"Even I agree on the sentiment that it's important to stick by your wingmate. The strength of a well-trained unit that flies together like its second nature is superior to the likes of... pirates. And Spooks."

She cleared her throat. "I wouldn't say we're great friends, but a unit is a family. I trust Cricket here and everyone else in the squad with my life. Even if I did graduate a year before Yul-san here." Now it was Hyeon-ju that could be smug for a moment.

"I've picked off at least 10 enemy fighters on my own, but I would say many of them are also with the backup of the rest of the team, so I won't claim all the credit on my own. So," she gave a brief smirk, "what's your team like? Do you have callsigns too?"

"And yet here we are, drinking milk tea, and in the same miai. Who would have thought?" Yul murmured, smirking.

"You've gotta have a callsign, right?" Yul said, nodding to Ishiyo. "I answer to Cricket as easily as I do Yul."

Ishiyo's eye twitches just a fraction at the mention of callsigns. "My squadron? of the 312th is an elite fighteh group. Everyone in it is a veterans pilot." The Crane was an honest sort of soul, so it was not too hard to recognize something was left out in her statement.

She quickly moved on, "My squadron commandeh is Daidoji Takashi, who is perhaps more in line with what one think of when they think of the Daidoji. Stern, tenacious, and calculating. He is also a real good shot, routinely hits targets others would find neah impossible. At the battle were I got three kills, he took out five! At present making him a triple ace. His callsign is 'Long Lance'."

"The highest scoring pilot of the squadron though is Kakita Ichika." Ishiyo pressed her lips into a thin line, "She is...hard to describe. Well just call her 'The Artist', she was originally an Artisan before taking up flying. She is...a difficult person to speak with on the ground, very distant and well brooding. Tends to stay in heh own little world in the barracks. But she is a terroh in a plane. Five times an Ace and with a distinct white livery on her fighteh. I am told among the pirates she was referred to as the 'White Raven', an avenging spirit for those they killed come to drag them judgement in the afterlife."

Sipping his tea, Yul made a face. "Long Lance?" He was silent for a few moments. "Did he pick that one himself, or..." Yul knew better than to explicitly make a dick joke to a fancy Crane maiden.

He dabbled the straw in his tea a few times. "Sounds like you've got some impressive squadmates. I wouldn't mind flying with someone from that squadron some day." He smiled. "You get a look at the Ornithopters they have here? They're not fighters, but they're something.

Yul's smile became a smirk, and he gave Ishiyo a sidelong glance. "But I didn't hear your callsign mentioned."

Ishiyo pressed her lips into a hard line, "It is because he strikes so accurately from a distance. Shinjo-san please do not make such implied assumptions."

"Ah, yes I need to see about the ornithopters. I would very much like to make a flight oveh the surrounding area, just to fly mainly but the sights would be beautiful."

"Maybe she hasn't earned a callsign yet?" Hyeon-ju remarked to her fellow Sky Rider, actually smirking a little. "What kind of pilot doesn't have a callsign...?"

Ishiyo frowns, "...'Peeps', they call me 'Peeps'" Before they could ask more she drank all her tea. She hoped it head her frustration and red face.

It didn't really hide it.

"Peeps? That's cute," the Utaku woman seemed to almost... approve? Like Ishiyo had now fulfilled some very important Pilot Ritual in sharing her callsign with them.

"... Where have I heard the name Peeps before..." she leaned back in her chair, playing with the straw of her bubble tea as she tried to put her finger on it.

"Its a brand of candy." Ishiyo didn't look either of them in the eye. "I...remember I said that the 312th were all veterans...well one of them was not when she joined."

She turned her empty cup, "Peeps are a sort of confectionery you see...sugah that is just expanded to look nice but its mostly just ai-eh and this particular candy looks like a baby bird. That was what they thought of me. The baby bird who was all sickeningly rich fluff and no real substance. Did not even botheh telling me the truth, I did not know what Peeps even where until one of the heimen mechanics showed me an empty box of them."

