Disclaimer:

The property Kampfer, the doujins involving Shirou-ko and Archer-ko and through these Fate/Stay Night are referenced in this work. An active effort has been made to modify things so that plagiarism is avoided.

Characters are either references to fictional characters or are independently derived and hence any similarity to real persons is entirely coincidental.

[/\]

The birds were singing their various melodies this morning.

"Sakura can we talk?"

"Of course." She said cheerfully enough that she was almost chirping herself. "What would you like to talk about Natsuru?"

Natsuru steeled himself. "You modified my memory." He managed to get out, quietly.

Sakura looked at him in concern for a long moment before closing her eyes and sighing and snapping her fingers. Natsuru could feel the memories coming back.

"Thank you."

Sakura turned towards him with a melancholic smile, hugging her. "I wasn't trying to hurt you. You're important to me, you always have been."

"Sakura, you've always trusted me before, can you trust us to deal with things?"

Sakura's hand caressed Natsuru's cheek as Sakura looked at her with an interested look that had an odd piercing quality. "Okay. I'll trust you, but know that there are other things influencing us."

Natsuru's mind wandered to last night's little revelation, and its ramifications. He still wasn't sure what to think about that. While he could see how things fit together his mind refused to wrap itself around the idea that Megumi had originally been a guy.

"Are you ignoring me?" Sakura whispered playfully from next to her ear. She felt so intimately close.

Natsuru flushed, and managed stutter out an "I" before Sakura pulled away with a secretive smile. Following the direction of her gaze he noticed that the bus was coming.

[/\]

It'd been nice to sit with Sakura and just talk. They hadn't talked about anything important and it certainly wasn't like they hadn't talked like this before, but that had been before Sakura had taken her on a date. Now they were a couple, and she kept catching herself because she'd stopped listening to what Sakura was saying to just look at her.

"We're here." Sakura said smiling.

Natsuru blinked. Oh… right. She awkwardly got up and stepped back to let Sakura out first.

"Thank you." Sakura said with a glowing smile.

Natsuru trailed behind her thoughts having little to do with buses or schools. She'd just gotten off the bus when an arm blocked her way. Looking around she noticed that Sakura was no longer in sight and turned towards the person who had seen fit to obstruct his path.

"You have been summoned."

The woman simply stood there with her hands at her side. She was something that Natsuru was only familiar with through rumors about a white haired ghost thing that haunted the campus and preyed on people who did something. He had normally tuned out around that point, as it was always something stupid. This woman appeared to be quite solid, with a subdued air of menace. It wasn't hard for him to see why there would be such rumors, as she looked utterly unnatural.

Her long pinkish white hair had been woven into a tight braid that had been laid over her shoulder, the pink emphasized by her unnaturally pale skin. The paleness of her skin in turn being thrown into stark contrast thanks to her wearing a dark black outfit that was only punctuated by an odd red garment that looked like someone had decided to take a shot cloak and make a minimal effort to give it sleeves. Where the garment ended up bordering on the fringe of the woman's chest and cord that held it "closed" serving in turn to emphasize the woman's rather substantial breasts.

Natsuru realized he was staring, which he felt doubly bad about as she was so… dignified. "I don't understand."

"Follow." She turned and began walking. Natsuru debated simply defying the direction for a moment, but his curiosity got the better of him. After everything he'd had to deal with in the past three days, something this relatively benign was almost refreshing.

Rushing up alongside the strange woman, he asked. "Just who are you?"

She just barely glanced his way, and simply said "You may call me Emi."

Natsuru walked along for several moments at a loss for anything that seemed appropriate to say. Most of his questions seemed like they'd just be rude.

"You won't be harmed." The way she said it implied to him that there was an expectation someone was liable to try, and Emi at least intended to protect him. Natsuru squashed an emotional reaction he wasn't going to take ownership of, and began visual scanning. While he's never had much, that didn't mean he'd always been able to live places there wasn't a real issue of people deciding that what little he had was worth taking. He had learned that other people couldn't protect you the hard way.

[/\]

The walk however was utterly uneventful with them not even seeing that many people along the way, before ending in this excessively large office. Natsuru was pretty sure it was actually larger than his entire apartment, and despite having all that space it didn't really have anything in it except an oversized desk at which was sitting the infamous Student President. A large portion of the male student body considered her to be the hottest girl in school. He couldn't say he ever saw it. She was rich bitch with a not exactly hidden tendency to use people in an utterly cavalier way.

