Fantasy Stellar ARMOR Satellizer (Ranix Aurus & Admiral19)

[Ranix Aurus]

"...She might lower her guard, and show up in person to gloat over her supposed victory," Akira continued.

"No way, no! This is not a TV show! The Kaiserin is not... so..."

Stupid. But was she really? Shouji still remembered the excessive theatrics each time she appeared in the monitor. Alright, maybe she wasn't stupid, but her vanity wasn't small either--

"But what would you do once she got her hands on these medallions? Miss Saitou, you were in a dangerous situation just now! Good thing that Akira boy and miss Tanaka were able to get you and Mochizuki out... err, where's miss Tanaka?"

Seiichiro looked around, suddenly remembering about Hotaru. Akira nudged at Kanae, his gaze seemed to be telling her to keep it a secret for now.

"She's got something to do for now. I'll let you know later," Akira said nonchalantly to Seiichirou.

 

[Admiral19]

Kanae smiled. "You're catching on! So here's what. The Holders are gonna want those medallions. So, we offer them, only if they also take us to the Kaiserin. She's human. I'll be able to take her out easily and get every medallion back in one swoop. And if we can get a way to revert everyone here back to normal, that would be an even bigger win!"

It was a ridiculous plan, one that would only work in a show.

Which is why Kanae was confident that it would work.

As everyone took in the information and began preparing, Kanae briefly turned Akira away from the group.

"Akira," she whispered, "Firefly's gonna be how we beat this. There was a guy there who captured me...he said something about Enjyuu. If we can find him again, maybe he'll tell us something about the monsters."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

For once, Seiichiro and Shouji had finally came to an agreement: this girl was nuts.

Nevertheless, it wasn't as if they had a lot of options right now. Perhaps the idea might work from sheer ridiculousness. They went over to Aisuke to discuss it further.

"What if they asked for Leo as well? Maybe we can trick them with a fake medallion. I did it once-- oh, don't look at me like that, boy! It was in the past! Now you see how good my craftmanship could be? I could be the savior of us all-!"

Ignoring Seiichiro's excited voice, Akira listened to Kanae's story. He shuddered when Kanae mentioned about a guy who knew about Enjyuu. Someone who knew of her existence... aside from Akira, his father, and him, there could only be...

"Kanae," he suddenly caught her wrist, perhaps a bit too tightly. "...If... If you want to know the truth, if you really want to know everything... then you should see my father once again. But..."

...Once she knew, there would be no turning back.

 

[Admiral19]

"If you've made a fake medallion before, then they might expect that!" Aisuke tried to reason with Seiichiro. "Beyond that, I don't even know what the plan might be once the medallions are handed over...Kanae won't be able to use her ARMOR to..."

Kanae tuned out the conversation to talk with Akira. "I've already heard you out this far. But...what's Genki gonna know about this?"

There was no point asking Akira about it. She had to find out herself.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Precisely! Because they know that we have attempted it before, they will never expect us to be so foolish to try it again! It's called predicting their prediction!"

"My father... knows about this. He should, as this is his job," Akira replied, ignoring Seiichiro's incoherent ramblings at the back. "That's what he's doing all these years away from home. Finding ways to kill those monsters... those things they called Eldrians and Eldriari. They must have seen the news and begin making their moves. They should be on planes right now, coming over here. If you want to... before going to face Aesir, perhaps you should talk to him first."

 

[Admiral19]

Hm. Kanae didn't really feel like talking to Genki again, not after everything he said before.

But, well...she didn't really have a choice, hm?

After a few more minutes of bickering(mostly consisting of making sure Seiichiro didn't lose his mind), a plan was concoted;

Kanae would take the medallions. After she went to talk with Genki, she would find the Holders and have them take her to the Kaiserin to give her the medallions. One of the medallions would be a fake; Leo's. Once the Kaiserin got all the medallions, Kanae would take her out.

That was the idea. Kanae hoped it worked.

---

Because she wanted to hear from Genki first and foremost, Kanae decided to meet him right at the airport he would be landing in.

He had a lot to answer to. She hoped he wouldn't be so hard to talk with now.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

The rest of the group took Mochizuki back with them to Shiori's place, while Akira accompanied Kanae to the airport. They were in no rush; the plane carrying his father wouldn't arrive for the next few hours. They had taken the flight as early as possible to prevent getting locked out from the ensuing chaos that would happen sooner or later.

By the time that they had reached the airport, everything looked as busy as always. Akira brought Kanae over to the arrival gate, where his father said that they be coming out from. Before long, he could see it-- Tanaka Genki walked out of the gate in a brown sweater, while beside him tagged along the strange man that Kanae had met once before: his boss, Luca Sternz, still in his ridiculous aloha getup that, as expected, drew stares from surrounding people, not to mention him being a blatant foreigner.

