“You’re getting released from the hospital today, right?” Lily asked the moment she burst through the door to Twelve’s room, closely followed by Row and Seren.

Twelve gasped, pulling the shirt in her hands up to cover her bra. “Lily,” she chided, noticing how Seren quickly averted his bright red face, while Row didn’t seem to care all that much either way.

“Wow, that bra is super cute!” Lily ignored her words and walked farther into the room, leaning in to study the ruffles on her light pink bra covered in strawberries. “It’s not one of the standard beige ones they gave me and all the other reincarnated women,” she noted.

Twelve sighed, she had figured something like that out already. “Captain Harumi brought me a stack of clothes this morning when he came to tell me that I could leave.” She quickly put the shirt over her head. It was a slightly more pastel pink. It had a loose fit with each sleeve ending in two ribbons which had been tied into little bows. Combined with a white legging that reached until right under her knees, paired with some very light jean shorts. The whole look was way cuter than anything she could’ve ever imagined herself wearing in this or her previous life, despite having no memories of it.

“Damn…” Lily looked her up and down with a face that showed she was thinking the exact same thing. “It doesn’t suit you.”

“Thanks,” Twelve answered dryly. “At least it isn’t a hospital gown or stiff from all the dried-up blood.”

Row and Seren chuckled, but Lily clenched her fists in a strangely excited way. “Still,” she argued, “you’d rather wear something else, right?” Her eyes lit up. “Let’s go shopping in the city.”

“Shopping?” Twelve repeated. “We don’t have money, though? Or any idea where to go or how things work here.”

Row pulled a dark red envelope out of his back pocket and agilely spun it around before handing it to her with a crooked grin. “We actually get a small stipend for as long as we’re here,” he let her know. “It’s obviously their way of enticing us to stay, but no reason not to use it, right?”

“And for how things work in this world,” Seren added, holding out his hand to her, “there’s only one way to find out, right?”

“All right,” she gave in with a sigh, “let’s go.” She glanced at Seren’s hand. “I’m not going to hold your hand, though, so you know…”

Against her expectations, he chuckled and stuck his hand back in the pocket of his dark jeans. His entire outfit was dark, from his shoes to his baggy hoodie. The only thing not dark or black was the small strip of his white t-shirt coming out from under that hoodie. It suited him too well, not like how basic clothes you would get from an army base normally would, making Twelve realize that they had probably gone shopping before without her. Meaning they already knew what the city looked like or how things worked around here.

“Are we going to keep calling you Twelve, by the way?” Row asked as they left the hospital room and walked towards the reception desk to sign her discharge papers. “Not that it doesn’t sound very cool and about as cute as that outfit,” he added with a teasing grin, “but it really doesn’t.”

Twelve shrugged, although she couldn’t deny that it had been bothering her. Not the fact that they called her Twelve, but the fact that she didn’t even remember her own name. Apparently, not everyone did. Row, Lily, and Seren were just lucky. But the question remained who she was. Who she used to be. How should she act or feel? The truth was that feeling so insecure about it had ended up making her feel a little numb instead. As if she shouldn’t get too invested in anything or anyone here. What if she would eventually find out she used to be someone horrible and that’s why she got reincarnated into that horrifying training field? Or what if anyone she got close to turned out to be horrible instead? Was it okay for her to just smile and hang out with these kids as if they were her friends now?

“What about Sillica?” Lily asked.

“Sillica?” Twelve and Seren both repeated in shock.

“Is that even a name?” Twelve asked. “It sounds more like a place… I don’t know, I’m not a fan.”

“Hm…” Lily crossed her arms while Twelve signed her discharge papers and they left the hospital. “Meara, Amiah, Esme, Kimia, Ellie, Addison,” she took a deep breath, “stop me if you hear something you like.”

Twelve chuckled. “Not really any of them, but I’m pretty amazed you can come up with them so quickly.” She rubbed her forehead. “I’m kind of blanking.”

“How about Hyrinara?” Seren asked, his cheeks turning a pale pink. “It actually kind of means ‘dragon slayer’ in my language.”

“Pfft.” Row quickly covered his mouth to smother his laughing. “That actually sounds pretty good.” He turned to Lily, who stared at Twelve with such glistening, wide eyes that he didn’t even ask her what she thought.

“It’s a little long, though, isn’t it?” Twelve asked hesitantly. “Maybe make it just Hyrin then?”

“Wouldn’t that just mean ‘dragon’?” Row asked with a raised eyebrow.

Seren nodded, but Hyrin just shrugged. “Let’s not tell anyone here that, just to be sure.”

“Alrighty then, Hyrin it is!” Row slapped her against her shoulder. “Nice to meet you, girl.”

Hyrin rubbed her shoulder. “Yeah, nice to meet you all, too. So, where are we going?”

“Let’s get some milkshakes at that skeevy place first,” Lily suggested. “You like milkshakes?” She asked Hyrin.

