How'r'ya lot, welcome to the third chapter of Kämpfer: A Polishman in Tokyo. This one took a longer while due to me returning to school for a daily basis and not getting as much time for writing the story. Well, OK, the time was there, but I just decided to do different things then, and so on certain days I ended up with writing nothing at all.
LANG. NOTES: As I said, I'm bloody strict when it comes to languages (as strict as I can get). Therefore all German nouns start with capitals, obvious enough. There will be certain non-English titles directly in this chapter.
The story mostly utilizes 1st person present tense, however, for certain cases I have allowed myself to change to past or future tense.
CHAP. INTRO: This is a direct follow-on from chapter 2. It sticks to the idea of Kaede "abducting", so to say, Natsuru and Mikoto to herself from E13 of the anime. However, I've made my own changes to that idea. At this stage, I will not be referring to the anime until a later time.
The chapter may seem a little unsmooth in certain spots. I tried to smoothen it out as much as possible, but I guess there will be a little bit of bumping.
FORMAT NOTES: Original word count - 4357. Word count w/ notes - 4840.
DISCLAIMER: I own the rights to this text, and since this text ain't no part of the original Kämpfer works, I don't own that. I only own my own character here and the unspoken-of OC. Real placenames used to a certain extent.
Ch. 3 – PREPARATION
August 16th, 2019 - 12.48pm - Tokyo, Japan
'The first four Kämpfer can use all three Kämpfer weapons as they wish,' I announce.
By saying my weaponry, I mean it literally. On my back, in their appropriate scabbards, "hang" two swords, or rather sabers – my Schwert. The two blades, of the 17th century design of the Polish szablas, always spawn on my back in such a manner that my long hair doesn't disturb the taking out of the blade. The two scabbards are joined across my chest with a leather strap that, if pulled correctly to the appropriate side, will allow one of the blades to pop up slightly, making it easier to reach.
Further down my body, on the belt of my jeans, hang two gun holsters, one per side. The weapon inside both of them is a SIG-Sauer P226 – my Gewehr – in the 18-round version. I share, however, a trait with Akane's weapon – in my hands, the magazine is unlimited. But, whenever the weapon gets into any other hand, the magazine is limited to its 18 rounds.
And perhaps at last, my Zauber, coming out from my hands, yet not touching them per se. Little low voltage "balls" of electricity hang onto the palms of my hands like a puppy to its owner. My Zauber takes the form of controllable electricity, with my full control over the voltage, amperage, frequency and type of current.
'Because of our specific trait, we, as in the first four, are called the Originals. Our job originally was to oversee the battles and join if it was necessary,' I explain. 'Four seems like very little, but there weren't too many Kämpfer at the beginning. And, as I said already, in 2015 the Assigners came about, which really took the overseeing job off us.'
'But the weapons stayed...' Mikoto says.
'Yeah,' I approve of her process of thought.
After a little while of silence, Shizuku resumes the conversation, 'So, now that this is out of the way, I think that it is safe to say that, if you want to, you're more than welcome to be part of our truce.'
'The offer is accepted,' I reply.
'Great. Now, let's sort this Sakura bitch out, shall we?' Akane steps into the conversation in a slightly rude manner that doesn't bother me at all, to be honest. Any of my personas don't care much about cursing, as, well, I tend to curse myself a bit, especially when speaking Polish.
'Is there something that I'm missing out on?' I ask, curiously.
'Yea... today, before class, when we met her she acted as if nothing had ever happened yesterday evening, even as if she remembered nothing of it,' Mikoto fills me in.
'That's because the Assigners are probably the worst of all of this Kämpfer gang. Even the Moderators aren't half as bastardly as the Assigners tend to be. All of the Assigners that I've met so far, which is about 20 or so, had split personalities, so to say. Sakura Kaede is hardly any different – her Kämpfer-related persona knows about the whole thing whereas her standard persona doesn't. The only thing that makes her stand out is that she gets quite rogue in the Kämpfer persona, at least from what I saw over the past month or so. There weren't as many differences with the other ones...' I give a long, rather elaborate, reply.
'So we're putting up with probably the worst of them all?' Natsuru asks. 'How did she get into this...' he mutters.
'I'd bet 15 dollars that we are. Even though 15 dollars isn't much.'
