Names. Names were constructs meant to identify individuals. Sometimes they would signify a meaning or an all-consuming purpose. And in certain circumstances, names were simply bestowed upon one's self as mere proof of their existence in this unending ocean of glimmering stars. That was what her mind understood, at least. And yet, no matter how deep she delved into the empty chasm of her own memories, she could not remember what was the very name she herself had been gifted with. To do so was to wander a wasteland deprived of life. To search for a confirmation of her own existence that may not have been real to begin with.
"I'm not able to hear the girl I used to be. Will I ever touch those that I long for? I stare at those that I used to see. The monsters are begging for more."
Sound. A pattern of sound. Reverberations flowing from one swinging beat to another. What was the term? A 'song'. Music. Products of an advancing, growing civilization.
"The cracking of my heart makes me scream. My tears have become an endless stream. When will I be allowed a break from this world? The feelings deep in my heart are whirled."
Beautiful music. A herd of consecutive drumbeats and roaring saxophones, all led by a contralto voice that mesmerized her soul the very moment it came within earshot.
"Never knowing who is the true me inside. Allowing them to take me for a ride. Am I meant to break free from it all? The voices are begging for me to fall."
Singing. A symphony of lyrics which was draped in a somber mantle of tragedy. Singing that would rouse warm tears from the corner of her eyes were she even able to open them to begin with. As her body laid motionlessly on the snowy floor of a cold, forest glade, the blood beneath her skin froze with each passing second, unable to fend off the harsh bite of a winter night. Still, she felt no fear from the thought of finally giving in to the harsh elements of nature. Not. One. Bit.
"I won't allow my mind to hold me captive long. Molding my darkest thoughts into this song."
Silence.
The enchanting flow of music had ceased, now replaced by the loud crunching of footfalls that were growing louder until they were right next to her ears. A pair of fingertips then placed themselves against her cold, stiff neck before slowly withdrawing from the weak sensation of her beating heart. She wondered if it was going to be by this very hand that she would finally pass on into the great, empty void. It would not be a peaceful transition, but it would be a far quicker fate compared to submitting her soul to the palm of the world's natural elements.
And so, she waited. The mere thought of the end brought out a weak, unintentional groan from between her dry lips.
But what she had expected would not come to pass. Instead, she felt a pair of warm, armoured hands sliding beneath her unmoving body, taking her into a gentle carry before lifting her up from the snow-covered floor as though she weighed absolutely nothing.
"Are... Are you alright?" asked the very same voice which had sung those melancholic lyrics mere moments ago.
As her eyelids twitched from the trepidation within those hush words of concern, she could sense her consciousness flowing back into the seat of her mind, scaling the steep cliffs of the void in order to answer that simple question. To set her blurry gaze upon the person who had chosen to save a meaningless existence for no considerable reason. To find out why she - of all people - had been spared entry into the grand abyss of the afterlife.
When Shinonome Aiko finally reopened her tired, golden eyes, her blurry gaze only fell upon the living room of a small, cozy apartment in Yamaku City. A dream? A dream. Conjurations of the mind while one rested to regain their expended strength. Echoes of events now far in the past. While Aiko made herself comfortable within the heated blankets of the room's kotatsu table, the silver-haired woman hid a brief yawn behind one hand before lifting herself into a sitting position. Slow Jazz - Jiang's preferred genre of music - flowed out of the room's holo-player, filling the warm air with soft, percussive beats as Aiko rubbed an eye beneath the shadow of her long fringe. A quick look at the digital clock on the shelf informed her that she had been napping for about 15 minutes now.
Cupping a pale cheek with one hand, Aiko glanced at the falling snow outside the windows, and wondered if she would ever cease dreaming about the night in which Jiang first met her in that forest glade. It was the first ever memory she manifested within the depths of an amnesiac's mind, and it was a memory she would forever hold close to her heart for as long as she lived. Merely remembering the way her fingertips brushed against Jiang's scarred cheek prompted a light flutter from Aiko's heart while she looked down at her side, and noticed the handmade Valkyranger plushie sitting next to her.
29 minutes and 44 seconds had gone by ever since Jiang rushed out of the front door in her Adaptor uniform. Counting down how long each of Team-04's missions lasted was becoming relatively easy by now. It was a past-time neither Jiang, Godai nor Ayano knew of, but there was only so much that Aiko could do to keep herself busy while the rest of her teammates actually went out and placed their lives on the line. Taking the small, soft toy of Cassandra Jiang Lanfen into her hands, Aiko held the black-and-white heroine in two gentle palms, and softly smiled before holding it close to her beating chest.
She could never forget the enchanting sound of Jiang's contralto voice. The swinging beats of her Jazz music. And the somber lyrics of her paranormal song.
Jiang's song granted the Adaptor a power she needed to fight against the Distortions. And while the act itself was valiant by its very nature, Aiko knew that such efforts bore a deeper purpose behind it. A purpose to prevent tragedies which had fallen upon the Wielder from happening to anyone else in this beautiful world. A selfless duty that Aiko knew full-well by now to have been inflicted by the death of Jiang's younger sister during the arrival of the Distortions. It was a weight Jiang carried alongside the weight of the world, and all Aiko could realistically do was ponder on what she, Ayano, and Godai could do to alleviate the burdens of a self-inflicted responsibility.
Gently placing the Valkyranger toy back at her side, Aiko looked over the bedroom which had once belonged to Cynthia Jiang Kai-Ming, and laid her eyes on its dusty doorknob. Rays of afternoon light shone through the windows to reflect off the round, metal knob, seizing Aiko's attention to the point that she could feel her curiosity flashing across her golden eyes. But Aiko knew better. Especially after what had happened during the first time she stepped into this very apartment. In an attempt to distract herself from the abandoned room, Aiko swung her gaze over to her tablet on the kotatsu table, and brought the digital pad into her hands.
'5-5-5'. It wasn't the most complicated of PIN codes, but there was little desire for much security on her personal tablet anyway. After unlocking the device, Aiko swiped her finger across its screen, summoning a downloaded library of books, novels, documentaries, and colourful comics. A gigantic building's worth of content all lied within the palm of her hand. Everything came to her mind quickly and easily. Every titbit and trivia about the world was fascinating, and the bottomless pit that was Aiko's curiosity gladly glutted itself to all sorts of content she could find. And yet, in spite of the information which was freely available in her grasp, all of this still could not distract her from the feelings of inadequacy laying dormant within Aiko's heart.
A sensation that desired to pull her medicine-reliant body out from the comforts of Jiang's apartment, and carry out the same duties everyone else in Team-04 was expected to do.
Settling down the small tablet on top of the table once again, Aiko let loose a brief sigh before shutting off the device, letting her instead focus her wandering attention on a small, framed picture situated within the living room's shelf. It was the group photograph that Team-04 had taken during their small shopping trip in Mitakihara. A memento of their first ever outing with all four members.
Pulling her legs out from the warmth of the kotatsu table, Aiko picked herself up from the floor, and slowly made her way over to the room's well-organized shelf. Her golden eyes held their gaze on the framed photo, never diverting her attention away from it for even a split second. Once she was right in front of the shelf, Aiko lifted a pale-white hand from her side, and gingerly took the framed image into her grasp, letting her quietly appreciate the photograph with an almost wistful smile on her face. As far as Aiko was aware of, Team-04 were the closest people she knew in what passed for a 'life' right now. The first companions she ever made. And reliable individuals who she could only hope to grow closer with over the coming days.
The mere fact that Aiko was even here at all still felt like a dream too good to be true.
"Jiang," she whispered, gently brushing a thumb against the framed photo in an attempt to caress a Symphogear-Wielder's face. "Would you laugh at me if I ever asked to sing with you...?"
Frozen droplets fell through the gaps of the forest canopy and settled themselves on a blanketed floor of pure, innocent white. A distinct ringing within Lanfen's headgear declared the full reformation of her Symphogear's protective barriers. Drawing in a practiced breath, the crowned warrior inserted her detached converter unit into the empty slot of her weapon's cross-guard, and thumbed it into place with a skin-shivering click. The curved, silver trigger which slid out of her sword's handle earned itself an apathetic stare from Lanfen before she felt the proverbial fires within her eyes flaring into an all-consuming inferno. The memorized command word was ready to be uttered.
The Sword of Damocles awaited its first true awakening.
Wrapping one finger around the trigger, Lanfen could still feel the cold metal through the black-and-white fibers of her Symphogear.
