AN: Hey guys! Sorry about the massive delay! It's been what, 4 months? I had alot of trouble conceptualizing these chapters at the start, and it took me about a month to get the chain of events straight. Won't bore you too much with the details, but to put it in perspective, a typical outline for a chapter runs from .5 to 1 page in notepad. The outline for what was going to be Chapter 7 was 6.5 pages. I didn't want to release it piecemeal as I was writing, because that would have affected the flow. But I ended up splitting it into 3 chapters that will be posted in the same day (hopefully), for ease of reading. Hope you enjoy!

Figure I should also probably start doing this disclaimer thing. Don't own Valvrave or any of the characters, yadda yadda yadda.


Kyuma stood on the pier, watching the ships come in.

It was early morning, and all around him the pier buzzed with activity. On one side of the concrete waterfront, heavy machinery was noisily feeding scrap and debris into the maw of a cargo ship. On the other side, closer to him, a recently-arrived transport was disgorging a group of ARUS workers, dressed in overalls and chatting in English as they pushed hovercrates full of equipment.

Kyuma eyed the registry number on the side of the transport. 'Nope, not that one. Is it late?'

He checked his phone again to make sure. Yup. The ship he was looking for was supposed to have put in ten minutes ago. He let out a little sigh. Oh well, it couldn't be helped. Being dockside to welcome the representative from Miller Foods would make a good impression, and if he got that advertisement deal, what was a few extra minutes?

"Excuse me! Uh... You... you are?"

Kyuma's attention was drawn to a familiar voice, speaking in halting English. He looked over to see Midori-chan from the student council addressing one of the ARUS workers, a tall, well-built fellow with dark blond hair and tanned skin. Maybe in his late twenties or early thirties.

"Yes? Can I help you, Miss?" The worker asked in the same language.

"Uhm, you are... you are... ah...?" Midori-chan couldn't seem to find the right English words. She looked around for help, her gaze locking onto Kyuma. "Inuzuka-senpai, help!"

Kyuma glanced at the blue waters of the harbor quickly. Nope, no sign of any incoming transport. He headed over to Midori-chan and the ARUS worker, the latter looking back and forth between them with a puzzled but pleasant half-smile. "What do you want to say, Midori-chan?"

"Could you ask him if he's Pete Robinson, please?" Midori-chan asked Kyuma in Japanese.

"Sure." Bemused, Kyuma relayed the question to the ARUS worker in English. The man shook his head slowly in puzzlement, apparently as confused as Kyuma was.

"No, sorry, I don't know who that is... I'm just an electrician, as you can see." The worker replied in English as he gestured to his equipment.

Kyuma turned to tell the answer to Midori-chan, but she had apparently understood enough of the response, and was apologizing in her stilted English. "Sorry! You look... uh... very like Pete Robinson. I thought... uhm, sorry!"

"No worries, haha... I guess it happens? Anyways, uh, saiyo-narah?" The man smiled sheepishly and waved back as he started after the other workers, who had gone on ahead without him.

Kyuma and Midori-chan watched him catch up with his fellows in a few long-legged strides, and the entire crew continued toward the school.

"Phew!" Midori-chan blew out a relieved breath. "First time talking to a gaijin! They're so intimidating! So tall..." She glanced up at Kyuma. "Uhm, that's not to say tall people are intimidating or anything. Uhm... thank you for your help, Senpai!"

"No problem!" Kyuma grinned. "So, who was that guy supposed to be?"

"Oh, Pete Robinson? He's an Olympic triathlete. That guy totally looked just like him! Even though, well, I guess I knew it couldn't possibly be him. But I couldn't help it. When you see someone like that you just have to ask, right?"

"I guess so," Kyuma allowed. There weren't any celebrities, sports or otherwise, that he was really interested in (other than being impressed by how much money they made), so it was a little baffling to him. "At least now you know."

"Right!" Midori-chan looked down. "Thanks again, Senpai. I uh, I should get back to work. Anyways. See ya!"

Kyuma watched Midori-chan run off, her white hair accessory gently bobbing atop her green hair. He looked back over at the dock. Still no transport.

'That was a little strange, but it beats just standing here and waiting. Although there's gotta be something constructive I could do...'

Why yes, there was. He closed down the day planner on his phone and tapped in Haruto's number. If the meeting went successfully, maybe he could get Haruto in on the ad deal. After all, the Valvrave of the Boy Who Fought The World should be worth more than his own VVV V, right?

'As long as I'm at it, I can talk with Rukino-san too about possible record deals...'

Kyuma smiled as he typed a text message into his phone. Ah... the delicious prospect of making money...


"Good morning, everyone!" Shoko's cheery voice sounded over the module-wide announcement system. "This is just a reminder that the module will be switching over to ARUS' power grid at 12:30 today! There'll be a brief outage, but it shouldn't last longer than 5, maybe 10 minutes, so make sure to have your flashlight apps ready!"

Saki took a break from tugging on her gym shorts to glance up at the corners of the ceiling, trying to figure out where the hidden speaker in their room was. "What, again? That's gotta be the tenth reminder in the last 2 days? I think everyone's got the message by now..."

Haruto spoke from the other side of the room, his voice accompanied by the sound of rustling fabric. "Shoko probably doesn't want anyone to have a hard time like during the last power outage. This way everyone will be ready!"

"Mmm-hmm." Saki offered non-commitally, sneaking a glance at Haruto's shirtless back. Over the past few days he'd gotten comfortable enough to not only stay in the room while she got dressed, but to dress at the same time as well, instead of sitting around with his eyes squeezed shut.

'Maybe one day he'll even sneak a peek?'

It was a weird thought to contemplate for her. During her time as an idol, she'd developed a certain callousness about putting bits of herself on display, but she had never considered herself an exhibitionist. Getting into a swimsuit for a shoot was just business. And yet the thought of Haruto glancing over to see her while she was dressing sent tingles down her spine- -and not the skeeved out kind of tingles, either. The good kind. Like the ones she got from kissing Haruto.

Kissing Haruto. Just thinking about it made Saki feel all warm inside. Ever since their first kissing session, they'd been making out, snogging regularly in the privacy of their room. With her clinical past experiences with kissing, she hadn't really understood just how fun it could be, or how many different kinds of kisses there were. From tickly, feathery teasing nibbles to deep passionate exchanges that left them both gasping for air while their hands wandered over each others' bodies. It was just so delicious! And there was nothing quite like a good morning kiss to start the day (even if Haruto's breath was a little icky when he first woke up).

As nice as the kissing was, it was just one part of her new cohabiting life that Saki found herself really enjoying. She'd always considered herself a loner, so it was another surprise just how much she enjoyed Haruto's company, just for its own sake. Even something as simple as listening to his breathing from the bed beside her at night made her feel strangely content.

"All done!" Haruto announced. "How about you?"

"How about you take a peek and find out?" Saki teased.

"Ahh... uh..." Haruto hemmed and hawwed, sounding like an old man. Saki couldn't help but giggle a little.

"Just teasing~ I'll let you know when I'm done~"

'Ah, one of these days...'

Saki quickly finished putting on her gym clothes. Their days in boot camp now consisted of training in the mornings until noon, lunch, and then more training until the early afternoon. Somewhat shorter than a school day, but as it turned out, much more fun and interesting. At least, some parts of it. Saki still much preferred the physical aspects of training over the firearms. Tinkering around with the guns still confused her, and somewhat to her annoyance, her accuracy at controlling Carmilla's Spindle Knuckles didn't translate into accuracy with a gun. Still, she was improving, albeit slowly.

