Meanwhile, at the airport—
“Are there really any clues about Phantom Task here?” Ichika, Laura, Charlotte, and Kanzashi rushed through the shadows. After the fight that afternoon, their cover in Kyoto was blown. All they could do was hurry.
“Wait!” Laura, in point, stopped in her tracks. “Something isn’t right. It’s too quiet.”
She was right. Never mind an IS, there weren’t even security guards around. Sensing danger, she opened her IS Schwarzer Regen.
“Ichika!” As a blinding light suddenly flashed, she dove to cover Ichika.
“Ugh!”
“Laura! Kanzashi, Charl, let’s—” Before he could even finish his sentence, the hangar blew apart. Even with their shields up and functioning, the blast knocked them off balance as an IS came flying directly at them.
“...Silent Zephyrus!”
Madoka was here.
“Weak...” Sweeping Kanzashi and Charl out of the way with her bayonet, she closed in on Ichika with an Ignition Boost. “You’re the one I’m after, Orimura Ichika!”
Ichika was sent tumbling by Madoka’s diving tackle, but picked himself up off the ground just as quickly as she did and fired off his own Ignition Boost.
“Looks like you’ve gotten better at this.”
“I’ve been getting plenty of practice lately!”
They streaked through the night sky like twin comets, blade against blade, every slash matched with a parry and riposte.
Laura, Charlotte, and Kanzashi had taken more damage than they’d expected from Madoka’s sudden attack, and it was already too late to catch up. But, worried about Ichika, they tried their hardest.
Before they could reach him, though, a shadow flitted into their path.
“Hewwo! It looks like you’re trying to spoil Kurokishi’s big day, and that’s a no-no!” The lilting voice belonged to none other than Shinonono Tabane. “Sparkle sparkle POP!”
She spun a magical wand to and fro in her left hand as she turned to face Laura and Kanzashi. Immediately, the three girls’ IS slammed to the ground.
“Wha—”
“I can’t move...”
“Is this... gravity?”
No matter how hard they struggled to stand up, it felt like a gigantic hand was pressing them down.
“Tee-hee. What do you think of my newest little project, Experimental Area Denial Weapon #08? Or as I like to call it, King’s Field. I turned the power up nice and high for you!” Tabane, grinning, stretched out a hand toward them. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be taking your IS cores.”
Laura may have been ground into the dirt, but her spirit still wasn’t broken, and her face twisted in rage as Tabane approached.
“Dammit! I won’t forget this!”
“Ahahaha, being angry won’t get you anywhere. Life’s unfair, and it doesn’t always have to make sense.”
Suddenly, Tabane yanked back the hand she’d stretched out toward Laura. Looking closely, Laura could notice a cut beginning to well blood.
“Oh, there you are, Chichan!”
Chifuyu plunged in from the night sky, wielding a katana of the utmost craftsmanship. It cut, with absolute precision, between Laura and Tabane.
“You’re such a softie, Chichan.” Tabane nimbly shifted, and the blade passed a hair’s-breadth from her. Their duel was as choreographed as a waltz.
“I couldn’t just stand back and watch you hurt my students.”
It was a closely-matched battle, but, slowly but surely, Chifuyu began to end up on the back foot as she tried to defend Laura and the others. Still, though, she didn’t let the pressure bait her into overextending. Precise step by precise step, she put up an impenetrable defense.
“Let’s dance, Chichan!”
“I’d rather not, Tabane.”
Tabane deftly parried each of Chifuyu’s katana slashes with her wand. Whatever it was made of, it held up, as sparks flew each time their weapons ground together.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I... I get to watch the strongest in the world, the Brynhildr, and the ultimate human, the Renürion, fight...” Laura was emotionally bowled over. Not just as a soldier, but as a human, as a living being, the primal forces clashing before her fascinated her. “They’re... almost too strong...”
No. She could sense something beyond strength from both of them.
“Yaaaawn.” Tabane suddenly tossed her wand on the ground. At the same time, Chifuyu stopped mid-slash.
“This is a waste. If we’re going to have a big flashy showdown, we need to pick a better place to do it.”
“And you expect me to just go ‘oh, right, good idea’ and let you go?”
