Shoko peeked out of the glass panel in the side of the zeppelin's gas chamber, hoping against hope that she'd see Midori-chan's figure approaching across the darkened storage room. No such luck. All around her, the students were huddled in little groups, some quietly whispering, others leaning against the struts that supported the hollow metal shell.
'So this is what it's like, having to decide who lives and who dies...'
She hated it. Just the thought of Midori-chan out there somewhere in the cold blackness, slowly asphyxiating... and it was her fault. She felt like she was going to throw up just considering it.
'But there really hadn't been a choice, even if...' They'd been lucky enough that Sakamoto-kun's father was a member of the festival planning committee, and Sakamoto-kun knew where the zeppelin was stored. Also lucky that when the zeppelin wasn't in use, the helium was drained out of the gas chamber and replaced with normal atmosphere. But they'd reached the zeppelin with very little time to spare; it had already become noticeably harder to breathe. And even now all they could do was hope the power crisis could be resolved before they ran out of breatheable air within the gas chamber.
They'd left a note back in the gymnasium saying where they were going, in case Midori-chan found her way there. But by the look of things, that hadn't happened. Either that or she'd collapsed on the way from oxygen deprivation.
'Is this the kind of thing you had to deal with, Dad? How could you handle it, after?'
"Prime Minister?" Someone said softly from behind her.
"Ah!" Shoko startled, and turned around to see a grim-faced Nanami-sensei. "Sensei? What is it?"
"Thinking about Akaishi-san?" Nanami-sensei gave her hand a squeeze.
"Yeah." Shoko nodded. "I just keep hoping she'll show up out there... but... it's not gonna happen, is it? It was already pretty bad when we got in. Can't be much air left out there now."
"Maybe she ran into Kibukawa-sensei," Nanami-sensei said. "And she's... safe with him, wherever he is now..." Abruptly she turned away, putting a hand to her face.
"Nanami-sensei?"
"Sorry, Sashinami-san..." Nanami-sensei wiped her eyes quickly with the back of her hand. "I came over to try and shore you up, but look at me... and I'm supposed to be the adult here..."
Shoko squeezed Nanami-sensei's hand. "I'm sure Sensei is safe with L-Elf... And... it helps, Nanami-sensei. Thank you."
The two stood together at the window in silence, keeping their vigil on the darkness outside.
The trail of blood led deeper into the power station, down into its dark machinery-filled bowels.
Mikhail's injured back was stiffening up on him as his combat high wore off, and the throbbing in his ankle was growing more pronounced with every step he took. He limped along, gun at the ready, keeping most of his weight on his good leg.
'Nowhere near top condition... can I take him when I find him?'
He wasn't sure. But judging by the amount of blood his opponent was losing, the magic man wasn't in top form either. And someone with those abilities was too much of an asset to his enemies to just let go. It would be best to take advantage of the current opportunity to eliminate him.
'But would removing him at this stage accomplish anything? Are individuals like Cain and this man a significant investment by the enemy, whoever they are? Or do they represent a post-experimental mass application of hard light technology?'
There was no doubt in Mikhail's mind now that Cain and the magic man were related to JIOR's own VVV project and the Kamitsuki. But it was hard to say what organization had created them, and how much of an investment they had been. The fact that the Kamitsuki were of such a young age suggested that the process which created them couldn't be applied to adults. Mikhail suspected that the Kamitsuki transformational process had to be started early on, in early childhood, at the very least. Otherwise JIORan leaders would have transformed themselves or key members of their military.
The variation in abilities between Cain and the magic man was a strong piece of evidence that the enemy's equivalent of the VVV project was in an experimental phase: mass produced weapons tended towards uniformity. But on the other hand, it would be dangerous to make that assumption without any real knowledge of how the process worked. For all Mikhail knew, the different abilities were a result of individual preference or skill, like how Karlstein produced graduates who favored different fighting techniques. And then too, the older age of Cain and the magic man meant that either the enemy project had been started decades before JIOR's VVV project, or that the enemy's transformational procedure could be used on adults. And that was a disquieting thought.
'Now I'm just speculating. This is getting me nowhere. Focus on the task at hand!'
The blood trail he was following suddenly became confused. Instead of the shoeprints and drops and dribbles, there were suddenly streaks and smears, covering half the width of the hallway. Encouraging. Had the magic man collapsed from blood loss and was now dragging himself along? He couldn't be much further away now.
Mikhail turned the corner.
There in front of him, at the end of the blood trail, sat the magic man, slumped against the side of the corridor. His long legs were flung out akimbo, and his hands lay limply at his sides, palms turned up, the fingers slack and unmoving. His head was tilted to one side, mouth open, dead eyes gazing blindly toward the far wall.
And above the motionless body, as if responding to Mikhail's proximity, a floating melon-sized ball of light kindled from a dull amber glow into blazing golden radiance.
Mikhail threw himself back. The beam from his headlamp had prevented him from seeing the orb's dull light until he'd turn the corner. Even in death, his opponent had laid his trap well, using the corner to block Mikhail's line of sight until it was too late. But now the same corner would work to his advantage, Mikhail hoped, by weakening the force of the coming explosion enough-
-for the second time that day he was flung through the air, enveloped in searing heat. He twisted as he flew-
'Not the ankle, not the ankle!'
-and managed to land on his right shoulder. There was a sharp pain as the shoulder dislocated, and his gun went flying from numb fingers to clatter to the floor. He rolled awkwardly and came back up a crouch, quickly reaching up with his left hand to push his arm back into its socket. His tattered shirt was on fire, and he tore it off and flung it aside, then snapped the knife out of his forearm holster into his hand, not sure where his gun had gone.
There was no attack. The hallway was silent but for a faint popping as the superheated floor and walls of the corridor began to cool and settle.
Mikhail crouched with his knife at the ready for a few more moments, then lowered it. He located his gun, checked to make sure it was working properly, and then gingerly peeked around the melted corner.
The magic man's corpse had been nearly obliterated. The only things L-Elf could make out were a partial ribcage and a few blackened bones, melted and fused into the slag of the floor.
'Did he set that trap to destroy his own body so we couldn't recover any evidence?'
Mikhail turned and started to limp back toward where he'd left A-Drei, in too much pain and too exhausted to feel any sense of triumph. The magic man had been a civilian, of that much he was sure. And yet with his powers he'd been able to fight two Karlstein graduates to nearly a draw.
'If a civilian could do that to us... when the time comes, how will we handle Cain?'
"On remote? You mean that cloaked ship or whatever, they blew up the Splicer and the pilot rather than let us have it? That's insane!" Haruto sounded shocked.
Akira didn't have time for him. She was busy pulling up the schematics for Z-type Splicers on her console. The Valvraves was pre-loaded with detailed information about all sorts of vessels they might have to face in combat. She looked over the blueprints, trying to figure out where an explosive could be located.
'Could be anywhere... but what was it that the display said at first? About unknown configurations?'
Did that mean the Splicers were noticeably modified somehow? In that case, if she checked for any differences between the schematics Little Witch made with her active scan at the beginning of the fight with the blueprints on record...
'There! That little bulge thing on the back!'
Each of the Splicers was carrying an oval-shaped lump on their backs, lumps which didn't show up on the blueprints.
"The backpacks!"
"The what?" Thunder asked.
"On the Splicers! Those, those are the bombs!"
"I see... And you can disarm them or something?" Rukino-san asked.
"Think so... Gotta hit em!"
"Okay... so we just gotta catch another Splicer," Haruto mused. "But they probably won't fall for the same trick as last time. Anyone have a new plan?"
