The moment they showed up at the Battle Royale entrance the next day, there was no love left in Pink Beats’ hearts. Kelsey’s influence had gotten to all of them, and they weren’t very friendly towards Kana and Jina. Thankfully, this was exactly what the former had been planning. This was the freedom that they needed to not only implant their presence in the A Team’s brain, but also be free enough to move around the map.

  Over the next three days, patterns repeated. Kana and Jina would go their own way once the door opened, and map out the entire land. Despite being an entire world’s worth of area to cover, they knew they had some hard limits. The system in their weapons was coded to warn them if they went too far, and flashed red if they crossed that boundary. Under that boundary, Kana managed to pin down the seven different entrances.

  As they moved around, they came across almost all seven of the teams. They occasionally bumped into the Fluorescent Angels, and sometimes crossed paths with the other teams. Kana, however, only focused on what she wanted – the Angels and Pink Beats. Even Ruby Passion, as prominent as they always were, did not have a place in her current plan.

  Once that was done, they had a perfect map of the entrances that the groups had taken that day. Spread over three days, they managed to find clear patterns that connected how they were distributed. This was most important for their final plan on Friday. The one that would cement the building blocks of their plan, now that Kana had a clear vision of the pieces she needed to move around.

  For those three days, they also followed the rest of their schedule. It began with Jina practicing her sword moves while Kana worked on the lyrics. She was avoiding levelling up the Railgun because she knew it would take time, and there were priorities to be focused on right now. Once that was done, they had dance practice with the trainer right before the fighting. Finally, they went home and worked on the lyrics together.

  That final part was not going well at all. Kana’s style of writing was basically non-existent and always clashed with what Jina wanted. In return, Jina’s themes and ideas were far too cookie-cutter and desperately derivative. Kana hated every word that she came up with. Together, they had written and cancelled five songs already. Not a single one of them was working.

  “What exactly do you even want!?” Jina cried, lightly bashing her head against the dining table.

  Kana crumbled the sheet of paper once more and threw it into the dustbin, “Stop doing that. You’re gonna hurt yourself and then cry about it tomorrow. We need to execute the plan, so focus on that instead.”

  “Yeah, and we also need to present the lyrics to Sakai-san by Saturday night. We only have tomorrow night, and then all of Saturday to come up with something. You know what happens if we don’t do anything, right!?”

  “Nothing? You did not even want to write them in the first place.”

  “I mean, yeah…” Her voice trailed off and she yawned, “How am I supposed to help you if you won’t tell me how your brain works? We’re supposed to work together to get this done, you know? It won’t work unless I know more.”

  “Ohara, it’s two in the morning. I’m going to sleep.”

  “Wha-” Jina stood up along with her, and wrapped her hands around Kana’s waist from behind, “No, no, no! Did you not hear what I saiddd? Sakai-san wants the lyrics day after tomorrow!”

  Kana pulled herself away and Jina fell to the floor in defeat, “I know. But that’s not what matters right now. Fluorescent Angels will get the farmhouse entrance tomorrow. That’s as easy as it gets. Keep that in mind and go to sleep. We’ll figure the rest out tomorrow.”

  “Fineeee…”

  “The plan tomorrow is more important. Get that right, and we’ll have all the time in the world to write these stupid lyrics down.”

  “No, we won’t!”

  Kana hated to admit that she was right. The plan was not going to end tomorrow. It was only beginning in its truest essence. To keep Sakai from breathing down their necks, they still needed to convince him that they were being productive. There was Emi to think about, too. The lyrics would have to be presented on Saturday night, no matter what. Still, she took a deep breath and calmed down.

  For now, the plan took precedence. They could work their asses off once they got back tomorrow and didn’t have to worry about the competition anymore. For two days, at least. And then, they would get back on the grind from Monday again. So, she left Jina on the floor and went to her room to get some sleep.

  _____________

  After their dance practice, Kana made sure to remind Yamazaki to keep up with Daiki Yamada’s car. Once Pink Beats got out of the car, Kana and Jina followed instantly. Out of the cars too, the managers acknowledged each other with a nod. Yamada always seemed like a good guy, so Kana did not want to push on him too much. Unfortunately, he was also going to get wrapped up in this eventually, so this was the only relief she could give him.

  “Pink Beats!” Kana approached them with a cheery voice today. “So, we’re at two hundred and twenty-seven thousand points right now, right!?”

  “Yes, Kana-chan.” Sanada replied first with a smile, “That’s sixth position, but if we try hard then we can get to fifth! You’ll also get to Rank 3. Isn’t that nice?”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “The best.” Jina joined with a smile.

  Kelsey scoffed, walking straight into the inconspicuous suburban house that contained the door of this location. As she entered, she reminded them, “Fifth position is Fluorescent Angels. They have about three hundred and fifty thousand. So, unless you guys plan on pulling your weight starting today, we’re getting nowhere.”

  Kana hopped in after her and got really close to whisper, “But there’s only three Angels. And three of you. Do you really need the new kids to pull your weight?”

  “Minami!” She turned in anger, causing Kana to step back in shock.

  Perfect! It was working perfectly! She made sure to look as sad and troubled as possible, but she could barely stop herself from jumping up and down with joy. She had never seen a person who was so easy to read. What a stupid, stupid bitch.

