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Masamune (正宗), also known as Gorō Nyūdō Masamune (五郎入道正宗, Priest Gorō Masamune, 1264–1343 AD), is widely recognized as Japan's greatest swordsmith, whose skills had produced various kinds of katana. Not all of them are known due to the fact he rarely gave his signature on his creations, but some of the swords that was known for a fact to be his creation (thus bearing his name) such as the Honjo Masamune (today a Japanese National Treasure and the world's greatest katana) are all, without fail, the finest blades in the world. He also took in many students; all of them would become a great swordsmiths of their age.
Muramasa Sengo (千子 村正 Sengo Muramasa)is also an actual swordsmith who lived 300 years after the time of Masamune. It was said that while he himself was an outstanding swordsmith, he has an ill temper, with imbalanced mind verging on madness. Supposedly it transferred to his swords. Blades made by Muramasa school have been known to be exceptionally sharp and legend tell, it's inherently bloodthirsty. Tokugawa Ieyasu forbade his generals from using Muramasa blade because many of his friends had been felled by Muramasa blades, and he himself was injured badly by it, and thus how it fell out of favor, and its reputation became further tarnished as evil blades.
The most famous legend of Masamune and Muramasa was the contest between a Masamune Blade and the Muramasa blade in cutting a leaf flowing down the river. Masamune's blade would cut the leaf, but then it healed momentarily as if it had never been cut – or in other interpretation, the leaf would avoid the blade completely; whereas Muramasa's blade will cut everything viciously: the water, the leaf, the passing by fish, even the air itself. Some even said Muramasa's blade was so vicious that objects would be cut before it even made contact with the actual cutting edge.
Ever since then, Masamune was attributed as the creator of holy swords, whereas Muramasa was attributed as the maker of evil swords.
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Not long after the battle was over, the Valvraves returned to the Module…
By all means, they would be better of returning to Potemkin… But the Mag Ideals had battered the rock solid ship to something resemble a Swiss cheese, figuratively speaking. The Valvraves would be better repaired in the Module.
06 returned first to its hangar, where a deathly pale and worried sick Satomi came towards it first thing. When the first person to come out of its cockpit was the one eyed Dorssian that is A-Drei, Satomi roared in fury and throw a punch at his face. He felt like he just punched a brick wall. A-Drei didn't flinch either.
Satomi glared angrily at him. "You… You brought her in there… didn't you!?"
"Yes." A-Drei answered nonchalantly.
"AAAAAAARGHHH!" Satomi went berserk and attacked the aloof Dorssian. He punched and kicked multiple times, accomplishing nothing but pushing the target away in this zero G environment. When the next punch doesn't seem to cause so much as a bruise, Satomi forgo his dignity and resolve to a more primitive method, he tried to bite him. Rather than fearing damage, A-Drei held Satomi at chokepoint to stop him wasting what dignity he had.
"Stop this. This is unsightly."
"AKIRA'S MY SISTER! HOW COULD YOU! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS WITHOUT TALKING TO ME FIRST!?" Satomi squirmed and roared, his hands flailing helplessly trying to reach A-Drei and pulling away this choke from his neck. Akira who saw this twitched in anger.
"Given the situation, it's impractical to waste time asking your permission first."
"SHUT UP! I'M HER BROTHER! YOU HAVE NO-"
06 suddenly went online and with an angry Akira at the helm, the mech grabbed Satomi by the back of his collar and tossed him lightly to the ceiling. Satomi hit the ceiling with a light bang. He gasped as he looked at the 06 glare… that seems to mimic her sister's angry glare. His phone beeps, she just texted him:
Piss off.
"A… Akira…" Satomi's anger died down, replaced by a dejected crestfallen look.
A-Drei frowned and then he looked at 06 going offline, and Akira didn't come out. She wants to stay there. Instead, A-Drei also gets a text from her.
You okay?
A-Drei twitched in confusion. Why should she be more worried about him than her brother? He noted the way Akira tossed Satomi like that… What is this, sisterly hate? A-Drei answered with the lightest of nod.
Akira smiled lightly and then she buried her head down her knees.
03 and 05 also landed, followed swiftly by 01 and 04.
03 opened the hatch and Raizo floated out, smiling like mad, welcomed by all of his members… and surprisingly, L-Elf.
"Yamada Raizo." L-Elf started.
"What do you think, Dorssian!? How do you like me now!?"
"Unauthorized use of Valvrave is a serious crime. 3 days in a brig." And L-Elf float away, discussion closed.
Raizo's wide grin faltered. "C… CAN'T YOU AT LEAST GIVE ME SOME COMPLIMENTS OR SOMETHING!?"
Trouble began to arise when the pilot of 05 didn't come out of her cockpit.
"Inuzuka-senpai? Inuzuka-senpai?" One of the hangar team knocked the cockpit shell several times.
Worse, Inuzuka didn't respond either.
"Haruto? Haruto!?"
And it's not just Inuzuka. Haruto hasn't come out of 01 either. A worried sick Saki floats around the cockpit hatch. She banged the hatch several times, no response.
"That does it. Manually override the system, open the hatch from the outside!" A senior hangar crew stated.
"You guys… can do that?" Yusuke blinked.
"Yeah! Of course we can." The Jior Hangar Man smirked. "We built the damn thing, didn't we?"
And with their help, the cockpit of 01 and 05 were opened. What they found… was a very weak Inuzuka… and a very hungry and berserk Haruto… hungry as in the first thing he did was to try to bit the first person he lay eyes on. Fortunately that person is Saki… and she doesn't mind. Not even when he tore her pilot suit and bit her in the neck right then and there.
Saki eyes rolled backwards… and Haruto fainted.
"Oh no, not this again!?" Haruto looked at Saki's fingers. The thing about feeding… if he wasn't fully aware of what he's doing, and he didn't go all the way (to the death) he'll jack the victim as he feed on the poor soul. And right now he's inside Saki's body. Haruto-Saki grabbed his body and bit his arm for some time and then he's back and Saki is herself again… Haruto looked at Pino questioningly.
"I told you… you have to feed again… that's why mode 666 has a limiter."
"Someone! Something happened to Inuzuka-senpai!" Yusuke's panicked yell distracted everyone.
Everyone quickly converge on 05's cockpit. Haruto and Saki looked into the cockpit. Inuzuka lay lifeless on the cockpit… this is not her being tired… this is more like she's… dying…
"Wh… What's going on?"
Pino chose that time to appear on 05's console. "She's short on runes."
As if to enforce this, 05 suddenly changed its color from black to white.
"Runes. Right." Haruto nodded and climbed in. "Inuzuka-senpai. Inuzuka-senpai! Wake up!" Haruto gently caress Inuzuka Aina's face.
"I don't understand… why Inuzuka? Why Haruto?" Saki shrugged. "Why not me? Why not Yusuke?"
"It's because they're responsible on feeding not just themselves but also the beings planted in their Rave Core engines." Pino stated. "Me in Haruto's case… and… in Sakurai Aina's case… the dying Inuzuka Kyuuma's body which is being kept alive in the life support inside the Rave Core Engine. Haruto and Aina need to feed themselves, the Valvrave, AND the core. Their need to feed will be greater than the others."
"Inuzuka-senpai! Aina-chan, what…" Aina appeared on the console, being gently cradled by Pino… as it is, she looked as bad as the pilot.
Haruto understand. "Inuzuka-senpai. You need to feed. Come on, senpai. Bit me." Haruto opened his suit and showed his neck. "Bit me. Please."
Inuzuka weakly comprehend and she approached the Haruto's neck, opened her mouth and bit… but Haruto felt… nothing. He didn't feel his consciousness fading. "What?"
"Haruto… it won't work." Pino answered. "Sakurai Aina has to be inside her own body in order to use her full power as a Magius."
"But Aina-chan had already been injected by that substance, she's a magius."
"Have you forgotten what we are?" Pino stated. "Magius is not just the body, it's also the essence, the mind, the thing you humans call soul. A body cannot work properly without the mind. Inuzuka Kyuuma is still a human mind and soul, inside a Magius body…"
"Okay. I get the point. So… how do we put Aina's mind back into her body?"
"Put her back in the pilot seat."
Haruto did so. And then the injector pricked Aina's neck… and her eyes blared open, and the light fades…
Aina disappeared from Pino's arm, and then a new avatar was formed… this time, it's Inuzuka Kyuuma. Light returned back to Sakurai Aina's eyes. Aina choked and panted. But she's still weakened. She's still in need of runes.
"Okay… Aina… bit me…"
"No. Haruto, stop! It won't work." Pino shook her head. "You yourself are in Rune Shortage. You donate some to her, you'll end up making an even bigger wound on yourself."
"So what? Do… Do I have to let her feed on other people!?"
Pino frowned in deep thought.
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Sometime later, Saki, L-Elf, A-Drei, Shoko and some team of armed Jior soldiers, with Burnett's crew in tow, boarded one of the Mag Arus Carrier.
It's something Pino said that got everyone concerned. To power their massive Rune Cannon will require an enormous amount of Runes… an amount that no single human can provide. And her suspicion was proven right.
Down in the Carrier's engine room, in a place where normally there should be a gigantic nuclear fission core the size of a house that powered standard Arus Carrier, the heart of Mag Arus carrier is a room filled with sprawling gigantic towers, each with rows upon rows of neon green glowing capsules sprouting up on its surface, spiraling up. But of the most horrifying bit of these capsules, is that they are filled with brains, eyeballs and spinal cortex, encased in cybernetic casing. Tubes went straight into their head… where said tubes were draining green rune energy out of their mind.
Burnett's camerawoman, Irene, had to fight an urge to vomit.
Burnett himself balled his fist tight. "W… What is this!?"
"A Brain Farm." Pino frowned in disgust. "Remember what I said about Runes being found most richly in humans? To be more specific, runes are found in their memories. Their thoughts. And the organ responsible for 'producing' those memories are not their arms or legs or any other organs… it's their brains."
"You… carve people's brains out!?" Saki clasped her mouth.
"Just one brain." The Captive Crew answered. "We carve one brain, and then we cloned it multiple times. One tower for one person's brain clones. One brain cloned a 100 times. The rune generated was enough to power an entire city for a year."
And there are 10 towers in that room. 10 original brains, a thousand cloned brains in all.
Shoko paled as she looked at all this twitching brains. "Are they… are these brains… cloned… brains… are they still alive in there?"
"They must be." One of the Carrier's captive crew answered. "Runes can only be harvested from living humans who can generate memories and thoughts. And they may be cloned brains, but they're alive. We kept them alive with nutrients and kept them in tip-top condition… albeit stuck in an eternal coma. We put them in a chemically induced dreaming sleep. And in that dream, they continue to live, experiencing life, feeling artificially induced sensation, generating memories." (AN: a less realistic version of the Matrix, as reference) Saki looked at all this in horror. The captive crew continued. "This is the most efficient method we developed for both us and you humans."
"EFFICIENT?" Saki roared. "EFFICIENT!? You carve people's brains out and suck memories out of them!"
"Do you have any idea how many humans we have to kill before we develop this method?" The said Captive Crew retorted. "Before this, a single Magius needs to feed on 1 or 2 people a month! Imagine a million Magius! We feed on humans, drain them dry and then they're dead, and that's it! A dead mind is of no use to us anymore! It's counterproductive and attracted far too much attention! But with this method, not only we reduced the number of humans we have to kill significantly, a single living adult human brain being kept alive, cloned many times over, it kept producing memories subconsciously… harvested in this way, we can generate enough Runes to feed 10 Magius for a full month before the brain had to be replaced!"
"ALIVE!?" Saki had enough and grabbed the captive crew by the collar before lifting him off the floor. "What if I carve your brains out and put it in test tubes like these ones!? Huh!? Will you still be alive then!?" She slammed him to the ground.
"There's precedence to this." Pino bitterly smiled. "When we first discovered about human's mortality, some of us tried to circumvent that by possessing dead human bodies." Burnett turned to the Queen. "Total failure. Dead bodies can't generate Runes… we were reduced to a ravaging creature with insatiable hunger for Runes, and… uhh… in our desperation, we tried to devour living human brains." Every human in the room winced. "Hence why the Zombie Punk culture in your planet often depicted Zombies being hungry for brains. Brain Farm is our terminology to describe concentration of human population that we kept as Rune Reserve – we didn't EAT their brains per se of course. But this is… this is a far more advanced and more compact version of it… and it take things too literally and too far."
"So you're using cloned brains." A-Drei joined the conversation. "Then why need tithe of fresh humans? You can just clone a batch of brains and absorb their runes over and over."
"Cloning techniques haven't actually been perfected yet. Runes generated from clones are of significantly lower quality. And the cloned brains continue to degrade at a rapid rate. Take this engine for example. The main brain may need to be replaced after 5 years, but the cloned brains need to be replaced every month. It's… quite costly." The Magius moved to what looked like a dispenser. He pressed a button, and what looked like a… can of soda popped out, filled with neon green glowing liquid. He handed one to Saki, who looked at the can. "Synthetic Rune, if you wish to call it that. That there is enough Rune to last for a week."
Saki opened the can and looked at the content. It's glowing green, it even has sparkles like fresh soda pop… She sniffed it several times… it has no smell. She carefully lifted it to her lips.
"You're a Magius too. Though you're just a half breed. So here's a word for you first-timers. Be careful. Be prepared."
Saki looked at the Magius.
"For humans, that's lobotomy in a can. But for us… that thing has a kick like nobody's business."
Saki looked back at that drink… and she carefully took a sip. Just one sip… and suddenly it felt like her head was about to explode inside out. Memories came flooding in. A husband, a wife, children sharing in a dinner… then the memory of that same guy getting fired… mixed up with a memory of an inmate in a prison; add with some memory of a hooker in the street… It was something really new and overwhelming to her mind…
Her eyes rolled up and she fell to the ground. The Magius chuckled, which earned him a violent kick from L-Elf that brought him down. "I warned her."
Saki went rigid on the floor, foaming and drooling… the soldiers quickly get to her, giving her artificial breathing… and then she choked and gasped as she came to. "Oh God… my head… it's in pieces…" She gasped… Haruto… he suffered like this too every time he feeds? And she just took a sip… Haruto fed from 47 people… 47 minds… No wonder he went so nuts he raped her senseless.
However… she felt… rejuvenated… refreshed. The Runes recharged her up. That freshness gave her the strength to get back up quickly. "I saw memories. But it was jumbled."
"The runes are a mixture of memories from 1,010 people's brains. Even clones have their own memories." Pino shook her head. "We can't give this to Haruto or Aina. Their mind can't take it. Not yet."
"Half breeds." The Magius snorted.
Saki and Pino glared at the Magius. "So what do we do?"
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Some few minutes later, the Magius was tossed into a dark cage… Dorssian maximum security prison. Said Magius was still wondering what are they going do to him when he heard growling from behind him. He turned around and saw Haruto, in his berserk mode.
"Oh you gotta be kidding me." The Magius start emanating green aura from his being.
Suddenly, the prison com lit up. It's L-Elf. "Here's a word for first timers: Don't resist. The more you resist… the more painful it'll be."
"Fuck you." The Magius chant a few spells and suddenly he shot a green sphere that hit Haruto right on his chest. Haruto fell on his back with a cratered chest. "Hah. Is that all you got, Half breed?" The Magius laughed.
Suddenly, a pulse of red and gold burst out of Haruto's chest, followed by a burst of red and gold aura. When he got back up, he was totally enraged, and quite, quite mad.
The Magius looked at this and realized. He's… "Oh… fuck."
"ROAAAAARRRWRR!" Haruto charged on all fours and bit the man in the neck, deep, and start feeding.
"GAAAAAAAAAAARGHHH!"
"I warned you." L-Elf shrugged.
Saki saw this and felt little repulsion as she watched how the Magius screamed for help that will not come while Haruto bite deep into his neck, draining his runes. "Is it gonna be enough? Last time he needs to feed on 47 people."
"It should be. A Magius that had lived for centuries would've amassed a huge amount of Runes. Draining out of him would be equivalent to drinking several hundred people all at once."
Saki blinked and rolled her eyes to L-Elf. "Can Haruto take it? The last time he did this…"
"He himself agreed to this, after consulting Pino." L-Elf replied. "According to Pino, a full fledged Magius would have a better mental control, a better mind compartmentalization. They've absorbed countless memories, managing the insides of their mind properly. It should be a lot easier for Haruto to drain a properly managed mind in comparison to that chaotic brew. And besides… even if he did go crazy… you seem to know how to calm him down."