"Screw planning!" Thunder yelled. "I got a feel for this shit now. Need me to catch another one? You got it!" Nobu Lightning turned and blasted off towards the Splicers, mobile once more now that the self-destructing Splicer had blasted away most of the sealant on his chassis. "Rainbow, you're with me! All we need for this is guts!"
"Wait, Thunder, you can't just charge in there!"
"What's that idiot doing?"
Akira stared after Thunder's yellow drive trail in surprise. He was just... charging out there. Not a glance back. No hesitation. And he seemed absolutely sure that she would follow.
Was it his unthinking confidence in her that spurred her into action? Or was it because she was reminded of her own charge to save Shoko-chan? Akira wasn't sure. Either way, she found herself pushing forward on her joysticks, sending Little Witch chasing after Nobu Lightning as best as she could with her jammed leg joints.
'This is probably stupid, but we can't just have all the clean things...'
To her surprise, now that she wasn't focused on it as much, her control over Little Witch was better, the stiff leg movements easier to compensate for. Ahead of her, the Splicers were scattering away from Nobu Lightning, a few of them taking potshots with their sealant cannons as they passed. Nobu Lightning was hot on the trail of one particular Splicer though, and no matter how much the fleeing vessel swerved and turned, it couldn't get away from the yellow Valvrave.
"Come on, ya bastard... I gotcha..." Akira heard Thunder muttering over the comm. "Rainbow! Gonna swing him around! Ya got my back?"
"Coming!" She yelled, pushing harder to catch up. Some of the Splicers were shooting at her now, and she pulled the Hummingbird from its holster, determined that she wouldn't get clubhands like VVV I and end up unable to wield her weapon. Up ahead, Nobu Lightning was almost on top of his target, looking almost like a cheetah running down its prey. The exposed heat sinks on his limbs and cooling fin were glowing red-hot.
'He's gonna overheat soon! Come on, catch it... Come on!'
Nobu Lightning latched onto the fleeing Splicer with one arm. He tucked in his limbs, spinning around using the same manuever that he'd pulled earlier to catch the first Splicer, and then flung the fighter towards Little Witch, his glowing yellow headcrest going dim as he overheated a moment later. "CATCH!"
Akira's eyes bulged out in shock. She hadn't been expecting that. She'd been thinking something more along the lines of him holding the Splicer still while she came up and whacked it. But there hadn't been enough time for her to reach Nobu Lightning before he overheated... the Splicer was flying in her general direction, but it wasn't anywhere near a straight trajectory; the craft's manuvering jets were firing, sending it in a curve as it tried to overcome the momentum of the Valvrave's powerful throw.
'THERE!'
She unlimbered the claws on Little Witch's left hand and jabbed them at the Splicer as it passed, hooking through one of the Splicer's wings and pulling it in, swinging the Hummingbird at it with her Valvrave's right hand. One tap on the Splicer's hull, and a second tap on the little explosive backpack! The Splicer's wing tore free from her claw a moment later and it started to fly away-
'But that doesn't matter! You're mine!'
Akira quickly pulled up the Splicer's systems on her console. As she'd suspected, the lump was an explosive, and it had its own transmission program running on its own software, isolated from the rest of the Splicer's systems. She quickly disabled that, and then switched back to the Splicer, locking out its manual and digital controls and inputting commands to send it on a course toward the module.
'Now let's see what secrets you've got for me!'
"We've lost control of Splicer #1!" Reported the T.O.
'That one? Different fireworks than we'd planned for al-Afridi... But fireworks nonetheless.' Kichuksana nodded. "Transmit the self-destruct."
His order was carried out, and Kichuksana watched the captured Splicer streak across the display, waiting for it to explode. He felt an odd distorted pride at the thought of the occupant's imminent demise. As his host body was the commander for Dorssian forces in the Middle East, he'd had an strange relationship with this human, al-Afridi. On the surface, as the Dorssian commander, he was devoted to the man's capture and execution. But behind the scenes, in Kichuksana's role as Magius, al-Afridi and his organization was tolerated. Kichuksana could have had al-Afridi taken at any time, as the man's unwilling inclusion in this operation showed, but his organization (infiltrated by Magius, of course) had always been useful as controlled opposition.
'Better a united opposition to the Dorssian occupation, with plans we can guide and direct away from Magius interests, rather than a bunch of loose cannons who can strike anywhere at any time,' He mused. 'Still... this pride I feel is problematic. Have I become too attached to this host? Perhaps it's time for a change...'
Splicer #1 was still closing on the module. Kichuksana frowned. Why wasn't it exploding? He looked down into the T.O.'s station.
"I sent the destruct signal, but..." The T.O. answered his unspoken question. "It doesn't seem to be getting through."
"What?" Kichuksana leaned forward in his chair. "A malfuction?"
On the screen, Splicer #1 had reached the module, the blue Valvrave settling into a defensive position in front of it. The purple unit was retriving the immobile yellow unit, with both of them under heavy Splicer fire, but the red and green Valvraves were awkwardly lumbering out to meet them.
"Not sure..." the T.O.'s fingers flew over her panel. "Could be. Or..." She looked up. "The transmitter's been hacked."
Kichuksana swallowed hard. Losing control of Splicer #1 could not be allowed. Days ago during the Council, Tinaguna had voiced his concerns that they wouldn't be able to launch an attack on the module without violating the treaty between ARUS and Dorssia, and he had been right. Chamca had figured out a way to circumvent the treaty by using the Afghani separatist movement as a scapegoat, but the Pashto tribesmen they'd abducted were just random farmers from Logar Province, with no real link to the organizations involved. Al-Afridi was the lynchpin of the plot, and without his corpse being discovered among the battle wreckage, the entire facade of a third party attacking the module could fall apart.
'There's no way we can allow him to be taken alive, even if he has no Runes left. It would raise too many questions!'
"Have the Splicers break off on their attacks on the Valvraves and take out Splicer #1. Under no circumstances can it be captured intact, understood? And get me Dosi again! I want an update of the situation on the module!"
On the main screen, the Splicers turned away from the Valvraves and streaked toward the module. Beams of blue light lanced from them toward Splicer #1, but the blue Valvrave spread its shields around the captured vessel, shrugging off the energy weapons and returning fire with its own green Light of Rune. Kichuksana watched, gritting his teeth. The Valvrave's defenses were nearly flawless. Its coverage was not quite as good as his own, but more than enough to prevent damage to Splicer #1.
"No response from Dosi," the T.O. reported. "Can't establish a connection."
'Dammit, Dosi! What's going on down there?'
He was on the edge of his seat, staring at the blue Valvrave on the main screen, trying to figure out a way around its defenses, when it happened. The lights in the side of the module suddenly winked on, and the enormous gem-like dome atop the structure warmed from dark blue to yellow.
Kichuksana stared for a moment, then settled back into his seat. Clearly, Dosi had failed to handle the intruders in the power station. The JIORans had not been evacuated. The operation had failed. All that was left now was the contingency and trying to salvage whatever they could from the situation. The yellow Valvrave was still overheated, and capturing it its immortal pilot would be a fine prize... But he had to take it carefully. Other than its cloaking device, the Phantom was constructed from commonly available technology, and no match for the Valvraves in a direct fight.
"Scuttle the remaining Splicers into their designated targets. Plot us a course that'll take us under the blue Valvrave to where its shields don't cover, and then past the yellow unit once the purple unit is distracted. We'll take out Splicer #1 and capture the yellow Valvrave in one manuver!"
"Second time you're saving my bacon, huh?" Yamada said over the comm.
