Phase 23.3
Shinomiya Ayase
Things didn't quiet down much for us over the next several days, though nobody saw or heard any more of Inori. Japan slowly got settled in with its new leadership, but for his part Shibungi seemed pretty comfortable managing the struggling nation's many needs from the start. Not that I got to speak with him much—only once, in fact. An inauguration party was set to take place exactly one week after the new president arrived in office, and to kick it off there'd be a huge Endlave march all the way from Yokohama to the capital city. Shibungi summoned me briefly to ask if I would participate, and of course I accepted. By obligation the highest ranking official of Japan's Endlave forces would lead the march, so all I had to do was walk in rhythm—and I could walk an Endlave in my sleep.
Well, the day of the event arrived quickly, and before I knew it I found myself at a military hangar by the large Yokohama port. All of the Endlave pilots would ride in wireless pods that would be shuttled to the capital at the rear of the march. That way once it was over we could simply disconnect, change out of our uniforms, and go inside for the main event. But this was a military operation after all, so before we could do that all the pilots had to line up for a word of briefing by the forces' commander. I wheeled my chair into formation beside a young man with somewhat long, blonde hair and a scruffy face that made him look younger for his failure to grow a beard rather than older for trying at all. There was something oddly familiar about him, but we didn't get a chance to speak. However, the feeling might've been mutual. I caught him glancing at me more than once while the commander yelled about our duty to show off the pride of our nation.
"Unit 823..." I took note of the number on the young man's badge.
When at last the commander's rant was done, everyone was dismissed to enter their pods. Mine had a ramp leading up to it so that I could lug myself in without assistance. Once inside I strapped myself down, slid on the helmet waiting for me there, and pressed a button to signal the pod operator that I was ready to engage. The response was delayed by several seconds, which gave me a bit of satisfaction. I was faster at getting ready than some of the military pilots, and all their legs worked just fine. The hood closed down over my pod soon, and a scanner protruded from the side of my helmet, covering my right eye. Then there was the familiar sensation of dropping out of my body and landing in the Endlave, which I activated and stood up with prejudice. From its eyes I could see that there would be two rows of Endlaves in the march, with the exception of the commander in front. My Endlave was in the right column, one place back. If the formation was any indication of rank, then Shibungi did me a great honor putting me so close to the front without any official military record. Even more interesting was that Unit 823 was beside me on the left and one place farther back.
"Why does that number seem so familiar?"
The commander shouted his orders one by one to get everyone into form, then turned his Endlave around and formally began the march. When we stepped outside of the hangar it was already dark out, but winding down for the day was the last thing on everyone's mind. Crowds lined the streets for the party much as they did for the actual inauguration. Their attitude, however, couldn't have been much more different. As I marched along in my Endlave nowhere did I see last week's quiet, respectful anticipation. People everywhere cheered, jumped, and pointed as the Endlave parade signaled the start of the big celebration. Many of the children held sparklers in their hands. Music played all over the city. Buildings were decorated with colorful lights. I was glad I got to see it all from an Endlave. No matter how much I looked around in awe and excitement, my shell maintained a serious, professional expression. I rarely got to enjoy being a pilot like that, to be appreciated for one of my unique abilities. But then again, the farther along the march I went, the more I got the feeling it wasn't us Endlave pilots that were being cheered on. After all, what's a faceless two-legged machine to someone who will never see the person behind it? No, it was something far more personal than that. Our presence electrified the atmosphere, but nobody showed up to watch for novelty's sake alone. Even Shibungi wasn't really the source of excitement for the evening's events. Tonight was about our identity as an independent people, about our victory over GHQ and the Apocalypse Virus. It was about family and friends—all the relationships we fought for. It was even about each individual man and woman receiving the deepest wishes of their souls. Once I realized that, suddenly I no longer watched anyone celebrate. Instead, I celebrated with them by marching all the stronger.
"Look, Gai. Everyone's cheering. They're cheering for the future you fought for. Well, it's the present, now. You did it. I hope you realize that. You didn't die for nothing. Most of these people don't even know your name—don't know they have you to thank—but I will always remember you...Gai."
The commander's Endlave pulled an about-face when we reached our destination, the courtyard of the president's new mansion, and then he raised his right cannon.
"Present arms!" he shouted.
The rest of us obeyed in perfect unison, mimicking the commander's gesture.
"Endlaves: salute!"