A blushing Saki do know how… which involve… a lot of screaming, biting, and… and… never mind. "And Aina-chan?"
"Either Sakurai Aina feed from another Magius… or she can feed from Tokishima Haruto." L-Elf shrugged. "I think he would find the latter more agreeable."
Meanwhile, down there, Haruto had finally let go the comatose Magius. L-Elf noted that the Magius is still alive. He turned on the com. "You're not finishing him up?"
Haruto panted and gasped, holding on to his head. "This guy…" He replied amidst a labored breathing. "How many people has he 'eaten'? Memories… flooding… my head… Grrrhhh!" Haruto fell to his knees and grasped his head.
"Haruto!" Saki shrieked and before anyone can stop her, she quickly ran towards the prison. There, she found Pino floating around in front of the entrance to the max security prison cage. "Pino?"
"Saki-chan." Pino cheerfully welcomed her. "I take it you're here for Haruto?"
"I need to… help him."
Pino rubbed her chin. "Well… I know you've done it before… but I suggest you leave him alone this time."
"Why?"
"…training." Pino stated simply. "Now that you have begun a war with Magius… you cannot afford not to feed on people. The worst part for a Magius when you fed on someone is the fact that when you fed upon another person's runes, you didn't just absorb their life and add them to your own… you drank their memories and thoughts as well. If you're not careful, you'll lose your own mind in the maelstrom of memories."
"I… know." Saki nodded. "I know exactly what you mean… I drank that muck… and when Haruto and I made love… my mind went nuts for a while…"
"You only took a sip and partake barely half of what Haruto endures. Mind Compartmentalization is a skill that all Magius must have." Pino further added with a wide smile. "For some reason, Haruto seems to have an interesting affinity in managing the insides of his head. Considering the fact that his mind had been pretty fucked up… nyahahaha!" Pino laughed.
"Pino." Saki death-glared the whimsical fairy queen. She send the message: that's not funny, loud and clear.
Pino's laugh ceased, replaced with a kind gentle smile. "Well… it's okay. Haruto had gained valuable experience the first time he suffered the Rune Overload. But apart from that… I think it's his… disposition."
"Disposition?"
"Let's just share everything and be halfsies. His favorite mantra." Pino smiled. "Even among my people, sharing our head with someone else's is such a dreadful experience. Because me being me, you are you. We have no intention to share our mind with everyone else's, even when we take them in. But Haruto… he easily accepted other people's memories, calmly rearranging them… maybe that's why he mastered a skill of an Eldar Valvire Magius so easily…"
"Easily you say… Calmly you say…" Saki frowned, reminded of how insane Haruto went on his first time. However, it's just like Haruto said. Pino clearly knows a lot more about their new biology of Magius than most people will ever know. 'Well, she's the former Queen of Magius, this much should be expected… Hm?'
"At any rate… I suggest, since you're her bond partner, you need to train managing and compartmentalizing your mind as well. That disgusting derivative Rune can be used as a nice training method."
'Wait a sec… Magius?'
"You can start by drinking a sip at a time. And then manage the flood of memories, and then drink another sip."
'But that's not what she called Haruto… she called Haruto…' "Hey, Pino."
"Hm?"
"You call Haruto… Valvire Magius? What's that?"
Pino stare at Saki for a few seconds and then, she made a grand gesture saying: "To be continued!"
"THIS AIN'T A SERIAL!" An incredulous Saki roared.
"To be continued!" Pino insisted. And she floated away at blurring speed, quickly distancing herself from a furious Saki, laughing shrilly as she did.
Saki thought of chasing her… but then she refrained and looked at the door. She can somehow imagine, Haruto was having a terrible time. She would know. She endured it herself.
True to what Saki had guessed, Haruto was screaming, clawing the floor and the wall, his head felt like shattering inside out. The Magius who was left inside were made scapegoat to Haruto's insanity, often being clawed, bitten, torn in a vicious manner. Of course, the Magius' regenerative power ensured he'll live… to be torn apart by Haruto again… which makes this a terrible hell for him.
And so Saki stood there… waiting, hoping.
Meanwhile, Pino had flown away from Saki. 'Uah… dangerous, dangerous… not the time yet, Haruto, Saki… not yet.' On her way she entered the elevator. And she thought she'll just phase through all the way to her Valvrave… but then, she sensed something. She touched the elevator and felt electricity coursing right through it. And then the elevator's door closed. "Hoe?"
"I've run that elevator with 10 million volts of electricity." L-Elf's voice flowed out of the com. "You're an energy life form… you can't touch physical objects but… electricity is a form of energy. It can touch you right?"
Pino chuckled shrilly. "Ahhh… L-Elf-kun. Haruto's favorite vessel. In a manner of speaking…"
L-Elf twitched, not liking that moniker one bit. "We have some questions and a few demands, and you will not get out of that room until you answer them."
"We?"
"We." A-Drei answered.
Chapter 5:
Day to Day
Pino laughed childishly. "Oh my. What a pickle!"
"In case you haven't understand, I can easily increase the electricity to ten times that amount. That's enough to fry a man alive." L-Elf looked at Pino through the screen of his phone.
"Kyahahahahahaha! What foolish children you two are." Pino laughed. "Foolish and gutsy. I like that. If you want to even tickle the High Queen of Magius with electricity… you need to ready…" And suddenly, Pino literally popped out of L-Elf's phone's screen, short-circuiting it as Pino passed through it, and for the first time in his life, if only for an instant, L-Elf was scared out of his wits. "…at least a million times that voltage."
That phone was a cheap phone worth only 10 credit a piece. That elevator is a 500,000 credit piece of hardware. The amount of electricity used to electrify it would skyrocket the electricity bill to an eye gouging 1 mil. But the look of shock and horror in L-Elf's and A-Drei's faces: Priceless.
"What do you want to know, L-Elf?"
L-elf stared bewildered at the Magius Queen and finally dared himself to ask the question. "Back then… you mentioned the name Lieselotte. How did you know that name?"
Pino blinked innocently several times and replied. "Right back at you. I was surprised when Haruto mentioned her name, and it riled you up. So… how did YOU know that name?"
"You didn't answer my question."
"We both asked the same question, L-Elf-kun." Pino smiled. "It's just the matter of who should answer first, no?"
"On earth, if someone asked you a question first, you have to answer first." A-Drei stated. "Lieselotte W. Dorssia is a member of Dorssian Royal family, held hostage during Coup D'état. What is her relationship to you?"
"Fair enough." Pino chuckled. "But first… get rid of the electricity will you? We don't want some poor soul who walked into the elevator to be fried to crisp, now do we?"
L-Elf grunted and did so with a few pressed buttons on his phone. Then he looked at Pino once again, demanding answer.
The answer was quickly given. "Lieselotte was one of the members of my inner circle. We were nameless in our world, but we are recognized as some of the most powerful Magius in our universe, and thus led our race to glory and its eventual ruin. On Earth, we were given the epithet of the Covenant of Seven Rainbows: The Grim Pawn Witch, the Scarab Rook Master, The Lightning high Bishop, the Spider Queen, the Wolf Knight, and the High Raven King."
"Who's the seventh?" L-Elf counted 6 out of 7.
Pino frowned, thinking hard… so hard that she puffed her cheek and tilted her head to one side. "You know… I've quite forgotten its name…?" Pino frowned even deeper, biting her lips… and then she gave up. "I… hope it'll come back to me eventually… Anyway, Lieselotte holds the title of the Grim Witch. It's quite appropriate, really. Her preferred appearance was that of a person wearing a tattered cloak, carrying around a Scythe. Humans called the visage Grim Reaper… we called her Witch, because of her skill with Rune manipulation is the greatest of us."
"What is she doing on earth?"
"I punished her, see." Pino answered. "Centuries ago, humans betrayed her one time too many, and out of uncontrollable anger, she slaughtered a few hundred million humans in the Europe over the course of 7 years using a plague of her design. Humans called it the Black Death Plague. After that, I ordered her to stay on earth to repair the damage she had done and aid those whom she had put in harm's way." Pino nodded. "At the same time, I also ordered her to accelerate humanity's progress. In a sense… you could say she, and my consort Attlach, were the original founders of the Council 101."
L-Elf entered a deep thought… a part of him thinks that perhaps it was but a coincidence of two people with the same name… but Magius can live forever… but… the Lieselotte she knows… and the Lieselotte Pino just described in that horrific slaughter… He then he took out an old photo and showed it to Pino. The Photo of Lieselotte. He asked. "Is this her?"
Pino looked at the photo, and blinked several times. She blushed and chirped cheerfully. "My oh my! I knew she'll look prettier without that horrid hood!"
THUD!
That was the sound of L-Elf, collapsing to his feet in disbelief. Pino's answer was like a death sentence to him. Lieselotte, the one woman she loved… is a MAGIUS!? The Ultimate Life-form that feeds on other human beings, standing atop a food chain of this world's ecosystem, her.
"That's quite a shock for you I see."
"B… But… that's impossible!" L-Elf quickly tried to recover his cold composure. He almost failed. "I know her! I've seen her! Magius wouldn't be able to age! I've seen her age! I've seen her grew older form a child into a teenager! How…"
"Whether our medium can age or not… that is something a Magius can decide, really." To demonstrate this, Pino transformed herself into the shape of a 10 year old girl, then a wrinkled old crone, and finally back to her original form. "Time held no sway to us, we can appear at whatever age as we'd like it."
"That's impossible… that's just…"
A-Drei momentarily ignored L-Elf shaken state and asked his own question. "But… if she merely changed her appearance, how is it that she entered a Dorssian royal family member? Did she mind-jacked a family member!?"
L-Elf's eyes snapped. Yes. That's it. That's his greatest horror. What if the woman that was the center of his world was actually a different creature then and now!?
"Highly unlikely." Pino look again at the photo. "Hrmmm… when did this photo was taken?"
"That was a photo of her 8 year old self."
"…well, that's her alright. That's my Lieselotte right there." Pino narrowed her eyes. "And she still bears the Geass Curse I placed on her."
"Geass?"
"Her punishment." Pino shrugged. "Humans probably can't see it. But as punishment for what she did, I placed a seal on her being that will constantly suck out her runes. Basically, it reduced her powers to human level. But, she's still immortal nonetheless."
"You're lying!" L-Elf roared.
Pino shook her head. "Magius CAN'T lie. We are beings of thoughts. We're not like humans who can speak one thing and think another. What we think is what we say and do. We have no control over that. Not unless we're inside a human vessel. Which is how those damn Councilor had clearly lied to me."
"Which means… they will try to kill her, now that you're back and they clearly defy you. They're going to try to remove those who are loyal to you."
Pino laughed. "Them? Kill her!? Ahahahahaha!" The Former Queen revealed a terrible smile. "Taking over the world is a hell lot easier feat than killing her, even when she's weakened to human level."
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Somewhere in Dorssia…
The nth assassin that the council sent fell to the ground, poisoned to death as white rats with green glowing eyes swarmed allover him, while Lieselotte fed on the other one. She knows that it won't do much good, with her Queen's curse did their job soon after, but… she does have her tricks.
When Cain walked in, she was already finished. Cain looked at the dead assassins at Lieselotte's feet. The one eyed Magius looked at the Grim Witch, her eyes shined purple as she swept the blood from her lips, and she's surrounded by her new pets, a whole swarm of white rats.
"Tell those traitors at the council … even cornered rats can bite."
Cain didn't say anything and carried the dead assassins and lift them up his back. "Nice to see your appetite's back."
"Then you know if you try to kill me the way I am now, you won't come out of it unscathed, Cain."
Cain nodded at the obvious.
"She'll come." Lieselotte replied as she looked at the snowy cloud out the window. "She will come, Cain. It's easier to prevent the heaven falling than to prevent that."
Cain didn't say anything and left.
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"Lieselotte is a genius in Rune Manipulation. And we call her the Witch because her specialty is in shape-shifting. And I'm not just talking about changing appearance. She can change her vessel down to the molecular level. She can be of different age, different gender, different person, different race altogether… even different species. Magius sometimes had to switch jacked bodies several times throughout the ages looking for a perfect fit… she's the only one who never had to." Pino smiled. "Even with me sealing off most of her Runes to human mortal level would do little to hinder her skills. Her true edge is in here." She pointed at her own head to make her point. "Not her strength of arms."
L-Elf heard enough. Giving one last look at Pino, he walked out of the room, completely pale.
Pino noted this. "…seems like your friend has a soft spot for Lieselotte."
"L-Elf told me… a long time ago… Lieselotte gave him 'half' of her life to save his. Not exactly sure what that means… but… this much I understand." A-Drei noted. "L-Elf's goal to start a revolution in our nation, Dorssia, is singularly motivated by his devotion to her."
"Dorssia, huh?" Pino rubbed her chin. "The one who started this whole mess. I've heard some things from Ryuuji when I first came here 20 years ago. But, he only told me enough to get some sketchy picture." Pino sighed and looked at A-Drei. "That being said… what happened, really, with Dorssia that is?"
A-Drei nodded and understands this is going to be a long story. And so he took a seat. "…Dorssia… is an empire that was started by the Dorssian family, who came to power during the 15th century. From generation to generation, we grew and grew, surviving against whatever the world throw at us. From a small village, then to a town, a city, an entire nation… until eventually we became a super power at the beginning of the current century that encompassed roughly one quarter of the world. At the time, we reached the zenith of our empire. However… as you can guess as to what could happen to a nation at the peak of the mountain, the rule of the Dorssian Imperial family began to fail."
"They put lesser man on the throne?"
"No, the emperor is wise and just… it's just… he's less flexible man. Unable to cope with change and face the facts." Pino tilted her head, asking 'What facts?' to A-Drei with her look. "The fact that at this new age, new century… it's no longer time for institution called a nation to be controlled by a family-line. Those whose veins flows the same blood as the king may not be suitable to rule. And that's actually what happened. The Rule of Imperial line was failing. The prosperity of our nation began to decline. And then… it was then… at this point in our nation, along came a spider."
Pino quickly gave a good guess. "Amadeus K. Dorssia."
A-Drei laughed. "He doesn't have the Dorssia name before. He gained that when he married a family member. The Emperor agreed to this… not only because Amadeus is man of worthy bloodline, he's also a man of great resourcefulness. He became our military leader, and he championed military expansion. Dorssian military technology was already strong from the beginning, but under his command, it increase in power tenfold. Our Empire grew and expands through aggressive military expansion. Dorssia grew more powerful by annexing smaller nations, in a short 2 years after Amadeus entered, that's 20 years ago, and by then Amadeus was more firmly in control of Dorssia than the Emperor himself. The people loved him, for they are once again prosperous. One could say… he single handedly restore our nation."
"Bu~ut?" There's always a catch.
"He's ambitious. This much is obvious. He wants more than just… prestige and power… he wants… I think… everything. And he did it. 12 years ago, he arranged an all out Coup D'état. I was too young to understand what happened, but I do know, it happened on Thursday… and most of the members of the Dorssian family were murdered, executed after a short and brief trial. The rest, captured and imprisoned… or exiled to die. We called it… the Tragedy of the Red Thursday."
"They wipe out all traces of the old, in with the new."
"Well, the sick part is… people actually cheered when Amadeus hanged his own wife in public, he convicted her under at least a few dozen crimes against humanity. The sicker part is, we never even knew what exactly her crime was. Those who tried to find out went mysteriously missing." A-Drei sighed. "And finally… the sickest part is? When everything is said and done… things are way worse than ever. L-Elf… is one example. One of uncountable others. He's a true product of our nation: their failures… their cruelty. A direct result of Amadeus' unquenchable thirst for power."
"Unchecked ambition and use of fear… two absolutes in a fall of a regime and the start of a new tyrannical one." Pino rolled her eyes. "I never asked more details from Ryuuji because I don't really care much of human politicking. Magius have seen enough of human civilization rise and fall to see future became past. Regimes change every day. Revolution, evolution… it's more or less the same story, each and every time."
"However… revolution is exactly what Tokishima Haruto and Shashinami Shoko had started. Thanks to you really."
Pino frowned and smiled bitterly.
And then they heard stomping from outside. The door was slammed open… it was Ryuuji and he was completely out of breath in addition of being almost as pale as a ghost. "Pino? Queen Pino?"
