Chapter 29: Duel & Development

As she materialised in her apartments lounge, Sonnet retracted the large blue lenses back into her hairpin, and removed it from her hair. She then looked at the clock and realised that it was only 02:27.

Another three and a half hours before I need to wake Mizuki up, She thought, What can I do in that time?

Sonnet glanced around the apartment, and realised that Mizuki was right. There was little in the way of personal possessions here, which also left her with very little to do in her free time.

Damn! It's really irritating sometimes, not having to sleep. That would have killed three hours easily.

Sonnet then remembered the white t-shirt and blue jeans she had worn last time she had taken part in a training fight. She retrieved them from the drawer she had put them in, and got the trainers out of her wardrobe. She then put them onto her bed.

These should be fine for at least three more training sessions. I might as well change into them; they'll be more comfortable than this suit, anyway.

Sonnet took a coat hanger from her wardrobe, and hooked it to the handle on the wardrobe door. She then removed the bodysuit, letting it fall to the floor, before she put on some underwear, and then the jeans and t-shirt. Sonnet then picked up the bodysuit and hung both pieces onto the hanger, and placed that back into her wardrobe.

Great, that killed five minutes. What else can I do?

Sonnet moved to the window of her bedroom, opened the curtains and stared out of the window. Then she decided that she could observe the city better from either her balcony, or the building rooftop. She closed her bedroom curtains again, put the trainers on her feet, and went out onto her balcony, folded her arms, and leaned against the railing. There was a faint, cool, breeze blowing outside, which picked up her long hair, making it flap around. Sonnet then glanced at the stars.

Cool, quiet nights are pleasant around here. I wonder why I've never thought to do this before? It's quite relaxing, maybe I should get some furniture for the balcony, so I can do this more often.

Sonnet then remembered a conversation she had had with Kyriu several months ago, not long after she became Guyver Blue. He had suggested to her that she started keeping a journal, to allow her to remember events that had happened to her during her life. Sonnet had bluntly replied that she had a perfect (cyborg enhanced) memory so she could easily remember anything that had happened to her without the need to refer to a written version. Kyriu had also offered to give her a blank journal book to use as a journal. Sonnet wondered if she could still take up that offer. She knew where Kyriu kept the blank journals, so she could easily go to his apartment and take one for her use. However, she thought it would be better to check with him first, simply taking one of them would essentially be stealing, and Sonnet wasn't a thief.

Problem is, She thought, it's 03:00, and I doubt he's awake at this time in the morning.

Sonnet stared out at the landscape of Tokyo for a few more minutes, before she realised that she might be wrong. Kyriu sometimes worked early in the morning; maybe this was one of those times? Sonnet went back into her apartment, locked the balcony door behind her, picked up her door key, left the apartment, locked her door and headed for Ran's apartment. She stopped outside the door, and switched her eyes to see infrared. Now, she could see all nearby heat traces, including body heat. She looked through the door of the apartment and noticed that there was a faint infrared signature in the kitchen. She teleported herself from the hallway, into the lounge and then made her way to the kitchen.

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Ran was in the kitchen, drinking a glass of water. She had woken up about five minutes ago, feeling thirsty. So she decided to get a drink. She put the glass down on the counter, turned around and flinched, when she saw Sonnet standing there.

"Sorry, Ran, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Don't worry, just let my nerves calm down and I'll be fine. Why are you here? Even better, how did you get in? I know the front door is locked."

"I wanted to see your Uncle, and I teleported myself from the hallway."

"Oh, OK. Well, he's asleep right now."

"I figured that, I was hoping the infrared signature I saw from the hallway was his. I guess it wasn't."

"What do you want him for?"

"I don't know if you remember, but he suggested to me a while back that I keep a journal. I told him that…"

"…You had a perfect memory and 'didn't see the point in a journal.'"

"Correct."

"If I remember correctly, he also offered to give you a blank book to use."

"Yes, he did. I was hoping that offer was still open?"

"I don't think he'd mind. You could have just taken it, couldn't you? I mean you know where he keeps them?"

"Yes I could, and yes I do. I didn't want to do that without checking first. Taking something without permission is stealing, which is something I don't want to do."

"OK. I can understand, and respect that. Hold on."

