“Is that some kind of joke?”

  “No, just that it’s an antique. I meant it purely in a good way.”

  “Hm. But this is a replica. There’s no history there.”

  “Sometimes it’s more about the form than the actual piece. And it’s beautifully-made, now, isn’t it?”

  “Aha. Of course.”

  Ichika nodded, amazedly, to himself as he watched Cecilia and Laura play off each other. Cecilia and Laura get along better than I expected.

  “Come now, Ichika. Get in.”

  “Huh? Don’t rickshaws normally have two seats?”

  “This one seats three. Isn’t that right, Mr. Gotanda?”

  “Y-Yes, ma’am...” Dan just couldn’t deal with Cecilia turning on her full self-assuredness. It can’t have helped that he must have been working in Kyoto trying to keep up with the financial expectations of Nohotoke Utsuho, but that’s another story for another time.

  “All right.”

  Cecilia and Laura shimmied to the sides of the bench, opening a space for Ichika between them, then simultaneously raised their fingers just as they’d rehearsed.

  “All right, Gotanda Dan! Take it safe, take it slow, and take us around Kyoto on the curviest route you know!”

  Laura pressed the muzzle of her gun to the back of Dan’s head. This didn’t exactly make him enthused, but the promise the two had made of a large tip at the end of the ride made his eyes light up with dollar signs.

  “All right! I’ll do it! Wait for me, Utsuho!” Calling out his love’s name, Dan jerked the rickshaw upright. He wasn’t known as the ‘sleeping lion’ of his middle school track team for nothing. Or even just for sleeping through practices, although he definitely did plenty of that too. “Let’s go!”

  Pulling his headband tighter, Dan began to pull. Ichika was surprised as he felt the world move beneath him.

  “C’mon, Dan, you don’t have to—”

  “Oh my! Did you feel that shake?”

  “We’d better hold on tight.” Bewilderment set in on Ichika’s face as Cecilia and Laura each grabbed an arm.

  “I don’t think it’s going to be that bad—”

  You could almost, almost make out a pinch of embarrassment, and the realization that even Ichika realized what was going on spurred the girls on further.

  “We wouldn’t want you to slip, Ichika! Why don’t you put your arms around our waists?”

  He wasn’t sure how to deal with them being so direct, and he didn’t have time to think about it as Dan’s ‘safe’ driving swung them around a curve.

  “Whoa!” Pulled by centrifugal force, Ichika found himself wrapping around Cecilia. Their eyes met for a split second.

  “I-Ichika...”

  “Cecilia, I’m not, I just—”

  The honeymoon lasted for only a few moments before he was pulled over to Laura’s side. Even as he fought to keep himself upright instead of pressing down on Laura, it just turned into more and more of an embrace.

  “Ichika, why do you have to be so sudden...”

  “No, Laura, I just can’t—”

  Ichika swung back and forth between them in the swaying rickshaw.

  “C’mon, Dan! I thought they told you to keep it slow and safe!”

  “U—”

  “U?”

  “UTSUHOOOOOO! I’m working my hardest! I’ll do my best!”

  Ichika gave up on Dan, and resigned himself to wrapping an arm each around Laura and Cecilia.

  “I-Ichika?!”

  “Ichika?!”

  Their faces lit up with blushes, but Ichika, seemingly obliviously, handed his camera to Cecilia and said, “Let’s get a picture of the three of us together.”

  Hearing that, Cecilia and Laura’s eyes gleamed.

  “Ah, that would be simply wonderful!”

  “Yeah, it really would.”

  Inside the swaying rickshaw, the three struggled for a steady picture. This would surely be a memory that would never fade.

  ◇

  “She’s late.” Chifuyu, waiting with Maya at a bus stop, was beginning to get annoyed. She wasn’t used to being kept waiting.

  “Well, you know how Europeans are with time.”

  “I’d like that to be the problem, but...”

  “But what?”

  Chifuyu, her arms crossed, tapped her fingers and replied, “She’s just dumb enough to get the party started all on her own.”

  She brought her palm to her chin, as if watching for trouble. And as if on cue, there was a sudden roaring blast. It had to be a deliberate explosion.

  “Eeek! Ms. Orimura! What’s going on?!”

