1111.
The air around the incursion point.
Tokyo’s Aerial Squadron.
“Lady Chidori, the forward guard is all present.”
“Very well.”
Seeing her sister disappear instantly made Chidori curse her own shortcomings. Nevertheless, it was Chidori’s role to fill in for her sister’s duties. After parting with the other representatives of the Defense Liaison Conference, she immediately flew back to their campus and began organizing a strike force before returning to the frontlines with a selected platoon of elites. The larger deployment’s chain of command was left to her deputy, a student considered a Round Table Candidate for their ranking in the top twenty-four.
As Chidori arrived at the battlefield, she began to reminisce about the past—
“I can see Lady Sonoka is as preeminent as ever. I can hardly tell where her assault begins and where it ends—although I suppose when would be a more accurate descriptor.”
As her adjutant stated, Sonoka’s attacks were imperceptible—one could see her swing her sword yet could not place where her actual attack was. Such was the nature of the Qualidea named Eternity Manipulator, Tempus Verbatim. Shaken from her recollections, Chidori began to give orders to the elite fighters of Tokyo’s Aerial Squadron. From her peripheral vision, she singled out Yokohama’s naval deployment and Chiba’s ground deployment, using the bridge of the Shin-Sannomiya Tokyo Line as their “ground.”
As she was fighting, Sonoka felt the telltale ripples of her other half entering her Simple Domain. I see Chidori managed to rally the forces of Tokyo. “Now... I suppose that just leaves you.” Sonoka glared at the Upper Construct—or more accurately, the one dozen Upper Constructs hanging out in the sky.
“Hoo, boy, we might have to call on the Headmistress for this,” Kaoruko whistled as they sidled beside Sonoka, their Illumina bearing the same name as their epithet—Essence of Serpent—in hand.
“Twelve of them, huh? This is already nearing the scale of the Midwinter Disaster three years ago... That was certainly a dark time in my past. If only I had enough power back then...”
“Reality to eighth-grader, reality to eighth-grader. None of us had the power back then. The Headmaster—or well, he was still a student then—and the other members of the previous generation of the Round Table held their ground for us...” Ayato, with his angelic wings of shadow, hovered beside his compatriots. “But, since their graduation, it is now us with the power. Isn’t that right, Saintess-sama?”
“I do not like your tone but you indeed speak the truth...” Sonoka nodded. “In that case, let’s split the work—there’s three of us and twelve of them. What say we all take four at once?”
“Are you purposely leaving me out of the equation?” Ayato pouted.
“Leaving you out? As if Sonoka-dono would let us~ Still, with three heads here, we should be more than enough to utterly smite these things~”
Kaoruko added, “Mm, Kage-chii is correct. I doubt we’ll struggle but you can offer rearguard support if you really want to.”
“—Let’s begin.” With that, Sonoka vanished before an explosive windburst sourced from a magnificent slash followed behind the disappearing girl. “Tsk—hard.”
“Wow! This lead Upper Construct managed to survive Sono-chii’s serious cut! Only managed to get a fourth of the way through—”
“So it seems~ Let’s see, then—Third Substantiation: Le Sabre du Roi de la Lumière, Holy Sword Judgement Form.” In the air in front of him, a spatial condensation phenomenon compressed the atmosphere, igniting into a blade of hardlight; if one peered close enough, they would spy a halberd materialize first before being condensed. Via Second Substantian: Bulle Légère, he melted into light particles, shot up above, rematerialized, and performed a spinning ax-kick, before slamming the pommel of his saber of light directly into the gash opened by Sonoka’s initial strike and following up with a vertical top-down slash, which further opened up the gash two-thirds through the creature’s neck.
“Too weak!” declared Ayato as he too raced into the sky to the same airspace as Kagemori and followed up with Second Substantiation: Imitation: Ten Flowers Celestial Fall, an applied combination of Mirabelle’s gravity-type Qualidea and a certain junior student’s darkness-type Qualidea. The streak of midnight emanating from his blade silently thundered from above and finally rent the Upper Construct’s “head” from the rest of its body. Of course, this did not kill the creature as shown when the falling “head” was already attempting to reattach itself to the main body. “Seraphiel!”
