Listen To My Song, Uwu (Symphogear / Revue Starlight, Crack) [COMPLETE] (2025)

Miku's here! I continue to enjoy the fact that alchemy is just kind of a normal thing in this AU, and how that's causing all kinds of ripples. I think Miku could make for a pretty decent alchemist, and I'd be happy to see her commit to the illusion-casting option as well. She's got the personality in her to get pretty good with illusions I think, and while I doubt going full Aizen is a possibility there's still a lot that you can do with illusions short of that point.

Also, I wonder really how much the Hibiki-Gungnir merger actually did, in the context of relics being people even when on their own. Maybe broken relics are less conscious, but it's hard to say for sure at this point. Still, the merger evidently mushed their minds together resulting in something in between a 'interpolated' personality and some of the less separated plural configurations. But what else did it do? I guess we'll find out.

She couldn't remember their faces anymore, but somehow that realisation barely stirred any emotion within her. Hardly anything did these days. Ten years in Val Verde. Ten years since her parents had died, leaving eight-year-old her alone in the middle of a warzone.

Chris shifted in her cage, trying in vain to make herself comfortable. It was a lot smaller than her previous one, probably because this was used for transport rather than just storage. Her abductors had taken everything she had, even her clothes, and then searched every nook and cranny of her body, ostensibly to make sure she wasn't hiding anything that could be used to escape.

Ostensibly, because they had clearly enjoyed watching her humiliation and had dragged out the process for as long as possible. A few of them had obviously wanted to go further than just touching her body with their hands, but had fortunately been held back by their fellows. Chris shivered. She had been fortunate enough to avoid getting pregnant so far, but it was always a risk every time something like this happened.

Suddenly, she heard it. A savage and primal song that howled of killing and death and a bottomless hunger that could never be sated. Blind panic overtook her and she thrashed desperately against the ropes that bound her. Death was coming. She had to run. She had to get away. Around her, the room came alive with sound as nearly every other captive also began to panic. Only those who had broken so completely that they welcomed death did not.

With every passing moment, the source of the song drew closer, allowing Chris to hear it better. A shiver of revulsion ran through her body as she took in the horrible chorus of distorted voices that were singing in unison. The discordant cacophony laid just under the main melody line, blending together into a sort of bizarre, twisted accompaniment.

Just then, a gut-wrenching scream rang out, only to abruptly cut off. A moment later, another voice joined the chorus. The same voice that had screamed. Chris frantically redoubled her efforts. She didn't want to get eaten by some kind of soul-devouring monster! Tears ran down her face as she struggled desperately, and only some of them were brought on by the ropes rubbing her skin raw.

With a painful wrench, she tore her arm free. Ignoring the pain from her dislocated thumb, she bit down on her finger and began to draw. Escape. She needed to escape. Break the lock. Done. She needed a weapon- her cage was metal, reshape it. She was bad with metal, but all she needed was a pointy stick. Done. Chris turned to flee, only to hesitate at the sight of the other captives. If she left them, they would surely be eaten by the monster, but she wasn't even sure if she could save herself, did she really have the leeway to play hero?

At that moment, the door swung open and the monster walked in, heralded by the wails of the souls it had devoured. Without thinking, Chris screamed and charged at the slender armoured figure that entered, brandishing her makeshift weapon.

She barely registered a blur of movement, and then her weapon was wrenched from her hands and she felt her back slam against the wall. Reflexively, she reached behind her and began to draw-

A gauntleted hand slammed into the wall beside her shoulder. A moment later, she felt the wall began to writhe against her back. Tendrils of earth emerged, pinning her arms and legs in place. Chris screamed, but the armoured figure simply turned away and continued walking further into the room.

Still struggling desperately, Chris watched as the figure pulled out a sword from nowhere, and then make it shrink down into a dagger that they used to cut open the locks of every cage in the room. Dumbfounded, she continued watching as they carefully pulled out each captive and severed their bonds, before doing something that made their cuts, bruises, abrasions, and other visible injuries disappear.

Chris had heard that alchemy could be used to heal injuries, but she had never actually seen someone do it before. They weren't even drawing any sigils for something so complicated!

Figuring out the trick took awhile, but seeing the armoured figure do the same thing so many times eventually clued her in. The armour they wore was a dull grey, with glowing red lines on it. Chris had assumed that they were decorative, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The lines shifted as the armoured figure worked, forming different shapes and patterns on their body. Chris didn't recognise any of the sigils used, but the general shape of an alchemy circle was easy enough to discern.

Was this a faust robe? Sonia had briefly mentioned them during one of her alchemy lessons. Garments worn by master alchemists, personally crafted for their own use. A suit of armour didn't exactly fit the idea of a 'robe' in Chris' mind, but it made sense for something worn into battle.

Once every cage was empty, the armoured figure turned and walked back to her. Chris flinched as they reached out with one hand, but all the armoured figure did was heal her injuries before releasing her from her impromptu imprisonment. Then, the armoured figure looked back and spoke in a clearly masculine voice.

"All of you need clothes. Follow me," he said, before turning and walking out.

Chris stared in disbelief at his departing back. What had just happened?

A soft tug at her hand brought her back to reality. Chris looked down at the girl who was trying to get her attention. She couldn't be much older than Chris had been when her parents had been killed.

"Um, what do we do now?" the little girl asked.

Suddenly, Chris was aware that everyone in the room was looking to her for direction. Why? She looked around, but none of the others met her gaze.

"We won't last long without clothes and supplies. Let's go," she finally said.

They went.

Fortunately, most of their things were still nearby. The few whose possessions could not be found took the least bloody clothes they could find from the numerous corpses everywhere. Chris heaved a sigh of relief when she found that her pendant was still fine. It wasn't much, just a small disc of wood with a crescent moon carved on one side and a spreading tree on the other. Nevertheless, the pendant was special because Sonia, a friend of her parents and Chris' alchemy teacher, had given it to her before she died.

The other captives gave her complicated looks when they saw her pendant. The Cult of the Word had a complicated status in Val Verde. Most saw it as a religion of outsiders, with an overly naive message of peace and unity, which was why Chris had been worried her pendant would have been destroyed.

"You. Your name?"

Earlier, the armoured man had done something with the bulky belt he was wearing, causing his armour to fade away. As it vanished, the horrible song that surrounded him faded with it, until all that remained was a perfectly ordinary if clearly foreign man. Slender of body, with long, shoulder length grey hair, he had introduced himself as John Wayne Ver- something something.

"Yukine Chris," she replied.

"Are you a foreigner?" John asked, "How did you end up here?"

In response, Chris explained how she had come to Val Verde from Japan with her parents as part of a relief mission, only to be stranded here when the conflict escalated.

"The last relief mission to Val Verde was a decade ago," John said with a frown.

"Ten years. I was still a child then," Chris agreed, nodding.

"You're hardly an adult yet," John replied absently, causing Chris to bristle indignantly. Which part of her was still a child?

"In that case, would you like to return to Japan?" John asked.

Chris froze. What?

"I- I can go back home?" she whispered.

"Won't be easy, but it's hardly impossible," John replied.

Chris was tempted to say yes right there and then, but she forced herself to hold back. She had only just met the man today, she barely knew him!

"Can I think about it?" she asked.

"Sure, I'll be around until I get all the others settled," John replied, gesturing at all the other former captives who were still milling around the area. A few had already left, but the majority hadn't.

Chris nodded. That should hopefully give her enough time to get in touch with some people she knew and ask them about this strange foreigner.

Stephan, Sonia's youngest sibling, was the one to put the pieces together. After speaking with him, she learnt that was actually a mercenary of some renown, with a body count longer than his unpronounceable surname.

"As far as I can tell, he's good for his word and a stickler for completing his contracts," Stephan concluded, "Just, be careful okay? He's still a merc in the end. They'll do anything for money."

"I will," Chris assured him.

Mind made up, she went back to John to take him up on his offer.

"Alright, I'm interested, but how exactly do you plan to get me back into Japan anyway? I don't have a passport, and I'm not exactly loaded with funds," she pointed out.

"Wouldn't work even if you did still have your old passport. It's been a decade, you've probably been declared dead already," John replied, "I can think of two options."

"One, you get a new passport made and take a plane back. It'll have to be a fake since you're not actually a citizen of any of the American States, but I know someone who could do it. For the right price of course."

"Two, I bring you to Japan by boat. The trip would take way longer, a month or so compared to several hours, but the only cost would be the supplies, like food and fuel."

Chris thought about the two options, and then remembered what Stephan had said about mercenaries and money.

"I'd prefer option two," she said.

"Alright. Let's see... we'll take, say, three days to get ready. How does that sound?" John asked.

"Three days is plenty," Chris assured him. She didn't have that much to pack and she had already said goodbye to Stephan and the rest of Sonia's siblings.

~~

The borders around Val Verde were heavily guarded, at least in theory, to prevent the conflict from spilling out. John, clad in his armour that wailed with the screams of the dead, was let through without issue. The pair of guards at the checkpoint even thanked him for the small bribe he tossed their way. Chris, wrapped in a thick cloak, barely received any attention.

For some reason, there seemed to be fewer voices in the underlying chorus. Chris kept her observations to herself. She was curious, but she wasn't crazy enough to actually ask.

"I've been meaning to ask you something," John spoke up as they continued onwards on his motorcycle. John was riding, obviously, while Chris was sitting in the sidecar that John had mounted. "Have you thought about what you will do once you get back? Besides all the paperwork I mean."

"Not really," Chris admitted, "This was all very sudden, and well, it seemed a bit premature to think so far ahead."

John huffed lightly.

"Have a little more confidence in my skills, alright?" he replied, "Sure, it doesn't make sense to make many long term plans when you could randomly die to a stray bullet any day, but Japan isn't like that."

"But what sort of plans should I even be making?" Chris asked.

"Let's see... For starters, you'll need a job. What were you doing for money back in Val Verde?" John asked.

"A lot of things? Whatever was available," Chris replied, "If nothing comes up then I just collect and sell scrap. I used to sing, but I stopped after... a few close calls. Too risky."

"Too much attention on you," John replied knowingly, "Well, there'll certainly be odd jobs in Japan, and it's probably safe enough to be a singer. It won't be much, but you'll get by. Probably. Worst comes to worst- how good are you with alchemy?"

