"Besides, we have you Symphogear-wielders to protect us, don't we?"
Lanfen's bloodshot eyes shot open, cold sweat dotting her face as she took in several quick breaths and gazed at the corridor wall opposite of her. Sitting on a bench outside one of the medical floor's ICU rooms, the barren corridor was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. The distinct smell of antiseptics permeated the atmosphere, almost drowning out the scent of copper that Lanfen always found familiar after years of fighting. With one hand tightly gripping her knee, Lanfen squeezed her eyes shut and relaxed her pounding heart.
It had been several hours since Ayano Komichi had lost her life.
Even with the medical crew's expertise and the technology at their disposal, her injury had been far too severe for them to save her. Aiko had also been found lying unconscious inside the staff building, and while she fortunately carried no serious injuries, the same could not be said for the two Ogawa clan operatives that were discovered alongside her. As the coroners conducted their business on the two deceased operatives, Tsuchiya was currently waiting to take his comrades back to their clan temple for cremation. It was not hard to guess that the deaths of the pair had been carried out by the same hands that murdered Komichi.
A part of Lanfen refused to believe that any of this was real, even if it would have made the tears she had shed completely meaningless. She had placed her hopes within the Ogawa clan's ability to take down the murderer, but in the end, three more bodies had been added to Yamaku's death toll, bringing it to a dour count of five. As a thick fog dulled her mind, the Adapter tightened her hands into fists and picked herself up from the bench that she had been sitting on for hours now. Her brown, clammy skin shivered from the cold, uncaring air of the underground base, Lanfen's lips slowly cracking from a lack of water.
"No matter what pace you're going at, Yuki and I hope you can continue becoming even better than who you were before."
Her knuckles slammed into the metal wall in front of her, bruising her skin as Lanfen clicked her tongue in frustration. Hearing her heartbeat rising within her chest, Lanfen held back the tears that threatened to pour forth from the corner of her eyes, and turned on her heel to face the very room where Komichi had been brought into.
Simply staring at its closed doors sent a shiver down the woman's spine. Even as she took a step towards it and stood outside the ICU room, Lanfen felt her fingernails subconsciously digging into her palms. All it took was one more step, and the automatic doors would slide open for her to see Komichi lying lifelessly in her bed. Ever since she had been carried into the room, Lanfen had been unable to find the will to bring even a single footstep through its doors. Meanwhile, Yuki had gone inside the moment they were granted access, and the woman had not come out of the room since then.
Yuki had been inside for at least three hours now, but Lanfen could still hear the muffled noises of crying through the metal doors.
"Why?" Lanfen's weak words leaked through her chapped lips, the Adapter slowly stepping away from the door until her back met the freezing metal wall behind her. Slowly lowering her gaze to her shaking, open palms, Lanfen could still feel the dried blood that had stained her hands hours ago. Blood which had belonged to someone that she was looking forward to planning Chris' birthday with. Blood which had belonged to someone that had helped her unconditionally ever since she arrived in Yaman Academy. Blood which had belonged to someone that had died in her arms while she could only offer words of desperate reassurance.
"Keep on making good memories... alright?"
She couldn't bring herself to face Yuki, not for the time being. Quietly, Lanfen dragged herself away from Komichi's room and trudged through the empty corridors of the underground base. Her boots weakly thumping against the metal floors, she pulled to a sudden stop and placed a hand on the wall. Once she was sure that there was nobody within earshot, Lanfen leaned against the cold metal to her right for support, and felt her tears freely trailing down her face. Her breathing turned hoarse as a mental weight pressed down on her. A crushing weight that had not haunted her ever since the day her family had been buried within the earth.
Lifting her smartphone from her pocket, Lanfen stared at the small toy that dangled from the device by a rusted chain, and wondered what Cynthia would say to her right now. Fixating her reddish eyes on the worn, 7-year old accessory for a few moments, her clouded mind could not focus hard enough to find an answer. But if it was one thing that Lanfen was sure of, it was that the Adapter bore nothing if not resentment towards herself, and the murderer that took Komichi away from them.
Wiping the tears away after a minute to pull herself together, Lanfen headed further up the corridors of the medical floor. As she neared the entrance to the reception lounge, she heard familiar voices growing within earshot, and noticed that they were coming from one of the many rooms to her right. Slowly peering through one of the rooms' small windows, Lanfen spotted Aiko sitting on a chair with her back to the door. The walls muffled her voice, but Lanfen could still hear her slowly talking to the S.O.N.G. worker standing in front of her as she gave a report about the situation hours ago.
