I don't own anything from Danball Senki WARS
Do review! (Is it really that hard to simply type a few words and hit a button?)
The black Bandit LBX was ruthless as it attacked the remaining Harness and Jenock LBXs that were still functional. It slashed at Inui and Catherin's LBXs, causing heavy damage on them but a tessen came flying in the air and slashed at its body. It grabbed the tessen and glared at Sirena as it leveled it with a glare of its own. It threw the tessen back at Sirena with a lot of force and cut off Sirena's arm. Just as it was about to finish off Catherin and Inui's LBXs, Yuno's Siren fired shots at it, causing it to back off. The Siren then gathered in front of the two badly damaged LBXs with Gendou and Suzunne's LBXs to protect them.
'Arata, please help us.' Reika desperately tried to reach him as the black LBX dashed forward.
'I'm here Reika. Don't worry.'
Reika jerked her head up in surprise as a red sword with a green blade was tossed at the black LBX, halting it in its tracks. The sword flew back up and a new LBX caught it as it jumped off its Riding Saucer. Reika gasped as she recognized it from the blueprints that Takeru had shown her. "That's…"
"Dot Blastrizer." Arata finished for her and smiled lightly. "You can relax now Reika. I'm here."
Reika managed to calm herself down and nodded. "Alright."
Arata then turned his gaze to Bandit and his gaze hardened. "You're dead meat." He said in a deadly voice. As though rising to the challenge, the black LBX spun its scythe and dashed at Dot Blastrizer. It met it head on and their weapons clashed. They tried to outdo each other by attacking and parrying each other but they were soon blow back by the impact of their attacks.
"Arata, the multi-gimmick sack!" Sakuya told him.
"Right!"
Dot Blastrizer tossed its swords up and they transformed into the Blast Magnum. In a quick session, it fired at the black LBX and damaged its left leg. Behind him, the remaining Bandit LBXs which were forgotten cocked their guns and rifles at it but Arata was faster. In an instant, it had its Dual Blade and shield out. It spun around its Dual Blade, neutralizing the gun shots.
"Bandit…you had messed with the wrong people." Arata said in a low voice. "I will not stand aside and let you bully my friends and love ones anymore!"
Much to his surprise and everyone else's, he activated the Ragnarock Phase, the mode that was created to withstand the Overload.
"Finish them off, Arata!" Jin ordered.
In response, Dot Blastrizer used its claws and clawed at the black LBX, sending it flying and flew up to slash it one more time, this time sending it falling to the ground. The black LBX painfully pushed itself up and flew away, with the rest of Bandit retreating as well, not wanting to mess with Arata. Sighs of relief were released from both the students and teachers. Arata, on the other hand, grinned and turned back to Sirena who was standing away from the rest of Jenock and Harness' LBXs and his grin faded slightly.
XXXXXX
As soon as the alarm sounded, signaling the end of War Time, the control pods opened and Arata hopped out of his while admiring his new LBX.
"That was amazing Arata." Mia said as she and Daimen approached him.
"Yeah, man." Daimen nodded in agreement. "You sent Bandit fleeing with their tails between their legs."
Arata nodded absentmindedly as he watched Inui and Suzunne trying to talk to Reika but she ignored them and simply walked away.
"Do you think she'll be alright?" Haruki asked as he came over to them having seen what happened.
"Well, I'll say that she just needs time to cool off since it's not every day she lost control over her emotions." Arata shrugged. "But I'll try talking to her after school."
"But let's go and thank Sakuya for his effort for making Dot Blastrizer for now." Mia spoke up.
"You're right." Arata nodded and followed them back to the briefing room. He glanced back at Reika and nearly scowled when he saw Takeru trying to talk to her and she seemed to respond a bit.
Daimen saw this and smiled slyly. "Mia, I think we got to make sure that Arata doesn't go overboard with the 'I'm the older brother so I have to protect you' thing."
Mia followed his gaze and giggled. "I wonder if there is anything between those two though. I think Catherin has her eyes on him since he's Kojou Asuka's brother."
"Nah, I think she's only chasing him because she wants his sister's autograph." Daimen laughed.
As the group walked back after their teachers dismissed them, Arata pulled Reika aside and asked, "You alright?"
"Maybe." Reika said dully. "I haven't lost control like that in a long time and why now?"
"Well, I think it started when you got angry that Bandit destroyed Harness' lab so Takeru could not continue making the LBX." Arata said thoughtfully and chuckled. "I never thought that you were the type to get angry over such a small thing. They can just continue making it another time or at Jenock's lab."
"But you just don't get it!" Reika cried frustratedly. "If we cannot make it then you won't be able to overcome your fears of using the Overload and that also means that you can't move on from the past!"
"But have you?" Arata asked pointedly and sighed. "I never regretted having my powers Reika, nor do I feel ashamed of it. Ok, maybe I haven't moved on from the past entirely, but this has nothing to do with the Overload. I just don't like the feeling it gives me when I use it. Also, because of it, I have to take lessons from Mia on using telekinesis."
Reika stared at him for a moment and burst into tears. She latched onto Arata's shirt and buried her face in it.
"Oi, Reika, what's wrong now?" Arata asked in exasperation.
