Phase 1-1: Midori Hayashi

Hayashi Residence, Tokyo, Japan;

"The Blood Rose!" Midori Hayashi said happily, typing into her computer. She had just done showering and happily sitting in front of her computer with her favourite white bathrobes on. She was online on her webcam group, chatting with her friends. She had done her homework, and her assignments and projects are way beyond schedule, so she's pampering herself for a job well done. Right now she is in the middle of a guild-making process, and she is just about done.

"That's a nice name, Mii-chan… And good work on getting the guys to agree into this." One of Midori's friends, Haruka Matsuda commented. A slightly evil smile broke Midori's face, who was drying her long brunette hair on a blow-dryer. "Well, they were so eager to join in… It was not like I forced them to join… Hahaha!"

"You're EVIL, Midori…" another of her friends laughed.

"So, you going Connect later?" Haruka asked. The other, Yuki Mitsui asked the same thing. Sighing, Midori went over to her PC and picked up her own game gear. "I'm on my way guys, meet up near Shibuya alright?" smiling, she logged on to the game. The virtual reality world appeared around her, her senses completely meshed into the game.

She can see her avatar clearly, a slim brunette like her real self, though her hair is styled more radically to fit into the futuristic virtual environment. She wore a black sleeveless hoodie over red tank top, and khaki shorts with high khaki boots. In the game she wore clear thick framed glasses, as she did in real life.

She looked around and she is in virtual Shibuya, Japan and there were a lot of other avatars alongside hers in the game. Typing the words "BLOOD ROSE" opened a portal in front of her when stepped in teleported her to an empty white room with 2 other player avatars; Haruka in her purple trench-coat over business-like suit and Yuki, a short haired brunette in her white evening dress.

"Hey hey, this Home Base looks pretty sweet~" Yuki commented, whistling. Midori opened a command panel in front of Yuki, which had a furniture and appliance catalogue on them as well as a few other renovation options available for the Home Base. "I'm putting you in charge of interior decorating, Yuki-chan. I know you have amazing tastes."

"That I do, my dear." Yuki said, smiling happily. She pressed a few buttons on the panel and dragged her finger across it around and whenever she stops a new piece of furniture or computer panel appears in the recently-empty space. "I can do this all day!"

"Haru-chan, can you start adding people into the group? Our coursemates and friends? I believe you have most contact with them among us?"

"Sure thing, madam boss." Haruka pouted playfully and went to a newly purchased computer panel and started her work. A few seconds later she turned back to Midori, "Hey Mii-chan, there's a new mission by Mirage right here… You want to take it? Add some revenue to our guild early on?"

Midori called up another information display to her visor. "A support for an asssault on one of Kisaragi's base? Sounds simple enough… Sure, why not? I'll go get the White Blade ready…" She said monotonously to no-one. Haruka nodded understandingly and without being told signed Midori up for the mission. Determined, Midori walked out of the room.

"Mii-chan is always look so tough before she sorties for missions…" Haruka told Yuki, both of them smiling that same knowing smile. "Midori is strong… In the game, and in real life as well…"

A few minutes later…

Midori looked over the snowy field in front of her. Beyond it is a Kisaragi R&D base, where a stolen prototype weapon convoy had been taken to. Her mission is to destroy the base and the prototype weapon, and leave no witness to leave the combat zone. A simple raiding mission, just the way she likes it.

She took a second to go over her AC's configuration; her White Blade is a white bipedal middleweight AC, equipped with a high output generator and energy weapons. Going over the numbers again, she smiled her satisfaction.

"Mii-chan, mission will commence in ten seconds." Haruka's voice came through Midori's intercom, acting as her temporary operator. "We've confirmed enemy retaliatory forces in the base, a bunch of tanks, MTs and some cannon turrets. Nothing too big for you."

"Mirage promised a group of ground pounders to bring down the front gate for you, so you only have to contend with the defenses inside of the base." Haruka informed her pilot friend, who is already on her way towards the base. It was surprisingly quiet, and the promised ground forces was nowhere in sight.

"Mii-chan, watch out!" Haruka's warning came a bit too late. Explosions rocked the White Blade's fuselage, blurring Midori's sight. "MII-CHANN!"

"What the-! Damn it, where is he?" Midori's question was answered, right over the ridge to the east, where the ground forces were supposed to arrive, stood a blue and white AC aiming an RL linear rifle at her. She could see those

"Who the hell are you? Are you working with Kisaragi?" Midori asked, opening her chat to public channels. She trained her sights on the blue unknown AC, her fingers twitching on the trigger. The unknown AC did not fire any shots, but his rifle was still aimed at the White Blade.

"Callsign Valor, AC Conquista Raven's Ark." The blue AC pilot replied. The last two words of his reply shocked Midori so badly she let go of her controller. Her eyes widened as she lost her composure for a few seconds, when she spoke again her voice greatly quivered.

"S-Say what? Don't kid around with me, boy… A Raven would never take petty jobs such as this!" Midori shouted the second part of that, though some part of her could tell that he was telling the truth. A whole unit of Mirage's armored unit was just been simply wiped out, and the AC in front of her stood her with not even a dent on him.

"I never asked you to believe me."

"You….! You fired at me!"

"You are open to try and take me down, if that would make you feel any better."

"Ngggghhh!" He's right, Midori was simply itching to take knock that guy off his high horse, that would make her feel A LOT better. But with his reputation as a Raven, trying to attack him would be a bad decision… A VERY bad decision. Behind all the noises she could hear Haruka trying to reach her, but she cannot afford to take his eyes of this dangerous enemy.

"Are you going to fight? Or are you going to sit there admiring the scenery?" the Raven mocked.

Midori was silent for a moment. She took a deep breath and said in a surprisingly calm and composed manner.

