Colony Theta in Memories
A training ground exposed under the searing sun, located in front of a Ferronis. Agnian soldiers were practicing their skills. Guns, swords, lance, you name it. The only hammer? Sena she is, practicing alone. Bashing the ground, bashing the air, shockwaves everywhere. "Huh! Hah! Huh! Hah!" She stopped to catch her breathe.
"You gonna hit something or not?" From behind, someone dubiously questioned her.
"Huh?" She turned. Three Agnian soldiers with bullying pose looking down on her.
"What use is swinging that slab, if you ain't gonna swing it at one of the actual targets?"
"But I'm just... practicing..."
The female soldier to the left, from Sena's point of view, cut her off fiendishly, "Say, why a hammer?"
"Uh..."
She didn't even give her the chance to speak, withdrew her dual guns and commented, "This looks more your style." Then, she continued to dance, taking the center of the stage, showing off her skills of flinching the guns and reloading.
"Huh..."
The first guy agreed, "Totally..."
"Right?" Then, they laughed in unison as they leave, leaving Sena feeling down.
"Ah..."
As she was chained in her thoughts, "Whoa!" A group of soldiers from behind was impressed at something. Sena turned to observe what caught their attention. Behind the fence, Mio was battling against a dual-sword soldier wearing his/her helmet. Other soldiers already on the ground him/her, the only one still 'standing'. She dashed towards him/her, and with one slash, sent one of the sword high up into the air.
"Whoa!"
Sena was equally impressed, and saw Mio helped the guy up, someone near her chatting, "Spark me silly... She beat five eighth-termers in a row. Mio, eh? She that off-seer?"
"Yeah. She should be the one heading to the front lines, not us."
Sena turned to look at her hammer; the contrast between being praised and being bullied.
The shocking atmosphere quickly died off as the soldiers rushed off to continued whatever they're going to do. Mio exit the battling ground into the practicing area, walking towards Sena. Sena sensed her approach, wouldn't show herself feeling down, enthusiastically called out as she intercepted her, "Nice one, Mimi! That was awesome. Poor eighth-termers... You mopped the floor with them!" Then, she handed a water bottle to Mio.
"Thank you, Sena."
"Hahaha!"
She scanned the vicinity, "Hang on... Where's Miyabi?"
"Oh, Miyabi? The commander and Consul wanted to see her in Command."
"Oh... OK." The atmosphere suddenly felt cold as Mio probably thought about why they wanted Miyabi for, and she just waited... Mio broke the ice, "Hey, fancy a bite?"
"Mmm... Mmm, sure, I'm a bit peckish."
"It's a bit early, I s'pose."
"Nope! I'm ready if you are!" Then, they walked off into the distance, presumably the canteen.
Sitting on a 2-person table facing each other, they each were having 2 bread, 2 slices of fish on a leaves, and some red soup (carrot? tomato? other ingredients?). Both took the same set of plates.
Mio scanned their plates, "Huh? I was under the impression that you didn't like fish."
"Huh? Ah... That is true... But... Can't be too picky! My muscles need protein, y'know! Hahahah...." She tries to shake off the nervousness, but Mio wasn't convinced, nor was diverted by her recourseful1 tone.
She strictly spoke after a moment of silence, "Hey, Sena...? There's no need for this."
"Huh?"
"Just be yourself. You know you don't have to do what I do, right?"
Nervously shaking her head, "N... no, that's not..."
Then, Mio put one of her hands on her palm, trying to reassure her. Sena looked up and saw her stood up, bent forward on her, "Sena..."
Her tone back to low, "Uh... Sorry."
"C'mon... You say that too often. You've nothing to apologize for, Sena."
"Uh... OK..."
"Eat what you enjoy. Never stop being you, 'Kay?"
"Uhh..." She looked down, don't know what to say, nor promise anything.
Back to the present.
The group slid through a rope connecting the castle to an island, continued to running with Noah and Mio in the lead. Panting furiously, Sena kept her look on Mio while she ran. She recalled how, in their Ouroboros form, she and Mio worked together towards destroying the annihilator. She recalled, how she slammed into the frequency shield, yet not making a dent in the throne room.
The island was brownish, with brown grass mostly, and greener grass up ahead. Brown cliff rocks exposed to wind erosion stood high to the right where the group was facing. Suddenly, Noah stopped, turned to face the Castle, remarked, "I think that should... be far enough." The group followed his glance after they stopped. The Castle still lurked close, though, still gigantic and tall. We could see black smoke rising from one of the part; presumably that's the damage of an exploding annihilator not put out.
Sena self-questioned her past actions, "Did I... do good out there...?"
Lanz overheard her, "Hm? What was that?"
She raised her tone into an uplifting one, to cover anything up, "Huh? What's that? Haha... D-did I say something?"
"Uhh... I mean, you just said something about doing good or whatever?"
"Hah! That's funny, musta just slipped out. Ahahah..." She scratched her head in nervousness. Lanz sensed some story in her that she wasn't willing to share yet. The atmosphere got cold as she don't know how to face him, nor did he laughed it off with her.
Lanz, after a while, commented, "Hmm... You seem so... lonely."
"Huh?"
Recalling from what he saw when they Interlinked, he shared his observations, "At training, in camp, at night..." Others were speaking with each other or other soldiers, even Mio standing beside her spoke to another soldier; only herself, back laid on the fence, arms made a V (both fist joined in front of thigh), looked down, being all alone. "She's always got friends right by her." Another scene, other people sat by a table, Sena sat beside Mio, but they weren't speaking to each other. "But... why's it seem like... she's all alone?"
"Huh..." She gasped.
"How come?"
Her breath was unsteady, "So that's the way you see me, huh? A loner."
"Sena..."
She tried to kept her uplifting tone, even by force, "I was hoping more... 'Plucky heroine girl', or 'one-track musclehead'. That's more what I kinda shoot for..."
"Now, look..."
"Oh, no, you don't. I think you're just being nosy!" Her tone getting more reverberating, compressing her urge to cry behind her 'happiness'.
"Sena... Please..."
"I'm fine! Really. Don't worry about me." That halts the conversation.
Still at the same place, but zooming out to a group conversation at a later time,
Eunie: "...Can you believe we've just had to run all that way?"
Taion: "I don't know who they were, but had that force not intervened... I shudder to think what would have happened."
"What would have happened was, it would have been curtains for us."
"Usually a strategy is something you're supposed to prepare beforehand."
Noah kept quiet, lost in his thought for the moment, until Lanz turned to wake him up, "Noah?" After he turned his attention to him, Lanz continued, "I guess we have no more use for Castles and Queens, huh."
Eunie added, "We're not going back, I know that much."
Mio concur, "Nope, we're going forward now."
Noah: "...You're right." They turned their attention to the other direction, the great sword pierced nearer than ever before; though, they still have some distance to cross. The small hill made a bridge on top of the valley they were about to cross. "Not far now before we reach Swordmarch. Let's go."
Footnotes:
1: The translator invented the word, probably (at least it's not in standard dictionary): meaning 'full of recourse'.