Even after receiving healing treatments, Lanfen could still see the medical wraps on the woman's arms, her winter coat and scarf neatly folded on a nearby table. When it was reported that Aiko had been found unconscious but alive, Lanfen had been almost overwhelmed by the relief that washed over her. But soon afterwards, a pang of guilt coursed its way through Lanfen's mind. Because when they had needed her the most, she was nowhere around to defend them. It was as if all that talk of protecting them days ago amounted to nothing more than useless, hot air.
Quickly passing by the room so that they wouldn't notice her, Lanfen entered the reception lounge of the base's medical floor and saw Commander Genjuuro standing near the row of elevators. With nobody else present in the large room except for the few personnel that quietly sat at the reception counters, Lanfen could hear the Commander calmly speaking into his phone, the Adapter slowly approaching the large man with heavy footsteps.
"-Yes... Yes. Understood. My condolences to your family, Mister Ayano."
The call came to an end as Lanfen quietly stepped in front of him and reflexively stood to attention. Placing the small device in one of his beige trousers' pockets, the large man turned to Lanfen with a rare, solemn glance and crossed his arms over his chest. He took a second to look into the woman's dull, purple eyes, as if scanning her expression, "Lanfen..."
"I'm fine, Commander," she sharply insisted despite the obvious tearstains on her face. With one hand caressing her black braid as it sat on her shoulder, Lanfen mustered a stoic demeanor like a mental shield. Despite years of training herself to wield this mask of calmness, she could sense her grip over it slowly slipping from a lack of use over the past few days, "I take it that we have no leads on Komichi's murderer?" she asked in a low voice.
Knowing that he wasn't going to get through her obvious façade, the Commander paid no mind to Lanfen's attitude and simply shook his head, "It's the same person responsible for the previous murders. Same bullet, same murder method, and this time, they've shown that they're capable of jamming our communications. I've already requested that campus security be tripled," he furrowed his red brows in thought, "Lanfen," he firmly said, "Whatever happened today, none of it was your fault, do you understand?"
She gave only a small nod of the head, her hands hanging loosely at her sides.
"Komichi," the Commander slowly uttered her name with a tone of regret, "She was great woman, and I know she wouldn't want you to blame yourself for this. Both S.O.N.G. and Yaman Academy have surely lost a valuable individual today."
Her sword-hand twitched ever so slightly. Calling upon the strength to maintain her stoic expression for just a while longer, Lanfen closed her eyes and nodded once more, "Understood, Commander," her words felt empty, as if she was falling back on a pre-programmed response, if nothing else. Feeling the Commander gently clap her on the shoulder, the Adapter gave him the sharpest salute she could muster, and he returned the gesture with a concerned look. Lanfen watched on in silence as the Commander turned around and headed up the elevator to return to his duties in the command center.
Standing in the middle of the lounge with feet that were unsure of where they should carry her next, Lanfen heard footsteps coming from behind and spun around to see Yuki approaching her. Immediately sensing her control over her voice escape her, Lanfen avoided looking directly at the ragged woman. Yuki's eyes had the same bloodshot look that she did, her untied, dark green hair freely running down her back as the S.O.N.G. agent glanced emptily at the numerous empty seats around the lounge. The small scowl she wore made Lanfen unsure of what she should even do.
Without an uttered word, Yuki wrapped her arms around the Adapter and pulled her into a tight hug.
She could feel Yuki's trembling as the tall woman wept into her winter jacket, Lanfen eventually lifting her arms to slowly return the gesture of comfort. Knowing just how long the woman had been close companions with Komichi, she could not imagine the turmoil that was brewing within her as Yuki eventually pulled away and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her blazer. It only took a small gesture from Lanfen for the two to subsequently sit down on one of the many seats around them, a palpable cloud of silence quickly growing between them as their bodies sunk into the soft chairs.
While Yuki silently gazed at the floor with unfocused eyes, Lanfen lifted a hand and reached into one of her jacket's pockets. She felt her fingers brush against paper and slowly pulled out the bloodstained gift that Komichi had passed onto her to give to Chris. The palm-sized birthday gift weighed heavier than anything Lanfen had ever held in her life.
