Fantasy Stellar ARMOR Satellizer (Ranix Aurus & Admiral19)

[Admiral19]

"I mean, you're right..."

"If it makes either of you feel better," Aisuke said, "I might have a plan to get the medallions that I left in America. If we can get those, we'll have a significant advantage; we'll be able to learn more about them that much faster. For now, I suggest that we start smaller, and that starts with the both of you getting some rest."

"Alriiiight..."

* * *

"Listen, I know you're not the biggest fan of me, but I'd truly like your help!"

The Kaiserin lounged back in her chair, chatting with the voice speaking over her monitor. With the kidnapping of Mr. Fujita having succeeded, as well as Rui's last round of experiments, more and more steps to her goal were carefully being built. But Rui had told her of their meeting with Leo, and the skepticism she held towards them. In the interest of making Aesir look good enough to fly under Leo and company's radar, she needed someone willing to be a fall guy.

And she had an old research friend who could do just that. It'd just...take a while to convince her.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Hotaru perked up when Aisuke mentioned about rest. She went over to Kanae's side and then hugged her arm before dragging her out of the blast room. Akira followed them while sighing. Would Gemini even be useful in an actual fight? That was quite worrying.

"Right, Saitou. To be honest, I don't know whether it's safer to keep the medallions with us or leaving them spread out like they are now. Then again, are you sure that they're completely safe? OLYMPUS has their reach in America too," Seiichiro said.

 

[Admiral19]

"All we know right now," Aisuke said, "is that all the medallions put together have immense power, and only certain people can use that power. We don't have enough information to determine their safety, other than the incident and what the ARMOR system does over time. Keeping them separate would be ideal, but so would keeping them away from OLYMPUS."

For a moment, Aisuke watched Hotaru drag Kanae out of the room, followed by an exasperated Akira.

"Thank you for keeping them safe as well as you did. Kanae has told me how well she gets along with her friends...I'd truly hate for her to lose them."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"No, no... the kids are the ones who had kept us safe all this time. I'm just an useless uncle," Seiichiro scratched his neck with a foolish grin on his face. "Right, right, where are you and your wife going to stay now? I don't know if your house is safe... actually, maybe she should go back with you for now? You know, to bond between parents and child. I'm sure that she had been missing you guys this whole time."

"Yes, I think taking your time to reconnect with your child is important," Shiori nodded in support. "Besides, getting stuck in this laboratory for days on end must be boring."

"Eh, not really-"

"That's just you, Senior," she gave Seiichiro the stink eye.

 

[Admiral19]

Aisuke laughed. "That's not a bad idea. If you ask me, I say we've been gone for too long. I'm sure she'll be buzzing to tell us everything that's happened since we left. And...a lot has happened."

That it had. There had to have been so many milestones he and Yuna had missed...he felt strangely selfish, having stayed so long trying to do good and all that came out of it was a hurting daughter and a mess of medallions and monsters.

But...well, if Kanae's made it this long...

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Hotaru brought Kanae to the rec room, where she pulled her to relax on the couch. A slow jazz music was playing through the speaker, accompanied by a light, sweet scent from aromateraphy. Mochizuki Industries clearly had spent a lot for their workers' well-beings. Or maybe it was just Shiori's personal hobby.

"Kanae, don't you think you should spend some time with your parents?" Akira tentatively asked. "I'm not really in the best term with my father, but you're..."

 

[Admiral19]

Kanae flopped onto the couch beside Hotaru, pulling her into a side hug. "Yeah, well, that's your father. I don't know what he did—not that you have to tell me—but he's left you two all alone, right?"

The way she said that had a slight taste of spite. Could she really help it? For a good chunk of her childhood, the only way she could see her parents' faces and hear their voices was through video chats that happened often, but weren't enough to keep Kanae happy for long. She could understand her dad leaving, but why did her mom had to leave, too? She really had no good reason...or if she did, she wasn't fast to say it. And more than that, why didn't Dad make her stay in Japan?

Ten years was a long time. It was long enough for loneliness to set in, and long enough for that loneliness to become anger.

"I'm not gonna say that you should care more about my situation than yours." Kanae hugged Hotaru closer. "But...you get where I'm coming from at least, right?"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Yeah..."

Akira sunk himself into a sofa, his eyes gazing at the ceiling.

"Not trying to compare, but at least I can understand your parents' intention. Your father's trying his best to... save the world or something, I don't know. I think it has something to do with you. By protecting this world, he also protects you... in a roundabout way. Okay, maybe that's stupid, but understandable. My father though... is just shitty. He changed after mom... died."

