It had been at least three hours ever since Lanfen and Kai-Ming departed the memorial service of their parents. Neither of the two attended classes for today. Even if their respective schools hadn't authorized their absence, both sisters surely wouldn't have bothered focusing on anything their teachers were even saying. All of it would've only felt like harsh, white noise to their uncaring ears.

With only half an hour left till 6 o'clock, the setting sun shone its luminescent rays through the windows of the Jiang's household kitchen, casting a soft, yellow glow upon Lanfen's back as she tended to an active stove before her. Sinigang. A childhood favourite of both Kai-Ming and Lanfen herself. While it was the latter's first ever attempt at recreating the Filipino soup, the recipes their father had written down in an old notebook of his provided Lanfen all the necessary steps she needed in order to make it even partially edible. Such knowledge - of course - couldn't prevent the kitchen counter from transforming into a mess of chopped ingredients, scattered utensils, and dirty, used cooking pans.

Even so, Lanfen found it difficult to even care about such small things. The complete silence of the Jiang household was all she could think about.

Last she checked, Kai was in the living room. The girl had dropped herself onto their couch the moment they came back home, and even though Kai constantly insisted that she was alright, Lanfen did not fail to notice the way her little sister's shoulders trembled as they had stepped through the front door. A subsequent suggestion from Lanfen to head upstairs for a quick, relaxing bath was postponed in favour of a short nap by Kai-Ming, and up until now, Lanfen had yet to hear any sounds of footsteps heading up their house's creaking staircase.

After closing up the boiling pot with a nearby lid, Lanfen switched off the electric stove, and wiped the gathering sweat on her forehead before rinsing her hands underneath the kitchen's crowded sink. It would be a miracle if the soup tasted even mildly similar to the way it often turned out underneath their father's hands. With a small huff, Lanfen dumped her apron onto the backrest of a kitchen chair and headed into the dining room, her solemn gaze examining her quiet surroundings the entire time. The framed pictures on the walls were now just distant memories of people they would never see again, she thought. Nobody else but Kai and Lanfen would ever find themselves sitting at the dining table in front of her.

Slowly, Lanfen wiped her wet eyes with the back of one hand, and set herself down on one side of the long table while her shoulders ached from a back-alley fight yesterday. She then directed a tired gaze over to a waiting chess set, its pieces still in the middle of an unfinished match which would never see its end now that their father wasn't around. Since Lanfen hadn't dared to disturb the chess set as it sat next to a pile of homework from Lydian, a layer of dust was already building up on the chessboard and its numerous black-and-white pieces. She could still clearly remember how their parents had been suddenly called up for work when it was already a quarter to 11 PM at the time.

The pat on the head their mother gave Lanfen was the last thing she ever did before they both stepped out of the house one last time.

Glancing over to the farthest end of the dining table, her mother's rope dart still laid there, completely undisturbed since it had also been left in a hurry like so many other things. At this point, even the surface of the metal dart was already beginning to get dusty. And if Lanfen's mother was still here, she would've instantly reminded them to tidy up all of their belongings. But the teenage girl couldn't bear to return the item to her mother's training room. Not until she came back home to remind them. Lanfen knew it was a childish thought, and yet, she felt that it would only be rude to put away an object someone else was currently in the middle of using.

The gaze Lanfen held on the mementos of her parents was soon torn away without another thought. With her hand subconsciously twitching at her side, she finally dragged herself over to the living room, her footfalls barely audible even with the silence around her. As Lanfen approached the couch from behind, she wondered what she was supposed to say in order to break the silence, only to soon ponder on whether or not she should even be dispelling it in the first place. Lanfen couldn't hear anything from Kai while the younger of the two lied down on the couch, and when Lanfen walked around it in order to face her, she could see that Kai was still in the middle of a deep, long slumber. The tear stains on Kai's cheeks were as clear as the setting sun outside.

She even looked almost peaceful, Lanfen thought to herself.

After taking note of the smartphone which was peeking out from underneath her sister's hand, Lanfen went over to one of the living room's closets and quietly went through the shelves for Kai's favourite blanket. As the older sibling made sure to not generate any noise that could wake up the girl, Lanfen headed back over to the couch before gently draping a cotton blanket over Kai's form, prompting a few noises to escape from the girl's lips in the middle of her sleep. Dinner wasn't going to be ready until the rice cooker gave out its distinctive ring. With nothing else to do, an exhausted Lanfen allowed herself to drop onto the floor so she could lean against the couch's soft cushions, providing her some respite from the swirling thoughts within her aching head.

It was just the two of them now. And it was mainly up to Lanfen to decide what they were going to do from here on out.

Running one hand through the locks of her growing, black hair, Lanfen listened to Kai's soft breathing while her little sister slept behind her. There had to be something they could do in order to make the coming days just a bit brighter. The London concert featuring Kazanari Tsubasa and Maria Cadenzavna Eve was about to air tomorrow night, so a watch-party for just the two of them didn't particularly sound like a bad idea. Lanfen would have to head down to the supermarket tomorrow for some suitable snacks if that was the case. Money wasn't going to be a problem for the two sisters anyway.

Should she also keep this a secret for now? Or should she tell Kai the moment it was convenient? It was hard to decide when almost nothing made sense to Lanfen right now.

Carefully, Lanfen brushed the back of two fingers against Kai's sleeping face and hoped that she was dreaming of something pleasant. The older of the two could barely sleep without falling into the depths of an intrusive nightmare. It was something Lanfen herself was used to, at least. Letting loose a hush sigh, she proceeded to rest her head against the couch's cushions before staring emptily at the ceilings above them. Lanfen couldn't care about the tears that were freely running down her cheeks at this point.

"I'll take care of you, Mei," she whispered to the cold, empty air, finally shattering the oppressive silence of the Jiang household. "No matter what happens."

As soon as Lanfen's promise left her dry, cracking lips, the uncaring tides of silence flowed back into their living room. It was never like this back then. Lanfen wished to hear the jokes their father would always tell them. The music their mother would attempt to play whenever an instrument piqued her wandering interest. The joyous yells that Kai would let out whenever Lanfen sat down with her to watch their usual Sunday morning shows. All of them, now mere remembrances of events long-gone. Lanfen was now the oldest person in the house and she barely even trusted in her own ability to take care of herself. The sheer thought of the responsibilities pressing down on her shoulders made Lanfen's heart quiver, but she held onto whatever bravery she could, all for the sake of her little sister.

If it was for Kai, then Lanfen believed she could do anything.


"Jie? Jie, wake up."

The soft nudge Lanfen felt on her shoulder partially roused her from a much-needed nap. A subsequent, playful jab aimed at her sensitive waist instead caused the woman to instantly shoot open her eyes and reflexively jump in her bus seat, decisively pulling Lanfen out of a deep slumber. As Lanfen held back a grunt of discomfort, she directed an unamused stare at the younger sibling who was hiding a mischievous laugh behind her hands. Lanfen would have grilled her sister for her usual shenanigans, but the attention Kai would be receiving was most likely the very thing she wanted in the first place. And so, the eldest of the two simply turned her attention towards the windows of the bus they were riding before taking in the tall buildings, rising apartment complexes, and brightly-lit shopping centers of Yamaku City.

