As Sir Vlad's hands flew for his throat, Asseylum was unperturbed. He dropped backward, flinging Vlad over his head, before the knight knew which way was up. A whirlpool of limbs across the sparring mat ended with Vlad's arms pinned, and the prince winning their final round. The onlookers, Slaine among them, applauded.
"Magnificent, your Highness!" Defeated before the whole Castle, Vlad should have been furious with shame. But he felt only awe and pride that his nation was led by such a prodigy.
"A mere friendly match," Asseylum smiled, "Were I not your Prince, your strength would doubtless have prevailed."
In fact, Count Cruhteo had ordered Vlad not to hold back. If the young heir were proved unable to defend himself, his wretched Terran visit might've been shelved…hiding his frustration, Cruhteo moved to express astonishment at the Prince's skill.
"A ruler must be ready to fight and die for his people, Count Cruhteo. If I alone could resolve every dispute of Vers and Terra, by a duel against their finest warrior–I could dream of nothing more. But it would not serve to bring peace, and nor would war. Only trust, understanding, and respect will give us the future, and these I go to Earth to find!"
Slaine cried out something fortunately lost in the applause. Everyone always applauded the Prince; but only the Terran alley-cat's voice (Cruhteo noted) had cheered for 'peace' with any sincerity. No wonder the young Prince was as much plotted against as loved, among the 37 Clans. But to Cruhteo, he was simply the anointed heir. Leaders were for reverence, underlings for obedience, and barbarians for execration, in the famous loyalist's coolly ordered universe. Hence, a skilled, loyal Terran such as Slaine was nothing but grit in a pocketwatch to him, as were the peaceful predications of his master. He hoped fervently that both would disappear in the fullness of time
Afterwards, the Prince changed into his personal white uniform for dinner with Castle Cruhteo's officers; his heavy red cloak hung behind his chair. Cruhteo had complied with his request for a view of the Earth.
"To think you can look on this each morning, Count Cruhteo! So much water and air, light itself is bent…is it not humbling, even to us?"
"I find it but melancholy, Highness," The Count sniffed at his glass of Earth-imported water, "A planet bloated with riches–wasted utterly, on a false and decadent race. I swear to you, Highness, they mean nothing by treaties or trade deals but treachery!"
"Then we must show there is no need for treachery. That the Imperial family, and their loyal supporters, desire peace. Frankly, Vers cannot advance without trade from Earth. Our power may not last if our people stave, Count. Nor would we deserve to keep it."
"But if we only made war!" Sir Vlad burst out, "We might seize all we need, and vindicate our honour for all time! Highness! Lead us against the Terran dogs, as your royal father did!" Asseylum's smile did not change, but Vlad suddenly knew the meaning of fear.
"Honest Sir Vlad. Is it honour to provide for the commons who serve and look to us? Or is it honour to cast human lives away by the million? I am my father's heir. Not my father."
-0-
-0-
Much later, when the Prince had paid for his dreams with his life, and Sir Vlad had avenged wasted greatness on most of the Areion force of Kanto, Cruhteo's knight was bested by Orange kataphrakts. On his return to Castle Cruhteo for repairs, he gruffly recounted his misfortunes to a visibly fraught Slaine Troyard. The impudence of the Terran wench had always annoyed him, but that had been clearly knocked out of her by the Prince's death. The week's events had hit her hard; honestly, he had always pitied her.
"I wanted to go into battle," She stammered out, pale cheeks attractively flushed, "For the Prince. To avenge him..."
"Hmph. I may mention it to our lord, if there is any opening." Vlad growled, "Of course, we're wiping out the Terrans, almost with no loss. The best you can do, as a Terran woman? Bear Martian children, to drag the descendants of those vermin from their rat holes."
"C-Count Cruhteo wouldn't allow..."
"When we have a planet to fill with True Humanity, some things may change. A pity if nothing did, hmm? A true waste."
