Chapter Text
April 27th, 1:57am
S.O.N.G Laboratories
The fluorescent lights were dimmed in the early morning lab as the UN’s resident tiny blonde alchemist tinkered away with her new metal floor mat, circuitry yet to be placed under rubber flooring to insulate it. Her boss and giant man mountain stood behind her, at a safe distance from the high voltage currents running to the centre of the room. She stepped back to the side of the commander, barely reaching his waist as he towered over the room and looked down at the switch in her hand.
“So, you can activate it now then?” Genjuro’s gruff voice was laced with the yawns of a late night at the headquarters, pouring over data with the rest of the intelligence team.
“Well… anyone can activate it.” Elfnein spoke with her back to Genjuro, having turned to her right to affix the switch to a circuit board in the wall, another that clearly needed to be placed behind non-conductive materials. He sincerely hoped Elfnein either knew what she was doing or was made of rubber, but since she was known to lock herself away for days at a time in a messy and frankly dangerous environment and be okay, he let it slide. “The problem is keeping it open.” She flicked the switch and the rise in the steel printed floorpiece began emitting a dim, rose red light onto the room. It grew to human size, violet tendrils stretching from the outline of the apparition. The centre brightened to a pinkish white as it established itself as a middle point for the waving, crackling projection. It looked poisonous to the touch.
“The problem, as you can see, is keeping it open.” Elfnein continued to talk to the wall as she moved a foot over from the switch and began assembling something at the table nearby. Gen’s eyes raced from the shimmering shape to Elfnein as she spoke, then back to the corner. The centre light brightened and the strange object grew to three metres in height before collapsing in on itself with a flash. The S.O.N.G commander raised a forearm to shield his eyes while Elfnein remained unfazed.
“You could’ve warned me about that, you know.” he sighed as he relaxed his shoulder and his arm went slack in front of his body, fatigue too much to even move it properly to his side.
“Sorry, I keep forgetting it does that…” She muttered back apologetically. “I’m never looking at it when it happens so it’s easy to discard.”
“Still, to put together such a world bridge so quickly is very impressive. Once again we’re lucky to have you, Elfnein.” he turned and beamed at the alchemist which he towered over, placing a hand on her head before gently ruffling her fluffy, golden hair. Elfnein went scarlet and reached back to her desk, finding a clipboard before pushing his head sized hand away, brimming with embarrassment.
“It’s not that important! As it stands, we still can’t use it… Ultimately I’ll be saved by the wielder’s efforts again… we need the Yantra Sarvaswa…” She trailed off into her notes.
“You know, Elfnein, they’re all thinking the same thing. While they’re singing and dealing with our most powerful enemies, they’re thinking about how the Symphogears you maintain allow them to do this. How you saved them. Have more confidence in yourself!”
“I’ll try!” she put on a smile for the first time since she heard the news of the message.
“Though while I say that, is the Yantra Sarvaswa really our only hope?”
“It’s our best hope, but technically we still have this.” Elfnein raised a small, bronzish orb for her commander to see, while releasing a hatch in the wall with her other hand. “An alchemical engine. It will provide a power source strong enough to keep Gjallarhorn’s world bridge open for us.”
“An alchemical engine… like the Philosopher’s Stone?” A muscular hand was raised to his crimson goatee as he racked his brain for alchemical knowledge in an attempt to grasp Elfnein’s words.
“Correct. The Philosopher’s Stone is a glorified alchemical engine. A perfectly efficient one, even if it does source its power from lives. This is a basic one, which will provide enough power for us, should we fail to recover the Yantra Sarvaswa.” Elfnein explained to him, nodding her head as she did so, impressed.
“If the Philosopher’s Stone uses lives, what does this use as its power source?”
“I’ve modified it to use a number of fuel sources, but the easiest to obtain is gold. Gold has always been a fundamental building block of alchemical power.” She looked into her boss’ eyes as she spoke, making sure he understood her words despite his drowsiness. “However, if completely necessary, it can also use memories or lifeforce.”
“Not to worry, I’m sure I can get a bit of gold if we don’t find the relic tomorrow.” he reassured her. “Speaking of, you should really sleep, mission starts soon. I’m heading off now. Oh and, make sure this room isn’t a voltage hazard, okay?” he scooped his jacket off the corner chair and walked to the familiar hiss of the hydraulics of the UN organisation’s base. Elfnein put the engine back onto the table and closed it’s insertion hatch as she found herself agreeing with Genjuro’s words, and walked through the still open door to her bedroom.