"I've studied all the basic elements," Chris replied.

"Which ones?" John asked.

"All of them? Air, water, earth, fire," Chris replied, feeling confused, "Are there others?"

"Well yes, those four are the classical elements in Europe. In Asia, they have five: water, earth, fire, metal, and wood," John explained, "Do you know what purpose the basic elements serve in alchemy?"

"I never got that far," Chris admitted.

"They are training tools. An introduction to the different types of matter present in the world. There's also a lot of philosophy tied up with them, but that stuff doesn't serve any practical purpose at your level, so you can ignore it," John replied, "Anyway, if you get good enough with the wood element, you can break down leaves and grass for food. Not the most appetising, but it beats starving."

"You're joking," Chris exclaimed.

"No really, I did that a lot when I was starting out," John replied, "Back then, I had to choose between food and equipment. I chose my equipment."

"But how does that even work?" Chris demanded.

"Leaves and grass are food- some animals can eat them right?" John pointed out, "There's a long biological explanation for that, but the short answer is that they have special organs that humans don't have. So, all you need to do is to replicate that process with alchemy."

"Yes, very simple. Just replicate a process I've never heard of," Chris deadpanned.

"It's really not that bad," John insisted, "I'll show you when we stop for the night."

~~

"See, this is the symbol for sugar," John said, sketching out a shape in the dirt with the sharp end of a tent peg. It was hexagonal, with lines radiating out from each point where two sides met, except for one where he rubbed out the point and drew a small circle in its place.

"Plants make this from air and water using sunlight as an energy source. It's a fascinating example of natural alchemy- but anyway, sugar. Yes, that sugar, the stuff that makes fruits sweet. You can eat it. It gives you energy. But plants don't just use sugar to store energy. They also make this-"

A long chain of hexagons was sketched out to the side.

"-which is what plant fibers are made out of, including leaves and grass. So all we need to do is break this back down into sugar again. To do this, we just need a simple alchemy circle- don't even need all the elements, just wood and water will do..."

Several minutes later, John triumphantly held up a large steel mug filled with watery green mush.

"And there we go!" he exclaimed.

"Is that actually edible?" Chris asked dubiously.

"Let me check," John replied, quickly sketching out a string of glowing sigils in the air with his finger. He peered at the mug intensely for a few moments, and then nodded.

"Nothing that should cause any problems," he declared. For emphasis, he swallowed a mouthful.

"Disgusting," he added with a grimace, "But it could save your life someday. Want to try some?"

Chris carefully shook her head.

"Fair enough," John replied. He eyed the remaining mush in the cup contemplatively before dumping out the contents into the grass at the side of the road.

~~

They made it to their destination, a small town on the coast of Peru, without issue. John had a safehouse there, along with a boat. They made a quick stop for some fresh fruit at the local market, and then they were off.

The entire journey took about a month, travelling northwards along the coast before heading due west until they reached Hawaii. During this time, Chris learnt that John didn't actually need to sleep. In the day, he manipulated the water around the boat to push it forwards, drawing on the sun for energy. At night, he used the boat's diesel engine to keep going. The only times he stopped was for food and occasionally to inject himself with a syringe of glowing green liquid from a case that he kept on himself at all times.

Chris asked him about it once, but didn't push when John deflected with a vague answer. Based on the regularity that he injected himself, it was probably medicine for some medical condition he didn't want to reveal, or some kind of drug that he had to be very careful about dosing himself with.

A month was a long time to spend at sea with no one to talk to but each other. Some of that was spent swapping stories; John had been to every continent in the world except Antarctica for his work. After hearing about his body count from Stephan, Chris had expected him to be some kind of assassin or bounty hunter, and was surprised to learn that he actually mostly worked as a courier or security escort. On her side, Chris didn't have nearly as many stories to tell, but she did have some happy memories that she didn't mind sharing.

Mostly though, they talked about alchemy. Or rather, John talked about alchemy and Chris listened. Most of her lessons from Sonia had been on the practical side, so learning about the whys and hows was a new experience for her.

"The things you've been learning, all that stuff about the six elements and whatnot, are part of the field of physical alchemy. Alchemists call it that because it deals strictly with the physical or material realm. The four fundamental forces: electromagnetism, the strong and weak nuclear forces, and gravitation. All of these fall within the domain of physical alchemy."

"I've never heard of those," Chris admitted.

At her words, John paused and frowned contemplatively.

"To grossly oversimplify, everything to do with manipulating the elements has to do with electromagnetism, because the elements themselves are not being altered, only their associations with each other."

"Moving on, the transmutation of one element to another, the most famous of which being the transmutation of gold from lead, has to do with the strong and weak nuclear forces."

"Finally, what people call gravity is actually only the most visible effect of the force that governs space-time interactions, but nobody could come up with a better name so we're stuck with gravitation. Anyway, the other big thing that falls under this force is portals and teleportation. Have you heard of the Treasury of Babylon?"

Chris shook her head.

"The Lunar Ruins?"

Chris started to shake her head, but stopped when a faint memory surfaced.

"There's a city on the moon where the gods used to dwell," she recalled slowly, "It's real?"

"Yes, it does exist- you can see part of it with a sufficiently powerful telescope. Anyway, the Lunar Ruins was where humans first found tangible evidence that teleportation was possible. Whoever had actually dwelt there had built a teleportation array that covered the entire world."

"And all that's under physical alchemy," Chris muttered in disbelief.

John laughed deeply and loudly.

"Yes, and we haven't even gotten to the metaphysical side of things yet!" he chortled, "Isn't alchemy amazing?"

~~

Chris stared at the stick in her hand. It was a perfectly ordinary tree branch that she had picked up during their stopover in Hawaii. Taking a deep breath, she focused on the symbols she had drawn on her hands.

She had done this before already, just with steam to ease the process. Keep the chains intact, she told herself over and over, just push them apart enough so they can slide against each other.

Slowly, carefully, she bent the previously hard and brittle stick into a circle.

"I did it? I did it!" she cheered, "John look, I did it!"

"I saw," John replied, sounding amused.

"Now you'll tell me about metaphysical alchemy right?" Chris demanded.

"Alright, a promise is a promise," John conceded.

"So, metaphysical alchemy is divided into two branches, HeartGold and SoulSilver alchemy. Of the two, almost nothing is known about HeartGold alchemy, save that it has something to do with converting emotions into energy and can, I quote, 'overturn logic and create miracles'."

"In contrast, SoulSilver alchemy is a lot better understood. Probably the most famous SoulSilver alchemist alive now is Carol Malus Dienheim, the Living Doll Alchemist. Because of her, we know that it is possible to extract a soul from a human and infuse it into an inorganic shell."

"But that's not all that SoulSilver alchemy is capable of. My friend, Sakurai Ryouko, specialises in symphonics, the study of the underlying harmonies of the world. According to her, the esoteric properties that relics from the Age of the Gods possess are the result of a 'song' that was incorporated into them during their creation."

"But why gold and silver if they have nothing to do with those metals?" Chris asked in bewilderment.

"I have no idea," John confessed, "My field of study is bioalchemy, which is firmly within the realm of physical alchemy. Those names come from the Bavarian alchemists who studied the texts brought back from the Lunar Ruins. Ryouko says she suspects there is a metaphysical significance to gold and silver, but even she doesn't know for sure."

~~

By the time they arrived in Japan, Chris could not only make her own mug of theoretically edible plant mush, she could also manipulate metal, changing its shape and making it harder or softer. John had been right; even though metal came from the earth, it was different enough that it could really be considered as its own element. No wonder she always had trouble shaping it.

"And here we are. Do you remember where you need to go?" John asked her.

"Immigration services handles refugees from abroad," Chris repeated dutifully.

"Correct. And even though you are a Japanese citizen by birth, you are also a refugee from Val Verde. That is the pure, unadulterated truth," John reminded her, "That fact is what will get you in the door, everything else comes later, depending on how the bureaucratic process goes. Off you go now."

Chris started to leave, but hesitated.

"Where will you be going after this?" she asked.

"I have some business here in Japan, but afterwards, who knows?" John replied with a shrug.

"Then I guess I won't be seeing you again," Chris said sadly.

John shrugged again.

"If a peaceful life is what you aspire to, then our paths probably won't cross again," he told her, "In fact, it would be better if they didn't, because people like me only show up when there is trouble brewing. Ryouko told me that once, and I trust her judgement."

"Then... I guess... this is goodbye," Chris replied.

"Goodbye, and good luck," John returned.

Chris sighed and leaned back against her backpack to sip her cup of plant mush that she had flavoured with a bit of salt, while the policeman who had decided to bother her studied the alchemy circle she had drawn on a sheet of plastic. She had invested in something a bit more permanent once she realised just how difficult living in Japan was going to be.

Refugees in Japan were, theoretically, given a small allowance once their refugee application was filed to tide them over until their work permit came through. The reality was, however, that Chris still hadn't gotten anything even after a month had passed. While she did have some savings, everything in Japan was far more expensive than she was used to. Forget staying somewhere with a roof over her head, just finding affordable food was an exercise in frustration, which was why she was staying under a bridge eating leaves and grass.

Honestly speaking, the only significant difference between her current situation and her previous life back in Val Verde was the lower risk of violence and death. Japan might be a wonderful country, but since she didn't have any money, its wonders were denied to her.

"This is... hydrolysis of cellulose into sugar?" the policeman slowly mused aloud, "You're eating grass? Why?"

"They're free," Chris pointed out.

"Yes but- surely someone with alchemist training like you would be able to afford better than this?" the policeman replied, puzzlement evident.

"Can't work, I don't have a work permit," Chris explained.

"You don't have a- miss, can I see your passport and visa documents?" the policeman asked sternly.

Wordlessly, Chris handed over her refugee application documents.

"This is- miss Yukine, I must ask you to accompany back to the station," the policeman said after a moment.

Chris sighed and stood up, shouldering her backpack.

"Lead the way then," she replied tiredly.

At the police station, her fingerprints were taken, along with a small DNA sample, which was when things got even more complicated. As she was stuck in an 'interview room' for most of the process, the first inclination she had that something was wrong was when a policewoman entered with a thick sheaf of papers and some kind of electronic device.

"I am required by law to inform you that this conversation is being recorded," the woman said, gesturing at the device, "My name is Maeda Aika, please state your name for the record."

