Searching up a restaurant to order lunch from was a mundane task which took more time than Lanfen anticipated. She tried to argue that her injuries had recovered well enough for her to cook, but Shinonome was relentless in pointing out that Lanfen was in no state to do anything other than rest. It was only a matter of time till the Adaptor gave into defeat and placed a delivery to their apartment. KFC wasn't a restaurant that one would order with a healthy meal in mind, but Shinonome was at least happy to try out fried food for the first time in her life. Lanfen's useless taste buds unfortunately prevented her from enjoying a taste that would've justified ordering fast food of all things.
With lunch all finished up, Lanfen gathered the empty packaging, and disposed of them in a small bin inside their apartment's kitchen. She then held back a small wince of pain as Lanfen rinsed her bandaged hands underneath the kitchen sink's running waters. Moving her body barely provoked any pain from her injuries at this point, but Lanfen still had to hold herself back from making any extensive movements. The sooner her injuries recovered, the sooner she could return to both her training and her Adaptor duties. Lanfen had experienced enough back-alley fights in her youth to remember the limitations of the human body's ability to recover.
Shutting off the sink's lever with a quick swipe, Lanfen dried her bandaged hands with a nearby towel before stepping out of the small kitchen. Since the Adaptor wasn't keen on getting blood on her clothing, Lanfen had waived off wearing any sort of shirt or hoodie for the meantime. Allowing her modesty to be preserved only by the medical wraps around her torso admittedly felt rather embarrassing, but it was a far more desirable outcome compared to washing bloodstains off her home clothes. The apartment's built-in heater thankfully maintained a warm environment for her exposed skin.
The lo-fi tunes from the living room's holo-player kept the place from being completely silent. As gentle, acoustic beats bounced in the air, Lanfen stepped through the kitchen doorway to spot Shinonome sitting down with her legs nestled underneath the kotatsu table. Placed on top of the low table was the large, metal suitcase that contained all of Shinonome's legal documents, as well as the capsules of medicine that Professor Elfnein prepared for her. A few careful, memorized inputs into the suitcase's keypad caused it to automatically flip open and display its well-arranged, strapped-down contents.
"Professor's orders, I take it?" Lanfen remarked, approaching the table so she could slowly sit next to Shinonome.
"Undoubtedly so," Shinonome softly replied with a nod, taking out a small data-pad which was placed between the legal documents and rows of medicine capsules. "Professor Elfnein advised me to take these every day," she continued, typing on the pad to project a small list of recommended dosages. "It can be quite the hindrance, but I'm quite grateful for the Professor's efforts in watching over my health."
'Uncontrolled cell-aging'. Lanfen remembered the reports describing Shinonome's medical condition as such. While Shinonome busied herself with the Professor's advisory notes, Lanfen glanced at the opened suitcase, and counted the numerous medicine capsules which took up nearly half of the item's storage capacity. Most of them were identical to one another, but Lanfen could make out at least 4 different types of prescribed pills. S.O.N.G. only possessed surface-level information regarding the Illuminati's human experiments, so there was little that they could do at the moment outside of basic medication. It was sometimes easy to forget that Shinonome even carried such a condition, as one wouldn't even be able to guess at first glance.
A few light pops went off one-by-one as Shinonome took her required medicine. Lanfen had brought her a glass of water to ease them all down, and Shinonome appreciated the small gesture with a smile. The process took only a couple minutes, and once Shinonome was finished, Lanfen helped out with placing all of the drawn capsules back to where they once were. The gentle closure of the suitcase prompted its locks to switch back on before Shinonome placed it beside the kotatsu table with a quick sigh.
"And that's it for today," Shinonome stated with a hand on her pale cheek. A brief pause followed her words, with Shinonome subsequently pursing her lips. "I wonder... do the people of S.O.N.G. think differently of me because of this, Jiang?" Shinonome pensively asked, gazing at the Adaptor beside her. Lanfen could only respond with a confused look before Shinonome elaborated on her question. "It... mustn't have been easy acquiring all this special medication, I mean. Especially on such short notice."
There was little doubt that the Professor needed to jump through a few hoops in order to get all of this prepared. But such issues mattered little if it meant helping someone out. That was how Lanfen felt, at least. "... I'm sure you're welcomed in S.O.N.G. just like everyone else, Shinonome," Lanfen calmly assured her, slipping her sore legs underneath the warm kotatsu table. She couldn't help but remember feeling similar sentiments when Lanfen acquired her first batch of estrogen and testosterone-blockers. "No one is lesser just because they need medical accommodation," Lanfen added, earning her a tilt of the head from Shinonome. "... It's just how things are for us, isn't it?"
The woman's words of encouragement weren't the most rousing of speeches, but they seemed to have their intended effect anyway as a small smile appeared on Shinonome's face. "I suppose you're right," she muttered, twirling a strand of her silver hair around one finger. "Hopefully the Professor will be able to find a way to-" A sudden, low grumble erupted from Shinonome's abdomen, prompting her to turn a shade of red while Lanfen hid a small smile behind her hand. "It appears that I am still a bit peckish," she sheepishly admitted, placing her hands over her stomach in poor attempt to muffle it.
Considering Shinonome's somewhat malnourished state, her capacity to eat more than two bowls of rice per meal was hardly surprising. "I'll go and check the fridge," Lanfen said, slowly pulling herself out from the kotatsu table. Shinonome could only give her an embarrassed, but appreciative nod when the Adaptor headed back into the apartment's kitchen.
Flicking the kitchen's lights back on, Lanfen opened up the refrigerator so she could examine several shelves of raw ingredients and sealed items. Shinonome had eaten up as much as she could during last night's dinner, leaving little-to-no leftovers from that to deal with today. But as Lanfen reached out a hand to grab a few simple ingredients, her purple eyes noticed a familiar box which she had completely forgotten about up until now. A distinct, decorated box which sat in the coldest compartments of the refrigerator all by itself.
It was the cake that the other Adaptors gifted her on the day Lanfen had officially joined S.O.N.G.
Lanfen fixated her eyes on the black-and-white ribbon which tied up the box. The amicable farewells the other Adaptors gave before their sudden separation were hard to forget. Pulling it out from the lower sections of the fridge, she closed up the refrigerator door, and stepped back out into the living room to settle the ice-cold box down on the dining table. The gentle 'thud' it emitted when the box met wood caused Shinonome to get out from the kotatsu so she could investigate the curious object that Lanfen had brought out. Curiosity flashed in Shinonome's golden eyes, just as Lanfen expected.
"Since we've already had lunch, dessert sounded like an obvious choice," Lanfen remarked, fetching a couple plates and utensils from the living room's counter. As Lanfen settled the dining ware down on the table, fascination was written all over Shinonome's face. It wasn't difficult to guess that this was most likely her first experience with cake, too. With one swift pull, Lanfen undid the box's monochrome ribbon, and revealed its contents for the first time.
