Chapter 1-4: First Step

"Friendship is caring for and trusting someone, even if they may be your enemy. If you end up fighting a 'friend' on the field and you are still able to treat them the same as normal during and afterwards; that is what true friendship is. I only have you as a friend. How do I know? I killed all possible threats to me."

-Devil

The 2-S camp is relaxed despite the imminent battle. Azumi is at Hideo's side as he calls for the War Council. Aoi Touma, 2-S's tactician, places the Tanazawa map on the table and marks every location of interest as well as all the units' location. He is able to accurately detail where the enemies are due to the spies placed in the 2-F's army. His friends are with him; a lolicon named Inoue Jun, and Sakakibara Koyuki, a pale girl with white hair and a peculiar attitude.

Margit Eberbach, the Hound, eagerly looks at the map and is memorizing every little detail in it. Fushikawa Kokoro, whom Azumi can barely stand, gracefully walks over to the table and waits for the council to start. Azumi doubts anything said here will enter her oblivious skull. Then the Archery President from class 3-F also comes to the table, Azumi doesn't know much about her, except that her archery and commanding skills are phenomenal. Finally there is…

Kawakami Momoyo, the Warrior Goddess, quite possibly the strongest person in the world. As much of a boon it would seem to be to have her on 2-S's side, no one expects her to do anything in this battle. She is easily bored and the condition of her joining is that she decides when to join the fray. Nonetheless, she joins everyone at the map.

She listens as Touma explains the situation. It doesn't amount to anything clever, Azumi summarizes, 'we have 1050 and they have 300, let's not fuck this up because that will really be embarrassing'. "Our 'special troops' will be behind you, Hideo." Touma informs Hideo-sama.

"That's a shame…I wanted to see their capabilities firsthand, but this war is more important," Hideo-sama says in his usual firm voice.

"They will join you after the battle starts. We need to be prepared for unexpected enemy attacks. We are missing information on several F army troops and I expect them to be crucial in their plans."

"Nyohoho," Kokoro laughs. "How can a few measly troops hope to change anything?"

"Even though we vastly outnumber F army, they can still be a threat. We can expect ambushes directly ahead of you, Hideo. Do not pursue the enemy if they retreat."

"Fuahahaha, Touma, my friend, you worry too much!" As much as Azumi prefers caution in battle, she agrees with Hideo-sama. It's just too big a difference.

Touma speaks directly to her, "Azumi, I want you to protect Hideo from the shadows."

"What about my unit?" she asks.

"Let your second-in-command lead them. The F army will try and end this early so we need your skills to protect Hideo from assassins."

She nods, "I was nervous about leaving Hideo-sama's side anyway."

"Fuahaha," Hideo laughs. "As expected from my personal maid!"

"Hideo-sama~" Azumi says in a cute voice that is belies her normal behavior. She only shows this side of her for Hideo-sama, the person she loves and has devoted her life to.

'I will win this battle for Hideo-sama!' she thinks.

Yamato has called everybody over for the F war council. Mark put the hood over his head before they got off the train, it's a small chance that someone will recognize him, but they could take a picture or describe him over the phone and the S army could recognize him. The chance is close to zero, but Mark prefers caution in battle.

"…déjà vu?" he mumbles so quietly no one hears him. He quickly shrugs it off and walks to the table with the map along with everyone else. He memorizes as much as he can on the map and admires the accuracy in which Yamato has predicted the enemy movement.

"Okay," Yamato starts, "it's obvious that we can't win with conventional tactics, we're going to have to play this very carefully. I'm going to have to make sudden commands and some of you won't know what's fully going on until afterwards, but that is our only option. Our designations are the same, though. Gen-san and Wanko are going to be on the front lines, Miyako is our sniper, Chris is lead white squadron, and Capt is leading Gakuto and black squadron. Mayucchi and Mark are our specialists and are going to be moving in secret. Me, Moro, and the rest of the intelligence unit will be giving out commands by phone, so keep them at the ready. Understood?" Everyone nods in acknowledgement.

"Yamato, I don't have enough men to hold the front line," Gen-san states.

"It's only temporary. I want you to engage and retreat south where the ambush units will be waiting."

"Isn't that a little obvious?"

"Kuki won't care. Mark, you will have to move quickly. I want you to place the Sigil Trap here," Yamato points to a location just to the southeast of an enemy unit, "This unit will try and reinforce Kuki and is relatively big so I want you to place a ninety percent trap. Then quickly move behind the S main army as they're advancing and rain down as many arrows as you can in various locations to make them think that they have been surrounded."

