Souls' Salvation (Part 3)

[Xaeris]

And here we are, at the beginning of the end. I have to confess: some part of me is surprised that I made it this far, but a promise is a promise. So, let's talk about how this is going to work. Barring a forum wipe, this will be the last thread I make for this story, and likely, any story at all. However, what I'm posting right now is not the entire leg of the story, like with Reconstructions. That was fun, but the only reason I managed to pull that off was because it was NaNoWriMo. At the same time, I don't think the weekly serial format has served me well.

Instead, I've divided this last part of the story into three pieces. I will post the chapters of each piece in rapid succession, no more than two days apart each, and then take a break. For example, part I here will be finished about the first week into July. Then, I will vanish for a few months until I come back with part II. All in all, I expect the fat lady to be singing by the year's end.

Now, normally, I write these things such that reading the threads before it isn't absolutely necessary. I didn't do that this time. This time, this won't make a damn lick of sense without, at the very least, Reconstructions.

Well, enough yapping. Let us begin with chapter 1. Just for old times' sake, I'm going to try my hand at giving them titles again! Wonder how long it'll take for me to mess this up.

Chapter 1: The Little White Dress

My dress was amazing. Gurhal had been struck by the largest scale acts of terrorism it had ever seen and put on track towards an uncertain future, but nevermind that for a minute, I want to talk about my gown. Ever since I was a little girl, I’d dreamed of the day I’d take the title of Neudaiz’s empress. Of course, I knew at the time that it would be purely ceremonial, but all I cared about was the glamour, so that worked out fine. What I didn’t know, back then, was that when the time came, I was going to be at the head of a disastrous time in my planet’s history. But I still got my gown.
The tricky thing about my gown was that it couldn’t be more lavish than what the Divine Maiden wore, or it might have stoked concerns that I really was usurping the Communion, like some kind of opportunist. Still, the tailors did a wonderful job, despite that limitation. It was a one piece outfit: snug around the torso, and loose around the legs. It was white, if I can really say it that plainly; it was a kind of white that I didn’t think you could get on clothes. If the light hit it the right way, I could swear it shined sometimes.
”Oh my, the tailors do lovely work,” he said from behind me. I was supposed to be alone in the dressing room as I was putting myself together, so it should have startled me to have someone speak out of the blue like that, but I knew who it was. It was an impertinent person whose respect for rules extended only as far as their convenience.
”I feel silly, wearing something this fancy,” I said, looking at his reflection in the mirror in front of me rather than turn around.
”No you don’t. You want to appear that you do, but deep down, you’re squealing that you’re wearing your pretty dress,” he said as he closed the door behind. He was right of course. I hated when he saw through me like that, but it’s only natural that he could, I guess.
”Okay, maybe I do,” I said, turning my nose into the air. “But don’t you think this is a bit much?” I asked as I turned around to face him. I was talking about the gown’s bird motif, which made for a design that made it look like my bosom was caught in a clutch of feathers. Can I say that? Bosom? Ugh, memoirs are such a pain. Anyway, I said, “I think it’s great, yeah, but I don’t want to send the wrong message.”
Johann walked up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. I can’t say it was tender, but he wasn’t rough either. It was a style all his own, the one he always used when interacting with us. Either way, he spun me back towards the mirror and asked, “do you like what you see, Keiko?”
I saw a pretty good image. The hairdressers had already done what they could with my short hair by tying most of it up save for two curled locks on the opposite sides of my head. The makeup artists somehow managed to put a few years of maturity onto my face, even if it did feel like I was wearing a few extra pounds on it. With Johann at my side, it was really a dynamic picture. It could’ve been the box art of a video game, honestly.
”Yeah. I really do,” I said.
”Then that’s what counts. If you can look at yourself in the mirror in the morning, you’ve got nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. He looked at the mirror too, and I think he thought the same thing about what a dynamic portrait it was, because he smirked and stroked his stubble.
”Hmm, thanks,” I said. “Zip me up?” I asked, turning my back towards him.
”Nope,” he said.
”Why not?!” I asked.
”I refuse to participate any further in this horribly clichéd scene,” he said as he took a cigarette from the inside of his coat.
”Ugh, this side of you will never change!” I said as I fumbled around for the zipper on my back. I was used to my clothes just melting right on by using a nanotransformer, so getting dressed the old fashioned way was getting to be a challenge. Why are those zippers so small?!
Just as to be expected from Johann, he was perfectly content to watch me stumble and fumble as I tried to get at the zipper. “You know, I don’t think we’ve talked about this, but there’s something you need to be prepared for,” he said.
”What’s that?” I asked.
”There’s going to be porn of you on the Internet,” he said.
”What?!”
”You’re a high profile figure now. It’s only a matter of time,” he said, in that infuriatingly calm manner of his. “I’m just saying, you should be ready for half the male population of Gurhal to be thinking of you when they go to bed. It sounds trivial, but it’s actually quite a jarring reality to set into.”
I had stopped bothering with the zipper by that point. I was pumping my fists, and sputtering what I’m sure sounded like nonsense. “W-well, stop it! You’re my knight, it’s your job to make stuff like that not happen!”
”My dear princess, as an accomplished physicist, I can tell you that all the explanations that account for the phenomenon that occur in this universe boil down to five theories,” he said. He paused to tap some ash off his cigarette. “Quantum chromodynamics, quantum electrodynamics, electroweak theory, general relativity, and lastly, the most comprehensive of them all…”
Johann was an intelligent person that enjoyed doing impressions of a stupid person. As annoying as it could be, the result could be fascinating sometimes, in a morbid kind of way. “And?” I asked, humoring him.
”Rule 34.”
”Ugh. What’d you even come here for?” I asked.
”You’ll have to go straight to your speech once you’re finished in here. I thought you might do with a little distraction to ease your mind,” he said.
”Most people would just offer a shoulder massage or something.”
”Ha, well, I’m not most people,” he said. He pointed at my back and directed my attention to my zipped up dress. To this day, I still have no idea when the heck he did that. “I’m the Johann Launcher. You’ll do great Keiko. Just speak with your heart; it’s impossible to ignore.”
With that, he was out the door. He was right. I was slated to deliver a speech that day. I had rehearsed it enough times, yeah, but I couldn’t help but have butterflies in my stomach. After that conversation though, I felt fine. Well, not fine, but being irritated with Johann was such a familiar feeling, that it passed for ‘fine.’
There’s not that much to say about the speech. It’s historical footage now and it could be found anywhere. The idea was to make a big production of it, to rally the morale of the people. It was low level stagecraft, but it was the most sensible play to make at the time. So, we held the event overlooking the river that splits Ohtoku in two, with Mt. Ohtoku in the background. The weather was on our side that day too, and it was uncommonly sunny.
The officials of the Communion who had stayed on were assembled on the stage I would be speaking, and directly behind the podium itself was Johann. It was an impressive lineup, I think. I took my place before an immense gathering of people, plus cameras. I froze for a few seconds as it hit me just how many people would be watching me just then. If there’s ever been any question as to why my eyes fluttered as if I was looking for the on switch in my brain, there’s the answer.
The words came to me quickly enough, thankfully. Let’s see, I think I still remember the beginning by heart. “My dear countrymen. Three months ago, we were attacked. Not just us as people, not just our lives, but the very harmony which we’ve built upon each generation was assaulted. Every person alive today, and every person that has ever lived has made their contribution to the fabric of our society, and these barbarians, these Illuminus, took a match to that tapestry to light it ablaze.”
I remember the crowd being very silent. It stuck with me because I found it amazing that such quiet could exist in the same place as a vast sea of humanity. I went on, “these murderers will not go unpunished! We will find them, wherever they scheme, wherever they hide and drag them, squirming, into the light! We will show them, and all those who come after us, that the harmony our dreams and hopes built was stronger than they were.”
…Something, something, something…yeah, that’s the most I can recall. I’m getting old. Well, that much was enough to move the crowd at least. They were clapping and cheering, which made me smile. I had written the speech myself with my honest feelings, and while Johann did fancy up the words a bit, it was my baby and it was doing me proud. While the crowd was cheering, I paused, since I wasn’t going to be heard if I kept on speaking. During that time, I saw Johann dashing off in the corner of my eye. I wondered what he was doing, but I assumed it was important, so I didn’t think too much of it.

[McLaughlin]

Oh hell yes.

[Xaeris]

You're always there to sound the horn, Obs. I appreciate that. Next chapter goes up in a little while.

[Magus_84]

Oh hell yes, indeed.

And for those in need of a refresher...

Beginning: http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126203

Topic two: http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=139275

Topic three: http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165103

Topic four: http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=184110

In-game chronology-wise...

It's after the colony drop that ended "vanilla" PSU and led, story-wise into Ambition of the Illuminus. The Aegii (Archetypical Guardians of the highest order whose combat abilities for the templates for all player members of the classes) are scattered, the Guardians broken.

The most recent topic continues from Keiko's point of view, covering the events leading up to the colony drop and her quest to find the rest of the Aegii. It's the one you'd most likely read to get back into the thick of the story, though the rest is awesome as well.

There's intrigue, drama, a fight with Mother Brain, and more! Also a blast from the past from his PSO fic days.

[Xaeris]

Chapter 2: A Black Eyepatch

This is ridiculous. It used to be that you could be out of commission for an entire disc and your main character spot would be waiting for you when you got back. I wasn’t even gone two months and I have to share. Bah.
At any rate, it was as Keiko suspected. During her speech, I got an alarm signal originating from the Pavilion of Air. Logically, you would think that would be a matter for the security on site to deal with, but it was originating from the deepest chambers, where the core of the Lattice Shield System was located.
I should explain, that during this time, myself and Keiko weren’t acting as Guardians. Though Keiko had retrieved all of the aegii, the fact was that President Dallgun was still dead and the Headmaster was unaccounted for. It’d still be a bit longer before the Guardians were a functioning organization again, so for that time being, Keiko and I were running our planet. Somehow, I found myself as head of security, among other roles.
This is all declassified information now, so I can say that the Lattice Shield System was fueled by the radiance of Maiden candidates, along with the Divine Maiden herself. Beneath the Pavilion of Air was where we kept the capsules that siphoned the radiance from the women and the machines that turned it into the shield that protected Neudaiz from SEED falls. Naturally, neither Keiko nor myself were particularly thrilled with this arrangement, but what can you do when you inherit a clusterfudge like that?
On my way down, I found the intruder. Wasn’t particularly difficult; after all, he had never been there before and Communion buildings resemble a maze. I always found it poor design myself, but, meh. The intruder was none other than the wanted criminal, Ethan Waber.
What can I say about Ethan Waber. He had become something of a phenom among the Guardians since he joined, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, he became a rogue. Well, later I came to understand his reasons, but I first encounters were…um…not good. So naturally, when I found the red headed lout in a secure area, I wasn’t too eager to give him the benefit of the doubt.
”You!” I said, quite astutely, I think.
”Launcher!” he said, whipping around to face me across the long hallway that separated us. I…can’t say with 100% certainty which of us drew his weapon first. I want to believe it was him, but when I look back at the scene, I can’t deny that it might have been me. Either way, he took out his double saber and I took out my Save the Maiden within milliseconds of each other and we charged down the hallway at each other.
The photon cages on our weapons met with a distinctive crash, like the sound of glass clattering. We met with equal momentum and neither of us gave up an inch from the initial point of contact; we were deadlocked. “What’s your reason for being here?” I asked.
”I could ask you the same thing!” he said.
”What? That doesn’t make any sense,” I replied. I stepped off to the side to break the deadlock and let Waber stumble forward. Taking the opening, I thrust at his back as he stumbled. He recovered quickly though, and turned his momentum around to parry my rapier thrust with a slash from his double saber.
”Oh, right,” he said. He thrust with his double saber, and I batted it away with a light swipe from my rapier. We went back and forth like that for a while, causing the sounds of glass shattering to echo in the halls. I have to say, I was in rare swashbuckling form that day. It would have looked like an elegant duel to anyone who had the privilege to watch.
I should confess, I wasn’t taking the fight that seriously. Yes, the Communion had put him on terrorist watch, but that was under Rutsu’s tenure, and quite frankly, anyone that pisses off Rutsu is an ally of mine. That, and in the fight, Waber just didn’t have any killer intent. To him, I must have just been an obstacle that popped up at an inopportune time. So, I never cast any technics in that skirmish.
”This is pointless, we’re at a stalemate,” I eventually said after one clash of blades that forced us both to back up. “Tell me seriously, what have you come here for?”
His grip on his weapon relaxed, but he still had it pointed at me. So, I lowered my rapier and relaxed my posture. Seeing that, he exhaled and did the same. “I want to see Karen, er, I mean, Mirei.”
”Uh huh…” I said. Naturally, I knew of the replacement act we had pulled involving the Mikuna twins. I still say that was the most laughably contrived scheme ever. “Why would you want to do that?”
”Huh? Oh, because…” He couldn’t quite finish the thought, but the bewildered expression on his face told me what I needed to know.
”Oh. …Fine then.”
”Wait, huh?” he asked just as I put my weapon away.
”You want to see her right? I can tell you’re lost, so follow me,” I said. I had already started to walk down the hall, but I could hear his confused gurgling from behind me, so I paused and looked over my shoulder. “Problem?”
”You’re going to take me to her just like that?” he asked.
I regarded him for a few moments longer over my shoulder, and then turned to continue walking. “Why not? You barged into a heavily guarded, secure facility to see the woman you love. You’re hardly one to talk about rationale.”
“…All right,” he said. He stowed his weapon in his nanotransformer and followed after me. Just like that, we were on a leisurely stroll after a spirited clash of whirling blades. I don’t think he had quite finished switching gears, because he was keeping a healthy distance from me as we walked.
”Why did you leave the Guardians?” I asked. He turned to me with a puzzled expression and I said, “just killing time.”
”It’s probably different for an Aegis, but for a regular Guardian, there’s a lot of places I can’t go. I need the freedom I have a rogue, at least for now,” he said. “It started when I was on a security job on Parum, with Leo…” Eh…he told me about how he got blackmailed into trying to assassinate the President, blah, blah, this is really someone else’s story to tell. I believed him, for the most part.
”We’re here,” I said as we came upon the door to the chamber. I opened it up and in we went. As I described, there were capsules hooked up to machines, most of which had a newman woman inside. Immediately, Ethan’s eyes darted around the room, and he found who he was looking for. He darted to the middle and pressed against the glass capsule with Mirei…Karen, inside.
”Is she okay?” he asked as I walked up behind him.
”I can’t say definitively, but from what I understand about this system, she, and all of the other women here, should be fine,” I said. I’ve been told that I have a long winded way of answering yes or no questions. I don’t see it. “However, as you can see, she’s comatose. You can’t speak with-“
And just then, so much bullocks; Erra started to wake up in her capsule. Her murmurs were quiet, but I’d heard the murmuring of a sleepy woman many, many times by that point, so I picked up on it immediately. I peered over into the glass, and sure enough, her eyes were opening and her arms were scraping around in her confinement. “…The hell?” I said.
”Sh-she’s waking up!” Waber said.
”Yes…” I was rather dumbfounded myself, so I didn’t give that statement of obvious fact the witty retort it deserved. Instead, I just hit a button on the panel to pop the lid of the capsule. Erra rose, still seated, and looked around. Immediately, her eyes found Waber.
”Ethan!”
”Karen!”
And then there was some lovey dovey nonsense, I wasn’t really paying attention. …Well, I say that, but looking back, I think I may have been a little jealous. After all, the woman I loved was still lost to me. …Nah. At any rate, after a few minutes of that, I cleared my throat for attention.
”I hate to ruin the mood, but I feel like I should remind you that you’re still an intruder, Waber,” I said.
”No, he’s not,” Erra said. She rushed to get out of the capsule, but having been comatose for so long, her legs gave way as soon as she put them on the floor. Naturally, Waber caught her by the arm for support. Damned white knights. “Ethan is welcome on Communion grounds, if I have any say in it!”
”Yeah…about that,” I said. “Maybe you should sit back down before I bring you up to speed on recent events.” I told her about Keiko’s coup. It should be appreciated just how critical it was that the situation be handled well. I believe Keiko covered this already, but it’s worth reiterating. Neudaiz, and Gurhal, are loyal to the Divine Maiden before any government; they’re stupid in that way. …Oh hell, is that going in? Blah, whatever, I’m retired anyway.
If Erra wouldn’t give her blessing to Keiko’s actions, then her reign would go straight to hell. It was absolutely imperative to get her on our side. As soon as we returned from Parum, I had already been thinking about what the best way to handle the situation when it arose, would be. I confess, I briefly considered assassinating her and just calling it a day. It gave me that much of a headache.
”And that’s where we’re left now,” I said, once I reached the end of my summary.
”You just usurped the Communion?!” she said.
”To be fair, Rutsu was kind of a douche,” I said. I never liked that guy. Though, if I knew he would get his arse whupped by a sixteen year old girl, some of that loathing would have been pity instead.
”It’s true,” Waber said with a nod.
”I understand how it looks, but I need you to understand, that the girl sitting on the throne right now isn’t a person with any lust for power. She did what she did because she genuinely believed it was the right thing to do,” I said. Did I mention how important it was that this worked out in our favor? “If you give her your support, I honestly believe that you will not regret it.”
…Yeah, so then I got down on my hands and knees. I said, “so I’m asking, please, help her.”
Erra was quiet. I felt like she and Waber were trading looks, but I had my head squarely pointed at the ground, so I couldn’t say for sure. “It’s weird seeing you like this, Aegis Launcher,” she said. I had to suppress a smirk. That was my plan after all. My reputation as a Guardian, unsurprisingly, was one of unshaken conviction and undying pride. Other people may not have used such romantic words for it, but screw them, they write their own memoirs. Anyway, I figured it was a good enough cause to cash in the capital I had built up as a result to impress upon Erra how serious the situation was.
I’m a magnificent bastard.
”I’m still not sure about everything, but Neudaiz still needs the Lattice Shield System, doesn’t it?” she asked. I hesitated. The answer was an unequivocal ‘yes,’ of course, but I can imagine how Waber felt.
”It does,” he said. His voice broke slightly, but he said it resolutely. “I’m glad, I got to see you again, Karen.” And then some more lovely dovey nonsense. Blah, blah, blah, no one cares.
”I’ll leave it in the empress’ hands for now, Aegis Launcher. Please come get me as soon as you can spare the shield,” she said. I nodded and rose to my feet.
With that, Waber and I left. I’m not sure why, but on our way out, I asked him, “are you all right?” Again, it may have just been sympathy for kindred spirit. …Nah.
”Yeah…I mean, I just wanted to be sure she was safe,” he said with a heavy sigh.
”Shame I was there though. If you two had been alone, you could have had a proper reunion,” I said. That got him sputtering. Classic virgin. “I’m joking. Seriously though, what are you planning on doing now?”
”I’m on my way to Parum now. I need to find Laia,” he said. My raised eyebrow was reply enough, and he went on, “in the president’s last message, he said he wanted her to become the new President.” My eyebrow arched further. “I know, I know, I thought the same thing at first, but I think it’s actually a good idea now.”
”Well…that does save me the trouble of guilt tricking Eustace into doing it. Do you have any leads?”
”I’m hearing that she’s holed up in Rozenom, but it’s just a rumor. It’s the best I have though, so it’s worth checking out,” he said. His expression lit up and I had to take a step back when he stepped forward with his arm flailing. “Hey, you wanna come?”
”When the hell did we become such good buddies?” I asked. “Bah. Regardless, I can’t. I have my hands full here on Neudaiz.”
His flailing hand calmed and he extended it to me for a handshake. “Thanks for your help, Aegis Launcher!” I stared at his open hand for a few moments, then lightly met it with my own for a light, but polite handshake. “I’m glad we’re on the same team now!”
”Meh.”
”Hey, by the way, where’d you get that eyepatch?” he asked. Ah, my eyepatch. It was a great accessory. It was held over my left eye by three thick straps and fit over the shape of my face like a second skin.
”It was a gift from a sweet huney,” I said.

[Seth Astra]

Hmm... I read a brief bit of a previous fic of yours. However, I realized how many you had, thus I didn't continue. However, now I have something to read over the summer. Thanks. Be prepared for comments once I catch myself up.

[McLaughlin]

Sweet huney indeed.

[Xaeris]

Good luck Seth. It's a pretty large undertaking, and honestly, the story starts out kind of rough, looking at it in hindsight. I hope you find that it hits its stride in good time though.

[CupOfCoffee]

I've never had a PSU character that got higher than Lv10, so I think a lot of that went over my head, but damn, I really liked it anyway. The writing is engaging and lively, and each narrator character (that we've met so far) has a very unique voice and take on his/her surroundings. In a way (and this may just be my having recently read your "user title," but I'm going to say it anyway) I'm reminded a little of The Princess Bride. The movie version, I mean. Lighthearted duels, lovey parts being glanced over as "blah blah blah," et cetera. And it works! Good show, old boy—I'll be looking forward to part three!

[Magus_84]

I've never had a PSU character that got higher than Lv10, so I think a lot of that went over my head, but damn, I really liked it anyway. The writing is engaging and lively, and each narrator character (that we've met so far) has a very unique voice and take on his/her surroundings. In a way (and this may just be my having recently read your "user title," but I'm going to say it anyway) I'm reminded a little of The Princess Bride. The movie version, I mean. Lighthearted duels, lovey parts being glanced over as "blah blah blah," et cetera. And it works! Good show, old boy—I'll be looking forward to part three!

Reading through the last topic I linked in my post will probably catch you up pretty well. It's a fun ride.

[Xaeris]

I forgot to mention something. This first piece is going to be slow, as far as action goes: very little hacking. The last piece, as I've envisioned it, is basically a nonstop orgy of action, but right now, I'm getting everything in position on the board. I think it's still entertaining, but it won't be quite what you're used to from me.

As we know, authors subsist on attention, so I'm happy with the comments I have so far. Which reminds me, my title needs an update...

Chapter 3: Awakened Beauty
It’s for the best, Johann. If it were up to you, we’d be lucky to be halfway through recovering our allies by now. The story takes forever when you’re the lead.
By the time Johann finished up, I had already finished speaking and was back in my, ugh, office. If it weren’t for the circumstances, I think I would have least commissioned a scepter or something for myself to make the job feel more empress-y. So, when he walked in through the double doors, I was waist deep in papers.
”And where’d you run off to?” I asked, barely looking up.
”Oh, nowhere special. I was just getting you the Divine Maiden’s blessing. No big deal,” he said. I didn’t even need to look up to know he was smirking while lighting a cigarette.
”Did you? Thanks,” I said.
”…The hell, is that it? No squealing, no ‘omigodomigod, thank you , I love you Jo-sei?’ I feel used.”
I got up to walk to him. Shakily; I was very tired, which was getting to be pretty normal for me. I reached my hand up and pat him on the forehead. “Good boy.”
”I’m a beast, not a dog,” he said, crunching his teeth down on his cigarette as I pet him. “At any rate, at least we don’t have that time bomb ticking beneath our feet any longer. You can act a little more freely now.”
”Yeah, the uncooperative prefectures will fall into line once they learn I have the Maiden’s blessing.” I sat back down; I was actually starting to feel light headed. I didn’t head back behind my desk though. I just backed up a few steps and propped myself up onto it. “I’ve managed to undo most of Rutsu’s isolationist handiwork, too.”
”Yet you sound distracted by something,” he said, happy to stand where he was.
”I keep on saying I want to push the Illuminus to the wall, but the truth is we’re fighting a defensive game here, aren’t we? It seems like it’s taking everything we’ve got just to tread water here.”
”We’re on the defensive right now, certainly. But in chess, the strongest attack springs forth from a secure defense,” he said.
”Is that true?”
He shrugged. “It sounds like it could be true. Good enough.” I think I groaned. “Colony and Parum are already in the middle of recovery. We’ll be able to count on their strength in the coming weeks. For now, you should focus on restoring everyone’s security. The time to strike will come as a matter of course.”
I let out a sigh, and some of my tension went with it. Feeling a little less serious, I pulled my legs up onto the desk and hugged them up against myself. I said, “you’re starting to sound like ossan.” The surest way to enrage Johann, after proving him wrong, was to compare him to his father. Predictably, he crunched on his cigarette again and thrust his finger in my face.
”Me and that old man aren’t the first thing alike! Tch, bastard’s probably camped out somewhere, watching everything unfold,” he muttered.
”Rutsu said he was dead, you know,” I said.
”Fft, please, do you believe that?”
”Nope. You know he’s just going to show up when it’s all over and say, ‘hey kids, you been good?” I said. We were joking over it, but for me, and I think for Johann too, our laughter was to put us at ease. While we didn’t believe the man was dead, his absence meant we were missing our usual safety net. “I should get back to work.”
He nodded and turned for the door. For some reason he was fascinated with how he thought he looked when he spoke over his shoulder, so of course, he waited until he was turned around to ask, “yes, I should head back to my lab as well. I assume the meeting is still at seven, tomorrow?” I have to admit, it did look kinda cool with the eyepatch.
”Right, intel briefing,” I replied as I walked back to my seat. “Try not to lose track of time in that lab of yours.” With that, he left to go…do…science. Yeah. That left me by myself to work. I whined about this a lot, but it was so much paperwork. And a lot of it was just absolutely asinine. Arranging for people to have the things they need to survive shouldn’t be such a stupidly complicated process. I should have just been able to go, “hey, everyone, stop being jerks,” to reopen our ports, but it seemed like I had to sign a zillion documents just to get an inch.
A little after Johann left, a message came in through the intercom. Now, the armed servants were always panicking over some minor disaster or another, so I had learned to not pay them very much mind even if they were urgently yelling in their messages. That time, they were yelling about someone who was on their way to my office and wouldn’t wait for a formal audience. I just rolled my eyes and made sure my bow was underneath my chair where I left it.
As the patter of the footsteps drew close, I tossed up my Nasuyoteri into my hands and took aim at the door. From the sound, I guessed it was a short woman, definitely not a cast, and adjusted my aim accordingly, ready to fire when the door opened. Turned out there was no danger, though I did consider firing anyway; my mother was standing there.
”Baa-chan!” I yelled.
”You really are here, then,” she said. Her robes were riddled with creases and a lot of her hair was pressed flat. It made sense, seeing as she had spent the last few months lying in one of the Lattice Shield System capsules, but it was still weird, seeing her look so exhausted. For as long as I could remember, nothing but ossan’s antics could faze her, and she would approach everything in life with the same stoic expression.
”Well, yeah, but what are you doing here?” I asked. “The last I heard, you went to go help power the Lattice when the Illuminus attacked!”
Like always, mother didn’t pay me very much mind. It’s not like she didn’t love me, deep down…really deep down, but sometimes I just got the feeling that my existence was a necessary obligation to her. Still, she did answer my question, while letting her eyes survey the room, “I just woke up. The Lattice’s ability to siphon radiance seems to be declining.”
”You mean it’s broken?” I asked.
”Maybe. Do you know where your guard is? He should come have a look.” She was referring to Johann, of course.
”My knight is doing science in his lab,” I replied, taking special care to put emphasis on ‘knight.’ She turned to me, with a wrinkled brow and I just folded my hands beneath my chin and smiled. “Oh, you didn’t hear? I’m the empress now.
I will never, ever forget the expression she made. It was a cross between confusion and rage. Her face was twitching and she made this stuttering sound from the back of her throat. It was in that moment I finally understood why ossan and Johann loved to troll. Eventually, she managed to say, “what?!”
”Well, it’s like this…” And I bought her up to speed on everything she missed while she was out. I’m really glad I had taken up keeping an audio diary: made it really easy. By the time I was done, mother was fully engrossed with my story, and I had to repeat myself when I said, “I’m done,” to break her trance.
”My daughter, I honestly have to say, I’m impressed. Your actions were shortsighted, reckless, impulsive, foolhardy-“ My mother was a master of the backhanded compliment. I just droned her out until she got to the good part. “-but, the strength of your heart carried you through. I’m…I’m…”
”Yeeeesss?”
”I’m proud of you…” she said. I think it pained her a little to say it. “To think the Communion would roll right over for a teenage girl, though…ridiculous. Well then, summon Johann.”
I leaned over to activate the intercom, but before I could open the channel, my mother had something to say. “Keiko, I understand that an empress requires a commanding presence, but really, who do you think you’re fooling with that stuffed bra?”
Annoying old woman.

[Magus_84]

I'm sure the old man'll pop up sooner or later. We've yet to hear snark about the eyepatch.

And it's the stuff between the stabbity times that makes it so interesting. I think this is paced quite well so far.

[McLaughlin]

Agreed, I really like it so far. Great writing, as always.

[Xaeris]

Johann presents a problem for me, sometimes. Don't misunderstand me, I love him; that's the problem actually. I've been reading and writing fanfiction for a long time now (long enough that I shouldn't be broadcasting it), and I can tell you with absolute certainty that an author who loves his main character is in danger of writing a crappy story. See, there's a considerable overlap between Johann, and myself, in terms of personality. In of itself, that's not really a problem, since it gives me a solid reference to write him with. The difficulty is in treading the fine gradient that makes us different. It's really easy for me to write a whole paragraph of his speech and find that I've used him as a mouthpiece. You guys usually don't see this, because as awful a proofreader as I am, I always make sure to double check everyone's dialogue.

This chapter was really hard because of a bit of speaking he does towards the end. I had to rewrite the thing no less than five times until I arrived at a version that I was happy with. You might laugh, remembering the various shenanigans he's pulled throughout the tale, and say, "Xaeris, isn't Johann already a ridiculous Mary Sue?" That's the interesting thing: the Yohmei override switch, the incredible swagger, the failproof plans, these are all relatively minor symptoms of MS, and I just play them for laughs, mostly. No, the really, really, insidious thing you need to look out for, is when the world of the story bends itself to outright justify the character's point of view. What I'm saying is, sometimes, you just need to be okay with your character coming off as a genuine sociopath sometimes.

Of course, this is all just my humble opinion. Writing workshop is over, there's a chapter to be read.

Chapter 4:Geek Squad

There’s nothing wrong with time dilation. Listen Keiko, being a main character is like doing the rumpy-pumpy. The plot is the woman and the protagonist is the man: the longer you spend kneading her intrigue, stroking her details and caressing her conflicts, the more explosive the climax is. Do it all right, and you make a sequel!
I returned home after I took my leave of the empress. I’d be returning sooner than I planned, but that’s skipping ahead. ‘Home’ was my father’s mansion in Ohtoku. It was funny; not even a half year before that, I had finally finished schooling and struck out on my own into my own life and my own dwelling, only to find myself slinking back into the room I’d lived in since I could walk. Obviously, my apartment in Rozenom wasn’t inhabitable and Keiko’s recent shenanigans required me to be close by, anyway.
”I’m back, Elyham,” I said as I came through the foyer. It was the same for her, since she lived in Rozenom as well. I invited her to stay with me until we got a grip on the situation.
The faint sound of a drill ceased, followed by the rapid pitter patter of footsteps. Finally, Elyham herself turned a corner at the top of the steps and waved furiously to me. “Dr. Launcher, welcome back! Good timing, I need some help!” she said, before she scampered off in the direction she came from. I wouldn’t have called her a bubbly ditz, but she was very effervescent. She reminded me of…a squirrel.
I followed her up to the guest room I gave to her. Thing to understand about Elyham is that she was, simply put, a nerd. If I had met her when I was younger and less cynical about women, I may have ended up marrying her: dodged a bullet there. I mean, really, I can appreciate a delicious flat chest now and then, but waking up to that day after day…er, wait, what was I talking about? …Right, right, so, in the few short days Elyham had taken up residence in the room, she had turned it into a workshop. Various parts, both computer and cast, littered the floor along with crumpled up, indecipherable sketches. The room smelled faintly of instant noodles, cheese puffs, and coffee.
Elyham herself looked somewhat slovenly, with some kind of grease on her fingers and her clothes in disarray. I didn’t think very much of it though; after all, I’ve looked rather ghastly after a few days’ work. Instead, I just took a brief look around and asked, “how can I help?”
”I’m coding the OS for my new suit. You’re better with hardware than I am, so could you have a look at my blueprint designs while I do that?” she said, while offering me a thumb drive.
”Simple request,” I said as I took the drive, as well as a seat on the bed. At least, I think it was the bed. It was difficult to tell, since it was submerged beneath assorted food wrappers. Oh well, it’s not like she was sleeping in it. I swiped the drive through my PDA and opened up the file. I brought up the plans on a large holographic image and went to work, checking her work.
”Dr. Launcher?” she said, after several minutes of silence.
”Yes, Elyham?”
”Um, um…I haven’t gotten a chance to say it, but, you know…I’m glad you’re okay,” she said. She was still coding, but she shrunk in her seat as she was saying the words. I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself slightly.
”Well, I’m pretty thrilled with the development too, you know.”
She laughed at a little at that. Would have been so ridiculously easy to bang her there if that’s where my head was. “I was surprised, though,” she said. I looked up from the blueprints and saw that she had stopped coding. “I mean, you know…I didn’t think you were the self sacrificing type.”
”Oh my, I didn’t know I gave off the impression of a narcissistic misanthrope,” I said.
”That’s not what I meant!” she said as she spun in her chair to address me.
”Ha ha, yes, I know. I think I understand what you’re getting at. Of all the aegii, I have the most realistic outlook, and you’d think me last to carry out a heroic ideal, yes?” It was understandable. I don’t really give off the image of a hero.
”Y-yeah,” she said.
”Hmm, well Elyham, I’ll tell you a secret,” I said as I leaned back against the wall. She wheeled her chair over to the bed, anxious to hear it, and nodded once I looked comfortable. “Contrary to popular belief, I do have ideals, and I do have dreams. The reason I became a Guardian was because I hate the existence of tyranny. I hate that there are people who use power indiscriminately for their own ends. I really, really, fucking hate those people.”
She looked surprised, but more than that, she looked smitten, between the blush in her cheeks and the glazed over look in her eyes. “Wow, I had no idea Dr. Launcher! Who knew you were such a gentle person at heart?”
”See, this is where people make the mistake. I may hate tyranny, but that doesn’t mean I have any love for these little people living their futile, pointless lives. You see, when I went to disarm the bomb in Rozenom that day, I didn’t do it to save anyone, with the exception of the people I knew. I did it to thwart the Illuminus. No other reason.”
I’d only revealed that side of myself to a handful of people. I wasn’t ashamed of it, but at the same time, I couldn’t be arsed to justify myself to everyone. Well, just like I expected of Elyham, she understood. She said, “wow, that’s unique. People usually become Guardians because they want to protect something. You, on the other hand, want to demolish the bad things.” She put her hands beneath her chin and went silent for a few moments before continuing, “I don’t think it’s a bad thing though.”
Well, no matter how aloof one is…it’s always nice to know someone understands you. Naturally, I didn’t let it show. I just went back to looking over her blueprints. “What about you Elyham? Why did you become a Guardian?”
”Me?”
”No, the other squirrel faced human woman in my guest room,” I said. I was still getting used to dealing with Elyham. You see, had I said something similar to any of the other aegii, they would have punched or kicked me in the gut, insulted the size of my manhood, and answered my question. Elyham, however, slunk into her chair and began quivering her lips. “S-sorry,” I said.
”Just kidding!” she said, perking right up. Well, I didn’t say she was any less annoying than the other girls. “It’s embarrassing actually because I didn’t even mean to join the Guardians since I was trying to buy some weapons to arm my suit with, but you need a license to buy stuff like that, so I joined the Guardians with the intention of just getting the purchasing license.” She paused for a moment to take a breath. Light knows she needed it. “It turned out I needed money anyway to fund my project, so I hung around.”
”I see. Why’d you build a suit, anyway?” I asked.
She looked at me in the way you might look at a retarded child who asks you why shirts have holes in them. “Because I could,” she said. Really could have fallen for that girl.
”Eh heh heh…” We continued with some more small talk while working, none of which I remember very well. It was during that small talk that I got Keiko’s summons. “My empress calls. I made a few modifications to your blueprints, but I’m not done. I’ll finish when I return.”
”All right, thanks again! Ah…about your mother…”
”…It’s fine. I know you’re doing your best,” I said.

[CupOfCoffee]

Trying to keep yourself out of your own stories can be a real ordeal, I agree. I think it's a nearly impossible feat, and while it's definitely something to be avoided in most cases, it can blend in pretty seamlessly if you let it come out tactfully. I mean, hell, some of the all time greats were absolute bastards about mouthpiece writing. Salinger's entire Glass family (Franny, Zooey, Buddy, etc) were all blatantly little Salingers, and they turned out okay. Kind of. Maybe not canonically, but certainly critically.

I did think I detected a little Clint Eastwood in Johann just from the few appearances of his that I've read, but I never got a sense that you were trying too hard to make him cool or make him stand out from the crowd. From where I'm standing, it looks like you've written him very well and without pretension.

Anyhow, looking forward to the next chapter!

[McLaughlin]

Effervescent. I love that word.

Looking forward to more.

[Keiko_Seisha]

As usual I'm about a few days late to the party. Blame work... Ahaha, no, sorry I shouldn't say that. Blame me forgetting to log in on here since all my computer mishaps. Still not on a good computer and it's got me bothered, but I'm not gonna get into that here. Luckily I can play Vindictus on this one though.

Anyway, usual cool beans and good jobs are inserted here, hope you like them as much as I enjoy you writing more about Keiko. Oh right, and the rest of the story and characters, too.

[Magus_84]

As someone who's read, I think, most of your fanfic output over the years, it's been fascinating watching the evolution of your characters.

Johann may say things that bear a strong resemblance to your opinions. I've seen a few spots where, based on what I know of you, that happens. But I could foresee the two of you disagreeing at a fundamental level on several important things, and that's what makes him seem "real" to me.

To me, he's the type that, if he existed outside the confines of the story and I knew him "for real", I'd probably hold a suppressed desire to punch him in the teeth, just once. But I'd never act on it, because he's right most of the time, and he's not yet been wrong enough to completely warrant it. And even when he's wrong, he's got a point, even if I don't like it, agree with it or want to admit that I agree with it.

I'd say that's some pretty good characterization and differentiation. Since I've never wanted to punch you. Maybe the Aion/WoW designers, but not you. >_>

Yeah, the Yohmei override switch and the nearly-failproof plans may stretch reality a bit, but he exists in a world where Ethan Waber and Laia Martinez are pushed as protagonists, and people can run around in full-body Rappy suits while doing Ikk Hikk and Renga Chujin-shou. His few crimes against common sense pale in comparison to even a moment of their dialogue or those PAs, and have yet to break willing suspension of disbelief.

Anyway. I'm interested to see how Elly's new suit turns out. Is it Elhaym or Elyham? I like the second better, but I seem to recall the first as being used previously.

/end nerdbabbling

[Xaeris]

I'm happy that my efforts aren't going to waste. There's plenty of examples in critically acclaimed literature that I could use as justifications of mouthpieces, but personally, it just makes me uncomfortable. At the risk of upsetting someone, I'll offer an example: Atlas Shrugged. I hate that book. Even if I agreed with it, I'd still hate it. It's like...a cocoon. If you agree with the philosophy contained within, you can climb into it, wrap yourself up and be reassured of just how right you are without the mental duress of having it challenged.

In my opinion, you don't do justice to an idea until you've engaged it. There isn't a moral system or philosophy in existence that this world can't provide a robust challenge for, and that fact should be reflected in literature. The more I relate to a character, the easier it is for me to bend the plot a little to make him look virtuous, which is why I shy so hard away from the mouthpiece.

Whew, that got heavy. Sidenote! I knew I didn't come up with the design for Keiko's dress from scratch, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out where the picture in my head came from. Well, I was rooting around in my inbox, reading past PMs (like I said, I subsist on attention), and came across something you sent me Keiko.

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/2478/snap001m.jpg

Minus the wings, it's a good match.

PS: It's Elyham. If I ever spelled it the other way, I typo'ed like a doof.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Well, then I'll try to post clearer images.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/4302/20110627041656.jpg
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/2772/20110627041437.jpg

Also, this brought to my attention that PSU/PSP lacks a good hairstyle with buns. So I just decided this was closest to what you described.
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/5737/20110627041722.jpg

[Xaeris]

Well, first, and foremost, lulz @ that hair. You'd think they could at least be arsed to include a few variations of ox tails. Secondly, and almost as importantly, I cannot help but note the distinct lack of jumblies that I have put so much love and care into wordsmithing.

Chapter 5: Clash Amidst Maidens

Hmph, you can justify it however you like, but look at how short your entries are compared to mine. It's obvious to anyone that you're just here for the sake of context and contrast.
”Auntie Ruru?” Johann said as he came into my office.
”Hello Johann. You’re looking well. And alive,” mother said. “I’m sure you have questions for me, but they’ll have to wait. You need to inspect the Lattice Shield System.
”Y-yes, ma’am,” he said. There were only a few people in Gurhal that could instill fearful respect in Johann. Mother was one of them. Without a word of protest, we headed towards the Lattice’s generator. As we drew close, we all started looking uneasy. As in, we were all looking for something amiss. We didn’t exchange any words though; we just kept looking, until we came across a slain guard.
”Dammit,” Johann said. “I knew I felt a foul radiance. Someone’s here.”
”The generator! Hurry!” I said as I took off down the hall. As I ran, I encountered more guards, strewn on the carpet, with gruesome injuries. My heart winced with each one I passed, but I didn’t let myself look away. I made sure to engrave the scene in my heart, because it would be where my strength for the battles ahead would come from. I charged into the generator room, where I found the source of the evil radiance that had been seeping through the building.
”Helga Neumann!” I yelled. She was standing at the center of the room, next to the control panel, with a kind of smirk that angered me just to look at.
”Oh, Miss Seisha. We meet again,” she said, just as Johann and mother caught up behind me. “Oh, and Dr. Launcher! You’re alive. I love the eyepatch. It makes you look rugged.”
”Tch,” he said. He took a few steps in front of me with his hands in his coat’s pockets and went on, “I distinctly remember killing you on Moatoob.”
”Are you upset?” she said with an impish grin.
”No, not particularly. After all, science is about the ability to duplicate results,” he said as he drew his rapier-wand.
”Hmm, I wonder if you have time though,” she said, She gestured towards the capsules around the room. “I sabotaged this generator earlier today by interfering with its input capacity. But then I thought, why not just kill off the fuel supply?”
”You bitch,” Johann hoarsely whispered.
”Calm down Johann, they’re alive,” mother said. “I can feel it, but their photons are being drained much more quickly than they should be. She must have interfered with the machine, again.”
”Granny’s got it!” Helga said. “Why, I bet these poor girls and your precious Maiden don’t have much longer if you don’t do something, Dr. Launcher!” She hopped away from the machine and started to circle around us to get at the door. “I really was hoping to kill them, but I guess I’ll just have to be happy with using them to buy time to escape.”
Johann dashed for the panel, to do…science, I guess, but as soon as he hit a button, he was hit with an explosion of green mist. He staggered backwards, hacking and coughing while Helga taunted, “oh that’s right, I had the sense to booby trap the panel! How does it feel to fall for a trap, Dr. Launcher?”
”Mother of…argh…” The poison was eating him, but he pulled himself standing and went to work, although much more slowly than he would have at full strength.
”Johann!” I yelled.
”I’m fine,” he said. It wasn’t very convincing seeing as he was wheezing and wiping the crusty mist from his eye, but it was good enough. “Deal with Neumann, I’ll correct this machine.”
”Deal with me? Are you kidding? You must be able to tell that granny here still hasn’t recovered enough photons to be any kind of threat,” she said. At full strength, mother could have tossed Helga around with one hand while reading her horoscope. Having just disconnected herself from the Lattice generator a few hours beforehand though, mother was still weakened. “Well, whatever, don’t you go anywhere Dr. Launcher. I’ll relieve you of your head when I’m done with these ladies,” she said.
”Don’t be so sure it’s going to be easy for you,” I said.
”Oh? Did you forget Moatoob already?” she asked.
”That was months ago. But come here and try it the same way if you think there won’t be any difference,” I said. With that taunt, I stepped out toward her. Not too close though; after all, I am a ranged fighter, so I kept a wide distance between us as we circled the area in front of the generator.
”Heh, all right, let’s bring your ego down to the ground,” she said. In one rapid motion, she pulled out both the blades of her Tiga de Ragan. Or, maybe, she would have liked to. Right as they materialized and as she pulled them across each other, I shot a reisei-sou from my Nasuyoteri which I pulled out even faster. The bullet hit her swords just like I intended and froze them together in a block of ice. “Ugh!”
While she tried to pull them apart, I rushed in. Just as she managed to pull her swords free and fling her arms wide apart, I shoved my foot into her stomach. While she went flying, I dropped to my knees and fired another reisei-sou where I thought she would land. She landed on a fresh slick of ice and went sliding, head first, into the wall.
”If you had used ensei-sou and lit the carpet on fire instead, you could have ended the fight right there,” mother said from behind me.
”I don’t need your commentary, baa-chan!”
”Now, now, focus on your opponent,” she said.
Helga was getting up without much trouble. She was groaning a bit from her impact with the wall, but it didn’t look like she was dizzy. I got back onto my feet and leveled my bow at her, ready for the next exchange. As I did, she grinded her teeth and said, “well, I guess your chest wasn’t the only thing that grew.” Why did everyone have something to say about that?
I didn’t have a retort handy, but it turned out fine since she came running at me. I fired an arrow, don’t remember what kind, to at least get her to slow down, but she bat it away with a swipe of her sword without losing momentum. I hopped back, firing a bunch more arrows, but she caught up to my position and took a slash at me. I jumped over it, using her shoulder for a springboard, and fired a chousei-sou directly into her back. She shrieked as it bored through her hexes and exploded. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I smiled a little as I landed behind her.
”Rrrgh…what the hell, I should have killed you a dozen times by now!” she yelled.
”Such a naïve child. You think just because you defeated my daughter once, that the result would be the same everytime after?” mother asked. Considering her daughter was in a life and death battle and her nephew was frantically reversing the effects of sabotage while poisoned, she looked relaxed. “If you want to win, you need to consider the new weaknesses that have sprung up as a result of covering the old ones.”
”Whose side are you on?!” I yelled.
”This is also a kind of training,” she replied.
Helga let out a huff of air and her expression calmed. I tensed and backed up. It might have looked cowardly, but it was good strategy. Swords crossed over each other, she started to cast a megid. From what I had seen and heard, she was pretty good with that technic, so I got ready to counter with yousei-sou. I was surprised when, instead of throwing it at me, she suddenly turned and hurled the finished orb at Johann.
”Tch-“ I said as I turned to fire the arrow after the megid. Johann, being Johann, didn’t so much as flinch even though the megid popped only a few inches from his face. “You’re welcome!” I said. It turned out I really didn’t have time to spare for sarcasm, since Helga had taken advantage of the distraction to move in on me. By the time I turned to look at her, her hand was at my throat. She pushed me down and was on top of me before I could counter.
”I can’t hear you anymore. Could you speak up please?” she said as she pressed the hilt of her sword on my throat. I struggled for a few seconds to throw her off, but it was obvious pretty quick that that wasn’t going to happen. She was too close to shoot with my bow, so, I hit her with it; one good smack against the side of her head with the limb of the bow. It wasn’t a striking weapon, but it worked well for getting enough leverage to shove her off with my leg.
”I was saying…” I began, as I stood back up and caught my breath, “you’re not nearly as tough as I remember!”
”Damn newmen,” she said. “You all think it’s sooo easy, that you put effort in and you get results in exchange.”
”It’s not easy. But that’s exactly how it is! I’ve been working non stop these last few months! That’s why I can beat you now.”
Whenever Johann or I saw her, Helga always had this easy, infuriating confidence about her, like everything before her was just some kind of joke there for her amusement. After a while, I figured it was just an act to put the enemy off balance, but it was still weird to see her face wrinkle into a furious frown. “Of course you’d say that,” she muttered, just barely loud enough for me to hear. Then, she yelled, “I was just going to humiliate you, but it turns out that I really don’t like you.”
She tapped her sabers together and another megid appeared to darken the room. She was holding it in place on top of her swords as she fed more and more power into it, making it grow. After just a couple of seconds, it was big enough to touch the floor and ceiling at the same time, and an eye had opened in the center of it. Big as it was though, I was prepared to do the same thing: pop it with an arrow. So it caught me off guard when a much smaller megid shot through the big one.
I dropped back on one foot to try and get underneath it, but it still clipped me on the arm. The ball tore through my line shield and pulled out a bunch of the hexes as it passed through me. I held a yelp in the back of my throat as I rode the pain, but before I could recover, Helga had dropped her big megid and run over to me. She took a swipe at my belly which pierced more of my hexes and managed to make a shallow cut. Again, I held my scream, but I couldn’t help but drop onto my knees from the pain.
”You can try as hard as you want,” Helga said as she slowly put the tip of one of her sabers beneath my chin. She raised it so I’d have to raise my head along with it. “But everyone gets what they get.” At the time, I wasn’t sure if she was talking about me or herself. Later, I’d find out that she was definitely talking about herself, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
”I don’t need to hear a lecture from a peasant,” I said. I grabbed her ankle, to her amusement. She sneered, but she didn’t realize I was casting regrant. Well, she did notice, but her line shield’s hexes were already shimmering white; it was too late for her to do anything about it. The sparkly white explosion blew her up and away into the air. I took a deep breath and shot back onto my feet, and the gash in my stomach was happy to disapprove. Still, I raised my bow and shot a masei-sou through the cloud at Helga, who was still airborne.
When the smoke cleared, Helga was in a crumpled heap, with her line shield’s hexes fused together: stunned. It looked like we were finished, so I lowered my bow and relaxed. “Sorry, but, I just can’t relate to what you’re saying,” I said.
”Of course you can’t,” she managed to say. She struggled against her fused shield, but didn’t manage to do more than to get her contorted body to fall flat on the ground. “Newmen don’t live this limited existence,” she said. She didn’t say anything more, but I heard her breathing quicken and become raspy. It’s like she was working herself into a frothing rage. Her hair started to lengthen and turn red, and more importantly, the feeling of her radiance seeped into my skin. It felt…gross.
The orange tint that was afflicting her shield faded and she started to get onto her feet as her hair spilled across the floor. “You’re not any better than me,” she whispered.
”And I thought I had a talent for pissing women off,” Johann said from behind, with his rapier at her throat. “I’m all finished, the maiden candidates should be out of danger. Miss Neumann, if you wish to continue, it’s going to be a two on one fight from here on out.”
I leveled my Nasuyoteri at her forehead to make the point. “Tch…all right, you can have this day,” she said while lowering her weapons. She had put her allure back on. “Oh, I nearly forgot. Gwendolyn asked me to pass along a message.
Johann narrowed his eyes. Eye. Whatever. “Go on.”
”She said that she hopes you find some other miserable woman to love so that it’ll be even sweeter when she comes to kill you!” Johann grinded his teeth, but he held it together. That is, until Helga smirked and added, “on the subject, whatever happened to that rabbit with the white hair? Did you go and get her killed like you did Feng Jie?”
”Die,” Johann whispered as he took a swipe at her. All he hit was black smoke where Helga was standing. His head whipped around the room, but she was obviously gone. I could actually hear the grip on his weapon, he was holding it that tightly.
”Johann, calm down. You don’t do anything well when you’re angry,” mother said, collected as ever.
He tapped the butt of his wand against his forehead, literally knocking sense into himself, and replied, “yes, you’re right.” He was still gnashing his teeth, but it was an improvement. “The enemy appears to have fled, and I’ve recalibrated the generator. While we have time, would you please tell us what happened here on Neudaiz that day?”
I took out my trusty diary and passed it to mother. While she got ready to make her entry, I took the opportunity to start healing my injury.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Well, first, and foremost, lulz @ that hair. You'd think they could at least be arsed to include a few variations of ox tails. Secondly, and almost as importantly, I cannot help but note the distinct lack of jumblies that I have put so much love and care into wordsmithing.

Yeah, Sega comes out with silly hairstyles. Also, it's 500k for a breast increase! That's expensive! I might be an empress but that doesn't mean I can go around willy-nilly with the funds of my planet.

Haven't read yet, will do so while I eat.

Edits: Okay, I read it. Good jobs and suchs, awaiting the next entry.

[Magus_84]

Yeah, Sega comes out with silly hairstyles. Also, it's 500k for a breast increase! That's expensive! I might be an empress but that doesn't mean I can go around willy-nilly with the funds of my planet.

Haven't read yet, will do so while I eat.

Edits: Okay, I read it. Good jobs and suchs, awaiting the next entry.

I was going to say "I'm sure the public would be ok with it", but then I remembered you're from Neudaiz...

I like seeing Keiko's growing confidence and battle prowess, and that her mother can turn anything into a "training opportunity".

Also. I play Champions Online. They recently came out with a "Phoenix Flight" travel power. I was all "meh", until I saw it in action. Your character charges for a second, then grows glowing, fiery (recolorable) energy wings that shed glowing feathers/cinders. And can be combined with a power called "Shadow Shroud" that's an offensive clicky that surrounds your character in a shadowy aura, and makes the wings temporarily dark.

After seeing what it looked like, I bought it immediately. The pics suck (the chargeup's very quick and hard to catch with one person, but I figured it'd be relevant. Actually, it would've been relevant towards the end of the last topic, but Phoenix Flight is recent. >_>

[Xaeris]

Guys, listen. Listen. You guys listening? Guys? Okay, so, listen, Cleopatra used cosmetics to lighten her skin tone and the Egyptian subjects were cool with it. Same situation here. They won't hold it against you. In fact, the subjects were so thrilled that their taxes were going to the beautification of their pharaoh, that when Marc Anthony showed up and tried to get her to stop, they almost killed him in an unruly mob. So if anything, it's your imperial duty to spend taxes on it. It's what the people want.

Note: Some of the above is true and some of it is stuff I just made up. I'm not exactly sure what's what.

I remember you telling me about that before magus, but didn't you say there was a problem with it? Like it consumed too much resources or didn't do much damage or something?

[Magus_84]

Guys, listen. Listen. You guys listening? Guys? Okay, so, listen, Cleopatra used cosmetics to lighten her skin tone and the Egyptian subjects were cool with it. Same situation here. They won't hold it against you. In fact, the subjects were so thrilled that their taxes were going to the beautification of their pharaoh, that when Marc Anthony showed up and tried to get her to stop, they almost killed him in an unruly mob. So if anything, it's your imperial duty to spend taxes on it. It's what the people want.

Note: Some of the above is true and some of it is stuff I just made up. I'm not exactly sure what's what.

I remember you telling me about that before magus, but didn't you say there was a problem with it? Like it consumed too much resources or didn't do much damage or something?

There's a clicky offense buff that gives a similar graphic, but is on a minute-30 cooldown. This one's pretty new, and is a travel power skin. It's able to be activated like any other travel power (think a mount in WoW, except usable in-combat).

And yes, Keiko. X speaks wisdom. There is historical precedent!

[Xaeris]

New chapter goes up in a couple hours, but first, a bit of news. I am attending a wedding this weekend, out of town, so updates in the meantime are unlikely. In compensation, this chapter is extra long. Plus, it's not like it leaves off in a particularly interesting place, so the wait should be bearable.

[Xaeris]

