No more school to distract me! So I've been typing this fic and hoping to update it soon and continuously. I hope my readers are still out there. And there's and upcoming Guilty Crown dub! I'm so excited! You can tell I'm not a sub purist. I actually despise those kinds of anime elitists. People put hard work into dubs so that they can attract a new audience! So, looking at the voice actors, I don't know any one of these. They're all new people! (Except for Micah Solusod, Caitlin Glass, Monica Rial, and J. Michael Tatum.) The dub trailer is good! Shu sounds exactly like a wuss, but it seems that the dub is making him seem a little bit more heroic than he should be. What do you guys think?

refractory period

Arisa Kuhouin: Regal as a queen and cunning as a fox. Her wavy blonde locks were now pinned at the back of her head except for a few bangs. A flower barrette that once resembled her Void was pinned on the side of her head. Her make-up was natural, except she wore cherry red lipstick on her lips instead of pink gloss. Arisa's eyes, once afraid, were now daggers of brown. She came in a short black and white dress paired with tall black pumps. She was beautiful; an ambiguous witch or a lost fairy.

Arisa walked up towards the center and sat down beside Pallbearer's leader. She smiled at him and he smiled back.

Inori curiously stared at the pair. Somewhere in her mind, she'd seen this woman before. This woman was younger. She wore a high school uniform before…

Arisa cleared her throat and began to speak, "I am the sole heir of the Kuhouin Family. Before, my family, specifically my grandfather, has supported Funeral Parlor in their battle against GHQ. I am willing to take his place and put my money where the justice is!"

The circle of Pallbearer members erupted in a cheer. Ryo remained uninterested as usual. He just wanted this meeting to be over and the order of an attack to initiate. He can already feel it; the claws of his Endlave piercing Daryl Yan's chest. The bastard was probably fixing up his Endlave to top his own. Ryo scoffed and buried his head in his fists. Can this meeting be over already!?

"We are closely approaching our final operation." Arisa pulled up a map of Tokyo. "This city, this country, and this world need to be eradicated completely. We shall finish what Da'at started: a new world and a new civilization. And I will eliminate those who led to Gai's death. And GHQ will crumble!"

Another roar of cheers erupted once again.

Inori frowned even more. A small part of her opposed this initiative.

The Pallbearer's leader announced, "As you know, we were founded by the belief that the Apocalypse Virus has not been eliminated. We were right! It is the government's fault and the fault of our people that we are thrust into this danger again. You all remember the incident of eight years ago, the near end of the world. You all suffered then, and you will suffer no longer. Once we use this newly found Virus to eradicate the human civilization of Japan, we will start this country anew!"

More cheering. This time, Ryo was not cheering along with his peers. Did this plan mean that everyone was going to die?

"We shall take this virus and hook it to this machine, which will amplify its power. This machine will be mounted on the highest point of Japan." He pulled up a common picture in most tourist manuals. "Mount Fuji."

Arisa strictly continued, "All efforts will be placed into getting this machine up that mountain. We will trek by land to avoid suspicion and the terrain will slow down the enemy. All Angels will be put on offence and defenses. But here's our main goal: Inori Yuzuriha." She gave quite a glare at poor Inori, who remained confused. "She will be placed along the machine to activate, maintain, and further amplify the power. She is the original Angel after all."

"Meeting adjourned!" The leader called and pulled his cloak back over his head. He took Arisa by her arm and led her out.

Inori was the only one left in the room, or so she thought, as she stared up at the hologram of Mount Fuji. She was going to activate this? What's going to happen?

"Scared?" Ryo pulled up next to her. "I would too if I had to get into that thing."

"Ryo. Are you going to follow this plan?" Inori remained blank as always.

Ryo shrugged. "I have to. It's my order."

"You don't look like you share the same belief. Do you want everyone to die?"

"There is only one person I want dead and that's Major General Daryl Yan." Ryo defiantly pointed up at the machine. "And this is what's going to complete my revenge for my mom."

Inori frowned. "Is this worth it? All that you've done and what you are going to do; is this worth the retribution for your mother?"

"She's right." Angel Twelve meekly appeared from the hallway. "I'm sorry…I couldn't help but overhear…but Inori Yuzuriha is right. Your mother was a Japanese citizen from this wonderful country. Do you want to get rid of the one thing that gave you your name?"

Ryo pursed his lips and left. "Inori, you need to rest. And Angel Twelve, you need to get ready to be transferred into Inori's body."

"That tone …" Inori drew closely to Ryu. "I've heard it before. You're starting to sound like Daryl Yan himself."

