No matter how many times Aiko witnessed the shattered moon in the night sky, she would always find herself mesmerized by its soft, ethereal glow. Hovering against a backdrop of glittering stars, the ring of debris which orbited the lunar body had apparently only existed for half a decade or so. It was an ever-present mark of a hard-fought battle - or so S.O.N.G.'s records claimed - against a defeated foe by the name of 'Fine'. If the reports regarding subsequent conflicts such as the Magical Girl Incident or Shem-Ha's Ascension rang true, then it wasn't difficult for Aiko to understand why the public regarded the Distortions as nothing more than an ongoing disaster for officials to solve. The human mind was amazingly capable of accustoming itself to many a conflict.
"Shinonome?"
Snapping herself out of an absent-minded fixation, Aiko dragged her wandering attention from the restaurant's windows beside her, and back over to her two teammates from across the table before cupping one cheek with a pale-white hand. "Ah- My apologies, Ayano," Aiko inelegantly responded, her doffed winter coat neatly folded up on the vacant dining chair beside her. "I couldn't help but p-ponder to myself for a bit."
Precisely 6 hours and 23 minutes had gone by ever since Jiang was transferred to Yamaku's public hospital. Aiko, Ayano, and Godai spent at least 5 of those hours awaiting further orders inside their respective apartments, and by the time S.O.N.G. gave the team permission to freely move around again, the streets of Yamaku City were reinvigorated once more with the atmosphere of a bustling metropolis. With nothing on their current agenda, the remaining members of Symphogear Team-04 now awaited their dinner inside a pizza parlour Ayano had searched up. The Christmas lights weakly flickering over the trio's heads did little to lift the mood while they sat in a secluded corner of the restaurant for a semblance of privacy.
"Anything you're worried about in particular?" Ayano gently asked, hands neatly folded on top of one another. Sitting right next to her was Godai. Both of them were still in their respective S.O.N.G. uniforms as Godai was occupied with setting up a newly-issued communication device that was strapped on to her left wrist. The previous one she apparently owned until today sat right in the middle of the restaurant's dining table. Its cold, melted remains gave off the impression that it had been chucked into a furnace before it was pulled out some time afterwards.
Aiko had yet to loosen the borrowed black-and-white scarf around her neck. Even if the restaurant's heaters provided the perfect amount of warmth, she still could not bring herself to forgo its familiar, comforting touch. "Jiang," Aiko hesitantly answered with a hand still on her naturally-pale face. "I simply want to know how she is doing right now." Judging by the understanding smile Ayano silently reacted with, Aiko assumed that her answer was something her teammate already anticipated.
"Captain Yaiba says Harmony will be keepin' an eye on Jiang till her condition stabilizes," Godai informed them, her fingers still tapping away on a chirping wrist device. "So far, Jiang hasn't regained consciousness. But the Captain says we should be allowed to visit her startin' from tomorrow onwards." Inputting two more commands into a holographic prompt, the pony-tailed woman's wrist device subsequently emitted a confirming ring, bringing out a curt huff from its owner. "But that aside-" Godai looked up at Aiko with a small raise of a brow, "-it was pretty crazy, ya know? Hearin' about what you pulled."
The older woman's casual comment prompted a confused tilt of Aiko's head.
"Not just anyone can rush into danger like that," Ayano smoothly interjected with a quick sigh. "In fact, I almost got a heart attack when I noticed you running towards Jiang all of a sudden. It's not every day I get to see something happen along those lines." The brunette then clasped her hands together in a sudden motion of appeal and served Aiko a small but playful wink. "So, I'd be really grateful if you didn't do something like that again... Okay?"
Noticing Godai's nod of agreement, Aiko lowered her palm from her cheek, and slowly re-winded the events from less than 12 hours ago: The dreadful wailing of a crimson blade, the relentless pounding of Aiko's beating heart, and the warmth of Jiang's scarred cheek beneath her bare fingertips. Those were but a few of the fragments Aiko was able to uncover within her exhausted mind while she honed in on that specific moment where Jiang's dilated pupils had her in the Adaptor's sights. It truly was as if Aiko had been nothing more than a stranger who had thrown herself in front of Jiang's blade, all to prevent the loss of any innocent lives. Jiang's unrecognizable gaze in and of itself frightened Aiko more than the thrumming blade which threatened to cut her down on the spot.
