The very moment the infiltration team lost the element of surprise, Kagami commanded Komichi and the four Hida operatives accompanying her to begin cleansing the perimeter of every present hostile, all while avoiding any contact with the expanding Alca-Noise Barrier. Since Komichi wasn't one to slack behind on her duties, she felt little hesitation about drawing her firearm after months of keeping her hands clean of bloodshed. The infiltration team had arrived in the mansion's main lobby when the command to attack was given. It didn't take long after that for Kamashiro and his fellow ninjas to split up so they could initiate a hunt for the Illuminati Remnants with their blades fully-drawn.
As Komichi herself paced from one luxurious room of the manor to another, her green eyes stared down the iron-sights of her weapon, barely blinking even when her suppressed pistol took the life of whomever found themselves unlucky enough to be staring down the business end of a gun. The aesthetics and interior design of the Illuminati hideout were a visual spectacle to behold. But Komichi had her orders, so the glamorous paintings and rich furniture of the mansion were quickly stained with crimson ichor.
When Komichi instinctively sensed the departure of her magazine's remaining round, she threw herself into the nearest open door, taking refuge inside an empty room while Aiko's floating drone accompanied her from behind. The brunette then huddled against a wall and went through the motions of reloading her firearm faster than she could even breathe. From what Komichi was able to ascertain about the current situation, none of the mansion's identified alarm systems had been tripped, prompting her to wonder if the infiltration team were either very lucky, or that there was something going on with the Illuminati Remnants. An incoming transmission from Kagami interrupted Komichi's train-of-thought.
"SG-r04 has entered the Alca-Noise Barrier," the head of the operation began, frustrations barely hidden beneath a veil of formality, "the Illuminati vehicle is exiting the perimeter. AG-4-2, take immediate measures to prevent its escape."
In spite of all the scolding they were undoubtedly going to receive later on as a result of Lanfen's little stunt, Komichi gladly let out a stifled giggle upon being indirectly reassured of Yuki's safety. She expected nothing less from their valiant little junior. After casting a knowing smile at the lens of the camera drone which was soundlessly hovering right beside her, Komichi tapped into her comm bead again and hailed for the head of her ninja accomplices.
"AG-4-2," Kamashiro stoically answered, "the elimination of all identified hostiles is nearing completion. What is the course of action you recommend we undertake regarding the escaping craft?"
If everyone was solely relying on Komichi to call out their next shots, then the brunette made sure to do so swiftly. "Kamashiro, do me a favour and chase down the get-away vehicle along with your friends," she whispered, still crouching in the shadows of an unlit room completely devoid of even basic furniture. "We've already got this situation in the bag, so you can leave everything else here to me. Aiko, I want your eyes to accompany them, too," Komichi added with a glance at the nearby drone. "Kagami is most likely going to want a visual of the chase, after all."
Unsurprisingly, Aiko quickly chimed in over the comms to express her own worries. "Would that be an advisable move, Komichi? Surely it would be a better idea to have someone-"
"You can be assured of her capabilities, AG-4-3," Kamashiro told her before turning his attention back to Komichi again. "Orders confirmed, AG-4-2. I'll be conveying everything to the remainder of my warriors now. We'll be relying on you to secure the manor's archives. If the goddess of luck is with all of us, SG-r04's rescue attempt shall not be in vain."
After confirming the receival of Kamashiro's response, Komichi switched off her comm bead and swung open the nearest room window so Aiko's small drone could hover back into the forest. Though there was nothing else coming through their comms, the brunette was completely sure that Aiko still desired to offer an alternative to their current plan. The field operator was just that sort of person. Once the camera drone was completely out of sight, Komichi closed the windows back up before continuing to huddle right next to the room's still-open entrance. The corridor outside had remained completely silent for a full minute when Komichi's ears picked up the distant sound of an opening pair of doors. Another kind of noise soon followed.
Footsteps. From multiple individuals to boot. From what her guesswork was able to pinpoint, Komichi counted at least 8-to-12 marching bodies.
Careful as to not make any significant noises herself, Komichi tightened her hands around her firearm and peered out of the open door-frame. Her green eyes then peeked in the direction of the incoming footsteps, fixing a focused gaze on the formation of armed personnel which was marching through the bloodstained corridors in perfect sync. Illuminati Auto-Droids. If the Auto-Scorers that S.O.N.G. once faced were living dolls who barely flew over the uncanny valley, then the Auto-Droids were essentially armoured mannequins who hid nothing about their mechanical nature. They were expendable obstacles to be placed whenever enemies came knocking on the Illuminati's door. And only an idiot would underestimate a machine which possessed ballistic rifles for actual arms.
When the featureless face of an Auto-Droid slowly panned towards Komichi's location, she slid back into cover and calmed her nerves by popping a pocketed piece of candy into her mouth. The approaching formation stood between Komichi and the double-doors to the manor's archives just further down the corridor. The growing noise of their approaching footsteps prompted her to recheck the status of her firearm and its remaining magazines. Fortunately for Komichi, the sensation of her first active firefight still felt like it was just yesterday. The feeling of a trigger never became a stranger. Only placed aside till it was needed again. Once Komichi made sure that the combat knife within her coat had its sheath fully unlocked, she reached into a belt pouch and drew out several bead-shaped items between her gloved fingers.
