Viral Hearts
Chapter 2: Release
AN: Spoilers for Ar tonelico 1, part of the chapter I don't see going much different.
AN2: if the timeline's don't make sense remember the Nanban Mirror travels both temporally and spatially.
Five years later...
"Misha, please sing Harmonious," a young man in white armor said to a girl wearing purple with drums in her hair, while holding a sword. His companions, a Reyvateil in a white leotard, a cyborg gunslinger with a green cowboy hat, another Reyvateil wearing a pink and white dress with a short skirt, a young girl wielding a large chainsaw, another man in white armor wielding a spear, and a samurai in red armor with two swords, were arranged behind him.
As the named woman wearing purple started to sing the hymn,two naked girls and a naked man surrounded by a spherical energy field appeared, then was encased in what looked like a metal ball near the stomach area of a giant white monster. The floating monster has several sets of what looked like breasts in its chest, a long gray neck leading up to the head, two arms, two relatively stumpy legs, had a tail that went below its feet,and moving fin like projections along part if its back. The group opposing the monster had to shake off their confusion at the extra figures as the fight started.
The battle was long and arduous, but eventually the three Reyvateils smashed the monster with a combined magic attack. This caused the three figures to appear, two of them unconscious fell to the ground.
"Mir you're just an innocent girl," The armored man said as he approached the naked floating girl while sheathing his sword.
"Lyner! Are you alright?" asked the leotard wearing girl.
"Humans... go away..." Mir responded angrily and blasted him back with a shockwave.
"No! Mir is still..." the spear wielder began.
"Wait! Please, wait!" the young man whom had just been blasted back exclaimed as he got up. "Don't attack Mir... no matter what.
"Then, what are we supposed to do!" The leotard wearing girl exclaimed angrily.
"Just... trust me. And, don't do anything," the man said calmly and started to approach again, then paused noticing how she had positioned herself in front of the two figures on the ground. This made him think of how he acted when defending others. So, taking a different tack than he had originally planned he said, "I won't hurt you or your friends, Please live with us in this world, and allow us to help you and your friends."
Mir hesitated for a momentsshe had noticed that the transition from the binary field to reality had been rougher on her companions thanherself. But, she had remembered her own treatment, and the description of Ranma's life from before they had met...
Flashback
Ranma had just finished relating the train wreck that was his eighteen years of life, and was looking at the girl he was facing to gauge her reaction. He had never really told anyone his full story, especially since nobody seemed to really care enough to ask.
Most of the time the black haired girl didn't really care about humans, but the story she had just been told was one of physical and mental abuse, false friendships, betrayal, and hardship. All of which meant... Mir was pissed, while she had been treated worse, it had been by strangers, not family and friends. While she had thought she had known the meaning, and implications, of the first word, she never actually had one. As to friends, she had had a few, but the few she had she could trust with her life. She had a slight smile as her thoughts turned somewhere that she once thought impossible...
"What about you, Mir, How did you get trapped here?" Raizna asked speculatively interrupting the other girl's train of thought.
Mir lost her smile, and while she didn't really want to talk about it, started to speak of her own past and how she ended up trapped here all because these two had a right to know whom they were stuck with, all while she was thinking, I might be able to train these two to be good companions.
End Flashback
Mir's eyes narrowed as she responded, "... You expect me to believe that after all this time, and how you humans treated your own kind?"
"Wha...?" Lyner began.
"Don't come near us!" the black haired girl screamed, then she formed a purple energy barrier and prepared to attack.
"I've been selfish... and caused everyone so much trouble..." The sword wielder said apologetically. "But, this is the last time. Please do one me favor for me. Don't attack Mir or her friends, just attack the barrier around her. We can't stop Mir's Song Magic,so it'll be coming at you really fast. I know it's gonna be tough, but you gotta hang in there Aurica, Misha, Lady Shurelia! The worst that can happen is that we'll all be destroyed, but I believe in you and Mir. So... please!"
Most of the group concentrated on the barrier and the Reyvateils, after feeling Mir's first round of song magic kept healing and defensive spells going. After a time of pounding on the barrier, and dodging the veritable swarm of song magic, it fell with a flash of light.
After the flash died down the black haired girl fell to her knees in exhaustion.
"Mir you've had a hard life," The sword wielder said gently, "I'm sorry, let's get you three some help."
Mir's eyes teared up as she began to sing.
"This song..." the blond sword wielder started.
"Is it one that Mir crafted?" the leotard wearing girl asked.
"I don't know why, but..." Misha continued.
"It's so... comforting..." the girl dressed in pink said softly as she continued to listen to the song.
Later on, the three of them were in a hotel room in Platina. Ranma and Raizna had been convinced to dress by Shurelia and Lyner. It took them awhile to remember why they had to be dressed, but eventually they recalled that they were supposed to be dressed in public.
"Damn, I can't believe I forgot about that. I suppose five years being naked with two naked girls kinda screwed up the priorities. Right, Raizna?" Ranma said embarrassed.
"I guess, not that I had feminine modesty to start with," the redhead replied fingering the modest green dress she had been supplied with. "Now I need something other than this dress to wear. I may be a girl from now on, but I ain't into dresses."
"Yes, if I must wear something, I would like it to be something less bulky," Mir chimed in as she was also wearing a dress of nearly the same cut, except hers was black.
Ranma, dressed in some of the swordsman Lyner's, spare outfits stripped of the metal armor parts hesitantly said, "Lyner and Shurelia, gave me some money for clothes, I guess we could go now if you want."