"... I must apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused, Ayano, Godai," Aiko said to them, gripping a warm, black-and-white scarf with one hand. "I'm sure many did not appreciate my sudden interference."
While Ayano cheerfully smiled back at the silver-haired woman in return, Godai gave a casual shrug of the shoulders. "It was still pretty commendable of ya for tryin' to help," she reasoned. "It ended up fixing the situation in the end. So, why don't we just eat up and relax for now?" Godai suggested with quick thumbs-up. "Our food's finally on its way here, too."
Upon hearing those words, Aiko curiously peeked over her shoulder, and saw one of the restaurant's waitresses striding over to their corner of the parlour. Held in the worker's hands was a large pan of smoking-hot pizza that Aiko immediately picked up on through its enrapturing aroma alone. Once they thanked the waitress for the arriving meal, Ayano began distributing plates and utensils as Godai popped open a few cold cans of soda. 'Pizza'. Aiko recognized the round dish from her extensive inquiries online, but the images she witnessed paled in comparison to actually seeing it first-hand. She would have continued staring at the meal with fascination in her golden eyes if the sudden rumbling of Aiko's stomach didn't remind her to pick up her first slice and start digging in.
The sounds of utensils lightly scraping against ceramic plates intermixed with the light chatter between the senior teammates from across the table. Due to the warm cheese, crunchy bread, and savoury meat stuffed inside Aiko's mouth, she was far too preoccupied to contribute anything to the ongoing conversation, prompting the silver-haired woman to quietly watch instead while Ayano and Godai playfully nagged one another. Their regular bickering would come off as genuine tension if it wasn't for the puckish energy in their exchanges.
"Geez, you wouldn't have to wash your hands later on if you just used a fork and knife, Yuki."
"Come on, it's pizza! There's no better way to chow down than gettin' down and dirty with it."
Aiko needed to hold back a brief giggle at Ayano's almost exaggerated sigh of exasperation. She would bring up her own arguments to assist the brunette, but it was simply far more fun to let things play out between the two older women. It also allowed Aiko to further calm down her nerves after the events earlier on in the day. Once Aiko was finished with what she counted to be her fourth slice of pizza, she settled her utensils on one side, and wiped her mouth clean with a provided napkin next to her elbow. Both Godai and Ayano were noticeably still on their second and first slices respectively, and neither of the two seemed to notice just how fast their new teammate wolfed down her dinner.
"Ayano?" Aiko spoke up, halting an ongoing exchange between the pair.
Ayano curiously glanced back at Aiko with a fork still in-between a pair of tomato sauce-stained lips.
"Would either of you... be alright... if I asked a question?" the silver-haired woman carefully pressed on, urging Godai to immediately guess the intent behind her words.
The pony-tailed woman was blunt and direct like Aiko had learned to expect of her. "It's about what happened a couple hours back, isn't it?"
A slow, confirming nod from Aiko led the two to share an extensive, contemplative look between one another. It was a gaze which said absolutely nothing, and yet, still communicated all the two visibly needed - and wanted - to say within mere seconds while cold silence crept between the team. Their dinner tasted amazing as much as it was fulfilling, and with that basic need settled, Aiko's attention could not help but resume its focus on the situation regarding Team-04's lone Symphogear-Wielder. Absolutely nobody had given her a semblance of an explanation thus far, and since they were now out of any official's earshot, Aiko desired to hear her teammate's own thoughts regarding this afternoon.
Placing her utensils away for now, Ayano gave herself a small sip of her soda can before slowly leaning against the backrest of her chair. The cheerful expression Ayano regularly wore subtly shifted into that of clear introspection. "While we don't have a complete understanding on the specifics, what we do know is that everything that occurred today... was because of a weapon called the 'S.W.O.R.D.'," Ayano explained in a hush whisper as Godai visibly turned quiet beside her. "It's a powerful weapon stored within Jiang's Armed Gear. Something we were told would only be used as a last resort."
Aiko gripped on to the black-and-white scarf around her neck again with both of her hands this time. Something about the weapon's name alone made her skin shiver beneath her warm, winter clothes. "Is this a weapon that the other Wielders also possess?" she hesitantly asked.