"Akira! I told you that this country isn't safe!" Genki went on right away before they could speak up.

"...Father," Akira snorted. "I've told you everything through the phone. You don't mind, do you?"

"It's fine," Luca nodded with an understanding smile. "A friend of Enjyuu is always appreciated."

At the mention of that name, Genki's facade broke ever so slightly-- for a split second, what flashed on his face was none other than hate.

 

[Admiral19]

"Hey." Kanae wasted no time, addressing Genki immediately. "Look. You have to have heard by now, but we're in a mess. I've learned more about my friends in the past half-hour than I ever thought I'd learn in a lifetime."

That look on Genki's face didn't go unnoticed, as quickly as it went by.

"No bullshit. No excuses. What do you know about Enjyuu?"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Me?" Genki smiled at Kanae. Grinned. His lips curved so widely that it looked maniacal.

"I know that that devil had killed my daughter. And I'll be the one to end it if it'll be the last thing that I would do-!"

"Alright, that's enough," Luca patted his shoulder, which suddenly stopped his surging tantrum. He lightly pushed the older man toward Akira, gesturing that he would take over instead.

"Young lady, I don't think that you only want to know about Enjyuu. You want to know what she really is, don't you?"

Luca glanced at Akira, and then back to Kanae. He then turned toward a less-crowded area of the airport, close to a maintenance corridor.

"Follow me, if you really want to know," he smiled at Akira. "Don't give me that look, boy. I'm not going to eat your friend. I just want to have some... private talk with her. That is all. Now, shall we?"

He walked off in a relaxed pace, as if certain that Kanae would follow.

 

[Admiral19]

It wasn't a surprise that Genki reacted like this; he didn't necessarily lose Hotaru, but what she became was too different from the child he raised. But at the same time, everything that happened to everyone—Hotaru, Akira, their mother and Genki, maybe even Enjyuu—was probably just a result of poor circumstances.

Well, she wouldn't know until she was told. Kanae nodded at Akira before following behind Luca.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Once upon a time, there was a King."

Luca began to talk, his words flighty, as if he was reciting a part of a fairy tale. As they waddled through the sea of people, somehow, everyone would part to make way. None of the others seemed to notice either Luca, or Kanae.

It was as if they were in their own world.

"The King had slept for a long, long time. So long that memories grew faint, a distant starlight that one could never reach."

Slowly, slowly, as if in a trance.

"When the King returned, He was alone. The world was no longer the same. The lonely King cried in his solitude for a long, long time, until finally, he had an epiphany: if his people was no longer here, he should create them once again. Thus, he remade the Patriarchs; House Mo, of the sea. House Ruu, of the sky. House Ha, of the land."

Luca stopped at the entrance of the corridor. At this point, nobody even threw a glance at the corner they were in. A veil had been cast down, preventing anyone else from noticing them. In the air, a slightly sweet smell wafted, carried by a light breeze.

Roots were growing out of his shirt, branches out of his sleeves, covering his hands as he lifted him up. On the tip of his finger bloomed a purple flower, which he presented to Kanae with a gentle smile.

"My name is Ha Aolfa, Patriarch of House Ha. It is a pleasure to meet you, my beloved human."

 

[Admiral19]

Every word of Luca's slipped into Kanae's ears, floating by like clouds far above them. She didn't even realize no one was paying attention to them until they reached the corridor and Kanae noticed how many people they passed, too many for absolutely no one to notice her walking.

Another one...

"Aolfa..." Kanae took the flower resting on Luca...Aolfa's finger, the petals a vibrant purple that Kanae's never seen in a flower. "So Hotaru—Enjyuu's a Patriarch too, right? And, wait, what happened to the Patriarchs? What caused Enjyuu to crash-land on Earth?"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"'Crashland on Earth'? Like a plane-? Oh."

Luca-- Aolfa pondered over Kanae's choice of words before letting out a chuckle.

"We called ourselves, in the ways of your tongue, Eldrian.   We are what you considered sapient creatures that inhabit this world many, many epochs ago. We came from nowhere else-- this world, this 'planet' that you called Earth, has always been our home. And it shall stay yours, my descendant."

Aolfa stroked at Kanae's cheek with the tip of his finger; it was done with the gesture of a parental care, with familial love that was overflowing without bounds.

"It is such a pleasant surprise; that that one little branch house could retain such a stable gene pool that they could resist the eventual corruption... and look at what you've been able to create! Such a rich history-- such a rich culture, a technological revolution! This world, this future, belongs to you humans. There's no place for us, these old ghosts from the past..."

 

[Admiral19]

Ancient inhabitants from ages ago, beings that have witnessed the Earth's evolution...Kanae could be called nothing but astounded. An opportunity to see such a being in real life was...well, impossible for a normal person, so her even being here...

