A-a-a-alright people, here it is – the new chapter, right on the schedule. Initially I wanted to fit the entire 'Kyoto disturbances' event into one big chapter, but in the process I've realized that it is going to be just enormously big, so in the end I decided to split it into two. Enjoy.
My comments for the reviewers:
Darkkon27: Thanks. And believe me – there are a lot more mysteries ahead.
kuro yaksha: Yes, he most likely will. And here's the new chapter.
FateBurn: Thanks.
Imperial-samaB: At your service.
alvatorez: Umm… I think marrying Tabane de jure will only worsen Ichika's situation, besides, his relationships with Tabane are quite complicated yet – a lot of work is still needed for everything to look proper.
Alex2909: Be patient people, Ichika-Tabane relationships can't appear out of blue.
Primordial Inscriptor Z-09: Yep, she seemingly has an enormous sleeves, considering the number of tricks she's hiding there.
Now, let's proceed with the chapter.
Chapter XXIV – Battle Goddess
…
November 3rd, Friday, 10:33 A.M.
"We are arriving at Kyoto Station. We are arriving at Kyoto Station." The Shinkansen also has an English announcement for the foreigners to understand. The crowd of first-year students started to prepare their luggage.
Of course, the words "Kyoto Station" caused the selected members – Houki, Charlotte and Laura – to light up their eyes.
"Oh, we've finally arrived to Kyoto? Although Kanazawa is good, when it comes to Japan's ancient capital, Kyoto is still the best!" Houki announced.
"Yes, and this is my first time travelling to Kyoto too," Charlotte agreed, "I'm really looking forward to it! Laura?"
"Me neither," Silver-haired girl nodded, she seemed inspired.
On the other hand, Cecilia and Rin looked disappointed.
"Why do I have to do things similar to a manual labor… also, no old capital could surpass London…" Cecilia mumbled.
"Oh, Kyoto again… Why is it that in Japan, every time the 'excursion' is mentioned, it has to be Kyoto? I've been there three times. Three!" Rin exclaimed unhappily. Although it was clear in her attitude, the next phrase that Yamada-sensei said made her attitude shift 180 degrees.
"Then, I'm assigning Orimura-san into a group with Lingyin-san and Alcott-san," Maya looked into her list.
*Flash* Two pairs of eyes suddenly lit up.
"This lady, Cecilia Alcott, will do it!" Blonde announced.
"It can't be helped, although I didn't want to do it, there's no other way!" Rin 'reluctantly' agreed.
Cecilia and Rin suddenly became energetic, but to their side, Houki and the others now looked like vegetables sprinkled with salt due to sudden loss of strength.
"W… why? Why Cecilia and Rin…?" Houki seemed shocked.
"I'm not in the same group as Ichika…" Charlotte mumbled.
"End of status, return immediately…" Laura said something weird.
Only Kanzashi didn't seem dejected, she just calmly looked away.
And Ichika, on his end, showed no reaction at all – he seemed like this from the very morning, completely uninterested in his surroundings. "Ah, hey! Orimura-san, are you alright? We're going to be at Kyoto Station soon," Maya Yamada called for him as he showed no reaction even when he heard the announcer.
"Yes, I'm okay," He replied simply, still showing no interest in anything.
November 3rd, Friday, 11:42 A.M.
Kyoto station wasn't the end of the line – from there the whole group had to take another train to the Hieizan-Sakamoto station, and from there – to the Cable Enryakuji station.
After the journey, they finally were heading towards Enryakuji Kaikan hotel.
"Ichika-san!"
"Ichika!"
As soon as they got off the cabin, Cecilia and Rin caught up with Ichika, and double-teamed to grab onto his left and right arms. And Ichika didn't try to avoid them or shake them off – he seemingly was just fine with two girls holding onto him.
"Anyway, this excursion should be very interesting!" Cecilia sang.
"That's right. Ah, Ichika, how about I dress up as a geisha for you? Would Cecilia also be interested?" Rin suggested.
"Oh? I'm very interested, ohoho!" Blonde let out an ojō-sama's laugh.
Rin and Cecilia both looked very happy, however, Houki, Charlotte, and Laura were all putting on a frown.
"Wait a minute! Even if we were to go separately, you two are not allowed to monopolize! This isn't a game!" Houki protested.
"Yes! This is a clear violation of the law… isn't it? Anyway, you're not allowed to do that!" Charlotte offered Houki her full support.
"The bride's ownership obviously belongs to me!" Laura declared.
Girls were right in the middle of their arguing, when Ichika finally spoke up, "I didn't come here for an excursion…"
The statement surprised everyone, causing them to open their mouths.
"Huh, what…?"
"I… Ichika, do you have a fever?"
"Have you been sleeping well?"
"Oh? I'll give you a military-style massage then."
"Ichika-san, in order to get a good night's rest, would you like to have some tea together?"
Each girl said their own thing, but Ichika just shook his head, "No, sorry, don't mind me, let's enjoy our trip…"
Ah, and, by the way – here's more than 120 girls in total, and not all of them were pleased with Ichika being monopolized by the personal I.S. pilots, to put it mildly. It's just would've taken too much time to describe the commotion…
After they left the cable station, they came across a long staircase.
"Oh, this is a good place to take a group photo…" Surprisingly, the one who muttered those words, was Chifuyu (though, for Ichika it wasn't a surprise).
"Oh yes, you're right, Orimura-sensei, then let's take a commemorative photo," Maya agreed.
"Shall I, Orimura-sensei?" Seeing as how Ichika didn't call his elder sister by her name, both of them were in the 'academy' mode.
"Yes. Everyone, gather around," Chifuyu ordered the girls to line up on the stairs.
It took about two minutes to line up all the girls. But when Ichika was about to take the picture, Rin came up beside him. "You're not going to be in the shot then! Come, Yamada-sensei, please could you take the photo?"
As several people turned to her, Maya seemed a bit confused, but after seeing Chifuyu's guilty expression, she agreed, younger sensei knew that Chifuyu really wants to be on that photo, together with Ichika – taking photos was a tradition of sort for the two of them.
Maya already took out the phone, but this time Ichika himself interfered. "Rin, what are you doing? Yamada-sensei, please, get back in line, we all should be on that photo," He said as he gently grabbed Maya's shoulders and made her to stay between Chifuyu and Kanzashi.
"Huh? But, Orimura-san, what about you?" Maya seemed confused.
"Don't worry, people call me genius for a reason, you know?" He replied, outstretching his right arm. Within a moment, out of sheaf of blue square particles, a black moth-like thing was formed, and though it looked like a moth, it was of a size of an average crow. "This is the stratospheric probe, Eye of Azazel," Ichika explained, Chifuyu rolled her eyes as she heard the name. "Of course, I designed it to survey the earth's surface from twenty miles altitude, but its high-quality optics can make a photo from close range too, no problems…" The huge moth soared into the air (several girls shivered) and took position in front and above of the crowd.
Of course, Ichika caused another commotion, but when everything settled down, several ultra-high resolution HDR photos were taken, and no one has been left behind. That's a valuable moment, even if these people will never reunite again…
November 3rd, Friday, 11:16 A.M.
"Listen up, everyone," Maya called for students' attention. She and Chifuyu were standing on stairs of traditional-like, quaint hotel, in front of the crowd. "You now have a free time with your group!"
