Following the holographic map provided by her wrist device, Yuki's steps on the ascending staircase were as noisy as a cat's footfalls, a skill which she had never forgotten ever since her days in Clan Hida. Not a single soul was seen within the underground train station she had taken a shortcut through, all in accordance with the evacuation procedures that were now arising within Yamaku City. Holding her old suitcase in one hand, Yuki spotted the open entrance to the surface above her, and slowed her pace once she neared the top of the underground station's staircase. Gunfire blared across the surface as the woman's wrist device showed that she had just arrived at Jiang's designated location. It only took 8 minutes for her to reach it.
"Right on time," Yuki quietly remarked to herself, placing down her suitcase on one of the steps before flipping it open to pull out her old equipment. Smoke bombs, an essential tool for both retreating and attacking. A half-mask rebreather, situational, even if it never hurt to have one in hand. And lastly, kunais, the most favoured weapons of Clan Hida. After placing the small rebreather within the inner pockets of her S.O.N.G. uniform, Yuki hid her smoke bombs inside her side-pockets, and strapped three kunais beneath each of her long sleeves. The navy-blue uniform didn't do much to actually keep her warm, but it at least concealed her most important tools.
Closing up her suitcase back up with a light kick, Yuki took a few ginger steps up the underground staircase before slowly taking in the situation on the surface around her. Just as she expected, the defensive line that Task Force Harmony had set up in the middle of the city intersection was already crumbling into a panicked rout. Disciplined volleys of stun rounds turned into disorganized barrages, and all manner of control broke beneath the cold brutality of an uncontrollable Symphogear-Wielder. Precise blows from an armoured fist bludgeoned Harmony troopers into the snowy dirt while the combat walkers which had been attached to this force laid across the street as nothing more than dismembered, smoking wreckage.
Loud chatter over the comms at least assured Yuki that their pilots had quickly ejected from their walkers before they were inevitably cut down.
Still, Yuki didn't envy the troopers of Harmony while Jiang pounded into their bodies with enough force to rupture their advanced body armour like wet cardboard. Crouching back into the cover of the underground staircase, Yuki motioned for the device on her wrist and brought up a map of Yamaku City. There, she could see an incoming convoy led by Captain Yaiba, a few minutes away from arriving at this very intersection. Yuki counted between 6-to-10 combat walkers moving alongside the convoy, accompanied by five APCs full of fresh troops. The whole thing would have looked impressive if it wasn't for the fact that they were dealing with a Symphogear-Wielder of all things.
Two taps on her wrist device initiated an audio transmission with the Captain. The soft ringing of the connecting call allowed Yuki to notice that the sounds of fighting in the surface above her had already transitioned into an eerie silence.
A soft beep declared the immediate connection of the transmission. "This is Captain Yaiba speaking."
Yuki wasn't looking forward to the definite scolding she and Komi' were going to receive from the Commander, but when her old junior was in the midst of tearing Task Force Harmony a new one, the last thing Yuki was going to do was sit back and watch. "This is AG-4-1," Yuki declared, glancing up at the sunlit top of the underground staircase. "I am currently at SG-r04's location... and I would like to request an alternative to our current orders, Captain Yaiba."
"You are offering to essentially disobey the orders from our respective superiors, AG-4-1?" the Captain pointed out in a matter-of-fact way.
4 minutes until the convoy reached the intersection. The holographic map on her wrist device showed that Jiang had yet to make her move from here.
"It's a harsh way to put it. But you're exactly right, Captain," Yuki calmly responded. "This situation is nothing if not FUBAR, and while I can respect your willingness to try and secure SG-r04 yourselves... you and I both know that going up against an Adaptor isn't going to be easy." The woman went on, even if Yuki couldn't tell whether or not the Captain was even listening. "Both S.O.N.G. and the council aren't going to let any other Wielders intervene. Not if it means riskin' the loss of a Symphogear. So, if you want to keep things from getting worse, then give me some time to settle this, alright?"
3 minutes until the convoy reached the intersection. Yuki couldn't help but feel her throat turn dry from the cold, winter wind.