Ran then headed to the lounge and crouched down next to Kyriu's desk. After a few seconds of searching, she grabbed something, stood up, and flinched again, as she saw Sonnet standing right behind her.

"For not trying to scare me, you do a good job of it."

"I'm sorry, it's just a habit: moving around as quietly as possible."

"I bet you can't do that with those high heel shoes that you wear with your suits."

"Not as easily, no."

"Anyway, here."

Ran passed the blank book she had picked up, from next to the desk, to Sonnet. The taller woman took the book and tucked it under her arm.

"Thank you. Could you let your Uncle know?"

"Of course."

"Also, if he wants me to, I'll pay him for it."

"I don't think he'll be that bothered, but I'll tell him."

"Thanks."

"If you don't mind my asking, what made you change your mind about keeping a journal?"

"Frankly. I'm bored right now. I have just over three and a half hours before I have a one-on-one training duel with Mizuki, and I have nothing to occupy the time with."

"So you're going to spend the next three hours writing journal entries?"

"Why not? It kills the time."

"I suppose so. Anyway, if you don't mind, I'm going back to bed now."

"OK, see you."

Sonnet then teleported herself back to her own apartment. She checked the door was locked, before getting a tray from the kitchen and a pen from her small cabinet in the corner of the lounge, and going back out onto the balcony. Once outside, she sat down on the ground, crossed her legs, placed the tray across her legs, with the journal on the tray, and began writing about events that had happened to her before, and after, she became a Guyver.

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Mizuki woke up at about 05:50; a few minutes before the time she had asked Sonnet to wake her at. She decided that it would be pointless going back to sleep, so she got up and went into the lounge area of the apartment. To her surprise, Sonnet wasn't in the lounge. Mizuki glanced around, and saw her friend sitting cross-legged on the balcony, with her back to the glass doors.

What is she doing? Mizuki wondered, Meditating?

Mizuki walked to the doors, opened them, and took a few steps onto the balcony. Before she reached Sonnet, her bare feet started to feel the cold of the balcony floor.

"Morning Mizuki," Sonnet suddenly said, "You might want to go back inside, it's a little warmer in there."

Mizuki did so, and Sonnet got up and followed her, carrying her new journal under her arm. She closed the curtains over the doors as she entered, and placed the journal on the coffee table next to the doors.

"What's that?" Mizuki asked, indicating the book.

"My journal. Kyriu suggested a while ago that I should keep one, but I told him I didn't see any point, since I had a perfect memory anyway."

"But you're keeping one now?"

"Yes. It'll give me something to do during my free time when you're either asleep, or elsewhere."

"OK."

Sonnet heard the uncertainty in Mizuki's voice.

"Something wrong?"

"I'm just concerned that it might not be such a good idea for you to keep a written journal. What if Chronos find it? If they determined it was your handwriting, they could learn everything about you."

Sonnet frowned.

"Good point. I didn't consider that."

"Is there anywhere you can hide it?"

Sonnet looked carefully around the apartment. She looked especially hard at points on the ceiling. After a minute, she turned to Mizuki.

"I think I have somewhere. I'll need your help though."

"Sure. What can I do?"

Sonnet smiled.

"Some parts of the ceiling in the lounge are just hollow spaces between this apartment, and the one on the floor above," She began, "So…"

"…Cut a hole in the ceiling, and hide it there." Mizuki finished.

Sonnet looked surprised.

"Did you read my mind?"

"No. I don't have that ability. I just guessed that that was what you were going to say."

"You're correct. There will be a cover piece for the hole, which will be a square shape, and the sides will need to be cut at an angle, something like this," Sonnet sent a telepathic image of what she meant to Mizuki. In Mizuki's mind, she saw a shape, which was a bit like a 'v', but with a larger base, "So that it can be removed and replaced at any time, yet not fall out."

"Why me though? You can see which area you want to put it in."

"I can't activate my unit without the energy field, but you can."

Mizuki thought about this for a second.

"OK. GUYVER!!"

Mizuki's faded silver Guyver armour then wrapped around her body. She activated her gravity orb, and floated herself towards the ceiling.

"Where would you like me to cut?"

