A/N: Been a while since one of these, eh?
Well, while I've been busy with other fanfics and other projects, I managed to find an idea for Writing prompts for January 2024!
I won't keep y'all waiting, so here it is! Enjoy!
The Origin: The first use of Gjallarhorn in XDU
Section Two HQ
"Care to explain why you called me so late, Boss?" Kanade asked as she walked with Genjuro through Section Two, yawning along the way. "I know that the Noise have been attacking a lot more frequently lately and all, but the fact you told me not to wake up Tsubasa was weird."
"I know the circumstances of my request were less than ideal, but we need to keep what you're about to see on as few eyes as possible." Genjuro stated. "That being said, you are not to tell anything about what happens tonight to anyone unless otherwise told to do so. Understood?"
Kanade shrugged. "I mean, we're this far already. Why not?"
With this answer, Genjuro led Kanade into a dark room and closed the door behind them. "Okay, Ryoko-kun, turn on the lights!"
With his command, the lights in the room turned on, revealing a giant green structure in the middle of the room that had a blueish-green glow to it, which confused the Gungnir Wielder. "...Yeah, now I need some questions answered."
"Ryoko?" Genjuro asked the scientist, who walked over to the duo with her usual confident smile on her face.
"What you're looking at now is known as the Gjallarhorn. It is a complete relic that was found during a mining excavation of mine." Ryoko explained. "At the time we found it, we knew next to nothing about what it was capable of. So, we, and by 'we' I of course mean myself, have been studying it in secret, to ascertain what it was capable of."
"What is it capable of?" Kanade asked, only being met with a shrug.
"Between work on other projects, very little progress on its capabilities has been made." Ryoko stated. "However, from that little progress, I have discovered that it can only interact with other relics, thanks to a few lesser relics we had lying around."
"So why am I here then?" Kanade asked.
"You know the rather alarming amount of Noise we've been dealing with the past week?" Genjuro asked Kanade, who nodded. "We believe their appearance has something to do with the Gjallarhorn, and we need your help to investigate what is causing it."
"...I'm... Still not sure I follow..." Kanade said with a confused look on her face. "How do I 'help investigate' this thing?"
"Like I said, from testing, it seems that it can only interact with relics. Relics, which are also used in the Symphogear System." Ryoko explained. "Long story short: We need you to interact with the Gjallarhorn in your Gungnir Symphogear."
This request surprised Kanade. "So you need me to test this Yallarhorn or whatever and hope I can figure out what's causing the Noise outbreak?" She asked, getting a nod from Ryoko. "Are you sure it'll work on me with Gungnir on?"
"Not in the slightest." Ryoko stated bluntly, worrying Kanade. "But hey, worst case scenario, we lose Gungnir and we'll need to find a new relic that's compatible with the Symphogear System."
"I'm more worried that this thing'll kill me!" Kanade exclaimed. "I mean, why ask me and not Tsubasa? Even if I don't die from that thing, the moment I run out of LiNKER, I'm pretty much a goner!"
"Because of how little we know about this relic, we cannot risk our only fully compatible Wielder being lost to it." Genjuro stated.
"So I'm just a test dummy to you, then?!" Kanade shouted angrily.
"Calm down. If I could, I would rather not risk your life either, but if we don't try this, both you and Tsubasa could die to a potentially endless wave of Noise, and then the world would be doomed." Genjuro continued. "As much as I would like to avoid this scenario altogether, it's our only choice. Can you please help us, Kanade-kun?"
Kanade thought about this for a moment, the fear of possibly an agonizing death awaiting her, but she knew it was either possible death here or inevitable death on the battlefield, so she made a hesitant choice. "I'll do it." She said. "When do we start?"
"Preferably now, so that we could keep this as discreet as possible." Ryoko answered, handing Kanade an injector of LiNKER. "Just activate your gear and step over to the relic when you're ready. The rest should come naturally. I'll be in that room over there if everything goes well and you come back."
"Heh. 'if'." Kanade scoffed as she walked over to the Gjallarhorn, injecting herself with LiNKER before pulling out her relic. "Here goes nothin'. Sorry if I don't come back, Tsubasa..."
"Croitzal ronzell Gungnir zizzl"
With her relic activated, Kanade walked up to the Gjallarhorn and touched it with her hand. For a moment, nothing happened. A couple seconds later, however, a bright light emerged from the relic where her hand touched it, engulfing her in seconds before she vanished from sight.
What happened to Kanade? That was for her to find out, and the commander and scientist to hope she could come back to explain...
?
When the light dissipated around Kanade, she found herself in a rainbow-colored void, floating through a tube that seemed to go on endlessly. Kanade was understandably concerned for her fate in this void, but before she could fear the worst, she saw another light start to form at the end of the tube she was floating through. Hoping it was a way out, she pushed herself towards it, getting to the light in seconds.
Once she reached the light, Kanade went flying out of the void and into what looked to be a normal park in Japan, or to be a bit more specific, a park that she had been with Tsubasa in earlier that week. "So that relic is just a fancy portal that sends you to random places? That's lame..." Kanade sighed, her fears of death now making her feel like a kid who was too afraid to go down a slide on the playground. "Well, I guess I better contact HQ and tell them I'm fine..."