"Just Pino, Ryuuji. What happened? You looked like you've seen a ghost."
"You should see this." Ryuuji looked at A-Drei. "You should come too… this concern Dorssia, your country."
"What?" A-drei was greatly alarmed.
"It's all over the news." Ryuuji stated. A-Drei quickly connected the computer to the Wired Network as Ryuuji explained the situation. "In the last few hours after that battle, there's been a global uprising. People all over the world went on ceremonious strike and they marched on the street, anarchy and frenzy everywhere. It's chaos. However, in reality a huge portion of the world's populace is still undecided, even after Shoko's and Haruto's speeches. Some still prefer to trust the council over us, or they still don't know yet what to decide. Jeffry faced an unprecedented civil unrest in Arus. It's happening simultaneously, in every part of Arus' sphere of influence, as do Jior. But in Dorssia… well…"
At that time, A-Drei managed to connect to the Wired, and as soon as the holographic screen of the computer lit up, the first that appear was the scene of the Dorssia's Fuhrer, Amadeus, giving his speech.
What was shocking was the fact that Amadeus did his speech, with a member of the Council of 101 at his side.
The headline made A-Drei's heart stop:
Dorssia Magius Joint Alliance.
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"What can I say is that in my opinion those children are too hasty." Amadeus stated in the podium. "Too hasty, and too immaturely hot headed. And in that hot headedness they easily spout nonsense such as declaring a war. Like foolish youth they are, they recklessly gave the world a bloodthirsty council of war, unaware that the cost can be so huge. Clearly, they never even know what it's like to live during the time of war. However, they did achieve something." Amadeus presented the Councilor. "Ever since that declaration for war and that disastrous defeat, the Head Councilor of the Magius race had been in correspondence with our government."
The Said Councilor was a different person than the one who spoke with Pino a little earlier. "Recent events have been… food for thought, shall we say? We may have been wrong or just being too overly hasty in making judgment. And for that, on behalf of the council, and the entire Magius race, we ask for an apology from the whole of humanity." The Councilor even bent his head down. "The Children of the Module 77 had indeed started a change. And may I remind you, change is painful. This rang true for both humans and Magius. And as a token of our sincerity, and seeing that we have decided to come into open, we have been in conversation with the Dorssian Fuhrer, and we both had agreed to form the first inter species alliance of Human and Magius. The Fuhrer is extremely interested."
Amadeus continued. "Of course we're interested. The Magius had decided to take a different step towards the unknown new future. And they're prepared to change as necessary. Dorssia had agreed to accompany them into that bold new venture hand in hand. Hence, we've both had agreed to join in the Alliance. Not just for the prosperity of Dorssia, but also to for the good of all mankind. There's much that both of our people can share. This alliance will beneficial for all. And it's just a start."
"This is a chance. A chance for humans and Magius to take the next step. To stand shoulder to shoulder, to solve the many problems that beset this world together!"
The reporters flashed their cameras at the two figures. One reporter asked. "But what about the fact that the Magius' ruler, Queen Pinovalkia, is with the New Jiorians?"
"About that…" The Council spoke this time. "We're not even sure if she is the Queen."
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Pino blinked.
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"Not the Queen?" "How so?"
"We have a reasonable suspicion that she may well be an impostor. She's a Magius… beyond the shadow of doubt. But perhaps one that has been deluded and deranged enough during the time it spent in imprisonment to think herself as the Queen. Insanity is something rather common in our people." The Councilor pointed his head. "Magius are a mentally fragile creatures. Feeding on Runes means absorbing memories. When we let someone else's memories get mixed with your own, we risk losing who we are in a storm of madness. If we're not careful, we may even begin to think we're another person."
"But how can you be so sure if that wasn't your queen?"
"The VVV project." The Councilor looked at Amadeus to continue.
Amadeus put on the face of mortification. "It is a project that I'm ashamed to say, I was part of. I supplied the VVV project with technologies and some our own resources. However, I was left blind to everything else… that is… until, by sheer luck, I discovered the true horrors of what really going on." Amadeus continued. "They were experimenting with children. They performed countless inhuman practices that should never be performed by humans. When I heard of this… I was horrified… and I was ashamed that I've played my part in that inhuman project." Amadeus bowed down his head, as if asking forgiveness from the world. "When I direct my forces to attack Module 77, it was to stop that madness from going any further than it already has. But… I was too late… and even worse, I've accelerated the inevitable."
"At this point, we began to have doubts." The Magius Councilor followed. "The Queen Pinovalkia that we knew was a kind and benevolent ruler. Just, caring, and one could even argue she's merciful to a fault. So as you might expect: experimentation on children and the creation of super weapons such as the Valvraves are two things she would normally frowned upon. And yet…" The Councilor showed a video of the most recent battle. The Five Valvraves rampaging in the space, destroying Mag ideals and Waffes left and right.
A slight wrinkle is that the video has been clearly doctored with.
Everyone aboard the Module 77 knows that the latest battle was a battle between Valvrave and unmanned drones. There's no pilot, and so Valvraves can destroy every unit with all-out-impunity and inexistent mercy. The Valvrave pilots knew at least that much. And yet, the Waffes and the Ideals depicted in that video are clearly the manned types. And the way they destroyed the unmanned drones became perverted in the way they brutalized and violently killed the pilots as well.
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Saki's eyes widened in disgust at the scene played out in the screen of her phone. "The hell? Anyone with half a brain would know this is a lie!"
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"The fuck!?" Raizo growled whereas Yusuke frowned.
And the worst part was that they doctored the scene where Valvrave 01 dealt the final blow. Instead offering them mercy as he did, the video depicted 01 shot the Mag Carrier first, no offer of parley or warning.
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"Oi! That last one is a bit too much don't you think!? Who the hell did they think humanity is? Idiots? Haruto's offer of surrender was broadcasted live across the world! Everyone knows that's not what happened!?" Shoko actually roared in anger.
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"That's not the point isn't it?" A-Drei analyzed calmly. "The point is, they're showing just how powerful the Valvraves are. What's more, they just gave the image of how brutal we can be… when we no longer care about human life."
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"As you can see, these Valvraves truly are a set of destructive weapons of unprecedented capability. It easily put any weapon made by Magius and Human to shame." The Councilor further followed. "Such a thing… we find it hard to believe that the queen we know would willingly hand crafted such horrifying WMDs. So either the Queen was forced by the Jiorians to do it under unknown circumstances… or… this 'Pinovalkia' is just a delusional rogue Magius… utterly out of her wits… but let me stress this out… she's extremely, extremely dangerous."
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Ryuuji and A-Drei looked at Pino… whose expression was completely flat… as if she's not sure whether she should explode in anger or laughed her brains out at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. She finally resolved to a smirk. "Well… at least they get the very last part right. I AM dangerous. In the extreme too."
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"With that in mind, we would like to encourage the public to not be easily swayed by their promises or any other seemingly well meaning words. They could easily be lies spun out a maddened mind, or just children's immature delusions."
The reporters kept taking pictures like there's no tomorrow.
"Putting that aside, there's no denying that this is a historic moment. A historic moment where Dorssia and the Valvravian Empire joined together." Amadeus faced the Councilor.
"Let us both go together towards a bright new future."
And the two world leaders shake hands to seal the deal, as the reporters and cameraman take their shots.
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"Can you believe this shit?" Raizo was so angry he threw his new phone till it smashed the hangar wall to pieces.
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"I don't understand…" Ryuuji frowned. "After all that… I'm surprised that… after everything… your people didn't just… rise up in revolt or something…"
A-Drei narrowed his eyes. The screen and the cameraman focused on the podium and the podium only. What he's interested in… is what's behind the podium. "Hmm… what's behind the stage? Is there no blow up view or something?"
"Blow up view?"
"Something like… a shot taken from further range… I need a view of the entire stage… and what's behind it."
Beep! Beep!
His phone rang. A Mobile-Mail from… "Renbokuji Akira?" A-Drei blinked and rolled his eyes. He opened it… the mail contains a link… to a video feed. Specifically, satellite imagery and the shot of the Podium… from four different angles, front, back, and side… all from Dorssian classified and encrypted security camera feed.
And then Ryuuji and Pino saw what exactly happened.
Behind the stage is… 2 Dorssian Mag Walkit Heavy cruiser docked to the ground, 10 more floating high above, accompanying 4 Mag Carriers. All accompanied by the Mag Waffes, Mag Ideals, manned and unmanned… and…
A new kind of mech. First glance, it looked like an Ideal… a heavily buffed Ideal… with bigger limbs, bigger guns… and one glaring feature: midflight, it transformed into a long armed humanoid mode.
"Is that… the Kirschbaum!? I thought that thing is still in prototype stage!"
Pino think they resemble something else entirely. "In my opinion they look more like… Gargraves."
A-drei and Ryuuji looked at Pino questioningly… and ludicrously.
"Fran loved to make them all the time. Stone sentinels he designed as automated defenses for our castles. Back in the day." Pino tilted her head. "You know… big muscly hands and claws, big wings, big fangs… all made of stone?"
"Gargoyles." Ryuuji nodded.
"Whatever." A-Drei doesn't want to count how many more Earth's mythical monsters are actually Magius in disguise or Magius creation. "At any rate… I said the Kirschbaum is a prototype but…" Those Kirschbaum had been thoroughly modified with Valvrave tech. Its wings were added with multiple rings of Sense nerves of the Valvrave wings, colored with the usual neon green. And they've been heavily armored as well with clear fossil composite armor.
"They got… at least 20 of them encircling the whole stage…" Ryuuji shook his head. No wonder no one dares to rise up. They try anything funny, and those things will squash them all flat. "Good old fashioned Reign of Terror by military arms."
"This is not ruling anymore. This is downright tyranny and oppression." A-drei growled. "I can't believe that even the Fuhrer would-"
"That's not Amadeus." Pino sighed. "That's Mirko. One of Attlach's Familiar." Pino glanced at A-Drei. "Your Fuhrer is dead."
A-Drei was clearly angered to no end. "That's it then. Queen Pino… about that demand we're talking about earlier."
"I can guess." Pino sighed. "…let me think it over. You'll have my answer before sundown."
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Saki turned off her phone in anger.
And then, she heard the sound of clanking from her back, the door was opened from inside. Saki took a step back and Haruto walked out the cage… his mouth smeared in blood.
"Oh, god… you're bleeding."
"Not mine. His." He jerked his thumb back and Saki saw the said Magius was twitching and absolutely traumatized. But he's still alive. "Watched everything." Haruto showed a cellphone. Like the blood, it also belongs to the prisoner. "Now… first thing first… where's Aina-chan?"
Soon, down in the hospital…
Rion and Marie looked after the dying Aina, also accompanied by the other pilots (bar Akira, who nevertheless spared an eye to watch over Aina through the computer screen)… and they have no idea what to do to stop her condition from deteriorating.
"What should I do? I've replaced the IV but she's still not getting better…" Rion fretted.
Marie's flat expression also covers her concern. She attempted to make a light joke. "Maybe you should let her feed from your breasts, Nanami-chan."
"E… Eehhh?" Rion blushed furiously.
It was then, Pino suddenly phased through the floor, scaring the begeesus out of everyone. "Halo~o everyone! I'm here to check on Aina-chan… eh…" Her eyes gaze on Aina… and then to the flat faced Marie… her eyes widened ever so slightly. "Marie-chan? Marie-chan right?"
Marie frowned. Now that she get a closer look at her, something about the Queen is strangely familiar. "How did you know my name?"
Pino's eyes shined in recognition… but she quickly disguise it with her usual bubliness. "Student registry!" To show this, she pulled out a window with Marie's profile on it. "And then there's Iori-chan, Nanami-chan, Takahi-chan…" Pino grinned wide. "Anyway… how's Aina?"
Rion fretted. "She's losing. I don't know what to do."
Pino gently caress Aina's cheek. Her immaterial finger can't touch her, but it left sparks of Runes when she made contact.
And then, the hospital door opened, Haruto and Saki walked in. Pino looked at her bond partner. "You've fed?"
Haruto nodded. He approached the pale and waning Aina, pulled back his sleeve to show his arm and gently shove it Aina. "There… Aina… Aina! Feed!"
"She's too weak to even open her mouth. Slit your vein, let her drink your blood… her body will do the rest."
Haruto nodded. He grabbed the scalpel and slit his wrist, blood poured out and Haruto gently pressed it to Aina's lips. As soon as the blood reached Aina's lips, she was instantly revitalized, and her eyes spring open. She grabbed Haruto's wrist and open her mouth, revealing fangs. Hungrily, she bit deep into Haruto's wrist and drank thirstily.
Rion gasped when she saw this terrifying spectacle, while Marie was unmoved. Haruto grunted and endure as he can feel Aina is feeding off him, drinking and absorbing the Runes he's providing for her.
Down in the hangar, the black color returned to 05, and Inuzuka Kyuuma opened his eyes in the console, rejuvenated at last.
And even so, Aina continue to unconsciously feed off Haruto. In the midst of this, Haruto eyed Raizo and Yusuke. "You two…" Haruto remarked. "You feed off me as well."
"Ergh?" Yusuke gaped and Raizo winced. "Aniki!?"
"Out of all of us, I'm the only who had been feeding… regularly. You two haven't had a bite at all. I suggest you do so now. Since we're going to war, we can't afford to run out of Runes in the middle of combat later."
"But…"
"Haruto be careful." Pino was somewhat distressed. "Let me remind you. You're not just feeding yourself, you're feeding the Valvraves, you're feeding me! If you lose so much runes at such furious rate-"
"It's okay." Haruto smirked weakly. "I just fed on this Magius guy… and he's been spending centuries feeding off people, he's like a Rune Piggy bank. It was quite a feast. I got plenty for all of us. Come on now."
"Aniki! You don't have to do this!" Raizo protested. "If it's just feeding, we can just feed on one of the Dorssian prisoners."
"You do no such thing." Haruto stated. "Believe me. Feeding off other human minds is a dangerous and nasty business. A very painful affair if you don't know what you're doing."
"I don't care! They're Dorssians! They've earned it!"
"If we fed on them to the death, we lose!" Haruto roared at Raizo, earning his attention. "I watched that speech earlier… they make it as if we're monsters. I tell you right now, if any of you fed on other human beings, we'll simply prove that they are right. That we're nothing more than just human eating monsters. We are better than that!"
Raizo frowned. "But you've fed on them."
"Because I've already become one. A human eating monster, that is." Haruto smiled bitterly. "I've used myself, my hunger, in a capacity of a slaughter. One monster among us is more than enough. Let's not add the number."
Raizo nodded and understand. "But I still don't see why we can't use those Dorssians! After what they did to us! The shit they put us through…!"
"You hate them, Raizo?" Haruto asked. "You hate them because they killed your friends? Treated you badly?"
"That and lots more! They're arrogant sons of bitches with all their high and mighty attitude, thinking they own the damn place, taking whatever they wanted!"
"Kinda like you just now."
"I-!" Raizo's retort caught up in his throat upon hearing that.
"You just easily declared that Dorssian soldier's life ain't worth a dime." Haruto looked calmly at the gaping Raizo. "If that's how you treat them, how were you be any different than the Dorssians? They're humans too, you know."
"Aniki…" Raizo frowned and tuck his head down.
"If you hate them so much… if you dislike them for behaving the way they are… then the best you can do, is to not stoop to their level. Don't become one of them."
"But Nobu… they killed Nobu! You're asking me to let go, forgive and forget?"
"No. Never forget. Remember him. Mourn him. But don't let it consume you." Haruto still let Aina fed on him, and she doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon. That last battle had nearly drained her dry. "When I first ride a Valvrave I know I do so because I want revenge. I saw my childhood friend seemingly vaporized right in front of my eyes, I went mad with grief. And in the end, I made all sorts of wrong decisions. I lied to Shoko, kept the whole Valvrave thing a secret until it's too late, and I'm forced to hurt many other people." Haruto looked at Raizo. He seems had entered a solemn, humbled look as he gazed thoughtfully to the floor. "You remember when we talked in the classroom, about you demanding me to give you Unit 01? You were so consumed by anger and grief, all you can think of is revenge. You were just like me then. I didn't give it to you then because I was afraid you'll become something… worse than what I am now. However, when you saw how Yusuke ride the Valvrave the first time, you let it go right? You didn't demand him to force him to give it to you."