The large blips in the holographic map proceeded on an unceasing path towards Jiang's location and nothing but silence came from the transmission's projection. Then, right as Yuki was about to speak up again, a response came in the form of a complete stop from the arriving convoy. The blips remained where they were, even if they did not vanish from the map. "I have no obligation to take your word, AG-4-1," said Captain Yaiba after a painstakingly long moment of quiet. "But for the sake of my men's safety, I would rather take my chances with what you're trying to offer." Their words pulled out a silent sigh of relief from the woman. "You have twenty minutes to talk to her. If SG-r04 continues to show signs of hostility, then we would have to resume with our initial orders. Godspeed."
20 minutes. Just exactly what she needed. "Loud and clear, Captain Yaiba. I owe you one for this." The transmission switched off from the Captain's end of the line as Yuki glanced in the direction of the landing above her. Leaving behind her old suitcase for now, she ascended the cold steps with quiet footfalls, bringing her up onto the surface, and out into the city intersection where Jiang silently stood with a blade of glowing, thrumming crimson. Nothing could have prepared Yuki for a situation like this. Not even if Professor Elfnein herself handed Team-04 the documents of the S.W.O.R.D. and detailed every possible risk which could come from actually using it.
Both Komi' and Yuki had been theorizing between each other on what would happen if the U.N. ever forced Jiang to unleash that damned blade. And now, here she was, carefully walking out onto a snow-covered street while tall, evacuated buildings surrounded them on all sides. The flashing lights of numerous advertisements illuminated Yuki's path, paving the way to her old school junior in the hopes that she could end all of this without shedding a single drop of blood. Otome was definitely going to give her an earful once this was all over.
Jiang remained standing right in the middle of the expansive intersection, her silent, unfocused gaze directed at the concrete beneath her as unconscious Harmony troopers laid scattered across the ground with shattered helmets and bisected rifles. Movement then appeared within the corner of Yuki's eyes, and she momentarily halted in her stride to notice a dazed, heaving Harmony trooper slowly pulling herself up from the dirt with a rifle in her hands. The broken visor of her helmet exposed a part of her bleeding face, but it didn't stop the trooper from pointing the barrel of her working weapon right at the unmoving Symphogear-Wielder.
A kunai sang through the air and stabbed into the trooper's shadow. A slow exhale escaped Yuki's lips, her right hand still stuck in the last physical motions of a throw while the Harmony trooper froze where she stood with a finger brushing against a trigger. If it was one thing Yuki could never forget from her time in Clan Hida, it was the oh-so-popular Shadow Weave technique.
Five kunais left. Three in her left sleeve and two in her right. Pulling back her attention to the silent Adaptor ahead of them, Yuki waltzed past what remained of Harmony's burning combat walkers, their smoking wreckage all bearing the hissing, glowing marks of a blade which had melted through them with temperatures Yuki couldn't even guess. She subsequently came to a careful stop, all just so Yuki could break the silence with a forced, easy-going remark. "The council sure gave you one hell of a weapon. Didn't they, Jiang?"
Violent, crimson plasma hissed above the cross-guard of Jiang's Armed Gear, kept in the shape of a cylindrical blade by forces Yuki could not understand while it casted a soft glow of blood all over Jiang's black-and-white armour. A stretch of ten unobstructed meters remained between Yuki and the Adaptor, just close enough for the S.O.N.G. agent to notice Jiang's dilated pupils redirecting their gaze in her direction. This was crazy and Yuki damn well knew it. But S.O.N.G. always resorted to the insane whenever it came to dealing with the paranormal.
Unbothered by the glare she was receiving from her old schoolmate, Yuki held up her hands in the air, just so she could somehow signal that her intentions were completely different from the unconscious troopers around them. "Jiang, I'm here to bring you back," she declared, taking a single, careful step towards the Symphogear-Wielder. Not a second could go by without Yuki keeping her eyes on that blade of pure, lethal energy. "I'm not here to hurt you, alright? While this is one hell of a situation we're in, all you got to do to end it is shut down that sword of yours and come with me."
