Part 2: Wrong Target, Dumb-Ass!
Lone star, indeed. Back on the devastated island, Chifuyu was sitting on a branch on a tree, right in the middle of the entire scene. She's still reeling from what happened mere hours ago. This renegade is driving everyone crazy, even more so for the most seasoned stress warriors. I mean, Look at this! The world's most powerful weapon is in the hands of the world's most dangerous idiot, a hole has ben blown wide open on their own soil, the media's going crazy sensationalizing this situation...
...and to top it all off, she slapped her own brother. Not a whacko-slap, like usual when he's acting like a dunce. This was a for real slap. She felt like she had absolutely no reason to do so. She didn't know what the hell came over her when Ichika was telling her off.
She was still staring at the moon when Honne slowly approached her tree from behind.
"Orimura-sensei...?"
"*sigh...* I'm not your sensei anymore, ok?"
"I know...I just wanted to-"
"Just, what? Just wanted to squeeze a breath of sorry from me?"
"Well, no...not yet, anyway..."
"Whaddaya want, Nohotoke?..."
"I just wanted to see if you were ok...That's all..."
"Just don't...I need to be alone right now."
"Ok, but just so you know...Orimū doesn't..." And that was the trigger for Chifuyu to turn around and spot her brother at the third fallen arena site, where he was leading construction workers inside the island, to the area where everyone was pitching in to help with the salvage efforts. He was actually struggling himself to keep the operation together. Everyone else was scattered on the island, helping in either relief or recovery efforts. For some reason, she felt an uneasy sensation broiling in her stomach whenever she sees him trying to pick up her slack. She swallowed her pride as she hopped down from the tree to meet with Ichika.
And here it is. Arena 1. Where a certain someone decided to completely scrap it in favor of a new, more powerful arena, which was ahead of schedule. Too many soldiers in IS units and German Valkyrie armor to tell what's going on. But she could see Ichika in the Byakushiki once more, helping with the outer wall. She slowly approached him.
"Ichika..."
"Hmm?" He turned behind and saw her, and then immediately turned back to help with the construction, "Oh, for...what do you want?"
"I just wanna talk with you about something."
"Not now, Chifuyu. I'm busy. Ah, no. That panel goes over there."
Did he just refer to her by her just first name? No, no, no, over one night, that can't be right.
"Ichika, we have to settle this once and for-"
He dismounted from the Byakushiki, "Harfouch, you and Walter head on over to IS Maintenance Area 2-4 to help Tabane."
And she's now annoyed. "Dude, will you just listen to me?!" She tried to grab his arm, but he quickly swatted her away.
"That's all I've been doing, ok?!" He shouted, "Every time, I've responded to your requests, no matter how crazy they are because I loved you! We're family, I get that! But do you think it'd kill you to ease up on everyone else?! Seriously, you can't even use a hint of sarcasm when you joke about someone's hair without a goddam shot of sake!"
"Uh-what's that supposed to me-" A pile of supplies just landed.
"Look, I gotta get back there, but you gotta check up on Yamada and Cecilia." And with that, he quickly remounted and drafted away from her.
"Wha-that's all I get?!" Chifuyu screamed in disbelief, "Not even a-"
"JUST CARE ABOUT SOMEONE OTHER THAN ME, ALRIGHT?!" So, the truth finally wills itself out, eh?
And that was the end of that. He left to set the materials down safely, leaving his own sister to wonder what the hell just happened. She was just shunned by her own brother, that's what happened! Her brother, whom she had to look after since their parents abandoned them, whom she personally raised to stand among the elite of the IS world...
...was he being ungrateful? Or being overwhelmed? None of that mattered however, as usual.
"Well, fine!" She shrieked, "If that's how you wanna repay me for everything I've done for you! If that's how you value how I've cared for you all these years, and you're just gonna treat it all like one big lie?!"
"Just like how you cared for Madoka? Oh, yeah...that was suuuuuch a big lie..." Ay...2-0 Ichika.
She curled her fists and stormed off extremely pissed. Houki hovered past her carrying a bunch of crates. When she found Ichika, she set the crates down and went over to him.
"Y'know...that was wildly inappropriate..."
"I know...but I just don't have the time worry about her right now..."
"Really?" She folded her arms, "'Cuz it looks to me like you're spending your time trying not to worry about-"
"I'm fine! Geez!" Ichika almost accidentally released a palm blast from his left arm, but quickly came to his senses.
