“Who’s this lady supposed to be?!” Ling was the first to speak up as they met up in a suite at a traditional ryokan, and her shout was enough to shake the sliding partitions.
“Eh? Huh?” Ichika’s jaw hung open in surprise. “Autumn, right?”
Ichika pointed at the bound woman as he answered.
“That’s Ms. Autumn to you, punk!” Autumn was as angry as a caged animal.
“Quiet down.” As she spoke, Laura’s fingertips dug into Autumn’s solar plexus, and she gasped for air.
“No, I’m talking about her! The one who’s been all over you— Ahh! Wh-What are you doing?!”
As Houki turned the topic to Allie, she grinned mischievously and said, “But he smells so nice! See, Shiny likes him too!” The white cat purred contentedly, something which no one really noticed compared to Allie’s constant body contact with Ichika.
“Stop showing off,” Chifuyu muttered exhaustedly.
“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it, Brynhildr. I see your little brother’s still as dear to you as ever.” She sprightly sprung away from Ichika, who, disappointingly to the others, was visibly disappointed with this.
“Seriously! You could at least pretend to mind!”
“But she smells nice...”
“Grrr!” Ling stomped her feet while punching Ichika’s arm.
“Ahh, I see. You know, Ichika, I prefer only the finest fragrances...” Cecilia stroked her Starlight Mk. III as she spoke, visibly itching for an excuse to pull the trigger.
“Ichika, you just can’t say hello to a lady without her following you home, can you? I wonder why?” Charlotte smiled like an angel, but her eyes were deadly serious.
“Get a hold of yourselves! We need to worry about Daryl and Forte now, too!” It was up to Chifuyu to focus the thoughts of a room full of lovestruck teen girls.
“Why don’t I start by introducing myself?” Allie suggested.
“...Whatever.” Chifuyu rubbed her forehead.
“My name is Alicia. I’m sure you’ve all heard of Allie and her Tempesta?”
Of course they knew about the second Mondo Grosso champion. Hers was a household name, especially for the Europeans.
“So you’re the Tempesta’s pilot... My apologies for being rude, but what... happened to you?” Cecilia asked nervously, but Allie answered with no offense taken.
“Things went wrong during the testing of the Tempesta II, and, well, they’re gone now.” Sensing that follow-up questions weren’t welcome, the girls fell silent. A heavy silence which hung over the room.
“Hey! So when are you gonna untie me?” This time, it was Chifuyu’s turn to deal with Autumn not being able to take a hint.
“Guh!”
Woman prisoner or no, Chifuyu showed no mercy. She was a firm believer in not discriminating based on age or gender (and let’s not examine the obvious implications involving children and the elderly).
“So. We’re down two. They’re down one. But with Allie, we’re up one. Unfortunately, they’re up two now too.” Chifuyu’s steady voice was enough to get everyone back on track... Except for Allie, who languidly floated in her IS, puffing on her pipe.
“We’ve survived their first move, but that’s not enough. We need to strike back.” Tatenashi appeared from seemingly nowhere. “There are two places they could be holed up. One is a hotel nearby. The other is a warehouse at the airport. They’re living up to the ‘phantom’ part of their name, for sure. The hotels are all booked like normal tourists, and the hardware’s kept as air freight... Clever.”
As the rest nodded in sudden understanding, Autumn interjected, “It took this long for you morons to figure that out?”
“Quiet down.” This time, both Laura and Chifuyu jabbed at Autumn’s torso.
“Cough, cough!” She glared at them as blood seeped from her mouth. But the glares they shot back left her trembling.
“Let’s split up, then. Allie will lead the raid on the hotel. Houki and Ling, join in the attack. Cecilia, provide cover.”
“Roger.”
“Leave it to me.”
“A perfect choice.”
Each nodded. No one was silly enough to insist on going with Ichika even now.
“The others—Ichika, Charlotte, Laura, Kanzashi—will infiltrate the warehouse. Laura, you take point.”
“Of course. I’ve got this.”
“Let’s do our best.”
“I hope I don’t get in the way...”
“All right, let’s do it!”
Everyone here was visibly nervous, too, but still up to the challenge.
“Ms. Orimura, Ms. Yamada, and I will wait in reserve. If anything happens, we’ll be right there.” Tatenashi gave the teams a confident, encouraging wink, made all the more believable by her position as IS Academy’s strongest. “Get going, then!”