Sonnet changed her eyes to infrared mode again, and looked back at the ceiling. She then guided Guyver 5 to the point she had in mind. Once she was in position, Guyver 5 cut the hole and then gestured that Sonnet should hand her the journal book.

"Not yet, slide the cover piece to one side. I want to take a look."

Guyver 5 did so, before asking:

"How will you see it from down there?"

"Simple. My eyes can be altered. If I want to, I can see infrared signatures, radiation levels, that kind of thing. I can also zoom in and out like a pair of binoculars."

"Sounds useful. You won't ever have to buy any then. You have them built…"

Guyver 5 trailed off, worried she had offended Sonnet.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

To Guyver 5's surprise, Sonnet grinned, and then started laughing. After about 10 seconds, she stopped and turned to look at Guyver 5, still grinning.

"Don't worry about it. Actually, that was quite funny."

"I didn't offend you then?"

"Only for a second. But I don't care. I said to Ran a while ago that being a cyborg has its uses, and I listed a few things that I considered a benefit. I never considered the zoom in/out ability on my eyes though."

Mizuki smiled beneath her armour. At the same time, Sonnet focused her eyes on the hole, and zoomed in. She saw a smoothly cut hole, which had edges at an angle of about 25 degrees. She then returned her vision to normal.

"It looks good."

"Great. Could you pass me the book please?"

"No. I want to try something. If this works, I can retrieve or hide the journal without your help."

"So if I'm not here, you can still read it or write in it."

"Exactly."

Sonnet's zoomed her eyes back in on the hole, before concentrating her ESP powers. Her eyes started to glow a brighter blue than their natural colour. A few seconds later the journal book lifted from the coffee table, and floated up to the hole. Using her close up view, Sonnet positioned the book so that it would fit, and then lifted it up into the hole and sliding it to one side, away from the cover piece. Finally, she telekinetically slid the cover piece back to where it used to be and returned her eyes to normal again. From her perspective, there was only a slight trace of the hole: very faint lines where the edges were. From Guyver 5's point of view, there was no sign of the hole at all. She slowly lowered herself to the floor, disengaged her unit and looked up at the gap.

"Looks pretty good, if I do say so myself," Mizuki commented, "I doubt anyone would notice it, even if they knew what to look for."

"Yep, good job."

"Thanks."

Sonnet turned around and opened the curtains covering the balcony door before saying:

"Are you ready for our little duel now?"

"Anytime you are. I'll eat and shower when I get back. I don't want to eat now because if you stab me in the stomach…"

"I understand," She said, turning back to face her, "Shouldn't you change your clothes? Those will take any damage you do, and won't be fixed by the armour."

Mizuki looked at the dark red pyjamas that she was wearing.

"No, I'll be fine in these. I think I should only ruin one set of clothes though."

"Smart thinking. I'll train in these, like I did before."

"You already thought of that for yourself."

"Yep. I mentioned it to Ran and Mutaru as well. So, where to?"

Mizuki thought about possible locations, before replying:

"I wouldn't mind returning to the Sahara Desert. It's a large, wide-open, area, which will make it hard for either of us to hide."

"OK. Let's go."

Sonnet held out her hand to Mizuki, who took it. The two of them then vanished in a flash of blue light, only to reappear a few seconds later somewhere in the Sahara Desert. Sonnet instantly moved away from Mizuki before summoning her unit, becoming Guyver Blue. Mizuki, not having to worry about an energy field, simply summoned her unit as soon as Sonnet stepped back.

Guyver 5 and Guyver Blue stood opposite each other, and prepared for combat.

"Don't hold back, Blue."

"Same to you. I want to see how good a fighter you are now, without any restraints."