Akira didn't bother to reply. Dragging Nobu Lightning back towards the module while under fire was problematic enough as it was! But at least the Splicers had broken off their attack on her, and she was getting pretty good at handling Little Witch despite that sticky gunk.
Up ahead, the Splicers were hammering at VVV V, trying to get at the Splicer she'd hacked, but the blue Valvrave's shields were handily shrugging off their fire.
Looks like she'd been right to tell Inuzuka to defend the Splicer. She'd suspected that just because she disabled the remote self-destruct, the enemy wouldn't just give up and allow her to win. Shooting down their own though... even though they were going out of their way not to use energy weapons on the Valvraves. What exactly were they trying to protect? Evidence of the cloaked ship, maybe? Or something else entirely?
the module's dome slowly lit up, and the lights over its surface also turned on.
'The power's back on! Alright!'
Something slammed into Little Witch, sending her spinning and knocking loose her hold on Nobu Lightning. Akira screamed, raging purple fire all she could see on her display. As soon as the flames cleared, she got a brief glimpse of a Splicer flying straight at her before the display erupted into chaos again.
'Kamikaze attack? What the hell? Are they nuts?'
The module's power was back on, which meant that the enemy operation had failed. Were they just suiciding into the Valvraves because they were salty? Or was there something else going on?
Was there something in the Splicers' onboard computers that they had to keep secret? It didn't seem like it. There was no reason why anyone would put sensitive information on a fighter like that. So what else on the Splicers could be so valuable?
'The pilots themselves! Of course! Whoever these guys are, they don't want to be taken captive!'
Akira accessed the virtual controls of the captured Splicer, searching for something that could be an eject command, even as she was jostled by repeated explosions. There! An icon that showed the pilot's seat with a flame under it! She slapped at the button on her console, missed because the cockpit was moving so damn much, tried again, and managed to hit it.
The repeated impacts had sent Little Witch flying well away from Nobu Lightning, but by chance, she happened to be looking toward VVV V and the captured Splicer when it happened. The canopy of the Splicer opened, and a tiny white-suited figure launched out on its chair-
-and then space underneath them seemed to ripple and tear open, a blue energy beam appearing from the void and blowing the captured Splicer apart, the explosion hiding the ejecting pilot from Akira's view.
'Dammit! That invisible ship again!'
Akira wasn't in any position to do anything about it. The distortion of space where the energy beam had come from vanished, but she had the vague impression that the thing was headed towards her.
'Is it just invisible? Or, phasing? Teleporting? What?' Akira felt like she was trapped in a sci-fi movie. She pulled the Hummingbird out and held it in front of her with both of Little Witch's hands. 'Where's the attack coming from?'
To the left! A square hole outlined by the distortion effect opened in space, right behind Nobu Lightning, and for a moment Akira was looking into a hangar, at space-suited workers rushing away from the hole-
-weapons fire struck her from nowhere, sending her flying. As Little Witch shuddered and Akira struggled to hang on to her seat, she realized that the invisible ship had to be huge, at least the size of a Dorssian cruiser, and she'd been hit by turrets on its hull behind her.
The open hangar mouth was moving forward, about to engulf Nobu Lightning. She gritted her teeth and tried to fly towards the yellow Valvrave, but was forced to swerve away by another burst of weapons fire.
'Thunder, hang on! I'll-'
A streak of scarlet soared in from over her head, and she looked up to see Haruto's VVV I slicing a path along the hull of the invisible ship with its katana, leaving a shimmering, rippling line through space. The red Valvrave angled down just in front of the yawning hangar and plucked Nobu Lightning out of the way.
"Come on, Akira-chan!" Haruto yelled.
"Right!" Akira took off after VVV I, and both Valvraves cleared away from the invisible ship.
"Here, take Yamada back to the module!" VVV I shoved Nobu Lightning at Little Witch. "I'll take care of... dammit, where'd it go?"
Akira latched Little Witch's hand onto Nobu Lightning's arm, looking around the bubble of her cockpit. There was no sign of the invisible ship anywhere: no hangar, and even the line of shimmering space where VVV I had cut into it was gone.
"I got it!" Rukino-san shouted, and a green disk of light went spinning past them. Akira watched as it curved out into the distance, reaching its maximum distance before starting to loop back.
"I don't got it..." Rukino-san mumbled.
"Careful!" Inuzuka commented as VVV V joined them. "It could be anywhere..."
The Valvraves huddled in a loose cluster, waiting tensely for another attack to materialize. As the minutes passed and no such attack came, Akira was forced to conclude that their mysterious enemy had abandoned their assault, leaving only the hole in the module and the wreckage of dozens of destroyed Splicers.
'That's not all, though. What about that pilot?'
She glanced around the wreckage... There! A tiny white-suited figure was tumbling slowly through the debris.
Saki unclasped her helmet and pulled it off, shaking her hair free and taking a grateful breath of Module 77's newly-pressurized air. It smelled rather strongly of ozone, but that was much better than the sweat-scented air from her flight suit she'd been breathing for the past few hours. She unzipped the front a little and took a deeper breath. Why did her suit have to be so tight in the chest?
After the invisible ship cleared out, their cell phone signals had returned, and Kibukawa-sensei had filled them in on what transpired in the power station, as well as the steps he was taking to fix things. The module had been patched into the Lunar atmosphere grid days ago, but the saboteur had shut down the feed into the module. Kibukawa-sensei had first isolated a section from the main air feed that led to the zeppelin so the students trapped there could refresh their supply of air, and then opened up it up to the rest of the module while the Valvraves patched the breach. It had taken a few hours, but the module was fully back up and running.
Saki shook her head in amusement. 'Hiding in a zeppelin... only Shoko...'
There were all sorts of rumors flying around among the students after the attack, including one that the Dorssian prisoners had escaped and were running amok. After the repressurization, it seemed, someone had gone down to the prison block, only to find all the cell doors open and all the prisoners missing. There had been a brief panic before the ARUS evacuation people had explained that they'd taken custody of the Dorssian prisoners and removed them from the module... and now some of the students were up in arms about that, complaining that the Dorssians were JIORan captives. What a mess.
'Speaking of prisoners... what was up with that Splicer pilot?'
Kibukawa-sensei had met them in the hangar when they'd come in and taken charge of the still-unconscious prisoner, taking him down to the medical bay. The right arm and left leg of the man's flight suit had been compromised during the destruction of his Splicer. Although his flight suit had kept him alive by automatically sealing and tournaqueting around the damaged points, his left foot had nearly been severed by the explosion, and his right arm from the biceps down was blue and frozen from prolonged exposure to vacuum. He'd probably lose both limbs.
Saki sighed. The pilot's identity and motivation were mysteries. He was a brown-skinned man in his 40s or 50s with a paunch and a great thicket of black beard (with a few streaks of white). Middle Eastern or Indian by the look of him. Or maybe South American? Saki found it hard to tell. Anyways, the bastard had quite a few questions to answer when he woke up...
There was a faint whine from the zipline as Haruto rode it down from VVV I's cockpit. She waved at him as he took off his helmet, and he waved back.
Haruto wasn't looking so good. His mouth was set and grim and his brow furrowed. His blue eyes were full of doubt. "Hey, Saki," he greeted as she approached him.
"Hey." Saki folded her arms around him in an impromptu hug, their flight suits squeaking. He squeezed her tightly and she squeezed back, slightly annoyed that his body heat didn't transfer through the suit. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine..." Haruto pulled away a little, smiling at her, although Saki could tell it was forced. "I'm just a little tired. But I'm glad we won!"
'Sorry, Haruto, but I know you better than that by now.'