"Uh..." She just stood there appalled. But she sighed some relief when he just went over to the crates and leaned against them.
"Sorry...just...I dunno..."
"Dunno about what?"
"She is the most important person in the world to me...but she doesn't realize that she's not the only person in the world. I care more about other people, too. I mean, the world's a big place. And it's definitely not what it used to be anymore. I can't just turn a blind eye to anyone. Not when the renegade's threatening lives out there."
"Is it about M?"
"Yep. She still doesn't regard her as her sister, even though I've done everything I could to get her to realize..."
"It's Chifuyu. No way she's gonna turn over a new leaf just because of a random development."
"Yeah...But there a very few times that I wish she would...this just happened to be one of them." And he was lost in his memories of the three of them together for the first time. Houki felt like she couldn't let him get distracted by those thoughts, so she suddenly called out Amatsuki and hovered over to the pipes.
"Hey, whaddaya doin'?" He asked.
"If these pipes are too large, the arena will wobble and collapse under all the static weight. We have to make consolidated stacks on top of the foundation, and dwindle down until we get to the top row." She sliced the pipes in half and rushed over to find the joiners.
He looked on in admiration for a split second before shaking his head and splashing himself with a bucket of water, "Ok, let's get back in it..." He ripped open the crates before calling out, "Hey, Sean! Lemme see the blueprints again!"
Chifuyu continued to storm angrily through the field of felled trees. She couldn't stand to hear that name again. Madoka...the cursed name which belonged to one unwanted family member. The name she had sworn to erase from her own memory one way or another. She had purposefully kept butting into her younger brother's everyday affairs under the guise of "protecting him" to drown his "imouto" out of his life.
Well, she did it...but at a huge cost. Ichika noticed, but he was too late to stop Madoka from running away again. So, he spent way more time away from home. She tracked him down countless times, only for her efforts to rein him in to constantly be spoiled by someone else. And now...
...Well, honestly, what'd you expect? Sibling rivalry, sister who's been through it all versus sister who's never been through any of it...what more do you need to say? You yourself removed the nano machines from her body, even. And yet, you couldn't let your pride down for just a little bit, could ya? You didn't wanna be like the other girls. But along comes a forgotten younger sister, and suddenly you wanted to be pampered like he tried to pamper her to make her feel welcome, despite maintaining your composure on the outside...
Chifuyu left a trail of tears on her way over to the Central Operations Booth, illuminated only by a single lantern, where Chelsea, Cecilia, and Maya were trying to establish contact with all other ground units in the mainland and stay up to date with recent events, hoping to find some hint of the renegade's whereabouts. One of them spotted her,
"Hey! It's Orimura-sen...se..i..." but not how the first Mondo Grosso champion should be walking...
"Hey, guys..." She slowly walked over to them, face in a complete mess.
"Is everything alright?..." Maya asked.
"I wouldn't say I'm terribly worried..."
"Um...Chelsea, why don't you go prepare some Matcha Tea?" Cecilia asked.
"No, no, it's fine. I don't need any-"
"Please..." Maya grabbed her arm and stared her sympathetically in the eyes, "We can't afford to lose you, too..."
"*sigh...* Ok..." she finally gave in and sat down with the rest of the group to assess the current situation over tea.
"Ok, so nothing big has happened yet," Maya pointed out, "but numerous riots have erupted throughout Japan within one week of the renegade's...work. The highest concentration of riots have occurred in the Hokkaido, Saitama, and Tokyo prefectures. They may not be related to the renegade, but-"
"Hang on. Nothing big?" Chifuyu questioned, "They're riots. Of course, they're big. What I'm wondering is, what are they rioting over?"
"Well..." Cecilia played the footage from Sapporo's Odori Park. A group largely consisted of males (I repeat, LARGELY) have broken in rage against the local populace and police. It was quickly subdued, but it dropped a subtle hint on why it rose in the first place. Someone had a news article of the renegade breaking out of the compound, the picture encircled in pink.
"Ugh...him again..." Chifuyu rubbed her eyes.
"You had to ask..." Chelsea commented.
"It's not like they're not giving up the fight, either. No matter what way they decide to take it, it's bad and good news either way."
"Bad for the public, yes," Maya agreed, "but this could be our chance to pinpoint the renegade's current location."
"How so?" Cecilia asked.
