A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the entire barracks. It sounded guttural, as if something pierced a fatal area in their chest. Did someone get killed? Was it an ambush?

It was Nanasu, killed in a game.

“NOOO!!”

“HOW!? HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT WORK!? TELL ME! TELL! ME! NOW! HOW IS FULL POWERED ACCELERATION STRONGER THAN... FUCKING ARK!?”

The Star Gazers Squad recently returned back to the Soul-Core Space Station after successfully allying their body with Testharia. This was met with amazing results and reception, and the Star Gazers Squad was again the Squad of the Month, their fourth consecutive win.

But that didn’t matter for Nanasu now. All that mattered was winning the match against that fucking brat.

She threw her controller to the floor and curled up like a ball, still angry. It was obvious what game she was playing. It was the newest release of the new A Mystical Divergence fighting gacha game. A few seconds later, she picked up her controller.

“Language.” Claude blurted out as he lay on his bed.

“Fucking cheater! Why did I even buy this stupid shit game!? I lost the FUCKING CARD NOW! I LOST MY SSR 5-STAR ARU!” She collapsed on the sofa.

Claude was sick and tired of Nanasu’s constant yelling and screaming, and controller smashing. There were so many things he could be doing out there. Like fighting, training, or more fighting.

He wanted to be active; he didn’t want to be lazy and lay on his bed. He wanted action, real-life action. That’s wha-

“NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!! THAT’S JUST PURE CHEATING NOW! HOW DID HE... WHAT!?”

As for Nanasu, she was really into the game, no matter how angry she got. The controller she smashed to the ground was still intact, which meant that it was still working.

“You’ve been a soldier longer than any of us and you’re playing a crappy card game?” Mikael said, sitting on the edge of his bunk.

“First off...” She inhaled before letting herself go completely. “It’s not a bad card game! It’s a really cool game which you boring idiots would never try out. Always thinkin’ about fightin’, well I think about entertainin’ myself with this gam- HOW DID HIS FINAL DIVO HIT ME FROM POINT BLANK!?”

“How much have you spent buying cards that you didn’t like again?”

“...”

Nanasu fell silent, not because she was concentrating, but because she couldn’t answer his question. She got red from embarrassment, but when she got bested by another player, she decided to quit the game. “I’m done.”

She turned the console off and threw her controller onto the sofa.

“...Let her have it, Mikael. It’s the only thing that can keep her entertained.”

Mikael leaned back onto his bunk, looking up at the ceiling. He didn’t think that Claude was wrong in any way. “To be fair, it is the only thing to do here at this moment. We’re just sitting idly while she is doing something with her free time.”

“I’d rather be fighting on the frontlines or fight a really strong Soul-Wielder. Now that is entertainment.”

“Hmph!” Nanasu pouted, disappointed with his answer. Of course, being a soldier means fighting is mostly what you will do, but it shouldn’t something you’ll be happy about if dying is easy.

“All you guys think about is war and fighting. How about being safe for a moment and entertaining yourself with games, books... eating?”

“That’s why we’re soldiers, so that people can do the same thing you are doing, Nanasu.”

Mikael addressed Nanasu, crossing his arms and looking directly at her. “You’ve spent most of your teenage and adult years as a soldier, you’ll be bored from it of course. What even happened that you started slacking this badly?”

Nanasu fell silent. She really didn’t want to talk about it. Last time she led a squad of her own, it got wiped out. This was something she did not tell them yet, even though she was a part of this new squad for a year now.

It was like opening up closed wounds, and the only things that would come out of her mouth is involuntary sobbing and screaming. Her depression just started getting fixed and the fact that her squad died in the worst ways possible, was the result of her fear of death.

She wasn’t fit to be a soldier right now, but she was one hell of a soldier back then.

Mikael noticed in Nanasu’s expression that she was going to keep quiet, and that he couldn’t pry any backstory out of her.

“...Anyways, I’m going to the training grounds, they should open in a few minutes.” He hopped off his bunk, opening the locker next to it and taking out his armour.

“Great minds think alike.” Claude hopped off the bed soon after, although he did not have to take out any armour. He was not wearing armour, all he wore was a sweatband and a headband.

“Really? Fighting again?” She crossed her arms, slightly eyeing them.

“I rather be getting stronger than sitting around and playing video games! Fighting gets my blood boiling, I like it!”

Mikael finished putting on most of his armour, and also looked at Nanasu. He gave her a soothing smile and then put on his helmet. “You should come with us, Nanasu. It pains me to see you slacking off like that. You used to be stronger than what you are now.”

