7. Preparations

Waves of tension rippled through the air. The girl's blade glowed with dark energy, but before she could release her sword's power, Muffet and Soujin arrived. Muffet pat the girl on the head and said "That's enough, Hyorine. I know I suggested this to you earlier, but do you not like your hair in a short-style?"

Muffet's arrival interrupted the tense standoff with Soujin by her side.

Hyorine's eyes flickered with recognition. She registered Muffet's presence and lowered her blade slighty.

"Captain..." she murmured. While it seemed tense was between them briefly, Hyorine's face suddenly was overcome with a blush. "Do you really think I look good with my short hair?"

Muffet smiled gently at Hyorine, "Of course. It's what you normally do when your hair gets too long, isn't it?"

Hyorine sheathed her blade and then glanced downwards.

"Um, yeah, I guess you're right," she mumbled. "Sorry..."

Hyorine finally moved from the front of the Salon to the inside.

Muffet turned to the girls remaining with a stern face yet tinged with amusement. "My my, that could have ended badly for you two if we didn't show up."

With a furrowed brow, Soujin approaches them.

"Hey, you two," Soujin begins. "Did you happen to spend the money yet?"

Cera and Bellar exchange smirks, their demeanor unapologetically defiant.

"What money, Cap?" Cera retorts with a playful tilt of her head. "We ain't got nothin'."

"Don't play dumb with me," Soujin warned with a glare.

"Aight, chill Cap! We got it...we only spent a wee bit on clothes. Gotta look fly, you know? buuuut....were totes gonna use the rest on our hair!"

Cera and Bellar exchanged triumphant glances, their smirks widening while preparing to reveal their supposed stack of cash to Soujin.

"Check it out, Cap," Cera declared with a cocky grin, reaching into her pocket and pulling out...nothing.

Soujin blinked in disbelief as Cera waved her empty hand with her eyes closed. When she opened them, her eyes grew big and she looked confused.

"Uh...Cera, what are you doing?" Bellar whispered while casting a wary glance around to see if anyone was watching.

Cera's eyes widened in horror. She frantically searched through her pockets.

"Where is it?! I could have sworn I had it!"

Bellar's eyes widened. "You...you don't have it?!"

Cera shook her head in frustration. She tried to think back to piece together what had happened and then, it hit her like a ton of bricks.

"That bitch...Hyorine!" Cera exclaimed, her eyes widening in realization. "She must have...she...she stole it from me!"

Bellar's jaw dropped in shock. "You mean to tell me...that creepy girl from earlier...she's the one who took our goods?!"

Cera nodded and then clenched her fists in anger. She raised one of them infront of herself with fire blazing out of her eyes. "That's the only explanation. She must have used some kind of Mystcry spell to steal it from me when I wasn't looking!"

Soujin was unsure of what to make of the situation.

"Looks like you two have some unfinished business to take care of," Soujin remarked while raising an eyebrow.

Cera's eyes narrowed. She turned to face Bellar with the rage of a Volcano "We're gonna find that creepy girl and were going to wreck her shit! Got it?!"

Bellar nodded in agreement, her own fury matching Cera's. "Hell yeah, we're gonna make her regret messing with us!"

The two girls went into the Salon, only to find that somehow Hyorine vanished. "What?!...She just walked in here!"

Cera's frustration reached its peak and she grit her teeth. She scanned the interior of the salon from one corner to the next in search of any sign of Hyorine to no avail.

"This ain't makin' no sense!" Cera growled, her fists clenched in anger. "Where the hell did she disappear to?!"

Bellar raised her eyebrows and joined Cera in scouring the salon. "I don't get it...she was just here a minute ago."

"I don't like this, Cera," Bellar muttered. "Something ain't right about all this."

Cera's jaw tightened. Her anger grew beneath the surface like molten lava ready to erupt. "Yeah, well, she's crossed the wrong crew! We're gonna hunt her and mark my words… WHEN WE CATCH HER…., ohoho, she's in for a world of hurt! We'll make her regret the day she dared to mess with us!"

With a final glance around the empty salon, The girls stormed out, their minds consumed with thoughts of revenge.

Meanwhile, outside the salon, Soujin stood with Muffet watching Cera and Bellar's hasty exit.

"I hope they don't do anything stupid," Soujin murmured with his arms folded.

Muffet placed a reassuring hand on Soujin's shoulder, her gaze softening with understanding. "They'll be fine, Soujin. Sometimes, people just need to learn things the hard way."

Soujin nodded in agreement.

The night wore on and the girls search for Hyorine yielded no results. They found themselves feeling defeated and exhausted. They scoured every corner of the city but there was not even a hint of the target.

"God damnit! I can't believe this shit," Cera grumbled. "We've searched everywhere and still can't find that sneaky little bitch!"

Bellar sighed heavily slumping her shoulders."I know, right? It's like she disappeared into thin air or something."

With a resigned shake of her head, Cera threw her hands up in frustration. "Forget it, Bellar. Let's just head back home.I'm starving and I don't have the energy to keep looking for her."

Bellar nodded in agreement with her stomach growling audibly. "Yeah, I could definitely go for some pizza right about now. Too bad we don't have anything to spend thanks to that thieving brat."

Cera's eyes narrowed and a scowl appeared on her face. "Damn that Hyorine! She's gonna pay for this shit, mark my words."