The footsteps of a marching Auto-Droid eventually resounded just close enough for her liking.
Komichi knelt down on one knee and allowed the beads in her left hand to gently roll towards the direction of the mechanical formation.
The cherry candy in her mouth softly melted beneath the touch of her sweet-tooth.
"Bang."
A cacophony of electrical crackling erupted from beyond the door-frame, signaling the activation of Komichi's trusty EMP grenades. She immediately broke from cover. While the Auto-Droid formation standing down the corridor writhed in soundless agony from exposure to their one crippling weakness, Komichi aimed down her suppressed firearm's sights and made love to its trigger. The first shot blew right through the head of a target. Her second shot simultaneously struck two Auto-Droids down. Her third shot sliced through a dangling chandelier's chain, causing two more targets to be crushed underneath its immense weight. When Komichi's fourth shot made its mark, the struck Auto-Droid's weapons went off, gunning down the rest of its companions in a single uncontrolled volley of armour-piercing rounds.
Within moments, a gentle silence subsequently seeped back into the corridors of the Illuminati manor. But Komichi's finger did not leave her firearm's trigger. She would only be a fool to let her guard down so soon.
Komichi spent half a second reloading her pistol before she began waltzing over her firearm's ejected casings and the hissing remains of what used to be an enemy formation. As flashes of sparks spilled from the twitching Auto-Droids beneath her, Komichi's nostrils could pick up the scent of leaking oil and whatever else the Illuminati infused within their bodies. When a legless Auto-Droid's torso to her right made a move far too life-like for her liking, Komichi did not hesitate to pin it underneath her boot, holding it still just long enough for her to shove the entire length of a combat knife's blade right through its forehead. She then cleaned her stained blade using her uniform's sleeve and headed for the archives with her knife already back in its sheath.
"Aiko, are our sensors picking up any more life-signs within my area?" Komichi said with one finger pressed against her comm bead.
"Nothing detected thus far," Aiko swiftly stated from her end of the line. "Although the Alca-Noise Barrier appears to be overwhelming several of our sensors, I am experiencing little issues tracking individual movements within Site-4. Kamashiro and his allies have also nearly caught up with the escaping vehicle, so you may rest assured that the situation is still in our favour."
Perfect, Komichi thought to herself, now approaching the shut double-doors of the manor's archives with her firearm held in both hands. The area beyond this entrance was the one remaining room which Kamashiro and his operatives had yet to clear, and even though there was a high chance that it was completely empty, Komichi could never rely on herself to be bulletproof. After prying a single hand off her pistol's grip, the brunette grabbed the unlocked handle of one door before gingerly pushing the entrance open for her own soundless entry into a room of complete darkness. Light from the corridor was now spilling into the archive. Komichi's steady heartbeat indicated the absence of any nearby threats.
A quick tap of her night-vision visor's switch instantly reactivated the sleek headwear, letting Komichi observe the towering bookshelves and additional floors of the mansion's archives with the clarity of artificial daylight. Standard procedures normally would have made her breach the area with either one of her readily-available tools, but it seemed that lapses in Komichi's judgement were starting to arise again all because Yuki was currently in danger. After reprimanding herself with a light slap on the forehead, Komichi resumed her investigation of the area, leading her to discover something which didn't regularly exist in an archive of all places.
Blood trails. Komichi could tell that it was fresh. Silently moving between the tall bookshelves with her hands tightly holding on to her firearm again, Komichi pursued the trail of fallen ichor, bringing herself towards the farthest ends of the manor's archives while her finger brushed itself against a pistol's trigger. She couldn't hear any breathing other than her own. And whoever these fallen droplets originated from could not have gone far judging by how severe the bleeding appeared. At some point in time, Komichi found herself rounding around the corner of the final bookshelf, leading the brunette to the last of the crimson tracks.
What Komichi discovered in the archive's dead-end couldn't have been more mundane than it actually was.
After flipping on her pistol's safety with a single finger-flick, Komichi holstered her firearm in one smooth motion before crouching down next to the lying corpse of an Illuminati Acolyte. Their hooded robes marked them out to be of a lower rank and did little to conceal the fact that the person beneath the uniform was barely at the age of a young adult. The multiple Hida-type kunais embedded within the boy's arm, legs and, waist also pointed to an obvious death by exsanguination. Nonetheless, Komichi took more interest in the two items which laid within the acolyte's dying grasp. The first was a standard data-pass for the Illuminati's digital terminals. The other was a tome that appeared to possess a secure lock. Such a simple security measure wasn't going to be a problem for Komichi.
Remembering to utilize her tools this time, the brunette detached her wrist device from its arm-strap and carefully positioned it right beside the bloodstained tome. Through the input of a 9-digit command, the removed gadget then ran its delicate sensors all over the thick book, analyzing it through the use of a sweeping, crimson sensory scanner. As long as nothing physically tampered with the device during this sensitive process, its scanners would be able to digitally-replicate all of the tome's pages without requiring Komichi to unlock it at all.
