Right, as I just put on Chapter 1-1, Act 1 is a prologue. I figured that I should tell you, the readers, about the structure of Act 1 since it would appear that the War is five chapter long, while Act 2 is more... Actually I don't want to spoil much, so just let me say that everything in Act 1 will pay off ;)
Sorry for the long upload time I've been busy.
Chapter 1-5: Aiding Allies
"There are many types of pain. Burning, cutting, aching are all types of physical pain, pain which I can't feel. Well that's not fair, I do feel them but not in your sense. Hmm, it's hard to explain. If, I say, cut my hand, it will hurt, but I've felt much worse. I guess I've become numb to it. But I'll let you hit me and I'll say 'ow' and maybe fall back, but, sorry, it's an act."
-Mark, Age 21
Devil is watching the War from one of the landing skid of the news helicopter Grand Master Kawakami is being interviewed on. He is not in a physical shell, of course, but is in his pure, spiritual form. Devil is hardly interested in the interview, so instead he is literally hanging from the helicopter so he can watch the battle.
'Friedrich's and Kazama's squadrons has broken off from helping the F main army and are heading west while the main army keeps the enemy from noticing by slashing at Kuki,' he thinks. 'They are heading towards the reinforcements led by that woman in a kimono. It would be suicide to take them head on. No, Naoe is counting on the ineptitude of the commanding prowess of that woman so he can strike directly at her and take out the entire unit with one blow.
'But, based on the actions Naoe has already made in this battle, this will not be an assassination. Naoe plans on capturing the woman and probably make an example of her,' he continues his thought process. 'Enemy morale would plummet, probably to the point of betrayal…well played, Naoe the Tactician.'
Predicting human activity is a hobby Devil has grown fond of over his eight years as a "mercenary". That was the best word for it, but Devil feels the term is disingenuous. He did not work for money or for physical gain, but for purpose: to mold humanity itself into something greater. Something that is not doomed to self-destruction. Something…
Devil sighs. He stopped for a reason. Humanity should only be shaped by humans, and even before he became a mercenary he abandoned his claim to being human. Devil refocuses on the battle as the helicopter gets ready to land.
'Survivor has probably already defeated Eberbach and Oshitari…Oshitari's presence on the battlefield is unsurprising given her connection to Kuki. She would have been better suited to an assassin role rather than a protector. The S tactician must have been being cautious, and given the massive number difference an assassin unit would have most likely been unnecessary. That being said, an assassin unit would have been a good thing to rely on if things went sour. My guess is that there is such a unit in the S army. They have probably been told to actively avoid F army units. Oshitari would have taken out a unit anyway, but unless the current commander of the unit is as precise and aggressive as her I doubt they would be confident enough to do the same. No doubt Naoe has placed a safeguard.
'Naoe probably gained more from Eberbach's defeat. Given her profession and commanding officer, Eberbach is probably well-trained in the art of commanding. She would have led a well organized counter-attack as Kuki retreated to reinforcements. As it is I would be surprised if Kuki can fully recover before being forced back into the action,' Devil lets go of the landing skid once the helicopter is about fifteen feet above the ground and quickly makes his way out from under the descending vehicle. 'All in all, it is looking well for the F army. But there are going to be plenty of troops remaining on both sides after Kawakami joins the fray. Naoe's defenders are going to hold her off for at least a few minutes before he can pierce his way to Kuki.'
With his prediction set, all Devil has to do now is wait to be proven right or wrong. But, something is not right. He takes a quick look around as he tries to get a better grasp on what it is that is wrong. It has nothing to do with the battle…at least not yet. He falls back on his on-field training and heads in a direction that he believes will hold the answer.
It is not long before he finds himself in a clearing with a unit in the F army. He takes a quick look around in the foliage and detects a couple of presences. One is mulling over something, probably on whether or not to attack the unit. Devil sends out a few pulses of energy at the presence to ward her off. She takes notice and the two silently move away from the unit. Devil moves some distance ahead of them and creates a physical shell and waits for the two to see him.
The two hide and move well, they see him and wait cautiously. "I know you are out there, I was the one you sensed earlier. Stop hiding and face me," Devil says sternly.
"…Alright," the two beaten women come out, both are wearing army uniforms and bandages. The one talking has light grey hair. "How did you sense us?"
"Instinct led me here, once I got within range it is was easy to tell you apart from the forest," Devil explains as he carefully looks them over. "Who are you running from?"
They become silent.
"Very well, whether or not you do not answer me does not matter. I doubt that it would be anything other than the Kuki conglomerate." Both of them look at him in surprise, confirming his suspicions. "Having synthetic limbs may grant more power, but having one in this point of time is a giveaway. Someone or some people with money, knowledge, military hardware, and reason to make such things are enough to find a suitable suspect. Being hurt in the general area of a Kuki research base simplifies things."
"And what about you? Why are you here?"
Devil thinks before answering. He sees little harm in telling them. "I am here because someone I care about is here."
The two women look at each other with curious expressions on their faces. The light-grey haired one asks another simple question. "Who are you?"
"I am known as Devil, you may refer to me as such," she looks at him in disbelief, but he does not care if she believes him. "What about you?"
