"Downfall pt. 3"

Genie snorted. "My objective is simple. Save for our knight who's recovering, I've come to decimate you all. If you're lucky or resilient, you'll have a chance in life. Know however… You will never be the same after this. If there are deaths… so be it. So many things out of our way… so little time. Let's see if your resolve really is as strong as your own personality reports are read to us."

Sicily base... under siege...

1935 hours...

Minna – There she was... right in front of us... another Neuroi humanoid. There are two of them now... and I'm surprised the other one had the face of Trude's sister Chris. So many weird things are happening at this moment... that even I could wonder how this all came to be.

Kathryn softly got MInna's attention with her elbow and whispered. "What do you want to do?" She asked, hovering next to Minna as they both looked at the Neuroi humanoid named Genie.

MInna didn't answer Kathryn, hovering forward and lowering her altitude to the ground and stopping a foot away from the Al-mother Neuroi herself. "You're capable of conversation, so I want to know something. It's been overdue."

Genie chuckled. "I suppose. The general questions should include a chance for dialogue or for coexisting with humanity." She shook her head. "I answer no, for both questions."

"Why?! What have we done to deserve this war?! What have we done to deserve those deaths from years ago?!"

"If you asked me years ago, I would have given you the same answer even until now. Warmongers exist here and were about to start a war on themselves. And the collective of Neuroi find it distasteful. Before I arrived, they were right to observe you, and conclude that your warring species deserved to be cleansed. That was why they first attacked in your year 1939. We're doing you a favor. And I'm just maximizing the effort when I took over every single one of their nests, now with the improvements included thus far." Genie snorts. "Not that you'd completely understand. We Neuroi desire coexistence, in the new world of everlasting peace. And together with a race you call proud, this faction does seem to completely branch out from everyone else here."

"You mean Jonathan Irons." Kathryn hovered next to Minna, and glared at Genie. "Every time I think of this faction, I think of only one man. His selfish desire and twisted definition of peace seems much bloodier to me."

"There's still a sound argument." Genie replied, finding Kathryn's interruption rude. "His military power was used to wage wars... Assigned by the same countries you protect, though similarly from his world. If the Neuroi haven't arrived years ago, you'd have all killed each other! You all obey old men to die in the wars they start! We're just cleansing that mentality out of everyone so that future generations would never experience being pawns in a game again."

"We're not pawns," Minna quickly replied in denial. "We're protectors."

"You say that because you protect humanity, the kind you know." She snickered, looking at everyone else at the base as they looked back at her. "But as a leader with a great mind, you're also aware that you're all still soldiers... soldiers that fight for a cause. If that cause were a global war instead, it doesn't change anything." Genie looks back at Minna. "I have a proposition to make so we can make this matter go away. Not that you'd completely listen, but you need to hear it. Leave immediately. Sicily is as good as ours and Romagna would effectively fall under complete control of the Axis Alliance. Rather than risking casualties, I'm asking you all to desert this place. Let us do what we came to do, and at best... use people instead of wasting their lives."

"YOU PIECE OF-!" Kathryn hovered forward in anger but was stopped by Minna. She kept her arm out to try and reach Genie. "Prolong their suffering, you kill their soul! Prolong their usefulness, and they become slaves! That's not doing them a favor! That's killing them slowly, you bitch!"

"Like I said. I'd rather not waste lives. We're more efficient that way." Genie replied, glaring at Kathryn. "There's no use of talking to you." She then looked at the other witches on the base. "...or even the rest of you! You'd all die on some fool's errand!" Genie then hovers before she starts to split apart into Neuroi nanites. "...AND FORGOTTEN!" She splits into the thousands of flying Neuroi nanites. "YOU WILL ALL DIE HERE!" Her echoed voice filled with rage was accompanied by multiple beams fired at different directions. Most witches were able to get their shields up. Some stood their ground and others like Shirley, Erica, Eila, and Hera Kuhn, got thrown somewhere, while some of the beams destroyed vehicles and ammunition crates.

Chris saw the nanite swarm come to her. "I'm sorry if I wasn't so useful."

"Save it," Genie briefly said it in a whisper.

The rest of the witches outside saw the swarm around Chris just before the swarm flies off. Chris was no longer there as the swarm left the base.

