Chapter 1: Petals Born on Spring

Once the dancing practice, which felt more like a cardio exercise, had completed, Shizuka was completely limbered up and energized. She touched her toes, bent back, and swiveled side to side. Even though she didn't understand the play aspect, it certainly felt good to move around.

"I don't have work until later, so I'm gonna do some sparing practice if anyone wants to join."

Normally in her free time, she would roam the shops, cafes, and parks within Tokyo. However, she felt like her first time in the petalframes was underwhelming and wanted to practice a bit more before going on a new mission.

Hana worked on refining the steps of the play she was assigned, if she was going to participate in it, she was not about to embarrass herself. She moved with poise and purpose until she had managed to memorize her lines and her coreography. Shortly after that she took a quick bath within her room and continued to study the field manual for her Viper Lily, she was expected to perform on the battle-field as well as the theatre, being a Blossom Maiden was turning out to be much more interesting work than she had anticipated.

She wondered if her sister had ever done any plays when she was growing up, the thought made her smile.

Chimera, who had just begun considering potential tutors to bother, immediately takes up Shizuka's offer. Surely a fellow warrior would have some cool special techniques to show, right?

"So you seek to sharpen steel with steel! Very well, let us be the blade and the whetstone. Come, I shall cut us a path forwards to a brilliant future!"

With a downward chop of her hand, Chimera darts off. In her haste for greater power, Chimera may not have considered the reality of what it would be like to spar with someone who's proven the significant gap in physical prowess not even a day ago. Forget about sharpening, the blade might just break the whetstone casually.

Homura underwent some instruction from Rin. Though her acting skills were amateur at best, she did her best to put her heart behind each line and movement, injecting a certain presence that wasn't easy to replicate. She might be a diamond in the rough... She just needs polishing. Perhaps a lot of polishing.

"Arrogant knight, full of villainy, now ye shall pay for the evil that ye did. Arm yourself at once. If not, I must kill you unarmed, for with evildoers like you, one should have no restraint!" Lacking an actual prop sword to brandish, she used a broom instead. "Have at you!"

Abenanka hadn't spoken much at all since they'd gotten back from their first sortie. Not just from heading straight for her bedroom, but at breakfast and beyond too. She'd eaten in silence, breaking it only for prayers given under her breath. It wasn't unusual for her to get nervous with a new group, or to appear aloof, but something about the situation felt extra awkward.

She'd calmly approached the room where they would dance, not too interested in following through. Being part of a play held no interest to her, no more than idle activity. The way to guide the people into happiness would be to listen to their concerns, and address them directly. That might've been time consuming though, she'd concede that.

She listened to the roles as she limbered up, and began to stretch. She didn't follow the dance moves, but showed an adapt knowledge of her physical limits. She had impressive flexibility, being more than able to do the vertical splits or fold backwards onto her hands. A lifetime spent climbing trees and walls, skipping across stepping stones and fighting currents had built her up. Her martial arts practice had refined her.

Thankfully, it all served to hide her expression. The clouds that formed at the choices of casting, the feeling of being overlooked once again. She accepted the role she'd been given, a no name extra, with not just a hint of spitefulness, and knew she'd likely never show up to practice. Her life had made her good at hiding, too, she knew that.

Once dismissed she disappeared. She headed to the highest point in the building, and climbed into the exposed rafters and ribs of the roof as usual for these wooden buildings still waiting to be filled in. Here in the peaceful gloom and shadow, she lay back and fiddled with her charms, idly musing.

"What is jealousy, by another name? Green eyed and sinful, but human to a fault. Are we not all jealous in our desires? We who forced Prometheus to steal us fire because we wanted our own stars. Yet you are my fire, my love, and I shall suffer my daily retribution just to bask in your light." She said, her Italian shaky with a lack of confidence but fluid enough.

Claude, who was wandering through the theatre, overhead the speach and stepped into the attic, bowing courteously and flamboyantly.

"You called? Though I would immediately decry the 'jealous' bit as slander," grinned the foreigner and blinked to the rafters next to Abenanka.

"But you, rising bird, you do look like there is something you long for. Is that envy that can perhaps be satisfied, whether by trading places with another, or by playing the hand you were given on your own terms, and surpassing everyone's expectations?"

Abenanka blushed furiously. She hadn't expected be overheard, let alone anyone here speaking enough Italian to understand what she'd been saying. She sat up ramrod straight, one hand covering her face to try and hide the embarrassment while the other clutched the beam to avoid toppling over the side.

