"Thank you for your help! Even if it was only one plate, it meant a lot to us." Rikka held Misaka's hand within her palms, and smiled genuinely, her eyes round like coins. She left Misaka flustered when she turned her head. "Am I right, Anya?"
"I think we owe her much more than just one plate. In fact, she is responsible for most of the work," Anya responded.
Rikka gave her a perplexed gaze.
"If she hadn't helped, the rest wouldn't have followed."
Rikka nodded at the explanation, however she seemed a bit absent. Right after that, her eyes darted to the side following something that had piqued her interest. "Oh, hello, miss sergeant!"
The sergeant had come inside the tent and stood near the entrance watching the group intently. She didn't, however, pay much heed to Rikka's greeting.
"I came to watch over your preparations for sleep. Do remember, there will be no sleeping in the morning, so I recommend not staying up too late."
"Yes, sergeant!" The group started changing into their pajamas. Soon, groups formed with lolis rating each other's underwear. Rikka seemed to enjoy that, but Misaka stayed out of it, and did her best so that no one saw her changing.
'Ugh, common folk. They don't have anything better to do in the army than to rate their panties?' Anya shook her head in slight disdain, and having remembered something, she came up to her sergeant.
"Miss sergeant, I wanted to ask you something."
"Yes? What is it?" The sergeant answered reluctantly.
Anya hesitated for a bit. "I– I wanted to ask if the possibility of an open conflict is real."
The sergeant didn't really hide her astonishment caused by this question. "You should know that I'm not allowed to disclose any information like that to my soldiers. Besides, asking is for me. Your job is to complete orders." she sighed, looked down for a second, but soon she spoke again.
"But you know, if you think you can't make it in an all-out warfare scenario you shouldn't be here in the first place. I only need the best of the best. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
"Uhm, yes?" Anya answered hesitantly while musing over what she had heard.
"Alright! Now go to sleep, all of you!" The sergeant exclaimed, standing straight, her face with almost regal expression. "Tomorrow you're going to have a lolicon shooting practice. We're going to use live targets, so you need to be fully rested by then."
'Living targets?' Anya perked up immediately. 'We've barely got here, and they're already making us shoot at living things. Really, what is going on here?' she thought.
"Anya! You should change too, you know. You're the only one left who isn't in her pajamas yet," Rikka said.
"Eh!?~" Anya yelped, startled when she realized that the whole squad turned their eyes in her direction in response to Rikka's statement. "B– But I can't when everybody's looking."
"Oh, right." Rikka looked visibly disappointed "Well then. Guess we'll have to look awaATAAAAACK!" She launched her offensive towards unexpecting Anya. Having no chance to react, her military pants quickly got pulled down.
Everyone in the tent gasped for air as they saw red panties with white circle and a black swastika inside it. Anya covered the swastika with her hands, but it was far too late for that as it was already seen by everyone.
"Waaaah!~ kawaiiiii!~" someone from the crowd yelled. Everyone was visibly impressed.
Anya's cheeks flushed and her eyes brimmed with tears.
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaa!" She cried out. Utterly ashamed, she wanted to get away. She wanted to run, but she forgor that her pants were pulled down, and in her attempt to move she stumbled and fell to the ground.
"Anya!? Are you okay!?" Rikka hollered, her face looked pale beyond worry. She helped her friend by lifting her to sit upright. "I'm so so sorry! I didn't mean to!"
Anya sniffled trying her best to wipe out the tears with her arm, but soon more of them trickled down her cheeks.
The sergeant seemed amused with the show, Rikka awkwardly tried to cheer Anya up with a really concerned look on her face, while everyone else just got confused and pretended that they didn't just see what they did.
"Stop crying please," Rikka pleaded. "Everything is okay! It happens to the best of us!"
Anya turned her head with a sulky expression. She tried to look angry but her face ended up resembling that of a kid who had been refused her favorite ice cream, rather than a formidable person.
"I, for one, think you should be proud."
Anya looked up and noticed Misaka
"It's who you are. You shouldn't be ashamed of being yourself. That won't change anything. It will only bring you more pain. You should accept yourself for who you are and move forward, no matter what others think about you." Misaka sat next to Anya.
"Bro!" Anya immediately brightened up. Her tears stopped flowing and she smiled slightly.
"I'm not your bro though."
"Thank you, bro!" Anya's smile didn't falter. She wiped out the tears from her face
"Anya!" Rikka bowed on her knees, and formed her hands together, begging. "Please forgive me, it's my fault!"
"No, no." Anya patted her friend on her head. "It's okay."
***
"What about you, Anya?" Misaka whispered. The three of them laid near each other. The lights were already off, but some lolis still whispered around. "I mean, you asked me why I joined the military, but you haven't told me why you did."
"oh, that. It was always my biggest dream. that's simply the way I am."
"Does that mean that you've already fulfilled your biggest dream? I mean— if you're already in the military, then what do you want to do next?"
"That's actually a very good question." Anya thought for a while. "I think the next order of business is for me to get higher in the hierarchy."
"So we're looking at a future general?" Rikka asked. She wasn't visible due to the lack of light, but from her voice it was easy to discern that she was smiling.
Anya chuckled. "It's a bit out of reach for me now, but maybe someday." She indulged in her thoughts savoring the idea of others referring to her as general. "Right now we should probably go to sleep though. Tomorrow seems like it's going to be a busy day."
They nodded in agreement.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight girls." Anya answered.