To describe the cake as 'beautiful' would be an understatement. But it was the only word Lanfen could muster on the spot. Sitting on the table before them was an Oreo cheesecake that was large enough to feed a group of people. Black cookies had been placed around the rim of the circular, white cake, all while the solid treats sat on top of cloud-like pillows of creamy frosting. The words 'Welcome, Cassandra Jiang Lanfen' were written across its surface in bright red. Subconsciously gulping at the sight of the frozen dessert, Lanfen took up the plastic knife which was taped to the box's side, and hovered the dull blade over the circular dessert.
"I take it that this will be enough?" Lanfen said, slicing out a large portion for Shinonome. The silver-haired woman only responded with an eager, but silent nod while Lanfen placed the thick slice on a plate, and slid it over to Shinonome's side of the dining table. "... The other Wielders prepared this when I joined. But let's just say that I've been too busy to eat it till today," Lanfen quietly explained, slicing out a smaller portion so she could put it on a plate for herself.
Sitting down on opposing lengths of the rectangular furniture with their own plates before them, Lanfen watched as Shinonome dug into her frozen treat with the same gusto she had displayed during dinner and lunch. About a quarter of Shinonome's cake had been taken into her mouth before Lanfen could even lift her own fork. "This is..." Shinonome whispered, golden eyes wide with obvious amazement. "I didn't think there were things in this world that could taste this sweet. Your comrades certainly have my praise, Jiang." Shinonome scooped up another mouthful, oblivious to the frosting that stained the corners of her mouth.
Even if the cheesecake provoked nothing from Lanfen's own taste buds, Shinonome's reaction alone made taking out the cake completely worth it. It was just unfortunate that relaying Shinonome's praise to both Akatsuki and Tsukuyomi felt like an impossible task due to the arm's length which Lanfen was keeping the other Adaptors at.
Each time their utensils dug away at their cake, the light clinking of tableware against ceramic mixed with the acoustic beats from the room's holo-player. Lanfen's wrist device rested next to her smartphone and pendant on the room's counter, its complete and utter silence having remained that way ever since the injured Adaptor was brought into her apartment. The slight trembling Lanfen could feel in her sword-hand made her aware that a part of her was practically waiting for it to go off anytime now, but she knew that Commander Genjuuro would be thinking twice about deploying Lanfen in her current state.
And it was not like Lanfen had been taking it easy entirely, either. With the downtime she had right now, the greenhorn Adaptor had spent the past few hours or so going through records of the other Symphogear-Wielders just like Shinonome had done. Lanfen reasoned to herself that understanding where each of them came from would keep her from stepping on any proverbial toes if Lanfen ever needed to converse with them. Needless to say, the information that S.O.N.G. retained on her fellow Wielders was as detailed and somber as the woman expected. The Kazanaris, Yukine, Tachibana, Akatsuki, Tsukuyomi, in addition to this 'Amou Kanade', 'Kohinata Miku', and 'Serena'.
Absolutely none of the Symphogear-Wielders could be described as having led a simple life. It was the only conclusion Lanfen could come to after digging through the past records of her fellow Wielders. And while reading about them wasn't easy on the stomach, what Lanfen witnessed in those records admittedly made her admire how they were able to smile the way they did on the day Lanfen had met them. They truly were on a whole different level compared to an ex-civilian who only recently attained her pendant.
Several knocks came from the front door the moment Lanfen settled a cream-covered fork on top of an emptied plate. "I'll get it," Lanfen insisted before Shinonome could even motion to get off her chair. After wiping her mouth with a tissue, Lanfen drew her Adaptor jacket over her bare shoulders, and made her way through the apartment's hallway entrance. A few swipes of her bandaged hands undid the door's locks, letting her open it up to see both Ayano and Godai standing at her doorstep. Despite the civilian outfits they were now wearing, Lanfen subconsciously stood to attention. "Is there a mission for me?" she asked, her sword-hand slightly twitching at her side.
"Ease up, Jiang," Godai told her with an easy-going smirk. Just like she often did during their days in Lydian, the pony-tailed woman brought up an arm from her side, and playfully bumped a closed fist against Lanfen's jacket-covered shoulder. "Did you forget what you look like right now? The med-teams are going to give us an earful if those wounds of yours reopen, you know?"
Godai's casual words prompted Lanfen to ease up her tense figure as Ayano clasped her hands together with an ear-to-ear smile. "We just got back from our business in Mitakihara, and since we've just been told by command to remain on standby till you get better, we're pretty much free to do whatever we want for the day!" Ayano exclaimed, dramatically throwing her arms upward at the thought of a day-off.
To nobody's surprise but possibly Ayano herself, the brunette's lack of an indoor voice had caught the attention of the other tenant inside Lanfen's apartment. Glancing over her jacket-covered shoulder at the sound of footfalls behind her, Lanfen noticed Shinonome curiously walking up to the apartment's front door. Bits of cake frosting still stained the corners of her mouth when Shinonome approached Lanfen's side to greet their fellow teammates with a pleasant smile. "Ayano. Godai," she said, hands folded in front of her. "It's a pleasure to see you both again."
While Godai returned the pleasantries with a casual, two-finger salute, Ayano simply glanced at both Lanfen and Shinonome with a cat-like grin which sent shivers up the Adaptor's spine for some reason. It didn't take long for Ayano to reveal exactly why they were now on their doorstep. "Hi! Hi! Sorry if we're interrupting something, but since we have some time-off right now, I just thought it would be a perfect opportunity to hang out!" Ayano flashed a peace-sign with both of her hands. "And what better way to do that than with a shopping trip?"
A 'shopping trip'. Their apartment's refrigerator was completely stocked up, so there was nothing they could buy right now outside of whatever that caught their fancy. Lanfen wasn't particularly excited at the notion of being in a crowded area, but when she glanced over to Shinonome for an opinion, the woman's shimmering, golden eyes was the only answer she needed to understand Shinonome's feelings on the matter.
"I must admit..." Shinonome muttered, pressing the tips of her fingers against one another. "... I've been rather curious about getting to explore what's outside this apartment."
"Then that settles it, doesn't it?" Ayano chirped, a cat-like grin still plastered across her face. "A maiden deserves to enjoy herself to the fullest whenever she can, after all."
Glancing over to Godai for her own opinion on the matter, the cheeky smirk which the tall woman wore immediately told Lanfen that nobody was going to be escaping from this. Any argument that the Adaptor could voice right now was going to be useless in turning the tide in her favour. With a full understanding of her current situation, Lanfen slowly placed a bandaged hand on her hip, and clicked her tongue in exasperation. Admitting defeat was possibly going to be a regular occurrence for the day, and it seemed that there was nothing she could do but accept it.
"We'll be downstairs in a few minutes."
Symphogear Team-04. Today marked the first time in which all four members were gathered up in their designated vehicle, and it was for the sake of a shopping trip of all things. Due to the lack of any windows in the rear passenger seats - as well as the large terminal which took up an entire side of the van's rear - Shinonome had spent the entire ride peering in-between Ayano and Godai's seats so she could observe the busy, snow-covered roads ahead of them. Now dressed in proper winter clothing, Lanfen rested up in her seat while the van took its time driving out Yamaku City. Falling asleep was impossible, but moving around too much would only be counter-productive to Lanfen's recovery.