A careful shake of the head was the answer Ayano gave in return. It was almost strange seeing the brunette like this. The distinct shift in Ayano's tone was especially noticeable. "It's completely unique to Jiang's Symphogear. Because as far as everyone is concerned-" Her words suddenly trailed off. It was clear that Ayano was struggling to even formulate her next few sentences. "As far as everyone's concerned... the world council recruited Jiang not only to grant S.O.N.G. their newest Adaptor, but to also assign her the duty of becoming any opposing Symphogear's potential executioner."
The blood within Aiko's veins froze. Her two teammates from across the table turned silent. Christmas lights continued flashing above their heads and the light of a shattered moon shone through the windows beside them to fall upon Aiko's shuddering hand. Processing the matter-of-fact words which had managed to slip into her eardrums, Aiko once again re-winded recent events, and manifested memories dating back to almost a week ago. She remembered how Jiang clearly distanced herself from her fellow Adaptors. How she would hesitate at the mere mention of Wielders other than herself. Aiko assumed it to be purely a matter of professionalism, but she could have never expected it to have been a result of a duty like this.
A 'Symphogear-Killer'.
The Symphogear-Wielders were some of the world's greatest defenders against hostile paranormal activity. And yet, here she was, learning about the proverbial sword which dangled above their heads.
Godai shattered the awkward silence using a few calm words of her own. "Both of us hoped that Jiang would never need to use it," she explained, letting out a sardonic chuckle. "But let's just say that it's hard for our higher-ups to take a 'no' for an answer."
Taking her weight off her chair's backrest, Ayano couldn't help but agree with her friend. "I didn't expect her to lose control like she did," Ayano added. She took another swig of her ice-cold drink before continuing. "In hindsight, maybe we should've thought twice about that when she's-" Ayano narrowed her green eyes and drew the warm air into herself, "-holding so much within her. Especially after what happened to her little sister."
Aiko kept her lips completely shut and ran a thoughtful gaze over her two teammates. She needed to take in this information as calmly as she could. The death of Jiang's sister, the duty of protecting innocents from the Distortions, and now, the responsibility of being the very blade which held itself against the necks of her fellow Adaptors. These were merely three of the responsibilities Jiang carried on her shoulders without any obvious complaint. Even with the supernatural powers bestowed upon her by the Symphogear system, Aiko couldn't fathom how much Jiang endured ever since she first attained her Armed Gear, the Sword of Damocles.
"The others," Aiko herself finally spoke again. "After what happened today... what do the other Adaptors think of her?"
Her hush question made the pair wordlessly glance at each other again in thought.
A simple musing turned out to be Godai's answer. "Guess Komi' and I'll have to ask them directly, won't we?"
Click.
"Fall."
The command word jolted through the pitch-black tunnels of Lanfen's mind like the revivifying shocks of a defibrillator. It was but a single, four-letter word originating from one of the many languages created by the Curse of Balal. And yet, the mere echo of its decisive utterance seized the Adaptor's mind from the darkened depths of a bottomless ocean, lifting it above the surface to grant Lanfen the slightest spark of consciousness. The lids of her closed eyes weighed akin to anvils. The gentle thumping within her chest went on without pause. As Lanfen's five senses reconnected with her mind, the distinct beeping of a heart-rate monitor could be heard somewhere nearby from wherever she laid.
"Lanfen!"
Odourless air occupied the internals of her lungs, confirming Lanfen's place amongst the living while stiff fingers felt out the soft blanket draped over her body. The material's texture was unfamiliar. And the same could be said of the soft pillow Lanfen's head rested on as the audible ticking of a clock's hands marched on right above her. None of it felt real. Mirages of a scrambled, exhausted mind, the Symphogear-Wielder reasoned with herself. The thick haze surrounding her thoughts made it especially impossible to remember how or why she was even here in the first place.
"... Aiko?"
When Lanfen finally managed to lift her heavy eyelids, she was greeted by the mundane sight of a dimly-lit hospital room. Nobody but the Symphogear-Wielder herself occupied its generous, sterilized space.