'Fifteen dollars is 1500 yen, it's something,' Shizuku notes and I just wave down my hand to let that pass by. 'Anyway, whoever she is, we still need a plan of action against her, and her comrades, the Whites. I don't really care much about the reason why the Whites are there, and although I am sure that Sekuła-san here has an explanation,' she faces towards me, at which I nod, 'right now, we need to know how to fight against them. We've all seen that they are able to do something nasty together and if Sakura-san is at their side... it doesn't look very nice, I'd say.'
'I say we jus' blow her head of a bitch right off,' Akane growls. I smile at the prospect forming in my imagination, however, decide to go against the sweet idea.
'Some of you might want to get rid of her, however, I say that she may yet prove useful...' I speak out in a slightly suggestive tone. Some of the girls raise their eyebrows. 'You'll see what I mean if I encounter her around you. I don't want to spoil things,' I reply, looking at my watch. 'What the...' I mutter, as I see 5am reading on the watch. Then I realize that I must have put one of the watches with the Central European time on by mistake. I also let that slide along – third thing I rather ignore in the past 24 hours. 'Anyways, I got to get going by now,' I say as I change into my male form, losing the weapons in the process. 'There is still some things that I need to prepare for my first male class today.' And at that, I leave the room.
Same day - 4.05pm
I wait patiently near both the front gate and my car. I've been asked by Shizuku to give us a lift to my house – I have totally no idea why mine, but I guess I'll just flow with the things. Classes have ended twenty minutes ago and yet none of the four had come out of the school yet, which starts to slightly worry me.
However, my waiting had soon been rewarded. I see Shizuku walking out, with Akane right behind them.
'Well... good news and bad news,' Shizuku starts.
'Good news, it's the weekend,' I fill in.
'Bad news, Natsuru and Mikoto are nowhere to be seen,' she finishes. 'And I've no idea where they might be gone. But Kaede isn't around here either.'
Fuck. This ain't good. Hello, oul' good Polish thought and oul' good Polish curses.
'Well, we can do a little bit of searching later on, but right now, seeing as things are as is, we might as well continue with the previous plan of my house,' I say as I head to the driver's side door. I open up the car and the three of us sit in. Soon afterwards, I join the traffic and drive home.
About twenty minutes later...
When we get to my house, we all step in for a little bit of a tea. Seeing as nobody demanded further Kämpfer explanations, at least for now, when we finish the tea, I ask the two girls to come with me to the basement, as I think that it will become useful rather soon.
'I have a gut feeling... we might set this place up as an interrogation room,' I think out loud.
'To question Sakura-san?' Akane asks.
'Yeah, who else do I have to question? It's not like the Whites are of any major use, to be honest. Once their purpose is fulfilled or cancelled, they just fill in the regular Red and Blue factions, depending on who is needed where,' I answer as I set up a chair in the middle of the basement. Then, I come over to a shelf in the corner and pull out a box, half filled with black Contract Bracelets.
'This is what we used to "create" Kämpfer with,' I explain as I pull out a couple from the box and examine them by the light. 'Major difference between these ones and the ones on our arms – you can actually weld something to them,' I continue. Then I pull out a welder and a short chain, four links long. Why the heck do I keep such crap? Without much of hesitance, I pull out a welding mask and tell the others, 'You might wanna turn around. I don't want two blind girls around, to be honest.'
Once I'm sure that they and their eyes are safe, I start welding the chain to the bracelet, so that, when finished, it forms some sort of handcuffs.
'Wouldn't it be easier to just buy a pair of cuffs?' Shizuku asks me when they turn around.
'It would, but one, I can use whatever I have already and two, these do look classy,' I reply. 'And three, Assigners and black Bracelets... err, they don't go together well,' I laugh, in a quite the evil manner. The two girls smile as well.
Having made another pair, just in case, I grab the two pairs and we leave the basement.
An hour later
'Could Sakura have abducted Natsuru and Mikoto to turn both of them against us? I mean, she could do anything...' Akane is wondering out loud.
We're all sitting in the sitting room, sipping on some apple juice. The TV is on and I'm jumping back and forth between channels, but seeing nothing particular, switch it off and join the conversation. Just in time, I guess, as something has hit Akane.
'I just remembered! Mikoto and I went to the library after that meeting during lunch and we met a White Kämpfer...'
'But what's that got to do with anything?' I ask.
'Well, Mikoto asked me to go there in the first place. She was saying that she didn't feel right about her and Natsuru,' I roll my eyes, 'and she thought that we should get better at something so that we could... outstep... Shizuku...' she slowed down right towards the end of the sentence. I roll my eyes once again and Shizuku puts on quite the neutral face.
