#endthedrought

After the two of them laid Ritsu down on the bench, Nodoka stood up and addressed Azusa. “I’m going to get some ice for her. I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t take too long,” Azusa said, still fussing over Ritsu’s injury.  “Senpai, are you going to be alright?”

Ritsu kept her eyes on the field, with an intense look on her face. “Don’t worry about me. Worry about the game. We’re doing great, but a draw isn’t enough to get us to the top of the regional table. We need to keep pushing.”

Azusa frowned. “But, Ritsu-senpai-”

“I don’t care about my well-being, Azusa!” Ritsu snapped. “What I do care about is if we’re going to win this game.”

Azusa shot Ritsu a disapproving frown, but said nothing. If Ritsu was going to be that stubborn, then she wasn’t going to bother anymore. Azusa shuffled away and sat herself on the other end of the bench.

The 86th minute came around when Yui took a shot at the goal. Everyone was in awe at the goalkeeper’s save. Although the ball flew right over the net, the Sakura High soccer team was given a corner kick. Mugi sent the ball into the box, giving Mio the opportunity to score a goal. She pushed her legs off from the ground to hit the ball with her head. The angle of the ball made it easy to slip past the goalkeeper and into the net, having no chance of saving it.

Mugi ran over to Mio who was still staring at the goal, as if not quite believing the turn of events. “Good job, Mio-chan!”

That snapped Mio out of her daze and she immediately turned to Mugi and hugged her. “Couldn’t have done it without your assist, Mugi! Thank you!”

Mugi looked surprised for a moment before hugging back.

Mio went wide eyed. “Mugi...” she gasped, tapping furiously on Mugi’s shoulders.  “Too tight. You’re hugging too tight!”

“Oh!” Mugi immediately let go cupping her hands over her mouth. “I’m sorry about that.”

Mio clutched her sides for a moment before gesturing that it’s fine.

The score was now 2-1. Their team was winning by one point. The following last four minutes of the game saw little to no action. Compared to how fast the rest of the game flew by, the end felt sluggish. The final whistle blew at the 90th minute, leaving the game a 2-1 win for Sakura High, allowing them to advance to the top of the regional table.

They ignored the celebrations and headed into the lockers. There, they found a short-haired brunette quietly sitting on one of the benches. Mio ran up to the girl, tapping her shoulder. The girl looked up, tears in her eyes.

“Ritsu, are you going to be okay?”

“Ricchan, how long is it going to be?” Mugi asked her.

The room fell silent for a moment.

“Three months.” She choked. “It might even be four.”

The whole team was in shock. Their most skilled and most important player – their captain and midfielder, forced to spend the middle of the season recovering from her injury.

“How bad is it?” Mio asked.

“It’s a grade three – it completely tore up my hamstring. But I’ll be fine, guys. Don’t worry.”

Ritsu attempted to push herself off the bench, but she flinched as she applied the slightest pressure to her feet.

“Ritsu, you aren’t even able to walk.” Mio pointed out.

“Of course I can. Just give me a second.” Ritsu flinched once more.

Mio slung Ritsu’s right arm across her shoulder. “Look, Ritsu, you’re not going to walk with a broken leg. C’mon, let’s get you out of here. I’m sure an ambulance has shown up by now. Hey Mugi, give me a hand here.”

The blonde nodded as she grabbed Ritsu’s uninjured leg. She hoisted Ritsu’s left arm across her own shoulder. At the count of three, they lifted Ritsu up, careful to keep her injured hamstring off the ground.

Yui looked on at the three as she ran up to Nodoka. She adjusted her own pace to match hers.

“Nodoka-chan? Is Ricchan going to be alright?”

“I hope so – we need her for the nationals. Without her, we might need to change up our game plan, at least until she gets back. I can’t just hold the midfield by myself.”

“How did it happen, anyway?” Yui asked.

Nodoka shrugged. “I don’t know, Yui. She wouldn’t say anything about it. What we all do know is that she fell and got hurt. I guess I was too focused on the game, since I didn’t see how she fell. A red card wasn’t issued to the other team, so it can’t be them.. It must be something Ritsu did on her own.”

“So what do we do until she gets back?”

