Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Life never went the way I wished it to go.”

“What dreams did you have? Maybe it’s the people you’re around that make it hard.”

“I want to be a rockstar, play the guitar for many but, I’m being prevented from have that life.”

“No need to worry about them, keep focusing on your dream.. I’ll help you, help you smile.”

It was early morning, the lights shined through Myou’s window while she was changing. She checked herself in the mirror and flowed a hand through her jet black hair before giving herself a smile. 

“Two weeks..” She said to herself. She then looked over at a shelf that had a few pictures she had framed. Each picture featured Myou with a few band members at school, parks, ones of her own band, she also had some old ones on her desk of her with a girl with red hair. In the ones with her band, she was the guitarist while also standing in front of the mic. She grabbed her bag but she soon heard her mother yell at her. “What do you plan to do now!?” 

“I’m just going out! Just some fun!” Myou replied angrily. 

“If I see you doing anything wrong before your birthday I’ll make sure that guitar of yours is nothing!” Her mother replied.

“I’m just going to the park! That’s all!” Myou retorts. She opened her window and quickly made haste to a nearby abandoned building close to the center of town.

As Myou got closer to the site, she noticed crowds of people running away. Once even closer, dust started to blow with the wind, the buildings were destroyed and mostly reduced to rubble.

“The Noise have come!” A pedestrian cried out of fear and ran from the site, pushing Myou aside.

“H-Hey! Get back-” Myou stood up only to see the pedestrian running into a Noise, turning into dust within the span of just a couple seconds. She backed away from the Noise and looked around to see that she was surrounded, “No..” She said aloud while looking around for a possible escape point.

The Noise started to pursue Myou to which she quickly kicked off a wall and ran down the sidewalk. She held her bag with one hand while using the other to hold her shirt against her mouth and nose to prevent dust from getting into her body. She kicked off a building’s wall to boost herself in a different direction and then ran down an opposite street, she couldn’t get the chance to look back, adrenaline prevented her.

She soon ran into the streets of a nearby neighborhood. She could hear the screams of people crying for help being cut short as they turned into dust, their ashes flying with the smoke of the fire and the concrete and brick dust from houses and sidewalks. She saw more Noise appear further down the street in front of her, she huffed before letting go of her shirt and used her now free hand to hold the ground to quickly change directions, going down the yard of a nearby house.

“Get away from me!” Myou yelled out of fear while the Noise went through the opening between the fence and house. She turned back for a second, forcing the strap of her bag to slide off her arm before she threw it at the Noise. To her dismay, it did nothing to them and only phased through them like they were nothing but air. She quickly turned back around and continued running, feeling much faster now that she had rid herself of her bag.

She continued running and she could feel her heart climbing to a rate much faster than she has ever felt in her life, she could feel its beat through her chest. She soon ran back into another urban section of the city. Fires from wrecked vehicles rage on, the area already plagued with a mixture of carbon and fine debris. She continued down the streets but some Noise diverted off their path, targeting a few people unfortunate enough to be caught and exposed under debris.

Myou hid by a corner and let out a sigh of relief, feeling a sense of luck to have some respite. She then looked back to see the Noise wandering the streets in search of another human. She slid her body down the wall and sat on the concrete, slowly breathing. 

After some time a Noise peered into the alleyway from the opposite end and noticed Myou, vulnerable. The Noise made a few sounds, leading to more congregating behind it. Myou jumped back to her feet and began to slide backwards with a heavy breath.

With no other way out, Myou quickly turned around and started running down the street and into a destroyed building. Noise soon followed behind her and started destroying the ceiling in sections in front of her, forcing Myou to slow to get around the falling debris; more Noise continued to break the surrounding structure, eventually leaving the only exit through what used to be a window. You didn’t hesitate as she jumped through the window and onto a pile of glass shards. Her head turned back, Noise still in pursuit.

Without thinking, Myou pushed her hand against the ground for a faster start, her eyes flinched as she felt like her hand had been inflicted with the sting of a knife attack but she continued onwards to escape into the nearby intersection, only to see more Noise with piles of dust surrounding them.

Myou looked down and held up her hand which had a large piece of glass piercing her hand, “Why now of all times?” She asked herself.

She pulled out the shard of glass and her hand bled profusely onto the dust covered concrete. A few seconds pass and a few Noise had transported themselves upwards, shattering a piece of the building’s side and sending down a piece of debris that trapped Myou under it. She screamed out in pain as more debris landed on her that crushed both her legs and her left arm, only leaving her right arm to move but it was getting weaker as she was bleeding. She turned her head frantically, only getting to see the free end of the intersection, where she could see a little girl. Myou stared at the girl and she seemed to notice something familiar about her. Her red and white hair had caught her attention. 

“That hair.. is that really you..? “She asked herself with a worried tone in her voice, she was worried about the girl but soon, she could see the girl’s lips move and she spoke.

“Jōshō Kara Akuma no Ono tron..”

Myou watched as the girl’s body transformed, white and red armor formed around her into that of a knight’s. She held out a short-handled axe with a single blade that had a white blade and red edge. Myou was amazed by the sight and she couldn’t take her eyes off the girl clad in such mysterious tech-based armor.

“Lilian, are you sure you can handle an army of Noise this large alone? This is the strongest signal we’ve gotten from them this month. Plus we can’t watch as our surveillance seemed to have been sabotaged earlier.” Genjuro asked Lilian through a com.

“I’m sure I can handle it, besides, someone needs to save these people.” Lilian replied. She sets the axe’s handle on her left arm and armor covers it, securing it in place. She swung her arm outwards, catapulting the axe blade across the street and slashing through multiple Noise nearby a building corner, immediately turning them into dust. The axe soon drew back automatically by a cord attached to the back of the blade, anchored in the handle.

“Who are you!? Tell me!” Myou yelled at Lilian with a weak voice.

“I’m sorry but I wish not to reveal my identity for your own safety.” Lilian kneeled in front of Myou and reached her arm out. She started shaking from a profound sense of familiarity, “Please, call me The White Knight.” She then said with a gentle voice.

Lilian’s voice struck Myou as she remembered a gentle voice like that, faint memories they were, but that familiarity felt like a sense of salvation during a tough time. Her conscience held onto the details of the girl’s hair and voice, a name quickly came about.

Lilian heard some Noise behind her and she swung her body back while throwing her arm out. Her axe blade rapidly extended outwards, tearing apart any Noise in a large arc, leaving nothing but a field of dust. Her blade then retracted back into her handle before she stood back up, holding out her arm then began to speak, “I’ll be able to talk after I’m done, give me a few minutes.”

Lilian’s armor released her weapon and held it with a tight grip. “I’ll protect you but I’m not certain of what will happen in the future.” She explained, looking around and noticed more Noise had surrounded her and Myou.

“Let me.. kill some with you..” Myou begged with a weak voice contrasting a will for vengeance.

Lilian waits to answer. Noise started to charge at her and took a little amount of time to explain, “I’m sorry, but I’m one of the few who can hurt the Noise.” She swung her axe at the approaching Noise and Myou watched as the weapon cut through the Noise with such ease, why only few?

While Lilian moved her body to attack, her hair flung up to reveal a mark on the back of her neck shaped like a crescent. The mark triggered another episode of familiarity in Myou, almost as if her mind was being given hints to a full picture and she wants the answer. She grabbed onto a piece of debris and slowly lifted herself up but the weight of the rubble on top of her made it almost impossible to move her entire body. Instead, she moved a few pieces of rubble, freeing her hand to the outside.

Meanwhile, Lilian continued her massacre, hacking and slashing through any Noise that dared come close to her but the onslaught seemed endless and worse, yet the numbers grew. She took some time and looked back at Myou and the two stared at each other before Lilian started to quickly snap her fingers as if she was setting a tempo. Myou’s eyes turned to Lilian's fingers as they continued snapping, a beat already made and steady. Myou then directed her attention to Lilian’s face, only to see a smile.

“Tempo’s set..” Lilian turned back around and slid her finger against the handle of her blade and hummed. “Synth’s ready..” She then spun her axe and smirked. “Let’s dance.”

Lilian soon started singing a song before charging towards a large Noise and jumped an incredible height while dealing a swift uppercut, killing it with less effort than she did without singing. She spun around while in midair and threw her axe at another large Noise. The blade cleanly went through the body of the Noise and its blade could be heard striking the asphalt. 

Lilian’s feet hit the ground as she hit a long note and she punched a Noise away which killed it. She then lifts her head and continues singing at a quick pace while running through the army of Noise to pick up her weapon, punching any that had gotten in her way. She punched another Noise with her right fist and finally reached her weapon, she kneeled down and held her arm against the weapon, the armor automatically attaching the handle to her arm. 

Lilian then pulled her weapon from the asphalt and held a finger against the blade. The blade started to shine red before she spun her entire body in a circle while extending her blade which created a large ring around her that destroyed any Noise within its circumference and any that dared get any closer. 

Lilian stopped singing before standing back up and turned to face a group of Noise combining into a single mass that stood about a few stories tall. She turned to face Myou and smiled gently, “Hold out for another minute. Brute force will take a little more time.” 

“Li..- White Knight.. stay safe..” Myou said with a weak voice. She held her hand out and blood dripped onto the concrete.

“My safety is the least of my worries. I have a soul to protect.” Lilian replied. She spun her axe and stared at the Noise. “And I must protect a friend..” She whispered and smiled.

Lilian started running towards the giant Noise, holding her weapon hand behind her back and giving it a quick spin before following up with a swift toss upwards and towards the Noise. The axe struck the Noise’s front which staggered it without a visible scratch, meanwhile, the weapon itself landed on the ground, a small section of the blade sticking inside the asphalt.

Lilian snapped her fingers again, this time with both hands as she set a faster tempo that felt closer to an allegro. Her foot then tapped the beat in a cut time and her head glanced upwards towards her opponent.

She started singing once more and she clenched her fists before running towards her weapon while she had a chance. Upon reaching just a few feet from the weapon, she dropped to the ground, slid across the asphalt and watched above as the Noise had regained its balance and was getting ready to crush its opponent below.

Lilian held a long note as she applied extra friction with her right hand and held her left arm out towards the axe, allowing her armor to automatically connect to the handle and rescue it from its resting place. She immediately noticed the shadow around her growing exponentially larger, yet she didn’t show a sign of fear, rather she appeared to be anticipating this.

She switched notes and quickly raised her arm then shot the axe blade as the Noise lowered its foot. The blade tore through the Noise’s leg and eventually ended through what would be a joint and the sun’s light reflected off its white and red blade. The leg quickly turned into dust which staggered the Noise and caused it to struggle to stand. She held her head down as the dust rained all over her and onto the nearby sidewalks.

Lilian started to sing slower as she put herself under a ritardando, her axe followed the shift as it continued flying through air for an extended period and even above the Noise that struggled to keep its balance. After hearing the Noise stomp its foot, she swiftly transitioned into a small string of grace notes and swiftly thrust her arm down as she held another long note, this time under a fermata. Her tether cord created a descending wave that reached her axe’s blade after multiple seconds and forced it downwards at a breakneck pace. The axe started piercing through the body of the Noise, but the size of the Noise was building up enough friction to slow the blade’s speed the further it went into the Noise.

Lilian closed her eyes and switched to another note to finish her chord. She pulled the cord and the blade was forced to increase its speed, soon tearing through the entire body of the Noise and causing it to rapidly fade while her blade slammed into the street and stuck there; Lilian finished her last note after hearing the sound of the axe striking the asphalt.

Dust from the Noise soon rained and covered the streets and sidewalks with a pile forming close to Lilian where the Noise’s body once stood. Lilian thrusts her arm up, the tether forms a wave that ejects her axe blade out the asphalt, allowing the system to automatically retract the blade back to its handle.

Lilian punched her fists together and the axe soon started to automatically disassemble, forming into the gauntlets of her armor. She returned to her feet and the wind blew, blowing both her hair and the ash of both the Noise and humans in the direction of the wind.

“You’ve never fought before.. what made you change..?” Myou asked herself aloud. Her breathing started to slow as she tried to calm herself down now that she’s safe.

Lilian turned to Myou and ran to her. “Are you alright? Are you hurt badly anywhere?” She asked while slowly picking up pieces of debris and throwing them onto the streets.

“Peachy.. Just a deep cut from glass and I think both my legs are broken.. still holding on..” Myou replied with a weak voice.

“Good, when relief comes we’ll get you to the hospital. And to prepare yourself for later you will have to sign a consent form saying you won’t leak anything you have witnessed today.” Lilian explained. She threw aside more debris to fully reveal Myou’s head into the light.

Now with Myou’s head being fully revealed to Lilian, she could see her expression. Myou clearly didn’t seem joyous now that she had to sign a form. “Why the hell are you telling me this..? Why do I have to do that..?”.

“I don’t want to talk about it, for I am worried about what might happen if anything does go wrong. It’s not your fault and I don’t want you to blame yourself for it.” Lilian answered. She held a hand on Myou’s cheek and wiped off the carbon.

“I..” Myou’s voice stood still. “I.. understand.” She replied then looked up to face Lilian to see a slight smile. Despite what Lilian had said, she’s still being gentle towards Myou.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a simple signing and a promise. You can continue living normally once you fully recover.” Lilian reassured Myou and rubbed her cheek.

Myou’s cheeks started to gain a rosy blush as Lilian’s words and actions started to feel like memories slowly creeping their way back to the light. “T-Thank you.. but.. there never was a normal for me..” She replied with disbelief.

“You- we can find a way to rebuild. I’ll have some support searching the city to find any of your relatives or anyone close to you, then you can have a reunion with them.” Lilian explained with a gentle voice. She leaned closer to Myou so she was the only thing that Myou could see.

“My family wouldn’t be happy to see me even if they’re still alive, it wouldn’t help the problems I have with them.” Myou explained. More disbelief started to weigh on her shoulders and her facial expression changed to show that.

“Even then, you still have friends close to you.”

“I don’t.. not anymore”

“I had a friend years back just like you. With enough effort I managed to help them become a better person, she always told me about her dreams and how her family will never let them come true. But I could never get to see her again as I moved elsewhere. Her eyes always had a shine that I could feel whenever I sing, it even brightens my armor’s red to such a beautiful scarlet..” Lilian replied. She had a bright smile on her face.

Myou’s eyes widened from Lilian’s description of the girl. She could see Lilian’s bright periwinkle-colored eyes staring into her scarlet-colored eyes. She remembered everything that she had forsaken, she knew the girl under the armor and her expression changed. She couldn’t help but smile, giving a moment for Lilian to respond in kind.

Myou opened her mouth slightly to speak again but soon a hand gripped Lilian’s shoulder and she was suddenly pushed back with a swift force. In a quick second, a fist cleanly perforated Lilian’s stomach and the girl emitted an ear piercing scream from the unbearable pain. She quickly held her hands on her mouth, blood from her stomach splashed on the debris and all over Myou. Blood then began to leak from Lilian’s mouth as her breathing became heavier and heavier with each passing second.

“Lilian!” Myou screamed out Lilian’s name and held her hand out for her, she could only watch as blood flowed freely down Lilian’s body and formed a puddle under her feet. She looked up to see a woman with blonde hair looking down at Lilian with a fist through the girl’s stomach.

With a smirk, the woman then brought her arm forward then wrapped around Lilian’s chest and the two started flying into the air, hovering a story above the streets. 

“What.. Do you.. want from me?” Lilian said with a weak sound to her voice while blood leaked from her lips.

“The thing that makes you. You're lucky to be able to be in this form you know?” The woman said. She moved her arm up and held her index finger and thumb on Lilian’s relic, resting above her chest.

“Y-You want my Symphogear?” Lilian asked again. She slowly and shakily moved her arm to the woman’s hand and held it. “I don’t want anyone to know my identity..” She declared.

“That girl knows your identity, am I wrong?” The woman then asked.

Lilian’s eyes widened and her breathing became heavier. The woman widened her smirk to see such a reaction, almost pleasing. She wiped the blood from Lilian’s lips and stared at her hair, wiping her hand on the white streaks, making them appear blood red.

“I..” Lilian held her head down and more blood leaked out of her mouth. She could see the puddle of blood created from her spreading. She closed her eyes and started singing another song, this time in a soft voice.

“Gatrandis babel ziggurat edenal..

Emustolronzen Finé el balal zizzl..”

Myou looked up to see Lilian’s face, she lacked a smile. Lilian continued her song as blood leaked from both her stomach and mouth, the lyrics to this one she was unable to make any sense of due to Lilian’s softer tone and that each word was almost unrecognizable.

“Gatrandis babel ziggurat edenal..”

Blood droplets splashed into the puddle at a slower pace as Lilian continued her song, the lyrics getting softer and softer as she was running out of air and life to keep going.

“Emustolronzen Finé el zizzl..”

The woman pulled her arm out from Lilian’s body and quickly went away as Lilian held out one last long note of the song.

The moment Lilian closed her mouth, a large blast came from her armor and Lilian coughed up a large amount of blood. Her armor soon disappeared and her normal clothes returned before landing in the puddle of her blood and causing it to splash all over the place, including Myou’s already shocked face. Her clothes started to show a red color as they were absorbing her blood.

“Lil.. ian..” Myou reached her arm out for Lilian but only the fingertips could reach her, only being able to feel a slight touch from her now blood-soaked hair.

“I’m.. sorry, you could never say my name when I’m in that armor..” Lilian said with a weak voice. She turned her head to face Myou with a dull look in her once bright aqua eyes. She slowly reached her hand down to her hip and the sound of a rattling chain could be heard out of Myou’s sight.

“I thought you moved out of the country.. I thought I would never get to see you again..” Myou stretched her arm out as far as she could, holding her fingertips against Lilian’s head.

“I only moved North. While up there, I was found in the middle of a Noise attack. I was sent back down here but I could never find you.. no matter how much I wanted to find you..” Lilian replied. “Now that I find you again, is the day I’ll find myself in hell..” She said as she slowly raised her arm to reveal a chained necklace with a crystal fragment on it. She then sets it on the concrete in front of Myou.

