Flower of Damocles

by VoyeurTheNinja

Nearly 5 years have passed since the defeat of Shem-Ha Mephorash. In the wake of the battle against the Great Surgeon, S.O.N.G. has maintained its vigil against paranormal threats, culminating in the development of a next-generation Symphogear. But when the prototype SG-r04 is stolen, the Adaptors soon find themselves facing a threat from beyond their dimension.

14. A Fleeting Stage of Serenity

2049, December 25th. It was Lanfen's third day without her Symphogear. And it was also a time of giving and sharing. Outside the window of Lanfen's apartment kitchen, Yamaku City's countless civilians could be witnessed crowding out the streets below, heading to wherever they desired for the holiday occasion. In contrast to their thick, winter outfits, Lanfen herself donned a comfortable hoodie alongside a pair of sweatpants, making this the second morning in a row where she wasn't required to put on the Adaptor Corp uniform. But ever since word of the S.O.N.G. submarine's upcoming approach reached them roughly an hour ago, Team-04's standby order most likely wasn't going to last for another day.

The Sword of Damocles' delivery to the apartment was to be carried out once the vessel reached harbour for shore leave. And until Lanfen's pendant actually arrived on her doorstep, all she could do for now was look forward to a Christmas lunch out in the city later as she prepared a tray of hot drinks to contribute towards the apartment's Christmas spirit. Neither were particularly difficult tasks to accomplish while the three other members of Symphogear Team-04 spent the morning relaxing in Lanfen's living room.

Inside her abode's small kitchen, Lanfen stood in front of a counter as her hands carried out the measly craft of making four different drinks. Each of them were specifically made to suit the tastes of their intended recipients and had been noted down by Lanfen after a quick inquiry among the group. For Shinonome - or rather - Aiko, her drink was that of simple, modest green tea. Nothing complicated since it was all she desired to soothe her wandering mind. Yuki's on the other hand was a predictable mug of black, bitter coffee that would be considered the polar opposite of Komichi's sweet, hot Milo. In-between all of them was Lanfen's glass of honey lemon tea. The same beverage her younger sister used to drink every morning.

After gently settling down all four drinks on a rectangular, wooden tray, Lanfen heard a distinct beeping noise, and looked aside to see her detached wrist device lighting up on top of the kitchen counter. A single e-mail had just arrived, and a holographic notice declared its sender to be none other than Kazanari Maria.

Lanfen promptly secured the wrist device around her arm with a quick use of its automatic strap and displayed the arriving e-mail with a click of a holographic prompt. While steam continued billowing from the four mugs before her, Lanfen glanced at the wrist device's projected display, and tried her best to read Maria's message even if her mind was still on the verge of waking up far earlier than she would prefer on a day-off.

"Dear Cassandra, I sincerely hope you've been managing to enjoy yourself to the best of your ability during times like these. I've been hearing good things about you from Chris lately, and since the Distortions haven't been showing themselves, I felt that it would be fitting to send you a holiday greeting."

Kazanari Maria.

Formerly known as Maria Cadenzavna Eve up until her recent marriage, the free time which was granted by Team-04's standby order gave Lanfen ample opportunities to look into the world-renowned singer's profile within S.O.N.G.'s database. Lanfen wondered if Aiko's inherent curiosity was somewhat starting to rub off onto her, but such a thought was irrelevant compared to what Lanfen had learned about just last night: The death of Serena Cadenzavna Eve, Maria's younger sister and the previous Wielder of the SG-x00. The loss of the young Adaptor happened over a decade ago, and although the similarities of their circumstances made Maria an obvious person to seek advice from, Lanfen hesitated to do so.

Not for now, she reasoned with herself as Lanfen had no desire to sully the spirit of the winter season by reopening someone else's old wounds. With that politeness in mind, Lanfen shook her intrusive thoughts away before finishing her read-through of Maria's e-mail.

"Enjoy yourself whenever you can, Cassandra. Because even if you're a Wielder, we still have a responsibility to be ourselves whenever we're not holding onto our Armed Gears. What we do outside the battlefield is just as important as the things we accomplish inside of it. Happy Holidays, Cassandra Jiang Lanfen. From, Kazanari Maria."

Dismissing the holographic display with a swipe of her hand, Lanfen summoned a small keyboard from her wrist device, and quickly typed in a response to the senior Adaptor. Maria's sentiment was well-appreciated - that was for sure - but there was only so much Lanfen could convey over digital text compared to a face-to-face conversation. Even so, Lanfen wished Maria well in return, and politely asked her to send Kazanari Tsubasa her regards before hitting the 'Send' prompt. Being colleagues with two world-famous singers like the Kazanari duo admittedly still felt like a fantasy to Lanfen.

After the message was confirmed to have been sent, the Adaptor returned to the tray of waiting drinks in front of her, and carefully brought it out of the kitchen.

Soothing, Christmas-themed lo-fi music could be heard flowing out of the living room's holo-player as Lanfen stepped towards a kotatsu table that had all but one of its sides currently occupied by a member of Symphogear Team-04. Due to a lack of time, the small apartment was sparse when it came to any sort of Christmas decorations. But such a thing hardly prevented any one of Lanfen's guests from getting into the holiday spirit anyway. With the soft, percussive beats of a lo-fi tune in her ears, Lanfen crouched down on an available side of the room's kotatsu before setting her tray of drinks on top of its wooden surface. The small back-and-forth which was currently going on between Komichi and Yuki was thankfully easy to ignore.

"-like I said, Komi'," Yuki argued, slicing her hand across the air to emphasize her point, "if we're gonna get Chris a birthday gift, it's gotta be a box of Gunpla!"

Komichi wagged one finger in response to Yuki's fourth proposal for a model kit before showcasing a bunch of colourful plushies through the smartphone she held in her other hand. The casual outfits both of them were wearing contrasted with their equipped wrist devices similar to Lanfen's own home-wear. "Chris is a delicate maiden, Yuki," Komichi dramatically exclaimed, "which means that our course of action should be to buy her that new Lovekov plushie! I'm sure just having one of those little snakes will melt that soft, little heart of hers."

While Yuki and Komichi went on with their energetic, verbal spar at Lanfen's sides, Aiko sat across the table from the Adaptor's position with her attention currently fixated on the room's television. A re-run of a Christmas-themed Valkyranger episode was currently on the air because of popular demand, so it wasn't much of a surprise to see Aiko being completely enamored by the sight of ValkyrieRed, ValkyrieBlue and ValkyrieYellow desperately racing across the world to deliver millions of presents before sunrise. Aiko only faced the kotatsu table again once Lanfen had audibly settled a mug of green tea before her. Its lingering heat didn't seem to bother Aiko at all when she eagerly took the arriving drink into her hands.

"My thanks, Jiang- I mean... L-Lanfen," Aiko awkwardly corrected herself with a grateful nod. Both her and the Adaptor were obviously still getting used to the whole 'first-name basis' thing.

"No need to worry about it," Lanfen reassured her, a glass of honey lemon tea already held in one hand while a black-and-white Valkyranger plushie sat on her lap. "It's not the first time someone's needed to get used to my name anyway." Obviously, Lanfen's dry remark prompted only a confused tilt of the head from Aiko. But the knowing smirk she noticed on Yuki's face meant that at least someone at the table understood what she really meant. The Adaptor was quick to switch the topic soon after. "I take it that the drinks are to everyone's tastes?"

Yuki took a swig of her pitch-black coffee before giving a prominent thumbs-up. "Just the way I like it."

Aiko warmed herself up with her green tea and visibly exhaled with her golden eyes closed up for a moment. "Certainly."

"Positively!" Komichi subsequently chirped, raising her mug of Milo as if it were the Holy Grail itself. "Now then," she said, swiftly returning to a halted debate with her ponytailed old classmate, "where were we?"

Satisfied with the results of her morning craft, Lanfen continued to avoid getting herself pulled into the banter between Yuki and Komichi, leaving the pair to settle the final decision for Yukine's birthday gift by themselves as Aiko watched on with visible amusement. Since Lanfen's unfamiliarity with the senior Adaptor gave little credence to any opinion she could offer, Lanfen instead glanced at the room's dining table behind her, setting her sights on the batch of Christmas presents that had been prepared for the group's planned gift exchange. Such a thing would not have been prepared on such short notice if Komichi hadn't been so gung-ho about going through with it.