Judging by the streets they were passing by, the two were now only a few minutes away from their intended stop.

At their feet, several bags of brand-new scarves and Valkyranger toys could be seen sitting between their legs and the back of the bus chairs in front of them. While Lanfen gazed out of the windows - ready to hit a nearby Stop button - Kai relaxed beside her with a pair of headphones in her ears. The faint noise which was leaking out from her sister's small headphones pretty much informed Lanfen that Kai's usual music had been set to max volume. Since any suggestions to lower it down would only fall on deaf ears, Lanfen focused on the passing-by streets to her right, and pressed one of the holographic Stop buttons upon noticing a few familiar convenience stores.

Lanfen plucked out one of her sister's headphones from the younger girl's ears before she started picking up some of their bags off the bus floor. "We've arrived."

Leading the way towards the front of the halting, near-empty bus, Lanfen deposited a pair of tickets alongside a few coins into the vehicle's fare machine, letting them step onto the snowy sidewalk with all of their items in hand. Standing for up to ten floors before them was a large apartment complex alongside a few other buildings of similar height as Lanfen shielded the lower half of her face with a black-and-white scarf. The city of Yamaku was hardly any different from places like Mitakihara and Kazamino, its high-rise buildings all reaching towards the skies while people crowded out its snow-covered sidewalks. A second could hardly pass by without hearing some sort of car horn coming from the vehicles on the busy roads.

Shivering underneath her black jacket, the two entered the apartment complex's lobby to escape the December winds, its sliding doors welcoming them like it always did as Kai loudly hummed a tune at her side. 'Enter the elevator, head up to the eighth floor, take a right and stop in front of the fourth door you see,' they carried out these steps without needing to think much on it, and once Lanfen had unlocked the front door of their apartment, Kai was the first to rush into the warmth of their humble abode. They placed down their bags at the hallway entrance before taking off their shoes. The lights above them flickered to life the second Lanfen had closed up the front door behind them.

"We have returned home!" Kai dramatically declared, zooming ahead into the living room with all of their bags gathered up in her hands.

Storing their footwear inside a nearby shoe closet, Lanfen gave an amused smile and walked by the bathrooms' doors to catch up with her sister. Grateful to finally be free from the cold again despite years of having stayed in Japan, she undid the scarf that was wrapped around her neck, placing it on a rack which hung onto the walls of the hallway entrance. Unsurprisingly, by the time Lanfen had stepped into the living room, Kai was already standing before the television with its remote in her hands. All of their plastic bags could be seen sitting underneath the room's dining table while an episode of Valkyranger popped up on the screen, prompting Lanfen to address her sibling before Kai could even slip under the kotatsu table.

"Mei, go and take a bath first," she said, turning on the room's ceiling lights by flipping a few switches on their walls. "You can watch your shows after you've cleaned yourself up."

Kai barely had one foot inside the kotatsu before she was forced to rise back up to her feet, groaning, "But we barely even got ourselves dirty-" She noticed the way Lanfen crossed her arms over her chest and instantly held back her excuse. "Yeah, I guess a hot bath doesn't sound so bad." With that immediate change in her tune, Kai left her smartphone on top of the kotatsu, switched off the TV, and slid past her older sibling for the nearby bathroom. She made sure to deliver Lanfen another playful jab in her ticklish waist when she passed by her, earning Kai an exasperated complaint that was cut-off by the sound of the bathroom door closing itself shut.

"And somehow she insists she's more 'hands-on' with her friends," Lanfen dryly grumbled to no one in particular.

After she habitually dusted her hands together, Lanfen proceeded to carry out her usual home rituals now that they were back. First, she approached the holo-player stationed next to their television and clicked on a few buttons, filling the apartment with a calming jazz tune which chased away the oppressive silence. She then headed into their small kitchen through a nearby door so she could prepare the necessary ingredients for dinner later. Once Lanfen made sure that her pots, knives, pork, and vegetables were all ready, she exited the kitchen and went over to the shelf next to their dining table. Her hand ran through the spines of multiple books until Lanfen found her father's cookbook in the lower shelves. The words that were written onto its back by means of simple ink had yet to fade away even after all these years.

"Ownership of Keith S. and Margaret Jiang."

Leaving the thick book on their counter for later, Lanfen finally proceeded with the last step of her daily rituals.

The small family shrine they had set up on one side of the living room possessed a single cushion before it for Lanfen to comfortably kneel on. As her back faced the three doors that lead to the siblings' respective bedrooms alongside Lanfen's own practice room, she looked down on the shrine's small table, and gazed at the chess set which laid on top of the translucent glass. Its pieces were arranged in the same way they've been for half a decade now, the pawns, knights, rooks, bishops, kings and queens all still frozen in an ongoing battle that would never see its conclusive end. Even if they were just inanimate objects, a part of Lanfen almost sympathized with the chess pieces she had chosen to leave in such a way, all to purely satisfy her own sentimental needs.

Slowly, Lanfen drew in a practiced breath and redirected her gaze back to the shrine. A framed picture of Kai, Lanfen and their parents could be seen peacefully resting right in the middle of it.

'Keith Silverstein', 'Margaret Jiang Pao-Lin', 'Cassandra Jiang Lanfen', and 'Cynthia Jiang Kai-Ming'.

"We enjoyed ourselves at this new mall today," Lanfen began, a pair of hands gripping tightly onto her knees. "It was at Mitakihara. Mei Mei almost ate too much, but I managed to stop her before she could throw up," she said with a laugh. Lanfen then cleared her throat and narrowed her purple eyes. "She also just turned 17 yesterday. It's been a while since either of you could attend our celebrations, hasn't it?" She paused to stare at the framed picture. Nobody answered her back, of course. "... I'm still struggling to hold onto a steady job, but the money we're receiving from your old workplace is allowing us to get by. Hopefully I can find something that-" Lanfen halted her words again and the soothing music that was flowing out of the room's holo-player was all she could hear.

It was all Lanfen would ever hear no matter how long she waited.

"... I hope I'm doing enough to make you both proud. And I hope that Mei Mei can have a future I myself never could. Please watch over us, as always."

Tightening her lips together, Lanfen's tired eyes continued staring into the picture which reminded her of how happy they all used to be. A part of her wished they could reply to her words - even for just a second - but she knew it would be ridiculous of her to even expect that. It had been over half a decade since they were gone, and yet, here she was, still hoping that they would one day come back into their lives to make everything go back to what it once was. There was little wonder in why Lanfen only sat down to chat with their parents like this when Kai was obviously out of earshot. She had an image to keep up with as the eldest of the two Jiang siblings.

