Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Eighty Four: DRAGON - Meeting with the Greater Angel
The invitation from DRAGON had provided them with an address and instructions to head into the deepest level of the facility that was hidden there. An address that led them to an outwardly normal military warehouse in School District 2.
Now whilst their clearance as Level 5s and a official Dark Side outfit had proven more than enough to allow them entry into the military base where the warehouse was located, it seemed it was not enough to grant them permission to enter the facility under it. A fact evidenced by the group of City military HsPs-15 Powered Suits that rushed out to surround them as they walked into the empty building.
"Trinity, you are not allowed here. Leave at once." A voice that had clearly been run through a voice scrambler ordered from the speakers of the lead HsPs-15, even as all the Powered Suits leveled their guns threateningly at Ruiko and her friends.
"We are here to answer an invitation sent to us directly by DRAGON." Ruiko said, flashing the aforementioned letter at the remotely controlled machines. All whilst feeling annoyed that they had to go through this rigmarole. Everyone knew that the Powered Suits wouldn't back down, if they were willing to do so they wouldn't have confronted them in the first place. But the forms needed to be observed nonetheless, to be able to provide a plausible justification for their actions in hindsight if nothing else.
"We have received no such notification." The commander of the Powered Suits replied. "Leave now! Or we will forcibly remove you."
Folding the invitation and putting it away in her skirt pocket, Ruiko could just sigh. Much to her annoyance, things were devolving just like she knew it would.
"Guess whoever invited us didn't tell them about it." Naru-chan said with a bloodthirsty grin. "These mooks are probably too low on the chain of command to bother informing."
"Or this is a trap." Mikoto-senpai said with a frown. "Ruiko? Your thoughts?"
Ruiko just shrugged. "It's our best lead so far. Trap or no trap, we've got to see what is hidden in this facility."
Mikoto-senpai sighed but nodded even as Naru-chan cracked her knuckles in anticipation.
"Are you even listening!?" The Powered Suits' commander shouted, his desperation clear even through his modulated voice. "Do not force us to use violence."
Someone is aware of how futile attempting to carry out their orders would be. Ruiko noted with amusement and a tinge of sympathy. Not that either emotion would stop her from doing what was necessary.
"Naru-chan, if you'd do the honors?"
"Gladly!" Her blonde best friend said with a grin as she leapt at the Powered Suits, her chakra already forming a set of sword length claws around her hands.
Ruiko would have loved to witness the destruction that Naru-chan unleashed on the hapless machines, sadly just as her classmate was about to sink her claws into her first victim, the world around her froze and she was trapped in yet another blackout.
Though calling it that was inaccurate, at least recently. As time and whatever afflicted her progressed, instead of blanking out, whenever she was hit by one of her 'blackouts' she instead found her consciousness frozen halfway between the Imaginary Number District, where Hyouka who had taken to falling her everywhere was looking at her worriedly, and her body in the material Phase. All whilst she found herself unable to move and struggled to perceive the world. Everything flashing before her in disjointed sensations.
I hope this doesn't last long this time. Ruiko sighed as she endured through the kaleidoscope of sensations from across her considerable range of perception both within the Imaginary Number District and the material Phase.
Watching as Naru tore the Powered Suits to pieces with her claws she'd molded for herself from her chakra, Mikoto could only sigh in exasperation at her kohai's bloodthirstiness. The blonde was clearly having fun, what with the broad grin on her face and the occasional deranged little laugh or giggle that slipped from her lips when she made a particularly spectacular kill.
Mikoto didn't bother to join in however. It was just unnecessary. The Powered Suits were chump change when up against the strength of the Trinity. And besides, Naru needed an outlet for all the pent up worry she was feeling about Ruiko's current predicament.
To be honest, Mikoto needed one too. But someone needed to hang back and keep Ruiko safe whilst the Number 3 had the latest in her ever more frequent blackouts. A necessity that was proven as she used her electromastery to deflect a stray laser beam shot her and the insensate Ruiko's way by one of the Powered Suits.
"Naru!" Mikoto scolded the blonde murder machine at the lapse.