"Fall."
Her finger squeezed down the chrome trigger.
Four metallic connectors impaled the sides of her crystalline converter unit.
The Sword of Damocles thrummed with a deep, stomach-churning roar, and Lanfen grinded her teeth together as a tidal wave of crimson energy erupted from its cross-guard, flooding her nervous system with revivifying bolts of heretical technology. There was no turning back. She repeated that statement endlessly. The Category-3 was on its way to Yamaku City and everyone was counting on her to stop it. Even if it meant wielding a weapon originally designed to slay her fellow Symphogear-Wielders. Fastening her fingers around the golden handle of her glowing Armed Gear, Lanfen reigned in her convulsing body, hissed between her teeth, and summoned a power she feared to even utilize up until this very moment.
"Hold nothing back if you truly wish to avenge her, my little Valkyrie."
The Sword of Damocles gladly answered her call. In response to the crowned warrior's unfaltering will, the paranormal internals of the Symphogear system began to shift, rearranging countless circuitries with each wave of energy that pulsed from her thrumming weapon. Hundreds of performance limiters were forcibly shattered apart one after the other, letting loose a strength which had been chained down this entire time. As Lanfen's nervous system willingly submitted itself to the crimson waves of her awakened blade, she could feel a sixth, supernatural sense slowly opening its proverbial eye within her mind, granting her the gift of absolute precognition. Finally, a 'lock' manifested around her mind, encasing her brain within a metaphysical coffin of pure, uncaring metal.
Fear. Hatred. Despair. Grief. Each emotion was subjugated and imprisoned all within the back of a sharpened mind, transforming Lanfen's mental landscape into a clear, unobstructed opening of pure tranquility. Just like the S.W.O.R.D. had been designed to do so from the very beginning.
The waves of revivifying energy soon died down, causing Lanfen's legs to collapse beneath her, and force the woman to catch herself by dropping onto a single armoured knee. With her hand still maintaining its grip on the now-hushed Sword of Damocles, the crowned warrior drew in the winter air at quick intervals while her heart pounded relentlessly within an aching ribcage. A pair of dilated, purple eyes stared at the converter unit within her Armed Gear's glimmering cross-guard, and took in the sight of its incandescent glow. Her mind never felt as clear as it did right now. And for the first time in ages, Lanfen felt utterly invincible.
Rising up from the forest floor with her sword in hand, Lanfen heard an incoming transmission within her headphones, prompting her to answer it with a punctuated press of her headgear. "SG-r04... reporting in." There were no emotions within the words which slipped between her cracked, bleeding lips. Only reverberations of a supernatural power that needed no song to fuel the systems of an awakened Symphogear.
"Jiang!" Ayano called to her over the comms. "Are you alright?! The Commander has just given us an update on your orders and we-"
"The S.W.O.R.D. has been activated," Lanfen curtly stated, closing and opening her free hand repeatedly, taking in the power which was now flowing through her veins. The idea of crushing the Category-3s head within her palm no longer felt like an impossibility. "Systems are all green. The S.W.O.R.D. is maintaining stability. I'm ready to move. Ayano, give me an update on the Category-3 Distortion."
Despite the stalwart nature of Lanfen's order, concern still remained within Ayano's voice. If anything, it only grew in response to the sudden, distinct shift in the crowned warrior's tone. "... The Category-3 is nearing the borders of Yamaku City," she slowly stated, obviously reading out reports from her side of the transmission. "I'm sending you its location. No Adaptor reinforcements are on the way, so everyone will be relying on you to finish it off. I'll be monitoring your systems from here. Just... be careful out there, alright?"
Lanfen had to wonder why her teammate was choosing to remain cautious in the advent of the S.W.O.R.D. The strongest piece in her hand was finally placed on the board, and unlike every other piece she carried within her Symphogear's arsenal of abilities, Lanfen felt utterly convinced that this was going to be the path to a perfect victory. "Affirmative," Lanfen said, hearing the ringing confirmation of new information being transmitted into her headgear. It was time to settle this. "... SG-r04, proceeding with the elimination of the target."
Guided by the location that had just been uploaded into her systems, Lanfen spun in the direction of distant, echoing gunfire, and subsequently blitzed through the snowy forest. Frozen white turned into hissing steam beneath the soles of her armoured boots while the Adaptor appeared to the naked eye as nothing more than a rushing blur of black-and-white. Her earth-shaking footsteps left trails of evaporated water behind her, even while the speakers of her Symphogear remained devoid of its swinging Jazz tune. Lanfen knew where she was heading and desired nothing else. The elimination of the Category-3 was the only thing that mattered to her thirsting, aching sword-hand.
Gunfire. Simultaneously disciplined and desperate. It was Task Force Harmony.
Focusing her dilated pupils on the snowy, tree-filled path ahead of her, Lanfen's enhanced vision spotted Captain Yaiba far off in the distance, leading what was left of their troops in a desperate defense line against the lone, armoured knight who was nearing their positions with floating funnels at its sides. The Distortion's conjurations whizzed in multiple directions, avoiding the volleys of lead which would only turn into black carbon upon contact with the Category-3's fog-like barrier. The golden knight didn't even bother to fire upon the Captain's few remaining forces, seemingly content with simply waltzing towards Yamaku City as projectiles from rifles and stationed machine guns alike were turned away with ease.
The same would not be said for the Sword of Damocles.
Brandishing her empowered Armed Gear within her sword-hand, proverbial fires burned within Lanfen's eyes, causing her to squeeze down on the trigger of her weapon, and command it to initiate the full utilization of the S.W.O.R.D.'s lingering power. The Sword of Damocles obliged her without complaint, and while the expansive distance between Lanfen and her target shrunk meter-by-meter, her Armed Gear released a banshee-like wail from the converter unit deep within its golden cross-guard. A wail that echoed throughout the forest like an omen of destruction before catching the inevitable attention of both the Distortion and Harmony's defensive line.
The Category-3's funnels quickly reoriented themselves in the approaching Adaptor's direction, their gun barrels already glowing with emerald lights.
Unfazed by the sight of the funnels' glowing tips, Lanfen slashed her wailing blade across the air, deflecting the incoming lances of superheated particles in complete and utter silence. The crowned warrior's newly-awakened sixth sense alerted her to every incoming attack before they were even made. She didn't even need to calculate the rushing beams' trajectories while they harmlessly bounced off her sword to zip right back at the very funnels which fired them. By the time the Distortion even bothered to turn towards the incoming Adaptor, the last of its funnels had already disintegrated from a reflected beam of bright, deadly emerald.
Harmony's forces halted their gunfire at the sight of the monochrome blur.
The Category-3 ran an armoured hand through its lavish cape in response to the appearance of an enemy it clearly believed it had defeated.
With the last of its conjurations now gone, a smirk grew on Lanfen's face. But when a jolt of pain suddenly coursed through her spine and into the hemispheres of her collared brain, the sprinting Adaptor momentarily faltered in her earth-shaking footsteps, prompting Lanfen to click her tongue in annoyance. It was pain she had never once felt in her life. A pain that didn't need to bypass the physical, protective barriers of her Symphogear.
"Jiang!" Ayano exclaimed over the comms. "Our sensors are picking up an unidentified energy signature from your Armed Gear!"
The golden Distortion weaved a pair of rune-marked hands through the air, summoning a dozen, newly-formed arsenal at its sides. There was no time to waste. Silencing the emergency transmission, Lanfen released the trigger of her wailing sword and proceeded with the final, physical form of the S.W.O.R.D.'s true power. Commanded directly by the converter unit within her Armed Gear, the Sword of Damocles retracted its thick, physical blade into the weapon's cross-guard. Shifting internals replaced the metal component with a circular projection device, locked into place by mechanical appendages within the span of a rushing heartbeat.
"After all, if you cannot strike down such an opponent... you wouldn't be able to avenge your dear sister now, would you?"
A violent discharge of lethal, crimson plasma spewed forth from the projection device within her Armed Gear. Fueled by the very internals of an awakened Symphogear, magnetic fields generated by her weapon instantly moulded the spasming, disruptive energies into the thin, precise shape of a cylindrical, humming blade. It was a blade that casted the glow of spilled blood wherever it went. A blade built to bestow decisive judgment upon the heads of those it fell upon. The S.W.O.R.D.
A thousand jade beams lanced towards Lanfen. Proverbial fires flared within her dilated pupils.