Half an hour had passed. Maybe even a quarter and half. However long it took to reach wherever her two seniors planned to take them, not a single second had gone by without some sort of playful conversation between Shinonome and Lanfen's two seniors in the front seats. By the time Lanfen lifted her heavy eyelids, the van's engine had already switched off, and its backdoors were opened up to let the afternoon light into the vehicle's backseats. As Godai waited outside the van's open back with her arms behind her head, Shinonome stood next to Lanfen, and carefully nudged her shoulder.
"We're here, Jiang," Shinonome softly said, welcoming the Adaptor back to the realm of consciousness with a smile.
Rubbing one eye with the back of a bandaged hand, Lanfen returned the greeting with an awkward nod before she climbed out of the van with Shinonome in tow. The black-and-white scarf around Lanfen's neck shielded her from the December winds, but the cold of winter never failed to make her shiver ever so slightly. Godai motioned to secure the van's locks, and Lanfen looked around the car park they were in to recognize where they were: Mitakihara. In spite of the Distortion incursion that had occurred here several hours ago, the bustling streets and crowded walkways gave the impression that nothing had happened at all. The falling snow and the glamorous Christmas decorations which adorned the environment especially helped to establish the image of a winter wonderland.
With a single clap of her hands, Ayano seized the attention of all three of her teammates. "Let's enjoy ourselves to the fullest today," Ayano exclaimed, swinging her arms to gesture towards the large shopping complex that they had parked next to. "Hard work should always be rewarded with hard play! And never forget to believe in justice, and hold a determination to-!"
"Komi', people are going to end up staring at us again," Godai flatly cut her off, sliding the van's keys into her leather jacket. Next to her, Shinonome stifled a giggle while Lanfen quietly sighed in exasperation. Whatever fires Ayano had tried to ignite soon died out with a whimper and playful pout from the brunette. "Right, let's get movin' already," Godai told them, stepping in the direction of the tall shopping complex. "We got better things to do today than freeze our asses off."
A crass but sensible argument, Lanfen thought to herself as she and Shinonome followed Godai's lead. Ayano gave out another playful pout before she promptly joined the trio on Mitakihara's crowded walkways. Now that Ayano and Godai were leading the way, Lanfen stayed by Shinonome's side while Christmas lights of blue, red, and yellow flashed above the heads of Mitakihara's countless civilians, conjuring a flashy spectacle which seized Shinonome's fascinated gaze. The Adaptor pondered to herself if she should hold onto Shinonome so she wouldn't lose her in the crowd, but the light twitching of Lanfen's sword-hand gave her second thoughts about doing so.
"Pray tell," Shinonome spoke up, causing the older pair in front of them to momentarily glance over their shoulders. "What is this 'Christmas' that appears to be mentioned everywhere? Despite what's been occurring lately, everyone appears to be in a better mood because of it."
Lanfen had to wonder how Shinonome hadn't yet looked up such a concept on the tablet she gave her. After Godai and Ayano shared a wordless look with one another, the former left the explanation to Ayano as she held up a gloved finger in a matter-of-fact way. Ayano evidently didn't care too much about keeping her eyes ahead while she walked. "You see, 'Christmas' is a basically a special day that takes place on December 25th," Ayano began, waving a finger around like a teaching stick. "Most people spend it with friends and family to exchange gifts, but the most important part of Christmas is being with the people you care about the most."
Shinonome's eyes flickered like a sea of golden glitter, even if half her face remained hidden underneath her silver fringes. "That sounds... wonderful," she whispered, placing a mitten-covered hand on her pale cheek.
"It does, doesn't it?" Godai chimed in, her gaze still kept in front of her as they strolled amongst the crowd. "Another great part 'bout Christmas is that it's also the perfect time to stuff your face with some damn good food." Emphasizing her words with a playful chef's kiss, Godai followed the gesture up with a wistful sigh. "We still got a bit of time till Christmas arrives, but I sure as hell can't wait to kick back and relax after all these recent headaches."
While the older two duo continued elaborating on the delights of the winter holiday, Lanfen turned her attention towards the shopping complex they were slowly approaching. The mind fog that her nap conjured up was beginning to clear, and when the last of its thick clouds had vanished, a flash of recognition darted through the spinning gears of her mind. The mall that her two seniors had brought them to was the very same shopping complex where Lanfen and Kai had ran into Ayano. A coincidental reunion which occurred on the very day in which the Distortions first landed. The Adaptor wondered if the pair had intentionally brought them here out of all places in Mitakihara.
"Jiang," Godai said, pulling Lanfen out of her thoughts.
Ayano and Shinonome's attention were fixated on the large advertisement screens that were built into Mitakihara's tall buildings. Placing a hand on the black-and-white scarf around her neck, Lanfen had to speak up for Godai to hear her. "Something you wanted to ask?" she said, realizing that she had not spoken much ever since they arrived.
Godai's back continued facing her, but it did not prevent Lanfen from sensing her senior's subtle concern through the sound of her voice. The way Godai scratched the back of her neck was especially a telltale sign that Lanfen vaguely remembered from the few times they interacted in their youth. "How're you feeling, so far?" Godai casually asked. "It's been a couple hours since those Cat-2s roughed you up. Damn tin cans weren't easy to handle, huh?"
In response to the woman's worries, Lanfen slipped a bandaged hand underneath her jacket to brush her fingertips against several parts of her torso. Strolling around with medical wraps underneath her winter clothes wasn't exactly comfortable, but the fact that she could even move was already a relief. "I'm fine," Lanfen insisted, stowing her hands back in her jacket's pockets. "The Category-2s weren't easy, no. But it's nothing that a bit of practice should fix. I'll most likely be combat-ready by tomorrow morning."
"Eager to get back to work, huh?" Godai laughed, narrowly avoiding bumping into a stranger on the crowded walkway. "We've got some of the best medical technology to help bring us back into a fight. And thankfully, they don't leave scars, too. Otherwise, you and I would probably be covered in them from all the crap we're expected to do." Despite the easy-going nature of Godai's words, her playful comment only reminded Lanfen that both Godai and Ayano had been in S.O.N.G. far longer than Lanfen has. All without the aide of a Symphogear, too. As Lanfen responded with a nod that Godai obviously couldn't notice, Lanfen mused that they really were her seniors in more ways than one.
Lanfen felt a gentle tug on the sleeve of her jacket. Glancing back over to Shinonome, Lanfen noticed that the woman had suddenly stopped in the middle of the walkway, prompting the Adaptor to immediately mimic the action. Had Lanfen not called out to Godai and Ayano, the two wouldn't have noticed the pair's abrupt stop. It took several seconds of squeezing through the crowd for the older duo to regroup with them. Before any of the three could ask Shinonome what was wrong, the silver-haired woman lifted a mitten-covered hand, and pointed at one of the large advertisement screens that were built into the skyscrapers around them. When her fellow teammates glanced in the pointed direction, Lanfen inadvertedly widened her purple eyes ever so slightly.
Displayed on the building's advertisement screen was a promotional video for an upcoming London concert. A concert held next year by none other than Kazanari Tsubasa and Kazanari Maria. With the recent advent of the Distortions, the video's barrage of promotional, flashing visuals vowed to bestow an experience that would soothe any worries which the Distortions had recently casted upon the globe. As expected of the women that were leading the Kazanari Humanitarian Front, the advertisement promised that all of the concert's profits would be dedicated towards repairing the damages caused by the worldwide attack, and assisting those who were in dire need of help.