Well, Yul couldn't help but chuckle a little bit at that. He took a sip of his tea to cover it.

"Hey." He said, smiling gently. "Now you're an ace. You've got as many kills as I do. Or maybe one more, even; I've got one still going through review." A grimace flashed ever so briefly across his handsome features before the smile returned. "So, own the name. Just wait until the new squadron members are talking about how they can't wait to be an ace like Peeps, huh?"

He shrugged. "That's how I see it, anyway."

"Yes...but," Ishiyo shrugs, "It was a well targeted hit. Even if I do have theih respect now."

She looked at her empty cup, "...I seem to have drunk most of the tea without really getting to taste."

Hyeon-ju found herself nodding in agreement with Yul, which would've earned some looks back with their team. "A pilot wears their callsign with pride. It is a bond, and understanding between them and other pilots. It's a sign of trust and respect between us that the ground-pounders don't understand... or rather, most of them don't understand why you'd trust someone you call Drumstick or Deepfry to have your back."

At least she was glad she wasn't in the Chicken-team, as they were affectionately called by the other groups.

"Should we get you another one?"

"Yes please," She responds with a sigh, "And yes, yes I know...I do trust my squadron mates and they seem to now do the same of me. It is just...embarrassing to tell others, especially otheh pilots."

"Anyway we were speaking of the ornithopters...."

Yul shook his head. "Don't be embarrassed. The veterans always give the new teammates a hard time." Yul studied Ishiyo a few moments, his expression curious.

Then he shook his head. "Yeah, the ornithopters. I can't wait to go up in one of those." He pursed his lips, looking back and forth between the other two. "What do you think? Should we go in on one and share?" Yul smirked. "Or get one for each of us? Take 'em all out together."

After putting that question to the committee, Yul rose to his feet. "I'll be right back." He murmured, going to the counter for seconds.

Ishiyo blinked as she noticed the Shinjo looking at her, confused. She looked to the other Unicorn as he got up, "That would be an expensive proposition. It is not like we could stage a mock ai-eh battle in them. And I know with that sort of craft two pilots, a lead and a copilot, it could break up some of the challenges to flying the craft."

Hyeon-ju excused herself to pick up some more drink for the Crane, ordering another cup of the same.

And while she was there, she noticed the discount-bin with Moon Cakes. It was a tactical and precise strike to claim some of those boxes for herself.

"Oh, but I'll be flying one tomorrow. Most likely." Hyeon-ju added in as she heard them talking about the ornithopters.

"Are you and Shinjo-san going out on a double date tomorrow?" Ishiyo asks, feeling a bit better seeing as she had not been merciless teased. "A decisive raid by two wingmates on the eligible of the miai?"

Yul returned, holding a little cheesecake, as well as two sets of utensils. He set it down on the table, then nudged it a little closer to Ishiyo.

Yul grimaced, shooting Hyeon-ju a quick look. "If so, first I've heard of it." He chuckled. "Can you imagine that? Our dates having to listen to us shoot barbs at each other all evening?"

He chewed his lip a moment, then looked at Hyeon-ju again. "Maybe we should?"

"Don't I spend enough time with you already?" she said with a sigh, with the usual back-and-forth the two of them had. And yet here they were, visiting Tian's together.

"Daigotsu Shokomaru wanted to... do some excursion. I offered my services as a pilot if he wanted to pay for the rental, or split the cost with others. I told him as much that I won't do a trip into unknown and dangerous territory without a full group, so I invited along Matsu Chiyoko-san, and gave him the option to bring along a second pilot."

"I see, I see." Ishiyo nodded and tried more of the tea, "I have not met Daigotsu-sama....he is the Gunso in the list yes?"

"I have meet Matsu-san however, she was an interesting person for a ground pounder." Ishiyo blushed at that, "I mean she was an interesting person....for a land warfare specialist. Given her reputation that should be a boon to any outside expedition. I wonder what other pilot he will find." An ominous foreboding musical sting played just then...for the readers benefit.