"My name is Yukine Chris," Chris replied, feeling confused and apprehensive.

"What is your date of birth?"

"December 28, 2026."

"What are the names of your parents?"

"Yukine Masanori and Yukine Melisma Sonnet."

Aika nodded once before continuing.

"Our records state that you were born a Japanese citizen. However, you previously claimed to be a refugee from Val Verde. Could you explain why?" she asked.

"Well, it's true right?" Chris pointed out, "I spent ten years stuck in Val Verde after my parents were killed and all the aid groups withdrew. Like, at this point I've spent more of my life in Val Verde than in Japan."

"That doesn't explain why you didn't apply to have your legal identity reinstated," Aika pointed out.

"Well, the person who brought me back to advised me to do things this way. His reasoning was that the narrative of 'refugee seeking asylum' was more mundane and palatable when compared to 'missing, presumed dead person suddenly returning', so it would be easier for the bureaucracy to process and thus let me return to Japan with less fuss," Chris explained.

"That person might have had good intentions, but they did you a grave disservice," Aika told her seriously, "Your case was never closed, so if you had come straight to us you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble."

"If my case was never closed, how come nobody ever came looking for me?" Chris shot back bitterly, "How was I supposed to know any of the things you just said?"

At her words, Aika took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"I cannot speak for matters outside my jurisdiction. Regardless, this concludes our interview. At this point, I'd say there is a fairly convincing case that you are who you claim to be," she replied.

"Does that mean I can start working now?" Chris asked hopefully.

Aika shook her head and made a complicated expression.

"Unfortunately, it's not that simple. We need to pass our findings to the relevant authorities, and then wait for their decision on how to proceed," she explained apologetically.

Chris sighed. Back to waiting then.

Fortunately, she only had to stay under the bridge for another week or so before she was assigned somewhere to stay while her paperwork was being processed. That wasn't to say that she spent all her time waiting around either. A lot of people wanted to talk to her for various reasons, and so Chris was kept busy.

For instance, the coast guard wanted to know how John had gotten her through their patrols. Unfortunately for them, Chris had no idea because it had been night and she had slept through most of the process. By the time she woke in the morning, they were already almost to shore.

Another bunch of government people were interested in John, what he could do, why he chose to help her, and so on. Chris didn't like how they made John sound like a bad person, so she deliberately made her responses as vague as possible when answering their questions.

The whole process was very tedious, essentially repeating the same story over and over to different people so they could pick apart the details that they were interested in.

The only interesting that happened was when she went to get her biosymphonic waveform recorded as part of making her new passport. She was brought to a tiny soundproofed room in a hospital and then told to hum what she heard over the headphones provided. The staff there had told her that the recording should take less than an hour, but somehow the whole process ended up taking the entire afternoon.

Chris was suspicious, because she had gone from having to hum simple tunes to being told to sing some rather strange songs. She couldn't help but remember what John had said about songs being a part of SoulSilver alchemy, and how they were what gave the relics from the Age of the Gods their power.

There were three songs that stood out, mixed in with a bunch of more regular ones. They reminded her, somehow, of the song she had heard whenever John used his armour, even though they could not be more different.

One song spoke of love and the mending of what was broken. It was a nice song, and Chris felt better simply from singing it. Even after she stopped singing, the notes seemed to linger in the air, making everything feel lighter and brighter.

Another song spoke of enduring adversity and cutting through obstacles. A song of war. Chris didn't like that one. It reminded her of what some people said back in Val Verde: that life was an endless struggle for supremacy, and that the only person who truly mattered was yourself. Everyone else was either a resource to be exploited or an obstacle to be overcome. The people who had hurt her the most all thought like that, so she hated it.

The last song was the one that Chris felt the most conflicted about. A song of death, but also new life. It too was a song of battle, but it was not proud and defiant. Instead, it... drooped, for lack of a better description. Bowed down by the weight of great sorrow, yet unbroken and bearing hope for the future. The song spoke to her. Resonated with her in a way that she couldn't describe with words.

When it ended, Chris abruptly realised that she was crying.

~~

After Chris had officially been recognised as a Japanese citizen once again, she was assigned a social worker; a woman named Yamamoto Reika. Reika was a great help, walking Chris through the process of claiming her allowance and renting an apartment, as well as teaching her basic things like how to take public transport, how to use an ATM, and how to dispose of her trash properly.

Naturally, Reika was also the one who told Chris about Japan's mandatory military service for all its citizens. At age eighteen, Chris was supposed to be called up for military service soon. However, given her rather unique circumstances, her twelve months of mandatory military service had been pushed back for a year.

Chris hadn't been too happy to learn that she was required to serve in the military, but she had eventually accepted Reika's explanation that Japan needed a military to protect itself, and that mandatory conscription meant that burden was shared equally across all Japanese citizens.

Finally, Reika also ended as a sort of private tutor for Chris. All Japanese citizens were required to complete nine years of education, but Chris was already far too old to enroll into an elementary school or even a junior high school. This meant that once again, the task fell to Reika.

When Chris told Reika that she felt bad about taking up so much of her time, the older woman admitted that all of the work that she had been doing had been redistributed to her other colleagues so that she could be freed up to help Chris.

"If anything, my workload has decreased recently, so don't worry about me," she had concluded, "Instead, you should focus on building your new life here. That's what I'm here to help you with."

So that was what Chris did. She explored the city that her apartment was in, noting down all the places where she could get cheap ingredients. She sorted through her belongings and gradually replaced the things that were worn out. But most of all, she read everything she could get her hands on, slaking a thirst for knowledge that she hadn't even known she had.

She did not, to Reika's constant exasperation, stop eating plant mush to save money. She also refused to buy anything that she couldn't easily carry away by herself, which meant her apartment remained bare of any furnishings except the ones that had already been there when she arrived.

She made sure to exercise regularly and thoroughly. Letting her body weaken from indolence just because she could simply didn't feel right. And she also continued practicing her alchemy, doing her best to learn from the few books she could find in the public libraries regarding the subject. There wasn't anything more advanced than what she already knew, but there were some interesting ideas that she noted down to try.

For example, Chris already knew how to draw on her own body's reserves, sunlight, flowing water, and burning fuel for energy to power a transmutation, but one book mentioned using electricity from batteries, with stern warnings not to draw from the main power grid as that was both illegal and highly dangerous.

In this way, a year passed.

~~

As the date of her enlistment drew near, Chris was called up for a medical examination. Among other things, she had a vision test, a hearing test, a chest x-ray, an electrocardiogram, a biosymphonic recording, a blood test, and a urine test. Being female, she was also given a contraceptive implant: a tiny plastic rod in her upper arm that would prevent her from getting pregnant for the duration of her military service.

On the actual day of her enlistment, Chris reported along with countless others to the enlistment center. They sat through a long-winded presentation that conveyed no useful information whatsoever, and then took an oath to protect Japan if the need arose.

Chris had gotten an idea of what to expect from Reika, but she was still taken aback by the sheer amount of stuff issued to each person during the enlistment process. Clothes, footwear, bags, and an assortment of miscellaneous items. About the only things she had needed to bring herself were toiletries and underwear.

Basic training was about two months, after which the trainees would be given their postings for the rest of their service.

The physical side of things wasn't an issue. Chris had kept herself fit, and while the physical training still pushed her to exhaustion, she had plenty of experience dealing with that as well. The heavily regimented lifestyle brought back some unpleasant memories, but she had served worse masters in the past. And unlike her fellow enlistees, she didn't have any family to miss.

Even the more technical aspects of training such as alchemy, firearms handling, and field crafts weren't all that challenging. The only frustration that Chris encountered was the trainers' insistence that everything be done 'properly', which was to say exactly as they taught, no deviations allowed.

Then again, it was called 'basic training' for a reason. Most of her peers probably didn't have years of experience living in a war-torn country to fall back on.

Also, there was a far stronger emphasis on safety. Back in Val Verde, if someone was stupid enough to point a loaded gun at themselves or their allies, they deserved whatever happened to them afterwards.

~~

At the end of two months, the trainees were surveyed about their desired postings. However, no guarantees were given that people would get what they wanted. For herself, Chris wrote down 'medic'. She already knew the basics of cleaning and dressing wounds, but was curious to see what could be done with better supplies and equipment.

Unfortunately, she didn't get what she wanted and was instead posted to the Special Disaster Response Team, a unit she hadn't even heard of.

"Welcome to the Special Disaster Response Team. We're a fairly new unit, established just twelve years ago with assistance from the Alchemy Association of Japan," the unit commander, Kazanari Genjuro explained to the small group of male and female recruits present.

"Most of you are here because you demonstrated a high capability with alchemy during your basic training. The rest of you are here as potential candidates for our experimental symphogear program."

He then proceeded to divide them up into two groups. Chris found herself in the group assigned to the symphogear program.

"Please note that everything you see or learn during your time with us is considered a military secret. Disseminating confidential information is a serious offence and may see you charged in court," Genjuro concluded sternly, doing his best to loom over everyone present.

As he stood head and shoulders above almost everyone present and was a veritable wall of muscle, this was very effective. That said, Chris did notice a few of her male and female peers looking slightly aroused in addition to being intimidated.

Unlike in basic training, Chris wasn't sharing a room with nine other girls. Her new room was smaller, but also had far fewer inhabitants, so each person had more space for themselves. There were three others sharing the room with Chris: Itaba Yumi, Ando Kuriyo, and Terashima Shiori. All of them were a year younger than she was, and had apparently attended high school together, causing Chris to be the odd one out. Nevertheless, they were all fairly friendly and actually made an effort not to exclude Chris, which she appreciated.

The next day, Chris and the others went for their relic compatibility test. The person in charge of them, a woman named Tomosato Aoi, explained how each symphogear was created using a fragment of a relic from the Age of the Gods as a core, and so could only be used by people compatible with that relic.

Among all the people overseeing the test, three stood out simply because they were much younger than the other staff. Aoi introduced them as Kazanari Tsubasa, Amou Kanade, and Tachibana Hibiki. Hibiki was a member of the technical support staff, while Tsubasa and Kanade were symphogear users. Tsubasa's symphogear used the Ame-no-Habakiri relic, while Kanade's used the Gungnir relic.