"Haruto..." Saki took hold of Haruto's shoulders and pushed him out at arms length, staring sternly into his eyes. "Don't give me that. Things got better for us after we talked, right? So just... talk to me. Don't lock me out, okay?"
"Sorry," Haruto muttered. "It's just that... I thought we were safe, you know? On the moon, I mean. Like, I thought maybe we'd put the fighting behind us, and everyone would be... but then this happens!" He flung an arm out at a piece of wreckage they'd brought back with them to show L-Elf. The piece of metal was emblazoned with the same strange insignia as all the Splicers: a black rectangle filled with ornate white text. "Who are these guys? That pilot doesn't look like a Dorssian. So why'd they attack us? What the hell do they want from us?"
Saki nodded. "Yeah... I feel the same way." She let her arms drop, then cocked her head to one side, summoning up a smile. "But you're right, we did win. Now we just have to let L-Elf do his thing and maybe he'll get some answers out of the guy." She held up a clenched fist. "I hope L-Elf works him over good!"
"Work him over? Ugh! You mean torture? You think L-Elf will do that?"
"Well, yeah? He's a secret agent, right? In the movies, that's sorta what they-" Catching the slightly green shade of Haruto's face, Saki cut herself off. "Uhm, don't mind me!"
"No, no..." Haruto shook his head. "That's the kind of world we live in now, right? Maybe L-Elf is right, and I am too sweet. I need to- -whoa! Saki, look!"
Saki turned towards where Haruto was staring. There, huddling half-hidden behind one of Little Witch's legs, was a small pink-haired girl in a rumpled grey hoodie.
'Akira-chan?'
Haruto couldn't help gawking at the tiny girl. He hadn't expected her to come out of her Valvrave so suddenly like this. And she looked so timid and helpless!
'I should try and make her feel welcome.'
Haruto started toward Little Witch, waving at Akira-chan. "Akira-chan? It's good to meet you! I'm Tokishima Haruto!"
Instead of responding, however, Akira-chan shrank back even more until only one eye was visible peeping around Little Witch's leg.
'Looks like I scared her. How does one greet a hikki, anyway? Should I-'
"Uwaaah!" Haruto yelped as one of Saki's arms slid across his chest from behind, while the other gave him a none-too-gentle dig in the ribs, and she started to pull him back and away.
"Up-up-up-up-up... let's give her some space, okay?" Saki mumbled into his ear.
"R-right..."
Seeing him get pulled away, Akira-chan edged back around Little Witch's leg a little. Saki released Haruto and waved at her, smiling broadly. "Nice to see you again, Akira-chan!"
Haruto was surprised when Akira-chan smiled back tremulously. "Wait, 'again?' You've met her before?"
"Mmm-hmm. Not telling you when though! It's a girls' secret~"
"Hello, Akira-chan!" Inuzuka-senpai greeted Akira-chan, taking a cue from Haruto and Saki and staying well away from Little Witch. "I'm Inuzuka Kyuuma."
"Yo, Rainbow! What's up?" Yamada said casually.
Akira-chan gave a tiny nod to Inuzuka-senpai, then awkwardly raised her hand and waved at Yamada. "S-sup?" She managed.
There was an brief silence as the four pilots stared at Akira-chan, and then Akira-chan abruptly turned, rode up the zipline behind her, and disappeared into Little Witch's cockpit. Haruto stared at the purple Valvrave in confusion.
'I guess she doesn't want to talk to us anymore?'
Akira hunkered down into Little Witch's seat, her legs tucked up under her sweatshirt and her hands around her knees, immensely frustrated.
'That was it? "Sup?" Really?'
She'd thought with all the talking she'd been doing during the battle, she might be able to get out there and have some kind of interaction with her fellow pilots. But nope! She'd found herself as tongue-tied as ever, unable to step away from the comforting shadow of Little Witch.
"Hey, Rainbow!" Thunder's voice sounded over the speakers, and she looked down to see him standing at Little Witch's feet. "Glad to meetcha! Good to finally put a face to the voice!"
Akira eyed him. She wasn't quite feeling up to holding a verbal conversation with the guy. But then again, now that the phones were back...
"But man! Did I have the wrong idea about what ya looked like!" Thunder went on.
Akira picked up her phone and dial Thunder's number, quickly tapping in a text message.
RAINBOW: What do you mean by that?
Thunder pulled out his phone to read her message. "I thought you'd look more like your brother. Y'know, tall, blonde..."
'Oh, so I don't meet his expectations?' Akira gritted her teeth. It was always about Satomi!
RAINBOW: Well, I'm sorry I don't measure up to my brother. My growth was stunted by poor dietary choices and my hair color takes after my dad.
"'Measure up?' To Renbokoji?" Thunder laughed. "Nah, babe! More like he doesn't measure up to you! That was one hell of a catch you made out there! I don't see your brother pulling that kinda shit! Yer one cool chick, you know that?"
Akira blinked. Looks like she'd misunderstood.
RAINBOW: Sorry, got a little defensive there. Thanks.
"No prob! Dig the hair too! How long you been growin' it out for?"
'My hair...'
Akira shuddered. She could almost feel the weight of the scissors again, the phantom hardness of the blade pressing against her skull. The girls were laughing while she sat trembling, terrified that at any moment a missnip would slice through her scalp or her ears...
She steeled herself and went back to texting.
RAINBOW: Since middle school.
"Nice. Comes down to your back now? Betcha could pull off all kinds of sweet 'dos."
RAINBOW: Weirdo. You don't seem like the kind of guy who'd be interested in hairstyles.
In response, Thunder inclined his head and pointed to his orange hair with a flourish. "Hey, you know how many years it took me to perfect this 'do? Pretty stylin', ain't it? It represents a man's burning spirit!" He pumped his fist in the air. "ORRRAAA!"
Akira couldn't help but giggle.
'He's so over the top... But talking to him just feels... good.'
She thought it over for a moment, and then slowly typed in a new text.
RAINBOW: Could I ask you a favor?
"Sure, what is it?"
RAINBOW: Call me Akira.
"Eh? But Rainbow's a good name for ya!" Thunder said.
RAINBOW: Really.
"Gotcha, gotcha. But man, you're missing out! The great Thunder doesn't call just anyone by their nickname, ya know!" Thunder hesitated. "So, uhm, you want I should say Akira-chan? Or maybe Akira-san?"
Akira thought about it a moment. All the other pilots seemed to have settled on Akira-chan. But she felt like she wanted Thunder to call her something else.
RAINBOW: Just Akira is fine.
"Akira," Thunder said. For some reason, hearing him say her name in his rough voice made her smile. As if he could see her smile, he grinned up at Little Witch. "But that don't mean you get to call me Raizo or Yamada or anything like that, y'hear? I'm still Thunder, Top Dog of Sakimori High to ya! I got an image to keep up!"
Shoko examined a potted plant in the corner of her office. The plant was a bright, vivid green... but its leaves were limp and dragged in the dirt, dead from vacuum exposure. Soon it would turn brown, then black. She didn't like to think about it, but the same thing would soon happen to all the plants in the module... and the view of the lush green school grounds from the windows of her office would soon turn to one of desolation.
"Shoko-chan?" A familiar voice called out.
Shoko's head snapped around. There, in the doorway, stood a figure that she'd never expected to see again. Tears filled her eyes, turning the girl into a smudgy blob topped with lime-green hair.
"Midori-chan?" Shoko rushed forward, crushing the other girl in a tight hug. "Oh my goodness! You're alive! You're okay!"
"Shoko! Uh! Shoko-chan! Can't breathe!" Midori-chan wheezed.
"Ahh! Sorry, sorry!" Shoko dropped her arms and stepped back. "But, you're alive! I thought for sure you'd-!"
