And so, at Anette’s invitation, Lena went with her to Liberté et Égalité’s city center, to the First Sector’s biggest department store.

“You’re exaggerating, Annette. We’re not going to live in the barracks or anything.”

“Oh, don’t be such a stick in the mud. Who can pass off a good excuse to go shopping?”

Annette looked altogether thrilled, her handbag swinging over her arm. Lena trailed after her with a smile.

The store manager spotted two high-class young ladies approaching and walked over to personally greet and show them around, but the two politely turned them away and stopped by whichever stores caught their eye.

Gaudy, high-class dresses that were the current craze, shoes, jewelry, assorted sweets. Everything was vivid and brilliant, making their hearts dance.

“Check this out, Lena! It’s got to be this white-and-gold one! Try it on, come on!”

“Ah, wait. In that case, Annette, you gotta try on the lacy one over there. It’ll look great on you.”

“…Don’t you think these heels are a little too tall?”

“Don’t worry about that, Lena. It looks mature and cool.”

“Annette, look! This necklace and earring set is so cute!”

“I-I think I’ll pass on that. I’m not good with stuff that’s red like blood. Maybe I’ll go for this one. Same design, but it’s blue.”

“…Lena, did you decide which one you want? They’re recommending both the forêt-noire and the rouge.”

“…Not yet. Hey, since today’s special, maybe we can get both?”

They spent the days cheerfully combing through the department store before carrying their shopping bags to a café on the top floor. The store manager appeared seemingly out of nowhere, saying he could have the bags delivered to their mansions, and took them off the girls’ hands.

They were led to the best seat in the café: a spot by a window that offered them a scenic view to enjoy with their tea and coffee. Lena was more of a tea person while Annette insisted on coffee. Both were synthetized products made in mass-production factories, so no amount of careful brewing would recreate the flavor of the real things as they remembered.

The eight main streets spread from the radial plaza and stretched into the suburbs. The streets were beautiful, well-maintained, and classy. For scenery preservation, the Republic restricted the number of stories buildings could have, so the view from this rooftop café in a building with unrestricted height was completely unobstructed. As she watched the sunset over Liberté et Égalité, Annette spoke up.

“…You said you want to be a Handler, right, Lena?”

“Yes. My post’s already been decided.”

“You’re really such a weirdo.”

Annette’s posting was, naturally, for the research division. She was taking over her late father’s research.

A strange thought came to mind, and Lena’s hands stopped halfway through raising the teacup to her lips. Their time as girls having fun on the town was up. Come tomorrow, they’ll be setting foot into the world of grown-ups a bit earlier than girls their age… They’ll be joining the world of the military.

She hung her head and smiled.

“Thank you for today. I’m glad I came along. I mean, we’ll be busy starting tomorrow.”

“Right? But hey, if you want to hang out, feel free to drop by the lab.”

“Is that all right?”

“You’re always welcome as far as I’m concerned, Lena.”

Annette remembered something, put down her coffee, and leaned in. She lowered her voice like she was sharing some special secret.

“I saw the cutest mugs in the store downstairs. Matching mugs, with black-and-white rabbits. Let’s get those. We can put them in my lab, and that’ll be your designated mug. And you’ve got to come over if you’ve got your own mug, right?”

Seeing her friend’s eyes light up like a child’s, Lena couldn’t help but giggle. She leaned in and whispered back.

“Of course, Annette.”

My precious best friend.

Claymore Squadron

“So long as you understand. Don’t worry, I’ll clear this up.”

“…Sorry.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. Just rest.”

Saying this, Raiden Shuga—vice captain of the 28th ward’s first defensive squadron, Claymore—rose from a creaking wooden chair. He made to leave this shabby, prefabricated barracks room and return to his own, but paused and turned around.

“And don’t join the Resonance even if the situation changes, you hear me? Having you Resonate when you’re all frazzled just makes it harder for us, Shin!”

Confirming that Shin feebly stuck a hand out of the blanket and waved in a show of consent, Raiden closed the door behind him. He entered the hangar to prepare for a sortie, where he saw his surprisingly few remaining squad mates peering at him. The mortality rate of Processors was exceedingly high, so most squadrons had to fight with numbers that didn’t meet the usual criteria.

But this time the vacancies weren’t due to casualties. It had been getting colder over the last few days, and a few of their members came down with a cold, including their captain, Shin. Even the oldest in the squadron were in their late teens, so their bodies weren’t fully developed yet. Between that and the terrible living conditions, disease outbreaks weren’t uncommon during winter.

Raiden didn’t let his concern show on his face. Having the newer, more unreliable members get taken out of commission was one thing, but Shin and Daiya being down for the count was a significant blow. Still, this squadron was doing better than most. It had plenty of veterans, meaning they could tell the sick to rest and recover. Most other squadrons had to send their sick and injured out to fight while knowing they were in no condition to do so, which was essentially a death sentence. Indeed, most people forced to fight when they could rarely come back from those sorties.

Raiden saw one of the newer boys frown in concern.

“…Can we really do it this time…? I mean, the cap’n’s not here…”

Theo chuckled and said they wouldn’t be much safer with Shin here, though he wasn’t being mean. Kurena, who was closer to Theo in age, regarded him with a miffed expression.

Anju, the boy’s platoon captain, smiled softly.

“I know you’re a bit spoiled, Rito, so let me give you this fair warning… If you’re going to blindly rely on Shin in battle, you’ll end up dead.”

Rito’s eyes widened in surprise. He relied on their captain to no end in these battles.

“All his instructions and warnings are subject to priorities based on the situation. He can’t always help you. Only those who look at the state of battle themselves, make their own judgment calls, and rely on no one survive. Plus… You know. Neither we nor Shin will always be there to be your babysitters.”

Rito’s prepubescent face hardened as he recalled their reality. The battlefield they were on was a place where everyone died sooner or later. He looked like he was about to burst into tears, but Raiden ruffled his short, agate colored hair. This was something Rito was used to, and it didn’t come as a surprise.

“We can make it just fine with today’s numbers… No one’s planning on letting anyone die here. And that guy, he might act like he doesn’t care, but he does.”

Enough that Raiden had to repeatedly warn Shin not to Resonate while he was sick.

Like they said during the briefing, they all returned from that day’s battle safely. When Raiden saw Shin get out of bed early to check on them, Raiden frowned at him.

“I told you to stay in bed.”

“I’m feeling better. Plus, I figured you’d prefer to hear the bad news sooner rather than later.”

True to his words, Shin seemed to have gotten enough sleep and the color had mostly returned to his face, but he still looked relatively bad. Raiden repressed the urge to point that out and remained silent.

“Bad news?”

“They sent over our next posting.”