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Hitori and her friends were out of band life. It's been a long time since their last gig. They decided they couldn't get anywhere, even if they tried with it. But what better way is it to spend your time with-
"Lets enlist in the military!" Kita suggests, completely oblivious to the horrors of war.
"WHAT?! Where would you even get an idea like this? Lets think this out first." Nijika replies, obviously panicked at what could possibly happen next.
"the military does pay some quite well though." Ryo calmly states, out of nowhere.
"Yeah, only if you do that for a while!" Nijika tells Ryo.
Meanwhile this nonsense is going on, Hitori is panicking, overhearing the conversation, she's scared of having to speak to a recruiter and deal with a Drill Instructor or Sergeant yelling at her during bootcamp.
As the group continues to argue about joining the military, they come to an ultimatum.
"Well..if you guys wont sign up with me, then I'll have Hitori-Chan with me, right? Kita declares, worried Bocchi is gonna disagree.
"Uh-eh..yes!" Hitori blurts out quite frantically.
"Thats great, I'll be with you no matter what, okay? Don't even worry, Hitori-Chan!" Kita says reassuringly, seeing Hitori losing it.
"Hey, maybe me and Ryou will sign up too! It's gonna get quite lonely again you know?!" Nijika said.
"sure...but what about the manager?" Ryo asks Nijika.
"Wait..I completely forgot about my sister!" Nijika panics, and runs to her sister.
"Big sis! I have a new surprise for you!"
"Surprise? I didn't know you'd be doing that. What is it?"
Nijika takes out her phone, and shows Seika a recruitment ad.
"What is this supposed to be, don't tell m-"
"We're signing up for the military!"
"Do you even kn-"
"Okay, bye sis!"
Nijika runs back to the band, who are just speaking with each other for now.
"It's decided, we are enlisting!" Nijika announces to the band
"really? well i guess we can pay for new things?" Ryo asks, with a little spark in her eye.
"Who told you that?! Only if we work for longer, maybe."
"Well, I guess we'll go as a band!" Kita says happily
"U-uhm..I also heard that the army has a program..where they can put us in the same group.." Hitori murmurs
"That's great..! How do we do that though?" Kita gets happier at the thought of this, meaning the band is still in place
"We visit the recruiter...and tell them we are enlisting together"
"That's it?"
"Yes.."
Kita looks at everybody
"Let's go guys!"
"You know a place?" Nijika asks
"Yeah..follow me!"
The band walks around for what seems like a while. And they make it to the recruiter, they speak to him, and out of sheer luck, they pass the physical test.
After a few weeks of waiting, The band gets a notice, saying they will go through basic training tomorrow.
"I guess this really is real huh?" Kita says to everyone in the band.
As they wait, the nervousness in them grew, with Hitori having the most out of them all, having a hard time explaining to her little sister, who was quite surprised. But time won't stop for anyone, so the day then came.
After what felt like forever, they finally finished basic training, their advanced / specialized training, and graduated.
The band goes to STARRY live house before anything else. They take a look at their instruments, and at eachother.
"Lets go for a practice run?" Nijika asks the band.
Everybody picks up their instruments, which has collected a bit of dust, it's been three months since then. They hope they still remember how to play.
They play their song "Guitar, Loneliness, and Blue Planet", one of the most popular songs they have, and their playing is a bit...off?
"Gah! It's no good..We forgot how to play already?!" Kita uttered with a bit of annoyance in her voice
"it looks like we have to learn it again huh?" Ryo stated with a hint of sarcasm in her tone
"That's not good!" Kita replies
"well, we are in the army after all, and we don't have anything coming up"
"I really hope you're right about this one."
They continue practicing, and days turn into weeks, until they suddenly get notified that they are getting deployed for patrol in Kandahar.
---
January 11, 2020, Southern Kandahar Province
Hitori, Kita, Nijika, and Ryo are on their way to the city of Kandahar.
As the convoy moves forward, they get ambushed by local insurgents in a remote area on the road, along with the rest of their squad.
"Contact!" The squad leader yells.
The squad gets into firing positions, trying to identify where the threat is coming from, and suddenly, Hitori was shot in the leg.
"We have a casualty!" Kita shouts, terrified at the situation.
As the firefight continues, Hitori is being treated by the combat medic, Kita is there beside her while she's fighting.
Kita looks at Hitori, with a small reassuring smile.
"I'm gonna put something on you, this will hurt a little, okay?" The combat medic tells her.
