Retrospective Beloved

A Super Robot Wars Fanfic

By Takeshi Yamato

Author's Notes: I first came up with the idea for this fic when I noticed a distinct lack of Ryusei Date/Mai Kobayashi Fan fiction in the FF.N Database, and I decided to try writing my own, since Ryu/Mai is one of my favorite pairings in Super Robot Wars.

This is set after Super Robot Wars Original Generations Gaiden and thus will most likely not agree with any canonical material established to happen afterwards (i.e. SRW OGS Endless Frontier EXCEED) or with the third Original Generation game (when/if it is produced).

Now, let's get this party started! :D

Chapter 1

Almost Shattered

Location: Infirmary of the Space Noah-Class Carrier Hagane

The steady beeping of the medical equipment was the only sound in the Hagane's Infirmary as Mai Kobayashi lay unconscious in one of the beds in critical condition. Bandages were wrapped around her upper right arm, on her forehead, around her torso, and around her left upper leg, and an IV in her left arm supplied nutrients directly into her system.

In a chair at her bedside sat Ryusei Date, Ryu to his peers. Ryu was Mai's comrade in the SRX Team, and the man she had fallen for.

And, just a few short hours ago, Mai had almost died to save his life.

Ryu watched over Mai's unconscious form, worry in his eyes as he remembered how she had ended up in this condition…

Several hours ago during the battle with Shu Shirakawa's Neo Granzon…

Dark Brain, the seeker of the twelve keys of cosmic power, lay dead.

Shu Shirakawa had assumed his place, claiming that all obstacles to his way were now gone, and since it was no longer necessary to aid the warriors of the Hagane and the Hiryu, he declared his true purpose was to aid the Demon God Shiva Volkruss by offering up the souls of several hundred million people, and to begin his sacrifice, he had declared their lives would be forfeit.

Of course, they objected, and he in turn had pitted himself in battle against them, and not long into the melee, the Siegerlion, Excellence Frames and the Grungust Sanshiki had been the first three victims of the Neo Granzon's Graviton Cannon, and while their pilots lived, their machines were now useless.

However, their efforts had not been in vain, as the readings emitted off the Neo Granzon had revealed that to use its strongest attacks, its energy shielding weakened considerably (much like the late Bian Zoldark's Valsion had operated in fact), so since the SRX could not form due to damage sustained while fighting Dark Brain, Aya in the R-3 Powered and Ryusei in the R-1 joined Masaki in his Cybuster, Sleigh in her Calion, and Ibis in her Astelion in drawing his fire, using their maneuverability to evade his assaults while the heavy hitters among their ranks blasted away at the armored behemoth.

Amazingly enough, the stratagem worked, but Shu Shirakawa had proven his genius credentials weren't just for show when he revealed that thanks to the Black Hole Engine installed in the Neo Granzon, he was able to regenerate his energy, so any advantage was very short lived if they slackened their pace even briefly, and as if that was not enough bad news, his Worm Hole Cluster attacks could open up dimensional gateways that spewed fire from multiple directions, ensuring even the quickest of their ranks could potentially be downed by his fire, forcing the more heavily armored of their number to have to "take a bullet" for their less sturdy allies while furiously counterattacking the Neo Granzon, hoping to whittle it down via sheer attrition while simultaneously trying to avoid lethal damage themselves.

In short, their victory would not be attained cheaply, and even though the Granzon had sustained heavy damage, so had over half the team, and even Sanger's Daizengar and Fighter Roar's Compatible Kaiser had sustained grievous damage as they heroically threw themselves in front of their injured carrier ships.

Thankfully, this turned out to be a boon to Masaki and Ryusei, who managed to evade the fire that had dropped their larger foes, and while Aya had Shu pinned down with her Strike Shields, Ryu and Masaki had proceeded to circle strafe their foe, trying to get his guard to degrade enough so his massively weakened armor could be breached and a fatal blow could be dealt.

They had succeeded in forcing Shirakawa in moving his sword (which he had been using to parry direct assaults) away from his torso, and with that Masaki had immediately tried to carve out his cockpit block with his Discutter.

Unfortunately, he and Ryusei (who was attacking Shu from behind to further disorient the bastard) were so hot blooded and dead-set on killing their foe they ignored the readings they were getting detecting a large energy buildup-

-or they did until Shu unleashed another Graviton Cannon blast that forced the Cybuster to fly backwards as quickly as possible to avoid the brunt of the damage, and Ryusei would've been caught in the conflagration, had Mai Kobayashi in the ART-1 not knocked him away and taken the blast for him.