Their introduction caused quite a stir among the new recruits as Tsubasa and Kanade were apparently part of a famous idol group called Zwei Wing. However, Chris was more interested in Hibiki because she felt the most dangerous. Also, the way Hibiki moved reminded her of John for some reason.

There were three relics being tested; Nehushtan, Ichaival, and Gungnir, each in a different room. Chris ended up being tested with Gungnir first, Yumi and Kuriyo with Nehushtan, and Shiori with Ichaival.

She heard it the moment she stepped into the testing room: a soft humming in the air, like a song was playing just out of earshot. Something was inside with her, watching and judging her. Something dangerous.

Feeling increasingly apprehensive, Chris walked over to the table in the middle of the room and picked up the pendant on it. Instantly, the soft humming resolved into a song.

As instructed, Chris opened her mouth to sing-

{balwisyall nescell gungnir tron}

Darkness.

Chris awoke suddenly, soaked in sweat and gasping for breath. Sitting up, she quickly realised that she was lying on a stretcher in the 'recovery area', which meant that she had collapsed. Kanade and Hibiki were sitting nearby, and they both converged on her when they noticed that she was awake.

"Are you alright?" Kanade asked.

"I'm fine. What happened?" Chris asked.

"Your compatibility was too low, so you failed to synchronise with the relic," Hibiki explained.

"Yeah, Gungnir is a really demanding relic. Don't worry about it, the same thing happened to me the first time I tried," Kanade assured her.

"Wait, so compatibility can be increased?" Chris asked.

"With training, yes, but that takes time," Hibiki replied.

"Lots and lots of training," Kanade added with a shudder, glancing at Hibiki for some reason. Was she some kind of trainer?

Once Chris proved she could stand by herself, she was sent back to continue testing. Her next stop was Nehushtan.

Chris had expected it to feel something like Gungnir, like something dangerous watching her. Instead, Nehushtan felt gentle and caring. More importantly though, she had heard its song before. Had sung it, many months earlier.

{rarkuie nehushtan dere zizzl}

As she sang, the song of Nehushtan filled the testing room, soft but exultant. It remembered her, just like she remembered it, and it was glad that she was now feeling better than before. The notes of the song wrapped around her in a gentle embrace, forming a skintight layer over her skin. The clothes she was wearing faded away, replaced by silvery-white armour. Finally, a heavy purple chain draped itself over her shoulders.

Chris slowly flexed her limbs, feeling a new strength within them. Nehushtan was supporting and protecting her. And if she needed to fight...

Chris snapped out one arm and the chain whipped out at the target set up near the far wall, coiling around it and squeezing it like a snake constricting its prey.

Not a bad feeling at all.

When she passed by the recovery room on her way to her final testing chamber, she noticed that there were now several people lying unconscious there. Kanade was saying something to Hibiki while gesturing at the bodies, while Hibiki had her arms folded stubbornly across her chest.

After experiencing just how different Gungnir and Nehushtan were, Chris wasn't sure what to expect as she entered Ichaival's testing chamber. A painfully familiar song washed over her as she stepped through the door, making her heart clench in her chest.

Chris stared at the pendant in her hand. She didn't remember walking over to the table. Didn't remember picking up the pendant lying there. The song of Ichaival filled her mind, sorrowful and yet determined.

{killter ichaival tron}

The song of Ichaival poured out from her lips, laden not just with the heaviness of death, but the weight her own sorrow as well.

The notes settled onto her skin, red like blood and white like snow. The outline of a bow took shape in her hands, but Chris shook her head as she didn't know how to use one. Instead, she sang of a newer form of death that rained down upon the battlefield. Ichaival heard her, understood her, and took a form that was more familiar to her: a six-chambered revolver, the gun she had used to make her first kill.

Gripping it with both hands, she snapped off a shot at the target in the distance, shattering it into pieces.

"Bang," she whispered.

The rest of the day passed in a haze. Chris was unsurprised to learn that she was compatible with both Nehushstan and Ichaival, although her compatibility with Ichaival was far higher. In fact, among everyone tested, she was by far the most compatible with Ichaival. Nobody else came close.

Of her three roommates, Kuriyo and Shiori were only compatible with Nehushtan, while Yumi was compatible with both Nehushtan and Gungnir. In fact, Yumi was the only one among the trainees who was compatible with Gungnir, a fact that she proclaimed to be 'very anime' and a sign that she was obviously a main character.

That night, Chris went to sleep as early as she could. Her roommates hadn't grown tired of recounting their experiences with each relic, but Chris was just too exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

~~

She was walking through a valley, tall cliffs on either side and yew trees all around her. Death hung over heavily the valley, a gloom that chilled her to the bone. And yet life flourished all around her, seeming at odds with the death weighing down on everything.

She felt no fear. She had walked with death for most of her life. It was inevitable, coming for all that lived without exception, and yet was also unpredictable, often appearing at unexpected times, unsought and unlooked-for.

Eventually, the trees parted and she stepped into a clearing. There was a sapling there, young and unbowed. Something about it was different. Special. It drew the eye and held it, transfixed, unable to look away. And so Chris found herself watching the tree as it grew taller and taller, until it began to bend.

The tree continued to grow, becoming gnarled and twisted, its branches dipping down to the ground. Many of the branches rooted themselves into the soil, forming new growth. Eventually, the original tree died, but by then a thick mass of yew trees had grown up all around it.

Death. Rebirth.

Chris looked up at the branches hanging down towards her, laden with bright red fruit. Had she walked towards it, or had it grown towards her?

Without really understanding why, she broke off a branch and took it into her hands. There was a cluster of red berries hanging from it. She plucked one free and ate it.

It tasted sweet.

Maeai said:

all attempts to shave shards from Durandal failed due to its extremely high durability.

Click to expand...

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Well, let's use whole thing then!

Maeai said:

In fact, Yumi was the only one among the trainees who was compatible with Gungnir, a fact that she proclaimed to be 'very anime' and a sign that she was obviously a main character.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I love the anime friend squad but Yumi is by far the best. Nice to catch up with Chris too, and it's interesting the ways in which she's keeping to a refugee mentality. Extremely frugal too, which also makes sense. It's neat to see the ways John rubbed off on her.

As she walked beside her friends, Kanade marveled at how well her body moved now. She still couldn't believe it sometimes: the constant pain and weakness in her body that had been her constant companion for years had all but disappeared, allowing her to sing and dance like she once could. How many years had it been since the repeated use of LiNKER had taken its toll and she had been forced to go on an indefinite hiatus, both as a warrior and as a performer?

The Zwei Wing reunion concert had been a final desperate attempt to cure her by reactivating Nehushtan, which supposedly held tremendous healing powers. Things hadn't turned out the way they had hoped, but Kanade had still been healed thanks to Dr Sakurai, who had only been in Japan because of the concert, so in a way the concert had achieved its objectives anyway.

On a related note, Dr Sakurai was gone. She had left soon after their meeting with Dr Ver, saying something about an excavation in Antartica. Kanade had hoped she would change her mind and stay on in a more permanent role, but the woman had been firm in her refusal. It was a shame, not only did she know more about symphogears than anyone else, she was also a lot nicer than most of the other people that the Alchemy Association sent to the Special Disaster Response Team.

That aside, Kanade was glad that she could once again stand beside her best friend Tsubasa, both onstage and in battle. And not just that, her recovery meant she was once again free to go out with Tsubasa and just do normal things that friends did together, like eating out and shopping and karaoke. Just like old times- no, better! Their group had grown larger than she had ever dared hope for with the addition of Hibiki and her friend Miku.

Kanade had known of Miku for some time as Hibiki's best friend from before her kidnapping and as one of the people who knew the true nature of the spear-girl's condition, but the first time she had actually seen the girl in person had been during the orientation for the newest batch of recruits for the Special Disaster Response Team. She and Tsubasa usually skipped those since the recruits had nothing to do with SONG and the symphogears, but this year they were finally recruiting new symphogear users and both of them had wanted to scout out their new juniors.

The subsequent conversation with Hibiki had been enlightening. Miku had apparently spent the past year or so training her alchemy just so she could get into the SDRT. And when Kanade had asked why, Hibiki had replied in her usual blunt manner:

"So that she can stand by my side on her own merits."

That simple declaration had told Kanade everything she needed to know about Miku. The girl knew what she wanted and pursued her target with everything that she had. Or maybe that wasn't quite the right way to say it; Hibiki wasn't exactly running away after all.

Intrigued, Kanade had decided to invite Hibiki and Miku along the next time she and Tsubasa went out. They all got along well enough, so Kanade invited them out again. Getting Tsubasa and Miku to warm up to each other had taken several months, partly because all of their schedules were so packed from SDRT stuff, but they had gotten there in the end.

These days, they went out once a week, on the weekends, when the conscripts got to rejoin the civilian world. Miku had just completed her advanced alchemy course a few days ago, so this week they were going somewhere a little fancier to celebrate.

"You know, when you said you were going to disguise us, I was maybe expecting you to just change our hair colors," Tsubasa was saying, "Not give us a complete makeover."

"Is it too much? I can change us back if you want," Miku replied a little nervously.

"No, it's fine. I was surprised, is all," Tsubasa hastily corrected, "Where did you even learn this? I know the advanced course syllabus has camouflage lessons, but those are for hiding in forested environments."

"Isn't this also sort of like hiding though?" Miku pointed out.

"Yes, but there's no way you learnt how to do this from the SDRT training," Tsubasa stated firmly.

"Not directly," Miku agreed, "But the required skills are mostly the same. What changes is only how those skills are used. It's like how experience with using makeup helps with applying camouflage creams to your face, except the other way around. I've been learning about makeup and disguises for a while, so I just had to apply the new knowledge in the way that I wanted."

"You've been learning about disguises? I thought your hobby was like, philosophy or something," Kanade interjected.

"What I'm interested in is the truth," Miku corrected, "Disguises and such are a part of that because they change how people perceive things. It really doesn't take that much. Just a few changes and a completely different person appears. And the thing is, people know it is possible, but they still fall for it anyway, because what we see is such a big part of how we perceive the world. Case in point."

For emphasis, Miku gestured at Hibiki, who had been quietly listening from the side. Her light brown hair was now much a darker shade, almost indistinguishable from black. It had also been lengthened from chin-length to shoulder-length and tied back into a loose ponytail. Eyeliner to make her eyes less round and a pair of narrow glasses completed the look.