Whatever light was present came from a small bedside lamp to her left, allowing her to see the bag of IV fluid that was hanging from a mobile stand by a hook. The end of the bag's tubing was still attached to the blood vessels of Lanfen's left hand, and a small bowl of wrapped candy could be seen sitting on a wooden table at the foot of her bed. A white patient's gown replaced her Adaptor uniform. Lanfen's long, black hair was an untidy, ragged mess. If the chair placed next to her bed had been occupied at some point during the duration of her slumber, Lanfen wasn't able to guess. Her mind was simply too occupied recognizing the fact that both her relic pendant and wrist device were completely absent.
A pained wince slipped between a pair of chapped lips, falling onto the ears of no one but the awakened woman herself.
Blinking lights could be seen emanating from a medical bracelet strapped on to her right wrist. It wasn't hard for even her foggy mind to guess that it was what connected her vitals to the wireless heart-rate monitor stationed several steps away from the room's bed.
Grasping the bed's cold, metal railing with one hand, Lanfen took her time bringing her body up into a sitting position before blinking confusingly into her shaking palms. She tried to ease the persistent vibrations by balling them into tight fists, but the Adaptor could still feel the trembling return to them not long after. Whatever, she dismissed it in her mind, turning aside to notice her smartphone sitting right underneath the room's bedside lamp. After taking back the item into her possession, Lanfen lifted her right hand, and briefly caressed the toy which hung from the phone by a silver chain. A subsequent click of a button then lit up the smartphone's lock-screen interface.
2049, December 23rd.
1:31 PM.
Lanfen blinked at the sight of the displayed date.
24 hours. A full day had suddenly passed by since she could last remember. It couldn't be right. Inputting the five-digit code to unlock her smartphone, Lanfen was about to bring up the text messaging app when the Adaptor glanced back at her bed's pillow, and widened her purple eyes at the small item that had been resting right next to Lanfen without her notice: A black-and-white, handcrafted plush. Hovering a motionless finger over her phone's screen, she switched it off with a quick click, and returned it to the bedside drawer. Both of her hands motioned towards the Valkyranger plushie before holding the weightless item right in front of Lanfen's frozen expression. The toy's visor practically locked itself with the Adaptor's eyes.
"There is... something I've been meaning to give you."
A spark flashed within the gaps of her disjointed memories, rebuilding their vital bridges while the trembling in Lanfen's hands only intensified. The haze surrounding her clouded thoughts began to lift itself, and the wailing of a crimson blade echoed in her ears, allowing her to vaguely remember what had happened before Lanfen found herself lying in this plain, sterile room.
The S.W.O.R.D. was activated.
And Lanfen's finger willingly pulled its cold, chrome trigger.
Whether or not she had been given the order to actually activate it felt irrelevant. The Distortions had deployed their Category-3s, and in order to actually cut down a near-unstoppable foe, Lanfen needed to awaken the Sword of Damocles' full power for the first time ever. No other card could have been played in that situation. But as soon as her Armed Gear showcased its true purpose, Lanfen lost herself. The emotional dampeners meant to clamp around her mind completely broke beneath the sheer weight of everything Lanfen had been sealing away up until now. The energies of the S.W.O.R.D. subsequently fused with these very same emotions, and resulted in a tranquil fury directed not only at the Distortions, but also at Lanfen's very own allies.
Everything and everyone were simply unrecognizable beneath the proverbial fires blinding her dilated pupils.
Lanfen sought catharsis for her sister's death - and in doing so - only led to her becoming a monster no different from the cloaked being she swore revenge on.
The black-and-white toy slipped between Lanfen's trembling hands and landed on her lap with a soft thud. The repeated beeping of the room's heart-rate monitor hastened into a frantic pace, drowning out the soft pitter-patter of droplets falling onto Lanfen's blanket. Drawing in a shaky breath, the Adaptor brought her quivering fingertips to a scarred cheek and felt the warm tears which were suddenly trailing down her face. Denying it all would not halt the ongoing stream. Lanfen was Japan's designated protector - and in spite of her promise to fulfill her duty like everyone else - she had only placed everyone she cared about in danger. All because of her inability to reign in her own cumbersome emotions.
She no longer felt deserving of the handcrafted gift on her lap. It was meant only for a Wielder who everyone could rely on for their protection.
And Lanfen only proved in the end that she wasn't the kind of individual S.O.N.G. needed - and wanted - her to be.