The S.O.N.G. agent took the data-pass off the corpse's hands soon after and glanced around this section of the archive, eventually spotting a single terminal which was built into a nearby wall. "Aiko," Komichi whispered, tapping her comm bead, "I'm about to look into the manor's database. In the meantime, I'll be transmitting about a dozen images directly over to you, alright?" She heard Aiko diligently confirm her report and promptly got to work by approaching a terminal while her device on the floor did its job.
The press of an ornate button switched on the Illuminati terminal. Komichi was obviously greeted by the request for physical identification. Such a mundane procedure was fulfilled once she inserted the retrieved data-pass into a slot underneath a rectangular-shaped monitor. After the pass had been accepted with a confirmatory ring, the entirety of the mansion's database opened up before her, prompting the S.O.N.G. agent to run her fingers through a holographic keyboard so that Komichi could skim through all of its contents under the timespan of a minute.
At some point during her search, Komichi discovered a specific document which seized her full attention.
The press of a holo-key expanded the file and displayed the image of a familiar woman with brown skin, black hair, and a pair of purple eyes.
"Cassandra Jiang Lanfen," read the sentence on the page that came up on the monitor. "Status: Alive. Currently in possession of the SG-r04, Sword of Damocles."
As Komichi furrowed her brows, she wondered if the Bavarian Illuminati had been tracking Lanfen this entire time. It made complete sense for a secret society like them. 'How' was one thing. 'Why' was another. Narrowing her eyes at the title of the displayed file, Komichi tapped her foot on the floor and slowly read the document's name out loud in Japanese. Because unlike everything else she could see in the manor's database, this specific file was written completely in standardized English. "Project... Damocles... Adaptors?" While her removed wrist device emitted a distinct ring to announce the completion of its scanning process, Komichi glanced at the corner of the document, and noticed how it was just the first segment of a multi-page file.
Upon switching to the following pages, Komichi felt her breath escape her, as her green eyes soon witnessed a stream of familiar names which were all accompanied by an image of each listed individual.
Renge Morikawa. Status: Eliminated.
Qiao Cai. Status: Eliminated.
Dora Liu. Status: Eliminated.
Juanite Josephine. Status: Eliminated.
Rachel McKeen. Status: Eliminated.
Lily Summers. Status: Eliminated.
Gina Baker. Status: Eliminated.
Natalie Dela Cruz. Status: Eliminated.
Caoimhe O'Connor. Status: Eliminated.
Niamh Cosgrave. Status: Eliminated.
Natalie Clara. Status: Eliminated.
The names. The faces. Everything perfectly matched the murdered victims that Clan Hida had been investigating. But while Komichi undoubtedly felt a sense of relief upon confirming their suspicions surrounding the Illuminati's pattern of killings, a small part of her still felt that there was more to this situation than it actually appeared. The SG-r04 had been stolen from the Bavarian Illuminati before it even activated, so there were clearly still things which S.O.N.G. had yet to unveil. After taking in a deep breath to settle the deepening pit that was growing inside her stomach, Komichi noticed how there was still one remaining page left within the document, and hesitantly ordered the terminal to display it.
Komichi gave herself only a full second to stare at the screen with widening eyes.
"Komichi Ayano," read the sentence which soon came up on the monitor. "Status: Current target. Location: Identified."
Komichi immediately bolted for her wrist device on the floor and hooked it up with the terminal. The sharp input of a digital code duplicated the entirety of the manor's database into the device's storage systems. The process completed itself in the span of four extensive seconds. After yanking the device's extended wire out from the terminal's USB port, Komichi summoned a holographic prompt to transmit the copied files directly into S.O.N.G.'s archives, only to instead find herself staring directly into the projected hologram of a sudden notification.
"Communications Network - Lost."
When the escaping Illuminati vehicle crashed into a pair of trees as a result of being deprived of all four tires, Aiko witnessed its metal-crumpling impact through the lens and audio receptors of her camera drone. The escaping craft hadn't even managed to reach the forest edge before Kamashiro and his warriors steered it off-course using their thrown kunais. Soon, all four of the life-signs their sensors had detected within the vehicle began to fade away from the terminal's readings. If at least one of the escapees was still miraculously clinging on to life, the subsequent explosion which erupted from the vehicle's engine quickly reduced the chances to a near-zero. Aiko was simply relieved that none of its paranormal cargo had managed to break free.
"Command," Kamashiro began over their comms while the four shinobi operatives surrounded the burning wreckage, "we have neutralized the escaping Illuminati vehicle. All of the detected individuals have been accounted for and the cargo remains undamaged."
"Excellent work, everyone," Kagami responded. "You may regroup with AG-4-2 in the meantime. S.O.N.G. extraction crews are currently making their way to Site-4. Expect their arrival in twenty-five minutes."
Now that the joint-operation was seemingly nearing its conclusion, the only concerns Aiko had left involved the Alca-Noise Barrier and the Adaptor who had charged inside the projected subspace pocket. None of their sensors could perceive just what was occurring inside it, but the field operator gladly placed her faith in Lanfen's ability to save Yuki and the others. This was - of course - the same Symphogear-Wielder who had performed a similar rescue feat for Aiko herself back when they first met. There was no sensible reason for her of all people to start fearing for the worst. It would only end up distracting Aiko from her tasks-at-hand, too.