“Lilian..” Myou’s voice became shaky as tears formed in her eyes.

“The light in your eyes.. dim..” Lilian slowly reached behind her head and held Myou’s hand and readied one request, “Take my relic and sing its chant whenever you’re in trouble..” 

“But what about you Lilian.. I just found you again and you’re leaving so soon.. what about the future you wanted..” Myou gripped Lilian’s hand tight.

“Myou.. you are my future.. I wished that when we were younger..” Lilian started shedding tears as well.

“Then I won’t want you to leave! Just a little longer!” Myou begged and gripped Lilian’s hand tighter.

“I’m sorry Myou..” Lilian replied with a gentle smile on her dying face.

“Why are you smiling..? There’s nothing to be like that..” Myou said while her tears became uncontrollable.

“I’m happy to see you Myou.. I missed you..” Lilian said with the last of her breath and soon her eyes stopped moving and her breathing had stopped.

“Lilian..?” Myou asked for Lilian and shook her arm, only to hear that she didn’t respond, her eyes didn’t move, and her chest didn’t move. Myou’s breathing became heavy and closed her eyes tight, holding her head down. “Lilian!” She cried out and gripped her hand tighter.

During Myou’s cries, footsteps approached the heartbroken girl. “Death is harsh, you seem to be close to her.” The person spoke loud enough for Myou to hear.

Myou looked up to see who spoke to her and noticed it was Lilian’s killer. “Who are you..?” She asked with a weak voice. She held a hand on Akuma no Ono’s chain.

The woman stood still and held a hand on her hip. “And what do you want to do with the relic?” She asked.

Myou closed her eyes tight and with a shaky voice, she started singing Akuma no Ono’s chant like she heard Lilian sing.

“J-Jōshō Kara.. Akuma no Ono..”

Before Myou could finish, she felt the woman hold a finger against her lips, “So you know a chant for it? If they know about this you’re in serious trouble.” She said with a slight smirk.

Myou lightened her grip on Akuma no Ono in compliance with her friend’s killer.

“Good. Now.” The woman turned to face the city, much of it now laid soulless. Many buildings have been wrecked beyond belief and the streets were covered in carbon. Out towards the parks and suburbs, large fires plagued many areas and more ash could be seen from the bodies of the victims and the smoke from the fires. She then turned to face the already damaged Myou, her arm was shaking as blood could be seen being spread on the concrete her hand rested on, the Symphogear’s chain too was covered in blood.

The woman moved aside the larger pieces of rubble to reveal Myou’s body to the gloomy light. The girl’s legs had bled from debris cutting her as her legs were crushed, her face was an entire mess thanks to a mix of her tears and Lilian’s blood. Parts of her torso had been cut too, her jacket and shirt were visibly torn from sharp pieces of rebar, some making cuts of varying sizes throughout. Under it her leggings were torn as well.

“Please.. just go ahead and kill me while you’re at it.. you’ve already taken everything from me.. why not erase everything about me entirely..?” Myou begged with a raspy voice.

“I see better potential from someone alive than dead.” The woman explained before picking up Myou and holding her bloody hand with a firm grip before flying away with her.

“Commander! We’ve just picked up on recent abnormalities in Akuma no Ono’s frequency!” Aoi yelled and turned in his chair to face Genjuro.

“That can only mean Lilian was interrupted while singing its chant.. get a projection of activity!” Genjuro ordered.

The team soon pulled up a projection of Akuma no Ono’s activity and there was a spike where Myou sang its song but as she never finished it, it wasn’t able to activate. The sight of the chart made Genjuro clench his fist which made everyone worry.

“Commander.. you worry about Lilian might’ve....?” Hibiki asked but couldn’t finish as Tsubasa made her look up to see Genjuro with his eyes closed.

Silence had quickly engulfed the room as everyone tried to control themselves, they had a difficult choice they had to think about as quickly as possible.

“We’ll get a recovery team going.” Tsubasa proposed.

“We can worry about her later, just Lilian. She’s one of us!” Chris added.

Genjuro nodded and lifted his head up. He held out a finger towards the city’s location. “Call the armed forces and get a team ready immediately! This recovery operation is crucial to us and humanity!” He ordered.

“Yes, commander!” The Symphogear users reply before transforming into their armors. They quickly left the base while the others called the local forces for the recovery.

Chapter Text

Upon arrival at the site, the Symphogears had to take a moment to take in the sullen atmosphere that plagued the section of the city. Tsubasa clenched her teeth, feeling a small amount of resentment towards the actions that had been taken while Hibiki and Chris needed a moment to process it.

“Split up, we’ll cover more ground this way,” Tsubasa ordered before running off to the city streets.

“She seems tense..” Hibiki noted.

“This is for Lilian after all..” Chris responded

The others ran off in groups to other sections of the city, Chris in the suburbs and Hibiki in another urban section of the city. No matter where they conducted their search, each major site just looked relatively the same aside from building count.

“Tell us if you find any other survivors, it’s desolate out here,” Tsubasa asked on a call with the others.

“Just death, few mementos from what could be lovers.” Chris replied.

“Nothing here. The Noise really did wreck havoc, yet Lilian went in alone for this many.” Hibiki added.

“Keep searching. We won’t know if anyone survived unless we look hard enough.” Tsubasa said.

Chris searched through the ruins of multiple houses, picking up mementos to understand the residents of the property and possibly their dynamic. She found signed pictures, papers, and documents, luckily many of them were still recognizable albeit a layer of carbon and ash from both smoke and humans blanketed the surface.

“For the number of people at this magnitude, something must be up if Lilian had killed them this quickly.” Chris said to herself as she walked into another house.

“The concentration of Noise was high, they might have been able to get this many people before Lilian arrived.” She thought to herself as went into a room and picked up a few pictures from a pile of broken glass. She looked around to make sure it was safe.

One picture showed a young girl with scarlet eyes and black hair sitting next to another girl with periwinkle eyes and red and white hair. The two girls were in a park and under a tree. The black-haired girl was resting her head against the other. After a while, Chris looked up from the picture and stared at the wall before looking back down at the picture. 

“Is that?” Chris said aloud to herself before taking a minute to look at the picture again. “One of those girls is Lilian from years back?” 

She quickly scoffed before collecting more mementos, she knew this house had some sort of value as they could find evidence to know more about the girl next to what they believe was a young Lilian. The room itself had more pictures of the black-haired girl, this time with more people, and all of them seemed to be carrying instruments. The girl in question had a guitar. Chris then sat in one of the corners and started another call. Luckily she got the others to respond.

“Did you find something, Chris?” Hibiki asked.

“Why do you think I’m calling!? Of course, I found something!” Chris replied furiously.

“Calm down, what did you find?” Tsubasa asked, leaning against a wall. The speaker managed to pick up the tumble of small rocks just behind her.

“I found pictures that look to be years old, many have a couple girls in them. One reminds me of Lilian.” Chris explained, looking through the photos.

“Did she have the same eye and hair colors?” Hibiki asked.

“Yes, she is also next to another girl, she had black hair and scarlet eyes.” Chris replied.

“It must be an older picture. I don’t remember seeing Lilian near anyone who looked like that.” Hibiki said.

“I hardly saw her around anyone else in general.” Tsubasa added. She kicked herself off the wall and continued walking down the streets. She hung up and armed herself if any Noise happened to be around.

Chris took the time she had to pick up whatever she had found and went off to the streets once more, looking for anything else that could potentially be useful while strolling to the site where the activity had peaked.

The others hung up as well and continued their search. Hibiki entered one of the buildings and hastily searched the intact floors. The insides were destroyed and it looked like no remains of human life could be seen but piles of dust that had never got the chance to move with the wind. Hibiki quickly exited and stopped at the nearby intersection.

“Really nothing.” She said to herself with a sigh.

With Chris, she wandered the suburban streets, covering her mouth and nose with one hand to keep the smoke and dust out of her lungs. She stepped onto the lawn of one house and noticed a black backpack on the side. She quickly looked around to make sure the area was clear before running to inspect the bag then roughly picked it up with one hand, hearing the sound of rustling papers from within. She uncovered her mouth and opened the bag’s back zipper. Within the pouch, two folders could be seen, one in a bright red and the other black, the folders looked to be destroyed, most likely caused by being trampled in a crowd of some sort. 

Chris picked up the black folder and opened it to reveal its contents were sheet music, she looked through it and noticed it had lyrics and had the parts for the electric guitar and lead vocalist. She looked further through the folder and found more pieces of the same positions, this time they had many marks throughout as normal for a musician.

Chris then picked up the red folder and noticed it was filled with school work, upon looking through it, the pages and subjects were completely unorganized. The only thing that was consistent was the name “Myou Higai” in the top left corner. Chris quickly puts everything in the bag and calls the others.

“Speak.” Tsubasa requested.

“I’ve found a crushed bag by a house, its contents are interesting.” Chris said. 

“Interesting, how?” Hibiki asked.

“Said bag belonged to a musician and student, the student in question is both a guitarist and vocalist of what I assume to be some kind of rock band from the titles alone.” Chris explained.

“Did you find the guitar?” Hibiki asked.

“If I had, it would’ve said so earlier!” Chris replied.

“If we did, it would most likely be unplayable, the frets of one are incredibly thin and its electronics will be destroyed with it.” Tsubasa added. “Anyways, keep the bag, and keep the call active if we find anything new.” She then said, resting a hand on her hip.

Tsubasa turned to see a large amount of dust and ash in the immediate area plus concrete debris with blood splattered on them. She walked closer to the debris and soon heard a sound awfully similar to that of a splash of a shallow puddle. Tsubasa raised her foot to notice she had stepped in blood. In shock she looked around to see where it led and soon noticed Lilian’s corpse, resting within a pool of her own, slowly decaying blood.

“Guys.. come here..” Tsubasa said to the others with a shaky voice before running up to Lilian’s body. The others quickly rushed to Tsubasa’s location. 

Immediately, Tsubasa noticed the hole that had perforated used to be Lilian’s stomach and tears started to rain from her face, joining the blood that had laid below. 

“Lilian!” She cried out and from the voice alone provoked the others to quicken their pace. 

Tsubasa picked up Lilian’s bloody corpse, her hands already soaked in the girl’s blood-soaked flannel.

Hibiki had arrived at the site first then Chris just a half a minute following. The two stood on both sides of Tsubasa as they tried to keep themselves together amidst the sight of their deceased comrade. It was a futile effort.

“Lilian..” Hibiki sniffled and held a hand on Lilian’s, gripping her bloody palm.

“This couldn’t be a Noise if she has damages like this.” Chris points at the hole in Lilian’s stomach.

“It’s possible but for a Noise to do that, especially through the armor is incredibly difficult.” Tsubasa replied.

Chris reached her hand out for Lilian’s right hip and only felt her leggings rather than a chain holding her relic. “She wasn’t murdered by a Noise.” She said,

“That hole through her says enough..” Hibiki noted, turning to Chris.

“You’re on the money but also, her relic is missing! The entire chain is!” Chris slammed her fist against the debris in a fit of rage.

“Look at the debris too.” Tsubasa points at the debris, blood was spotted in areas inaccessible to where Lilian had currently laid.

“Someone else was here. Our killer might’ve been the one under that rubble, but.. this doesn’t seem right.” Hibiki said and started shaking from second-guessing herself.

“We won’t know who exactly committed the murder but with what we have it’s possible it was the one who stole Akuma no Ono. But we lack any evidence and a lead, it’s the only thing we can rely on.” Tsubasa explained. She later stood up while carrying Lilian.

“We can mourn her death later, let’s bring her back to do a body scan for other damages.” Chris said, holding a hand on her hip.

“I understand loss well too, but more than a life, we lost an important aspect to our mission, but most importantly.. a friend.” Tsubasa replied before walking to the outskirts of the city. 

Chris opens the backpack and puts the pictures inside before following Tsubasa with the others.

Officials arrive shortly after in a large group, in front of them all stood Genjuro with both fists clenched under immense pressure. He noticed her niece holding Lilian’s bloody and lifeless body and held his arms out. Tsubasa looked down as she rested the girl’s body in Genjuro’s arms, he sighed from the sight while feeling the blood soak his shirt before leaking onto the ground and his shoes.

“Quite the horror show.. a painful mark indeed.” He said in a somber voice, his eyes directed at what used to be Lilian’s stomach then immediately averted his sight to see the now missing chain that held Akuma no Ono.

“Commander.” Chris held up the tattered backpack. “We might have evidence of Lilian’s murderer and the thief of Akuma no Ono.” She explained.

“We’ll talk about its contents after a scan, we’ll put up a few memories of the young star as well.” Genjuro replied. 

“Her synth’s still in her dorm if I remember, she often recorded samples.” Hibiki said.

“Well, do you have the key?” Tsubasa asked.

“I do, I just have to get it from Miku, she does sometimes visit Lilian even in the middle of her recording sessions.” Hibiki replied with a sigh.

“Miku’s basically becoming a pain for you to constantly get around.” Chris said.

“N-Not entirely! She doesn’t know about this!” Hibiki held her hands up and waved them vigorously in defense.

“Just get her synth, we can find something to do with it.” Tsubasa said while stepping between the two to break up the conversation.

Genjuro took Lilian to an ambulance and entered. He sets the young girl’s corpse in the bed, watching as a tint of red sprawled outwards from the point of contact. The girls deactivated their armor, then allowed themselves into a few of the vehicles that were brought along. After getting themselves inside and settled, the cards drove off in a small convoy with the ambulance carrying Lilian up front.

Genjuro leaned against the wall of the ambulance and stared at the girl he sacrificed. He clenched his fist and held his head down, trying to collect himself as this is the second Symphogear user he has lost, but most importantly another wonderful person with a bright future.

“I understand how it feels to watch loss, sometimes we don’t get to save them before we reach the hospital.” The medic in the passenger seat spoke up, trying to sympathize with Genjuro.

“I understand, the victims of these attacks are heartbreaking to watch but oftentimes it’s worse when these fighters are young girls willing to fight for their world.” Genjuro replied.

“You seem to take a lot of pride in these girls, they mean a lot to you don’t they?” 

“Yes, these girls have wonderful futures, their deaths only make it sadder when they haven’t made that future true.” Genjuro held a hand in his pockets and held his other hand on Lilian’s bloody head.

“What would you like us to do with the girl? First, mind telling us her name and some basic information so we can take some notes?” The medic took out a clipboard.

“We just want you to scan her body for any other damages. For information: her name is Lilian Miyazaki, 15 years of age, birthday on the 24th of March, recently aged too.” Genjuro explained.

The medic took notes and soon, silence filled the ambulance as they approached the hospital.

Elsewhere, Myou opened her eyes to find herself seemingly trapped within a dimly lit room, her clothes had mysteriously gone missing and replaced with a simple black nightgown. She tried to move her body, feeling an odd sense of tension within her and when she looked at her person- she discovered her arms and legs tied to a chair and wires were connected to her body. Without much else to do, she looked upwards, the door was ajar.

“Where.. am I?” She spoke with a weak voice.

“You’re finally up! Wonderful!” A woman’s voice could be heard from outside. The door finally opened to reveal the woman that had taken her away, she was nude and only wearing stockings, gloves, and heels.

Just the mere sight of the woman had sent plenty of intense emotions straight into Myou’s brain, but out of the ideas of insanity and creepiness, she could only settle on what could be described from onlookers as fear.

“What the hell!? Where am I!? Let me out!” Myou jumped around, immediately releasing a painful scream.

“I’ve taken you to a new home. And.. don’t move much, your body isn’t in good shape.” The woman walked closer to the girl and held a hand on her chin. 

Myou breathing started to become heavier as she stared at the woman’s eyes, she felt something wrong with her. She opened her mouth to speak but soon her mouth was covered by the woman’s palm.

“Your name’s Myou Higai, you’re 15 years old, and your birthday is on April 17. Currently you’re 165cm (5’5), and about 53kg (117lbs), slowly depressing. Should I go further?” The woman said with an ever so quiet giggle. She then leaned closer, almost like she was to bite the girl’s ear but instead whispered, “Should I talk proportions?”

Myou shook her head in a desperate attempt to release the woman and allow herself a chance to speak. Despite the attempts, whoever her captor was only kept up, moving her hand in sync with the head movement. Myou then decided on drastic measures, she immediately opened her mouth and bit the woman’s hand.

Despite the pain, the woman had allowed the retaliation to happen and only replied with a smirk. “You’re a feisty one. Well, I’ll tell you my name then. I’m known as Finé. And what I want with you, I’ve thought about it while you were unconscious.” She explained.

Myou released her jaws from Finé’s hand. She then brought her head up, her eyes widened upon meeting Finé’s, almost creepy smirk. “W-What have you been thinking of?” She asked.

“Seeing how I practically killed your family with the entire area, I want to know how your family was, you seem like a broken girl. Reminds me of when I bought Chris.” Finé moved her hand to the right and rubbed Myou’s cheek.

Myou held her head down and let out a deep sigh before looking back up to face Finé. “I never had a healthy relationship with my family.” She confessed, rather begrudgingly.

“And that’s where that girl I killed added herself to the formula?” Finé then asks with a perfectly straight face even though she admits to murder, something odd for many humans to do so.

Myou’s eyes widened from Finé’s words and started shaking while her breathing became heavier. Tears started forming in Myou’s eyes but Finé quickly wiped them away with her fingers. 

“L-Lilian changed my life for the better.. she helped see the better future.. even after she left.” Myou replied with a shaky voice once more.

“You held Lilian close to your heart didn’t you?” Finé asked and stroked Myou’s cheek with her thumb.

“Always..” Myou nodded her slightly which made Finé give off a gentle smile. Myou breathing started to calm and she stopped shaking, feeling Finé trying to ‘empathize’ with her. 