"Tachibana Takae, this is Mimori Saki…are you the Devil?"
"…I am not from hell if that is what you are asking. It was a name given to me twelve years ago that I have decided to carry as my own."
Mimori looks at Tachibana. "Do you know him, major?" she asks.
"Devil's a myth. Back when I was starting at JSDF, my instructor told me stories of a young fanatical mercenary who killed mercilessly. Devil was as powerful as he was ruthless though, so nobody who stood up to him lived," Tachibana explains. "Several people claimed to be Devil around five or six years ago and all of them died horribly, all of them presumably killed by the real Devil."
Devil nods. "Fanatical is not how I would have described myself, it implies that I believe in superstitions."
"So you are him?"
"The story matches my past, so I assume so."
Tachibana looks closely at Devil. "You don't seem so monstrous."
"Appearances can be deceiving, anger me if you wish to see just how monstrous I really am."
She seems satisfied with his answers. "One last question; what's stopping me from just knocking you unconscious before leaving?"
Devil laughs. "Am I to assume that as a threat?"
She raises her arms to fight. As she is about to lunge, Devil glares at her frostily. The atmosphere changes drastically as Devil unveils his spirit. Tachibana's eyes widen when she feels it and she breaks out in a cold sweat as she gulps unconsciously in fear. Devil takes a few steps forward and she takes a few steps back.
"Do you believe you can beat me now? Attack me if you dare, but know that I will show no mercy," he says coldly. "You cannot beat me; even if you were to attack me at your full potential I will easily crush you and," he looks at Mimori, who is shivering, "I will rip out her implants as you watch, bleeding on the forest ground and full of regret as the person that trusts you screams in agony for the fight you need not have started, the last thing you see before your eyesight goes dark and you feel her warm blood splash on your face as she enters the afterlife alongside you."
…
…
"…Nevermind…" Tachibana relents as she lowers her arms. Devil veils his spirit once more and the area becomes peaceful again. She takes a few deep breaths as if a pressure has lifted off her chest. "Holy…" she starts, "What the hell was that?!"
Devil ignores her outburst and looks to where the chopper landed; he can sense that Grand Master Kawakami is looking for him. "I should return. Do I need to warn you not to anger me?"
"No, we understood that." Devil turns and starts walking into the forest, but Tachibana asks one last question. "Are you going to tell anybody about us?"
"So long as you do not endanger my master or his goals than I do not care what you are doing or what anybody is doing about you. However, I shall tell my master about you and what he does with the information is his choice," Devil disappears as he dissipates the physical shell behind the foliage. He ponders about watching them for awhile but quickly shakes away the notion. Grand Master Kawakami will get suspicious if he is not back soon, so hurries back.
When he finds him, Grand Master Kawakami quickly moves towards Devil. "Where did you go?" he asks quietly to avoid suspicion from others.
"A couple of outsiders were going to interfere with the battle, I stopped them."
"And you didn't tell me?"
Devil does not show any emotion on his face or in the way he acts. "You were busy with the reporter."
Grand Master Kawakami thinks for several seconds. "Well, I suppose its fine as long as you didn't hurt them."
"I did not," Devil assures him. "Now then, did I miss anything in the battle?"
Mark didn't blink that far from the front line, but he was too focused on Azumi and Margit to notice that the main army has been pushed back quite a bit. He is forced to hide to avoid the notice of the S troops. He decides to keep his hood off since the only two people he didn't want to alert are out of the game.
'Where did these guys come from?' he asks himself. 'Are these the reinforcement that Margit brought?' He hears the clashing of metal behind the S lines not far from his current position. Mark blinks above the armies and sees Kazuko and Gen-san fighting four robots that look like Cookie.
"These guys again?" Mark mumbles as he descends into the opening the S army is making so they're not caught between Kazuko and Gen-san and the robots. "Kazuko! Gen-san! I'm here to help!"
"Good timing, Mark!" Kazuko says with thanks.
"You took your time," Gen-san doesn't sound grateful, but nods in approval.
The robots also recognize Mark, "It's the guy who beat us last time."
"Hmph, this is good. Now we can show you what we learned!"
Mark sighs. "First emotions and now they're learning!? Greeeaaat…"
"You got a problem with robots?" the one that looks like the Cookie 1 asks.
"Are you a robo-phobic?"
"...Don't you mean technophobic?" Mark asks.
"I know what I'm saying!"
"Hmm, it's not that I'm afraid of robots, but Aura Artists are told that artificial creations steal souls and so they should be destroyed, so I am a bit cautious."
"Robots steal souls?!" Kazuko asks incredulously.
"The saying comes from when artificial creations were made by imprisoning souls inside them, so it's about a thousand years old. Still, we made it our duty to destroy all of these creations to free the souls inside. So yeah I guess I am somewhat prejudiced against robots, with the only things beingworse are clones."
"But that was a thousand years ago, isn't that rule outdated?"
"That's why I'm apprehensive about robots. Culture demands they be destroyed, but since robots are different from the artificial creations of the past I don't see a need to destroy them. Not only that, but these robots have made their own souls."