A ringing notification from one of the numerous terminal screens in front of the field operator soon grabbed her notice. Through a brief input into the control panel, Aiko replaced the hovering camera drone's visual feed with a loading bar in regards to Komichi's data-transmission. Roughly three digits worth of scanned images had just been uploaded into S.O.N.G.'s digital archives and Aiko settled the finishing touches by organizing them into a folder for Professor Elfnein's convenience. The field operator brought up an audio transmission to confirm the received info soon after. "Komichi?" Aiko said into her headphones once the lines apparently connected. "Komichi, can you hear me?"
Bursts of audio static spilled forth from her headphone's speakers, causing Aiko to wince from the sudden assault on her ears before she reflexively pried off her equipment by its headband. She then hung her communications equipment on its designated rack, tilting her head to one side in confusion as deafening static continued to plague both of its speakers. Aiko was only able to silence this dreadful noise by simply shutting down the attempted transmission entirely.
Nothing in Komichi's introductory primer could have prepared her for what she had just experienced. There were zero alerts in relation to any possible equipment deterioration and the sensors detected only five life-signs within a hundred-kilometer radius. Komichi was one of them. The other four blips represented the remaining Hida operatives. While Aiko hesitantly donned her headphones again, she hovered one index finger over a control panel's key, intending to reattempt the transmission. However, before the field operator could actually do so, Aiko's ears picked up the sound of an urgent alert, prompting her to dismiss the transmission window and notice that her connection to the camera drone was now lost. The feed from the deployed drone would not reconnect no matter how many inputs Aiko keyed in.
It was also becoming difficult to ignore the hastening heartbeats within her tightened chest. "Kamashiro?" Aiko stammered after connecting an audio transmission between the Hida operative and herself. "T-This is AG-4-3, I would like to request a visual report of-"
Audio static. The very same ear-piercing noise she had heard just a moment ago. Aiko's direct transmission with the head of the operation was also drowned out with the exact same audio disruption.
Her palms were now beginning to sweat.
As Aiko attempted to recollect herself through a shake of the head, she gripped the control panel's edges with her sweating hands and listened on to the awful noise within their communication lines. It will surely go away in time, the field operator reasoned with herself. And yet, the audio static would not leave in the slightest. Instead, hints of another sort of sound entirely started to flow out of her headphones, slowly overpowering the auditory disruption within its speakers. Music. It was not a tune which originated from any identified Symphogear whatsoever. Nothing as complex as that, at all.
Simply put, it was a soft, chiming sound originating from nothing more than a mundane, antique music box.
And soon after, a stream of words began to accompany it in the form of perfect English. Words which were sung by a slow, sultry voice that made Aiko's skin instinctively shudder beneath her uniform.
"Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are..."
This unfamiliar voice was serene, motherly - and most prominent of all - coated in a proverbial blanket of sweet honey. While the unknown singer's gentle tunes continuously flowed out of the field operator's headphones completely unimpeded, Aiko could feel her heart relentlessly pounding itself against her ribcage the very moment those lyrics slithered into her ears. Her hands turned completely stiff over the terminal's holographic control panel. Aiko's breathing had transitioned into shaky gasps for air before she even realized it.
"Up above the world so high. Like a diamond in the sky..."
Aiko's sweating palms would not listen to her regardless of her wordless pleas to get them to move. Her mind could not even dictate her next proper action. It was as if every memorized procedure she had learned over the past few days were all starting to blend into a swirling, incoherent mass of words. Aiko could not understand why. The only thing she knew to be true was that every sense of danger she possessed within her subconsciousness were simultaneously beginning to flare the longer this song went on. Because - somehow - Aiko knew this tune to be an omen for only one absolute: Death.
"When the blazing sun is gone. When the nothing shines upon... Then you show your little light. Twinkle, twinkle all... the... night..."
The field operator squeezed her eyes shut.
And then, silence.
Complete, blissful silence.
The audio transmission had finally ceased, seemingly from the other end of the line.
Aiko held her quivering breath and slowly stared into her trembling palms with a pair of blurry eyes. The cold sweat which marked her pale-white skin had been dripping onto the floor for some time now.
Before the field operator could even attempt to input a command into the control panel, the piercing ring of a specific alarm made itself apparent. When the stiffness in the silver-haired woman's neck subsided enough for her to simply turn around, Aiko looked to a nearby screen, and laid her golden eyes on the displayed trackers of the deployed Hida operatives. Two of the six readings had disconnected when the Alca-Noise Barrier manifested. But now, the remaining four had taken a turn for the worse. The absence of four blips on the radar only proved what Aiko witnessed to be the truth. The heart-rate monitors of Kamashiro and his three operatives had become the distinct screeching of flat-lined readings.
Four operatives of Clan Hida. Gone before she even realized anything.
