QN: "Talking" - English, "Talking" - Japanese

Chapter 1: Girl Without a Name

Part 1

"Nii-san, wake up."

"Fuu…five more minutes Kurome?"

"Sorry, Onee-chan or Akeno will be the next to wake you up if you sleep in. And don't you have to start work early today?"

Kamito opened his eyes and rose out of bed, looking at the calendar on his bedside table. In the process of coming into full awareness, he rubbed his eyes and took a closer look at the calendar.

April 10th, Monday.

"Ugh, that's right, I accepted the morning to afternoon shift at work…"

"I'll tell everyone that you're awake now."

The girl who woke him up, Kurome Kazehaya, was Kamito's youngest sister. With shoulder length black hair and matching colored eyes, Kurome looked quite a beauty, and had a bit of popularity at her high school. It was only her shy-ish personality that kept her from being even more popular.

After Kurome left, Kamito got dressed and headed downstairs, the smell of cooking breakfast hitting his nose.

'That smell, I think it must be Akeno cooking this time…'

Sure enough, when he reached the kitchen, he found his cousin, Akeno Himejima, a girl with black hair and violet eyes, cooking breakfast, with his other sister, Akame Kazehaya, a woman with black hair and red eyes, sitting at the table reading a book, though she looked into the kitchen every once in a while.

As for Kurome, she was by the couch watching TV while sucking on a lollipop.

Kamito once again mused about his family situation. Akame and Kurome were blood related with them being his adoptive sisters, while him and Akeno were cousins through their mothers, who were obviously sisters. Due to their parents' jobs the four were left alone most of the time, and over the years it became routine for the four to take care of the house and each other.

Pretty much like a certain pair of siblings back in Tenguu City, Japan.

"Ah, good morning Kamito. Breakfast is almost ready."

"Smells good Akeno; Japanese or Western?"

"Western this time, I thought I would practice making pancakes this time."

Leaving Akeno to her cooking Kamito went over to the table and sat beside Akame. She didn't give much reaction other than a slight nod in his direction, her eyes never leaving the book.

"Morning."

"Morning Akame, what you reading this time?"

Akame tilted the book so that Kamito could see the title, which read as 'Grill and BBQ for the Soul' on the front. After seeing that, Akame readjusted her book and returned to reading.

'This girl, still obsessed with meat. It's a wonder Akame and Kurome are still thin with their tastes.'

It was another thing the two sisters had in common, sort of. While Akame had a taste for meats, Kurome was the one with the sweet tooth in the family. How the two barely gained any weight with their habits, was a mystery to Kamito even to this day.

Not like he hadn't tried asking, but for some reason he couldn't remember anything after he did, with him remembering waking up in his bed feeling weird. He knew they did something to him, but his instinct warned him about asking them about it.

"…And in other news, a section of Northern Manhattan is still closed due to the sudden spacequake two days ago…"

"Another one? Those things have been happening way too much lately."

A 'space earthquake', shortened to spacequake. To Kamito, it sounded like something out of a sci-fi movie, as he hadn't heard of any scientific explanation to them. All he knew about them was the Eurasia Sky Disaster, and the fact that the three areas that had the most spacequakes in the last five years were Japan, the US, and Europe in order of most to least.

Still, in the last few months spacequakes have been happening from the east coast and seemed to be heading west, with the latest ones happening in NYC. In the past month alone there were at least three that happened, the last one interrupting his work time.

"You three be careful alright? Spacequakes been happening too much lately."

"Yes, Nii-tan~"

Kamito twitched in response to the girls' combined response as Kurome and Akeno gave each other mischievous smiles. Even Akame showed a hint of amusement behind her book as breakfast was laid out on the table.

The girls knew he meant well, as Akame was in college, and both Kurome and Akeno were in high school. Kamito cared deeply about the girls, as he was a bit sensitive when it came to family.

With that in mind, Kamito started breakfast, knowing that it wasn't long before he had to leave for work.

Part 2

"Kamito, one order of set one and two orders of set four."

"Understood."

It was a busy day at Ristorante at the lunch hour, as a number of customers came in to eat. As for where Kamito was, he was in the back with the other chefs making orders.

Other than Kamito, there were three other chefs working the kitchens in Ristorante at the moment. A man named Tigre Vorn from Germany, a woman named Liliana Kranjcar from Italy, and the head chef, a portly man who went by the single name Marteau from France, or so he claimed.

