October 3rd, 2050. South of Santa Rosa Island, California, U.S.
The white salt plains are unmarked by the battle fought upon them not three days ago. The endless breeze and carpet of white crystals have completely swallowed any hint of destruction, smoothed it over and left nothing behind.
All our efforts are being erased so completely. It's a fitting metaphor for the war with the BETA itself, that even our mightiest act of destruction has done nothing but slow the tide to a manageable trickle.
Salt or BETA, sooner or later one will eventually consume us all.
"So Kaede, remind me again why the hell we're out here?" Simone calls to me across the troop compartment. Her relic pendant hangs from a titanium chain around her neck beside her dog tags, mirroring the rest of us.
"Did you, or did you not, point out that you lack experience in Adapter vs Adapter combat?" I throw back.
"Well yeah, but…"
"So we need a balanced area in which to assess your combat capabilities so we can work out where to focus your strengths and weaknesses. There's plenty of space out here to practise freely, and minimal risk of collateral damage. We have UAVs overhead to keep us in touch with base, and a Medivac Tiltrotor that can pick any of us up at any time if something goes wrong."
Simone shoots me a look of frustration. "Okay, let me rephrase that. Why are we out here in just our Fortified Suits? Why aren't we flying in with our SSFs?"
Alicia hasn't said a word but her look asks the same question. They accepted their orders without question, but neither are quite sure about the plans Major Jinguuji and her American counterparts have agreed to.
All that stems from just how different their training was to ours. It was so much easier to standardise when all Adapter-related activity was done by the UN, and I benefited from that legacy. "How much training with a standard Symphogear did you two have before graduating to an SSF?" I ask the Americans.
"Two months," Alicia answers. "And most of that was assisting in calibrating the parts for our SSFs. And how is that a problem?" She asks pointedly. "We don't fight in our bare Symphogears. Neither do you, or the Canadians or the French. The Symphogear's combat potential can only be fully realised within an SSF. Isn't that the first thing your Empire found out when they pioneered the Symphogear back in the 2043 invasion?"
"I once thought that to myself," I told her. "But when I was being trained by Kazanari she quickly showed me the folly of that thought."
I try my hardest to mimic the commanding voice Kazanari used on me. "'If you can't fight at your best without an SSF, you certainly won't with one. The Surface Fighter elevates the Symphogear, not the other way around.' That wisdom is how we were able to hold our own against the Canadian Adapters."
"Until you couldn't any more." Alicia seems to have a habit of poking that pretty nose of hers into uncomfortable territory. I know she's only doing it to better prepare herself, but that last fight was a humiliation for us, and for the Empire of Japan. A humiliation that forced us to go cap in hand to the Americans to seek their help.
Not like we can wish it away. We need to make the most of what we got. Major Jinguunji has told me that one many times.
"Experience breeds familiarity. We dominated our first battles with the Canadians and drove them off relatively easily. We scored a few hits, they covered the retreat, and neither side was really willing to escalate. Those first border skirmishes were easy, shows of force more than actual struggles."
"And then?" Alicia pushes.
"You've read the after action reports we penned. What more is there to say?"
Alicia gives me a knowing smile. "I studied law. I know how legal documents work. Military documents are the same. You gave the most cold and clinical review of your clash with the Canadians. But we all know that is not how any battle ever goes down. Wars are fought with emotion. If we are going to share your fight, we need to know our enemy. We need to know that anger inside you."
She's got me right there. Kazanari-senpai told me the same thing once. For the good of the team there are some things you cannot hold back. But this is not just about me. I look over to Nanami, who has been silent most of the trip, nursing a mild headache from all the Alcohol she drank last night. This morning she groggily told me she never wanted to do that again, and then got really offended when I laughed at her.
She gives me a nod, and I take a deep breath as uncomfortable memories peek forth. "We'd been holding back for so long we never thought that it would escalate. Truth be told, Nanami and I had always quietly hoped for a reconciliation with the French and Canadians. Why is it that we all fight when the world has gone to shit?" Sometimes you refuse to accept just how terrible the world can be. "We thought they felt the same, and maybe they did. Until they decided otherwise. That was the last Border War. When the Canadian Adapters came at us with murder in their minds."
"You should have known that at any point they would drop the pretence." Alicia condemned. "Trusting your enemies intentions is the worst thing you can do in wartime. We trusted the word of the French when they asked for aid just before the first Border War began. You know what came of that."
"Lighten up princess, they've had enough shit over this already." Simone interjects.
"She's not wrong," I amend. Balancing these two out is not doing me any favours. "I was trained by a veteran of Alternative IV. Kazanari often spoke of the optimism shared by those first Adapters, back when they were part of the UN and not any one national government." Even if over half their number were citizens of the Empire. Why is it that Japan represented so heavily in that first wave of Adapters? Was that just the legacy of the Kazanari Kitan's research? Or was there something more to it?
Alicia doesn't seem to think much of that sentiment. "The UN failed as the League of Nations failed before it. At the end of the day, it's always been every nation out for themselves. There was a British politician two centuries ago who said 'We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual.' Turns out he was right."