It almost felt dreamlike.

"The monsters we've been fighting, then...How were they made? Were they your subjects—no, 'cause they used to be human..." A thousand more questions were welling up in Kanae's brain, but she couldn't even speak them all if she wanted to, far too busy with understanding all of this.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Ah, them. The Eldriari. Those people that you called 'monsters'."

Aolfa pointed at the roots growing out of his body.

"Unlike you humans, we Eldrians were able to mutate our bodies at will. Our biological ability allowed us to become shapeshifters, although based on the houses, there was a certain limitations, or themes, of what we could grow and devolve into. But this blessings was also a curse.

After a long, long time, uncontrollable mutations began to appear within our gene pool. Nobody remembered when exactly it happened, only that it happened; the first Eldriari was born from the lineage of house Ruu. Lacking sapience, she was nothing more than a lumbering beast. Thankfully, she still instinctively recognized her origin. While the Eldriari were regressing into mindless animals, they were still a part of us. However, the rising number of Eldriari descendants were starting to become a concern. Each successive generations were worse than the last, until even they couldn't remember who they were anymore.

The final generation of Eldriari was nothing more than a writhing goo of biological mass; feral, mindless, and prone to attacking anything on sight. We terminated it, but it wasn't the end. After all, there was really not a definite reason for their existence; as long as us Eldrians existed, the Eldriari would always be born. That was our curse; that was our defects. We have, finally, reached the end of our gene pool.

The end of our civilization was a gradual decline. The last few houses with stable enough gene pools were allowed to reproduce, hoping that at least for every ten Eldriari, one would be born an Eldrian. The relentless proliferation of feral Eldriari, however, was a concern for all. Left alone, they would consume every biological mass in this world, leaving it dead. Thus, we had to make the hardest decision of all. Us surviving Eldrians would hunt down all the Eldriari, leaving only a few stable gene pools to continue their lineage as our light of hope. And with each houses unable to deliver new generations of stable Eldrians, that hope grew dimmer with each passing time."

He gently grabbed on Kanae's wrist and pulled it up, moving his gaze at the ARMOR wristband... at the medallion inside.

"One house under my lineage was quite a surprise. They were stable, but also lacking a lot of abilities that granted us power in the first place. In order to compensate for that deficiency, they, with our help, created these tools-- these weapons, to help them hunt Eldriari in the frontline alongside us. In the end, this house, thought to be the weakest of all, ended up becoming the sole survivor of our tragedy. It was such a twist of fate. As for the present time..."

He let go of her hand.

"The Eldriari that you knew... were created by forcibly merging your genes with the Patriarch's. This is the method that Hyogo had decided upon after years of experimentation. Humans... have been millenias apart from what made us Eldrians; while you can be considered my descendants, we had been separated for far too long to still be considered of the same species. However, a part of us lingered. By forcibly awakening that part, Hyogo is hoping that, from every few Eldriari that are created, at least one Eldrian would awaken. And judging by his rampant actions out in the open right now, I guess that he had finally managed to create more Eldrians. You have met them, haven't you? People that's similar to what you call 'monsters', but retained their sapience, not different from any of you humans."

 

[Admiral19]

"The medallions...these were an Eldrian creation?!" The more Kanae learned, the more surprised her voice sounded. Everything she had learned was being added upon in such an amazing way...!

And then, the Eldriari. "Aesir's been using these guys to fight us. This guy who captured me...Alfred? He and his goons managed to turn an entire village into Eldriari somehow..."

Wait...no fucking way.

Wide eyes stared up at Aolfa. "You said that Hyogo was the one experimenting with Eldrian essence, right?" She swore to god, if she managed to meet all three Patriarchs within the space of a few hours...

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"To call it an Eldrian creation might be giving us too much credit. In the end, it was created by your ancestors, for the sake of their descendants alone. It has no use to us Eldrians. You can take pride in that these powers belonged to you humans. Always have, always will be. Our houses merely provided assistance whenever needed. After all, you people were also an integral part in our attempt to cull the number of Eldriari."

Aolfa raised an eyebrow, intrigued by what Kanae had said.

"Alfred? Is he the one responsible for that incident? He could be working under him. Or... he could be Hyogo himself, living in a human disguise just like me. That will have to wait until I catch up to him. Although, from what I've heard from Genki and young Akira, it seems that Enjyuu is already chasing him as well."

He offered a hand to Kanae.

"Human, how about joining us? Your world is going to change. Hyogo will not stop just at this. Soon, people that you know and love will be turned into these ghosts of the past, or worse, feral creatures who couldn't think for themselves. Our goal is the extermination of all Eldrians and Eldriari. This, is the conclusion that I had reached after that time. We should not interfere with your civilization any longer. Our time had passed; it shall be kept that way."