"Nope. Not dead." Midori-chan smiled. "But it was pretty touch-and-go there for a while... glad we all got out okay though!"
"Yeah..." Shoko agreed, wiping her eyes. "So you ran into Kibukawa-sensei and L-Elf then?"
"No, I didn't."
"Oh. Uhm, how'd you, you know...?"
"I was down in the machine shops when the power went out," Midori-chan explained. "And I knew right away from the wind after we got hit that there was a breach. The phones weren't working, so I tried to get up to the dome, but I got lost, and I ended up in some kind of storage room. There were some pilot suits there, I think maybe leftovers from when there were soldiers on the module. So I got into one of them. It was made for a guy though, way too big, and it was hard to get around..." She trailed off.
"What happened then?" Shoko asked.
"Well, not much." Midori-chan continued. "I mean, I was still lost, so I just kind of wandered around looking for where to go. Dunno how long, really. And then the power came back on and the air came back a little after that. Good thing, too. The suit was almost out of air by the end."
Shoko nodded. "I'm so glad you're safe, Midori-chan! I... I'm really sorry..."
"Sorry? For what?"
"For not trying hard enough to look for you," Shoko said. "I let you down. I mean, if you hadn't gotten lucky like you did..."
"It's no big!" Midori-chan heartily clapped Shoko on the shoulder. "I'm here, right? So no harm, no foul!"
"Unh-huh..." Shoko stared at Midori-chan. How could she be so jovial?
"Anyways, gotta go." Midori-chan turned to head out the door. "I'll see you later, Shoko-chan!"
As the green-haired girl ran off, Shoko rubbed her sore shoulder slowly. Was it just her, or was Midori-chan acting rather strange? She was so quiet usually. A little shy, maybe. And here she was, giving Shoko a friendly thwack on the shoulder. And a pretty sturdy thwack too.
'It's probably nothing... she's been through a hard day. Maybe that's just how she deals?'
When L-Elf entered the hangar pushing a wheelchair, Saki thought at first the man in it was their unidentified prisoner. He had one leg propped up and swathed in bandages, but a quick second glance showed that he was Dorssian, a light purple-haired young man about the same age as the students. She'd seen him before somewhere, she was certain- -but all attempts to place his face fled at the sight of L-Elf.
L-Elf was an absolute wreck. He was wearing a new blue Sakimori uniform coat, but underneath it his chest was bare and swaddled with bandages. There was a huge wad of gauze stuck to one side of his jaw, and where his skin wasn't covered by bandages it was an angry red, like a bad sunburn. His hair was scorched in places, ragged and uneven, with streaks of black soot mixed into the silver locks. The wheelchair-bound man looked much the same.
'What could have done that to L-Elf? Yamada and I couldn't even lay a finger on him!'
"Geez, what'd you run into down there, L-Elf? A bear?" Saki joked, trying to disguise her discomfort as the pilots (minus Akira-chan) joined L-Elf at the table.
"If only..." The wheelchair man grumped, looking up. As his burnt and unkempt hair fell away from his face, she was shocked to see his left eye was missing, a jagged scar twisting across his face.
"You... you're!" Haruto breathed, a moment before Saki realized where she'd seen the face before. He was one of the Dorssians who had invaded the module along with L-Elf!
"A-Drei," the Dorssian said, fixing his remaining eye on Haruto. "I take it you're the one that shot me. Tokishima Haruto, L-Elf's 'right hand,' right?"
Haruto's jaw set. "Yeah. That's me. And... about your eye... I'd do it again, if I had to. You were threatening the module and everyone's safety."
"That's fair enough," A-Drei said. "I don't hold a grudge, if that's what you're thinking. It's war, after all. These things happen." He smiled suddenly. "Besides, I think I got my payback against you back in the hangar."
"Oh yeah. You did shoot me a few times..."
"Why is he here?" Inuzuka-senpai asked L-Elf, his tone hostile.
"A-Drei has joined our side of this war," L-Elf explained.
'Uh-huh. That's convenient.' Saki eyed A-Drei's battered appearance. 'Then again, he did get hurt pretty bad defending the module, doing whatever down there...'
"So what happened to you two?" She asked. "Wouldn't have expected secret agents like you to get so busted up..."
There was a silence as they all digested L-Elf's words. Or tried to, anyway.
"So..." Haruto said slowly. "Like that Cain guy in the last attack? And Kibukawa told you that he overhead a transmission in the control room where someone called this guy 'Dosi?' What kind of name is that? Doesn't sound Dorssian."
"Similar, but not identical," L-Elf said. "Still, the conclusion I came to is their abilities derive from the same source. As for 'Dosi,' it could be a code name."
"Great, so there could be a whole buncha these guys running around..." Yamada grumbled.
"But this guy's not from Dorssia, right?" Saki asked. "I mean, that flag on the Splicers, and that prisoner... but you said the saboteur had an accent, maybe Australian? That'd make him JIORan... Are they all working together?"
L-Elf nodded. "I have some theories about that. But first it would be best if I knew everything about the space battle. Please try to recall as many details as you can."
It took much longer for the pilots to tell their side of the battle than L-Elf had.
For one thing, L-Elf wanted to hear all their perspectives. Even if some of the parts overlapped. And he went over certain points in the battle multiple times when he thought they weren't being detailed enough. And Yamada had to read Akira-chan's perspective out loud as she texted it to him. Still, eventually they got through it.
'So this is what a military debriefing is like, huh?' Saki stifled a yawn as Inuzuka-senpai told his part. 'No wonder they always skip this in movies...'
"And like Haruto said," Inuzuka-senpai was finishing up. "That's when we came in, and we brought a piece of a Splicer in to show you the flag." He pointed at the scrap of metal lying on the floor a few feet away.
"Thank you, Inuzuka Kyuuma." L-Elf said. He looked over at the piece of metal, his eyes narrowing.
Saki looked at the insignia as well. It was a black rectangle filled with a tangle of white script she couldn't read. But from L-Elf's reaction... "So, you recognize it? What's it say?"
"Yes, I do." L-Elf returned to his seat. "It's the shahada."
"The what?" Haruto wanted to know.
"The Islamic proclaimation of faith. It says, 'ia ilaha illallah, muhammadun rasulullah.'"
"'Ia iru-a...' What?" Inuzuka-senpai was confused.
"The emblem is a flag commonly used by Liwa al-Salaam, an Afghani separatist movement."
"Speak Japanese!" Yamada growled.
"I'm sorry, sorry. Stop." Saki said. "Look, pretend we don't know anything about the world or what that language is. Can you just take it from the top?"
"Okay. You guys know the Dorssian territory of Afghanistan?" A-Drei asked.
"Yeah... that's in the Middle East, right?" Haruto asked.
"Yes." A-Drei nodded. "Afghanistan's been occupied by Dorssia for going on ten years now. Liwa al-Salaam is a local militia organization that's trying to win their country's independance from Dorssia."
"Wait a minute," Haruto interjected. "If these Liwa people are fighting against Dorssia, that means they're the good guys, right? How come they're attacking us? Shouldn't they be our allies?"
"'The go-'" L-Elf nearly chuckled, and then caught himself. "That sweet nature of yours never changes... I'm afraid the old adage 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' rarely holds up in the real world. In this case, it would appear that Liwa al-Salaam are enemies of both Dorssian and New JIOR. There are all sorts of reasons for them to attack the module. For instance, after hearing of the Valvraves' success against the Dorssian navy, they may have wished to acquire a Valvrave of their own."
