It was one hour to midnight in the dorm room style, sleeping quarters aboard the UP Colossus. But the three girls dressed in brightly colored pajamas that were assigned to this room by the rescue corps were wide awake. They sat in a wide circle, on top of a rug placed between the two bunk beds that took up most of the room.

 “Isn’t it crazy?” asked one of the girls. Her dark hair stopped at her neck, framing her shining brown eyes with a side swept bang as she spoke. “One more day and we’ll be back at the academy… I didn’t think I would miss it this much only after a short month.”

 Responding with a nod, another girl around the circle concurred. “Yeah… I also miss it.” Leaning back while supporting her weight on her arms, the muscular girl with her naturally green hair flowing to her shoulders said, “But think about it like this, Mia: we’ll be arriving as champions!”

 With a wide smile, Mia called out, “True that! Second place baby!”

 “Speak for yourselves, Yasuna… Sis…” sulked the last girl around the circle. Crossing her arms, she added with pouting lips, “I know why the Director picked you as the winner; you’re the senior student. But I don’t see why he didn’t let us battle it out…”

 Looking over with glazed eyes, Yasuna shook her head. “Honestly? I would’ve preferred that too.” She glanced at her phone one more time before adding. “But I think the Director might be preoccupied with something else right now to care about placings. Heard that some Cyan ranked students and ex-students are being called to serve in the Union solid vision forces.” She paused, looking to the side. “Scary shit, but I don’t think we need to worry about it for now…”

 On the other hand, Mia crawled over to her sister and gave her a big hug. “It’s alright, sis. It’s only been a month since we started at the NWDA! Think about all the other opportunities we’ll all have to prove ourselves!” Seeing her twin sister’s expression brighten up, she added, “Besides, with all the official duels, we practically sailed passed the 900 Elo threshold to rank up to Yellow rank without the exam! Aren’t you excited to finally get your own room, Aiko!?”

 The pouting girl with an emo bang covering her left eye looked up at Mia, now sporting a barely visible smile on her lips. “I guess you’re right… We also get a lot more DC to sink into cards.” Thinking of what she could do with double the monthly DC, Aiko’s lips furled into a smile.

 Hearing this, Yasuna — who was now hunched forward — announced in an elevated tone of voice, “Screw yellow rank! I’m gunning for blue rank as soon as I get there!” With a sparkle in her eyes and a burning determination in her voice, she added, “Now that I know I’ll be able to synchro summon, I can’t wait to see the looks on those trust-fund brats faces when I get there tearing shit up!”

 The twins shared an amused chuckle at Yasuna’s declaration. Yet, there was also a hit of worry in their eyes. While they didn’t try to argue back — Yasuna was the senior student and should know better — They were concerned that she would start underestimating her opponents; a simple gaff at best, but a deadly mistake at worst. Good thing that deadly mistakes weren’t common at the academy — 24/7 medical staff made sure of that.

 But public humiliation certainly was — even more so at the blue-rank castle. Reputation counted for everything there. By rubbing the right people the right way, it was possible for any student to be set for life. Consequently, by rubbing the wrong people in the wrong way, it was also easy to make one’s life a living hell. Because of this, it wasn’t uncommon for the less influential students to just ignore the social gatherings and go on with their lives as they were. After all, there was nothing rich, stuck up, ignorant teens loved more than putting upstarts ‘In their place.’

 However, this concern on the part of the twins wasn’t lost on Yasuna. “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful,” she said while rolling her eyes. “It’s not like I plan to barge in there and start making enemies on my first day; I know how their system works.”

 “Are you… certain?” Aiko asked while her sister sat down next to her with her arms crossed.

 Yasuna let out a long sigh. “Yesssss…” she said, “Trust me girls, I wouldn’t be placing myself in a wolf’s den if I wasn’t planning on becoming one of the wolves.” She looked over at the twin girls, who were sitting across from her on the carpet, and shook her head. “Now how about we decide on what to do about this spell of insomnia you two seem to be under? I was already asleep, dammit!”

 The two girls blushed, realizing that they were the reason Yasuna was up at this hour. They knew she was an early bird and hated staying up late. But there was a good reason for their sleeplessness.

 “I’m sorry,” Aiko said, hanging her head. “The flashes just keep getting worse and worse; I can barely get a wink of sleep before they wake me up again.” She shook her head and added, “I know that with the supplements, the radiation is harmless, but rad-away doesn’t make these annoying flashes go away! Nothing does!”

 Mia leaned on Aiko, looking just as tired as her sister. “And I’m not sleeping if my better half can’t… That sounded weird… But I stand by it!”

 Yasuna held up her hands in a placating gesture. “Woah, woah, I’m sorry, I wasn’t blaming you, Aiko.” She paused for a moment, thinking. “I’m just saying we need to do something about it. Didn’t you have, like, those sleeping pills you were always popping when these flashes came up?”

 Aiko rubbed her eyes and shook her head. “No… I’m out since last night, and they don’t carry melatonin pills at the med bay.”

