Chapter Text
Master Switch: On. Main Engine: Start. Asimov OS booting up. monitors are functional, indicating Fuel Cell Batteries are heating up. Voltage: Check. Accumulator Pressure: Check. Tactical Datalink, activated. All Systems: Green.
Just as Kaizuka Inaho finished his precautionary check of his Orange Sleipnir, he was off of his ship and headed straight for the Tanegashima port. His target was the Versian Kataphrakt Hellas who stood at the peak of the mountain shooting off relentless attacks with her many fists.
“Mustang 11, Were going too!,” Kaizuka Yuki shouted out to Inko as she chases after her younger brother.
“Nao-kun, what do you think you’re doing? Don’t run off like that! ” Yuki-nee clamored to Inaho over the public communication line.
Just as Yuki-nee said that however, Inaho noticed a Versian Skycarrier flying overhead making its way towards Tanegashima island. Leaving the Skycarrier alone for a moment, Inaho, content at the Mustang Team’s location decided it’s time to take on the female Kataphrakt sensing that the Skycarrier overhead may actually be of some help than of harm to him at the moment. Hellas launched a new wave of attack, but despite the relentless waves of attacks, Inaho kept his focus thinking, “At the velocity and distance that those hands move at, we should be able to apply just a little force to throw off the pathway of those hands.”
“Enemy unit at 4 o clock” Yuki-nee shouted hoping that Inaho would focus a little more on the battle, and Inko started to open fire at the highspeed hand heading in their direction. Yuki-nee and Inko panic as their AP rounds do no damage to the fist enclosing their location, but Inaho continued to think about a strategy showing no signs of panic. Just before the hand made impact, the Versian Skycarrier shot it out of the way changing its course from the Mustang group into the Tanegashima Bay.
“That Martian aircraft will cover us,” He thought as he continued to formulate his plans to take down Hellas. As Inaho was calculating, the pilot of the aircraft and him reached the same conclusion as the Versian aircraft lowered itself allow Inaho to jump on.
“Opening up private channel,” The blond pilot of the skycarrier heard as he stabilized himself with the Orange Kataphrakt now abroad.
“Nao-kun don’t! That’s a Martian!” Yuki-nee exclaimed only for Inaho to reply saying, “Yuki-nee, I’ll talk to you later.”
“Patch me into your network, Bat” Inaho said through his com link to the skycarrier.
“B-Bat?!” The blond pilot questioned, but still followed Inaho’s request.
The two worked flawlessly together and managed to destroy four of Hella’s arms before the Countess had decided to make her move and personally attack the skycarrier and orange Kataphrakt.
“Oi, she’s on to us” Inaho said as calm and collected as ever.
“Shut up, Orange!” Bat clamored as he stalled out his engine to allow them a quick descent without taking any damage from the enemy Kataphrakt.
Just then, missiles were launched from the base of the Tanegashima island as a ship started to emerge. Flying past the ship the blond pilot noticed that one of the passengers was a girl with long blond hair who seemed to have activated the ship herself.
“Asseylum!” the blond pilot exclaimed, not noticing Inaho’s reaction to his outburst.
With the help of the newly emerged ship and the teamwork between the Inaho and Bat, Hella’s was taken down with one last final shot. Excited, the pilot demanded Inaho to lead him to where Assylum was, but Inaho was very skeptical about the whole situation wondering how this pilot could even know about Asseylum’s existence.
“How do you know who she is and why she’s here? ” Inaho questioned carefully as he loaded his cannon with his final HE round.
“Take me to her,” The blond pilot retaliated now pointing his guns at the Orange Kataphrakt still abroad.
“Answer the question.” Inaho stated one more time taking aim.
“Are you my enemy?” the pilot tried to say then BOOM a sudden flash of red passed onto the Skycarrier’s screen as he assessed the damage that he has now taken to his wing. At the same moment, Inaho jumped off of the Skycarrier and watched as it fell into the sea.
“You are my enemy.” Inaho coldly said watching the Skycarrier sink.
“Aw, damn that Orange,” Slaine said as he looked at his laptop screen now showing a game over sign. Slaine sighed and started to assess his earnings and losses through this last battle he had just partaken in.
“Geez, Aldnoah. Zero is still a pretty new game. How did that guy even get that good?” Slaine questioned as he looked at the damage his skycarrier had taken and he contemplated whether he should repair it or just buy a new one. At that moment Slaine’s phone went off and he scrambled to adjust to his surrounds so that he could find his phone. Once he looked at the caller ID, his face lightened up as he answered the phone.
“Slaine!” a soft sounding voice of a girl called out, “I can’t believe that the first time we connect to this game online we were pit on different teams!”
“Asseylum,” Slaine dragged her name out, “It’s not that we were on different teams. It’s just that you were made the princess of that level and somehow ended up siding with the Terran team.”
“Ah, if you just would have converted from the Martian side to the Terran side then you could have won with us!” Asseylum exclaimed excited about winning her first round as the princess in Aldnoah.Zero.
“No, I don’t think you get it Asseylum. When we randomly entered that level, I was assigned to be a part of the Versian team. The whole point of the game is for the princess to either side with the Versian or Terran team at the end of taking down a boss, like Hellas.” Slaine tried to explain to his childhood friend, Asseylum, who just started playing Aldnoah. Zero today.
“Then why did you work with Inaho-san?” Asseylum questioned genuinely confused about Slaine’s actions.