"Chris will be arriving soon," Yuki suddenly stated, her lifeless voice lacking its usual laidback tone, "You should hand it to her when you see her."
"... Understood," Lanfen muttered, tightening her grip around the gift as a shiver ran through her hands.
Neither of the two spoke for an amount of time that none of them cared to measure. But despite the quiet that was lingering between them like a dour cloud, the two knew full well that each other's presence was exactly what they needed right now in order to stave off their intrusive thoughts. Their regrets. Their memories. As they wordlessly commiserated within the reception lounge of the base's medical floor, Lanfen knew that if Komichi was still here, she would easily shatter the silence with but a few cheerful words.
"Thank you for the help, Miss Shinonome. The doctor has stated that you may take your leave now."
Having finished recording Aiko's statement, the S.O.N.G. worker gave a formal bow that the dorm warden returned in kind, and quickly stepped out of the room without another word. Even after she was left alone in the room, Aiko stayed in her seat, her hands beginning to shake as she slowly brought her palms to her face and wept into her hands. She could not understand why her life had been spared. When she had woken up in the medical bay an hour ago, Aiko was under the assumption that everything that had happened this morning wasn't real. That her encounter with the woman in the azure suit was but a terrible nightmare she could easily forget.
But when she had heard the news of Komichi's passing, she felt as though reality had sunk a knife deep into her abdomen. Aiko initially called it out as an awful joke that someone was trying to play on her, but hearing the situation from the Commander himself was all it took to convince her that it was real.
If Komichi's death was real, then what was also real was the fact that she had almost died. Aiko had stared down the receiving end of a revolver, but was spared for reasons that eluded her, and the lack of an answer ate away at her like a tick. Ayano Komichi had died in her place, Aiko thought to herself, and it could have been avoided had she been able to face that pale murderer with some measure of fortitude within her. She had the woman right in her trembling sights, but she could not fathom the idea of pulling the trigger and taking someone else's life, even if her own life was in danger.
Drying her tears for the fallen, Aiko got up from her chair and grabbed her winter coat. After she had put on the large apparel, her golden eyes panned to the black-and-white scarf that Lanfen had gifted her, and she wondered if a coward like her even deserved such a thing. Holding up the soft wool in her hands, Aiko let out a shaky breath and hesitantly wrapped it around her neck, "I'm sorry," she absent-mindedly murmured to the empty air, hoping that somehow Komichi would hear her worthless plea for forgiveness.
Exiting the room, Aiko walked up to the entrance of the reception lounge and the automatic doors slid open. Immediately, she spotted Yuki and Lanfen standing in front of the lounge elevators, and the dorm warden hid behind one side of the opened doorway. Her hands tightly gripping her monochrome scarf, Aiko could faintly hear the two talking to one another as they waited for the descending elevators, neither one of them paying any attention to the still-opened doors to the reception lounge. While she could not make out what they were talking about from where she stood, Aiko felt that she was the last thing that the pair needed to see after Komichi's murder. A murder that happened because of her.
There was an audible ring and she heard the one of the two step into the arriving elevator.
"'Fen, you coming?" Yuki's voice suddenly asked.
"I am," Lanfen quickly said, and Aiko wondered if the Adapter had actually spotted her just now, "I just had something on my mind."
Hearing the elevator doors close themselves shut, Aiko released a breath that she did not realize she had been holding. Taking a few seconds to make sure that the lounge was quiet before she stepped inside, Aiko approached one of the other elevators and hailed it to head for the surface.
The next few minutes felt like a blur of bright hallways and snowy pathways. Moving as if she was carrying herself through auto-pilot, Aiko's focus only came back to her when she heard the ringing entrance of the dormitory building. Clapping both her cheeks with her hands to maintain her grip on reality, Aiko stepped into the dorm building, her shoes clacking against the floor as the silence felt almost oppressive. With the students most likely resting in their rooms, she headed up the stairs of the building and arrived in the commons room.
A few students chatted away on the sofas, a couple others lazily typing away on their smartphones as they happily greeted their dorm warden. Managing a polite smile, Aiko sent them a kind wave of the hand before the schoolgirls went back to their fun. She could tell that the news of what had happened had yet to spread as Aiko approached the commons room's open kitchen, and went through the simple motions of prepping some tea. Boiled water, tea leaves, a kettle, her hands moved through the process using pure muscle memory.
