5 years later
April 13th, 9:24 AM, at Oita, Japan.
Bae, Hye, and Eun are inside a helicopter to be dropped off at Oita, Japan. Memories of their past still haunt them to this day. Bae had now gained a fixation to kill any and all Inves he sees, evident with a look of murder intent in his face. Previously, they have already captured Fufuoka, Saga, and Sasebo. The speaker of the helicopter gives a message about their objective.
"BZZT. Roger, this is base to Carrier 6: Your objective is to collect Lockseeds and bring them back to base after the mission ends."
"We know that" Bae mumbled, fumbling his Matsubokkuri Lockseed in his hands. The speaker continues.
"I know that you must be feeling fear and/or excitement over this mission, as you've always had. But out there in the field, that Driver each of you have is your best and most reliable friend. Please make sure that you keep your communication cons with at all times." And with that, the communication ends.
A female digital voice comes about from the speaker not long after.
LANDING IMMENINENT
Looks like we're about to land mentally replied Bae. He grips his Lockseed, preparing for battle at last. The chopper landed down on a plain, empty area. They all got out of the chopper and prepared their Sengoku Drivers. The chopper leaves the area, soaring out of sight in minutes.
"Take care, everyone. Chopper will be here again in up to 2 hours. We expect you to collect a good amount of Lock by that time." the pilot said through a radio that contacts with the team's communicators. Bae and the others take out their respective Lockseeds. Bae, Hye, and Eun and the two other members pull out their Pinecone lockseeds and unlocks them. "Matsubokkuri!" was the sound made by the Lockseeds, which signals them ready for use. Above each of them is a circular zip-like crack opening to reveal a giant Pinecone-shaped folded armor. Suddenly, a swarm Inves appears around them forcing them to form up into a circle. Everyone panicked but regained their composure.
They then put their Lockseeds onto their Sengoku Driver, "LOCK ON!" is heard as they lock them in place. The Inves' charge at them, at the same time when the group pushes the Cutting Blade on their Drivers, causing an american guitar-riff sound as the armor drops onto them.
Matsubokkuri Arms! Ichigeki in the Shadows!
Helmets form over their heads, the armor unfolds itself as their bodies are covered in black suits complementing the brown, pinecone-style armor. They each now hold the Kagematsu, a blade-tipped staff in their hands. The swarm of Inves closes in at them, charging in groups of 7s, all of which are Elementary Inves. Everyone fought to defend themselves against the raging swarm, while everyone uses efficient and quick movements, Bae fights in a more savage, rage-filled style. He pushes the Inves in front of himself with his staff, knocking it into the ground, stamps it repeatedly and pins to the ground with his spear by impaling it through the torso, and swings it against another Inves, smashing the two against a building. After that's done, another Inves runs up to him slashes him on the face with its claw, while not hurting, definitely made him mad. He had brief flashback to how his town is destroyed, which serves to anger him greatly to the point of punching the Inves with his free hand and whacking it repeatedly with his staff. The Inves tries to get up for round two, but Bae lifts it back up and knees it in the approximate abdomen area, pushes it into the ground and kicks it repeatedly.
While Bae is busy, another Elementary Inves is sneaking behind him, attempting to strike him in the behind. Hye takes notice of this, he halts his fighting and yells for his younger brother "Bae! Behind you!" Before the boy can react, the Inves latches on and bear hugs him from the back. Struggling with all his strength, Bae and shakes and breaks free by kneeing and back kicking the Inves, loosening its grip just enough to break free. Afterwards, he kicks and stabs it with his Kagematsu repeatedly, making the Inves fall dead to the ground. Though Hye took this time to sigh in relief, an Inves latches on and tosses him into the ground. Hye rolled across the floor, having barely enough time to grab his weapon and fight back, the Inves pins him to the ground. Hye attempts to push it back with his spear, but the Inves is too strong.
While fighting off her own Inves enemies, Eun takes notice at Hye's distress. "Hye!" she shouts as she ran towards where he is and kicks the Inves off of him. "Thank you" replied Hye, "Your welcome" answered back Eun. Soon after, the two remaining members of the group killed the two remaining Inves, by using the Squash feature to hit each of them in the torso, causing them to explode in a fiery explosion. The group seem to be at peace, but notice the sound of kicking. They turn to see Bae still kicking the down Inves and stabbing it, letting off grunts of a bloodlust lunatic, each getting louder and more noticeable for every hit. His brother, aware of what he's going through, tries to approach him.