When the promotional video finally transitioned to different, unrelated advertisement, Shinonome lowered her arm and glanced back at Lanfen, tentatively asking her, "They're just like you, aren't they?"
The Adaptor subconsciously hovered a bandaged hand over her beating chest. Even though Lanfen was currently on a day-off, the red pendant which contained the shard of an ancient relic still rested underneath her black-and-white scarf. Lanfen had honestly brought it along without much thought, the same way one would grab their smartphone on the way out of their house. Since Shinonome had used her wrist device to look up Lanfen's records, it wasn't surprising that Shinonome's familiarization with Lanfen's fellow Symphogear-Wielders made it easy to recognize them on the spot.
"You could say that," Lanfen whispered as the four of them stood in the middle of a crowd-filled walkway. "... They're the ones that are watching over Europe right now. And unlike us, the other Teams are made up of at least two Wielders. You could say that we're the odd ones out because of that." A question arose in her mind. A question that determined whether or not Shinonome was also aware of the 'duty' that the world council had elegantly bestowed upon Lanfen's shoulders. Nothing gave off the impression that she did, and while that was probably for the best, it admittedly felt hypocritical to find relief in such after claiming that Lanfen had nothing to hide from Shinonome.
Lanfen could feel her tongue tie itself up in the middle of an attempt to utter her next words. Thankfully, Godai had went up to the Adaptor's side, and carefully clapped her on the shoulder. "Have you been keepin' in touch with them?" Godai asked. The small - almost rueful - shake of the head which Lanfen managed to muster was all that she could give. "Well, that's understandable," Godai added with a casual shrug of her shoulders. "Right, Komi'?"
"Yep!" Ayano chirped, her ear-to-ear smile unrelenting. "A lot of things have been keeping us all busy lately, so you don't have to worry too much about what's been going on outside of Japan. But if you're curious, don't worry! Tachibana, Chris and all the other gals are doing perfectly fine." Ayano gave a playful flex of her thin arms alongside her words of reassurance. "They're strong maidens, after all. I'm sure they'll understand if you're too busy to give them a call."
With that effortless attempt at softening the atmosphere, Lanfen quietly assured herself that Shinonome truly knew nothing about the weapon that slumbered within the Sword of Damocles. Lanfen would thank her two seniors for the intervention if she could, for a weapon that was as dreaded as the S.W.O.R.D. wasn't something that Shinonome needed to be aware of. Especially while they were on a mundane trip such as this. "Of course," Lanfen said, resting a hand on her hip in a mild show of confidence that Shinonome appeared to have bought. "The... difference in time zones doesn't exactly help, too."
"Anyway!" Ayano exclaimed with a loud clap of her hands, earning the oblivious brunette a few stares from the pedestrians that were walking around the gathered group. "Frowns are illegal whenever I'm around. Especially on a day-off! So, to officially start this afternoon, let's commemorate our first day as Team-04!" In one smooth motion, Ayano's arms sliced through the winter air, gesturing towards an array of large booths that were stationed outside the nearby shopping complex. Their flashy, colourful signs quickly made them out to be a bunch of photography booths which were often used for taking souvenir pictures.
Godai had stepped between Shinonome and Lanfen to whisper a comment before either of them could even give their opinions to the suggestion. "We're probably not leaving till Komi' gets a photo, so let's just give up trying to resist, yeah?" Something about Godai's dry tone and the pained smirk she wore suggested that it would be a better idea to run unarmed against a Distortion.
Stuffing her bandaged hands back in her pockets, Lanfen quietly clicked her tongue. "Sounds about right."
Shinonome, on the other hand, met Ayano's suggestion with an eager nod. Whatever curiosity she previously displayed about their earlier conversation had been effortlessly seized by the flashing colours of the photo-booths up ahead. "It certainly sounds like the perfect way to celebrate the occasion, Ayano," Shinonome remarked, causing a proud, cat-like grin to grow on Ayano's face alongside her ego. Godai commented something about not enabling her, but a quick gesture from Lanfen held back the woman's dry wit mid-sentence.
Now that their next decision was settled, Ayano proceeded to escort all three of her teammates through the crowded walkway before ushering them into one of the large photo-booths. If Lanfen had been in one of these things before, she possessed no memory of such an occasion as Ayano slipped several yens into the booth's coin slot. Several inputs into the machine's holographic interface readied the camera, and Ayano was quick to dramatically declare that all of them should smile to the best of their abilities.
Just this morning, Lanfen had fought tooth-and-nail to turn a pair of Category-2s into piles of sand beneath her armoured boot. The medical wraps beneath her clothes were proof of her bloody, tiring fight. And yet here she was, standing in a colourful photo-booth with the three other members of Symphogear Team-04 like an everyday civilian in Mitakihara. If someone ended up revealing to her that she was simply dreaming while she slept in her futon, Lanfen would've believed them. But the reality of the situation was clear. With Shinonome standing on her left, and her two seniors on her right, the loud ticking of the camera's timer allowed Lanfen to muster the smallest of smiles.
The distinctive snap of a camera shutter felt like a declaration that she truly was in good company.
Just like Lanfen remembered, the highest floor of the tall shopping complex was made up entirely out of an expansive food court with tables as far as they could see. It had been only a couple days ago when Lanfen and Kai ran into Ayano on this very floor, and while the two sisters were admittedly disappointed when Ayano declined the offer to join them for lunch, the chanceful meeting was welcomed all the same. Thanks to most of the group's familiarity with the area, the choice paralysis that the sheer variety of food stalls struck Shinonome with was absolved fast. Perhaps Ayano had brought them here of all places in order to make up for her initial declination.
It didn't take long to find some empty seats and a few stalls to order from. Once they had paid whatever they needed, the four women gathered around a table which was situated right next to the floor's large windows. All the other tables around them were completely vacant, giving the team the space they needed to chat with one another without worry of someone overhearing their conversation. The floor's windows also gave the quartet an expansive view of the city outside as dots of white fell from the winter skies to blanket Mitakihara's busy, crowded streets. Placing her chin in the palm of a bandaged hand, Lanfen diverted her attention away from the window to gaze at the printed photograph between her fingers.
A group photo with Lanfen, Shinonome, Ayano and Godai. She couldn't tell if this was her first time taking a picture like this. Finding a decent frame for it later on may be preferable compared to carrying it around on her person.
Sliding the picture into her winter jacket's pockets, Lanfen lifted a can of soda to her lips while Godai mirrored the action across the table with a ceramic cup of pitch-black coffee. Sitting next to Lanfen was Shinonome, who curiously prodded the batch of steaming-hot takoyaki they bought for her with a wooden toothpick. And lastly, there was Ayano, who had taken the term 'snack time' to its upmost extreme as several plates of pastries and cupcakes crowded around her area of the table. If one was capable of projecting an aura of disgust, then Lanfen could sense such a thing emanating from Godai. The pony-tailed woman could hardly look at the disgustingly-sweet desserts without quietly gagging to herself.
