On all accounts, we are entering the second season, I suppose.
Judging by the amount of lemon I've put, and will put in the future… I came to realize that, if we are to turn this into an anime or a game… it would put this story in the H-genre.
If that be the case, I will struggle to keep the H scene within decent and safe limit, and most importantly: for them to have a sense. What I mean is that I will follow the shining example of my favorite h-game maker, Type Moon: if there's going to be lemon… plenty of them… then that lemon better had an excuse to be part of the story. Not just putting lemon for the sake of lemon sort of thing… but putting lemon because the story will need it.
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Flashback…
A day before the Haruto's departure to Moon…
Haruto had just finished explaining his plans to all participants of tomorrow's operation, which includes every single occupant of Module 77, including the students of the Sakimori High.
"That's how it is. Any questions?"
A hand was raised amongst the student. "Umm… what about the module? Your plan stated that every one of us is to leave the Module? Who's going to watch over it?"
Haruto shrugged. He's been saving this one for last. "We won't be watching over it anymore. We'll leave it behind here, in space."
Everyone's eyes widened in disbelief. "I'm sorry…?" The student gaped in disbelief. "Run that by me again?"
"You heard me." Haruto repeated. "We'll scuttle it down. We'll abandon this module, leave it behind."
The students were horrified at Haruto's decree, and glared angrily in protest. Haruto was unnerved by their glare, but somehow found it in him to remain adamant to this decision. Fortunately, the soldiers in the ranks, using their professional point of view, understand Haruto's point.
A-Drei took over the explanation. "From the very beginning, Module 77's only strategic value is its role as the place where Valvrave technology is being reverse engineered as well the genetic lab where Sapien Novus were developed and created. But after this recent endeavor, most of that equipment has been moved to the Valravn. Any other resources of any military worth that this module possessed has been largely spent, it could no longer serve as a viable base of operation for the coming conflict. As of right now, this module is only excess baggage."
"Speak for yourself, Dorssian!" The students howled in anger. "This is our home! This is where we all grew up! The place where the memories of our friends and loved ones reside! We ain't leaving it!"
"Will the memories of your loved ones help you stop a bullet?" A-Drei quickly followed. "I'd like to add that if you're going to go all sentimental, this is also the place where you're being experimented upon to be turned into a biological weapon, and your brain was tinkered with by the express permissions of your parents. Not a very fond memory, would you say?"
"Why you-!"
Before things came to blows, Haruto took over explaining. "I know… how much this place means to you. This module is also my home. But… we can't stay here. Why? Because the first thing they'll target when the guns start roaring is this place. And we've painfully learned… that this module is not defensible. How many people died before we understand that fact?"
The students were once again reminded of their sorrow, of how many of their friends had died in this place. "But to leave it behind…" In space, to leave something behind unmanaged is almost the same as leaving it forever, with little chance of ever seeing it again. Even something as big as a Module can drift away, an asteroid can smash it to smithereens, and no one would even know or care if a tiny unrecognizable and insignificant debris that bump into their space suit once belong to a gigantic module.
"This place may hold many memories… even I have stored… some photos and memorabilia in my Valvraves…" Haruto jerked his thumb at the Valvrave behind him. "But the most important piece of home… is in here and here." Haruto gestured at his head and his heart. "That home can never be taken away."
"Even if it's worth something… we still can't stay." Ryuuji followed suit. "We've used up all our food supply, and we can't replenish it. This Module does not facilitate hydroponic farming capabilities!"
The students growling stomach pressed Ryuuji's point further in. Food has been scarce as of late. They can't last much longer. The battle for the moon will be an all or nothing. And not just the moon. The Magius. The Council. It won't be over until the Magius and Council are be done with. And then another student suddenly asked: "How long will we leave?"
"As long as necessary." Haruto had no idea. He can't give an estimate; the war against the Council can last for weeks, months, maybe even years. A lot of things can happen to a module left adrift in space in that period.
"Will we come back for it?"
Haruto looked at the student with an unreadable expression on his gaze… but then, he nodded. "Yes. Yes we will."
They finally, and silently, unanimously agreed.
That being said, Haruto gave them a day to gather their belongings and other items of worth. Everyone board the Carriers and Walkits and soon, the Module was emptied in under an hour.
And then, as planned, the Valravn, the Valvraves, their Kagerous and the dozens of Faux Module 77 set forth, but Haruto, Kriemhild, the Emperor, Shoko and his father along with the infiltration units (and most of the Module 77 occupants) flew ahead of the main assault force, a day earlier.
However… unbeknownst to everyone, using 01's Mk-II vastly improved performance, Haruto, Shoko and Pino flew back to the now adrift Module 77, for the express purpose… to test a certain weapon.
"Haruto… you're going to test this weapon… on module 77?"
"Yes." Haruto replied. "This was my intention all along."
"You're going to destroy the Module." Shoko tucked her head down in mourning… and understanding. "Are you sure it must be done?"
"Shoko… if they found that Module… and study what's inside it… even if we scrub all data clean, someone smart enough can pick up the pieces where we've left off. A smart person can study that place inside out for some time, and sooner or later, they'll figure out the methods that 'produce' us. I won't let it happen." Haruto grumbled. "This curse ends with us. No one else must suffer as we did." He looked at Pino. "And when this is over, I will destroy the Valvrave. Is this okay with you?"
Pino nodded. So far, her Valvrave seems to have brought more harm than good anyway.
"Okay… I understand. Now… show me about this weapon that got you so freaked out."
"Basically, it's a weapon that make mode 666 more efficient and effective. This weapon is so powerful that we decided to split the locking device into two. It needs authorization from two people to activate it. The first is a DNA lock that reads my blood to activate the first phase." Haruto showed a small needle like button on a special controlled. He pricked his thumb at it as he pressed the button. The DNA reader scans his blood and confirmed his DNA. The first unlocking sequence was completed. "The second authorization sequence is a voice recognition system. A certain voice has to speak a proper password. Yours." Haruto nodded at Shoko.
"However, it's not just a simple speak and go." Pino explained. "The system will also analyze your various vital signs. Heart rate, brain wave functions, even tone and timbre of your voice… all must be placed on a set perimeter. A slight deviation on your biometric and it won't work. This thing can only be activated by your own free will."
Shoko sweated upon hearing such measures. "Wow… isn't that a bit… overkill?"
"When it comes to this weapon, Shoko… there's no such thing as overkill." Haruto explained. "All those sensors were designed specifically so that you can't be coerced to activate this weapon. Or worse yet, you were possessed by someone and tried to activate it. Truly, this system will only recognize your voice when you activate it on your own free will."
"I see… so I can only use this when I'm not under duress… right?"
"Yes. Also, in case if you are possessed by a Magius or something. The System has been designed to take that into consideration as well."
"Uhmm…"
"Now… you need to give out the password. A voice activated password. Say the word?"
Shoko nodded. "Oka~ay… Password… Squid Ink Noodle is the Best."
"That's the password?" Apparently the system records it and registered Shoko's voice. Already the Valvrave began to power up; its activation sequence starting up.
"Yep. Ah, I probably should change the password every now and then, right?"
"Just don't forget it." Haruto sighed. But knowing Shoko, she'll probably come up with passwords so embarrassing, most people wouldn't even think about it.
Soon, the main console lit up and the thermal gauge was activated, filling up rapidly to 666. As it did, the energy began to build up from the rave engine in the Valvrave's heart, resonating with a mirror rave engine that opens up in the Yashagarasu talon on the left arm's elbow. Droplets of jet black energy began to gather as Haruto unsheathed a doubled bladed Katana with deep red color, as if it was bathed in blood…
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"The Black Rose is Pino's symbol of office and deadliest weapon all rolled up in one." Cain explained. "It's a unique, one of a kind weapon. Made by a material alien even to us. In fact, for us Magius, an energy lifeform made out of thoughts, it was the first 'tangible' material we found in the universe filled with intangible beings."
"It's not metal, or stone, or solid object… no. It was fluid. Liquid. Red Matter. Ever changing." Prue followed. "And of greater importance… it generates singularity. It has its own gravity, like the core of its own universe. You collapse a singularity atop another singularity, exponentially increase the gravity on a single point… and you get…"
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Shoko watched in horror as waves of black Harakiri blades tear through the Module 77 apart, flaying it off piece by piece, until all the multitude of black blades converge on a single point right at the heart of Module… and then generate a gigantic ripple of black-hole right at the center of the Structure. The initial emergent blast split the Module in half, but then the blown away huge chunks of the Module began to flow inward, sucked into the hole… and finally, the entire module collapsed into the hole and sucked down without a trace as the black hole vanished. Everything: the buildings, the dome, the houses… the Valvrave construction facility, the Novus Magius incubation chambers… the school… everything… gone. As if they never existed in the first place.
"A black hole… generator…!?" Shoko's lips trembled as she watched its destructive capability.
"And manipulator." Haruto finished. "This weapon is about as alien as it get. I don't know how, but not only this katana is shielding us from its gravitational pull, but it also enables me to control the black-hole, preventing unwanted destruction."
"Unwanted destruction you say…" Shoko began to gasp for breath. Her mind began to consider the prospect of what will happen if this weapon were used against their opponents… how many people it will kill… The thought horrified her.
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And yet, today, she watched Haruto swing the weapon once again… and as expected… the damage was… beyond horrible, to say the least.
The Valvrave quickly put the Black Rose back to its sheath as the red robot looked defiantly at the wrecked enemy fleet. "That was a warning. If I so chooses, I can annihilate your entire fleet. And make no mistake… this isn't the type where I need time to charge… one more shot from you, and I can unleash another blast straight away." Haruto glared at the window screen depicting the chaotic condition inside the enemy warship.
Cain knew this is not just a bluff. He glanced at the Fleet Commander. "What do you want?"
"Stop this fighting. Now." Haruto glared. "We'll take the moon. Pull back your army, cut your losses and retreat. Amadeus stays with us. He has some crime to answer. As for you lot…" Haruto sighed. "I think you guys realized… what we just did will have a farther reaching consequences… you understand how far… right?"
Cain's eyes widened as he looked at Haruto on the screen.
"In times like that… a species has to stand together… no?"
"Why you-!"
"It is as you say." Cain suddenly interjected. He gave a meaningful look to the commander. "There's so few of us left… we can no longer afford to lose more. Commander…"
The Commander finally stepped aside and gave way to the true leader of the operation. Cain stood face to face with Haruto. "Tokishima Haruto. I'm Cain Dressel. Or… at least… this physical vessel of mine used to be."
Haruto frowned. So he's a Magius who has taken another's body. "And you are?"
"My REAL name… is Attlachoira Arrahnal Tuballa. Spider Queen of the Covenant of Seven Rainbows." Attlach/Cain nodded down.
In the Moon Base, Pino's eyes widened as a smile breaks out of her lips. "ATTLACH!"
"As you wish. We will sound the retreat. I trust, by rules of engagement, you will not shoot us down as we retreat?"
Haruto nodded. "All forces, cease fire! We won. Let them go!"
Cain bowed down in gratitude. "Sound retreat. We've lost."
And then, one by one, and somewhat reluctantly, the Magius forces pulled back from the theater of war. Not one more shot was fired, not only from the Magius, but also from their opposing forces. The New Jior Valvraves and Kagerous all dutifully obeyed Haruto's order. As for Dorssia and Arus… As soon as they saw all that mass destruction, everyone lost all taste for further bloodshed, thus they just let the enemy forces be about their business.
Seeing this peaceful cooperation however, Haruto merely sighed. This is just the calm before the storm. "It has begun… the New Age of Witch Hunt."
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Chapter 9:
Dialog of Natures
A Month later…
Many things changed since then.
A day after the battle was over, Mirko/Amadeus was summarily executed in public. Pino drained him off his runes until only a single shot to the head was enough to put him out of misery. They executed him as an alien who impersonate the Fuhrer of a nation. But really, that was just formality speaking. Under his capacity as Fuhrer, the human Amadeus had committed so many crimes against humanity, he pretty much earned death sentence… alien or not. But this is nothing compared to what comes after.
Haruto called it the New Age of Witch Hunt era.
"Hey, I think my neighbor is a Magius!" "A friend of mine was taken by the inquisition; they thought he's a Magius!" "The Director of the International Bank was arrested for possible ties to the Magius!" And so on and so forth. The Media were chockfull of news of arrest and mass executions of people suspected to be Magius.
The severity and scale of the revelation of Amadeus' true identity was far more severe than when it was just a simple idol that resurrected from a throat slit. The exposure that someone as powerful as a head of nation is not safe from the predation of these aliens brought the world into chaos. It was further worsened by the atrocity revealed by Burnett of how the Council had been feeding on thousands upon thousands of people's brain all at once inside their stealth ship. Haruto and Shoko's public unveiling of the Council Existence is one thing… but this is the final coffin nail to the wall that launched people into frenzy. Suddenly, not just in Dorssia, there were uprising everywhere. Rioting in the streets, overnight revolution, and nations collapse as all semblance of order seem lost when people no longer trust even their own government. After that day, Hell on Earth has become a literal expression.
The three super power nations of old: Dorssia, Arus and Jior had all been reduced to a shadow of their former self and essentially defunct. Arus, leaderless with the disappearance of its president, its allied country turned against each other. Dorssia is essentially a failed state, its cities turned to warzone as riot and panic reigned the streets. Jior, already torn apart by Dorssia early on, declined into independent city states isolated with one another and the world.
Panic and hysteria. Chaos, death, and destruction everywhere they look. The battle with the Council had clearly depleted some, but not all, of the Council's military strength. While they're still the de-facto ruler of Earth, that hold has weakened. With so much chaos and riot happening everywhere on earth, the Cuncil's existing forces were stretched thin trying to contain the situation.
Kriemhild and her officers are working around the clock and managed to re-establish contact with some of their comrades of the Dorssian revolutionaries on Earth. Based on what they catch… the situation was chaotic. Dorssia was the foothold of the Magius on Earth, thus, one can say Dorssia remain 'firmly' under control of the Council… but the Council is steadily withdrawing their forces from the Dorssian' capital and reassign them to… lord knows. Intel is still forthcoming, but they're expected to increase in frequency now that the security is much laxer.
"That being said… with our military forces had yet to recover from the battle of the Moon. I'm against the idea of staging a full on assault to Dorssia." Such was Kriemhild's answer to Haruto.
"I understand." Haruto sighed. The Commander in Chief of the NJDF has been getting demands from the Sakimori High students to immediately go down there to Earth and rescue their parents from Dorssian's clutches… alas… he really can't do it right away with their forces are bruised and under repair.
With the hold of the Council weakening everywhere, a few small nations that were powerful enough to survive the chaos flocked to New Jior, now basing themselves in the Moon, seeing that they are currently the strongest nation in the world. Supplies and other necessities flowed in on its own. Everyone of course, simply wanted to get in New Jior's good graces, if nothing else, at least to prevent angering the new emergent super power nation from turning the barrels of their Super Weapons at them.
But… as Shoko quickly learned, that was just fear talking. Their goal in the end was something more. It's always the same. They first came before her, congratulating her victory, and then they try to appeal to her humanity, describing, in somewhat excessive detail, of the hardship they endured when the Magius went public. And when all the Sally Sobstory and Robert Mourntale is over, came the true goal. And to that, Shoko had become adept to say:
"No." Shoko stated. "I'll say it again. New Jior has no plan whatsoever to send out our Valvrave units or any of their derivatives to outside parties. They are for domestic self defense, not international dispute."
After they overcome fear, what comes after was… greed and self interest. After the ass licking, came the begging. Omitting the various ways they put it, it always end the same: they want to borrow/buy/hire the strength of the Valvraves or their derivatives to help them quell their domestic problems. Everything boils down to how other countries wanted to get their hands on Valvrave tech.
"But if you refuse, how can we protect ourselves if the Magius attacked us? Your country has more than enough power to protect yourselves!"
"Wrong."
"What?"
Shoko grunted. Haruto had said it. This curse has to end with them, and she agrees. If all country suddenly start using Valvrave techs in war, that would be the end of the world, in literal sense. The New Witch Hunt age has just begun and the last thing they need… is the use of Valvrave techs to suppress terrified and horrified populace. The innocent blood that will be spilled would be enough to fill rivers. Next thing they know, a second Council will rose up before the first one was done. "You think it's enough? You forget, we employ Novus Magius to pilot the Valvraves… and you've all seen what they eat to survive, right?"