"Bae! That's enough!" he tried to yell to his brother, but Bae doesn't listen, instead continues to beat on the black blood-stained corpse of the Inves. Hye calls for him again, but he still ignores it, continuing in hitting the Inves by stabbing it with his spear. Finally, Hye goes and tries to restrain him, shaking him by the shoulders "Bae, that's enough! We gotta focus on the mission!" Bae snaps and breaks out of his brother's grip. After a few seconds of breathing, Bae relents and nods his head. Eun looks around the area and sees little Inves in sight. "Looks like we finished the Inves of this spot" she says, spinning the Kagematsu in her hands. Another male teammate points out "Don't be too sure, I've heard these things are like cockroaches."
Bae turns from the corpse he had attacked and looks at the opposite direction, his eyes scanning the scene around him to look for more of those Inves. He was not satisfied with just killing a few groups of Inves, in fact he can never satisfied if even just one Inves is left alive. "And I'll exterminate every last those rodents" he growls, putting his head lightly to look at the ground he stands on. A female of the group walks and picks a Helheim Fruit, and in a small flash of rainbow light, it turned into a Lockseed, specifically an Orange Lock with the LS-07 on it. The female then says "Alright, gotta pick as much Lockseeds as we can, so we can feed the people at base."
One of the male members brings out a metal crate and unlocks the lid, revealing it to be empty for the purpose of containing and carrying liberated lockseeds. The group scatters around and picks off Lockseeds from Helhiem plants, each turning into lower class ranging from B to D classes. Everyone besides Bae are picking the Lockseeds, he on the otherhand is wandering deep in his thoughts, standing there idly, thinking back to the attack to his home by the Inves and letting that increase his personal hatred of them. Many people feel hatred for Inves, but he especially would taste their blood if it means they'll be maimed and massacred beyond recovering. Hye notices his brother's neglect to his duty. "Bae, you get to work too." he says to his brother, to which the latter just looks and nods reluctantly and goes to a nearby fruit and picks it off, turning it into a Acorn-based Lockseed. He scoffs and throws it into the box, landing in the exact center. Running out of time, everyone moves to later routes until the box is completely filled up.
"Alright everyone," the female member starts off "the copter should be here soon. Let's get back to the rendezvous point." The male member and Hye go to the crate and carry it by the side handles and lift it up. The male besides Hye complained "Who made you leader?". The group walked all the way back to where the chopper landed them in the first place. "I wonder why there were not many Inves' around here?" asked a puzzled Eun, noticing how the first wave of Inves they fought were the only ones they actually fought. "No doubt it has something to do with the Top Elite being here." said the female member. "Those guys thinks they're so tough, when they're using high-level Lockseeds, I call hax!" said the other unnamed member. The Top Elite are composed of individuals of the military branch, having high performance grades outstripping all previous competition. There leader is said to possess of heart of powerful Justice. Finally, the chopper appears and the group got on board with the crate of Lockseeds.
11:30 am, at Japan Base 1.
The chopper lands at one of landing sites, and the group unloads the crate down in front of several Troopers waiting for the load. "We trust this crate contains sufficient amounts of Lockseeds?" the center Trooper said. The female leader says "Yeah, we took as much as we could, we're sorry if we missed just a few, we-." before she can finish, the Trooper "We understand, take it." two other Troopers beside him come and take the crate by the side handles and brought it to base. And with that the group walk into base with them.
In room 2345.
