In correspondence with Lanfen's memories, the shopping complex's highest floor was composed entirely out of an expansive food court with tables as far as they could see. It had been only a couple days ago when Lanfen and Kai ran into Ayano on this very floor, and while the two sisters were rather disappointed when Ayano declined the offer to join them for lunch, the coincidental meeting was welcomed all the same. Regardless, this was a window to make up for lost opportunities. And thanks to most of the group's familiarity with the area, any choice paralysis that could have been inflicted by the sheer variety of food stalls were absolved without trouble.
It didn't take long for them to pick some empty seats and a couple stalls to order from. Once they had paid for whatever they needed, the four women gathered around a table situated right next to the floor's large windows. All the other chairs around them were completely vacant, giving the team the figurative space to chat without worry of someone overhearing any mentions regarding the paranormal. The nearby windows also provided the quartet with an expansive view of the city outside as dots of white fell from the winter skies to blanket Mitakihara's busy roads in snow. Placing her chin in the palm of a bandaged hand, Lanfen diverted her attention away from the glass panels and gazed into the printed photograph she held between two fingers.
A group photo with herself, Shinonome, Ayano, and Godai. Lanfen couldn't tell if this was her first time taking a picture with this many people in one shot. Nonetheless, it sounded like a smarter move for her to find a physical frame for it later on compared to carrying it around on her person.
Sliding the photograph into her jacket's pockets, Lanfen held a can of soda to her lips while Godai mirrored the action across the table with a ceramic cup of pitch-black coffee. Sitting beside Lanfen was Shinonome, who curiously prodded the batch of steaming-hot takoyaki they purchased for her with a wooden toothpick. And lastly, there was Ayano, who had taken the term 'snack time' to its utmost extreme as multiple plates of pastries and cupcakes crowded around her respective share of the table. If one was capable of projecting an aura of palpable disgust, then Lanfen could sense its waves emanating from Godai. The pony-tailed woman could hardly look at the disgustingly-sweet desserts without outright gagging.
"At this rate, you're going to rot your teeth, Komi'," Godai remarked with a raised brow, black coffee still grasped in her hand. "It's already a damn miracle that you don't put on any weight from all the sugary crap you stuff your face with."
Ayano merely gave her a playful wag of a frosting-coated fork before cheekily smiling to herself. "Sweets are the best things to eat after tiring yourself out, Yuki," she said in a faux sage-like manner. "If your brain needs fuel to work, there's no better pick-me-up than dessert!" Impaling a chunk of dark-chocolate cake with a fork's metal prongs, Ayano swung her attention over to both Shinonome and Lanfen, and winked at the spectating duo. "Makes sense, right?"
If Lanfen needed to be honest, none of Ayano's sugar-related claims had managed to even register in her mind. The Adaptor's focus was mostly kept on Mitakihara's peaceful skyline. And although Lanfen's sword-hand remained calm thus far, she continued to ponder to herself about how the other Wielders were performing in light of the Category-2 Distortions. Lanfen knew they were probably faring better than some greenhorn Adaptor. But the Distortions were still not a force to be underestimated when Humanity knew nothing of how they arrived nor who even summoned them here to begin with.
"I would say that it does make sense," Shinonome responded to Ayano, holding up a toothpick with a takoyaki ball firmly attached to it. "It's typically wise to restore one's strength after depleting it, isn't it? One does need to pay attention to their own requirements at the end of the day."
Putting down the fizzy drink in her hand, Lanfen took her chin off her palm and noticed Ayano's expectant gaze turning over to her for the Adaptor's own opinion on the topic. Lanfen only bothered to answer with a small shrug of the head before gesturing to Shinonome beside her. "What she said," Lanfen flatly replied.
"See?" Ayano boasted, flashing Godai with a pompous, playful grin and a clearly-inflated ego. "My IQ is at 1000% as always."
"Yeah, yeah. But you better not come crawling over to me if you need a drive to a dentist," Godai muttered with a cheeky smirk which roused a pout from the brunette. A vibration then arose from within Godai's jacket, prompting the pony-tailed woman to draw out her smartphone and switch it on. "Oh? Looks like Darling's tossed me some text," she pointed out, setting her coffee cup down on its saucer plate. "Give me a couple minutes to answer this, yeah?"