“Do I ever!” Hyrin responded after deciding not to dampen Lily’s enthusiasm. Besides, she was pretty sure that wasn’t really a lie anyway.

Lily hadn’t been exaggerating when she had called the milkshake place skeevy. It must have been some sort of fast food chain in this world, called Roasts, but it looked more like some old-timey tavern waiting to be demolished. Hyrin tried to ignore the grime and odd smell that she couldn’t quite place as she followed the others up to the counter.

“They have something here called ‘cherry’ that you have to try,” Row told her and Hyrin raised an eyebrow. Did that mean that there were no cherries wherever Row came from? She glanced at the screen filled with way too many options. Did that mean there were other flavors here too that hadn’t existed in the world she had come from?

“Here,” Lily put a huge plastic cup in Hyrin’s hand, filled with a nauseatingly purple looking shake. “It’s white chocolate Lindom, a fruit they have here. It’s insane. Take it, Seren is paying.”

Hyrin glanced at Seren. “Why?”

His cheeks immediately burned up. “Because… to celebrate, you know? Whatever, it’s fine, isn’t it? Just drink.” He quickly took a sip of his own shake, as if that would ease his awkwardness and Hyrin couldn’t help but share a little grin with Lily.

She put the straw in her mouth and took a careful sip, closing her eyes to suppress a moan. “Oh my god,” she mumbled, “this may be the single best thing I’ve ever tasted.”

“Please, it’s just Lindom,” Row rolled his eyes. “Here, wait until you taste cherry.” He held out his cup to her, and she hesitated for a moment. But instead of telling him that she had tasted cherry a thousand times before, she decided to humor him and reached out for the cup. Before she could take it, though, Seren moved in between them, nearly throwing his own cup into her hand.

All three of them raised their eyebrows at him, and his entire face turned a deep, bright scarlet.

“W-what?” He asked. “I was… closer by. It’s just easier.” He glanced up at her, his expression pretty much begging her not to laugh or say or ask anything. Not that Hyrin needed to ask any questions to know what was going on. 

She stared down at the straw sticking out of his pink milkshake. They had known each other for about a week and she had been unconscious for more than half of it. How on earth had he fallen for her so quickly? And why her? She was at least five years older than him and compared to someone as beautiful and cute as Lily, she didn’t consider herself much to look at either. Not ugly, or anything, just normal. 

So, should she drink from his straw? It’s not like she didn’t know the indirect kiss trope and it was more than clear that he did, too. Although in this case, it had been more about her not sharing an indirect kiss with Row than that he had actually wanted to share one with her. Did that mean she should drink from it as if it weren’t a big deal and everything would be fine? Or would drinking from it give him false hope? But wouldn’t that still be better right now than telling him she didn’t want to drink from something he had already had his mouth on which would no doubt hurt his feelings?

She brought the straw to her mouth with a deep frown. Was she being an idiot thinking about it this much? But still, she was pretty sure she didn’t imagine the intense stare of three pairs of eyes following the straw all the way up to her lips.

She opened her mouth slightly, but right before she could take a sip, a loud alarm ripped through the air and all four of them jumped in shock. Lily dropped her shake to cover her ears and glanced up at them in a panic.

“What’s happening?!” She cried out, although her voice barely reached them over the alarm.

“Hey! Stay here! Don’t go outside!”

Hyrin froze. She had moved towards the door before she even realized it. She snapped her head to the guy behind the counter, although he had half jumped onto the counter as if he were ready to chase after her and drag her back inside if she hadn’t heard him.

“You not from around here or somethin’?” He asked in a gruff voice as he jumped back behind the counter. “It’s the drake alarm.”

“Drakes…” Hyrin repeated softly and a shiver ran over her entire body.

“Come on, get behind the counter and duck down,” he gestured to all four of them. “The slayer force’ll take care of ‘em in minutes.”

“The slayer force?” Hyrin turned to the glass doors and before Seren or any of them could stop her, she pushed them open and ran outside.

“Hyrin!” She heard the door clatter again behind her, but she kept running. They were expected to make such an important choice within such a short amount of time, how could she do that without ever even seeing the Drake Annihilation Force or what they were capable of? Did enlisting mean that they would spend the rest of their lives fighting as desperately and powerlessly as she had done in that training field? If that were the case, wouldn’t it be fair if she told them to get lost? It’s not like she had asked for any of this, after a-

She stopped so abruptly that her momentum almost made her fall over and she staggered two steps forward before she actually came to a standstill. She didn’t know much about old-timey stuff and fantasy, but the monster that looked down at her with bright yellow eyes wasn’t a drake, it was a true - albeit still wingless - dragon. Each scale on its shining blue back was bigger than her head. It towered out over her, completely blocking the sun. It had gripped the roof of a house with one of its massive claws, causing debris and stone dust and splinters to rain down around her. Its long, strangely elegant neck curled up as it lowered its head and its vertical pupils narrowed, focusing on her and her alone.