"Uhh…"
"We ourselves are playing with fire. We have five Valvraves, and several Novus Magius, each more powerful than anything we can throw at them. They're defending us because they want to, not because they have to." Shoko smirked as she tilted her head. "That's also a way for me to say… I have absolutely no control over their actions. Therefore I have no right to tell them what to do. Who knows when they'll start turning their teeth on us…?" Shoko let loose a terrible smile. The visiting dignitary was pretty close to soiling himself. "We wouldn't want to burden you and your people with such horrors now, would we?"
"Alright… alright… then allow me to speak plainly." The representative cleared his throat. "You said so yourself, you have no control over them… How would you stop them if they decided to… to unleash an unprovoked assault on other country unable to defend against them? J-Just like how they assault and take over the moon in one day-"
"Incorrect!" A-Drei suddenly interjected. "The council drew first blood not us. Need I remind you, when it first started, they didn't even bother offering a chance of parley or surrender, they just opened fire at us first thing. Fortunate that we expected something like that, so we were able to prepare. What would you have done if you were in our position?"
"We…" The Delegates of the nation quickly replied. "Which is precisely why… the Magius had been doing unprovoked assault on our country! Using their art of subterfuge and possession, they've been instigating riots and-"
"You mean the riots caused by how your administration had redirected the fund that were supposed to be used to feed your people and instead you used it for human experimentation?" A-drei bluntly stated. To further make his point, he even tossed hard copy reports of said experiments on the table. To add insult to injury, all signed and sealed by the head of the nation itself.
The delegate's jaw hung open as his eyes looked in horror at all this proof written in ink. "I… this is… Where did you get this…!?" After the revelation of the Novus Magius and what they can do, it's no longer a secret that suddenly, super human experimenting became all the rage in the world. Despite the chaos that occurred in their populace, every country in the world is now trying to create their own immortal super soldier.
"Unimportant." A-Drei frowned. "What's important is-"
"New JIOR is at war. We have declared war against the Council. We may be using bio-engineered human as soldiers… doesn't mean we condone it. And I'll say it again and again. With all the odds are stacked against us. Given the situation, we can ill afford to lend any of our current standing forces to help you quell the ineptitude of your own government!" Shoko stood up as she glared at the Dignitary. She almost regretted her choice of words. But… this is probably the nth delegates who think the New JIOR is some kind of super soldier PMC whose military forces is for hire. And quite frankly, she's getting fed up with this constant demand. "I'll say it again: the Valvraves, the Kagerous… and the Novus Magius pilots associated with them… are used for our domestic self defense ONLY. We have no intention to let any party to borrow, buy, or hire them out… for ANY reason."
And then Shoko continued. "We know, what's happening in your country. We know… that there are inquisitions, the people are frenzied and horrified. When that happens, it is the government's duty to bring the peace. But threatening your citizen with guns will simply make you no better than the Council."
"Please ma'am. Spare us this piety." The Delegate frowned. "You and your administration is what makes the current state of the world possible. Will you not take responsibility for it?"
"We are." Shoko grumbled. "By becoming an example of what your country should've done in the face of this revelation."
"Example?"
Shoko sighed. "Remember when I had that verbal debate with the Council? Everything they say is nothing but codswallop of a horseshit. Everything except one: our two races… humanity and magius are linked with each other, we are part of one world, one planet. The question is, are you willing to share with them?"
"Share with a bunch of monsters who ate human's memories?"
"There you go, that's your problem right there. You see them as monsters…. But from their point of view, we are the monsters. We employ Magius as our main standing army, some are members of my cabinet, key members of my administration are Magius. How do you think our country avoided civil unrest when the whole world is gripped by it? We don't discriminate against Magius or try to hunt them to be burned at the stake… And all my people, human each and every one of them, are willing to accept that. And each one of the Magius in my employ is prepared to defend them to their last breath, not one of them ever considers the idea of draining us dry." Shoko stood up to bring forth her final word: "I suggest… you go back to your president… and tell him… rather than pointing guns at terrified people's head and then went kill-em-all-let-god-sort-them-out kind a thing, why don't you start by making them love you enough not to kill you?"
"You speak of acceptance of the Magius but you wage war against them?"
"New Jior declared war against a Magius Constitution called the Council of 101. The sins of the government are not the sins of their citizens. If there is any Magius who wish to join us in our struggle or just seeking a safe haven, they are more than welcome to come here provided they are willing to abide by our legislations."
There. That statement. Shoko had said that over and over to the face of every delegates from every country… human delegates that had come to her asking for her help to search and destroy any Magius in their country… But when she said that, their firmly held flat expressions all crumbled to that of horror.
"And how many, may we ask, of the Magius that are swayed by your offer?"
"Zip." Shoko chuckled in embarrassment. "We… haven't had the chance to make any public statement."
"Oh? Why is that?"
"Well… Moon is not that big you know? I imagine when I did make it public, there'll be bunches of refugees coming here in droves… we wouldn't be able to provide for all of them. And seriously… I doubt you lot wouldn't want that. Yes?"
In the end, the meeting went back and forth with no end in sight. Shoko remained as stubborn as ever in regards to the Valvrave, and the commission from the said nation ceaselessly demanded she shared the technology of Valvrave using various wordings and excuses.
Eventually, the Delegates left sulking and empty handed as he boarded his vessel back to earth. On his way, he looked menacingly, and enviably at a massive satellite like purple Valvrave, the Malefic, that his ship passed by.
As soon as the delegation's vessel left her sight, Shoko sighed in relief. That makes the 78th visiting dignitary from some whatsisname country she turned down. After handling the same case for the 78th time… Shoko quickly become an expert in tackling and denying this particular request outright, no matter what was offered. That last one about the human experimentation thing was added just to cut things short because she accidentally blew a fuse…
A-Drei contacted the one who made it all possible. "Renbokuji Akira… let's not make a habit out of this, yes?" Lord knows she might've just hacked a military satellite directly.
Akira blushed upon hearing the closest thing A-Drei would ever get to thank you.
As it stands… the world had no choice but to recognize that the Moon has become the dominion of New Jior. With ample of state of the art hydrophonic garden and its strategic location as a gateway to space, they were pretty much self sufficient. The Moon Colony is larger and better equipped for long term operation.
As for guarding it… there seems to be no problem. Some of the Ex Dorssian soldiers and Ex Arus fleet that survived the battle for the Moon decided to stay and help them protect it anyway. For Dorssia simply because, no matter what the emperor says, the most loyal ones felt obliged to protect him. As for the Arus… well… they don't really seem to know what to do with their president disappeared and all. That's just fine for Shoko. 5 Valvraves can't protect a whole colony by themselves.
Speaking of the Valvraves… well…
Despite their overwhelming power in battle, they have not seen much action in the last 1 month. Not because there was no need, it's just that the way their Rave Engine and Mirror Rave engine interacts.
"Mirror Rave engine worked in tandem with the original Rave Engine. Basically, the energy from the Valvrave were split and shared with the Kagerous that used their equipment. Red Hito pattern Kagerous used runes from Valvrave. Blue Hiuchiba used Runes from Amon Ra. Yellow Hikaminari used Runes from the Behemoth. And so forth. Of course, the output is far lower than the original one. Also, unlike the original self charging Valvrave, they have to return back to base for periodic charging." Kibukawa, now mounted on a more modern and high tech floating wheelchair, explained.
They've already repaired most of the damages inflicted upon the Valvraves, yet for various reasons, some of them are really indisposed. All these upgrades Pino placed into them had made them more powerful than ever, but that was also offset by increased Rune consumption. They've increased its heat tolerance, they gave it universal heat transfer system… but their operational time is still limited. Without the heat transfer system, the original units can only operate slightly less long than the Kagerou variants. They circumvent this problem somewhat by connecting the Valvraves to the Valravn's main reactor, feeding the unit runes. However, as explained by Kibukawa, the Valvrave still use runes from its pilot. Add that with the Rune Consumption from the Kagerous, the Novus Magius need to be very careful and keep a tight watch on their rune levels.
However, despite this setback, that does not stop them from sortie every now and then to lead the patrolling force to deal with interlopers and stragglers. Oh yes. Even after the Magius forces' disastrous defeat, they're still getting their fair share of attacks. These attacks are just small skirmishes, nothing when compared to the full scale cataclysmic battle for the moon. However, this was apparently done by leftovers from the previous attacks, those who refuse to back away and still have some grudges.
"This is red two! I got tone! FIRE!" A Hito Kagerou fired a flock of missiles from its wing and the charging Mag Ideal was battered with explosions after explosions.
Meanwhile, the Hikaminari Kagerous provide backup by firing from range, sniping stragglers and isolated targets.
The Skirmish was led by Takahi aboard the Carmilla, who just dropped another heat wire mine behind. The wire caught several waffes in its net and sliced them like butter. The enemy came at them with one Walkit, 2 Kirschbaum, 3 ideals, two of them carries a whole pack of Waffes. Against this sort of forces, 5 Kagerous led by one Valvrave was more than enough. So far, the New Jior had yet to find a situation where they need to bring out more than 1 Original Valvrave to the field.
The battle for Moon had cost them 7 out of 30 Kagerous. It's not much… but those seven who fell are friends… family. Though only seven, their loss has been difficult to accept. But… perhaps, either encouraged by anger or sorrow for this loss, the Kagerou team pushed themselves harder. The battle of the Moon had made them all veterans, but they continue to train in order to get better. And with each skirmish, their skills only grew and grew.
At any rate, with the Valvraves are not needed except on special cases, all Valvrave pilots are allowed to do whatever they wished. Of course, they also take turns to lead the patrol team. But in their free time, all pilots were left to their own devices.
Takahi spend more time in training simulator, sparring with her friends Eri and Lily. And when she isn't, she practiced her so called Zero-G Gymnast together with them.
Yusuke… not so surprisingly, spend most of his time in the hangar, rearming and performing various maintenances on the Valvraves and Kagerous.
Raizo… spend his time practicing whenever he's not out on patrol. And by practice as in accepting wrestling challenges from Dorssian soldiers itching on trying to bring him down. Of all Magius, Raizo seem to be the one abusing the increased strength of a Novus Magius the most. Luckily, he also had enough self control not to take his revenge on the Dorssian with it by harming them too much. Why… it seems he managed to become best buddies with some of them.
Aina… as in Sakurai Aina, has been spending more time as herself instead as Inuzuka. The Moon is not like the Module. They have a more complete medical facility here. Here, Inuzuka Kyuuma is finally getting his long overdue medical treatment… however, the damage to his body, untreated for so long, was quite severe. It'll take some time to heal. That being said, Amon Ra will be indisposed for some time.
Pino spend most of her time with Rion and all the medical staff available in the Moon Colony to figure out a way to resuscitate the Moon colonist captured in the Rune Harvesting ships. While it is fortunate that they are not pressed by time with the Rune Draining had been stopped, they still need to do so safely, quite a bit of their Runes had been taken away, and they're close to dying. But more alarming… is that the number of people being held there doesn't match the number of population listed on the Moon Colony's citizen registry.
"According to the Dorssians, some were forced to join their army, but last they checked, there were so few of the moon colonist that can serve as a viable fighting force. So most of them were sent away… Apparently, the Dorssian had no idea that these people were being put into these machines. But… the number don't match… there are far too few here."
"You mean… they've already been…" Everyone thought the same: Sucked clean and their runes taken away.
"I'm afraid so, yes." The doctor shook his head.
"Right now, let's focus on getting these people back up on their feet, okay?" Pino grunted.
As for Saki… the signs of her pregnancy grew more noticeable with each passing day. Her appetite increases, and her womb began to show slight increase in swelling. Saki also developed a rather vicious motherly streak with each passing day. Her temper grew fouler in response. Like a lioness grew increasingly protective of her first cub.
The thought that a new life will be born amidst all this death and destruction that has been happening everywhere… deaths and destructions of which they are partly responsible to… it kept everyone of the Sakimori high sane. This one unborn baby suddenly became their symbol. Their hope and reason to continue fighting the good fight… for a brighter future. Shoko had said that she's not in control of the Novus Magius and their Valvraves, but if anything else… now all Novus Magius will fight and bleed for this baby.
Strangely enough, despite a lot of chatter encouraging it, Saki hadn't been pushing the father for a proper tie knotting. "No need to be so hasty." Saki said to her. "Haruto had enough to worry about as is. I love this child, and so is he. We both want to see this new life to be born into the world. Marriage is just formality. And… at this point, personally I think it's a waste of time. We can hold a simple one later. Just not now."
"I understand." Shoko nodded. "Still… as Prime Minister I can at least do this." Shoko handed Saki some folders. "This is family registration as well as marriage certificate, signed and approved by me. You may not be married yet… but… you can call yourself Mrs. Tokishima, no problem."
Saki dumbly took the folders. Knowing Shoko's relationship with Haruto, she did not expect this. Not from her of all people. But as she read the certificate, letter by letter… when she read her name was stated as Tokishima Saki… tears fell on top of the paper, dampening it a bit before she can see Shoko's personal signature at the end. "I… I…" She looked at Shoko, having a hard time focusing on her with these… damn… tears blurring her sight. "This… is…" She wanted to say something… but words won't come out of her mouth, so she closed the distance and gave Shoko a hug.
Shoko happily returned the hug. "Congratulations. Sorry we can't celebrate."
"No… this is enough… this is…" They parted and Saki looked happily at Shoko. "This is more than I've ever gotten from anyone. Thank you."
Shoko smiled and then the two walked together, shoulder to shoulder, happily chatting away. "So… what are you going to name him… or her?"
"No idea. In truth we don't know if it's going to be a boy or a girl. The fetus hasn't grown enough yet to show the gender."
"Hmm… and the father? Haruto?" Shoko chuckled. "He's still in his… weird hermit mode?"
"You tell me." Saki chortled. "Had he ever acted like this?"
While the changes in the mother were easy to understand, the changes in the father… though… was a bit odd. Haruto remains the same most of the time. He grew another vein of responsibility that went bigger with each passing day of Saki's pregnancy. Out of all Valvrave pilots, he's the only one who had not sortie at all since the Battle of the Moon. The Valvrave, his Valvrave suddenly became a symbol of fear. The power to annihilate entire armies by generating black hole at its fingertips made the Valvrave a very potent nuclear deterrent. Already they heard words and whispers calling it the 'Red Beast'. That being said, everyone agreed, to prevent panic, the Valvrave had to be used as rarely as possible, only when it's absolutely necessary.
Hence, Haruto have the freest time out of everyone. Rather out of character of him though, he spent his days… in the public library of the Moon Colony. Any time he's not living his day to day activity, or if someone did not ask him to do anything, he spent most of his waking hour burying himself in mountains, as in, literal mountains of books.
Shoko didn't remember Haruto to be that much of a book worm. But then… she and Saki get a glimpse of some of the books he read…
Theories of Extraterrestrial Terraforming… Astrophysical Engineering… Interstellar Mathematics… heavy stuffs that made their head spin, and yet Haruto kept reading them, sitting at the peak of a mountain of opened or closed or bookmarked books of similar theme, taking notes out of them into his booklet, doing it so intently as if his life depends on it. He didn't even notice the two walking in.
"Umm… Haruto?" Shoko started. He didn't answer. Shoko called him several times… no answer. Until finally, a rather fed up Saki grabbed a small booklet and throw it right at his head. "Oi!"
Haruto jerked in response. It seems he was so absorbed in what he was reading, he didn't notice the two walking in. "Shoko? Saki? Can I help you?"
"Yeah. Shoko and I wanted to have lunch together. Do you want to join us?"
"Oh." Haruto quickly closed the book. "Sure."
At least he didn't turn into a complete shut in.
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The best thing about Moon Colony… they got more varied food than their module. And for the first time since forever, rationing is no longer needed. With the vast hydroponic garden of the moon, they are pretty much self sufficient. For the first in what seem a long time, they can stuff themselves until their stomach burst.
Saki also took the chance and show Haruto their marriage certificate. Like her, he was pretty much in tears. Haruto looked at Shoko in gratitude. "Thank you… Shoko… Thank you, so much."
Shoko smiled wide.
Haruto and Saki snuggled together as they looked happily at their marriage certificate. Shoko looked at the happy couple with somewhat of a bittersweet expression. A bit. Just a tiny bit of her was hoping… it was her in Saki's position. But she quickly banished the thought, throw it away, never touch it again. Now she only felt happiness for the two.
Haruto however, quickly also realized that slight pang of regret in Shoko's eyes. But… he's a husband now, with a wife and a child. Any romantic attachment he once felt to his first love – be they artificially implanted or not – need to be buried away, forever. So… instead of some expressions of gratitude born from regret… Haruto felt it's more prudent if he just ask: "How's work, by the way?"