Jiang's narrowed eyes scanned Yuki head-to-toe, regarding her the same way an automated sentry gun would to a target board placed in front of it.
"It's just you and me here, pal," Yuki tried to assure her, managing to take a second step this time without intensifying Jiang's hardened glare. "... That Category-3 from earlier? You smashed it into the dirt for good. The Distortions were pushed back and Yamaku City is safe." The incoherent words streaming out of Yuki's mouth soon came to an inconclusive halt, and the woman found herself unable to come up with anything else. All she could think of was to wait as the winter breeze blew across the silent intersection, causing Yuki to shiver under her navy-blue uniform. Slowly, Jiang turned her head in Yuki's direction and parted a pair of bleeding, cracked lips.
The words on the Adaptor's tongue died in the howling wind. But with the shortened distance between them, Yuki was able to read the slow movements of Jiang's mouth.
"My sister," were the words Yuki could make out. "... Give me back my sister."
Grimacing at the implication of what Jiang was able to convey, Yuki had a feeling that this was the reason for Jiang's sudden loss of control. To have confirmed directly was a whole different experience and she honestly had to chide herself for not guessing so sooner. Yuki felt guilty - if anything - for never coming up with a way to help Jiang deal with the loss of her little sister. Then again, how was she or Komi' supposed to do that when it was a topic Jiang herself clearly despised bringing up? Either way, it was no longer the time to be avoiding the elephant in the room. Not when Yuki could see that Jiang was still somewhere in there.
"Jiang," Yuki gently addressed her, taking three, four, and then five steps towards the unmoving woman. "As much as I hate to say it... I can't do anything to bring back Kai. None of us can." Jiang's sword-hand twitched at her words. "The grim reaper isn't someone who returns those it takes. Even I had to realize that a long time ago." A rare, sardonic chuckle escaped Yuki. Scratching this old wound within her was something she hadn't done since she first entered Lydian. "Still... if it's one thing I can do right now, it's to bring you back with me." She slowly lowered her raised hands. "The others are waiting for us. And I'm sure that..."
Yuki met Jiang's cold gaze with her own unfaltering eyes.
"... I'm sure that Shinonome would hate to see you like this."
There. A single, warm teardrop. The first crack on the expression of tranquil fury which Jiang wore on top of her face. Yuki drew in a cold breath, and watched in patient silence as the Adaptor lifted her sword to softly squeeze the trigger of an Armed Gear's golden handle. The blade of violent, crimson energies that projected from its cross-guard sputtered loudly before dying out completely, extinguishing the soft, red glow it had been casting onto the Adaptor's burning surroundings. While Jiang's fingers continued to keep a tight grip around the handle of her now-bladeless weapon, it didn't stop Yuki from stepping towards the woman till they were finally within arm's reach of each other.
Tears. It reminded Yuki of the time she discovered Jiang crying all by herself beneath a staircase back at Lydian. All because a bunch of her classmates harassed Jiang on her first ever year in the Academy for being 'different'. The black eyes Yuki gifted to those gossiping girls never stopped feeling cathartic to Yuki's fists. Relaxing her muscles at the nostalgia from such an old memory, Yuki picked up a hand from her side, and held it towards Jiang. "We still haven't gotten those drinks you offered to share, you know?" Yuki said with an easy-going grin, prompting the Adaptor to stare dumbfoundedly at the outstretched hand before slowly lifting an armoured, weaponless palm of her own.
18 minutes had passed.
Jiang's fingertips hovered mere centimeters away from Yuki's outstretched hand. The Captain's forces were still holding themselves back. Things were going as well as they could have, and Yuki only needed to wait for just a second longer. "... You can do it," she encouraged her friend under her breath, giving Jiang whatever she needed in order to take the next important step. Seeing the fury within the Adaptor's eyes wavering into a weak, calming flame, Yuki held her breath, and subsequently spotted movement within the corner of her eye, leading Yuki to the faint shape of an azure figure standing on the rooftop of a building at their side.
The deafening roar of a gunshot shattered the silent air.