"I am Midori Hayashi, pilot of the White Blade of the Blood Rose Guild. And I will complete my mission!" she announced confidently. She gave no quarter to the shocked Raven, and kicked her ATLAS core Overboost to motion. After a second of an all-too-friendly whirr of the jet engine behind her AC, Midori felt her AC fly forward at nearly 600km/h. The gap between them closed in a flash, and Midori took the advantage by firing her GRIFFON dual laser rifle at the enemy AC.

Her first shot missed her mark, the blue AC Conquista nimbly moving out of her crosshairs just in time. She felt her vision shook as a linear rifle slug hit her hard at point-blank range, the RL rounds nearly knocking her AC off balance. A few more shots hit her hard on the side, followed by a punishing hail of machinegun fire from the FAIRY machinegun on the Conquista's left arm and EO support units on the C98E2 core.

"MII-CHAN!" Haruka's voice broke through Midori's focus and the combat noises. "The mission is called off! That AC is a Raven's Ark AC! Get out of there, now!" Haruka shouted at her while she's getting pounded by more and more RL rounds. She tried to fight back with her GRIFFON and SHADE laser rifles but to no avail, the linear rifle rounds the Conquista is hitting her with shook her AC so badly that her aim is off by a large margin, and not helping that the Conquista is a very nimble machine at the hands of a very skilled pilot.

"Midori! Disengage, now!" Ignoring Haruka, Midori changed her tactics, Midori pulled away from melee range, using her Overboost again to claim some distance from the Raven. Turning around, she switched to her secondary weapons, the MAGORAGA micro missiles and JIKYOH vertical relation missiles combo. Before she could get a lock however, her vision was clouded by a swarm of missiles. The Conquista got her, using his own HYDRA2 and FUNI missile combo to catch the White Blade in a violent storm of explosives.

"Grrgghh!" Midori gritted her teeth as her AC feel to the sandy ground. Her left arm suffered extensive damages, and along with her back mounted MAGORAGA missile pack, had been rendered useless. The White Blade's legs were at 50% functionality and her Overboost system had shut itself down. Struggling, Midori brought her AC back to its feet, clearly at her current mobility level she is in no shape to take on a fully functional AC, much less to take on a Raven.

Frustrated, Midori's eyes started to red. She bit hard into her lips, which drew blood. She wanted to win.

"Go back."

"Excuse me?" Midori shouted, disbelieving her ears.

"Your mission had been called off, and mine was successful." The Conquista's pilot told her, his voice monotonous. "Your transport is already here. You have my word I won't shoot you down from the transport."

Midori looked up and saw a large transport chopper circling the combat zone.

"You dare…" Midori hissed. "YOU DARE LOOK DOWN ON ME?" she roared, firing her SHADE laser rifle at the Conquista. The shot hit the blue AC squarely in the shoulders, singeing thearmor, a black mark upon the painted blue metal. She fired again, this time hitting the AC's QUEEN head part. The Conquista's pilot did not retaliate, nor did he countered or dodge any of the attacks. In a coup de grace, the Conquista shot a linear rifle bullet into the SHADE laser rifle, disabling it completely. With that the White Blade lost all of its retaliatory ability.

Midori could do nothing as the pilot of the Conquista signaled for the transport chopper to come in and pick up the White Blade. She cannot accept it. She does not want to accept it. She wants to fight. She cannot lose like this! She will not accept this! NEVER!

"AHHHHH!" Midori screamed, slamming down her gaming gear onto the table while her AC was being hoisted into the transport chopper. She slammed her fists on her table with her tears pouring non-stop as her parents barged into the room looking shocked.

Tokyo, Japan;

Neither the clear blue sky nor the green grass of spring could raise Midori's spirit that following day. She is no more her cheerful happy self when she walked into the classroom that day, no more happy gossips and girly giggles. Her dark aura seemed to hamper the entire class; everyone fell silent the moment she walked in.

"Mii-chan?" Yuki tried to start a conversation, but was shrugged off completely. She put down her bag at her usual place in the hall, and walked up to the front of the class, where the lecturers usually gave their lectures.

Her eyes wandered to the boy that she always catches stealing glances at him. Sakuraba-something. He is unique guy, a lone wolf kind of guy. She never saw him with many friends, most of the time interacting with others for mutual benefit only. And he is kinda cute, not bad for an antisocial.

Back to the topic she wanted to raise, she looked at the class as a whole again giving them one of her winning smiles. "Guys, I know we talked about this before maybe just for fun… But, I am now seriously, seriously thinking of starting a Connect-02 group for all of us."

"Well, actually I had ALREADY made the group together with Haruka and Yuki and decided to call it the Bloody Rose." There was a collective murmur after this, and a lot of the students looked at each other, some nodding some not. That Sakuraba seemed quite surprised, but gave no explicit response. "I need your support everyone. My cause is one; and only one…" she looked around the class, clearly everyone was waiting for her announcement.

"My one cause is… To destroy the Raven's Ark."

Collective gasps and murmurs spread around the class. Midori herself could see the anxiety in the class at her announcement. "That is why… I will need everyone's cooperation for this. I believe we can do it, if we do it together!" she raised a fist to emphasize her point, but the response was still unfavourable.

"I agree with her."

Midori looked up and saw the Sakuraba-guy, Haru Sakuraba she remembered, standing up. He was looking straight at her with his deep black eyes. "We can do it."

There was quite a cheer after he said it. Everyone was rushing up to show their support and in no time everyone was chanting the name "Blood Rose" out loud as a show of support. They began registering for the guild and Midori as guild master received a stream of notification of people's request to join.

This is it, Midori thought to herself. A new legend is about to be born.

To be continued….