I'm back, and so is the next chapter in "Strike Heroes".
Now, before we get into the story, I want to say a few things: firstly, this was probably one of the tougher chapters for me due to the fact that I was arguing with myself over how to end this particular episode coverage. A few days before this, I had finally gotten the idea, and I hope that it's fitting. However, I'll let you guys decide how it was.
Next, I wanted to say thanks to those who are currently following the story and reviewing it. Each review I read gives me some idea of how much work I may have to do to keep the story going. So once again, thank you.
Now, it's time to cover the reviews from the last chapter:
fuji92: Thanks for the review. Concerning Eila's overprotectiveness, I have to agree that Roland being a guy is a reason. However, to me that's not the only reason for it. However, that's all I've got to say about that right now. As for things being more than meets the eye...
Anyways, it's time for the next chapter to begin...
XXXXXXXXXX
Chapter 6: Thanks (Part 2)
You know when you feel like one of those days in your life would make you feel a certain way for no apparent reason?
Well, it's a bit hard to explain, but somehow the next day I found myself wondering that.
Especially when I woke that morning.
I sat up, stretched my arms over my head, and set my right hand on the bed as my left hand rubbed my left eye.
What am I doing today? I asked myself. Some flight training? More push-ups? Run a few laps?
Right, I should explain: in addition to learning how to pilot my Striker Unit, learning how to utilize my magic, and increasing my strength, apparently I also do some of the things Yoshika and Lynette do. Especially running.
Hey, I don't mind running. In fact, the military had a lot of running in their regiment...or at least they did in the days between me joining the military and me being assigned to Ellios's squad. I prefer swimming, though. Not in the bath (Are you nuts?).
Speaking of baths, considering the fact that I'm a guy I have been trying to get into the bath when people aren't around. So far, it seems to be working, but I can never be too careful. All I do is let my aura-reading portion of my magic loose, and I use that to keep an metaphorical eye out for any of the girls coming in for a bath.
Besides, sometimes I just want to relax for a while. Yeah, luckily I can hit the showers that the other men on the base use, but it gets a little too much when the conversations they have turn toward me and the other Witches.
...I'm rambling, aren't I?
Anyways, I realized that something was wrong when my right hand landed on something that didn't belong to me. Looking to my right and down, I noticed that there was a leg there, covered with gray tights.
The hell...? I thought as I let my eyes flow up the leg to figure out who had ended up in my bed.
Let's see, let's see...I could make out some silver in the hair.
Everything stopped for me.
How in the...hell did she...get in here? Seriously, why was she in here?
Frantically, I picked the girl up bridal-style and was in the process of taking her to her room when bad luck decided to hit me: opening the door, I was soon greeted by Eila.
"Eila!" I shouted in surprise.
"Morning, Roland," Eila said. "You didn't happen to see Sanya, did you?"
It was only then that she noticed the girl I was holding: one sleeping Sanya Litvyak.
"Uh..." I started as I searched for something that would defuse the situation. "It's not what you think...?"
XXXXXXXXXX
"Morning, Roland," Yoshika said as I walked into the dining hall for breakfast. She then took a quick look again before adding in horror, "Oh my! What happened to your face?"
The reason why Yoshika was worried was because the Suomos Witch had slapped me across the right cheek. Judging by the fact that I was feeling light-headed currently, I would probably have to say that it was one of her anger-powered slaps. That, and the cheek was rather red.
"Just a misunderstanding," I told her as calmly as a person feeling light-headed could muster. I stumbled over to a chair and, pulling it out, sat down.
"Lynne, can you watch the food really fast?" Yoshika asked her cooking partner, one Lynette Bishop. When Lynette nodded in agreement, Yoshika walked up to me, pulled up a chair, sat in it, and turned to face me. "Now, let me look at it..."
"Don't worry about it," I tried telling her, but I don't think she was going to have any of it.
"Hold still, lieutenant," Yoshika told me quickly. She gently laid her hand on my right cheek, and my first response was to try pulling away. However, she somehow kept me still as her head came in a little to examine the redness. "It's going to take a while to clear up. How did you even get it?"
"Again, just a misunderstanding..." I didn't really want to tell her what happened to even earn me the red cheek. That, and it still stung.
"Well, whatever you did don't do it again, okay, silly?" She let go of me, and I pulled my head back quickly.
I glared at the Fuso Witch. "It's not like I asked for it, Yoshika..."
Yoshika gave off a pouty look, and my face instantly became a little messed up: my eyes were glaring at her in annoyance, but my mouth was growing a small smile.