"We need people to infiltrate the mainland under the guise of reporters. All it is is asking questions about their relationship to the renegade, as well as any strange happenings around the surrounding environment."
"So, we're playing 20 Questions, essentially?" Chelsea quipped.
"Possibly more if we're not careful. We don't have a clear description of the renegade anymore because he may have disguised himself again, so we're going for personality quirks. Aggressiveness, recklessness, loudness, just anything to single him out."
"Uh-huh...But, who are we going to send?"
Chifuyu stood up, "I'll go."
"Are you sure?" Cecilia asked nervously.
"Yes. I am very sure."
"It's not just a score to settle, is it?"
"No. I just have more experience dealing with the annoyingly persistent type."
"Oh," that was a reference to every other female on this island, wasn't it?
"Then step this way. We'll get your appearance changed and your ID ready." Cecilia and Chifuyu were about to leave the tent when-
"Miss Yamada?" Chifuyu stopped at the lamp's furthest reach.
"Uh...Yes?" Maya asked.
"Why don't you come with me...for old time's sake?"
"Um...yes, ma'am..." They were both blushing a little bit for some reason.
They both went through the process of inputing fake ID info into the system so that no one would raise suspicions about their presence. Then, they were led to the docking area, where two speedboats awaited them
"There's a care package within each of those boats, which contain everything you will need. No one will be able to find you while you're out at sea, but change clothes an hour before arrival. You will report back to the nest in 72 hours. Is that enough time for you to snuff everything out?"
"More than enough." They both said.
"Right, then. Good luck..." And she just left them there to embark on their journey alone. Halfway to their appointed destinations, they parted ways. But Maya couldn't help herself, so she turned on Private Channel ISA-001:
"Um...Miss Orimura?"
"What is it?"
"Um...about Ichika...He just-"
"That rotten bastard can roast his tiny ass in Hell for all I care!"
"What's with that reaction again?"
"Ugh...it's nothing..."
"But you do care, don't you?"
"Well...maybe..."
"Maybe if you could look at the world through his eyes...you'd see more than one person..."
"What was that?"
"He doesn't care about just one person. He's an all-around type of guy, y'know? He doesn't care at someone's body, or eyes, or even their smile. He just wants to know what's in their heart, and he wants to make as many friends as possible, before he has to hang the coat up for someone else. And he's not at all close-minded when it comes to everyone around him."
"..." Well, there's no denying that.
"I suppose in the end, we all become what we hate..."
"Ok, can we lay off the life clichés for just one mission?!"
"Hahaha...sorry...but I'm just saying. He knows there are bad people out here, but he also knows that no one's bad right off the gate. So he goes out of his way to try and understand them better. And the result is that dense thick-headedness of his because he doesn't see girls as...y'know."
"Ugh...he's so damn naive."
"Hahhh...maybe so, but I think...naiveté's a good thing to have once in a while."
"We're coming up on our destinations, so would you please just shut up now?..." And she forced the disconnection and locked all network connections. She didn't want to hear anyone rub it in her face anymore.
Maya just blanked out at the lost connection before sighing a wise fool's sigh, "Hahhh...and in just ten day's span..." Wait. It's only been ten days since the compound's breakout? Ten days?! TEN F***ING DAYS?!
Meanwhile in Arena 2, where the renegade somehow missed this maintenance area entirely...
"Rrgh...come on, come on!" Tabane was trying to hack into the Silver Streamline's main memory. But it seemed to take an affinity to its previous owner.
ACCESS DENIED. USER UNRECOGNIZED.
"What?! You're just an IS! I should be able to go inside you anytime!"
ACCESS DENIED. USER UNRECOGNIZED.
"What's going on, Tabane?" Clarissa arrived just in time to listen to Tabane's flurries of frustration.
"It's not letting me go in to wipe this thing clean at all!"
"Might I suggest a manual factory reset?" Walter suggested.
"We don't have the materials for a proper reset," Tabane commented, "And the stuff we do have, the renegade totaled completely!"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait...is it so hard to just tear one apart? Considering that this is from the Generation One-"
"It doesn't work like that. You can't just take it apart willy-nilly. There's a certain procedure you have to follow if you don't want anything to blow your head off. These things run on the purest form of energy, after all."
"Huh? How does that even..." Clarissa was lost on "pure energy".
"Can I even download the schematics for this piece of junk?"