Ryu scowled once more before quickly leaving the two Angels.

Angel Twelve shook her head in disappointment. "And here I thought he surely must disagree at some point. I guess we both were wrong."

"You have much hope, little sister."

"I know. Hope is what keeps me moving forward…even when I die."

"You don't want to die."

"I don't want to die. But I must. I have no choice." Angel Twelve sadly said. "Unlike him."

-GC-

Jessica moved her holographic knight to checkmate the white king. "Checkmate." She waved her hand and reset the board back to the starting positions. "What are you doing here? Are you so bored that you'd rather sit here and play chess with a bedridden girl rather than planning your next line of attack?"

"My job does not entail attacking people blindly." Daryl rolled his eyes and poked her in the forehead. "And you must be bored sleeping here to be talking to me."

"Well, I feel bad rejecting a guy who got on his hands and knees to beg for my forgiveness." Jessica shrugged. "What about Tsugumi? Why don't you go cuddle with her or something?"

Daryl shot her a curious look and this time, he lightly whammed a fist on top of her head. "And how do you know that?"

"Ow! Easy! Easy! I'm a patient!" Jessica rubbed her scalp and pouted. "It's so obvious. You're in love with her. You do not know how many times I've caught you making out with her. I'm surprised you haven't made things real with her-"

Wham! Another fist whacked her head.

Daryl calmly wounded his arm back and replied, "She was given an assignment to hack into Pallbearer's system. She's been working nonstop for a month. I've also been working on engineering a brand new Endlave."

"What? Steiner 5.0?" Jessica rolled her eyes.

"No. Beine 1.0." He pulled up a holographic diagram of a red and black Endlave, tall and sleek, while menacing.

"That's not your type of Endlave."

"It's not. It is Ayase Shinomiya's brand new Endlave equipped with the latest technology offered and my own creations. It's even more sophisticated than my Steiner." Daryl closed his hologram and blankly stared at the space it once occupied. "It's the least I can do for attempting to put Ayase in danger. And I wasn't lying when I said that she's the most skilled pilot out of all of us, including me. We're pulling out all our stops."

Jessica weakly smiled. "She will love it."

Daryl softly smiled back and patted her head. "You've been awake for too long. Rest. You'll need energy to fight the virus eating you."

"Don't remind me." Jessica grumbled as Daryl began to pack up. "Daryl?"

"Yes?"

She smiled. "If Daddy was here, he'd be proud. You must really love her to change so much."

"Yeah. I know." He smirked and quickly left.

Jessica merely smirked back. "Loser."

-GC-

Tsugumi wanted nothing more but to throw her pen into the twenty screen sitting before her. She was dead tired. She was draining at least seven jars of coffee. And she needed to take a break and sleep over at Daryl's mansion or something. But no. She was sitting in a big leather chair, trying her hardest to crack every code and walls and encryptions placed in Pallbearer's system. She barely even got past the first set of firewalls and rotation systems. She only hacked a few hallway cameras, which was not enough.

Ayase silently slipped in with a few boxes of croquettes from a nearby bakery. She knew that the potato filled ones were her favorite. "Any luck?"

"Nope." Tsugumi sighed and pushed away from her bazillion screens. "Thanks for the food."

Ayase patted her friend's shoulder. "Don't overwork yourself. Why not let Daryl come in for a change?"

"No. He's the Major General. He needs to manage things at his own end." Tsugumi gulped down a strawberry smoothie. "How are Shibungi and Argo? Shu? Yahiro?"

"Shibungi and Argo have begun evacuation codes in case of a dire emergency. Their focus is on the people of Japan. Shu and Yahiro are working on a plan to figure out our offences. They've just discovered that Pallbearer's target is Mount Fuji. It's a breakthrough, but they still don't know the reason. It must have something to do with Inori Yuzuriha."

"So we have nothing?" Tsugumi groaned. "By the way, Aya-nee, did you test out your new toy?"

"I did." Ayase grinned. "Daryl said he still needed to work out some kinks here and there. But it's already better than his Steiner. I can tell."

"That's how you know when Daryl really wants to apologize. He does everything he can to make you happy." Tsugumi smiled and played with her food as if stuck on cloud nine.

"You've caught yourself a good one." Ayase smirked and said, "Daryl's quite handsome for a crazy man."

"Aya-nee! Stop teasing me!"

"Sorry Tsugumi. It's too much fun. By the way, have you decided to make things official between the two of you? It's been half a year already."