“Listen, I see you want a better life and just your expressions make that clear. If you want, I’ll become a mother to you, I’ll help take care of you and help you live your dreams.” Finé offered to the girl.

Myou stayed silent for many minutes. Her body started shaking as despite how evidently weird Finé’s mannerisms come off to be on top of her own choice of fashion in her own house, she thought about the things that could come to her future and what it might be like. She looked up at Finé and nodded her head.

“Good. Anything else you would like to ask me first?” Finé asked, moving her hand to Myou’s chin, lifting her head slightly while she leaned close.

“How did you get my name, age, and birthday?” Myou quickly asked, feeling the comfort of her new ‘mother’.

“I’ve done a small DNA scan on your blood. I have a lot of information about you thanks to that. Even better, I’ve gotten it from an easy and reliable source..- As for some of the other details..” Finé explained while slowly licking her lips.

“Why am I wearing a nightgown?” Myou asked a second question, oblivious to Finé’s implication.

“I had to clean you up. You had so much blood on you, the water and my sponge turned completely red.” Finé replied, “I don’t have many spare clothes so if you don’t want that, there isn’t much I can do..” She smirked.

“I-I’m fine actually wearing clothes at home.” Myou hastily replied, “Why are you so close to me?” She soon asked with a quiet voice.

Finé stared at Myou for a few moments before quickly snapping her head forward and landing a kiss upon the young teen’s lips. She then moved her free hand to one of Myou’s injured legs and squeezed it, forcing Myou to squeal in pain and close her eyes. The agony lasted only about a minute where Finé pulled away and gave her new ‘daughter’ a delighted smile.

Myou however looked traumatized. Her eyes were wide as she had a kiss that was opposite of how it should be, a passionate kiss had quickly turned painful, along with that it was also her first kiss that Finé had taken.

“You seem troubled, what’s wrong?” Finé asked, pretending to be oblivious to the trauma she had inflicted upon Myou.

Myou shook as she struggled to answer, tears started forming in her eyes as she now wanted to leave. Finé rubbed Myou’s head and ruffled her hair before going to a small table by the door. She picked up a remote and points it at the chair that Myou is bound too. She flipped a switch on the remote and a small pop instantly echoed within the walls, followed by a small blue light in another part of the room. Soon, Myou screamed sharply in pain inflicted from an intense amount of voltage coursing through the wires connected to her.

“How does it feel?” Finé asked with a sadistic demeanor.

“Stop it! Stop it!” Myou begged as she continued screaming in pain.

“You’re taking the voltage quite well.” Finé said before turning a small knob, turning down the voltage to a lower setting to not kill Myou. 

Finé soon went through the door and closed it while Myou continued screaming in pain, her body naturally moved violently from the electricity only made worse thanks to the pain from her injuries compounding on top of it.

At the same time, Lilian had been taken into a room in the hospital and was getting an x-ray as requested by Genjuro. The machine turned on and the scan quickly started. Tsubasa entered the room shortly after the procedure began and saw Genjuro holding a hand against the glass. She stood next to her uncle and stared at the machine with him. 

“They’ll get the images soon, we’ll look through them and see what else has happened.” Genjuro explained, trying to remain himself.

“You’re forcing yourself. I too want to push through it but..” Tsubasa replied, she held her head down as she remembered Kanade. She clenched her fist and her arm started shaking.

“You and I are trying to set an example for them. Even.. in loss.” Genjuro rests his free hand on his niece’s shoulder.

“I get that but it’s really eating me away..” Tsubasa said. She started shaking and started making Genjuro’s arms shake as well.

“I know you remember Kanade right now. You know, even without her, you’ve been. With Lilian, she holds a special place in your heart somewhere, I know that she is a special girl.” Genjuro explained while gently gripping Tsubasa’s shoulder.

“She was.. But now her relic, her killer.” Tsubasa gritted her teeth, she started shaking more violently.

“Revenge isn’t everything in the world. If we lose something, we fight for its honor. In this fight, we fight for Lilian’s honor. We fight for the honor of everyone. For her relic and killer, we won’t know until we find more, they’re cleaning the scene as we speak, the blood is confirmed to just be Lilian’s.” Genjuro replied.

The two stood for a while as the scan was wrapping up and the results were being printed, after minutes of silence, a few pictures were given to Tsubasa. Genjuro took the picture of the full-body scan and looked through it. Aside from the obvious hole, the picture had shown that Lilian sustained damage all over her body that seemed to have come from an unknown source, most of this damage coming from her chest upwards. Tsubasa inspected an enhanced image of Lilian’s head down to her upper chest, she too noticed the damage and with the closing image, more damage could be seen around the spot her Symphogear was located.

Horrified, Tsubasa quickly hands the rest of the pictures to her uncle and holds a hand on her chest. Genjuro saw his niece’s reaction to the pictures and looked through the same picture, staring at the damage in her chest. He then flipped through the papers to a closer image of Lilian’s upper chest. The damage within her chest was severe and the damage caused large amounts of bleeding from her chest up to her head, many tissues were torn completely around the area and even extending up to her throat in some areas which, parts of her head were damaged along with sections of the brain that disabled a few functions. The functions that were shut down were primarily around her eyes which caused them to turn dull and darken her vision like Kanade’s years back as Tsubasa described from talking to him about her partner’s death.

“She sang her Swan Song on top of that perforation.” Genjuro said in a still voice. His control began to falter as his fingertips applied more pressure and crumpled the edges of the picture.

Tsubasa left the room immediately after hearing Genjuro’s words and went to congregate with the rest of her team. Everyone turned to see Tsubasa with devastation on her face, her head was down and her bangs were close to her eyes. Hibiki stepped forward to try to talk to Tsubasa but was quickly pushed away before she got the chance. 

“Tsubasa!” Chris yelled, she held a hand on Hibiki’s shoulder as she called the girl's name only to see Tsubasa’s movement cease but she didn’t turn to face her team.

“Tell us what happened, that’s the most you can do. What did they find about Lilian?” Hibiki asked.

“On top of that punch to the stomach. Lilian had sung her Swan Song.” Tsubasa replied simply.

Hibiki looked down as she too remembered the day she was forced to watch Kanade’s death. She closed her eyes and shook her head to rid herself of the memory for now. She straightened herself and stared at Tsubasa.

“We’ll keep things going for them. I’m sure that’s what they want from all of us.” Hibiki said with a valiant voice while holding a hand against her chest.

“Let’s go, Hibiki. Make sure you get the synth later.” Tsubasa replied before leaving. Shortly after the others followed in her suit, leaving Hibiki in the hallway. 

“Yes.” Hibiki said after a long delay, everyone had left by then and the halls crept with silence. She left the hospital shortly after and ran towards Lilian’s dorm at her school.

Hibiki arrived at Lilian’s dorm late at night only to see Miku inside with an apron and head covering. She was in the middle of cleaning the place. Miku paused her current task after hearing the jingle of keys and turned to see Hibiki with her jacket on and standing at the open doorway.

“Hibiki? You’re back later than usual.” Miku said, picking up a small box.

“I’ve had to deal with some things after the attack. But, why are you here?” Hibiki asked, slowly closing the door. Miku walked closer to her.

“Lilian hasn’t been back in a while. She promised to let me watch a recording session after she was finished with a shopping trip but never returned.” Miku replied, oblivious to Lilian’s death. “Why are you here?” She then asked.

“I’ve come to get her synth, mind getting it?” Hibiki requested.

“It’s in her room and on its stand, all ready for her to start playing.” Miku answered.

“About that.. Miku, Lilian..” Hibiki started shaking, and tears started falling down her face.

Miku saw what happened and quickly set the box on the floor before rubbing Hibiki’s tears with her index finger. “What happened to Lilian?” She asked uneasily.

“She.. she died from a Noise attack earlier.. she went to the city that was just attacked.” Hibiki said with a shaky voice before she started crying.

“Please, Hibiki. Don’t explain any further here.” Miku replied and hugged Hibiki, allowing a moment to let her continue her breakdown.

The two continued to hold each other in an embrace, Miku kept herself consoled despite the aching in her heart meanwhile Hibiki slowly managed to regain her composure. After minutes, they walked into Lilian’s room and picked up her synth. Hibiki took it and left while Miku continued cleaning the room. As the door closed, Miku noticed a small box that had a reminder saying: “Send on April 12th.”

Miku didn’t want to look more into Lilian’s personal life but curiosity got the better of her and she opened the box to see a small stack of CD cases and a small acrylic box with a few guitar picks inside. Miku takes out the acrylic box, revealing an envelope hidden below like a treasure. Its front was face up and said: “To Myou Higai'' with a heart next to it and the date April 17th marked on it. Miku picked up the envelope and opened it to see a red happy birthday card inside it. She then opened the card and saw it had writing in it that seemed to be in Lilian’s handwriting; she started reading its contents.

“Happy 16th birthday Myou, I’m sorry I can’t see you physically but I’m happy to send these gifts to you. I know you wanted collectible guitar picks so I’ve found someone to make custom-made ones for you along with new albums from some new rock bands. I never got the chance to send you a gift and I want this to allow you to remember me and dream about our future.

-Love, Lilian Miyazaki.”

“Myou Higai? I’ll bring this to the others if they know her.” Miku said to herself. She puts everything in the box the way she found it before continuing to clean the place.

Myou’s room flashed for an instant with a blinding light. The electricity had finally shut off and Finé stepped into the room to see Myou with her head down and breathing heavily with electrical burns in the spots in contact with the wire. Tears continued to form in the girl’s eyes as the pain hadn't yet subsided and it felt like the burning will never end. Finé walked up to her new daughter and got on her knees, slowly taking off the wires from Myou’s body before untying her from the chair. Myou’s burns were now more noticeable where the wires were in direct contact with her. 

Without words, Finé helped Myou up and helped her out of the room. Myou winced with each step and she was forced to grovel or Finé would drag her along the way.

“I don’t have the casts to help, you’ll just have to live with the pain.” Finé explained before opening a door to a different room. The room had a small table in which it only had one chair along with what seemed to be more ropes around the legs to keep anyone secured.

“N-No.. not again..” Myou struggled to speak as she was dragged towards the chair and forced to sit down. She cried out in pain and shortly after, Finé tied the rope around the girl’s legs and the chair, keeping her in place.

Myou rested her head against the table and tears started forming once more, but after a while, a plate was set in front of the girl and pushed next to her- a gesture of generosity that felt hollow. Finé then left the room and quickly shut the door, leaving Myou in the room alone to eat slowly.

Finé entered a different room within her house and went onto a nearby computer. She typed “failure” next to an experiment and let out a gentle sigh. She went to a table and picked up Akuma no Ono and two small crystal shards of the same color but at varied sizes. 

“Thousands of simulations and when I get my hands on the real thing, it’ll still take hundreds more. The method of fixing them in this state is just a tedious process, but it can be done, the shape it’s in, however.. that’ll be a new story. You really have made a truly complex modification to the relic, my friend.” She said to herself before going back to the computer and starting another simulation. She spent hours running simulation after simulation, the failures quickly adding up as she was losing more methods to be able to repair just even a small fragment of Akuma no Ono. She looked at the date and noticed it was April 3rd, just 2 weeks before Myou’s 16th birthday. With this in mind, Finé had set herself a deadline to find a successful test and repair even a small amount of Akuma no Ono in its current state: April 16th.

Chapter Text

Throughout the night, Finé continued her tests with the fleeting hope of a successful run, only staying alive through sheer determination, or possibly delusion. Myou finished her food after almost an hour of slow eating and pain in her jaw. Her food had gotten cold by then but she didn’t care about taste or temperature, she just wanted to eat something as she hadn't eaten anything for most of the day. 

For hours, Finé continued endlessly with a seemingly never ending cycle of running tests that ended up in failure and without her realizing, it had turned midnight. Myou kept herself near the table, lacking the strength or even the willpower itself to even attempt to move her restrained body about. Instead, she had opted to simply wait about in the deafening silence, one so loud that she could hear the natural functions of her body ringing in her eardrums. It was already becoming too much to bear

To break the silence, Myou slammed her head against the table, she induced enough force into the surface that the fork laying on her plate had jumped upwards just a few millimeters and crashed back onto the ceramic surface. A gentle ring hummed from the point of contact, she could find it somewhat pleasant, especially after hearing so many screams and cries of her own pain and suffering.

Myou sat herself back up after a while and the creaking of the wooden chair filled the silent room. She stared at the wall and soon, she started singing a song to quell the silence. 

“Silent tears fill the trail, the hollow leaves blow in the breeze..”

“Silent tears fill the night, the empty room with lack of light..”

“Silent tears in the lake, dissipated like the crowd..”

“Oh how we are alone, yearning for a burning hope to smile once more..”

Her song was somber as she couldn’t find a way to make a bright one or even think about one in the state she’s in. Tears soon formed in her eyes, pooling in the corners and quickly falling down her cheek. Yet, she kept going despite that.

The longer she cried and sang, her voice had gotten worse in its tone and control. When at her wits end, she had eventually fallen asleep with her head on the table while Finé had forgotten Myou for the night, leaving her to rest with nothing but the cold as a blanket.

The sun’s  light pierced the windows of Finé’s house the next morning. Finé walked in to see Myou still asleep on the table. She woke the girl and was greeted to a harsh groan,  exhibiting a headache evident from attempting to use the table as a pillow. Finé got on her knees and started untying Myou’s legs from the table.

“What else do you plan with me?” Myou asked with a tired voice. 

“I plan to help you become better, you want to push through your friend’s passing right?” Finé asked, holding Myou’s head against her’s.

“I just want to forget witnessing you killing her.” Myou replied, speaking into Finé’s hair.

“That’ll do, as some people say: ‘It’s easier to form a blank canvas to whatever you wish’. And you my dear Myou, are a blank canvas.” Finé caressed Myou’s left cheek.

“You care about my dream..?” Myou asked, tears formed in her eyes.

“Of course, if you just follow my command I’ll make sure you’ll become a newer person.” Finé replied, holding Myou’s hand before standing up with the young girl.

Myou winced as she stood and leaned into Finé’s shoulder for support. Finé smiled gently from the feeling of Myou’s weight against her. She walked the girl into an open room with a large table with only two chairs on each end. Two rows of utensils could be seen on both ends along with a pair of wind glasses to accompany. The two on one side were filled with water, while the other had one filled with red wine and water each. Two silver placemats were rolled out between the utensils. Next to the middle of the table laid two plates with omelets resting on the top rack of a serving cart.

Finé walked Myou to the end with the two wine glasses filled with water. She pulls back the chair and gently sits the girl down.

“Why did you bring me here?” Myou asked, holding her hands on her lap.

“To give you a proper breakfast, I couldn’t make anything properly due to the rush I was in.” Finé replied. Pushing the cart to Myou’s seat and setting one plate on a velvet placemat.

“Please, eat. You have a lot ahead of you.” She said before pushing the cart to her side and serving herself.

Myou slowly picked up her knife and stared at her food for a while. Over time, she could hear the sound of metal hitting ceramic from the other side of the table as Finé cut through her omelet. She picked up her fork and started cutting small slices of the food and slowly eating them. The fluffy and partially liquid eggs only made Myou react with a sense of disdain towards the dish, like many, a different style suited her. She lets out an audible sigh as she continues eating, only doing this despite her wishes to not make Finé angry.

“I heard that, is something wrong with the food?” Finé asked. She picked up her wine filled glass and took a small sip from it.

“I’m not a fan of omelets.” Myou replied with a quiet voice.

“I see, I’ll keep note of it then. Just live with it and continue eating.” Finé replied, swirling the remaining wine in its glass. “You want to try some? Maybe it’ll help numb the pain.” She then offered.

Myou were hesitant, she and her family had never steered close to alcohol so the request to drink at her age was something incredibly foreign. She took another bite of her omelet and looked up to face Finé to give a nervous reply, “Sure.”

“Well then.” Finé said before finishing her food and setting the utensils on the plate. She then pushed back her seat and picked up the wine filled glass. She gave a gentle smirk, “Finish then I’ll give you some.” 

Myou nodded and she soon started stuffing her face with the rest of her food and quickly swallowing in order to spend as little time with it as she could. She then started coughing violently followed by heavy breathing as her body struggled to get some much needed air. Finé immediately placed her glass down then began to rub Myou’s back, giving her a moment to settle herself.

“Don’t eat too quickly, you’ll choke with your physical state.” Finé said, getting on her knees to get face level with Myou.

“S-Sorry, Finé.” Myou struggled to speak and she soon started coughing again. 

Finé picked up a glass of water and leaned Myou back in the seat. She then rested the lip of the glass against Myou’s lips and tilted it slightly upwards, allowing water to slowly flow into Myou’s mouth to which she quickly swallowed.

“Just keep drinking and it’ll clear soon, and next time, take it slow. I’m not going to punish you, only take care of you and learn from you.” Finé said just as the contents of the glass had been emptied into Myou’s mouth. 

Myou swallowed the rest of the water, her breathing gradually returned to a steady pattern and she took a few deep breaths to settle. Finé smiled then set the wine-filled glass in front of Myou like it were a reward to be given out. 

Myou slowly reached out for the glass and she felt her body shake in nerve and fear. Her fingertips gently grasp the neck of the glass, her shaking caused the liquid to ripple and the base tapped against the table. She closed her eyes tight and let out a deep breath before gripping the glass with her entire hand and slowly raised it to her lips. She started shaking once more but with a quick motion, she drank the rest of the wine and swallowed it down within a single moment. 

Finé smiled from the sight but Myou quickly held her other hand against her mouth and started gagging. The dry taste of the alcohol left a revolting presence within Myou’s mouth and it had to be expelled, and soon.

“I see you don’t like it.” Finé rubbed Myou’s head while taking the glass from her hands. She picked up the empty plate and other glass from Myou’s side and placed them on the cart before doing the same with her side. Finé pushed the cart to a different room while Myou continued gagging from the alcohol.

