Chapter 12; The Point of No Return
The following day was, thankfully, a Saturday. Maylin had spent the better part of four hours looking for Simon, while trying not to make it obvious that she was looking for him. Finally, Ichika told her that he was at one of the stadiums. This led her to check all of them before finally finding him at stadium three. When she walked into the grounds, she saw a swarm of hologram targets zipping around the stadium with Simon floating in the middle, looking rather exhausted in his IS. Still, he said, "Fangs, fly!" and took a firm grip on his sword before charging in. The targets seemed to have been reprogrammed since Maylin was sure that they weren't designed to fire back, and yet they were throwing small energy blasts at him from every direction. With his ten fangs in the air, plus the fact that Simon was physically fighting, Maylin could only imagine the kind of strain he was putting on himself.
He's blaming himself for something she realized as he took a blast to the back, something he should have easily blocked. In fact, all of his movements were rather sluggish, suggesting that he had been at this for quite some time now. And yet, he pressed on, clearing the targets at a slow but steady rate before three landed blows that dropped his shields to critical. At that point, a buzzer went off and the targets stopped moving before disappearing altogether. Landing and destructing his IS, Simon fell onto his back and lay there, panting. "Tough training session?" Maylin asked as she walked up to stand over his head. Looking up at the girl, he noticed that she wasn't wearing her uniform. Rather, she was wearing a rather plain white shirt, a blue overcoat and baggy grey pants. "Going out?" he asked as he sat back up.
"No, I was just looking for you," she replied, "I was wondering if we could talk some more." "Alright," he said as he got up and faced her, "Then how about telling me who taught you how to fight?" She was a little stunned by that question, and took several seconds to answer. "If you are asking me if I had a proper teacher, I did not." "So you're self-taught?" She just nodded at that, and Simon sighed before turning and walking away a few steps. Turning back to her, he said simply, "Show me," before taking up his own stance. Maylin stood there for a few seconds, looking at him in confusion. After realizing that he was serious, she brought her own hands up like a boxer and turned to the left slightly. Before she could blink, Simon was in front of her with his fist stopping just in front of her head. "You're reaction speed needs work," he observed as he lowered his hand.
With a rather evil smile, she brought her hands up and grabbed his wrist. Twisting it, she turned him around and pinned his arm behind his back before looping one arm around his neck. "Better," he said before he brought his other hand up and grabbed the arm around his neck. Twisting her wrist, he broke her hold and spun around, landing an open handed strike in her stomach and knocking the breath out of her. Before she could recover, he was on her again, throwing several punches and swipes. While he stopped before hitting her, she was slowly getting better at blocking him. She even managed to land a few blows herself, although she didn't stop short like he did. After dodging a swipe at her head, she stepped back and tried to bring her left foot into his side. Catching that leg, he used his foot to sweep her other leg out from under her and let her weight drag the two of them down. Pinning her other leg between his knees, he used his left hand to pin her right arm down.
"Not too bad, Maylin," he said as they looked at each other, their faces not much more than a few inches apart. After the adrenaline wore off, they both blushed rather badly as they realized how close they were, and the position they were in. After scrambling off her, Simon stood up and looked away, feeling rather embarrassed at what he had just done. Maylin, surprisingly, recovered quicker than he did, asking, "How did you learn how to fight?" "I had a very good teacher," he answered, feeling his cheeks finally starting to cool, "Also, it helps that I hang out with the people that I do." "Rin does make life interesting," Maylin agreed. They both laughed at that, finally easing the tension from earlier.
"Alright, I might not know much about using guns," Simon said as he summoned his IS again, "But I'd better teach you how to use those swords properly." "Am I really that bad with them?" Maylin asked, looking a little depressed. "No, but you don't have much of a technique. Weapons like that take some getting used to," he explained as she summoned her own IS. The next few hours were spent teaching her the proper stances, as well as how to use them as extensions of her arm for punches and as proper swords. By the time they had ended the training, any tension left between the two had disappeared.