The gang barring Bae rest on their beds, Sengoku Drivers deactivated and placed in a small compartment next to them. The physical identity of the group revealed. Hye is an average build man in his late teens/borderline adulthood, wearing a black t-shirt and grey long pants. Eun wears a pink jacket and white, frilly skirt above her knees, and looks to be at least Bae's age, 16 years old to be precise. Hye lays in the bed below Eun, who plays with her iPhone. Hye looks up to the female leader on the opposite bed. "Hey, Yuri, I never got to introduce you to Bae properly did we?" Yuri Kisaragi was a girl with a red sleeveless shirt, black wristbands and denim pants on. "No you didn't," responded Yuri "your brother is a very anti-social person I see." The male member underneath her, wearing baggy dark green pants and long sleeve yellow shirt, known as Yuma Toko, then comments "I wouldn't blame him, everyone including him is undergoing a rough life." Yuri continues "Well, he better toughen up and move on. Otherwise, no one would be there for him. We've all seen how he acted in the field today, he can get himself killed." Eun is irked by her words and stops what she's doing and responds "Hey, Bae has been through a lot, I've seen it myself. So, give him some space." her soft, innocent voice goes into everyone's ears. Hye gets up from bed and leaves saying "I'll go find Bae. He's probably in the training area as usual." he walks out of the room, the automatic door closing as he leaves. Yuma replies "Good luck."
Training Gym
In the Training Gym, people undergo themselves, sport, boxing, olympic training or sparring matches to hone their abilities on the field or for sport. Right now, Bae is up against a match-up against another Sengoku Driver user. They both stand on a blue square area raised just a few inches above the floor. They both hold up their Lockseeds, Bae with his usual Matsubokkuri Lock, and his opponent with a Acorn Lockseed. They unlock them at the same time.
"Matsubokkuri!/Donguri!"
They place the Lockseeds on their Driver and locks them in place.
"Lock On!"
They turn the cutting blade to open their Lockseeds.
"Matsubokkuri Arms! Ichigeki in the Shadows!"
"Donguri Arms! Never Give Up!"
Bae is equipped with his usual Kagematsu and pinecone-style armor. But his opponent-since he uses a different lock-instead has a acorn-themed armor, and a tiny hammer in hand known as the Donkachi. They both take a stance. The opponent acts first, he runs straight forward and swings the Donkachi at Bae, who merely sidesteps and hits his legs hard with the Kagematsu. The opponent is knocked flat unto the floor, but he recovered and is in a kneeling position, eyes dead on Bae, who just stands to see his next move. The opponent turns the cutting blade of his Sengoku Driver once, activating its Squash feature.
"Donguri Squash!" announced the Sengoku Driver. The opponents spins like a top, trying to hit Bae with his hammer. Bae counters by turning the cutting blade on his Driver thrice, activating its Sparking feature.
"Matsubokkuri Sparking!" announced Bae's Sengoku Driver. He grips his Kagematsu with both hands, and spins his body with the Kagematsu acting as the center of balance. Bae levitates above the ground as his rotating body resembles more of a black and brown tornado. He rams into his opponent, with the Kagematsu being used as the leading head. "Black Spiral Shredder!" he screams at the top of his lungs as the two attacks clashed, with sparks flying like flies, Bae's attack ultimately proves superior as the rotation of his opponent's rotation stops and he gets hit and blasted out of the ring. Bae, still in his attack form, flies into the ring, slowly levitating back down feet-first. The opponent's armor disappears as he grabs his torso in pain. Bae turns off his own Driver as showing of his victory.
The crowd of people watching them at the time cheered and gathered around to celebrate his victory. On looking, from a distant crowd, are two young men watching along. One was Ryuya, who holds a red Lockseed with small green strips on it, and labeled L.S.-14, wearing cargo pants and white t-shirt. The other was Nobita, who had on a red t-shirt with a denim sleeveless jacket over it, and wearing a denim long pants, holding onto a dark green Lockseed with a code of L.S.-15. "Man, he thinks he can show off, for a guy with a mere C-class Lock, he's got nothing compared to us." said Ryuga, clearly annoyed with the attention Bae is having. Nobita on the other hand, is more than amused "Really? I find it impressive how he managed to beat a B-class Lockseed with a C class one with just two moves. He truly has grasp the nature of battle. I wonder what made him so motivated?" Soon after, a man wearing a white dress shirt and black dress pants, walks just behind them, surprising them by saying "Does it matter? The more strength we have in our numbers, the more we can eliminate the evil existing in this world."
