Hey, this is where I decided that the story needed a second revision! You know, it's kind of weird that it ended up only being two chapters before another one was called for. Maybe I just have a problem.
"Damn it, they're making us do something, but what?!"
Church paced to and fro in one of the engineering rooms of the I.S. Academy, filling the void with theories and questions as he waited for the arrival of some people Chifuyu wanted him to meet. It was only two days after the discussion they had regarding their approach on Phantom Task and whether or not Church could be trusted, but the tension of that meeting was largely in the past at the moment. Church had approached her this morning in regards to the development of new weapons and countermeasures to use against Phantom Task, and she had said that she had some people in mind who should be able to help.
It was about eleven fifty right now, and while some part of him in the back of his mind reminded Church that he was talking aloud about things he was supposed to be keeping secret, it didn't stop him from venting his frustrations. Now that he was taking his opposition against both Phantom Task and Umbra Stratum more seriously, his lack of understanding regarding their plans was troubling.
"Defensive preparation isn't what they're after... if all they wanted was a safety net against new I.S. technologies, the original mission would actually be legitimate. Get data on Gen 4 so countermeasures can be ready if they need them. Besides, they already made one Exeter suit, why not just start producing those in higher quantities? It'd be expensive, but without the limitations of I.S. cores, America could easily restore the balance of military power."
You are of the mind that they are preparing for offensive action?
"They have to be! Like I said, if it was just about restoring the military power balance it could be done easily enough. All it would take is time and money. This alliance with Phantom Task, this Aggregate Paragon business... none of it would even be needed. And if they're not using the data on Akatsubaki for 'just in case' countermeasures, what are they using it for? It's not like they could build their own I.S. from that data. They can't even do much with knowledge about its armaments, because they don't have any cores to arm other than the few in black ops."
Perhaps the data is for their I.S. wielding allies.
Church scowled at the steel wall in front of him, contemplating the thought Cerberus had put forth. While he could at least make a fairly educated guess on what Umbra Stratum was doing, that being some sort of American supremacy gambit, the motivations of Phantom Task were completely unknown. He couldn't even hazard an accurate guess.
Hell, he hardly knew anything about the organization. Was Squall even their leader? Were there only three of them? What the hell was with the Chifuyu doppelganger? And if they really were such a small group, what could their goal possibly be? World domination was totally asinine, not to mention cliche. Even if the three of them could take on the whole world, which they obviously couldn't, there'd be no way for them to maintain control over anything with such small numbers. Was it global government destabilization? Were they just stealing I.S. and relevant data so they could be some unmatched mercenary force and make loads of money?
Frankly none of these thoughts sounded accurate. Moreover, none of them factored in that word that kept bothering him; Valravn. Mythical ravens from ancient folklore, that had gained human intelligence by feasting on corpses. What did that have to do with Aggregate Paragon? Surely it hadn't been named that just because it sounded cool.
Not to mention the blatant intention to betray Phantom Task at the nearest opportunity, which had been mentioned in the brief excerpt Church had seen at the African base. If Phantom Task was just a stepping stone to a larger plan, what was it? No matter how he sliced it, Church just couldn't figure out their angle in all of this. Hell, he couldn't figure out what Phantom Task was striving towards either. Frankly, his inability to make any headway on this front bothered the hell out of him. Surely he was smart enough to come up with a good theory based on the little evidence that he had?
Whether or not that was true, he had no time to dwell on it, as the door to the engineering room slid open without warning. Glancing over his shoulder, Church laid eyes on Chifuyu, accompanied by two girls with teal hair: Tatenashi and Kanzashi. He actually hadn't seen the younger sister since returning from England. Hopefully she wasn't still holding a grudge about that incident in the showers...
As for Chifuyu, she wasted no time in starting the conversation.
"Church; glad to see you know the meaning of punctuality. You remember Tatenashi and Kanzashi, I'm sure."
Tatenashi gave Church a coy wave, a clear indicator of her amusement. That may have had something to do with the fact that the usually omniscient Chifuyu had no idea they had sparred against one another just recently, and under unsanctioned circumstances at that. Kanzashi didn't wave, but at least she didn't look as hostile as she had in the past. That was an improvement.