Yuki reflexively reeled backwards. The handles of her kunais brushed against her palms and the woman could only gasp as Jiang's armoured hand hovered next to her unharmed headphones. There, held between the Adaptor's fingertips, was a smoking, physical bullet, unlike anything S.O.N.G. nor Task Force Harmony possessed within their known armoury. "J-Jiang...?" Yuki carefully called out, her teammate's silent gaze now diverted away from hers.
Jiang shifted the bullet into her palm and crushed it into a thousand shards of raining, hot lead.
The Adaptor's eyes shot open, her dilated pupils now devoid of even a single hint of recognition. Lethal, crimson plasma discharged from the handle of Jiang's Armed Gear and Yuki gritted her teeth while a pair of smoke bombs exploded within her hands. A white, obscuring cloud enveloped the city intersection, blinding Yuki as a cylindrical blade of roaring crimson grazed past her face, and incinerated the very hairs on her cheeks. The glowing blade then melted into the concrete beneath her, forcing Yuki into a speeding retreat fueled by pure adrenaline.
"Get clear of the area!" Captain Yaiba's magnified voice suddenly echoed throughout the streets.
Jumping back into the safety of the underground staircase, Yuki huddled against the wall of the station entryway, and gasped for air while volleys of stun rounds could be heard whizzing across the intersection. But even when deprived of her sight, Jiang's Armed Gear still swung through the air, deflecting every incoming bolt into her surroundings with ease. Yuki's hand motioned for the kunais in her sleeves and stopped short of actually taking them out. It was pointless, she thought, knowing that there was no way she could land a Shadow Weave if Jiang was capable of catching a damn bullet like that.
She kept herself standing with a hand on the staircase's railing and shifted her eyes over to the same building where she had spotted Jiang's attacker. No trace of a soul, no matter how long Yuki focused her gaze on that damned rooftop. "Komi', can you-" She held up an arm to her face and felt her breath escape her. Strapped on to Yuki's forearm was her wrist device - or rather - what was left of the standard-issue equipment as smoke hissed from nothing more than a pile of melted remains.
Picking up her old suitcase in one hand, Yuki took one last glance at the smoke-covered intersection before making her escape into the underground train station. It would be a miracle if her smartphone could still reach Komi' in a situation like this.
Over the time she had spent living in Jiang's cozy apartment, Aiko quickly came to appreciate the aroma of fresh, hot tea. Holding up a kettle of water in both of her hands, Aiko poured the boiling liquid into a readied teapot, and made sure to follow the instructions she had produced from her digital tablet earlier. A pot of green tea felt like the perfect thing to welcome someone back home with after a tiring day, so Aiko made sure to be careful when she picked up the filled teapot, and carried it out of the apartment's small kitchen. Leaving it on top of the kotatsu table, Aiko's handmade plushie of Jiang sat next to it as she picked up a remote to switch on the living room's television.
Zesshou Sentai Valkyranger. Holding back a giggle at the extravagant title which flashed across the screen, Aiko found herself honestly looking forward to breezing through all 50 episodes of an action-packed, drama-filled television series. But before Aiko could lift her pot of tea for the first cup of the day, the program playing in front of her was suddenly interrupted by a large, blue card that overlaid itself over the ongoing show. Accompanying the card was a distinct ring, immediately catching Aiko's attention while her golden eyes read out the words on the emergency declaration.
"Please remain calm and evacuate the building. Kindly head for the nearest public shelter and await further orders from official authorities."
59 minutes and 44 seconds went by since Jiang headed out of the apartment earlier. It wasn't unusual for her missions to last for a while, but it didn't stop Aiko from cupping a pale cheek in one hand, wondering if she should simply wait for the others to come back. Her wordless question was quickly answered by a distinct pattern of knocks on the front door, prompting Aiko to get up from the floor, and rush over to the apartment's entrance barefooted. Undoing the several locks on the door, Aiko carefully opened it up to see Ayano standing on her doorstep, hands on her knees as the woman gasped repeatedly for air.
"Ayano?" Aiko pulled a hand away from her cheek. "Is something the matter-?"