In the mess hall, the environment of flipped tables and chairs utensils, a slight tremor had happened, but it didn't concern Gertrude Barkhorn, filled with scratches on her uniform and skin, while Lida Yermolayevna still held her survival knife while her body had been marked with bruises. They didn't back down, still itching to fight.

Trude pants, knowing her energy is almost spent. "You almost out of it?"

Lida was panting as well, knowing she was almost spent herself. "Not in the slightest, Сука. (Bitch.)"

"Turning Chris into a monster... I'll never forgive any of you." Trude then runs to Lida, unleashing a battlecry. She saw Lida was poised to defend, but Trude didn't care. She just wanted to end it all.

A humanoid de-cloaks from the side of Lida and made a strong side kick to Trude, instantly hitting the Karlslander witch hard to the face and knocking her out.

Dana completely de-cloaks just as Trude hits the floor, lowering her leg and her thigh. "Just what you need, Barkhorn." She said it, opening her covered helmet to show her face.

Lida was seeing that Dana was wearing some sort of exoskeletal outfit, with a covered helmet included. "You seemed armed to the teeth."

"Just enough," Dana said while drawing her ATLAS .45 pistol and checking its ammunition. "I'm here to get you out."

"I had her handled."

"Had?" Dana chuckled. "You seem to be winded. And it will kill you." As Dana said that, she saw Lida's familiar features recede. "Rest a little when we get back to the Mobile HQ. This part of Romagna is about to fall to us. Or specifically... our Neuroi allies."

"Allies...? So it's not temporary?"

"On the contrary, we seek the same thing. Let's talk later. Follow." Dana led the two of them out of the mess hall.

Somewhere in the base pantry, the door was closed shut, and Duchess Maria was in one corner next to Patricia Schade. A minor tremor rocked the the pantry, even getting a tray of potatoes to fall off to the floor from a shelf.

Beside them was Yoshika, tending to a wound she had on her shoulder. Beside her was Mio, holding a knife with some blood on its sharp edge while the major herself is gravely injured. Her internal bleeding got stronger, and even she's beginning to lose blood.

Yoshika shed tears, trying to heal herself with her own magic, ashamed. "Major... Why...?"

Mio was weakening, but she was at least able to vent out her emotions a little. "I wanted to accept the inevitable."

Earlier...

"Major...!" Yoshika dragged Mio slowly into the pantry and placed her at one side of the room. She eventually got to start off in healing Mio.

Mio groans in pain, looking at Yoshika. "I beg you... Don't."

Duchess Maria who was in with Patti that time protested. "Please relax. She's just trying to heal you."

"Well... I don't want healing! I want none of it!" Mio said this, not changing Yoshika's mind.

And thoughts ran in Yoshika while she was attempting to stop her internal bleeding first. "You're shot all the way through. And you're still alive..."

"That's me, Miyafuji... being the best I could be... until the end." Mio coughed out blood, closing her eyes and bearing the pain.

"Sakamoto!"

"I'm ordering you... For once... Halt the healing."

"NO! I can't lose you! I can't lose you now!" Yoshika said this as she kept healing Mio. What she didn't see coming was that Mio was bringing something out of a backpocket of her clothing. Equipping a knife, Mio then stabs Yoshika's shoulder and pulls the knife out. "AAAAGH!" Yoshika's magic stopped and she covered her bleeding shoulder wound and started to treat herself with her own magic. "Sakamoto... Why?!"

Present...

Mio chuckled, looking at the knife she stabbed Yoshika with. "Being a witch is all I could ever be and it's the face of my own identity. I've gone through lengths trying to preserve the world from destruction, but I'm just suffering just because of my age. I'm running out, so I may as well call it."

Yoshika kept healing herself and kept shedding tears for Mio. "Sakamoto... Please don't die... Please don't."

"You're stronger than you know, Miyafuji." Mio looked up at the ceiling, tired of looking anywhere else. "Where's Reppumaru?"

And the younger Fusojin knew where to look. Looking at a corner she took the katana Mio owned together with the sheathe. Holding it in one hand, she brought it close to Mio. "Here..."