"Sorry!" Her kohai had the grace to say as she leapt onto the offending Powered Suit that had shot at them and began shredding it to pieces.
"She looks like some kind of demented, murderous wolverine." Ruiko said suddenly, having finally snapped out of her fugue.
Mikoto was tempted to say 'welcome back' but she had enough tact to stop herself. She knew Ruiko hated having people point out her blackouts. She hated people pointing out her weaknesses full stop.
"I was thinking she looks more like a chipmunk actually." Mikoto said instead. "She's cuter than a wolverine."
"Just as vicious though." Ruiko countered even as she fired a salvo of [Meltdowner]'s Particle Waveform High-Speed Cannon that she split into smaller beams and redirected by using a set of special crystals she conjured using Dark Matter to destroy half of the remaining Powered Suits.
"Can't disagree with that." Mikoto said with a giggle as she shot a barrage of iron sand bullets to follow up Ruiko's particle cannon salvo, destroying the remainder of the Powered Suits.
"Hey!" Naru whined as she marched over, dismissing her chakra claws as she did and crossing her arms over her chest angrily. "I was having fun!"
"Sorry, about that, Naru-chan." Ruiko said as she teasingly reached over and patted the shorter blonde on the head, who leaned into it like a kitten. "But we don't want to waste too much time here. It's only a matter of time before your boss or the Directors send someone more substantial than a bunch of Powered Suits to waylay us and I'd like to avoid that if possible."
"Yeah, Naru. Let's not waste time. You can have fun tearing robots apart another time." Mikoto scolded. "I'm sure your girlfriend can spare some training bots for you."
"If not, I'll ask Kazari if she has any drones she can spare." Ruiko said airily as she walked over to a particular patch of ground and tapped the floor for some reason, all the while ignoring how Naru was glaring at her and hastily adjusting her hair. And the girl had the gall to call her a tsundere.
Mikoto wasn't even surprised when the patch of ground that Ruiko had tapped suddenly popped open to reveal it was a hidden entrance to the secret facility under the warehouse.
"I better," Naru said with a pout. "I need to vent. I'm bleeding excess energy over here."
Ruiko just offered her a smile. "I'll make some calls. For now, shall we?"
"Yeah," Naru said as she took the lead and began descending the stairs that the entrance had revealed. "Since we've fought the guards, we'd get in trouble either way even if we left. We might as well see what the heck is so important that's hidden here."
"Hopefully it'll be useful." Mikoto offered as she nudged Ruiko down the stairs and she took the rear, with the state she was in there was no way that she'd let her kohai be behind her. Someone needed to look after her.
"Yes, let us see why DRAGON invited us here."
"This place is a maze!" Naru whined as she and her friends walked around a corner of the labyrinthine underground facility only to find themselves walking down yet another corridor identical to the one before it. "I've tried to path it by airflow or seismic reading, but all I'm getting back is static in my brain."
"It's a security feature." Rui-chan said with a shrug. "Of course it wouldn't be so easy to bypass."
"I know that, silly. Just annoyed. Stupid Boss, countering my pathfinding…"
"So any idea if we're going in the right direction?"
"No," Rui-chan admitted. "We're lost."
"Naru?" Mikoto-senpai asked, alarmed.
Kurama?
Sorry, I'm just as lost as you are.
"Didn't I say my pathfinding failed?"
"There has to be a clue. Or maybe some key fob we missed from the guards." Senpai said, trying to come up with some ideas to help with their hopeless navigation of this place.
"The answer is simpler than that." Rui-chan said as they walked back to the center of the maze, the circular landing where the stairs that led to the surface ended. It was a pretty wide room, one that had a diameter of more than sixty feet.
I think I know where she's going with this…
It really is the best option…
Mikoto-senpai didn't seem to agree if the way she paled was any indication. "You can't be seriously considering-"
Rui-chan's reply was to shoot a massive Particle Waveform High-Speed Cannon at the floor and begin drilling down to the floor below.
"Whoo!" Naru said excitedly and threw her fists in the air. "Yay violence!"