"But remember, we're scheduled to pay a visit to Kiyomizu-dera Temple this evening. Be sure to get there by the appointed time," Chifuyu reminded. "Understood? You are dismissed!"
"Yes!" More than 120 voices replied in unison.
While girls were settling in to the hotel under Orimura-sensei's guidance, Ichika, who had no luggage at all, was waiting outside. Maya Yamada approached him. "Um, Orimura-san, a piece of luggage has been delivered to you," She informed.
"Luggage?" Ichika looked at Maya, "I didn't order to deliver anything, are you sure that it's for me?"
"Yes," she nodded, pointing at a big suitcase, "Please, take a look by yourself."
Ichika looked at the nameplate. «To: Orimura Ichika. From: Secret.» But even before he finished reading Ichika recognized the handwriting.
"Ichika-sama… what's the matter…" Kanzashi approached him.
"Ah, Kanzashi-chan, good timing," He replied, pointing at the suitcase, "Would you mind to help me? I need to send this back to the kindergarten it came from…" But before Ichika could finish his phrase, a suitcase suddenly shook and then almost jumped on its own.
"Ah?!" Kanzashi jerked away from the weird suitcase as Ichika sighed heavily. The suitcase fell on the ground and opened, and Tatenashi, dressed like a local tour guide, appeared from the inside.
"Tada! Kanzash-chan! Tatenashi onee-san has arrived!" She announced happily.
"Onee-chan?!" Kanzashi exclaimed in shock.
Ichika rolled his eyes, "Hey, shouldn't you be taking a trip to Itsukushima with other second years?..." But again, before Ichika could even finish his phrase, he was interrupted.
"You, you… Why, you…!" Letting out an embarrassed cry, Kanzashi leaped to her sister, and started to push her back into the suitcase.
"Kanzashi-chan?! Stop it! Hey, hey!" Tatenashi protested and tried to resist, "I haven't done anything yet!"
But Kanzashi didn't back down, she somehow managed to put her elder sister back into the suitcase and lock the lid. "Ichika-sama, I'm sorry!" Kanzashi apologized as she picked up the suitcase and ran towards the Cable Enryakuji Station.
"Haah…" Ichuka sighed again, "So, why you aren't in Itsukushima with the other second years?" He asked. Of course, his eyes weren't fooled with Tatenashi's water clone, and knowing this, he easily found the real one nearby – she was hiding behind the column.
"My family has an informant here," Tatenashi admitted. "But he went silent since Tuesday, I've came to investigate."
"Hmm, suspicious coincidence," Ichika agreed. The destination for the first-years' school trip was announced that day. But actually – he was a bit surprised with Tatenashi's response – he was sure that she's going to talk some nonsense. But her reason appeared to be surprisingly legit, and seemingly she trusts Ichika enough to disclose it. "Alright, look for it, I'll watch over things here."
"I hoped you'd say so," Tatenashi smiled.
November 3rd, Friday, 1:16 P.M.
Despite it was still pretty long until the evening, I.S. Academy students already started to gather around Kiyomizu-dera Temple. In particular, a certain Chinse girl with two ponytails now was at Jishu Shrine. 'I'm not the type of person who makes wishes to gods, but since this shrine is so famous for making romantic relationships successful, there has to be something to it, right?' Rin thought as she smiled, filling the wooden ladle with water. She poured water on the stone, dedicated to Okuninushi no Mikoto, and prayed, putting her palms together and closing her eyes, 'Please, help my feelings to get through that impenetrable armor of his heart…' She opened her eyes and looked at the stone, 'All right!' The Rin turned around… and almost collided with Cecilia, who seemingly was daydreaming on walk, holding a wooden plate with 'Good match prayer' being written on it.
"Oh, hey! Wha… what a coincidence!" Rin exclaimed nervously, hiding the wooden ladle, with kanji 'Love' written on it, behind her back. "Is this shrine famous for something?" Chinse girl asked, trying to look innocent, "I was just passing by, so I decided to check it out…"
"I happened to be in this area, too," Cecilia quickly turned away, hiding a wooden plate, "I thought I might as well pay a visit…"
"Oh, is that so…" Rin let out a nervous laugh.
"Yes," Cecilia also laughed, but then two girls looked at each other seriously, frowning. Of course, they didn't fool one another. But then they were distracted with a splash of water nearby.
"I wish to have many children," Laura said aloud, pouring water on the Okuninushi no Mikoto's stone.
"Laura-san, when did you get here?!" Cecilia asked in surprise.
"Wait, what did you just say?!" Rin pointed at Laura with a wooden ladle, which she was trying to hide a moment ago.
"I heard this is how you make a wish here," Laura replied as if it was nothing special, she was holding the same wooden ladle as Rin. Both English and Chinse girls sighed helplessly, being envious of Laura's honesty and straightforwardness.
"Hey, what's up people?" A familiar man's voice asked from behind. However, Ichika's question was left without attention as all of it now was dedicated to Charlotte, who stood beside him, and seemed quite nervous.
"Charlotte-san! What is the meaning in this?!" Cecilia immediately pounced on a French girl.
"Don't tell me you've been on a date behind our backs?!" Rin quickly joined the questioning.
"No, that's not it…" Charlotte took a step back. But other girls pressed on, and she quickly found herself cornered. "We… we just happen to meet accidentally! We were just walking around and somehow ended up here… please, Ichika-sama, tell them!… Huh?" Charlotte tried to ask Ichika for help, but he was nowhere to be found. In the end – vanishing like a ghost was his specialty.
""""ICHIKA!"""" Four voices screamed in anguish.
November 3rd, Friday, 1:42 P.M
Orimura Chifuyu was walking along one of the temple's alleys. Maya Yamada was following her.
"Orimura-sensei…" Maya asked, looking at Chifuyu's back, "Is something bothering you?" Black-haired woman seemed a bit strained from the very morning.
"Yeah," Chifuyu admitted. "Since our school and our students have been targeted several times already, please pay close attention to the area so the students could enjoy this trip…"
"Ah, yes!" Maya readily agreed, as she smiled, being touched with Chifuyu's care about students.
But Chifuyu couldn't return that smile – she had to stay focused. Troubles were happening one after another this year – Golem's attack, incident with Laura, Silver Gospel on the rampage, attack on the academy during school festival, followed by the attack during Cannonball Fast race, and just two weeks ago – another incident with unmanned I.S.-es. But most alarming was yesterday's premonition – Chifuyu just couldn't forget that crimson sun…
November 3rd, Friday, 2:15 P.M
Actually, today Ichika wasn't hiding from his fangirls – on the contrary, he spent almost the entire day, listening to their endless chattering. But now he decided to rest a bit. And as he was standing on the bridge, leaning on railings, a single holoscreen was floating in front of Ichika. There were no readings and no formulas – there were photos of Ichika and Chifuyu. Ichika's first day in primary school – on the photo Chifuyu is helping him to put on his backpack. The day of Chifuyu's graduation ceremony in middle school – on the photo Ichika is standing beside her – holding her diploma. The day when Chifuyu won the first Mondo Grosso – on the photo they are standing together – Ichika is holding her winner's cup and Chifuyu is showing her gold medal. And many other photos, with Ichika and Chifuyu, always together, only the two of them.