Aiko immediately slammed a command into the terminal to contact whoever she could bring up. Komichi, Kagami, the nearest Task Force Harmony outpost. Absolutely none of these provided a transmission that was free of radio static. While the field operator switched from one encrypted channel to another, her right hand grasped her headphones, ready to tear it off the moment her frustrations reached a crescendo. Komichi was alive but unreachable. Lanfen and Yuki were inside the Alca-Noise Barrier. And here Aiko was, sitting inside a concealed transport with no way to figure out just what was even happening beyond its armoured walls. At some point, her golden eyes drifted towards a strapped holster on her leg.
Inside it sat the stun-gun which her teammates had provided.
As Aiko's calculations struggled to finalize her next decisive action, the field operator hesitantly reached for the holstered weapon, and brushed her fingertips against its lock.
She subsequently drew in a sharp breath when a gentle knocking announced itself on the van's backdoors.
The radar in the corner of her eyes detected zero life-signs within a one-kilometer radius.
Everything became nothing more than a complete blur faster than Aiko could even grasp her weapon. A high-pitched ringing drowned out her hearing. Her entire body felt weightless and shards of flying metal could be felt grazing themselves against Aiko's skin. Fully-blinded by an incandescent light of piercing, glowing azure, Aiko could only watch as the entire world before her turned into a burst of searing fire, broken metal, and crackling electronics. By the time her senses returned to her, the field operator found herself lying down on a forest floor of pure white, all while Team-04's vehicle laid down on its side with the rear-end entirely consumed in lingering, blue flames. Aiko's detached holster remained a few meters away from her, crushed beneath a chunk of battered metal.
Pain reverberated throughout Aiko's entire body. But she could still bring herself to move. Just barely.
As the high-pitched ringing in her ears slowly subsided, Aiko pulled herself into a sitting position and coughed into her palm twice. But when she heard the crunching of a snowy footfall resound from right behind her, Aiko pursed her quivering lips, and hesitantly looked over her shoulder with a widening pair of golden eyes.
There stood the individual responsible for what had just occurred. Aiko had not even noticed their presence up until now. Underneath the dim light of the shattered moon above, a slender woman remained completely still, their pale-white skin visibly marked with splashes of fresh ichor while she regarded Aiko with a sharp pair of golden eyes. The blue hair that touched her shoulders appeared neat and trim, even when azure flames burned all around them. Just like the diamond symbols and bloodstains which were prominent all over their azure suit, the intent to kill was completely clear from but a single glance into the stranger's eyes. When Aiko finally noticed that her wrist device now remained in the possession of her attacker's gloved hand, the bloodied woman smiled with a pair of curvy, blue lips.
Surrounded by pieces of bruised metal and lingering flames of violent azure, two pairs of golden eyes wordlessly met with one another.
Aiko desired to run, but she could not even feel her limbs. Every part of her practically froze beneath the predatory gaze of a single ghostly woman.
"What's the matter, my dear?" the woman cooed with delight. She soon gestured with a free hand which was drenched all the way to the elbow with thick, foul crimson. "Did you not enjoy my song? Are you not going to stand up and defend your honour?" she mused, lightly chuckling. "After all, a battlefield provides little room for any form of hesitation." Without looking, the ghostly woman reached a gloved hand into one pocket, and produced several items that she proceeded to casually toss right before Aiko's trembling boots. They were all bloodstained kunais of Clan Hida with their blades completely broken off.
Aiko could feel her heart pounding harder than ever against her aching chest. Her eyes tore their sights off the bloodied woman, seeking to search for the nearest direction past the surrounding flames, and towards immediate safety. Her only decisions clashed between either jumping for her holstered stun-gun and simply getting out of here. As Aiko's attacker continued to satiate herself on the sheer terror which was writ upon the field operator's expression, Aiko sprung for the first choice her racing mind could come up with.
The moment Aiko attempted to throw herself into a desperate escape, the distance between her and her attacker closed in the blink of a golden eye. The azure woman's knee subsequently crashed into Aiko's abdomen with the force of a sledgehammer. The silver-haired woman felt all the strength in her legs completely vanish. Once she was again back on her knees - heaving and whimpering with pain - Aiko raked the white forest floor with one hand and wondered if everything was about to end just like her memories first began. Helpless in a dark, winter forest. Unable to fight back the inevitable while death's shadow loomed over her paralyzed form. Aiko wanted to believe that the others were about to save her any moment now.
And yet, only her assailant stood before her, grinning with obvious delight as they pocketed Aiko's stolen wrist device.
Tonight marked the first time she ever experienced the taste of copper on her tongue.
"I shall not ask for forgiveness," the ghostly woman gently whispered while azure sparks flickered between her fingertips. "Tis simply unfortunate that our paths ended up crossing like this, my dear."
Through a loud snap of her bloodstained fingers, a swarm of bright wisps began to gather within the grasp of the blood-drenched woman's palm, casting a dull glow which caused all of Aiko's limbs to freeze out of sheer instinctual fear. Within moments, the phantasmal silhouette of a smoking, slender blade manifested itself in a gloved, open hand. Its conjuration was heralded by a deathly wail that sounded almost like it came directly from the gaping throat of a human being. When Aiko found the physical strength to even gaze up at her attacker, her assailant licked her blue lips, and smiled from ear-to-ear before lifting a translucent weapon in both hands for a definite killing strike.