XXXXXXXXXX
After two hours of a combination of running exercises with Yoshika and Lynette, combat training with Barkhorn, and lunch, I was busy practicing my barrier production in a clearing inside the forest when the day started looking dangerous: I could see short bursts of explosions in the sky.
"What the hell?" I asked myself as I activated my Striker Unit and flew into the air, avoiding trees as I did so. Why were there explosions going off in the air at this time?
Soon, I flew toward Mio, Gertrud, Lynette, and Yoshika, who were joined by Minna and Perrine a while before me.
When I managed to get there, I barely caught a location: Karlsland, something Gertrud made a slight response at.
"You alright, Captain?" I asked Gertrud as I was handed the Bren that Lynette had.
"It's nothing, lieutenant," she said in reply. "I'm ready for this."
Mio made Perrine Gertrud's wingman and had Yoshika become hers. Lynette and I joined Minna as her wingmen.
Soon, Mio sighted the Neuroi up ahead, and the orders were for Gertrud's squad to move in. Mio's squad was to cover them, and I was waiting for Minna's orders, which seemed to be this: attack.
I fired the Bren at the Neuroi as the others followed suit. There was one problem I was having: while I had trained in the use of the Bren, I never really liked the gun. It felt too…odd. The clip the gun was using had to be inserted from the top. Plus, as Lynette had to hand me the magazines when I needed to reload I found myself wondering where to actually press the button that released the magazine.
Suddenly, Minna stopped, forcing me and Lynette to follow her lead and float there.
"Something is definitely wrong," Minna said.
"Wrong, ma'am?" Lynette asked.
"With Barkhorn. I mean, she always keeps her wingman very close within her field of view. But for some reason she's trying to do it all by herself."
I blinked as I ran the information through my head. Gertrud had given Yoshika the cold shoulder at breakfast yesterday, and I found some black in her aura. Now, where was the connection again? Could be her younger sister, but I can't be certain...
"Okay, I think I get the idea," I said finally. "She's entering a sort of frenzy due to something. What's her connection to Karlsland?"
Minna ignored me, telling Lynette to focus fire on a certain point. She fired, and the Neuroi retaliated by firing its lasers, slamming into Gertrud's and Perrine's barriers.
"Back off, Barkhorn!" Mio said as she and Yoshika did just that slightly. "You're too close!"
Gertrud barely flew out of a laser's path, and it slammed into Perrine's barrier. The attack made her slightly disoriented and made her crash into Gertrud, though, and the captain was soon pelted by a laser shot before she could erect a proper barrier.
As Gertrud fell to the ground, three people were concerned for her safety more than the others, and everyone there were concerned.
"Captain!" Perrine cried as she followed Gertrud.
"Captain Barkhorn!" Yoshika added as she followed Perrine.
"Hang on!" I yelled as I flew down, making sure to make a barrier to keep the Captain Barkhorn Recovery Group safe from a laser.
Well, I may not be able to maintain a proper barrier currently, but I can sure as hell make one flash up when I need to. Plus, I was lucky to have popped one up when I did: the laser would have probably finished the job and killed off three of us, myself included.
Soon, Perrine and Yoshika caught up with Gertrud and managed to get her down to the ground safely, me catching up soon after. The girls laid her on the ground as I deactivated my Striker Unit and let my feet touch the ground.
"This is all my fault!" Perrine said as Yoshika opened up Gertrud's jacket. "What am I gonna do?"
I looked at the Gallian girl quickly. I was still irked at her attitude toward Yoshika, but we were a team, so I couldn't let my personal feeling s concerning Perrine get to me right now. Besides, it wasn't Perrine's fault Gertrud got hurt.
"Perrine, it's alright," I told her as I looked at her. "Don't beat yourself up over it."
"She's bleeding," Yoshika, who had been examining Gertrud's wound, said.
"I guess that's a no-brainer," I said quickly before looking at the sky. "The first problem we have is how long we can last against the Neuroi here. Those lasers can probably hit us from up there. Can we move her somewhere safe?"
"We can't move her. It'll only make it worse. I'm going to have to heal her here."
I opened my mouth to throw in a comment, but Perrine beat me to it.
"That's okay," Perrine said in reply. "Please just save her!"
Yoshika worked on healing Gertrud.
"Stay calm, Yoshika," the girl told herself as she worked. "You have to concentrate. You can do this."
Soon, a blue barrier formed around everyone except Perrine and myself, who stood there in awe. However, the Neuroi decided to fire at us, forcing Perrine to make a shield to protect us all. All I could do was kneel next to Yoshika and watch as she used her magic to heal the injured Karlsland Witch.