The next few weeks were spent refining Kanzashi's IS, training with Maylin, and struggling with the dilemma that Simon now found himself with. No matter how he looked at the problem, he would have to pick between those that he trusted and his sister. Regardless of her intentions, her actions had clearly put her at odds with the Academy, which wouldn't stop until she was captured. However, he was also trying to figure out how she had gotten support. The Harpies he could almost explain away as throw-away weapons designed for combat support, but that just raised the question of where they had been built, and by whom. There was also the issue of the other specialized IS he had encountered, the Spider. It clearly was something more, and looked like it could also have a pilot. But he was sure that Sarah was dead. He had attended her funeral, seen the body.
And yet, there was a voice in the back of his mind that kept nagging him with what-ifs. What if she hadn't died? What if she was spirited away for a secret project and the body he saw was a clever double? What if it was someone playing a clever mind-game to screw with him? He couldn't come up with any answers that he was satisfied with, and he knew that being with Cecilia would only compound these feelings of frustration. And so, despite the pain it was causing the both of them, he continued to keep his distance. After several days of this, Rin finally called him on his behavior.
Rin had managed to get him alone after class, which was rare since he was trying to keep busy. "Do you even realize what you're doing to her?" she finally asked. Instead of answering, Simon just continued to walk towards the IS hangers. "I'm talking to you, idiot!" she yelled as she jumped up and landed a double-kick between his shoulder blades, causing him to fall face-first into the ground. "Ow! The hell is wrong with you, shrimp?" he asked after he got back up, rubbing his chin. "What's wrong with me?!" she shot back, looking absolutely furious, "What's wrong with YOU? You've been avoiding Cecilia for weeks now, and even Ichika has noticed something is wrong." Looking down, he mumbled, "It's nothing," before he tried to get back up. Instead, Rin reached out and slapped him, hard.
Simon just sat there, holding his cheek and looking at her, stunned. Grabbing his collar, she shouted, "She loves you, you moron! And you're treating her like THIS?!" That got his attention as he looked at her. Reaching up, he grabbed her wrists and slowly pulled them off his shirt. "Rin, I understand what you're trying to do," he said as he got back up, "But, it's a bit more complicated than that." "How can it be too complicated? You two clearly love each other! What more is there to know?" she demanded, refusing to back down. "And how do you know we stay together, huh?" he asked, feeling his control starting to slip, "Is it because her daughter is here? Because she told me that her father died two years after she was born. Also that she had never known me. So, what does that tell you?"
Stunned, she looked away as she saw the pain in her friend's eyes. He's not being cruel she realized as she backed away, still refusing to meet his gaze, he's just in serious pain and confused. "Well, if you need to talk, I'm here," she said before turning and walking off. Standing there, Simon mentally kicked himself for that outburst. Goddamnit, why am I taking this out on everyone else he wondered as he continued towards the IS hangers. Thinking it over, he grabbed his phone and sent a quick text to Kanzashi, telling her he couldn't make it today. Then, he turned and walked towards the dorms. He was just not in the mood to be around people today.
After a short elevator ride, he walked into his room to find Tatenashi sitting on his bed. "This is becoming a bad habit," he observed as he walked into the room and closed the door, "So, where's Ichika at?" "I suggested that he spend his Saturday outside," she said, looking innocent. "Are you here to give me advice, to?" "If by advice, you mean asking why you have been avoiding the girl you care about, then yes," she responded, getting up and walking over. "Tatenashi, I'm really not in the mo-" he began before she cut him off by placing her fan over his mouth. "You're not here to talk, you're here to listen," she said, looking serious, "I count you among the few people that I can truly call a friend. You are one of the kindest people I have ever met, and you help people without any thought of a reward." "And how do you figure that?" he asked, causing her to glare at him briefly. Lowering her fan, she turned around and walked away a few steps.