Ryuya and Nobita turn around to see the man. "Seido-san!" exclaimed Ryuya. Seido Tadashi is 19 years old and the ring leader of the Top Elite. Nobita just looks uninterested and says "Let me guess, you see goodness in this boy. Sorry, but as far I see and hear, he has the shortest temper of anyone in this base, he'll be more of a liability than good for us." Seido isn't fazed, instead gives off an explanation for his opinion on Bae. "Trust me, deep underneath his dark layer, lies a sleeping soul of an angel waiting for its awake. I best say he's a fallen angel waiting for his time of redemption." He walks out of the gym, Ryuya and Nobita look very confused but followed him anyway. Soon afterwards, Hye runs into the gym and sees Bae walking to where he is. "Bae," he starts off to his younger brother, and leans down to match Bae's height "how's your time in the gym?" he gives off a big, goofy smile to cheer up the mood. Bae doesn't look amused, instead just replied "Good" in a monotone, walking past him to go back to their home room. Hye looks at him stunned and annoyed, and that's when his mother, Hae-Won, or Hae for short, walks right next to him and says, "Well, he surely had a down day." Hye was surprised by her presence but decided to roll with it. "No, he's just acting crabby again." Hye said with voice with slight traces of annoyance. "Mom, why am I expected to look after Bae if he keeps on acting like a brat?" Hae turns and looks at him straight in the eyes and says "Don't say that. Your brother is just undergoing a difficult time, he'll come around, you'll see." she walks back to what she was doing and leaves Hye alone. "Oh, and another thing," she adds "sometimes, when you're undergoing stress from hard work, always just relieve it." After she finishes her sentence, Hye justs walks back to home room with Bae with a annoyed expression on his face.
"Attention," heard a loud, booming voice of a man through a speaker that echoed throughout the base "we got a distress signal from one of our scouts in Oita, Japan, demanding back up. Anyone willing to help, please visit the chief." Both Bae and Hye heard the announcement, the former immediately runs after the chief, while the latter puts two and two together regarding Bae's dislike towards Inves, and races him toward the chief's office.
Chief's Office
The chief is waiting for a candidate to come to him so he can transport them to the distress signal's source. He heard sounds of running across the hall. Bae stops and opens the door, being out of breath. "You sure you want to do this?" said the chief. Bae just nods, and talks through his exhaustion "Bring me and my team to the distress signal, I want to sink my teeth into the Inves!" The chief notices the look of his face, looking an animal giving a death glare at its prey. "Alright" the chief simply replied. Hye runs just past the door and drags himself toward the door, only to see Bae already made his request with the Chief.
Oita, Japan
The entire group steps out of the chopper that sent them. The entire group is in Kurokage form, with everyone beside Bae and Eun being unamused with Bae's decision. "Your brother is way too hasty with missions." said Yuri, trying to sugarcoat the tension yet is venting out her frustration. Hye simply replies, without looking at her, "He tends to do that. He got it from being always being last at something during his time at school." Everyone keeps on walking to the source of the distress signal, while Bae just shifts his gaze constantly in search of any Inves is the vicinity. Suddenly, a swarm of Inves charges at them, ten in total. "Inves 11'o clock!" shrieked Yuma, reflexively getting back a step. "Everyone, stand strong! Don't waste energy and kill as efficiently and quickly as you can!" yelled Yuri, trying to increase everyone's morale. Bae starts first by stabbing one of the charging Inves with his Kagematsu, drawing blood from the beast and having it dripping down his weapon. He then kicks a nearby Inves as it running past him, knocking it onto the ground. Hye fends off an Inves with the Kagematsu and kicks it. Yuma steps back when another Inves approaches him and Eun, who just steps forward and stabs it. Yuma follows soon after by stabbing it with her, until the Inves dies from its wounds. Yuri kicks a Inves and dodge rolls out of the way of an attack from another Inves. She activates the Squash feature of her Sengoku Driver.
"Matsubokkuri Squash!" she jumps up and descends down onto the Inves with the Kagematsu, destroying the Inves upon contact. She around to see how the odds are going against their favor, as more Inves are coming their way. We're out numbered! she thought to herself. But then, she turns her gaze to Bae, who is wiping the floor with several Inves' at once. He stabs one Inves and shoves it into another one, an Inves tries to claw him from behind but he reacted in time to flip it over him, and stabbed another one charging at him, stopping it dead in its tracks. He turns the cutting blade of his Sengoku Driver twice, activating its Au Lait feature.