Chapter 6: The Old Girls' Club


Really, a diary at your age, Keiko? Just when I started to consider that maybe you had grown up a little. No matter, this childish device turns out to have its use. …Keiko, don’t be inconsiderate. Johann can’t restrain you for the entire period that I’m telling you this story. You shouldn’t allow such minor slights incense you. Then again, I suppose it’s unreasonable for me to expect such a level of composure from you, daughter. …You work so hard, Johann.
Compared to the other planets, Neudaiz weathered the chaos of the Illuminus’ mass attack quite well. It’s to be expected of a world with such a robust history. Regardless, it wasn’t without struggle. The day’s troubles, however, started long before the machines went out of control. That morning, I had stepped out onto the lawn of our home to enjoy my afternoon tea, as I always did. I enjoyed the feeling of the morning’s mist in my nostrils, and it was always a peaceful, tranquil time that I could use to reflect upon myself.
So you can imagine my irritation when that contraption came roaring through the air, not ten feet above my head. That contraption? Why, I’m speaking of the Serendipity, of course; that ship you borrowed from that vulgar, boisterious…argh…moving on. I already knew what it was and who was in it before I looked up; I’d heard the sound of that antique of an engine enough times before. I just groaned and cursed myself for having tea instead of coffee in hand.
I followed the ship to where it was landing, the same place you chose to park it, coincidentally enough: on top of Johann’s lawn. I looked up at the hull of the ship, waiting patiently for its passenger to disembark. In due time, that beast woman appeared beneath the ship, in front of me, using the warp pad inside.
”And just what do you think you’re doing on my planet?” I asked, hiding my scowl with my teacup.
”Your planet? I didn’t see your name on it,” she said. She walked up to me and folded her arms. She always did think herself intimidating because she was a few inches taller. …For the purposes of this recollection, ‘ten’ is a few. “Then again, I guess ‘bitch shrew princess’ wouldn’t fit!”
”That’s empress, to you, you boorish, tawdry streetwalker,” I said. Observe Keiko, the key properly insulting others is to ensure your actions convey just how insignificant you find them. As I said that, I took a sip of tea, with no change in tone. “Again, I ask, what are you doing here?”
”That’s easy,” she said, putting on a fragile smirk. I could see it twitching with rage. “Your knight called,” she said, referring to that buffoon, naturally. She bent over bring shove her makeup caked face into mine. …Yes, Johann, I do use some mascara. What are you insinuating? ..Hmph, mind your tongue. Moving, she said, in a mocking tone, “oh Leanora, it’s horrible! I’ve become so bored with sticking it in this scrawny newman’s ass! I’ve forgotten what the caress of a real woman feels like. Please, please come to Neudaiz so that I can ravish your soft curves and rest my head in your massive rack!” As she was saying it, she was wiggling her hips. Vulgar, as I said.
”Booty call, basically,” she said. Certainly, I’m sure she wasn’t quoting him verbatim, but that seemed like truthful answer, given what I know of him.
Still, I just covered my mouth with my kimono’s sleeve and laughed softly. Another skill that would behoove you to learn Keiko, is the art of the derisive laugh. …Yes Johann, I suppose ‘bitch laugh’ is an apt term. “After all these years, you still don’t understand. He and I have a bond that goes beyond simple flesh! Your own cheap insults demonstrate that you haven’t the slightest understanding of what we share,” I said.
”Tch, you want to fight short stuff?!” she said, slamming her fists against her hips.
”It’s not customary for royalty to deal with the riffraff,” I said as I removed my hand from my lips, “but I certainly won’t lose to an imbalanced, top heavy cow like you. I’ll be certain your corpse is treated respectfully.”
Just as I was finally about to shut that whore’s mouth up once and for all, I was hit with a spray of water, as was Leanora. Your mother was quite good at mediating between Leanora and myself, I must admit, Johann. We turned to the side and she was there, sauntering up with that water pistol I had come to detest over all these years.
”Now, now, what sort of reunion is this? Launcher’s Angels haven’t all been together in the same place in years now!” she said. “I’m happy this still works,” she said of her gun, “it really has been a long time.”
”Hmph, that name didn’t please me back then, Alexis, and it certainly doesn’t please me now,” I said, glowering at her as I wrung out my sleeves.
”Too bad. We voted. Three to one, did you forget?” she said, sticking out her tongue. I never did see the wisdom in building a cast with a tongue. Or a mouth of any kind, for that matter.
”Lexy, hiiii!” Leanora said as she threw herself on Alexis with a hug. “How’s Johann?”
”Mischievous as ever, of course,” she said. “What brings you to our quaint planet?”
”Your husband called,” she said, referring to the same buffoon, naturally. …Saying all of this aloud, this relationship we had does sound quite bizarre. I never imagined anything quite like it when I was your age, Keiko. The buffoon married Alexis so she, as a cast, could legally adopt Johann, even though their relationship was strictly platonic. He served as my knight, yet regularly went to Moatoob to enjoy his little trysts. …Blah, I’ve no need to justify it to anyone. We move on.
Leanora went on, “he asked me to come to Neudaiz today. It’s weird, he usually comes up to Moatoob.” She stood up straight and started tapping her chin, as if her peanut sized brain had ever produced a thought in its life. “Oo, maybe he wants to take me out to breakfast for a change! Somewhere fancy! Oh, but darn, I didn’t bring anything fancy to dress up in! Quick, Kaoru, let me borrow something!”
”Not if the Divine Maiden herself got on her hands and knees and asked me to grant you this favor,” I said.
”Oh, don’t be a prude!” she said as she ran past me and towards my house. “Ya gotta have something nice and roomy I can use!”
”I will not suffer your sweaty rump in my clothing!” I yelled as I gave chase. Alexis pumped her squirt rifle and followed after us. It was a short jog to the mansion’s entrance, where Leanora had stopped.
”Geez Kaoru, you don’t need to sic the security on me,” she said. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I assumed the answer lied past the door. I stepped past her, since her body covered up the door frame. There, I saw several of our Byasha type-Otsu32 units…the blue ones…active and scuttling about the house.
”They shouldn’t be active,” I said. It was strange, but at the time, I thought it would be simple to deal with. I produced my override switch from my nanostransformer and clicked it, expecting the machines to come to a halt. They did not. In fact, they seemed to notice us at that moment and began to approach. “That’s odd.”
”Whatever, we can turn them off the good old fashioned way!” Leanora said. It was no surprise that that violent woman had already taken a claw out of her nanotransformer. She dove into the approaching swarm and shoved the prongs into the first one that stepped up. With the zanshu-misaki firmly embedded, she lifted her arm and tossed the byasha machine into my chandelier.
”I’d appreciate it if you didn’t wreck my home, Leanora,” I said.
”Do you want these things in your home, or not?!” she asked as she tore her claw into the leg of another unit.
”I don’t see why it has to be a choice,” I replied as I got my own weapon ready. Of course, I’m adept with a bow like any proper Seisha, but I prefer throwing fans. Mine is a simple one, designed like an ordinary paper fan. Its photon cage is a mere trim along the fan’s edge. With a flick of my wrist, I shot several needles, each of which hit its mark at a byasha’s head. They crumpled to the floor like soaked origami. “Then again, precision was never your forte.”
”I’ve got plenty of this left for you, bitch” she said as she flung the last byasha into a wall. I merely covered up my face with my fan and chuckled softly as we stared off.
”I’m glad that you two are so happy to see each other again, but your fleshbag bodies are both pushing fifty. Would you consider acting your ages?” Alexis said. She was always the most reserved of us, so it was little surprise that she let us deal with the machines while looking for information. She had that faraway look in her eyes that she always got when she had holographs active on her HUD. I assumed she was looking around the net.
”A very sexy fifty, thank you very much, loverbot,” Leanora said.
”I can’t seem to raise my husband,” Alexis said.
”Hmph, the buffoon disappears when there’s trouble afoot. I’m shocked,” I said. “He’ll show up when he feels like it. More importantly, what’s the situation? Is there anything out of the ordinary in the news?”
”That’s one way to put it,” Alexis said. “The AMF has just authorized a wholesale genocide of Dagora City’s population, it appears that Colony is under terrorist attack, and…Rozenom City is overrun by casts!” Immediately, the three of us were feverishly typing texts. Naturally, Alexis was sending something to you Johann. I can only imagine Leanora was trying to get in touch with Alice. …Me? Hmph, I just wanted to be sure you weren’t conducting yourself poorly in a disaster, Keiko.
”Dammit, it’s not going through!” Leanora said.
”Mine neither,” Alexis said.
”Nor mine,” I added. In the background, I could hear the faint sounds of crunching metal. I deduced that the malfunction of my security machines wasn’t limited to just my machines. “Let’s start with what we can do at home.”
”But-“ Alexis began.
”There’s nothing we can do for them if we can’t get in contact with them. We just have to trust that we’ve raised them well and ensure they have a place to return to,” I said. It was logical, so Alexis, being a cast, was mollified. “Besides, there are byashas in your home too, are there not?”
”Yes…Miang!” she said. “She’s asleep in the house!”
I nodded. “Let’s go get her. Then, we can figure out what comes next.” I led the way out and towards Alexis’ mansion. We weren’t able to get inside, however. The situation was similar: several byasha units scuttling about on the lawn, but in addition, there were other types of machines. In particular, there were large bipedal units armed with weapons.
”What the heck is that?” Leanora asked, pointing out a blue one that was coming out the door.
”My husband has been busy with his R&D department lately,” Alexis said. “He’s been submitting all sorts of designs for them to produce. That one, there, is called a Sinow Beat.”
”Ha, more like Sinow Beaten-“ Leanora began. She was cut off when the blue machine leapt over to us with a lunging slash. To stress, the machine leapt, as in, it jumped over several dozen feet in the blink of an eye. We jump away from its landing point, just barely avoiding its knife as it hit the ground. “What the hell?! Friggin Maiden, this thing is fast!” The machine rose from its crouch and did an odd kind of jog trot towards Leanora. She thrust at it with her claw, but it leapt back with the same blinding speed. As it prepared to jump back in for another attack, I caught it in the leg with a deftly tossed shiki which blew it apart and rendered the thing immobile.
”You’re welcome,” I said.
”No one thanked you,” she said.
”In addition to that, there was also another prototype he had transported to the house,” Alexis said. By then, she had taken out a pair of twin sabers, having assessed the numbers we were up against. “Sinow Zele, I believe. But, I don’t see it among the crabs.”
”We’ll just call that our good fortune then,” I said. Leanora and Alexis took the lead in carving a path through the swarm of byasha. They were suited for the task, I must admit. There were enough that it was practical for Leanora to impale one of them on her claw, and then use it to smash the others with. Given her laughter, I imagined she was enjoying herself. On the other end, Alexis’ technique with her twin sabers reminded me of how one might prepare stir fry. She had several in the air at any given time and used Rising Crush to juggle them beautifully. I would have considered throwing the street performers some meseta if the circumstances had been less serious.
”He might ask you to pay for these, you know,” Alexis said to Leanora as she let the bunch she had in the air drop to the ground.
”Oh shoot, you’re right,” Leanora said, while making a gesture that would suggest she was thinking, to those who didn’t know better. “Hey, it’s the same for you! You’ve blown up as many as I have!”
”Don’t be ridiculous,” Alexis as she scooped up the next pair of byashas to approach in the whirl of her sabers. “Money is nothing between husband and wife.” She really did love to rub that in.
We were making reasonable progress across the lawn. It’s still surprising just how many byashas that buffoon kept in his home, however. Had that been the only challenge the day had to present, it would have been a non issue. As a matter of course, then, a gravelly sounding voice called out, somehow managing to make itself heard above the cacophony of the melee. “I see that these infected machines won’t be enough to finish you.”
Our heads immediately darted around the area for the source. As it turned out, it was coming from inside the mansion, and was approaching us. Soon, we could see a human man emerging. It was unmistakable that he was the owner of that wicked voice. His face was scarred across the nose, and his eyes were filled with the color of a deep sickness. Reminiscing, it’s amazing that I could have missed the presence of a radiance that malevolent within a mile of me.
”You are? Identify yourself,” I said. He said nothing as he walked through the swarm of machines, which parted to make a path for him. “An enemy it seems.”
”Nevermind that, what were you doing in my home?!” Alexis said, uncharacteristically angry. “And what did you do with my daughter?!”
”Oh, the beast girl is sleeping quite soundly. Hmm, who’s to say how long that will last, though,” he said.
”Enough. What’s your goal here?” I asked. The machines were being polite to maintain a circle around us. They were still scuttling about wildly, but they never left a large gap open for very long.
”I’m looking for a man,” he said.
”There’s a bar for that in Ohtoku,” Leanora said. She was joking, but the venom in her voice directed towards the man was anything but light hearted. “Besides, do you see any men here?”
”I’m to understand the man I’m looking for is quite fond of you three. You’re to serve as my bait, and nothing more. My name is Karl Freidrich Hauser, and I am the Illuminus’ leader. I-“ I am not in the habit of allowing megalomaniac blowhards speak for minutes on end. So, I tossed a shiki at him. My expectation wasn’t to deal any damage, but to silence him. The needles, however, passed straight through him.
”Your aim getting lousy, grandma?” Leanora asked.
”No…I’m certain my aim was true,” I said, in spite of the fact that I just saw my projectiles miss.
”Whatever, just sit back and watch!” she said. She bounded towards Hauser and leapt at him, claw leading her way. I saw the prongs shimmering, so I assumed she was going to use Renzan Seidan-ga for a decisive thrust. Unfortunately, her claw went straight through him as she passed by on the side. She looked confused upon landing, but to her credit, she reacted quickly and speared a nearby byasha and slammed it on top of the man.
”It’s futile. You all lack the means to harm me,” he said. He took his hands and thrust them forward at Alexis and I, firing two beams of…well, honestly, I’m not sure what I would have called it. ‘Light’ comes to mind immediately, but that pale glow was simply unholy. Either way, we both moved out of the way; Alexis ducked beneath and I jumped over. From the air, I fired a large volley of shikis with a wide swing, buffeting the area with bullets. Again, there was no effect.
As soon as the rain of needles ceased, Leanora came in from above with another Renzan, which failed just as spectacularly as the first. She hit the ground and bounced over to us. “What the hell, is he a ghost?!” she yelled.
At about that time, the byashas stopped being passive and joined the battle alongside Hauser, whom they seemed to be serving. They didn’t serve much more than as a nuisance, but considering out troubles just striking Hauser, that was all they needed to be.
”This is ridiculous,” I said as I shut my fan and clenched it in my hand. With the same hand, I pointed it at Hauser and directed a razonde at him. A thick column of lightning struck right where he was standing and blew a hole in the ground beneath his feet. I was sure my aim was fine, since he dropped into the hole made by the lightning, so I struck again, and again, again until I had formed a miniature crater with lightning strikes. Yet, he didn’t appear fazed.
The byashas, of course, were still being a bother, but any that came close were quickly dispatched by whichever of us was closer. Our attention was squarely fixed upon the crater. There were no signs of movement at first, but then, two large brown snakes rose from the bottom. Hauser’s nosdiga was impressive, I must admit; the formation of the heads was quite intricate, down to the fangs, and their movement was very fluid. I would say it was as good as yours, Johann. They slithered to an upright posture, then struck, diving at us from above. Alexis stepped forward and wedged a saber between each one’s jaw and held her position.
”Lexy!” Leanora said.
”It’s fine, I’m exerting only 30% output right now,” she said as she held the snakes on her sabers.
Hauser floated above the pit just then. …I meant exactly what I said, he floated, surrounded by the same kind of unholy light he had fired at us. Without any words, he raised his hands and spun a blazing white sphere. At first, I thought it was a grants of some kind, but looking at it more closely, I recognized it as a foie. Also, it was helpful to my deduction that Hauser said, “burn!”
”Alexis, cover,” I said. She took a step forward and with the leverage, brought her sabers forward with a rush, bisecting the nosdiga that she was still holding. It was an excellent Assault Crush, despite the short range. Come to think of it Johann, how is your Assault Crush? …Hmph, I’ll take that shameful twiddling of your thumbs to mean you’ve been lazy with your fencing practice. To think, you’re the son of a former lieutenant colonel of the AMF.
At any rate, she jumped back to where we were and I cast rentis. Seven ethereal flower petals appeared beneath us and rose, wrapping us inside of them. I don’t need to tell you what rentis does, of course: absolute protection from technics to those inside its territory. I meant to tell you of its hidden meaning, but it sounds to me that you discovered it while fighting Rutsu. Well, moving along, Hauser threw the foie at us and it was sucked up harmlessly by the petals.
”We’re not making any headway on offense,” Alexis said as I lowered the rentis. “I think it’s about time you two called off the old bet.”
”Huh…oh,” Leanora said.
”Ah, heh…I had forgotten, to be honest,” I said. I should explain. Years and years ago, Leanora and I got into an argument over which were harder to use: skills or bullets. Naturally, I proposed that the finesse that went into using skills properly posed a far greater challenge than what she called the focus of using bullets. So, from that day on, we agreed to switch; I would use bullets, she would use skills and we would compare notes. …It’s interesting: both your fathers had the same looks on their faces. No matter. I said, “what do you think, Leanora?”
”Yeah, I guess we should quit dicking around. Here you go,” she said as she pulled off her zanshu misaki and tossed it to me. While it was in the air, I tore off the upper half of my kimono; the sleeves would have just gotten in the way. I did not mean to actually tear it off. My heart sunk when I heard the rip, but there were bigger concerns to be had. I caught the zanshu-misaki right after I let the garment drop to the ground, and pulled a second one from my nanotransformer. While doing that, I stowed my fan, and took out a shotgun alongside the other claw and threw it to Leanora.
”For the record, I at least tried to use your weapon!” she said.
”The bet was to use bullets. You did not specify I had to use a shotgun,” I replied as I secured both claws on my hands. “Let’s do the usual.”
Leanora took her shotgun in both hands, and after bending at the knees, fired a volley of…bomas, I believe they’re called? Grenade bullets, you know. She fired a variety of them, of all colors, as if she was shooting a rainbow from her shotgun. The grenades soared through the air and exploded with their proper effects upon hitting the ground. Byashas were scorched, frozen, and short circuited among other things, but the actual goal of the volley was to provide me with a distraction.
Leanora’s style with claws was rough, direct, and savage. I admit, it wasn’t entirely ineffective at times, but in the hands of a master, claws are weapons of ruthless, artful efficiency which make deadly use of every movement. As such a master, I dove in through the smoke, directly at Hauser. My assault began fiercely and swiftly, with the yamata-misaki whistling through the air as spun and thrust at Hauser. Though the claw strikes were resulting in the same effect as the rest of our attacks, Hauser was attempting to back away from me as I pressed my attack. In addition, I was sure that I was feeling a resistance when I struck him, despite my weapons passing through him.
He smirked as he backed away from yet another of my swipes and floated up into the air above me. Alexis came in from above with both sabers leading her dive. She and her Cross Hurricane went through him, same as ever, and she tumbled and rolled as she hit the ground next to me.
”Alexis, do you feel that?” I asked.
”The resistance when we strike, I assume?” she replied.
”Yes. That must be the key, the question is, how,” I said.
”I’m afraid the game has become stale, madams,” Hauser said. “Why don’t we…change things up?”
We prepared our stances to respond quickly to whatever he might do, but in the air, he didn’t lift a finger against us. He merely smirked, waiting for something. As disturbed as I was by that man’s evil smile, I did not take my eyes off him. That proved to be a mistake. Focused as I was on him, I was defenseless against the slash that came from my side. The sword sunk into my shield and began ripping through hexes; by the time I leapt away, my line shield had already lost a great deal of its purity.
I looked to the source, furious that I had let my guard down, but was immediately in a state of shock when I saw who had stabbed me. “Alexis? Have you lost your mind?!”
”As a matter of fact…” Hauser said. At that, I looked at Alexis more closely. Her eyes had become listless, if such a thing is even possible for a cast, and her movements jerky and awkward. …Yes, I agree, it was almost certainly SEED infection. “Firstly, dispose of your allies, my dear.”
Wordlessly, Alexis raised an arm into the air to call her SUV. I don’t believe you’ve ever seen Valkyrie Espada, Johann. That’s nothing to be surprised about; most casts prefer Rafal Attacker or Grom Buster, I suppose. Your mother, however, was old fashioned and could make perfectly due with a mansion sized sword. The satellite obtained her position, and in came the blade, fresh from materialization. You may wonder what the threat of an oversized piece of cutlery is, but your mother was quite swift at swinging it.
”Leanora, move!” I yelled. She and I both had to leap over the horizontal slash, despite being several yards apart. Unfortunately, our feet had not hit the ground yet by the time Alexis bought Valkyrie Espada around for a downward swing. As I said, she was very quick with that thing. At any rate, given that we were prostrate in the air, there would have been no way to avoid getting struck. So, it extremely fortunate that the blade had been stopped in the middle of its swing, allowing us to touch feet on the ground and recover.
It was a curious sight. Of course, I mean the gigantic sword being held just several feet off the ground. Yet, as I’m sure I don’t need to tell you two, the world we occupy is filled with just these types of incredible things to see. You see, that long haired buffoon had finally taken it upon himself to arrive and intercept the sword. He was beneath it, same as us, holding his still sheathed katana up against Valkyrie Espada. And that, was all that was keeping it from falling.
It didn’t appear that he was struggling, holding his katana above his head like that. In fact, it was Valkyrie Espada that had incurred a crack from the impact. Of course, after briefly surveying the situation, he had the gall to say…
”Is it finally my turn?”

[McLaughlin]

Uninteresting ending my bony ass.

Great stuff.

[Magus_84]

A lesson in the *****-laugh, and we get to see the CEO again.

Quote puts it better than I could.


Uninteresting ending my bony ass.

Great stuff.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Due to demands, 500k maseta has been spent.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7943/20110702004410.jpg

Also at the same time I increased her height, she's now about 5'3" according to the in-game scale if I converted correctly.

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/8943/20110702004509.jpg
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8716/20110702004640.jpg

All in all, I think I like this new Keiko.
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5504/20110702004521.jpg
No arms due to hair, gotta love clipping.

To keep on topic of your story. X hijinks are always like watching fireworks: Bright, showy, and full of bang. Oh, and there's explosions. Always a good read so I'm awaiting the next issue, have fun with your holiday weekend and wedding.

[Seth Astra]

Whew... My task is completed. I have read up to here all the way from Ordinary Lives. I must admit, you are a truely incredable writer, Xaeris. It's gone from an average (if entertaining) start, to Johann and Keiko killing a woman who borders on being a god, to, as of the last 3 threads, some very serious and tragic stuff. Keep up the good work.

[Xaeris]

Wow, you're all caught up? Jesus, that's impressive. I'd offer you a prize if I had any to give. I appreciate your comments, and I'm glad you've enjoyed the story thus far. Now, you get to join the others in the suffering of waiting for updates. They'll tell you, I can be pretty awful about it sometimes.

You have made your people proud, Keiko. This is the kind of investment that pays itself back a hundred fold.

The wedding was cool. I fly back tomorrow. I'll have something for you all by Tuesday, so sit tight, please.

[Magus_84]

Keiko, I'd reimburse you for it if my PSU account still existed and it could transfer funds between games.

And yeah, welcome Seth. Now you get to know our pain. :D There's other parts of the story that reference the PSO days and seem to be linked to the current stuff, but I dunno how much of that is canon.

And given that X hasn't ever reposted them, I doubt he wants anyone else to. Besides, I'm sure the relevant parts'll be revealed as the current story progresses.

Have a safe trip, X.

[Xaeris]

When I started writing fanfiction, years and years ago, a good chunk of what I wrote were just my favorite scenes from games and anime transcribed into the plot. Naturally, I've gotten away from that since then, but this chapter, I decided to indulge myself. If you've seen the show, the title should be a giveaway as to what I'm ripping off.

Chapter 7: A Phantom Versus Superman, One Light in the Darkness

”You moron! I swear, if you waited for the last possible moment to come assist us just to service your ego, I will shove this claw so far up your-“ …Johann, why are you laughing? Well, that was my reaction.
He simply turned his head to me, while still holding Valkyrie Espada over his head and replied with a smile, “Kaoru, you weren’t worried, were you? Don’t tell me you forgot. Whatever the danger, wherever you are, whenever it is, and however I have to do it…” With a shrug of his shoulder, he tossed the sword off his katana and dropped it with a resounding thud off to the side. “I’ll always save you.” …Now you’re laughing, Keiko. Did I miss some sort of joke?
”Now then, what are we dealing with?” he said as he took a few steps forward toward Hauser. “I guess you’re responsible for all of this then.” You know your father. He was quite calm. Jovial, even. Amidst the ruined machines, he gingerly walked towards the enemy with a mild grin on his face.
”Correct. Today is a most glorious day, Mr. Launcher. Today, I have thrown Gurhal into a chaos: one from which it will not emerge, one which will consume it whole and drown it in agony. Moatoob’s population is ravaged, Parum’s casts run amok, and even the mighty Guardians’ Colony will come crashing down from its lofty heights in the heavens.”
”You’re surprisingly poetic for a man who’s got such a chubby for chaos,” he said.
Hauser made a kind of growl. I think, perhaps, it was supposed to be a chuckle. “All that leaves is to slay Neudaiz’s heroes.”
About then, I noticed that the air behind your father looked odd; as if it were bent. Before I could ponder it, the nature of the oddity was revealed. A machine, much larger and bulkier than all the others, appeared from stealth with its fists raised over his head. “Watch out!” Leanora and I screamed. Casually, as if just tossing the back of his coat, he thrust his sheathed katana behind himself and, just as quickly withdrew it. The machine, the Sinow Zele which Alexis was speaking of, stopped, still with its fists in the air, and fell over.
Hauser made another growl. “Impressive, but-“
”Ah, hold that thought, would you?” he said. He turned around and dropped to his knees to scavenge the body of the machine, much to everyone’s confusion. “Sorry, old habits die hard. Just a sec…ooo, a Yamigarasu!” He pulled a red box from the Sinow Zele. Please don’t ask me for clarification, for I have no idea what happened there either.
”Fool, you-“ Hauser began.
”Listen…Hauser, right?” He pocketed his loot in his coat and went on, “if I were a young man, I’d be more than happy to fight you. We’d trade blows, I’d make quips while setting up some elaborate trap which exposes and trivializes your special ability, most likely incorporate some explosions, and eventually wrap it up with some preachy one liner addressing your character flaws.” He grimaced and gestured his hands openly towards Hauser before continuing. “But I’m old now. I’ve raised kids. I’m the enigmatic mentor guy now. If I fight you, my death flag is as good as waved.
”Who do you think you are?!” Hauser said, obviously annoyed as he raised a hand to fire one of his beams. The buffoon responded by making two quick slashes in the air and fired the ‘X’ shaped wave of Cross Hurricane at Hauser’s hand. It went through it, just like the rest of our attacks, but it was enough to disrupt the conjuring of the blast and force Hauser to withdraw his arm.
”I’m speaking. Don’t interrupt.” He took another look around the area, as if he didn’t notice everything the first time around. His eyes settled on Alexis, who had been on standby since her Valkyrie Espada had been parried. Looking at her carefully, I didn’t detect any sign of life from her at all. She was simply standing there, like an empty husk. It only took me a moment to remember her Instant Crash Syndrome. Even when we all first met, it was a nuisance for her. Of course, back then, it was considerably less of a problem that manifested itself in micro crashes: like hiccups, really.
”On the other hand, you hurt my friends. So, here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m sort of a badass now, so, I’m not going to do all that stuff I said I would do if I were young.” He raised a finger into the air. “I’m going to defeat you in one attack.”
”My, what a boast, Mr. Launcher!” Hauser said as he floated back to the ground. “Have you not been privy to the difficulty that your allies have had in simply laying hands on me? Can you say your next attack will kill me when you can’t even grasp the nature of my defense?”
”Hmm, you’re right, that is ridiculous” he said. Leanora and I nearly fell over. All that boasting, and he was cowing. Naturally, we should have known better, because he continued, “one whole attack is completely overkill. A single stroke of my sword will do.” He took his free hand and pulled off the sheath of the Orotiagito in one clean move, revealing the gleaming edge to the light.
”So much pride. I should wonder if you’ll choke, when forced to swallow it?”
”Nah, Leanora’s the swallower around here,” he said. Leanora pouted, folded her arms and turned away. “But I’m not so kind a person, Hauser, that I’d simply kill you as you are now. I’ll let you attack me once.”
”What?”
”Are you deaf? I said I’ll let you strike me once. Come at me with your best shot, whatever it is. I’ll take your ambition, Hauser, crumple it, shove it down your throat. Only then, will I be satisfied to toss your carcass into hell.” Most of the time, that man isn’t at all threatening. He always has that goofy smirk on his face, he’s constantly engaging in pranks, and his perversion would ultimately supersede any malicious intent. However, I would never deny that he has a heroic presence; confidence flowed from him like a fountain for his friends to drink from. And just as our spirits are bolstered by him, his enemies’ spirits are enfeebled. Just as he was speaking those words, I could see a hint of desperation on Hauser’s face, as if the fear finally seeped in through his skin and was just then affecting him.
”One attack then,” Hauser growled. It’s difficult to describe, but the area seemed to darken. As if the light itself became dim. In his palms, he gathered that pale light again, but instead of a beam, he spilled it on the ground as if it were a liquid. The light raced across the ground toward your father and pooled beneath him.
”Don’t just stand there like a moron!” I yelled as I cast a Rentis on him. Its seven white petals whirled around him, along with the vile puddle on the ground.
”Regret your own arrogance, Launcher!” Hauser said as he raised his arms. The puddle of light rose, slowly at first, but in a blink, it shot up past the buffoon’s figure and swallowed him whole. It vanished and where it was, there was only the ground, pulsing oddly with a wicked light. “Not even a memory remains,” he said, quite pleased with himself.
Leanora and I looked around the area for him, but he quickly saved us the trouble by saying, “that was your best?” Sure enough, he was right behind Hauser, shoulder to shoulder with him. Even all of Rentis’ petals were still present, meaning he had avoided the attack entirely.
“It’s over,” Leanora said. She was quite smug about it, not that I don’t understand. Quite frankly, the battle was decided the moment that buffoon appeared. It was just a matter of watching his antics.
”Well, I won’t say anything bad about the effort. It’s so sad though, I feel bad. Let me console you with a glamorous death!” He stepped out from behind Hauser, who turned after him, and raised his katana. For as long as I’ve known your father, he’s had the propensity to shout out his attacks. I suppose some things just don’t fade with age. To his credit, he didn’t shout. “Ichi mama sen, sen mama ichi.” was what he said.
As promised, he made a single stroke with his blade. As far from Hauser as he was, it did not connect. It would have been a matter of some curiosity if the purpose hadn’t become immediately apparent. You see, as he sliced through the air, the blade of the Orotiagito was swallowed by a shimmering light: Ryuker. The Ryuker carried the slash to Hauser which cut through him. As blade came out on the other side, it was devoured by light again and cut Hauser from a different direction. This continued, for one thousand strokes, all delivered within the space of seconds.
Hauser fell over backwards in a bleeding heap, spurting fluids from all orifices. Ryuker delivered the blade back to the hilt, and with that, he resheathed it.
”That was awesome!” Leanora yelled as she ran to him. With his back turned to us, he shrugged and chuckled. Then, he showed us a thumbs up. The alarming thing, was that his hand looked rigid, as it had suddenly become made of stone. It seemed he didn’t realize, because he looked at his hand in shock along with us.
”Damn, I didn’t think I’d squandered that much of my time. I knew this fight was a death flag.”
Certainly, we would have asked him about. Certainly, we should have. Certainly, we were about to. Before we did, a much greater concern appeared on the horizon. I liken the sight to a locust swarm. A black, writhing mass was descending from the skies; slowly, but it would be upon us. “A SEED fall?!”
”And a big one, at that. I miss the days when killing a boss would kill all of his adds, too,” he said.
I briefly turned to him. Specifically, I turned for a look at his arm to make sure I wasn’t just imagining what I saw. I can say with utmost certitude that his left hand had turned into stone. I had so many questions, but two priorities sat at the top of my mind. Firstly, “is the lattice ready?” I asked.
”Yeah, the relay in Dezolis was completed just a few days ago.”
”I’ll serve as its power source. It’s Neudaiz’s best chance against a SEED fall that large.”
”Kaoru…I’m not sure if you’ll be able to wake up.”
”Wait, what?! You mean she’s going to die?!” Leanora said, bounding up to us.
”Nevermind that. I have something more important to address.” And then came the concern at the very top of my mind. I walked up to him and took his cheeks in my hands. “I have the horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that...that…that I may never see you again.”
He remained silent.
”Tell me your name.” I did not know his name. Absurd as it sounds, I cannot put it anymore simply than that. As close as we were, I always sensed that there was some piece of his heart that was elsewhere, as if it were in another time. Everytime I thought to ask him for his name, he would somehow dodge the question, and everytime he did, I saw a deep sadness in his eyes.
He took one of my hands into his healthy palm and looked into my eyes. That same sadness was present. Just as I was trying to pierce it, he suddenly turned to Leanora and tossed his katana over. “Leany, I’m trusting you with that. Give that to Johann. It’s a gift, from a father, to his son.” That was shocking. He never let that sword out of arm’s reach, nevermind let any of us touch it.
”Y-yeah…you bet…” she said after she caught it. I don’t think it quite sunk in what she was holding.
”I think this has been one of my favorite lives,” he said as he walked away. “No, scratch that. This has been my favorite life, second only to the original. I had the company of beautiful women, I had a grand adventure, and I was able to rear some children with decent heads on their shoulders.”
”What are you talking about?!” I yelled. The SEED fall was creeping on the planet. I really should have been on my way to the Pavilion of Air, but at the moment, this was of the most import to me. “You’re not making any sense!”
”Heh, I guess I’m not. You deserve an explanation. All of you do.” Suddenly, he fell to a knee and clutched his left arm. I couldn’t see beneath the coat sleeve, but I could guess that it was falling prey to the same malady as his hand. “But I’m short on time.” He snapped his fingers, and a Ryuker opened in front of him.
”M-moron…” I said, on the verge of tears.
”Heh…you know, it’s funny,” he said as he limped into the light. “Another woman I knew called me that all the time. You two have a lot in common.” He stood up straight and looked back. “My name is X.”
I was crying by then, but I managed a smile. “That’s a ridiculous name.”
”Isn’t it?” With that, the light took him.

[McLaughlin]

Awesome.

[Seth Astra]

So... Wait... Mr. Launcher Sr. is... Xaeris, I guess? No wonder he was OP to the 99th degree: He's the author. In all seriousness, X is a total badass. Sure, Johann's good, but his father is just... Well... A god.

[Magus_84]

With great power comes great likelihood of killing yourself using that power, badass though it may be.

And dammit. He gave up the Oro, revealed his name, and fought a main villain. He really is a dead man walking. :(

[CupOfCoffee]

”Ah, hold that thought, would you?” he said. He turned around and dropped to his knees to scavenge the body of the machine, much to everyone’s confusion. “Sorry, old habits die hard. Just a sec…ooo, a Yamigarasu!” He pulled a red box from the Sinow Zele. Please don’t ask me for clarification, for I have no idea what happened there either.

:wacko:

Your writing on this story has a really unique flavor. It's got enough bone-crunching realism and seriousness of tone to carry the weight of the plot, but the whole thing also somehow comes across as a lighthearted, self-aware, fourth-wall breaking funhouse.

Looking forward to whatever comes next!

[Xaeris]

Chapter 8:Share No Fear

You don’t need this chapter, do you Johann? I’ll take it, thanks.
”That was a mouthful,” Johann said.
My mother nodded, and asked, ”do you have any questions?”
”Dozens. But none you could answer,” he replied. His ears started doing that thing they do when he’s thinking. They twist around themselves when he’s deep in thought. It was useless to try to tell him about it because I don’t think he ever realized he was doing it. He took out a cigarette, which I promptly slapped out of his hand; it was my office, after all. Barely noticing, he took out a second one and started tapping his chin with it as he started to walk out.
”You’ll be retrieving the Orotiagito, I assume?” mother said.
”Huh? Oh. Oh…y-yeah,” he said. Johann didn’t stutter in many situations. It was strange to hear uncertainty in his voice, especially considering what a simple question it was. I didn’t get to call after him though, since he scurried out after answering. I sighed over it and walked back around my desk to have a seat.
”He doesn’t seem quite one hundred percent, does he?” my mother said as she watched him retreat.
”He hasn’t been all there since he got back from Rozenom. He said he’d talk to me when he was ready, but-“
”How hideously naïve,” she said, still watching the door Johann left through. “Listen to me Keiko: men are fools. And the Launchers? Fools among fools. Whatever is gnawing at him, he won’t ever share it if left alone. Do you know why?” I shook my head. Even though she wasn’t looking at me, she went on, “it’s because he believes that exposing his vulnerability would burden you.”
”What? That’s dumb! If something’s bothering him, I want to help!”
”As I said: fools among fools.” She shook her head and turned to me. “If you want him to open you, you’ll need to be aggressive.”
”How do I do that?” It was weird, talking to her like that. She was sharing her experience with me and I was taking it all in. I figured it was the type of conversation that normal mothers and daughters had. Well, like I said, it’s not as if she didn’t love me, but her method of raising a child was more, ‘throw it off the cliff and let it climb back up’ than nurturing support.
”There are ways. When dealing with that man…” She stopped mid sentence to purse her lips. I think she was trying to keep a smile from creeping up on her face. Eventually, she took out a fan and snapped it over her face. “When dealing with X, the most efficient method was to literally corner him and not let him leave until he talked. I think you’ll need a more subtle method though. The principle is the same, however: get him in a position he can’t easily leave and don’t allow the conversation to veer off in any other direction.”
”Hmm…”
”I’ll leave you to think it over. I’m going to retire to my room for the day. I’m still feeling faint,” she said as she headed for the door.
”Oh, actually, I took your room,” I said.
She stopped in mid step. “What.”
”Yeah, I’m empress now, so I get the empress suite in the house. I had your stuff moved to the grandmother’s suite already, so you don’t need to worry about that.” Now I was the one who had to cover up her mouth to hide a smile. Her eye twitched at me, but she said nothing and left. Ah, getting back at that old woman for all the grief she gave me made it all worthwhile sometimes.
The rest of my day, which there wasn’t much of, was filled by the usual paperwork and phone conversations. I was always amazed by just how much paperwork there was to do. I swear, if I looked away from my desk, it would reproduce. Annoying as it was though, I finally starting to make some headway. I was able to put some funding aside for the care of refugees with medical conditions, get a few more provincial governors to turn temporary power over to me, and overall just get my planet running a bit closer to normal.
The last conversation I had that day was a pleasant one. Stacy called from Colony. The Guardian Aegii had parted after defeating Mother Brain. Johann and I had Neudaiz to run, while Stacy had, in the absence of the president and headmaster, the responsibility of the Guardians fall, in part, on her shoulders. Sable went to Colony with her to give her a hand, and Zoe decided to stick around in Rozenom to continue assisting survivors until the rest of us got our stuff together. Elly, of course, was with Johann, helping him fix our equipment.
”Stacy, hi!” I said, immediately feeling a little less weary when her red hair come up on the screen. No one else had hair like that. I mean, sure, I have blue hair, so I shouldn’t be talking about how unreal other people’s hair is, but she just had this really vibrant red sitting on her head.
”Been a while empress! We saw your speech, it was great! Listen, we need to talk real quick.”
”Sure, what about?”
”We’re putting the Guardians back together. We’re just about ready to unveil, but, I want it to be special. Plus, there’s a couple loose ends I need everyone’s help with.” Stacy liked to understate things. More than once, I heard her refer to the events on Colony that day while we were fighting as ‘small hiccups.’ So, a ‘loose end’…well, I had to ask.
”What kind of loose ends?”
”Ah, well, it turns out the templates got wiped,” she said.
”What?! Stacy, there is no Guardians without templates!” I said. Hmm…yeah, I should explain this real fast.. The Guardians is made up, mostly, of…how do I put this nicely…amateurs. When the first SEED fall occurred, people, young as 14, who had barely used a weapon in their entire lives, rushed en masse to join the Guardians. Those people were the bulk of the Guardians’ fighting force. The reason they were able to fight was because of the TYPE system.
Every living thing collects photons. It’s not a special talent; it’s just like breathing. The way those photons integrate into a body is determined by how that body has been trained. In that way, it’s like muscles. If a body is trained for cycling, the muscles adapt for endurance. If it’s trained for weightlifting, they adapt for power. If a person trains for teching, the photons go into technical power. If a person trains for gunning, the photons go into imagery. Imagery is the ability to give photons shape and make it hold- ah, I’m getting off topic. Anyway, the average person is, basically, a lump of unallocated photons.
That’s where the TYPE system comes in. Take me, for example. Since I was born, I’ve been training in gunning and teching, and my photon spread shows it. I have high mental strength, high imagery, and decent attack power. In exchange, that leaves my defensive power and hex purity on the low side. The TYPE system, which stands for…um…shoot, ask Johann. Anyway, it’s a system on Colony that can take a photon spread and mold someone else’s according to that pattern. It’s like a cookie cutter.
So, someone who joins the Guardians can access my template and become a guntecher, just like that. While the Guardian Aegii were the most powerful units in the Guardians, our true purpose was that; to give ordinary people the power to fight. So, naturally, the TYPE system was kept under heavy guard and the data on the seven templates was backed up on dozens of machines. It being gone wasn’t ‘a loose end.’
”Oh calm down. We’re all alive, so we can just recopy everyone’s templates.”
”Oh. …Yeah. Wait, wait, we don’t have a fortegunner aegis!” The fortegunner’s aegis, Elizabeth de Colte, was what we called a legacy aegis. She was an original guardian and had since passed on. No gunner had ever been able to surpass her template, so the fortegunner’s just kept on using hers. “We can’t replace that!”
”I’ve got something in mind, don’t you worry. I just need to ask you; are you still going to be an Aegis?”
”Of course. Why would I stop?”
Stacy just laughed at me. “Silly me for asking. All right, I’ll call you back with more information on the event. I’ll send you something to wear. See ya soon.” She ended the call. I was the empress of Neudaiz. I had the best tailors and the finest fabrics at my disposal. What the hell was she going to send me to wear? I got chills just thinking about it.
Late in the night, I was ready to head home for sleep. Johann came to walk me there, like he always did. I gathered up my stuff and out the door we went. People have this image of Neudaiz as a romantic place. It’s…okay, I guess, but when it’s not raining like it freaking always is, the sky is overcast with clouds so it’s usually pretty gloomy. That night was one of those gloomy overcast nights where I couldn’t see the moon.
Still, the air was nice, and Ohtoku itself was always a beautiful city. I especially enjoyed it when there wasn’t a soul around. It was just that right dash of eerie and glamorous to walk around the bright lights and the gorgeous architecture by myself, or with Johann. “Hey, Jo-sei,” I said.
”Hm?” It was a little delayed. His mind was still focusing on whatever was bothering him.
”Check this out,” I said. I took out a small, braided cylinder made of bamboo. I slid my finger into one end and showed him the other. Naturally, he figured it out pretty fast and slid his own finger into it, after taking off his glove. “Okay, try to get out.” He did just that, and the finger trap tightened around his finger, keeping him clutched.
”What an amusing toy,” he said.
”Hey, Jo-sei.”
”Yes?”
”What’s bothering you?” He struggled at the finger trap with a calm frenzy. He probably wanted to run away, but that’s what the trap was for. “Come on, just tell me! I’m not asking about how you survived Rozenom, but even I can tell your head hasn’t been all there lately.”
He was quiet for a few seconds as he settled his eyes on me. …Eye. Whatever. Maybe he was thinking about how to tell me. Or maybe he was thinking about how to give me a satisfying answer without actually saying anything. Or he could have just been wondering if he could unhook my bra without disturbing my dress. I could never be sure with that person. Anyway, he said, “you have enough to worry about, Keiko. I can handle my issues.”
”Jo-sei.”
”Yes?” I flicked him in the forhead. “Ow! What the hell?!”
”Do you remember what I said in Dezolis?”
”You said a lot of things in Dezolis. Plus, I was too busy thinking of banging Feng Jie to actually listen to you, so there’s that, too.” It might sound strange, but I let out a little sigh of relief at that remark. If he could make a joke about Feng Jie, then at least I knew that wasn’t what was bothering him.
”I said,” leaning towards him with my finger in his face, “that my strength comes from sharing our hopes and our fears.”
”Did you really say something like that?” he asked as he kept on trying pull out of the finger trap.
”Do we need another flashback?”
”Ahhh, now that you mention it, I am dredging up a distinct memory of what you say,” he said.
”Whatever you say, Jo-sei, it’s not going to be a burden on me. Your problems might not be my problems, but I care about them all the same!”
He took a deep breath and looked up into the sky. “Sometimes I wonder if I haven’t squandered my life.” I must have made some kind confused noise, because he explained, “it’s my mommy. You remember how Auntie Ruru explained she crashed while she was under SEED control, right? Well, I was able to repair the damage simply enough, but the infection has exacerbated her condition.”
”How bad?”
He chewed it over in his mouth for a while before he spoke again. “The Mendez-Asimov scale measures ICS from 1 to 10. 1 is a non issue; crashes are rare, last no longer than three seconds and the sufferer has no lapse in processing. 10 is the worst case, in which the sufferer spends more time crashed than active, experiences memory corruption and has an overall poor quality of life.” He had to wipe his eye with the back of his hand before going on. “For reference, most casts opt for decommission at 9. Before the infection, mommy was a 6. Now, she’s an 8.”
His breathing had become shallow and his voice cracked pitch a couple times, but he was holding it together. “Elyham is trying to reverse some of the software damage before we restart her, but she isn’t having much success.” He stopped again, to get a grip on himself. I didn’t know what to do. I definitely didn’t want to show him that seeing him like that was jarring, so I just stood there and waited for him to continue. I wished I had hugged him right there, or something, anything.
”The first time I saw her have a bad crash was when I was twelve. We were playing a game of Othello, and she crashed in a middle of the game. She stayed like that for a half hour before she woke up and forgot her strategy for the game. It was the only time I’d ever beaten her at Othello. That day, I vowed to myself that I’d cure ICS. But…look at where I am now. I was too busy playing superhero to make good on it.”
He got quiet again, but instead of continuing, he looked at me. His expression fell slightly when he saw whatever kind of look I must have had on my face. He said, “I’m sorry, I should have known better,” as he properly released the finger trap. He put both hands on my shoulders and sucked up all the distress he had let leak out. “I’ll be okay, I promise. You don’t need to worry about me.”
It sucked. He didn’t open up to me because he thought I couldn’t handle it, and I proved him right. I, the empress of Neudaiz, charged with providing comfort and security to all on Neudaiz, couldn’t do that much for the person closest to me. I felt so defeated.

[McLaughlin]

For all the womanising he does, Johann sure has a soft spot for the women closest to him.

Looking forward to more.

[Xaeris]

I'm happy to say that this chapter has everything everyone likes: plot, fighting, and sexytimes. There's even an SRW reference if you're paying attention.

Chapter 9: Beneath the Crumbling Starlight

Okay, this was amusing at first, but this is just horsecrap now. You are not the main character. I am the main character. You are my support. You exist to troll shippers. That’s it!
Blah. At any rate, the next morning, I left Elyham in the bed to get dressed for the day. …Hmm, actually, maybe I should start a little earlier. Then again, that part of the story doesn’t really demand explanation. I was feeling a touch depressed after trying to open up to Keiko, so I sought some feminine comfort. The courtship was hardly anything remarkable: a standard ‘tough guy feeling vulnerable’ routine. I had some witticisms, sure, but none of my best work. All in all, it was a fairly average seduction on my part. I can’t even think of any insight to gain from reflecting on it. I almost feel as if I owe posterity every detail, however mundane, but at the same time, I think I would be doing a disservice to the reader of these memoirs, recounting such a banal exploit. So yes, I think I’ll just skip it and start from the morning as planned.
I will say this though, she turned out to be unexpectedly freaky when the knickers came off. I’ve always said, it’s the shy ones you need to be wary of.
Right then, it was just cracking dawn on Neudaiz. Just as it always had, for as long as I’d been sleeping in that room, the sun leaked in through the window and spilled into my eyelids. It was such an irritating way to be woken. I had begged mommy to let me move my bed when I was a boy, but she insisted that I wouldn’t be stirred from bed otherwise. She may have been correct.
I got dressed quite quietly; I’d had plenty of practice at sneaking out of bedrooms, as could be imagined. It was only when I was tying my cravat around my neck did she begin to rouse from sleep. Still tying it, I looked over to her as she tossed in the bed, not quite realizing where she was. Just as I finished with my cravat, her memories finally reached her. She screamed. They always scream. It’s actually a little hurtful.
”D-d-dr. Launcher!” she sputtered, with the sheets clutched against her body.
”Good morning, Elyham. Did you sleep well?” I asked as I adjusted my cuffs. She just nodded dumbly. “Excellent. I have an errand to run on Moatoob today. I finished revising your hardware schematics, and I’ll drop them off at Yohmei for manufacturing before I leave the planet.”
”Oh, but GRM has exclusive rights to the manufacture of cast parts,” she said. I have to admit, most women take longer to recover their wits.
”A few parts should fly right under the radar, given the situation in Gurhal. I’ll return before the day is out,” I said. I pulled an overcoat out of my closet and put it on. When I first got in the habit of wearing coats, I spent quite some time practicing how to put them on. It’s surprisingly difficult to just toss them on like you see in the movies. It was completely worth it though. Matters of style always are.
”H-have a good day then,” she said. “Um…um…”
”Your blouse is on the ceiling fan, your shoes and stockings are in the hall, your pants should be underneath the blankets, and your knickers are on your head,” I said as I stepped out the door.
I dropped off the plans, as I said I would. With father missing, I was Yohmei’s interim CEO, as per the bylaws, so, naturally, they went straight to work on that. I was twenty six at the time of this adventure; by most definitions, a grown man. Yet, I felt crushed beneath the responsibilities that had been dropped on me. A crisis threatened Gurhal, Keiko crowned herself empress, mommy was terminal, and just as a wad of spit in the wound, father had left me his beloved katana.
I felt I had been thrust into a role that I wasn’t entirely convinced I was prepared for. It was something I almost voiced to Keiko the night before, but I caught myself before I did. It wasn’t something I could share, because that too, was a responsibility. People expected me to be the one that was calm and collected in the face of danger, to be the man with the plan. They needed that sort of security to perform in their own roles. And that was fine, I didn’t begrudge them that. Whether I liked it or not, I had a massive weight on my shoulders, and I resolved myself to carry it.
I took a shuttle to Colony, and from there, to Moatoob. In Dagora, I took out a G-Flyer to fly up to the Vio Tonga. By the time I came upon the northern reaches of Moatoob, it was nighttime on the planet, even though I’d been out and about for only four hours. As the Aurora Majarra came into view, I started to think about where this adventure began, when I had an ordinary life. I sighed and started looking for a place to land. I ended up having to park the Flyer about three Jp out from Miss Leanora’s home. I was displeased.
Although I’m not the typical beast, there are a few things I share acutely in common with my kind. My nose is always cold. I really love bacon. And I despise being wet. By the time I finished trudging three Jp through an arctic tundra, the scent of bacon wafting from the door was just barely enough to balance my mood. When I realized it’d be late in the night by the time I arrived, I called Miss Leanora to let her know I was coming, so she was waiting on me. As soon as I knocked, the door opened.
”Hey sugar, nice seeing ya again!” she said. It’s rare that I’m self conscious about my height. 168 Rp is the median height for males. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with me, despite how often Sable refers to me as ‘manlet.’ Yet, when a woman whose bust your head barely clears greets you at her door, even the very best of egos suffers from momentary deflation.
”Hello Miss Leanora. I feel the same, though the circumstances could be happier.”
”Come on in, it’s freezing out here,” she said. I followed her in and shut the door after myself. As I said, it was a late hour on Moatoob, and I hadn’t given her much notice, so there were barely any lights on. “Want some bacon? I fried some up while I was waiting on ya!”
”I’ll have some,” I said as I took a seat in the living room. It was a nice, if small, house, considering it was out in the middle of nowhere. I had to struggle for a bit to keep myself from sinking into the chair cushions. It was obviously meant for someone much bigger than me. “How is Charles?” I asked. Charles was some kid I rescued at the beginning of this nonsense. In fact, he was the reason I was dealing with half this grief to begin with.
”He’s all right. He’s sleeping right now,” she said as she came out of the kitchen with two plates of bacon strips. I couldn’t help but note that my serving was considerably smaller, but, eh, that made sense, I suppose. She set mine down on the coffee table and took a seat on her sofa. “He’s been working real hard with that wand you left him.”
”Ha, is that right…” The bacon was delicious. I’m getting hungry just thinking of it now. It was just the right amount of crunchy; just enough to provide texture, but not so much that it crumbled. I had to say, “this is scrumptious.”
”Thank ya sugar,” she said as she wrapped her bathrobe a little tighter around herself. She had a very sexy figure. I probably would have gone for it if I hadn’t been aware that my father had beaten me there already. “Anyhoo, you didn’t come all the way up here to freeze your butt off and make chit chat,” she said. She reached beneath the coffee table and out came the sheathed Orotiagito. “It’s all yours, sugar.”
She set it on the table and I just looked at it. It hadn’t quite sunk in that it was mine. It needs to be understood, that that was my father’s treasured katana. Every single memory I have of him includes that item somewhere on his person. Mind you, I had no idea how to use a katana. Father taught me, primarily, technics. And even if I could, it had no photon cage, so I wouldn’t have been able to use it for any photon arts.
”Something wrong?” she asked.
”It’s just strange that my father would leave me this,” I said.
”Nah, it’s not just that that’s bugging you, is it?” she said. I looked up at her. She was looking right at me, nibbling cutely on a strip. Women are freakishly perceptive, sometimes. “Your dad used to get that same look on his face. All pointy eyed and pucker lipped.” And then she shared her impression.
”My father was an amazing person. …Is, an amazing person. I fear that I’m not quite as amazing, yet have to fill his role,” I said.
She didn’t say anything right away. She just watched me as I looked at the katana on the table. After a while, she got off the sofa and walked over to me. “You’re not gonna believe me if I tell you you’re gonna be okay. That’s gotta come from here,” she said, laying a finger on my heart. Actually, it was more like a nail. It was sharp. “But listen to me now. Your dad? He was making up at least half of it as he went along.”
”Ha…I appreciate that,” I said. Miss Leanora continued telling me stories about herself, my mommy, my father and auntie Ruru while I finished my lunch. By the time I was ready to go, an hour had passed. I picked up the Orotiagito off the table and stood up.
”Remember now, you’re not your dad, but your momma didn’t raise a pushover!”
I nodded. I was actually feeling a little better. Hearing a bit about my father’s blunders gave me a bit of comfort. “Thank you Miss Leanora. I’ll be on my way now. As soon as I locate Alice, you’ll hear from me.”
”You sure you don’t want to stay the night?” she asked.
Like I said; if the old man hadn’t got there first, I totally would have gone for it. But, he did, so, I said, “my clock is running daytime right now. But thank you, I’ll be all right.”
For whatever ridiculous reason, the Orotiagito did not go into nanotransformers, so I had to strap the thing onto my waist. Father kept it at his hip. Since I didn’t have any plans to use it, I just put it at the back of my waist, horizontally. Miss Leanora saw me out the door and I was off into the night to complete another three Jp long trudge through the dry snow.
It wasn’t going to be that simple.
Maybe halfway through the trip, I ran into some trouble. Techers like myself often talk about ‘feeling a foul radiance.’ Usually, we’re just talking out of our asses. Radiance doesn’t feel foul. We recognize that it belongs to someone we don’t like and we assign it bad feelings. But when I say I felt a foul radiance that day on the tundra, it was intrinsically foul; the feeling cut through my skin like a rusty knife. That’s not to say I didn’t recognize it, however. I knew exactly from who it was coming from.
”Gwendolyn.” I looked up into the night sky. It was a beautiful sight, with the stars dotting the horizon and the Aurora Majarra colorfully dancing through the sky. And Gwendolyn was up there along with them, flying in their majesty. She didn’t look like the Gwendolyn I remembered. The Gwendolyn I remembered was very easy on the eyes. People think I’m obsessed with women, but I’m nothing more than an enthusiast of the female form. Would you think badly of someone who pointed out the specs of a car they particularly like, or someone who pores over the statistics of their favorite sports team? No? So do not begrudge me when I tell you of her creamy white skin, or her slender, fit legs. Protest not my praise of her moderately sized, but impeccably shaped breasts. Have no complaints when I describe a booty that would not quit, especially wrapped in that outfit. However many criticisms I could make of her personality, there’s nothing bad I could have said about her body.
Hmm, well, I guess her knees were somewhat sharp.
What I was looking at, in the sky, was the same thing I saw in Rozenom. It was a freckle faced newman with long, pink hair. It might sound as if I describing a loli, but be assured that this was a full grown adult woman I was staring up at in the sky. She looked very much like Gwendolyn. More importantly than those little features, though, would be the glowing pink cracks in her skin that appeared all throughout her body.
”Hello, Johann.”
I held my position as she came floating down to the ground. Without the light of the stars and aurora behind her, I could see her better. She touched the ground, daintily, and spread her arms apart upon landing. I just broke out cigarette.
”I like what you’ve done with your clothes. I’m surprised that hellforged evil has time to accessorize, though,” I said. She was wearing an elegant one piece that hugged her figure and garbed her in black from neck to ankle. On top of it, she had a sheer satin sash that sat on her (nice) hips and hung low down her leg. She had on some other stuff, but nothing I remember clearly enough to mention. I do remember that she was barefoot in that getup. If you’re into that kind of thing. I’m more of a whips and scissors fellow, myself.
”Why thank you,” she replied. It was suspicious. Back in Rozenom, this person had been considerably more…hostile, toward me. I had no doubt that there was a malicious intent at work, but she was being oddly coy, everything considered. “You just have to find time to do something nice for yourself, you know.” She began to saunter towards me. I didn’t back away immediately, but I put myself on guard. “The eyepatch looks good on you. It makes you look…”
”Rugged?”
”Exactly. I’m so sorry about your eye though. It must be so ugly underneath there,” she said, lightly biting her finger with a smirk. It would figure that all this sexy stuff would bombard me on the one day I already got my dose of nookie.
”Oh, it’s all right. Who needs two eyes anyway? One’s plenty. My head feels much lighter.” To illustrate, I twisted my head around as I said it.
”Really? Well then, why don’t I make it even lighter for you then?” Was that a threat? Of course it was a threat. Yet she said it so sweetly, I almost agreed. She raised a hand, and a wand took shape in it. It was a wand I’d seen a few times before…hmm, actually, I guess she would have called it a ‘cane.’ Silly. It had a blue shaft and it was attached to a pulsing red rock. It was a simple, almost primitive, device, but I knew the Summit Moon was a formidable casting weapon.
”I know what you are,” I said as I raised my own hand and brought my wand into shape. “I won’t let you have her.” With a flick of my wrist, the photon cage on the Save the Maiden became a blade, forming my rapier-wand.
”You think you understand that much, dear love?”
”I do. My time on Pioneer 2 was quite edifying.” Okay. If I were a responsible narrator, I would take the time to make an aside here and explain that remark. I’m not going to do that. It’s a very long story, and it’s almost break time. I’ll make it to that flashback in good time. In the meantime, just roll with it, please.
”Then you understand that you need to die. Don’t get me wrong, I like you. That’s the problem you know.” She conjured a foie up in front of herself. It was a tiny little dot at first, but in the blink of an eye, it expanded into a ball of churning flames, bigger than either of us. “You’re holding me back!” She sent the foie straight toward me.
Foie is fine when the enemy is a wild animal or a mindless creature, but against intelligent targets, no one with any kind of sense casts it expecting to hit. It’s used as a distraction, a way to force the enemy into an action. In my case, I snapped my fingers and cast rafoie directly in front of myself. I made it nice and smoky to consume the most oxygen. As soon as the foie hit my impromptu vacuum, it snuffed itself out, and in doing so, revealed the several digas that were coming up behind it.
”Well, I do have a magnetic personality,” I said as I cast ramegid. The aim was somewhat tricky, but I managed to all of catch the flying boulders underneath the gravity well. The black wave shoved the boulders into the ground with a satisfying thud. “I must say, your method of teching is very simple minded.”
”I’m just a straightforward kind of girl!” she said as she rushed towards me. I suppose she figured if she used similar technics at close range, I wouldn’t be able to counter as effectively. Not terrible logic; problem was, I figured that too. As she stepped into the field of her downed digas, I cast damdiga, on each of them. Each of the rocks released a thick poisonous mist that enveloped her in a flash.
”I guess I don’t hate that. It just usually turns out those are the clingers,” I said as I regarded the mist cloud. I failed to consider that I wouldn’t be able to see into it when I acted, so I lost my opportunity to attack, seeing as I wasn’t about to go charging in. No one’s perfect. A white wisp came floating out of the cloud. It was fairly slow, so I took my time to see what else would happen. It was followed by several more wisps, all of them picking up speed. They were coming in my general direction, though they weren’t taking the most direct path. “I haven’t seen nagrants in a while.”
I raised my fist and snapped it open, releasing a clutch of shadowy bats. Like decoys, the nosmegids flew out and attracted the attention of the wisps. They flew around each other, as if they were dogfighting, for a few moments, then crashed into each other with a burst of static. While I was doing that, I felt the ground rumble beneath my feet. I just barely managed to jump away as the radiga pulled a huge boulder from the ground with groundbreaking force. And while I was doing that, she had taken advantage of my distraction to run to me. By the time I looked up, she was right in front of me.
I raised my rapier and caught her first swing with a parry. “Your attacks still have no guile, Ayame.” She took some more swings at me. None of them landed clean, but the ones I had to block instead of avoid may as well have been hits. It felt like my arm was going to fall off trying to hold my rapier in place. Eventually, our swings met with a clash and our weapons held firm against each other with us struggling to push them forward. I don’t enjoy having to melee. It’s something I can do well enough, but I’m the fortetecher’s aegis. Beast or not, I’m not built for physical combat. So, I was just barely holding ground.
”How’s this for guile?” she said as she took a hand from her Summit Moon and raised a finger in front of my face. On the tip of her fingernail, a small sparkle of lightning appeared. It was a tiny little noszonde, but when she set it off, the flash was blinding. Of course, I had to shut my eye, for all the good it did. While blinded, I felt her hand grasp my chest. And just as soon, I felt myself pushed into the air. “All right now, don’t you go anywhere! Actually…” My sight was recovering as I was flying through the air, but I still couldn’t quite see. Though I did feel the zonde she was charging. “You can go to hell!”
Like a bolt of lightning…because it is a bolt of lightning, the zonde struck me and evaporated several of my line shield’s hexes, along with dealing some direct damage to myself. I’ll spare you the description of my pain and just say it was unpleasant. I hit the ground, just as unpleasantly. “Been there. Came back,” I said I got onto my feet. “They don’t serve beer.”
She came at me again, probably hoping for another melee confrontation, as if I was going to let that happen. I put my wand forward and started making a dambarta. Dambarta is a favorite technic amongst new fortetechers. Honestly, I can’t figure out why. It’s not useless, but even at my level of proficiency, I have to stand still to cast it. At any rate, I had a pretty good snow fort going by the time she made it over to me. As I figured she would, she smashed into shards with a swing of her club.
Using the shards of ice in the air as points of conduction, I cast a wide net of lightning over the area. Even as I think of it now, I’m impressed with how intricate it was. It was some of my finest work, especially considering I was never really in the habit of using the zonde series. Of course, I switched to a zon type line shield before I did this, so the damage dealt to myself was soaked entirely by my line shield. I still lost a considerable amount of hex purity, but watching her get lit up, it was worth it.
”Had enough?” I asked.
”Hardly,” she said as she picked herself off the ground and floated onto her feet. “You’ve become a lot better since Rozenom. But you’ve still been fighting an entirely defensive battle.” It was true. That was the first bit of damage I dealt to her and I was already down 30% of my hex purity. I was doing a good job staying alive like a fly does a good job of not getting swatted. “Come on, just do it already.”
She meant my nanoblast, naturally.
A grin spread across her face as she tapped her chin with her cane. “I want to crush the last piece of hope you’re holding back. Show me that face!”
I took my coat off and draped it in front of myself. “Well, how could I refuse a request from such a pretty lady?”

[Seth Astra]

I can't wait for the next one. More Johann nanoblast godmode. :D

[McLaughlin]

Oh damn.

[Xaeris]

I can't wait for the next one. More Johann nanoblast godmode. :D

It's funny, because you think I have no plans to troll you all by going to Keiko's narration as per rotation.

[Seth Astra]

I actually considered that. You know, I'm honestly not surprised. Ah well, the job of a good writer is to constantly troll the readers, so you've gotta be doing something right.

[Xaeris]

Well, I'm not 100% decided yet. Since Keiko went before and after Kaoru's flashback, she's one up on Johann and continuing with Johann would even them out again. Plus, it's just not as much fun with only a two day wait between chapters. Oh well, only Tuesday knows.

[McLaughlin]

Kaoru also went twice in a row. You can do it!

Pumped for more either way.

[Magus_84]

Funny enough, I'd dug out my Gamecube from storage about a week ago, in the process of rearranging the bedroom and setting up an office.

My roommate's dog had gotten ahold of two of the memory cards (including the one with Sage, sadly), but the untouched one was the one with Danielle (Ayame) on it. I ran through most of Ult Seabed offline with Summit Moon + Simple Tech/Megid spam. Fun times. And oddly appropriate timing/memory card survival.

I liked these last two quite a bit. It's more of the character development that makes the leadup to the stabbity all the better. And I think Johann's due an achievement for the non-Keiko Aegii grand slam. Unless you're waiting on a new Fortegunner Aegis for him to get full credit.

Needless to say, I'm very much looking forward to the next one. 100k meseta (that's P2 rates, not PSU rates...) says you're gonna swap to Stacy first, though.

[Xaeris]

Those were Kaoru's only two chapters though, so it's cool that she got two back to back. I already know how I could write the next chapter, whoever narrates it. It's just a matter of flipping a coin. In fact, I think I'll flip a coin. Heads, you guys get stupid broken nanoblast goodness on Tuesday. Tails, you get a day in Neudaizian democracy. Sounds good, right?

Indeed, Johann is quite pleased with himself for nailing 4/5, with extenuating circumstances excusing him from expectations of 5/5. Unfortunately, I don't think he's going to have interest in going 5/6. To be honest, I didn't have that opening scene in mind until I sat down to write the chapter. I opened up Word, scrolled to the bottom of the document and went, "hmm, what if Johann beds Elly? Let's see how that writes itself."

Every now and then, I go through the past stories. Partially because I'm an attention whore, but partially for research. I leave quite a few ideas on the ground that I never pick up again. It's an aggravating feeling, going, "oh, right, I remember that I was going to do that, and that, but forgot to make good on it when the time came," when I come across foreshadowing that never came to fruition. I was doing that just this weekend. It's a good thing too, because I nearly forgot something really important.

PS: I forgot to add the footnote. Johann is 5'7''. Rp is what Gurhal calls their centimeters. From that, I just made up Jp to be kilometers.

[McLaughlin]

Speaking of never picking things up again, we never did get Zoe's flashback chapter back from the Copy/Paste abyss.

*Taps foot*

[Keiko_Seisha]

The avid SRW fan I am can not catch the reference. It also depends which SRW series you're referencing anyway, I can catch a few lines that could be Endless Frontier references but nothing mainline SRW comes to mind. Speaking of SRW I've been entertaining myself lately by streaming a play through of Battle Moon Wars (Type-Moon SRW). Been going well, I'd say.

So Johann is only about 5" taller than Portable 2 Keiko, quite interestin to me.

I took something like a ten minute distraction in the middle of typing this so I don't remember if there was anything else I wanted to type. Good fun.

[Xaeris]

I haven't forgotten the missing chapter. *cough* I'll get to it. Eventually. You guys know I'm good for it.

5 inches is a perfectly manly difference in height! What's this 'only' stuff? Okay, sure, you have to subtract 3 inches for heels, but still, 2'' isn't bad!


“All right now, don’t you go anywhere! Actually…” My sight was recovering as I was flying through the air, but I still couldn’t quite see. Though I did feel the zonde she was charging. “You can go to hell!”

There it was, OG reference. I'm curious though, what else could have passed?

[Magus_84]

The avid SRW fan I am can not catch the reference. It also depends which SRW series you're referencing anyway, I can catch a few lines that could be Endless Frontier references but nothing mainline SRW comes to mind. Speaking of SRW I've been entertaining myself lately by streaming a play through of Battle Moon Wars (Type-Moon SRW). Been going well, I'd say.

So Johann is only about 5" taller than Portable 2 Keiko, quite interestin to me.

I took something like a ten minute distraction in the middle of typing this so I don't remember if there was anything else I wanted to type. Good fun.

Battle Moon Wars is awesome. Which path did you take?

And I'm pretty sure the missing Zoe chapter'll pop up in-between two cliffhangers. >_>

[Keiko_Seisha]

There it was, OG reference. I'm curious though, what else could have passed?

Ah, I get the reference now. See, I didn't ever play OG in English, I played OGS on PS2 in Japanese. Prettier visuals make me happier.

And also I've already made the comment on how Johann is basically Haken in my eyes, so basically anything dealing with that.


Battle Moon Wars is awesome. Which path did you take?

The real route, Haruna's. I'm currently up to somewhere like stage 37 with my main aces being the usuals; Haruna, Akiha, Tohno, Ryougi, Saber. I'm probably gonna continue streaming in just a bit tonight.

[Xaeris]

Ah, that's right, you know the moon language and aren't at Atlus' whim. Lucky. I haven't branched out beyond EF and OG. Kyosuke and Excellent amuse me greatly. Before this is over, I'm going to sneak in a Rampage Ghost knockoff somewhere.

[Magus_84]

Ah, I get the reference now. See, I didn't ever play OG in English, I played OGS on PS2 in Japanese. Prettier visuals make me happier.

And also I've already made the comment on how Johann is basically Haken in my eyes, so basically anything dealing with that.



The real route, Haruna's. I'm currently up to somewhere like stage 37 with my main aces being the usuals; Haruna, Akiha, Tohno, Ryougi, Saber. I'm probably gonna continue streaming in just a bit tonight.

Haruna route's my favorite, but never really got Akiha to where I liked using her. Lancer, Archer, Shirou (...a bit of a sunk cost, there), Haruna, Shiki and Ryogi usually end up getting the most kills for me.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Haruna route's my favorite, but never really got Akiha to where I liked using her. Lancer, Archer, Shirou (...a bit of a sunk cost, there), Haruna, Shiki and Ryogi usually end up getting the most kills for me.

I'm afraid to talk more since I don't wanna turn X's thread into BMW discussion. But, I have to.

Akiha is a virtual long range tank, she gets Valor probably the earliest in the game (Rin gets it about as early) and her Crimson Vermillion barrier is holy-shit-awesome (seriously, nulls ALL DAMAGE below 4000? By selecting to guard she can null out most enemies). And she gets a rather nice MAP, though a little hard to place her into a good range to use most of the time. Plus Akiha is just outright my favorite Tsukihime female next to Kohaku.

When I first played through the game I had a hard time finding use for Akiha, but after playing so many SRWs now I can truly see her usefulness. Characters I've left to the sideline though are the likes of Ciel, Phantasmoon/Eclipse (though she's excellent), Len, Caren, and Rider.

[Magus_84]

BMW has made me consider the thought of a game in the same style using some of these story elements. But I'm not a programmer, so at this point it's just a nice thought.

Also, the more off-topic posts, the faster he'll update! ...right?

[Xaeris]

Oh, I don't mind. Free bumps. You all lucked out, the coin showed you mercy. I'm particularly proud of this title.

Edit: Not remembering to bold and italicize the title doesn't count as a screw up, hush.