Still he could go through the motions of showing respect when it was due. He made a slight bow. "Good Morning, Student President."

She looked at him for several moments, which he was pretty sure were supposed to soften him up based on involving an uncomfortable silence. It might even have worked if he actually cared about StuGo's antics. He was more liable to be bored than anything else.

"Do you know why I called you here today?" Stupid leading questions, oh joy.

"No, but I was getting worried you were going to declare your undying love for me." He really wasn't in the humoring mood right now. He had, had more than enough crap to deal with this past week without playing the princess' games.

She smirked in response, before lazily slinking out of her chair and walking to within a few feet of him. "You don't like me, do you?" Her tone was almost mocking in its utter dismissal.

"You use people, and throw them away like they're trash." Natsuru could help but gesture accusingly at her, his voice full of disdain at the utter injustice of it all.

Her response was a short laugh that Natsuru could almost feel the woman standing to his right stiffen in response to. "You speak your mind, I like that about you." She then slunk back towards her desk.

"She may go." She waved dismissively in their direction.

Natsuru couldn't wait to hear the door close behind him. "What does she have on you, Emi?" He couldn't help but let a little bit of his anger towards the Student President's antics bleed into his voice.

Emi didn't even slightly turn in his direction, although once again he could almost feel the woman stiffen in response. It was the weirdest sensation.

"I might not be the best judge of character, but I know how Shizuku works and I'm pretty sure you aren't shallow enough to fall for her usual tricks." Natsuru pushed.

"You seem to know her rather well." There was a degree of ironic amusement in her response.

"Not directly, but I'm a friend of someone who has been her friend for years and I hear things."

"She's not a saint, but she maintains the peace." That didn't sound like a reason so much as an excuse. And really what kind of StuGo bullshit had she been sold that...

"She's a Kampfer." Natsuru blurted it out before his mind caught up with him. Still not mindful of his current audience he mused. "Of course she's a Kampfer."

"You just now realized that?" The question was more in wonderment then condemnation. Natsuru did a worse job of hiding that he had been startled then he'd prefer to admit to.

Another realization based on the consequences of that fact occurred to him, and he instantly wheeled around and ripped that stupid overly fancy and ornate door open. "You're a Kampfer, aren't you?"

"I thought we already established that." The Student President was completely non-plushed by the outburst or his striding up to her desk.

"So screwing with your admirers' heads isn't enough, you have to murder people too?" He was pissed, he was really pissed.

"Of course not, that's what minions are for." Her response was so matter of fact, dismissive, and of the tone of someone who was explaining something to someone mentally slow that they looked down upon.

Natsuru formed a fireball and prepared to throw it before he even thought about it, but a hand caught his wrist before he was in a position to throw holding it in an iron grip. Looking at the source of the restraint Natsuru saw that it was Emi. Looking at her arm she realized that not only was she holding a fireball but that she was literally on fire. She stared in confusion at the licking flames that engulfed her and as it began to click in her mind they went out.

"You seem to be rather naïve, Ms. Senou. Let's start with your immediate concern. What concerns you so much about the fact, as you would put it, that I 'use' people?" The Student President had the absolute gall to be completely nonplussed, and act like he was somehow wronged headed for recognizing that using and exploiting people was wrong.

Natsuru turned on her, her rage back in force. "What's wrong with you? What do you mean what concerns me so much about it? You twist people's feelings and treat them as something expendable and you need me to give you specifics?"

"They are enamored with me, and are willing to do things for me to show their dedication. Why shouldn't I allow them to exercise their desires towards productive ends?" She said like it was simply the way of things, and if anything something to be applauded.

Just how messed up was she that she could say something like that with a straight face? Her next outburst however was stopped as a hand clamped down on her mouth. She started to violently struggle but noticed the sleeve was dark black, and decided to stop.

"I'm sure you have more important things to be doing Madam President." Emi said from behind her, pulling her backwards.

The president had an odd grin and looked like she was going to say something to the contrary, when a messenger rushed in distracting her. Emi made good on the opportunity, and they were quickly outside the door.

"That was foolish." Emi said before letting her go. Natsuru didn't move much, and was trying hard to not take ownership of actually being unhappy that Emi wasn't holding her anymore. "You're lucky she considers you harmless, and was in the mood to find you amusing. She's killed people for far less."