Hitori's face turns pale, expecting the worst, as she looks down, her guess was right, and saw the tourniquet on her leg.
The tourniquet was applied on her leg and she starts screaming frantically, having the band be thrown off a little by Hitori's yelling, while the rest of the squad is focused.
Another member of the squad is shot, but this time it was fatal, and he died on the spot, traumatizing most of the members.
"Jerry is KIA!" The leader of the other fireteam yells out.
"Get him later! We need to get the Taliban first!"
Nijika looks at the situation, shocked, while Ryo doesn't pay attention, focused on the insurgents.
"nijika, can you shoot at them for me? im gonna try something." Ryo asks Nijika
"Okay..just do NOT die..please?"
"i got this, dont worry"
Ryo, along with 2 other soldiers advance closer, taking cover at a rock.
"frag out" Ryo says, while throwing a grenade at the enemy foxhole.
The insurgents jump out of cover, and Nijika, the automatic rifleman for the fireteam, starts reloading as the other members fire at the hostiles.
The enemies are killed, and they go back to the convoy, while the band is pondering on how to treat Hitori's injury.
"Hitori-Chan..are you okay?!" Kita looks at Bocchi, quite terrified.
Bocchi reaches out a hand to her leg
"It hurts. Please make it stop.." Hitori muttered, hoping that she would be heard.
"Don't worry...it'll be over soon" Kita said to her, not knowing that this could be taken out of context, and misunderstood.
"Wait, I don't wanna die yet!!" Hitori said, she clearly misunderstood
"That's not what I mea-" Kita gets cut off
"Please tell me I'm gonna make it out alive!! Please!" Hitori cries out.
"Geez, stop it with your yelling, they're gonna bandage you." Nijika tells her.
"Yep, she's right. We're only gonna bandage you." The combat medic says.
"O-oh... okay then."
Hitori is then bandaged up, and she tries walking, but she instantly falls over.
"C-can someone..carry me?" Hitori asks
Kita, willing to do anything to save, or help Hitori, decides to volunteer.
"I will do it! I'm gonna be helping you!" Kita tells Hitori
Kita helps Hitori get on her feet, stabilizing her balance, leaning on Kita.
"You got this! Just remember, I'm always here for you, okay?" Kita gives her a warm, reassuring smile.
Hitori calms down a little, with a small smile back at Kita.
"Come on now, let's get you back in the car." Kita tells her.
Kita helps Hitori sit back down in the humvee. Kita sits next to her, to assist her if she ever needs anything.
The other fireteam carries their dead Grenadier, Jerry into the vehicle with them.
The squad makes it to Kandahar, with one less soldier, and one injured.
Their way to Kandahar was way more fatal than their actual objective, only having to do community service and other usual work, before going back home, with Jerry, who is dead, was cremated and sent to their family.
They're very fortunate not have encountered an IED.
---
April 14, 2020
The band goes back to the live house, they were lucky to have been withdrawn earlier. They look horrified from what they have witnessed and experienced as well.
Kita and Hitori are not present in the live house for some reason. Nijika and Ryo disregard this for now.
"Big Sis, we made it alive..." Nijika tells Seika
Seika's eyes light up, but she quickly hides it
"Oh really? I'm surprised you guys even made it. Congratulations, then."
"Kind of mean...but you're right! Thank you!"
"anyway..we made some money, let's go spend it?"
"Already?! Maybe sure..but let's not blow it all okay?
"One more thing, where did Bocchi and Kita go?" Seika asked Nijika.
"Oh, I almost forgot! I needed to know as well, let me text them."
Nijika texts Kita, and Hitori as well. But primarily Kita since she's more active online.
"Hey there! I wanted to ask, where did you guys go?" Nijika texted
She stares at her phone for a few seconds, then she notices the typing bubble, which was quite fast.
"We're at a restaurant, since we got hungry on the way..We kind of forgot to tell you guys. So sorry for that!" Kita replies to her message
Nijika sees the message, looks back at Seika and tells her:
"Uh, they're eating together at a restaurant."
"Bocchi and Kita? I didn't expect that. They are close friends though, after all, I can see why." Seika replied.
"You're thinking too much about it! Maybe they were just hungry?"
"oh, i could go for some food as well" Ryo looks at Nijika, small grin on her face"
"Don't even think about it!" Nijika replied
Hopefully they wont have to go through a second deployment.