"Oh, it's brutal." Shoko chuckled as she rubbed her aching temple. "God, all those stupid stuck up dignitaries, commissionaires and delegations and all that… they rave on and on about this and that… eventually their demands are the same."
Haruto rolled his eyes, imagining just how bad it was for Shoko. "Still… that last bit… about the human experimentation that Akira uncovered…"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. It was that bad." Shoko groaned. With Witch Hunt frenzy occurring, some government tried to quell the civil unrest by establishing inquisition here and there. But lord knows, such inquisitions hardly accomplish anything but innocent casualties. What's more… based on what Akira gathered, it seems some other more scrupulous government used their inquisition as a way to collect test subjects for their own experiment. "Everybody wants to be like you… like us. They thought they know, they thought it is achievable by current technology… they're not wrong… but they don't have aliens helping them."
"…" Haruto held his temple, his heart heavy with regret it felt like they're about to fell down from his ribcage. He knew this will happen once he revealed the truth about the Magius. Knowing the fact it had to be done doesn't ease his lament. "I see…"
"Haruto…" Shoko frowned. "Not exactly what you think will happen when you first revealed the world?"
"Actually, this is exactly what I think will happen." Haruto rests his temple on his conjoined hands. "That's why I spent all those times in the library. I know this will happen. I know it ever since A-Drei and I made plans that ensured this chaos. But to my regret… I never had the time or the ability to figure out what to do about it ahead of the time. I'm not that smart, you know that."
"…if you knew… why you still do it anyway?"
"You ask why, the very reason is currently docked in the inner sanctum right beneath our feet." Haruto pointed to the floor, where, down there, Pino is still working around the clock to resurrect what's left of the Moon Colonist still plugged into that horrible machine.
"That's right. That's your reason. Just remember. That's what we do. We save lives. But… sometimes to do that meaning we may have to cause a lot of chaos in the process." Shoko explained. "What we can do as the people who had caused that… is by becoming an example. 78 dignitaries from various countries, and I showcased them what we can accomplish by working together with the Magius… here's hoping they'll take a leaf out of that book."
"But you made the offer? The under the table offer of asylum for Magius in our country?"
"Every single one of them." That's right. Shoko and Haruto agreed they shouldn't make a public announcement of their willingness to provide a safe haven for Magius on Earth willing to join them. Partly because, in truth… they're not ready. They fully doubt, after what they did to the Council, even if they did made the offer in public, no one would take them seriously. And really? Who would believe the people who are responsible for throwing the world into chaos in the first place? The problem is that they simply have no proof that the Magius that side with them will be better off. Novus Magius doesn't count because they're domestically born. Their offer will only be believed if a Magius from the opposition side came to them asking for asylum and be better off. That's why Shoko simply implied that invitation to every delegates that came to her door, hoping that when their government heard about it, they'll found some sense in exiling the Magius out instead of killing them. "Still… with this… thing about human experimentation… that chance grew slim. Imagine if they get their hands on an actual Magius, they may end up experimenting on them instead of exiling them as we hoped."
"That's a problem alright…" Haruto groaned as his head is aching with problems after problems piling one another and he found no solution. "Still… Akira has been keeping watch has she?" Haruto frowned. Rather than being impressed, he was somewhat appalled. "Don't you think she spend too much time in the Malefic?"
"Yeah…" Akira. Suddenly that name brought another matter to Shoko's attention. She wanted to cure her of her shut in problems… but this new Valvrave of hers simply made it worse. She promised that she will bring her to a mall when they reached the moon. Here they are… and lord help her she cannot make the time.
"You better make the time, Shoko." Haruto started. "She really needs to get out of that shell immediately."
Saki suddenly interrupted. "Ummm… you two… I'm gonna go slightly off topic a bit… that data on human experimentation… it came from Akira, right? And he used her Valvrave… the Malefic to pull them out, yes?
"Ye~es?"
"Haruto… I'm talking from my personal experience with you… you've been using the Valvrave for quite some time… and you have been having attacks, having needed to feed… how long has Akira used her Valvrave to do all the stuff she did… and has she fed? At all?"
Haruto and Shoko looked in horror at Saki… Haruto in particular, was more shocked than anyone. How can he forget? Of all the Novus Magius, he know the horror of what could happen when a Magius is severely depleted of their lifeblood. And Akira… she's been intensively using her Valvrave… but she hasn't fed on anyone. She'd be nearing her limit by now. "Okay. I change my mind. Shoko. You HAVE to get her out on a vacation, like today! I'm gonna forbid her from using her Valvrave for a while. Where is she?"
"She's out there… patrolling, together with-"
Suddenly, alarm blared all over the canteen.
"…Raizo and Yusuke…" Shoko finished.
All three looked at each other: Alarm, a malnourished Valvrave Pilot… and a pilot who had a history of being reckless. Somehow, putting all these three factors together can easily translate as trouble.
The three rushed to the command center, where Satomi is overseeing the situation.
"Satomi… what happened?"
"Akira detected a fleet. Yusuke and Raizo were sent to scout and recon." Satomi quickly reported to the commander in chief. "They were discovered, they're engaging. Pretty big. Three Walkits, but heavily escorted."
"Why did Yusuke and Raizo went into scouting with their Behemoth instead of a faster and less obnoxious unit like the Hinowa Kagerou or something?"
"They uh… we told them to stand down but… errh they volunteered…"
"NO." A-Drei immediately stated as he entered the command center. "Those two idiots went charging straight into the fire, didn't they?"
"Ah…"
"Still, Behemoth should be more than enough to deal with a fleet, what's the problem?"
"I don't know. The Behemoth seems to be having trouble fighting this enemy. They only reported it to be Kirschbaum… but apparently, it's giving them plenty of trouble."
"They've made countermeasures to Behemoth's EMP field." A-Drei surmised. "Just like Dorssia… we make sure we don't lose to the same enemy twice, the next time we meet them."
Haruto quickly analyzed the situation, but immediately brought his attention to the one most important point. "Where's Akira?"
Satomi tensed upon hearing her sister's name being called. Iori quickly replied. "A-Actually we've been trying to contact her ever since… but…"
Haruto's look of horror was like a confirmation to Satomi that something is wrong with his beloved sister and Haruto knows what. "Haruto…? What happened? What happened to Akira!?"
"Where is she?"
"She's a few dozen kilometers away from the battle."
"Keep her there." Haruto stated. "Call in Takahi, tell her to pick up the Malefic! Prep my Valvrave!" As soon as he said that, Haruto rushed out of the room. Satomi gave chase.
"Haruto! Tokishima Haruto!" Satomi quickly caught up with him. "What happened? What happened to my sister?"
"We have to get her out of that Valrave. That's what. Get the Valravn ready!"
Not long after, two Valvraves with the Valravn and their Kagerou's escort behind them flew out of the moon and towards the battle so far ahead of them.
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It started with how Akira reported of a fleet of three Walkit and one Carrier is approaching the perimeter under stealth camo. It stood to reason the ships are also coupled with heavy escorts.
Yusuke and Raizo volunteered to 'recon' forward. Accompanied by two Hikaminari Kagerous, the three flew ahead.
Problem is, Behemoth was never that much of a stealthy unit. The Walkits and Carrier dropped their camo as soon as the three robots arrived at their recon position. And not so surprisingly, Raizo's first response to that is:
"ATTAAAAAACKKK!"
A rain of lighting from the Behemoth's fingers started the battle. It managed to fry several Waffes and Gigants, but then, a yellow colored Mag Waffe emerged. Their clear fossil shields had been modified with spikes of electrical nodes coursing with electricity. When the Behemoth tried to fire his lightning guns again, the lightning were pulled towards the nodes and thus dispersed to the Yellow Mag Waffes' Hexagonal shields and then seemingly absorbed harmlessly.
"W… What?" Yusuke gaped. But he quickly recovered. "EMP field! Maximum power!"
Electricity coruscates allover the Behemoth's body, and then it began to emit waves of EMP. The enemy units were shut down completely as soon as the wave hits them. "Hah! Let's tear this mother down!" Raizo charged the Behemoth forward.
But to their horror, within moments the enemy Units went back online and continues to operate even in the midst of the EMP field bombardment. "The hell!?"
"To survive the EMP, we only have to reboot the units from Digital to Analog." X-Eins stated. "Counter measures for EMP had also been developed. Of course, there's still disturbance in that they cannot use their ranged weaponry and it slowed them down… but still!"
The Waffes didn't bother firing using their glitchy targeting system, instead, they slapped their shields together and rushed forward for a body slam. The Waffes came together from every direction, boxing the yellow Valvrave fast. Yusuke immediately tried to dislocate Behemoth's body parts to escape the situation, but he could not do it fast enough. The Behemoth's chest pieces had just separated when their maneuvering room was suddenly boxed in by a multitude of Yellow Tesla Waffes, neutralizing their lightning weaponry.
"We can lock their movements and give us chance to close the distance!" Prue/H-Neun zoomed aboard his customized Kirschbaum, with a giant whirring chain sword in one hand, a shield made of 7 interlocking 4 Waffe Gigants and 3 Tesla Waffes at the front, moving in for the kill.
"YOU LIT'L SHIT!" Raizo roared. Behemoth's backpack mounted arms sprang into action, and the four armed Valvrave trashed and flailed around wildly, smashing and clobbering the Waffes' within reach. He grabbed a Waffe's face with one hand and the other one launch a rocket propelled piston punch straight at its abdomen. The Waffe was smashed to smithereens. As if that weren't enough, the Behemoth also shot down its pieces with barrage of lightning. All other cannons also fired haphazardly to every direction, destroying many waffes (in particular those that are not specialized to handle the Behemoth) and severely damaging the three larger capital ships. Still angered, he saw the incoming custom Kirschbaum and opened fire. Prue brought his shield up, the Tesla Waffes' portion of the shield absorbed the lightning and disperse it. The wall of Waffe shield closed the distance and filled the Behemoth's monitor. A roaring Raizo immediately sent all four rocket piston fists forward, but just before impact, the Waffes split apart, and the blow hit nothing but air. But then welcoming them, is a Crystal armored Prue's Custom Mag Kirschbaum, and to be more specific, his whirring chainsword is already howling towards their head as it slide atop Behemoth's outstretched arms.
Yusuke quickly, and in sheer panic, disengaged all the magnetic locks on all of Behemoth's body pieces instead of just a specific piece. The Behemoth explosively shattered to pieces. Of course, Prue's chainsword still hits nothing, but the expelled body pieces hit his machine full. But the Crystalline armor added to the Kirschbaum's natural durability meant that the pieces only pushed him back with nothing but cosmetic damage. He didn't expect the unit to just suddenly split up into all this body pieces so soon, but at least he get what he wanted. "Mr. X-Eins, NOW!"
X-Eins winced upon hearing the formal address from H-Neun's lips. Then, just moments before he pulled the trigger, he remembered what happened a month ago…
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A month ago…
Not long after the Magius forces surrendered, some of them flew to the dark side of the Moon to look for survivors. As it turns out, including the three of them, few survived the lightning blast.
But when the Magius rescue party saw how X-Eins held Prue at gun point, they angrily aimed their gun the bespectacled Dorssian. "Human! You step away from Lord Prue, NOW!"
X-Eins was hardly surprised upon hearing the 'lord' suffix, but he didn't lower his gun. Q-Vier, on the other hand, simply watched the event progressing with halfhearted interest.
Prue looked at this situation. The Rescue team are all using Waffes, armed with Gatling guns, and they all pointed at X-Eins. The blast would hit him as well, but the pilots knew Prue was strong enough to survive even something like that. X-Eins however… will not.
"Mr. X-eins, if I were you I'll put down the gun." Said Prue. "Really. If you shoot, the only people you will kill are yourself, and your friend."
"We don't have friends." X-Eins coldly stated. "Dorssian soldiers have no friend. We have only brother in arms."
"No difference to me. Put the gun down. I'm not going to hurt Mr. H-Neun."
"…" X-Eins frowned… and then he finally lowered his gun. As soon as he did that, the Waffes cocked their guns, ready to roar. But suddenly, Prue stood in their way.
"WAIT!" Prue shouted. "I need them. They make good assistants."
And the Waffes stand down immediately.
Prue turned to X-Eins. "You want H-Neun back. I understand. I want my sister back. The New Jior kept her imprisoned and last I checked, I thought they were simply using her as a battery. Clearly there's more to it. Help me get her back… and once that was done, I will return H-Neun."
"He's still in there?"
"An annoying nagging in the back of my head." Prue grunted. "Unlike other Magius, I don't just overwrite people's personality completely."
X-Eins looked at H-Neun and weigh his options, gains and losses. He finally signed his agreement by silently holstering his gun.
Prue nodded seeing an agreement has been made. "Pick us all up! And treat them well." Prue gestured to X-Eins and Q-Vier. "And if I found out any of you hijack them without my permission, you will answer to me."
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Now…
X-Eins opened his eyes, filled with determination. "It's not that I'm siding with the aliens or anything." He took aim at the scattered pieces of the Behemoth. His Kirschbaum aimed its armed mounted missile launchers. "But I need to save a… friend." And the trigger was pushed.
X-Eins' and Q-Viers' Kirschbaum launched their missiles. The missiles slither past the debris and headed straight at the Behemoth. Moments before impact, the missile flapped open, unleashing countless tungsten shrapnel. The multitudes of the smaller projectile saturated the whole area, raining down upon the Valvrave and the Kirschbaum. The Kirschbaum's escorting Waffes reformed their shield and protected the main unit, but for the Behemoth, all of its separate body pieces were hit multiple times. The tougher Titan slayer is one thing, but the rather fragile Valvrave body pieces were damaged nonetheless.
Yusuke immediately reconnected all their body parts together as the hands quickly armor them up. But the damage, slight it may be, was done. Some of the magnetic locks were damaged, and thus some body parts won't properly reintegrate. "Oh come on! What the heck?"
Meanwhile…
The Valvrave and Carmilla finally picked up the Malefic Gretel. Haruto's worst fears were confirmed. The Malefic stood silent, its black colored parts turned white, a clear sign that its pilot is in a severe shortage of runes.
"Akira! Akira! Answer me! Are you okay? Akira!" Satomi frantically called her sister, but she didn't respond.
"Take her to the Valravn, NOW!" Haruto barked.
Takahi need not to be told twice, as her Carmilla quickly pulled the Malefic away from the Gretel and brought her into the flagship as her Kagerou escort also picked up the Gretel. Haruto then looked on to the battle ahead and the Valvrave quickly make a dash into the warzone.
Back in the battlefield…
Things grew increasingly worse for the Behemoth. One of the Kagerou Hikaminari was suddenly rammed by Q-Vier's Kirschbaum. "HAHAHAHAHA! DIE, DIE, DIE!" Q-Vier's finger cannon fired several times, destroying two of the four Armstrong arms. The pilot angrily returned fire with the Chain Saucer at close range. But the Kirschbaum palm shield barely blocked the shot. The subsequent explosion destroyed the hand held cannon, and clouded the Kagerou's vision. When the visual is regained, the pilot gasped in horror when he saw the Kirschbaum fully charged and firing chest cannon up close and personal.
Upon seeing one of his escorts destroyed, the Behemoth, both Raizo and Yusuke, grew angrier and began firing more ferociously at Q-Vier's Kirschbaum, who simply laughed and easily dodged the Behemoth clumsy but dangerous lightning shots. And while the Behemoth are still distracted by Q-Vier, Prue/H-Neun closed in and rammed his Waffes shield at the Behemoth. Yusuke noticed it at the last second and still managed to separate the Behemoth again, but some parts were smashed away by the shield. In well timed sequence, X-Eins launched another of his shrapnel missile. The Behemoth was once again endured a rain of steel spikes, but this time the damage was more severe. Some parts were punctured and damaged beyond simple repair. When the Behemoth tried to recombine, some parts cannot reconnect properly with the limbs destroyed. Worse, X-Ein was a good shot. The limbs he aimed are crucial limbs where the main Titan Slayer arms were bolted. Without it, the titan arms cannot reattach.
Thus how Behemoth lost a main arm and a leg. Two pairs of Titan Slayer fists floated around the now disembodied Valvrave. Without being able to reattach to the main body, the Drones are only half as effective now. They managed a few futile shots, but then, it stopped. The Titan Fists began to power down… and fell dead silent.