"You really need to lighten up princess," Simone "Being all doom and gloom is not doing you any favours."
"I'm being realistic, Simone." Alicia grumbles. "Keeping my feet firmly on the ground. Flights of fancy won't help us here."
"Says the woman using a magical powered exoskeleton directed through song. Don't give me that bullshit, we both know better."
Alicia's cheeks have a tinge of pink to them, and she looks set to explode. Once again I have to be the piggy in the middle.
"Of all flights of fancy the idea that we humans can work together across national, cultural and ethnic boundaries is the best one." I tell them both. "It's a natural extension of the ideas that made the United States in the first place, isn't it? All created equal and sharing the same fundamental rights?"
Alicia nods at me sadly. "The founding fathers were inspired men. But they failed to account for self-interest, which will always get in the way of cooperation."
"That's not true!" Nanami chooses this moment to make her debut in this conversation. "We're here to cooperate right? We're here to learn from one another. Just like how I learned from Kaede-senpai how to use a Symphogear, and she in turn learned from Kazanari-sensei before that."
"I know Kaede keeps on bringing up this Kazanari, but you too? I wish I could buy that woman a beer or four. She certainly seems to have earned them." There is almost a wistfulness in Simone's tone. She and Alicia are self-taught Adapters with no mentor to guide them as Nanami or I had.
"Kazanari told me that the day would come where I had to take her place, and she prepared me accordingly." I feel a flush of warmth in my chest. "And that's exactly what Nanami and I are doing for you now. If you're going to know how to fight an Adapter, you need to know how to fight one on foot." The tiltrotor slows, the mechanical whine of its engines rotating cutting through any further attempts at conversation. But the serious looks on Alicia and Simone's faces tell me they got the message.
"Spectre leader to all Spectres," Captain Tomosato pops up on our retinal HUD. She is speaking in accented English for the benefit of the two Americans. "We have reached Grid Reference A-13. This is your LZ. Once we have dropped you off we will settle down nearby to oversee the training remotely. Acknowledge."
"Understood Spectre leader." I told her.
"Roger that, Spectre leader." Alicia nods.
"Copied," Simone echoes.
"Y-yes Spectre reaper!" Nanami's attempt to answer in English leaves the two Americans laughing.
The Tiltrotor is stopped now, engines up and hovering over the endless blinding white. I unbuckle myself and stand up, followed by Nanami.
"You were trained in Symphogear aerial insertion techniques, right?" I ask the Americans.
"The what now?" Alicia speaks for them both.
Oh. "...I see. Well, just follow our lead and it'll all be fine."
The side door slides open, the roar of air and the howl of engines buffeting us in a combined storm of sound and fury.
I reach down for the relic pendant, grasping it tightly in my right hand, turn and smile at the bewildered face of the Americans, before throwing myself out of the Tiltrotor into the air.
This is where the fun begins.
For a moment, I hang suspended in midair far above the ground, momentum holding back the pull of gravity for just a brief second. Then gravity kicks in and starts dragging me earthwards.
I turn my head to see Nanami next to me, a grin of pure exhilaration lighting up her face. I know that feeling, as the same smile lights up my face as well, just as it once lit up Kazanari-senpai's face and surely the rest of the Noble Six too.
And as the fingers of gravity pull me ever faster towards the surface of sodium, I sing out those words that activate my Relic, empower me with my Symphogear, and grant me the power to kill the enemies of Mankind.
In a blast of white a perfect circle forms around me with my landing, straightening up to reveal the bladed form of my Symphogear, Aruval. In form it resembles that of Kazanari's Ame-no-Habakiri of which it was based, though mine is more ornate with its Indian influences shaping the flowing lines and jagged edges.
I turn beside me to see Nanami shaking the dust from Uchide no kozuchi. Her Symphogear is a stripped down suit of Karuta armour lacquered in black and white, the two round hammers held at her sides. Nobody could mistake it for anything other than a Japanese creation.
Behind us there are two loud thuds and billowing clouds of salt crystals that send an instant smile to my face. The Americans could have waited for the Tiltrotor to land them, but instead - and my guess is at Simone's incitement - they followed our lead. That's a good sign right there, that the Americans are willing to give our crazier ideas a shot.
Maybe this will actually work out.
This will be my first time seeing what an American-made Symphogear looks like. The SSFs they pilot might bear the external form of their operator's Symphogear, but it's not the same as seeing one in the flesh.
The salt and dust clears and I get my first look. The thought that springs to mind is that they look like cosplay Tactical Surface Fighters. Japanese Symphogears are quite streamlined to the point where they expose some flesh, thankfully not as much as the earlier models. Kazanari-senpai once told me that part of the first Symphogear designs lay in the personal tastes of Professor Sakurai Ryoko, the inventor of the Symphogear. Evidently the Americans don't share those same tastes, as only the faces of Alicia and Simone are uncovered and their curves are obscured by rigid plating.
There is a degree of resemblance between Alicia's Symphogear and my own, both being derived from Indian Relics. The general angular shape of Gandiva is broken up by the flowing lines that embellish every surface with spirals, arches, ridges and the form of the lotus. A long cape in cerulean blue flutters from her shoulders in the breeze. She leans on a gilded bow as tall as she is.