Wielding the paranormal power of perfect precognition, the crowned warrior's energy blade danced into a flourish, and turned the incoming volleys of death right back at the infuriating conjurations that had even spat them. Countless funnels exploded into bits of emerald lights within seconds. The distance between her and the Distortion shrunk to a mere ten meters. The Category-3 solidified its fog-like barrier into a solid, physical shield of glimmering emerald, and Lanfen lunged straight for her opponent without uttering even a single lyrical verse.
Schwing
Whatever passed for a Distortion's 'arrogance' subsequently disintegrated alongside the knight's physical, seemingly unbreakable shield. Like a hot knife through butter, Lanfen's cylindrical blade of humming crimson devoured the Category-3's defenses, effortlessly melting its way through the supernatural barrier before slicing off one of the Distortion's rune-marked forearms. The Symphogear-Wielder skidded to a halt, a grin written across her face while her opponent backed away from her, and grasped its cauterized stump of limb in visible, wordless shock.
Lanfen could tell that Harmony's forces were observing her. All just so the council could witness the power which they had bestowed upon her as their personal executioner.
Satisfied with having broken the 'unbreakable', Lanfen rose up from the snow-covered floor, approached the severed limb that laid several steps away from her, and lifted an armoured leg before crushing the smoking forearm beneath the soles of her boot. The Category-3 was too busy writhing in pain to notice the act of desecration. And yet, it didn't matter. The satisfaction it granted Lanfen made it all worthwhile.
Taking a single footstep towards the wounded Distortion, the crowned warrior readied herself to deliver the killing blow, and it was in that very moment when another jolt of pain ran up her spine to crash into the hemispheres of her 'locked' brain. Lanfen winced between grinding teeth, her free hand now grasping the sides of her aching head while she closed her eyes shut to flush away this strange, unidentified agony. Not now, she wordlessly pleaded to herself. Not when the Distortion was right before her, ready to be grinded into the dirt as nothing more than a useless heap of sand.
"Jiang, can you hear me?! Jiang!"
It was Ayano's voice over the comms again. Lanfen could hear her teammate panicking through the transmission, asking her what was wrong, but her pleas were slowly being drowned out. Submerged within the tidal waves which crashed against the proverbial dams within her own collared mind. Within the timespan of four, ringing heartbeats, the 'lock' that had encased her brain within a metaphysical coffin violently shattered from the sheer weight of the emotions it had attempted to conquer. Every emotion it was built to imprison - all of them - broke free and were let loose to merge with the pulsing energies of the S.W.O.R.D. across her convulsing body.
"Jie?"
Releasing her hand from the side of her aching head, Lanfen reopened a pair of purple eyes and found herself standing all on her lonesome.
The world of winter around her had been overtaken by an unending hell-scape of fire. Fire that brewed as hot as the flames which swirled within her own diluted eyes ever since the death of her little sister, Cynthia Jiang Kai-Ming. Her sword of energy remained within her other hand, casting a crimson glow around her while it emitted a deep, throaty hum. Drawing in a shaky breath, Lanfen extinguished the roaring fires around her with a single, desperate swing of her Armed Gear, leaving her in nothing more than a hush space of complete, pitch-black darkness. The blood-like light of her weapon washed over her sweating face, granting Lanfen the last bits of luminescence she could even see.
"Mei...?" Lanfen whispered, spotting the faint signs of movement up ahead.
The veil of shadows started to lift. Vision was returning to her narrowed eyes. And as the light of a winter sun rose up from the horizon, the crowned warrior focused her sights on a faint figure in front of her before fastening a skull-crushing grip around the handle of her Armed Gear.
There - standing right before the Adaptor - was the creature which Lanfen had encountered on the night of the Distortions' global attack. The one who had thrown Lanfen upon the damnable path she now treaded upon. The murderer of her little sister: Unknown Enemy-02. Lanfen had been waiting for this reunion with bated breath, and now here it was in front of her, grasping a stump of an arm while its cloaked body writhed in visible agony. Licking her cracked lips with growing anticipation, Lanfen brandished a blade of humming crimson, and focused her dilated pupils onto her target.
"You're not getting away this time."
Her words slithered out of her, coated in a thick mantle of unbridled malice. Seemingly angered by Lanfen's vicious declaration, Zero-Two turned its hooded face towards the black-and-white Adaptor before weaving its remaining, uninjured arm through the air. Familiar emerald lights manifested into view around its cloaked body - and no more than that - as Lanfen descended upon her foe to cleave off its glowing arm without another word. No scream of sorts came out of Zero-Two while the severed limb clattered to the snowy floor, the supernatural energy around its fingertips fizzling into sparks before dying out completely.
"Jie, watch out!"
"... I hear you... Mei..." Lanfen solemnly whispered, unable to remember a time when she could actually hear her little sister's voice.
Now deprived of its last remaining arm, Zero-Two turned tail to run in the opposing direction when its escape was denied wholesale by a clean, sadistic slice at its armoured legs. Its limbless body hit the ground with its back and Lanfen wasted no time pinning its pathetic torso into the snow by ramming her knee right into its chest-plate. Tossing her glowing Armed Gear into her left hand, Lanfen curled her right, prominent hand into a tight fist, and began pounding the knuckles of an armoured gauntlet into the shadows of her target's hooded face. Each blow croaked like denting metal, filling the crowned warrior's ears with a noise she had been dying to hear ever since that cursed night.
"Jiang, stop!"
Her dilated pupils savoured the sight of the warm, red fluids which pooled beneath them. Her armoured knuckles burned beneath the black-and-white fibers of her Symphogear.
Retracting her fist from the palpable crater Lanfen had formed within her foe's shadowy face, the Adaptor took in the sensation of the thick liquids that coated her knuckles before glaring into the flickering, emerald orbs which shone within the shadows of Zero-Two's hood. The proverbial fires within her dilated pupils blazed into a crescendo. Her armoured gauntlet pulled back one last time. Shutting out the voices that were pointlessly screaming into her ringing ears, Lanfen threw a fist right into Zero-Two's twitching head, and punched through its cranium with a sickening crunch, spilling the back of a skull across the innocent, white snow underneath them.
The cloaked being's body writhed for only a second before it finally went inert beneath her armoured knee.
The deed was done.
Her sister's killer laid dead below her.
And yet, not a hint of catharsis lit up within Lanfen's unmoving shell of a body.
Nothing.
It was strange. Lanfen had spent all this time waiting for this moment. This one act of focused retribution. But accomplishing it did nothing to actually settle the fires within Lanfen's dilated pupils. She parted her cracked, bleeding lips to let out a laugh, only for nothing to come out of her windpipe. The only thing Lanfen could actually do was watch as the broken skull around her bloodied fist decomposed into bits of golden sand, carried away by an uncaring gust of cold wind.
Her Armed Gear continued to hum within her left hand, its crimson, cylindrical blade still hungering for more even if the crowned warrior was utterly deprived of any targets to set it upon. Letting loose another shaky breath, Lanfen pulled her limp body up from the snow-covered floor, and contemplated if the lack of contentment was all because of the fact that her job wasn't over yet. This wasn't the target she had been aiming for, Lanfen reasoned with herself, hearing vibrations arising within her headphones. Her sister's killer was still somewhere nearby. And the only thing she actually defeated was a mere doppelganger created by her supernatural foe.
"Lanfen!"
Another voice called out to her. It wasn't Kai. No. It was someone else. Someone familiar.
"-fen, this is Tomosato! Please shut down the S.W.O.R.D. immediately! I repeat, shut down the S.W.O.R.D. immediately!"
Shut down. The mere notion of it was ridiculous. Kai's killer was still within her grasp and her powers of precognition only assured her of that. Lanfen couldn't stop now.
Not when she was so close to finally avenging her little sister.
A sudden flash of precognition coursed through the Adaptor's mind, alerting her to a danger which she had not noticed up until now. When Lanfen turned around in the direction of her would-be attackers, the crowned warrior found herself staring at dozens of shadowy, pitch-black figures who were slowly approaching her with indescribable, two-handed armaments. The shadows were screaming something at her. Something along the lines of, "Drop your weapon." And yet, Lanfen recognized neither of these distorted voices.
When the shadows finally closed in on her to seize Lanfen's glowing Armed Gear, the Adaptor tightened her grip around the humming weapon, and lunged at the closest foe with an armoured knuckle.
"Jiang, can you hear me?! Jiang!"
