Lanfen rarely bothered to switch on the lights of her detainment room as the hours went on completely uninterrupted. Her captors provided her spares of the grey clothing Lanfen had been handed upon her arrival, and although the clothing itself barely looked like anything more than a prisoner's uniform, Lanfen had little to complain about when it came to the steaming, hot waters of her containment room's bathroom shower. The meals they regularly gave her tasted just fine. But Lanfen was capable of only stomaching a few bites before her body would start throwing up more than what she had initially ingested. Water had an easier time staying in her stomach, at least.
Judging by the time that was displayed on her data-pad's clock, it had been 34 hours now since the Distortion rifts first appeared. In that timeframe, Lanfen spent the hours tirelessly scrolling through the information which was available on the data-pad. The first thing she perused were the public articles that were all easily-available online. Through a quick read of their contents, Lanfen caught up on the devastation which had been caused by the Distortions, and as casualties of the invasion came to a final count of 48,084 lives, Lanfen felt a sickening sensation brewing within the pits of her stomach. Countries everywhere were mourning their dead, all while the Kazanari Humanitarian Front did its best to rebuild and assist those who were affected by the worldwide attack.
Once she had read her fill about the global disaster, Lanfen accessed S.O.N.G.'s main database to learn of their countless missions against paranormal, world-ending threats. Whatever S.O.N.G. intended to do with her, Lanfen was under the assumption that they wouldn't be letting go of someone who had seen information like this so easily. With the details of the organization practically laid bare before her eyes, she couldn't think of an end-point which did not involve her somehow getting further involved with them. Noise. 'Alca-Noise'. 'Autoscorers'. And now, Distortions. S.O.N.G. had matched each and every one of these enemies with the power of so-called relics shards just like the one Lanfen had utilized.
And yet, even though Lanfen managed to acquire such an incomprehensible, near-limitless power, she still failed to protect her own little sister in the end.
Lanfen wielded the paranormal strength of the Symphogear system and she was still completely helpless in the face of that cloaked figure.
The mere memory of their encounter practically ignited a proverbial fire within her eyes.
Beneath the thick blankets of her bed, Lanfen's braided hair had turned into an unkempt mess, letting it strew all over her pillow as her latest tray of food sat untouched on the room table. When Lanfen decided to draw up a faint, mental image of that cloaked murderer, she gritted her teeth together, and grimaced at the thought of it still existing in the realm of the living. While Lanfen quickly attempted to bury the memory of the bloody sight she had witnessed beneath the debris of a broken, burning building, the woman tightened her grip around the data-pad, rose up from beneath her blanket, and mindlessly hurled the device against the wall with whatever strength she had left in her.
The data-pad made a loud snap when its screen shattered against hard metal. It was probably loud enough for someone outside to have heard it. But Lanfen didn't care.
As pieces of the device now laid scattered across the floor of the dimly-lit room, Lanfen drew in a shaky breath, and found little satisfaction in what she had just done. Instead, she only felt a growing sense of remorse rising within her chest. Squeezing her sore eyes shut again, Lanfen buried herself underneath her blanket, and tried to lie down until the memories of that night ceased to haunt her. She had run out of tears hours ago. All Lanfen could do now was stew in the shadows of her detainment room, unsure of when S.O.N.G. would come back to finally deal with her. A part of Lanfen almost wished that her Symphogear hadn't saved her from the attack which indirectly took her little sister's life.
The detainment room's blankets felt far thicker than ones Lanfen kept in her own bedroom.
Her pillow would've been perfect to sleep on if she was capable of closing her eyes without falling into some sort of nightmare.
Now that she had nothing to keep track of how much time was passing, Lanfen stared at the ceiling above her, occupying herself with a memory which she had not recalled for some time now.
It was the evening before the day of their parents' memorial service. Lanfen remembered hiding away in her bedroom so she could cry for hours on end. Since Kai had yet to understand at the time what had even happened to their parents, Lanfen refused to break down while she was still within eyesight of her younger sibling. Kai was only 11-years old then. No child deserved to hear what Lanfen required days just preparing to tell her. The look that Kai had on her face when she finally realized why their parents wouldn't be coming back was an image Lanfen could never fully purge from her memory.