Chapter 10: Technical Lyrical Boy Nanohahn

Heads, I win.
Up until recently, I had been able to get through life without ever having to use Regear Val. And as far as I was concerned, I was going to see that was how it played out. I had decided on a sort of image of myself; I wanted to be a person who overcame great adversity to achieve the highest success. To an extent, I had been able to do that, becoming a foremost authority in both cast and photon sciences, as well as becoming the Fortetecher’s Aegis, in spite of being a beast. In my mind, I was defying a convention. It made me feel…well, special.
At least, I thought that’s how I was going about it. It turned out that stupid thing on my arm had marked me as a techer from the day I was born. I was exploiting my talent the entire time by learning how to cast techs. It was a ridiculous irony; in trying to defy fate, I played right into fate’s hands. I would have been better off trying to be a fortegunner. Of course, I probably would have turned out to have some hawk eyed nanoblast instead if I had gone that route.
I tried to rationalize it so many ways, but I couldn’t shed the feeling of disgust. The only thing that gave me some solace was vowing never to use Regear Val, no matter how dire the circumstance. If I couldn’t live the way I intended, then better not to live, I figured. That worked pretty well for a while. Then, the circumstance changed. It wasn’t an issue of my life, anymore. That day, in Rozenom, my pride superseded my life, as it always did, but something came along to supersede my pride. You see, that day, I decided that her life was worth more than my pride. What’s stunning is that it wasn’t even a difficult decision.
It was the same scenario in Vio Tonga. She was standing there in front of me, in the thrall of darkness, and the only thing keeping her from crossing the point of no return was my continued existence. So I was damn well going to stay alive.
I tossed my rapier into the ground and slapped my palms together. The photons came to me, slowly at first, but within seconds, they were rushing me like a psychedelic deluge. Then, with a sudden burst, the flood ceased and receded, revealing me in my blasted form.
”There it is, there’s the Johann I wanted to see,” she said, showing me a toothy grin. The ‘Johann she wanted to see’ was a little over three feet tall with white fur. While the photons used for nanoblasting normally go into forming muscle mass, in the case of Regear Val, they go into forming the tails. All nine of them. So those were there too, spread into the air behind me. I wiggled them briefly, to be sure I had proper control of them.
”Let’s not dicker about,” I said, very mindful of the strict time limit I was under. I directed one tail over my shoulder and pulled a diga from the ground with it. It wasn’t a particularly strong one, just an average sized boulder that an accomplished rank and file Guardian could have fired. She dipped beneath it, allowing it to sail harmlessly by, and I fired another one, which she floated off to the side of. I fired a few more to the same result.
”This is a hell of a time to be afraid of hitting a girl, Johann!” she said.
I just raised my finger and pointed behind her. The beautiful thing about Regear Val is not that it increases my tech power (it doesn’t), but that it allows me to control multiple technics simultaneous. While I had been throwing digas in errant directions, I had been directing a nosmegid to catch each boulder in its gravitational field. By the time I pointed this out to her, I had a well sized asteroid cluster. I pulled it toward her and slammed it into her from above, knocking her out of the air like a gnat.
”No guile at all,” I said. Now, I should stress, this was a large cluster of boulders. I dropped two megavonnes on her, easily. So, you can imagine, when I saw the red sparks of shifta scatter from beneath the cluster, followed by the sight of the cluster being lifted, I was calling bullshit. But there was no denying, she was underneath it, holding it, and this is the part that pisses me off, WITH ONE ARM. Seriously, even with Keiko’s shifta, Sable couldn’t have done that.
”Okay, that was pretty clever, I have to admit. Hey, is your shifta any good?” she asked as she casually tossed it to me.
My shifta is awful.
Now, I would have just canceled the nosmegid holding the cluster together if I hadn’t been distracted by the barta she sent racing towards me. It wasn’t the type of thing that could be sidestepped. It was a thick forest of icicles shooting up from the ground that would have taken me too long to get around going from either side. Instead, with one tail, I tried to hose it down with damfoie. I saw that it wasn’t going to be enough, but at the same time, that cluster was about to come down on my head. With a couple other tails, I cast dambarta and made a crude slide above my head, which caught the cluster and let it slide down harmlessly off to the side. While doing that, I put some more tails into the damfoie and managed to work the barta down into a thick stream of slush by the time it reached me.
Unfortunately, while I was occupied in the midst of that clusterfudge, she had come upon me from the air. On her fingertips, she was casting the same kind of foie she started the fight with; a tiny little dot that would expand into a raging ball of fire. I wrapped all my tails around my body and cast gibarta with all of them, just as she fired. My defense wasn’t as effective as I hoped, and I got blown away with several burns, but I probably would have been a pile of ash without it.
”Are you hot for me, Johann?” she asked as she sauntered over to where I lay.
”Well, there is something oddly alluring about psychotic evil,” I said. As I got up, she jumped over the last few feet and took a swing at my head with her club. I just barely, barely, stopped it by putting three tails into a nosmegid to tug at her cane from above. While she tried to pull it down, I wrapped another tail around her neck and stood the rest of the way up. “You’re about to experience some minor discomfort.”
With a casting of regrant, I detonated some hexes. Sure, I would have liked to detonate them all, but I was grateful I could peel away the few that I did, given the strength of her aria. Oh wait, should I explain that? …Meh, slag it, I have a good flow going here. Long story short: controlling someone else’s photons is considerably harder than controlling one’s own. Anyway, again, I got blown away by the explosion, but at least she did too.
”Minor discomfort is right. Pillows hit harder,” she said as she got back onto her feet.
”Don’t be so cocky. I have plenty of tricks left up my tails,” I replied. So needless to say, I reverted to normal right then. As I said: strict time limit. Though honestly, that exchange of blows seemed to last longer than twenty seconds, but what do I know? I stumbled on my feet as mind seemed to collapse on itself and my body gushed photons back into the air.
”Whoops, looks like time’s up,” she said, crossing her arms under her bust. “You were doing so well too. Why, if you could hold that form for twenty minutes or so, you’d have half a chance of winning!” She sighed. “Just no stamina.” She raised her finger and fired another one of those foies at me; it was considerably weaker than the other two. She was toying with me, now. It was still enough burn my shirt away, though.
”Let’s see, I’ll have a little fun killing you, then I have business to attend to. Unmaking a universe is rough work, you know. You’d think you just set off a big explosion and call it an eon, but nooo, there’s so much to it. I mean, do you know what it takes to destroy energy?” While she was rambling, I had recovered from the strain of reverting, but I was still in a spot. My rapier was stuck in the ground by her, leaving me unarmed.
She clapped her hands together, tilted her head and smiled at me. “Okay, so, I’ll give you two options. Option one, you can come here and amuse me with whatever flailing assault you can muster,” she said, raising one finger into the air.
”Option two?” I said.
”What, you don’t like option one? I think it sounds like a lovely time. Hmm, well, option two is you stay where you are and I come over there. While both result in agonizing deaths, option one is so much quicker.”
”Option one it is then,” I said. I drew the Orotiagito from my back and went at it, shirtless and screaming.
”This brings back memories,” she said. I met her club with a slash from the katana. I believe I mentioned this, but it bears repeating; I don’t know how to use a katana. Add this to the fact it was a lump of metal and not a proper photon weapon, and you can imagine that this clash did not end terribly well for me. I’m pretty sure my wrist was broken as my arm got knocked away. “Ooo, what a scream! What did I break? I want to make that noise again!”
She took a few steps over to me, putting her feet right on top of the coat I had discarded. I liked that coat. There’s actually a very interesting story behind it. See, I was on my way to give a presentation that counted as 30% of my grade in one class, when some ketchup stained my shirt. I didn’t have time to go back home and change, but the professor was a stickler for appearance. She had dropped some guy a letter grade for giving his presentation with the bottom button on his suit jacket fastened. So, I needed something to cover it up. The only store in the vicinity that could help me was an outerwear boutique, so I got the idea to wear an overcoat. I found one that looked very nice on me and bought it. I went to class, the professor was wearing it as well. The twist? The professor was a woman! It turned out I had bought a woman’s coat. It felt so comfortable though, I didn’t mind and I’ve worn it ever since.
…The bottom line here is I liked that coat. “Hey,” I said.
”Hmm?”
”You lose.” I pulled a switch out of my pocket and pushed the button on top. The trap beneath my coat went off and she was within range of its stun wave. Immediately, the photons of her line shield fused together, making a prison of her own equipment. I got up onto my feet and dusted myself off.
”Wh-what?! When?!” she screamed as she futilely struggled to move.
”What do you mean, ‘when’?” I asked as I casually walked over to pick my rapier out of the ground after sheathing the Orotiagito. “If you must ask, then let me ask you in return: when did I drop my coat?”
I could see the gears working in her head briefly. I knew she figured it out when she started gnashing her teeth. While I got my coat off the ground and tossed it on, she said, “you mean…”
”That’s right,” I said as I adjusted the coat. I turned my head over my shoulder and smirked, “just as planned.” I swiped the Save the Maiden a few times in the air. Since my right wrist was broken, I’d have to use my left hand. “That’s Elyham’s Stun Trap DX. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to arm it properly. It’s quite complicated. But as we can see, it worked out fine. Someone of your strength won’t be held for very long, but I won’t need very long.”
My sword began to shine white. Yes, it was that time once again, to deliver my famous signature, Vivace: The Final Justice. With the photons Regear Val pulled in still lingering, I didn’t even need to use megiverse first to setup. I just pulled them all into the Save the Maiden’s photon cage. The overstuffed cage allowed the photons to spill out in the shape of a gigantic, while rapier’s blade. With a series of strokes, I brought it around and thrust straight into her, forcing the light through her body and obliterating her hex purity in one clean move. Of course, the photon cage shattered immediately afterwards. Sometimes it’s hardly worth the trouble.
I looked at my broken weapon, then over to her body. I tossed the useless hilt aside and strolled over. When I got there, I looked her over. Among some scrapes and injuries, the big thing that stood out was that the cracks strewn about her skin were gone. Additionally, the sick radiance was no longer hanging in the air. I let out a breath I didn’t even realize I was holding and nudged her with my foot.
”Are you okay?”
”Ungh…” She stirred at the insistence of my foot and sat up. “Johann….Johann!”
”Yes, that is my name,” I said. I knelt down since it didn’t seem as if she was going to meet me standing up soon. “How do you feel?”
”I’m so sorry! Johann, sorry, I’m so so so sorry!!” she said with her hands in a panic. Eventually, they found my shoulders and she pulled herself onto me in a hug.
”Okay, fine, don’t answer any of my questions,” I said as I returned the hug with one arm. She didn’t reply. She merely sobbed. After a few moments, I had to make an attempt at being tender. “I understand. It’s not your fault.” Tenderness is not my forte.
”Are you okay? Your wrist…” she said. She pushed herself off and searched around for the hand I broke earlier. She took it into both sets of her fingers and laid it across her breasts and started feeding a healing light into it. “I know you can’t forgive me, but…”
”What the hell? I just said that it’s not your fault. Freaking Maiden, this is the most annoying thing about you. You imagine what you want me to say and proceed with the conversation as if I said that, no matter what I actually said!”
”I’m trying to apologize, you jerk!”
”Apologize for not listening to me when I’m speaking if you want to apologize for something!” Before we realized it, we were at each others’ throats. When the fact caught up to me, I couldn’t help but laugh, and she followed quickly after. “We are positively absurd.”
”Hee, yeah…”
While she mended my wrist, we sat there, in the middle of the tundra. It’s strange; it must have been several degrees below zero, but I don’t remember being cold. With the battle concluded, I could truly appreciate how clearly I could see the stars in the sky, alongside the aurora. We sat in silence for some indefinite period of time, admiring the majestic scenery. I was content like that; I wouldn’t have said it out loud, but I missed her…presence. Plus, the hand I was rapidly regaining feeling in was on her chest, so that didn’t hurt anything.
”So, I’ve got some questions,” I said.
”I bet. Ask what you like.”
”I have a basic idea of what’s going on. Somehow, you’ve contracted an aspect of the Great Shadow.” The Great Shadow was the opposite of the Holy Light. Now, at the time, only fringe sects of the Communion of Gurhal put any belief into its existence, while the mainstream Communion put forth the belief that the Holy Light was alone as the higher power in Gurhal. “It’s manifest when those cracks appear in your skin, yes?” She nodded. “Then, what’s the trigger for the metamorphosis?”
”Do you remember how I disarmed the sochee in Rozenom?”
”The one you destroyed the A-photons with? How could I forget? An ability like that would have gotten you marked for death by the Communion as recently as twenty years ago.”
”The Darkness…um, the Shadow, I guess, shows up when I’m in a bad emotional state and don’t have enough photons in my body. Using that attack has a rebound effect on me. That’s why I transformed back then.”
I nodded. “I see. So when I struck you with Vivace, I suffused your body with photons, and caused you to revert. I assume this isn’t permanent?”
She shook her head. “No. It’s not even safe for you to be near me right now. It’s only a matter of time before I go back.”
”Please, I kicked your butt once. I’ll shove as many hot white loads into you as it takes,” I said. She removed her fingers from mine and gestured for me to give my wrist a try. I did so by squeezing a boob. My hand was fine. My gut, not so much. “Oof…well then, next question. Why the human disguise?”
Done healing me, she laid her head on my shoulder. It was a little awkward given that we were the same height, but she didn’t appear to mind. “You have a problem with my real body?” she asked.
”It’s fine. But hey, if you can make yourself look like a caseal, I’m not going to say no.” Some might say I’m deviant, others may say I have a mother complex, but personally, I see nothing wrong with properly acknowledging that the most beautiful women in Gurhal are caseals. Ponder a moment, if you will, sleek, mathematically carved curves, unblemishable skin, a body that never ages, and a logical mind that can actually be reasoned with. Is this not perfection? If you still disagree, then consider that in a caseal as a mate, you have a portable wi-fi hotspot wherever you go.
”Hmm. That’s a bit of a complicated question actually, but basically, I had an opportunity to gain a new identity and reinvent myself. So, I took it.” She took my arm and draped it behind her neck. “I’ll quicken my corruption if I do shapeshifting, so you’re stuck with this body. Besides, if you won’t shave, then you can’t ask me change races!”
”My goatee is excellent. Evil you thought so,” I said.
”Evil me is a slut. Your beard is dumb!”
”Goatee.”
”Whatever!”
”Next question…what shall I call you?”
”Gwendolyn, same as ever. …Please.”
”Very well. As for my next question, how strong are you, seriously now.” At that, she just lightly scratched her cheek and did her best to avoid eye contact. “You were holding back the entire time before Rozenom, weren’t you?!”
”A little…”
”My arse, ‘a little,’ do you know how much work I had to do because you wanted to be lazy?!”
”I don’t want to hear you whine about other people being lazy, Mr. ‘I never nanoblast!” A few moments of silence passed between us while we both muttered some obscenities under our breaths. Then, she giggled. “You should have seen the look on your face when I lifted the rocks.”
”That was so much bullcrap. …Well then, the last question. I don’t really want to ask it, but no use ignoring the vanda in the room.” I turned to her, looked her dead in the eye and asked, “how long do you have?”
She sighed , but didn’t break eye contact. “A couple of weeks, at most. It’s not an exact science-“
”Bullocks. Everything is science,” I said.
”Everything is not science, Johann.”
”The hell it’s not. Name me something you don’t think is science.”
She tilted her head at me in exasperation, and I just nodded with a firm expression. “Fine. Music.”
”There are programs that can recommend new songs and artists based solely what’s in your library. You can detect patterns in the music and seek them out in new items. You can compose entire songs around these patterns! Actually, I think at Landale, the music department was working on a program that would regularly write original songs for the user based on that principle-“
”You are such a nerd.”
”Perhaps. But a beast nerd is still cooler than other nerds.”
”Okay…how about paintings!”
”Fft, easy. Golden ratio. Next.”
She was chewing on her lip by then. “Fashion!”
”You can study the exact way and reason clothing has evolved the way it has. You can actually declare a concentration in this at-“
”Magnets!”
I blinked. I never really could wrap my head around how magnets worked. If I could, I’d certainly use more of the zonde series of technics. Bloody magnets, how do they work…anyway, I just rolled my eyes and bluffed. “Admit it, you’re beaten.”
”Tch…”
”Gwendolyn.” I stood up. “Everything in this universe happens for a reason. The tool that men have to discover these reasons, is science! With it at my disposal, I have no reason to give over my precious someone to something as insignificant as a god.” With the stars at my back, I turned back to her and made the pledge that I was going to, unbeknownst to me, shed a lot of blood to keep. “We’ll excise the Shadow and I’ll have as much time as I need to say what you deserve to hear, as many times as you deserve to hear it…”
She stood up. Our hands met between us, and with the feeling of her soft and warm palms in mine, I said, “that I love you.” And there in the starlight, in the freezing cold, in the middle of nowhere, we kissed. It was a good kiss, but- You know what, I’m going to shut up now, I have a nice atmosphere going.

[McLaughlin]

Great stuff, as usual.

Give that coin my thanks.

[Magus_84]

I too thank the coin.

And nice to see the shirtless power boost runs in the family.

Also, minor typo.

When you've got Johann expounding on the wonders of Caseals, there's one point where you call them "casuals".

Which has an entirely different ring to it than I think was intended, though it still...sorta...fits.

Some might say I’m deviant, others may say I have a mother complex, but personally, I see nothing wrong with properly acknowledging that the most beautiful women in Gurhal are casuals.

[Seth Astra]

What? Johann having feelings for a woman? Huh, I must be on the wrong fanfic.

[Xaeris]

Whoops, fixed. Thanks for looking out.

I don't think it's that out of left field. Well, the "I love you" is, but I think he's had enough sweet moments with Gwen and Keiko that I don't feel it comes as a surprise that he cares for them.

Oh, I forgot, two things. First, I totally didn't just make up nagrants. It's an actual thing in JP PSU, along with some other light based technics that got released in late June/early July. Have a look, they's flashy.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhVvO78oGbE&feature=player_embedded

The second thing is that I had to make up a new unit, again. I'm half tempted to just say, "screw it" and use feet and pounds, but eh, I'm already waist deep in it. So, the game calls kilograms, kV. I kept the metric line of prefixes and just made up a new word for grams: vonnes. So, 1 kV = 1 kg. Thus, 1 MV = 1 metric ton = ~2200 pounds = Johann calling bull feces.

[Magus_84]

Dammit X. Why must you do this to me? ;_;

I should've started a JP PSU account the day the NA PC/PS2 servers closed.

[Seth Astra]

IIRC, didn't nagrants originate in PSP2i?

[Keiko_Seisha]

IIRC, didn't nagrants originate in PSP2i?

That it did, along with a whole bunch of other techs. To name some:
-Foverse (Fire barrier around the caster, deals damage)
-Sabarta (Looks like snow storm, kinda like dambarta but not solid and you can move after casting it, it stays in the place you cast it at)
-Sazonde (ELECTRIC FIELD OF DEATH, seriously it has knock-up properties and just locks almost every enemy down)
-Diverse (An interesting tech that I could see Johann pull out of his rear in an interesting way. Drains the photons out of anything caught in the field. Of course, in game this really only works in battle modes)
-Grants (Casts like a Ra- tech, light from the sky)
-Damgrants (It's a lazer beam dam tech)
-Nagrants (Described, shoots wisps)
-Samegid (Megid orb that floats in place and deals multiple hits to whatever walks in it, has about 2x the duration as other sa- techs but only one orb at a time can be placed)

Oh, and the ending of this chapter was sweet, I daww'd.

[Seth Astra]

I was aware of the other techs (well, I knew there were others, didn't remember many specifics). However, I'm pretty sure damgrants was from vanilla PSP2, as was Grants (which I believe was a simple-tech style straightforward shot). Actually, Damgrants is the only one I'm sure of between those two. I didn't really run my force much at all.

[Keiko_Seisha]

I was aware of the other techs (well, I knew there were others, didn't remember many specifics). However, I'm pretty sure damgrants was from vanilla PSP2, as was Grants (which I believe was a simple-tech style straightforward shot). Actually, Damgrants is the only one I'm sure of between those two. I didn't really run my force much at all.

Actually you're right. Grants and Damgrants were from PSP2, I didn't tech much till they revamped teching even more in PSP2i so I never realized they were there.

[Seth Astra]

I remember damgrants because when I rarely used my force I used it for building chains.

[CupOfCoffee]

Rofl, magnets. How the fuck do they work?! How do giraffes work, for that matter?

Johann's little kids look just like Johann. And Ethan and Karen's little kids look just like Johann.

[Xaeris]

Chapter 11: FEmale

You can have as many entries in a row as you want, but you know that the main character always has the first fight. You’re way behind the eight ball, Johann.
On the same morning that Johann went off to Moatoob, I woke up in my own room. I was still getting used to the idea of sleeping in a bed with curtains, so I scrambled to wake up when I saw myself closed in. Then, I realized that my bed was fancy and stuff, like I did every morning, and relaxed. I didn’t get out right away. I dropped my head back into my pillow and sighed. I had to suck up some strength to deal with another busy day before anything else.
After a few minutes of lingering, staring at the ceiling, I got up and opened the curtain. Before getting dressed, I took my nanotransformer off the nightstand and had a look at my messages. There were a few dozen, which got another sigh out of me, and I began to go through them. It was mostly the usual, but two messages stood out from the rest. The first, was from Stacy, requesting my presence on Colony the next day. How are you going to invite an empress to your foreign nation on a day’s notice? That was just Stacy. The other was from Elly, asking me for my help with something around lunchtime. As if I had a lunchtime.
With those two messages on my mind, I started getting dressed for the day. The novelty of my pretty dress had started wearing thin by then, because it was a pain in the butt to put on. As I got on my tippy toes to take the dress off the mannequin- yeah, I had to keep a mannequin in my room to keep the thing looking good. It was creepy. I was glad my bed came with curtains, otherwise, I’d have seen that thing staring at me everytime I woke up. Brr. So, yeah, I reached up for the dress, and felt a dull pain in my belly. It was nothing serious, but I did find it strange; my healing skill was the best in Gurhal. Constantly having to carry back a cocky, egoistical, narcissist douchebag from the brink of death was great practice. There shouldn’t have even been an ache after I was through with the injury Helga gave me. I shrugged it off and brought my dress over to the mirror.
I was never a vain person, but…STOP LAUGHING, JOHANN. …As I was saying, I was never absorbed in myself, but I had really started to like mirrors recently. I put the dress on, hitting a few poses here and there as I did. I was really comfortable with my reflection; I liked the person I was becoming, and ended up burning a few minutes admiring her. I’m not talking about body…well, not just body, but I’m talking about how quickly I’d adapted to the crisis in Gurhal. Okay, sure, I spent a couple months sulking, but I turned it around! I still felt the sting of last night’s failure, but looking in the mirror, I had confidence that the person I was looking at would handle it.
While I was applying some lipstick (blue, same shade as my hair), another mail came in on my nanotransformer. I picked it up while applying the stick. It was from Johann. It read, “gone to Moatoob. Please refrain from stupidity for a period of twelve hours.”
I shot back, typing with one hand while still putting my makeup on, “just for that no doggie treat when you come back.” He didn’t write back. He never was very big on simple mail. Something about how nothing of consequence was ever written with a person’s thumbs. I was a little upset; I wanted to go to Moatoob to get the Orotiagito with him, but I figured he’d be okay without help.
”All right, let’s take on the day!” I said as I left my room. I skipped breakfast, nothing new there. My morning was filled mostly by a conference call with the Parumian Senate. With Mother Brain destroyed, the AMF was finally able to start reinstating some order. It’s probably a good thing that the Senate was made up of casts; I don’t think it would have been such a peaceful transition, otherwise.
I don’t think there’s really anything interesting to say about that conversation. It was mostly me offering reassurance that any Parumian refugees would be expediently returned to Parum if they so wished, and that the military might that the Communion was amassing was intended strictly for the SEED. I distinctly remember thinking that, if it were Qin Shi, she wouldn’t have hesitated to take advantage of the situation. I found myself thinking of her a lot, recently. It was a scary thought…
…Anyway. Lunchtime, or, the time everyone else got to eat rolled around, so I left the office to go help Elly with whatever it was she wanted help with. It was a good enough excuse to take a break. I shot Johann another mail, but he didn’t answer. I figured he was goofing off, but it turned out that, around that time, he was getting his face pounded into the ground.
When I got to his house, I saw a bright flash of light coming out of the second story windows. That was nothing alarming; I’d seen things just like that whenever Johann was working on some big experiment. I just walked right on in. As soon as I did, Elly called out to me from the top of the stairs.
”Good, you’re here! I need your help with a field test!” she said.
”Field test? Of what?” I asked.
She just whirled her arms around and went back into the room she just came out of. “My new suit!” I have to admit, that did sound pretty interesting. I ran up after and followed her into a total pigsty. Cheese puff dust, opened noodle wrappers, and crumpled up papers everywhere. She’s lucky she’s cute. Among all the filth though, I saw some crates; like the ones you break open and random stuff drops out.
”Yohmei just sent these over, and I’ve got the OS ready! I can finally fight with everyone again!” she said.
”I’m happy for you…but what do you need me for?”
”Like I said, a field test. I need to do the calibrations. I would ask Dr. Launcher, but he left me this morning-“
”Left you?”
”N-nothing!” she said, slapping her cheeks. “A-anyway, I’m too excited to wait for him to get back, and you’re the only other person I can ask.”
”I’m happy to help, I guess. What do I do?” Maybe I had more important things to be doing, as the reigning empress of an entire planet, but Elly was a friend. Also, I was really, really, enjoying the break.
”You can help me open up these boxes, first of all,” she said. I took out my bow. “Not like that!”
”Boo.”
We opened up the boxes. There were about a dozen, all in all. They were all the same size, no matter what was stuffed inside, whether it was a wristguard or an entire chestplate. We laid the pieces out on the floor and when we were done, we had something that looked like it might cover a whole body. “This one looks a lot lighter than the last one,” I said.
”Yeah, I’m not good with hardware, so the last models I made weren’t as efficient with circuitry and material as they could have been. Dr. Launcher helped me with this one though, so I got to put all my effort into the software while he improved upon my blueprints,” she said. She sounded like she knew what she was talking about it, but looking at her, tilting her head at the suit on the ground, it didn’t seem like she quite believed it. “It…does look a little skimpy, though.
”Put it on, let’s see!”
She nodded and twisted a dial on her nano. Her usual skirt and blouse melted away and were just as quickly replaced by what I remember as a black goop spreading across her body. It hardened, and she was standing there in nothing but a black jumpsuit that hugged her like a second skin.
”Wait, what about the OS?” I asked.
”That’s in this suit. It’s the interface for the armor. Pretty cool, right?” She started picking up pieces of the armor and attached them onto the suit. It was much more intricate design than it looked. The suit wasn’t like a cloth, but like…like…a basketball! Yeah, it was like that stuff they make basketballs from. When she was done…um…well…I think she put it best.
”I look like an escort!”
”An expensive escort,” I said, trying to make it a little better. I’d say there was more of the interface suit showing than the armor. It was more like a plate bikini than combat equipment. “You said Jo-sei did the hardware?”
”Yes! Ugh, I can’t believe he would do this!” She was absolutely livid, stomping her feet and wailing at an obnoxiously high octave. “Doesn’t he take me seriously?!”
”I’m sure he does,” I said. I looked her over again. You have to understand, while he’s kind of a pervert, he would never screw around with matters of our safety. The equipment he makes is nothing short of top notch. After a few seconds, I saw something that looked like a button on her underwire. “I wonder what this does,” I said as I poked a finger in there and pushed it. The few skimpy pieces that were on her, like, slid out over a bigger area. I guess a folding fan is the best comparison I could make. Inside two seconds, she was covered head to toe in a solid looking black frame that followed the curves of her body pretty well, considering they were metal.
”O-oh!” she said. I guess being on the inside of a closing sardine can must be a rough experience. I was impressed with how intricate the thing looked, compared to what I’m used to, thinking of cast parts. I guess that was just the Yohmei influence. The total amount of pieces must have been in the thousands, but they all fit together so smoothly, that it looked like a single, whole suit when she was standing still.
A visor flipped over her face from the back of her head. It made a pretty good disguise. “Oh, I get it. That compact form must be so you can wear it under your normal clothes,” I said.
”That makes sense…how does it look?”
The last suit had been purple. This one was mostly black with red trims along the major segments. I thought it looked pretty cool. “I think it looks neat. What now?”
”Right, calibrations! Could you give me a battle? A couple minutes will do fine, I just need to make sure it responds to my movements.”
I figured it was something like that. We stepped outside onto the lawn. It’s not worth talking about. I fired some arrows at her, she got out of the way, turned her arm into a laser cannon and fired back, blah, blah. I think she would have gotten just as good results taking a jog around the house, but a friend’s a friend.
”How does it feel?” I asked during our sparring match. I thought it looked heavy, but she was moving pretty well. Not like me or Stacy, but pretty well.
”It’s light! The armor weighs a couple hundred kV, but most of the burden is handled by the actuators. For me, it’s just like doing aerobics with weights in my hands!”
At some point, I realized I had goofed off enough and excused myself to go back to work. The day went back to being tedious and soon, I was sharing my ragged sighs with the ceiling in my office. The day got interesting again when I got a mail from Johann.
”I found Gwendolyn. Staying on Moatoob tonight. Meet you on Colony for Eustace’s meeting,” it said.
Of course, I was ecstatic. …The truth is I had mixed feelings. Yeah, I liked Gwen. At the same time though, listening to him talk about his day in Rozenom, it sounded like she almost killed him. Egh, well, it’s not like it was my job to judge his girlfriends. Instead, I just pressed him for more information. Of course, he didn’t answer back. That part of him would never change.

*******

The next day, I got up again, got freaked out by my curtains again, and got dressed again. My days were getting to be frustratingly similar, but not that day. After I got dressed in some ordinary clothes to avoid attention, it was straight to Colony, and my first trip away from Neudaiz since I returned from Parum. I immediately realized how long it had been when the lower gravity of Colony let me bound freely across the fourth floor.
”Should her eminence really be running around without protection?” a voice called to me. I looked over to the Moatoob gate, and sure enough, Johann was walking out from it, along with some woman I’d never seen.
”Maybe if my property didn’t decide to just camp out on another planet entirely for a whole night, I wouldn’t be here by myself,” I said as he walked up.
”You’re a big girl now. In more ways-“
”That joke’s beneath you, Jo-sei.”
”Yeah, you’re right.”
”So where’s Gwen?”
”You’re looking at her,” he said as he nudged his head towards the woman behind him. She waved, and I squinted at her. I was under a lot of stress at the time, but I was pretty sure that I remembered Gwen being a brunette human, not a newman with even more ridiculous looking hair than me. “It’s a long story, we’ll talk later. In the meantime, you two can just hug and squeal and do whatever else it is women do,” he said, waving his hand in the air.
I heard something strange in the motion of his wrist. “Is your hand okay?” I asked.
”Er…” He looked surprised enough. “Well, actually, I did break my wrist yesterday, but Gwendolyn healed it.”
”Let me see,” I said. He shrugged and offered me his hand. Restoring hex purity to a line shield is easy. Any techer with a resta disc can do it. Healing injuries to the body with technics is a lot harder. It’s not like you just shoot light in the direction of the injury and it’s magically okay. You have to know exactly what kind of damage was done, what you’re healing, where to heal it, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It’s like being a doctor, really. I had to practice on stuck pigs for two years before mother would let me try healing paper cuts on people.
”I healed it already, it’s fine,” Gwen said, with her attention more drawn by the new Colony than what I was doing.
I traced my hand across his wrist for a few seconds. I thought the sound I heard might have just been my imagination, but I immediately found what I was looking for. “Your scaphoid bone isn’t aligned right.” I thought about how to fix it. Then, I decided. “Sorry,” I said, right before I slammed my elbow into his wrist.
”Augh!!!!”
”All better.”
”Wow Keiko, it’s like Johann says. You’re a badass now,” Gwen said as she poked her head over Johann’s shoulder.
”I didn’t say that,” he muttered as he tried to soothe his wrist.
”I’m paraphrasing. I’m surprised I missed that though. It’s been a while since I’ve had anyone to heal, I guess.” Her mistake didn’t seem to really bother her. “You two have your super secret superhero meeting now, so I’ll wait down here. I should get some less ridiculous looking clothes, anyway.” If nothing else, I appreciated that I met someone I knew before Rozenom without having to hear about my development. “Keep chugging the milk, empress!” she said. So close too.
”Well then, that leaves us to our super secret superhero meeting then,” he said. “After you, your eminence.” He made an elaborate show of moving out of my way and gesturing his hands towards the escalator that lead up to the fifth floor, and our headquarters.
”Remind me to pick up a dog whistle while we’re up here,” I said.
”Oh, I’d never be so presumptuous as to think there are any deficiencies in my empress’ mental faculties,” he said. He’s really obnoxious when he gets into his knight role. We walked up to the Guardians’ HQ and we were greeted by a wonderful sight: almost all of our friends, together in one place. It had been way too long, but I guess that’s how you appreciate the little things like that.
”Finally, we’re all here!” Stacy said from across the floor. Elly had gone ahead of us, so she was there already, next to the TYPE reader. The TYPE reader was how our templates were copied from us. You lied down, got slid into a tight tube, and did your best not to fall asleep while the machine did its work. Zoe was off in the corner, counting the tiles in the floor. I don’t know that for sure, but it’s as good a guess as any. Sable was running over to meet Johann and me.
”Hey guys!” she said as she jumped right at Johann. He was obviously not happy and made noises that said as much, but he caught her anyway. Barely. “Hey Hahn, how you been?” she asked.
”Oof…huh. Actually…” Johann shrugged his shoulders with Sable in them to get a better grip. “Sable, have you lost weight?”
”Ugh, I have! It’s awful. Food’s still being rationed on Colony, so I haven’t been eating much. I feel weak as a kitten.” She let herself down, and turned to me with a hug. “Can you believe it? We really made it! You especially, I didn’t think that run down girl I saw on Moatoob was gonna end up like this!”
”Hee, yeah…” I looked around the room some more, and noticed one more face by the window. “…Ethan Waber?” I asked as I kept on walking over towards Stacy.
”That’s right. He found Laia in Rozenom, and somehow, he talked her into taking over as President,” she said. “It’s nice to know that there are still dependable men in Gurhal.”
”Bugger off, Eustace,” Johann said, coming up behind me. “Regardless, if we’re here to have our templates read and Waber is here, then you’re planning what I think you’re planning.”
”Eh? What’s that?”
”Eustace wants Waber to become the Fighgunner’s Aegis.” Well, I didn’t know what to say about that. Now, since what comes up next is a bunch of science talk and acronyms and numbers, I’m going to let Johann take this one without a fight.

[McLaughlin]

Did we ever meet the previous Fighgunner Aegis? I can't recall.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Did we ever meet the previous Fighgunner Aegis? I can't recall.

I can't be certain either. I had a list in my head for awhile but my head seems to have dropped it somewhere.

On a note related to this, this is around the time that Acrofighter and Acrotecher are added to the list. But I have a feeling X is accounting this into his upcoming chapters.

[Xaeris]

This reflects really badly upon me as a writer. Zoe's Fighgunner.

[Seth Astra]

You know, I honestly have lost track of who's who among the ageii, save for Johann and Keiko, for obvious reasons.

[Keiko_Seisha]

This reflects really badly upon me as a writer. Zoe's Fighgunner.

I thought I was pretty sure Fortegunner was the missing one, you covered it only like a few chapters ago.

[Xaeris]

This is eye opening. I didn't realize I did such a horrible job with exposition. I thought I was imparting my concept of the Guardians pretty well this entire time, but that's not the case. Now I need to think about what the hell I do now.

[Magus_84]

I think part of it is that the last time most of them were seen in their capacity as Aegii was during the flashbacks leading up to the fall of colony, or before that. And the titles haven't been thrown around as a way to scare opponents or introduce themselves in...quite a while. It's a long time to retain that info.

Here's the current Aegii, so far as I know:

Guntecher's Aegis: Keiko
Wartecher's Aegis: Eustace
Fighgunner's Aegis: Zoe
Protranser's Aegis: Elly
Fortetecher's Aegis: Johann
Fortefighter's Aegis: Sable
Fortegunner's Aegis: The template was Elizabeth de Colte, originally. Hasn't been surpassed so they stuck with her. I think the current holder of the "Fortegunner's Aegis" title has been indisposed due to ICS for the duration of the fic.

The Aegii are an institution of the Guardians (ok, so the reason the Guardians, as an organization, can exist). With the Guardians in such disarray, most of the others are too busy running around putting out literal and figurative fires to do Aegii stuff. That's what I got from it, anyway.

[McLaughlin]

I had everyone down except Zoe, and honestly, I should have realized she was Fighgunner since she's the only Aegii I didn't have a title nailed down for.

I think I forgot just because I remember them by their weapon selection, and we haven't seen Zoe in a skirmish in a long time (if at all?).

I blame the lost chapter.

[Magus_84]

I had everyone down except Zoe, and honestly, I should have realized she was Fighgunner since she's the only Aegii I didn't have a title nailed down for.

I think I forgot just because I remember them by their weapon selection, and we haven't seen Zoe in a skirmish in a long time (if at all?).

I blame the lost chapter.

It's been...wow. At least since before Feng Jie, unless I'm sorely mistaken.

A rifle-sword thing, I think.

*joins the chorus asking for the missing Zoe chapter*

[McLaughlin]

It reflects more on my poor memory than it does on his writing, really. I forget what I ate for breakfast, and that was a couple hours ago.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Well in other thoughts about the Aegii. Keiko is one of the only ones not using some crazy weapon created by Johann, isn't she? Just made me wonder earlier.

Mostly thought of it when I picked up the 13* yohmei in PSP2i just yesterday.

And because it's me I post images.
http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/8871/20110716135143.jpghttp://img833.imageshack.us/img833/2889/20110716135151.jpg
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4523/20110716135156.jpghttp://img651.imageshack.us/img651/2968/20110716135200.jpg
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/6358/20110716135204.jpg

[Xaeris]

So, I thought about it. It really does come back to me. Whatever the reader's memory is, I believe it's the author's responsibility to present information compellingly enough through the story that it gets retained regardless. That leaves me with one option. TRY HARDER. You'd be surprised how long the simple visual aids at the end of the chapter took me to make. I just want to draw a concentric heptagon Paint, why are you fighting me on this?

Every dog has its day, Keiko.

Chapter 12: Girl Fight

Keiko, please, don’t embarrass yourself. Everyone knows that jobbers fight first.
Lacking a fortegunner template was a problem. It wasn’t the most represented type in the guardians, but it was the best option for anyone with a heavy interest in using bullets. Certainly, we had the guntecher template, but…yeah, we really needed fortegunners. …What I’m insinuating, my dear empress, is that your template concept sucks. Really, show me a guntecher that has ever cast an offensive technic, I defy you. A fortegunner with some agtarides is pretty much the same thing.
All the same, what Eustace was proposing was drastic. With just the six of us, we had all of the types covered except for, of course, fortegunner. What Eustace wanted to do was have Zoe supply the fortegunner’s template, and have Waber supply the fighgunner’s template. The latter half of this plan was not unreasonable; Waber’s talents were in melee with some proficiency with pistols, so his template would be a suitable match. But the former part of the plan begged a question.
”How’s Zoe just going to up and become a fortegunner?” Keiko asked.
”She did always like her rifles. It’s not that big a stretch. And looking at the photon spread, fortegunner and fighgunner are similar enough,” I said.
”Right, right, it’s a good plan!” Eustace said, clapping her hands together. “There’s no problem here!”
”Except, that I’d bet good money that you haven’t even gotten Waber to say ‘yes,’ yet,” I said. She giggled, unconvincingly, and twiddled her thumbs together. “I knew it.”
”It’s not like I didn’t ask him!” she said. “He’s thinking about it. So, I want you to go over there and give him a little nudge.”
”Why me?!”
”Because, you’re both men. Go do some manly bonding or something, I don’t care,” she said, waving me off in his direction. “The sooner you get him to agree, the sooner we can get our templates logged.”
I have to give Eustace this: she might have been capricious ditz, but she had a bewitching way of getting me to do her bidding. A few seconds later, I found myself coming up behind Waber. He briefly turned to acknowledge it was me, and then turned his eyes back toward the window. It was a nice enough view, I guess. Seeing all three planets at once, floating in space, is an astonishing sight the first time, but after a few dozen times, it fails to impress.
I’m not experienced at talking to men. It’s an odd statement, but it’s true. My allies were all female. Nearly all the enemies I’d ever fought were female. Remove my father from the equation, and the words I’ve spoken to men in my life probably don’t even hit six figures. I kneaded my lips for a moment, trying figure out what the hell to say, and came up with, “what are you thinking?” It felt wrong nearly as soon as I said it.
”Do you think I should be an aegis, Johann?” he asked.
”Oh, we’re on a first name basis now. That’s lovely,” I said. “Hmm, I’m not sure how to answer that. If you’re asking me if you’re strong enough, my answer would be ‘just barely.”
”But there’s something else,” he said. “I feel like there’s more to what she’s asking me to do than I realize, but I don’t know what it is.” It seemed to me that he had been staring out the window for quite some time before I came to chat with him.
”Ah, I see now. I believe I know what that nagging suspicion is.” I took out and lit a cigarette. I had to tilt my head to avoid Eustace’s thrown heel; she hated when I smoked in headquarters. “The people here aren’t just strong. We also have a heavy responsibility. What we’re about to do here is have our templates read. Do you understand how that works?”
He nodded. “Yeah, it’s something like people can copy your fighting styles, right?”
”Eh…good enough. The Guardians is filled with brave men, women, and even children who’ll go running into combat for whatever their personal reasons are. …Well, I don’t need to tell you that, do I?”
He wiped a finger beneath his nose and said, “nope. I’ve met a lot of them!”
”Assuming a type gives those people the power to fight. Our strength becomes theirs, but so do our weaknesses. Any of our deficiencies are passed on to them. I would say, that if you can live with that, then you’re qualified to join our ranks.” It might sound like a trivial thing, but in the weeks after I first became fortetecher’s aegis, I had been kept up some nights, thinking about the newman girls that were running headlong into battle with absolute garbage for DFP and hex purity because of me. I started going through the casualty logs of fortetechers, feeling guilt for their weaknesses. I might have fallen into depression if Eustace hadn’t taken me aside and had the same exact conversation with me.
”H-how do you live with that?!” he said. He hunched over on the window railing, reeling from the realization that probably had a vague shape in his mind before I dusted it off for him. “That’s insane! I can’t have anyone dying because of me!”
”I understand. If you like, I can speak with Eustace and get her off this idea. However, we’ll be down one template, so let me tell you something that a sexy cougar once told me. The people you’re giving strength to were powerless to begin with. Without us, they’d have to watch their loved ones suffer with no chance of helping them. They’ll always be grateful to you, no matter what happens.”
His shaking stopped. Immediately. It was like magic, or something. “I’ll do it,” he said.
”Good, we’ve settled that. Now, I can’t in good conscience allow you to go through with this without giving you fair warning about what you’re getting into,” I said.
”I get it, but I’ll be okay with it. I joined the Guardians because I saw what I could do back during the first SEED fall-“
”Not that,” I said. He looked at me, confused, and I went on, “Ethan, do you consider yourself to have a good deal of common sense?”
”Hey, my name!” he said, punching my shoulder. I’m not sure how that slipped out. “Well, yeah, I think so.”
”You should discard it. Common sense will just hinder you around here.” He just looked more confused, so I figured a demonstration was in order. I scooped up the shoe that Eustace had thrown at me earlier and turned in Eustace’s direction, who conveniently, was speaking to Sable.
”Eustace, this shoe is cute, but don’t you think a three inch heel is a bit much?”
Without moving toward me, she called out, “what? That’s not really mine, I just borrowed it from Sable. Can’t you tell?”
”Oh, how would I?”
”It’s a size 9 ½! Do I look like I have clown feet?!” she yelled.
”Clown feet?! I don’t want to hear that from you! You had freaking duck feet when you were pregnant!” Sable said. Eustace slapped her across the cheek, and naturally, Sable gave as good as she got. Sure enough, they were brawling within seconds.
”Is…is that really okay?” Ethan said as he looked on, clearly horrified.
”It’s fine, they’re best friends.” I think that just horrified him more. “The point is, you’re going to be working with some…unique, personalities.”
”It’s not always this bad, right?” he asked, just as they rolled onto the floor, tugging at each other’s hair.
”Fft, it’s unfortunate I couldn’t instigate Zoe and Sable right now for you to see.”
”Sheesh, it looks like you’re playing with fire.”
”Hardly, I- oo, they’re starting with the nails. I should break them up.” Turning my voice and volume in their direction, “would you ladies like some mud?”
”Shut up, Johann,” they both said in unified disgust, pulling away from each other.
”Like puppet strings,” I said, addressing Waber once more. “In all seriousness, you’re sure of your decision?”
I think he was a little shell shocked because it took a moment for the bewilderment in his eyes to fade before he answered. “You bet! I’ve just about found all the answers I was looking for as a rogue, so this is the place I can do the most good again! What do we do now?”
”For now, we introduce you to everyone.” I took him back to the center of the room where I called for everyone’s attention. “Everyone, we have a full roster.”
”I knew you could do it, Johann. Did my pep talk come in handy?” Eustace asked, coyly adjusting her glasses. I just cleared my throat. “Well then, congratulations Ethan. The Guardians haven’t had a full roster of aegii in nearly eighty years.”
”Tch, nevermind that Stacy!” Sable said as she came up behind Ethan and put her hands on his shoulders. “What’s really important is that we finally have another guy around here! Ripped, too!” Waber just chuckled nervously. Can’t say I blame him.
Zoe, being, well, Zoe, merely said, “I look forward to working with you.”
Elyham poked Zoe in the side and said, “you can do better than that. We’re going to be working together. High synergy is of utmost value to a team!” I must say, she did look quite secksi in her new suit.
”…Let’s have a drink sometime,” she said. For Zoe, that was huge. When I became an aegis, I had to pick at her for weeks before she’d speak to me for any extended length of time.
”I, Keiko Seisha of the Sixth Cycle welcome you into-“
I pinched her cheek. “Greet him properly.” She could be so obnoxious when she got into her empress role.
”Ow, ow! Boo, fine. It’s nice to see you again, Ethan! I’m happy it’s under better circumstances this time,” she said.
Ethan was overwhelmed. He was rubbing the back of his head and wiping a finger beneath his nose the whole time everyone was gushing a warm welcome onto him. Eventually, he managed to say, “thanks everyone, it’s cool to be here! I’ll do my best!”
”Ethan, honey,” Eustace said, placing both hands on his chest, “if you only do your best, you won’t live through the week! …Ooo, he is ripped.” Again, he chuckled.
”Stop teasing him, both of you. Besides, as I understand it, he’s already in love,” I said. It was a bit cruel of me, but I knew they’d hop on that like chum in the water, and I never pass up good entertainment. As I expected, they both gasped.
”Really? At your age! That’s so sweet! Who, who?” Eustace said.
”I-it’s not like that,” he said. “We’re friends…” They both went ‘aww.’
”You know how you can fix that, right? You just gotta grab her by the butt and plant a big one on her, just clean out of nowhere!” Sable said.
Ethan shot me a look. I just said, “I gave you perfectly fair warning. I don’t want to hear it.”
”All right, all right, fun is fun, but we came here to do some work,” Eustace said. “Ethan Waber, you’re now Fighgunner’s Aegis the VIIth. Zoe, you’re Fortegunner’s Aegis the IIIrd.”
”Wow, seventh, huh? I guess I gotta claw my way up there,” Ethan said.
We all just stared blankly at him. After a few moments, Elyham ventured a question, “what’s he talking about?”
”Beats me,” Zoe said.
”I, uh, I mean I have to up my rank, you know? Like get stronger and get promoted? I was just kidding…” he said.
”Who said that the Aegis numbers refer to our strength?” I said. People always think this. I never understand why. It’s a ridiculous idea. How would that even work? Would we constantly be fighting each other to determine rank? Would Sable become the zeroth Aegis when she nanoblasted? Would I be fourth because no one had ever seen me nanoblast? Silliness. “Our numbers represent seniority. You’re going to be seventh for a very long time. Eustace is the oldest one here-“
I felt her hands on my ears. “Would you like to rephrase that?” she asked. I turned my head over my shoulder and saw her with her usual sweet smile, tinged with the slightest touch of menace. Eustace did not like thinking about her age. Rather than be called forty two, she had us refer to her age as ‘twenty one plus twenty one.’ And don’t even get me started on her thirty ninth birthday. Ah, excuse me, her ‘twentieth plus nineteenth’ birthday. You try finding a baker to write that on a freaking cake.
”Venerable,” I replied. She started to pull in opposite directions. “Mature.” She pulled harder. “What’s wrong with mature?” It was starting to hurt. “Experienced?”
”Good boy,” she said, letting go.
”Ohh…yeah, that does make more sense. So…” he said. I could see the question forming in his eyes. I felt like I was in slow motion for those next couple seconds as I reached my hand out and violently shook my head to deter him. But it was for naught, because he asked, “which of you is strongest then?”
”Oh dear Light,” I muttered. The room went dead silent. It was a chilling atmosphere that allowed even Waber to see that he had asked a very bad question. Futilely, I tried to head off the ensuing chaos. “It’s not a question of strength, Ethan. Individually, our strength is nothing compared to our legendary synergy. The answer to a question like that doesn’t really serve any practical purpose.”
”Of course, if it came down to it, all of your asses would be black and blue,” Sable said with a sashay of her hips.
”Ah ha ha, what? I didn’t realize we’d be fighting in a broom closet!” Eustace said. “More room than that, and your fat ass makes a good kicking bag!”
”You and your chicken legs aren’t going to do crap, even if you take out your pixie stick while you try!” Sable shot back. She called wands pixie sticks. I can see it. I guess.
”The location doesn’t matter. There’s nothing you can do against a bullet from half a Jp away,” Zoe said, looking aloof as ever.
”Unless you’re a whole Jp away,” Keiko said, fidgeting innocently in place.
”Are you saying your aim is better than mine?” Zoe replied, turning to Keiko. Her arms were crossed underneath her rack; propping them up like that was something she did whenever she wanted to look imposing. Not sure how that logic worked, but hell, I never complained.
”I didn’t say anything like that. I just said, I’m a Jp away while you’re half a Jp away, that’s all,” Keiko said.
”My rifle can shoot from a Jp away. I’m tough enough that I don’t need to be that far,” Zoe said.
”We were talking about rifles? A bow is better than any rifle,” Keiko said. Of all the times she had to pick to practice her bitch laugh. She sounded like an owl.
”All of you, please stop!” Elyham said. “This conversation is purely hypothetical, we’re not making at valuable determinations by postulating like this.” The others quieted and she added, “besides, if the area is already dotted with traps, it doesn’t really matter what you do, right?”
It went on like that for a while. It was something out of a nature program, watching them trade veiled and overt threat gestures. I had retreated off to the side, along with Waber who was just watching as he would watch a train wreck. “You idiot,” I said.
”There was nothing wrong with my question! How was I supposed to know this would happen?!” he said. “They’re insane!”
”They’re just very confident of their abilities. You have to understand that none of them has lived an ordinary life. What I’m about to say is not to be repeated after this conversation ends, understand?” I pointed my cigarette holding finger at him and he nodded. I went on, “these women have a rare kind of self esteem you don’t usually find. It sometimes results in crap like this, but…well, I don’t think I’d trade any of them for anyone else. Wouldn’t mind renting them out for a couple days at a time though. I wonder what the going rate is…”
”My life’s gonna be different from now on, huh?”
”It’s good you’ve grasped that much this quickly.”
”How about you though, aren’t you gonna get in there?”
”As much of a bother as it is, I’ve become oddly attached to breathing.” Usually, I stayed out of these fights; it was more entertaining to watch, and I was secure in my ability anyway. Still, I remembered that Gwendolyn was shopping, but she’d likely be done soon and there was still work to be done. “Ladies,” I called out. They ceased momentarily and looked to me. “Aren’t you all forgetting to ask a very important question?”
Varying versions of “what?” filled the room.
”Do I have time to plan?” I asked, with my best trollface.
That shut them up nicely. And so to work we went. And now, for the technobabble Keiko promised. The TYPE system was similar to one of those MRI machines you might find in a free clinic in some backwoods area on Moatoob. It accommodated one person at a time and that person would have to strip to his or her underwear and have several leads pasted onto his or her body. In addition, we would have to swallow a foul tasting pill to assist with the imagery.
”Who wants to go first?” Eustace asked.
”I’d like to get this over with,” I said. She handed me the pill. I stared at it in my hand for several seconds, working up the nerve to put it in my mouth.
”Don’t tell me you still can’t swallow pills, Johann,” she said.
”It’s hard for some people!” I said. I shoved it into my mouth and swallowed in one quick move before I could let my apprehension get the better of me. I shuddered as it went down my throat, but started taking off my clothes all the same. I’m glad I remembered to wear clean underwear.
There are seven basic parameters that are of value in combat: hex purity, attack power, attack acuteness, tech power, defensive potential, evasive potential, and mental strength. Each one serves its own purpose in either attack or defense. As a result of one’s natural experiences, photons will be allocated to each one as necessary. The TYPE system circumvents that need for natural experience by taking the allocation templates of the aegii and copying them to our cadets.
For the sake of easy math, let’s say a person has 100 photons and wants to become a fortetecher. He or she would take my template. 30 photons would be allocated to tech power, 8 to hex purity, etc. I’m giving an incredibly simplified version of this process, but that’s the essence, really. I should, however, expound on one detail. There are very, very, few people that can allocate 100% of their photons. There’s usually going to be some free radicals in anyone, ourselves included. With effort, some of those free radicals can be forced into allocation, but that’s a large deal of effort.
After me, the others had their templates read as well. You might think I was titillated to see everyone in their underwear, but, eh, I’d seen it all before. Ethan, on the other hand, was in desperate need of tissues. We’d burned an hour by the time Keiko pushed herself out of the machine and we logged our last template. “How’d we do?” I asked of Elyham, who was manning the computer.
”Everyone’s so much stronger than before!” she said.
”How’s that?” I asked.
”Look! Zoe didn’t always have that much ATA, right?” she said. We didn’t have the old templates to compare the new ones to, but from what I remember, she indeed did not have that much ATA. The same sort of differences appeared in everyone’s templates. Eustace had more ATP and TP, Sable had more ATA, hell, even I managed to pull some HP out of my arse somewhere. You can consult the included appendix for details.
”It would seem we’ve all succeeded in turning some of our free radicals over into our use,” I said. “It has been a pretty rough three months. It’s no surprise we’d get stronger, I suppose.”
”So the cadets get buffed, right?” Keiko said. All of our templates showed marked improvement, which would be passed on to those who used them, so yes, they essentially got buffed. I would say Elyham’s template showed the most improvement, gaining massively in attack power, but I think that had more to do with the more efficient design of her armor’s reactors than anything else.
”Pretty much. Well then, I believe that concludes matters for the day?” I said.
”Yes, but I want to see everyone back here in one week. Laia’s being groomed for president. When she’s done, we’re going to unveil the new Guardians in a grand show.” Eustace said. “In one week, we begin our counterattack!”
We nodded.

[Xaeris]

Appendix A: The Templates Used at the Height of the Second Confinement War

Wartecher, by Eustace Caroll
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/XLauncher/PSU/WartecherTemplate.jpg

Fortefighter, by Sable Vinland
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/XLauncher/PSU/FortefighterTemplate.jpg

Fortegunner, by Zoe Fairchild
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/XLauncher/PSU/FortegunnerTemplate.jpg

Fortetecher, by Johann Launcher
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/XLauncher/PSU/FortetecherTemplate.jpg

Protranser, by Elyham Person
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/XLauncher/PSU/ProtranserTemplate.jpg

Guntecher, by Keiko Seisha of the Sixth Cycle
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/XLauncher/PSU/GuntecherTemplate.jpg

Fighgunner, by Ethan Waber
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/XLauncher/PSU/FighgunnerTemplate.jpg

[Keiko_Seisha]

So, I thought about it. It really does come back to me. Whatever the reader's memory is, I believe it's the author's responsibility to present information compellingly enough through the story that it gets retained regardless. That leaves me with one option. TRY HARDER. You'd be surprised how long the simple visual aids at the end of the chapter took me to make. I just want to draw a concentric heptagon Paint, why are you fighting me on this?

Every dog has its day, Keiko.


Pfft, what's this? Are you calling me a dog? Coming from you of all people!

[Magus_84]

I like the graphs. Slight typo with Ethan's, though. Should be "Fighgunner" instead of "Fightgunner".

Anyway. I've always liked the technical explanation stuff you throw in. This one was a nice continuation of that trend.

[Xaeris]

I'm not calling you a dog. I'm suggesting that, not dissimilar to a dog, that you will have your day. See, if all dogs have their day, then I can say that you'll have your day because...oh. Oh.

Yeah, I'm pretty set on this. Besides, Seth went through this fairly recently and he couldn't place them either, so I can't use time as an excuse.

[Seth Astra]

That was a cool chapter. Relatively unimportant, but cool none the less.

[McLaughlin]

I wouldn't really call it unimportant. He just explained all the class buffs that came with AotI.

Great stuff, blah blah. Compliments from me are getting stale, I'm sure.

[Xaeris]

Ha, I'm glad that didn't go unnoticed. Remember everyone, we were able to plow through everything in AotI because they stopped being lazy.

In other news, I decided to try out the JP server for PSU. It's updating right now. I'm not sure how long this experiment is going to last, or if I'll even get what I'm expecting, but since I quit WoW a few weeks ago, I need something to fill the void.

[Magus_84]

Ha, I'm glad that didn't go unnoticed. Remember everyone, we were able to plow through everything in AotI because they stopped being lazy.

In other news, I decided to try out the JP server for PSU. It's updating right now. I'm not sure how long this experiment is going to last, or if I'll even get what I'm expecting, but since I quit WoW a few weeks ago, I need something to fill the void.

Champions Online!

It's free, and melee doesn't suck/isn't clunky now. Though the "Silver" players (free) operate under some restrictions (have to pick a set "Archetype", only get two power choices, get three less powers total, can't change power color). The extra stuff you get from subscribing that you'd have to pay for as a Silver is more than the cost of the monthly sub. Also, subscribers can use the PtS to test out builds, try out C-store stuff (it uses microtransactions...subscribers get a 400-pt stipend per month for no extra charge) and level up/down to 40 or various levels before that instantly.

Even Ranko started up again. He's hit 30 hours played since like Wednesday.

It's versatile enough that you could make reasonable approximations of several of the characters here, and I've done so on the test server. Costume creator's quite open too, though some things are harder to make work than others. Art style differences mean it's hard to get something like Keiko's dress from PSP, for instance.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Magus brings up a good idea.

I say Vindictus! ...If Nexon stops trying to run it into the ground with every "update" they put out. Vindictus is like Demon's Souls and Monster Hunter combined into one MMO.

Ohwell, if you find something I can play on this not-high-end laptop, I may try to join.

[Xaeris]

Well, reading all this katakana is giving me a migraine. I'll give CO a fair shot.

There won't be a chapter tomorrow. I usually spend the night before and the afternoon of an update day writing it. I'm a little busy working on something else I need to have ready for tomorrow, so I can't spend anytime on it. It'll be up on Tuesday.

It's the last chapter of Part 1, so just think of it as building suspense!

[Seth Astra]

Well in other thoughts about the Aegii. Keiko is one of the only ones not using some crazy weapon created by Johann, isn't she? Just made me wonder earlier.

He modified a whip to serve as a casting weapon for her back in the 2nd fic. But she has never used it as far as I recall.

[Keiko_Seisha]

He modified a whip to serve as a casting weapon for her back in the 2nd fic. But she has never used it as far as I recall.

Ah yeah, I recall that now as well. She used it only a little bit, I think it was during a time where she didn't have a bow.

[Xaeris]

Oh sure, you guys have no problem recalling the stuff I'd prefer you forget.

[Seth Astra]

Well, I only recently read the entire series. ^^;

[McLaughlin]

If it makes you feel any better, I can't remember how she broke her Rikauteri.

[Xaeris]

Whew, I am exhausted. I was going to do a little spiel about what went into writing Part 1, but I'll do that tomorrow. I'm too freaking tired.

Chapter 13: Armed and Ready

Ex-excuse me, ‘jobber?’ Who’s the one missing an eye here?
”Your aim sucks, empress,” Johann said. We were in the training room in the basement of the Launcher mansion. I’d only been there a couple times myself, but I was always blown away by the design of the room. First off, it was huge: the ceiling was high and the walls were wide apart. If it were just a big room, it wouldn’t have been impressive though, so the walls were covered with monitors that showed video of the room, and the floor was made out of these translucent hexagons. If you hit them hard enough, they’d get knocked down and up, along with all the blocks around it. It was a fun place to be in, but Johann might not agree there.
”Hold still and let me hit you!” I yelled as I shot another volley of arrows at him. When I shoot like that, I’m not really paying attention to what element they are. I’m just shooting whatever feels right. That time, it was a barrage of raisei-sou.
”I can fulfill half that request,” he said as he pulled up a radiga from the ground, blowing the hexagons everywhere, and used it as a shield against my arrows. He stuck his head out from the side and pulled his eyelid down at me. “Neener neener.”
”Okay,” I said, letting out a frustrated sigh that I just barely failed to rein in. “Let’s try something else.” I switched out my Nasuyoteri for my Gur Bazga, which got a groan from his lips. I hoisted it onto my shoulder, careful to keep my legs steady and fired a raisei boma at his radiga. It blew it to pieces, no problem, and he scampered out from behind it just before it hit.
”Grenade launchers aren’t very ladylike, empress,” he said as he kept ahead of the rockets I was firing at him.
”I own a planet, if you haven’t been keeping up. Drinking milk out of the bag is ladylike if I say it is,” I replied. I wasn’t just firing at random. Johann’s actually pretty agile given good motivation, so trying to land a direct hit on him was pointless. Each rocket that hit the ground knocked up a cluster of hexes. I was firing at him to back him up against a wall. It was working pretty well and I had him boxed in soon enough. I put my focus in to making a chousei boma; nothing special, just a big green ball I was going to smack him over the head with. “Adios!”
”Please don’t make up words,” he said. With a flick of his wrist, he brought up a fireball on his palm and threw it upward. The rocket followed it, and exploded above his head.
”There are so many reasons that shouldn’t have worked,” I said as I looked up at my failed bullet. By the time I looked back down, Johann had run up to me, jumped onto my shoulder and jumped behind me, escaping my trap.
”You’re a surprisingly sturdy springboard, empress,” he said as he landed. “But really, a few bullets here and there isn’t going to be effective.”
I smiled. It must have put him off guard because he took a step back. I hadn’t been doing much it lately, so I guess it was understandable. Or maybe it was because he saw his own ‘I has a plan’ smile on someone else’s face. “I’ve been thinking of this for a while now, but I haven’t had a good chance to try it out. If you want to hit someone who keeps running around on stage, then the best thing to do is to drop a curtain of bullets on them.”
The gur bazga melted away back into my nano, and out came the nasuyoteri again. He raised an eyebrow; after all, arrows weren’t working the first time. With a deep breath, I gathered a clear image of the bullets I was about to create in my mind. There were sous, hits, furies, prisms, every sort of bullet imaginable would rain from my bow and leave barely an inch to dodge. I smiled one more time, thinking of what a rare treat it would be to see Johann panic. But then, as I got ready to fire…”
”Time!” Gwen called from the master screen at the back of the room.
”You heard the lady,” Johann said.
”Aww, time to switch already?” It’s probably obvious, but we were sparring. Normally, Johann sparred with his father and I sparred with my mother, but his father was nowhere to be found and my mother was still depleted, so each other was all we had.
”You should manage your time better if you’re not pleased with it. I’m on offense now. I’m going to be experimenting with a couple new technics, so keep your Rentis steady, please.”
I waved my hand in front of me and called my seven feathers to float around me. See, Rentis is the family technic of the Seisha line, but it takes a different form, depending on who’s using it. For my mother, it took the form of petals, but for me, it was feathers. “Ready when you are.”
”First, grants.” He shoved his palm down through the air, so, I looked up. As an expert techer, he didn’t need to move his hands to direct the motion of his technic; whenever he did it, it was for the sake of misdirection. Unless he was fighting me. In which case, he moved his hand in the exact same way the tech moved, because he knew I’d know that and try to bluff me. The trick was deciding whether he knew that I knew that I knew that…ugh, I’m confused.
Anyway, I guessed right. A streak of light came soaring down from above and I just barely got out of the way before it hit the ground.
”Hmm, the speed is lacking. Let me try it a few more times,” he said. I had to dodge a bunch more. They were getting faster, for sure, but none hit me, I’m proud to say.
I stuck my tongue out and lowered my eyelid. “Your aim sucks, knight.”
”I’m a one eyed beast. What’s your excuse?”
”You’re a total one eyed beast, all right.”
”Heh, that was actually clever. As a reward for that burn, let me return it. Here is Foverse.”
”Foverse?”
”I don’t name these things.” Soon as he said that, a wave of flame surrounded him on all sides. It rose to a pretty good height and rushed out in all directions. It was impressive looking and even gave the room an orange tint, but it wasn’t all that threatening. I shot a reisei-sou through it and stepped through the opening as it approached.
”I think that one’s a dud, Jo-sei.”
”As it is, yes. But perhaps there’s room for improvement.” He cast again, but that time, the walls of flame sprouted up around me instead of him. As soon as they went up, they started closing in on me from all directions. Rentis probably could have soaked it, but it was a training exercise for me too. I jumped and as I did, shot a chousei-sou beneath me. The impact knocked the hex column into the air and me with it, getting me above the flames.
”That’s creative,” I said as I landed outside the flame ring.
”I guess.”
”You still don’t sound like yourself,” I said.
”Mm.”
”You can talk to me whenever, you know.”
”Mm hmm.”
”Like right now…”
”Let me stop you right there,” he said as he covered up a yawn. “While I might have some apprehensions, my current fatigue is due to the fact you barged into my room at three in the morning to do training.”
”I couldn’t sleep!” Tomorrow…or technically, that day, was the big day we headed back to Colony to officially reform the Guardians. I was excited and trying to sleep was futile. So, I went to his place and woke up him. I didn’t think it was unreasonable. We had to keep in fighting shape, and it’s not like property has rights.
”Barged into my room at three in the morning while I was in the middle of pumping Gwendolyn, I should add,” he said, with another yawn.
”You would have been done in another two minutes anyway.”
”Look at our little Keiko, all grown up and trash talking,” he said as he shook his head awake. “I’ll try out one more technic, and then I’m marching my arse into bed. I finished the last weapon just in time after a crapload of all nighters.”
I was about to ask what he was going to do when a white ball of light began to gather in front of him. It started off small and didn’t even get that big, but it felt like there was a lot of power in it. I braced, for whatever he was going to do with it, but when nothing came, I had to ask, “um…”
”Give me a moment, I’m fiddling with the prism. Damgrants is surprisingly difficult. The power is easy enough to weave, but getting it to fire is like putting a needle through a-“ Then, it fired. I don’t know how else to describe it besides a giant laser beam. I didn’t react quickly enough and I got struck dead on. Lucky for me, Rentis ate the damage while I got out of the beam. “Ah, there we go.”
”Yeah, but I don’t think it’s really your style. You’ve never been about the direct attack.”
”True, but it should be helpful while I’m nanoblasted.” He scratched at his cheek and yawned again. “Think you’ll be able to get to sleep now, Keiko?”
”Yeah, I burned up some energy. I should be okay now, thanks Jo-sei.”
”See. if you had just taken me up on the threesome suggestion, we…ugh, I can’t even say it without throwing up in my mouth a little. Until tomorrow, empress.”
”Goodnight!”

