Fantasy Stellar ARMOR Satellizer (Ranix Aurus & Admiral19)

[Admiral19]

"...Armor off."

The ARMOR dispersed, revealing a very sour-looking Kanae. She sat down and relaxed.

"Right." Her father sat down beside her. "So I'll just come out and say it: there are more medallions than the ones you all might have seen. Twelve total, in fact."

"Twelve?" Kanae's expression was nothing short of disbelieving.

"Calm down, the missing ones are still in America." Kanae's father looked to Seiichiro. "Do you remember when I quit officially? I wrote in my statement saying that I left because of an injury I sustained during an experiment gone wrong. The experiment had to do with the medallions. At the time, I was put under NDA so that I wouldn't say anything about it."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Hold on, Saitou, so you know about this??" Seiichiro rose up to his feet, his eyes opened wide. "After all this time, you still kept silent? If you've known about the danger of the medallions, you should've revealed it to the public! Hell, you didn't even tell me of all people. Granted we're not that close but still-"

"Senior, I'm sure Mr. Saitou had his own reasons," Shiori placed her hand on Seiichiro's shoulder. She then glanced at Kanae's father. "Am I right? You even know that some of these... medallions, thing, are in America. What else do you know, Mr. Saitou?"

"America...?" Akira turned to Kanae. She had gone to America for her study. Was that a coincidence...?

 

[Admiral19]

"I know who currently has the remaining medallions, because I delivered them to those people myself for the purpose of keeping them hidden. I also know who initially spearheaded the research project. Akui Noa, another scientist who still works at OLYMPUS. No way she'd entertain the questions of a bunch of former scientists, though."

"And what about the project itself?" Kanae leaned in.

"I was told that the goal of the experiments was to learn the origin and purpose of the medallions. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done; it was more like the medallions...appeared on Earth, so it was near impossible to trace them back to any time before now. I thought the whole thing was too much trouble than it was worth, but Senior Akui insisted that there was something about them that the world needed to learn about."

Kanae's father sat back. "I didn't speak to Senior Akui after the project went sideways, and I never tried to contact her afterwards."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"You... hide them? With other people?" Seiichiro blinked in amazement. So Saitou was actually doing the same thing as he did, but even better! He had only managed to steal one, and it almost got him killed if not for Kanae and the others' help. But here was Saitou snatching so many under OLYMPUS's nose! How wonderful!

"Akui... Noa... " Shiori frowned. "I've never heard of that name before. Even if we were in a different division, I should've had some inklings. Senior, how about you?"

"Hmm? Me? No idea. I don't know anyone outside of the exosuit division."

"..." Ah, right, she'd almost forgotten. Seiichiro was a hermit. Nevermind socializing, it would be considered lucky to see him walking about outside of the laboratory.

"Uhh... Sorry for interrupting, but... i-if you have the other medallions, is it possible to strike a d-deal with OLYMPUS? L-Like, we'll give them the medallions, but they will ensure our s-safety, or something," Mikawa stuttered out his thoughts. Seiichiro was shotting him a death glare on the side.

"... I see... so that's why the old man got acquainted with Kanae's father..." Akira whispered to himself, a sense of revelation washing over him.

 

[Admiral19]

"Now, Senior," Kanae's father said, "it's an honest question. But, unfortunately, these shouldn't be in anyone's hands, much less OLYMPUS'. The only reason I even gave them to the people I did is because they were either trusted acquaintances, or people ignorant enough to simply treat them as display pieces. It was why, even when Kanae came to study, we didn't all come back together; I had to be careful with who I picked."

Kanae's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"The test that made me quit was one we did in a North American lab; Alaska, to be specific. All of the medallions were placed into this object we called the "Tablet". Senior Akui figured that it would be the best way to get a broad sense on what humanity could harness them for. Short story, the Tablet couldn't contain all that power and the whole thing exploded, leaving me with..."

Kanae's father turned around and lifted part of his shirt, revealing a burn mark covering most of his lower back.

"This. Needless to say, I was swift to resign, but not before the head of R&D gave me some of the medallions to hold on to. Half of them were taken back to Japan, and I kept the other half. I had hoped that whoever took them back had the same idea as I did...seems that wasn't the case."