When Claude offered her own take on the situation, she lowered her protective hand a margin to peer at her squadmate. "Surpassing everyone's expectations? I feel as though the bar will rise to stop me." She said petulantly, then shook her head. Her next words were an apology, but with the same abrasive tone. "It's not your fault, I'm being rude. I'm not so sure an extra with one line or so can surpass much aside, though."

She didn't touch on the idea of swapping places with someone. The idea, and who she'd want to swap with, gave her too much hope for her to give voice to that. Instead she tried to play it smooth, and maybe, hopefully, deflect attention away from the obvious.

"There is a long chain of precedents in theatre for one-scene wonders and ensemble dark horses stealing the audience. Extras have the advantage of the bar usually not being raised very high, making any breakout all the more impressive. And adjustments to the scenario can be requested to make more opportunities for scene-stealing.

But of course there are other options. You could try asking the archer - who seemed to express lack of enthusiasm about acting from the get-go - to trade places, potentially landing you the role of the heroine.

You could also try the challenging option of convincing me to trade places, though you'd probably need to do something to sweeten the deal - at an absolute minimum, conspire with setting up a moment for me to shine very brightly too. And you'd have to contend with playing the bad boy to the hilt."

Claude dangles a leg down from the beam playfully.

"Whatever happens, I expect any and all roles would have to face the fierce competition of your lovely friend for the attentions of the audience.

But all of those things are my guesses as to possible ways of wiping that frown off your face. I should temper my guesswork and ask directly: What do you find most desirable?"

"Great, let's go! I have something I want to try."

After running to the elevator and taking it down into the lower facility, Shizuka found a random military officer and had him bring the pair to the training area. He was a bit flustered at first after being cornered by Shizuka and Chimera, but they eventually arrived at the gym that the regular Japanese soldiers used for training. There was a track, pool, weight area, and a large dojo that could hold multiple sparring sessions. There were various weapons to choose from, and even a range that could be used for guns, bows, or magic.

While the two got ready to spar with wooden swords, Shizuka wrapped bulky padding on her limbs. She then waddled over and found the heaviest shield available to us alongside the wooden sword.

"I'd rather spar inside the petalframes but that'd be too dangerous, so this is as close as I can get! Maybe if I practice being bulky and heavy in person, I can be a better pilot!"

Once Chimera was also ready to spar, they got started at the sound of a bell. Some of the regular military member sin the gym stopped to watch what the two new pilots were doing, some even started taking bets.

Chimera starts sweating once bets start getting placed on the fight, but what are dramatics for if not an audience? The closest analogue there is to the Eggshell Tulip's weapon is a kusarigama, so Chimera picks that. However, her main weapons are the various gadgets and techniques that she's picked up, a culmination of her efforts to become a living weapon.

That said, her efforts might amount to more of a barrage of annoyances to Shizuka than an actual challenge. Some techniques, such as wrapping the chain of the kusarigama around Shizuka's limb and electrifying it with a stun gun might be effective enough to earn such fancy names like "Coiling Thunder Serpent". Others, such as trying to kick Shizuka between the legs are...probably misguided, though some of the soldiers watching do flinch.

"If 'tis Deceit, 'tis sweet Deceit to me. 'Tis time, kind Amadis, to think What Means you'll use to free me from this Place."

Hana practices her lines with he manuscript in her hands, she piroutted in place, almost nailing it.. perhaps that was too much embellishment.

"Love, 'tis enough, no more; the Pleasure is too great."

She draped her body back flowing her kimono backwards, was this the right emotion? She heard the clap clap of the wooden swords beating together, frustrated she headed towards the sound. She better not be the only one practicing, she thought this was supposed to be serious.

The sparring started off normal, and then Chimera started pulling out all sorts of gadgets. And she also kept using weird names like "thunder serpent" when it was clearly just an electrified chain. Holding back her desire to confiscate illegal weapons (they were training for combat so it should be legal), Shizuka powered though the shocking by yanking her arm back pulling Chimera towards her and causing her to release the stun gun.

"Coiling what?!—OOF"

Shizuka was cut off by Chimera’s kick below the belt. Cheap shots that like reminded Shizuka of the street fights that broke out around illegal opium dens. While the police were called for all sorts of reasons, at night there was almost always someone drunk or on drugs causing problems in the city. Channeling her experience fighting the druggie bums who used a similar fighting style, Shizuka came up with a quick plan.

"You… who taught you how to fight?!"

