Ame Day [Part 2]

****Perspective:***************************??? ????? ?????***********************

She walked right up to his shoebox, number 154. Making sure no one saw her, she pulled five small sheets from her back pocket and slipped them inside. Just then, she heard a shuffling sound from behind her.

The girl glanced up, it was Ishizaki, the class vice president. “What are you doing?” She asked.

“Nothing of note. See you in class!” The girl responded, scampering off quickly. No doubt Ishizaki would think it strange, but she wouldn’t make a fuss, let alone call her out on it. After all, it’s not like she knew Naoko Hajime personally. Her phone beeped loudly. A New message. It was Alpha, something about codenames. She responded affirmatively, that would be best, after all. All was going according to plan.

****Perspective***********************The Soldier, “Hazel” (Ethel Alpha 632-E)******* Alpha yawned as their train finally pulled in. At 7:45AM they had located Ame and were ready to spend the next three hours riding the Soba line to Choshishi by the sea. Alpha had half a mind to change the itinerary to include surfing, but Final’s mind was made up. Since she had spent a smidge more time with Ame she knew what best to include: shopping, movies, and an aquarium to meet this Ame’s water fixation.

“We should just hit up the music store and jam out.” Alpha mentioned absently, as the four girls squeezed into the train car.

“Ooh! Is there a music store in the mall down there?” Ame asked, checking the map on her phone.

“I dunno, is there?” Alpha asked, flipping through the ridiculous Arkwright phone Omega had insisted on in lieu of her watch. She had half a mind to chuck it, as the map both looked and sounded wrong. Choshishi? Soba line? Whoever drew up the map of Japan in this universe must have been drunk, she was sure of it. That, and she missed the utility of the watch. But without her signature tracksuit it would be hard to conceal it. Hence, the phone. It had all the capabilities of the Arkwright Portal Waypoint Watch but only enough charge for a single portal and even then, not a very large one.

Alpha gave Final a knowing glance, who patted her shoulder bag. She had brought the contraband. Anything Omega didn’t want them to have, anyhow. Only in case of emergencies, of course. They were going dark on communications to best immerse themselves in “Ame day” but no doubt Omega would be raising a fuss once she knew what kind of heat they’d been packing.

The train ride was saved by Ame, who was a wonderful conversationalist. Final was still feeling resentment after last night and aside from assuring Alpha that she’d brought “the goods” said little else. To top it off she kept glancing at Hinako suspiciously as though she expected her to do something nuts. Alpha knew it was just Hinako being Hinako and paid no mind to her thirty minute long “bathroom breaks,” which were likely some excuse to draw a picture for Omega, or whatever she kept doing in her free time.

It wasn’t until stop one on the “Ame-day fun list”: clothes shopping, that Alpha took notice of Hinako’s bizarre attitude. They had been off the train for maybe ten minutes when Hinako rushed Ame with the most punk pair of pants in the entire store.

“Here, I think you should try these on!” She insisted.

“Look at you, Hina-chan! Didn’t peg you for one with such great taste!” Ame said, slinging the edgy biker-girl jeans over her shoulder and skipping towards the changing room. Hinako’s attitude immediately changed once she was out of earshot.

“We’ve got a problem, Alpha.” She whispered, grabbing her hand and walking them out the front door for some privacy. “I’ve been following this situation all day but there’s a lot of police just up the road I thought you might want to know.” She said, pulling up a satellite image Houston had sent to her of twelve different squad cars at the end of their street.

Alpha glanced up, and sure enough she could see lights in the distance and hear low screams which sounded straight out of a tokosatsu film. “So? Shouldn’t have anything to do with us.” Alpha decided. Hinako hastily flipped through her phone until she found a blurry image taken by a bystander.

“The calls from locals all day have been about a large animal. Sound familiar?” Hinako asked, showing Alpha the image. She zoomed in until the big, blurry face of a giraffe was visible. Alpha glanced back and forth between the carnage down the street and Hinako’s bigfoot photo.

“I think we should ignore it.”