Hotaru flinched slightly.

"He didn't turn abusive or something. He's just... something about tunnel vision. He's living in his own la-la-land, and the longer I watch him further descending into his own delusions, the more I'm angry at him. But alas, I can't do anything to stop a man from destroying himself."

He shrugged, as if it had nothing to do with him. Even if that was clearly a lie.

"Who am I to judge, right?" He added in the end, with a blatant sense of self-mockery.

 

[Admiral19]

Kanae thought. This is the first time she's even heard an inkling of what Akira and Hotaru's father was up to. She figured it was bad, but she didn't figure it was "actively neglected his kids for lofty ideals" bad. Had to be rough; it was hard to change a person's mind, even more so if they're dead set on something.

And...Kanae just said she wouldn't compare them, but at least her father was around now.

"You think he knows anything about the medallions? Your dad, I mean." A dumb question, but one that she had to ask. "If not, then he's gotta know stuff about OLYMPUS, especially since that one guy that got kidnapped made headlines."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"He might... I'm not sure. He's..." Akira sighed. "You can't really get a straight answer with him. He only speaks what he wanted to say at the moment. The last time I talked with him on the phone, he was saying something about this rare genetic mutation in the mitochondrial DNA... or whatever it was that he was researching."

Hotaru buried her face in Kanae's shoulder. She didn't seem to like talking about their father.

"...Sorry, didn't mean to be a downer," Akira eked out a smile. "What I was trying to say is... it might not be the place for me to pry, but I'd like it if you can mend your relationship with your parents. I don't... want to see other people in the same predicament. Especially my best friend."

 

[Admiral19]

"No, yeah, I understand." There was more that she wanted to know, but it wasn't the time, nor was it the place, nor was it any of her business. "I'll...talk to them later."

She could figure all of this out later. Right now, she was comfortable simply talking and laying back, enjoying the company of her friends. She could worry about making up with her folks later. Hell, maybe they could all do something together once she figured things out with them.

For now, she hugged Hotaru closer.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Alfred had been hitting the underground complex with unprecedented... kindness, ever since he had seemingly "succeeded" in his experiment, whatever that meant to him.

The lab workers were given a full day's break, and a free-for-all servings in the cafeteria. The overdrive system's scheduled experiments had been halted as well. It was mostly complete, and Alfred had deemed the results sufficient to start building the final product.

It would be the next day when he called upon Rui to his office. The usually dreary aura that he carried around were no longer present. The sickening grin was still on his face, and his overall mood seemed to be no less chipper than before.

"Welcome, welcome, good Rui. Have a seat, have a seat."

...Yeah, something clearly broke inside Alfred's brain.

"I would like to ask for your help. As you have been briefed yesterday, we have achieved some degree of success with three of the four test subjects. The first test subject unfortunately had to be terminated, but the rest were exceptional for Aesir. On that note-- the youngest test subject, Nakamichi Haru, had recently escaped our custody."

Escaped, he said, when the truth was that he had let her go as she had wished. "I know you'll come back on your own," was what he had last said to her before escorting her out of the front gate.

"I'd like to ask for your help to bring her back. But absolutely don't use violence. Just give her some time. Let her do as she pleases until she's satisfied. Well... just think of it as guarding her for the time being. Oh, we've finished the Overdrive system as well. Go to the lab and get it installed in your ARMOR. I don't think you'll need it just yet, but... better safe than sorry."

 

[Admiral19]

Rui was probably the most disturbed of the Holders at Alfred's sudden change. They were hopping that this chipper attitude would have gone away by now.

It, in fact, has not.

"Understood..." This was the first they'd really heard of Alfred's recent subjects, and the first they'd heard of the escaped one. It wouldn't be hard to bring it back...hopefully, though people were hard to predict sometimes. And hey, worse comes to worse, there was always Overdrive.

They really hoped that they wouldn't have to use it, though.

---

It's been a fairly long time since Rui's been dispatched for a mission. The past couple of days have been filled with nothing but experiments and tests. The last time they had to be anywhere was...ah, was when they had to cut off Shouji.

They wondered if Shouji had told Leo and co. anything. Probably not; he was a stubborn guy, that Shouji. It'd take a lot to get him saying anything.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Akira had been busying himself by helping Seiichiro untangle the complex de-monsterification serum. Not that they knew whether it really could work or not. Aisuke seemed to have good faith in Seiichiro's ability, although it wasn't as if they had a lot of options to start with.