"Thy hands are shaking, dear."
Aiko drew in a sharp breath and hastily stepped away from the kitchen counter in front of her. Her golden eyes quickly widening with terror, she gripped the edge of the counter, and tried to calm the rapid beating within her chest. Aiko could not forget the sight of a revolver's barrel aiming right at her. She could not forget the fright she had felt when she believed she was going to die. Her swirling thoughts had pleaded relentlessly for someone to save her in that moment, and Aiko only lived because of reasons she would most likely never know. It almost seemed like a punishment for her worthless attempt at bravery.
"I-Is there something wrong, Miss Shinonome?"
Aiko glanced to her right and saw one of the dorm students, Miki Sakura, approaching her with a nervous frown. Immediately feeling guilty that she had worried one of the girls under her care, Aiko quickly called upon her usual confident front and waved off the girl's worries, "Don't worry about me, Miki," she assured her with a gentle smile, "I'm simply far too tired, that's all."
"R-Really?" the girl said, twiddling her fingers.
"Indeed. But a nice cup of tea should help with that. Now, if you'll excuse me," giving the spectacled schoolgirl a polite bow, Aiko placed her steaming kettle and teacup in a small tray, and excused herself from the commons room. On her way to her dorm room in the upper floors, Aiko hoped that her confidence was as convincing as it often was. While Miki seemed to believe her, Aiko never wished to sow concern among the students that relied on her to be a dependable dorm warden.
Halting in front of her room door, Aiko swiped her keycard across the scanner and stepped inside to settle her tray on the low table. Gently folding her winter coat before placing it inside her laundry basket, the dorm warden motioned to remove her black-and-white scarf, and gripped the soft wool with a shaky hand. Leaving the scarf on a nearby coat rack next to her potted plants, Aiko slid her keycard into the room's card holder, causing the entire room to power up as she switched on nothing more than her bedside lamp for light. All of it felt like things she would do on an average day, but Aiko knew that today was not that, no matter how hard she pretended.
Even as she sat at her low table, all she could do was stare into her empty teacup, steam slowly billowing from the large kettle beside it.
What would have happened had she not hesitated, she wondered, another shaky breath escaping her. Would Komichi still be here? Would she be spending the late afternoon sharing some tea with Lanfen? Did she have the capacity to harm another person to begin with? She was a researcher, and yet none of the answers were within arm's reach of her. She was called the talented protégé of Professor Elfnein, and yet, right now, she was as helpless as the schoolgirls in this very building. Aiko had attempted to be brave, and instead almost got herself killed because of it.
Hearing her smartphone ring with a message from Professor Elfnein, Aiko hesitantly lifted her hand to grab the device, only for a sharp pain to course through her.
Aiko suppressed a cry and immediately swung her gaze to her bedside table. Spotting the container of pills sitting underneath the bedside lamp, Aiko swiped it from her table and opened it up to dispense three white pills. She swallowed them one-by-one and closed the container with a heavy sigh, leaving it next to her empty teacup as she felt the pains within her leave as quickly as it had arrived. With everything that had happened today, Aiko simply lied down on the carpeted floor of her room, and wrapped her bandaged arms around her sore abdomen.
Deciding to reply to the Professor's message after a short nap, the dorm warden rested under the dim light of her bedside lamp, and quietly contemplated her reasons for living.
Swiping through the worried messages that she had received from her fellow Adapters, Lanfen appreciated their condolences as she went through each and every one of them with dull, purple eyes. Pocketing her smartphone to continue treading through the busy corridors of the underground base, she intended to reply to them at a later time, once she could find the words to even reply to them with. Her hands stuffed in her jacket's pockets, the automatic doors to the base's commons room slid to the sides as Lanfen walked through the doorway and came to an abrupt halt.
Gentle music floated through the warm air of the commons room, a low hum emitting from the vending machine that stood on one side of the large area as Lanfen spotted three women talking around one of the large, circular tables in front of her. Yuki straddled the chair she was relaxing on, a toothpick in her mouth while her wife, Otome, stood behind her to tie the tall woman's disheveled hair back into its usual shape. Sitting opposite of them was a familiar woman with short, snow-white hair that had several long tails trailing down from it. Donning the blue S.O.N.G. uniform with a red-and-white scarf, Yukine Chris was the first of the three to spot Lanfen, a soda can gripped in one of her gloved hands.