"Matsubokkuri Au Lait!" Bae raises the Kagematsu in the air and twirls it in a circle, a projection of pinecone appears above him and shoots bolts of energy in the form of pinecone scales. Everyone besides the Inves in the vicinity duck for cover as the projectiles fly over and vaporized each of the Inves it hit, destroying them in explosions. After everything is said and done, Bae walks over to complete the mission, while everyone else is stunned. Yuma managed to get up and yelled at Bae "Hey! You nearly got us too, jerk!" Bae just turns and glares at him, to which causes Yuma to back down in fear. Bae just scoffs at the older boy's cowardly and continues his march. Yuri goes over to Hye, who just got up, and replies "I starting to reconsider your brother on this team." in a annoyed tone. Hye just says "He's just confused". Everyone soon followed Bae afterwards.
Eventually, they find themselves searching through a row of houses, very similar to the place they went in the beginning of the day. Everyone went to different spots of the area, all except Eun who tries to catch up to Bae. While stumbling around a house, she finds Bae just picking off a Helheim Fruit and turning it into a Lockseed. The lock turned out to be a Banana Lockseed, Class A and labeled L.S.-08. Eun walks over to Bae to discuss with him.
"What are you doing? We're supposed to find the person around here." she says, firmly holding her Kagematsu in her hands just in case another Inves attacks.
"What do you think I'm doing?" replied Bae "Since these things become Lockseeds for us to use, shouldn't we just take the Seeds and use them for our own?"
"Well, I guess that's tru-Woah, nice, an A-class Lockseed." Eun said in awe over the fact Bae got an A class Lockseed in one try in the mission. Bae just gives a "Hmph" and puts the Lockseed away. He walks away trying to complete mission without saying a word. "H-hey wait." said Eun, who follows him around, attempting to get through to her friend. "Bae, are you okay?" Bae stops dead in his tracks and clenches his fists, giving off an expression of anger, restrained, pure anger. "Okay?" said Bae "Does it look I'm having an okay time!?" he yelled at the top of his lungs, turning on Eun who takes a step back in shock. Bae takes a deep breath and relents, "You people don't understand what I'm going through" he averts his gaze at Eun. Eun lets one hand go of her weapon and hesitantly reaches onto Bae's shoulder. The latter doesn't look flinched, but deep down feels a bit of warmth, still averting his gaze, his fists unclenched. Eun tells him a few words that affected from the inside out "Bae, if your undergoing some trouble, don't think you're the only allowed to bear such sorrows. We're all here for you, me, Hye, and your mom." Her words sink deep into Bae's mind, his mood has lightened considerably. He looks at Eun, "Eun…" the boy had said, the two shared eye contact for a few seconds.
Then suddenly, a Shika Inves pops out of nowhere and attack the two. They managed to dodge in time, but the Inves goes up and grabs them by the necks. Bae and Eun tried to struggle as the Inves lifts them off their feet, the Inves' hands burn alight in flames that harm the two while they remain helpless in its powerful grip. Finally, the Inves tosses them onto the ground, Bae and Eun roll across the floor upon impact, as they struggle to find the strength to get up, the Inves gives off a roar at the sky as of though its crying out a triumphant victory, this of course digs into Bae's nerves, both its gesture and presence. Bae was able to gather the strength to stand on his legs while Eun is still down, "Is that thing making fun of us?!" Bae said in an annoyed, angered tone of voice, clenching his fists to the point his skin is skin-tight deep into his gauntlet. Eun sits up straight and observes the Inves in front of them. "An advanced Inves…" she expresses in shock and horror, Advanced Inves' are a stage above the Elementary, far stronger than the batch they killed earlier in the mission. Eun looks up to Bae, knowing by his body expression he wants to fight and kill the Inves. She tries to discourage him "Bae, control yourself. Let's just run away o-or get the others." Bae doesn't heed her words, instead goes into a state of blind, savage rage. He charges at the Inves with the Kagematsu at hand, screaming like a bloodlust animal that hasn't ate for days. He lifts his weapon and tries a few strikes to the head in diagonal directions, the Inves simply dodges each attack and kicks him in the stomach with a blow powerful enough to rocket the Kagematsu out of his hand. Eun immediately goes to his side and comforts him.
