Haru smiled at her opponent as the chairs moved towards the layer, which was covered with a bamboo forest.
"Hello Sai-san," she greeted.
"Hello Haru-san," Sai answered, and smiled slightly. "I wasn't expecting to have to fight you."
"No," Haru agreed. "But we'll have a good, fun fight, right?"
Sai nodded. "Right," she agreed. "Let the silver snow fall! Dance, Shirahime!"
"The time is now, Baron!"
"Hey, I didn't even call to enter the angels yet!" the host objected. "Oh well. Angelic fight!"
Baron removed his cloak, broke a bamboo stalk, and effectively hung his cloak on the part that was left. He drew his feet together, tucked one arm behind his back, and held out the other, fingers upward and palm facing himself.
Sai smirked. "Alright," she agreed, and Shirahime smashed a bamboo stalk to her right, and lay her kimono over it.
"Woah-ho! This fight is looking serious from the get-go! Both angels have removed their outer-layer of clothing for easier movement!"
And Shirahime charged.
Baron dodged the strike, and leapt up onto one of the bamboo stalks.
"That shouldn't hold his weight," Ohjiro commented, surprised.
"Haven't you ever seen House of Flying Daggers? Or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?" Haru asked with a giggle. "Of course it can! Have you forgotten the details of the battle between Hikaru and Blanche? It would almost certainly hold Shirahime's weight too, if she was game enough to test it."
Shirahime wasn't though. It started to look a little bit like the opening fight between Shirahime and Eagle, with Shirahime on the ground and Baron flitting between the higher reaches of the bamboo, just like the people in the two movies Haru had mentioned to Ohjiro. Baron worked his way up and down the bamboo stalks as he moved around the layer, a smile on his face as he kept Shirahime in sight at all times.
Shirahime closed on Baron, who was lower on the bamboo than he had been since the start of the match, and Haru smiled.
Baron gripped the bamboo with both hands and swung around. His feet connected with Shirahime's torso as he completed the spin, and sent her into the ground.
The buzzer sounded the end of the round as Baron touched down on the ground once more.
"You can't win just by avoiding her attacks, Haru-chan," Ohjiro scolded as she came down for the between-round-chat.
"I know that," Haru answered easily. "But so far Baron hasn't taken any damage, and he's been having fun flirting with Shirahime."
"Wha-?! Flirting?!" Ohjiro yelped. "You like -?!"
Haru giggled. "Baron likes beautiful things," Haru said. Then her cheeks pinked lightly. "I like you. I thought you'd figured that out by now. I wouldn't have let you kiss my cheek the way you've been doing if I didn't."
A deep blush rose on Ohjiro's face. "A-at least you got in a strike," he said, re-focusing on his duties as a Second.
Haru smiled at Ohjiro. He might have been older than her, and quite mature for his age from spending so much time around adults, but sometimes he was still just such a boy. "Mm," she agreed, deciding not to call him on the blush. "Just a playful one. Baron and I want to see if we can draw Shirahime up into the bamboo. It seems we have to go down to try and entice her up."
Ohjiro stared at Haru for a moment, stunned, and then smiled. "You're amazing," he informed Haru, his tone admiring.
Haru blushed, and was saved from having to answer by having to return to the layer for the second round.
~oOo~
"Hello Miss Haru," Shoko greeted with a smile, microphone in her hand and her camera man at her side.
"Miss Shoko," Haru answered with a smile. "How nice to see you."
"Could we have an interview?" Shoko asked.
Haru smiled. "Sure," she answered. "I've got time."
"Well, you did just win your battle," Shoko said. "And you won't have to participate in another until the semi-finals."
Haru shook her head. "I'm Ohjiro-kun's Second," she reminded the woman, and pointed at the boy in question who was approaching the table where she was sitting, a can of cold juice in each hand. "I've got to be back tomorrow for his fight."
"Oh, of course," Shoko agreed, and chuckled lightly. "I forgot."
"Hello Miss Shoko," Ohjiro greeted as he joined them, and passed the can of mandarin juice over to Haru. "Interviewing Haru?"
Shoko nodded.
"I'll go -"
"You'll do nothing of the sort," Haru said firmly, and tugged him down into his chair before pushing one of the two bentos that had been sitting on the table over to him.
Shoko chuckled softly. "Perhaps I could ask you a few questions as well, Mister Mihara?"
Ohjiro nodded. "Alright, sure," he agreed. "But only as long as I'm not taking away from your interview with the Fair Maiden."
"Noble jerk," Haru said softly, a content, slightly teasing smile on her face.
"Can I ask how each of you got into Angelic Layer?" Shoko asked, and held her microphone forward.
"I was walking home after school, actually intent on spending my pocket money, and saw a poster for Angelic Layer in the window of one of the shops. I actually read the small print at the bottom, where it said that all profits and royalties from Angelic Layer would go towards medical research, and that decided me," Haru said with a smile as she remembered that day.
"My brother Ichiro had left some important documents at home, so I had to deliver them to him at his work – and he was working on Angelic Layer at the time," Ohjiro explained. "I met the champion when I was trying to find Ichiro, and she showed me one of the early prototypes. I've been in love with it ever since."
"What's the thing you enjoy most about Angelic Layer?" Shoko asked.
"Oh, that's easy," Haru said with a bright smile as one of her hands moved to stroke Baron's head between his ears. "That it's something without limits."
"Something without limits?" Shoko repeated, confused.