"Okay, you can turn around now, Haruto! I'm decent!"

"Sorry." Haruto turned and made his way across the room. "Dunno why it bothers me so much..."

"Yeah, it is kinda weird, isn't it?" Saki deliberately tugged at the collar of her shirt, tilting her head to the side. "I mean, you've already touched all those parts of me... and yet you're so hesitant about having a look."

A few days ago the display would probably have sent Haruto into an apologizing fit, but to his credit, now he only blushed and shrugged. "I'm not sure, really. Maybe it has to do with my upbringing?"

"Bah! That blasted puritanical upbringing of yours again! I guess I'll have to work around that..." Saki looked up into Haruto's gorgeous eyes as he stepped up next to her, her breath catching a little in her throat. His gaze was just so... blue! "Does your upbringing mean you can't give a girl a kiss to start the day?"

"Now that I can do..."

"Mmmm..."

Their lips met in a long, lingering kiss that went on and on. Saki had only intended it to be a short one, but she couldn't quite bring herself to pull away. Haruto seemed to have the same idea, as he managed to murmur that they should probably get going before they were late, but he didn't seem to have the willpower to break the kiss either.

"Mmmmm..."

"Mmmmm..."

"Boku ja nai, boku ja nai, boku ja naaaiii!"

"Wha?" Saki broke off the kiss in surprise.

"Sorry, phone!" Haruto dug around in his pants and pulled out his cellphone.

"Itsuka ayamachi wooo-" The song cut off as Haruto pressed the answer button. "Hello? Hey, Senpai!"

Saki smoothed down the back of her rumpled shorts where Haruto's hands had been wandering. Was that her song Haruto had as his ringtone now? When did that happen?

Haruto finished his call and put his phone away. "That was Inuzuka-senpai. He was wondering if we could go meet him in his office after lunch today, before afternoon classes. He says it's business-related. Business business. Not Valvrave business."

Saki was intrigued. "Business business, huh? Sure, I'm up for it. Let's see what schemes he's got cooked up."


Training went about as well as it always did.

That is to say, not very well. Haruto had never been all that interested in stuff like running or swimming in gym class; his tastes ran more to team sports like baseball or soccer. He enjoyed the sense of working together toward a common goal.

In comparision, the physical training they were doing nowadays struck him as pretty dull.

And his physical performance hadn't been improving at all.

Saki had said it was too soon to see any real improvements; they'd only been training for three days. According to her, he should wait a week at least. But it was still frustrating. He had to get stronger. Had to stop being a dead weight outside of his Valvrave. There was no telling when he'd be thrown into a situation like what happened during the last attack again.

Haruto waited outside the girls' locker room, leaning against the wall. Every now and then a girl (or a group of girls) would pause on their way out and stare at him, and he'd do his best to look casual, although he was getting a little flustered. He'd never been in this position before; he and Saki would usually meet up in the cafeteria, but today they were supposed to head to Inuzuka-senpai's office instead.

Another girl coming through the door caught his attention, but no, it wasn't Saki. As he looked toward her, he caught a glimpse of the locker room interior through the open door. Although he didn't happen to see any undressed girls, he couldn't help a thought from flitting through his mind.

'In there, Saki is...'

Haruto felt the beginnings of the guilt roiling in his belly, and tried desperately to back away from the thought. Even imagining Saki in the nude was enough to set him off, it seemed. It was odd, because he'd had ample time during the past few days to get closer to her. He'd touched her body and her lips enough times. But he still couldn't shake the mental image of her naked skin under the moonlight, or the guilt that always accompanied it.

What was it he'd said that morning when Saki teased him about peeking at her? His 'upbringing?' Could he have thought up a lamer line?

'Yeah, my totally chaste upbringing where I was raised in a secluded Zen monastery... where did that come from? I spent tons of time with Shoko as a kid, and there was that time where I accidentally walked in on her in the bathroom! I even used to look at porn every now and then!'

Thankfully, Saki hadn't seemed to notice how bad that line was. And Haruto didn't want to tell her about how he felt. It just made him feel even more guilty. She was the victim, not him. And he had no right to mouth off to her when she'd been so badly affected by the attack.

The guilt was something he deserved. If anything, he should be feeling more guilty. His engaged life was, well...

It was alot of fun. Haruto legitimately enjoyed living together with Saki. They'd developed a solid camaraderie and Haruto found himself appreciating her snarky sense of humor. Even her incessant teasing was growing on him. And the physical aspects... Haruto couldn't get enough of kissing her. It was... almost magical.

And that was the problem. When he'd come up with the idea of marrying Saki to atone, he'd wanted to devote his life to her, to make up for what he'd done. But he wasn't supposed to be enjoying himself. That defeated the whole purpose of atonement, didn't it? If he didn't-

"Module 77 to Haru~to~! Moshi moshi!"

"Ah! Saki!" Haruto jumped. Saki was standing very close to him, peering up into his face, a faint smile on her lips. "When did you-?"

"Just now." Saki laced her fingers behind her back and leaned in even closer. "Sorry, shower went a little long. Did I keep you waiting?"

"Not that long." Haruto gulped. Her lips were so close to his... if he inched forward a little... "Sorry, I was thinking..."

"Deep thoughts, huh?" Saki pulled away with a wink, leaving Haruto with a mix of relief and disappointment. "You gotta stow those away for a while. Inuzuka-senpai awaits!"

"Right." Haruto stepped away from the wall and offered Saki his arm. She took it instantly, beaming up at him. The dark thoughts plaguing him blew away like dust at the feel of her soft fingers intertwining with his. "Let's go!"

"Hmmm... so this is pretty much a lunch meeting, right? What do you think the chances are the ol' skinflint'll spring for lunch for us?"

"Saki! Senpai's not like that! He just loves making money, he doesn't hoard it!"

"Yeah, you say that... but I still bet he won't volunteer to buy us lunch!"

"Hmph! You're on!"


"Hey there, Haruto! Rukino-san!"

"Yo, Senpai!"

"Hello."

Haruto looked around Inuzuka-senpai's office. He'd never been in this particular room before, and wasn't sure what the room was used for originally. One of the career counciler offices, maybe?

Inuzuka-senpai was seated behind a rather cheap-looking desk, its fake wood finishing unable to completely conceal the fact that it was made from composite materials. The room had been stripped of previous decorations and its walls were mostly bare, though bits of tape still clung here and there. The only remaining wall fixture was a battered and empty corkboard hanging near the door.

Between the door and the desk were a pair of chairs and student desks. And on the desks were...

"Are those for us?" Haruto asked, indicating the pair of food trays atop the desks.

"Yup. This is your lunch period, right? I went down to the cafeteria and picked up some stuff for you. So you don't have to skip lunch on account of me." Inuzuka-senpai explained.

Remembering the bet they'd made, Haruto shot Saki a triumphant glance-only to be confused when he saw that Saki was shooting a triumphant glance right back. What was that about?

"Uhm, sorry..." Inuzuka-senpai said hesitantly, apparently misunderstanding the glance between Haruto and Saki for something else. "Did you guys have your own lunch plans? You don't have to eat here if-"

"Oh, no, no!" Saki interrupted him. "We're really grateful for your largesse! Thank you for the meal!" She shot Haruto another look, her purple eyes sparkling with victory. "Isn't that right, Haru~to~?"

"Right!" Haruto said. "That's really generous of you, Senpai!" He gave Saki another triumphant look, even threw in a little bit of a smirk. He'd won their bet, right? So why was she gloating?