Kanade pulled out her communicator and tried to call Section Two, but when she did, they didn't respond. "That's weird... Boss usually picks up our calls after the first ring..." Saying this, she tried to call again, only to no response once again. "Well, guess I'll just have to walk to base... Such a weird day... First some relic sends me to some random spot in town, then no one at HQ picks up my calls. What's next? Am I just stuck in my Symphogear permanently?"
As if to answer Kanade's sarcastic question, the Noise alarm went off in town, putting her on her guard immediately. "Note to self, even your sarcastic thoughts can jinx you... Guess I have no choice but to find those Noise without any help."
Searching throughout town, Kanade couldn't find any signs of life. Not even dust from a Noise attack, just nothing. This fruitless search continued for minutes on end, and it frustrated her greatly. "I've had to have searched the whole town by now. Was that just some false alarm?" Kanade asked herself, but before she would get outright furious, she heard an explosion in the distance, which made her light up with joy when she saw blue flashes of light in the sky. "Finally! I better hurry over and help Tsubasa!"
Heading over to the sight of the blue flashes, Kanade stood on the nearby roof and observed the horde of Noise. "Why am I not surprised by this many Noise?" She sighed to herself before bringing out her armed gear. "Don't worry, Tsubasa! Imma coming!"
Diving from the roof, Kanade launched a STARDUST∞FOTON to clear out a chunk of the Noise where she was landing. Once on the ground, she tore through even more of them as she continued towards the blue flashes of light that were Tsubasa's attacks. Eventually, she made it to Tsubasa's location, letting out a sigh of relief that she made it. "Good grief, Tsubasa. You know you could've called me if you had this many to deal with, ri-" Kanade stopped herself as she made eye contact with "Tsubasa", who looked nothing like the blue-haired swordswoman she knew and loved.
Standing before her in the Ame no Habakiri Symphogear was a younger girl with shoulder-length black hair with teal green eyes, who seemed just as shocked with Kanade's appearance on the battlefield. "Dr. Amou?! I thought you were working on your invention to take down that dark Noise we were fighting. Why are you out here?" "Tsubasa" asked. "Also, why is your hair longer than usual?"
"'Dr. Amou'?!" Kanade gasped. "Also, 'longer than usual' hair? Actually, don't answer that one. Instead, answer this: Who the hell are you and why are you wielding Tsubasa's gear?"
"Tsubasa" was silent when that name got mentioned, however, a voice could be heard over her communicator, and while Kanade couldn't make out what was said, she then heard a rumbling approaching their location. Suddenly, a large van could be seen approaching their location, mowing down Noise as it approached, skidding to a stop just before Kanade and "Tsubasa".
Once it stopped, Kanade kept her gaze on the van as she cut down Noise that got too close to her. A moment later, the door to the van slid open and a woman with short red hair jumped out in a special suit that looked like Symphogear armor, but something about it was different. "Heh. It's like lookin' in a mirror!" The woman chuckled. "I'd love to get to know you better, but I'm sure Miku here's probably given you a general rundown of our situation, no?"
Kanade looked at the woman, then "Tsubasa" who she now knows the real name of, then back to the woman. "Who are you people?! Why do you look like me?!" Kanade screamed.
The woman sighed and looked over to Miku, who walked over to explain. "She just showed up and called me 'Tsubasa', Doctor."
From this response, Kanade frowned for a moment, before putting a smile back on her face. "I see... Well, then I'll have to explain as you fight." She said. "First thing's first, do you know anything about LiNKER?"
Kanade looked at her with a raised brow. "Yeah...? It's the whole reason I'm even able to fight in the fir-" Before Kanade could finish her sentence, the ground began to shake, and before too long, a giant purplish-black Noise emerged before the trio, which surprised Kanade. "That's new..."
"Welp, no time to explain, it would seem." The woman said, before holding out two injectors to the Symphogear Wielders. "This is going to sound crazy, but I need you both to take this and use your superb songs."
"What?!" The duo of Wielders shouted in unison.
"What are you planning, Doctor?" Miku asked.
"Like I said, sounds crazy, but this will work... I hope." The woman said, mumbling that last part, which made Kanade double take when she heard it. "Look, either you do as I say, or we all die here, so pick your poison, and do it fast!"
Reluctantly, the Wielders take the injectors and place it to their necks. However, before taking the injection, Kanade looked over to Miku, as if to see if she should trust this plan, but Miku simply took the injector without a second thought. Seeing that, Kanade hesitantly injected the LiNKER into herself. Feeling the power boost in her body, Kanade and Miku sang their superb songs.
"Gatrandis babel ziggurat edenal"
"Emustolronzen Finé el balal zizzl"
"Gatrandis babel ziggurat edenal"
"Emustolronzen Finé el zizzl"
As they sang their superb songs, the doctor put her hands on the Wielders' backs, which caused her suit to glow as the power from the superb songs flowed from the Wielders and into her suit. Once their songs were over, the Wielders felt fine, but were shocked when they saw the doctor glowing brightly. "Phase one was successful. Now to phase two!"