"How could I forget? They were such... riveting company, last time. Good to see you two again. Although, I am a little curious as to why you're here."
This question was clearly directed towards Chifuyu, since she was the one that had organized this meetup. She clearly had a reason for bringing the Sarashiki sisters to him at this time.
"They'll both be useful in the fight against Phantom Task. Kanzanshi is a Representative Candidate for Japan, and as you may recall, she has quite the knack for I.S. arsenal development. Her own I.S. is a customized Uchigane, and I daresay it could reasonably go toe to toe with many Gen 3 platforms. As you said this morning, our machines need upgrades, and I think Kanzashi will be very helpful on that front."
Kanzashi was quick to counter Chifuyu's praise for her. "T-the only reason I was able to finish the Uchigane Nishiki was because of the data from the Mysterious Lady, so..."
On the other side, Tatenashi was just as quick to counter her counter. "Just because you needed a little outside help doesn't mean your own effort wasn't the biggest part of the endeavor, Kanzashi. Right, Sensei?"
Chifuyu leveled her gaze at the younger sister. "Right indeed. The need for assistance in a matter isn't a mark against one's skill or talent. Case in point; I am bringing you two in on this whole situation, despite my own skill or talent. Are you implying that I'm somehow lesser because I've requested your help?"
Certainly not eager to possibly offend Chifuyu, Kanzashi waved her arms in panicked dismissal. "N-no, of course not!"
As for Church, he cocked an eyebrow at the oldest of their number. "I don't mean to offend, but... as far as R&D is concerned, why not just get Tabane? Nobody could outdo her, right?"
Mention of this truth put a scowl on Chifuyu's face. "Suffice to say, she's being difficult."
"I'm sorry, difficult? Does that scatterbrained woman even realize the stakes here? She's refusing to help?"
"For now. I'm working on it. She's not being very cooperative, considering the... grotesque threats I made to her after that one incident."
Not for the first time, Church truly questioned the nature of Chifuyu's old friend. To take a back seat at a time like this... didn't she realize that the few people she did care about were going to be in danger as well?
As for Tatenashi, she glanced curiously at Chifuyu. "Oh? The way you said 'incident' was pretty interesting. Is this something only you and Church know about, hm?"
Chifuyu fought back a sheepish look so Tatenashi wouldn't get any funny ideas. Still, Church noticed the funny look on her face as she struggled to maintain her composure. Maybe she was thinking about exactly what Tabane had done to irk her. Damn, now Church was thinking about it too.
Seeing that Chifuyu was in a rare tight spot, Church interrupted Tatenashi's inquiry to refocus the conversation. "Why are you here anyway, Tatenashi? Not that a strong pilot isn't welcome, but is there anything you can offer just in research and development?"
With a cheeky grin, Tatenashi gave her reply. "Well, Phantom Task and the Sarashiki family have a long history with one another. Suffice to say, my experience will probably be helpful."
"Wait, a long history? What's that supposed to mean?"
Seemingly unperturbed by his blatant confusion, Tatenashi dived into her explanation. "Oh yeah, the Sarashiki family has been secretly fighting with Phantom Task for well over fifty years. It started all the way back in World War II."
"Are you about to tell me this has something to do with Nazis?"
"Not quite. Think about it; for a Japanese family to be opposing them since World War II..."
"Wait, so Phantom Task was some sort of Allied task force?"
Tatenashi unfurled a fan with some sort of kanji on it. "Bingo! Phantom Task was originally a top secret black ops unit deployed by the Allies for special missions against the Axis powers. Both records and details are scarce now, but it's believed they were going to play a major role in the downfall of Imperial Japan... before nuclear weapons got involved, of course. Our family; or rather, our grandfather, was also a top level operative for the Japanese military at the time. He ran lots of counter operations against Phantom Task during the war, and that's pretty much how we got here."
The girl looked as though her explanation had summed up everything one could possibly want to know, but Church begged to differ.
"That is not at all how we got here! How did a special forces unit for the Allies in World War II become the Phantom Task we're fighting today? Why did your family keep fighting them if the war was over?"