Myou picked up her other glass of water and quickly drank all of it to wash out the alcohol taste from her mouth. She then leaned back in her seat and sighed while Finé left to do the dishes. Myou sat in silence and stared at the back wall of the dining room. She could feel something weighing on her neck and preventing her from moving her head.

Minutes passed and Finé came up behind Myou, placing one hand shoulder and pushing her chair back with the. Without resisting, Myou was pulled out of her seat by Finé and immediately dragged outside the dining room and across the halls, eventually leading to another large room. A large parrilla laid in the center and a bed of nails next to it. Large battery-like structures were placed on the sides, followed by the switch next to the main portion of the device. 

The parrilla itself hald a series of wires connecting to four ends made of leather, one on the bottom and upper sections in a symmetrical pattern. Each piece looked like they could fit a human’s limb within them. 

Finé dragged Myou up the steps closer to the parrilla and soon picked her up, resting her right arm in one of the ends. She firmly pulled its strap, locking Myou’s arm into place, she then continued the process this time with her left. Myou squirmed slightly as the straps securing her arms were too tight but it didn’t seem to get into Finé’s head as she simply continued on, securing Myou’s legs to the device.

“Now that you’re set. How does it feel?” Finé asked, walking to another section of the room.

“It’s.. cold.. uncomfortable.” Myou replied, holding her head down.

“It’s only your first time in that, but soon it’ll become natural. Chris had to go through the same as you did.” Finé replied, picking up a knife and walking to Myou.

“Who’s Chris? You talked about her multiple times and never said anything else.” Myou said, keeping what little of her back she could still move against the back of the parrilla.

“Oh, Chris won’t be anything to worry about, for now.” Finé answered. She held the knife against the dress section of Myou’s nightgown and started cutting the fabric.

“For now?” Myou helplessly watched as Finé tore off part of her dress and threw it aside.

“I have plans for you but I’ll have to work on a few things.” Finé walked towards the switch and pulled it.

Power instantly cycled through the batteries and Myou started screaming violently and sparks could be seen coming from her body. Her body convulsed violently as the voltage being discharged into her body was much higher than when she was bound to the chair. 

Finé only smiled as she watched Myou scream and cry in pain, such a sight reminded her of when she did the same to Chris. Finé pulled the switch again after a while and the machine had shut down, leaving Myou breathing heavily as if she were exhausted. Tears started forming in Myou’s eyes and fell to the floor. 

Finé walked up to the now distressed Myou and rested her head against the girl’s arm while holding a hand on her left cheek before giving a small talk, “I’ll do what I can to make your dream come true, but I’ll have to make you resilient to pain.” 

“By electrocuting me..?” Myou asked with a shaky voice.

“Your body will endure the pain with time, just know that this is how I’ll help make you stronger, plus one other thing.” Finé answered.

“That is?” Myou closed her eyes and her breathing started to steady.

“It’ll be a surprise, I’ll give it to you on your 16th birthday, and luckily it’s in 13 days.” Finé answered again, rubbing her thumb against Myou’s left eye and cleaning the tears.

“I don’t even want to celebrate my birthday if you’re going to do this to me.” Myou said. She forcefully moved her head aside and pushed Finé’s arm away.

“Even then, it’s a special day for you. A present is the least I can give.” Finé replied, lowering her hand to her side, “You wouldn’t mind that would you?” She lifted herself up and pushed Myou’s head to rest against hers.

“What will it be..?” Myou asked, moving her head to face Finé.

“That’ll be a surprise.” Finé replied, rubbing a finger against Myou’s chin. She lowered her hand after a while and walked towards the control before flipping the switch once more and electrocuting Myou once more.

Myou’s head arched back from the and screamed, her body started convulsing violently once more. She threw her body around as natural with unbearable pain and her screams soon turned to cries which only made Finé smile once more from the view. After a while, Finé deactivated the parrilla once more and Myou’s body went limp and she could be heard crying. Finé walked back to Myou and started freeing the girl from her prison, first releasing her legs before wrapping her arm around Myou as she released her arms afterwards. 

Myou’s body fell onto Finé as she was released before she was lowered to her feet. She winced the moment her feet hit the floor and she gripped Finé’s arms tight to act as support.

“I’ll have to take care of business. I’ll let you stay in a room of your own and I’ll give you lunch before I leave.” Finé explained before walking to an empty room close to the dining room, she dragged Myou along the way. 

Finé opened the door to Myou’s new room and it only had a bed in the corner and a small table not too far away, the walls were painted a similar color to the rest of the house. Finé walked Myou inside and sat the girl in bed before getting on the floor and reaching under the bed. Myou could hear the sound of a chain rattling from under the bed and backed up until her back reached the wall, afraid of Finé’s next plans as she worried of another form of electrocution. 

Finé lifted herself and stood straight, in her right hand she held a chain, the end consisted of a large circle while the chain links extended about 6 feet. She then grabbed Myou’s arm and quickly tugged her close, she then opened the chain’s end and secured it around the girl’s neck before taking the end of the chain links and connecting them to a ring screwed into the ceiling.

“I’ll make some food before I leave.” Finé said before leaving the room and quickly closing the door behind her.

Myou sat in the bed for nearly an hour as Finé worked on the food. She played around with the chain connected to her neck as she felt uncomfortable within it and when kept in it for long enough, she’ll definitely get a rash from it.

The silence swiftly became overwhelming and the sound of chains wouldn’t help at all. She immediately began to think about other things to occupy her mind. From it, she remembered reading some prison break stories and the thought made her question if she could do the same just like them. Even then, the ones who broke out had an idea of what they’ll do in the open world, Myou on the other hand had nothing, nothing to fight for, nothing left to live for. Her destiny, dreams had been held in limbo or even torn to null and void by Finé’s two hands.

Myou laid down and stared at the nearby wall but shortly after, Finé returned with a small stack of bento boxes in her hands. 

“I had to make more than expected as I’ll be gone for a while. Hopefully I’ll be back by dinner.” Finé said, setting the food on the table and rubbing Myou’s shoulder. “Take care of yourself now.” She soon left Myou alone.

Myou crawled towards the end of her bed, her palms laid against the frame and she returned herself back to her feet. She winced from the feeling and clenched her teeth as all she could do was push it off while staggering towards the table and opening one of the boxes within the stack. The box had onigiri inside along with a few sides being a few cherry tomatoes and fruits. She then opened a second box to see a small pile of rice with a small container of soy sauce and a few strips of beef plus chopsticks next to it. Upon opening the third box, she saw it was specially made as all the partitions that made a traditional bento box were removed. Inside the box only had a few small bottles of water. Myou closed the boxes and sat on the ground, resting her back against the wall.

Hours of silence and solitude pass by and Myou had already eaten everything in the boxes and a small mess of rice covered both the table top and Myou’s lips and cheeks, by that time, Finé had returned and opened the door to see the messy state Myou had left herself in.

“You’ve gotten pretty hungry to have a mess like that, didn’t you?” Finé asked.

“I’m.. sorry..” Myou apologized.

“Be careful to not have this happen too often.” Finé said, kneeling in front of Myou and picking the rice that had stuck to the girl’s face. 

“A-Alright.” Myou said before feeling Finé undoing the chain around her neck. 

“It’s late, so I’ll get dinner ready but time for one thing.” Finé said before dragging Myou back to the parrilla and like last time, she electrocuted Myou a few times for her own pleasure.

Myou screamed as Finé flipped the switch again and again going through multiple short bursts of high electricity. After a while of finding satisfaction in such anguish, Finé released her grip from the switch and walked up to Myou, holding a hand on her cheek. She wiped Myou’s tears with her thumb before leaving her in the parrilla while she prepared dinner.

Myou’s eyes were barely open as she struggled to see any hope for herself. She felt the chain from her neck connecting to more sections of her body, feeling like another one has weighed her right arm down while the one on her neck became heavier. She had no way to fight these chains, no weapon to look for, nor a soul to help her alleviate the nightmare that had consumed her life. Like many who went through torture and suffering, no matter what kind, she sung a song but her shaky voice made it nearly impossible to form a single phrase. 

Myou continued trying to bring her voice to at least let out one note, her attempts even led her to forcing herself, but all of it had been futile. Her vocal chords had been worn out by her cries and her will and emotions shattered by her recent trauma. More tears formed in her eyes as she kept her head down, silent while she waited for Finé, knowing she had only one choice: to be tortured by Finé until she had been let go. Forced to conform to Finé’s wishes no matter how cruel that sounded to her. Now, she only wished her surprise on her 16th birthday, is her freedom.

Finé returned to Myou after a little over half an hour. She had an apron covered in flour and panko bread crumbs resting on her bare shoulder. She walked up to the parrilla and rubbed Myou’s forehead before stepping aside and gripping the trigger.

“N-No.. not again-” Myou begged before Finé pulled the trigger and she let out another sharp cry in pain.

“I just had to make sure you were awake, dinner’s ready.” Finé said, flipping the switch back up and the power ceased.

“Y-Yes.” Myou replied under her cries.

“Good, I think you might like something fried tonight.” Finé said, releasing her grip from the switch and walked up to Myou, releasing her from the contraption.

Myou remained silent as she fell into Finé’s arms and later returned to her feet. She winced once more thanks to the pressure but her body was never given the chance to settle as she was dragged away from the parrilla towards the dining room where the table was already set. Both sides held a plate of sliced chicken breaded in panko topped with some sauce, all on top of a bed of rice. Next to both plates were the usual silverware and two wine glasses like before, but both sides had one filled with water and another being filled with red wine. Nothing fancy but comforting enough that it seemed to bring out a smile from Myou. Finé sat the girl down who immediately started eating the moment she grabbed her utensils.

“Slowly, don’t want to act like an animal.” Finé condemned Myou while walking towards her side and sitting down.

Myou set her fork down and took a sip of her water before turning her head to face Finé to mumble, “Yes..” 

Finé picked up her wine filled glass and took a sip before she carried onto eating along with Myou. Finé had eaten at a quicker pace than she did at breakfast. Myou quickly noted the speed her captor was eating at but assumed that it was Finé wanting to get to bed early as it was already late. 

With only half her rice remaining Finé had declared herself finished for the night as she picked up her water glass and drank it all. By that time, Myou had finished her food and her water, not touching the wine as it had sat where it was placed, undisturbed. Finé stood up and walked towards Myou, pulling her seat back and standing her up. She then wiped Myou’s face clean of any rice grains that had stuck before walking her back to her room to lay her down. Not one word was spoken.

After Finé got Myou in bed, she went to clean the table, placing the empty plates and glasses into a small pile and putting them away for later. She then came back and poured the wine left in Myou’s glass into her own before setting the emptied glass with the others. Once finished, she grabbed her plate of leftovers and glass and exited from the dining room, down the halls of her mansion. 

She stopped at the end of the hall and rested the plate on her arm before opening the door to a room housing multiple computers. She sat down and continued her dinner with one hand while controlling the mouse with her other. The experiments to try  and fix even the smallest shard of Akuma no Ono had continued and even after tens of tests, nothing seemed to bring any ounce of success, again. After a while, she put the plate aside and picked up the nearby phone, dialing a number that appeared to hail from the United States.

“Yes?” A male scientist picked.

“I think you know why I’m calling..” Finé replied.

“You have news about relics, don’t you?” He asked.

“I wish, but all I wanted to thank you for what you’ve done to get a little something to Japan.” Finé chirped. She picked up Akuma no Ono which was next to a bag full of blood.

“Now you finally thank me for Akuma no Ono, you’ve studied it for as long as you have and waited until now, it’s over two years and you now thank me?” He retorts

“You and I share the same ideal for Akuma no Ono. Thanks to you I managed to get all of it in my hands and make the pendant how I wished. But, you know the problems now. Sadly the damage and how many shards I have make it increasingly difficult to repair the full thing, just getting a single shard in is hard enough. The thing has been mistreated to the point it’s a pain in the ass to fix, yet we were lucky enough to have someone be able to even use it in the state we had it in.” Finé performed yet another test, luckily she actually made progress. She jumped up from excitement and slammed her hand against the table. “And progress is already hitting a breakthrough!”

“How much of it?” He asked.

“The entire thing, but I have other ideas for the final shard, if I’m short on time that is or if I choose to, but this.. rig has adapted to the relic itself and is becoming hard to remove or even bypass.” Finé explained.

“Anything to help a mad woman.”

“If you were here in Japan, I would strangle you.”

“Alright, alright! Just calm down and continue, I’ll continue working on my end. But who’s the next candidate?”

“I’ve already gotten my next candidate.”

“I thought you had the one girl you bought. What happened to her?” 

“Chris? She has no purpose in my life anymore, so I had to go hunting for a new one.” Finé replied.

“You bought a new girl?”

“No, no. Found one already broken at a disaster site. She seemed to know the previous user well.” Finé explained.

“A disaster you’ve caused to gain the relic?”

“For a scientist, you asked a bunch of ridiculous questions. You know about me well and know what I can do.” Finé’s tone turned harsh.

“Just give me some information, so I could learn about her.”

“Alright then.” Finé accepts and rests her legs on the table. “Her name is Myou Higai, 15 years old and turning 16 on the 17th. She knows the previous Akuma no Ono wielder quite well, named Lilian Miyazaki.” She explained, pulling up blood tests and the information on both Lilian and Myou, “What I do notice, they do share compatibility of antibodies within their blood.”

“Why do I need to know this?” 

“The larger shard I can use to repair Akuma no Ono. But if I choose to, I’ll just have to get that shard in her, although it’ll be a debate for myself.” Finé explained, picking up the blood bag and shining a light on it, on it was a label that had the name “Miyazaki” written on it.

“You’ll always be known to be cruel.” He said, leaning against his desk.

“I have my ways, and my ways find me joy. I’m not the same woman from years back.” Finé explained. She set the bag down and picked up a shard of Akuma no Ono.

“You set a different level for people in Japan with your ways.” He said, trying to make it sound like a compliment. 

“Yet your government can’t seem to shut the hell up. We’re just lucky that we could get Akuma no Ono from your facility safely.”

“I have my ways around it like you have your ways to study your relic.”

“Like you guys keep leaking some of my secrets.” Finé growled.

“Listen, we’ve done what we could for studying the relic, once sent to you it managed to work.” “It’s already hard enough to get the two of us to cooperate when our governments are the way they are. These relics are meant to be kept secret yet you guys keep trying to get the ones the current Symphogear users wield, along with the ones we’re studying here in Japan.”

“I can’t help that the politicians can’t do things well when it comes to keeping this stuff secret.”

“Say that to the Laotian government when they found a shard, like vultures, taking it even with backlash. Yet a scientist like you can do so much more out of his home, you know that?” “I do what I like to do, I just have an interest in these relics, no politicians. I don’t want to be caught up in their controversial gaining of Akuma no Ono from Laos.”

“I understand. We’ll talk later, I have some work to focus on.” Finé hung up. She tossed her phone aside and groaned.

“Damn Americans with their obsessions and ways, disgusting. I should’ve just given Morozov a call, see how long she is after all this time.” She picked up Solomon’s Cane kept on a small stand. She gripped the relic tight and her arm started shaking from anger. After a small bout with herself, she released a deep breath to put herself to ease, set the relic back down, and continued her work throughout the night.

Around the same time, a black fabric case was set on the table in front of Genjuro. Tsubasa and Chris stood up to inspect the case’s exterior, it appeared to be in the shape of a guitar case and quite well intact too. Tsubasa dragged the case in front of her person then began to work the zipper with an extreme amount of caution in case something dangerous was left behind. 

After pushing the zipper to the end, she slowly opened the case to reveal a luckily perfectly intact electric guitar with a black and red body, the bridge having a still shiny silver finish to it, the knobs, pickups along with the fretboard were all white and no paint was scratched off. Hibiki stepped up to the others and picked up the guitar, her eyes widened from the surprising weight of the body.

“Careful, Hibiki.” Tsubasa said, taking the guitar from Hibiki’s hands. 

“That thing’s a beauty, whoever owns it knows how to keep it looking like it was fresh from the store.” Genjuro said with a smile.

“Where was it?” Chris asked, looking at the agent.

“It was reportedly found in an abandoned house that had been destroyed during the Noise attack. We could not make out the family name of the owners, however. As for the case, it was placed under a bed, lucky it was unscathed.” The agent explained.

“I swear to god if it was in one of those houses I searched..” Chris growled.

“Possibly.” Hibiki replied rather awkwardly.

.“Let me see that.” Chris demanded, snatching the guitar from Tsubasa’s hands.

The girls looked at the guitar closer and noticed a signature was etched into the back of the head marked spelling the word “heart” in katakana. Chris lifted the instrument to inspect the instrument further for more clues of the potential owner but came up short. She sighed gently before handing the instrument back to Tsubasa before going to a different room.

“Where are you going?” Genjuro asked.

“We might have a greater lead.” Chris replied before stepping into a nearby office. She walked back out with Myou’s backpack she had found earlier.

“Are you saying?” Hibiki asked.

“If we had found music belonging to a guitarist and we found a guitar. Now this might be a stretch but I believe that guitar belongs to this Myou Higai.” Chris explained, taking out the folders she had found.

“An instrumentalist missing her music and instrument isn’t a good thing. Let me see.” Tsubasa requested, holding a hand out.

Chris quickly held out the black folder to Tsubasa before digging back into the backpack. Tsubasa opened the folder and inspected the sheet music held within, immediately taking note of the parts which were marked for the electric guitar and lead vocalist. She pulled out one sheet for further inspection. There, she noticed the notes for both the guitar and vocals had been written on the same bar, cue notes marked all over the measures marked the lyrics which were marked below while the larger notes marked the guitar. The further Tsubasa looked through the song she found a solo section for the guitar that lacked lyrics. The way such a simple piece for two parts had been seemingly combined into one put a smile on Tsubasa's face.

“Did something catch your eye, Tsubasa?” Hibiki asked.

“I can tell from the structure this is a rock song. Although the way this is written is heavily unorthodox due to having two entirely different parts, most likely to save paper. Sadly we’re all vocalists here with almost no experience in the guitar.” Tsubasa replied. 