Nanasu couldn’t decide between watching movies, playing games or training with her squad mates. “...”

If she were to train now, she could be missing on another chance to play video games or watching movies, but if she were to decline their training invitation, she would kind of be double crossing them. She didn’t like fighting, Hell, she didn’t like fighting for her LIFE.

But as a soldier, you gotta be in shape, for anything that’s coming.

“Alright... I’ll come.” She stood up, walking over to her locker and taking out her personal armour. She called it Argo-Suit.

“...”

Nanasu looked at both of them, freezing her movements. Mikael and Claude looked at Nanasu. All three of them were throwing empty glares at each other. It lasted a full minute until Nanasu broke the silence.

"... I hope you know what I'm implying right now..." Nanasu said.

"You haven't even said a single thing!" Mikael responded.

"I just did! Get out of the room, I'm going to change! If I find you guys peeping..."

"For armour? Seriously, for armour? There's nothing different between our own armours! Why would... you... oh no..."

Ding. Mikael finally realized. The room became dead silent. The only noise that could be heard was the sound of Nanasu's heavy breathing. Her face was red with anger and embarrassment. She looked at Mikael and Claude, who were staring blankly at her. It wasn't because she was going to change, but rather from the fact they finally knew that...

"Nanasu... don't tell me... you don't wear any clothes under your suit?" Mikael spoke up, his voice quivering and shaking slightly.

Nanasu looked at Mikael, ready to pounce on him. She wanted to hide somewhere, or disappear for an hour or two. That question he said, it really embarrassed her and it made her so angry. He couldn't be more wrong.

The fact that Nanasu was so embarrassed was because she was way too innocent and had never been in a relationship with a man. Better yet, she never had a male as a close friend. She had always been afraid, she had been shy when speaking about those sorts of things.

She was very self-conscious, in some places a lot more than others. She would even order Mikael and Claude to look away when she was changing from a t-shirt to a sweater or pants.

So, this question really took a toll on her psyche, even more so the answer to it.

Claude didn't notice it, since Nanasu was fully clothed as usual. Mikael, however, was the one who broke her out of her shell of shame and self consciousness.

"WHY THE HELL WOULD I DO THAT!?"

Nanasu screamed, breaking a sweat. Her face grew redder by the second while she looked away from them. She looked to her bedside table, then towards Mikael and Claude.

Both weren't looking directly at her, but rather their attention was now focused on something else entirely: The door. They seemed scared and flabbergasted to an extreme extent.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"That... KIND OF THING DOESN'T EVEN EXIST!!!"

They stood there, completely paralyzed as if someone slapped their faces with a plank of wood. This only added onto her nervousness. Were they making fun of her?

She started getting more defensive than ever before. This isn't like her usual self, she would normally not do stuff like this and remain cool-headed for almost every situation. But today felt different than the other days.

She yelled on the top of her lungs. "I'm not immoral or something weird like that, you dumbass!! Now GET OUT!"

Claude ran straight behind Mikael as they both exited the room. The last thing Mikael saw was her grabbing a controller and flinging it towards them as fast as a rocket. The door slid shut with a 'ding'. It wasn't a good way to start training together, at all.

Behind the closed door, Mikael looked at Claude, his gaze was obscured by the mirrored visor of his helmet, which made it really hard to know if he was angry or annoyed at this point. Either way, it didn't seem like he was going to speak anytime soon. That left Mikael wondering about one thing and one thing alone.

"... I was very wrong, wasn't I?" He spoke up, rubbing the back of his head. He couldn't think of any possible excuse that would justify him speaking about things such as nudity around her. He wondered how much he screwed everything up here. Would Nanasu forgive him? Maybe she would?

If he were lucky...

Claude laughed.

"What's there to laugh about!? Don't you think that if she looked at you that way, *that's* what she implies??" Mikael looked angrily in his direction. "She wears clothes under her armour, why the hell would she be flustered? What do you think?!"

No, forget about it. Even Mikael understood that he fucked up hard and that she won't talk to him for at least a week after this mess-up of his.

There's one good thing about this, though. Nanasu did open herself a little bit more. Mikael didn't believe he saw her face red ever before in all the years they spent with each other as comrades and friends.

That's why even if it meant getting punched over and over again by her when he finally leaves her room, it was worth it seeing her face bright and red, even though it may be anger that he brought upon himself, but, nonetheless.

She did look so cute like that. Any emotion is better than a sad expression when speaking to someone as close as them.

“Ah, well...” Claude grinned. “I’m not so good with relationships, don’t know how they work. But I guess she likes you more than anyone else.”