Digging her fingernails into her palm, Lanfen's legs almost refused to approach them. Now that Chris herself was here in person, Lanfen's hands started to shiver underneath the quiet gaze of the two other women. Otome gave her a friendly wave with both hands, but Lanfen continued to sense nothing but shame from failing to prevent the death of someone that the three had befriended since their school years. She wondered if Chris despised her after what had happened. If she did, Lanfen thought that she probably deserved it.
"Come on over, 'Fen," Yuki gently said as Otome's hands let go of her now-tied ponytail.
Listening to the words of her senior, Lanfen dragged herself across the commons room, hesitation marking each of her footsteps. With her hands folded behind her back, she stood on one side of the circular table and greeted the trio with a deep bow. She looked at Chris first, "Yukine-"
"'Chris' is fine," the red Adapter insisted, her chin resting in the palm of her hand.
Silently glancing at Otome and Yuki on her right, the pair gave Lanfen a synchronized nod of assurance, but it still wasn't enough to loosen her tense shoulders, "Chris," she slowly corrected herself, looking back at her, "Sorry, but may we... talk by ourselves? If neither of you don't mind, that is."
The three women looked among each other, and they seemed to agree with whatever they had wordlessly spoken to one another, "Sure," Chris was the one to answer as Yuki and Otome got up from their seats.
Yuki patted Lanfen on the back with one hand and Otome gave her a quick, comforting hug. The short woman subsequently followed her wife out of the commons room, leaving Chris and Lanfen all by themselves as the music from the nearby holographic speakers filled the silence between them.
Lanfen's back faced the red Adapter. She could feel the sharpshooter's gaze watching her every movement, "I-" she began, her fingernails still digging into her palms, "Whatever you intend to say, I'm not expecting to be forgiven. It is my duty to protect the people of Yaman Academy, and yet-" she gritted her teeth and slowly dropped herself onto the chair behind her, "-in the end, I couldn't accomplish something as simple as that. Even as the wielder of the Sword of Damocles," she looked over her shoulder and saw Chris gazing at her with pensive eyes, "I'm sorry."
Those were the only words she could manage to get out of her tightening throat. The longer she sat down, the more she could feel her fingers anxiously scratching at her knees. Her foot relentlessly tapped on the floor, and Lanfen watched as Chris took a swig of the drink in her hand before gently leaving the empty tin on the table. While she had rarely interacted with Chris in-person over the past half-decade, Lanfen could tell that this was the first time she had ever seen the woman as somber as she was right now.
"I'm not here to blame you," Chris said, exhaustion lacing her tone, "Komichi... she was a great gal. She was always so persistent about whatever she was interested in, but goddamn did she enjoy makin' the people around her happy," grabbing the empty can in front of her, Chris blindly tossed it over her shoulder, and the small object landed neatly in the room's dust bin, "It's hard to fucking believe she's gone, that's for sure."
Lanfen slowly nodded in agreement, swinging her legs around the chair until they were underneath the table itself. With her elbows resting on the large furniture, Lanfen continued to remain silent, her eyes locked on her clasped hands.
"Stay strong like you always do, rookie," Chris continued, tracing a circle on the table with one finger, "You've still got others around here that you can trust. While I would gladly lead a manhunt for the bitch that killed Komichi, I sadly don't got control over somethin' like that," the snow-white woman had a sharp grin as she spoke, but Lanfen had a feeling it was there just to cover up her frustrations.
Unable to provide anything meaningful to the conversation, Lanfen's stiff hands reached into her pockets and slowly pulled out the bloodstained gift sitting within her jacket. With both hands, she presented the palm-sized gift to the older woman, causing Chris to suddenly replace her casual demeanor with a clear expression of disbelief, "Komichi wanted me to hand this to you before she..." Lanfen's hush words could not finish her sentence. The words tasted bitter to her tongue.
Taking the blood-marked gift from her hands, Chris cradled the wrapped item in a gloved palm and laughed emptily to herself. Despite the cocky grin she wore, the older woman stowed the item in her coat with a tightened fist, clearly unable to find the next words to even say. In a flash, the red Adapter got up from her chair and turned her tired gaze to the main entrance of the common's room. Lanfen could see a nerve on her forehead practically threatening to burst, "Rookie, you mind doing me a favour?"
"Not at all," Lanfen whispered.