"Things will move on its own course. I don't want this…whatever this is…to move too fast." Tsugumi crossly replied.

"You're boyfriend and girlfriend! Nearly lovers at this point! If you ask me, I think now is a good time for you two to push things forward if that thing, whatever it is, doesn't kill us all." Ayase pointed at Mount Fuji.

"Oh shut up and let me work!" Tsugumi stuck out her tongue and turned back to typing codes into her computer. "Huh! What's this?"

Ayase rolled over and looked at the screen as well. "It seems you hacked into their database."

"Only a small part." Tsugumi continued typing. A myriad of cameras, numbers, plans, layouts, and other things popped up in her screens. "It's only a personal computer I've hacked into. It's not the main database that we want. But I can try to hack into the database through this little pathway."

"Wait!" Ayase pulled Tsugumi away from her computer. "It looks like someone is accessing this computer. You don't want to mess with anything right now."

"We might as well figure out who this belongs to. I can hack into the webcam." Tsugumi did just that and a video of Ryo appeared. "It's Ryo-chan!"

"What is he doing?" Ayase glanced back at the screen that showed a display of his computer. "He's looking at a photograph." The screen showed a black haired woman with pale skin and pink lips. She wore a purple sweater and a cream skirt. In her arms was a small baby with the same dark hair. She was smiling.

Ryo wore a fond look in his eyes. They both could tell. Even when he was stoic and perpetually heartless, he wore an aching heart under his shell. He was silent the whole time. Ryo closed the photo and opened up his messaging profile. Tsugumi swiftly took this oppurtunity to attack.

"Tsugumi! What are you doing?" Ayase gasped.

"He doesn't look so well. Maybe he's starting to doubt Pallbearer." Tsugumi pulled up her own webcam profile. "Ryo-chan!"

Ryo jumped back once Tsugumi's face popped up all of a sudden. "Tsugumi! How-What-?"

"Ryo-chan. Listen to me. I can tell that something's wrong! You know what's going to happen and you don't look like you're comfortable about it."

"I'm not telling you anything." Ryo curtly replied and he almost pressed the "end calling" button.

"I'm not asking for anything." Tsugumi wanted to reach past her screens and grab him. "You don't belong in that terrorist group. You're only thirteen years old! You have so much ahead of you and you're going to throw it all away. You need to leave. I want you to run away while you still can."

Ryo shook his head, furious that this woman interfered so much. "Tsugumi, I worked too hard for revenge. I'm not going to give up."

"Revenge is not your answer." Tsugumi shouted. "If you continue your path for revenge, you will feel nothing but emptiness inside. You will be your own undoing. So I'm telling you to drop it and leave it all behind!"

"She's right, kid." Ayase stepped in. "You do this and you're going to regret it. Look, Daryl tried to pull a fast one on me and that included my life. He's played with Jessica her whole life and that ended with her miserable in a hospital bed. Knowing that, I didn't even think of what I would do to him. I can already tell, after the Second Apocalypse, he's miserable for everything he's done. So, leave this dumb plan of revenge and run away."

"Not if I'm dead."

"Dead?" Both Ayase and Tsugumi grew alarmed.

Ryo softly whispered, "Look, I'm only saying this because I know you, Tsugumi, are not truly aligned with GHQ. So…get yourself and your friend out of here before shit goes down."

"Kid." Ayase frowned. "Last chance. Get out of there."

"I guess I'll see you there, wheelchair woman." He signed off.

"Damn it!" Ayase angrily cussed and slammed her fist into the keyboards. "We lost him."

Tsugumi shook her head and pulled up some more files. "No. He let it slip that everyone in Japan was going to die, even himself. That means there's some catastrophic machine that's going to take down Japan like a Leukocyte."

"We've discontinued the Leokocyte project. The one satellite self-destructed eight years ago! What could they possibly make that contains the same effect?"

"I don't know. But Ryo-chan just gave me the right key words to hack into their weapons database." Tsugumi hurriedly typed in the last of her codes before finally accessing a spreadsheet of layouts and more codes. She typed in the coordinates for Mount Fuji and finally, a holographic layout of some pyramidal machine floated out from her screen. "Here it is! I finally found their Apocalypse machine."

"How big is this thing?" Ayase pulled up the stats. "It's almost as big as a small house. How are they going to drag this onto Mount Fuji without being spotted?"

"I don't know. Pallbearer's not going to do this by flight. It's too obvious." Tsugumi alerted her nearest operator and their main line of communication. "Jessie. I know you're still in the hospital, but I haven't figured out GHQ systems yet. Alert Shibungi and Argo! This is important! Call up Daryl, Shu, and Yahiro as well."

