A/N: The second chapter begins with the intense period that is the period around the Continuum shift period. We'll be seeing what happens as the Professor confronts her feelings on a scenario that fast unfolds before her eyes. It leaves her with more questions than answers and not all of them about her plan. What moral questions will plague her mind? Let us find out together, as we get this chapter underway.
(End A/N)
Chapter II: Sticking to the Plan
As it always does, time flies by, and with the tests of Lambda-11 proceeding successfully, she felt no particular draw to deter her deployment. She had sent her infiltration agent in around 2 weeks ago. By now he was giving her constant updates on Kagutsuchi's situation: updates on the lack of Librarium soldiers in the city, rumors from the shadows and populace. There was nothing that would halt the operation of her movements so far. It had been going well for too long, this was exactly why she didn't like the info she received.
"Something isn't right and I just don't know what the hell it is yet. But I know that 'he' is responsible for it." Kokonoe would never question who was responsible for things going sideways.
Though she had no reason to imagine anything but the worst scenario for the operation, things were still primed to go. She had plans to destroy Terumi with Lambda, and she felt that it would be met with success. She ran many a scenario and numbers looked good, as long as Lambda didn't take any damage. She knew of Terumi's Nox Nyctores, Ouroboros and the kind of damage it could do. Her mother had created these fiendishly powerful weapons and the man who killed her still had the same one from the war.
'I'll pry it from his cold, dead fingers, that's what the hell I'll do.'
Her mind was restless since the start of the operation over a month ago. Since the salvage and refitting Lambda with the IDEA Engine, all of it had taken a boat load of data and hands on operations. But it was all presently working and leaving her with little reason to doubt her success. She felt that there had to be some worth in this plan, there was nothing that she wouldn't do for her revenge. A dish best served cold, that was the saying about it, and she was prepared to have an icy feast with him dead. Her thoughts were cut short as she heard a transmission from Kageo, it was one she was waiting for.
"-Professor, I've arrived at the Cathedral level, there is still no sign of anything. Nor has there been any movement or signs of life throughout this recent inspect.-" Kageo's voice came over clear for the moment.
"Good, complete scanning the floors, look for anything out of the ordinary, Kageo. This is your last check, then you're coming back, effective immediately." Kokonoe's tone was strict, there would be no arguments here.
"-Are you certain? I could at least help ensure things are all ready for the operation before I leave.-" the finality of her tone is exactly what prompted Kageo's question of the order.
"I think I already said what I have to say, finish the scan. Out." Kokonoe cut his question off at the roots, there wasn't going to be any screwing up here.
The reason for Kageo's return was simple: if anything went south, she wouldn't chance losing multiple agents. It had been since the Civil war and the loss of so many units that it became a policy for her. Practicality was her middle name after all, you never stock all of your resources in one basket. She invested too much in that damned Kaka to see him wiped out over some brave act. Knowing that her very foolish underling had a bad habit for heroics came from experience.
Though something small broke her concentration, there was a lag on her feed of the information. She wasn't sure what was causing it, but being as meticulous as she was, every single computational cycle was under her scrutiny. It didn't take her very long to figure out that something was slowing the data feed down. It took her no less than two minutes of scanning through her systems to find a relay bug in the computer.
"Sonuvabitch." she cursed and started tracking down the terminal responsible for the signal.
She'd be damned if she'd have anyone from that stupid council or some ambitious lab tech trying to know what she was up to. Her defenses were impenetrable to the average layman, let alone some idiotic bunch of bureaucrats. As soon as she isolated the variables, it took her a few minutes more to break down the encryption code protecting the bug. The algorithms were unexpected, but basics that she'd seen used before. In fact, she knew them because they were her own!
"Goddammit, get in here, you damned Kaka!" Kokonoe's frustrated tone came out as she stopped typing and had yelled towards the side door to her lab.
After several moments of some shuffling being heard, a door that was normally sealed off; opened up and from it emerged a kaka. She was wearing a specialized Kaka jacket beneath a lab coat. Her snow leopard print hair and tail would have been a dead giveaway as to who she looked like; that is if anyone paid attention to such details. As she adjusted her hood, with soft blue glowing eyes; which looked defeated after being found out. She stepped forward and nervously addressed the Professor.
"Y-Yes, Professor?" the lab assistant spoke up.
"You KNOW exactly why I called for you. What the hell did you think you were doing with that bug?!" Kokonoe's eyes glared daggers of annoyance at her.
Shrinking somewhat under the gaze, the assistant cleared her throat and spoke up, "I was reading and reviewing the function data of Kageo-kaka, Professor. I thought it was to make for a good note comparison against my own test data."
Kokonoe let off a harsh laugh, showing that she was not amused by the weak excuse at all.
"Oh Come on, Kagina, give me some credit. You don't think that I KNOW exactly why your watching the data? I've already told you, its irrelevant. You are the superior of the two of you, in every way possible. Your project was to bring out the best in all of the present success of a half-successful experiment. Period." Kokonoe's matter-of-fact tone made the female kaka flinch slightly and her tail beat against a nearby box.