"At this rate, you're going to rot your teeth, Komi'," Godai commented with a raised brow, black coffee still held in her hand. "It's a damn miracle already that you don't put on any weight from all the sugary crap you stuff your face with."
Ayano merely gave her a playful wag of a frosting-coated fork before cheekily smiling to herself. "Sweets are the best things to eat after tiring yourself out, Yuki," she said in a faux sage-like manner. "If your brain needs fuel to work, there's no better pick-me-up than dessert!" Swinging her attention over to both Shinonome and Lanfen, a small piece of dark chocolate had been impaled on the tip of her fork. "Makes sense, right?" she inquired with a tongue in her cheek.
If Lanfen was being honest, nothing of what Ayano claimed had even managed to register in her mind. Her attention was aimed at Mitakihara's peaceful skyline, and although Lanfen's sword-hand remained calm thus far, the Adaptor still pondered to herself on how the other Wielders were performing in light of the Category-2s' arrival. There was little doubt that they were most likely faring better than some greenhorn Adaptor, but the Distortions were not a force to be underestimated when they knew nothing of who had sent them here - or how they even arrived - to begin with.
"I would say that it does make sense," Shinonome replied to Ayano, holding up a toothpick with a takoyaki ball firmly placed on it. "It's typically wise to restore one's strength after depleting it, isn't it? One does have to pay attention to their own needs at the end of the day."
Putting down the soda can in her hand, Lanfen took her chin off her palm, and saw Ayano's expectant glance turning over to her next for her own opinion on the topic. Lanfen could only answer with a small shrug of the head before gesturing to Shinonome beside her. "What she said," Lanfen flatly replied.
"See?" Ayano said, looking back at Godai with a pompous, playful grin and a clearly-inflated ego. "My IQ is at 1000% as always."
"Yeah, yeah. But you better not come to me if you need a drive a dentist," Godai cheekily muttered with a shake of her head which roused a playful pout from the brunette. A vibration then arose from the pockets of Godai's jacket, prompting the woman to draw out her smartphone and switch it on. "Oh? Looks like Darling's sent me a text," she pointed out, setting her coffee cup down on its saucer plate. "Give me a couple minutes to answer this, yeah?"
While Godai quietly typed away on her smartphone, the rest of her team returned to their respective food and drinks. After spending the past few minutes simply poking at her takoyaki, Shinonome lifted one of them up with a toothpick, and cooled down the hot ball of flour batter with two gentle blows. She then shoved the entire thing into her mouth, and widened her eyes with a quick yelp when its lingering heat immediately made her tremble in her seat. Godai and Ayano scrambled to find something ice-cold on their plates, but it merely took a second for Lanfen to hand over her half-empty soda can. The situation had diffused itself right as it started, but Godai still got off her chair anyway to fetch a cold drink from a nearby stall.
Pulling the soda can away from her lips with a small gasp, Shinonome handed the emptied drink back to Lanfen, and picked up a tissue to wipe her mouth. "My... thanks, Jiang," Shinonome muttered between a couple pants for air. "As painful as that was... it certainly tasted nice," she soon added with a small chuckle.
"Be careful next time," Lanfen advised her with a small smile, putting aside the empty tin can. "While it does taste good, it's not going to be worth much if you don't have a tongue to taste it." Shinonome responded to her dry advice with a nod and resumed poking at her takoyaki with a new sense of care. Lanfen then turned her gaze over to the person that was sitting across from Shinonome, and noticed the cat-like grin that was happily sitting on Ayano's face. "... Something on your mind?" Lanfen said, unsure of what to make of that strange expression whenever it appeared.
"Oh, nothing," Ayano playfully insisted, bringing her gaze over to the window beside them to observe the falling snow outside. "I'm just glad you're alright, that's all." She took up one of her forks and scooped up a piece of cupcake into her mouth. Ayano made sure to resume talking only after she swallowed her snack. "Even if S.O.N.G. is used to treating people with bad injuries, we were still pretty worried when we found you all beaten up this morning."
Lanfen's hand subconsciously grasped the side of her abdomen. Were it not for her Symphogear's life support system, the pain she had felt when the Category-2's two-handed blade sliced through her barriers could've knocked her out from mere shock. "Not used to seeing someone hurt that badly, I take it?" Lanfen carefully inquired, and Ayano responded with a hesitant nod along with an uneasy smile. Lanfen could also see Shinonome shifting uncomfortably in her seat at the topic of Lanfen's injuries, but the silver-haired woman remained quiet regardless. "... Tell me," Lanfen continued. "S.O.N.G. hasn't once fought a threat as unpredictable as the Distortions, have they?"
Returning from her brief trip to a nearby drink stall, it was Godai who answered Lanfen's question as the tall woman sat back down on her chair, and slid over a plastic cup of fruit juice in front of Shinonome. "Not exactly, no," Godai said, giving Shinonome an encouraging thumbs-up in addition to the juice that she just handed. "But since we've got Task Force Harmony around to help us now, fighting back against the Distortions should be a lot more easier. Right, Komi'?" she said with a side-glance at her companion.
Pushing aside a couple empty, cream-covered plates, Ayano only responded to her after wiping her mouth clean with a couple tissues. "The battle this morning conveniently gave Harmony some time to set up their forces," she pointed out, holding up a gloved finger in a matter-of-fact way. "But those guys aren't going to be slacking off whenever it comes to a rift breakout, that's for sure."
'Task Force Harmony', Lanfen pondered to herself. Even if Godai and Ayano assured her of their reliability, there was still a part of her that wouldn't settle down at the thought of relying on regular armed forces to protect them from the Distortions. It was convenient not being the only one that was relied upon to protect Japan, but there was still an obvious power gap between that of Harmony's forces and S.O.N.G.'s Adaptor Corp. Narrowing her purple eyes, Lanfen looked out the large window to her left, and noticed several helicopters that were hovering in the city's skyline. 'Harmony' emblems could be seen on the side-doors of the sleek aircraft as they patrolled through the winter skies.
"How do the other Adaptors feel about this?" Lanfen asked again, purple eyes still focused on the hovering aircraft while her fingers toyed with the ends of her black braid. "Working alongside Task Force Harmony, I mean," she added after noticing the confusion that her vague question caused among her older teammates.
Both Godai and Ayano glanced at one another with pondering expressions. Without a single word uttered between them, the pair appeared to communicate what they were thinking purely through a combination of guess-work, and a familiarity with one another that had been fostered over the years. When they were done wordlessly sharing their thoughts with each other, Ayano looked back at Lanfen to answer her question. "They're perfectly fine with how things are. As long as it means keeping people safe, none of them really have any issues working alongside Task Force Harmony. Their formation was a proposal by the Kazanari Institute, after all."
"Is that so...?" Lanfen muttered, slowly leaning against the backrest of her chair.
She honestly did not know whether she should be even surprised by Ayano's response. In spite of the 'duty' that Lanfen held in regards to the other Symphogear-Wielders, the Kazanaris, Yukine, Tachibana, Akatsuki, and Tsukuyomi had all accepted her like one of their own. That was undeniable. But even so, that matter was completely different from something like Task Force Harmony. In addition to being a Task Force that fought under the direct orders of the world council, it was a Task Force which had been used to justify the sudden separation of the Adaptors across the globe.