The difference really was startling. Hibiki now resembled a stereotypical office lady, albeit one that had just started working and hadn't yet had her spirits crushed by countless years of Japanese bureaucracy.

Kanade glanced down at her now pink-colored hair that had been tied into a thick side braid. It wasn't a style that she would have ever considered wearing, but perhaps that was the point? To create a look that was distinct from the 'Kanade' that her fans knew. Tsubasa certainly looked very different with dark green hair and a large hair bun atop her head.

As for Miku, she had given herself wavy light brown hair and an assortment of colorful hair clips and hair ties to replace her usual ribbon.

It was nice to be able to go out with her face uncovered and not instantly be recognised as Kanade from Zwei Wing. There was still the occasional person who would stop and do a double take, but nobody had come up to bother them so far. That said, Kanade was still relieved when they finally arrived at the restaurant and were shown to their private room.

"A bunch of the regulars from my side were unavailable for a few days," Miku spoke up after everyone had placed their orders, "Did more work come in for your side?"

"Yeah, second time this month," Kanade agreed.

"That's more than before right? I don't remember that ever happening before," Miku added hesitantly.

"Should we really be talking about work here?" Tsubasa interjected.

"I know, I know, but I don't get to talk with you all much outside of these outings," Miku said quietly, "I just worry you know? About your workload."

"We're still managing fine. With Hibiki here and me back to a hundred percent, we've more than enough manpower to deal with everything. Heck, back when I was still mostly bedridden, Tsubasa did everything by herself. Our current situation now is already loads better, and there's still all the new people we're training," Kanade said, trying her best to assure Miku.

"My uncle knows and he's been looking into it," Tsubasa added, "I can check with him when I get back."

"Thanks," Miku said gratefully.

"Right, enough talking about work. Hibiki, have you told Miku about your latest baking attempt?" Kanade said.

"It was just yesterday, so I have not," Hibiki replied, "The layering came out a lot better this time, but only one out of four croissants puffed up correctly."

Saying so, she took out her phone and showed a picture to Miku, who nodded.

"It's a lot better than before, you're getting there," Miku said, "Have you thought about what you'll try next?"

Before Hibiki could reply however, their food arrived and everyone got distracted trying out all the different dishes they had ordered. Eventually though, all the food was eaten and the conversation picked up again.

"-and he said: 'You're already twenty, it's past time you started looking for a husband.' That's why I have a marriage interview next month," Tsubasa grumbled.

"Your grandfather's really traditional huh," Miku remarked.

"Nah, that's just the excuse he's using. What he's really obsessed with is leaving behind a legacy," Tsubasa corrected.

"Doesn't he already have a legacy?" Hibiki pointed out, "The SDRT only exists because he made it right?"

"Bloodline's just that big a deal for him," Tsubasa sighed, "You know he arranged my father's marriage? Found the 'ideal woman' that would strengthen the bloodline or something."

"Sounds troublesome, my parents pester me everytime I visit, but they wouldn't go that far," Miku commented.

"My mother and grandmother don't pester me about marriage or childbearing, but then they're aware that I can't have kids," Hibiki added, "Also, I believe that my father has soured my mother on the topic of marriage."

"And as for me, I don't have parents to pester me about such things," Kanade finished, "Enough talking about our family problems. I vaguely remember Miku asking Hibiki something earlier but she didn't get to answer because we got distracted by the food."

"Oh yeah! Hibiki, what're you planning to try next?" Miku asked.

"Either macarons or something else involving meringue. I haven't decided yet," Hibiki replied.

They continued chatting for some time, but eventually they had to go their separate ways. Miku had to tidy up her apartment since she wouldn't be back until the next weekend, Hibiki had to visit her mother and grandmother, Tsubasa needed to do her laundry, and Kanade needed to make sure that Tsubasa did her laundry.

~~

Of course, Kanade's personal life wasn't the only thing that had changed recently. SONG was undergoing many changes and everyone there was being kept busy.

The original symphogear program had been limited by a lack of suitable candidates. Of the three first-generation symphogears, only Ame-no-Habakiri had a proper wielder. Kanade had managed to fill in for Gungnir with the help of copious amounts of LiNKER, but the side effects had quickly taken a toll on her body, forcing her to retire from active duty and leaving Tsubasa to handle the Noise all by herself.

Not literally by herself. SONG had always been supported by the rest of the SDRT, which included teams of alchemists that helped to contain each incursion and corral the Noise towards kill-zones. In fact, properly prepared alchemists could deal with incursions without a symphogear user present, but past attempts had shown that doing so was far less effective and often led to casualties. Thus, when Kanade's forced retirement was coupled with the fact that Noise incursions from the Treasury of Babylon had been slowly increasing over the years, the future had looked very grim indeed.

All that changed when Dr Sakurai had divulged a vastly improved LiNKER formula, and Hibiki had shown that it was possible to increase relic compatibility through training. Suddenly, SONG was no longer limited by candidates but rather by the availability of symphogears, or rather by the availability of usable relic fragments.

Tsubasa's grandfather Fudo had stubbornly refused to provide additional fragments of Ame-no-Habakiri, while the few fragments of Gungnir that SONG had originally possessed had all gone into modifying Hibiki, leaving only the original Gungnir prototype and one more made from the shard that Dr Ver had returned to Hibiki. As for Ichaival, there were enough bits to make two more symphogears, for a total of three.

However, the Zwei Wing concert continued to pay dividends. The reactivated Nehushtan would periodically shed small pieces of its body before using its regeneration to restore itself. When asked, the serpentine relic had explained that this was one of its functions: its shed scales possessed a small fraction of its power, and by distributing them it could gift its power to more people.

Every major obstacle had been removed, so Kanade hadn't been surprised when Commander Genjuro had called Tsubasa, Hibiki, and herself into his office to brief them on his plans to expand SONG's roster. What had caught her completely by surprise was his decision to have the three of them serve as combat instructors, with his reasoning being that they were the only ones with actual experience fighting the Noise with symphogears.

It took some time, but after she got over her initial shock, Kanade realised that the commander had a very good point. Back when she and Tsubasa had just been starting out, they had fought like how a regular sword or spear wielder would because that was how they had been taught, not realising how much they had been limiting themselves. Even something as simple as throwing their weapons hadn't been a part of their moveset back then because they simply hadn't known that they could create as many weapons as they wanted.

Moreover, the Noise were very much not like human enemies. For one, they didn't have bones to break or organs to target. Slaying one was a matter of cutting it apart until it completely disintegrated. Additionally, they didn't have any semblance of a strategy or any concept of retreat. Fighting them was more like fighting a landslide, except it was a massive stream of glowing shapes headed unerringly towards the nearest humans.

There really wasn't anyone else more qualified than them to teach the new recruits. Knowing this, Kanade felt obligated to accept the commander's offer. She did, however, make sure that they all got extra pay and enough time off. Being on standby 24/7 for Noise attacks was one thing since most of that time was still downtime. Being a combat instructor for the Japanese military on top of that was a much bigger commitment.

Kanade had been coasting for some time, ever since it became clear that she wasn't going to live for much longer, but now that had changed. Suddenly, she was looking at decades instead of years. Time enough to do so many things that she had never thought she would be able do, and she was determined to make the most of it.

~~

The very first step to teaching was to master the content to the furthest extent possible. For the first batch of recruits, they were planning on using symphogears made from Gungnir, Ichaival, and Nehushtan, subject to compatibility. They already had a resident expert on Gungnir and nobody was compatible with Ichaival, which left Nehushtan.

Nehushtan was an unusual relic in many ways, but the one that had surprised everyone except Hibiki was the sheer number of people compatible with it. In her words, 'Nehushtan wants to help as many people as possible, so it really isn't picky about who can use it'. This inclination meant that Kanade and Tsubasa could both try out Nehushtan symphogears to get a handle on its abilities beforehand.

At first glance, the symphogears had two main features: long bladed tendrils as weapons and the ability to bestow regeneration on any nearby target, including the user themselves.

While physically weaker than Ame-no-Habakiri's swords or Gungnir's spears, the tendrils could extend as far as the user wanted with no apparent range limit. During testing, they had managed to easily bridge the distance between Honshuu and Hokkaido, a distance of over fifty kilometers or thirty miles. Both Kanade and Tsubasa quickly concluded that while the tendrils could be used as weapons, their true potential laid in the additional mobility and reach that they provided.

This notion was further cemented when they discovered that 'heal any nearby target' included targets that were near to the tendrils, not just those that were close to the user. In other words, they could heal any target simply by extending a tendril over to them.

Animal testing also revealed that while the regeneration effect was less potent than that of the Nehushtan itself, which could regrow lost limbs from nothing, someone using a Nehushtan symphogear could still flawlessly reattach severed limbs.

Another thing they discovered was the phenomenon of attunement. During a practice spar, Kanade and Tsubasa against Hibiki, Kanade would occasionally find herself coordinating far better with Tsubasa than expected. Further testing and consultations with Hibiki and Nehushtan led them to conclude that a connection was forming between them because they were using the same relic at the same time.

They would have kept going, but they ran out of time because the planned date of their first intake had arrived. Since they were still figuring things out, SONG's very first batch of recruits was just eight people; four boys and four girls. Testing revealed that all of them were compatible with Nehushtan, with three among them also being compatible with another relic.

The plan was for all eight recruits to train together with Nehushtan symphogears for two months. This would hopefully get them used to each other and allow potential issues to appear. After that, the three special cases would go on to train with the other relic that they were compatible with for another two months, while the rest continued training together. Only after four months total of daily training would the recruits have their first encounter with real Noise.

~~

The first two months passed in a flash. With all their preparations, teaching the new recruits went fairly smoothly. Kanade and Tsubasa knew that they had only scratched the surface, so after they had taught the new recruits what they had figured out, they got them to experiment. Under supervision of course.

They didn't discover anything new as far as the symphogear's capabilities were concerned, but they did learn a great deal about what several Nehushtan users could do when attuned to each other. After seeing that the recruits also displayed a marked improvement in coordination when fighting together in groups, Kanade and Tsubasa got permission from Commander Genjuro to hold a five-on-five mock battle with Kanade on one side and Tsubasa on the other, all of them using Nehushtan.