Dropping her sword, Shizuka used her newly freed hand to grab Chimera by the leg and flipped her over onto the sparring mat. As Chimera regained her footing, Shizuka took a big step forward and swung her shield down in a backhand motion to bonk Chimera on the head. The shield was fairly heavy, so it would disarm or otherwise render Chimera unable to continue the fight normally.

"What do I find most desirable?" A flurry of the best possible outcomes come anbidden into her mind.

Most of them are situations where, for whatever reason, the play doesn't go ahead and none of them have to put effort toward it. It would get rid of the nerves and the inconvenience together. Abenanka isn't so innocent as to think anything like that would actually happen though, so those are easy enough to get rid of.

Buried under the rest of it though is the one opportunity for the performance itself that sparks something inside her. The idea of playing Oriana brings her blush back again, but her eyes are lost in the middle distance. She toys with the charms in her braids with bashful fingers before returning to the present with unwelcome clarity.

"That's, well that's neither here nor there." She dismisses Claude's suggestion. "As you said, Homura deserves someone to match her playing Oriana."

She doesn't notice her slip; that no one mentioned Oriana before then.

Claude headtilts slightly. "Deserves, huh. I'll admit, this sounds more assertive than I expected from you, given how modest your attitude was previously. I like it when people shoo away previous doubts - it always looks so life-affirming," smiles the foreigner.

"Well then, in that case you'd need to talk to the archer and see if you can convince her that you can take the hassle of a big role off her hands. After all, she seemed not as enthused as some others to participate when the roles were offered. But we can't take for granted that the attitude would last, so be ready to bring other arguments. Are you ready to proceed with this course of action?"

"It was my mothe—waaagh!"

As Chimera gets flipped by Shizuka, the bottle of "Secret Gambit: Giant Slaying Territory" oil flies out of her sleeve and shatters on the ground. The stun gun sparks, and the training room gets set ablaze.

And so, training ends, amidst panic.

---

Holding a bag of "Destruction Quelling Frost" against the swollen lump on her head, Chimera raises her hand.

"I call shotgun!"

She full intends to try and learn how to drive through observation...if she doesn't get distracted by the view outside the window.

When Hana arrived at the sparring dojo, Shizuka was completely dumbfounded by the sudden explosion. however, she quickly recovered and thought Chimera must be some sort of special, magical genius. After snuffing out a small flame on her hair, she sat up and made sure Chimera was still alive.

"Are you okay?! I'm sorry, I didn't think I hit you THAT hard. Maybe I'm magical after all? Or wait, this is one of your tricks? Do you explode if you get hit hard enough?!"

As she raised her shield up again to test it out, Hana interrupted. In response, Shizuka sheepishly lowered her arm and instead helped Chimera to her feet.

"Isn't rehearsal is for practice? They can't expect me to work at the cafe AND learn lines AND fight shamon AND also secretly do police work."

Either way, it was time for lunch. Shizuka had worked up an appetite after all the dancing, sparring, and getting electrocuted.

---

Shizuka arrived at the truck shortly after lunch with her hakama still singed from her sparring session with Chimera. Things had certainly gotten out of hand at the end, but at least no one was hurt. The sparring dojo itself, however, would need some time to be repaired. She seemed unfazed by the explosion caused by Chimera, but would probably be more careful around in her in the future due to her tendency to... erupt in different ways.

"A delivery from the shopping district? I'll come along! I drove a police wagon once, but I was forbidden from driving again. I thought you foreigners all had servants that could drive and do laundry and stuff?"

Homura was sipping on a refreshing mug of honey lemon tea when Rika showed up. She'd been yelling lines with such vigor that her throat was sore, though the tea was helping considerably. Maybe she should take it easy for now. Rin had even told her to take care of her throat when the lesson concluded.

At some point before they met up, Homura had changed her kimono for a different outfit. She was wearing a white, wide-brimmed linen hat that boasted roses on one side. The frilled neckline of her sleeveless button-up blouse was just on the edge of generous. White gloves extended up to about the middle of her forearms, and a pleated skirt ended just above her knees. Her black choker helped break up the white of her outfit, as did the black handbag she carried, which was a Venetian import.Homura finished her tea and placed the mug down on a nearby table before heading out with the group, her white high heels clicking against the ground. It seemed like no one could drive so far, so she offered. "I can drive us all to Nihombashi. Never liked the idea of relying on someone to drive me around, so I've had my license for a couple years now. I haven't driven anything bigger than my Model S, but I'm sure trucks don't handle that differently." She grinned. Whether that was comforting or terrifying was a matter of perspective.