Kanae's mother looked at her husband in disbelief. "And you just knew all of this? Why didn't you all just destroy them?!"

"One of the first things we did was test if that was possible. It wasn't. And even if they could be, I would have if I knew any of this would happen, but I didn't. None of us figured that they would create a reaction with other people like this."

"So, what," Kanae said, "we're back to square one?"

Her father sighed. "Well, unless we can figure out how to destroy or otherwise neutralize them properly, we are.

There was a lasting silence. It was maddening to Kanae; it felt like they learned so much and yet so little as well.

Her father then cleared his throat. "Kanae, I know you were frustrated earlier, but you have to understand. I couldn't tell you what I was doing for OLYMPUS."

"I understand that. What I don't understand is—" Kanae stopped herself. "Whatever. We can talk about it later."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"So... what should we do now?" Seiichiro sighed. "It seemed that the best course of action, according to you, is to hide our medallions securely and not to use it. Just let it sleep until it's forgotten with time."

"Actually, wouldn't that put the people you entrusted with in danger? Our enemy was able to track down the medallion that Senior had stolen before. One of their agents had even infiltrated this facility-- err, nothing dangerous happened to your child, don't worry," Shiori bowed down apologetically at Kanae's parents.

"...Maybe we should go to America?" Seiichiro quipped. "I mean- it's a possibility, and look, Saitou is safe there even when he knows this much. Maybe we can avoid OLYMPUS's grasp this way."

"Excuse me, this talk about medallions are good and all, but... what about the monsters, then?"

Mikawa's words caused everyone to stare at him. Again. The cowardly shutterbug shrunk even further.

"I-I mean, I don't think this magical artifact things are related...? It's not like Miss Saitou is turning into a monster because of the medallion, right?"

 

[Admiral19]

"No," Kanae said, "but the ARMOR system is gradually changing my body. I'm just getting stronger through it, but who knows what else it might do down the line. And speaking of down the line, who's to say that OLYMPUS won't keep doing whatever shady shit they're up to while we're gone? And if the monsters are OLYMPUS' fault too, then what if they sick 'em on all of Japan while we think we're safe overseas? If these things give me the power to stop them, I'm not gonna fuck off somewhere else and leave people to die!"

"The best thing I can think of doing," Kanae's father started, "is simply making sure the other medallions are kept out of this "Kaiserin" person's hands. If she's trying to do something with them, then the best thing we can do is root out her operation and make sure they're brought to justice."

"How? We've been trying for days now."

"You all met people who worked for the Kaiserin, right? "Shouji" and someone else? They might be ARMOR users, but they're also ordinary people. If we can figure out what their deals are—why they work for the Kaiserin, what their lives were before, what things they've learned from her—we can start plotting ways to take her operation apart, even if it's only slowly."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Saitou, how to say this... I feel like you two are really parent and child," Seiichiro blurted out without thinking. When he think about it, this father and daughter pair were a bit... let's say their thinking process was out of the ordinary? Shouldn't a parent normally stop their child from doing something this dangerous?

"In short, we should interrogate Shouji," Akira clapped his hand. "That's easy. He's been... I want to say that we're keeping him prisoner, but it's more like he's the one refusing to come out of his room, isn't it? He didn't open up to us. What if you give it a try, Mr. Saitou?"

 

[Admiral19]

"I simply want to make the world better off," Kanae's father said. "and to do that, I'm using everything at our disposal. Isn't that what we do as scientists?"

With that said, they just needed to get Shouji talking...but, uh—

"You can try." Kanae rolled her eyes. "He hasn't said a word to us the past couple of days."

"Listen, Kanae, if I could get an unruly child like you to talk to us after you give us the cold shoulder, then I can get this young man to talk. Trust me."

Not really in any position to doubt her father, given everything he's said before, Kanae gestured him to the room Shouji was locked up in. "Good luck," she seemed to say.

---

There was a knock on the door.

"Hello?" A gruff-sounding voice could be heard carefully speaking. "I'm Saitou Aisuke. Are you Shouji, perchance? I'd like to talk with you."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Shouji had been mulling over his life in the last few days. At first, he was always on fire, his anger seemingly taking forever to abate. When it had reached its peak, without any outlet to unleash it upon, his mood went in a completely opposite direction. Feeling like life was useless, he holed up in his assigned room, doing little more than laying limp on bed, brooding over what had been and what could've been.