"Bae! Are you okay?!" Bae ignores her again, continuing to attack the Inves barehanded. Bae punches the monster in the face, which causes it to slightly stumble on its feet, it punches back at him, causing him to turn all the way to his back to the beast, the Inves grabs him by the shoulders and knees him three times in the spine, then tosses him into the floor again. Bae rolls across the ground, grabbing his back in pain. The Inves turns its attention towards Eun, who notices this and looks at it in horror. The Inves begins to walk toward her, her being helpless to do more than crawl away feebly, Bae gets and sprints at the Inves, tackling his whole body onto it, pushing it against its torso area like a football player. He yells in extreme anger and adrenaline "Your fight is me!", the Inves responds by grabbing him by the stomach with both arms and surplexing him, flipping him over and letting him fall on his back. Eun gets up and tries to run in to help, but then she hears a voice, "Bae!" Hye runs toward where the Inves is, and stabs it. The blade pounces off of its skin, but it still managed to affect it enough for Hye to push it with the handle of the Kagematsu, the Inves just grabs the handle and pushes Hye into a power pole. Being pinned down, Hye is struck by the Inves' horns, ramming him directly in the face, Hye is in agony as blows equivalent to a ramming car hits him in a continuous cycle.
Bae rushes toward the Inves and grabs it by the shoulder, "Brother!" he shouts, trying to shake the beast off of Hye. Hye helps out by kneeing it in the stomach several times, before settling on stomping its foot. The Inves snarls in pain, its focus cut loose enough for Bae to shove it aside. Hye drops to the ground, badly in pain, Bae takes his brother's Kagematsu and puts up a fighting stance. He looks over his brother and says "You alright?", Hye just nods his head, having a slightly confused look underneath his helmet. The Shika roars and charges at Bae, who blocks its horns with the Kagematsu, and leads it away from Eun and Hye so he can fight it on open ground. Eun, worried over Bae, picks herself up and chases after them.
Elsewhere nearby, Yuma and Yuri were checking block per block for any signs of the distress signal. "Oh man," said Yuma "I never thought this mission would be so boring. First we had to fight off waves of those Inves, and then we're just searching for an unknown signal." Yuri responds by saying "It just has to be here somewhere." That was then, they heard sounds of struggling, grunts and hits. They ran to observe the source of the phenomenon. They remain hidden behind the house to see that Bae and the Shika Inves are fighting in a slugfest, with the former losing. "An Advanced Inves…" said Yuri, while Yuma just hides from view of the battle in fear. Yuri examines more closely and noticed something is wrong "Why is he fighting alone? Where's his brother and girlfriend, they should be helping him." While in a fetal position, Yuma pulls out an Orange Lockseed and whispers to himself "Guess it's time to put this to good use." Yuri turns and sees the Orange Lockseed in his hand and kneels beside, "Hey!" her face being red in anger as she figures the unlikeliness of Yuma having an A-class Lockseed "Is this the Lockseed that I brought from the previous mission!" Yuma reacts in shock, he nearly trips over before using one arm to support himself, to then responds "Well, I thought we might encounter something like this again, so I took this for emergencies." Yuri isn't amused "That's violation of the rules! And also, what if somebody needs a Lock like this and they won't have it, because you just came around and took it!" She attempts to take the Lockseed from Yuma's hand, who in turn just struggles to keep it "Maybe you should just bent a little, there's no harm in doing it!" he shouts, Yuri shouts back "Yes there's harm, we're going to get in trouble!" Yuma just scoffs "Oh yeah? What are they going to do, kill us!?"