"That's not entirely true Professor, my brother has outperformed me in many of the virtual training tests. His stats are higher, out of pure basis of data. I find that illogical, I can't accept that. Exactly for the reasons you say." she sounded more convincing with this determination.
Looking at the taller Kaka from her seat, Kokonoe huffed at the persistent excuse. She was sure tenacious today for whatever reason, putting together some crap terminal and planting a bug? It was getting harder and harder to keep the curiosity down about her brother, she imagined. It irked her to no end, since she tried a lot to keep them separate. Of course, she just had to take the DNA from Kageo to ensure that the refined ACS worked and everything; now she was paying for that in spades.
"Oh please, you're not that naïve and you know it. You lack experience, nothing more and nothing less. He's completed more field missions, gained active fighting experience from those missions. He is your genetic twin, that's true, but that is where similarities end. You can outperform him in every which way possible, your testing has been spiking since I first showed you his data. And now, you want to meet him." Kokonoe knew the reason why she had elaborately been reading the data.
Kagina looked up defeated, she had been found out yet again. Though the reasoning had always been different to try and look at something related to her older twin. She couldn't believe that her brother was inferior, in truth she believed the opposite of that. He was an anomaly, even if one well within Kokonoe's projected parameters. There was no reason with wanting to meet her twin, and yet Kokonoe had denied her at every turn.
"Alright, fine Professor. I'll admit that I just want to meet my twin and get to know him, everything that I have of him isn't something real enough for me. Seeing him in person, talking with him, and even hugging him would make it real." she didn't think this was an unreasonable request.
"You possess all of his battle data via updates, every single of his memories, training modules completed, and more. It probably only makes you more curious I imagine. But listen to me, Kagina, he'll only distract you. This isn't time for you to get sentimental, alright? Knowing he's alive and well show be enough for you, he's not in any real danger that he can't handle. He'll be back really soon actually, can't that be enough?" Kokonoe did not want the two meeting up yet, it was not time for it.
"I want to say yes, but I'd be lying, Professor. That's not what I want to do before you." Kagina frowned and admitted this that it wasn't enough.
"Ha, you couldn't lie well enough anyway, you idiot. But that aside, you should realize the simple fact I don't want you meeting him. You are everything he is not for one, superior to him in every which way as I've said. You're even smarter than he is, Kagina. Don't you think that he'd blow a gasket finding out I created you from scratch off a desire to make his failings better?" Kokonoe resorted to some half-truths in order to get Kagina's curiosity tucked away.
"Well...he might be upset, yes, I've thought about that. B-But I can just tell him that's not the case, I'm just his sister!" Kagina tried to argue something of a weak point. Her brother wasn't that shallow.
"And if he malfunctions because he thinks I made you to replace him? Then what..? The mind is a horrible thing to lose, he might well snap like a chicken wire when stretched beyond capacity. Kageo is malleable, but even he might not survive this. That's not what I want, do you?" Kokonoe said this softly, knowing that it was starting to take effect.
"...No, I don't, Professor. I couldn't stand the thought of being responsible for hurting him in any way." Kagina's defeat on the subject now complete, she submitted herself to that fact.
Kokonoe sighed gently, having hated to do that to Kagina. But the Kaka was a bit too smart for her own good, figuring out computers over something as small as her brother was troublesome enough. She needed to keep her corralled long enough to secure several things. Eventually Kageo would find out, if he hadn't already held some suspicions about it. She had kept him busy, but that damned Kaka was always so perceptive.
Even she didn't realize what gave him such insight when things concerned her. She interrupted her own thoughts, as she needed to get Kagina back to work.
"I need you to crunch some data for me okay? All of Lambda's battle data so far." feeling a little bad about lying to her assistant was a pain in the ass, but she added something for Kagina's benefit. "This includes recent battle number from your brother, I need you to compare them, table them, and send the data back to me, okay?"
"Alright, I'll have it done as quickly as possible!" this did seem to perk her up a little bit.
"Good girl, go to it Kagina." the professor let off a light sigh after saying this.
Kagina scampered back into the other room quickly to look at the data. Kokonoe knew that she was going to study it to death, that would keep her sated for a short time likely. While she hated having to lie to Kagina, it was better than telling her the real reason why. The simple reason that Kageo's upgrade wasn't ready was it. It was true that even she didn't know how Kageo would respond to having a genetic twin sister, but if she had upgraded him then it did not matter.
'Well done, you just shattered your project's dreams. But I suppose it doesn't matter, she IS just another means to an end. Another weapon in the arsenal.'
Kokonoe ignored the thought and went back to number crunching herself. She was finishing up the calculations on the teleportation figures. The program itself was ready, but without the proper degrees of math, she would warp her latest project into oblivion. That was not an option, simply put: there was nothing less than success that she'd accept. The figures were almost properly checked by now.
She stopped thinking now about anything else and just focused. There were going to be more factors to check on later, so first these numbers and then the next one. Kokonoe put all else out of her mind, it was time for the zen of her craft. This was what she lived for some nights, nothing but mindless number crunching nights fueled by coffee. Yeah, this was the life for her, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
-Four days later-
It had been a strong, tireless effort that was used to manage a boat load of unexpected issues. A few things failing, numbers being wrong despite scrutiny of the Professor and her assistant. But all in all it could have been a worse few days to pass. Kageo brought some strange file back that he'd picked up in the Librarium offices. A strange document that had mentioned things only in vague, historical references.