Interpreting Slaine's stiff and hasty retreat as a renewed commitment to discipline, Vlad turned back to his steed. He roared at the Third Class mechanics to work faster. A few Terran Kats were defending refugee camps, some miles from Tokyo; he would restore his honour by wiping them out.
Later still, after Slaine used the Audience Chamber to plead with the Emperor, before she escaped the castle, she didn't even try to pin down Vlad's pilot. Definitely not to charm them. She only shot the man in the leg.
-0-
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Three days before the crown prince of Vers came to Shinawara, Kaizuka Kei was staring blankly out the window of a bus. As they passed the sites of weed-splattered buildings levelled in Heaven's Fall, her two best friends were studying her tablet.
"Hey, Inko," Nina whispered, "Have you seen the photos of the Martian prince? Isn't he dreamy?"
"Hmm...yeah, total hottie. What do you think, Kei?"
"Hmm…ah. That sale on plain sweaters is this Friday."
"Ugh! Don't you wear anything else?"
"Skirts, socks, underwear…" Kei deadpanned.
"You know what I mean!" Nina swatted her friend with the tablet, "You should think about cute clothes, and nice boys, if we ever find any…hey! What if the prince has to make peace with us by marrying an Earth girl?"
"Even if the Martians wanted a Terran future Empress, you'd have to live on Mars." As always, Kei looked entirely serious, "Temperatures range from 20 to minus 153 degrees, and I hear the people can be unfriendly."
Nina and Inko laughed at that. The trio spent the rest of the bus ride talking about upcoming tests. Kei had just displaced Inko as top of the school, and Nina was usually top ten; she only looked and sounded like a dumb blonde.
"Your lunch is nice as always, Kei," Inko told her later, as they pushed their classroom desks together, "Nutritious and delicious."
"I learned from the best." Kei stated quietly. Inko squeezed her hand with a motherly smile.
Years after Heaven's Fall, Inko's family's deli had all but saved Kei and her sister from starving. Nina glanced at them a little sadly. Her early years in America had been even worse, but the bond of her friends' shared hardships was irreplaceable. Inko noticed her discomfort, and stroked her head.
"Excuse me? Kaizuka-san?" Kei looked blankly round at the classes' second Canadian student, Calm Craftman. His freckled face had taken on a lobsterish shade, "Are you free this Friday? There's a day off, so if you wanted to go to the Zoo together…?"
"I will be helping Inko direct traffic at Prince Asseylum's welcome parade. Sorry."
"Honestly," Inko whispered, as the crestfallen Calm retired, "That fool should just say straight out he likes you!"
"Oh. Does he?"
"Kei…that's the fourth time he's asked you out this term."
"Huh. So it's certain that Craftman-san 'likes me'? How nice."
"Did your best as always, bro," Across the classroom, Okisuke patted Calm's shoulder, "But, man, that's one ice-cold chick. You can believe she really did split some boy's head with a rock, in that orphanage."
"That stupid rumour? Even if she did, it wouldn't have been for nothing."
"Ooer. Hey, what if stuff at that orphanage really put her off men? What if she, you know, likes girls?"
"Oh?" Tsumugi Yotaro leaned back and adjusted his glasses, "Tell me more."
"Okisuke, man," Calm looped an arm round the boy's neck, "You're my best friend and all; but if you don't shut up about Kaizuka, I'll break you."
"Okay, man."
"Sorry."
"Yeah, what happened to Japanese courtesy?"
"Went out with the samurai and knights of old?" Yotaro offered.
"Yeah, go to Mars if you want to find that." They all had a laugh at that idea.
-0-
-0-
As Kaizuka Kei was coolly hauling a stunned Inko away from the blast zone at Prince Asseylum's welcome parade, the Prince himself woke in his hotel suite. He still had a splitting headache, but his legs could hold him upright, and his stomach could hold down water. He had barely finished his shower–Terra had such amazing showers!–when one of his bodyguards walked in, with a silenced pistol.
