On Saturday, with the Quartet coming up at the beginning of next week, Akari and the others had taken the Shirokan-Takanawa Station on the Tokyo Metro and are visiting Shino’s house for their training camp.
In front of her chalk white mansion in Shirokanedai…
“Oooh, amazing!”
“It looks like a castle!”
Raika and Kirin, seeing Shino’s house for the first time, had twinkles in their eyes.
The bulletproof uniform clad girls had needed pyjamas as they planned on staying overnight, so Akari and Raika had brought sports bags with them while Kirin brought her school backpack.
Among them,
“Why are you coming…?”
Akari was looking at the fourth member of the group with a reproachful glance… Out of the girls there, only one was wearing plain civilian clothes, holding a Boston bag. (TL Note: A Boston bag is basically, like, a big purse? Google it if you are curious.)
It was Nonoka, Akari’s younger sister.
Akari, who had wanted to spend time alone with her Butei friends and so had said nothing to Nonoka about today, was unhappy that Nonoka was there and wondered if Nonoka had secretly followed her on her own.
“Since my sister was spending so much time out of the house recently, I wanted to check on her and make sure she is okay.”
Nonoka said, sounding like the older sister out of the two. With her talking like this and Akari sulking, she almost looked like Akari’s guardian.
However, since Nonoka had no ill intentions in following her… Akari decide to put aside the fact that her sister had followed her and rang the doorbell on the Sasaki mansion.
Gachaaa… The large doors open with a heavy and deep sounds…
“Sorry to disturb you.” (TL Note: common thing to say in Japan when visiting someones house, regardless of if you are expected or not.)
While saying that, the group enter into the large entrance hall. Suddenly,
“Welcome everyone!”
Shino, wearing her sailor uniform, came into the hall to greet everyone.
Nonoka looked over at Shino and identified her by her long black hair and serious expression.
“Ah, you must be Sasaki Shino-san! I am indebted to you for taking care of my older sister.”
Nonokw bowed politely to Shino.
Shino stared at Nonoka, as she raised her smiling face that looked a lot like Akari…
“Si… Sister bowl…!”
After muttering an unknown term, for a moment, Shino’s face was pure ecstasy.
“…?”
“…?”
“N-, never mind, welcome.”
Towards the Mamiya sisters who are tilting both of their heads in confusion, Shino quickly tried to cover up what she was saying just earlier.
“Okay, onee-chan. Come here.”
After greeting Shino, Nonoka placed the Boston bag she was carrying on the marble floor.
When Akari crouched down next to her,
“Okay, here. Pyjamas and a change of clothes… as well as onee-chan’s pillow. I always have to remind you that if you use a different pillow, you have trouble falling asleep.”
Nonoka, looking like a proud house wife with a smile on her face, watched as Akari checked the overnight bag that Nonoka had brought for her.
Boko, and, finally, Akari pulled out a pillow with a chick-print image on the front from the Boston bag…
“You are a reliable and sensible little sister, aren’t you?”
“I can’t believe that she is Akari’s little sister…”
Kirin and Raika, standing side by side and watching, exchanged their honest impression on the two sisters.
“What do you two mean by that!?”
Akari, tired of being treated like a little child, angrily turned towards Raika and Kirin.
“Now then, I will go home.”
Nonoka smiled wryly when she tried to pick up her bag…
However, she somehow failed to grab her bag.
“Huh?”
… For a moment, Nonoka had a surprised look on her face.
Akari, watching this with surprise and concern on her face,
“… Well, I should get going, I can see now that onee-chan is serious about this sleepover and will be okay.”
Nonoka reached for the handle of her bag, this time grabbing it, and stood up.
Her expression looked the same as usual.
“Of course? Did you forget who is the older sister?”
Akari bit her lip, thinking the strange look in Nonoka’s eyes must have been her imagination… But no matter what she told herself, she couldn’t dismiss the image of her face from her mind.
“Ah, onee-chan. While this might be a sleepover, that is no excuse to stay up late at night.”
“I know, I know.”
While talking back and forth between the two sisters–
Akari began to push Nonoka out of the lobby, afraid that Nonoka might never stop talking to her unless Akari pushed her out of the house herself.
“Nonoka-san. Please take care of yourself and be careful on your way home.”
Nonoka smiles and nods to Kirin who was waving at her.
Among them, Shino,
“… Pillow…!”
Was the only one not looking at Nonoka. Her eyes were glued to treasure, “Akari’s pillow”, that was sitting half out of the bag that Nonoka brought…!