“Rock music has an interesting place in history.” Genjuro added, holding a hand on his side.

“It does.” Chris adds.

“Do you know how to play the guitar, commander?” Hibiki asked once more.

“I enjoy music more than I play it. These hands make it difficult to keep a “secure” grip on the instrument without breaking it.” Genjuro replied.

“I might study these lyrics, even if they’re.. harsh I could say.” Tsubasa said.

“Songs classified as ‘rock’ are often stereotyped for their harsher and more violent styles. But that’s emotion being burned into the piece.” Genjuro replied once more, holding his fist up and clenching it. He turned his head to see Chris holding a hand on her hip and nodding in agreement.

“It’s not your style either isn’t it Tsubasa?” Hibiki asked, holding her hand against the open case.

“It’s an unusual style for me but, with enough work I might be able to adapt these to a new style.” Tsubasa replied.

“Not all rock artists are aggressive, not all rock songs are meant to be aggressive. Music is based on emotions as you know, rock still fits that definition.” Genjuro explained, “Sadly I don’t have any albums to play for you at this very moment.”

“Maybe there’s a possibility we’ll be able to find the owner. If they’re still alive they might miss their instrument a lot.” Hibiki suggested.

“We’ll study these more tomorrow. You girls need rest, I’ll take care of the instrument.” Genjuro said before dismissing everyone. He took the guitar from his niece’s hand and gently placed it in its case. He then lowered the top and sealed the case before leaving himself for the night along with the guitar in hand.

As the days pass, the torture Finé committed to Myou had become a routine. Myou had been forced to adopt this into her now “normal life” with Finé after just a day or two of it continuing.

Morning comes and Finé electrocutes her a few times before taking her to breakfast. After that came another few rounds of electrocution before Myou was left in her room for the day with 3 bento boxes on the table, if she were lucky she was given 4, the fourth having either a second main dish or even a small dessert which were often small fruit dishes or a few dango sticks. While Myou had time alone, she often paced around part of her bed’s perimeter to try to gain a tolerance for the pain in her legs before going to the table which had her food and she quickly ate it all, often finishing within a few minutes. 

Whenever Finé had returned, depending on the time, she would often find other ways to torture Myou, most notably by physical assault via whips made using her magic. She would often use the whips on Myou’s legs and stomach which caused serious damage from the incredibly strong whips striking bare skin. If Myou ever tried fighting back, she either got a knee to her stomach followed by an incredibly harsh beating or dragged back to the parrilla with a whip made from her magic that was wrapped around her neck only to be electrocuted as punishment. Other things Finé did was emotionally traumatize Myou through using Solomon’s Cane to summon Noise around her and make her cry in fear for however long they were around before eventually disappearing on Finé’s command. 

The nights were normal with Finé electrocuting Myou a few times before taking her to eat dinner and once the two were done, Myou was dragged back to her room for bed while Finé went to continue her testing. The process soon turned into a cyclical chain of events as the days turned into the first week. It was the 10th, only a week before Myou’s 16th birthday and during the time, Finé had been clawing her way closer to being able to repair just the small shard she had of Akuma no Ono.

On the 12th, Finé went through her normal day but during the night while performing even more tests like normal until one test result showed what she’s been wanting for as long as she had been testing. A successful test at last. 

Immediately, she grabbed the shards she’d plan to use and started working on the procedure. As she worked on the repair process of Akuma no Ono, she turned to face the second shard and began thinking about Hibiki and Gungnir. She started to question if she should start the same experiment without completing the first. Everything to fix Akuma no Ono had already been set in motion but she had the fusion experiment still running through her mind. 

“I won’t..” Finé shook away the thought and simply continued on with the experiment as originally planned, “Especially not her work..” 

Miku entered her dorm shortly after visiting Lilian’s once more. She held the box she had found within her grasp while pondering just how to send it to Myou like the letter on the inside had said. Hibiki turned her head to face Miku and immediately her eyes were on the box.

“Where did you find that, Miku?” Hibiki asked, walking closer to her friend.

“I found it in Lilian’s dorm, I didn’t want to do much snooping but I found it was a gift for a friend, named Myou Higai.” Miku replied.

Hibiki’s eyes widened from hearing Myou’s name and she immediately began to think, “She knows the owner of those music sheets? I don’t remember her mentioning a name like that at all to Genjuro or Sakurai..”

Miku notices Hibiki’s expression and immediately sets the box down, bringing a hand up to gently grasp Hibiki’s shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“I was just wondering how we will get it to the girl if we don’t know much about her or her whereabouts.” Hibiki replied.

“That’s a good thought, maybe we can try talking to anyone who might have known her?” Miku suggested.

“Good! You can do that, I might know someone who could figure anything out, but I’ll need the box.” Hibiki replied, picking up the box and gently resting it against her chest.

The two nod before rushing out, Miku going around the dormitory while Hibiki runs to headquarters to report.

Upon taking the elevator down. Hibiki quickly opened the door and held out the box. “Genjuro! I found some more leads!” She exclaimed.

“A box?” Tsubasa asked, skeptical. She closed the music folder and placed it aside

“It’s a gift that Lilian had planned for the suspect.” Hibiki answered. She walked up to a nearby table and gently placed the box on the surface.

Tsubasa stood up and went to inspect the box, immediately taking notice of the reminder date, April 12th, “That’s today’s date.”

Hibiki looked at the date and nodded in agreement. She opened the box to see the acrylic box holding the custom made picks on top. She pulled out the small boxes and looked through them. Finding 8 picks each with their own custom design. Below that was the albums that Lilian had bought. Tsubasa slid the box to her person and pulled out the albums.

“I’ve never heard of some of these groups before.” Tsubasa said.

“Let me see.” Chris said, taking an album and inspecting it, “These belong to a rock group, easy to spot from the name alone.”

Tsubasa sets the rest of the albums down and notices an envelope on the bottom. She picked up one of the uprighted corners and opened it to see it was a birthday note. She read the note aloud and the longer she read, she gripped the paper tight.

“Tsubasa.” Hibiki leaned close to Tsubasa.

“There’s.. Not even an address on this thing..” Tsubasa muttered loud enough for the room to pick up..

“Well great! Guess we’re just going to wander aimlessly, huh!?” Chris followed

“We’ll keep the name in mind for the time being while we gather more clues for the investigation.” Genjuro said, “I’ll let you three go.”

“Thank you.” The three gave a bow in thanks and filed out of the room.

As the days continued and Myou’s birthday approached, Finé had finally finished the repair process for a shard of Akuma no Ono. She walked up to the chamber she had placed Akuma no Ono to finish the repairs then brought it to a nearby table where she had the second shard. She picked up the shard and went to turn to the computer to check the date, it was only the 13th, plenty of time. 

She placed the shard back down then walked to Myou’s room, quickly opening the door to see Myou sitting in bed, head held down. Bruises and scars covered her body like it were a painting whose painter never cared to find the meaning of art.

“Myou, I have one other thing to do before I have to go.” Finé explained.

“What is it now?” Myou asked with a quiet voice.

“See for yourself.” Finé replied, lifting up a bag of blood.

“What do I have to do with it?” Myou turned her head slightly to see Finé’s hand. 

“With the amount of torture you’ve gone through, you’ve been losing blood, so I thought I’d help replace some of it.” Finé explained. She unlocked the chain from Myou’s neck and wrapped a magic-made whip around Myou’s torso, dragging her away and into the hallway.

The two walked into a room where a table laid in the center, screwed into the floor. The table had straps on the ends that looked like they were made to hold a person down. Two iv drips placed beside the table and both already had a bag ready, one with iv fluid. A small cart laid next to the table, housing a small collection of surgery tools

“Where did you get all this..?” Myou asked, looking up at Finé.

“Just have to do a small pick up if you can understand. The only thing is I couldn’t find anesthetic, although I didn’t look on purpose.” Finé replied before picking up Myou and slamming her on the table.

Myou yelled out in pain from such a harsh transfer, then Finé swiftly strapped her down by the arms first then the legs. Myou wanted to squirm but the conditioning the past few days had brought upon her only led her to simply laying there, only shedding tears to show how she felt.

Finé hooked up the bag of blood to the stand before picking up the needle connected to it and bringing it close to Myou’s left arm. Finé pinched Myou’s arm to reveal a vein before poking her arm with the iv needle, this’ll be used to feed Myou while Finé worked. Shortly after, the blood needle had been poked into Myou and the drips were soon turned on, pushing the fluids of both bags into Myou’s system at a slow pace.

“Why are you doing this..?” Myou asked, turning her head to Finé.

“I told you earlier, to replace your blood as you were losing a great amount from what I’ve done to you.” Finé replied.

“Who’s blood did you use?” Myou asked again.

“Lilian’s, luckily I noticed some similarities, A+ and A+.” Finé replied.

“You.. monster..” Myou said.

“I know. But consider yourself lucky to have a suitable donor. I’ll leave you sometime to recover.” Finé said before leaving for the dining room.

“Lilian.. I miss you..” Myou murmured. She eventually fell asleep for a few days while her blood was being replaced and the iv fluid fed her.

Finé sat in the dining hall and took a sip of her wine. She knew she was running out of time as she knew someone was after her and it felt like it had been too long, about 2 weeks since Chris had left her side and now only awaits for the day to come.

Chapter Text

The 15th would come sooner or later. Finé kept herself cooped up in her lab as she continued her work on the Akuma no Ono relic. In front of her lay a display of a completed version of the relic, converging cracks that laid about its corner indicated it was for the second shard that still remained separated from the relic. Warning signs surrounded the completed portion of the relic along with a footnote displayed beside it reading: “Bypassing external modifications required. Doing so can lead to damage of modification and potentially the relic itself.”

“I hate to be doing this to your work, old friend. But if I want to make this thing whole again, I have to do some tampering. Perhaps it can make our work more powerful than before, it may be dangerous but so is life.” She said, glancing upwards to her screen and taking note of the warning, only to ignore it. 

She would continue her work all the same and often take breaks to check on Myou who was still asleep, machines still running as usual. Afterwards, Finé would go straight back to her lab for work, only leaving when she really needed to.

“It’ll finally be done. Finally done.”

By the 17th, it was finally Myou’s birthday and to make the day feel just a little more special, Finé foregone the need to work and instantly traveled to Myou’s new room to check up on her once again. 

Upon the initial view, Myou had remained unconscious just like the days previous and with only a closer look, an improvement in her condition was evident. Many visible injuries had nearly or completely vanished, her skin appeared brighter than before. 

With a proud look upon her face, Finé gripped Myou’s shoulder and started shaking her, believing now was the time to finally return to being lucid.

“Wake up, birthday girl. I have a present for you.” She said while unhooking Myou from the machinery.

“Gift..?” Myou asked. Tiredly turning her head about in bed until she faced Finé.

“I have your gift, don’t want to sleep in on your birthday, no?” Finé asked, sitting Myou up and setting a hanger in front of her.

“What’s that..?” Myou’s vision was still slightly blurry but she could make out the shape of clothes; a simple crimson tee paired with a black jacket that a small array of slash marks formed out of white cloth sitting at chest level. A pair of black leggings hung from the center of the hanger.

“I decided to get you a new pair of clothes, your old one had way too much blood to get off I’m afraid.” Finé said.

Myou only gave a nod of understanding to the circumstances. She rubbed her eyes for a couple seconds, blinked a few times, then she finally sat up with her head directed towards Finé. Myou slid her legs off the lousy excuse that was a bed followed by the rest of her body. She staggered the moment her feet had touched the ground, her legs felt incredibly weak from the lack of use and she had to lean upon Finé to even keep herself supported.

“I got you. Take a moment to stand.” Finé said, placing the hanger on the table and shifted her focus to supporting Myou.

“I-I think I’ll be okay.” Myou said, reaching behind her and grasping the hook of the hanger.

“You think you’ll be able to walk on your own?”

“Y-Yeah.. will just take a second..”

“You can change in the room next door, I left a pair of shoes for you in there. Should be a little stylish for you kids.”

You clutched the hanger tight within her grasp. Her feet dragged against the floor while she ventured towards the door and made her way to the next room over. As she put her clothes on, she felt like she was normal now, the pain in her legs had dissipated and now she was finally in regular clothing. She tugged on her shirt to make sure it was a snug fit, that’s when she heard Finé entering the room. Myou turned to face Finé, ready to ask something, but only saw her holding a hand out and presented the fully repaired Akuma no Ono.

“Is that?” Myou asked.

“It’s Akuma no Ono, fully repaired. All you need to know is that this is your true gift, I have to make sure it’ll bind to your body first.” Finé replied, putting the pendant around Myou’s neck, “Now sing.”

“Sing?” Myou asked once more.

“You know a song! You’ve heard Lilian sing it!” Finé yelled, pushing Myou to the ground.

Myou screamed as she crashed onto the hard floor, she looked back and remembered Lilian singing a song that had awoken Akuma no Ono just those few weeks ago. With no other choice, she obeyed and started singing.

“Jōshō Kara Akuma no Ono tron..”

Akuma no Ono appeared to give a reaction to the chant as a glittering scarlet glow erupts from the relic itself. You abruptly yelled out in pain, the relic had begun the binding process with her body and forced her to tense up completely. A black and red skin tight suit formed around Myou’s torso, arms, legs but even then, the pain didn’t cease.

“How is this feeling!? To finally awaken a relic!?” Finé exclaimed, watching the transformation in awe.

“It hurts!” Myou responded amidst her pain.

“That’s natural!” Finé started laughing.

The transformation continued and black armor started to form around Myou’s legs in two sections, her feet to her knees and her knees to her hips and encircling her sides with a black small dress that only connected from the sides and back, reaching down to her thighs. Black and scarlet soon formed on Myou’s arms, starting from her hands to her mid arm, a thin, scarlet  section formed on her left bicep while another, thicker section formed on her right bicep, this time in black and red, a black wing formed on her right bicep, taking its form with exactly 17 feathers. Both bicep armors sprawled upwards and secured parts of Myou’s hair to her neck while black and scarlet armor formed around her head, taking the form of a helmet with small headphone-like ends around her ears, finally a translucent scarlet visor formed in front of Myou’s eyes. Her transformation finally completed and her Symphogear successfully binded with her body, making Finé overjoyed.

“Your body synced with the relic so effortlessly, it’s amusing to witness.” Finé said, grabbing Myou by the shoulder and lifting the girl to her feet. She couldn’t help but ask, "Are you a singer? I’ve never heard a voice like yours.” 

Myou felt a chain weighing down her entire body, an inescapable trap that even Atlas himself could never escape from. She looked up at Finé and replied, “I sang for a band.. Before they left..”

Finé smiled from the reply and walked Myou into the hallway, “You and I will have a lot of time together now that you can control a relic. Akuma no Ono had much more potential that I never got to see, and I wish to see it from you.” She explained.

“Why choose me?” Myou asked, walking next to Finé, finally without a physical chain keeping her down.

“Now knowing you have natural compatibility to link with a Symphogear. Finding you was worth it.” Finé replied.

“Worth it?” Myou stopped and clenched her fist.

“I wanted to have someone master Akuma no Ono under my hand. I had all I needed to see that through but I needed a new candidate. And luckily, you’re right here.” Finé explained again, holding a hand on Myou’s head, “And now seeing you do not require any LiNKER, things will be all the easier.”

“So..this overwhelming rush.. Is the Symphogear..?” Myou asked, looking at her hands.

“That it is. How does it feel?” Finé asked.

“It’s.. nice.” Myou replied. 

“Now that you wield it, naturally, we’ll get to see how you use it.” Finé explained.

“For what?” Myou asked.

“That is up for question. Destiny itself is an odd thing to try to piece. Almost like a puzzle with the pieces inverted.” Finé explained again.

“I don’t see a destiny, I don’t know if I’ll be able to find one.” Myou said.

“Sudden change of heart?” Finé asked..

“I have no other things to do in my life now, I’ve lost everything. You’re the only one that’s keeping me alive, even if it’s through torture.” Myou replied. She felt tears run down her cheek.

“Even if you have nothing, you can reach a new destiny with me.” Finé said. She rubbed Myou’s shoulder, the kindest she had ever been to the girl.

“Finé..” Myou said with a broken voice. She soon deactivated the armor.

“You can thank me later, Myou. But our time is limited. I’ll bring you to a place to allow you to train.” Finé held a hand on Myou’s head

“Why say that?” Myou asked. She pushed Finé’s hand off her head and turned to face her.

“You’ll be training without me. I don’t know how much time I have left but I know I’m in a time crunch.” Finé held a finger on Myou’s cheek.

“What do you mean? What about that ‘with you’ stuff?” Myou asked, holding a hand on Finé’s finger.

“That was a half-true. I have some people against me and I want to keep you a secret for them.” Finé replied.

“I see. I guess that means I have something to prove to them?” Myou asked.

“Of course, you’re going to carry on my wish.” Finé explained before holding Myou’s shoulder and heading to pick up the supplies. Afterwards they walked to the city together.

They arrived at an abandoned disaster shelter which had been retrofitted to conduct training. Finé set the bag aside and went to a spot that had been hollowed out for running. Myou followed behind while Finé gave her a small tour. 

“This is the place you’ll stay to train.” Finé explained, she showed many small facilities within it that were originally used to allow people to hide when Noise attacked but due to failures in many places it was abandoned. 

“What about food?” Myou asked.

“Non-perishables, enough to last for a while depending how much you eat.” Finé replied, pointing to a room that had been packed long term, She also gave a large sum of money to Myou as a just in case.

“You just want me to stay here?” Myou asked once more.

“I’ve rigged this place to hide the signals Akuma no Ono produces when activated and it’s soundproofed so nobody hears you on the outside or in so you’re safe. Also, if you need anything else, I’ll come by.” Finé said, sitting herself upon a nearby table..