"I guess I should go then."

[/\]

Natsuru stormed out of the stupid Student President's building. If he wasn't a peace loving newbie he'd have killed her right there and done humanity a favor. What kind of abomination was she that she could even see things in those kinds of terms? She wasn't exploiting them, she was simply giving them the opportunity to serve her high and mighty self indeed. And why would Emi hang out with and defend someone like that? And… Natsuru slammed into something while walking full tilt, which gave way under him causing both of them to fall.

What had that been about? Looking around Natsuru noticed that a girl with white hair was lying under her and lightly groaning in pain. Recognition slowly dawned on him as he helped her up, it was the Spider. Reflexively manifesting a fireball, Natsuru gave himself some distance.

"You're not going to try to kill me again are you?" There was more fear and desperation in his voice then he would have liked, but the mix of that and the rest sounded more psychotic then anything so good enough.

The Spider blinked at her as if it was a completely foreign concept. "Nobody goes up against the Guardian or the Queens."

"The Queens?" Natsuru asked skeptically. Calling Yureka the Guardian he could kind of buy, but what was this about "Queens?"

"Yeah, the Red Queen, the Blue Queen, you know the masters of sword and sorcery." She said it like this was something he should know already. That it was something it was commonly accepted knowledge that everyone knew it, and the thought of not knowing about it was an utterly foreign concept.

Natsuru stared at her blankly trying to make sense of what she was saying, and failing.

"It's good that you look so good, and smell so nice. You're clearly not getting by in the brains department." The Spider observed.

Natsuru decided to ignore the slight, and focus on the weird part. "I'm sorry, I smell so nice?"

The Spider raised an eyebrow and drawing closer sniffed. "Yeah, don't decide to stop bathing but your scent turns me on."

Okaaay. Changing the subject, now. "What was that you were saying about the Queens?"

"Well the Red Queen is the master of combat. The current Red Queen is a Zauber specializing in the ability to use her magic to create various weapons. You can spot her real easy because she wears this red coat. Then there's the Blue Queen. The current Blue Queen is a Zauber specializing in Elemental Magic. She wears this blue coat, and all the runner ups have various ways of displaying their color and ranks. That's none of my business though. I'm just trying to survive.

What does it matter how you rank if all that comes of it is you set yourself up to be attacked? There's always going to be someone stronger then you. You might as well just go ahead and slit your wrists yourself."

"What about Shizuku?" Might as well check in on that while he was digging up information.

"The Student President? Word of advice. Don't screw with her. She's the one in charge of this whole damn operation. You cross her and you're liable to disappear." The Spider showed legitimate concern and fear over her even being brought up. Then apparently noticing the pause she immediately transferred to a very different attitude. "So, do you want to make out?"

"Wha?" Natsuru started slowly backing away. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me and all that.

The Spider wasn't the least bit deterred by his retreat, and continued to pursue until Natsuru found his back to a tree. Before he could really process that his avenue of retreat was obstructed the Spider pounced. Unlike last time it did not end with a pair of fangs sinking in to his shoulder. This time the Spider seemed a lot more interested in smelling her then hurting her.

"You really do smell nice." She said airily. "But you wouldn't survive five minutes against a real threat." She followed up in a much more level headed voice, pulling back. "Call me sometime." She walked away, and Natsuru noticed that a piece of paper was in his hand.

[/\]

Yureka showed up on scene to find Team Sigma wasn't currently in a fire fight with a single Kampfer that was spraying bullets everywhere. Bullets zipped and ricochets glanced off nearby pieces of concrete and stone with distinctive twangs. For one person with nothing more than a pistol she was lying down a rather impressive amount of fire. None of it was particularly accurate or purposeful, but the almost random stream of fire was creating a rather obnoxious threat.

"What's the situation?" She called.

Calico glanced towards her from her position of cover. "Three dead, five wounded. She'd holed herself up behind that cement garden, and seems to realize we can mow her down if she moves." She fired a short burst in the direction of said cement garden as if to emphasize the point.

Cheshire continued to lay there looking through her scope. "Looks like she got a little vengeance and then panicked when we made her aware she wasn't the only one on the block that could kill people. We've kept her alive but suppressed, just like you prefer boss."

"I'll handle it from here, good job you two."

