Hibiki has been away for a while. This was primarily because she had gotten tired of being useless on missions for Section 2- well, not entirely useless, but certainly not as useful as she could have been. She had asked Genjuuro-sensei to train her, and he had. Honestly it had been... a bit more intense than she had anticipated, what with the being hidden in the mountains for several months and training from sunup to sundown. But it was like the boss said- "You have to live and breathe martial arts in order to be a fighter!" Or something like that.
Either way, Hibiki had finally been judged 'good enough', and allowed to return to active duty in Tokyo. Yay! Just in time for the 2nd term of school to start. Not so yay. But now school was done for the day, and Hibiki had ventured down to the harbor district to visit the boardwalk, where there were some arcades she was particularly partial to. And that is where she is currently, as the winter sun begins to creep towards the horizon, walking along with a drink in one hand and her bag over her shoulder, beaming. "Arcade, arcade!" She humms to herself softly. How she had missed the simple things in life.
Tsubasa has been away for a while. This was primarily because she had sung her Swan Song, and the recovery took a while. Slow and careful, Section 2 had helped nurse her back to health. The time it took had frustrated her, but now she's mostly back on her feet. She's still not supposed to be back in action, but...
... she's back on her feet, school is starting up again, and life can return to a semblance of normalcy. She's just passing by on her bike when she notices Hibiki, and comes to a stop alongside the other Candidate. "Tachibana." There's no warmth in the greeting, but no hostility either; it's progress, right? "How are you progressing?
The past several months have been difficult for Miku. Hibiki hadn't been able to really tell her where she'd gone, just "away" for a while. After more than a year of sharing a room with Hibiki, followed by a few short months of insanity in dealing with the Noise, Miku barely had time to get used to thinking of Hibiki as something more than just her best friend and a lazy schoolgirl before she'd left.
Miku's grades slipped just a little in the intervening time, but not enough for her teachers to really notice. Now, though, everything's alright. Hibiki is back, and the world is back to normal.
For whatever value of 'normal' the world can be in when there are creatures running around that can dissintegrate you with a touch, but that's not what scares Miku. A world without Hibiki is what scares her.
Which is why when her friend mentioned a trip to the arcade, Miku was quick to go home, get her homework done, change into something more comfortable, and then rush her way down to Uminari City.
"Hibiki!" Miku calls as she rushes along the sidewalk towards her friend. "Oh! Kazanari-san!" she says when she spots the blue-haired idol. "Hello!"
Hibiki is just walking along, anticipating finally getting that dumb plushie out of that stupid crane machine, when Tsubasa pulls up beside her on her bike. She looks startled for a brief moment, then smiles brightly. "Oh! Tsubasa-san." Her greeting is much warmer than that of the other girl, but she doesn't seem to take any offense at the rather deadpan hello from Tsubasa. "Umm.. well, Gennjuuro-sensei said," and here she drops her voice into a deep impression of the big man, "'You're not as pathetic as you were, so I guess you can go back'!" She laughs. "I guess that's pretty good, coming from him.."
Then Miku runs onto the scene, and Hibiki turns to beam a smile at her as well. "Miku!" She waves her hand in the air until her roommate catches up to her, though it's not like Miku would have missed where she was, and then nods her head rapidly a few times. "Tsubasa-san just happened to be passing by, I guess."
"Kohinata-san." Tsubasa smiles a bit at the more serious girl, "How do you do?" The idol dismounts and just walks with her bike in her hands. "Coming from him, that's a compliment; we'll see if he's right." Tsubasa opens up her bag and pulls out an envelope, handing it to Hibiki.
"Tickets for my next concert. Bring some friends. I had meant to give these at school, but while we're talking." There's five tickets in there, enough for Miki and Hibiki's usual group of friends. "Don't be late." She actually smiles at the last bit, like it's funny to her.
Miku comes to a stop a little uncomfortably close to Hibiki; well within the range of what westerners might call Personal Space, and closer than she needs to be given the number of people nearby. "Tickets!" she exclaims excitedly. "Thank you, Kazanari-san," she says, even though they weren't given to her. Unless things have changed dramatically, surely Hibiki will take her along.