“Already on it! Le Sabre du Roi de la Lumière, Holy Sword Arrowhead Form~” Kagemori shifted the form of his holy sword and transformed it into a longbow. Drawing the string back, three shafts of light formed before firing with the force of a tank cannon. Piercing the headless creature’s back, it ripped through its shell and annihilated its cores. The creature thrashed and began to fall.
From below yet another windburst erupted into being as Sonoka threw a final slash that sectioned the creature from neck stump to its tail end, bisecting the two remaining cores, which she had singled out earlier upon studying the creature’s Psionic flow spilling from its neck stump. “One down,” she said simply, as the creature’s body began to dissipate into particles while falling into the sea. Readjusting her grip on her blade—the Four Seasons, she wordlessly moved to strike another Upper Construct.
“Nice,” Kaoruko whistled. They then turned to one of the other Upper Constructs, brandishing their shamshir. “I suppose you kitties are up next~??” They opened their snake-like eyes and a flash echoed from their gaze; immediately, the Upper Constructs stiffened with their extremities beginning to morph gradually into stone yet the speed at which this was occurring dissatisfied Kaoruko. “Aww, I guess that isn’t enough to finish you. Oh well, in that case—Second Substantiation: Snakecharmer, Eighth Melody: Inland Taipan: Venom.” From their Second Substantiation, a mysterious fluid formed, slicking itself over their curved weapon. With their gaze still fixed on the transmutating Upper Construct, they moved to strike, a single pass cleanly removing one of its “arms.” Kaoruko then made a return pass, cutting off another extremity.
Kaoruko’s Qualidea—Essence of Serpent, Omniferm Serpentis—was a truly terrifying Venereal Conjuration. Their most commonly employed technique, Snakecharmer, allowed them to choose a serpent—barring fantastical ones—to imbue their weapon with. Depending on their characteristics, they gain a veritable variety of abilities. For example, their chosen snake of the inland taipan—an endemic snake of Australia—has the world’s most toxic venom; synthesizing such a “venom” with their Psions grants them a truly corrosive poison which is superbly effective against the Honkai. Where Sonoka failed to cut in one strike, Kaoruko succeeded, the venom coating their blade eroding the cut.
“Not bad, not bad at all,” applauded Kagemori. “Maybe I’ll have to get a little—” The boy cut himself off as he vanished into sparkles of light—rushing to avoid and subsequently strike down his second Upper Construct with a hail of light blades—before instantly moving to intercept an attack by a different Upper Construct that was directly aimed for Kaoruko’s unguarded back. Even with the hardlight weapon manifested with his Third Substantiation to parry the blow, however, he could only manage to hold back the strike long enough for Kaoruko to move out of range before another Upper Construct piled on. It broke through the blade of light before Kagemori could fall back and tore through his left arm entirely, followed by his left leg being caught in the resultant airblast and shredded completely. Soon, a visceral shower of ground flesh and bone sprouted from the stumps. Crimson blood flowed violently out of the wounds as he bit his lip, grunting in pain.
“Kagemori!!” Ayato yelled.
“Kuh…!” Sonoka quickly retreated from her engagement and swooped down to pick up the falling Yokohama head student representative. She grimaced upon inspecting the wounds; embedded bone fragments were tearing at the open blood vessels in addition to frayed nerves and torn muscle fibers hanging limply outside. Swallowing her bile, her eyes flashed as she recalled her clockfaces. Second Substantiation: Chronos Lock: Continuance Inversion. A sphere of stagnant time appeared with Sonoka as its core; within it, time rewound as she forcibly reverted the wounded student to a time before they were wounded.
“Pheew…sorry, Sonoka-dono— Looks like I''m in your debt again this time...”
“Ayato!”
“Right!” Ayato traded places with Sonoka and flew to the rear lines with Kagemori. “Goddammit, don’t go dying on me, asshole! At least, not before I’ve beaten the shit out of you!”
“Dying? Why, I''ve no intention~” he chuckled back through forced vigor, flexing his wrists and arms as he checked his own body condition. “Just focus on the fight ahead—I need but a moment of respite~ Your lady and companion still await you up there, no?”
“Oh, fuck off with that. You''re barely holding onto that smirk of yours — I''m getting you down there myself.”