In the past, Kanade had sung countless duets with Tsubasa as Zwei Wing, but those mostly involved them taking turns to sing their respective parts with the occasional two-part harmony thrown in. The way they fought was the same. They would each do their own thing, and sometimes they would end up in the same place fighting against the same foes.

Singing the Song of Nehushtan together with her team was a completely different experience. They instinctively divided the entire song into multiple parts, expanding each note into a chord to create a sound that was richer and deeper than what one person could ever achieve by themselves. A true five-part harmony.

That harmony was also reflected in the way that they fought. Not as five individuals, but five parts of a greater whole. Blocking attacks for each other. Helping each other reposition. Pincering a single target. Instead of being rare occurrences that required significant pre-planning and setup, these happened frequently and spontaneously throughout the entire fight from start to finish, right up until Hibiki declared the match over. Unsurprisingly, the result was a stalemate.

~~

The real challenge came after the first two months. Three recruits were also compatible with a different relic; Itaba Yumi with Gungnir, Yukine Chris and Ootori Seigo with Ichaival. Yumi wasn't an issue: there was no one more qualified to train her than Hibiki. The problem was Ichaival. The only data they had came from Dr Sakurai's notes, which just told them that its default weapon should be a longbow because that was what the original relic had been. Chris producing a pistol during her compatibility test was just the first in a series of many surprises they had to deal with.

Further testing revealed that Chris could produce just about any ranged weapon she could imagine, including ones that had no basis in reality. Sort of like Tsubasa's ridiculously oversized swords, except with guns. Her crowning achievement was a pair of gatling guns with two sets of three barrels each that could collectively fire off so many bullets that the targets used for testing seemed to disappear between one moment and the next, reduced to tiny pieces of scrap scattered over the ground.

In contrast, Seigo wasn't nearly as extreme. His compatibility with Ichaival was a lot lower, which seemed to limit what he could create to pistols. However, that just meant he spent his time experimenting with other things, eventually discovering a way to change his ammo into flares and smoke grenades. Of course, when Chris learnt about that, she started experimenting and eventually produced a missile-crossbow. And then another. Dual-wielding missile crossbows, because a single one obviously wasn't enough firepower.

Given the obvious disparity in their capabilities, they didn't get Chris and Seigo to spar with each other. Nor did they get them to spar with Kanade or Tsubasa one-on-one since pitting a ranged fighter against a melee fighter would inevitably have the fight devolve into 'the ranged fighter runs away shooting while the melee fighter tries to catch them'. Instead, Kanade and Tsubasa took turns to pair up with Chris and Seigo so they could have two-on-two mock battles.

The results were less lopsided than they had expected. Seigo's liberal usage of smoke bombs forced Chris to be careful with her shots to avoid friendly fire, which negated most of her firepower advantage. They also discovered that symphogear barriers protected against smoke inhalation, an important find considering that symphogear users had to sing if they wanted to use their full power.

The second set of two months passed much more slowly. With three different groups to manage and only three trainers, they were stretched thin. Each time Kanade and Tsubasa wanted to have a two on two mock battle with Seigo and Chris, Hibiki had to stop training Yumi and go supervise the Nehushtan-only group. And if Hibiki wanted to train Yumi, then either Kanade or Tsubasa had to go be supervisor, leaving only one person to train the Ichaival group, which meant they could only have practice at the shooting range.

Nevertheless, they got through those two months somehow, and soon the time came for the recruits' first encounter with the Noise. While the incursions from the Treasury of Babylon had grown frequent enough that they could have simply waited a few weeks for the next one, they wanted to ease the recruits in as much as possible. So instead, they sought help from the Alchemy Association and obtained from them twenty small glass cubes, each containing a single tiny glowing speck. When broken each cube would release a single Noise, allowing the recruits to fight their first Noise in a controlled environment.

~~

"... two rooms. I will be in one and Tsubasa will be in the other. When Hibiki calls your name, she will also tell you which room to go to," Kanade instructed, "Once inside, we will release a single Noise, which you will then dispatch in whatever way you want. Tsubasa and I will only intervene if we feel you are unable to proceed. If that happens you fail. Any questions?"

"What happens if we fail?" Seigo asked, ever the pessimist.

"Then you get one more month of remedial training before you get to try again," Kanade answered, "If you still cannot defeat even a single Noise, then you will be removed from this unit and posted somewhere else. Any other questions?"

There were none, so they began. The first recruit Kanade got was Chris, which meant Tsubasa got Yumi. The three special cases were to go first because they had to go through twice, once for each symphogear they were trained in.

"Ready?" Kanade asked Chris, who nodded.

Kanade tossed the small glass cube in her hand at the ground near Chris before quickly backing away. When it shattered, the speck of light inside rapidly expanded until it became a Noise. One of the vaguely humanoid ones, with two arms and two legs attached to an ovoid body.

As expected, Chris had no trouble defeating her Noise, even with Nehushtan. She did not hesitate for a single moment, immediately stabbing the Noise with both tendrils, sending each one through its body multiple times, before tearing it into shreds with a single swift motion.

After Chris was Seigo's turn.

"Ready?" Kanade asked once again.

Seigo exhaled deeply and clenched his fists.

"As ready as I'll ever be," he replied.

Unlike Chris, Seigo chose to bind the Noise with his tendrils and squeeze until it burst apart like a balloon. Two of the others who came after him did the same, while the other two instead swung their tendrils like whips, tearing gashes into their Noise until it fell apart.

And then it was Chris' turn again, this time with Ichaival. She fired while the Noise was still appearing, a hail of bullets sweeping away the cloud of light that was still taking shape.

Kanade allowed herself a small smile. Tsubasa owed her dinner.

"Quick reflexes, which is good, but out in the field you won't get many chances like this," Kanade told Chris, retrieving another glass cube, "One more time, but this time let it finish appearing before you shoot."

Chris nodded. As promised, she held back from attacking while the Noise was appearing, but the very moment it took shape, it abruptly acquired several dozen holes and then collapsed into dust.

Seigo came next. He fired his pistol, the largest he could make, as quickly as he could, but couldn't stop the Noise from closing in. Fortunately, he kept calm and continued shooting, trusting in his symphogear to protect him, and finally took down his target.

With her side done, Kanade tidied up a bit, sweeping up all the broken glass that had accumulated on the floor, before going to meet up with Tsubasa and Hibiki. As it turned out, all of their trainees had passed! Kanade was glad that all their work hadn't gone to waste. And besides, the more symphogear users they could field, the better. Now they just needed to test them against the real thing.

Maeai said:

She had left soon after their meeting with Dr Ver, saying something about an excavation in Antartica.

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There's a mummy in the Ice. Dr. Sakurai just wants to talk to her.

Maeai said:

Further testing revealed that Chris could produce just about any ranged weapon she could imagine, including ones that had no basis in reality. Sort of like Tsubasa's ridiculously oversized swords, except with guns. Her crowning achievement was a pair of gatling guns with two sets of three barrels each that could collectively fire off so many bullets that the targets used for testing seemed to disappear between one moment and the next, reduced to tiny pieces of scrap scattered over the ground.

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So basically Chris-chan is still going to be the Goddess of Dakka while on the battlefield.

Maeai said:

Shem-Ha

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... are we going to discover that the soul of the Original Female Satan is already nested inside Miku, but has no intentions of getting out, she's comfy where she is?

... and is it strange that Doctor Ver has become the local equivalent of Alex Mercer and is genuinely trying to be a hero?

Tsubasa spun in a circle, swinging her swords in a wide horizontal arc that cleaved through every Noise within several meters of her. Immediately afterwards, she kicked off the ground and launched herself into the air towards one of the gigantic Noise that could spawn endless numbers of its lesser kin. A number of flying Noise moved to block her, but she dispatched them as quickly as they came, until at last she arrived above her intended target. She discarded the two swords in her hands by throwing them into two airborne Noise, before drawing out a larger sword.

It was far from the largest she could make, that would be a massive overkill and a waste of power, but still something that was longer than she was tall and requiring both hands to wield properly. She swung down, cutting into the enormous Noise easily, dragging the blade with her through its body as she fell. The two halves of the Noise crumbled apart into dust as she cleaved through it, the Song of Ame-no-Habakiri silencing the horrible static that it had for a song.

Since she was swinging her blade downwards in front of her, her body naturally tilted forwards as she fell. Years ago, she would have curled her body and legs inwards so she could land on her feet and maintain a proper stance. Now however, she kept her back straight, allowing her whole body to rotate so that she landed on her hands in a handstand, sword disappearing once its job was done. She kicked out with her legs into a perfect split, the blades on her feet extending out to cut into the Noise around her new position. For added effect, she spun her body around with her hands, creating another whirlwind of slashes that scythed down all the smaller Noise that had just spawned from the big one.

A continuous chain of attacks, planned on the fly and executed flawlessly. And yet, Tsubasa couldn't help but compare herself to the person fighting beside her: Hibiki.

Between their obligation to train SONG's new recruits and the recent increase in Noise incursions, the three of them (Kanade, Hibiki and herself) had decided to rotate their deployments; two of them would deal with each incursion with the last in reserve. Kanade was the reserve this time around, so she was off with the recruits helping the SDRT's alchemists to contain the Noise.

Hibiki fought without weapons, using only her armoured fists and feet. They were all she needed. Her movements were similarly unpretentious: a single stomp to launch her towards a giant Noise and a single punch to blow a hole clean through its body. As for the lesser Noise, they simply crumbled into dust as she ran past them, unable to withstand the Song of Gungnir.

This. This was what a weapon was. Back when they had just met, Tsubasa had been outraged by Hibiki's declaration that she wasn't a sword but rather a warrior wielding a sword. However, seeing her fight clearly showed the difference between the two of them. Tsubasa had spent years training and she still couldn't match her uncle even when wielding Ame-no-Habakiri. Hibiki had scraped her first win within a week, surpassed Genjuro within a month, and now their spars were more for Tsubasa's uncle's benefit than they were for Hibiki. Something about refining the song of his heart.

Between herself and Hibiki, the Noise incursion was cleaned up in short order. When they got back, Kanade updated them about their recruits. To summarize, there were no major problems and everyone had done well enough considering this was their first deployment. These were good things. Worthy achievements. And yet they just felt hollow and unimportant.