"Grrhh… Grhhh! Shit!" Raizo used the armaments on the other arms and start firing rather desperately at the three Kirschbaum. But they easily dodge the attack, having learned the trick of avoiding such attacks… that and, they just noticed, the pilots' accuracy are horrible at best. Dodging forks of lightning and spheres of plasma, Prue/H-Neun's Kirschbaum tossed his seven Waffes Shield at the beleaguered Behemoth. The shield break apart to seven pieces and immediately surround the Behemoth and slammed the unit from every direction, pinning it down. Overheating as well as neutralizing his electrifying nature. The Kirschbaum lunged towards the pinned Valvrave, chain sword whirring for a stab at the Behemoth's confirmed cockpits: their heads.
"Oh shi~it!" Yusuke and Raizo gaped, they can't dodge this one.
Just moments before the chainsword struck in, a glimmer of red and black suddenly slither in and cut the sword apart.
A growling Prue immediately back away just as he noticed the familiar color.
The Valvrave arrived, holding the twin bladed red katana. He briefly charged the main four sundering talons on his oversized left hand, encasing them in red hardlight energy, turning them into four monstrous blades of energy. And with that, the Valvrave tore through the waffes enclosing the Behemoth with a single swipe, freeing the Behemoth with ease.
"Haruto!"
"Aniki!"
"Go to the Valravn! Now!" Haruto ordered. "Akira's down!"
"What?"
"But these bastards…!"
"I said, return to base! NOW!" Haruto roared again.
Yusuke and Raizo finally relented, and they brought their battered Valvrave back to their mothership. The Crimson Valvrave turned to the three Kirschbaum, all warily look at him, and the giant katana in his hand. Haruto understand. So, instead of using the super weapon katana, the Valvrave sheathe it back to his Power Claw mounted sheath.
X-Eins blinked. "…he's not going to use it is he?"
"No…" Prue frowned. "You don't swat mosquito with a bazooka." 'Thank goodness… at least the person using it is more rational than I thought…'
"A mosquito?" Q-Vier balked. "Are we Mosquito?"
"…" Prue glared at the Valvrave… and then he hailed him on open channel. "You, human!"
"?" Haruto turned to see the screen and came face to face with the blonde haired boy. From the remnants of A-Drei's memory, he recognized him as H-Neun. The one they say likes close combat. But there's something different about him. He seems more… rigid. "…Yes?"
"Where did you get the Black Rose!?"
Haruto blinked upon hearing his weapon mentioned by name by a Dorssian soldier… and then it hit him. The boy is inhabited by a magius now. "It was given to me." He discreetly started his Rune Scanner.
"Liar!" Prue/H-Neun growled. He also ran his own scanner. He knew the red unit was built using her sister's old Valvrave, and so he ran a scan on it, here's hoping her sister is still in there. "Queen Pino would never give something as dangerous as that to a human!"
"She entrusted it to me, Magius." Haruto quickly ran the scan… and came with a surprising results. Only H-Neun's Mag Unit is piloted by a Magius. The other two are humans. "And she knew how dangerous it is. As do I."
"Why? Why would she trust you so much!?"
"Lord knows." Haruto shrugged. "What about you? You two over there…" Haruto addressed the two humans of the three Kirschbaum. He identifies them as X-Eins and Q-Vier. "Just a wild guess… but you two… you wouldn't happen to already know what he is, right?"
"I do, actually." X-Eins flatly replied.
"…" Haruto's eyes widened slightly. "You knew… and you helped him anyway?"
X-Eins didn't answer. At least he won't say anything on open channel.
But Haruto, trudging through the memories he had collected regarding the two Dorssian agents, deduced the reason quickly enough. He looked at the Magius possessed H-Neun. "…he's your friend." Haruto sighed. "…the Magius took over your friends' body. You want him back." Not knowing H-Neun's circumstances, Haruto only saw this as an act of blackmailing via hostage taking. "Oh really. So that's what this is all about?"
Prue easily grasped Haruto's train of thought. "I do not engage myself in such dishonorable conduct, human! Unlike your people!"
"Okay. Say you are what you claim to be… let me ask you… you ask how your queen would trust us. I'll ask the same. The humans behind you… why would they trust you? Trust the person who used the body of their friend and force them into servitude?"
Prue/H-Neun's expression wrinkled further in anger. X-Eins immediately cuts in. "Enough of this chatter! Do what you're here to do!" X-Eins' Kirschbaum cocked his weapon.
But Prue isn't convinced. He scanned the red Valvrave over and over using every scanner he had at his disposal… and he got nothing. The only source of Rune the Valvrave are using… is the pilot himself. The Rave Engine is chockfull of Runes from the pilot and the rune he absorbed from the rune cannons a while ago… but no trace of her sister's. "Where… where is she? She's not here."
"What?"
"My sister isn't here!" Prue grew more emotional. "WHERE'S MY SISTER!?" Prue yelled at the window screen depicting Haruto. "WHERE DID YOU KEPT HER!?"
"Sister?" Haruto blinked in confusion. "Wait, are you talking about P-"
"Well, if she's not in there, I can kill him right?" Q-Vier cheerfully concluded. His fingers had been absolutely itching to jump into a fight. ANY fight! And that outburst from Prue/H-Neun is the excuse he's been waiting for. His Kirschbaum immediately pointed all the guns on its fingers and chest cannon at the Valvrave.
Haruto reacted quickly. Before the guns start blazing, the Valvrave's main right arm grabbed his right waist sheath and pointed it at the Kirschbaum. Just moments before the Kirschbaum's gun start firing, the Valvrave pressed an inbuilt trigger on the sheath that seem to lit up some sort of an internal explosion, and the katana suddenly launched out of the sheath with the force and fiery flashes of a cannon fire, literally. The katana' handle slammed against the Kirschbaum's head, cracking its optics, disorienting the pilot and the machine. At the same time, both of the underslung assault rifles opened fire, and the gatling cannon thumb on the left power claw also fired, showering the enemy with red bolts of energy.
Prue and X-Eins immediately brought up their palm shields and blocked the attack. Prue in particular, noted the different color of the hardlight. Her sister produced mostly green runes or light red… but this one produces red of darker hue. Further proof that there's no longer a trace of Pino in there. This Valvrave is truly Haruto's. "WHY YOUUU!" Prue immediately returned fire together with X-Eins.
But the Valvrave flew back and evade the shots before blazing forward at blinding speed towards the still disoriented Q-Vier's Kirschbaum. He also pulled out the other sword, the serrated katana, Gyouketsu with the main right hand. As the Valvrave flew over the downed Kirschbaum, the cable linked rocket-propelled blade-baiken sickle beneath the now empty Z-Muramasa sheath shot out and hooked the floating Z-Muramasa Futouchi and pulled it back. As soon as the blade returned to the owner's left hand beneath the oversized power talons, the Muramasa on his other hand was charged with a mass of Solid Afterglow crystals which the Valvrave swing forward, sending forth a storm of razor sharp red hard-light shards that rained down on every inch of the Kirschbaum, but avoiding the head, the cockpit, and the core reactor completely, rendering the Kirschbaum severely damaged but the pilot unharmed, and the Valvrave immediately closed in and surgically cross slashed the head off the Kirschbaum's shoulder.
X-Eins and Prue quickly gave chase, but the Valrave's booster mounted cannons swiveled and fired a pair of intense cutting laser streams that welcomes the two chasers and they had to block them. But as soon as they recovered, the Valvrave brought up his awkward multi handed right arm. He handed the Futouchi from his left to his secondary right hand, and the Volc Arm Mk. 2 detached from the empty sheaths. The Valvrave's tertiary left hand grabbed one rifle. With two right hands and one left hand on the right arm base, the configuration allowed the Valvrave to wield three handheld weapons on one arm at the same time. The actual main left hand beneath the power talon grabbed the second Blaster rifle and so, three wielding two swords and one rifle in one hand and a rifle on the other, coupled with the claw Gatling gun, and the laser cannon also point forward. All barrels unleashed their payload as the Red Valvrave charged forward.
"What the hell!?" X-Eins gaped. Soon, the two Kirschbaums were barraged with rune blasts, multiple laser streams and a hailstorm of hardlight bolts. The Thumb Gatling bolts hit the shrapnel missile launcher on X-Eins' right arm, taking out both the missile and the arm, the two laser cutter sliced X-Eins' wing and a leg. Haruto concentrated the two blaster rifles at Prue's Kirschbaum, his accuracy gave even the Wolf Knight some trouble as he was forced to block with both palm shields. But Haruto closed in on X-Eins' Kirschbaum and his two blades on the right arm came swinging. X-Eins brought up his remaining shield to block the incoming scissoring twin swords. The two swords briefly clashed against the energy shield before they tear right through them like paper in an instant. The two katanas, wielded on one arm by two right hands, split the arm to shreds. The tertiary hand wielding the rifle unloaded a couple of shots at the same time, further damaging the Kirschbaum as the Valvrave zoomed through. Before X-Eins had time to react, in an inhumanly fast reaction, Haruto spin the Valvrave around and swing his left talons at the Kirschbaum's rear thrusters, tearing them apart. "What… what…!?" Before his confusion wanes, a pair of crisscrossed Katana pinned his Kirschbaum's neck from behind. The Valvrave's secondary hand swing horizontally and the scissoring katana snipped the Kirschbaum's head clean off. X-Eins didn't even have time to comprehend all this, it was happening at speed beyond human perception.
Prue however, was able to discern all that. "…that speed… that inhuman reaction time… what is this…?" The Valvrave turned to the last Kirschbaum standing, Prue's Mag Kirschbaum. The two Magius robots charged at one another. Haruto started by firing the twin laser cannons in concert with the dual wielded Volc Arm Rifles. Prue also fired his finger cannons. The blasters grazed the Kirschbaum's shoulder as he spin around, barely dodging the streaming laser. Haruto's Valvrave also bogged slightly left and right, dodging Prue's finger cannon fire at skin tight margin. Both firing their weapons at pinpoint accuracy as they closed in and circle one another, even using their CIWS as soon as the enemy entered range, but only nearly hitting each other due to the pilots' inhuman reaction speed. Both are Magius, and both possess the same superhuman strength… but ultimately, the deciding factor is something simpler: their machines.
The robots finally closed the distance between them and their arms clashed one another. Prue had both of his palm shields' up, but Haruto's two Z-Muramasa blades on the right arm scissors through the shield, slicing through the arm right in half. The Baiken Scythe on the left Assault Rifle cuts through the energy shield as the rifle punctured the palm. The four Yasha talons and the Thumb Gatling suddenly clenched in and nailed the arm, locking them in place. Prue knew what's coming and reacted in time, alas, the Kirschbaum can't. The Valvrave's Volc Arm II gun barrel is still buried inside the Kirschbaum's ruined open palm when Haruto unload the bullets at full force. The said arm bloated uncontrollably before the Valvrave's talon tore the arm off its joints and toss it away before it exploded inside out. By then, Prue's Kirschbaum's chest cannon is also fully charged and moments away from firing, but the second Volc Arm II on the Valvrave's tertiary left hand fired at the barrel, causing catastrophic damage to the Kirschbaum.
Prue managed to detach the cockpit; the Kirschbaum's head, right on time just before the unit exploded on him. Fortunately, Haruto also reacted in a split second and kicked the critically damaged Kirschbaum body away before its subsequent massive explosion engulfed the now defenseless cockpit and pilot.
X-Eins gaped. Three elite Kirschbaums, downed within seconds of each other. Before his grand unveiling of the black hole WMD, the Valvrave didn't take action at all during the battle for the Moon, so they were unprepared on what exactly it can do beyond its role as the mobile platform of a WMD… but this… is just beyond what they previously imagined.
Prue looked in disbelief at the red Valvrave, his green neon visor glaring at him. How is this possible? Forget that both opponents are Magius, he is the wolf knight… he's centuries old, eons old… defeated by a Magius, a very young Magius in his adolescence? And what's worse… the pilot CLEARLY spared them. He could've killed them all… but he didn't. The enemy even rescued him. To someone as prideful like Prue, that is the greatest insult he ever received from anyone.
Haruto looked at the floating head. "You mentioned… sister." The Novus Magius frowned. "Who exactly are you referring to?"
Before Prue can answer, a shot blasted between him and the Valvrave. Haruto looked up and saw one of the Mag Walkits seems to have regained some of its functionality. "Ah, damn." Reassessing his priorities, the Valvrave dashed at the Walkit. The ship's crew desperately tried to bring the red beast down, but the Valvrave is so ferociously fast, they could hardly see him. Next thing they knew, a stream of red laser sliced through one of their main cannon, and a pair of blasters roared and shot down their thrusters. They fired homing missiles, but the Valvrave used his variable vulkans and shot them out of the space as he returned fire at the missile vents. The Walkit exploding multiple times in various parts, sending its crew into chaos. Plenty of time for Haruto to tear through its armor with the laser cutter, sliced off its cannons one by one before firing off all of its other secondary weapons with both of his rifles.
Within seconds, the Walkit is now dead in the air.
But when Haruto turned his attention back to the three downed Kirschbaum, something has already gotten to them first.
It's a new robot. Quite unlike anything ever made by the Dorssian. It's humanoid. An elegant robot shaped like a human, with a human like head, with slitted eyes and no mouth. And with a very slim and lean body, the robot looked almost like a giant mechanical human mannequin. Size wise, it's only slightly smaller than a Valvrave. Colored entirely in silver and yellow coloring, over the human head is like a metallic hood with yellow web like rimming, and on its back there are two shoulder mounted massive protrusion. The unit is holding a long green clear fossil sword in one hand, while the other hand is carrying the Kirschbaum's head.
Haruto quickly noticed that that there are two more of such mech behind the first one, all have claimed their Kirschbaum heads, rescuing the pilots inside. The triplet silver humanoid robots gave a glance at the Valvrave before they zoomed off in a flash of neon green rune solid afterglow, leaving behind the downed Walkits and Haruto.
'What speed…' Haruto can do nothing but watch. However, what Prue said to him troubles him greatly. 'Sister? So Magius have the concept of family too?' As his minds raced across this line of thought, Haruto looked at the three Walkits left behind. He scanned them, and found they're chockfull of survivors. He aimed his gun at them. "I'm not going to kill you lot. You can escape while my back turned if you like, that won't upset me none."
"We're not going anywhere." The Captain of the walkit fleet answered. A female in her twenties. "This ship has no emergency escape system, and you blew out our thrusters, we're dead in space!"
"Sorry about that."
"Sorry?" The Captain blinked in surprise.
"I was afraid you might try to ram the damn thing. Oh well. In that case, I'll have to temporarily take you all into custody."
"Just don't harm my crew."
"I won't." Haruto contacted their Flagship. "Valravn? This is Haruto. It's over. Ready the cells, we got a fresh new batch of inmates."
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Meanwhile, the three silver and gold robots is carrying in the heads of the defeated Kirschbaums. Inside the cockpit of his unit, Prue roared in anger as he banged the monitor. "I… I can't believe this… I'm this WEAK!"
Sheesh, calm down buddy. Winning and losing is common in battle.
"SHUT UP!" Prue roared. "I can't believe that I, the proud Wolf Knight of the Covenant, had survived death because of a mercy of the enemy!? A lesser enemy no less! That red unit… I will never forgive him for this humiliation! NEVER!"
"Calm yourself, Lord Prue." Cain suddenly appeared on the window screen of Prue's console.
"Attlach?" Prue growled.
"As you are now, you will never be able to beat him." Cain stated. "There's just too much difference in power between you two. A difference largely caused not because he is more skillful and more powerful than you, but simply because he's in his prime, and you are not."
"Speak plainly, Spider Queen."
"I told you before, Prue… H-Neun's body is incompatible with your mighty essence. As it stands, using his body, you could only use at most 35% of your original strength. Us elder Magius does have difficulty in finding compatible bodies… I got lucky with this Cain fellow. But even with him, he only had like… 92% compatibility with me." Cain got straight to the point. "Novus Magius has no such problems. They're fighting with the bodies they were born with. They're at 100% all the time. I think we just seen a glimpse of your sister's genius. And then there's the fact that the machines you're using cannot keep up with your strength, Prue. With all these factors stacked together against you, it's not surprising that your enemy had the luxury of showing you mercy."
Cain's logical explanation only serves to further anger Prue, reminding him of his own carelessness. The mention of his sister also brought another matter to his attention. "My sister… she's not there, Attlach. She's not inside her Valvrave anymore."
"Well… I suppose I can't say we should rejoice that the New Jiorian no longer used her as a Valvrave battery." Cain rested his head on his hand aboard the cockpit of HIS Valvrave. "Still… the fact she handed Tokishima Haruto her famed Sword…" Cain looked at Prue's distressed look. "Prue, calm down. If nothing else, I believe Pino is in no grave danger."
