Their final fight was the opening to a new beginning. Unfortunately, the changes brought to the world affected a few far more than others.
"Hibiki, It's flying higher than you!" The voice echoes in her earpiece.
"Shit! Again?!" Hibiki curses under her breath as she proceeds to swerve to the side before soaring higher once more. She looks back to attest to the behavior of her foe, still hot on her heels, wings glowing before feathers are shot toward her.
Twisting and spinning her body, Hibiki dodges the feathered attack, some only grazing her S.O.N.G uniform and barely cutting into her skin; nothing that couldn't be healed over time or with special care.
She keeps flying high and fast. She would usually engage in close combat, but she would not risk her person against that particular bird, she was sure it was a raptor, but whether it was an eagle, a hawk, or a falcon… Hibiki couldn't tell, and she would rather avoid having her eyes picked out or her limbs dismembered. Also, the hour-long scolding she received from her partner after barely 'winning' last time was an effective deterrent for her to not engage carelessly, ever.
So maintaining her distance with this oversized predator while acting as its main prey, and keeping its attacks aimed at her, further from the city by flying higher while leading it away was the optimal set of operations.
She just need to focus on this for a while longer, dodging the talons, the beak, and especially that mid-ranged attack of glowing feathers, until she received the signal.
"I'm in position, Hibiki. You can lead it to me, now," her partner calls her.
With a quick glance around, sweeping the large area from the sky, Hibiki finds what she was looking for in the form of the lone S.O.N.G member standing on a deserted beach.
Twisting her body to narrowly dodge the talons zooming a bit too close from her neck, Hibiki quickly breaks away from her foe to speed up toward her partner in a straight, slightly diving line.
She would not be able to outspeed her foe in a contest of pure speed, the only reason she was able to last that long was because she never allowed her opponent to build up enough momentum to reach its, engaging herself in turns and curves, anything that would prevent her to lose her advantage in maneuverability over its.
But the fact it was faster than her will soon become its downfall.
The distance between her partner and her weren't small, but if they pull it right, as usual, the mission will be over in seconds following the signal. And for this, she needs to stay out of reach as long as possible, until it would be too late for the giant raptor to change course.
Hibiki's eyes were no longer paying attention behind her once less than a kilometer away from her partner, utterly focused on the other girl in position, rifle aimed at her in a steady and firm position that Hibiki had learned to be of great reassurance to herself once seeing it.
She didn't even need to focus on trying to distinguish the sound of voice amidst the winds whipping at her face, the subtle movement of lips moving was all she needed.
Twisting her body ever so slightly at the voiceless signal, followed by the bullet leaving the chamber, rushing at her at high velocity and grazing her body as she tilts it slightly to the side, like during training, before the bullet lodges itself inside her pursuer as it lets out a caw of pain.
Still like in training, Hibiki didn't slow down afterward, keeping her momentum to sweep her partner off her feet, away from her position and back in the air. The next moments followed by the oversized bird crashing at the specific emplacement, its sudden injury making it unable to recover in time to avoid the ground.
Finally stopping and now hovering in the air, the two women look at the clouded area in waiting. Once the cloud of sand cleared out to reveal a weeping, twitching and bloodied bird that Hibiki proceed to land them back on the sanded earth and deposit her partner back on her own feet.
As they walk closer, the long silver-haired sniper straps back her rifle on her back before pulling her gun, keeping it on the raptor in case of any sudden movement. While Hibiki's presence at her side makes the situation relatively safe, she wouldn't rely solely on this, especially when the animal laying on the ground could really arm her partner, and her as well, she would rather not go back to HQ with a tattered and bloodied uniform and founding a plausible explanation to it.
"It's official, Chris. I hate them," Hibiki voices her opinion, breaking the tension.
"Please… You hate anything that flies faster than you," Chris responds, ignoring her pouting friend. She secures her gun in its holster in the back of her pants as she could see back up and HQ converging to their location.
The threat was dealt with, they now just need to fill in reports and they could be back home.
Chris and Hibiki's place
"Yeah, It was another one. Quite dangerous but nothing we couldn't handle.
She's taking a shower right now, but she's fine, safe and sound, totally unharmed.
Fine, some minor grazes and cuts but, really, nothing to be worried over.
Yeah, I'm fine too.