A brief rattling resounded from the room's doorknob. The door itself then opened up and Lanfen hastily lifted an arm to dry her hot tears with a bracelet-covered wrist. She was undoubtedly a pathetic sight to witness right now. All that paranormal power bestowed upon her, and yet, Lanfen still couldn't live up to the simple expectations she had placed upon herself. After wiping away the last of her halting tears, the Adaptor drew in the hospital's sterile air, lowered her hand, and hesitantly brought a tired gaze over to the now-opened door.
Shinonome stood underneath the open doorway, a distinct black-and-white scarf visibly wrapped around her neck as a folded winter coat draped itself over one of her arms.
The woman's golden eyes peeked out from the large, silver fringe concealing half of a constantly-pale face, locking a widened, silent gaze with Lanfen's own shocked, purple eyes. Shinonome still had yet to pry her fingers off the door's metal knob, and the seconds passing by felt like an eternity of speechlessness, punctuated by the hastened beeping of the room's heart-rate monitor. Neither of them clearly knew what to say at this very moment, and neither were evidently brave enough to take that first important step towards shattering the ice.
The scarf Shinonome donned. It was deniably Lanfen's.
And it was also the very same scarf Shinonome had been wearing when she jumped into the path of a wailing, crimson blade.
Mustering whatever strength she still contained within her, a single word placed itself on the Adaptor's useless tongue. "Shinonome-"
The frantic clacking of shoes against the floor cut her short, and before Lanfen could even process it, Shinonome's arms had seized the bewildered Adaptor in a tight, warm embrace. It was honestly the last thing Lanfen expected her to do after everything the Adaptor caused with her own two hands: The injuries inflicted on Task Force Harmony's soldiers, the destruction of countless Harmony walkers, and the widespread panic she inflicted on Yamaku City's civilian populace. Everything she was responsible for weighed down on Lanfen and her alone, causing the woman to leave her hands hanging at her sides while Shinonome's arms tightened themselves around the Adaptor's useless form. The mere sensation of Shinonome's trembling made Lanfen subconsciously grit her teeth.
She was one of the few people Lanfen ever thought of about hurting, one way or another.
Squeezing her purple eyes shut, the Adaptor proceeded to count the repeated beeping of the room's heart-rate monitor, drawing her mind away from the brewing guilt within her chest until Shinonome's shaking inevitably ceased. Lanfen waited for the heart-rate monitor to ring out for at least half a minute before the Adaptor actually spoke up again. "Sorry, Shinonome..." The singing warrior's voice barely contained even an ounce of energy. "I'm so sorry..."
Shinonome's tight grip around Lanfen's body refused to loosen itself even slightly.
Keeping her pale face buried within Lanfen's shoulder, Shinonome then let out a stream of hush, shaky words. "I'm r-relieved to simply s-see you, Jiang."
'Relieved'. The Adaptor could only fathom why Shinonome would even be willing to admit such a thing after recent events. Even a person like Shinonome should have her own limits on the kindness within her soft heart. "I-" Lanfen's arms continued to hang uselessly at her sides. "I'm glad... to see you, too..." she whispered without regret, not knowing what else she could even reply with without uttering a lie. Lying to Shinonome was something she'd never forgive herself for. "Thank you... Shinonome..."
With those few words exchanged between one another, Shinonome gently eased up her grip around Lanfen, letting the silver-haired woman hesitantly pull away so she could pick up the winter coat she dropped on the floor earlier. A quick observation from Lanfen noticed the marks of tear-shedding in Shinonome's own golden eyes. Those marks couldn't have been there for longer than a few hours. And had Lanfen not miraculously halted her crimson blade yesterday, the expression on Shinonome's face would have been completely different altogether.
While Shinonome motioned to close the room's still-open door, Lanfen brought up a hand and inputted a command into the bed's holographic interface to her right. The confirming press of a prompt subsequently elevated the upper half of the hospital bed, raising it up until Lanfen could lie down on a diagonal surface this time. When the bed audibly locked itself into its requested shape, Lanfen hesitantly glanced back at Shinonome, and noticed her now sitting down on the vacant chair beside her with a bowl of candy placed on top of her thighs. It was only now did the Adaptor notice the small paper note which was sitting in the middle of the candy stack. The words were almost hard to make out amidst a shower of decorative glitter.
"From Ayano Komichi."
She honestly shouldn't have, Lanfen dourly remarked in her mind.