The brunette abruptly held up a flat palm, cutting off her question while Ayano coughed into a fist to recollect herself. "W-We need to get to safety!" the woman explained between her persistent gasps. "It's dangerous to stay here right now, so I came to pick you up! Get inside, grab anything important, and meet me at the van downstairs, okay?"
Glancing worriedly at Ayano's frantic instructions, Aiko had to ponder about the ongoing situation with the Distortions. "Where are Jiang and Godai?" Aiko quickly asked, poking her head out the doorway so she could look down the empty hallways.
"They're fine! Don't worry about them," Ayano insisted with a bright smile, brushing off her worries using a waving pair of fingers. "They're a biiiiiiiiit occupied with something else right now. Just focus on getting yourself dressed and getting yourself to safety, alright?" Aiko wasn't completely convinced to disregard the status of the missing pair, but she remained quiet anyway while Ayano motioned for the elevators further down the hall, and stepped towards them with a waving hand. "Oh, and don't forget to grab a coat before you leave!"
Nodding politely at the woman's hasty instructions, Aiko waited for Ayano to disappear around the corner before she stepped back into the apartment and closed the front door. Electrical appliances. Her digital tablet. The temperature controls. Aiko diligently switched off whatever she wasn't going to need for the sake of the power bill, and only then proceeded with getting herself dressed for the cold winter streets. First, a pair of shoes that Ayano bought for her when she first joined the team. Afterwards, a basic winter coat which matched her silver hair. Lastly, a black-and-white scarf. The very same one Jiang had lent her when Aiko departed from the S.O.N.G. submarine. Tightening the warm cloth around her neck, Aiko took a small, curious whiff of the apparel before making her way down the large apartment complex.
The confusion within Aiko was evidently shared among the other tenants who were departing their own apartments in response to the sudden evacuation.
By the time she finished securing herself in the backseats of the Team's designated vehicle, its engine had already rumbled into life, letting Ayano drive down the noisy streets at speeds that only made Aiko hold on tight to her black-and-white scarf. Lights and sounds were pouring out of the large terminal on the other side of the van, filling the vehicle with a string of noise Aiko couldn't distinguish from another. Focusing her sights on the backdoors' windows instead, Aiko curiously looked at the streets behind them, and saw the numerous crowds who were making their way towards the public shelters. Armed, helmeted individuals fitted with black body armour could be seen guiding them alongside official authorities, making Aiko question if this predicament was even related to the Distortions at all.
Everything should be fine as long as Godai and Jiang were safe, Aiko calmly thought to herself, even if her heart desired to do more than run and hide like the civilians she was witnessing.
Clasping her cold, bare hands over one another, Aiko's inquisitive eyes again shifted back onto the terminal which took up half of the backseats. She tried to make sense of the reports that were flooding into the console. Even though she wasn't trained to comprehend the large monitor's ongoing contents, Aiko's golden eyes still made out an emergency request for reinforcements. "Jiang," Aiko whispered beneath her black-and-white scarf, shifting her face downwards until it covered up half of her pale-white face. "You're safe out there, aren't you?"
The van came into a screeching halt, nearly throwing Aiko off her seat were it not for the secured belt around her torso. Wincing at the ear-piercing noise of screaming rubber, Aiko swung her gaze over to the driver's compartment and out of the front windshields while Ayano groaned out loud.
"Really?!"
Several of the full-helmeted officials from earlier stood in front of their van, gesturing it to halt right before it entered a large intersection. Vehicles were lining up behind them, and Ayano simply gripped on to the steering wheel as the black-armoured men appeared to be clearing a path. Aiko's guess was quickly proven correct as more of the same individuals marched across the intersection from an adjacent road on their right. Accompanying these armed forces were large, two-legged mechanical beasts, all of them wielding weapons that made Aiko quickly hide behind Ayano's chair.
Guns. Armaments far more frightening than the noble shape of a blade or the elegant curve of a bow. The very sounds they could make were like a thunderstorm to Aiko's ears.
