“Did you have to pack that much, Tomi?” A short girl asks as she pushes a cart full of suitcases to the check-in.

“We don’t know how long we’ll be in Korea, Nako-chan. Besides, my parents told me to pack gifts for the others.” The other girl, Hitomi, replies.

“I thought this was supposed to be a mission, not a holiday like last time.” Nako says. It had been more than six months since the duo had been to Korea for Yujin and Wonyoung’s birthday. Since then, they’ve both been very busy assisting with the restructuring of the AKB system as well as watching the trial of Dr. Koyama which went without a hitch. Their old enemy was sentenced to twenty years behind bars for conspiracy and illegal weapon development among other charges. Hitomi felt like the punishment was still too short, but it was better than her going free. Everything was finally calming down for the couple until a couple days ago.

“Hii-chan? Hello?” Nako’s voice calls, snapping the peach-cheeked girl out of her thoughts.

“Sorry about that… just got a lot of things on my mind. It’s not every day that your house gets blown up, you know?. I just hope my parents and Jurina will be fine.” She replies. The short girl’s expression softens at this, placing an arm around her girlfriend’s shoulder to calm her down.

“Jurina’s been through worse. She’ll bounce back. Shige said they’d take care of her and your parents at one of the facilities while we’re gone. When Jurina wakes up, she’ll contact us. Maybe then we’ll have a hint on what in the world is going on. As for your house… just think of it as a chance to remodel.” Nako says before they finally arrive at their gate. Seunggi had spared no expense in getting two of PD campus’ best agents back to Korea.

As Hitomi sits in her comfy first class seat, the fatigue she’d accumulated over the past few days finally weighed on her. Her eyes then slowly begin to shut, thinking back to the day of the attack.

~~~~

Hitomi was in the garden at the back of her parents’ house watering plants while Nako helped prepare lunch. It felt like a perfect day. The two girls didn’t have any tasks in AKB and Dr. Koyama’s trial had finally been concluded. For the first time in a while, there wasn’t a mission they had to take care of. That’s when she heard someone knocking on the front door.

“I’ll get it!” The peach-cheeked girl had said, putting her watering can down.

“Who is it?” Hitomi asked as she approached the door, but the knocking only persisted which put her a bit on edge.

When she arrives at the entrance, she quietly commands the roses next to the window spill to grow thorns just in case.

“Yah, Hii-chan, who’s at the door? Why won’t they stop knocking?” Nako asks suddenly from behind, still wearing her baby blue apron. Hitomi gestures to keep quiet before slowly turning the doorknob. Nothing could’ve prepared her for who was on the other side.

“Jurina…?” It was indeed their good frenemy Matsui Jurina, but what surprised Hitomi was the shape the older girl was in. Her clothes were burnt, she was covered in cuts, and her hair was a mess. She couldn’t even muster a word, collapsing at the doorstep the second they made eye contact.

“Woah, what happened to you? Hii-chan, pull her in.” Nako says, scanning the roads for any suspicious activity before shutting the door.

~~~~

“Who could’ve done this to her?” Hitomi asks while tending to Jurina’s injuries.

“I don’t know, but whoever it was must’ve been pretty strong.” Nako replies. It had been a couple of minutes since the two had brought her in and laid her on the couch, but Jurina was still unconscious.

“Maybe she’ll wake up if we dump a bucket of water on her.” The short girl then suggests.

“Yah, this isn’t the time for jokes.” The peach-cheeked girl says.

“I know, just trying to lighten the air. She wouldn’t have come to us unless it was serious. Her pride wouldn’t allow it.” Though they never had the best relationship with Jurina, Nako did at least hold a mutual respect for the older girl’s strength.

“Her arms have burn marks on them… maybe she had a run in with another mutant?” Hitomi wonders as her father comes out of the kitchen to see what all the fuss was about.

“Girls, lunch is almost ready. Is your friend okay?” He asks worriedly as this was now the second time Jurina had visited the house in an unconscious state.

“No, we still don’t know what happened to her or where she came from.” Hitomi says while shaking her head. As her father takes a closer look at Jurina though, something catches his attention.

“Hmm, those burn marks don’t look like they were from fire. Those are the kinds I used to get while working with energy reactors back in the day.” He says. At the mention of energy though, the duo look at each other, both making a connection.

“Dad, get mom and Jurina and hide in the basement.” Hitomi says suddenly, feeling a disturbance in their front lawn.

“Wait, why? What’s wrong?” He asks, but before she could explain, an explosion blows up their front door. Hitomi just manages to create a plant shield that blocks the brunt of the attack.

“Jurina must’ve been followed.” Nako mutters, dusting herself off.

“Dad, go now!” Hitomi says even louder this time. Her father takes a glance at the doorway where the figure of a young woman was standing before looking back at his daughter.

“Please stay safe Hii.” He says, picking up Jurina’s unconscious body and running to the kitchen.

“How can there be another one? I thought Koyama was behind bars already.” Nako says as she gets into a fighting stance.

