So now Daniel has bought some time for the 501st (and for Yoshika, specifically), meaning that with a little luck, Yoshika will once again be joining her comrades in the battle for Berlin. How will this new development affect the ultimate outcome? Read on to find out!
Over the next five days, Daniel worked Yoshika harder than he had worked anyone before. He went through just about every exercise, movement, and technique he had learned from Master Kenobi in an effort to build up Yoshika's magic. To her credit, Yoshika never asked to quit and pushed through it the whole time. When the five days were up, Yoshika's magic was at about 85 to 90 percent of its normal level – a little better than what it was before the Neuroi's surprise attack on Kiel. This satisfied General Patton and Commander Minna enough that she was deemed fit for combat – with the caveat that she expend as little energy as possible in the beginning stages. The night before the operation, Ursula and Major Sakamoto presented Yoshika with a surprise – her special Shinden unit was now fully tuned up and ready for her to use!
By the time of the final briefing the morning of the operation, Shizuka had recovered from her injuries, and was likewise ready once again for combat. At the briefing, they went over the strategy to deal with the wall Neuroi and the main unit, which included the latest weapon to come out of Karlsland – a giant tank called the Ratte. It was the largest tank ever constructed, and was armed with anti-Neuroi weaponry, anti-Neuroi armor, and a shield generator as an extra layer of protection. The 501st's main role would be to serve as air support for the Ratte and the rest of the armored division leading the charge from the ground.
As they flew towards Berlin, they spotted the 506th Joint Fighter Wing getting into position to fight Neuroi positions to the west of Berlin. At that moment, Daniel said a small prayer for the success of not only their mission, but that of all of the joint fighter wings involved in the operation, with a special one going to Sasha and the rest of the 502nd. As they reached the position of the wall Neuroi, the initial assault by the regular tanks weren't having any effect. The Ratte – commanded by General Patton – was then brought to the forefront to show what it could do. As the fight began, the Neuroi began firing at all angles on the Ratte, which the witches were able to deflect to an extent – but a few shots got through to the Ratte. Thanks to the new armor and shield generator, the giant tank was able to take the hits without slowing down and with very minimal damage. Soon after, thousands upon thousands of Neuroi drones descended on their positions, which left the 501st in a massive dogfight to protect the Ratte from being overwhelmed.
When the Ratte finally fired its first shots at the closest wall Neuroi, it appeared to have success, as the wall was taken out in one blow. However, walls from the other side of the circle broke up and reformed where the previous one had been standing – reinforcing the Neuroi's frontal forces and forcing the Ratte to continue to destroy the wall Neuroi as they came. Soon, all of the wall Neuroi were destroyed, leaving only the main unit on the ground to destroy. The drones then broke off from the aerial dogfight and went after the Ratte, with the witches maintaining pursuit of the drones.
Soon, however, it became clear that the drones weren't going directly after the Ratte. Instead, some of them were gathering bits and pieces of the previously destroyed wall Neuroi and forming a dome around the main portion of the city. Unable to stop them, the 501st had no choice but to pull back from the action to prevent from being trapped in the newly formed Neuroi dome. While the unit was able to escape, the Ratte was now trapped inside with seemingly no way to send in reinforcements or even a rescue team.
As they contemplated on what to do, Trude came up with an idea. She remembered that Berlin had a series of underground subway tunnels – something she knew thanks to Chris – that could possibly provide them a route to get to General Patton and the rest of the Ratte crew. This was determined to be the best option, and after clearing it with General Bradley, nine of the witches headed towards the nearest subway entrance to make their way underground. As Daniel's X-wing was too large, and Yoshika still needed to conserve her magic, they were ordered to stay behind and wait for further developments, along with Shizuka, who volunteered to stay with Daniel and Yoshika, and provide any needed assistance.
With normal communications cut off, those outside the dome had no idea whether General Patton and the other were even alive. Soon, however, they received word from General Bradley – apparently General Patton and the Ratte had taken refuge in a large concrete flack tower inside the dome, and had been able to get out a message using an old morse code machine. They were alive, but they were under heavy bombardment from the Neuroi and needed help as soon as possible. At hearing this, General Bradley ordered the B-17 bomber carrying Major Sakamoto and Ursula to make its way to Berlin to provide assistance, as it had specialized weapons that could help.
When the bomber arrived – a much welcome sight for Daniel, Yoshika, and Shizuka – they informed Major Sakamoto about what the rest of the unit was doing. "Impressive strategy," mused Mio. She then ordered the bomber to drop the anti-Neuroi fuel air bombs they had on board in an attempt to breach the dome. At first, the bombs were having no effect, as they were blowing up too soon after being dropped and not close enough to the dome's surface. Even Daniel's photon torpedoes weren't effective. While they created gaps in the dome's structure, they would almost immediately close up again.
Several minutes later, they were able to get a communications signal from Minna – they had discovered some sort of Neuroi stronghold located beneath the city and were engaging the Neuroi there. From the looks of things above, they were having some success, as the dome appeared to be weakening. Mio told Minna's group to keep up the attack – the underground structure was controlling the dome. Once the dome became even weaker, Mio decided to drop the last remaining bomb and had Yoshika use her magic to make sure it detonated at the best possible moment for maximum damage. Using her magic, she detonated the bomb just before it hit the dome, the resulting explosion blasting a hole through the top of the dome.
However, their celebration was short-lived as the dome began regenerating within a matter of moments. With no more bombs and no other way to breach the dome, Daniel, Yoshika, and Shizuka were ordered to fall back to the bomber's position. However, Yoshika saw that the Neuroi drones were coming back from underground, and were once again going after the soldiers who positioned themselves on top of the flack tower – including General Patton, who was firing a pistol and cursing like a sailor at the Neuroi all the while. Determined to use her powers to protect them, Yoshika flew towards the dome's ever-shrinking opening. "Yoshika, wait!" shouted Daniel, as Mio and Shizuka also yelled at her to get back.