Blocks of golden armour adorn Xiuhcoatl, Simone's Symphogear. The solid, almost squat firmness of those plates and their rectangular shapes remind me of the pyramid-temples of the people who once lived there and who gave her Relic its name. Simone has the same mirrored golden shield on one arm that her SSF version had, along with the club-like spear thrower in the other. What wasn't part of her SSF is the Jaguar pelt hanging over her shoulders, the maw draped over her head above which fierce eyes staring glassily over us. Her very form catches the sun and burns with such brilliance that I find it hard to look at for too long.
My first impression of American Symphogear design begins to form. They are clearly built to the same doctrine as their TSFs. Solidly built and optimised for keeping the enemy at a safe distance. Not close-quarter brawlers, and certainly not quite as 'exposing' for their wielders as Sakurai's versions. But that solidity is also a clear downside. These Symphogears look slow and not very maneuverable. Something that in an Adapter vs Adapter fight could mean the difference between life and death.
We stare at each other for a moment, taking in all that we see. Simone is the first to break the silence.
"Why the hell are your Symphogears so stripped down? Is that bare skin? How is that thing supposed to protect you?" She seems utterly bewildered. Alicia just stares at us quizzically, her own questions unvoiced.
"Why are your Symphogears so bulky? How can you move fast in those? How can you move at all?" Nanami says with wide eyes.
We're off to a wonderful start right here. Let's get it back on track. "So what do you think of our aerial insertion technique?" I ask the Americans. "It's what the Noble Six were trained in."
"That was, whew, something else." Simone has a giddy grin still on her face. Alicia's smile is more reserved, but speaks for itself.
"A nice burst of adrenaline to kickstart the body and focus the mind. And now we're ready to begin," I give my sword a practise swing, feeling the perfect balance of weight and feel that makes a master weapon.
Let's start things off with a bang now, shall we? "This will be simple. A Case 47. Japanese vs Americans. We need to see just how good you two are at preventing us from closing in. Remember, you're used to fighting the BETA. That is easy. We are going to make this as difficult for you as possible."
"Like you'd do anything else," Alicia has already subtly shifted position, ready to leap into action at an instant. Her vivid eyes are on the alert.
"So how do we play this?" Simone has her shield forward and a shark's smile.
"First hit. We can sustain a considerable amount of damage and if we keep our power limited we can afford to take a knock or two or even a bit of blood. Plus taking an actual hit from another Symphogear will give you a feel for just how it is in an actual fight."
"So one way or another, this is going to hurt." Simone's eyes are alight.
"Trust me, it'll hurt you more than it will us." I gesture with my sword. "We'll start at a distance of 1000 metres. Start is in sixty seconds. And good luck to both of you. You'll need every drop of it."
I throw myself backwards and soar through the air, Nanami at my heel. We kick up a puff of salt as we land, the Americans no more than two small black blobs standing out amidst the shimmering heat of the salt plains.
"So what do you think, Nanami?" I ask her.
She's still got that wide-eyed look. "They're so strange, those American Symphogears. They look like they're wearing cosplay TSFs!"
"Exactly my thoughts as it happens." I smile at her. "These were made without Professor Sakurai's particular - I guess aesthetic? - applied to it."
Nanami stifles a giggle. "I think ours look nicer. Smooth and streamlined. Though the Americans look like they're better protected than we are." She rests a hand uneasily on the form-fitting plating and how it accentuated her rather underdeveloped form.
"Protection doesn't matter when the enemy can't lay a finger on you. That's true of TSFs, and it's true of us as well."
The retinal countdown shows 20 seconds. Time to strategise.
"So, we get through their defensive fire and give them a good smacking. We need to work together to close the distance. You think we can do that?"
"Of course!" Nanami poses herself, hammers at the ready. "They don't work together as well as we can. So we exploit that. Divide and conquer."
I smile over at Nanami. I could not have asked for a better teammate.
"So we probe their defences to see how they each deal with attacks, and then seek out a weakness to exploit, right?" Nanami continues.
"Right." I shift my weight forwards ready for take off. 10 seconds.
"I won't let you down, Kaede-senpai!" She yells. "Let's kick these Americans right in the slats! Bloody them up a bit! Show them what teamwork can do!"
Don't go too far, Nanami. Save the bloodlust for the BETA.
I let the song in my heart burst forth, and rocket towards the similar songs rising up from the Americans.
Eureka seveN OST 1 / Tiger Track
A wall of fire blocks my path, flames like ever-shifting bars of an ephemeral cage. Dancing red and yellow reaches out for me with the lethal embrace of a lover scorned. I am already on the move, easily dodging back and left from the hungry tide. I snatch a glance over to where Nanami has found a novel way of dealing with her enemy: smashing the golden bolts shot at her out of the sky with her hammers.
We're close enough to see the Americans clearly, but their defensive fire has stalled our advance. From the moment we took off blinding darts of sunlight fury and searing shafts of fire have rained down upon us. At that range they were more an annoyance than a deterrent, but as we got closer their aim improved.