Lanfen proceeded to flinch when she heard the bathroom door down the hall burst open, a noise soon followed up by a satisfied sigh from her little sister. "A shower cleared with no Continues! Jie, it's your turn!"

Getting off the small cushion beneath her, Lanfen dusted her dark winter clothes while Kai re-entered the living room in a pair of colourful pajamas. With a loud war-cry, Kai dove into the kotatsu with the grace of a rushing cheetah and made herself comfortable within its warm embrace. Lanfen could only click her tongue in a mixture of annoyance and amusement as Lanfen turned off the room's holo-player and headed for her bedroom. It certainly was an average weekend for them. Kai's usual re-watch of Valkyranger was practically a universal constant of it.

Stepping inside her tidy bedroom, Lanfen took out her smartphone and left it beside her laptop on a clean bedside desk. Sitting on her bed was a pile of shark plushies that had been neatly organized in a single-file as a pink, white and light-blue flag hung above the head of her bed. The old Zwei Wing poster Lanfen had been keeping for years now was stationed right next to her flag, barely showcasing any visible signs of aging due to the lengths she had taken to keep it pristine. Fetching a dry towel from her closet, Lanfen closed the door shut, and looked out her bedroom window to briefly admire the falling snow outside. Even though her brown skin could never stand the cold, there was always a beauty in the colour of the freezing weather beyond the frosted glass.

A strange flicker of red lights subsequently appeared in the clouds high above.

It was brief, but it was apparent enough to notice while Lanfen got closer to the window for a better look. "What was-?"

The distinctive, bombastic opening music of Zesshou Sentai Valkyranger suddenly blared from the living room behind her, causing Lanfen's skin to nearly jump off her bones before the volume immediately turned itself down. A quick, "Whoops, my bad!" could be heard from the living room before Lanfen even managed to raise her voice at her little sister.

Comforting her aching temples with two fingers, Lanfen hoped that wasn't going to earn them a complaint from their neighbours. Still, she could only be grateful to have someone like Kai around. Even with all the quirks her younger sibling had accumulated over the years, Lanfen felt lucky to have a sister as supportive as Kai always was in the end. There were worse things that Kai could've turned out to be. A Tokusatsu nerd was admittedly - or unfortunately - one of the better results. With her towel draped over one arm, Lanfen promptly exited her bedroom and headed down the hall for a hot soak in the baths. Spending a bit of time in the tub never failed to ease her worries. And if she was still feeling troubled afterwards, then a bit of time in their apartment's practice room sounded like the perfect follow-up.


As a small, metal dart whipped through the air of the practice room, the rays of a setting sun peeked through the nearby windows, and reflected off the weapon's polished surface. Tethered to a rope that was wrapped around Lanfen's forearm, the rope dart snaked left and right before impaling the aluminum can which hung from the ceiling by a thin piece of string. The metal dart then withdrew itself from the ravaged metal while the brown woman danced across the room, wrapping the weapon's entire rope around her thigh using sheer, controlled momentum. Through an act of pure and practiced finesse, Lanfen's right hand snatched the whipping dart from the air and grasped onto its thin, chrome handle.

Her acrobatic form soon came to a halt, ending Lanfen's training session for the day.

Letting loose a few tired gasps for air, Lanfen glanced over to the hanging metal can, and allowed herself to make a satisfied smirk at the lack of injuries she inflicted on herself today. Gently, she undid the rope she had wrapped around her forearm and thigh, and stored the memento of her mother back inside a small, wooden chest that awaited her in the corner of the empty room. As her heart continued pounding within her ribcage, Lanfen turned around to gaze at a picture of their parents she had taped onto the wall. Her palms were undeniably crying at her sides due to sustained rope-burn, but all of the pain was ignored in favour of waiting for her mother's praise.

Nothing. Just like always. Obviously.

Dismissing herself from the practice room through a formal bow aimed at the picture itself, a sweaty Lanfen stepped outside in her sportswear, her tank top and shorts still sticking to her clammy skin while she made her way through the living room. Kai had noticeably returned to her bedroom - most likely to organize all the toys she had bought earlier - so a blanket of quiet had managed to settle itself in their living room after several hours that were comprised of nothing but Valkyranger episodes. This allowed Lanfen to turn the living room's holo-player back on, filling their apartment this time with the relaxing tunes of lo-fi music before she went over to the apartment's small kitchen.

Humming along to the calming tunes which gently occupied their abode's atmosphere, Lanfen stepped in front of the stove and turned up the temperature into a light simmer. A batch of steam flowed out of the large pot when she took off its lid, a ladle already held in her other hand so she could scoop up a small amount of the stew Lanfen had been cooking up for dinner. Kai was definitely going to be happy to have some sinigang for the weekend. Upon taking a sip of the sample in her ladle, Lanfen smiled at its nostalgic, sour and savoury taste. A flavour she had taken some time to perfect over the passing years.

"Mei, dinner's ready! Set the table!" she called over to her sister, switching off the stove and taking out a pair of bowls to split the soup between the two siblings.

By the time Lanfen came out of the kitchen with a tray of pork soup in her palms, Kai had already finished placing down the plates and utensils on top of their dining table. "Oh, nice!" Kai's eyes essentially glimmered with excitement at the sight of the meal Lanfen carefully brought over. Eagerly rubbing her two hands together, Kai reached over to the rice cooker on their table and popped open its lid, revealing the steaming white rice within it. "See?" she boasted with a dramatic pose for effect. "I got it done perfectly this time."

"Making edible rice is not an achievement, Mei," Lanfen dryly added, placing the two bowls on the table before she started scooping up some rice onto their plates. While Kai turned up the volume of the holo-player on the wall, Lanfen made sure to put just enough on Kai's plate, essentially fulfilling the growing hunger of a teenage girl. Lanfen, on the other hand, essentially served herself half the amount of rice she had placed onto Kai's plate. "Do be sure to eat your vegetables."

Kai gave an exaggerated gag as she pulled up her dining chair. "Oh, the horror," she muttered, cheekily resting her chin in one hand.

After handing Kai her serving, Lanfen sat down with her own plate, allowing dinner to finally begin while the last rays of sunlight slowly disappeared into the horizon. They could see a city of flashing colours outside their windows as they ate, the honking of cars from down the streets below faintly audible every now and then. A hot stew like sinigang was perfect for the cold weather, and while the stew's sour taste always reminded Lanfen of times long past, the unbridled glee she could see on Kai's face as she happily dug into her food was far more satisfying to witness. It was almost hard to believe that Kai nearly threw up the first time Lanfen had attempted to manifest this very same meal.

She honestly didn't blame her little sister for reacting the way she did.

"So, how has Yaman Academy been?" Lanfen began, pushing aside the black braid on her shoulder before holding up a bowl of soup to her lips.