"When I asked you to help my sister, you never once asked for a reward. Not when I asked, and not once since then," she concluded, turning around and smiling. Not willing to try and point out any flaws in her logic, he just crossed his arms and waited for her to continue. "As a friend, I want to make sure that you are safe and happy. Which isn't going to happen if you keep ignoring that British girl," she said. "Tatenashi, it's not that simple," he said as he sat down on his bed. Sitting next to him, she said, "Tell me," making it clear that it wasn't an option. Relenting, he figured that this girl was a safer confident than Rin. Telling her everything he had learned, starting with the Gospel and ending with what he had learned from Maylin. By the end, he felt better than he would have thought he would.
They sat there for a few minutes as Tatenashi thought over what he had told her, trying to come up with her own answers. And yet, she found herself coming up with nothing, which frustrated her in a way few things had ever done. She hadn't failed at much in her life, something which she was fairly proud of. In fact, she could count her failures on one hand without reaching five. Chewing the inside of her cheek, she glared at the wall as she tried to rework it in her head. Looking at her, Simon noticed how she looked frustrated as hell that she couldn't figure this out. For some reason, he found that unbelievably funny and started to laugh. Quietly at first, so as to avoid attention, but it soon grew louder as he clutched his stomach.
"What's so funny?" she asked, glaring at him. This just caused him to laugh harder, finally causing him to fall off the bed. Lying on the floor, he finally managed to collect himself and sit back up. Tatenashi was still looking rather annoyed at him, and this almost caused him to break into another fit of laughter. Instead, he took a deep breath and said, "Thanks, Tatenashi. I didn't know that I needed that, but I did." "Always glad to help," she said, returning to her cheerful self. Getting up and walking past him, she stopped briefly to say, "Now, go apologize to her," before continuing out the door. Taking another deep breath, he decided to follow her advice and left the room. It was time that he stopped putting this off.
Taking a moment to remember where she was, Simon called the elevator to travel to the second floor. However, when the doors opened, he was met with the sight of Maylin who looked rather surprised to see him. "S-Simon, I was not expecting…" she began. "Nether was I," he responded as he joined her in the elevator. "So, where are you heading?" "I was actually looking for moth- I mean, Cecilia. She does not like me calling her that," Maylin said, looking a little ashamed. "She's not in her room?" he asked, receiving a shake of the head as a response. "Well, then we'd better find her then," he said as he pushed the button for the lobby. They walked out the doors of the dorm building, talking idly and enjoying the weather when all hell broke loose.
Cecilia had been in one of the stadiums with Houki, training to maintain her accuracy. While most would be trying to improve, she was aware that she was already a crack shot. At this point, maintaining that level of skill was her primary focus. After taking out three targets in rapid succession, she noticed that Houki was standing off to the side and watching her. "What?" she asked, in no real mood to be messed with. "I was just wondering if you were picturing his face on those targets," Houki said, walking over to her. While she wasn't the most skilled at romance, she was well aware of how her friend felt about Simon. "I don't know what you mean," Cecilia said, looking away, "If that idiot wants to act like nothing ever happened, that's his business. Why should it bother me?"
While she was trying to act indifferent, there was clearly pain in her voice. "Cecilia, can we please stop acting like we have something to prove to each other?" Houki asked. Cecilia just stood there, looking at her rifle like there was something wrong with it. Finally, she asked, "Was it something that I did, Houki? Did I say or do something to push him away?" Finally deciding that formality can screw itself, Houki walked over and put her hand on her friend's shoulder. While it was a little awkward in their IS, it still carried enough meaning for Cecilia to know what she meant. "You didn't do anything wrong, Cecilia," she told her, smiling slightly, "In fact, I wish I had half the guts that you did, considering what Rin and Charlotte have told me." Cecilia just got a little redder at that, even though she shouldn't have been as embarrassed about a simple kiss.
They stood there for a moment before an explosion grabbed their attention. Before they could even think, several more explosions ripped through several of the buildings between them and the water. One of them just happened to tear through the south-facing wall, allowing several machines to launch themselves through the cloud of rubble. They looked like large cats with guns mounted on their shoulder blades. Taking a second to zero-in on them, the cats launched themselves at the two girls, spreading out and letting loose with their guns. Thankfully, they only hesitated for a moment before they moved to fight back; Houki moving in front of Cecilia and summoning her swords, Cecilia deploying her laser bits and sighting up on one of the closer ones. Houki charged the three in the center as Cecilia opened fire on the two on the sides, taking one out in one shot and taking the others tail off.