There is no subtlety to our assault. We twist and dive around each other, keeping close enough to easily support the other while far enough to avoid each other's incoming fire.
There is no subtlety to the defensive strategy the Americans have chosen either. Simone has exclusively kept her fire upon me, while Alicia has so far only targeted Nanami. Is that their agreed upon strategy? It's not a very imaginative one if true, and I know Alicia is far smarter than that. But is Simone co-operating with her or fighting her own battle?
Questions we're about to answer. The wall of fire follows me as I try to work my way around Simone's flank. Pillars of fire erupt behind me, each missing me by only a few feet. Simone's no slouch, that's for sure. Aggressively pushing me, attacking to match my attack and using her command over fire as much in an attempt to direct me into kill zones as to slow my progress.
But she hasn't been extending that protection beyond me. A weakness.
"Nanami?" I radioed over.
"I'm a bit busy!" she dodges a searing beam of golden light fired at her.
"Pincer on Alicia. Go!"
I skirt across Simone's front, riding the wave of fire that follows in my wake. Edging towards Alicia, who is still fixated on Nanami and hasn't noticed my change in direction. Yet.
Her head snaps towards me, followed by her bow. A blizzard of golden shards hurtle towards me. With a twist I let the shafts get swallowed by the fire tide, then hurtle right towards Alicia. Those close she could hit me, but if she misses then it's all over. Or she could withdraw back a safe distance to open the gap between us.
She takes the latter option, leaping backwards gracefully, firing as she does so. Her shots are barely aimed, but at this point they don't need to be. All they need to be is a deterrent. And they're certainly doing that job well.
But Nanami has used the brief space to close the gap, and is already pushing Alicia back further. Now the gap between the two Americans is widening and their lines of fire are overlapping each other. Decreasing their firepower and increasing our options.
I continue to press in on Simone, who in turn continues to try and herd me into a fiery trap. The area denial abilities of her Relic are clearly why the Americans made it into a Symphogear, and I do not blame them. The potential power she has makes her just as effective a force multiplier as a weapon in her own right. A shame she hasn't entirely mastered the first part of that. But we can start rectifying that right here.
I'm close enough to draw on some of my own abilities. I swing my sword, projecting a beam of red light from it that hisses towards Simone. She leaps out of the way, but it causes the fire to die for but a moment. I make another dozen metres before the flames once more rise to ward off my approach.
Alicia is now constantly on the move, Nanami unwilling to let her settle long enough to improve her aim. She's off balance, but holding her own very well regardless. The American Adapters are far from greenhorns.
I feel myself smiling, the song tumbling from my lips. It has been a long time since I last cut loose like this. It's how Kazanari-senpai taught me. All hands-on, all practical. Everything I needed to know she drilled into my head through example.
No mindless grind from fighting the BETA, no feeling of despair that comes whenever we fight enemy Adapters. Just the sheer joy of wielding a Symphogear, a weapon that itself brings joy in its wake. Or should, at any rate.
A dozen slashes of my sword sends arcs of energy flying at Simone. Leap after leap she makes, though each time she stops to send another javelin of fire at me before she dodges the next incoming. Her timing is impeccable, something shared with her song, an endless flow of rapidfire words that should not work as a song but do. I have to admit American hip-hop is an amazing form of music and Simone has complete mastery.
If only the quality of your song determined your skill. Sadly for Simone, it does not. I hammer my sword into the ground, sending a pulse of energy that soaks into the wall of fire, dissipating it with a deep hiss. A surge of conflagration rises to block me, but I slide past it and hurl myself towards a wide-eyed Simone, who only just manages to get on the move before I can reach her. Now she's realizing that her situation is starting to get a bit precarious. She leaps back again and again as I move to strike her, my sword singing through empty air each time. But I'm now too close for her to use her walls to keep me at bay.
She launches fireballs at me from her atlatl, some so close I feel the burning feeling on my exposed skin as they pass like flaming comets. Maybe Sakurai should have improved more on her designs between the first and second generation of Japanese Symphogears. Exposed skin has always struck me as a weakness. Even Kazanari-Senpai couldn't disagree there.
But nothing Simone shoots at me lands. That's the thing about fire, fire can move very fast, but it rarely surprises. You can always tell when it's coming.
Both American Adapters are on the move, driven out of the firing positions and now struggling to regroup and reform. Both are more concerned with their own survival than the survival of their wingman. They're still holding their own though. That's good. They don't crack under pressure. But they're learning the first lesson we have for them: the need to keep moving when under pressure, and not to let the enemy dictate your moves as we are doing.
Alicia is trying to close the distance with Simone, to move back behind the cover afforded by her pyromantic powers. She forms a spinning top with her cape, golden bolts spilling out at Nanami as she weaves her way through the hail.
Close enough. I break off from pursuing Simone and activate my back-mounted thrusters. That was an addition inspired by Tachibana's Symphogear, and one that has proven its worth multiple times.
As expected no wall of fire rises to block my advance. If it did I'd fly right into it and count as a casualty. But Simone's focus on her own survival has left Alicia exposed and with only a couple of seconds to react as I bear down upon her. She's too busy focusing on the threat of Nanami so the moment Alicia turns her attention to me it's already too late. She can shoot at either Nanami or I, but not both, And whoever she doesn't shoot at will be too close to intercept. Either way she's going down.
