Rina
(St. Freya — 12 AM)
"Okay, okay, but are we sure no one is going to check up on us?" Saki whispered, nervously glancing at the door for the tenth time.
"Relax," Rina hissed, waving her hand dismissively. Inside Dorm B, Room 204, the only light came from a single desk lamp, its shade covered with a pink scarf, casting a dim, conspiratorial glow. " I double checked, the ones on patrol are pretty lousy. We're safe."
The air was thick with the scent of stolen instant noodles and strawberry pocky. Rina, Miki, and Saki were huddled in a tight circle on the floor, perched on pillows, their voices reduced to excited, high-pitched whispers. Rina leaned in, her eyes gleaming in the dim light. "Anyway, as I was saying... I still think there's something weird about Kenji Aoyama."
This was, by far, their favorite topic. The only boy at St. Freya was a walking, breathing source of endless gossip.
"Still on about that?" Miki, the youngest of the trio, asked, tilting her head. "He seems... nice. And, I mean... he's... really cute."
"He's too nice," Rina insisted, stabbing a pocky stick in Miki's direction. "And that's part of the weirdness! He's this super-powerful, B-Rank-level fighter who beat that Honkai beast, and he's also the only guy on campus, but he just... acts like a normal, clumsy person? He's not arrogant, he's not a flirt... It's a total act. He acts too normal for someone who lives with three girls."
"I don't know, Rina," Saki chimed in, hugging her knees. "Maybe he's just... shy? But... you're right, he is weird. I saw him sneaking out of the dorms last night, way after curfew. He was heading toward the training sector, I think."
Rina and Miki both gasped. "No way!" Rina whispered, delighted. "See? Sneaking off! What did I tell you?"
Miki, however, had a strange, distant look on her face. The word "sneaking" had clearly triggered something. "Sneaking off..." Miki said slowly, more to herself than to them. "You know that I'm from Nagazora. Saki, what you said... and what Rina said about his power, it just made me realize something. He's always looked... familiar. Back in Nagazora, before Schicksal showed up, there was this person. A vigilante."
"A vigilante? Oh, that one guy called, the night… Night… Nah, I forgo.t"
"You're pretty close, he was called the 'Night Runner'," Miki continued, her voice dropping as the memory solidified. "He had similar powers to Kenji. Super-speed, super-strength, and he disappeared after the eruption… Wait a fucking minute."
Her eyes widened, and she quickly opened her phone and her photo gallery to find a picture of Kenji. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Kenji looks almost—no, exactly like the Night Runner. The same body type, similar height… Holy shit, he's the night runner!
The three girls stared at each other in the dim, pink light. The silence in the room was electric. "Miki... are you serious?" Rina finally breathed.
"I... I think so," Miki said, her voice trembling with excitement. "Kenji Aoyama is the 'Night Runner' from Nagazora."
"Ok, I know I usually go along with whatever you say, but this time it's just too far-fetched," Saki argued, though she was clearly already convinced.
"Oh come on! The timing fits perfectly. The Night Runner disappeared after the eruption, and now we have a male student showing up out of the blue? Coincidence? I think not!" She shouted, shoving her face closer to Saki.
Saki pushed her away, "If he were a famous vigilante, wouldn't the Principal know? Wouldn't he be... I don't know, expelled? He's a criminal!"
"Unless..." Rina said, her mind racing, "Unless they don't know. Or... unless..." She suddenly stood up, pacing the small, two-foot space of their pillow-circle. "Oh my god. Oh. My. God. Saki, you saw him last night."
"Yeah...?"
"But I also saw him weeks ago!" Rina's voice was a frantic whisper-shout. "I saw him near the training sector, but he wasn't alone. He was with Himeko!"
Miki looked at her in shock, "And you're just now telling us?! How could you do this? This is like the highest tier of gossip!"
"Sorry, I forgot! And I... I got close enough to hear them talking!" Rina was practically vibrating now, the conspiracy solidifying in her mind. "I didn't hear much of what they said, but I'm pretty sure I heard Himeko say something like he 'owed' her something."
Miki's mind quickly started connecting dots. "He owed her something? Owed…. What if he owed her for keeping his vigilante work a secret!"
