CHAPTER 07 : Enter the Assembled Remnants
In the school building, Aoi meets Ichigo and Ran. She invites the two for some dance practice. Ichigo and Ran agrees and they all go to the practicing room. Once inside, they starts dancing together to the song "Move on now", just like in their first performance as a trio with their first Premium Dresses.
After they finished practicing…
Ichigo: (drinks her bottled water) "That was an almost flawless dance."
Aoi: "Yeah, we were perfectly on sync. So impressive."
Ran: "That further proves that our bonds are unbreakable."
Aoi: "Totally agree with that."
Ichigo: "And then we'll fully satisfy every audience once we go live with this."
Ran: "Definitely."
Ichigo: "And let's not forget that Aoi's synchronization rate with her Gundam is maxed out already."
Ran: "That can also be the factor of our flawless dance that we did."
Aoi: "You two haven't maxed out your synch-rates?"
Ichigo: "I have."
Aoi: "You have? When? I never knew that."
Ichigo: "I did it yesterday, very early in the morning, without letting anyone know about it."
Ran: "Ah, of course no one would know, we're still sleeping. Which means I'm the only one who still needs to train more. I was really close, too."
Outside the practicing room, Orihime approaches the door and peeks from its glass pane..
Orihime: "Perhaps I worried too much about Ichigo. There doesn't seem to be any signs of her trying to break everyone apart."
Orihime, knowing that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong going on, simply leaves the practicing room and goes back to her office.
Meanwhile, in DreAca's hangar…
Crewman: "Skyscrap Gundam, synchronization rate is at 96%."
Kii: "Amazing, Sora-chan. Just a little bit more."
Crewman: "97%... 98%... 99%... 100%! Kazesawa's synchronization rate is now at maximum!"
Kii: "Wow, nice! Great job there!"
Sora: "Ah, at last I am combat-ready."
Crewman: "You did great, Kazesawa. Now you may get off."
Sora: "Roger."
Sora gets out of her Gundam's cockpit, goes to the briefing room, and meets Seira along with Kii there, who got some cups of Brain Thunder with them.
Sora: "Got some drinks for me? Thank you."
Sora takes one cup of Brain Thunder and drinks it.
Seira: "You did great there, Sora. We can finally go to battle together to make Starlight know how superior we are."
Sora: "I personally want to meet Shibuki Ran in battle."
Kii: "What? That Muse of Spicy Ageha?"
Seira: "Ah, that makes sense. Both you and her are sexy-types, right? No wonder you wanna meet her in battle, to test out what she's capable of."
Kii: "Seira-chan also did the same thing with the Starlight Queen, right?"
Seira: "Though my focus has shifted to that Ichigo. Everytime I fought her, it always felt like I'm fighting myself, although with a bit different style."
Kii: "Because she's a cute-type, while you're a cool-type, y'know?"
Seira: "To be frank, Kii, I'm curious to see if I can take her as my partner."
Sora: "Oh, that came out of nowhere, Seira. I never imagined you would consider your opponent as a potentially strong partner.
Seira: "Like I told you before, she has that glimpse of me and almost all my skills. She might be a perfect partner for me. But the Starlight Queen keeps getting in my way."
Kii: "Perhaps it was the Starlight Queen who were supposed to be your partner."
Seira: "No way! I'm not sure if I can be comfortable with her, because she probably hates me so much now for the humiliation I caused her from our first battle. Besides, I'm more attracted to her GN Drive rather than the Starlight Queen herself - though I am aware that my Gundam cannot be outfitted with such power source without heavy modifications despite how great of a power source it is. But, with Ichigo, I'm sure my influence has been troubling her for a while."
Kii: "If your prediction is right, that would be absurdly amazing on so many levels."
Sora: "I agree. Anyway, I gotta go, still have to get some of my remaining works done."
Kii: "OK-OK-Okay, then. See you, and be careful."
Sora leaves the briefing room.
Seira: "She may not look like a person suited for combat. But, well, you never know what she's hiding inside that beautiful persona of hers."
Kii: "Yeah…"
Back in Starlight Academy, Ran is also doing her last bit of synchronization training while Hikari and Naoto is checking on Ran's progress via the control room. Ran's synch-rate is getting very close to max.
Hikari: "Great, Ran. Just 3% remaining."
Ran: "Just a little more…"
Hikari: "2%..."
Ran: "Almost there…"
Hikari: "1%..."
Ran: "And…"
The gauge displayed on the monitor hits 100%.
Hikari: "Zero! Finally, your synch-rate is maxed-out! Took you long enough, Ran!"