Inside the safe confines of Team-04's parked van, Ayano Komichi remained on the chair of the vehicle's large terminal, repeatedly calling out to the unresponsive Symphogear-Wielder over the team's dedicated communications channel. Her fingers rapidly clacked away on the keyboard, switching between countless different lines belonging to S.O.N.G., Task Force Harmony, and Yamaku's own public channels. But all attempts at reaching Jiang thus far only gave Komichi the harsh, garbled noise of blaring static. Clearly unnerved by the concerns within the operator's voice, Yuki climbed out of the driver's seat, and went over to Komichi to place a firm hand on the woman's shoulder, gaining her attention.
"Komi', what's going on?" the pony-tailed woman carefully asked her, prompting Komichi to take in a deep breath and reassert her focus on their current predicament.
"I can't get in contact with Jiang," Komichi explained, running several precise commands into the van's multi-screen terminal. "Our sensors have lost connection with her Symphogear and I can't get a reading on Jiang's vitals either. We... We should be able to get a direct visual on the situation soon." Her index finger slammed onto the Enter key and one of the terminal's screens brought up a new window, granting them a live feed of a newly-deployed camera drone which was still on its way to Jiang's last recorded location.
Focusing their attention on the enlarged camera feed, Komichi and Yuki silently watched on while the second drone hovered its way through the canopies of Yamaku's snow-covered forest. There was no point in scrambling for an update through the van's other systems. The S.O.N.G. submarine wasn't responding to their hails and the same could be said of Captain Yaiba's forces. Finally, after several, quiet minutes of undisturbed forest vegetation, the hovering drone arrived at the designated target point before reorienting its high-powered lenses on the forest floor below it.
"You've got to be shitting me," Yuki muttered to herself with a mixture of shock and bewilderment.
As Team-04's camera drone safely hovered among the branches of the trees, the live footage on the screen showcased a scene that made Komichi's blood turn cold beneath her shivering skin. Cassandra Jiang Lanfen - Japan's designated Symphogear-Wielder - silently strode across the snow-covered ground, possessing movements which matched the unfeeling motions of a living automata. With an energy blade of pure red in her hand, Jiang deflected incoming barrages of specialized stun rounds, sending them back towards the panicking soldiers who were attempting a fighting retreat into Yamaku City. The few who had chosen to hold their ground in an attempt to neutralize the Adaptor instead had their helmets shattered by the knuckles of Jiang's armoured fist, knocking them out cold before sending them flying through the air.
Lifting her quivering hands off the terminal's keyboard, Komichi wordlessly observed the live footage before them, and realized that this was the power which Jiang had been fearing this entire time. The S.W.O.R.D - an armament that Jiang carried all by herself as the Sword of Damocles' very own Symphogear-Wielder. Any resemblance to the Ignite System or the Amalgam System before it were purely superficial. Unlike the restrained fury of the Ignite System, Jiang's black-and-white form moved with the emotionless precision of a calculating machine, bludgeoning Harmony's soldiers left and right with the minimalist of movements.
An incoming transmission suddenly appeared in one of the terminal's monitors, creating an automated window to showcase an emblem which neither Komichi nor Yuki enjoyed dealing with.
It was the symbol of the United Nations.
"Greetings, AG-4-2 and AG-4-1," said the Spokesperson of the U.N. The consistently-affable nature of their voice never failed to creep out Komichi. "While I would like to congratulate you on the Category-3's successful termination, it would appear that your operation has unfortunately taken a turn for the worse."
"What the hell did you do to Jiang?!" Yuki instantly barked at them, forcing Komichi to throw up an arm and calm her friend down by grabbing onto her tense forearm.
The last thing they were going to need right now was conflict with the very people who handled their paychecks. "My apologies, Spokesperson," Komichi hurriedly responded to the transmission, ignoring the frustrated stare that Yuki fired at the United Nations' symbol. "AG-4-1 and I are currently within the inner vicinity of Yamaku City. We have received no verbal updates on the situation thus far and are currently awaiting further orders from S.O.N.G. command. If I may, I would like to request an explanation for SG-r04's current actions." Being polite was always Komichi's expertise, even if it meant faking it in the face of those she despised kissing the shoes of.
A second transmission appeared on the monitors of the van's terminal. This time, it displayed the emblem of S.O.N.G., prompting Komichi to connect the lines and assume direct contact with the organization's submarine as the Spokesperson continued speaking. "Commander Kazanari and I have just completed our discussion regarding the current situation, AG-4-2. Due to your affiliation with SG-r04, I am obligated to state that the activation of the S.W.O.R.D. has unfortunately resulted in an array of unexpected side-effects. Task Force Harmony is currently attempting to subdue her and I have sent additional detachments towards your location in order to bring in the out-of-control Symphogear-Wielder."
Yuki opened her mouth to speak, and Komichi silenced her with a quick, disapproving shake of her head. It was obvious that her friend had nothing but venom in store for the United Nations. "Commander," Komichi addressed the newly-connected audio transmission this time, ignoring the way Yuki crossed her arms in annoyance. "What are our orders?"
A single second passed by before Commander Genjuuro actually addressed them. "Professor Elfnein is attempting to do whatever she can from all the way over here and is thus far unsuccessful. Lanfen's Aufwachen wave pattern is in disarray. Our vessel is hours away from your location. The S.W.O.R.D. has completely taken over her, so I cannot risk your endangerment in good conscience, Komichi." There was a pause between his stern words. "Task Force Harmony will be redirecting all of their nearby forces in an attempt to subdue Lanfen. In the meantime, I want you and Yuki to get on the move and assist with the evacuation of the zones that Lanfen is predicted to enter."
Dropping herself onto one of the backseats behind Komichi, Yuki scratched the back of her head and impatiently tapped a foot on the floor of the van. "Wonderful," she sarcastically remarked under her breath. "Just going to leave everything to the U.N.'s lapdogs, huh?"
Unsure if either the Spokesperson or Commander Genjuuro actually heard her friend's comment, Komichi loudly cleared her throat before politely responding to their superiors. "Orders... confirmed. Commander, Spokesperson, may the situation resolve itself soon." And with those parting words said, both transmission windows vanished from their terminal's monitors, allowing Komichi to loudly sigh to herself while placing an aching forehead within the palms of two sweaty hands. The digital clock on the terminal ticked on, and the pair sat in complete silence.
Judging by the live footage they were still receiving from the drone, Jiang had already entered the city. Defensive lines of rifles and combat walkers were haphazardly set up to fend her off, but Komichi knew they were there just so they could slow her down for the arrival of reinforcements. Settling her hands on the keyboard again, Komichi loudly clacked away at the keys, bringing up a digital map of Yamaku City before overlaying it with the movements emitted by the Task Force's arriving detachments. Her green eyes shifted between the monitors - her focus back within her pupils - and within moments, Komichi not only calculated the estimated contact time between the convoys and Jiang's position, but she had also discovered the shortest path to take in order to reach the Adaptor from where they currently were.
The nearest convoy of reinforcements needed only an estimated time of 15 minutes to reach the Symphogear-Wielder's current position. No other Symphogear-Wielders were on their way. The defensive lines weren't going to hold, but they were definitely going to keep Jiang where she was. So, it was only up to Task Force Harmony and Symphogear Team-04 to settle this situation.
"Yuki," Komichi spoke up, inputting a command which subsequently uploaded the calculated path directly into her friend's wrist device. "Would you mind... doing something crazy for me?"
The ponytailed woman curiously tilted her head upwards in response to Komichi's sudden question. The ringing device on her wrist then caught her attention before Yuki noticed exactly what the operator had just uploaded into her systems. "... Wouldn't be the first time now, would it?" Yuki mused with a growing grin.
Nodding almost bashfully at her friend's dry words, Komichi got up from the terminal's designated chair, and faced Yuki with her hands firmly at her sides. "I want you to go and get Jiang back for us." The chuckle that quickly came out of her friend lacked any surprise within it. Yuki probably guessed what she intended all along before Komichi even spoke up. "As nonsensical as it sounds, Task Force Harmony's measures are only going to make things worse for all of us," she explained, gesturing to the live footage on the monitors. "I'll try and do what I can to help with the evacuation... so I'll be relying on the skills you've learned to settle things peacefully."
"We're definitely going to get in trouble for this, you know?" Yuki pointed out to her, even if it was obvious that Yuki herself didn't care about the consequences of their upcoming actions.