The rest of the team returned to their respective snacks while Godai quietly typed away on her phone. After spending the past couple minutes simply poking at her takoyaki, Shinonome properly lifted one of them up in her toothpick, and cooled down the hot ball of flour batter with four gentle blows. She then shoved the entire treat right into her mouth and widened her eyes with a quick yelp when its lingering heat immediately made Shinonome tremble in her seat. Ayano and Godai scrambled to fetch an ice-cold item from their plates. But it merely took a second for Lanfen to hand over her half-empty soda can. The situation had diffused itself right as it started. Even so, Godai still got off her chair to fetch a proper beverage for the silver-haired woman.
Withdrawing the tin can away from her lips with a small gasp, Shinonome gave the emptied drink back to Lanfen and picked up some tissue to wipe her mouth clean. "M-My thanks, Jiang," she said between a couple hasty pants. "As excruciating as that was... it still certainly tasted amazing," Shinonome added with a light giggle.
"Be careful next time," Lanfen advised her with a brief smile, putting aside the empty soda can. "While it does taste good, it's not going to be worth much if you don't have a tongue to taste it." Shinonome responded to her dry comment with a slow nod and resumed poking at the takoyaki with a new sense of care. Lanfen subsequently turned her gaze over to the person who was sitting across from Shinonome and noticed the cat-like grin that was happily-sitting on Ayano's face. "... Something on your mind?" she said, unsure of what to make of this particular expression whenever it appeared.
"Oh, it's nothing," Ayano teasingly insisted, bringing her sights over to the window beside them to observe the descending snow beyond the glass panels. "I'm just glad you're alright, that's all," she calmly added, taking another frosting-covered fork and scooping up a small cupcake into her mouth. Ayano made sure to only resume talking after she had downed her pink treat. "Even if S.O.N.G. is used to treating people with serious injuries, we still got pretty worried when we found you all beaten up this morning."
Lanfen's sword-hand reflexively gripped the side of her abdomen. Were it not for her Symphogear's life support system, the pain she had experienced when the Category-2s sliced right through her protective barriers would have knocked her out from mere shock. "Not used to seeing someone hurt that badly, I take it?" Lanfen carefully inquired. Ayano replied with a hesitant nod alongside an uneasy chuckle. The Adaptor could also see Shinonome shifting uncomfortably in her seat at the topic of Lanfen's injuries, but the silver-haired woman stayed quiet regardless. "... Tell me," Lanfen continued, "S.O.N.G. hasn't once fought a threat as unpredictable as the Distortions, haven't they?"
Returning from her brief trip to a nearby drink booth, it was Godai who answered Lanfen while the tall woman slid over a plastic cup of juice towards Shinonome. "Not exactly, no," Godai said, handing Shinonome an encouraging thumbs-up before she dropped herself back down onto her chair. "Still, since we now have Task Force Harmony around to back us up, fighting back against the Distortions should be heck of a lot easier. Right, Komi'?"
Pushing away a few empty, cream-littered plates, Ayano once again only spoke up after wiping her mouth clean with a couple tissues. "The battle this morning conveniently gave Harmony some time to set up their forces," she pointed out, holding up a gloved finger in a matter-of-fact way, "but those guys aren't going to be slacking off when it comes to a rift breakout, that's for sure. The prep time those rifts openings are giving us so far definitely isn't expected to go on forever."
Task Force Harmony. Although Ayano and Godai both assured the Adaptor of their practical reliability, there was still a part of her which would not settle down at the thought of relying on regular armed forces to protect them from the Distortions. It was surely convenient to not be the only one Japan relied upon for its paranormal defense. But the obvious power gap between that of Harmony's forces and S.O.N.G.'s Adaptor Corp remained apparent. And this was before she began to think about the council's perspective surrounding its full control over a militarized task force. Narrowing her purple eyes, Lanfen gazed beyond the transparent glass to her left, noticing the grey helicopters which hovered in the city's skyline. 'Harmony' emblems could be seen on their side-doors as the sleek aircraft patrolled between Mitakihara's buildings like all-seeing sentinels.
