl they sought made her appearance in Crossbell.

"Hey, Michel!" Estelle greeted the receptionist of the Crossbell branch with enthusiasm. "We're here and ready! Isn't that right, Joshua?"

"Yes. Is there any request that we can complete? Preferably ones that help us familiarize ourselves with the lay of the land."

Estelle shook her head with a smile. Joshua was, as always, meticulous. But that's why she fell for him, she guessed. "Nah, that's boring. Just do the ones that have a short timeframe. It's usually important, right?"

"Hmm, yes. Actually. It's both urgent and can help you familiarize yourself with the lay of the land. A perfect fit for both of you, isn't it? There's a monster near the Stargazer Tower; it's south of Crossbell. You can go through Ursula Road and take the west way when you arrive at the intersection. It's been there for a while. And while the Stargazer Tower is... almost became a ruin, the people are still worried that it'll find its way to the main Ursula Road and disturb the bus schedule."

Michel showed them Crossbell's map as they explained the request.

"Alright! We'll take that request. Come on, Joshua." Estelle dragged her boyfriend away. Unfortunately for her, Joshua knew what was about to happen and braced himself so he wasn't pulled by the brown-haired Bracer. "Joshua?!"

"Ah, sorry, Estelle. Before that, I have to ask something to Michel first." He turned his attention to the receptionist. "How do you usually handle the taking of requests? Is it still the same as Liberl?"

Estelle blinked. "Oh, right. Usually, the receptionists in Liberl always handle the paperwork for us. Ehehe..."

"Mmm, don't worry, darlings," Michel replied with a wink and an amused smile. "That's also how it's handled here. You can go."

"Right. Thanks, Michel! Come on, Joshua!"

Before they could exit the building, the door was opened, and a girl with pink hair entered the building. "Micheeeel! Is Arios here?"

The girl blinked when she saw two unfamiliar figures. "G-geh! I'm sorry to bother you!"

"Ahaha. Don't worry, sweetie. Both of them are new transfers. Why don't you two introduce yourselves?" Michel assured the girl.

"I'm Estelle Bright! I just came here with my bo-brother, Joshua Bright," she almost slipped up and said that Joshua was her boyfriend. Well, he was, but with him having the same family name and the fact that the pink-haired girl was a stranger, which she hadn't even known the name of, it'd be weird! "We're B-rank Bracers, originally from Liberl!"

"Nice to meet you. My name is Juna. Juna Crawford. ...wait, 'Bright?' as in... that Cassius Bright?" Juna questioned after she noticed their family name.

"Ahaha, yes. Cassius Bright is our father. I guess he's still famous, huh?" Estelle answered light-heartedly, having had the same reaction with the Alster branch. Luckily, everyone, there was professional about it and soon put Cassius' reputation away when interacting with them.

"Ah, well... I know him as the Divine Blade, considering I'm learning from Arios MacLaine, the Divine Blade of Wind. I guess you can say that I'm starstruck." Juna nodded to herself. "Never mind that. You're about to leave, right? Please."

Juna stepped aside and showed them the door.

"You're learning the Eight Leaves One Blade from Arios MacLaine?" Joshua couldn't help but pry. Cassius did teach Colonel Richard, and gave Anelace his former sword, so Arios teaching someone wasn't unprecedented. But Anelace was a fellow practitioner, and Richard was his subordinate. Who was Juna to Arios that he spared his time teaching her?

"Mastering the Eight Leaves One Blade is still a long time for me," Juna denied. "So far Arios trained me in swordsmanship and the stances for his infamous second form. Oh, but there's the eighth form, too."

"I see..."

"It's nice talking with you, Juna. But we have a request to fulfill. How about we talk later?" Estelle tried to end the conversation politely. Juna looked like a fun one to talk to, but they had a request.

"Absolutely! If you have finished your request, let's talk! I wanna know more about Liberl! I was quite surprised by that incident last year. What was it again? The Orbal Shutdown Phenomenon. Luckily it didn't reach Crossbell."

Estelle and Joshua looked at each other. She was remembering the fond times she had with her companions as she solved Ouroboros' plot. Joshua was probably the same.

"Sure," Joshua replied Juna. "We were in Liberl back then, so the shutdown affected us."

"Great! Good luck with your request!" Juna waved.

"Thank you, Juna!"

Estelle and Joshua would later have another fateful meeting with a certain group of police officers. But that was a story for another time.

After slaying the monster, the two tired Bracers opened the Guild's door to report their finished requests.

"We're finished, Michel!" Estelle declared.

"Good work, Estelle, Joshua."