Komichi simply gave a shrug of the shoulders and a cheeky wink. "And I'll just sweet-talk our way into a lesser punishment like we always do. Sounds good?" She received an easy-going nod and a thumbs-up from her old friend. "... Alright. Stay safe out there, Yuki."
Now that their next move was settled, Yuki lifted herself off the van's backseats and crouched down to bring out a suitcase from underneath the driver's seat. A layer of dust coated the thick casing as Yuki keyed in a digital PIN code before opening it up to check on her old equipment from Clan Hida. All sorts of tools laid within the suitcase, still in prime condition despite the months which have passed since their last usage. Neither Yuki nor Komichi looked forward to possibly needing to use them on Jiang, but the situation called for them to take as much precaution as possible.
Yuki closed up the old suitcase, reached into the pockets of her navy-blue uniform and pulled out the keys to the van. "Don't scratch the paint," she playfully told Komichi, tossing them into Komichi's open palm with a smirk. "I'll be back before you know it." And with those confident words plainly uttered, the ponytailed woman headed towards the back of the van, opened up the rear doors, and jumped out of the vehicle with a holographic map projecting from her wrist device. Komichi would have chided her for forgetting to close the doors if they were in a different situation.
Glancing at the jingling keys in her hands, Komichi promptly closed the backdoors up with a soft chuckle. This was the way things should be, she thought to herself, getting herself into the driver's seat. This was a Team-04 matter, and even if it meant going against their current orders, Komichi was assured that either Chris or Tachibana would have approved of her decision. Securing a seatbelt around her waist, Komichi inserted the key into the van's ignition, roused the vehicle's roaring engine, and looked ahead at the currently-peaceful roads outside the windshields. There was one thing she could do right now for sure, and that was to simply get Shinonome to safety.
Following the holographic map provided by her wrist device, Yuki's steps on the ascending staircase were as noisy as a cat's footfalls, a skill which she had never forgotten ever since her days in Clan Hida. Not a single soul was seen within the underground train station she had taken a shortcut through, all in accordance with the evacuation procedures that were now arising within Yamaku City. Holding her old suitcase in one hand, Yuki spotted the open entrance to the surface above her, and slowed her pace once she neared the top of the underground station's staircase. Gunfire blared across the surface as the woman's wrist device showed that she had just arrived at Jiang's designated location. It only took 8 minutes for her to reach it.
"Right on time," Yuki quietly remarked to herself, placing down her suitcase on one of the steps before flipping it open to pull out her old equipment. Smoke bombs, an essential tool for both retreating and attacking. A half-mask rebreather, situational, even if it never hurt to have one in hand. And lastly, kunais, the most favoured weapons of Clan Hida. After placing the small rebreather within the inner pockets of her S.O.N.G. uniform, Yuki hid her smoke bombs inside her side-pockets, and strapped three kunais beneath each of her long sleeves. The navy-blue uniform didn't do much to actually keep her warm, but it at least concealed her most important tools.
Closing up her suitcase back up with a light kick, Yuki took a few ginger steps up the underground staircase before slowly taking in the situation on the surface around her. Just as she expected, the defensive line that Task Force Harmony had set up in the middle of the city intersection was already crumbling into a panicked rout. Disciplined volleys of stun rounds turned into disorganized barrages, and all manner of control broke beneath the cold brutality of an uncontrollable Symphogear-Wielder. Precise blows from an armoured fist bludgeoned Harmony troopers into the snowy dirt while the combat walkers which had been attached to this force laid across the street as nothing more than dismembered, smoking wreckage.
Loud chatter over the comms at least assured Yuki that their pilots had quickly ejected from their walkers before they were inevitably cut down.
Still, Yuki didn't envy the troopers of Harmony while Jiang pounded into their bodies with enough force to rupture their advanced body armour like wet cardboard. Crouching back into the cover of the underground staircase, Yuki motioned for the device on her wrist and brought up a map of Yamaku City. There, she could see an incoming convoy led by Captain Yaiba, a few minutes away from arriving at this very intersection. Yuki counted between 6-to-10 combat walkers moving alongside the convoy, accompanied by five APCs full of fresh troops. The whole thing would have looked impressive if it wasn't for the fact that they were dealing with a Symphogear-Wielder of all things.
Two taps on her wrist device initiated an audio transmission with the Captain. The soft ringing of the connecting call allowed Yuki to notice that the sounds of fighting in the surface above her had already transitioned into an eerie silence.
A soft beep declared the immediate connection of the transmission. "This is Captain Yaiba speaking."
Yuki wasn't looking forward to the definite scolding she and Komi' were going to receive from the Commander, but when her old junior was in the midst of tearing Task Force Harmony a new one, the last thing Yuki was going to do was sit back and watch. "This is AG-4-1," Yuki declared, glancing up at the sunlit top of the underground staircase. "I am currently at SG-r04's location... and I would like to request an alternative to our current orders, Captain Yaiba."
"You are offering to essentially disobey the orders from our respective superiors, AG-4-1?" the Captain pointed out in a matter-of-fact way.
4 minutes until the convoy reached the intersection. The holographic map on her wrist device showed that Jiang had yet to make her move from here.
"It's a harsh way to put it. But you're exactly right, Captain," Yuki calmly responded. "This situation is nothing if not FUBAR, and while I can respect your willingness to try and secure SG-r04 yourselves... you and I both know that going up against an Adaptor isn't going to be easy." The woman went on, even if Yuki couldn't tell whether or not the Captain was even listening. "Both S.O.N.G. and the council aren't going to let any other Wielders intervene. Not if it means riskin' the loss of a Symphogear. So, if you want to keep things from getting worse, then give me some time to settle this, alright?"
3 minutes until the convoy reached the intersection. Yuki couldn't help but feel her throat turn dry from the cold, winter wind.
The large blips in the holographic map proceeded on an unceasing path towards Jiang's location and nothing but silence came from the transmission's projection. Then, right as Yuki was about to speak up again, a response came in the form of a complete stop from the arriving convoy. The blips remained where they were, even if they did not vanish from the map. "I have no obligation to take your word, AG-4-1," said Captain Yaiba after a painstakingly long moment of quiet. "But for the sake of my men's safety, I would rather take my chances with what you're trying to offer." Their words pulled out a silent sigh of relief from the woman. "You have 20 minutes to talk to her. If SG-r04 continues to show signs of hostility, then we would have to resume with our initial orders. Godspeed."
20 minutes. Just exactly what she needed. "Loud and clear, Captain Yaiba. I owe you one for this." The transmission switched off from the Captain's end of the line as Yuki glanced in the direction of the landing above her. Leaving behind her old suitcase for now, she ascended the cold steps with quiet footfalls, bringing her up onto the surface, and out into the city intersection where Jiang silently stood with a blade of glowing, thrumming crimson. Nothing could have prepared Yuki for a situation like this. Not even if Professor Elfnein herself handed Team-04 the documents of the S.W.O.R.D. and detailed every possible risk which could come from actually using it.
Both Komi' and Yuki had been theorizing between each other on what would happen if the U.N. ever forced Jiang to unleash that damned blade. And now, here she was, carefully walking out onto a snow-covered street while tall, evacuated buildings surrounded them on all sides. The flashing lights of numerous advertisements illuminated Yuki's path, paving the way to her old school junior in the hopes that she could end all of this without shedding a single drop of blood. Otome was definitely going to give her an earful once this was all over.
Jiang remained standing right in the middle of the expansive intersection, her silent, unfocused gaze directed at the concrete beneath her as unconscious Harmony troopers laid scattered across the ground with shattered helmets and bisected rifles. Movement then appeared within the corner of Yuki's eyes, and she momentarily halted in her stride to notice a dazed, heaving Harmony trooper slowly pulling herself up from the dirt with a rifle in her hands. The broken visor of her helmet exposed a part of her bleeding face, but it didn't stop the trooper from pointing the barrel of her working weapon right at the unmoving Symphogear-Wielder.
A kunai sang through the air and stabbed into the trooper's shadow. A slow exhale escaped Yuki's lips, her right hand still stuck in the last physical motions of a throw while the Harmony trooper froze where she stood with a finger brushing against a trigger. If it was one thing Yuki could never forget from her time in Clan Hida, it was the oh-so-popular Shadow Weave technique.