"Ninety percent is reasonable enough, I won't be able to use my barrier and blinking at the same time, but that shouldn't be a problem," Mark says with confidence.

"Good, Moro will give you your next objectives so pay attention to your phone. The intelligence unit will take the east mountain…"

…

…

"…And that's it for now. I'll let you know if we have to change strategies," Yamato finishes and everyone nods and disperses. Mark thinks over something for several moments before chasing after Chris.

"Hey Chris," he says just loud enough so that she can hear him.

"What is it Mark?" she asks.

"Maru-san, is it okay if I fight her?"

"But I wanted to fight Maru-chan! She was going to test my skills!" she protests.

"I figured as much, but I may be forced to fight her since we're enemies."

"Can't you just avoid her?"

"I want to, but I may not have a choice in the matter."

"Hmm…just like Yamatomaru's Dream Diary…" she says quietly while thinking.

"Yamatomaru's Dream Diary?"

"Yeah, in one of the episodes two friends were forced to fight each other in a battle," she explains while becoming more and more excited with each word. "They didn't want to fight but they couldn't leave the battlefield either! It was so cool when Yamatomaru was able to stop him from delivering the killing blow!"

"Er…Chris, you need to focus on the here and now."

"Hm? Oh right, sorry. I guess if you have no choice than I wouldn't have a problem with it."

"Good, then I should get going and find a vantage point. Good luck, Chris," Mark says.

"You too, Mark," Chris replies before jogging over to her 'White Squadron.'

Mark blinks to the top of the nearest tree, and after quickly scouting the area, jumps or blinks from tree to tree to make his way to the middle of the battlefield. He stops once he reaches the last tree before the opening. He looks and makes a mental map of the area, marking trees, potential paths, and where the armies are going to clash. As soon as he finishes, he hears Tesshim shout that there are only three minutes left before he battle starts.

He is about to blink over the gap between the tree he's on and the one opposite of the clearing when he sees Miyako looking at the trees. Figuring he still has some time left, he jumps down to talk to her.

"Miyako, do you need any help?" he asks politely. She just ignores him and jumps up to reach for a tree branch, but it remains out of her reach. She tries a few more times before Mark talks again, "I can give you a boost if you want."

"Just leave me alone," she angrily snaps back.

Mark sighs. "I know you're mad at me for what happened a month ago, but that was Devil's fault, not mine."

"No, it is your fault! You're the one who chose to fight back!"

"You're right, I did choose to fight, but I didn't want anybody to get hurt."

Miyako looks directly at Mark with fury in her eyes. "Stop acting like you know how I felt when I almost lost Yamato!"

"I know what it's like; the only difference is that I didn't get back what I lost," Miyako's eyes still have their killing edge but they do soften a little bit. "I'm not here to have a contest, I'm here to help Yamato, and the best way to do that is if we help each other. You know that. So, do you want a boost up or not?"

Miyako doesn't say anything for awhile but Mark doesn't relent either. "Fine," she eventually gives in, "but tell Devil that if he ever hurts Yamato again-"

"You'll hunt him down and give him a slow, painful and a creative death that I don't want to repeat. He already knows."

"Good." Mark squats down and put his hands together so Miyako can have a foothold. She quickly puts her foot up on his hands and he launches her up. She easily lands on the branch and starts to climb her way up. "By the way," she calls down, "You only have thirty arrows in that quiver of yours, and so you might have to improvise."

"You can tell that just by looking at it?"

"I'm a master archer, of course I can tell how many arrows are in a quiver just by looking."

"Alright, I'll do something about it," Mark finishes with a smile. He turns and blinks towards the opposite side of the ravine. He can't reach his destination with one blink so he is forced to double-blink: Rapidly chaining two blinks together. Multi-blinking is quite physically taxing though, so Mark doesn't use the technique too often.

As soon as he reaches the top of another nearby tree, he hears another shout from Tesshim, "Kawakami War, START!"

Shouts emerge from the armies as they charge. Mark has a great view of the armies, and it isn't looking good for the F army. The S main army is huge, consisting of around four hundred soldiers, including Hideo and his bodyguards. As they clash noisily, Mark makes his way to the point Yamato designated on the map to place the Sigil Trap. He stays in cover as long as he can, but the trap is going to be placed in an opening, so he is going to be in the open as he's placing it. He looks around briefly before blinking to a suitable location.

"Okay, ninety percent," he mumbles aloud as he places down the Sigil spiritually. He pours his energy into the trap. Once he's finished he quickly gets up and blinks north into yet another tree. "Ugh, yep, I can only blink or have my barrier up. Okay let's see if I really do have to 'shout' my commands."