The look on Tatenashi's face said this all should have been obvious. "Well obviously, they went rogue after the war ended. As for why, who knows? We've never managed to interrogate one of their agents, 'cuz they always take the coward's way out if they get captured. The reason our family kept fighting them was because they started taking action against our country again; not to mention a bunch of other nations. It was usually operations that could potentially destabilize political power or some such... but ever since I.S. came around, their operations have mostly shifted to stealing them. For what purpose is unclear, but it's unlikely their primary objective has really changed overly much in just a few decades..."
By the time Tatenashi had finished, Church had come to one conclusion; none of her information was really helpful. The origins of Phantom Task was interesting, but it didn't actually help discern their current plans, or change anything about the current situation.
Still, he wasn't going to say something like that to Tatenashi's face, since she had so graciously spouted all of that exposition at him.
"Well... honestly, that's still a bit confusing, but I'm glad to have more help."
"You should be. My sister and I will turn the tables in your favor, without a doubt."
Kanzanshi piped up softly from the side. "I have some doubts..."
Eager to move things along, Chifuyu ushered the conversation forward. "Bury those doubts and stay focused. We have no idea when the next confrontation with Phantom Task will be. I suggest you three start strategizing right away. I'll direct all of the other Representative Candidates here after their current class finishes."
With that, Chifuyu made her exit, leaving the trio of newly acquainted teenagers by their lonesome. However, Tatenashi ensured no awkward silence ensued, thanks to her chipper attitude.
"So, here we are: just two pretty girls and a handsome guy alone in a room~"
Naturally, Kanzashi panicked at the implication of this. "H-hold on, what are you saying!? I w-would never-!"
"I know, I know, Ichika's more your type for that kind of thing..."
"T-tatenashi!"
With a cocked eyebrow, Church intruded on the moment. "Hope this doesn't sound rude, but I haven't really seen too much of either of you around Ichika since I got here. What even got you invested in him?"
Since her little sister was still blushing, Tatenashi spoke up instead. "We do have a history with him. Kanzashi here fell in love~ with Ichika when he saved her all shining armor style during a tournament. It was quite a while before you showed up."
"H-hey Tatenashi, you're in love with him too! Stop teasing me!"
With a slight blush of her own, the elder sister placed her hands on her cheeks. "I can't help it, you're both just so cute when I tease you!"
A little put off by this, Church sought to ask another question. "I remember asking something like this before the vacation, but I can't remember all the details: why weren't you guys invited to England with everyone else? Not to make assumptions, but it seems like you two aren't really 'with the group' the other girls are in, even though you were all interested in the same guy."
"Suffice to say there's a bit of a divide between us and them. Not like it's hate or anything, but I don't think Cecilia would consider us worthy of being invited to her home. We don't have that whole 'friendly rival' thing going on like the rest of them do with each other."
"In that case, is it really a good idea to bring everyone into the same room...?"
"Aw, come on, it'll be fun! Just think of all the shenanigans we'll get up to!"
With an internal sigh, Church resigned himself to his fate.
That's exactly what I'm worried about...
In the dimness of a basement in an unknown location, Marcus Dougley struggled to recall what day it was. He had been down here for several days, maybe even more than a couple of weeks. He had tried to keep track of the passage of time based on the meals he had been given, but he had lost count at some point during a bout of mental fog.
That day at the Umbra Stratum base, Marcus had expected to be shot on the spot by the guard who had leveled a gun at him. But instead, the masked soldier had taken him prisoner, and quietly extricated Marcus from the base. He'd been moved to a vehicle after being blindfolded, then taken on a long drive of several hours. When that was over, he'd been shoved into this basement and locked in. It had a cot and an old TV with a VHS, but no windows and nothing else to entertain. Marcus had tried the door at the top of the rickety stairs, but unlike the rest of this place, it was brand new, and solid steel. Not to mention locked, of course. Every once in awhile, a masked soldier like the one that had abducted him came to give him meals, but no matter what type of questions Marcus asked, he never got any answers.
He had no way to communicate with the outside world. No way to even know what was happening out there. And he had no idea why he had been abducted. If Umbra Stratum had caught on to the fact that he was digging around in sensitive areas, he couldn't imagine this was how they would handle it. If anything, they probably would have just shot him on the spot...