A loud wailing arose from the van's terminal, prompting Ayano to shift the vehicle's gears, undo her seatbelt, and squeeze past Aiko with a rushed apology. She then dropped herself onto the console's designated chair and clacked away on its keyboard without another word. Noticing the increasingly-worried look on Ayano's expression only stoked Aiko's own concerns inside her. She knew that she had no business interfering with the duties of her teammate, and yet, it was that very reasoning which yelled at her to do more than be a designated civilian among hard-working protectors.
"Head back!" a voice at the front suddenly exclaimed. "Head back now!"
The two women turned their attention over to the front and saw some of the black-armoured men yelling at the queued-up vehicles to drive the other way. Those who were not addressing the gathered civilians instead took up combat positions around the intersection, visibly aiming their armaments at the adjacent road on Aiko's left while rotary weapons began whirring on the mounts of three mechanical beats. Ayano rushed back into the driver's seat, tapped into her wrist device, and projected an outgoing transmission.
"Yuki?!" she called out, even if the communication lines refused to connect. "Yuki, where are you?!"
An eardrum-smashing cacophony erupted outside the van and Aiko had to clasp her hands tightly over her ears. A thousand gun barrels simultaneously erupted, vomiting a barrage of glowing, blue bolts down a road neither of the pair could actually see. Ayano still tried out to call to her teammate beneath the ensuing roars of gunfire, all while Aiko huddled behind the driver's chair with eyes that were unable to tear themselves away from the sight of real, ongoing combat. This was the very thing Jiang had been facing every day, she realized. The loud barks of deadly weapons. The strict shouting of orders. Aiko hadn't even noticed her shaking legs until she brought a hand downwards and felt them quaking beneath her fingertips.
She readied herself to set her golden eyes upon them again. The Distortions.
The ones who would have taken her life were it not for the valiant blade of a singing, black-and-white warrior. But as the attack outside their windshields slowly devolved into a panicked defense, a familiar pair of wired harpoons soared through the air, impaling the armoured legs of one mechanical beast. The two-legged walker only had moment to recognize the attack before it was pulled out from underneath itself, sending it toppling to the streets while a speeding, monochrome blur descended upon the intersection. The blinding figure zipped between the two remaining walkers and butchered apart their robotic forms, forcing their cockpits to eject into the skies in an attempt to escape an uncertain fate.
When the last mechanical beast fell onto the concrete as nothing more than a heap of burning wreckage, the attacker responsible for its destruction halted in her steps, faced the black-armoured individuals around her, and brandished a cylindrical blade of glowing crimson within one hand.
Aiko felt her mind black out for a single second. "... Jiang?" A pair of shaking hands reached for the black-and-white scarf around her neck. "Ayano...? What is she...?" Turning her widened eyes away from the ensuing destruction, Aiko glanced over to her teammate for questions, only for the brunette to simply get off her seat, and rest a firm hand on the shoulder of Aiko's jacket.
"It's too dangerous to stay here," Ayano told her, not even looking at the situation beyond the van's windshields. "We... We have to move, alright? I can't risk you getting hurt and all."
Her teammate's expression was the same cheerful one it always was, but Ayano's tight grip on Aiko's form betrayed what she was really feeling inside, communicating everything the brunette refused to show in that exact moment. Glancing back at the brutality out on the burning streets, Aiko still had to take in just what was happening in the span of but a few tense seconds: There was no singing. No music. No fancy flourishes nor any extravagant techniques. Absolutely nothing of what Aiko had witnessed in that snowy forest glade was displayed before her. Only a sorrow which was now unchained and set loose upon Jiang's own comrades. While nobody was willing to tell Aiko anything, she knew deep down just why this was happening.
Why the Symphogear-Wielder of Japan assaulted the armed forces around her with the same methodical cruelty of the Distortions.
Unable to form any sort of retort in return, Aiko tightened her lips and allowed Ayano to guide them to the back of the van. They swung open its backdoors, giving them a clear view of the countless civilians who had abandoned their vehicles in favour of retreating down the roads in an uncontrollable panic. Aiko tried to do the opposite and instead kept herself calm, shutting out the deafening roars of gunfire by simply keeping her hands clasped tightly over her ringing ears. After stepping down onto the snowy concrete, Ayano locked the vehicle and subsequently led them through the crowds in a hasty sprint, her wrist device brought back up to attempt another emergency transmission.