A mild grumble arose from Lanfen's stomach. Judging from the stares that were quickly directed at her, the sound had been obviously loud enough for all three of her teammates to hear. As Lanfen clicked her tongue in annoyance, Shinonome - who had been keeping quiet the entire time - lifted one of her remaining takoyaki balls with her toothpick, and gave it a few gentle blows before holding it in front of Lanfen's face. There was no good reason to decline a free bite. The pleasant smile that Shinonome was giving her assured Lanfen that it was alright. But the observant stares which Godai and Ayano were setting on Lanfen made her momentarily freeze on the spot.
Ayano in particular was watching on with star-filled eyes and a cat-like grin.
"Thanks," Lanfen muttered, biting the ball of flour batter off the toothpick. To her relief, the takoyaki had cooled down enough to not burn her tongue, but still remained warm enough for it to go down without any issue. Shinonome then chuckled to herself before returning to her tea-time snack with the same toothpick Lanfen had used. Once again, the feline-esque grin that that Ayano wore on her face caused a small shiver to run down her spine. Unaware of the heat which was gathering on her cheeks, Lanfen simply crossed her arms, and continued gazing out of the window to pass the time.
Three hours. Kagero had spent three hours attempting to contact Morikawa Renge by any means available. In those three hours, the text messages he sent were marked as 'seen', and yet, neither of them had received any response to his inquiries. Kagero initially reasoned that the Distortions' attack somehow affected communications within Mitakihara, but a quick investigation with S.O.N.G.'s resources proved that no meaningful damage was caused to the city's infrastructure during the incursion this morning. Further investigation into the matter also gave no reasonable explanation for the garbled static which had drowned out Kagero's phone-call the very moment Morikawa had picked up the line.
Whatever the reason was, Kagero deemed it irrelevant now that he was standing right in the middle of Morikawa's apartment with a deployed team of Clan Hida's personnel. As Clan members in black suits investigated every crevice of the small apartment, Kagero lowered his gaze to set his sights on the inert corpse of Morikawa Renge. Kagero could not believe what he was witnessing right then and there. Morikawa Renge - one of Clan Hida's best and brightest - laid dead in a pile of broken glass and a pool of her own blood. What baffled him even more was the killing blow: A gunshot which was perfectly centered on her torso, just like all the other young woman that Suteinu had informed him about.
Kagero would sooner believe that Shem-Ha had somehow returned rather than accept the reality that a member of Clan Hida was somehow outwitted with ease.
Drawing the stench of death into his lungs, Kagero navigated his way through the cardboard boxes which crowded out the living room before stepping out into the apartment complex's hallway. As soon as the blonde man leaned against its walls to catch his breath, the device on his wrist rang with an incoming audio transmission. The contact ID belonged to Ogawa Shinji. Kagero answered it with a quick tap of a holographic prompt. "This is Tsuchiya Kagero," he stated, holding his wrist in front of his face.
"Have you managed to find any trace of the perpetrator, Tsuchiya?" Shinji calmly inquired. Considering the older man's current business in Europe with the two Kazanaris, Kagero hadn't expected Shinji to make contact as soon as he did.
"Nothing concrete," Kagero ruefully admitted, looking down the barren hallways on his sides. "We've managed to find a spent shell casing, but I have a lingering suspicion that it was left there on purpose for us to find." Unlike the previous murders which Kagero had been looking into, this was the first ever time that a murder scene actually generated any sort of evidence aside from the Illuminati-marked bullets which were utilized in the crime. The notion that the culprit was now playing games with them especially hit one of Kagero's nerves. "... No signs of entry. No footprints. Nothing. It was as if the murderer vanished the moment the deed was done."
Silence followed suit. Kagero could not see nor hear how his senior reacted to the news, but the S.O.N.G. agent had spent enough time with Shinji to know how the man would respond to the death of a comrade. Unlike Kagero himself, Shinji had gone through multiple years of training to hide his emotions behind a perfect mask of unbreakable steel. The one thing that actually managed to shatter Shinji's proverbial mask was the death of Amou Kanade several years ago. "... You have my condolences, Tsuchiya," Shinji finally said. "May the one who caused this be brought to justice as soon as possible. I'll contact you again another time."
"Affirmative, Ogawa." The audio transmission switched off from Shinji's end of the call and Kagero returned his arm to his side. When the blonde man was sure that nobody but himself stood in the apartment complex's hallway, Kagero allowed himself to grit his teeth, and utter a harsh curse underneath his breath. "How could Morikawa of all people be taken out like this?" he whispered to himself, as if to help him believe the reality of the situation. Kagero intended to inquire about Morikawa's eventual job, but it appeared that it was now up to him to break the news to Suteinu later on.
A firm hand grabbed Kagero's wrist, causing the blonde agent to slightly jump and recoil from the undetected appearance of a person behind him. To his surprise, it was Ogawa Souji that stood before Kagero. Dressed in the crimson long-coat of Clan Hida's Grandmaster, Souji held his sheathed katana in a tight grip while the older man scowled at the open doorway near them out of clear remorse. Kagero tried to greet the Grandmaster by lowering his head in a bow, but Souji declined the formality with a dismissive wave of a gloved hand.
"Lift your head, Kagero," Souji ordered him, stepping closer to the apartment's entrance. "I'm simply here to mourn the loss of one of our own."
Heeding Souji's wishes, Kagero straightened his back before following the Grandmaster through the apartment's open doorway. The smell of the dead was familiar to Kagero's senses at this point, but to have it come from a member of Clan Hida was an entirely different experience. The Clan personnel inside the living room halted their duties at the appearance of the Grandmaster, and silently stood aside while Souji and Kagero approached Morikawa's inert body. Kagero remained standing, and Souji got down on both of his knees. The Grandmaster settled his sheathed, ceremonial weapon on the carpeted floor, and carefully clasped his hands in a prayer. Souji's wordless chant went on for a full minute according to the ticking clock on the living room's walls.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. The Grandmaster made no sound when he finally rose up from the bloodstained floor with his katana back in his gloved hands. The cold silence which permeated the living room's atmosphere was quickly shattered when the scabbard of Souji's weapon loudly clacked against the floor. Kagero and all the other personnel in the room visibly tensed at the mere sound of it. "All sentries of Clan Hida are to operate underneath a new direct order," Souji declared, his voice as calm as a running stream. "The eyes of our Clan shall maintain a permanent watch for the perpetrator of this crime. No one shall rest until the murderer of Morikawa Renge is brought to justice. While we cannot do anything for those who have already been lost, the continuation of these murders cannot be allowed to continue."
"Permission to speak, Grandmaster," Kagero said. He received a wordless nod of the head from Souji. "Shall I request Commander Genjuuro to transfer me back from S.O.N.G. to Clan Hida? If we are to uncover Morikawa's murderer, it's best that we-"
"Such a thing is not needed," Souji stated precisely, his hands placed on the pommel of his ceremonial katana. "S.O.N.G. and Commander Genjuuro are in need of both you and Shinji right now, Kagero. While your determination to avenge Morikawa is appreciated and understandable, Commander Genjuuro requires your skills more than I do as we speak." The Grandmaster turned to Kagero and placed a firm, gloved hand on the man's shoulder. "Do your best finding out what you can from within S.O.N.G. And please do so without finding yourself lost in the forest of revenge. That is my order for you."