There was no hard data in the file that she detected, but she was running the words through a serious check. She had found herself anxious to find out what it was about. But with no answers from her computer after scanning the document, she had to be patient. Keeping herself straight on task was hard to do, given that she might have a doubt. There was nothing quite like a mystery document to mess up months of planning in a single instant.
Still even with the initial failing aside, Kageo's return had been good with this here. She had something tangible and didn't have to read through his visual files to see it. There was no footage to study, just a straight up document. This was positively the best that she'd gotten from him in some time. It was easy to see that she was in somewhat of a chipper mood given that.
For Kageo, he was presently standing nearby Lambda at the end of a spar. It was one that he'd managed to weather pretty well this time. Though she had controlled the pace of battle, he dictated how little damage that he'd take this time. It was some ingenuity based upon the past few encounters of the flawless and near relentless assault that she was capable of. Lambda-11 was a brilliant means of power, compared to him: he was quite outclassed and didn't mind knowing that.
"You know, that was one helluva battle back there, Lambda. You really are powerful, I am sure that you'll make the Professor happy. And maybe...maybe even yourself, through success you know?" Kageo spoke to the Prime Field and still asked her the simple question.
He received nothing more than an expressionless look. She was in stand-by mode and was not presently doing anything except awaiting the Professor's next command. But still, Kageo went on as he found himself talkative tonight.
"Heh, it's alright, I don't imagine you'd get the chance to answer me. But I want you to know, I look up to you and I intend to make sure that I keep pace!" he'd say this with some fervor before parting his spear into two segments and tucking them away.
The Kaka went back to work in the storage room for Kokonoe. He had been given orders to clean up the mess made by her whens he passed through, taking what she needed from spare parts or random grabs that she made. It was one of those things that amused him greatly, he found no need to focus too hard when cleaning up. He just thought of it as doing her another, never to be paid favor. It was certainly one thing to say that it was an endless debt that would never be paid back.
As he hoisted one box and moved it up to a higher shelf, he went about the placement of another box and found a good rhythm for it. A few minutes became an hour, then several hours had passed. Time flew successfully and Kageo actually managed a feat, getting everything back into place. The room was complete, and with that he headed out. His mind briefly on the Professor's degree of focus on this venture was noted.
It was always known that Kokonoe was something of a machine when it came to her work. But to see her in such a brainstorm over every little factor had him wondering some things. Her focus and resolve were as steel, nay perhaps a much harder metal than that. He was always in wonder over whether or not she ever gave herself a break. Without much thought to his next move, he headed to the lab to see if he could get her any last minute things.
-In Kokonoe's Lab-
The Professor typed away as the time of day hardly mattered to her. The success of her mission ahead, that was all that mattered and her coffee was looking low again. She'd have to buzz some random idiot to get her coffee again and that annoyed her. Just as she got ready to press the intercom, she found the lab doors opening. To her surprise, Kageo was on the way in for whatever reason.
"Kageo, good. I need some more coffee, with the sweetener that you used, same amount of sugar as well. Pronto." the pink haired scientist was eager to keep at it and with his appearance, her struggle to function without sugar would be abated.
Without batting an eye, Kageo agreed to the simple duty, "Alright, Professor, I'll be back soon then."
He headed off quickly and went to brew the coffee. It was one of those things, that even if there was a pot made, that Kokonoe preferred the most fresh. The kaka made sure to get a strong coffee nut to wake her up, this and the sweetener could boost the effectiveness. With his coffee brewing skills being put to the test, he made sure to focus on it and had the pot made as quickly as possible. It was maybe one minute after brew was done, that Kageo poured the coffee and mixed it up well.
Returning to Kokonoe in record time, once more without spilling a drop of coffee, he made it back to the lab.
"Here you go, Professor, your coffee." the Kaka held it out to her, still wearing the usual, friendly smile his tribe were known for.
"Thanks, Kageo." Kokonoe responded as she took the coffee and drew it to her lips, before sipping it down.
With a pleased look on her face, she set the coffee down and instantly felt the kick. Perhaps it was the twinge of silvervine used in the blend, along with the fact that it was a stronger bean than the normal brews. Everything about coffee screamed that it was fresh. It wasn't perfect, but she'd be damned if it wasn't one of the best she'd had. At least compared to the average coffee given her by that good for nothing lab assistant or tech, whatever the hell he was.
"Alright, now what's on your mind, Kageo? You didn't come here to give me coffee, though it is damn good." she addressed the matter she expected and even managed to compliment him in the same breath.
"I was just worried about your well being. I know you will do things your way, but that's just it, concern for your state of being." Kageo didn't beat around the bush, he knew from past times of bringing it up; direct was always the best approach.
Kokonoe gave a small smirk at this, he was certainly confident about the mention this time around. It pleased her that he'd learned from the first conversation they had some time ago.
