“Hey!” Akane called out, running over to the body, “Can you hear me?! Are you okay?!” She called out, reaching her hand over to check the pulse of the washed-up 'corpse'. But, just inches before contact, she feels her arm grabbed by a cold and slimy hand. “WH-WHAT THE FUCK–!” Akane yanked her hand back and leapt backwards, yet the once-assumed dead body kept a death grip on her arm, pulling the odd figure onto its feet.

“Hey… you…” The mysterious girl muttered in an eerie soft voice. She spoke slowly and carefully, thus was interrupted by a charging Mirai.

“YOU WON’T TAKE MY FRIEND ZOMBIEEEE!!!!! FIRST TECHNIQUE: WHIRLWIND PALM!” Mirai shouted, throwing the heel of her palm at the girl’s chest. Her eyes suddenly widened. “HOW DID I MISS!?” One moment this girl was in her line of sight, and the next she’s right beside her! She, Mirai, was carrying her full momentum in the attack, but now with her target gone, all of this momentum instead caused Mirai to trip and tumble face-first into the dirt.

“Grrrgh- you have some nerve jumping us like that!” Akane scowled. With her right hand grabbed, she tried throwing multiple left-hooks. Yet, the figure just ducked, weaved, and dived over them while still holding onto her! “Get your grubby hands off of me!!!!” Akane yelled.

From the figure came an unexpectedly soft voice. “Excuse me… what are you doing?”

“I-I’m trying to-!- What the–” Akane froze, “I’m… wait why am I attacking?”

“Attacking? Is that a common human greeting?”

“U-uhhhh……”

Mirai rolled over on her back and coughed up some dirt, spat, then stood up and started to laugh. “PFFFHAHAHAHA! Akane, do you hear that!? She’s all like- ‘Is that a common human greeting?’ IT’S LIKE SHE THINKS SHE’S AN ALIEN FROM MARS HAHAHAHAHAAHA–”

The girl eased her hand off of Akane, backing away. “Who are you? Are you here for the fish?”

“The… fish?” Simultaneously Mirai and Akane repeated.

“Why would we–” Mirai began until Akane interrupted her,

“We’re just here to exercise. The lake’s a peaceful place… but, you still have some nerve scaring us like that. I’m Zakuro Akane, that’s Keikan Mirai, and the one behind us is Omo Haruna.”

“Heya!” Haruna politely waved.

“Omo… Keikan… Zakuro…” she repeated. At last she revealed herself from under the shadow, the darkness unmasking a girl with stunning beautiful, wavy, and salmon colored hair, pale white skin, and wearing a black heavy winter coat over her top. To top it all off, her face had bizarre black markings which look like they were in some foreign language which neither could make out. This girl suddenly started to speak in between broken sobs “I’m so glad you’re here…!”.

“Woah woah- what’s the matter?!” Haruna asked, walking over to the girl in rushed steps.

“I-I… I lost my best friend!” she sobbed.

"I’m sorry…” Akane gave a solemn apologetic reply, Mirai doing the same. Both hung their heads, equally with faces of disgust at not the mysterious girl, but themselves.

“That’s terrible!” Haruna exclaimed, “What happened? Are you okay?!”.

“I- I’m fine… he was sick for a while, so I guess I’m glad he is no longer suffering. Jeffery was like a brother to me. Whenever I laughed, he laughed. Whenever I cried, he comforted me… He was always at peace even when he knew he didn’t have long to live.”

Haruna, wiping a tear from her own eye, gave a gentle smile. “Why don’t we visit his grave together, then? I know how hard it is to lose a loved one, and I can never go to a cemetery without some comfort.”

“Grave?” she asked, tilting her head.

“H-huh… what do you mean?”

“He’s in there.” She pointed towards the lake. Immediately the group froze up. Right then and there they all learned that this girl, whoever she was, just threw her best friend’s dead body in the same lake they were training at and getting their water from.

“Y-YOU– NO-!” Akane’s face turned green, “YOU DIDN’T JUST— YOU CAN’T DO THAT!”

Omo gave in to the shakiness in her knees and fell, starting to cry. Mirai stood and stared emptily like she just witnessed a ghost.

“D-dead bodies… are supposed to be buried! Not… thrown in public lakes!!!! That’s–” Haruna tried to explain, but it was hard to speak with the large swelling in her throat and the tears pouring down her cheeks.

“What do you mean?” the girl tilted her head, “Did I do something wrong? Aren’t fish supposed to be given back to their own kind when they pass?”

“--A FISH!?” all three exclaimed.

“Y-you’re crying… over a fish…?” Akane slowly asked.

“Yeah! He was a happy goldfish.”

“You- uh…” Mirai scratched her head, “You know, I dunno what I was expecting, hehehe…”

Haruna sighed with relief, standing back up and wiping the tears off her face. “That’s a relief… Yes, then you did the right thing.”

“Phew, I am glad…” the girl nodded.

“I don’t get it though, why a fish?” Mirai asked. “We can just get you a new one at the dentist or somethin–”

“NO! No! No! No! NO!” the girl shook her head, “I can’t replace Jeffery! No one can!--...or was his name Timmy…?”

“You- did you just forget his name?”

“I- I think so…”

“But hey-” Haruna chimed in, “It’s okay to cry over a lost friend, no matter who it is. I lost my cat a few years ago. Though we got into arguments a lot and often ended up with her scratching me, we were still super close! It broke my heart to see her go, and while my current cat is still a lovely furball, I’ll always remember her.”

“They sounded like a wonderful cat… whatever that is…”

“Uhhh- wait you don’t know what a cat is?”

“Not really, what are they?”

“They’re little fluffy furballs about- er…” Haruna looked around her, spotting a rock nearby, and pointing at it. “The size of that rock! They’re cute and cuddly and I love them so much! I can let you see mine later, if you want! I’m sure Fluffers won’t mind, hehehehe..”

The group witnessed the girl starting to cheer up. She gave a cheery smile, saying: “Sure! I’d love to!”

“Then it’s settled!” Omo laughed, “Hey, Akane, can we stop training? She is clearly in grief and I think we should all work together to comfort her!--speaking of which, what is your name?”

“I… don’t know…” The girl shook her head.

“You don’t even know your name?”

“I didn’t know names were necessary…”

“Hrmmm… then is it fine I call you ‘no name’? Until we can find you a name to call you by?”

“Sure! I don’t mind…!” The girl, now dubbed ‘no name’, nodded with a small smile. To answer Haruna’s original question, Akane chimed in:

“Yeah… I think both Mirai and I owe this girl an apology of our own. Anyone up to treating themselves to some sushi? I know of a good sushi joint in Sector 6.”

“Sushi?!” Mirai exclaimed, “YEAH! That’s great–! but- can you even afford that?” She asked, looking at Haruna and ‘No name’.

Haruna looked into her wallet, flipping through her cash to count how much yen she had available. When she was done, she zipped up the wallet and pocketed it. “Yeah! I should have enough to pay for mine and ‘No name’s too!”

“Great! Because I ain’t paying for yours!” Akane chuckled. She began to pack up her things, slung her bag over her shoulders, then led the three away from the lake. “It’s rather pricey, but it’s totally worth it!”