In three quick slashes, Houki managed to dispatch the three in front of her with ease as the last one leapt at her from the side. Before it could land any kind of blow, it was skewered by another beam as Cecilia blew its heart out. "Where the heck did these come from?" Houki asked, looking towards the hole. Before Cecilia could answer, they noticed several other explosions and the sound of gunfire across the area. Looking up, they noticed that several of the staff and some of the students were engaging a number of Harpies. "We need to find the others and figure out what's going on," Cecilia said as she turned towards the main tower and took off.
Before they could even leave the stadium, a communication window opened in front of them, showing a rather pissed off Chifuyu. "Attention, all staff and students. The Academy grounds are currently under attack. All staff rated for IS use are to move towards the south-side docks and repel the attackers. All students are to head for the main tower. Any personal IS user willing to assist are to open a link on the following channel to receive their orders," she said before sending over a channel frequency. Looking at each other, they nodded and opened a channel. Their friends would be safe, they were sure. It was important to stop this attack first.
Simon and Maylin had summoned their IS when they heard the first explosion. Without waiting for Chifuyu's broadcast, they immediately took flight and began fighting back the Harpies that they could find. The two blondes were quickly joined by Laura, who looked rather pissed off that someone would dare to attack her school. The cannon on her shoulder belched fire as she flung shells after the enemy, tearing them apart and sending their remains flying towards the ground. One Harpy got close and tried to stab her with a sword, only to be stopped cold by her AIC. Looking at the pesky machine in contempt, she used one of her wrist mounted blades and sliced its head in two. "Would someone care to explain where these things came from?" she asked, looking over at Simon and Maylin. She shook her head, and Simon just shrugged as he moved to sweep the warehouses.
That was the point when they noticed a rather large machine battling two of the teachers. It had four legs and two massive particle cannons mounted on its forearms. Combined with the fact that it was easily twice the size of a normal IS, the thing had a distinct advantage over the two teachers. "Maylin, Laura, go take care of that thing," Simon said, "I'm going to go find the others." Without even waiting for a response, Simon took off while he brought up an open channel. "Cecilia, Houki, Rin, Charlotte, Ichika. If any of you guys can hear me, respond," he said, praying they were all okay. "Rin here, idiot," she responded, sounding a bit winded and a little annoyed, "I'm with Charlotte near stadium four. We're buying time for the other students to get to the main tower." Simon breathed a little easier at that, since stadium four was on the extreme edge of the assault, judging by what he saw.
"Simon, are you okay?" Ichika asked. "I'm fine. I'm with Laura and Maylin. We seem to be on the left end of their advance," he responded, "Where are you?" "I think we're somewhere in the middle. I'm with Houki and Cecilia, and these things just keep coming. Oh, crap!" Suddenly Ichika was cut off as something attacked him. Damn, damn! Simon thought as he raced to meet with them. Thankfully, he had gotten a good fix on their location, and they were indeed right in the middle of the advance. He arrived at the remains of the stadium Houki and Cecilia had been practicing in just in time to see a pair of new IS enter the battle.
The one out front looked like an odd version of a knight; it had a massive shield and a broadsword, but no other obvious weapons. The second one caused Simon's blood to run cold; with a red, orange and gold color scheme, it had fairy wings and held a pair of javelins. This one was, without a doubt, the Red Fairy that Maylin had talked about. It stayed back and observed while the knight IS charged in and swung at Houki. She brought her swords up in a cross-block and stopped it short, but judging from the way she was straining the IS was putting considerable strength behind that sword. As Ichika moved to help her, the Fairy acted, raising one of its javelins and firing a beam out of the tip, blowing the bluenette back into the stadium wall. "Don't you know it's rude to interrupt a duel, little boy?" it asked him, the mocking tone clear in its voice.