One by one each of the pilots shot off their fireworks into the sky, this time intentionally out of sync. The crowds roared with renewed intensity as the lights painted the city with a dazzling array of color. The bursts continued for a full minute, after which the Endlave parade marched out of sight behind the mansion and the pilots were disconnected. By the time the visor lifted off of my pod, Tsugumi, Shu, Souta, Yahiro, and even Kusama Kanon—another Tennouzu High graduate—were all waiting for me with my wheelchair.
"That was amazing, Aya-nee!" Tsugumi greeted enthusiastically.
"It was fun, actually," I replied while climbing out into the chair. "I do need to go get changed, though. I'll join you all in a minute."
"Actually, I'm on punch duty," Tsugumi said. "The rest of you can go on ahead, though."
"Would you like some help, Tsugumi?" I asked.
"Well, I've got Fyu-neru already, but with this many people here it looks like I'm gonna need all the help I can get!"
"Alright, then I'll meet you by the tables as soon as I'm ready."
"See you girls later, then," Yahiro raised his hand in a frozen wave. "I'm going to go mingle a bit."
Our little group split up to go separate ways and headed into the elaborate mansion. I couldn't help but think of what a far cry it was from the humble underground residence of Funeral Parlor. We'd come a very long way since then. So often it was easy to focus on our losses and on the painful side of change, but truly there was cause for celebration, too. I wanted to embrace that side of things for the night and just enjoy myself. I changed into a maroon dress as quickly as I could and then went out to the grand hall where the party proper took place. The hall was mostly finished with fine wood, and a velvet red carpet lined the middle, leading from the entrance all the way to the end of the room which went up a few stairs to a railed platform where Shibungi stood by a round table of refreshments exclusively for those in conversation with him (who were predominantly rather important people in some way or another). A few long, straight tables lined the walls of the main area, which is where I found Tsugumi and Fyu-neru serving punch to party guests. Of course only a very few were allowed inside compared to the masses gathered in the streets, but there were still enough people around to make navigating difficult, especially in a wheelchair.
"Still need my help?" I teased, seeing how busy the place was.
"Don't even think about backing out on me now! Fyu-neru's doing well handing out glasses, but I can only do so much filling and refilling on my own."
The little robot stood on the table, dutifully carrying out his role without a care in the world. He seemed to be pretty popular among the guests, too. I wheeled around opposite Fyu-neru to Tsugumi and joined in the punch serving. For a while my actions became automatic as dozens of people came for a drink and went, leaving my mind to contemplate the classical music floating lightly through the air from the orchestra playing in one corner of the grand hall. My daze was broken, however, when the blonde Endlave pilot walked by. Unlike everyone else, he didn't stop. In fact he was so focused he didn't even see us at the table.
"O-kyaku-san!" Tsugumi called out to him. "Care for punch?"
"E-eh?"
There was an awkward moment where Tsugumi just waited with a pleasant smile on her face while the blonde man hesitated with an unreadably awkward expression on his. His cheeks turned a bit red and his mouth hung slightly open.
"You—erm—punch? I—uh—little runt—trying—um—I don't know!" he fumbled over his words.
Fyu-neru took that as a yes and practically shoved a glass into the young man's hand.
"Well, uh, if you insist—erm—thanks. I guess."
"Say, nice job during the march," I said, trying to coax out a possible connection between us while he was there. "Your Endlave's posture was a bit loose, though. You might want to keep the calibration tighter until you get used to handling it on your own. Saves a lot of maintenance down the road, yes?"
The young man's eye twitched.
"Wha—now just—"
Suddenly something seemed to be seriously bothering him. His face turned bright red and he fidgeted with his pockets until his fists were white.
"Say, are you feeling alright?" Tsugumi asked.
"Well—er—fine. You hear? Fine!"
And with that he hurried off into the crowd, leaving us completely puzzled.
"You think it was the cramps?" Tsugumi asked.
"Shh!"
Before long we had our next guests, which were much more sensible company.
"Konbanwa, Shu. Souta," I greeted.
Fyu-neru handed the boys glasses of punch.
"Thanks, Fyu-neru," Shu said. "And you too, Ayase, Tsugumi."
"Thanks," Souta joined in.
"You two enjoying yourselves?" I asked.
"We'd be pretty lazy not to!" Souta replied. "I don't know the last holiday we had that was this interesting."
"I'm going to get in line to talk to Shibungi—er, Shibungi-daitouryou," Shu explained. "Anyone want to join me?"
"Sorry, can't," Tsugumi answered without a moment's hesitation.
"Yes, the stream of customers is thinning out, but we've still got our hands full. You two go on ahead."
"Alright. We'll catch you later."