Out of the four, he knew Tigre, a man in his early thirties with short red hair the best, and could be considered a good friend of his, despite the age gap. Well enough to know that he was married to a beauty named Elenora at least.

Liliana was around Kamito's age, and despite her professional demeanor, she got along with everyone. One thing that made her stand out among the chefs was her ability to produce large amounts of dishes in record time, something that helped for the buffet tables. With silver-white hair and blue eyes, she was nicknamed 'Ristorante's Fairy Chef' by a number of people, much to the woman's chagrin.

The head chef, Marteau, was the oldest of the four and was the best at what he did. It made other the other chefs feel like amateurs when they watched him at work, something that amused him.

"We have another reservation coming in, this one with a buffet menu. Liliana, Tigre, you two are in charge of that."

"Yes sir."

"Understood boss."

This was the usual routine Kamito dealt with for two years, ever since he got roped into being a chef from the busboy he was first hired as. If there was one thing he found the downside in from this job, it was…

"Hmmhmm, are you working hard Kamito?"

Kamito spared a glance at Ristorante's manager, Greyworth Ciel Mais, a beauty with silver grey hair and blue eyes, before he went back to what he was doing. The number one reason as to why he was a chef and not a busboy anymore just pouted before turning to Marteau.

"Marteau, a special order came in for tomorrow. We might-"

*WWOOOOO*

"Tch, for the Spacequake alarm to go off, what bad timing for business."

Greyworth shook her head as everyone dropped what they were doing and made their way to the underground shelter under Ristorante. While New York City wasn't as advanced as say, Tenguu City, it still had undergone major renovations since the first spacequake that hit the middle of Kansas after the Eurasia Disaster.

As the staff led the customers down to the shelters, Kamito took out his iPhone and checked on the locations of his family members via GPS. While Akame and Akeno were in areas he knew where they were, it was Kurome's signal that made him frown.

Kurome's phone signal was being broadcasted from the middle of Central Park.

"Kamito, where do you think you're going!?"

"I'm sorry Marteau, but I have to check on something!"

"Kamito, wait-!"

Without second thought, Kamito ran out of Ristorante and headed in the direction of Central Park.

Part 3

"Why would GPS be showing Kurome standing in Central Park at a time like this!?"

Having changed direction halfway to the nearest shelter, Kamito ran as fast as he could to Central Park, the spacequake alarm blaring in his ears from the surrounding speakers. He was lucky the streets were empty at that time, else he would have a lot of trouble trying to explain the reason he was running through traffic, abandoned as it was.

'Did something happen to Kurome? Her signal hasn't moved one bit.'

Soon Kamito reached one of the entrances Central Park, and stopped to catch his breath. It was a good thing that he did so, as the moment he took a step, the area in front of him seemingly exploded, causing him to throw up his arms in defense.

When the dust cleared, Kamito found himself looking at a very large crater, having looked like the whole area was scooped out with an ice cream scooper. With the whole crater looking like smoothed glass, and debris scattered at the edges, his thoughts worried about Kurome, when he noticed something quite out of place.

Floating in the middle of the crater was a woman with looks that Kamito had never seen before outside of a video game. All he could tell was that woman had long, purple hair in two long braids, had a pair of digital like fairy wings, and held a long black sword that was curved like a katana in her hand.

Still, Kamito was taken aback by her appearance when she looked in his direction. A sudden urge to revere her came over them as she looked at him with an impassive gaze, but managed to shake it off and even speak.

"…W-Who…are you?"

"…I…don't know…."

The way the mysterious woman's face grew somber for a second made Kamito's heart ache for a second. However, that look was replaced with her previous one as she raised her sword at him, causing Kamito to step back.

"…Who are you? Are you with them?"

"Them? Who?"

The woman frowned at Kamito's words as the next words out of her mouth surprised him.

"Are you not here to try and kill me?"

"What!? No! Why would I try and kill you!?"

The woman's face went through a flurry of emotions as she took in Kamito's response. However, before either could say anything, a lance of light shot down from above and exploded the ground between them.

As the woman frowned and turned towards the source, Kamito ran towards the closest and largest cover he could find and hid behind it. Waiting for a few seconds, he peaked out to see what was going on.