"We were just going to go to the aracde," Miku offers to Tsubasa. "Hibiki is still upset that she hasn't won that stuffed bear, and I was hoping for a milkshake. Would you like to join us?"
Hibiki doesn't seem to mind Miku's closeness- she had missed the other girl too, after all, and she smiles even more brightly when in Miku's presence. She reaches out and takes the envelope from Tsubasa, opening it to peer inside even as Tsubasa explains what it contains.
"Oh, wow!" Hibiki exclaims, despite the fact that as a secret government operative she could probably get into any of Tsubasa's concerts even without tickets. "Thanks, Tsubasa-san!" She hugs the envelope to her chest. "I'd never be late! I love your concerts!" One of those statements, at least, is true.
She nods her head rapidly when Miku invites Tsubasa along to the arcade if she cares to come, her expression shifting to one of fierce determination. "That bear will be mine today! My chi is focused! Uwa!" She briefly falls into a martial arts form, which looks silly in her jeans and casual shirt, before seeming to realize she's no longer training in the mountains, and straightening back up. "Eh heh~."
And Tsubasa doesn't seem to have anything to say about that closeness, taking it in stride. "You're welcome, Kohinata, and I don't mind tagging along." She almost sounds reluctant to admit, but it seems she's trying to get along with Hibiki. "And I'll be looking for you in the audience, Tachibana."
The idol removes her helmet and hangs it from her bike, walking casually in the direction of the arcade. "Have you gotten your armed gear yet?" Tsubasa shifts the topic to something slightly more business-oriented, or tries to anyway.
"Hibikiiii," Miku says with a little sigh of exasperation. "If only you'd take your homework this seriously." Still, she smiles at her friend, then motions towards the arcade.
When Tsubasa changes the subject to their symphogear, though, Miku falls silent. Not 'outsider' silent, but 'observer' silent; she's interested in the topic, even if she doesn't fully understand it.
Once Tsubasa agrees to join them, Hibiki resumes trekking along the boardwalk towards the arcade, which is only a few buildings down from their present location. She stays close by Miku's side as they walk, her steps falling into synch with the darker-haired girl almost automatically. "I /do/ take my homework seriously." She protests, tucking the tickets into her bag. "It's just hard to get so worked up over math problems."
As they enter the arcade, she glances over Miku's head at Tsubasa. "Umm.. well. No, not really." She looks a bit glum as she ponders her inability to get Gungnir to produce an Armed Gear for her. "But I'm much better at punching things than I was before." She clenches her fist. "I won't mess up next time we're called on, I promise!"
Tsubasa stays, perhaps wisely, silent on the topic of Hibiki's commitment to homework. She focuses on the, to her, more important topic of armed gears. "I hope you're right, I know you're serious about this." This isn't said with hostility, or any overt doubt, just a bit of wait and see attitude there.
"What kind of milkshake did you want, Kohinata-san?" The idol asks as they approach the arcade, said a little loud and stilted on purpose, as though to call attention to the fact they're getting closer to a crowd. "I think I'd like one myself."
Miku reaches out to grasp Hibiki's hand, gently, and give it a reassuring squeeze. Even if Tsubasa is skeptical, Miku belives in her friend. She doesn't try to hold onto that hand, though; just moves into the gaming lounge together with her friend and the idol. "Well, they have a lot of really complicated combinations, here," Miku says thoughtfully, "but I think I want a banana split milkshake with strawberries and whipped cream." Miku heads towards the milkshake counter and smiles at Hibiki. "If you want, you can share mine." Or she could just buy one for Hibiki.
Hibiki smiles and squeezes Miku's hand when the other girl grips it, even as she says to Tsubasa, "I am right! I'll prove it to you the very next time we get a mission!" Her orange eyes are filled with determination.
But then she catches sight of the hated crane machine. "There you are! My nemesis!" She cries, in a voice far too loud for an interior public place, before pulling away from Miku to run towards it, calling over her shoulder, "I'll just have some of yours, Miku!" Before dashing up to the machine. "You thought you got away since I wasn't here for a few months," She growls at the inanimate object, "But guess what? I'm stronger now than I've ever been!"