6:58am
Japanese Offshore Oceanography Research Station
The wielders sat alongside a circular pool’s edge, descending into the depths of the ocean. Opposite them stood Genjuro, briefing the mission. Kirika fumbled with the sleeves on her wet suit as the commander spoke.
“Listen up crew! Your mission is the retrieval of the Yantra Sarvaswa! Consider any other relics secondary! Another team will be sent in at a later date for them.” He stepped to the side to reveal a screen controlled by a remote held behind his back, turning it on. “These are all current images we have of the Yantra Sarvaswa.” He scrolled through a collage of pictures depicting the relic, clearly from its initial research phase. “Shirabe cut it straight down the middle, and cleanly. We should be able to restore its functionality if we can find both parts. Now, Tomosato, Fujitaka.”
The S.O.N.G support staff duo walked up to the line of Symphogear users and handed each of them a small, pink pill with some illegible lettering.
“These are depressurisation pills. Take them now and they’ll kick into your system by the time the diving bell reaches 1800 metres. The palace is 3 kilometres below the surface, you’ll be feeling almost 4500 psi down there. These pills can protect your bodies, but it will be difficult to move. Understood?” The group nodded in reply to his words. “Okay, checklist! Oxygen tanks? Masks? Flippers?” Genjuro was met by another nod for each item he listed off. “Good! Mission is a go, into the diving bell!” The wielders rose from their folding chairs and piled into the ovaluar, elevator sized room. Elfnein sat in the upstairs of the offshore platform’s building, sitting behind an observation window and a control panel. As Maria climbed into the bell as the final wielder, the door hissed shut and Elfnein began to lower the winch.
The gentle clang of the water crane lowering the wielders into the depths of the Pacific Ocean filled the diving bell, its lively load taking moments to look out of the thick glass windows before the view receded into inky blackness. Hibiki turned from the window and pouted back at the center of the room.
“Okay, plan of attack.” Maria began as almost everyone looked back up at her, except for Tsubasa who kept her gaze directly forward at the steel plating, hyperfocused on her task ahead. “Kirika and Shirabe, you’ll take the eastern wing of the ruins. The palace was one big H shape, so Hibiki and Chris, you can take the western wing.” Both duos nodded at her as she continued on, “Tsubasa and I will take one half of the connecting corridor each.” Maria glanced over at the ever-so-diligent sword as she remained looking straight forward, but gave a small nod of acknowledgement. ‘That’s as good as I’ll get’, Maria thought to herself. The tall idol spun around to peer into the endless depths of the sea as Elfnein’s voice over a tinny speaker announced they were passing 800 metres in depth.
“Heyhey Shirabe! Do you think we’ll see any sharks, dess?”
“Calm down Kiri, if we did it would be bad… you’re making me scared…”
“Hey, stop scaring her! We can’t activate our gears down here y’know!”
“Chris is right guys, just relax! I’m sure there won’t be any sharks down here” Hibiki chimed in, trying to lift the mood for her younger wielders, to the effect of calming Shirabe and disappointing Kirika.
“I wanted to see some sharks, dess…”
“I’ll take you two to the aquarium when we get some time, okay?” Maria’s motherly face making an appearance in her best effort to cheer up her friends.
“Promise, Maria?”
“I promise, we’ll go to the best aquarium we can.”
“I’m gonna hold you to that, dess.”
Elfnein’s voice rang out over the bell’s intercom once more. “Everyone, the bell only reaches 2.5 kilometres down! We’re approaching now, but you’ll have to swim down to the palace ruins.” Hibiki turned her face to the small, black and white camera in the corner of the diving bell and made a thumbs up at it. Back on the surface, Elfnein made a small smile at the positive signal. “We’re slowing down now everyone, prepare to depressurise and leave.” The alchemist took her hand away from the microphone’s on button and brought it to her coffee mug, taking a deep sip.
Rushing water pushed the wielders into each other as the ocean’s deep icy water poured into the vessel, unheated by the sun’s rays that barely penetrated the surface, let alone to three kilometres where the Undersea Dragon’s Palace laid. Maria took charge, lifting her the back of her right hand over her shoulder and raising her middle and index fingers to Hibiki and Chris, signalling to fan out to their side of the ruins. Tsubasa swam ahead of her, Maria didn’t try to stop her. Even if she did, Tsubasa could pull rank if she really wanted to, being the Operations Commander of the Symphogear unit, and the Ukrainian singer knew that her partner knew better than to jeopardise a mission of this importance. Quickly making the same signal to Kirika and Shirabe, she kicked her legs and chased Tsubasa into the centre corridor of the sunken prison.