**************

The opening ceremony was in the morning, on Colony. So, we had until late afternoon, Neudaiz time, to get up there. Since we were making a production of this, I’d have an imperial accompaniment of the Communion’s armed guards. Even my departure from Neudaiz was televised. Looking back, it was pretty ridiculous, but I was dizzy with excitement from all the formalities. There was even a red carpet rolled out from the ship I’d be taking to Colony. From behind lines of guards and velvet ropes, the people saw me off.
Ah, those cheers are great to remember. ‘For Neudaiz!’ ‘We love you!’ ‘Don’t give up!’ ‘You’re gorgeous!’ But, I think my favorite was the simple, ‘thank you.’ Halfway up my walk, Johann joined me, keeping to my side, just a step behind me.
”This is a little embarrassing,” I said as I waved.
”The people adore their empress. Just remember: eventually, people want to see their heroines fail,” he said, cordially waving along with me. He was a little cynical.
I knew he was right, but I didn’t want to think about it. Especially not where we were. So, I changed the subject. “It’s weird to see you in a haori.” There’s official regalia for knights just as there is for empresses, but I never considered even asking Johann to wear his. I figured it’d just be a waste of time. Yet, there he was, with his haori blowing in the noon breeze. The coat matched the color scheme of my dress, being a bright and clean white with just a hint of light blue woven into it. Of course, he had to butcher it just a little and took off the sleeves.
”Gwendolyn insisted my coat needed washing. This is the next best thing. Personally, I don’t think white looks good on me, but it was either this, or wear that ridiculous getup Eustace sent for me.”
”No one’s looking at you Jo-sei. They’re all looking at me.”
”Your ego is showing, empress.”
One hop and a skip through space later, we arrived on Colony to much the same treatment. Johann leaned over to whisper in my ear, “what say we make a dramatic entrance in headquarters?” I nodded, knowing exactly what he meant and let him draw me in close. He took out a fodder wand that he could blow up to cast Ryuker and whisked us away to the fifth floor, away from the cameras.
Upstairs, it turned out we were the last ones there, making our dramatic entry from the shimmering light that much better. “Fourth Aegis, Johann Launcher, present,” he said as he snapped his fingers and closed the tube behind him.
”Sixth Aegis, Keiko Seisha, present,” I said. “Hello everyone.”
Like I said, everyone was there, and they were dressed up in some…interesting, outfits. It was actually the same uniform for all of them, except for Ethan. All the girls had this three piece suit on, which had roomy, but stiff looking pants, a tight vest, and the strangest looking piece, a suitcoat with a tail hanging over the back. …Not an actual tail, but, yeah, you know. The shoulderpads were…actually, you know what they reminded me of? Ushers! Yes, that’s it exactly. Anyway, they were at least wearing different colors.
Ethan’s was kind of similar, but it looked more like the suit that President Dallgun used to wear. The suit that Johann received was the same, but, like he said, he decided not to wear it.
”Hey, what happened to the great outfits I sent you guys?” Stacy asked as walked up to greet us.
”They were dumb,” Johann said.
”What he means to say is that since I’m a head of state, I can’t be wearing the uniform of a foreign entity,” I said, while shoving my finger in his cheek. “And Jo-sei is my property before he’s a guardian, so he wears the haori.”
”I’m not sure I like the way you put that,” he said.
”Tch, see if I ever invite you two to come cosplay with me,” she said. Sometimes I really just had to quietly remind myself that Stacy was over twice my age. “Laia- oh, excuse me! The president, is giving her address right now. We have ten minutes before we make our appearance.”
”Excellent, that gives me time to gift you all your weapons,” Johann said as he pulled a briefcase out from nanospace. Everyone else was just kind of muddling about, but when he said that, they all came right over to get their loot. With everyone gathered around, Johann held the briefcase out in the middle and popped it open, showing us five red item capsules.
”Eeee, new weapons! You make the best stuff Johann!” Sable said.
”It’s a labor of love. You’re up first Eustace; first capsule from your left.” She took it and twisted the capsule open, making a pair of wing shaped leg greaves materialize onto her shins. “Your upgraded Lohengrin. Unfortunately, I still was unable to integrate casting capabilities into this model, but I think you’ll find the enhanced power and accuracy to be adequate compensation.”
”Don’t you usually give me six of these? You know, one for each element?” she asked as she shot a few practice kicks. “Oh good, you made them heavier. I thought the last ones were a bit light.”
”If the driver installed properly, there should be a new function on your PDA.” She looked down at her wrist, and I guess she found it, because she nodded. “You can switch the element through there. No need to carry six anymore.”
”Sable’s right. You really do make the best stuff,” she said, blowing him a kiss.
”Heh…well, Sable, you can take yours next. Far left.” She picked her capsule out and out of it came a cartridge. It wasn’t a weapon by itself, obviously. “Your upgraded Katsujin-senba. Instead of making a shield, I decided to make a plug in that can adapt nearly any shield to the same function. It works pretty much the same way as the old one; you can use your hex purity to attack as you please, so be careful.”
”What, you didn’t get me a new line shield?” she asked as she looked for where to plug in the cartridge in her line shield core.
”Grateful as ever. Zoe, please take yours next.”
”I don’t use a sword now,” she said.
”Obviously. Take yours.”
”What you made might not be any good for me.”
”Ridiculous. Take yours.”
”…” Zoe was gloomy like that. She finally picked her capsule out of the briefcase and opened it up to get a rifle. It reminded me a little bit of a super soaker. It didn’t have the big tanks on top, but the photon cage took up a pretty big piece of the barrel, and the tip had kind of a big cap over it. She took it into her aim and swiveled around with it a bit, eventually settling the tip of the gun right on Johann’s nose.
”Please don’t aim guns at me,” he said.
”Why not? I won’t shoot,” she said.
”I believe you. However, if you push that button beneath the barrel-“ He tilted his head sharp to the side because when Zoe did exactly that, the cap split open and blade sprung out. “You have yourself a bayonet. I call it the Snow Queen-“
”Night Hawk,” she said.
”Huh? What, no, I name weapons. That’s how this works-“
”Night Hawk.”
It’s no use arguing with her when she gets like that, and Johann knew that. “Let’s move on.” He took the fourth capsule for himself and out came, what else, a new Save the Maiden. “For the handsome man of legend, we have the elegantly designed Save the Maiden. A teching weapon with no match in Gurhal, it allows its dashing owner to defend himself in melee while simultaneously attacking with the devastating machinations of his technics.”
”Are you done fluffing yourself?” Sable asked.
”Just a bit more. The only thing sharper than the tip of its blade are the wits of the owner who can wield it! …Anyway, I’m sure you need nothing from me Elyham.”
”Nope, thank you for all your help designing the Arbiter frame, Dr. Launcher! I’m actually wearing it right now underneath this uniform! It’s weird though. It feels like an old friend…”
”A testament to my design ability. Now, we have one last capsule…”
”Johann makes neat stuff Ethan. It’s a little weird, but once you figure out how to use it, you’ll never need anything else,” I said.
”Actually Keiko, this one’s for you,” he said, presenting the remaining capsule to me.
”M-me?!”
”Yes. I actually had a hard time deciding what to make you. I considered just putting together a bow and calling it a night, but that would have been lazy. So, I made something a little different. Open it up.” I did, and imagine how surprised I was when a little white, nine tailed fox floated out of it and found a place hovering over my shoulder. “I opened up a Shato and did some science to it. You can use it to cast technics without having to take a hand off your guns, and it can serve as a turret you can-“
”It’s so cuuuuute!!!” I squealed as I pulled it from the air and wiggled it in front of my face.
”…Yeah, all right, clearly, I should have explained this before I told you to open it up,” he said. “You two make friends. Now, as for you, Ethan, I haven’t finished yours yet. So, in the downtime, hold onto this.” He tossed him the Orotiagito. Let me say that again. He tossed him the Orotiagito, the prized heirloom of House Launcher and momento of his father.
”Th-this looks kind of important…” he said.
”Jo-sei, are you insane?!”
”It’s not like I’m giving it to you. I’m just giving myself motivation to finish yours as quickly as possible.”
And right then, our comms went off. We all got the same message. It was our cue to go out there. Exchanging looks, we fed off each others’ confidence and by the time we were ready to start walking, we were resolved. Smug, even. It must have been a great picture, all of us walking side by side as we headed for the stairs to join the press conference. It was those moments I cherished the most, the ones where even the doubts that lingered in the deepest places in my heart just shriveled and died, if only for a little while.

[McLaughlin]

I knew it. Milk bags are the future.

[Seth Astra]

Quite good, as always.

[Keiko_Seisha]

An auto shamadoog Shato? I'm okay with this.

So now we wait for you to get your tail to the next part, will be fun.

Edit.

Thinking of, it occurred to me how different things would be if I hadn't remade Keiko into being a loli and kept with the original tall Keiko.

Either way I always had bad taste in outfits and hairstyles.

[Xaeris]

I can't tell you 100%, but I can give you an idea from my end.

Pre-Reconstructions: Johann makes several jokes regarding beanpoles and spaghetti.

Post-Reconstructions: Keiko makes many short jokes at Johann's expense.

Also, I don't remember Keiko ever being tall. Is that something that never made it past the creation screen?

[Keiko_Seisha]

I can't tell you 100%, but I can give you an idea from my end.

Pre-Reconstructions: Johann makes several jokes regarding beanpoles and spaghetti.

Post-Reconstructions: Keiko makes many short jokes at Johann's expense.

Also, I don't remember Keiko ever being tall. Is that something that never made it past the creation screen?

What, really? I mean she wasn't the tallest but she was taller than my Keikov2 that I made on my second account after my first account closed. The Keiko I started PSU with. I think she was about as tall as your Xaeris. Sadly I've lost all my old PSU screenshots so I can't pull up and compare to refresh my own memory as to exactly how tall she was.

[Xaeris]

Oh, you meant that Keiko. When you said tall, I thought you meant "far end of the slider" tall. I don't think I have a clear shot of her in my picture backlog. I do have a nice one of your Aion Alfimi, which I thought looked like Keiko, handy though. Plus, everyone gets a free shot of how I see Johann in my mind, silly clothes aside.

[spoiler-box]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/XLauncher/Aion/aion2009-12-0103-10-17-65.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/XLauncher/Aion/aion2009-10-2116-47-28-48.jpg[/spoiler-box]

Such a pretty game. Shame about the rest of it, though.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Oh, you meant that Keiko. When you said tall, I thought you meant "far end of the slider" tall. I don't think I have a clear shot of her in my picture backlog. I do have a nice one of your Aion Alfimi, which I thought looked like Keiko, handy though. Plus, everyone gets a free shot of how I see Johann in my mind, silly clothes aside.

Such a pretty game. Shame about the rest of it, though.

Ooh yeah, Alfimi was based on Keiko appearance-wise. And yeah Aion is such a nice looking game, I'd still be playing it if my main comp wasn't dead, the one I'm on now wouldn't get me ten meters into Sanctum without crashing I think. It has it's downs (like the company managing it) but I still enjoy the world and such.

But this is all getting way off track.

[McLaughlin]

Ha. From the front, that's almost exactly how I had him built in my mind. I always thought his hair was a bit shorter in the back though.

[Taijutsu-Joshua]

My dress was amazing. Gurhal had been struck by the largest scale acts of terrorism it had ever seen and put on track towards an uncertain future, but nevermind that for a minute, I want to talk about my gown.

ROFLMAO. Gurhal's being hit hard and she's worried about her dress. Loving her priorities.:-D

[Xaeris]

EDIT: A NEW CHALLENGER APPEARS. Welcome!

Eh, it's not like I'm posting a new chapter soon. And hey, I bought Sanctum in the last Steam sale! I, ah, have yet to do anything with it besides play the tutorial. Isn't that the way of Steam sales... But, while I have some time, I'll talk about Part 1 as I said I would.

So far, I've followed my plan for the story near exactly. I'm surprised, honestly. I thought I would have made a major improvisation out of inspiration or laziness by this point. The only thing I changed was regarding Gwendolyn. My original plan was for Johann to win and revert her to normal for an hour or so they'd have some time together before she fled. After I thought about it though, the reader hasn't seen Gwen in...what, a year? I figured it made sense to leave her hanging out for a while to reacquaint everyone so the last fight has some more meaning.

The wait between Part 1 and Part 2 shouldn't be that long. A month maybe. We'll follow this same, one chapter per two days format. I thought it'd be hard, but it wasn't actually. Only felt like I was up against a deadline for two chapters; rest of it was a breeze.

Let's see, what else...I'm happy with my writing and story overall. Although I have to say, Keiko ended up being waaay more important to the story than I planned when I first started. It's not a bad thing of course. It's just surprising. Fun fact, while I have the rest of SS planned, I'm still deciding on an ending. Depending on my mood, I waffle between, "everyone dies," "Gwen and Alice die," "Johann/Gwen," "Johann/Keiko," "Johann solo," and "harem ending." For all your sakes, you should hope I'm in a good mood when the time comes. Those first two are depressing as hell.

[Keiko_Seisha]

EDIT: A NEW CHALLENGER APPEARS. Welcome!

Eh, it's not like I'm posting a new chapter soon. And hey, I bought Sanctum in the last Steam sale! I, ah, have yet to do anything with it besides play the tutorial. Isn't that the way of Steam sales... But, while I have some time, I'll talk about Part 1 as I said I would.

So far, I've followed my plan for the story near exactly. I'm surprised, honestly. I thought I would have made a major improvisation out of inspiration or laziness by this point. The only thing I changed was regarding Gwendolyn. My original plan was for Johann to win and revert her to normal for an hour or so they'd have some time together before she fled. After I thought about it though, the reader hasn't seen Gwen in...what, a year? I figured it made sense to leave her hanging out for a while to reacquaint everyone so the last fight has some more meaning.

The wait between Part 1 and Part 2 shouldn't be that long. A month maybe. We'll follow this same, one chapter per two days format. I thought it'd be hard, but it wasn't actually. Only felt like I was up against a deadline for two chapters; rest of it was a breeze.

Let's see, what else...I'm happy with my writing and story overall. Although I have to say, Keiko ended up being waaay more important to the story than I planned when I first started. It's not a bad thing of course. It's just surprising. Fun fact, while I have the rest of SS planned, I'm still deciding on an ending. Depending on my mood, I waffle between, "everyone dies," "Gwen and Alice die," "Johann/Gwen," "Johann/Keiko," "Johann solo," and "harem ending." For all your sakes, you should hope I'm in a good mood when the time comes. Those first two are depressing as hell.

I'd feel bad for Gwen and Alice but I pray it's not the first option. I hope Johann makes the right choices when prompted and doesn't get EVANGELION END. In fact he should start saving more often in case such an event.

Oh and hey I got Sanctum on Steam, too. Actually we should add each other to Steam.

Oh and I'm still glad you started writing Keiko into your stories. I remember back when you wrote on GameFAQs and you made a topic recruiting characters to be used in the fanfics you were writing and I just kinda randomly threw my character into the batch.

[Xaeris]

It'd be more of a School Days ending if it's the first one.

[Magus_84]

That Sato should have a secret bite attack. Somehow. And he exists in a universe where saving and rebooting is actually possible. He'd damn well better have a save for before the "everyone dies" ending. :(

I should add you both on Steam, actually. If you'll have me.

And...I think I remember the only reason Ayame was included (in the originals) was because I annoyed the hell out of you by calling you "Uncle X".

Good times.

Your pic of Johann is kinda what I had in my head, though the hair's different. I'm going to try to make him on CO and see how close I can get. The game's costume files can be shared through transferrable image files.

I picked up Mass Effect 1/2, Torchlight and Recettear in the Steam sale. Hopefully those will keep me occupied til the next set of updates.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Remind me not to go back and read where all of this started. I've found some holes I have questions about, but I'm deciding that I'll leave them be and not turn this into Keiko's Interrogation Corner.

On the other hand...



Keiko jumps and looks away to hide a rosy pair of cheeks. After Johann has amused himself with a good chuckle while staring at her back, Keiko turns her eyes up to the ceiling to put forth an idle thought. “We almost died in there, didn’t we? I wonder if it’s always going to be this dangerous going forward?”

”No doubt it will,” Johann says while tapping some ash onto the ground.

”Don’t say it like it’s someone else’s problem!” Keiko yells, whipping around to yell at Johann properly.

”Ha ha, on the contrary,” he replies, “it doesn’t matter how dangerous it gets. Go and do whatever your heart desires Keiko. I promise, no matter the danger you wander into, no matter who threatens you, whatever the distance that separates us…” He shuts one eye and with a rare, genuine smile, finishes, “I’ll definitely come rescue you.”

Keiko’s fury is melted by the warm feeling that flushes into her cheeks. It’s all she can do to put on a little smile and say, “Jo-sei…”


Cool foreshadowing. I like going back and seeing things like this. Intended or not.

[Xaeris]

By all means, if you have questions, let's have them. They either have a perfectly reasonable answer, or I get some practice putting spackle on my plot holes. If cluttering the thread bothers you, I do PMs and Steam chat as well. That goes for everyone by the way; I'll answer any and all questions that don't require spoilers.

As for that scene, at the time, I had a pretty good idea of Reconstructions in my head. The big thing there is that, at the time, I thought Johann was going to bail Keiko out while fighting Rutsu, rather than Mother Brain. As I went along, I decided Keiko should solo Rutsu and that hacking Mother Brain was more up Johann's alley anyway. I also noticed that he shut one eye; that, was a total accident. A genius accident, but an accident.

[Xaeris]

Hi. How are you?

Chapter 14: The Dark Planet Emerges

All right, where were we? Is it Johann’s turn? Huh, looks like he’s running late, so he won’t mind if I take his chapter. It was a momentous day and I’m sure anyone who was alive during it remembers exactly where they were. Thing is though, it was boring. So, so, so boring. All of us, the aegii, were standing in a row behind the speaking podium. People came, people spoke, and people went, all over three hours, but we stood there like statues. My legs ache just thinking about it even now.
Eventually though, it was Laia’s turn to address the assembled crowd. Since it was Colony and not Neudaiz, there were a lot less people there than were at my speech because of the confined space. Instead, there were camera drones from every conceivable station floating around in all places. I wouldn’t have been surprised if even the home and gardening channels were broadcasting us. So it might not have been as full a scene, but she had just as many, if not more, watching her.
By the time Laia came up on the stage, we were exhausted. I was just barely hiding my fidgeting legs beneath my dress, Stacy looked like she was in the middle of a hot flash, Zoe was already asleep on her feet and was going to start snoring any minute, and even Johann was clenching and releasing his fingers like he does when he’s gone a while without a cigarette. Still, we managed to pull it together for the home stretch.
”Good afternoon, everyone. I’m not going to waste time with platitudes. As the newly inaugurated president of Guardians’ Colony, I want to talk about the threat that faces Gurhal. Right now, we’re in the middle of a crisis like we’ve never seen before; not in our lifetimes, and not in our history,” she said. I think it goes without saying that she had the help of a speechwriter. “This threat is unique in that it doesn’t want money, it doesn’t want land, nor does it want resources.” I was looking straight ahead, but I’d still bet good meseta that at least three of us raised our eyebrows at ‘nor.’
By then, the crowd was dead quiet, listening to her intently. She kept going, “What this threat wants, is to destroy us. It wants chaos, for chaos’ sake. It’s that rare kind of enemy that words won’t reach, and that rare kind of threat that can only be resolved by force! We, the Guardians, failed to recognize that once before, and it cost millions of lives. To all those who lost loved ones on that day, we’ll do more than just apologize.”
At that, the rest of us started to rouse. I stopped fidgeting, Zoe’s eyes opened, and the focus came back to Sable’s eyes. “Today, we put our Guardians back together. Everyone who wants to fight back against the people and the monsters who’ve invaded our lives can find the means to do it here. Starting this moment, the Guardians are reinstated.”
”Then I would like to make the first contract,” I said. It was all scripted, naturally, but we were going for dramatic effect, so I said it from where I was standing with the others. I started walking forward and all eyes were on me; something I was getting used to. “Right now, my home of Neudaiz is being violated by SEED monsters, and terrorized by Illuminus. As the eighteenth empress of Neudaiz, I’d like to request the full mobilization of the Guardians to remove these entities from my home.” I remember the click of my heels as I stepped forward, and the echo in my voice. A lot of what I did during those days was for theatrics, and I think that simple action of stepping forward and speaking was one of the best ones.
Laia nodded, “in accordance with the provisions of our new charter, a full mobilization of Guardians requires a majority vote from sitting aegii. All in favor, please step forward.” In one smooth, synchronized motion, the others stepped forward to my flank. It was beautiful, really. “The Guardians accept the contract. The Guardians will purge the SEED from Gurhal!”
Cheers rang all through Guardians’ Colony, not letting up for a whole minute. I saw some of our lips moving, but I have no idea what anyone said because their words got swallowed up in the noise. But, it’s just never that easy. After a while, the cheers turned into something very different as people started to scream. Naturally, we all went on full alert for whatever threat we missed, but none of us was ready to deal with the cause. …Actually, no, that’s not true.
”Wait, the sky!” Elly said as she directed us all to look up with her finger. And there, from Colony’s window, we could see it: a new planet sitting in space. It wasn’t a friendly looking planet either. It reminded me of a purple boil that looked like it could start oozing pus at any moment. Whatever it was, we were losing the crowd pretty quickly as the screams of confusion rose in intensity. Had it gone on much longer, I really think there would have been a riot to set back all of our hard work.
Of course, it didn’t go on much longer, because at some point, Johann had gotten a hold of the microphone. “My dear citizens,” he said, in that fake voice he used when he was being polite, “I apologize for our poor timing, but that planet in the sky is nothing to be afraid of.” The panic wasn’t really slowing down, but he kept going, “that object in space is Rykros. It will be serving as our fourth anchor in arranging a new Unification Point.” I have to give Johann some credit there; he really made it sound like we had the situation under complete control and we were just having a small malfunction. The truth was, the rest of us had no freaking clue what he was talking about.
The effect was delayed, but the panic was calming down as Johann spoke with his relaxed posture. “It is with the aid of that foreign object in the sky that we will be removing the SEED from our home, so I ask you not to look up at it with fear, but with excitement. We’ll have more information for you in the coming days, but for the time being, that is all I can say.”
We ended the press conference with that. Security had a bit of a hard time emptying the scene, but it really could have been much worse. More importantly, as all of us funneled back onto the fifth floor, we were very anxious to figure out what just happened.
”That was some hell of a bluff, Johnny,” Zoe said.
”Who was bluffing?” Johann asked as we walked into the new conference room. Nothing too special about it, besides the table. It was a big table, shaped like a triangle, with three seats on each side, and emblazoned with the Guardians insignia. “Everything I said is true,” he said as he took a seat, along with the rest of us.
”Then when the hell did you plan on telling the rest of us about your fabulous plan?” Stacy said as she threw him a pointed glare over the table. “I swear, this is the worst thing about you; you never loop us in on your plans until the last second!”
”If you’d stop cawing at me for a second,” Johann said as he lit the cigarette he’d been dying for, “I only said that what I said about Rykros is true, not that I planned for this. In reality, I have no idea why Rykros showed up just now.”
”Oh…yeah, you’re right. Sorry, I got carried away,” Stacy said.
”You needn’t worry, Eustace. Actually, in exchange for your apology, let me offer you a certificate good for one fuck.” He pat himself down for a second, then threw his arms up, “oh, how silly of me, I don’t have one to give.”
”Um…” Ethan said with his hand in the air.
”Don’t raise your hand Ethan, you look silly,” Sable said.
”Ah, right. I don’t want to sound dumb, and maybe I missed it, but how do you even know what this thing is, Johann?” he asked.
”Magic,” he said. With Sable’s fist beneath his chin, he went on, “alternatively…Keiko, you remember our sidequest in Dezolis, yes?”
”I’ll thank you not to refer to my growth as a person as a sidequest, Jo-sei,” I said.
”Whatever. While we were there, we came upon a Relics site: a fairly substantial one at that. There, I found data on all of the countermeasures the ancient civilization enacted against the SEED,” he said.
”You’re saying that they built a confinement system on that planet to serve as an extra relay?” Elly asked.
”I’m glad someone at this table catches on quickly,” he said.
”Tch…so you want to use Rykros for a second shot at confinement, is what you’re saying. It sounds like a good plan, but is it really just as simple as going up to Rykros and flipping on a switch?” Stacy asked.
Johann looked uncomfortable for a second there; he shrugged with this scrunched up look on his face before answering. “That would be the part where I bluffed.”
”I knew it,” Zoe said.
”However you look at it, this is our best opportunity to get rid of the SEED. We messed it up last time because we missed that Hive in the blind spot,” he said.
”So it sounds like what you’re saying is that we should put our resources into making this option viable,” Stacy said.
”If you were as good putting words in your mouth as you were putting them in mine, we could have an intelligent conversation sometime, Eustace,” he said.
”Keiko, would you please get your dog neutered? He’s barking at me,” Stacy said, paying no real mind to Johann’s insult. “It’s Laia’s, er, the president’s, call, but I’ll be recommending we send an expeditionary force up to Rykros to see what we’re dealing with. We’ll send researchers to check out the confinement system there, as well as some good Guardians for protection, just in case. Of course, you’re going Johann-“
”Can’t,” he said.
”Why the hell not?” she asked.
”I have a different lead on this matter I’d like to track down. Send Dr. Tomrain up there; he’ll figure it out faster than I can anyway,” he said.
I had an idea of what, or who, rather, he was talking about, but before I could bring it up, Laia finally managed to join us. She practically roared when she said, “thanks to you, Johann, I just spent the last half hour dodging questions about our ‘secret confinement plan’ that no one briefed me about!”
”Do you all really think me so devious and inconsiderate that it’s a reasonable assumption that I’d devise a plan like this without consulting anyone?” he asked.
”YES,” we all said.
”Et tu, Ethan?” Johann asked, turning his eye to him on the opposite side of the table.
Ethan shrugged, smiling, “you seem like the type.”
”Miss President, we were just talking about Rykros,” Stacy said as Laia took her seat at the table next to her. “To summarize, we have good reason to believe everything Johann said is true, and we’d like to send an exploratory team up to see how viable a plan this is.”
”All right, I like it,” Laia said. “Put together whoever you like, I’ll make sure the people are available. How soon can you get it going?”
”Let’s see…I guess I can have a shuttle in space before the evening is out? What I’d really like to do is get some satellite reconnaissance before I put feet on the ground. That would push my timetable back about a day, though.” Stacy said.
”Okay, go ahead and get intel first. The most important thing here is no more sacrifices. Are we agreed? No damned heroics from any of you,” she said. We nodded. “Good. Stacy, you go ahead and get to work on what you need to do. The rest of you, dismissed, but we’ll be seeing a lot of each other over the next few weeks, so don’t be scarce.”
”Yes, Madam President,” we all said. Except for me, of course. No need for an empress to use a term of address, after all. As we stood up from our seats, I turned to Johann, who was seated on my side and asked him about his plans.
”Jo-sei, you’re going to go look for Alice, aren’t you?” I asked.
He lowered his voice and leaned down towards me to answer, “she should still be in Rozenom. I don’t think a colony drop would damage her beyond repair. I can ask Alicia for more information about Rykros, if my hunch is correct.”
”All right, let’s go!” I said.
”Excuse me empress, but don’t you have a planet to run?”
”Well, yeah, but…”
He put a hand on top of my head. It was…weird. He didn’t normally do affectionate things like that if neither of us was on the brink of death. “I’ll be fine, it’s just a jaunt around Old Rozenom. I’ll call Gwendolyn to assist me if it makes you feel better.”
I put a hand on his forehead to check for a fever. Not that I had any idea what a fever was supposed to feel like. I was just going for the effect. “What’s wrong with you? You’re never nice to me.”
”I resent that. I’m exceedingly nice to you, all things considered. Anyone else would have fed you to the wolves a long time ago.”
I folded my arms beneath my breasts (can you imagine that? I had breasts to fold something beneath!) and said, smiling, “you’d miss me.”
”At first. It wouldn’t take me long to find some other fluorescent haired newman girl that’s tsundere for me though. I can probably find a place offering a two for one deal.”
”Take that back!” I yelled as I took a swipe at him. But, like a ghost, he was gone, having retreated into a Ryuker. He left me there, shaking my fist with smoldering rage to say, “ooo…that guy…”

[Seth Astra]

Let's see... I was having a great day today... Then I find you posted another chapter of this...

Best. Day. Ever.

[Magus_84]

Nice start, and it'll be good to see Alice again.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Hey, what do you know. Refreshing this section every two or three days paid off and I'm not out of the loop at the start this time.

Oh yeah, I never could pinpoint the exact questions I wanted to ask. So I just never asked.

[McLaughlin]

As a wise man once said, oh hell yes.

[Xaeris]

I really love the BGM Tooth Paste from No More Heroes 2. This chapter took...three-ish, hours to write and I had it going the whole time because it fit the scenery so well. So...

Chapter 15: Tooth Paste

You can take as many chapters as you like, if you spend them talking about me, Keiko.
Skipping ahead to when I landed on Parum and took a flyer out to Rozenom’s limits, it was just coming up on morning in that area of the world. By this point, I had done so much planet hopping, my internal clock was wrecked, so, I felt exhausted looking at the rising sun on the horizon, even though, by Ohtoku time, it was only…six in the evening, I believe? I couldn’t take the flyer any further in, on account of my…mediocre, piloting skills, and lack of places to land with such skills.
I hadn’t returned to Rozenom City to survey the damage personally until then, so even though I had urgency at my back, I had to stop and regard the wreckage in front of me. The old Guardians’ Colony had landed somewhere around the center of the city, so the damage would have been the least at the city limits. Yet, even with that in mind, the buildings there, while still standing, had been assaulted by the dust clouds and had their faces eroded. They were empty husks that may have crumbled at the simplest suggestion.
With the sun just beginning to peek over the horizon, I could see Colony’s silhouette far in the distance, standing as a testament to our colossal failure that day. It wasn’t an accident that it took me so long to come back to Rozenom in search of Alice. It was higher on my priority list, but whenever I found some spare time, the thought of having to face it made me slink away and find something else to do. The further towards the epicenter I looked, the worse the wreckage became, culminating in the withering husk of the old Colony itself.
I must have stood there for a good while, because eventually, Gwendolyn found me. She didn’t come in on a flyer of her own, but rather, a Ryuker. I paid a momentary glance to the pink fountain of light, and watched her step out of it. “You teleported all the way here?” I asked as I turned my eyes back toward the city.
”What? No, that’s silly. I took a shuttle to Holtes, then I teleported here,” she said, as if that were more reasonable. With that, she tossed her pink hair and joined me in surveying the ruined city. “I got your mail. I hope Alice is alive too, but how are you going to find her in this enormous city?”
”You brought the item I requested?”
”Hmm? Oh yeah,” she said as she fumbled around in her skirt’s pockets. If it could really be called a skirt that is; it was open in both the front and back, showing off the bike shorts she was wearing underneath. She handed me the compass I had asked for. “What are you going to do with that relic?”
”Rubellite becomes magnetic when exposed to A-photons. Rozenom was made primarily from rubellite materials. You prevented the sochee from going off, but Alice used the Photon Cascade system to save me from the colony drop. There should be a strong magnetic presence wherever her reactor is.” I held the compass up, and watched for where the needle pointed. As I had suspected, the needle was not pointing the direction I knew was north, but was strongly pulled in another direction, which I suspected to be Alice’s location. “It’s as good a place to start as any.”
”Are you sure you’re up to this?” she asked, leaning in on me and placing her hands on my shoulder.
”Irrelevant,” I replied. I took my first steps into the city. The road was torn by the shockwaves and I came close to spraining an ankle a few times that day. “Besides, if I’m not up to it, you can prop me up the difference.”
She squealed. Gwendolyn was satisfied so long as I tossed her a halfway romantic line now and then. She walked at my side and together through the broken city we tread. At first, aside from the depressing scenery, there was nothing to note. After several minutes of walking however, a herd of vahras intercepted our path from around the corner of a building.
Out came the Save the Maiden once the group of clawed monsters spotted us. They hopped up, thrusting their claws into the air, and began to approach us with that waddle of theirs. ”Nature hasn’t wasted anytime retaking the land, I see.” There’s really not much to say about that encounter. One radiga from me and one barta from Gwendolyn and we were finished. I only mention it because our walk through Old Rozenom would be dotted with little, insignificant fights like that.
”Hey Johann,” she said, at some point during our walk.
”Yes?” I replied.
”Why is W called W?” she asked.
At that time, we were navigating a somewhat difficult series of jumps across a shattered bridge, so my footing was threatened by the abject confusion she struck me with. My foot slipped on a landing and I just barely altered my momentum to avoid a nasty drop. “Pardon?” I said.
”You know, the letter. W. Double U. It’s obviously two Vs, so why don’t we call it double V?” she said as she waited for me to join her on the other side. I hate platforming.
”Well, perhaps V is ashamed of W. Maybe it’s an illegitimate bastard child,” I said as I prepared to take the next jump.
”Oh…but where does U come in?” she asked. I think she was amused by my horrid jumping abilities. She had finished a few minutes ahead of me and was watching me with a smile as I followed.
”U did the honorable thing and gave W its namesake when he saw that V was being a douche,” I said.
”U’s really noble! It makes sense, if you think about all the words U is silent in, never taking any credit,” she said.
”That’s because U is a gentleman,” I said, after I completed the last jump. And that, was just one of the many ridiculous conversations that she and I have had. I wouldn’t come to appreciate it for quite a while after, but that was our dynamic. She provided me with lunacy to make order from. It was a challenge to interact with her, but at the same time, I didn’t find myself editing my words; whatever popped into my head usually seemed right. Well, I’m just grateful I didn’t devolve into some lovestruck moron around her. Damned white knights.
Sometime after that, we came across another manner of monster. The best description would be to call it a giant praying mantis. We came across it while we were crossing underneath some collapsed rubble that had conveniently fallen into the shape of a tunnel. I was first alerted to its presence by the hiss that was creeping up on us from behind when we entered the tunnel. When I turned, I saw it. Some people may have panicked at the sight of a ten foot tall insect coming up on them.
Me? I just said, “that’s different.”
”Not really.” Gwendolyn raised her hand and as plainly as I would hit my lighter, she threw a foie at the approaching bug which lit its head on fire. It went scurrying off in the opposite direction, releasing a loud screech into the air. “Some things just never change,” she said.
”I’m fairly sure that a diga would have worked better,” I said as we continued walking.
”So?”
”You know, I’ve noticed your method of techning is very simple minded.” I was mostly just trying to aggravate her, but it was a legitimate criticism. She paid no mind to elemental weaknesses, she struck with splash damage when linear piercing would have yielded better results and all around, just relied on pure force.
She folded her arms behind her head, sticking her elbows into the air. Seemed hideously uncomfortable, but women will be women. “It’s funny, Uncle X used to always say the same thing. He’d say I should try to think about how the technique I’m casting will affect the technique after it. Same for you?”
”…Yes.” Among a host of other lessons, the kernel of wisdom that father would continually beat into my head regarding technics is to have an expectation for its purpose; that I should know what I want it to do before I cast it. I have to admit, it was superb advice and it guided the development of my fighting style. “I suppose you can get away with ignoring that lesson. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have enough power to back up blind techning.”
Her ear twitched and she turned a pouty glare at me to say, “hey, you’re not perfect either! You could get some more power out of your techniques if you used the Coralian form instead of the Habirao form. He must have taught it to you!”
”I don’t like the Coralian form. It’s slow and inflexible,” I said. Granted, those were issues that I could have resolved with practice, but Habirao- hmm, I should pause and explain. Teching is like martial arts: there are different styles, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. The most common form of teching in Gurhal, and the kind that technic discs are written in is Palman. It’s a well balanced style with respectable casting time, average power, but the flexibility in the shape of the technics is poor. It’s fine for beginners and people who take a techer template, but no techer worthy of a footnote uses it. As I was saying, the Coralian form is powerful, but unwieldy, so, erm, well, I just never really bothered.
”Uh huh. Hee, it’s a little funny,” she said with a fake giggle. “You succeeded his tactics, I succeeded his power. We got different halves of the same fruit.”
”Succeeded, you say,” I muttered as we came out of the tunnel to face a brighter sky than the one we left.
She didn’t speak right away. We kept walking further into Old Rozenom. By then, the scenery consisted less of dilapidated husks and more short stumps that had been scorched by the heat of the explosion. Some of the suspended walkways managed to stay attached to these stumps, and bits of the frayed canopy that hung over the city were still in the sky, but it was like looking at molted cicada shell.
”It’s hard, isn’t it?” she said. I briefly turned my head over my shoulder to look at her face and see if we’d be having another of our inane conversations. But, what I saw was something much different than her goofy, vapid expression. “All of a sudden, the safety net that’s always been under you is pulled out and you’re looking at the trickiest jump you’ve ever had to do.”
”And light forbid you let anyone see you panic. It has to all stay inside lest everyone else start panicking too,” I said. It slipped out. Like I said, I was candid with Gwendolyn in a way I was not with nearly everyone else. “I just want to scream at the top of my lungs,” I said, and I did scream, “I have no idea what comes next!” It felt good, if a little futile, to be able to scream in an empty city like that. With so much force I screamed, that I doubled over to catch my breath.
”It was the same for me,” she said as she laid her hand on my back and bowed over to meet me.
”And how did that turn out for you?” I asked.
”Um…not well,” she said.
I had to chuckle. I stood myself back up and rubbed a pair of fingers at my temple. “For such a romance freak, you’re hideous at pep talks,” I said.
”Stupid, I’m not trying to give you a pep talk. I’m just trying to make you feel better.”
”I’m fairly certain the two are one in the same.”
”Nuh uh,” she said, folding her arms and turning away.
”All right. At the risk of incurring yet another brain injury, why don’t you explain to me the distinction you’re making?” I said.
”Nope. It requires the delicate nuances of a woman’s heart to comprehend,” she said as she mimed a key locking in her chest. At least, I think that’s what she was doing. At the time, I thought she was tweaking her nipple.
”I realize that words go in one of your ears and fly out the other, but could you please consider that the rest of us have to hear you when you’re mumbling nonsense?” I said.
Her cheek filled up with air, but then, she asked, “how close are we?” It was a good question. I took out the compass and saw that the needle was rigid. I flung the device in a random direction and watched it, and saw that it remained rigidly pointed in the same direction.
”The compass has a strong fix on our destination. I would say we’re close.” I would like to say that five minutes later, we happened on Alice and brought her home. Unfortunately, life is rarely without boss battles in the way of your major goals. …Oh, is that just my life? Regardless, then and there, I felt something. I could see that Gwendolyn felt the same thing, since her eyes narrowed, turning her countenance from vapid ditz to something I might actually be afraid of.
”Johann…”
”I feel it,” I said as I raised my rapier. It took a few moments for me to discern the source of the radiance, but once I realized it was coming in from above, I leapt back, as did Gwendolyn along with me. Our timing was superb because the enemy landed where we were standing not seconds after we jumped away, kicking up a veritable geyser of dust and debris. As we landed, next to each other, I got my first look at our attacker. “Oh bloody hell.”
”What? It’s just some old guy,” Gwendolyn said as Headmaster Nav walked out from the dust cloud.
”That’s not just some old guy, Gwendolyn. That’s Headmaster Lucaim Nav. And it seems the SEED virus still has a grip on him,” I said. The Headmaster was a venerable cast, with decades of fighting experience under his belt. To put his skill in perspective, my father once said that the headmaster was the person in Gurhal he would least like to ever fight. Additionally, a man that can give Eustace and Sable, combined, a difficult fight was to be feared. People believe that myself and the empress have excellent synergy, and it’s true, we do. But Eustace and Sable had been best friends for almost thirty years by then; beating the two of them together (without time to plan) is a feat I would be utterly incapable of even with Keiko’s assistance. Of course, this is a purely hypothetical scenario, since I always have time to plan.
The point is, we were staring at an incredibly difficult fight. “We should retreat,” I said.
”Johann, I made a mistake earlier,” she said as she took steps towards the headmaster with her cane in hand. “I said that it was the same for me, but it’s not. There’s one really big difference between our situations.” I should have grabbed her and cast Ryuker, but I was curious to hear what she was thinking. So, knowing the best way to get me to follow her, she said nothing at all.
”I really hate when people leave their thoughts unfinished,” I said as I stepped up with her against the advancing headmaster.
”I will bet money that, if we go over the last four months, you’ll have more ellipses than the rest of us put together,” she replied.

[Keiko_Seisha]

With the sun just beginning to peek over the horizon, I could see Colony’s silhouette far in the distance, standing as a testament to our colossal failure that they.

I'm gonna guess this is the cause of something we like to call auto-correct.

You know I've still not adjusted Gwen's appearance in my head, so saying she has pink hair makes me go "OH RIGHT" and I start trying to fix that as I read.

[McLaughlin]

Hand-to-hand is where it's at. Nav knows what's up.

Waiting eagerly, as always.

[Xaeris]

Ah, that. That's actually probably on me. Sometimes when I'm typing, I start speaking the sentence out loud and my fingers will type homophones. I usually catch them as soon as I type them, but they slip through now and then. Fixed, naturally.

I was also thinking about that problem. I started off by referring to pink hair and pointy ears more often to help the reader along, but it looked kind of obnoxious, so I just left in the one reference to pink hair and the FOney skirt and hoped that would be enough.

You're going to be waiting eagerly until 17. The coin doesn't get a say this time. But, I think you'll be happy with what you get next chapter!

[Xaeris]

There. Never speak of it again.

Chapter 16: Gunner x Gunner
I can afford to talk about you now and then, seeing as you spent a quarter of the story being, you know, dead.
So, Johann went off to Parum with his girlfriend, leaving his empress to fend for her lonesome self on Colony. Inconsiderate and irresponsible, but I had already accepted those things about him by that point. After being dismissed, I stepped out of the room to leave, but before I took the escalator down from the fifth floor, I stopped. I realized that while I was up there, I had a little peace; I wasn’t empress of Neudaiz, but just the sixth Aegis among equals. I wanted to linger there a bit longer, as it was some of the best relaxation I had gotten since the whole thing had begun.
I mean, I wasn’t going to abandon my duty, but it would be okay if I spent another twenty minutes or so with my friends. I had decided this. I owned a planet, so any arguments to the contrary were invalid.
”Forget something, your majesty?” Zoe said as she was coming up behind me.
”Eminence,” I said.
”Same thing.” I turned around to face her. The way I figure it, most people have a kind of style they like to dress in. Sable dressed cute, Stacy dressed business casual, and Elly dressed like…honestly, a nerd. One time, I saw her show up in suspenders. I mean, seriously? But anyway, Zoe didn’t follow that rule. She could be dressed like a biker girl one day, and the next, she’d be wearing a petticoat beneath her satin gown. It’s like she decided to let her clothes do her talking for her instead of her words. No matter what she wore though, even if her blonde hair was done up in pigtails, the scowl on her face always said, ‘don’t mess with me.’ Her clothes that day were saying that she was in a good mood. She was in a pair of camouflage capri cut offs and a tank top. It was a pretty colorful outfit for her, considering.
”No, it’s not, you have to respect the throne,” I said, folding my arms in the same way she always did. She arched an eyebrow and folded her arms back at me. I didn’t last very long before I broke into giggles.
”You have a ways to go. Your eminence,” she said.
”Yeah, I guess. I’m still working on projecting a commanding presence, but I can’t get it right,” I said.
”You’re 150 Rp tall and you weigh less than some dogs,” she said.
”Excuse you, I’m 154 Rp now!” It took a few seconds to realize how pitiful that sounded. When I did, I slumped my shoulders. “I’ve had more than a couple of the prefectural governors challenge my claim. I usually beat them back with diplomacy, but I wish I could just stare them down.”
”It’s not about being a physical threat,” she said. I looked at her and waited for her to go on. Zoe could say some really smart stuff, but you had to give it time. “It’s confidence.”
”Well, how do I project confidence if I don’t have any?!” I said. Okay, sure, of course I had confidence. But sometimes, I didn’t feel like I had any, like all my success up to that point had been the result of a freak and lucky chain of events that could have gone wrong at any time with no input from me.
”You have confidence,” she said.
”Would it kill you to be more convincing?” I asked.
”No interest in finding out,” she said.
I sighed at her, finishing just in time for our comms to go off. They went off at the same time, which was never a good sign, and we knew it. Exchanging glances, we opened the link to see that Stacy was the one putting out the message. That was a small comfort, and I mean small.
”Stacy, what’s up?” I asked.
”We have a disturbance in the Spaceport,” she said.
”The Spaceport is closed,” Zoe said.
”Exactly. I want you two to check it out. I’m hoping it’s nothing, but if it is something, I want to keep it discreet. I’d send Elly with you, but she volunteered for the recon mission and she’s helping me get it set up,” Stacy said.
”And Sable?” Zoe asked.
”She went to the front desk to be a presence for the stragglers. The news would know something’s up if she left. Ethan already went to Neudaiz for something. And Johann is off being Johann and doing Light knows what. It’s just you two.”
”Okay, we’ll go have a look. Talk to you soon,” I said as I shut off my link. I looked up to Zoe who nodded back and away we went.
The Spaceport of the new Colony hadn’t been officially opened yet. Without the Guardians up and running, there wasn’t any need for space faring ships to launch from Colony besides the shuttles, and they had their own ports. With the Guardians reformed and our new goal of exploring Rykros, we’d definitely have a use for it again, so if it were, say, sabotaged by terrorist activity, we’d have a huge setback on our hands.
When we got there, everything looked okay. No fires, no SEED; just the giant network of hangars that ships docked to and launched from in Colony. The alert was coming from the main runway which was exactly what it sounded like; the gigantic tunnel that, through the air locks, led out into space.
”I don’t see anything,” Zoe said.
”Me neither. Let’s see…” I said. I put my fingers on my temple and bowed my head. I was fishing out the radiance in the area. People like to ask techers what radiance feels like, and it’s hard, because it really is like a sixth sense. You can’t describe sight to a blind man, like they say. Still, if I had to try, it’s…like warmth from inside yourself. If you’re near a really bright radiance, it feels like someone turned on all the lights inside your body. …See, it’s impossible.
Anyway, I managed to find something. I’d been dealing with so many terror attacks lately, that it was getting easy to pick out bombs. “Over by the air lock,” I said. Like I said, the runway was gigantic, so ‘over by the airlock’ was a five minute jog in a tunnel so big and empty, you may have thought that you weren’t getting anywhere. But, we did eventually get to the double blast doors of the air lock. When we did, we saw two people that definitely should not have been there up to no good.
”Illuminus!” I yelled as they came into view. I only recognized one of them; a fat human woman holding an axe, but I thought it was a pretty good bet that the other tall and lanky human woman was also Illuminus.
”Freaking hell Callisto, I knew you tripped that alarm,” the tall woman said as she stood up from the suitcase they had laid out on the floor. She wasn’t freakishly tall, but it was that, combined with how skinny she was that made her so unnerving to look at. Looking us both over, then behind us, she smirked, “looks like it’s just these two.”
Callisto was the one I recognized, her being the one I saw back in Dezolis. To hear Sable tell it, she also showed up on Colony that day too. It was odd seeing them together; it was a duo out of a cartoon. “Oh look, it’s the pretty little princess. Where’s your mutt, I owe him some payback!”
I assumed she was talking about Johann, because…well, you know. I put the back of my hand up to my mouth and laughed. I don’t know if it just clicked in that moment, or if it was the acoustics of the room, but right there, I performed a perfect bitch laugh. It hit just the right pitch and had the perfect rhythm. My hand covered up just enough of my lips to hide them, but still show enough of my huffy cheeks. That laugh turned out to be very useful going forward, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I said, “if you have a grievance against my knight, you’re welcome to file a complaint on Neudaiz.
”That laugh works for you,” Zoe said.
”You think?” I replied, turning to look at her with an excited smile. She turned to me to say something, but our enemies took that chance to attack, thinking we were distracted by that conversation. Silly. The taller one had a laser cannon against her hip and fired a…laser, at us. Zoe and I split and jumped back, opposite of each other and let the beam go by harmlessly.
When our feet hit the ground, we pulled out our weapons. Zoe took out her Night Hawk. Where she found the time to figure out how to work her new rifle so fast, I can’t say. She had the photon cage loaded and the gun settled in both hands inside of two seconds. Me, I took out the Nasuyoteri. Along with it, my Shato floated out of nanospace and found itself a spot hovering over my shoulder.
”Freaking awful aim,” Callisto said as she slammed her axe into the floor. “If you hit them, we could have been out of here by now!” I made her pick it up out of the ground to shield her face when I shot a volley of arrows at her. Just a random cluster; I wanted attention.
”Hey Zoe, you want to waste your breath telling them to surrender peacefully?” I asked.
”No. It’s been a while since I fought Illuminus,” she said.
”You fought on Colony, that day, though,” I said.
”It seems like it’s been longer.” Holding the Night Hawk up with one hand, she fired bullets of random elements at a deliberate pace while walking forward to the enemy’s position. It was my cue to get to a good vantage point while she shook them up. Zoe, having fired lots and lots of bullets in her lifetime, had gotten a pretty good idea for how people move when their feet are being shot at, so she was doing a pretty good job of leading their steps and juggling them to where she wanted them to go.
”Dammit Veronica, do something! I can’t move like this,” Callisto said as she strained not to trip over her rushed steps. “Eff it, I’ll do it myself!” she yelled as she sliced her Dedda through the air. She was nowhere near close enough to Zoe to hit her, but the swipe disrupted the integrity of all the bullets in the air, making them pop like bubbles.
”Don’t tell me what to do, you blob,” the taller human said as she took the window to aim her cannon at Zoe. Zoe, did not move. She didn’t even lower her rifle. That’s because, by then, I had worked my way around the two, and shot an arrow into Veronica’s back. I made it an ensei-sou, so the red bolt ignited a few of her line shield’s hexes while knocking her forward. She managed to get her foot out before her face hit the ground and uglied it up, and whipped her head and cannon around to shoot. “Bitch!”
”Look here,” Zoe said as she fired a burning shot of her own into Veronica’s back, making her whip around again. Maybe we were bullying her a bit, but we alternated like that for a couple rounds. We had to cut it short when Callisto leapt into the air towards me, threatening to drop a Jabroga on my head. Anga Jabroga was a pretty nasty skill. By the end of the whole conflict, it had turned into a favorite skill of our fortefighter Guardians. It makes sense I guess; if all you’re fighting are mindless creatures that would group up nicely and wait for you to hold up your axe in the air and say, ‘i has an axe,’ before you start winding up, it would be pretty useful.
I wasn’t going to be able to move out of the shock radius in time, so instead of trying to scurry away, I jumped up. Normally, just jumping wouldn’t have gotten me out of Jabroga’s radius either, but I had a new trick up my sleeve. Regrants makes hexes on the user’s line shield to detonate, which makes a concussive explosion. Usually, techers use it to get some space from an enemy. With Shato’s help, I used Regrants to detonate some hexes under my jumping foot. It took some pretty good timing, but I got a really nice jump out of it. So good, that Callisto was arcing beneath me as I was rising in the air.
”Crap!” she yelled. When I hit the hangtime of my jump, I twisted my body around and aimed at her as she hit the ground. The downside of Jabroga is that you can’t really move when you land, so I had an open shot with chousei-sou. I got a nice green burst of light when I fired, and Callisto got a nice green needle in the back of her line shield which drilled her into the floor.
”How are you doing over there, Zoe?” I asked as my toes touched the ground. Shato took a few seconds longer to catch up.
”Pay attention,” she said as she came running up to me with her rifle in both hands. She stepped onto my side and thrust the barrel of it over my head just as Callisto was trying to split it open with her axe. Their weapons clattered against each other for a few seconds while I gingerly stepped out from beneath them.
”Oops,” I said. I looked Callisto over. I was sure that was a killing shot, so I was surprised when I saw that she looked okay, if pissed off. “What? There’s no way you’re fine after taking a direct hit!” I said.
”How do you think you’re going to hold me here?” Callisto said as she kept on struggling to tear her axe through Zoe’s rifle.
”Easily,” was Zoe’s answer. Zoe was as stonefaced as ever, so that wasn’t a good indicator of how much strain she was under. But her arms looked pretty solid, so I figured she was alright. I looked over to Veronica who had just finished using an antimate to pull the burn from her shield. I dropped to one knee and fired a raisei-sou at her, hoping I could paralyze her before she could get back into the fight. …I didn’t miss, but she wasn’t where the arrow would have hit her, let’s say that.
”You missed,” Zoe said, still holding Callisto at bay.
”No one asked you,” I said.
Zoe decided to take some initiative then and slam her elbow, the cyborg one, into Callisto’s nose. That put just enough space between them for Zoe to pull her weapon off the axe and hold the butt of it on her hip. From there, she loaded a fury into the cage and let loose with the Night Hawk like a machine gun. I think, maybe…ten percent of that volley actually hit Callisto, which was impressive, considering how big a target Callisto was. Still, she fired like a gajillion bullets, so she still put a lot of holes into the shield with that.
On my end, I was countering Veronica’s laser barrages by firing arrows at each one. What I really wanted to do was put one between her eyes, but I didn’t have a long enough interval. So, I had Shato help me again. Veronica was firing elements at random, so I was waiting on a particular one. When the freezing prism finally came, I sent Shato out to intercept it instead of shooting it down myself. The poor little guy got frozen in a block of ice, but I was able to jump onto it and fire another raisei-sou at Veronica. That one hit her and the shock took, making her arms too numb to hold onto her cannon. Just as the cannon dropped to the floor, so did Callisto, getting rolled across the floor like a rug.
”I see why Sable had problems,” Zoe said as she walked up to my side. “It’s like beating a tub of jello.”
”I’ll show you why your fatass friend had ‘problems,” Callisto said as she raised her arm in the air. I felt a foul radiance swelling, but before it got very far, Veronica laid her hand on her friend’s shoulder.
”We don’t have time for that!” From her nano, she pulled out two discs. “One of these is the disarming code for the bomb we put here,” she said before she flung them to the opposite far ends of the room. “Go get ‘em!” With that, she took off for the exit, and with a grunt, Callisto followed after her.
”Trap?” I asked.
Zoe nodded, “trap.” You hang around with a conniving, devious, maniacal douche of a man long enough, you get to be very good at recognizing underhanded tactics when you see them. “But that bomb needs to be disarmed.”
”I hate to let them go…” I said as I watched them retreat. But, Zoe was right. Sure enough, the discs exploded after a while in their corners of the room to no concern of ours. Hunched over the suitcase, we got to work on deciding what to do with it.
”I could shoot it,” Zoe said.
”I’m thinking we come up with something with less of a risk of killing us,” I said. It wasn’t a threatening bomb, really. I mean, sure, we’d have gone up in smoke if it went off in our faces, but it only would have done moderate damage to the hangar and the rest of Colony would be fine. It was clearly meant to sabotage our mission to Rykros. Which was interesting, since we only found out we’d be going to Rykros just an hour ago, so the Illuminus must have known about Rykros beforehand.
”Boring. We could toss it out the air lock,” she said.
”Oh. That’s actually a really good idea. They didn’t get a chance to bolt it down, after all.” So, we did that. …I don’t know what more to say about that. I don’t know what Johann’s talking about. Sometimes, life’s problems do have simple, satisfying solutions. …What do you mean, ‘more proof that I’m not the main character?!’
Tch…anyway. We reported in to Stacy. Unfortunately, Callisto and Veronica got out clean, leaving us with zilch. Well, not completely zilch. Thanks to my brilliant intuition, we knew that the Illuminus had something to do with Rykros’ appearance. Still, it wasn’t much to go on, so I had no reason to hang out on Colony any longer. I did have a planet to run, after all.
”Hey, Zoe, why don’t you come along?” I asked as she walked me to the Neudaiz terminal.
”Why?”
”I’m asking you.”
”I can’t think of a reason.”
”So you’re coming?”
”No.”
”Why?”
”I can’t think of a reason.”
”So you’re coming?”
”No.”
”Why?”
”I can’t think of a reason.”
”So you’re coming?”
”No.”
”Why?”
”I can’t think of a reason.”
”So you’re coming?”
”...Yes.”
Let it be known, that the eighteenth empress of Neudaiz will be outdone in stubbornness by no one.

[McLaughlin]

Speak of what?

Great stuff.

[Keiko_Seisha]

There. Never speak of it again.

Huhwha, what'd I do this time. You know this wants to make me speak about it.

I've been playing through Xenoblade recently and I've come to the conclusion I could perfectly replace one of the party members with Keiko. They're quite similar.

[Xaeris]

Speak of what?



Exactly.

A quick google of Xenoblade, and I'm going to guess...Sharla?

[Keiko_Seisha]

Exactly.

A quick google of Xenoblade, and I'm going to guess...Sharla?

Melia.

[spoiler-box]
They're both Princesses that become Empress is the major similarity. Melia has a great ability to control Ether, kinda like Keiko can control photons with her bullets and techs. Personalities are pretty different though, but overall it's quite a fit. (There's probably other things but I'm tired from being awake all night/day)

If you were to combine Sharla and Melia though it'd be nearly dead on, since I see why you'd guess Sharla.
[/spoiler-box]

[Xaeris]

Oh, that's a much better match. I came upon Sharla first, saw that she was a healer and used a rifle, and figured that had to be it.

[Magus_84]

Nice that we finally got Zoe's story from the day Colony fell. >_>

Also, Keiko managed the full laugh. She's all grown up now.

[McLaughlin]

What? Where? Inquiring minds need to know!

[CupOfCoffee]

I've had a proactive morning. I copypasta'd all the chapters and made an .epub document of the story thus far, and I'm going to reread it on my Nook, in its entirety, tonight during downtime at work. Take that, real life!

[Magus_84]

What? Where? Inquiring minds need to know!

That sentence about "You were on colony the day it fell". That's what our dear Mr. Launcher was referencing in the title.

Methinks that's all we're going to get out of him for Zoe's part.

:(

[McLaughlin]

Ohh. Yeah I caught that, haha. Thought you meant the whole thing got posted somewhere and I missed it.

Thought my stalker muscle was atrophying for a second there.

[CupOfCoffee]

Finally all caught up and eagerly awaiting whatever comes next. I feel like I understood everything a lot more clearly the second time around. My general unfamiliarity with the PSU terminology and storyline really didn't even get in the way because everything that would be confusing is basically laid out—or given a dismissive one-sentence summary by Keiko, haha. Speaking of which, I think my favorite thing overall is the quality of characterization. I know you said you were sometimes worried about Johann coming across as a Mary Sue or a self-insert, but I don't think he does at all. (Being a beast certainly helps, for starters—they always seemed to me like the most generally neglected race to me in terms of fan creations.) I love the back and forth bickering between the main characters and the funny moments where the curtain is pulled back on a scene halfway through it to comedic effect, like when it turns out Johann was getting it on with Gwen previous to being dragged out of bed for 3am sparring, haha. Everyone always says it, but seriously: good stuff.

[Xaeris]

Like you, I appreciate the value of a kind word tossed in my thread. Thanks! I'm glad it's not giving you much trouble to understand the game's mechanics which I've incorporated into the story. I ended up making up quite a few of them from scratch, so that probably helps.

And don't worry guys, I'll go back and write it. Someday.

Chapter 17: One Way to Spend a Date
Bullocks, it wasn’t even ten percent. On that subject though, you do understand that being away for so long is actually proof that I’m the main character here, right?
”What’s our plan?” Gwendolyn asked.
”Are you serious? This was your idea!” I said.
”Well yeah, but only because you wanted to be lazy and run away. Besides, would you really trust any plan you didn’t come up with yourself?” she asked. I had to admit, she had me beat on that logic.
”Just attack for now, I’ll think of something,” I said as I held up my rapier and approached the headmaster with a slow walk. I cannot overstress how not eager I was to engage Headmaster Nav in a head on confrontation; I was really taking my time with those steps toward him. The photon cages of the headmaster’s claws came alive, coursing with blue light, and he was more than happy to help me close the distance. My first move was no surprise: foie. As always, the intent was not to hit him, but to get him to give up that impenetrable form by reacting.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get quite the result I would have liked. Nav charged through the fireball like it was a summer breeze, coming out the other end unscathed. He swung his claw at my face and I put up the base of my wand’s blade in response. I saved myself from losing my other eye, but the force behind the swing was so great, my arm was knocked out of the way, only able to deflect it slightly. I scrambled to get my guard back up for the next swing, only to have the same thing happen. I could see the course of the attacks with no trouble, but defending myself was a different problem entirely. Knowledge is power, they say? Bullocks.
Eventually, I fell too far behind and the headmaster got a cut down my shoulder and chest which tore out a whole bunch of hexes in my line shield. There’s a psychosomatic connection between one’s shield and body, so yeah, that was not pleasant for me, even if my arm was technically okay. Nav followed up with what probably would have been a crippling slash to my chest when the hexes there suddenly hardened and rebuffed his blow. Following her Deband, Gwendolyn came soaring in over my shoulder, coming between me and Nav.
”Where the hell were you?” I asked.
”You know, there used to be a time that men were ashamed to be saved by women,” she said as she hooked the hilt of her cane between the prongs of Nav’s claws. She hoisted her Summit Moon up, Nav’s arms along with it, and put her free hand on Nav’s exposed chest. The barta that followed was like a roaring blizzard, directed into a strict line and overwhelmed the headmaster in a thick sheet of frost, sleet, and soon enough, ice. It wasn’t a neat ice cube, but I would have said he was sufficiently frozen if I didn’t know full well that ice is the jobber’s element.
”I have pride for only as long as it’s not a hindrance,” I replied. There’s no shame in relying on women for help. They’re actually quite useful if you can get them to shut up for two minutes.
”Tch, well, whatever, that was easy. You think too hard, Johann. With the power of love, we’re invincible!” she said. How seriously she took herself when she said stuff like that, I can’t honestly say. Anyway, one of Nav’s arms managed to break free of its binding, and began to furiously jam its claw at the rest of its frozen body.
”You were saying?” I asked as I lit up a zonde on the Save the Maiden. He was going to break out eventually, so I didn’t see any harm in helping it along. I thrust, and like a cannon, my wand shot the zonde, filling the area with a bright luster of yellow while it charged through, taking Nav with it.
”Wow, he’s actually pretty tough,” she said as she watched him tumble against the ground while the lightning charged by.
”Yes, if only someone had warned you as much beforehand,” I said. “A man with such wisdom and foresight surely would be worthy of acclaim.” She stuck her tongue out at me. I don’t what it is about me that brings out the teenybopper in women. At any rate, I put my hand over my face and said, “this is ridiculous, I’ll just nanoblast.”
The headmaster had recovered and was already walking back over toward us. Gwendolyn ran in to intercept him while I did my thing. I think her first attack had made her cocky, because she engaged him in melee. That turned out to be silly, as she got knocked back over to where I was standing in a matter of seconds.
”Aren’t you done yet?!” she asked.
”…It doesn’t seem I can nanoblast right now,” I said. I raised a radiga beneath the headmaster’s feet and thrust him into the air to buy myself a little time to explain. “We’re too close to Alice’s reactor. I can’t nanoblast with this many A-photons present.” That was the best explanation I could manage at the time, but since I don’t have a brainwashed cast trying to take my head off at the moment, I suppose I can do a little better now. Nanoblasting requires a huge intake of photons. A-photons are…let’s say ‘thicker’ than regular photons. Essentially, when I attempted to nanoblast, they got clogged, preventing the intake necessary. Well, it wouldn’t have been a problem for Sable; my lack of experience with Regear Val was the only thing to truly be blamed there.
While the headmaster was coming down, I tried to strike him with a razonde, but his feet had already touched the ground and he had leapt toward me, out of the lightning strike. I put my guard up again, and again, he knocked my arm out of the way. Before I fell too far behind that time, though, Gwendolyn cast Jellen on the headmaster. The blue light in his claws became dull and viscous, like jello, and I was able hold my rapier up against him on the following swing. While I held him there, Gwendolyn flipped over us both and called a lightning strike of her own to take the headmaster in the back. Her razonde…actually, I think it was a zonde, for her…bah, anyway, her attack jolted the headmaster, and gave me an opportunity to break off our stalemate and leap back.
”Thank you,” I said as I threw a diga at Nav to cover my retreat.
”It’s fine if you can’t nanoblast, Johann,” she said as she joined me at my side. “Together-“
”Yeah, yeah, we’re invincible with love, I heard you,” I said as I watched the headmaster.
”You have no flair for romance.”
”That must be it. It couldn’t possibly be that staring death straight in the face is giving me a slight case of shrinkage.”
”Oh, can I see?”
”What is wrong with you?!”
”You’re right, I probably couldn’t tell the difference any- oop!” Nav had, literally, come between us with a dive. Gwendolyn chose to leap up, and I altered his course slightly by dropping a ramegid on him. It says something for the force he came at us with that passing through a localized gravity well only slowed him down a little. From the air, Gwendolyn fired a foie. It was a rather large one; it reminded of those shows the chefs at some Neudaizian restaurants put on- Oh, you already made this comparison, Keiko? Well, fine, that. I felt the heat licking against my head as I trotted away and looked over to where Gwendolyn had landed.
”I was down there too!”
”I was hoping I could singe some of that beard.”
”It’s a goatee.” It may have all sounded lighthearted, but by that point, I was concerned that we didn’t seem to be causing any appreciable damage to the headmaster, despite our successful joint attacks. “Gwendolyn, buy me some time. I’m going to use Vivace.”
”Is it the end of the arc already?”
”That’s a good point…” Despite my jokes, I don’t make any claims to understand how this world completely operates. I just know that, if you use your big attack at anything besides the climactic moment, it will fail, terribly. I respect this rule of the universe, and will not challenge it. “Fine, but we need to do something.”
”I could-“
”Besides that,” I said, knowing that she was about to bring up the attack she used in Rozenom last time.
”…Hey, Johann. Aren’t claws made by Yohmei?” she asked.
I was quiet for a few moments. Nevermind the headmaster who was stalking us once more. I was quietly seething at myself for neglecting such an exploitable detail. Without a word, I took out Yohmei’s override switch and took his claws out of play with the push of a button.
”Are you serious?! I didn’t say anything because I figured there was some reason it wouldn’t work and I didn’t want you to yell at me for being dumb!”
”I’m not going to live this down, am I?”
”Not in this lifetime.”
Well, it’s not as if I hit an ‘I win’ button. Even with his weapons disabled, the headmaster’s attacks would eventually bring us down through attrition if we didn’t succeed in downing him soon. Gwendolyn and I resumed our assault, both of us rushing into melee that time. Techer and force, rushing into melee; it sounds dumb, but there are sillier things, like a force trying to shoot a gun. For a few minutes, it was a fairly even fight, since Nav only had two arms to defend against two of us. If one of us was knocked back, the other surely had an opportunity to strike.
At the same time, however, we were piling up on injuries of our own. Nothing critical, but a kick to the stomach here, a punch to the head there, and it all piled up into exhaustion for us. But, after a persistent effort, we finally caught a break. The headmaster stopped moving.
”Umm…he’s not moving,” Gwendolyn said as we stood on opposite sides of him.
”It seems he’s crashed.”
”That’s kind of a cheap victory…”
”A win is a win.”
”No surprise a cheating bastard would say that.”
What I do is not ‘cheating.’ I’m often accused of this, and I really feel compelled to step on my soapbox for a minute. What I do is preparation. Just because people do not commonly have the means to make the most creative use of their environment and circumstances should not mean that all of us should have to settle for such a deficiency. Is the man who studies for an exam accused of cheating? Is the man who brings a full backpack of tools and equipment for a night in the woods accused of cheating? Is the man who chooses to play the shotoclone in a fighting game accused of…hmm, well, okay, maybe the last one’s a poor example, but I’ve made my point.
”Are we just going to leave him here?” she asked, poking him in the back.
”Of course not. At the same time though, I can’t have him waking up, so…” I opened him up and disconnected a few things. Nothing vital: just some actuators so he wouldn’t be able to move. “We’ll pick him up on the way out,” I said as I led us to our original goal. So close to the site of Colony’s impact, most anything that was originally there before the fall was buried in rubble. I got straight to work on tossing that rubble out of the way.
”Wait, you want us to dig?” Gwendolyn asked.
”No one asked you to help,” I replied, focused on my task. Looking back, she was obviously making a dig at the fact that I would do manual labor and risk getting my haori dirty. At the time though, I snapped, because I was thinking of how Alice had saved my life that day. About then, I came upon a particularly large piece of rubble I was having trouble moving out of the way.
Bless her heart though, because she didn’t mind. She just said, “I’m just kidding, Johann. Of course I’ll help. It’s my fault she’s buried here, to start with…” She joined me at the boulder I was futilely trying to move and put her hands on my shoulders from behind. “I’ll cast Shifta on you. Ready?”
”Earlier, you said there was a difference, between me and you. What did you mean?” Her nails dug into my shoulders, her breasts pushed into my back, and she put her lips up to my ear. Ladies, please take note, this is pretty much the sexiest thing you can do for a man in public without getting arrested for exposure. Do it often. I felt a warmth in my chest and a lightness in my arms, and soon after, I was able to toss aside the boulder like paper mache.
”That? Well, ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to grow up to be just like uncle. But you, you’ve always wanted your own, distinct identity. That’s why it’s so weird to see you thinking so hard about what he would and wouldn’t do,” she said.
”Hmm.”
”That’s all you have to say, ‘hmm?’ For someone who likes the sound of his voice as much as you do, you pick the weirdest times to clam up.”
”I can’t help if my voice has a commanding, yet melodic harmony about it. I could have been a voice actor, you know.”
”Johann, they stopped making My Little Rappy years ago,” she said. We had a laugh at that.
”I guess I have been something of a milquetoast lately. I know it’s difficult for you and Keiko. Sorry.”
”You can’t apologize for the way you feel, Johann, even if you have been a milktoast-“
”Milquetoast. M, I, L, Q, U, E. “
”How the hell did you know I was thinking M, I, L, K? They sound exactly the same!”
I shrugged. “Instinct.” Right then, I uncovered a hand when I tossed another rock aside. I paused to keep myself from daring to hope, and knelt down for a closer look. It was certainly a feminine hand, so I said, “I think I found her.” With that, I worked to throw some more of the debris off her body, and as I did, I became more certain that it was Alice. First, I uncovered those thighs I had expended so much effort trying to get between to no effect. Then, I uncovered those arms that had caught me time and again, pratfall after pratfall. And I was sure it was her when I tossed aside the last bit of rubble and saw her face, white hair, pink ears and all.
”She actually doesn’t look that bad,” Gwendolyn said, speaking of her condition. Indeed, despite being at the site of a colony drop, Alice looked relatively fine. She was intact, which was impressive in of itself, and her form was quite recognizable. The worst thing I have to say is that her hair was a mess, really. Oh, and that she was comatose.
”Naturally, she is a stateria. I must say, this is a relief; this looks to be an amount of damage I can repair. All right, pick her up and let’s head back to Neudaiz. There’s work to be done.”
”Why do I have to carry her?! She’s heavy!”
”Because I have to carry the headmaster. Of course, we can switch. Come to think of it, I would prefer to carry Alice so I can-“
”Fine, fine, I’ll do it. I’m not about to let my friend get groped in her sleep.”
”You think so little of me, Gwendolyn,” I said.
"I don't hear you saying I'm wrong!"

