"Bang! Bang, bang!"
Ming Yu opened his eyes to a crisp, somewhat urgent knocking sound.
Staring at the pure white ceiling above, he took three seconds to ponder ultimate questions like "Who am I? Where am I?"
Soon enough, he realized where he was: the Far East Branch military base.
He rolled out of bed and glanced around his simple, single room, his eyes landing on the alarm clock on the bedside table. The hour and minute hands pointed precisely to eight-thirty.
*Is it that late already?*
The time on the clock surprised him slightly. After all, he was usually up for his morning workout by six.
*Could it be that I've had too many missions recently?*
Having found an excuse for waking up late, Ming Yu slowly shuffled toward the door. While he didn't blame the person knocking for disturbing his sweet dreams, he had no reason to hurry either.
Besides, given his pitifully small social circle, he could already guess who was at the door.
*Creaak—*
The pale yellow wooden door opened, revealing, as expected, two familiar, beautiful figures.
"You're so slow! We've been waiting for you for one minute and forty-three seconds!"
Giovanna, dressed in a beige trench coat, spoke up first, her cheeks puffed out in displeasure. Paired with her petite frame, it was quite a charming sight.
"Did you just wake up? It's rather rare, given how diligent you are."
Seeing the door-opener looking a bit groggy, Ajifu said with a smile, her right hand gently twirling a few strands of hair by her ear.
"Ah, about that... it's probably because of all the recent missions,"
Ming Yu said in a casual tone, his slightly narrowed eyes appraising the beautiful woman before him.
Ajifu was wearing a well-fitting red long dress that outlined her tall, curvaceous figure, and her fair face was adorned with light, exquisite makeup.
Ming Yu's eyes lit up at her appearance, so different from her usual self, and he couldn't help but take a few extra glances. While Schicksal's Valkyrie battlesuits weren't ugly, they always had to sacrifice some aesthetic design for the sake of combat. It wasn't as if "the less you wear, the stronger you get" was actually true, was it?
"Indeed, we've completed nearly twenty missions in the last half-month, and yesterday we faced a peak lower-tier Molten Emperor. But that's precisely why we have a week-long vacation!"
Without shying away from Ming Yu's gaze in the slightest, Ajifu naturally smoothed her skirt and said with a light laugh.
As the squad's close-combat damage dealer, Ming Yu was naturally more tired than the two of them, so her words held no hint of blame.
Ming Yu nodded in agreement at Ajifu's words. The battle against the Molten Emperor, while uneventful, was far from easy.
After a not-so-fierce struggle, the Molten Emperor had three large holes blasted into its body by the Blaze twin guns before being finally chopped into five pieces by Sakura Fubuki and Jizo Mitama. It had died a truly miserable death.
Although slaying an Emperor-class Honkai Beast was an extraordinary achievement for any squad, Ming Yu felt no great joy from it.
A Sandstorm Emperor couldn't survive a single punch from Durandal, a Herrscher-ized Mei could slice an Emperor-class Honkai Beast into atoms with one strike, and a Pseudo-Herrscher was a one-slash affair for Fu Hua.
So, was it really something to write home about that he, with the help of his teammates, had only managed to kill a single Molten Emperor after a considerable effort?
Noticing the two of them in their casual attire, Ming Yu didn't need to think hard to know they were planning to go out and relax.
After all, Valkyries were human too; they couldn't work nonstop like machines.
"Hey! You didn't forget, did you? We agreed yesterday that we'd go to the city center to hang out. Or are you planning to go like this?!"
Seeing Ming Yu's disheveled appearance, Giovanna spoke in a tone tinged with disdain.
"Not at all, I'll be ready soon. I'll have to trouble you to wait for me in the restaurant outside. It should only take about ten minutes,"
Ming Yu said with a helpless shrug, a headache already setting in. Although he wasn't against such team-building activities, accompanying women on a shopping trip was always a troublesome affair, even if the Valkyries didn't need him to carry their bags.
But since it was a week-long vacation, he didn't need to spend all his time in the training room. Going out with his teammates was one of his few recreational activities. Even though this particular activity always ended with him being physically and mentally exhausted, it was much better than being absorbed in training alone.
Having temporarily dealt with his two impatient teammates, Ming Yu began to get himself ready.
Looking at the familiar face in the mirror, Ming Yu couldn't help but sigh.
His short black hair was still in that simple style, but the contours of his face were much firmer than they had been six months ago, having lost some of its original boyishness and roundness.
With no time for sighs and laments, Ming Yu took a quick shower, threw on a light blue sweatshirt, and headed out.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
Taking the rice ball and hot milk that Ajifu handed him, Ming Yu said with sincere apology on his face. Although he hadn't exceeded the ten-minute limit, he had indeed forgotten yesterday's promise and failed to wake up on time.
"Hmph!" Giovanna turned her face away, not giving her promise-breaking junior a pleasant look.
Waiting quietly for Ming Yu to wolf down the food in his hands, Ajifu dangled her car keys and said unhurriedly, "Now that we're all ready, let's get going. Giovanna and I planned out a full day's schedule last night, you know~"
"Mm."
After disposing of the packaging, Ming Yu wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth and agreed softly in a non-objecting tone, a hint of resignation in his dark eyes. Now that she'd said all that, could he really go back to sleep?
But just as Ming Yu was about to get up, the vibration of the phone in his pocket interrupted his mental wails about the "full day's plan."
Glancing down at the screen, Ming Yu looked back at Ajifu and said with a wry smile, "I'm truly sorry, but I'm afraid I won't have the chance to go out with you this time."
"What! We're already here, and you dare to back out?!"
Upon hearing Ming Yu's words, Giovanna was the first to jump up and exclaim, her watery almond eyes full of displeasure.
Ajifu remained silent, merely looking at her tactless junior with a cold smile that was intimidating without showing anger.
Having spent the last two months together, Ming Yu easily understood his captain's meaning. If he couldn't provide a reasonable explanation, his days ahead would not be easy.
Wiping away the non-existent cold sweat from his forehead, Ming Yu held up his phone screen and said helplessly, "An order just came from above. I'm to return to the academy immediately."
Glancing at the text on the screen, Ajifu sighed. If this wasn't some prank by Ming Yu, then he really wouldn't be able to participate this time.
As far as she knew, there were only a handful of people at the academy who could bypass the chain of command and issue orders directly to Ming Yu, a member of an elite squad.
And this forceful yet slightly tsundere style... it could only be *that* person.