"Do whatever you can to protect those that are still here," Chris hissed with narrowed eyes, "And make sure that Komichi's killer gets what she deserves."
"Understood," she promised her with a sharp nod, and sadly looked away, "I wished we could have seen each again on different terms, Chris," Lanfen added.
Quietly agreeing with her sentiment, the two marked the end of their conversation with a small goodbye as Chris marched out of the commons room to presumably spend a more time with Yuki and Otome. Hearing the door slide open and shut behind her, Lanfen's hand reached for the red pendant hanging around her neck and gripped the crimson accessory between two fingers. With her other hand anxiously scratching at her knee, Lanfen felt the proverbial black fires of revenge brimming within her eyes. They burned with an intensity that she had not felt in a long time, and slowly, the clouds that shrouded her mind began to part with one clear objective.
Chris and Otome's visit did not last long. The red gunslinger was still needed back in Europe, and the latter had work to prepare for tomorrow. Even so, Yuki appreciated the few hours she was able to spend with them while they were here. From the large window of her dorm room, Yuki watched as the S.O.N.G. helicopter that had brought the pair here flew off in the direction of Otome's town, and disappeared into the snowy distance. She had lost count of how many times she had ridden those flying coffins back when she was still a part of the response teams, and while getting shot down was never a fun experience, a small part of Yuki almost wished to be in one of those things again.
With a huff, Yuki pulled herself away from the window and dropped onto one side of her messy room's low table. Even though she had changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top, her entire body felt far heavier than usual as sunset light poured into her room through the window behind her. The woman's unfocused eyes ran across her surroundings, as if trying to find something that would distract her.
Wrinkled clothes gathered up into a messy pile on top of her bed, the dust bin sitting next to her computer table already filled to the brim with crumpled beer cans while her punching bag hung in the farthest corner of her room. She could hear message notifications coming from her desktop, but Yuki couldn't bring herself to care about any of them right now. Instead, she drew her eyes to the packets of untouched cheesecakes on top of her table. Desserts that she had bought for Komichi just this morning. Treats that now had no one to receive them.
Rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, Yuki pulled over one of the dessert packets and pried open the plastic packaging. Picking up the small plastic fork that came with it, Yuki stabbed into the treat with the small utensil and slowly held up the chunk of cheesecake to her tearstained face.
She hesitated to part her lips for even the smallest of bites. Komichi almost never went a day without eating anything sugary, but Yuki herself could barely stand anything that even remotely carried a sweet taste. Despite her trepidation, Yuki dug into the treat with a scowl and spent the next half hour bitterly going through all of the untouched desserts on her table. Once she was through with them, Yuki threw the empty packets in a plastic bag, tied it up, and tossed it into an empty corner of her room. None of it made the woman feel any better. If anything, frustration only grew within her.
Spitting out a small curse, Yuki rose up from the floor and went over to her punching bag. Glaring at the large, cylindrical bag as it hung from the ceiling by an iron chain, she readied herself into a trained stance, and slowly closed her hands into fists. Yuki could feel her heartbeat rising, the woman unable to forget the cold lifelessness of Komichi's hands. No matter how hard she had pleaded for Komichi to wake up, all she received in turn was a barren stare from the woman's green eyes. Eyes that had always looked at her with a bright glimmer for decades.
Yuki scowled and pounded her fist into the bag's fabric.
Her left knuckle loudly crashed into it, and her right knuckle followed suit half a second later. Imagining her fists burying themselves in the face of Komichi's killer, Yuki's punches hurled into the large bag over, and over, and over. She accompanied each rabid hook with a loud, bitter curse, caring little if anyone outside overheard her as each punch sparked a fleeting sense of relief within her mind. Nothing but the feeling of fabric crumpling under her fists could satisfy her right now.
Yuki still remembered the day she had first approached Komichi on the school playground. Back then, Komichi could barely talk to anyone without the presence of a teacher or her doting parents. She was the first friend Yuki had ever made in elementary school, and while Yuki had to stick to her like glue just to make sure Komichi was never alone, she never hated needing to tag alongside her wherever she went off to by herself. When they transferred to Lydian and met Otome, Komichi practically returned the kindness tenfold, as she made sure to always assure Yuki that her chances with Otome were never hopeless. That the feelings she held for their classmate were not wrong in the slightest.