"I want you to keep that, Yoshika. Save that... as a reminder that I was there to show you the true virtues of a witch." Mio shed a few tears herself. "I never regretted being beside your father in his achievements. And I never regretted taking you along to see his grave. But... You chose to fight and save the world. You've done it again when the Neuroi situation was getting worse. Now I want you to see it through, no matter what happens to me. This is my last order to you... Miyafuji." Mio was beginning to fade and her breathing has slowed.

Yoshika stopped healing herself and cried further. "Please... Please don't go...!" She said it, and didn't heal Mio, heavily following a friend's request to let things be.

"Don't... cry for me. I see him... Your father..." Mio was getting weaker and life was about to fade. "Please... remove my patch... so I could see the world in my eyes... one last time."

And Yoshika didn't delay, immediately removing Mio's eyepatch. She saw that Mio's magic was fading that even her magic eye had begun to lose its strength.

Mio looked at Yoshika with both her eyes. She lifted her arm up and had her hand touch the younger Fusojin's cheek. "Ichiro... Your father would be proud... of you..."

Yoshika held Mio's hand on her cheek. She saw Mio's eyes slowly lose its life. And just as Mio's eyes were still, her hand was let go and it drops right to her friend's waist. She realized that Mio had breathed her last. She took a few minutes of shedding more of her tears before she started to wipe her face from them while looking at Mio's body. "I'll be with him... someday." She said it just as she used one hand to cover Mio's eyes, and closing them for good. "Goodbye... Mio."

Maria felt the impact of the loss of life and remembered what Mio is like in the stories she's heard, as well as the reputation. She then spoke up. "I know it won't help so much. But... I only know her by reputation."

Patti was listening intently. 'I know less of Sakamoto, so I suppose I should listen,' she thought while feeling sad.

Maria continues, aware Yoshika is listening. "Brave. Honorable. Unyielding. That's the kind of person I know her from in the different stories I'm usually told about. Being there after the development of the Striker Unit was finished, and being there for a friend, I'd be able to see what type of person she is up to now. She might not have much of a legacy, but she's a great person."

Yoshika looked at Maria and then back at Reppumaru, the katana Mio once owned. "I wouldn't say she doesn't have a legacy." She held the katana with both hands and partially parted the blade with the sheathe. Seeing her own reflection from the blade, the katana slightly glows with residual magic powering it. "She has one." Yoshika then pulls the sheathe off Reppumaru, showing its blade in full to her.

"The blade?" Patti asked, wondering about what Yoshika meant.

The Fusojin looked at Patti and shook her head. "Not really." She looked at Mio and had the answer in her head. "It's me. I'm that legacy." Putting the katana back into the sheathe she gives it to Patricia. "Hold on to that for a while. I have to help my friends."

"You can count on us to look after it," Maria said it just at Patti took the blade. "Good luck."

Yoshika nods gets out of the pantry and makes a run for it.

Things have escalated quickly. The two large type Neuroi were on high altitude and were on a bombardment mission. Using projectile bombs having blue and red hexagons, the large type were able make damage on several emplacements and some of the minor buildings of the base. Meanwhile, all the witches were handling the medium-type Neuroi that they were in range of engaging since they were dangerous close to the base.

Finally when Shirley and Lucchini paired up, they didn't waste time to pair up as the easier medium-type Neuroi that they encountered were closer to the base. "Keep on spraying! We both recognize this one!" Shirley said it as she released automatic fire from her rifle.

Lucchini was doing well using her shields in a blink to deflect beams and quickly displace to another heading. "Can't be too stressed, can you?! No wonder you don't turn so much!" She said that, assuming the Neuroi could understand her.

"Careful what you wish for. If it understands you, it's on you if it gets angry." Shirley said this, flying right under the target's belly just before she saw the Neuroi core exposed. "Crap! There it is! Lucchini!"

"Right behind you!" Lucchini makes short work of the Neuroi core as soon as she made a tight turn and got in multiple shots to damage the core, and eventually destroy it. "Score one for the good guys!"

Trude was then running on the corridor still a little dizzy from the way she was knocked out. She groans, humiliated that she was knocked out at all. Before she knew it, she was out of the building and in the hangar when she saw a familiar face in the skies. Right beside Eila was Sanya herself who seemed to have a different fighting style now using a machinegun. Looking towards where Sanya's striker was, she decided to pick something up from behind the docking units. Using her magic and deploying her familiar features, her enhanced strength was able to easily obtain a loaded Fliegerhammer launcher. Running for the entrance, she was even able to get Sanya's attention. "HEY! YOU'LL NEED THE EXTRA KICK!"