But when the two sisters actually attended the memorial service itself, Lanfen had not shed a single tear during the occasion, not even as her sister cried freely at her side. Lanfen didn't permit herself to do so. Not when Kai relied on her to be her dependable older sibling. She held on to Kai's hand for as long as she could during the memorial service, and had donned a proverbial mask which shielded every emotion beneath a stoic façade that nobody but her sister could see through. While Lanfen found herself donning that same 'mask' again just for a moment, she slowly turned her head to gaze at the two smartphones which were resting side-by-side on the room table.
The keychain that Lanfen had bought for her sister dangled freely from Kai's broken smartphone, its material barely stained by the rubble it was found underneath in.
"I'm sorry," she weakly pleaded, even if there was nobody for her words to ever reach.
The silence of her detainment room was unbearable.
Two hours had passed - or maybe three - by the time Lanfen heard a knocking on her room door. It felt too early for her to be receiving lunch as her breakfast had yet to turn cold on her room table. Within moments, the door slid open, and Lanfen shielded her eyes from the corridor's blinding light while a familiar blonde man placed himself at the doorway with both hands folded behind his back. He casted a brief but concerned gaze over to the remains of the data-pad on the floor before turning back to the unkempt woman who was only now pulling herself into a sitting position.
"They intend to question you now," he calmly said, stepping inside the room. "Are you in any condition to do so?"
Lanfen wordlessly pushed aside her blanket and combed one hand through the sides of her aching head. She had no more tears to shed. Not for today, maybe. Her mind at least felt clearer than it had been compared to the past day or two. Desiring to get this over with as soon as possible, Lanfen swung her legs over to the side of her bed, and felt the cold, metal floors making contact with her bare feet. "... I am," she curtly stated, now standing up on her own two legs.
The blonde man appeared to doubt her claim. But he voiced no argument while another suited person came into the room with the same handcuffs they had brought Lanfen in with. After taking the large, metal cuffs off the person's palms, the blonde approached Lanfen and opened up the device through a few inputs into its digital key-pad. "My apologies. It's standard procedure," he said with a genuine tone of empathy. Lanfen gave no response other than to lift her hands for him to restrain her. "They say you haven't been eating your meals."
"I'm fine. I didn't need it," she muttered, wincing slightly when the large handcuffs subsequently secured themselves around Lanfen's forearms, effectively encasing them in what felt like an unbreakable, steel coffin. The sheer weight of the restraints made it difficult to even hold up her arms as Lanfen noticed the pair of footwear which the blonde man's companion had also brought for her. It made sense that they wouldn't be escorting her barefooted, Lanfen mused to herself, putting on her sturdy shoes without complaint. When she was finally escorted out into the open corridor, Lanfen needed to squint her eyes just to prevent herself from being blinded by the sudden shift in brightness all around her.
The sound of their thumping footsteps filled the cold air while Lanfen followed her escorts throughout numerous identical corridors. Even if she still had no idea where they actually were, Lanfen could at least tell that it was some sort of official headquarters. There was a low rumbling somewhere in the distance - something akin to a loud reactor or engine - but Lanfen could have been mistaking it for something else. That thought aside, the curious looks which Lanfen was receiving from the base's crew felt almost palpable. The sight of her in handcuffs was apparently a point of interest for all who passed by them. Lanfen only cared enough to notice how they were all dressed in the same navy-blue uniform of S.O.N.G.
Eventually, the trio halted in front of a door at the end of yet another unremarkable corridor.
"Please, head inside," the blonde man instructed with his redheaded companion beside him.
Following his orders, the door slid open so Lanfen could step inside the small room that she had been escorted to for her 'questioning'. As the blonde man and his companion waited outside, a camera which was hanging in the corner of the room's ceiling immediately directed its lenses right at Lanfen, causing the brown woman to instinctively tense up beneath its gaze. Situated in front of her was a table where two familiar men waited for her. One of them was the large man with red hair, and the other was his brown-haired companion in the black suit. While the redheaded man sat down on a chair, his aide remained standing and gestured for Lanfen to sit down with a data-pad held underneath one arm.