Swallowing down a large batch of rice in one go, Kai shielded a loud burp behind one hand before answering, "Oh, you know. The usual stuff. A bit of homework here. Some annoying group projects there," she said, hesitantly prodding the vegetables in her stew with the two ends of her chopsticks. "I got a love letter telling me to meet up with this girl underneath the school's biggest tree, but I think she chickened out in the end. Oh well." Kai gave a casual shrug.

"Doesn't mean she won't try again, to be fair," Lanfen chuckled. This was probably the fourth time this year that someone's shown any interest in her little sister. If any of Kai's stories rang true, then Yaman Academy didn't sound too different from Lydian Academy, even if they were located in completely different prefectures. She definitely needed to prepare for the day when Kai would bring over a possible partner to their apartment. "Aside from those things, how have your results been?" Lanfen asked with a raised brow this time.

As though she was drawing a revolver in the middle of a duel, Kai reached for the pockets of her pants, pulling out her smartphone to bring up a PDF she had evidently prepared. With a smug grin, she held up her phone in front of Lanfen's face and revealed a report card of results that Lanfen herself struggled to even partially achieve back when she was Kai's current age. "Ta-da! See? I told you I could do better than last time," Kai chirped, putting her device down next to her plate. "Although it was kinda hard, nothing's really impossible for us sisters, am I right?"

"Of course," Lanfen nodded, smiling. "I did somewhat expect this, but it's good to see that you're actually taking your studies seriously. And because of that..." She placed down her spoon and chopsticks, and walked over to a selection of drawers next to their bookshelf. After rummaging through a few drawers filled with various papers and documents, Lanfen pulled out a small plastic gift and turned around to show it to her sister. "... I thought this would be a good reward for your efforts."

Settling down her own utensils as well, Kai looked closely at the colourful item in her sibling's hand before letting out an excited yell that made Lanfen wince slightly. Held between her fingers was a green-and-red, grasshopper-themed superhero with a pair of distinct, glowing compound eyes on its mask. "How?! You can't even get this thing without selling your kidney or something!" she exclaimed, surprise written clear on her face as Lanfen placed the item in her outstretched, open hands.

"You could say it was 'fate' that I came across it," Lanfen answered with a small laugh. Sitting back down at the table to continue her dinner, the woman smiled to herself while Kai excitedly held up the small keychain above her head. "It had just arrived in the mail today, for one thing. I expected you to do better this semester, so I thought I'd buy you something like this as a reward. Since your grades were key to your reward, it would be fitting that you'd receive a keychain for it." Lanfen smirked at her own wordplay, but all it did was earn her a groan of pain from her little sister.

She definitely was not as good as their father when it came to making someone laugh.

Clipping the keychain onto her smartphone, Kai held up the device above her head before flashing a grateful smile at her older sister. "Thanks, Jie. I honestly didn't think you'd get me something like this," she said with a tone which was far more softer than it usually sounded. It made Lanfen pause in her meal before sharing a genuine smile with the teenage girl from across the dining table. "Anyway," Kai continued, shoving another mountain of rice into her mouth, "when are you going to bring back a lover?"

Lanfen immediately choked on her meal.

Accidentally hitting the bottom of the wooden table with her own rising knees, the brown woman scrambled over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a tissue to loudly cough into. "That's-!" Her throat now cleared up, Lanfen took a deep breath as she wiped her mouth clean with another drawn tissue. She found herself to be at a loss for words. "What even brought this up...?" Lanfen asked bewilderedly, shaking her head at the grinning girl sitting at the table.

"I mean. You know." Kai rocked left and right in her seat, purple eyes staring directly at Lanfen with a glint of clear mischief. "You've turned down a lot of people over the years, haven't you? Guys, gals and lotta pals in-between. I can't help but wonder why that'd be the case when you clearly don't have any issues catching a person's eye." Sticking the ends of her chopsticks between her lips, Kai let out a playful hum while her eyes scanned Lanfen's toned body from head-to-toe. "I wonder...?"

Tossing the used tissues in her hands straight into a nearby dustbin, Lanfen clicked her tongue and sat back down with her elbows placed on the table. "I just..." She pursed her lips together and stared down at a half-finished plate of rice. It had been a while since Kai had asked her this sort of question. Perhaps it was time to finally stop avoiding it. "I just want to make sure that your future is certain before I can try and settle down with someone," Lanfen slowly explained, picking up her own chopsticks again to finish up her dinner. "It's as simple as that."

Kai shot her an almost-pensive glance. "You should think about yourself more, you know?"

Those soft words sharply made their way right into Lanfen's tightening chest. It was rare to hear audible concern in Kai's voice like this. Then again, she was no longer a kid anymore. Those times have long gone by, along with many other memories. "... But I did get what I wanted, didn't I?" Lanfen answered in a low voice. Slowly, she turned her head over to the small window beside their dining table, and fixated a narrowed gaze on the faint reflection she witnessed within the frosted glass. Sometimes, Lanfen couldn't believe the image that was right there before her. "I got the body I wished for. Even though it wasn't exactly easy."

"I mean... Fair. But you can still try to achieve more than that," Kai insisted with a shrug, drumming her fingers on the dining table as she clearly scrambled to compose her next few sentences out of thin air. "A better... social life for one thing. I'm grateful for everything you've done for us, but you know-" The girl scratched the back of her tomboyish, black hair. "I'd like you to also have some friends of your own. Find someone you like. I'm doing just fine myself, so you don't have to keep doing everything for me at the expense of yourself, Jie."

There was something amusing about this conversation. Kai was only one year away now from turning eighteen-years old, and yet, Lanfen was already conversing with her like this. Lanfen guessed that the absence of their parents had affected more than just the eldest of the two siblings in a way. Then again, Kai always did possess the determined streak their father was always known for. Even with both of their parents gone, parts of them still lived on within the two sisters, whether or not either of them actually noticed it to begin with. As Lanfen appreciated the sentiment Kai was earnestly showcasing, she felt her throat subtly tighten up, blocking out whatever words Lanfen intended on transmitting.

The ceiling lights flickered, catching the attention of the pair at the dining table while Lanfen stared at the blinking lights above them.

This was not something which regularly occurred.

"Maybe there's just something wrong with the power?" Kai wondered out loud, turning her sights over to the holo-player when its gentle music suddenly died out.

The living room's television switched itself on and the two swung their gazes over to the appliance as static covered its entire screen. Lanfen got up and grabbed the remote to switch off the television, but repeatedly tapping its buttons did nothing to prevent the hiss of static imagery from filling up their flickering room. The older Jiang sibling subsequently shivered when Kai wordlessly tugged her arm, showing that the screens of their smartphones were also showcasing an unchanging display of distorted images and static. A cold chill made its presence well-known down the length of Lanfen's spine. It was a feeling she had not experienced ever since the world event that had occurred almost five years ago.