“You would!” Hinako groaned. “Look, I know it’s not fun, but I think at this point you and I should break from the ‘date team’ and take care of this thing. Final can spend time with Ame and make sure she’s safe.”

“No way! No way!” Alpha insisted, crossing her hands in front of herself. “This is Ame day, Hinako! A-me day! We need to all spend time with her and make sure she de-stresses and gets away from Naoko otherwise she’ll never soften to him. If we don’t fill her life with good vibes and good conversation that emotional contagion will keep eating away at her and cut off that relationship for good! You don’t want that, do you?”

Hinako adjusted her glasses with a sigh. “Listen, if you insist it’s the best course of action, I’ll go with you. I don’t have the will to fight you on this. But seriously, Alpha, if we keep ignoring things like this they’ll keep piling up.”

“Couldn’t agree more, Hinako! And if we ignore our friend Ame then her anxiety will keep piling up! Lest we forget!” Alpha said, satisfied she’d won the argument. Hinako gave her an exhausted look but followed her back to the group, regardless. As it turned out, Ame loved the pants and had decided to get them alongside a couple more articles in the black, ripped, and neon-splattered category.

“I’m getting pretty hungry how about you, Hazel?” Alpha said to Final with a wink and a nod.

“You know, I’m actually all right and isn’t it a bit early?” She responded. Thankfully, Hinako had a better answer.

“Well, I skipped breakfast. My stomach is killing me.” She insisted. Ame suggested a noodle shop up the road but upon some helpful advice they were able to shift gears for some of the more “exotic” food several blocks away. Ame, easygoing as usual, was cool with it and the group of friends went into eating mode.

They settled on a family restaurant, and at Alpha’s insistence they chose to eat on the street. Outdoor dining was a luxury Alpha had been starved for since the war. She savored every bite and every joke for the next half hour despite Hinako’s continuously souring mood.

“Are you okay, Hinako-chan?” Ame asked after a while.

“I’m fine,” Hinako insisted, hastily chomping down her burger and fries she’d been neglecting. It was then Final stood up and looked down the road.

“Is that who I think it is?” She asked, standing on her chair to get a better look. The entire table was looking down the street now, curious. “It is.” She said, as a tall, lanky man came into view only to dart into a restaurant and yell for a few seconds. “It’s officer Nakashima.”

“That’s impossible! He’s got to be hours outside his jurisdiction if he’s out here.” Alpha said, taking a long swig of her soda.

“Impossible, huh?” Hinako chided, as officer Nakashima exited the restaurant down the street and made a beeline for their table.

He looked terrible. His uniform was torn and stained, and he smelled like death took a dump on itself. His eyes were bloodshot, his face was ragged, and his posture was craggy like he was close to forgetting how to stand. Yet, undaunted, he spoke to the girls as eloquently as his cracked lips would allow.

“Good evening,” he said with a bow. “I regret to inform you that we are asking citizens to leave the area at this time in response to a significant disturbance in progress. Rest assured; everything is under control. But we request that you either take shelter inside or evacuate the area for the time being.”

“Why do we have to do that?” Ame asked boldly. If the officer recognized her, he didn’t show it through his tired eyes.

“Uh, a giraffe has escaped and we’re trying to deal with it.” He said matter-of-factly.

“A giraffe? You mean the one you were chasing two weeks ago?! Your people haven’t caught it!?” Ame said, incredulous. Realization crept up the officer’s face.

“You’re the girls from the park?” He asked. “Are you the one that took my hat!?”

“Have you gotten any sleep at all!?” Ame snapped, ignoring his question. “If this is the state the Hiwara police treat their officers, then I have half a mind to march in there and talk to your superiors!”

“Yes, yes, I’m sorry.” Nakashima said, bowing and scraping. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to him that Ame was right about his work if this was the state he’d been placed in.

“Seriously, you need to take better care of yourself, officer. Are you hydrating?”

“Uh.”

“Go inside right now and while you’re warning the rest of the restaurant get some water for yourself.” She ordered.

“But I!”