"Roger."

-GC-

"What?" Argo exploded. "They want to blow up Japan. Again!"

Ayase nodded in response. "Either that or spread the Apocalypse Virus."

"Wouldn't it be the latter because Da'at tried that before." Yahiro pointed out.

"It didn't exactly work." Daryl interjected.

Shu shook his head. "Just because it didn't work doesn't mean it can't be improved. What do you think Shibungi?"

Shibungi sighed, having taken all this information in. His whole Funeral Parlor group, along with Daryl, was sitting around a black circular table just like old times. Except Gai was the one who made the decisions, not him. Now everything rested on his shoulders. "Is this all the information we have? Tsugumi discovers a machine that could kill us all. It's going to be put on Mount Fuji. And Inori, the Angels, and the Apocalypse Virus are part of it."

His group nodded simultaneously.

"It's not enough information. Are we going to just go to Mount Fuji unprepared? I believed the last time we did that, Daryl's personal officer wounded up and is still in the hospital."

"Hey! She was already sick!" Daryl shouted.

"She was shot." Argo corrected. "Shibungi is right. We can't go in without knowing anything. It's too risky and there's too many stakes on the line."

"Not exactly." Yahiro suddenly pointed out. "Think about it. They have the exact same scenario from last year with a few details altered. Can't we just predict their plan of attack through what happened before? It's our best plan."

"If you think of it that way: The underground terrorist group, Da'at, came up with this plan and roped Gai along with it. Who else would be in on this?" Shibungi mumbled.

Yahiro immediately responded, "Arisa Kuhouin is my only answer. She's quite secretive about her life now and her family had connections with Da'at."

"That girl? Wow. I remembered her as this bitch who ridiculously obsessive over Gai." Daryl remarked only for Shu to swipe his feet under his chair and knock the guy over.

"Hey! Arisa went through a lot okay!"

"If you weren't so blind, I'd pummel you right now." Daryl growled and glared at him.

"Calm down boys. We're only making assumptions." Shibungi sternly said. "So, if things run as planned as the last time, then Inori would be the trigger where she'd turn into Mana and kick start the end of the world."

Yahiro replied, "We already ran a full screening test on her. Inori's not as powerful as she was eight years ago. Maybe this is why the Angels came into play."

"Good thinking." Shibungi praised him. "Yahiro. I'm impressed of your thinking. You may fair well working for the government militia."

"No. No. I'd rather remain as a lawyer." Yahiro chuckled. "I'm doing this as a favor for Shu. We've both been through a lot together." He suddenly grew sullen and glanced at his best friend. "Shu…if this goes exactly as the last one…will you sacrifice yourself again?"

"Me?" Shu couldn't answer. But he didn't need to answer.

"Give him a break. The guy's already done so much. Don't you think it's asking a bit much for him to kill himself again?" Daryl said. "Look. We don't have to repeat history all over again."

"What if that history brings the same success? Some things just belong to cycle in a ring." Argo glared at him before turning to Shu. "Shu. Are you willing to do this even if it means saving us all?"

"I guess so…" Shu sighed. "It's the guilty crown I was forced to bear."

"You're all useless!" Frustrated enough with this, Daryl got out of his seat and stalked out the door.

For a moment, everyone remained totally silent. Nobody was sure if they should bring Daryl Yan back or sit around and continue discussing without him. Finally, Ayase sighed and pushed Tsugumi's seat to the door. "Go and cheer him up in the special way you have."

"Aya-nee!" Tsugumi blushed. "Fine then."

"In the meantime, I'll speak with our American sector and see if they can send us any more material. Since we're the one stuck dealing with their problem, it's the least they can do." Shibungi said, "Meeting adjourned!"

Tsugumi left right afterwards. She knew where Daryl was heading. If he wasn't in his workshop or Jessica's hospital room, then he must have went straight home to his mansion. Tsugumi called up her Funell and quickly turned her robot pet into a scooter. But before stopping at his place, she went to a candy store to buy a caramel apple.

And now, she entered into his mansion with his spare key on top of his front gate. "Daryl?" Tsugumi trekked down to the basement where she found him sulking with his Endlave equipment. "I bought you some sweets."

"You know I hate those." He grumbled.

"You didn't seem to hate it when I force-fed them to you." Tsugumi shoved the candy apple into his hands. "Daryl, I'm surprised you'd be the one to spring into Shu's defense."

