CHAPTER 04 : First Strike of Splendor

Johnny continues fighting against the new Seiraph that came from behind him. He clashes his beam tonfa against his opponent's beam saber. Suddenly, two more Seiraphs appear, but now with different armaments. One Seiraph wielding two bazookas, while the other one wielding a weapon similar to Shion's F.W.C.P.

Johnny: "Reinforcements, huh? They need to know that Johnny Schwarz won't back down that easily! Yeah!"

The two new Seiraphs join with the other Seiraph to fight Johnny. He quickly backs off as the three Seiraphs begin firing their ranged weapons altogether. Despite the Jerseyschwarz being agile, Johnny is starting to have a bit of trouble with the combined effort of the Seiraphs, especially with them constantly firing their ranged weapons, giving little to no chance for Johnny to close in.

Miyu: "This isn't good, they outnumbered Johnny-sensei."

Camilla: "Drats, if only I brought my Gundam along."

Aoi: "Worry not. Akari-chan and Sumire-chan will come to help."

Hinaki: "They will? Really? I thought they just started their training with their Gundams."

Miyu: "Didn't Dinah-senpai mention about the unseen potential that we have as new generation idols? I bet those two might unleash it in this fight."

Juri: "And of course I will do the same once I get my own Gundam."

Hinaki: "Me too."

Aoi: "Johnny-sensei,please hold out a little longer."

Back at Starlight Academy hangar, in the middle of Akari and Sumire's training…

Ichigo: "Akari-chan!"

Ichigo runs into the hangar where the two are training.

Akari: "Hoshimiya-senpai? What's wrong?"

Ichigo: "The investigation team have encountered some enemy units near DreAca ruins. You two need to help them out!"

Akari: "Are you serious?! We haven't done our training yet. My synch-rate is only 70% as of now."

Sumire: "Mine is also still at 70%. Can we even stand a chance against them?"

Ichigo: "Do not fret. We sensed your unseen potential. Even we once managed to fight pretty well against DreAca before we maxed out our synch-rate back then. So, believe in yourself."

Akari is silenced for a bit, then…

Akari: "Okay, I will do it."

Sumire: "And who knows if our synch-rate may increase during battle. I mean, the battle ahead may be pretty similar to all we got from the simulations."

Naoto: "Exactly. Now, we must prepare for launch!"

Akari/Sumire: "Roger!"

Gundam Luminaire and Gundam Lunairetic moves to the launchpad. There, Luminaire gets armed with its basic weapons, such as the Akari Sunshine variable-output beam rifle, two beam sabers, and a shield which can also act as a melee weapon with a hidden blade. Lunareitic in particular gets two rapid-firing beam carbine, the so-called Sumire Gelato.

Naoto: "You girls ready?"

Akari: "Anytime."

Ichigo: "Do be careful."

Sumire: "Don't worry, Hoshimiya-senpai, we will."

Naoto: "Okay then, LAUNCH!"

Akari: "Luminaire, Oozora Akari-!"

Sumire: "Lunairetic, Hikami Sumire-!"

Both: "Taking off!"

Both Akari and Sumire takes off with their Gundams, heading towards where their teacher is fighting.

As the battle rages on, Johnny only manages to weaken one of the Seiraphs by destroying one of its bazookas. Johnny tries to close in once again and attacks with his beam tonfa, but the Seiraph with F.W.C.P look-alike knocks him back with a quick swipe from its weapon.

Johnny: "Ugh!"

Jerseyschwarz falls on the ground, but tries to get up anyway.

Hinaki: "Oh no, Johnny-sensei!"

Juri: "Come on, Akari-chan, Sumire-chan. What take you so long?"

The railgun-wielding Seiraph rushes toward Johnny. All of a sudden, a volley of beam bullets appears from the side, prompting the Seiraph to activate its GN Field and block the volley of shots.

Miyu: "Is that-!"

Aoi: "It must be them!"

It appears that Akari and Sumire has arrived with their Gundams to the battle site.

Akari: "Hold on, Johnny-sensei, everyone! We're coming!"

Sumire: "Akari-chan, you can go ahead and rush forward. I'll provide you with cover fire."

Akari: "Okay."

Akari rushes forward as Sumire provides cover by firing a constant volley of shots from her Sumire Gelato to the enemies. Akari then arms up her shoulder beam cannon.

Akari: "OOZORA BEAM!"

Akari fires several shots from her shoulder beam cannon at the three Seiraphs. They quickly uses their GN Fields to block the shots with, then returns fire with their ranged weapons in hand.

Akari: "Whoa!"