"Fuahaha," Mark knows that laugh by now; Hideo has emerged from the S army and entered their conversation, "Kuki engineering has no equal, Mark. When they make something, they put their hearts into it. These robots are a testament to their passion!"
"…Yeah, I'm impressed. Leaving aside the rather precarious situation you have put yourself in, I'm glad you showed up. Do these robots have a constant connection to a back up console like they had a month ago?"
"Of course!" Hideo replies quickly.
"Good, then I can fight without questioning my morality," Mark says as he readies his fists. 'I don't want Kuki having my sword fighting data in one of their systems, so I guess I'm going brutal on their robot asses!' Mark's eye twitches. 'Thank god I didn't say that out loud.'
"Pay attention dumbass!" Gen-san yells at Mark as a robot, carrying two energy swords, lunges at him.
Mark nimbly dodges the attack. "Don't worry, I'm not a rookie!" he yells back reassuringly as he kicks the attacking robot's head. A loud cracking noise from his foot tells him that was a stupid idea. "Of course they upgraded their armor…"
"Heheh, that's right," exclaims the robot as he slashes at Mark's other leg to sweep him, but Mark is already jumping back. "Not even our energy sabers can cut through our armor!"
The robot follows him and attacks before Mark can even put his feet on the ground. "And they're faster, too!" Mark intentionally falls backward to dodge the "blades". When his back hits the ground he rolls to the side to dodge the follow-up. He is forced on the defensive and constantly jumps back to avoid the energy sabers. He considers asking for help, but Gen-san is fighting another robot, with one energy sword, as is Kazuko, hers has an energy spear.
'Wait! Where's the other robot?!' Mark sees the last one behind the others, spinning its "hands" that are actually mini-guns as Mark found out last time. 'Wait…again! Aren't guns forbidden?'
As Mark thinks while dodging, the spear robot jumps, exposing Kazuko to the mini-gun robot. No longer given the option to second guess himself, he quickly jumps between her and the robot and shield himself just before it starts firing. Many rounds hit him quickly, but he remains standing after the barrage ends. "Are you alright?!" Kazuko asks behind him.
"Those were special rounds so I'm-" the robot that was chasing Mark interrupts him by slashing him with both of the swords, but he quickly recovers. "Fine…no more playing around then." He dashes at the robot and grabs him. Then, using his momentum, he slams it into the ground. "I bet it takes a bit for you to get up, so wait here, okay?"
"Damn you," it says as Mark gets off it and pounces on the spear robot attacking Kazuko. He goes for his weapon to keep it still, giving Kazuko the chance to finish it with a quick chop to the back of its neck. It noisily goes down.
"Thanks Mark…Behind you!" Kazuko says. Mark quickly spins towards the mini-gun robot, which is about to fire.
"Time to try out my new tricks!" he shouts excitedly as a lavender shade covers his left hand. The light solidifies in his mother's soul weapon, a parrying dagger, and he quickly holds it up between him and the robot.
"That's not going to help you now!" it shouts as it fires, but the bullets stop in front of the dagger. "Huh?"
The area around the dagger looks distorted, and the bullets stopped once they entered it. With a long shout and a show of exertion, as if pushing away a sturdy wall, Mark sends the bullets back with much more force which pierce the robot's hard shell. The robot falls backward and fizzles for a few moments before shutting down.
"Whoa, how did you do that Mark?" Kazuko asks. Mark falls to one knee and pants heavily as the dagger dissipates. "Are you okay?"
"Don't worry about me…it was just…more tiring than I thought it would be. Go help Gen-san," Mark replies. Kazuko nods and attacks the other robot. Mark mumbles to himself, "So that's how much power it takes to summon a rift. Devil makes it look so easy. But then…" he stops when Kazuko and Gen-san come back.
"Hey, can you still walk?" Gen-san asks. "It would be a pain to drag you back."
Mark picks himself up. "Have you three forgotten about me?" asks the two saber robot that has also just gotten up.
"Yep," Mark answers bluntly.
"Then I shall punish you for your arrogance. While you were fighting the others, I was connecting to the satellite we are connected to and compiled data on your patterns. Now-bzzzzzzzzzzzt!" The robot begins to spark and move in random directions.
Kazuko and Gen-san look at each other curiously before turning to Hideo for answers, but his face shows that he is just as clueless as they are. The robot jerks a bit more before exploding.
"What happened?" Hideo asks to no one in particular.
"Your robot was given a virus by a friend of mine," Mark answers, unbothered.
"That's impossible. Kuki has the best programmers in the world! They have protection against every created computer virus."
Mark smiles maliciously. "What makes you think that they…" he hesitates for a moment before finishing. "That they are the best?"
"Why are you talking about this?" Gen-san asks impatiently. "We need to get back."
"But the S commander is right there," Kazuko protests.
"We're still surrounded and Mark looks spent. We will have a better chance with our unit behind us," Gen-san logically explains.
"And your sister is going to enter the fight prematurely," Mark adds. "We fall back now and come back stronger."
"All right, all right, I get it," Kazuko says reluctantly before turning around and charging through to F main army with Gen-san and Mark right behind her, leaving Hideo with his new guards. At least for now.