“We don’t know if this is her. Someone could have stolen the design.” The peach-cheeked girl replies before trying to wrap the machine up in vines. This proved to be ineffective though as the android shifted its arms into cannons and blasted them.

“Well it doesn’t matter who made it. It’s still being sent to the scrap heap.” The short girl runs forward, dodging energy attacks until she gets up close and punches the robot’s head clean off.

“What? It can’t be that easy.” Nako thinks in surprise, and as if to prove her point, the head immediately begins to shake and float right back to the robot’s body and reattach.

“Okay… that’s new.” She says before trying again, only for the machine to block the punch and counter with its own.

Hitomi studies the situation intently, trying to spot a weakness, but every time Nako would rip off the robot’s arm, it’d just magnetize back.

“Yah, Tomi! Could use a little help here!” Nako calls over as she rips off another arm and tosses it behind her.

“Wait! I’m thinking!” The peach-cheeked girl replies. As she sees the robot’s arm connect back to its socket again, that’s when she finally gets an idea.

“Rip off one of its legs!” Hitomi says.

“Easier said than done!” Nako says sarcastically after catching another punch to the face.

“Just do it!” The short girl sighs, faking an uppercut before rolling low and grabbing hold of the robot’s right leg. Using her super strength, Nako easily tears it off, but like before, the limb begins moving back towards its body. This time though, Hitomi commands some vines to snag the leg and hold it back. The robot tried to fire energy blasts, but being on one leg was ruining its accuracy.

“Attack the opening, Nako!” Hitomi says as she tries to crumple the machine part in her plant’s grasp. The short girl nods and rips off the robot’s arm this time. Hitomi once again sent vines from the garden behind her to grab the limb before it could magnetize back.

The duo repeated this process a couple more times until all that was left of the machine was its head and torso, all of its other parts too dented and destroyed to fit back into its sockets.

“Ugh, reminds me of those mannequins in the shopping mall.” Nako says, looking down at the android’s remains. Ignoring the side comment, Hitomi takes a better look at their assailant.

“Wait… what’s this?” The peach-cheeked girl suddenly says when she notices something on the machine’s neck.

“KYB… and then something in Korean. I think it says version 2, model 8.” She translates. She moved the android’s hair to get a better look, but as she did, her thumb seemed to brush over a button that caused the machine’s eyes to glow red.

“That can’t be good…” Nako says as the robot begins to let out a beeping noise.

“Uh, Tomi, what did you read again? Model 8? That might mean-” Before the short girl could finish her sentence, three sets of metal feet land behind them. “-there are more of them.”

“We’re going to need to call Eunbi-unnie after this…” Hitomi sighs as she turns and commands the roots in the ground to rise up and attack.

~~~~

Back in Korea…

“Aaand that’ll do it for today’s livestream! I hope you all enjoyed it! As I’ve already mentioned, I’m going to be on a break for a bit to attend to a personal matter. I’ll try to resolve it as quickly as possible so we can play through another game. Thank you for watching, and this was Kura-chan!” The voice of a woman says cheerfully before shutting off the camera, her cheery smile quickly replaced by a tired frown.

“Sakura-unnie, are you done with the stream? Nako and Hitomi just got to the airport.” Someone asks while knocking on the door behind the Japanese girl’s setup.

“Yeah, I’ll be out in a minute, Chaewon.” Sakura replies, taking off her headset. It had been her dream to be a streamer growing up, and after doing it for several months, she’d already grown a big following. Despite this though, she’d been finding it difficult to put on a smile recently with the news she’d received a couple days ago from her Japanese friends. Just when it felt like their lives were starting to become peaceful, something had come up, and not just any ‘something’. It was something she felt like she’d caused again.

“Alright, so Yena’s picking them up and we’re supposed to meet back at campus- wait, are you alright?” Chaewon had been reading the text she’d received from Eunbi until she looked up and noticed Sakura’s condition. Her complexion was pale and her eye-bags were heavy as if she hadn’t slept a wink.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go to campus.” The older girl says flatly, beginning to walk ahead of Chaewon before she grabbed her hand and looked at her more directly.

“Do you need me to call Chaeyeon-unnie?”

“No, it’s fine. She might be busy right now too.” Sakura says attempting to make an excuse.

“Yah, you know that we were all called back to campus right? Talk to me. What’s wrong?” Chaewon prods more. The second they got the news about the Korean-made robots who attacked their friends in Japan, Sakura had gone quieter than usual.

“Eunbi will explain later. Now let’s go.” Sakura continues walking to the garage, effectively ending the conversation. Chaewon sighs to herself before following along.

~~~~

“Alright class! That’s going to be all for today. Thank you for coming, and I’ll see you again soon.” A red-haired girl says cheerfully to her students. The kids who ranged from middle school to high school all greeted goodbye and began filing out of the dance studio which led the teacher to meet the gaze of someone standing by the exit.

“You really do move like a feather, Chaeyeon.” She says with a chuckle.