Widening his eyes at the Grandmaster's firm grip, Kagero slowly turned his gaze back over to Morikawa's corpse. The way her eyes remained opened while they spoke made the S.O.N.G. agent tighten his hand at his side. Judging by the way the living room's glass table had shattered, Kagero could tell that it had broken underneath the weight of an object. And yet, Morikawa's body lied down in a way that made it impossible for the object to have been her. Something or someone must have broken it apart before Morikawa perished, but there were still no signs whatsoever that anyone but Morikawa herself had even stepped inside this apartment.
"Understood, Grandmaster," Kagero whispered, lowering his head in a bow. "I shall not disappoint you."
A cold shiver coursed through Lanfen's brown skin, derailing the woman's train of thought in the middle of the group's stroll throughout the shopping complex. With no one but herself having noticed it, the Adaptor looked around the floor building, and scanned the faces of each and every person they passed by on the way to their next store visit. The twitching in her sword-hand only vanished after she had spent a while eyeing their crowded surroundings. Returning her attention back to her chattering teammates, Lanfen followed the trio from behind while her bandaged hands held onto several bags of merchandise. It was hard to believe that about four hours have passed since they left the food-court.
Clothing. Picture-frames. More clothing. Books of romantic literature. And even more clothes. Aside from a single picture frame which Lanfen needed for her own copy of their recent photo, Lanfen had bought a single shark plushie for her to sleep with. All of her other plushies remained in Shinonome's new bedroom, and it would only be awkward to ask if she could take them out for her own use. Having an additional one around the apartment at least wouldn't hurt. Since Lanfen had also insisted that she could carry Shinonome's share of their bags, everyone but the newest member of Symphogear Team-04 were walking around the place with three-to-four bags of items in their hands. Shinonome, on the other hand, simply held onto the plastic beverage which Godai had bought for her earlier.
"Come on, Yuki," Ayano exclaimed in a sing-song voice, carrying her branded items as if they weighed nothing. "We still have three more stores to go!"
Godai could only groan at her companion's eagerness to put a dent in the paychecks that S.O.N.G. gives them. "I'll just say it right now, Komi': If we run out of space in the van, you're walking home."
Raising a brow at her teammates' usual banter, the small giggle the pair got out of Shinonome was a pleasant sound which took Lanfen's mind off the fact that her arms were beginning to tire from the merchandise in her hands. They were now on the last floor that Ayano intended for them to shop around, and as the Adaptor ran an uninterested gaze across the numerous shops they passed by, the sight of a familiar sign made Lanfen inadvertedly halt out of nowhere. Shinonome noticed it the moment it happened and quickly prompted her two older teammates to stop and curiously turn around.
"Is something the matter, Jiang?" asked Shinonome, her beverage still held in both of her hands.
Zesshou Sentai Valkyranger. The name flashed across the storefront in the colours of blue, red, yellow, white, green, and pink. Posters and hand-drawn artwork of colourful, armoured heroes decorated every available surface, catching any eye that would fall upon it while a grandiose theme-song could be heard from within the store. It had been a long time since Lanfen last sat down with Kai to watch fifty episodes of transforming heroes going against all odds to take down a multitude of deadly villains and monsters. And it had also only been a couple days ago when Kai snuck away from her to buy whatever she could from this very store. The very memory of that day sparked a momentary flicker of fire within Lanfen's purple eyes.
Godai took a few steps towards the silent Adaptor and gestured towards the flashy storefront. "Wanna head inside?" Godai carefully asked her. Lanfen guessed that Ayano must have remembered seeing the Valkyranger toys which Kai had bought.
"I'm just... reminiscing," Lanfen muttered, taking in a practiced breath to extinguish the brewing flames within her eyes. Her teammates deserved better than to be pulled in by the very burdens that Lanfen carried on her shoulders. "If the others don't want to head in, let's just... move along."
Walking over to Lanfen with a mitten-covered hand on her pale cheek, Shinonome tilted her head at the sight of the large store, and the numerous colourful heroines which decorated its storefront. Lanfen's sudden stop in front of it made her more puzzled than fascinated with the store's flashing name. "What is this supposed to be about?" she asked with a clueless glance at her teammates.
Out of the three, it was Ayano who had enthusiastically stepped in to answer Shinonome's question. "This, Shinonome, is what we call a Valkyranger store!" Ayano declared, holding up a handful of bags to gesture towards the six distinct heroines who had been plastered over the store's walls. "You see, Valkyranger is a popular Tokusatsu show that ran a couple years ago and is still talked about to this day. But there's one secret about it that nobody but people like us can know-!" To Lanfen and Shinonome's confusion, Ayano pulled herself closer to her younger teammates, and lowered her voice until no one but the duo could hear her. "All the Valkyrangers you see... are based on S.O.N.G.'s very own Symphogear-Wielders."
Shinonome audibly gasped and widened her eyes with a mitten-covered hand over her mouth. Lanfen blinked several times in disbelief before looking over to Godai for clarification. The amused shrug which Godai responded with was all Lanfen needed to know that Ayano wasn't pulling her proverbial leg. "That... makes sense," Lanfen admitted, setting her sights on a pink-coloured heroine who possessed a prominent pair of bunny ears, and a large, heavy chainsaw in her hands. "... Too much sense." The Adaptor started to question on how she hadn't made such a connection until now.
"They certainly do look just like your comrades, don't they?" Shinonome commented with a giggle, looking over at green-coloured heroine who donned a witch-like hat, and a giant scythe that was far larger than the armoured heroine who actually wielded it. The large grin which Ayano wore clearly indicated that she enjoyed dropping a reveal like this completely out of the blue. "It's certainly a secret we'll be keeping to ourselves, Ayano," Shinonome said, sharing a smile with the brunette.
"S.O.N.G. funded it at first to help cover-up their operations. But the whole thing turned out to be a lot more popular than they expected," Godai explained with a laugh. "Anyway, do any of you wanna check out what's inside?" Ayano and Shinonome eagerly held up their hands the moment those words left Godai's lips, but Lanfen had chosen to stay her arms at her sides. "Right. Komi', you head inside and get whatever Shinonome here wants," Godai said, shifting all of her bags onto her left hand so she could clap a silent Lanfen on the shoulder. "In the meantime, I'll wait out here with Jiang. Got it?"
Responding to her companion's suggestion with a playful salute, and a renewed sense to shop to their hearts' content, Ayano promptly grabbed Shinonome by the arm, and escorted her through the poster-covered doors of the Valkyranger store. Lanfen could hear the opening music to the television series leak out from inside the store before the its automatic doors closed themselves back up. Looking back at the posters and artwork which decorated the storefront, it was now practically impossible for Lanfen to not see her fellow Adaptors reflect on these fictional characters. Fictional characters who Kai and her had been fans of ever since their series first premiered on television. Calling this 'surreal' would be nothing more than an understatement.