Lanfen's designated seat was purely made out of hard metal. With her spine now slouched against its backrest, Lanfen placed her restrained forearms on the table to alleviate the weight they placed on her. She honestly didn't know whether or not she should've waited for the two men to speak up first.
"My name is Kazanari Genjuuro, Tactical Commander of S.O.N.G.," the redheaded man eventually began, resting his elbows on the table between them. "This is one of my personal aides, Ogawa Shinji, and we are the ones who will be asking you questions regarding the events of the past few days. Will that be alright with you?" He was formal, but not distant. Stern, but not harsh. If anything, he seemed to be just as uncomfortable as Lanfen was beneath the piercing gaze of the room's security camera. His familiar surname couldn't have been a coincidence either. 'Kazanari'.
Lanfen hesitantly nodded. "I've no complaints."
Taking his data-pad into his own two hands, Ogawa projected a holographic image from the device, showcasing a display of the red pendant that Lanfen was given during the Distortion attack. "This is the SG-r04, Sword of Damocles, an item which I'm sure you are familiar with by now," he said, inputting another command into the data-pad to bring up recorded CCTV footage of Lanfen's fight against the Distortions. "The SG-r04 is a property of both S.O.N.G. and the United Nations. Before you had utilized it approximately thirty-nine hours ago, the SG-r04 had been stolen from our possession by the Bavarian Illuminati. May we know where and how did you attain such an item?"
Lanfen remembered the pale face of the person in the suit who had bestowed the SG-r04 upon her. "... It was... a woman. A woman in a blue suit." It was difficult to muster any precise details just from their brief meeting. "Blue hair. Pale face... I was running and... she saved me after a Distortion had cornered me and-" Lanfen felt her skin crawl when she remembered the sound of torn fabric and crunching bone. After taking in a practiced breath, Lanfen pursed her chapped lips and tried to continue. "I... I didn't get her name. But when she asked if I wanted the power to save... my sister..." She drew in a shaky breath. "She gave me the pendant. And told me to sing if I wanted to use it."
"Did she ask for anything in return?" Commander Kazanari inquired, visibly listening to her story with intent.
"... No. She didn't," Lanfen whispered, unsure of whether or not that woman was even real at all. "It was given to me just so I could save my sister..." Repeating those words felt akin to gargling metal needles in her mouth. Lanfen had 'saved' no one. Nobody but herself. That was the one fact she knew to be true out of all the things she had claimed. With her gaze now placed on her weighty handcuffs, Lanfen tightened her throat, and waited for the next question to come.
It was the Commander who asked this time. "Do you have any past experiences with paranormal events such as the Noise?"
"No," Lanfen quickly answered. "I've never encountered the Noise myself. Or paranormal creatures... Not until recently, that is." Out of curiosity, she shifted her eyes just for a moment to take a peek at the camera on the ceiling. When she saw its focused lens still directing itself right at her, Lanfen couldn't help but reflexively stiffen her shoulders. Silence subsequently followed while Ogawa showed the Commander something which was on his data-pad. Her gut feeling told her that their next question wasn't going to be a pleasant one to answer.
After taking a look at his aide's touch-device, Commander Kazanari looked back at Lanfen and furrowed his brow. "Do you have any next of kin?"
Relatives. Lanfen honestly needed to hold herself back from scoffing at the mere mention of it. Clenching her hands however she could within the metal coffin which were her handcuffs, Lanfen thought about her distant aunts and uncles from both of her parents' sides, and quickly felt disgust dancing on her lips before she bitterly answered the Commander's question. "... My sister was the only family I had left in my life." Her words came out like a verbal sword-thrust. "If any of my relatives are still out there, then they'd want nothing to do with me."