In the end, what was the point? Even with a medallion, he was still weaker than everyone else. If before he was considered useless, now he was worse than useless. A piece of trash. They thought that they would get information from him, but when they realized that he had nothing to give, he was sure that Leo and her little group of merry friends would abandon him all the same.

This time as well, he was laying face-down on the bed, wishing that he would lose consciousness soon. Sleep was the only relief for him these days. In a land without dream, there was only peace.

Suddenly, he stood up. A different voice was calling out to him from behind the door. It wasn't those ruffians. Saitou Aisuke... who was that?

---

"This is the first time I've seen a prisoner locking his own cell," Shiori scratched her head in exasperation. Sure, she could just override the lock as she wished, but it didn't really feel right...

"I don't know if he'll reply, Saitou. Don't get discouraged if-"

"...Who are you? What do you want?"

Suddenly, Shouji's raspy voice, hoarse from lack of water, resounded from the other side, to Seiichiro's surprise.

 

[Admiral19]

Kanae was equally surprised; she didn't expect that to work!

"Hey there!" Aisuke approached Shouji in a friendly manner, trying his best not to make Shouji distance himself. "I'd like to ask you a few questions...alone, if you would."

Aisuke was told that Shouji was a little...well, he used to be temperamental. He might get volatile later in, if Aisuke wasn't careful, so he had to take this slow. "Senior Shiori. Could we get some drinks? I don't want Shouji to start tearing his throat because of dehydration."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Oh. Oh, okay," Shiori went off to the nearest vending machine. She returned with a bottle of calpis, which she handed to Aisuke.

"We'll.. give you guys some privacy, then," Seiichiro led the others back to the laboratory, hoping that maybe Kanae's father would be able to crack open this rock.

Shouji didn't say anything else. He only eyed the older man with a scrutinizing eyes. Even so, those eyes were dull, without a fight in them. He didn't seem to mind whatever Aisuke was trying to do, even if he wanted to get inside or do anything else.

 

[Admiral19]

And seeing that, Aisuke entered Shouji's room and closed the door. "Now then. I was told that you're...very familiar with my daughter. You've caused some trouble, yes, but I'm willing to overlook it if you just work with me."

He passed Shouji the bottle of calpis and sat down at the desk across from his bed. Now then...how to approach this...

"I want to get to know you a bit. I've been told that you've had some bad experiences with my daughter and the people she's with, but rest assured that we—I—would like to help you. So let's start with the basics: name, age, and...favorite food." Aisuke wanted to get Shouji talking, but it wouldn't be good if he started with stuff about the medallions; better to soften him up, get Shouji used to his presence.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Shouji took the calpis, and then unceremoniously gulped it down without any shred of manner. When he was done, he smashed the bottle hard on the bedside table. The bottom of the plastic bottom dented inward from the impact.

"Oh, you're one of those, aren't you? You want to know my name? I'm Poop Lord. There, happy? Hah!"

As if finding a target to unleash his frustration on, the young man threw the bottle right at Aisuke. It missed him by the ear, bouncing off the white wall with a loud clang.

"I'm not falling for it! All of you are like that! You think you're smart because you're older? Is that it? Trying to patronize me, aren't you? Piss off!"

 

[Admiral19]

"Now, sir, I don't want to patronize you. I'm just trying to be careful because I heard that you can get...volatile. I don't want this conversation to implode."

This was to be expected, but at the same time, it was worse than Aisuke thought. It's okay, this can be worked on.

"Listen. If you need something to vent on, I'm here too. If you need someone to beat up, or yell at, or anything, I'm here. I just want to hear from you, so feel free to speak..."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"You bastard-! I'll beat you up!"

Shouji got up to his feet and threw his fist right at Aisuke's face... but stopped before he could reach.

His arms slumped limply by his side as he fell on the bed, his palms covering his eyes. What was the point?

"Look at you, with that nice suit, clean shoes... you can't understand me. What would a rich guy like you know? Just... leave me alone. I don't have anything that I can give you. I'm nothing. Trash."

Just like what everyone around him had been saying for years.

 

[Admiral19]

Aisuke sighed. There was a point to be made; he's only met Shouji today. What was he to say about what Shouji's went through? But even then...