'She probably wanted Mikoto to outstep the two of you at the same time. I don't want to know what she exactly has in mind, and I don't care much anyway, it's yer relationship, not mine, but I say we better find them rather quick at this stage...' I say and stand up from the couch. 'I'm gonna put on a different set of clothes,' I announce as I near the case. 'It sure does feel odd to be the only one in a school uniform...' I mutter to myself.
When I reach my room, I dig through the wardrobe to find my old uniform. The uniform back in Ireland sure differs from the ones one usually finds here, in Japan. I get almost everything off myself, except for the underwear and the t-shirt. I put on the light blue polo on top of my t-shirt, followed by grey trousers fixed by a black belt and a dark navy jumper. I fix everything so it looks like it should and have a run downstairs.
'W-what are those clothes?' Akane asks.
'This is, or rather was, my last school uniform,' I reply.
'I find it a bit too dark,' Shizuku comments. Probably payback for the remark on the student council office.
'Well, hell's blazes, I found it too dark as well. And yet I didn't whine. We all just went along with it, as nobody liked detention just for having the wrong trousers on.'
'Is there a different version for the girls?' Akane asks.
'Yeah, girls usually wore a white polo instead of the light blue and the trousers were navy. Hell, the Moderators must really have a thing for the uniforms, as the uniform is the only set of clothes that changed accordingly,' I mutter. Then, I grab my wallet, my phone and the keys, and with a 'Let's go and find 'em,' we leave.
Same day - 6.23pm
At this stage, we're just driving around, nearly pointlessly. With me and Shizuku in the front seats, it leaves Akane to the back. She doesn't seem to mind much. Then, snap, I realise that we're missing something.
'Shizuku-san, there is a couple of CDs in the glove box.'
She opens up the glove box and replies, 'Yes, I see them.'
'Could you give me the one with number two on it?'
She pulls it out and hands it to me. I put it in the CD player and start playing the music from the beginning. Now, that's what I was missing. For some strange reason, I put on a 1991 song for starters (duh, 28 years old by now), Queen's "Show Must Go On" to be exact. How fitting.
Two songs in, Shizuku asks, 'What's on the other two CDs here?'
I raise my eyebrows and have a quick glance towards her, only to see her holding the other two CDs. 'Erm... number two is a mix of English, mostly English, and a couple Spanish songs. Number three is classical all the way through. And as for number one... it's pure Polish songs there,' I reply.
The ride continues without major changes for another two songs, when, with the corner of my eye, I see Shizuku stopping the music, taking out the CD from the player and putting in the one with number one on it.
'Your choice...' I mutter.
The player starts off from the first song also. First off is Lady Pank's "Tacy sami", translated roughly as "Both the same". The rock style seems to slightly up the spirits in the car, however, not too much. The two girls are probably trying to pluck out any common words between Polish and Japanese – good luck, I say. The 1988 song is followed by a variety of others.
'If I randomly start singing to the lyrics, just excuse me, please,' I throw out. They just nod. 'These songs, I've been listening to them for the past seven years, if not more...'
Same day - 7.20pm
About twelve songs or so have gone through over the past nearly sixty minutes of driving around. Right now Rotary's "Na jednej z dzikich plaż" is flowing though the speakers of the car. This title translates as "On one of the wild beaches" and soon enough I'll be shocked to see how fitting it is for the moment, though not as accurately.
'I think I know where he might be,' Shizuku just pops out of the blue.
'How sure are you?' Akane asks.
'Sure enough...'
I give the sudden outburst of possible intel a little bit of thought (oh jaysus, I'm starting to get military in my way of thinking) and decide that since there's nothing else to rely on, just plop out a 'Lead the way then.'
Same day - 7.43pm
It took a little bit of quiet walking through a mildly forested strip of land before noticing Kaede and Natsuru sitting beside one another on the riverbank. Natsuru of course has to be in his female form, which makes enough sense as he attended school as such. And both of them have to be in their uniforms still... Seriously, Japan... I'd have changed my clothes into civil the split second I walked into my house after school...
'I see them,' Akane says quietly.
'Yeah, they're there...' Shizuku follows up.
'And I don't like what I'm seeing, one least bit,' I mutter out, to my own little surprise in English as opposed to Japanese. They seem to understand, however.
By this moment, Kaede had pulled Natsuru aside so that he is on top of her. A little extra sense that had came with the bracelet just peeps to me that a Kämpfer has changed their form quite close.