Lanfen was admittedly worried about whether or not the gifts she readied for her companions would be satisfactory. The proverbial butterflies in her stomach wouldn't even settle down at the idea that it was really the thought behind a gift which actually counted. So, in order to settle down her brewing worries, Lanfen pulled out a large shark plushie from underneath the kotatsu table, granting herself a comfortable object to lean forward on while she brought a glass of tea to her mouth. But the moment Lanfen felt the honey-mixed beverage enter her mouth, her eyes reflexively widened themselves ever so slightly, leading the Adaptor to slowly withdraw the warm glass away from her parted lips.

Her sense of taste. It was somewhat usable again.

Lanfen took a generous sip of her tea again just to be sure, and when she felt the distinct taste of honey mark itself on her tongue, she couldn't help but scoff at how much she had actually missed having a pair of working tastebuds. Whatever relief Lanfen felt towards this discovery also turned out to be writ all over her face, because Aiko was quick to speak up from across the table with a cup of green tea still in her hands.

"It seems that your spirits are burning bright today," Aiko remarked with a giggle, prompting Lanfen to put down her glass before awkwardly scratching a lingering cheek-scar.

"I-I guess." Lanfen coughed into her fist and hurriedly gestured towards the pile of gifts on the apartment's dining table. "A-Anyway. I think it's about time we started the gift-exchange. I hear Santa Claus might take them away if we're too slow for his liking." To absolutely none of her surprise, Lanfen's pitiful attempt at even the smallest of jokes registered across nobody's faces. In fact, a bit of momentary concern seemed to actually draw itself on Aiko's expression at the idea of their Christmas presents being unreasonably withdrawn. Yuki, on the other hand, just awkwardly smiled at the Adaptor's words while Komichi reacted with a supportive gesture of applause.

Their reactions genuinely couldn't have been worse from Lanfen's point-of-view.

"She does have a point," Komichi said, dropping her verbal sparring with Yuki for now. "But if we're going to start with the gift-exchange..." After placing down her mug on top of the kotatsu, the brunette held a single finger in front of her lips and released a mischievous tune. "... Who shall we start with first?" Komichi made sure to punctuate her sing-song question with a well-expected cat-like grin. The sight of it still sent shivers rumbling down Lanfen's spine.

Coffee still held in one hand, Yuki gave jerked a thumb towards the Team's Adaptor. "I'll put 'Fen for first pick."

Aiko was the second person to cast a vote. "I concur," the silver-haired woman said, hands now resting on top of her lap. "It would certainly be fitting to start with the host of the occasion, wouldn't it?"

Mildly taken aback at being placed underneath the spotlight all of a sudden, Lanfen was about to suggest for someone else when she noticed Komichi's feline grin growing even wider. Three votes out of four. There was no way to actually change things with these sorts of odds. Thus, the Adaptor wordlessly admitted defeat and went along with the group's current choice. The curt nod Lanfen gave was practically the cue Komichi needed for her to slide out of the table as the eldest of the four went over to the pile of gifts, and started hauling them over till they were all within arm's reach of the room's kotatsu. The gift-exchange had officially begun. There was no turning back once the proverbial die was cast.

Three gifts were soon placed in front of Lanfen. Each of them could conveniently be held in one hand and were all decorated with wrappings of a distinct black-and-white motif.

Hovering her palm over the waiting presents, Lanfen saw no names on the wrappings to actually indicate the giver of each gift, so the Adaptor left things to chance, and opened up her first present with her eyes closed shut. Yuki, Komichi and Aiko were all practically watching her with bated breaths.

With the last bits of a black-and-white wrapping now undone, Lanfen held up her first gift for all of them to see, revealing a pair of wireless earbuds, and a small, square-shaped device that was smaller than the palm of her hand. A micro-player. Lanfen remembered seeing advertisements of these things being displayed all over multiple storefronts during the group's visit to Mitakihara last week. The device had a convenient 10-terabyte internal storage and was capable of enduring all sorts of punishment without any fear of malfunction nor damage.

"Picked out mine first, did you?" Komichi chuckled before flashing a cheeky wink. "Normally, you'd need to spend an arm and a leg to even find a place with that lil' thing in stock, but let's just say that I have my connections."

Lanfen let out an amused exhale and settled the item down with a small smile. "Thanks, Komichi," she quietly said to her, prompting the brunette to point an eager pair of finger-guns back in response. Lanfen wasn't sure if she actually had 10-terabytes worth of music to transfer into micro-player, but she wasn't going to complain. Moving on, the Adaptor proceeded onto her second gift, and chose one of the remaining two presents with a proverbial coin-toss. The subtle, subsequent smirk she noticed on Yuki's face made Lanfen's next selection obvious while she unwrapped her next gift.

After unveiling her next present with a small huff, Lanfen initially struggled to make out what it even was. It was a thick, rectangular-shaped, metal object with a circular hole on its top side, and a colour scheme which was reminiscent of a chess-board. Thankfully, Yuki decided to give an explanation. "It's a belt-buckle," Yuki pointed out with her coffee in one hand. "Since it can be a bit of a hassle carrying a pendant around your neck, I thought I'd give ya somethin' to store it in. Can't lose your pendant if it's kept inside somethin' like that, am I right?"

A belt-buckle. Lanfen felt an amused laugh nearly leak out of her at the reveal. Many of the costumed superheroes her little sister constantly idolized were practically famous for wearing belt-shaped transformation devices. Lanfen would never put herself on the same pedestal they all stood on, but the Adaptor felt honoured to be carrying around such an item regardless. "Don't expect me to start dramatically posing just because I have this now," Lanfen dryly remarked, placing the buckle beside her new micro-player. "... But thank you, Yuki."

"Anytime," the pony-tailed woman said with a grin.

Only one gift remained now. And it was surely Aiko's. Subconsciously gulping at what she could have prepared, Lanfen unwrapped her final present, gently taking apart the black-and-white decor before the last bits of wrapping paper were all on the living room floor. There - sitting on the palm of Lanfen's hand - was a silver pocket-watch that glimmered beneath the morning rays of sunlight which were shining through the living room's windows. Its chrome-like metal earned an impressed whistle from Yuki and an amazed stare from Komichi. Lanfen herself found her gaze unable to take its focus away from the pocket-watch as a press of a side-button flipped open the gift's casing to showcase the old-fashioned analog clock within it.

The ensuing silence between the group was then halted by an explanation from the gift-giver herself. "I-I had requested it from Professor Elfnein," Aiko said, twiddling her index fingers together beneath the surprised gazes of her three companions. "I w-was wondering what a sufficient gift would be like... so I contacted the Professor and-" The pale-white cheeks on her face turned a slight shade of red. "In the end, I asked for an item to be made out of the pod you three had discovered alongside me."

Aiko's stilted explanation roused another whistle from Yuki. Komichi practically applauded at the thought behind the gift. Meanwhile, Lanfen could only attempt to try and hide an uncontrollable, growing smile behind her other hand.

Closing up the pocket-watch Lanfen held in her grasp, the Adaptor brushed a thumb against its silver casing, and wondered if this item was essentially a physical memento of how they had found Aiko. How Symphogear Team-04 had first met its fourth and latest member within the snowy outskirts of Yamaku City. Lanfen couldn't imagine a better gift to receive from her. "It's a wonderful present, Aiko... I'll be sure to treasure it," the Adaptor promised her, locking a pair of determined eyes with Aiko's half-concealed face. The sharpness of Lanfen's words made the silver-haired woman lightly giggle in amusement.

"I'm relieved to hear that, Lanfen."

Lanfen's declaration was far more dramatic than she initially intended. And yet, the Adaptor hardly minded at all. Ignoring the cat-like grin that Komichi was - without a doubt - aiming right at her, Lanfen took in the sights of the Christmas gifts she had just received, and found it partially hard to believe she deserved any of them. The incident with the S.W.O.R.D. still tainted the edges of her memory. And with her pendant's inevitable return, Lanfen will soon be returning to the battlefield again alongside the same people she had unintentionally harmed during her tranquil rampage. She couldn't afford to let the proverbial fire in her eyes blind her. Not again. Not when it could lead to actual deaths the next time Lanfen lost control.

Drawing in a practiced breath, Lanfen returned her gaze to her surrounding team and gave them a curt nod. "Again. Thank you, everyone. Really," she said, her hand gripping tightly onto Aiko's pocket-watch. Lanfen attempted to smile, but forcing herself to do so only ended up with an awkward tug at the corners of her mouth instead. Even so, her sentiment was clearly conveyed as Komichi clapped her hands together before directing an eager grin towards Yuki and Aiko.

