Chrome Shelled Regios
Rebuilding Zuellni
post-series, source material subtitled anime
one-shot, mostly reflective third-person perspective
Show licensed by Funimation. This is for fun, not profit.
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"Kalian for Student Council President!"
"VOTE FOR KALIAN"
"Loss is a Win for Zuellni!"
Layfon didn't remember a previous campaign-but it seems election periods were set down by academic city law as short and intense, establishing the new council head weeks before the immediate start of the new term year. Kalian (or whichever minions he assigned the task to) had signs posted on what seemed to be every other corner, pinned to all areas for flyers and notices, stuck in business windows, on municipal buses... "VOTE KALIAN FOR PRESIDENT" on so many surfaces overnight, it was astonishing. Not least, because who else was running?
Rather like Kalian's initial campaign, a curious Layfon found, though that year, the favored candidate withdrew near the start of the the race-and left the school entirely-to return to his family's home city without graduating. There had been reasons given, hardship implied, but it seemed rather too fortuitous for Kalian for Layfon's suspicions (not that it seemed to bother anyone now).
When Layfon had arrived as a general curriculum student, the Student Council President seemed to hold about as absolute a power as the monarchy he'd been accustomed to, title notwithstanding. Since Regios, the travelling haven-cities, were constantly at war to survive, it made sense to have a powerful authority. Kalian, however, seemed to revel in his power and privelege to excess. For example, how many female aides did he need? Only one he saw ever did any relevant work, in communications, the rest?
Against his preferences, Layfon was compelled to switch to the Military Arts Academy after being manipulated into demonstrating his skill. He was headlocked by headstrong Nina into joining her member-short platoon. This was not the new start he wanted, but he very soon found himself with a new set of friends that made fighting something he had to do, for them.
"KALIAN ALSEIF"
Wait-what? Why was his name on a banner?
Kalian would and did use anyone for the sake of the city. Layfon was not comfortable with his status as a hero, and Kalian used even that, too. Exiled from Glendan, the "Spear-shelled City," by the queen for his part in underground tournament fighting after becoming one of her elite force, Layfon's shame as /former/ Keeper of a Heaven's Blade seemed to be a source of pride for Zuellni, to have him here. He defeated average-still terrible-to insanely powerful contaminoids, monsters from an outside dimension come into the world, time and again; solo and with help, until there was no hope of concealing his role. Averting Zuellni's evacuation as it was under direct assault...
As incumbent, Kalian was pressing every advantage while doing an admirable job of organizing rebuilding and repair. To Layfon's understanding, all the city's liquid funds had hired the destruction of half a dozen adult contaminoids by the Salinban Mercenary Training Group; Zuellni posessed only one sernium mine, a necessary resource for which all cities contended; how repairs were proceeding...well, Kalian was probably doing something underhanded somewhere, but Layfon was conflicted in any judgment he could make.
What can't be done, to live?
And thanks to everyone's efforts, Zuellni still lived.
Layfon was still a military arts student. Of Platoon Seventeen. Resource for the Municipal Police. Special Forces Contaminoid Defense. Machinery Department drudge. Occasional construction worker, as every student was drafted in rotation-engineering and military arts most of all. And-Hero. Not that he wouldn't-try, at least-but somehow, it seemed everyone was relying on him to protect Zuellni.
It drove Nina crazy. She was his captain.
Even as Nina thrilled in the success and acknowledgement of Platoon Seventeen, she tried not to grow overconfident again. Even as she tried to be as strong as she could be, she was forcing herself to build reasonably. Nina had wished, so very many times, to be more powerful, more powerful, more powerful...and possession by the Fallen One of Gandweria had given her more kei than she could control, and made her a threat to all she loved. She had nearly been killed despite all that power, /because/ of that power. Wherever Keeper of the Blade Savalis Leukens had gone, she hoped he never obtained another Fallen One. She hoped there would BE no more Fallen Ones, City spirits outliving their destroyed cities and searching for something to inhabit.
Dinn Dee, leader of Platoon Ten, had acquired the Falllen One first, involuntarily, in his desperation to be the best, losing to Layfon in itraschool battle. It was driven from him for his own sake, as they were terrified of what might happen. What did happen was terrifying enough. Dinn was left as a shadow of himself, seeming to recognize no one, staring blankly and with no response to anyone. Siena, his friend and platoon member of three years, took responsibility for him, and Platoon Ten dissolved.