"Well… it's because… Yusuke got the skills needed… at the time."
"And this second time when you finally pilot it? What drives you?"
He roared proudly: "I want to fight, of course! And I want revenge to and… and…" Raizo looked at Aina, at Haruto, at Yusuke… and then he added more humbly. "…I just don't want anymore of my pals die. That's all."
"And that's what makes you a better man than the Dorssians. And you have to keep it that way. And seeing I'm the one who started this… making sure you remain the noble hearted man you once were is my job." Haruto smiled. End of discussion. He unfurled the sleeves covering his rear arm as well. "Hora, bite!"
Yusuke and Raizo looked at each other and they finally nodded before reluctantly approached Haruto's arm.
"Haruto… sorry!" And Yusuke bite down.
"One day… I swear I'm going to repay you for this, Aniki!" Raizo also bite down.
Saki clasped her mouth in sorrow. So this is Haruto's way of shouldering everything? He's going to become a battery to fuel all other Valrave pilots? Including her? 'Haruto…'
Haruto glanced at Saki. "Saki… you-"
"YOU SHUT UP!" Saki screeched, tears rolling down her eyes. "Don't you dare ask me to do it! Don't you even speak of it! I won't!" Saki cried. "Never! Never…!" One more tearful look at how the other pilots are becoming increasingly ravenous in their feeding of Runes… of Haruto… Saki felt a nudge on her chest. And she gasped, realizing what it was.
She wants to feed too.
She wants to feed BAD! The spider web markings appeared on her neck. The hunger was ravaging her sanity inside out. But, seeing the pained look in Haruto, she mustered every shred of willpower she had and said to herself. "No." Saki clasped Haruto's tightly gripped hand as she sat at his side, tucking her head to his and hugged him close to support him. "No. Never. Never…!"
Pino looked at this scene and felt utterly horrible. As Queen, she possesses more than enough Runes to sustain herself virtually indefinitely outside her shell. As a Magius, she's well aware of the uncontrollable hunger that plagues her race. She worked for eons to try to find a solution… but she never once considered this sort of solution. To sacrifice herself and let her people fed on her vastly larger pool of runes. And yet Haruto allowed his friends to do so without a second of fear or a moment's hesitation.
Her people never believed in God or deities, and so they never prayed… but just for this instance… Pino felt she needs to pray.
'If there's an actual God out there… watch over this one child… will you?'
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Meanwhile, a pouting Shoko was walking furiously across the corridor. She was still enraged by the horrid lies shown on the TV when suddenly she bumped on an equally delirious L-Elf. "Ow! Sorry! L-Elf?"
The cold eyed Dorssian Soldier looked like a walking corpse. "…Shashinami… Shoko…"
"L-Elf! You… okay?" Shoko momentarily forgotten about her anger upon seeing the usually calm and collected L-Elf look… shaken.
"…" He didn't say anything… and he certainly doesn't want to say anything. L-Elf ignored her looks and just kept dragging his feet like a corpse.
That was Shoko's cue to pursue things further. "L-Elf? Oi! L-Elf!" She grabbed him by the hand.
That caused him to snap. "Let go of me!"
Shoko frowned. "What's wrong?"
"None of your damn business!" L-Elf barked and glared at her with intimidating mad eyes, the idea was to scare her off.
"L-Elf?" Contrary to being scared, Shoko blinked several times in curiosity. The sight of that cold robotic-like L-Elf has become such a staple with him… that suddenly the sight of him showing any form of emotion at all… albeit a shaken one was truly something of great interest to her.
Seeing he didn't get what he wanted, L-Elf chose to avert his gaze and walked away from Shoko.
Call it gut instinct, Shoko felt that she need to press on with this one. So she made a phone call and…
L-Elf kept dragging his feet… and follow wherever the road led… he wanted to go back to his room but… door closed, left turn, door closed, right turn… 5 minutes later. He's right back where a smirking Shoko was waiting.
L-Elf may be delirious, but his brain is still working just fine to figure what's going on. "Shashinami Shoko… call Renbokuji Akira and tell her to stop."
"Oh, you're still alive. Right. I'm afraid that won't work. Akira is still angry for what you did to her the last time, so she's doing this for a great amount of personal satisfaction."
Akira smirked widely before her screen.
"I can break your limb one at a time right in front of her. Then we'll see how much fun she'll have."
Shoko was undaunted. "See that?" Shoko pointed at a door. "That's an air chute. We use to throw in trashes and stuff. It's vacuum there… we never opened it any bigger than a few centimeters… but we can open it up as big as full grown man. It'll toss you straight into garbage bin, and then straight into the airlock." The girl pointed at her waist. "And I'm the only one with a safety belt."
L-Elf frowned and he looked at the brown haired girl. "Surprising… you… and Tokishima Haruto… didn't expect the both of you to have so much guts… and thought to put into this."
"We're leveling things up to your level, L-Elf. That seems to be the only way we can get through to you." Shoko smiled. "So… wanna tell me what's going on?"
"Why do you care?"
At this Shoko mockingly mimicked the way L-Elf talk: "This country needs me!" Shoko smirked. "Isn't that what you told Haruto? What you told all of us? Well, I hate to admit it, but you're right. This country needs your help… just as much as you need this country. The thing is… you are obviously not in your best state. If not physically then your mind is. We need you intact, body and mind."
"…"
"So tell me. What's wrong with you?"
"You think you can help?"
"You tell me what's buggin' you, I might." Shoko smiled.
L-Elf grunted and glared. "…what do you do when you find out someone you care turned into a Monster?"
Shoko blinked. "…that's it? That's your problem?"
L-Elf shrugged.
"Dude… you blew my childhood friends to bits right in front of me just to show me that he already turned into a Space Vampire." Shoko snarled.
And L-Elf had to fight an urge to jaw drop and slap himself silly for forgetting the fact. That's right. How could he forget? Shashinami Shoko is in the exact same shoes as he is right now. "…how did you deal with it?"
"We talked, and we admitted the truth. Haruto and I. We talked and we came to terms to what we are. I'm human, he's a Magius. And the two of us had to live with that now."
"Truth…" L-Elf mourned. "Then why didn't she tell me the truth?"
"She?" Shoko frowned in some thought. "This… Lieselotte?"
L-Elf shrugged. "She's a Magius. But she didn't tell me. Why?"
"Ask her then."
"She had many chances to tell me… why didn't she?"
"Obviously, there's only one person who can tell you that." Shoko stated simply. "And if you really care for her… and you really believed that she really cared for you… only one person can ask her, right?"
"I don't know what to believe!"
"Then go back." Shoko easily added. "Go back… to the memories you two spent together, the she you believed. The things she says, the things she do. That's what I do. When I found out Haruto kept secrets from me I… I was… angry. Lost and confused. But then… then the way he behave after that… and then he finally decided to tell me the truth… He may be a monster… but there's a part of him that still remains the same. How do I know this? I just look back on the him… in my memories. And find back my connection there."
L-Elf looked at Shoko… and he's having a hard time believing that he's actually considering of taking up Shoko on her advice. If he think about it… before Tokishima Haruto and Rukino Saki's relationship took towards that step, it was obvious that Shashinami Shoko's feelings to him were more than friends… "…I've heard from Yusuke Otamaya and Inuzuka Aina… that you once had a chance to become a Magius. Why did you pass it up?"
Shoko chuckled, and then she removed her safety belt, a sign for Akira to lax things up a bit. "…you know what it's like to be the daughter of a prime minister?"
"I can imagine… but I'd reckon I'll just let you tell me."
Shoko smirked. "There's a sense of… detachment. It put you in a rather harsh perspective. My father stood there in the podium, making speech to defend his country, while I wrestled with a big fat old lady on a sale for a new T-Shirt that barely fits me."
L-Elf tilted his head, not understanding the point.
"There's some… lofty expectations… that the society as a whole demanded out of you. There's… some kind of pressure… being a daughter of a prime minister you were expected to behave in certain way and all that. You should do this, don't do that. It's kinda like… the society tryin' to shape you, based on what they think… you should behave. And they partially succeeded. Now… considering some of these memories are real, I remember… when other kids were reading comic books, I was reading state bills and political strip news." Shoko chuckled. "But eventually, in my personal opinion… I say… who cares. I do what I want, when I want. Being the greedy queen of the universe. Hah."
"Somehow… I can see how that suits you."
"I'll consider that a compliment." Shoko chuckled. "By all accounts, my predicaments made me somewhat detached from the rest. So I decided to dumb down, and be more earthly. And I did it. Most of my pals in the school know who I am… but… they never cared anyway."
"Alright. I get the picture. So what's the point?"
"My point is… Haruto, Rukino-san, Aina, Inuzuka, Yusuke, Yamada… and now Akira. Everyone had become detached from humanity, literally. Problem is… they're living in a society where… society as a whole cannot tolerate existences like them. Blame it on how the culture and history had shaped humanity to behave that way. You and me… for instance."
"Excuse me?"
"You called Haruto a monster, didn't you? Even I think of him as a monster at some point… when he slaughtered everyone on that ship." Shoko sighed. "But… as the cat finally out of the bag, and we came to terms with everything… I realize they need a place to belong. A place to call home in a world where… where they're the minority, the outcasts… and the majority is their enemy. That's what I'm trying to do. To create a safe haven for them. A place where their heart may lie. A home."
"But why stay human?"
"The majority of the world is human right now. I need to be an example. An example for the rest of the humanity that you don't have to fear them, even though you're a human. In order to be THAT particular example, I can't do that as a Magius. I need to STAY human." Shoko smiled kindly. "Because the minority needs friends… and the Majority needs an example. One is good."
L-Elf shook his head.
"What?"
"Never take you to be that smart."
"Never take you to be such a softy, doing all this for a sweetheart and all."
L-Elf glared, Shoko merely grinned wide.
L-Elf scoffed and turned around, ready to leave. But before he do, Shoko had a few last words. "You know… I think I understand… why Haruto didn't tell me anything the first time. He was afraid… afraid that I, of all people, will call him a monster. He was afraid that, once the truth come out, I will hate him." Shoko sighed. "This is just a guess. But maybe that's why she didn't tell you anything. She was afraid… that when you'll learn the truth… you'll call her monster. And she can't stand it. She feared it."
L-Elf scoffed. "You and Tokishima haruto are quite alike. You're so naïve."
"Hey I told you it's a guess. If you wanna know the truth… the best way is to ask her personally. Right?"
"You make it sound as if it was so easy!"
"Hey don't look at me. Last I checked, there's only one person here smart enough to think of something as crazy as a one man Coup D'état. And he succeeded too, if I might add."
L-Elf didn't say anything and walk away.
Shoko merely shook her head as she watched L-Elf disappeared from her sights around the corner.
Beep. Beep.
A text from Akira.
I don't like him. He's mean.
"Nah! He's just a big softie at heart." Shoko chuckled. "You hungry Akira?"
And as Shoko walked away, another figure who had been listening from this conversation from start to finish phased out of the wall.
Pino looked at L-Elf… then to Shoko in amazement and, dare she say it, admiration and respect.
00000000000000
Later… nearing the evening…
Ryuuji was strolling across the still ruined school, when he noticed a figure fluttering on the school roof.
At the rooftop…
"…Pino?"
"Ryuuji." Pino smiled sadly. "…humans are incredible creatures. I spent centuries studying them, and yet they never fail to surprise me."
Ryuuji tilted his head.
"Tokishima Haruto. I once said… that he of all people deserved to be given this gift of immortality. And I still stand by it, in fact… after what I see today… I would even go as far to say he earned it, a hundred times over." Pino smiled. "And then there's Shashinami Shoko. She could've become an immortal, she deserve it, she needed it… but she didn't. She sacrificed her privilege… her chance for eternal happiness… all for the love of her friends. To give them somewhere to call home."
Ryuuji waited.
"I'm a terrible ruler, you know." Ryuuji look disapprovingly at Pino, but Pino smiled. "Yes I am. Haruto and Shoko are unimaginably wise children. Wiser than even me. If they had been in my position then… they probably would not have made the same mistakes that I did. Both children are more than worthy of the gift I've given them. But…" Pino now remember what everyone who had received her 'gift' had endured. "…I'm starting to think I've made a big mistake… for ever even considering the idea of doing this project. You know… if I think about it now, maybe it's because I started this whole thing under the thought pattern that mortality is a bad thing for humanity. And now they have to live with that mistake for the rest of their lives… because of me."
"You can't punish yourself too harshly for this, Pino." Ryuuji replied. "We leaders can only make well meaning decisions on perfect idealism. We cannot expect for everything to work perfectly as we had planned."
"A leader is responsible for the lives of those who followed them. If they make even a tiniest mistake, then those who follow that leader will suffer… right?"
Ryuuji chuckled. "On earth… we have a saying: we're only human. That's a way for us to understand that a human, no matter what position he was in… or what power his rank gave him, from a mere commoner to a king… is not exempt from making mistakes."
Pino blinked several times and grinned wide. "Maa! What a splendid philosophy!"
"Ah… really?"
"Yes! Covers all manners of mishaps to the inherent and irremovable flaw of humanity! Incredible! Human frailty, banza~ai!" Pino cheerfully raised her hands in celebration.
Ryuuji sweatdropped, not sure if Pino was praising or sarcastically insulting the entire human race.
"Magius can't make mistakes." Pino smiled sadly. "It has nothing to do with whether we're smarter or older than you… that's just the way we are. In our universe, abstract thoughts and physical reality are one. We just need to think of it and the object of our desire will appear exactly as we wanted them to be, no defects, no flaw - perfect." Pino smile faltered slightly. "…but that's just dead end… isn't it? Perfect means there's no room for improvements. And so we cannot grow. Maybe that's why our universe was destroyed by yours. We're standing stock still… while humans grow and expand from their mistakes. Be that as it may… why do mistakes is such a frustrating thing? It's good isn't it? So why do humans hate it so? Why do Magius hates it so? Ne? Ryuuji? Why do all beings hate mistakes?"
Ryuuji tilted his head. "Hrmmh…" he scratched his not so itching head, trying to figure out an answer. "Maybe because of… the concept of responsibility." Pino listened intently. "When a human make mistake, a sense of guilt invade their mind. Normally, it was followed by an overwhelming need to fix things… to make it right again. Kinda like how you wanted to erase the thirst to feed from your race but you haven't been able to. The thirst is a mistake… and you're trying to fix it."
"I see… the fundamental basis of human conscience eh…" Pino pointed at her chin and nodded. "But… why is it such an unpleasant feeling though? Is it not the fundamentals of things: you make mistake, and you fix it?"
"Because fixing a mistake is not easy… nor is it pleasant." Ryuuji closed his eyes. "More often than not… it requires you to commit sacrifices to make things right again. Sadly, it is also a fundamental flaw of mankind to always want the easy way out. We just don't like sacrifices, because that means we may have to give up something we never be able to get back… hence we hate mistakes… and we tried our best to prevent it."
"Give up… means never surrender right? The basis that made human such a resilient race." Pino tilted her head, excitedly analyzed this particulars of human psyche. "I always thought that to be a good thing… but interestingly you made it as something bad."
"We are complex that way." Ryuuji laughed. "Too much of a good thing is as bad as not having any at all."
"…limit. Huh? Now you're talking about limit… and now I'm reminded on the human limited lifespan… limit of the fleshly shape… Limit… the very basis of humanity's existence: Limit. Limiting your existence and then trying your very best to surpass them…" Pino closed her eyes in deep thought, assessing, pondering the meaning and smirked.
"The sun is almost down, Queen Pinovalkia Acachia Walvravia." Suddenly, a stern cold voice from A-Drei attracted the two leaders. "What are your answers?"
"I see. You're right." Pino smiled. "…I only have one condition."
"?"
"Stop calling me queen." Pino gleefully noted. "It's just like what Shoko said. They are naughty children indeed… and now, they are in serious need of a thorough Ass Spanking."
00000000000000
In short order, Pino, Ryuuji and A-Drei called all the Valvrave Pilots – bar Akira who's already there - to join them in the hangar. Shoko was also there, having accompanied Akira on another snack pig out.
When they arrived, Shoko was quick to notice something amiss…
In particular, she noticed the fact that Yusuke and Aina, two people she knew wear glasses… came there no longer wearing it.