Gertrud opened her eyes and looked at Yoshika and me as the former healed her. I could see that something was troubling her about this situation, as she tried to move her hands.
"Hold still!" Yoshika advised. "I think it's working."
"What do you think you're doing?" Gertrud asked. "You have to get away from here or you'll put everyone else in danger. Go on, get out of here! There's no point in saving me, just forget about it! Use your powers on the enemy!"
"Stop talking like that!" I snapped, making Gertrud look at me in surprise. "I don't care why you want to die, that's not the way to go. You think dying's just going to solve everything? Well, it's not! Everyone goes through life not knowing when life throws you a screwball made of horrible crap, but if you just give up and die then you accomplish nothing! Think of those you'll leave behind! How do you think they'll feel?"
Gertrud looked at me. "What do you know of losing something? You haven't tried saving everyone. You haven't gone through the fact that you couldn't even save your own sister. How else are you supposed to understand?"
"Because I do!" Gertrud looked at me as I growled in a menacing way. "You think we're supposed to just give in to your request and let you die? That's not how I live my damn life! I don't care whether you believe me or not, but I know exactly what it's like to lose someone. So trust me when I say this, Captain, but I will protect everyone. Even if I die, I'm not letting anyone go down with me!"
Yoshika looked at me. "Roland…"
"I mean it! I'm not letting you end up like her! I'm not letting you end up like Commander Ellios!"
Gertrud's eyes widened. "Ellios?"
At this point, Perrine was barely holding the barrier steady as she covered for us, but it was slowly failing to work.
"I can't fight it off much longer!" she said.
"Yoshika!" I said.
The Neuroi fired off a powerful shot that pushed Perrine back. At the same time, Yoshika, exhausted from healing, fell to the ground chest first. I barely had time to use my magic to create a barrier as a follow-up laser came into view.
BOOM!
When the dust from the collision cleared, I fell to the ground on my back and watched as Gertrud got back up, her twin MG 151s quickly entering her hands.
"Captain…" Yoshika said as she sat up.
"I'll protect them, Captain…" I breathed as I sat up. "I promise…no one is going to die under my watch…"
Gertrud looked behind her and at us, giving off a slight smile before taking off toward the Neuroi. When she got closer, she unloaded her guns into the Neuroi, destroying the core and defeating the Neuroi.
I stood up and was held up by Perrine and Yoshika, who were looking at me as I rested there, unable to carry my own weight.
"Did you really mean all that, Roland?" Yoshika asked.
I nodded and smiled, even as I watched Minna approach Gertrud and smack her across the face. "If all you do in life is be reckless then you're going to not have many friends. Even if you do make a lot of them, you still can't give up on yourself, especially if it's going to bring everyone else down."
Perrine looked like she was going to say something about Yoshika calling me by my rank, but I just shook my head. I don't particularly care about the ranks as far as the little Fuso Witch was concerned.
"So…who was Commander Ellios?" Perrine decided to ask instead.
"Commander Hannah Ellios was the commander I had while I was on the Ascension. I wish you could meet her, but she was killed by a Neuroi during the incident. Now…" I flashed a toothy smile as we stood there, my aura reading focusing on Gertrud. I could still see the black, but now there was some gold in her aura as well, more than the black splotch. "How about we get back to base so I can relax?"
XXXXXXXXXX
"Aw, I didn't even get to do anything…" Yoshika lamented as she, Lynette, and I stood outside. It was later in the day, after Minna ordered me to take Perrine and the sergeants back to the base while she and Mio went with Gertrud.
I was rather confused: why was Yoshika, who healed Gertrud, complaining that she didn't even get to do anything? She saved Gertrud, for crying out loud!
"Come on, that's not true," Lynette replied.
"Yes it is, Lynne, okay?"
"Actually," I said with a chuckle. "I'm rather happy with the way things turned out."
Soon, we saw Perrine coming out of the hangar. Yoshika got into a defensive position at first, but when Perrine turned her head in embarrassment she and I were surprised.
"Well, I suppose I should thank you," Perrine said. "I figured the least I could do was express my gratitude."
"It's okay, Perrine," I replied. "She did what she needed, but thanks."
Soon, Yoshika and I found ourselves being hugged by Erica.
"Sergeant Miyafuji! Lieutenant Sage!" she said. "I heard all about the way you saved Trude."
"Trude?" Yoshika asked.
"Captain Barkhorn, that's her first name," Lynette replied.
Okay...guy confused here...I thought she was named Gertrud! Not Trude! Augh!
"Oh yeah. Well, I guess you could say we saved each other then."
