Fourth of July in Japan

(Music: https://youtu.be/xfwIAz01lqE)

Sally sits in the girls bathroom, having trouble finding motivation to leave her stall as she sits on one of the western-styled toilets Shiketsu had. Why the thing needed a control panel like a tractor was beyond her understanding. She adds it to the pile of things that slightly irritate her in Japan, and that pile was growing larger and larger by the day she was here.

She checks her phone as she leans against the walls of the stall, noticing the date: It was July 3rd. To Sally, this mattered a lot because it was the date she associated with fun parties and a day off of school to spend with her family. It also represented the freedom her forefathers fought for hundreds of years ago, which allows her to live as she does.

Well, live as she did. Japan only gives their students a month off of school in the summer, proof to Sally that they don't support freedom like her America does.

The girl sighs as she opens the door to the bathroom, seeing her greatest enemy washing her hands. Her form was hazy and easy to miss, but Sally could tell Hoge was here by the obscuring effect of her quirk. She begrudgingly leans over the sink furthest from her and washes her hands quickly and sloppily. She didn't actually know if Hoge was staring at her, but she just assumed the girl was here to look for a uniform violation or something. Sally gives her a mean look in response to the assumed investigation, something that causes her form to get even blurrier.

---

"McCathy, do you mind staying for a moment after class?" Rosethorn says as the other students pack up to head home or to their other duties. Sally sighs as she puts her bag over her shoulder and musters her Japanese. Rosethorn was pretty insistent on her using it over English, so she actually learned the language.

"Yes, Sensei?" the grumpy American says in a forced manner.

"I wanted to say you're doing a great job," the red-haired teacher says with a glowing smile. Sally clearly expected more homework or some kind of class duty, as she stands a bit stunned.

"T-Thank you..." the girl says, scratching the side of her head.

"But I do think you should try to make friends with the other students. I know not everyone treats you well, but you won't change their minds by giving them mean looks and always doing training exercises with the same people," Rosethorn says with an empathetic look.

"...But I do have friends; me and Noah study together a lot," Sally says as she looks away from the woman.

"And that's good! But you should branch out more; maybe ask to have lunch with some of them and just chat with them," Rosethorn says as she finishes packing her own things.
"Just try it.  I know this is all a big culture shock to you, and having friends to help will make that fade away faster."

Sally nods, softening a bit toward the teacher. Rosethorn was always nice to Sally, always encouraging compared to the other teachers who tended to frustrate her, especially that creep, Majestic. As she walks to the shoe lockers, she notices the angel of 1-D and her sole friend in the whole of Japan waiting to walk with her for a bit.

"Hi Sally! Noah was just wondering if the holiday tomorrow will affect our studying schedule," he says in a kind tone.

The girl thinks for a moment and looks the shorter boy in the eye: "I... Yeah. I wanted to watch a stream of the fireworks in New York."

Noah nods. "Have fun! We all deserve some time off every now and then."

"Maybe... you could come over too..." Sally says with a blush and a look to the floor.

"If you'd have Noah, Noah would like to come," he says encouragingly, remembering the girl's complaints of feeling lonely.

"T-Thanks Noah...." Sally says as they reach the library and break open their books to start doing some studying, mostly for Sally's benefit.

---

During lunch hour, Noah had gone off school property with Sally to get some things for their party that they'd run back to her place before their time ended. It was mostly Sally's own particular favorites in junk food and some beef to make stove-top hamburgers. While they looked over the grocery store's 2-liter bottles of soda, they failed to notice the boy who had been following them.

Inigo did his best to act natural as he observed the two lovebirds, with Gigan changing the color of his tie to green so he wouldn't be recognized. He had shipped these two ever since the reclusive and prickly American was seated behind the class' angel, even more so when she put on her nun-themed costume for a training exercise. Of course he wouldn't miss a chance to try and figure out how far along in the romance arc they were!

"...Yeah, it is kinda like a birthday, I guess." He overhears Sally say as he looks at the date: 4th of July!  

Clearly, this can only mean one thing: Sally's birthday is today, and Noah was planning a surprise party!

