Narrator pow:
"Andou!" Eclair shouted as she stormed into her room at the afternoon, painting excessively.
"What happened?" Tan-skinned girl asked her, turning around on her chair and leaving her notebook on the table.
"Two things, actually." Eclair responded, closing the door behind her and catching her breath. "First, Rosehip just said that she will stay for a bit in Saint Gloriana-!"
"In the school that deliberately kicked her?" Andou asked, outraged at the news.
"Darjeeling convinced her that they, rest fo the school and at least some of the previous students gathered for a joint therapy session. Apparently Assam suffered a mental break after encountering some demon during her-!."
"Demon? Are you sure you know what you're talking about?" Andou asked again, now doubtful about the whole situation.
"Oui, that's the second reason I'm here." Eclair responded, taking out her smartphone and showing her a relatively short video that was released to the Japanese news last night.
"Greetings, citizens of Japan." A somewhat low-toned, manly voice said, slightly distorted by the electronic l cackling in the background. "My name is... Well, Killer, Killer Sans... Yes, I stole it because I'm unoriginal, no one is perfect. If you don't like it, then go to your momma and cry." The voice continued, taking a few pauses to showcase real bones that appeared out of nowhere. "But you know what also isn't perfect? Police that favours protection of big time events instead of common citizens. Which is why I'm here to speak."
"This is real?" Andou asked blinking twice while Eclair paused the video.
"Oui, at least the video itself." Her friend responded before exchanging nods and resuming the video.
"And this... This disgraceful situation is why I'm here. To deliever a boner of a demand to our blinded by exposed glory of tournaments higher political class." The voice continued, before the camera turned to the left where a demonic skull vaporized a tough cube of solid steel, the remains in the corners being impaled from below by the bones. "For as long as the police cannot deal with the rampant crime, I will. And I assure you when I say it, but mine way of dealing with criminals is beyond brutal in a long run, so don't keep the devil waiting and actually do something instead of discouraging an actually active justice system because it isn't yours..."
"So that's why our schools are on ships." Andou commented, breaking a short span of silence after the messeage ended.
"I mean, do you remember that weird person who saved us from those four when we were walking to the return flight." Eclair asked her, beginning to become annoyed by the oblivious approach of her teammate.
"Yeah...!" Andou sighed, before a sudden realisation struck her. "Wait, I think I know this voice..." She added, making Eclair partially froze in place.
"I thought you'd say these two are the same." She said, making her frown decisively.
"That too, but I'm looking at the bigger picture." Andou responded, taking her scroll and quickly finding a good-rated app made for clearing seperate voices from convoluted mixes of sounds and filters. "What I meant is that I think I know who this guy is."
"What do you mean?" Eclair asked, now geniuenly concerned.
"Haven't you found the way Maken greeted you... Odd?"
"Oui, but back then I just assumed that the feeling was just because of mine old experiences in Maginot and other things that happened... I mean, how often does one take a random girl to buy her any medicine she wants and then recruits her right away?"
"Fair enough, in my case he said that I would just fit in perfectly and that I have a lot of potential he wanted to patronate..." Eclair responded, her face slightly blushing as her hands twitched. "Sorry for being so emotional, it's gratitude."
"No problem, I also have some for him on my own." Andou responded, walking up to the window and starring towards the sky while her phone scanned the video she copied from Eclair and compared it to other videos on the internet. "On my part, he admitted to accepting my apply to this school while drunk on the party a night or two before I joined."
"Drunk? He's seventeen!" Eclair exclaimed, outbursting at the revelation in her somewhat calm style.
"Exacly." Andou responded with serious glare, making her flinch. "Seventeen year old runs a WHOLE SCHOOL, gives MEXT officials middle fingers and gets drunk at nights. So why shouldn't he be also a rampant vigilantie who berates goverment in TV and sends death threats while doing so?"
"I... I... Wait." Eclair responded, catching her breath after being struck with another realisation. "That guy on the messeage... Was Maken?"
"Given what I can see, yes." Andou responded, seeing as four of first five matches her app gave were Maken's recent speeches. "He used a hellish tone of voice filters and acoustic tricks to keep himself clear, but he hadn't included one minor factor." She added, seeing a very long list of filters and audio adjustments made by the programm to gain the real voice of the person behind the messeage.
"And that would be?" Eclair asked, getting a little closer to her.
"That would be... Us."
Narrator pow (Diffrent scene):
"... But once again, thanks for coming even thought we abandoned you so recently."