"Let's vote for the next person, shall we?"

---

If a single morning out of an entire year could last for as long as Aiko desired, she would have little qualms with stretching out the current day into an everlasting, harmonious present for her companions to revel in. The silver-haired woman had indulged herself in countless Christmas-themed media leading up to the winter holiday, and yet, Aiko still found herself overwhelmed by the actual experience. No words within her growing vocabulary could describe the thoughts that whirled around Aiko's mind as the group's gift-exchange proceeded until its inevitable conclusion without an interrupted moment. Even a term such as 'blissful' would be considered a severe understatement.

Once each member of Symphogear Team-04 had received their assorted Christmas gifts, all of them spent half a morning's hour simply living in the present. There were no calls to deploy for a mission. No alerts about an upcoming Distortion rift or impending disaster. Just the peace and quiet one could expect from a joyous day such as this. At some point later on, Yuki and Komichi needed to return to their apartment next door, leaving Lanfen and Aiko to tidy up the living room so the former could prepare for her pendant's upcoming delivery. Team-04 was expected to return to duty soon, and hopefully, Aiko would be tagging alongside them on their mission to protect this lush world.

Aiko rested within the comforts of her bedroom while Lanfen waited right outside for S.O.N.G. to arrive with her Symphogear. Although the bedroom itself undoubtedly belonged to Aiko these days, almost all of the Adaptor's personal belongings still remained within it, with Lanfen's laptop being the one item she had chosen to bring out into the living room. Everything else were items that Aiko could not bring herself to disturb, such as the numerous shark plushies which rested alongside her on the bed, and the flag of pink, white, and light-blue that still hung above the bed's head. There was also an old poster of two singing idols stationed beside the flag, one of whom Aiko recognized to be the Symphogear-Wielder, Kazanari Tsubasa.

On the room's shark-infested bed, Aiko sat with her legs huddled together as rays of light peeked through the bedroom's lone window, casting a soft glow onto the silver hair that concealed half of her face. The Christmas presents she had received were arranged in front of her, almost as if to prove they were well and truly real.

Aiko's first present was a smartphone from Yuki. Since Aiko was going to be granted the autonomy to roam around by herself soon, her companions wanted to bestow upon her a way to communicate with them. It was fortunately not too different from the tablet Lanfen had granted her, so it only took a short while for Aiko to set everything up. Her chosen wallpaper was, of course, the group photograph they had taken during their shopping trip in Mitakihara. The subsequent present Aiko received came from Komichi in the form of a Christmas bracelet with an attached charm. It was apparently meant to signify Aiko's first ever Christmas while also granting an abundance of good luck for the future. A strange but fascinating gift if Aiko could say so herself.

The third and final gift came from Lanfen, and it was the present Aiko could hardly avert her golden eyes away from.

A black-and-white scarf.

The monochrome item had apparently been woven together just last night. If Lanfen hadn't sewn Aiko's full name into its soft fabric using threads of bright gold, it would have been a perfect replica of the scarf that belonged to Lanfen herself. And while a scarf of all things was an admittedly simple choice for a Christmas present, Aiko still wouldn't have wished for anything else from Lanfen. It was the perfect gift in her eyes, and nothing could be argued against it.

With Aiko's first ever Christmas presents all lying before her, she brought up her hand, and felt out the material of her new winter scarf beneath a pair of tender fingers.

Cassandra Jiang Lanfen. The Symphogear-Wielder of the SG-r04 and Japan's designated protector. As the thumping of a beating heart echoed throughout the canals of her warming ears, Aiko drew up a mental image of Lanfen standing firmly within the peaceful glade of a snowy forest, and contrasted it with the tear-stricken woman whom she had witnessed inside the room of a public hospital. Both of them were one in the same. Two sides of the same coin who had reached out to help Aiko even if the Adaptor was only now learning to accept the hands of others. Their meeting marked the first coherent memory within Aiko's mind, and the further said night passed on into history, the harder it became for Aiko to ignore the strange warmth growing within her chest.

Aiko always knew she had this affinity to process almost any information that was placed before her. So, it came off as a streak of irony when the very same mind she could consistently rely on turned out to be incapable of processing what she truly felt about Lanfen. Aiko knew she desired to assist her. To help her eventually find closure for the weights she constantly carried on her shoulders. But if Aiko removed the veneer of politeness which she had been training to wear for the sake of everyone's concerns, it would become obvious that her understanding of human interaction only went as far as what Aiko had learned from a guide-book that Professor Elfnein had discreetly provided.

The silver-haired woman's warm ears subsequently perked at the sound of the apartment's front door closing itself back up.

With curiosity once again flickering across her golden eyes, Aiko got off the bed, soundlessly went up to the room's entrance, and peeked through a small gap in the doorway to spot Lanfen placing down a suitcase on the living room's dining table. The sight of the S.O.N.G. emblem on the casing's steel material prompted Aiko to curiously step out of her bedroom through a couple silent footsteps. Seeking some advice for her worries from either Komichi or Yuki sounded like a reasonable move to carry out during their Christmas lunch later on.

"I'm assuming that your Symphogear has arrived?" Aiko tentatively asked on her approach towards the Adaptor.

Lanfen gave a brief nod of the head and oriented the prone suitcase until its locks were facing the Adaptor. "Captain Yaiba came by to pass it on with a couple of their personnel," she explained, carefully inputting a 16-digit code into the item's security keypad. "I guess it shouldn't be surprising that they're still keeping their guard up. Neither the Captain nor the rest of Task Force Harmony can really afford to let the Distortions catch them unaware." Adding a small shrug to her calm remark, Lanfen pressed a large button on the suitcase once the code was fully entered, causing several clicks to resound from the steel object as Aiko quietly placed herself on Lanfen's side.

When the last of the security locks audibly undid themselves, the suitcase presented a biometric scanner for Lanfen to slowly press her thumb against, finally getting her pass the remaining security measure. Aiko couldn't help but entertain the possibility of the suitcase suddenly causing itself to detonate in the absence of a proper thumbprint. The spy-thriller Aiko had sat down to watch just last week was far too entertaining to already forget.

Lanfen flipped open the unlocked case and visibly narrowed her eyes at the sight of the ruby-like pendant which was held down by a few mundane restraints. Slowly, the Adaptor tightly gripped the edge of the dining table with both of her hands, almost as if to control the slight twitching that Aiko could notice from where she stood. Lanfen said utterly nothing for the next few seconds. Instead, she allowed the living room to remain completely silent as the holo-player on the wall had been left deactivated after Yuki and Komichi departed for their apartment. Aiko attempted to add a comment of her own, but when her own eyes laid their attention on the pendant, a brief memory of a crimson, howling blade instantaneously flashed before her consciousness.

She shivered from the image of Lanfen's blade swinging right towards her face, forcing Aiko to recollect herself for a second before she could even speak up. "Lanfen." Aiko gently tugged onto the woman by the sleeve of her black hoodie. "... Are you worried?" It was obvious that the Adaptor was understandably hesitant about wielding her Armed Gear again. Even so, simply voicing one's own concerns was a matter of etiquette Aiko had trained herself to wield for the sake of others.

"... You could say that," Lanfen admitted through a hush, self-deprecating scoff. The grip she maintained on the dining table's edge did not loosen even slightly. "It's just- There's something else, Aiko. Something other than what happened a couple days ago." The Adaptor furrowed her brows before continuing. "I know I really shouldn't... but... I thought about it again just now." Lanfen's words lowered in volume with each drawn breath. "The one who took away my sister."

Aiko could not stop herself from instinctively trembling at the mention of the being who hadn't been seen since the Distortions' worldwide attack. 'Unknown Enemy-02'. If what little information they recorded about it was even remotely accurate, the destruction it could wrought upon innocent civilians was a potential danger that only a Symphogear-Wielder could realistically halt. Simply remembering the pictured aftermaths of its city-massacring powers made Aiko's innards briefly tie themselves up into uncomfortable, palpable knots.

Through the simple removal of the pendant's restraints, Lanfen held up the ruby-like item between her fingers, continuing, "There will come a day where we'll finally eliminate it. And as great as that may sound... I can't help but wonder what I would be able to do with myself once it's actually happened." Lanfen let out another scoff aimed at herself. "Not exactly something most would want to hear from a 'protector of the world', huh?"