He had considered trying to overpower the soldier that came to feed him, but Marcus really had no chance of pulling that off. He wasn't particularly built or experienced in fighting, and the soldier was armed too. Still, he only had a limited number of VHS tapes down here, and he wasn't sure how many more times he could watch Pokemon: The First Movie before he lost his mind. Oddly enough, there was a scene in the film that reminded him of Exeter...
The young man was debating whether or not he could stomach another round of the film to entertain himself when the clicking of the staircase door being unlocked interrupted him. That wasn't unusual, since he got visited by the guard every day with food, but he had received a meal not too long ago. Glancing over his shoulder curiously, Marcus was utterly stunned to see the mane of scarlet raid hair that greeted his vision.
"S-Strelka?! What the hell are you doing here?"
Coming down the stairs was the Russian native that had served as his rival in Umbra Stratum: long red hair in a ponytail, red-framed glasses around icy blue eyes, immaculate labcoat and all. She looked completely unfettered, and it was obvious why when she opened her mouth.
"Well I'm certainly not a prisoner like you, Dougley."
The implication of her words was clear right away, prompting Marcus to scowl as he leveled a finger at her accusingly. "You? You did this to me? Why? How? Where are we? What the hell are you thinking?!"
Strelka seemed completely unbothered by the accusation. Her expression was the epitome of nonchalance. "Well, currently you are in a basement. That basement is in Oregon. I figured it would be best to at least leave Nevada if I'm trying to hide you from Umbra Stratum. I have a few men at the base in my pocket, which is how you were taken. As to why I abducted you in the first place... it's a little difficult to explain. Take a seat, and I'll show you why this is happening."
Strelka gestured over to a wooden table with two chairs, where Marcus had been eating his meals for the most part. Marcus had half a mind to try and attack Strelka, but he knew it would be pointless. Even if he took her out, there was still that armed guard, presumably. Besides, he was curious to know what was happening and why. For that reason, the young engineer begrudgingly took a seat. Upon doing so, Strelka sat across from him, and placed a laptop she had been carrying under her arm on the table in front of him. Then, she opened the lid and turned it to face him. Before Marcus was nothing more than open files with walls of dense text. Unsure of what any of this was, the young man adjusted his glasses before leaning in and peering at the screen.
There was a lot to get through. And the more Marcus read, the more flabbergasted he became. The things he was seeing... Phantom Task, Valravn, Aggregate Paragon: an entire multi-faceted operation plan laid bare before him. One he had known nothing about, even though it partially involved him and his work. Row after row after row of technical data, logistics planning, strategic planning, and long-term goals that struck Marcus as the ambitions of lunatics.
"Unreal... this was the plan all along? Even as early as FAIRCHILD? Strelka, how did you get access to all of this? This stuff has to be under the highest level of secure confidentiality in Umbra Stratum. There's no way you had clearance for it."
The redhead across from him snorted. "Certainly not. These files were all sent to me by an anonymous source. Some hacker going by 'Luna Hare'. Some time ago, they leaked all of this to me via a private channel. I was a little skeptical at first, but having pored over everything here... it all adds up. Down to the last detail, from the Silver Gospel Incident to the Exeter Project, and even my own projects within the organization. Aggregate Paragon is the end goal: Valravn, the vehicle through which it will reach fruition. And Phantom Task... just a stepping stone to greater heights."
Though Marcus was incredibly fascinated with the information before him, he couldn't help but turn his eyes towards Strelka. "An anonymous hacker? You're putting your trust in something that suspicious?"
"I don't think you understand how capable this person is, Marcus. Whoever they are, they infiltrated all of Umbra Stratum's security and went undetected. They even remotely spoofed the security cameras during your abduction, and orchestrated a clean getaway by rerouting patrols and remotely accessing doors. Whoever this is, they are beyond good: they practically cakewalked through everything we have to keep people like them out."
"...what do they want? If they were able to get all of this information, why send it to you? Why not just leak it to the press or sell it to some other country for an exorbitant price?"
For once, Strelka actually donned a confused expression. "That remains unclear. Their reasoning was simply 'aiding a kindred spirit in preserving the integrity of the skies'. Whatever that means. If they wanted me to do something in particular with all of this information, they didn't specify it."
