All right… like I said in the previous chapter, Shining Sunlight's first arc has come to a close and we will be entering the second arc now. It feels weird to think about how this story has been going on for as long as it has, but… here we are I suppose. And to celebrate this milestone, I decided to update the summary a bit. I think most people already know this story has no connection to either Crimson or Scarlet Sunlight by now, and if you are reading this far in the future… here's the final reminder, I guess?
A special thank you goes to the readers of the previous chapter(s) and Rider who was the only reader to have posted a review.
Disclaimer: I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape, or form, intend to pretend that I do.
"Take your time, Kite-san," Ran reassured Kite, turning away from the Silver-based avatar and opening her menu. If Kite said that they would be right behind her, then all that she had to do was trust in Kite and head out, right?
Hesitantly, almost reluctantly so, Ran pressed the buttons she needed to teleport to the Silent Swamp. After confirming her option, Ran's screen began to fade as Endymion got transported to her destination.
But not before Ran could catch a glimpse of a meek, lonely Kite being left behind.
Seconds after leaving Silver Kite behind her, Ran watched as Red Endymion materialized in an all-too-familiar area. The Silent Swamp area was an area that she and the rest of the members of Afterglow had been playing in for weeks. And for good reason, too.
The area struck the perfect balance for Ran's playstyle in the game, providing a challenging but not difficult terrain for her to train in. There were enough trees and other forms of foliage for the monsters to hide from the onslaught that was Ran's barrage of attacks. As a result, Ran couldn't just fire her attacks blindly and hope they hit their mark, much unlike she could in more open areas.
Miraculously enough, Ran never felt like she was constrained here, either. There weren't enough natural obstacles for Ran's attacks to be completely nullified. This made the swamp a very suitable training ground for the long-ranged Endymion.
As Ran had expected, she wasn't the only person to have entered the Silent Swamp; three other avatars were already there. And these three avatars were avatars that Ran recognized in a heartbeat.
"Sorry it took me a while to get here," Ran was quick to say her greeting the moment she knew her friends could hear her. Himari and Tomoe responded to Ran's greeting before turning away from the vocalist, much to Ran's chagrin. Knowing all too well that she wouldn't be getting a proper response from either of them anymore, Ran instead turned her attention to the last person she could hope to hold a civil conversation with, "Those two back to their usual antics?"
"You can say that… T—I mean, Chaos-chan is just getting Maiden-chan caught up to what we've been doing so far," Tsugumi explained slowly, to which Ran voiced her understanding. Ran wanted to say something else and already opened her mouth to do so, but Tsugumi beat her to it, "Um… Endymion-chan? Weren't you and Kite-san supposed to be together?"
"We were, but Kite-san needed some time before they could join us," Ran, in need of a response that would satisfy Tsugumi, settled on the first thing her brain came up with. This, of course, resulted in an answer that even Ran was feeling uneasy about. The best solution to stop feeling this way? Ran cleared her throat and spoke again, "How's Maiden doing?"
"Maiden-chan is doing fine. I think she is still feeling bad she had to drop out of the tournament, though, so it might be better if you don't bring that up around her," Tsugumi added the last bit in a hurried whisper when she realized that she should not have brought it up herself. Neither Tsugumi nor Ran knew if this reduced the likelihood of being overheard by Himari, however, so Tsugumi tried to change the topic again, "It sure feels strange that we will be going into a fight in Silent Swamp without Lotus-chan."
"Speaking of Lotus, where's her replacement at?" Himari, who had silently moved her avatar to stand behind Ran's avatar, asked. Ran didn't see the bassist move so it took all her self-control to not scream in surprise. Blissfully unaware that she had scared Ran senseless with that act, Himari picked up where she had left off without skipping a beat, "I thought that they would be here by now."
Ran, who had regained her composure again after the scare that Himari had caused her, was about to open her mouth to respond. But this response was cut short by a familiar light shining in between Peace and Endymion. Ran and her friends were watching silently as the light blinded the group before fading completely.
In place of the light was a newcomer avatar that Ran recognized only all too well.