'Well, erm... right, here's my idea. I get out there and have a little chit-chat, see what I can pull out of her and you be on standby. Since the Assigners are bastards and can get people under their control, I don't want any of you that close, to be honest,' I say clearly enough.
'Sure...' Akane just agrees, kaplow, nothing special.
'OK,' Shizuku also agrees just like that.
Just as I slowly start descending the quite steep slope, I see Natsuru just popping out. I can only think of the position that the two of them are in. I speed up the pace a little, trying to keep quiet. I make my way in such a manner that I'll come out behind Kaede, because I'm that cruel.
'But this girl knows nothing about it,' I hear Kaede speak relatively quiet, in the same voice as yesterday on the rooftop. A Polish curse flows through my thoughts.
'N-Nothing...?'
'So please teach her all about it, Natsuru-san. What's it like to be done by a guy.'
The actual fuck?
'I'll leave it to you.'
No, on a serious note... ah, this rubbish. My thoughts seem to organize themselves on their own, as I see Kaede laying on the grass with Natsuru sitting on her legs. Just as he slightly touches her chest, she most randomly exhales and says, 'Geez, don't tease me like that.'
'B-But...'
There's no buts. Just get on with it.
'Be more confident if you're choosing me.'
Errrr... yea, keep on going. At this stage I'm not so sure of the self-organizing thoughts.
Natsuru then just brings his hand forwards and, from my perspective at least, grabs (even though this may not be the most appropriate word for this) Kaede's left breast, as if nothing had ever happened. Kaede herself moans a little and moves her head.
Myself, however, I've managed to stealthily place myself about a foot's distance above Kaede's head, kneeling down on one knee.
'Are you enjoying yourself? 'Cause there might be a better time for me to come,' I say, quietly enough but still slightly loud.
Kaede opens her eyes to see my head hovering a feet above hers and just blurts out, 'Where did you come out of?'
'I dunno, any answer fits. I've been all over the globe already,' I reply, coldly enough but also playfully.
'Who are you?'
'A Red, if that's of any help,' I continue with the unusual cold 'n' playfulness mix as I show her my right wrist, making sure that the number is facing me so she can't read it.
'Then perhaps fight him?'
'Seriously? First you need him for yourself and now you're just giving him away like that?'
'What d'you mean?'
'The guy'd be dead before he could transform, and I'm not so ready to fight myself either.'
This must have provoked her, as she most randomly summons her katana into her right hand and swings at me, yet making sure that Natsuru doesn't get hurt. My instinct kicks in straight away, and with a sharp and precise thought and hand movement, I block her katana with a sabre in my right hand.
'Oi, where'd you get that from?' she exclaims as I stand up and move around so I'm on Natsuru's left, and kneel down into the same one-knee-support position.
'I said already, wherever you want it from,' I reply, strictly playfully this time.
'You're still a guy and that looks like a Kämpfer weapon to me...' she thinks out loud. 'No... This can't be...'
'Hm?' I slightly humm.
'The Moderators told me that Natsuru-san is the only male Kämpfer,' she mutters.
'It's not exactly the first time they forgot about me.'
'But you got your weapon out without transforming...,' she continues. 'I never thought that I'd have to meet one... Are you... an... Original?'
I just twist my Bracelet so that she can see the number. I can see her cheeks going a little bit pale.
'What do you want?' she just asks.
'Those guys, Sangō-san, Mishima-san, Kondō-san and Senō-san here... they've decided to fight against the Moderators and against the Moderators' will. They've decided to not to be fooled. I have been, for over six years. I might have enjoyed my extra traits, I might have enjoyed the fights, I might have possibly enjoyed that female body, but don't quote me on this one. But when I came around here and learned of what these lot are plotting... I realized a certain amount of things. I know the Kämpfer history, I know what happened, because I was a part of it. But now, they've got an Original at their side. But guess who else could potentially become useful.'
'Enlightnen me,' she smirks.
I stand up. 'An Assigner.'
I think that she has had enough. And then, next thing I know, I hear a rustle behind me. I swiftly turn my head around to see Mikoto standing there. Natsuru also notices her.
'Oh, Kondō-san, you're here already,' Kaede says. My instinct has me look at Mikoto's eyes.
'Expressionless eyes. Again,' I mutter in English. 'I guess that some people just never learn.' Then, I whistle out towards the slope. Without a moment of hesitance, it seems, Shizuku and Akane pop out, changed into their Kämpfer forms already.
'That didn't take too long!' Akane shouts out as soon as she's within 5 meters of us.