"How do the other Adaptors feel about this?" Lanfen inquired again, pupils still focused on Harmony's passing helicopters while she fiddled with the ends of her black braid. "Working alongside Task Force Harmony, I mean," she elaborated after noticing the confusion her vague question visibly sowed amongst Lanfen's older teammates.
Both Ayano and Godai subsequently looked at one another. Without an audible word uttered between them, the pair appeared to communicate what they were actually thinking purely through a combination of guess-work, and a familiarity with each other that had been fostered over the decade. Once they were finished wordlessly sharing their unspoken opinions, Ayano glanced back at Lanfen to answer her lingering question. "They're perfectly fine with how things are right now. As long as it means keeping everyone safe, none of them really have any issues working alongside Task Force Harmony. Their formation was originally proposed by Kazanari Tsubasa's father, after all."
"Is that so?" Lanfen quietly murmured, leaning against the backrest of her chair.
The Adaptor did not know if she should even be taken aback by Ayano's claim. The Kazanaris, Yukine, Tachibana, Akatsuki, and Tsukuyomi had all accepted her as one of their own in spite of the 'duty' which Lanfen currently held in regards to the other Symphogear-Wielders. That was undeniable. But even so, said matter was completely unrelated to a newly-created division like Task Force Harmony. In addition to being a task force who fought under the direct orders of the world council, it was an armed wing which had been used to indirectly justify the sudden distribution of the Adaptors across the globe.
A mild grumble suddenly arose from Lanfen's stomach.
Judging from the stares that quickly fell upon her, the sound had been obviously loud enough for all three of her teammates to hear. While Lanfen clicked her tongue in annoyance, Shinonome - who had been staying silent this entire time - lifted one of her remaining takoyaki treats with a toothpick, and gave it a few gentle blows before holding it in front of Lanfen's face. There was no good reason on hand to decline a free bite. The pleasant smile which Shinonome wore even reassured Lanfen that it was alright. But the observant stares both Ayano and Godai visibly directed towards her still made the Adaptor momentarily freeze on the spot.
Ayano in particular was watching on with star-filled pupils and a wide, cat-like grin.
"Thanks," Lanfen muttered, biting the ball of flour batter off Shinonome's toothpick.
To her relief, the offered takoyaki had already cooled to the point of being warm enough for it to go down Lanfen's throat without issue. Shinonome promptly giggled to herself before returning to her tea-time snack using the same wooden toothpick Lanfen had just used. Once again, the feline-esque grin which Ayano shamelessly donned caused a deathly shiver to travel down Lanfen's spinal cord. Ignorant of the heat that was gathering within her scarred cheeks, Lanfen calmly crossed her arms and continued observing the city outside the windows to pass the time. The simple idea of spending the following hours merely shopping with her previous upperclassmen somehow felt far more challenging than any of Lanfen's recent battles.
Three hours. Kagero had spent three full hours attempting to contact Morikawa Renge by any means available. Within that timeframe, all text messages were confirmed to have arrived at their recipient. And yet, the man's digital inquiries received zero responses in kind. Initial theories brought up the slight possibility of the Distortion incursion having somehow affected Mitakihara's communications network. But a cursory investigation using S.O.N.G.'s resources discovered no meaningful damage within the city's infrastructure after the recent counterattack. Further probing into the matter also provided no explanation for the garbled static which had drowned out Kagero the second Morikawa answered her phone.
Whatever the reason may be, Kagero deemed it irrelevant now that he was standing right in the center of Morikawa's apartment with investigation personnel from S.O.N.G. and Clan Hida's shinobi operatives. While his requested back-up inspected every potential crevice, the field agent lowered a narrowed gaze to set his sights on the inert corpse of Morikawa Renge. It was impossible for him to believe what he was directly witnessing right at his feet. Morikawa - one of Clan Hida's best and brightest - laid dead in a pile of glass shards and a pool of her own dried blood. What baffled Kagero the most was the apparent killing blow: A simple gunshot, perfectly centered around her torso, just like all the other young women who Suteinu had informed him about.