Haru nodded. "Yeah. I know there's a saying that says 'the sky is the limit', but with angelic layer, the sky is more like a glass roof that's just waiting for us to break through it," Haru attempted to explain.
Ohjiro chuckled. "Way to mix your metaphors," he teased.
Haru rolled her eyes. "What I mean is, the angels can do anything we can think of for them to do," Haru said. "And we've seen already how many different things people can think of for their angels to do. There's a lot of things to love about Angelic Layer, but I think that's what I love the most."
Ohjiro smiled softly at Haru. "I think it's what I love the most as well," he agreed.
"I promised to ask you this when I got to interview you Miss Haru," Shoko said, a slight smirk on her face. "What do you think is the most important thing for an angel to have?"
Haru giggled. "You did promise, and I promised to think about it very seriously so that I'd have an answer."
"I remember you saying that it wasn't an easy question," Ohjiro said with a nod.
Haru nodded. "And I've got an answer. I think the most important thing for an angel to have is a personality," Haru decided.
"A personality?" Shoko asked. "Could you explain what you mean by that?"
"Sure," Haru agreed with a nod. "Take a look at Baron and Wizard, and the way they're sitting," she requested. Baron and Wizard were actually sitting in mirrored poses of each other: both sitting with one leg up and the other crossed beneath, one arm hanging from where the elbow rested on the raised knee, and the other supporting the weight of the angels as they leant back.
Then Haru and rearranged Baron so that he was sitting on his knees and ankles, the way most Japanese did when they were sitting on the floor.
"This way of sitting doesn't look right for him," Haru said simply. "And that's because it isn't Baron's style to sit that way. It doesn't suit his personality," she explained, and picked him up. All his limbs straightened with the motion, and then Haru sat him down again. His legs crossed in a tailor-seat, and his hands rested easily and comfortably on his knees while his tail curled up against his back. "But without me having to carefully arrange him, Baron sits this way, and the way you saw before, completely naturally," Haru explained. "Even off the layer, the angels have a life and personality."
"Wow," Shoko said softly, wide eyes blinking at the demonstration.
"We're told that angels come to life on the layer," Ohjiro said softly, "but no one ever said that they stopped living when they left it. It's just sometimes harder to spot."
"What about you, Mister Mihara? What do you think is the most important thing for a Deus to have?" Shoko asked.
"Love," Ohjiro answered, apparently without thinking about it, because he blushed as soon as the word crossed his lips. His eyes darted over to Haru before focusing on Wizard. "A Deus should love their angel. If they do that, then they'll be able to find the personality of their angel more easily, and as Haru already said, a personality is the most important thing for an angel to have."
Shoko smiled. "Fair enough. What about today's battle?" she asked. "It was both surprising and spectacular."
Ohjiro chuckled. "From your point of view," he said, "But for me, the fight today it was a little nerve-wracking," he admitted. "When the second round started, Baron and Shirahime began properly fighting each other, and as they both start racking up the damage points, Haru's voice comes over the comms."
"Yes, I asked you to tell me when I hit the magic number," Haru said, a smile on her face.
"I didn't know what magic number she was talking about," Ohjiro said frankly, "so, of course, I asked for clarification, and she tells me 'fifty point one percent', and we've already seen Blanche and Shirahime demonstrate their hyper-modes, so that was when I knew what Haru was talking about. I'd had no idea until that moment that Baron had come from the first shipment of angel eggs."
"It was certainly something to see," Shoko commented. "The Baron practically put on a light show when he went into hyper-mode."
Haru giggled. "He enjoyed it," she said. "I know that using hyper-mode for an angel has been compared to a human being forced to run one more mile after having just run a marathon, and that it's actually quite painful for the angels that perform it, but as soon as Baron lit up like that... it was like he'd gained a second wind. He just had so much fun glowing as he moved around the layer, he didn't even mind. Still, I don't think we'll make a habit of going into hyper-mode," Haru added, and stroked Baron between his ears again.
"I've just got one more question, and then I'll let you both get to your lunches," Shoko promised.
Ohjiro and Haru nodded in acceptance.
"There are some people who don't approve of Angelic Layer, saying it's a waste of time. What do you say to people like that?" Shoko asked.
Haru sat back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling as she thought about that. "When I got home with my angel egg, creating Baron was something that my mother and I could bond over together," she started, voice soft and thoughtful. "I'd been something of a tomboy as a child, and when my father died I'd tried to be as boyish as possible. Mama wanted me to be more feminine though, and we'd been slowly drifting apart."
Haru looked down from the ceiling to Shoko. "My bringing home a doll that was used in a fighting game was enough of a foot on both sides for me and my Mama to reach across the gap that had been forming between us. Thanks to Baron, we're so close now that I'd say my mother is my best friend," she said.
Ohjiro nodded. "Anglic Layer also broke down the wall between myself and my older step-brother," he agreed. "It helped us to start becoming an actual family."
"Angelic Layer is, at heart, a game. There are always going to be people who think that games are a waste of time, but they forget that games are a place and way to make friends, and bond with loved ones," Haru continued.
"I'm fairly sure I never would have met Haru if it weren't for Angelic Layer," Ohjiro added. "And I certainly wouldn't have gotten to know her the way that I have. I don't think anything that does all the things that Angelic Layer has done for... not just us, but so many other people like us... should ever be called a 'waste of time'."
Shoko smiled at the two teens, thanked them, and ended the interview.