“March!” At this point Ame was standing and gesturing towards the door. Final stood up and grabbed the man’s arm to walk him inside along with her. Alpha took another long drink from her soda, draining the glass, as Hinako turned to her again.

“Still think we should put this off?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Why in the world!?”

“You know what they taught me in basic training, Hinako?”

“What’s that?”

“Lift heavy. Get money.” Alpha listed, holding up two fingers as she said it.

“I don’t follow.” Hinako responded, perturbed. Alpha stood up and walked over to her.

“It means, ‘work hard and get what you need to get done.’ I know this giraffe is an issue but we’re doing work right now, Hinako. Ame needs to have fun for as long as we can make it last. And once that’s out of the way we can deal with that doofus. Besides, it’s probably not even cosmic.” Alpha finished, placing her hands at her side. Hinako pondered for a moment then narrowed her one visible eye.

“Interesting motto. But I think you misunderstand its meaning.”

“How’s that?”

“Wouldn’t ‘lift heavy’ mean doing something you don’t want to do? That way, on the other hand you can ‘get money’ which is usually a pleasurable experience?” Hinako asked, adjusting her glasses.

Alpha was stunned silent. For an instant the two of them shared a mutual understanding. Hinako was focused on the mission too, just a different aspect of it. Sadly, it was an aspect that Alpha had no respect for and could easily argue her way out of.

“Question, Hinako. How do you propose we take care of the giraffe? Should we open a portal in front of dozens of police?” She didn’t respond. “Let’s say for a second we were to lure it into a dingy alleyway, is there any guarantee that no one will see?” Again, Hinako held her tongue. “Finally, if this isn’t a coincidence and the Giraffe is in fact cosmic will it make any difference if we face it now or if we avoid it all day?”

Hinako shrugged. “I guess we could ask Omega.”

“Omega, how does the dimensional spectrometer look?” Alpha asked, pinching her ear.

“Perfectly fine, Alpha.” Omega said, “Hey, did Final take the shimmer watch? I’ve been looking for that! Also, one of you really should take care of that giraffe-” Alpha double tapped her earlobe, shutting off communication.

“Well? Are you willing to go with me on this? Or are you going to buck me the whole way, Hinako?” Alpha asked, clasping her hands together.

The tall, slender girl sighed, defeated. “It was worth a shot. I already tried convincing Final earlier, she’s even more adamant.” Hinako conceded.

“Look, Hina-chan, if things keep falling apart, we can always take care of it. That’s what lifting heavy is all about!”

“I don’t agree, but that’s fine.” Hinako decided as an Ethel and an Ame exited the restaurant to approach them.

“How’s our friend?” Alpha asked.

“Busy. Let’s go!” Ame said decisively.

“The waitresses gave him some water and he’s taking a nap at one of the booths. Next stop, the movies?” Final asked, gesturing to a theater another ten blocks away.

“Well, I say, in the name of safety we take a cab farther away to a place a Giraffe doesn’t belong!” Alpha stated as Ame’s eyes widened with excitement. “The Aquarium!”

****

The Choshishi aquarium was a marvel to be sure, even more than a similar aquarium in Alpha’s universe. Perhaps these stupid naming conventions didn’t matter as much if it meant an improvement. The façade was a tall sloping metal sheet peering over the street. Under the awning and between two walls of solid concrete was a small double-wide automatic door that two people might struggle to fit through. Safe. Alpha thought, as they crossed the threshold to the inside.

The group got their tickets and excitedly stepped into an underwater world. Entering through a long glass tube surrounded by water and the tamer selection of fish. Ame was ecstatic but not so much about the fish, funny enough.

“The interesting part is Ozone filtration! While it’s not the only method they use to filter the water, it’s super important to ensuring the breakdown of organics and parasites. The crazy part is they have to take it out once it’s done or it’ll burn the gills of the fish.” Ame continued. “Ahh, the pump room is so cool here. I wish we could take you on a tour!”

“Wait, you’ve been here before?” Final asked, a bit pained.

“Oh, all the time. I love this place!” Ame responded, killing the part of Final that thought the aquarium was a new experience.