'She said I should never forget those who have been with me the longest…' Ichika remembered sister's words. 'But it was you who had been with me all that time, onee-chan,' He thought, looking at the flowing water. Then he summoned the photo that he took earlier today – at the stairs. "I'm sorry, girls, but I'm not a hero…" He spoke out quietly. "Shining with nobility isn't my thing – I can't guarantee that I can protect everyone."
He's not a hero – he's a warrior. His task – eliminate the enemy and protect only the most precious among all things. Ichika zoomed the photo in, so now only Chifuyu's face could be seen. "But this I can promise – I will not fail you…"
November 3rd, Friday, 4:57 P.M
Kiyomizu's terrace. Sky already started to become orange as all and every first-year students of I.S. Academy have gathered at the Kiyomizu-dera – some were buying souvenirs, some were at the pagoda, but about half of the students gathered on the Kiyomizu's terrace – almost 60 persons, among general public – so the place seemed very crowded.
"Kiyomizu's terrace sits on the thirteen-meter-high mountain slope, supported by 139 pillars called the 'hell posts'!" The tour guide explained.
"It's beautiful!" Charlotte exclaimed excitedly as she looked at the red-orange forest, illuminated by the sunset.
"This is magnificent!" Cecilia agreed, she seemed excited.
"Guys, we'll meet up at the monorail station at the scheduled time!" Maya Yamada announced. Monorail train should deliver academy's students to the hotel where they're staying, which is few miles away from here.
"I'll go check out the souvenirs!"
"Hey, why don't we go see what's over there?"
"Look, look! Let's get closer!"
Girls were chatting away happily – many of them are foreigners – so this is a very good opportunity. The trip seems to be successful.
But Ichika now was looking at a woman, who stood a bit aside from others, watching the setting sun. And that sight was… majestic. That 'goddess presence' of Chifuyu is filling the surrounding air. Big black moth appeared on Ichika's shoulder and took a photo of his sister.
Chifuyu turned to him, "It's not nice to take a photo of a woman without asking her permission first."
Ichika rolled his eyes, "Don't say it like I'm some sort of a paparazzi. Look at the foreshortening," He summoned a holoscreen and made it to fly closer to his sister.
"Hmm, be sure to make a physical copy for me later," Chifuyu nodded with satisfied expression before she went away.
"Ichika," Charlotte approached him.
"Yes? What's up?" He asked.
"I want to see the photos you've taken today," She said.
"Hmm? Okay, why not," He replied as holoscreen that was showing Chifuyu's photo now flew back to Ichika and started to display the today's pictures.
"Oh, you've been to so many locations! How did you do this?!" Girl was surprised – today Ichika spent several hours with her and other girls. But of course, Ichika didn't visit all those places – his remote-controlled moths-probes were taking photos, following Ichika's will.
"I want to see them, too!" Cecilia announced as she also approached Ichika. "Oh, look at this one. This one look so nice!"
"Hey, I'm still looking at them, you know!" Charlotte protested.
"But I want to see them, too!" Cecilia insisted. Naturally, two blondes started a commotion, which immediately attracted the other girls' attention.
"Orimura-sama, I want to see the photos, too!"
"That's not fair!"
"Let me see them!"
"Me too, me too!"
*Clap!* A loud clap of Ichika's palms quieted down the noisy arguing as a holoscreen with photos disappeared. "Alright, ladies, stop this," Ichika ordered calmly but loudly, "We're disturbing other tourists, look around." Truth to his words, a lot of people were looking worried and even scared due to the sudden commotion. "I promise to show all the photos today after dinner, on a big screen. Now, c'mon, we should advance towards the monorail station. Charlotte, Kanzashi," Ichika called for class 1-1 and 1-4 representatives. Sighing disappointedly, girls started to calm down, Ichika was a natural leader, after all.
November 3rd, Friday, 5:49 P.M
Almost all the students already left to the station, only Ichika, Cecilia and Houki were still near the temple, now they were walking by Taisanji. From here it will be an about half-an-hour-long walk to Yamashina Station. From there – the charter express train, via brand-new aerial monorail line, which should deliver all the academy students and staff to the Sakamoto Station, from where they should easily get to the Enryakuji Kaikan hotel via Sakamoto Cable. Charter express was scheduled to depart at 6:30 P.M., so Ichika and Co. should hurry up to not be late.
The group was already on the walk as Ichika suddenly stopped and his eyes flashed. "Cecilia, Houki," He addressed the two girls that were walking beside him, "It seems that I've forgot something. Go without me, I'll catch up," And as he said that, Ichika quickly turned around and ran towards Kiyomizu's terrace.
"Ah, Ichika-san?"
"Hey, Ichika?"
"I'll be right back, don't wait for me!" He replied simply. The girls seemed surprised, but Ichika didn't explain anything as he quickly ran off. As soon as he disappeared behind the corner, Ichika jumped over the fence and without uttering a single word he deployed his I.N. – Majin Naamah. His eyes now were evenly colored, glowing with fiery-red light, meaning the activation of his second Archangel. He quickly soared into the air and flew towards the Daimonjiyama's mountain peak.
November 3rd, Friday, 6:17 P.M
"Guys, make sure that all your friends are sitting next to you!" Maya Yamada announced.
There were still several minutes until departure, but since there are so many students – you can't be too careful. Shizune Takatsuki, one of Ichika's classmates, called for Maya, "Sensei, Orimura Ichika-sama isn't here yet!"
"Shinonono-san and Alcott-san aren't here, either," Another girl looked around.
"Hey, look over there," A girl that was sitting near the window pointed to the north, over the Daimonji mountain. Something was glowing there, hovering over the peak.
Chifuyu's sight immediately sharpened, even from here she recognized Ichika's I.N. – Demon Queen. She quickly stepped away from others and quietly called her brother, via sound-only channel, "Orimura, what is going on?"
"I'm not really sure," Ichika replied with his normal voice, which means that he even deactivated his Archangel. "Naamah spotted an unknown energy signature somewhere around here, but it disappeared almost as soon as I've deployed my unit. Right now, I'm investigating the unidentified contact's last known location," Ichika reported.
"Understood," Chifuyu replied, frowning.
"Orimura-sensei, what should we do?" Maya approached Chifuyu.
Orimura-sensei thought for a moment. Let alone Ichika's findings – there are still two students with personal units who didn't arrive. She just couldn't leave it be. "Yamada-sensei, go on ahead and take our students to the hotel. I'll contact you as soon as I'll learn more about the situation," Chifuyu ordered.
"Yes!" Maya saluted.
Chifuyu headed to the closest door, but before she could step out, all doors in the entire train got closed. At the same time, all the writings on the destination boards inside the train got erased.
"What the…" Chifuyu stepped back as an echo of worried students' exclamations went through the train.
Two minutes earlier, atop of the observation deck of Kyoto Tower. Squall Meusel, the leader of the Monochrome Avatar squad, was looking down at the city with lorgnette-like binocular made of gold. She was wearing luxury clothes and shoes, and a lot of pricy jewelry.
"Looking at the town gracefully from a place like this, huh?" A girl's voice noted from behind. "Wealthy people sure do things differently."
"Remind me, was Moscow's Dense Fog your I.S. name?" Squall asked calmly as she didn't even turn to Tatenashi.