"I can't take you two anywhere." Senpai complained, hanging her head and palming her face.
"Considering how much of a tomboy you are even in the most formal of occasions, I think we should be saying that about you Senpai." Rui-chan countered with a smirk. "I mean, both Naru-chan and I know when to behave. You on the other hand seem to have no filter at times."
Naru could only nod in agreement at Rui-chan's assessment of things. Senpai was truly such a hypocritically cute tsundere tomboy.
"Hey!"
Right on cue.
Naru and Rui-chan shared a laugh at Senpai proving their point.
"Alright, if we've had enough fun at my expense. We've got company." Mikoto-senpai said, pointing back up the stairs to the surface. "There's a pack of some annoyingly familiar robots about to come charging down. Naru, mind letting me handle them this time?"
"Hai, Senpai! Death to the resistance!"
"Don't make us sound like tyrants!" Her Senpai complained as a dozen silver-colored robots that took the form of a Great Dane that had unnaturally long noses like an elephant ran down the stairs towards them.
"Tentacles. Greaaat." Naru drawled in annoyance even as Senpai shot a dozen static bolts at the canine shaped robots. "As if I don't get enough of that from Magicians!"
"Okay, we need to have a talk later about that." Senpai told her firmly even as the machines weathered her attack without so much as flinching.
Curse her chatty slip-ups in front of her nosy Senpai!
"And damn, Baba improved the insulation on his toys."
"Considering the beating you gave him last time, did you expect any less?" Rui-chan asked with a cocked eyebrow as she continued using particle beams to drill a path to the floor below.
"I know, but some consideration is all I'm asking for." Senpai whined as she gathered together an iron sand sword and using some electromagnetic assisted gymnastics leapt into melee with the robots.
"Whoa! Senpai, your swordsmanship has gotten pretty good." Naru observed, genuinely impressed, as she watched her senpai engage the machines.
They desperately swung their trunks at her and leapt at her in vain attempts to sink their claws into her flesh, but she just danced around them and cut the annoying robots to pieces.
I can concede she's improved, but this is nothing compared to a true swordsman.
Yeah, but we still gotta give credit where credit is due.
"Took some Indian Poker cards about swordsmanship and practiced a bunch. I'm still testing some things out though."
"I know next to nothing about swordplay, but even I can tell you've gotten pretty good." Rui-chan complimented even as a young man, seemingly high-school aged, who had his hair in a bowl cut and was dressed in a down jacket teleported behind her and tried to stab her in the back only for his knife to bounce off the barrier she'd snapped up to defend herself. "Naru-chan, mind dealing with Saraku-san?"
"Sure," Naru agreed easily as she teleported to the other boy's side, her leg already raised for a kick that landed squarely in his stomach and sent him flying towards a wall, though he teleported away seconds from impact only to reappear behind a seemingly distracted Senpai.
"You really think it would be that easy?" Senpai said as the boy's knife deflected off the iron sand that interposed itself between his blade and her neck, even as she shot bullets of the substance from her blade and destroyed the trio of robots that she'd been facing.
"Eh? The blubbering baby has some spine now? I'm shocked!"
"Who are you calling a baby, you third-rate Dark Sider!?" Senpai shouted angrily as she spun to cut the annoying teleporter in half only to have him teleport behind a new arrival.
"I mean, Sister this, Sister that! Tch, some bleeding heart like you just getting a cushy job? It's annoying as fuck!" The teleporter whined as he hid behind his teammate, a young Latin American girl with shoulder-length curly black hair and brown skin dressed in a red sailor uniform, who proceeded to rush forward to cross the macuahuitl she was armed with against Senpai's sword.
"Shouldn't you at least thank your teammate for saving you, third-rate?" Senpai scolded the fool as she and the new arrival engaged in a furious exchange of blades, their weapons moving fast enough that they were almost a blur.
Okay, I gotta admit it. That [Railgun] girl has gotten good.
She certainly has. Naru agreed as she took out the rest of Baba's remaining robots with some vacuum blades to give room for Senpai to have her sword duel with the Latina girl.
"Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Xochitl." [Kill Point] said as he tried to teleport behind Naru only for her to slam an elbow into his solar plexus. Her chakra enhanced blow shattered it and sent him crashing into a wall where the annoying ass was left unconscious.
"That's one down. Which one should I deal with next I wonder~?" Naru sing-songed with a growing grin.
"Oh my! Saraku-kun is down already?" The last member of [Kill Point]'s team said as he made his appearance by descending the stairs followed by a fresh pack of Baba's canine shaped robots.
He was a short elderly man with long hair that stood up on its ends and who was dressed in a shirt with tie, under his lab coat and a pair of rectangular spectacles. And if Naru recalled their team's Bank profile correctly, he'd expunged his real name and went around calling himself the Professor.
How pretentious. Does he think he is a comic book villain?
He wouldn't be the first Dark Sider to think that.
"Could you young ladies stand down, Trinity? It would be a lot easier on you." The Professor asked as he pulled out a bottle of something and raised it threateningly at them.
"This place must be run by someone very important for these guys to have been sent to stop us. MEMBER works directly for the Board of Directors." Rui-chan noted, unconcerned with whatever the Professor was using to threaten them.
The elderly man frowned. "Are you listening to me, Trinity? Surely you know what is in this container?"
"Yes, Mimosa, as you call it." Naru said with a shrug. "Microscopic bits of reflective alloy that can decompose organic matter. That won't work on us."
"Oh, and why is that?" The Professor asked, honestly looking confused.
Seriously!? He doesn't know and yet dares call himself Professor?
Some people are idiots without knowing it. Naru replied with an exasperated sigh.
"Geez, it's hard dealing with the ignorant." Naru couldn't help but verbally jab. "Rui-chan, if you would?"
"Certainly." Her bestie said as taking a break from drilling through the floor with particle beams, she looked towards the Professor and suddenly the bottle of Mimosa just broke apart in his hands, and the pockets of his lab coat flattened, signifying she'd dealt with its counterparts within them as well.
The Professor's eyes widened at that and glanced at his empty hand in shock.
"H-How?"
"Molecular disintegration." Mikoto-senpai said as she tossed her unconscious opponent on top of [Kill Point], the girl in the sailor fuku trailing dust behind her as she sailed through the air for some reason. And was she missing a chunk from her chest!?
Gotta ask Senpai about it later.
"It's one of Ruiko's most draining emulated abilities but she can do it. Naru can do it too if she uses her corrosive chakra and I can use my iron sand to interpose between the particles of the Mimosa and any targeted flesh, stopping it dead. Basically, your weapon is useless against us."
The old man could only nod in numb shock at the revelation at how outclassed he was.
"And then there was one." Naru said as she leapt forward and drilled a heel into the stomach of the Professor. Ribs broken, air knocked from his lungs, he dropped like a stone. "You want to keep fighting, Baba?"
"I-I, uh, would rather not." The drone operator said with an audible gulp through his robots' speakers.
"Good boy," Naru said with a predatory grin. "So… Mind answering some questions for us?"
"S-Sure?"
Naru knew that he wouldn't tell or even more likely couldn't tell them what they wanted, but she decided to ask anyway. You wouldn't know until you tried, right?
"Who owns this place? I mean, since you're guarding it and all you have to have some idea."
"Don't know." The shrug was audible through the speakers. "The Board told us to guard this place, it's what we do. We got the alert and responded, that's about it. I know better than to ask questions. Some idiots tried to snoop and got axed for it, I'm not dumb enough to follow in their footsteps."
"By the Board, huh? Not an individual Director?" Naru hummed in thought.
"Y-Yeah."
"Hm, it seems the Boss is the one who gave the order. How annoying."
"Why would he do that, Naru?" Senpai asked.
The blonde shrugged. "I have no idea."
Senpai looked vaguely annoyed, but just pinched her nose.
"By the way, Senpai, question." Rui-chan asked, looking away from her resumed efforts drilling a hole to the next floor via particle beam. "How did you counter the Latina's ability to shift into dust? She looked surprised when she couldn't fully reconstitute her body that last time."