Ran: "I don't think I took that long to max out my synch-rate. You're just being impatient."
Hikari: "Nah, I think I'm not that impatient."
Ran: "Truly?"
Ran opens her cockpit hatch and drops down.
Hikari: "Perhaps because I kept looking forward of getting my own MS, not only to help you guys, but also as a preparation for me to go full-blown competitive mode against you, Ran."
Ran: "But, for now, we have no time for full-blown competition against each other. We have a major threat to deal with."
Hikari: "Thankfully, your Gundam is now fitted with a Hyper Deuterion Engine, so it can operate as long as you can."
Ran: "Ichigo's XNStrike also got one of those engines earlier. Yeah, thank Johnny-sensei for that. Although I wish my Gundam can use a GN Drive instead."
Hikari: "But I believe that would require a lot more modifications for your Gundam to be fitted with a power source from a different universe. Your Gundam is from Cosmic Era, while GN Drives are from Anno Domini."
Ran: "Aoi is so lucky to get a Gundam from Anno Domini timeline."
Hikari: "Isn't Sakura's unit also from Anno Domini?"
Ran: "I know that, but the GN Drive used in Sakura's unit is just an imitation of the original ones. You know the story, right?"
Hikari: "Aw, yeah, you're right. Perhaps only Futuring Girl has access to the original solar furnaces"
As Ran steps on the floor after going down from her Gundam, Yurika, who also just finished maxing out her synch-rate, approaches her.
Yurika: "As for Yurika-sama, even an Ultracompact Fusion Reactor is enough to keep my Gundam at top performance. After all, it is Yurika-sama who pilots it!"
Ran: "Keep that big talk, I want to see how well you fight in our next sortie."
Yurika: "You, too. Make sure you perform well with you maxed-out synch-rate, or I'll suck your blood."
In a different control room…
Naoto: "Okay, finally we got to use our spy drone. Do you think it will be useful?"
Johnny: "Of course it is. There's no way DreAca will ever find such invisible thing flying around their turf. The guys who made that drone are absolute genius, Yeah! Well, although it has its limits on how far away we can control it. We're just lucky that DreAca isn't going very far from us just yet."
Naoto is currently remote-controlling a flying spy drone equipped with a cloaking system that allows it to turn invisible, preventing enemies to detect its presence. The drone successfully locates the Dreamstorm Carrier, where DreAca resides. The base is apparently standing by, floating slightly above ground with its shield inactive. The drone scouts around the school area, until it spots Skyscrap Gundam moving out of the hangar. It appears that Sora is testing out the movement of her Gundam.
Orihime: "DreAca's new Gundam…"
Johnny: "But we have more Gundams than they do."
Orihime: "Still, you can't underestimate them."
Naoto continues moving his drone around. He spots Seira and Kii watching Skyscrap Gundam's test.
Naoto: "That pink-haired girl…"
Orihime: "There's no mistaking it. It must be Otoshiro Seira, the overpowered one."
Johnny: "I don't know about the one with fluffy hair, though."
Naoto moves his drone away from Seira and Kii and goes closer into the other side of the main building. Once he gets near a certain window of a room, he sees someone very familiar with the black suit, complete with that familiar purple hair. Her face is then completely spotted by the drone, revealing herself to be the one and only Mizuki Kanzaki.
Naoto: "?!"
Johnny: "Don't tell me she's-!"
Orihime: "Yes, Kiriya was right. Kanzaki Mizuki is truly in the enemy grounds. But why she's even there is still a mystery."
Johnny: "Man, stop leaving us in the dark, Kanzaki-honey!"
All of a sudden, Mizuki looks directly to the drone's camera. Naoto is startled and quickly moves the drone away.
Naoto: "Have I been spotted?"
Orihime: "That doesn't look like it. Your drone should be invisible still."
Naoto: "Hope so. Anyway, I'm going to look at that Gundam again."
Naoto moves his drone to see the Skyscrap Gundam again. And he sees that the DreAca forces is about to sortie, along with SWing Gundam and Skyscrap Gundam.
Naoto: "Oh nuts, they're preparing to sortie."
Johnny: "We gotta call the honeys and prepare to sortie, too. Their target must be us again!"
Orihime: "I'll summon them right away."
In DreAca's launchpad, several of their grunt units are getting ready for launch. The separated SWing Gundam modules is also there along with Skyscrap Gundam.
Seira: "Finally you get your chance to show your skills, Sora."
Sora: "Yeah, I can't wait to meet Ran in battle, if only she's also sortied."
Seira: "Don't worry, she will."
Sora: "Really?"
Seira: "Just trust me on that one."