He sends out a pulse to communicate with the Sigil, which sparks up as if it recognizes him. 'Okay, I think that activated it,' he thinks. He sends another pulse to set the trap. The sigil once again sparks up before disappearing. 'It's set, now onto part two.'

Mark quickly moves along the tree line and readies his bow. Once he gets into position, the F army starts to fall back. He nocks the arrow and puts some of his energy in it. As the arrow soars the energy will break off into several pieces and strike down as if it were other arrows. Mark pulls back the string and lets the arrow fly. As the arrow arcs downward, the energy breaks off as planned and takes down a small group of soldiers.

"Ambush!" says one of the soldiers behind the group of fallen soldiers. "We have archers behind us!"

Mark doesn't stay still and jumps along from tree to tree, shooting an arrow every other tree. He quickly notices as some troops stay behind as Kuki charges forward, effectively cutting out half of the army from Kuki. 'Nice thinking, Yamato.'

"Do we have shields?!" one of the soldiers cries out.

"No, the shields are in another-argh!" Mark shot the responder.

"C-crap!"

Mark blinks directly over the ravine, fires another powered arrow and blinks onto another tree, adding even more confusion to the S army.

"Where in the hell are they?!"

"That last barrage came from where we were! How is that-ugh?!"

'You shouldn't think about it too hard,' Mark thinks as he continues his hell-raising. The S main army has now been ambushed by the other troops and is now in complete disarray. He can see Hideo try and keep his men in order while one of his bodyguards, a bald one, get up on his platform and look out for any arrows that may come from any direction. Mark doubts that his bow can reach that far even if he wanted to hit Hideo. Nonetheless, he fires on a handful of soldiers directly behind Hideo to spread out the forces some more.

Azumi is in the woods trying to get a bead on the ass shooting arrows on the S main army. 'He's quick, I'll give him that,' she says in her head. 'Could it be Shiina? No, she would have a longbow fit for sniping and the arrows would have a longer trajectory. Naoe must have brought in another archer.'

She quickly makes her way through the trees on the ground. Luckily, she hears a cell phone vibrate, it came from above. She jumps up onto a branch and cautiously walks to where she heard the sound, all without making a sound. She sees the guy with the bow looking at his phone and facing away from her. Using this opportunity, Azumi slowly sneaks up with her wakizashi drawn. As she gets closer, she raises her weapons. The man's instincts alert him and he spins around right as she swings down. He catches her by the arms and they both end up falling to the ground.

They both hit the ground on their side and quickly roll away from each other. Azumi only sees half of his face, which is expertly being hid with his black hood, but she quickly figures out who he is. "Mark, how are you doing?"

"Heh, I guess I shouldn't have expected that the hood would fool an expert like you. I'm okay, just working, you know how it is."

Despite the casual conversation growing neither of them let down their guard. "Yeah, I know," she says casually, hoping he will let down his guard. "You picked the wrong side, if you had called I would have told you that earlier."

"Possibly, anyway, I hope that what I'm about to do won't break our friendship or anything."

"I know that your position here isn't personal," Azumi assures him while looking at him somewhat curiously. "What are you going to do?"

"Well I was planning on-" Mark turns and runs towards Hideo-sama, Azumi quickly follows after him.

"You know I'm faster than you!" she shouts after him. Then she yells at Jun, "Baldie! Do your job and watch out behind you!"

Jun turns and gets himself between Mark and Hideo-sama. Azumi pulls out several kunai that she had covered in a neurotoxin that freezes up anybody that gets cut by it. She throws them directly at Mark who dodges most of them and spins around to catch one between his fingers.

'SHIT!'

Mark aims and throws at Hideo-sama. "Baldie, watch the kunai!" Jun sees it and gets in its way. Azumi uses a burst of energy and tackles Mark to the ground. As they fall, he spins to face her. She slashes down with both of her wakizashi; he turns to evade one and stops the other by grabbing her arm. She puts her weight down on his hips so he can't get up. "I caught you!" she says triumphantly with a sadistic grin on her face.

Mark looks at where she's at on him and slowly looks up to her face. "…I didn't know you liked this position." She slaps him hard on the cheek after he says that perverted comment. "I deserved that."

"If you don't give up I'm going to hit you more."

"I tell you what, I'll give up if my employer doesn't have another objective for me and you can spend the rest of the afternoon torturing me," he replies with a half-joking voice. "I've had worse afternoons."

"Why would he give you another objective after you've failed this one?" she says as Jun falls off the platform and on his face; the neurotoxin is setting in.

Mark responds with silence and Azumi sees the truth too late to do anything.

