Outside the Venue…
Mihina dragged Dachii outside by the ear, stopping when they were far enough from the crowd. "Hey, you have some explaining to do, Mister!"
She let his ear go and he stared at her. "About…"
She folded her arms. "Well, for one, you never showed up at my house."
"Sorry, was practicing…"
"And now you're part of some new band without telling me? With those girls you claim are your co-workers?"
Dachii stayed silent for a moment. "Pretty much."
She glared at him. "What's REALLY going on with you? Don't think you can lie to me, I know you better than that!"
Dachii sighed. "New hobbies."
"New hobbies?" she remarked. "So suddenly you can just walk, decide to work as a bodyguard, and have a passion for music?"
"…Yep."
"Are you lying to me?" she asked.
"…Yep."
She gave him an unimpressed look. "Dachii Marshawn Jones, I swear…"
"Now she's going by my full name again," Dachii thought. "Hooray."
She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "You know what? I need to relax. How about you just come over tonight? You and the rest of the gang? We'll act like none of this ever happened."
"Sure," Dachii replied.
Marachii came running over. "There you two are! Hey, congrats on the show, Dachii!"
He noticed Mihina's expression. "Uh…am I interrupting something?"
Mihina shook her head. "No, it's fine. Say, how do you feel about having a sleepover at my house tonight?"
"Hm, I don't know if our manager would allow that," Marachii admitted. "As you can tell, he's pretty strict."
"I don't care," she scoffed. "Whatever leash he thinks he has you guys on, he hasn't met me yet. Both of you are coming, and that's final."
Marachii nervously laughed. "Love the enthusiasm!"
She hugged them both as a car came to pick her up. "I'll see you guys there! You've got one hour!"
She got in the car and it drove off, leaving the two of them stuck outside. Marachii turned to Dachii. "Was she serious about this?"
"Yes," he answered. "Yes, she was."
"Well, how do we manage to sneak to her house with General Toru on our case?" Marachii questioned. "That man's like a hawk, he'll know the moment we try something!"
Dachii shrugged. "Either stay, and upset her, or go, and deal with the consequences. Such are the choices of life."
Marachii sighed. "You're no help."
Hikari walked outside. "Guys, we're heading back! Come on!"
Later, at the house…
Marachii drove them all back to the stolen house, where S-6 members were busy horsing around with each other, tossing pillows and pushing each other over. Toru immediately clenched his fist. "Undisciplined."
He jumped off the top of the car and kicked open the door, causing everyone to stop and straighten up. "Who the hell gave you all permission to have fun? I told you to scout the area for our objective!"
"Sorry, General Toru!" they apologized.
"You all will be sorry," he assured. "Backyard, now!"
They all groaned.
As they strolled into the backyard, Toru turned toward the rest. "As for you all, you've done decent work. You get one night without training. But don't wander off!"
Reika and Noriko bowed. "Yes, sir!"
He pointed his fingers at Squad S-1. "That goes for you all, too."
"Trust me," Aoki replied. "I don't want to go anywhere in this human-infested country, and I doubt they do either."
"Ditto," Akari agreed. "They all gaze like if we're some sick disease."
Toru appeared satisfied with that and exited to the backyard to discipline his soldiers. Everyone except Dachii plopped down. Noriko patted the seat next to her. "You can sit here, if you want."
He sat down without a word.
"We did good, didn't we?" Hikari cheered. "We've got national level attention now!"
"I don't like it," Aoki spat.
"Well, we need it," Akari pointed out. "The more famous we are, the less suspicious people get, and we can investigate much more thoroughly!"
"Plus it's fun!" Saori giggled.
Aoki rolled her eyes. "I hope we find this stupid thing before we accidentally become celebrities here."
"If it's here, it'll probably be well hidden," Reika acknowledged. "At least, that's what I would do with a super-secret artifact."
"I say we search for this damn thing ourselves," Aoki suggested. "Wasting time playing musician isn't my style."