With her questioning now at its apparent end, the two men calmly took in her answers, and considered them for a lengthy amount of time underneath the watchful gaze of the room's observational camera. Their expressions betrayed nothing about what they were thinking, so Lanfen simply waited as Ogawa typed away on his data-pad faster than she could even perceive. The Commander, on the other hand, was looking right at her with a subtle hint of concern in his eyes. He definitely was not the type of person she had expected him to be despite the man's fierce look. When Ogawa proceeded to whisper something into the Commander's ear, the large man quickly stood back up before crossing his arms over his chest.
"Thank you for your time," he calmly said. "We will be returning you to your room now until further notice. For now, we will-"
"My parents." Those words leaped out of Lanfen's throat before she could even think. When the Commander halted in his speech, Lanfen met his surprised gaze, and voiced a question that sounded almost like a plea. "Did you... know them...?"
Commander Kazanari and Ogawa exchanged a knowing look with one another, as if wondering whether they were even allowed to answer her question. While the camera in the corner of the room maintained its watch on them, Ogawa kept his data-pad underneath one arm, looked back at Lanfen, and politely addressed the woman's curiosity. "The late Keith and Pao-Lin were indeed once operatives of S.O.N.G., Miss Jiang. You have our apologies, but this information had to be kept classified purely due to the nature of our organization." He then held one hand across his chest and gave a short bow. "I hope you can understand why we needed to keep your family in the dark."
Lanfen did not know whether to be mad or grateful that it took this long to even know why her parents were taken away from both her and Kai-Ming. Why Lanfen had to be the one to essentially raise her little sister. It was a bitter pill to swallow. But Lanfen gave a slow nod anyway, all while whispering an almost-inaudible utterance of her appreciation for the information. When she heard the door behind her open back up again, Lanfen stood up from her chair and wordlessly followed the blonde man from earlier out of the room. She didn't bother looking at Commander Kazanari and Ogawa as she did so. Her purple eyes were already finding it difficult to focus on the metal path which was laid out right ahead of her.
The distinctive hissing of a sliding door eventually snapped Lanfen out of a momentary, mental daze. By the time she was escorted back into the shadows of her detainment room, only one of her formal escorts still remained with her, most likely because of the cuffs that were still locked tightly around her forearms. Once a couple inputs were placed into its security keypad, the metal coffin proceeded to loosen its grip on her, letting the blonde man finally relieve Lanfen of her heavy restraints. As he left the item on the detainment room's table with a low thud, Lanfen took a few steps back from him to notice how the broken data-pad on the room floor had already been disposed of without any trace.
Still feeling remorseful for her sudden outburst, Lanfen caressed her deeply-marked wrists before scanning the man before her with tired, purple eyes.
"Your name," she spoke to him in a low voice, getting his attention. "... I never got your name."
He gave a polite smile and folded his hands behind his back. "You may call me 'Tsuchiya Kagero'," he said, suddenly sounding far more casual than when they had initially met a while ago. "You are Cassandra Jiang Lanfen, are you not?"
"I am," Lanfen curtly replied with a nod, taking a note to remember the man's name. Making conversation with her captors wasn't exactly an easy task for Lanfen. After making herself comfortable on top of the room's bed, she removed her uncomfortable footwear, practically kicking them off into the corner of the room. When Lanfen glanced back over to Tsuchiya again, she sensed a sudden sensation of empathy within his eyes, and tightened her lips together. "Thanks for... retrieving my sister's phone," she whispered to him, finding it hard to truly voice her gratitude. "It means a lot to me."
Tsuchiya responded with a formal bow. "I'm happy to assist however I can. Even if our experiences seem to be the other way around, it's admittedly pleasing to see someone who just so happens to be similar to me in a particular way." His strange remark made Lanfen perk her head up in confusion. Evidently noticing this, Tsuchiya held up one of his wrists, and pulled down a sleeve of his suit to showcase a pink, white, and light-blue armband. The familiar colour pattern immediately made her understand what Tsuchiya really meant before the blonde man suddenly held one of his fingers to a visible comm bead in his ear.
As light from the corridor provided what little illumination there was inside the darkened room, Lanfen could faintly hear something being relayed over to Tsuchiya.
"Understood," he eventually said into his comms after about a minute or so had gone by.