"Man, you two are getting really creepy..." Inuzuka-senpai muttered, glancing back and forth between them.

"Sorry... private joke," Haruto said.

Inuzuka-senpai shrugged. "Well, have a seat!"

Haruto and Saki sat down and tucked in. Between bites, Haruto addressed Inuzuka-senpai.

"What was it you wanted to see us about, Senpai?"

"New JIOR's financial future!"

"Uhhhh..." Haruto grimaced. He hadn't actually taken any business classes during his time in school. Just hadn't been that interested in the field. "I don't know much about finances..."

"No worries," Inuzuka-senpai said. "It's pretty basic stuff, really. Lessee... well, you know how we've got a few billion yen right now from donations in supplies and liquid assets, right?"

"Uhm, sure."

"Donations are fine, but it's not gonna last." Inuzuka-senpai explained. "The world's attention span for refugees is pretty limited. Remember that earthquake in South America a few years ago? Everyone was talking about it on the news and online, but that faded pretty fast. We're the hot topic in ARUS right now, but pretty soon we'll be replaced by the latest diet fad, or the latest sports victory, or whatever. So we need to make the most out of what we have right now."

"Right." Haruto agreed, but only half-heartedly. This kind of mercantile talk just wasn't his forte. He was much more interested in how to keep everyone safe, and once that was accomplished, figuring out some way to eventually liberate all of JIOR from Dorssia. Money and supplies were important, sure, but they weren't the focus.

Beside him, Saki was nodding at Inuzuka-senpai enthusiastically. "Yeah! Strike while the iron's hot! So what do you have planned, Finance Minister?"

"Well, I was thinking," Inuzuka-senpai went on, a big grin plastered over his face. Clearly, he was loving this. "New JIOR doesn't have any industry. We don't produce anything, so we can't export anything. We don't offer any kind of services. So what do we have to trade?"

"...The Valvraves?" Haruto was horrified. "Wait, Senpai, you're not suggesting we sell the Valvraves?"

"In a manner of speaking," Inuzuka-senpai grinned. "Not selling the actual units, but you're right that the Valvraves are a commodity. We can sell merchandise! Plamos! Trading Cards! Bentos! Clothing! Produced by ARUS companies in exchange for a licensing fee and a cut of the sales! And we've also got our popularity! Well, more like you twos' popularity."

Haruto sighed. This was over his head. But as long as it helped everyone out... "What do I need to do?"

"Product endorsements, for one thing. Ads and stuff like that. But I was thinking, other than licenses, we can use the Valvraves to sell advertising space! I've been negotiating with one company, and they've agreed to pay us if we name our Valvraves after their products and put their logos on them!"

'That's pretty clever,' Haruto had to admit. He hadn't really given much thought to naming his Valvrave. VVV I would always remain 'The' Valvrave to him, since as far as they knew, it had been the only one when he'd first piloted it. 'But what if I get a name I don't like?'

"I'm up for doing ads. But about naming Unit One... will I get to pick the product name I want?" He asked.

Inuzuka-senpai nodded. "Yeah, I'll send you a list to look at. You don't need to pick one now or anything. I mean, right now I'm stuck between Beast High, Trapanara, or Eagle of the Sea for Unit Five." He turned to Saki. "Rukino-san, I don't suppose you'd be willing to rename Carmilla...?"

"Not a chance." Saki shook her head.

"Figured," Inuzuka-senpai sighed. "What do you say to restarting your singing career?"

"What do you mean?" Saki asked slowly.

"I mean, signing with an ARUS label. Doing new songs and stuff like that. Performances down the road, maybe."

"New songs? What's wrong with my old ones?"

"Nothing. It's just that we can't really monetize them. I checked them out, and technically they're still owned by your old record company. They're also in a legal gray area now that Dorssia's taken over JIOR. So if we wanna make money, we'll need totally new songs."

"Makes sense." Saki was excited. "Alright, I'll look into that!"

Inuzuka-senpai grinned. "I've put together a portfolio of ARUS record companies for ya. I've even marked down which ones I've approached already on your behalf."

"Oh, on my behalf, is it? That's pretty presumptious of you." Saki scowled.

"Sorry..." Inuzuka-senpai winced. "I just wanted to take the opportunity as soon as I could. 'Strike while the iron's hot,' right?"

Saki sighed. "Just don't get it into your head that you're my manager or anything."

Inuzuka-senpai held up his hands. "Sure thing. By the way, how's your English?"

"My English?" Saki thought for a moment, then switched to the foreign language. "I can speak some. Understand more. Why?"

"The record companies I talked to weren't sure about the ARUS market for songs in Japanese. They think you'd be alot more popular if you did songs for them in English."

"Sure. If they give me the lyrics I can sing em."

"I'm also not sure how much you'd be making. Probably less than with your old record company. How much did you make, anyway?"

"Uhhhhhhh..." Saki looked down. "Not really sure, actually. Uhm, maybe 100 million yen a year? Less?"

"You don't know how much money you made?" Inuzuka-senpai was shocked.

"What?" Saki abruptly turned defensive. "Not everyone's into money like you, okay? My parents negotiated all my contracts, and most of the pay went into their pockets. But it's not like really cared about that. I just wanted to get the hell away from my parents!"

"Sorry! Sorry!" Inuzuka-senpai apologized. "I didn't mean anything by that. I was just curious... you were already so successful that young, you know? I wasn't even trading stocks at the age and you were already making millions. Sorry if I offended you."

Saki looked like she was going to continue yelling, but she visibly composed herself, blowing out a long breath. "No, no. It's fine. Sorry for going off like that. I really wasn't interested in the money part of being an idol. I only cared about being famous. I was fine as long as I had a place to live and Ali-"

She was cut off by Shoko's voice sounding over the speakers.

"Hey there, everyone! This is just a reminder that the module will be switching over to ARUS' power grid in fifteen minutes! There'll be a brief outage, but it shouldn't last longer than 5, maybe 10 minutes, so make sure to have your flashlight apps ready!"

"Ugh! Again!" Saki grumbled.


"Hey there, everyone! This is just a reminder that the module will be switching over to ARUS' power grid in fifteen minutes! There'll be a brief outage, but it shouldn't last longer than 5, maybe 10 minutes, so make sure to have your flashlight apps ready!"

'The frequency of the announcements may be slightly excessive, but they keep the population alert.'

Just to be safe, Mikhail went over his own preparations again.

Take the prison cell doors off the main grid and wire them to a backup generator. Done. In case of power outage, the module's computer automatically unlocked all the cell doors so that the inmates could evacuate. Mikhail didn't want his Dorssian prisoners taking advantage of the situation to escape.

Pick up the tablet he'd been issued back at the beginning of the mission with the security cracking software. Done. In case there was another door malfunction, he didn't intend to be locked out of any critical parts of the Module.

Add headlamps to his previously distributed equipment caches. Done. While he'd downloaded the flashlight app for his cell phone earlier, the rate at which the app drained the battery was unacceptable. And the headlamp would allow him to keep his hands free.

While Mikhail wasn't expecting any particular trouble during the power outage, it never hurt to be prepared.

"That prime minister of theirs certainly is working hard, isn't she?" A-Drei said idly as he clicked away at his monitor.

"She is," Mikhail agreed.

The two of them were far below the surface of Module 77, in the security station Mikhail had made his base of operations before he'd been accepted by the JIORans. At the time he'd found it useful because it housed dozens of monitors that allowed him to access camera feeds from all over the module, but he'd abandoned it after his pact with Tokishima Haruto. These days the security station was where A-Drei stayed since being released from the prison. Sentiments against Dorssians were inflamed, and it wouldn't do for A-Drei, a participant in the last attack, to mix with the general population. The last thing Mikhail needed was an altercation.

