On Rhodes Island lives a cluster of young operators who all speak with an Ursus accent. They call themselves the Ursus Student Self-government Group.

Zima, Istina, Leto, Gummy, and Natalya. On the surface, they're just ordinary kids who eat, train, and bicker with one another.

But each of these kids carries a 'habit' of their own. And every one of those habits is a scar left from surviving a certain winter in a certain city.

When the Little Bear Gets Hungry, She Bites Whatever's Closest

Gummy is the second-earliest riser in the dorm. She's the spirited cook of the canteen, always toting a frying pan and a sturdy shield.

Today, big sis Istina left nothing but a note and headed out early. Gummy, who overslept, dashes off to the kitchen without even eating breakfast.

The problem is that Gummy has a certain habit. When she gets too hungry, she loses her self-control and chomps down on whatever is nearest — no matter what it happens to be.

That day, what Gummy bit happened to be the waist of the instructor, big sis Dur-nar. She apologizes, fills her stomach, and goes back to work.

During afternoon training, another habit rears its head. When she swings at something twice, the third swing goes in with all her might, entirely on reflex. That habit — cleaving a cutting board clean in two — sends her sparring partner Dur-nar flying.

Gummy did nothing wrong. She was just upset. She wants to do better, but Gummy can't change who 'Gummy' is.

But that day happened to mark exactly one year since the five of them came to Rhodes Island. Zima and Istina come to find Gummy, and the three of them lie side by side on the narrow bed.

Gummy has a great many habits. But when Zima and Istina are by her side, those habits stop being habits at all — because those two are Gummy's habit.

But one person was missing from this gathering. Gummy thinks to herself: next time, she hopes big sis Rosa will be here too.

The Words 'I'm Fine' Were Her Oldest Lie

Istina is the careful, detective-novel-loving strategist of the Self-government Group. Her real name is Anna Morozova.

One day, Istina sits down before a machine she borrowed from Closure. Its purpose: 'self-diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder.' She confides in herself the things she could never tell anyone else.

Istina speaks calmly. Everyone seems fine now, she says, but Gummy, Zima, Leto — and she herself — still haven't gotten past what happened at that school.

Just then, May — who fancies herself a detective — and her old friend Natalya drop by for some black tea. The room briefly erupts into chaos over shoving vegetable crackers into someone's mouth.

But when May absentmindedly picks up an old doll, Istina snatches it back sharply. It belonged to Vika — a friend who is no longer with them.

The three talk about detective novels. What about a sin that can be uncovered but never judged, Istina asks. May answers: what has already happened can never be forgotten by the one who lived it.

Long, long ago, Istina could only watch as Vika slipped from her fingertips and fell. She has never once forgotten that memory — the memory of failing to catch her.

After the guests leave, Istina speaks to Vika in the empty room. She knows, too, that someday she'll have to face it.

But not now. The time has not yet come.

— Istina

A Single Candlestick Brought Down Everyone's Winter

Zima is the fight-loving leader of the Self-government Group who rarely listens to the Doctor. Her real name is Sonya. At her public school, she was known as 'General Winter,' the guardian who protected the weak.

Every night, Zima has the same nightmare. It begins at an ordinary breakfast table and always ends up back at that school.

It was when Reunion had occupied Chernobog and locked students from many schools into a single one. When the first fire burned down the food stores, the students began stealing each other's food.

Trapped inside, Anna (Istina) asked Sonya to become their new leader, and so the 'Ursus Student Self-government Group' was born.

To ease Anna's worries, Sonya launches a night raid on the last food store, which the noble students had seized. But she happened to knock over a candlestick.

It was the second fire. Even the last of the food was reduced to ashes, and the school fell into even greater chaos.

Then, without a sound, Reunion left the school. They could finally get out — but the very next day—

The Catastrophe struck the school. And the kids who made it outside realized that the world beyond the school was far more brutal.

In the end, Sonya was rescued by a Rhodes Island operation team. But the fire, and ruining what Anna had wished for — it all felt like her fault. And so every night she dreams that everyone blames her.

