Hello, and welcome to the next entry of Strike Heroes: Himebana.
Now, just out of curiosity, how many of you remember that note I received about five chapters back? You know, the one saying something about a certain Suomos Witch's routine for this story (and the Himebana CD)?
...None of you? I have no idea how you guys didn't remember that sort of thing, though to be fair there were words involved...
Anyways, for lack of a better segue, it's going to be Part 2 of Eila's Life Counseling Corner, but before we get to it let's take the time to look at the reviews:
Karl the Artillery Piece: I'm sorry to hear that you missed the first day of the new story being out, though I hope you had fun in Japan as well as having had a safe journey back if you have returned to your home by this point. Apart from that, thanks for the review.
Danger close: Roland's still rather mysterious in that regard: it's possible that he had something bad happen to him that affected who he was apart from the death of Commander Ellios in the first story, though he's from a world where the Witches' kind of technology doesn't really exist (though it does seem like a fun idea to fly around with a Striker Unit in real life...if you don't include the dress code needed to make it operate best). Plus, while it's good to have a trump card it's also best to have a back-up plan in the event your trump card's taken out of the game. How Maloney takes care of it, though, isn't exactly very good (his plan, to me, was 99.9% bad, the 0.1% that was good being the idea of not losing any more people. Note that even though I said that it's good doesn't quite mean that it's necessarily right: I might speak for everyone here given at least half the reviews for Project Global's first chapter mentions him when I say that there were at least ten ways that were better than disbanding without authorization, from what I understand of it, and essentially being an ass, even if one of the end results would have been able to preserve lives. If not a thousand or even a million).
Gamerman22: Thanks for the review.
Aviat0r: I do agree: Roland needs to work on avoiding those sorts of situations, but then again things would be a little more boring around the base. As for his system, given he's from an alternate world he's got some idea of what's clichéd and what's not, that sort of thing being one of them. Besides, this is between the first and second stories, so Roland's getting used to being on the team but at the same time he hasn't revealed his secret yet.
Kenshiro92: I'd probably say both for the man who would become the Neuroi Witch. It all depends on the context, and you already saw what he goes through in Strike Heroes 2: Roland's Return. Besides that, thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this next entry. The same goes for everyone else reading this.
...And we're done with the responses for the moment.
Now let's get going on the next edition of Eila's Life Counseling Corner.
Though...I wonder: did that note actually get there?
XXXXXXXXXX
Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen's Life Counseling Corner (Part 2)
"Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen's Life Counseling Corner..." Eila said as she sat at the transmitter thirty minutes after Perrine's visit before she felt her two "guests" Charlotte and Francesca (it was more like they had forced their way in for a reason Eila was unaware of at the moment) lean in to talk into the microphone, forcing the Suomos Witch back.
"'Boing boing' Shirley and..." Charlotte started.
"...the striped Lucchini's..." Francesca continued.
The two "guests" then spoke as one: "One, two...Striped Boing Hour!"
Pulling back, Charlotte looked at the Romagnan Witch and commented with, "Oh, I must say you look quite full of stripes today as well, Lucchini."
"And you sure look boing boing today, Shirley!" Francesca relied excitedly as she gripped the buxom Liberion Witch's breasts and wiggled them around gleefully. "Boing boing! Boing boing!" She then stopped and looked up at her partner. "Right?"
Charlotte quickly stepped away and covered her breasts with her arms. "No, not 'right?'! How many times do I have to tell you that my breasts aren't toys?"
"But they're so much fun!" Francesca jumped in front of Charlotte, nudged the "shield" off, and resumed her previous activity. "Boing boing! Boing boing!"
The buxom Liberion Witch sighed. "Oh, you're helpless."
"Well, looks like the two of you are having fun..." Eila mentioned, having watched the spectacle in front of her. "You better hope Roland doesn't just walk in on you doing that, Lucchini. No telling what sort of things go through his head."
"I'm sure Roland's mind isn't that bad," Charlotte informed the Suomos Witch as the "guests" took notice of her.
