Meat of all kinds was frying all around them. The party soon began and almost immediately hit a level of uproar that no one would mistake for sobriety. The Mitsuhashi squad leader was the first brave hero to slip some booze into the soda without the headmaster or teachers noticing. He was a foolish hero who pulled this trick every time, despite knowing full well the truth would come out eventually.
Those who started raising hell the moment their bellies were full were also fools. That group of fools—all men— tried to show up the couple islands by standing on their chairs and playing rock-paper-scissors at the top of their lungs, the losers forced to strip.
Kuon looked askance at this terrifying male-only strip RPS game, with its cries of “Please, Mitsuhashiiiii, let me keep my underweaaaaar!” and such. He chose to stay focused on his tongs and the meat. That did not look like a fever to get caught up in.
Jogen beef was highly rated even outside their territory. These islands were developed for grazing, Kuon remembered. There were cows just wandering everywhere. The kalbi was particularly good. He flipped a steak on the grill, and noticed Tooka sitting with her plate empty.
“Meat…” she whispered, staring blankly at the browning fillet.
“Oh, sorry, Tooka, aren’t you eating?”
“No.”
“Really? Sorry! You can have this steak.”
She shook her head. It didn’t seem like she was being polite.
“Um… Did you get much steak in Germany?”
“Other people ate it a lot. I just…wasn’t a fan.”
To Kuon’s right, Hanabi was eating scallops. She learned forward. “Not a red meat girl? We’ve got fish and shrimp, too.”
Tooka shook her head again. “Just veggies.”
Kuon and Hanabi, both interested only in beef, pork, chicken, fish, shellfish or any other meat, looked at each other. “Healthy!” they exclaimed.
“You two…” Rin said, shaking her head. She took a bite of marinated pork, chewed it well, and swallowed. “You’re totally in sync over stuff like this! Like you’re twins or something. Scarily close.”
“Uh…”
“And now you’re bashfully fidgeting in the exact same way, you happy bastards! Argh, I can’t take any more of it! I’m going back to my room!”
“Wow, that’s definitely a line that the first victim in a murder mystery would use,” Kuon said, assuming that it was only polite for him to make a joke like that.
“Actually, I just forgot I had some wine back at the lodge, so I’m just going to get that.”
“You’re gonna drink again?”
Rin just fluttered her hands dismissively at the clueless children and left.
With a beautiful girl on his right and a beautiful child on his left, Kuon went ahead and put some onions, peppers, and pumpkin on the grill. Tooka’s eyes locked on to them as if trying to fry them with her gaze alone. A shout went up from the next table. Hanabi was facing him and couldn’t see, but her face was bright red, so she must have guessed what had happened. The Mitsuhashi and Sagara Squad men had forgotten the RPS game entirely and just all gotten naked. “Booooys, put those things awaaaay! We’re trying to fry sausage over heeeere!” someone yelled. Hanabi buried her face in her hands.
“K-Kuon-kun…”
“Yes, Hanabi-senpai?”
“Th-the first one I ever saw was yours so…that night was my first time…” What the hell is burbling out of meeee?! she thought in despair.
“Hmm?” Tooka stole Hanabi’s cup and licked the brim. “Alcohol detected.”
Seriously? Kuon thought.
Hanabi rambled on. “Kuon-kun, yours was…very…um…impress—”
“Aughhhhhh, Hanabi-senpai?! Are you drunk?!”
“Um, um, Kuon-kun, listen? Listen? I think Tooka-chan is…”
“Just Tooka, Hanabi-onee-sama.”
“Since Tooka-chan got here I’ve been a little, just a little, a veeeeeery little bit ankshus but shtill, shtill…” Her speech was slurring more and more. Suddenly she grabbed him by his shoulders and gave him a huge smile. “But I love you more than anything in the world!”
So cute.
“Kuon-kun, I looooooveeeee yoouuuuu…” Her arms went all the way around his neck and held tight. She started kissing his cheek and neck. Kuon thought it was like Heaven but with an additional boozy scent. He settled for rubbing her head with one hand and wielding the tongs with the other. The veggies were about to burn.
Even in this situation Tooka was calmly saying, “Onii-chan, they’re burning.”
A breeze brushed by, feeling brisk on their cheeks. Kuon glanced up to find night banishing the last traces of orange from the sky. Too impatient to wait for the sun to set, stars began to twinkle. Nude boys were starting the world’s most dangerous game of beach flags and fire limbo dancing, while he had the most beautiful girl in school drunk and trying to make out with him.
This was Jogen Island, the last hope of mankind, and they were military trainees facing a seemingly endless war against the monsters. Yet in this moment…
It’s peaceful.
He knew better. They all did.
This evening of fun would not last. It might never come again. Fear of the battlefield was always at the corner of their minds, a black pit of despair that made them want to scream. The Mitsuhashi Squad partied like they wanted to forget because just yesterday they’d finally found pieces of the female Attacker who’d died in the Imperial Recovery battle. The headmaster and teachers knew this, which is why they weren’t stopping them. The other students knew it, too. Every one of them knew they could be the next to die.
But maybe they didn’t really get it.
No one there thought that a month from now, two-thirds of them would be gone. That they’d have lost their chance to speak to two-thirds of their number.
No one knew.
One month from that peaceful night on the beach, the Student Echelon—commonly known as the Lunatic Order—would fall.