Amidst the roars of static, the two heard a voice slowly arise from the speakers of their electrical appliances. It was a distorted, garbled voice which spoke through their devices in a tongue neither of them had even heard of. While Lanfen's heartbeat began to rise within her chest, Kai pointed at the static that flooded the television, allowing them to make out the faint shape of an armoured figure slowly taking form on their screens. As its voice seemingly adjusted itself into a language both of them could understand, the monochrome image of a knight-like figure made itself known with its arms folded behind its back, and a single, glowing dot for an eye shining in the middle of its helmet's visor.

"We have arrived," the figure declared, holding up a gauntlet with claw-like fingertips, "and we have come to claim what is rightfully ours. You may run. You may hide. But until the last drop of blood from the final human moistens this world's rich soil, this planet shall be an eternal battleground for the ownership of this thriving earth." The disdain in its distorted voice was clear for all to hear. "Make peace with the coming end and prepare your armies, for the crusade against Humanity begins today."

Kai's trembling hand tightly held onto Lanfen's wrist. "We'll be okay... right?" The younger girl's words came out in the form of a shaky whisper.

Slowly, Lanfen drew in a steady breath and forced herself to nod, all while putting her faith in the same powers who had saved their world time and time again.

As the television screen shut itself off once again, the ceiling lights shattered apart above them, forcing Lanfen to shield her shrieking sister from the falling shards with her own body. Crouching in the subsequent darkness of their apartment, Lanfen made sure that Kai was completely alright before she tried moving over to the bookshelves for some sort of emergency light source. But before Lanfen could even take three steps forward, Kai had suddenly grabbed onto her shoulder, the younger girl's gaze noticeably directed at something outside their window. Hesitantly, Lanfen followed the direction of Kai's wide-open eyes, and subsequently felt her breath escape her at the sight of growing, glowing 'cracks' hovering over Yamaku's dark skyline.

The fabric of reality was seemingly being torn apart.

And when these cracks expanded into glowing, pulsing rifts, Lanfen seized Kai by the hand before they prepared to run for the city's underground shelters.


There was no time to lose. The elevators and stairwells were crowded with confused, frightened tenants who all desired to escape the tall apartment complex. After grabbing their phones and putting on their winter clothes, the two sisters squeezed their way throughout the bustling staircases. Kai's hand desperately maintained a tight grip around Lanfen's palm the entire time so they wouldn't get separated in the chaos. Once they had managed to reach ground-floor, the pair rushed out of the lobby and onto the sidewalks to see the roads that were absolutely jammed with immobile vehicles. But before either of them could even catch their breath, a deep thrumming erupted from the pulsing rifts hovering above their heads, causing Lanfen's stomach to churn within her abdomen.

And yet, this harsh, violent cacophony was only the least of their worries.

Like a legion of falling angels, dozens upon dozens of large, knight-like creatures descended onto the streets below, their hulking bodies effortlessly crushing the civilians and vehicles beneath their armoured feet as moonlight gently reflected off baroque, obsidian armour. Armed with kite-shaped shields and rugged battle-axes, the sudden advent of these armoured monsters only fueled the panic of the retreating civilians in the streets. While their helmet-visors emitted an azure glow akin to burning, uncaring fire, the knights drew out their armaments in perfect unison and charged towards the fleeing crowds around them.

Kai and Lanfen were running before they had even realized it.

There was nothing else either of them could actually do. Panicked yells in the winter air transitioned into the horrified shrieks and pleas of the dying, encouraging Lanfen to hold onto her little sister's hand as they bolted down the streets towards the nearest disaster shelter. Lanfen couldn't care about anyone else other than the two of them. The adrenaline that was pumping through her blood made it all perfectly clear: Her focus was only on their own survival.

Sprinting around a sharp bend which led into another street, Kai and Lanfen skidded to an abrupt halt when they saw more of those armoured knights in the bloodied roads ahead of them. Wielding their axes within hands of dark metal, the armoured creatures' brutal swings reaped throughout the panicking crowds, cutting down the begging and the screaming with extreme prejudice beneath the shine of the Christmas lights hanging above the streets. There was seemingly no sense of malice in the way they butchered the countless people of Yamaku. It was as though they were systematically cutting down a growing infestation of weeds that had dared to even stand before their armoured forms.

"Jie, over here!" Kai exclaimed, pulling Lanfen's frozen body towards a narrow alley on their left.

Taking their chances with the deserted alleyway to their side, the two ran for it, fleeing through several bends and turns before they finally chose to rest inside the depths of the empty, tight space. They soon fell onto their aching knees and drew the cold air into their exhausted lungs. With their legs already burning with pain, the two sisters leaned against the alley junction's concrete walls, and tightly held onto one another for comfort. They could still hear the distant screams of the dying even when they were deep inside the alleyway. It was a haunting sound which only made Kai desperately place her hands over her ears as the younger girl's eyes kept themselves open for any sign of those armoured monstrosities.

Even with the uncontrollable trembling that was coursing through Lanfen's arms, she managed to take out her smartphone before opening up a map to find their way to the nearest shelter from here. Their devices were operating in perfect condition, but it was almost impossible to focus on the screen when Lanfen's hands couldn't stay still for even a single second. Forcing herself to regain her control by biting down on her lips, Lanfen grasped her phone with both of her shaking hands, and hurriedly charted an escape route throughout the empty alleyway.

"W-What are even those things?" Kai stuttered at her side, staring down the multiple paths of the junction they were in. "Are those N-Noise...?"

"I... I don't know." Lanfen's trembling whisper was barely even audible. Drawing a shaky breath into her exhausted lungs, she tried to keep up a mask of bravery, more so for Kai's own sake than herself. She needed to get them both to safety first and foremost. Even if absolute terror infected every fiber of her body. Lanfen didn't give a damn about anything or anyone else right now. "We have to get out of here. Fast," she stated, holding up a route on her phone while pointing at one of the pathways to their side. "This should get us to a shelter while avoiding the streets. The signal's getting weak, but-"

The loud shuffling of baroque metal resounded from the alley path behind them. The two sisters spun around in an instant and spotted one of those large, armoured knights slowly creeping its way towards them. Carrying an axe which was marked with foul gore and ichor, its glowing visor seemingly glared at both Kai and Lanfen, its obsidian armour visibly coated in bloody handprints that were illuminated by the light of a shattered moon. It perked its head at the faint sound of Kai's careful footsteps, and when the two sisters gingerly got up to their shaking feet, the hulking knight charged at them, trampling the trash cans in its path beneath the sheer weight of its body.

"Mei, run!"

As Kai sprinted down the path leading towards the nearby shelter, Lanfen bolted into an adjacent path, forcing the knight to chase down the older Jiang sibling instead. Lanfen could still feel her exhausted legs crying out beneath her. Her lungs were desperately gasping for air. While she could still hear the heavy footfalls of the knight right behind her, Lanfen's eyes could barely maintain their focus on the paths and bends up ahead. Its bloodied axe grinded against the ground beneath them the entire time as Lanfen leaped over the alleyway's countless pipes and dumpsters. The knight itself barely lost any momentum in its relentless pursuit whenever it plowed its way through the obstacles with ease.