"That was her old name. She's now called Renia Nui, the name he bestowed upon her," Sarashiki replied.
"I see…" Squall replied lazily as she finally turned to the girl.
"What are you plotting, Phantom Task?" Tatenashi asked as she looked at the blonde-haired woman sharply.
"Oh, how much do you know about it, Sarashiki Tatenashi-san?" Squall inquired casually.
"I know I won't let you have your way," Tatenashi declared.
"Congratulations on finding me here, but I guess you were a little late!" Squall laughed as she partly deployed her I.S., Golden Dawn, its scorpion-like tail, the Prominence, for instance. The Prominence, a large tail with stinger that able to grab enemies or deflect enemy attacks, immediately shot forth and grabbed Tatenashi. "It's already begun!" Blond-haired woman announced as Tatenashi clenched her teeth, struggling to break free.
The train, with academy students aboard, started to accelerate rapidly, forcing the screaming and scared girls to hold on to anything just to not fall on the carriage's floor.
"What's going on?!" Rin exclaimed worriedly.
"I don't know. I'll try to get inside of the train's control system," Kanzashi announced as she summoned a holoscreen and a keyboard and started working.
"What should we do, Orimura-sensei?!" Maya asked worriedly.
"Contact the school right away and request the military backup!" Chifuyu ordered – she remained level-headed.
"Understood!" Maya saluted and ran off.
Chifuyu clenched her teeth, 'They're willing to stoop this low, huh?' She raised her arm, intending to call Ichika – she wanted him to look for Cecilia and Houki. But at that moment, the blinding flash illuminated the entire city…
One minute earlier. Hovering about 200 feet above the Daimonjiyama, Ichika was looking at his magnetometric scanner's screen. 'I don't understand… what was it?' He thought, unable to find the source of the alert. Naamah warned him about electromagnetic disturbance in the local vicinity and Ichika deployed his I.N. as quickly as he could. He saw a 'dot' on the magnetometric scanner – that clearly was an unknown I.S. – only its ion thrusters have such a signature. But 'dot' disappeared about three or four seconds after Ichika deployed his unit. 'They saw me, got scared and ran away?... Or… or what?' He was actually slightly puzzled.
The evacuation order has already been given – the Daimonjiyama's walkways are pretty popular places among both locals and tourists. Local police and tour guides were scrambled to evacuate civilians, and now the Daimonjiyama became as silent as graveyard as all people have been evacuated. The unknown I.S. pilot has mingled with the crowd and got away as well? That would be an unfortunate turn of events – Ichika will look like an alarmist. He has to find at least something. His black moth-like probes were swirling around, but he still got no clues.
"Adonai, I'm detecting some readings," Naamah reported.
"Explain," Ichika requested more details.
"Insufficient data," A.I. replied, "Something emits weak β-radiation, but I can't localize its source."
'What is going on? One weird thing after another…' He thought. And at the next moment he noticed something. He couldn't see the object itself, but thanks to his enhanced field of vision and very sharp eyes he managed to see the turbulence, which that thing was making. Something was approaching him very fast, from above – actually something was falling right on him. However, due to object's optical camouflage and small size, Ichika noticed it too late, even for him, to evade the sneak attack.
He didn't get worried, though. Even if there's just several feet left and he can't avoid this thing – it shouldn't be too bad – Naamah has a pretty thick shield – 750 points. And that won't work for the second time – with his eyes in active form he'll be able to spot such thing a thousand feet away. So now he just prepared for the impact. But…
Blinding flash illuminated the entire city of Kyoto. A very powerful explosion, despite it happened about 200 feet above the surface, uprooted and ignited several hundreds of trees, and wrecked a significant part of the mountain itself. A modified version of AGM-62 Walleye glide bomb, equipped with optical camouflage and armed with W72 nuclear warhead, scored a direct hit at Demon Queen.
November 3rd, Friday, 6:20 P.M
"Ichika?!" As her vision got restored to some extent, Chifuyu's eyes widened in shock as she was looking at the forming mushroom cloud. 'Are they've gone nuts!? Nuclear explosion in the middle of the city!?' She could hardly believe her eyes.
The W72 warhead was one of the smallest nuclear devices ever created, it has a yield of 0.6 kilotons (625 metric tons, to be more precise) – a very small yield for an atomic bomb. But still, being exploded at 200 feet altitude, the radius of 'total annihilation area' is about 350-380 feet, and 'severe damage area' is about 750-800 feet.
Ten years ago, the White Knight proved all the conventional weaponry to be obsolete. But that's due to I.S. supreme maneuverability, tactical flexibility and reaction time. I.S. can easily intercept and destroy any conventional missile or bomb. But it wasn't designed to withstand a direct hit from a nuclear warhead. And that nuclear blast occurred right in front of Ichika's face…
At this moment, other train passengers began to realize what happened. "Orimura-san?!" Maya exclaimed in panic. She quickly switched her laptop to display the academy I.S. units' status window, and found the Demon Queen's page. «Contact lost, status unknown» was shown on the display.
""""Ichika?!"""" Several girls, including Laura, Rin, Charlotte and Kanzashi leaped toward the nearest windows.
"Don't panic!" Chifuyu demanded, "All of you – get back to your sits, now!"
Girls looked at her in shock – but they couldn't disobey, being under sensei's searing gaze. Besides, they knew that, among all the people riding on that train, Chifuyu is definitely the one most worried. But she can't allow herself to be consumed with worries – she has duties to protect her students. Chifuyu took a breath, "Calm down, everyone. We have a situation on our hands," She closed her eyes and spoke calmly, only her slightly trembling hands were disclosing her real feelings. "Sarashiki, hack into the mainframe," Orimura-sensei looked at Kanzashi, "See if there's any way you can stop that train."
"Yes… yes ma'am…" Kanzashi stuttered, but following the teacher's example she forced herself to get to work. She tried to enter the system, but was unable to connect. "I… I can't… Someone has control over the whole system! They're blocking the access points!"
"They really planned this one out, right?" Chifuyu bit her lower lip, 'What the hell is going on?!'
November 3rd, Friday, 6:21 P.M
"You've gone… completely nuts?!" Tatenashi croaked, still struggling against Golden Dawn's tail. Her vision was still a bit blurry, but she already realized what exactly happened, thanks to a raising mushroom cloud.
"That dastardly swine got exactly what he deserved!" Squall declared with wicked smile, as she was pushing Tatenashi closer to the observation deck's edge, "It serves him right for what he did to all of us!"
"It is a bit premature to celebrate…" Tatenashi replied, suddenly showing a bold smile, "Something like that is not enough… to kill Orimura Ichika…" And that wasn't a bravado – Tatenashi sincerely thought so, and she couldn't explain why, even to herself. "And until his return… I won't let you have your way…"
"Hah!" Squall snorted, "That's still not all the cards in our hand! You know the monorail your academy's right on now? We planted a bomb there," Blonde smiled evilly, "I'll enjoy watching as you try your hardest to prevent another tragedy."
"All right," Tatenashi replied, her sight got sharper, but she didn't seem to lose her confidence, "I'll get on that."
"I'm not so sure you'll be able to," Squall mocked her opponent, as her scorpion-like tail tightened its grip, making Tatenashi to grimace with pain. "Goodbye," Blonde said victoriously as she almost pushed the girl from the observation deck.