“Haaaah… Alright, have it your way then~” As soon as they were above the field headquarters, Kagemori let go, dropping to the ground, before walking toward the medical tent (it doubled as the refreshment tent as injuries during deployments were rather rare, occurring in less than 15% of deployments).
“I swear, going so recklessly…” Ayato grumbled. He then jetted back toward the aerial battle as he once again cast Imitation: Ten Flowers Celestial Fall to finish off the Upper Construct Kagemori failed to defeat. “Still, this is strange. It seems—”
“—planned?”
“Whoa!” Ayato stopped himself from flying away as Kaoruko sidled up to him. “God, could you not sneak up on me?”
“Ehehe, sorry. Still, this many Upper Constructs coming out today, when the Defense Liaison Conference’s twelve strongest fighters are all present? I don’t fault you for thinking something’s off.”
“Well, either way, we’ll just have to cut through it,” Ayato shrugged. “Second Substantiation: Imitation: Great Phoenix Divine Punishment!” In his left hand, Ayato gathered the great flames of the phoenix borrowed from Heat Haze’s Qualidea as he flew toward Sonoka’s side. “I’m sorry, Sonoka, I had to give Kagemori a talking to.”
“I see… Fighting as if he''s got Tokiyo-san to back him up again, if I had to guess?”
“Sorry. I’ll give him a stern talking to after we’re done here.” Ayato lobbed the sphere of flames he had kept consolidated in his hand at an Upper Construct. “Detonate!” he ordered, promptly closing his hand. The ball of fire rapidly expanded, engulfing the Upper Construct in a contained explosion. “For good measure—” Charging his blade with darkness, Ayato swung, sending a massive wall of blackness towards the sphere and bisecting it. Quickly throwing out his right hand, he cast Second Substantiation: Imitation: Cuboid Gravity Well—borrowed from Mirabelle’s Qualidea, isolating the explosion within a “box” of localized gravity and preventing it from expanding toward them. “Just one left?”
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“Yes. I’ll handle it.” Ayato laughed self-deprecatingly as he immediately backed away just in time to be struck by the residual waves of Sonoka’s colossal Psionic discharge. “Third Substantiation—”
“Fuckin’ hell, where exactly does she keep such monumental Psionic reserves?” he cursed under his breath. Not including Apollyon, the Herrscher of Annihilation, Sonoka has a greater Psionic density than everyone in the top half of the Round Table combined. Just who is she?
“—Chronos Lock: Colorless Prison × Peerless Destruction.” The last Upper Construct was the largest of the twelve Upper Constructs that had appeared; if anything, judging from its Psionic circulation, Sonoka was sure it was one step shy of evolving into a Honkai Beast. They were a class of Honkai in a completely different league; the standard procedure of anti-Honkai Beast combat is to flee. Two such Honkai Beasts appeared during the Midwinter Disaster three years ago with one being destroyed by the three previous headmasters yet the damage the two immeasurable monstrosities wrought on the Defense Liaison Conference has not been repaired to this day. I cannot allow that day to repeat itself. I must annihilate this evolving monster here!
Combining two different Second Substantiations, Sonoka encased the truly gargantuan construct within a space-time barrier before pouring Psions into her beloved blade. “Farewell, you who would ascend. As long as I stand, you will not have your way. Rend!” Tremendous waves of colorless energy rippled through the air as Sonoka swung, collapsing the barrier and imparting utter ruin to the being trapped within. Upon the completion of her sword stroke, she turned around, sheathing her sword, paying no extra attention to the pitiful creature’s death throes.
Floating down to Ayato’s side, she collapses, having spent more Psions than expected. “Whoa there,” he said gently as he caught her in his embrace. “Good work, Sonoka. Let’s leave the cleanup to our classmates.”
“—Mhm.” Sonoka buried her face into Ayato’s chest as the latter pointedly ignored the tears streaming down her face. Are you watching us, Kawasaki-senpai? We now have the power. If only we had this strength back then—
───── ??☆?? ─────
5 April, Shinku 19.
0930.