"Your concern is noted, Kageo, anything else?" she tried being curt, testing the Kaka's response to her callous response.
He knew that she could be rude, grumpy, or anything else if she was busy. Nonetheless, he felt that addressing the situation would be best.
"I believe that even you might need a break, Professor Kokonoe. You shouldn't work so hard, even if it IS your nature. I think at least taking time to chat with someone or read a good book might help." he gave something of an expanded opinion on what he thought she might do with her time.
The very concept of his words made her huff, she had a look in her eyes that said 'is that so?' while looking upon Kageo. She had even stopped typing, since he was being more forward than she imagined he had the guts for. This required her attention, at the very least he could take solace in that fact.
"That's quite an opinion you have there, Dr. Feelgood. What brings this up? Your concern is something I am well aware of, what brought this on?" Kokonoe was going to see where this went, though she doubted he'd get the Dr. Feelgood reference, after all it was some really really old literature that she'd read that in some long time ago.
He grinned gently at her reference, certainly it wasn't something he fully understood, but shuffling through the database he had made it easy. It was a rather obscure character reference, though he didn't verbally acknowledge it.
"You were waiting for something more than just my concern, so I gave you an opinion. Take it or leave, as the saying goes." he left it open, since he doubted she'd care for a long explanation.
He certainly had guts to say it in such a way, in truth it was nice to see he had a little snap to his normally, formal methods of speech. He was also so nice to the point that it hurt her teeth. But this little bit of attitude was just enough to be refreshing. As it amused her enough, she decided to pursue the reason behind his suggestion. It was a waste of time, but what the hell...she hadn't really done much but work for the past 22 hours anyway.
"Fair enough, but why just those options? There are a million other things I could do with my time, including a nap, why something so bland?" she prodded his reasons and made them seem lousy as choices.
Kageo hadn't needed to think in response, as he had a specific reason why he chose his choices. "That's easy, Professor. You don't waste your time with what you do generally, reading a book is knowledge and talking is at least stimulating. Doesn't matter if its pointless or not, as long as its interesting."
That made Kokonoe quirk a brow, it may not have been 100%, but it was pretty accurate as to what he said. She preferred not to waste much of her time if she were being productive. Even in leisure, the option tended to be useful to her in some way. Though she found it a tad odd that he was aware of it. Sure he was here all of the time, but how much attention was he paying?
"That is a little too precise, Kageo. I'd call you a stalker, but naturally you work here. What has you so knowledgeable? I haven't noticed anything in your mental data to suggest you have facets open to focus on me or anything." of which she did look for anything odd or abnormal. She preferred to be ready for any such situation, including off kilter underlings.
"Just having open ears, Professor. Nothing that special about my being around, with the way you ensured I hear everything in the area and could filter through it. It'd be odd if my hearing wasn't up to such a relatively mundane task, in comparison to my missions." Kageo was free to be matter-of-fact about this answer, since she designed him to be that good.
That made her smirk a bit, it was a bit of pride in the fact that he had the capacity for such a thing. He'd analyzed the small situations from each time that she talked, and was able to make some decent calls. He would have to be good enough for such a small thing and she made sure he was. He was pretty good at saying the right stuff to her as well, that was for sure. Just enough to stroke her ego and yet to give off a hint of sass with his words, this was more fun as a distraction than she thought at first.
"Fair enough, but who are you referring that I talk to? Or how about the book choice? It's bland to leave me without an option." she pressed him a bit more, having a bit of fun at his expense.
"And impose my thoughts on what you should read or who's worthy of your time for chatting? I wouldn't dream of it, Professor." his comment was stated factually, but with a hint or sarcasm in there.
The sarcasm made her laugh a moment, a few seconds worth was good for a genuine chuckle out of her. Though she ceased laughing within moments, despite still wearing something of a smile.
"Damn right, Kageo. I decide what I do with my time and all things attached to it. It's nice to see you know that much, and look at that, you've managed to take up some time of mine." the fact had not been lost on her, she let it happen naturally.
Kageo gave her a light nod and responded to her in a clever manner once again, "And I thank you for humbly considering me worth precious minutes from your schedule. I am amazed that so much time had passed as we chatted."
Kokonoe was analyzing his word choice, the statements made, and how he said them. This was getting rather fun for her, he had a good answer for every one of her statements or questions so far. That was a good range covered by him, there were more layers than she knew. She intended to uncover the sides of him that he didn't show. For her curiosity sake she would, it might be fun peeling those layers off like an onion.
"You've been a gracious chatting partner, but you should get to bed. While the mission is ongoing, you'll be busy in the lab here with me." her words were simple truth, he'd be doing as she asked of him.
"Alright, well in that case, good night Professor." he said as he turned to go, this had been a good night.
"And call me Kokonoe, honestly. You may be my underling but you're not a slave or anything. The formality is annoying, Kageo." she'd had enough of that, especially since she got that same degree of formality from his genetic twin.
"Alright, Kokonoe." he nodded to her again, smiling oddly before heading off.