"Ah, she's here," Francesca said quickly.
"What are you talking about?" Eila snapped. "I've been here the whole time!" Ironically (something the author noticed while looking through the English transcript he found), the Suomos Witch seemed to be subjected to what might be referred to as being "the elephant in the room". At least she didn't have what Sanya had as far as noticeability went...or at least, she wasn't called a "ghost".
"Today's guest is Ensign Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen!" Charlotte announced, ignoring the Suomos Witch's comment.
Eila growled in irritation. "What do you think you're doing with my corner anyways?! If you didn't come here to ask me for help, go away!"
Charlotte then raised a finger on her right hand. "Well, you see, we can't let you do everything around here since you're so unreliable, so we thought we might as well come here today to show you how it should be done."
One of Eila's eyebrows twitched at the comment. "'Might as well'? What do you mean by that? I haven't asked you to come here or anything!"
"Whatever," Francesca stated, completely losing track of the conversation. "I'm 'striped'..."
"I'm 'boing boing'..." Charlotte continued before she raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"
Not thinking very clearly (because she was still going through the buxom Liberion Witch's last sentence), Eila replied with, "I'm 'unreliable'..." She then realized what she had said and when she said it.
Francesca laughed as she added, "You joined in!"
"Hey, stop joking around!"
"By the way," Charlotte tried, thinking of something, "have you made up with Sanya yet?"
"Eh?!" Eila asked, stunned. "How...?"
"The major told us," Francesca told her.
Eila growled. "Damn that major...!"
"Now, now," Charlotte said to try calming the Suomos Witch down, "don't get angry. See, the major came and asked us, the two around here who get along the best, to help you because she knew you were troubled."
"Okay, then why not Roland? If she wanted someone with that sort of reputation, why not him? He doesn't seem to have much arguments under his belt..." As far as what the Suomos Witch knew, Roland was among the calmest people on the base...when he wasn't blushing or fainting around the base.
"While I did ask the major about him, she said something about him not really having a deep bond with anyone else yet. Though I think the bond he, Miyafuji, and Lynne share as a trio is something to try pointing out."
"Aren't you happy you have such a thoughtful superior?" Francesca included.
Eila was shocked now. "Gah! This was supposed to be a helpful corner where I helped others out with their problems using my tarot cards, not the other way around!"
XXXXXXXXXX
"Shirley and Lucchini's Striped Boing Hour!" Charlotte announced once more two minutes later. "Today's guest is Ensign Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen!" Looking at Eila, who was seated in her chair still, the buxom Liberion Witch added, "Hey you, introduce yourself!"
"Okay, but just for today!" Eila snapped before she sighed and added in a calmer tone, "My name's Eila."
"So, you want us to help you with making up with Sanya, right?"
"Um, well..." Eila stopped briefly. "About that...It's not like we're having a fight or anything..." She then sighed. "I don't know why, but...it seems like Sanya's been angry at me since this morning. She hasn't said a word to me since then..."
"I've never seen Sanya being that angry..." Francesca said sympathetically.
"Just what have you done now?" Charlotte asked with a sigh. If there was something she and the others knew more about than Roland did, it was that this sort of thing occurred a little more often than one would think. Not much, though, but it was still there.
Eila blinked. "Eh? If I knew that, I wouldn't ask anyone for help, now would I?"
Francesca stood there before an idea formed in her head, and she snapped her fingers in glee. "I have a good idea!"
"Oh?" Charlotte asked.
"Eila, you're good at tarot..." the Romagnan Witch then pointed to Eila's deck of tarot cards, which were still fanned out next to the transmitter. "...so why don't you ask the cards?"
Charlotte understood what her partner was getting at. "I see! What a good idea!" She then realized something. "Wait, doesn't that mean that we're here for nothing?"
Francesca chuckled nervously as she replied in a apologetic tone, "Oh, right."
"I've already tried that anyways," Eila informed them.
"Oh, and?"
"What did they say?" Charlotte added.
"Well, about that..." Eila tried before she lowered her voice and added with a whisper, "I was so scared, I couldn't flip the card over..."
