That evening, in a room in the Jogen Maneuver Academy Girls’ Dormitory…
A digital window had been opened above a pillow, the screen scrolling through Jogen Island event information. Nearly all the fields were blank.
“Hmm…”
Motegi Rin was lying face-down on her dorm bed, idly scanning this information page, when she heard footsteps outside the door. Then the noise of the electronic lock disengaging. That alone was enough to tell her who was coming in.
She glanced at the clock. 9:17 PM. Well past the dorm curfew, but she’d almost certainly cleared it with the dorm mother and had been let in through the back door, Rin thought. She closed her window. “Welcome back, Hanabi.”
“Mm, thanks.”
Rin turned her head to see Suzuka Hanabi in uniform—honestly, it never looked right on her, like she was a little too beautiful for it—as she walked to her bed, slippers shuffling, and put her bag down.
Hanabi was Rin’s childhood friend, stepsister, squad mate, classmate, and roommate. She was cute as she was gallant. Rin noticed circles under Hanabi’s eyes as she collapsed straight onto her bed with a thump. Hanabi burrowed under her covers. “They’re really wearing you out, huh?” Rin asked.
“…Mmph.”
A muffled groan was the only response. Rin took that as a yes. “You gonna take a shower?”
“Unh.”
It was rare to see Hanabi like this. Normally, no matter how tired she got, she would at least wash her hands and face, and take a shower before resting. Rin knew the answer but asked anyway. “Something happen?”
“Mrgh.”
“Not the new weapon, right?”
Hanabi didn’t answer. She was shutting her out.
Rin’s Device rang with an unfamiliar ringtone. She popped a window open and answered. “Hello? Dorm Mother? …What? A visitor at the door? Kyuu-kun?”
Hanabi bolted upright in instant panic. Her eyes darted left and right, back and forth, and then finally found the window and looked down at the entrance. She stared into the darkness, searching.
There was nobody there.
Rin sighed. “I’m kidding, Hanabi.”
Hanabi spun around, her face astonishingly red. “Y-you’re…you…!! You’re just…!!”
Rin closed the empty window, set her ringtone back to normal, and waved Hanabi to a seat. Then she stood up, opened the door, and stuck her head out to make sure no one was there. The room to the right was empty, and Nao and Sachikou from the room on the left were playing mahjong in the lobby with the Amakusa sisters. There was an analog game fad going on in the Jogen girls’ dorm, in its third year running with no signs of dying down. Manual stalking, no Devices, arinashi rules. She’d have to ask tomorrow which method of cheating had led to more wins.
“All clear,” Rin said.
“Rin…?” Hanabi asked, confused.
Rin winked at her and then joined Hanabi on her bed, lying next to her. She locked arms with her and pulled her in close. Man, she really smells good. Even though she hasn’t showered! Rin thought. All right, close quarters combat engaged, right to the Core. “What happened with Kyuu-kun?”
Hanabi made a little noise.
Yep, he was definitely behind this. Jeez. “You have a fight?”
“Not a fight…”
“Then what?”
“Just…nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“We just haven’t…done anything. Anything at all. Nothing…!” Hanabi buried her face in her hands. “It’s been a month since we recovered the Capital, but we’ve only been on one d-d-d…shopping trip!”
Don’t give up.
“A date, you mean.”
“W-we haven’t done those and we’ve barely even seen each other and definitely not talked at all and…today I thought we were finally going to get some time together, but we were pulled apart immediately…and I could only manage two hundred push-ups and I want to have Kuon teach me Fencing, too!”
Rin thought two hundred push-ups was an impressive number for any girl.
“And then that transfer student Tooka-kun gave him a hug and…!”
Oh yeah, that was great. He looked like he’d been caught cheating. Too funny.
“And I just thought, are we not actually going out at all? Are we even together? M-maybe I just think we are, and Kuon-kun doesn’t even know it. Maybe he’d prefer someone closer to his age, like Tooka-kun. Wh-what do you think, Rin?”
With a herculean effort, Rin managed to frown. She was on the verge of laughing out loud, otherwise. It had been a long time since she’d had so much trouble suppressing a laugh. Right. So that explains it. “Ha…d-don’t worry, Hanabi,” she snorted.
“Why do you look like you’re trying not to laugh?”
“…Ahem. No, it’s nothing. Mm. Right…don’t worry, Hanabi. Kyuu-kun is crazy about you.”
