"Who the hell is it this time? It's early in the damn morning and you're banging on my door." Early in the morning, Tohka was woken up by the knocking sound. Annoyed, she got dressed and opened her room door. As she expected, a certain blue-haired youth was standing there waiting for her.
"Ah, um, did you forget? Yesterday I told you we were going out today." Seeing Tohka puffing out her cheeks in irritation at being woken, Shido could only give an awkward smile and explain.
"Oh, I remember." Hearing Shido's words, Tohka thought about it and indeed recalled he'd mentioned it yesterday. Besides, even if he hadn't, she'd probably have gone anyway just to watch the show. After all, watching a spectacle was human nature—Tohka was no exception. Especially with such a great opportunity to watch for free, she absolutely wouldn't pass it up.
"You go on ahead. I'll catch up in a bit." But since she'd just gotten up, Tohka wasn't in any rush. After casually sending Shido off, she went back to her room to get ready. Though unlike other girls she didn't need hours to dress up, her long hair was still a hassle, so even she needed some time to tidy up.
"Ah, then I'll go first." Glancing at the closed door, Shido thought about the fact that Tohka could fly, so he didn't object. He simply left her room and went downstairs.
"Sigh, looks like there's going to be a fight again." Watching the car slowly pulling away through the window, Tohka nearly smacked herself. She suddenly remembered the water park wasn't far from the place she and her inverse self-had played. Why hadn't she dragged her inverse self over there to join in? That would have been the perfect chance to enjoy some eye candy. Besides, her inverse self was way more uninhibited—if she'd taken her to the amusement park, she probably would have chosen a skimpy bikini without hesitation.
"Oh well, a bit of a shame...but a water park, tsk tsk, sounds pretty good." Just thinking about all the girls in swimsuits, Tohka promptly forgot all about regretting not bringing her inverse self along. She was also conveniently ignoring one important fact—no matter what she wore, she'd be providing eye candy herself.
Thump. While the car was driving smoothly, everyone suddenly heard the sound of something heavy hitting the roof. Then they saw Tohka, wearing her armor, crouching down from the top of the car, and opening the car door. After that, she canceled her entire set of equipment.
"Tsk tsk, does that armor of yours never need maintenance?" Watching her armor vanish, Kotori couldn't help commenting again. She'd watched the replay of Tohka's battle with Kurumi and was especially amazed by Tohka's last dodge to narrowly avoid the bullets. All their experts were extremely curious about Tohka's armor—her moves had been nothing short of spectacular.
"Tch, don't even think about targeting my armor. This is my family company's core technology. You can forget it." One had to admit, Tony's armor was really reliable—so far, it had functioned without a hitch.
"Family company?" Back when Tohka first mentioned that, Kotori hadn't believed her, but seeing this armor now, she had to admit it probably did come from a major corporation. And that company had to be extremely powerful—at least on par with DEM Corporation or their own. But she'd looked into it and found no record of any such company in this world.
"Tch, I'm not telling you, so what?" Tohka stuck out her tongue. She definitely wasn't going to reveal anything. Besides herself, the only person who knew the origin of this armor was Miku. And she'd already told Miku not to blab about it.
"Fine, fine. Just how many secrets are you hiding?" Tohka was so mysterious that Kotori had given up trying to guess. As long as she didn't interfere with their plans, Kotori couldn't be bothered to pry.
"Alright, alright, we came out to have fun. We can talk about this later. We're almost there, by the way." Watching Tohka and Kotori argue, Shido could only play mediator. He really didn't care about any of this—so long as there was no trouble, he was fine.
"Sigh, fine, maybe I'll let you see it someday." Hearing Shido's words, Tohka sighed helplessly. All she could do was throw out a vague promise. Of course, it was probably never going to happen.
"Alright then, I'd like to see." Kotori seemed to believe her, making Tohka's mouth twitch—if she dared bring a whole group back, things would explode instantly.
"Alright, we're here. You guys go on ahead—I'm heading back." At that moment, Reine stopped the car at the water park entrance and spoke to the group. Since Kotori wouldn't be there, someone still needed to watch over headquarters.
"Whatever, I'm leaving first." Glancing at them, Tohka got out as soon as the car stopped. She had no interest in lingering here to bicker.
"Uh, I think I forgot something important." But when she stepped into the changing room, she nearly coughed up blood. What the hell was this? She'd been knocked out by her inverse self-last time, so to avoid doing anything embarrassing, she dashed to the corner to change as quickly as possible. Luckily, this time nobody intentionally provoked her, so she didn't do anything weird. Well—aside from the bit of nosebleed she discreetly wiped away and her slightly flushed face.
"Um, Tohka, are you alright? Your face is really red...are you okay?" In the pool, Yoshino glanced over at Tohka lying on a lounge chair.
"It's nothing. I just...got a little startled." Tohka sighed, glancing at the puppet in Yoshino's hand. Bored, she looked around and realized Shido and Kotori had both vanished after showing up at the start.
"Looks like Origami will be coming too...fine, I'd better go get ready." Muttering to herself, Tohka decided to leave. There were plenty of girls around, but after the shock she'd had earlier, she really wasn't in the mood to keep watching.