Aiko's legs were aching within her winter footwear. Her heart was pounding harder than it had ever beaten before. The falling snow did absolutely nothing to halt the creeping sweat on her face and her pace was beginning to slow down behind the far more athletic Ayano. But as her new boots desperately carried her to safety across a road of panicking, innocent civilians, Aiko felt a voice slowly rising within her, igniting a spark which only led to a single, simple realization.
This was her one chance to save Jiang.
And her first opportunity to actually do something.
For at least a week, Aiko had been stuck inside that apartment, waiting, sleeping, and constantly hoping for the best until Jiang would inevitably return from her missions to protect the innocents of this kind world. And yet, here she was, in the midst of a retreat from a rampage that Aiko herself knew full well the reasons for. She was afraid. Her shaking, heaving body told her just as much. A reasonable person would have continued running. But Aiko's burning desire to reach out for Jiang and help her just like what the Adaptor had been doing for Aiko was far, far stronger than any seed of lingering fear.
Abruptly pulling herself into a concrete-scratching halt, Aiko tightened her hands and watched while Ayano ran further and further down the crowded road, too occupied with her attempted transmission to notice Aiko's sudden stop. "Forgive me, Ayano." A pointless whisper came out of her and buried itself beneath the deafening barks of blossoming gun barrels. "This is simply a matter I cannot ignore."
Aiko spun around on the heels of a winter boot and immediately bolted back towards the scene she had been running from, her hand holding tightly on to a flowing scarf of black-and-white the entire time. Panicked, screaming civilians ran past her, nearly crashing into Aiko several times as the silver-haired woman desperately navigated her way through a road jammed with abandoned vehicles. At some point, Aiko had begun to hear Ayano's voice calling out to her, but it was far too late to turn back now. This was the path she had chosen and it was a decision Aiko took up without any sense of regret.
In the middle of the combat-filled intersection, a thrumming, crimson blade emitted a ghastly wail while blue bolts bounced off its form, reflecting the stunning projectiles back at the armoured soldiers who were desperately trying to surround the Adaptor. Combat orders turned into unintelligible words beneath the helmets of spasming, electrified soldiers, and Jiang lunged at the last of her attackers to bludgeon them into the concrete with a blow from a gauntlet-covered fist. The soldier instantly fell onto her back with a loud cry of pain, but refused to let go of the rifle in her hands.
"Jiang!" Aiko ran by the Team's halted vehicle and into the expansive, wreckage-filled intersection. "Please, stop!"
Unable to contain her fright beneath the silent ferocity of the attacking Wielder, the last soldier let out a terrified yell and drew her working rifle on Jiang. The Adaptor's armoured hand then seized the barrel of her shaking weapon, crumpling it within her palm before tearing the now-useless rifle away from the soldier's grasp. Suddenly deprived of any means of self-defense, the stunned soldier simply shielded her face with her arms as Jiang brandished her Armed Gear, and slowly lifted a sword of thrumming crimson above their heads.
"Lanfen!"
Aiko threw herself right in front of the cowering soldier. Jiang's wailing blade completely engulfed her vision. Immediately freezing at the sight of a rushing Armed Gear, Aiko closed her eyes shut and planted herself right where she stood.
And so, she waited. The mere thought of the end made her legs tremble beneath the weight of her body.
But what Aiko had expected would not come to pass. Instead, she felt the relentless thrumming of Jiang's crimson blade filling her ears, and no more than that, granting Aiko the will to slowly draw open her eyelids. Hovering before her was the cylindrical, glowing form of a violent, wailing sword, its all-consuming heat a mere movement away from touching the tip of Aiko's nose. Locked in the last physical motions of a full-on attack, Jiang's dilated pupils fixated themselves onto Aiko, and glared at the trembling woman as though she was but a mere stranger.