I'm the bigger danger, and the searing golden beam that throws me off course and nearly sends me face-first into the salt is a clear indicator of that. But then Nanami is on top of Alicia, and with a piercing note her two hammers enlarge to the size of barrels and smash into the spinning top, throwing Alicia into the salt.
One down.
Nanami takes my six as we push towards Simone. Her firewall is already up and waiting for us, but now she has two targets to deal with. No sooner does her targeting shift to one of us than the other is pressing forward. Simone's making preemptive moves to keep us at a distance, but we're gaining ground faster than she can make it. She must know that her fate has been likewise sealed.
Activating my boosters again I push past the firebreaks, pull back my sword and swing for her. Her atlatl catches my sword, and for a moment her wicked grin greets me before her shield greets my face.
Clever girl.
But not enough to alter her fate now that Nanami has closed the distance and Simone is caught out of position. Her shield blocks one hammer, but the other catches Simone square on the jaw and sends her into the air.
And with that, the exercise is over. Three Adapters down, but the Empire wins out. This'll light a fire under the collective ass of the American command and prove the wisdom of the words I'm sure Major Jinguuji has been repeating time and again.
"That...hurt!" Each word is a growl of pain as Simone pulls herself to her feet.
"Then it did its job." I tell her bluntly, wiping a trickle of blood from my nose. "That's what taking a hit from another Adapter feels like. It hurts. A lot." If you think that's bad, wait until you're fighting the Canadians. These attacks coming from them would be a mere love-tap.
By now Alicia and Nanami have moved to join us. Nanami is grinning at our victory and the lesson it has given them. She can celebrate for the both of us, I take no pleasure in what we just did. The Americans need to learn, and fast.
Nanami's grin vanishes the moment she sees the blood on my face.
"Kaede-senpai! Are you okay?" She runs up to me.
"Simone gave me a bit of a love tap," I explained. "A little blood is worth it, if it prevents more blood being shed down the line."
"I'm going to be bruised black and blue by the time we get back," Simone grumbles.
There is a vivid red mark on Alicia's pale cheek that speaks to the impact upon her and promises a bruise of its own. Her face is a cold mask behind which her pain and humiliation seeks redress.
That was the stick. Now comes the carrot.
"So what lessons would you both take from what's just happened?" I ask the Americans.
"Never underestimate another Adapter?" Simone winces.
"Never overestimate your defensive capabilities." Alicia adds.
I shake my head. "Neither. TSF lesson 101, never forget your wingman. The two of you didn't support each other very well. If you had been coordinating your efforts the way we did, you wouldn't have been isolated and taken out one at a time."
"She didn't make any effort to coordinate." Alicia looked pointedly at Simone.
"Excuse me?" Simone retorts angrily. "Before you shift the blame princess, you're the one who chose to focus all your attention on hammer-girl because you thought she was the weaker link. Like all of your plans, it was a seriously flawed one."
"Only because you didn't cooperate!" Alicia throws back. "You could have driven them into my line of fire! I could have distracted them long enough for you to cut them off!"
"That's the point." I cut in. "Neither of us was the weaker link. Nanami and I compliment and match each other beat for beat. It's how we've been trained, that's how we were able to coordinate in order to pull you two apart and keep you on the move. As we've learned, an isolated Adapter is vulnerable."
"If she'd retreated towards me and tried to keep pace then we wouldn't have been isolated." Simone gestures to Alicia.
"You're isolated no matter how close to one another you deploy." I clarified. "It's clear you two haven't had to work together properly."
"Killing BETA doesn't require teamwork." Simone says.
"Fighting Adapters does." If the Americans had been in our place up against the Canadians, it would have been a disaster.
"Do the Canadians fight together like that?" Alicia asks.
"Yes." It's as simple as that. "And I'd bet every bone in my body the French have also been trained like that. Why weren't you two? Do you really dislike each other that much?"
"It's not that," Alicia is quick to say, "We weren't trained in teamwork. We've been expected to operate as autonomously as possible."
"What the princess won't tell you," Simone says, "is that she's never made any effort to know me, or anyone else. She keeps to herself, as though she can wish away this life. Still can't get over the fact that she's been drafted and made into a soldier for the United States. She hasn't accepted her fate the way I have."
"You're one to talk! You bend the rules as far as you can to benefit yourself every chance you get." Alicia retorts. "You push back against any authority imposed upon you and don't fight for anything but yourself!"
This has gone on long enough. "Stop wasting your breath on incriminating each other. Look, you don't have to like each other in order to help each other. Although liking each other does tend to help," I turn to Nanami and the warm grin she's giving me.
"It really does," Nanami says. "I trust Kaede-senpai with my back, and she's never let me down."
I nod and turn back to the Americans. "Regardless of your personal circumstances, who you are or what you are, you can at least agree to suspend those in the face of the real enemy, right?"
There is a moment's pause. Then first Alicia, then Simone gives hesitant nods.