The two Guyvers then began slowly circling each other. Both appeared to be waiting for the other to make the first move, which caused a short stalemate. Suddenly, Blue ran at Guyver 5, and extended the sonic sword from her left wrist. Guyver 5 had been expecting that to be her first move, and jumped up high to avoid it. In midair, she activated her gravity orb, and prepared a pressure cannon blast. As Blue turned around, Guyver 5 fired the shot. Guyver 5 could picture Sonnet's face under the armour. The cyborg was probably a little surprised at Guyver 5's agility, but only for a few seconds. Blue then jumped back a couple of metres to avoid the gravity ball. As it impacted the ground, it created a large crater in the sand, blowing sand particles everywhere in a large cloud. Guyver 5's vision was obstructed by this, which gave Blue a few seconds to locate Guyver 5, using her infrared eyes, floating about ten metres in the air. Blue then jumped up towards her opponent, passed Guyver 5's face by a few centimetres and carried on heading up. At the tip of her jump, Blue angled her body so that she would be able to land behind Guyver 5, as she started to succumb to gravity again; she released the sonic swords from her wrists and sliced at Guyver 5 as she passed her again. To her surprise, the swords only cut through the air where Guyver 5 was supposed to be. As she landed, Blue looked around, using her infrared eyes and head sensors, for Guyver 5.

Where is she? Blue wondered.

Guyver 5, meanwhile, had materialised about seven metres away from her previous location. After sensing Blue near to her, she had teleported herself, on instinct, out of danger.

I didn't expect her to try that! Guyver 5 thought, a little shaken by Blue's manoeuvre.

Guyver 5 then deactivated her gravity orb, and fell back down to the sandy desert surface. She landed gracefully, bending her knees just before her feet touched the ground, allowing her legs to absorb the shock of her landing. Her immediate reaction after landing was to scan the area for any traces of Blue. Not too surprising, Blue had already sensed her location, and was heading right towards her!

Guyver 5 decided to fight Guyver Blue this time, not avoid her. As Blue closed to within half a metre of her, Guyver 5 spun round, released the sonic sword in her left wrist and stabbed at Blue. Blue's reflexes helped her out here, as she spun to the right, and avoided Guyver 5's sonic sword stab. Guyver 5 however, quickly released the sword in her right wrist, as Blue passed in front of her right hand. The blade stabbed through Blue's stomach area and carried on through her torso, coming out above her right hip.

Underneath her armour, Blue flinched as she felt the blade slice through her, but carried on moving away from Guyver 5. Blue suddenly saw an attack opportunity: Guyver 5 had kept herself lined up with her, so she could see her fully the whole time. Blue used this to her advantage, and suddenly stopped moving. Before Guyver 5 could react, Blue placed her hands on Guyver 5's shoulders and pulled herself up, before putting both feet onto Guyver 5's chest and pushing backwards, performing a back-flip away from Guyver 5. This move gave her a little momentum and put some distance between the two combatants. As she landed, Guyver Blue fired two pressure cannon blasts, one from each palm. Still a little dazed from getting kicked in the chest; Guyver 5 only managed to move away from one gravity blast. The second one caught her right arm, just below the shoulder and blew it off.

Guyver 5 felt her arm get blasted away, and screamed quite loudly for a few seconds, before concentrating, and filtering out the pain from her mind. She then reactivated her gravity orb and flew backwards, away from Guyver Blue, giving her a few seconds to think of an attack strategy to use as a counterattack. The counterattack she came up with was quite a simple one: as she landed, and saw Blue run towards her, Guyver 5 stopped her a short distance away using the sonic disruptor.

Guyver Blue, courtesy of her cyborg enhanced hearing, was greatly affected by the sound of the disruptor, more so than a non-cyborg. Even she felt great pain in her head and upper chest, the sonic pulse was shaking her body's cells, and it clearly hurt her, as she dropped to her knees in pain, holding her head. Guyver 5 made use of Blue's fall, and charged her pressure cannon, building the most powerful gravity ball she could. She then ceased with the sonic disruptor, and fired the cannon.

Guyver Blue felt the pain receding from her head and chest, and started to get to her feet. She only managed to focus herself again, before she felt the gravity blast coming towards her. She quickly evaluated her options, and decided on the best course ofaction. Slightly quicker than Guyver 5's eyes could see, she fell on her back in the sand, flipped herself to her feet and jumped herself up.