Kagero would sooner believe gossip surrounding Shem-Ha's impossible return than accept the possibility of a Hida operative being somehow outwitted this easily.
Drawing the familiar stench of death into his lungs, Kagero navigated his way through the cardboard containers which crowded the living room before stepping out into the apartment complex's barren corridors. Right as the field agent leaned against the cold wall to catch his breath, Kagero's wrist device rang with an incoming audio transmission. The caller's contact ID belonged to Ogawa Shinji. Kagero answered it through the tap of a holographic prompt. Considering the older man's current business in Europe with the Kazanari newly-weds, Kagero hadn't expected Shinji to make contact so soon.
"This is Tsuchiya Kagero," he declared into the communicator's microphone, "I am currently on the scene of the crime."
Shinji's voice remained calm in his inquiry. "Tsuchiya, have you managed to find any trace of the perpetrator?"
"Nothing concrete," Kagero ruefully admitted. "The teams have managed to find a spent shell casing, but I have a lingering suspicion that it was left there on purpose for us to discover." In contrast to the previous killings that Kagero had already looked into, this was the first occasion where a murder scene generated any sort of evidence aside from the Illuminati-marked bullets which were utilized in the acts. And it was undoubtedly done for the sole purpose of pulling wool over their eyes. "... No signs of forced entry. No alchemic residue. Nothing. It was as if the murderer had vanished the moment the deed was done."
Silence followed suit. Kagero could not see nor hear how his mentor responded to his report. But the field agent had undertaken enough operations alongside him by now to accurately assume how Shinji would react to the passing of a comrade. Unlike Kagero, Shinji's own induction within Clan Hida years ago provided him with a reliable mask of emotional restraint. "You have my condolences, Tsuchiya," Shinji finally responded, "but do not lose faith. The one responsible for these murders shall be brought to justice in due time. Do contact me again once the investigation teams are ready to submit their report."
"... Affirmative, Ogawa." The audio transmission switched itself off from Shinji's end of the line. Kagero dismissed his wrist device's holographic interface and returned his arm to his side. Once the field agent was completely sure that nobody except himself stood in the apartment complex's empty corridors, Kagero gave himself permission to grit his teeth before uttering a harsh curse under his breath. His subsequent words were drawn just to help him believe the reality of the situation. "How could Morikawa of all people lose her life like this?"
A firm hand grabbed Kagero by the wrist.
The field agent recoiled from the presence of an undetected person behind him and reflexively reached for his firearm. To Kagero's subsequent surprise, it was Ogawa Souji who stood before him, the Grandmaster of Clan Hida himself. Dressed in the crimson long-coat which had been passed down from one clan leader to another, Souji held his sheathed katana in a tight grip while the Grandmaster scowled at the nearby apartment with uncharacteristic remorse. Kagero attempted to greet Souji by lowering his head into a bow. But the Grandmaster declined the formality through the dismissive wave of a gloved hand.
"Lift your head, Kagero," Souji commanded, stepping closer to an apartment's opened entrance, "I am simply here to confirm the loss of one of our own with my own eyes."
Heeding Souji's wishes, Kagero straightened his back and followed the Grandmaster through the nearby doorway from behind. Kagero's senses had become numb to the smell of the dead at this point. But it felt like a whole different experience to have it originate from a Hida operative. Inside the living room, both S.O.N.G. and Hida personnel halted their duties at the appearance of the Grandmaster, wordlessly standing aside as the pair approached Morikawa's inert body. Souji then lowered himself onto both knees and positioned his weapon of office atop the carpeted floor, allowing the Grandmaster to clasp his hands together in a prayer while Kagero remained standing. According to the antique clock on the crowded room's walls, Souji's wordless chanting went on for a full, undisturbed minute.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
The Grandmaster produced no sound when he finally rose up from the bloodstained carpet with his ceremonial katana back in his hands.
The cold silence that permeated the living room's atmosphere was then shattered when the scabbard of Souji's weapon loudly clacked against the wooden floor. Kagero and all the present Hida personnel around him instinctively tensed at the noise like they were always trained to do so.