Now it's time to put theory into practise. "We're now going to repeat Case 47, but with different teams. I will pair with Simone, while Nanami will join Alicia. As first lieutenants, both Alicia and I will command our respective teams."
Nanami has never served under the command of anyone but me. It was her suggestion that she be paired with one of the Americans for this exercise. She wants to show me that she is trained enough to fight side by side with anyone. That she is no rookie.
There is a pause as everyone digests the information. Then Nanami gives a wide grin while Alicia and Simone seem somewhat apprehensive.
"Do you expect me to follow your orders to the letter?" Simone asks me.
"Yes. And if you don't, we'll both go down." I tell her bluntly. "Do you want more bruises before this day is over? If not, you'll learn how to work with me."
"Are you allowed to do this?" Alicia's not opposed to the idea. Mainly because she knows what Nanami is capable of and is already crafting a plan to use them.
"We're all part of Project Spectre. For the moment Nanami and I are technically part of the US army, with all the same privileges as you two have. I know the diplomatic sensitivity that comes when Americans fall under the command of others." I never thought politics would play such a huge part in my life. But here we are. Were it not for the careful tutelage of Major Jinguuji, I'm sure Nanami and I would have gotten ourselves into several sticky situations.
"I'm game if she is." Alicia nods over to Simone, who gives a sigh.
"If you're going to give me orders Kaede, they better be good ones." Simone finally gives me a smile. It might only have a hint of warmth, but it's more than enough.
"Nanami, explain to Simone that all my orders work out."
"They do! Well, most of the time. She's only made a few mistakes…"
"Thank you very much for that Nanami," I quickly cut in before she could say anything more.
Both Simone and Alicia stifle chuckles. Then Simone steps over beside me, while Nanami crosses over to take up her position beside Alicia.
"Same distance, same time?" Alicia asks me.
"Same distance, thirty extra seconds. We need to strategise."
She nods at me then turns to Nanami. "Follow me Nanami." she says before taking off and flying away, Nanami hot on her heels.
"She's never asked me to follow her," Simone growls as they fade into black dots on the horizon. "She's already got it in her mind that I'm a lost cause."
"You two are as close to the perfect example of just how different Americans can be from each other." I tell Simone. "From the way your ancestors came to America to how you live now. Your country is one of endless contradictions. And yet somehow they all fit together. That someone from the very top and the very bottom of American society can come together to defend all is a sign of American potentiaal is it not?"
"You seem oddly interested in us. Americans I mean."
"What can I say? You're an interesting people." And make very interesting films. "And you have helped shape us Japanese through the many centuries of contact our peoples have had since your Commodore Perry arrived in our waters." What was our waters, and is now part of the great Eurasian ocean our hubris has created.
"I've never been as curious about Japan as you have been for America. Though there was some very interesting Japanese Hip-Hop I used to listen to online. You know about online music right? It was a new thing in the last couple of years, as broadband started to replace dial-up. Did that happen in Japan?"
"The BETA got there first." I told her.
"Shit, I'm so sorry." Simone quickly amends.
"It's perfectly fine. We're here today as much to improve your BETA fighting capabilities as to teach you anti-Adapter combat." I smile before bringing us back to earth. I need her to know how I feel. I want to trust you, Simone, so let's try and work together.
"So what do you think? How do we fight Alicia and Nanami?"
At once the spark kindles in her eye. Simone might not be a great soldier, but she's clearly a great fighter and the prospect of fighting by my side intrigues her. "So you've seen how I can use the sun-fire of Xiuhcoatl to make others go where I want them to. What would you do with it?" She wants to see what kind of leader I am and how I'd command her in battle. See if I'm worth following.
"What we do is as much shaped by what the enemy would do. They also know how powerful your Relic is and how it can be used both defensively and offensively. What do you think their plan will be?"
Simone furrows her brow. She's clearly not used to my style of command. I wonder how Nanami is taking Alicia's orders?
"Get past you to me, so I'm forced to withdraw and leave you open and exposed. Then pick you off."
"You really think I'm the weaker link?" No accusation, just an honest question.
Simone shakes her head. "No. You're the strongest by far. That's why they want to take you down first."
"So what do you propose we do then?" I asked her again.
Simone seems surprised that I'm deferring to her judgement this much. I guess Alicia had the bad habit of not seeking feedback on her own plans. Feedback I know Nanami will be giving her regardless.
"We take out your partner first. Without Nanami to shield her, we can run down Alicia. We need to try and keep Nanami between you and Alicia. She won't risk friendly fire."
"That's how we play it then." I say to her, checking my retinal HUD. Twenty seconds to go. Time flies fast when you're trying to work out a strategy.
I turn to Simone to make sure she's ready. Don't worry, her eyes tell me. Disobeying you here would be beneath me. Do your job, and I will do mine.
A connection, even if a tedious one. Now time to test it in the heat of battle.
"Are you ready?" I tactfully choose not to call her a rookie.
"Question is, are you?" Simone grins, already poised to move.
"What do you think?" I shoot back before the countdown reaches zero, and with a song spilling from my lips once more I charge unto the breach.