“Well, at least we’re safe from giraffes here.” Hinako whispered to Alpha.

“Exactly, now it’s smooth sailing for the rest of Ame day.” Alpha replied as the room opened and the first massive tank made its appearance. The friends marveled at the massive enclosure which included a basking shark and all manner of fish both small and large. The tank shot upward about six meters and the path split to the right and the left leading to different tanks depending on the direction. The room was wide open, so it was impossible not to notice the only other patron in the room a tall lanky boy with unkempt bedhead and round glasses. Hajime Naoko.

“Aw, come on! Why!?” Ame protested, prompting him to turn around.

“Owari! What are you doing here?” Naoko sputtered, nearly dropping the soda in his hands.

“Ugh.” Ame replied, turning away in disgust. Not good, she seemed so mad she couldn’t even bring herself to insult him. Alpha did her best to rectify the situation.

“Oh, hey, Hajime-kun! Funny seeing you here, anyways, you seem busy we’ll leave you be.” She said, slinging her arm around Ame’s to draw her away.

“You’re not interrupting anything, I’m good!” He said, showing off his fetching smile. It held no charm today.

“Why did you have to show up today? I was having such a good time.” Ame asked, her face sour.

“Oh, well, since last week’s events I no longer have to finish people’s homework. That, and, someone left like, five aquarium tickets in my locker so I’ve been coming here basically every day.” Naoko scratched the back of his head sheepishly. In other words, he had nothing better to do.

Ame pulled out her aquarium map and tried to rip it in half. Hinako and Alpha grabbed her hands and tried to get her to calm down.

“Well, hey, if you’re not busy would you mind joining up with us?” Final asked, pausing all hijinks.

“Oh, sure Arkwright-san! Thanks for the company!” He replied.

“No way!” Ame and Alpha shouted in unison, with the two of them listing off reasons why which ultimately boiled down to: “Girl’s night out and no boys allowed.” Final raised an objection.

“Come on, he’s been by himself for a while, I think he could use some time with friends.”

“You can hang out with him but leave me out.” Ame said, folding her arms. And the rationalizations began in earnest. The bickering between Ethel, Hazel and Ame continued to build to a crescendo of insults muttered under Ame’s breath towards Naoko. All the while, a tall figure limped down the hallway towards them leaving a few drops of blood on the floor.

Hinako cleared her throat loudly then pointed behind the group to a tall man in a police uniform with an open cut on his forehead.

“Giraffe… Evacuate… giraffe!” Officer Nakashima managed before fainting and slumping down just outside the hall.

“You’re kidding! Right!?” Alpha asked, incredulous at the man’s determination.

A loud sliding and shifting sound echoed down the hall alongside what could only be interpreted as “angry giraffe noises.” Like the world’s most determined beached whale, the yellow and brown monstrosity flicked its slobbering head up and down and wiggled its way through the glass hallway leaving scratches, fur, and a few cracks in its wake.

Once through, it pulled itself up on all fours and started whipping its head around haphazardly. Hinako and Alpha exchanged a look and nodded with conviction; the problem had come to them. It was time to lift.

****Perspective:***************************The Final Ethel***********************

Chaos erupted as the giraffe made its stand. Yet, strangely, everyone seemed to have a clear idea of what they wanted to do. Alpha and Hinako, looking concerned for the passed-out police officer started trying to flank the beast in order to reach him. Meanwhile, Ame and Naoko pulled back and started flinging things at its head to distract it. First to fly was Naoko’s soda whose aluminum can sprayed sugary fluid onto its fur. Secondly came Ame’s leftovers from dinner which clung to the creature’s neck, irritating it more.

All the while, Ethel was rummaging through her bag for the secret weapon she’d brought in case of emergencies: the shimmer watch. She slung the rusty piece onto her left hand and snuck away from the chaos to hide behind a bench. Between the screams, insults, and general mayhem no one noticed her sneaking off to turn on the worn-out device.