After dinner, Akari and the others gathered together in the Sasaki residence’s private theatre room.
There was a large tv screen on the wall of the room, and some maids were expertly controlling the materials being presented.
Shino, acting as the moderator of the gathering, was speaking aloud.
“In a Quartet match, our competition and the match style has been decided by Masters. Our match is against Takachiho, and the match style is “Poison”.”
Next, an illustration of a bee and a spider, both poisonous insects, appeared on the screen.
“All members of team Mamiya or team Takachiho will have a flag with them with either a “bee” or a “spider” drawn on it.”
Under the illustrations of the bees and spider, four humanoid markers appeared.
In one of their hands, they held a flag with the mark of their squad drawn on it.
The Akari team had a bee flag, and the Takachiho team had a spider flag.
“Each team also has a flag that must be protected at all costs, a flag with an “eye” on it.”
A large flag with an eye in the middle of it were displayed on both sides of the teams.
“The team that touches the other teams eye flag with their own insect flag wins.”
The winner is whichever team is able to protect their own eye flag from an insect flag while taking out the other persons eye flag first. In other words…
“… If you get stung by a poisonous insect in the eye, you lose, right?”
At Akari’s words, “That’s right”, Shino nodded.
“Are we team Bee?”
In response to Raika,
“Uhiii. I hate bees!”
Kirin screams in a cute and girly manner.
A rough square map was then displayed on the screen.
“The exam site is the entire 11th Ward of Butei High Island, and you can use anything within said ward. Mamiya team will start at the south end, Takachiho team will start at the north end.”
Looking at the map of the 11th ward, the starting point for Team Mamiya was inside a park while the starting point for Team Takachiho was inside a construction site.
In other words, one side starts in a park, and the other will start inside a construction site.
“Those are the basic rules… That’s it.”
Lowering her pointing stick, Shino finished her basic explanation.
“Simple, isn’t it?”
Akari seemed a little disappointed that the rules were so simple, while Raika simply say “I guess so”.
However, Kirin has a serious expression on her face.
Despite being the youngest person there, it seems that Kirin was capable of seeing through the deep realities of the Quartet that Masters had aimed for when designing “Poison”.
“It is true that Poison seems simple at first… but concealment, combat, retreating, and teamwork… it will test every one of our skills.”
Hiding the eye flag. Protecting it. Taking it with you as you run away.
Searching. Attacking. Tailing.
Teamwork was a requirement for both the defenders and attackers in the exam.
And, of course, this competition requires weapons.
When approaching or defending a flag, the two teams combat capabilities and equipment will decide the outcome.
As if praising Kirin who noticed this fact,
“– That’s right! Rinrin, you really are my student!”
A bouncy and girly voice burst into the theatre room.
When Akari and the others turned around, entering the room and guided by the Miyamoto sister maids…
“Riko-oneesama!”
There was a girl in a sailor suit who seemed to be a senior, and with no warning Kirin jumped at her.
“Let me introduce Riko-oneesama! My ex-Amica, and a second year Inquesta student!”
The girl that Kirin introduced to everyone was a girl wearing a sweet lolita remodelled uniform that looked similar to Kirin’s, with blonde hair tied up in two twin-tails, one on either side of her head.
She has a small and cute physique, but her presence was strong.
Not only was she beautiful, but she has a charm that anyone would fall for at first sight, her body was not just cute but curvy and sexy as well.
When Riko and Kirin were standing side by side, it looked like two idols sparkling and shining with the spotlight on them.
(Uwaaa… She is so pretty and cute…)
Akari couldn’t help but look at and admire the two of them,
“…”
Raika, Kirin’s current Amica, had a face that clearly showed that she was not happy to see Kirin so close and friendly with Riko,
Completely ignoring the atmosphere of the place,
“A Poison match. How nostalgic.”
Riko
Riko pulled Kirin off of her and walked towards the screen.
Riko had a mysterious charm that simply couldn’t be put into words.
“Fumufumu. So… the enemy team will start at the construction site.”
Looking at the map with her index finger cutely on her lips, Riko turns her back to Akari and the others as she mutters to herself.
“A Butei must be capable of defending themselves. As a senpai, I cannot protect you just because you are my juniors.”
Akari and the others couldn’t see her facial expression as she had her back to them, but… They could easily hear her line with a harsh meaning to it.
But that was for only a moment,
“However, that does not mean that I can’t train you!”
