The Promise Unfulfilled
The robes ill-fit her, the role ill-fit her, the tiara amidst her auburn hair, the delicacy of the silk and lace left behind in the other woman's absence. She tried to smile, yet the gesture was uncertain, unconvincing, and she looked at each of them in turn—Rintaro to her left, his wounds all but healed, Ren next to him, youthful and boyish, Ogami Ryo, his face like thunder, expression unconvinced, and Daishinji Tetsuo, thoughtful and uncertain, unable to make eye contact with her. At last, she turned to the great doors of black ash, to Touma, the unspoken emotion clear on his face, his presence radiating feelings of helplessness and anger.
They all looked so young, she thought, even Ogami, who she had come to understand to a far greater degree in the weeks that had followed Kento's death, even he seemed like a child to her now.
She remembered that night in which Touma had returned to the Pleroma, the hidden fortress within the chill northern wastes; she remembered him standing where now he stood, Kento's ragged and lifeless body in his arms, and she remembered the great sob that escaped her, the unbidden cry of despair that had passed from her lips.
They had buried him in the dreaming of the other world, folded his arms across his chest, heaving great clumps of cloud over him, sent his body adrift downstream in the clear, blue skies, a Viking funeral, she had thought at the time; a Viking funeral for a storyteller, a knight, a boy no older than she was.
In the city, the distillation of that dark magic had grown stronger, the auras of that growing number of cursed Wonder Ride Books growing ever more bright, ever more vibrant, towers of light that stole away the night from them—and then, upon the stereovision of the central console, there had been the stern and fierce features of a woman with raven dark hair, introducing herself as Lilith, guardian of the Southern Base, cursing them with such sharp words, such cruel language that she had at first been shocked, and then felt tears streaming down her cheeks.
Who was in command, who was the guardian now that Sophia was gone, the fierce woman had demanded.
Her lips had trembled, the blood draining from her face, and she repeated back what had been asked of her, phrasing it as her own question.
'Sophia is gone?'
The woman on the flickering display of the stereovision had regarded her for a moment, and then her expression had softened.
'Sophia gone,' she repeated, 'and the Northern Base needs a new figurehead; its swordsmen need a new guardian.'
They had given her a new name, Zoe, which meant life in Greek, she was told. There had not been enough time for her to protest, there had not been enough time for her to tell them that she had liked her old name, that she did not want to be anyone else.
Under normal circumstances, she had been told, she would not have been thrown into such a position, rather someone with years of training, someone who had studied those old musty books for decades would have been appointed.
'I would send Reika,' Lilith had said, 'but she is otherwise engaged.'
Shindai Reika, the most fearsome swordsman of the Southern Base, she thought, nodding with slow understanding; Shindai Reika, Kamen Rider Vorpal, the Southern Base's star pupil. What she would not have given for the weight of such responsibility to be placed on her shoulders; what she would not have given so that she might slip away, pretend that none of this had happened, pretend that the consequences were not real, and the horror was not at their doorstep.
She drew a deep breath, looking again at them, one by one; Rintaro, Ren, Ogaimi, Daishinji, and Touma, impotent with rage and sorrow. Again, she smiled, with more conviction this time.
"Thank you for coming," she said, her voice measured, the faint hint of a nervous tremble in how she shaped the words. She looked at Touma, met his gaze. "Today, we begin our counteroffensive, today we turn the tide."
Standing before them, the girl once known as Sudo Mei, her knuckles white as she gripped the edge of the table, began to outline the strategy of their retaliation.