Akari tries to dodge the enemy's return fire, but her unmaxed synch-rate impacts her Gundam's responsiveness, resulting on some hits and forcing her to use her shield. Sumire fires more volley of shots at the Seiraphs, but they continue using their GN Fields.

Sumire: "Our beam weapons are useless against their GN Fields."

Akari: "Then we need a physical weapon. Thankfully I have one available."

As Akari said that, she switches her Gundam's shield to offensive mode, which uncovers two metal blades on each side of the shield.

Camilla: "Nice! She knows how to deal with GN Fields."

Akari rushes toward the Seiraph with F.W.C.P look-alike and swings her bladed shield. The bladed shield goes through the GN Field, prompting the Seiraph to parry Akari's attack with its F.W.C.P look-alike. Johnny uses this chance to fire some shots from his beam gun. The Seiraph is caught off-guard, taking full brunt of Johnny's shots. It gets staggered, giving Akari the chance to deal the finishing blow. She does a downward diagonal slash with her bladed shield to break the Seiraph's weapon, and then knocks it away with a quick punch to the face. She then fires her Oozora Beam four times with increased output, destroying the Seiraph with ease.

Hinaki: "Alright! One down, two to go!"

Akari: "Go for it, Sumire-chan."

Sumire: "Gladly."

Sumire flies around the Seiraph with bazooka, constantly firing barrages of beam bullets at her opponent. She quickly closes in and picks up her dual-bladed beam saber. Her opponent Seiraph also picks up its beam saber and begins clashing.

Aoi: "Did they not learn anything from back then to get rid of the Seiraph's weakness in melee combat?"

Camilla: "Probably not, and that would make our job a lot easier."

Sumire struggles a bit also because of her unmaxed synch-rate. However, she musters enough power to overpower the Seiraph.

Sumire: "Ha!"

She strikes hard, knocking the Seiraph back. She closes in once again and uses her Sumire Gelato at point blank range. With a press of a button, the pilebunker mode of Sumire Gelato activates and pierces the Seiraph's armor with ease. The spikes coming out from Sumire Gelato are actually long enough to stab through the Seiraph's GN Drive Tau. Sumire backs off as the Seiraph begins to explode.

Aoi: "One enemy unit left!"

Johnny is still clashing against the remaining railgun Seiraph. He deliberately backs off as Akari and Sumire approaches the railgun Seiraph with their beam weapons ready to fire, with Akari wielding the Akari Sunshine beam rifle and Sumire wielding the Sumire Gelato. The Seiraph is caught off-guard by the two as it couldn't activate its GN Field on time to block their shots. They scored a lot of direct hits while rushing forward.

Miyu: "Go for it, you two!"

Once they finally gets into close range, Akari smacks the Seiraph really hard with her bladed shield, followed by Sumire using her Sumire Gelato in pilebunker mode to pierce the Seiraph's armor. Sumire then detaches her pilebunker spike and throws the poor Seiraph up to the air, allowing Akari to fire a powered-up shot from her Akari Sunshine beam rifle, completely destroying the last remaining enemy unit.

Johnny: "Yeah!"

Hinaki: "Great job, Akari-chan, Sumire-chan!"

Akari: "We did great, Sumire-chan."

Sumire: (nods)

Aoi: "Now that's done, shall we return then?"

Camilla: "Definitely."

Akari, Sumire, and Johnny begins to leave. Suddenly, a redesigned Ralph Seiravee appears from behind.

Akari: "What the?!"

Aoi: "A Ralph Seiravee?! They also have access to that thing?!"

The Ralph Seiravee wastes no time and fires its double GN Cannon. Akari and Sumire quickly rushes forward to defend against the attack while Johnny covers his car with Aoi and the others inside. But, it appears that the GN Cannon is way more powerful than it was before, resulting on Akari and Sumire getting blasted and knocked down, their shields also taking quite a lot of damage.

Akari/Sumire: "UWAAA!"

Johnny: "Oh no!"

Camilla: "That thing is too much for those two to handle. Johnny-sensei, can you do it?"

Johnny: "But who's gonna protect the car?"

Camilla: "Ugh…"

Akari and Sumire tries to get up.

Akari: "Unbelievable. What immense power."

Sumire: "How can we win against that guy?"

Akari: "But still, I don't wanna back down without a fight!"

Akari fully gets up and immediately rushes forward with her blades shield active despite its damage.

Sumire: "No, Akari! Don't do it!"

Akari: "HAAAAA!"

Akari closes in to the Ralph Seiravee, trying to smack it with her bladed shield, ignoring her opponent that's going to fire another shot from its GN Cannons. Suddenly, Ichigo in her XNSfan appears from behind Akari and kicks the Ralph Seiravee away. The shot from its GN Cannons missed completely.