Sanya smiled. "Eila, I'll be right back!"

"What, where?!" Eila asked, but Sanya was already going back down to ground level towards the hangar. "SANYA!" Groaning, she then resumes combat, going up against very small and quick Neuroi cubes. "So much for teamwork… again…" She was shooting multiple cubes down at a short time.

Trude sees Sanya hover down to her level as she held up the Fliegerhammer launcher to the Orussian witch. "Thought you might need this. You didn't forget, did you?"

"I wish I didn't," Sanya said it, smirking at Barkhorn and dropping her light machine gun before taking the launcher from Trude. "Memories of what I use can sometimes be burdens, but they do help in a good way."

"SANYA, BEHIND YOU!" Eila's voice came to her earpiece.

And just in time, Sanya looks behind her with her angered black cat eyes at the incoming beam from above. Hissing angrily, a large shield was deployed from her without the use of her hands. "Annoying PESTS!" She pointed her launcher upwards and fired straight up. The rockets hit the large type Neuroi that fired at her. Minna and Kathryn took it down together when the core was exposed. "Nobody dares disturb my moments."

Trude chuckles. "Some things change and some people like it. Good luck, Sanya." And she proceeds to the hangar to mount her striker unit.

Sanya noticed that statement from Trude was meant as a compliment, but there wasn't time for it in the middle of a battle, so she flew up.

Sanya – It's a good thing you didn't think of my non-verbal response as a negative one… because I appreciated what you said. I guess I'm glad of the changes, even if it alienates others…

Lynette was firing from distance using her Anti-Materiel Rifle as a support against the medium-type Neuroi that were closer while other witches were taking care of the problem. 'Everyone's fighting to defend themselves… though the base is getting wrecked… I don't know how much longer we'd last like this…'

MG-Mounted jeeps were moving around the base avoiding close beams from the medium-type Neuroi. Maximoff and Paulsen were on one and Yoshikawa and Kuhn were on the other. The MG-42 attachments were at least enough to damage the Neuroi hides. This was while they were avoiding beams themselves.

ATLAS Mobile HQ…

As Irons was watching the battle unfold, he could see that the Neuroi managed by Genie was doing as intended. Though there were losses, the objective of base decimation was slowly being achieved.

The coordinator approaches Irons. "Sir… Caulfield is on the line."

"Thank you. Dana, how are you?"

"I was able to get out. Who knew that a simple transport and a boat out of the battle would be the simplest way to avoid suspicions?"

"They're in a battle to defend themselves, Dana. I think you'll find that in convenience. Now… Is our new ally with you?"

"Listen to her yourself," Dana said it, assuming she's passing the communication to Lida.

And Lida spoke to Irons for the first time. "So you're the man who's supposed to take me into his twisted family."

"Twisted, but efficient, Former Commander. I've gone through lengths to see this plan through, and I'd be grateful for the help."

"I was moved by your speech about your son being killed out of being involved with the world's affairs. I guess it just wears out on just anyone who acts on someone's orders."

"And what do you think of my plan so far?"

"I think it's going well. Dana is a colleague of mine, and I was glad to join the likes of you who more or less align with what I want… I want to improve upon myself and be so much more. I'm tired of what my government says about things. All the generals are the same. As long as they have power… They're nothing but old fools."

Irons chuckles at Lida's statement. "Even more intriguing. I didn't take you as the philosophical type when you describe things that way."

"Let's just say my mind was being given the exercise while I haven't tasted combat in a long while. I'm honored to be a part of the family you've built."

"Then you'll fit right in. The usual exercises for operators go next for you though. We'll get you debriefed." Irons then cuts comms before switching to another frequency. "Genie… I suppose there's a plan for this?" He said that just as he was seeing that the base's armory had blown up, along with the rest of the supply vehicles.

Genie giggles before responding. "They're very good at keeping themselves fresh. They'll be challenging as soon as my next phase comes into effect."

"I see. Have you chosen a subject yet?"