A twist in Lanfen's ankle threw her off balance.

She stifled a cry and fought against the pain surging throughout her leg, only to instead widen her eyes when a large, heavy blade cleaved into her back with a sickening crunch.

The next thing Lanfen knew, her limp body had tumbled into the dirty ground, eyes still wide open with shock. She tried to move, but her limbs would not respond. All she could feel was a sickening warmth that was growing across her back as the armoured knight stood over her to stare right into Lanfen's panic-ridden gaze. Ever so slowly, the knight silently raised its axe over her head. Fresh blood dripped from its blade and landed on the woman's cheeks. All sense of control over her limbs was completely lost to her at this point. The only thing Lanfen could do was to simply gaze at the ringed moon shining high in the December skies. She couldn't even let out a plea for it to not be the end.

Schwing

A severed, helmeted head crashed onto the ground with a loud thud, letting Lanfen see the flickering lights which permeated the insides of the fallen, empty helmet. Her attacker's decapitated form then fell to one side and exploded into a cloud of black sand which stung Lanfen's still-open eyes. Weakly coughing out the particles that had managed to enter her mouth, Lanfen's vision was already beginning to blur by the time she managed to gaze up in shock at her mysterious saviour. She couldn't even utter the weakest syllable in response. Not even when Lanfen's protector crouched down next to her with a glass vial in their gloved hands.

Removing the vial's cork with a soft pop, they began pouring an icy liquid all over Lanfen's warm back, causing her to clench her teeth when she felt a subsequent, sharp stinging sensation coursing throughout her body. "Is this where you intend to let your performance end?" the figure inquired in a sultry, almost-motherly voice. "Shall your curtain fall before you've even started?"

To Lanfen's utter disbelief, the pain which had wracked her entire body slowly melted away into complete nothingness.

She blinked several times and slowly took in a few shaking breaths. Looking up at her apparent saviour with a returning sense of sight, Lanfen saw a woman crouching down next to her with sickly-pale skin. The medium-length, blue hair which barely touched her shoulders were kept neat and trim. And a strange smile was practically plastered across the woman's face as a pair of bright, golden eyes stared right into Lanfen's purple pupils. In contrast to the diamond symbols that were prominent all over her formal, azure suit, the intent behind those eyes was a complete mystery as the ghostly woman stood back up with an emptied vial between two gloved fingers.

"... T-Thank you," Lanfen stuttered, slowly getting onto her knees. She then ran her hands all over her trembling body and felt as though she had never been wounded at all. The back of her winter jacket was ripped clean open, and yet, the only thing which remained as proof of her injuries were the dried bloodstains all over her back. Even her twisted ankle felt perfectly fine.

Sliding the glass vial into the pockets of her suit, the pale woman held a gloved fingertip over a pair of blue, curvy lips. "Do you desire the power to save your sister?" she whispered with a soft giggle.

Lanfen directed a wordless gaze right at the woman, purple eyes slowly widening. "What... did you say...?"

"Do you desire the power to save your sister?" she loudly repeated the question, crouching back down again so she could slowly hover her pale face mere centimeters away from the tip of Lanfen's nose. The golden eyes she possessed essentially dove into Lanfen's soul while the pale woman's honeyed words slithered into her ears, causing Lanfen to subconsciously tense up until she couldn't move. "Or is your love for her... all but an act of bravado?"

The sudden accusation practically ignited a proverbial fire within Lanfen's eyes. Knowing that Kai was somewhere out there - potentially all alone and without help - Lanfen's hands seized the pale woman by the collar of her suit. "Of course I want to save her!" she hissed between gritted teeth, the knuckles on Lanfen's fists already turning into a pale white from the sheer force of her grip. "Even if I'd have to lay down my own life, I'd do anything for her! She's the only thing I have left that matters. So, don't you dare imply-!"

The ghostly woman laughed. It was a hearty, honest laugh.

Seemingly brimming with joy at Lanfen's answer, she lifted a hand to brush the back of her glove against Lanfen's bloodstained cheek.

"Good," she cooed, unbothered by Lanfen's tight hold on her collar. "I'm pleased to have chosen someone who knows the importance of one's own family. Here..." Reaching a hand into one of her pockets, the woman drew out what appeared to be a red, crystal pendant. The light of the moon above reflected off its crimson surface as Lanfen stared at it in confusion and released her hold on the pale woman's outfit. "All you need to do is sing," she advised, gently placing it in one of Lanfen's hands. "Sing, and you shall wield the power of the melodious Valkyries who have saved your world many times before, as you are the one most worthy to wield the Sword of Damocles."

Lanfen could hardly register what she was even hearing.

Gazing down at the red pendant in her palm, the woman in the azure suit stood back up again and casually fixed the wrinkled collar of her suit. The reflection Lanfen casted on the glimmering pendant allowed her to see the clear disbelief growing within her own purple eyes. "... Who... Who are you-?" Lanfen lifted her gaze upwards and the woman was gone.

Nobody but Lanfen herself remained in the alleyway as the sounds of the dying could still be faintly heard in the distance. It didn't matter who she was, Lanfen quickly reasoned with herself. There was only one thing she desired right now and it was Kai's assured safety. The identity of the stranger who saved her was a matter to undercover only when this living nightmare was all over. Slowly getting back onto her two feet, Lanfen held the crimson pendant up to her chest, and drew the cold, winter air into her battered lungs. All she needed to do was follow the vague words the strange woman had instructed her. All she needed to do was 'sing'. Sing.

Sing.

Directing a glare up at the pulsing rifts in Yamaku's tattered skyline, Lanfen subconsciously parted her lips, and released a holy chant originating from within the farthest depths of her soul.

"Valtorah Damocles sen zizzl."


Lanfen lifted her leg and slammed the sole of her boot onto a floor of pure energy as saxophones blared in her ears. In the eternal span of just one second, fibers of black-and-white concealed her toned form within a body glove. A steel, three-point crown materialized on top of her head and connected itself to a pair of headphones that soon manifested over her ears. With her braided hair fluttering in the air, a pair of dark gauntlets slammed onto Lanfen's forearms, sealing themselves shut while a pauldron formed over her right shoulder in the stylized-shape of a Queen chess-piece. Beneath her waist, armoured boots clamped onto her legs, shielding them up to her knees as intense drumbeats and pianos conjured a tune of soothing jazz.

Gazing above to see a sword quickly descending upon her, Lanfen leaped into the air with agility far beyond her wildest dreams. The blade grazed past her face and Lanfen seized the falling arming sword by its golden grip before crashing back onto a floor of energy with a thunderous howl. As roaring trumpets conjured a tune of victory and triumph, Lanfen caressed the thick blade of her one-handed sword with a gloved palm, a small smirk completely visible on the crowned warrior's face the entire time.

