“You’re not gonna believe what just happened,” Matsuri said. She was mainly addressing Suki, but the whole gang was at the same lunch table. Harue, Kana, Mitsue and of course James. “I got called out of class to accept a delivery. I had to open up the Frame Shed for, get this, six new Frames!”

  “That is big news,” Suki agreed. “Doesn’t that double the number of frames you have? Did the Student Council agree to a funding increase?”

  James nodded along. Big news if you were in Frame Club, he commented silently. He did his best to look interested, though. Matsuri was treating him a little better since he’d asked her father if she could join the Jade Warrior group, and he didn’t want to lose any ground.

  “No, that’s the thing. They were ordered by Junko-san!”

  “Really? That’s…” Suki glanced over at Harue, who was suddenly paying attention to the conversation. “Interesting,” she settled on.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Harue said dourly. At that moment, the phones of Suki and Kana both chimed. Harue’s gave a cute yip.

  They all looked at the message. In Kana’s case, that meant looking up from her meal for the first time.

  “It’s from Junko,” Suki said for James’ benefit. “She says to come to the Frame Shed after school; she has a surprise for us.”

  “She didn’t,” Harue said. “She couldn’t!”

  “What has she done, and why can’t she do it?” Kana asked.

  “I’ll let her explain,” Harue said grimly. “That way, she’ll get to spring her surprise on one of us.”

  James tagged along to the Frame Club expedition. He might not be part of Idol Club, but Suki thought that they could use a calming influence. And he wouldn’t mind seeing whatever robots Junko had bought. Matsuri came as well because, well, Frames. Kaori and Ema were already there when the group got there, but Junko had waited for everyone to arrive before she got started.

  “Feast your eyes, idols!” Junko exclaimed. She was standing on a repurposed cherry picker that they used to service the higher parts of the Frames. “Presenting the new look for our idol group! The pride of the Kanzaki-Volkswerk corporation!”

  Somehow, she’d found a sheet large enough to serve as a curtain covering six Frame bays. Now, she tugged on a rope, causing the curtain to fall, revealing six Frames, all of a different design and each painted in a different colour.

  “Behold!” Junko called out. “In pink, the Frame I’ll be piloting is the Artemis! Designed for elegance and grace, it prioritises flexibility and precision!”

  “Oh, Junko,” Harue sighed.

  “Our president will pilot the blue Ares IV!” Junko continued. “A high-performance Frame built around exceptional speed and maneuverability! It has dual thrusters for extra boosted speed!”

  “It is the biggest, and, therefore, the best,” Kana said. “It is acceptable to me.”

  “Oh for—” Harue cut herself off, exasperated. “Junko! What did we just discuss about excessive expenses?”

  “These aren’t excessive,” Junko said airily. “They’re necessary.”

  “How many million yen did you spend? These are the very definition of excessive!”

  “They will be a hook that no other idol group will be able to match,” Junko said proudly. “They will make us stand out.”

  “Stand out? We won’t be able to perform! No stage is going to take the weight of all those Frames!”

  “We’ll… we’ll bring our own stage!” Junko declared. “It can’t be that expensive, and we can carry it with the Frames!”

  “Performance venues already have stages!” Harue yelled. “They’re not going to let you bring your own. Where are we going to put it?”

  “Well, I think it’s a cool idea,” Matsuri put in. “Can I have a look at the internals?”

  “Of course!” Junko said. “You can be our official Idol Club mechanic.”

  “You’ve got to return them, Junko,” Harue said. “How did you even afford them?”

  “Heh-he-heh,” Junko laughed. “Are you jealous of my unlimited credit card, Harue? A purchase like this is nothing to me.”

  “Junko,” Kaori said nervously. “I think this might be going a little too far.”

  “You’re still going to be that way, even after I got a Frame for you?” Junko said incredulously. “Look! It’s the green one! I got you a Hermes X! Isn’t it magnificent?”

  “Thanks, Junko, but I really think—”

  “We’re going to have an official meeting,” Harue shouted. “With our advisor. With a Student Council rep, if that’s what it takes to convince you. We’re not going to hold our practice sessions and concerts in the Frame Shed, and that's the only place these hunks of junk are allowed at school!”

  She stormed off, muttering imprecations to herself.

  “No,” Junko said softly. James could barely hear her. “This will work. She will see the genius of it. I’ll be back in charge again—”

  “Junko, dear!” Suki called up. “Why don’t you come down from there and tell us about the Frames at a normal volume?”