[McLaughlin]

”Johann, they stopped making My Little Rappy years ago,” she said. We had a laugh at that.

I see what you did there.

Awesome stuff.

[Magus_84]

Techer and force, rushing into melee; it sounds dumb, but there are sillier things, like a force trying to shoot a gun.

Heh, yeah. No force in their right mind would ever choose to make that their main form of attack. >_>

I liked this one.

[McLaughlin]

I heard forces shooting guns is bad for the back.

[CupOfCoffee]

At the same time, however, we were piling up on injuries of our own. Nothing critical, but a kick to the stomach here, a punch to the head there, and it all piled up into exhaustion for us. But, after a persistent effort, we finally caught a break. The headmaster stopped moving.
”Umm…he’s not moving,” Gwendolyn said as we stood on opposite sides of him.
”It seems he’s crashed.”

I giggled. I always wondered about androids and their software and the frequency of BSoD, that old menace.

[McLaughlin]

Nav has a particularly nasty case of ICS (Instant Crash Syndrome), for which there is no known cure. Johann's mother suffers from it as well.

[Xaeris]

Chapter 18: She of Then and Now

Johann, now you're just sleep talking. How does not being the main character prove you're the main character?
I took Zoe back with me to Neudaiz. I was planning on just having dinner together and catching up with at least one of the others. Since we became so busy, I hadn’t had much chance to just enjoy happy conversation with my friends. It was always intelligence that, or Illuminus this; at an age where normal girls were talking about their favorite singers and who to take to prom, I was talking about the ramifications of assassinating the heads of terrorist organizations on Neudaizian soil. Sure, Johann’s great and I feel a lot like myself around him, but sometimes, I just needed a girl to talk to. So yeah, I was excited to have Zoe come over.
When the ship entered Neudaiz’s airspace, I felt a rush in my head. Not a bad kind of rush: the opposite, actually. It was like the feeling you get right after you realize your stuffy nose has cleared. I even took a deep breath right there in my seat. I thought it was strange, for a few seconds, but I didn’t think much more about it at the time, since I had reopened my communications and was dealing with empress stuff. It sucks that it turned out to be a big deal, but more on that later.
Getting off the shuttle, I was greeted by the usual accompaniment of armed guards who were waiting for me with an imperial welcome. They formed two flanks across from each other and raised their staves in the air for me and Zoe to walk beneath. I have to admit: I wasn’t bored of all of it yet, but I was getting there.
”You’re a big deal,” Zoe said as she walked with me.
”Yes I am,” I said, smiling. “I have stuff to do at the Pavilion of Air. Mind waiting for me at my mansion?”
”I’ll wait for you at Johnny’s. I still have a key,” Zoe said. Johann and Zoe, they used to date. He liked her boobs. …Are you saying you didn’t like her boobs? No? Then what’s the problem? Sheesh. Anyway, is it normal to hang on to someone’s key five years after you break up?
”Oh, all right. Make yourself at home,” I said. I could say that. My property’s property is also my property.
The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful, workwise. Just more of the same work I’ve been complaining about up to this point. It was amazing just how repetitive the work involved in keeping a planet running could be. You might think it would pose new and interesting problems almost everyday, but no, I was always resolving the same kind of dispute, the same kind of deadlock, day in and day out. The stupider thing was that I don’t think the people who kept on bringing me this nonsense even realized it. It was such a broken and redundant machine, it’s no wonder I trimmed off so much of the fat over the years. It’s not despotism I tell you, it’s just good sense.
Anyway, I did have a conversation with my mother. While I was away on Colony, she was acting empress in my place. When I got to my office to relieve her, she took one look at me and knew something was off.
”Keiko, are you feeling all right?” she asked.
”I’m fine, baa-chan,” I said. I thought about it a little harder while she wrinkled her forehead, and said, “well, I did feel a little weird when my shuttle reentered Neudaiz’s airspace.”
”…Have you considered the time is drawing close?” she asked.
”What?! I’m only sixteen, there’s no way it’s time yet!” I said, screaming.
Mother remained calm as always and said, quietly, “it’s not age, it’s valence. I was twenty when I could no longer leave Neudaiz, but you’ve had a much more tumultuous life than I had. It’s possible you’re coming up on the peak.”
Okay, how do I explain this…valence, valence…Johann, help me! … … …Okay, right, I remember now. Valence is the maximum amount of photons a body can hold. Obviously, the more photons you can hold, the stronger you are. It’s like levels in a video game. Hardly anyone has their maximum amount of photons stored when they’re at rest; it’s only when you’re in a fight that you cap out. The problem with being a full blooded newman, like all Seisha are, is that while we gain valence much faster than normal people, our resting intake is much higher than normal people as well.
Basically, the higher my valence gets, the more photons I need to sustain…well, my life.
”This can’t happen now! We’re in the middle of a war!” I said as I slumped into my chair. “Just when I was starting to relax a little…”
”There’s no need to panic. If you haven’t even noticed the symptoms while you’re away from Neudaiz, then you still have a ways to go until leaving Neudaiz is fatal,” she said.
”Yeah…ugh, it was just the last thing on my mind. I thought I had a bunch more years…”
”I know you did,” she said. I had my face buried in the desk, so I had to look up when I felt her hand on top of mine. “That month you spent, in a desperate struggle to recover your allies and establish some small measure of order in Gurhal has made you grow up so quickly. So much more quickly than anyone should have to grow. I know that it’s not fair.”
I moaned, or whimpered. It’s hard to say what that sound I made was, looking back. Either way, I rolled my face back into the desk. It was still sinking in. Neudaiz has a much higher concentration of photons in its atmosphere than Parum, Moatoob, or Colony; once a Seisha passes a certain valence, it’s the only place they can survive for more than a few hours. I had only joined the Guardians not even a year before. It was the first time in my life that I had the chance to go between all three planets and Colony and see the whole world for what it was. And just like that, it was going to be taken away.
”I don’t have any regrets,” I said, picking my face up from the desk. “I did that month exactly right and I wouldn’t change a thing.” What else could I have done? The minute I decided to stop sulking on Moatoob, there were a bunch of difficult battles waiting for me, one way or another. All of them made me stronger, and that’s why I was able to last as long as I did. If the cost was having Gurhal closed to me…then that was the price to pay.
Mother nodded and said, “I didn’t think you would. But now, you can at least plan accordingly to make the most of the time you have left.”
”Huh?”
”There’s no way to avoid gaining valence from your difficult battles. You have to make the most of the remaining gap by choosing your battles carefully.”
”Hmm…I’ll think about that,” I said as I picked myself off the desk and sat back in my chair. “The empress has work to do now, so she must terminate this audience.” The look on mother’s face whenever I reminded her that I was empress and she wasn’t was always priceless.
Later, I was leaving the Pavillion, and sure enough, the second I stepped outside, Johann popped in from a flash of light. He was getting pretty good with Ryuker, even if his wands did keep on breaking after casting it. “I can walk myself home, you know,” I said as I started down the steps.
”I know. I just feel bad about ditching you abruptly like that,” he said, following me.
”Really?”
”No. I wasn’t born being able to say things that women like to hear. I have to keep in practice.”
”Ugh. You’ll always be you, right to the very end, won’t you Jo-sei?”
”Who else would I want to be besides me? It’s absolutely lovely being me, let me tell you. Handsome, confident, intelligent…male.” By then, we had cleared the steps and were walking through Ohtoku like we always did, overcast sky and all.
”Not like me. I feel like a completely different person than I was even a couple months ago,” I said.
”What are you talking about? You’re still Keiko,” he said. I’m glad I opted out of having a large contingent of guards following me around in those days. What little of the moonlight could get through the clouds shone on the river that ran through the city, giving it a gleaming sheen. The lights that dotted the walkways were dim, that day, something to do with funding, I’m sure, but it still made an eerily beautiful scene. It was the type of scene I would have like to walk through with a gentleman. Of course, all I had was Johann, so, eh, make do with what you’ve got.
”Johann, I’m completely different. You can tell that just by looking at me, nevermind how I act,” I said.
He laughed a little before answering me. “The you of three months ago isn’t any less you than the you of right now. They’re all Keiko.
”Have you been drinking?” I asked, narrowing my eyes up at him.
”I had a glass or two before I left. What I’m saying isn’t that strange, though. Just because you’ve changed doesn’t mean you’re not yourself,” he said. We held eye contact for a few seconds, which, by the way, is awkward when one of you has only one good eye, before he went on. “The person you are now is built on top of the person you were, and the person is built on top of the person she was. Take any one of those building blocks away and that’s when you’d have a completely different person.”
”Hmm…I like that. But isn’t that overthinking it a little bit? I mean, if a stranger met me now and three months ago, they’d definitely think those were two different people.”
”I don’t accept that premise.”
”What?”
”A stranger could definitely tell that those two people are the same. The details may have changed, but from where I stand, the empress and the princess share enough obnoxiousness to make the link.”
I filled my cheek with air and narrowed my eyes at him. He pinched that cheek and smirked. “This is what I get for letting you off your leash for a walk?” I asked.
”Ha, ha, I get it: it’s funny because I’m a canine beast. Hysterical,” he said.
We walked in silence for a while longer before I remembered what he ditched me for to begin with. “Oh, how was Rozenom?” I asked.
”It was fine. I found Alice, so-“
”You did?! You found Al-tama! Is she okay?! Is she hurt! Oh wow, I can’t wait to see her!” I said. It wasn’t a few seconds later, looking at Johann’s amused smirk, that I realized I had jumped on him in excitement.
”And you think you’re so different.”
”S-sorry,” I said as I let myself off from him.
”It’s okay. At least there’s some cushion to keep your bony ribcage from impaling me these days.” I ignored that. “At any rate, she’s in beat up condition, but I can have her repaired within a day.”
”Healed.”
”What?”
”You can have her healed within a day. She’s our friend, not one of your weapons, Jo-sei.”
He rubbed his hand behind his head, and was obviously trying not to roll his eye as he said, “my apologies.”
”Speaking of heals…” I said as I brushed my finger against his shoulder, “it looks like you took a bad hit here.”
”Yes, but Gwendolyn fixed it after we finished,” he said.
”I can tell.” I said that a bit more icily than I meant to. It’s not that Gwen’s healing was bad. It was…just…oh screw it, it was bad. Her healing was focused on making the injury a non issue for fighting: combat medicine, basically. It wasn’t concerned with the longterm implications of the injury. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve dragged this moron’s sorry carcass back from the brink of death? The only reason all those injuries never caught up to and dogpiled him was because they were healed 100% completely.
Still, I did surprise myself with my voice just then. It made think, and then ask, “Jo-sei. Do you think it’s possible that one of us could change so much that we wouldn’t be friends anymore?”
”…Are you really going to make me repeat myself?”
”Huh?”
”No matter the danger, no matter the distance… …. …I feel like there was one more thing. But whatever, I’ll always come rescue you.”
”You’re a terrible romantic.”
”So I keep hearing,” he said as he lit himself a cigarette. “Hey, want to hear how I survived Rozenom?”
”Sure!”
”’Kay, here’s what happened…”

~~~~

Next time: So much plot, your heads will swim.

[CupOfCoffee]

I dug this chapter. I find it interesting that a couple different characters in your story are dealing with what basically amounts to chronic illness. Johann's mum with her crashing syndrome, Keiko's valence, etc. It's an unusual plot device to come across in fiction about a hack-n-slash RPG with about as deep a plot as Mortal Kombat, and it's refreshing. Multi-dimensional, one might say. Also, I literally lol'd at this:


My property’s property is also my property.

[Keiko_Seisha]

-thumbs up-

Johann's face when he gets back home and Zoe is just sitting there still.

[Seth Astra]

Wow, Keiko, imagining that reminded me of earlier on, when the story wasn't as serious and Johann spent a much larger portion of his time attempting to get laid. XD

[Xaeris]

And a happy birthday to me. I didn't initially intend for everyone to be running on borrowed time of some kind like they are. It just kinda happened. I'm glad that's turning out okay, though.

With a certain part of this chapter, I wanted to evoke a feeling of, "holy crap, is he still going on about this?" You'll know it when you get there. I hope I succeeded.

Chapter 19: The Science of Seduction

It’s really pretty simple. I “died,” acquired a boon, and returned to share it. This is rather basic hero cycle, but I guess now we know how you got a C in Lit.
Let’s see now, I’m about to tell a story of myself telling a story…hmm…no, that could get dumb fairly quickly. Obviously, I told Keiko about how I spent my two months, and so, I’ll just do so again. In order to tell this tale properly though, it is necessary for me to make an edit to the story I told of my day in Rozenom on the day of Colony’s fall. At its conclusion, I was on he ground, missing an eye and all set to be finished off by a possessed Gwendolyn. That much is true. Then, I said that she lost control and had to flee, leaving me by myself. That was not true, and that is from where I’ll pick up.
”Poor little hero,” Gwendolyn said, standing over me with her finger pointed at my face. “I admit, I did underestimate you a little,” she continued, with a foie gathering on her fingertips. If it wasn’t clear the last time I told this story, I was completely spent, both from injuries, not the least of which was a freshly plucked eye, and the mental strain of Regear Val. Even being mocked, I could barely do more than hold my head up and let her say, “but only a little!”
And just when she was about to light a fire on my face, was when the real miracle happened. The Great Shadow didn’t lose control of Gwendolyn, but instead, a familiar lasso looped around her wrist. Before Gwendolyn could react, the loop tightened and pulled her hand away, shooting the fireball into floor next to me.
”Alice, what are you doing here?!” I yelled. At least, I think I yelled, but weak as I was, it probably came out as a strained moan.
”Wasn’t ‘bout to leave ya here yourself, hun!” she said. I had told Alice to evacuate Rozenom earlier in the day. It would seem that it didn’t take.
”How sweet,” Gwendolyn said as she turned her caught hand around the rope to grab it by the knot. With a firm grip, she tugged and pulled Alice, who was holding onto the other end with both hands, off her feet and towards her. Then, she cast another foie at Alice which exploded and stopped her flight on contact.
I’m not really one to futilely yell people’s names, but even I couldn’t help screaming, “Alice!”
”Well that was a fun diversion. Now, where was I…” Gwen said as she pointed her still lassoed hand at me. The rope went taut again, and Alice jumped out from the smoke. That time, she pulled, lifting Gwendolyn high into the air, and tossed her down into the shopping galleria below. With that done, she ran over to me and knelt beside me to have a look at me.
”Sorry Hahn, but you can’t ask a good woman to turn tail and run,” she said.
”My mistake,” was about the most wit I could muster. She scooped an arm beneath mine and helped me clamber onto my feet, though there really wasn’t enough strength in my legs to hold me up on their own power. “There’s no time to run,” I said. I must have sounded haggard; Alice looked at me, frowning as I was speaking, as if she didn’t understand what I was saying. “I’ll have to Ryuker us out. Hold on.”
Yes, I could have Ryuker’ed out of the fight anytime I felt like it. Two reasons I didn’t. One, Gwendolyn was possessed and I couldn’t well leave her there without the old college try. Two, I wasn’t certain I could warp far enough to escape the impact radius of a falling colony. At that point though, I wanted the fight to be over badly enough that neither was a concern. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t get the chance, as Gwendolyn had floated back to the top level of the galleria with a scowl on her face.
”Get your hands off my kill toy, bitch,” she said before she called down a zonde between us. The lightning bolt stuck and sent me back on the ground, obliterating even more of my prized coat, and knocked Alice off in the opposite direction, though not much worse for the wear. Alice did not have any formal combat training, as far as I knew, but she was raised on a farm in the middle of the boondocks, which is as good a source of stamina as anything.
”That’s a filthy mouth on you!” Alice said, throwing her lasso up at Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn floated to the side to evade it, and lobbed a megid at Alice. Alice skittered away from it, like a salaryman away from rain, and pumped her fist up in the air at Gwendolyn once it passed. “Come down here and fight fair, I dare ya!”
”Hmm…that’s going to be a no,” she said as she threw another megid down at Alice, safely out of her reach. “I mean, really,” she said as she adjusted herself in the air to lie down as if she were floating on a cloud, “look at you, you get your hands on me and I can say goodbye to ten minutes every day to put makeup on my black eye. Not interested.” They went on like that for a couple more rounds: Alice trying to lasso Gwendolyn, and Gwendolyn trying to one shot Alice with megid.
”Okay, fun is fun, but…” Gwendolyn said as she vanished in a puff of black wisps. She immediately appeared behind Alice and hooked her arm around her neck. With a firm grasp, she flew up, carrying Alice with her into the sky. “I have a man to kill. Please die.” With that, she dropped Alice, leaving her to fall several stories back to the ground. Then, she came back to me in the same puff of smoke. “We keep on being interrupted. And here I am trying to make this so special for us,” she said as she kicked me over onto my back. I was hardly in any condition to fight back. She knelt over and cupped my cheeks in her hand, saying, “now, give me a good scream, lover.”
Alice lasso dropped in over her head and tightened under her bust. She looked down and scowled. “You have got to be kidding me. I’ll be right back,” she said as she was pulled away from me. Alice had survived the fall without issue, naturally, and had pulled Gwendolyn back her. That time, she slammed her elbow into her face when she got close enough, producing an audible blow that felt as if it shook the ground. Gwendolyn got blasted into the air where she caught herself and floated.
”I’m beginning to dislike you,” she said.
”I don’t like your face either, missy!” Alice shot back.
Gwendolyn raised her hand, presumably to cast another technic, but she didn’t get the chance. I had taken the opportunity to float a noszonde behind her. By the time she heard the crackle of the lightning, she was just in time to turn and be blinded by the flash of the burst. She growled and violently shook her head. “Argh, this is ridiculous! Your colony’s just a couple minutes away from turning your heads into paste. If you want to live the extra minutes that badly, be my guest.” And with that, she vanished from the battlefield entirely, her radiance vanishing with her.
”Hahn!” Alice said, rushing back to me. “Gonna do your teleport thing now?”
I raised the Save the Maiden. There was a crack along the photon cage. Casting that noszonde in my mental state made me sloppy, and I broke the wand while doing it. The Save the Maiden is a powerful wand, but it’s really quite fragile and requires superb casting precision, which I normally have when I’m not bleeding from seven different places. “That’s no longer an option.”
”Wh-what are we gonna do?!” she said.
”…Alicia, come out, I need to talk to you,” I said. Alice blinked, obviously confused, then, her normally placid expression narrowed, funneling intelligence into her eyes and sternness into her lips. She stood up straight, and her hands folded on top of each other in front of her. It always did amaze me how different they were.
”Good afternoon, Dr. Launcher,” she said. “I see you have a problem.”
By then, impact was imminent. Debris from the Colony was already raining down on Rozenom, crashing through the buildings like falling meteorites. A good portion of the sky was blotted out by a growing orange splotch and I could feel the heat wafting from above. I knew I didn’t have much time. “You’re aware of the situation?” I asked.
”Yes. I estimate that my body’s construction should be able to weather the Colony impact, albeit with heavy damage. I assume you want to use the Photon Cascade?” she asked. Let’s see, should I explain that…argh, but it’s such a long explanation…screw it, I’ll do it later.
”I’m glad I don’t have to explain. Yes, that’s right. Can you do it?” I asked.
”Yes, however, there is not enough time for me to create a new instance for you to escape to. I still have the last instance you entered in memory. Is that all right?” she asked.
”Do I look picky right now?”
”I suppose not,” she said. Despite being a stateria, Alice always had the appearance of a stocky newman. The only time she ever looked like a stateria was when she was using her Photon Cascade, in which event, her body unfolded like origami, into the familiar stony extremities we’re more used to seeing on stateria. Her chest had opened up as well, revealing the glowing reactor within which washed the area in a white light. “Hopefully, we will see each other again, Dr. Launcher,” she said as the light from her reactor expanded and swallowed me up just seconds before Colony crashed.

…Damn, I suppose there’s really no way around it. Very well. Before I go any further, the Photon Cascade requires elucidation; otherwise, what follows won’t make any sense whatsoever. The Photon Cascade is the name of the system created by Alicia Lovelace, which was one of the weapons the ancient civilization had designed to fight the first Confinement War against the SEED, not unlike stateria or the Confinement systems on each planet.
The Photon Cascade’s function was to manipulate the photons in a limited radius. Doing this, it could reconstruct matter within that radius. Though, it’s an understatement to put it that simply, because the implications of being able to deconstruct and reconstruct matter go beyond just simple creation. For that limited territory, a virtual reality is in effect. The Photon Cascade is able to designate the specifications of that reality to the smallest detail, and more impressively, simulate precisely what would happen given any set of parameters. If you cared to find out who’d win at next week’s roller derby game (such an underrated sport: what’s not to love about athletic women on roller skates beating the tar out of each other in skimpy outfits?), not only could you do that, but you could watch the game unfold exactly as it would in reality, given you filled in enough of the variables when programming the scenario.
My brilliant idea was to use the Photon Cascade to escape from the crashing Colony. The effect of the field is absolute, so, while inside it, I would be unaffected. The border of the Photon Cascade was an event horizon, of sorts, since any matter that passed through it would be transmuted into whatever the simulation dictated. The last time I used the Photon Cascade, it had been an accident, and I inadvertently programmed a simulation that sent me to…a strange place. As Alicia said, there wasn’t time to create a new simulation, so I had to use the last one saved.
To be honest, I really didn’t understand how that was a weapon to be used in the Confinement War, but no matter, back to my story. When I arrived, I barely got a grasp of my surroundings before I passed out on the floor. A missing eye and several gaping wounds will do that. So, my story truly resumes when I regained consciousness, a feat I probably would not have managed on my own.
The first thing I realized was that I was lying down. The second was that my vision was filled with the visage of a cocoa skinned goddess. More on that in a minute. The third thing was that I didn’t feel nearly as crappy as I did before passing out. Make no mistake, I still felt like crap, but not ‘on the brink of death’ crap. It was more of a, ‘I should have taken that expiration date on the milk bag seriously,” crap.
”Waking up?” the woman asked. Turning my head, which took a draining effort, let me see that she had one hand on my head and the other on my shoulder. I could feel that she was channeling a powerful recovery technic into me, which, obviously, was the reason for my improved condition.
I tried to speak, but all I managed to say was, “ungh.”
”You’re not going to die, but you should just lie down for a while longer,” she said. She turned her head up to some unseen direction and said, “Ayame, he’s awake.”
”Well it’s about time. You’re losing your touch, Auntie Leah,” I heard a voice call. Imagine my surprise at the fact that, when she walked into view, she looked exactly like the Gwendolyn I had fought in Rozenom. I wanted to jump, but my body wouldn’t respond. Partially because the strength just wasn’t there, and partially because the woman healing me had a grip like the jaws of life.
”It’s been a while since I had to heal an idiot on the brink of death,” she said.
”I’m lying right here,” I said.
”Oh. I guess you are. So, who the heck are you, anyway?” she asked.
”My name is…what is my name…” …No, I didn’t actually lose my memory, but I thought it best I play dumb for a bit until I had my bearings. Unfortunately, ‘Leah’ flicked me in the forehead.
”Nice try, but you were muttering people’s names while you were semi conscious. Your memory’s fine,” she said.
”That hardly seems like a professional diagnosis,” I said. “Fine, I was playing dumb, but the fact remains I’d like to know where I am and who you are before I tell you anything.”
She frowned and bowed her face in close to mine so that the only thing I could see was her scowl. “I’m healing you for free, and this is the thanks I get? You really are an idiot.”
”The way I see it, I would be an idiot if I let a little gratitude compromise my position. This is how prisoners get interrogated, you know,” I said.
She put her thumb and finger around her throat, clearly wanting to choke me, but she just held them there while I stared her down with the most pleasant smile I could manage in my condition. “You remind me of someone…my name is Leah Archelle. You’re in my apartment. Ayame, over there, found you looking like a pile of crap, and brought you to me to fix you up. Happy?”
”Quite.”
”…”
”…”
”Well, who the hell are you?!” she yelled. I have to note, she was very quick to anger.
”This is ridiculous. Let’s just call Jonas and have him read his mind,” Ayame said.
I was feeling better and better, since Leah hadn’t stopped her Resta despite my continued aggravation of her. I decided that I was in a safe enough place, based on that, which, of course, was the goal of my prodding. “My name is Johann,” I said. “Thank you for healing me. It’s been a rough day.”
”I could have figured that just looking at you,” she said. “On second thought, you can probably get up if you want to. I’m about at the limit of what I can do in one sitting.” She took her hands off me and allowed me to sit up. Naturally, the first thing I did was take stock of my surroundings as the blood rushed from my head. It was a nice enough apartment, I suppose. It wasn’t really what had my attention.
What had my attention was the aforementioned cocoa skinned goddess. It is impossible for me to overstate how ridiculously hot this woman was, yet I owe it to her to try. As sentient beings, we have developed language for many purposes. We have language to assist us in collaborating in daunting tasks. We have language to communicate intentions, both benevolent and malevolent. We have language to be an art in of itself. Yet, the purpose of language that is most responsible for its vast lexicon on seemingly similar words separated by the haziest gradients is its most important purpose of all: the ask of describing these rare specimens of women.
I had long believed that the three great traits of women, sexiness, beauty and cuteness could not coexist in the same vessel. It was simply math; features that enhanced one trait detracted from the others. A buxom figure enhances sexiness and detracts from beauty. High cheekbones add to beauty, but detract from cuteness. I theorized that there was no combination of features that could result in a high score in all three traits. I called it Johann Launcher’s Greater Theory of Attraction Stratification. I wrote an article or two on it. Sociological journals will publish anything, really. To explain it in practical terms, a beautiful woman was distinctly different from a cute woman, or that a cute woman could not be sexy. Eustace, for example, was beautiful and could never be sexy or cute. Sable was sexy (though she’d kill me for not grouping her in the cute category) and could never be cute or beautiful. It was a border that could never be crossed, an innate attribute that could never be changed.
…Huh? Erm, I suppose you’d have been in the cute category, Keiko. …Ow, ow, stop hitting me! Bloody Maiden, why does everyone think the cute trait is so bad?!
Anyway, what I saw challenged that. It was a tenuous and precarious balance that I wouldn’t have thought could exist in nature. She had the cool beauty of a caseal, the warm cuteness of a newman and the raw sex appeal of a beast. It was as if her body and face had struck some sort of eldritch bargain to perform a mathematically impossible feat. Laying eyes on her was like having a proof for the Riemann hypothesis performed in front of my very eyes. The Riemann hypothesis is…oh hell, this is not important.
She was tall, 185 Rp. She wasn’t tall in that awkward, gangly way that so many tall women are, though. No, she stood up, along with me, and held a proud, almost forceful stance. She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and that, I distinctly recall, was the first time I realized what a big deal depth perception was. Goodness, those two melons were pushed together in their blue bustier to create beautifully symmetric cleavage. It was the cruelest irony: I was right there at eye level and was just recently plucked of the second eye I would have needed to appreciate them.
It was a great consolation, then, that I looked at her butt. The butt is a very misunderstood body part. People think the key is sheer volume, but that’s absurd. The key to a well formed derriere, in fact, is the curve of the cheeks. Too steep, it just looks cartoonish. Too shallow, it’s just a loaf of bread. There is an extremely precise calculus involved in the perfect ass, in both shape and motion. There must be jiggle: too little, and it treads into the uncanny valley, while too much is simply obscene, and frankly, disgusting. That delicate balance, I could tell, thanks to the cut off shorts, was indeed struck, as I could not only have bounced a meseta cube off her butt, but it would have come back and struck me with greater force than with what I threw it.
Her legs, ah, her legs. It’s no wonder that man is attracted to legs. Our bipedal nature is one of the things that makes us unique among mammals, and the legs that support this hallmark must be strong, solid, tight. And those things these legs were, as well as smooth and unblemished on what seemed like miles of skin. They were unmistakably thick, yet, in what was some sort of magic eye illusion, did not distract from her butt. That’s the trick with legs and asses, you realize.
Her build, her frame, her silhouette, ah, it was quite nice. Full, but not excessively so. Even with no weapon in her hand, or any other detail to observe, I could immediately tell she was a fighter, melee fighter, even. She had a muscle definition that gave her curves foundation, and was probably the reason she didn’t jiggle the way someone her shape normally would.
So then, her body brought the sexy and some of the beauty, leaving the task of cuteness and the rest of the beauty to her face. …Oof, all right, Keiko’s nudging me to hurry this up, though I could go on like this. Well, at the very least, I shouldn’t close this description without the most important detail of all: the eyepatch she wore on her left eye.
With that said, let me end this with the ‘excessively detailed; failed to peruse’ version: to this day, I still close my eyes during sex sometimes and think of her.
”Do you feel all right?” she asked.
”Lightheaded. Fine, otherwise,” I said. I was surprised at how calm I managed to make my voice sound.
”Good,” she said, turning to Ayame. “He’s all yours. Bring him back for dinner and I’ll finish sewing him up. Got a problem with that, short stuff?”
”…”

[McLaughlin]

milk bag
Yes.

Also, great read.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Happi Boifday

[CupOfCoffee]

You know, I now realize that I myself, in my real, personal life, have always been a subscriber to Johann Launcher's Greater Theory of Attraction Stratification. The attributes of attraction really are parts in a zero-sum game. (Although I do think cute and beautiful can sometimes be close enough to trade sugar for salt.)

[Xaeris]

Yes Obs, the future will dictate that milk be packaged in bags. Much like soap was considered gross when it was invented, we turn our eyebrows up at milk and bags, unaware of the superiority.

Thank ya Keiko. You know, when I started on this story a couple years ago, I intentionally made Johann older than myself. I've now caught up. Expect a birthday chapter sometime in the near future to make myself feel better.

"Sociology is the study of writing down common bloody sense." - Something Johann probably said as an undergrad. It's okay though, since I have a criminology degree, so I'm making fun of myself. I agree there's more potential for bleeding over than he allows though. For me, beauty and sexiness can overlap sometimes. Cute, however, is its own beast entirely and completely negates the other two.

And yet again, I forgot to do the pesky Rp conversion. Ugh, consistency is more trouble than it's worth...let's see, 185 Rp is between 6'1 and 6'2.

[Magus_84]

Yes Obs, the future will dictate that milk be packaged in bags. Much like soap was considered gross when it was invented, we turn our eyebrows up at milk and bags, unaware of the superiority.

Thank ya Keiko. You know, when I started on this story a couple years ago, I intentionally made Johann older than myself. I've now caught up. Expect a birthday chapter sometime in the near future to make myself feel better.

"Sociology is the study of writing down common bloody sense." - Something Johann probably said as an undergrad. It's okay though, since I have a criminology degree, so I'm making fun of myself. I agree there's more potential for bleeding over than he allows though. For me, beauty and sexiness can overlap sometimes. Cute, however, is its own beast entirely and completely negates the other two.

And yet again, I forgot to do the pesky Rp conversion. Ugh, consistency is more trouble than it's worth...let's see, 185 Rp is between 6'1 and 6'2.

Happy Birthday!

And I agree with both the Sociology quote (which also applies to Psychology, except we get funnier theorycrafting and less day-to-day applicability in the bargain) and Launcher's Greater Theory of Attraction Stratification.

Also, I think that's the longest single passage (that I can recall) you've dedicated to establishing the attractiveness of a character. Hahn's nothing if not thorough.

[Xaeris]

Johann Launcher's Greater Theory of Attraction Stratification. It's like A Pimp Named Slickback, you have to say the whole thing.

The story won't spend long on Pioneer 2. One more chapter after this one most likely, two, tops. I'm doing my best to manage, but I still can't help but feel the awkward cheesiness coming from the phase of this story, so I'd like to get it done and over with as soon as practically possible. At this point...I guess we're a little less than halfway through Part 2.

Chapter 20: A Pimp Named Laundale

I’ll be taking this chapter back, thank you, Keiko.
At that point, mind you, I was still very confused as to where I was, and more importantly, why the girl I was following looked almost exactly like the one that tried to kill me in Rozenom. Still, I knew that panicking would get me nowhere and that my best option was to remain calm and get as much information as possible. Exiting the apartment complex, I immediately looked to the sky and saw a sea of stars. From that, I figured I was on something like Guardians’ Colony, though I certainly didn’t recognize the planet that took up a large portion of the ceiling window.
”Thanks for your help,” I said.
”You’re welcome,” she said, not turning around or slowing down.
”I get the feeling that you’re upset with me,” I said.
”You think?! You left me with the bill and then you show half dead!” she said while whirling around to face me.
”Oh. Um…” Right, so, if it’s not apparent yet, I was confused. I thought about what Alicia said before she initiated the Photon Cascade, that I’d be resuming the saved instance, and realized that this person must be referring to my last visit. “Sorry?”
”Tch…what the heck happened to you, anyway?” she asked.
”It’s been a long day. I’d rather not talk about it.” More specifically, I didn’t want to go to the trouble of explaining that her evil twin had beaten my ass and I had retreated into a virtual world. It seemed like a bit much. “Where are we going?”
”What’s this ‘we’ stuff?” she said, picking up her pace.
”It sounded to me that Leah entrusted my well being to you until my next treatment,” I said, picking up my pace to match.
”If you care what she thinks so much, why don’t you go back and ogle her some more?!”
”Oh. You’re jealous. Now it makes sense,” I said.
”I am not! Argh, you are so annoying!” she yelled before stomping off. I figured if the women in that place were more or less the same, I could manage. After some more walking and some more ineffectual attempts to find out where we were going, we arrived to where we were going. It was a simple lobby, like a store in a shopping mall, with a single desk in it and an open window into the open space outside. There were a fair number of people congregated there, all in outfits of a style I’d never seen. It all looked ridiculous to me, but in my tattered coat, I wasn’t in a position to judge.
”What is this place?” I asked.
”Are you kidding?” she asked.
”Obviously, I know where we are, but I mean to ask, what’s your purpose here?” I said. The trick about my situation was that I couldn’t expose how alien I was to the setting, so I had to pretend to know things I didn’t know. So yes, I had no idea what the place was, but I didn’t have much choice but to roll with it.
”I came to the Hunters’ Guild to get a job, what else? Why don’t you go stare out the window and be quiet for a minute while I wait on line.”
”You’re still upset.”
”Am not!”
”Uh huh,” I replied as I took her suggestion and walked up to the window. My mind had a lot to chew on, and to be honest, I was starting to feel self conscious about my missing eye. My eyelid remained shut on its own, so it didn’t look gruesome, but you have to understand: I’m used to being quite handsome. Even my confidence would take a hit, so, I didn’t want to be looking at anyone just then. So, I stood there, alone, looking at the planet, thinking I had a few moments to myself to piece together my situation.
”Dr. Launcher,” a voice called to me. I whipped my head around for the source, but found no one who appeared to be speaking to me. I shook my head, hoping I wasn’t hallucinating when the voice called again, “Dr. Launcher, please do not be alarmed. Only you can hear me.”
I had an inspired idea. I put my wrist up to my ear, as if I was speaking on my communicator, and replied, “Dr. Lovelace?” I didn’t want to look crazy, after all.
”Yes. I thought I should appraise you of your situation,” she said.
”Bloody Maiden, who cares? The colony must be finished crashing by now. Just pull me out,” I said.
”I’m afraid it’s not that simple. The location of the Cascade is compromised. If I allow it to fall, you’ll be buried in rubble.”
”That would be inconvenient. What are my options?”
”I’m moving the Cascade.”
”You’re moving the Cascade.”
”A few Rp over, yes.”
”You’re moving a small universe over a few Rp over to the left.”
”I didn’t say left.”
”Ugh…anyway, fine, how long is this going to take?”
”Subtracted the aggregate amount of processing power required to maintain the Cascade from what I have in total, I estimate it will take two months in real time to make the necessary adjustments.”
”Two months?! Alicia, I can’t be here two months!” I said. That day was getting crappier and crapper by the minute. It was about to get crappier still. “…Wait. What the hell do you mean, real time?”
”The scope of this simulation involves several hundred billion square Rp contained to a radius of just ten Rp. I’m sure you don’t require a lesson in relativity?”
”So you’re saying time is moving faster for me. That’s lovely. How much faster are we talking?” There was a pause. From what few conversations I had with her, I knew that Alicia was a very candid woman who said things regardless of whatever the reaction may be. So, I have to say, I was a little disturbed that the potential answer gave her pause. “Alicia?”
”Eighteen months,” she said.
”What?!” I said, loudly enough to draw a few stares. I hushed my voice, but it didn’t lose any of its urgency. “A year and a half?! I have to spend a year and a half in this place, are you for serious?!”
”I’m afraid you have no other options.”
”So much bullocks…you’re correct, though. I just have to hope the others will be all right without me for a while.”
”You should know, Dr. Launcher, that if you die in the course of the simulation, I will not be able to extract you from the Cascade. Best wishes. I will be in contact if I have any new information to share, otherwise, I’d like to preserve my system resources for the task at hand.”
”Fine. Where are you, anyway?”
”Everywhere. Nowhere.”
”I hope that cliché was worth it,” I said with a sneer. When no response came, I assumed she had set to work on moving the universe. I lowered my arm and turned around to look at just one tiny piece of the world I was going to be stuck in for the next year and a half. As I said, the outfits were strange, but something stranger than that caught my eye. It was a statue, standing in the corner of the lobby by a warp pad. I wouldn’t have thought that I’d be able to recognize anything in that world, but the visage of that statue was unmistakable. Certainly, it was a little younger, but I knew for certain.
It was my father.
I walked up to the statue, though I could see it fine from the window, and looked it over. As I took my last step, Ayame said from behind me, “ugh, I really wish people would stop kissing the statue.” Indeed, there were varying shades of smeared lipstick on the lips of the statue which she wiped away. “Anyway, Hopkins lost his Heat Sword again. I’m going to go get it, bring it back, and snap it in half in front of him. Coming?”
”You’re asking a lot of a recuperating man,” I said.
”Fine, don’t come. Have it on your conscience that you let a helpless woman go off on her own into the forest,” she said. Up until then, she had been quite…what’s the word you always use, Keiko? Gloomy? Yes, I suppose that works. She had no enthusiasm, the look on her face was that of a permanent glower and she just struck me as all around exhausted. But, when she said that, I swear I saw a smile flash across her lips at her own joke.
”Well, let it never be said that Johann Laun-“ I stopped. At this point, I figured my last name would raise too many eyebrows, so, I went with the next surname off the top of my head. “-Laundale is not a gentleman.” Laundale was mommy’s maiden name before she ‘married’ father. I often used it whenever I needed an alias. That aside, if I was going to be stuck in that place for a year and a half, I knew it would be necessary to make some friends, and she was as good a place as any to start.
A teleporter took us down to the surface of the planet I had been regarding and dumped us into a verdant area around sunset. It was a forest, like any other; I could have easily compared it to what few green areas are left on Parum. The landscape itself was of no interest, but, as soon as I stepped out from the teleporter, I felt a suffocating presence. It was everywhere, and diffuse, like a fog. It was much like back in Deozlis when I fought Feng Jie in her aria. The difference was that while her presence was merely smothering, what I was feeling was a creeping dread, like insects crawling on my skin.
”Wh-what the hell is that?” I asked.
”What’s what?”
”You don’t feel that?” I asked. She shrugged. “Perhaps I’m still just feeling ill,” I said. I knew that was a crock of bullocks, but like I said, I was trying to avoid suspicion. There wasn’t much to say about our romp. There were monsters, there were boxes, there were door locks: it all felt rather rehashed, to be honest. My wand, of course, was still broken, so I wasn’t really of much help, not that it was necessary. Though, listening to her talk, one might think I was some type of slavedriver.
”Are you going to let me do all the fighting?!” she asked at some point during our walk.”
”Seems to be a viable plan, so far.”
”How do you sleep at night, letting girls do all your heavy lifting?” Oh, if I had a meseta cube for everytime I heard that question…I really don’t see what’s so shameful about getting other people to do one’s work for him. If my greatest tool is my boundless charisma, why would I not use it at every available opportunity?
”Quite easily, thank you for asking,” I said. “In all seriousness though, I am grateful for your help. I’m still getting my bearings.”
”Yeesh, you sound like you have nowhere to go back to.”
”I don’t. Not right now, anyway.”
”Why not…?”
”Eh…sorry, but I can’t really go into it.”
”Okay. I understand,” she said. Admittedly, I was not expecting that. I was expecting her to continually prod me about it until she eventually gave up and became testy over my secrecy. Instead, she dropped it, just like that. “But what are you going to do, then?”
”That’s a good question,” I said. And, I waited. I planted the seed, so all I needed to do was wait for it to sprout.
”Well…” And there was the bud. “If you want…” The stem. “You could stay with me. For a while.” My pimp fu was unmatched in Gurhal or anywhere else.
”Really? That would help me out immensely, thank you!” I said, forcing some enthusiasm into my voice as I grabbed her hand and held it up while leaning toward her face. Looking back, I may have oversold it, but I got the desired result. Ayame looked away, obviously blushing, but let me hold her hand for a few moments.
”L-let’s keep, keep…going,” she said, pulling away. The rest of the stroll followed without incident worthy of mention. With the matter of where I was going to sleep that night resolved, my mind was free to consider the matter of father’s statue in that alien world. It was a rudimentary hypothesis at that point, but I was thinking that perhaps father originally came from that world. Through whatever means, he ended up at the genesis of Gurhal, after the Confinement War and influenced the rebuilding of civilization. It would explain why so many of the elements between that world and Gurhal were so similar. It wasn’t ideal, but that forced vacation gave me an opportunity to gain some insight as to the enigma that was my father.
While I was in my reverie, we had made it back to the apartment. At some point during our walk, I believe I recall the frenzied wails of a newman boy crying over his broken Heat Sword, but I wasn’t really paying attention. What broke me from my reverie was Leah’s sweet, sultry voice which hit me like the soft caress of nails going up my neck…whoops, Keiko’s giving me the evil eye again.
”How do you feel?” she asked.
”I’m still aching somewhat, and lacking depth perception is giving me some problems.” I may or may not have been staring at her cleavage in vain when I said that. “But quite good, all things considered.”
”That’s good,” she said. I noticed it only just then, but she had that same gloomy demeanor that Ayame had. I had to wonder if they had recently endured some sort of tragedy, but it would have to be a question to come later. “Those clothes are filthy. I found some things you can wear in the room upstairs and laid them out.”
”I don’t think I have the legs to pull off heels and hotpants,” I said. Like Ayame, that got a fleeting smile from her.
”It’s guy stuff, don’t worry.”
My clothes really were rather rank, so I took her up on her offer and headed upstairs. It was a nice apartment, so I had a few doors to open before I found the bedroom she was talking about with a set of clothes laid across the bed. I shut the door behind me and began to undress. I had to do it manually, since my nanotransformer didn’t seem to be working properly, so I had to practically peel my sweat and blood caked clothes off my body. Once I’d gotten myself naked, I took a moment to inspect what I’d be wearing more closely.
”I’m supposed to go outside in this?” I asked as I looked at the blue and black robe on the bed. It’s an oversimplification to call it a robe. There were a few armored segments attached to it, not unlike the trace material in my regular clothing. I put it on, admittedly with some trouble, because, let’s face it, I’ve never had to wear a dress before. Still, once I had it on, I have to admit, it had some heft to it and it was easy to walk in. I had a look at myself in the mirror and decided that I didn’t look all that bad. I looked like a leaner version of one of those wizards from storybooks I read when I was little. So long as I didn’t put the condom hat on, it was a good image. I headed back downstairs.
”It looks decent on you,” Leah said as she watched me come down the stairs.
”Why do you even have a FOmar outfit, Aunt Leah?” Ayame asked.
”Oh, I was always trying to get X to switch his class designation, but, he just wouldn’t wear a dress for me. He’d have looked so cute in it,” she said with what I think was a sigh. Ayame and I exchanged looks. For better or worse, I was going to be relying on those two over the next year and a half and I was already concerned for my sanity. What is it about me that attracts such bizarre personalities?

[McLaughlin]

For serious, indeed.

Very interesting stuff.

[CupOfCoffee]

P2, hells yeah! I never really thought of Johann in PSO terms, but I guess FOmar really would be the closest fit.

[McLaughlin]

Does he really qualify as a FOmar without the condom hat though? I think that's a pretty important prerequisite.

[CupOfCoffee]

Ah, you speak true, sir. Just ask those two FOmars that were the only guys to ever not have the spiky hair/headband style.

[Magus_84]

That, or Fonewm with a sense of style.

And my Fomar used the ponytail/glasses setup. And I think I was one of only four that used the brown and blue robe.

Given that I've been a rabid fanboy of X's stuff since he was writing the PSO stories that this is referencing, I can't give an unbiased opinion.

But I like it, dammit. Keep up the excellent work.

[Xaeris]

Trufax: I considered putting him up in a FOnewm outfit. I even got as far as halfway through the description paragraph before I changed my mind. I mean, there were barely any FOnewms online (I think I encountered, like, five, ever) and no representation at all in Fan Works. I was wanting to throw them a bone, but once I had to actually describe the butt flute, I realized that it was for the best.

[Magus_84]

Trufax: I considered putting him up in a FOnewm outfit. I even got as far as halfway through the description paragraph before I changed my mind. I mean, there were barely any FOnewms online (I think I encountered, like, five, ever) and no representation at all in Fan Works. I was wanting to throw them a bone, but once I had to actually describe the butt flute, I realized that it was for the best.

Yeah, I think across all versions of PSO I've played, I'm at about a dozen Fonewms that I know. And of those, only three were someone's main character. Even after certain changes to a certain version on a certain private server that made tech-boosting equips quite a bit more powerful, Fonewms are pretty rare.

And that's even on a game that can handle reskinning. The people who willingly choose to stare at that for hours of their lives are few and far-between.

[McLaughlin]

I think the lack of FOnewms can be blamed primarily on their utter impotency in Ultimate mode. At least the other three have some sort of buff enhancement to cover for the extreme technique resistance. FOnewm's bonus was to Ra- techs.

I think the bubble butt was a product of getting knocked down so often.

[Xaeris]

God, I hope this chapter makes sense.

As of now, I'm just a tiny bit shy of 60k words. The Word document is so long, that Word essentially told me, "listen, I'm sick of underlining all these video game words and weaboo names. You're on your own." Just thought I should share.

Chapter 21: End of a Memory

Making up nicely for lost time.
After dinner, Ayame took me back to her place. Now, I don’t consider myself spoiled. Certainly, I’ve lived in the lap of luxury as far back as my memory will take me, but I never thought ill of Eustace’s small apartment whenever she had me over for dinner, or badly of Zoe for wearing the same tank top three days in a row. But, Ayame’s place was small. As in, the bed took up a quarter of the floorspace, small. It made the Guardians Barracks on Colony look like deluxe suites.
”I know what you’re thinking,” she said as she walked through the door, took two steps to the opposite side of the room and sat on her bed. “It’s small.”
”Well, yes, I am thinking that,” I said. “I don’t have depth perception and I feel claustrophobic. A Cheshire doll would use this as a closet. The fire marshal had to use fractions to determine the maximum occupancy of this room.”
”Are you finished?” she asked with her chin in her hands.
”Hang on, I’ve got one more. I could touch my nose and the ceiling at the same time with my tongue,” I said. The way I figured it, she might have been a little ashamed of her small living space. The best way to diffuse that was to drag it out and openly mock it to get out of the way. When dealing with women, and honestly, people in general, I sincerely believe that boldness is key. Naturally, I was vindicated by some giggling. “It’s fine. After all, if not here, I’d have to find a bench somewhere to sleep on. So, I’ll be on top of the sheets?”
She took one of the pillows on her bed and tossed it at me. “No.”
”But I’m your guest,” I said as I caught it.
”A gentleman would sleep on the floor,” she said as she flopped her body onto the mattress and turned her back to me. “Goodnight.” It was a good thing, that she had become so comfortable with me so quickly, but I couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit insulted that having a man she’d known for all of eight hours sleeping in the same room as hers didn’t give her any pause. I dropped my pillow on the floor and laid down. It wasn’t comfortable, but I was tired enough from my day that I drifted off to sleep rather quickly.
The next morning, I was rudely awakened by a heavy weight on my chest. I opened my eyes with a grunt and when my eye worked out its haze, I saw Ayame standing on me. “Whoops, sorry, forgot you were down there,” she said.
”That’s okay,” I said, wincing.
”So, what’s your plan for the day?”
”Um…would you mind getting off me?”
”I still don’t really understand your situation, but it sounds like you should at least find some work.”
”Seriously, you’re wearing heels.”
”The Hunters’ Guild hasn’t had as many jobs available as it used to, but it’s probably a good place for you to start.”
”Or hey, just keep standing on the recuperating man, that’s fine too.”
”Oh stop, you feel perfectly fine now,” she said, finally looking down at me. It was right then that I was reminded of Gwendolyn. One of the things that made her so obnoxious is that, often, it would seem like she and I were having entirely separate conversations when speaking to each other, and there I was, feeling that same kind of aggravation.
”I would feel better if you stepped off me.”
”Why?” She crouched and laid her arms on her thighs while pointing her head at me. “You seem like the kind of guy that likes having girls on top of him.”
”How rude,” I said as I placed my hands at the base of her legs. “I am, after all…” I tossed her up and back onto the bed, allowing myself to rise and take my first good breath of the day. “A gentleman.”
”About as gentle as a hildetorr,” she said, whatever the hell that was.
”As appealing as the idea of hard labor sounds, it’d be difficult for me to fight right now,” I said. I pulled out the Save the Maiden from one of my sleeves and pointed at the crack in the photon cage. “I don’t think I’m going to find what I need to fix it, either.”
”So you need a new weapon? That’s not a problem. Come on, let’s get breakfast!”
”To paraphrase, what’s this ‘us’ garbage?”
”Fine, eat whenever you like and pay for it with money you don’t have,” she said, pointing her nose into the air with her hands behind her back. Right then, I recognized that my first order of business in this strange world was going to be getting myself recognized as the alpha male. For the time being though, I was going to have to entertain her whims, seeing, as she said, I had no means to provide for myself just yet.
A little later, we left, and were having breakfast in a small noodle shop, a lot like the ones that can be found on Neudaiz. We were both seated at the bar, slurping down our own bowls of noodles, which, admittedly, were delicious. I’d never met a cast that knew how to cook, yet, the proprietor was some sort of wizard with a wok. I ended up eating there regularly over the course of my stay.
”It’s good, right?” she asked.
”As good as noodles at this hour can be,” I replied.
”You complain a lot.”
”That hardly qualified as a complaint.”
”Did too.” I just kept munching on my noodles. I knew from experience that it wasn’t the sort of exchange that could be won. Then she said, “have you figured out what you’re going to do about your super secret situation yet?”
”There’s not much I can do. I have to wait it out. It’s not so terrible. This turn of events affords me a unique opportunity into what’s going on where I’m from.”
”Yeah, see, that makes perfect sense to you, because you know what you’re talking about, but all I heard was vague blah, blah, blatitty blah. Be honest though; you’re not even from Pioneer 2, are you?”
As I keep on stressing, I was trying to keep a low profile lest the following year and a half become uncomfortable. But, I felt I could trust her. Maybe it was because she had already extended so much trust to me, or maybe because it was she reminded me of Gwendolyn, but I wanted our relationship to grow. So, I said, “nope. I’m from a time period and solar system far removed from this one and the world as you’re currently experiencing it is a virtual simulation in which I am currently trapped.”
”Tch, fine, if you don’t want to tell me, just say so,” she said.
After breakfast, we stopped at Leah’s apartment. When she opened the door, she looked almost surprised to see us, given that she only slid the door open a crack and arched her eyebrow when she saw it was Ayame. “Three times in two days Ayame?” she asked.
”I used to be over here a lot more than that, Aunt Leah,” Ayame said.
”…That’s true,” Leah said as she opened the door to let us in. “Is the dress treating you all right, short stuff?”
”It’s a robe, not a dress,” I said.
”Whatever gets you to sleep at night, short stuff,” she said. It seemed that we had awoken her, as I could tell from her yawn. “It’s convenient you’re here. I meant to give you this yesterday,” she said as she pulled what looked like a band aid package from her seat pocket. Light knows how she squeezed it in there. I peeled it open, and was holding a large adhesive patch. “It’s for your eye.”
”No, really? I thought it was a menstrual pad. Thank you for clarifying that,” I said as I slapped it on my face with a sneer. I looked around for Ayame. While Leah and I were talking, she had walked off to the far end of the living room and opened up a vault in the wall. I figured that would come up and explain itself in a few moments, so I kept my focus on Leah. “Your relationship seems strained,” I said.
”…What do you care?” she said.
”Just trying to figure out why my roommate is manic.”
She folded her arms and tilted her weight away from me while she studied me with her eye. I just stood there, wincing a little bit since I hadn’t gotten used to the glue on my face, and let her decide if I was worth indulging my curiosity. She decided in my favor, somewhat, and answered, “we’ve just both been depressed, lately. But…I haven’t seen her this happy in a long time.” We both looked over to Ayame who was headfirst in the vault, rooting around for something. “I don’t know what you’re doing…but keep doing it, please.”
”Here it is!” Ayame said, cutting off my chance to press further. She came running back with something in hand and shoved it at me when she got close. “This looks like a good match for that weird wand of yours. It’s called Solferino.” The Solferino was…
…
…
Okay, you know what? I’m sorry, but I just realized how long we’re going to bloody be here if I tell the story like this. This year and a half I’m telling you about? It’s not like it was some kind of vacation. It was like a damned story in of itself. I had to fight WORKS, some crazy newman bitch who wanted to commit human genocide and, I’m pretty sure, wanted to rape me, Ayame went berserk on me for a couple months there, calling herself Danielle or some such nonsense all while I assembled a motley crew of bizarre personalities to manage like a fucking spreadsheet. All the same crap on a different stage. No, I’m sorry, maybe I’ll tell the story properly someday when I can be arsed, but right now, I’m just going to skip to the end so I can turn it over to Keiko and take a damned bathroom break.
*****
Right, so, a year and a half later saw me on Pioneer 2 in absolutely horrid shape. Ayame and I had just gotten through defeating a pair of SEED forms named Castor and Pollux. I’d be flattering myself if I called it anything but the narrowest of victories. Still, we did win. It would have been cause for celebration if it weren’t for the flashback I had. In the closing weeks of my virtual adventure, I had been having brief moments where the whole world around me would become a blank white canvas. I asked Alicia about it, and she said that she was almost ready to pull me from the Cascade, and that those moments would be increasing in frequency.
”Johann!” Ayame and Leah cried out. I blinked, and I was back in the world, on Leah’s couch. They looked relieved, but I knew I was about to break their hearts. By that time, they had become very close to me, and I had told them…nearly everything. About the only detail I left out was that their world was a fake simulation of past events, because, well…shoot, how would you feel if someone told you your life was a work of fiction?
”I think…I think I’m about to go back home,” I said.
Ayame’s face looked as if it had been smacked with a sledgehammer. “Y-you’re leaving?”
Leah, on the other hand, just took a breath and folded her arms. “I managed to find replacements for most of the clothes you came to us in. They’re upstairs. You can put them on anytime,” she said. I nodded, and feeling like crap, much like I did the first time I lied down on that couch, got up and went to the room.
As I looked at my slacks, shirt, and coat, I thought about how funny it was that I had sort of put my normal life on pause to live that one. As I took off my robe, I felt sad; I knew I should hurry, but it was like my arms were weighed down by that malaise. After all, I had lived a wonderful, albeit annoying, year and a half in those robes. I made good friends, had storied adventures, and…found a true love. To be honest, I had considered staying in the Cascade more than just a few times, and Alicia had even suggested it. I could have lived an idyllic fantasy if I had wanted.
When that thought passed through my mind, my arms lightened up and scurried to pull the robes from my body. As I slipped into my old clothes, I knew that wasn’t an option. I had family waiting for my return, I had dear friends who were counting on me, and a tormented woman that I knew I loved who needed me to rescue her. My coat was the one item that Leah couldn’t find a substitute for, so the one on the bed was the same torn and tattered one I entered the Cascade with. As I put it on, it felt heavy compared to my robes. It was heavy with my responsibilities, but they were mine to wear. I looked in the mirror, and as much as I liked the life I had been living, I liked the person I saw more.
I left the room and started coming down the steps. As I did, Leah said, “looking good, short stuff.”
”Both of you, thank you for everything,” I said.
”Oh no you don’t, short stuff. That’s our line,” Leah said as she put her arm around Ayame, who was clearly putting on a brave face for me, and drew her in. “Both of us were in lousy shape before you showed up. But now? Life…tastes a little less like crap. You’re no replacement for the moron…but....”
”We’re better for having known you,” Ayame said, wiping her knuckle in her eye. “I wish you could stay…but we’ll be okay.”
”Are you sure you can’t stay just a bit longer? You’re in awful condition, short stuff. You should at least let me fix you up before we ship you back to your world.” Just then, I had another flashback. Apparently, everyone else perceived it as me vanishing from sight for several seconds until I returned. “…I guess not,” she said when I reappeared.
”Sorry, I probably only have a few minutes now. Well, however good angst repellent I’ve been, you’ve both done just as much right by me. Thanks to your training Leah, I can actually fight rather decently with just the one eye.”
”Admit it, you’re not going to miss our sparring matches,” she said.
”Not even a little bit.” The woman was a bloody demon. I’d never complain about father’s training again. “And Ayame, you took me in, dusted me off and helped me get onto my feet. If I made you even a little bit of a happier person in the progress, then I’m glad.”
Ayame sniffed and rubbed her hands in her eyes to push back her tears. Then, she smiled and walked up to me. “Come on, let’s do the end of Burning Hearts!”
”What? I hated that movie.”
”Come oooooonnnnn…”
”Tch, fine…” Burning Hearts was this movie that Ayame, and everyone else with a pair of ovaries on the ship, loved. Classic chick flick. I had to see that stupid thing at least five times with her. It’s my second most hated piece of media. My first most hated is actually also from Pioneer 2. It was this porno… … …Sorry, I threw up in my mouth a little there just now. I still can’t drink milk because of it. Anyway, I put my arms around Ayame’s waist and we began.
”Promise not to forget me?”she said with doe eyes.
”I won’t forget you. Not the sight of your smile in the morning, not the feeling of your warm breath on my lips-“
”But those are things! Promise not to forget me.”
”I don’t have to promise, because it’s impossible. No matter where we go, our hearts…ever since we met, our hearts have been sharing the same beat.”
”Oh Janus…” Woman couldn’t even be bothered to substitute my name.
I put my fingers beneath her chin and held it up. “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
”…What the hell was that?! You ruined it!” she wailed.
”On the contrary, I vastly improved it,” I said. She filled her cheeks with air in that way she always did when she was annoyed with me.
”You should take something with you, as a memento,” Leah said. She untied her eyepatch and extended it to me. “For good luck.”
”I’m not sure that’s sanitary.”
She slapped me upside the head, something she did very often, and said, “just take it! God, there isn’t a romantic bone in your body.” So, I took it. It’s the one I wore ever since, actually. As I tied it on, Ayame and Leah started waving goodbye, which I took to mean I was fading out for the last time. “Goodbye!”
”Bye!” Ayame said.
”Farewell,” I whispered as the world gave way to the white canvas. I looked around the endless white expanse, and sure enough, it didn’t appear I would be returning. “Alicia?”
”Please stand by,” her voice echoed.
”Alicia…what happens to them?” I asked.
”It was a simulation, Johann,” she said.
”Don’t give me that crap, you’re smarter than that and you know I’m smarter than that too. They got happy, they got sad, they bled, they grew and they even died…what makes them any less alive than me?” I asked.
”…It was an ethical question I struggled with while creating the Photon Cascade System. The simulation mimics the rules of the universe so closely, that the distinction between reality and the simulation is blurred.”
”Did you find an answer?”
”If a tree falls in the woods-“
”Wow, seriously, Alicia?”
Hear me out. I keep a record of every Cascade the system creates, and that record persists in its calculations whether or not it is being used. It is how you were able to resume the simulation to begin with. There may be no one to experience or observe the simulation, but it persists. So I ask you, does the tree make a sound?”
”…Yeah.”
”I may not be running the simulation, and you may not be in it, but on some level, somehow, it goes on. That’s what I believe. If you’re not satisfied with that answer, you’re free to think on it yourself. I’d be interested to hear what you come up with.”
”I suppose.”
”Is there something else on your mind?”
”Everything I saw were people and events that, at some point, existed and happened without my presence. I just wonder…what really happened, to Ayame and Leah. They were so depressed when I first met them. Did they go on like that? Or…”
I blinked, and just like that, the canvas peeled away to reveal my world. Or at least, I had to assume it was. After all, when I left, Rozenom was a city standing tall and even accounting for a Colony smashing into it, I couldn’t imagine how it could have become the mess of dust and rubble I was in. My priority, at first, was to find Alice’s body before I left, but before I went about that, I decided I should check in with everyone. I flipped on my comm., and my ear was flooded with all of your frantic yelling.
”The hell? What’s going on?! Respond!” I yelled, but it was futile. For whatever reason, I could only receive audio. “Oh for the love of…I just got back, and I already have to bail these idiots out of a jam.” Even as I said it though, I couldn’t help but smile. Don’t misunderstand me, I wasn’t happy that the ladies were in trouble, or even that they needed me. No, I was happy that my place in the world had been kept nice and warm.
I took out the Solferino and held it, just looking at it for a few moments while I listened in on your battle with Mother Brain. “Thank you. Truly,” I said, as I cast Ryuker. I used Keiko’s radiance as the beacon. However far it is, I can always see it; that’s just how it is when you know someone well enough. Naturally, a Ryuker over such a long distance broke the Solferino, leaving me with just the still broken Save the Maiden.
Well, there’s no need to go any further, is there? I arrived, dashing onto the scene in the nick of time in a scene so dramatic, that it should have been accompanied by a pop rock song. It was easily one of the crowning moments of awesome in my life, perhaps only second to sleeping with Leah. Man, that was freaking awesome. I dislocated a shoulder, but absolutely worth it.

[Seth Astra]

Damn, dude. That's one of the best chapters yet. I really liked the referance to CupofCoffee's fic. And it actually managed to get some emotion out of me, not something easy. Hopefully, someday, Johann can be arsed to tell the rest of it. XD

[CupOfCoffee]

Damn, dude. That's one of the best chapters yet.

Definitely agreed with that sentiment. I laughed almost continually during this one—except when I was awwwing. And pahaha, the milk video. It's official! It's canon now! :lol:

[Xaeris]

Oh. Well. This is a better reception than I was expecting. I'm glad you both liked it. Personally, I felt like I was squeezing toothpaste from the tube while writing it, but apparently, it turned out okay.

[Magus_84]

Turned out quite well. It managed to condense a year and a half of material into one chapter while both expanding characterization and showing some nice emotional impact.