"But we don't need another fight!" Hikari warned her. "We barely managed to take down Ritsuka! How are we going to take down anyone stronger than her? Especially if Uta is one of them!"
"We'll manage," Aoki replied.
While they discussed and argued, Dachii suddenly whispered to Noriko. "I need to go."
"Why?" she questioned.
"I was invited to a sleepover. So I need to leave," he answered.
"But Toru said we have to stay!" she reminded him. "And if you go alone, you might get kidnapped!"
"Marachii is coming."
"How far is this sleepover?" she asked.
"A few streets away."
She deliberated for a moment. "Well, if it's important, I guess I could try and cover for you. But if it gets urgent, I'm letting you know to come right back!"
"Okay," he said.
The others were so focused on their conversation they didn't notice Dachii grab Marachii and exit the house. Once they were outside, Marachii looked back one more time. "Are we clear?"
"Probably."
They walked down the street and made a turn, eventually arriving at Mihina's house. Zentaruo was outside, pulling on the door. "Hey! Open up! I'm stranded out here! Hey!"
Marachii approached the door. "Zentaruo? Why are you stuck out here?"
He turned around. "Marachii! She invited you guys too? Nice! Now could you tell her to let me inside?"
Marachii stepped forward and knocked on the door, and once he did, it immediately swung open, Mihina standing behind it.
"Hey, besties!" she greeted.
Zentaruo stared at her, dumbfounded. "I've been knocking for half an hour!"
Mihina shrugged. "Guess I didn't hear."
She let all three of them inside, where Chiho and Haruta were already waiting on the living room floor. Mihina sat down next to them, and so did Marachii and Zentaruo.
"What should we do?" Mihina asked, excited. "It's been forever since we all gathered around like this! Like, forever!"
"We could play a game!" Haruta proposed. "Never have I ever?"
"Sounds fun!" Mihina giggled. "Let's try it!"
She pulled Dachii's arm, getting him to sit down. "I'll start first! Put your fingers up, everyone!"
She nudged Dachii. "That means you too, Dachii!"
Dachii reluctantly put a hand up as Mihina asked her question. "Never have I ever…kissed someone!"
Zentaruo, Chiho, and Haruta all put a finger down. Dachii and Marachii didn't move their fingers. Mihina gasped. "You guys have never kissed before?"
"Nope," Marachii shrugged. "Girls don't like nerds."
"That's not true!"
She looked at Dachii. "What's your excuse?"
"I don't know."
"He's gotta be lying," Haruta remarked. "I mean look at him, you can't tell me NO one would offer? I mean, because I can change that—-!"
Mihina cleared her throat. "Your turn, Haruta!"
Haruta closed her eyes, thinking. "Never have I ever…skipped a class in school!"
Everyone put a finger down, and Marachii sighed. "That was only because of you guys!"
"It was my birthday!" Haruta pointed out.
"Yeah, well it still messed with my attendance," Marachii pouted.
"Your turn, Zentaruo," Mihina said.
Zentaruo grinned. "Never have I ever lied to someone in this group!"
Everyone put another finger down. Zentaruo cackled. "Looks like you're all keeping secrets! Wanna spill them?"
Mihina and Haruta turned red, while Marachii nervously scratched his head. "Next person?"
"Yeah, go ahead, Chiho!" Mihina agreed.
"Never have I ever pulled a prank!" Chiho announced.
Everyone put a finger down, and a voice eagerly laughed. "Yeah! Pranks are fun! Hehe!"
Everyone but Dachii nearly had a heart attack, and they found Saori sitting close to the circle, her hands raised. "Am I doing this right?"
"Saori!" Marachii exclaimed. "When'd you get here?"
"Yeah, and how did you get in my house?" Mihina questioned. "Did you break in?"
Saori giggled. "Mister Dachii knows!"
The entire group turned toward Dachii. "I saw her following me. She crawled through the window."