'Just about long enough for me to get annoyed already,' I reply. 'Seems like we have another episode of "Piss Off a Kämpfer" today.'
'How?' Shizuku asks.
'Look into Mikoto-san's eyes...'
Just as if on a cue, Mikoto turns her head towards the two girls. 'I was not told about this. You will pay.'
'Imma-fraid that we got no more money on us!' Akane blurts out back at her.
'Natsuru-san, could you get off me, please?' Kaede asks, rather politely. The guy just gets off her and Kaede herself stands up. 'Very nice indeed, getting an Original on your side. But it seems that I have somebody on my own side now, and it suits me to fight you. Now.'
'That's a certain text,' I say, half-quoting Shakespeare, even though that's just any random line that one may say. Without much further thought coming into my actions, nor words, I say, 'I say we first knock Mikoto out of the trans and then KO Kaede.'
'I like that,' Akane agrees.
'Sure,' Shizuku follows.
'Did you just call me Kaede?' Kaede shouts out.
'Sorry, force of habit,' I reply, with a rather cocky tone. She summons her katana again and strikes at me, but I just get the sabre out again, slide aside and let her slide past me, hitting her katana so that it just falls down from her hand. 'Get in line for being defeated, Assigner!' I shout at her. Änderung mit Schwerter und Zauber gradeaus. Having ordered a slightly more complex command, I take a little bit longer to change – however, the transformation still doesn't take more than a second. The weird combo of the command causes me to transform with my sabres already in both of my hands, and on top of that, charged with electricity. I genuinely have no idea what the Moderators thought of when assigning "gradeaus", the German for "straight" as the two-hand command. Makes very little sense, if does any altogether.
'What's the idea?' Shizuku asks, with her eyebrows raised as she takes notice of the unusual weapon.
'A shock,' I reply as I step forward a little bit. Mikoto transforms herself only now, which might be a potential tactical error. She summons forth her katana and steps towards me before breaking into a run at me. Seeing as what's going to happen, I decide to brew the colloquial beer but have Mikoto drink it instead. When she's two steps ahead of me, I slide aside, so that she has no ways of striking me. She almost trips over but remains balanced.
Myself I start upping the voltage slightly. I settle for a 350v dc per blade, which is not too strong, but enough to knock somebody out when doubled to 700v. I turn to face Mikoto, who has already turned around to face me herself and prepares to strike at me again. In reply, I cross my swords across my chest in a manner that they're ready to be moved upwards. As she starts to break for the run against me, I move the blades upwards and as soon as she is running already, I swing the blades forward, separating them at the same time. This accumulates the comined voltage and a nicely sized ball of pure direct current electricity just hurls towards Mikoto. The speed of the electricity is high enough that she is not able to defent herself and the ball hits her right above her breasts.
One dealt with, one more to go.
As soon as my brain composes this thought, Mikoto collapses. Her eyes change, giving me a clear sign that the connection between her and Kaede has been lost.
'Wow...' Natsuru mutters out.
'You could have just used the Zauber alone,' Shizuku points out.
'Hell, where's the fun in that?' I reply with a different type of cockiness. Then, I switch to Polish, for another undescribed reason, 'And now, what to do with you... Hm... Oh I know. Knock you out.'
As I say, I proceed to knock Kaede out. She picks up her katana and attacks me, but I just continue with the electrized blades theme. As soon as she slids past me (yep, another swift defensive move-aside), I up the voltage up to 600v dc per blade, walk up to her and slightly touch her long hair with my right-hand sabre. The voltage just slids along through the hair and as soon as it reaches her head, causes her to fall.
'Jeez, she's so full of herself,' I mutter. Then, I take out one of the black bracelet cuffs I made before and put them on her hands. As soon as both of them lock, I get her up to a position that can be considered standing. Meanwhile, Shizuku is trying to wake Mikoto up, Natsuru's standing there nearly pointlessly and Akane is changing into her typical form.
'I know about the thing you set up in your basement, but I think that we might go to Natsuru's place instead,' Shizuku says as soon as she gets any signs of response from Mikoto.
'I don't care as long as I'm driving,' I reply. Änderung, keine Waffen.
So here's the chap for ya.
Just if you're wondering, the translation for the Polish line before the Kaede KO is "A teraz, co zrobić z tobą... Hm... Ah wiem. Znokautować Cię."
I don't think that Google Translate has enabled speaking out loud of the input text for Polish yet... So Google IVONA and they'll read it out to you :D
Thanks, over and out!