"Let's go then," Raizna put in unenthusiastically.
"Before we go, I want to make you two something. You two need something to give you advice, so here," the black haired girl said before creating two small viruses. The two viruses looked like a sphere with constantly changing lumps about half a foot tall. One was blood red, the other deepest black. "Here, they're limited to yes or no, but they can give fairly good advice beyond that when I'm not here."
"Let's go, I want something a bit less stuffy myself," Ranma said nervously as the black shape floated toward him. "are they safe?"
"Yes, I made them non offensive so we wouldn't get in trouble," Mir explained offhandedly, not that she really cared about that, but it would be too much of a pain to have to fight again so soon after being released.
"Let's go then," The redhead said and led them out the door.
An hour later, the trio was back in the room with a few outfits apiece. Ranma had gotten a few nicely fitting black cargo pants, black and red tank tops, and at Mir's insistence a set of light armor. Mir had gotten a black and red leotard-like outfit, that was custom made at the suggestion from someone she had met in town named Spica. Raizna had picked up an outfit that consisted of a crimson leotard type outfit similar to Shurelia's with black gloves, and black calf high flat soled boots
"So, what's the plan?" Mir asked, as she didn't really have any after her original kill all humans plan was derailed. "And we really need to work on your fear of cats," she commented wryly.
"I need to train, I lost quite a bit of strength with what happened when we met," Ranma replied, meanwhile the black sphere turned into a gray octahedron and said, "Yes."
"I had better practice my own abilities as well," Raizna said. "and see whether I can get my own strength up," she finished while her own sphere turned into a green octahedron with a "Yes."
"I know you two like training, but isn't there anything else you can think of?" Mir asked with a sigh.
"No," both spheres said as they changed colors again into a mass of spikes. Black went to blue, and red went to purple. The two shifting forms' answers caused Mir to sweat drop.
"We were planning on training while exploring, since the one thing pops had right was that anything can be made into training," Ranma explained. "besides, for some reason I don't think this world is particularly safe..."
"Yes," a black sphere sounded while changing shape and color.
Mir smirked at that last comment, and nodded. "I see your point, and yes this place can be dangerous, but before we leave you should pick up some weapons. I know you prefer hand to hand, but some trouble can be avoided by going armed."
"I did pick something up earlier, all that time with no real opponents as well as other factors made me lose my edge a bit, so I grabbed these," Ranma said with a smirk, as he pulled out a pair of tonfa. They were of high quality redwood.
"I expected something with a blade for when no option but killing exists such as wild animals," the black haired Reyvateil said archly.
"Yes," the black shape chimed in as Ranma smirked and pulled at the long section of the tonfa, which came away with a slight *click* revealing that there was a hidden blade nearly half a foot long. "Well?"
Mir nodded at him. "Good choice. They seem like they could be useful. Now let's go."
The three packed up their new clothes, and headed out, only to be stopped outside the hotel by Lyner and Shurelia.
"Where are you three going," Lyner asked curiously.
"Just going to explore the tower, isn't that right?" Ranma said, and the two spheres went eight sided and chimed out, "Yes."
"What are..." Shurelia started as she narrowed her eyes.
"Something I created so they always have something to ask for advice, don't worry they're mostly harmless," Mir explained.
"Mostly?" Lyner asked.
"Yes, I suppose they can be dangerous if you hug them when they disagree with you, right black?" Mir answered calmly.
"Yes," The black sphere responded.
"Show me this dangerous form," Shurelia said suspiciously.
"No," both orbs said quickly.
Both of the two asking the questions blinked and realized that it was true, that unless someone was actually in contact with the orbs they couldn't be hurt by them, at least if what Mir said was true.
Lyner, deciding to put his money where his mouth was said somewhat nervously, "I trust you Mir, just try not to cause trouble, okay? Have a nice trip as well."
Mir blinked in surprise, she had expected him to start yelling, and demanding that her creations be destroyed. She then nodded and set off to where the airship was docked.
"Bye Lyner-san, Shurelia-chan," Ranma said as he followed the black haired girl.
"See ya, Lyner-san, Shurelia-chan," Raizna chimed in as she followed the other two.
"Chan?" Shurelia asked.
"San?" Lyner responded.
Both shrugged at the unusual titles, and left to finish up theirbusiness in town now that they had visited the three.
"I wonder," Lyner started. "If those two are like Ayatane, they don't seem to be, but..."
"I don't know, we can only hope they don't cause trouble. Now let's get to the dive shop, I found another story you might be interested in," the silver haired girl said.
For the next year, the trio explored the tower, as well as the half torus called The Wings of Horace and the floating island Firefly Ally. During this time Ranma and Raizna worked to restore their edge. Raizna had far greater problems with the physical training than did Ranma. Ranma had nearly returned to his previous condition, while Raizna was only at a fifth of the power level physically. Although with her song magic she ended up being able to fight with Ranma in battle on nearly equal terms.
Often times during the trip Mir thought her companions were crazy. As they stuck there hands into fires, bashed themselves with boulders, and sought out strong things to fight. Although she did feel herself becoming closer to the two.
At the end of the year an event happened that would cause chaos in two worlds. The event was a circle of light with mystical patterns around the edge appearing below the three, and after a flash of light, the circle and the three figures were gone from that world.
End note1: I didn't have inspiration for the parts I glossed over, sorry.
End note 2: Cliffhanger, ain't I a stinker?