Yes, we are still up to spend Christmas Eve with you two. We already informed them we will be unavailable those days. So, unless the world picks this exact period to send us another one. We are staying up to New Year's Eve, as planned.
Of course. Take care and tell oba-san I- we say 'hi'.
It took me more than two years to call your daughter by her name and I still call my guardian 'old man'. Both of you still have a way to go until I'm compelled to do though.
That's another matter altogether. Anyway, don't forget I'm bringing the cake.
Sure, I'm hanging up now."
The moment Chris releases a sigh as she ends up the call that Hibiki enters the living room in her loungewear composed of plain orange shorts and a yellow shirt.
"Was it mom?" she asks as she hovers toward the couch by letting herself flop by Chris' side.
"Yeah, our oversized eagle didn't miss its chance to be caught on camera and was shown live on TV before your arrival. Anyway, she called to check if we were alright."
"Mom sure worries a lot," Hibiki rambles as she dawdles closer to her friend.
"She should, it's been two years since you told her that you had been risking your life since entering high school. And when she thought it was too late to worry about it, that you are thrown into another endless fight against Divine powered beast and such."
"But she should know by now that you have my back," Hibiki argues, leaning against Chris' shoulder.
"You wish, I had to promise her that I would not let anything befall you just to ease her a bit that you are not fighting alone."
"Maybe it would have been more convincing if you had shown her your powers as well,"
"Or, maybe if you would get a better grasp on yours and were able to take your opponent on your own decisively."
"Not fair, I'm doing my best and I think I'm doing pretty well," Hibiki retorts, moving from her position to look at her friend and colleague.
"And yet, you still can do this, less using any type of range attacks," Chris demonstrates by creating a small energy ball with red outlines in the palm of her hand before making it fly in large circles above them.
"You know very well that those types of attacks are not my thing!"
Chris rolls her eyes at the recurrent excuse. "Please… I still remember that moment you basically used the others' move against Adam; Maria's shield, Senpai's [Aoi no Issen], the kouhai's [Juliet] as well as [Getsurin]. You did all those as if it was the most natural thing in the world. And now that you have obtained Divine Power, you can't even mimic something you did with the Symphogear?" She corks an eyebrow at the end.
"You can just fight at my place if it's so easy for you," Hibiki mumbles while pouting before yelping in pain from having her forehead flicked.
"We already talked about it, Hibiki-"
"I know!" she whines as she lays her head on Chris' lap. "I might really be cursed…" she mumbles against her senpai's thighs.
A silence takes over after Hibiki utters those words, letting them sink in as Chris simply moves a hand toward her kouhai's hair and gently caresses them, hand moving in a comforting gesture, causing the receiver to hum and almost purr.
Chris breaks the silence afterward. "Well, if we take that the curse is you having to distance yourself from the others to not disrupt their new, peaceful life and potentially involving them in a fight against an impossible threat. Then I guess both of us are cursed since I decided to stick around to help you regardless."
"No," Hibiki replies, snaking her arms around the older girl's waist in a tight embrace. "You are not part of the curse… My dad once said that curses and blessings could be seen as two sides of a same coin. If me, having to fight alone because of this power is a curse, then having you by my side is a blessing. Thank you for sticking around, Chris."
Chris didn't cease the stroking motion of her former kouhai's hair. "We were all in this at the beginning when we had our Symphogear. Leaving it to you alone just because we didn't have the same power as you are hardly an excuse to me. But again, I didn't have much going on in my life, so I might as well keep an eye on you. Turns out for the better since I awoke those same power as well, albeit keeping them a secret."
She was expecting some kind of answer from her partner, but to be instead rewarded with soft snoring. Hibiki has fallen asleep, leaving Chris with no idea how much the other had heard before drifting asleep.
"Just like her to tell her piece and leaving you on your own…" She grumbles before sighing. "I blame this on me stroking her head, while I should know that she loves taking a nap like this," she laments some more but not stopping the motion of her hand.
Looking through her window, Chris contemplates the scenery painted outside; the sun was no longer as high, and the evening will soon settle. "We are fighting beast for the moment and not having much trouble going on against them. But, one day, we will probably be forced to fight against other people, and I know you will not like going against them in a death fight, less if I decide that their lives are far less important than yours." She turns her attention back to her sleeping partner. "Yet, if getting rid of them myself, can spare you the burden of doing it… I will gladly shoulder it."