It’s our day-off, and we, the Dawn Wolves, are heading to the Yonaguni residence. Now, you might be asking why we’re going to the pce where we received the warmest hospitality one could one offer, but simply put our seniors are supposedly taking us somewhere to reward us for our promotion to Blue rank. Yonaguni’s pce is just the meeting point.

  “Ugh, the idea of going to Yonaguni’s is totes disgusting.”, Haruhi-chan whines. “Couldn’t we have met up at HQ instead?”

  “Sorry, Haruhi-chan, but the reason we’re meeting there is because Yonaguni has my newly crafted naginata.”

  “No, I’m not bming you, Naoya-san. “It’s just that I feel like he’s going to try and pull some ‘moves’ on us girls.”

  “That’s what he did to me the first time…”, Red frowns.

  Yeah, I remember that vividly. Talk about an unforgettable introduction.

  “I never thought that I’d ever visit Yonaguni.”, Gege yawns. “It just seems like an awful idea.”

  “Hey, give him a chance.”, Akai admonishes. “Maybe he acts definitely when he’s at home.”

  “He doesn’t.”

  Yokie, Naoya and I deny Akai’s hypothetical immediately. There’s no point in letting him with any hope, he’ll only end up being sorely disappointed.

  “Can’t say I’m surprised.”, Sunni says. “His attitude isn’t one that’ll change due to something like that.”

  “Yeah, you’ll have to promise to introduce him to some girl for that to happen.”, Naoya mutters darkly.

  A few minutes, we arrive at our destination, and as promised, our seniors are here to greet us.

  “Hey, everyone!”, Miyamura-senpai waves, smiling brightly.

  “You’re earlier than expected!”, Shirogane beams.

  We all return their warm greetings. Well, all of us except Naoya.

  “Oi, Yonaguni! Where’s my damn weapon, huh?!”

  “Bastard! Don’t you know how to greet someone, damn it?!”

  "Shut up! You probably sabotaged it already, haven’t you?! Admit it! You put a bomb or something in it, right?!”

  “Bite me, Mop-head! I didn’t do anything to your piece of shit-OW! Moeka, what was that for?!”

  A girl slightly covered in soot swiftly kicks Yonaguni in his back before he can finish all of his well-mannered rebuttal, prompting an unusually defensive protest from him. Her white hair, could she be…?

  “I heard what you were about to call the fruits of my bour, Nii-san, you idiot.”

  I guessed right, she is reted to Yonaguni.They do rather look alike, with their hair colour being exactly the same, but their eyes being different. He called her Moeka, didn’t he? She politely bows to us once she makes eye contact.

  “Sorry about that, my brother is a bit troublesome. My name is Yonaguni Moeka, it’s a pleasure to meet you all.”

  We all introduce ourselves to her, and she hands the naginata over to Naoya. It has a long, slender red pole with yellow and orange feathers at the end of it and an almost bck coloured curved bde and a wavy temper palette. It looks awesome, if I’m being honest.

  “I hope you like it, Naoya-san. Sorry for taking so long to finish it.”

  “Ah, don’t worry about it. Just knowing you worked so hard on it makes me happy.”, Naoya grins brightly. “I promise to take care of such a carefully crafted gift given to me by such a beautiful girl with all my being.”

  Moeka blushes slightly at Naoya fttery, clearly embarrassed by such btant praise. Her brother rubs his back where she kicked him, giving her a suspicious look.

  “Ah, you don’t have to go that far, y’know?”, she says bashfully.

  “Does womanising run in the family, Yoko-san?”, Gege asks.

  “I’m starting to think so, Gege-san.”

  Having no retort, I opt to keep my mouth shut. But then, something surprising occurs: Shirogane-senpai grabs Naoya by his sleeve and starts to drag him away in an obvious huff.

  “I think it’s time we get going, isn’t it? Come on, Naoya-kun, let’s go.”

  “Eh? Alright.”

  Two of them leave, with Shirogane-senpai casting Moeka-san an arrogant look, to which the tter openly frowns at. That was certainly an interesting exchange.

  “So that’s how it is.”, Yokie observes, dispying a knowing smile. “Maybe Naoya-nii isn’t so hopeless after all.”

  I understand what she’s hinting at, but I have a hard time believing it.

  We all set off for our destination in earnest, chatting up with each other along the way. Then Gege pops a question.