Resting her sore head on the elevated bed's pillow again, the Adaptor closed her eyes shut, this time focusing her senses on the sound of Shinonome gently unwrapping a candy bar. "What did I miss... while I was unconscious?" she slowly inquired, knowing full well that Japan would have been deprived of its designated Symphogear-Wielder for some time now.
"Everyone in Symphogear Team-04 is on standby," Shinonome explained, still fiddling with getting the candy bar open. "Your hospitalization partially necessitated it. The rest of us normally wouldn't have received the same commands-" her fumbling hands went still for a brief few seconds,"-but the higher-ups were unfortunately upset with our 'inability to follow orders'. Or so they claim."
Ayano. Godai. Lanfen brought a pair of fingers over to the top of her left hand and felt out the tube that was inserted beneath the surface of her brown skin. Even with her cleared mind, it was difficult remembering the exact details leading up to the events of the S.W.O.R.D.'s activation. Rummaging through the memories of it all felt like diving into a pile of needles for a single piece of hay. But in the middle of all those fragmented visions was a distinct moment of clarity: Godai's sincere attempt to calm Lanfen down through words and no more than that. A crazy idea she could have only expected from her two school seniors.
"Here."
Pulling open her heavy eyelids again, Lanfen looked aside to see Shinonome offering her an opened bar of chocolate. Chocolate with peanuts. Just so happened to be Lanfen's favourite. Or perhaps Ayano's ability to remember the small details was something the Adaptor continued to underestimate. "... Thanks," Lanfen muttered with a curt nod, taking the bar off Shinonome's tender fingers before slowly biting into it with a small crunch. It was tasteless, of course. Her taste buds were as useless as ever. But she couldn't decline a bit of actual sustenance after being hooked up to an IV bag for a whole day now.
"The Distortions have not appeared ever since those larger ones were vanquished," Shinonome continued, moving the bowl of candy on her thighs to the bedside drawer this time. "And in regards to your pendant..." The sudden mention of the Symphogear caused Lanfen's sword-hand to twitch. A reaction Shinonome silently noticed with her sharp, golden eyes. "... It's currently with Professor Elfnein. From the reports both Ayano and Godai have received, we can expect one of your companions - Yukine Chris - to be stationed in Japan until further notice."
A decision Lanfen fully understood - and quietly dreaded - as she expected all of S.O.N.G. by now to have learned of what happened yesterday. The burden of the S.W.O.R.D. was a concept Lanfen still found impossible to verbalize. All she could say was that it existed simply to 'discourage' the Wielders - and anyone else in S.O.N.G. - from going against the goals of the world council's need for global security against heretical technology. And with her little demonstration of its power yesterday, everyone within S.O.N.G. and Task Force Harmony now knew what to expect if the world council ever decided to drop the Sword of Damocles onto their heads. Absolutely nothing could turn aside the wailing, crimson blade generated by Lanfen's Armed Gear.
Not even the unstoppable fist of the God-Killer, Gungnir.
Its usefulness against the strongest of the Distortions was purely happenstance.
Disposing the empty candy wrapper inside the room's bedside dustbin, Lanfen narrowed her purple eyes and glared into the palm of her aching sword-hand. The sensation of its knuckles rupturing apart the Category-3's faceplate still felt fresh in her mind. "I wonder... do they all now see me for what I really am?" Her hush, seemingly aimless musing caused Shinonome to questionably tilt her head sideways. "A sword that's useless for even a simple thing like revenge." Lanfen stated with gritted teeth, digging her fingernails into an aching palm. "A threat to everything I've-"
Warm fingertips brushed against Lanfen's scarred cheek, silencing the Adaptor's words while Shinonome's hand gently cupped her grimacing face.
Lanfen knew this feeling. It was the very same one she had experienced in the midst of a tranquil rampage. A warmth which scattered the blinding fires within her dilated pupils.
"Please..." Shinonome whispered, her voice barely audible beneath the uncaring ringing of the room's heart-rate monitor. A quick glance at the silver-haired woman allowed Lanfen to see that Shinonome herself was also on the verge of tears, but it was held back by the same courage she had displayed in front of Lanfen's wailing blade. "Don't say such things, Jiang. We may have only known each other for a while now... but from what I've been able to witness, I can say wholeheartedly that you're more than what you claim yourself to be."