Tsubasa just keeps a very neutral face as Hibiki runs towards the machine, which is doubtlessly rigged. "What kind of milkshake would you recommend?" She parks her bike, gaze on Miki as she talks, "I haven't had any in a while, and I don't normally go for the complicated stuff." She finishes parking, and heads towards Hibiki, to see how the bear decides to fall out of the grasping hand this time.
Miku watches Hibiki run off with a fond expression. "Sometimes I wonder if I should tell her that machine is rigged," she notes quietly to Tsubasa, then smiles beatifically at the idol. "Mmm, if you don't like really complicated milkshakes, you should just go for whatever you like. The double chocolate is really quite tasty, and relatively simple, if you like chocolate. If you're feeling daring you could get it with strawberries, too. Fresh strawberries or bananas go well in chocolate, and won't overcomplicate things."
Miku gets to the counter and orders her own milkshake, along with a large pizza. "You're welcome to have some of the pizza," she suggests to Tsubasa after she's paid for the meal and drink. She glances towards her friend at the claw machine, then sighs in thought. "I hope everything's going to be alright, now. I'm glad you're out of the hospital. She's been trying so hard to do everything herself."
Hibiki's predicably futile first attempts to retrieve the coveted bear are met with the usual yelling and banging as she slams her phone down on the 'touch-to-pay' sensor on the machine and snarls at it the way she wouldn't even do at a Noise threatening her mother. "You'll see! I've been training! You won't beat me today!"
This continues for a good few minutes while Miku orders milkshakes and pizza, alternating banging and yelling which has other patrons of the arcade looking in her direction, although those who are regulars seem more amused at the familiar spectacle than annoyed by it.
"Wouldn't she want to know why you didn't tell her straight away?" Tsubasa asks, though with little apparent concern. The spectacle manages to elicit a slight smile, some degree of amusement. Not that Tsubasa would admit to such a thing. She orders a double chocolate milkshake, "I'll pass on the pizza, I haven't had as much exercise as I'm used to lately and I can't afford to put on weight." The former is no small understament, of course. "From here on, I'll take care of things again."
Miku looks a little embarassed at Hibiki's yelling and screaming. "Hibiki," she calls, "don't yell like that!" Then she sighs and looks to Tsubasa uncertainly. "Mmmm, I'm glad to hear that," she admits honestly. "Come on, let's get a table," she offers, then goes to do just that, finding a place not too far from the machine Hibiki is at to wait for her food and drink. "So do you like to play any video games? I think there are karaoke rooms, in the back, too."
Miku looks over from her battle with the crane machine as Miku chides her, her face heated with exertion, long enough to decry, "It's a battle cry! It's entirely appropriate in times of war!" Then she returns to the machine, slamming her phone down again.. only to have it beep at her in denial.
"W-what? Why?!" She exclaims, turning her phone over and peering at it. "Betrayal! Somebody put a spending limit on my arcade fund!" She fumes, before shaking a fist a the machine. "Fine! You win today, but next time, I won't be defeated!" Then she huffs and turns to stalk over to the table, sliding in hip-to-hip beside Miku and fuming silently in her defeat.
"I don't really play games, but I could do some karaoke." Tsubasa doesn't sound enthusiastic about the idea, but she smiles politely while drinking some of her milkshake. "Tachibana-san. That game is rigged." She just says, outright, as soon as Hibiki comes over, and then just returns to the topic of karaoke. "One rule, I'm not doing any of my songs. If it's supposed to be fun it can't feel like a rehearsal."
Miku grimaces at Tsubasa's open explanation that the game is rigged. She's fairly certian Hibiki will ignore the claim, but she still wishes her friend could be spared the grief of knowing. "I ordered us a pizza, too," she says as she gives Hibiki a brief hug. "And we were talking about going to get one of the karaoke rooms once our food arrives. Do you want to?"
"Of course it's rigged!" Hibiki declares, banging her fist down on the table. "But a true warrior should be able to overcome the odds and achieve victory!" Sounds like she's been spending too much time with Genjuuro-sensei lately. Lukcily, Miku hugs her, which always has a calming effect, and she subsides slightly, leaning into the dark-haired girl and pouting.