"Eh?"
"What?" Francesca replied.
"I said it was so scary I couldn't flip it over..." Eila tried again, her voice still in a whisper.
"What's wrong?" Charlotte asked, slightly concerned. "Say it louder!"
"This isn't like you!" Francesca included.
"I said my fingers slipped and the card wouldn't turn!" Eila forced out quickly.
The girls with the Suomos Witch blinked as they looked at each other really quick before focusing on Eila.
"...Why?" Francesca quizzed.
"Well, it was scary!" Eila told her.
"So your finger slips if it's scary?" Charlotte tried.
"Well, yeah...What if I draw a bad card? What should I do then? And my fingers were shaking..." To prove her point, Eila reached over and grabbed a card with her left hand, trying to repeat her last attempt. Her hand started shaking in fear. "Look, like this..."
Charlotte sighed as she saw the example. "Well, this is serious."
"Yeah..." Francesca replied.
"What do you say, Lucchini?"
"Well, Shirley..."
The two then got in sync for the next bit: "One, two...MU RI DA NA!" They threw their arms into the air with the cheer.
Eila balked once more as she stood up and started shooing the two "guests" out of her room. "Just go! Go away!"
"Flee!" Charlotte replied as she and Francesca left the room.
"You guys are the ones who are 'unreliable'!"
XXXXXXXXXX
Eila groaned in irritation as she sat back down in front of the transmitter and said, "What's with everyone here? Gah..." The Suomos Witch laid her head on the desk as she sighed. "I don't feel like doing anything..." Soon, she heard someone knocking on the door. "Hmm?" She lifted her head and looked at her closed door, which she had closed to try getting some peace and quiet. "I'm not doing this counseling thing anymore! Can't you just leave?!"
"Eila?" Sanya asked as she opened the door and stepped inside, Roland following suit.
"Uwah!" Eila was surprised to see the Orussian Witch at the moment. Though the male Witch wasn't much better... "Sanya? Roland? Why are you two here? I mean...I'll make some tea!" Eila then stood up from her seat. "Come in and sit down. What cushion do you want, Sanya? Do you want some salmiakki?"
"I'm here as well, thank you..." Roland tried.
"Eila, the microphone on the desk has been left on for quite a while..." Sanya told her teammate.
"Microphone?" Eila asked before she pointed to the microphone with her right index finger. "Ah, you mean this? So you mean you could hear what I was saying this whole time?"
"Yes..."
"Yeah," Roland added. "I didn't get to hear much of it myself, having been busy with training, but I heard you talking to Shirley and Francesca when I reached the dining hall for something to drink." The male Witch then gave off a curious face. "Strange part was that I tried talking to Perrine a while before I came here, but she was busy saying something I couldn't understand. I think it was Gallian or something, but chances are she remembered the chess games from yesterday and broke down for a while."
"I see..." Eila said as she nodded her head. She pondered on the chance of her telling Roland that Perrine was worrying about something around thirty minutes ago but chose not to for the moment. "Well, I don't mind so much if people in the base could hear me..."
"That's not how it was, Eila..." Sanya included.
Eila blinked. "It wasn't?"
"So you haven't heard...everything you and the others said was broadcasted on radio all over Britannia."
"I thought it was set on testing, so I thought it would only broadcast within the base..."
"I was out flying until now, but I could hear it clearly even outside the base. My magical antenna can receive radio signals as well..." Sanya and Roland both noticed that Eila looked like she was starting to tear up. "Eila, what's wrong? It looks like you're about to cry..."
"Ah...Well, Sanya..." Eila gave off a quick sniffle. "You haven't said a word to me this morning..."
"That's..." Sanya started getting red in the face, something her companions noticed.
"W-what are you getting red in the face for? What have I done?!" Eila was more panicked about her Orussian teammate's actions right now.
"No...Eila, you did a microphone test here yesterday, right?"