Nina feared the same fate as Dinn, when the Fallen One returned and her defense of the city spirit Zuellni meant she was possessed of both of them, unbeknownst to any. The city halted. She struggled, with internal conflict of more than one sort, until she was driven to fight a truly monstrous contaminoid, leaving by herself. Somehow, pursuing her, Savalis of Glendan drew the Fallen One to himself from her-but not as any favor-and proceeded to fight Layfon.
Body depleted but spirit unbroken, she was rescued and Layfon triumphed. Spectacularly.
Her recovery was better than it might have been, a benefit of being a student of the military arts. Really, she was offensively styled, but the rudiments of accessing kei for external ballistics DID have something in common with directing it internally for healing. If not skillfully done, her augmentation efforts did have some success. Particularly, Harley said, because it kept her still and put herself to sleep more often than not.
Harley was constantly tring to manufacture a dite for Layfon that would survive his hardest use. Finally given leave to craft the single-edged blade that Layfon's style was meant for, he was never satisfied, and trying to duplicate the results of the legendary Heaven's Blade did result in some improvements, if not a masterpiece.
Leerin had brought a special dite from Glendan for Layfon; a gift of her father Derk, Saiharden Master and Layfon's teacher. Sign that he was forgiven, marked with the school's crest. She was assisted in its hazardous, last moment delivery by Gorneo Leukens and Shante Laite-Gorneo, originally also of Glendan, who was swayed by her pleading despite a hatred of Layfon for crippling his friend Gahard, who had challenged (and blackmailed) Layfon in attempt for his Heaven's Blade. Instrumental in Layfon's exile.
Gorneo would support Layfon, only so long as it was in Zuellni's interest.
That dite was recalled to Glendan; it merged with the twelfth Heaven's Blade, mysteriously arrived to Layfon's hand to combat the menace which had appeared in the sky between Glendan and Zuellni. (The city of Myath had nearly been present, but it fled the shadow of Glendan. Presumably, it would no longer want to be aggressor against Zuellni, now, either. Zuellni had not yet met another academic city in challenge, and either Zuellni herself was avoiding the courses of other cities, or they were avoiding her.) All of the Blades were property of Queen Alshera of Glendan, and Layfon did not have her permission to be its Keeper again, still exiled.
Layfon didn't seem to mind its loss, and Queen Alshera did not seem to be seeking his replacement.
In a few years, maybe she would relent, and he could return. Leerin was waiting.
Shante was improving quite a lot as an opponent, training with Layfon and Gorneo, as long as Felli wasn't present. It would make an eventual official contest between their respective platoons interesting. /All/ the interior training battles between platoons would be interesting, now that they had survived contaminoids together.
That really did make it seem unimportant; deceptive, because "Capture the Flag" between cities was deadly earnest competition for resources to survive. But in defeat to another city, or defeat to the contaminoids, it was clear which would be worse.
Who knew where standings would be when platoons started maneuvers again? Siena and Sharnid seemed to work well together again, and Nina had so many new options for strategies to try...
In a couple of years, /her/ platoon would be the leaders, and she would have so many new students to train, and Zuellni would be secure as she could make her.
"Fon-Fon,"
"Felli."
"...I'm going to apply for a new job."
"You don't like Cafe Milla? They love you there."
"Okay, where would you like to go? What do you have planned?"
[The bus stops; they exit.]
"Maybe Mifi can get you an interview at Weekly Look'N? She's always writing articles about us and the military arts department-I know! Why don't the two of you start your own column! Why didn't I think of that before? People seem to love them, and I bet Mifi would be thrilled to have a regular piece as well as her constant roaming for 'scoops.'"
"No? Naruki's with the municipal police, she'd welcome you-but that would still be asking you to use nen'i, something different... All I really know is still the military arts, that's no good...May-shen hasn't opened her dream restaurant, I bet that'll probably happen after school when she goes back to Yortem Transit City, but she's doing ordered lunches for a bunch of people now, since Nina and Naruki encouraged her...you could learn to cook?"
"...you need help in the Machinery Department. Fon-Fon."
"What? Why would you want to do that? Surely Nina didn't suggest this? She works us hard enough as it is, you want to join her for a job, too?"
"It's different."
"Yes, but-"
"The job was posted."
"yes, but Felli-"
"It pays well."
"but, you-"
"You do it."
"but-"
"Idiot."
[KICK]
"Ow! Felli!"
The sun set, and Zuellni rested on a broad exposed wasteland, declining, for the moment, to move.