"How do you know that?"
"You do remember the New Jior public unveiling of the Council?" Cain stated. "Pino was definitely not under duress. She's helping them, helping the Novus Magius under her own free will. And that Tokishima Haruto… he let us go, he didn't kill you, or destroy the ship… I think I got him figure out."
"You did?"
"Yes. He's a very moral man who let his conscience dictate his action. I think that's why Pino quite grown on him. That's why I left those three ships behind, its occupant will live on by way of his strong moral compass. Worry not, Prue. They'll be fine."
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True enough…
The Valravn dragged three disabled Walkits behind her. Inside the hangar, the severely damaged Behemoth was placed on the hanger, getting its maintenance while its two careless pilots were getting a berating of a lifetime from a VERY upset A-Drei.
"Do you even know the meaning of the word SCOUTING AND RECON!?" A-Drei roared at the wincing Yusuke and a grunting Raizo.
Their silence says no.
"It means you don't open fire unless being FIRED upon!" A-Drei barked back. "What's more, if the idea is to do some reconnaissance job, you don't send your whole Valvrave in all its indiscreetness to do the job! You can send your familiars to do it! Can't your backward pair of heads at least figure that one out!?"
"We had them, A-Drei!" Raizo defended.
"The poor state of your Vavrave says otherwise." A-Drei nudged at the damaged Behemoth receiving maintenance behind him. His roar made Raizo seem to shrank quite a bit. "Thanks to your incompetence we nearly lost a Valvrave to the enemy." He hissed dangerously. "Do any of you even UNDERSTAND what will happen if the enemy gets their hands on any of your Valvrave? Well?"
Yusuke and Raizo looked at each other and then remorsefully nodded.
"DO YOU!?" A-Drei snapped.
"Alright, A-Drei that's enough." Haruto came in and cut A-Drei's angry rant short. "I think they get the point."
"Really?" A-Drei grunted. "In Dorssia, this kind of mistake of military hardware mishandling is punishable by firing squad you know that?"
"Well this isn't Dorssia, this is New Jior."
"That doesn't change the fact I think putting one of the most strategically important Valvrave in the hands of these two inept is the biggest mistake ever made by this army of yours. These two don't have the right temperaments. One is a bumbling coward, the other an aggressive hothead!" A-Drei was as unforgiving as ever in his critics. A fact that Raizo, as indicated with how his face is getting redder and redder in anger with every scathing remark thrown his way, doesn't take too kindly.
But Haruto has no time for a punch up. "Enough. I'll be the judge of that. We have bigger problem!" Haruto gestured at the Malefic, all drained dry of Runes… as do her pilot.
The color on Satomi's pale face nearly mirrored that of the whitening color of his sister's Valvrave, urging the maintenance crew to open the damn cockpit hatch as quickly as possible. When they did, Satomi's worst horrors realized. Akira's lifeless and unconscious body lay limp in the cockpit of her machine; all its console screens are dead out of power.
"Akira! Akira!" Satomi cried frantically. "Oh my God… what do I do, what do I do?" He held her sister's body; she had never been so frail and weak. She's dying!
"She needs runes." Haruto stated. "She hadn't fed on anyone for ages since she transformed, she needs runes. NOW." Haruto opened his suit, preparing his neck to be bitten.
"Wait!" Pino suddenly came in. Appearing right on the Malefic screen.
"Pino? You're in here the whole time?"
"No, I just got here." Pino stated. "Satomi-kun, gave her your Runes."
"My runes?" Satomi blinked.
"Yes. Yours. Family member runes are easier to absorb." Pino stated with a smile. "Less chance of madness for the recipient that way."
That was all the reasons Satomi need to open up the sleeve of his arm and shove his vein to Akira's lips. Tasting something warm on her lips brought her back to half consciousness… and she reverted back to the primal state of a Magius hungry for runes: drain the closest living thing to her off their runes. Her mouth opened up and she bit right into Satomi's wrist vein.
Takahi and Iori winced upon seeing Akira's fangs hungrily sank deep into her brother's hand. Satomi winced but he remained steadfast and let her sister take as much as she needs from him. As much as she wants. But eventually, his consciousness fade and Akira fell limp.
When Akira opened her eyes again, she was looking at the faces of… well… a lot of people: Haruto, Iori, Takahi, Yusuke, Raizo, Shoko, A-Drei… and many others she didn't know, all looking at her in close proximity… in short… discounting Shoko, this is more people than she ever allowed into her personal comfort zone.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" And Akira, in Satomi's body, let loose his/her trademark panicked scream, followed with occasional stuff being thrown to every direction: mouse, keyboard, monitor, half eaten bag of snacks, pen, hard drive, and finally a CPU. Providence or coincidence… most of them landed on A-Drei's head. Seeing this one is being thrown by a healthy full grown teenager instead of a malnourished shut in girl… this one barrage pack enough strength to hurt A-Drei… quite a bit.
"For the love of-" A-Drei grunted. "Would somebody restrain him… her… already!?"
Haruto inadvertently had to do as A-Drei ordered, seeing the panicked Akira/Satomi is rushing back into the safety of her cockpit when the idea is to keep her off it for a while. He managed to grab his/her hand but Akira still struggled to escape… until she saw her own lifeless body lying in the cockpit, giving her some horrified pause. "Huh?"
In that pause, A-Drei came with a sharp controlled blunt force strike to the back of his/her head. And Akira/Satomi fall unconscious right into her body/sister's lifeless lap. "Now… bring them both to the hospital, and restrain her. Keep her out of reach of things to throw." To make his point, A-Drei's bruised temple bleeds slightly.
"Right." Haruto motioned to some people to bring the two siblings away in a gurney. He turned to Pino. "Put the Malefic on lockdown. Don't let anyone use it, not even her."
"Way ahead of you." Pino swayed her hands, and all system went into total lockdown in which only she can undo. Once that was done, Pino looked at Haruto with concern. The boy seems to be somewhat distracted. "Haruto? Is something the matter?"
"Ah… yeah… umm… what are you doing here? I thought you're working on those imprisoned Moon Colonists?"
"Ah that." Pino's grin almost split her face in two. "Return to the moon. There's a nice surprise waiting for you there."
"Eh?"
Posthaste, the Valravn finally docked into the internal hangars of the Moon Colony. When they landed and the Valvrave pilots walk out… they saw a lot of people waiting for them, looking at them with gleaming hopeful eyes.
"Pino… what…?" Haruto's thoughts were immediately ceased when he saw the crowd charging at the pilots as if their lives depended on it.
They quickly swarmed all-over the pilots. All of them laughing, shaking their hands, slapping their backs saying "Thank you!" "You saved us!" "Thank you!" "Lord bless you!" Thank you… thank you, thank you all around.
Haruto immediately understood as he saw a smiling Rion and a laughing Kibukawa behind. They did it. They've managed to rescue the Moon Colonists. And now they brought them all here so that they can meet face to face with the people largely responsible for saving their lives. Burnett and his team also happily recorded all this in their camera.
The rescued colonists hugged them, they smiled at them. Yusuke and Raizo's terrible mood from being brutally scolded by A-Drei vanished in an instant. They're living it up, enjoying the spotlight of being a hero. Takahi merely smiled kindly, but kept her dignity and ladylike demeanor as she talked to the rescued citizens. Most of them of course, flocked to Haruto, who they immediately identify as the leader of the Valvrave team.
"Thank you laddie. We don't know what they'll do to us if it weren't for you and your friends."
"Glad I can help." Haruto smiled. "You're okay? Your head, your memories? You had it all fine?"
"Not sure what they did." Another colonist replied. "My head's a bit fuzzy… spinnin a bit… but I'm okay."
"Well… take it easy. You got your brain sucked out. Not nice."
"Yes, we know." The Colonist snorted. "It's just… if you… and your friends need help… with anything, anything at all to help you fight those damn Magius bastards…!"
"Appreciate it." And then Haruto immediately gloomed. "But right now I need you and your people to clear the premises. This place is about to become a human off limit area." Haruto bent his head down. "We're bringing some prisoners in." He jerked his thumb to the three Walkits dragged in behind the Valravn.
And the smile and chatter suddenly stopped.
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Ashra was born some few hundred years ago in a place called the London tower, during the time called a witch hunt era. Her matriarch managed to gave birth to her when she's in imprisonment and secreted her away just before the humans put the Matriarch, and her human vessel, at a stake and torch her. At least, that was what she was told by other Magius she met later.
She's one of the last generations of the Earthborn Magius. The last batch of Magius given birth by the now extinct Matriarch Magius caste on earth. Personally, she hardly cared as to what it entails. She grew up listening to stories whose significance she barely understand. The destruction of their home universe, how they are stranded here on earth with these primitive and xenophobic earthlings, how they were seemingly abandoned by the Queen she didn't even know, how she should kept all this a secret, how the humans will not accept them… all from the aging lips of her teachers, the elderly pureborn Magius. They taught her what it means to live as a Magius, taught her how to take in another lifeforms' memory as runes and integrate it into her own. They taught her, and many other younger Magius, to be a survivor.
In short, she was born a Magius, she was raised as a Magius, she was taught by Magius how to live as a Magius… and little else. Of course she amassed various skills as she assumed various personalities: she was once a nun, a beggar, a prostitute, a soldier, a Businessman, a priest, a pilot, a fisherman, etc… And she understands that such life is the way things are for Magius…
But then… everything suddenly changes when Novus Magius appears. An Earthborn Magius… just like her but completely different. Suddenly, the world they live on, the Earth she had come to know changes. But… as mentioned before, she's a survivor. And in a world where the blurry lines suddenly cleared, she knew which side she stands: The survival of her race.
And right now… if surrendering to these Novus Magius will support her beliefs… then, why the hell not?
As the three ruined space ships were dragged into the hangar, they were welcomed by an army of unmanned Waffes… and the gunbarrels of several fully armed Kagerous. But standing at the head… and the only person to welcome them… oh wait… there's more than one.
Haruto stand calmly… and next to him… is Pino.
Ashra frowned as she and her officers walked down the hangar. Ashra looked at the Novus Magius… and the so called Legendary Queen. Some of her officers suddenly rushed forward ahead of her and knelt down before the Queen.
"Queen Pino! It is you!"
"Not a queen anymore…" Pino shook her head. But the Magius kept groveling at her feet anyway.
Haruto looked at the kneeling Magius… and those who aren't, specifically, the indifferent Ashra. "I'm Tokishima Haruto. Commander in Chief of the NJDF. You are?"
"My name is Ashra. Magius commander of the Heavy Cruiser Blood Fist." She introduced herself short.
"Well… look… not that we're being rude but… I'm afraid you'll have to stay here in a while."
"Like we have a choice."
"I'm sorry. But until then… you'll have to stay in the brig… the country prison to be exact. Away from the other people." To make his point, Haruto pointed at the overlooking balcony. Ashra saw a lot of people… Moon Colonists… all of them are looking at them angrily and murderously behind the window a few stories above. "You have to understand. We just rescued these people from having their heads sucked dry. Most of them are still a bit… bitter."
Ashra frowned. "You're not going to… kill us?"
"What good will that does to anyone?" Haruto shrugged. "Come on." Haruto gestured at Pino and the Fairy Queen nodded before she sank into the ground, much to her servants' bewilderment.
The Magius prisoners were brought through an isolated path, escorted by the floating robotic unmanned Waffes. Ashra finally understand this no-human contact policy. They're countermeasures to prevent the Magius from trying to escape by hijacking some human's body. They use robots or human riding giant robots, and thus, by denying them any physical contact, the Magius have no chance of escape by hijacking anyone. "Clever." Clearly, their captors understand what they're dealing with.
Soon, they reached outside, where a convoy of armored and drone controlled transports are waiting to bring them all to the prison. Under heavy escort, naturally. But that was not the only thing waiting out there.
The vengeful Moon Colonists somehow had managed to make their way outside, and now the masses are rioting and screaming murder. "KILL THEM!" "SUCK THEIR HEAD OUT!" "YEAAH!" "THAT'S RIGHT!" "OUT WITH THE ALIENS!" The Jior security forces are trying their best to keep the angry mob from barging in and take things into their own hands.
Haruto thought of trying to reason with them… until he caught one of the rioters reaching something beneath his jacket. Instinctively, Haruto moved in front of Ashra. True enough, the man produced a gun and opened fire several times at Ashra. All the bullets were intercepted by Haruto… and one even landed on his forehead. The Rioters screeched in horror when they saw what happened to their savior. The Jior security forces immediately apprehend the shooter, but the damage was done.
Haruto staggered and for a moment he looked like he'll drop dead… until he steadied his footing and get straight back up.
The rioters stopped the noise upon seeing the sight. They all looked wide eyed in horror and disbelief as Haruto glared back at them with red glowing eyes and the distinctive red scars appearing on his face. The bullets popped out of the gunshot holes one by one. The last one on his head popped last as Haruto swept the blood away, revealing a perfectly unscathed forehead.
As if on cue, the Valvrave descended from the sky and landed gracefully at the front of the convoy. The rioters immediately back away seeing the heavily armed robot glared angrily at them.
Haruto glanced at the captive Magius. "I suggest you hurry up and get into the car. Lord knows what will happen next the longer we stay here."
Ashra nodded. And then, before the angry but helpless gaze of the angry mob, the Magius entered the armored cars. Protected by the Valvrave at the front, the convoy left for the prison undisturbed, heavily escorted by unmanned Waffes, armed Impact Booster crows, and two Kagerous.
Finally, they reached the County Prison, and the Magius were placed in a maximum security jail. As it turns out, as Ashra noted, she and her crew were not the first occupants. There were other Magius already in there. POWs captured by the New JIOR forces during other skirmishes before and after the Moon Assault. Haruto personally escorted Ashra to her cell, a different one with the rest, considering her gender. Thus she was imprisoned with a few Female Magius prisoners.
Just as she went into her cell, Ashra looked at the Novus Magius in bewilderment. "Are you keeping us here so that you can… feed on us?"
Haruto shook his head. "No. We're putting you here to protect you. You see those angry mobs back there, right? I suggest you all stay here until things calm down and we figure out what to do with you all." To make his point, Haruto even distributed a can of synthetic-Runes for each prisoner.
"Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"You rescued me. Used your own body as a shield. That was unnecessary, I have more than enough runes to survive gunshots and worse."
Haruto chuckled. "That you will, huh? Well… I would know. I've gotten used to getting shot at and getting back up."
"Then why do it?"
"Well… it's called rules of war. We don't harm surrendering troops."
"Is it worth sacrificing your own body to shield me just to uphold that rule?"
"It's the right thing to do." Haruto answered easily. "Some humans would ready to do that if it's right."
Ashra perked in astonishment. "…you identify yourself as a Magius… but you also identify yourself as a Human?"
"I was once human." Haruto noted sadly. "I've accepted that I'm a Magius now but… some things never changed."
"I do not comprehend." Ashra frowned in confusion. "Is humanity something that is worth clinging on to?"
Haruto looked at Ashra. Somehow he can sense it. That comment just now was not spite or arrogance… that was pure curiosity. She's looking at him inquisitively… and in utter bewilderment. As if Haruto is something she had never seen before, and thus, she wants to know more. Haruto sighed. "It's a human thing." He closed the jail door. "Just stay here. Okay? You'll be safe here."
As Haruto left the prison complex and walked outside, he was once again welcomed by that same army of rioters. They all looked at him, their glare shift in-between angry and scared. "Oka~ay…"
One rioter, the representative of the other rioters step forth and go face to face with Haruto. "Mr. Tokishima… what are you doing? Those monsters are in there. You're not planning on… letting them loose?"
"No. I won't let them loose." Haruto shook his head. "They're staying there until I figure out what to do with them."
"W… Wha… then you ARE planning to let them go."
"I've yet to made such plans."
"But you said-"
"And what do you expect me to do? Kill them?" Haruto glared at the head rioter. "They are surrendering POWs! By the laws of the War, surrendering soldiers are given full quarter and while in imprisonment, they are not to be shown any form of hostility so long as they cooperate."
"That rule applies only to human! They're-"
"-not human?" Haruto cut him short. "In case you forgot… I'm not one either." Haruto's glare sent shiver down the Rioters' spine. "I know what the Magius and the Council had done to you and your families. But taking it out on them will not help bring your captured family back! No, quite the opposite. It will only endanger yourself and everyone if you all give in to anger and frenzy. No sir! I won't let that happen. Not under my watch. So go home! All of you!" He roared.