Kii: "Seira-chan, Sora-chan, you two ready?"
Seira: "Anytime."
The SWing Gundam modules and Skyscrap Gundam are moved to the launchpad.
Seira: "Otoshiro Seira, Core SWinger, heading out!"
Sora: "Kazesawa Sora, Skyscrap, launching!"
Core SWinger and Skyscrap Gundam launches out. Next, the Chest Flyer and the Leg Flyer are launched, combining with Core SWinger to form the complete SWing Gundam and eventually combine with Swing Rock Booster. After that, four Dream Windams and seven Dream Daggers are launched. Three of those Dream Windams are piloted by Seira's top subordinates: Houko, Asagi, and Chiyuri.
Kii: "Our forces have launched, Headmistress."
Tiara: "Good, now let's see how Orihime will handle this…"
In Galaxy Starlight's hangar, the idols are on stand-by inside their Mobile Suits, as the school goes into battle stations.
Aoi: "So, they're back for some more butt-whooping from us?"
Kaede: "Most definitely."
Ran: "But now, all of us are here now, the remnants of STAR-ANIS."
Shion: "Except for me, sadly."
Sakura: "It doesn't matter, you're with us PowaPowaPuririn."
Otome: "Yeah, it's okay, Shion-tan."
Ichigo: "This time, we fight together to protect our school."
Yurika: "And also suck the blood of those DreAca denizens."
Ran: "If possible."
Yurika: "That's gotta be possible."
Aoi: "What I saw is true…"
Aoi having a flashback when she was about to get into her Gundam.
Naoto: "Kiriya, your info was right."
Aoi: "What info?"
Naoto: "I truly saw Kanzaki in DreAca when I was spying on them."
Aoi: "I knew it, she is among the enemy ranks. But why? Why would she side with DreAca?"
Naoto: "Dunno. But always remember to keep this a secret from Hoshimiya for now. I don't want her to end up putting us into a disadvantage."
Aoi: "Understood."
Back to the present.
Aoi: "Ichigo must not know about she knows, Seira might end up taking advantage of that."
Johnny: "Okay, honeys! Prepare for launch!"
All: "Roger!"
The Mobile Suits are now placed on the launchpad.
Ichigo: "XNStrike, Hoshimiya Ichigo-!"
Aoi: "AoIris, Kiriya Aoi-!"
Ran: "Ranflakes, Shibuki Ran-!"
Otome: "Lime Delta, Arisugawa Otome-!"
Yurika: "Dark Rift, Toudou Yurika-!"
Sakura: "Ahead Kitaouji, Kitaouji Sakura-!"
Shion: "Futuring Jesta, Kamiya Shion-!"
Kaede: "ReZEL Maple, Ichinose Kaede-!"
All: "HERE WE GO!"
Everyone launches out and advances toward DreAca's attacking force.
Naoto: "T-minus 60 seconds until contact. Enemy formation consists of SWing Gundam, an unknown Gundam, four Dream Windams, and seven Dream Daggers."
Aoi: "We're close."
Everyone continues advancing forward.
Naoto: "T-minus 30 seconds until contact."
…
Naoto: "T-minus 10 seconds"
Aoi: "Everyone, prepare your weapons. We're very close to their attacking force."
Others: "Roger."
Everyone picked their weapons and put them on stand-by.
Ichigo: "Here they come!"
From the direction they're heading, comes a lot of beam projectiles heading straight towards them. They quickly dodges all of them and then fires back at their adversaries. In that crossfire, two Dream Daggers gets shot down albeit not destroyed.
Ran: "Hits confirmed, two grunt units down."
Kaede: "Not bad."
Sakura: "They're now in our visual range!"
Seira's forces are now in the visual range of Starlight's forces.
Seira: "Here comes your chance, Sora. That one Gundam with a katana is gotta be Ran's Gundam."
Sora: "At last."
Sora in her Skyscrap Gundam heads straight toward Ran's Ranflakes with her scimitar in hand. Ran quickly unsheathes her katana and clash weapons against each other.
Ran: "A new model, huh?"
Sora: "We meet at last, Shibuki Ran."
Ran: "Oh, I'm famous already. Who are you anyway?"
Sora: "I'm Kazesawa Sora, a dress designer from DreAca, working on my own brand called Bohemian Sky. As for my Gundam, it is called Skyscrap Gundam."
Ran: "So much skies, you reek of sky as a person."
Ran and Sora continues clashing.
Yurika showcases the power of her Gundam Dark Rift against one of the Dream Daggers by using her beam claws known as "Vampire Claws". Even with such a close-range weapon, she fights effectively with them. The other Dream Daggers tries shooting her with beam rifle, but Yurika uses her I-Field cloak that she has on her Gundam's back to nullify the beams.