While looking back with a smile, Riko cutely leaned over with her finger still to her lip.
And she then did a perfect wink, capable of captivating anyone and everyone regardless of gender.
Everyone went to the Shino’s garden, the same garden where her and Akari had fought not too long ago. There, with Article 5 in their head (Be swift in action), they immediately started their cleaning.
Riko, taking on the role of instructor, is keeping a watchful eye on everyone while holding her shinai, a bamboo sword with a ribbon around the brim.
However, despite the fact that they were supposed to be training for their Quartet… Perhaps it was because of Riko’s bright personality, but there is a somewhat cheerful atmosphere in the garden.
“Shino-chan, your training is going to be focused on fighting the twins.”
Riko spoke to Shino, who currently was wearing kendo armour.
Standing opposed to her are the twin Miyamoto sisters who were working as maids at Shino’s house. Taking advantage of the fact that Shino happened to have twin maids working at her house, Riko gave each of them two wooden swords, a total of four between them. It was training that trained Shino in combating two enemies who are in sync, in this case the bobbed hair Yaya and Yuyu
“Shino-sama, I am sorry!”
“Young lady, I am sorry!”
While apologizing, the Miyamoto sisters took turns hitting her with their wooden swords.
Shino desperately tried to block the endless blows from the twin maids using her single wooden sword.
“Alright, lets go girls!”
Riko seemed to be enjoying herself teasing someone as the Miyamoto sisters behind her continued to attack Shino.
There, Raika and Kirin are undergoing their special training. Although the two were to work as a team, Raika had been ordered by Riko to be blind folded with a cloth.
Moreover, since she was prohibited to attack back, only defence was available to her.
Raika was only allowed to guard against Kirin’s attacks in her peekaboo style of boxing, and was using both of her face to protect her face.
Kirin on the other hand continued to hit Raika with chops and palm blows.
Her special training…
“Traditionally, the strongest Butei is the defender of the eye flag. For you, even if you are put into a disadvantageous situation, you just have to continue to believe in your comrades and buy them time.”
Riko, who had appointed Raika as the guardian of the “Eye flag”, spoke to her as she continued doing her special defence training.
Raika in earnest continued to take Kirin’s relentless attacks and endured it without backing down. This was her training, the longer she could endure Kirin’s attacks, the longer she could defend her flag, and the longer her comrades had to attack.
Each individual blow from Kirin was light. However, Raika right now was just a punching bag, and receiving dozens if not hundreds so far has become fierce training.
On the other hand, the attacking Kirin looked to be in pain as well.
Kirin did not usually do martial arts training, and so was immediately gasping for air, her attacks now were empty, and she had already fallen down once. She was not the king of Butei that is used to fighting for a long time.
“You cannot stop just yet.”
With a wry smile, Riko moved to a different corner of the garden.
“Akari-rin♥ Are you still doing your best?” (TL Note: a more accurate name is Akkarin.)
There…
“Wh, wh, why am I the only one doing something like this!?”
Akari, who had been dragged out of the house after hearing what her training was, is currently straddling a piece of machinery. To be specific, it was a horse riding training machine.
While watching the teary-eyed Akari as she was thrown around up, down, left, and right,
“Your fine your fine. A Butei who only trains to fight will die an early death.”
However, Riko couldn’t help but laugh lightly at the sight.
Riko was an elusive senpai who seemingly did as she wanted. Akari could never tell what she was thinking.
“Bu, but… Kyaa!”
Akari lost her balance and becha! She fell face first.
Her nose, which was not very begin to begin with much like the rest of her body, was somehow crushed even smaller.
“Uooh! Ouch. Are you okay~?”
In front of Riko, who was looking down at Akari to see if she was okay–
– Akari once again straddled the horse-riding machine.
Despite being Aria’s Amica for a short time, Akari had inherited a little bit of Aria’s indomitable spirit.
Or rather, Aria’s first job was to train Akari to have a strong sense of perseverance through a training system that Aria herself devised in which she shunned any weakness or willingness to give up.
Riko could clearly see this as well…
“Ahaha, what a straightforward girl…”
While saying things to herself that she normally wouldn’t…
Her eyes never left Akari, as if she was observing Aria H. Kanzaki herself on the other side of her.
Meanwhile, Takachiho…
“Hoohohoho! Why? Why are you playing on a horse riding machine!?”
While watching Akari struggling on her big TV screen in her room, she couldn’t help but bust into laughter.