“First of all, I’d like to open this meeting with a word of thanks for our three head student representatives.” Chairman Amatsuki fiddled with his wedding band as he paced back and forth across the conference room. Unlike yesterday when he and his wife, the deputy chairwoman, attended virtually (as the conference was called while they were preparing for a session of the National Diet), the couple are today attending in person. There were several rationales for this with the two main reasons being to discuss the abnormal incursion that had occurred yesterday and to place themselves in the protection of the Round Table and its twelve Herrschers as they, discounting older Arbiters such as the three current Academy headmasters, are the undisputed strongest Arbiters—nowhere is safer than being at their sides. “Were it not for your swift actions, we could have potentially faced a more disastrous repeat of three years ago.”
“No need for thanks, Chairman Amatsuki,” Sonoka stated, her rank as the highest seatholder obligating her to speak for everyone else. “It is merely our duty.”
“Mhm,” Kagemori added. “Reliving such dark days… I can’t say I’d wish it on even my greatest enemies, Chairman.”
“On that note, how are your injuries, Kagemori-kun?”
“Like they never happened,” he grinned. “Sonoka-dono does magnificent work, after all~.”
“No wonder you can’t get past your Sixth Seat—you can’t even fend for yourself,” Ayato muttered.
“Hmm? You sure you wanna repeat that, Mockingbird~?”
“Maybe I should throw you to the ground next time then, Seraphiel?”
“U-Umm! Le-Let’s not fight…” To everyone’s surprise, their most timid member raised their voice. Despite having such terrifying titles like Apollyon and Herrscher of Annihilation, the Second Seat of the Round Table was what one could call a “cinnamon roll” as she was among the gentlest girls one would ever meet. The daughter of Koujirou Tokiyo, the sole surviving business magnate and the ultimate owner of essentially every company currently in operation, Saiki Tokiyo is the Defense Liaison Conference’s richest young lady—barring the princess imperial, Lady Kanayoshi. “I-I didn’t really do anything yesterday an-and I don’t like it when we fight…”
“Well, Nacht has spoken~” Relenting with an amused clap and a smirk, Kagemori sat back down; having stood up as their exchange began heating up. “Alright, pack it up, back to the meeting everyone~”
“Haah…” Ayato shook his head and crossed his arms. “As a show of respect to the Herrscher of Annihilation, I’ll back down for today. Chairman Amatsuki, is there anything else we needed to discuss?”
“Ah, of course. Sonoka-kun, do you remember where we last left off?”
“I believe we were discussing the implementation of Qualidea Suppression Percentages for Round Table seatholders and candidates for the purposes of leveling the playing field during the Star Warrior Festivals.”
“Additionally, we did not go to vote,” Ayato supplied. “Should we put forward one?”
The chairman nodded in agreement. “All in favor of the employment of Qualidea Suppression measures during the Star Warrior Festivals?”’
Of the twelve assembled, seven voted in favor. “Well, now that’s a surprise. Didn’t think you of all people’d vote against this, Furukawa-san~”
“That’d likely be for the exact opposite reason why you voted in favor, Seraphiel.” Of the five who voted against the motion, Saori Furukawa was the highest ranked—as the Fifth Seat. “I’ll go along with the majority’s decision but that will not stop me from expressing my opinion—the best way to induce growth in our rank juniors is to place insurmountable walls in their path and have them surpass said obstacles on their own merits.”
“Mmn, to each their own~”
“I’m surprised you voted against the motion, Chidori.”
“Ye-Yes. I apologize, Aneue,” the younger Tenkawa balked. “I-I’m of the same opinion as Furukawa-san.”
“No need to be scared of expressing your own thoughts, Chidori,” the elder Tenkawa said, smiling. “In fact, I’m quite glad. Dissenting opinions is necessary to have healthy discourse. Chairman Amatsuki, I believe we have a majority.”
“Indeed we do. I’ll pass on our decision to the Star Warrior Festival Committee at a later date. For our next order of business, I’ll have the Nuclear Blademaster take it away.”