With that marked the end of another early morning. Kageo had gone to sleep and Kokonoe stayed up for another hour or two typing away at the mission's expense. The next few days passing without much incident. Aside from Kokonoe keeping Kagina busy and giving Kageo more tasks of a menial nature to attend to, along with the mission on hand it was starting to bug her. She was making due despite all that she attended to.
The days bled into weeks of work and all of the dodging Kagina verbally was a pain in the ass, but still Kokonoe dealt with it all in clever ways. The time that passed so smoothly, quickly came to be an ominous sign of things to come. It was incredible to have all of her plans starting to unfold before her very eyes. Utterly incredible to find that Ragna the Bloodedge was a bigger fool than she'd first thought. Even with words of caution, he ignored her after defeating Tager in battle. To find that Terumi was the one making all of the gears turn.
She had gone from an anxious mess of the mind to a complete level of having migraines even now. She tried to figure out what was going on, getting in communication with the double agent she had. She tried to ensure that they could at least secure Noel Vermillion before all of this went on. But even by now, this fell through. It was a cascading impact that utterly drove her mad. The fact that Rachel had let loose Hakumen looming in the back of her mind.
"God. Dammit." she cussed while running her fingers back through her hair and over her ears.
With her twin tails both whipping in her irritation, building frustration, and having a desperate need to punch something. But no, she wouldn't do that, she had no time for pointless anger. Part of her hated the fact that she kept it tucked away, saving it as she trained herself. Lambda was the last part of this she could count on. Her fist hit the side of the desk and gained a small depression from the impact.
This was another reason she restrained herself, she'd need to hit the gym later at some point. To work out this anger, since she wasn't keeping it in check like she normally did. Though all of this was secondary and if that tertiary in nature. The mission had to stay underway, bumpy and crappy as the road was now. Her hand loosened and she took a deep breath and let off as much as her anger as she could.
"Lambda, you are to refrain from combat, strike when the target's guard is done, understood? Under no circumstance are you to get involved." the fact that Lambda had been assaulted directly by the likes of Phantom and confronted by Relius Clover, she wasn't taking any chances and had her functioning in manual mode and responding to her direct orders.
"Understood." the monotone voice was laced with restrained feelings, but seemed completely obedient.
And while Kokonoe saw Ragna the Bloodedge fighting a fruitless battle, struggling against Terumi's power, she stood unflinching. Waiting for his sacrifice if need be to give her an opening to command Lambda in. It was just when Ragna was staggering back to his feet that Lambda started to function on her own. She was boosting towards the battle, not hanging back as she planned. Kokonoe tried to issue keyboard commands to halt her, trying desperate string after string of code to no avail.
"Hold it, damn it! Lambda, don't move in yet, its not time!" as she screamed the command for her to stop, all she could do is watch as this too fell apart.
Lambda took an attack meant to kill Ragna, sustaining a high degree of damage. Enough that her power output was no longer sufficient to harm Terumi.
"Get out of there, Lambda. You can't do any good now!" these words too, ignored by the stray unit.
"Attacking." Lambda's voice speaking on the attempt in what was a hopeless attempt.
"No, no Lambda, damn it!" her words falling on deaf ears.
The degree of things that would play out before her eyes remained there, etched forever into her mind. Lambda's death and the IDEA Engine suddenly unifying with Ragna the Bloodedge's arm. It should have been improbable without any work from her side, all of it was a blur. She had tried her best to pick up the pieces of her mind to tell Ragna what to do.
"Ragna the Bloodedge, use the IDEA Engine! It's synced up with your Azure Grimoire, don't hesitate!" Kokonoe wasn't taking a chance, this was still the best chance for her revenge.
Though she could only witness it, watching a thorough beating given to Terumi by Ragna was gratifying. It was a way of seeing how he was thrashed that brought her some minor solace, though not much. The events would unfold and leave her with her thoughts.
"I'm...so sorry, Lambda." she said this just once, the hint of emotion lingering behind her words.
True remorse over failing to see Lambda executed why she was brought back. She felt that she had failed her all but completely, this was not why she brought her back. Bringing her back and setting her up to be killed again, this was where the guilt lay. Not just the investment of time, but that in a person, since she knew so often she'd tell Lambda that she would strike a powerful blow.
Yet she failed to have her do anything more than perish tragically. While she was thinking about how she'd failed, it would be the voice of someone she never thought that she'd hear that brought her back out. She had witnessed the loss of Ragna's arm, the miraculous rescue of Noel Vermillion's life. Before all of it came full circle, with the Imperator of the N.O.L. herself appearing before the ragtag remains of everyone below near the Cauldron. Hearing the words spoken by the vile woman and her apparent underlings as well.
All of it just fouled her mood, even though she was melancholy before; now she was just furious. To think that even that disgusting creature, Terumi, was just a pawn in someone's greater plan. Everything seemed to make a great point, aimed for one final end game. She wanted to end the world? Oh like hell was that happening.
She went into her new phase, she had a lot of planning to do, contacts to be made. There was a lot that would be on her plate during the next period of time between an actual counter offensive. Kokonoe loathed being on the defense, but aside from getting things straight and tying up loose ends, there was now a boatload of work to do.
