Nina and Nim

If we were to pinpoint when Nim, a precocious magical girl, behaved most childlike, it would undoubtedly be in front of her older sister, Nina.

"Nim, have you been listening to the captain?"

After a morning of instruction, Cornflower and Nim returned to the team camp and encountered her older sister Nina, who is also a magical girl codenamed Ink Lotus.

Nina fussed over her younger sister, checking her belongings and even tidying her hair, while also asking about her behavior, "You haven't been throwing a tantrum or saying anything strange, have you?"

Because the two sisters lost their parents at a young age, Nina is not only Nim's older sister, but also often acts as a second mother to her, constantly worrying about Nim's various affairs.

Perhaps it was this somewhat excessive protection, coupled with Nina's tendency to think pessimistically, that led her, under the guidance of the legion commander, to bribe her superiors and get herself and her sister into a squad.

Even now, Nina often feels ashamed in front of Cornflower because of this incident, and most of the time she avoids her squad leader. In Cornflower's eyes, this magical girl codenamed Ink Lotus is like a ghost; she is clearly on the squad roster and completes her assigned tasks, but she just can't be seen.

"Of course not, sister, you're worrying too much."

Sitting on the bench, kicking her legs, Nim's head bobbed restlessly under her sister's hands. "The captain keeps praising me for doing a great job."

Nim wasn't entirely unaware of the things her older sister was worried about; however, in her view, many things weren't that complicated.

She thought Cornflower was amazing and admired her greatly, so she should speak well of her; she knew she lacked experience and was weak, so she needed to work hard to improve herself; she sensed the doubts and distrust of the other team members, so she took the initiative to communicate with them and eliminate the barriers.

Because problems exist, we strive to solve them; because difficulties exist, we confront them. This is what Nim has always thought and acted upon.

However, she wouldn't argue with her sister because of this difference in opinion.

"That's good."

Hearing her sister's answer, Nina breathed a slight sigh of relief, but still couldn't help but add with concern, "Don't cause the captain any trouble, understand?"

"Okay, okay."

Nim replied somewhat helplessly to her older sister, "But sister, you should also be careful, shouldn't you? According to the schedule, it's your turn to go to the fortification area with the captain this afternoon for inspection, but you can't even speak fluently when you see strangers. Is that alright?"

Nina's hands paused.

"No, no problem."

She stiffly raised a hand to brush aside her long bangs that were obstructing her vision, and replied somewhat reluctantly, "I'm much more familiar with the team leader now. I feel like we're not strangers anymore."

"You've already started stuttering."

Nim tilted her head back, grinning mischievously at her sister. "Besides, sister, you've barely even seen the captain, have you? You always seem to avoid her."

"I... I have seen them before!"

Recalling her conversation with Cornflower about the bribery, Nina retorted, "Although we haven't spoken for a long time since then, we've still seen each other. I think I'm alright..."

This is a lie.

Everyone in the Cornflower Squad knew that the magical girl codenamed Ink Lotus was playing a cat-and-mouse game with Cornflower every day, always hiding somewhere beforehand whenever the two of them might run into each other.

The reason things have come to this point is that, in Ink Lotus's view, she has done two things wrong to the other party.

Firstly, there was the matter of her bribery of the legion commander. Although Cornflower had already stated that she had forgiven her and had now accepted her sister as a member of the team, Nina still felt that she was at fault in this matter.

Secondly, it's because I've let down the captain's expectations.

As compensation for the "bribery," Cornflower had asked Nina to take charge of training her younger sister, Nim, and at the time, Nina loudly proclaimed that she "could do it."

The aftermath of this incident was that when Nina began to act as Nim's mentor, she was extremely slow at teaching.

It wasn't just because her personal communication skills were so poor that even her own sister couldn't understand her use of technical terms; it was also because Nina's training requirements for Nim were far too lenient. She simply couldn't bear to see her sister suffer even a little bit. Many times, Nim herself didn't even feel anything, but Nina would already think that her sister was tired and start fussing over her, putting her on rest early.

Such teaching efficiency naturally fell short of Cornflower's original requirements. Even Nim herself couldn't contain herself, so one day, after finishing her lessons, Nim compiled all the questions she hadn't understood into a booklet and went to Captain Cornflower to ask her questions.

When asked for advice by her teammates, Cornflower readily answered all of Nim's questions, quickly resolving the bottlenecks Nim encountered.

From then on, Nim's daily teaching routine became listening to her sister's lesson first, then compiling the questions she didn't understand and asking Cornflower about them. Over time, in pursuit of efficiency, this process gradually evolved into her directly learning from the captain, and her sister Nina no longer needed to do anything.

Cornflower never saw anything wrong with this; in her view, it was a result that both she and Nim had actively facilitated. Nina had diligently completed her teaching duties beforehand, which was more than enough.

But Nina felt that this was a result of her incompetence. The less the captain and her sister complained, the more uneasy she felt, wondering if she had been disliked.

Even if she kept avoiding the captain like this, the two couldn't stay away forever; the work schedule eventually brought them together again. This time, Nina couldn't escape anymore.

The thought of what she might face that afternoon filled Nina with immense pressure, so much so that it gave her a stomachache and made her feel nauseous. But she also knew that she couldn't keep running away; she was going to be stabbed anyway, so she might as well offer her neck willingly.

"No, I'll try my best anyway."

Imagining that "doomed" future, Nina couldn't help but show an expression like a hero going to his execution. Then, she clenched one fist and suddenly raised it in front of her...

"Ouch! Sister, why did you pull my hair!" Nim complained, looking up as she felt several strands of hair being pulled from her head by her sister.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!"