Unsure of the implications within her sour words, Aiko leaned her body onto the edge of the dining table and asked, "What do you mean?" She gave a habitual tilt of the head.

"Tachibana and the others... They all have things they can do outside of being an Adaptor," Lanfen stated, her pendant still held between two twitching fingers. "Tachibana is a teacher. The Kazanaris go around the world helping whoever they can, however they can. Akatsuki and Tsukuyomi are planning to graduate from university. Meanwhile, I-" The Adaptor's next words seemingly halted themselves, as though Lanfen needed to alter what she was about to say completely. "... I don't," she whispered, placing the pendant down on the wooden table before she closed up the now-unneeded suitcase. "There's only training. And fighting. And it makes me wonder if there's any way for me to be useful outside of just swinging around an Armed Gear."

None of what Aiko had heard was anything she remotely expected to hear from one of S.O.N.G.'s own enlisted personnel. Much less a Symphogear-Wielder.

Thus, she granted Lanfen several minutes of uninterrupted silence, all so Aiko herself could ponder upon the Adaptor's extensive explanation.

All of Lanfen's fellow Symphogear-Wielders inarguably possessed roles in society which would remain relevant in a world that did not require forces such as S.O.N.G. and Task Force Harmony. But even if that was the case, it felt almost unfair for Lanfen to measure herself against individuals who have wielded their Armed Gears for at least half a decade now. While Aiko herself was not aware of what each Wielder had personally gone through during their years of active duty, it would not be unreasonable to guess that at least a few of Lanfen's more-experienced colleagues had gone through the same exact position Lanfen currently found herself in. Even Aiko - who was only now finding a purpose in being a possible operator of S.O.N.G. - could at least sense such a possibility.

If the self-doubt Lanfen expressed led to at least one train of thought, it was the words Aiko proceeded to propose with her hand held tightly over her beating chest. "Shall we look for one together, then?" Aiko whispered, causing Lanfen to slowly perk her head upwards. "A purpose outside of fighting, I mean." As she gently grabbed onto Lanfen by the Adaptor's twitching hand, Aiko closed the distance between them ever so slightly, and manifested the same calming smile she always wore. The Distortions were not going to be an everlasting threat for sure. But there was always more to be done outside of a burning battlefield.

With her hand now within Aiko's gentle grasp, Lanfen pursed her lips and visibly considered the silver-haired woman's proposition.

"Yuki and Komichi should be able to help us, shouldn't they?" Aiko slowly reassured her. "I'm sure they would be happy to lend their assistance however they can."

Hesitantly, Lanfen returned Aiko's unfaltering smile with a small one of her own before slowly nodding at the notion. "... Sure," she said, almost as if to reassure herself rather than to actually answer Aiko's words. "Let's just hope that it won't be too much of a bother for them." A tone of dry wit slowly returned to Lanfen's tone. "God knows S.O.N.G. already gives them enough paperwork to snap a desk in half."

Aiko responded to the Adaptor's remark with a brief giggle and panned her golden eyes downwards to the hand she was carefully holding onto. It was warm. Far warmer than any hand that was only useful for bringing harm and destruction onto the fields of combat. And most of all, it was a hand which showed no resistance to her gentle, reassuring caress. Aiko would have gladly continued holding onto it for just a moment longer, but when a notification suddenly resounded from the Adaptor's wrist device, Aiko abruptly retracted her grasp before awkwardly taking a step backwards. She then felt her face warm up for a brief moment, forcing Aiko to avoid Lanfen's surprised gaze by instinctively facing her back towards her.

"I l-let you tend to that," Aiko said, cupping a warm, pale-white cheek in one hand. "... I can't distract you from your duties now, can I?"

Lanfen's own words possessed a slight stutter of its own when the woman responded in kind. "R-Right. And... thank you, Aiko." Lanfen silenced her ringing wrist device with a motion of her hand. "If I'm being honest, having you... and the others here... has really helped me enjoy the past few days," she said with an almost tender voice. "I honestly don't know what I would've done with myself otherwise."

Taking a brief glimpse at the Symphogear-Wielder behind her, Aiko noticed a slight shade of red on the woman's brown cheeks before Aiko quietly lifted her foot, and retreated back inside her room with a pleased smile drawn across her face. Once the door was closed behind her with a satisfying click of its lock, Aiko leaned against the wooden entrance, and glanced back again at the black-and-white scarf that Lanfen had personally weaved for her beneath the light of a shattered moon. There was one last thing Aiko desired to say right before their conversation abruptly ended, but she could not bring herself to voice it out. Because a part of Aiko only felt that it would be conceited of her to suddenly ask for a future where they could blissfully continue relying on one another.

---

If Symphogear Team-04 considered Lanfen and Aiko's apartment to be a place where everyone could take a breather, then the apartment Yuki and Komichi lived in next door would be the one where it was all business and paperwork. The pair enjoyed few opportunities to decorate their new living place because of how recently they had moved in. All the political negotiations Yuki and Komichi needed to handle alongside their many joint-operations with Task Force Harmony didn't exactly free up their schedule either. So, what little personality their living place got was reliant on Komichi sprucing up the place with framed photos of the pair's time in Lydian Academy, and flashy show posters of the Takarazuka Theater.

It was - in Yuki's opinion - an alright place to stay in, all things considered.

At their living room's dining table, Yuki sat down with her laptop opened up as Komichi situated herself on an opposing tableside. An ongoing video transmission was playing out across the laptop's screen, originating from their organization's approaching submarine. Fujitaka had contacted them with important news to hear, and more paperwork to sign, just what the pair had become used to expect daily ever since they were attached to a Symphogear Team. While Yuki fought to keep her eyelids open during her conversation with Fujitaka, Komichi cheerfully hummed to herself as the brunette decorated her fingernails with glittery nail polish of black-and-white.

"-with the submitted documents already approved, the Commander can now officialize Shinonome Aiko's recruitment request," Fujitaka formally explained, typing his fingers into the bridge's terminal to bring up several windows of scanned documentation onto Yuki's end of the transmission. "All of Aiko's trials so far show an exceptional aptitude for her expected tasks, and while there are still additional processes for us to carry out, you can expect her to be officially accepted into S.O.N.G. once we've reached shore."

Yuki rubbed one of her eyes with the back of a hand and responded to the bridge operator with her chin now resting on her palm. "Can we expect a welcomin' party with the Commander tonight?" she cheekily inquired, vaguely remembering how Commander Genjuuro had previously thrown a party for the pair when the two were first accepted into the organization. Lanfen's own welcoming party was S.O.N.G.'s most recent one, in fact. "It'd be pretty fittin' to combine it with a Christmas party, if ya catch my drift."

Fujitaka gave an amused laugh before the man sadly responded, "Unfortunately, Commander Genjuuro will be carrying out a meeting with the Japanese government tonight, which means he probably won't be available for any leisure activities until tomorrow morning." The brief mention of Japanese bureaucracy almost kicked up Yuki's gag reflex. The number of hoops S.O.N.G. needed to jump through in order to get certain things approved was about as pleasant as experiencing sleep-paralysis. "Either way, Tomosato and I are wishing you good luck out there, Yuki. Chris will be returning to America tonight, so we'll be counting on you four to protect the country with everything you got."

"With all four of us together, I'm sure there ain't much that we can't handle," Yuki replied, smirking. "But yeah, thanks for the heads-up, Fujitaka." She gave the bridge operator a casual, two-finger salute with what little energy Yuki had. "We'll contact you again like always if we need anythin' on our end. You and Tomosato better enjoy yourselves today, alright?" After Fujitaka responded with a polite gesture of his own, Yuki shut off the transmission with the press of a key and relaxed in her dining chair. The audible sigh she slowly released was aimed at no one in particular.

"Things look like they're turning out well, aren't they?" Komichi mused from where she sat, her attention still focused on getting her nails all coloured up with two thin coats on each of her outstretched fingers. "I almost thought they'd actually refuse to let Aiko even join considering her you-know-what with the Illuminati."

Rubbing both eyes with a sleeved forearm this time, Yuki leaned forward in her seat to rest a pair of sore elbows on the dining table. When she glanced over to the corner of their living room, the presence of the still-unopened boxes which were all piled up right next to their couch roused an annoyed groan out of Yuki. To distract herself from this sore sight, she began typing onto her opened laptop, quickly bringing up scanned images of the abnormal implant that was attached to Aiko's heart. None of the information they currently had on the Illuminati could explain its purpose - let alone what it even was - but the fact that it wasn't visibly hampering Aiko in any way at least gave no urgent cause for concern.