He pointed to one of the back windows, which was open. Mihina shook him. "You saw her break into my house and didn't say anything?"
"…Yes."
Mihina buried her face in her hands. "Ugh!"
"Glowing," Zentaruo murmured. "Her skin is glowing."
"Yeah, we know," Chiho replied. "Glowing girl. You've made that clear, bro."
Haruta gave Saori an innocent look. "She looks harmless! Come on, is she really that bad? She's just a little girl! Right, Marachii?"
"For the most part, yeah," Marachii stated.
"Did I do something wrong?" Saori asked.
"No, just…you can have a seat," Mihina relented. "At least my parents are asleep."
"Yay!"
She sat down between Dachii and Marachii, waiting. "What are we playing now? Dress up?"
"Maybe we should switch the game," Mihina decided. "Any suggestions?"
"Hide and seek!" Haruta volunteered.
Mihina got up. "Sounds good, we can use my street to play! Dachii, does your little friend want to join?"
"Yeah!" Saori cheered.
"She said yeah," Dachii repeated.
"Okay. Don't hide too far, guys! Zentaruo, you be the seeker!"
"Fairs," he said. "But be warned, I won't go easy on you guys! Especially you, glow girl!"
Saori giggled.
"Now, I'll count to 100! You all better run!"
He closed his eyes and turned around. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…"
Everyone except Dachii and Saori was out of the house. Saori tugged on Dachii's arm. "Mister Dachii, will you hide with me?"
"Sure."
She pulled his arm, dragging him outside. She looked around frantically, before turning to Dachii for help. "Mister Dachii, where should we hide?"
Dachii put her on his back. "Come on."
He jumped into the air and scaled over a building, hiding in its backyard bushes. "You've gotta stay quiet."
"Okay!" she whispered.
They heard Zentaruo walk past the house, taunting. "Guys! I know you're here somewhere! Don't think you can hide from the master!"
As they kept quiet, Dachii noticed something was glowing black and green in a nearby bush. Saori noticed it as well. "Mister Dachii, what is that?"
"I don't know, you should be careful—-"
She stepped out to investigate, digging her hand into the bush. "Whoa! It's heavy!"
With all her might, she pulled out what appeared to be a black chestplate, which was glowing with green energy. Dachii analyzed it. "That's way too big for any normal person to fit…that must be part of the armor!"
"What do we do with it?" Saori asked.
"We need to take it back to Toru, and quickly," Dachii told her. "Give it here."
She handed him the armor, and he slung it and her over his back as he hurried back to Toru's house as fast as he could. Once they got to the house, they immediately froze in place.
"Oh no!" Saori worried. "What happened?"
The house appeared to have signs of a struggle. There were broken windows, the door was kicked in, and half of the roof had collapsed. Yamato was lying in front of the building, coughing blood as he sat himself up. Noriko and Reika were next to him, supporting him.
"Noriko, Reika, what's going on?" Dachii asked.
"You guys!" Noriko exclaimed. "Toru…everyone…they took them! They attacked us!"
"Who? Why?" Dachii inquired.
"I…brought a crown…" Yamato explained. "They came for it…and this girl, she could control water…she took us all down, and snatched the others…Toru managed to get us three outside the house…told us to warn you…"
"Warn me?"
Reika held up a note, giving it to Dachii. "This is what they left."
Dachii looked at the note, which read:
"WANT YOUR FRIENDS BACK? HEAD TO THE PRESIDENT'S GALA AT 9 PM TOMORROW. BRING THE CHESTPLATE. FROM, UTA."
"They know we found the chestplate…" Dachii realized.
"That thing on your back?" Noriko noticed.
"Yeah. Wait, that's not all…"
Dachii continued reading the final line.
"ONE FINAL DANCE…DO OR DIE."
"What do we do?" Noriko asked.
"What he said," Dachii replied. "We go and dance."
—-