"Just mixed some iron sand into her dust when she shifted. Apparently, so long as it isn't all her dust she can't shift back. It shocked her enough that it created an opening big enough for me to knock her out."
"She'll be alright once you pull your iron sand out, right?" Baba asked, showing surprising concern for his teammate.
"I already did that so see for yourself." Senpai said as she gestured at the girl who whilst still unconscious was whole once more.
Naru, Rui-chan and Baba all breathed sighs of relief at that, earning them odd looks from Senpai.
"Okay, I get Baba. Even if it's surprising he cares about his teammate at all-"
"Hey!"
"But why are you two relieved she's alright?"
"MEMBER is one of the Board and my Boss' personal units," Naru explained. "If we killed them, we'd get in deep trouble."
"More than we already are, breaking into this place." Rui-chan added. "Though I'm fairly sure DRAGON will smooth that over once we speak to whoever it is. They did invite us here after all."
Mikoto-senpai nodded before turning to address Baba via the closest of his robots.
"You! Pick up your teammates and get lost." She ordered. "We have someone to meet and won't stand for any more interruptions, got it?"
"H-Hai, Mikoto-sama!" The boy said through his robots as they rushed to obey.
"'Sama', huh?" Senpai wrinkled her nose.
"Looks like you've got an admirer, Senpai." Rui-chan teased. "But we can talk about it later. For now, why don't we head down to our destination. I've drilled through all the floors between us. Sorry it took so long. The armor in between the floors was sturdier than I thought."
"No worries, it didn't take that long." Naru said, waving the apology away as she walked over and peered down the hole that Rui-chan had made, seeing a large crater in the plain rock at the base of the tunnel she'd created and which must've been what had let her know she'd hit the bottom of the facility. "But let's go. I wanna get this done before the Board or my Boss sends someone or something more formidable than MEMBER."
"Yeah, let's get this done." Senpai agreed as she joined her in peering down the hole.
"Agreed. Let's go." Rui-chan said as she reached over to put a hand on Senpai's shoulder before teleporting the both of them down the shaft she'd created, Naru following after them only a second later.
What they found at the bottom of the facility was some kind of museum or gallery. One that was full of a whole host of esoteric stuff.
"Eeew!" Mikoto howled in horrified disgust at the display that Ruiko's teleport deposited them in front of. "Are those eyeballs!?"
"Yup," Naru said as she teleported next to them and looked at the collection of strange eyeballs, some of them had red irises and tomoe shapes around its center in a vaguely pinwheel shape whilst others had irises filled with concentric circles, floating in a glass display full of what Mikoto assumed was preservation liquid with fascination. "Though I didn't think the Boss managed to salvage quite so many sharingan and rinnegan! He's got like three of the latter and a pair of the former."
"If the Bank is to be believed, he extracted them from the bodies of members of the extra-dimensional force known as the Akatsuki that attacked the City when you were a baby in a bid to kidnap you, Naru-chan." Ruiko explained as if what she was saying wasn't insane. "I believe the names of those he got them from were Uchiha Obito, Uchiha Itachi, and Nagato respectively."
"Yeah, I read the file too. Apparently they gave him enough trouble that he actually whipped out the Anti-Art Attachment that he usually reserves for Magic Gods." Naru said, reinforcing the madness that Ruiko was perpetuating.
"Wait, you two aren't kidding? The City was attacked by extra-dimensional forces? Magic Gods are a thing?"
"Sure they are, Mikoto-senpai." Naru said with a shrug. "I was born in another dimension."
That should have shocked Mikoto, but honestly after everything that she'd been through since befriending Naru and Ruiko? This wasn't really that earth shattering. Wherever Naru had been born, she was her friend and that was that.
"As for Magic Gods, yeah, they're basically the Magic Side's equivalent to a Level 6." Naru continued unaware of Mikoto's thoughts on her origins.