'An event is required to make the JIORans perceive A-Drei as an ally. Perhaps a prison break where he saves some students from the other Dorssian soldiers?'

"Here we go." A-Drei tapped at the keyboard. "They sent a response. Running the decryption now."

Mikhail allowed himself a moment of satisfaction. Although they'd planned to overthrow the Dorssian government together, A-Drei had been the one with all the Royalist ties. When Mikhail was branded a traitor, he'd lost access to those ties. While he believed he would have been able to compensate with control over the Valvraves, it was nevertheless useful to regain contact with the Royalists. "What did they say?"

"It's not good." A-Drei sighed as he scanned the decrypted document. "Quite a few Royalists were on the Lunar Fleet when the Valvraves destroyed it. They're saying that Commissar Ledin was killed during the battle."

Mikhail hadn't known Ledin was a Royalist. The Royalists certainly played things close to the vest. "These things happen in war. They should understand."

"Maybe they would, if it weren't for the Chancellor's speech." A-Drei looked annoyed. "My contact says that alot of Royalists are halfway agreeing with him. They want to see New JIOR brought down for using 'weapons of mass destruction' on Dorssians. And most of the others see New JIOR as an opportunity but not as potential allies."

'Nothing brings people together like an outside threat.' Mikhail understood the play that Chancellor Amadeus was making. It would be difficult to overcome, but not impossible. "Those objections sound like the opening of a negotiation. But even if the Royalists only view us as an opportunity, we're not one they can afford to pass up. What are their terms?"

A-Drei scrolled down the page. "They want a Valvrave. As a gesture of good faith."

"Figures." Mikhail muttered. "And if circumstances permitted I might give them one... but only the module's students can use them. They'll have to settle for the next best thing."

"Trading military actions? Like back in Ulan Bator?"

"Precisely."


Akira checked the files she'd prepared for the umpteenth time. She'd had to suffer through the last two power outages in the dark without any computer access, but not this time! Little Witch would lose access to the module's internet connection, sure. But at least her console would still be active. And on that console's drive she had uploaded...

'Two solid hours of kitty videos! There's no way they'll catch me with my pants down again! Nyah-ha-ha-ah!'

Pants down in a literal sense as well as figuratively. The only place she dropped her pants now was the public bathroom. The latest batch of jars she'd received from Satomi were still sitting around in their cloth, gleaming clean. It had been hard the first few times, after the time she'd run into Rukino-san, but it seemed like the idol's presence at the bathroom had been a fluke; Akira hadn't seen anyone there at all since then. And after a few false starts it had gotten alot easier to get out of Little Witch and go to the bathroom.

'Like a normal person!'

Akira smiled to herself. It was such a little thing, really. But the reclaiming of that portion of her life gave her a sense of cautious optimism she hadn't felt in years. Maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

'And who knows? Maybe next week... A shower?'

She hadn't had one in so long... A real shower, with hot water sluicing over her skin, soap suds in her hair. She shivered with delight at the prospect.

'Thank you, Shoko-chan. Thank you, Saki-chan!'


Kichuksana gazed around the bridge of the Phantom, pleased that all seemed to be in readiness. There were more crew in the room than usual- -although most of the ship's functions were automated, the special cargo required nearly a dozen more Magius, crammed around a hastily assembled bank of displays and control surfaces. Most of them were less influential individuals, or those whose original functions didn't translate well to Rune manipulation from within a human host, although those limitations didn't matter for their assignment today. They currently inhabited the bodies of ARUS pilots, snatched from a barracks just for this operation.

On the main screen in the front of the Bridge was Module 77, its faceted dome glowing like an enormous topaz gem against the pale backdrop of the moon's surface. Unlike the other modules dotting the moonscape, the JIORan module was alone, floating just off the surface, connected to a supply pipeline by a series of ducts.

"Kichuksana, transmission from Dosi." His tactical officer addressed him from her station off to the side. "All green."

"Good." Kichuksana glanced over at the other side of the bridge, where four medics watched over a series of monitors displaying biosigns. "How are our 'pilots?'"

"They're all sleeping like babies." One of the medics reported. "No problems here."

Kichuksana nodded and activated ship-wide communications from his console. "We're all green. Activate jamming. Battle stations, everyone."


"How are you going to get the New JIORans to agree to this?" A-Drei asked. "If that Yamada guy's anything to go by, they don't care much about Dorssian internal politics."

"Tell them the truth, of course," Mikhail said. "That once the Royalists are in power they can give JIOR its independance back. In the end, Dorssia doesn't need the JIORan homeland. Just the Valv-"

His words were cut off as the lights and the monitors in the security office winked out, plunging them into darkness.

"There it goes." A-Drei remarked dryly. "Hope it doesn't last too long."

Mikhail reached over to his side for his headlamp, but froze as the door to the security office suddenly whooshed open, locking into place with an audible click. That was not how the doors were supposed to behave during a power outage.

'Something's gone wrong.'


On the Phantom's viewscreen, Module 77 went dark, the golden glow of its dome dimming into deep blue.

'Right on time, Dosi.'

Kichuksana smiled and spoke to the weapons officer in the pit below him. "Sequence one. Fire on my mark."

He took a time to study the module as it hung below them, mentally going over attack and manuvering vectors one final time.

"Fire."


On the console, the kitty mommy leapt for the top of the dresser, missed her jump, and fell to the ground. The kittens around her scattered in terror, each making for the nearest hidey-hole. Akira giggled as one kitten's hindquarters wiggled, sticking out from the bottom of the dresser.

'They're so adorable! Oh, I wish I had-'

Little Witch's cockpit jumped abruptly, the sudden jolt lifting her out of her chair by a few inches. She let out a shriek, but even as her bottom settled back into the seat, Akira realized what it was. There'd been plenty of shaking like that over the past few months.

'We're under attack? Now? What happened to the neutral zone?'

But it was different this time. This time, she wouldn't be huddling helplessly under her blankets, watching the Valvraves fight the Dorssian bullies and waiting for the shaking to stop.

Akira pressed a key on her console, and the still-playing kitty video faded into the Valvrave's raven logo, the cockpit humming to full life around her.

'This time, it's my turn to fight back!'


Saki and Haruto yelped as the office shook. There was a clatter as the half-empty food trays went flying off their desks, followed immediately by a rumble coming from somewhere deep in the module.

Then there was silence. The room was lit only by the dim glow of their phones on flashlight mode.

"Dorssians? Attacking us here?" Haruto's shocked voice broke the silence. "But the moon... the treaty!"

"Adults only play by the rules when it's conveniant for them..." Saki muttered, trying to load as much cynicism into her voice as she could-although she was actually shocked at being attacked. She'd really believed they were safe on the moon. "Come on, we've gotta get to the Valvraves!"

Inuzuka-senpai vaulted over his desk and joined them in the scramble out of the office. "Maybe it's not Dorssia. Maybe it's just an accident of some kind. With the power grid transfer?"

"With how things have been going the past few months, do you really think it's something as harmless as an accident?" Saki pointed out.

"No, I guess we wouldn't be that lucky..." Inuzuka-senpai sighed.

As they continued to run down the corridor, Saki glanced over at Inuzuka-senpai's profile, half hidden in the gloom. Despite his tone, there was a determined look on his face. Good enough. Haruto was pressing buttons frantically on his phone.