“Inaho? Ah, you mean the guy piloting the Orange Kataphrakt? That’s cause it’s impossible to take out one of the boss Kataphrakts alone, so our goals coincided for the moment. I also voice connected to him, so he probably realized that I was looking for you and thought that I was going to try and take you back to the Versian side with me. That was my mistake, but that stupid Orange didn’t have to shoot me since I was already heavily outnumbered! Now I lost my skycarrier and have a loss on my record.” Slaine groaned as he complained to Asseylum, “also Asseylum, how come you chose to side with the Terran side despite me being put on the Versian team?”
“Oh, that’s because the people I was chatting with said we had a common goal, but I didn’t mention I was the princess for that level until I realized that only I could power that flying ship! It must’ve been one of those secret weapons that only the princess assigned to that level could unlock!” Asseylum answered with joy in her voice from being an important player and one of the reasons that the Terrans won the level.
“Just my luck that you had to be the princess when it was your first time playing huh,” Slaine said back sounding cheerful that Asseylum was happy. “ Oi, I have to go but I won’t lose next time Asseylum, and hey who knows I might be a Terran and you a Versian next time” Slaine chuckled as he heard Asseylum pout over the phone at the shock that Slaine and her may not end up on the same team yet again when they play.
“That’s fine Slaine! I hope I at least get Inaho-san on my team again, whether that be Versian or not!” Asseylum stated with a somewhat proud-like tone, “Oh, and goodbye Slaine. It was nice talking and playing with you like this before you transfer to our school! It makes me feel like you never moved away from here!”
“Haha, that’s good Asseylum. Well then I’ll see you on Monday, and hopefully we can be in the same class this year. Also, I’ll be moving back into the house next to yours so we can hang out again like old times instead of only talking through the phone! Bye Asseylum.” Slaine closed his phone and laid back thinking about Orange who totally stole his thunder for the day.
“Kaizuka Inaho huh? I’ll get my payback on that stupid Orange someday.”
Inaho stared at his screen shining with his stats and earnings for that playthrough. Nothing in that last round particularly stuck out to him because he happened to accidently discover who the princess was early on in the game.
“Seylum-sempai was horrible at keeping her position hidden,” Inaho thought as he went and laid down in his bed.
“NAO-KUN!” Yuki-nee shouted as she barged into his room, “You practically won that round for us, but did you know the pilot of that Martian Skycarrier? It seemed as though you’ve played with him before.” Yuki-nee went on continuing to ask.
“Bat? I don’t think I’ve ever played with him before. He was a very skilled player and apparently he knew Seylum-sempai so it was a good thing that I convinced her that our side was the right choice for this level.” Inaho replied “Oh, but Seylum-sempai did tell me after the game that his name is Slaine Troyard who is her childhood friend that should be coming back to this area of Japan soon and even transferring into our school.”
Just as Yuki-nee was going to reply to Inaho she shouted, “ Oh my gosh! I totally forgot to prep my lesson for Monday! How could you let me sit around and play Aldnoah. Zero all day when I don’t even have my lesson plan ready” Yuki-nee proclaimed to her younger brother whose expression never changed, even at her sudden outburst.
“Hmmm, well that’s not really my responsibility now is it Yuki-nee?” Inaho said as he slightly smirked at his stupdified sister.
“Ah, if that’s the case then there will be no ride for you on Monday to school!” Yuki-nee taunted thinking she finally had the upperhand on Inaho.
“That’s okay. It’s only 10 minutes by subway then another 10 by walking. It’s not like I will be late.” Inaho said matter-of-factly landing the final shots on Yuki-nee’s pride as an older sister.
“My little Nao-kun has grown up and doesn’t need me to watch over him anymore~~” Yuki-nee pouted as she left Inaho’s room.
“That’s not what I meant,” Inaho tried to say to her but she just turned around and chuckled at him before leaving to her own room.
Returning to laying down on his bed, Inaho rested.
“Slaine Troyard, his skill was quite impeccable. Let’s see how much fun we can have, Bat.”
Asseylum just getting off the phone with Slaine turned back to her computer to log off of Aldnoah. Zero. Just before she did a thought struck her and she opened a chat to Inaho.
“Inaho-san” she typed and waited briefly for a reply.
“Yes, Seylum-sempai” Inaho responded not even a minute later.
“It’s about Slai- no, that Skycarrier you teamed up with. How did you know that he could be trusted?” She questioned him.
“It was only a matter of our interests temporarily coinciding” Inaho replied instantly.
Asseylum laughed as she read his reply and thought, “for those two not knowing each other, their thought patterns are exactly the same.”
“Well then Inaho-san, as another prize for winning that round I’ll tell you his identity. He is Slaine Troyard a childhood friend of mine. He should be back in Japan in about 2 days, so he’ll be transferring into our school on Monday! Also, he is going to be a year above you so I guess that makes him Troyard- sempai to you~” Asseylum typed back to him wondering about where this would go.
“On Monday? Then I guess I will try to make his acquaintance if he wants to. I did shoot him out of the sky causing his loss today however” Inaho said promptly.
“It’ll be fine, I can’t wait for the two of you to meet! I’ll talk to you again on Monday Inaho-san and try to help bridge a friendship! Bye, talk to you later!” Asseylum typed back quickly.
She saw Inaho replying to her back to her, but logged out quickly and closed her laptop thinking how this new friendship is going to turn out.
“Ah, Slaine and Inaho-san huh. This is going to be a fun year.” Asseylum thought and smiled.