"...How did you get up there?" Misaki said, her face a bit exasperated as she looked at Hiyori's crying face.
The teal-haired girl was hanging upside down on a tree, her sniper keeping her balanced enough so as not to fall face-first onto the ground.
"Uahh...! Misaki! Please help me get down!" With tears streaking down her cheek, Hiyori regrets ever trying to do cool poses on top of weird locations.
She just thought the poses inside those magazines seemed cool... she really didn't think it'd lead to her getting stuck in a tree! This was not in her calculation!
"Please help me, big sister Misaki..." (Misaki-oneesan)
"Guh!" Feeling like the cupid punctured her heart, Misaki stumbled a couple of steps before catching herself.
Exhaling a couple of times to calm her heart, Misaki pulled out her phone, only to realize that this location had no Internet service.
She can't just call for Azusa to bring a ladder here.
She could go grab a ladder herself, but then Hiyori would be left alone.
Hiyori? Being left alone? You want her to die of loneliness?
Misaki would rather die than let anyone else hurt her family.
...Now what? Since both ideas were off the table, do they just wait for another member to come by and notice the issue?
This place was quite a distance away from their base, after all. Although it'll only take a couple of minutes of walking to get here, no one would just come for no reason.
Even Misaki had just arrived earlier because she wanted to check up on everyone, right as Hiyori lost her balance and almost fell, being stuck in this predicament.
"...Are you hurt?" First things first, she needed to make sure the girl wasn't injured from her maneuver.
"Not really, but it feels really uncomfortable..." Saying that, Hiyori tried to pry the leather strap of her sniper, but it only made things worse as she tightened the thing against her chest, making her let out a groan.
"Uwa... Please help me down..."
"Relax for a bit, I'm trying to figure out a way right now, don't worry." As she said that, Misaki looked around for something tall to make as a stepping stool.
She can't jump that high, so she could only rely on outside factors.
"Speaking of which, how did you get up there?" After failing to spot anything, she turned to ask the girl hanging around in the tree.
"I jumped from that building over there, tree to tree, until I reached this one..."
"...When did you get so athletic? Fine, wait for me here." After hearing the explanation, Misaki moved towards the building, entered, and went to the second floor.
After finding an open window with a tree nearby, she looked around a bit more to see whether this tree would help her reach Hiyori.
"Alright, this is the one." After confirming things, she leaped off the window onto the tree branch, which barely swayed under her light weight.
After catching her balance, Misaki jumped onto another tree, and then another, until she eventually reached Hiyori's tree.
---
"Ah... Thank you so much...! I will repay you when I get my paycheck..."
"Never mind that, take off your jacket, let me see if the leather strap dug into your skin. We don't want any scar left behind."
"Ah... alright." Without any fuss, Hiyori took off her clothes.
Seeing nothing out of place, Misaki patted the girl's head and told her to put her clothes back on.
"Let's go back. I think you did enough training today." Even though Saori already lessened the amount of training each member of the Arius Squad needed to take, everyone still felt compelled to train themselves.
They are still too weak; they all believed that fact.
Even now, they can't imagine doing the same thing the young Kasuka had done, taking on the entirety of the Arius District by herself, and killing the perpetrator who was behind the suffering of every student.
Until they reached that level, they're willing to dedicate themselves to training.
---
"Hime, what are you doing now?" A white-haired angel was crouching beside a hole, seemingly man-made, and had been dug for quite a while.
'Eh, Azusa? When did you get here?' From inside the hole, Hime's face poked out, her face dusty with dirt.
She was grabbing onto a handful of sand, seemingly in the middle of digging using her bare hands.
"Don't we already have shovels at home? Why would you be using your hands?" Azusa tilted her head slightly. "If you want, I can help you."
'Ah, no need for that. I'm doing this for my own greed, you don't have to worry.' After throwing the dirt onto the dirt pile behind her, Atsuko climbed out of the hole.
As she got out, the area around was revealed to be the same church where both Madame and Kasuka had breathed their last.
"...Really?" Azusa was quite suspicious, but she wouldn't press further if Hime didn't want to give real answers.
This is not really an urgent thing, after all.
'Yes, really. Can you please help me grab my water bottle and towel over there? Let's go back for now, I want to clean my hands and feet at least before we get home.'
After she said that in sign language, Azusa nodded and turned to grab the items Atsuko needed.
While her back was turned, Atsuko looked inside the hole, still not finding the thing she was looking for.
...in the end, did even her gun disappear?
"Here you go, let me lend some help," Azusa said, opening the water bottle.
After grabbing the towel, Atsuko wet it with a little bit of water and wiped her face. After no traces of dirt remained on her face, she put her mask back on.
'Let's go.'
"Mn." Azusa nodded as she followed Atsuko's lead.
---
Step step step step....
"...Is that the Leader?" Misaki muttered after hearing the rapid footsteps echoing outside.
Knowing that there's no one else who would voluntarily visit their house other than the President, Misaki walked towards the window, and what she saw sent a hint of surprise onto her face.
It was indeed Saori, but her expression was... a bit funny, to say the least.
"What are you in a hurry for?" After Saori got close enough, Misaki called out to her and asked a question.
Without beating around the bush, Saori told her, "Get everyone together, I have some amazing news for us."
Her smile was wider than ever, almost as if she were going through the best time of her life.
---
Advanced Chapters are out in the Discord Server!
https://discord.gg/2SBVe7SN2b