"For Arsenal X1… I had to study the subject carefully. And… I believe I've chosen. I'll tell you in a surprise… Ehehehehe…"

Sicily base… under siege…

Yoshika finally arrives at the hangar and mounts her striker unit before picking out her machine gun. Letting magic imbue into her unit, it starts by itself before a rune is revealed beneath her feet. The docking unit releases her clamps before she adjusted her earpiece and speaks. "This is Yoshika Miyafuji! I'm going up!" Accelerated down the runway, she speeds up more before beams were coming down at her. She wasn't fazed by the missed shots and raises altitude, taking to the night skies. It was only lucky that she left at the time she had because another beam was seen tearing through the base hangar. It triggers explosives and they had destroyed the building's interior. "Oh no… Patti's strikers were in there!"

"Yoshika, you're up!" Lynette was on the radio relieved of Yoshika being around. "Please join me! I'm sending you my grid!" And just as Lynette revealed her location, Yoshika flies to where Lynette is… continuing to snipe the medium-type Neuroi coming right at her range. Hearing Yoshika's striker engines, she smiled briefly before she continued to fire. "You're finally here!"

Yoshika stayed vigilant and looked around while smiling. "It's been a while, Lynne. It's good to be out here… though I wish it could have been for better moments than this." She said this just as she was firing at passing Neuroi cubes that she was easily destroying. "How are things?!"

"To give you an update…" Lynette spoke while firing another round from her Anti-Materiel Rifle. "6 uncomplicated Medium Types appeared and are closer, and three Large types are at high altitudes, and bombing the heck out of our base… We can't save the base, but we can at least get to repel the Neuroi from this side of the world. We'd be foolish not to!"

"I don't believe in completely lost causes either! Lynne, your left!" Yoshika's warning came in time as Lynne used her shield to protect her left side. Yoshika then fires rounds at a passing medium-type Neuroi. Just as it passes, Yoshika reveals the Neuroi core. Releasing a battlecry and getting aggressive, she charges at the target and takes out the core swiftly. The Medium-type Neuroi was decimated, with shards now disintegrating from it. "Does that leave-?"

"Two more!" Lynette said It and gasped. "No! Yoshikawa, Kuhn! One of the medium-types is descending fast and intercepting your jeep!"

Yoshikawa was driving that jeep while she sees the Medium-Type Neuroi overhead as Kuhn fires the mobile emplacement on the vehicle as they move to avoid beams.

"Keep it steady!" Kuhn said this and fired at the medium-type Neuroi. "Crap…! Anyone free right now?! Medium-type on our asses!"

Sanya grits her teeth as she dives from above and fires rockets at the pursuing medium-type Neuroi below. "Some rockets are free." She smirked.

"Oh crap… HARD LEFT!" Kuhn's order came with Yoshikawa's split-second compliance, putting them out of the way of explosions and exposure to Neuroi shards. The Medium-type was damaged heavily and its core exposed. Kuhn wasted no time and fired short bursts before hitting the core and destroying that Neuroi. "Tch. Rockets are free… Firing too close for comfort?"

Sanya hovers, smiling proudly. "At least thank me."

"Jeez… Now I know what they meant of you not being a softie anymore." Kuhn's response on the radio just made Sanya giggle.

From two large-type Neuroi, only one more remains, as the other was destroyed by the combination of Minna, Kathryn, Perrine, Shirley, and Francesca. That remaining large-type was starting to hit the main building badly.

Inside the main building, Patricia Schade was getting Duchess Maria out of there as soon as possible. Passing through a corridor, a collapsing piece of a ceiling almost hit them, but the witch pulled them back to save them from a grim fate. "Too close!"

"It's coming down!" Maria exclaimed before she urged Patti to keep going. This was while she herself was carrying Mio's Reppumaru, her katana.

While the two were maneuvering out of the building, the battle was going smoothly. Barkhorn participated on the attacks against the remaining Medium-type and the Large-type in the base. "This was for pulling families apart," Trude exclaimed. "This is for making images of our loved ones as monsters!" She was firing two MG 42's at the medium-type Neuroi, revealing the core quickly and destroying. "This is for attempting to turn us against each other! You're all sick to the bone! ALL OF YOU!"