She snapped open a fan reading ‘move out!’ The die was cast.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Phew.” After a refreshing shower, Rain called out to Squall, “You don’t have to get so worked up. We’ll have Autumn out of there in no time.”
“...Watch your mouth, Rain.”
“Ooh, scary! Doesn’t she just make you shiver, Forte?”
Forte, who had shared the shower, was surprised by the sudden attention, muttered, “Y-Yeah...”
“Now that the limiters are off our IS, let’s go over loadouts.”
“Got it!”
The penthouse suite was scattered with weaponry that had already been brought up from the warehouse.
“Oh, hey, I recognize that one! It’s the Jack Denim .38-caliber SMG. Looks like we’ve got the top of the line here.”
“Nah, that’s totally last season’s. See? The sheathing’s different.”
“I see, I see. Still gonna take it, though.”
“Really? Guess I’ll go with this one, then.” Forte reached for the .42-caliber Alt Assault rifle. It may have been small, but it packed a punch—the magazine held 100 rounds of anti-IS ammunition.
The two opened up their IS and each began to install the new gear.
“...Okay, good to go.”
“I’m ready too.”
Rain and Forte nodded at each other.
“Then let’s get this party started!” Rain let off a burst of fire at the wall of windows behind Squall.
“......?!” For a moment, Forte was shocked, wondering if Rain was really a double agent—but no.
“Good job noticing me. But I’m here for Squall!” Her resounding voice, her proud tone, her gleaming eyes. Allie was back for more.
“Come, Golden Dawn!” Squall barked as she opened her IS, flames wrapping around its long tail claw. New, now, were two gigantic rings which wrapped around it protectively. “Well, well. Let’s see how this new Red Burn package works!”
Bursts of lasers erupted from the rings in all directions, scorching everything, and not only the floor of the suite.
“What’s the rush? It’s too cramped in here, let’s take it outside!”
“No thanks. I have a date with Autumn.”
“You’re not getting away from me!”
The two IS flew through the blazing suite, and crashed through the far wall, joining the battle in the night sky over Kyoto.
As Rain watched them depart, she leapt from the hotel in her IS Hellhound. Waiting outside for her were Houki’s Akatsubaki and Ling’s Shenlong, with Cecilia’s Blue Tears as backup. A moment later, Forte’s Cold Blood followed her.
“It might be three on two, but no way are we gonna lose to you rookies!” Rain was fired up and ready to go, but Forte, still feeling a little guilty, wasn’t in the mood for enthusiastic posing. Instead, she simply showed her determination to protect Rain by stepping in front of her with her shield raised.
“I want to know one thing before we fight!” Houki called out. “Why did you betray us, Forte Sapphire?!”
They’d learned that Rain was with Phantom Task the whole time. That she had been a spy planted to steal IS even back when she was just an American cadet. But what they didn’t know was why Forte had turned against them too.
“If you haven’t figured that out, you’ll never beat us, Shinonono Houki,” Forte was quiet but clear.
“Good enough, then. We’ll just have to show you how we deal with traitors!” Ling was the first to make her move, with a scattered spray of impact cannon blasts to buy some distance. And then—
“My sniping is simply marvelous!” Blasts from Cecilia’s Starlight Mk. III tore through the sky, only to be blocked by Forte and Rain’s Aegis.
“You’re gonna need a lot more than that to take us on! Isn’t that right, Forte?”
“Sure is!” Side-by-side, they leveled their guns at Houki’s squad and opened fire.
“Damn you!” With no one to tank the shots, they had to split for cover and rejoin formation after, but since they were unused to operating as a squad of three, this left plenty of openings.
“Got you!” The hound’s heads on Rain’s shoulders belched flame at Houki. Slowly, the chains tightened around them.
“Your turn, Forte!”
“Got ’em!”
With Houki, Ling, and Cecilia backed into a tight clump, a massive block of ice formed over them and began to fall.
“Uggggh!!” Houki shoved Ling and Cecilia out of the way before catching the ice on her crossed blades. But it was too heavy to bear and too solid to cut through, and she plummeted toward the city below.
“Houki!”
They wavered between helping her or carrying on the fight as they regained their balance, and that moment of hesitation was enough for Forte and Rain to make their move.
“Got you!”
A cluster of explosions swallowed Ling and Cecilia as they plunged toward the earth.
“You plebes aren’t getting away!” Rain’s attacks didn’t let up for a moment.