Myou stood there in silence and felt the chains weighing her down again. She gripped Akuma no Ono and sang.

 “Jōshō Kara Akuma no Ono tron..”

She activated her armor with only a flash covering her body and for a movement, all the systems comprising her armor had moved on its own like the armor was calibrating itself. She lifted her hands to her face and clenched her fists tight, some ideas flowed freely through her mind thanks to this newfound power.

She slammed her fists together, her gauntlets automatically turned like a series of gears, a handle instantly formed between her knuckles. She then pulled her right fist away, extending the newly created handle to the length of half her wingspan. She took the handle with her right hand and pulled it out, an axe blade had formed on the end at the cost of the armor resting upon her arms had disappeared.

“Woah..” Myou held up the axe with admiring eyes, intently staring at the construction that showed its similarities to her armor.

“That’s different from how Lilian used it..” Finé took note, “Wonder how she would use it..”

Myou clenched the weapon tight in her hands and wound up her body before she would execute a mighty swing into the open air. Her feet slide under the weight she had just swung, the angle where she held the blade had shifted slightly and a strained breath escaped her lungs. Without another word, Finé left the facility and allowed Myou to continue. It would unknowingly be the last time.

Myou deactivated her Symphogear after continuous hours of isolation, and feeling satisfied with the first steps she had taken, she grabbed some food and ate only to continue again, this time she had the intention of pathing a method of learning the Symphogear. Another few hours fly by and when Myou felt satisfied with herself, she wandered to a small room where a futon fitted with a duvet laid. She fell asleep.

Myou continued this process for multiple weeks straight, constant running, relic training, along with the shocking in between the two. She slowly lost the feeling of remorse for the pain she’s inflicting on herself.

Only a few weeks after her training began, Myou emerged to the surface to take in some air and make a small trip, only to instantly find herself in the midst of ruins. The streets had been decimated by a source that she didn’t even know ran about. In the distance she saw a hill that held the now destroyed Kadingir relic, resulting from what she could assume was a major conflict. Pieces of Kadingir’s once beautiful spire had shattered and appeared like a broken crown as well as an enormous hole tearing through the spire itself. 

Myou turned away. She held her hands in her pockets and began wandering the city streets, watching as people tried to recover from the disaster that had destroyed the city. She held her head down in order to avoid social interactions. 

As she walked towards the outskirts of the city, a small crowd of Noise had spontaneously begun spawning in a small group in front of her, blocking the road forward. A crowd of people broke into panic, meanwhile Myou stood still as the Noise approach, not even uttering a word. The wind blew through her hair and she sighed before taking a deep breath, she was prepared to sing but instead heard someone else’s voice instead.

“Imyuteus Ame no Habakiri tron..”

A cascade of blue flames descend like a curtain, followed by Tsubasa making a graceful landing like she were a familiar sent down by Heaven. Myou stared at the girl clad in white and blue and wielding a katana just a few feet in front of her. She noticed the armor itself appeared similar to what she herself dons.

Tsubasa took a deep breath before she began to sing. She charged forward and sliced a couple Noise in half in one fell swoop. Such effortless combat etched itself into Myou’s mind, her eyes following every one of Tsubasa’s moves while she jumped around, dodging attacks and slashing at the Noise. 

Myou could feel something about Tsubasa that she could remember, but yet even then she felt as if her memories were locked in a vault that could never be opened, no matter how hard one tried. Tsubasa swung her katana into the open air after the last Noise had been killed. She dragged its blade against her elbow then turned back to the onlookers.

“Everyone alright?” Tsubasa asked, taking notice that Myou was the closest among all of them. She then remembered the picture she and the others looked through but she didn’t want to cause a scene.

“We’re fine!” One person said.

“Good, you.” Tsubasa said, pointing at Myou, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, but where I’m going is this way.” Myou replied. She held her head down and continued walking. 

“Wait!” Tsubasa yelled to get Myou’s attention but she was ignored as the black haired girl continued walking her path. She sighed and went to evacuate the other survivors while she had time, taking them to another section of the city.

After a few minutes, Tsubasa had returned to see there was no trace of Myou, no carbon, no body, not even a single Noise. She sighed and went off to report her findings to Genjuro now that she didn’t have to cause a scene.

Myou took an immediate turn into the forest, progressing a few feet within before leaning against a tree to hear if any footsteps followed behind her- nothing. She breathed a sigh of relief then continued her trek, venturing deeper into the forest until coming across a dirt path leading up the hill. 

Myou followed the beaten path, ascending a progressively steeper hill. She felt her legs wanting to give out but she continued until she had found a rather large treasure in an open field, Finé’s mansion. Large sections of the property had been destroyed along plentiful piles of carbon. Few corpses were laid about the area, many of them appeared to have gunshot wounds. 

“What happened..?” Myou asked herself, wondering just what happened to the city, the mansion, and what that large spire even was. She quickly drew more blanks than she could count and instead opted to take a few steps, opening her mouth to sing.

“Jōshō Kara Akuma no Ono tron..”

Myou activated her relic as she walked closer to the mansion, but instead of walking straight inside, she took a detour and strolled towards the nearby pier overviewing a lake. Unfortunately, whatever happened at the mansion had caught the pier in the crossfire, wooden debris scattered all about its walkway and polluted the lake it stood above. 

She stopped at the end of the pier and looked down at the water. An image bearing Myou’s likeness soon formed within a reflection of the water. She stared at herself, feeling an unnerving sense coursing through her body. She felt like she was standing on the center of a balance board, her weight fixing the tenuous balance and just one move will push her in that direction. The chains that had been bound wrapped around her extremities. They felt heavier, controlled by an observant hand, like a ventriloquist holding the strings of a puppet. She soon felt a familiar presence followed by a headache being inflicted upon her, as if it were someone invading her mind. This presence however, was familiar.

“What path will you choose Myou?” She heard a voice in her head, like she was finally going crazy.

“Finé.” Myou replied. She couldn’t move. The chains holding her down were too heavy to move a single muscle.

“That’s right, now. What path will you follow?” Finé asked, tugging on the chain that connected to her right arm and Myou could feel herself shifting towards one side of the board, breaking the delicate balance. She then tugged on the chain connecting to Myou’s left arm to restore that balance, “Find your destiny, or fail at your new life?”

Myou stood still for a while. She rapidly conjured a vision of just two paths of how her life could be; the left, a life where she could be herself and try to rebuild. Meanwhile the right, where she would continue her path wielding Akuma no Ono. 

Both side’s futures were blank, with not even a sign of potential outcome. She couldn’t keep herself still forever and that’s when she finally decided to make her move. In her mind she walked to the right while in reality, she walked from the pier and into the mansion. 

“Hello?” Myou called out into the vacant halls. Her voice only echoed back.

Myou journey naturally led her into the dining room, destroyed and littered with corpses and assault rifles. Just from first glance, the bodies didn’t seem like they were from Japan rather than the U.S.. She kicked one of the assault rifles aside and went to inspect the body closest to it, finding a knife and more magazines stuffed in their jacket, each one full of ammo. She turned to see the wall leading to the hallway had collapsed and restricted access to the rest of the house.

“What happened, Finé? Why didn’t you bring me back? What is that tower?” Myou asked aloud as she was secluded in a now destroyed mansion that overlooked the destruction that plagued the city, but Kadingir was still the biggest mystery of them all.

She held her left hand on her opposite arm and continued to try to answer her questions but without her guide, she couldn’t get any information. She soon heard a sound coming from her arm and looked down to see where she had her hand, her armor was glowing scarlet. 

“When did this happen..?” Myou lifted her arm to inspect it but soon shrugged it off. 

She continued to hold her arm as she walked around the ruins of the dining hall for anything that could remotely be a trace of Finé, but nothing could be found. She released a sigh, her hand dragged off her arm.

“Any change..?” Myou looked down at her arm, much more of it had now glowed scarlet while her elbow joint showed 5 bright scarlet rings, “This is interesting..”

She took a moment to stare at her glowing arm. Throughout her time training, she had never seen anything like this. So much of her time had been dedicated to learning how to wield her axe, a feature like this felt like an entirely new book. She lifted her head and started walking to the ruins that blocked her from entering the rest of the house. 

“How am I going to take this thing down? They seem to heavy to lift and I don’t have explosives. My axe may not be a good idea and those guns won’t do a thing..” Myou crossed her arms and began to pace while processing the thought. She needed to get behind that wall, it could mean access to information on Finé’s whereabouts. 

After a few minutes of thinking, she lifted her fist and looked between it and the debris. If push comes to shove, perhaps just punching it could be the solution. She plants her right foot and lifts her right arm, staring at the largest piece of debris. With a stiff stance, she launched herself forward and punched the debris as hard as she could.

The scarlet rings forced themselves down Myou’s arm and quickly into the debris; a scarlet hue formed around them before the large piece of debris was ultimately destroyed with just a simple punch, the rest rest that had piled on top fell with it, revealing an opening in the open doorway, barely big enough to fit a person of her size.

“How did I..?” She asked herself before looking at her arm, the rings had disappeared as their force was applied along with the force of Myou’s punch, “If you’re giving me more power.. then I’ll dub you, Charge.” She declared to herself. She pulled her arm back and smiled before crawling through the opening and continuing her search of the mansion.

Myou rushed towards the end of the hall first then went about a process of scanning each room, looking for whatever she could deem as useful. After many rooms that she could write off as “duds”, she soon entered a room close to the end of the path. Within lay a few tables, many of which had notes on them. On a small table next to the corner lay a few convenient stacks of money. On another table, one closest to the door had 5 files on them, laid out in a fan-like pattern, all of it seemingly placed there like she was expecting soon; or rather Finé had planned to go out sometime soon but her original intent would never come. Myou walked towards the table with the files, her palm dragged against the bottom most one and she proceeded to spread out the files across the table. Afterwards, she picked them up one by one and started reading from bottom to top.

“Symphogear System, Akuma no Ono, Hibiki Tachibana, Tsubasa Kazanari, Chris Yukine.” She spoke aloud. She sets the files down while keeping the one titled 'Symphogear System’ in her hands. She opened it and read through its contents.

Each page is filled to the brim with details regarding the creation of the Symphogears, their purpose, their activations, and compatibility. She read everything important she needed to know about the system itself. It also contained descriptions and pictures of the normally wieldable Symphogears and the complete relics, two of which she recognized from the pictures: Solomon’s Cane and Kadignir. She also found notes of the Swan Song along with the lyrics to it for anyone crazy enough to sing it. She glanced through each line but felt like a blade struck the chain that bound her to Finé, hard enough to make her flinch. She then started to hear someone singing in her memories.

“Gatrandis babel ziggurat edenal..” 

The voice sounded distorted as if something was wrong with the singer or her memory. The song alone was enough to make her shake her head violently until every thought of it had scattered into the void.

“No.. not you again..” Myou’s voice turned shaky. She didn’t want to look at the scarring song again, nor hear it.

After a while she picked up Akuma no Ono’s file and slowly flipped it open. Documented notes were of the relic’s armed gear and many general abilities that had been studied while Lilian had used it. The file’s length was evidently the shortest of all of them, an idea that she might never get an answer to.

“Maybe it’s best to take this with me. She may have wanted that.” Myou said to herself while stacking the files and resting them in her shirt. She then rushed to the corner of the room, swiping the money left behind and stuffed it in her jacket pockets before she went through the exit she had come from.

Myou entered the city from an offshoot in the main road, fortunately it placed her in a straight line to where the bunker had been located. She took a couple steps forward, only to immediately come to a halt as the screams of panic filled the streets. Another wave of Noise.

“Great.. Great.. Another one of these, and so soon..” Myou clicked her tongue and her eyes watched the crowds of people rush past. She stalled for a few seconds before immediately bolting into a nearby alley to prevent herself from being pushed aside by the crowd like what happened before. 

“This is going to be a rough one, they’re closing in quick..” Myou kept herself near a wall. She slid her jacket off her shoulders then stuffed the files on the inside. She gently folded the jacket and tied the sleeves together  max effectiveness. Soon enough, the sound of approaching Noise grew louder, they were now above her. 

“You stay here..” Myou placed her jacket on the ground. With her back turned away, the Noise took action and charged in to take out this vulnerable prey. With no other choice other than life and death, she thought about what she read from the files on the Symphogears, their purpose, she sang.

“Jōshō Kara Akuma no Ono tron..”

Myou’s armor appeared seconds before the Noise landed on her. She slammed her fists together then swung her right arm upwards and pushed a few Noise with it. The handle of her axe rapidly constructs itself within her gauntlet followed by the blade instantly forming at its end and effortlessly slicing through a few unlucky Noise in the path of its construction. 

Myou stood speechless as carbon fell upon her like snow, this feeling of being able to kill the Noise, it was surreal. She slammed her axe into the concrete then heard the sound of more Noise continuing their path down the street. 

“That’s right, come closer. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and I finally have my chance!” Myou begin to psych herself out in the wake of the gold mine she had found herself within. Before she would go out into the daylight, she took a few deep breaths to ease her body. Afterwards, she pulled her weapon from the ground and rushed into the streets, watching many people frantically rushing past her, some unfortunate enough to be turned to carbon.

Myou dragged both her hands across her arms, leaving behind only a single scarlet ring in their place. She closed her eyes and took another deep breath, throughout the screams of panic, she could start hearing music playing in her head. A steady tempo ran through her brain.

She then opened her eyes and started humming to the melody instead of singing like she had read from the files. Shortly after, she clenched her fists and started running towards the Noise, her vision narrowed drastically and all she could think of were the enemies- monsters in front of her.

“Now die!” Myou yelled out as she swung her right fist towards Noise and punched it as hard as she could. The scarlet ring around her arm instantly shot additional force into the Noise and scattered its entire body in a cloud of carbon. She clenched her fist tight, it was all real, even a single punch could be enough.

She punched another Noise with her left fist before angling her body downwards and planting her palms against the ground. She briefly kicked body upwards and smashed the front of her feet straight into the nearby Noise, soon kicking about a cloud of carbon around her like a plume of smoke. Afterwards she pushed herself back onto her feet and charged her arms once more before continuing to kill the Noise with the feeling of power taking her.

The massacre was barbaric to those who watched from afar yet it would end just as quickly with Myou punching through the last Noise and watching it crumble into a pile of carbon at her feet. She pulled her fist back and breathed heavily as beads of sweat fell onto the asphalt. For a moment, she felt her arms shake.

“This still feels surreal.. Is this adrenaline? A high..? Why is this so good..?” Myou leaned her head back to face the sunny sky above, slightly shaded by the airborne carbon particles overhead.

She decided to leave that question unanswered and simply turned around, sprinting back towards the alley, where her jacket rests. She hid behind a few trash cans, her head turned in each direction to make sure she was in the clear before deactivating her armor. Once in her normal attire, she grabbed her jacket and cradled it in her arms before leaving, back on track towards the bunker she stayed in.

“I’m home.” Myou called out after closing the door to the bunker. A force of habit that suddenly reemerged out of nothing.

Myou traveled to a nearby table where she placed her jacket upon its surface then uncovered the files hidden underneath. Her fingers gently sifted through each file before she pinched the edge of Akuma no Ono’s, pulling it from the group stared at its cover. She sat by the wall and opened the file once more, flipping through the file’s pages until finding a page that she somehow missed: a page of a note Finé had typed about the relic, specifically its history. She folded the file booklet in half and began reading the page word for word.

“Akuma no Ono, a relic that a friend and I have found with little story behind it. What is known about it is fragmented as well. We have gathered it’s the weapon of an unknown sacrist. Assuming to be an envoy of the devil, the sacrist had been cast to hell, the weapon dragged along with him. Possibly out of anger, God has erased the name of the weapon from history, however it would appear the devil had found a way to bring the sacrist’s legacy to our world, allowing it to connect with humans. This is all speculation created by my team.”

“The devil..” Myou spoke to herself repeatedly. She closed the file and gripped Akuma no Ono and part of her shirt. She then began reading a footnote underneath:. “The users of the weapon have been deemed unworthy of meeting Heaven just simply by touching this weapon..” 

“Does this mean Lilian has been damned..? And.. I too.. with them..” Myou relinquished her grip from Akuma no Ono and raised her other hand. Chains started wrapping around Myou’s arm from the relic as if her soul was bound to it. The chains that blocked her from seeing light and only Finé’s wishes.

She stood up and set the files aside before reactivating Akuma no Ono before even taking time to tend to herself. The vigorous training only continued, going on every day and nearly session she pushed herself and her relic so far that it would constantly end with her forcefully deactivating the relic due to strain and backlash which caused her to bleed from the mouth and eyes, a condition that would slowly worsen with each passing day.

On top of training with her relic, she often did work on her physical capabilities, often strength and cardio training with the space she had.

Rest was far and few, but when she gave herself the chance, she read through the files on Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris. Over time, she had learned everything that Finé had known about them, their relics, uses, and everything in between that Finé could document with the meddling she had done during the project. Myou had even begun making addendums to the Akuma no Ono file, documenting her discoveries not written on separate sheets of paper.

A few days slowly pass without any change. Hibiki gathered Tsubasa and Chris for a meeting by a nearby field, away from the general population. Tsubasa stared at Hibiki and waited for her to explain why they were gathered exactly while Chris drank some bottled water she brought with her, still keeping an eye towards Hibiki.

“I know you guys want to know why I asked you here. I’ve been looking around through some posts the other day and.. I think we have another relic user, but it’s.. armor.” Hibiki explained. She pulled up her phone to show a picture someone had posted a few days ago. It was a picture of Myou in her armor running down the street, she had her head down and her eyes closed which made it difficult to find her identity other than her hair.

“What!?” Tsubasa seemed enraged.

Chris quickly lowered her bottle and quickly breathed out, some water shot from her nose. She groaned and pinched her nostrils, “You should’ve warned me to finish before explaining something like that!” She chided Hibiki.

“Sorry, Chris. Does it burn?” Hibiki held her free hand on Chris’ shoulder.