He wondered briefly about his daughter. Ten years, he and his wife had left Kanae alone...he couldn't imagine what she felt during that time. They had gotten the basics over video calls("It's lonely without you two here, but I'll be holding up fine!"), but they didn't have the chance to learn more about it until her outburst, until she said what she wanted to.

Hm.

He folded his arms and looked straight at Shouji. "You're allowed to feel like this. You went through something I don't know, and I won't stop you from processing it. But I also think you should allow yourself to be happy, to have what you want. Shouji, do you want to feel like trash?"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

The young man avoided his gaze. They were too bright. They belonged to someone from the other side, someone like those kids outside the confines of this room he'd fashioned as his personal turtle shell. Even longer time passed with Shouji remaining silent, unwilling to reply, until finally,

"...I don't want to..."

A soft whisper, barely enough to register in one's ears, slipped out of his tight lips.

 

[Admiral19]

"Then you're already on a good path. It's not a fast process at all, being content with your lot in life, nor is it easy. But I think you'll find that every small step forward will feel better and better as you go. But here's the important part."

Very gently, as if Shouji would break otherwise, Aisuke put his hands on the boy's shoulders. "It has to be something that you want and are willing to fight for. As I said, happiness isn't easy. We—myself and the people out there, that is—we're willing to help you make a path to get there. But if you're not willing to take the steps yourself...well, then you'll just be here, collecting dust like you always were. Understand?"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"You? Helping me?" Shouji looked at him with disbelief at first, followed by resurging anger. However, this time it came with a fit of laughter. "They also said that... everyone said that! Those bastards in blue, those ruffians on the street, even Alfred, that motherfucker-"

Shouji shrunk away from Aisuke's touch, as if he was afraid of it. "You don't want to help me. You just want to use me. Never again!"

 

[Admiral19]

"If it ever seems like we aim to use you, then I will personally make it my duty to rectify the issue."

Aisuke looked serious. He's heard of these sorts of people, people who feel like they're nothing but things to be used. He hated seeing it. The whole reason he applied for OLYMPUS when he was younger was for the sake of making a world where no one would have to feel that way. Nowadays, he realizes that it's a lofty goal, and work would still have to be done. But if he could help one person feel a little better about themselves, then goddammit, he would do it.

"Shouji, you have a whole life before you. I cannot tell you how to live it, but I will tell you that it can't be lived if you allow yourself to stay stagnant, if you close yourself off to those who really, truly, wish to help you. If none of them will, then I will. I promise."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Shouji glared at him. Hard. Like a wounded animal staring down at his predator. He wanted to punch that face so bad. His fists were clenched tight until his knuckles were turning white, and yet they remained by his sides.

"...Do you really mean it...?" He murmured. "If... If you lie to me, I'll- I'll kill you!"

His threat was extreme, but his voice, choking as it was, couldn't reflect its intensity.

 

[Admiral19]

"If I ever break my promise, I'll let you kill me."

He backed off, allowing Shouji to do whatever he pleased; cry, scream, throw something again, anything, because then at least Aisuke would know that he got something through.

"That said, you didn't properly tell me your name. Or should I call you "Poop Lord" from here on, hm?"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Shouji frowned at him, but it did get a slight smile on his face.

"...Kuzuki Shouji. That's my name," he replied. The mention of his surname, for a brief moment, incited a slight pang of hatred in his eyes, which quickly subsided. "What about you, old man? Who are you exactly? I don't think those loons out there are good enough to hire a psychiatrist, do they?"

 

[Admiral19]

Alright, that was good. This was progress. "Please. Senior Seiichiro probably couldn't afford a psychiatrist." He sat back down into the chair. "Saitou Aisuke. I'm a former researcher for OLYMPUS, as are Seniors Shiori and Seiichiro. Presently, we were trying to unravel some of the mystery behind these medallions that this enigma of a group covet so greatly. My daughter Kanae—I'm sure you know who she is—said that it would be difficult to get anything out of you."

For the most part, she was right. It took time to get where they were right now, but the patience was worth it.

"You don't have to say anything that you don't want to, let me be clear. But in the interest of figuring out what's going on, trying to parse out their motives, and bringing them to justice, I'd like to know as much as you can tell me."