"Is Juna still here? We promised to continue our talk," Joshua asked the receptionist.

"Yes. She's on the second floor, resting after her training session," Michel answered.

"Does that mean Arios is here?"

"Nope," Michel shook their head. "Arios has a request somewhere, so Juna trained alone. By the way, here. You can write the report here."

Estelle and Joshua were offered two pieces of blank paper and pens.

"Thank you. We'll go to the second floor, then."

Ascending to the second floor, the two saw Juna sitting on the chair, her wooden sword on rested on the ground. "Hello, Juna."

"Oh, Estelle, Joshua! You're here!"

"We promised to talk, didn't we?"

"Awesome! Come here!" Juna patted the table. When they sat down and put the paper on the table, Juna hummed. "Oh, you're writing your report? It's fine, then. I can wait."

"We'll take turns. How about you do it first, Estelle?"

"Fine," Estelle grumbled. But she relented because she wanted to see where Joshua would draw the boundary of his tale about Liberl and the incidents last year. It wasn't like they bragged about it, considering it was solved because of everyone's contribution. But every one of the people involved insisted that Joshua and Estelle were the centerpieces that made it possible to thwart the enemy's plan.

And so Joshua regaled Juna with the (heavily edited) tale of the Liberl's coup and the Orbal Shutdown Phenomenon. Throughout the tale, Estelle (who glanced up occasionally from her report) noticed that Juna nodded at certain parts of the account and crunched her eyebrows at others. Maybe she was confused? Though Estelle was biased about Joshua's storytelling because she was also there in person, so she couldn't be asked about how Joshua was telling the story to Juna. Aside from that, Joshua also answered some questions about Liberl whenever Juna interrupted the story to ask more about Liberl.

"Joshua, I'm finished," Estelle interrupted the story to tell her boyfriend that it was her time to regale the younger girl with stories about Liberl and the continuation of the Orbal Shutdown Phenomenon with the boundaries that Joshua set.

"Ah, okay. Would it be alright for you to listen to Estelle now? I need to write my own report, after all."

"Sure," Juna nodded. "But before that, I want to ask something. Joshua, Estelle... I couldn't help but notice something when Joshua told me about what happened last year in Liberl."

Juna closed her eyes and exhaled.

"You two were involved, weren't you? I noticed that you tried to gloss over some facts about your stories, and when I stopped you to ask for more clarifications, you sometimes took a long time to answer. Now, that could just be some classified information since I'm technically still not affiliated with the Guild. ...but if it was, you can just say, 'It's classified' instead of going around the fact. Then there's the fact that sometimes, you glanced over to Estelle as if trying to see if whatever you were telling was appropriate. Those facts clue me in that you two were probably on the very thick of the incident. Yes. I believe my guess is correct. ...unless I'm wrong?"

...

Silence. Estelle's mouth was agape with Juna's explanation. This girl... she pieced the two Bracers' involvement with just some omissions from the story and Joshua's body language?

"You have a sharp mind," Joshua stated with a chuckle. "Well... we can't exactly deny it now because next year you can just read up the report from the Guild's database. So yes, we were involved."

"I see..." Juna nodded to herself. "Thank you. I think that's enough. It's quite late, and I need to help my mother set up dinner."

"Eeeeeh? You don't want to hear mine?" Estelle pouted when Juna made a gesture to leave.

"We can continue tomorrow, Estelle. How about it?"

"Sure!" she answered in excitement. "See you tomorrow, Juna!"

"See you later. Thank you for sating my curiosity."

"You're welcome, Juna. You can ask us more."

When Juna left, Joshua let out a sigh. "That surprised me. I noticed that she was prying for more, but I thought that was just because it was obvious that I had omitted lots of things about our involvement. I never thought that she'd realize our involvement just from that and my body language."

"Mmhmm," Estelle nodded. "I can't wait for her to become our junior! With that kind of thinking, she'd be a formidable Bracer in the future."

"Maybe you can learn some things from her," Joshua remarked.

"Yeah. ...wait! What did you just say?"

"I'm kidding, Estelle," Joshua chuckled. "But, please hear my opinion, Estelle."

"On what?"

Joshua told Estelle what he wanted to say, which got a gasp from Estelle.

"I... you're right, Joshua. Let's just try it first."

A/N: as someone said before, it's ironic that a Juna who's more suited to become a detective, wants to be a Bracer instead, while the more headstrong and brash, canon Juna wants to be a police officer instead of a Bracer. Anyway, we welcome the Sky protagonists! Certainly being around two game's protagonist wouldn't influence JunaSI much.