Valchirie Dell'Orizzonte
by firepowerblade2
Chapther 6: Where Omens Lead
Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or Senki Zessho Symphogear.
It was about a month after the failed attempt of transferring Durandal, and this early morning found Chris on the pier next to the mansion. She looked out to the lake, her mind focusing on her past battles and what she learned from them.
Fine said you need a lot of phonic gain to activate an intact relic, Chris thought, ignorant of how the Sakurai theory had change, What took me six months to do with Solomon's Cane, she did in an instant. And not only that… She forced it to unleash its power.
"She's a monster!" she said, reflecting on her past and staring at the cane she compared Durandal to, "Fine is so obsessed with that girl that she's making me capture her? And then, I'll be alone again…"
Sensing someone behind her, she turned to find Fine standing behind her wearing a black skirt and hat.
"I know what's been done to me," Chris addressed the older woman, "You don't need to use this. I'll do what you want!"
She through the relic to the older woman.
"I'll show you that I'm better than she is," the silveret declared as she presented her ring, "I'll destroy anyone with power other than me! That's what I want!"
Fine smirked, for the last two years Chris had avoided wearing her ring in front of her and usually ran off for a few hours when she did. If the girl was willing to wear it then she was that serious about completing her task.
In Section 2's hospital, Tsubasa was trying to work on mobility by walking through the halls. Her only support was her crutch and she was also dragging around an IV drip.
Kanade, I want to see it, too, thought the swordswoman, If I don't, I won't be able to stand by you. What's behind the battle, on the other side… I want to know for myself.
"Tsubasa-san," exclaimed a nurse who has just turned a corner, "you just got out of the ICU. You can't push yourself." As she tried to help the younger girl, Tsubasa lost her balance and fell against a nearby window.
"I'm sorry…" gasped the girl, catching movement out of the corner of her eye, she realized that Hibiki was doing sprint training with a girl who could only have been her friend.
It was indeed Hibiki that Tsubasa had seen. She was running with Miku to increase her stamina, although her mind kept drifting to what happened when she grabbed Durandal.
Durandal's power was out of control, the blonde remembered, What scares me ism't that I can't control it. It's that I used it on that girl without the slightest hesitation.
I'm always so weak, she cursed her lack of control.
Where as Miku stopped running due to exhaustion, Hibiki kept going and surprised the other girl.
I can't just stop at the goal! She thought with determination, I need to go further! Further… Further!
"Jeez! You're pushing yourself too hard!" complained Miku. She and Hibiki were bathing in their dorm's tub to wash of their sweat.
"Sorry! I was just thinking, and I got distracted," responded the blond.
"You're a weird girl," the dark haired girl commented.
"Sorry to make you do that on a Sunday morning," the blonde apologized.
"It's fine. It reminded me of middle school. It felt good…" reminisced Miku.
"Even after running all that way?" Hibiki asked in amazement, "I guess you really were on the track team. I'm so tired, I can barely move my legs…"
"Hibiki!" the black haired girl spoke up, she took a seat next to Hibiki and leaned against her dorm mate, "Since you came to Lydian, you've changed. You never used to like trying hard at things."
"Really? I don't think I've changed," the blonde mused.
"What?" Miku suddenly asked.
"Eh?" was Hibiki's intellectual response.
"Are you getting some muscles?" the dark haired girl asked as she leaned into check, "And look, you're covered in scratches. What happened? Here! And over here, too!"
Ignoring the blondes objections, Miku's examination devolved into a tickle fight that the dark haired girl won.
A few minutes later they got ou and started changing.
"Hey, you should treat me to some okonomiyaki at Flower," Miku requested while still in her underwear, "As thanks for going with you on a Sunday."
"Eh? Well, I've heard that the okonomiyaki there is some of the best anyone's ever had, but…" Hibiki tried to object.
"Then it's decided," the dark haired girl interrupted, "It'll be fun, getting okonomiyaki at Flower!"