"Great," Inuzuka-senpai muttered. "More thieves. So that's why they were shooting sealant at us instead of trying to shoot us down? What about that prisoner? He's an Afghanistan... jin? Or whatever?"
"He is," L-Elf said. "And his identity is another point of interest. He's not just any Afghani. The man you captured is Abdur Rashid al-Afridi, one of the top three commanders of Liwa al-Salaam. Dorssian Intelligence has been after him for years."
Yamada's phone beeped and he looked down at it. "Akira wants to know if the prisoner woke up yet."
"He has." L-Elf confirmed. "His hand and foot were beyond saving and we amputated using the surgical unit in the medical bay. Other than that he seems to be in good health."
"Yeah? What'd that bastard have to say for himself?"
"Nothing." L-Elf looked troubled.
"Tough nut, huh?" Yamada pounded a fist into his palm. "I can come talk ta him some for ya, if you get my meaning..."
A-Drei and L-Elf exchanged a glance. "I don't think that'll be necessary, Thunder," A-Drei said. "Actually, al-Afridi claims to have no memory of the attack. More than that, he claims that he has no memory of who he is either... or anything at all, for that matter, from before he woke up in the hospital."
"Are you kidding me?" Saki was incredulous. "The amnesia defense? Seriously?"
The Dorssians exchanged another glance. "We're inclined to believe him," L-Elf said. "This kind of thing isn't usually part of the mujihadeen repertoire. Feigning ignorance, yes. But nothing on this level. And he seems very sincere."
"Head trauma?" Haruto suggested. "From the explosion, maybe? Or oxygen deprivation?"
"Perhaps," L-Elf allowed. "Between the flag and al-Afridi's involvement, it seems like the obvious conclusion would be that this was an attack by Liwa al-Salaam... but judging from the powers of the saboteur, and that invisible ship you encountered, a more reasonable conclusion is a false flag attack."
"Dunno what that is..." Saki mumbled. Haruto, Yamada, and Inuzuka-senpai also looked lost.
Yamada's phone beeped. He picked it up and read, "A false flag attack is a situation in which one party pretends to be another party and attacks a third party, or more rarely, itself. The term dates back from the days of wooden sailing ships, when sometimes ships would run up flags from countries they weren't from and attack other ships so the blame would fall on the country implicated by the false flag."
"Not bad." A-Drei grinned at Little Witch.
"So whaddaya saying here?" Yamada asked, rubbing his head. "Somebody painted a bunch of these flags onto Splicers so we'd think it was the Afghanis? But what about that Aruarufu... Aruafudi... Aru-afureru... fuck it. He's Beardy. Don't Beardy being here prove that it's his gang that attacked us?" He paused for a moment. "Aruafuru. Eruerufu. Weird."
"It does seem that way," L-Elf acknowledged. "But there are a number of factors that don't fit with that conclusion. Abdur Rashid al-Afridi is well-known to Dorssian intelligence. He is a planner and a strategist who prefers to lead from the rear. If he had planned the attack, he should have been commanding from that invisible ship. And yet he was on the front lines, flying a Splicer he shouldn't know how to fly. And there's that invisible ship itself to consider. If they had access to that kind of technology they would have liberated Afghanistan from Dorssian control long ago. No, this was not the work of Liwa al-Salaam. And the actual goal was probably not to steal a Valvrave. They were after something else altogether."
"Like what?" Haruto asked.
"You. The Kamitsuki. Or possibly the other students."
A chill went down Saki's back at L-Elf's words, followed by anger.
'Haven't they taken enough from us? Our homes, our lives, our futures, and now they even want our bodies?'
"Why do you think they were after the students?" Haruto asked L-Elf.
It was A-Drei who answered, "when we engaged the saboteur... Dosi, he let it slip that he was allowed to kill us on the basis that we were Dorssians and not Sakimori students."
"Wait a minute, I thought they were trying to kill the students by depressurizing the module?" Saki put in.
"Unless the ARUS evacuation people were in on it too..." Inuzuka-senpai mused. "But that would mean... ARUS, Dorssia, and this Liwa al-Salaam are working together? That doesn't make any sense!"
"The conclusion I'm forced to..." L-Elf said, sounding hesitant and not like his usual assertive self, "is that our enemy is some hidden extranational organization controlling assets within ARUS, Dorssia, Liwa al-Salaam, and JIOR. I admit, it's farfetched, but it's the only theory which makes sense. This organization found out about the VVV project, but did not directly control elements within the JIORan government involved with it. So the organization motivated agents within Dorssia to declare war on JIOR in order to seize the Valvraves for itself. Colonel Cain is probably a member or a tool of this organization, and having acquired a Valvrave through him, they are now seeking a pilot for it... or the means to reverse engineer a Kamitsuki to produce their own." He paused for a moment. "Although I'm not sure why they would need JIORan pilots, since Colonel Cain was clearly capable of piloting Unit Two. The powers of Colonel Cain and this Dosi are probably derived from their own research project, similar to the program that produced you Kamitsuki. Perhaps they wished to examine you and compare notes, so to speak?"
"Why attack us with... Beardy and his Liwa al... Afghanis though?" Saki asked. "Why not just keep using Cain and the Dorssian Navy, like they've been doing?"
"...Because the Dorssians have their hands tied by the treaty..." Haruto said slowly. "If the Dorssians attacked Module 77 while we're here on the moon, that would push ARUS into war with them. And whoever these people are, they might not want Dorssia and ARUS to go to war with each other. A war like that could mean the end of the world."
"Exactly," A-Drei said. "Liwa al-Salaam is an unaffiliated third party, someone they could put the blame on if the attack failed. Only... why would al-Afridi sacrifice himself or his organization like that? I've read the Intelligence dossier on him. He wants Dorssia out of Afghanistan and to establish a theocratic state with himself at its head. This risks everything he's ever fought for. I suppose they could have offered him Afghanistan... but I doubt this organization has that kind of clout within Dorssia."
"What if Beardy didn't have a choice?" Inuzuka-senpai said. "Invisible ship, right? What if they just kidnapped him or something, and drugged him and shoved him in that Splicer? And amnesia... Haruto, you're good with biology, do you know of any, I dunno, chemicals or drugs or something that could cause that?"
"I'm really not sure," Haruto replied. "There's lots of things that can cause memory loss. Hell, alcohol'll do it in the short term. But something that can erase all your memories like that? No idea. My dad might know. He does pharmaceutical research... but he's back in the Homeland, and I don't know how we could get in contact with him..."
Yamada's phone beeped. "Don't forget that the Splicers were rigged to explode," he read. "Beardy was never meant to live through the battle. But there's something else you guys should see. Sending you all links now."
Saki checked her phone. True to Akira-chan's words, she had a text message from Rainbow with a link to an ARUS online newspaper article. She opened it and caught her breath at the headline.
"Terrorists attack Module 77. Militant leader killed in space battle," Inuzuka-senpai read, then passed his phone to L-Elf, who didn't seem to have one of his own. "What happened to your phone?"
"Had to give it away," L-Elf said, his thumb moving over the touchscreen as he scrolled the article. "None of you talked to anyone about the battle, did you?"
One by one, the pilots shook their heads. "We didn't even know who this al-Afridi guy was before you told us," Haruto said. "And look, there's his name in the article. There's even a picture!"
"That's our Beardy," Yamada said. "So the... Golden News knows more about what happened here than we do? What the hell does this mean?"
"It means this news release was prepared ahead of time," Saki explained. "It's really not that uncommon, I saw this sort of thing happen a few times while I was an idol. It's a good way to guide the narrative and public discussion." She noticed L-Elf and A-Drei muttering together. "Excuse me, boys, would you like to share your conversation with the rest of the class?"
