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That day, I came to the Sisterhood’s cathedral because I had a meeting with Sakurako. In the cathedral, I saw the Arius students who were being rehabilitated and integrated into Trinity. However, there was an unexpected face accompanying the rehabilitation.
Sensei: Suzumi?
Suzumi: H-huh? Sensei? What are you doing here?
Sensei: I’m here to meet with Sakurako. What about you?
Suzumi: Oh, uh, I’m volunteering to help rehabilitation of Arius students.
Sensei: You’re not going on patrol?
Suzumi: Ah, I already did my patrol today.
Suzumi’s choice to volunteer in helping the Arius students made me somewhat curious about something I remember seeing. Her gun used to have the motto of Arius emblazoned on it. Did she have some sort of connection to Arius?
Sensei: Suzumi, do you have some sort of past involving Arius?
Suzumi: Eh?! Um…
Suzumi: Sorry, Sensei… It’s a bit personal…
Sensei: Ah, I’m sorry for asking. If it’s too personal, I won’t probe about it.
Suzumi: Oh, no. I don’t actually mind talking about it with you.
Suzumi: However, because it’s sensitive, I’d rather talk about it somewhere private.
Suzumi: Are you available later in the evening? We can talk about this later.
Sensei: Sure. Let’s meet up later.
-----
Inside a karaoke room in Trinity
Suzumi: So, Sensei…
Suzumi: As you may have guessed, I originally hailed from Arius.
Sensei: Is that why you’re helping the rehabilitation of the Arius students?
Suzumi: Yes, that’s correct.
Sensei: How did you get to Trinity if you were originally from Arius?
Suzumi: It’s a very long story.
Suzumi: I don’t mind telling you from beginning to end, but I don’t want to interrupt your schedule. Do you have anything planned after this?
Sensei: Actually, yes, I do. Let’s schedule a meeting for next time.
Suzumi: I’m available most of the time, so just tell me when you’d like to meet.
Sensei: Actually, do you mind if I invite others to the meeting too?
Suzumi: O-others?
Sensei: Well, only if you don’t mind.
Sensei: They are former students of Arius and they might be interested in your story.
Suzumi: Oh, then in that case, sure.
-----
Somewhere in the outskirts of Trinity
Saori: Good evening, Sensei. You’re right on time.
Sensei: Sorry, Saori. Have you been waiting long?
Saori: No, I arrived just a few minutes ago.
Saori: So, where are we meeting her? This Arius student turned Trinity student?
Sensei: We’re going to go to the Make Up Work Club’s annex. Azusa and her club has the entire building to themselves, so it’d be the perfect place to talk about this matter.
Saori: Alright. Please lead the way, Sensei.
-----
Make-Up Work Club’s annex bedroom
Koharu: Zzz…
Azusa: Koharu, wake up! We need to get ready. Sensei, Saori, and Suzumi are about to arrive soon.
Hanako: I think it’s no use trying to wake her up. She’s fast asleep.
Hifumi: You guys should go on ahead to meet with Sensei and Saori. I’ll stay behind with Koharu.
Azusa: You’re not coming with us?
Hifumi: I don’t really think I should be part of the conversation, especially since the topic doesn’t involve me.
Hifumi: I don’t feel right leaving Koharu alone either…
Hanako: Hifumi…
Azusa: Understood. Let’s be off, Hanako.
-----
Make-Up Work Club’s annex foyer
Suzumi: Good evening, everyone. Sorry for coming in late. I needed to avoid the curfew enforcers.
Sensei: That’s not a problem. I’m sorry for asking you to this late meeting in the first place.
Sensei: Wait, where’s Hifumi and Koharu?
Azusa: Koharu fell asleep before the meeting time and we couldn’t wake her up.
Azusa: Hifumi stayed behind to keep Koharu company, so only 2 of us came.
Hanako: Furthermore, Hifumi said that she doesn’t feel right being part of the conversation when she has nothing to do with the topic.
Hanako: Well, perhaps I shouldn’t be part of this conversation either.
Suzumi: It’s fine. I don’t mind disclosing it with a couple of unrelated people, but I ask that you keep it a secret.
Saori: But to think there was an Arius student in Trinity besides Azusa and the rehabilitated students…
Azusa: I don’t fully believe it yet. I’d like to listen to your story first.
Suzumi: It’s understandable if you don’t. I don’t have anything in common with other girls from Arius.
Suzumi: But if you listen to my story, I’m sure you’ll believe me.
Suzumi: Provided you’re willing to listen to my story from beginning to finish. It’s a pretty lengthy one.
Saori: I emptied my schedule for tonight, so I’m willing to listen until the end.