"Well, would you look at that!" Himari exclaimed, her voice bordering between surprise and joy. Despite the distance between the two girls, Ran could already imagine how big Himari's grin was right now, "Ask and I shall receive. Wonder if that will work on Lotus, I should try it out another day."
"I don't think doing that is a good idea," Ran said in a deadpan, not wanting to remind Himari of the last time the bassist tried that. Despite that, Ran also knew that she had to stop her friend from embarrassing herself in front of Moca. Moca didn't have any issues trying to find something to tease Himari about anyway, always succeeding in finding new ways to do so. There was no reason for any of them to give Moca even more openings to mess with Himari.
In Ran's moment of distraction, she didn't catch what Tsugumi had said nor who she had addressed her words to. But both unvoiced questions would be answered when Ran heard a familiar voice speak.
"Yes, I am all right. I apologize for making you wait and worry, Peace-san, everyone," Silver Kite mumbled, surprisingly loud enough for the words to reach Ran's ears with little difficulty. After a short pause, Ran watched as her partner in the tournament cautiously approached Himari's avatar, "You must be the friend that Endymion-san, Peace-san, and Chaos-san were talking about. I am Silver Kite and I was the partner of Endymion-san, it is a pleasure to meet you. Uhm…"
"Green Maiden. It's a pleasure to meet you, too, Kite-san. A friend of my friend is a friend of mine, so I hope we can get along from here," Himari, who had figured why Kite had stopped, took her chance to try and lighten the mood. Her efforts were bearing fruit already, so with a grin that Ran could already envision on her friend's face Himari turned Maiden around, "All right! Now that we're all here, let's get the party started!"
Himari was about to leave the area, leading the group out of the safe zone and into an area where the enemies could spawn. The only issue with this plan of hers was that Himari was the only one who had moved after making the announcement. Ran, Tsugumi, Tomoe, and Kite were all standing stiff.
"Oh, come on! I thought I wouldn't have to be the odd one out for once now that Lotus isn't here, but even Kite-san is keeping their distance from me, too?" Himari exclaimed, much to Ran's annoyance. Ran knew that it was unfair for the bassist to explode in Kite's face the way that she did and was about to chastise her friend for it. Much to Ran's surprise, Himari seemed to think the same way as she quickly scrambled for an apology before Ran could say anything, "I'm sorry, Kite-san, I went too far."
"I-It is okay, Maiden-san. I can imagine that… Maiden-san must be going through a lot," Kite added the last bit softly. Ran managed to pick up on it, but she wasn't sure if anyone else heard those words. After a short, tense pause, Kite took a deep breath and spoke again, "So… should we get started, or… are we waiting for something or someone? I… thought that Lotus-san… would not be playing with us right now, was I wrong?"
"Nah, I doubt that Lotus will be able to join us," Tomoe responded in her usual manner, the nonchalant shrug that the redhead was doing clearly visible in Ran's mind. Shaking these thoughts out of her head, Ran managed to focus again in time to hear Tomoe's next few words, "Maiden, you're surprisingly energetic and motivated today, why don't you lead the way?"
Himari sputtered a few unintelligible words in response but didn't disagree with the suggestion. Maiden was directed to turn around and start walking deeper into the Silent Swamp. Tomoe and Tsugumi were both only too eager to follow Himari and hurried after her. And Ran?
Ran had different ideas on what she should be doing.
The vocalist waddled over to Kite and called out the name of the silver-based avatar. When Kite didn't respond to the first couple attempts of these, Ran was forced to raise her voice to try and hopefully reach Kite's ears.
"Ah! I'm sorry, Endymion-san, I must have zoned out," Kite apologized quickly, sounding sincere in their words. Ran, who was about to say something about Kite's distracted self, held herself back. And just in time, too, as Kite was speaking again, "Did you say something?"
"No, don't worry about it," Ran finally settled on a response. There was no use bringing her concerns up, all that would accomplish was provide more distress for Kite. After taking a second to think of something else to say, Ran took a deep breath and spoke her mind, "Let's go and catch up to the others."
It did not take Ran and Kite long to catch up to Ran's friends. The three avatars were already waiting for their arrival, looking around their surroundings in the meantime. Despite being in a dangerous area, none of them appeared to be worried. And why would they be? Ran and her friends would spend several hours a week here so everyone was well accustomed to the enemies.