"Yusuke? Aina-chan? Where are your-"
"-Glasses?" Yusuke grinned wide. "We just fed on Runes and… after we're done…"
"W-w-w-we suddenly found out… that our eyesight… had improved…" She stuttered in her usual shy tone. This is Sakurai Aina's consciousness inside Sakurai Aina's body alright.
"And watch this!" Raizo grinned. He grabbed a floating steel bar… and then he twisted it around like it was a tin foil. "Being a Magius is awesome!"
Pino calmly analyzed this. "Of course… clotting rate improved, regenerative factor enhanced, significant enhancements in muscle strength, and elasticity and flexibility relative to the amount of Runes absorbed…" She looked at Yusuke and Aina. "All forms of deficiency are being restored to their proper setting, like poor eyesights restored back to normal… and more."
A-Drei thought something else entirely. 'But… L-elf told me these three most likely fed from Tokishima Haruto… if the leeches were this strong… just how strong is the main host…?' He eyed Haruto suspiciously.
"It can restore eyesights, but… restoring limbs… is a bit… hard?" Aina gazed hopefully at the core of 05, where Inuzuka Kyuuma resides.
"They take time. Particularly if the subject is still human." Pino mournfully noted. "However… I'd like to stress out one thing before you all get overly excited with your new strengths and all."
All Novus Magius pay close attention.
"…there's a reason why Valvraves has a 100 heat limiter." Pino stated. "The gauge is the limit of how much heat the Valvraves are accumulating. That heat came from the Runes that are coruscating throughout the Valvraves circuitry and structural frames. And those Runes… came from YOU. It's also another way of saying… it shows how much Runes you had been using."
"How is it bad?" Yusuke asked.
"Runes are information particle." An answer came, but not from Pino, but from Kibukawa floating down, aided by Rion. "Runes came from thoughts and knowledge. The greatest source of knowledge from human is from their memories. I guess in retrospect, that means that Runes are inexhaustible, as they are easily replenished. All you had to do is make some new memories. But using Runes is equivalent to using the information in your own head." Rion stopped Kibukawa and let him hang suspended in the sky for everyone to see. Kibukawa glanced apologetically to Yusuke.
Yusuke gave him a solemn look and nodded.
Kibukawa smiled sadly and continued. "First normal combat run, everything seems okay. And so is second and third… but… on the forth and fifth occasion you do so without feeding on anyone… your defense mechanism will trigger. You'll went berserk… like Haruto." Kibukawa nodded to Haruto. "And if even after that, you still haven't fed on anything… your memories will begin to blur… and finally… they'll disappear completely." Kibukawa's look darkened. "And if you continue to use the Valvraves in that state…" Everyone gulped. "Your other memories will continue to blur and disappear rapidly, one by one. Starting with the oldest, increasingly rapidly moving all the way up to the earliest… until finally… after you reached a certain critical point, there's no going back." Kibukawa added darkly. "Your runes will literally leaked out, and your limiter will be broken. They will flow out uncontrollably and your memories will disappear… until finally… you will use up the information called life. In short… you'll die."
The pilots paled.
"How did you know this?" A-Drei frowned.
"Kibukawa was the one responsible for overseeing the students' mental health. His main concerns are particularly on children whom we have… used to test the Rave Engine." Ryuuji was somewhat careful on this issue.
"The only way to stave off this, is by feeding on runes routinely… once a month… or in this case… seeing that you're about to enter into an intense combat with a significantly improved and wargeared Valvrave… you may want to keep watch on a weekly basis."
"Whoa… wait one second there…" Raizo suddenly raised his hand. "I didn't entirely catch the whole Rune thingamajig thing… but I caught something about… Improved Valvrave?"
The Valvarve pilots looked at Pino once again.
"Yes, Thunder-Kun, you heard me right." Pino smiled. "We're all aware of how bad the situations are. And as such, I'm gonna give a thorough upgrades to all your Valvraves. Once I'm through with them you might not be able to recognize them anymore."
"Upgrades… huh…" Yusuke looks somewhat excited.
"You guys had seen it. These weapons they're using right now? They're effective against anything made by humans… but…" The Jior Hangar Man stated. "We're fighting against Magius tech… Valvrave tech. And… it looks like we need an edge to fight them."
"That is to be expected." Another Jior Hangar crew stated. "The only thing that is truly alien in the Valvraves is the Rave Engine. The Frames, the clear fossil, the sense nerves, they were all built using a combination of human adapted alien tech blueprint and composite earth substitutes. The arsenals though… the Z-Edges, the Fold Sickle, the Spindle Knuckles, Bolt Phalanx, Armstronger arms… they're all products of reverse engineering of the former two."
A-Drei noticed something. "…the weapons. Only the weapons?"
The original Valvrave hangar crews looked at each other and bit their lips. "…Pino… never gave us any weapon schematics."
With the cat out of the bag, the civilians of Jior felt they no longer need to keep their identity and former life as Jior soldier a secret. They may not design the Valvraves, but most of them are well aware on how to maintain them. Some of the scientist in the construction of the Valvrave was also present (though obviously not all of them)… but the army was the one who designed and put the weapons aboard the Valvraves.
"We're sorry for putting them on your Valvraves… Queen Pino."
And what Pino think about it was…
"Truth be told… I'm more amazed than upset, really."
"You are?"
"Yes. See, the reason I didn't put any weapons in these new Valvraves was because I designed them as some form of… Memorials. They're practically monuments, kinda like when you humans build statues to honor your dead or commemorate notable achievements… they belong in the graveyard or a museum. So really? I'm amazed you guys can actually hold out this long using tourist attraction."
Jaw drops all around.
"Let's not forget luck."
Everyone turned and saw L-Elf come walking towards them. He's a lot calmer and more composed than he was some time ago, much to Shoko and Pino's surprise. "These untrained idiots must have an unimaginable luck to survive for so long."
"Excuse me!? Who you're calling idiots!?" Raizo growled.
"The sort of idiots who allowed their module being boarded more than twice in a row. The sort of idiots who allowed one person to take over their country in a day. If that's not idiocy… I don't know what is." In his usual style, L-Elf spared no mercy in his brutal criticism.
Raizo's face reddened in anger and he tightened his ball and made a move towards L-Elf, but Haruto grabbed hold of him by the shoulder. "Thunder… he's right." Haruto shook his head and Raizo calmed down considerably. "As far battle skills go, we're wet behind the ears. The only reason we survive, is simply because Valvraves are super weapons with incredibly toughness… but we barely make full use of their full performance. It doesn't matter if we're not human who can no longer age or grow ill, we can still die."
Haruto look at L-elf. He still remember what happened when it was L-Elf in command of the Valvrave. He turned that thing into a beast with sheer instinctive skill alone. If L-elf can somehow maintain his full mental faculty when piloting the Valvrave, Haruto shuddered at what he can do. "L-Elf is our main instructor. He can train us… can you L-Elf?"
L-Elf nodded. "There are several Waffes in the Walkit, we can use that for space combat training."
"Uh-uh. I don't think so." One of the hangar crew replied. "I checked the OS… Those two are completely different in control system complexity and concept."
"I'm aware. The only thing with complexity equaling that of the Valvrave are ideals… but we've destroyed all but two units. And that is not enough. I know practicing Waffe is highly insufficient compared to actual Valvarves, but we have to make do. We can't use the Valvraves, as Pino stated earlier, she's going to upgrade them, and so they will be off limit."
"Isn't there something else we can use? Simulator or something."
"It's not the same, Tokishima Haruto." L-Elf started. "Things are way faster in the Valvrave and in real combat compared to combat simulator, no matter how realistic they may be. The problem is we simply… don't have the time to go at this the slow way."
"Well…" Ryuuji suddenly lifted a finger. "There may be… something… that we can use… something akin to Valvrave… but not exactly a Valvrave."
"?"
Ryuuji brought them all to another section of the Module. The one part where the students had yet reached. And if they reached it, they can't enter it anyway. It was located a few rooms from the hangar, just behind the chamber where the scientists kept the capsules containing the ruined and incomplete Valvraves, sealed and disguised as an unassuming wall.
"You need exclusive access, my DNA, in order to enter this section." A red scanner scanned Ryuuji's eye, and then the wall opened.
Behind the wall, is… a factory. A massive city sized factory where, judging by some the components hanging on the conveyor belt, were the place where the Valvraves, and their spare parts, were manufactured. But… everyone's attention was quickly directed to the centerpiece of that factory.
They looked like valvraves…
But they're not. There are several obvious noticeable differences… Their headcrests are less elaborate. Their armors are standardized to look like a simplified version of 01's armor. But they have no Sense Nerve wings like the original. Instead, there are hardpoints for attaching various equipments, based on situation.
And there are 7 of them identical units on standby… and another baker being partially constructed.
"We called them Kagerou." Ryuuji stated as the group walked across the caged Mass Production models. "A mass produced version of the Valvrave. They outwardly looked like the first five Vavraves but… unlike the first five which incorporate some percentage of alien tech, Kagerou's insides are 100% earth-made. And so as you can imagine… they're nothing like the original ones but…"
"The Engine?" Pino rubbed her chin.
"We… haven't figured everything out… but we designed a system called Mirror Rave Engine." Ryuuji explained. "Unlike the original six Rave Engines that you gave us, Mirror Rave engine are pale imitation, only capable of barely one fifth of its output. That being said, the unit requires to be recharged periodically, unlike the original six, their rave engine cannot replenish itself."
"That doesn't make sense." L-Elf frowned. "I understand it that Valvraves require Runes from its pilot to replenish its energy."
"The Original rave Engine needs an actual Magius or a Novus Magius pilot to fully function. The Kagerous were designed to be piloted by a homo sapien novus. Not magius."
Pino quickly understand. "They have no injection system to turn the Sapien into Magius."
"But they have biometric scanner and a system we would like to call a Novus Inducer. Basically, a Sapien Novus enter that unit, they can manipulate Runes, used them for weapons, just like a Magius… but… to a far less potent level. It's highly insufficient… and… like I said… their powers pale in comparison to the original ones, but enough to fly and give an admirable performance. The idea was they were there to support the commando units, that is, the Original Valvraves. Theoretically though… if an actual Novus Magius were to get in there… it may pump the performance even further above its original specs."
Haruto approached one Kagerou. The neon green sense nerve visors were darkened and gloom. This thing has no power yet.
"Tokishima Haruto-"
"I know." Haruto knew exactly what L-Elf wanted him to do. He closed his eyes, concentrating… and then a massive amount of neon green runes amassed on his hand. He touched the foot of the Kagerou with that hand… and then an instant later, the rune energy coruscated throughout the unit. And soon, all its system came online, and the visor glowed neon green.
"Perfect." L-Elf nodded. "We can use this to train and defend ourselves while the original ones are being upgraded." L-Elf looked at the other incomplete units. "Is there any way you can modify them to be used by normal humans?"
"I'm afraid not. We designed it for Sapien Novus… not normal homo sapien. Sorry."
"Pity." L-Elf shrugged flatly. And then, one by one, mimicking Haruto, Saki did the same with a kagerou, Aina repeated the process to another unit. Raizo tried his damndest to copy his aniki… with no success. Yusuke did it easily enough though. Now they have 4 active Kagerous.
L-Elf looked disapprovingly at Raizo. "Hrmmm…" Then he looked at the other 4 successful pilots. "Training starts now. Suit up and get ready to leave in 10!" He looked at Raizo. "And you… you stay until you learn how to activate your own Kagerou."
"Aww…" Raizo moaned.
L-Elf turned to A-Drei. "A-Drei… about the Dorssian prisoners-"
"I'll take care of it."
0000000
Down in the Potemkin…
A-Drei stood in front of the Dorssian prisoners. "You've seen the speech?"
Everyone nodded.
"…what if I tell you that wasn't Amadeus speaking. But another one of those Magius of the council?"
Everyone gasped.
"What if I tell you that these monsters had been responsible for all the horrors that our country had suffered? What if I tell you that all the blood of our people… were in their hands!?"
The Dorssian's shock was quickly followed with anger.
"I ask you now, Dorssian. If these monsters had ruled our country to ruin from the shadows… if they had laughed and feasted upon the souls and minds of our people… I ask you… what. Are you. Going. To do. About it!?"
The Dorssians looked at each other, and then they gave a determined look that says it all.
A-Drei nodded and made a phonecall. "Renbokuji Akira… please?"
And the cells are unlocked.
00000000000000
The days that followed were truly busy day for everyone in the module.
Pushed by five Valvraves, module 77 and its accompanying salvaged fleet arrived at a location given by Ryuuji. They found of all things, a derelict Dyson Sphere. But a quarter of the said Dyson Sphere is a total wreck, and about half of it had been blasted out.
"Whoaa…" Yusuke gulped. "What happened to that sphere?"
"20 years ago, this Dyson Sphere was under construction when it was hit by a particularly huge terrestrial object. It suffered massive damage, and it was abandoned soon after." Ryuuji explained.
"20 years ago?" Shoko blinked and she deductively and correctly looked at Pino.
Pino smiled nervously. "Yeah. It was me. I smashed right into it due to telemetry error in my Valvrave."
"Luckily only Construction Drones were destroyed… but… the Dyson Sphere is abandoned in half finished state. Though it should have ample supply of food and we'll have plenty of raw materials needed to modify the Valvarves… and some."
"I'm more grateful for the extra supplies we'll have. We're running short with all the mouths we need to feed." Shoko smiled cheerfully.
Pino rubbed her chin, eying the devastated Dyson sphere suspiciously.
Anyway, with supplies and raw material secured, first days were planning for reconstruction… and training programs.
06 Hiasobi…
L-Elf looked at 06's form.
"L-Elf-kun." It was Pino. "As I said before… I modeled each and every Valvrave in memory of my friends. This one, I made in honor of Lieselotte's image. Out of all the members of the Covenant of the Seven rainbows… she is my dearest friend."
"Why did she bring about the Black Plague of the 14th century?"
"Because out of all of us, Lieselotte is the one who is the most compassionate about the human race." Pino smiled, though this answer confused L-Elf. "When we first arrive and we still inhabit animals, it was her who first noticed the human race, and it was her who first assumed a human form in order to live among you… to learn more about you… and from there… she grew to love… everything. Everything there is about humanity. More so than any of us."
"If she loved humanity why she did all that?" Shoko suddenly just jumped in.
Pino chuckled. "When you love something… or someone… too much… the hate and anger you feel will be also too much… when they do not live to your expectations… or when they betray and hurt you." Pino sighed. "The problem is… Lieselotte was too… hasty. Against our better advice and my stern warnings, she prematurely taught some of her human friends our ways. The thing that humans at the time called witchcraft. I told her it was too early, but she was convinced that the humans are ready. And that was not without reason, humans are good students and readily accept everything she taught them, and she put a strict watch on what she taught them. But they were not wise enough to use them properly. One thing led to another… some of the humans got… impatient, reckless… and greedy."
L-Elf and Shoko easily get the rest of the picture themselves.
"These… heretics would go on terrorizing the whole country, giving the word witch a negative connotation in your culture. When their heresies were made known to her, and they went into all out betrayal… they attacked her with the very things she taught them. Killed several of her closest familiars, I kid you not, they were that good… but not good enough to challenge the Grim Witch herself. She had to kill them all with her own hands, taking back all that she had given them." Pino glumly noted. "Still wounded body and mind from this betrayal, she came back to her remaining loyal witch coven only to find the humans made them the scapegoats for all the havoc that the traitors had wreaked. They captured them all; burn them at the stakes… that just… pushed her over the edge."
L-Elf frowned in deep thought, remembering some of the things that had happened, the things Lieselotte had said to him. There was this one time when L-Elf actually managed to get her out of that prison of a manor. And yet… they didn't continue.
"And where would we go, Michael?" Lieselotte mourned. "In this world… there's no safe haven for us anywhere."
He finally began to understand what she meant. Lieselotte was traumatized. Deeply traumatized. The punishment that Pino had imposed upon her had made her an outcast among her people, but even in humanity she found no solace, having experienced how easy they could turn against her in a heartbeat. In this world… everyone is her enemy or they will be.
…and he once swore that not even God can save anyone who means to do her harm from his wrath. "If… if you were to meet her again… what would you do to her?"
"That depends." Pino shrugged. "I need to see her first. Right here, right in front of me, in the flesh, and hear what she has to say, THEN and only then… can I make any form of decisions. Now you say she's imprisoned in Dorssia?"