Yoshika flew next to Gertrude and just supported her. "Captain… I know what you feel, but put your heart in the right place and put it at the right time! We all need you… just like all of you need me!"

Trude looked at Yoshika in surprise and almost shed a tear. "That's the sweetest thing I've heard from you yet, Miyafuji. I wonder how many times you would save me just like that time in dover."

"I'd do it as many times as you like as long as I'm around." Yoshika then saw one big beam from the last large-type Neuroi come down at the main building hard, crippling the foundation and making it come down from its supports. "Let's finish this."

"All air units, this is Minna!" Her voice was heard from the earpieces of all members of the 501st. "We have one last large-type and it's resilient! Let's finish it off and call it a night!"

The witches in the air gathered in formation at first and started to mount an assault against the remaining large-type Neuroi, heavily defending itself by firing defensive beams. Through widespread shooting, they were searching for where the Neuroi core is. It wasn't easy as this core could be moving. With Hartmann easily using her offense ability Sturm to dig in faster and with Trude able to shoot in deeper in combination, they were able to reveal the core in only several seconds. It was Kathryn who was fast enough to shoot the core directly and destroy the target, immediately decimating it and splitting it into falling shards.

At last, the attack wave had been cleared, and there was an eventual breathing room for them. As they all gathered, it was just Yoshika and Lynette who stayed where they are. Eventually, the two hovered next to each other and held hands.

"I'm glad you're safe," Yoshika said. "For all its worth, I'm glad you didn't die." She frowned. "I've had enough suffering of death for one night."

"Wait… You don't mean…" Lynette asked and looked around. "Where's Major Sakamoto?"

Yoshika stays silent and starts to shed tears again, holding Lynette's hands tight. She took a while to answer. "She's-"

Lynette didn't make Yoshika finish and hugged her girlfriend instead. Her eyes were open and were starting to wet up in the realization of it. "I'm sorry…! I… I never knew. So… she's gone…"

"Yes… Probably the closest I get to a mentor… the first one who recruited me into the unit… and the reason I became who I am today." Yoshika said this, closing her eyes and returning that hug that was given to her.

Maria and Patricia were looking to the sky from below. They were able to make it just in time just as the four other members of the J.S.U. were there to greet her. She looked to the sky where the witches were, concerned of what they were talking about. She was then seeing little glowing dots of blue travelling towards the witches in the air, and she seemed to see that there was like a swarm of a thousand insects approaching. "No…! WATCH OUT!"

Sanya gasped, activating her Magic Antennae. 'What?! This close?! How did it get past-?' She looked towards where it came from, and saw Miyafuji and Lynette together. "MIYAFUJI, BISHOP! GET AWAY!"

But as fast as Yoshika and Lynette could hear, the swarm quickly forms around the two witches, making them blind as they tried to hover away from the swarm of nanites surrounding them. Then Lynette hovers away while the swarm goes away too. And just as she looks for Yoshika, she sees she's gone. "YOSHIKA!"

Kathryn then has a good hunch. "Goddamn Neuroi bitch has her!" As she was seeing the swarm descend down to the base, Barkhorn and Lucchini tried to aim, but she stopped them. "Don't bother. If Miyafuji's in there, chances are you could hit her."

"Doesn't reassure us…" Eila muttered to herself. "But she's obviously bringing Yoshika down to ground level… for what?"

The J.S.U. on the ground kept their weapons focused on the Neuroi nanite swarm now on the ground of the base. They didn't fire yet, so as not to provoke her. And they saw a pair of strikers thrown out of the swarm and onto the ground, partially damaging them.

Yoshika couldn't tell what was happening, but the next thing she knew, she was on the ground with her back on it while the swarm was starting to disappear and transformed into the humanoid Al-mother Genie, who spoke. "I didn't see you when I first met the rest of the 501st. But I guess it's not that late. I'm the new All-mother of the Neuroi. And you… are at my special interest, Yoshika Miyafuji."

As soon as Yoshika started to struggle, she felt her insides were being stung by insects. She couldn't understand it, but she grits her teeth and groans in pain. And eventually, she screams in pain. 'What is this?!' She thought of it as the stings were moving around her body.