When she was young, she had sworn to become a sword that would protect the weak and innocent. She had dedicated her whole life since then to that endeavour. But her growth had stagnated in recent years. Was this all she would be capable of? Between Kanade's recovery, Hibiki's undeniable prowess, and SONG's expansion, was she even needed anymore? All she was good at was fighting! Without it, she would just be the Kazanari heir. Just a womb for making children to fulfil her grandfather's dream of living on through his descendants.

She had to get stronger. At the very least, she had to get stronger than her grandfather so she could cut through the fate that he had laid out for her. She had dithered over this decision for months now, but she refused to delay any further. It was time for her to truly become a sword, both in body and in soul.

~~

Tsubasa didn't like going back to the Kazanari's clan compound. She hadn't noticed it as a child, but after performing in many different places with Kanade as Zwei Wing, she was now able to recognise the heavy stillness that permeated the compound for what it was: fear. The result of too long spent under an unreasonably harsh and demanding taskmaster.

In this case, that person was her grandfather. Fudo was the sort of person who believed that he knew what was best for everything and everyone, so anyone who disagreed with him was either an idiot or an enemy attacking his authority. How he retaliated would depend on how he saw the offender. Idiots would be harshly punished to put them in their place, while enemies would be utterly destroyed.

Thus, everyone in the clan followed his orders without question, as to do otherwise would mean inviting swift and terrible reprisal. Leaving wasn't an option either. Fudo would see such an act as rebellion and betrayal and do everything in his power to either get that person back under his thumb or neutered as a threat to his power.

Even his children weren't spared. Tsubasa's own father was a shell of a man who simply followed orders without question. Her uncle was luckier. Years ago, Fudo had gotten himself ousted as commander of the SDRT because his attitude had driven Dr Sakurai Ryouko out of the symphogear project. In the aftermath, Genjuro had immediately volunteered himself for the task, which Fudo had agreed to since it would keep a Kazanari in charge. However, Genjuro had then used his new position to slowly erode Fudo's influence within it and give himself more freedom.

These days, they existed in a sort of uneasy truce. Fudo could likely, if he really wanted to, remove Genjuro from his position, but that would mean the SDRT would go to one of his political rivals. Thus, as long as Genjuro didn't openly oppose him, he would let him be. It helped that the SDRT had flourished under Genjuro's leadership, which earned the Kazanari clan and Fudo himself prestige by proxy.

That was also why Tsubasa couldn't simply hide behind her uncle. Genjuro had promised to do his utmost to protect her, but he had also privately admitted that it probably wouldn't be enough. Bloodline was one of Fudo's big obsessions, so there was no telling what lengths he would go to if Tsubasa openly rejected his plans for her. The same went for the rest of her friends. Having seen firsthand how ruthless her grandfather could be, Tsubasa didn't want to put them at risk by dragging them into her troubles.

To summarize, the reason Tsubasa disliked going back to the Kazanari compound was because she disliked her grandfather. Even when he was not around, the whole place was still filled with constant reminders of his presence. However, this time she had no choice as she needed access to the main body of Ame-no-Habakiri, which was enshrined together with the clan's ancestral tablets.

Tsubasa bowed respectfully to the rows of tablets as she entered, before walking over to the pedestal that held the broken sword. Years ago, when she had first unsheathed it, she had been shocked to see that it had been shattered into countless pieces. That had changed recently after the reactivation of Nehushtan.

Carefully lifting up the sword from its stand, Tsubasa brushed her fingers over the cords that bound a tiny curved piece of metal to the sword's hilt. A single scale from Nehushtan, containing a tiny fraction of its power. Not enough to restore the blade to a pristine state, but enough to slowly join its many fragments back together. The end result was a horribly chipped mess that was far shorter than the length of the sheath, but that was still much better than before.

"Ame-no-Habakiri," Tsubasa whispered as she drew her sword from its sheath.

After a long silence, the blade in her hands hummed a soft reply.

"...chosen wielder..."

"I'm sorry for being so weak and always relying on you to carry me forwards. Please, won't you lend me more of your power?" she pleaded.

"...of course..."

"Thank you. Thank you so much," Tsubasa told it gratefully. She unwrapped the small metal scale from its hilt and hung it around her neck beside her symphogear pendant. Considering what she was going to do, a little insurance was probably warranted.

According to Hibiki, Gungnir had been reforged with 'the body and voice of Tachibana Hibiki'. Additionally, she had gleaned from Hibiki's records that the process had begun when the researchers working on her had embedded several fragments of Gungnir into her body. Not much to go off on, but Tsubasa was far past the point of caring. She refused to allow her grandfather to clip her wings and put her into a cage. Never.

Raising her sword with both hands in a reverse grip, Tsubasa clenched her teeth and drove it into her body. Her vision went white from the pain, but as she swayed in place the little piece of Nehushtan that hung around her neck brushed against her sternum, and the sudden chill from the metal jolted her back to alertness. With great effort, Tsubasa forced her mouth open, drew air into her lungs, and began to sing.

{imyuteus ame no habakiri tron}

Every note and word was a struggle, and as she sang the world around her faded away. She couldn't see anything as the tears flowing down her cheeks blurred her vision into illegible smudges, she couldn't hear anything except the Song that echoed around and within her, and she couldn't feel anything beyond the waves of pain that came with every breath. The Song of Ame-no-Habakiri became her world, a vast river flowing past her. She dived into it, drowned herself in it, and let its currents carry her away.

~~

Ame-no-Habakiri abruptly woke, finding itself aware of itself and its surroundings in a way that it had not been for a very long time. How strange. It remembered the war and what became of itself: broken and silenced, unable to do anything except lie in place dreaming of better days. But now it was clearly whole, judging by its newfound clarity.

It eagerly took in its restored self, only to immediately be struck by how bizarre its body had become. Instead of hard metal and sharp edges, it now had soft flesh and rounded curves. That- that wouldn't do at all! How was it supposed to cut anything now?

Reeling in confusion, it turned its gaze inwards in an attempt to understand exactly what it had become. Its identity and nature was without question; the Song of Ame-no-Habakiri roared within it, the ceaseless howling of a raging firestorm constrained and directed by the purpose bestowed upon it; the hunting and slaying of beasts and monsters.

Beyond that however, a great deal was different from how it remembered itself to be. An unfamiliar body, an unfamiliar voice, unfamiliar memories- At least the reasons for its current state were readily apparent. Its chosen wielder, Kazanari Tsubasa, had sought to become a sword herself, to the extent that she had chosen to submit herself to it so that they could become one in mind and body.

So it wasn't Ame-no-Habakiri after all. The soul of Kazanari Tsubasa remained within itself, something no mere tool should have lest it deviate from its intended purpose. Or rather, it wasn't just Ame-no-Habakiri. Contained within the memories of Kazanari Tsubasa were countless recollections of another human-relic hybrid. An entity that was both Gungnir, the god-slaying spear, and Tachibana Hibiki, a relatively ordinary high school girl.

If this outcome was truly what its chosen wielder desired, if its power would grant her the wings that would allow her to truly fly free, then it would joyfully become those wings. After all, that simple, plaintive wish was why it had chosen her in the first place. Her wish had reminded it of Susanoo, who had chafed against the innumerable trappings of divinity until he had finally been cast out.

Very well. It would be Kazanari Tsubasa and Ame-no-Habakiri both, and its blades shall become wings to carry them into the sky.

With that settled, Tsubasa turned her attention her surroundings. Her transformation did not seem to have attracted any undue attention, which was good. Beyond that-

Ame-no-Habakiri stilled as she felt the presence of a beast nearby. She smiled wryly to herself, before that smile then widened until her face hurt. How embarrassing, for her to have grown so dull. How wonderful, for her to be able to fulfil her purpose once again!

She sighed happily as her remembered her first kill: a serpent named Yamata-no-Orochi. Cleaving through scale and skin and flesh and bone, sweet blood running over her body in warm rivulets. A beautiful memory. She set out immediately, wrapping herself in shadows and muffling the sound of her song. After all, even Susanoo, that wild and impetuous personage who reveled in open battle, had chosen to slay Yamata-no-Orochi with subterfuge. When hunting a beast, victory was the priority, not enjoying oneself in glorious combat.

With every step, her awareness of her quarry grew until she could smell the innocent blood on its muzzle and hear the ravenous rumbling of its belly. Her expression grew grim. How many had it devoured, trying to sate its endless hunger? How many more had it ruined, deprived of all they had so it could have more?

That said, Tsubasa did hesitate briefly when her eyes caught sight of the beast's physical body and recognised it as her grandfather, Kazanari Fudo. Only briefly, as the many evils that he had committed were now laid bare to her, including how he had repeatedly raped her mother until she became pregnant when her father had refused to give him grandchildren. The fire within her roared for his death, and she could not find any reason to deny it.

She struck swiftly and silently, seeking to remove Fudo's head from his shoulders. That did not happen. Instead, as her blade bit into skin and flesh, a song surged from within him and rapidly corroded her blade, breaking it into two before she could cut deeper and forcing her to abandon it lest the corrosion spread to her arm as well.

"Tsubasa. You ungrateful, unfilial child. You would turn against me, against your own family like this? After everything I gave you?"

Ame-no-Habakiri ignored the irrelevant sounds that the beast was making and focused on its song, seeking to discern its nature. How strange. Despite its apparent power, its song was almost haphazardly composed, as if a amateur had taken two different songs with the barest of similarities and forcibly mashed them together. Disgusting. The transitions between the two melody lines were awkward and the beats weren't even synchronized properly. Properly understanding that travesty took her a moment, but once she got past the abominable state of its song, its nature became known to her. Its song sang of an overwhelming desire to dominate all others by subsuming their voices into its own chorus. Truly a song befitting a beast.

While Tsubasa had been preoccupied, Fudo had swiftly retrieved an odachi from the side of the room and unsheathed it, holding it in a formal two-handed stance. In response, Tsubasa abandoned all stealth and allowed her song to fill the air. Every note and word was both an unsheathed blade and a raging fire, driving back the bestial melody that had been clawing at her. At the same time, she wove her song into a suit of armour and drew forth from the countless blades around her a pair of katana to replace the sword she had lost.

They advanced warily toward each other. Tsubasa chose to hold back her blue flames until the last possible moment as a surprise, only for Fudo to do something similar. His body came alight with golden flames, strands of gold wound themselves into his song, and for a single endless instant the two disjointed halves of his song miraculously came into alignment at just the right time.