But suddenly, Tatenashi's eyes glinted and her body dissipated to thousands of glowing drops of water. Drops of water quickly gathered into streams of shining liquid, which quickly surrounded Squall. While the blonde was looking around in shock, trying to figure out what's going on, water streams began to wrap around Squall's limbs. A few moments later, an explosion occurred.
The explosion wasn't really powerful, as shield protected Squall (even her clothes remained intact), but that took her down a peg, just a bit. "Phantom Task," Teasing girl's voice called from above and behind Squall. She quickly turned around, to see the real Tatenashi floating above, with her I.S. deployed. "I'll see you later," Tatenashi smiled. Actually, while observing Squall, she, the real Tatenashi, noticed some weird thing – it seemed as if Squall's forehead is glowing, but she couldn't take a good look at it as blonde's hair were closing her forehead. Besides, right now Tatenashi has no time for weird things. Renia Nui engaged her thrusters and flew towards the hijacked monorail train.
But Squall had no intentions to let Tatenashi interfere into her plan. "My, don't be so cold!" She shouted with regained, arrogant smile as she jumped into the air. As she fully deployed her I.S. – Golden Dawn – Squall opened fire from both of her plasma machineguns, Solid Flares, forcing Renia Nui to engage the evasive maneuvers.
"Cough! Cough! What the…" Houki tried to stood up.
"Auch… My eyes…" Cecilia was completely dumbfounded.
Two girls were just running by the bottom of the Daimonji mountain when nuclear blast occurred. As they were about 4000 feet away from the epicenter, they were at the edge of the 'light damage area'. Blinded by the blast's flash, they couldn't 'duck and cover', so both were knocked off their feet, got some light burns, and a lot of small debris fell on them. Due to the terrain relief, they didn't see Ichika before the explosion, so they weren't aware of his situation.
Houki's sight was still a bit blurry, so she didn't see, but just felt a threat. "Get away!" She shouted as she leaped to Cecilia and pushed her aside. Together, two girls rolled head over heels for several meters as a medium caliber shell hit the ground where two of them were just a second ago.
"What do you think you're doing, you little brats!" Rough female's voice shouted.
Rubbing her eyes, Cecilia looked at the voice's source. "Ah?!" She exclaimed as she saw a huge spider-like thing on the roof of the pagoda nearby. She recognized it – she saw it at debriefing after the academy's anniversary festival's incident. That was Arachne – a stolen U.S. second generation I.S. "You?!" Cecilia shouted.
"It's Autumn-sama! Have you forgotten?!" She screamed, seemingly she's still the same psychotic bitch as before. "Go to hell!" Autumn charged her cannon for another shot.
Houki and Cecilia jumped to different directions, dodging another shell, but of course they actually had no intentions to run away from that half-sane bitch.
"Let's go, Crimson Camelia!"
"Appear, Blue Tears!"
Light cowered girls' bodies, as their I.S.-es were deployed. "Get that! And that! And that!" Autumn continued to fire, forcing girls to avoid her attacks.
Unknown time and location
Crimson thunderclouds closed the skies. Rays of black 'light', being emitted by the same-colored sun, were penetrating clouds here and there, draining light from the surrounding as meteors were falling down from the dark skies. Along the shore of the sea, made of boiling lava, Ichika was walking over the burning sand, but hellish flames couldn't touch him. That was a world that he created for his I.N. – Majin Naamah. The world she was living in.
"Hey, where are you?" Ichika called for someone. Of course he knew exactly what happened with him in the real world, but he didn't seem worried at all.
"I'm here, Adonai!" Woman's voice replied as someone appeared from the sea of boiling lava. She jumped into the air and quickly flew towards her master. A woman with pitch-black hair, pair of curled horns on her head, and two huge, demonic black wings. A black metallic crown with large, glowing ruby was floating above her head. She wore extremely revealing, black armor made of bones. Black metallic chains were wrapped around her arms. She was the avatar of the real I.S. core № 001 – Naamah.
"It's been a while since we've met in person, isn't it?" Ichika asked casually when demoness landed and knelt in front of him. He seemed pretty calm, considering his situation, by the way, "How long ago has it been? Almost four months, huh? It's a pity that we only do meet due to circumstances like this…"
"Adonai, please!" Demoness interrupted him. "Your body suffered greatly, and if…"
Ichika didn't let her to continue. "You're not allowed to behave like those girls," He said, raising his hand. "Don't rush things. Can you show me the consequences of the explosion?" He asked.
"Yes," Naamah replied, "I still have a link with one of the Eyes of Azazel." She stood up and moved her palms apart, creating a vortex of hellish flames between them. In the middle of the flames an image appeared. That definitely was a live image from one of Ichika's moth-like probes – one of them survived the explosion. The summit of the Daimonjiyama was destroyed. Now, at the top of the mountain, the smoldering crater with about 120 feet radius appeared. A heavily damaged I.N. was lying right in the middle of it. The extremely durable armor was not really damaged, but all plasma banks on those dragonfly-like wings were out of commission. Half of the nozzles of stream plasma ejectors got melted down. No doubts – at least half of the sensors were damaged or destroyed, too.
But definitely – the most damaged 'system' of Majin Naamah was her pilot – Ichika himself. All parts of his body, which weren't covered with armor, have been severely burned. There was a large avulsed wound on Ichika's stomach. His right leg seemingly was broken at several places. Those wounds were grieving – any normal human would've been dead by now. Still, Ichika wasn't a normal human to begin with, and, in addition, he has a lot of implants to help him stay alive. But still, even like this, his recovery may take at least a week – he definitely doesn't have this much.
"What's the overall situation in the city?" Ichika inquired. Not that he was really interested – he knew that it probably was very bad, but he needed time to muster his powers.
"I can't give you a detailed report," Naamah replied, "But according to the messages from the other I.S. pilots that I've managed to intercept, and using the images from remaining probe, I can say that there's a warfare in the city, at least two I.S.-es are attacking I.S. Academy personal. Also, there is something happening to the monorail train, too."
"Haah…" Ichika sighed heavily, "I knew that something should have happened today, but this really have surpassed my most daring prognoses…" He slightly shook his head. "It would've been a lot easier if Chifuyu onee-chan would've been just piloting her I.S. normally… Why I am always the one who have to deal with troubles… But I guess complains won't get us anywhere, right? Oh, well and good, maybe it's even better this way…" Ichika looked at the demoness.
"Awaiting orders, Adonai," She saluted.
"Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh" Ichika pronounced. His body started to shine with light-blue light. Six pairs of big, blue-white angelic wings appeared behind his back. His hair became white, and his eyes now were emanating a bright, but cold white light. Seeing her master like this, Naamah kneeled even further and bowed her head humbly.
"Our time is short, so listen carefully," Ichika said with low, cold, echoing voice. "To let you have the powers you need to recover, I'm going to send you into the higher layer of my own consciousness. However, I will not be able to guide you there – you have to find what we both need, on your own. Remember – my Archangels won't tolerate your presence for long, so be swift," Ichika said. He made a pause and added, "And one last thing – so close contact with my mind will change you forever. Do you understand?"
"I exist only to serve you, the supreme one," Naamah confirmed her readiness, not rising her head.