Ran was about to greet her friends and had already opened her mouth to do so but she would never get the opportunity to do so.
"M-Maiden-san! Look out behind you!" Kite cried out from Ran's left. Ran, at first taken aback by Kite's voice, turned her attention elsewhere. She saw it. The thing that caused Kite to call out in warning.
Sneaking up behind Himari's avatar was a creature twice the size of Green Maiden. It was a bipedal reptilian beast with hardened, swamp-green colored scales covering its back. Running from the back of its neck down to the tail that was being dragged through the mud were spikes about the size of Kite's head. Its big eyes were focused purely on Himari's avatar, and the reason for this became very obvious to the gathered players.
In one smooth motion, the Baby Drake lashed out at a speed surprising for its size and bit down on Maiden's shoulder. Hard.
"Maiden-san! Are… Are you all right?" Kite cried out in worry before trying to rush to Himari's side. Ran, who had been standing beside Kite throughout this entire interaction, couldn't react in time; all that she could do was watch as Kite ran to close the distance, "Let go off Maiden-san!"
"Kite-san?" Himari breathed out as she watched the silver-based avatar close the distance to her. Before Himari managed to calm Kite down, Kite had already brandished the pair of daggers they normally used and slashed at the Baby Drake's head.
Kite's attack only managed to leave a shallow cut in the creature's face, but it was enough for it to remove its hold on Himari's avatar. Kite then swiftly stepped in between Maiden and the Baby Drake, taking a defensive stance.
"Don't worry, Maiden-san, I won't let it hurt you anymore," Kite announced, adjusting the avatar's position to protect Maiden from any potential attacks. When nobody seemed to be responding to Kite, they lowered their guard enough to ask Ran and her friends a crucial question, "Why is everybody stunned? It's just one Baby Drake."
"That's not… um… how do I say this," Tomoe began before trailing off. The redhead was hoping for someone to pick up where she had left off, but she wouldn't be so lucky. So with a heavy heart, Tomoe took a deep breath and decided to get straight to the point, "Kite-san, you… never met a green-colored avatar before, have you?"
"No, I have not fought with or against one. Maiden-san is the first one I've met," Kite admitted sheepishly, ducking underneath a swipe from the Baby Drake before countering with a slashing attack. When the Baby Drake staggered back in pain, Kite added in a frantic hurry, "But-But, if the Baby Drake were to bite Kite-san like it did Maiden-san… it would deal at least a quarter of Kite-san's health in one attack."
"I appreciate the concern, but I'm fine, Kite-san, honest," Himari began in an attempt to ease Kite's worries. When Kite did not seem like they were properly convinced yet, Himari quickly thought of something else, "If you don't believe me, just look at my health bar. It's still close to full, isn't it?"
A short period of silence followed, one that Ran could only assume meant that Kite was looking at Himari's health bar. Ran's theory proved to be correct when Kite spoke again.
"So this is the power of the green-colored avatars that Moon-san was talking about…" Kite mumbled under their breath at a surprisingly loud volume; Ran didn't know if Kite had realized that yet but wasn't planning to tell them herself. Ran barely got the chance to even try, however, as Kite managed to decide on the next thing they wanted to say, "I apologize for acting out of turn there. The Baby Drakes would typically damage me by about a quarter of my health the last time I faced one so I… acted without thinking just now."
"Don't worry about that, I appreciate it," Himari tried to reassure her new friend. Then, as if having decided that a change of topic would be better than to continue on this depressing mood, Himari turned her attention to someone else, "Guess it's about time we took care of this thing, right? Chaos, if you will?"
"I thought you'd never ask!" Tomoe exclaimed happily and energetically, rushing past Maiden and Kite to face the Baby Drake by herself. Kite called out in worry, but Tomoe ignored this warning.
The Baby Drake, evidently having grown bored of waiting for the players to make a move, lashed out at the incoming Chaos. Without wasting any momentum, Chaos ducked under one of the Baby Drake's claws and landed an uppercut under the monster's chin. The attack wasn't enough for it to be a lethal blow, but it did succeed in throwing the Baby Drake off balance.