Marcus glanced down at the screen before him again. "None of this explains why you had to abduct me."
"Doesn't it? You were involved with many aspects of Aggregate Paragon. I had no way of knowing if that involvement was unwitting or not. Until I could be sure, blindly sharing all of this with you was horribly stupid. Thankfully, that Luna Hare was perfectly willing to help me gain access to all of your information, making it obvious to me that you had no idea what was really going to be done with your efforts for Umbra Stratum. I only just recently came to that conclusion, which is why you've been kept here until now."
Taking all of this in, Marcus rubbed his forehead, trying to alleviate an oncoming headache. "Damn it... how could I have not noticed any of this? I literally worked on it, but someone managed to inject their own programming without me noticing? How did it come to this...?"
With her arms folded, Strelka gave an answer typical of her usual belittling demeanor. "How indeed? I told you from the beginning that this was the ultimate danger of smart AI; not to mention the guaranteed final evolution of it. It truly is a mystery that you couldn't foresee this kind of outcome."
"Well excuse me for not predicting this all from the start! There's no way I could have deduced that this was the true nature of Church's mission... to think that damned Gen 4 data wasn't even for I.S. units."
"I'd be more concerned with the fact that A2 is completely ignorant about Valravn. At this rate-"
Marcus cut her off with a surprising amount of venom. "Don't call him that; that's not his name."
Unperturbed by her bespectacled companion, Strelka stared right into his eyes, trying to convey how serious she was about this. "Don't let your personal feelings get in the way of what's important here. It's high time we make a second attempt to rectify this situation."
"A second attempt...?"
"Come now, Dougley, surely you've managed to connect the dots by now: an Umbra Stratum aircraft mysteriously gets stolen from a top secret base while armed with a deadly weapon, and the thief has some inexplicable vendetta against the I.S. Academy? Does that sound likely to you?"
Furrowing his brow in consternation, Marcus couldn't help but get Strelka's point. "No, it doesn't... nothing about that incident ever added up, and even now, internal investigations revealed nothing useful. A more logical explanation would be...automation. The craft was either remote controlled or operated on a drone program... that was you...? Strelka, you... are you crazy? Are you telling me that you sent a drone to obliterate the I.S. Academy, thousands of innocents, and one of our own people?!"
Putting her palms on the table, Strelka's angular features remained stony, her blue eyes showing not a single speck of remorse or guilt behind her glasses.
"Dougley, if this 'Aggregate Paragon' operation is completed, the world will have a much bigger problem on its hands than a wasted school and some dead kids. The Academy was not the intended target; just collateral damage. Sending drones to attack Exeter directly would be fruitless, seeing as how A2 regularly bested the ADU-1's in mock combat already. An attack of that magnitude was the best chance at eliminating the problem at its source. Case in point, it almost worked."
"It almost killed Church."
"An unfortunate collateral cost, Dougley."
Clenching his fists, Marcus glared straight into the woman's eyes. "Just killing him isn't the right call. There are other ways to go about this; ways that don't include wiping out public installations, while we're at it!"
"You really don't understand the gravity of this situation, do you? Imagine, an armada of cutting edge craft, tens of thousands of them, hundreds of thousands; each of them superior to the world's top pilots. Each of them armed with technology that will allow just a handful of them to easily defeat an Infinite Stratos unit. Marcus, we're talking a complete and total shift of military power. If Aggregate Paragon reaches its conclusion, one single organization will become the most powerful military force on Earth. They will be unstoppable, with the deadliest fighting force man has ever known at their disposal. Can you really imagine any positive outcome emerging from such a situation?"
While Marcus knew Strelka was right, he still tried to deny her point. "You're over-exaggerating. With the combined air power of the world, there's no way this operation could succeed. It's ludicrous."
Strelka rose up from the table and folded her arms again. "What's ludicrous is you believing that. We both know that at least half of the statistics are comprised of old junkers from the Cold War or even earlier. Even considering the United States, only a small fraction of its Air Force is comprised of cutting edge planes; the rest are outdated. As for I.S., there's a measly 467 of them in the whole word, and the vast majority of them are worthless in regards to real combat application. Do you really think Umbra Stratum would commit to this gambit if it were truly impossible?"