Rina, Saki, and Miki all looked at each other, their minds running at a million miles an hour. It wasn't just three separate rumors anymore. It was a single, perfect, scandalous timeline.
"It all makes sense," Rina whispered, sitting back down, her eyes wide with the sheer, explosive power of the gossip she was holding. "He is the Night Runner. Major Himeko knows. She's covering for him. That's why he gets that custom sim room! That's why she's always watching him! It's not just a scandal."
"It's a conspiracy!" Saki finished, her voice full of awe.
"St. Freya," Miki added, her voice trembling, "is secretly harboring a famous vigilante... and Major Himeko is his accomplice. Or who knows, something else might be going on between them."
The instant the words were spoken, they knew it was true. It was the single most exciting and coolest piece of gossip they had ever had.
Rina grabbed the bag of pocky. "Okay. Nobody," she said, her voice deadly serious, "breathes a word of this to anyone." Saki and Miki both nodded, their expressions just as grave… They all lasted about ten seconds before they burst into high-pitched, muffled squeals. The rumor was just too good to keep.
/ — /
Kenji
'This is nice.' Kenji thought to himself, enjoying the beauty of the sky from the St. Freya Courtyard.
The lecture on 19th-century Valkyrie tactics had been, in a word, dry. Kiana had apparently used the last twenty minutes of it to fall asleep on Mei's shoulder. Sometimes he wonders how she even manages to pass her classes.
"Ugh, I'm so bored," Kiana groaned, slumping over the back of the bench she and Mei were sharing. "And now we have that stupid Honkai History exam next week! Why do we have to learn about old Honkai? The new ones are way more interesting to fight!"
Mei looked at her in amusement, "Kiana, you know Major Himeko said this will be forty percent of our grade. You have to study for this one. You can't just rely on your combat scores for everything."
"Ugh, the word itself makes me tired," Kiana grumbled. "Kenji! You'll study with me, right? Teach me your ways!"
Kenji, who was leaning on a tree to the side, laughed. "Hey, don't drag me into this. I'm probably just as lost as you are. Something something Honkai in London. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast."
Of course, his words had been a lie. He just didn't want to make her feel discouraged. Most likely, he would help her with studying anyway.
"The Bronya finds the material to be straightforward," Bronya stated, not looking up from her own datapad. "It is simple memorization of dates, locations, and outcomes. It is not that complex."
Kiana groaned and flopped back onto Mei's lap. "See! Even Bronya thinks it's stupid! Wait... no, that's not what she meant. Ugh! Why are you all so responsible?"
"No clue," Kenji said, pushing himself off the tree and stretching, his arms reaching for the sky. He let out a long yawn. "You know, I had the weirdest dream last night. It's kinda been bugging me all morning."
Mei, who was ready to talk about anything other than studies, was quick to engage. "A weird dream? Was it a nightmare?"
"No, not at all," Kenji said, sitting on the bench next to Bronya. "It was just weird. I was on a train. But it wasn't a normal train, it was this huge, old-fashioned, steam-engine-looking thing... but it was flying. Through space. Like, straight past nebulas and stars."
Kiana sat up, adding her own piece to the conversation. "A space train? Reminds me of a dream I had when I fell asleep studying. I was the Queen of Cup Noodles, and I ruled over a whole kingdom of instant ramen. We had a Honkai-noodle-beast attack and I beat it with a giant fork."
"Your mind both amazes and scares me, Kiana," Kenji admitted. "But I don't know, my train dream just felt so vivid that I still remember it now. I'm pretty sure I don't have any interest in trains, so what gives?"
"Studies show that dreams could be used to give a sign into a person's desires," she stated. "While Subject Kenji's dream is odd, it may point to something he currently wants. A desire to travel, perhaps?"
Kenji just looked at her and blinked. "Huh, you might be right. I haven't gone anywhere else but St. Freya, a change in scenery would be nice." He shrugged, the moment passing, "About that test... we're sure Kiana's going to fail, right?"
"Hey!"