  “So, where are we going anyways?”

  “The cheapest pce I could think of, of course!”, Yonaguni scowls at him. “Now if you bastards weren’t so irritating, I would’ve taken you all to a titty bar or something like that.”

  “Aww, what?”

  “Petty jerk..”

  Naoya and Gege aren’t too disappointed on what they missed out on, it seems. Akai on the other hand is heartbroken.

  “Why should we go to a pce like that?”, he says. “And we aren’t even at the right age, anyway.”

  Yonaguni looks at him scornfully. You’d think he suggested to him that he ought to try to be a decent person, or something.

  “What are you, some kind of tightass or something?”

  “Lay off, Nariki.”, Shirogane-senpai snaps. “If that’s how he feels, then fine. It’s better than being perverts like you and Naoya-kun.”

  “Eh?! Why did you mention me and not Gege, Shirogane-senpai?!”, Naoya asks, clearly befuddled.

  Shirogane-senpai ignores him completely, leaving him even more bewildered. Yokie again smiles at the duo’s banter.

  “You wouldn’t need to worry about how old you are, Akai-kun. All you have to do is show your EID card and you’ll have full access.”, Miyamura-senpai expins.

  “You know, that almost sounds like an abuse of power.”

  “Oh, shut it, Inko. I know a womaniser like you would enter a pce like that and twenty girls would start pulling out their phones.”

  “Are they going to call 110?”

  My self-deprecating joke earns me a slightly painful ear-pull from Sunni, who gives Yonaguni a fake smile.

  “I’m sorry, Yonaguni, but Govvy doesn’t fall for womanly wiles as easily as that.”

  “I give you some advice, Yonaguni. Girls find it disgusting when a guy so obviously looks at them sexually.”, Haruhi-chan narrows her eyes at him.

  “That or you’ll end up getting used as a wallet.”, Red adds.

  “Funny you say that, Akane-chan. There was this one time-”

  “SHUT YOUR MOUTH, TAI! YOU PROMISED THAT NOT A WORD WOULD BE SPOKEN ABOUT THAT DAY!”

  “Ahahaha, I was just pying, Nariki. No need to get so anxious.”

  It appears that our beloved senior has some experience with being a fiddle. What a surprise.

  Within a few more minutes, we arrived at the pce Yonaguni chose, and for some reason, it’s very familiar not just to me, but to my mates as well.

  “Oi, have we been here before?”, Naoya asks, rubbing his chin.

  “We definitely have, haven’t we?”, I concur.

  “Isn’t this where we-”, Akai starts.

  “Hey, what’s the hold up?”

  Yokie calls out to the four of us, wondering why we haven’t joined the rest of our entourage in entering said building. We all exchange looks before agreeing to enter.

  “It should be fine. Especially with our seniors with us.”, Gege surmises.

  “You’re probably right.”, I nod.

  With that, we join up with everyone inside. I open the door and leave it open for the others to enter, and the first thing we notice is that it’s just as dimly lit and empty as it was before. No doubt about it, this is the pce.

  Instead of going into a booth like st time, we follow our seniors' lead and sit at the bar. As if on cue, a gruff looking man comes from out of the back. His rugged face formed into what looks to be a permanent expression of displeasure.

  “What, you’re back again?”, he grunts. “What's it take to get rid of y’all, pesticide?”

  “Yeah, yeah, Ossan. We know you’ll be lonely if we don't come around.”, Yonaguni teases. “Get us the two Super Karaage ptters, the Moshi-Moshi Mochi spread and some oolong teas and beers.”

  “Well, we’ll never find out if that's true or no because you come every other-Hm?”

  Taking his gaze away from Yonaguni, he finally realises our presence and somehow looks even more displeased than he did before.

  “You know, I was joking when I was talking about using pesticide earlier. There’s more of you now?”

  “Don’t worry, I don’t think that they’ll be coming around often.”, Miyamura-senpai smiles.

  “Yeah, yeah. Just don’t take up too much space in my restaurant.”

  With this pce so jam-packed, that might be an arduous task for us. In short order, our food and drinks come to us.

  “That was quick! Yonaguni just ordered!”, Red excims in disbelief.

  “And it looks and smells freshly made!”, Haruhi-chan comments.

  “I know that he said super, but those portions are a little much, no?”