  Junko stared down at her for a few seconds. Then she hit the button to make the platform descend. “You see it, don’t you? No idol group would be able to match us.”

  “It’s a very original idea,” Suki said. “I think Harue had some good points about the practicality of it, though. Why don’t we wait and see what Hatakiyama-sensei has to say?”

  “He’ll understand,” Junko muttered. “He has to.”

  She got out of the cherry picker and joined the small group. Matsuri had already broken away and was closely examining the leg of the blue Frame.

  “I got you the Valkyrie,” Junko told Suki. “The yellow one. It has the most feminine design, and it has wings for short flights!”

  “That was sweet of you,” Suki said. “Tell me more about it.”

  James stepped out of the last class for the day with a smile on his face and a song in his heart. It was Friday! He still had club training, which would leave him a little sore, as it had every day this week, but that couldn’t spoil his mood. He resisted the urge to check his phone again. The text exchange stored in it was simple, and he’d already memorised it.

  Do you want to go on a date on Friday?

  Sure!

  There was more to it than that, of course. They’d seen each other many times since then, at breakfast, school and lunch. They’d discussed plans and chatted about countless other matters. But there was a reason he’d asked her out by text.

  Privacy.

  Ever since this “Three Heavenly Graces” nonsense had started up, James could feel eyes on him and Suki wherever he went. Especially wherever they went. His every interaction with her was dissected, analysed and spat back out at him as a rumour passed on by his friends.

  James found he could divide up all the guys that he was friendly with into friends and so-called friends, based on whether they believed the rumours.

  He hadn’t realised that living in Japan, especially living in a dorm in Japan, meant that you basically had no privacy. He shared his room with Mitsue, Suki shared her room with Matsuri and the school was filled with kids who were far too interested in his business. Texting was impersonal, but it was the only way he could keep his conversations with Suki private.

  At least until it turned out that Harue had magically hacked his phone and was publishing everything on Futaba Channel. He really hoped that was a baseless concern.

  With classes over, James changed into the keikogi and hakama provided by the PMC for training and lined up with the other students. He noted that Midoriko was absent again today. She normally ran these sessions, but her brother, Yoshiki, had been in charge this week.

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  He was looking considerably happier today than he had yesterday. James wondered if that meant that Midoriko had returned. He’d asked about her mysterious disappearance, but Yoshiki got very touchy when guys asked about his sister. Given the kind of questions James had to field about Suki, he could understand the attitude.

  James didn’t get any answers, but he did get a few new bruises. He didn’t have time to worry about them, though. He rushed back to his room as soon as possible to get showered and changed before heading over to the girls' wing.

  When he got there, he saw Shion waiting to use the lift. From the angry look on her face, she was… well, that was about normal for Shion.

  I think I’ll take the stairs, James thought. He got to Suki’s floor just in time to see Shion stalk out of the lifts and go to her room.

  James had never seen someone slam a door open before. He was about to head down the corridor to Suki’s room when he heard Shion shouting.

  “Fuyumi! Where are my phones?”

  This wasn’t the first time James had felt sympathy for Shion’s unfortunate roommate, but the anger in Shion’s voice made him fear for her safety. Without thinking, he started running towards the room. As he approached, he heard the girl’s reply.

  “Why, Shion-san! I’m so happy that you think we’re now such fast friends that you can drop honorifics, but these things need to be discussed, not simply assumed. Otherwise, people will think that you have no manners.”

  Even as he rushed forward to stop a fight, James was struck by how calm the other girl was, a vivid contrast to Shion’s snarl.

  “That’s not what—I didn’t—Where are my phones!”

  “Since you were so thoughtful as to recover the lost property of all those girls, I thought that I should do my part as well and distribute the lost phones back to their owners.”

  “I didn’t find them, I—what do you want?” The last question was addressed to James, who had just reached the door. The two girls looked at him in surprise. Well, surprise and anger in one case.

  James did recognise the other girl, of course. He hadn’t interacted with Azai Fuyumi much, but as one of the Three Heavenly Graces, she had been pointed out to him numerous times. He already knew she was beautiful, but seeing her up close like this made him admit that the other boys might have a point.

  Fuyumi was a traditionally beautiful Japanese girl with thick, jet-black hair that flowed smoothly to her waist. It framed a doll-like face with skin so pale that James almost doubted she was Japanese. Her almond-shaped eyes were warm brown and exuded serenity even in the face of Shion’s provocations.