"You should have told me that before!" Reika wailed. "Now that I lost control over my emotions, what will everyone say!?"
'That's what she's worried about?' Arata thought with a sweatdrop. He wrapped his arms around her and patted her head. "Hey, it'll be alright. As long as you apologize about it, then I'm sure that they'll forgive you."
"Fine." Reika sniffed and rubbed her eyes.
"By the way…what's between you and Takeru?" Arata asked suspiciously.
Reika blinked and jumped away. "We're friends and I don't have a crush on him!"
"You just admitted that you have a crush on him Reika." Mia said mildly as she peaked around the corner.
"Mia!" Reika jumped again. "How long have you been listening?!"
"Long enough to see you and Arata having a sibling moment." Daimen answered as he too peaked around.
"Who else is there?" Arata sighed.
"Just us." Mia smiled angelically. "We wanted to make sure that Arata…don't go overprotective but I can't believe that you admitted that you have a crush on Takeru."
"I don't have one! I said that before." Reika protested.
"You know, whenever you say one thing, you usually mean the opposite, especially when it comes to crushes and boyfriends." Arata pointed out.
Reika glared at him and then at Mia and Daimen. "Go back first."
Mia exchanged glances with Daimen and shrugged. "Sure."
As soon as they left, Reika turned to Arata. "I'm a big girl now. There's nothing wrong with me having crushes. Also, it's not like I'm going to act on them at all."
"And why not?" Arata folded his arms and leaned on the wall.
"Because I'll have to tell him about my powers sooner or later and he'll reject me." Reika said with a downcast look.
Arata sighed and pushed off the wall. "I think you're the one who could not let go of the past. We need to learn to accept ourselves if we want others to accept us."
"Easy said than done." Reika sighed. "The memory of those kids saying mean things and bullying me always stayed with me even after all these years."
"It is hard to let go. But like Yuko-nee said, it doesn't take a second to build a skyscraper, but years." Arata smiled. But it fade when he sensed briefly umbrakinetic energy. He glanced around but did not see anything. He frowned and placed a hand on Reika's shoulder. "It's getting late. You should go back."
"Huh? But what about you?" Reika frowned.
"I have something I need to take care of." Arata said briefly and ran off.
Itan smirked as he and the other 'generals' of Bandit waited for Arata to appear behind an abandon building. He sucked on his lollipop and made sure that his energy signature was covered for the time being so that Arata would naturally find them and not suspect them.
"Itan, are you sure that whatever you do will work?" Bruce asked. "And by the way, what exactly did you do to make him come?"
"I got my own ways." Itan said lazily.
"Hmp, and what ways would that be?" Charlotte huffed. She was in a bad mood because she had to miss a date with Atsuya just to come for this meeting.
"Can't say them here." Itan shrugged and straightened up when he spotted Arata walking down the rows of buildings. "He's coming."
Arata soon came over but when he spotted them, he narrowed his eyes and was about to walk away but Itan quickly got in front of him. "Nice to meet you, Sena Arata. I am Itan Kyouji from Ezeldarm."
"I'm pretty sure that I know that from the assembly and your uniform." Arata said warily. Although the energy signature had suddenly disappeared, he was sure that it came from here or specifically one of the five people there. Also, there was Charlotte Rein, the person he did not want to see the most.
"Why so hostile? I only want to talk to you about joining Ezeldarm." Itan said breezily. "I wanted to talk to you about it at the roof when Charlotte invited you but you never showed up."
"Well excuse me for thinking that it is a prank mail." Arata said bitingly at her direction. 'Yeah, meet me at the roof. Like that's going to trick me. You're not the first one to do that. And you are the last person I would ever want to see.'
"Whatever." Itan shrugged it off while Charlotte looked like she wanted to spit fire. "Anyway, like I was saying, you should join Ezeldarm or your Overload will go to waste the way you are using it now."
Arata frowned at him as he tried to guess his motives. "And why should I do that?"
"Ezeldarm aims to eradicate all signs of war from the real world. And to do that, we need the power of your Overload." Itan explained.
"And how exactly do you plan on using my Overload?" Arata asked skeptically.
"Have you heard about the Parasite Keys?"
"Yes." Arata nodded warily.
"We are currently looking for them but we have only successfully obtained one. With Bandit around, we cannot search for them properly. If we have the Overload on our side, I'm sure that we can find them in no time." Itan smirked.
Alarms went off in Arata's mind. He knew that he cannot give out the fact that one of the Parasite Keys is in Rikuya's LBX, especially since they were now suspicious of Ezeldarm. "Well, sorry to say this, but I don't trust you guys. In fact, I would rather stay in Jenock, thank you very much."
"Why you-!" Bruce was about to lunge at him but Itan held up his hand and stopped him.
"So you are going to let your Overload go to waste?"
"Something like that." Arata said nonchalantly. "Now, if you'll excuse me." He spun around and left the area.
"Are you just going to let him go like that?" Tooru demanded.
"Never mind him." Itan waved his lollipop. "We got better things to do."
But when the others were not looking, Itan glared at the direction where Arata left. 'Sena Arata, I will get back at you for what you did back there. And don't worry, I know your secret as well. You and I are the same. You will join Ezeldarm sooner or later.'
