Later, during that night, Squad 13 gathered for a barbecue on the beach. As Futoshi, Zorome, and Yasuto helped to cook and serve the food, Kyouko used a laptop and a tape recording machine to copy the audio of several cassettes she and Yasuto had found in the ruined city. Ikuno looked over and asked her, "What did you guys find?"

"So fat." she explained to her. "I think we got a cassette tape of an album by a group called Nirvana, and two more from a group called B'z."

"Nirvana? As in the Buddhist concept of the highest state of happiness and freedom?" Ikuno was confused as to why a band would name themselves after a religious concept.

"Yeah," Kyouko replied. "Their music is much grittier and harder compared to older rock bands. In the pre-APE era this music was known as grunge. I'm on the song Heart-Shaped Box now." She then handed an earphone to her. "Listen in."

As the song went into its chorus, Ikuno nodded. "It's definitely a harder sound. I like the lyrics, though. Forever in debt to your priceless advice..." She then quietly hummed to the song. "You should get me a copy of anything you find of this group. I'm hooked." She then smiled.

"Absolutely," Kyouko replied.

Yasuto then asked her from the grill, "How's the transfers going?"

"I'm on the third song," Kyouko replied to him. "This album rocks!"

Later on, as the gang finished their meals, Zero Two tugged at Hiro's shirt and asked him, "Hey, Darling. Do you wanna go swimming again?"

Hiro was at first unsure. "When it's this dark out?"

"Why not," Zero Two replied as she ran for the water excitedly, her feet kicking up the sand as she ran.

"Screw it," Hiro called out as he took his shirt off and ran for her. "Wait for me, Zero Two!" He then laughed as he ran into the water.

Yasuto and Kyouko looked over before looking at each other. "I'm gonna join them," Kyouko said. "Yasuto, wanna go?" She then gave him a wink to indicate that swimming was far from the only think they were gonna do.

"I see," Yasuto replied as they both got up. "Well, guys, we'll be back in about half an hour."

Zorome turned to them and asked them, curious, "What are you two gonna do?"

"Walk the beach a bit and then swim," Kyouko replied. "We won't be far." She thought to herself, "I've been meaning to try having sex at a beach." The two of them then walked away from the camp. "If you guys need anything or get in any danger, just run this way and you'll find us eventually!" She then pointed in the direction the two were going to take their 'nice relaxing walk' in.

Later that night, as the gang began to lay out sleeping bags for the team, Yasuto recalled a story about their days on the front lines, specifically a fire that had occurred in a forward operating base that they as damage control personnel had fought. "Now, it's me, Kyouko, and this other pair going down there with two lines. The fire was roaring by then, and as we got to the fire, I radioed back that we needed a third line."

"How hot was it?" Zorome was keenly interested in the story.

"Kyouko told me later that her thermal imaging camera captured a temperature high of 540 Celsius, so pretty high up there," Yasuto explained, flooring Futoshi and Zorome. "We knocked it down, though."

"I can't imagine myself doing that," Futoshi replied in awe. "Klaxosaurs are one thing, but fire? That's a whole different beast."

"Eh," Yasuto shrugged. "Don't knock it 'till you've tried it. Damage control was one of the funnest things me and Kyouko did. Anyway, all four of us hit it, and just as the third pair comes down with the third line, we had basically knocked it all down. They only got to put out hot spots in the machinery rooms, so they missed out on all the fun."

"Damn right they did," Kyouko replied from nearby, to the laughter of Yasuto.

"Anyway," he told Futoshi and Zorome. "Ichigo already knows this, but any fire incidents at Mistilteinn have to be attended by us. That's why we still have our damage control bunker gear and tools, so don't fuck up anything, or else we'll be the ones dealing with it."

Around midnight, Kyouko had snuck off from camp to snap pictures of the sky and the stars as she sat on a rock. One of her hobbies aside from music was photography, and she used an old film camera she had once taken from a pre-Klaxosaur settlement that she had personally restored herself in her spare time. Film was supplied to her by Dr. Franxx on his personal orders, and some of her pictures were used in APE propaganda, at times to her dismay. As she got ready to take a 1 minute exposure shot of the sky, she heard several voices off in the distance and looked over to her left. "Hm?"

As she was able to determine the voices belonged to Ichigo and Hiro, a light wind blew through her brown hair. "You used to tell me a lot about the stars when we were little." Kyouko smiled as she thought of the younger Hiro.

However, what Hiro said next caused her to drop her camera into the sand in shock just after she took her photo. "Wait, I did?"

"Of course you did," Ichigo assured him. "I might be pretty dumb, but I remember everything you taught me."

"Wait a fucking minute," Kyouko thought to herself as she froze. "Did Hiro... Oh God, please tell me this isn't what I think it is... Did Hiro get his mind wiped when he was younger?! That would explain his decline in ability! But why him?!" She then took a few steps back and then covered her mouth with her hand as she stared at her camera. "Hiro... APE took your abilities away... They killed the boy that named me and my partner... Without you, we would have never learned to realize that there is so much more to life than piloting... The you that APE took from us, he was the one who made me realize I loved Code 085 from the moment we first laid eyes on each other as young children in that Garden." Tears then began to fall from her eyes as she realized what had been taken from them, if not all of humanity. "APE took perhaps our best chance at protecting us..." She held her crying in as she began to mourn the loss of the old Hiro.

Suddenly, she then heard the sound of Hiro shouting "Ichigo, look! Shooting stars!"

Immediately, she wiped her tears away and grabbed her camera from the sand before dusting it off to snap a few quick shots of the shooting stars. As she took several pictures, tears still fell from her eyes. Once she was done, she looked up at the sky and said quietly to herself, "This world is so cruel, but it is so beautiful, too."

As she heard Hiro and Ichigo come closer to her, she quickly ran off to a small cave to hide away so they wouldn't see her crying. However, just as she ran in, she heard Ichigo call out, "Kyouko!"

Immediately, she turned around, a few tears still falling down her cheek, concerning both of them as they both ran over to her. "Kyouko, are you okay?" Hiro was concerned deeply.

"I...," she replied as she put her camera down. "I was coming out here to take some pictures, and..." She then sniffled and wiped her eyes. "It just reminded me of Squad 9. The anniversary of our formation as a team is coming up. This is a pretty emotional time for me and Yasuto." While she was partially lying about why she was crying, she was telling the truth about the anniversary. "I guess my emotions just spilled out. We lost a lot of good men and women when we got destroyed."

Ichigo then suddenly hugged Kyouko, who was stunned. "Kyouko, you don't have to hold it in."

"I know," she replied as she returned the hug, knowing that Ichigo was wrong, and that in this case, she did have to hold it in and suffer in silence and lonesomeness. "I know."