Miyako now has a clear shot, lines it up, and puts her power into the arrow before firing at Hideo's temple. It flies straight, exactly as she wanted it. Then, through sheer luck, Kuki moves. He's knocked off of his platform and falls back on the ground but he isn't knocked unconscious, as Yamato wanted. "Damn it!" Miyako mutters. She can't get another shot at Kuki from here so she takes out the bodyguards one by one.

Mark moves his hand quickly up Azumi's skirt as she realizes what is happening.

"Hideo-sama!" she cries out as she gets off of Mark and runs to Hideo's side. Mark gets to his feet as Azumi puts Hideo on her shoulder while deflecting Miyako's arrows. She quickly grabs for her smoke bombs, but they aren't there. Once again she connects the dots.

This time, Mark is the one smiling triumphantly with her smoke bomb pouch in his hand. The last time he was here he flipped up her skirt mischievously and saw all of Azumi's weapons and where, under her skirt, she kept them. 'Sorry' he mouths to her. "Hideo Kuki has been wounded!" he shouts over the fighting. "Push now!"

A loud battle cry bursts from F army and they break through the front lines. The S main army's morale is now completely shot and they start to retreat. Azumi calls to the bodyguards, "Hold them off!" Azumi carries Hideo away from the front as Miyako fires arrow after arrow at Hideo.

Mark blinks over the guards and sprints towards Hideo, dodging Azumi's kunai, shuriken, and anyone unfortunate enough to get in her way. Mark can see the incoming reinforcements, led by Margit, from the north and another unit coming from the west. 'I have to get him before they do!' But every advance he makes is blocked by one of Azumi's projectiles.

"Hideo-sama, can you stand?" he hears her ask.

"Yes, Azumi, but I can't stand straight."

"Good, I'll keep them away from you, Hideo-sama~!"

"Fuahaha, yes Azu-"

BANG! FO-WHOOSH!

The Sigil Trap was set off by the western reinforcements and the noise and fire shocks the armies. Like before, lightning arcs between the multi-colored licks of flame in a spectacular display before the outside of the energy flash freezes, forcing the internal energy to build pressure and power before exploding, making a louder sound than before.

Everyone one is awestruck, even Mark. When he looks at the unit that set off the trap he sees them all on the ground, unconscious. Gen-san's voice is the first to shout out, "Keep pushing for the enemy commander; that was a friendly explosion!"

"That was by F army!" shouts Chris; the White Squadron must have helped with the ambush.

"Right! Keep pushing!" once again the F army stampedes forward and overtakes Mark. As Mark is about to join them, he gets a call from Moro.

Mark runs as he answers the call. "Moro, what's up?"

"Capt is going to attack from the east and Yamato is saying that Azumi and Margit are going to try and stop him. Yamato wants you to protect him from those two."

"What about Margit's unit?"

"Gakuto can handle them."

"Alright then, will do," as Mark hangs up he sees Capt and Gakuto rush from the forest. He quickly blinks forward to them and runs to intercept Azumi and Margit, who are doing what Yamato predicted. Mark puts power into his hands before blinking in front of them as they prepare to strike the fearless Capt. He quickly grabs them by their clothes and blinks again, with them, into the forest.

They both kneel over in a coughing fit. Mark simply sits down in a relaxed position and waits for them to recover. "What…was that?" Azumi moans.

"It was like…being drowned in freezing cold water while you are taking a hot bath…" Margit replies with a shiver.

"No…it was like falling onto a steel floor four stories up without the pain."

"Everyone experiences blinking differently," Mark says with a shrug. "My first experience was like trying to walk straight after ten hours in a tumble drier."

"God…that was blinking?" Azumi groans.

"Yep, I could multi-blink you if you want, that's about ten times as worse for each blink."

"Ten…times?!" Margit says unbelievingly.

Mark nods, "I can only blink myself five or six times in a row. You can get used to it if you do it over and over and over again. Provided that you know which way the ground is and you aren't afraid of falling to your death."

They both groggily get up, with a tree to help support them. Azumi tries to walk, "I need to get back to Hideo-sama." After a few steps she stumbles forward, but Mark catches her.

"You need to regain your balance first, and you don't even know where you are."

"I can't just lie back…"

"I'm not giving you a choice. You are going to sit down, figure out which way is up, and then we are probably going to fight."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, we can talk first if you prefer."

"Fine," she gives up. "That was quite a maneuver you did with Baldie."

"I didn't really have another choice," he apologizes.

"I meant that in a good way, I would have done the same."

Margit interrupts. "Azumi, we shouldn't be talking with the enemy."

