Recently, Naomi had bought a metal dancepad for the videogame Dance Dance Revolution, a rhythm game that involved physically dancing to the virtual beat on-screen. This dancepad had been a good source of entertainment & exercise for Naomi in the past months, until she was interrupted by Serena's knock the next morning, failed her song halfway through, and in frustration punched it with Avalanche's arm and exploded the fucking thing to bits. She sighed, then stepped outside with Serena. "What?"
"Um, Matoi has our contract. Julia and Kate are waiting for us."
Naomi nodded and straightened herself up. Her breath was still a little hot when they got to Matoi's office where Kate & Julia were.
"Naomi, I have your new badge with your requested hero name." Matoi slid it over and Naomi displayed it. It read: BLANK SLATE. "And as for Serena and Kate: congratulations on achieving three-star. You're the first second-years to do so."
"Hell yeah." nodded Serena.
Kate noticed Serena's voice was different but ignored it for now. "Thank you. I won't be moving into the mansion until the beginning of next year, most likely."
Matoi shrugged. "I'll be graduated by then -- so notify Mia, presumably."
Someone knocked at the door. Matoi told them to come in, and it was Samuel, who had arrived early for the Elite Four's training session afterwards.
Naomi sat up as Samuel sat down and smiled at him. She had been starting to date recently, and had nursed a secret hope Samuel might hear she was straight soon; she wanted his mix of intelligent sensitivity, seemingly protective without encroaching on her own independence. He was certainly her type physically and likely would be better for her than the men around campus, who usually learned to fuck from adult videos and had all manner of *fantasies* with a female host.
But she had often checked him out on campus, thinking over whether she should approach him or not. It was not really culture that had prevented her from doing so; she felt she was different from civilian women both as an amnesiac and a student. She just could not summon a concrete answer to 'why not?'
"…it's a two-hour drive. I doubt you'll be long, regardless. As I mentioned to Serena - these aren't full contracts or investigations." continued Matoi, ending a contract assignment that Naomi not listened to the start of.
"Thank you, President Matoi." nodded Kate and stood up. This fortunately ended any hope of Serena leading this group; not that she would've wanted to anyhow.
Matoi walked out and let the door clasp shut behind her. Samuel held it open for the rest of them, then Naomi. For a moment the others were down the hall as Naomi looked at Samuel and thanked him, thinking of her own romantic life. But while she later wondered what there could have been had she chosen to flirt with him a little, she never did, and such was another drama life leaves in its wake.