No sooner did they leave than Arugo showed up behind them, but he didn't seem interested in punch. He was wearing a formal security uniform and had multiple weapons strapped to his body. No doubt he was on duty for Shibungi.
"Hey Arugo, what's up?" Tsugumi asked casually.
"Either of you seen a blonde guy, about 20, scruffy face?" he asked, serious as always.
"Yeah! Friend of yours?" she replied.
"You mean you didn't recognize him? Well...I can't really say it in public."
"E-eh?! What kind of friend can't you talk about in public?"
Arugo let out a frustrated sigh.
"You're not following. Anyway, do you remember where he went?"
"Check the bathroom."
"Great," sarcasm permeated his tone. "Well, will do."
Arugo left then, albeit much more calmly than the man he was searching for. After that some time passed uneventfully. The guests' attention slowly turned from refreshments and conversation to ballroom dancing around the orchestra. When there wasn't much left for me to do I asked Tsugumi if she and Fyu-neru could manage on their own while I joined the others talking to Shibungi. She granted me permission with teasing reluctance and I wheeled away. It wasn't thirty seconds before my journey was interrupted by a minor collision with none other than the same blonde man from before.
"Oh! Excuse me," I exclaimed, refraining from asking why he was walking backwards when we bumped into each other.
"Huh? You again..."
"Sorry," I repeated. "Say, a friend of mine was looking for you just a minute ago. Just a heads-up."
The young man's face turned red again.
"Wha—? Me? She was—I mean..."
I was beginning to feel like maybe I really hadn't ever seen the guy before. Nowhere in my memory did I recall someone so totally incapable of carrying on a normal conversation.
"Well, excuse me," I ended the exchange before things got any more awkward.
Shu and Souta were just getting their turn with Shibungi when I finally arrived.
"Sounds like quite the party," Shu was saying. "I think everyone needed something like this."
"Agreed. I am a bit disappointed, though," Shibungi said. "I offered to host a chess tournament but nobody would participate." He smiled wryly. It was a rare thing to see Shibungi crack a joke and smile. Subtle as it was, I knew he must be enjoying himself quite a lot to do that. "Ah, Ayase-san. You came up after all."
"Konbanwa, Shibungi-daitouryou."
"I trust the Endlave march went well?"
"Perfectly."
"Glad to hear it."
A line slowly formed behind us, so we didn't stay for long. But it was good to see for myself just how well Shibungi fit his new role. Honestly I had my doubts that anyone from Funeral Parlor could make it in such a different environment, but by the time I left the platform those worries dissipated completely. I intended to share as much with Tsugumi, but when I returned to the refreshment tables she was nowhere to be found. Fyu-neru stood alone, patiently waiting for anyone that might come for a refill.
"Fyu-neru, where's Tsugumi?"
The robot pointed somewhere just beside the crowd of dancing couples. It took me a moment to see her, but sure enough Fyu-neru was on the mark...and Tsugumi was speaking with the blonde Endlave pilot.
"Listen, I don't know why I'm doing this, but uh...you were—um—looking for me, right?"
"Well if you were looking for a dance partner yourself, then yes!"
"Huh? D-d-dance!?"
I couldn't help but smile. 'Dancing' had an alternate meaning for Tsugumi. She prided herself in the art she'd made of monitoring my Endlave and hacking and who-knows-what-else—simultaneously.
"This ought to be fun to watch..."
"Yeah, dance. What else do you see people doing around here?"
"But—well—I—you..."
Tsugumi tolerated no excuses, but simply stomped on his foot, smiling so sweetly the whole time that one would think she was completely innocent.
"Just come on, already!"
She grabbed the pilot's hand and pulled him in with the rest of the crowd, eliciting the brightest blush on his face I'd seen yet. To my surprise though, he wasn't terrible at dancing. Tsugumi definitely had the lead, but he followed well enough to keep the situation under control. At least, that's how it went at first. Arugo came back into the grand hall to continue his search, and this time he saw the blonde pilot for himself.
"Umm...let's...move this way," he said to Tsugumi, finally taking the lead and moving them into the crowd, away from Arugo.
"That's strange..."
Arugo didn't give up, though. He tried walking through the crowd, but inadvertently got stuck with a partner as someone smoothly traded off. Arugo being Arugo he in turn traded the woman off to someone else as quickly as possible, but by that point Tsugumi and the pilot had circled their way around to Arugo's other side, and he didn't see them. As they momentarily emerged from the crowd the blonde man looked toward Shibungi's platform. Ouma Haruka was speaking with the new president, but she caught the pilot's glance and looked back at him—suspiciously, I thought. Even more suspicious, the pilot quickly averted his gaze and pulled Tsugumi back into the crowd.