Azusa: Same here. I’d like to know if you’re telling the truth, and if you are, how you escaped Arius.
Hanako: Please leave no details out.
Suzumi: I certainly won’t. I think you’ll believe me more if I tell you everything.
Suzumi: Oh, but before I begin, I’d like to clarify this first and foremost. Arius students under the Sisterhood’s care have mentioned of this madame which was your school’s headmistress…
Suzumi: I don’t know who this madam is.
Azusa: What?!
Saori: How can that be?!
Sensei: Beatrice took control of Arius after the Arius civil war. That means you left before the civil war.
Suzumi: To be more precise, I left near the end of the civil war, before she took total control of the school.
Suzumi: Well, I presume I did. I didn’t see the war to the end.
Hanako: Suzumi, were you involved in the war somehow?
Suzumi: Yes, I was a conscripted soldier of the Cyril faction.
Everyone: …!
Azusa: The civil war was so long ago…
Saori: You were conscripted at such a young age?
Suzumi: Yes, that’s right. I was conscripted when I was at my last year of elementary school.
Suzumi: Back then when I still had 2 wings on my head, I was a poor and starving vagrant. I sometimes went a few days without eating anything.
Suzumi: But the civil war was brewing and the Cyril faction was militarily weak. It was the reason why I was conscripted.
Saori: I still remember those times. Every faction was scrambling for soldiers.
Hanako: But still… They were willing to conscript young students? Someone still in elementary school too!
Suzumi: Personally, it wasn’t such a bad thing. In fact, I’d say my time as a conscript before the war began was the happiest I was in Arius.
Suzumi: Certainly, training can be hard, but I had food to eat and somewhere warm to sleep. It was much better than scraping by in the street.
Suzumi: Unfortunately, the war followed, and I was sent to fight at the front. I was in middle school when the war began.
Suzumi: The first few months of the war went well. My unit, composed entirely of newly recruited conscripts before the war, successfully won battle after battle.
Suzumi: However, at the third month of the war, my unit was ambushed. I was taken captive alongside the other members of the unit by the Acacius faction.
Azusa: Sensei, Hanako, Acacius faction is the faction madam took over before the war. It would be the faction that would eventually win the civil war.
Suzumi: Yes, they were the faction that became the primary enemy of the Cyril faction, or maybe just about everyone due to their overwhelming power.
Suzumi: They were relatively weak at the beginning of the war, but they suddenly became much more powerful sometime along the way.
Saori: Madame took over the faction not long before the war began, so perhaps they still needed time to strengthen themselves.
Suzumi: That would make sense. Becoming powerful overnight would have been impossible.
Suzumi: Moving on, the treatment I experienced in the prisoner of war camp was terrible. I was often beaten and starved.
Suzumi: Remember when I mentioned I had 2 head wings? I lost my right head wing during my time there, because I refused to help torture a fellow prisoner.
Hanako: You would be punished for refusing to help torture someone?!
Azusa: It’s a method madam frequently employs. Having friends torture one another. That would really break people’s spirit.
Saori: I wouldn’t be surprised if you were given such a treatment too. Madam would torment dissenters and deserters very harshly. She even encouraged fellow students to be just as cruel.
Hanako: Still, to break someone’s wing just because they refuse to torture a friend…
Sensei: And to a middle schooler too!
Suzumi: It’s okay. It was a long time ago, and I don’t really think about it anymore. I’ve accepted that I would only have my left head wing for the rest of my life.
Sensei: Pause for a minute. Now I wonder about something.
Sensei: Azusa, Saori, did you by any chance also help torture a friend?
Azusa and Saori: …
Hanako: Sensei… Perhaps it’s best not to ask such a question…
Sensei: Yeah, that was insensitive of me. My apologies.
Azusa: The answer to your question is yes. I have done that.
Saori: I don’t think I need to say anything for you to know the answer.
Sensei and Hanako: !!!
Azusa: Sensei, have your perception of us changed?
Sensei: Yes, but not in a bad way. I don’t think you had a choice, did you?
Azusa: Perhaps we did, but it would come at a terrible cost…
Saori: I’m sorry, but could we move on from this topic? It’s… bringing memories again…
Hanako: Right, then Suzumi, please continue the story.
Suzumi: Where did we left off? Ah, right, the prison camp.
Suzumi: It was during my time in the prison camp that I met Setsuna. She became a friend that would remain until I left Arius.
Suzumi: Whenever I was punished, she would come comfort me, even if it meant she had to endure punishment too.
Suzumi: Well, she was quite impulsive and maybe a bit out of it, but she was also a great motivator.