"Hey, this next song is a duet! Someone come up here and sing it with me! 'Beyond memory, a map of the ideal future you'd been searching for'
...no one jumping in? I guess I'll do both parts!
'Unable to see you, I'm always wearing a fake smile/I was held in your arms/ Fall in love liike you're waaaking up.'"
"Mifi really loves karaoke, doesn't she?"
"'into dreamland/ You always, you' "
"Yeah, we're here every week. Didn't you know? You should join us more often, Lay-ton, it'd be fun."
"'me tender liies.'"
"Right, May-cchi?"
"Y-Yes."
"Sincerely Yours, Leerin."
Mail between cities was carried by nearly every land-roller and roaming bus, and ingoing and outgoing messages increased with the past crisis. Parents to students, students to families, friends and relations confirming one another's wellbeing...or not. Rumor always traveled ahead of post, so the "are you okay's" and the "I'm fine's" were probably written almost as one, though receipt took much longer. Academic cities were an exception to the largest number of people who were born, lived, and died without ever leaving their home Regios, and the quantity of mail reflected that. They had ties to many places.
Leerin's letter was encouraging, and she asked after everyone, especially Nina. It was still curious, their meeting in Myath. Glendan had weathered the attack better than Zuellni did, and moved away immediately afterward. Glendan's propensity for confronting contaminoids surely made that a blessing for Zuellni. The distance between them had increased, and continued to grow. Travels between the two were ever longer and uncertain.
It sounded as though Leerin had found in this-Shinora Eleisra-a good friend, who was there when she was brought back to Glendan. Maybe someday, Layfon would meet and thank her.
Cheers from the assembly; sixth years were graduating, and soon many of them would depart. Platoon Sixteen would be nearly a freshman unit in a few weeks; Layfon wouldn't miss them. Nina would have wished a better victory against them, but...well, she hadn't been a 'maggot' for some time. It was enough.
Platoon Seventeen's veteran members, Sharnid and Siena, now became fifth years. They wouldn't face separation for a while yet.
Zuellni's residents were, as a body, determined. Dedicated to their school. Students who would graduate and leave to their home cities, no less so. Would grades, recommendations and placements remain valid after a school's destruction? (Layfon didn't think about where he would go, after Zuellni, if still not welcome in Glendan.)
Zuellni hadn't been notorious or particularly prestigious among academic cities when Layfon was accepted under scholarship (Kalian's enticement not merited by his studies, just his name, Layfon was sure, in retrospect. No other city had alloted him one; he should have realized.). He had thought that would serve him in getting away from fighting.
The city-spirits directed encounters, so intermunicipal battles could be either rare or frequent, depending. Some sernium mines were staked claim upon practically in rotation, with fierce, fierce rivalry. Zuellni's reputation was not prominent-hadn't been prominent, who was sure where they stood now-and the young spirit avoided most threats assiduously. Before.
During this time of recovery, Zuellni's path was being scouted every which direction, and she was behaving as expected. More or less. She liked to vanish from the heart of the machinery from time to time, but that was nothing new.
Zuellni was in the form of a girl. Did electronic spirits become...teenagers? Layfon had a bad feeling...
AN:
There are probably format issues I must correct-I'll shortly be out of time online, but I'll return soon enough if I need to. I expect to need to. Thank you if you put up with them.
Thank you for reading my longest typed work in years. Tremendously brief as it is. It's your fault for having insufficient fifty-thousand-plus-word-count stories in this category when I want to read one. Instead, I labored over a tiny fragment. :p Feel free to write me that you want to run with a splinter of mine. (Length not required.)
I've intended to compose little reactionary and speculative bits in various fandoms, though, so this could be another beginning.
Hints of changes in the future, no major alterations yet apparent. I've written Kalian as a fifth-year during the series, so this would be the start of his last term, and I hope I'm not incorrect. I neglected to include Haia, Myunfa, Fellmouse and most of the named Blades entirely, so I may pick them up later, I may not.
Saya, Ignacius, Dainsleif, the Wolfmask Mob, and Dickserio Muscaine etc likewise. I just didn't fit them in without overreaching myself into the realm of actual action and plot. As usual, I have ideas without enough cohesive substance. I will say, that there is absolutely no way in my head that Layfon will not be reacquiring that twelfth Heaven's Blade-from a distance, even. Saya and Leerin demand it. Contaminoids beware.
Dear readers, continue on.
~benign intent