"Something urgent, Axel? You won't find the gun necessary. Give me ten minutes to dress, then I will be entirely–"
His bodyguard aimed the gun at him. A shot rang out–the man crumpled across the carpet. Edward, the Prince's young page, was standing in the doorway clutching a handgun.
"I…I killed him!"
"So you did." The Prince wondered if he was going to collapse again, "May one ask why?" Unable to speak, Edward ushered Asseylum out of the suite. Still wearing a bathtowel, the Prince followed.
Another guard lay in the corridor. The security details in the next room and the landing below had been killed with silenced gunshots. The TV in the room was still playing. The prince saw his body double obliterated by a missile, and couldn't speak.
"Highness?" Edward finally gasped, "What…why…?"
"You saved my life, Edward." The Prince suddenly clapped the boy on the shoulder; his face was an alabaster mask, "Change out of your uniform; we need to escape and contact Vers!"
-0-
-0-
Panic had spread with news of the missile attack. When the world shook and the Tokyo mushroom boiled over the skyline, people seemed to go insane. Rushing to find a UFE official or a working radio, Asseylum seemed as maniac as any of them. Until the streets emptied and he slumped under a bridge, head in hands.
"Highness…this could all be the plot of Versian traitors! The Terrans wouldn't dare to make war…they surely received your desire for peace!"
"For peace? My desire for peace…cast lives away, by the million..." A half-dead flower grew from the paving at the Prince's feet. He stared at it, until a voice speaking English broke in on them.
"Excuse me. You should leave this area."
The girl they saw looked unexceptional at first; rather skinny with thick shoulder-length hair, an oversized sweater under her jacket, and a mouth that was completely still until she spoke. Her dark, hooded eyes were immovable, patiently dissecting one object until complete analysis. What Kaizuka Kei was studying now was a svelte brunette European boy, wearing a coat and scarf, accompanied by a nervous smaller lad in a tuxedo (Edward had no holographic disguise, and only one set of civilian clothes). Now the older boy was bowing to her, with a click of his heels and a magazine-cover smile.
"Ohayo-Gozaimasu, my lady. Might you have the goodness to assist us in our difficulties?"
"Do you work for a host club? I'm not going with you for a drink, or anything."
Kei reached for the pepper spray in her bag. The small boy reached for something else–his friend stopped him quickly and spoke faster.
"Dear lady, please! Is this 'Evacuation Order' something to allow time for drinks? Our situation is desperate–no, horrifying!–but not beyond salvation, if we can only trust each other!"
Shock and grief burst to his face, as deep-practised courtesy broke. The smaller boy averted his eyes.
"So you are in trouble," Kei put her head on one side, "You might have just said that, instead of acting like some prince. What can I do for you?"
-0-
-0-
"Kei-chan, I'm here. Talk to me, please. Open the door."
The Pillbug–the hulking, indestructible Martian Kat–had penned up the refugees in the school. 'Seylum' and Edward, a strange redheaded boy, Kei and her friends, and her sister Yuki, with a ruined Kat and a broken arm. Kei wasn't surprised that her big sister was up and dealing with business.
"I...I will be alright, Yuki-nee."
"'Will be alright'? That's it, I'm breaking the door down!"
"Remember you're injured, Yuki-nee. I'm coming out."
Kei emerged from the toilet stall, her face still and stoic as ever–but she saw in Yuki's pretty, pale face that she was undeceived.
"Kei-chan, what are they saying? You're heading out to fight? It's no use, that Martian is invincible. This is the one time we need to stay put, and get rescued."
"Probably no rescue is coming–and I'm grateful. They would be defeated as you were, Yuki-nee, but we have fought the monster and lived; we must find its weakness."
"Listen to me, Kei!" Yuki's long hair moved furiously with her head, as Kei went to the handwash sinks, " This isn't a game, or exam! You could die for no reason, you can't–!"