Five kunais left. Three in her left sleeve and two in her right. Pulling back her attention to the silent Adaptor ahead of them, Yuki waltzed past what remained of Harmony's burning combat walkers, their smoking wreckage all bearing the hissing, glowing marks of a blade which had melted through them with temperatures Yuki couldn't even guess. She subsequently came to a careful stop, all just so Yuki could break the silence with a forced, easy-going remark. "The council sure gave you one hell of a weapon. Didn't they, Jiang?"
Violent, crimson plasma hissed above the cross-guard of Jiang's Armed Gear, kept in the shape of a cylindrical blade by forces Yuki could not understand while it casted a soft glow of blood all over Jiang's black-and-white armour. A stretch of ten unobstructed meters remained between Yuki and the Adaptor, just close enough for the S.O.N.G. agent to notice Jiang's dilated pupils redirecting their gaze in her direction. This was crazy and Yuki damn well knew it. But S.O.N.G. always resorted to the insane whenever it came to dealing with the paranormal.
Unbothered by the glare she was receiving from her old schoolmate, Yuki held up her hands in the air, just so she could somehow signal that her intentions were completely different from the unconscious troopers around them. "Jiang, I'm here to bring you back," she declared, taking a single, careful step towards the Symphogear-Wielder. Not a second could go by without Yuki keeping her eyes on that blade of pure, lethal energy. "I'm not here to hurt you, alright? While this is one hell of a situation we're in, all you got to do to end it is shut down that sword of yours and come with me."
Jiang's narrowed eyes scanned Yuki head-to-toe, regarding her the same way an automated sentry gun would to a target board placed in front of it.
"It's just you and me here, pal," Yuki tried to assure her, managing to take a second step this time without intensifying Jiang's hardened glare. "... That Category-3 from earlier? You smashed it into the dirt for good. The Distortions were pushed back and Yamaku City is safe." The incoherent words streaming out of Yuki's mouth soon came to an inconclusive halt, and the woman found herself unable to come up with anything else. All she could think of was to wait as the winter breeze blew across the silent intersection, causing Yuki to shiver under her navy-blue uniform. Slowly, Jiang turned her head in Yuki's direction and parted a pair of bleeding, cracked lips.
The words on the Adaptor's tongue died in the howling wind. But with the shortened distance between them, Yuki was able to read the slow movements of Jiang's mouth.
"My sister," were the words Yuki could make out. "... Give me back my sister."
Grimacing at the implication of what Jiang was able to convey, Yuki had a feeling that this was the reason for Jiang's sudden loss of control. To have confirmed directly was a whole different experience and she honestly had to chide herself for not guessing so sooner. Yuki felt guilty - if anything - for never coming up with a way to help Jiang deal with the loss of her little sister. Then again, how was she or Komi' supposed to do that when it was a topic Jiang herself clearly despised bringing up? Either way, it was no longer the time to be avoiding the elephant in the room. Not when Yuki could see that Jiang was still somewhere in there.
"Jiang," Yuki gently addressed her, taking three, four, and then five steps towards the unmoving woman. "As much as I hate to say it... I can't do anything to bring back Kai. None of us can." Jiang's sword-hand twitched at her words. "The grim reaper isn't someone who returns those it takes. Even I had to realize that a long time ago." A rare, sardonic chuckle escaped Yuki. Scratching this old wound within her was something she hadn't done since she first entered Lydian. "Still... if it's one thing I can do right now, it's to bring you back with me." She slowly lowered her raised hands. "The others are waiting for us. And I'm sure that..."
Yuki met Jiang's cold gaze with her own unfaltering eyes.
"... I'm sure that Shinonome would hate to see you like this."
There. A single, warm teardrop. The first crack on the expression of tranquil fury which Jiang wore on top of her face. Yuki drew in a cold breath, and watched in patient silence as the Adaptor lifted her sword to softly squeeze the trigger of an Armed Gear's golden handle. The blade of violent, crimson energies that projected from its cross-guard sputtered loudly before dying out completely, extinguishing the soft, red glow it had been casting onto the Adaptor's burning surroundings. While Jiang's fingers continued to keep a tight grip around the handle of her now-bladeless weapon, it didn't stop Yuki from stepping towards the woman till they were finally within arm's reach of each other.
Tears. It reminded Yuki of the time she discovered Jiang crying all by herself beneath a staircase back at Lydian. All because a bunch of her classmates harassed Jiang on her first ever year in the Academy for being 'different'. The black eyes Yuki gifted to those gossiping girls never stopped feeling cathartic to Yuki's fists. Relaxing her muscles at the nostalgia from such an old memory, Yuki picked up a hand from her side, and held it towards Jiang. "We still haven't gotten those drinks you offered to share, you know?" Yuki said with an easy-going grin, prompting the Adaptor to stare dumbfoundedly at the outstretched hand before slowly lifting an armoured, weaponless palm of her own.
18 minutes had passed.
Jiang's fingertips hovered mere centimeters away from Yuki's outstretched hand. The Captain's forces were still holding themselves back. Things were going as well as they could have, and Yuki only needed to wait for just a second longer. "... You can do it," she encouraged her friend under her breath, giving Jiang whatever she needed in order to take the next important step. Seeing the fury within the Adaptor's eyes wavering into a weak, calming flame, Yuki held her breath, and subsequently spotted movement within the corner of her eye, leading Yuki to the faint shape of an azure figure standing on the rooftop of a building at their side.
The deafening roar of a gunshot shattered the silent air.
Yuki reflexively reeled backwards. The handles of her kunais brushed against her palms and the woman could only gasp as Jiang's armoured hand hovered next to her unharmed headphones. There, held between the Adaptor's fingertips, was a smoking, physical bullet, unlike anything S.O.N.G. nor Task Force Harmony possessed within their known armoury. "J-Jiang...?" Yuki carefully called out, her teammate's silent gaze now diverted away from hers.
Jiang shifted the bullet into her palm and crushed it into a thousand shards of raining, hot lead.
The Adaptor's eyes shot open, her dilated pupils now devoid of even a single hint of recognition. Lethal, crimson plasma discharged from the handle of Jiang's Armed Gear and Yuki gritted her teeth while a pair of smoke bombs exploded within her hands. A white, obscuring cloud enveloped the city intersection, blinding Yuki as a cylindrical blade of roaring crimson grazed past her face, and incinerated the very hairs on her cheeks. The glowing blade then melted into the concrete beneath her, forcing Yuki into a speeding retreat fueled by pure adrenaline.
"Get clear of the area!" Captain Yaiba's magnified voice suddenly echoed throughout the streets.
Jumping back into the safety of the underground staircase, Yuki huddled against the wall of the station entryway, and gasped for air while volleys of stun rounds could be heard whizzing across the intersection. But even when deprived of her sight, Jiang's Armed Gear still swung through the air, deflecting every incoming bolt into her surroundings with ease. Yuki's hand motioned for the kunais in her sleeves and stopped short of actually taking them out. It was pointless, she thought, knowing that there was no way she could land a Shadow Weave if Jiang was capable of catching a damn bullet like that.
She kept herself standing with a hand on the staircase's railing and shifted her eyes over to the same building where she had spotted Jiang's attacker. No trace of a soul, no matter how long Yuki focused her gaze on that damned rooftop. "Komi', can you-" She held up an arm to her face and felt her breath escape her. Strapped onto Yuki's forearm was her wrist device - or rather - what was left of the standard-issue equipment as smoke hissed from nothing more than a pile of melted remains.
Picking up her old suitcase in one hand, Yuki took one last glance at the smoke-covered intersection before making her escape into the underground train station. It would be a miracle if her smartphone could still reach Komi' in a situation like this.
Over the time she had spent living in Jiang's cozy apartment, Aiko quickly came to appreciate the aroma of fresh, hot tea. Holding up a kettle of water in both of her hands, Aiko poured the boiling liquid into a readied teapot, and made sure to follow the instructions she had produced from her digital tablet earlier. A pot of green tea felt like the perfect thing to welcome someone back home with after a tiring day, so Aiko made sure to be careful when she picked up the filled teapot, and carried it out of the apartment's small kitchen. Leaving it on top of the kotatsu table, Aiko's handmade plushie of Jiang sat next to it as she picked up a remote to switch on the living room's television.
Zesshou Sentai Valkyranger. Holding back a giggle at the extravagant title which flashed across the screen, Aiko found herself honestly looking forward to breezing through all 50 episodes of an action-packed, drama-filled television series. But before Aiko could lift her pot of tea for the first cup of the day, the program playing in front of her was suddenly interrupted by a large, blue card that overlaid itself over the ongoing show. Accompanying the card was a distinct ring, immediately catching Aiko's attention while her golden eyes read out the words on the emergency declaration.