“Ugh. I can handle my cohort calling me that but could you not, Chairman? I have a proper name.” Rolling loops into her hair with her left index finger, the Ninth Seat grimaced in slight revulsion. Continuously keeping her parasol which was also her personal Second Substantiation, she straightened out her hair before patting down a few wrinkles in her school uniform, intensively modified to fit her tastes in gothic fashion. With her free hand, she fiddled with her air keyboard before projecting a display onto the large shared air window. “I suppose it would be against my blood to report this but I hardly consider myself a Higashikuni so I shall. These are an array of documents I intercepted stamped with the personal seal of the Higashikuni family’s head—that is, my dearest older brother—before they handed the imperial proxy powers to the Kuni family. It seems that being the top honcho of the imperialists has been getting to his head…”
“The late Emperor Senkou would surely weep to see his distant relatives feuding like this,” Sonoka sighed. “They have been making a few overtures in many attempts to swing the Kuni family over to the imperialists; I’ve seen the Kitashirakawa family talk about such things. These documents… Proof of bribes made to certain members of the National Diet, fraudulent contracts made to build the Higashikuni’s wealth, documents detailing personnel management and lack thereof of the Tokyo Bay Gate…”
“See, the kicker with the contracts and personnel documents is that they have the princess imperial’s heirloom seal stamped on them. At the very least, this means the princess imperial herself has made an oversight in her review of the documents.”
“No, no, in Lady Kanayoshi’s defense, those documents were worded in such a way that they can be taken as legitimate in the eyes of the uninitiated,” the chairman cut in. “She is hardly old enough to truly understand these complicated matters. Sonoka-kun, the princess imperial is around your age, yes?”
“Correct. Lady Kanayoshi is… an interesting personage and I treat her like I would my sister. I can sort of understand the problematic language but I cannot guarantee that I myself would not see and truly comprehend what is problematic until it is far too late.”
“Lady Kanayoshi is rather stubborn as well. I seem to remember that I was quite unwell the day the princess imperial reviewed these documents,” Mirabelle added. “I’m sure I told her to wait for me to feel better so I could read them over.”
“Ah, as the daughter of the respected late Ambassador, being rather well-versed in the law seems to be par for the course.” The deputy chairwoman nodded, satisfied with her conclusion. “While it certainly isn’t good the princess imperial has approved of these documents, their contents are still what they are. Could we perhaps use this as leverage for your circumstances, Higashikuni?”
“Erm, I hardly think so. I’m sure Brother has many excuses lined up. Besides, the situation I’m in isn’t that particularly drastic just yet as Brother only plans to actually wed me to his grandson once he has crowned himself Emperor. The current status quo is only possible because of Brother’s hubris.”
“If only there was someone who would take you away,” Kaoruko quipped, shooting a glance at Ayato who was immersed in the compromising documents while muttering to himself about how the princess imperial managed to miss such obvious malicious wording.
“In any case, there isn’t much we can do at the moment concerning Brother’s machinations… although I will put forth a suspicion. I might just be going loony but I feel like my brother is moving on orders… and not from a human.”
Sonoka opened her eyes, narrowing them. “—Are you suggesting the Honkai Beasts?”
The Ninth Seat met the First Seat’s gaze, refusing to back down. “Perhaps something like that. From the events of the Midwinter Disaster three years ago, we know that the Honkai Beasts can gain comprehension of our language… by consuming a human heart. Is that not how we lost Kawasaki-senpai…?”
That name sent the temperature of the conference room down at a rapid pace as the seated twelve recalled the horrid events of that day—present as they all were. The Arbiters of the previous generation (although it was hardly that long ago) were led by the current headmasters—Chiba’s Fuyuka Wakabayashi, Tokyo’s Eisen Kitashirakawa, and Yokohama’s Senri Ryuurin—although all three were students of Tokyo at the time. Their “glue” was their senior, a truly peppy woman known as the Herrscher of Inferno, Himeko Kawasaki. Himeko freely taught everyone she could get her hands on, including the current iteration of the Round Table despite their differing allegiances—the bonds they had were irreplaceable.
That day’s casualties were large but nothing hurt the survivors more than Himeko’s death. She had personally and on her lonesome fought in the rearguard, defending the students unfortunate enough to be the targets of the two Honkai Beasts present. Amused by her actions, the Honkai Beasts defeated her, torturing her to within an inch of her life as her body was torn apart. All that was left of her was her torso and even that was desecrated as the two Honkai Beasts split her heart between themselves. Sonoka could tell that everyone remembered that that was when Eisen Kitashirakawa manifested what would later be called a Fourth Substantiation. It was a peerless technique that forced the Honkai Beasts to retreat but not before using their newfound language comprehension to leave behind an eerie message: “We have come in search for the Sovereign and we will stop at nothing to find that esteemed personage.”