With no real counter, Marcus admitted defeat. "Fucking madmen... what's even the purpose of this? A world domination gambit? Some one world order nonsense?"
"We can only guess: though personally I don't think either of those is right."
"And Phantom Task? Why are they involved in all of this?"
Strelka glanced at the ceiling, perhaps contemplating answers she didn't truly know. "I think it is safe to assume that they are unaware of the penultimate goal of this operation. Doubtless they think themselves in control; a misconception that will greatly inconvenience them when Valravn comes into play."
"And how long do we have until that happens?"
"Not long. Your replacement has nearly finished the third branch of Yggdrasil. Once that's complete... Aggregate Paragon will undoubtedly be ready for its next phase. Thankfully, production of the Huginn and Muninn drones hasn't even begun yet, so we have some time before Valravn becomes unstoppable."
Staring at the screen before him but not really seeing it, Marcus scowled. "Huginn and Muninn... I thought you were in charge of that. In fact... why are you even opposed to this, Strelka? If Aggregate Paragon succeeds, your drones will make up the strongest military force the world has ever known."
The expression on Strelka's usually condescending face was clouded. "They will achieve that reality only through a means I never condoned. Besides, while I'm sure you won't believe this statement, it's nevertheless true: my interest in drone development was to reduce lives lost, not take over the world. The Muninn and Huginn platforms are my pride and joy, but... I didn't design them to smite the armies of the world. They are supposed to replace fighter pilots, not kill them."
While Marcus was a little wary of Strelka's explanation, he could vaguely recall that Strelka's father had been a fighter pilot. Maybe her motivations weren't entirely bogus.
"OK then, if that's the case, can't you just sabotage the new models? That puts an end to the most dangerous aspect of the operation, right?"
Unfortunately, the sigh Strelka released made it obvious that this straightforward plan wasn't going to work. "The design schematics for the new models was completed before I caught wind of any of this. It's too late to do anything about that now. And obviously, if I tried to shut down the project now, everyone would be suspicious of my motives. The best I could do is try to make some alterations that will reduce their effectiveness, but there are people working on the project as well. They would notice before any good came of it."
Marcus held his head in his hands as he pondered all of this. "...why are you bringing me along into all of this? What do you expect me to do?"
To this, Strelka merely shrugged. "I don't know. But you know Valravn better than anyone else, save maybe A2. That will undoubtedly be useful."
With a deep sigh of resignation, Marcus stared blankly at the screen before him, wondering where it had all gone so wrong. "I told you not to call him that: his name is Cerberus."
After several hours of discussion and theory between the many people involved in the new crusade against Phantom Task, Church finally exited the engineering room, the girls on his heels. As promised, Chifuyu had directed her brother and all of the other Representative Candidates to that location after their class, at which point everyone had squabbled for a bit (it was mostly Rin and a carefree Tatenashi). But once the usual banter was finished, it hadn't been hard to focus everyone on more serious matters.
The talk of the day had been upgrades. Serious, in-depth discussion about the abilities of their enemies, and what tools they could use to combat them. While initially shy due to Ichika's presence, Kanzashi had really come into her own during the discussion, proving her knowledge on all things related to I.S. arsenals. She certainly wasn't a match for Tabane being a student and all, but Church didn't doubt her ability to help them design new weapons.
Naturally she wasn't of any help to him, but Church had nevertheless offered some insight on the kinds of upgrades that would best serve everyone. Even so, everything at this point was theoretical, and it would take some time before any of it could be used in practical application. That was why Church had put it from his mind, and was simply listening to Rin complain as she walked beside him.
"That damn Tatenashi, always such a pain! Where does she get off...?"
Still a bit lost in regards to that particular feud, Church figured there would be no harm in asking. After all, Tatenashi and her sister had gone a different direction than the rest of them, so it wasn't like he had to be careful. Houki and Ichika had disappeared on their own as well, though not as a pair. Church hadn't paid attention to where they both had to be.
"Seriously, Rin, what do you have against her? It's almost like she personally offended you somehow."