And now we know where he got his eyepatch from.

[Keiko_Seisha]

I’d never met a cast that knew how to cook, yet, the proprietor was some sort of wizard with a wok.

Heh.

There was another line I was gonna point at and add something to, but by time I reached the end I totally forgot which one it was.

[McLaughlin]

The milk video is officially canon.

Hopefully Johann properly transcribes his Pioneer 2 shenanigans at some point. That was a good read.

[Xaeris]

Trufax: Johann being too lazy to recount his whole time in the Photon Cascade is me leaving the door open for a PSO2 story. That isn't to say I'll write one for sure, but if the bug bites me, it gives me an easy way to stick it into continuity.

More trufax: I wanted this part of the story to serve the purpose of establishing two things. 1, why Johann would go to such great lengths for Gwen by having him, essentially, live with her. 2, why isn't Johann's fighting ability hindered by missing an eye by getting training from someone who's good at it. I came up with the time dilation of the Cascade not because I thought two months wasn't enough time for a loving relationship to flourish, but because I didn't think two months would be enough time to learn how to fight with one eye.

I have messed up priorities, is what I'm saying.

[Xaeris]

Chapter 22: Once More, for the Shrooms

See? It’s just like I said. If I let you tell this story by yourself, we’d be old and gray by the time you finished.
”So, you were…busy,” I said, when Johann finished.
He just laughed. “That’s a way to put it. I’m still putting pieces together, but right now, I should focus on getting Alice up and running. As I’ve just told you, I owe her quite a bit.”
”Yeah, definitely! But you should at least have dinner with us.”
”Us?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
”Yeah, I invited Zoe over to your place,” I said.
”You invited who?” he asked. Johann has very dark skin, and we were getting close to his place, so it was dark without any public street lamps around. Still, I could actually see the color drain from his face. He dug a finger into his collar and got that look in his eye he gets when his brain is in overdrive. “Why, why would you do that to me?!”
”Do what?!”
”Keiko, Gwendolyn is staying at my house.”
”Yeah, so?”
He dragged a hand over his face and bowed over to look me in the face. “Let me put this in clearer terms. You invited my ex girlfriend to hang out with my current girlfriend.”
”Ohhh…”
”Ohhh, my arse! ‘Ohhh’ is for when you figure out the door is pull, not push. ‘Ohhh’ is for when you get to a mirror and realize women have been suppressing giggles all night because someone scribbled on your face. We are way past ‘ohhh!”
”Okay, I think you’re overreacting,” I said.
”Oh, is that right? Well, let’s go find out,” he said as she gestured his hands for me to lead the way. I rolled my eyes and walked out in front of him to go up the steps to his door. As I hovered my finger over the print reader, I looked back and he just smiled in a smarmy, know it all way. I shook my head and opened the door.
What I saw…it was one of those scenes you step into and immediately start holding your breath because you’re afraid that anything so much as blinking will set something off. Past the foyer, in the living room, Zoe and Gwen were sitting at opposite ends of the room, facing each other. Gwen was tapping her nails on the arm of her chair while Zoe was cleaning her gun in plain sight. We had just gotten there, but I had the feeling they hadn’t spoken a word to each other.
”Maybe I was wrong,” I whispered.
”No, no, this is good. I was sure one of them would be wearing the other’s skin as a coat by now,” he said while stroking his goatee.
”Johnny,” Zoe said, not looking up.
”Johann,” Gwen said, also not looking up.
His eye darted around the room; I could see he was scrambling to come up with a plan. After a few seconds, he decided on the plan he used the most: running away. “Ha ha, ladies, hi, I’d love to chat, but, I, uh, have work upstairs waiting for me. See you at dinner!” he said, scurrying up the steps before another word could be said. Zoe and Gwen kept staring each other down as I heard a door slide shut upstairs.
”Um…guys?” I said.
”Did you see the look on his face?” Gwen asked. Laughter was breaking her stony expression, and I just tilted my head in confusion.
”Hilarious,” Zoe said. She wasn’t laughing, but there was a smile on her lips.
”Oh…so you two were just messing with him?” I asked.
”Oh yeah, me and Zoe already know each other. Back in 97, I tried to steal the Eye of Chrysanthemum from Ohtoku, and this girl right here stopped me,” Gwen said, waving her hand toward Zoe.
”Stealing is bad,” Zoe said as she put her rifle away.
”Uh huh…” I said. Then, I said, “oh right, I came here to cook!”
”You really got time for that, your majesty?” Gwen asked.
”Eminence,” Zoe said.
”That’s right!” I said. Gwen rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I decided that I should do something for myself, or I might go nuts, and that something is going to be a nice quiet dinner with friends.” It wasn’t the sort of thing you would expect a sixteen year old to appreciate, but three months straight of disaster and chaos will get your priorities in order like nothing else.
”Johnny says your cooking is awful.” Like I said, Zoe was blunt. I liked that about her. You never had to suspect anything she said of having a double meaning.
”Oh, that. That’s just a joke the Seishas have running on the Launchers. We purposefully cook horrible meals for them. I’m pretty good!” It was a tradition that started with Kaoru of the Second Cycle. The story goes that Axel Launcher complained of her cooking, and she declared that he, and all of his descendants would forever be deprived the domestic delicacies of our family. We’ve been feeding them burnt salad and half frozen eggs ever since. Though, I think mother was legitimately terrible at cooking.
”That’s kinda messed up, princess,” Gwen said.
”Empress,” Zoe said.
”What are you, her publicist?”
I left them to chat. About what, I don’t know. I knew Johann was overreacting about them being in the same room together, but thinking about it, I didn’t expect them to get along so well, and not because of the ex girlfriend thing. Zoe was so blunt and honest, while Gwen was…how do I put this nicely…shifty. Sometimes I worried that Johann didn’t see it, that she’d say one thing, and later on, he’d realize she was alluding to something else entirely. It’s not that I didn’t like her though! It’s just…just…
So, right, I decided to make chili for dinner. It was one of my better dishes and it was pretty quick to make. It had been a while since I had done something simple. The nice thing about cooking once you’re good at it is that the things you do get you a reliable result, everytime. It’s a very obvious connection between effort and reward. It was relaxing to have control. I know that sounds horrible and power hungry and fascist and whatever, but it’s true. There’s just something nice about knowing for sure you can make something happen if you give your effort.
Not like governance. So many moving parts, so much tape, some days, I had to wonder just how much of the current situation on Neudaiz had to do with anything I did. I came to understand more and more where Qin Shi was coming from. I was still terrified of becoming her, sure, but I could understand why she would seize all the power and all the responsibility for herself. It’s counter intuitive, but it’s more relaxing to have absolute power than it is to have most of the power and delegate the rest. That’s how I think despots get to be despots.
Oh, but I’m just rambling now. While I was cooking, Zoe came into the kitchen. I waved her over, since I could use a taste tester. “Good timing!” I said. “Come taste!” She walked over and bowed over while I got up on my tippy toes to lift the spoon in her mouth. And that, was one of the few times I ever saw Zoe’s facial expression crack.
”It’s spicy,” she said.
”You think so? There’s only five ghost peppers in it.” This is one of those things that Johann explained to me. The different carbon based races have different spreads of taste buds. In particularly, newmen have a very high tolerance for hot stuff while beasts have the lowest. At least, I think that’s what he said. He was explaining it while chugging a milk carton after the last time I made chili for him. “Maybe it needs more pepper…hey, you’ve been talking to Gwen, right?”
”Yes.”
I wasn’t into gossip. Still. “Um…”
”You want to know if I like her.”
”…Well?”
”I’m biased.”
”That’s okay.”
”I might be wrong.”
”Your opinion can’t be wrong.”
She kept silent for a bit and I just folded my arms while I waited. Persistence and patience were key, when talking to her. Eventually, she sighed and said, “you should watch her. She’s hiding…something.”
”Hmm, okay, thanks. …Well, let’s try another taste! The extra peppers have had time to simmer!”
”…”
*****
A week later, it was time for another team meeting on Colony. Johann hadn’t gotten Alice up and running yet, but he said he was close. He’d been locked in his lab room nearly the entire week. I could have used his help here and there, but I decided to manage without him so he could focus. By the time we departed to take the shuttle up to Neudaiz, he looked pretty ragged.
”Are you okay, Jo-sei?” I asked as we walked to the spaceport.
”Tired. Very tired.”
”Are you sure you’re up to this?”
”It’ll be fine. Besides, what’s the alternative? Let one of you vapid ditzes come up with a plan? Not a chance in hell,” he said.
”You know, if you were anyone else, you’d be a bitter and lonely virgin, talking like that,” I said.
”Then it’s a good thing I’m not anyone else. I’m the Johann light damned Launcher.” No one could ever accuse him of self esteem issues.
A little later, the seven of us were assembled at our table. Laia couldn’t join us and the headmaster hadn’t been recommissioned yet, so it was just us aegii. It was very cold in that room, that day. I thought it was just me, but Elly was shivering, Ethan’s teeth were clattering and Johann had his coat closed. He never closed that coat. When he was trudging through the Vio Tonga, I would bet any amount of meseta he had that thing open.
”It’s chilly in here,” I said in my seat.
”I agree. Normally, I wouldn’t mind, because it would get the rest of you, how shall I say…excited, but this is excessive,” Johann said. All of us, except Stacy, folded our arms over our chests when he said that and shot him a glare. Of course, he just laughed to himself. Poor Ethan didn’t seem like he got the joke.
”Uh…well, could we just turn down the A/C?” Ethan asked.
”I’m having hot flashes today,” Stacy said. She looked pretty ragged herself, sitting in her chair with her head bowed over the table and a pair of fingers rubbing her temple. “Deal with it.” Stacy’s tone was always sweet, but she could stick this undercurrent of menace into it that made you legitimately fearful for your life when she felt like it. No one brought up being cold again. “Floor’s yours, Elly.”
”Th-thank you…” she said as she got up. She cleared her throat and pointed at the middle of the table. “My trip to Rykros was promising. We did indeed find a Confinement system,” she said as a hologram of said Confinement system appeared on the table. “It’s larger than the ones we already know of, but it’s the same basic structure.”
”So we can go ahead and do the Confinement thing again, right?” Sable asked.
”There is a problem, but I’ll get to that in a minute.” The hologram changed to a planetary model of the Gurhal system. “When we last used the Confinement system, Moatoob, Parum and Neudaiz were specifically aligned in the Unification Point. That’s why we were able to open the Gates of Denikyaha and banish the SEED in Gurhal.”
”Too bad we missed those HIVEs floating around, though,” Sable said.
”We may have never known about HIVEs if a certain moron hadn’t been dead set on retrieving his friends from one,” Johann said.
”Huh? Me?” Ethan said. “I did what I-“
”Jo-sei, you are like the last person in this room that should be calling anyone on recklessness,” I said.
”Excuse me, what I do isn’t ‘recklessness.’ It is a precise judgment of my limits that could appear to be recklessness to the undiscerning eye. But, I think Elyham is a little distraught that we’ve ignoring her,” he said. It was true, Elly was clutching her tablet against her body and mewling quietly to herself.
”We’re sorry Elly!” Sable said.
”Yeah, sorry, it’s really interesting!” I said.
”A-anyway…with Rykros’ Confinement System, we can create a relay for a new Unification Point.” All four planets in the hologram moved to their position. “This will be what the next Unification Point looks like. According to my calculations, it will occur in three weeks. Also, it’ll cast a much wider net over Gurhal, and hit all known HIVEs in Gurhal.”
”Sounds like a happy ending. So what’s the problem?” Stacy asked, picking her head up. Her head and collar were drenched in sweat, but no one said anything.
”Power. The Confinement System on Rykros has power, but the other three are still depleted from our last attempt and their reactors won’t make it in time. We have to supplement them.”
A mushroom rolled onto the table. We all looked in the direction it came from, that being Johann’s. With anyone else, someone might have asked what was up with the mushroom, but like he says, he’s the Johann light damned Launcher. We all just waited for him to speak.
”This is Amanita lumencia. It’s what we’re going to use to supplement the power supply.”
”Johann, sweetie, I’m feeling really flushed right now, so let me warn you; one ‘fungi’ joke out of you and the empress is going to have a eunuch guard,” Stacy said, narrowing her eyes through her lenses.
”…Well, there goes half my material. Fine…the gills beneath the cap have the ability to collect photons. They live for centuries, so they’ve had the opportunity to collect quite a few.”
”Batteries,” Zoe said.
”Yes, they’re like little batteries. A few mV of them and we should have what we need. There is a problem, though.”
”Ugh, I wish you nerds would just put your cards out on the table from the start,” Sable said.
”Mmm,” he murmured as he changed the hologram to a globe of Neudaiz. “The ones we’re looking for are concentrated in…this area,” he said as he circled a part of the globe with his finger.
”That’s Dezolis!” Stacy said. “Johann, Dezolis is a sovereign nation with no treaties with Colony. We can’t just barge in there to pick mushrooms!”
”Well, number one, I’m not picking anything. I didn’t spend nine years in school just to do peasant labor. We have redshirts for that. Secondly, well, I think the empress can say it better.”
I stood up with both my hands on the table. It was meant to be a gesture of power, but I felt really lightheaded when I got to my feet. I shook it off, and said, “it’s not a problem. I’ll negotiate with Li Ming and get the Guardians permission to enter.”
”There you have it. Keiko and I will take care of that, you guys-“
”No, you work on the other thing. I can take one or two of the others with me to Dezolis,” I said.
”Keiko, I really should go with you-“
”That’s an order, Johann.”
It was the first time, in a very long time, I had ever used Johann’s actual name instead of ‘Jo-sei.’ It was enough to stun him, and make everyone else, except Ethan, slink back in their chairs. Johann clenched his teeth and, just barely above a growl, replied, “yes, your eminence.”
”Did I miss something?” Ethan asked.
”Nothing more than the rest of us,” Sable said.
”It’s no big deal. No big deal at all,” I said. Even though I said that, I couldn’t help a sigh. I knew I was in for a headache and I knew Johann’s help would have been nice to have, but he was busy, and if I didn’t order him to standby, he’d have screwed up his priorities for me. “Can I get a volunteer?”
”I’ll go,” Zoe said. Kinda quick, too.
”Well, that settles that. I’ll get the rank and file ready to go mushroom hunting while you go make with the diplomacy,” Stacy said. “Any objections to our plan?”
”…It’s fine,” Johann said. “Zoe-“
”We’ll be fine,” she said.
He shut his eye and replied, “yeah.” Then, he got up and faced Elly to say, “Elyham, let’s go over the numbers together before I head back. The devil is in the details, and what not.”
”Certainly, Dr. Launcher,” she said.
I left the room with Zoe in tow. I was in a hurry to do it because that lightheaded feeling wasn’t letting up. As soon as we were out of sight of the others, I stumbled to my knees. Zoe caught me by the shoulders before I fell any further, happily. “I-I’m okay.”
”No you’re not. Let’s go to the nurse,” she said.
”No! I’ll feel better as soon as I get to Neudaiz, I promise! Let’s just hurry up. And don’t tell Jo-sei, please,” I said. I took in a deep breath and shoved myself back onto my feet. As soon as I took another step though, I stumbled again. “Shoot…”
”All right.” She scooped me off the ground, cradled me in her arms and walked us to the Neudaiz gate. It was all I could do to get my balance and find something on her to hold onto. Once I got my hands around her neck, I shot her a glare. “You said we have to go to Neudaiz.”

[McLaughlin]

The more I read this, the more I come to the realization that Johann...

*Puts on shades*

...sounds like a really fun-gi.

[Xaeris]

Listen man, if a menopausal redhead accosts you in the middle of the night with a pair of rusty shears tonight, don't say I didn't provide you with a cautionary tale.

[McLaughlin]

I'm watching the Walking Dead premier, so a sneak attack doesn't worry me. I'm gonna be up all night.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Awww, so soon for Keiko.


”All right.” She scooped me off the ground, cradled me in her arms and walked us to the Neudaiz gate. It was all I could do to get my balance and find something on her to hold onto. Once I got my hands around her neck, I shot her a glare. “You said we have to go to Neudaiz.”

Just me, but I d'awwwd at the mental image of a sort-of flustered Keiko suddenly being picked up and carried.

[Xaeris]

Trufax: I wrote a blush into that part, but got rid of it because I thought it might be interpreted the wrong way.

[CupOfCoffee]

I lol'd by myself in a mostly dark room when I read the part about how the Seishas' cooking tradition. And then again at the image of Johann guzzling a carton of milk while trying to explain the thing about beast taste buds. I like how the story becomes progressively funnier the further along it gets. Especially since, by all indications, there's still plenty left to be told.

[Xaeris]

Indeed. One of the things that's always bothered me about RPGs is that they get darker as they go on. Everyone's happy and light hearted at the outset, but by the end, it's all srs business and the jovial pieces of everyone's personality are long discarded. While the plot demands a progression in the stakes, I'm committed to making sure that, even at the climactic battle of the story (which I have so mapped out, I could write right now if I felt like it), there will be laughter to be had.

Sure, I'd like to tug at the heartstrings a little, maybe use a little symbolism to deliver my take on some subjects, but ultimately, I'm just trying to get everyone to laugh and go, "badass."

[Keiko_Seisha]

Trufax: I wrote a blush into that part, but got rid of it because I thought it might be interpreted the wrong way.

And this wouldn't have bothered me in the least bit.

Then again I'm a gigantic fan of shoujoai so this wouldn't be surprising with that on the table.

[Xaeris]

Careful there, Keiko. You know what I'm capable of when given ideas. ...Hmm.

So, my original plan was to have the whole thing done before the end of the year. See, I wanted to have Part 2 complete before November so I could use NaNoWriMo to carry me through Part 3. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. However, I believe it's possible to at least begin Part 3 before the year is out. Just letting you know where we're at, schedule wise.

Chapter 23: A Beating of Sense

Hmph. Better to be thorough than to leave the consumers with an arseload of questions that they’ll seek by engaging in divisive forum wars.
After the meeting broke, I took the opportunity to make a call to Gwendolyn. I needed a favor from her, you see. It’s not really important what it was. Whole call didn’t take more than three minutes, I would say. I was just finishing up when Elyham tapped me on the shoulder.
”Just about finished, hold on. …No, not you Gwendolyn, I was talking to Elyham,” I said. She said some…stuff, it was probably nothing important. “Thanks for doing this for me, I appreciate it. …Yeah…I don’t suppose there’s any way I can walk that ‘I love you’ back, is there? No? I didn’t think so.” I closed the link and nodded to Elyham.
”Okay! First, I want to talk about-“
”We can talk about the Confinement System in a minute. The real reason I stopped you was for a consult. Alice’s software is giving me a migraine,” I said. The others had either left, or were engaging in quieter conversations in other corners of the room, so I could speak candidly with Elyham. I had repaired Alice’s frame with little issues, but the computer language barrier was proving difficult to navigate. It was what had me stumped the last couple days.
”Oh, I bet you’re having trouble getting the protocols to initialize!” she said.
”Er, yes, that’s it exactly,” I said.
”Yeah, yeah, that’s not too hard! Actually, I think I still have the primer I wrote for myself. That should help you through the code,” she said as she offered me her nano on her wrist to link up with. I’m not going to lie; I had to swallow some of my pride to click my nano against hers and take her help. Certainly, Elyham was intelligent, and I had no problem with receiving a woman’s help in general, but being so helpless in my forte was…unnerving.
”Can we talk about the Confinement System now?” she asked.
”Sure,” I said, happy to talk about something I knew frontward and backward. After all, the first Confinement offensive against the SEED was my idea. …Perhaps that’s a misrepresentation, but anyone who can dispute it is dead now, so meh. “It sounds as though you already have something on your mind. Something you didn’t disclose during the meeting, perhaps?”
She winced, and I knew I had struck a bullseye. “Dr. Launcher-“
”Elyham, I think we’re close enough now for you to call me Johann. Or Hahn. Or Johnny, though you might have to fight Zoe for that.”
She blushed. Naturally. She sucked in her breath, presumably to help her ignore the stinging sensation in her cheeks, and went on, “the amount of mushrooms we’re projecting for collection assumes generators at 85% efficiency.”
”That seems like a fair margin for error. What’s the problem?” I asked as I took out a cigarette.
”We’re sure to be attacked when we carry out the operation. If we lose enough generators, we won’t produce enough power for the Confinement System,” she said.
”If.”
”Huh?”
”Obviously, we’ll be attacked. And obviously, the Guardians will be there to defend. It wouldn’t be much of a final showdown if it were as simple as flipping a light switch, right?” I said.
”No, but there’s so much riding on this! It’s just…just…”
”Well, no one likes to play defense in Capture and Hold. Hell, no one likes to play Capture and Hold. Seems like the attacking side has it so much easier, doesn’t it?” I asked. I had an idea of what her fear was. Dozens of things could go wrong, and only one of them actually needed to go wrong to screw us over proper. It was quite a bit of pressure to consider. “We’ll win.”
”You can’t possibly know that,” she said.
”Why not?” I asked.
”Because! You…you can’t!”
I smiled and said, “it’s fine, we’ll win.”
She chewed on her lip and pumped her fists at me, but ultimately, she couldn’t respond in anyway but a weary sigh. “I feel like I should tell you how hideously irresponsible you sound…but I am relieved, I have to admit.”
”Victory is ours to seize, Elyham, so long as we prepare thoroughly. This will go so smoothly, you’ll think yourself a fool for having worried when it’s all done,” I said.
She let out another sigh, though that one was more of relief, I would think. “All right, I’ll go work on the numbers some more. Thanks for talking with me…Johann,” she said. She walked away, leaving me to myself and my cigarette. I had just told her it was all going to be okay, when in reality, I did not have any damned clue how it was going to go. There was still plenty I didn’t understand about our predicament and our enemy, but I gave her the reassurance she craved because, hey, that’s what I did.
”It must be hard to be a man, “Eustace said, poking her head over my shoulder. I jumped slightly; I hadn’t heard her sneak up on me.
”It is, especially in the morning-“
”Shut up please,” she said. Then, she just smiled at me. Very sweetly, like a mother who smiles at her child for no particular reason. It was unnerving, really. “Do you really think it’s okay for the others to believe that you’re invincible, Johann?”
”They don’t think I’m invincible, Eustace,” I said while I exhaled a puff of smoke.
”Johann,” she started, pausing to wave away the smoke, “have you ever stopped to ask yourself why we like you in spite of the fact you delight in aggravating us with sexual harassment, sexist jokes, and just being an all around narcissist douchebag?” I should note she was still smiling.
”It’s a little hurtful when you put it like that,” I replied, turning my head to face her over my shoulder.
”Women like a whole slew of things in men,” she said, coming around to my front, keeping one hand on my shoulder. “Some of us like them smart, and some of us like them dumb. Some of us like them buff, and some of us like dough boys. Some…all, of us like them rich, but you’ll find some of us can tolerate them poor.” She took her hand off my shoulder and pointed a finger uncomfortably close in my face. “But, there is one thing we all universally must have and will not do without. Do you know what it is?” I took a breath to respond, but she turned her fingers into an open palm. “Nevermind, you’ll just ruin my awesome speech with something perverted.”
”Well if you’re going to set me up…”
”It’s confidence. You will never find a woman anywhere in Gurhal that likes a man without confidence. And you, Johann, have always had that. So much of it, that it springs from you like a fountain and the rest of us can drink it. Do our laundry in it, even,” she said.
I couldn’t help but smile. It’s always nice when someone recognizes your good qualities. “I am rather magnificent-“
”Not done,” she said, slapping me atop my forehead with her open palm. “Lately, you’ve been faking it. The others can’t tell because they’re naïve little girls-“
”Sable?” I asked.
”Sable is an indiscriminate whore that’ll spread her legs for the first thing drenched in men’s body spray,” she said.
”Hey!” Sable yelled from across the room. Feline beast hearing is very good, you understand.
”Love you sweetie,” Eustace said, waving over to her. “My point is, they can’t read you like I can. They actually believe you when you say you’re fine. But I’ve got the experience to know better.”
”You’re showing your age, Eustace,” I said as I turned my head away from her. Or tried anyway: as I did, she thrust her face in mine. I thought I was going to get kissed, which, normally, would have been nice, but she really was quite sweaty that day, so I reeled a bit.
”Your eye has the look of a loser in it,” she said. “You’ve lost something.”
”I really don’t think my eye is telling you all that,” I said.
”Look Johann, normally, I don’t meddle in your drama because it’s not my business. That whole breakup with Zoe a few years back? I didn’t say anything. Here’s the problem: when you’re off your game, all of us our off our game. So I need you to get your head out of your ass.”
”Why is everyone on my arse about this lately…” I muttered. “Your concern is unfounded. I’m fine,” I said.
”Really,” she said as she narrowed her eyes through her lenses. “So, if I attack you right now, you’re saying you could deal with it?”
”I haven’t had time to plan.“
”No excuses!” she said as she swiped at me with a roundhouse kick. I barely got under it. “Sable, stop us if it looks like it’s getting dangerous!”
”Eustace, what the hell?” I said as I sprung away.
She dropped into a fighting stance and her Lohengrins materialized onto her shins. “You don’t think there’s anything wrong with you, so I’m showing you just how off balance you’ve been,” she said. “You’d better take this seriously.”
”I really don’t need this type of grief…” I muttered, but I did take out my rapier. “If this is what it takes to convince you I’m fine, come on then.” I said that rather coolly, but I must confess, Eustace was the last opponent among the Guardian Aegis I would have liked to have. I could play keep away with Sable all day, Zoe was never much good at thinking more than a more or two ahead, and the others were just lol. Her kicks made her devastating in close range and she was quick and nimble enough that keeping her at long range was a constant effort. Seriously, I’m not kidding about those kicks. Two or three direct hits and I’d be done. I knew it was going to be mainly a defensive match with me biding my time, waiting for her to make a mistake.
She tapped the ground with her foot and her wand sparkled briefly as a soccer ball sized ball of steel was twisted up from the floor. And just like a soccer ball, she lobbed the diga at me with her foot. She said that she got more force out of kicking digas herself than throwing them using the technic. It came at me like a bullet, but I knew that was how she was going to start, so I was ready with ramegid. It still had some momentum after pushing through the gravity field, but it hit the ground before it got to me.
It was a minor distraction, but it was enough for Eustace to close the gap between us. She had this technique where she lit a miniature rafoie beneath her feet and used the explosion to add a spring to her step. I had tried to copy it in the past, but my legs couldn’t take the force. Simply just trying to run away would have been dumb, so I held my ground.
At the same time though, trying to block her kicks with my bare hands would have been folly. So, I used rabarta to make myself shields. Now, the common mistake fortetechers make when making ice shields is that the erect the shield with the expectation that it’ll absorb the direct brunt of the attack. That’s ridiculous: it’s ice, not metapolymer. Radigas are much better for the purpose of insulating blows. Rabarta is used for diverting attacks. What I did was match the curve of the ice’s surface to the angle her kicks were approaching so that some of the force would slide off harmlessly.
Mind you, the shields still broke when she hit them and I had to make a new one for every hit to survive that flurry of kicks. The kicks were coming in with barely half a second between each one and from a different direction each time, so matching the shape of the shield I put on my wrist to the appropriate angle of incidence was a matter of split second decision making. So, eventually, I did make a mistake. Her leg shot straight through my shield and into my stomach, knocking me back across the floor and into the wall. I made a hefty dent.
”Oh, so this is for serious,” I said with a wheeze as I got up.
”What did I say?!” she said as she came running in to follow up. I sent a barta along the ground to put a sheet of ice beneath her feet. The ice slick is a time honored tactic of House Launcher, you understand. It didn’t work that time though, since she just did her rafoie step, which melted the ice, and rocketed herself at me, leg poised to come down on my head like an axe. Normal kicks hurt enough; getting smacked by buten shuren-zan would have put me down straight out, I was sure. I was lucky though, and managed to get myself to fall over to the side and just barely out of the way of her thigh as it slammed into the floor.
Now, I’ve thought back to this fight many, many times in my life. That, right there, was the perfect opportunity to strike. Her momentum was firmly committed to the kick, which had missed. She had no way to defend herself against any means of attack I could have thrown at her. But, I did not attack. Instead, I leapt away as she recovered. Immediately, I knew I had made a tactical error and was chastising myself for letting a chance slip through my fingers.
”This is exactly what I’m talking about, Johann,” she said as she got back onto her feet. “You let a perfect chance for a counterattack get away from you because you were scared it wouldn’t go exactly how you thought it would.”
”I’ve always attacked with a plan, Eustace,” I said.
”Yeah, but you were also always ready for the possibility that your plan might need improvising halfway through. Now, it’s like you’ve lost…I don’t know, like a safety net or something,” she said.
”…”
”Well, do you get what I’m talking about?” she asked.
”There’s nothing wrong with me. I just made a mistake. It happens,” I said. “You’re reading too much into nothing.”
”Men are so stubborn,” she said. She came at me again. That time, I tried to keep her away by pulling stalagmites of steel out of the floor. Unfortunately, she avoided each one and having to divert her path like that didn’t even slow her down very much, so, I had to resign myself to having her in melee again. I decided to do something she wouldn’t expect and took a swipe at her with my rapier.
”Seriously Johann?” she asked with a giggle. She grabbed my thrust by my wrist with her free hand and pulled me, and my face, into her elbow. So it wasn’t the brightest idea, I admit. I just don’t see why the idea of me swinging a sword is so funny to everyone. At any rate, still having my wrist, she flipped me over her, and slammed her foot into my back as she let go, which sent me careening across the room. Again. The landing was unpleasant.
”Have you been eating well, Johann? You feel kind of light,” she said.
”Just Keiko’s cooking,” I said. I figured it was time to try an offensive. I lit up a noszonde and sent it after her. Once I was sure I had a good grasp on it, I sent out a second one to chase her. I got the desired effect, forcing her to dash about the room with two balls of crackling lightning approaching from different directions. I kept the vectors loose; I didn’t want them to be predictable. At one point she had to leap over me and I said, “I see pantsu.” There weren’t many 42 year olds that could pull of a mini skirt, but she was in superb shape, I have to admit. Better than a lot of girls half her age with muffin tops.
After a solid minute of dancing, her feet hit the ceiling and she did her rafoie step, rocketing to my back. Before I could react, she hooked her arms beneath mine and kicked the back of my knee to better manipulate my body. I looked up and realized the noszondes were still there. I couldn’t cancel them in time, so they hit me. That too, was unpleasant. Eustace let me drop to the ground seeing as I was incapacitated by the electric shocks.
”Think about what I’ve said, Johann,” she said. She took off her glasses to wipe them off while she was speaking. “Whatever it is you lost, you need to accept you’ve lost it and either get over it, or get it back.” She knelt down beside and laid a hand on my chest. “We need you.”
I let out a puff of smoke. …Huh? Yeah, I had the cigarette in my mouth the whole time. Why wouldn’t I have? I knocked the back of my head against the floor and stayed quiet for a few moments. Then I finally said, “maybe you have a point.”
”Of course I do. All your logic and booksmarts aren’t any match for a woman’s intuition and experience,” she said.
”You never were a gracious victor, Eustace.”
”What the hell happened in here?!” Laia cried. We all turned to the door and saw the president reacting to the room we had savaged. Understandably, she was livid, but then again, Laia was always livid.
”Oh, uh, Madam President! Johann and I were just having a small sparring match,” Eustace said as she got up to her feet to explain herself. Well, at least, I imagined that’s how it went. I mean, I got the hell out of there with Ryuker, naturally.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Careful there, Keiko. You know what I'm capable of when given ideas. ...Hmm.

Surely I'd never do anything like that. Nope. Never.

[Seth Astra]

Cool chapter. I loved the last paragraph.

[McLaughlin]

Sweet fight.

[Magus_84]

Surely I'd never do anything like that. Nope. Never.

Tricksy Keiko is tricksy.

And performing a valuable service.

I liked this one, and the previous one. Sorry for not being in touch, been somewhat...occupied.

You've got a tab marker showing when Johann's ruminating about how he missed his chance, and a misspelling of Guardians when he's talking about how it won't be as easy as flipping a light switch.

I look forward to seeing where this arc is going.

[Xaeris]

Gudardians. lol. How I manage some of these typoes...

This is an idle thought, but sometimes I feel like Johann chapters rate higher than Keiko chapters. I don't know if that's because I write Johann as a better narrator or because he does more interesting stuff, or because Keiko just isn't compelling. Or if this is all just in my head. Either way, I feel like I could do better on her chapters. Short of girl on girl action.

[McLaughlin]

I think it's because he just does more interesting stuff. Particularly combat. I'd say bullets are the most boring type of combat of the three disciplines, and even with the fancy bullet melding, there are only so many things a bullet can do. She can use technics too, but she favours her bow/grenade launcher. Plus, most of Johann's victories tend to be more theatrical, and he seems to get more of the important ones than Keiko.

I also feel like Johann just grabs me better than Keiko does. He's a supremely confident person, and while Keiko is getting there, she just doesn't have the same swagger Johann does.

I don't think the Keiko chapters are bad by any means, just that perhaps the Johann ones are a tad better. Perhaps better isn't even the right word... engaging?

I dunno, just my thoughts. Both are always well worth the read.

[Keiko_Seisha]

This is an idle thought, but sometimes I feel like Johann chapters rate higher than Keiko chapters. I don't know if that's because I write Johann as a better narrator or because he does more interesting stuff, or because Keiko just isn't compelling. Or if this is all just in my head. Either way, I feel like I could do better on her chapters. Short of girl on girl action.

I always enjoy them a lot, but I could be slightly biased. Also you don't have to indulge my fantasies, that's what my mind is for.

No pain or curses will be placed upon you either way.

[Xaeris]

Yeah, bullets do give me a headache to write. It wasn't an accident there was no fortegunner aegis in the story for so long. The root of my concern, though, originates from one of my earlier stories. Way, way back when, not even on PSOW. See, at a point in the story, X died for a little while because I thought it'd be cool. I was young, gimme a break. What I did not forsee was how much of a crutch he was for me in writing the story, and as a result, updates grinded to a crawl. I did get through that slump, but highlighted for me how boring I had made the rest of the cast. It was an error I endeavored to improve on.

Fast forward. I'm very pleased with myself for having been able to write all of Reconstructions with Johann down and out for most of it. Still, my ability for writing the secondary cast isn't where I want it, and that's something I need to be superb at if I ever intend to see a book published someday. But, so long as Keiko chapters aren't bad, I guess it's progress.

Thanks for your thoughts, Obs.

All cards on the table: I had already considered KeikoxZoe long before this conversation. The clues are even way back in Halcyon. They seemed cute together, and it seemed easier than screwing up the lovely harem dynamic I had going by introducing another male character. I never made good on it because a thought occurred to me at some point: "I am a twenty something year old straight male. However earnest or honest my intentions are, I will screw this up." So, I chose to leave the clues untapped and let your imaginations do the rest for me. Hence Johann's comment about divisive forum wars.

I'm all meta up in this ****.

[Magus_84]

Yeah, bullets do give me a headache to write. It wasn't an accident there was no fortegunner aegis in the story for so long. The root of my concern, though, originates from one of my earlier stories. Way, way back when, not even on PSOW. See, at a point in the story, X died for a little while because I thought it'd be cool. I was young, gimme a break. What I did not forsee was how much of a crutch he was for me in writing the story, and as a result, updates grinded to a crawl. I did get through that slump, but highlighted for me how boring I had made the rest of the cast. It was an error I endeavored to improve on.

Fast forward. I'm very pleased with myself for having been able to write all of Reconstructions with Johann down and out for most of it. Still, my ability for writing the secondary cast isn't where I want it, and that's something I need to be superb at if I ever intend to see a book published someday. But, so long as Keiko chapters aren't bad, I guess it's progress.

Thanks for your thoughts, Obs.

All cards on the table: I had already considered KeikoxZoe long before this conversation. The clues are even way back in Halcyon. They seemed cute together, and it seemed easier than screwing up the lovely harem dynamic I had going by introducing another male character. I never made good on it because a thought occurred to me at some point: "I am a twenty something year old straight male. However earnest or honest my intentions are, I will screw this up." So, I chose to leave the clues untapped and let your imaginations do the rest for me. Hence Johann's comment about divisive forum wars.

I'm all meta up in this ****.

I remember that storyline. I'm pretty sure that was your first organized story on that particular forum, as opposed to the one-shots that got me started reading your stuff. I think I even have it saved somewhere, thanks to Keiko.

And bullet-based combat is difficult to write. It's especially difficult to maintain plausibility when it's mixed in against melee attackers or casters. You do admirably well with it.

I enjoy both the Johann and Keiko chapters, for different reasons. Johann's move the story along in bigger chunks or provide a resolution/more action (usually), while Keiko's are the glue that holds everything together and makes you actually care about the characters. And make the world make sense.

If you, theoretically, removed Keiko from the story entirely (without replacing her with a similar character or at least some way of showing his softer side when he's not engaged in chasing tail), Johann would be nearly insufferable.

Conversely, if you removed Johann, you'd still have a working story and characters that people could care about. It wouldn't be as interesting or exciting, but it'd still work.

My opinion, anyway. And given how much trouble I have with characterization, I'm continually in awe of how lifelike you're able to make your characters.

[CupOfCoffee]

I think the Johann chapters have a little more forward momentum, or something. He always seems to be risking something, always off on the next crazy leg of the journey. Keiko's a far more stable, and in some ways realistic, lead. Her point of view is interesting, but Johann's is wackier and more exciting (and more judgmental, which is always bonus points for funnies).

Them's my 2 meseta, anyway.

[Xaeris]

All right, try this Keiko chapter on for size.

Chapter 24: Carrot and Stick

Listen, whatever. I’ll get us to the ending, and you can ramble about women’s breasts and butts to your heart’s content.
The shuttle brought Zoe and I to Neudaiz. As soon as we entered Neudaiz’s airspace, I felt like my head was starting to screw itself back on, and by the time we landed, I was feeling right again. Well, maybe I shouldn’t say I was feeling ‘right.’ My body may have been relieved, but it was dawning on me that my home was quickly becoming my prison. If we kept on fighting as much as we did, I knew that my next few trips off world were going to be some of my last. As sad as the thought was, I didn’t take the time to dwell on it. I had something important to do, after all.
I rose from my seat, smoothed out my dress which had long since lost its novelty, and said, “okay, straight to Dezolis. I don’t want to lose any time on this.”
”Are you okay?” Zoe asked after she stood up too.
”I’m fine now!” I said as I did a little hula dance to show her. I have no idea why. It just seemed like a fun idea at the time. “Thanks for the piggy back ride.”
”It wasn’t a piggy back ride,” she said. True, it was more of a bridal carry. Leave it to Zoe to get stuck on the details.
”You know what I mean,” I said. She did the merest of shrugs with no change in her expression, so, I kept talking. “It’s really not a big deal, so this is our secret, all right?”
”Secrets are bad,” she said.
”Not always!”
”Always.”
”Sometimes!”
”Always.”
”If you have a good reason!”
”Always.”
To this day, I don’t know the whole story behind Johann and Zoe’s relationship, but he must have done something real bad. Obviously, it was another one of those conversations, so, I gave up with a sigh and made to leave the spaceport with her following me.
”I won’t make you tell anyone,” she said.
”Really? Okay, that’s great, thanks!”
”It’s still a bad idea.”
”It’s fine, I can handle this problem myself. Everyone else has their own problems to deal with,” I said. Even then, at that moment, I knew I didn’t sound like myself. Saying that I shouldn’t be asking for help because it was just my problem? I didn’t believe that. I staked my life on the exact opposite just a few months before that. It’s only looking back that I really see the hypocrisy there though; at the time, it was just a nagging feeling that I said something wrong.
Zoe just kinda stared at me for a while as we were walking. Her expression wasn’t judgmental or anything; she was just staring. I guess she heard something weird just then too. She didn’t say anything about it though. Instead, she just asked, “what’s Dezolis?”
Okay Johann, check this out, here’s how you summarize a story. I told her, “Dezolis is a small part of Neudaiz that I don’t rule. The people who do rule it don’t like Seishas. Me. I’m going to go tell them to get over it so we can collect mushrooms.” See? Easy.
”What do you need me for?” she asked.
”Didn’t I mention the part about them not liking me?” I said. “Congratulations, you’re Empress’ Knight for a day!”
”Do I get anything?” she asked.
”Not really.”
”Boo.”
”I do not say ‘boo’ like that,” I said.
”Boo,” she repeated, turning her head down toward me.
After some more walking, we came to where I last parked the Serendipity. I fished around in my nano for the key and warmed up the warp pad to beam us up. Tradition dictated that I had to travel to Dezolis by sea, but I just didn’t have the time. Plus, I had kinda had my fill of annoying traditions back during the last visit. It’d be a little fun to stick it to one of them, I thought. I got the ship ready for takeoff and soon, off into the sky we went.
”So…how’s being a fortegunner?” I asked. It wasn’t going to be a really long flight, but we weren’t quite good enough friends yet that I could stand a long silence.
”The AMF made me good with guns,” she said.
”Oh that’s right, you were in the AMF before the Guardians. Why switch?” I asked. Weird as it sounds, flying through space is easier than flying through an atmosphere. I had to pay some attention to the controls and to where we were, but I still had some to spare on the conversation, and I was honestly interested in the answer to the question.
”I didn’t like being a soldier,” she said.
”How come?” Maybe it sounded like I was picking away at someone who didn’t want to talk to me, but if Zoe really didn’t want to talk, then she would have just stopped talking. Still, she didn’t answer right away. I couldn’t even see any sign on her face that she was thinking about my question. She just stared out the monitor in front of her (no one puts an actual window in a spaceship) for a while. I’d almost forgotten that I had even asked by the time she answered.
”I wanted to see more of the change I was making,” she said. “Does that make sense?”
”Totally,” I said with a smile. I knew exactly what she meant.
She smiled too, though it looked as if something had tugged at her lips for a half a second. Then, she opened what I thought was a candy bar. Before she took a bite, I already caught a whiff of it and knew I didn’t want any even before she offered it in my direction and asked, “want some?”
”No thanks. Protein bar?”
”That. Peanuts too,” she said. “Are you sure? You’re skinny.”
”Am not-“ Before we could have an exchange over that, something else got our attention. The small closet in the back of the cabin opened and out collapsed Gwendolyn who was having a wheezing fit of some kind. She scrambled over to a small air lock and stuck her head in it. She flailed her finger in Zoe’s direction while her head was sucking in fresh air and at first, Zoe and I were completely and utterly confused. But then, I figured it out.
”Oh, she’s allergic to peanuts I guess. You should throw that out, Zoe,” I said.
”Throw what out?” she asked after threw the last piece of it into her mouth. I just shrugged with a weak smile and turned on the air vent to get the remaining smell out of the air.
”Okay Gwen, it’s safe to come in!”
She pulled her head back out of the air lock and dropped onto her knees, still gasping madly for air. “Ugh, man…” Then, she managed to get herself into a seat and strap herself in. “What’s up guys?”
”What are you doing here?!” I asked.
”Earning girlfriend points. Johann asked me to tag along and back you up just in case,” she said. I think some of my annoyance must have leaked out onto my face, because then she said, “don’t get mad at him about it. You two have a big brother/little sister thing going, and there isn’t a big brother anywhere that doesn’t worry about his little sister.”
”How’d you even get in?”
”I picked the lock. I’m a rogue. Why does everyone keep forgetting this?” Maybe because it hadn’t been a relevant detail since she first showed up, but that’s just my guess.
”Well, fine, but when we get there, follow my lead. I don’t want to start a fight with Li Ming if we don’t have to,” I said.
”So your plan is to talk your way through this?” she asked.
”Sure. It should work. After all, it’s the safety of all Gurhal we’re talking about,” I said.
”Hmm, maybe,” she said as she relaxed in her seat.
”It will!”
”I didn’t say it wouldn’t,” she said, raising her hands in the air. After speaking with Zoe who was straightforward and direct with her words, speaking to Gwen who treated words like a Sudoku puzzle gave me a migraine. So, the rest of the flight went along in relative silence until we came into Dezolian airspace.
”This is Dezolis,” Zoe said. She didn’t need to ask, because it was painfully obvious where Dezolis’ border was, even as high in the sky as we were. Dezolis, as had been explained to me so dramatically just a few months before, was irradiated with A-photons. Ever since, its horizon was bleached with a glowing white, its waters shimmered with a milky glow, and its land couldn’t accommodate much more plantlife beside fungi. …What do you mean fungi aren’t plants? This is why your chapters take so long Johann, you dwell on details no one cares about.
”All right, so we hoof it from here?” Gwen asked.
”My shoes are .05% of Neudaiz’s GDP. I’m not stepping on mushrooms in these,” I said. That was an exaggeration. It was more like .02%. I wanted a reputation as a financially conservative empress, so, you know, I had to make sacrifices. “I’m going to land right in their courtyard.”
”I’m no expert on diplomacy, your majesty-“ Gwen started.
”Eminence,” Zoe said.
”Whatever. Wouldn’t that be taken as an act of aggression?” she asked.
”It’ll be fine, I have a plan,” I said. I sat up straight with the controls in my hands and pointed my nose at the ceiling in my best effort to project a reassuring figure. Zoe and Gwen just stared at me blankly. “No good?”
”It’s not as convincing from you,” Gwen said.
”Sorry,” Zoe said.
”Maybe if you grow another twenty Rp, develop an established history of being right all the freaking time and making sexist remarks, it could work,” Gwen said.
”Probably,” Zoe said.
”Tch, what do you guys know? I can totally make a plan. It’s not that hard,” I mumbled. I landed the ship in the palace courtyard. It was a tight fit, but I made a pretty good parking of it, I think. As I thought, Dezolian guards rushed over like a mob. Real quick, Dezolians were newmen, just like Neudaizians. It’s not like the radiation mutated them into green lizards or something. So yeah, I disembarked from the ship after some words with the other two.
The warp dumped me, and just me, below the ship where a whole squad of armed guards was there to greet and surround me. Hands folded in front of me, just like mother taught me, I took a quick look around to make sure I was the focus of everyone’s attention. Then, I introduced myself, “hello, I’m Keiko Seisha of the Sixth Cycle and reigning empress of Neudaiz. Could I please have an audience with your empress?” Sure, I had just invited myself into their country unannounced, flying an unidentified flying object onto their front lawn, but I was unarmed. Realistically, what was the worst they could do? Imprison the head of their neighboring superpower? Please.
The guards, after some frenzied discussion amongst themselves, decided to give me what I asked for and brought me to Li Ming’s audience chamber. It wasn’t my greatest moment. I was being a bully about the whole thing, but if I had learned anything from hanging out with the other aegii, it was this: sometimes, you have to be just a little bit of a bitch. I love them, but honestly, they could be some seriously awful women when they needed to be. I wanted to be just like them.
”We meet again, princess,” she said. Li Ming was a small lady, even shorter than I was. But she had a proper audience chamber, unlike me and my office, so I’d say she looked the more regal of the two of us, sitting on her throne. I’d only met her once before, during my last visit, but we figured out pretty quickly that we didn’t like each other. She blamed my family for the state of her country, and she put me through a load of grief for it. So, having her look down at me from her throne, at the top of the steps, in her velvet carpeted audience hall…I really couldn’t have cared any less about the glaring contest she wanted to start with me.
”It’s empress now,” I said.
”Myself sees that usurping hasn’t died out from your bloodline,” she said.
I bit my tongue, literally, and said through clenched teeth, “I came here to ask for your help.”
”Myself finds this absolutely hilarious. Why should myself lend you, of all people, any aid, Seisha?” she asked.
”Because, it’s your country at stake too. We need the mushrooms here to power the Confinement System a second time. I came on the Guardians’ behalf to ask for permission for them to enter and do the collection,” I said.
”Myself refuses,” she said.
”Uh…maybe I didn’t explain it right?” I asked. I knew I wasn’t good with science speak, but I was pretty sure I understood Johann and Elly’s presentation well enough to get the important bits across. And I knew she knew that the mushrooms in her country sucked up a lot of the radiation from the faulty A-photon reactor. “If we can’t power the Confinement System-“
”Myself understands your purpose,” she said as she sat up straight in her chair. “Those mushrooms are a resource. If you were to come to pick them all clean, my country would be left without its primary source of power.”
”There is nothing else!”
”You would so casually sacrifice the backbone of a nation to save your planet?” she asked.
”Our planet! It’s our planet! You live here too!” I said, just about ready to start yelling. “If the problem is you’d be without fuel, then Neudaiz could easily absorb Dezolis’ population-“
”Oh, you would like that, wouldn’t you?!” she said, suddenly thrusting herself onto her feet. “To finally thrust the final knife into my country’s bosom! You expect myself to do you a service that will require me to grovel at your feet for aid after?!”
”…So your answer is no?”
She plopped herself back into her seat and narrowed her eyes at me. “It is. Myself will take her chances with you all finding some other method. After all,” she said. She grinned, cruelly, and finished, “what’s the point of being alive if you can’t fight for your own way in this world?”
I narrowed my own eyes and said, “you did not just throw that back in my face.” It’d take too long to properly explain the irony here. Just trust me when I say that she cut deep. “Fine. I didn’t want to do it this way, but if you want to make a fight out of this, we’ll do that. Gwen.”
Gwen dropped in from the rafters above me, much to Ming Li’s surprise. “You! How did you get in here?!”
”She’s a rogue. It’s okay, we forget too,” I said. “I surrendered all my belongings to your guards as a show of good faith, so, I had to leave the recording to someone else.” I turned my head to Gwen and asked, “did you get all of that?”
She held up my diary and said, “every word.”
”Good. All right you self important little midget, here’s how this goes,” I said, waving my finger at her as I started up the steps. “You let the Guardians in here without making a fuss, and after the SEED crisis is over, I lend you whatever resources you need to get your country back on its feet.” I got up the last couple of steps and took a place standing right in front of Ming Li in her throne. “Or, I take this recording of our conversation, use it to get public opinion on my side to come here and take your mushrooms.”
She grinded her teeth at me and said, “you threaten me while you’re unarmed?! Guards, seize her!” That reminds me, I’ve never, in my rule, gotten to say ‘guards, seize him/her/them’! I should really get that on my bucket list. Anyway, there was no seizing, because the guards were not moving.
”I don’t think you’re going to get much help from your guards,” I said. “They’re taking a short nap.” I had Zoe set up a perch so she could start picking off the guards one by one with Mayalee Shot. By the time I finished speaking, she had gotten every guard in the room and no one was any the wiser. “You’ve got something on your face,” I said while scratching my nose. That ‘something’ was a red dot that Zoe then moved down to her chest.
”You…” she muttered.
”But hey, Jo-sei’s always telling me that I have awful foresight. Maybe I’m wrong. Will yourself take her chances with that?” I asked. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying it just a tiny bit. After all, she did put me through hell when I last visited. But, ultimately, I was doing what I had to in order to get what we needed to make the final push at the SEED. She didn’t say anything, she just muttered and growled at me some more. “I’ll take your smoldering rage as a no. I’m happy we could come to a peaceful agreement. Gwen, Zoe, let’s go.”
Gwen followed after me and Zoe met us at the Serendipity. All in all, it was a successful trip.
”So…Keiko,” Gwen said.
”Yes?”
”Remind me to stay on your good side,” she said.
I turned my head back toward her seat and asked, “who said you’re on my good side?” We stared at each other for a couple more seconds and then, we laughed at my joke. Right…joke. Yeah.
”What now?” Zoe asked.
”I’ve got work to do back in Ohtoku,” I said as I hit the engines. “You?”
”The day isn’t over.”
”Yeah.”
”Johnny’s still busy.”
”Yeah.”
”So I’m still knight for the day.”
”Oo, yeah! Okay!”

[McLaughlin]

I think the fierce is starting to rub off on Keiko. Good stuff.

[Xaeris]

Tough crowd.

Chapter 25: Date Night 2

What? You’ll get us to the ending? That’s precious. If it weren’t for me, the calendar would never move.
A little after Keiko got through blackmailing the ruler of a sovereign nation which, by the way, I still say is pretty messed up, she and her merry girl band returned to Ohtoku. I had gotten there a little before them, so I was already set back up in my room. In case it’s not clear, my room served as my lab. Mind you, it’s not like I had beakers and Bunsen burners set up, but it was equipped with a lot of the devices and instruments that would be valuable to a photon engineer, i.e, me.
When Gwendolyn came in through the door, without knocking naturally, I was hunched over a computer I had hooked up to Alice. I had long since repaired the frame; I was trying to reboot her, and I was using the computer to interface with her. I made some sort of murmuring sound to acknowledge her entry as she walked up to me, keeping my eyes on Alice.
”All done,” she said.
”Thanks for helping there,” I said. “Did it go all right?”
”Oh…yeah, fine…” she said as she settled at my side. “How about you? Made any progress?”
”Elyham’s advice proved helpful. I’m just about ready to begin her rebooting sequence. If it goes well, Alice will be back with us tomorrow morning after it is completed,” I said. I hit a few more keystrokes and just like I said, the progress bar came up on the screen. I held the computer in my hand a few seconds longer as I stared at the bar, and then set it down. “All that’s left to do is wait.”
”Hmm, so what’s the next big project?” she asked.
I took out a cigarette and made sure to watch Gwendolyn’s expression as I lit it. She never did like my smoking, but she was rather passive aggressive about it. So, she just filled her cheeks with air slightly and arched an eyebrow as I put it in my mouth. “Actually, I was thinking I should take a break for a day or so. For my sanity’s sake,” I said. “Up for dinner later?”
”Look at you, asking me to have dinner! I’ll make a semi respectable boyfriend out of you yet, Dr. Launcher,” she said, crossing her arms with a smile. It may have been the oneitis kicking in, but she did look cute like that. Terrible disease, that oneitis. I have a theory- ow, ow, okay, okay, nevermind!
”Well, it seemed rude to just ask if you wanted to bang,” I said.
She pinched my nostrils together and smirked. “You’re so cute when you’re trying to backpedal from the nice things you say,” she said. She let go and made for the door. “See you soon,” she said in a sing song voice as she left. As annoying as she could be, I have to admit, she did have a way of leaving me in a…more stimulated, mood than when she found me.
Although I told her I was taking a break, the truth was, I was already working on the next big project: her. I hadn’t forgotten that she was running on borrowed time. I had been so busy working on so many other problems though, that I had barely spent any time with her. She didn’t say anything about it; she was considerate of my burden I’m sure, but it must have been difficult for her. So, I wanted to set aside a night where we could just forget about tomorrow and live in the moment.
Plus, I hadn’t had sex in like a week, so there was that too.
While she was putting on her hot girl disguise, I let myself unwind a little with some gaming. While I was doing that, Zoe came into my room. I did keep the door locked, but Gwendolyn always just picked it, and Zoe, being my ex, knew the code that I never got around to changing.
”Hi,” she said.
”Evening. Surprised you’re still here, Zoe. I thought you would have headed to Parum after you got through babysitting Keiko,” I said. “How do you like being Empress’ Knight?”
”It’s busy,” she said. Keiko probably had her running errands. It’s a fancy sounding title, but it’s really just the position of a glorified servant. “I want to talk.”
”By all means,” I said, with my eyes clearly focused on the screen. “Talk.”
”It’s important,” she said, standing next to where I was sitting, obviously expecting me to look up.
”Then time’s wasting,” I replied, still focused on my game.
”It needs your attention,” she said, maintaining that monotone of hers.
”Fucking blue shell!” I yelled. Then, Zoe snatched the controller out of my hands and snapped it in half. She wasn’t mad, mind you; her expression was eerily still like it always was in spite of the broken machinery in her hands. She broke a lot of my things when we were dating, so I just said, “oh, I’m sorry, did you need something?”
”What happens if Keiko leaves Neudaiz after she can’t leave Neudaiz?” she asked.
”Eh? Oh, you mean the Seisha problem. Did she mention something? I guess it’s natural that she’d worry during this kind of chaos, but she’s got a few more years before it’ll be a problem,” I said.
”What happens.”
”Why are you so curious?” I asked.
”What happens.”
I knew better than to go down that line of conversation with Zoe, so I opted to just answer the question. “The photon concentration on Neudaiz is high enough to support an adult Seisha. If she were leave and enter an environment where the concentration isn’t high enough, she would become anemic.”
She didn’t say anything. Yet, I knew I had to clarify, somehow. “The symptoms wouldn’t set in immediately; her body would need to work through its reserve supply of photons before the negative intake became an issue. That would take a few hours. Then, the mild symptoms would set in: fatigue, inability to concentrate, that sort of thing.”
”And then?”
I regarded her quietly for a moment. Had it been anyone else asking me, I would have immediately suspected that Keiko was showing the first signs of her condition. But, it was Zoe. She didn’t keep secrets. So I thought. I shrugged off my nagging concern and obliged her with an answer. “If she hasn’t returned to Neudaiz yet, then she’d suffer from the severe symptoms: seizures, fainting and dementia. Ultimately, heart failure would set in. Death.”
”Oh.”
”You don’t have to be worried, though. When the time comes, she’ll be perfectly healthy as long as she doesn’t leave Neudaiz. We’ll have wrapped up this nonsense long before then. One problem at a time,” I said. I stood up, braced a hand against my hip and looked her in the eye. Of course, she didn’t say anything, or give any sign that I should have been reading more into that conversation. She just stared back at me through that listless veil. Sometimes I wondered how we stayed together so long. Whenever I did, all I had to do was remember her splendid, if fake, rack. I’m not particularly a breasts man, but some things just demand appreciation, even from laymen.
”Should I be worried about something?” I asked.
She turned and left without another word.
”You owe me a controller!” I called after her.
******
Much later, I was lying on the roof of the house. It was one of those rare nights on Neudaiz where one could get a semi decent view of the night sky. The light film of clouds that blanketed the sky gave it a sort of storybook quality. It was the sort of picturesque scenery that, in twelve years, had never, ever, failed to get me laid. Ha ha, mommy would have shorted a fuse if she ever knew how many girls I snuck up there as a teenager…ah, memories.
”When you said just the two of us for dinner, this isn’t what I had in mind,” Gwendolyn said as she came up from the hatch with two microwave dinners in her hands. I took mine to lighten her burden and she joined me where I had been lying on the roof.
”You were expecting a candlelight dinner in an overpriced restaurant?” I asked.
”Yes!” she said. “But, this is better.” We ate in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the other’s company. Then, of course, she had to go ahead and start flooding my brain with stupid. “You remember the night we met?”
”Unfortunately.”
She nudged me in the rib and went on, “the sky was just like this.”
”We met on a cargo train, we had no view of the sky,” I said.
”And our song started playing when our eyes met.”
”We have a song?”
”And then you swept me off my feet, took me into your arms and kissed me passionately on the lips because you knew at first sight that it was meant to be.”
”Okay, now you’re just making crap up.”
”I am trying to retcon our first encounter for more romance. We were the only ones there, so who’s going to know if that’s the story we tell our kids at the wedding?”
”I’m not even sure where to start with that sentence.” I have to admit: I was smiling. It was just another of our ridiculous exchanges. They had grown on me. So, when she looked off to the other direction with a glimmer of sadness cutting across her face, my heart dropped.
”Johann,” she said as she pulled down one of her sleeves. “This showed up this morning.” ‘This’ was a glowing pink crack that ran from her elbow down her bicep. It was the exact same kind I remembered seeing on her in Rozenom. I traced my finger along it, and there was no mistaking the radiance seeping from it. “I probably don’t have much time left,” she said. The light wasn’t so great, especially with her head looking down, but I could definitely see tears welling up in her eyes.
”Gwendolyn-“
”Wait. Just…just let me say this. We’re going to fight soon. When the Darkness takes my body, she’ll come after you,” she said.
”Why, exactly?” I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of the incarnation of what was, essentially, the devil, coming after my life in particular.
”The only thing that keeps me from turning into an all out Dark Falz is me. Even when the Darkness is in control, I’m still holding her back. But, if I get hit with a trauma…”
”Like me dying…you’d be swallowed up in her and we’d have a Dark Falz in Gurhal.” I fought a Dark Falz during my ‘vacation.’ It’s not fun. Actually, Alicia told me that the cascade wasn’t capable of simulating it properly, so I had fought a weakened version and still barely came out okay. “So I’m the trigger then. I feel special.”
”Johann, if it comes down to it, I want you to know that it’s okay to kill me,” she said. She bit her lip and put her hands on top of mine. “I can’t stand the idea of hurting you. It makes me sick to think about it! So please, if you have to, kill me!”
”Nah.”
”Johann-“
”I’m not going to kill you, Gwendolyn, because I refuse to lose,” I said as I took out a cigarette. After a light and a huff, I held the smoking tip to the sky and tapped away some ash. “There’s more to victory than just surviving. Father must have given you that lesson, yes?”
”Don’t go acting like you’re the better student,” she said, pursing her lips together. “He taught me everything you know before you were even born.”
”That makes you sort of a cradle robber, doesn’t it?” I asked, as I stirred her annoyed expression further with a smirk. “Listen, what I’m saying is that I didn’t go into this nonsense just to survive. I’m fighting to win.” I narrowed my eye at the sky, at Rykros which was an ugly blemish on a beautiful picture and let out a huff of air through my nostrils. “Victory is the demise of our enemies and the safety of my loved ones so that we can live and laugh another day.” She opened her mouth, probably to needle me about implying that she was one of my ‘loved ones’ and I sealed her lips with my finger. “Shut up. Victory will be on those terms and I won’t settle for a thing less.”
She held her eyes on me for a while in silence. The crack on her arm continued to pulse that sickly shade of pink and her lips were still clenched together, as if they were the only things keeping her expression from cracking. Then, her eyes softened and she said, “you’re ridiculous.”
”Sometimes, if I don’t laugh, I might cry,” I said. I tossed my cigarette away and struck one of my better ‘cool guy’ poses with the moon at my back. “I’m going for the best ending and I’m going to get it. Trust me.”
”I do,” she said with a sigh. A curt smile crept onto her face and she said it again, “I really do,” as she leaned forward to kiss me. Before I could seize the moment, she pulled back and said, “by the way, our song is Fly Me to the Moon.”
”That is a rather sexy song, I must admit,” I replied.
Then, we banged. It was good. I’m not sure what else I can say about that in polite company.
*****
The next morning found me in my bed, by myself. Me, I wanted to do it right there up on the roof, but Gwendolyn insisted we take it down to a bedroom. We couldn’t use mine, since I had Alice in there, and I couldn’t stay in Gwendolyn’s guest room any longer than it took to do the deed because she had the place loaded up with potpourri. That stuff smells nasty.
Usually, it was the sunlight flooding in through the window that woke me up, but that time, what woke me up was having my nose pinched. I flailed a bit as I opened my eyes and saw, “Alice!”
”Howdy Hahn!” she said as she took her fingers off my nose.
After I wiggled my hips slightly to make sure I was wearing boxers, I tossed my sheets aside and stood up. “How do you feel?”
”Strong as a bil de vear!” she said.
”Good,” I said. I honestly felt relaxed. Sure, I still ninety nine problems but at least…well, you know. In retrospect, it’s funny to think that, at that moment, I felt I was finally making progress against the situation. “Have you been awake long?”
”’Bout an hour. I was gonna wait on ya, but you’re a sack of lazy bones,” she said. Then, she cupped my jaw with one of her hands and stroked my goatee. “What’s this here?”
”My goatee,” I said. I was about to ask what she thought of it, but seeing her face wrinkle at the sight of it spared me the trouble. “Feh. I’m happy you’re all right, Alice. I should bring you up to speed, but I should also get dressed first.” She jumped and blushed, as if she only just then realized I only had on my boxers and socks. I wear socks out of consideration for my partner. My feet get cold, so I’m told.
”O-okay! I’ll go whip up some breakfast!”
As she left, I distinctly recall thinking to myself, “finally, I’m through the worst of it.” Ha. Just freaking ha.
~~~~~

The Bayonetta version, of course.