“Again, I may just be loony but Brother’s fixation on the princess imperial is highly suspicious, especially since she is rumored to have powers on par with our First Seat here.” Azumi fiddled with her lapis lazuli earrings as she brought out her Type 99 bolt-action rifle and laid it across her lap. To be more accurate, however, the rifle that served as her personal weapon was a fantastical bolt-action that used the Type 99 as a base—Azumi was, after all, a teenager and she loves cool (and cute) things like other teenagers her age. “I am willing to point a gun at my own brother if necessary…”
“Things have yet to escalate that far,” Sonoka assured her. “If such measures are necessary, then I will allow it; at least, according to the princess imperial, I can act as her proxy. I must say—”
“Mm, if I may be so bold—” Kagemori cut in. “—but with how things look as is, wouldn''t it be most likely that either Lady Sonoka or the princess imperial would turn out to be the ‘Sovereign’ the Honkai Beasts speak of?”
For the first time during this assembly, the infuriatingly good-looking Eleventh Seat Banri Yuizaki spoke up, “I don’t believe so but we should perhaps consider such things. For the time being—”
The Twelfth Seat Kazunari Zaizen—a handsome figure of fiery temperament—cut in, “—This isn’t the time for that. I think we could push that discussion to the next conference meeting as I don’t think the evidence given by Higashikuni to be enough to condemn the Lord Higashikuni for anything just yet.” The Tenth Seat, the soft-spoken and often silent Hajime Wakaizumi, nodded in agreement. “Hajime, you can talk, you know?”
“Le-Leave him be,” Saiki stammered. “Ha-Hajime-kun just doesn’t want to speak…”
“Well, no matter,” Chairman Amatsuki stated. “Let us return order to the conference.”
Deputy Chairwoman Tsuguko added, “We have discussed the majority of this meeting’s agenda. The last matter to attend to is the security detail for the princess imperial’s speech later today.”
Ayato leaned back in his seat, hands cupped behind his head. “Isn’t it just the usual? Simply leave it to Sonoka and be done with it.”
“Oh, but it never’s quite that simple, now is it?” Kagemori laughed. “Omnipotent as she is, you''re still sending her alone to guard the princess imperial herself, no? Have you no shame as a man, Ayato-kun~?”
“I don''t have a reason to not trust her, or do you think you can do better than the princess of time?”
“That''s not my point and you know it. You''re still ultimately relying on her alone—powerful or not, you are going to need someone else to cover her blind spots, no? Especially considering we’re talking about guarding the princess imperial here~”
“In most cases, sure but if she needs help, she’ll ask. I have trust in my partner—I wonder if you can say the same?” Ayato remarked with a small smile, pulling out a book.
“Ayato-kun, we’re still in the middle of a meeting, y’know; were I to start with my proof and examples, we’d be running overtime again~”
“Hoh? So you’re just giving up? Must be the difference between the Third and Sixth Seats as always; I do not mind the overtime.” Opening the book, he began to find a comfortable spot in his chair before investing his focus on that.
As expected, the two were off the rails yet again (at least, not resorting to combat for once) as Kagemori easily fell into Ayato’s bait and began attempting to argue his case. The other Round Table members watched on with mixed reactions; Saiki in particular seemed resigned to the usual sight. Once more stepping in, Sonoka clapped her hands. “Alright, enough, you two. If you’re going to fight, do it in the upcoming Binary Star Festival. Apologies for that, Chairman—or should I say, Prime Minister, I’m sure you yourself need to leave in a timely manner to welcome the princess imperial’s delegation.”
“Oh no, no need to stand on ceremony!” he chuckled. “I do have a very competent Deputy Prime Minister, although I indeed would agree that it is most certainly uncouth of me to leave it to him alone. Seeing as there’s no further need to deliberate, we shall commit to the standard procedure. The Herrscher of Time, the Herrscher of Corruption, and the Herrscher of Light shall once again serve as Her Highness the Princess Imperial Kanayoshi’s honor guard.”
“ “ “Yessir!” ” ”