With that eternal second finally past, Lanfen observed her transformed state in awe while she felt her form imbue her with a sense of superhuman strength, agility and reflexes. She felt practically invincible. Steamed hissed from numerous exhaust vents located all over her armour, and before Lanfen could even find a suitable phrase to describe this new look, she sensed a single word suddenly manifest within her mind: Symphogear. But it was not the only shard of knowledge to suddenly generate within her head. Almost instantaneously, Lanfen felt her Symphogear flood her mind with a library's worth of information, causing her to wince from the sheer mental overload of learning everything about her newfound powers faster than she could even breathe.

The name of the weapon in her right hand was as clear as day. The Sword of Damocles.

Once she felt the tide of knowledge settled itself within her mind, Lanfen got down into a crouch, and leaped into the rift-plagued skies in a single bound with the ringed moon facing her back. The crowned warrior soon crashed back into the streets, kicking up a cloud of dust and snow as a small crater blossomed beneath her armoured feet. When the last bits of the cloud finally dispersed, Lanfen found herself standing in front of a group of armoured knights, their weapons still dripping with the ichor of countless innocents. Lanfen took one wordless glance at the nearby disaster shelter's entrance behind her before glaring back right at the approaching suits of armour, her one-handed sword still in her grasp.

"You're not getting past me."

Electro-swing jazz blared from her Symphogear's built-in speakers and the knights rushed towards the crowned warrior to put an end to her groovy tune. Blitzing out of the crater to meet with the rushing monsters, Lanfen's lips subconsciously moved while she leaped into the air and unveiled a soul-fueled song to directly synchronize with her Symphogear.

"There's a new world for me to see, yet I don't know who I want to be." She cleaved off the arms of the first knight she neared, skidded to a halt behind it, and effortlessly swept her opponent off its feet with a swipe of her armoured leg. Swiftly plunging the Sword of Damocles right into its chest-plate, the suit of armour violently exploded into a cloud of obsidian sand before its back even hit the concrete. "Sights surrounding me, front and back. Yet I don't know which to track."

Hearing the lumbering approach of a dozen enemies over the sound of rushing pianos, Lanfen's one-handed sword deflected several strikes with but a single, thunderous swing. The knights reeled back from her superhuman blow and Lanfen lunged towards them to cleave apart the gathered horde limb-by-limb. Each strike of her blade against their metal forms produced hot sparks which showered the singing swordswoman, the crowned warrior carrying little for their heat as she weaved between their crude blows to cut a swathe through their rapidly-depleting numbers.

"My guts ringing out a cry of worry. I don't know where to go or what to hurry-" The severed arms of the last knight in sight soon dropped onto the snowy concrete. Lanfen's blade thrusted into its chest-plate and exited out of its back with a loud, metallic screech. "Can I find my way if I'm walking blind? There's something my heart needs to find!"

Withdrawing her sword from the final knight's ruined torso, the exploding suit of armour showered the storefront behind it with obsidian sand while Lanfen heard the cacophonous footfalls of a dozen more approaching enemies. Swiftly spinning around with the Sword of Damocles in her right hand, the crowned warrior spotted an amassing army of knights charging towards her from two different directions. It was as though her song had attracted every single one of the monsters in Yamaku towards this specific street.

"Searching high or low, where is it? The purpose glowing deep inside my soul." Lanfen aligned her left forearm with the pommel of her Armed Gear. The armoured gauntlet on her forearm split open, revealing the large, wired harpoon resting inside it. With a tightening of her fist, the harpoon launched outward and combined with the pommel of her sword, tethering the weapon to her left gauntlet while Lanfen called back to her rope dart training. "Looking up and down, nothing fits. There's something I need to feel whole."

She took a single, graceful step on the snowy, sand-filled road. She gripped the tethered hilt of her sword in her right hand. As the roads quaked beneath the feet of a dozen monsters, Lanfen hurled her weapon towards the horde with the force of a speeding rocket. The soaring blade then skewered the heads of three knights, and with a quick tug, Lanfen retracted the weapon to dance across the streets while her tethered Armed Gear whipped through the winter air like a striking snake. The gauntlet's wire wrapped and unwrapped around Lanfen's body, expertly manipulated by a combination of momentum and the usage of the crowned warrior's entire body.

"The flashing lights filling my vision slow. Roaring cheers flood my ears, smiling for me!" Lanfen's heavy sword reaped through the knights, filling the air with clouds of obsidian sand. Feeling like she was back in her practice room, her blinding movements were a perfect replica of her mother while Lanfen's tethered sword thrusted itself into faceplates, cleaved off arms and sliced off legs faster than the knights could even react. "A concert to rinse them of the lowest lows. I've a purpose that you all have to see!"

Swinging her tethered sword to the rushing beat of sticks slamming onto drums, Lanfen glared at the remaining stragglers of the sundered army behind her and prepared for the finale. Black-and-white flashed before her eyes and a name appeared in her vision, spelled out by steel letters that slammed onto a chessboard to slowly crack it apart with each ringing impact. "Bishop Barrage."

Her sword swiftly returned to her right hand and ornate, crimson markings flashed across the length of its thick blade.

Smirking, Lanfen swung the Sword of Damocles in a wide arc, causing a dozen floating, glowing replicas of her weapon to manifest around her as if an entire armoury had just emptied itself. With a flick of her left wrist, the energy blades soared towards the remains of the depleted army. Each translucent sword sung through the air with a semblance of sentience while they jinked past swung axes and raised shields before stabbing right into the gaps of the enemies' ebony armour. Severed limbs fell to the floor with each blinding attack run the flying blades made on the dwindling monsters. Lanfen herself simply stood back and observed her opponents' fruitless efforts.

Hearing the shuffling of baroque metal suddenly coming from behind her, Lanfen casually glanced over her shoulder and glared at the lone knight who had managed to get close to her. She clicked her tongue in annoyance and parried a predictable attack with a loud clang. With the knight's axe now flying high into the air, the monster was left completely defenseless as Lanfen's glowing blades viciously drove themselves into her attacker. They first stabbed into its knees, then into the joints of its arms, its chest-plate, and lastly, right through the middle of its glowing faceplate.

A finisher came in the form of a swift kick right into the knight's abdomen. In an instant, the suit of armour exploded into a cloud of black sand, ending the life of the last visible knight alongside Lanfen's jazzy tune.

A subsequent ear-piercing, high-pitched wail from the rifts in Yamaku's skies attracted Lanfen's attention. Protected by the headphones she donned, Lanfen prepared herself for the arrival of additional enemies while the pulsing rifts emitted a deep howl which reverberated throughout the ravaged streets of the city. She held her breath, and then gasped when the giant rifts instead began to 'shrink', allowing the city's skyline to slowly return to what it was before. 'Is it over' was all Lanfen could assume, tightly gripping the hilt of her sword until the tears in reality vanished completely from sight.

The closure of the rifts left only faint particles that fell onto the concrete below alongside the winter snow. An eerie silence had returned to the city of Yamaku and Lanfen's glowing blades soon vanished from the air around her with but a mental command.