As the Professor rose from her seat, hands rubbing the sides of her head, she left the lab without question and went towards her room. That was right, she actually had a room to visit that she slept. It was a pure mess naturally, she was in and out at her leisure and none of it mattered. Still with a silvervine pop in her mouth, she entered the room and changed into some gym attire. The idea of destroying a punching bag or two sounded really, really good to her all of a sudden.
She needed some time to just get this out of her system. Kokonoe was grinning at nothing as she switched from her iconic capris and the lab coat, to a pair of yoga pants and sports bra. It was a policy to anyone who wanted to keep their eyes, that staring at her was the absolute worst idea in their life. Even if she was dressed like this, to do it would draw her attentions and that was a mistake. She stormed down the empty halls and hit the first gym nearest to her and stepped inside.
Without paying any mind to nearly empty gym, Kokonoe approached the punching bag and after she'd cooled somewhat on her walk over; she taped her hands up and started to hit the bag. Opposite to contrary belief, Kokonoe was an avid visitor of the gym at her own option. She more than knew self-defense and could easily pummel anyone stupid enough to think her small size meant anything. It was the first punch hitting the bag that made her smile, it swayed under just a light jab. It had seen nothing yet, and as the bag swayed back to her she kicked it.
The straight kick made the bag flop under her strength. It made her quirk a brow, were these the new reinforced bags? This was a joke, she hit it and it was folding under her strength with ease. She ignored the thought and while planning to make a bag actually tough enough for her; she resumed practicing quick punch-kick combinations on the bag. Hate it as she might some days, her roots with her father, the Kaka clan, all of it was second nature to her.
For the next two hours straight, Kokonoe focused on the bag, practicing all of the martial combat her father taught her. His words of advice were useful, years after she'd heard them as a child. He made games out of the training for her, it had helped in part. Though she stopped thinking about him, that useless old man...he left and it was his fault. She grumbled and punched the bag hard enough that finally gave way under the pressure.
The chains holding the bag snapped and the bag tumbled through the air before bouncing once and rolling onto the wrestling mat. Kokonoe cursed and went to the bag, walking as she was just getting into a groove. Her nature was meticulous and that meant, she had to practice EVERYTHING she used. The magic wasn't something for here, but instead her special training room in her main lab setting. With an annoyed scowl on her face, she scooped up the bag over her shoulder.
Once she dumped it off in the corner, she figured there was at least one more location she could work out.
"Holo-training." she murmured in verbal agreement with her mindset.
She needed a place to finish up and taking on a few holograms wouldn't be bad in her mind. She would pay little mind to the thought, leaving the bag to be fixed by the staff. Once she was in the hall, her mind briefly focused on how things were. She still felt pretty numb and wanted to make it all go away. The training was at least helpful, keeping her up to date and tone at the same time.
As soon as she made it to the door, she entered the lobby of the training room. There she saw that it was in use and spotted the name on the door with a light smirk.
"Kageo, why am I not surprised?" it was an easy thing to be amused by. He was training probably because he finished his tasks for the day, it was early too.
She was not huge on training with others normally, but perhaps he'd provide a distraction. It was an unusual consideration, but hell if it mattered. She wanted to see that she trained thoroughly, so she decided to get invested with it. She wondered how he'd take to suddenly having her come into the room? It wasn't like she went training every day, it was a well planned and a thing she preferred to do in seclusion.
"Continue current training program while allowing manual entry, manual override: Professor Kokonoe." the code given was naturally her name and in her tone, nothing easily mimicked by most standards.
As the computer acknowledged her command, the automatic doors hissed and opened up. It revealed an industrial zone battleground, something of a warehouse and she saw Kageo had an array of attacking enemies. She recognized this from the setting panel she briefly scanned over before coming in. It was an unlimited generation number that would appear, up to about 6 armed fighters, lightly armored were to appear as a maximum. Kokonoe watched as he faced the melee weapon wielding foes with his spear. She really didn't pay much mind to more than his data input at times, but it was different to see his dexterity first hand.
Witnessing his skill firsthand was a rare thing, he hadn't even noticed that she had come into the room and that the doors had closed. The spear was a whipping, blurred motion of circular sweeps. She watched him keep the six men at bay with each swing being a precise measure, though the spear was not yet released from its sealed for. His speed seemed to had increased since last she witnessed it in numbers. She chose to get involved just then, not minding that she was unarmed; she darted over to one of the men that had retreated from the spear.
"Hyah!" a straight punch slammed into the side of the man's stomach and raised him off the ground and launched him into the side of the warehouse wall.
The other five men were surprised, their AIs designed to anticipate surprises; they had not expected another fighter. From the look on Kageo's face, neither had he, and seeing Professor Kokonoe in person was a big surprise. She interjected briefly, to clear up the confusion on both parts of her underling and the AI.
"Yes, yes gentlemen, the surprise is over. I'm an enemy, so fight me." then her eyes had shifted to Kageo as she spoke. "I expect a good show from you too, Kageo. Nothing changes, I've simply joined the fray."
Giving a soft nod, the Kaka returned to stab the first of the stunned men in the chest. It was a quick-kill maneuver. He used the man's body as a means to vault out of the surrounded position he had been in and off to the right of the men. The remaining four men split into two teams: with one man with tonfas and a second with a staff approaching Kageo,m while the second pair: a man with a sword and a second with an single headed axe approached her.