Komichi was also there by her side when Yuki had proposed to Otome. When she had got down on one knee to present her ring, Yuki had never felt terror like she did in that very restaurant. But the words of assurance that Komichi gave her beforehand prevented her from retreating.
When the two had been recruited into S.O.N.G. after the Distortions' invasion, Otome made the both of them promise that they would always come back home safely. That they would never spend a single New Year's without each other's presence.
So many countless memories, Yuki thought to herself, hurling one last hook into her punching bag and dropping onto her knees with an infuriated cry. As she gasped for air, the ponytailed woman bit her lip and caressed the knuckles on her hands. Yuki wanted to cry, but she found herself unable to after the countless hours she had spent doing nothing but weeping next to Komichi's lifeless body.
She mentally screamed for the woman to come back to them. To return with a smile before asking how they should prepare for the upcoming New Year's Eve. No matter how hard she begged, the only answer Yuki received was the cold, uncaring silence of her room. She had always made fun of Komichi for being older than her despite their height differences implying otherwise, but now, Yuki did not look forward to the day that she would now outlive her.
Pulling her black-and-white scarf over her mouth, Lanfen's eyes looked up at the night sky and gazed at the shattered moon far off in the distance. Observing the ring of debris that orbited around the lunar body, she wondered just how much of Fine's legacy continued to thrive after over a decade since Hibiki, Tsubasa and Chris defeated her. The Symphogears. Alchemy. The Sakurai Theory. Each of them a few examples of marks on this world that woman had left in the wake of her death. How many marks did Komichi leave before she was lost to them, Lanfen wondered, and how many marks did her own family leave before they had died seven years ago?
Slowly blinking, the Adapter tore her tired gaze away from the shattered celestial body and looked around the empty courtyards of Yaman Academy. Standing where she had found Komichi dying in the snow hours ago by now, Lanfen spotted several silhouettes moving under the darkness of the cold night. She counted at least 11 people that were walking away from academy's central building, and while the lack of light made it hard for her to distinguish each of them, Tsuchiya Kagero's blonde hair and tall figure immediately marked him out from the group.
As they walked through the snow-covered grounds, Lanfen could see the long, cloth-wrapped coffins that sat on the shoulders of Tsuchiya's fellow clan members. Each of them wore a suit similar to the one that Tsuchiya himself donned, but the Adapter could tell that neither of them looked any older than Lanfen herself. If anything, they appeared to be much younger than both her and Tsuchiya. As the small group somberly carried away the remains of their deceased, her eyes focused on Tsuchiya himself and saw that even a calm man like him was on the verge of shedding a few tears for the fallen.
Tsuchiya looked back at her, his narrowed eyes cutting through the darkness like daggers to meet with Lanfen's. While they did not speak due to the physical distance between them, the wordless looks they exchanged with one another was all it took for them to express their condolences for each other's deceased companions. Both of them had failed each other in a way, and neither of them knew what they could do to make up for it.
Detecting the physical toll of today's events slowly creeping up on her, Lanfen left the courtyard and headed for the dorms. Hoping that Tsuchiya's fallen clan members would also find peace, Lanfen walked through the automatic doors of the dormitory building and pulled down her scarf to fill her lungs with the lounge's warm air.
She heard the clacking of shoes echoing off the walls, Lanfen slightly lifting her gaze as the Adapter noticed Aiko absent-mindedly descending down the building's staircase. With one hand barely grasping the hand-railing, the dorm warden did not seem to have noticed her at all, "Aiko?" Lanfen's words inadvertedly escaped her, and her surprised call immediately brought the woman out of the daze that she was stuck in.
The two silently stared at one another, both of them freezing where they stood. The silver-haired woman merely a step away from putting her feet on ground floor, the medical wraps on Aiko's arms blended with the white gown she wore. A part of Lanfen honestly did not wish to cross paths with the woman today after her failure as Yaman's protector, but another part of her wished to see that Aiko was alright. That even after everything today, she was at least alive and well. Feeling her heart pounding within her chest, Lanfen walked up to her and gave Aiko a semblance of a smile.
"How are... your injuries?" Lanfen asked, prompting the dorm warden to finally step down from the staircase and stand in front of her with hands folded behind her back. Aiko gave her that gentle expression that Lanfen often associated with her by now, but right now she could sense that Aiko was putting on a front.