Fly Like a Butterfly
A pair of hammers burst through the smoke and flames trying to encircle their bearer. Nanami follows in their wake, gunning for me with a savage grin on her face. She is truly motivated to take me down and is putting her every effort into it.
I'm already moving to one side, always keeping Nanami in between myself and the lethal aim of Alicia. I know the two are communicating regularly by the way they're coordinating to try to line me up for a shot or two. But two can play at that game, as Simone and I keep repositioning ourselves to never give her the chance beyond a few snap-shots as targets present themselves.
"Simone! Hang left!"
The wall of fire turns away from me and forces Nanami off course for a brief second, enough to spoil another attempt by Alicia to get an aimed shot off. The brilliant golden shaft sails harmlessly past me. I drive for Nanami, but she's already arcing around to counter.
This is a far more intense fight than the last one. Our teams are almost evenly balanced, with members proficient in both ranged and close combat. A real test of our skills as Adapters.
Fortunately for all concerned the Americans haven't been found wanting and have quickly acclimated themselves to the greatly increased tempo of combat. That sharp painful shock we gave them before was exactly the wake-up call they needed.
I need to keep moving. Simone has been experimenting with her own ability to relocate, even trying to both direct her firewalls and fly at the same time. If she can master that technique we'll be all the better off for it.
Every attempt Nanami or I try to break past the other has ended in failure. The nature of Simone's powers have left her more involved in supporting me than Alicia has been for Nanami, but the constant shots directed every time either of us strays too far from the blind spot Nanami represents keeps us on our toes and always on the move.
It's funny how Alicia functions more or less as a human Laser-class BETA. Her accuracy is almost 100%, so we have to use the same friendly fire protocols both she and the BETA share that renders us safe as long as a friendly is between us.
Nanami is as much our shield as she is Alicia's, a fact I'm sure she's well aware of. She tries to twist out of the way, but again I'm just that millisecond ahead.
Tongues of flame sail past me, just ahead enough to try and spoil Nanami's pursuit. She soars up and over them, swooping low towards me as a volley of golden bolts speed beneath her. I boost up into the air, sword already in a defensive position.
There is a chime as my sword meets Nanami's hammers, a clear base note of vibrating metal as my blade tanks the impact of both hammers, sending us both flying away from each other.
Flashes of flame rise to greet Nanami, but she artfully sails away from them, landing far enough that Simone and I now need to run a gauntlet of fire to get back into Nanami's shadow. Sure enough a flurry of gleaming bolts is chasing us as we seek to escape the line of fire.
Simone is nearly clipped by one shot that misses her by mere centimeters. But by a stroke of old-fashioned luck we both manage to get to safety as I push for Nanami.
We have sparred together many times in the past. The skills we learned from those matches have served us well. More often than not I came out ahead in those contests, but as time's gone on Nanami has more and more held her own against me.
She moves fast, using her hammers to deflect my sword-strokes as much as possible and hoping to knock my sword out of my hands. Too bad only death could ever pry my blade from my fingers.
After a minute of inconclusive combat we spring apart to consider our options.
"Simone, status?"
"Shit's cash," Simone's in full rap mode, her slang reaching fingers into her speech. "Golden girl's not letting me light a fire under her ass. And hammer girl's got you pegged. You got a plan, man?"
"Give me a second!" I command as Nanami once more attempts to line me up like a carnival firing range for Alicia's targeting pleasure.
Adaptor fighting makes you very spatially aware. It's where my former training as an Eishi really comes into its own, the spacial awareness that comes with learning to pilot a mecha enhancing my abilities with a Symphogear. And now it's time to use that skill.
"If we can push close enough to them you can target Alicia directly. We need to put her under pressure so she can't help direct Nanami onto us."
"Get me there and I'll get it done." Simone is already on the move, her atlatl spilling fire as she goes.
Getting up in Nanami's face has risks of its own, but between that and trying to dodge Alicia's shots, I'd rather take on Nanami. At least there I have a chance at taking her on.
I send a flurry of sword beams right at Nanami, her hammers deflecting every last one. But they give me the opening to make a strike for her, the sword slicing through empty air at the last second. Her hammers deflect the second strike, and my third is spoiled by a retaliatory swing that would have got my stomach were I not that split-second too fast.
An ability that both Nanami and I share thanks to our Symphogears shared origin is the ability to adjust the reach of our weapons. Nanami's hammers can extend their hafts, and I can lengthen my blade. You cannot trust that you are out of reach of the enemy for a single moment.
I throw myself at Nanami again, Swords and hammers either meeting each other with keening tines, or tasting the empty air. I can't spare the second to see how Simone is doing and I can only trust the American woman is currently keeping Alicia occupied. If Alicia flanks me while I'm pinned down by Nanami, it's all over.
I feel a surge of pride at how well Nanami is handling me. It was only a year ago that she had been assigned under me, fresh-faced and inexperienced. In our first exercises I dominated her the same way Kazanari-senpai dominated me when it was my turn to be the greenhorn.
Now look at her, fighting me off time and again. She's not holding back, and neither am I.
But at the end of the day there is a reason I'm the one in command here, and it isn't just my age.
