Chapter 14 Mission 4: For Honor (Part 1)
Lady checked her wristwatch. 4 AM in the morning sharp. She stood alone under the black cloud on the center of the I.S Arena. The cold wind was no match for her agitation in recall to the moment she returned back to the armory in checking how the boys did. Instead, the room was in a mess. Signs of brawls were evident. She rolled her eyes knowing how it eventually ended with the loser sent into Bradley's infirmary while the victor disappeared nowhere with his glory. Dante's victory, obviously. Apparently, he left a mark too on his computer terminal.
'Meet me at the field.'
Lady had made sure she was totally alone before she hit the backspace on the computer hard. That silver haired idiot never stopped to give her trouble and from all kinds she could imagine, fighting was out of her prediction knowing Dante's laid back nature. He never laid a hand on anybody unless that particular person threatened him with a weapon in hand.
Lady personally did not mind if Dante had a small fight with Ichika. After all, boys will be boys. Fighting is one of their ways to break the ice amongst them. Problem is only that Ichika is Chifuyu Orimura's one and only brother. With such protective sister, perhaps slightly over, once Chifuyu learnt Ichika's injuries from Bradley's, Lady'd bear all the responsibilities from Ichika's injuries.
Getting mercilessly chewed by Chifuyu then being spat out and repeated again and again were not Lady afraid of. Likewise Dante, she could take most physical injuries as well as verbal and mental abuses then shrugged them all like nothing happened. A fearful shudder ran across her spine as the thought of losing her status as a teacher in ISA, the only position she was holding that became a bridge in meeting Dante again after all these times, crossed her mind.
Taking off her eyewear. she quickly brushed that thought off. Her eyes slowly adjusting to the dim light under the starless sky with slight hint of blue. At the center of the training field, she had Dante on her eyes making his way then stopped. Lady performed a quick glance on her wristwatch. They had an hour less than a quarter minutes before ISA's students morning roll call. For now, the hidden eyes of the principal and other teachers supervision through the security cameras were sufficient for their private matter.
"You have been a very-very naughty boy lately, Dante. All I asked you was to be a good boy and you sent that kid to Bradley's instead. What were you thinking huh? Huh? Had I not been the first one to find your message, you'd be seeing Chifuyu in my place by now."
"Does a 'gomennazai' enough to cut me a slack?"
"I am being serious, Dante! You better give me a good explanation or else!"
"Fine then, sheesh. Kid went overboard this time. Had to play a roughhouse to settle him down."
"Is that all?"
"Tsk! Just between us, Lady. I hate to say it if it's not for the Kid but I too am a swordsman."
Dante pressed his palm onto his face. He drew a long breath. With a single blew from his nostril, Dante swiftly combed his hair upward. The pure silver eyes were strangely gleaming sharply in icy blue. Contrary to Dante's aggressive air he emitted when those eyes turned fiery red, he was calm and composed. That calmness however, possessed sadistic nature under the tranquility.
Somehow, Lady felt a peculiar familiarity with the air Dante emitted.
She withdrew a step. It was not a conscious act rather, perpetual reflex triggered by a certain traumatic recognition. She remembered the origin of that calm but unsettling aura. A drop of sweat leaving a long trail of crystal fluid flowing down onto her right hand, where a tremor of fear shook Lady's dormant hand clutching her eyewear. Both of her heterochromatic pupils expanded twice in denial of the figure that was standing in front of her.
"Now. where was your motivation?"
There was a sharp, prideful tonal shift in the phrase Dante said, as if he changed into another person and Lady knew who he was:
Dante thirst for power wicked twin.
She learned his name was Vergil. The encounter with Dante's twin left her with a kind of trauma. After all, at that time she was still a brat in a teenager's body. The world apparently was not an oyster in her hand.
A faint light gleaming from Dante as he deployed his I.S. Clad in the only trademark of Sparda Company's infamous machine made for Dante, he extended his dormant arm to show Lady an object. It was a single edged sword. Carved in an artistic Japanese style, the blade was hidden inside a white metallic scabbard.
There was a whirr coming from the sides of the arena and an invincible force began surrounding the location as the sensors automatically detected registered I.S in the zone.
His particular gesture just now went asynchronous with the image trapping Lady in her fear and shed a light on her darkness. The Vergil she encountered was less show off unlike the act Dante put. She composed herself by gently wiping off the sweat. Flicking her fluid excretion downward, Lady stepped forward and put her hand on her waist. A challenging smile completed the confidence radiating from her standing posture against Dante's silent oppressive air. Another hand which she held her spectacle, fell downward but her fingers provided a firm pressure on the frame in an anticipation.