"Very good," Ichika approved. "You have proved your loyalty, so go with my blessing. Now, you are free…" He said as he placed his palm on demoness' head. A wave of immensely bright light started to spread in all directions, and soon, the entire hell-like world was consumed with that light.
November 3rd, Friday, 6:24 P.M
The hijacked train. The problems continued to pile up. The new monorail had two lines. One around the lake Biwa, starting at Kyoto's Yamashina Station, passing through Takashima, Nagahama, Higashiomi and back to Yamashina Station. And second one was planned as a circle around Kyoto itself, also starting at Yamashina Station, then towards the Fushimi Ward, turning towards Muko's Hagashimuko Station, from there to the north, towards Utano Station, and then back towards the Yamashina. The problem is – the second line isn't completed yet, though the monorail itself has been already built, some stations are still under construction!
And yet, instead of taking the turn to the north, along the first line, towards Takashima, the train switched to the southern, incomplete line. With this, the uncontrollable train won't crush into other trains on the first line, but instead it may collide with the heavy construction machinery, which is working on the incomplete stations right now.
Kanzashi was staring at the holoscreen intently, examining the system code. 'They must have left an opening somewhere,' She thought, 'If I can find it…'
"Kanzashi-chan!" Suddenly, a window displaying her elder sister appeared.
"Onee-chan?!" Kanzashi blinked due to unexpectedness.
"There's a bomb on the monorail you guys are on!" Tatenashi warned, "Watch out!" As she said that, another window, with timer, appeared in front of Kanzashi and started the countdown. There were 30 minutes until detonation.
"Oh no!" Younger sister exclaimed. "Orimura-sensei, we've got more troubles! There's a bomb on the train!"
"Damn…" Chifuyu swore silently, clenching her teeth. "If it'll continue like this, I'll have to…"
At the same time, another I.S. appeared over the city of Kyoto. A black machine with several dark-purple panels, with butterfly-like wings glowing with yellow (no doubts that is a Fold-Out Armor), looked like a heavily modified Silent Zephyrus. No, actually this is the heavily modified Silent Zephyrus flying over the city, like a huge, black, glowing butterfly.
Right now, its pilot, Orimura Madoka, was using her new, upgraded hyper-sensor, to scan the internal layout of the hijacked monorail train. Using an advanced thermal imager, she was scanning the people inside that train, definitely looking for someone special. "Orimura Chifuyu… I found you," Madoka spoke out as her sensors got locked on the target.
At this moment, several I.S.-es appeared on the horizon. Seemingly that is the backup that Maya requested according to Chifuyu's order. Considering the distance between I.S. Academy (Tokyo) and Kyoto (about 120 miles), and a maximum speed of standard academy's units (Uchigane, max speed is 1.5 Mach), they came up really, really fast. Since she was floating relatively close to the hijacked train, Madoka and her I.S. were recognized as a priority target. All fifteen academy's Uchiganes entered the defensive formation, cutting Madoka off of the train, and opened fire, holding the use-proven and reliable .61 caliber submachineguns Garm.
"Those little midges…" Madoka growled as she deployed the two shield BiTs to deflect bullets, and then she took out and activated a huge double-edged sword. Sword blade's chisel edges were made of Fold-Out Armor, which was glowing with bright purple light. In general, that was the same type of the FOA that is used in Houki's Crimson Camellia – a modulated static energy field. However, this sword's FOA seemed more 'solid' – seemingly, when she was constructing this sword, Tabane used the quadrature amplitude-shift keying instead of the common frequency modulation to control the energy field's shape. In other words – this black I.S. uses the more advanced version of Fold-Out Armor than Houki's Akatsubaki… With that glowing sword in her hands, Madoka rushed into the battle, all alone, against fifteen military I.S.-es sent by the academy.
Inside the train, Maya Yamada was looking at the video image and energy readings, captured by the Emergency Patrol System. The black I.S. was engaging the academy's troops, and the course of battle doesn't seem good by now. One of the academy's units has already been shot down – black I.S. managed to outmaneuver the Uchigane and stabbed an energy sword into its back, forcing the academy's unit to activate the absolute defense – as such, it could fight no longer.
"Orimura-sensei!" Maya reported, "An object with a very powerful energy signature is approaching!"
"Details?" Chifuyu inquired.
"Unavailable, but the enemy is forcing its way through the blockade, held by the military I.S.-es, and it is heading toward this monorail!" Maya added.
"Instructor, please give me permission to engage!" Laura requested.
"Me too!" Charlotte joined her friend.
"No, you'll stay here," Chifuyu denied the request.
"But at this rate…" Laura tried to argue.
"Silence," Chifuyu ordered. "If you try to force your way out of the train – the bomb may detonate and we'll all die here. Wait until the lockdown to be removed." She looked over at the holoscreen in front of Kanzashi – 21 minutes until detonation. Laura clenched her teeth – she wanted to join the battle, but arguing with Chifuyu is useless, especially because her reason to not allow students to leave the train was completely legit.
November 3rd, Friday, 6:33 P.M
Houki and Cecilia were still fighting against Autumn. But they weren't just dodging her attacks – maneuvering at a low altitude, they were luring her away from heavily populated areas. "Cecilia, let's head to the east – toward those old buildings – they're going to be demolished anyway," Houki suggested. Both girls heard the radio transmissions and they knew about the hijacked train, besides, they wanted to check the explosion site – there may be civilians in need of help. Besides, they really wanted to look for Ichika (since no one mentioned that via radio – they didn't know that he, most likely, was the primary target of that bomb in the first place). But no matter what – with that insane bitch on their tails – no way they can go and check anything or look for anyone.
"Roger that!" Cecilia agreed. She raised her energy rifle, Starlight Mark III, and shot at Autumn.
But Arachne avoided that attack. "Enough of your little tricks!" Autumn screamed hysterically. Houki attempted to slice Autumn's cannon, but she undeployed her weapon, and when Houki's sword sliced the air, deployed it again and shot at Blue Tears.
"Cecilia!" Houki warned the blonde.
"Ah!" English pilot barely avoided the attack and a cannon shell hit the pagoda's roof. "Houki-san," Cecilia looked at Crimson Camellia's pilot.
Houki nodded, "Okay!", and made a left turn. Seemingly, she agreed to keep Autumn busy to give Cecilia an opening.
November 3rd, Friday, 6:35 P.M
At the same time, another battle was raging in the different part of the skies above the city of Kyoto. "I got you!" Tatenashi let out a war cry, launching her whip-sword Rusty Nail at Squall. However, whip-sword's attack was repelled by Golden Dawn's scorpion-like tail, Prominence. Tatenashi quickly exchanged her sword for Heavy Rain – a lance with an internal four-barreled Gatling gun – and opened fire. But Golden Dawn deployed its cocoon-like, protective plasma barrier Prominent Coat and all bullets were deflected.
"Ha! So naïve!" Squall used that opening to rapidly close on Renia Nui as she grabbed to Tatenashi's spear, preventing her from using it. But just when Squall was intending to use her plasma machineguns Solid Flares, at point blanc range, Tatenashi let go of her spear and grabbed to plasma machineguns' barrels.
"It's not over yet!" Girl shouted as machineguns' barrels started to freeze.
"What!?" Squall exclaimed as she used her unit's legs to push Tatenashi away from herself.