L-Elf seemed annoyed. "We were discussing how the enemy seems to have control over major media centers. Information control is a very powerful weapon that could be used against us." He returned Inuzuka-senpai's phone. "In any case, we do have a card to play. This article reports that al-Afridi is dead. So our enemies may not know that he is, in fact, alive and in our jurisdiction. Perhaps his memory will return and he can tell us something useful."
"So what do we do about this organization?" Haruto wanted to know.
"For now, say and do nothing that contradicts this narrative," L-Elf waved at Haruto's phone. "Whatever's locked away in al-Afridi's head may be the key to this puzzle. A-Drei and I will develop new security protocols. Renbokoji Akira." He looked at Little Witch. "I'll need you to write a new security program for the module's computer systems so we can't be sabotaged in the future."
"Shouldn't we be going after these guys?" Yamada growled. "Or are we just gonna sit on our asses and wait for em to hit us again?"
"There is no reliable way to attack an enemy we know so little about, Yamada Raizo," L-Elf said. "The only person we know for sure is a member of this group is Colonel Cain, and for the moment, he is beyond our reach. A-Drei and I are currently working on a way to increase the force projection capacity of New JIOR, but that will take some time. A week, at the very least."
Saki raised her hand. "Anything for Haruto or me?"
"Nothing for now."
"Okies then! Me and Haruto are outta here!"
Haruto sighed as he and Saki entered their room. He'd thought it would get easier once they got to the moon, but things had only gotten more complicated.
'At least when we were fighting Dorssia we knew who the enemy was. Now we don't even know that much. These guys are after the VVV project? What is the VVV project, anyway? Where did all this hard light stuff come from?'
Saki ran across the room and plopped onto her bed, sighing and looking up at the ceiling. "Glad that's over with. Despite what L-Elf said, nothing's really changed, y'know?"
"But even L-Elf doesn't know who the enemy is anymore. How are we supposed to fight someone we know nothing about?" Haruto sat down on his own bed across from Saki.
"We didn't really fight Dorssia either," Saki pointed out, sitting up. "Mostly we just waited for them to attack us and drive them off. We'll drive these new guys off just like Dorssia!" She tossed her head and made a fist.
Haruto stared at Saki's hair as she tossed her head, fascinated by the flowing purple locks. But Saki's nose wrinkled as her hair flipped past her face. "Ick," she moaned. "Hate those helmets. I smell like sweat..."
"I don't mind how you smell." To prove it, Haruto leaned forward and took an exaggerated sniff. He had to admit, even sweaty, Saki smelled pretty good.
Saki burst out laughing and pushed him away playfully. "Hahaha! Who knew Haruto would turn out to be one of those weird smell fetishists!" She stuck her tongue out at him. "You're not gonna like, steal my panties and sniff them in the bathroom or something, are you? Cause if you are I might have to call this engagement off..."
Haruto grinned. "Nah, not gonna go that far. Really though, your hair does smell nice."
"Really?" Saki brought a lock of her hair to her nose. "No it doesn't! You're just gross, Haruto!"
"It's a matter of taste, that's all!"
"Ahhh, whatever you say, perverted Haru~to~" Saki ran her hands through her hair and stood up. "I need a shower."
"Okay. I'll take one too after."
Saki paused. "Actually, if you're gonna shower too you should go first. I'll take longer than you."
"I'm okay with you taking longer. You said you were gonna shower first, so you should go first."
"Nope! We're not playing this 'you go first' game. I'm putting my foot down, Haruto! You're showering first and that's final!"
Haruto sighed happily as he stepped out of the shower into the steam-wreathed bathroom. The hot water felt great on his skin after being cooped up in the flight suit for so long, and as he toweled himself off, he started to think that Saki was right about the whole thing.
'It's the waiting game again, but we'll win it again, just like we won before. Yeah. With everyone pulling together, and with L-Elf's planning, we'll be sure to get through this one too!'
He finished drying himself and wrapped the towel around his waist. He examined himself briefly in the mirror, slightly annoyed at how the thick steam in the bathroom was making it difficult to breathe.
'No point in making Saki wait any longer for her shower. I can do my hair outs-'
As Haruto started to turn away from the mirror, the sudden crushing tightness in his chest hit him like a hammer, doubling him over, groaning. His hand flew to his chest, fingernails digging into his flesh as he gasped for breath. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a glint of red reflected in the bathroom mirror a moment before a red haze descended over his vision. He couldn't- He-!
Pino finished his turn away from the mirror, so hungry he could barely stand it. There, behind the door, was what he yearned for. What he needed. To sink deep into yielding flesh, to pour himself into a new host. To feed...
'Saki...'
Meaningless sound in his head. But it distracted him enough that as he stepped forward, his foot skidded out from under him on the bathroom floor rug. He toppled backwards, his head smashing into the corner of the sink with a loud CRACK!
And then Haruto was himself again, laying on the bathroom floor, clutching at his head against the blinding pain in his skull. Saki was pounding on the bathroom door.
"Haruto? Are you okay in there? Haruto!"
"I-I'm okay!" Haruto called, his voice shaky. "I slipped and fell, but I'm okay!"
"Oh... thank goodness. I just heard this big thump in there all of a sudden. Geez, be more careful, okay?"
"I will..." The pain was gone. Haruto slowly pulled his hands away from his head, His fingers red with blood. He felt again at his scalp, but the wound had already closed. He picked himself off the floor.
'Kamitsuki healing powers at work. But what happened? I was... drying myself off... And then I... oh, no.'
He'd had an attack. After all this time without one. He felt as if a pit had opened in his belly and he was collapsing into himself.
'No, no, no. Please, no. This can't be happening, I can't be having attacks again. Not after I...'
Haruto gritted his teeth, his hands trembling as he went to wash off the blood in the sink. There was a spot of red on the sink corner as well, and he shoveled that into the washbasin with his palm, before realizing that there was probably still a bunch of blood in his hair. Grimacing, he stepped back into the shower, his thoughts swirling just like the pink-tinged water spiraling down the drain.
'That was lucky... I must have slipped and fallen, and that knocked me out of the attack. But if I have another attack around Saki, what'll happen? I can't count on her to hit me out of it, and if I, if I...'
He stepped out of the shower, reaching for the towel and drying himself off mechanically.
'I might... do that to Saki again. If I'm around her. I can't be around her. Should I call off the engagement? I didn't propose to marry her, just so I could do that again. But no... she wouldn't accept it without an explanation, and there's no way I could explain... No, calling off the engagement isn't an option. But what else? What other excuse can I use to stay away from her?'
He was as dry as he was gonna get. Wrapping the now-soggy towel around his middle again, he opened the bathroom door. Saki looked up from her phone as he exited. "Looking good, Haruto! My turn?"
"Yeah," Haruto swallowed hard as he crossed the room and started dressing. This wasn't going to be easy. "Saki, listen, uhm, don't wait on me for dinner or anything. I need to go out for a while and I'm not sure when I'll be back."
Saki turned back to face him from the bathroom doorway, confusion written all over her delicate features. "You what? Where are you going?"
Haruto pulled on his pants. "To go see L-Elf. I was thinking, I'm supposed to be the Minister of Defense or something, right? So this whole thing with the saboteur is really my fault. I need to take responsibility for the security of the module. Step up to the plate, you know..."
"Oh. Okay." Saki looked doubtful. "It's your turn to cook tonight, but I'll take care of it. Uhm, I guess I'll leave you something for when you get back."
"It's okay," Haruto shrugged into his uniform coat and hurried for the door. "I don't think I'll be back tonight. Lots of work to do..."