"All sentries of Clan Hida are to operate beneath a new direct order," Souji declared, his syllables as calm as a running river stream. "Our warriors shall maintain a permanent watch for the perpetrator of this crime. No one will be allowed to abandon their vigilance until the murderer of Morikawa Renge is brought to justice. While we cannot perform any deeds for those who are already lost to us, the continuation of these murders cannot be allowed to continue as long as we draw breath."
"Permission to speak, Grandmaster," Kagero subsequently requested. He resumed when Souji gave him a wordless nod. "Shall I request Commander Genjuuro for an immediate transfer back to Clan Hida? If we are to uncover Morikawa's murderer, it may be best that we-"
"Such action is not required," Souji precisely stated, his hands resting on the pommel of his ceremonial weapon. "S.O.N.G. and Commander Genjuuro are in need of both you and Shinji right now, Kagero. While your understandable determination to avenge Morikawa is appreciated, the Commander requires your skills more than I do as we speak." The Grandmaster soon turned to Kagero and settled a firm, gloved hand on top of the field agent's shoulder. "... Do your best finding out what you can from within S.O.N.G., and please do so without finding yourself lost in a forest of retribution. That is my request for you, Kagero."
Sensing the Grandmaster's tightening grip, Kagero steadied his racing heart and slowly turned his gaze back over to Morikawa's corpse. The way her eyes remained wide open caused him to clench a hand at his side into a firm fist. Judging by how the living room's glass table had shattered apart, Kagero immediately figured out that it must have broken underneath the weight of a hefty object. And yet, Morikawa's body lied down in a position which would have made it impossible for said object to have been herself. Something or someone must have fallen upon it before Morikawa herself had perished. Even so, there were still no signs whatsoever that indicated the physical presence of more than one individual on the scene of the crime.
An icy shiver made itself known beneath Lanfen's skin, derailing an ongoing train of thought in the midst of the team's adventure within a shopping complex. With nobody except herself having actually noticed it, Lanfen examined the building floor they strolled upon, and scanned the faces of each and every person the group passed by on the way towards their next retail outlet. The twitching in her sword-hand only vanished once she had spent a few pounding heartbeats eyeing their crowded environment. Shifting her focus to her teammates again, the Adaptor continued following the trio from behind while her bandaged hands held on to several bags that had been amassed over their spending spree's four-hour timespan.
Clothing. Picture frames. More clothing. Books of sapphic literature. And even more clothes. Aside from a photo frame which Lanfen required for her copy of the group's recent picture, the Adaptor had made the decision to purchase a single shark plushie for something to hold on to during her daily slumber. All of her other toy sharks still remained in Shinonome's new bedroom, so it would only be awkward of Lanfen to suddenly ask if she could fish them out.
"Come on, Yuki," Ayano exclaimed in a sing-song voice, lifting her branded goods as if they weighed nothing, "we still have three more stores to explore!"
Since Lanfen insisted on carrying Shinonome's share of their merchandise, the newest member of Symphogear Team-04 ended up becoming the only one out of the four who wasn't walking around the place with 3-to-5 bags in her palms, leaving the silver-haired woman to simply hold on to her second icy beverage of the day while she took in their sparkling surroundings with silent amazement.
Godai subsequently groaned at Ayano's eagerness to put a dent in their hefty paychecks. "I'll just say it right now, Komi': If we run outta' space in the van, you're walking home tonight."
Raising a brow at her upperclassmen's usual banter, the ensuing giggle that Lanfen heard from Shinonome quickly caught her attention by the ear, essentially seizing Lanfen's thoughts purely through its pleasant nature. The Adaptor needed to jostle her head slightly just to resume walking straight. They were now on the final floor of their shopping spree and it wasn't going to be long until this tiresome journey reached its happy ending. As Lanfen ran an uninterested gaze across the mundane shops around them, her purple pupils slowly landed on a familiar signboard, causing the woman to inadvertently skid into a staggering halt. Shinonome noticed the cessation of her movement the moment it happened and hastily requested their two older teammates to stop and turn around.
"Is something the matter, Jiang?" Shinonome asked, her drink still held in both hands.