With an irritable glare at nothing in particular, Rin summed up her grievances. "She ruined my part back when we were all celebrating Ichika's birthday. Stole my outfit and even had the gall to mock me after the fact! Damn that buxom broad!"
With a slightly bothered smile, Church asked for some clarification. "Is that all? Is that really a relevant reason to dislike her even now?"
While she was sure Church hadn't meant it as such, Rin couldn't help but feel like he was implying that there was nothing to be mad about anymore since her affection was no longer for Ichika. But thinking about the current state of their bogged down relationship actually irritated her, so she tried to change the subject straight away.
"It was rude, OK? And speaking of birthdays... when's yours anyway? I don't think you've ever told us."
Taking an extra step to get beside him, Laura expressed her interest in this question as well. "That's true. You truly are a secretive person, aren't you?"
A little bothered by the assessment for reasons the girls wouldn't understand, Church simply shrugged as he gave his answer. "My birthday was during the last week at Cecilia's place."
Receiving no immediate response, Church kept walking for a few feet before he realized that he had lost the girls at his flanks. In fact, he couldn't hear any other footsteps at all, so he glanced back to see what had happened to everyone.
What he was met with was a diverse array of expressions that made it pretty clear how everyone felt about his answer. Rin looked furious. Laura, dismayed. Charlotte appeared sad or maybe even hurt, while Cecilia was simply flabbergasted. Frankly he had no idea why any of this was the case, but Rin was quick to rectify that by clarifying the problem. Coincidentally, she also got up in his face.
"Your birthday came around that recently and you didn't tell us!? What the hell is your problem!?"
Caught off guard by the sheer volume of her indignation, Church reeled back a little bit. "How does that equate to me having a problem...?"
Unfortunately, Rin's countenance was quickly replaced by Charlotte's, though she wasn't as aggressive about it. "It is a problem! Were we really such a nuisance that you didn't want to celebrate your birthday with us!?"
From further back, Laura folded her arms as she looked at him with obvious dismay. "Or did you just not think it was important enough to even bring up?"
Not sure how he had gotten here at all, Church had no reply for either of them, and the same was true of Cecilia's theory on his silence. "Surely you weren't worried about expenses right? You must know I would have happily paid for whatever was necessary! It really would have been no trouble at all to celebrate!"
Having been backed into a metaphorical corner (and a literal one when he realized his back had hit a wall), Church raised his hands in defense. "C-calm down you guys, it's not because any of you did anything wrong... it just didn't seem worth mentioning is all."
While he had hoped this would placate everyone, somehow it did the opposite for Rin. "Oh really? Well then, I'm sure you'll be happy to know that we are going to celebrate the hell out of your birthday this week! In fact, I say we celebrate it four times harder just because you kept it a secret! How about that!?"
Frankly, Church had no idea how somehow could sound angry while talking about birthday celebrations, but Rin managed, and quite handily at that.
"B-but..."
Before he could finish any riposte, Charlotte cut him off, passionately agreeing with Rin's plan. It wasn't hard for Church to notice that both Laura and Cecilia were nodding their agreement along with her.
"That's right! We have to make up for missing it, so you'd better prepare yourself! Er... what kind of cake do you like?"
Almost immediately returning to her more mellow self, Charlotte received no answer, since Rin had returned to her side, but to drag her away, along with Cecilia.
"Nope, no questions! If we're going to celebrate it really hardcore it also has to be a surprise party! Let's leave this jerk and head back to the dorm so we can plan his pleasant demise!"
"B-but Rin, what if we pick something he doesn't like...?"
Charlotte's protest went unanswered as Rin forced them around a corner, Laura following behind at a more leisurely pace. The silver-haired German glanced back at Church one last time, amused by his stunned silence and the pose he was still locked in, before disappearing around that same corner.
As for Church, he simply stared down the hall, questioning how any of this had come to pass. This was certainly not the conclusion he had predicted for this day dedicated to preparing for the next life or death struggle with Phantom Task. And yet, in some weird way, it didn't shock him all that much; he'd gotten kind of used to this dynamic by now, and honestly it wasn't all that bad.
He just hoped they didn't pick red velvet. Or carrot cake. Or fruit cake. Or...
What's your favorite type of cake, friends? Or on the flipside, which type do you just hate the most?