"What- How- HUH?!" Kanade said, speechless for what she was looking at.
"I'd recommend standing back if I were you two. As this is a field test, there's a good chance you could get eviscerated if you stayed here." The doctor chuckled. "My van's autopilot should get you to safety. That, and give you a good view of the fireworks."
"It'd be best to take Dr. Amou's advice on this one, ma'am." Miku said to Kanade as she got into the van.
With no other choice, Kanade got in the van, which drove away almost immediately. Once the van was out of her sight, the doctor looked at the dark Noise and smirked. "I'd apologize for what's about to happen to you, but I'm not sorry."
Holding out her hands, the energy in the doctor's suit transferred to her hands, and once it was up to her arms, she shot it out at the dark Noise, which obliterated it on contact, while the excess energy nuked the surrounding Noise and created a large crater where she stood.
BIGBANG∞FLASH
Once the dust settled from the attack, the doctor's suit was badly damaged, but she was still standing with little to no injuries. "Note to self, two superb songs are more than the suit's capable of comfortably controlling. However, the desired results were met with this experiment, so it should come in handy if I can find a safe middle ground for power and efficiency." The doctor stated aloud. "Regardless, I should get those two back to HQ to make sure there's no nasty side effects of giving them two doses of LiNKER."
With that, the doctor pulled out a remote that made her van drive back to her. Once it arrived, the doctor opened the door to the driver's seat and set the car to drive back to headquarters. After that was settled and the car started driving, she turned back to her passengers who were notably surprised by what they just saw, namely Kanade.
"Not gonna lie, now that I have a chance to look at you, it's cool to see what I look like with long hair. I've been considering growing it out a bit, to be honest." The doctor chuckled, before extending a hand to Kanade. "Doctor Kanade Amou of Section Two. Pleased to meet you!"
"K-Kanade Amou." Kanade replied, still slightly shocked by Dr. Kanade's attack. "Wait, how are you me when I'm me?"
"You're not my first run-in with people from other worlds, Kanade." Dr. Kanade said. "You are from another world, right?"
"Dr. Amou, what are you talking about?" Miku asked. "You've never mentioned meeting someone from another world before."
"Never came up in conversation." Dr. Kanade shrugged. "Regardless, I'm sure our guest here has a lot of questions, of which I can answer a few of them for her. I know it's a little late to ask, but it's cool if we talk in our HQ, yeah?"
"At this point, with how many questions about you me I have, I could care less about where the conversation happens." Kanade answered. "Not like I had a choice about it anyhow."
"Excellent!" Dr. Kanade cheers. "Then let's not waste anymore time! Van! Full speed ahead!"
Saying this, Dr. Kanade's van speeds up as it heads to Section Two's HQ. Who is this Miku? Why is there a second Kanade who is a scientist? These questions would soon be answered for Kanade Amou in due time...
And with the speed they were going, that time would be sooner than she would think...
A/N: And with that, we end the one-shot!
Could you tell that this was inspired by the lack of both 1.) An explanation for what happened when Primeverse Kanade went into the Gjallarhorn, as mentioned in One Winged Wielders. and 2.) A lack of any "Kanade (Another)" or "Miku (Another)"? Because that was my main reason for doing this story!
Honestly, I really enjoyed coming up with a backstory for these AU characters, so pardon my text wall as I explain who they are:
For Kanade, the whole idea is that her family worked for Section Two in this universe, with Kanade joining Tsubasa as a Wielder at a much sooner than before. Additionally, she also studied under Ryoko as a phonic gain scientist, but for the moment, she prioritized her role as a Wielder with Tsubasa, but during a mission, Tsubasa's gear was critically damaged in a similar manner to OG Kanade's in the concert. This is where AU Miku comes in. As the outbreak of Noise in this mission was rather massive and out of nowhere, Kanade and Tsubasa were forced to split up to deal with the threat as civilians were evacuated, and unfortunately, Miku was one of the civilians caught in the middle of it all, and Tsubasa's gear struck her in places that would cause serious damage if removed. Despite her injuries, and pleas from Genjuro to retreat, Tsubasa refused to leave Miku to die to wounds she caused, resulting in her fighting to her last breath in the mission. After that, Kanade was obviously distraught at her friend's death, but instead of using her rage to go on a vengeance quest to kill all Noise, she put more focus into phonic gain research to create weapons that the government could use to destroy Noise without the need of Symphogears (similar to the weapon used in this story) so Tsubasa's situation would never happen again. And of course, similar to OG Hibiki, AU Miku would have the relic cancer issue, with a cure for it becoming a project for AU Kanade alongside her phonic gain weaponry.
Also, while not as important, AU Kanade knowing about alternate universes is due to an accidental run-in with Starlit. Starlit asked her to not mention their encounter to anyone, so she did just that.
While I do not have plans for these two outside of this one-shot, I may return to them in the future. (Though I guess the same could be said for many of the AU characters these one-shots end up creating...) I just hope y'all enjoy them as much as I do!
But with that out of the way, thank you for reading this one-shot. I shall see you all in the next one!