“Ugh, it’s strong!” As soon as the battle began, Charlotte was on the back foot. The Cosmos had been built as an improvement on the Revive, and outdid it in every way.
Bullets skimmed off its third-generation ‘Le Bouclier de Pétale’ energy shield like drops of rain. Charlotte’s Rafale Revive Custom II was an especially poor match for it. Like a blossoming cosmos, it spread open to reveal weapons suited for both attack and defense. Its ‘Vertu’ .48-caliber hybrid long rifle, the mainstay of its armament, fired both energy projectiles and bullets. Meanwhile, its ten-barreled 28-gauge ‘Tarrasque’ shotgun kept her from getting in close. Charlotte was forced to dodge wildly, hoping for a close-in fight where she could inflict some damage—which seemed to be exactly what the Cosmos’ pilot, Schokolade Chocolat, wanted.
The pilot remained silent. Her face was hidden beneath a full helmet visor, but she was obviously quite skilled.
“If I have to—” Charlotte fired off an ignition boost, taking the full brunt of the Cosmos’ attacks before firing another.
“That’s too dangerous, Charl!” She could hear Ichika’s voice from far away, but she knew she had to risk it all.
Feinting with her Grey Scale pile bunker, she backflipped into the air with a rising kick. Chocolat flinched at the unexpected attack, giving Charlotte the opening to hit her with a shotgun blast.
And as her visor cracked...
“Tch!”
“Wait, you’re—” Charlotte gasped. The face below wasn’t Schokolade Chocolat at all, but the Phantom Task member Autumn.
“Dammit! I had to cut my hair for this disguise!” she yelled.
“What?! What’s going on?!” As Charlotte shouted, Albert’s face twisted into an uncharacteristic panic.
“I’m taking this new IS, that’s what’s going on, you stupid kid,” Autumn jeered.
“Monsieur Dunois! Lock the arena shields!”
“I’m trying! I’m trying, but it’s being hacked!”
The image of Chloe Chronicle’s face flitted through Chifuyu’s mind. Immediately she called out, “This was a trap! Kanzashi, try to counter-hack it!”
“Yes, Ma’am!” Kanzashi opened the Uchigane Nishiki’s consoles, and her fingers raced over the keyboards as a wall of information filled the screens.
“Chifuyu!” As she wavered, Ichika leapt forth. “I can neutralize the arena’s shields! And then we can help Charl!”
“You idiot! That’s exactly what they want! As soon as the shields go down, she’ll escape!”
“We can’t just watch this happen to her! CHARLOTTE!” Laura yelled. She could barely stand to watch, either.
“I’m a failure as a father...” Albert mumbled, his powerlessness weighing on his mind. “I put my daughter in danger again...”
“Again?! What do you mean, again?” Ichika turned in confusion.
“There was an attempt before, within the Dunois group, to remove Charlotte,” he replied. “By the simplest means, assassination.”
“Assassi—”
“But there’s no one in the world kept as safe as IS pilots are,” Albert continued. “That’s why I gave Charlotte the Revive.”
“That makes no—”
“At IS Academy, she was beyond the reach of our family.”
As he thought of that being the reason Albert pushed her away, the blood rushed to Ichika’s head.
“I’ve heard enough!” he yelled. It didn’t matter. Anyone who would hurt Charlotte like that was Ichika’s enemy.
Albert swayed on his feet from the sudden punch before swinging back at Ichika.
“You stupid brat!” Albert yelled back. “What do you even understand?!”
“I don’t know what your reasons are! I don’t care what your reasons are!”
Chifuyu just let them fight. At this point, it changed nothing.
“Ms. Orimura! I’ve found the source of the hacking!”
“Good work, Kanzashi!” Chifuyu readied herself to go after Chloe, then grimaced when she saw her position. “A kilometer overhead... Eesh.”
Chloe’s IS Kurokagi may have been specialized for cyber-warfare, but it still retained the basic function of flight. Chifuyu had forgotten that in her focus on it being a set of grafted cybernetic enhancements. As she frowned, the ceiling of the arena began to spread open. Autumn was about to escape. She’s going to get away! But this is our chance to go on the attack!
Before she could, though, Autumn moved to finish off the panicking Charlotte.
“And now it’s time for payback.” A point-blank barrage of shotgun blasts shattered the Revive’s armor.
“Guh!” Charlotte recoiled.
Leveling her rifle at the exposed IS core, Autumn fired a finishing shot. All the others could do was watch as the Revive’s core began to crack apart.
“Oh no!” Laura snapped her IS Schwarzer Regen open. “How long are you two going to keep that up?!”
Yanking Ichika out of his fight, she slapped him across the face. This was the second time she’d hit him.
“Let’s go, Ichika!” she yelled.
“Got it!”
Only Charlotte’s voice stopped his swing of Reiraku Byakuya.
“No! Stay back!” Breaking their way in was exactly what their enemy wanted. “Please! Give me your strength, Revive! Not for me! For her! For my mother!”
She wouldn’t let her mother’s beloved cosmos be disgraced like this. Her will burned like a flame, and in response, the Revive’s core gleamed.
“A second shift? Now?! Stop, Charlotte! It can’t take it!” Chifuyu yelled. Ignoring her warning, Charlotte focused all her energy.
“I won’t let that happen!” Autumn dove in again on the attack, not wanting to leave Charlotte a single opening. Yet as she did, the Revive began to resonate with the Cosmos’ armor, and the two IS were bathed in light. Charlotte and Autumn were both thrown from their IS to the ground.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I like it! I’ll take them both!”
“I won’t let you have them!” Charlotte shouted out. “Come, Revive! Rein Carnation!”
Her voice, her hopes—were heard. The two IS transformed into a swirl of light, then a halo, wrapping around her. Wrapping around her like a mother’s love. Like a father’s pride.
“Life will be hard for her.”
“I know. But we must love her anyway. Love her as much as you loved me.”
“...I understand.”
The voices of Charlotte’s mother and father resonated in her head.
“It’s so warm... So this is my mother’s and... and my father’s hopes...”
That was the first moment in her life she’d accepted Albert as her father. As the light washed over her, the world’s first dual-core IS—the Rein Carnation—was born.
The wings and armor of an angel. A form, and an armament, in the shape of a cosmos flower. And the combat data of the Revive. An IS all Charlotte’s own.
“Tch!” Realizing her defeat, Autumn opened her IS Arachne and turned to flee. But Charlotte, the Angel of War, was not so forgiving.
“I’m not letting you escape! Not after disgracing the name of the cosmos!” Rein Carnation took flight, like the divine messenger of an angry god. The reborn .48-caliber Vertu II hybrid double rifle glowed with an unearthly light as it sprayed fire.
“Laura! Ichika! You handle the one up there!”
“Got it!” At Chifuyu’s order, they burst through the arena roof.
In the blue heavens above, Chloe, wearing a black gothic lolita outfit, awaited. A fateful encounter for Laura.
“So there you are...” muttered Chloe.
“You... Your face!” The same face. The same hair. The same skin. It was as if Laura was looking in a mirror.