Alpha started shouting orders to Ame and Naoko and the two groups switched positions. Perfect. Final thought, all she had to do was provide a good enough distraction to help them escape. She turned the dial on the watch. The face whirred to life and rose by a centimeter. She turned the dial until the analog readout read: Lion then pressed down the watch face with a hiss.

****Perspective***********************The Soldier, “Hazel” (Ethel Alpha 632-E)*******

The giraffe swung its head down at them over and over, scampering and dancing as it tried to keep them from the hallway. Alpha and Hinako tried and failed on three occasions to free Nakashima whose unconscious body still slumped against the wall precariously close to the stomping hooves.

“We need to distract it so we can get at Nakashima! We also need to draw the damn thing away from here, any ideas?” Alpha asked Hinako, dodging another head-swipe. Hinako turned to face Ame.

“Owari-san! Do you remember where the pump-room is!?” She asked.

“Down the hall to your right, there’s a pair of white doors, you can’t miss it. Why?” Ame asked, pulling a fresh pair of jeans from one of her shopping bags. Alpha chimed in next.

“We’re going to distract it and make it chase us to someplace we can get it stuck, you two grab Nakashima and take off!” Alpha relayed. Ame and Naoko glanced at each other with a slight grimace but nodded in unison.

A lion shot out from behind one of the benches, snarling and roaring at the giraffe. The entire group scattered at the newcomer; their original trajectories thrown off by the foreign element. The lion circled to the giraffe’s right and started biting and hissing at the air. After all their attempts it finally backed away from the hallway, braying in fright.

“Now!” Alpha yelled at Ame and Naoko, collecting herself. Naoko recovered first and gave Ame a prod with his elbow. Her shocked expression settled, and she mustered up the rage and anger to give her new pair of jeans the strongest toss any of them had ever seen. The pants landed squarely over the Giraffe’s horns, covering its eyes and face as it stumbled further into the room.

Ame and Naoko made a beeline for the police officer while Hinako and Alpha moved in to assist. The giraffe hit the ground with a resounding thud as it tripped over itself. The lion moved towards the fallen creature and away from the hallway, clearing the path for the others.

Ame and Naoko each grabbed a shoulder of the officer, slinging him over theirs and rushing off down the hallway. Ame had the briefest instinct to look back at Alpha who gave her a thumbs up as if to say, “we’ll be fine.”

Once her two best friends were out of sight Alpha turned to the lion. “All right, sis, you circle around to its face and make some noise.” She said. The “lion” nodded and dropped something on the floor. It was almost impossible to notice until she took off across the room. Alpha picked it up, her Waypoint Watch,

“You ready to take care of this?” Hinako asked.

“Ready as ever.” Alpha replied, as the two backed away down the hall ready to run.

The giraffe woke with a start, scampering away from the predator snapping in its face as the jeans fell to the ground. Its eyes were stuck on the lion for a while as it regained its footing but quickly changed tack once it saw Alpha and Hinako taunting it.

“Hey, horse-face! Over here!” Alpha shouted, waving her arms and trying her best to gain its attention. The giraffe glanced back at the lion then took off galloping towards Hinako and Alpha. The two ran down the edge of the large tank, following the hallway as it wrapped around the building in a wide arc.

At the end of the second large tank, dead ahead at a crossroads was a pair of metal, white double doors marked for “employees only”. That’d be the place. Alpha reached the door first and rather than trying to pick the lock on the doorknob, jumped into the air and planted the heel of her boot into the handle. The brittle metal fell off in a clump and she reached inside with her fingers to release the lock and open the doors wide.

Hinako helped open the doors from the other side. But Alpha didn’t quite notice since, as soon as she was through, a long brown and furry neck was rushing in snapping at them and lowing.

The two ran down the service corridor past large tanks and pipes that looked pretty important which the Giraffe paid little mind do as it scampered on its belly like before. “What is your problem!?” Alpha asked as the hallway opened into a massive pump room nearly as tall as the room with the big tank.

Around them, huge pipes and treatment tanks shot up from the ground with three workers spread throughout, fussing with dials. Each of whom was stunned into silence as a Giraffe wiggled its way through the service hall to stand amongst them.