"Lanfen..." A single word choked itself out of Aiko's tightening throat. "Please... stop this." Aiko's hands gripped the scarf around her neck, mustering whatever bravery she still contained within her. "You're better than this. I know that you're... hurting. That you're in pain..." The Armed Gear's humming blade remained where it was, moments away from cutting down Aiko right then and there. "... But if you continue on like this, you would only end up doing something you'll regret for the rest of your life." Aiko widened eyes stared into Jiang's dilated pupils and saw her own terrified expression reflecting back at her. "Please..."
From a distance, Ayano was screaming at Aiko to get back, even while the operator was being restrained by more armoured men who had just arrived on the scene.
But it didn't matter how many soldiers were actually surrounding them. Aiko refused to turn her gaze away from Jiang's hardened glare. Innocent, white snow fell upon the intersection and slowly accumulated on both of their unmoving forms, all while Jiang's pauldron-covered shoulder rose up and down with the rhythm of her slow, noiseless breathing. No more words could be forced out of Aiko's windpipe. The mere act of maintaining her consciousness took everything she had left inside her. Digging her fingers into the black-and-white cloth around her neck, Aiko saw the sheer, unrestrained fury that clouded the Adaptor's eyes, and recognized them as the same anger she had been aware of ever since Aiko discovered Jiang's reason for fighting.
Even so, Aiko knew that Jiang was so much more than a mere weapon of vengeance.
Slowly, she lifted a single, trembling arm from her side and hovered her palm towards the Adaptor's frozen expression. Maintaining her courage before the crimson blade which hovered right in front of her, Aiko brushed her fingertips against a brown, scarred cheek, and mirrored the very same gesture she had attempted when the pair first met within the forests outside this very city.
Aiko did not know if this would even work.
It was the only measure her mind could think of.
And it was an action pulled forth by the very same will which had allowed Aiko to throw herself into the path of Jiang's wailing blade.
Cupping the Adaptor's face within the palm of a gentle, pale-white hand, Aiko looked into those dilated pupils, and saw the tranquil fury within them begin to wane, replaced by a horrified realization that slowly crept onto Jiang's now-shifting expression.
"... Aiko?"
The silver-haired woman felt warm teardrops manifest within the corners of her golden eyes.
As though the Adaptor had just awakened from the most frightening of nightmares, Jiang's gaze slowly panned over to the geyser of hissing, violent energy in her hand, and immediately withdrew its blade away from Aiko's tear-stained face. While the cowering soldier behind Aiko gave herself the opportunity to finally run towards her waiting comrades, Aiko remained where she stood, allowing Jiang to pull away from the caress of her warm hand. The Adaptor then took a few steps back, and fixated a horrified gaze onto the Armed Gear within her sword-hand, all while luminescent cracks started to form all across the armour of her black-and-white Symphogear. The finale was nearing.
Showers of sparks hissed from rupturing, monochrome metal. A cylindrical, crimson blade sputtered and waned.
Intending to see this through until the very end, Aiko held on to her black-and-white scarf and watched as the flames within Jiang's eyes finally extinguished themselves. Now, she once again recognized them as the very same eyes Aiko had witnessed when Jiang first carried her in a pair of warm, gauntleted arms. For just a brief moment, Jiang's gaze met with hers, and held each other in a long-awaited reunion, granting the Adaptor the last bit of mental strength she needed to finally shatter her own armour into a hundred dissipating fragments.
Jiang's Adaptor uniform returned into view.
The thrumming blade of energized crimson vanished from sight.
A broken, golden handle crashed onto the concrete and the light clattering of a falling pendant rang in Aiko's ears.
Immediately, Jiang's legs gave out beneath her, sending her falling forward and into Aiko's weak, but welcoming arms. It was over. The sounds of fighting had left their surroundings and a calm silence soon began to seep into the evacuated streets, all while the silver-haired woman continued to hold on to the unconscious body of the Adaptor in her arms. As Ayano's rushing footsteps grew in the air, Aiko caressed Jiang's scarred cheek within her palm once again, and listened intently to the steady, matching beats coming from both of their hearts.