"Please remain calm and evacuate the building. Kindly head for the nearest public shelter and await further orders from official authorities."
59 minutes and 44 seconds went by since Jiang headed out of the apartment earlier. It wasn't unusual for her missions to last for a while, but it didn't stop Aiko from cupping a pale cheek in one hand, wondering if she should simply wait for the others to come back. Her wordless question was quickly answered by a distinct pattern of knocks on the front door, prompting Aiko to get up from the floor, and rush over to the apartment's entrance barefooted. Undoing the several locks on the door, Aiko carefully opened it up to see Ayano standing on her doorstep, hands on her knees as the woman gasped repeatedly for air.
"Ayano?" Aiko pulled a hand away from her cheek. "Is something the matter-?"
The brunette abruptly held up a flat palm, cutting off her question while Ayano coughed into a fist to recollect herself. "W-We need to get to safety!" the woman explained between her persistent gasps. "It's dangerous to stay here right now, so I came to pick you up! Get inside, grab anything important, and meet me at the van downstairs, okay?"
Glancing worriedly at Ayano's frantic instructions, Aiko had to ponder about the ongoing situation with the Distortions. "Where are Jiang and Godai?" Aiko quickly asked, poking her head out the doorway so she could look down the empty hallways.
"They're fine! Don't worry about them," Ayano insisted with a bright smile, brushing off her worries using a waving pair of fingers. "They're a biiiiiiiiit occupied with something else right now. Just focus on getting yourself dressed and getting yourself to safety, alright?" Aiko wasn't completely convinced to disregard the status of the missing pair, but she remained quiet anyway while Ayano motioned for the elevators further down the hall, and stepped towards them with a waving hand. "Oh, and don't forget to grab a coat before you leave!"
Nodding politely at the woman's hasty instructions, Aiko waited for Ayano to disappear around the corner before she stepped back into the apartment and closed the front door. Electrical appliances. Her digital tablet. The temperature controls. Aiko diligently switched off whatever she wasn't going to need for the sake of the power bill, and only then proceeded with getting herself dressed for the cold winter streets. First, a pair of shoes that Ayano bought for her when she first joined the team. Afterwards, a basic winter coat which matched her silver hair. Lastly, a black-and-white scarf. The very same one Jiang had lent her when Aiko departed from the S.O.N.G. submarine. Tightening the warm cloth around her neck, Aiko took a small, curious whiff of the apparel before making her way down the large apartment complex.
The confusion within Aiko was evidently shared among the other tenants who were departing their own apartments in response to the sudden evacuation.
By the time she finished securing herself in the backseats of the Team's designated vehicle, its engine had already rumbled into life, letting Ayano drive down the noisy streets at speeds that only made Aiko hold on tight to her black-and-white scarf. Lights and sounds were pouring out of the large terminal on the other side of the van, filling the vehicle with a string of noise Aiko couldn't distinguish from another. Focusing her sights on the backdoors' windows instead, Aiko curiously looked at the streets behind them, and saw the numerous crowds who were making their way towards the public shelters. Armed, helmeted individuals fitted with black body armour could be seen guiding them alongside official authorities, making Aiko question if this predicament was even related to the Distortions at all.
Everything should be fine as long as Godai and Jiang were safe, Aiko calmly thought to herself, even if her heart desired to do more than run and hide like the civilians she was witnessing.
Clasping her cold, bare hands over one another, Aiko's inquisitive eyes again shifted back onto the terminal which took up half of the backseats. She tried to make sense of the reports that were flooding into the console. Even though she wasn't trained to comprehend the large monitor's ongoing contents, Aiko's golden eyes still made out an emergency request for reinforcements. "Jiang," Aiko whispered beneath her black-and-white scarf, shifting her face downwards until it covered up half of her pale-white face. "You're safe out there, aren't you?"
The van came into a screeching halt, nearly throwing Aiko off her seat were it not for the secured belt around her torso. Wincing at the ear-piercing noise of screaming rubber, Aiko swung her gaze over to the driver's compartment and out of the front windshields while Ayano groaned out loud.
"Really?!"
Several of the full-helmeted officials from earlier stood in front of their van, gesturing it to halt right before it entered a large intersection. Vehicles were lining up behind them, and Ayano simply gripped onto the steering wheel as the black-armoured men appeared to be clearing a path. Aiko's guess was quickly proven correct as more of the same individuals marched across the intersection from an adjacent road on their right. Accompanying these armed forces were large, two-legged mechanical beasts, all of them wielding weapons that made Aiko quickly hide behind Ayano's chair.
Guns. Armaments far more frightening than the noble shape of a blade or the elegant curve of a bow. The very sounds they could make were like a thunderstorm to Aiko's ears.
A loud wailing arose from the van's terminal, prompting Ayano to shift the vehicle's gears, undo her seatbelt, and squeeze past Aiko with a rushed apology. She then dropped herself onto the console's designated chair and clacked away on its keyboard without another word. Noticing the increasingly-worried look on Ayano's expression only stoked Aiko's own concerns inside her. She knew that she had no business interfering with the duties of her teammate, and yet, it was that very reasoning which yelled at her to do more than be a designated civilian among hard-working protectors.
"Head back!" a voice at the front suddenly exclaimed. "Head back now!"
The two women turned their attention over to the front and saw some of the black-armoured men yelling at the queued-up vehicles to drive the other way. Those who were not addressing the gathered civilians instead took up combat positions around the intersection, visibly aiming their armaments at the adjacent road on Aiko's left while rotary weapons began whirring on the mounts of three mechanical beats. Ayano rushed back into the driver's seat, tapped into her wrist device, and projected an outgoing transmission.
"Yuki?!" she called out, even if the communication lines refused to connect. "Yuki, where are you?!"
An eardrum-smashing cacophony erupted outside the van and Aiko had to clasp her hands tightly over her ears. A thousand gun barrels simultaneously erupted, vomiting a barrage of glowing, blue bolts down a road neither of the pair could actually see. Ayano still tried out to call to her teammate beneath the ensuing roars of gunfire, all while Aiko huddled behind the driver's chair with eyes that were unable to tear themselves away from the sight of real, ongoing combat. This was the very thing Jiang had been facing every day, she realized. The loud barks of deadly weapons. The strict shouting of orders. Aiko hadn't even noticed her shaking legs until she brought a hand downwards and felt them quaking beneath her fingertips.
She readied herself to set her golden eyes upon them again. The Distortions.
The ones who would have taken her life were it not for the valiant blade of a singing, black-and-white warrior. But as the attack outside their windshields slowly devolved into a panicked defense, a familiar pair of wired harpoons soared through the air, impaling the armoured legs of one mechanical beast. The two-legged walker only had moment to recognize the attack before it was pulled out from underneath itself, sending it toppling to the streets while a speeding, monochrome blur descended upon the intersection. The blinding figure zipped between the two remaining walkers and butchered apart their robotic forms, forcing their cockpits to eject into the skies in an attempt to escape an uncertain fate.
When the last mechanical beast fell onto the concrete as nothing more than a heap of burning wreckage, the attacker responsible for its destruction halted in her steps, faced the black-armoured individuals around her, and brandished a cylindrical blade of glowing crimson within one hand.
Aiko felt her mind black out for a single second. "... Jiang?" A pair of shaking hands reached for the black-and-white scarf around her neck. "Ayano...? What is she...?" Turning her widened eyes away from the ensuing destruction, Aiko glanced over to her teammate for questions, only for the brunette to simply get off her seat, and rest a firm hand on the shoulder of Aiko's jacket.
"It's too dangerous to stay here," Ayano told her, not even looking at the situation beyond the van's windshields. "We... We have to move, alright? I can't risk you getting hurt and all."
Her teammate's expression was the same cheerful one it always was, but Ayano's tight grip on Aiko's form betrayed what she was really feeling inside, communicating everything the brunette refused to show in that exact moment. Glancing back at the brutality out on the burning streets, Aiko still had to take in just what was happening in the span of but a few tense seconds: There was no singing. No music. No fancy flourishes nor any extravagant techniques. Absolutely nothing of what Aiko had witnessed in that snowy forest glade was displayed before her. Only a sorrow which was now unchained and set loose upon Jiang's own comrades. While nobody was willing to tell Aiko anything, she knew deep down just why this was happening.