  “What do you mean, Arianne? Aniki and Naoya-nii can probably eat those and have room for two more helpings of everything.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Naoya and I basically agree with what she says. I mean, it would be an obvious lie if we did, wouldn’t it?

  The servers pce our order in front of us and turn to leave. Then one of them does the unthinkable: he throws a punch straight at my face. Naturally, I caught his fist deftly, staring him dead in the face.

  “That’s a rather rude greeting, Saito. Whatever happened to a simple hullo, eh?”

  Saito smiles refreshingly at me as he retracts his fist from my grasp.

  “Long time no see, Daisuke. How are ya guys doing?”

  My mates, who were all ready for a fight, rex upon recognising him and sit back down. Naoya scoffs loudly at Saito's easy-going attitude.

  “Do you know that you would’ve been beaten half-dead had that punch of yours nded?”

  “Ehh? How could you threaten a friend like that? I’m hurt.”

  “Well, we’re not really friends, but it’s not us who would have been doing the beating.”, Gege interjects.

  Saito looks confused at first, but upon seeing the looks on the faces of Red, Yokie and Sunni, he quickly raises his hands in submission.

  “Woah, my bad. It’s just a greeting, dies, I had no intention of hitting your boyfriend, you know?”

  They don’t respond, but the air around them does lighten, so I guess that’s good.

  “Oi, shady kid, you and your crew are friends with Ryo?”

  Shady kid? That must be me he’s referring to.

  “Something along those lines, sir.”

  “Please don’t answer when being called something like that, Daisuke-nii.”

  “Enough idle chit-chat, damn it.”, Yonaguni interrupts impatiently. “The food’s going cold.”

  With that, we tuck in. Huh, this chicken is actually really juicy and tender. Not what I was expecting, honestly.

  “This is pretty good!”, Akai swallows.

  “That’s good to hear! I’m gd you like it.”, Miyamura-senpai smiles.

  “Oi, don’t go on acting like you made it yourself, alright?”

  “Ahaha, sorry Saito-san. But seriously, you all savour it. That way the good impression you have of us will remain once the real training begins.”

  “Well, we already have a bad impression of Yonaguni, but what do you mean by real training?”, Haruhi-chan asks.

  Yonaguni gloomily hangs his head in defeat upon hearing her words, leaving Shirogane-senpai to answer her question.

  “Well, while you and Gege-kun will be doing a different kind of training, it’ll all be for the same thing: The Rookie Simutions!”

  “Rookie Simutions?”, Yokie echoes.

  Shirogane-senpai nods excitedly.

  “Simply put, it’s a tournament where rookie Enigma Squadrons face-off with each other!”

  “That sounds awesome!”

  Naoya turns to Shirogane-senpai and gets right up in her face, his eyes gleaming. I share his excitement, naturally!

  “I hope that it’ll be something like Earth Trigger!”

  “I hope that we do well…”, Sunni remarks. “It’ll be embarrassing if we were to lose early on.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. We’ll be whipping you all into shape by the time they begin.”, Yonaguni says, drinking some beer. “We’ll have you all up to Silver rank in strength by then. Well, most of you guys are shit, so Bronze will be the benchmark.”

  “How do those strength rankings work anyway?”, I ask.

  “I’m curious about that myself.”, Yokie nods.

  Miyamura-senpai swiftly swallows his mochi to answer us.

  “It goes something like this: At Naoya-kun and Akai-kun’s rank, Green, you can expect them to bring down a building on their own. At the highest level, Diamond, that person’s considered to be a threat to the universe with their strength.”

  Naoya spits his oolong tea all over Yonaguni at such a shocking revetion. No surprise, those two begin to fight with each other. Look like they're getting a head-start on said real training.

  “Universe?! Is that really possible?!”, Akai gawks.

  “Well, there hasn’t been someone that strong in centuries, but they definitely existed if they were fighting against the Gods during the Mortal Rebellion. Nowadays most max out at Gold, which is strong enough to wipe away a few continents, like us.”

  “We actually have to regute our mana so that it doesn’t affect people or the surroundings.”, Shirogane-senpai smiles proudly, puffing her chest out. “We could cause some real damage just by letting loose!”

  We all just collectively stare at our seniors in sheer disbelief as they continue to enjoy the food and drink and Naoya and Yonaguni continue to fight. They were hiding something like this from us this whole time? They’re that strong?

  Maybe that decration I made was a mistake…

  MisterEnigmatic