Zesshou Sentai Valkyranger. The title twinkled across the storefront in the colours of red, blue, yellow, white, green, and pink. Posters and hand-drawn artwork of armoured, vibrant superheroes decorated every available surface, catching any eyes which would fall upon them while a grandiose theme song could be heard from within the outlet's doors. It had been months since Lanfen last sat down with Kai to binge through fifty episodes of transforming heroes going against all odds to defeat a gallery of villains and monsters. And it had also only been a couple days ago when Kai snuck away from her side to discover this very store. Simply calling back to the memory of that day sparked a momentary fire within Lanfen's narrowing eyes.
Godai casually stepped in front of the silent Adaptor and jerked a thumb over to the store's entrance. "Wanna head inside?" There was a tinge of precaution in Godai's words.
Lanfen guessed that Ayano must have brought up Kai's interests to Godai after their run-in with each other. "I'm just... reminiscing," Lanfen murmured, taking in a practiced breath to extinguish the brewing flames within her pupils. Her teammates deserved better than to be pulled in by the burdens which Lanfen carried on her shoulders. "If the others don't want to check it out, let's just... move along."
Walking over to Lanfen with a mitten-covered hand on her pale cheek, Shinonome tilted her head at the bombastic storefront and the colourful heroines who decorated its walls. The Adaptor's sudden stop in front of it visibly made Shinonome more puzzled than curious with the outlet's sparkling name. "It's certainly an eye-catching location. What is it supposed to be about?" she inquired with a clueless look at her teammates.
Out of the three, it was Ayano who had enthusiastically jumped in to answer the woman's question. "This, Shinonome, is what we call a Valkyranger store!" she declared, holding up a handful of bags to gesture towards the six distinct superheroes who made up the entirety of the store's promotional advertising. "You see, Valkyranger is a popular tokusatsu show that ran a couple years ago. It's still talked about to this day, but there's one secret about it that no one but people like us can know!" To Lanfen and Shinonome's confusion, Ayano pulled herself closer to her younger teammates, lowering her voice until nobody except the two could actually receive Ayano's so-called secret. "All the Valkyrangers you see... are based on S.O.N.G.'s very own Symphogear-Wielders."
Shinonome audibly gasped with a mitten-covered palm now held over her mouth. Lanfen blinked thrice in disbelief before glancing over to Godai for any info to the contrary. The amused shrug she then received from the pony-tailed woman gave Lanfen all she needed to confirm that Ayano wasn't trying to pull her proverbial leg. "That... makes sense," Lanfen admitted, now examining the cardboard cutout of a pink-coloured heroine who possessed a prominent pair of bunny ears, and a gigantic, glittery chainsaw in both hands, "too much sense." She momentarily questioned how she hadn't made such a blatantly-obvious connection up until now.
"They certainly do look just like your comrades, don't they?" Shinonome commented with a giggle, pointing towards a green-coloured heroine who donned a witch-like hat, and a giant scythe which dwarfed the cutout of the superhero who actually wielded it. The ear-to-ear grin that Ayano shamelessly wore indicated a strange sense of pride from dropping a reveal like this out of the blue. "We'll be sure to keep these secrets to ourselves, Ayano," Shinonome subsequently promised, mirroring the brunette's glistening smile.
"S.O.N.G. funded it at first to help cover up their later operations. In the end, the whole thing turned out to be a lot more popular than expected," Godai chimed in with a laugh. "Anyway, do any of ya wanna check out what's inside?" Both Ayano and Shinonome threw up a hand the instant those words left Godai's lips. But Lanfen herself chose to stay her arms at her sides. "Alright. Komi', you head in there and get whatever Shinonome here wants," Godai continued, shifting all of her bags onto her left hand so she could clap a silent Adaptor on the shoulder. "In the meantime, I'll wait out here with Jiang. Got it?"