After their meager meal of low budget noodles, Cera and Bellar returned to their dilapidated rooms in the rundown Squad 3 barracks. Despite having to live under less than ideal conditions, they found a way to make themselves as comfortable as possible before settling for the night.

Cera flopped onto her makeshift bed, her arms behind her head. She stared up at the cracked ceiling above.

"Yo, Bellar. Do you ever think about, like, actually helping the Cap fix up this dump of a building?"

Bellar sprawled out on her own bed nearby, snorted derisively. "Is that even a question?" She leaned in to Cera with a smirk.

"Of course not!"

Cera let out loud laugh at Bellar's response, shaking her head in amusement. "Yeah, what was I even thinking?"? The exhaustion of the day finally caught up to her.

THE NEXT DAY:

Cera and Bellar stirred from their sleep. They blinked their eyes open, expecting to see the same old broken down building they were accustomed to but to their surprise, they found themselves lying in actual beds. They were surrounded by clean walls and sturdy furniture.

Bellar sat up, rubbing her eyes in disbelief. "Yo, Cera, am I dreaming or did someone upgrade our living situation?"

Cera blinked, equally perplexed by their sudden change in surroundings. "This is hella weird," she muttered, looking around in astonishment. "Did the cap finally decide to invest in some renovations or something?"

But that wasn't the only thing that they found had changed. They briefly peeped out into the hallway to find that that the entire building had undergone a miraculous transformation. The cracked walls were now smooth. It was also freshly painted and the broken furniture had been replaced with more sturdy pieces.

Bellar scratched her head. "Did we sleep through some kind of renovation project or what?"

Just as Cera and Bellar were trying to make sense of their unexpected upgrade, the door to their room creaked open. A group of boys suddenly entered. The two girls looked down at themselves finding that they were at least partially covered up.

The leader of the group, a guy walking with a confident swagger stepped forward. "Yo yo yo, ladies," he greeted with a nod before noticing they weren't fully dressed. "Hope we ain't interrupting anything important."

Cera raised an eyebrow. "What's up, boys? You look like yall seen a ghost or somethin'."

The man shook his head in amusement. "Nah, nah yall trippin. The capt'n wants to see everyone, capiche?"

Bellar exchanged a puzzled glance with Cera. Bellar spoke with her brow furrowed in confusion. "The captain? What for?"

The leader shrugged. "Beats me, but he seemed pretty insistent about it. Said it was important yall two come specifically too."

Cera and Bellar exchanged a glance. Whatever they wanted, it was sure to be interesting.

Alright, we'll be there," Cera replied with a nod. "Lead the way, boys."

One boy stammered who was in the back of the lead man. "U-Um... shouldn't they get fully dressed first? I mean it would be appropriate to show up in your uniform and not..."

The leader chuckled, waving off the concern. "Nah, they're good. The cap just wants to see everyone ASAP and it's not like we got time to waste waitin' for them to doll up. "

The hesitant boy nodded, albeit still looking a bit uncomfortable with the situation. "Y-Yeah, I guess you're right. Let's just get going then."

With that, the group of boys turned and began to lead the girls through the newly renovated barracks.

At the meeting, Soujin stood before the group eyeing them all with disbelief and frustration. It was clear that nobody had taken the "meeting" seriously. They all showed up looking any kind of how, especially with how little clothing Bellar and Cera had on. Soujin resisted the urge to facepalm. His hand was shaking. He was thinking about it. This was like running hell's kitchen for him.

Taking a deep breath to compose himself, Soujin forced a smile onto his face

'Play it cool Soujin... play is cool...'

"Alright, listen up, everyone," Soujin began "We've got a lot to cover today, so let's try to keep this short and sweet."

He glanced around and his eyes lingerered on Cera and Bellar who were looking particularly disheveled.

"In two days we'll be setting out for our next mission. Before we get into that, I want to address something important."

He paused for a moment then began speaking again. "You may have noticed that the Squad building got repaired last night while we were all sleeping."

A murmur of surprise rippled through the members of the division.

"I managed to call the people and get the barracks fixed up," Soujin explained then eyed Bellar and Cera. "It was not cheap."

Bellar and Cera held guilty looks realizing the extent of the efforts made to improve their living conditions despite their own lack of contribution.

Soujin thought in his mind. 'Thank god for Muffet... the only reason I was able to do this is because she got the money back from Hyorine and gave it to me... it costed me every single penny but i'd better not let them know any of that...'

"Now, onto our next mission," Soujin announced" As you all know, we've been assigned to investigate reports of increased monster activity in the Senodokidatsu forest. Despite what any of you think, it won't be easy. Since this is the case, I want to train with you all and gauge your levels of strength in our new and improved training area."

"What are you tryin' to say, Cap? That we can't handle ourselves out there?" Cera said interrupting Soujin.

Soujin raised a hand. "Hey, hey, calm down, Cera. I'm not saying you can't fight. I'm just saying I haven't seen you all in action yet."

Cera crossed her arms. "Well, then let me prove it to you. I'm the strongest one in this squad, and I'll take on any challenge you throw at me!"

Soujin hesitated for a moment, unsure if he was making the right decision. But then he remembered Muffet's words about pushing boundaries and decided to go for it.

"Alright, Cera," Soujin said despite his inner doubts. "Prove yourself to me. Let's see what you're made of."