'Speaking of lucky, at least all the airlock doors are open! Otherwise it'd take forever to get to the Valvraves...'

There was something odd going on though. Something almost beyond sense, sliding over her skin, prickling the small hairs at the nape of her neck...

Saki stopped abruptly. It was harder to feel while running, but now that she was motionless, it was definitely there.

'A breeze...'

Not the light movement of air near the ventilation ducts, no. This was the real deal. As soft and ephemeral as it was, it was unmistakable: a real, living breeze. It tugged gently at the fluffed ends of her ribbons, setting them to rustling against her hair.

'For there to be a breeze like this so deep in the module, away from the blowers in the dome... that must mean...!'

In front of her, Haruto and Inuzuka-senpai stumbled to a stop, spun around. Haruto spoke, his face lit in eerie blue by his phone. "Saki? What's wrong?"

"Guys. Do you feel that?" She asked, her voice coming out small and tremulous.

Haruto shook his head, but Inuzuka-senpai's mouth dropped open. "Wind?" He gasped. "Oh, no..."

A moment later, Haruto's blue eyes went wide as he too felt the wispy tuggings of the breeze. "That's... not good, right?"

"Mmm-mm." Saki's throat was dry. Too dry for words.

"Go," Inuzuka-senpai breathed.

They went, zooming down the corridors and down flights of stairs as fear lent them wings. Saki cracked her foot against something in the darkness, stumbled, swore, took a few hopping steps, and then resumed running, thankful for her Kamitsuki healing factor as the pain in her toes quickly faded. Haruto looked over at her in concern, but she shook her head at him to show she was okay, and he went back to his phone, only to growl in frustration a moment later.

"Dammit! I can't-" Haruto started, then composed himself. "Saki, can you call L-Elf?"

"Huh?" Saki had been aware that Haruto had been punching harder and harder at his phone for a while. "What do you mean?"

"My phone's not working! I don't know what's wrong with it!"

"Got it!" Saki hit the speed dial for L-Elf, only to see a flashing message box pop up on her phone's holographic display.

No Signal

"The hell?" She tried the speed dial again, only to get the same result. She looked up at Haruto in confusion. "I can't get a signal."

"Lemmie try." Inuzuka-senpai tapped at his phone. "Nope. Something to do with the outage?"

"Maybe." Saki tried to think. She didn't know much about how cell phones worked, but they routed their signal through some kind of broadcasting equipment on the module, right? So if there was a power outage, it made sense they wouldn't get a signal?

They were at the hangar now. The inner door of the hangar gaped open, but thankfully, the outer space doors were closed. Saki noticed that Otamaya-kun and the rest of the engineers were already there. Yamada was there as well, dressed in his orange flight suit, his helmet cradled under his arm as he turned to face them.

"Man, you guys are slow! Get on my level!"

Saki ignored Yamada as she rushed over to the lockers and pulled out her flight suit, too hurried to bother to duck into the changing room. Switching rooms to change would only waste time, and it was dark enough in the unlit hangar to hide her from the gazes of the others, she hoped. Haruto and Inuzuka-senpai were over by the engineers, and she caught snatches of their conversation as she skimmed out of her clothes.

"...no signal..."

"maybe an attack..."

"...if it's the Dorssians..."

"R-R-R-R-R-RUKIIIIII?"

Apparently it wasn't dark enough. Otamaya-kun and the others were gawking at her half-dressed body, while Haruto was looking discreetly at the wall. No time for embarrassment. Besides, she'd done shoots that showed off more skin than what was on display now. She shrugged her arms matter-of-factly into the sleeves of her flightsuit and zipped herself up.

"Buy my shoots, boys. They'll last longer!" Saki yelled at them.

"Ah, s-s-s-s-sorry!" Otamaya-kun struggled to apologize.

"What's your big hurry?" Yamada wanted to know. "Not that I don't appreciate, but they ain't shooting at us anymore, right?"

Saki swept past him on her way to Carmilla. "There's not exactly time for that, with the breach..."

"Breach? What breach?"

Saki goggled at him. How stupid could this guy get? "You feel that? That breeze?"

"Yeah? So?"

"We're in space, dumbass! On a space station? There's no wind here normally! If there's wind now, it means we're venting atmosphere!"

Yamada's forehead was scrunched up in thought. "Wait, that don't make no sense. If there's a breach, shouldn't the airlocks close? So it ain't a problem?"

In reply, Saki waved her hand at the hangar's inner door, which was still gaping open.

"Oh? Ohhhhhhhh..." The color drained from Yamada's face. He hurriedly jammed his helmet over his head and sealed it with the neckpiece of his suit, taking huge breaths as if he was already in danger of sucking down vacuum.

Saki sighed and continued on her way. Behind her, Haruto and Inuzuka-senpai were taking a cue from her and throwing on their flight suits. Carmilla still wasn't fully repaired and she'd be limited to one Spindle Knuckle and only two extra legs on her Multi-Leg Spine, but she'd make do with what she had.

It wasn't until she was already in Carmilla's cockpit, going through her preflight checks, that the full implication of Yamada's words hit her.

'The idiot's right. The airlock doors are supposed to close in case of a breach. Even if the power goes out, the doors have their own separate power supply.'

'...So why aren't the airlocks closing now?'

"Can anyone hear me?" Haruto's voice sounded inside the cockpit. So the Valvraves' comm channels were still working. Good.

"I'm here," she replied.

"I hear you, Haruto."

"Sup!"

"M-me too..."

Saki blinked in surprise. That last voice... It was so easy to forget they had a fifth pilot now.

"Akira-chan? Is that you?" Haruto sounded as surprised as Saki felt.

"Un." The squeaky voice grunted in the affirmative.

"Where are you?" Inuzuka-senpai asked.

"Outside."

"What the hell's going down out there?" Yamada demanded.

"Attacked. Module's hit."

"We're hit? How bad?" Saki wanted to know.


'How bad?'

Akira struggled to frame a response. There was a gaping hole in the sloped underside of the Module, so big that several Valvraves could fit inside. Looking into it, she could see the ragged edges of several decks. The edges of the gash were slagged and melted, clearly the result of some kind of weapons fire. She struggled to frame a response. Should she talk about meters? She couldn't estimate how big the gap was just by looking. How many decks she could see? The hole was uneven, showing as few as three decks in some places, as many as five in others.

"B-bad." She managed. "Come quick."


Kichuksana watched the purple Valvrave drifting around the hole they'd shot in the module. The humanoid craft seemed lost and directionless, flitting to examine the damage from one angle, and then another.

'According to Chamca's intelligence files, that's the hacking unit... by far the most dangerous of the bunch to this mission.'

The fact that the enemy had deployed this unit first was a bad sign. It hinted that they suspected some kind of internal sabotage. Although Kichuksana didn't think much of his enemy's strategy for sending out a lone unit without support, he was also aware that as unit they'd encountered most recently, the purple unit had much less information in Chamca's files than the others. And its combat capabilities were largely unknown.

This was the make or break moment. If that Valvrave unit attempted to hack the module systems, they would be forced to begin phase two. And phase two was still a contingency plan. It introduced a great many more variables into the situation- -variables which had the potential to go wrong. Better to keep things as simple as possible.

But no, the hacker Valvrave continued to bumble about pointlessly, giving Kichuksana the odd impression of a dismayed housewife examining a piece of broken furniture. It eventually settled into a hunkered position on the surface of the module's hull, staring down into the hole and not even bothering to keep a watch on its surroundings.