The Rioters considered to just charge in and overwhelms him… but after that headshot incident, they finally heard the rumors. Among them, how the Commander in Chief of the JSDF single handedly took down an entire Dorssian spaceship and fed on her crew. Not sure if they can handle that. And finally, the disgruntled rioters dispersed and left the Prison complex.
Once the last rioters ran out of sight, the Valvrave descended from the sky and landed right on the prison park. "Well… that could've gone worse… way worse." Pino popped out of the Valvrave's chest, smiling wide. "Thank goodness it went perfectly well."
Haruto smiled at Pino. "You hid the Valvrave up in the artificial sky?"
"I know you can handle it." Pino smiled as she went down and stand next to Haruto. "I believe you wouldn't want to terrorize those civilians using Valvrave guns, yes?"
"Of course not." Haruto nodded… and his smile faltered somewhat. "Though I'm afraid it won't do much difference. They knew what I am, what I can do. They obeyed me because they're afraid of me." Haruto looked back at the prison. In the last one month, seeing they've been imprisoning captured Magius in there, they've been borrowing Dorssian unmanned anti personnel drones as security inside the prison complex. That being said, there's absolutely no human presence in the complex, only Drones are guarding inside. "Pino… I think I'm gonna be spending some time in here for a while."
"Thought as much." Pino then pointed at the Vavrave. "I've slaved the drone control in this prison to the Valvrave. And I've also slaved the control of the Valvrave to your helmet and pilot suit so you can remote control it from outside the cockpit. You be careful okay?"
"Thank you."
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When Akira finally woke up, the first thing she saw was the white ceiling of a hospital. She blinked several times and looked around… and then, she panicked when she realized… she's outside. "KYAAAAAAA!" She immediately sprang back up.
"Ah, Akira! You're awake!" Shoko immediately came to her side. "Calm down! You're in the hospital"
"S… Shoko… chan?" Akira timidly looked at her… and that's when she realized… she felt taller, seeing she had to look down to Shoko to see her eye to eye. She looked at her hands… and gasped in horror. That's not her hand. She looked down at her features: she's wearing a male Sakimori clothing, she had male arms and legs, male chest, male… manhood… she's in a male body. Worse, she knew these features all too well.
She's in her brother's body.
In panic, Akira looked around her in horror. But Shoko, understanding her fear, immediately calmed her down. "Don't panic, don't fret. Your body is safe." She gestured at a bed next to hers, where her comatose body lay. "There. See? Your body is right here."
Akira timidly approached her lifeless body. She even poked her cheek several times. Wow. Is that her? This is the first time in years she looked at her own being from another person's perspective. Thick eyebags, pale skin, disheveled crimson hair, and she's very thin, almost skin over bone… she looked like a corpse! "W-w-what do I do? W-w-what d-do I do?"
"Don't fret Akira-chan! Haruto told me how you can go back to your own body. It's easy peasy!" Shoko gently guide Akira closer to her original body. "You simply just bit your own body to return back to normal!"
Akira looked uneasily at her own lifeless self. But she finally steeled herself and grabbed her own petite hand. She took a small bite to her own soft skin until her brother's teeth penetrates easily through her frail skin.
A second later, Akira's eyes sprang open again and this time, she's happily returned to her own body, thank the heavens. At the same time, her brother's body collapsed on the floor, completely knocked unconscious for a while… but he soon woke up and saw his sister up and about. "A… AKIRA!" Satomi immediately lunged and hugged his sister. "Thank goodness you're alright!"
Akira was stunned shocked at first… but then she immediately panicked and kicked Satomi away. "G… GET AWAY!" She immediately crawled away, desperately trying to find a hiding place, but there's none. She finally grabbed the blanket and covered herself with it as she hid beneath the hospital bed, backs turned against Satomi.
Satomi went crestfallen seeing how her sister is still reacting in such a way to him… but he accepted it in his stride. He deserves this. He turned around to leave, understanding he's not what his sister wanted.
"Renbokuji-senpai?" Shoko frowned. "Aren't you going to stay?"
"Shashinami… please… look after my sister, okay? If you need anything, let me know." Satomi tapped Shoko's shoulder once and finally left, leaving Shoko and the still frantic Akira underneath the bed.
Shoko looked sorrowfully at Satomi's vanishing back, but then she took a deep breath and sighed. She bent down to see Akira's blanket covered and shivering back. "Poke." So said, so she poked Akira's back. The girl winced. "Akira? It's me. It's okay! It's just us now!"
Akira slowly peeked beneath the blanket and it was Shoko smiling wide. "S… Shoko… chan…"
"Come on! Get up!" Shoko unreservedly plunged in underneath the bed. "Get out! You're going on a walk with me!"
"NO! NO! NO!NO!NO!NO!" Akira squealed and screamed in panic. "I wanna stay here! The outside is as scary as hell!"
"Oh no, it's not! You are SO going out with me MISSY!" Shoko overturned the bed!
"N… NOOOOO!" Akira can only squeal helplessly as Shoko pulled the blanket away in a huff.
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Finally left alone in the prison, Haruto take his time familiarizing himself with the new environment. But… he's quite an expert in this… he's been spending a lot of his time in prisons anyway…
He slided his warden card on the elevator and headed straight towards a certain section of the prison.
The triple supermax prison cell. The sort of prison that one can say was quite overkill. Padded glass cells dug deep underground beneath the Moon surface, with 24/7 external drone surveillance, lined with automated laser cutter system that will chop the whole cell into confetti the moment it detected an attempted escape. It also armed with multiple backup generator system that will activate within seconds if the main power grid was taken out somehow. Designed specifically to imprison the worst of the worst…
Funny thing is, its current occupant weren't exactly a prisoner either…
But Haruto didn't know any other place to keep a certain super dangerous Dorssian soldier from making any ingeniously planned trouble.
"So… you keep bringing in new friends for me." L-Elf muttered with his back turned against Haruto.
"Finally the silent treatment is over eh?" Haruto sighed as he looked at the silver haired Dorssian sitting at the center of a glass padded cell.
After that fiasco with Shoko, L-Elf had generally improved his profile. For one, he no longer make scratches on the wall and no longer toss away food… but he still refused to give any council whatsoever, refusing to take part in anything. Or to be more precise, whenever Haruto or A-Drei was fortunate enough to receive an answer for any inquiry they may have, he never gave any easy or straight forward answers. When the school was evacuated, it is only proper that L-Elf was harried along, though they kept him in the Valravn's security wing, all tied up. Fortunately, he remained a silent spectator during the battle.
And then when they've taken over the Moon, it is only proper that they gave him a more proper 'dwelling'. With note that L-Elf is to be treated with courtesy… well… some form of it.
"You knew?"
"Why else would you be here?" L-Elf snorted. "I know you're stupid. But seriously… are you really that stupid?"
"…what?"
"What you have right now is a bomb getting ready to explode in your face. A powder-keg of chemical mixture that will soon lead to chaos."
"…you mean about me putting a bunch of angry human moon colonists with Magius prisoners in one domain… huh?"
"If you think it's appropriate… think again. You're playing right into Cain's hand." L-Elf sinisterly added. "With all this pressure, it won't be long before someone do something incredibly stupid. With all eyes focused on New Jior, whoever draws the first blood will start the descent."
"Descent? Into what?"
L-Elf gave him a dark sadistic grin. "Madness. Destruction. Death. Are you ready for it?"
"Speak for yourself. I won't let that happen."
"And what makes you think you can stop it from happening?" L-Elf chortled with glee. "There's no middle ground in this. The very nature of Magius itself will not allow it. It's you or them."
Haruto can only show his disagreement with his glare. It was then the com on his ears blared. Someone is at the front door. The holographic screen showed that Saki had just entered the building via the main entrance, and the warden mech is welcoming her. But she is looking for her husband.
Haruto frowned and turned around, but before he do, L-Elf have a few last words. "It's either the Magius or the Humans." He grinned. "And I'm not just talking about the newcomers."
Haruto paused for one full second to absorb those last cautionary words and then he left without another word.
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Pino was inside the Valvrave construction system as she oversees the repair of the damaged Behemoth when she saw an incredibly depressed Satomi is dragging his feet across the hangar.
"Hm?"
Her curiosity piqued, Pino put the repair system on auto and popped out of the nearby PC Monitor. "Satomi-kuun! What's wrong?"
"Oh! Pino-san!" Satomi gasped in surprise when the fairy queen's head just popped out of a monitor. The blonde haired boy looked at the fairy queen's signature curious look. Everyone in New Jior now knows that when she had that look, you better spill or she'll hound you to your sleep.
Rukino Saki learned that the hard way when she piqued Pino's interest in Earth's concept of sex.
Flashback:
"Nee, Saki! Saki! Can you explain to me about this doggy style thing!?" Pino squealed right in the library, causing other occupants to spurt. "Shut up!" A bit red Saki hissed.
"Saki! What's 69!?" Pino scared the begeesus out of a showering Saki… and every other female within earshot. "SHUT UP!" She replied back.
"Saki! What's missionary!? Hey! Saki! SAAKI!" Pino chased a panicking Saki across the street as she squealed the question out loud in public… "GO AWAAAY!"
Flashback ends…
At any rate, it's better for the person involved to put the Queen's curiosity to rest ASAP before she bring about the new meaning to public embarrassment.
So, a moment later…
"Oh… I see… your sister hates you huh?" Pino nodded. "Family huh? I know a little what that's like… I went through that with my brother Prue."
"Pino, do you have a family?"
"Family is an earth concept." Pino shrugged. "Granted, I did not understand that before I came here." Pino floated as she frowned. "You see… Before Earth, back in our realm he and I were the firsts of our race. The two of us were split from a single source, one core. Then the others followed: Atlach, Fran, Apolkhe, and finally, Lieselotte. The moment I was born, I was already unanimously elected as the Queen of our race. The ruler of our hive, supreme matriarch of our species. We don't have bonds of blood called family. We lived in a cold harsh system based on meritocracy and logic. I told you before we were like insect hive right? I'm the Queen, I controlled our entire species, what I think they do. When you're in that position, you're expected to put your attention to your people. You're not allowed to favor one over the other. I was a very different… person then. I guess the human word we're looking for is… heartless workaholic was it?"
"I can somehow imagine…" Satomi winced.
"Neither of us question how distant I was with him. We both accepted it as logic. That's the way things are. But then… everything changes when we arrived on earth. Suddenly, I was introduced to the concept of family." Pino smiled fondly. "In the short centuries we spent on earth, we learned other concepts like… sibling rivalry, bonding, family get together, sibling quarrels… my brother and I spent many years arguing which one of us is the older one… whether I should call him little brother, or should he call me Little sister. We finished it with a fair and square jan-ken-pon eventually. It was… fun. Really fun to have a family."
"Where is he now? Your brother?"
Pino frowned in mourning. "…he… I think he passed away during our return trip to earth…"
Satomi gaped and immediately bowed his head down. "I'm sorry… I…"
"Not as sorry as I am." Pino tilted her head as she mourned. "We've lived for eternity, my brother and I. And yet, those short centuries we spent on earth, bonding together as an actual family… that was the happiest moments of our lives. And now that he's gone… if I think back on how I spent all those eternities with him, with me as a king instead of a family…" Pino chuckled sorrowfully. "Now I can only regret having missed the chance to spend my days showing how much I loved him as a sister."
"Akira and I went through the same treatment with our parents…" Now that the Queen has opened up, Satomi felt compelled to do the same. "Our parents… were so busy working; they never had time for the family." For the first time in his life, Satomi let down his shell of eliteness and opened up. "Before… that incident… Akira and I were very close. Without our parents, we only have each other. Until…"
"Your sister loved you." Pino smiled. "That's why she did what she did, yes?"
"Yes." Satomi became even more sorrowful. "And I spat that on her face when I abandoned her out of fear."
"And right now, it's tearing you apart." Pino then smiled kindly at Satomi as she gently caressed the downed boy's shoulder in a motherly way. "That's just proof that you loved her. Humans develop many wonderful concepts that would be the wonder and envy of many other races. Love. Family. Protect it. Cherish it. Nothing is more valuable. Nothing!"
Satomi, feeling significantly better nodded. "I will."
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"What are you doing here?" Haruto asked as soon as Saki had finished planting another deep kiss into his lips as a start as soon as she sees him.
"I saw what happened in the vid cam. You were shot in the head! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Immortal Super human, remember?" Haruto chuckled. "Forget about me. What about…"
"The Jr.?" Saki chuckled as she glanced at her womb. A month into her pregnancy, and there's this nice lump began to form. "Horaa… the child wants to see the father too, ri~ight?" She held Haruto's hand and placed it on her womb so that the father can get a feel.
Haruto chuckled and lovingly patted Saki's black silky hair. "Still… this place is dangerous. There's a lot of people here that can hurt you."
"I know. Which is why I won't let you face this place alone." Saki put a finger on his lips. "So… I'm gonna visit you at least three times a day. If nothing else, to bring you this!" She brought up a bag. Packed lunch.
A moment later, the packed lunch was empty basket on the floor, and that's when Saki and Haruto can have their little heart to heart, with Saki lovingly snuggled in Haruto's arms. "So… what are you up to?"
"What do you mean?"
"I came here to see you. Instead I was welcomed by that dumb droid. You're not in the cell… not the normal one… nor are you in the warden's office… So… that only leaves one possibility…" Saki tucked her head to Haruto. "You've been seeing L-Elf again, haven't you?"
Haruto chuckled. "Saki? Are you jealous?"
"No." Saki blurted. She gets more flustered when Haruto smiled at her meaningfully. And she finally groaned in defeat. "Yes. Kind of. But not in the way you think."
"What do you mean?"
"Before I'm your lover, I was a fighter like you. Like him." Saki moaned and pouted cutely. "I'm kinda envious because… whenever you needed council in… the things we do with the Valvrave, which involve blowing things up, to put it kindly… it's that Dorssian you turned to for advice. Not me." First sign of Haruto trying to flabbergast an answer, Saki immediately cut him by putting two fingers on his lips again. "Which is understandable. He's pretty much a super soldier with a super brain. Better than me. Better than anyone, in fact. I'll admit that much."
Haruto listened while waiting for Saki to remove her fingers.
"So… while I understand and approve of you turn to him for advice… a part of me can't help to feel jealous. But that's jealous in a good way." And then she lovingly cupped Haruto's cheek as she tucked her forehead to his. "Besides… I got you as a husband… what's there to be 'jealous' of?" And she kissed him again to enforce this.
Haruto still feel his heart skipped a beat every time her warm lips locked with his. And when they parted, he always felt calmer and can take on whatever the world will throw at them next. "…I've been thinking… about us… actually."
"Uh-huh?"
"You saw how those mob out there… humans being so angry with the Magius for what they've done to them. Which is understandable. If someone sucked my head out, I'd be pissed too. It's just… we're Magius too… right? Half Magius, but still a Magius. Our war is with the Council, not the Magius as a whole. We've said that probably a thousand times, yeah?"
Saki is starting to read where this is going.
"It's just… I'm worried. When the time comes and the war is over… what would become of us? What would become of…" Haruto looked at his unborn child in Saki's womb. "If there's a future in which our child will be born, I hope that it'll be a peaceful future without bloodshed or discrimination. It's just… after what happened back in the docks… I'm not so sure…"
"Bu~ut?" Saki immediately detected a silver lining in Haruto's doubtful tone.
"…there's this… Magius… downstairs… Her name is Ashra." Haruto tilted his head. Saki's eyes rolled upon hearing the female suffix attached. "Call it a hunch… but I had a feeling she's… different. Somehow."
"Different… different how?"
"She doesn't look at us like we're some lower life form or something." Haruto tried to come up with the best word to describe it. "I feel like… we can compromise. We can talk. Call up a dialogue. Maybe… just maybe… we can better understand the Magius from their point of view. I… I don't know. It could be just me trying to…"
Saki chortled. "Haruto… always so melodramatic." She snuggled closer to Haruto as caress his cheek. "Look. If you're afraid to do it just because of silly things like being afraid of getting to a bad end, you'll never get anywhere." Saki smiled. "Sometimes you have to jump first before you look. Whether you land on a bog or a pool comes later."
"And you knew this?"
"How do you think I got you?" Saki chuckled sweetly as she played her nose with his.
Haruto snorted… and finally give his wife another peck. "Remind me to put your name at the top of the list the next time I need some life counseling."