"Don't disappoint me boys, I didn't come to be bored." with a sound of impatience and annoyance hinted in her tone, Kokonoe moved to meet both of them half way.
As she found the men working together, swinging at her from both her left and right sides; she stepped back and avoided both swings. As the man with the sword thrust the tip at her center, Koko sidestepped the attack and punched the man hard across his face. The man flew harshly towards the ground since she didn't hold back any strength. With her attention on the second man, she brought her hand up and grabbed the shaft of the axe, halting its progression towards her. She briefly let it sink into the hologram that she was not struggling as she held it back.
"Pathetic." was her response, it was a chance to express some of her inner struggles.
With a second powerful punch to the chest of the hologram man, she watched him fly into the air and had dropped his weapon at once. Turning to see how Kageo was doing, she had looked just in time to see him breaking the guard of the tonfa wielding man. His spear came down and was blocked, then drew back a quarter inch and thrust forward and was parried again by the second tonfa. At that moment after being parried that Kageo whipped his spear in a circular motion, and opened the man's guard prior to thrusting the spear into the man's chest. As the man fell and scattered into pieces of light, Kokonoe approached Kageo with a pleased smirk on her face.
"Not bad, at least a little stimulating. It seems the data barely reveals your capacity for dexterity I see." Kokonoe was always aware of things and though she had values assigned to it, he just didn't push himself under circumstances.
"I need to break my latest plateau, that's why I've been working a bit harder lately." he was motivated by such things to pick up his skill. It was a thing that he desperately enjoyed, improving his skill with a minimal importance on the results.
"Hm, maybe the best way to get the data is to test you myself." Kokonoe seemed to be insinuating this setting and training wasn't enough. Before she decided that was exactly what they'd be doing. "Discontinue generation of the opponents."
Kageo was looking on somewhat perplexed by this. He knew what she just said, yet it hadn't registered that he would be sparring with HER right now. He heard the commands and looked at her hesitantly, though it wasn't at doubting her strength. Actually he was presently more concerned about the rating he was getting from her. His battle systems were reading her as an unknown and with the little display she showed? Rank A+ for danger.
"You might want to release your spear, Kageo. I'm not intending to hold back on you, short of beating you badly that is. You'll heal." the way she said this and grinned after unnerved her underling a bit. She was amused by that fact.
She wasn't going to hurt him that badly, but she did need the exercise and would be extracting the data from this later. It was a nice opportunity for her and she so rarely went this far. This was probably the first active spar she'd attended to in a really long time. As she felt the pressure around Kageo building and the words of his spear's release being spoken, she grinned at that and popped her neck. Now she could have taken him on without weapons, but where was the fun in that?
"Kagennotsuki!" Kageo felt a familiar buzz from his systematic warning about the danger he was in.
The cerulean aura surged around him in the fashion of water. Swirling up and around his body as he pointed the yari-great spear at her, he straightened up. She told him not to disappoint her, he would do his best. Clearly her strength was above his and so had her skill been. She hid it all too well, as though he knew she could fight; the fact that she was leagues beyond him was the surprise.
"Good man, Kageo. If you hesitate, you'll just get hurt and I'll be pissed at you. You don't want that." Kokonoe saying this with a grin as she loosened up her form.
The practiced battle form melting away into a visage of a casual manner. She was going to enjoy this, the perfect chance to kill many birds with one stone. As she started walking towards him, she gave nothing away of her plan. Watching him stand ready, her movement melted into action as she summoned her metal gauntlets and the pair of rocket charged fists that were mounted upon them.
She struck with a left punch towards Kageo's ribs, finding that he blocked the impact with his spear's shaft and forced him back in his tracks. This just before engaging him with her right fist; which moved towards his shoulder. Feeling impact from the blow, she watched him fall backwards and let off a kick. She blocked the falling kick with her forearm and stepped back. From the floor, Kageo thrust the spear towards her chest and she felt the impact force her back a few more steps.
"Heh, not bad, Kageo. Show me more." her calm sounding tone was still so unnerving to Kageo and she could tell.
Rolling up to his feet, the Kaka attacked first and thrust his spear towards Kokonoe. While she saw the attack come forward, she blocked the thrust with her large boost knuckle. As she moved the attack to her left, the same knuckle was dragging along the inside of the spear before the spear was whipped back against her guarding knuckle. It had been enough to make her step inward to hold herself up. She could feel Kageo's strength through the spear and found it to her liking.
As she pushed the spear off of her boost knuckle gauntlets, she threw her hands up and gauntlets would fade into zero space, before she grabbed the handle of something and brought it down towards Kageo. The kaka had just enough time to raise his spear and guard against the attacking mallet with a drill point. The look on Kokonoe's face was still at ease, casual and almost too calm. This relayed nothing of her next attack or the strain she was or wasn't experiencing forcing the mallet on Kageo.
"Rrgh...!" Kageo grunted as he reached into the pits of his strength and shoved her mallet back from his spear.