Genie chuckled just as the 501st was descending down from the air, guns trained on her. She then had Yoshika hover by her will and appear to stand, just before Genie goes behind Yoshika and put arms around her shoulders. "Looks like everyone's here. Bravo."

Minna was the most affected, having seen Yoshika being taken hostage by a psychotic Neuroi queen. "Let her go, All-mother!"

Genie giggles at Minna. "And no matter what truth you hear about reality, you just keep prioritizing saving whoever's left in your family, following a recent casualty."

"Recent…?" Minna muttered that to herself and looked around her without turning her head so much. "Sakamoto…? Mio?!"

"My knight succeeded. Your Major's life signs cannot be seen anywhere now. And with a death like hers? It's only the beginning." Genie evilly laughs loud, hearing Yoshika groan in pain.

Hera Kuhn wasn't sure of what to do, but she was poked from behind by Duchess Maria. "What?"

Maria then moved to whisper. "Yoshika needs this… to break free. Something magical… I couldn't describe it… It's in this sword."

Kuhn doubted at first, but the doubt fades as she trusts the duchess, and takes the katana out of its sheathe. She then uses her earpiece to contact Eila. "I'm whispering to Eila only. Hey Suomi. How's your throw?"

Eila looked at where Kuhn is and is holding a katana. Getting a short vision, she realized what Kuhn meant. "Dead-on," she whispered in reply.

Genie sighs. "Your faces would be on wanted signs and would be targets for bounties. Because we know for fact that just one of you implicates your unit. So do what you can… dismantle yourselves and leave the fighting to your warmongering leaders. This is their time. Not yours."

"Um…!" Eila spoke to get Genie's attention. Hovering in the middle of the open crowd, she got in front of Yoshika and Genie. "That's not true. Really. It's everyone time to be in this war. It's just gonna take the right people to be in it. Each one's got a stake in it if they want to get involved, and it becomes the choice that makes their lives. Some of us might have been drafted, others volunteered. But those who really got in the war just to protect this world and its innocent population deserve more credit than all the people involved in the war combined." She glared at Genie. "…compared against the likes of you. Now." Eila turns around just as the sword had come to her in a split second, facing the handle of the sword and throwing it at Yoshika.

And Yoshika saw where this was coming. Reppumaru was thrown from Kuhn, passed to Eila, then thrown right to her hand. The only thing Yoshika should do is maintain her open hand. And in the right time, she closed it into a fist. In precision, she captures the katana's handle. Then magic surged from the sword into Yoshika, destroying things inside her… things that were making her feel pain and constricting her movements. The nanites have been burned out. She screamed in anger, now having the chance. She turned around and swung the blade right at Genie, slashing it through the Neuroi all-mother's chest.

Genie screams in pain, stepping back from the moments that appeared so quick to her. Yoshika was then seen holding the sword with one hand at first, then with two as soon as Genie realizes it. "H-how…? The nanites are destroyed?!"

Yoshika kept Reppumaru's tip pointed at Genie. "It's over. For whatever's worth it."

"Tch. Yes. Perhaps it is." Genie narrows her eyes at Yoshika. "You're an interesting specimen, Miyafuji. But I have what I need. This isn't the last time we'll meet. That… I promise you." Genie splits into nanites again, flying away in a swarm.

Yoshika then made her say first before any other takes action. "Let her go. She's already beat. But we're gonna see her again."

Yoshikawa nodded at Kuhn, so the rest of the J.S.U. join in the crowd around Yoshika. 'With all that strength, she could have-' Her thoughts were matched by what's happened to Yoshika, seeing the Fusojin holding the sword collapse to the ground. "I knew it! It's taken a toll on her! CLEAR THE AIR!"

Yoshika's hands were off the sword and she was knocked out. However… she could feel Michiko Yoshikawa's healing magic to restore part of her magic energy.

Yoshika – Nothing's really over for the rest of us that night… And I know too. What that Neuroi Genie has done… She's analyzed me… taken a piece of me as a copy of sorts. I don't know how, but my nerves were stimulated just so she could see reactions.

All that mattered that night was that it was over… but so is the agenda of the 501st. I was there when Mio died. I was there when the base was decimated. And I was also there when I used the sword to attack someone.

All of us changed… including myself. It's only a matter of time when we'll be able to finish off our new enemy. Our struggles, have only just begun.