"I still have some tricks in my sleeve!" Girl announced, holding to her handheld carbine Icicle.
Time and location unknown.
Whilst his I.S. avatar was wandering in Ichika's own mind – he was floating in the white nowhere, patiently waiting for her to complete the assigned task. He had no doubts – after she'll touch his powerful mind – Naamah, or whoever she's now, won't be unaffected. As such – Ichika was expecting her to re-construct her inner world.
When he said 'Now you're free', it wasn't a figure of speech, he meant it literally – Ichika freed her from his influence. Back then, when Naamah was born, or rather, was created by Ichika's will, she was heavily affected by Ichika's emotions. The form of the demoness that she assumed – that happened because, at that moment, Ichika's strongest emotion was hatred towards this core's previous avatar, who betrayed him. Same applies to that hell-like world where she's been living – it was created out of Ichika's wrath.
But now it will be completely opposite as Ichika deliberately cut her off of his emotions. Yes, she's going to change, she'll be reborn after close contact with Ichika's mind, but those changes will happen due to her gaining enlightenment, not due to outside influence. Being liberated, she's free to look like she wants, to live where she wants, and to be who she wants.
As the light around him finally faded, Ichika looked over his new location. "It took longer than I expected… Haah…" He sighed, "And I think I know why…"
He was on a big island, in the middle of an enormous lake, surrounded with tall and beautiful mountains. There was a lush grassland beneath his feet, but strange thing about it was that grass was of a deep blue color, almost of the same color as the lake's water. Also, there was a lot of big, no, huge trees on the island, and those trees looked like a weird mix of redwoods and spruces with needle-like leaves… of light-purple color. And I guess there's no need to mention those strange azure-colored birds with two pairs of wings… Oh, and the last addition to that extraterrestrial view was a gas-giant-like planet, which is occupying about half of the roof of heaven.
"I guess I have to talk with the 'creator' of all that…" He sighed again, "But where is she?" For a moment, Ichika thought about activating his Archangel and looking from above, but then his ears picked something. A song. Gentle, fluent, beautiful melody – someone was playing the flute, the sounds were coming from the middle of the island. So, Ichika decided to not waste his stamina and instead he just headed toward the source of the music.
After about three minutes of walking, he came to the large open space in the middle of the island's grove. There, a huge temple was located. And Ichika only guessed that it's a temple, because that architectural ensemble was actually pretty hard to describe. The leading motives were: ancient Egyptian temple, clockwork tower (steampunk), and something from a movie about techno-utopian world of a distant future. Winged six-legged lions were guarding the huge staircase. Strange hybrid of a clock and astrolabe could be seen on a big tower. Glowing square pyramids were scattered all over the building.
But of course – the most important 'detail' was in the middle of the staircase. She was sitting on the step, playing the flute. She had the same face as before, but that was the only feature she retained. Her almost knee-long, slightly curly hair were of pale lilac color. She now had three pairs of large angelic wings on her back, and her feathers were so pure and so white that fresh snow shining beneath the rays of the morning sun would've been ashamed. Gold tiara with three diamonds was floating just above her head, like a nimbus. And now she was wearing a dress-like chainmail armor, decorated with silver, like the one that a goddess from some Korean fantasy RPG would wear. With her eyes closed, she was sitting in the middle of the staircase, playing a flute and emanating a very spiritualized aura around herself.
*Cough!* Ichika coughed to attract the 'goddess' attention.
"Adonai!" She exclaimed as she opened her eyes and spotted her master. She swung her wings and soared into the air. Six-winged goddess landed right in front of Ichika and knelt, "I'm happy to see you again!"
"Likewise. So, what's this place?" Ichika inquired as he once again examined the building in front of him and then looked at the huge trees with light-purple leaves.
"I don't know!" She proclaimed solemnly, "I found this place in your mind!... Auch!"
Ichika hit her head with a karate chop. "If I remember correctly, I've told you to be swift and find a necessary knowledge so you could help me to fix my wounds and repair your frame. I haven't told you to wander inside my consciousness as if you're on excursion, haven't I?" Ichika scolded her.
"I'm… I'm sorry…" She mumbled, rubbing her head. Though, it was written all over her face that she's not sorry at all, and her sky-blue eyes were glowing with excitement even brighter than before; she probably accepted that hit on her head as a token of Ichika's attention.
"Haah… Can't be helped. Anyway, what's the situation?" He inquired.
"Yes," She replied and stood up. "I've managed to accelerate your body's recovery rate. Your wounds no longer threaten your health. Be advised – there a still two fractures in your right tibia bone. Also, due to severity of your wounds an additional treatment in specialized facility is strongly recommended after the current crisis is over."
"Noted," Ichika nodded, "What about you?"
"Armament reconstruction complete. Hull and armor repair complete. Energy supply system adjustment complete. Reactor restart in 71 seconds," A.I. reported.
"Very good," Ichika nodded. "Then here's no time to waste, I should go," He added as his body started to glow.
"Adonai," She again knelt in front of Ichika, "Thank you for your grace. I am, Astarte, from now on swear to serve you with doubled, no, with tripled vigor!" She announced, bowing her head. Then she again looked at Ichika, "See you soon, Adonai…"
"Hmm?" Ichika looked at her questioningly. No, he wasn't puzzled about her name's change – that was expected. But what she meant with that 'see you soon'? But in reply the angelic girl just smiled mysteriously as extraterrestrial world around Ichika began to fade away as he started to regain his consciousness in the real world.
November 3rd, Friday, 6:40 P.M
"Little flies…" Madoka said coldly as the last of military I.S.-es was forced to activate an absolute barrier and fell on the ground. Within less than fifteen minutes, the black I.S. shot down all of the Uchiganes, which I.S. Academy sent as a reinforcement. Of course – the technical gap was really enormous. Uchigane, being a use-proven frame, still is a 2nd generation I.S. with lower speed and maneuverability compared to a black I.S., which was handcrafted by Shinonono Tabane using, in particular, Crimson Camelia's exploitational data, so it was even more advanced than Houki's I.S., also made by her elder sister. Using her superior speed and maneuverability, Madoka could easily flank her opponent, and then land a devastating attack using her sword, energy beam cannons, which look like jousting spears, or rapid-fire railguns mounted on her elbows. And .61 caliber submachineguns Garm, despite being trusted and reliable weapons, were just standard I.S.-issued guns, so they couldn't somehow bypass Madoka's shield BiTs.
But that's not all. Having an overwhelming numerical advantage, academy troops were trying to maintain formation and surround their enemy. But their maneuvers seemed stereotypical and uncoordinated – they were definitely lacking the real combat experience. Poor tactics was the biggest flaw the academy troops had in this encounter.
At that moment, the hijacked train already ran almost an entire circle around Kyoto, it just crossed the Kamo River, heading towards the Yamashina Station. Miraculously, the train didn't collide with any crane or excavator, but…
When the last of academy's I.S.-es was out of commission, Madoka headed straight to the hijacked monorail train. "That must be it…" She pronounced as her sensors got locked at the first carriage. Using the full output of her thrusters she was rapidly approaching.
"That's…" Charlotte mumbled worriedly, as she and other students inside the train now could see the black I.S. with their naked eyes. She looked at the teachers, not knowing what to do.