"Repent beneath the depths of the Great River, dear sinner."
Absolute resentment coated her sweet tongue.
The light of a shattered moon reflected off Aiko's golden eyes.
A translucent blade of howling mist swung down on her. Aiko could only shield herself by desperately throwing up her arms right in front of her face.
And yet, even when Aiko found herself losing her grip around the last threads of hope, the inevitable would not come, as her senses soon perceived the deafening, glass-like crackling of paranormal energy. The beating of her racing heart did not halt. Her shaky breathing continued on. When Aiko's eyes managed to open themselves again, the field operator looked past her raised arms, and begun staring in confusion at the translucent, dome-shaped field which completely surrounded her kneeling form. This glistening, strange barrier flickered beneath the halted strike of a phantasmal blade, all while clear disbelief registered across the golden eyes of Aiko's attacker.
She then felt a sensation. A pulse that came directly from the surface of Aiko's pounding heart. The mysterious implant which was directly fused into her beating flesh.
It was familiar. And yet, the mere feeling of its faint stirring brewed only fear within the depths of Aiko's chest.
A bloodstained assailant quickly withdrew herself from Aiko, creating several meters of snow between them once again through a simple backwards leap. After causing the phantasmal blade in her hand and lingering flames around them to immediately disappear with a flick of their wrist, Aiko's attacker narrowed her golden eyes, and regarded the still, silver-haired woman with a gaze of utter bewilderment. The projected shielding around Aiko then intensified into a dome of pure energy, completely protecting her even as it rooted Aiko to where she was.
"... Is this what's become of you, Proto-Zero?" the ghostly woman soon whispered with an evident tone of disdain.
Proto-Zero. Aiko could only obliviously stare at her attacker in response to their bizarre words. Her memories contained absolutely nothing related to such a name and her assailant seemingly understood that well enough without a spoken word from Aiko. Soon, the disbelief on the bloodied woman's expression transitioned back into glee, all because the stolen wrist device in her possession was suddenly starting to ring from an incoming transmission. Aiko immediately held her breath. Once the azure woman had pulled Aiko's wrist device out from their pocket, she lifted it right next to their tilted head, and answered the transmission through the slow press of a holographic prompt.
"Aiko? Aiko!" a familiar voice exclaimed from the other end of the line. "This is Komichi! I'm currently making my way back to your position! We need to contact command and tell them that-!"
The audio transmission was cut short when a gloved, bloodstained hand crushed Aiko's wrist device into pieces within its tightening grasp. While its smoking remains sprinkled across the snowy forest floor, the azure woman shot a small smile at Aiko before she slowly spun on her heel, and strode towards the direction of the nearby manor estate. Aiko attempted to rise from the ground, but the translucent dome which surrounded her would not dissipate. Not even when Aiko started pounding her bare hands against the barrier. A sense of physical exhaustion was also beginning to wash over her body the longer the protective field remained up. She could feel her consciousness slipping away and the sight of her withdrawing attacker was growing distant with each passing second.
Aiko desired to warn Komichi. To heed her of what was coming and to tell her to run away.
In the end, Aiko did not even possess the energy to simply scream for someone to protect her friend.
Somebody. Anybody.
"And even if the power of the Symphogear may seem like a curse... a 'curse' is only a few switches away from being 'cures', right?"
Underneath the projected illusion of a starry ocean sky, Lanfen's nervous system gave in to the crimson waves of her awakened Armed Gear, bestowing her with the gift of perfect precognition while she eviscerated the Alca-Noise without relying on a single lyrical verse. Lanfen's dilated pupils witnessed every predicted movement before the Alca-Noise could even retaliate. The 'lock' which chained itself around the crowned warrior's sharpened mind transformed her mental landscape into an opening of tranquility. As a cylindrical blade of humming crimson projected itself from the Sword of Damocles, Lanfen flourished from one foe to another, conjuring clouds of fresh alkahest with each swing of her wailing weapon.
The built-in speakers of her Symphogear remained devoid of its electro-swing tune. Yuki, Kageyama, and Yaguruma were all standing from a distance that kept them far away from the Alca-Noise horde, as well as the Symphogear-Wielder who was tearing through their numbers. The only sound which could actually be heard echoing through the subspace pocket was the banshee-like wail of a hungering Armed Gear.
When the surrounding horde finally dwindled down into a few lingering targets, a siren in Lanfen's headphones alerted her to the awaited presence of a particular Alca-Noise in the corner of her precognitive vision. It was the one responsible for this subspace pocket, and the eldritch beast could only be described as a floating, headless torso with swathes of feathery wings that were growing from where its arms should be. The crowned warrior made sure to extinguish the Alca-Noise behind her with a casual swing of her sword before blitzing towards the remaining Noise flying high above her.
Hundreds of incandescent spears were summoned to the Labyrinthian-type Alca-Noise's sides. An inhuman screech from its 'mouth' ordered the projected weapons to begin bombarding the incoming Symphogear-Wielder. Lanfen simply bolted through the hail of earth-shattering projectiles through a combination of perfect precognition and superhuman reflexes. Brandishing an energy blade within her aching sword-hand, Lanfen split open one of her gauntlets, and launched a single, wired harpoon right at the floating Alca-Noise. The metallic spear punctured right through a pair of veiny wings, completely sealing her target's demise.