"Is that really enough?" the fighter asked, showing that she wanted to do more for her.
"Yeah. That's what I want," the brunet replied.
In the headquarters beneath the school, modifications to the base were being made all over the place with the majority being done in the Elevator shaft. Hibiki had commented that it would have been easier and safer if the shaft wasn't so large.
"Yeah. The memorial service for Defense Minister Hiroki, right?" asked Ryoko.
"Yes. We may have disagreed at times, but he was always interested in what was best for us," commented Genjuro, he was wearing a black suite instead of a tan one, "We've lost a powerful ally."
"How are things going here?" he asked.
"Seventeen percent ahead of schedule," answered the scientist.
"Honestly, I feel better that the plan to move Durandal was canceled," commented Sakuya,
"And we're upgrading security at headquarters now, too," agreed Aoi.
"This place was designed so that it could be upgraded, if we needed to," reminded Ryoko, "And this plan is something I sent to the government a long time ago."
"But weren't there a lot of Diet members who opposed it?" asked the female operator.
"The leader of the opposition was Defense Minister Hiroki," revealed Genjuro, "He said it wasn't right to spend so much tax money on an unofficial project. And that it wasn't right to give us unlimited extrajudicial powers."
Sighing, Genjuro continued his explanation, "The reason he opposed it was to keep us strictly withing the law, so no one would have an excuse to shut us down."
"Commander, who's going to replace Defense Minister Hiroki?" Aoi asked now knowing the risks that came with their new advantages.
"The vice minister will take over his roll," their leader answered, "He's also the one who agreed to fund the base upgrades. He is, but…"
"Is something wrong?" Aoi urged him on.
"He's also very pro-American," he explained, "Meaning That American-suggested policies for Japanese defense are more likely to be implemented."
"No way…" the operator responded, "Was the American government involved in the assassination?"
An alarm sounding interrupted the discussion as the monitor that an accident happened during one of the upgrades.
"Oh, no… looks like theres trouble," noted Ryoko, "I'll go take a look."
"Yeah," acknowledged Genjuro.
"Yes?… Yes," Hibiki admitted into her phone, she had just gotten out of class when she received a call, "Eh? Me?"
"I'm kind of busy right now," Ogawa Shinji's voiced over the phone, "I'm sorry, but could you do it? You're the only one I can ask."
"Sure, I've got it," accepted the blonde, only to notice her dorm mate standing on the steps she was next to, filled with guilt she ended the call, "Okay, then… Goodbye!"
"Huh, Miku? What's wrong?" Hibiki asked, trying to hide her nervousness.
"Well, I'm going to go shopping… Do you want to go with me?" asked Miku, "We can go to Flower after."
"Sorry… Something just came up," the blonde haired girl turned down her friend.
"I see," the dark haired girl hid her disappointment.
"And you just invited me. Penso di essere maledetto," complained Hibiki.
"Nope. Got it," accepted Miku, "Then, next time." Seeing her friend and crunch's worried look she spoke, "Don't worry about it. There's a book I want to get at the library, so I'll go there for today."
"I'm really sorry!" Hibiki once again apologized before running off.
Taking some time to visit her dorm and a flower shop, Hibiki soon stood in the Hospital's patient wing in front of room 402. Taking a deep breath, she typed in the access code she was given and opened the door… To find a clean room with fresh flowers.
"Tsubasa-san?" called out Hibiki.
"What are you doing?" asked a voice behind her. Turning to see it was Tsubasa she greeted her, "Oh hi, Ogawa-san asked me to check in on you while he was busy."
"Wait… If Ogawa-san is busy and you only just got here, then who cleaned my room?!" Tsubasa panicked.
She's terrified because of a clean room? The blonde asked herself before realizing , "You don't clean up after yourself?"
Tsubasa could only blush as she realized she had reveled her biggest secret to the younger girl, "I don't… I don't really think about these things. If I'm left on my own then my room would end up as a pigsty."