Eun stopped running and took a breather for a few seconds, hands on thighs. She looks up to see Bae wrestling against the Advanced Inves, she shifts her gaze to see Yuri and Yuma fighting over something. She dashes once again to see what's the commotion. By the time she makes it just near them, she shouts out and breaks up their senseless spat. "What are you two doing?! Bae's going to get killed there by an Inves!" Yuri answers "Gee, excuse me, Mr. J McRule Breaker is going to get us screwed over." Yuma defends himself "Well maybe you, Ms. Go-by-the-book, how's about you think more pragmatically!" Yuri and Yuma glare at each other, Eun just face palms and shook her head, then grabs the Lockseed in Yuma's hand. She walks out into view to see Bae's status, it was not going good, he was on his back to the ground, getting kicked into the rib then stomped on the abdomen. Eun panics and looks at her Lockseed, then realizes an idea. "Bae!" yelled at the top of her lungs, she holds up the Orange Lockseed and throws it to Bae "Use this and fight back!"
The Lockseed flies into the air, the Inves notices the Lock and turns its gaze away from Bae. Bae, hearing Eun's request, grabs the Inves' leg and shakes around roughly, knocking the Inves off balance, Bae forces himself up knocks the monster down. Back on his feet, he grabs the flying Lockseed then kicks the monster in the stomach, as small revenge for the earlier beatdown. Bae stares at the Lockseed in his hand "I already have an A class Lock" recalling back to when he had picked the Banana Lockseed earlier, even pulling it out to compare the two just now. The Inves starts to get up, Bae panics and removes his Matsubokkuri Lockseed from his Sengoku Driver "But it doesn't hurt to use this!" he unlocks the Orange Lockseed, causing it to announce "Orange!", at the same he puts it on the Driver, and locks it into place, announcing "Lock On!". His pinecone armor fades into dust particles. An artificial crack appears over his head, the Inves tries to rush attack him instantly, but was too late as the descending Orange armor flies over and smashes into the Inves, knocking it flat into its ass. The armor flows back above Bae, who just stands there awe at the scene.
He was so stun at the presence of the armor in fact, he didn't notice the american-guitar sounding jingle of the Sengoku Driver playing, signaling it being ready for transformation. He snaps back to reality and immediately slams the Cutting Blade, opening the Orange Lockseed.
"Orange Arms! Hanamichi on Stage!" the Orange armor descends and envelops his head, underneath the Orange a different outer helmet is formed and equipped onto his head. The armor unlocks itself, folding into smaller pieces resembling a samurai armor, spewing out a orange colored "liquid". The armor itself has a mix of yellow and black parts, while the helmet possesses what appears to be yellow Fukigaeshis at the sides of his helmet. Other than the armor, he gains a new weapon, an orange sword resembling a sliced piece of Orange named the Daidaimaru, his visor changes from yellow to orange in color, divided in six sections.
The Inves gets back up its feet again, this time dead on trying to kill Bae, everyone looks in concern as the monster charges at Bae with its horns being burned alit, ramming into him like a bull seeing a red cape. Towards everyone's surprise, Bae, with both hands, casually blocks the creature's charge by using his sword to push back at its horns, switching the handle to his left hand, with his other hand supporting the blade, further fortifying it. The Inves uselessly keeps on pushing, hoping to overpower him.
"Let's see what you've got" said Bae, using a burst of strength he pushed the Inves, throwing it off-balance and taking the opportunity to slash it multiple times with the Daidaimaru. Bae kicks in the torso, sending it flying and scraped along the ground. When the Inves once again tries to get up, Bae doesn't do anything, just stands there and expects it to attack again. The Inves runs up and attempts to strike its claws at him, only for Bae to block it with his arm and slashes it several more times. Using the super speed feature of the Sengoku Driver, he dashes around the Inves in blinding speed, slashing it left and right, the beast being helpless at the boy's newfound power. Finally, after having enough time wasted, Bae turns the Cutting Blade once.
