This is a lighthearted bonus chronicle about the beautiful and imposing Commander of Zoral's biggest problem; in other words, her hair is much too long!
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*flashback—right before Aoi's birthday*
{MIHO'S POV}
Asahi cannot stop laughing. "Wow, you take bedhead to a whole new level!"

My hands itch to grab my rapier. I busy them by running them through my strawberry pink locks in a futile attempt to tame them. "Why... are you in... my tent? Where's... Aoi-kun?"

Asahi shrugs. "Helping General Hajime break up a fight between Papa and the cavalry captain. Tribal differences and all that ptooey. But he said to let you sleep. Miho-sama isn't very diplomatic, unless diplomacy is making people eat her sword."

This girl gets increasing more impertinent as she gains confidence around the knights.

"Would you like... a taste?" I ask calmly.

"You would never hurt me!" Asahi laughs jovially, seeing right through my façade. "I'm your personal attendant after all."

"That's news... to me. Why aren't you... with Daisuke-san...and the rest? Go... train."

Crocodile tears well up in Asahi's eyes. "Come on, I've been a good girl, haven't I? You would throw away your most faithful servant?"

Asahi wipes her tears away and gives me overly-exaggerated puppy dog eyes. The mischievous glint in her dancing eyes gives away that she's playing.

I sigh, my defenses crumbing when faced with her cuteness. "Give... me one good reason... why not."

Asahi pouts. "The last time I held a sword, I was fighting a straw dummy. I nearly stabbed myself in the eye and almost impaled Papa in the same swing. And he was standing twenty feet behind me. But if you reeeeeally insist—"

She turns to leave, very slowly, with no intention of actually following through. Ugh.

"Wait." I call.

Asahi spins, grinning triumphantly. "Yay!"

Asahi is so bubbly, she's like my antithesis. I have a feeling that I'll never win against her with the way things are right now.

Determined to ignore the chipper 11 year old girl, I extricate my hand from my hair to pull it up into it's traditional high ponytail. Asahi gasps and shakes her head despondently, clucking her tongue.

I sigh in irritation, taking the bait. "What now?"

"Look at this travesty!" Asahi points at the ground in dismay. I trace her finger's path.

Over the years, my hair has grown more than a foot longer. I never really pay attention to it, but now I can see that, even though it's tied up, the ends still drag along the ground. Moreover, it's embarrassingly greasy and dirty. There's only so much I can do with the limited bathing supplies we have.

Asahi is on a tangent. "This won't do. The damage. The split-ends! You have the most prettiest hair in the world and you treat it like trash! No, this won't do at all. I've gotta right this injustice!"

"Why bother?" I ask, which is exactly the wrong thing to say in this situation.

"For starters, it's a hazard. What if you're fighting and you step backward to dodge or something but you step on your hair? Also," Teacher-mode Asahi pins me with a very serious stare. "Miho-sama, you might not've noticed but women from Evander put a lot of effort into our hair. It's a very big deal to us. I'm still a kid, so mine is natural—" she lovingly pats her nappy black hair, "—but it's like a rite of passage to start braiding our hair and learning how to style it ourselves. We collect and create beads, then spend hours braiding them in. Careful hair maintenance is a daily routine. Mama and her friends are always thinking of new hairstyles and techniques to try. It requires a lot of hard work and dedication and is a source of great pride in our kingdom."

I did notice. Once I complimented Moriko on her multi-colored beads and she thanked me profusely, pointing out some beautiful ones she'd recently traded with another woman. It's rather insensitive of me to be so nonchalant with Asahi when hair is is a huge part of her culture and heritage.

"Sorry." I murmur contritely, seeing that Asahi is seriously upset by this.

Asahi exhales, then puts her hands on her hips.

"Good. Now that we're on the page—" Once Asahi's anger is appeased, she quickly dissolves into a victorious grin.

I gesture to my head, defeated. "All yours."

For the next few days, Asahi comes to the command tent early in the morning and late in the evening. She and Aoi-kun bond over different brushing techniques and types of combs.

She never fails to laugh at my ridiculous bedhead or experiment with multiple hairstyles to see if any of them work for me.

The daisy chain was the worst.

•••

"Hey, Miho-sama!" Asahi said in a sing-song voice as she waltzed into the tent, which should've been my first clue that something was horribly wrong.

Nevertheless, I was clueless. "Yes?"

"I had an idea for a hairstyle that might work! The knights showed me how to do this using rope, and I think I might be able to do it with hair." Asahi held up a piece of rope that looked braided, but not quite. "It's called a chain sinnet!"

I should've known. But by this point I was desensitized to Asahi when it came to playing with my hair. I became careless.

I studied the rope. "I suppose that... is okay. It looks... complex though."

"That's the best part! It's easy and quick!" Asahi's eyes glowed with anticipation. At this point, it was too late. I couldn't have stopped her.

Asahi started by pulling my hair into a high ponytail. Then she made a loop at the top, reached through said loop,  and pulled a section of the ponytail through it, which created a new loop.

Asahi repeated the process until she ran out of hair. It took no longer than a few minutes.

Both of us were thrilled. It acceptably pretty by Asahi's standards. It did an excellent job of getting my hair off the ground and out of my way.

I left, blissfully unaware, and passed Aoi-kun on my way out of the tent.

"Hey." He greeted Asahi, not in the least surprised to see her anymore, and noticed the rope on her lap. "Is that a daisy chain? It's so fun undoing those."

"Undoing?" Asahi squeaked, a very bad feeling entering the pit of her stomach.

"Obviously." Aoi-kun pulled the tip by the last loop. With a soft tug, the whole chain easily unraveled. "The entire point is that is makes ropes shorter and easier to store or carry. It would be pointless if you also couldn't easily un-store them."

"Uh-oh." Asahi said weakly.

Aoi-kun raised an eyebrow. "What uh-oh?"

"I may, or may not, have just daisy chained Miho-sama's hair..." she trailed off softly. They both imagined it for a second, then bolted from the tent.

Of course, I wasn't there for that conversation. Aoi-kun told me later. I sincerely think they jinxed me.

I was walking along, surveying the knights as they packed their supplies to go on the move again.

It was very busy, and I didn't notice when my hair, swinging behind me, snagged on a sword hilt of a knight when I nodded at him in passing. I didn't feel my hair daisy chain start to unravel, and no one realized what was happening in time to warn me.

Aoi-kun and Asahi skidded around the corner just in time to witness the catastrophe.

My head jerked back. The knight felt a tug and turned to see his sword hilt connected by a very long pink ponytail to his Commander.

"Shit." The knight cursed, which summed up my feelings about the situation quite well.

I stayed frozen like that, completely embarrassed and partially uncomprehending. Everyone who saw me froze and stared as well.

The knight and I stood still for a few seconds. Aoi-kun facepalmed while Asahi stood open-mouthed. Both failed to hold back soft chuckles.

My head still in the jerked back position, I fixed the mortified knight who unknowingly snagged me with an upside-down glare. "Release me."

"Yes ma'am!" He yelped and obliged.

As soon as the fumbling soldier's clumsy hands managed to untangle all of my hair, I turned on Asahi. "We... need to... talk."

Aoi-kun came with us to make sure I didn't murder the other girl accidentally. Pity.

After that fiasco, I decided to aim for utility over fashion with my hairstyle, much to Asahi's dismay.