But that turns instantly into a smile as the subject of karaoke is brought up. "Sure! I love to sing! I've been out of practice lately. Genjuuro-sensei wouldn't let me use Gungnir while we were training. He said I had to build up the muscles on my own first."
"Take his advice with a grain of salt." Tsubasa places down her empty milkshake, that went quickly, as she turns towards Hibiki to make that recommendation. "He's right about building up strength of your own, but some of the other stuff..." The silence after should speak volumes, and the idol changes the subject. "Pick a song for me, Kohinata-san?"
Miku offers some of her milkshake to Hibiki, then blinks at Tsubasa. "Oh, okay," she says, then leads them all into a Karaoke room along with the pizza. "Uh, how about ... something American. Oh, I know," Miku says, then puts her phone on the machine. It beeps in acceptance of her money, then Miku pushes the buttons to pick a song. She smiles at Tsubasa and moves to take a seat (and a slice) as the song starts up. Taylor Swift: Shake it Off. Because why not.
Hibiki accepts milkshake, slurping it through the straw and maybe taking a little more than is entirely fair considering she didn't pay for it.. but then quickly gets up and follows Miku into the karaoke machine, hopefully before anyone notices her milkshake-filching ways.
Inside the room, she sits next to Miku as her friend chooses the song for Tsubasa to sing, her eyes widening slightly at the choice as she stares in apparent awe at Tsubasa. "Can you sing in English?" Apparently she thinks this is a big deal.
Tsubasa can sing in English, or at least something that's close enough to English to Japanese ears. She's clearly not practiced this particular song, so she substitutes something a little easier for some of the tougher notes, but overall it's about what one would expect from a professional singer. "It's not hard, Tachibana-san, just pay attention in English class and practice." She picks a song next, it's a song by Rev from DVL, Kimi Ga Ite Boku Ga Ita. "Try this one?"
Miku gives Hibiki a faintly disblieving look at her question, but then turns to watch Tsubasa sing. When the song's over, she smiles and claps for the idol. "That was really good," she says, then takes the microphone when the next song comes up. "Oh, I know this one," she says happily, and sings along with the girls in the song readily enough. She's no idol, but there's a reason Miku is in Verone's prestigious music school, and it's not just because her friend is there.
Miku finishes the song, then makes a little uncertain face before she takes her seat next to Hibiki once again. The milkshake is gone, but Miku doesn't mind if Hibiki took most of it. Instead she goes back to the pizza.
"I do pay attention in class." Hibiki pouts, in what is very obviously a bald-faced lie she doesn't even have the good grace to blush over. But she claps along as Tsubasa sings, a smile on her face. This is her idol, after all! It still seems a bit unreal to her to be hanging out with the girl she had followed from afar for several years- its only been a few months since they first met for real, after all.
Then Miku sings, and if anything, Hibiki smiles even more for her! She finds a tamborine somewhere and shakes it along with the song, and when Miku is done she grins. "That was great, Miku!"
Then she gets up and grabs the mic, singing some ridiculous song from a commercial instead of anything real. Hey, at least she has a pretty good voice- she, too, got into a music school, remember. Only when she's done does she put the mic down and retreat to the table for pizza. "I can't /tell/ you guys how great it is to be back in Tokyo." She enthuses, over pizza. "I mean, I love training too, but Im missed.. well.. all of this!" She gestures vaguely around.
Tsubasa doesn't bother to respond to that lie, as a distraction appears in the form of her receiver going off. "An extra rehearsal?" She asks, sounding slightly confused, "Sure, I can do that. I'll be on my way." There's a very subtle sigh as Tsubasa leaves her chair, "Ogawa-san wants me to do an extra rehearsal since I haven't had as much opportunity to lately, and he's right. I'm sorry." She then starts walking away at a brisk pace, "I'll see you later."
Miku tilts her head a little when Tsubasa gets a call. "Mmm, do your best, Kazanari-san!" she calls, standing to see the bluenette off. "We'll see you at the concert!" But then Tsubasa is gone, and Miku sits back in her seat. She lets out a soft sigh, then tursn back to Hibiki. "I'm so glad you're home," she says to her friend, then smiles and goes back to the pizza. Everything is right in Miku's world, again.