"Eh?" Eila thought about the event in question really fast. "Ah, right. Since we were going to do a radio show, I tried out the microphone to see if it worked right." The Suomos Witch then fought to recall what she had said at the time. "Hmm...what was it I said?"
XXXXXXXXXX
At about nine at night last night, Eila had finally gotten herself ready for her ultimate plan concerning using Roland's transmitter: putting on a life counseling corner so that she could try helping her teammates out with their problems. Though she still found it odd that Roland had the transmitter in the first place, the Suomos Witch wasn't going to complain too much.
Flicking a switch to put it to testing (at least, she thought she did), Eila grabbed the microphone and cleared her throat.
"Okay, I just have to speak close to this thing, right?" Eila said to herself as she thought of something to try saying into it. "Doesn't matter what I say, right?" She gave that sentence a brief thought. "Yeah, guess so. Yeah, let's go!" She then thought of something but struggled to actually say it. "Uh...um..." Closing her eyes, she then blurted out her sentence: "Sanya! I love you!"
XXXXXXXXXX
"Eila, you didn't have to say it so loudly," Sanya told Eila in the present as she and Roland looked at the Suomos Witch. She was still red in the face.
"Oh, I didn't have to shout?" Eila tried.
"You could have just said whatever you said into the microphone in a normal tone," Roland included. "You know, like a normal person would?"
"But it feels embarrassing to say it if I don't shout it out loud."
"...Silly," Sanya replied.
"Ah, but it was just a microphone test!" Eila then thought about what happened to make her corner be heard throughout Britannia. "Maybe I did something wrong? Like, was everyone in Britannia able to hear it?"
"No..."
"Oh, good!"
"It wasn't just Britannia...I got contacted by Night Witches from all over the world after that. They asked if was about me..."
"Wait," Roland interrupted. "You mean that whatever Eila said was heard all over the world?"
Sanya nodded in response to Roland's question, making Eila freak out a bit. "It was really embarrassing to answer with, 'Yes, it was'."
"I see," Eila added, "and that's why..."
Sanya nodded again, this time to Eila. "Yes, I was so embarrassed...I couldn't look you in the face because I couldn't stop blushing..." She then pointed to her face for an example. "See...like this."
"Ah, I'm sorry, Sanya!"
"But I was just embarrassed, not angry."
Eila blinked. "Really? So you'll forgive me?"
"Well, there's nothing to forgive because I wasn't angry to begin with..."
"Great!" Eila clapped her hands together gleefully. "I know, why don't we start doing 'Eila and Sanya's Life Counseling Corner'? Wait, we could also do 'Sanya and Eila's' too!" To Sanya, she then asked, "Which one sounds better?"
"Why are we doing this all of a sudden...?" Sanya tried asking, her blush receding.
"You don't want to ask," Roland told her. "Besides, what was it Eila said that made you blush?" Noting Sanya's returning blush, Roland sighed. "Never mind, it's probably for the best that you keep it to yourself until you're ready to say it to someone else."
"I'm so happy to be able to do a corner with Sanya!" Eila, who was not paying attention to the conversation Sanya and Roland had, said cheerfully. "Yay!" She then stopped. "Oh, Roland, forgot you were here."
"No, please," Roland told her as he lowered his eyebrows. "Keep ignoring me for a while longer..." He sounded a bit annoyed.
"Something wrong?" Eila was curious.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen and..." Eila started as she began the new intro (to account for Sanya joining her).
"Sanya Vladimirovna Litvyak's..." Sanya continued.
"Life Counseling Corner!" the two girls finished as one.
"Alright," Eila told Roland, who was busy standing next to the desk as she and Sanya were sitting on the chairs, "please introduce yourself."
"Okay..." Roland said as he leaned in a bit to speak into the microphone. "My name's Roland Sage. Yes, I'm a male Witch. No, I'm not making that up."
"Okay, why are you saying that last bit?"
"In case you still have that thing set to broadcast worldwide. Anyways, my issues?"
"Oh, right. Is there anything you'd like to get off your chest?"
"Not much, now that I think about it."
Eila frowned. "Please, not this crap again...once is already enough."