  “Let’s go, Maya. We’ve got business to take care of.”

  “Y-Yes!” Maya clasped her hands to her chest nervously as she watched the billowing smoke. Ichika... Everyone... I hope you’re okay... Seeing her visibly nervous, Chifuyu clapped a palm on her back.

  “Don’t worry. After all, I am Brynhildr... And she’s here, too.” Chifuyu’s gaze was clear as she stared off into the distance.

  Ten minutes prior—

  “All right, now I just need a few pictures of the city for the others,” Ichika relaxedly commented as he viewed the old town through his viewfinder. As he did, the sleeve of a kimono covered his lens.

  “Get back.”

  “Huh?”

  The woman’s left arm moved too quick for him to see. With a clang, something bounced off her pipe.

  “Bu-Bullets?!” Ichika could see them piled on the ground.

  “More incoming.”

  Clang! Clang! More bullets fell to the ground before her.

  Ichika, confused, wavered, “Wh-Who are you? You’re that lady from before, right? With the cat?”

  “Alicia Giosestaf. Call me Allie.” She turned her head to face Ichika, and winked, making it clear she was anything but a normal person by continuing to bat bullets out of the air.

  “What’s going on?!”

  “Huh? They’re trying to assassinate you. Looks like you’re popular in all the wrong ways, Orimura Ichika. Anyway, time to take this seriously!” As she shouted, she was enveloped in light. The light of an IS materializing.

  “Wait, is that Tempesta?!” The legendary IS, runner-up in the first Mondo Grosso and winner of the second. But what happened to her arm? Ichika had seen her missing an arm and eye before.

  As he wondered, Allie grinned at him and said, “Yeah, sometimes shit happens. But Tempesta’s just as ready as ever!”

  Machinery wrapped into bone, into flesh. A prosthetic arm of IS technology, easily plucking bullets out of the air as they rained down.

  Half a kilometer away—

  “And that’s a failure. That little horndog sure is good at wrapping women around his finger.” Behind the scope was IS Academy third year, Daryl Casey.

  “Wh-What are we doing?” Forte, still not understanding why she’d been brought along, wavered.

  “What? We’re assassinating Orimura Ichika, of course.”

  “Assassinating him? What’s going on?!”

  Her trusted friend. Her reliable mentor. ...Her lover. Forte’s world was crumbling around her.

  “My code name is Rain Meusel. Last of the Meusels.”

  “Rain... Meusel...”

  Rain laughed it away as if it were nothing. The same aloof confidence as always... It was enough to bring tears to Forte’s eyes.

  “But why? Why are you with Phantom Task? Why are we betraying everyone?” Forte’s confused voice was thin, plaintive.

  “Why? Who knows. Maybe it’s fate, I guess. My family’s curse.”

  Another laugh. With more than a little regret and self-loathing sprinkled in. The wind howled around them, on the rooftop of a building.

  “If she didn’t know where we were before, she sure does now. Time to make up your mind.”

  “Make up my mind?”

  “You know what about.” Whether to stay at IS Academy or go with Rain.

  “Let’s turn traitor. To the whole world, if need be.”

  The words sounded so sweet. Almost cloyingly sweet, as Forte clutched her head in confusion and cowered.

  “There, there.” Rain wrapped her arms around Forte.

  “Come with me, Forte. Let’s tear it down.”

  “Tear it down?”

  “Yeah. Tear down this rotten world. Tear down my family’s curse.”

  Suddenly, she pressed her lips against Forte’s. Forte stood stunned for a few seconds, before shaking her head, pushing Rain away.

  “I... I can’t... It’s just... Just...”

  “That’s okay. Goodbye, Forte. I’ll miss you.”

  Another laugh cut short, the bitterness within making Forte’s heart ache. She had to betray someone. She knew. She knew too well. IS Academy, or Rain. She had to choose one, and one alone.

  “Time to get going. Let’s go, Hellhound!” As Rain shouted, her IS wrapped around her. Dark grey armor, pauldrons in the shape of dogs’ heads breathing fire. The blade Escort Black clenched in her hand. Glowing red-hot with her passion, a challenge to her oncoming foe. “Bring it!”