Responding to her companion's suggestion with a playful salute and a renewed fervour to shop to her heart's content, Ayano promptly grabbed Shinonome by the arm, and escorted her through the poster-covered entrance of a Valkyranger store. Lanfen could hear the opening music to the television series momentarily leak out from the outlet until its automatic doors closed themselves back up. Looking back at the official artwork which decorated the storefront, it was now practically impossible for Lanfen to not see her fellow Adaptors reflecting on these fictional characters. Characters who Kai and herself had been fans of ever since their show first premiered on a Sunday morning years ago.
As Godai and Lanfen stood outside the automatic entrance all by themselves, the former slowly lifted her hand off the Adaptor's shoulders to scratch the rear of her own neck. "You can expect a call in a few months about the upcoming movie," Godai pointed out, casually gesturing over to a nearby announcement poster with the title, 'Zesshou Sentai Valkyranger: Five Years After'. "Can't use your likeness without your permission and all that jazz, ya know?"
Lanfen allowed an empty chuckle to slip between her chapped lips. In her eyes, the writers would need to perform quite the embellishment if Lanfen's story was going to be even remotely interesting to its viewers. "I'll look forward to it," Lanfen dryly replied, fastening her bandaged fingers around the crumpled handles of several paper bags.
Sensing her feet slowly turning sore within her winter boots, Lanfen examined their surroundings again before she spotted an unoccupied bench stationed not too far from where they waited. Godai followed her without question while the pair took the chance to sit down and catch their breath after being led around several floors of stores and snack bars. Placing their accumulated bags on the ground for now, the Adaptor wordlessly crossed her legs with a huff as Godai reached into her personal carry-on and pulled out a pair of energy drinks. Lanfen was never the type to rely on such fluids. But she couldn't refuse the offer when her body was starting to fall back on fumes just to move. Eventually, two sharp popping noises pierced the air in perfect unison.
Resting her canned drink between herself and the Adaptor, Godai leaned her full weight against the bench's backrest with an unrestrained groan. Roughly several seconds managed to slide by the pair without any exchanged words before the proverbial ice was broken by means of a simple question. "So, how've you been doing lately?"
Exhausted. Sore. Unable to get any rest from time-to-time. A menu full of exquisite answers was ready to be served. And yet, Lanfen instead chose to answer Godai with two curt words. "I'm fine," she insisted, hiding a small cough within the sleeve of her thick jacket. Leaving her own half-empty energy drink in-between her and Godai as well, Lanfen's purple eyes avoided her teammate so she could quietly examine the sea of countless shoppers who were walking by them without a glance in the duo's direction.
"You sure about that?" Godai suddenly retorted with an almost questioning smirk. "Because you sure looked like you were ready to spring into action the entire time we were gallopin' around the place." The sheer casual bluntness of her observation made Lanfen subconsciously dig her fingernails into her bandaged palms. She hardly even noticed the resulting stinging sensation that immediately arose because of her own actions.
Four hours. The group had been shopping for about four hours. And Godai somehow managed to notice the subtle tension in Lanfen's movements. The Adaptor had tried her best to hold back the twitching of her sword-hand along with the slumbering flames within her pupils. But like so many of the ventures Lanfen previously attempted in her life, it turned out to have been a complete failure of an endeavour. In hindsight, perhaps it was just pointless to try and hide even the smallest problems when she was underneath an upperclassman's keen observation. After all, both Ayano and Godai had been originally assigned to Lanfen for the official purpose of keeping an eye out for any suspicious activities.
Burying one twitching hand within her black-and-white scarf, Lanfen delicately grasped her hidden relic pendant before drawing in another practiced breath.
"... I've been getting used to it. Handling the Sword of Damocles," Lanfen claimed, tightening her numb fingertips around the crystal beneath her monochrome scarf. Judging by the silent nod which Godai responded with, this was very much the sort of answer that her older teammate had been hoping to hear. "But even so, it just... doesn't seem right... to reach out to the other Wielders when I-" Her next syllables abruptly lodged themselves within Lanfen's tightening throat. Evidently, conversing with Godai about a matter like this felt entirely different compared to exchanging pleasantries with a civilian observer like Shinonome.
"'Still feel like a threat to the others', you mean?" Godai tentatively guessed, accurately accomplishing the Adaptor's intended sentence.