A tightening of the crowned warrior's fist reeled in the extending wire. None of the Alca-Noise's flapping wings could fight back against a strength which was capable of demolishing an entire building. Whatever panicked screeching the monster attempted to release was only drowned out by the wailing of the blade within Lanfen's grasp.
"Checkmate."
Accompanied by the loud hiss of evaporating matter, the Sword of Damocles devoured the Alca-Noise, slicing its headless torso right down the middle with but one loathsome swing of violent plasma.
The subspace pocket began to dissipate the moment Lanfen felt a cloud of alkahest wash all over her brown skin. Eventually, the illusionary landscape around them disappeared, revealing the mundane interior design of a mansion's circular ballroom. Dead bodies of Illuminati acolytes were sprawled all over the area, their corpses visibly riddled with Hida-type weaponry while Yuki, Kageyama, and Yaguruma visibly took the moment to catch their breath.
Through the soft squeeze of a trigger on the Sword of Damocles' golden handle, the cylindrical blade that projected from its cross-guard sputtered loudly before dying out completely, extinguishing the red glow it had been casting onto Lanfen's monochrome armour. As the crowned warrior's wired harpoon slammed itself back into her closing gauntlet, Lanfen felt a jolt of pain coursing right into the hemispheres of her collared brain, prompting the sharp click of her tongue. It was pain which immediately summoned a procedural announcement from her Symphogear's internal systems.
"Abnormal brainwave pattern detected. Initiating S.W.O.R.D. deactivation."
A hundred performance limiters were simultaneously locked together within the paranormal internals of a black-and-white Symphogear. The crimson energies that were thrumming through it were drained of their intensity with each rearrangement of its countless circuitry. Fear. Hatred. Despair. Grief. Each of the crowned warrior's emotions were released upon the complete shutdown of the S.W.O.R.D.'s emotional dampeners. Once a cloud of hot steam had dispensed itself through her armour's many exhaust vents, Lanfen dropped onto one knee and drew the cold air into her lungs. Her grip around her Armed Gear's handle remained tight up until the bladeless handle was stowed back inside her hip armour.
"'Fen." Yuki's concerned voice could be heard coming from behind Lanfen. "Are you... alright?"
Stifling an exhausted grunt, Lanfen rose back onto her armoured legs again before turning around to see the approaching Hida operatives with Yuki in-between them. "I've been through worse," she managed to answer with a curt nod and the faintest of grins. "Is anybody injured?"
"Not one bit," Yuki responded, rolling one shoulder with a light smirk, "and we've got you to thank for that."
Steady nods of agreement came from both Kageyama and Yaguruma. Beneath the concealment of their hooded garbs and half-masks, the two Hida operatives proceeded to bow in unison in front of the monochrome Adaptor, all while Yuki crossed her arms, gesturing for a bewildered Lanfen to do the same. Unsure as to why she even deserved such extensive thanks, Lanfen awkwardly began the motions of returning the gesture in kind, only for her hands to suddenly seize up beneath the moonlight which was peeking through the ballroom's tall windows.
Gunfire rang out in the distance. It was the echo of a single, unsuppressed shot.
Neither Yuki nor the two Hida operatives apparently recognized its distant roar while Lanfen felt her sword-hand twitching at her side. The crowned warrior quickly held its fingers up to her headphones and attempted to request for a status report of the situation. But tapping into her headgear only summoned the subsequent absence of any response from every available channel. Hand signals from Yuki, Kageyama, and Yaguruma afterwards indicated that the same thing was going on with their provided comm beads. Almost immediately, the Adaptor drew her Armed Gear from her hip and extended its thick blade from a cross-guard of ringing gold.
"I'll go and investigate the source," Lanfen declared, glancing at the ballroom's lone entrance before looking back at a concerned Yuki. "Can all of you regroup with Aiko and find out what's going on?"
Once her teammate hesitantly answered with a wordless nod, Lanfen bolted out of the large room, an Armed Gear held in one hand as the crowned warrior swung upon a pair of doors for a hasty exit. The guidance system within her headphones clued her in on a rough direction towards Lanfen's intended destination. If it wasn't for her Symphogear, all of the Illuminati mansion's corridors and halls would appear identical to her narrowed eyes. Every open room Lanfen blitzed by contained only the unmoving corpses of Illuminati members and scraps of defeated Auto-Droids, but none of this - nor the silence which permeated the cold air - reassured her of the current situation even one bit.
Upon reaching her guidance system's estimated location, Lanfen found herself swinging open the main entrance of the Illuminati mansion.
White snow descended from the night skies while a shattered moon hovered between the clouds, letting its soft glow shine onto an extravagant courtyard that was lined with tall lamp posts of glistening yellow. A wondrous circular fountain was stationed in the middle, casting a wide shadow across the snowy grounds even when it sat completely dry of any water whatsoever. As Lanfen brandished an Armed Gear within her itching sword-hand, she slowly gazed down the wide staircase which connected the courtyard to the mansion's double-doors, and immediately felt her blood freezing up within her veins.