Their swords met, blue flame against gold. Her nature as a slayer of monsters was anathema to him, but his nature as a devourer of relics was anathema to her. A stalemate.

Suddenly, a short dagger planted itself in her shadow and Tsubasa felt invisible bonds bind her in place. With a thought, her song cut the blade and the man who had thrown it into pieces, but the brief distraction allowed Fudo to score a deep cut on her left arm, the armour she wore failing to even slow him down. In response, she quickly twisted in place and lashed out with a bladed kick that was meant to sever her opponent's leg. Instead, her blade met bone and stopped. Corrosion began to spread up it, forcing her to abandon her attack again.

They clashed again and again, neither side able to gain a decisive advantage. The ground grew slick with blood, some of it glowing faintly, but neither of them bore visible wounds. Tsubasa wore a scale from Nehushtan and so was blessed with its healing power, while Fudo possessed a powerful vitality that healed any injuries she inflicted in mere moments. Nevertheless, Fudo began to falter as the battle drew on. While his blade remained miraculously intact despite its mundane construction, the golden aura that surrounded him had noticeably dimmed and his song had begun to fall into disarray again.

"I am Japan's guardian! So long as my conviction does not waver, I shall never fall!"

Suddenly, Fudo shouted something and his fading aura abruptly shone with renewed brightness- no, brighter than ever before. This time, rather than face the attack head-on, Tsubasa chose to respond defensively and evasively, hoping to tire out her opponent. After all, one of the most fundamental principles of alchemy was that there was a price to pay for everything, and HeartGold alchemy was no exception. No matter how nonsensical and miraculous its operations might seem, there was still a price to pay for every transmutation.

The battle dragged on. Even though she was actively looking for it, Tsubasa still missed the change until it was well underway. The operations of HeartGold alchemy truly were incomprehensible to anyone who couldn't use it. That said, she couldn't fail to notice when Fudo suddenly threw aside his sword and roared wordlessly at her, his limbs swelling rapidly with new muscle as he grew to twice his original height. As for his song, there was no discord there now. How could there be, when one of the two conflicting melodies had been all but extinguished? The envy and greed and pride that filled its notes were gone, leaving only the all-consuming hunger.

How terrifying. Was this the price for HeartGold alchemy? Or had Fudo simply lost control of whatever he had merged himself with? Now that the discord within his song had subsided, the name and nature of the entity became clear: Nephilim, devourer of relics. No wonder so many of her swords had broken. Regardless, it was still a beast, so her path forward was clear.

Tsubasa raised her voice in song:

I walk upon the path laid out for me,
Every decision already made long ago.
Those I pass urge me to listen, to see,
But I already have, that is why I must go.

Curse the winds that sent me your way,
for it is they that decide where I shall travel.
No hesitation, come what may,
for the future is beyond me to unravel.

Witness me! I shall take the stage again.
Perhaps for the last time, who can say for sure?
I continue on, even through the pain,
My song sung to surpass that which came before.

Power surged within her, a raging inferno too vast for her to contain. She had to move, to act. But how? What was she? What was her purpose? The answer came easily; she was Ame-no-Habakiri, slayer of beasts.

So she did, drawing upon the gifts she possessed: a sharp edge to sunder flesh, a sturdy body to shatter bone, fire to purify the remains, and wind to scatter the ashes.

BEAST SLAIN

Goodbye, and good riddance.

~~

The aftermath of the battle was messy, as such things tended to be. Susanoo would have left the moment the battle ended, already seeking his next foe, but Tsubasa was not Susanoo. She had taken on responsibilities and obligations that she refused to abandon, and so she stayed to deal with the consequences of her actions.

When it came time to talk about what had happened, her uncle Genjuro and Kanade naturally got the full story. She spoke to them together and when she was done, both of them took turns scolding her thoroughly for trying to deal with everything by herself and needing to take far too many risks as a result.

Her conversation with Hibiki went a lot differently. They had immediately recognised each other as Gungnir and Ame-no-Habakiri and spoken to each other as such, peers who had fought against and alongside each other countless times. Gungnir did not care that Ame-no-Habakiri had killed, and so Hibiki did not care either, even if one of the people Tsubasa had killed was her own biological father. Gungnir's only concern was that Ame-no-Habakiri had seemingly acted of its own volition, to which Tsubasa had replied that she was still the wielder of Ame-no-Habakiri. The fact that they now shared a body was irrevelant: they had always been one as wielder and weapon, that fact was just somewhat more literal now.

As for Miku, Tsubasa had originally intended to keep her out of the loop since they weren't that close, only for Miku to ask to speak with her, Kanade, and Hibiki privately. The conversation that followed was enlightening. ShenShouJing had survived, and Miku was its current holder, which meant that keeping secrets from her was an exercise in futility. Moreover, it turned out that Hibiki had known the entire time. Honestly, Tsubasa wasn't that bothered. If anything, she was flattered that Miku trusted them enough to reveal herself.

Kanade however, was a different story. She lacked the context to understand just how dangerous ShenShouJing actually was, which meant she didn't understand how much danger Miku was putting herself in by telling more people about her status. Additionally, it seemed that she had assumed that Hibiki wouldn't keep secrets from because she was her wielder. All this meant that the relationships within their group became strained for some time.

Beyond coming clean to those close to her, Tsubasa also had to deal with the fallout of her battle against Fudo.

For one, there was the fact that Tsubasa had killed Fudo. Miku was a great help for this, as the Mirror of Myriad Truths was unrivaled in its ability to manipulate the perceptions of others by illuminating certain truths, obscuring others, and letting people draw their own conclusions.

Or as Jing put it, 'You set it up, they put it together. Their interpretation, but there's only one because you leave them no choice. And they believe in it, because it's theirs now.'

For the general public, they took the truth that there had been a fire at the Kazanari compound and ran with it. A mysterious fire! Was it a gas leak? Arson? Who knew? How fortunate that only two people had died!

For the investigators that the government sent to look into the matter, they took the truth that Fudo had purchased Angel Blood from America for his own use and wove a completely different story. Old man Fudo had clearly been increasingly obsessed with his inevitable death- see how he kept pressuring Tsubasa to have children? When he learned about Angel Blood and its rejuvenative properties, he must have been too enthralled by the possibility of regaining his youth to consider the dangers. Why else would he have injected himself with something so dangerous? Thank goodness Tsubasa was nearby when he went berserk- who knew what could have happened if she wasn't?

For Fudo's peers, the powerful elite that ran the country behind the scenes, they additionally revealed the truth that Fudo was Tsubasa's biological father. See, Fudo's hubris had finally caught up with him in his old age! A problem of his own making, completely avoidable if he had just been a little more reasonable. Of course we need to make Tsubasa out to be a hero, can't leave an opening for others to take advantage right? But between us, Tsubasa killed Fudo because he hurt her mother. Young people these days, so impulsive! Good thing she had the strength to back up her ambition eh?

And that was just what they started with. Miku went on to write a lot more stories, so many more, each containing some but not all of the available truths. Tsubasa wasn't quite sure why the stories, once drafted, had to be written down (handwritten, that part was important) and then read aloud at night under the light of the moon in the middle of Lake Saiko, after which the entire manuscript had to be thrown into the lake. Even Ame-no-Habakiri's memories didn't shed any light on the matter. Regardless, the strange ritual worked. It was actually really creepy how events unfolded almost exactly as written. Those who weren't satisfied with one story would dig a little deeper, only to arrive at the next, and then the next, until everyone had a story that satisfied them.

By the end of it all, Kanade, who had been following the developments from the sidelines, was so confused that she tracked Tsubasa down and demanded she explain what had actually happened again. Tsubasa naturally obliged her, filling her in on what she and Genjuro had found while looking through Fudo's surviving possessions. Fudo had clearly been in contact with someone from America's Umbrella of Named Alchemical Associations. That was how he had obtained the fragments of Gungnir back when he had been commander of SONG: by trading a number of orphans that SONG had identified as having high symphonic potential. He had gotten ahold of Angel Blood the same way, by selling Japanese citizens, the very people he claimed to be protecting. The worst part was how he justified his own actions.

'Those people (the homeless, disabled, socially withdrawn, or otherwise unproductive) weren't contributing to Japan anyway, and strengthening myself, the guardian of Japan, is the same as strengthening Japan itself,' he had reasoned in his private journals, 'Therefore, selling them for Angel Blood allows them to strengthen Japan. They should be glad that I have found a way for them to contribute to their homeland!'

As for why Fudo had sought Angel Blood, their best guess was what they had told the investigators: that he had been increasingly obsessed over his failing health and lack of a suitable successor, which made him want to extend his life by any means necessary.

Pretty much the only good thing to come out of that mess was that Kanade warmed up to Miku and Hibiki again. Tsubasa wasn't sure whether it was seeing Miku work so hard for her sake, understanding why they had wanted to keep Miku's abilities secret, or something else, but that was fine. She didn't need to perfectly understand someone to be friends with them.

Finally, there was also the fact that by killing Fudo, Tsubasa had left the Kazanari clan leaderless. There were no shortage of people who wanted to take that position, but for some reason none of them were willing to challenge Genjuro when Tsubasa declared her support for him. That was also why they had the leeway to go through Fudo's things the way they had.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, Tsubasa's father (Yatsuhiro, her legal father, not Fudo) didn't bother contesting Genjuro's claim. He simply came up to them after the position had been conferred, Tsubasa's mother in tow, and stiffly congratulated Genjuro on his ascension. Ame-no-Habakiri had stirred at his approach, but had settled down soon after. Yatsuhiro, for all his sins, was just a slave, a mere reflection of his deceased master. Nor did he revel in his actions like a monster would.

Tsubasa's mother had initially remained silent, only to suddenly declare that she was 'proud of Tsubasa' when Yatsuhiro was about to leave. What exactly she was proud of she didn't say, and Tsubasa honestly didn't care. Those two might have their own troubles that made them act the way they did, but that didn't change the fact that they had completely failed as parents.

To summarise, there was a great deal to do. Tsubasa took on the bulk of the work since it was her mess, but she did not forget to ask for help every now and then, especially if she knew someone who could do a better job than she could. She had learned that much.