Suzumi: It was with her speech that we managed to mobilize the other prisoners and stage a riot in the prison camp.
Saori: You managed to overpower the guards?
Suzumi: Yeah, the plan was a little slapdash, but it worked. We took control of the prison and held the guards captive. I think that was at the fifth month of the war.
Suzumi: It was during this uprising that I got this gun, the one that would become my personal weapon. I stole it from a guard and kept it ever since.
Suzumi: This gun used to have the phrase “vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas” engraved on it. I painted over it not too long ago. I never really understood its meaning.
Saori: That’s the motto of Arius after madam took over. It means vanities of vanity, everything is vanity.
Azusa: The motto was drilled into our head. Madam made many of us believe that life is empty and meaningless…
Suzumi: I see, so it was a motto meant to induce despair and obedience…
Hanako: Continuing on, what happened after the prison riot?
Suzumi: The Acacius faction sent reinforcements and the riot was quelled. I left with Setsuna before they arrived, so I wasn’t recaptured.
Azusa: Were you two the only ones who escaped?
Suzumi: Probably not. Setsuna and I simply happen to be from the same faction, so we escaped together. The others might have run before reinforcements came, but I wouldn’t know if they did.
Suzumi: After Setsuna and I returned to the Cyril faction, our injuries were treated, and then we were put in another unit. This new unit would be fully composed of veterans.
Suzumi: We would continue to fight for the Cyril faction for quite a while. It was around this time I picked up my trademark tool of combat, the flash grenade.
Suzumi: The flash grenade was a very effective weapon I used during the war. I used it to stun enemies. On some occasions, I even knocked out clusters of enemy soldiers with it.
Sensei: Ah, so it became your favorite weapon?
Suzumi: Yes, it’s like a memento to me. I was taught how to use them by the unit commander, Lieutenant Ohana. The other students, particularly Setsuna, praised me for my adept use of it.
Suzumi: But learning a new skill didn’t change the tides of the war. We were losing, slowly but surely.
Azusa: The Cyril faction lasted way longer than they should. For a relatively small faction, you lasted longer than even the bigger factions.
Suzumi: I suppose the higher ups did the right thing by starting conscription and training early. They forecasted the war would be a difficult one.
Suzumi: But it didn’t do enough to change the outcome. The Acacius faction was too strong. My unit was considered one of the more elite ones, and we still had difficulty against them.
Suzumi: We lost our fellow comrades week by week. They would be knocked out and then taken captive, or incapacitated that they couldn’t fight for a few weeks.
Suzumi: It became especially desperate at the seventh month of the war. We spent most of our missions from that point onward to infiltrate enemy lines to raid prison camps and free our comrades.
Saori: If memory serves me right, most factions were already defeated by the seventh month, so pressure must have mounted on your faction.
Suzumi: That would explain the why the enemy became much more aggressive. They could focus their entire might on us.
Suzumi: Still, we continued to fight despite the odds.
Azusa: Did you consider deserting?
Suzumi: We joked about it a lot, but we wouldn’t be serious about it.
Suzumi: Lieutenant Ohana was fiercely loyal to the cause. If any of us tried to desert, she’d catch us and drag us back to the unit to punish us personally.
Suzumi: Oh, but please don’t think she’s a bad person. She’s definitely stern, but she has a soft spot too. She often procured chocolate and candies for us to eat, even if she got complains about it later.
Azusa: You had chocolates and candies to eat?!
Suzumi: Yes, I did. Why do you sound so surprised?
Azusa: They are luxury goods! How could you have them in the middle of the war?
Saori: We were very poor too. Where did those sweets come from?
Suzumi: Well, the Cyril faction had a wealth of resources stocked up before the war started. Some students in the faction weren’t as poor as the average Arius student too.
Hanako: Is Ohana one of the better-off students?
Suzumi: Yes, that’s why she can get away with siphoning supplies. The higher-ups couldn’t just discard her.
Suzumi: Her background is also the reason she’s very loyal to the Cyril faction. The faction is basically her home.
Suzumi: However, that same loyalty meant she was hit the hardest when the final hammer drops on the eight month of the war.
Suzumi: That month, we lost contact with our headquarter. We later found out the enemy had occupied it.
Saori: That must be Operation Flash Point. It was a daring attack to take out all enemy headquarters in one fell swoop. It succeeded very well.
Suzumi: Yes… That was when we knew the war is over. The chain of command was paralyzed. We lost contact with other units too, because headquarter acted as our communication hub.
Suzumi: Additionally, all the supplies we stored at our headquarter was essentially lost. We were truly demoralized, with Lieutenant Ohana declaring herself unfit to lead due to depression.