Without any hesitation, Simon charged the Fairy, almost catching it off-guard. However, it jumped back at the last second and thrust one of its javelins at his stomach. Thankfully, he brought his shield up and deflected the blow, leaving them staring at each other as they stood there. Cocking its head to the side, it seemed that the Fairy was analyzing him, which was odd. Shouldn't it know everything about me already? He wondered. "Ah, now I remember you," it finally said, "You're the Gospel's brother. Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Simon Felix. You don't know how much effort you've saved us." "And how's that?" he demanded, bringing his shield up in front of him and preparing to charge it. "There's no need for that," it said, lowering its javelins slightly, "Just come with us and you can avoid any further destruction."
In response, Simon charged the IS, bringing his sword down in an overhead swing. The Fairy blocked it with one javelin, and if it was possible to look annoyed when you had a full helmet on, it managed to do it. "Maybe I should rephrase that," it said, bringing the other trident up and blasting him in the stomach, "I should have said that resisting is of no use. You WILL come with us, whether you like it or not." "Not going to happen, bitch!" They heard before a beam impacted the side of its head, sending the Fairy down. Looking up, Simon saw Cecilia looking furious. As she prepared another blast, though, the Knight IS flew up to attack her, leaving Ichika and Houki down in the dust. Thinking quickly, Simon triggered his Phoenix Shift and boosted to intercept it, crashing into its side and sending it into the stands.
The two IS seemed to have vanished at that point, although their underlings were eager to fight them as 6 Harpy and a dozen of those cat creatures swarmed into the stadium. With his Shift active, Simon moved faster than the Harpies could track, quickly slicing three into pieces before Cecilia took out her first. Turning back to face her, he spotted what looked like a navy ship in the harbor. It looked like an amphibious assault ship, but it was smoother, more refined. It also had a pair of massive particle cannons mounted on the front, one of which was swiveling to target Cecilia. Kicking his IS into its top speed, Simon just barely managed to get between her and the gun with his shield up as it fired. The beam hit him full-force, engulfing him in smoke and hurting like hell.
"Simon!" Cecilia yelled, completely forgetting about the battle raging around her. She was prepared to dive into that cloud, the dangers be damned, when he reversed out of it, causing her to gasp at the damage he had received. The left arm of his IS had several cracks along the armor, the shield was warped with the tip of it completely blown off, and his Phoenix Shift had been forcibly disengaged by the damage. The rest of his IS was in relatively good condition, but his shield energy was near critical. Landing, he released the clamps holding his now useless solid shield in place and let the thing clatter to the ground. "Simon, are you okay?" she asked as she landed next to him. When he turned to respond, the Fairy reappeared behind him, kicking him aside and lunging at Cecilia with one of its javelins, ready to run her through.
Time seemed to slow down as the Fairy approached her. She didn't have the time to bring her rifle up to shoot, or deploy her bits, so she brought the gun up flat, trying to deflect the javelin to one side. As the weapons made contact, the javelin went clean through the rifle, shattering it in the process. While Cecilia reached up to stop the weapon with her hand, she tried to dodge to the side, but was too slow. The tip of the javelin impacted the shields around her left shoulder, causing them to spark briefly before it passed through them. The armor underneath was little match as the tip pierced it, too, to say nothing of the flesh beneath that as the javelin continued into her shoulder.
While she managed to stop it from going clean through, a good two inches of it was now embedded in her, causing her to cry out in pain, and forcing her back a few steps. Leaning in closer so they were face to mask, the IS said, "You will pay for shooting me, little girl," before it brought its other javelin up to ram through her chest. Before it could finish her, Simon brought his sword down on the javelin that was pinning Cecilia down, cutting it in two and forcing the Fairy back. Taking up a position between the two of them, he said, "If you want this girl, you go through me first." He could practically see the smile as it brought its other javelin up in a mock salute. "Very well."
As the title says, this is definitely the point of no return. It's war now, people, and whether you've realized it or not, this enemy is playing for keeps. Will they manage to fend off this attack? Will Simon be able to defeat the Red Fairy and possibly save his friends from their fate? Will he and Cecilia ever get back together? Till the next chapter.