Yurika: "Ha! You cannot break through my vampire cloak! Now, let my vampiric claws suck your blood!"
Yurika swoops down towards one of the Dream Daggers that shot her, then stabs and pulls out its head. She then fires a shot from her camouflaged beam rifle, damaging the Dream Dagger's Jet Striker and causing it to fall down.
Yurika: "Yes! One down!"
Kaede: "Yurika, watch out behind you!"
Kaede with her ReZEL Maple comes in and shoots one Dream Dagger heading towards Yurika. The Dream Dagger dodges the shot and then rushes toward Kaede with its beam saber ready. Kaede dodges the slash with a flip and then she and Yurika shoots the attacker's Jet Striker, causing it to fall down.
Meanwhile, Sakura in her Ahead Kitaouji is currently fighting against one of the Dream Windams. Both are clashing swords with each other.
Sakura: "Wow, that Windam is tough."
Otome: "Rely on teamwork, PowaPowaPuririn!"
Shion: "Get into formation!"
Sakura: "Okay!"
Sakura goes away from the Dream Windam and begins assembling formation with Otome's Lime Delta and Shion's Futuring Jesta.
Otome: "Let's go with rotating gunbarrel formation!"
PowaPowaPuririn forms a formation similar to a gatling gun. Otome and Shion circles around Sakura while firing their beam rifles at the Dream Windam. The Dream Windam is having a hard time dodging all those beams, leaving it wide open for Sakura to slice off both its arm with her two beam sabers. After that, both Otome and Shion goes and kicks the Windam away.
Otome: "PowaPowaPuririn, nice formation! Love You!"
Shion: "Let's deal with the other enemy units!"
Sakura: "Roger!"
Ran and Sora are still busy clashing their swords, while Ichigo and Aoi continues their battle against Seira.
Seira fires her beam rifle multiple times at Aoi, but all of them are swiftly dodged. Aoi comes with her Azulmagia ready, Seira switches to her guitar beam blade. Both of them clashes their melee weapons.
Seira: "You've become far stronger than I thought."
Aoi: "Of course, I've become one with my Gundam!"
Seira: "Which means max synch-rate? Don't get cocky!"
Aoi: "You're the one who've been cocky this whole time!"
Seira: "Truly?"
Aoi strikes hard, knocking Seira back a little bit. Ichigo fires her Soleil-hache in blaster mode at Seira, which are then blocked with her shield. Aoi then rushes forward, preparing to attack. But Aoi's attack ends up getting parried by one of Seira's top subordinates, Chiyuri.
Chiyuri: "Seira, leave the Starlight Queen to me! You go after Ichigo!"
Seira: "Thank you."
Seira leaves Aoi with Chiyuri still parrying her Azulmagia.
Aoi: "Ah, wait! You, get outta my way!"
Chiyuri: "Not gonna happen, I won't let you reach Seira!"
Houko: "Chiyuri, need some helping hand?"
Chiyuri: "Much appreciated!"
Another one of Seira's top subordinate comes to fight Aoi. She pretty much has no choice but to take those two down before she can chase after Seira.
Ran, still fighting against Sora, notices Seira going after Ichigo.
Ran: "Oh no. She must not go after Ichigo one-on-one!"
Ran quickly gets away from Sora and rushes toward Seira.
Sora: "Where are you going?! We're not done yet!"
Sora also goes after Ran, but then she gets intercepted by Yurika and Kaede.
Yurika: "Not under my watch, new model! Let me, the descendant of Vlad Tepeshimself, block your way through victory!"
Kaede: "Definitely not gonna let you get away with this!"
Kaede starts firing her beam rifle at Sora, which gets blocked with her energy shield. Sora attacks with her scimitar, and gets parried by Yurika's beam claws. Both Yurika and Kaede take turns attacking Sora. As for Ran, she manages to catch up on Seira and tackles her quite hard.
Seira: "Ahh!"
Ran: "Ichigo! Let's fight her together!"
Ichigo: "Uh, okay!"
Seira: "You… You just won't let me fight her alone!"
This time, Ichigo and Ran double-teams Seira. Both of them take turns swinging their weapons at Seira, although the majority of them are dodged easily.
In the other side, PowaPowaPuririn manages to shot down all but one Dream Dagger. The last Dream Dagger is then assisted by Asagi in her Dream Windam.
Asagi: "How dare you shot down my troops!"