Detaching her harpoon from the pommel of her Armed Gear, the wired weapon slammed back into her gauntlet, letting the forearm armour close back up with a few audible clicks. The thick blade of her sword then retracted into its cross-guard and Lanfen attached the hilt of her weapon onto a piece of armour at her hip. Not a single bead of sweat had appeared on her brown skin for the entire battle, but when Lanfen's attention redirected itself back to the safety of her little sister, the crowned warrior spun around on her armoured boots, and began rushing in the direction of the nearby underground shelter.

"Mei," she whispered, feeling her heart pounding within her chest once again. Stomping throughout the sand-filled roads of Yamaku City, Lanfen's purple eyes darted around the damaged buildings around her. The reinforced metal doors that led to the underground shelter were shut closed, but the possibility of Kai still being outside was a thought which only continued to plague her mind.

"Jie?!"

Lanfen came to a screeching halt upon hearing Kai's voice and directed a panicked gaze over to one of the abandoned stores at her side. There, behind one of its broken windows, Lanfen saw her little sister slowly poking her head out from a large piece of furniture. The flickering ceiling lights above Kai's head shined on the bits of blood that stained the girl's face, tears of fear evidently flowing down her cheeks. Lanfen needed to control her superhuman speed when she suddenly bolted towards the store with a smile of utter relief. "Mei!"

Crawling out from underneath her hiding spot, Kai stared in silent awe at the strange armour her approaching sibling was wearing. Kai looked like she was about to ask a dozen questions right on the spot, but with everything that had happened in the past hour alone, the teenage girl clearly desired nothing more than to head back home and end this nightmare of an evening. After wiping her wet eyes with the sleeves of a tattered, winter coat, Kai went over to the entrance of the store to reunite with her sister, only to suddenly stop with her hand still holding onto the door's broken, metal knob.

Lanfen noticed the startled look in Kai's eyes and soon halted herself to follow her sister's gaze.

Redirecting her sights to stare down the sand-filled roads, Lanfen was barely a few steps away from the store's entrance when she noticed the faint shape of a figure appearing within the corner of her eye. Illuminated by the light of a shattered moon within the skies, a lone, human-shaped being stood in the middle of the road among the dead bodies of Yamaku's slain citizens. The fluttering, hooded cloak it wore concealed its unmoving form, preventing Lanfen from even determining whether or not it was even human. All she could make out were the glimmering, armoured boots that concealed its legs and the sharp, metallic tips of its slender fingers. Absolutely nothing had given away the cloaked being's presence until it had actually made itself known.

When the figure appeared to turn its head towards the crowned warrior, Lanfen felt a chill run down her spine, forcing one of her hands to slowly reach for the sword which was stowed on her hip. As her gloved fingers curled themselves around the golden hilt of her weapon, the cloaked figure took one soundless step towards Lanfen, a pair of golden orbs immediately shining within the shadowy depths of its tattered hood.

"Jie, watch out!"

There was a flash of emerald light.

Lanfen drew the Sword of Damocles.

She felt a wave of intense heat wash itself over her and a hitch-pitched ringing soon deafened Lanfen's ears. Her body felt weightless while she was effortlessly hurled into the air. Now completely blinded by a pure, white light, Lanfen was unable to hold back a genuine cry of pain from escaping her burning throat. The next thing she knew, she felt her body crash back onto the concrete, the reforming, protective barriers of her Symphogear immediately cushioning her from the force of the crackling impact.

Wincing from the agony which was now reverberating throughout her body, Lanfen's blinded vision slowly cleared up, giving her the sight she required to see the burning rubble that surrounded her as she laid down on her back. There was the distinctive taste of copper in her mouth. A thick fog shrouded her dazed mind. While white snow fell onto Lanfen's bloodstained cheeks, the crowned warrior slowly pulled herself up into a sitting position, and grasped her headphones with a now-empty sword-hand. Clenching her teeth in order to suppress a growing pain within her abdomen, Lanfen pulled together her consciousness, looked up at the burning roads ahead of her, and drew in a sharp breath.

"Mei...?"

The cloaked being had disappeared. The city of Yamaku was enveloped in a blanket of complete silence. And obsidian sand littered streets that were now soaked in the blood of countless civilians. Standing back up on her armoured legs, Lanfen's shocked gaze focused on the large mound of building debris which had gathered on top of where she was standing earlier. As the Sword of Damocles rested underneath a nearby pile of broken wood, the building that Kai had been hiding in now existed as nothing more than a burning ruin, its glass windows littered across the concrete in the form of broken, useless shards.

Lanfen broke into a panicked run towards the mass of debris. She felt her blood turn cold beneath her skin. Even while jolts of pain continued to rise within her abdomen, she could not stop herself from desperately calling out to her sister.

"Mei, where are you?!" Her scream practically shattered the cold, uncaring silence.

Approaching what was left of the destroyed building, Lanfen desperately searched through the countless broken glass and shattered bricks lying at her feet. Her armoured gauntlets rummaged through the heavy debris, leaving nothing unturned even while blood started to trail down the corner of Lanfen's mouth. She tossed aside broken chunks of metal with ease and ignored the fires that burned relentlessly around her. Finally, when her enhanced strength managed to push aside one last chunk of the shattered building, the bloody sight Lanfen subsequently witnessed caused the woman to freeze where she stood.

She found her.

Lanfen fell onto her knees, crushing the bloodstained glass underneath her. Her armoured, dirt-stained hands gripped the sides of her head. Squeezing her eyes shut just to deny herself the image that was right there in front of her, Lanfen felt an uncontrollable stream of tears trail down her face while she slowly lowered her head in shame. She couldn't control herself for any longer than a second. Drawing the cold, winter air into her lungs, Lanfen parted her bleeding lips, and subsequently released an agonizing cry which echoed throughout the burning, barren streets of Yamaku City.

She did not know how much time continued to pass while she knelt among the burning debris. Even when the sounds of ambulances and rescue vehicles slowly resounded in the distance, Lanfen refused to move even an inch from where she was. A layer of snow was building-up on her motionless, armoured body, and all Lanfen could do was stare into her trembling, open palms with eyes that barely possessed any hint of light within their pupils. She was alive. The battle had been won. The monsters were gone and defeated. But Lanfen felt her entire world end right then and there.

After commanding her Symphogear to disappear into rising particles of black-and-white, Lanfen closed her eyes and waited for her own end at the hands of Yamaku's freezing winter.

Unfortunately, such a wish would not be fulfilled. Instead, Lanfen heard the distinct clicking of a gun's safety being switched off. It was immediately followed by what sounded to her ringing ears to be an order to hold up her hands and slowly turn around. As moonlight reflected off the glimmering, red pendant around Lanfen's neck, she hesitantly looked over her shoulder, and narrowed a pair of lifeless eyes at the sight of multiple people in suits training their firearms all on her. Led by a young man with distinct, blonde hair, Lanfen's senses had not even heard the sound of anyone approaching her before she eventually noticed them.