While Godai and Lanfen stood outside the storefront all by themselves, Lanfen's teammate slowly took her hand off the Adaptor's shoulders to scratch the back of her own neck. "You can expect a call in a few months about the upcoming movie," Godai pointed out, casually gesturing towards a nearby announcement poster titled 'Zesshou Sentai Valkyranger: Five Years After'. "Can't use your likeness without your permission and all that stuff, ya know?"
Lanfen allowed an empty chuckle to slip out of her. The writers were going to have to perform quite the embellishing if her story was going to be even remotely interesting to viewers. "I'll look forward to it," Lanfen dryly replied, stuffing her bandaged hands inside her jacket's pockets.
Sensing her feet turn sore within her winter boots, Lanfen examined their surroundings before she approached an empty, wooden bench nearby. Godai followed her without question as the pair took the chance to sit down and relax after being led around several floors of stores and shops. Placing their bags of merchandise on the floor for now, Lanfen wordlessly crossed her legs with a huff while Godai reached into one of her bags, and pulled out a pair of energy drinks. Lanfen was never the type to rely on such things, but she couldn't refuse Godai's offer when her body was starting to operate on fumes. Two light pops pierced the air and the pair quickly quenched their thirst.
Placed her own can between herself and the Adaptor, Godai leaned her full weight against the bench's backrest. At least several seconds had passed by between them without any exchanged words until Godai shattered the proverbial ice with a simple question. "So, how've you been doing lately?"
Exhausted. Sore. Unable to rest from time-to-time. A table full of detailed answers was ready to be served, but Lanfen instead chose to answer Godai with two curt words. "I'm fine," she insisted, hiding a small cough behind the palm of a bandaged hand. Leaving her half-empty energy drink in-between her and Godai as well, Lanfen's purple eyes avoided looking at her older teammate so she could monitor the numerous shoppers who were walking by them without a glance in the duo's direction.
"You sure about that?" Godai suddenly retorted with a questioning stare at Lanfen. "Because you sure looked like you were ready to spring into action the entire time we were strollin' around the place." The sheer, casual bluntness of her observation made Lanfen subconsciously dig her fingernails into the palm of her bandaged hands. Lanfen hardly even noticed the stinging sensation that was growing as a result of her own reaction.
Four hours. The group had been strolling for about four hours, and Godai somehow managed to notice the subtle tension in Lanfen's movements. The Adaptor had done her best to hold back the twitching of her sword-hand, and the dormant flames in her eyes, but it turned out that Lanfen might as well have described herself to be an open book. Maybe it was just useless to try and hide even the smallest things from Godai of all people. Slipping her bandaged hand underneath her black-and-white scarf, Lanfen grasped her relic pendant between two fingers, and drew in a practiced breath.
"... I've been getting used to handling the Sword of Damocles," Lanfen claimed, tightening her fingertips around the red crystal beneath her scarf. Judging by the small nod that Godai gave her, this was very much the sort of answer which her older teammate had been hoping to get out of Lanfen. "But even so, it just... doesn't feel right to reach out to the other Wielders when I..." Her next words suddenly lodged themselves in her tightening throat. Conversing with Godai felt completely different compared to someone like Shinonome.
"Still feel like a threat to the others, you mean?" Godai tentatively guessed, finishing the Adaptor's intended sentence for her.
Lanfen released her pendant from her grasp and hesitantly nodded in response. Whether she liked it or not, the Sword of Damocles contained a weapon which she held as a looming threat over the other Symphogear-Wielders. Lanfen's opinion on its existence was completely irrelevant. "I don't believe that the others would ever do anything that would upset the U.N.," Lanfen continued, resting her body against the bench with a tired sigh. "But the weight of the S.W.O.R.D. isn't something that's easy to carry regardless."
One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes. Four minutes had gone by without a word between them by the time Godai had placed a hand on Lanfen's shoulder. The comforting gesture was unlike the same one Godai gave her earlier. This time, it was firm. Not too hard that it ended up hurting the injuries beneath her clothes, and not too soft that Lanfen felt nothing from the woman's careful grasp. Lanfen kept her eyes on the Valkyranger store in front of them the entire time. The fact that these characters were supposed to be the very heroines whom the U.N. now held a blade over felt like a sign. A sign that the Symphogear-Wielders were used in whatever way their superiors demanded of them.
"Even if you're a Wielder that carries one hell of an ugly job..." Godai paused her words mid-sentence, as if to find the best words she could conjure up on the spot. "... Both Komi' and I still see you as the same old junior we met all the way back in Lydian, Jiang," she stated, slowly retracting her hand to hold up her energy drink. "You don't have to carry your weights all by yourself, you know? While I'm sure that you don't feel too comfy getting familiar with a pair of gals that's been assigned to monitor you, we're here to help. In any way we can. We wouldn't have accepted being assigned to you if we only wanted to get paid, if you catch my drift."
Lanfen bit down on her cracking lips. She needed to take in another practiced breath before she could pull back her fingernails away from the palms of her bandaged hands. Slowly turning her head in the direction of her older teammate, the reassuring smile that Godai gave Lanfen was not something which she often saw back in their youth. As busy shoppers continued passing by the two silent women on the wooden bench, Godai held up her drink can in an obvious gesture that proposed a toast to the occasion.
"We're all part of Team-04, aren't we?" Godai remarked with a wink, getting a brief but amused scoff out from the Adaptor.
Picking up her own half-empty drink from the bench space between them, Lanfen tightly wrapped her fingers around the can's cold exterior, and gently clanked it against Godai's own drink. Once the celebratory gesture had been completed, the pair brought their drinks to their lips, and emptied them in perfect unison. Two hollow tin cans were then set back down between the two women while Lanfen wiped her mouth with the back of a bandaged hand. "Thanks... for today," Lanfen whispered, looking back at the Valkyranger store several steps ahead of them. "I think Shinonome and I enjoyed ourselves, all things considered."
"Anytime, Jiang," Godai told her, smirking. "But since Komi' was the one that came up with this idea, I think she gets more credit," she quickly added with a chuckle.
Speak of the devil. The very second Godai uttered her name, the automatic doors to the Valkyranger store opened back up with a melodious jingle. Coming through the doorway were Shinonome and Ayano, and in the midst of all the goods that Ayano had already bought, Lanfen could spot a single new bag being held in the woman's hands. The Adaptor could not hear what Ayano was talking about with Shinonome from where she sat, but the longer Lanfen observed them happily chatting with one another, the more she felt as though that both Ayano and Godai truly hadn't changed ever since their days in Lydian Academy. Lanfen was a Symphogear-Wielder. They were S.O.N.G. agents. But Lanfen could sense that they were friends first and foremost.
If that was the case, then perhaps it wasn't going to be an issue relying on them from here on out. A miniscule part of her even hoped that Lanfen could one day do the same with the other Symphogear-Wielders.
"Interested in grabbing some drinks later on, Godai?" Lanfen whispered to her teammate. Her soft words had leaped from her tongue before she could even think about them.
Leaning forward in her seat, Godai simply responded with another cheeky smirk and a prominent thumbs-up. "Sure thing, Jiang."