Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.
Episode 10: Reality Check - The Dangers of Fighting
Kyouko had been absolutely infuriating as of late.
To be fair, Ayano was a bit excited to see how their newly obtained skills would help, but ultimately, the fact that they were middle-schoolers fighting for the sake of humanity against creatures who were definitely not human and wanted them dead ensured that she was not flat-out looking forwards to her next fight.
Kyouko, unfortunately, did not share this same sentiment.
"Don't be excited, baka!" Ayano chided. She was walking alongside her girlfriend in a remote part of the town, twirling her Bladebot necklace to boot. She might as well have had a neon sign on her saying "Come get us, Time Agents".
And yet, somehow, they managed to avoid confrontation so far.
Ayano, under any other circumstance, might have even called this setting "romantic". They were alone, near a river bank, and the sun was just low enough to start casting the first signs of soft, golden hues across the mostly blue sky.
"How can I not be!" Kyouko replied, "Akari, Chinatsu, and even Himawari got to use their Bladebots already! When's it gonna be our turn!"
Ayano could've pointed out that Chinatsu had merely sat stationary in her Bladebot as Akari fought, but instead she opted for the more abrupt version, "If you say something like that, you'll only tempt fate."
Suddenly, a shark-finned Blackdagger emerged from the river, the Time Agent from within smirked as if mocking them for doing exactly that.
Kyouko smiled, "Hell yeah, I've been waiting for this!"
Ayano rolled her eyes and got ready to summon her Bladebot. Before she could reach for her necklace, however, Kyouko stops her.
"Hey, Ayano, let's use our Resolves!"
Ayano frowned, "We haven't awakened those yet, baka! Are you trying to get yourself killed."
Kyouko smiled, letting go of her hand and pressing her lips to Ayano's forehead, "I'll be fine, I'm Toshino Kyouko, after all. If you want to summon your Bladebot and wait until we drive out their big guns, go ahead."
Ayano sighed, "I'm your girlfriend, baka. I'm going to stand by your side, obviously!"
"Ugh, you guys make me wanna puke!" the Time Agent replied, "I ain't gonna let ya do any more of yer gushy shit!"
Kyouko turned and glared daggers at their opponent, "You piss me off."
Ayano smiled, realizing that Kyouko, for what it was worth, could be unintentionally very romantic sometimes.
The Time Agent wasted no more time charging at his opponents. He leapt straight for Kyouko at first, who was barely able to dodge his first attack.
"Wow, he's fast!" Kyouko noted out loud.
When the Time Agent headed for Ayano, the red-head wasn't entirely prepared, and she wound up nearly finding herself impaled on the long rapier their foe wielded. Instead, however, she found that the world around her had come to a halt. While it only seemed to affect a certain area, as she could still hear the sound of distant cars and the river flowing outside of a specific area, everyone around her, including Kyouko, was frozen in time.
At first, she wasn't quite sure what exactly had happened, and then she realized it, she had awakened her Resolve. In her hand was a pocket watch that was stopped in place.
She quickly removed herself from in front of the enemy's attack, and just in the nick of time too. As she looked down at her pocket watch, the hands began moving again, and the Time Agent finished charging at an enemy that was no longer there.
"W-what the hell was that?" he asked, shocked.
Kyouko looked at the Resolve Ayano had in her hand and pouted, "No fair! I want my Resolve!"
The Time Angent whirled around and glared at Ayano, "That was… time manipulation…!? How… how can a stinkin' human like you possess such a thing?"
Ayano smiled, "What, scared now that we humans can stop time like you? I get it now… I like the way things are between me and Kyouko… Even when the world around us collapses, I want us to be able stay like we are, I want to stop time under romantic moonlight and stay there with Kyouko… That's why this is my Resolve! Luna Dial!"
Kyouko smiled, "That's my girlfriend!"
The Time Agent snarled, "Even so, ya can't hope to defeat me!"
Charging at Kyouko at an alarming speed, the Time Agent angled his rapier towards Kyouko's chest. Kyouko managed to counter by holding up her bracelet up in the path of the rapier, but this only deflected the attack and the weapon wound up piercing her arm instead.