[McLaughlin]

The blue shell is universally bullshit. It's a Smash Ball on cocaine.

Also, glad we finally have Alice back.

[Xaeris]

I once dodged a blue shell in DS. No one believes me.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Tough crowd.

Busy week has been busy for me, I had to clean the entire house and do a lot of errands, family stuff. Read last week's during a small break but wasn't able to comment!

Not like I ever really comment on your stories anyway I just post to bother you and check in.

[Magus_84]

I liked these last two. Zoe and Keiko work well together, and Keiko's plan should make Johann proud.

And it's good to have Alice back.

[McLaughlin]

I once dodged a blue shell in DS. No one believes me.

I juked one on the N64 once. The worst thing about it is that it never even helps the guy who uses it, it just screws the person in first. If I see one on the map I usually just slow down and fall into second right before it catches up.

[Keiko_Seisha]

I liked these last two. Zoe and Keiko work well together, and Keiko's plan should make Johann proud.


Till he finds out about the bad secret she's keeping from him.

[Xaeris]

It's okay. You do this for a few years and your need for attention gets to be like a desert mouse's need for water: very efficient. I just found it a little amusing how I get through talking about how Johann chapters rate higher than Keiko chapters and then that happens.

Fun story about Mario Kart. Several weeks back, I was playing the Wii version with a cute ginger number. It didn't work out. She said it was because I was too witty, sexy and handsome. One of the preceding sentences may or may not be true. Anyway, we were neck and neck on the third lap when the CPU, of course, chucked a blue shell at me. I heard the hiss, so I pulled in close on her side and hit a booster mushroom to get clear of the blast. She took the hit and I speed on past the finish line, like, four seconds later. It was absolutely glorious. She wouldn't talk to me for like half an hour. Granted, I forfeit any chance I had of getting lucky that night, but it was so so worth it.

Naturally, the cat does come out of the bag, eventually. It's ugly business.

[McLaughlin]

It's okay.

We all know gingers are extinct.

[CupOfCoffee]

Haha, hmm... for some reason I thought I'd read and commented on this already, and the previous chapter, too. I even remember typing stuff. Something is amiss.

But yeah--excellent chapters, both. I'm also increasingly interested about exactly what went on during the vacation. I know you said it was a PSO2 failsafe, but I think it could be equally appealing as a PSO spinoff. I mean, just imagine all the ornately decorated, area-specific eyepatches Johann could find and cycle through.

On the topic of the blue shell: I've never dodged one or seen anyone dodge one, but I'm also the type of Mario Kart player that absolutely refuses to play all but the three most palatable tracks, and only as Yoshi, who is the best.

[McLaughlin]

Wario Stadium, Toad.

Come at me bro.

[Xaeris]

All right, you've all been very patient with the story's lack of action recently. It starts to pay off a little this chapter. Do enjoy.

Chapter 25: Reunion's End

”Alice!” I said. Okay, maybe I squealed a little bit. I couldn’t help it though. I hadn’t seen her in months and, well, I missed her. So, to see her standing right there in my house’s foyer put me over the moon. I took the steps, two at a time, and rushed over to her, just as Johann was coming in through the door behind her.
”Keiko!” she said as she put her arms out to catch me. I did a little bunny hop to get my arms around her shoulders when I got close enough and we had a happy hug. “I can hardly recognize ya!” she said after she gave me a squeeze around my waist. The last time she saw me, I had the figure of a twelve year old boy. I don’t mind saying it now because now I’m hot. …Screw your theory, Johann.
”Oh, thanks. It’s been a hard few months,” I said. “Your mom was really nice to me!”
”Ah, I get it now. Momma’s cooking will put meat on a mosquito!” Yeah…Alice had a way of insulting you without even realizing it. Still, she spoke so sweetly, you couldn’t really get mad at her. So, I just gave her a lop sided smile as Gwen came in through the door behind Johann.
”Oo, let me get in on the love!” she said as she skipped over and put her arms around us from the side. “Together again! I missed us!”
”I’ll say!” Alice said as we brought the hug in tighter.
”Aren’t you going to come, Jo-sei?” I asked, looking over to Johann who was staying put by the door. “And stop smoking in my house. Bad dog.”
”No one wants a man in their fanservice, Keiko,” he said, tapping ash onto the floor. “Though, it is nice to see the three of you together again. It’s…sweet.” It really was. Our first trip to Dezolis brought the three of us together. After that, the three of us hardly ever gathered at the same time, which made me sad, because, between the three of us, I think we had a good friendship. If I had had either of them for support when I was sulking on Moatoob, I probably wouldn’t have spent so long sulking.
”Oh, I know, we should come up with a name for the three of us!” Gwen said.
”I like that idea, what are ya thinking?” Alice asked.
”If I may interject with a suggestion, I propose ‘Launcher’s Angels,” Johann said, raising his finger. But then, he pulled his finger back to his chin and said, “oh wait, father took that one. Hmm…’Johann’s Angels’ seems self aggrandizing though. What else…oh, I’ve got it: the Funbag Jiggles Brigade! What do you think?”
”I think it’s time we shaved you, now that we’re together again,” I said through a dead stare.
”I, uh, I remembered I have somewhere I need to be,” he said as he cast Ryuker.
”Boo, he ran away,” I said as we began to break the hug. “He’s right though, I need to head up to Dezolis soon.”
”More blackmailing to do, your eminence?” Gwen asked.
”No. Now that we’re clear to go mushroom picking, we have to actually go pick them now. The Guardians have been setting up a staging area for the operation since we left. That’s probably where Jo-sei went, actually,” I said. “I should get dressed and get ready to join them all out there.” Yeah, I forgot to say, it was morning, so I hadn’t gotten dressed yet. I was standing there in boy shorts and a sports bra. “I’ll be right back,” I said as I went back up the steps.
Since I was going to be making a public appearance, I had to pay special attention to my appearance that morning as I got dressed. Getting ready in the morning was always a chore, but the days I’d be speaking or negotiating, or just be anywhere there might be a camera made it really exhausting. Before all that madness, when I was just a princess, the morning routine was easy. I’d get out of bed, fluff my hair a bit, brush my teeth, splash some water on my face and throw on whatever. If I was feeling pretty, I’d put some lip gloss on. Easy.
My routine as empress, on the other hand, was just ridiculous. Thankfully, mother kept her bathroom fully stocked with makeup, because I wouldn’t have had any clue what to buy. There was this bristle thing I used on my eyelashes, some kind of pad I used to dab dust on my cheeks, and three different kinds of goop to put on my lips. It felt like I was putting armor on my face sometimes. I actually wanted to ban makeup a few years ago, but Johann talked me out of it. Something about how female facial structure has adapted to having three pounds of goop on it at all times and it would be against nature. It sounded really impressive at the time.
Anyway, I did all that, put on my dress, and headed back downstairs. As I was coming down, Alice gasped and said, “omigosh, you look so pretty!” See, that was the other annoying thing about that routine: I had to put up with everyone calling me pretty all day. I know, that sounds like an awful thing to complain about, but that’s just how I felt.
I just said, “thanks,” with a smile. Then, “okay, I’m taking the Serendipity back up to Dezolis. You guys want to come? You can help us pick mushrooms. I guess.”
”Sure, I was planning on helping out,” Gwen said.
”All righty, but, uh…what’s going on?” Alice asked. “I don’t think I right understand.”
”I’ll explain it on the flight over, c’mon,” I said as I headed for the door. I guessed that someone didn’t bring Alice up to speed because he’s a self involved jerk, so, I explained the current situation as best I could as I flew the Serendipity up to Dezolis. From what had happened since Rozenom to the plan we were putting into action, I did a lot of talking. She seemed impressed by the time we were ready to land.
”You sure got a lot done, Keiko. Sorry I was asleep while you were working your tail off,” she said.
”What? No, that’s okay. We’re all together again and that’s what counts,” I said. Seemed like a silly thing to apologize for, to me. Especially considering she was inactive because she saved Johann from going splat back at Rozenom.
The Guardians had set up base camp at Dezolis’ shore line. Flying over it, I was impressed at how quickly they got set up, when it had just barely been twenty four hours since I got approval for them to go in. A large section of the toadstools had been cut away to make room for a landing pad for G-Flyers, which were landing and taking off constantly. There were some simple looking buildings, like shuttle hangars, built and I figured those were things like relief and command stations. Adding to those, the shore had a few docks built onto it, for the ships to carry the mushrooms out.
As I landed the Serendipity onto the flyer pad, I thought about how efficiently we were carrying this operation out. It was as if we were a military, the way we got everything set up so quickly. Getting off the ship and warping below, I was immediately overcome by just how many Guardians there were scurrying about with somewhere to be and something to do. I guess it was the feeling people get when they’re a part of something bigger than themselves that gives them a purpose.
”Yeesh, it’s busy around here,” Gwen said as she tossed her pink hair.
”It is just our way of life at stake. Now, where to go…” I said. Just as I was asking that, I spotted Sable walking up to us. Usually, she tried to dress cute, but that day, it seemed like she knew she had work to do, so she was in some shorts and a tank top. It was weird to see her dressed so…practically. Also, she had a hard hat on, which she adjusted when she called out to me, “Keiko, hi!”
”Hey Sable. Are you busy?” I asked.
”Nah. I’m here for you actually. I spotted the Serendipity while you were in the air, so I came over to say what’s up,” she said. Dezolis, like most of Neudaiz, was humid, so her hair had poofed up underneath her hat. She tugged at it, wincing, and asked, “friends of yours?”
”Yeah! That’s Alice, and that’s Gwen,” I said, stepping aside to let them step up. Gwen just waved from where she was, but Alice walked up and extended her hand.
”Glad to meet ya,” she said as they shook hands. It was soft, simple handshake at first, but somehow, after a few seconds, they were grinding into each other’s hands like cashews.
”That’s a hell of a grip for a newman,” Sable said as they broke it off. Alice just laughed and blushed.
”Hey, Sable, what is all this?” I asked.
”This is base camp for Operation Gingersnuff,” she said.
”…You got to name it?”
”Heh, yeah, Stacy was pissed. Anyway, we’ve been putting together the basics for what we need to do this. We’ve got 85% of our Guardians either here or on the way.”
”Oh, so that’s what the hat is for?”
”Yup! I’ve been slinging beams and drywall since midnight!” she said, flexing an arm. “I’m not even done yet. You can find Stacy inside the big top with the Guardians’ flag sticking out the top. You should go check in.”
”Hey, think I can help?” Alice said, pointing at herself.
”Yeah, you look like you can do some lifting. All right, follow me!” Sable said as she ran off to whatever project she was working on next. Alice took off after her, waving back to me before breaking into full speed.
”I’ve never seen someone so anxious to sweat,” Gwen said as she watched them run off.
From there, Gwen and I headed for the big top that Sable mentioned. It wasn’t like a circus big top: she just meant the general shape. It wasn’t even that big, but it looked like the sturdiest thing in the camp, next to the first aid station. On the way, I endured the constant stream of “you look beautiful” and “you’re so pretty” compliments and tried not to draw too much attention to myself. Inside, I saw Stacy hunched over a glass table, sliding holograms back and forth with her finger. She was so engrossed, she didn’t notice I had entered until I said something.
”Hey Stacy!”
”Huh? Oh, her eminence. What can a humble commoner like myself possibly help you with?” she asked, looking up from the table.
”Oh, stop. How long have you been here?” I asked.
”Just a few hours. Sable took the initiative in getting this place set up, along with some volunteers. I told her not to call me to come down until she had someplace with A/C,” she said. She was kidding. I think. Her eyes lingered on Gwen for a bit, then, she pushed up her glasses and looked back down at the table she was using as a video screen. “Who’s your friend?”
”Name’s Gwendolyn Milady,” Gwen said. Stacy’s head shot up from the table at that.
”That’s impossible. Gwendolyn Milady is a 177 Rp brunette human.”
”Well, yeah, but…”
”That’s a hell of a disguise, Milady! I’ve been waiting for a chance to whip your skank ass!” she yelled. By then, I was thoroughly confused.
”What did you do?” I whispered to Gwen.
”Well, back in 97-“
”Ugh, nevermind.” I put up my arms and waved them across my chest at Stacy, who was already starting to take a fighting stance. “Listen, Stacy, I don’t know what Gwen stole, but she’s one of my handmaidens, so she has diplomatic immunity while on Neudaiz, okay?”
”What?!” she yelled.
”Oo, does this mean I can steal whatever I want when I’m on Neudaiz?” Gwen asked.
”Don’t push it,” I said.
”Fine…” Stacy said as she grudgingly relaxed and turned back to the table. “Anyway, we’re still setting up. Obviously, Sable and I are here, as are you. The other aegii are en route. Once we’re all here, we’ll have a meeting.”
”Okay. So what are you doing right now?”
”Just going over some environmental reports from some exploratory scouting I ordered. I’d like to know what kind of monsters we’re sending our Guardians into,” she said. “So far, it doesn’t look like anything too bad. That does remind me though, there was a little girl who kept referring to herself as ‘myself’ looking for you.”
”Oh, that’s Li Ming. Yeah, I’ll take care of that,” I said with a sigh. I turned to leave the tent, but before I opened the flap, I turned back and said, “please try not to kill each other while I’m gone.”
So, I went to go look for Li Ming. Thing was, I never found her. I spent around an hour walking around the camp, asking around for a midget newman girl, and never did find her. I can’t say I was too sad about it, but I did find it weird. If only that had been the end of it…but, I’m getting ahead of myself. That would come back to bite me in the butt later.
Anyway, I got a mail for me to come back to the tent, so, I abandoned my search. When I got in, all the others were there, standing around the table. I guess no one thought to bring chairs.
”All right, that’s all of us. You gotta go now, Gwen. We’re good for spinning class tomorrow?” Stacy asked.
”Wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Gwen said as she skipped to leave. I looked over to Johann for an explanation, and he just narrowed his eye and shook his head in disgust. Apparently, he wasn’t sure what the hell happened in that hour either.
”Everyone already knows what we’re doing here, so, let me get down to the details,” Stacy said as I found a place at the table. “This is a map of Dezolis,” she continued, pointing at the map the table was displaying. “Based on reports, I’ve divided it into a whole bunch of sectors.” She tapped the table once and the map lit up with four different colors, like sprinkles on a cupcake.
”I take it you’ve divided them based upon the valence of the native monsters within?” Johann asked.
”Right! Green is C class. Blue is B class. Orange is A class. And, of course, red is S class,” she said.
”Looks like there’s more green and blue than anything else,” I said.
”Yeah, that’s pretty lucky for us. We may have more Guardians than ever, but a lot of them are still learning. We can have them harvest mushrooms from the C and B areas,” Stacy said.
”Which leaves the A and S areas to our seasoned fighters. Seems acceptable,” Johann said.
”There’s purple,” Zoe said, pointing at single purple sector.
”Good catch, Zoe. That sector seems to have stronger monsters than even the S sectors. It’s like an S2 sector, for lack of a better term. I was just going to write it off, but it also seems that the concentration of the mushrooms we need is really high there.”
”So you’d rather not let them go to waste,” Johann said.
”Right. At the same time though, I’d rather not risk any of the rank and file in there. So, I’d like some volunteers from this table to go mushroom picking in that sector. I’d go, but, I’m heading up base camp here.”
”Don’t look at me, I’m still building base camp,” Sable said.
”I can go,” I said, raising my hand.
”Ah, actually Keiko, I want you in the relief station. It’s not a high risk mission, but at the same time, I want to keep our causalties to the absolute smallest number possible,” Stacy said. “How about you Elly?”
”Sorry, but I have to log the purity of the incoming mushrooms before we ship them back to keep track of how much energy we’ve gathered,” she said.
”Geez, when did we all become such important people?” Stacy asked as she ran a hand up through her hair.
”It’s cool, I can go,” Ethan said. We all turned our heads at him and that made him jump.
”Well…I guess there’s really no problem with that. Still, I’d rather not send the new guy alone,” Stacy said.
”I won’t be alone. Me and Karen said we’d help with the mushroom picking today, so we’ll just do that in the S2 sector,” he said. Again, we stared. Before he could jump though, Sable walked up to him and clamped her hands down on his shoulders with a smile.
”That’s the way to do it! Get the two of you alone so you can tell her how you feel about her!” she said.
”It’s so romantic! Are you nervous?” Stacy asked, putting her hands together.
”Wait, huh? Uh, I mean, yeah, I’m a little nervous since I haven’t spent any time with her in a while now…” Ethan said. Poor guy. Even by then, I don’t think he understood what kind of personalties he was working with.
”Don’t worry, you just need to be yourself! If you have any questions though, we can give you all kinds of advice!” Sable said, slapping him on the shoulders. “This is so exciting, young love!”
”I-I didn’t think it was that big a deal…” Ethan said, rubbing his hand behind his head. I could see Stacy and Sable were beginning to psych him out, because he got a worried look in his eyes. “Uh, is it really okay if I’m just myself?”
”Waber, you’ll never get laid if you listen to these two old maids,” Johann said.
”Screw you Johann! What do you know about a woman’s heart?!” Stacy said.
”Quite a bit, actually. And certainly at least more than you two put together,” he said, shrugging his arms with a smirk on his face.
”Don’t listen to him Ethan. Obviously, you’d take advice on women from women, right?” Sable said.
”Oh, you want to play credentials, do you?” Johann asked. “All right Waber, let me frame this simply from you. You can take advice from these women, creatures who are notorious for giving terrible advice regarding relationships because they have no clue what the hell they want,” he said, gesturing his hand toward each of us in the room. Then, he pointed at himself and said, “or, you can take advice from the guy who has banged every woman in this room a combined total of three hundred forty seven times.” All eyes went to me. “What? Obviously, I’m not counting Keiko as a woman you idiots! Freaking Maiden, that’s like incest or something. Gross.”
”Gee, thanks,” I said.
”Someone in this room is slutting it up,” Sable said, innocently averting her eyes to the ceiling.
”Someone in this room is a beast who does more spreading than a butter knife,” Stacy said, pointing her glare at Sable.
”You want to fight, bitch? Bring your apple bottom ass over here and I’ll make pie!” Sable said, pulling her head back down towards Stacy with frenzied smile showing off her sharp teeth. While that got underway, Johann and Ethan snuck out.
”Is that really okay?” I overheard Ethan whisper.
”It’s fine, they’re BFF,” Johann said.
So, with our plan for the day set, we all went to work on our separate duties. I was surprised that Johann actually went with Ethan. For one thing, he hates menial labor, but more than that, it almost sounded as if he wanted to hang out with him. Go figure. I was busy in the first aid station, overseeing our nurses and intervening in the worst cases.
For a few hours, my day was pretty normal. Boring, even. Then, it started with an explosion. The ground rumbled and the relief hut trembled. I looked at my PDA, maybe to see if there were any notices from Stacy about it, but, nothing. I wasn’t sure why at the time, but I felt a bit of dread at the bottom of my stomach. Still, I ran out of the hut and looked in the direction of the explosion to see…it’s hard to describe. It was like a pale pink filter over the sky that cast a soft glow on everything on the ground.
I could hear the other Guardians murmuring, wondering what it could be, or how dangerous it might be. That dread in my stomach grew, and I took off in that direction. I didn’t know what I was going to find as I raced through the mushrooms, hopping over ledges, sliding beneath foliage, but I just knew there was something important in that direction. I sprinted for ten minutes straight, not slowing down for anything until I finally came to a plateau and saw a sight I still can’t get out of my mind.
”Jo-sei…” I said breathlessly. He was an absolute mess. He was just barely conscious with his clothes torn into tatters barely clinging to his body. His face was bloodied and he had an open wound in his chest that was freely spilling blood on the ground. More importantly than that, she was holding his torso off the ground by an arm while his body hung limp. Who was ‘she’? Gwendolyn, of course.
Oh, there were pink cracks all over her body and she had a sickening radiance, but it was definitely her. Her hair was flying in the breeze and her eyes were glowing: it really was like looking at a feral demon. I asked, “G-Gwen! What the hell are you doing?!”
She turned her head over her shoulder and smiled at me. “I’m gently caressing him to death, what does it look like?” she said as she traced a nail over Johann’s throat, drawing blood.
”St-stop! You’re killing him!”
”Yes. Hence, the ‘to death’ part. You’re a little slow, aren’t you, sweetie?” she said as she dug her nail deeper.
”I said stop!” I screamed. I pulled the nasuyoteri out from nanospace and leveled my aim at her as Shato floated on top of my head. “Stop, or I swear I’ll kill you!”
”Oh, this is going to be hilarious,” she said as she dropped Johann onto the ground to face me.

[McLaughlin]

Let the ass-kickery commence.

[Magus_84]

While I feel bad for Johann, I have to admit I always wanted to see this fight.

Good stuff.

[Xaeris]

What, Keiko vs. Gwen?

...

You may be disappointed.

[McLaughlin]

Gwen against anyone is bound to be pretty interesting. She's already handed Johann his ass twice now, and if she can beat him so handily, what hope does that leave the rest of the cast?

If we're placing bets on who's going to confront her, I'll put my money on Alice or Li Ming.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Oh snap, the fan has been hit, for the uh... Crap, I lost count now. How many times as it been already.

Whatever, interesting off-screen development, I'm sure we'll get Hann's side of what exactly happened to that point.

[Xaeris]

At this point in the story, Johann kinda sucks. It's not like his emo is crippling him, but it's enough to say that he was stronger in Rozenom than he is here. When he sorts out his problem (in epic fashion), we'll see him at his absolute best in battle and it'll be pretty lulzy. Right now though, a few of the others could have actually put up a better showing in that fight. Elly? Lolno, he's not that nerfed. Sable or Zoe would do okay against Gwen. Stacy would actually win. As for Keiko...well, we'll see how that goes, won't we?

What I'm saying is he lacks RESOLVE.

[McLaughlin]

Would Stacy win because she's willing to kill Gwen and Johann isn't, or because Johann is just that off his game?

Either way, looking forward to the next chapter.

[Xaeris]

He's pretty far off his game, but Stacy would win simply because she's legitimately better at fighting than Johann is. A small problem with the story is that since it follows Johann and Keiko, it doesn't give the others much opportunity to shine. In reality, it's no accident that Stacy is Aegis-Commander. Remember, the moment you underestimate a ginger is the moment they devour your soul.

[Magus_84]

Remember, the moment you underestimate a ginger is the moment they devour your soul.

Truer words, never been spoken, etc. I find that's more for the female of the species, however. I very rarely manage an underestimated-ginger-power-boost. :(

And the Keiko/Gwen fight doesn't interest me so much for the mechanics as the psychological component. On paper, it'll likely be a roflstomp.

But Keiko's got quite a bit to fight for. And she's learning sneakiness admirably well.

Also, they're sitting near a huge-ass source of radiance. Though I don't recall if Johann ever communicated specifics of Gwen's condition to Keiko.

[Xaeris]

Oh good, we're coming up on 4444 views again.

Chapter 26: Shattered Resolve

Oh hell no. You think I don’t see what you’re trying to do? The only people that get beaten off screen are jobbers and mooks. I am neither. We’re rewinding.
Right, so, Ethan and I left the big top and paused outside the flap to discuss strategy. It was somewhat difficult to talk, given the cacophony being made by all the Guardians skittering about and the vehicles arriving and departing. Like Keiko said, it was a large scale operation that we had put together in a short time, so to call it all very frantic would be an understatement.
”Where’s Miss Erra?” I asked, raising my voice.
”One sec,” he replied, looking down at the PDA on his wrist. I figured he had already made a party with her and was looking her up on his map. “Guess she wanted some quiet time. She’s at the edge of the camp.”
”Very well, let’s walk.” And walk we did. Not to boast, but two rather famous Guardians were walking through a camp filled with 80% of the Guardians’ roster: we spent quite a bit of time fielding questions and signing autographs. It was something I was rather used to, but Ethan looked bewildered by all the attention, with his constant stuttering and nervous chuckling. As we got to the outer reaches of the camp and the crowd thinned out, we talked a bit.
”Not used to attention, are you?” I asked.
”Heck no! Geez, just half a year ago, I was some kid on Colony,” he said. “Was it the same for you when you joined?”
”Not particularly. I’ve always been a big deal,” I said. I briefly looked over to him and saw the exasperated grimace on his face. “I’m a beast raised on Neudaiz; I’m used to standing out,” I said, trying to clarify my meaning.
”Oh.”
”At any rate, there are very few things in this life that aren’t made easier by experience. You’ll be fine.”
”I hope so. But if that’s true, how come it’s still so hard to talk to Karen?” he asked, throwing his hands down at his sides.
”Because you’ve come down with a terrible malady known as oneitis,” I said. Oneitis is truly a terrible disease that largely affects men between the ages of 18 and 25, though cases in men as old as 60 have been reported. Oneitis typically manifests as an acute anxiety that prevents one from expressing themselves around the person causing his oneitis. This anxiety stems from the fear that one has but a single chance at the love of their lives and that any mistakes made will cost them dearly. I must confess, I myself was a sufferer of oneitis. I was four years in remission at the time. It was a very dark part of my life that I’m happy to put behind me.
”What?”
”Listen, Ethan. From what it sounds like, Miss Erra already enjoys your company very much. So that means, you were doing something right. Just keep being yourself,” I said. Just as I said that, a pair of hands came over my eyes. Well, eye, but, you know. “Gwendolyn, act your age,” I said.
”What? How’d you know it was me?” she said from behind, without actually taking her hands off my face.
”Oh, you mean besides the fact that you’re one of the few grown women I know who would do this? Your scent is distinct,” I said. Being a canine beast, I have a fairly good sense of smell. I couldn’t track someone across a long distance or anything ridiculous like that, but I can distinguish between scents I know with relative ease. My hearing is rather good as well, but not like Sable’s. I rarely called attention to it because I got enough comments on being a dog as it was.
”I’m not sure how I feel about you sniffing me out,” she said as she lowered her hands.
”Come to think of it, this is good timing. Gwendolyn, help me out with something,” I said. She perked up at my coming request for help and Ethan just stood there, watching with what was probably a look of slight confusion. “Give my friend here a hug,” I said, pointing to Ethan.
”Wait, what?” he asked.
Gwendolyn looked Ethan over a moment, and then shrugged. “Okay, sure.” She trotted over to Ethan and spread her arms to take him into a hug. “Nice to meet you!” she said as Ethan tried to shrink away.
Quite often, I get men asking me how to have success with women. It’s quite understandable, really, given my record and reputation. In dispensing advice, I’ve found that one of the greatest hurdles that the shy man has to overcome is his belief that women will be repulsed by him so much as glancing at them. In reality, it is not difficult to get women to touch you. Like, it’s not even a tiny bit hard. Getting them to touch your pecker, that’s another matter (still not that difficult), but just touching you in general? So easy.
Enter, the hug, a lovely little invention. It is a simple, brief form of tactile contact that presses the jumblies against one’s chest, yet, it is surprisingly easy to get. As long as you’re clean, just about any woman on speaking terms with you will grant you a hug. In fact, if you were to say, ‘I’ve had an awful day. I could use a hug,’ I would guarantee that 99.9% of the women who fit the criteria in your life will grant you that hug. The .1%? That’s just accounting for amputees. Yet, so many men remain convinced that this is difficult somehow, it boggles the mind.
So, when one of these men actually acquires a hug, an interesting phenomenon known as ‘hoverhands’ occurs. It’s more or less what it sounds like; the hug is reciprocated, but the man will avoid actually touching the woman. There are various stages of this phenomenon, and at its worst, an outside observer might think there’s some sort of force field surrounding the woman from the way the man has positioned his body around her. Of course, Ethan was exhibiting this worst case.
Gwendolyn stepped away, looking Ethan over again, and then looked to me. “You thinking virgin?”
”Turbovirgin. It’s fine, I like a challenge,” I said. “Let’s move along.”
Off we went, a little further, to collect Karen who we found sitting on a fallen mushroom stalk. Dezolis was really a rather ugly land, now that I’m thinking about it.
”Hey, Karen!” Ethan said. His voice did this odd thing where it started off elated and high pitched and immediately tried to lower itself to a calm and cool bass. It was painful to hear.
”Hello Ethan,” she said, standing up with a smile. She certainly had it bad for him. She preened the bottom of her dress and pulled a tuft of hair away from her face. It was anyone’s guess how he still had her interest despite his best efforts, but, there it was. “Oh, and Aegis Launcher too.”
”Divine Maiden,” I said, greeting her with a bow. “This is my friend-“
”Girlfriend,” Gwendolyn said.
”Yeah, fine. At any rate, shall we head out?”
And so, we set out for the hill of spores. It was apparent when we arrived due to the wealth of the mushrooms we were looking for. Each of them had a faint glow, but all of them clustered together lit up our target area like a gigantic bottle of fireflies. It seemed eerie to me, but the women were quite taken with it.
”Oh wow, this would be a beautiful place to come to at night,” Gwendolyn said.
”The lights are so pretty, I’ve never seen anything like it!” Karen said.
”Sightsee later. We have work to do,” I said. We went about picking the mushrooms. Given the quantity, it was easy. We could hardly spit without hitting a mushroom. While we worked, we encountered some of the wildlife, which we dispatched without incident. It did give me the opportunity to see how Ethan used the Orotiagito, though. He was surprisingly good with it, making clean slices through the frog things without losing momentum.
”Don’t get too attached. I’ve almost finished your double saber,” I said as I lit some rappies on fire.
”Aw, but I like it. I managed to make it fire some sort of wave thingy one time!”
”That ‘wave thingy’ is a family secret,” I said. We had a lot of family secrets. Seemed unnecessary, honestly. Anyway, I decided it was time to put my plan into action. I nodded to Gwendolyn, and she nodded back.
”Wow, I’m feeling a little dizzy,” she said.
”Perhaps it’s the ambience of the A-photons in the air. If we double back a little to a place we’ve already picked clean, you can catch your breath,” I said.
”Oh, all right. Let’s go, I guess?” Ethan said.
”No, we shouldn’t hold you back. I’ll stay with Gwendolyn and you and Karen can go on ahead of us. We’ll catch up,” I said. With a little apprehension, they nodded as Gwendolyn and I went back the way we came.
”Not as diabolically clever as usual,” she said once we got a fair distance away.
”Sometimes, simple is better,” I said. Looking around, I saw a large toadstool that could serve as a chair, and went over to have a seat. Of course, Gwendolyn joined me, and we had ourselves a siesta. “Now that they’re alone, things should proceed nicely.”
”I’m surprised you care so much. Does he remind you of yourself?” she asked.
”Hell no. When I was his age, I was a beast in a school filled with newman girls and my only competition was newmen boys. I was drowning in ass. I just felt like being helpful, that’s all.”
”Uh huh. Anyway, it looks like we have some time to kill…” She tossed her hair and puckered her lips for a kiss. I wasn’t about to protest. I do very much enjoy kissing women, if that’s not hilariously obvious by this point. So, I kissed her. Then came a warm, sticky sensation. …I’m talking about blood.
Being as I am the main character, *ahem*, I am fairly used to lying in a pool of my own blood. That just comes with the territory. To me, bleeding is as natural as breathing. That isn’t to say that bleeding is not an unpleasant sensation. I’m much happier with my fluids inside me. At the same time though, the pain doesn’t interrupt me from doing what I’m doing as it would a less hardened soul.
What I’m saying is, when I pulled back from the kiss to investigate, I was surprised to see Gwendolyn’s fingers impaled in my ribcage. “The hell?” I asked as I peeled away with my wand deployed.
”Oh come on, you knew you were working on borrowed time here,” she said as the cracks burst on her face. As they did, her expression became sinister with a toothy grin and a flutter of her eyelashes. “Are you all right? Maybe you should get that looked at,” she said, smirking at my injury. I had already assessed it. My line shield had taken most of the attack, which was why there wasn’t a hand sized hole where my heart was, but my shield had become infected. The hexes that didn’t get shattered by her thrust had become dim, misshapen and were being slowly devoured by a dark mist.
”I’m a little surprised that this is the first virus you’ve ever given me,” I said as I raised the Save the Maiden to cast Reverser. Obviously, the intent was to cure the virus, but it persisted even after the bright flash of the rings that surrounded me. “Uh…”
”Please, even your princess would have trouble lifting that virus. You think you and your crappy support teching could do it?” she asked, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. I assume she was laughing.
”Tch, no problem. Gwendolyn will be happy to do it after I shove a Vivace into you,” I said as I swiped my wand across the air to turn it into a rapier. I sounded tough, but the fight was already off to a bad start, between the bleeding hole in my chest and the virus that was slowly eating away at my hex purity. I started off with a foie, sending a blazing streak of fire at her in a flash. As fast as it raced through the mushrooms in the way though, she pirouetted out the way as if I had given her all day to do so.
”You still don’t get it, do you? I am Gwendolyn,” she said. It was true. At the time, I didn’t understand it. My impression of the whole situation was that there was Gwendolyn, and there was the Great Shadow and they vied for control of the body. It…didn’t work quite like that, but I wouldn’t understand how it really worked until our last battle. But, I get ahead of myself.
Apart from the mushrooms we had been looking for, the area was filled with other kinds of mushrooms as well. There were particularly tall mushroom caps that stood like trees and cast wide shadows over the field. She floated up high beneath one and cast a rabarta over my head. I dove out of the way of the falling ice block, and aggravated my injury in the process. Still, I steadied myself and flung another foie at her, making her float out of the way. It’s not like I expected them to hit but…wait, I’ve said this already, haven’t I? Yeah, okay.
The foies were giving me an idea for her movement capability, and she seemed happy enough to let me assess her ability for as long as I pleased. That is, until she said, “how long are you going to spend making me dance around? Put a tampon in and attack seriously already!” I’m sure she was insulting me, but really, a tampon would have been great for that wound. On a more serious note, she was right; I was spending longer than usual in my threat assessment phase. As I considered how to attack, I constantly kept thinking of what could go wrong. It was a persistent, nagging doubt that I wasn’t at all used to having in my mind.
So, I decided the best way to deal with it was to go all in. I threw my coat off and put my hand over my tattoo. “You want an attack?! Here comes an attack!” I yelled as I initiated my nanoblast. My body glowed white as it absorbed photons and prepared for transformation, but just as it was about to change shape, I had a blowout. The light burst, like a barbeque grill having a false start, and I was left in my normal body, thoroughly confused.
”Having problems getting it up?” she asked, laughing at me.
Between the virus hampering my photon intake, and the mushrooms emitting a wealth of A-photons, I was having the same problem I had back when fighting the Headmaster in Rozenom. Considering the opponent, I was pretty screwed, but I wasn’t about to just bend over. I was about to try something else when she dove at me from the air like a hawk. At the same time, she raised a radiga beneath my feet and launched me at herself. When we met in the air, she lit a rafoie in my face and blew me back to the ground in a smoking heap.
”If you can’t nanoblast, you won’t provide me with much entertainment, so I’ll just hurry up and kill you,” she said as she cast gibarta around me. A fine mist of frost began to appear around me and I just barely managed to roll out of the way before it froze into a cluster of ice spikes, all pointed at where I had been lying. I scrambled back onto my feet and sloppily tossed another foie in her direction. Of course, she floated out of the way. “Johann, you’re so boring today!”
After wheezing to catch my breath, I pointed at her in the air to direct her attention to the mushroom cap about to fall on her head. The foie was aimed at the stalk, which I hit, and intended to provide me with a moment’s cover. Literally; she looked up just in time to see the cap covering her and dragging her back to the ground beneath it. I wanted to make a quip, but the infection was steadily becoming worse and it was all I could do to keep my head above water. I tried to cure it again, with no result, and cursed beneath my breath.
A moment later, the cap went up in smoke, with barely a flicker of the flame used to incinerate remaining. “Oh good, you have a trick or two in you. I was worried,” she said. She started walking towards me, and as she did, a large slab of rock rose from the ground and flew at me. Diga isn’t hard to counter. There’s a number of ways to do it. Divert it with an ice ramp, catch it with a nosmegid or just blow it to pebbles with a zonde. Any of those would have worked. But I didn’t do any of those. Sure, I pointed my wand at the diga and got ready to do something, but when the moment came…I choked. I just froze up and the diga hit me head on. It dragged me skidding along the ground for a bit before it finally flew above me and let me tumble to a halt.
I would have had a hard time getting back onto my feet even if Gwendolyn hadn’t come over and kicked me in my wound. “Are you serious right now?” she asked as she bent over and wrapped her fingers around my throat. “That whole big rousing talk you gave the other night, were you just lying?” With her other hand, she slapped my chest with a splatter of electricity and made my body jump and convulse while I grit my teeth, trying to ride it through.
I put my own hand on her breast, not really caring for modesty at the time, and detonated a bunch of her hexes, knocking her off me with regrant. “It wasn’t a lie,” I said as I got onto my knees. “I will beat you. I promised.”
”If that’s the best you can do,” she said as she righted herself in the air, “don’t plan on keeping that promise. She sent another diga at me, which I was ready for that time. I went with the straightforward approach and shot a zonde at it to blow it to pieces. What I wasn’t ready for Gwendolyn warping behind me and laying her hand on my shoulder. As I turned my head over my shoulder, she smirked at me, and charged a pale, glowing halo on her other hand. Before I could react further, it tore through me, sucking the life out of me as it passed through.
”D-damn…” I muttered as I hit the ground. Let’s see…I believe that’s everything. As you were, Keiko.

[McLaughlin]

Does that mean we get a colour chapter soon?

Also, lol'd a turbovirgin. Great work, again.

Edit: There's an orphaned "I" in the paragraph that begins with Gwen saying "Oh come on, you knew you were working on borrowed time here." It's between the "why" and the "there." Also, when she says "You don't get it do you?", the bold tags are using the wrong brackets.

[Magus_84]

Very nice.

Surprised that Ethan can pull off the Oro wave, though.

[Xaeris]

Thanks, all fixed. As for color, I guess I can do something with the text and make it look like a teenager's MySpace page from ten years ago?

And FML, I missed it.

[McLaughlin]

If it's any consolation, I'm fairly certain you passed it that same night.

[Xaeris]

Whew, this chapter was a headache.

Chapter 27: Boy Loses Girl

It was worth a shot. Still, you can’t deny that all of this totally happened.
In those few seconds before the fight started, I remember feeling anxious. Yeah, that’s nothing strange, but it was a different kind of anxious. Normally, before a battle, all sorts of thoughts would be flying in my head, from what in the environment I could use to what kind of abilities the enemy might have. Looking at Gwen back then, I can distinctly recall the dead silence in my mind. I don’t think it was fear; at least, not more than the usual. I think it was just that I didn’t believe the insane situation I was in.
”You must be thrilled at this chance, Keiko,” she said as raised a finger into the air. Razonde went off and down came a bolt of yellow lightning onto where I was standing. I dove out of the way as soon as she raised her finger, so it wasn’t a direct hit, but I still caught a shock. “It’s not like you’ve ever liked me,” she said, calling down another razonde with a curl of her finger. I jumped out of the way again, and my line shield took some more splash damage from the impact.
”Huh?” I said, as if I was just waking up from a daze. In a way, I sort of was. I dodged those first two razondes pretty much on reflex. It wasn’t until she said that that my mind got a kickstart and that awful silence was replaced with thoughts.
”You thought I never noticed, you spoiled little brat?” she said as she dropped another razonde on me. Yeah, she was just toying with me to begin with. It was fine with me; I was still deciding how I was going to do this. Particularly, I knew I needed to make myself a long enough window to get to Johann and at least cure that virus. Even from as far as I was, I could see how voracious it was. “Always looking at me as if I was just some temporary inconvenience in your life,” she said, with another razonde.
It’s not like she was completely off base. In the beginning, I didn’t think Gwen would be hanging out with us for very long. Or Alice either. You have to understand, the girls in Johann’s life had a very short shelf life. After a while, I got used to thinking of them as fleeting acquaintances whenever he’d bring one back to Neudaiz. And sure, I thought it’d be the same deal with Alice and Gwen at first, so maybe I was a tiny bit aloof, but not for that long! It didn’t take me long to start thinking of them as friends! Honestly, she was right when she said I thought she never noticed.
”That’s not how it is!” I said.
”That’s exactly how it is. Like I’m some offense to you and your perfect little life,” she said. She snapped her fingers and over her palm, she made a black, oozing sphere. Megid takes a lot of forms. They’re all pretty disgusting. “Excuse me for not being born a perfect miss princess!” she yelled as she flung it at me. When it hit me, it blew up like a burst balloon and left black wisps all around the field. Gwen sneered and said, “you don’t know me at all. None of you do.”
”You’re right,” I said as the wisps lightened and floated away. The megid didn’t hurt me, since I had cast Rentis right before it hit. The feathers floated around me and I plucked the one that absorbed the impact from the air and held it as it continued to draw in the wisps. “I don’t know you as well as I should. But I know you enough to know that you can’t mean what you’re saying!”
She winced and put her palm over her face like she was in pain. I could see the light in her cracks dim and when they did, she looked up and said, with a lot of effort, “Keiko, f-fight to kill…” It was short lived; right after that, the cracks brightened and she lowered her hand to show me an ugly look. “Sorry about that, you made me a little sick there. Let’s carry on with your death, hmm?”
And that’s when the real fight began. She floated up into the air and I started circling her from the ground, thinking maybe I could blindside her with an arrow. While I was running, she rocked a gidiga on my path. Rentis prevented any damage to my shield, but it couldn’t do anything for my balance as I stumbled over the rumbling ground. She tossed more megids at me, but I jumped right onto my knees and blew them out of the air with some yousei-sous. Sure, Rentis would have just absorbed them, but I could only cast it, maybe, twice in the same fight. It wouldn’t have been smart to just walk into whatever technic she threw at me.
”This might take a bit longer than I thought,” she said, stroking her chin with a smile. I shot some arrows at her. None of them hit, but I couldn’t just sit there and let her fling technics at me all day without doing something. “Oh come on, you don’t think you’re actually going to hit me firing straight on like that, do you?” she asked as she floated out of the way of the last arrow.
”Good point,” I said. I loaded up a boma yoga into my bow and shot it like an arrow. Obviously, if the arrows didn’t hit, a grenade wasn’t going to hit either, but I didn’t intend for it to hit her. Right as I shot it, I had Shato fire a laser at it in mid air. Being a light bullet, it exploded with a bright flash that would have blinded anyone looking at it. So, yeah, I had my eyes covered. Gwen did not.
”Bitch!” she screamed and she clenched her eyes shut. I fired a whole volley of arrows there, making a whole stream of colors from my bow. Like, it’s like I was throwing up confetti on her. I was focused on doing as much damage as I could in that short window, so I wasn’t paying attention to element; I was just imbuing the shots with whatever element was most convenient at the time. The arrows hit her with wisps of flame, crackles of electricity and flashes of light as she dropped from the air. As she fell, I followed up with one last arrow: a boma riga. It blew into her and iced her over in a blink, letting a newman sized popsicle fall onto the ground.
That’s how I won.
Fft, yeah right. When has anyone ever gotten beaten by ice? Still, it did buy me the time I needed to run over to Johann. I dropped to my knees at his side and put a finger on the dirty hexes. “All right, just hold on…” I said as I cast Reverser. The first one didn’t work. It was a pretty filthy virus. The second one, which I put a little more power into, did work. “Jo-sei, are you okay?” I asked as I went to work on his other injuries.
”Ungh…stop healing me,” he said. “You won’t get me into fighting shape in time. Conserve your power for the fight.” I faltered a second when I heard the ice block crack. I chewed my lip, trying to decide what to do and he just nodded. “You know it’s the smart call.” Damn him for being right all the time.
”Okay, I’ll be right back,” I said as I left him. Right then, Gwen bust out of her ice block. She did not look amused. The scorn was practically carved onto her face in between the ice shards still clinging to her skin.
”This, this right here is what I hate about you!” she screamed as she put her hand forward and charged up a foie. It’s not like she stood there for ten seconds making a ball of fire either. This thing expanded to the size of a small house and had the area lit with an orange glow inside of a blink. She knew better than to aim at me because of Rentis, so she aimed at the ground directly in front of me and sent it, and me, up with the explosion. While I was in the air, I tried to let off a volley of arrows to keep her from chasing me, but she charged right through them and clutched my throat in her hand. Then, she slammed me into the ground, still choking me while my free hand clawed at her arm with no effect.
”You, you’re barely fresh out of diapers and here you are with more power than you have any idea what to do with! Did you suffer for it? No. Did you work for it? No. You were just born all friggin’ ready to become perfect!” While she was choking me, she was slamming my head into the ground, so it’s possible I didn’t get everything she said. I definitely got the sentiment though. “In any kind of fair world, you’d have died a long time ago. In this world, you’re queen of the damned planet! And you fill out a pair of Cs! How does this make any sense?!”
I was getting dizzy by then and was definitely going to pass out if I didn’t do something. Problem was, she was on top of me so I couldn’t exactly shoot her from such close range and I couldn’t push her off. It was too bad that Rentis didn’t do anything about having my head beaten in. But, I did come up with something, and I gotta say, I’m a little proud of this. I used Shato to cast damdiga and churn the ground underneath one of Gwen’s feet. Her foot slipped in the mud and that gave me a chance to put my foot up against her belly and shove her off.
”I’m not going to apologize for being born how I was born,” I said between wheezes. I wanted to say a bit more, but then she threw a zonde at me like a javelin. One of my Rentis feathers absorbed it, but I got the feeling it was more to shut me up than it was to hurt me.
”Shut up, shut up, shut up!” She clapped her hands together and called up a nosdiga from the puddle of mud I had just made. Nosdiga is one of those technics that has as many forms as there are techers that cast it. When I use it, I get little garter snakes. When Johann uses it, he makes cobras. Gwen used it, and somehow made a pair of komodo dragons. Like, I wasn’t even sure how the heck that would work, but I had two lizards made of dirt trotting over to me, so I didn’t have time to think about it. I shot one in the head, blowing it clean off, but the head just regenerated from the sludge on the ground.
Full disclosure here: I really hated lizards. So, I was a little frantic as I kept shooting them and that gave Gwen the opportunity she needed to get around behind me without me noticing. “Goodnight sweet princess,” she said as she thrust her hand through my back. Well, she thought she did.
”That’s empress!” I said from behind her, making her whip her head over her shoulder. She looked very surprised. Who could blame her? I unloaded a boma duranga in her face that I had loaded up with a bunch of my own hexes. It cost me a lot of hex purity, but it looked like it did a decent chunk of damage, judging from the way she got thrown back and went tumbling onto the ground.
Hmm? Oh right, I guess I should explain what happened there. Her hand didn’t go through me. It went through a mirage. It’s sort of like making an imprint of yourself using the photons where you’re standing. Johann taught me how to perform a mirage elusion sometime after he explained to me what he had been doing during his vacation. He said that was where he picked it up. He never used it himself though; he said it wasn’t his style. I don’t think that’s it though, since it seems exactly like his brand of shenanigans. I think he just wasn’t that good at it.
While Gwen was picking herself up, I decided to take a chance to speak, since she had done most of the yapping so far. “I’ve never once thought that I was better than anyone just for how I was born, or how good I am at anything!” I yelled. I was tearing up. A little bit from having my head used as a door knocker, but mostly from the fact that she did hit one of my sore spots. It was always something I was thinking of, something I was always trying to avoid. I knew it must have been frustrating for other people, so I always tried my hardest to be deserving of my birthright. Still…I guess it wasn’t enough.
”Bullcrap,” she said as she got up and twisted her neck back into its rightful position. “All those times you’ve called us peasants-“
”I was joking!” I yelled.
”Hell if I care,” she said as she lit a rafoie where I was standing. The Rentis absorbed it and I jumped out from the smoke right away to avoid getting taken by surprise. So, I was a little surprised when I emerged from the smoke cloud and saw she hadn’t made a move. “Your rappy feathers are making this annoying, so…” She raised her hands in the air and between them, a halo grew. It was just like the ones Johann has been describing. It had a pale, unsettling glow, and it was devouring the photons around it, making the air around it look twisty and bendy. “Let’s see ‘em absorb-“
And surprise of surprises, a yellow crescent wave came cutting through the air and into Gwen. It splattered against her body and knocked her back a few steps, but not on her butt. It was enough to get the halo to break, though. We both looked to see where the heck it came from, and I’m not sure which of us was more surprised. “Ethan?” I said.
”I thought there was something fishy in this direction, so I asked Karen to head back so I could come take a look,” he said as he lowered the Orotiagito in front of his legs. “Is Johann all right?” he asked, looking over to where he was lying. Johann quietly raised his thumb into the air. “Awesome. All right, let’s do this!”
”Wow, really?” Gwen said as she dusted off her shoulder. For all the hits I had landed, she didn’t look all that winded. I, on the other hand, was a little short of breath and my head was still swimming from being smashed against the ground. “Okay kid, let’s see what you’ve got,” she said, curling her finger at Ethan.
Ethan pulled out a mechgun from his coat and led his charge with a spray of bullets. Sloppily made bullets, but whatever works, I guess. Gwen just laughed as they whizzed by harmlessly, and floated herself a few inches off the ground as Ethan ran in. The way it was looking, she had plenty of time to predict his assault, so I decided to help him out. I shot an arrow into his back while he ran. It was a blunt one, so I don’t think it hurt too much; the idea was to push him the rest of the distance and catch Gwen by surprise. It sort of worked. He went soaring towards her and she grimaced as he came up on her, but he didn’t get the swing off right and missed as she floated up into the air to avoid him.
”So it’s two on one now?” Gwen asked.
”Hey…” Ethan said as he regrouped back toward me. “Isn’t that…um…the girl that was with Johann?”
”…Yeah,” I said. He looked at me, then back at Gwen. Gwen and I were staring each other down, more or less oblivious to his confusion in the matter, so he probably saw that and felt he had waded into a situation where he didn’t belong. “It’s complicated. Sorry to ask, but could you help me out here?” I asked.
He relaxed his posture a bit and let the katana hang by his side. “Sure, what do you need?” he asked.
”Thirty…no, twenty seconds.”
”That’s all you need to heal Johann?”
”No. It’s for…something else.”I opened up my palm and the feathers that had absorbed technics came floating into it. “I need a big shot to take her down.”
”I gotcha. All right, got it covered!” he said.
I felt bad, because I knew he was going to get torn apart. I just figured my best chance was to hit Gwen with Chrysanthemum’s Grace before he got it too bad. C’s Grace, as I like to call it, since, you know, the whole thing is sort of a mouthful, is my best attack. It’s actually not that powerful; like, it’s not going to blow up a mountain. No, what makes awesome is that it’s sort of an extension of Rentis. Using the feathers that have absorbed a technic, I can make an arrow special for a target. By weaving their own signature into the attack, I can make an arrow that pierces all defense and shoots through the soul!
Well, I’m going on a bit. Maybe it’ll make more sense when I get to the part where I actually shot it. So anyway, Ethan was up in Gwen’s face and he was actually doing okay. And by ‘okay,’ I mean he wasn’t dying. As I was reading the radiance in each feather to turn it all into an arrow, Ethan was trudging through a sabarta. The blizzard that swirled around them was a thick sheet of frost, so I couldn’t see that well. After a few seconds, Ethan came flying out with a visible trail of blood spewing from his mouth.
”Are you okay?” I asked.
After he landed, he got up, wiped his chin and nodded. “Yeah, I’m good, don’t worry,” he said, and he got back in there. I was concerned, but what else could I do but keep charging my attack? As Ethan went back in, he had to deal with a gidiga shaking his footing, a foie that nearly look his head off and a whole row of zonde bolts, but somehow, he got close enough to slash.
”Fun is fun, but…” Gwen said as she caught the katana’s edge between her fingers. “Oh, I remember this piece of junk. Uncle X loved it so much.” Then she pulled the blade right out of the hilt. Pretty sure I heard Johann grunt. Being pulled through the nail, the blade tore the hilt apart as Gwen pulled it out. Its splinters and fragments flew in the air between Gwen and Ethan in what seemed like slow motion to me.
”And now, an encore performance with your head,” she said as reached out for Ethan’s face.
”Hold it!” I said, ready to fire. Though, it probably wasn’t my words that got her attention so much as the darkened glow of my finished arrow. Come to think of it, I probably should have just fired instead of grabbing her attention, but it worked out. I released it and it shot through the air and into her heart. Like I said, the arrow itself isn’t that powerful, so she just grunted when it pierced her.
”Pfft, is this little pin prick the best you-“ She stopped when she saw C’s Grace taking its effect. Photon energy in a body is like a circuit: there’s places that energy is supposed to go in and places it’s supposed to go out. Messing with that is very dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. The arrow I shoot basically opens a new channel which any ambient photons in the area can and will enter. So, the effect she was seeing was a thick stream of colored wisps being sucked into the arrow sticking out of her chest and into her body. What made it super effective that time was that the A-photons from the mushrooms were getting absorbed too.
”Dammit! Damn you!” she scream as she pulled her hand back from Ethan and staggered backwards. Ethan looked a little dumbfounded as she beat herself in the chest, trying to rip the arrow out, but he just looked on. “Prissy little brat! How could a bitch like you manage something like this on me?!” she wailed as the light in her cracks dimmed. I was watching her too, really hoping that was the end of it. I was tired, and C’s Grace takes all the PP in my bow to fire, so I’d have had to switch to a grenade launcher or something if she had any fight left in her.
”There’s that damn look in your eyes again! That disgusting pity,” she said as she continued to clutch at the arrow. And then to my amazement, she got a grip on the arrow as if it were a tangible object and began to pull it out. “As if you wouldn’t have thoughts like mine if we changed roles!”
”Shoot,” I said as I switched out the nasuyoteri for a shigga desta. It looked like there was going to be a round two.
”It’s easy to be a haughty bitch with your life! Let’s see how easy it is when you’re dead!” she scream as she raised her hand to cast something. I’ll never know what it was because right then is when Sable came diving from above with an anga jabroga. I didn’t realize what was happening even as she slammed the ground with her fists and rocked the ground beneath Gwen. It was only when she stood back up I realized backup had arrived.
”Sorry we’re late, Keiko!” she said.
”We?” I asked. Sure enough, when I looked around, I saw Zoe perched atop one of the bigger mushrooms with her Night Hawk and Elly darting from stalk to stalk setting up traps. It was an incredible feeling of relief, but then I realized, “hey, where’s…”
”Give up,” Stacy said from behind Gwen. I have no idea where the heck she came from. Seems like Gwen didn’t either, because she jumped as she turned her head over her shoulder.
”Tch, weaklings like to gather in herds,” she said. She had calmed down and her voice was back to being sing song sinister as she looked over the odds against her. “Ta ta, Johann. Our next date will be our last, I promise you that,” she said. With that, a black pool of goop opened beneath her and she began to sink into it, like a tar pit.
”Gwendolyn, wait!” he said. He got up and fell down just as quickly. That didn’t stop him from calling out to her though; he propped himself up on his fist and said, “don’t go, we aren’t finished yet!”
”Goodbye, Johann,” she said as the void swallowed up the last of her. It might have just been me, but she sounded…like herself when she said that.

[McLaughlin]

Ethan's got skillz.

Good stuff.

[Xaeris]

Well, he is the canon main character. I have to throw him a bone now and then.

[Magus_84]

Very nice. I knew Keiko'd think of something, though I'm (pleasantly) surprised at Ethan's level of capability.

[Xaeris]

Early chapter. If I'm going to keep my deadline and have time leftover to submit an entry to the fan contest, I need to speed this up a touch.

Chapter 29: A Note From Beyond

Live it up while you still can Keiko. This farce ends in good time.
Being that I was in rather sorry shape, I don’t well recall what happened immediately after that. Certainly, I remember some frantic shouting as the girls brought me back to the forward base. I remember the ride being bumpy, slung over Sable’s shoulder. I also remember a sort of forlorn look on Keiko’s face. Beyond that, I’ve got nothing, and have to skip ahead to where my memory becomes stable again.
I awoke in the relief hut, on a scratchy cot. First thing I noticed was that it was dark and fairly quiet inside the tent. I also noticed my cot was as far removed from the others as could be in the space of the hut. Once I assessed where I was and that it was a safe place, I let my body relax. That’s when I noticed Keiko next to the cot and half of her body lying across my chest. She was asleep. She had probably exhausted herself healing me. Out of consideration, I let her sleep.
Ah ha ha, yeah right. No, I pinched her cheek and woke her up. She woke with a whine and picked her head up off my chest. After shaking her head clear, she said, “you’re up. And being a jerk. That’s a good sign.”
”How long was I out?” I asked.
”It’s past midnight now,” she said as she sat herself up. She rubbed some more sleep out of her eye with the back of her hand and asked, “are you feeling okay?”
”You’d know better than I would,” I replied.
She did that thing where she narrowed her eyes and filled her cheeks with air before she answered me. “I had your wounds fixed up before we even made it back to camp. The problem was you were anemic. Your body wasn’t absorbing photons so I had to make up the difference by channeling some into you the past few hours. It was touch and go for a while there, but you look okay now.”
”I see,” I said as I laid a hand over my forehead and turned my eye toward the ceiling. “You’re too kind to your humble servant, my empress,” I said.
”I don’t have any humble servants. Just you,” she said, folding her arms. We shared a short chuckle at that, but the laughter quickly turned into silence. Obviously, I had a bit on my mind, but Keiko looked rather bothered about something herself.
I rose from the cot, prompting Keiko to back up, and said, ”I’m going to go for a stroll and stretch my legs.”
”Uh, but, what about Gwen?” she asked.
I didn’t answer right away. The sting of defeat was still fresh in my mind. It was just setting in that I had lost her, despite my promise to her. Still, I didn’t want to show weakness, so I just grit my teeth and said, “the Chrysanthemum’s Grace you hit her with wasn’t enough to revert her, but she’s weakened. She likely won’t attack anytime soon.”
”If you say so,” she said on our way outside.
”How’s our mushroom count coming?” I asked.
”Not finished yet, but Stacy said it was promising. Night shift is on the job now, but there’s not as many of them,” she said, gesturing her hands around the camp as we exited the relief tent. There were still Guardians buzzing about, but like she said, there weren’t nearly as many. It was a much more tranquil scene as compared to just earlier in the day. “Hey, Jo-sei?”
”Mm?”
”Could we talk?” she asked. It was a request of me, yet she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking away, which made her already soft voice faint, and really, it didn’t even sound like a question so much as…hmm. Well, what I’m trying to say is that I could hear apprehension in her voice.
”Sure. Let’s walk,” I said.
We walked out to the limits of the camp. It was a warm and humid night so the fireflies were out and about. Those, combined with the glowing mushrooms, made for a curious luminescence. Normally, lighting comes from above, be it from the sun or ceiling lights. Having it shine below us was an amazing difference in how we looked, especially considering the greenish color.
”Your hair looks…turquoise,” I said.
”I thought dogs were colorblind?” she said.
”Okay, you guys need to quit it with this. Foxes aren’t even dogs,” I said, putting my hands on my hips and bowing over at her.
”They totally are! They’re in the same family, I looked it up,” she said, obviously proud of herself for being able to consult an encyclopedia. Apparently, she didn’t realize that being the same species and being the same family are two different things, but that was hardly the time to nitpick. Her smug excitement died off quickly and her eyes drifted away.
”You wanted to talk, didn’t you?” I asked.
She murmured something in the affirmative, but kept staring at the ground. Thanks to the lighting though, I could still see her face clearly. Her lips were starting and stopping, like she was trying to decide how to lead off. It was strange how such lights were lending to a melancholy atmosphere.
”Don’t you hate me?” she asked.
”Umm...”
”Don’t you ever think it’s not fair that you’re a beast and I’m a newman?” she asked. At that point, I had caught a thread of where she was going with this, but I wasn’t ready to jump on it. So, I remained silent and let her continue. “I feel like I’m insulting you just by being alive.”
”I’m not sure I follow.”
”That stuff Gwen said. It made me think,” she said. She still wasn’t looking at me. “You’re ten years older than me, but we’re about even in valence now. Isn’t that wrong?”
And that’s when I understood what she was trying to say. …I’m not a saint. She was right, to an extent. There was a time, when I was teenager, that I did resent her. At six years old, she was learning technics from father than he didn’t teach me until I was twelve. The reason I’m terrible with support technics isn’t because of disinterest as I portray, but simply because I didn’t have time left over from learning offensive teching from father to learn support teching from Auntie Ruru.
So yes, I’ll admit it. I did see Keiko’s quicker progress at learning technics and think, ‘this is some fucking bullshit.’ Naturally, I never said anything of the sort out loud. But it was intensely frustrating to have to work at twice the rate to gain the same amount of progress.
Mind you though, it’s not as though she was a bitch about it. Even back then, she always downplayed her talents and encouraged me to keep trying. That was the worst part, actually. When humans talk about racism, they’re thinking of cast supremacists, people who insist beasts are genetically predisposed to crime and other such aggressive kinds of racism and people who seriously compare me to a dog. In truth, these people are the least of my concern. If anything, they’re comical. I get a kick out of shouting ‘boo’ at the lady clutches her body in the elevator, personally.
No, what really stings, what really makes me dwell on the question of inferiority is the sort of racism that, insidiously enough, people don’t even realize they’re doing. It’s when people genuinely pity me that I feel bad. It would have been so much easier to deal with it if the princess had been a little brat parading her racial superiority. Then, I could have consoled myself with the fact that she was a bitch. But no, she was a lovely little girl and I just had to walk around feeling doubly horrible for being resentful of a six year old. …Hmm? Yeah, you followed me around, called me oni-san and everything. Such a pleasant and cute little girl. I wonder what happened.
Well, that was the teenage me. The adult me placed his palms on Keiko’s face and quietly looked at her, soothing her with his serene gaze. Then, he pinched her cheeks and pulled her face around with a mildly annoyed expression. “Don’t say whatever ridiculous things pop into your head, Keiko. I feel like I’ve been telling you this ever since you learned how to talk.”
”Ow, ow, ow, ow!”
”I’ve never hated you for such a ridiculous reason.” It was a small white lie. “I’d never ask you to be ashamed of how you were born. Considering all the bullcrap I put up with in Dezolis for you, I’ll be damned if I let you throw all that character development away.”
I let her go and she sighed. “It’s just that, Gwen did such a good job of hiding it and then it all came gushing out like that…I just couldn’t help but think maybe you thought the same way and were just hiding it all this time,” she said.
”She wasn’t herself. I’m sure she doesn’t hate you like that. When I bring her back, she’ll be falling over herself to apologize to you, you’ll see,” I said. Fft, hell if I knew.
Eh? Bloody hell, stop interrupting me. …What changed my mind? I never told you? That’s easy. One day, I realized something. Sure, if you took my mind and stuck it in a newman’s body, you’d get an absurdly powerful techer. But what was it that made my mind? My experience teching as a beast. I persisted through the years and over the hurdles because there was nothing more delicious than the tears of bigots. Maybe I could have been born a newman, but then I’d lack that critical motivation that makes me who I am. It’s like I told Feng Jie: there’s no one that can be me, but me.
Anyway, Keiko let out another sigh of relief and was finally looking at me properly. “Whew. I feel better now. Thanks, Jo-sei. You know…your voice changes when you’re talking about Gwen.”
”No, it doesn’t. You’re just saying that ‘cause you read that line in a comic book.”
”They’re called-“
”Don’t care.”
”Ugh. But, you really do like her, don’t you?” she asked.
”I…I don’t need to have this conversation with you,” I said as I spun on my heel.
”You’re blushing!”
”I am not. Even if I were, you wouldn’t be able to tell, me being dark skinned and what not.” Yeah, I loved Gwendolyn. At this point, that shouldn’t be news. Didn’t mean I wanted to go saying it out loud. “Tch, hey, what about you?”
”Me?”
”Yeah, now that you can’t balance an egg on your chest anymore, you must have started thinking about boys. See anyone you like?” I asked, turning back around with a smirk.
”N-no! I mean, I haven’t had time, a-and you know…”
”Ha…well, after we’re through with all this, you’ll have plenty of time to discover why Sable has so many problems with dating,” I said.
”Is it really that bad?” she asked.
”Worse. I’d feel sorry for her if her taste in men wasn’t so chronically awful.”
”Um, didn’t she sleep with you?”
”A broken clock is right twice a day, empress.” The mood had lightened considerably by then and we were able to have a good laugh at that.
”Oh, one more thing!” she said as she pulled a small cartridge from her nanospace. “I was picking up the fragments of the Orotiagito and I found this in the remains! I guess it was inside the hilt?”
”What? Bloody Maiden, Keiko, that’s the sort of thing you lead with! Let me see it!” She passed it over to me and I looked it over. It didn’t appear to be any sort of media native to Gurhal, which is probably why Keiko didn’t prioritize giving it to me. I immediately recognized it as a flash cart, a sort of media that was common on Pioneer 2 and fished around for something I could use to read it. “This must be some sort of message from father,” I said. “I knew it didn’t make any sense for him to give me the Orotiagito just to use as a weapon.”
”Oo, I wonder what’s on it,” she said.
”We’re about to find out,” I said as I shoved the cart into the PDA I used while I was on Pioneer 2. It was an audio message and it went thusly:
Johann. If you’re hearing this, then for whatever reason, I am likely no longer with you. Right now, you are standing before the climax of a chain of events set into motion millennia ago. I never meant for you to become entangled in this, and I’m sorry for all the grief you’ve likely suffered as a result. I’ve no right to ask you this, and I can only appeal to what I know to be your nature: I need you to finish what I started. If you’re willing to do this, there’s a file on this flash cart. Give it to Alicia, and she’ll be able to generate a photon cascade where you can get the answers to all your questions. Good luck, Johann.
P.S: You’re coming up on endgame. Remember to do your sidequests.
”That was cryptic,” I said.
”What are you going to do?” Keiko asked.
I looked over the cart’s contents and just as the message said, there was a file I couldn’t open. I assumed that was what I was supposed to give to Alicia. As for Keiko’s question, well, wasn’t it obvious? “I finally have an opportunity to get some questions answered. I’m not passing this up. First thing in the morning, I’ll consult Alicia.”