"Okisuke died. On the way here, he fell from the APE. I couldn't even reach for his hand, Yuki-nee. I knew I was too weak."
"No! Kei, it wasn't your fault, it was the Martians, I'm so sorry..."
One-armed, Yuki held her sister tight from behind. Kei shut her eyes, but made no other response, as she finished washing her hands.
"I couldn't save him, but I think we can beat this Martian, Yuki-nee. The refugees here need to be saved. I don't want to die without even trying."
"If you go, I'm coming with you."
"You're injured. Please, look after the people here; keep them hopeful and ready to leave. I can't do that like you, Yuki-nee. As you always said, we can do anything together."
Through the desolation and poverty of their childhood, Yuki had fought every day to keep hope in her silent sister's heart. It was a strange, empty comfort to know that her life's mission had successfully ended.
-0-
-0-
"Please, allow me to fight with you! It is but duty to rise to this time of trial; and it would be unthinkable to stand idle while ladies fought in my defence."
"Huh? " Calm scoffed, "That's the most sexist, pretentious–!"
"He could help, couldn't he? I'd feel a bit safer."
Calm did a double take. Inko looked very earnest, and red.
"I suppose you could," Kei bluntly decided, "Take the van."
In their first fight with the Pillbug, Kei's Slepnir got knocked down. She spent too long drawing a bead on the Versian aircraft, and it put a cannon shell in her leg as she shot through its bat-like wing.
"Do not stop." She radioed to Inko and Calm, in their Sleipnirs, "Continue the operation."
The Prince still stopped the giant Pillbug on the bridge. Inko blew the structure apart with her anti-material rifle, and Calm went down after it in the water to avenge Okisuke.
In their next fight against the silver giant with beam katana, Kei had no Kat. However, she had quickly modified her tablet to receive cockpit data from the surviving Slepnirs. Inko's knees were trembling, and death was breathing down her neck, but she was the best pilot. So she faced the untouchable silver Kataphract.
"Try firing AP rounds. Ah. It's using the Liedenfrost effect."
"What?" Inko wailed, still blazing away at the flashing blade field, "Can you do something about that?"
"No. But there should be another way. Quickly lead it toward the crane at one o' clock."
It was Kei who beaned the Silver Kat with the shipping container. After they'd escaped on the Wadatsumi, she gave Inko a tight hug and served her homemade egg-fry rice to all.
Only the prince grew more quiet and discontented. When all eligible refugees were drafted by the UFE, Kei directed Edward to state that his big brother had been homeschooled, and never been near a Kat.
"Let me tell you, I practised each week with my own steed, since I was six," Asseylum muttered to Kei later, "A knight must stand ready to guard the innocent and helpless. I was called a prodigy."
"I've no doubt you employed many tutors to call you a prodigy. But Terran Kats should be different from what you're used to, and swearing loyalty to the UFE might cause you problems later." Hand on his brow, the prince turned away. "Look, come and have lunch with us."
"I could never repay this kindness of yours. Even while my people lay this world waste! Forgive me. It's simply hellish that I can do nothing."
"There will be a time for action, and for ending this war, I hope. Right now, it's time to eat."
Asseylum still visibly brooded over the meal, though he answered all of Inko and Nina's questions courteously enough. Kei chewed her omelette in thoughtful silence, as did the redhaired refugee boy, Wolf Areash.
-0-
-0-
It was during the day-long armistice that the silver Kat dropped onto the Wadatsumi. An Aerion platoon was immediately carved to crispy chunks–and when Kei went for her new Slepnir, it was gone.
"Face me, Terran scum!" The Vers pilot shouted, striding for the ship's bridge, "By my honour–!"
"Speak not of honour, villain. Face me!"
With a few nights of secret study, Prince Asseylum had mastered Terran Kataphrakts. His orange Kat faced the Argyre's charge, then ducked under the blade field, thrusting its rifle. The Argyre only escaped by leaping into the air.