Yureka proceeded towards the miscreant who'd decided to try to shoot up the bus stop this morning, a visible double proceeding along the more obvious path.

"You can't win you know." The double called in the direction the girl was hiding.

"Fuck you, bitch!" She called while poking her gun out and blindly randomly spraying

Yeah, yeah fuck me. Could she at least pretend to be inventive to come up with something that could be really called an insult? What was she, three that she was so impressed with the fact she could verbalize dirty words that others didn't appreciate her saying? Yeah, yeah look at me I'm so special because I can be a nasty little twerp.

Yureka began to close the distance moving among the low cement structures, and using them for cover. Random bullets were random, and there was no reason to subject herself to that. Usually they were a little more cagey about not letting themselves get fixed in a position, but this newbie didn't appear to have budged and was just continuing to wildly spray bullets as fast as she could reload. As Yureka rounded the last corner her suspicions were confirmed. The girl was clearly panicking. It was almost too easy.

Grab gun, twist out, left hook and she dropped into her arms like a sack of flour. Yureka extended the cloak. As such things went things were going rather well. The redhead was for all intents and purposes unconscious, unarmed, and by a rank amateur's definition neutralized. A little rummaging netted her wallet.

She was one Akane Makashima. Based on her picture she looked like she was a meek type before the transformation. That made sense. As they said it was always the quiet ones. They were the ones that held their anger and aggression in most being unable to effectively express themselves against the injustices wrought against them, and were thus least able to deal with it when unchained.

Cute girl, all things considered. She almost felt bad that they were going to need some alone time to straighten out why you did not try to shoot up the school. At least casualties had been relatively light, although they might need to add one to that list as a fatality if someone decided they weren't going to learn some control.

She looked at the pistol in her hand that was almost too hot to hold through the wooden grips. Magically summoned and reinforced weapon or no, girl had been well on her way to having an accident. Definitely panicked.

[/\]

"Hey Natsuki." Natsuru smiled as Sakura walked into his classroom. It had been weird the way no one seemed to consider him being a girl out of the ordinary. Apparently the guys remembered "her" to be someone who turned them down quickly, and didn't really humor flirting. A few girls he couldn't remember taking note of however were now apparently "her" friends. That had involved a variety of conversations he could have lived without hearing.

Harikiri Tiger has apparently meant it when he said there was paperwork for a Natsuki Senou now, as everyone insisted on calling him that and didn't understand why he asked about Natsuru. He'd decided to keep his mouth shut after "Natsuki's" "friends" had begun speculating about what school Natsuru went to, treating this mysterious person as if her was "Natsuki's" crush. Whoever these "sponsors" were and whatever their goals were they demonstrated capabilities that were rather disturbing in their implications given how casually they could be employed.

"Aww…" Miyami said clearly recognizing the Sakura showing up meant that "Natsuki" wasn't going to be hanging out with them for a while. At this point Natsuru was happy to leave.

[/\]

Hitomi showed up on the way to the cafeteria and joined their group despite encouragement to the contrary. She seemed utterly oblivious to the concept she and Sakura might want some time to themselves. Of course, Sakura was accommodating her in that…

"What are you looking so down about?" Hitomi asked looking straight at him.

"Natsuki can be a little shy. She probably wanted to talk about some things she's intimidated to talk about in front of you." Sakura said with a smile.

Hitomi looked troubled by that.

[/\]

The basement was predictably dimly lit with dull exposed steel I-beams, various pipes, and unadorned concrete making up the décor. About halfway through lunch Hitomi had insisted that she needed to talk with her a moment, and when they were out of the earshot of eavesdroppers the Yureka needed them to see something in the basement. Hence here they were in an area of the building most students avoided.

Chained up against one of the metal I-beams was a girl. There was a bruise on her right jaw bone, and her head was down with her short red hair cascading down and obscuring her features. Yureka was sitting at a desk next to her with an open notebook.

"Isn't that a little excessive?" Natsuru asked his companion.

Hitomi looked at him, at the restraints, and back to him. "You'd be surprised. For a newbie Gewehr it's not strictly necessary, but there's no reason to needlessly endanger ourselves."

As they drew close Yureka stoof up an turned towards them. "This is Akane Makashima." Yureka said while handing over the girl's student ID, which looked nothing like her. "She shot eleven people while you were away talking with the Student President. Three of them are now in the morgue and five are being hospitalized. Everyone who's not a Kampfer had either already forgotten about it or remembers it as chaotic bit of gang violence with no clear memory of the particulars like when or where it occurred. What do you make of this?"