"What I'm stuck with is the strange mutation on this chromosome... this is the part that went beyond currently-known science. It's as if they consumed matters from their surroundings in order to reconstruct their physique. How is this possible-"

Seiichiro was muttering to himself, as he usually do. Akira just tuned him out while he pushed a slide into the microscope.

"Hmm... Kanae? Is Kanae here?"

The first thing that Shiori had done upon arriving in the lab was to call upon Kanae. She had a troubled look on her face.

"Mamoru called me just now. He said that he want to talk with you. Are you okay with that?"

 

[Admiral19]

Kanae was similarly tuned out, watching all the science happening. She's never been the best with science, so she understood a lot of Seiichiro's words separately. Fortunately, she was given a distraction.

But it wasn't really a distraction she wanted.

"Uh, sure..." What did Mochizuki want? She hasn't seen him since a couple days before, did he have something to report, or... "Put him on the line. What does he need?"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

At the mention of Mochizuki's name, Hotaru and Akira immediately went alert. The former tightened her hug around Kanae, as if wanting to shield her from some invisible enemies. Shiori had a complicated feeling about it. Was her nephew that bad?

The call rang a few times before her call was picked up.

"Hello, Auntie?"

"Yes," She connected her phone to a terminal in the lab, allowing everyone to get in on the conversation. "Kanae is with me. Everyone else, too, actually. What was it that you want to say to her?"

"Whoa, Saitou? Wait, wait, I'm still in the toilet!"

""...""

Oh. No wonder he took a while to answer...

"Right, uh... Saitou, are you there?" Mochizuki's voice returned after a few minutes of silence. "You haven't been to school lately, so I thought you didn't know yet. I saw Nakamichi this morning. You remember? Nakamichi Haru, from Design... Well, I mean, it could be nothing, but-"

"Mamoru, get to the point," Shiori rubbed her temple.

"Right, sorry-- I saw Nakamichi near the front gate of the school. She looked... scared, like someone is chasing her. She was walking back and forth at the side, like she wanted to talk to the security about whatever happened to her, but hesitated in the end. I was about to call out to her when she noticed something and then ran away. That seems weird for me, so... I don't know, maybe you know something?"

 

[Admiral19]

"Nakamichi...? Oh, the girl that I helped run an errand with!" Well, at least that was what Mochizuki thought. "Hm. That's..."

That was strange. Kanae never usually saw Nakamichi at any point other than in between classes, but she didn't seem like the worrisome type. Did something happen to her sometime before Mochizuki saw her? If someone was chasing her, who could it have been?

"If she was getting chased, did you see who was chasing her? Where'd she run off to?" This could just be a stalker case, which, while still concerning, was not nearly as bad as the other scenarios Kanae could think of.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"I didn't see anyone, but I'm not too sure... she ran off downtown through the back alley, as if she was hiding from someone. Well, that's all that I know. I'll try asking around."

Mochizuki finished the call, leaving more questions than answers.

"What do you think of this?" Akira asked. He wasn't acquainted with Nakamichi, but if she was Kanae's friend, then it didn't seem right to leave her alone.

"Maybe it's OLYMPUS trying to get to us through your friend?" Seiichiro quipped.

"...Let's not get that paranoid, yeah?" Akira scoffed. "Not everything have to be connected to OLYMPUS."

 

[Admiral19]

"I mean, it's clear enough that Nakamichi's in trouble, right? We should still investigate, I feel." Sure, OLYMPUS might not have anything to do with this, but if Kanae could still help Nakamichi despite that, then she might as well. "We can figure out what's going on once we find her."

---

Tracking down people was hard. It was even harder when the person you're trying to follow goes to college.

Rui's been onto the person Alfred told them to return for what seemed like the past hour. She's caught on to them at this point, but they couldn't come back empty handed, not again. They followed the girl down an alleyway, hoping to god no one saw; they really didn't want to explain their reason for following this girl.

"Hey, listen, I just need you to cooperate, alright?" Rui tried their best to placate the girl. "I'm trying to get you back to my boss. I need you to work with me while we go!"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Akira was more than willing to help Kanae out. It wasn't safe to go out alone in their current situation, after all. The problem was, they had no lead to follow. Downtown was a huge area to cover.

"Since Mochizuki saw her near your college... how about we search around there?" He suggested. "She shouldn't get too far from there. There's a big chance that she would find someone to help her, like the police... say, why are you following us?"

Unlike the usual routine, Hotaru had decided to tag along this time.