The video she is watching is live and is being secretly shot from a building a short distance away from the Sasaki residence. Yuyu and Yaya, the twin Aizawa sisters, are doing reconnaissance and are recording Akari with a telephoto camera, sending the footage via a video call.
Takachiho, dressed in a loose negligee, was watching Akari and the others training late into the night from her elegant room, which is as spacious as a suite in a five-star hotel.
Takachio sat down on a bed with a canopy, quenching her thirst with grape juice from a wine glass.
“Well, it is not like I had any intention to lose to these girls anyway. What do you think?”
In the corner of her room, Fuuma, who was summoned to inspect Takachiho’s enemies, is sitting cross legged.
Fuuma, who had been given consent by Takachio to answer her question,
“…”
Fuuma had spotted Riko Mine, one of her senpais, and was silently and earnestly contemplating the meaning of the training regimen that Riko had given them. It was due to Fuuma’s seriousness and strong sense of caution to not let down her guard, even when her enemies look as ridiculous as Akari.
In the Sasaki residence, there is a large bath that can easily accommodate 10 or 20 people at once. The windows in on the walls are beautiful stained glass, and the hot water did not come out of a faucet but instead spouted out of a sculpture of a lion situation in the middle of the main bath.
However, despite being in such a beautiful bath… Akari, who unsteadily walks towards the bathtub did not have the time to enjoy such an extravagant experience. Even now, she felt as if her lower body was shaking, making her feel sick.
Even Shino, was already in the bathtub, somehow looked exhausted.
But–
Somehow, Kirin and her former older Amica, Riko, were bright and happy even after all that training.
“It has been a while since we had taken a bath together.”
Riko was washing Kirin’s hair from behind while Kirin was wearing a shampoo hat, and just after a mischievous smile appeared on Riko’s face she began to tickle Kirin’s armpits.
“Kyaha, onee-sama, you’re tickling me!”
Raika was looking on… irairaira… annoyed.
She was patient at first as she watched on, but,
“… Hey!”
Three minutes was her limit.
“We should not be playing around right now! We will be training tomorrow as well after all. I want to begin resting as soon as I can, so I will be taking Kirin with me. Senpai.”
Gui. She began pulling Kirin’s arm as she was leaving the bathtub.
As Riko saw this,
“Awwa, are you jealous~?”
Riko’s goal was to make Raika jealous, a fact that was made obvious by her grinning and mischievous smile.
“Wh-, whose jealous!?”
Before she knew it, Raika’s face turned bright red and she began to panic, wondering if or when she had somehow developed a desire to monopolize her cute little Amica.
“Wow! Onee-sama, going crazy over me with jealousy, you are so cute!”
Raika realized that Kirin must be in on this as well, Riko was her older Amica for a while after all.
“That’s not true!”
With her face somehow turning even brighter red, Raika could only object with as much seriousness as she could muster right now.
The Riko and Kirin ex-Amica pair would continue to make fun of Raika, but…
“… Well, this has been fun but it is time for me to head home~♪”
Riko-senpai suddenly spun on her heels and turned around.
“… Are you really going home already Riko-oneesama?”
Riko nodded “yes” to Kirin’s question, and then poured hot water over her body from a nearby washbasin.
Puffing out her nude exposed chest, bushi!
She then pointed to Akari and the others.
“All that is left is for you to remember Article 6 of the Butei Charter: Think for yourself and act yourself!”
Leaving those words behind, Riko wrapped herself in a bath towel and left the bathing room.
§ §
Later at night, Akari and the others had entered their respective rooms to go to bed.
Shino’s house has several guest rooms, however despite that it was not possible for everyone to have their own private room… So the Amica sisters Raika and Kirin were sharing a room.
That room, in which the lights had already been turned off, was still dimly lit by the moonlight.
“…”
Raika was in her pyjamas, lying on a king-size bed.
However, she was keeping her back turned to Kirin, who was sitting with her legs to her side, upright on the bed.
Kirin, wearing a short neckline negligee, was combing her own hair while looking towards Raika’s back with a wry smile on her face… Raika was still sulking about the bath incident from earlier.
“Are you jealous?”
While touching Raika from behind, despite being younger than Raika Kirin spoke in a voice that sounded like an older sister teasing a boy younger than her,
“You-, you idiot! I am not!”
Even though Raika’s face was currently so red it looked like she had a sunburn, she was acting as obstinate and defiant as any immature boy.
§ §
Shino was restlessly pacing around her room.