Natsuru looked at the girl. She was dirty and… Natsuru realized that she was awake and looked was very uncomfortable, her muscles clearly beginning to strain.

"She should be put down like the dog she is." Hitomi said simply.

"Why is she chained up like that?" Natsuru asked.

Hitomi turned in her direction and looked at her like she was an idiot. "Because she's a dangerous murderer, Natsuki."

"Partially correct." Yureka said before releasing the locks, and catching the girl before she had the opportunity to fall. "I think you've made your opinion on matters clear Hitomi. What's yours Natsuki?"

"Why'd she do it?" He asked noting that the girl seemed to have snuggled up to Yureka and fallen asleep.

"That's a good question, and one I've spent the last three hours talking to her about. Up until yesterday she was a shy introverted girl that few people noticed, and spent most of her time escaping into books, and most of those who did notice her were of the bully variety. Last night she received a visitor that shall we say, gave her some confidence? And suddenly all that aggression and nasty thoughts she'd been internalizing weren't internal anymore and she had the power to express them.

And the externalizing of that is what happened this morning. She's calmed down quite a bit now that she finally has someone to talk to." Natsuru noted that Yureka had started rubbing the unconscious smaller girl's back.

"You're going to let her go." Natsuru observed.

Yureka smiled and started to say something before Hitomi interrupted. "Why would Yureka let her go? She's a murderer."

"Maybe because I'm more of a murderer then her." Yureka interjected.

"That's different, you" Yureka cut her off before Hitomi could finish the sentence.

"She realized what she did is wrong and is no longer a threat. If we killed every Kampfer that murdered someone we wouldn't have very many left, Hitomi. She'll be watched closely over the next few weeks, as is our way."

Natsuru could see that Hitomi's fist was balled up. "Yes, Ma'am." She gritted out.

[/\]

Mhmmm it felt warm. Akane latched on to something soft that was nearby. It felt nice.

"Finally decided to wake up sleepyhead?" A gentle voice called. Something accommodated her head as she pulled the nice thing closer. Mhmmm.

After several minutes passed she blinked and opened her eyes. Recognition of her tiled surroundings came quickly, and she suddenly recognized the feeling of warm water around her. Glancing up she saw the face of the raven haired girl from before, and realized she was hugging her tightly.

"Where are we?" She asked, not budging from her position.

"You needed a bath, so I took you to a bath." The raven haired girl responded simply.

"Thank you." Akane felt hands begin to work at the tense muscles of her back.

[/\]

Hitomi was waiting for her as she left the school. "I guess I forgot that you're not my partner just because Yureka said so. So let's hang out sometime and get to know each other better. I want us to be able to trust each other."

That's not quite what he expected, but okay. "When would you like to hang out?"

"How about we go to the mall this weekend?" She asked.

"Okay." He agreed.

As she began to walk off Sakura walked up. "I was thinking us going on another date this weekend."

Sakura picked up on his pained expression and glanced in the direction of Hitomi's retreating form. "Did she ask you to hang out with her this weekend?"

"Yes." Answered quietly as Sakura leaned in closer studying her.

"Do you like her?" Implicit in the question was whether he liked her more than Sakura.

"Not like that. I…"

"You're cute when you're embarrassed." She gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "I'll walk you home Friday afterschool." Her voice making it clear that they'd be a lot more then walking. As he was trying to process that she grabbed his hand and started walking towards the gate.

[/\]

"You're being rather clingy." Yureka noted as the red head made a point to sit right next to her.

"You don't like me?" The redhead looked troubled.

Yureka gently cupped the redhead's chin. "You've got it rather bad don't you?"

She flushed almost as red as her hair. Yureka tried to smile comfortingly, but was sure it was off. "You remind me of me. Back when I was starting out I was invisible to my peers, and then after a visit from a stuffed animal I could literally become invisible. I tried to lay low, but I caught the attention of someone I thought was nice."

After a few minutes of quiet the redhead looked at her. "What happened to her?"

Yureka shrugged. "I don't know. The last thing I remember is coming to my senses while standing in a room full of corpses three years ago. I used the address I found in a wallet I was carrying to find an apartment I was carrying a key to, which had a journal the last entry talked about going to that girl's house ten years ago. Something to think about."