"If the Commander is gonna give his approval, I ain't about to complain about it." Yuki shrugged her shoulders before letting out the most childish groan she could muster. "But I was just startin' to get used to remainin' on standby, ya know? We are definitely gonna be swimmin' up to our necks in work once we're back out in the field again."

"Yuki," Komichi chided her, settling down her nail polish brush so she could wag a scolding finger with a hand which was only partially finished with its applied colour scheme, "is that really what you're annoyed about the most? If Chris was allowed to stay just a lil longer, we could've celebrated her birthday with all the love she deserves!" Komichi released a small pout and stomped her foot on the floor before picking her brush again. "I was almost done picking out a good cake for her, too," she dramatically bemoaned. "Oh, how fate can be cruel sometimes."

Through a mental sweep of her mind, Yuki brushed off Komichi's extensive complaints, and glanced aside at the living room window beside them to notice the Task Force Harmony helicopters that were patrolling the city as per standard protocol. If Yuki was being honest, it was sort of unnerving for the Distortions to suddenly cease any activities after nearly half a month of daily rift appearances. Explanations about the Distortions' actual origins were still up in the air, but Yuki couldn't care less about learning where they came from after experiencing a couple world-ending threats herself over the past decade. With her head now taken off her palm, Yuki dismissed the images of Aiko's heart implant away from her laptop's screen, and subsequently heard a text message arrive on her friend's smartphone.

A quick peek at the sender's name indicated it was from a person by the name of 'Kuriyo Ando'.

Komichi placed down her nail polish brush again before expanding the message with a tap of her smartphone's screen. Yuki didn't bother to peek at its contents because it was none of her business. The playful hum Komichi was letting out as she typed in a response implied that it was probably nothing serious anyway. And once her old friend had sent out her reply, Komichi went back to decorating her fingernails like nothing happened at all. Silence soon returned to their surroundings, prompting Yuki to wonder if she should try and install a holo-player in their place the next time the pair was on a day-off. Lanfen definitely got whatever mileage she could get out of her own apartment's holo-player.

Regardless of whatever Yuki was planning on doing next, her next question wouldn't have been aired out if the two women weren't so close with each other. "Was that anythin' important?"

Komichi gave a playful wink and an uncharacteristically off-handed response in return. "Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't," she said with a mischievous giggle.

With her elbows still on top of the table's hard wood, Yuki smacked her lips together, finding them more parched than she expected after her extensive talk with Fujitaka earlier. Not that it could distract Yuki from seeing through the thick surface of Komichi's cheerful words, of course. "It was a date offer, wasn't it?" Komichi gave no response to Yuki's laid-back guess and simply continued applying thin coats of either black or white onto the surface of her fingernails. "... And you turned her down, didn't you?"

Her old friend only spoke up after Yuki's second observation was allowed to sit in the cold air for a few seconds. "Correct on both accounts," she casually said, not breaking her focus away from her fingernails for even a brief moment. "Kuriyo had a spare ticket to go see a movie today. I was apparently her first choice," Komichi added lightly.

Letting loose an exasperated sigh out of sheer habit, Yuki closed up her S.O.N.G. laptop before bringing one of her tired legs over to her chest, letting her right foot rest on top of her seat after she slid off its loose slipper. "Really?" Yuki exclaimed, resting her head on the backrest of her dining chair, "why turn her down if she's interested? Kuriyo definitely looks like someone who suits your taste, doesn't she?" She scrunched up her brows and started calculating what could've led to Komichi's conclusion. "Or did somethin' happen while I wasn't lookin'?"

To none of Yuki's surprise, Komichi stayed quiet, and instead remained focused on finishing up her nail polish for the next minute or two. Once they were all done, Komichi gave her black-and-white nails a gentle puff of her breath, and placed her hands on the table to show off the familiar colour scheme of their junior's Symphogear. It was admittedly a neat sight to Yuki's eyes, but she was never the type to apply nail decor on herself. "It's not Kuriyo's fault or anything like that," Komichi quietly explained, now tracing an invisible heart or two onto the wooden dining table with one finger. "In fact, you could say it's my own."

Yuki lifted a questionable eyebrow at this. For all of Komichi's quirks, such as her unrivaled sweet-tooth, her constant obsession with collecting yuri manga, and the terrifying glee she took with playing 'match-maker' for a lot of girls back in Lydian, Komichi was a woman who graduated from Lydian Academy to the dismay of many, many fawning juniors Yuki did not personally know by name. Even some of the few people they later met in S.O.N.G. got along perfectly fine with Komichi. So, it was pretty hard for Yuki to believe that it was Komichi's own qualities as a person which made her hesitant about dedicating herself to a romantic partner.

"And what... does that mean exactly, Komi'?" Yuki tried to ask, already feeling the air around them growing thicker from their conversation.

"All things considered, I'm just a normal maiden," Komichi elaborated further with a smile. "Sure, I may be one of S.O.N.G.'s top participants in the firing range, but that's pretty mundane when you look at the big picture." She blew into her polished fingernails once more and continued tracing invisible, playful shapes onto the table. "You're a half-trained kunoichi, Yuki," Komichi pointed out, giggling. "Aiko is shaping up to be a better operator than I ever could with how fast she's learning things. And Lanfen? Lanfen is a Symphogear-Wielder. You and I don't need to think too hard on why what's so gosh-darned amazing."

Yuki nodded along to her melancholic observations, all while putting together her own words to respond with. Since this was the first time Komichi had ever spoken to her about something like this, Yuki struggled to find her main point, let alone find the right words to even reply with. "So... you're saying you're feelin' inadequate, I'm guessin'?"

And to Yuki's surprise, Komichi shook her head. "Not at all," she said, subtly dimming down her smile. "Me being relatively 'normal' doesn't bother me at all, Yuki. But when I consider the things we do... and the risks I'm taking as a normal person..." Komichi's right hand noticeably shivered before the brunette hid it beneath the palm of her other hand. "... It makes me hesitate about finding someone to be with. After all, it'd be really rude to make someone get worried about me every time I go out to try and save the world like everyone else, wouldn't it?" she remarked with an uncharacteristically empty laugh. "I even once asked Tomosato and Fujitaka for advice about this, too. And to an extent, they pretty much feel the same way I do."

Noticing the wistful look that Komichi rarely wore around the presence of other people, Yuki furrowed her brows, and reminded herself on how much her old friend indulged in romance, both in fiction and between real people like Yuki and Otome. Komichi was the reason the two got engaged in the first place and Yuki could never thank her enough for giving her the mental push she needed to actually propose to Otome. If Yuki could describe it in her own words, she'd call it a 'selfish' sense of selflessness to essentially prioritize everyone else's happiness over her own. It was an infuriating part of Komichi to deal with sometimes, but Yuki could never bring herself to complain about it when Komichi's decisions were always sincerely made out of good faith.

Now, Yuki found herself hearing something completely new directly from Komichi's own lips.

The pair had participated in twelve different undercover missions as S.O.N.G. agents by now, and yet, Yuki never once considered what she had just heard to be the actual reason for Komichi's apparent disinterest in finding a partner.

She'd kick herself in the ass if Yuki was even capable of such a thing.

Holding up an arm from her side, Yuki extended one hand towards her friend and slowly tightened it to propose a casual bump of their fists. The same gesture they would always do ever since they first met in kindergarten. "If it means anythin', Komi', I'm with ya till the end of the line," Yuki tried to reassure her, unsure of what else she could even be saying right now, "even if you can be a real pain in the butt sometimes."

Komichi gave a genuine smile at the offered gesture before the knuckles of her own hand bumped themselves against Yuki's waiting fist. "Big words coming from you, Yuki." She playfully stuck out her tongue. "How would you even deal with all the paperwork S.O.N.G. gives us if my expertise wasn't around to knock some responsibility into you?"

Before Yuki could respond to Komichi's cheeky remark with an eager verbal counterattack of her own, the pair heard the ringing of an incoming transmission suddenly arise from Komichi's wrist device, prompting the brunette to pull up her shirt's long sleeve so she could answer it. Through a quick tap of a holographic prompt, a display projected itself from the ringing communicator, showcasing a visual transmission from a blonde man who was dressed in the distinctive suit of Clan Hida. It was Tsuchiya Kagero, one of Commander Genjuuro's two personal aides, and an exceptional student of Grandmaster Ogawa Souji.