"That's all for me, you know what to do," Tomoe announced as Chaos rushed out of the way. Himari and Tsugumi were quick to respond to Tomoe's call, directing their respective avatars to the side as well. The only person who didn't know what they were supposed to be doing was Kite. But Kite learned quickly and, after a second of delay, they jumped after Himari's avatar to hide from what was about to happen.
"It's just like you to push the responsibilities onto someone else's shoulders, Chaos," Ran chastised her friend, though she couldn't help the smile from forming. Without wasting another second, Ran pressed the key that sealed the fate of Tomoe and Tsugumi in the tournament.
Endymion responded to Ran's command in an instant. The red-colored avatar raised its right arm in the direction of the Baby Drake before moving it in a familiar pattern. The next thing Ran knew, an upside-down star of white-yellow light had formed in front of her avatar. The preparations for the attack were almost complete.
All that was left was for Endymion to pull back its right hand, clench the hand into a tight fist, and gather magenta-colored energy around it. An excruciatingly long pause followed that could have lasted anywhere between minutes and three seconds.
But Ran was patient and so she waited. And waited. The Baby Drake had managed to get back on its feet by then and was looking around its surroundings to locate its enemy. It quickly noticed the vulnerable and unmoving Endymion and let out a shriek before sprinting towards Ran's avatar.
The Baby Drake's efforts were all in vain.
Endymion had finished charging up its attack and punched the star symbol in front of it with its fist. This caused a wide, magenta-colored beam to be shot from the other side of the star, completely engulfing the Baby Drake in the attack.
The attack ended almost as quickly as it had begun. The light dissipated and Ran could see the result of the blast for herself.
"Target neutralized," Ran muttered nonchalantly, turning her gaze away from the destruction she had caused so she could watch her friends come out of hiding. With a small sigh, Ran decided to voice the next thought that came to her mind, "I felt much less remorse using that skill against the Baby Drake than I did against the two of you."
After Ran finished talking, she directed Endymion to do what it had to do: claim its prize. The monsters in this game could have valuable resources for the players to obtain and the Baby Drake was no exception. Of course, this meant that the players needed to take the items after each fight; this fight just happened to be Ran's responsibility to retrieve the items from the fallen enemy.
"For what it's worth… I'm at least glad I wasn't on the receiving end this time. What do you think, Peace?" Tomoe hurriedly added the last question, waiting for the brunette to voice her agreement. Then, when silence threatened to overtake the group again, Tomoe turned back to Ran, "But you know that your Double Impact would have been more than enough, right?"
"Would you believe me if I said that I miss clicked?" Ran asked, calling forth her inner Moca and feigning innocence to the best of her abilities. Unfortunately for Ran, she wasn't Moca, so this act wasn't nearly as effective as the one Moca was capable of. Ran then quickly thought of something else to say but struggled to do so. That was until she saw Endymion throwing a handful of scales at the other avatars, "Here, that is what we managed to gather from this one. We'll probably be in here for a while at this rate."
A short period of silence followed as Himari approached the pile of scales and handed everyone their fair share. Ran noticed how Kite seemed rather hesitant to accept their scales, but Himari could be very insistent. After leaving Kite no choice, Himari turned Maiden to Ran.
"So, Endymion…" Himari began slowly before trailing off, never quite finishing her sentence. But Ran didn't need to be a genius to understand what Himari was trying to say; Ran knew full well what the bassist wanted from her.
"Later, we're still in a relatively dangerous area right now. Baby Drakes don't pose much of a threat to us but we shouldn't be lowering our guard here," Ran pointed out, not keen on spending her time talking. It was only natural for Himari, the only one of them to not participate in the tournament, to be curious about Ran's new skill. But Ran knew that they could be attacked at any moment here so she tried to dissuade Himari from pushing this topic, "Let's focus on what we came here to do before anything else."
"All right, everyone!" Himari called out enthusiastically, having seemingly forgotten her earlier interest in Ran's newest skill. Ran watched in slight amusement as Himari then tried to motivate the others into resuming their playtime together, "You heard what Endymion just said, so let's get going!"
Yes, Ran was certain of this now. This would be a very interesting session she would have with her friends.
And that is all for today's chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!