Lanfen released the relic pendant from her shaking hold and hesitantly confirmed her upperclassman's assumption. Whether she accepted it or not, the Sword of Damocles held an instrument which loomed over the other Symphogear-Wielders in the form of a physical deterrence. The opinion of its own user regarding its necessity was completely and entirely irrelevant. "I don't believe that the others would ever do anything to upset the U.N. or the world council," Lanfen continued, now slouching her sore body against the bench's hard wood, "but the weight of the S.W.O.R.D. isn't something I can just continue holding on to with a smile, Godai."
One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes. Four minutes had departed without a word between them by the time Godai settled her hand on Lanfen's stiffening shoulder. The comforting gesture was unlike the one she had initially given to the Adaptor. This time, it was firm. Not too hard that it ended up hurting the injuries underneath Lanfen's jacket. And not too soft to the point it applied nothing with its careful hold. Lanfen maintained her sights on the sparkling Valkyranger store the entire time. Plastered across its walls were larger-than-life characters who represented the very heroines whom the U.N. now held a blade over. It felt like a sign. A sign of how the Symphogear-Wielders were to be used in whatever approach their superiors demanded of them.
"Even if you're a Wielder with one hell of an ugly job..." Godai halted herself mid-sentence, as if to uncover the best way to convey her thoughts without misconception. "... Both Komi' and I still see you as the same old junior we met all the way back, Jiang," she stated, carefully retracting her hand from Lanfen's shoulder to hold up her canned drink. "You don't have to do everything all by yourself. While I'm sure that you don't feel too comfy about gettin' familiar with a pair of idiots who were assigned to monitor you, we're still here to help. In any way we can. We wouldn't have accepted our positions in your team if we only cared about rakin' in a paycheck, if ya catch my drift."
Lanfen subsequently bit down on her cracked lips. She needed to take in one more practiced breath before Lanfen could fully withdraw her fingernails from the palms of her bandaged hands. Slowly turning her aching head in the direction of her upperclassman, the sincere smile which Godai promptly wore without any ounce of her usual irony caused Lanfen's tense shoulders to reflexively loosen themselves. While busy shoppers continued passing by the two women on the wooden bench, Godai cleared her throat, and raised her beverage for an obvious proposal of a toast to the occasion.
"We're all part of Team-04, aren't we?" Godai remarked with a wink, getting a brief but amused scoff out from the Adaptor.
Picking up her own half-empty can from the bench space between them, Lanfen tightly wrapped her fingers around the drink's cold exterior and gently clanked it against Godai's awaiting beverage. Once the celebratory gesture had been concluded, the pair brought their respective drinks to their lips and emptied them in perfect unison. Two tin cans were then set back down atop the wooden furniture as Lanfen wiped her mouth clean using a winter jacket's sleeve. "Thanks... for today," she whispered, gazing back at the vibrant storefront several steps ahead of them, "I think Shinonome and I enjoyed ourselves, all things considered."
"Anytime, Jiang," Godai told her, chuckling, "but since Komi' was the one who came up with the idea, I think she gets more credit," she abruptly added with a shrug.
Speak of the Devil. The very second Godai uttered her name, the automatic entrance to the Valkyranger shop opened back up with a melodious jingle. Skipping through its open doors were Shinonome and Ayano. In the midst of all the goods that the latter had already purchased, Lanfen could now see a single new bag within Ayano's grasp. It was difficult for the Adaptor to clearly perceive what she was excitedly saying to Shinonome. But the longer Lanfen witnessed the two happily-chatting with one another, the more she felt as if both Ayano and Godai truly hadn't changed since their time in Lydian Academy. Lanfen was a Symphogear-Wielder. Ayano and Godai were field agents. And yet, they were companions first and foremost.
The idea of relying on her upperclassmen came off like a silly non-issue from here on out. A miniscule part of Lanfen even began hoping that she could eventually do the same with Tachibana, Yukine, and all the other Wielders.
"Interested in grabbing some drinks later on, Godai?" Lanfen's soft proposition leaped from her tongue before she could even think twice about it.
Leaning forward in her seat, Godai simply responded with another cheeky smirk and a prominent thumbs-up. "Sure thing, Jiang."