"It's not like we can do anything else, at least for now."

"Well…I'm not talking to him."

Mark sighs, "Are you mad at me for declaring war on Germany?"

"No, it's not that I'm angry, but…I don't know."

"Wait," Azumi speaks, "you declared war on Germany?!"

"Margit's CO tried to pay me with a fake payment."

"Hahaha, I hated when that happened to me."

"To make matters worse I needed that payment to live."

Azumi turns to Margit, "Hey Hound, your boss is an ass."

"He can't endorse mercenaries so he had no choice!"

"…You really believe that third-rate excuse?"

Margit opens her mouth but doesn't respond. She is starting to doubt Frank, and Mark can't blame her. He decides to switch the topic. "Are you two doing better?"

"I can see straight if that's what you're asking."

"Just checking, you know I'm actually looking for a…partner. I don't suppose either of you two are interested?"

Margit is the first to respond, "Considering your relationship with Lieutenant General, I don't think I can."

Azumi takes a little longer, "I'm not sure if I can leave Hideo-sama that easily."

"That's fine, you can think about it for awhile, but I'm on a deadline so I can't wait forever."

The two women look at each other before asking the same question, "What deadline?"

"I…can't say. Anyway I suppose that we have delayed long enough. Are you ready to fight?" Margit brandishes her tonfa and Azumi draws her wakizashi. "Yep, you're ready to fight."

Margit lunges forward with a kick which Mark quickly sidesteps while drawing his sword. Azumi continues the assault with shuriken, but Mark deflects them all with his sword. Margit spins with her tonfa outstretched and Mark ducks under them. Azumi closes in with her swords and Mark steps back a few times as he dodges them. Margit jumps over her as she's striking and strikes upward, he ducks under the strike and kicks her away over Azumi, who leaps forward and slashes with both of her weapons. He quickly blocks one blade with his sword and catches Azumi's other hand.

She performs a back flip with her legs stretched to hit him and he is forced to let go. As she's airborne, she throws several shuriken. He rolls to his left and avoids them. Margit lunges forward with a tonfa straight, and he spins to the side and cuts her leg, making her fall. Azumi jumps and attacks to prevent him from finishing off Margit, Mark blocks the slashes with his sword and, with a grunt, pushes her up before delivering a slash to her stomach. But she spins while in the air, reducing the damage the strike would have caused.

Margit has recovered and kicks Mark behind his leg, forcing him to his knees, and Margit continues the attack with a tonfa strike to the side of his head. He is sent rolling by the powerful impact, but he quickly regains his balance just in time to see Azumi, still in the air, spin and kick a tree to send her flying at high speeds towards Mark. He blocks the first slash, but the second hits his collarbone. She continues her rolling motion and lands on Mark's shoulders, grabs him with her legs, and then turns him and uses her weight to slam him into the ground.

Mark takes the motion in stride and uses it to quickly get back on his feet. "Is it just me or have you two gotten stronger?" he asks as soon as he gets back up.

Azumi smiles, "No, but the last time we faced you we thought you were Devil. Now that we know you're a swordsman we can adjust to that."

"Aura swordsman," he corrects. "I hurt people's aura instead of cutting them physically. For example, if I cut through your leg, you won't be able to use it as if I had really cut off your leg, at least for awhile."

"And why are you telling us this," Margit asks.

"I just didn't want to alarm you when I beat you," he replies with a confident smile.

Azumi charges and sweeps and Mark jumps over her and her slashes and delivers a cut to her left shoulder, making her drop the sword in her hand. Mark lands with a spin cutting Azumi in couple of places along her back; she falls forward, unable to continue.

Undaunted, Margit punches her tonfa rapidly at him, Mark takes each hit and powers through them to deliver a direct stab through Margit's gut. She lets out a surprised grunt as she falls, like a puppet whose strings have been cut, onto Mark. He quickly pulls out the blade and slowly lays her down on the ground before standing up straight and sheathing his sword.

"You can't talk, but you can still hear me," Mark says to his two friends on the ground, who seem to be unconscious. "This was a fun fight, but we should talk the next time we see each other. As I was saying, you should be able to get back up in a couple of minutes. I'll see you guys later."

Mark jogs away from the two while pulling out his phone and calling Moro. The phone rings two times before he picks up, "Mark, did you beat Azumi and Margit?"

"Yeah, they're both down."

"Hold on," the phone goes silent for a few seconds before Moro talks again. "The F main army has been pushed back."

"What? How?"

"We don't know yet, Kazuko and Gen-san have been pulled away from the army, we need you to get them back."

"I'm on my way."