Asagi repeatedly fires her beam rifle at PowaPowaPuririn, which gets dodged pretty easily even with their formations. Sakura and Shion rushes toward Asagi with their beam sabers ready. She tries parrying those two attacks, but she ends up getting knocked back thanks to the Ahead Kitaouji's rather powerful longsword. Sakura then kicks Asagi away.
Asagi: "UWAA!"
Houko, who's currently fighting Aoi with Chiyuri, gets distracted by Asagi getting attacked.
Houko: "Oh no! Asagi!"
Aoi: "Where are you looking at?!"
With Houko getting distracted, Aoi uses that chance to kick Houko away and immediately rushes away to chase down Seira.
Chiyuri: "Houko, you dummy! She's chasing down Seira now!"
Houko: "Drats! How could I let that happen?!"
Aoi starts firing again at Seira from behind. She notices that, and quickly dodges the shots.
Seira: "What the?! Houko! Chiyuri! Why did you let her go?!"
Chiyuri and Houko chases after Aoi, only to get intercepted by Otome and Shion.
Shion: "Your last Dream Dagger is now down, only three of you remains!"
Houko: "How dare you…!"
While Houko and Chiyuri has to fight off Otome and Shion, Aoi is already clashing against Seira again, with constant assists from Ichigo and Ran. Sora, seeing Seira getting attacked by three units at once, quickly gets away from Yurika and Kaede, heading directly towards Ran.
Yurika: "Hey, you! Don't you dare running away from Yurika-sama!"
Yurika and Kaede chases down Sora while firing their rifles, but they were too late as Sora has already reached Ran and engages her.
Ran: "Can't believe you managed to get away from Yurika."
Sora: "Because it is my destiny to fight you."
Ran: "I'd rather not bring anything related to destiny."
Ran fires her shoulder blasters, which gets dodged once again. Sora also fires her beam cannon, and it also gets dodged. Both clashes their swords really hard, until both swords start to crack.
Sora: "It's cracked?"
Ran: "Wow, can't believe you also cracked my sword. That represents my reputation as the Beautiful Blade, y'know? You're gonna regret cracking my sword like that!"
Ran fires her blasters again multiple times. Sora tries to dodge all those projectiles, but two of them finally hits her Gundam's right shoulder and left leg. The two parts are damaged because of that.
Sora: "Ugh!"
Meanwhile, Seira still continues to fight Ichigo and Aoi. Ichigo unleashes a horizontal spin attack with her Soleil-hache, and Seira dodges it by detaching her Gundam in half before recombining. Ichigo is caught off-guard and Seira prepares to fire her beam rifle. Aoi then comes in and does a downward slash with her Azulmagia. Seira ends up blocking it with her beam rifle, and it gets sliced in half before exploding. Aoi continues her attack with a slightly upward horizontal slash, Seira quickly blocks it with her beam guitar blade.
Seira: "How much energy I still have?"
Seira checks her Gundam's energy supply, and it's getting low.
Seira: "No good. I must retreat."
Seira strengthens her her grip as she slowly pushes back Aoi. Aoi also pushes forward, and both ends up getting knocked back due to the sheer force they let out.
Aoi/Seira: "Whoa!"
Afterwards, the Gundams regain balance.
Seira: (catching breath) "You're not kidding…! You have become one with your Gundam."
Aoi: "So?"
Seira: "But even with you becoming one with your Gundam, there's still no denying that I will always be MULTIPLE steps ahead of you, no matter how high your note is now!"
Aoi: "Quit that bragging!"
Aoi tries to slash Seira once again, but she dodges and quickly escapes.
Seira: "Sora! Houko! Asagi! Chiyuri! We're retreating now!"
Houko: "No way!"
Sora: "We have no choice. Not with my sword requiring some repairs."
Asagi: "Ah, okay then."
Chiyuri: "We're retreating!"
Seira and the others finally retreats. The Starlight team gathers back together.
Aoi: "Nice work, friends."
Yurika: "After all, you guys have Yurika-sama in your team. Of course we're able to push those denizens of dread back."
Ran: "Though that Skyscrap Gundam's pilot is pretty formidable. She still managed to crack my sword, although I cracked her sword too."
Otome: "Aw, it definitely need some repairs."
Sakura: "Should've covered it with some beam coating to give it better durability, like my beam sabers."
Ran: "In fact, it does have beam coating. It's just that Skyscrap's scimitar is also powerful."
Ichigo: "Anyway, we managed to push DreAca back once more. Let's get back to school and take a rest for now."
Kaede: "Okay."
The Starlight team heads back to Galaxy Starlight.
Aoi: "Even with max synchronization, I still cannot beat her… Just how unstoppable she is?"
[TO BE CONTINUED]