L-Elf nodded.
"Then we better live through this and get to Dorssia, no?"
The officially Ex-Dorssian soldier shrugged and walked away. But his eyes are now more determined than ever.
…which means his students will get their ass kicked.
0000000
Out in space…
Four Kagerous had launched out of the Module, each were given stripes matching the signature color of its pilots.
True to its design of being reverse engineered from the original units, the Valvrave pilots have little problem in controlling the mass produced models… "Okay… I'm getting a hang of this… it's like the Valvrave but it's a lot simpler." Not surprisingly, Yusuke, followed swiftly by Haruto, were the first who managed to get a hang of their Kagerous in a jiffy. Except the timid Aina who still have some difficulties.
"Alright… now… where's our instructor?"
And then they found him.
"I'm here."
And he's aboard… a manned Waffe.
Everyone blinked several times.
"Oi… l-Elf…" Saki twitched. "…you're gonna fight us… in a Waffe?" She knew he's good… but he can't be that good.
"Of course not. Today's training is maneuvering. I saw yesterday's data, and your flight patterns are ridiculously straight forward. You literally flew into a bullet instead of dodging them." L-Elf motioned on the field behind him.
He placed beeping markers on a series of asteroids, together they make a track. It looked like a space obstacle course.
"See those markers? Now, notice how some are beeping more than the other? Your goal is to fly following those markers. The first catch is you have to also take note of the frequency of the beeping. You start from the one that beep at the lowest frequency, and then you continue to the marker that beeps a pace higher, and then the next, and the next, and the next."
"First catch?" Saki twitched.
"The second catch is that there are motion sensors on those markers. When you pass a marker, they'll change color into blue." L-Elf demonstrated this by flying his Waffe over a marker, and the red light turned blue. "However, there's also proximity sensor on those markers, they will only activate when you fly within 1000 feet radius of said marker."
"1000 feet!?" Yusuke balked. "That'll put us too close to the ground!"
"That's the idea." L-Elf shrugged. "This is low altitude flight training in space. During space combat, there won't be just asteroids floating around: pieces of warships, small wreckages, drifting shrapnel. And don't forget incoming projectiles, solid and beam weaponry. You have to learn to dodge at the least amount of safety margin."
Aina nodded nervously. "I… I suppose we have to… start slow and then…"
"Ah, the third catch." L-Elf noted. "You'll be chasing me. It's a race. All your Kagerous has been armed with paint guns. The objective is to shoot me 10 times." L-Elf then added. "Those guns are locked right now. In order to open fire, you have to finish one lap. Which means you have to finish 10 laps in order to complete the objective. By the way, 1 lap consist of passing through 10 markers, and I will also try to shoot you 10 times, when that happens, it means you've failed so you better dodge and hit me before that happens."
Haruto still feel something is a bit off. This is too simple… it doesn't seem like L-Elf at all. "What happened if we fail?"
To demonstrate this, L-Elf shoot Haruto's unit 10 times with his paint gun… at which point, something was triggered in the Haruto's helmet breather and the cockpit air conditioning system… something that stinks like a toilet that hasn't been cleaned for a month. It stings! "GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGHHH!" Haruto choked and hold on to his throat. His nose became runny, his chest tightened and his eyes hurts as they get watery. Soon after, Haruto had difficulty breathing and experiences intense nausea and drooling. As the victim continues to lose control of bodily functions, Haruto finally capped it off with intense vomiting (right inside his helmet), uncontrollable defecation (inside his suit) and urination (also in his suit). Seeing this is zero G, it's a terrible, terrible mess inside Haruto's suit.
All the other three jawdropped. Yusuke flabbergasted. "I… Is that Sarin Gas!? W… When the hell did you booby trapped our Kagerou's respiration system!?"
"Back when you were busy giving the Kagerou the so called custom paint job." L-elf answered nonchalantly. "It's a specialized non lethal dose of anti personnel Dorssian special blend Sarin-composite gas grenade we designed to pacify mob riots. For crowd control"
Everyone paled.
"Will Haruto be okay?" Saki growled in barely contained fury.
"He'll be fine."
"He better be." Saki approached the Waffe menacingly. "Otherwise I would have to kill you."
"Can you?" L-Elf sighed. And then his Waffe dashed into the track, followed swiftly by Saki's Kagerou. The race is on.
The Waffe passed one marker and then it disappeared out of sight. The Kagerou also arrived on the same spot. Saki was wondering on where else should she go. Everywhere there's beeping but she remembered she had to pick one who beeps at higher frequency than this one.
Barely seconds while she ponder this, a paint blast hit her on the head. "WHAT!?"
"You take too long to decide your course, Rukino Saki!" In the time it took for Saki to decide her track, L-Elf had finished a lap and unlocked one shot.
"Why you lit'l-!" However, in a span of five minutes, Saki could barely passed 4 markers, L-Elf had landed 8 more shots, and now he almost finished his final lap, and one final shot. Which he did.
"BLAAAAAAARGGHH!" and so, Saki also suffered the same fate as Haruto, and her helmet was stuffed with the contents of her meal from three directions.
L-elf shook his head. And then he turned to the remaining vict-trainees. "Next."
Yusuke and Aina paled.
Being Novus Magius with higher than normal immunity system meaning the Sarin will not do any lasting damage…
But needless to say, apart from the damage to their dignity and their suit, everyone will be spending some time in the shower that day.
0000000
"We use this in Jior Soldier training program." A former Jior soldier handed A-Drei the equipment used by their military. "It's a modified army rifle. We changed the rounds to that of tazer rounds. It'll hit you with 50,000 volts, enough to knock a full grown man out." The Soldier demonstrated this by firing a bullet at a dummy, causing electricity to course through it.
A-Drei merely shrugged. "Taser gun. How quaint." He shook his head. How different the standards here compared to that of the Karstein. While L-Elf handle the Valvraves, he'll handle the infantry.
"It's as good as an actual gun, Mr. A-Drei. It fieldstrips like one, shoots like one, recoils like one, weighs like one… minus the killing."
A-Drei nodded. "I understand." They have limited human resources and he's about to train untrained teenagers in a very limited time. They cannot afford the risk of death that comes in Live Rounds exercise. "But increase the voltage to… 100,000 volts."
"100,000 volts!?" The soldier gaped. "That'll be enough to cause some permanent damage!"
"Third degree burns, actually. Coupled with all the effects on the 50,000 variant, amplified." A-Drei nodded. "They need the danger. To hone their senses to always be vigilant against the incoming danger and react to that. It's the closest thing they can get to the pain of gunshot."
The Soldier frowned… but he finally nodded.
And then the 'cadets' entered. The whole member of the sport's club, all geared up and ready to receive training from the new instructor. They all lined up in a disciplined formation.
A-Drei began his opening speech. "Okay. I'll be blunt. Dorssia military forces are one of the most ruthless and most feared army in the world. Each soldier was prepared in a draconian training program from the moment they survived the strict gene testing during their babyhood. We were raised on War Games, our decisions were made to be ruthless, without fear, and geared towards maximum lethalness. Technically it means, in open war, we're expected to die first before we take a step back."
Nice inspirational speech which caused all muscle macho sportsmen swallowed a loud gulp.
"The training took a man's entire child life until he became a man. We send soldiers to the field of battle when they are ready." A-Drei noted. "But you… the lot of you will be facing them… when you are ready enough. Which is another way of saying we really don't have much time. So no backtalks. No smart ass quip. I say jump you say how high. I say shoot you say where and you pull the trigger half a second later, any delay and I'll shoot you myself. Are we clear!?"
"Yes sir."
"THE FIRST AND LAST THING I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOUR DAMN PIPSQUEAK MOUTHS ARE SIR! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?"
"SIR, YES SIR!"
0000000
And so the days wear on…
05: Hiuchiba…
"Look here? What do you see?" Pino pointed at 05's joints.
"Wow… I've never seen a joint that develop so much wear and tear is such a short time."
"The corrosion happened primarily on the joints that controls the Clear Fossil shield…"
"Why?"
"Simple. 05 are being controlled by one pilot with two minds. Sakurai Aina controls the shield, Inuzuka Kyuuma controls the offensive weaponry as well as actual piloting." Pino smiled. "The biggest difficulty in controlling 05 is micro-managing between offense and defense. The problem was circumvented when it was being controlled by 2 minds… I would even say it improved it. This allows 05 to react even faster than other Valvraves. Problem is, its frame just can't keep up with this quickened reaction time."
"What should we do?"
"…need to change the joints… redesign it from ground up… and that shield, we need to replace it too. It's too one sided." Pino watched the data from the previous battle, where 05 were attacked from its unprotected rear. She needs to address this one… But first, she entered 05's system, and beheld Inuzuka Kyuuma floating in the cyberspace, watching a video feed. "Inuzuka-kun? How's your day going?"
"Great, considering I'm back being a guy again." Kyuuma groaned. "Albeit in cyberspace…"
"Take heart, Inuzuka-kun! We checked your body and we found that, against all odds, it is recovering! The runes that Aina-chan had absorbed helped!"
"Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure." Kyuuma grumbled again. It doesn't take a genius to know that he's in bad mood.
"Something vexes you?" Pino tilted her head.
"It's just…" Kyuuma grumbled as he showed the reason of his frustration. "…I'm watching my girl getting her ass kicked."
0000000
"Remember everyone." L-Elf explained through the com during one of the flight sessions, dodging Haruto's shots. "In space, there's no gravity. There's no up and down. You may think you're flying horizontally, but you are vertical everywhere you look. The most important point is to keep focus on where you are, and where do you want to go."
Everyone is improving. At least, that's what L-Elf can safely say. They're not combat ready yet. But they are getting better.
At first, none of them managed a single shot, as expected. They all had to try a round, getting beat, take a shower, and then come back to get shot down again in a vicious cycle. Like this, coupled with theoretical studies in-between, they can have 4 practiced sessions a day – with very little sleep and barely enough time to eat, part of the training, L-Elf said.
"The Magius will bombard you 24/7, given the amount of resources they command." L-Elf explained in one of their theory's class. "They will try to deprive you from rest. A battle with the Magius army can last for days. You need to keep performing at 100% no matter how many days you go by without sleep."
Fortunately, he's in no problem of running out of Sarin Gas. Now it's just the matter if they'll run out of patience of being drowned of their own vomit, feces and urine inside their suit time and again.
"There isn't just one way to get through a lap you know." L-Elf stated. "There are multiple routes you can take, provided you stick with the rule. You need to choose the one route most efficient." L-Elf addressed the vomit covered pilots.
Their hatred of him, and the burning desire to shoot him 10 times so as to see him drowning in his own bile provided a nice incentive. And so they improved. By the end of the first week, they can now shoot him at least 2 or 3 times before he butchered them flat, with Tokishima Haruto ranked at the top with 3 shots in. Saki and Yusuke tied with 1 or 2…
"You need to keep track of your ammo. When you are down to 5% of existing ammo, you already made preparations to reload. Reload only takes 2 milliseconds. That's not much, but in intense combat, that's long enough time to get yourself shot!"
But there's one pilot tha t, instead of having her patience tested, actually tested L-Elf's patience.
Aina fidgeted nervously with her fingers trembling on the controllers.
"Sakurai-san! Take it easy! Gently, gently, you can do it!" Saki gently gave the shy girl an encouragement over the com.
Yusuke chuckled. "I thought you should be able to do this? You pilot 05!"
"Inuzuka-senpai controlled it. His mind! Not mine! Kyaaa!" The blue stripped Kagerou collided with a small asteroid. And it just so happen, L-Elf finished a lap, and shot her for the tenth time… again.
0 shots from Aina… again.
Out of all pilots, Sakurai Aina was the only one that never landed a shot. But it's not because of she never finished a lap… really…
Saki and Aina took their nth shower. Saki was fuming in anger. She finally managed three shots today, but L-Elf blasted her 11 times. Why the extra shot? Just for the sheer heck of it, he said. Stress relief, he said. Yeah right. Like chasing him wasn't stress enough for them.
He never makes it easy. He vector thrusting his Waffe like a maniac, twisting and turning, makes aiming a hellish job. Machine performance wise, Kagerous winning. But L-Elf's skill as a super soldier more than makes up his unit's deficiency.
Aina however, was down. Really down. Her performance was the worst out of all Valvrave pilots. Even Yusuke managed a shot or two!
"Take it easy, Aina-chan." Saki gave her some encouragement. "Everyone take things at their pace. You'll get better soon."
Aina smiled weakly.
Moments later, the two girls walked out of the shower, draped in towels. But then, as they reached the locker room, Saki and Aina found, to their shock and Saki's anger, L-Elf was waiting for them, sitting on a bench.
"L-Elf! This is the girl's locker!" Saki growled.
L-Elf hardly cared. He took out his phone and opened a screen depicting the scores of the Valvrave Pilots. "Sakurai Aina."
Aina winced.
"Accuracy: D. CQC: E. Maneuvering Capabilities: B. Defensive capability: A. Offensive skills: E. Crisis Management: C. Piloting skill: A. Combat Readiness: D." Aina and Saki looked at each other, not sure if Aina's score was good or bad. L-Elf continued to the most distinctive point: "Spatial Awareness… AAA."
Saki blinked. "…what was that one?"
"Spatial Awareness." L-Elf noted simply. "Basically, it measures her awareness of her surroundings without her actually seeing it. And she scored the highest out of all of you. And her flight records show it. Out of all the pilots… she crashed less. All her flights were accurate and near perfect in staying within the 1000 feet parameter. What's more… every time I shot her down, I know… I never caught her off guard." L-Elf get to the point. "Which means, Sakurai Aina, you know the attack was coming. You know where it comes from; you know when it comes from; and the timing of your reaction is perfect. And yet you scored rock bottom. Do you know what's wrong with you?"
Aina nervously shook her head.
"Killer instincts. You lack the guts to pull the trigger. You timed your reaction perfectly, you had the shot, but you didn't take it. Spatial awareness and perfect reaction time is useless without the will to act upon it."
Saki growled in anger. "Now wait a minute!" Saki growled. "Are you asking Aina to be a killer!?"
"We're waging a war, Rukino Saki. A soldier that cannot kill is useless in a battle." L-Elf stated simply.
"She's not a soldier!"
"Then unit 05 is wasted on her." L-Elf coldly stated much to Saki's further fury. "If I recall, Tokishima Haruto even sacrificed himself to feed her. If she cannot compensate for the amount she was given, then she's just deadweight that we can't afford."
Saki was a breath away from jumping and tearing L-Elf a new one, but Aina, whose eyes were very close to crying, held her back. "I… I understand… I… I'll try to be… more aggressive." She stuttered.
"See that you do." L-Elf stood up. "As I recall, you have more reason to do this than most."
And their instructor left, leaving a very angry Saki comforting a depressed and dejected Aina.
0000000
And it's not just the Valvraves…
"We're gonna modify the Module, enhance it with Valvrave tech." Pino stated to the grumpy and stoic Dorssians. Yes, they'll need the Dorssian prisoners help to modify such a huge ship. They've spent the last 2 weeks gathering all sorts of Valvarve Techs that they can salvage from the wreckages of the captured Magius ships. Now they're gonna put them to good use. "Any problem?"
"Yeah. I got one." One of the Dorssian grumbled darkly. "Why should we listen to you when we're here to kill you?"
Pino was somewhat startled, though she quickly chuckled. "Oh dear." Pino looked at A-Drei, asking for some help.
A-Drei didn't say anything, but he glared back at Pino, as if telling her that she had to deal with this herself.
Pino nodded. "…ri~ight." Pino chuckled. "So~o… that's what you lot are here for? To kill us?"
Their silence answered.
"You know, you guys aren't very bright, are you?" Pino chuckled.
Understandably, it pissed them off to no end.
"If you want to kill someone exponentially stronger than you, the first thing you can do is keep quiet about it first. You don't walk right in front of his face and says: I'll kill you… like that. I mean come on! For cryin' out loud, that's common sense! And here I thought you Dorssians are smarter than this!"
And now their red angry face is mixed with some healthy dose of embarrassment.
"We don't need your help to fight those monsters you damn monster queen!"