Hanako: Did discipline and order break down?
Suzumi: No, even with the Lieutenant Ohana absent, we didn’t lose discipline.
Suzumi: Though, I can’t say the same with other units. Our unit was fully composed of veterans, so…
Sensei: What did you do afterwards?
Suzumi: We debated about what to do. The choice came down to either surrendering or fighting to the bitter end.
Hanako: You’d go on to fight a hopeless war?
Suzumi: Well, it seemed better to do that. If we were taken captive, we would be tortured. My missing head wing is proof of that. Surrender could give us leniency, but many of us doubted it.
Saori: …You wouldn’t have been granted any leniency. Madame is far from merciful.
Azusa: Yes, fighting until your last breath would be preferable.
Hanako: To confirm, you are not exaggerating, are you?
Azusa: We are not. We experienced her abuse firsthand.
Suzumi: And Sensei, please calm down. I can see your anger without looking at you.
Hanako: Sensei?
Sensei: Sorry, everyone. I got a bit riled up after what Suzumi said. Please continue.
Suzumi: We spent a day or two discussing what we should do. We couldn’t agree on what to do, until Lieutenant Ohana recovered and returned to command.
Suzumi: Lieutenant Ohana suggested we all run away from Arius, since fighting or surrendering would both be painful.
Suzumi: It’s a decision we unanimously agreed on. None of us wanted to be involved in the war any further, so our unit moved to leave Arius’ underground district.
Sensei: So you escaped with your entire unit?
Suzumi: No, I imagine very few made it out. We encountered an enemy unit when we tried to leave the Arius district.
Suzumi: I suspect that it was an ambush, as the enemy fired at us first and acted fast. We didn’t have much time to organize ourselves.
Saori: Towards the end of the war, madam would post units to the Arius district’s borders to prevent any escape attempt. You must have encountered one such unit.
Suzumi: I see. So the enemy has already expected us to flee.
Suzumi: That battle was the last time I saw Lieutenant Ohana. She issued her last order to us. The injured and the young students must escape. The senior students who could still fight would be the rear guard.
Suzumi: Lieutenant Ohana chose to stay behind and command the rear guard.
Azusa: Was there any hope for the lieutenant and the rest of the rear guard to escape?
Suzumi: No, there was not. We were undersupplied and exhausted. Even if we outnumber the enemy unit, it was still unlikely for us to win.
Suzumi: However, the lieutenant had been a great leader to all of us during the war, so we obeyed her last order. I was part of the escape group.
Suzumi: We ran away as fast as we could, but we encountered another enemy unit soon after.
Saori: Another one? Were they enemy reinforcements?
Suzumi: I don’t know, but I would assume so. The escape group only had the injured and the young, so we couldn’t put up a proper resistance.
Suzumi: We scattered and ran in every direction. I found myself running with my close friend Setsuna.
Suzumi: However, the enemy pursued us. They were moving faster than 2 injured girls can.
Suzumi: Setsuna and I eventually realized someone had to be a decoy if we want any hope of escaping.
Hanako: Setsuna ended up being the decoy?
Suzumi: Yes, that’s how it turned out.
Saori: What do you mean by that?
Suzumi: Well, we decided to make it fair. We set up a distraction with my flashbang. Once the flashbang goes off, we would both run off in different directions.
Suzumi: If one of us was chased or captured, the other would keep running, so that at least one of us would be able to get away.
Suzumi: When the distraction went off, I ran, but I looked behind to see if the enemy chased me.
Suzumi: They didn’t. They went in the direction Setsuna went.
Suzumi: At that moment, I hesitated to leave by myself. Setsuna and I had been close friends ever since we broke out of prison together. Part of me wanted to run back and help her.
Suzumi: But in the end, I got cold feet. I didn’t want to be captured and end up being tortured again, so I chose to ditch my friend.
Suzumi: That’s how I escaped Arius, by leaving behind my friends and comrades.
Hanako: Then, how did you end up in Trinity?
Suzumi: My first night outside of Arius, I took refuge in an abandoned building in the outskirts of Trinity.
Suzumi: That same night, the Justice Task Force raided the place. A local thug had kidnapped a Trinity student.
Suzumi: I happened to be in the same area, so I was mistakenly taken in, but I was let go after they realized I was uninvolved.
Suzumi: I was dropped off at a Trinity hospital so that my injuries from the war could be treated. I stayed there for weeks.
Azusa: Your injuries must have attracted a lot of attention.
Suzumi: It did. Many hospital staff and patients asked about it.