"They're recovering quite well. Thank you," Aiko said in a hush tone that was clear as day in the silence of the empty lounge. Subtly pursing her lips, her shoulders were evidently trembling despite the smile she wore, "I wasn't hurt too badly. Even so, I can't help but... think about those we've lost today," Aiko directed her gaze to her fidgeting feet, her gaze looking everywhere except straight at Lanfen.
Once again, the Adapter could not find the right words to follow up with. Not even a single sentence as she gazed at Aiko's cracking confidence. Perhaps it was due to everything today having drained Lanfen of her strength, but she mentally cursed at herself to do at least one useful thing today. With closed eyes, Lanfen lifted her arms and slowly wrapped them around the woman in front of her, gently easing her into a comforting embrace. She watched out for any signs that Aiko did not desire the embrace, but she sensed, heard and felt no such things at all.
Instead, Aiko hugged her in kind, and the two simply let the minutes flow by like a calm stream of water. Silently consoling each other in the quiet, empty lounge, no tears were shed by either of them as they felt the rapid beatings within each other's chests.
Carefully, Lanfen pulled away from their embrace and returned her twitching hands to her sides. Having run dry of anymore tears to shed, she tried to give the woman the same gentle smile that Aiko would always give her, and Aiko gave a reply in the form of an appreciative, if not amused chuckle. Feeling her tense shoulders loosen at seeing Aiko relax ever so slightly, Lanfen eventually broke the silence with words that she had been meaning to give for hours now, "I'm glad you're alright," she whispered, a slow sigh slowly escaping her, "... Forgive me, Aiko. If I had arrive sooner, then maybe I could have-"
"No. Don't apologize. Please," she swiftly cut her off, clasping her hands together before leaning against the cold handrailing of the staircase behind her, "I just... I..." Aiko seemed almost regretful about the next words that she was about to utter. Gazing right into Lanfen's purple eyes, Aiko's words came out in a slow but gentle stream, "Could you please grant me some time to myself? Just for tonight. If any of the students need me, I'll be directing them to you instead."
Lanfen somewhat understood the reasoning behind her request. The woman had barely escaped death for reasons that none of them knew, and unlike Lanfen, Aiko was just a researcher. She did not rush into battle the same way that the Adapters and response teams often did. Choosing not to ponder any further about the reasons for her words, Lanfen simply nodded respectfully, "Sure. Stay warm, Aiko. It's rather cold tonight," her attempt at pleasantries felt far more artificial than she had expected, but Aiko appreciated it all the same.
"You too, Lanfen," she said with another kind smile, "Please, stay safe."
With another a quick embrace, Lanfen approached the elevators and hailed it for the upper floors while Aiko exited the dormitory building.
The Adapter's body felt numb as she soon entered her room and slipped the keycard into its holder. With everything in her room immediately switching on, Lanfen approached her coat rack and glanced aside to her near-empty shelf. The Valkyranger doll that the students had woven for her sat in middle of the shelf right then and there, its beady, purple eyes practically glaring at her. Having received the handcrafted gift for being the protector of Yaman Academy, Lanfen quickly turned away from the doll, as she no longer felt deserving of such an item.
She left her jacket on the coat rack and walked over to her computer table, her eyes immediately noticing that she had a single unread message in her mailbox.
Raising a brow, Lanfen placed a hand on her hip and directed the mouse to click open the message. With a tap of the button, the message expanded on her monitor screen and the sender's questionable details appeared to be a random stream of numbers and alphabets. Gazing at the few words that made up the actual contents of the strange message, Lanfen's grip on her mouse threatened to shatter the device in her palm right then and there.
"Come to the Yamaku Town Memorial by yourself and the answers that you seek shall be revealed. If you alert anyone of this message, countless people will die tonight."
Steel Orchid Keywords:
Distortions
Eldritch beings from another dimension, Distortions appear by opening one-way rifts in reality that can be generated in any location, as the world first observed during their global invasion. Every Distortion observed thus far has appeared as a living, constantly-shifting suit of armor that arrive for the sole purpose of sowing destruction. Category-1s are notably weak, but always appear in numbers; Category-2s are elite combatants that require dedicated firepower to even slow down; Category-3s are feared for giving even Symphogear-wielders pause in battle. Distortions are also sub-designated as A-types for 'armor', B-types for 'blades', and C-types for 'casters'. When slain, their bodies break down into fine, colourful particles of silicon dioxide.