All of the effort almost seemed moot, as Kageo rose to his feet; he'd raise his spear up just in time to block the mallet again. Kokonoe had the rocket at the other end of the mallet activate to launch it back in Kageo's direction horizontally. And though he'd caught the blow, he was sent flying backwards off of his feet.
"W-Whoa!" the pressure was intense, she had a rocket in the head of that thing? He'd spread his legs out and let the wind catch his Kaka hoodie on the way down, while the coat lifted briefly and revealed his short pants, they served to break his knockback. He landed and darted towards her, moving in to meet Kokonoe halfway in a clash.
"Better try harder, Kageo. Looks like this will be wrapped up soon." Kokonoe was speaking from simple facts.
The clash broke as Kageo's rich caeroule aura burned around him. She could see that he upped his output to 100% and rushed to meet her again. The pair clashed again and traded in several passes. Kokonoe was looking better, far less strain remaining in her by the next pass. She switched weapons a few times during the clashes: to an ice freezing gun, two compact mini-guns, and a few other small ones that came to mind.
"Ha, you're pretty good with that spear, Kageo. But I'm fitting to end this, therapeutic as its been; you're going to show me all you've got now. Use the seithr overlord mode, since it'll be your only hope of so much as scratching me." the words were all matter-of-fact, as Kageo had grazed her only a few times; he had not given her any solid blows.
She stood there, gesturing for him to unleash it here. Her ears perked as she felt them pop, the aura around Kageo changed from cerulean to red outlined with black very suddenly. The ground shook with a tremor from the energy he drew in from the seithr he stored within him. Her hair whipped up in the small shockwave released from his body by the shift. As she switched to the boosting drill mallet, she charged to meet him and saw him become a red/black blur.
It was the first time that he'd managed to hit her and give her a wound: a single red streak lined her ribs after the pass, and the bite of pain was only minor. Ignoring it, she placed the mallet over her shoulder and looked to Kageo. She could see he was covered in scuff marks, blast marks, and a number of wounds from all of the passes. She found him still standing and that made her grin a bit. Naturally taking out some frustration left someone hurt, in this case Kageo wasn't in that bad shape.
"Not bad, Kageo. You're in one piece despite me being rough with you. Way to hang in there, the battle data will be exquisite." she'd say this while looking up to the room and letting the mallet fade from her hand and back into zero space.
"Thanks *cough*, Kokonoe." he huffed and leaned against his spear, as it shut down on its own.
With him being worn out as he was, it would make sure not to give him anymore undo stress. He stood up and Kokonoe moved towards the exit of the Hologram room. She was fine with leaving Kageo to take care of himself, as his still standing meant that she held back a good amount of strength. She would have to keep this in mind, to see if he got better than he was even now. Though she spoke up on the way out, to ensure there were no records of the battle.
"Erase procedure C on Holo-training one." as she said this, the computer voice acknowledge this and went into the process.
"Thank you for the honor of sparring with you, Kokonoe. It is like nothing I imagined, honestly." he admitted the obvious and was genuinely grateful.
The way he said it was like he thought it might only happen once. Now that she had a good means of ridding herself of stress at the expense of her underling, she would be doing this again!
"Oh don't thank me, Kageo. You sure won't be when we spar again, I am aware of this being really good for ridding myself of stress." Koko grinned gently at this as she stepped out of the room.
There she left Kageo's face half agape, she was going to do this again? He was already going to be sore, boy...this meant that he had to train harder. It was at least a good motivator, he didn't want to be so badly beaten again. He couldn't match her, but perhaps he could narrow the gap. Once the kaka split his spear's magnetic bond and placed the segments away, he shut the room down. Leaving the training area, he went off to patch himself up and then get to sleep.
-Back in Kokonoe's Lab-
Kokonoe sat down and was addressing her terminal, both to give out orders for Tager, Makoto, Kagina, and Kageo for the next few days. She felt a large weight had been lifted from her shoulders and all she had to do was beat up Kageo. That tickled her to no end, it amused her greatly that he would continue to serve as a punching bag. She was proud of his enhancements, he was certainly a healthy punching bag if any. Knowing how sloppy she actually was with hand to hand, she decided that would be next.
A purely hand to hand trade of blows with Kageo might help her shape up. As she settled in for her long night all she could do was grin a little bit. Despite the absolute shitty day that she'd had, at least there was a means of keeping her somewhat positive. Another use for her multi-purpose agent, between that and the fact he was holding back so many things. She'd explore every strength and flaw of his in combat through future spars.
Maybe the time ahead would be just as amusing.
(End Chapter)
We have the end of Chapter 2, naturally I can't spend too much time on the major events that many of us fans know by now. Though giving them a show, this is more of a focus on Kokonoe's mind and how she'll be tolerating things: through her eyes and Kageo's mostly. We will see interactions with Tager and other people in Sector Seven and out of. But Chrono Phantasma is some time away, I intend to focus on the time in between to give reads a more in-depth look about Koko's struggles mentally throughout planning periods and things like that.
As a woman of means, she can scarcely take the time to hesitate, we'll discover what she does to manage it!
Till the next time adieu
-Quentix