"A prodigy," Kei whispered, "A prodigious idiot."
"Such skill!" Vlad growled, "He might have killed me!"
"Can I kill him? A fellow Versian?" The Prince switched to speakers, "Submit! It is your Prince who–!"
His words were drowned by the blast of his reactive armour. He had casually asked Kei how she would counter the beam katana, and was very glad he had.
Dropping his rifle, the Prince seized the Argyre's arm. The second blade fell explosively on his shoulder; he grabbed that as well. He tried to call out again, but as the beam katana blazed up, his armour sizzled, warnings blazed over his cockpit…he realised death was close enough to touch.
"Hoi, baka Ouji? Stupid Prince?" Kei's voice came over the radio like a throwline, "Hold him! Force him off the side, then press the red button!"
"Unhand me!" Vlad roared.
"Forgive me." Asseylum whispered
"Tilt the ship! TILT IT!"
As she burst onto the bridge, Kei actually shouted; the ship's officers instantly complied. Water poured into the bilges; the listing deck flung both robots out over the sea. As the Argyre fell, to be annihilated by steam explosion, and the Slepnir's escape pod flew up, Kei gave a short sigh. While Vlad ground his teeth, robbed of victory over his worthy nemesis.
-0-
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"Whether you're the prince of Mars, or Krypton," Commander Dan Magbaredge rapped out, staring over his glasses severely, "You'll be in the brig if you hijack UFE property one more time–understood? Anyway, thank you for saving my ship and everyone on her."
"I understand, Commander." Back in his white uniform, the Prince bowed shortly, then turned to Kei, "Miss Kaizuka. I owe you my life." Dropping to one knee, he took her hand to kiss. She snatched it away.
"If you had died, you could never have ended the war. Did you even care about that?"
"I swear…yes…" Asseylum clutched at his chest, lowered his shaking golden head, "But with my nation's honour sold by ruffians, and your lives put in peril by my naivety, I had to go. It was my foolishness, my desire to see your beautiful planet, that begun this terrible war. A ruler must be ready to fight and die for his people…an ill-ruler should simply die!"
"However you feel, you can only save Earth's people by remaining alive. And only you can save them. Isn't that more important than your sense of justice?"
The Prince stared into Kaizuka Kei's immovable eyes, and gave his first heartfelt smile in a week.
-0-
-0-
News of the Prince spread quickly; Inko and Nina followed him all over the ship, billing and cooing. When Calm sought him out, Asseylum apologised sincerely for the actions of his countrymen. Calm glanced at Kei, quietly stood beside the Prince, and snapped back that apologies were cheap.
"Aren't the Martians meant to obey you like a god or something? But you couldn't stop them flattening our world, and killing my friend!" Wolf Areash, the red-haired and silent refugee saved from the Pillbug, added that it wasn't surprising. All Martians were the enemy.
"How dare you speak like that to his Highness!" Edward exploded, "You ungrateful Terran–!"
"Peace, Edward," The Prince turned a determined smile on Calm, "I understand your feelings. If you believe all Martians are the enemy, it falls to me to undeceive you."
Asseylum, however, resisted all temptation to mount up in the fight on Tanigeshima with the Hellas. It was Kaizuka Yuki, Amifumi Inko (no longer showing a trace of fear) and Kaizuka Kei who fought alongside the mysterious Sky Carrier. And Kaizuka Kei who shot it down into the sea.
It was her first direct Kataphrakt fight, but Kei had felt no more fear than she was bound to. Fear would not have helped prevent flying fists from smashing her and the Wadatsumi to pieces. Which would have occurred, when her cannon clicked empty, if the bat-winged craft had not appeared and shot the descending fist aside. It was the third Kat she had beaten, as much by luck as plans. She would still protect the ship and all her friends, Kei knew, without room for the slightest error.