“H-he is…?” Hanabi’s smile was super embarrassed but really happy.
Gosh, she’s adorable. “You heard him, didn’t you? He said he loved you with his comms wide open so the whole Air Force could hear him.”
“Aughhhhhhhhh!!” At the very mention of comms, Hanabi hid her face in her pillow and started thrashing her limbs around.
“Ask anybody. They’ll tell you Kyuu-kun is crazy for Hanabi. Although you might hear some concerns about you going for a kid that young…”
“Kmph-kmp ismph a kmph!” Hanabi exclaimed, her voice muffled by the pillow.
Rin chuckled. I think she said “Kuon-kun isn’t a kid!” Probably. “He does seem more like an old fart.”
Hanabi managed to pull her face out of the pillow to argue. “Th-that’s what’s good about him! The way he always acts so mature but occasionally does something super childish is so cute and cool, and he’s little but always comes through and…”
“I know, I know, you adore him, I get it.”
“Arghh…!” Rin was forced to restrain her. “But…” Hanabi whispered, shoulders slumping again. “…does he really?”
Wow, her mood is all over the place, Rin thought. “Forget how you get no time together, forget this new rival-slash-little sister— is anything else bothering you?”
“Well…well…Kuon-kun…he…he won’t…”
“Won’t what?”
“He never…”
“Never what?”
“Calls me by my name!”
This was too much for Rin. She threw open the window, screaming, “Maideeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!”
From somewhere in the distance, someone else yelled back, “Shut up, Motegi!” Oops.
“It’s just a naaame! I mean, he calls me ‘Rin-san!’ I don’t even rate a ‘Senpai!’
“Mm, yeah, well, you aren’t really the senpai type, Rin…”
“You wound me!” Rin flopped back down on the bed.
“On our…our date,” Hanabi continued. “We didn’t even hold hands…or…k-k-kiss…even though before we went into combat we… Oh, I’m getting embarrassed just thinking about it!”
“Wait…back up, Hanabi.” When she heard Hanabi’s wail, an image came to Rin’s mind: a door made of darkness with a sign on it, warning her not to step farther in. She hesitated a second and then kicked the sign in two. “Tell me more.”
“Like I said, before we were deployed…” The rest was whispered.
“Whaaaat?! You not only kissed, you whaaaaaaat?! Whaaaaat?!”
The window was flung open once more.
“She beat me to iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!”
Multiple voices shot back. “For Christ’s sake, Motegi!”
Sorry, sorry. She shut the window and turned back around to find Hanabi surprised.
“Er, uh, wait, you haven’t yet?”
“Wow, do you even know how smug that sounds?”
“I-I mean, you didn’t come home that evening and…you’re so popular and…it was the night before we got deployed, so I thought you were with someone yourself…”
Rin couldn’t admit she’d been tailing them. Instead, she clenched a fist. “Damn you, Kyuu-kun! Violating my Hanabi…! I’m gonna stick you in the fryer!”
“V-violate…?! Oh!”
Don’t turn red now! “Hmm, well, okay, don’t worry. Motegi Rin has your back!”
“No, I’d prefer you stay out of it…”
Rin pretended not to hear that. She wasn’t letting something this fun pass unmeddled with! She instantly pulled up their squad leader on her Device.
He answered alarmingly fast, before the second ring. “What’s up, Motegi-kun? Emergency?”
“Totally. Never been anything more urgent.”
“In that case, I can assume there’s no rush at all. But I suppose I’ll hear you out…”
“Practice next week. Wednesday.”
“You have a proposal?”
“Hanabi will be with us that day, right?”
“Suzuka-kun?”
“Yes, she’s in a state. And we need to throw Tooka-chan a welcome party, so…blah blah.”
“…Hmm?”
“Blah blah.”
“…Hmm?”
“Blah-blah-blah. Blah.”
“…You’re a real piece of work. Still…sure, fine.”
“Nice, Squad Leader! You’re a man who gets it!”
“For the sake of the team. And if Suzuka-kun and Okegawa-kun are in a state like that, I’m not about to ignore it. I’ll do what I can.”
“Ha! The taken man knows what’s up! Cool!”
Fuji started to protest this, but Rin just hung up on him. She spun around. “Mwa ha ha! Hanabi…just you wait.”
“Um, Rin…what are you plotting…?”
All she had to do was wink at her, and Hanabi would relax. But instead, Rin just maintained a malicious smirk.