Guyver 5 noticed Blue starting to jump; a mere second before the gravity ball hit her. She wasn't quite quick enough though: she managed to jump high enough to get herself clear from the waist up. Her legs were another matter. The power of the blast, even though it only hit her left leg, was great enough to blast both legs, and a small chunk of her torso clean off her body. As she landed, and instantly fell on her side, she realised that she only had one possible move left, and began charging her mega-smashers. She quickly opened her chest plates, and fired the white-hot energy beam at Guyver 5. Since her position was somewhat lower than Guyver 5, Guyver Blue's attack didn't do as much damage as she had hoped. The beam had vaporised most of Guyver 5's right side, including her right arm, part of her torso, and her right leg. Guyver 5 also fell to the ground, landing on her left side.

The area was quiet for almost half an hour, before either Guyver attempted to speak again. Guyver Blue was about to inform Guyver 5 that she had fought very well, and would definitely give Chronos trouble in the future. Before she opened her mouth, however, she sensed that Guyver 5 was concentrating on focusing herself, physically and mentally. Her unit had already started to work on regenerating her body, but the unit's host was using all of her concentration to deal with the pain she was feeling. Blue decided that it would be unwise to try talking to Guyver 5 for the time being, so she activated her gravity orb, which was somehow still working even after the amount of damage her armour had sustained, and lifted herself so that she was floating a few metres off the desert floor.

Once high enough, she began to look around her immediate area, hoping that some of the blown off parts of her body had survived. After nearly ten minutes of careful searching, using her zoom vision, she spotted the blasted off parts of her body. Both of her legs were still intact, although somewhat damaged, as were most of her waist and lower torso.

This will be an interesting challenge. Blue thought as she manoeuvred herself so that she was hovering horizontally over her separated body parts. She then lowered herself, and when she was close enough, reached out and picked up her lower torso, and attached it to her body. She then waited for a few minutes, to make sure her armour was healing the injuries, before reaching down again, grabbing her severed legs one at a time, and reattaching them to her body as well. Now, she realised, she was almost in one piece. The only thing ruining that was the hole where her stomach would be.

Her blast was very powerful, Blue thought; She could easily blow apart almost any zoanoid with a power like that.

Blue then analysed her condition. According to the information her brain was receiving from her unit, it would take approximately 38 minutes to heal the hole in the stomach area, and reconnect all of the nerves, muscles, tendons and tissues between her waist and her legs.

I guess I'll be floating around for a while longer yet. She thought, smiling slightly under her armour. She then moved back to Guyver 5's position to check on her. The other Guyver had regenerated quite a lot while Blue had been out searching. She now had almost half of her missing arm, and over two-thirds of her torso regenerated.

The unit must be saving her legs for last. Blue reasoned, noticing that there was no indication that those limbs had started to be regenerated yet. Blue looked carefully at Guyver 5, trying to determine how long it would take for the unit to regenerate the rest of her torso. Her best estimate was 32 minutes.

I hope my legs have regenerated enough by then, Blue thought, So I can teleport us home.

Blue remained near to her friend, floating around, as she regenerated. During the time Guyver 5 was regenerating, Blue thought about the task that Guyver 1 had requested her help with.

It probably is a shot in the dark on my part. Even if Chronos do have spies within Taron, they wouldn't leave data on them in the computer system. Or, if they did, it would be well hidden. I'll have to buy myself a laptop computer that I can use to read all the data we manage to retrieve.

Blue then realised that she had the bulk of the feeling back in her legs. She slowly lowered herself to the ground, and carefully tested her weight on her legs. She was relieved to learn that, besides the slight numbness, there was nothing wrong with her legs. She then took another look at Guyver 5. She had fully regenerated her torso, and her arm was restored down to her wrist.

Good, I should be able to get her home now.

Guyver Blue then crouched down, picked up the incomplete body of Guyver 5, and then teleported herself away from the Sahara. They reappeared in the lounge area a few seconds later. Blue instantly moved to the sofa, and put Guyver 5 on it. She then disengaged her armour, and turned around to head for the bathroom.

"Thanks, Sonnet. You were a good challenge."

Sonnet turned back to Guyver 5.

"I thought you were unable to talk?"

"Not exactly. I was concentrating on remaining conscious, because I didn't want the self-defence mode kicking in, in case you tried to move me. Now that you have, I can sleep while I also regenerate."

"You're tired?"

"Yes. I wish I had your power supply, it must prove useful."

"Sometimes. Anyway, I'll have to head to work soon, so I'm going in the shower."

"OK. I'll see you when you get back."