"What about the Ascension incident?" Sanya pointed out. "Didn't Wing Commander Hannah Ellios die there?"
Roland grimaced before giving off a weak chuckle and saying, "Yeah, she did..." He then frowned.
"Aha!" Eila said with a snap of her fingers. "Now that's something we can talk about!"
"Eila..." Sanya started before Roland interrupted her.
"It's fine, Sanya," the male Witch told her. Looking at Eila, he added, "I'm almost certain you two read the report on it, right?"
"Not really...we're unaware of what happened...apart from the casualties."
Sighing, Roland closed his eyes. "It all happened a little too fast for me when she died. All I can really remember is her flying into my arms and her saying something. 'Sage, I know you haven't seen death like this before, but...please...let me go...' were the last words she said."
"And that was around when you first flew?"
"That was about a week before Commander Minna came to the base I had stayed at to fetch me for recruitment, but it was my maiden flight, for lack of a better word. I had been aware of my Witch status since I started boot camp at eighteen."
"Have you tried finding some closure since then?" Eila tried.
"I wish I knew how to do that..." Roland sighed. "She wasn't shot because I had said something, but if I had been faster in doing it..."
"So not yet?"
Roland didn't reply for a bit, but when he did a few seconds later he was grinning, his eyes open. "Oh well, can't cry over it for too long. Commander Ellios may be dead, but she told me to let her go. I really doubt I can do that just yet, but someday I'll be strong enough to protect everyone here, and I'll be able to fulfill her request. And until I'm there, I'll try to keep from slipping into insanity because of that day."
"Okay, how the hell can you be grinning after something that sad? And you know how difficult that sounds?"
"I'm aware of the hardship it'll bring, but I'm a Witch now. I may be male, yeah, but I still have magic and I can fly. So just point me at the enemy and I'll fight to my best ability."
Sighing, Eila pointed at the door and said in a defeated tone, "Okay, Lieutenant Schizoid, you'd best get going or else the Neuroi are going to do something to make your goal moot."
"I guess you're right." Roland walked over to the door and opened it up. "Alright, I'll see you two later on since I'm assuming that you'll be done with the transmitter at some point."
"Yeah, yeah, just go and do your job."
As Roland stepped outside and closed the door, the Suomos Witch rested her head on the desk.
"Ugh!" she shouted. "Man, that boy's something!"
"He's friendly when he's not thinking about anything sad, isn't he?" Sanya asked in return.
"Yeah, but he's getting to be popular on the base..." Eila blinked. "Crap! I forgot to ask him about how the hell he's becoming so popular!" The Suomos Witch then sighed. "Then again, he might say something stupid like 'Oh, it's all in the personality' or the ever-popular 'No idea'."
"I think you're reading too much into your guess..."
Meanwhile, Roland had barely started walking away from Eila's room when he realized something.
"Wait a second," the male Witch said to himself. "Sanya's middle name is 'Vladimirovna'?" He then furrowed his eyebrows. "And why does it feel like her name's a sort of nickname for her real name?"
XXXXXXXXXX
Ten minutes after Roland left, the two girls were waiting around for a client to appear...
Which was beginning to look a bit tedious in itself.
"...No one else came..." the Suomos Witch said, disappointed.
"You're right, Eila..." Sanya began before she saw a note get slipped under the door. Standing up and wandering over to it, she picked it up off the ground and looked at it. "Oh. We just received a note...addressed to...it's a bunch of stars."
Eila was curious. "Huh? What does it say?"
Sanya cleared her throat as she began reading it. "It says here: 'It has been confirmed that the guests who were supposed to be here today, the twin demons, are still at home, sleeping. They will be passing this time.'"
"What?!" Eila was shocked: she had predicted six people coming in, and only four actually made it? "What the...And I was so happy I could do this together with Sanya some more..."
"There's more, Eila."
"Really? What more can there possibly be?"
"Erm...'We do apologize for the inconvenience, and to show our apologies we sent you the male Witch known as Roland Sage to take their place. We hope you enjoyed talking to him for your corner. Signed, Dilnos Five-Two-One.' That's at least nice."