Things were quiet for a few minutes while they ate, and then the redhead asked. "Do you have someone special?"

"Not in the sense you mean." Yureka said simply.

The redhead leaned against her. Yureka looked at her and noticed Akane had closed her eyes and was looking rather content. "Does a little understanding really justify all this, Akane?"

In response, Akane pulled her close. "You're not being very honest. You didn't take me to the bath and invite me here just because you felt understanding." She began drawing closer. "I'm not a mousey brunette anymore." Their lips were almost touching. "I'm a _red_ _hot_ _redhead_." Akane kissed her aggressively.

[/\]

"You looked like you were doing better today Natsuki."

"I guess I'm starting to get used to it."

Megumi regarded her with a cautious expression. "Just don't let yourself get too used to it."

Natsuru looked at her for a long moment. "What happened to you?"

Megumi looked at her for a moment before smiling. "I'll show you if you'll come by my place."

"Okay."

[/\]

Megumi opened the door revealing a décor that was rather unique, to say the least. On one side there was a relatively new electronic video camera hooked up to a laptop showing various pictures of girls he did and did not recognize from campus. Many of which were either action shots, or compromising in nature. On the actual wall several posters for various high profile action movies were taped to the wall. On the other side with the futon was a stuffed animal, and a shelf full of mahou shoujo anime.

Something about that video camera and the movies the posters were associated with seemed very familiar. He also got the impression he'd been forced to watch several of those magical girl titles, and that Nanoha had actually turned out to be awesome by the second season. All of which was here in the shelf, nicely ordered and organized. That left him wondering who he had seen all of that with, or for that matter when. It didn't seem like something he would have went out of his way to see or been particularly interested in.

He certainly didn't own any anime DVDs, or for that matter a television. He'd bought a slightly used computer off a gamer when he'd cycled his systems for the latest and greatest for practically nothing, and had internet access through his landlord but that was about it. It gave him the ability to keep on the latest news, write up various school reports, and do other things...

"So do you remember me forcing you to watch those?"

Natsuru took a moment to process that. On the face of it, it didn't make any sense. Sure Megumi was a tomboy, energetic, and had always been getting him into trouble but why would he have watched anime together with her. The thought that Megumi had not always been Megumi intruded, and for an instant he almost saw a dark haired boy standing in her place, but it rapidly faded.

"No. Did we do that?"

Megumi looked uncharacteristically sheepish. "Yeah, I used to run what I called the bishoujo research club. My hobby was cataloguing and researching all the hot girls on campus."

"So in other words you were a creepy pervert." Natsuru deadpanned.

"Yeah." Megumi looked away and seemed like she was trying to recapture something. Not one to invade upon other's weird mental fantasies, Natsuru left her to it.

Given the information he had just been given he could begin to piece things together, although it still didn't feel right that Megumi had ever been anyone other than Megumi. Perhaps it was better to think of her as Higashida at the moment, to help him try to comprehend who she had been, without the lens of who she was now. So… Higashida had been a pervy guy that was big on taking pictures of girls, researching the girls on campus, and magical girl anime. Okay, really going to need to decouple the brain for this one.

Higashida had for some reason been friends with him, probably so he could have a fall man. This included him going along with watching various action movies Higashida had wanted to see, and watching his rather expansive magical girl anime collection. Best not to dwell on the whys of it all, when wrapping his brain around the concept Megumi had been a guy refused to stick. He wouldn't be able to operate with enough perspective to draw anything that'd resemble rational explanations, under the circumstances. The more important aspect of all this wasn't really who Higashida had been afterall. It was to get a better understanding of just what he was up against here. What had happened to Higashida, and how long he had before similar things started happening to him.

Author's Notes:

This was delayed due to a combination of underestimating the work associated with finishing this chapter and reworking the previous ones, and RL workloads.

I must admit I'm surprised there was so much confusion over who the Spider and Megumi were, but then I'm the one crafting the story and I was going for something of a reveal. Outside of Mikoto's transformed form there is exactly one character with what would be characterized as white hair, and that's the Vice Rep. The implication in turn was that she was paired with the other two, who she back stabbed before the beginning of the story. Similarly Natsuru in turn with most of the available media has exactly one male friend, aka Kenji Higashida.

Shizuku fans feel free to let me know your thoughts, now that she's been introduced.