'Amateur. No situational awareness at all.' Not that there would be anything to see, even if the pilot remained alert.

"We have additional contacts!" The tactical officer announced. "Four enemy units launching from the module. It's the other Valvraves."

"Give me visual!" Kichuksana barked. The viewscreen changed to a feed of the four approaching Valvraves, curving around the module towards the damaged point. The purple Valvrave came into the shot as it rose from its position and flew to meet the others.

'Colorful bunch.'

All five Valvraves were assembled around the hole now. But they seemed just as helpless together as the purple unit had been by itself. Kichuksana watched as the red one dropped down into the hole, presumably to examine the damage from inside.

"Should we take action?" The T.O. asked. "All the Valvraves are gathered. If we strike now..."

"No," Kichuksana replied. "Everything is proceeding according to Chamca's plan. There's no need to go to phase two. Not unless the Valvraves force our hand."


En route to the hanger, Mikhail tried to contact Tokishima Haruto, only to discover the cell phones were out.

That by itself could be taken as a complication of the power outage, but...

'This close to the ARUS modules on the moon, the phones should be in signal range of other transmitters. The fact that they are not functioning suggests jamming. Most likely military.'

'And that breeze means a hull breach. A bad one.'

A coordinated attack then. Timed to coincide with the power outage as a distraction. No, the power outage itself was a deception. Airlock doors were locked open all over the module. In case of catastrophic shutdown of the module main computer, like the kind that would be caused by a power outage, the doors were supposed to close on their own. The fact that they were open now suggested that someone had merely used the system to deactivate all the module's lights and other electronics to simulate an outage. And that meant-

'There is a saboteur aboard the module.'

Mikhail kicked himself mentally for the lax security. But it couldn't be helped. None of the students were trained in security protocol, and his own face was known to the ARUS government since his capture, so he had to keep well away from any ARUS personnel. Module 77 was awash in ARUS aid workers and technicians and businesspeople and petty government officials. All of them were documented on their way into the module by security cameras, of course, and he and A-Drei spent a good amount of time checking boarders' faces against their memorized files of known agents, ARUS and Dorssian. But that had clearly not been enough.

'The simulated outage shuts down the bridge and decapitates our chain of command. Jamming the cell phones prevents secondary means of communication. And if the shaking a moment ago was any indication, we're under fire from outside. But why lock the doors open? Why haven't they fired on us again since the initial attack? Have the Valvraves already engaged them?'

It was Cain again. It had to be. The level of sophistication in the attack couldn't be attributed to anyone else. Mikhail had hoped for some kind of reprieve, a period of quiescence while the Dorssians dissected their stolen Valvrave. And he had thought that even Cain would not be so reckless as to violate the Lunar Neutrality Treaty. But clearly he was wrong.

'The first step must be to reestablish communication with the Valvrave pilots. In particular with Renbokoji Akira. I'll need her talents to restore the module's systems.'

They were at the hangar now, and a glance around the cavernous room showed Mikhail all he needed to know. The Valvraves were gone. Otamaya Yusuke and some of the other student engineers were standing around, looking fearful and uncertain. He'd missed the chance to speak with the pilots before their deployment.

"Hey! L-Elf! Good to see you!" Otamaya called out, starting to run towards him but stopping short at the sight of A-Drei. "Uhm, who's that...?"

L-Elf approached Otamaya, recalling some of the security camera footage he'd seen months ago, of the student helping Kibukawa Takumi with the Valvraves. In truth, Kibukawa would be better for the task he had in mind, but only Otamaya was available at the moment. He pulled out his cell phone and held it out, speaking quickly and urgently. "Otamaya Yusuke, I need your help. We must reestablish contact with the Valvraves."

Otamaya stopped scrutinizing A-Drei and gingerly took the phone. "T-there's not much I can do. The problem isn't local, I don't think. The power outage must have knocked out the module's transmitter, and the cell phones can't-"

"I don't want you to fix the cell phone," Mikhail clarified. "I want you to modify it."

"Modify it? How?"

"Do you still remember the Valvraves' transmission frequency from when you worked on their communication systems?"

Otamaya blinked. "You want... I see. Maybe. I'll need to replace the oscillating transductors, of course. And I'll need a way to boost the signal. But it could work." An excited glint appeared in his eyes. "Yeah! It would work!" He looked around the hanger. "Tools. I need tools."

Mikhail watched as Otamaya quickly ran over to a wall-mounted gearbox. He pulled the entire fixture off its hook, ran into the hanger control room, and got to work.


The damage really was bad.

Haruto edged his Valvrave back out of the breach, being careful not to scrape any of the sides. The hole was wide enough as it was. The others were waiting for him outside.

"So? Haruto, what'd you see?" Inuzuka-senpai asked.

"It's like we thought. All the airlock doors down there are open, just like on the rest of the module. I don't know how long it'll take for the module to lose all its air, but we don't have much time."

"So what now?" Yamada grumbled. "How do we fix this?"

Haruto didn't have an answer for him. They'd launched expecting a fight, only to find nothing but Little Witch floating around the breach. There were no enemy vessels; only the cratered white expanse of the moon's surface surrounded them. Who'd attacked them? And why would they fire once and then leave?

'What's going on here? None of this makes any sense! If only I could get in contact with L-Elf. He'd know what to do.'

No, that kind of thinking was counterproductive. L-Elf wasn't there at the moment, and he couldn't always depend on L-Elf to spoonfeed him every solution. He had to take charge of the situation. Try to resolve it himself.

"Plug it with something? Like... asteroids, maybe?" Saki offered.

Haruto glanced around. There were no asteroids in sight.

"If there ain't no asteroids around, maybe we could make some!" Yamada said. "We could go down to the moon, right? And haul up some moon rocks to fill the hole!"

"That'd take a while..." Inuzuka-senpai pointed out. "And can the Valvraves even manage to reach lunar escape velocity?"

"No clue! No way to know till we try!"

"I'd rather go with something a little less harebrained..." Saki muttered.

"Let's see ya come up with something then, ya ditz!"

"I just did, didn't I? Asteroids!"

Haruto dropped back down into the hole, feeling helpless. The Valvraves were such awesome weapons, but it wasn't their destructive powers he needed at the moment. What he needed was...

'A really, really big caulking gun. Or some kind of glue. And as powerful as the Valvraves are, they can't do-'

The liquid green hard light oozed through the cracks in the crystals covering VVV II's face as Carmilla's fist pulled away, until the emerald surface was smooth and unmarred again.

'If Unit Two could do that...'

He held up his Valvrave's hands, turned them over to examine the hard light emitters on the back of the wrists. Could he do something similar with VVV I?

'Like Yamada said, no way to know until I try it!'

Haruto put VVV I's hand near the edge of the breach and toggled the hard light emission. He slowly drew the mech's hand along the side of the breach, leaving behind a shimmering red trail. At the far edge, he turned off the hard light and and gingerly pulled the Valvrave's hand away.

The ruby slab of hard light held firm.

'That's one... can I do another?'

He started on another hard light slab. He'd been worried about how he was going to join them together, but that, it seemed, was unnecessary. As the light poured from the emitter, it melded seamlessly into the first slab he'd made, joining them together into a smooth crimson shell. Almost as if the Valvrave anticipated what he was trying to do...

Too excited to worry much about the details, Haruto started on a third slab. "Hey guys!" He called out over the comm. "I think I have a solution!"