He leaves the two to awkwardly flirt as he walks back to school, typing up a message in a group chat to everyone but Sally.

---

(Music coming from Sally's Computer: https://youtu.be/eEcPakW42JU)

Christopher sighs as he approaches Sally's apartment with a gift he scrambled to get her: a copy of his local hero rankings that he put in an old shoebox and wrapped with some Christmassy wrapping paper. Despite the fact that he could speak English with her and she seemed less angry when you approached her like that, she was still always in a bad mood. He knocks, hoping he can learn a bit more about her in case he ever had the misfortune of being partnered up with her through her supposed birthday, even though Hoge and Imai were pretty adamant Inigo had misheard something. Sally comes to the door in a pair of sweatpants and one of her white knit sweaters, her hair in a loose ponytail. She blinks at the wrapped gift.

"{Hey Chris,}" she says, still looking at the wrapped box.
"{Hey, mind if I come in? Heard you were celebrating.}"
"{Uhm...}"
She calls back to Noah, asking if he invited anyone else.
"{Noah did not, but I don't see the harm in watching the fireworks with others, right?}" he says to Sally, who sighs.
"{Fine, come on in. Just leave some cash if you eat a lot, okay?}"
"{Help yourself to burgers in the kitchen; still got some warm patties left over.}"
"{Thanks,}" Chris says as he puts the gift on her table and serves himself a burger, quickly texting the others that it was okay to come.

First, Sandatsu, Kaylee, and Chihiro came over, requiring everyone but Kaylee to chip in for some pizza and Kalyee to promise her help cleaning up in lieu of cash. Then it was Imai and Ashleigh arriving with gifts and food of their own, which placated Sally enough for her to not ask questions. Orochi and Yui's arrival with small gifts did start to make them move the TV set up out of Sally's room and into the living room, where more people could watch the red, white, and blue fireworks. It was when the Koreans, plus Hifumi and Bobby, arrived that Sally started to get suspicious, given the comical party hats they wore.

"Why the hats?" Sally says with a frustrated look as the Koreans giggle and talk in their own language, which Sally is deaf to.
"Tell me what's up with the hats, or fuck off!" Sally says, ready to slam the door as Bobby intervenes.

"{Sally, it's alright. Happy birthday. I got you a really nice gift too. Can we come in already?}" The tall, blonde American asks Sally, who bites her lip, looking at the large box he's carrying.

"{Fine,}" Sally says as she opens the door to reveal a lively party, with the fireworks as background noise. Noah and Yui make cookies in the kitchen with some borrowed ingredients, as the tray she brought had been decimated in moments by Kaylee, then finished off by everyone else. Orochi awaits Sally's return so they can keep trying to beat each other in old arena shooters local multiplayer, with Sally using the keyboard as a handicap. Imai and Ashleigh sat quietly with Sandy while watching the televised fireworks. Chihiro sits and eats awkwardly, seeming to enjoy being allowed to come at all.

"I'm ordering more pizza! Just going two pepperoni and two cheeses!" Sally calls out.
"Everyone but Kaylee has to pay a bit, at least, okay!?" Sally yells in somewhat crude Japanese, but everyone gets the picture as she calls in the order and sits back down by her computer, Noah and Yui coming over to watch while the two try and reach the map's flak cannon first.

---

"{This isn't so bad,}" Sally says to herself as she munches on sugar cookies and pepperoni pizza. "{They're having fun; Noah is having a blast; the fireworks are beautiful. It's all under false pretense, but they bought stuff for me.}"
Then the thought of cleaning all this up and moving her TV back to its proper spot hits her, making her tired at the simple thought.

She hears the doorbell go off again, and a look of conflicted happiness is replaced by cold anger as she watches Inigo and his Green Dragon Construct.

Her arm loads in a rubber 9mm on instinct. He had to have something to do with organizing all of this; there is no way he didn't.

The boy tips his novelty Uncle Sam hat as his comically fake white beard shines under the lights of the apartment high-rise hallway lights. "{HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU AND AMERICA!}" he says to the girl, uncovering his gift for her like a magician: A bunch of fireworks that Sally had tried to buy herself but was denied the purchase of, along with a wrapped game disk nestled amongst the pyrotechnics.