I bring down Aruval for another strike, and once more one of Nanami's hammers moves to intercept. But as the hammer touches the sword it finds no sharp edge to catch it, rather the smooth reverse-surface and the sickle-like hook at its tip that catches Nanami's hammer. All With a great roar of exertion I tear the hammer free from Nanami's grip, and follow her shock with a blistering series of strikes.
Even with only one hammer, Nanami still held on for 30 gruelling seconds, her eyes burning and a mania of battle clearly upon her. Her defence was a berserk defiance that could not hold forever, and finally my sword sang a velvet note as its edge caught Nanami's armoured bodysuit, cutting just deep enough to draw a thin line of crimson to the surface.
"Move Simone! Move!" I bark over the radio. We could no longer count on Nanami acting as a shield. We'll have to take Alicia down fast before she can line up and pick us off.
Alicia's retribution for Nanami's fall is swift. Hundreds of brilliant sunbeam arrows fly towards me as I take off rightwards. A quick check of my six confirms that Simone is still active, retaliating with fireballs.
Alicia has already absorbed the lesson that to stay still is to die. She's already leaping and bounding away from us, firing all the while. Her aim on the move also seems to have improved somewhat as several of her darts come a little too close to me for comfort.
The longer this goes on, the higher the chance a lucky shot will take either Simone or I down. We need to corral Alicia, and fast.
"Simone! Cover me!" I yell.
I twist in the air and as I do so the back-mounted thrusters roar into life and catapult me towards Alicia like a boot from an angry giant. My arcing trajectory is enough that it's spoiling Alicia's aim for that one critical second that I need before Simone's flames rise to shield me. I rode the wall of fire right into Alicia's face. She's already on the move but her Symphogear was never designed to be as fast as mine is. I catch her in mid-siar, and though she skillfully defects my first few sword strokes, once more the billhook portion of my sword comes to my aid. I pull her bow away enough to leave her exposed, and my sword digs into her armour on the reverse stroke, ending her short (simulated) life, and along with it, the exercise.
"I never thought lukewarm water could taste so good!" Simone gasps breathlessly as she drinks from a bottle in the shade of one of the Tiltrotor's wings.
"Speak for yourself. It tastes like plastic to me." Alicia looks up from her bottle, making a face.
"Is that what defeat tastes like to you?" Simone's grin could light up a house, though it's not as wicked as it could be.
"Better than it tasting like blood. How are you doing Nanami?" Alicia calls inside the tiltrotor where our youngest is getting her wound checked out.
"It's all good Alicia-san, it's but a scratch!" Comes the response from inside.
"Simone here tried to break my nose and none of you asked me how I felt," I grumbled.
"You're the one who told us to expect blood and bruises. You were just practising what you preach." Simone tells me.
"We've all taken a few well-earned hits today," Alicia smiles over at me. "Getting mugged by another Adapter is a painful experience all around."
"It's more painful when the other Adapter is actually trying to kill you." I replied.
"Point taken." Alicia nods.
The exercise is completed, and our team is now relaxing around the command tiltrotor before the return to base and formal debrief. This has been a hard fight for all of us, but a necessary one. I'm sure the American brass are pouring over the footage to see how best to accommodate us into their warfighting strategies, and how to better optimise their Adapters for future versus-Adapter combat.
Meanwhile we've managed to forge a bond that didn't exist before. There is nothing like a good fight to hammer a group into shape. Simone learned to trust her orders from me, Alicia learned how to properly direct a subordinate. Nanami in turn got a chance to experience taking orders from someone other than me. Later on I need to ask Nanami what it was like to be under Alicia's command.
"There'll be a lot more exercises like this one ahead of us, both on foot and in our SSFs." I tell the Americans. "The sooner we can get you two ready to face off against another Adapter in combat, the better."
"She's right," Nanami walks down the tiltrotor's ramp to join us. "We don't have much time before the Canadians once again cross the border. You better be prepared."
"Why so serious all of a sudden?" Simone asks, puzzled.
"You can enjoy something while still taking it seriously," Nanami says. Then she turns to Alicia and her face lights up. "Since you've commanded me now, you're just like Kaede-senpai. May I now also call you Alicia-senpai?"
Alicia looks dumbfounded for a moment. "What's a senpai?" She asks.
She doesn't know? Of course she doesn't know, I mentally chastise myself. How do I explain the concepts of senpai and kouhai to these Americans? It's a uniquely Japanese phenomenon.
"I-it's one you look up to, a menor, a leader or commander!" Nanami answers her boldly. "Kaede has been that for me ever since I first donned my Symphogear, she taught me how to fight. And now you too are teaching me. So I want to honour you the same way."
Nanami reaches her hand for Alicia, and Alicia reaches out in turn, the two women giving each other a firm handshake.
"That is very sweet, Nanami. I hope we can get the chance to fight together again."
"Of that you can be certain," I tell them. "But not today. We've had a good start, and there'll be plenty more to come. Ready to go home?"
Nods answer me.
We're in a race against time. We have breathing space, but nobody knows for how long. Every moment we get is a precious one. But at least we're off to a good start.