Shuichi eats his dinner, and leaves to go workout.

Back at his apartment, Shuichi only watched the news until the end of Yuki’s song preview, at which point he simply channel surfed until his dinner was finally ready. Then, with that done, Shuichi got ready to work out by putting on his sweat pants and Black Cherry t-shirt.

Maki and Mukuro were both already there at the park waiting for Shuichi when he arrived, and they both gave him a friendly wave as he approached and put down his gym bag.

“Hello, Shuichi,” Maki greeted as she leaned against a tree. “How are you feeling?”

“Pretty good - still no aftereffects of the Kibofil overdose, as far as I can tell,” he replied. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been doing fine. I mean, work continues to be a pain, of course, but there’s nothing anyone can do about that.” Maki’s eyes glanced down towards Shuichi’s shirt. “‘Black Cherry’? That’s the name of the band you’re going to see tonight, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is.” Shuichi lifted the collar of his shirt to give Maki a better view. “Do you like it?”

“Augh… you idiot.” Maki let out an exasperated sigh.

“W-wait, what do you mean? Is something wrong with my shirt?” Shuichi asked nervously.

“You mean, you don’t know? There’s no faster way to get labeled a lame poser to rock fans than to show up to a concert wearing the band’s merchandise,” Maki replied. “I’ve never even been to a concert, and even I know that.”

“Poser!?” Shuichi began to visibly sweat as panic began to set in. “W-what do I do then? Should I head back home and change? I don’t think we’ll have time to work out if we do that.”

“Calm down; you can just borrow one of my spare shirts,” Mukuro interrupted reaching for her own gym bag. “And I don’t think she meant to call you lame, either. Right, Maki?”

“I… did just call him lame, didn’t I?” Maki shamefully turned away and blushed. “Sorry, I was just… afraid people would make fun of you again.”

“It’s okay, Maki; I know you weren’t trying to be hurtful,” Shuichi replied as Mukuro handed him a new shirt. “Eh? Isn’t this… a black sleeveless muscle shirt?”

“Why, yes, it is,” Mukuro replied casually, zipping her bag back up. “Is that a problem?”

“Well… don’t you think that this kind of thing is a little too… flattering?” Shuichi glanced nervously down at his arms.

“Don’t worry, I think you can pull it off,” Mukuro said matter-of-factly. “So, are you ready to start your stretches?”

“J-just a second!” Shuichi hastily swapped his old shirt for his new one. “Alright, I’m ready when you are.”

Shuichi sat down between the two girls and they began doing their stretches together, each moving a little faster tonight because of their limited time.

“So, Shuichi… if you don’t mind, is it okay if we continue the conversation we were having yesterday?” Mukuro asked as she stretched her back. “I believe you were in the middle of telling me more about yourself. What did you say your job was again?”

“Oh, that’s right! I’m, uh, sorry to say that my job isn’t something as exotic as being a soldier or an assassin. I work as an internal auditor for a company based here in town called CO Inc.,” Shuichi explained as he stretched his legs. “Basically, it’s my job to make sure there aren’t any mistakes in reports, that budgets make sense, and no one is embezzling money. Most of that stuff is taken care of by computers automatically, though, so a lot of my job is just me reading really long numbers to make sure the decimal is in the right place, or scanning pages of invoices for grammatical errors.”

“Wow… that sounds kind of boring,” Mukuro commented bluntly as she stood up and focused on stretching her calves.

“What? No, it’s not…” Shuichi couldn’t bring himself to finish that sentence. “Alright, I’ll admit it; it’s pretty soul-crushing. There are even days when I didn’t know I was alive or not. But it has been getting a lot better lately thanks to some new friends that I’ve made. They make it a lot more bearable.”

“Really?” Maki shot Shuichi a subtle glance. “Does that include your new ‘special friend’ at work too?”

“Y-yeah, her as well.” Shuichi blushed as the mentioned Kirumi. “I only ever get to see them all during breaks, though, unfortunately.”

“Well, if you aren’t satisfied, then maybe you should seek employment elsewhere,” Mukuro suggested as they all walked to the main park path to start their jog. “Have you ever considered quitting?”

“Quitting?” Shuichi paused for thought. “No, I haven’t really. I mean, I may complain about my job, but at least it pays well. Plus, even if I did quit, what would I even do? Chances are, I’d just wind up doing something similar for another company.”

“I see… that is understandable, but you should at least have some sort of backup plan in case things don’t work out. You never know what life will throw at you, after all,” Mukuro replied as they began their jog.