Without another word sent towards her direction, Tsuchiya abruptly marched out of the detainment room, prompting Lanfen to glance over to the table and rest her tired gaze on the two smartphones which were lying on top of it. She heard the room's lock resound in the cold air and subsequently dragged her body over to the table so she could slowly hold up Kai's broken phone within the palm of one hand. The toy that hung from it by a chain softly jingled, causing a cold shiver to run down Lanfen's spine while the memory of her sister's cloaked killer briefly reappeared before Lanfen's narrowing eyes.
She felt tears trailing down her face once again.
But they were not tears of sadness.
Instead, they were tears of blooming, incandescent hatred. Malice. Wrath. Bloodthirst. Lanfen could feel a proverbial flame burning within the pupils of her eyes. A fire conjured purely out of the loathing she possessed for both her sister's murderer and the Distortions who had thoroughly ravaged their world for some incomprehensible 'crusade' against Humanity. The hand which wielded the Sword of Damocles ached at her side. It ached for the sensation it had felt when she cleaved her way through the Distortions one-by-one. With pursed lips, Lanfen reached for the toy that was attached to Kai's smartphone, and gently detached it from the broken device.
Once Kai's smartphone was placed back on the table, she attached the keychain to her own smartphone with a soft click before observing the way the toy swayed back and forth on a silver chain.
When Lanfen heard a sudden knocking on the detainment room's door, she hurriedly wiped away her tears and squeezed her eyes shut to immediately recollect herself.
The door slid back open with a loud hiss and Lanfen noticed Tsuchiya stepping inside the darkened room again. This time, the blonde man held a large suitcase in one hand and a data-pad in the other. An aura of formality could be felt radiating around him as Tsuchiya carefully placed the suitcase down on the room table. After closing the room door behind him, he handed Lanfen the data-pad, and wordlessly gestured over to the room's large monitor screen. It switched on the moment Lanfen turned around to face the screen, causing the room to be bathed in its light while the symbol of the United Nations appeared right in the middle of the monitor. Lanfen could only guess what her captors now intended to do with her.
"Greetings, Miss Cassandra." Lanfen heard an affable, androgynous-sounding voice coming through the monitor's speakers. "If I am to keep this meeting short, you may refer to me as the spokesperson of the United Nations world council. It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."
Tsuchiya silently stood on one side of the dimly-lit room as Lanfen returned the diplomatic greeting in kind and said, "I take it that there's something needed of me?"
"Correct. After much consideration by the council, the United Nations has formally decided to offer you, Cassandra Jiang Lanfen, a chance to be recruited into S.O.N.G. as their seventh Adaptor. In other words, a Symphogear-Wielder." Their direct statement made Lanfen's eyes instantly widen. "As you are the only thus far who is capable of wielding the SG-r04, the U.N. intends to employ you in the defense against paranormal threats, essentially ensuring the safety of our world. If you accept this offer, the council will be willing to overlook your 'theft' of the SG-r04. They will also be providing funding for the duration of your employment, in addition to whatever benefits S.O.N.G. shall provide you, of course."
At the back of her head, Lanfen knew that this was not going to be a real decision.
All of this was just a formality. Political posturing in her eyes.
After putting down her smartphone on the detainment room's table, Lanfen opened up the data-pad in her hands and scrolled through the terms of their agreement. She immediately saw how any refusal of the offer would mean her immediate imprisonment based on Lanfen's current charges. No trial. No arguments. She was hardly surprised by the hand she was being dealt with. "Will I essentially be a soldier...?" Lanfen inquired, looking up again at the symbol on the monitor screen.
"Think of yourself more as 'disaster-relief personnel', Miss Cassandra," the Spokesperson said, almost correcting her the same way an adult would point out a child's silly mistake. "Your duty would be to effectively follow the orders of Commander Kazanari in order to carry out work which no regular military can ever hope to accomplish. Aside from that, you will be allowed to return to your old home and live out your life whenever you are not on an active mission." The speaker's tone was polite. Almost excessively so to Lanfen's ears. "A favourable proposal, is it not?"