The bell for the lunch period chimed. Kiana jumped to her feet, her academic woes instantly forgotten. "LUNCH! Yes! Last one to the cafeteria has to pay!" she yelled, already in a full-blown sprint. "Hey, no fair! You got a head start!" Kenji shouted, bolting after her, his laughter echoing across the courtyard. "Kiana, Kenji, wait! Don't run in the halls, you'll break something again!" Mei called out, but the two were already long gone. She let out a resigned sigh, but a smile was on her face. She turned to Bronya. "Coming?"
"Affirmative," Bronya replied, falling into step beside Mei. "The Bronya has calculated a 95% probability of Subject Kiana attempting to steal food from Subject Kenji's tray. Tactical support is required if we wish to prevent collateral damage."
Mei laughed, "Let's go, then. We'd better make sure they don't start a food fight… Again."
/ — /
Bronya
The St. Freya cafeteria at peak lunch hour was a sensory overload. The baseline noise level was high. A chaotic sea of hundreds of conversations, the clatter of trays and silverware, and the distant hiss of the kitchens.
"MEI!" Kiana yelled from the food line, waving her tray. "Get me the sweet-and-sour pork! And the... ooh, the curry!"
"Kiana, are you sure you can finish all that?" Mei asked.
Kenji, standing next to Kiana, just shook his head. "Dude, you're going to drop all that."
"Shuddup!" Kiana shot back, not even looking at him. "I'm starving!"
Bronya took her own tray, a simple selection of rice, fish, and vegetables. She stood by the register, waiting for Mei, her gaze sweeping the room. And that's when she noticed it.
'How odd.'
While Kiana's antics might sometimes cause a sudden silence from the surrounding people, this time was different. It was a change in the sound's texture. The ambient, high-decibel chatter remained. But beneath it, a new layer had emerged —a low-decibel, high-frequency whisper.
Her analytical gaze, honed to detect the slightest deviation, began to scan the students around her. At a table of students near the door, they were looking at Kiana and Kenji. The moment they saw Bronya looking, they snapped their heads down, their faces flushing as they erupted in muffled, high-pitched giggles.
Further in, a table of B-Rank Valkyries, upperclassmen. They were not giggling. They were staring at Kenji with a mixture of awe, suspicion, and what looked to be judgment.
This is throwing Bronya's mind into a loop. Kenji gets more attention than the average student, partly because he is Kiana's partner in crime and mostly because he is the only male student at St. Freya.
Then, in the corner, she saw them. The three girls from Dorm B, Room 204. Rina, Saki, and the new transfer, Miki. They were watching the main team's every move with the poorly-concealed, frantic glee.
'Something is amiss.' She concluded, while mentally connecting to her computer to find data on those three students. Something was telling her they were somehow involved in this.
"Come on, Bronya." Mei's voice pulled her from her analysis. Mei was smiling, Kiana's curry rice now balanced precariously on her own tray. "They saved us a table by the window."
Bronya followed Mei through the maze of tables. She could feel the stares. She could hear the whispers cresting and falling in their wake, like the sound of a snake pit.
"...so here's… the Night Runner...""...Rina saw him... with Himeko...""...at night... Can you imagine...""...wonder what she 'owes him' for..."
Bronya's eyes widened when she finally heard the whispers clearly. This wasn't good. How did the students find out that Kenji was the Night Runner? She was sure that Theresa was keeping that part under wraps. And what was this about Himeko?
They reached the table. Kiana and Kenji were already there, completely, utterly oblivious. Kiana was trying to steal one of Kenji's chicken wings. "Just let me have one!" "No, you already ate yours!"
They were so... loud. So unguarded. They hadn't noticed the dozens of eyes not so discreetly staring at them. Mei noticed, though. As she sat down, her smile tightened just a fraction. "My goodness," she whispered, more to Bronya than anyone else.
"It's... very loud in here today, isn't it?" She was complaining about the noise, but somehow completely missed what the students were talking about. But considering her background with being at the centre of attention, it made sense.
Bronya said nothing. She picked up her chopsticks and began to eat, going back into her thoughts. It looks like none of her teammates were aware of the whispers or looks directed at them.
Should she just tell them what was going on? …No, not right now. That would only make them panic more.
She inwardly sighed. It looked like this was going to be a long, long day.