"My Prince! I've found you at last!"
'My' Prince? How interesting. If it weren't absurd that she could have searched the seas and found her Prince, like a cheap fairytale. And impossible, when only his assassins knew that Asseylum was alive.
It's a lie. Not a friend. This is war. She's an enemy.
-0-
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"Blue heavens. Clouds like white towers. The way those seabirds move! Magnificent!"
Prince Asseylum and Kei were out on the Deucalion's main deck. Asseylum had been gazing and grinning at everything like a towheaded child at the fair. finally he sat down on a crate, where his face grew less bright and more troubled. Kei sat down carefully beside him.
"You saved all our lives again. With your remarkable flying battleship."
"Oh, I could do no less. For us to stumble upon the Deucalion's Aldnoah drive, in this place? It could only be fate."
"Fate, and Lieutenant Marito. He fought on Tanigeshima, in the last war, and dug up some secrets afterwards; he directed us here, I believe he called it 'backing a hunch'; he seems quite happy about the outcome. Of course, we could never have activated this ship without you, or finished off the Spider-Kat. "
"Of course; though I fear I can take little pride in it. Femianne may have sought my life, but she was a proud lady of Vers. And it truly rankles, that we couldn't save the Sky Carrier's pilot. I know we can't put so many lives at risk but still…she wasn't a woman as well, was she?"
"I think you should've got the news that chivalry is dead, your highness. Women can fend for themselves, and must."
"How can you say that calmly, without a tear? As long as innocence, delicacy and injustice exist, so does chivalry. I know that women have strength–but if I have strength, or compassion, I will help anyone in their need I possibly can. Versian, Terran, or…" Struck by a thought, the Prince fished a silver pendant from inside his jacket, "A dear Terran friend on Vers gave me this. When we've sorted this war out, I will have to make sure she's okay."
"I think I understand you," Kei stared up at sky, "Its noblesse oblige, isn't it?"
"I suppose so." The Prince looked somewhat surprised.
"Mm. I wasn't born with such privilege and responsibilities as you," Kei went on, "But my life has been saved by a great many people's kindness. My sister, Inko, her family–even you. That's why I want to spend my life, to save as many people as I can. Though all I might do would never be a just repayment." Her face was solemn as it always was. Asseylum stared up at the clouds with her, on the Deucalion's deck, and somehow felt empty.
Where was justice? Who could set everything right? Men had hoped to find God in the wonders of space; but the dead gods of Mars had never inspired the Prince's faith. In the skies and sunlight of Earth, though…their Maker might always have waited, for his lost children to come home.
"I…don't think anyone has spoken to me like you, Miss Kaizuka. When all this is over, do you wish to see the world with me?"
"Sure. Will all your Martian girlfriends come as well? My sister said you probably had a dozen at least."
"Ah, um, well, no! I expect Grandfather will chose a bride for me, in a few years–"
"I suppose you should find a girlfriend you like before then. Inko said she wouldn't mind if you…."
"Highness!"
The Prince nearly went as red as his cloak, as Edward popped up behind him. Swelled with the importance of protecting his master from Terran womanly wiles.
-0-
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Later, Prince Asseylum went for another shower. Working up a lather, he heard someone behind him. Wolf Areash. Without the hoodie, or anything else, his muscled body was quite astonishing.
"Hmm? Wolf, isn't it? Am I required at all–?"
The Prince was almost ready, but his head was still slammed on the wall, and a punch drove breath from his body. He struck back with elbows, and chops at nerve centres, but Wolf seemed impervious to pain. The Prince had never fought anyone who truly wanted him dead. Finally he crashed down in pinkish water, and Wolf's fingers pressed at his throat. As the Deucalion shuddered and fell, he kept squeezing–until someone threw an arm round his neck, hauled him off.
With a practised twist, Wolf threw the attacker over him. Calm Craftman hit the floor beside the Prince, blood drifting out from his head.