 Yasuna frowned, rubbing her chin. “Can’t you just try taking the normal sleeping pills they have? Just this once?”

 Aiko’s eyes widened, and she shook her head vigorously. “No, Yasuna! I can’t! They’re not NGAoE compatible and would kill my liver dead!” she arched her head up, groaning, “Argg, I’m sorry, I know you’re just trying to help…”

 Lowering her gaze, Yasuna sighed, asking, “Sorry, but what does NGAoE mean again?”

 “‘Non-Genetically Augmented or Enhanced,’” Mia replied, annoyed. “Gosh, is it that difficult for you to wrap your head around one acronym?”

 Yasuna’s eyes narrowed as she calmly replied, her voice laced with a hint of annoyance, “No, I just didn’t remember, okay?” She briefly averted her gaze away from the two, trying to get her thoughts in order. Turning back to face her companion, she spoke with a tinge of anger, her hands balling into fists, “What I really can’t wrap my head around is why you only told me about Aiko’s condition after she had a seizure in front of me. Do you know how scary that was?!”

 Without skipping a beat, Mia hit back. “Well, maybe if you weren’t so overprotective, she would’ve trusted yo—”

 “Girls!” Aiko shouted, interrupting the two. As they both turned to her, instead of hiding away like she probably would before, she gulped, continuing with a lowered gaze and pouting lips in a small voice, “I thought we agreed to stop fighting about this…”

 Both girls looked at each other, looks of realization forming on their faces. They hung their heads soon after, Aiko sighing before tightening her grip on Aiko’s shoulder and Yasuna turning away in a look of controlled shame.

 “My bad Aiko, Mia…” Yasuna drew on, “I didn’t think about what I was about to say there…”

 “Neither was I,” Mia echoed. Turning to her blue-haired counterpart with a lowered gaze, she added, “We’re all tired, sis. I don’t think any of us are thinking straight right now.”

 This time, it was Aiko’s turn to hang her head in shame. “I know that…” But then, her eyes shot wide open, and she looked up, like a lightbulb had illuminated above her head. “If we can get to a room deeper in the ship, I think these flashes might just subside.”

 Yasuna furrowed her brow in confusion as she listened to the suggestion, the sound of her breathing echoing against the unpainted metal walls. “You think it’s the lack of radiation shielding?” she asked, her voice tinged with skepticism. Taking in the sparse lighting and the cramped space, she wrinkled her nose at the musty smell that permeated the air. As she looked around their quarters, Yasuna concluded, “That might make sense… This place sure as hell wasn’t made with comfort in mind.” Narrowing her eyes on Aiko, she asked, “Even then, where do you suppose we stay at? Doubt there are many empty beds around at this hour.”

 Averting her gaze, Aiko said with a hint of hesitation, “Well… How about we ask Yuumi…? Her room is almost in the center of the ship.”

 As Mia was leaning against Aiko, already half-asleep, she suddenly shot right up upon hearing her sister’s suggestion. Her eyes brightened, wide open, and she shouted with excitement, “A sleepover?!” She whipped her head over to Yasuna, urging with a wide smile, “What we waiting for! Let’s go!”

 Just as Aiko was standing up, drawn by her sister’s excitement, Yasuna started stammering, “W-w-w-wa, wait a second!” she stood up to match the two, “We can’t just barge in into her room! What about the three girls from the cheer club she’s with? Do you two even know what their relationship is? What if they’re… You know? And we interrupt them…”

 The two twins stared at Yasuna with narrowing eyes, Mia saying with confusion, “If you’re that worried, just send a text. If she doesn’t answer, we knock.” After a brief pause, she asked, “Besides, why would you assume they’d be more than club mates?”

 Yasuna crossed her arms. “Well… The NWDA cheerleading club isn’t exactly shy about what goes on at their unofficial events…” Looking away, she added, “I… trust Yuumi to decide what she wants for herself — she’s an adult, and, considering her experience, I’m sure she knows what she’s doing — but going by how shameless she was acting even before the incident took place, I can’t say I don’t notice their attitude rubbing off on her…”

 “And your point is?” Aiko sought with confusion. “Just because the girl wants to loosen up a bit doesn’t mean she’s suddenly only interested in sex.” She narrowed her eyes at Yasuna, suggesting, “Maybe it would do you some good to follow her example… At least a little…”

 With a groan, Yasuna’s cheeks reddened, and she shook her head before replying. “I’m just worried that if we knock on that door, we might see something we weren’t supposed to.”

 Seeing the apprehension on Yasuna’s part, Mia told with a sigh, “Well, if you don’t wanna go, then you can stay here while I get my sister somewhere she can fall asleep.” Noticing Yasuna’s grimacing expression at the suggestion, she teased, “Just don’t complain that you couldn’t fall asleep worrying if we would come back all slutty; Like we caught some kind of virus from the cheer club girls.”

 With a shake of her head and a long sigh, Yasuna eventually conceded. “Fine! It’s not like we have a better option for Aiko…” she drew on while glancing to the side, “just don’t say I didn’t warn you about those three…”