“So, Shirabe. Where were we when you broke it…?” Kirika asked through her diving microphone, the UN’s technology offering Shirabe nearly a flawless feed despite being several feet underwater.
“The south-eastern corner. We were near the waterborne entrance though, there’s a chance it washed away in the collapse.” Shirabe avoided eye contact as she replied, fearing what would come next.
“You remember! Of course you do! I love your photographic memory, dess!” Kirika beamed under her oxygen mask, unable to see Shirabe’s face as the smaller girl turned away, despite her gear already hiding any blushing she produced.
“It’s not photographic… there’s too many things I’ve forgotten…”
“But you remember everything from after that right? Then it’s fine, dess! Still, you should really tell the others, even if you only tell them what you do remember from when this happened. It would’ve helped the search.” Kirika gave up on trying to see the embarrassment on her twin blade’s face and panned her head right, the rocks beginning to turn to concrete as they drew ever so closer to the rubble.
“They don’t need to know, they’ll ask questions. And besides, like I said Kiri, it probably moved in the explosion.”
“You’re so pessimistic Shirabeeee, just relax! Last one to the south-east corner is a rotten egg, dess!” Kirika took off with a powerful kick, while Shirabe sighed watching her friend take off into the darkness, visible only through the reflective green strips on their suits shimmering in her flashlight beam, and took off after the emerald stripe.
Chris and Hibiki took off at a sharper angle than the rest of the group, hugging the cliff face as they swam towards their wing of the undersea complex. Hibiki spiralled and barrel rolled in the water, bouncing off the hard granite carefree as ever.
“Hey, moron, can you stop having fun?” Chris asked the hamster-like Gungnir user as she swam normally and directly to her objective.
“Swimming normally isn’t going to change what’s there, Chris! Relax a little!”
“I can’t relax you idiot! This is serious!” Chris slowed as she spoke, coming to a standstill in the water.
“Chris… are you okay?” Hibiki’s neck swivelled as she straightened her body and looked back at her snowy haired companion before slowly floating towards her. Chris spun around in suspension, avoiding the question Hibiki proposed. “If something’s bothering you, you can always talk to me, Chris.”
“Of course I’m bothered!” The hothead turned another 180 degrees back towards Hibiki, eyes shutting at the base as emotions flooded through her brain. “We wouldn’t be risking our lives in the ocean right now if it wasn’t for me! I blew up the palace! I nearly shot my juniors! All my mistakes always come back to me and I-” Hibiki flung her arms in front of her and parted the water between her and Chris, propelling herself forward and reaching out to take Chris’ hand in her own. “What are you doing, moron?!” Chris screamed at her former classmate, almost twisting her neck straight off her head as she tried desperately to look anywhere that wasn’t Hibiki’s amber orbs.
“Chris, no one blames you for those things. You had to stop Carol, right? And you defeated an Autoscorer on your own! And then you saved Kirika and Shirabe from that same demolition job you caused, so it evens out!” Hibiki giggled, more to herself than Chris, as she delivered the last sentence of her talk.
“You have such a simple way of thinking!”
“Maybe! But all we can do now is find it, and that’ll help us won’t it? And if you’re looking, then you’re helping too! You’ve done more than enough atoning.” And with that, Hibiki turned to the rock wall, found a foothold and kicked off in the direction of the Undersea Dragon’s Palace once more, only this time with Chris following her adventurous cliff jumping route.
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At the same time as the Undersea Dragon’s Palace investigation
New York City, USA
The zodiac boat sped along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean as two men sat within its low walled interior, one disregarding his life jacket entirely, opting for instead a suit and tie, hardly swimming attire. The other was in a white t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts, clearly used to the sea and driving such vehicles. His orange life jacket sat around his shoulders, after all, the Yggdrasil incident had completely unfamiliarised the locals from their usual seafaring patterns, and the trip to Liberty Island was now filled with uncertain wave sizes and shapes.
“You want me to drop you off right above the crater’s centre? You’re insane, man.” the man spoke to his well dressed passenger with a hearty chuckle.
“That’s right. I’ll be okay, don’t worry.” His light brown hair and matching eyes gave his ferryman a wide, closed mouth smile. “The statue is right next to it, is it not?”
“It is, but I worry about my customers, you know.”
“I assure you I’ll return unharmed, sir.”
The sun dipped halfway below the horizon of the concrete jungle, and Shinji Ogawa smiled into the sky.
The night made his job easier.