  As Rain roared her battle cry, the Tempesta closed in. Metal clashed on metal, sparks flew.

  “Oh? You certainly seem perky today. Ahh, the passion of youth.”

  “Save it for the nurse, old lady!” The hounds on her shoulders breathed their flame.

  Somehow, Allie caught it in her palms before saying, “That’s a rude thing to say to a lady in her twenties. Sounds like you need a spanking!”

  The Tempesta moved like a tempest, blowing back the flame, casting Rain’s bullets to the ground. As they fell on the parking lot below, explosions rang out.

  “Mmm, doesn’t look like anyone was hurt.” After a quick check with her biosensor, Allie fixed her gaze on Rain. Her right eye, too, was replaced by her IS. With a whirr, the lens focused.

  [HEAT SOURCE DETECTED. TARGETING ACCURACY: THREE CENTIMETERS.]

  “Got you from the left!” Allie’s prosthetic right hand formed a javelin of wind, and she hurled it at Rain.

  “Tch!” There was no avoiding that. Rain gritted her teeth in anticipation. But— Forte Sapphire blocked the javelin with a shield of crystalline ice.

  “Forte...”

  “I can’t...”

  “What?”

  “I can’t just sit back and watch! Why are you just letting her attack you?! We’re the unbreakable shield Aegis, aren’t we?! And who’ll braid my hair without you?! Who?!” Forte screamed. Screamed out her true feelings. And turned traitor against IS Academy and her homeland. “Bwahhh...”

  “Some days I don’t get you. What’re you crying for?”

  “You... You made me cry...”

  As their eyes met, more javelins closed in.

  “Save the touching moments for later!”

  Not one, this time, but three. But rather than evading, this time, Rain and Forte took them head-on.

  “Ohh?”

  Heat and cold together created a phase transition, a wall of energy—Aegis. Hellhound’s flame, Cold Blood’s chill. Their meeting wasn’t chance. It was destiny.

  “Looks like it’s two on one now. Unless you’re expecting your precious little Ichika to back you up?”

  Rain knew Autumn had been assigned to keep him busy. There was no chance that he’d be in this fight.

  “Mhm. Why don’t you give it a good thinking over? About why I’m here?”

  Allie spread her arms, as if finally bringing the full force of Tempesta to bear. As she did, mirror images formed around her. Allie, and two clones. This was the true form of her one-off ability—Early Tempest.

  “Looks more like three on two to me.”

  The odds weren’t in their favor. But Rain and Forte weren’t giving up yet.

  “We can do it.”

  They could. With the force of a love like no other, they knew they could overcome any foe.

  “Sorry, kids, but life comes at you fast.” Allie’s clones may have been following her movements, but their attacks were just as fierce as the real thing, thundering like a tempest around their desperate defense.

  “Tch! Not bad for an old lady!”

  “That’s a pretty harsh way to describe a twenty-eight-year-old!”

  “Twenty-eight’s about ten too many, auntie!”

  “I’m gonna wash your mouths out with soap, you little brats!”

  They may have sounded like squabbling children, but this was a serious battle. Early Tempest was one of the strongest one-off abilities in the world, and its raging winds tore at their armor even with glancing blows. And even worse for Rain and Forte, Hellhound and Cold Blood were still equipped with IS Academy’s shield energy limiters. They could see that a drawn-out fight was only going to get worse and worse for them.

  “Forte! Let’s do it!” Rain shouted.

  “It?! But that’s...”

  “It’s what?”

  “It’s embarrassing...”

  “This is no time to worry about that!”

  A blush rose to Forte’s face, and Rain’s expression steeled as she fended off Allie’s attacks.

  “Let’s do it!”

  “Are we really going to? Right here?” Forte, finally finding her determination, drew Allie’s attention with a shower of ice.

  “Kids these days, can’t go five minutes without thinking about doing it.” As Allie swooped in for another attack, Rain again wrapped her arms around Forte and kissed her passionately.

  “Here goes! Ice In Fire!” Rain and Forte’s bodies were encrusted in armor formed of flame wrapped in ice.

  “My wind can carve right through that!” Fists wrapped in raging gales struck forth, with impact stronger than an anti-tank rifle. But—

  “Tricked you, you old creep!” As the ice shattered, the flame within exploded outward like reactive armor. Propelled by the explosion, Rain and Forte managed to break away from Allie. And they knew what to do next.