And Saki gave him another fresh deep kiss as thank you. It was meant to be that… but then, the kiss went on… and on… and on… and before the two youngster knew it, Saki's hand grab hold of Haruto's and her tongue plunged into his mouth. Haruto was the first to notice the kiss is growing too passionate for his taste. Before it gets too hot, Haruto pushed her passionate wife away. "Whoa, Saki, slow down!"
"Eh?" She seem to be in a bit of a trance… the glow of her green web briefly appeared on her neck and dissipate without anyone noticing. "What?"
"Saki, calm down. Calm down okay? We can't do 'that' with you being… well, you know."
It was then the daze was lifted, and Saki herself felt somewhat flustered. "Oh! Oh my… I…" She flabbergasted in embarrassment and quickly back down. "Of course! Of course we can't. I… I don't know what came over me." She tucked her head down. "I'm sorry. It's just… I think the stress… I mean… we've only… oh god…"
"It's alright." Haruto laughed. "I understand."
"You do?"
"You know what? Why don't you go back to the apartment and take a nap. If you need me… I'm just a phone call away, and I'll come running. Kay?"
Saki smiled sweetly. "Okay."
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Yusuke was grounded. That's what he can surmise after A-Drei continued his earlier tirade for the next half an hour. The Dorssian instructor forbids him and Raizo from getting near the Valvrave. He's not complaining. Certainly not after he saw how A-Drei beat the crap out of the protesting Raizo and put his unconscious figure in a brig.
Thusly, while the maintenance of the Behemoth was given to Satomi, Yusuke were told to perform maintenance on the Kagerous instead. Which is just fine. Apart from the ones they've just lost, Kibukawa used the Moon's production capability to construct new Kagerous, but given his wheelchair bound condition, he was somewhat overwhelmed on maintaining them all. Other than Pino and Kibukawa, thanks to the amount of time he spend in and out them, in and out of the battlefield, one can easily say Yusuke knew more about the Valvrave than anyone else in the field. Probably in the world.
The problem is, the non nerd folk had a hard time keeping up.
"Urgh! I'll make this simple. The pneumatic endoskeleton actuator goes to the power coupling synchronizer, and then the superconducting thermosensor circuit goes to the secondary clear fossil prismatic gyroscopic layer. Got it?"
"Uh… okay…?" The engineer's head's spinning.
"Come on. This is basic rocket science crossed with Mechatronics and a little bit of bionics, people!" Yusuke moaned, and they're still confused.
And so, as the still confused hangar crew did as Yusuke instructed (to the best of their understanding of techno lingo), the bespectacled Novus Magius merely waited when the crew will come to him again for another question. That's about 10 minutes from now… at best. Yusuke sighed. How he missed his pals, god rest their souls. He could use their help now. There's only so much Kibukawa-sensei could… 'Hm?'
"For the last time, no. We can't do that. I don't know how! And even if I could, it's not me you should be talking to!" The professor seems to be in a heated argument with some of the Moon Colonists. Soon, they departed disappointed.
That was enough to draw Yusuke's curiosity. "Sensei? What was that all about?"
"The Colonist. Some of them were asking if it's possible to modify the Valvraves or the Kagerous to be used by normal humans."
Yusuke frowned. It was easy to see why the Colonists feared them that much. In addition to their super human abilities, they got access to super weapons. They want something to defend themselves against something like that. Problem is, the Valvraves are pretty much the most powerful weapon in the world. There aren't many things out there that can put up a fight against it. "Putting that aside… is it possible? To modify the Kagerous as much? Lord knows we need the reinforcements in the long future."
Kibukawa sighed exasperatedly. "As I said… We built these things, we can produce more of these things, but we have yet to fully understand on how it truly works. The Valvraves, and the Kagerous, are a combination of Technology AND biology. The Technology we can replicate, but it was intricately connected with the biology. One cannot function without the other. That being said… I'm not saying it's impossible."
"Really?"
"The Kirschbaum." Kibukawa pointed at the enormous white muscular mech. "I checked the system, and 40% of their construction resembles the Valvraves. But as the battle had shown us… they're not exactly an even match to even the Downgraded versions. But they were designed for human use in mind and they are a lot easier to manufacture in large numbers. Pino designed the Valvraves, and thus, the Kagerous by extension, to be used by her Novus Magius. You kids. So if one want a Valvrave for human usage, we're talking about designing a new bot altogether from ground up. And seriously… we don't have enough time, resources, and brain power to do that. Not if we're talking about building something that can hold a candle next to what we already have."
"Anyway, I told them if they want those Valvraves for human use, they need to talk to the people who made them. That's Pino and… and Professor Tokishima."
"Haruto's old man…"
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Shoko was sorely tempted to put a collar on Akira's neck and drag her around like a pet cat. But that's no way to treat a friend, so she resorted to simply let Akira to crawl around encased in a holed box. She need some help to make sure the Hacker Shut In won't try to escape when she's not looking.
"Thank you for your help, Mari."
"No prob." The black haired girl muttered lazily. Two girls and a crawling cardbox make a very bizarre troupe as they entered the mall. Before the battle on the Moon, every non military facility and infrastructure were either shut down or repurposed to suit that purpose. The Mall received the latter. It was used as storage for provision and also lodging for the troopers. That being said, many parts of the mall deemed unnecessary was trashed. Theater, trashed. The arcades, trashed. Toy Store. Double trashed. The Hypermarket remained mostly intact, but most of the stuff in it had been taken, including many of Shoko's favorite snacks. She almost cried when there's only one glorious bag of chips and a half empty bottle of Tabasco sauce left…
"Yosh, yosh. Don't cry, Shoko."
"My Snaaa~aack!" Shoko moaned. Akira also felt sorry for her. And so, she dared herself to lift her cardbox to pat the girl in the head. "Shoko-chan… don't cry." Shoko looked at Akira's trembling fingers then, the bag of chips were handed to her. "Shoko-chan?"
"Here you go. It's for you." Shoko smiled wide.
"B… But… shoko chan… last bag…?"
"Just take it." Shoko smiled even wider. "To commemorate your first time in the mall!"
Akira smiled and took the chips with conflicted feelings. Conflicted as in, she wanted to gobble it up with Shoko, but she also want to keep it forever intact so that she can always remember this day.
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Burnett and his television crew received a call to visit a prison… for the exclusive right of filming what he would easily describe as the most important dialogue of the century.
Haruto welcomed him at the entrance, and then he brought him to a conference room, where he was given the space and time to prepare.
A moment later, just as his crew is finally ready for recording, Haruto returned… with his guests. Pino, the Former Prime Minister of Jior, Shashinami Ryuuji, and finally… Ashra.
"Please. Take your seat." There are five seats, Burnett sit at the very center, being the host, next to Haruto on his left. Ryuuji took the seat next to him, Pino was given a seat, but she chose to float around. Ashra is still reluctant… she doesn't understand what is transpiring here.
"What… are we going to do, Tokishima Haruto?"
"We're going to sit here… and have a little chat. A very civil chat." Haruto repeated. "It's past due I think. Every time I tried to hold a conversation with a Magius, it always ended with guns being fired and people died. Personally, I had enough of that."
"…" Ashra still feel a bit cautious.
"This is what humans do when they're in conflict and they don't want to kill one another. We held a dialogue. A simple, harmless exchange of words." Pino smirked. "Sure… it's inefficient and biased compared to our usual hive mind telepathy. But I find the activity very enjoyable."
Ashra raised one of her eyebrows. A documentary talk show. She watched television too. Of course she understands. Ashra sighed and took her seat, facing Haruto and Ryuuji… with Pino floating up in the sky, excitedly watching from above how things will proceed.
Burnett than give a sign to his cameraman to start recording. "This is James Burnett, in the Moon Colony County prison. With me are Former Prime Minister of Jior, Shashinami Ryuuji, Commander in Chief of the NJDF, Tokishima Haruto, Former High Queen of the Magius Empire, Pinovalkia Walvravia Acachia, and Commander of Magius, Ashra, is it?"
Ashra nodded.
"Right. Now… before we begin… perhaps a short introduction is in order? Everyone already knows of the Mr. Shashinami, Mr. Tokishima, and Queen Pino… but we don't know anything about you."
Ashra nodded. Of course. It's just common courtesy. "My name is Ashravella Valkuria Esel. A Magius. I was born in London, some few centuries ago."
Pino quirked. "Ashra? You're Earth born?"
Ashra nodded. "They say I was the last generation born by the last of the Matriarchs." Ashra coldly looked at Ryuuji, Haruto and Burnett, apparent representative of the human race. "Humans burnt her at the stake. Calling her a witch… or at least that's what I heard."
"What you heard?" Ryuuji rolled his eyes.
"The elders spirited me away before they took her. I didn't even know what she looked like." Ashra shrugged nonchalantly. "That being said… well… how should I put this… you humans burned her… I know that was wrong because it is wrong. But I feel no emotional attachment to this… being I should probably call my mother."
She wasn't joking. They didn't sense any emotion or even the slightest bit of anger or hate in her words. It was flat, emotionless, cold and logical. And that's all.
"You can blame that to countless million years of logic based government system and over adherence to meritocracy." Pino rolled her eyes. "Sorry. My bad."
"Meritocracy?" Haruto rolled his eyes.
"Our position in the society is determined by our achievements." Ashra explained. "Upon birth, we were assigned to castes. We were assigned to certain roles: warrior, leader, scientists, and so on. Our social standing greatly dependant on how well we do in our assigned roles. As one progress to the hierarchy of our society, one's rights will also be expanded upon depending on their contribution."
"Such as the right for social welfare and something like that?" Ryuuji asked. "Like increased wage and work benefit, and so on and so forth?"
But that question made Ashra rolled her eyes in confusion. "Monetary gains? What on earth do we need that for?"
The humans were somewhat confused. Pino immediately took over before things grew more awkward. "What she meant is the rights for knowledge expansion." Pino continued. "Magius only duty in life is to produce information to be consumed by the colony. Back in our dimension, we have no need of physical body. We are immortal beings made purely of information, and so, as you might've imagine we have no need to eat, or sleep. We grow by absorbing runes, as in information. You humans have a saying: 'Knowledge is Power.' In our case, it was translated quite literally. The more knowledge we possess, the greater the strength that we command."
"At the zenith of our civilization, our race had expanded and encapsulated the entirety of our galaxy and beyond… we crossed lightyears in eyeblinks. Accomplished feats worthy of wonders. Reshape worlds to suit our needs, we could even create entire solar system even. It was a golden age of the Magius. There are no limits on what we can do." Pino continued.
Ashra nodded. "That's what the elders told me."
"Did they also tell you that, at the zenith of our civilization, a sickness fell upon us?" Pino tilted her head. "It was a sickness of the mind. We have accomplished so much. Gone so far… suddenly, at the peak, we realized that… we've stalled. We were all knowing, all powerful… We've hit the ceiling. We can't grow any further as a species. An ennui set into our hearts. Our empire became… a silent empire. We do not grow, but we do not decline either. But that was the end… until…" Pino looked at the Humans. "Until that happened."
"It was a huge explosion of stars that shook the very foundation of the universe and created what we originally thought a wormhole in our galaxy. You humans called that explosion Big Bang, I believe? It was the birth of a new Galaxy. Yours. At first, it was small, and young. We pay no heed to it, merely set about sentries to watch over its growth. We simply thought that this was but a new galaxy that we can later exploit at our leisure. A thousand years, a million years, billions, trillions of years… that was but an eyeblink to us. And in that few eyeblinks, that small young galaxy grew… and we merely watched. Watched with hungry eyes, like a farmer, eagerly awaits our hefty harvest. Like… like a family fattening their turkey for a hearthy meal in thanksgiving."
"…" Sta~are…
Pino noticed she had said something rather out of place. So… "It wasn't until we deemed that young Galaxy had reached a sufficient age and first attempts to venture into it was drafted… it was then we realized an issue. The fragility of our race was finally brought to light."
"You can't exist in our universe."
"Or any other universe, so it would seem." Pino mourned. "We were kings of toads at the bottom of a well. We exist in a galaxy of imaginary numbers. But that's the only universe we can exist. Suddenly we have to face a galaxy of real numbers. Our universe is reaching its end. Yours were swallowing ours at a very rapid rate, and we only have millennia to spare. We were running out of time."
"And so the Valvraves were created." Burnett still remembered that piece of story. "I remember you told me that the Valvraves is a… body… your avatar in the physical world?"
"Yes." Pino nodded. "When we entered your world, for good, a lot of things were new to us. The first sensation we felt… was the fear of the end. We didn't know that it was called death then. And we all know we have to stay in our Valvrave if we are to live… and after that, knowledge acquiring is no longer something we need to grow stronger, no, we need it to retain ourselves. It was a mess. And there has been astronomical casualties."
Through it all, the human side merely nodded, and yet Ashra looked… bewildered. A fact that Pino noticed. "This confused you?"
"Well…" Ashra shook her head. "The elder's worded it differently. They make it as if the transition was easy. They talked about how superior we are to all physical beings-"
Pino chuckled sarcastically. "Yes. I'd imagine that's how they would've worded it. To expunge all forms of weakness before the new generation. To make it seems like our race is nigh invincible." And for the first time, Pino actually sat on the chair she was given. When she talked, she directed this to Ashra specifically. "2 billion died on the first day we ventured into the physical universe. Another 3 billion followed by the end of the week. By then we've learned to consume other beings' memories to sustain ourselves… but we were… out of control. Undisciplined. Like ravenous locusts, entire civilizations drained to the last drop of our rune in our wake and we've exhausted every natural resources, we move on to the next. We couldn't restrain our gluttony. We're like children who found a taste in candy, and then we couldn't stop eating it. Only the elder, more powerful ones can keep their appetite under control… Some of us went mad due to experiencing so many things so new. You know what I'm talking about, Haruto?"
Haruto immediately knew. "Rune Overload." Ashra then turned to Haruto. "When a Magius drained too much runes in too short of a time, the incoming memories overwhelmed them. Drove them mad."
Ashra asked. "You know this… because you've endured it before?"
"Not because I want to." Haruto shrugged. "Pino taught me how to compartmentalize my mind: It's like building a library of mental map inside my head, and one deposit certain memories in certain 'location'."
"We don't have that sort of technique then, of course." Pino explained. "Those were invented by later generations."
"So first generation magius who entered the physical universe the first time was little more than a pack of ravenous starving beasts. Okay. I get the picture." Ashra nodded.
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Akira's profile quickly improved throughout their trip in the mall. Now she dared herself to stand up and walk upright, but she still put her head beneath her cardbox.
Still, Shoko was not finished with her. Not yet. She got out of her shell, after a fashion… but when one speaks fashion in a literal sense… Akira is in need of some urgent help there…
Thankfully the department store was virtually untouched, and they have a wide variety of choices to pick from. The problem is, Akira's sense of fashion is below zero.
Akira stayed in the closed fitting room for half an hour. When a curious Mari and Shoko finally opened it, they found the cloth was untouched, but Akira was having a time of her life beneath her cardbox in that closed and small fitting room.
"Oh goodness gracious…"
And so, Shoko decided to stay inside the fitting room and ensured the clothings get tested. She managed to get Akira to put the clothes on… "There, now you look a lot more like a princess!" Shoko had picked a closed one piece dress for Akira (AN: the one she wear in the anime far future)… It looked good on her… if only she did not fail to convince the hacker to remove the cardbox off her head.
"I don't know… the cardbox does make a… trending fashion statement." Mari held back a chuckle.
"Mari…" Shoko moaned. She turned to Akira, who still kept the cardbox on her head and insistent to keep it that way. "Akira, you have to remove that Cardbox, eventually. I don't want to be blunt, but it made you look ridiculous."
"But… it felt comfortable." Akira whimpered. "Besides… I've seen… my face… not much to look at. Thin… and… pale…"
"Now that is where I disagree." Shoko glared with a smile. "You're cute. No. You're super cute! I'm sure guys would consider you a heart breaker… if you just break out of that shell for a minute. I mean… there must be somebody you want to impress no?"
'Some… somebody…' Now that she mentioned that… there's this one guy… And with that, Akira timidly removed her cardbox, at long last. And then she beheld herself in the mirror, dressed and… in the open. She blinked in disbelief. Who is that girl looking back at her in the mirror? She was so… beautiful.
And Shoko and Mari also approve. Definitely.
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"Alright. I understand that we Magius have our… shortcomings. But humans aren't exactly spotless either." Ashra replied.
"We know." Ryuuji nodded. "Ms. Ashra, we're not here to demean each other's race. We're here to reach some form of understanding between us. It is necessary if we are to live side by side, in peace."