She was awaiting a report from her trusted twin Miyamoto sister maids.
… wandering, wandering… and then,
“Shino-sama! I got it! I found the same pillow!”
One of the Miyamoto sisters opened the door and ran in, out of breath.
In her hand was a pillow with a price tag inside a transparent plastic bag.
It was the exact same pillow as the one that Akari brought…!
“Here!”
As the maid handed the pillow to Shino,
“Good job!”
Plompf! Shino accepted the pillow.
“Akari-chans pillow…! I will take it saying that I am going to have it dry cleaned, but that is fine since I will be giving you this brand new one!)
Legally, this was indeed a robbery, but to Shino it was fine since she was replacing an old pillow with a new one. In her eyes she was innocent as she had not committed anything bad or sinful, it was a self-evidenced good act really. As the daughter of an armed prosecutor, she was satisfied that there were no issues…
Imagining her near future, she began to bury her face in the replacement pillow, Shino was the happiest that she had ever been in her life right now.
§ §
Unaware of all this, Akari still wearing her uniform…
Even though it was past midnight, she was alone in the courtyard, continuing her special training on the horse-riding machine.
“… uwa!!”
She was nearly thrown off, but had managed to hold on and endure the shaking.
She has gotten a lot better at staying on the machine than when she had first started.
She was still not sure what the purpose of her training is supposed to be, but Article 1: “Believe in yourself and your comrades”. She would believe in Kirin and her ex-Amica Riko, who is experienced in Quartet matches.
(If I keep doing this tomorrow as well, I will surely be able to master this in time!”
Akari, with a flame in her eye, suddenly sensed the presence of someone nearby,
“…? Uwa!”
Because of the distraction, Akari fell off the riding machine.
“Itatata…Huh!” (TL Note: Itatata is basically Japanese “ow”)
She landed on her nose again. Akari contemplated if it was shrinking by 1mm each time she fell… No, wouldn’t it swell and get bigger…? Thinking this, and holding her nose with her hand,
“What are you doing?”
Akari heard a familiar anime sounding voice, albeit a bit more withdrawn and confused than normal.
Akari stood up with newfound energy.
“A-, Aria-senpai!”
Aria was standing in front of Akari with a paper bag filled to the brim with momoman.
Aria had apparently just arrived and was currently being guided around the mansion by a maid… However, it would seem that seeing Akari, a Butei, training on a horse-riding machine past midnight, was enough to even stun even the elite Aria.
And so, Akari told Aria the story of everything that had happened up till now.
“Hmm. Special training…”
Sitting on her butt on the grass with her knees pulled close to her chest, Akari was eating one of the momoman buns that Aria had given her and was telling Aria about Riko’s special training…
Aria, listening this, gave a thumbs up to the horse-riding machine to size it up as she looked at it, confused.
“Riko might be an idiot, but she isn’t a normal idiot. There must be something to this training that isn’t immediately visible but is useful in real combat.”
Despite her initial confusion, Aria looked like she was convinced that there was some meaning to this training.
“Regardless, you are the only one training right now… Why are you working so much harder than everyone else?”
Aria asking this was looking at her watch with sideways eyes…
A little embarrassed, Akari hid her face in her knees.
“… Because Takachiho-san… She told me that winning was impossible for me.”
Akari responded to Aria, remembering the incident in front of the Masters office.
“Aria-senpai told me that that word is forbidden…”
Akari muttered, as if she was talking to herself…
Aria shrugged her shoulders and sighed, exasperated with how straight forward her Amica is.
“Mouu, you really are stupidly honest to a fault.” (TL Note: Mouu here is a sound effect, I cannot think of an English equivalent.)
“Bu-, but…”
To Akari, who was now looking at the ground,
“Well, I don’t hate that kind of person…”
Aria gave Akari a smile from her heart, and held out a gift for Akari in her hand.
In Aria’s hand is a charm… Stitched on the front is the word “Victory”.
“I bought this charm for you from a Japanese… church? It was near a lawyers office that I visited earlier today. Since it said “Victory” on it, I thought it would be a perfect good luck charm for you.”
Akari’s face immediately brightened and she smiled a hear felt smile in response to Aria’s comment, reminded again that Aria truly is a foreigner even if it is not obvious… (TL Note: Aria calls it a Japanese Church, it is in fact a shrine.)
Receiving the charm with both of her hands,
“Thank you Aria-senpai!”
She spoke words of gratitude to Aria, words that came from the bottom of her heart.
Silvered Tongue 