"Says the guy who just lost their country in a day to these monsters." Pino calmly stated. "Look. You hate us because you deemed us responsible for the death of many of your people. Fine. I'll admit to that. I left behind some of my ministers in hope they'll aid humanity to reach a prosperous life, instead all they spread are misery and death." Pino's glare gloomed to a menacing dark look. "But do you think it's all my people's fault? Do you have any idea how many Magius your ancestors had killed? Many of them are younglings mind you. Children of my people, whom your predecessors had slaughtered, if only to vent their frustration of being unable to deal any damage whatsoever to the older, more powerful elder Magius."
The Dorssian winced.
"But… hey… what use is there for me to take revenge on you now? And what's the point anyway? You weren't born then. Or are you saying you lot have a time machine to allow you to go back in time and did all the killing?"
"Oi! Don't go sidestepping the problem!"
"Quite right, quite right." Pino chuckled. "So let's all stop being emotional and state the facts: your country is being taken over by aliens. And you guys are completely outmatched. Forget your pride, there's nothing you can do with just… 30 of you or so."
"One Dorssian soldier can slaughter an army ten times our number! With 30 of us we can-"
As if on cue, a completely out of breath Ryuuji came barging in. "OI! EVERYONE! TURN ON THE TV!"
"?"
Ryuuji quickly reiterated. "It's been two weeks after that speech, and I was wondering what the Arus was up to. Guess what? They intend to launch a full scale attack at one of Dorssian Magius' installation. Jeffry stated it to be the HQ of the Council itself."
"What makes them bold enough to do something that stupid?" A-Drei gawked.
Pino quickly opened up a giant holographic screen before her. The news reporter is there, reporting a life broadcast on Earth.
00000000000000
"-it is a single largest armada of Arus fleet and, if you can believe it, Dorssian forces. Apparently, Arus fleet had decided to join up with a large group of dissident Dorssian forces who reject the rule of the Fuhrer and the Council, to resist the Dorssian Magius Alliance. The President of Arus, Jeffry Anderson had stated that he refused to support this Alliance and call upon many other nations to rise up and fight. 30 nations had signed up the petition to resist the Dorssian Magius alliance. And now the president are preparing to give a sending of speech for a campaign to resist the Dorssian Magius."
The audience aboard the Module did saw that the news reporter weren't kidding. Hundreds of Carriers joined with dozens of Walkit, with tens of thousands of Splicers and thousands of Waffe, dozens of Ideals flying allover the sky. And unless the Dorssian were hallucinating, they also saw no less than 20 Ideal Blume in the mix. The pride of their ground forces. That's a huge force that would give even the largest Dorsian army something to be afraid of.
And there on the podium, Jeffry stood ready to give his speech.
He barely uttered the first syllable… when suddenly…
In a loud thunderous boom, a massive barrage of green beam of light tore through the clouds and rain down upon the fleet. Within seconds, ¾ of the assembled fleet were vaporized by the barrage of Heavy Rune Cannon coming from the carriers stationed above. Hundreds and thousands of Mag Waffes literally swarmed the sky, blotting the sun, raining down a shower of billions and billions of hard light projectiles that instantly wiped out the ground forces and other smaller units that escape destruction from the Rune Cannon. Said hard light projectiles pierced through normal Waffe shield plate like hot knife through butter. Two Kirshcbaum descended from one of 20 Mag Carriers and lay waste to what's left of the assembled fleet.
The last feed of the Arus president was of him being carried away by his security to the safety of a nearby Presidential Carrier and carried off. The other leaders of the world who had assembled there were butchered by three Mag Waffes that smashed right into the hall and start raining hell. The Presidential Carrier barely got away, losing its entire escort in the process.
The whole assembled fleet, and all the leaders of the country who opposed the Alliance were wiped out in less than 5 minutes.
And then the feed was cut off when a Waffe opened fire at the reporter's direction.
00000000000000
The Audience fell silent upon seeing that overwhelming firepower displayed by the Dorssia Magius alliance in that asymmetrical massacre. Suddenly everyone realized they've made some very powerful enemy.
The Dorssians, in particular, suddenly looked like they just got the much needed slap in the face of a wakeup call: They are seriously, hilariously, outgunned. They glumly turned around to Pino, who gave them all a stern look.
"Look. Whether you like or not, you need help. That's a fact. And here I am, freely offering you mine. And let's not forget… seeing we're going to war against my own people… I'm practically offering you some help to kill even more of my own people. So please understand this is not an offer I made lightly."
The Dorssians looked at each other. "Enemy of our enemy is our friend… huh?"
Pino nodded.
They finally nodded. "What do you need of us?"
0000000
After the broadcast of that disastrous battle, a new fervor rapidly spread throughout the module. Everyone worked around the clock, sometimes even forgetting to sleep or rest. And then, days later, the consequences of the Dorssian Magius Alliance began to show…
A small flotilla of rag tag ships of an Arus carrier, a single destroyer, and surprisingly, a single Dorssian Walkit class was nearing the Module…
"Those are… what fleet are they?"
"Wait…" The student narrowed his eyes and saw Jior symbol painted on all ships. "Those are JIORians!"
A communication line was established. "New Jiorian kids! Are you there? Yer still alive?"
"Who are you?"
"We're the Dorssia Magius resistance! We're here to join you!"
Everyone in the command center looked at each other cheerfully. "Allies! We got some allies!"
"Permission to enter the docks?"
"Not so fast." L-Elf frowned. "Where are you from? Where did you get that Walkit?"
"We fixed a derelict Walkit we came across on our way. Some of us are construction workers and engineers see?"
L-Elf still looked skeptical. "Sortie the Kagerous. Tell them we'll escort them in. And tell Tokishima Haruto to sortie in 01."
Multiple fully armed Kagerous, led by 01 flew out, piloted by the Valvarve pilots surrounded the incoming ships before they were allowed to dock.
The crews of the said ship gaped when they saw the multiple mass produced Valvraves surrounding them.
Finally, the ships were docked, and the crew floated out of the ship. Surprisingly, no one was there to welcome them. "Oi… what gives?"
And then, multiple unmanned Waffes surrounded them and aimed their guns at them. The so called resistance crews were somewhat bewildered at this hostile welcome. "H… Hey! What?"
Shoko looked disapprovingly at L-Elf. "Ham-Elf… this is a VERY rude way to welcome friends, to put it kindly."
"It's L-Elf." L-Elf groaned. "And please remember who we are fighting against. Magius has the ability to hijack a human body. They can be anyone, absorbing their memories and thoughts, completely replacing them. They are the ultimate infiltration spies." L-Elf explained. "We sent in the Waffes in order to prevent them from jacking into anyone while we check them."
Aboard the 01, Haruto used the scanner to check the humans. "…well, what do you think Pino?"
"They're clean." Pino tilted her head as she closed her eyes as if doing this kinda halfheartedly. "Ah, remind me to put the Rune Scanners on all Valvraves!"
And when Haruto contacted L-Elf to give him the go ahead did he allow the New Jiorians to gave the arriving Jiorians a warm welcome.
"Welcome guys! You sure are a sight for sore eyes! Where are you from?" The students welcomed the new allies. The newly arrived crews were also glad to finally receive a hospitable welcome.
"We're from the Dyson Sphere in Lagrange! We're here to help you fight those damn Magius! Let's kick them all off our planet!"
The student who heard that gasped nervously.
The Jiorian who said so blinked in confusion, but then he noticed Haruto had just come out of his Valvraves. And then he remembered what Haruto is and smiled nervously. "Ah… I mean… most of them…"
But Haruto merely smiled calmly as he took no offense. "How many are you guys?"
"Well… we gather as many as we can… and… uh…"
"O… OI! What gives!?"
Trouble suddenly erupted when Raizo roared. The crews that walked out of the Walkit Cruisers were dressed in familiar set of white and gold attires. Dorssians.
"Dorssian? You brought Dorssians here?" Haruto remembered scanning the Walkit as well. They're all humans. None of them are Magius, but still…
Suddenly, the students were once again overwhelmed with hostility.
"W… Wait!" The Leader of the new arrivals quickly stood in defense of the Dorssians. "Look… we met them on the way! We know they're Dorssians, but they're not your enemy!"
Haruto looked at the Dorssians. "So you say. But Dorssia allied with the Magius."
"Yeah! They're all happy being the Magius lapdog and all!" Raizo growled.
"Happy?"
Raizo's rude comment earned an angry glare from one of the Dorssian. "Happy you say? The pride of our honorable people are being trampled to dust by those cowards who bow down their heads before monsters, and you think we're happy about that!?"
Haruto frowned.
"When we heard that ridiculous news, we feel nothing but disgust and anger. The pride and dignity of our people are forgotten. We serve Dorssia… but this… that Alliance… is nothing sort of blasphemy. That is no longer the country we serve."
"So guys came here." Haruto spoke up. "…you want to join us so that you can fight the Magius as well? I'll have you know… we are Novus Magius… and everyone in this module can become a Magius as well."
"Where else can we go?" The Dorssian muttered. "Dorssia is now serving a cause we could no longer follow, but we are still loyal to our country, and we will do anything to free it from those monsters grasp."
"You'll be fighting and killing your own people, you know."
"We may only be engineers, but we have our resolve. If to do so we have to walk side by side with the Devil in Hell…" the Dorssian looked at Haruto. His eyes were full of reluctance and desperation. He's really desperate. "…then so be it."
Haruto finally nodded. He motioned Raizo and everyone to cease with the hostility.
The Jiorian grinned when he saw the Dorssian group finally received some relatively hospitable welcome at last. "Well then? What are you doing now?"
L-Elf came in carrying a whole cartload of engineering equipments.
"Huh?" Everyone blinked in confusion.
With the additional crew and ships, the work speed increase a pace higher, and still everyone desperately tried to be ready for the coming of such overwhelmingly powerful opponent.
04: Hinowa - Carmilla…
"My only complaint… is that… isn't she a bit too fragile? I know she's the fastest, and she's supposed to dodge instead of block but… still…" Saki moaned.
"Well… hate to say it, but I didn't design this thing for head on combat. Attlach, my consort, prefers high speed combat. We increased 04's speed, anyway we can. More thruster, minimal weight, she may not look like it but Hinowa's armor is practically paper thin."
"Okay, fine. You designed it in preference to your boyfriend… I can live with that." Saki scratched her head. "But can't you do something about the weapons? The Spindle Knuckles are the best… but when I used both of them… I only got variable vulcans and fold sickle and some hard light wave to defend myself… which is another way of saying I'm as good as naked. See what I mean?"
"Point taken, Saki-chan." Pino nodded. "Alright boys and girls, listen up! We're gonna strip her naked, add some layers of armor."
"Won't that make her heavier? And slower?" Saki loved Carmilla's speed, saved her, and her loved one's skin, more times than she can count. "I don't need extra armor if it's going to cost me speed."
"I know it will be slower." Pino nodded. "Which is why we'll be adding extra propulsion boosters to maintain weight to speed ratio. She'll be rougher to control though."
"I can handle rough." Saki smirked. She handled worse.
For example…
Chasing after the Waffe, Saki had learnt to conserve her shot and not just fire away blind. She also learnt to do more laps than necessary in order to save more ammo. In fact, she had completed 15 laps, and had used 7 shots, 4 of it had missed. For now though, the point is she need to keep L-Elf's Waffe right in front of her nose, not letting it out of sight. "I got you now, you stupid stone faced Dorssian!" 3 shots were taken, only 1 miss. A new record of 5 shots.
An achievement that L-Elf, inside his Waffe, calmly took note of. "Rukino Saki. Out of all pilots, she's the one who seem to be quite… persistent." For one thing, she never gives up. And she backed it up with her increasing parameter. She started as a girl barely beneath his notice, with the overall ranking of C and even D minus. But now she had developed a rather respectable statistic of overall A and B plus… being the second best, right behind Haruto. No matter how crazy he maneuver his waffe, Saki managed to keep sticking to his tail like paint, following him wherever he goes. "Okay… time to teach her another trick…"
The Waffe flew past a pair of asteroids and Saki sped up… thinking she'll make it… But no. She didn't. Midway, the Kagerou's heat gauge gave up on her and the boosters instantly shut down. Her green Kagerou moved on momentum and she fell right in between the two asteroids. "Oh shi~" the two asteroids collided and sandwiched her unit, pinning her down. It didn't scratch her… but her unit is now smack dab in-between two rocks.
"Rukino Saki…" A triumphant L-Elf floated right in front of the trapped Kagerou. Saki knew what's coming and braced herself.
"Remember: always mind your surroundings." And L-Elf made a target practice out of the trapped Kagerou, shooting her full of blots.
And while Saki was drowning in her vomit, again, L-Elf rubbed his chin, thinking on today's event. Like the Original Units, the mass production model is also subject to the overheating problem. They really need to address that…
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03: Hikaminari…
"Even if the heat gauge isn't a limiter purposefully built into the Valvraves, Earth does not possess any other element that can tolerate the heat coming from Rune Saturation." The Valvrave mechanic reported when Yusuke asked about the heat problem of the Valvraves. "The only way we can extend the Valvraves operational time is by transferring that heat somewhere else."
"That's why, in tandem with VVV project, we also worked with a project called the Familiar project." Kibukawa quickly added.
"Familiar?"
"Basically, it's a support mech used to further increase the Valvraves' performance and their operational time, as well as giving them additional features. There, see?" The mechanic pointed at the multitudes of raven like drones being arrayed close to the other incomplete Kagerous.
"What about that liquid we found on the Magius battleship? Is there no way we can incorporate that into the Valvrave?"
"Actually, there are some problems. That liquid… we don't know how to make more of that thing… So we only have limited amount of it. But the second problem is when we tried that on a Kagerou…" The mechanic pointed at a misshapen iceberg the size of a Kagerou. "We're still trying to chip it out. At normal room temperature that thing is freezing cold! Of course, Kagerous are not like Valvraves, who generate significantly higher heat, thus they provide the precise balance of hot and cold… but… it still affected its performance, slowing them down. Really, that liquid is more suitable to giant warships whose engine heat can completely offset the cold."
Yusuke jaw was hung open in deep thought… "Hey… how bout if we do this… and this… Can it be done?"
The mechanics gathered around Yusuke to see his idea. When he's done reiterating it, everyone was gawking in awe at Yusuke's bright insight. "Yeah… that might be doable! Alright! Let's do it!"
And while the other mechanics are beginning to put Yusuke's idea into practice, the other mechanics are tinkering with unit 03… and they're still having a hard time believing what Yusuke has done with it.
"The craziest part is… we never even designed this thing to be used for field repairs! Really!" The Jior soldier whistled. "That Yusuke kid is a genius pilot! And an even better engineer!"
"Regardless, we need 03's extreme firepower. Is there no way you can improve its role as battlefield mechanic but maintain its ability for heavy support?" L-Elf asked.
"Hrmm…" Pino studied the combat data feeds where Yusuke used 03 Hikaminari's Armstrong arms to fix 04 Hinowa's on the spot. And then she watched how, when Raizo was in control, 03 Reverse was more of the aggressive sort. "You know what? I watched an earth movie some time ago… about this guy in a suit of armor. I think I know a way to improve both sides of the coin." Pino smirked as she looked around for some inspiration… until she saw something in a wreckage of the module outside. "I'll need to work on the designs first. In the mean time, you can start with making some extra space in the cockpit; remember Hikaminari now has two pilots."
And speaking of the second pilot…
"YOSHAAAAAAAAAAA!" Raizo roared in triumph. A yellow lightning stripped Kagerou smugly walked towards L-Elf showing how the pilot managed to, at last, generate enough runes to power a Kagerou. "What do you think of me now!?"
"It took you 3 weeks. Do you have any idea how far you fell behind from the other pilots in their training?" L-Elf was unfazed even when a giant machine is staring down at him.
"Training! Smraining! I'll catch up with the lot in a jiffy!"
10 minutes later…
"Congratulations… Sakurai Aina. You are no longer at the bottom rank." L-Elf calmly concluded, as he descended from his spotless waffe, standing by next to Raizo's Kagerou… which… inexplicably has been splattered top to bottom in paint.
Yusuke saw the messed up state of the Kagerou. "What… happened?"
"He blew up his own ammunition cartridge." L-Elf stated calmly as he took a bite of… Shoko's muck (because there's no other food nearby). "I didn't even let out one shot…"
"He blew it up? How the hell did he blew it up?"
L-Elf felt it's just too much hassle to answer; he looked at the scoreboard in his phone. "Where are Tokishima Haruto and Rukino Saki?"