"Peace…" Ashra shook her head. "That's certainly not what's happening out there."
"It's not like we want all this to happen." Haruto mourned. "But it had to happen. The Council of 101 is out of control. You heard from Pino on how ravenous your people were during the early days. They're doing the same thing now, only more refined, but no less worse. If I had not done what I did, earth, humanity will be destroyed, sooner or later."
"I'd like to add that, if Haruto didn't do it, someone else will. And I believe it is best that it was Haruto. Others would've done so, and for all the wrong reasons. The problem is that this war is a culmination of the mounting bad bloods between our two races that span for centuries."Ryuuji followed. "Too many wrongs have been inflicted to one another. When the revelation was made, it came at the worst time imaginable: when the tensions between our two races had reached a powder-keg leading to… open hostility between us."
"You speak of the wrong being done by my people." Ashra shook her head. "The wrong my people committed to you being the Rune Draining yes? Let me ask you, when fire burns, are the fire evil? Or are they simply doing what they were meant to do?" Ashra explained. "Rune Draining is our nature. No more different than how you humans need to breathe and eat. And you're blaming us for simply wanting to live. I don't know about the rest of us… but… many of us, myself included, just want to live. It's not like we ate humanity out of hate or enjoy the experience of draining people's memories. Tokishima Haruto, you're a child of two worlds. Ours and humanity. You suffered our ailments; you of all people would know the pain we endure every time we must… feed on humans. It's not an enjoyable feeling nor is it safe."
"You're saying the Magius are in as much danger as their victims when they devoured their runes?" Burnett pays a closer attention to this. General perception was that the Aliens were the only one to gain from this current situation of human magius parasitic relationship. That a member of the Alien declared to the contrary is a game changing information.
"Do you know how it feels like to have your current personality being completely overwritten? Every time we took in a memory, it feels like the incoming memory tore out our existing ones and latched itself into one's head. It's like our head was lost in a turbulent of emotion, and when it subsides, we lost a little bit of ourselves. At some point… we… we just don't know which is ours and which is our vessel's."
"Humans are unique to all the creatures we've met, Ashra." Pino replied. "You were earthborn, so you wouldn't know. But before Humanity… we've encountered other sentient races across the stars which we try to inhabit. Each time we managed to overwhelm their mind without much resistance. Hive mind. Sentient technology. Some alien can even split their emotions into separate beings… But none of them had the same level of emotional complexity to that of humanity. That complexity lends strength to their ego, their psychology. A single drop of their memory can contain the most conflicting of emotions and paradoxes. In some ways, for creatures like us who feed on such abstract feelings for sustenance, one cannot ask for a better source… but… I've heard of stories of a Magius who invade a human mind… but his ego was so strong, and the Magius was overwhelmed instead. Some Transylvanian warlord named Vlad something…"
"The point is, Magius and Humans have a… hate love relationship?" Ashra surmised. "Our races fit one another like a glove but given the wrong circumstances we'll… destroy each other. It's grim. But we don't have any other choice. If we didn't feed, we'll die. And even when we tried our hardest not to feed, our instinct rose to the surface, overwhelming our rationality, at which point we… we have no choice but to revert back to our baser instinct. It's out of our control, it's our nature!"
"Wrong. There's always a choice." Pino rebuked. "I've proven that, have I not? The VVV project is not something I can do alone. I need the help of humanity to accomplish that. That's what I'm trying to do and what the council failed to see. The VVV project wasn't just for humanity. It's for us too. For our people to have a future. But, as you already know, that project is far from completion. Even with my help, even with Ryuuji's support, we're still… I don't know, decades from perfection. I'm trying to solve the problem, everyone's problem… but not by solving it for humanity, I'm trying to solve it with humanity."
"I'd like to point out that it wasn't us who first derailed that project, Highness. Human greed and lust for power is largely responsible for that derailment." Ashra replied back. "Perhaps you're right about the council. But humanity, as have been proven when we first arrived here, is not exactly the most cooperative race either. Some of them, like the council, also failed to see your good willed intention, highness. Some of them refused to understand, and they have no intention to share."
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With Akira opening up, the fashion reinvention can now begin in the earnest. That dress was the appetizer. Now they're moving on to entrees. In a span of minutes, Akira went through probably half a dozen set of clothing, each one showed more skin than the last. Each one embarrassed her to no end, and yet she somehow managed to persevere until the 'half' was removed from a dozen. Problem is, Shoko's choice of clothing is severely testing her already thin mental endurance. Doesn't matter if she's a mentally fragile Shut-in, most normal people would be too embarrassed out of their skull to wear some of the things Shoko picked up.
Alas for Akira, a clearly oblivious Shoko was having a time of her life, picking up new clothes and dressing up her best friend in it seem to work wonders on her stress as well. Being the prime minister has its perks, but it also done hell to the fun side of her life. Now she's making up for lost time, on Akira's expense.
And though she may not show it, Mari is also enjoying the sight of Akira doing her damndest to survive Shoko's somewhat bizarre taste in fashion. As expected from a Prime Minister who suggested wearing an anime T-Shirt and a top hat as her working uniform. But then, she felt… something. An uncomfortable nagging at the nape of her ears, like someone was staring at her. At them. She can't shook off the feeling, and she realized she had to get to the bottom of it to be rid of this nagging feeling. "Shoko, I'm leaving you two alone for a minute. Will you be alright?"
"Ehh? But we're having so much fun!" Akira looked like she wanted to disagree, but Shoko's latest hasty attempt to undress her for the nth time stuffed her mouth with her underwear.
"Then by all means, keep having fun." Mari smiled wryly. "Seeing Akira's doing better, you can handle her without me for a while, can you? I'll be back soon."
"Alright then." Shoko smiled and gave her a corny thumb up.
Leaving Shoko in her latest attempt to undress a howling Akira, Mari departed to the darker part of this place, searching the source of that inconvenient nagging she had. Her search brought her to a dark corner in an alleyway. She doesn't know how she did it, but her gut seem to home in to that location as the source of her nagging. And just when she thought it was just her paranoia acting up, she heard… voices.
"So, are we clear on this?"
"Are you sure you wanna do this? I mean…"
"We have to! I mean, these people, these… New Jiorians are crazy! Using those monsters as soldiers? There's no guarantee they won't turn against us in a heartbeat!"
"And your solution is to kidnap their monster loving Prime Minister girl over there?" The other voice asked. "I fail to follow how that would make any difference."
"As long as that girl is in charge, the monsters will continue to have the run of our home! If we grab her, we can try to 'convince' her to change her mind. And if that fail, we can use her as a bargaining chip to get those demons out of our country!"
"You're sure that would work?"
"Sssh! Who's there!?"
Mari didn't know how, but she knew she just got made. She quickly turned tail and run to warn her Prime Minister… until a bullet pierced her forehead.
The girl dropped dead in the pool of her own blood as the Colonist lowered his silencer equipped gun. The other Colonists heard the commotion and rushed into the scene. They were horrified when they saw the girl with a hole on her head. "Holy God… you killed her!"
"She was eavesdropping on our plan. She was rushing to warn her friends!"
"But you DON'T have to KILL her you nitwit! You could just capture her or sedate her or something!"
"Enough! No other choice, dispose of the body, and we're moving up the timetable. We have to kidnap that girl now before she start wondering on her friend's where-bouts."
Putting Mari's dead body in the dumpster, the would be Kidnapers leave the area and joined with the rest of their team in a room where they convene to enact their plan immediately. "Right, there are 15 of us. This should be more than enough to subdue that girl, right? Alright then. Our time is short, let's move out!" The Team Leader opened the door, and the team was about to depart… only to find there's already someone standing by the door, barring their way…
Someone unworldly beautiful and alluring…
…and she's not wearing a single strand of clothing.
The girl smiled seductively as she took a step into the room and everyone else instinctively retreat a step.
"Who are… y…" The Leader's question stuck on his throat when her green glowing eyes engulfed them all and the glow from her markings filled their visions, emptying all thought and reason.
The girl chuckled sweetly as she smacked her lips and locked the door behind her…
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"Humans are afraid of us. They're afraid of things they can't understand." Haruto stated. "What we did to them… we sucked their memories out. I drained a lot of people, and I can tell you more than half of them have family. The last thing they think of when I sucked the last of their thoughts was… fear, anger, pain, hate. The other half… they think of their family. The love they left behind. They didn't even think they were going to die that day."
Ashra blinked at Haruto. "You… identify yourself as one of us?"
"Yes." To make his point, Haruto showed to Ashra what he's been drinking: a can of synthetic runes. Ashra rolled her eyes in understanding. "And yet… I used to belong to humanity. Every Novus Magius was once human. And because I was human… I do understand how they feel. And you tell me Magius can feel fear too. They way I see it, our two races are far more alike than anyone would care to admit."
"The difference between our two races, Ashra, is simple, and yet very difficult to address." Pino followed suit. "Humans are mortal. We're not."
"But we can still die, as you yourselves had stated, highness."
"But not of natural causes. Unless we have stable sustenance, we will live forever. Humans have limited lifespan. No matter how well they take care themselves, they grew weak, shriveled, and they will eventually die. That sense of inevitable end is what makes human strive. That's why they refuse to let go. That's also the primary foundations of their strong emotional fortitude. Unfortunately, yes, it makes them volatile, contradictory, and in some cases they are very unstable. Because everything they do made their life now means more than just mere survival."
"I don't understand that." Ashra asked. "What could be more important than one's own survival? Especially with humans. You have limited lifespan and yet you seem so keen to end it prematurely by risking it time and again. For as many times I saw human demanded their need to survive, and yet many times, I also see them endangering themselves, performing acts that would accelerate their doom. War. Murder… Self sacrifice. They were all meaningless."
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Akira had already lost count on the number of clothes Shoko had her try. Her face was so red, it rivaled her face. But eventually, even a shut in was quite fed of being spoon fed. "Shoko-chan!"
"Why don't we try this next?"
"Shoko-chan!" Akira pouted as she puffed her cheek.
"What?" Shoko stopped for one second.
"Next! My turn! Choose clothes! For you!"
Shoko blinked for a minute… but then she breaks into a smile. "Sure! Why not? I'm running out of clothes anyhow." She grinned widely. At last Akira is also catching up with the mood. She quickly undress, seeing there's only Akira and no one else around. "Right then. Now. What are your recommendations, ma'am?" Shoko asked with a smile to Akira in the mirror. Her eyes closed in a curve.
She didn't notice that Akira was looking at her half naked body with widened starving empty eyes transfixed at Shoko's clean creamy skin…
"Akira?" Shoko was still waiting an answer… failing to realize fangs just protruded out of Akira's open mouth. And that was when Shoko realized that something is seriously wrong with her red haired best friend. "Akira?"
But by then, it was too late.
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"You know, I don't believe that." Haruto suddenly interrupted. Ashra looked questioningly at Haruto. "I don't believe you don't understand the meaning of sacrifice. I'd imagine you're several hundred years old. You've lived multiple lifetimes as multiple people. Are you saying in all those lifetimes, you've never met someone whom you hold dear more than yourself? Or people who hold you dearer than their own self?"
Ashra's eyes twitched visibly at that question. "You are a young Magius, Tokishima Haruto. You have much to learn. In time you must learn to not be attached to past. Immortals cannot let oneself be haunted by the burden of the past. The people you care will eventually fade and disappear. If you cannot let them go, their memories will rip your heart and mind until they became poison. One day you'll find yourselves hoping the people you loved never existed just so that you'd be spared the pain of their passing."
Pino didn't say anything to rebuke it, but she also frowned in mourning.
Haruto felt uneasy when he imagined the people he cared grew old and died, while he lived on. His wife is immortal… but what of their son?
But before this debate can continue, a phone ringed furiously in Haruto's pocket. Haruto would've ignored it… if he didn't recognize the ridiculous ringtone as one that Shoko put as her personal ringtone when she called. That, and the alarm went on at about the same time.
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The first she felt was the pain of Akira's sharp teeth plunged through her skin. It eclipsed the pain of being slammed against the mirror until it cracked by some unearthly strength. She instinctively screamed…
And the moment she did, it brought some sanity back Akira, who snapped in realization while her teeth still sank on Shoko's neck, and her tongue get a mouthful of her gushing blood. Akira finally noticed exactly who she was biting, and when she did, she sprang back in horror, blood trailing from her lips to Shoko's mangled neck. The same blood stained the cracked glass as Shoko powerlessly slide down to the floor. When she saw this, and saw herself, she knew right away what happened. What she had done.
"A… Akira…" Shoko struggled to fight the pain. "A…"
With one last horrified look at Shoko, the hacker screamed and run.
"AKIRA-CHAN!" Shoko called louder. She knew Akira was still in the earshot, but the girl elected to just run. "A… Akira… cha-…" She wanted to get up and give chase, but for some reason, most of her strength disappeared from her limbs. At this point, lord knows where she went, and Shoko probably had only a few minutes of consciousness left. He pulled out her phone and with her trembling fingers, she dialed a number.
"H… Haruto… We… we have a problem. Akira… she's in trouble…"
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Meanwhile, at the dark alleyway…
Bang…
BANG!
The lid of the trash dumpster was punched open, and a figure rose up from amidst all the junk.
Marie frowned as her nose wrinkled. "W… What happened? Why am I in a dumpster and…" That was also when she finally noticed this blood staining her clothes. "Whose… blood was this? Mine…?" The bullet hole on her forehead had all but disappeared.
As soon as she climbed out of the dumpster, Marie looked around that alley, confused and lost. "…W… Why was I here again?" The last things she remembered was she left Shoko and Akira alone to investigate something…
But before Marie can continue that line of thought, her phone rang. It was Haruto.
"Haruto-kun, what… …where!?... Okay! Okay! I'm going to her right now!"
And she quickly ran back to where she came a while ago…
And perhaps it was best that she was blissfully unaware of what had transpired earlier…
…for she won't bear witness to what's transpiring now.
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First they take turns…
They came in her from the front, then from the back…
And then they realized, they want her so bad, they just can't afford to wait their turns…
She welcomed them in all the savage brutality and uncontrollability they can muster…
They've done her lord knows how many times…
Whether or not they can keep up is hardly her concerns…
Performed all sorts of depravity their mind can think of, violate that succulent beautiful body in ways they know would break lesser woman…
She's bathing herself in all kinds of liquid, her beautiful body ravaged to the very inch of her fingers…
They've stuffed every hole she had, filled it to the brim so many times it overflowed. In fact, they poured and poured until they can barely afford another drop…
And god help them, she still want more and more…
And they still want to keep fucking her brains out even if it will kill them…
8 of them had already fainted due to exhaustion, unable to keep up, and the remaining 7 were already past their limits…
And yet… they can't… they wouldn't stop. Every gesture, every contact they made with her being was intoxicating. They've already forgotten what they were doing the first five minutes this party of depravity began… But midway, at the gateway of realization where their pleasure turned to torture, they finally realize… they're not breaking her… she's breaking them! The thought to stop this crossed their mind… but one look… one look into that beautiful inhuman green eyes, that beautiful succulent woman body, and suddenly, they couldn't think of anything else but to violate the life out of her until it kills her… or them. This is a trap. A spider trap of which there's no escape. And they're all her prey, willingly caught in her web, to be used to satisfy her endless desire.
"I… I can't… AAGHH!"
"I'm c… haagH!"
4 men fell with empty blank eyes, and the remaining three would've fainted as well, but her body interconnected the three of them by the holes they're filling kept them from the mercy of fainting. The three could barely move, but she actively kept them busy. With a ceremonious scream, the three let out their final load, and two collapsed to unconsciousness as theirs slid out of the overflowing openings.
The last one maintained his consciousness, but he could no longer feel anything on his lower half. He only knew this inhuman beauty is still encapsulating his. He begged the god that this is the end… and indeed, she looked like she's about done…
No.
Their eyes met, she knew he's still awake, and he knew right away… they're far from over. A terrible lustful smile formed on her beautiful lips as her body began to move again in that sensual motion. The prey can only give in as his numb body was filled again with that torturous pleasure…
As if sensing the shattered will of her prey, the girl laughed as she's determined to drain his victim dry. Her green mad eyes shined in the darkness, and a green weblike markings appeared on her neck…
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And in that moment, a sweat flooded Rukino Saki's eyes blared open as she sprang up from her bed in shock.
"W... What was that?"
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Okay. Added that little extra scene in the end. Hopefully it'll soften the blow. To all my fans... sorry. I sure as hell ain't never gonna write something like this again.
Let's see if I can get the next chapter on quickly to explain this part…