  “Let’s get out of here!”

  “Got it!”

  In the blink of an eye, they were gone.

  “Oh dear. Whatever will this sunburn do to my complexion?” Allie bemusedly brushed away the falling embers. “I wonder how he’s doing, though? I should check up on him.”

  As Allie’s IS faded out, she nonchalantly popped open a parasol and strode off.

  ◇

  “You’re—” Ichika had no idea what was going on, but he recognized the woman in front of him.

  “Just as slow on your feet as ever, Orimura Ichika!” Swiftly, Autumn drew a pistol.

  Before Ichika could even realize he was in trouble, the training Laura had given him kicked in. Fleeing from the gunfire, he raced through the side streets of Kyoto, thinking only of how he could avoid drawing bystanders into the fight. Dammit! I need to get away from any people!

  “Dead end, kid.”

  Ichika gulped nervously. He’d taken the wrong back alley and had nowhere left to run. Just as he thought it was all over, though, Blue Tears’ bits formed a circle around Autumn.

  “Cecilia!”

  “Fancy meeting you here, Ichika.” Autumn was confused by Cecilia’s sunny disposition—but only for a moment.

  “Don’t move!” As she turned her head toward the voice, she saw Houki, Ling, Charlotte, Laura, and Kanzashi—all the first years with their own IS. And all with their IS out and ready to go. It was enough to make the blood drain even from Autumn’s face.

  “Autumn, isn’t it? Why don’t you come with us?”

  “I should warn you, my impact cannon is already locked on.”

  “No quick moves.”

  “At least, if you want to live.”

  “Prisoner captured.”

  Autumn’s pistol thudded to the ground, as if to say the words ‘I surrender’ for her.

  ◇

  “Ahh, this feels so nice.” Rain swam nude in the pool of a luxury hotel’s penthouse suite. “Just like I expected from Aunt Squall and her cell Monochrome Avatar. You really know how to treat a lady.”

  Squall, lounging beside the pool, gave a wry smile and said, “Was that some sarcasm? Oh, and don’t call me ‘aunt.’ She’ll realize who I am.”

  “That’s fine. Right, Forte?”

  Forte, floating in nothing but a gigantic swim ring, replied with a nervous start, “Y-Yeah, hahaha...”

  Embarrassment was visible on her face. It was only natural—Rain and Forte may have been naked, but Squall was in a swimsuit.

  “I wonder what’s taking Autumn so long. I’d asked her to bring us Ichika,” Squall sighed as she took her sunglasses off.

  “Ah, Autumn’s been captured.”

  “Mm? I’m not quite sure what you mean,” Squall grimaced at Rain. Ex- or not, Autumn was still special forces, and she was equipped with an IS to boot. She wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  “I’m sure of it. They’ve been texting each other all afternoon about how the first years surrounded her and took her in.”

  Realizing the situation they were in, Squall stood up from her pool chair.

  “Hold on, Autumn. I’m coming.”

  Anger blazed in her eyes. There weren’t many hasty decisions Squall would make, but saving her lover was one of them.

  “They’ve kinda got a lot of firepower for that. Even Alicia’s there.”

  Rain was right. Even with three IS at full power, the odds would be against them. Squall ground her teeth in frustration.

  “We’ve just gotta wait for our chance. Right, Aunt Squall?”

  “.........” Squall took Rain’s teasing as an invitation to silently stalk out.

  “And there she goes.” Half-amused and half-resigned, Rain backstroked over to Forte. “That’s probably enough time at the pool for us too, Forte. How about bed instead?”

  “Okay...” Forte blushed red at the implication. But her doubts were gone. She was convinced. There was no turning back. She’d be by Rain’s side, tearing down destiny together. Yes, there was no turning back...

  Chapter III: Letters From the Inferno! The Ancient Capital Burns

  “Who’s this lady supposed to be?!” Ling was the first to speak up as they met up in a suite at a traditional ryokan, and her shout was enough to shake the sliding partitions.

  “Eh? Huh?” Ichika’s jaw hung open in surprise. “Autumn, right?”

 

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