Kichuksana stared in surprised horror at the Valvraves swarming around the hole. As they moved, they left behind a glimmering multicolored shell molded from the Light of Rune. While their work wasn't very fast, they would have the hole sealed in a few dozen minutes.

'Not just one, but all of them. The versatility-!'

It was that fact which dismayed him, touched something buried deep within, a small and frightened part from his past life. Before Earth, before he was Magius. He hadn't been a technical cera, and he hadn't understood much of the old prayukti pulsing around him for so many cycles. But he did know of their limitations. It was those limitations which had defined their roles as cera, forged their identities and continued to shape their lives even now on Earth. All these centuries later, it was the line between himself and the others on the Phantom, the real reason why he commanded and they obeyed, though in theory, all Magius stood equal.

For the humans to so casually brush aside those limitations of the old prayukti... how was this possible?

No matter. He shouldn't be considering such things now. Not when there was a mission to complete. The Valvraves could not be allowed to seal the breach.

"The Valvraves are sealing the breach!" The T.O. said, somewhat unnecessarily.

"Begin Phase Two." Kichuksana commanded. "Launch the Splicers. And warm up our weapons. We may need to go into combat." He took another look at the Valvraves. He had been too unsettled to realize it before, but at least the Valvrave pilots' civilian nature was on full display: all five were repairing the breach, whereas any soldier would have left at least one unit on guard. He would be sure to take full advantage of their inexperience.


Saki was so preoccupied laying down tracks of hard light that she jumped in surprise when Carmilla's proximity alarm beeped.

She quickly brought up her rearview display. There were about a dozen objects flying around near the module now: small white fast-moving craft. Carmilla's threat recognition popup told her that they were ARUS Splicers, Z-type, unknown configuration.

'Unknown configuration? What does that mean?'

"Hey hey! It's ARUS! Alright!" Yamada cheered.

"ARUS fighters? Are they here to help us out?" Haruto wondered.

"Aren't Splicers prohibited from entering the Neutral Zone?" Inuzuka-senpai pointed out. "So what are these doing here?"

A chill went down Saki's spine as she remembered the last time ARUS had betrayed them. Was this another plot to seize the Valvraves? She magnified her view of the Splicers. These were painted white instead of the usual blue with pink highlights, and in place of the ARUS insignia they were decorated with a small black rectangle containing a scribble of white text.

"Hail them?" Haruto asked. "Uhm, hello? Hello? ARUS craft, this is Valvrave Unit One. What are your intentions?"

They waited for a moment. No response.

"Can you make out what that insignia on them says?" Inuzuka-senpai asked.

"C-can't. Too small. Keeps moving." Akira-chan volunteered.

"What the hell? Are there more of them now" Yamada asked. "Couldn't've been more than a dozen before..."

'There definitely ARE more of them... Two dozen, maybe? Where are they coming from?' Saki couldn't shake her uneasy feeling.

"At least they're not getting any closer." Haruto said after another moment. "We can't just sit here staring forever; that breach still needs- -look out!"

The Valvraves scattered as a volley of- -something, Saki couldn't make out what- -flew towards them from the massed Splicers. The attack hadn't been entirely expected, however, so even as Carmilla darted away...

-Thok!- -Thok thok thok thok!-

A sound like hail hitting rooftops rattled through the cockpit, but Carmilla didn't shake at all. Saki glanced down at her console quickly, but there was no indication of damage to her mech. Little Witch was floating nearby, and Saki noticed gobs of some kind of orange goo stuck to various bits of the purple Valvrave's body. She was reminded uncomfortably of the silver thingies that the Dorssians were so fond of using, but this stuff seemed pretty inert, if sticky...

"The hell is this shit?" Yamada screamed over the comm.

"Waitaminute, waitaminute!" Inuzuka-senpai exclaimed. "I know what this stuff is! It's sealant!"

"Eh? Why the hell are they attacking us with sealant?"

"It's not an attack at all!" Inuzuka-senpai went on excitedly. "I think they're trying to help us seal the breach! We just got in the way!"

"Ohhhh! I see!"

Saki shook her head. She didn't agree at all with Inuzuka-senpai's assessment. Those shots had clearly been aimed at the Valvraves, and she was just about to tell him so, when-

"They're firing again!" Haruto exclaimed.

Saki jerked Carmilla away from the projectiles, but for some reason, the movement came out at a much shallower angle than she'd expected, and instead of completing evading the volley of sealant globs flying at her, Carmilla only managed to dodge half of it.

-Thokthokthokthokthokthokthok!-

"Dammit! Don't you ARUS bastards have eyes? The breach is over there!" Yamada howled in outrage. "This shit is seriously cramping Nobu Lightning's style!"

'Why isn't Carmilla moving properly?'

It was another glance at the nearby Little Witch that told Saki what was happening. Little Witch's left knee joint was covered with a glob of the orange sealant, preventing it from fully flexing, and the purple Valvrave was spinning in a slow tumble as its leg thrusters fired at different angles.

'They're trying to disable the Valvraves!'

Haruto apparently had come to the same conclusion. "It is an attack!" He exclaimed. "This stuff is preventing the Valvraves from moving! We need to take those Splicers out!"

"Suits me just fine!" As always, Yamada was gung ho.

"Wait!" Inuzuka-senpai cautioned. "Are you sure about that, Haruto? What if it's all a misunderstanding, and we accidentally killed some of them? We need ARUS' help!"

"But, Senpai! We can't just-" Haruto was cut off by another voice over the comm.

"-alvraves, do- -read me? This is- -repeat, Valvra- -you read me?"

For a moment, Saki thought that the Splicers were hailing them. But no, even through the static and distortion, the voice was unmistakeable.

"L-Elf?" She exclaimed. Was he contacting them from the bridge? Why was the audio quality so bad?

"L-Elf, is that you?" Haruto asked. "Is the module's power back on?"

For a moment, Saki heard another voice in the background on the comm, too soft and distorted to make out the words. Then there was a pop, and L-Elf was suddenly speaking loud and clear.

"Negative. Otamaya Yusuke modified my phone to transmit on this frequency. The module's condition isn't due to a power outage. It's been deliberately sabotaged."

"L-Elf, we're under attack out here!" Haruto said. "By ARUS!"

At that moment, the Splicers fired again. Instead of the orange sealant globs, brilliant beams of blue energy lanced outwards. But instead of being aimed at the Valvraves, the beams converged on the breach in the Module, striking the partially formed shell of hard light and blasting it apart.

'They're trying to suffocate everyone onboard!'

"You bastards!" Saki shrieked, driving Carmilla forward. "I won't let you!"


Akira couldn't pull Little Witch out of her tumble.

Theoretically, she knew the problem: because of the sealant in the Valvrave's left knee joint, her leg thrusters were pointed in slightly different directions, so one thruster pushed forward and the other sent her slightly off-course, resulting in a slow spin.

Theoretically, she also knew how to solve it. Point the thruster on the right leg in the same direction as the left leg, and then adjust the angle of Little Witch's upper body to match.

Practically, she had no idea how to execute that kind of maneuver. In some arcane way, she'd found that she'd simply knew how to pilot the Valvrave, without really understanding how she knew. When she'd first gotten in it, she'd wanted to fly upwards, to grab onto the Dorssian drill, to pull the Hummingbird free and swing it. And her body had simply moved automatically, manipulated the right controls for Little Witch to perform those actions. Like a reflex.

But that preloaded knowledge was working against her now. Without learning or experience, she just didn't know how to compensate for Little Witch's limited movement. And the more she thought about how to move, the more confused she got.