"Why don't we cut the chit-chat and just go for it already? After all, this is what you want me to come in the first place"
"Lady first."
"Oh, what a gentleman you a…"
Lady did not finish her sentence. She suddenly flicked her eyewear. The force accumulated within the spectacle was unleashed and flying at Dante like a small incoming projectile. Dante was completely frozen on spot. By naked eyes, her throw seemed like a random desperate move. On the contrary, it was a very skillful aimed throw aiming precisely at Dante's eyes covering all of his field of vision. Dante fully entrusted his motoric senses in the blackness of his vision. He reflexively turning the blade and exposed the broad side upfront. He quickly fixed his grip. One hand remained clenched firmly near the end of the blade, the other stationed on top of the blade applying soft but steady pressure in anticipation to Lady's attack.
There were series of events chaining together in a blink. First, the blade picked up a firm response of pressure applied around the center of its body. The pressure's origin was not a flesh's for sure. It was solid and making its way in straight line at him. The moment Dante regained his sight, a pair of fierce eyes in red and green glaring at him. A click came in. A thundering BANG erupting a powerful conjugating burning dust swarming him upfront. He was lifted easily from the ground in a scooping manner and got tossed far backward with such brutish force in an arc. The force losing its power the further he got travelled against his will. However, he eventually hit the arena's invincible wall.
In a graceful swift movement of her free hand Lady utilized the extension of her mechanical fingers to retrieve her falling eyewear and put it back where it belonged on her eyes. She changed her posture. Her other hand was single handedly clutching a standard issue I.S shotgun with a smoking barrel.
It appeared to be a custom standard version of ISA's Jack-All-Trade Uchigane. The Katana that came with the machine was replaced 2 pairs of floating standard issue I.S tactical shield. A pair protected each side of Lady's shoulders, the other pair provided cover on the sides of her waist. Regardless, each shield concealed with guns of Lady's choices underneath the reinforced metallic alloys. The most distinctive feature Lady's Uchigane had, probably was a sort of rocket launcher with a bayonet slung on her waist.
Prior clad in her I.S, she deployed her machine at the same time she launched her surprise attack, right at the moment Dante's field of vision was blocked by her flying spectacle. Giving a kick to the ground, Lady charged at Dante. When she was airborne, was the exact timing she fully deployed Uchigane to give herself a speed boost from the jetpack.
Deploying her chosen armaments, the real attack came from the result of careful execution in transferring her accumulated speed into a hammering force. Timing her distance between Dante and her closing distance, Lady swing her right leg upfront making a sudden brake of touchdown onto the ground. The spontaneous halt would have already thrown her off balance as she did not utilize the braking system from her I.S. Instead, she substituted it with an impromptu braking method.
Before her own force could throw her, Lady pushed her shotgun until the tip touched the surface of Dante's blade. It acted like a conductor in transferring all the accumulated one directional moving force inside Lady into Dante through his blade. She then applied the quick and firm pressure onto the trigger in climaxing her preemptive strike with a loud bang. The kickback from her shotgun neutralized her initial pushing force and rendered her stable at the end of her surprise attack.
"…re." Last but not least, Lady decided to provoke Dante just to rub him off. "My motivation you ask? Nothing good as giving you a boot for your troubles."
Behind her confidence, Lady was uneased with the result. The exact same trick she used in combating Yamada Maya in her admission test managed to chip half of Yamada's shield points before Lady chained up her attacks mercilessly. Unlike Yamada who used the exact standard issue I.S like herself right now, Lady exercised extreme caution in this combat due to the unpredictability nature of Dante's machine.
She had to waste the momentum for her chain up attacks to observe the afterward result. While not being able to take out an enemy's shield bar entirely and removed the pilot for combat in one shot, Lady was absolutely positive that her attack could shatter Dante's sword in affirming that she landed the shot in point blank range.
Instead, the shot only left several black metallic pieces along the body and the blade looked totally fine to her.
Dante recovered from the wall. He glanced downward to find those annoying black spots appeared on his blade. He then made a quick but gentle swipe across the blade until the bottom. The spots were peeled easily and the stains made disturbing clanking noise as they removed onto the ground.
"You are all…trash." Dante remarked. "Now I am a little bit motivated."
The following part will follow. Sorry for the hiatus.
Qin.W.X