  “Kelsey, control yourself.” RiRi sighed, “And you, Minami-san. Please stop provoking her with your words. You really need to watch how you speak to your seniors.”

  “Ah, sorry, sorry, Captain!” Jina walked behind Kana and grabbed her shoulder as her partner pretended to wipe some tears off her eyes, “Kana-chan’s just from a very poor family, so she never learned any etiquette. I’ve been trying to teach her little by little. But trust me, she’ll be perfect soon!”

  Sanada sighed and gave Kana pat on her head, “Let’s just get into the dimension, alright? And don’t worry, Kana-chan. You can stick by me, ok? I won’t mind it no matter how rude you are. I used to be like you too.”

  The lead vocalist laughed, which made Kana feel a bit bad about needing to ruin her life like this. But at the end of the day, it didn’t matter how kind you were, even if it was honest and real. If you didn’t have the passion and drive to steal what you needed, you were going to be left behind. It was just how the world worked. Just how it crumbled, cookie-wise.

  Kelsey ignored the rest of the conversation, and stepped in through the door. RiRi followed her, and then Sanada led Kana and Jina inside. Finally, they had managed to make it in along with the A Team. For now, it was safe to assume that they were going to spend the rest of their competition with them too.

  So, when they finally started moving inside, Kana and Jina always made sure to be in their sight. Whenever they did wander too far, Sanada managed to pull them back with a stern warning. She really wanted to keep them in line this time around.

  Kana, however, also needed to keep plan running. So, she used her grenade launcher to best effect. By shooting it towards a random spot on the map when nobody was looking, she was able to create a dust cloud and pretend that she had seen a demon that way. Sanada, more than happy to entertain her, followed her and Jina. Kelsey and RiRi, seeing that they had no other option, did the same.

  Slowly, shot by shot, Kana led them to the location where the farmhouse entrance opened. By now, she had a good idea of what the map looked like, and matching that with Fluorescent Angels’ movement patterns led them straight where they needed to be. Soon, far in the distance, they saw a blue glint in the moonlight.

  “That’s…Fluorescent Angels!” Jina acted like she was surprised and pointed at them. Even from this distance, as the demons around them died, their neon clothes were hard to miss.

  “Ugh…” Kelsey immediately hated the prospect, but before she could say anything, Kana had already rushed forward to meet them while jumping for joy.

  “Neptune!!” She shouted and gave the blue neon-dress wearing girl a high five. It seemed like the group always wore the same clothes. Probably a permanent brand that they had to maintain. It probably got a bit boring, though.

  “Kana, Jina.” Atlas acknowledged them, “We sure do end up running into you a lot, huh? As if fate itself wants to tease us about what we lost out on.”

  “Take them. Aren’t useful anyway.” Kelsey wrote them off and walked away to be by herself.

  RiRi, on the other hand, respectfully greeted them, and they all checked in on each other. Everyone, of course, already knew each other. But there was still a certain animosity given that they were very direct competitors right now. Fluorescent Angels did not really have anything to worry about, but there was still hesitation when you knew the other group hated you with a passion right now.

  “So, where have you been going?” Neptune asked.

  “Kana-chan saw some weird-looking demon, so we have been trying to find it.” Sanada explained, “But we can’t seem to catch a glimpse. Only she’s been lucky enough to see it till now.”

  “The Bomber class has been the one with the best eyesight, huh?” Atlas smiled and looked at Kana, who acted oblivious, “Well, we’ll help you out if you want. We’ve cemented our position anyway, and the fourth position is impossible to get right now. You can keep the points if we find it.”

  “Yay!” Kana jumped and gave Atlas a high five too, “Let’s go! I think I saw it going to the left.”

  “Is that so?” Neptune scoffed and started walking after Kana with her assault rifle.

  As Pink Beats and Fluorescent Angels started following her, Kana knew this phase of the plan had passed as she wanted. Atlas was now convinced that she was here because she wanted to get away from Pink Beats. Meanwhile, Sanada was convinced that she was just a kid trying to be with her friends. Complete obliviousness was the best way to present yourself in a position like this.

  “Hah, there!” Kana shot and a blob of dust covered the area in front of them.

  “I’ll go, Kana-chan!” Jina hid her weapon and decided to start running, “I’m the fastest without my weapon equipped, so I’ll scout ahead.”

  “Yeah, great. Why didn’t you think of that earlier?” Kelsey groaned, still following with a frown and a grudge.

  “Should I come too?” Atlas asked, hiding her weapon as well.

  Just as Jina started to nod, Kana closed her eyes and waited. It was going to happen. The maternal instincts would kick in, and her always-kind side would take over. Even if she had an injury in her ankle, she would be the one to volunteer.

  “I…” Sanada hid her spear, “am also a Melee class. I’ll go with her, Atlas-san. No need to worry!”

  “Oh…okay.”

  Good, good. Kana hid her laugh once more as Jina started running ahead with Sanada. The others watched as they got deeper into the wasteland, slowly walking to keep up with them. The team had been divided as intended, and the Fluorescent Angels were here to see it all. She had half her victory already.

  isn't one. The thrill in a story like this comes from seeing unconnected pieces come together at the end, and somehow make sense. That is always my approach to writing scenes like these.