There was nothing left for her to lose in this deal, Lanfen dryly thought to herself, tightening her grip around the data-pad's edges. While the end of the written agreement displayed itself on the device's translucent screen, Lanfen released one hand, and used it to slowly sign the proposal through a few strokes of her signature. She subsequently noticed Tsuchiya faintly tensing up in the corner of her vision. With the agreement signed, Lanfen hit the 'Accept' prompt, causing the device to ring with confirmation before it shut itself off.
"I'll do whatever I have to if it means taking out the Distortions," Lanfen quietly swore to the symbol on the monitor screen in front of her. "I can promise you that, at least."
"We look forward to seeing your results, Miss Cassandra," the Spokesperson responded, sounding obviously pleased by her decision. "You may find additional details regarding your duties within that device. Since I'm sure that you may be finding yourself already overwhelmed by your new responsibilities, you can expect me to contact you again at a later time. Until then, may the heavens smile upon your efforts, SG-r04."
The audio transmission on the wall-monitor ceased and the symbol of the United Nations disappeared from the screen, allowing the shadows of the detainment room to creep back in until both Lanfen and Tsuchiya stood once again in near-darkness. Lanfen then switched on the room's table lamp, summoning a dim light as Tsuchiya visibly relaxed himself. "You have our apologies for this, Jiang," he said with an almost exasperated glance at the room's deactivated monitor screen. "S.O.N.G. does not often carry out the immoral task of plucking someone from their former life. Sadly, this is a decision which not even the Commander is capable of going against."
"It's fine." Lanfen quietly waved off his apology, now leaning against the room table with a hand placed on her hip. "I've no former life to return to anyway... Not anymore."
Tsuchiya gave no response to her dour words other than to visibly respect Lanfen's recent decision.
Now that the proverbial die had been cast, Tsuchiya reached for the suitcase he had brought and inputted a 16-digit code into its keypad. He then gently opened it up to showcase its contents, causing Lanfen to subconsciously draw in a sharp breath at the sight of her very own S.O.N.G. uniform. Provided alongside it was a black-and-white tie and undershirt, a familiar ruby-like pendant, and a rectangular wrist device which she had seen being worn on the arms of everyone in this facility thus far. Lanfen tentatively took the device and curiously held it to her forearm. In an instant, an automatic strap deployed from the device, prompting it to immediately secure itself to her wrist with a faint click.
"That communicator will be used for every manner of business related to S.O.N.G.," Tsuchiya explained while Lanfen opened up its holographic interface to explore its numerous functions. "If nothing else is required of me, I shall be taking my leave now. Unfortunately, my duties provide me with little free time." The subsequent bow Tsuchiya gave formally dismissed him from the room before he headed over to the door to undo its inner lock through a specific key-input. The man glanced back at Lanfen soon after and provided her with a friendly smile. "May fortune favour you, Miss Jiang."
Lanfen herself could not give a smile in return. But she tried her best to give a respectful nod in place of it. "... Thank you, Tsuchiya."
The door closed itself up, this time without an audible ring of its lock, leaving Lanfen all alone in her room. Without another second wasted, she went about changing into the winter uniform they had requisitioned her, relieved to be finally rid of her prisoner clothing. In its place, Lanfen donned a navy-blue jacket, a matching pair of tactical pants, and a black-and-white undershirt that possessed the same monochrome pattern as the tie she secured around her neck. The measurements were all perfectly accurate to her body. After she slipped into a pair of boots and secured the uniform's storage pouch to her belt, Lanfen gazed at the relic pendant inside the suitcase before watching it shimmer underneath a table lamp's yellow light.
With no words actually uttered between her chapped lips, Lanfen swore an oath right then and there to wield her powers for the sake of avenging her sister.
She promised to Kai - and herself - that no matter how many Distortions she would have to kill, Lanfen would eventually master the power of the Symphogear before one day finding the cloaked monster who had taken her sister's life.
While a proverbial fire within Lanfen's eyes marked her wordless oath, she looked forward to the day where she would seize her sister's murderer by the throat, giving Lanfen the opportunity to hear its final, pathetic cries before she permanently silenced it with the Sword of Damocles.