Akari: "Hoshimiya-senpai?!"

Ichigo: "Phew, good thing I made it here on time. Akari-chan, you've done your good job. Now, leave this big scrap metal to me."

Akari: "Roger, senpai."

Akari and Sumire then backs off as Ichigo begins to fight the Ralph Seiravee.

Ichigo: "I seriously thought you guys were gone for good. Who reinforced you?!"

Ichigo rushes forward, trying to slash the Ralph Seiravee with her axe. The Ralph Seiravee prepares the beam sabers from its GN Claws. Once she gets really close, Ichigo jumps instead of doing a melee attack, prompting the Ralph Seiravee to back off. Ichigo then fires her beam minigun, which gets blocked by Ralph Seiravee's GN Field.

Ichigo: "Ha!"

Ichigo lands and does a powered-up slash with her axe. The Ralph Seiravee parries it with its beam sabers from the GN Claws. She backs off quite a bit and then quickly elbows the Ralph Seiravee in the face. She turns her axe into blaster mode and fires three powerful shots. All three shots hit the torso of the Ralph Seiravee and it is then destroyed.

Akari: "Yes! As expected from Hoshimiya-senpai!"

Sumire: "Even that powerful enemy unit is no match against her."

However, after that, Ichigo just stands there as if she was stunned by something.

Akari: "Err, Hoshimiya-senpai?"

Ichigo: "Eh?"

Akari: "What's wrong? You went silent for a bit."

Ichigo: "Uh, nothing. I'm okay."

Akari: "Are you sure?"

Ichigo: "Yes."

Johnny: "Well then, we better return now that we've gotten our clues in this forsaken place."

Ichigo turns around, but from out of nowhere, a ghost of DreAca idol shows up right in front of the XNSfan's cockpit.

Ichigo: "What the?"

Camilla: "A DreAca ghost?!"

Aoi: "Who could that be?"

The blurry head of that ghost begins to reveal itself as none other than Seira.

Camilla: "No way, it's her…!"

Seira's ghost: "All of you just don't know when to quit, do you?"

Ichigo: "Move aside. I have no more business with you."

Seira's ghost: "You do, you and I haven't fulfilled our destiny as 2wingS yet."

Aoi: "To hell with that! You should've known that we have defeated destiny! And you no longer belong in this idol world! Not even your Hallowed Father!"

Ichigo: "Aoi's right. I have no intention of coming with you again."

Seira's ghost: "I find your lack of faith disturbing. You doesn't seem to care about the balance of this idol world."

Aoi: "So what?"

Camilla: "You should have stayed in Hell for all eternity instead of coming back here to break us apart once again. And let me remind you that there's no balance to be maintained. Even if there's any, we've already maintained it!"

Seira's ghost: "This is against Father's teachings. All of these will not go unpunished. If you keep doing that, I swear that you'll regret everything…"

After that, Seira's ghost vanishes.

Ichigo: "Yes, just leave us. We don't need your presence anymore."

Akari: "Hoshimiya-senpai…"

Juri: "Perhaps it's best to go back and tell everyone about what we found here."

Hinaki: "Uh-huh."

Ichigo, Akari, Sumire, and Johnny leaves the old DreAca site, heading back to their school.

Meanwhile, at Osaka, Nina Doujima is just leaving from her school, heading to the closest train station.

Nina: "I should've known, taking shelter in Starlight Academy is my best bet to keep myself from getting captured like my friends."

However, as she walks the empty road close to the station, she sees a ghost of DreAca idol wandering around.

Nina: "What? A DreAca ghost?"

The ghost keeps appearing and disappearing as it moves for a few steps.

Nina: "What's the meaning of this? Oh no, don't tell me-!"

Two troopers from the idol-capturing organization appears from out of nowhere after deactivating their cloaking field and quickly grabs Nina. That DreAca ghost have apparently distracted Nina long enough for the troopers to catch Nina.

Trooper: "Got you."

Nina: "What the?! No! Let me go!"

Trooper: "Can't let you. Our mistress needs your power to revitalize Dream Academy and bring their Top Idols- no, champions back to this realm."

Nina: "Dream Academy, you said?! Were you part of the cultist?!"

Trooper: "That should be obvious already."

The two troopers reactivate their cloaking field, which also makes Nina invisible, and then leaves the area.

Back at Starlight Academy, the ones involved in the investigation informs everything they found to Orihime. Ichigo, Akari, and Sumire are also in the office to hear out what everyone has to say about the investigation.

Orihime: "So, you found a laboratory where you were first created?"

Camilla: "Correct. This piece of paper is a proof of that."