"{Did you invite all these FUCKING PEOPLE over?!}" Sally asks angrily.

"Uhm...uhm... yes?" Inigo says. "Would you mind repeating that in Japanese? Was a bit fast for my English," he jokes.

Sally growls, closing the door behind her. "Did you tell everyone it was my birthday and that they were invited over to MY HOUSE!?"

"Yes, yes, I did! And it looks like it's going well!" Inigo says casually.

Sally's quirk goes off, the acrid smell of powder filling the hall as the sound of a rubber bullet ricocheting into the wall behind Inigo fills his ears.

"Look, I wanted a quiet evening with Noah, not a house party. Has it been fun? Yes. Am I going to clean all this shit up later? Yes. Will you care after you drink some of Bobby's cheap-ass beer? NO! You're just here to fondle a bunch of the girls who came here and mooch off the food!"

"Sally, you've got it all wrong! I wanted you to have a fun surprise party! It's your, what, 15th birthday?"

"IT'S NOT MY BIRTHDAY!" she yells louder than she intended, causing Inigo to put his hands up to try and calm her down.

"...Then it's... America's birthday?" he says with a joking smile as he holds up the basket of fireworks.

Sally looks at the basket of fun and sighs, some of her anger venting off. "Won't we get arrested or fined for firing those off?"

"We'll be fine; don't worry! I'll cover for you if we get into trouble," he says as he offers the disk to Sally.

"...And what is this?"

"A curated VN I think that might help your arc with Noah. The main girl's an angel, so it's not a total guide, but it should help."

"...Why does it say 18+ on it?"

"Don't worry, none of that's in the angel route. The devil girl route is pretty fun if you want to try it, though."

"Gross..." Sally says as she takes it inside and puts it in her desk drawer. She holds the door open for Inigo.

"As long as we're launching the fireworks off the roof or something... and we won't get into trouble... you can come in... But no harassment, or I'm getting Kaylee to throw you out."

"Seems fair."

"Out the window, I mean."

"No problem!" Inigo says as he enters. Everyone immediately notices the colorful fireworks and gets scared or excited.

---

Nyoro Hoge sits below Sally's building, watching her classmates launch fireworks in an urban area like it's nothing. Her face scrunches up in expected irritation. This was either Sally, Inigo, or Bobby's fault.

Rosethorn sits by her and sighs. "I know the handbook says we should go in and break things up if it will hurt the school's image, but I want you to look at Sally in particular," the woman says as she hands the class rep a pair of high-tech binoculars. She sees Sally laughing as she and Bobby loudly sing the Star-Spangled Banner, both with large smiles on their faces, as the others seem to sing along. Sandatsu, oddly enough, takes the job of setting the fireworks up, and even he manages a small smile as the whole group seems to be actually celebrating a random holiday from America.

"I still see no reason not to break it up. They are endangering themselves and our class' reputation," Hoge says with a look back toward her teacher.

"First of all, unless they're all drunk, they'll be fine. Secondly... I've never seen Sally smile before except for this. Which I can understand: She's been having to adapt to a new world; it's no surprise that a fragment of home makes her happy."

"But that is no reason to sacrifice our reputation."

"I disagree, Hoge-san. She'll perform much better on tests and exercises when she is encouraged by her friends, rather than feeling like she is around enemies. Better grades and public exercises will bring more renown to our class, offsetting a party here and there... Why don't you join them? It's alright to have some fun, even on a school night."

Hoge shakes her head. "They are celebrating an American holiday; I feel no attachment to whatever warped fun they are having," she says with a mask of nationalistic coldness.

"You'll miss out on a memory then," Rosethorn says.
"I'll see you tomorrow; make sure they all are on their way home by curfew," Rosethorn says with a smile as her heels tap on the sidewalk back to her own home.

Hoge sighs as her Sensei casually walks off, calling Inigo to let her into the building so she can monitor the party, purely as the class rep, of course.