"...I'm worried," she muttered.

"You coming with us is equally worrying..." Akira sighed.

---

Nakamichi Haru was in a daze.

She had somehow escaped from that horrible place, but everything didn't feel the same anymore. She felt that she wanted to get help from someone, anyone, but at the last moment, something would pull her back, making her hesitate. In this delirious state, she would ended up roaming listlessly around the street, instinctively shying away from the crowd. Coming back to her college was the closest she had ever been to making a contact that day.

When Rui caught up to her, she suddenly had an urge to flee. She didn't know how, but she could tell that this person... was at the same side with that scary man from before. No, she can't go back there. She didn't want to. No!

"I... I don't want to!" She yelled at Rui before running away deeper into the alleyway.

 

[Admiral19]

Rui sighed, still following the girl. This was getting old. "Listen, if I have to force you back, it will not end well for either of us! Please don't make me do something we'll regret!"

This alley had to stop somewhere. Rui really wanted this to go peacefully, but if she couldn't calm down, she'd draw attention and make it that much harder for Rui to do their job. If they had to go into their ARMOR, they'd risk someone calling the cops—or worse, Leo would arrive. They couldn't have that happen.

---

"Nakamichi? Yeah, I saw her today. Looked skittish as all hell, though."

"Was anybody following her? I think so...I couldn't see who it was, though. I think they had whitish hair?"

"I think it's a stalker, if you ask me, trying to get with Nakamichi. Creepy stuff."

Before she, Akira, and Hotaru could do any proper investigating, Kanae checked in with some of the people who might have seen Nakamichi today. From what it sounded like, Nakamichi was indeed running from someone. Which only left the mystery of who it was following her and what the person who was following wanted from her. Kanae hoped they figured it out soon; whoever this was is far and away worse than Mochizuki. At least he got her some flowers.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Whitish hair?" Akira raised an eyebrow. An old man? But he didn't think that anyone that old would be able to keep up with a young person if she tried to run away. Still, that was a peculiar trait.

Hmm? Hadn't they seen someone with a white hair not so long ago?

"Kanae..." Hotaru tugged at her sleeve. "Did you find any lead?"

---

The alleyway was indeed coming to an end. A wall sectioned off the concrete maze, trapping Haru against her pursuer. She grasped at the wall in desperation before turning around to face Rui.

"Please... I just want to go home..." She pleaded. She didn't know what she had been involved with. All she wanted to do was to forget everything and go home.

...Home? She no longer had a home. No, she did have a home-- what was wrong with her mind?

"Ugh..." She clutched on her head, feeling that it was about to burst.

 

[Admiral19]

"Well, besides a vague description of the person Nakamichi was followed by, nothing really..."

Kanae rested her chin on her fist, thinking about all the people with white hair that she's seen. It can't have been many; it's such an odd trait to have—

"Motherfucker." The realization hit her like a truck. She dashed to the alley that Mochizuki said Nakamichi ran down. "Motherfucker!"

---

"You're confused." Very slowly, Rui approached Haru. "You don't know if you have anywhere to go, and you don't know who would be willing to help you. I know that you're a mess, but...I want to help you."

Rui's words were practiced, just the kind of words that someone wanted to hear.

"Look. Let me bring you back. Things might get painful and confusing, but I promise that it'll help."

"Hey!"

From the other end of the alley, a painfully familiar voice shouted.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"N-No...!"

Haru shook her head, desperately rejecting Rui's honeyed words. They couldn't help her. A human like them wouldn't be able to. A human wouldn't understand-

Wait, a human-? Then what was she-

A familiar voice snapped her dazed mind, as if she had been doused by cold water. She immediately took the chance to rush past Rui, placing her fragile hope toward that voice. Tears welled in her eyes as she was filled with a sense of salvation.

 

[Admiral19]

At the other end of the alley was Kanae, glaring hard at Rui as Haru ran past them. Fantastic, this is just what they needed.

"Nakamichi!" Kanae put herself between Haru and Rui. "Stay behind. This person isn't gonna be helping you."

"Leo, stay out of the way. I'm not trying to fight you."

"Then what are you trying to do, huh? Kidnap my classmate?!"

"Classmate...?" Rui's eyes narrowed. "So Alfred...it doesn't matter. This is your last warning..."

Rui took out their medallion, tossing it into the air and catching it.

"Move."

Kanae stayed in front of Haru, bringing out her own medallion. "Not until I get answers from you."

Rui inhaled sharply. "Suit, up."