“Get out! Giraffe!” Alpha yelled, and the workers quickly complied, dashing between the creature’s legs before it could swipe at them.

“I’ll distract it, you enter these coordinates on your watch and open a portal as wide as you can on the floor.” Hinako said, handing Alpha a sheet of paper with a series of long numbers on it.

“All right, I’m counting on you!” Alpha said, turning towards her. But Hinako was already on the other side of the room standing on a large metal tank and clapping in the creature’s face.

Alpha shook off the feeling that something strange was going on and started typing in the long-winded equation. Backing up to the wall to keep out of range, she typed frantically five then ten lines of complicated numbers in sequence. She glanced up periodically and what she saw made no sense. In an instant, Hinako was under the giraffe. When she next looked, she was across the room, in the rafters, hanging from a pipe on the ceiling, and so on.

Alpha put her head down and tried not to think. Just copying the lines of numbers and then, with a flourish she dragged her three fingers across the screen casting a projection of a portal at around ten square meters, just to be safe. She pressed the green button on the watch’s side and the familiar tessellating pattern appeared, a circle then a triangle, then a square, then an octagon. Blue and purple light flooded the room as the portal snapped into existence and crackled with immense energy

“Now! Hinako!” Alpha said over the buzzing electricity between them.

“Right!” Hinako told her, from directly to her left. Alpha blinked and the two of them were across the room in the service hall again. She saw a slight shimmer in Hinako’s right eye underneath her long bangs. “Charge him!” She yelled. And Alpha, despite her confusion, followed orders.

The two tackled the beast’s hind legs forcing them to buckle. The creature lowed in confusion as its front legs slid through the portal with the rest of its body following shortly after. The giraffe dropped through the portal, the pressure change in the room causing Alpha’s ears to pop. The creature collapsed onto a large dusty plane with wiry green bushes and a honey badger scratching the ground and hissing nearby.

“Huh. It’s actually the savannah.” Alpha commented.

“Cheetah one and Lioness one, out.” Hinako said, pressing the red button on Alpha’s watch which closed the portal with a whoosh and a hiss.

“That was badass, Hinako!” Alpha said, taking her friend’s hand in a thumb-locking handshake.

“Lift heavy?”

“Get money!” Alpha finished, snapping her fingers against Hinako’s hand as they double checked the room for witnesses. Thankfully, no one appeared, and it seemed like their operation was a stunning success.

“Oh good, we’re out of the woods!” Alpha sighed, as they snuck back through the service corridor, still alert in case someone came by.

“Not quite, I’m going to have to alter the security feeds in this place before the night is over. I’ll be up forever.”

“Can’t you just have someone from Houston handle it?”

“I’m afraid their skillset doesn’t cover the kinds of things I do.”

“I see.” Alpha replied, perplexed. “So, was that thing ‘cosmic’ or what?” She asked next.

“Who knows?” Hinako said with a shrug. Alpha was taken aback. “All I know is Omega told us to get rid of it and it’s gone, okay?”

“But wait, do you at least know how to check if it was cosmic?”

“I mean, sure. But does it matter? It probably just had Emotional Contagion like those bullies last week, or the townspeople. It’s gone. And it’s not coming back. We put it on another continent in a different dimension. There is no coming back to Japan for that Giraffe, especially not in this reality.” For the first time, Alpha noted the bags under Hinako’s left eye, the way she adjusted her glasses with her whole hand instead of her index finger. She was tough, sure, but Hinako had been working herself ragged. It all started to make sense, aside from one thing.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Alpha breathed. Making sure they were still alone Alpha turned to Hinako once more and whispered her last question. “Hey. What’s your deal, exactly? How are you able to move around so fast?”

Hinako reached up to her face and removed her glasses, setting them in her shirt pocket. She then lifted the bangs from her right eye, cocking her head to allow Alpha a full view of her seccret. Alpha took a step back, processing the information she was being given. “Oh, I get it. So, this is where it comes from.”