“Well, we have to find someone else to be our midfielder.”

At the stadium entrance, the two girls were helping Ritsu onto an ambulance stretcher.

Mio looked at Ritsu’s thigh - while the injury wasn’t obvious at first glance – the fact that it was stiff meant it was straining for Ritsu to move it. She hated the sight of an injury, the ambulance that was parked adjacent to her team’s bus, less so.

Mugi tapped her on the shoulder. “Mio-chan, I’m going to head over to the bus. I’ll ask Sawa-chan to give you a few minutes with Ricchan.”

Mio nodded. “Uh, yeah, sure. Thanks, Mugi.”

Ritsu waved to her. “Um, Mio? Are you just gonna stand there, or are you going to get in?”

“I… I don’t know yet, but, Ritsu… just please, get better soon.”

“Don’t worry, it’s me. I’ll be up and about before you even know it. But for now, though, I gotta lay low a bit. You guys can carry on without me. You can get them to where they need to be. You can do that, right, playmaker?”

Mio stayed silent.

“Hey, come on, don’t be like that. Just think of it as another goal to score. Please, Mio, do this for me, okay?”

Mio hesitated. “A-alright. I’ll do this for you, Captain.”

“Good, that’s what I like to hear. Now, for my final request as the captain of Sakura High, I command you to go back and see to the rest. I think you’ve spent enough time here.”

Mio closed the doors to the ambulance and made her way back to her bus. It was strange to not have Ritsu be on the bus, sitting beside her. She became startled at having found all 17 of the other passengers, including her teammates and her coach, staring at her as she walked up the stairs of the bus.

“Deep breaths, Mio.” She told herself. “Deep breaths.”

“So, Mio,” Nodoka asked her. “What’s going to happen now?”

“I-I don’t know yet. Since Ritsu’s going to be out of commission for about three months, I’ve been asked to take over, for now.” Mio hesitated to speak, but refused to stutter throughout. “Give me some time to think it over. I don’t- I don’t know what to do about all of this yet. We shouldn’t think about this too much. We should look forward to the next game, even without our captain.”

The bus was only filled with silence.

“If you guys aren’t going to ask any questions, then that’s all I need to say. We’re ready to go.”

Mio walked past the rows of seats, until she found her own. She shuffled into the window seat. The adjacent seat was vacant, formerly occupied by the team captain, Ritsu Tainaka. She looked out the window, as the bus pulled out of the stadium. The surrounding countryside was filled with less color than before she entered that stadium.

She didn’t ask for any of this. She never wanted the Great War to happen, she never wanted the world in ruins. She merely wanted a normal life. But it was only due to her friend, Tsumugi Kotobuki, that she ventured out into the wasteland with her. She didn’t want any of these adventures, nor theatrics – just to be safe inside the comfort of her vault – her home. All the information she learned about the outside world were from rumors from the other vault dwellers that were selected in the past as part of a scavenger team.

She continued to train her sights on an old abandoned town, until a hand perched on her shoulder, throwing off her aim.

“Hey, Mio, are you done scoping out the place yet? We’re waiting, remember.” A shorter, skinnier brunette, reminded her. A short, 12-gauge double barreled shotgun was slung over her shoulder. The barrels were sawn off up to the foregrip, and the stock was missing, reducing the handle to a pistol grip.

“I’m just about done, Ritsu. It looks like the town doesn’t seem to have anyone living in it.”

“Good, it’s time to let the others know to get ready.”

“For now, at least. I can’t see much from here, so I had to make some guesses. There might be someone I missed, though, so keep your guard up.” Mio added.

“We know, we know. We’ve done this several times now.”

“That’s all you need, and that’s all you’ll get.”

Mio rolled her eyes at the brunette. “Yeah, whatever you say.”

“Hey guys, it’s all clear, at least that’s what Mio thinks. Let’s go!”

The two other girls that were accompanying them were the first to travel down the vantage point that they were situated from. The slope was angled to a point to be able to slide down from, but flat enough to avoid a steep, quick and sudden drop.

“Well,” Ritsu gestured towards the base of the hill. “Aren’t you gonna follow them? Ladies first.”