"It's a little hard to comprehend," commented Hibiki, "I think of you as always doing everything perfectly."
heading to the bed to sit down, Tsubasa chuckled a the irony.
"The truth is just the opposite," she said, "Fighting is the only thing I know how to do. Normally I would leave the cleaning to Ogawa-san."
"Huh? You have a guy do it?" the blonde girl asked in shock.
It took a second for the implications to surface in the idol's mind.
"Y-You're right," she admitted in embarrassment, "When you think about it, there are many problems with that. But still, I don't want to leave it messy, so…"
Unsure on how to respond, Hibiki simply grunted out an agreement.
"I'm still stuck in the hospital, but I've read the reports," Tsubasa said, regaining her composure, "And I read that you've been filling the hole I left just fine."
"That isn't true at all!" the kohai denied, "Everyone in Section 2 is always helping me!"
In the library next to the hospital, unseen by either girl, Miku had taken the book, 'How to Be Honest with Yourself,' from its shelf. Turning her head, she saw Tsubasa's hospital room through the window, in it she saw Hibiki speaking with her. Turning back to the book she was holding moment she place it back where she found it.
"I'm happy you said that…" the blonde thanked her friend.
"But that is why I want you to tell me," spoke Tsubasa, turning to the other girl, "The reason you fight."
"Eh?"
"The battle with the Noise isn't a game," she stated, "You should be aware of that, as many dangerous fights as you've been through."
"I'm not, not really," admitted Hibiki, "I guess saving people is just a kind of hobby of mine, so…"
"So? Is that all?" the senpai asked.
"Well, when you're studying or playing sports, you usually compete with someone," explained the kohai, "But you don't have to compete with anyone if you're helping them." The girl paused for a moment before continuing.
"There's nothing I'm really good at," Hibiki admitted, "So I just hope I can do something that helps other people…" giving a nervous chuckle, the blonde thought on her reason more deeply.
"I guess it started…" the young girl said in reflection, "I guess it started with that. That concert, two years ago, when Kanade-san sacrificed herself to save me. Not just her. Lots of people died there, that day. But I'm still here, and I can still do things like laugh and eat snacks. So I want to, at least, be helpful to someone. Because I want to be able to laugh and eat snacks tomorrow, too." The blonde turned to the bluenet, "I want to help people."
"A very positive reason, just like you," admitted Tsubasa, before she brought up a point that she was struggling with, "But it's possible that it's only an optimistic excuse for suicide."
"Suicide?" exclaimed the blonde in confusion.
"Basically, survivor's guilt," explained the bluenet, "You want to sacrifice yourself for others, to free your self from the pain of old wounds."
"Um, did I say something weird?" asked Hibiki in concern.
"Huh?"
"U-Um…"
The bluenet chuckled at her friend's akwardness.
Deciding that a change of scenery was necessary, Tsubasa invited Hibiki to the hospital's rooftop to continue their conversation.
"It isn't up to me to decide if it's strange," admitted Tsubasa, "Think and decide for yourself."
"I think and think, but there's so much I don't understand," Hibiki voiced her confusion, "When I touched Durandal the darkness almost swallowed me. The next thing I knew, I was using that power on another person. If I could use my Armed Gear properly, that never would've happened."
"To know how to use your power means becoming a warrior," the bluenet warned.
"A warrior…" the blonde repeated.
"It means moving further away from how normal people live," she continued, "Do you have the resolve for that?" for a moment, the younger girl remained silent.
"There are things I want to protect," Hibiki repeated, more firm then in the past, "Like an uneventful, everyday life. Protecting that life is really important to me. But I can't seem to do anything about it…"
"When your fighting, what do you think about?" Tsubasa asked.