And so, as he flew backward, he got a horrifying view of watching the ART-1 seemingly crumple in on itself as the gravitic energy smashed into it full force, before seeing a massive explosion immediately follow.

All Ryusei remembered after watching Aya's little sister die was a white killing heat, and as his rage far outstripped the madness the GEIM system could have inflicted on its best day, Psychodriver energy erupted off his R-1 like a torch as he flew forward, a massive drill shaped T-Link Knuckle leading the way, and as every Psychodriver still conscious felt an immense pressure on their minds, he bore into Shu screaming like a madman, seeing every moment he had spent in Mai's presence dance through his head like a fast forwarded kaleidoscope, and the last thing Shu saw before he found out if his god existed was Ryusei Date kicking reason to the curb as he literally obliterated his opponent's cockpit block, tearing through it like it was tissue paper and destroying Shu Shirakawa's body down to its component atoms at the same time.

Moments later, the R-1's back was set against a massive explosion, and Ryusei might have just remained where he was in the air, screaming to the heavens in anguish, had he not felt a faint signal of Psychodriver energy from the fallen remnants of the ART-1's downed cockpit block, which snapped him out of his anguish just long enough to speed towards Mai, praying he would beat Death to his destination…

Mai had been just barely clinging to life when Ryusei reached her, and he was almost frantic as he hurriedly returned to the Hagane carrying the ART-1's Cockpit Block. And once he'd brought Mai to the ship, he hovered around the rescue crews in worry as they pulled her out of the Cockpit Block and rushed her unconscious form to the Infirmary…

Ryusei now maintained a constant vigil at Mai's bedside, waiting for her to regain consciousness as he re-evaluated how he felt about her, as well as re-evaluating his outlook on relationships in general.

For most of Ryusei's life, he had made the conscious decision to not pursue a deep friendship or romantic relationship with anyone. Now, for this to make sense, his history must be explained.

To start off, Ryusei had grown up without a father, who had been a policeman who had died in the line of duty, and thus his only major parental figure was his mother, so partially by circumstance, he was very much a mama's boy. And, considering his mother had been born with frail health and he had spent his childhood seeing her in and out of hospitals all the time due to weakness and chronic illness, it had bred in him a strong belief, however irrational it may have seemed to others, that mortality was ultra-fleeting, and he had always dreaded the possibility that one day, his mother would collapse and it would turn out to be so bad doctors couldn't bring her back.

With that said, to say he was insecure would be a gross understatement, and due to this belief in the frailty of life, he had always been terrified of making deep relationships with anyone, friends or otherwise. Thankfully, this had been partially muted by his love of robot animation, which mostly extolled the virtues of love and camaraderie, so some of his more extreme insecurities were subconsciously derided and discredited, but there was still one he clung to with a vicious passion which had become apparent with the onset of puberty.

He was absolutely terrified of getting into a relationship.

No, he was not uninterested in women, and in fact was just as normal as any other male, though given how much his mother had always tried to raise him with a moral outset; he did try to refrain from treating women like sex objects. He also was very protective of women, which was partly a result of his own personal code of honor which said that they deserved protection, and partially because his upbringing had given him a belief that a woman needed someone to defend them if they could not defend themselves, though to his credit, reality had clued him to the fact not every woman was weak or frail, so he never was arrogant or naïve in this belief.

With that said, Ryusei was not blind, and he knew that Mai had feelings for him (as did Latooni Subota), but given his fear of relationships, he had done his best to feign obliviousness so he wouldn't have to disappoint them and make them unhappy by simply saying no.

And then Mai had almost died.

Ryusei's reaction to her supposed death (and his subsequent reaction upon discovering her survival) surprised him in its intensity, and told him that despite all of his best efforts, Mai had managed to find a way through his insecurities and into his heart.

The fact that it had taken her almost dying for him to realize this was not lost upon him.

And all he could do at the moment was stay by her side, maintaining a silent vigil and waiting for her to regain consciousness.

And once she did, he would do his best to make sure that no one ever harmed her again. Even if that involved lowering his defenses around her, facing his fears, and maybe, just maybe, doing what he could to get closer to her…

To be continued…