“Mm? Yeah, kinda. Maybe not be happy about it, but don’t you have your kids to worry about?” Tabane clenched her hand into the shape of a gun, and leveled her index finger at Laura. “Bang!”
Laura, Kanzashi, and Charl were blown away, IS and all, by a sudden tremendous impact.
“Dammit, Tabane!”
“See you later, Chichan! I hope you’re ready when we meet again!” Tabane winked, snapped her fingers, and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
“.........”
Chifuyu turned away from where Tabane had disappeared, her thoughts likewise turning to Ichika’s battle in the faraway sky.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Dammit!” Ichika tried to catch Madoka between Ignition Boosts, but their difference in skill was enough for her to turn the tables.
“Time to finish this,” as Madoka spoke, her bits formed a circle around her, holding Ichika back. “Let me show you my new power!”
The color of Silent Zephyrus shifted in answer. As it faded from a butterfly-like purple to a jet black, Ichika’s stomach plunged in his gut.
“Second Shift?!”
Watching the Silent Zephyrus transform, he remembered his fight with the Silverio Gospel. Ichika began to tremble as he imagined an even more difficult Madoka.
“Bwahahaha! I can feel the power flow through me! It’s mine! Ahaha! Ahahahahaha!”
Kurokishi’s armor, studded with ominous spikes, seemed to exude bloodthirsty menace. Not just Kurokishi—its pair of lancer bits had grown in size and power, and the armor of its long rifle had folded, shifted, to transform into a buster sword. The blade crackled with dark purple lightning as Madoka took a few experimental swipes at Ichika.
“Ugh!” He tried to parry with his Yukihira Nigata, but the sheer force of the energy field pushed it away. “Gah...!”
Ichika stumbled, but rather than follow up, Madoka instead leered at him.
“I, Orimura Madoka, will celebrate the Kurokishi’s first mission by killing you!” Her lancer bits shot forward at Ichika, not just thrusting but drilling with the same dark energy.
“You won’t get me that easily!” Ichika deployed the energy-absorbing shield from his Setsura weapons module. But the repeated attacks were more than he could block with a shield on his left arm. And as his energy began to drop, he exposed a fatal weakness.
“I’ve got you now, Orimura Ichika!” Ichika dodged out of the way of the lancer bits, only to catch a sweeping overhand blow from the buster sword.
“Dammit!” He tried to parry with Yukihira Nigata, but Madoka’s blade cleaved straight through it.
“Hahahaha!” Ichika’s IS plunged through the night sky, the lancer bits scorching the surface below as they fired down at him in pursuit. The flames of the burning forest below danced in Madoka’s eyes as they twisted cruelly, and as he plunged to earth, she drifted down, grinding him into the ash with one foot.
“Ngh!” Combined with the sudden impact, even the last-ditch life support shielding of his IS had been broken, and the pain wracked through Ichika.
With a gleeful smile on her face, Madoka kicked him over and over, the point of her boots denting his armor, piercing his shields, digging into his flesh.
“Ugh...” Ichika felt his consciousness began to slip away.
“Is that all you had? Looks like your head is mine.” Murmuring softly, with murderous glee, Madoka increased the energy to the cutting blade of her buster sword. “I can finally be Orimura Madoka. Finally, finally!”
She swung her blade down to lop off Ichika’s head, but somehow, it stopped just before cutting into his neck. Somehow, someway, even though he was unconscious, his left hand reached up of its own accord and wrapped around the buster sword.
“What?!” Madoka had been forcing Ichika back with her superior power, but now, the tables were turned. Ichika was unconscious, but his left hand gripped the blade of her sword.
“How are you—” Madoka tried to gain some distance, but before she could, Ichika stood. No, not stand, more like dragged to his feet by some unseen force.
“.........” He hung in the air for a moment, and then, his eyes snapped open, shining with a golden light.
“What are you?!” No answer left Ichika’s mouth. No conscious thought. Only pure, automatic resistance.
Then, raggedly, his dented and gouged armor began to slough off. Ichika, no, Byakushiki was shedding its armor like a snake would shed its skin. And beneath was—
“Shirokishi?! Impossible! Your data was supposed to be completely—”