"Or more like that," Ruiko said, gesturing to the centerpiece of the macabre gallery that Mikoto had been steadfastly avoided looking at since catching sight of it out of the corner of her eye when they had first arrived: a female corpse inside a large tube shaped container of preservation liquid that had been strung up from the ceiling in such a way as to resemble someone who had been crucified.
Whoever the being was, she was most definitely not human. She had unnaturally pale skin, extremely long, sweeping white hair and eyebrows that were cut very short and round. Those were still within the realm of human possibility though and what truly set her apart from humanity were firstly the pure white orbs revealed by the forcibly opened eyelids and the two brown horns that stuck out from her head and a third eye formed in the center of her forehead that housed a completely red eye that contained a multitude of concentric circles and tomoes spaced throughout.
"Do I want to know what that is?"
"That's the corpse of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki." Naru said, sounding just a bit haunted. "The body of the woman who came after me when Akatsuki failed."
Aw shit, there's evil ol' Oba-san. Thank the kami she's dead.
Yeah, thank Science! Naru agreed with her partner. She still remembered how the self-proclaimed celestial had ripped a hole between realities and appeared right inside her bedroom when she was a little girl before promptly declaring she was going to kill her and devour her chakra to "finish her revival".
Still, I don't like the fact those blasted eyes are just hanging around here. Even the rinnegan makes my fur stand on end. The less said about those blasted mind warping sharingan, the better!
Take it up with the Boss. He's the one who took the damned eyes for study, so if they're here, it's because he put them here.
At least he didn't implant them into you.
Would that have even worked?
Maybe? I know the shinobi back in our homeworld could do it but they used chakra in their technology and I don't know if this world's technology could manage it without it.
Well that's good. I like my eyes after all.
…Sigh, why am I not surprised. You really are simple at times, hehehe.
Hey!
"Wait, if the General Superintendent had to use something he held in reserve to use against Magic Gods to take down those Akatsuki guys, what did he pull out to take out someone more powerful than them? I mean, this Ōtsutsuki person was more powerful, right?" Mikoto-senpai asked, pulling Naru away from her conversation with her partner.
"By several orders of magnitude," Rui-chan agreed. "As for how it happened, not much is known. Naru, you were her target. What do you know?"
"Not much more than what the records in the Bank says," Naru said with a shrug. "After she basically appeared out of nowhere inside my bedroom and declared she was there to kill me, a teleporter popped in and got me out while a ton of agents ganged up on her. Apparently she killed them effortlessly but they bought enough time for the teleporter to get me out of there. I didn't see anything else of the fight against her beyond that."
"Okay, and what exactly does the Bank say happened?" Mikoto-senpai asked, sounding morbidly curious.
"That the General Superintendent faced her in battle and defeated her. That's all." Ruiko said with a shrug.
"Really? They didn't mention his Hazards? I don't know what they are but he mentioned he had to use them to beat her." Naru said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Though I guess it makes sense, the Boss doesn't like letting his capabilities be known. He's super secretive like that."
"Indeed he is," a new voice said from behind them, causing Naru and her friends to turn around to its source.
The source of the voice turned out to be a golden being that was hovering a few feet off the ground. It was a creature with a tall and thin stature with long trailing hair and a halo hovering over its head made out of three concentric circles and was intersected by a cross that ended in arrowheads at each of the cardinal points. It was wearing loose white clothing that covered its body entirely. It was effeminate-looking, but its actual gender was hard to ascertain. And it was wearing an expression that was difficult to describe, looking at once to be a mix of happiness, sadness, grief, and anger all at once.
And most importantly to Ruiko, it radiated the same energies as those that were currently flowing through her veins but on levels that were orders of magnitude more powerful.
"But considering he has become powerful enough to defeat a celestial like Kaguya Ōtsutsuki who whilst of a different breed to me was still a peer, it is quite the feat."
"If that thing is a celestial, then what are you?" Mikoto-senpai asked, her eyes narrowed.
"Ah, I have not introduced myself yet have I?" The golden being said, sounding bemused. "Well, let me rectify that. My name is Aiwass, but you might know me better as Codename: DRAGON."