The mysterious woman was being confronted by four females from what he could tell, all of them looking like they came out of something like Strike Witches or Infinite Stratos. All four wore black visors to cover their faces, but their bodysuits and hair made them pretty obvious that they were female.

'One's a redhead, a blonde, a black-haired, and a…blue-haired woman? …Why do I have the feeling I've seen those before…'

Kamito's thoughts cut off when the redhead materialized what looked like a fire-coated whip and charged forward. The blue-hair who had a spear-looking weapon followed, while the blonde and black haired women took out guns from…somewhere, and gave fire support.

Despite being outnumbered the mysterious woman was handling the four like a natural, that made Kamito raise his eyebrows. As the fight went on and the property damage increased, it was clear to him that the mysterious girl was in a different league than the four as the blue haired woman crashed into the ground courtesy of a rather forceful bash from the mysterious woman, and it made the redhead scream out loud.

"Ergh, damn you Empress!"

'Empress…?'

Now that Kamito thought about it, the feeling he got from the woman had felt like he was standing in front of an empress, sort of. Shaking his head, he turned back to see Empress going after the blonde and black-haired women, with the two firing off bullets frantically, though from what Kamito could see, they were bouncing off some sort of invisible barrier as she flew towards them, with the redhead in hot pursuit.

It was obvious that the two gunslingers weren't very good in close combat as Empress cleaved through their guns and sent both of them to join the blue-haired chick in the ground. As for the redhead, she grew quite angry at seeing her comrades being taken down so easily, that she was just randomly attacking, which Empress countered and blocked with ease. The red head was finished off with a drop kick that sent her plummeting to join her comrades.

'This…this is crazy, even for me.'

With the opposition finished, Empress looked around until her and Kamito's eyes met. She then flew down to his position, making her look like a goddess was descending upon him. Quite frankly it unnerved him a bit as she looked down at him.

"I-Is something that matter?"

"You…are the first one to not want to kill me. Why?"

"Why? I, uh, well…"

It was at that point that Empress' face was very close to Kamito's causing him to blush at the close contact. It was when Empress suddenly grabbed him tightly and flew off into the sky. However the sudden speed and the way Empress was holding him was causing Kamito to pass out. However he did hear one last thing from Empress before she 'spirited' him away.

"You are an interesting one…"

Part 4

"Well, this is different from the norm."

This was spoken by a girl in a CR-Unit under optical camo. Sporting long brown hair with a leaf clip attached to a side tail, as well as matching colored eyes, she gave a sigh as she surveyed the aftermath of the fight between the SRT and Empress.

"Empress is scary as always…"

Another girl under optical camo made a comment as she shivered at the aftermath. With peach pink-like hair and matching eyes, this girl looked out of place in her CR-Unit. She looked more at home in a school or a hospital than at the edge of a battlefield.

"Spirits in general tend to be scary, Compa. I mean, look at Nightmare. Now she's one twisted Spirit. Complete opposite of Sage, though both are pretty dangerous."

"But Empress was so brutal fighting the SRT. And she took away that guy too; who knows what she'll do to him, Iffy!"

"I'm worried too, and for the last time Compa, it's IF. I. F."

IF gave a sigh as she looked in the direction Empress took off with Kamito. Giving one last look at the fallen SRT members, IF prepared to take off to the skies.

"I-Iffy? Where are you going?"

"To find the guy of course. Empress took him away, so he might be something special. And I don't think the boss will be happy with us if we just walked away from a Spirit taking a human."

"W-We're gonna fight Empress!?"

"…I don't know. Hopefully it won't come to that, especially if we stay hidden. If we can, we'll fall back the moment we confirm the guy's condition."

"B-But what if he's in trouble? Empress might do something to him."

"If that happens, we might have to leave him to his fate. I don't like it, but we are not properly equipped to fight a Spirit, let alone Empress. These are recon-type CR-Units, remember?"

Compa looked nervous, but didn't say anymore as she and IF took to the skies, heading in the same direction Empress went. At the very least, neither were enthusiastic about going after Empress.

"Y-Yes, but still, leaving him to his fate is just plain cruel."

"I know, I know. It doesn't sit well with me either. Now hush up, we're going under radio silence again."

A nod came from Compa as the two of them flew off after Empress and her unfortunate tagalong. Still, the silence didn't stop Compa from hoping that Kamito was alright.