It was soon clear that Yoshika either couldn't hear them or wasn't listening, as she flew at full speed toward the flack tower. "Ah, hell!" shouted Daniel, as he too started flying towards the flack tower, not wanting to leave Yoshika to fight alone, with Shizuka also joining in despite Mio screaming orders to get back. All of them just made it to the other side of the dome before the opening closed up on them, and they immediately engaged the Neuroi drones, giving the soldiers time to take cover inside the concrete structure, though General Patton stayed and observed from the roof's doorway.
With so many drones in an enclosed space, Daniel figured his best chance might be to land on the roof and engage with his lightsaber on foot, where he could move about more freely. After he landed, he began to engage in hand-to-hand combat (sort of) with the Neuroi, and while he had more freedom of movement, and was able to use his lightsaber to deflect all of the attacks that came his way (while taking out a few drones that dared to come close to him), he soon grew fatigued from having to constantly engage in battle. As he looked up to see how Yoshika and Shizuka were doing, he could see that they were both holding their own, with Yoshika protecting the both of them, as well as the people on the roof, with her shield. However, a Neuroi soon came flying in from behind Yoshika, which she didn't see. Shizuka, though, did see, and shouted, "Look out, Miyafuji!" as she pushed Yoshika out of the way of the Neuroi's attack, causing her to take the hit instead. This caused her to fall from the sky, as she was saved from crashing hard on the roof by the fact that Daniel spotted her falling and caught her just in time.
"Shizuka!" shouted Yoshika, as she made her way down to the roof, where Daniel was trying to assess Shizuka's condition. It was bad – she had received a hit on the right side of her torso, and was bleeding badly. Worse, Daniel was out of the anti-clotting medicine he had with him when he arrived in this world and had nothing else to treat Shizuka with. "I'm sorry, Yoshika," he said, "But I don't have any way to treat her beyond applying pressure to her wounds – and even that won't help for long." Yoshika tried to use her magic to help Shizuka, but at this point, it had depleted to the point where it couldn't help.
As Shizuka grew weaker and struggled to maintain consciousness, Yoshika was devastated at the thought of losing her friend. She then cried out in pain and anger, and at that moment, a giant pillar of light formed around where Yoshika was, causing Daniel to stumble backwards in shock. When the light cleared, Yoshika was standing there with Shizuka in her arms – and her wounds were now completely healed, though Shizuka was still weakened. After handing Shizuka off to General Patton, Yoshika turned to Daniel and said, "Come on, we still have to defeat the Neuroi!" Daniel just started for a moment before saying, "Uh, yeah. Right," still in shock over what had just happened. He then made his way back to his X-wing, which was somehow still unscathed, and took off to assist Yoshika.
Soon, they both noticed that the barrier was starting to dissipate completely. "I guess Minna and the others were successful in taking out the underground structure," said Daniel. Shortly after that, the remaining members of the 501st emerged and joined the fight against the swarm of Neuroi drones – all of whom were stunned not only that the general was still alive, but that Yoshika was now apparently in full control of her magic again. The remaining drones then joined up with the main unit and formed what appeared to be a floating Neuroi city above Berlin. According to Minna, it looked exactly like the underground structure they had just been fighting. With the main unit at the center, they knew they needed to take out this new structure to free Berlin once and for all.
Moments later, the entirety of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing engaged the Neuroi city from all angles, all headed towards the dome in the center, where the core was located. It wouldn't give up without a fight, however, as they were met with laser fire from all angles the whole way through. Soon enough, they had reached the central dome, and concentrated their fire on it before a larger drone containing the core tried to make its escape straight up in the air. It initially appeared as though it would outrun them, but Daniel, using his advanced fighter engines, and Yoshika, using her newly discovered enhanced magic strength, were able to speed up and catch up to it.
"Let's try to pinch this sucker," Daniel said to Yoshika, "You go at it from above and I'll take it from below." As Yoshika went ahead and managed to get above the Neuroi, she immediately used her shield to push it back, causing it to slow down, while Daniel fired from below. Soon, the core was exposed. "I got this!" he shouted, as he fired a photon torpedo at the core. The core was immediately shattered, and took the drone, as well as the floating city structure with it.
Both Daniel and Yoshika celebrated their success, as he shouted over the comm, "Yoshika, if I may say so, you are officially a certified badass!" Yoshika sweat dropped in confusion as she replied, "Uh, thanks? That's a good thing, right?" Daniel chuckled as he stated, "In this case, it's definitely a good thing, Yoshika. Still…you may want to refrain from repeating that to the family back home, okay?" Everyone else gave a laugh at their conversation as they, too, began to celebrate the successful liberation of Berlin.
Now came the less glorious, yet still massively important, part of the mission – helping the civilian population rebuild their lives in Berlin. It wasn't easy, as everyone had to chip in just to make the basic necessities of living possible, although more financial and military aid toward that end was supposedly on the way.
A couple of weeks after the liberation of Berlin, Minna and Daniel, along with Major Sakamoto and Generals Patton and Bradley, were called for a strategy conference in Amsterdam. The war wasn't over yet, as there were still a number of Neuroi nests left in southern Karlsland and Eastern Europe. Now it was time to decide how the war going forward would be conducted.
And now we have reached the end of the storyline involving the events of the anime. Get ready, because I think you'll like what I have in store going forward, and how I decide to ultimately conclude the story.