“Well, what about you, Mukuro?” Shuichi asked, lightly panting as he kept pace with his friends. “Do you enjoy what you do?”

“You mean me being a sex worker and helping my sisters? Not particularly,” Mukuro replied. “It is nice to get the chance to spend time with my Pandora and Ryu, and it’s admittedly safer than working on a battlefield, but I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t need the extra money.”

“And… what was that like, if you don’t mind me asking?” Shuichi asked nervously. “You know, being a… military contractor.”

“There’s no need to be so indirect about it; I’m not ashamed of my work as a mercenary,” Mukuro replied. “Truth be told, fighting was only a small percentage of what my company did. Most of our time was spent training and being smuggled around the world in cargo planes; and whenever we got somewhere, our reputation meant we could intimidate most of our opponents into surrender. But… when we did fight, it would get very vicious.” Mukuro gazed off into the horizon as she remembered it all. “Bullets flying through the air, knee-deep mud, so much smoke in the air that you don’t even know which way is up… it’s not the kind of environment that tolerates any kind of weakness or hesitation. No amount of training can really prepare you for that.”

“O-oh…” Shuichi was stunned into silence for a few moments. “I’m… sorry you had to go through that.”

“Don’t worry; it’s no big deal.” Mukuro shrugged as she jogged. “It’s like I said yesterday; I did what I had to do to make ends meet, and now I get to live here with my family because of it. As far as I’m concerned, it all worked out in the end.”

“‘All worked out in the end’, huh?” Maki thought silently to herself. “If only things were ever that simple…”

“Alright, that’s enough jogging for now,” Mukuro announced as they returned to the spot where they left their bags. “Let’s get started on our sit-ups and finish them as soon as possible so we still have time for lunges.”

“A-are you sure we can’t skip the lunges just this once?” Shuichi asked, to which Mukuro just stared back blankly. “Augh… alright, let’s do this.”

The three continued to chat as they finished the rest of their compressed workouts, with Shuichi barely able to keep up with Maki and Mukuro even when they weren’t competing with each other. By the time they were all finished, he once again found that he had emptied his entire water bottle while his partners hadn’t so much as broken a sweat.

“Ah… that was… a good… workout!” Shuichi panted as he wiped his forehead dry by the entrance to the park. “Thanks again for doing this with me, you girls. It means a lot to me that you both gave getting along a chance.”

“Well, it’s still a work in progress, but I do admit that trying to be friends is a nice change of pace,” Maki replied.

“I agree; Maki is actually kind of fun to talk to once you get to know her,” Mukuro said with a light smile. “You were right when you said that we have a lot in common.”

“That’s good to hear,” Shuichi replied. “So… I’ll see you both here tomorrow at 9 then?”

“Yes…” Maki leaned forward and kissed Shuichi softly on the lips before stepping back and letting Mukuro do the same to him.

“... see you tomorrow.” Mukuro finished for Maki as her kiss ended.

Shuichi, too flustered to speak, just nodded nervously at the two girls before leaving the park and heading back to his convertible. Maki and Mukuro, however, headed back into the park and found the most isolated spot that they could.

“So, are you ready to spar?” Mukuro asked as she cracked her knuckles. “I want you to know that I won’t go easy on you, even if you are out of practice.”

“Funny… I was just about to say the same thing,” Maki replied with a soft chuckle.

“Good.” Mukuro nodded and removed all the knives she had hidden on her body, placing them against a nearby tree. “We’ll start with some basic hand-to-hand. Show me what you can do.”

“My pleasure.” Maki tossed off her own knives and rushed forward, attempting to grab Mukuro’s arm in a way that she could flip the larger woman onto her back. The soldier had fought this technique more than once before, however, and managed to counter it and slam Maki into the ground.

“Amateurish.” Mukuro wiped off her gloves against each other. “You can’t always count on your opponent being surprised to give you the advantage.”

“I-I know… that was just my warmup.” Maki replied, surprised by how embarrassed she felt by the situation. “You won’t get so lucky next time.”

“I’m sure I won’t.” Mukuro helped Maki get to her feet. “Now, go again.”

Maki took a breath in before dashing forward again, this time throwing rapid-fire punches at Mukuro to try and get her off-balance. The Ultimate Soldier caught each of the blows effortlessly in her hands, however, and held her ground.

“Good speed, but your aim is off,” Mukuro commented as the punches kept coming. “Do better.”

“Alright, but remember; you asked for this,” Maki replied before charging once again.