Pulling her arm back in pain, Kyouko cringed, "Damn!"
"Ya got lucky, human," the Time Agent replied, "Next time, ya won't!"
He changed his stance from a broad, standard fighting stance to a new, taller, less stable but more agile fencing stance.
As he thrusted forwards to fence numerous holes in Kyouko's chest, A powerful laser erupted from behind a few trees and knocked the rapier out of the Time Agent's hand.
At first, Ayano assumed that the blast had come from a Bladebot's weapon, but when she looked over at said forested area, she was greeted with a surprising sight. Haru, whose hand was glowing with blue energy matching the color of the laser from earlier, and Tetsuya, holding a sword.
"You two are here?" Kyouko asked, almost forgetting that she had just nearly been impaled.
Haru nodded and bowed politely, and Tetsuya smiled.
"Just in the nick of time… huh?" Tetsuya replied, a knowing look on his face.
Ayano let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and the Time Agent glared at all of them. With these new battle-ready opponents, a Blackdagger would be sorely outclassed.
"Ya think this is the end?" he asked indignantly.
"Of course not," Kyouko smiled, "You still gotta bring out your Blacksabre!"
As the Time Agent dove back into the river, he let out the faintest hints of a maniacal smile. A few moments later, A giant shark Blacksabre came rising out of the water. The catch; this Blacksabre could hover, allowing it to move swiftly even out of water.
Kyouko had already pressed her Bladebot necklace, and Ayano was not far behind. When the new units landed, the two took a few moments to appreciate their mechs.
Kyouko's was a Yellow Type-A, and had "Phantom Sun" written as it's name on the side of the cockpit. One of the arms was replaced entirely with a blade, and the other one had a missile-launcher at the end of it. Ayano's was a light purple Type-L, and was named "Violet Rose". The two short arms were replaced with energy rifles, and the legs had spiked knees.
As Kyouko hopped into the cockpit of hers, she looked at Ayano, "You better think of me while piloting that. I know I'll be thinking of you."
Ayano blushed and hopped into her Bladebot. As she grabbed the handles of the mech, she hesitated a bit before charging forwards to fight the shark.
Kyouko, having absolutely no concept of tact, went for the more straightforward approach. She spammed missiles at their enemy immediately. Unfortunately, the Blacksabre was fast and agile, and managed to dodge them all with barely any effort.
Without wasting any movement, the Blacksabre slammed it's tail into Kyouko's Phantom Sun, knocking the large Bladebot backwards. Ayano immediately began firing energy shots at it, but the Time Agent inside seemed unfazed.
"Damn!" Kyouko replied, "Ayano, let's fuse!"
Ayano blushed, "E-eh?"
Kyouko smiled, "Combining! Akari said that after Nurse Hatate and Himawari combined, they pretty much curb-stomped the snake lady."
Ayano nodded, "Alright, then, I'm ready!"
Kyouko smiled and the two Bladebots began to transform in preparation for combining.
Just then, however, the Blacksabre came back around for another attack and blasted away at the head of the Type-L. As the head was an important part of the docking procedure, the subsequent fusion didn't go so well.
Kyouko checked her monitor, "Huh, only 15%?"
Ayano frowned, "I think the docking port was damaged with that last attack!"
Kyouko tried to move the combined Bladebot, but to no avail. They were completely immobilized by how poorly they were synced.
"I can't move at all! I can't undock either! I think the damn thing's jammed or something!" Kyouko exclaimed.
The shark Blacksabre wound up for another attack, this time taking advantage of the fact that Kyouko and Ayano wouldn't be able to dodge anyway. It came charging towards Kyouko's cockpit, and the jaw clamped down, ripping a hole in the cockpit and shattering the windshield.
The next bite bent the metal frame, and one more bite brought the mech's serrated teeth dangerously close to Kyouko.
"I don't want to die here… Ayano!"
The voice tore at Ayano. There was absolutely nothing she could do, and yet she could hear it in Kyouko's voice. She was crying. She was terrified and crying and angry at herself that she couldn't be more useful.
The Blacksabre reeled back one more time, then went to deliver the finishing blow.
It never came.