"T-They're in the showers. A-Again."
"Hmm."
Meanwhile, as expected, Raizo was drowning with vomit, excrements, urine and other stuff inside his suit…
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Until a few minutes ago… Rukino Saki was walking blind. She was given the most thorough beating L-Elf had ever given her. She managed 7 shots. 1 shot shy of Haruto's 8. They were given 20 shots respectively for their trouble. Which means they get double dose of that stupid sarin gas. Double case of… well… headache, vomit, defecation etc, etc… it completely filled her vision with mucks that was too disgusting to be described. She could barely see, and she had to grope her way into the shower room.
Once inside, she didn't bother checking, and she took off everything as soon as she felt a warm splash of water from above. She instantly stripped herself naked in a heartbeat. That was when she realized… she entered the wrong room.
As soon as the last bit of bile was washed out of her face, she came face to face… with a gaping and furiously blushing Haruto, also stark naked. "H… HARUTO!?" She instinctively covered her modesty with her arms, blushing furiously. "Wh… What are you doing in the girl's shower room!?"
"I… I… Saki… this is the boys' shower room!" Haruto stated, blushing furiously.
"Eh!?" Saki looked around… and suddenly, she realized Haruto was right. She's in the wrong room. She's in the boys. "Ah… oops?" She blushed furiously as she looked at Haruto… seeing his eyes went wide, and his mouth went open in aghast.
Saki looked at Haruto and chuckled seductively. "Come on now… you've seen my body many times already! How come you're still embarrassed?" To make her point, Saki calmly opened up her arms, revealing her naked body in all its glory.
The sight made Haruto grew even more entranced. His mouth opened up and down, saliva trickling between his teeth, his breathing grew heavy and elaborate, and his eyes grew hungrier…
Saki realized something was off with Haruto, but she didn't move. "Haruto…?"
Soon, Haruto closed their distance and is right in front of Saki, and their eyes were locked with each other. Saki didn't run, her breathing also grew heavy in anticipation. Their bodies touched, and their faces are closing in. Their fingers clasped and their trembling lips were but millimeters apart, their tongues stretched out…
"Tokishima Haruto?"
L-Elf's call from outside HAD to ruin everything.
The now sane Haruto quickly rushed out, leaving Saki hanging back in the showers. "Yes?" A flustered Haruto walked out of the showers, wearing only his towels.
L-Elf took one second to understand the sight before him… and then he calmly stated. "You and Rukino Saki are to report tomorrow morning. Exam at 6 AM."
Haruto blinked several times. "Exam?"
"It's been 3 weeks. You and Saki have the highest score out of all Valvrave Pilots, being able to hit me more than 5 times." L-Elf reiterated. "And that exam is the checkpoint to the next level… or not. Be ready."
"O-Okay." Haruto nodded.
L-Elf thought again for a minute… "And remember to pass it on to Rukino Saki as well."
"Will do."
And then L-Elf leaves without another word.
Haruto sighed and walked back into the shower… where a very angry Saki is sitting on the floor. "…Errmm… L-Elf said…"
"I know, I know." Saki growled. The mood was gone and ruined. "I hope the exam is a duel with him using real weapons! I'm gonna fill that guy full of hard light ammunition!"
"Oh no you don't."
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02: Tekka…
That evening…
The unit 02 was incomplete since the beginning of the VVV project because for some reason, Pino refused to give so much as a blueprint. Hence, 02 remained a broken Valvrave. But today… Pino came with a surprising decision to complete 02.
"The reason I didn't touch 02… was because… 02 was built by and for my late older brother, Prue." Pino stated. "When I landed here, my Valvrave, unit 00, suffered a catastrophic damage to its atmospheric shielding. The heat from the friction to your planet's atmosphere would've roasted me… but my brother flew Tekka right in front of me, and took the heat in my stead. I didn't touch it then because I want to keep it as is, in memory of him." Pino mourned.
Ryuuji frowned. "Then maybe we shouldn't touch it. This is the only memento you have left of your brother."
"Its rave engine is still intact and unblemished. We cannot afford sentimentality in such crisis, Ryuuji." Pino shook her head. "Our children, the Novus Magius will need all the edge they can get."
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Meanwhile…
Haruto was reviewing his combat performance on the simulator vids while taking his time eating some snacks (Shoko's surprisingly popular cake)…
The man eyed his every move…
Haruto was so focused on the video; he didn't pay attention to anything else.
Another man readied a gun…
Haruto sighed as he fell back to his seat. No matter how many times Haruto watched it, L-Elf's piloting skill is incredible. He's a human, and yet he was able to pull out maneuvers that he, a super human Magius, can barely keep up. Just how exactly did he manage to do such thing?
Seeing Haruto laxed his guard, the man made his move and readied a knife…
Haruto turn around and grab a cake… that's when he saw something at the corner of his eyes…
The Dorssian from before grabbed a gun…
Haruto's eyes widened.
The man from before lifted his knife…
And the Dorssian suddenly opened fire.
The leader of the Jiorian new arrivals fell dead with a bullet to his head. His blade fell on the floor. Haruto turned around and saw the now dead Jiorian. He saw the knife and the close proximity of the man to his being at his blind side. He looked at the Dorssian who just saved his life… and he understands.
"Wannabes." The Dorssian explained. "People who want to become Magius like you."
Haruto frowned in confusion.
"We understand that you can't become a Novus Sapien after you passed a certain age… and the process is also lengthy, imperfect, and adults like him can never become one, given the current technology." The Dorssian shrugged. "Before we left, we've heard rumors of an offer. Anyone who can bring your head will be turned into a Magius."
"My head!?"
"Of course. They can't kill you as you'll just regenerate all damage… so they compromise by cutting off your neck so that they can just carry your head, leave the rest behind."
"I don't know. I can bite pretty hard, even with just my head." Haruto frowned. "But how can people be seduced by that?"
"The result is as clear as day. You are an immortal, forever young, forever strong, immune to all illness … that is like the dream of every humanity. Everyone would want to be like you. You'll be surprised of the length of madness human would go through to be just like you."
"Actually, I'm not surprised." Haruto frowned. "We're all products of madness anyway. Enough madness to experiment on babies still in the womb of their mothers."
"Ho." The Dorssian engineer frowned. "Then… let me ask you this."
"Hm?"
"When the war is won and the Council are no more… what are you going to do?"
Haruto sighed. "If it were up to me… I want to go back. Go back to the life I used to have. Go to school, dates with my girlfriend, laughing and chatting with my friends. I just want to live on day to day."
"But?" The Dorssian detected an uncertainty in his tone.
"…I don't know. I have a feeling the world will not be that simple." Haruto answered. "For now, I'll do what I have to. But after that… I think I'll just let the world decide what to do with us."
The Dorssian engineer clearly dislike Haruto's halfhearted answer. But he merely shook his head and grabbed the traitor Jiorian before he carried it away to be disposed of. "Be careful. The world's answer may not be to your liking." And the Dorssain left.
Haruto was left with new questions ravaging his mind.
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Meanwhile… somewhere in Dorssia…
Cain had just returned from another meeting with the council. He entered his office and turned the lights on… surprisingly, the light remained off. He quickly knew who the culprit is. "Prue. I can explain-"
Before he can say anything, an electric cable lashed out of the darkness and whipped Cain off his feet. Multiple cables, with electricity coursing through them, quickly followed suit and punctured through the floor before whipping Cain several times mercilessly. It wasn't long until some of them coiled around his limbs and pulled him up and then strapped the battered Magius Colonel to the wall. Prue appeared on the screen as angry as hell.
"Prue… Prince Prue… wait… I can explain-"
"EXPLAIN!?" Prue exploded. "EXPLAIN WHY YOU JUST SIT DOWN ON YOUR LAURELS WHILE THOSE TRAITORS TRIED TO KILL OUR QUEEN! EXPLAIN WHY YOU JUST KEEP YOUR SILENCE WHILE THE COUNCIL DENOUNCED MY SISTER AND CALLED HER INSANE!"
"It's… no use… Prue…" Attlach replied, choking as the cables soiled around his throat. "The members of the council had been corrupted by the greed of the humans they inhabit. The problem is… corrupt and traitors they are… they hold the fate of our people on this planet. If I denounce them right then and there… a civil war like nothing ever seen before will erupt among us… and with it, the last of our people will die. I don't think your sister and you would want that to happen now, or would you?"
Prue's anger abated slightly and he relaxed the cables, allowing Attlach free. "But they'll still try to kill her nonetheless."
"I know." Attlach nodded. "But there's still a chance. Pino had yet to take on a body. She's still pure. She's exactly the way our people remember her to be. As long as she lived and inviolate, our people will still be drawn towards her. And then there's the fact that she's the last of the Matriarchs. Yes, the traitors at the council would want her dead. But there's still hope. Their denouncement of the Queen may have won them our people's support, but that's a temporary victory. When our people see that their denouncements are false… they will unite under her once again and together we will overthrow those traitors."
"They silence Lieselotte easily enough, and even with her geass, she's still one of the most powerful Magius I've ever known." Prue grunted. "What makes you think they won't be able to silence you?"
Attlach/Cain chuckled. "I always told Lieselotte that her compassion for these human apes will be her downfall. I held no love for the humans, you know that, Prue. I hate them, in fact. This disgusting physical flesh and blood form." Attlach made a disgusted look at Cain's physique. "This hate is what makes the councilor trust me enough… he gave me a special assignment to assassinate Pino."
Prue glared at Attlach.
"I pretend to accept of course. They intend to attack Module 77 and wipe the Novus Magius from the face of the earth." Attlach explained. "I want you to come with me. Together, we can rescue your sister, and once again, our people will be united as a single race! The Magius race!"
Prue calmed down considerably, but he made one last warning. "Then I'll hold you to your word, Spider Queen. But if I find out that in the end your claim is nothing but falsehood… then you'll learn… that even when I've lost my ability to materialize in the physical world, I can still teach you something that is even worse than death."
"I shall not fail you, Wolf Knight."
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The next day…
Pino floated in the dark space around the ruins of the Dyson Sphere she had collided with. "I could've sworn it was around here somewhere…" She powered and accessed the available cc TV camera and the black box of the Dyson Sphere to find the records on the day of the incident… she found what she was looking for.
Pino flew past a particular huge gash on the wall… and found what she was looking for. "I found yo~ou!"
She possessed several heavy machinery drones and get to work.
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01 Hito…
And while the modifications and construction of the first 5 Valvraves was quite easy (so to speak) and smoothly progressing…
Most of the crew hit a road-bump when it comes to 01.
"The problem is… we don't fully understand how she works either." One of the Jior Hangar man admitted. "We didn't build her per se… we fixed her."
"What the hell is the difference?" A Dorssian engineer grunted.
"01 is essentially a redesigned Valvrave 00." Ryuuji explained. "She's the first of the Valvrave. The vessel which Pino used to land here on this planet. Unlike the other Valvraves which only use pieces of Valvrave 00, Valvrave 01 was almost completely comprised of Alien technology which… we seriously couldn't even hope to understand. That's why it has mode 666 and a significantly higher heat tolerance."
Shoko asked an innocent question. "Then… why change the designation from 00 to 01? Why not keep it that way?"
"Because when I gave them the blueprint, that was a blueprint for significantly modifying its shape, and it was quite thorough, hence the designation change." Pino suddenly appeared out of nowhere as she happily answered that utterly useless question. "When I first landed, I spent a week marathoning Samurai Fiction and Justice Samurai and after that I just wanted my Valvrave to look like a samurai, so."
Only Shoko nodded in complete understanding. "Ho, ho!"
The rest… jawdrops all around, not understanding that nonsensical reason… not one bit.
"As it stands though…" Pino sighed. "I don't see many ways we can improve 01's performance. Its heat capacity was already high from the beginning… purposefully so. There's the 666 mode remember? In fact, rather than cooling it down, we have to make use of it. Heat is its main weapon. However, as I mentioned before, heat in Valvrave denotes Rune saturation level. The hotter it gets, the more runes being used up. We need to find a way to minimize 01's use of mode 666, without draining too much on the pilot. Oh, and the Vurutoga weapon set isn't gonna cut it anymore. We'll have to forge new katanas. Better ones."
"Better ones?" Ryuuji laughed nervously. "I don't think we can find metal stronger than Clear Fossil… The edges of the Z-Edges were made of pure no alloy Clear Fossil! That can cut through diamond like it was paper!"
"A katana isn't just the matter of the material; it's also its making, the tampering, the perfect balance of hot and cold. It has to be tough in order to cut, but pliant enough so that it won't break. A perfect balance between solid and liquid state. Then, and only then, can we make a good katana." Pino sternly noted, much to the awe and surprise of everyone.
"Wow, Queen Pino… we have no idea that you have… such knowledge in sword making! You almost sound like an authentic Japanese Swordsmith!" Ryuuji smiled in admiration.
"Why, thank you. Back in the late 12th century, I spent some time in Japan and pose as an apprentice by the name of Muramasa and studied intensely under a Japanese swordsmith. He taught me everything there's to know in forging a good katana."
Ryuuji and Shoko blinked remembering an old legend. 'Wait… Pino is Muramasa?' "Uhh… who is that swordsmith?"
"I think his name is… Masamune?"
Everyone jawdropped and some Japanese scientist even dropped their pads in sheer shock.
The Devil Swordsmith Muramasa tilted her head in her usual innocent bubbly headed style.
"…what?"
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Saki and Haruto finally arrived at the hangar… but to their surprise… there's another pair of pilots in there, as well as another pair of Kagerous, but ones that they weren't familiar of.
One has a blue hair, with a long earring hanging on his left ear. The other was a shy looking girl, with a beautiful feature, with long wavy pink hair. Both wear a pilot suit identical with Haruto and Saki, but unlike Haruto and Saki's customized color, both wear a generic silver colored suit.
"You are…"
"Jin Hinomoto." The blue haired boy smirked.
Saki looked questioningly at the pink haired girl, who timidly averted her gaze before she stuttered. "N-Nao Ota." She peeped.
Haruto looked at L-Elf questioningly. "L-Elf? Who are they?"
L-Elf was unfazed. "They are either your backup… or your replacements."
"Excuse me?" Saki growled.
Haruto quickly caught on. "You trained him too. You trained two teams?"
That comment earned Haruto a glare from Jin.
"Some of us can do more than one thing at a time. I don't put all my eggs on one basket, Tokishima Haruto." L-Elf explained calmly. "In case you fail to produce results, or you die before we accomplish our goal, I've prepared backup pilots to replace you, when it became necessary."
"And you think Haruto needs replacement!?" Saki growled. "I thought you said the two of us scored highest!"
"Don't get me wrong. Other than backups, we have 20 Kagerous that will be combat ready soon. All of them are in need of pilots. Good ones. And it just so happens, Jin Hinomoto and Nao Ota are two of Kagerou's best pilots among the second team I've trained. Their scores rival yours, quite in fact."
"While you two lovebirds having fun with your all-powerful Valvraves, we've been working our asses off on the Kagerous, Tokishima Haruto-sama!" Jin smugly noted.
Haruto couldn't care less of his insults. He eyed Jin suspiciously. "…you're not a Magius?"
"You got a problem with that, Mr. Chosen Magius sir?"
"Hey, what's your problem!?" Saki growled as she took a few step forward but Haruto stopped her, and he shook his head.
"J-Jin! That's enough, will you?" Nao peeped.
"Hmph!" Jin grunted.
Haruto looked at L-Elf. "If he's not a Magius, how did you power the Kagerous?"
"We used the synthetic runes from the Mag Walkits. They work just fine." L-Elf shrugged.
Haruto sighed. "So… what do you want us to do again?"
"Like I said. It's an exam. For all of you." L-Elf stated. "And it's a competition. The two of you will be fighting one another. Same rule. Same principle. You need to pass through markers in order to unlock a shot. Those who shot the enemy enough times wins." L-Elf then added. "And one more thing…"
All four pilots looked at L-Elf.
"The winner will earn the right to pilot the Valvraves."
"What!?" All four pilots gasped.
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Anybody can tell me about the Valvrave Undertaker novel? Its story, the characters (I know Jin Hinomoto and Nao Ota – but I don't know about the characters and personalities), what's it all about, time setting, etc2 anybody doing any scanlations about it and stuff?
And is there anyone who made a details about the Arus fleet ships and weaponry?
