"Hey, hey, is everything ready?" Suzuran whispered.

".... Can I go home?" Manaka yawned.

"You can't do that, desu!" Alice scolded.

"Everything should be ready already, Suzu," Honami replied.

"Should I... tell the staff... to pull up... the curtains...?" Sayuki asked in her usual slow speech patterns.

"Let's get this show on the road," Noa declared.

"Then I shall do the honors!" Yume cried.

[Yume immediately disappears, heading toward the control room and telling them to raise the curtains]

Merry Christmas!

[As the curtains go up and the girls exclaim the above words, they all jump in unison, showing off their Santa outfits; the hilt of Manaka's nagamaki catches the curtain, tearing it away from the ceiling]

"Wait, hey, this wasn't part of the script!" Suzuran exclaimed.

".... Let me deal with it," Noa sighed.

[Noa drew her okatana and used jin'i, slashing the falling curtain into perfect tablecloth-sized pieces before returning to her original position and resheathing her sword]

".... Um, are you sure you can do that?" Honami mumbled.

"Wahaha, leave it be!" Alice laughed. "The principals will clean this up later anyway."

[In the control room, the collective voices of all the principals can be heard, yelling faintly, "HEY!"]

"... Welp, we already ruined the script," Suzuran said.

"Hah, let's just wing it then," Yume declared.

"A-Anyway, this chapter is a break from the main story and we'll focus on introducing the characters," Honami stammered. "As you know, my name is Honami Mitsumine. I'm 13, born on July 13, in the seventeenth year of the Heisei era. I'm 152 centimeters tall and my weight is a secret."

"No, no, Honami weighs 44 kilograms," Suzuran blurted.

"He-Hey!" Honami exclaimed.

Suzuran ignored her and continued, "I'm Suzuran Arisugawa, also 13, and I was born on June 2, in the seventeenth year of the Heisei era. I'm 156 centimeters tall and weigh 47 kilograms!"

".... Have you no sense of shame, Suzuran?" Noa asked.

"Nope! What, is it wrong to be proud of your physique?" she replied smugly.

".... Never mind," Noa sighed. "Let's move on. I'm Noa Hiiragi, aged 14, and I was born on December 2, in the sixteenth year of the Heisei era. I'm 158 and weigh 48."

Suzuran was about to say something but was interrupted by Alice: "Hiya! I'm Alice Sakayanagi, desu! I'm 15 and I was born on October 14, 2003. Oh, that'd be Heisei 15. I'm 170 and weigh 53. Oh, and I'm half-Japanese, half-American; Papa is the owner of the Sakayanagi Group. He does quite a bit of business concerning our jobs as Toji."

"... I'm Manaka Ichinose, aged 15," Manaka yawned. "... Someone, finish for me, Imma sleep." Manaka immediately sank down to her knees and curled up on the floor.

"Wake up, Manacchi," Alice scolded, sinking down herself. Of course, her ample bust was squeezed between her knees and her head, seemingly magnifying its size.

"... Illegal," Sayuki yelled quietly. "Alice-senpai, your bust size is illegal."

"Eh?" Alice tilted her head in confusion.

"Nyahaha!" Yume laughed. "In any case, Manaka Ichinose is 15, born on September 3 of the fifteenth year of the Heisei era. She's 135 and weighs 33. Sayuki Asahina is 13, born on August 19 of the seventeenth year of the Heisei era. She's 150 and weighs 44. At least, that's what's written in the database."

"Hey, wait, Tsubakuro-san," Suzuran started.

"Nyahaha, it's fine, it's fine!" Yume replied, cutting her off. "I'm Yume Tsubakuro, aged 12, and I was born on March 3 of the eighteenth year of the Heisei era. I'm 145 and weigh 37. Now that the introductions are over with, let's begin the discussion of the main plot!"

Suzuran muttered something under her breath but added, "We're currently still in the first arc of the main story and unfortunately, I cannot yet give the actual name of the arc as that is spoilers to the plot! For now, please refer to this arc as the Sword Maiden Actuation Arc."

"... You came up with that on the spot, didn't you?" Noa questioned.

"I mean, I can't have the fans just call it 'Arc One' now, can I?"

"No, you're just going to make the people on W*ki name the arc that now!" Honami said.

"What's wrong with placeholder names?" Yume inquired. "We just need to wait for the author to officially reveal the name of the arc. Perhaps a follow on Tw*tter? Anyone know the author's account?"

[Everyone proceeds to shrug]

"Speaking of the story, so far, the readers only know about us but in fact, this story has a male protagonist," Noa stated.

"Quite," Yume added. "The main protagonist... Are we allowed to reveal his name?" Her question was punctuated by her obvious fiddling with the ring on her hand.

"Well... Should we name him?"

"His name itself isn't too important to be kept under wraps, desu..." Alice mumbled.

"I mentioned his name in the story when I was going to deca-, er, I mean, discuss, something with Honami," Yume shrugged. "The main protagonist of this work is my beloved fiancé, Kazuyuki Yanagi."

"I've heard that he's going to make an appearance sometime in the next three chapters..." Honami stammered.

"Well, I do look forward to that," Yume sighed.

"By the way, Noa-san, back when we were trying to escape in Tokyo, didn't you feel like there was someone tailing us?"

"You felt it too?"

"Yeah, but whoever it was immediately erased their presence when they noticed that we noticed them."

"True... She was wearing a traditional outfit used in kendo training so she must've been a Toji like us."

"Wow, a mysterious beauty..."

"Speaking of 'mysterious beauties', isn't there supposed to be a prin-?"

[Immediately, Suzuran, Honami, and Noa jumped Alice, sealing her mouth]

"Hey, no, you're not supposed to say that!" Suzuran scolded.

"Yes, those are some major spoilers that were about to escape from your lips!" Honami cried.

"Indeed, please refrain from accidentally revealing the author's intentions for the long-term plot of this story," Noa finalized.

[Alice nodded as the way that the three girls were restraining her put her in an extremely compromising position, especially with her oversized chest; the girls let her go]

"With that being said..." Suzuran mumbled. "Wait, was this all we were supposed to say...?"

"Well, thanks to a certain someone, we went so far off the script that we had to adlib our way through the entire thing," Noa shrugged.

"Hmm... If memory serves, we were supposed to wish the readers a Merry Christmas, introduce ourselves with minimal information because the author plans to release detailed character profiles at a later date, and provide some insight into how the story is going so far and what the author plans to do with the story following," Honami said, counting off each point on her fingers.

"Then... this means... we've already... cleared everything..." Sayuki drawled.

"Seems so, desu," Alice added. "In that case, shall we finish up?"

[The girls all lined up, Alice carrying the sleeping Manaka on her back]

"From us to you, we'd like to again wish you all a Merry Christmas!" Suzuran began.

"Do stay safe during the holidays," Noa added.

"Ma-Make sure to keep warm!" Honami stuttered.

"Don't drink too much," Alice warned.

"Be good children..." Sayuki mumbled.

".... Haah, are we done with this one-off getaway?" Manaka yawned, opening up one eye.

"... Wait, one-off getaway...?" Suzuran mumbled. "You're meaning to tell me that this is noncanon!?"