Komichi was lying down at the very base of the staircase's descending steps. Her flowing hair was messily strewn all over the ground and the pure snow beneath her body was dyed in the colour of dull crimson. Smoked billowed from the end of the suppressor that was attached to the pistol within her loosened grasp. Beneath the gentle, yellow glow of the courtyard's lamp posts, Komichi's wrist device could be seen scattered all over the snow-covered steps in the form of broken shards.
"Komichi!"
Lanfen descended the entire length of the staircase within a single bound. Upon making contact with the snowy earth, the Adaptor skidded to a halt, and tossed aside her Armed Gear before gently pulling Komichi onto her back using a pair of trembling gauntlets. Nothing that slipped between Lanfen's lips could pass for a coherent sentence. The sight of the growing bloodstain on Komichi's chest made any form of consistent thought impossible. And yet, when Komichi managed to acknowledge the kneeling Wielder with a slow turn of her head, and a pair of glimmering, green eyes, Komichi laughed. She weakly laughed, even when blood began to trail down the corner of her mouth. Even when barely-restrained fear was written all over her face.
It was the first time Lanfen witnessed genuine dread within Komichi's eyes.
An alert subsequently arose within Lanfen's headphones. Its sudden arrival practically snapped her back to her senses, allowing the Adaptor to answer an incoming transmission with one shuddering hand. "-Symphogear Team-04, please respond," a voice requested over the line. "This is Extraction Team A-31, we are set to arrive at your location. ETA is five minutes. Do you read me?"
Lanfen choked on the first few words which attempted to slip out of her throat. Grasping her headgear tightly within one hand, Lanfen was only able to respond after she locked her widened eyes with Komichi's own weakening gaze. "This is SG-r04, requesting immediate medical assistance at my current location!" The pool of crimson underneath Komichi's body was growing. "I repeat: This is SG-r04, requesting immediate medical assistance at my current location!" Ignoring the procedural responses of the incoming extraction crew, Lanfen swung her attention over to Komichi again, and did whatever she could by applying immediate pressure onto the gushing bullet wound.
Beneath the fingertips of the Adaptor's blood-soaked hands, Lanfen could feel each faint pulse of Komichi's beating heart.
"E-Everything will be alright, Komichi. Help is on the w-way..."
Despite the forced, desperate reassurance within her own uttered words, Lanfen could not ignore the severity of Komichi's wound. Neither could she deny just how much blood had already been spilled onto the white earth. But even so, the Adaptor utilized whatever she knew to stabilize the situation, all while Komichi laid across the ichor-dyed snow, gazing at the kneeling woman with tears streaming down her eyes. Any words Komichi attempted to utter were all cut off by her own pained winces. With each shuddering breath she released, the gaze she held on Lanfen began to wane, slowly weakening alongside the glimmer within her eyes. And so, Komichi evidently did the one thing she could, and slowly lifted a swaying arm from her side, eventually brushing its fingertips against Lanfen's scarred cheek.
The fingernails on Komichi's hands. They were all painted in the black-and-white colours of a monochrome Symphogear.
Lanfen felt something trailing down her cheek, but she refused to tear her sights away from Komichi's tearstained face.
She refused to give up. Lanfen refused to just let this happen.
Not on her watch. Not when rescue was so close.
And it was clear from Komichi's softening expression that she appreciated the Wielder's unspoken optimism.
After Komichi visibly stifled another pained wince, her lips moved ever so slightly. Even when wracked with surges of clear agony, she pressed her fingertips against Lanfen's cheek, and began mouthing a single word. A word which Lanfen immediately understood and expected from Komichi of all people.
"Smile."
Pure snow accumulated on the Sword of Damocles as it lied across a bed of white. The familiar sound of an approaching helicopter could be heard rising within the distance, reassuring Lanfen that help was truly on its way. With her blood-drenched hands still pressing down on Komichi's wound, Lanfen bit down on her lips, and slowly nodded at what she assumed to be a simple request from Komichi. 'Smile'. Such a direct and simple word could always be associated with her, even when Komichi's fingertips slowly began to lose their grip on Lanfen's scarred cheek. Even when the beating of a heart slowed down with each passing second.
Shifting her own tearstained gaze towards Komichi's soft expression once again, Lanfen felt a familiar sense of unease subsequently falling upon her shoulders.
A pair of green eyes had their pupils directed at the Wielder. And yet, Lanfen no longer felt anything staring back at her.
"Komichi...?"
A single gaze into those fading eyes discovered nothing within them. Not anymore. Whatever heartbeats Lanfen initially felt had also disappeared entirely beneath her blood-soaked fingers. The hand which had grasped on to Lanfen's scarred cheek fell back onto the snow before she even realized it. Even so, the Wielder refused to lighten her grasp on Komichi's wound. Even so, Lanfen continued to kneel down on the crimson-dyed snow. An audio transmission from Yuki eventually arose within her headphones, but Lanfen could not bring herself to answer it. Instead, the only act she could undertake was to continue looking into Komichi's green eyes, still clinging on to the hope that the spark within them would eventually somehow return.