  Before he could answer, Fuyumi spoke up.

  “Obviously, James St-John-san was concerned for your safety when he heard your raised voice.”

  “My safety! I’ll kill—”

  “This is why a lady shouldn’t raise her voice,” Fuyumi said firmly, somehow speaking over the angry girl without raising her voice. Something in her tone made it sound like Shion was the one interrupting. “Others will hear it and think that you are in distress.”

  “That’s—”

  “I’m terribly sorry for the alarm that my roommate has caused you, James St-John-san. As you can see, she is quite all right and not in any danger.”

  “Um,” James said. “I should go, then?”

  It felt like he was asking permission, and the gracious nod she gave him didn’t do anything to dispel that notion. James carefully backed away from the door, resisting the urge to bow.

  “Hey, watch it!” Matsuri’s voice made him spin around in surprise. He would have bumped into the girl without her warning him.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  “I uh, live here?” Matsuri said, stepping around him. “Hey Shion, we’ve got that that… thing, you know?”

  “I would know, if I had my phones!” Shion shouted.

  “That is simply incorrect. You never managed to unlock any of the phones you recovered. Any alarm that happened to go off would be a simple coincidence and nothing to do with your schedule.” Fuyumi’s voice remained incredibly calm.

  “I know that!” Shion yelled.

  “Then we can move on to other topics. Perhaps you’d like to discuss our roommate agreement? We do have to get it to the advisor in a few days.”

  “No! Can’t! Gotta do this thing.” Shion burst out of the room, grabbing Matsuri and heading for the stairs. James tried to make eye contact with Matsuri, but she wouldn’t meet his gaze.

  It really isn’t my business, James thought. He turned back to his destination.

  It was only a few steps more to Suki’s door, and James felt a huge surge of relief when she opened it.

  “Hi!” Suki said. She was looking gorgeous in a dark blue, knee-length cargo skirt and a lavender light jacket. James was relieved to see that she’d managed to find some hiking boots.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  “Of course! Idol Club didn’t go anywhere near as long as your training session. Shall we get going? I don’t want to get docked for being out of uniform.”

  “Temporary allowances can be made if a student is travelling off campus,” James muttered. Between bouts, the trainees had to read the campus rulebook to each other as a memorisation exercise. At this point, the sword fighting was becoming a welcome break.

  Suki giggled and took his arm, allowing him to lead her back down to the cafeteria. In addition to serving much better food than James was used to from a school cafeteria, the staff were able to provide custom options if you knew what to ask for.

  It was Mitsue who had supplied James with tonight’s destination, but it was Kana who had told him about the picnic baskets. He collected one now from the main counter, doing his best to ignore the questioning looks from the students having dinner in the hall.

  “This way,” he said with unearned confidence. Mitsue had promised to mark the path with brightly coloured tape. They quickly left the school grounds, travelling up the steep road that led to the shrine. They didn’t get far, though, before James spotted the torii gate that he’d been told to look for, marking a path that left the paved road.

  “Is this a path, then?” Suki asked.

  “I guess so,” James replied. It was barely a path. It was so narrow that James would have given up on it if it weren’t for the yellow tape that Mitsue had left. It wound its way through the forest like a snake. “Mitsue says that there are these little trails all around the mountain. They look wild, but he says they’re maintained.”

  He looked doubtfully at the brush all around them and the narrow path ahead. “I can’t say I see it myself.”

  “Maintained to look natural, perhaps,” Suki said. It was getting dark, and the trees were blocking what light there was, so she pulled out her phone to light the way. “It feels like we’re walking a game trail.”

  “Mitsue says it isn’t, and I get the impression he’d know,” James said. “For one thing, they all start and end with Torii Gates.”

  “That doesn’t sound like something an animal would do,” Suki agreed. “But perhaps the path came first, and men built the gates later? Do you think the gates have any spiritual significance?”

  “Not my culture, I couldn’t guess,” James said.

  Suki frowned. “My education was a bit lacking in that area as well. We could ask our resident shrine maiden.”

  James snorted. “Good luck getting a straight answer out of Harue. I’ll— Oh, we’re here!”

  The unmistakable bulk of a gate loomed up into the cone of light that his phone was making. As soon as they passed through it, Suki gasped.

  “Oh! It’s the sea!”