As the door slid closed behind him, Haruto didn't catch the stricken look on Saki's face.
The man lay on the hospital cot, listening to the humming machine sounds around him and feeling the emptiness where his hand and foot used to be.
How could he miss something he never remembered having, he wondered. And yet he did. Although his limbs were already gone when he'd awoken, chained to the cot, and although he found just a hollow within him when he reached for memories of how he got there, there was a part of him that ached for their loss.
He licked his cracked lips, trying to moisten them even though his tongue was dry. His mouth was sour, and his head was pounding dully.
"Abdur Rashid al-Afridi," he muttered into the empty air, trying out the words.
It didn't seem familiar at all, his name. Or at least, what he'd been told was his name by the two youths who'd interrogated him. They'd told him other things, as well. That he was the leader of some kind of army, that there had been a battle near some place called Module 77, during which he'd been wounded and captured. A battle he'd been responsible for.
He accepted these things at face value. After all, without any memories to draw upon, it felt safer to just accept what he was told, rather than continue to be hollow. He'd taken for proof of their story that the youths were injured as well, covered in burns. One was missing an eye, although the wound looked to be an old one. Another, older man, wearing glasses and a white coat, had tended to the two even as they'd questioned him, applying ointments and dressings to their injuries.
Why? They'd asked him. Why had he attacked their 'module?' He had no answer for them. At first they'd been rough, and he didn't blame them for it. They were understandably angry after being attacked. But his abject terror and confusion at waking up with no idea of who he was or what was going on seemed to convince them that he was telling the truth.
They'd left him eventually, and now he was alone on the small hospital cot, trying to piece together what he knew and come to some kind of understanding about who he was.
"Abdur. Abdur Rashid. al-Afridi." It still didn't sound right, coming out of his mouth. "That is my name. My name is Abdur," he said in Pashto. And then repeated it in Arabic. It didn't sound right in that tongue, either.
He knew some things, at least. There were things called languages in the world, and people from different places spoke different languages. A person who did not speak the same language as another could not understand the words being said. He himself spoke two, Pashto and Arabic. Of the two, he was more familiar with Pashto. The youths had spoken Arabic to him, but when conferring amongst themselves they had another language, one he knew was called German, but understood only a few words of. The older man in the coat had spoken yet another language, one he was unfamiliar with but the youths clearly knew.
He knew what the parts of his body were, as well as the things around him. He was in a hospital room. The soft surface he was lying on was a cot. The hard white squares that made up the floor were tiles. The pieces of furniture against one wall of the room were chairs. The picture above them which showed a diagram of a partially dissected human body was an anatomy chart, although it was written in a language he couldn't read. The machine with the circular front in the corner of the ceiling was a camera, and the bit of metal linking his intact left wrist to the metal frame of the cot was a handcuff.
These things were facts, and beyond these, he had feelings, vague senses of how things should be that floated up somewhere from the aching hollow within. Like the tiled floor... just felt wrong. The mattress of the cot was too soft and springy, the room too brightly lit. He had an impression of a different chamber somewhere else, a darker asymmetric chamber with a dirt floor, covered in places by carpet, a lower, harder bed, where the light came in from one side only... but the more he chased the feelings, looking for details to pin them down, the more they floated out of reach.
But these things, the facts that he knew, and the feelings that he desperately pursued, didn't add up to a coherent whole. They didn't add up to an identity, the truth of who he was. He had been given a name: Abdur Rashid al-Afridi. But who was he? He felt desperately lost, abandoned and alone. There was something he thought he should do when he felt like this, but he couldn't recall even that.
The one thing he knew was that he was a soldier. A commander. And he'd attacked this 'Module 77,' whatever that was. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Why would he want to attack these people, or anyone else for that matter? What cause was he fighting for? Was he a just soldier who fought to defend the weak, or was he-
The door whooshed open, and he looked over quickly. The man entering the room wasn't any of the three he'd met so far, a tall, broad-shouldered blond youth wearing a blue suit jacket over a white shirt, and blue pants which matched the jacket. 'Foreign' clothing, he knew, although he wasn't sure how he knew that.
The youth stepped to his bedside, looking dispassionately down at him with blue eyes, his gaze travelling over his body to stop at the stump of his left leg. "My condolences for your losses," he said in Arabic. "Although if we'd had our way, you would have lost more than just a hand and a foot."
The man licked his lips again, his mouth going even drier than before as the confusion and terror he'd been keeping at bay bubbled up once again. "What are you saying? I don't understand..."
"I really underestimated those kids, didn't I?" The youth continued as if he hadn't spoken. "And I guess it was foolhardy of me not to use one of you as a host... but just... look at this!" He prodded the man's right bicep with a finger. "I couldn't be expected to make do with this, could I?"
The man shrank away from the youth's touch, confused and frightened. "Please, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't remember anything, please, don't..." His gaze flicked to the camera in the ceiling corner.
The youth followed his gaze, sighed in annoyance, shook his head. "Nobody's watching us. Left myself a backdoor into the computer just in case. And come on. Don't beg. It's just... whatever." He slipped a hand into his jacket. "I should get on with it. You live and you learn, right? Well, I guess you won't..." His hand came out of the jacket, holding a gun.
The man stared at the gun, but strangely, now that it came to it, the fear was gone. It had been the prospect of living, not knowing who he was- -perhaps never knowing who he was- -that frightened him. The prospect of death held no dread for him; as far as his memories were concerned he may as well have been born on this hospital cot a few hours ago, and there was nothing in this brief life that he cared enough for that he feared to lose. The youth was right. He wouldn't beg.
Maybe it would be enough of an identity to face death with dignity.
Chapter 9 End
AN: Thanks to xchrispx and Christemo for beta-reading.
I have to apologize again for how long it took me to get these three chapters out. While it is a triple-length update, I don't think that quite makes up for the excessive wait. As Christemo told me, I should focus more on consistent updates over huge ones, and I entirely agree. This chapter(s) was overly ambitious and in the future I'll strive to keep chapters between 6000 and 12000 words. That's not to say there won't be any 20000 word chapters coming out now and then, but there shouldn't be a 30000+ word chapter(s) again.
I also have to apologize to, and also thank everyone who reviewed or pm'd me during this period regarding the story's status. It's really nice to know that there's people out there who are anticipating the story. In particular, here's to you, DarkManta!
On to talking about the chapters themselves!
I know that the whole thing with the different languages comes kind of out of nowhere, and it was only barely touched upon in the show, with Haruto reading 'licht' and Saki not knowing how to say 'hello' in Karlstein. But based on those two examples they're clearly not all speaking some kind of new world language, and the Dorssians are SUPPOSED to be speaking German, but it's being translated into Japanese for the audience's sake. I've decided that the different languages thing is important enough to lampshade, so there's going to be occasional words or phrases not in English or Japanese. I apologize ahead of time if I screw any languages up. If anyone who speaks a language that's misused in the fic, go ahead and PM me and I will fix it.
I hope the Shoko Shoko plan was sufficiently brain-problems-y. Really, really wanted to take her back to her season 1 roots instead of the abomination she became in season 2.
Regarding Eruerufu's reaction to Dosi and the 'magic man' terminology, something I always found interesting was the only thing that really freaked Eruerufu out in the series was when crazy random shit started happening that he couldn't comprehend: the bodyjacking, Cain's magic powers, etc. And while he eventually adapt, he'd first go into this kind of meltdown mode. And I really liked that aspect of his character. So I decided to expand on that with a little bit about his childhood.
Thanks to everyone again for reading, and hopefully you enjoyed the chapters! As always, you can keep up with the progress of new chapters on my profile.