"No problem! It's just a shame Darjeeling-sama couldn't join us." Rosehip pouted, as she and Orange Pekore had a walk inside St. Gloriana's Tea Garden's open-air park, both of them aiming to regain mental stability after they participated in the latest round of group therapy for Assam.
"I know, but remember that she didn't had anything of value to tell her. She said it to us herself earlier this day." Pekore responded, taking a deep breath before looking around to see if they could change the topic. "I need to say, you changed over the time you spend at Sudamericana."
"Thanks, I was just given a very chill group who take their life with a smile and happiness on the inside, enough so to make me think twice-"
"That much!?"
"Yeah, that much. Wouldn't happen if Maken didn't accept me..."
"Oh, right, Maken..." Pekore sighed, her face taking a depressed look.
"What's wrong with him?" Rosehip asked, now concerned about the condition of her another friend.
"Well, I know that a lady doesn't share secrets... But some situations don't allow even a lady to be herself."
"I don't fuly understand, but I know it's serious. But you don't have to tell me if you don't-!"
"I explain why at the end, first I need to give you a picture of what is happening. Or rather, what happened..."
Pekore pow (Flashback scene):
"What are they doing!?" I shouted in fear as I saw tanks of Bellwall Academy actively firing their guns at the no-fire zone established within a small village, hitting not as much Bonple tanks as the village's houses, gardens... And worst of all, it's residents.
"And to think they didn't even bother to listen to the judges..." Darjeeling-sama sighed, also witnessing the sheer chaos and destruction this situation caused. And just as she finished, a KV-2 fired another shot which landed directly o a building, destroying it and setting the remains ablaze in a mere flash of an eye.
"Da-da-darjee-eling-s-sama!" I called out, barely able to speak as I dropped my tea on the ground below me in shock.
"I know, Pekore. I know..." Darjeeling-sama replied, before extending her arm to hug me while Assam did the same from the other side. "But...?" She stopped, as our trio looked back at the battlefield where a lone 7TP stood a bit forward from the bridge, being a rear guard while it's crew, other tanks and civilians ran away throu the small, wooden bridge conviniently located at the village's center.
However, there was something peculiar about the tank, and it wasn't the fact that it stood here with only one person inside, but the fact that it shouldn't be doing.
He fight back, and he fight back good.
First shot from it impacted directly into the gun barrel of one of KV-2's, breaking it in half and causing the tank to stop for some reason. Second one hit the one of a Panzer V, turning the exit of it inside out and making the shot be unbalanced, which somehow managed to barely miss another KV-2 incoming from the other side.
"Whoa... Who could just stays behind and take on the entire team who shoots at people!?" Assam asked, confused just as me as the tank was finally struck by one shot in the engine and exploded, the barrage of other ones following shortly after. Needless to say, before they ended it barely even resembeled a tank.
"A person whorty of every lady..." Darjeeling-sama responded, giving us spare binoculars as we saw a crying child, propably below four years, crying on the middle of the bridge as an elderly woman picked her up and handed over to incoming authorities. "A hero..."
"But... Who stayed inside this tank?" Rosehip asked, looking down on the floor as they entered the corridoor and turned right back to where they previously came from.
"Well, that's the saddest part, really." Pekore responded, looking forward to see a pair of woman in their thirties debating the recent revelations near the window. "Now to come think of it, you're the last person I have yet to tell who beaten up Assam."
"Who?"
"The same boy from the story I just told you. A tragic tale really..."
"A boy, you say?" Rosehip asked out loud, thinking for a while before realising something terrible. "Ma-a-ake... But why? What did she do to him?"
"She confronted a fallen hero for a second time." Pekore responded, taking her arm as they resumed their walk towards the room. "The point is, that battle left Maken as a wreck instead of body while his mind suffered even worse. And while he did manage to achieve something good with it, mine actions as a sucessor of Darjeeling made him showcase his worst sides to Assam..." She added, nearly scowling as she ended the sentence.
"But now that I know... I can go back and fix it!" Rosehip exclaimed, earning the attention from the bystanders.
"You do?"
"Yes I do! I am Sudamericana student now, remember? I can go there, help him with the past and make him do the amends, simple as that-!" Rosehip explained, before Pekore leaped forward and hugged her with tears coming down the cheeks.
"Thank you Rosehip-sama!" Pekore exclaimed, driving her head into her chest like a baby.
"It's alright, it's alright. You're still my friend, and so is Assam..."