*****

True to my word, the first thing I did when I woke up the following morning was find Alice. She was helping Sable load crates of mushrooms onto boats. They were chatting about…something when I got there. Hell if I know what. It was no surprise that Sable and Alice got along; they were cut from more or less the same cloth.
”Morning ladies,” I said.
”Hahn, hi!” Alice said. She probably would have come over and hugged me, but she was helping Sable with a particularly large crate at the time and couldn’t spare me more than a turn of the head and a smile.
”Heya Johann. Feeling good?” Sable asked.
”I’m fine. Do you two need any help with that?” Granted, it was intended to be a joke, but they laughed harder at it than I intended. “I’ll have you two know I’m perfectly capable of manual labor,” I said.
”Johann, please, my makeup,” Sable said through her laughter.
”Bah. Anyway, I need to borrow Alice for a bit.”
”Me?” Alice said.
”I see no other bunny eared newmans named Alice around.”
”I don’t have no bunny ears!” she said.
”Uh huh. Come find me by the shore when you can make the time,” I said as I walked away. Perhaps ten minutes after that, Alice came sauntering up to me on the shore.
”All right, what do ya need hun?” she asked.
”I need to speak with Alicia,” I said.
”Oh…” She looked a little disappointed, but that’s not where my mind was at, so I didn’t think anything of it. Within a few moments, her countenance changed from cheery farmgirl to stern librarian, the surest sign that she had switch personalities. “Well then, what is it, Dr. Launcher?” Alicia asked.
”As sick as I am of it, I need to use the Photon Cascade yet again,” I said as I handed her the flash cart. “Something on this is supposed to give you what need to know?”
She took it and after spending some time looking at it, her eyebrows leapt, but her expression remained otherwise stonefaced. She nodded and said, “yes, I can create an instance with this.”
”I see. If I might ask, how would have my father known how to write such a file?”
”He helped me to create the Photon Cascade System.”
I didn’t react initially. I just looked at her and she looked right back at me, creating an extended silence between us. Then, I started to chuckle a bit. Quietly, softly, under my breath. Then, I abruptly stopped and yelled, “THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN REALLY BLOODY HELPFUL TO KNOW EARLIER.”
”You never asked.”
”Grr…just get me in there,” I said.

*****

Following the usual process, I was deposited in what might have been an extremely unnerving place. The only light in the place was the light coming from grates in the floor, which were also expelling a foul smelling mist that billowed across the floor. I could just barely make out the silhouettes of the objects in the chamber and could see it was connected to a couple hallways that were similarly dark. Given the general atmosphere, it would have been easy to think I had gone to hell if I didn’t know better. But I did know better.
”Ruins. It had to be bloody Ruins. Ugh…no use in complaining. Let’s just get through this…”

[Keiko_Seisha]

Oh boy, development. I likes me some of that.

[Xaeris]

Yeah, I've been putting off on making all this make sense, but it had to catch up to me sometime, right? Next time, plot. So much plot...

Or, if you just meant Keiko, yeah, I'm continually surprising myself with how much of a character she is. I've said this, but really, at the beginning, she was just there to be a healbot. Now, to Johann's chagrin, it's like she's co-star.

[Keiko_Seisha]

No, well, I meant on a whole this time. But you know I always like Keiko-related things.

[Magus_84]

This was excellent. Keiko is the co-star, and a damned good one at that. This wouldn't work nearly as well without the both of them.

And if it's what I think it is, the upcoming plot avalanche is something I've been wanting to see since you first started this fic, all those years ago.

[McLaughlin]

I've got my snow tires on. Let's roll.

Also, pro RPGers have all the side quests done before the endgame warning.

Also also, "Sable has so much problems with dating" should be "so many problems."

Also also also, great read, again. Like it even needs to be said at this point.

[Xaeris]

So. This chapter. This chapter...Jesus Christ. That's all I can say about it, and I'm the one who freaking wrote it. I look forward to the reactions on this one. I'm...pretty sure this makes sense, but don't hesitate to ask questions, because this gets pretty ridiculous. Like, Star Ocean 3, ridiculous.

Chapter 30: All the World's on a Stage

Okay, hang on, I need some water. This part of the story still pisses me off just thinking about it.
Whenever I was on Ragol’s surface, I would feel a creeping presence. I believe I described it as insects crawling on my skin. Whenever I visited Ruins, that sensation would intensify tenfold. It was really as if there was some kind of primordial evil buried there. So, I did not relish the experience of returning. Still, I trudged through the corridors and slew the enemies that somehow kept the doors locked. I never really got that.
”Alicia, can you hear me?” I asked after a few minutes of exploring.
”I’m here,” she said, her voice resounding in my mind.
”We’re not going to have any problems with me being stuck in here for a year and a half again, are we?”
”I can extract you at anytime.”
”Lovely. Now, what am I supposed to be looking for here?” I asked just as a delsaber was leaping at me. I popped a rabarta and caught it in midair, leaving a frozen block of ice with that delsaber in it to drop to the ground. I’d been through the place so many times, it was really just reflex by that point.
”I dunno.”
”Astutely put.”
”I didn’t think you enjoyed my stodgy manner of speech.”
”It has its charm.” Right then, I heard the distinct sound of ryuker. I would have turned around to look if I didn’t have to drop to my knees to keep my head on my shoulders. As a sword whistled above my head, I pulled out my wand and rolled forward to put some distance between myself and my assailant. Imagine my surprise when I came out of the roll and looked up to see father. Certainly, he didn’t look how I remembered him. The person I was looking at was youthful man with a girlishly delicate face, but it was definitely him.
”And who the hell are you?” he asked, holding his place with katana in hand.
I paused to consider how to answer that question. To keep from looking suspicious, I stowed my wand back into nanospace as I thought it over. “My name is Johann Launcher. Pleased to meet you.”
He raised an eyebrow, but slid his blade back into its sheath. “There’s a funny coincidence. My name is X Launcher. Sorry about attacking you out of the blue like that. It’s been a while since I’ve seen another living person.”
”…Is that right?” I asked. I was acclimating to the situation as quickly as I could, but it needs to be remembered, I jumped into the instance without knowing a damn thing about it. I didn’t know anything about where I was besides the fact that it was Ruins. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s the date?”
He shrugged. “Beats me. Lost track while I was a statue.”
Yeah, he wasn’t being helpful. I asked, “very well, how old are you right now?”
”Hell if I know,” he said as he dug his pinkie into his ear. “You sure are asking a lot of questions for some guy I just met, Johann Launcher.”
”I wouldn’t need to ask so many questions if you answered one of them helpfully,” I said, trying to keep my eye from twitching.
”Maybe,” he said as he started to walk away.
”Don’t ignore me! Bloody hell, this is exactly like you!” I said as I rushed to follow him. He didn’t speed up or slow down for my sake; he just kept a brisk pace as he breezed through the chambers and I kept up at his side. “Where are we going, anyway?”
”The bridge. I came out here because something was attacking the D-cells, but it turned out to just be you,” he said.
”I’m sorry, the what now?” I asked.
”The bridge. You’re on board a spaceship, if you hadn’t noticed,” he said.
”A spaceship? So we’re in space right now?”
”Do I need to use smaller words?” I dropped my face into my palm and groaned. Trying to understand the situation was getting more and more frustrating as new details kept screwing up what little understanding I did acquire. “Let me help you out,” he said. “What brought you here?”
”Oh, um…” I entered via a system which produces an extravagant simulation which you are apart of, thus, making you not actually real. Yeah, that goes over well.
”Photon Cascade?” he asked.
”How…” I said as I stopped abruptly in my tracks. “How could you possibly know that?”
He stopped ahead of me and turned his head over his shoulder. “Because it was my idea. Why do you think you came to this particular point in time, kid?” It looked like he was finally ready to start giving me some answers, so, I shut up and let him speak. “I’ve made a nifty pen pal where I’m going. She’s really smart. Apparently, where she is, they’re having a really big D cell problem, so she jumped right on it when I casually mentioned it to her.”
”Alicia…”
”Oh, so you’ve met her! Good, that makes this a lot simpler,” he said. He turned his whole body to me and kept going, “your whole life has been for this, Johann. I had you use the Cascade to come here so I could explain to you just what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
”My whole life? Explain.”
”It’s all part of a plan. Let’s keep walking,” he said as he did just that. I grumbled, but I walked with him. “It’s not that hard to get. See, I need a hero. So, I’ve decided to raise one.”
”I don’t think I follow.” I asked.
”I’m the one who trained you, aren’t I?” he asked. I nodded slowly, mutely; I had a vague idea of where he was going with this, but my mind was doing its damndest to keep it out of its eye. “All the techniques I’ve taught you, the lessons I’ve given you, the challenges you’ve faced, they were all to prepare you for one task.”
”What?! That’s ridiculous, how could you possibly come up with such a scheme eleven thousand years before I was born?!” I yelled. Once father had let on that he was penpals with Alicia, it was easy to determine when the hell I was. See, Alicia lived during the ancient civilization, at the end of the first Confinement War. So, that puts her around 11000 BA. It was AC 100, at the time, so the math checked out. Somehow, the lunacy of father having been alive for at least eleven thousand years was lost on me at the time.
”You’re thinking of it the wrong way, kid.”
”What?”
”You’re thinking of your life as a random variable I had to plan around,” he said as he turned his head over his shoulder again. He held up his palm past his side, like he had a wine glass in his hand, and said, “the truth is, you’ve been dancing in the palm of my hand since the day you were born. There’s not a single random factor about you.”
”That’s absurd! You can’t…you can’t plan…people! You-“
”Your favorite color is purple,” he said.
”That’s…” I started to stutter and then said, “I’m wearing a purple coat, that’s hardly-“
”You’re really big on science.”
”You show me a liberal arts major that’s done anything worth a damn!”
By then, he was rolling his eyes. “Ugh, okay. You’re an ass man.”
”I…why would you possibly need to plan that facet?” I asked.
”Because Ayame’s high point is her butt,” he said, matter of factly.
”What.”
He just chuckled to himself. “I’m getting ahead of myself. The point is, I’ve sculpted you to be exactly who you are because who you are is who I suspect can do the job I need you to do.” We came to a section of the Ruins that I had never seen before. The basic layout of the room was the same, but there was one square shaped teleporter in the middle. Father stepped inside, and as irate as I was at the time, I stepped inside with him.
On the other end of the teleporter was a room that was completely unlike anything I’d ever seen in Ruins. First off, there was a gigantic window at the head of the room, much like there would be at the bridge of a spaceship. Along with that, were several stations with consoles blinking, also like one would find in a spaceship. Now, the general motif was the same as the rest of Ruins; there was a corrupting evil in the room, complete with pulsing membranes on the ceiling and vines in the consoles. Still, it felt like a foreign place entirely.
”We’re really in space…” I said as I looked out the window. It wasn’t a particularly interesting sight out of context: just stars. But considering I thought I was in Ruins, yeah, I was pretty damn surprised.
”Are you really that surprised? Ruins was originally a spaceship slash prison for Dark Falz made by who the hell knows who. I had some spare time to get it working again.”
”So your destination is Gurhal, then?” I asked.
”If that’s what it’s called, sure,” he said.
”I still don’t get it. What’s your goal? To what end is all this for?!” I said. He calmly walked over to what I guess was a pilot’s seat, spun around in it, and pointed behind me. I kind of didn’t want to turn around. I knew I was in for a mind fuck, but I did come searching for answer. Slowly, I turned my head, wincing all the while, and indeed found my mind fuck. “…Gwendolyn?”
”Oh, that’s what she’s calling herself? That’s a cute name,” he said.
It was Gwendolyn all right. As a stone statue. Her features had been perfectly preserved so it was easy to make the identification. She looked exactly how I remembered her, and she was set in sort of sleeping beauty pose, with her hands crossed over her breasts and her eyes shut. As I walked up to the statue, I could see that there was an obviously sad expression on her face, with her lips curved downward and her eyes puffy and waterlogged like she had been crying.
”What the hell?!” I said.
”You yell a lot,” he said.
”Explain this!!!!”
”Hmm,” he murmured as he rubbed the side of his face with his finger, like he was sleepy or something. “Well, first, let’s see, you know about her Darkness possession, right?” he asked. I nodded. “Good, that saves us lots of time. Ayame and I came into contact with D cells. By using them, we were able to enhance our fighting capabilities by a whole damn lot. Using them, though, chips away at…well, let’s just call it life force. Once we’ve expended it all, we end up like that,” he said, pointing at the statue.
”But…she’s fine where I’m from,” I said.
”Yeah. Eventually, we recover and are released from the stone state. By eventually, I mean a few hundred years. Same rule still applies though; we use power, we turn back into stone. It’s very inconvenient, if you think about it. What’s more, the more power we use, the bigger the risk we run of corruption.”
”I see,” I said. It’s not like I had forgotten about the bit regarding him planning my entire damned life, but, priorities.
”Ayame came up on a difficult battle with a pair of D cell lifeforms named Castor and Pollux. She won, but she had to expend her entire conduit to do it. In the process, she destroyed Tener Sinus. There…were settlements there.”
”So that’s what happened without me…” I muttered. At the end of my vacation, if you recall, Gwendolyn and I fought Castor and Pollux together. It was a really hard freaking fight with the two of us. It had always bothered me, wondering how that fight had gone in reality, where I obviously had not been there. “And then she turned to stone?”
”Right,” he said. Talking about Ayame, it was the first time during my visit he had shown some human emotion. Up to that point, he was coming off like some immortal wizard who was playing pranks on mortals for the fun of it. After a few seconds, which he spent with his eyes shut, he continued, “eventually, I recovered from being stone and found her like this.”
”Fine, I understand the statue. But I don’t understand your goal,” I said as I walked away from Gwendolyn.
”Have you ever hated anyone, Johann?”
”I’m not terribly fond of you right now.”
He shrugged and turned back around in his seat. “Have you ever experienced the kind of hatred that consumes you? That makes you just plain angry for the rest of the day?”
”Sure.”
”It’s exhausting, draining even, wouldn’t you say?”
”I guess?” I said. I understood he was talking about. I’m sure anyone could, really. Sometimes, you come across a news report that makes you intensely angry at how the world works. Perhaps it’s a story about how a two month old baby was raped by her father, or picture of a 130 year old AMF veteran being vandalized by teenagers while he’s suffering an ICS crash. Whatever the case, it’s that sort of anger that takes you to a dark place in your mind and just leaves you exhausted. What I didn’t understand was where he was going.
”Take that, and multiply it by a thousand. Then square it a few times. That’s what Ayame and I feel, what we become when the Darkness takes over,” he said, slamming his fist on the console. “Let me be clear here, this isn’t something cute like a second, subconscious personality. This is us, at our very worst, lowest self. You think I’m a dick right now, don’t you?” He pulled the hair over his shoulder back to show me his neck and the glowing blue cracks running up the veins. “I’m usually a very pleasant person, but this is me at a pretty low level of corruption.”
”Fine, so you’re saying you need to get rid of the D cell factor,” I said.
”It’s not that simple,” he said as he dropped his hair back into place. “Like I said, this isn’t like a second personality or something. This is me. To get rid of it, I have to strain myself out from it first. Until that’s done, I’m just a satellite of the Darkness, and my consciousness will live on like this.”
”I’m sorry, I didn’t bring a colander,” I said.
”Oh good, you do have a sense of humor. I was worried I screwed that up,” he said, raising his finger into the air with a laugh. “But no, to do what I’m talking about, I have to get my mind back to a good place.”
”…What was this task you were talking about, that you wanted me to perform?” I asked. My mind was catching up, again, reluctantly, because somehow, I knew I was going to walk away from this conversation upset.
He spun back around, I think he just enjoyed spinning, and showed me a grin. ”It looks like you’re starting to understand. I don’t really care about myself. But, I don’t want this life for Ayame. I want her to be freed from this hatred. That’s where you come in.”
”…Meaning?”
”I know Ayame pretty well. Hell, I’ve been alive a long time: I know people pretty well. I sculpted you so that Ayame would love you. That would pull her away from the Darkness.”
I blinked. I opened my mouth and shut it just as fast. I raised my finger, and lowered it. I took a breath and tossed it right back out uselessly. I was at a complete and utter loss for words for at least five minutes, despite my struggles. Father seemed content to sit there and let me collect myself. He even prepared a cup of noodles for himself while he waited. Eventually, I managed to say, “you’re telling me you’re going to put eleven thousand years into creating the main character of a dating sim?”
”Well yeah, it sounds stupid when you put it like that,” he said with a slurp of noodles.
”So you want me to love her to death, is that what you’re saying?” I asked, understandably incredulous.
”No…I want you to stab her to death,” he said.
”WHAT.”
”Once you’ve strained the Darkness from her mind, you have to kill her. Otherwise, she’ll always eventually return to possession,” he said. “If you kill her in while she’s serene though, she’ll be free to rest in peace.”
I ran over to him and grabbed him by the throat and pulled him out of his chair. The cup of noodles splashed onto the ground, but I was entirely too livid to hear it or feel the broth soak my pant leg. “First you say you raised me to love her, then you say you raised me to kill her! Are you bloody insane?! How could you do something that…that cruel?!”
He let himself hang from my fists and he said, “it’s the kindest thing to do for her at this point. But it is a horrible thing to do to her, I admit.”
”And me! It’s a pretty horrible thing to do to me!” I screamed.
”You?” he said, raising his brow in confusion. “Kid, you’re just the tool I made to do a job.” He lightly shoved me away with one hand and regained his balance. “Still, I’m a little confused with my future self. As far as I can tell, you have no talent for being a Force whatsoever.” He shrugged and lightly tossed his arm into the air. “Well, whatever, I’m sure I know what I’m doing.”
I clenched my teeth. It goes without saying I was frothing pissed by then, but there were still questions to be asked. “Gurhal! Why even go all the way to Gurhal for this?!”
”Because I need a stage,” he said, eyes filled with a bizarre wonder. “This story, this romance: it needs characters, it needs conflict! It needs a place to flourish. Right now, the Darkness is just about done annihilating the civilization in Gurhal. There’ll be some survivors though.” It was frightening listening to him. His voice had taken a cold, but undeniably megalomaniacal quality by then. “I’ll take them and I’ll mold Gurhal into the perfect stage for Ayame to have her ideal adventure.”
”What the hell father?!” I screamed, arms flailing. “What do you think people are?! You’re talking about friends I’ve made, people I love, dreams I’ve had and an entire star system filled with people with all of those things I just said!”
”You’re wearing Leah’s eyepatch,” he said.
”So?!”
”You’ve used the Cascade yourself. How else could you have gotten it? Couldn’t you say all the people inside the Cascade you made had all that stuff you just listed? But when you exited, it all went poof. Are you really in any place to be giving me this lecture?” he asked.
”…” Didn’t really have a retort for that.
”It’s fine if they have hopes and dreams and sugar and rainbows and whatever. Just so long as they all serve the end of saving my treasured niece from a fate worse than death,” he said.
”You…dammit!” I yelled as I pulled out the Save the Maiden and made it a rapier. I thrust at him, aiming for his chest, but he intercepted the tip of my rapier with his finger.
“Hmm, a rapier. I would have thought dao saber. Oh well, minor detail,” he said as he stepped out of the way and withdrew his finger, letting me tumble forward. “Strange. There’s a defeated look in your eye. Something making your spirit waver.”
”No shit! I just got told the life I thought I built myself was all according to someone else’s plan!” I said as I stood back up.
”No, no, I noticed it when you first arrived. You should really do something about that. If you go into your next fight like that, you’ll definitely die,” he said.
”Oh, are you scared your precious plan will fall to pieces if I die?!” I said.
He shrugged. “Eh, it’d be inconvenient, but I’d just try again. Which knight are you?”
”What?”
”Come on, you know. I figure that I’m going to set up a monarchy on one of the planets and install my future protégés as its servants. Maybe that water one. I’m asking you, which Seisha do you serve?”
”…Keiko Seisha of the Sixth Cycle.”
He grimaced at that and started tapping his chin. “Oof, so you’re the eighteenth one. That’s seventeen failures. Oh, wait, no, I’m planning to fill in for a few of those empresses, so it’s more like nine or ten failures. Oh well, I’ll get it right eventually.”
I was clean out of rage. All I had left in me was a tear, which I let roll down my cheek as I clutched the hilt of my wand. “All of this…”
”For Ayame. That’s right.”
”I won’t kill her,” I said.
”Yes, you will. You’re smart enough to understand what I said. It’s either this, or let her live on the brink of becoming a hatred filled bitch for eternity,” he said as he went to sit back down.
”Why should I?” I asked, my voice just barely above a whisper. It was the sort of voice I used in defiance when I was a child.
”Because you love her.”
”Maybe I won’t, just to spite you.”
”Eh, that’s not who you are,” he said. He smirked at me and narrowed his eyes in the ultimate trollface. “Excuse me. I mean…that’s not who I made you.”
That was it. The room temperature dropped several dozen degrees at my will and I was surrounded in frost and ice as I prepared to just go all bloody out. He didn’t do anything in response while I was preparing to attack. It was only when I was about to send one of the most powerful bartas I’d ever cast at him did he look up and say, “Photon Cascade override: ΩΛ7XL9.”
In a blink, the whole scene was gone and I had been dumped back onto the coast of Habirao. “Alicia, I wasn’t bloody done yet!”
”That wasn’t my doing,” she said as her system closed back up into her frame. “I was unaware that there was a shutdown override like that.”
The whole trip lasted maybe an hour, yet I was angrier than I had ever been in my whole life. I still had the barta ready, so I just flung it out into the ocean where it made an iceberg. While I did so, I screamed, “BULLSHIT!” at the very top of my lungs, verging on a roar.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Splat. And goddamn.

That's all.

You know, I always wondered if X had any handlings in the naming of the Seisha daughters, seeing as this is a continuation of your previous set of stories for the most part.

[Magus_84]

Well, damn. Excellent work, moreso than usual even.

That's not how I expected this to work out, but it's better than the mental framework I'd come up with to fit all this together.

I'd bet X is at least half-trolling him, though. Because nothing would piss Johann off more than telling him his entire life was created for someone else's purpose, even though that purpose was a good one. And I think he needs a bit of being pissed-off to deal with what he's going to have to face next.

Or, more appropriately...nothing would piss off anyone raised by Mr. Launcher more than being told that their entire life was created for someone else's purpose. And I'm drawing a distinction here between "meant to serve" and "created specifically for a goal", as the two have varying degrees of personal choice involved.

Though I still think a bit of the eleven-thousand-year monomaniacal plan is a ruse. Or at least a tiny bit of exaggeration. I mean, not that he wouldn't do it. I have no trouble believing that. Just that I don't think he'd specifically mention the "nine or ten tries" off-hand. I dunno. We'll see. I may be emphasizing the wrong parts.

A conduit to the Profound Darkness grants limited immortality, then? In-between bouts of insanity and petrification. It makes sense, given that it's pretty much always going to try to break into the world. And people who have the strength to be useful to it are few and far-between. May as well try to preserve them long enough to get what it wants. That and, y'know, evil. Tormenting someone for hundreds or thousands of years by keeping them semi-immortal while everyone they've ever loved ages and dies is rather fitting for a millennia-spanning big bad.

I really need to, at some point, rewrite my earlier fic to make more sense. Of course, I've been saying that since you started this one. Makes me wonder how things are going on Ragol.

I look forward to seeing Johann do his best to prove his father wrong. Assuming he doesn't try to use the jobber element again.

[Seth Astra]

Wow, great chapter. Of course, it's kinda thrown off by how, in PSP2i, it is revealed that apparently the entire ruins ship actually came from Gurhal to Ragol,. But, then, I think that made just about every fanfic that somehow links Gurhal and Ragol invalid. Including the (admittedly quite poor) one I had come up with when I was contemplating a Gurhalian fanfic. So screw official continuity.

On a less critical note: I suspect that X created that just to mess with Johann's head. Or at least the whole thing about him planning out the entire Gurhal system.

[McLaughlin]

Wowzers.

So, what does Gwen keep having to use her powers on, to keep forcing the cycle of hatred and petrification? Obviously this time it was trying to neutralize the bomb, but what triggered it every time prior? Or is it just a slow, constant drain?

Not gonna lie, I was cautiously optimistic about a fight between X and Johann. Great chapter.

[Xaeris]

All right, let's do this in order.

Yeah, X got the "inspiration" for the Seisha's name by deciding to honor one of his fallen comrades. This probably won't be elaborated upon, so I don't mind confirming it now. The planned purpose of installing the protege as Guard/Knight was to get him used to the idea of giving his all to one woman.

Oh Sage. Aren't you happy I never gave in and spoiled you all those years? We should probably talk on Steam.

As for Seth...

[spoiler-box]WHAT?! WHAT! WHAAAAATTTT!!! FFFFFFF-

I'm seriously fuming here! How the hell does that make any sense?! Everything about PSU suggests that it happens after PSO! How else would you get crap like Flowen's Greatsword or any of the rare missions? How the heck is the Falz Memoria there on Rykros?

**** you Sega. **** you and your fanservice game. Argh. Months of planning, just, poof, like that.[/spoiler-box]

Various stuff, Obs. Just little disasters with their own stories that have popped up through the system throughout the years. She hasn't actually been petrified that many times since the first. Just maybe twice. The exact number isn't important. However, she has become possessed by hatred, as we just saw her, several more times through her life.

As for everyone holding out hope that X is trolling, yeah, I guess that's possible. Then again, I did make Leah the big bad of Successor, so maybe he really is just a jackass now. You'll just have to wait and see!

[Keiko_Seisha]

[spoiler-box]WHAT?! WHAT! WHAAAAATTTT!!! FFFFFFF-

I'm seriously fuming here! How the hell does that make any sense?! Everything about PSU suggests that it happens after PSO! How else would you get crap like Flowen's Greatsword or any of the rare missions? How the heck is the Falz Memoria there on Rykros?

**** you Sega. **** you and your fanservice game. Argh. Months of planning, just, poof, like that.[/spoiler-box]


If I had realized this was coming sooner I would've revealed something like this back when I was playing Infinity like crazy.

But it's a dumb reveal anyway since, as you said, everything in PSU points to it being the opposite. Infinity's story sucked anyway, it's only good for the final boss and Nagisa.

[Xaeris]

On a side note, I'm surprised you didn't notice I screwed up the chapter numbering (called it 29 when it was 30). Oh well, 30 chapters was a pretty good run, but cursed is cursed.

Now, it's probably poor form for an author to pat himself on the back for foreshadowing, but I'm really proud of myself for making it this far. To show you how long I'd had this in mind, here is an excerpt from Chapter 28 of Renaissance, dated October 6, 2008.

[spoiler-box]Still facing his back, Gwen stands up. Johann briefly turns his head over his shoulder at the sound of the bed creaking, but turns his head away just as quickly. “Johann, I’ll make you see, that you were made for me.” Yandere alert, yandere alert, this is not a drill!

”Doesn’t that clichéd line go, ‘that we were made for each other?” he asks while shaking some ash off his cigarette.

”No, I definitely got it right the way I said it,” she replies with a smile he can’t see.[/spoiler-box]

Yeah.

[McLaughlin]

Oh damn.

Oh damn.

[Seth Astra]

That is a good point, Xaeris. If it makes you feel any better, you can just explain it by the same paradox by which all that other stuff has crossed from Ragol to Gurhal. If the canon doesn't make any sense, why should the fanfiction?

[Xaeris]

All right, compared to last chapter, this one's much more chill. I'm not going to sweat Infinity. It's frustrating, sure, but I'm just going to go the "flip Sega the bird" route on this one.

Chapter 31: Lonely Heart

You may as well just go home for the day, empress.
Operation…Gingersnuff, I think it was? Anyway, it proceeded according to expectations and we got the mushrooms we needed within two days. In the closing hours, we left the cleanup of the forward camp to the rank and file Guardians and returned to Colony to plan out just how we were going to use them. We filed into our meeting room and took our seats at the triangular table silently. We were uncharacteristically disciplined, for a change.
”All right, so we’re done flower picking,” Sable said as she sat back in her chair. I’m sure the chair groaned in disapproval, but it was too faint for the others to hear. “Now what, nerds?”
”The Unification Point is in four days. We’re actually a little bit ahead of schedule,” Elyham said. She tapped the table and a holographic display of the Gurhal system appeared over the table. “There are four Confinement systems to activate. We activate all of them when the Unification Point occurs, and we win!”
”What kind of obstacles are we looking at?” Eustace asked. Eustace was really a bewitching enigma. Most of the time, she acted like a capricious ditz half her age, but when the situation demanded it, there was no question why she was commander. Granted, I was a better tactician when I didn’t have my head up my arse, but she had a mind for assessing how the ‘human’ element would impact a situation that I did not.
”Illuminus,” Zoe said.
”That’s true. They’re still active. They’ll definitely attack us, this being their last chance,” Eustace said. She removed her glasses and slipped the corner of them into her lips with a pensive expression. “This is actually a really big problem, isn’t it? All they have to do is knock out one reactor. If they’re smart, they’ll just pick one to attack all at once, and they’ve got four targets to pick from.”
”Way ahead of you!” Elyham said. “Dr. Launcher and I came up with a countermeasure! The problem is each Confinement System is powered by one reactor, right?” she said. Everyone nodded, and she went on, “so what if made it so that each System is powered by all four reactors?”
”Like a circuit?” Keiko asked. “But they’re on four different planets…”
Elyham nodded and tapped the table again, switching the display to a device resembling a satellite dish. “This is a long range quantum kinetic potential disperser,” she said. As you might expect, dead stares were present throughout the room. “It’s a wireless method of transporting energy,” she said, picking up on the stares.
”Wait, I remember this thing,” Sable said waving her finger at it. “Like twenty years ago, this was supposed to be a big deal for getting power to poorer areas of Moatoob, but the company folded.”
”Yeah, that’s right! Wow Sable, you’re old,” Elyham said. After she got herself out from the headlock, she continued. “Th-the disperser works by using solar voltaic cells we launch into space as a relay-“
”Elly, darling? No one really cares,” Eustace said. “Why don’t you skip to the result?”
Elyham chewed her lip with a scowl, but clicked off the display. “Basically, by connecting all four reactors, the enemy has to disable at least three to significantly hamper the activation of the Confinement System.”
”That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. You guys have this taken care of?” Eustace asked.
She nodded. “Dr. Launcher already put Yohmei to work on installing the system. Right, Dr. Launcher?” she asked, turning her head to me across the table. I didn’t answer right away. I, of course, had quite a bit on my mind. “Dr. Launcher?” she said again, tilting her head at me. It’s not that my eyes were closed; I was just that unaware of the world around me.
”Dumbass, wake up!” Sable said.
”Huh? Oh, right,” I said, stirring from my reverie. I gestured my hand around to rouse my senses and said, “I’ve had the dispersers affixed to the Parum, Neudaiz and Moatoob reactors. We’ll still need to connect it to the Rykros reactor when we arrive.”
”You’re sleepy,” Zoe said.
”Yeah Johann, you’ve been spacing out a lot lately. Are you okay?” Eustace asked.
No, I wasn’t okay. “Your concern is appreciated, but I’m okay.” Find me one person in the course of history that has ever answered that question any other way. Just one person, I bloody defy you.
Being that she wasn’t an idiot, Eustace was skeptical of my answer, but there were more important matters to attend to than my feelings. “Okay, so we’ll split our Guardians up between these locations. I figure the Illuminus will have its best agents, so we’ll split up too.”
”If they just take their best people and attack each reactor one by one, aren’t we still at a disadvantage?” Keiko asked. It was a surprisingly thoughtful question. …Well, it was. …I don’t have ‘low’ expectations of you, empress. I don’t have any at all.
”They have a limited timeframe to sabotage the activation, so it’s definitely to their advantage to split up,” Elyham said.
”If there’s no objections, I’ll divvy us up now,” Eustace said as she clicked the table and bought up the image of the Gurhal Star System again. We all just nodded and she nodded in turn. “Zoe, you’ve got Parum.”
”Okay,” she said.
”Naturally, you’ll be on Neudaiz, Keiko.”
”Naturally.”
”Elephant legs, you’ve got Moatoob.”
”Screw you, Stacy. …Hey wait, you put the human on Parum, the newman on Neudaiz and the beast on Moatoob. That’s kinda racist, Stacy.”
”Is not.” It kinda was. “Elly, I want you on Colony.”
”Huh?”
”I don’t want a repeat of that day. If they decide to attack us again as a consolation prize, we’re not watching as Colony drops from the sky,” Eustace said.
”Okay, you can count on me!” she said.
”All right, since Rykros is a hostile place, I’ll take Johann and Ethan with me to Rykros,” she said with an impish grin.
”Oh, that’s bullcrap Stacy, you took both the boys!” Sable said.
”It’s a coincidence, I’m sure,” she said, as she adjusted her glasses. “I’ll head up the command post we’ll have on Rykros. Ethan, I’ll keep you handy for any ‘special’ assignments I need you to handle on the surface.” I’m certain everyone narrowed their eyes at the way she said that. Well, everyone except Ethan, anyway. Poor oblivious fool. “Johann, you’ll defend the reactor.”
”…Yeah, fine,” I said.
”All right, with that, I have one last order before we’re dismissed.” She stood up and slammed both hands on the table with a grave expression chiseled onto her face. We actually sat at attention for a moment, expecting something serious. How silly of us. “Relax~!
”Dummy,” Zoe said.
”We have a big fight in four days, and I need you all in tip top condition! This is a serious order!” Eustace said.
”In that case,” Keiko said, raising her hand, “how about we have a get together tonight? We can use Jo-sei’s house.”
”Oo, I like that idea. Okay everyone, we’re having a potluck at Johann’s house tonight! We’ll have a great time, that’s an order! Dismissed,” Eustace said.
If I had been paying more attention, I would have registered that Keiko needed Zoe’s help to get up from her seat, despite how hard she tried to conceal it. And I certainly would have noticed Zoe carrying Keiko off to the shuttle, but as soon as the meeting ended, I slumped back in my seat and let myself sink back into my thoughts. Everything else had just become background noise as I continually replayed the scene with father in my mind. I could tell you about the self pitying rumination I engaged in for the next hour, but really, no one likes an emo protagonist.

*****

Later, we had our gathering. The others brought food like Eustace told them to, but I can barely remember any of it. Given my mood, everything tasted like mush. Except for Keiko’s cooking. Surprisingly, her crappy cooking still managed to stand out in spite of my inattentive eating. How one makes fish taste like bananas is beyond me. As they chattered and gossiped, I excused myself, as I didn’t want to bring the mood down.
Ever since I was but a lad, there was always one thing I could count on to cure whatever ailed me, be it injury, illness or just general anguish: my mummy. People call me a momma’s boy, but I say screw them. There’s no one in this world who will ever love you as much as even a halfway decent mother. She was crashed, and I was keeping her on her bed, in her room. I’d look in on her frequently, but I’d never stay.
That night, I took a seat at the edge of the bed and looked at her still figure. I was going to stay, but I could bring myself to look at her lifeless body, so I sat facing away with my hands held together on my lap. “Hello mummy. I…I’m having a hard time,” I said. Normally, I’m not the type to speak aloud when no one is listening, but, like I said, I was having a hard time. “I really wish I could talk to you now. I miss you.”
”I’m always here for you, yo-yo,” she said.
”What the hell?!” I said as I stumbled forward off the bed. I turned myself around, looked up, and there she was, sitting up on the bed, looking down at me. I guess most mothers interact through their children using facial cues. Mine, being a cast, could never really do that, but all the same, I had developed a talent for somehow seeing facial expressions that weren’t really there. At that moment, I saw her giving me her serene look that always calmed me down whenever I skinned my knee or singed my eyebrows off or accidentally coagulated my blood.
”Language, yo-yo,” she said.
I got up and threw my arms around her. I didn’t say anything. My mind was still wracked with turmoil, but all the same, that small morsel of relief was extremely welcome. Hugging mummy was always something of a risky venture. She’d always hug back, of course, and sometimes, she’d do it a little too tightly. This wasn’t one of those times. Or if it was, I didn’t notice, because it was just so nice to have her hugging me that I didn’t care.
”Sit down, and tell me what’s wrong,” she said, patting the mattress beside her.
”Kay,” I said as I plopped down beside her. I told her everything that happened in the Cascade not leaving out a single detail. I didn’t gain much clarity or insight from doing so, but it was still cathartic. “What do you think?” I asked.
She put a hand on my head, which was easy for her, having just shy of 30 Rp on me, and said, “Your father was always rather duplicitous. Even so, I find what he claims implausible.”
”Why?” I asked.
”He’s not the one that picked you, remember?” she asked.
That was true. Mummy was the one who found me on Moatoob when I was three months old, mummy was the one who adopted me and mummy was the one who needled me into keeping up with schoolwork until I found it interesting on my own. Of course, it was still possible that all of this was just part of father’s grand design, but that kernel of doubt was enough to give me a bit of hope.
”No matter what the truth is yo-yo, there’s nothing fake about the tears you shed making your list of accomplishments so far,” she said.
”I didn’t cry that much as a kid,” I said.
”Do we need to consult the photo album?” she asked.
”…No.”
She leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. Again, she couldn’t do quite like a flesh and blood mother would, but the static shock works just as well. “At the same time, I think you should give your father the benefit of the doubt. At least until you can talk to him, wherever he got to.”
”Perhaps.”
”More importantly than that though, the spark in your eye seems to have dimmed,” she said. By that point, I was about ready to just pluck my stupid eye out so I could stop enduring these comments on my countenance. Seriously, a bloody pair of eyes, never mind just one eye, does not say that much about a person’s mental state. It’s nothing more than a ridiculous romantic notion. Blah. Well, in the end, they were all right, but still. “It’s not the first time. It always comes back. But yo-yo?”
”Yes?”
”You’ve never been the type of person who gains anything from sulking in a corner. I’m absolutely certain you’ll feel better if you give your friends the chance to cheer you up,” she said.
”Oh, because my friends are my greatest strength and what not?” I asked, rolling my eye slightly.
”No, because you subsist exclusively on female attention,” she said. What can I say? My mummy knew me very well. She kneaded one of my ears in between her fingers, which always made me squirm a little bit; it was like having the back of my neck scratched, when done properly. “Yo-yo, no matter what, always remember how proud I am of you, all right?”
”I know, mummy,” I said.
She kissed me once more and said, “I…love-“ I didn’t need to look at her to know she crashed. The hot, stinging feeling in my eye felt like some kind of acid as I stood up and laid her body back down on the bed. With a heavy sigh, I soothed my eye with the back of my hand and left the room. I decided mummy’s advice was good and that I should heed it.
I heard the television downstairs, so I descended the steps and turned a few corners to find Eustace and Sable in one of the living rooms, watching…something. They turned their heads as my feet clicked on the hardwood floor and they waved excitedly.
”Oo, Johann, hi! We lost track of you,” Eustace said. “Everyone’s still here, but we kinda split up.”
”I see,” I said.
”You want to watch with us?” Sable asked.
I turned my head up to the screen and not seeing anything familiar, I asked, “what are you watching?”
”Season four of Guardian Angels! I got a box set a while ago, and we’ve been working our way through it,” Eustace said. I was vaguely familiar with the series. I’d never sat down to watch it myself, but I picked up bits and pieces of the plot from passing conversations with women. From what I gather, it revolved around a female cast of Guardians, but they spent more time shopping for clothes and talking about how to manipulate boyfriends than they did actually fighting. It was very popular among women. I think ended up going six seasons and a movie.
”It’s great!” Sable said.
”I’ll pass,” I said. I didn’t relish the idea of spending the night watching a chick show, but more than that, I could see Eustace and Sable were in gal pal mode. Their friendship is actually quite touching when they’re not threatening or fighting each other. They had their feet up on my couch and a set of nail polish on the table, so I figured they were planning on doing something with that soon. I didn’t want to interfere.
”Fine, but you don’t know what you’re missing. This next episode, Samantha is going to break up with Lance, but she doesn’t know he slept with Colette while they were stranded on Moatoob and-“ Eustace stopped when I mimed shooting myself in the head with my hand. As I left, both of them threw cushions from the couch at my back.
I figured I could go find Elyham and go over some details with her. It would busy my mind and she was always amusing somehow. I found her in the guest room she had been staying in, and as I expected, she was on a computer. What I didn’t expect was to find her in the middle of a conversation. As I opened the door, she turned to me with an oddly wide grin.
”Dr. Launcher! Look, it’s Simon!” she said. I had two lab techs when I was working in Rozenom. Elyham was one, and Simon was the other. When Colony crashed that day, we both just assumed that Simon had been killed, along with the other 98% of Rozenom’s population. Apparently, that was not the case. Simon was a short newman. Enthusiastic in an awkward sort of way. Rather smart. All in all, I liked him.
I walked over behind her, and sure enough, there he was. “Simon! You’re alive!” I said. I had my eyebrow raised in minor skepticism, but I was mostly happy to see he was all right.
”Hey Dr. Launcher! Yeah, I’ve been holed up in the refugee camps for a while. I just now managed to get to Holtes City. I called Elly as soon as I had a chance!”
”Isn’t it great?!” Elyham said, bouncing in her chair.
”It’s fantastic. Well, I’ll let you two get back to catching up,” I said.
”Huh? But Dr. Launcher-“ Elyham said.
”Oh, I’ll come back and reinvigorate the conversation when you two have chit chatted enough over recent events. But for now, I’ll leave you two alone,” I said as I tossed Simon a thumbs up from Elyham’s back. Anyone in their presence for more than a minute back when we had the lab could have determined there was some sort of awkward nerd love brewing between the two. Far be it for me to get in the way of that. I mean, sure, I banged Elyham, but I thought he was dead, give me a break.
As I left the room and shut the door behind me, I saw Ethan coming down the hall. I raised my hand in greeting. “Evening Ethan,” I said.
”Hey Johann, good to see ya,” he said. “I was just about to go. Karen’s waiting for me.”
”Date?”
”S-something like that.”
”Well, I wish you all the best luck,” I said with a nod.
”Thanks! Oh, and, ah, hey, I’m sorry about your katana…”
I shook my head and said, “it’s all right. You were defending Keiko. I can’t get angry about that. Besides, it’s proved…enlightening.”
”Huh?”
”Don’t worry about it. Enjoy your date. Above all, relax. If you’re having a good time, she’s most likely having a good time as well.” I don’t know how it happened, but we high fived before he departed. It was completely spontaneous. Bizarre, really.
At any rate, I decided I’d go find Keiko. Naturally, the empress has a room in House Launcher to furnish to her liking and whenever she visits, she can often be found in there. I wasn’t sure what I’d talk to her about, but I figured something would come to mind when I saw her. I briefly knocked on the door to alert her to my impending entry and slid it open. I found a most…interesting, sight. Keiko and Zoe were lezzing it up-

*****

Okay, no, gimme that. You’re going to make this sound more perverted than it really was, so I’ll tell this part really fast.
When everyone split up, I offered to show Zoe my room. While we were coming up with things to do, I mentioned that sometimes, I still felt like a kid. So, she offered to show me some makeup tricks to help me feel more like one of the women. I always thought that makeup goes on your face and that’s it, but Zoe showed me that makeup can be used on other parts of your body too. She was in the middle of doing that when Johann rudely barged in.
”Uh…” he said. Okay, so what he saw probably looked suspicious out of context. Zoe and I were sitting on the floor with our tops off, but bras still on. Zoe had a compact in one hand and her other was rubbing one of my breasts. It sounds dirty, but like I said, it was a makeup thing!
”Don’t you wait for a knock to be answered?!” I yelled.
”On doors I don’t own, sure,” he said, with his eye firmly fixed on us.
No one said anything for a few seconds. Then I blurted out, “this isn’t what it looks like! Zoe was teaching me how to put makeup on my breasts!”
”It helps the cleavage,” she said, completely unbothered by Johann’s presence.
Johann put up his arms and said, “hey, I would never judge you empress. Class S is a beautiful genre. Please, pretend I was never here.”
As he backed out of the room with one of those infuriating smirks of his, I yelled after him, “it’s not what you think!!”

*****

I don’t see why you’re so sensitive about it. Love is freedom, Keiko.
So after I stumbled upon their foreplay, ow, I retreated to my room. It seemed I would be spending the night alone. I didn’t turn on the lights when I entered my room. There was enough moonlight coming in through the window and I just wanted to sit with my thoughts. I kept a small minibar in my room, so I pulled out a glass and a bottle of cognac. I thought about lighting a cigar, but, eh, those are really for happy occasions.
It was rare that I felt the sting of loneliness. I was kind of a big deal, so I was hardly ever alone when I didn’t want to be. But, sitting there, sipping my cognac, I felt that unpleasant feeling, like the world had suddenly become ten times larger and I had no place to fit in. I felt that, for all my problems, for all my grief, there wasn’t a person in the world who would care. It’s an insidious feeling that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
I knew full well that any of the others would have happily invited me into their activities if I had asked. But, they were all so happy, I couldn’t stand the thought of ruining that with my poor mood. So, I just sat, alone. I likely would have spent the night like that were it not for an unexpected guest.
There was a knock at my door. I have to admit, despite my reasoning for holding up in my room, I perked up at the prospect of some contact. “Yes?” I said.
The door slid open and revealed Alice, waving sheepishly from behind it. “Hi hun,” she said. “Can I come in?”
”Sure.” She stepped in and as she walked over to the bed where I was seated, I noticed she had some makeup on. “Oh, did my friends downstairs get to you?” I asked, remembering that Sable and Eustace had some cosmetic materials out.
”Hee, yeah, they dolled me up,” she said.
”I think you look quite nice,” I said as she sat down next to me. The striking thing was that she was wearing pink lipstick; in the moonlight, in really brought out her lips.
”Thanks, you’re always sweet, hun. Whatcha drinking?” she asked. I gestured the glass to her to offer her a taste. She took one sip and her face immediately scrunched up like a prune as she pulled her head away from the glass. “Woo, that’s some hearty stuff.”
”Well, this is thirty year old brandy. So, clean up has finished then?”
”Yup! Didn’t leave behind even a gumdrop wrapper!”
”Sorry to have left you behind like that, but we had a strategy meeting.”
”Oh, it’s all right, I don’t much mind,” she said. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her lips struggling with what she wanted to say next. “Hey hun? How’d it get like this?”
”Get like what?”
”You used to be real sweet on me,” she said. Right after she said it, her face shied away, but her foot was batting mine around over the side of the bed. “I was just playing hard to get, ya know.”
I bloody knew it. I couldn’t help but chuckle. “You play the game like an ace, then.” At some point, I’m not sure when, I kinda just gave up on my goal of sleeping with her. I can’t say when. I mean, you might think it would be around when I started to love Gwendolyn, but no, I was still firmly intent on banging Alice even as that was happening. But, the universe saw fit to thwart me at every turn, and eventually, I guess I just accepted it.
”That day we met is the best of my whole life!” she said. “It’s when I got to start seeing the whole big world outside my little town. And…” She turned her face back toward me, but didn’t look up. “I got to meet a really swell guy.”
”Alice, I had no idea you felt…” I trailed off when she put her hands on my shoulders.
”Sorry,” she said with a cute shrug of her shoulders, “I shoulda done this from the start.” She leaned in and kissed me. I mumbled something, but I didn’t fight it as she pulled me in. Encouraged, she swung her thighs around my hips and I fell back onto the bed with her on top of me. As my hands worked to untie her blouse, hers worked on my zipper and- …I should stop before this story starts serving a prurient interest.
So. Let’s recap. I went to ungodly lengths to get into her pants when we met to no avail. I forgot about her for a few weeks, and she threw herself at me. Women; who the hell understands them? Not me.
I could blame the alcohol. I could blame my grief. Hell, I could go the girl route and say that I was vulnerable. But, the fact was, I slept with her willingly. You might be thinking that was a horrible thing for me to do, having a girlfriend at the time. That’s a perfectly fair criticism of my character, and one I consistently made of myself. I mean, not until I was done banging her, come on now. However, I have to ask you to consider that this was a unique situation. My girlfriend was possessed by a primordial evil at the time. Such a circumstance surely presents a moral grey frontier. As a pioneer onto this frontier, I would assert that it’s perfectly fine.
…Eh. No, the truth is, I still feel badly about how that night went. I mean, not the sex. Again, come on now. No, I feel badly that I never made my heart clearer to Alice and that she had been carrying around these feelings for me after I had gotten over mine for her. I was ashamed that I had neglected her heart. Perhaps that may sound strange, coming from me, with a list of conquests that spans the distance from Clyez to Ohtoku, but, I have never left a woman in worse condition than I found her. That is, of course, the ultimate difference between a ladykiller and a mere philanderer.
I would likely have skipped over this part of the story, if it didn’t become of supreme importance very soon.

[McLaughlin]

Very well written. We never get to see that side of Johann.

[Seth Astra]

Nice seeing Johann a bit more emotional in this one.

[Keiko_Seisha]

http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/3015/933aca171e578b56d397db2.jpg

Sorry... My imagination went wild. I need to recollect myself before I can share further comments regarding this chapter...

EDIT: Okay, I'm good.

I realized earlier today you pulled a Hikaru Genji Plan.

[Xaeris]

You know, that's not the first time I've seen that pic. What do the moon runes on it say?

[Keiko_Seisha]

You know, that's not the first time I've seen that pic. What do the moon runes on it say?

"The meal was delicious, thank you." roughly. Gochisosama deshita.

In reference to the character (Chitose) having witnessed a yuri scene, or imagined one, which causes her nose to bleed profusely.

[McLaughlin]

Is it a little weird that when I read "I always thought makeup goes on your face" I immediately assumed it was going on her breasts?

Edit: Also, after "Yo-yo" I started reading all of Johann's mom's dialogue in a German accent, haha.

[Magus_84]

Learn something new every day. I thought that pic looked familiar. Thanks for the translation, Empress.

I liked this one, but I already told you that on Steam. It's good to see Hahn's softer side occasionally.

[Xaeris]

Oh. Well, I'm happy to to serve up a hearty feast.

Nah, it's not weird at all. I wish my imagination could take credit for coming up with such a preposterous thing, but it's actually a semi-common application of makeup.

[Xaeris]

Okay, I should devote my full attention to my entry for the contest, so this will just have to tide you over for a bit.

Chapter 32: The First Three Days

Ugh, I’m tired. I wish I could turn the tale over to Keiko, but she wouldn’t have any memory of this next bit of the story. Such is the burden of being the true main character.
The next morning, I was greeted by a dull headache as I woke. I didn’t think I had had that much to drink, but all right. I attempted to rise, but found myself pinned down. Hardly anything I wasn’t used to, but my mind was still groggy and sleep addled, so I didn’t quite put together that I had Alice hanging on me. So when I turned my head to see what was keeping me from getting up and saw her mussed hair stuck to her sleeping face, my mind got the shock it needed to emerge from its haze.
”What the hell did I do?” I whispered, smacking myself in the forehead. I asked myself if it was possible that we had just fallen asleep together in the same bed, but considering that I felt I wasn’t wearing boxers underneath the sheets, I figured that was unlikely. It didn’t take long for my mind to start dredging up memories from the night. It’s not as if I had been blackout drunk, so they were rather clear memories.
I fished around underneath the sheets for my underwear, and once I got them on, I extricated myself from Alice’s grasp and slipped out from the sheets and off the bed. I was frantically combing over my memories to make sure I hadn’t said anything dumb or made any long term promises. Thankfully, it seemed that even drunk me was still pretty smart, and I hadn’t said much of anything besides dirty talk. It was about then I started making my first rationalizations which I would stand by for quite a while. I still kinda stand by them. I mean, the logic is sound.
Alice, on the other hand, was as tranquil as could be. In her sleep, she had taken the sheets and pulled them onto herself, hugging her figure. Damn me if the thought of going in for seconds didn’t cross my mind. I slapped myself in the head for that thought and went back to assessing the damage I had done. While I was in the middle of that, a knock came at the door. Before I could ask who it was, Keiko opened the door.
”Don’t you wait for your knock to be answered?!” I said.
”On doors I don’t own,” she said, mimicking my voice.
”You don’t own these doors!”
”My property’s property is also…” Her eyes trailed away to Alice on my bed, and along with them, her voice. She looked me over, and it just then occurred to her that I was in nothing but my boxers. Her eyes darted back and forth between Alice and me, trying to piece together what happened here. Her expression softened, and I think she was about to give me the benefit of the doubt when Alice stirred and her bare leg poked out from beneath the covers.
”How could you?!” she yelled.
”It’s…not what you think,” I said. I never thought I would have the occasion to say those clichéd ass words, but I suppose time makes fools of us all.
”So you didn’t sleep with Alice just now?”
”…Okay, so it is what you think.”
”You told me you loved Gwen!” You know, I really don’t think I did, but that was clearly an irrelevant detail. “You’re not going to rescue her anymore?!”
”Of course I am. …Of course I am…”
”Then why?! Just…” She threw up her hands and made that sound women make that sounds like some sort of cross between a hiss and a cough. “I don’t know you right now!” she said as she stormed out of the room. I weakly raised a hand after her, but I didn’t follow. I hadn’t even gotten through rationalizing it to myself, nevermind gotten anything ready to explain it to someone else.
I dragged a hand down my face and said, “this is precisely the sort of drama I don’t need right now.”
”Then may I offer the kind you could use?” I heard a voice ask from the bed.
”Alicia?” I asked, turning my head over my shoulder to get a look at her in the bed. I needed to only glance at her to be sure it was Alicia I was talking to her. That impudent demeanor was unmistakable. She was lying on my bed with nothing but a bedsheet clinging to her figure, yet, the way she was lying on her side with her head propped up on her arm, one might think she was in a position to be judging me. “And you’re here because…?”
”If you’d prefer, I can rescind consciousness to Alice and you can explain to her what last night meant to you,” she said, arching an eyebrow.
”…Good morning to you too.”
”Though I find the soap opera that is your life entertaining, that’s not what I’m here for. My system had a malfunction, last night.”
”That seems more like a you problem.”
She shifted on the bed, lying herself face down and allowing her arms to hang off the side. From that position, she looked at me. Studied me, actually. I would like to say it was because my body was a transfixing sight, but no, I could see, even through her steely gaze, that she was making an assessment of some kind. Eventually, she said, “I suppose you’re right. It’s unlikely that it’ll come up.”
”That’s ominous,” I replied.
”You have no idea.” She rolled onto her back, arms still hanging off the bed and now looking at me upside down. “What do you plan to do?”
I walked over to the nightstand by my bed and took my nanotransformer from it. As I did, I answered her, “in three days, this business with the SEED…and with Gwendolyn, ends. One way or the other. I can deal with this drama after that.”
”That’s oddly passive, for you. You’re usually more proactive,” she said.
”Ugh, you’re not going to tell me I’m broken inside too, are you?” I moaned as I slapped the disc onto the back of my neck. A fresh button up shirt and slacks materialized onto my body, which I had to adjust into place with my own hands.
”I don’t care about you nearly enough to make such an analysis of you.”
”I appreciate that,” I said as I buttoned up the shirt.
”It’s simply that, people who wait for life to force them to make a decision often don’t like the options they’re presented with when the time comes.”
”That’s true. But I’ll manage. At this point, I really don’t want to deal with problems any sooner than necessary,” I said. As I searched the floor for my shoes, an idle question popped into my head. “While you’re here, is there a reason you made Alice anatomically correct?”
”I have needs, Johann.”
”Fair enough.”
”On the subject though, I have to say, I’m somewhat surprised.”
”About?” I asked, just as I found my shoes discarded beneath the bed.
”I was sure you were the selfish sort,” she said. I bumped my head underneath the bed. “Oh, don’t worry, I didn’t switch with her or anything like that. I’m just going over my video log now. You should really brush your teeth before you set out to do anything today.”
”You’re one seriously messed up old lady,” I said.

*****

I squandered the following three days. I didn’t get much of anything done. I couldn’t even get Keiko to talk to me. So, I just lounged about in my room and tried to relax, like Eustace ordered. But the calm I was looking for just wouldn’t come. However sedentary I made myself, there was a feeling of creeping anxiety lurking in my mind. It was a lot like the feeling I got in school when there was an exam in the near future: some part of me knew to be scared, even if the rest of me was doing its damndest to ignore it.
Still, I managed to pass the time and make it to the day of Operation Shred the Darkness. I’m told Laia came up with the name. A little unimaginative if you ask me, but it’s better than whatever Eustace would have come up with. Even though we were assigned to different planets, we were to rendez vous on Colony for a brief meeting before we departed to our posts.
Even on the shuttle ride over, Keiko was in a huff, with her arms crossed and her head turned towards the window. I just let it go for the time being; as I said, I had plenty of time for that drama after the fight. Rather than go up to the fifth floor, we all met outside the spaceport, on the fourth floor. Keiko and I were the last to arrive, so we found the others huddled in a little circle.
”Johann, Keiko, over here!” Eustace said, waving us over to the group. “Okay, we’re all present and accounted for,” she said as we joined the huddle. “Everyone knows their assignments?”
”Yes commander,” we all said.
Around us was the exact sort of atmosphere you would expect of such a large scale operation. Guardians were flitting about, dashing from place to place with their itineraries in hand. Like us, they all had their own posts and were currently making preparations to head out. Some of them were buying supplies, and some were assembling their parties, but everyone there that day had a specific task they’d set out to do. It was an atmosphere of disciplined purpose; it was rather invigorating, despite the hive mindedness of it all.
”Everyone’s stocked up on mates and photon charges?” she asked.
”Yes mom,” we all said.
”Well excuse me for worrying about you guys!” she said, pushing her glasses up her scrunched nose. “Anyway, you all know our mission. You all know the stakes. I have every faith that everyone here will give everything they’ve got to the battle ahead. I want to be able to wake up tomorrow and congratulate everyone on a job well done, so let’s make that happen!”
Eh, it wouldn’t win any awards, but as far as speeches went, it did its job. We broke, and each of us headed to where we needed to go: Sable, to Moatoob’s port, Zoe, to Parum’s port, and Keiko, back to Neudaiz’s port. Elyham went up to fifth floor colony to set up command. And lastly, Ethan and I accompanied Eustace to the shuttle that would take us to Rykros.

*****

It was the first time I’d been to Rykros. I’d seen the surveillance photos and read the reports from the Guardians who scouted the place, but it was my first personal experience with the planet. It was bizarre, yet familiar at the same time. The planet reminded me of a beehive. The surface of the planet was dark, sleek and sparsely featured. Looking at it from space, it would have looked rather innocuous if not for the sickly color. However, the surface was dotted with tunnels that led beneath the surface. Within, it was like a whole other world. The surface of the planet hung like a sky over the world inside as an everlasting purplish sky.
As I said, it was reminiscent of a beehive, with innumerable chambers and as many hallways connecting them all. It would have been exceedingly easy to get lost without the help of the very best map making technology since very few of the chambers were distinct. The motif was the same all throughout Rykros: an evil permeating and corrupting what was once a great technological achievement. The floor was slick, yet I saw no fluid; it had the texture of a serpent’s skin. Brightly colored lines ran through the hallways, like veins crisscrossing through a complicated network. The air was expectedly foul smelling as a result of the oozing fungi that had propped up wherever it pleased.
And of course, there were all manner of creepy crawlies. A lot of them were the SEED we were used to, but there were some new ones as well, along with some stateria that used to serve as Rykros’ guardians. The advance teams of Guardians had done well clearing away a staging area and sealing it off from the rest of the planet.
”It’s a fixer upper,” Eustace said as we arrived our Rykros base.
”I’ll head for the reactor then,” I said. “You two will be okay?”
”No problem Johann,” Eustace said as she crept up behind Ethan and put her hands on his shoulders. “We’ll be just fine…”
”H-hey…” he said.
”Ethan, if she gets grabby, just bat her over the head with something,” I said as I left for the Confinement System on Rykros.
Now…hmm. Let’s see, how to do this. So many things happened that day, but I really don’t want to have to do this twice, but…well, I guess I can cut down on storytelling if we just skip to my battle for now. We’ll get to the others later.
It was several hours later that my fight began. The Guardians we had stationed at Rykros’ reactor had done well defending our position from the SEED that beset it. I left the rabble to them and remained inside the structure, alone with the reactor. I wasn’t content to leave them all outside like that, but it was simply sensible strategy. If an opponent of my caliber appeared. I would have been hindered in fighting by having rookies to be mindful of while casting technics. The girls know how I cast and have a pretty good idea of where not to be when I’m fighting alongside them, but normal Guardians have the darndest habit of walking right into foies.
So yes, I was alone in the reactor room. It was an unnerving place. The dominant color was black, but that’s not to say it was a dark room. Quite the opposite: the walls were dotted with miniature slits, like gills, that glowed brightly with all the colors of the spectrum. Embedded in the center of the floor was the reactor, which was spilling the light that the gills were drawing into themselves. Between the gills and the fountain of light, I had plenty of light to see, yet, the black on the walls still stood out powerfully in the room. The thing was, the room allowed me no sense of depth or perspective. The way it stretched out, I could have been at the center of a broom closet or a football field, I had no idea.
While I waited, I paced back and forth, all of my problems still weighing on my mind. I had had so much solitude, I was almost grateful when it was broken by a voice saying, “hello Johann.”
I stopped, I turned, and I saw her standing in front of the fountain. The pink cracks had taken over more of her body, her lips in particular. She was barefoot and her clothes were in tatters. She had taken on something of a feral appearance, which she was happy to direct at me threateningly. Being between me and the major light source in the room, she cut a dark silhouette which probably would have sent lesser men screaming. Me? Well, I just greeted her.
”Gwendolyn.”
”You still look pitiful,” she said.
”Is that right? I see,” I replied as I took the Save the Maiden out. With a flick of my wrist, it became my rapier.
”Let me ask you something. Do you really believe you can win?” she asked.
”Of course.”
”You’re not very talkative today.”
”I suppose not.”
”You’re still butthurt about the other day, aren’t you?”
”Not particularly.”
It’s not like I was trying to keep up a façade. I really just didn’t have much of anything to say. What was there to say? It all just so seemed preposterous, that asking any questions I still had remaining would have just enraged me. So, I decided to just go through the motions until it finally came to blows.
She didn’t seem very pleased with that decision though. It seemed she was expecting some measure of entertainment from me. She gnashed her teeth and said, “you’re less fun everytime I see you. You’re like a toy I’ve gotten tired of. Maybe you’ll just roll over and die for me, if you can’t say anything smart?”
”No, Gwendolyn. I’m going to defeat you here. However enjoyable you find that is up to you.”
She smirked. “Kinky.”

[Seth Astra]

Next chapter is going to be awesome. That is all.

[Keiko_Seisha]

So many Hann chapters. I guess he's really making up for the lost time now.

[McLaughlin]

I see an ass-kicking in our future.

[Xaeris]

Indeed. Who's ass though, I wonder.