Camilla gives Orihime the paper of Tiara's writings. Orihime reads it.

Orihime: "Yumesaki got all these cloning technologies from a mysterious organization?"

Aoi: "We haven't been able to determine who was that organization. But, the thing is, they were most likely trying to make more Seira clones. Camilla was the only one who was successfully created, though, as Camilla claimed that DreAca was already lifted off before they could made more clones."

Camilla: "Yes, the first one to be successfully created, but also a failure because of what I've become now, an Anti-Seira."

Ichigo: "Headmistress, I also have something to tell you."

Orihime: "What is it, Hoshimiya?"

Ichigo: "Right as I blew up the Ralph Seiravee that attacked Akari-chan and Sumire-chan, one of my shots actually broke the cockpit hatch of that suit."

Akari: "Which means you got a glimpse of its pilot?"

Ichigo: "The pilot… looks pretty similar to you, Camilla."

Camilla: "WHAT?! Don't tell me-!"

Juri: "The pilot was a clone of Otoshiro?! Which means…"

Camilla: "…they have managed to create even more of my clones out there. This is insanity at the highest order."

Sumire: "But, what about the Seiraphs? Is it possible that the ones inside those Seiraphs were also Otoshiro's clones?"

Ichigo: "Maybe yes, maybe no. But, the fact that they fell so easily…"

Miyu: "That could mean they haven't been able to perfectly replicate Seira in their cloning process."

Akari: "Well, one does not simply make a clone of God, let alone making many of them."

Aoi: "Aside from that, Seira's ghost actually showed herself in front of Ichigo."

Camilla: "It is clear that Seira truly wants to return."

Orihime: "And all of you are going to prevent her from returning, right?"

Akari: "Obviously! We can't let her take Hoshimiya-senpai away from us again like she did before."

Sumire: "Akari-chan's right. We're right behind you, senpai. We'll fight those invaders together."

Ichigo: 'Thank you."

Hinaki: "If only my Gundam has been completed."

Juri: "Mine, too."

Johnny: "Don't worry, honeys, I'll contact your top designers to speed up the construction of your Gundams."

Hinaki: "Yes, please, Johnny-sensei."

Akari: "I'm definitely looking forward of fighting together with all of you."

Juri: "Certainly."

Ichigo: "Well, then. Shall we take a rest now?"

Camilla: "Of course."

Ichigo: "It's settled, then. If you'll excuse us, Headmistess."

Orihime: "Go ahead and get your stamina replenished. Remember, stay strong."

Ichigo: "Uh-huh."

Ichigo and the others leave the office.

Later that night, Akari and the others meet up with Miyabi in Akari's room.

Miyabi: "So, all you found was the origin of Dinah-san."

Akari: "That's all we found, unfortunately. No clear clue about who kidnapped Kokone-chan."

Sumire: "Although Hoshimiya-senpai said that she saw a clone of Otoshiro inside one of the enemy's mobile suits. Basically another Dinah-senpai, but weaker, oddly enough."

Juri: "We presumed that the enemy has actually managed to make clones of Otoshiro, albeit not perfect yet because they fall quite easily. And the fact that we even saw Otoshiro's ghost there..."

Miyabi: "Could they be the ones who kidnapped Kokone and the other idols?"

Hinaki: "If I may say, most likely, because they were attacking us."

Miyabi: "I see. Which means we need to find out where did they come from."

Akari: "Once we find their base, we'll build up our forces, attack them, and save the idols."

Miyabi: "I'm counting on all of you."

Akari: "Don't worry, Miyabi-chan. We'll definitely save them."

Somebody knocks the door.

Akari: "Who?"

Akari then opens the door, revealing her old roommate, Yuu Hattori.

Akari: "Ah, Yuu-chan. What's up?"

Yuu: "Akari-chan, I just discovered a bad news."

Akari: "Eh? What bad news?"

Yuu: "The top designer of Sakurairo Kaden has disappeared!"

Miyabi: "Nagaoka-san, you said!? Oh no, don't tell me-"

Sumire: "He must have been kidnapped like Kokone."

Miyabi: "Where did you find that info anyway?"

Yuu: "Shortly after I went back from my work."

Akari: "That means… they're also targeting the top designers instead of just idols?"

Yuu: "But for what purpose?"

Akari: "That I haven't know yet, unfortunately."

Miyabi: "This is impossible. Not only they have captured Kokone, but Nagaoka-san too."

Hinaki: "At this rate, now that we know that the top designers are also in danger, we need some help to protect them from being captured."

Juri: "Yeah…"

Akari: "Sena-san… I hope he's going to be safe…"

[TO BE CONTINUED]