Suzumi: I was afraid they’d treat me badly if I admitted I was from Arius, so I lied to them. I told them I came from the countryside, that I was robbed when I came to the city, effectively becoming penniless and homeless.
Suzumi: I think I sold the story too hard, because some of them actually cried as I told my story.
Suzumi: They sympathized so much, some patients and staff offered to help me enroll in Trinity.
Suzumi: Well, the part about being penniless and homeless is certainly true and I don’t have anyone to turn to either, so I accepted their offer.
Suzumi: A few weeks later, I officially became a student of Trinity’s middle school. I’m not quite sure how they managed to get me into the school, since I didn’t have any papers, but they did.
Suzumi: That’s how I left my home district Arius, and became a student of Trinity.
Sensei: What a story.
Saori: I was not expecting that anyone got away from madam’s clutch.
Hanako: Why don’t you think so? If she is as bad as you’ve described her, surely dissatisfaction would make revolt inevitable, right?
Azusa: Many students have tried rebelling or escaping. Every attempt had been crushed.
Azusa: It’s the reason why I chose to defect when I was sent to Trinity as a mole. I knew I had a chance if I defected while I’m in Trinity.
Suzumi: I see. That must be why you couldn't believe I was from Arius. You thought I had escaped while this madam of yours was still in control of Arius.
Saori: Indeed. I was under the impression you escaped after madam took control, but you left before madame fully grasped Arius.
Saori: In hindsight, I should have brought princess and the others out of Arius the moment the civil war was brewing. Staying at Arius only brought about suffering and hate to us.
Sensei: There was no way for you to know at that time how bad things would become. Don’t blame yourself over it.
Suzumi: And if you had left, where would you have gone? What would you do? I left because I had no choice to stay and I entered Trinity by sheer luck.
Saori: …You’re right. Even if we had left, there was no guarantee we’d be better off.
Azusa: Suzumi, why did you join the Vigilante Crew? You experienced the war, but you signed up for more fighting. Do you like fighting so much?
Suzumi: No, that’s not the case. I felt a little bad that I joined Trinity and was being provided for without doing anything, so I joined the Vigilante Crew to help keep the peace in Trinity.
Suzumi: I conveniently had some training, so combat isn’t a problem for me.
Sensei: Hm, then why didn’t you sign up for the Justice Task Force?
Suzumi: I was afraid that my past as a former Arius student may come to light with a background check, so I steered clear of official clubs.
Hanako: The Justice Task Force doesn’t check that deep. They only check whether you have a record.
Suzumi: It’s a bit too late at this point. I’ve been part of Vigilante Crew for a very long time now.
Suzumi: Besides, I have more free time as a member of the Vigilante Crew. I have time to do volunteer work helping Arius students' rehabilitation.
Hanako: Then, Suzumi, can you please tell me the names of your squad members? Who else are there besides Ohana and Setsuna?
Suzumi: Um, what would you need their names for?
Hanako: I’m going to look through the name of Arius students under Sisterhood’s care. I want to help you reunite with your former comrades.
Suzumi: There’s no need for that. If we do reunite, it will just end up being awkward.
Suzumi: I wouldn’t know what to say to them, and we won’t recognize each other after so long.
Hanako: But still, wouldn’t you want to know what happened to them? Their fates?
Hanako: It’s part of the reason you’re volunteering to help the Sisterhood rehabilitate the Arius students, isn’t it?
Suzumi: …
Suzumi: It’s getting late. I should return to the dorms.
Sensei: Right, it’s past midnight by this point. We should all return home.
Azusa: Then how about staying at the annex? We have some spare rooms you could use.
Suzumi: I’m afraid I can’t do that. I might get in trouble if I don’t return all night.
Saori: I have to decline too. Sneaking out of Trinity will be easier in the evening than on daytime, so I must leave while it’s still dark.
Hanako: That’s a shame. How about you, Sensei?
Sensei: I’ll take the offer. I don’t feel like making my way back to Schale so late in the evening.
Suzumi: Well then, goodbye. Let’s meet again some other time.
Saori: Yes, let’s do that, sometime in the future. For now, goodbye.
…
Azusa: There they go…
Sensei: Hanako, I’d like to ask you something.
Hanako: Yes, Sensei?
Sensei: I was just wondering, surprisingly, you are nothing like you usually are. No teasing, no double entendre, nothing. What happened?
Hanako: Ah, Sensei, you see…
Hanako: I felt that it would be inappropriate for me to make such jokes, especially when we’re talking about things that may involve trauma.
Sensei: Even though you gave Nagisa trauma with your teasing?
Hanako: That wasn’t intentional…