"Miss Ayano, Miss Godai," he formally addressed them with a slight bow of his head, "pardon me for contacting you on such short notice, but our vessel will be reaching shore within 20 minutes, and we would like to summon Symphogear Team-04 for an urgent meeting."

---

"Shall we look for one together, then? A purpose outside of fighting."

Aiko's gentle words repeated themselves within the back of Lanfen's mind before the Adaptor shook her head to maintain her focus on Professor Elfnein's delivered message. With her personal futon all set up beside the living room's kotatsu table, Lanfen laid down on the deployed mattress as her head rested itself on a large, shark-shaped plushie. Her braided hair was also undone, letting it spread out in multiple directions while Lanfen's forearm hovered over her with a holographic screen currently projecting itself from her wrist device. Judging by the sheer length of the arriving message, the number of changes Professor Elfnein had made to the Sword of Damocles were extensive.

"After considering the incident that had occurred on the 22nd of December, 2049," the message read, "I have chosen to implement multiple safety measures within the SG-r04's internal systems. To start, I've installed a built-in scanner capable of maintaining constant observation of your brainwave patterns during the S.W.O.R.D.'s operational time." Lanfen blinked at the clinical details. "This scanner will be operating in tandem with a kill-switch which will automatically shut down the S.W.O.R.D. in the immediate presence of a particular brainwave pattern, essentially deactivating it before you can end up losing control over yourself. In addition to this, I have adjusted your Symphogear's defensive systems, ensuring that its protective barriers are intensified whenever you achieve speeds faster than sound."

An adjustment that is well-appreciated, Lanfen thought to herself. Her Symphogear's Quicksilver Queen ability was its most reliable tool against her opponents. Outside of a reasonable cooldown period of about 10-to-20 minutes, the intense g-forces Lanfen regularly inflicted on herself during its activation was never something she could endure without coughing up some blood.

Continuing on with the Professor's message, it proceeded to list out several more minor details regarding Lanfen's returned Symphogear. The Adaptor tried her best to not skim over them despite their intimidating lengths, and when the last written sentence had been read out, Lanfen typed in a message to thank the Professor for her assistance. "I'll accomplish my duties to the best of my abilities," Lanfen added into her formal response, knowing that the Professor was most likely terribly occupied with her research into the Distortion rifts. The term 'workaholic' was apparently often applied to the genius teenager by many a S.O.N.G. personnel. "And I'll try to not let any of your efforts go to waste."

As the Adaptor typed out the last few sentences of her message, Lanfen motioned over to hit the 'Send' button when her finger suddenly decided to abruptly freeze up right above the translucent, holographic keyboard.

In the back of her mind, Lanfen desired to know if Professor Elfnein still trusted her with the power of a Symphogear. And yet, when an actual opportunity to rest her unease now showed itself, Lanfen instead chose to clench her teeth tightly together before leaving the question out entirely.

"Merry Christmas, Professor Elfnein," was the written statement she concluded the prepared message with.

Hearing the audible confirmation of the message's delivery, Lanfen shut off her wrist device, and allowed her hovering forearm to lazily fall back onto the soft futon. About an hour still remained until the group's planned outing for a Christmas lunch, leaving the Adaptor to spend what time she had left quietly staring at the ceiling of her apartment's living room. The holo-player on the wall was still completely silent. Aiko was also probably keeping herself occupied with her brand-new smartphone. After remembering the fascinated look Aiko had displayed when she unveiled the black-and-white scarf that Lanfen had prepared, the Adaptor turned her head aside to see Aiko's gifted pocket-watch lying right beside her.

The bits of sunlight which were shining through the gaps of the living room's closed curtains faintly shone down on the chrome item, causing the reflected rays to bounce onto the faint scarring on Lanfen's cheek as she caressed the pocket-watch with one hand.

Lanfen's new measurer of time was breathtakingly beautiful. Much like the person who had bestowed it upon the Symphogear-Wielder.

Slowly drawing her fingertips away from the item, Lanfen carefully pulled herself into a sitting position before she started hooking the pocket-watch's attached chain around her neck. Prepping another glass of honey lemon tea didn't sound like a particularly bad idea right now. Lanfen was also sure that Aiko wouldn't refuse a glass of green tea, either. With those two tasks now on the forefront of her mind, she stood up from the comfort of her futon, and made her way across the silent living room. But as Lanfen passed by the room's dining table, her eyes subconsciously turned their attention aside, forcing the Adaptor to suddenly come to a halt while her gaze directed itself towards the nearby shelves.

It had been over a week by now, but Lanfen could never forget about the thumb-drive she had quietly hidden away. Said memory drive contained every bit of data which was once stored inside the electronic tablet that Aiko now utilized as her own personal device. It could also be seen as a capsule of so many things the Adaptor attempted to bury deep down within the depths of her memories. The Lanfen of before would have decided to just leave it tucked away on the shelves for good, but the her of today no longer felt such an irrational desire tugging incessantly at her chest.

Through a couple tentative footsteps, Lanfen approached the living room's shelves and reached out one arm so she could begin feeling out its topmost rack. All her fingers expectedly felt at first were its accumulating layers of dust particles. Not that it was surprising since Lanfen practically tossed the thumb-drive up there without a care for where it actually landed. The main point was to hide it well, both from Aiko and from the Adaptor herself.

She soon felt something solid brushing itself against her fingers and Lanfen quickly seized the object out of guesswork before retracting her outstretched arm. There, right in the grasp of her hand, was the black memory drive she was looking for. A coat of dust already covered up half of the tiny object, prompting Lanfen to brush it all off with a quick swipe of her thumb. So much was stored inside this one item, she thought to herself. All kept away just because Lanfen partially desired to isolate her lingering memories of Kai until her sister's killer was finally found and defeated. Now, she couldn't bear leaving such an important trove of recorded memories to be potentially forgotten by even herself.

Sliding the retrieved drive into one of her sweatpants' pockets, Lanfen swiftly turned her body around, and settled a pair of narrowed eyes onto the knob of Kai's bedroom door. The room behind it remained perfectly untouched as far as the Adaptor was aware of. Lanfen trusted Aiko to leave it alone, after all. And unlike before, Lanfen no longer felt her sword-hand instinctively tremble at the mere thought of grasping its dusty doorknob.

One step. Two steps.

The Adaptor's heavy feet dragged themselves across the floor as if they had a will of their own.

Three steps. Four steps.

Kai's bedroom door was now right in front of her again.

Taking in a practiced breath, Lanfen grabbed the bedroom door by its knob, and slowly turned the metal handle around, causing an audible creak to resound from the entrance as the gap in its doorway grew ever wider.

Lanfen would've heard such a sound if the pounding of her heart wasn't drowning out everything else from her eardrums.

Stepping inside the darkened room with a pair of tightening lips, Lanfen slowly ran her gaze across Kai's personal living space, and saw the thick blankets of dust which covered practically everything in sight. All of Kai's items that once decorated the living room were here and all accounted for. There were no opened sources of light, save for the dim sunlight which poured in from the opened doorway while Lanfen knelt down right in the middle of her little sister's assorted belongings. The animal-themed lamp on Kai's computer desk was most likely still functional, but Lanfen desired nothing more than for the shadows of her little sister's bedroom to physically overtake her unmoving form. Drawing in another practiced breath, the Adaptor took out her smartphone, and placed it on the floor in front of her.

The jingling of the toy that was attached to it by a silver chain was slowly becoming the only audible sound in Lanfen's ears.

She allowed her beating heart to return to its regular pace before Lanfen decided to finally end the silence. "Mei," she whispered, addressing her younger sister as if Kai never left her to begin with. "I hope... you're doing well by yourself out there. We haven't talked in a while, but the one who took you-" Lanfen felt flickers of a proverbial fire dancing across her purple eyes. "-The one who took you away from me is still out there. And I'm sorry for that, Mei. S.O.N.G. hasn't found any clues on its location yet. But even so... I'm doing well myself, at least." Silence. Cold, harsh silence. "... I've made good friends over the past weeks. People I can rely on. People who I can always trust."

The only things Lanfen maintained for an audience were Kai's dust-covered toys. And somehow, Lanfen could still remember when she had bought each and every one of them for her little sister.