"Either way, I just wanted to say thank you," Erica added.
"You're welcome," I said as I smiled.
Lynette spotted three Witches coming in for a landing. "Oh, look. I think they're back."
As Mio, Minna, and Gertrud came toward the hangar, we waved at them. I swore I saw Gertrud smiling at Yoshika and myself as she waved back.
"Welcome back!" all of us said.
XXXXXXXXXX
Gertrud's POV
I was busy looking at a picture of Chris when I heard the door receive a knock.
"Who is it?" I asked as I put the picture back on my dresser.
"It's me, captain," Sage's voice replied.
Sage? Why is he knocking on the door right now? "Come in, lieutenant."
The door opened, and Sage stepped inside, looking a little upset.
"What is it, lieutenant?" I asked him as I watched him stand there.
"Listen, ma'am..." Sage started. "I'm sorry for snapping at you yesterday. I hope I didn't cause you any trouble with it, but I didn't want to see anyone else die in front of me..."
I looked at him. He came in here just to apologize about what he had said? "Lieutenant...I hate to say this, but I guess I owe you an apology. I was so concerned about my sister that my judgment had been clouded. Hearing you..." I looked away as my eyes passed over the picture I had just put down. "...hearing you say what you said...I guess I finally realized it. What you were saying about protecting others..."
Sage nodded as he finally noticed the picture I was looking at. "I see...is that a photo of your sister?"
"Huh?" I had to run that through my head for a split second before I had a response. "Oh. Yes."
"What's her name, if you mind telling me?"
"Chris." I just gave Sage the name I called her for now.
Sage walked up to the picture and looked at it closely. "You know...she looks eerily like Yoshika...just putting it out there."
I looked at him in amazement. "She looks nothing like Miyafuji, lieutenant."
"It's just an opinion, captain. Anyways...why was I here again? Oh, yeah! Your ride's waiting,"
"Thanks, lieutenant..." I walked toward the door as I passed by him. I flashed him a quick smile, but it was only faint. I mean, I was grateful he actually defied my wishes on being left to die, but he was probably doing it out of regret for whatever happened to Ellios.
Speaking of Ellios...I need to ask Commander Minna more about it...
XXXXXXXXXX
Roland's POV
I watched Gertrud leave her room, and I stepped outside after her. As I watched her leave, I used my magic to read her aura. She still had the black, but it was very dim and was surrounded by the golden aura I sensed in her yesterday.
I really was sorry about snapping at her, but the way she handled it...um, I wonder if that's normal?
That, and Chris...I definitely think that she looks like Yoshika. Which brings up the question: how exactly does Gertrud feel toward the other younger Witches? I mean, there's Eila, Francesca, Sanya, Yoshika...
Erm...I think I'll sort it all out.
"Hey, Roland-kun," Yoshika's voice rang out as she caught up to me. "Have you seen Captain Barkhorn?"
"Uh, yeah," I told her. "She just went to catch her ride."
"Oh. Okay, because I was going to tell her that..."
Eh heh...I forgot that Yoshika was the one who told Gertrud that her ride was waiting... "Don't worry, Yoshika." ...My bad...
Suddenly, I heard my stomach growling.
"Are you hungry?" Yoshika asked me.
"I guess so..." I said as I gave off a light chuckle.
"Well, come on, Roland-kun." Yoshika ran off toward the kitchen before stopping to look at me as I stood there, confused. "What's wrong?"
"...Roland-kun?" I was somehow reminded of the name "Kazu-kun", but my name wasn't Kazuma.
"You don't like it?" Yoshika sounded upset.
"No, no, no!" I had to wave my hands in front of me. "It's just odd to actually be hearing that. Anyways, I'm coming."
I walked to her, and we proceeded to the dining hall for lunch. As we walked, I couldn't help but think about how much more trouble I would get into while serving with these girls.
I guess that I'll have to find out along the way...
XXXXXXXXXX
Charlotte: Next time on Strike Heroes...
Roland: Hey! What the hell are you doing, Shirley?
Charlotte: I'm doing the preview for the next episode.
Roland: I started the preview the last two times. What's wrong with that?
Francesca: Cheer up, Roland. We're heading to the beach.
Roland: Can't possibly imagine why...
Charlotte: Oh, by the way...what do you know about me?
Roland: Erm, well...
Francesca: Don't spoil it. Next time...
Charlotte: Fast...
Francesca: Big...
Charlotte and Francesca: Soft!
Roland: Can this day get any weirder...?
XXXXXXXXXX
Well, the next chapter has been set up. Please read and respond.