T-This explains everything… Ruiko realized with a wince.
"Oooh, okay the secrets make sense now. Yeah, oh boy." Naru-chan muttered as she shuffled her feet as she probably began to piece together the puzzle as well.
"I didn't ask who you are, I want to know what you are." Mikoto-senpai hissed angrily. "You know what? Forget that! Do you know what's wrong with Ruiko?"
"And what makes you think I would know?" Aiwass asked, radiating amusement.
"Y-Your body… It was what Hyouka and I, as AIM Angels, were created for." Ruiko said, laying out her disturbing hypothesis. Of how the City had once more used her against her will to further its own agenda. "We were prototypes that Crowley used as templates to create a body for you, the extra-dimensional being who once gifted him with unknown knowledge."
"You are as well-informed as I expected you to be, Saten Ruiko. Tell me, do you know what is causing you your recent troubles?"
Ruiko looked away, and the angelic being let out a chiming peal of laughter.
"You already know, do you not?"
"Ruiko?" "Rui-chan?" Senpai and Naru-chan asked, shooting her looks that were at once shocked and questioning.
"I have my suspicions but I have made no conclusions."
"Then let me confirm things for you." Aiwass said, sounding like he was enjoying her confusion. "Your AIM body, your Angel Mode, I believe you call it, is literally imposing the concept of an Angel like yourself on the City's collective AIM field and in so doing allowing it to take on similar shapes where it previously could not. Essentially, your very state of being is allowing AIM Angels like Hyouka and my 'body' to exist. You are the living Idol for AIM Angels. However, at the same time, your new nature is not yet stable and unless you fix that, you run a very real risk of being subsumed by the collective AIM field and lose your entire sense of self."
Ruiko sighed in resignation. So her worst fears were right after all? Well, that sucked!
"I didn't understand a lick of that, but is there any way to save Ruiko?"
"Yeah, you're like some kinda bringer of forbidden knowledge according to the stories around you, aren't you, Aiwass? Know any way to fix this?"
"Of course." The golden Angel said, rolling his eyes. "It's simple really. All she needs to do is find or build herself a anc-"
A burst of static from the room's public announcement (PA) system cut him off.
"Aiwass, enough." The unpleasantly familiar voice of Aleister Crowley, General Superintendent of Academy City said from the room's speakers.
"Ah, we were caught~" The AIM Angel let out a soft, playful chuckle.
"Do not reveal too much, too soon." The General Superintendent chided. "Trinity, I see you've discovered the secret behind DRAGON. A capital offense in the eyes of the City. Normally, you would all be erased, which would be a shame. Though seeing as Aiwass went behind my back to engineer this encounter by inviting you, I will have to overlook it this time."
"S-Sorry sir." Naru-chan stammered out, looking chastised and hung her head. Seeing her so meek and subdued was so strange and such a departure from her usual self that Ruiko couldn't help but put a comforting hand on the blonde's shoulder.
"Ah, Aleister! Why the pretense? Just speak the truth for once." The AIM Angel said with sarcasm dripping from its lips. "You and I both know these girls are too valuable to you to alienate, much less eliminate. Little Namikaze is too powerful to lose and her alien nature interests you far too much. An interest which I agree with. I too find her development intriguing."
Ruiko grit her teeth and shot the other Angel a glare at this. Naru wasn't just some interesting experimental subject! She was her own person! She was her friend!
Heedless of her anger, Aiwass continued his little rant. "And little Misaka is protected by her father's influence and her own association with little Namikaze, little Saten and most importantly [Imagine Breaker]'s host, Kamijou Touma."
"Papa's influence?" Mikoto-senpai gasped in surprise, being unaware of her father and Crowley's relationship and how he and her mother were the heads of a secret organization that smuggled Gemstones out from countries that sought to exploit their powers and into Academy City where they could be safe. Ruiko would have told her but when she'd broached the topic with Misuzu-san during her stay in the City during the Daihaseisai, Senpai's mother had been adamant in keeping their activities secret from their daughter and she would respect their decision.