"There's also another person, Mei," Lanfen continued, sensing her heartbeat rising up again with the shift of her conversation. "She's been a great help ever since we met. She's someone who - despite her own circumstances - has been the only one I could ironically associate with a sense of 'normalcy' up until now." She released a dry chuckle. "But since she could be joining me on our missions soon... even that won't be staying the same for long." Lanfen waited for four exact heartbeats, just in case she somehow received any sort of response. Predictably, nothing came. "It's strange. But I want her to choose a path she herself wants. Where it leads to won't matter to me... as long as it makes her happy."

Silence. Again. Obviously. Just like whenever Lanfen attempted to speak to her parents.

Without any uttered words this time, Lanfen closed her tearless eyes, and began ruminating on her growing feelings for Shinonome Aiko. Lanfen couldn't tell how long she chose to sit there, completely unmoving save for the way her shoulders rose with the rhythm of her breathing. But when the Adaptor's pondering came to its inevitable end, Lanfen found herself at the same conclusion she had already come to during the depths of her slumber just last night. One of Kai's last ever wishes was for Lanfen to find someone she could care about. And yet, the event of Kai's recent loss still left a proverbial, gaping wound in Lanfen's own ability to open up to someone else. It was one thing to let herself bond with Team-04.

But when it came to the idea of letting Shinonome Aiko into her still-beating heart, Lanfen desired to ask just one question, "Am I being selfish, Mei?"

None of the ownerless belongings around the Adaptor gave any sort of answer. Absolutely nothing.

Thus, Lanfen proceeded to lower her head in a respectful bow before she picked up her smartphone, and carefully slid it back into her pockets with a light jingle of its attached memento.

The answer she sought for would never come. Not unless Lanfen ever decided to turn such a vulnerable question towards her own companions instead.

A knock on the door of Kai's bedroom was subsequently heard. Lanfen quickly looked over her shoulder and softened her narrowed gaze to notice Aiko hiding behind the door-frame with golden eyes that were visibly astonished by the sight of the opened room. Reflexively tensing at the presence of the silver-haired woman, Lanfen immediately wondered if Aiko had actually managed to hear what Lanfen voiced out. Judging by the look in Aiko's honest, flickering eyes, the Adaptor's hush words most likely evaded any detection out of sheer, dumb luck.

"You can come in if you want," Lanfen gently reassured her, no longer desiring to prohibit both Aiko and herself from entering this one part of their shared apartment.

Surprisingly, Aiko politely declined the offer with the shake of her head and a tepid smile. "It's fine," she insisted, redirecting her golden eyes out of the darkened bedroom and towards the sun-lit living room instead. "I'm sure there will be a better time for me to do so, anyway."

Respecting Aiko's wishes without another word, Lanfen got back up to her feet, and took one last glance around the dust-covered room. She did have a point. Aiko deserved to step inside only when this entire space was completely cleaned from top to bottom. With that future errand now on Lanfen's mental to-do list, she slowly exited her younger sister's bedroom, leaving it alone again for now. And when its wooden entrance was closed back up once more, the Adaptor kept her grip on the doorknob while Aiko quietly stood beside her with a folded pair of hands.

"My sister would've showed you around her room if she could," Lanfen muttered with a small snicker. "... She always liked showing off her collection to anyone she knew."

Aiko simply pressed the tips of two index fingers against one another at the idea. "That certainly sounds... wonderful, Lanfen," she said, leaning her body against the wall right next to Kai's bedroom door. "Kai must have been a joy to be around with, judging from the way you always reminisce about her."

"She was," Lanfen calmly agreed, slowly reaching her free hand into one of her sweatpants' occupied pockets. "So, if you're interested in hearing more about her, then... you can use this." She hesitantly drew out the retrieved thumb-drive and held it towards Aiko, earning a small quizzical tilt of the woman's head. Lanfen initially thought about explaining who Aiko's tablet originally belonged to, but she instead chose to leave such information out of the conversation for now. "This thing contains a lot of old memories about my sister," she carefully explained, slowly releasing her tight grip around the doorknob of Kai's bedroom entrance. "You can have it."

Widening her golden eyes at the sudden gift, Aiko gingerly took the small item into her grasp. "I-I see." She held it in front of her astonished face with both hands before bringing it close to her chest. "I'll admit that I feel... almost undeserving of such a thing, but I shall keep it safe." Aiko directed a small, subsequent smile at Lanfen, and the Adaptor slowly returned it in kind as one of her hands subconsciously fiddled with the messy ends of her undone, black hair.

Lanfen immediately thought about suggesting something they could do together to relax. Something to take the pressure of any upcoming missions off their minds until it was time for their Christmas lunch. A day like this only came once a year and it would only be a waste to spend it simply moping around, contemplating her thoughts. But when Lanfen decided to voice her first proposal, her wrist device suddenly rang up with an incoming audio transmission, forcing the Adaptor to swiftly answer a call from Yuki of all people. This wasn't a good omen, Lanfen subsequently thought. Communication through their wrist devices was something they agreed to only utilize today if the situation was ever urgent.

"What is it?" Lanfen answered, already growing worried by the sudden transmission.

"We're being called over for a meeting, 'Fen." Yuki's straightforward tone implied just as much. "Looks like we're gonna have to put that Christmas lunch on hold for now."

---

The last time Shinonome Aiko stepped through the metal corridors of the S.O.N.G. submarine, she was but a directionless amnesiac with a necessary reliance on the three other members of Symphogear Team-04. By the time all four women returned to the arriving underwater vessel, Aiko may as well have considered herself to be a member of the group over whatever her unknown past originally defined her to be. She felt little point in blindly digging for an explanation for where she possibly came from, and instead chose to move forward with the individuals who Aiko had come to bond with over the passing days. Regardless, Team-04's recent summons couldn't have come on a far more inconvenient day.

When the order to gather up in the submarine was conveyed to both Aiko and Lanfen, the latter formally confirmed the request while the former felt a bit of surprise at being told to come along. It was an opportunity to don the monochrome scarf Lanfen had gifted her, so Aiko felt no reason to argue against it, even if she personally found it strange how she was being called over as well. Once they were both in their winter outfits, the pair met up with Yuki and Komichi in the team's van, and departed for the set of coordinates which S.O.N.G. had transmitted over to Team-04. They arrived there in precisely an hour and boarded the vessel to soon be escorted into an oval-shaped room that Aiko assumed was the assembly hall.

About 20-to-30 other people could be observed patiently sitting on the hall's deployable seats. And as the members of Team-04 walked over to the numbered chairs which were reserved for them, Aiko curiously analyzed the room to notice a circular, table-like contraption situated right in its middle. All of the hall's numerous seats were oriented towards the glowing machine and were noticeably far too stiff for even Yuki and Komichi to comfortably sit on without complaint. Looking around the assembly hall again, Aiko also couldn't help but notice how the team stood out in their civilian wear. In addition to the formal, black suits that the other individuals were wearing, the aura these unfamiliar people radiated was drastically different from even S.O.N.G.'s own personnel.

Aiko was about to verbally comment on this to Lanfen beside her when one of the assembly hall's double-doors suddenly slid open, letting a young, blonde man who Aiko recognized as 'Tsuchiya Kagero' to make his entrance with an accompanying, redheaded woman. The room's ceiling lights soon dimmed down and the arriving duo took positions on opposing sides of the room's table-like contraption in the middle.

"You all have our appreciation for gathering here today," Tsuchiya politely began, folding his hands behind his back. "Unfortunately, the situation we are currently facing is one which does not provide us the luxury of exchanging seasonal pleasantries." He gestured towards his redheaded, formal-looking companion and addressed her with a curt nod. "Kagami, if you may."

Through a few command inputs into the circular, table-like machine, holographic projections proceeded to take shape over the contraption's translucent surface, displaying the civilian profiles of multiple young women for everyone in the hall to clearly see. Few of these women lived in the same continent as one another while most of the showcased faces originated from different parts of the globe. North America. South Africa. Japan. The Philippines. Australia. Borneo. All of them also appeared barely a couple years older than Lanfen, Aiko, and their two older teammates.

Tsuchiya cleared his throat and resumed. "Over the past week, Clan Hida has been investigating the reported deaths of young women both inside and outside of our country's national borders. Normally, such a task would not be in our legal jurisdiction, but investigations into the reasoning behind these deaths point to a possible perpetrator." The blonde man gestured towards another manifesting hologram on the assembly hall's display terminal and pointed at a snake-like emblem which made Aiko instinctively shiver in her seat. "The Bavarian Illuminati."

