For episode four of the Valvrave Episode Challenge, in which I do something creative every week inspired by the events which occur. A full list of entries can be found on my profile. Has it really been a month? Wow. (ahhh, ep4, can it be next week yet?)
I was torn between Satomi and L-elf for this episode, but chose L-elf because arencezeon had asked. :) Though, I don't really have time this week to write anything too long and most likely won't for the next few episodes too, unfortunately.
Warnings(?): Stupidly longness of everything, copious amounts of headcanon, everything that probably will be proven non–canon-compliant the instant the next episode comes out. Also I really don't like this, isn't representative of Valvrave's greatness. Sadface x4. Whelp, quality not guaranteed~!
04: Prodigy
1. An unusually gifted or intelligent young person.
x
L-elf will tell the future.
Or perhaps, more precisely, he'll be vague enough about a series of events. A hand mic, an earthquake, a riot; 3:14 PM. Earthquakes—if the ARUS craft docks as anticipated, it will be easy to disrupt their signal. Riots – easy to stage, hand mics will naturally follow. Each event achievable through a number of means – and time won't ever be a problem, because it'll only take a matter of moments before he's able to break through security and run. L-elf has seen how they reacted at his name. They know him yet are careless enough for minimal precautions.
There's no doubt he'll escape, preferably with zero injuries. Then he'll be left with the option of hijacking a craft or perhaps he'll be lucky and another, more convenient means will appear before him.
But L-elf is not a man who relies on luck. His talents are a result of intellect and ambition. A perfect cocktail ensuring he'll find the most efficient means for channelling his abilities. He is not X-eins, valuing strategy over form. Nor A-drei, excelling as a tactician but a soldier to take orders his whole life, nor like H-neun of all trades, nor the young, inexperienced Q-vier. L-elf is a specialist in strategy and tactics, has devoted his life and his intelligence to being a specialist, and it is with that determination that he'll achieve his goals.
When he'll arrive with military promptness, L-elf won't be surprised when Tokishima Haruto tenses and tightens his fists. Nor will he be surprised when his demand is declined, because honestly – it took more than intangible guarantees of safety in the hands of their murderer to convince someone to join the other side.
It's no concern, though, because L-elf will grow the future from the seeds that are his plans.
And each of his futures will come true.
2. A sign of prophetic significance.
x
L-elf will meet Tokishima Haruto after the second prophecy comes true, because it always does. He's only ever been wrong once, and that was because he'd been relying on a woman to value her possessions as opposed to ripping her expensive dress, climbing several flights of stairs and activating the fire alarm he ought to have disabled.
Amateur mistakes he'd long since learnt from.
V, L-elf says with his fingers, making the sign. Victory.
—he doesn't expect Tokishima Haruto to claim it means 'peace' before rushing out of the room. But it's no issue; his prophecy has not been nullified. Likely it's just a clash of cultures, nothing more. L-elf just needs to keep his distance and not get overconfident and events before would not happen again – it's only a matter of time before Tokishima Haruto learns that people either followed him or they were no longer alive.
(There was one exception to that rule, of course, but it would never become relevant—that exception was still far away in Dorssia, with no chance of interfering any time soon.)
L-elf does not bother pursuing Tokishima Haruto, just walks to the window and glances at grey skies sapped of life, artificial sun cloaked by malfunctioning cumulus generators, the module swathed by darkness and panic; great, billowing creatures of negativity nesting within Sakimori Academy's grounds.
When some students will be ushered indoors by others with commanding grace, L-elf will assess their movements and identify minimum eight possible reasons within moments and know how their potential reactions branched across his goals. L-elf will have moved to the roof so as to improve his vantage and found the perfect position to see Tokishima Haruto launch himself at the ARUS's ambassador. L-elf may smile, his plan accelerated by days; for a man of Tokishima Haruto's character, a nation placing economic prosperity over honour was no better than a nation who held conquest as its fundamental construct.
The difference would lie in the truthfulness of the two – and L-elf's prophecies were the truth; he never once hid anything to deny.
3. A wonderful act or event extraordinary or rare.
x
V.
Victory.
L-elf cannot help but smile at the machine. No doubt the Valvrave's lenses are focused onto him, and the thought has the edges of his mouth turn out and warp sinister.
I win again, he thinks, of one called Lieselotte. Tokishima Haruto—you will choose me.
He does not expect the girl who takes command. At first, she seems to merely be naïve, one that values her friends, until she speaks and says—
"If they do something to our families, we'll give ARUS the robot!"
L-elf doesn't remember his immediate reaction toward the kink in his plans, but he knows he never thought he'd meet someone like Sashinami Shoko. She is truly a politician's daughter; it can be seen within her gaze.
Briefly, L-elf does consider if he ought to kill her, this girl who swept the roots from the ground so soundly and without due preparation, but she is such a crucial centrepiece to controlling Tokishima Haruto that he would need to make arrangements otherwise. It will not be difficult to stage her death as a result of ARUS's doing, then point a man blind with anger toward his goal. In two nights, the ARUS ambassador will have—
"We're independent!"
The thought continues no further, and L-elf has returned from the future to the present in the midst of students truly thinking they could run their own nation. A sudden lightness wells within him, rises from his chest to his throat, and then he is laughing. Through humour or relief he does not know, does not bother identifying, merely wonders when he'd last laughed in his world.
So funny, that Sashinami Shoko, and here L-elf had thought she would be a worthy rival to overcome. True, his plans require modification, but they're still within his control – removed from the greater Sphere as Tokishima Haruto was surely doing, it wouldn't be long before they'll run out of supplies with no sun to support and give them life.
L-elf had thought he'd lost his chivalry, but he still finds himself deciding to sit back and not act – not immediately. Sashinami Shoko still provides entertainment of sorts; for now, he'll observe the tapestry being woven without him.
He has waited years; he can still wait more.
It will be easy enough to perform prodigies of divinity, after all.