The movements of the other Valvraves confirmed her theory. Tokishima-san and Saki-chan, the most experienced pilots, were the least encumbered, Carmilla roaring into action and VVV I following after a brief false start. Thunder and Inuzuka-san were a bit more lumbering. Inuzuka-san, in particular, was headed toward the Splicer swarm in an S-shaped curve, his blue Valvrave continually drifting off track.

'Those Splicers...'

Akira didn't really buy the idea that their attackers were from ARUS. Yes, ARUS had betrayed them before, but there was just something fishy about what was happening now. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it felt like may be one of those... what did all those conspiracy nuts on the internet call it again? A 'false flag?' Something like that?

'Gah! Don't just zone out, Akira! Everyone needs your help! Get in there!'

She toggled her right hand control only. If the left leg couldn't aim its thruster, then she'd only use the right thruster. Simple, right? Carmilla and VVV I had reached the Splicers by now, and she steered Little Witch towards the blossoming explosions. It was a little slow, but she'd get there.

"Renbokoji Akira, I have a task for you," L-Elf announced over the comm.

'What the hell? He thinks he's just going to start giving ME orders?' Akira's upper lip curled. She started to tap through menus on her console with one hand. Maybe there was some way to mute the Dorssian's transmissions...

"The individual that sabotaged the module systems is most likely still onboard. All the control surfaces in the module have been disabled..."

There was L-Elf's audio channel! Akira paused with a fingertip over the mute option. It'd be really, really satisfying to squelch that proud, overbearing voice...

'Just assume everybody's yours to to order around, will you? Ha! How about you learn for once that not everyone's willing to put up with your shit?'

"...The module will continue to lose atmosphere until we regain control of the airlocks. I need you to use Unit Six to hack into the module's systems and get control back from the saboteur."

Akira let out a growl. As much as she would have loved to squelch the hated L-Elf, he was making alot of sense. Any of the Valvraves could fight, but she was the only one that could fix the module. And while she didn't want to admit it, being the only one able to undo this saboteur's efforts propped her ego up just a little. She thought about replying, decided against it as being too much effort, and steered Little Witch towards the breach.

She settled Little Witch into the hole, unlimbered the Hummingbird from its holster, and tapped part of the wall. Shining green lines raced away from the point of contact, building new circuits that linked into the module's systems. She tapped furiously at her console. Yup, L-Elf was right. The power outage was no more than a veneer; the lights and electrical systems were down, but the power was still humming and the main computer system was still operational.

"Renbokoji Akira, please respond," L-Elf said.

Akira growled softly again, groping for her cellphone. No way she was talking to the guy. He'd have to settle for a text instead. And while she was at it she could throw him a few choice remarks too...

Her phone wasn't getting a signal. She stared at it in horror. Of all the times!

Well, no worries there, she'd soon have the module systems back up and running, and even without her response L-Elf would know quickly enough once the power came back on who was responsible. She tapped away at her touch screen, quickly accessing module control systems-

-or not. Someone had rewritten the system's security protocols, adding a new set of password checks. That was fine though, like any good hacker, she had several backdoors she'd created previously just in case. It'd only take a few moments more to access one of them and bypass the new security.

The backdoor dumped her into the same new security prompt. Akira gnashed her teeth in frustration. Whoever this saboteur was, they were good. She tried another backdoor. Then another, only to come up with the same result.

As she checked through her succession of backdoors, she was half aware that the others were still speaking over the comm, their voices getting more and more agitated.

"I didn't know Splicers were this manuverable?"

"Shit! The left arm ain't closing back up!"

"Don't run away from me, you bastard!"

"Are they still coming? Where are they coming from?"

None of her backdoors were working. It looked like she was down to tackling the password protection head-on. Akira clenched her fists. All that custom software she'd written just for this purpose, the breaching tools she'd spent years perfecting, inaccessible. Because it was all back on her computer in her cardboard house, and somehow, she hadn't had the presence of mind to transfer them over to Little Witch.

"Renbokoji Akira, do you copy? Please respond," L-Elf said again.

"I'M DOIN' IT!" She screamed, just to shut him up. Fine, they wanted to play this the old fashioned way? She could play. She swiftly went to work on the onscreen keyboard, hammering out algorithms for a simple program that would brute force the password lock on the system, her thoughts racing.

'Gotta make sure the program can bypass the password failure lockout! Need an algorithm to change the session ID after every third failure...'

Even as she worked, she knew it wouldn't be good enough. When she'd first started she'd thought she could gain access to the control system within a few minutes. But now she was looking at half an hour to an hour, maybe even a few hours, while the algorithm ran. That timeframe was fine for breaking into government databases, or decyphering encrypted military transmissions, but not for a battle situation. Not while the module was losing more air with every passing second.

"Renbokoji Akira, are you encountering difficulties?" L-Elf asked.

'Is he making fun of me?' Akira's hands froze over the screen, momentarily too upset to continue. But no, the Dorssian's voice, arrogant though it was, contained no hint of mockery; he was merely trying to find out more information.

Trying to work through this crisis, the same as they were.

It was that realization that made her willing to to cooperate with him, at least for now. As much as she loathed him, she had to admit that her progress was too slow. L-Elf was supposed to be some kind of military genius, right? Maybe if she told him what was going on he could figure out another avenue of attack she missed.

"S-security lockout... Cha, changes to-to the system," she started. "My backdoors, I, I can't... I can't... I can't..."

The words wouldn't come. It was too big, too complicated, too much panic bubbling up in her chest. But without her phone to text, what other option was there? Akira tried again, the words tumbling out in a meaningless stammer.

"Security lockout. I, I'm locked out. Can't access. Breaching soft, software in the module. Algorithms. Need, need new ones! I-I wrote them. But, they won't, they won't, no time! I can't!"

Akira trailed off into whimpers. It was too much. The words just wouldn't come. They died in her throat and emerged as a wordless whine. She frantically tried to choke that off; sitting in silence would be preferable to the pathetic sounds she could hear herself making, but no good. Her hands had come off the keyboard now and were ruffling uncontrollably through her hair.

"You can!"

The rough voice cut through her blubbering. Akira stared at the console, her mouth hanging open.

"You can do it! You saved our asses with that hacking of yours before, didn't ya? You can do it again!" It was Thunder.

He didn't understand. She tried to explain.

"Not hacking. I can hack! It's, I just, I can't. Explain. Too big."

There was a pause. And then...

"Can't get the words out? I get it! Y'know, it may not seem like it, but even the great Thunder gets a little tongue-tied sometimes! You just gotta simplify! Tell em the important stuff, and drop the rest!"

'The important stuff?'

Thunder was right, Akira suddenly realized. All the circumstances around the hacking wasn't important. The threat to the module was the time before the air ran out. So the only thing she had to talk about was the time!

"P-password lockout. On system control." She said, thinking hard about each word before she said it. It was still difficult, but no longer the nigh-impossible task she had before. "Brute forcing it. Half an-an hour. Maybe more."

"Let's try something else," L-Elf said. "You said system control has been locked out. Can you access a less important system? Like a module diagnostic?"

"Think so..." Akira tapped in the commands. She could indeed run a module diagnostic. What was the Dorssian up to? "Yes."

"Run a check on the airlock doors. See if there's any that are closed."

Akira understood. If the saboteur was still around, they had to be staying in a place which still had pressure. So if there was a part of the module where all the doors were closed... She quickly typed in L-Elf's specifications.

It only took a few moments for the results to show up. And just as she suspected, there were closed doors. A whole bunch.

"P-power station. B-3."

Chapter 7 End