Some of the gathered individuals in the hall began faintly murmuring to one another. Yuki even muttered something under her breath over to Komichi. Meanwhile, Aiko could only focus her widening, golden eyes on the distinctive logo that hovered over the display terminal. The reports from Aiko's hibernation pod informed her enough of what to expect. The Bavarian Illuminati were the apparent reason for Aiko's existence as a living experiment. They were also infamous for being a difficult foe to permanently defeat. Even though she possessed no memory of her time in their ownership, Aiko could still feel her left hand tightly gripping onto the black-and-white scarf around her neck, giving her the will to take in a deep, punctuated breath.

Aiko only felt her shoulders starting to loosen up when she sensed a warm palm gently holding onto her other hand which was dangling at her side. She didn't need to redirect her golden eyes to actually confirm who it belonged to. Instead, Aiko took a side-glance at Lanfen beside her, and cleared away the obvious, growing concern on the Adaptor's silent expression by means of a reassuring smile. It was obvious that both of them would be exchanging words right now if they weren't in the middle of a meeting.

"11 deceased women have already been confirmed by official reports," Tsuchiya sharply continued. "Each murder was carried out with a single shot from a firearm, and although we cannot confirm any alchemic purposes behind its munitions, what we can confirm is that the markings of the Illuminati were present on each utilized round." Additional holographic constructs appeared over the terminal, showcasing the aforementioned ammunition in extensive detail. "Investigations are currently ongoing to predict who and where the perpetrators may strike next, and so far, the current theory is that they may be targeting individuals who possess the innate potential to awaken a Symphogear."

As Aiko casted a worried glance over to a seemingly unfazed Lanfen, Komichi raised her hand, catching Tsuchiya's attention.

"Do we have any evidence for this theory?" the brunette formally inquired.

With his eyes now focused on Team-04's general direction, Tsuchiya motioned over to his redheaded companion, prompting Kagami to provide an explanation in his stead. "AG-4-2," she addressed Komichi by her designated number, "in addition to these findings, the investigation we've conducted into the sudden attack on your team's Symphogear-Wielder has also allowed us to piece together the munition that was used in the assumed attempt on SG-r04's life." Kagami typed a command into the display terminal and brought up a digital reconstruction of a shattered bullet right next to the ones used in the reported murders. "We've confirmed their origins to be one in the same."

Lanfen audibly clicked her tongue, Yuki released unrestrained bafflement at Kagami's statement, Komichi calmly nodded in response, and Aiko buried her fingers deep within the monochrome scarf she wore. The Symphogear-Wielders were the world's main defense against paranormal threats, so Aiko could not help but feel her hands grow cold from the theory that a group was actively culling any possible Adaptors. Let alone young, innocent women like Lanfen herself.

"Judging by recently-reported deaths, we can narrow down the perpetrators' current, active location to the islands of Japan," Tsuchiya continued, barely faltering. "5 Illuminati hideouts have just been confirmed across the country. While we cannot be sure if each location is even affiliated with one another - nor if they are being used by another group entirely - Clan Hida intends to simultaneously deal with each location through a surgical strike at each site." A map of the globe appeared over the terminal and Tsuchiya pointed towards one designated location in particular. "Our scans have also confirmed that at least one of these hideouts was previously designed for the Illuminati's leadership. Therefore, we will be exercising caution by deploying Symphogear Team-04 at said location."

Through another swift gesture of his arm, Tsuchiya dismissed the holographic projections, leaving the terminal completely darkened while Kagami stepped away from the circular contraption.

The redheaded woman spoke up when her blonde companion was obviously finished. "Eliminating the Illuminati's resources country-wide should leave whoever is responsible for the murders temporarily vulnerable," Kagami stated, causing some of her audience to visibly nod in agreement in their seats. "Regardless of who the perpetrators may actually be, they must be taken in to prevent any further loss of life. Both to global innocents, and to S.O.N.G.'s own Adaptor Corp. Does anyone have any questions?" Unified silence from everyone in the hall was the answer to her stern, formal words. "Then you are all dismissed. Preparations for the operation will begin soon. Good luck to all of you."

"Symphogear Team-04," Tsuchiya hailed the four sitting women. "Please meet me outside in the hall, thank you."

Now that their meeting was officially adjourned, everyone within the assembly hall rose up from their seats, and quietly filed out of the oval-shaped room through either one of its four available double-doors. The atmosphere of the place felt denser than concrete, but Aiko stepped in line with the three other members of her team either way. As all the individuals in black suits made themselves sparse, Team-04 abided by Tsuchiya's request and waited out in one of the corridors leading into the assembly hall. It took precisely a minute for Tsuchiya to step outside by himself. Noticeably now without his companion, Tsuchiya ran a brief gaze across the four gathered women, and slowly lowered his head.

"My apologies for summoning you four on Christmas of all days," he said, lifting his head back up. "I can at least assure that you all will be well-fed before deployment for the operation commences."

The blonde man's apology was smoothly brushed off by Komichi. "It's perfectly fine!" she insisted, aiming a pair of glove-covered finger-guns at Tsuchiya. "After all, there's no better way to spend Christmas than stopping some evildoers, right?" Her childish comment earned an exasperated groan from Yuki and a dry chuckle from Lanfen. Aiko herself gave out an honest giggle while Tsuchiya smiled politely at the woman's sudden display of levity. The situation was a tragic one considering how many women have fallen victim to the murders, and yet, Komichi noticeably remained stalwart in maintaining Team-04's morale.

"First things first," Tsuchiya said, suddenly standing to attention. "With current events now being taken into consideration, the Commander has given me full authority to declare the following." His sharp gaze redirected itself at Aiko in particular. "Shinonome Aiko, from today onwards, you will be official installed within S.O.N.G. as a field operator." His announcement caused Aiko to immediately widen her golden eyes in a combination of disbelief, shock and astonishment.

She even would've fallen backwards if Lanfen and Yuki hadn't reflexively caught Aiko's suddenly-swaying form.

"As surprising as it may sound, I assure you that we wouldn't have summoned you here today if it was untrue," Tsuchiya continued. "We require all available hands for this operation, Miss Shinonome, and your recent tests showcase evident potential."

After Aiko managed to find stable footing on her own shaky legs again, Lanfen was the first to applaud her for the good news. "Congratulations, Aiko," the Adaptor softly said with the smallest of smiles, letting go of Aiko's shoulders only when they were certain that she wouldn't fall over again. "I guess you could say that this is a Christmas miracle, isn't it?"

"Hell yeah, it is!" Yuki eagerly added, flashing a prominent thumbs up.

Komichi gave the loudest clap of her hands, sending a loud echo down the corridors they were standing in alongside Tsuchiya. "A wish well-granted, indeed."

Once the clear disbelief on Aiko's face parted to now reveal a smile of restrained excitement for her new position, Tsuchiya drew out a small key from his suit and handed it over to the silver-haired woman. "I will require the presence of Miss Ayano and Miss Godai for logistical work," he stated as Aiko curiously took the key off his hands. Both of them were oblivious to the deflated expressions Tsuchiya had inflicted on Komichi and Yuki through the mere mention of paperwork. "In the meantime, you may rely on Miss Jiang to escort you over to the locker rooms. You will find both your uniform and your equipment waiting for you there, Miss Shinonome."

Aiko nodded at the instructions and Lanfen gave a quick salute which the silver-haired woman hastily mimicked beside the Symphogear-Wielder.

"Understood, Tsuchiya," Lanfen formally responded before gesturing for Aiko to follow her.

Everything was progressing quickly, Aiko mused within her thoughts. She honestly believed that it would have taken days for her request to even be considered, but it seemed to Aiko that fate was certainly panning out completely in her favour. A part of Aiko even wanted to credit this sudden miracle to the lucky charm which Komichi had gifted her just this morning.

With their directions given out, Aiko stepped through the submarine's metal corridors with Lanfen while the thumping of their footsteps resounded in the air. Aiko's heart normally would have started pounding within her ribcage from current events, but the presence of Lanfen at her side allowed her to remain completely serene. Seeing how the Adaptor especially marched through the vessel even gave off the same radiance that Aiko had witnessed when the two first met in Yamaku's snowy forests. This was the woman whom Japan relied on to defend it and only a few such as Aiko were aware of the person beneath that valiant veneer. Without Lanfen's help, Aiko wouldn't have been able to take her first step towards becoming a protector of this world.