 

[Admiral19]

Kanae wanted to help him. She really did. Aolfa's thought process was noble.

But "all Eldrians" also meant eradicating himself. It meant eradicating Haru. It meant eradicating Enjyuu...eradicating Hotaru.

"I...I can't. There are some friends I know who are Eldrians. Not to mention, I can't let you sacrifice yourself like that, not after we just met like this!"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Friends? With us Eldrians? What a kind thought," Aolfa chuckled. "I appreciate the sentiment, my child, but it is the price of progress. Every era has their own way, and it is imperative that we adhere to it. It is fine if you don't want to. You are a human, one of the people of this era. You should do what your heart tells you to do. Whatever path that you choose, I wish that you will succeed."

He pulled his hand back, but maintained his smile.

"Do not worry about the 'monsters'. My people will soon arrive to help eradicate them. Although... we have to stop Hyogo. If we can't, then this nightmare will keep perpetuating itself forever."

 

[Admiral19]

Kanae gave Aolfa a kind smile. "Right. Trust me, you've been more help than you think."

There was a lot that she had to think on now. If there was a way Kanae could help everyone, she could, but...well, what did she know of how to handle an ancient species? And then there's the Kaiserin, who's motives were still vague...

"I'm gonna try to do the best I can do for everyone. I promise."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

The aromatic veil lifted for a moment, and suddenly, they seemed to have returned to reality. Aolfa's roots and branches had disappeared, leaving only Luca Sternz standing in front of her, aloha shirt and all. "Shall we return to Gan-key then?"

He led the way with his usual nonchalant cheerfulness, toward the father-and-son pair who were arguing in the distance. Well, not really arguing... more like Akira severely ignoring Genki's overly-enthusiastic ramblings about his life in the states, which his son clearly didn't have any interest in knowing.

"Gan-key, we're done."

The moment Aolfa came back, Akira rushed over to Kanae. He looked her over from head to toe, only relaxing when he saw that nothing had happened to her.

"Have you... heard the story now?" He asked.

 

[Admiral19]

Fair enough that Akira rushed straight to her. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Luca told me everything. Once Aesir's Holders start taking us to the Kaiserin, I'll fill everyone in."

There was a lot she had to think about.

---

Rui, Aoi, and Aina stayed in the warehouse to plot their next move. They needed to get the last of those medallions, otherwise the Kaiserin would have their heads...

There was a hard knock on the metal door. "Hey! Anyone in there?! We've got an offer for you!"

Rui immediately stood to get the door; they knew that voice.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Akira and Shouji was tagging along with Kanae as her "bodyguards". Although, they were dressed too lousy to be one... but hey, at least they wouldn't lose in terms of number!

"...You're awfully quiet," Akira mumbled.

"Should I scream instead?!? Megalomaniac trying to take over the world, ancient species trying to eradicate humanity, and you knew at least the second part from the beginning?!? Hello?? Maybe give us some heads-up first?!?" Shouji was both yelling and whispering at the same time. He felt like his brain was going to explode from all the extra information they had brought in just one night. Aesir problem wasn't enough, now they had yet another one?? And he had lost Gemini, of all things! What could he even do at this point?

"Stick to the plan, Kanae. Don't provoke them needlessly," Akira whispered. "And remember, if things are looking dangerous, immediately escape. Your life is what matters the most."

 

[Admiral19]

"Understood." Kanae had to be careful...it's fine.

"Leo?!" Rui was the first person Kanae saw when the door opened. They then saw the suitcase she was holding...

"Alright," Kanae started, "You three, hear me out. I've got the medallions here—"

Aoi immediately armored up and pointed her spear. "Hand them over, then!"

"Hold on! I was actually gonna give them to you anyway, but wait!"

Kanae walked further into the warehouse. "So. I give you these. But in return, you've gotta take me straight to the Kaiserin so that I can give them to her."

Aina's eyes narrowed. "The Kaiserin has been in Montana for the past couple of days. Why do you want to go that far to see her?"

"Because I want to hear something out from her. There's a lot that I don't think she knows."

The Holders looked at each other. On one hand, Kanae could be lying...but, well, there was something about how she was talking. Severely genuine, that's what it was.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Montana? The States, again? Akira raised an eyebrow. It seemed that there was something else going on in that nation.

He walked into view, standing right beside Kanae like her personal shadow. "I'm coming with her. We're a package. Oh, don't worry about little ol' me. Aren't my Gemini is tuckered up in your hands?" Thanks to a certain someone, no less. He glanced at Shouji with contempt before moving his gaze to Aoi.

"Your Gemini? It's mine!" Shouji growled. He then looked longingly at Rui. He wanted to pull that silly kid to his side, but he knew that they can't. Not now.