ACCESS DENIED. USER UNRECOGNIZED.
"User unrecognized?"
"It means it won't let me in because it didn't sync with me. It's synced to the renegade!"
USER PROFILE IDENTIFIED. APPROPRIATING PROPER PROTECTION PROTOCOL.
"Holy f***ing s***! What the hell's wrong with this thing?"
"Oh, no...don't tell me..." Clarissa crossed her fingers.
"What's happening?" Walter asked.
"This thing's trying to protect itself from my genius!"
"Ugh! Why don't we just go after him now! We can take care of this, no problem!" Clarissa shouted.
"Have you even seen the internet?! There are millions of stories about us just waiting for our presence within their bear claws! No, we have to do this incognito!"
"Rrgh..." Clarissa gritted her teeth, "Well played, renegade..."
"But, Captain Laura's out there right now. She must be close if she volunteered to do this alone." Walter had hoped.
But meanwhile, at the apartment/Phantom Task hideout/tomato war zone...
...yeah, not even joking. Their spaghetti dinner turned into Total War: Food-Hammer.
"Ugh...in the end, we weren't able to get that much into our systems after all..." Autumn was cleaning the dishes, Squall was mopping up the floors, and Sokoto and the girl were cleaning...virtually everything else. (Madoka was still outside.)
"Huu...And all we could manage for food was instant ramen," the girl said(WHAT YOU GOT AGAINST INSTANT NOODLES, WOMAN?!).
"Well, it could've gone worse..." Squall said when she finished mopping. The young girl nodded when-
"YAYAYAAGH!" Sokoto covered his face in tomato sauce and scared her.
"Omigod-" *THWACK* Wet Towel Smack. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"You were really deep in thought, so I figured..."
"A red House of Wax?! No way, no how, not even once!"
"Hey!" *THONK* Squall threw a chopstick at his head, "Stop screwing around and get the living room!"
"Agh! Just who do you think you're hitting, Grammy!" Oh, good lord...That made Squall completely forget EVERYTHING.
"'Grammy'?! Oh, that's it you little punk!" She charged at him, but he hopped over her. After that, it was a wild goose chase.
The girl cowered behind the cover of Autumn, "What's happening?!"
"Just boys being boys. Here. I'll take you back to your place."
A few minutes later...Yeah, it takes SO MUCH energy to defend and escort...
"I'm terribly sorry about that incident. I'll make sure the others are properly disciplined."
"No, it's ok. Really. I had so much fun tonight."
"Oh? Even with a boy as raucous as him?"
"You don't see anything like that nowadays. It was a much needed change of atmosphere."
"Hmm...in that case, next time you wanna set up a playdate with him, just let me know, ok?"
"Um...sure..."
"What's your name, by the way?"
"Oh? I'm Anna Koller. And you are?"
"I'm Annelise Krieger."
"You're not from around here?"
"Germany. I ran away as far as I could."
"Well, I hope you'll tell me about your exploits sometime, Annelise. Well, have a good night." She patted her head and went back to her own apartment.
"Likewise..." The girl couldn't say it loud enough for her to hear. She just looked down at her twiddling fingers and went back to her own place.
Back in her own apartment, Laura took everything off, from the face to the dress and stared at herself in the mirror. She was back in her "birthday suit", with the golden eye. She was scanning her battered body for no reason whatsoever. She just needed to double-check herself. She rubbed her forehead at the very same spot that woman patted her. She skid her hand across her golden eye and her cheeks. Then, she stared down her own hands. She still didn't believe it. Did she really fool them into think that she was somebody else? And why didn't they just give her some food? Why'd they drag her inside their home? She couldn't believe what just happened inside that apartment. All she did was ask for something to eat, and they gave her so much more.
"Heheheh...hahahahahahaha...Ahahahahahahahahaha! HAHAHAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!"
And she was rofl'ing. That was the weirdest encounter ever, and yet it provided more of the truth about this world than anything the news could offer. The male kid was completely naive! He doesn't know anything about anything! And he doesn't want to know! And the women watching over him knew about how today's society works, and yet they still chose to raise him as if he was one of their own! How crazy is that!
"Hahahahahahaaahaha...I knew it! Everything she said was all wrong!"
After a full minute of laughing in disbelief, she went and plopped herself on the bed, staring at the ceiling and cuddling one of the pillows tightly.
"Alright...tomorrow, the search continues." And with that, it was good night.