The Adaptor couldn't help but lightly scoff. Whether it was aimed at Shinonome or herself, Lanfen couldn't guess. "... If that's really the case, then we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with," Lanfen quietly argued, gazing down at her lap to stare at the untouched black-and-white plushie Shinonome herself created. "If someone else was wielding this Symphogear - if someone better was in charge of it - you wouldn't have needed to endanger yourself, Shinonome." Her dry throat began to tighten. "Godai and Ayano wouldn't have needed to defy orders. Nobody would've been hurt. And all this wouldn't have happened if I just-!" hot tears were flowing down her cheeks again, wetting Shinonome's warm fingers, "-moved on from what happened to Kai...!"
The fingernails on both of Lanfen's hands dug into her shaking palms till they were on the verge of shedding blood. Shinonome kept her own hand placed on Lanfen's scarred cheek, never pulling away even as the Adaptor's tears continued to flow uninhibited.
And so, the Symphogear-Wielder cried.
She cried with the same unrestrained grief Lanfen experienced on the very night Kai-Ming was taken away from her. Everything she chose to bottle up and store away in the farthest back of her mind. All of it broke loose. No more barricades. No more attempts at maintaining a mask of stoicism. In that moment, she was simply Cassandra Jiang Lanfen, a 22-year old trans woman with a family in the grave. An individual who did not understand why she was chosen to wield the Sword of Damocles, and a person who ironically would have no apparent reason in life were it not for her one-in-a-thousand potential to wield a Symphogear. These were the pieces Lanfen could only play with on the board. And it felt like a stroke of luck that she was not killed like her sister on the night of the global attack.
Minutes passed on.
And the beeping of the room's heart-rate monitor began to slow down to its original, steady pace.
When the last of Lanfen's tears seemingly dripped onto her stained blanket, Shinonome rose up from her chair, and leaned on the bed's metal railing. Her arms pulled the Adaptor into an embrace once more, letting Lanfen bury her face in Shinonome's shoulder this time as the silver-haired woman whispered her own words of sentiment into Lanfen's ear. "... It was my own decision to help you, Jiang," she firmly declared. "I... I had the opportunity of running away. Like everyone else." A pale-white hand ran through the Adaptor's long, messy hair. "But in the end, I chose to stay and help you... like you did for me on the night we met."
Ever so slowly, Lanfen withdrew her tear-stained face from Shinonome's shoulder and looked up to witness the warm, comforting smile Shinonome wore behind a long fringe of concealing silver.
The very same smile she would always wear whenever the Adaptor came back home from a mission against the paranormal.
"You carry so much within you," Shinonome continued, carefully removing the borrowed black-and-white scarf she wore. "The safety of this world. The burden of your sister's passing." She paused for a moment, hesitation marking her motions. "... And the weight of an executioner's blade." Both of them turned silent at the reminder of Lanfen's one duty, but they did not break their shared gaze while Shinonome seemingly steeled herself. "I know that I have no right to intrude. Especially when I am no more than a civilian. But even so..." Hearing that phrase was so familiar. Lanfen couldn't tell why, even as Shinonome began wrapping a black-and-white scarf around Lanfen's stiff neck. "I want to request that... you allow yourself to share your burdens with me... and the others..."
A gentle tug secured the scarf's grip around Lanfen. The scent it carried wasn't exactly unpleasant to the Adaptor's senses.
"It's the smallest thing I can do," Shinonome stated, tightening her lips. "Especially if it's for the singing warrior who didn't hesitate to save my life."
A distinct warmth ran throughout Lanfen's cheeks, a mark of her now-halted tears. And yet, a part of Lanfen felt that the reasoning for it this time was something else entirely. Focusing her purple eyes on Shinonome's determined gaze, the Adaptor could see that the woman's attention was fixated on Lanfen and absolutely nothing else. Shinonome's fascination with the world could bring her gaze towards many things, but it was clear to both of them that only Lanfen held its proverbial hand in this very moment. "Shinonome," Lanfen hoarsely called out to her. "Would you be willing to bear... with a troublesome girl like me?"
The ensuing giggle which escaped Shinonome's lips was the most pleasing thing Lanfen had experienced in the past 24 hours. "That's exactly what you've been undertaking with me to begin with, haven't you?"