“Of course it burns dimwit!” Chris roared, her voice sounded strained.

“Listen, give yourself a minute to calm down, Hibiki and I will talk further.” Tsubasa explained, taking Chris to a nearby tree to sit before heading back to Hibiki.

“I guess you find it hard to believe, Tsubasa?” Hibiki asked, rubbing the back of her head.

“Let me take another look at the picture, deep fakes are common.” Tsubasa replied, taking Hibiki’s phone. She zoomed in on the picture and looked through its features and her eyes expressed disbelief, “This doesn’t look fake..”

“Could it be?” Hibiki held a hand on her phone as well and stared at the picture.

“It looks like a real Symphogear.” Tsubasa replied.

“How!? Section 2 only has 3 usable Symphogears currently!” Chris yelled from the tree.

“Unless someone managed to get their hands on a fourth, it could be Akuma no Ono.” Hibiki said.

“Good point, we’ll show this to Genjuro for any intel.” Tsubasa declared.

“Speaking of Akuma no Ono.” Chris walked up to the two, “I forgot to ask, how was it able to work with the damage to its pendant?” 

“It’s a whole story on its own.” Tsubasa explained. She went to think about what Ryoko told her about the tests on Lilian

About 2 years ago, just only a few months after Kanade’s death, research had begun on the (at the time) newly acquired Akuma no Ono. After getting the relic from the American government it was finally turned into a pendant and ready to be used. Luckily, Ryoko had managed to find the perfect candidate just in time for a scheduled test.

“Lilian Miyazaki, a middle schooler planning to go to Lydian if I’m reading this correctly.” Ryoko said, reading a small file. She looked over to face Lilia for confirmation.

“Yes, but why me? I don’t know what’s going on.” Lilian asked.

“We’ve seen how you were during a Noise materialization, you have a will plus, a voice. Ryoko replied. She held out a tablet and played a video.

Lilian ran down the streets close to Lydian, calling out for anyone to follow her while the Noise had yet to notice them, time was still plenty. She brought many behind her, leading them towards nearby shelters where they could breathe easy, knowing they can live another day. However, Lilian decided to take a risk and ran back towards the original site in order to find more people. By that time, Noise had sensed her presence and a few smashed the side of a building nearing an intersection. Debris rained down and crashed onto the asphalt, forming a wall that blocked Lilian’s advancement entirely. With prey trapped, the Noise slowly approached and with no other options, she began to retreat. 

A few Noise then transformed into darts, launching themselves forward for the killshot. Lilian braced herself for the end, but it would appear that an angel had kept watch as a sword sliced through the air. The Noise instantly crumble to carbon, blowing along with the winds. From behind, a pair of arms picked up Lilian, she was carried elsewhere in the city.

“You have my thanks.” Ogawa said with a gentle smile. He looked over at Lilian and took the tablet. 

The elevator soon stopped and the doors opened to reveal the lab. In the observation deck were two people, both scientists. One, a male, leaned against the railing with an exciting look on his face, while the other, a female, laid in the shadows, next to a table which had a rocks glass full of alcohol.

“Prepare the failsafes.” Ryoko requested. She clapped her hands and walked into the main room with Lilian. Ogawa takes the elevator back up to wait for Tsubasa.

“Not trying to get drunk are you-” The male scientist turned to see his adversary leaving with the glass. “You’re a hard one to understand.” He shrugged and continued to oversee the experiment, he had excitement on his face.

Ryoko brought Lilian close to a nearby room where she and a few scientists did scans on her. Taking the information that’s needed and sending it to another section of the lab where they could check her body for injuries along with other important factors. The process was longwinded, multiple scans had been taken at certain points, but rushing the process at this stage could be detrimental to the test itself.

After Lilian was given the clear she was brought to the main chamber where a scientist had a dose of LiNKER ready for administration. 

Tsubasa stood by the doorway and watched the preparation phase commence. LiNKER was administered through Lilian’s arm, then she was escorted into the main chamber that laid a case in its center. The case opened and Akuma no Ono was presented to Lilian, the light bounced off its pendant and shone in her periwinkle eyes.

“Please approach the relic, if you’re compatible you should be able to make a chant attuned to it.” Ryoko explained via speaker.

“Are you sure we can trust this one?” Tsubasa asked.

“I’m sure of it. She has a strong will, and if she can don the Symphogear. Score!” Ryoko chirped.

Lilian slowly held her hand out towards the Symphogear and gripped the chain of its pendant with her right hand. She pulled the pendant close but the warning alarms fired shortly after. 

“Sakurai! Overload within the chamber!” A scientist yelled.

“Evacuate the lab, now!” Tsubasa yelled.

A window from the observatory shattered as an explosion soon went off in the chamber next to where Lilian stood. Lilian covered her eyes in the wake of the chaos, then she heard a faint sound of a crystal shattering next to her. A hand grasped her shoulder and she was pulled back before a second explosion went off in front of her. Within the shade of the resulting smoke, she could see a yellow glow but the smoke had covered most of its shape.

“Run!” A woman yelled, pushing Lilian towards the exit. 

“But what about you!?” Lilian ran back to get the woman but was grabbed from behind by Tsubasa. 

The two heard a crystal shatter followed by a magenta glow. The emergency ventilation system  then activated and the smoke was quickly cleared over the course of a couple minutes. What remained was debris of the pedestal that was used to hold Akuma no Ono, yet the woman who was also in the smoke was gone without a trace. Lilian looked down at Akuma no Ono to see a shard was missing from it and the sight of it made Tsubasa’s expression change.

“We’re lucky to have it at least.” Tsubasa lets out a sigh of relief.

“I’ll be able to fix it, but with its shard missing, I can only have a.. friend rig it to work how it should with.. defects.” Ryoko explained.

“It was specially rigged to work I should’ve said but everything has a story behind it.” Tsubasa said, rubbing her head.

“Its shards went unfound, that’s why it had to be rigged, but this friend managed to really make miracles.” Chris concluded.

“Exactly, but..” Tsubasa looked back again.

“If the remaining shards are discovered, due to how it was rigged and the state it’s currently in, it’ll be incredibly difficult to repair.” Ryoko explained.

“You did what you needed. Akuma no Ono is still usable thanks to you.” Genjuro replied, turning to face Lilian. He took Akuma no Ono and put it around Lilian’s neck.

“Fixing a problem may facilitate the one currently present but can make others arise with time. That can’t be helped.” Tsubasa shrugged.

“We can reopen the case for Akuma no Ono, whoever wields it will be the highest suspect of Lilian’s murder.” Hibiki suggested.

“We have to rebuild headquarters however. Kadingir being in ruins of course we have to try to salvage whatever we can.” Tsubasa replied.

“Then let's not waste time!” Chris yelled. She grabbed her friends by the arms and dragged them on their way to Kadingir.

“Chris! We can walk!” Hibiki exclaimed. Her voice attracted unwanted attention.

They had reported their conversation to Genjuro and reopened the case in search of their stolen relic. Everyday, Chris and Tsubasa often patrolled around while Hibiki was ordered to stay as battery in case one side needed support.

While the searches continued through the weeks and soon months, with the rise of F.I.S in Japan, the case was later dropped completely, allowing Myou continue her underground training without any threat looming over her shoulder. 

Myou swung her axe violently while yelling out in a fit of showcasing her strength. Sweat landed on both the ground and part of her armed gear, she had been training constantly with Akuma no Ono active for extended periods of time again, she continued despite the exhaustion. 

After finishing, she slammed her armed gear into the ground and started coughing violently. Blood splattered on the ground and she later felt fluid running down her cheek, she rubbed a finger against her cheek to see she was also bleeding from the eyes, it was that time again. Akuma no Ono was immediately deactivated. 

Myou staggered onto her feet and traveled to a nearby table. She swiped a cloth and wiped her face clean of blood before gathering herself some food from the storage. She had a larger supply than she ever thought she would need as she had often traveled to the ruins of Finé’s mansion and pawned off whatever she could find that was worth anything.

Myou went to prepare herself a portion she had chosen earlier after training then began making her way back to the table. Her strides were pained and so was her face.

“Everything hurts.. But.. I need to synchronize with this relic.. For her..” Myou spoke to herself in order to get over the pain.She ate her food while it was still cold, her body didn’t want to put in the effort of reheating.

“Time flies by doesn’t it?” She asked herself. She turned to face the file of Akuma no Ono, her face was blank as she saw the scribbled on the edge of the pages. Every discovery she had made of the relic she had documented, every bit of information that she had written herself, only she knew. 

Myou placed the food down after she finished and walked over the table she had left the files. She stared at the files of Chris, Tsubasa, and Hibiki where in which she felt a chain manipulating her arm and brain. She stared at Hibiki’s file and could hear a voice in her head.

“If I could see you now, I would be proud.” Myou could hear Finé’s voice from the chains that had bound her, she could feel Finé essence binding her to the woman’s side.

“What happened to you?” Myou asked.

“My soul wanders and I’ll be in a new host soon. Now, I think you want to know what happened while you were underground, Kadingir, myself, the relics.” Finé explained.

“It’s none of my business but even then. If I helped I would have been able to help you win.” Myou replied.

“No. Even with your help you’re unable to even overpower Tachibana.” Finé rejected. 

Myou’s head turned to face Hibiki’s file and she clenched her fist. “You were going to help guide me, was I wrong?” She asked.

“Of course, are you having second thoughts, Myou?” Finé asked. She approached Myou and rubbed her shoulder.

“No, I know what I’ll do.” Myou clenched both fists before raising her right foot and kicking Hibiki’s file with extreme force. The wood cracked before breaking the table in a jagged line spreading up through the point of contact. Her foot slammed Hibiki’s file onto the floor while the other files slid down the now broken table, resting next to her foot.

“You want to destroy the Symphogears I can only guess.” Finé said with a smirk.

“Whatever for you to let my dream come true!” Myou cried out before punching the wall out of anger. She managed to break close to an inch of the concrete and didn’t feel any pain from the impact. She lets out a deep sigh before pulling away and shaking her fist clean of dust. 

“So be it.” Finé backed away and disappeared from Myou’s sight.

Deep inside, she could feel the chains that had bound her begin to unravel her entirely. Her soul had been bound with a chain that had belonged to Finé.

Chapter Text

A year has passed since Myou started her training. While she was underground, many parts of her little home had received significant damage with holes dotting the walls, the more recent ones were worse in their severity. The calendar had flipped to April 17th and this time, Myou refused to do another training, wishing to simply take some personal time off and allow her body to relax for once. She went about a somewhat normal morning routine, having something to eat, set her face, and get herself ready to head out. After putting on her jacket, she traveled to the surface and simply made her way around, her head kept on a swivel as she wondered if this would be the day she would finally meet a Symphogear user.

The atmosphere was oddly heavy as Myou aimlessly ventured through the city, keeping her hands in her pocket and head down to keep the sun from her eyes. Her ears picked up momentary interactions of people recalling the events revolving around Carol Malus Dienhein. She could only pass by without a single thought, not knowing much about the incident, other than the evident ruins of the Château de Tiffauges laying peacefully atop a few buildings along with a proportional sinkhole that laid beneath.

“Just what happened?”

Myou stared at the ruined masterpiece for an extended period of time, but without any idea of what to think of it, she simply turned and walked to a nearby park to get some peace of mind. 

“It’s been a while, Finé.. am I doing well?”

Leaning against a nearby tree, she lowered her hood and lifted Akuma no Ono from within. The little sunlight passing around the leaves bounced off the relic, giving it a scarlet shine. She leaned her head against the tree then slowly released her grasp from her relic, allowing it to fall freely to her chest while her body slowly processed the fresh air. The natural sounds surrounding her put her at peace for a while, she felt her body relaxing- yet just minutes later, multiple rather loud voices snapped her out from her state. She turned her head to see who it was and noticed Hibiki along with her group of friends, she quickly moved her head back as she recognized Hibiki near instantly and decided to listen.

“Have you thought about what else to do in your free time, Hibiki?” Miku asked.

“I’ve thought about it but I'm so busy it’s hard to think about it, you know that.” Hibiki replied. She rubbed her head and smiled.

“Bikky, you should at least try other things, I feel like you’re getting a bit picky. Maybe we should just get some food.” Kuriyo suggested.

“What should we try?” Hibiki asked.

“I’ve heard about a bakery that opened nearby, we should head there.” Shiroi said. 

As the girls talked, Myou decided to make her debut. She stuffed her hair into her hood before pulling over her head then stepped away from the shadows and into the light, right in the view of the girls passing by. Hibiki immediately took notice of the sketchy behavior and stood at the frontline.

“Who are you?” Hibiki demanded.

“I would rather let myself go anonymous.” Myou replied. She turned to face the group and Hibiki immediately took notice of the Symphogear on Myou’s neck.

Hibiki clenched her fist to see a Symphogear given to her from an unknown source. “At least something, my name’s-”

“Hibiki Tachibana, wielder of the Gungnir relic.” Myou interrupted. Her free hand moved to her hip as she had a slight smirk on her face.

“How do you know Bikky’s name!?” Kuriyo yelled, gripping Hibiki’s shoulders.

“Hibiki? You think?” Miku asked worryingly.

“You think she can read minds like in some anime?” Yumi suggested.

“Tell me who leaked you my information, how do you know my name and my Symphogear?” Hibiki asked.

“I have some insider information, and for that, it’s best not to tell.” Myou replied. She lowered her hood and kept her head down before opening her mouth and sang.

“Jōshō Kara Akuma no Ono tron..”

“A chant!?” Hibiki backed her friends away from hearing the song before leaning forwards and clenching her fists.

Myou held her arms out as she dons her armor in an instant. After training, she had gained a more armor heavy appearance with her bicep armor being much heavier and her fists being armored. The wing on her right bicep had grown larger with larger feathers to pair with it. Her leg armor had grown heavier and extended up to her thighs. Her chest had small amounts of armor coming from the shoulders and reaching down to her shoulder blades. Her helmet had lost its visor but had gained more armor on the top of her head. Most notably she had a black cape on her left arm which reached down to her elbow, the inside of it was scarlet like most of her armor.

“Commander! Picking up a signal!” Aoi yelled. 

“Pull it up.” Genjuro ordered.

“On it!” Aoi’s fingers rapidly tap through the keyboard. A display soon popped up with Akuma no Ono.

“Akuma no Ono!? How is this possible!?” Genjuro stood from his seat.

“Not sure what’s happening! I thought the relic was deemed lost!” Sakuya noted.

“Get surveillance now!” Genjuro ordered.

“Working on it!” Sakuya pulled up a video of the park, where Myou was standing there idly while Hibiki stared at her adversary, her fists clenched.

“Hibiki, we got eyes on you, we can send Maria in for support.” Genjuro pulled up Hibiki’s built-in comm, luckily the receiver picked up the full thing.

“Do whatever you can to support her-” Hibiki said before looking up to see Myou holding a finger against her lips.

“A solo battle will be more interesting, don’t you think?” Myou explained.

“She wants a solo battle...” Hibiki replied.

“Are you going to honor that request?” Genjuro asked.

“I’m doing just that.” Hibiki replied then began to sing.

“Balwisyall Nescell Gungnir tron..”

Hibiki transformed and back at headquarters, her signal too started to begin tracking. Myou held a hand on her arm and rings slowly appeared while Hibiki started her opponent down.

“If you really want a name, call me.. The Black Knight. A wandering soul to be damned all the same.” Myou explained.

“Damned!?” Hibiki and Genjuro said together.

“It said that a result like that is my fate.” Myou elucidated. She released her left hand after it had a single ring. She then plants her palm against her hip, repeating the same process but cutting the power at three rings.

“I don’t recall Dr. Sakurai mentioning something like that..” Hibiki’s arms started shaking.

“The information that had been given to me, had been presented by Finé herself.” Myou replied.

Hibiki’s eyes widened, she quickly felt her shakiness afflicting the rest of her body. She remembered what Chris explained to her about what Finé had done, she was shocked to see Finé had gotten hold of someone new under their noses. “Finé.. what did she do to you?” She then asked with a shaky voice.

“I guess she improved me, made me what I am, helped me awaken Akuma no Ono the way it is now.” Myou replied.

“You did Finé’s dirty work and took Akuma no Ono for her.. did you..?” Hibiki asked, clenching her teeth before she snapped, “You’re our thief aren’t you!?”

“Thief? Is that what I’ll be labeled as now?” Myou asked, walking closer.

“Hibiki..” Miku extended a leg to take a step forward but Hibiki held an arm out.

“You girls go, I don't want anything to happen to you all.” Hibiki said with a stern tone.

“O-Okay..! There’s an alley nearby!” Miku immediately complied and brought the rest of the group to safety. Meanwhile, Myou remained still during the entire process, her eyes locked onto Hibiki.

“You’re not going after them?” Hibiki asked, slightly perturbed from Myou’s inaction.

“And why should I?” Myou retaliated.

Hibiki clenched her fists tight and raised her fists into her fighting stance, choosing to refrain from cocking back her gauntlets for the time being. Meanwhile, Myou released her hip then clenched her fist tight, forcing the gauntlet to emit a gentle scarlet glow. 

The two walked closer and stared each other down before both sides rushed each other down at similar timings. Myou and Hibiki raise their fists before simultaneously committing to an attack and violently slamming their fists together. The force of the impact sent a burst of energy surging through both Symphogears and as it seemed like Hibiki would have the upperhand, Myou’s gauntlet abruptly expels an additional force that evened out the power difference.

“How is that..-” Hibiki asked, feeling a slight shock from her adversary’s capability.

Myou smiled at the rush of finally getting the opportunity to fight a Symphogear user, yet an itch rubbed the back of her mind, feeling a need to abstain from her high and seriously focus on the opponent directly in front of her. She turned her body and swiftly kicked Hibiki in the stomach, causing the rings on Myou’s hip to discharge and create an incredibly forceful kick that sent Hibiki back and into a nearby patch of grass.