Why the Symphogear-Wielder of Japan assaulted the armed forces around her with the same methodical cruelty of the Distortions.
Unable to form any sort of retort in return, Aiko tightened her lips and allowed Ayano to guide them to the back of the van. They swung open its backdoors, giving them a clear view of the countless civilians who had abandoned their vehicles in favour of retreating down the roads in an uncontrollable panic. Aiko tried to do the opposite and instead kept herself calm, shutting out the deafening roars of gunfire by simply keeping her hands clasped tightly over her ringing ears. After stepping down onto the snowy concrete, Ayano locked the vehicle and subsequently led them through the crowds in a hasty sprint, her wrist device brought back up to attempt another emergency transmission.
Aiko's legs were aching within her winter footwear. Her heart was pounding harder than it had ever beaten before. The falling snow did absolutely nothing to halt the creeping sweat on her face and her pace was beginning to slow down behind the far more athletic Ayano. But as her new boots desperately carried her to safety across a road of panicking, innocent civilians, Aiko felt a voice slowly rising within her, igniting a spark which only led to a single, simple realization.
This was her one chance to save Jiang.
And her first opportunity to actually do something.
For at least a week, Aiko had been stuck inside that apartment, waiting, sleeping, and constantly hoping for the best until Jiang would inevitably return from her missions to protect the innocents of this kind world. And yet, here she was, in the midst of a retreat from a rampage that Aiko herself knew full well the reasons for. She was afraid. Her shaking, heaving body told her just as much. A reasonable person would have continued running. But Aiko's burning desire to reach out for Jiang and help her just like what the Adaptor had been doing for Aiko was far, far stronger than any seed of lingering fear.
Abruptly pulling herself into a concrete-scratching halt, Aiko tightened her hands and watched while Ayano ran further and further down the crowded road, too occupied with her attempted transmission to notice Aiko's sudden stop. "Forgive me, Ayano." A pointless whisper came out of her and buried itself beneath the deafening barks of blossoming gun barrels. "This is simply a matter I cannot ignore."
Aiko spun around on the heels of a winter boot and immediately bolted back towards the scene she had been running from, her hand holding tightly onto a flowing scarf of black-and-white the entire time. Panicked, screaming civilians ran past her, nearly crashing into Aiko several times as the silver-haired woman desperately navigated her way through a road jammed with abandoned vehicles. At some point, Aiko had begun to hear Ayano's voice calling out to her, but it was far too late to turn back now. This was the path she had chosen and it was a decision Aiko took up without any sense of regret.
In the middle of the combat-filled intersection, a thrumming, crimson blade emitted a ghastly wail while blue bolts bounced off its form, reflecting the stunning projectiles back at the armoured soldiers who were desperately trying to surround the Adaptor. Combat orders turned into unintelligible words beneath the helmets of spasming, electrified soldiers, and Jiang lunged at the last of her attackers to bludgeon them into the concrete with a blow from a gauntlet-covered fist. The soldier instantly fell onto her back with a loud cry of pain, but refused to let go of the rifle in her hands.
"Jiang!" Aiko ran by the Team's halted vehicle and into the expansive, wreckage-filled intersection. "Please, stop!"
Unable to contain her fright beneath the silent ferocity of the attacking Wielder, the last soldier let out a terrified yell and drew her working rifle on Jiang. The Adaptor's armoured hand then seized the barrel of her shaking weapon, crumpling it within her palm before tearing the now-useless rifle away from the soldier's grasp. Suddenly deprived of any means of self-defense, the stunned soldier simply shielded her face with her arms as Jiang brandished her Armed Gear, and slowly lifted a sword of thrumming crimson above their heads.
"Lanfen!"
Aiko threw herself right in front of the cowering soldier. Jiang's wailing blade completely engulfed her vision. Immediately freezing at the sight of a rushing Armed Gear, Aiko closed her eyes shut and planted herself right where she stood.
And so, she waited. The mere thought of the end made her legs tremble beneath the weight of her body.
But what Aiko had expected would not come to pass. Instead, she felt the relentless thrumming of Jiang's crimson blade filling her ears, and no more than that, granting Aiko the will to slowly draw open her eyelids. Hovering before her was the cylindrical, glowing form of a violent, wailing sword, its all-consuming heat a mere movement away from touching the tip of Aiko's nose. Locked in the last physical motions of a full-on attack, Jiang's dilated pupils fixated themselves onto Aiko, and glared at the trembling woman as though she was but a mere stranger.
"Lanfen..." A single word choked itself out of Aiko's tightening throat. "Please... stop this." Aiko's hands gripped the scarf around her neck, mustering whatever bravery she still contained within her. "You're better than this. I know that you're... hurting. That you're in pain..." The Armed Gear's humming blade remained where it was, moments away from cutting down Aiko right then and there. "... But if you continue on like this, you would only end up doing something you'll regret for the rest of your life." Aiko widened eyes stared into Jiang's dilated pupils and saw her own terrified expression reflecting back at her. "Please..."
From a distance, Ayano was screaming at Aiko to get back, even while the operator was being restrained by more armoured men who had just arrived on the scene.
But it didn't matter how many soldiers were actually surrounding them. Aiko refused to turn her gaze away from Jiang's hardened glare. Innocent, white snow fell upon the intersection and slowly accumulated on both of their unmoving forms, all while Jiang's pauldron-covered shoulder rose up and down with the rhythm of her slow, noiseless breathing. No more words could be forced out of Aiko's windpipe. The mere act of maintaining her consciousness took everything she had left inside her. Digging her fingers into the black-and-white cloth around her neck, Aiko saw the sheer, unrestrained fury that clouded the Adaptor's eyes, and recognized them as the same anger she had been aware of ever since Aiko discovered Jiang's reason for fighting.
Even so, Aiko knew that Jiang was so much more than a mere weapon of vengeance.
Slowly, she lifted a single, trembling arm from her side and hovered her palm towards the Adaptor's frozen expression. Maintaining her courage before the crimson blade which hovered right in front of her, Aiko brushed her fingertips against a brown, scarred cheek, and mirrored the very same gesture she had attempted when the pair first met within the forests outside this very city.
Aiko did not know if this would even work.
It was the only measure her mind could think of.
And it was an action pulled forth by the very same will which had allowed Aiko to throw herself into the path of Jiang's wailing blade.
Cupping the Adaptor's face within the palm of a gentle, pale-white hand, Aiko looked into those dilated pupils, and saw the tranquil fury within them begin to wane, replaced by a horrified realization that slowly crept onto Jiang's now-shifting expression.
"... Aiko?"
The silver-haired woman felt warm teardrops manifest within the corners of her golden eyes.
As though the Adaptor had just awakened from the most frightening of nightmares, Jiang's gaze slowly panned over to the geyser of hissing, violent energy in her hand, and immediately withdrew its blade away from Aiko's tear-stained face. While the cowering soldier behind Aiko gave herself the opportunity to finally run towards her waiting comrades, Aiko remained where she stood, allowing Jiang to pull away from the caress of her warm hand. The Adaptor then took a few steps back, and fixated a horrified gaze onto the Armed Gear within her sword-hand, all while luminescent cracks started to form all across the armour of her black-and-white Symphogear. The finale was nearing.
Showers of sparks hissed from rupturing, monochrome metal. A cylindrical, crimson blade sputtered and waned.
Intending to see this through until the very end, Aiko held onto her black-and-white scarf and watched as the flames within Jiang's eyes finally extinguished themselves. Now, she once again recognized them as the very same eyes Aiko had witnessed when Jiang first carried her in a pair of warm, gauntleted arms. For just a brief moment, Jiang's gaze met with hers, and held each other in a long-awaited reunion, granting the Adaptor the last bit of mental strength she needed to finally shatter her own armour into a hundred dissipating fragments.
Jiang's Adaptor uniform returned into view.
The thrumming blade of energized crimson vanished from sight.
A broken, golden handle crashed onto the concrete and the light clattering of a falling pendant rang in Aiko's ears.
Immediately, Jiang's legs gave out beneath her, sending her falling forward and into Aiko's weak, but welcoming arms. It was over. The sounds of fighting had left their surroundings and a calm silence soon began to seep into the evacuated streets, all while the silver-haired woman continued to hold onto the unconscious body of the Adaptor in her arms. As Ayano's rushing footsteps grew in the air, Aiko caressed Jiang's scarred cheek within her palm once again, and listened intently to the steady, matching beats coming from both of their hearts.