"He's one of my best creations using Void technology. I can't put that to waste!"

Tsugumi frowned and knocked his head. "Stop lying. You hate it when someone sacrifices their lives for you. It makes you feel helpless all over again…and it reminds you of him."

"Shut up." Daryl grumbled. "You would hate it too if you ever experienced it."

"I did." Tsugumi stated matter-of-factly. "Oogumo was one of my best friends. He was like my big brother along with Argo. But he put himself into danger to protect Ayase and me. I've lived knowing people died for me, but I can move past it. And I'm happy. So why can't you?"

He didn't respond back immediately. "I don't know."

"I don't think any of us does." Tsugumi nibbled onto her candy apple. "Whether you like it or not, this decision is for Shu to make alone. He saved us once. He'll save us again. You can't do anything about it."

"You know I can't agree with that."

"At least try…"

Daryl pulled Tsugumi towards him till she was snuggling beside him. His arm rested on top of her tiny shoulders and her head rested upon his hardened chest. She was comfortable. He was comfortable too. Their bodies melded together like they should.

"Tsugumi, if I were to do something rash, what would you do?" He asked within their mutual silence.

A small tear escaped her eye. "I'd never forgive you. So don't do whatever you're thinking of doing…Stupid Sprout."

"I'm sorry…but…just stay here for tonight."

She nodded. "Sure." Daryl was never going to listen to her. She already knew that. She could only wish this time.

-GC-

Angel Twelve silently crept out of her room, which composed of a sleeping pod amongst the rest of her sisters. Inori got her own specialized room next to theirs, a fitting arrangement for the eldest sister. The meek angel snuck into the hallway and she sprinted off to the nearest elevator. She wanted to speak with the boy one last time. He seemed so unsure and uneasy when she and Inori spoke with him last. Angel Twelve snuck under a security camera and she entered into the elevator. She breathed a sigh of relief once she was inside. Since Angel Nine had the cloaking system installed into her, she couldn't sneak around as easily. In fact, Angel Twelve had nothing installed in her. She probably had the smallest physique and the largest pair of breasts. That was about it.

Angel Twelve finally found Ryo's room and she was about to knock, but he opened it up.

"I knew you were going to come." Ryo said and motioned to his holographic security screen. "What do you want? You should be resting and recharging yourself for your transference into Inori's body."

"I heard your conversation with that Tsugumi person earlier." Angel Twelve slipped into his room. "Ryo-kun, are you really going to run away?"

Ryo frowned. "That's not a question you can ask."

"I want to run away." She dully said. "I want to escape and take Inori and you with me."

"Look Twelve, it's hard for you but you're going to have to accept that you're just a sacrifice."

"But you're not!" Angel Twelve shouted. "You're not a pawn for Pallbearer to control. You're more than that. You're in this whole plan so you can kill the man who killed your mother. I get it. But that doesn't justify killing the whole world. You're just throwing your life away. Unlike you, I value my own life because I can only have one. And it's not fair that someone else owns it."

"Oh shut up Angel Twelve!" Ryo grumbled, but he effectively got her to stop ranting. "I don't care what Pallbearer do. If they get me near Daryl, fine, I'll do whatever they want. But if they don't help, I'll find my own way to get to him. Frankly, I find this remake the world business kind of stupid and it's going to fail like it did eight years ago. So stop worrying so much about me."

Her chestnut eyes softened. "Ryo-kun…"

Bang! Bang! "Open up!" They didn't need to as two officers barged in. "You're hiding away Angel number 12."

"I'm not hiding her away, you idiots." Ryo grumbled and pulled up his ID. " First, I'm the top Endlave pilot here so don't even bother punishing me when our main initiative is about to start. And second, she and I were just talking and she was about to leave anyways."

"Ryo-kun!"

"Is that true?" An officer eyed at Angel Twelve.

Angel Twelve nodded.

"See. She's just here to talk. But she must be leaving as it's getting late."

And with that, Angel Twelve was shuffled right out of his room and back towards her quarters.

Ryo watched her. His confusion grew even more each passing minute. These people wanted him to do something else rather than his entitled duties. He was his own person. He understood that. But if he merely followed a soldier's duties, does that make him bad?

A message opened up on his projector. It was a declaration. It was a message of battle. How interesting. A score was soon to be settled.

How is it? It felt weird typing up this story since I haven't worked on it for a while. In fact, I had to read some odl chapters to refresh my memory. But here, you get to see what each side is plotting to do. And is Ryo going to switch sides? Review!