Mio gave a low sigh. She stood up from her crouched position and holstered her rifle. The two girls were waving to her as she stared at the foot of the hill.

“Go ahead, it’s not like you’ll get hurt or anything. It looks fun, too.” Ritsu urged her gently.

Mio took a deep breath. She took a step back and broke off into a running start. In a single bound, she had jumped down half the distance of her vantage point. The rest of the way down was to avoid any stones, sticks or debris that would impede her descent. Ritsu followed right behind her, but instead of taking the same method, she merely ran down the hill and let gravity do the most of the work for her. Nearly stumbling into a fall, Mio outstretched her arms to avoid an injury. She picked herself up brushed the dirt off her blue and yellow vault jumpsuit – the only memento that remains of her past. It was bizarre for her to wear the vault suit, compared to the others, who were garbed in regular attire befit of the apocalypse. Alongside their clothes, they were armored with leather vambraces, guards and chest pieces.

“Alright, everyone, the scavenging party starts now. You know the drill – find as many scraps that would look like they’d be worth something. Even though it looks clear, I don’t trust it one bit. If any shootouts start, you don’t want to be caught with your guard down. That’s why we’re going as a group this time. Time to move.”

Yui Hirasawa struggled to carry her assault rifle. “My gun is getting heavy…”

“Then you should’ve grabbed something even lighter from that outpost, Yui.” Mio replied.

Yui whimpered. She glanced down at her rifle. While it may be unattractive in the brunette’s eyes, the weapon was useful to her group. 

“Who gave me the idea to use something like this? It doesn’t even look cute...” She lamented.

“Don’t worry, Yui. We can take it back to town so it can get a spray or something. Hey, maybe we could even get you a keychain! We could just use the loot we’re hauling and-”

“We’re not supposed to be decorating our guns, you two.” Mio berated them. “We’re supposed to sell the junk to whoever offers the most money to us.”

Tsumugi Kotobuki effortlessly lifted her light machine gun, magazine fed with 5.56 rounds. Despite her strength, Mugi needed a stock and a muzzle brake fitted to the gun to help compensate for recoil. “Mio, they do have a point. Why don’t we use the scraps for ourselves? Of course, it would be hard to try and explain, but, there must be something we could get from keeping some of them.”

“I still think a keychain would look cool on my pistols.”

“But can we at least paint my gun pink?”

“No way, Yui! Pink looks too childish for someone living out here.”

Mio rolled her eyes and focused on the abandoned town ahead of them. It was cluttered with debris – several items may have miraculously survived the Great War. They were useful to the group for their rarity and value towards collectors and other tinkerers. She continued to ignore the argument Ritsu and Yui had, until a glint appeared from a three-story building. It reflected the sunlight pouring down from above. She squinted her eyes, only to widen them again once she realized the source of the glint.

Yui continued to argue with Ritsu. “But isn’t it cute? I bet you can’t come up with a cool color for your guns.”

“I don’t think pink is a good color for the wasteland, too.”

“Well I don’t think having a keychain is enough to make your gun cute.”

“Oh yeah? Well maybe I think-”

Ritsu was interrupted as she was shoved into an alley by Mio. “Get down!”

Her prediction was correct, as a single gunshot rang from the three-story building. The bullet collided into the road the were walking on.

Noticing Mio’s distress, Mugi grabbed Yui’s arm and pulled her behind cover. The four were concealed from the sudden threat.

“So, all clear, huh?” Ritsu snarked as she drew a pair of .45 Mauser pistols. “Alright, what’s the plan?”

“I can’t get a clear shot if I’m going to be shot at the second I peek my head out. That’s where you come in.” She leaned forward, to get a clear view of Yui and Mugi, propped against the adjacent alley. She signaled over to them. “Okay, you three - Give me some cover fire!”

The others nodded in acknowledgement. They stepped out from behind their cover and released a salvo of bullets. The volley was directed towards the general direction of the abandoned building.

Mio leaned out of her cover and steadied her rifle, focusing her sights towards the glimmer in the hostile sniper’s scope. She cycled the bolt on her rifle, loading a round into the receiver, replacing the old cartridge.

“There you are.”