They looked up, and Haru's light blue Bladebot was combined with of an as-of-yet unseen orange Bladebot. The Type-X was holding the shark Blacksabre by it's tail, and the voice from the orange Bladebot spoke.
"I have great sense of timing, wouldn't you say, Haru?"
Haru let out a noise of frustration and yelled back, "I can't believe it took you so long to get here, to lazy bastard! Kyouko almost died!"
Ayano recognized the first voice as Katsu, the resident "lazy-ass butt monkey of the Resistance", as Haru had put it. He was apparently one of Hatate's old friends from High School. He had previously been assigned at Hatate's partner, but when Haru's last partner died, Hatate decided to let Haru keep fighting on the front lines, and only reserve her mechbot for dire situations.
He had been one of the pilots who took the four second-years home when they needed to get back to the hotel after their first day with the Resistance, and their interactions were nothing short of sarcastic jibes and cocky comments from Katsu, and pure, unbridled resentment and loathing from Haru.
Needless to say, Ayano was not only surprised that they were synced up well enough to move considering how much they disliked each other, but also that they were effectively curb-stomping the Blacksabre.
Haru's normally calm personality gave way to that of a fiery, angry beast, which was making short work of the shark-mech-turned-punching-bag of a Blacksabre.
Haru threw the enemy into the sky, then one of her mech's arms spit open to reveal a laser cannon. As it charged, the Time Agent managed to say "AH SHIT!". In the next moment, there was a large hole in the Blacksabre, piercing through not only the mech itself, but also the cockpit and their enemy.
As the Blacksabre exploded in the sky, Haru turned her Bladebot around towards Kyouko and Ayano, and pulled them apart manually. Haru then lowered her mech and opened her cockpit. Tetsuya hopped in
"We're bringing you two back to base. We didn't see either of you seriously injured, but it's better to be safe." Tetsuya replied.
As Ayano sat their, flying, all she could think about was Kyouko's desperate begging as their enemy nearly killed her.
Kyouko was silent.
She had been quiet ever since the afternoon, and it wasn't until she felt a warm hand on her shoulder that she said anything at all.
"What is it?" She asked.
Miraisei took a seat next to her on the roof, so that the two were now dangling their legs over the edge of Kyodai's Science Facility.
"You are a lot like me, you know that?" Miraisei pointed out.
Kyouko looked up at Miraisei in confusion, and the older girl laughed a bit.
"Energetic and detirmined…" Miraisei began, "and reckless."
Kyouko winced at that last word, but Miraisei simply laughed.
"Facing death in the face isn't easy, is it?"
Kyouko merely shook her head, and Miraisei sighed.
"But you know what? I do it anyway. Not because I want to die, but because I want to live. I stare death in the face, and then scare it off."
Kyouko smiled a bit at this, and Miraisei smiled. She was getting through.
"I know you're all excited about the concept of fighting, so you're not going to quit on us now, but here's a word of advice; Don't wish too hard for danger, don't jump into things recklessly, and pay attention to the desires of your friends," Miraisei replied, "It's going to be a hard fight, but you'll do fine next time.
Kyouko shook her head to get the thoughts of earlier that day out and nodded, "You're right! What happened today won't happen again! I'm gonna beat them for scratching up my new mech!"
Miraisei smiled, "Alright, now let's head inside. A badass like you shouldn't keep her girl waiting on her."
Kyouko's eyes widened, "Ayano!"
Elsewhere
Chronolith sat at his throne, face obscured, and frowned, "Another one of our agents has been defeated. I fear we will run out of footsoldiers before our plan is complete."
Lobos and Armaldol bowed simultaneously, both saying "Please let me go fight them!"
Chronolith frowned, "NO!" You will not fight them yet. We will instead wait to observe our opponents more. Then, after we have gathered sufficient data, we will declare war on them and begin a siege on Kyoto, where we believe their base to be located! IN THREE DAYS, THE RESISTANCE FALLS!"
AN: Turns out, Bladebots aren't made out of invincibilium. Luckily, Kyouko was protected by unbreakable layers of Plot Armor and convenient timing, so there's that.
Anyway, I wonder what some of the lesser seen characters like Sakurako, Yui, and Chitose have been up to? Guess we'll find out in the next episode.