"Orange Squash!" the Daidaimaru charges in energy, Bae waits and stands as the Inves attempts to ram into him again, horns burning ablaze again. With a kiai, Bae hacks his sword across the Inves' head, his blade against the beast's horns. The horns were overpowered and it along the Inves' head are sliced in two. Its corpse ran right past Bae, collapsing into the ground before being consumed in a blazing explosion. "Mandarin Slash" Bae simply said, having named his new Arms' finishing move. The coast clear, the Inves gone, the whole group celebrates, Eun, Yuma and Yuri ran toward Bae, surrounding him in a circle. "I don't know what to say, but, good job, I guess." said Yuri "Oh yeeeaaahhhh!" yelled Yuma, holding two Vs over his head. Bae reluctantly looked at Yuma and Yuri in the eyes, saying, to their surprise, "Hey, about my attitude earlier, I'm sorry" he blushed slightly underneath his helmet. Yuri and Yuma were off guard at first, but decide to roll with it, with Yuri saying "Eh, no big deal." and Yuma "Yeah, in the past, forgotten" rubbing the back of his head with his hand. While everyone continues celebrating, Hye just walks towards them and saw his brother's change of form. His Matsubokkuri Lockseed is replaced by an Orange Lockseed, and his armor is now orange and samurai-like instead of brown and soldier themed. Eun goes up to behind Bae and rests her hand on his shoulder, which in turn made him look at her. Hye can't help but smile at the scene. Eun says to Bae "Great work" she smiles underneath her helmet, Bae just replies "No, just good" he removes the Orange Lockseed and takes a moment to stare at it, he then takes out his Banana Lockseed and looks at it also. He thinks to himself Such power, I wonder. It's settled, I'll collect as much of these A-classes as I can, so I may gain the power I desire.
Yuri turns towards Eun and asked, "Hey, so why did you and Hye just leave Bae to fight that thing by himself? Just saying, you should be a partner for your boyfriend next time."
"Well, you see me and Hye…" Eun puts together what Yuri was implying "B-boyfriend?! No, nonono!" her face blushes furiously in scarlet red that rivals the very color of blood, to which fortunately for her no one can see, "We're just friends, right Bae!?" She turns to Bae for support, but he just pays attention to his Lockseeds, Eun gets frustrated and demands "Well!?", Bae puts away his Lockseeds and snarkily responds "So me saving your skin qualifies me as 'just a friend'?" Eun covers her face in embarrassment as everyone starts laughing hard.
However, Yuri breaks the mood by pointing out very a serious thing. "Hold on, what about the person who sent the transmission data?" But Hye assures her "No, I made contact with the other rescue teams that came here after us, there's no sign of the guy or girl who got us here."
Yuma reacts as though he had saw a ghost, nearly falling off his feet. "What's wrong?" said Bae, Yuma then replies and gives off his answer "Since Bae just transformed using a Lockseed not legally given to him by authorities, that means…THE OVERSEER IS GOING TO GET OUR HEADS FOR SURE!" he squats down and holds his head, sobbing in total fear at what is about to come. Everyone in the vicinity freezes up at the realization and looks of horror came to everyone, Bae broke the law.
Sitting on the roof of a nearby building, watching from afar. Is a man having on short white pants, green jacket, and a red band with a pair of yellow goggles on his head. "Well," the man said "looks like we have a new competitor in the stage." He disappears in blue light, leaving behind a lost transmitter.
At Central Japan Base.
Lounging in his office, a man in a black business suit was writing down on paper work concerning the progress of the missions. The name tag on his desk reveals the man to be named "Takatora Kureshima". A secretary walks into his office, handing out records of the gang's mission. He takes it out of her hands, and reviews it, he scans through the sheets before meeting something interesting, one of the members of Team 2345 gains a new Lockseed and used it on the field without permission. "What?" he looked at the date "This happened just now, and word of this spread across the campus?" he asked the secretary. She states no, Takatora pinches his nasal bridge, and takes a deep breath. "Have Team 2345 transported here in private, I wish to speak with them."
"Yes, chairman" the secretary leaves the room to report Takatora's demand. Just near his desk, a man dress completely in black and eating from a bag of potato chips on a table, he turns to Takatora with a smug expression of his face saying "Well, looks like the brats we're raising need some spanking after all." Takatora gives him a short glare, then looks at his desk. "Quant. Sid, I would need you in this meeting." he gets up from his desk and walks around the room, "I'm sure they had a reason for them to break the law, and we will get out answers."
Credits: I apologize dearly for the length it took me to upload the chapter, but you know, I have so many things that squeezed its way into my schedule.
Up next, Pierce! Raise your Spear, Banana Arms!