"So he's someone Haruka-san would know, too?"
The music seemed to intensify in pace with my thoughts.
"Avoiding Arugo and Haruka-san...Endlave pilot...Unit 823..." I worked hard. Then it finally hit me.
The orchestra reached its climax, and right on cue many couples performed their best moves. Whatever Tsugumi and the pilot tried did not work out so well.
"Alright, you win, you little runt!" he complained to Tsugumi before rushing out of the mansion.
Memories of fighting in Endlaves suddenly rushed back to me from three years ago.
"Yan! Yan Daryl!"
Arugo hurried to the exit himself, but didn't go out after Daryl.
"What was he doing here?"
Even though to my knowledge he'd done nothing wrong, I didn't like to think about any suspicious characters attending the party, though I suppose it was inevitable. Still, the presence of an old enemy called into question my desire to just enjoy the night. I wondered if we members of Funeral Parlor would ever be able to just let our guards down. Even in this new society, the world remained a dangerous and unstable place.
GC
Ouma Shu
"A-ah, I'm completely worn out," I yawned as Haruka and I drove home in the early hours of the morning after the big event.
"Giving in already? Why, the night's only just begun!"
"Ugh, that's not even funny."
"Be glad you're not one of the security guards. I'll bet Arugo-kun has a long night ahead of him."
"Right. Some GHQ guy got in, wasn't it?"
"Yan Daryl, son of GHQ's old commander-in-chief. Apparently he pulled a few strings and gave some less-than-honest information about himself so he could get in to the party by joining in the Endlave parade. Nobody knows why yet, but it's got some people on edge."
"The trouble just never ends, does it?" I whispered. The question was rhetorical, and Haruka didn't answer. In fact, neither of us said anything else at all until the ride was over. There was still so much to think about for the day, but so little energy left to think about it. I barely made it into the apartment building, up the elevator, and into my room without collapsing on the floor. By necessity, Haruka took a bit longer to wind down—I'm sure she had her makeup to un-make, and whatever else that woman did to herself for such a big party. Me, I just kicked off my shoes and let my clothes fall where they would, even though I knew full well I could trip over them in the morning if I forgot what I'd done—which was a real possibility at this hour.
"O-yasumi, Shu!" Haruka called from her room before shutting off the lights, which I discerned only by the soft click from the wall. I intended to return the goodnight, but I was so tired that I accidentally hesitated until it was too late to reply. Instead I just lay there on my bed, listening to the ensuing silence with gratitude. I fell soundly asleep in an instant, far too deep to be bothered by nightmares.
Therefore I was surprised to wake up long before morning.
There were no dreams, no noises—nothing immediately obvious to prompt my eyes open and my mind to reactivate. I rolled over, pulled the covers back up, and waited to fall back asleep.
"Shu!" a voice echoed from afar just as I was about to doze off.
The sound was accompanied by a gust of cold wind. It was an odd sensation, nothing like the cold of winter. More like...the chill of death. I sat up with a start, suddenly realizing just how very cold the entire room had become, even though I was quite certain the window was shut. In fact, it must have been the cold that woke me up.
"W-who's there?" I asked timidly.
No response.
My heartbeat quickened a bit.
"Is this just a dream?"
Dream or not, I couldn't just go back to sleep with the room so cold. I tried to get up and investigate...and quickly tripped over a mess of clothes and shoes on the floor.
"Shoot...I'm definitely awake."
"Shu!"
The voice startled me, and I whirled around to face the direction it came from. I could hardly believe what I found there.
"What the...? I can...I can see something!?"
It was clear as day, no mistaking it. In the midst of all the darkness that occupied my vision stood a circle of shimmering light, and through it I could see a place I never expected to lay eyes on ever again: Shangri'la, the crystallized world beyond the Apocalypse.
Author's notes: I hope you enjoyed this little look at the world through Ayase's eyes. If you did, then don't worry—we'll hear from her again later, and on a more serious note! I just couldn't write this fanfic without trying to capture a bit of Guilty Crown's lighter, more humorous side. And if you didn't like Ayase, then you should also not worry—we'll be spending more time with Shu for a while (but you should be ashamed of yourself, because Ayase is pretty awesome). And obviously the end of this chapter was pretty much just a big teaser for the next, so you know there's a lot to look forward to! The story's really going to pick up next time, so definitely keep your eyes peeled for Phase 23.4. And thanks as always for reading!