That only raised more questions than it gave answers. In fact, it just caused another problem, another reason for Nanasu to get angry and embarrassed.

Mikael grimaced under his helmet, facepalming. “Can we just go train now?”

They had enough embarrassment and awkward moments for today, so training might just get their mind off things, if anything.

= = =

The outside of Tristate City. A remote area spanning over 933 kilometers each side. In this excluded area, there only lives about 5 million people, about 10% of Tristate City’s total population.

Regardless of it’s desolate area, it’s also greatly used for infrastructure, food distribution and vacation spots specifically catered to an outsider’s liking.

However, such a calm and peaceful day was soon to crumble in a spiral of abrupt chaos. The clouds that dispose snow would quickly divert into a colour of grey before sporadically dispersing lightning like a storm.

As seen from any skyscraper within the city – a flash of lightning would occur before inevitably creating a shockwave, destroying any nature within a 2-kilometer radius.

The people in towns and small cities would react to the lightning, going inside and taking shelter.

Then, someone emerges from the lightning.

They seemed ominous, as anyone with a Soul were involuntarily retreating away from the Soul-Wielder who just emerged from the lightning. Something was definitely wrong. How is a simple Soul-Wielder who can manipulate lightning so incredibly... scary?

The Soul-Wielder stepped out of the smoke and looked around, smirking. “Such a calm and comfortable planet.” He looked far ahead, directly at Tristate City. No one knew what he was after, but it seemed like he had something to settle inside the city. Taking another step, a certain name escaped his mouth.

“Now. Where might you be, Jumkou Katatoria?”

It was clear that he was no Testharian, but an outsider just like Jumkou Katatoria. Which is why the people who were still outside gave him weird states. It was as if they didn’t see him emerge from the lightning.

They didn’t see it. In fact, only everyone saw the lightning and took it as a plain ol’ storm. It didn’t cross their heads that a Soul-Wielder was smack dab in the middle of it.

The Soul-Wielder walked up to a bystander and asked: “Pardon me – is there any form of high-speed transportation here?”

The bystander was not fluent in the most basic language in the world, so they were confused. They tried using hand gestures to make them understand, but even that didn’t work. The bystander looked around for any support to help this ‘lost’ man.

Another bystander came up and used his hand to point to the Hypertrain station a few hundred meters. “Eh... ther... ther... yez?”

The Soul-Wielder merely nodded at them as a sign of thanks. A few seconds later, he simply conjured up a Soul-Blast and reduced the Hypertrain station into rubble.

“No getting in, no getting out, Katatoria.”

The people reacted horrendously to the destruction, running away from the man who they had helped.

“Hm.”

The Soul-Wielder noticed another bystander that didn’t budge at all. They manifested their Signature Weapon, which was a little dagger with a blue glow. He screamed something in Testharian.

“Agu stite!” (Get out of here!)

“A Soul-Wielder, I figured as much.”

The villainous Soul-Wielder stood at the same place for another minute and simply waited for the retaliator to attack, and so he did. The Testharian ran towards the villainous Soul-Wielder and tried to stab him, lethally, if he could.

However, the perpetrator fired a small penetrating Soul-Wave that pierced right through the retaliator’s heart. Their Soul was obliterated in an instant and died instantly.

“Cannot waste one more second. It is time to finish this.” The Soul-Wielder launched himself into the air and used a special vanish-travel technique – making his way to Tristate City.

Oblivious to Jumkou Katatoria, Sachiel Eria and the entirety of Tristate City, they are in for rollercoaster of events.

The outpost from 2 kilometers away took notice of this, having seen a small town get completely obliterated from the dense ‘storm’. The bystander who retaliated relayed information via radio transference.

The news would now instantly make it’s way to the entirety of the city and most importantly.

The Eria Tower.

“Is... is that ice cream!?!?” Jumkou pressed her face against an ice cream shop window.

People walking in the same pedestrian path chuckled and laughed at her staring at something so trivial like ice cream.

But at the same time, people literally stared at her. It was a very rare occurrence that an outsider was free roaming around in the streets of Tristate City. So, for the indigenous Testharians, it was a first for them.

She put her hand over the back of her neck, realizing that she needed money to pay for the ice cream. Where she came from, money wasn’t a thing.

“...I don’t have money... great...”

However, it was a common misconception for outsiders to think that everything costs money. But in a beautiful and democratic environment like Testharia, some food were actually free to get.

Most restaurants, shops and even boutiques were all funded by the government itself.

Jumkou would still not know if it did not cost money, since the signs were written in Testharian alphabet. Everything was so alien to her.