"If Noise are attacking someone, I want to save them, as soon as I can! I want to be there, as fast as possible, as soon as possible. I want to head straight for them!" the blonde answered, "And then… If I'm fighting a person, not Noise… I think I want to tell them what I'm feeling. I want to know if we really have to fight."
"Picture everything you're feeling in your mind, as strongly as you can," the bluenet responded, satisfied with her answer, "That is your power to fight. That is Tachibana Hibiki's Armed Gear."
"Welcom!" said Flower's owner as the door was opened.
"Hello," Miku responded.
"Oh, that girl who always eats three full orders Isn't with you?" the older woman asked.
"It's just me today."
"I see," the woman said, not wanting intrude on private business. A few minutes later she was working on the younger girl's order, a normal okonomiyaki and an okonomiyaki with the toppings piled on.
"Then perhaps I'll eat some for her, since she isn't here!" She considered.
"You don't have to eat it, but please make it," Miku requested, hoping Hibiki would still come. The older let out a chuckle in response, "I'm hungry. I haven't eaten all day because I was looking forward to this okonomiyaki…"
The older woman looked in silence for a moment before speaking.
"Then you're thinking on an empty stomach," she claimed, "Nothing wing anything. Her mind flashed through her memories of her best friend, If I talk to her, I'm sure…
"Thank you, ma'am," the young girl expressed her gratitude.
"If anything else happens, come back," the woman offered.
"Okay."
"Hmmmmmm" said Hibiki as she pondered, "Maybe, but I just don't know how to use my Armed Gear…"
"Hay, did you know this, Tsubasa-san?" the blonde asked, "Nothing good will come of thinking while you're hungry!"
"What?" Tsubasa asked, confused by the change in topic.
"The old lady at the okonomiyaki place told me that," explained the younger girl, "pretty smart, huh?"
"Uh, sure…" the bluenet agreed, not actually understanding.
"I know, Tsubasa-san! I'll go bring you some okonomiyaki from Flower!" the Gungnir user declared, "Once we eat, I'm sure I'll figure out how to use the Gear! I think you'll like it, too!" she followed this by running off.
"Wait! Tachibana!" Tsubasa called out futilely. Giving up she prepared to leave the roof herself…
"I almost forgot!"… Only for Hibiki to come right back.
"Tachibana?!" the bluenet asked.
"I wanted to give you this." the blonde held out her hand and in it was a silver ring, it had blue and light green octagon shaped gem with a clock like symbol in it and a carving of a shiba inu and a sparrow.
"isn't this one of the rings you had when you were first brought in?" Tsubasa asked.
"Yeah, it is," admitted the younger girl, rubbing the back of her head, "I actually wanted to give you it when I first saw you at the concert."
"I see…" the bluenet responded.
"While we were talking, it felt like you were going back to how you used to be two years ago." the blonde claimed, "Well I need to go, bye." She once more ran to the elevator before Tsubasa could stop her.
"She has way to much energy," bemused the remaining girl, looking at the ring, she slid it on.
"It feels good to have someone to fight with again," she said to herself, "I won't let what happened to Kanade happen to her."
As if responding to her words, a blue light started to come from the ring.
"What?!"
Alarms were sounding in the control room as an enemy was located by the sensors.
"The girl with the Armor of Nehushtan is coming this way," reported Aoi.
"Issue an evacuation order for the surrounding area," ordered Genjuro, "And contact Hibiki-kun.
"Yes, I understand! I'll be there soon!" Hibiki confirmed into her communicator as she ran through a park,
"Ah… Hibiki!" a familiar voice caught her attention, looking ahead she realized that Miku had started to run towards her.
"You!"
The blonde noticed that the other voice was Chris and she was going to attack!
"Stay back! It's danger-" she called out to her friend, only to get interrupted as the whip hit the path between them. The shock wave sent the dark haired girl to the ground as well as sent a car flying towards her.
"Oh, no! Someone else was there?" the silvernet realized. Before anyone else could react, a song rang out in the chaos.
Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron.
Clad in her Symphogear, Hibiki uppercut the car before it could hit Miku, knowing that her friend would know she was liying.
"Hibiki?" the other girl asked in confusion.
"I'm sorry," the blonde apologized in grief before head out to face her foe. Knowing it was her being targeted, the blonde ran past Chris and deeper into the woods.
"You really think a slow kid like you can provoke me?" the silvernet challenged, giving chase after her quarry.
"Why is Hibiki…" Miku asked as Hibiki and the white figure left her sights.
"Hibiki-chan has entered combat," reported Aoi, "She's currently moving away from the city."
"Keep following her," Genjuro ordered, "Record every second of this!"
Having achieved some distance from Miku, Hibiki stopped and turned to face Chris only to block one of her whips.
"Not bad, slow kid," commented Chris.
"My name isn't 'slow kid'!" objected the blonde, "My name is Tachibana Hibiki, age fifteen! My birthday is September 135h and my blood type is O! I just had my height measured, and it was 157! My weight is… I'll tell you when we're better friends! My hobby is saving people, and my favorite things are food and food. And… I've never had a boyfriend!"
"Wh-Why are you telling me all that?" the silvernet asked in confusion and slight irritation towards herself. This girl is not Prima, her being signal should not make her happy!
"We aren't like Noise. We can understand each other, so I want to talk!" the fighter declared,
"You're serious? After all this?" the white haired girl questioned as she swung her chain… Only for her foe to jump out of the way, She's… another attack, another dodge, Something's changed. Hibiki dodged another attack, too much to be coincidence, Resolve?
"Let's talk! We can't fight each other!" the blonde requested, irritating the silvernet, "Because if we can talk to each other, people can-"
"Shut up," interrupted Chris, "People can't understand each other other. That isn't how we're made. I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! You keep talking, but you don't understand a thing!"
Left in shock by the sudden outburst, Hibiki remained silent while the silvernet recovered.
"I was told to drag you back, but I don't care about that now," said the girl, "I'll destroy you here! I'll ruin everything you have!"
"I can't lose, either," declared Hibiki.
Chris swung back a chain and formed an orb of energy on it, "Explode! She yelled as she sent it flying at the other girl.
Nirvana Gedon
Hibiki crossed her arms to block the attack and struggled to keep it from pushing her back. But this left her open.
"Take another!" The silvernet yelled as she sent another orb at the first, when it made contact with the first they both exploded. The members of Section 2 held their breath as they waited to see Hibiki's fate.
"It's because of you that I'm going to…" the silvernet let out her grievances as she watched the smoke clear, only to be interrupted as she heard her foe's cry.
The cry was confirmed to be coming from Hibiki as she generated a ball of energy between her hands only for it to explode and send her falling back several feet.
This isn't working… Hibiki thought as she got up, I can't stabilize my Gear's energy, like Tsubasa-san can!
"She's trying to get her Armed Gear in this short a time?" Chris asked herself in compete disbelief that her foe would do something so recless.
I have the energy. If I can't stabilize it with my Armed Gear, the blonde though as she gathered energy into her right hand and closed her fist around it releasing a pile bunker from her gauntlet, I'll just hit with it!
"No you don't!" the silvernet yelled, swinging both whips at her foe, noticing her foe was up to something. "What?" she gasped as the blonde blocked her attack with one hand.
Like you've been crushing lightning! Gripping the chains, Hibiki pulled on them, forcing the older girl to fly towards her. She ignited her thrusters and jump to meet the other girl half way.
Straight for her, as fast as possible, as soon as possible, I'll tell her what I'm feeling… The song in my heart! Hibiki struck at Chris and unleashed the pile she generated, this sent a shock wave through her body and out her back.
Impossible, the silvernet thought in disbelief, The Armor of Nehushtan is…
A dust rose as Miku watched what little she could cursing her own ignorance.
"Hibiki?"