“I could show you some moves too, Hyewon-unnie. I know Eunbi’s been pestering for us to go to a disco some time.” Chaeyeon replies..

“Maybe some other time. You know why I’m here anyway.” Hyewon says.

“Oh, are Nako and Hii-chan already back?”

“Yeah, Eunbi wants us all to meet back on campus. I was on the way back from 8D, so I thought I might as well pass by since you hadn’t responded yet.”

“Ah, yeah. Sorry about that. You know how these kids are. They love to learn, so we keep extending class.” Chaeyeon says with a smile. Since everyone was busy chasing their passions recently, Chaeyeon decided to open up the dance studio she’d always wanted to have with her sister, Chaeryeong. The two feather girls immediately caught everyone’s attention with the cover videos they’d post online to advertise their dance program.

“Don’t worry about it. Yena’s still driving anyway. With her luck, she’ll get pulled over for a speeding ticket and get delayed.” Hyewon jokes before noticing someone missing.

“Is Chaeryeong not around? Isn’t she supposed to take the next class?”

“Ah, she had to cancel for today. Big meeting at JYP apparently.” The older Lee replies which gives Hyewon a slightly ominous feeling.

“Seems like everyone’s meeting over emergencies these days…” She thinks as Chaeyeon continues talking.

“Hyewon-unnie? You okay?” The younger girl asks when she notices Hyewon space out.

“Ah, yeah, I’m good. Let’s head back now. Your car’s still parked in the garage, right?”

“Wait, why can’t you just hop on my back, so we can get there faster?” Chaeyeon asks back.

“Yah, I was not planning on throwing up today. Besides, why get a car if you aren’t going to use it?” At these words, Chaeyeon shrugs.

“Okay, you have a point, but I can tell now you just came here to get a free ride.” The feather girl says with her iconic laugh. Hyewon couldn’t deny it.

“Alright, alright. Let’s just go or we’ll be late.”

~~~~

“Love that pose, Minjoo! How about one from this angle? Great! Now hold the bottle forward so it’s clear.” The director instructs, Minjoo following everything perfectly. It’s coming up on a year now that she’d begun her career as an actress, and with that came sponsorship deals that she had to fulfill. She’d been doing so many recently that it was difficult to even track what product she was even holding at this point.

After a few more poses, the director finally says ‘cut’, allowing the dark-haired girl to settle down and look at her phone for the first time today. What welcomes her when she turns it on though are several missed calls from Eunbi, Chaewon, and Yuri.

“Hmm? What’s this about?” She thinks as she goes to the group chat.

“Everyone, I need you to drop what you’re doing and head back to campus now. Nako and Hitomi are back and we have a high level threat to discuss.” Minjoo almost spits out the water she was drinking while reading that message. She was aware that the Japanese couple were due to arrive today, but she’d been too busy to ask what time they would arrive. Eunbi’s message was sent almost an hour ago already.

“Tsk tsk, Minjoo’s at it again~” A familiar voice teases from behind. Minjoo takes a deep breath before turning around, already knowing who it is.

“Yes, Yuri?” She asks the hamster who had walked on set not minding the surprised eyes of the staff following her.

“No ‘hello’? You were so much more enthusiastic during the shoot.” Yuri says while mimicking one of Minjoo’s poses which causes the older girl to groan.

“You’re acting like I didn’t see your tennis commercial the other day. I know how many takes it took for you to hit the ball even once.”

“Agh, c’mon, Minjoo! You know I was kidding!” The singer says with a forced laugh, suddenly regretting her decision to friend.

“Anyway, sorry. I only had time to check my phone now.” Minjoo says moving on to the matter at hand.

“Yeah, I just caught the end of it. The others are on the way back to campus or already there by that now. I was going to go fetch Nako and Tomi with Yena-unnie, but since you were unresponsive, I came to get you myself.” Yuri replies.

“I thought you didn’t have your driver’s license yet.”

“Well, yeah, but taxis exist, remember?”

“Alright, fair. Let’s not keep them waiting then.” Minjoo says, thanking all the staff before they left.

“What is that drink you’re promoting anyway?” Yuri banters.

“I think it’s called Jirisan Spring Water.” The actress replies.

“Think? You just had it in your hand.”

“Yeah, it's just hard to keep track of things sometimes, you know.” Minjoo says with a laugh as the two call a cab.

Though the two friends enjoyed catching up and joking around, they both knew that whatever meeting they were about to enter with Eunbi and the others was going to shatter the peace they’d known for the past six months. 

 

A/N: Hellooo and welcome to chapter 2 of piz 3! with the attack on nako and hitomi, it appears a new threat is finally rearing its head, KYB. i'll leave it up to y'all to figure out who that is, but i'm saying now that this person isn't an idol. 

anyways, it was nice writing about different pairings like hyewon/chaeyeon, chaewon/sakura and minyul instead of their usual ships. you'll get them eventually tho HAHA.

thank y'all again for the support through upvotes, comments or just reading the story in general! i'm really excited to write this final PIZ story, and I hope y'all will enjoy it too!