"The enemy I.S. is coming up above the train!" Maya Yamada warned, looking at her laptop's screen.
Orimura-sensei quickly approached the nearest window and looked to the sky. "Kurokishi?!" [Black Knight] She exclaimed as she saw the black I.S. just about 300 feet away from the train. Chifuyu called the unit she was seeing for the first time by its designation, though that probably was just a good guess.
"Goodbye…" Madoka pronounced as she pointed one of her spears at train's first carriage and spear started to glow, gathering energy. Seeing this, the students inside the train – Kanzashi, Charlotte, Rin, Laura – and many other girls, all froze in fear and/or clenched their teeth in powerless anger. Madoka's lips curled into an evil smile as she pulled the trigger. The lance shot a beam, made of countless pink energy charges, which were looking just like the glowing sakura petals…
…But suddenly, the beam got twisted in a weird way, right in the middle of its path, as if it was following the roller coasters' railway track, and then it headed to the sky and dissipated. "What?!" Madoka exclaimed in complete confusion. And at that moment, a bright pillar of light shot into the sky, and its source was right in the middle of the crater, created by the nuclear explosion.
The pillar of light quickly faded as a sphere made of pure light appeared in the middle of the crater and began to ascend. The cocoon-like sphere ascended for about 150 feet and dissipated with bright flash, releasing a shockwave, which was comparable in power with the nuclear blast that occurred here about half an hour ago. And when the light faded – she appeared in place of the sphere.
From afar that I.S. looked like a seraph, wearing an armor made of gold. Her torso was looking like a ribcage, with white metallic 'ribs' and energy field glowing between them, though there's a thin metallic layer beneath energy field to protect the pilot's body from a direct contact with that energy. I.S. legs also weren't solid, as metal was mixed with energy fields, but legs overall design seemed quite familiar, just like Naamah's legs were. Also, a pair of small (about 1.5 feet long), angelic wings made of pure golden energy were attached to each knee's backside. Massive gloves, also outlined with golden glowing energy fields, were looking like swordsman's gloves, but fingertips were made of golden energy instead of metal. Helmet seemed just like a replica of Kurazakura's helmet, but instead of long pointed 'ears' it has two pairs of the same small angelic wings, 'growing' from the 'temple area'. Finally, three pairs of large angelic wings were 'growing' from frame's back and shoulders. Those wings were made purely of that new, gold-colored Fold-Out Armor. But the wings' energy layers weren't solid – instead those wings were made of thousands of blade-like 'feathers' made of energy. And one last thing – the overall use of metal in armor's elements decreased as amount of Fold-Out Armor's usage increased.
"I hope you haven't got tired of waiting?" Familiar man's voice asked via I.S. public channel, so every I.S. pilot in the Kyoto's vicinity could hear him.
""""Ichika?!"""" Kanzashi, Charlotte, Rin and Laura – four voices exclaimed at the same time. Though they all seemed completely dumbfounded – their voices sounded excited nonetheless.
…Above another part of the town, Squall was still fighting against Tatenashi. Though, they made a pause when Ichika reappeared. "What?! That is not possible!" Squall screamed hysterically – it's been a while since she lost her composure to such an extent, "He's what, really an immortal!?"
"Told you," Teasing voice said from above; unlike Squall, Tatenashi was smiling from ear to ear. "Well, shall we continue?" Girl raised her whip-sword Rusty Nail…
"Orimura-sensei…" Maya called for Chifuyu. She seemed completely awestruck, "What… what is that? What's going on?" Green-haired sensei actually thought that she's losing her sanity as she was looking at her laptop's screen.
"What is it?" Chifuyu asked quickly as she looked over Maya's shoulder, honestly, right now isn't the time for mere trifles. "Huh?" But what she saw surprised even her. Not only that I.S. unit, registered on Ichika, looked a lot differently from before, the string with unit's designation was saying: Ikusa Megami Astarte [Battle Goddess Astarte].
"Orimura-sensei, what is this?" Charlotte asked, she also was looking at Ichika's I.S. status with saucer-wide eyes.
"I don't have even a slightest idea," Chifuyu replied, "I've never seen anything like that before." And then added with a silent voice, speaking to herself, "Can it be? Was that insane theory of his actually correct? Is this the Third Shift?"
"Orimura-sensei, did you say something?" Kanszashi asked, she couldn't hear Chifuyu's last phrase, just like everyone else here.
"This doesn't matter right now!" Chifuyu raised her voice. Seriously – they're still riding on uncontrollable train with a bomb on board, "Sarashiki, get back to work!"
"Y… yes!" Kanzashi again looked at her holoscreen.
November 3rd, Friday, 6:44 P.M
"Main reactor's core on-line. Electroweak conductors' saturation rate is 69% and increasing steadily. Sub-quantum field generator activated. Cold quantum-matter conversion rate's stabilizing. Fold-Out Armor deployed. Updating primary armament configuration. Commencing generation of color glass condensate. First One-Off Ability available in 51 seconds. Calibrating area targeting matrix. Second One-Off Ability available in 76 seconds. Charging up the graviton-focusing lenses…" Astarte bombarded Ichika with reports.
Of course, such a flow of information by itself is just a child's play for Ichika. It's the contents of those reports were a bit puzzling… no, that's not true. To his shame, Ichika had to admit that right now he has absolutely no idea what Astarte doing and why – he just couldn't understand what she's talking about.
Something like that already did happen once – when his I.S. underwent the Second Shift. Back then, when Naamah rebuilt her frame – she added a few things here and there, and that took a bit of time for Ichika to come to know the particulars about how these new systems work, especially the secondary armament – Hand of Eisheth.
But this time, as she underwent the Third Shift, Naamah, who took the name Astarte in the process, she really outdid herself – she's not upgraded, but rebuilt or replaced all systems. And no, systems weren't just updated and/or reconfigured to fit the new frame's parameters – sensors, passive inertia cancellers and stream plasma ejectors (thrusters) – all of that became something completely else. Secondary armament also turned into something completely different. And that was only the beginning… For instance – shield was gone, completely. Astarte even used the shield generator module's materials to build some new system – seemingly it is now responsible for second One-Off Ability. The Fold-Out Armor now also uses some different physical principle. Something definitely happened with main reactor. She didn't even spare Ichika's favorite creation – shape shifting weapon Sitra Ahra.
No doubts – Astarte, formerly known as Naamah – she had the best intentions. Besides – knowledge to make all that – she took them from Ichika's own mind. And that's not bad at all – Ichika had nothing against upgrades – in contrary – he likes everything new and unusual. But right now, he's in the middle of a serious crisis, and yet he has virtually no idea about how almost all of his I.S. unit's systems actually doing what they're doing.
"Haah…" Ichika sighed and immediately thought that he's sighing too much and too often recently. 'Well, what's done is done. I'll look into all of that later…' He looked at the black I.S. that dared to attack the train with his precious elder sister on board. "Are you ready?" He asked his A.I. partner, though, it's probably wrong to continue to call her like that – she's definitely a full-fledged Artificial Consciousness (A.C.) right now.
"Defense system activated. Main targeting matrix configured. Unit status: fully operational." Astarte gave one last report.
"Let's go then, Battle Goddess," Ichika said with high iron voice as his eyes flashed with fiery-red light.
And that's it for now people, see you next week! Don't forget to leave a review!