****Perspective:************************The Final Ethel*************************

Sneaking back to the group had proven more complicated once the giraffe had galloped off. Despite her best efforts, Final couldn’t manage to purge the shimmer watch. So, for a full five minutes she was wandering around the aquarium causing chaos. The few patrons left who hadn’t run for the hills started to really panic once they saw a lion walking around. All she could do is find a quiet place far from any visible security cameras and wait for Officer Nakashima’s backup to arrive.

Thankfully, the watch wore off just before the police made it to the damp corner she’d made her shelter. “That way, officers! It was huge!” She told them, pointing, shaking, and trying her best to emulate Ame’s acting abilities. While it wasn’t the most convincing performance, the kindly policewoman seemed more than willing to walk her back to the lobby, blushing all the way.

What she saw had her beaming from ear-to-ear. Ame, Naoko, Alpha, and Hinako were standing together and talking! Really talking! Ame wasn’t making jabs at Naoko, Alpha wasn’t complaining about him being around, and Hinako, whose behavior up until this point had baffled her seemed like a regular girl partaking in a bit of fun. It’d worked out. And although she had worried about the date going south and Alpha kicking Naoko out of the group, in the end, her plan had been a success. While the other Ethels were focused on keeping them from fighting, she had been focused on convincing them both to enjoy themselves. And it couldn’t have gone better.

“Ethel-chan!” Ame exclaimed, crossing the room in three strides, and nearly strangling her with a hug. “Thank goodness you’re okay! I thought for sure you were in trouble!”

“No, I was fine, I found a nice corner to hide in and the giraffe didn’t get me.”

“I was talking about the lion!” Ame said, letting her go and giving her the once over.

“Oh, yeah, that too!”

“Good evening,” came a voice from directly behind them. The entire group turned in horror at the man who had uttered it. Standing tall, arm in a cast and his head wrapped up in bandages was that man, Officer Nakashima.

“How?” Alpha asked, unbidden.

“I need to ask you young people some questions.” He replied, not missing a beat.

“And I need to ask you why you haven’t accepted a hospital ride, officer?” Naoko said, walking through the group until he was in the officer’s face. “What? Do you not respect their professional expertise?”

“Uh, n-no!” The officer responded, scratching his scalp with his free hand.

“Why in all my interactions with the police I have never seen a man take so little account for his own wellbeing, what do you have to say for yourself?” Naoko asked bluntly. As Officer Nakashima tried to account. He somehow missed the four girls casually walking over the crushed front doors of the aquarium and onto the street.

“Will he be okay?” Final asked once they got out.

“Yeah, weirdly enough!” Ame interjected, turning heads. “He said he wanted to make up for the last time and told me if anyone tried to stop us he’d talk to the cops himself! That good-for-nothing, goody-two-shoes! Ha!” her laugh echoed up the streets, adding insult to Naoko’s plight. But the ethels couldn’t help but laugh along as, despite the insults, that was the first time they’d seen Ame acknowledge Naoko’s good side.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea!” Alpha said as they rounded the corner. “Do you want to hit up the music store? There’s some time before the last train back to Hiwara.” The four girls unanimously agreed. The night was young, and they’d all gotten a new ticket to ride.

****Extra Perspective:********************The Soldier, “Hazel” (Ethel Alpha 632-E)*****

Ame Owari sat by the door on the counter, jamming with the store owner on a guitar they had lent her. The soft chords rang out across the store while Hinako admired a record player and Final stared in awe at a wall filled with string instruments.

Alpha found herself drawn towards the woodwinds and a particularly well-polished saxophone. She admired the craftsmanship, thinking back on a time when she shared a jam session or two with her best friend. She glanced back at this reality’s Ame, singing alongside the store owner, and strumming away.

Alpha turned to her phone, opening her inbox and flipping through the now 56 unread messages from Hotaru Miyagi. She chuckled, picking the last one to respond to, she typed a short reply. Sorry, been busy. But everything is going great over here. How are you? She returned the phone to her pocket only for it to buzz immediately.

One new message from Hotaru Miyagi. She opened it. I don’t want to be here anymore! It read.