“...Oh well...” She turned and continued walking while checking her pockets for verification.

But suddenly a black-furred paw grabbed on her tail from behind, causing Jumkou to quickly turn around and raise a fist toward the mysterious animal behind her. It was simply just a domesticated Testharian terrier, holding up a ball of string to her face.

The dog began shaking the ball in mid-air in hopes that she will play with it.

For a second, Jumkou thought it was attacking her but it wasn't. It was only playing. In spite of being confused about it, she had to admit, this dog was indeed adorable. She looked down at his small paws.

And for whatever reason, Jumkou found the way its tail wiggled to be quite funny.

In addition, Jumkou herself also found it cute when the dog panted, trying to get her attention. It barked as well in joy upon meeting someone new and foreigner like her.

She then petted it from head to bottom while smiling gently, saying, "Who's a good boy...?"

After petting it for what seemed like several minutes, another dog came running toward her. And with her hands now preoccupied on one dog, she could barely pet the second coming to greet her.

The streets of Testharia were filled with stray dogs, which was weird to notice in a beautiful and rich place like Testharia. But the dogs were, like Testharians, citizens with full rights granted to them.

The Testharian people had high regards of how intelligent animals can be even without the usage of speaking human language or even any other known languages.

With Jumkou completely surrounded, they barked and wagged their tails. For reasons unknown, the street suddenly was filled with lots more strays than what originally there were.

"G-guys! C-calm down!" She exclaimed, not used to large groups of things (or anyone else). It may have seemed strange, but these dogs had no intent on hurting her. They did all simply want to play, especially with such a foreign looking female.

Some of them sat and looked up at her with cute eyes, but most stayed standing and continued to bark happily.

It didn't take very long until the dogs were called away from her by what seemed like their friends and family. In seconds, they all went running off except for one that stayed.

It simply ran circles around Jumkou's feet and stopped to face her, tail wagging.

"...You wanna follow me?" She asked while staring down at the dog, who jumped in joy upon getting picked.

She picked him up in her arms and gave him a smile before going on her way down the sidewalk.

"Oh, you're such a cutie!~ What's your name? ...I'm guessing Little Jumy can work. Yeah! I'm calling you that now!" she stated proudly and scratched behind its ears. "...Oh, you're a male, right? How could I even tell..?" Jumkou pondered for a moment before deciding it wasn't important.

Meanwhile, Little Jumy continued panting happily until something caught his eye across the street. He started barking excitedly while wiggling around in her arms as they got closer to where a crowd had formed.

A food truck was parked and had many types of food ready to eat.

Little Jumy tried climbing out of her arms as best he could toward the food stand, whining loudly for his new friend to purchase some. She set Little Jumy back down on the ground and followed him toward the food truck.

It turned out to be a street hotdog vendor, where every kind of sauce existed in an order: mustard, chili, cheddar, barbecue, onions and ketchup.

Jumkou sniffed the scent of these different sauces wafting up into the air above her head. She could taste each distinct flavor of the aroma from this distance alone.

They each smelled wonderful and appetizing that Jumy began licking his lips like any other pet dog would do with dinner close by.

It seemed too easy for Jumkou to get a hold of herself once seeing so much delicious food that could only make her hungrier. "Money... money... Gah! I don't have money, I forgot!"

She put her head in shame and sighed until another hand touched onto her shoulder from behind.

"Miss." The person hurried back to create distance. The culture Testharians were upholding was weird. It was considered rude to keep a strong distance from someone you found interesting anywhere in the world, but Testharians always maintained about 20 meters distance between them and foreigners.

Jumkou could only take this as something rude, but she wasn't familiar with the culture. She had no right to say something.

Then, the woman pointed to the food truck. "A select amount of food is free in Tristate City. You may indulge in your cravings as much as you would like here."

Hearing these words made Jumkou's whole being feel joyful, not only for the delicious hot dog on the menu but because they were absolutely free! "What...? This doesn't cost me anything!?! But isn't that... illegal!?"

In disbelief, she rubbed her head in an attempt to clear away doubt. Maybe it was legal. After all, this place seemed really nice for some reason she couldn't really understand herself.

The stranger replied with a chuckle.

"I will go first then, if that proves any help."

The stranger went to the front counter of the hot dog food truck and said hello to the Testharian vendor with pride.

Little Jumy wagged his tail while watching as the woman ordered, paying with a card which seemed too far advanced for Jumkou. This caused her to question everything once again, but there was something else that interested her more than food itself: how many people were wearing hats here? The culture must be very diverse since so many people wore these kinds of attire.

The Testharians were truly one of a kind.