“I felt my body tremble from that punch. I’m ready to see more.” Myou said. She cracked her knuckles before punching them together and formed Akuma no Ono’s armed gear, a two handed axe featuring a bright scarlet edge.

“That’s new- Genjuro, does anything match the data on Akuma no Ono from Lilian..?” Hibiki whispered. She stood up and held a hand on her stomach.

“I’m sorry but this is entirely new territory we’re witnessing here. Readings are different from what one of Ryoko’s accomplices rigged, radically..” Genjuro replied.

“Fun.. I get to be the first then.” Hibiki said to herself, cocking her right gauntlet.

Myou spun her axe above her head before she brought it to rest in a right-handed grip. She clenched her palms around the cold handle then charged towards Hibiki, swiftly raising her blade upwards and pointing at Hibiki’s left shoulder. In the face of the oncoming attack, Hibiki took a deep breath and kept herself collected. She begins to raise her right arm, anticipating the attack.

Myou swung her blade right for her target’s shoulder with an extreme amount of force behind her seemingly heavy weapon. Hibiki responds by immediately punching the blade straight on, the compounded force of her overwhelming punch and her gauntlet instantly overwhelmed Myou and forced her axe backwards. 

Myou released her grip slightly and allowed her weapon’s handle to slide down her hands. She tightened her grip and slammed the end of her axe into the concrete, before using the handle like a pole and flipping upwards, kicking Hibiki in the chin and sending her back once more. 

“Not too bad, am I?” Myou asked while flipping herself back upright and landing in front of her weapon. She grasped the handle and allowed the weapon to form back into her gauntlets. 

Hibiki however, gave no response to entertain Myou’s newfound pleasure. She swiftly flips her body upright and lands back on her feet where she then begins to drift down the dirt and comes to a stop a few feet later. Hibiki returns her arms back to their proper stance and her gauntlets cocked back, below, her boots begin to transform and reveal both her power jacks and rocket thrusters.

“This is exhilarating, you know that? But seeing the situation, I’ll take the lead.” Myou said. She soon started singing. Her lyrics and music resonated with Hibiki’s armor and she too could feel her music, the lyrics were harsh and the accompanying music was quick and extremely guitar and drum heavy. 

“You enjoy rock.” Hibiki noted.

“Style is specific. More like heavy metal.” Myou replied while reforming her armed gear and resting it sideways.  She held a finger against the blade end of her axe’s handle and rings formed around it.

Hibiki’s power jacks extend and forcefully push into the ground, forcing her forward while her rockets activate simultaneously, allowing a quick and forceful push towards her adversary. Myou finished charging when she only had a single ring and swung at a downward angle. The two arm gears collided near seconds later at incredible speeds and force but the force that Hibiki had gained was enough to take the power of the single ringed charge and her gauntlet activated, forcing Myou’s axe backwards and the blade facing the opposite direction. 

Myou smirked and started spinning the axe behind her back and transferring her grip to her left side. Instantly, Myou swung her axe upwards and Hibiki quickly jumped back to avoid it but in the middle of her retreat, felt a pang in her shoulder and some droplets of blood flew into her vision. As Myou brought her axe above her head, Hibiki noticed the outline’s shape had changed: a second blade had formed on the other side of the weapon.

“Lilian was able to do something like this. She too can do it .” Hibiki thought. She landed back on the concrete and held a hand on her shoulder, only a minor cut. She later moved her hand to her Symphogear, keeping her index finger and thumb on the sides.

With a brief respite on both sides, Myou narrowed her eyes on Hibiki, noticing everything about her armor appeared different than what the files had given her.

“Are the files I have outdated? This is.. nothing like what she gave me..?” Myou wanted to scratch her head in the face of this chronological discrepancy. She then took a look at Hibiki’s Symphogear, the shape was entirely different to what she was used to, “What is this..?”

“What’s going on in her head?” Hibiki asked, keeping her stance firm.

“What happened..?” Myou asked, her tone now frantic in her confusion. She grips her axe tight and the secondary blade transforms into a pair of thrusters, “It’s all outdated..”
“That doesn’t sound good Hibiki, keep yourself focused.” Genjuro noted on the comms.

“I got that.. She’s.. Confused..” Hibiki replied and muted her comms for the time being.

“Why!?” Myou threw her axe behind her back and straight back in for more.

“I won’t let you go further!” Hibiki cried out. She soon felt something weigh her chest down as if it were guilt, but she was unable to figure it out now.

Once she got in range, Myou ignited the thrusters on her axe then performed an incredibly quick slash to which Hibiki punched the blade straight on once again. Hibiki’s sheer strength alone managed to completely halt the Akuma no Ono’s axe in an instant and even started to push the weapon back despite the  active thrusters. The arms of the two users started to shake as they held their position for a few seconds before Hibiki clenched her left fist before bending downwards and swiftly uppercutting Myou in the stomach, quickly throwing the Black Knight into the air. 

Hibiki readied her power jacks and set them at a sharp angle before forcing them into the concrete and sending her into the air as well. Myou straightened her axe as Hibiki approached, she adjusted her hands closer to the blade end of her handle then reignited her thrusters, forcing her entire body further upwards while simultaneously curling her body and barely evading Hibiki’s deadly point-blank range in the nick of time. 

Hibiki turned her head upwards, her fist pushing only the air as her opponent rapidly ascended further away. She turned her back towards the ground then formed rockets by her hips. She ignites them to life and her body’s magnitude rapidly shifts, shooting her upwards and closer to her target.

Myou heard the sound of secondary rockets activating in the distance and both hands shifted to hold the mid section of her axe, forcing her body to spin about until she faced downwards. The two ferociously clashed once more while in midair, their active rockets stagnated them.

“I won’t let you run away with what you stole from us all that time ago! You took Lilian from us!” Hibiki yelled in anger.

Hearing that name made Myou grit her teeth and her eyes dilate in a conflict of both anger and.. guilt. She slid her right arm down the handle of the axe and pushed its blade upwards until faced perpendicular to Hibiki’s fist. The angle forced Myou’s body to begin spinning and she ended up kicking Hibiki square in the face after just two revolutions, launching her downwards for a freefall descent.

Myou cut the throttle to her rockets then readjusts her axe back to a vertical position. She then fired them back to life and her body rapidly propelled downwards, passing Hibiki with record timing and slamming back down to the earth. Myou grasped her axe tight and forcefully disassembled it back into her gauntlets. She then placed a palm against her wrist to begin the charging process, pushing past the usual three rings and going for five this time about..

“Hibiki!” Miku cried out and stepped forwards to intervene but was quickly held back by her friends.

“I’ll be okay, Miku.” Hibiki spoke to herself before her hand reached up to her Symphogear to activate her Ignite Module, but she soon heard a growl from below. She turned her head and twisted her body to find Myou just below her and ready to deliver a punch.

“Drown!” Myou yelled as a fiery scarlet aura formed around her from her feet up past her body and engulfed Hibiki. She then threw her punch straight into Hibiki’s stomach, discharging an incredibly large amount of force from the charge into her and sending her further in the air while subsequently inducing a great pain throughout Hibiki’s body. The aura laid behind Hibiki shattered like glass and each piece begins to fade into black, slowly mixing the bright scarlet to create an almost hellish collage. Myou punched her fists together and instead of forming her two handed axe, her left gauntlet merged with the right and formed an axe blade bound by a tether, just like Lilian’s.

Hibiki clenched her fists as she fired up her rockets once more and propelled herself towards Myou. She pulled her arm back in preparation for another mighty blow. 

Myou held her left hand on her hip while she watched Hibiki’s approach in an almost predictable fashion. She jumped back moments before Hibiki ended up impacting the ground, leaving behind a small crater around the point of impact. 

Hibiki released an exhaustive breath and kept herself still. She slowly raised her head and spotted a glint of scarlet flying above her in a constricted arc, an axe blade. She quickly punched the ground with the same fist she used to punch the ground, pushing herself towards her left and leaving the axe blade to strike the ground. Hibiki looked over to see the blade had been connected by a tether and eyed the path of the tether, seeing it had connected to Myou’s gauntlet.

“How much have you learned, and for how long? So many similarities, yet so many new things at the same time.” Hibiki asked while standing back up. She held a hand on her arm and glared at Myou. Back at headquarters, Elfnein seemed worried, Genjuro took notice and figured it was related to her not knowing Akuma no Ono well.

“Hibiki, provoke The Black Knight to use as much of her relic as she’ll allow herself.” Genjuro ordered.

“Yes, commander.” Hibiki replied. She took a deep breath before getting into stance.

“What else do you have to show? What other info is outdated now, huh?” Myou asked. She tugged her arm and retracted her axe blade back to her gauntlet.

“Don’t answer, don’t answer.” Hibiki thought. She clenched her fists before engaging her power jacks and catapulting herself towards Myou.

“Silent treatment, so that’s your opinion towards me?” Myou asked. She pulled her axe blade out slightly and gripped the tether with her right hand. She spun the blade quickly before swiftly throwing it upwards just to the left ofHibiki. She then swung her arm downwards and pulled the blade with it towards Hibiki’s shoulder.

“And why should I answer? I already expressed how I feel.” Hibiki replied. She twisted her body before punching the axe blade as it came by. The force generated from her punch was more than enough to force the blade the opposite direction at a high velocity. She spun around on one foot to reposition and slammed her opposite foot in the concrete once she was facing her target.

“I guess your physical disdain says it all. Does it, Gungnir?” Myou asked. She released her left hand after 5 rings had appeared on her right arm while simultaneously retracting the tether bound to her axe.

“So what about how I feel? You’re going to be taken in regardless of how I feel.” Hibiki retorts then points her head upwards near Myou’s eye level..

“I don’t plan on that anytime soon. Especially when I want to see some more weaknesses.” Myou smiled, holding up her arm as her axe returned to her gauntlet. She then planted a couple fingers along the axe’s body and initated another charging proces

Is she going to toy with me? What even is her endgame?” Hibiki murmured. She clenched her fists, but to her dismay, her adversary wasn’t looking elsewhere, Myou’s eyesight was locked on Hibiki herself.

Myou pulled her arm back after the axe completed its charge at five rings. Afterwards, her entire gauntlet started to transform,  forming into a specialized gauntlet with a large ring surrounding the front, featuring four large exit holes embedded within. Each ring had been consumed in the process, giving the newly made formation a deep scarlet glow. She bent downwards and punched the concrete and shattered a wide area around her as Hibiki continued to rapidly close in upon her.

A blood red ring slowly manifests in the outer portions of the freshly created carnage. Hibiki trespassed into the domain shortly after its creation and like an automated defense system, a scarlet flash emerged from Myou’s gauntlet followed by chains emerging from the ground, quickly binding to Hibiki’s knees and arms to restrain her movements before more rose to keep her down.

Afterwards, Myou bent her right arm as she straightened her posture while staring at Hibiki who struggled in the chains. Without words, Myou lunged forwards and quickly punched Hibiki in the stomach with her fully charged fist. Hibiki coughed as the force from the rings had been discharged into her body and instantly the chains broke, sending her flying across the field at breakneck speeds and into an open patch nearby a few trees.

“It’s hard to believe this.” Aoi said with a worried tone.

“She.. contained Hibiki for a moment..” Elfnein said with a bit of shock in her voice.

“Both are extremely short ranged but, The Black Knight seems to have more up her sleeve in order to counter that weakness and force certain interactions in her own favor.” Genjuro said.

“The way The Black Knight fights is worrying. How long has she been hiding in the shadows?” Elfnein asked.

“We’re limited to only a year. She must be pushing herself if she’s up to Gungnir’s caliber, possibly subjecting herself to consistent backlash from the Akuma no Ono relic.” Genjuro assumed.

“Oh no..” Elfnein slowly leaned forward in her seat.

Hibiki stood back up and the sound of shards striking the ground could be heard as the broken chains fell off her body. She held a hand on her stomach and glared at Myou.

“Hibiki! Hurry! We’ll be late!” Miku called out to Hibiki. She held her hands close to her chest as it’ll hopefully work.

“A shame.” Myou said, holding a hand on her hip. “What’s the date again? I haven’t checked.” She asked. 

“April 17th.. why?” Hibiki asked. She soon noticed Myou’s facial expression change.

“Shit! I’ve really forgotten!?” Myou held her hands on her head and yelled out in anguish.

“Forgotten what?” Hibiki asked.

Myou breathed heavily to calm down. She then lowered her hands to her hips before speaking, “I won’t be able to stay any longer. Was a nice fight, you and I.” She ran off and hopped to the roof of a nearby building until disappearing from sight.

“She’s.. different from many others..” Hibiki thought before deactivating Gungnir then and there. She felt something off about Myou.. she wondered why she would spare her friends when other confrontations, the outcome was the opposite. 

“Bikky! Hurry up!” Kuriyo yelled.

“On it!” Hibiki replied before returning to her friends and they went to school. On the way, she requested Genjuro to gather everyone for a meeting later in the day.

Myou landed in an alley and looked around to make sure the coast was clear before deactivating Akuma no Ono. She exited the alley and rushed to a nearby bakery for a single slice of raspberry cake, all for her to enjoy alone on her birthday. 

On her way back, she began to think about all that info she had in those files. Soon the thought of, ‘how much of this is outdated’ filled her brain. The constant cycle of those repeating thoughts quickly drifted her mind into insanity as she struggled to give herself a clear answer.

After entering the shelter, she sighed gently to get the thought of the fight out of her mind, it’s her 17th birthday, she had to celebrate. She cleared her throat before opening the lid of the box that held her cake slice. She approached a nearby table while singing happy birthday to herself. 

Myou placed the cake slice on the table as she finished and once she closed her mouth, her melodic voice echoed throughout the room. She went to grab utensils and ate her cake.

Back at Lydian, Hibiki gathered the rest of the Symphogears into the cafeteria for a meeting, in the middle of the busy lunch hour. Every girl gathered around a square table near one of the corners where walls surrounded one of their sides to aid in concealment

“Calling a sudden meeting in the cafeteria of all places? You found something you want to share with everyone so soon?” Chris asked. She took a bite of a piece of bread she got earlier.

“Yes. We found our suspect but something I felt was.. off about her.” Hibiki replied, tapping her fingers on the tabletop.

“Off in what way? Attitude, fighting style, yourself?” Shirabe asked as well.

“I.. don’t know. It bothers me the thoughts of how she got the relic.” Hibiki replied, leaning forwards and holding her head down.

“So there is some internal conflict.” Shirabe noted.

“Did this girl have any motives?” Kirika asked. 

“Unknown.” Hibiki shook her head.

“I see.. Well we seem to be well in the dark about this new girl. Anyone?” Shirabe looked about the table for at least some context behind the situation.

“This case revolves around a lot of past information. Better we bring this up at headquarters to discuss details.” Tsubasa said before simply standing up and exiting the cafeteria. The others followed in her suit.

Back in the HQ Genjuro and Elfnein studied the footage while Sakuya and Aoi were out to better assess the damage of the incident. Genjuro accessed his terminal and began to browse through the multitude of files contained within S.O.N.G.’s database. He soon came across a large amount of files dated years ago. Each one was last accessed shortly after Akuma no Ono’s original disappearance.

“This is data of this Akuma no Ono relic?” Elfnein asked.

“Yes, but it appears we have some data missing. And you’re just now starting to learn about Akuma no Ono.” Genjuro replied.

“This is quite a predicament for us.. do we have any other contacts who know of the relic?” Elfnein turned off her tablet and rests it against her chest

“We do have one colleague who temporarily joined the project, but she and I haven’t spoken since Ryoko.. better yet, Finé’s death. A good partner but her drinking problem is.. Something to be desired.”

“Drinking problem?”

“She drank even in her lab during our partnership. I don’t personally approve of it but she got quite the work done with us.”
“I see. Quite the work effort.”

Elsewhere, dim lights shone in what appeared to be a lab situated underground. Small vases decorated with plants situate themselves in corners near the exit, in the middle of one wall laid a large bar station. Small shelves were lined with rocks glasses, basic bar equipment laid face down on mats, and a few stained bottles of vodka and coffee liqueur laid against the back walls. 

At the opposite end of the lab held a large monitor attached to the wall and a desk that had spanned to the walls. The sides featured controls that directly connected to the monitor while the center desk held another computer connected to a traditional PC setup.

The monitors were on as a call had been coming from an undisclosed location, text regarding its info were all in Russian. Close to the computer was an air tight door with a window which led to a different lab. 

The doors opened and a woman with silver hair, bright blue eyes, and mostly black clothing walked through, in her hand was an on the rocks glass with a mixed white and brown liquid was held in it. She walked down the hall and after a few seconds of hearing the call alert continue, the call was answered.

“I was wondering when you would pick up.” A man said.

“Hmm?” The woman didn’t give a reply as she placed her glass on the desk.

“No gonna give a greeting?”  He asked.

“Not needed, explanation.” She demanded in a cold, Russian accented tone.

“Yes Dr. Morozov! We have found some unprecedented info from our recent experiment.” He explained.

“Call me by name, Sveta. And listen, if numbers are good, that’s all I want to know.” Sveta replied. She picked up her glass and took a sip.

“Numbers are very good, Sveta. What about your end?” He asked.

“They’re.. going.” Sveta answered. She pulled up a camera feed, showing a wing held in a containment chamber.

“Tests still not giving pleasing results?” He asked.

“Relic stumped even Sakurai.. better yet.. Finé. She proved great help in understanding relics. With her gone it’s.. Заноза в заднице (Pain in ass).” Sveta explained.

“You’re obsessed with that thing.” He said.

“Found it back close to decade ago. Sakurai had interest in it and she made.. wonderful compromise. Once we awaken this.. relic, potential can be studied further.” Sveta replied.

“If you say so, we’ll finish for the night.” He said before hanging up.

Sveta tapped her desk and groaned. She took another sip of her drink while pulling up images of Sakurai’s works. “Old friend, sad to see you go.” She left the pictures up as she went to work.