  Nice pick, Mitsue, James thought as he looked around. They were standing atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. Waves were crashing about fifty meters below them. By nature or design, the clifftop was relatively flat and clear of any trees or bushes. It was the perfect place for a picnic.

  Suki helped him spread the blanket, and they descended on the contents of the basket like starving locusts. Hiking had given James an appetite, and Suki was the same. The cafeteria had provided them with onigiri, sushi rolls and yakitori. It was all good.

  “So,” James said, in a rare moment between bites. “How did Idol Club go?”

  Suki rolled her eyes. “I have to say, I was really glad we have Hatakiyama-sensei as our advisor.”

  “That’s a change. Are you sure you’re not being influenced?”

  “I’m not… entirely comfortable with the effect he has on people,” Suki admitted. “But thus far, I haven’t seen him abuse it. And just his presence was enough to keep things civil at the meeting.”

  “I suppose that’s not a surprise,” James said. “Junko was… a big fan, let’s say. She wouldn’t want to do anything that might make her look bad in front of him.”

  “And Harue does anything he says, or anything she thinks he might say,” Suki agreed. “Which was about all that kept her from violence, I think. She was so angry when it turned out that the Frames were fully militarised.”

  “What? Is that even legal?”

  “It isn’t,” Suki said. “Junko says she just made a standard order, but she did a bunch of customisation with the colours and all. Somewhere in there, she must have ticked a box that shouldn’t even have been included. There should have been safeguards, but they were overridden somehow, and now we’re all accessories to illegal arms trading. The Student Council had to get involved.”

  “So what’s going to happen?”

  “Well, the Frames will have to go back. Shibasaki-san said that they had contacts with the army base that could make it look like they ordered the Frames, and they were delivered here by accident.”

  She paused for thought. “I wonder if that’s how this happened in the first place? Someone saw they were going to the island and assumed that Junko was ordering for the base. Anyway, if that works, then it will be a simple case of items being delivered to the wrong address. No need for anyone to be arrested.”

  “That’s a relief,” James said. “At least that’s over.”

  “Yes,” Suki said. “Now I just have to worry about what Junko’s next exploit is going to be.”

  She sipped her tea, a thermos of which had been included in the basket. It was fully dark now, and the stars were coming out. “The other bit of news is that the Student Council wants us to hold auditions for new members.”

  “Is that good news or bad?”

  “I’m not sure. Harue wants to have as many members as possible and just have the ones that can’t perform support the group. If we get lots of members that can perform, she wants to have multiple groups.”

  “That doesn’t sound too bad,” James said.

  Suki nodded. “The problem is that everyone wants to be in the club that has Hatakiyama-sensei as its advisor. The Student Council is wary of allowing that.”

  “That must have something to do with the problems last year that they won’t talk about,” James said.

  “Probably. So what they want is for us to have one group, of five people, and hold auditions to choose who gets to be in the group.”

  James raised his eyebrows. “But there are six of you,” he said.

  “Yeah. Best case, under this proposal, one of us doesn’t get to perform. Harue is… unimpressed by the idea. Negotiations are continuing.”

  “Is that a polite way of saying Shibasaki-san is going to wake up with a horse’s head in her bed?”

  Suki laughed. “Maybe,” she admitted. “Don’t mention that to Harue, she might think it’s a great idea.”

  “I won’t. Shouldn’t Kana be taking the lead on all this?”

  “Well. For the first issue, she was ‘maintaining her neutrality’,” Suki said, rolling her eyes again. “I think that means that she didn’t know or care what the fight was about. She started off being the same way for the second thing… but then Harue pointed out that the Student Council proposal would mean fewer members for the club.”

  “Fewer minions for her, she means.”

  “Yeah,” Suki said. “She got pretty worked up at that point. Anyway, that’s enough about club. Didn’t we come here to look at the stars?”

  “Sure,” James agreed. They packed the remains of dinner back in the basket and lay back on the blanket next to each other. For the next hour, they pointed out constellations to each other. Suki was better at it, knowing the Chinese ones as well.

  James resolved to look up whether the “Purple Forbidden Enclosure” was a real thing when he got a chance.

  It seemed like hardly any time had gone by when James’ alarm went off, signifying it was time to get back before curfew. Suki held onto his arm as they made their way back. His phone battery was almost drained from lighting his way.

  “James,” Suki said when they got back to the dorms.

  “Yeah?”

  “This was a fun date.”