Ignoring Senpai's question, the angel continued. "And most important to your current plans, little Saten is the source of Artificial Angels and is essential to them. So her existence is secured and with it, those of her friends."
Crowley let out an annoyed huff even as Mikoto-senpai recovered from her shock at learning that her father had dealings with the Superintendent.
"If Ruiko is so important to you then help us save her! Tell us how to fix the problem she is having with her Angel Mode!"
"Do not speak to me so bluntly, Misaka Mikoto. Unless you missed the subtext of what Aiwass said just now, you are the most expendable out of the three of you. Speak to me in such an uncouth way again and I will not hesitate to punish you for it."
"She's sorry." Naru stepped in before Senpai could retort angrily like she was clearly building up to do. "But really, Boss, she's right. If Rui-chan is as important to your schemes as Aiwass said, shouldn't you help her?"
"Perhaps you missed the part where Aiwass said that by her simply existing your friend serves as an Idol for AIM Angels? As that is what I need her for, I have no incentive to fix her current condition. Whether she succumbs or finds a solution to it, she will live and continue to serve her role in my plans."
"Please, Boss, w-whatever is needed I'll-"
Naru-chan spoke up in earnest, only to be cut off. "You think you have anything you can offer me that would convince me to change my mind? You should know better, Naru-chan."
The blonde's face scrunched up in frustration and Ruiko felt a flare of anger.
"But take heart, if everything goes according to plan, I have full faith that your friend will indeed find the solution to her predicament."
"If it means being more of your pawn, I refuse." Ruiko shot back with heat.
"Do not be hasty, Saten-chan. After all, the best pawns are those who play the role out of their own volition. And I assure you, when the time comes, you will be eager to play the part I have sketched for you."
Ruiko wanted to make a firm denial, but she knew better. If anyone could manipulate her into doing what they wanted it would be Crowley. He had done it once before during the Invasion Incident that had got her into this mess in the first place after all. Thus, instead, she replied far more tepidly than she'd have liked.
"We shall see."
Laughing in amusement at her weak show of defiance, Crowley dismissed them. "Aiwass, please see our guests out."
The golden Angel seemed disappointed by this but just shrugged. "Oh, very well. I suppose we'll do things your way, Aleister. But take heart girls, he is right. Everything is in place for the solution to little Saten's issue to present itself to her shortly. You just need to be patient."
"You better be right because if you're wrong. Angel or not, protected by the superintendent or not, if something happens to her… I will make you pay." Mikoto-senpai threatened.
The Angel only gave a chiming laugh at the threat.
"If something does happen to her, I will happily let you try, little Misaka. You as well, little Namikaze." The Angel said as it teleported all four of them back into the warehouse that served to hide the entrance to the underground gallery of extra-dimensional specimens. "But for now, I shall bid you farewell. Same to you, little Saten. Best of luck in your endeavors."
With that parting well wishes, Aiwass teleported away and left the Trinity alone in the empty warehouse.
Though not unwatched. For in an empty void of a Phase far from the reach of the denizens of the Earth that they occupied, a feminine entity similar in appearance to Aiwass looked upon the events in that underground gallery through her otherworldly awareness and smiled.
"Things are coming along nicely." She said, her voice filled with anticipation. "Things will be picking up soon. And soon the Angels of the Age of Horus will descend."
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
And thus DRAGON has been met. It was really fun to write up that interaction. Aiwass' sass is a treat and so alien at times. The, well, stomp of MEMBER was, to be honest, expected. The Trinity just is too synergized and powerful to really be stopped by the specialists of MEMBER.
Nameless: Yup. And for those who might have wanted us to show the Xochitl versus Mikoto fight, I'm sorry but we decided against it. It would've padded the chapter with little gain. I mean by that point we've established that Mikoto has learned decent skill with a sword and Xochitl is stated in canon to suck with her macuahuitl and her ability to turn to dust isn't really all that impressive, so… yeah, we thought cutting it and giving the other members of MEMBER who we haven't given a chance to shine with a showcase fight yet the opportunity to show off a little made the most sense.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!