"Right."

Guyver 5 then relaxed. Its host closed her eyes, and let herself fall to sleep. Sonnet, meanwhile, had gone into the bathroom. She set the shower running, and waited for a few minutes while the water warmed up. During that time, she took a look at the condition her clothes were now in. Since Guyver Blue had had her legs and part of her torso blown off, her t-shirt now had a hole around the stomach area, and some of the material in her jeans was also missing. In all cases though, the skin beneath the gaps was undamaged.

I wonder how many more training sessions these will be good for now? She thought.

She removed her trainers, which hadn't taken any damage at all, and placed them next to her washing basket, she then removed her t-shirt, folded it carefully, and placed it on the lid of the basket. Then she took off her jeans, but as she started to fold them, she wondered:

Should I dispose of these? They won't be able to take much more of a beating.

No, actually, I'll keep them. They might as well be used as much as possible before being disposed of.

Finally, Sonnet removed her underwear and entered the shower. She spent a couple of minutes allowing the warm water to soak her hair and skin, before starting to clean herself of the sweat and sand she had gathered from the training duel. Almost 15 minutes later she turned off the shower. A couple of minutes after that, she got out of the shower and grabbed a towel from the airing cupboard and dried herself off. She moved from the bathroom to her bedroom, retrieved her grey suit, as well as a clean blouse and underwear from her wardrobe and drawers, and dressed herself. She went into the lounge to check on Mizuki, and write her a note, before realising that she had to return to the bathroom to retrieve the ties for her hair on her way out. She then placed the note on her coffee table where Mizuki would see it, along with another item, before leaving her apartment and heading for the Chronos Japan building.

When she arrived, she signed into the building, as usual, and went to her office. The first thing she did was check her email, which contained a confirmation that the information she had sent the day before, her home address, had been received and entered into the Chronos employee database. Her next new message was from Dr Balcus, stating that a zoanoid transformation fluid was ready for her design, and would be tested during the afternoon of the following day.

That'll be the time for the others then. She thought.

Her final message contained her tasks for the day, which included coming up with a second zoanoid design, should it be needed.

Doesn't seem like anyone has spotted my 'design flaw' yet.

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Guyver 5 had been sleeping for quite a while after Sonnet left for the Chronos Building. The time was now about 10:34, and Guyver 5's host was waking up. The eyes of the armour changed from black to pink, and steam was vented via the mouth vents. Mizuki then tested her condition. After a few minutes, she determined that she could feel every limb fully, and had completely regenerated from the injuries sustained during the duel earlier.

Mizuki then decided she would have a bath and change her clothes, before making herself a late breakfast. She got up from the sofa, went into the bathroom and prepared herself a bath. She then shut down her armour and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

These pyjamas will definitely need to be thrown out. Mizuki thought as she stood in front of the mirror. Like Sonnet's had, her clothes had taken damage from the duel and were no longer in any condition to be worn. As the bath filled up, Mizuki checked the water temperature before removing the tattered remains of the pyjamas and climbing in.

Twenty minutes later, she climbed back out of the bath, grabbed another towel from the airing cupboard, dried herself, and then went into her bedroom to get dressed. She dressed herself in the back t-shirt and green skirt she had worn the previous day. She then returned to the lounge, and sat down on the sofa.

I wonder what can I do today, since Ran will be at work, and Mutaru will probably be working at his warehouse job?

She then spotted Sonnet's note. She got up from the table and read it.

OK, I'll help Sonnet out there if I can. She has written 'Don't worry if you can't find something suitable, I'll look myself some other time if that happens.' So if I don't have any luck, she won't mind.

Mizuki's stomach then rumbled, which reminded her that she hadn't eaten. So she put the two items into a pocket in her skirt, and went into the kitchen to make herself some breakfast.

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AN: I'd like to quickly thank Refugee at this point. The idea of Sonnet keeping a journal was something he suggested to me a while ago, when I had writer's block for this story. I initially rejected the idea, because I couldn't see a use for it. I even gave him the same reason Sonnet mentioned to Ran and Kyriu, the perfect memory one. Now, however, I've found a use for that idea, so I'm implementing it in my story.

Thank you for the suggestion Refugee.