Kuon was in class in room 1-A when he felt a chill run down his spine. He leapt to his feet, glaring at the ceiling. Everyone turned to look at him. Spiky-hair was all, “What’s up, Okegawa? Siddown!” But Kuon wasn’t listening. Something was coming. No…something was here. His instincts were screaming pull back!
Still unsure, he deployed his Maneuver against school rules, used Tensetsu, and saw all evasion routes pointing straight backwards. Looking around, he saw thick lines heading downwards from above, and then Tensetsu ran out. As time resumed, he screamed, “Everyone, activate DMs! Now!”
An instant later, there was an ear-splitting crash. The ceiling ripped open, desks exploded, the window glass shattered, and his classmates’ heads turned to mist. This happened all around him, following the lines he’d seen with Tensetsu.
When Cavalleria were attacked, DMs automatically deployed, and the Witch Bubbles that deployed along with them tried to protect their Cavalleria, but there was a brief delay before it happened. In most cases, this was fatal. Only the spiky-haired kid and a few others reacted in time, but given what happened next, perhaps they’d have been better off dying right then.
Screams shot up everywhere.
It all happened so suddenly, nobody could grasp it. The classroom was demolished. It hurts, help, they’re all dead, call for help. People were screaming the names of friends who’d lost half their bodies; people standing stock-still, unable to process things; people trying to pull the rubble away, everyone in a panic. Not one person was calm enough to assess the situation, including Kuon. But he’d sensed that these were Jave light bullets.
A rain of Jave fire had landed on their school. He didn’t know why or what would happen next. When that thought hit him, he started shaking like a leaf. “Shit. Everyone, run! To the Cavalleria—no, to the maintenance bay! Take refuge there!”
It was too late.
First, a sound like an earthquake and a shock wave shook the school, the sound of multiple large things falling around them. Then a scream came from the floor above, DM Rifle bullets began firing outside, and black things swarmed out of the sky towards them. When they got close enough, tentacles reached into the hole in the ceiling and snatched up one of his classmates. She screamed, there was a horrible splat, and then the sounds of blood and flesh dripping.
“What…?”
“No…no…”
“This can’t be happening…not here…”
The surviving classmates all stared up. As they did, a massive form fell into class 1-A, shaking everything. It was a blob of dark red conical flesh covered in eyes and mouths, with tentacles everywhere, like a hideous defective monster.
“Aieeeeeee!”
A land Jave had appeared right in front of them. These kids weren’t Lunatic Order. They were just cadets, barely six months into their training, barely different from your average first-year junior high student. They’d never seen a Jave in the flesh. It was fear made manifest, and they quivered, crouched, and swooned. Like so many other humans, they waited to be eaten.
Except for Kuon.
“Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Nobody realized that this scream had come from Okegawa Kuon. The instinctive need to kill Jave, which he acquired in his previous life, had reflexively pushed him into action. In the blink of an eye, he’d cut a mass dozens of times his size in half. He turned back to his classmates.
“Move!” His shout echoed through the room. His frozen classmates twitched. “Activate your DMs! Get the survivors to the maintenance bay!”
One of his classmates calmed down enough to ask, “Wh-what will you do?”
“Buy you some time.”
“Wh-what about the injured?”
“Get their bubbles to activate and begin healing them, then carry them. If they don’t have long, make sure they don’t suffer.”
“Y-you mean…kill them? We can’t—”
There was another roar. It came from right next to them. A manta slammed into the windows. A massive body several meters long stabbed itself into the wall of the school, reaching tentacles through the broken windows and attacking. Kuon cut them all down and killed the manta clinging to the windows, shouting, “Do it now or you’ll all die!”
His classmates started hastily picking up the wounded and carrying them out of the classroom. Outside, the hall and other classrooms were overrun with Jave. They had to cross the schoolyard with no cover and reach the maintenance bay where the fighting would be particularly fierce. How many of them would make it? Kuon took a breath, hoping to increase that number even a little.
Nine-count Strike.
Kishin Ryuenbu, Mod.
Curved blue Blades sliced apart the Jave in the classrooms as well as the ones clinging to the windows. Kuon dove back into each classroom searching for Witch Bubbles or other signs of life in every corner of the school. There were no more Jave left, and he’d killed a lot of enemies, but…
“Argh…!” His chest hurt. His heart wasn’t beating right. He was remotely operating magic Blades like Servants, so it was supposed to hurt a little, but this was rougher than he’d imagined. It didn’t carve away at his life like the ultimate art, but his master would definitely yell at him later.
A call came in on his comms. It was Fuji. “Was that Okegawa-kun? You’re alive? Good. There are enemy main forces in the sky above us. Suzuka-kun is already headed for them. Regroup with her and annihilate them.” His orders were terse, clipped, as if purged of all emotion.
Kuon was in no state to notice. “Aye aye, sir. Suzuka Hachishiki, heading to annihilate enemy forces.”
Without realizing what he’d just said, Kuon shot upwards, glaring at the skies above. These foes had come not from the deep sea but from what lay right before his eyes: a Gate in the skies above Jogen Maneuver Academy.
Hanabi had gone into the Gate first, and was desperately battling the Queen. She didn’t have the Kiryu with her, but she couldn’t afford to hesitate. She had to kill this thing as soon as possible and get back to school to save more people. But alone…
“Servants!”
Wings flew out of her backpack, menacing the Queen. They shot down a number of enemy tentacles and bullets. The enemy fired back, but the Servants successfully dodged. Careful not to miss the warning signs of the hard-to-avoid tentacles-from-nowhere attacks, Hanabi readied her rifle.
Then a call came in from Fuji telling her Kuon would be there any moment. She felt strength surging into her. No matter how bad the situation, if he was there, they would find a way through it.
Just as she was down to one remaining Servant…
“Hanabi-senpai.”
She heard Kuon’s voice and turned towards him. But… “Kuon…kun?”
As he came in the Gate, he looked like someone else. He seemed totally different. His voice flat, he asked, “Ready to go on Scout Nova Rifle max output?”
“Er, uh, of course.”
“I’ll hit it with a Reppakuzan. Crossfire. Put that Servant on me.”
“Roger that.”
There was no time to try and figure out what was bothering her about him. Hanabi sent her Servant to Kuon and waited for his signal. As he flew the other way, the Queen’s bullets targeted him, too, but there were fewer coming her way as a result. That made it easier to get her rifle charged. “Ready,” Kuon said. As he did…
Shichisei Kenbu: Mod. Tensetsu Shigure.
Time stopped. Her vision showed attack routes and the likely evasion routes the Queen would take, and Hanabi set her aim to one side of the enemy. Time resumed. In front and to the left of her, Kuon unleashed a sword of red light, passing to the Queen’s side. Hanabi shot her rifle at her guts, a shot powerful enough to blow up a moon.
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Crossfire. Kuon’s red light and Hanabi’s white light hit it from both sides. Caught in the middle, the Queen had nowhere to go. Burned by terrifyingly high temperatures, she melted and evaporated, leaving no trace behind.
This was the first time they’d killed a Queen with anything but Kuon’s ultimate art, but as Hanabi rushed to leave the Gate before it closed, she was less concerned with that than trying to figure out what it was that felt so off.
Since when does Kuon talk like that?
And his eyes. Like he was beaten down by everything, like…
Ahead of her, the extra-booster-covered back of Soukyu (Mod.) looked just like the Hero, back when he saved her during the fall of the capital.
Kuon and Hanabi returned to the school and began dispatching the remaining enemies.
Shortly afterwards, they found her.