"Nice? What kind of name is that anyways? Who the hell has that kind of name?"
"...'Pee-Es: To answer your question, Eila, that would be a secret about who I am in relations to this, but I can safely say that that is my username. Pee-Es-Es: This note is half my words (the bit about Roland) and half the transcript's (the bit about the twin demons).'"
Eila lowered an eyebrow. "Okay, whoever the person is, how does he know who I am? Or that I'm doing a corner? Or even that I asked about his name? Also, what transcript?"
Better watch it, Eila: you don't want to be breaking the fourth wall right now.
XXXXXXXXXX
Sitting in front of a computer screen, the author sneezed.
"Damn," he said to himself as he grabbed a tissue and wiped his nose a bit. "How in the world did I end up with a cameo in my own story?" He then shook his head as he looked at the words on the screen. "Must be something I wrote..."
XXXXXXXXXX
"A-anyways, Eila," Sanya said quickly, hoping to get her teammate's thoughts away from the note's weird postscripts, "do the preview."
This got Eila's attention very quickly. "Okay!"
XXXXXXXXXX
Eila: *drawing some more cards from her deck of tarot cards* Well then, who will come to my counseling room next time? Let's see... *studies the cards* The twin demons will finally turn up next time? The raccoon-dog, big sister, the one who knows about the world, and the return of the oddball? In other words, everyone else left for me to talk to? And one repeat guest? What? I don't even get it this time either...but whatever, be sure to listen next time too!
XXXXXXXXXX
...And that concludes the second set for this story collection.
Let's see...author making an "unintended" cameo aside, I've got a few things to ask for this story: recently, I had found an English transcript for part of a drama CD called "Himeroku" on the wiki.
What does this have to do with the story? Apart from the fact that it's similarly structured, this raises a question on what I want to do: the next memory in the "Himebana" series is "Memories of Chamomile", and there is an after-story portion in that same CD called "Towards Fuso", while "Himeroku" has a memory of sorts that seems to occur directly after the events depicted in Season 1 Episode 7. At the same time, I also wanted to see about making a memory to kick off the final set of entries.
So the question becomes this: what do you guys want to see me cover for the next two entries? I'll be putting up a poll for this on my profile page (might be a while once I do so for you guys to take a vote) to see how people want to see it, so I'll explain how I see the choices:
1) Memories of Chamomile: I have a project planned that I refer to as Project Origins, and I was thinking of using this memory as part of it since it at least explains how Perrine was recruited into the Strike Witches. If you guys want me to cover it for this collection, I will need to come up with a new idea of explaining about her involvement on the team.
2) Towards Fuso: This is an epilogue, from what I've read, that focuses on Yoshika, Mio, Lynette, and Perrine. As Roland already had an epilogue dedicated to him after Gallia's liberation, he would only be in this one as a cameo, so this one would probably be following what I can read more closely (no small feat given the first half's essentially a summary of what the story part was about).
3) Ceremonious Aftermath (working title): I've done two entries here so far that take place after story events (one being a view of part of Roland's day before the whole "seeing Charlotte in the bath" bit, and one that covered what happened the day after Erica's commendation ceremony), so it's not hard to cover it. However, because I wasn't aware of this before I made MwR #2, I'd have to craft it so that I can make it fit in with the idea the original had while maintaining the events of MwR #2.
4) The original memory: Finally, there's this choice. I would probably need some inspiration to make this one possible, but I should be able to make an original memory using some creativity.
I don't really mind whatever choice you guys ultimately decide on via the poll, and I only want to see which idea you guys want to see make it in for the last set. Only one will make it, though: the others will be relegated to a (possible) sequel collection or as part of Project Origins (Choice #1). You would have two weeks to decide which story idea will be made, so if you're interested in letting me know what you think concerning this, feel free to go to my profile and cast your vote.
Anyways, please read and respond and let me know what you thought of this entry.
Thanks, and I will see you guys in the beginning of the final set.