The Noble Who Killed No One, Yet Called Herself the Filthiest of All

Natalya is a star of Rhodes Island's logistics department. She looks after the refugees with great care and has everyone's trust — and she was once the student council president of the Fourth High School.

But one day, it's Zima who comes to find Natalya first. The two aren't friends, nor do they even like each other — yet that's precisely why there were things they could say to one another.

For the first time, Natalya lays it all bare. At that school, it was she who rallied the noble students together, and she who agreed to the 'plundering of the commoners.'

In that place where everyone killed and was killed, I didn't kill a single person. But the filthiest one of all was probably me.

— Natalya

What despaired her most, Natalya says, was the shattering of her illusion that she was a good person. She confesses she thought of slitting her wrist with a paper knife, and held back by counting the urges, one after another.

Zima says she doesn't know how to comfort anyone, and just tells Natalya exactly what she thinks. Without you, Anna could never have endured those ten days alone. You did what you were able to do.

Wander around here and there, eat when you're hungry, go sleep when you're tired. Don't just sit still and stew over pointless thoughts.

— Zima

Natalya laughs through her tears. Neither of them solved a single one of the other's problems — but they both survived all the same.

And Natalya decides to become a fighter — under the codename Rosa, which means 'dew' in Ursus.

A Not-at-All-Funny War Story, Spilled Out in a Honey-Drunk Haze

Leto is the youngest-ish fighter of the Self-government Group, and she loves playing guitar. Her original name is Rosalind. She was 'General Summer,' the counterpart to 'General Winter.'

One day, while training with Beehunter, Leto drinks a whole lot of honey mead, and the two of them end up honey-drunk.

As the buzz sets in, Leto starts spilling old stories — like the time at that school when she brought canned food to go join Sonya's side.

On a night when both food and people were scarce, a terrified Rosalind goes to meet the leader of Reunion. She didn't know what a mere student like her could do, but she felt she had to at least try.

The white-haired child, wearing a look somewhere between a smile and none at all, said this and that before letting her go. 'The suffering is only beginning' — or something like that; she doesn't quite remember.

When she came to her senses, Beehunter had passed out cold. Leto tells the rest of the story to her guitar, 'Stage,' instead.

The next morning, Leto doesn't remember a word of what she said. All she knows is that she slept soundly for the first time in ages.

Because Spring Always Comes — A Certain Policeman's Daughter

Here is one person who walked a different winter than the five girls inside the school.

She's a girl named Zoya, with a policeman for a father. Her father always promised that he would protect this home and this city, and that when spring came, they'd all go on an outing together.

But then Reunion descends upon the city. Zoya, who had been trapped in a school, slips out during a moment when a Reunion Caster deliberately looked the other way.

Outside was hell. From Valery, her father's colleague, Zoya learns that her mother never made it back from the district that was attacked first.

Her father had volunteered to go to Peterheim High School, where other students were trapped. Zoya takes a communication device to contact the army and heads there to help him.

Repeating to herself that she mustn't cry. That she, too, would become someone like her father.

And what Zoya found when she reached Peterheim was— a pitch-black, charred floor, and the school uniforms that covered every inch of it.

It was a sight she had never seen even in her dreams.

In that moment, only the promise her father had made that winter echoed in Zoya's ears.

Because in this city too, spring always comes.

— Zoya's Father

Epilogue — The One Who Recognized That Uniform

Meanwhile, Amiya agonized for a long time over Natalya's application to become a fighter. From the Self-government Group's kids, she sensed not sorrow, nor anger, but an immense 'powerlessness.'

Still, Amiya decides to respect their choice. Protecting them by force could heal nothing.

Someday, I hope Rhodes Island can become their new home.

— Amiya

Some time later, an operator picks up a new record card from the logistics department. Her codename is Absinthe.

On her way to top up her card because she was hungry, Absinthe spots a group of operators chatting boisterously about a card game some distance away.

Gummy, Rosa, Leto, Istina, and Zima. Absinthe recognizes those uniforms at a single glance. They were the students of that school.

The five girls still each have their own habits. Biting whatever's closest when hungry, lying that they're fine, having nightmares every night — those habits.

But as long as they have each other by their side, those habits are no longer habits. And now, one more person who lived through the same winter stands beside them.