In the green French countryside, a beautiful woman holding a heavy lance looked around at where many bodies of white monsters were strewn haphazardly. She wore futuristic knight armor with silver plates and a blue pleated micro-skirt that extended from the sides and back into elegant coattails. Her long legs were covered by dark thigh-high leg coverings and heavily reinforced silver leg greaves.
Adding to her already great beauty was her hair, spread behind her like loose gold waves, making her look like a queen of the battlefield. Her face looked serious, but at her age, this only made her appear more charming.
-"Lady Bianka."-A woman appearing to be about sixteen walked to the girl, whom she had just called Bianka.-"We eliminated all targets. Lord Bishop asked me to prepare a report on the new armor's suitability."
The woman also wore armor with a similar color scheme to Bianka's, but hers was much lighter, appearing more like a short dress with few armor plates here and there. Her short honey-blonde hair covered one of her eyes, leaving only her right, reddish-pink eye visible. Compared to Bianka's heroic beauty, she seemed to embody a devilish charm that hid great danger, like a rose in bloom.
-"Everything is working fine on my end; with a little more training and fine-tuning, I will be able to use this armor perfectly."-Bianka answered with full confidence.-"Rita, do you know what's going on on my Little Cousin's side?"
-"Are you worried about your childhood sweetheart, Lady Bianka?"-Rita teased her.-"Little Lord should be fine; he is also an A-rank Warrior after all."
-"Rita."-Bianka blushed slightly and avoided the gaze of her adjutant.
-"Don't call me Little Lord."-A young voice sounded from further away.
It instantly attracted the eyes of two girls, who turned around only to see a boy about 10 years old flying while standing on a sword. He also wore silver-blue armor, but it had a noticeably different style, possessing elements from ancient Shenzhou.
He wore a similarly modern silver chest plate over a blue, ankle-length qun. The long skirt parted slightly, partly revealing the silver greaves and heavy armored boots. His wide dà xiù sleeves flared open at the elbows, exposing full silver gauntlets on his forearms. From the hanging sleeves, long, gauze-like shuǐ xiù extended and floated freely.
The armor caused the boy to appear like an immortal from the various Chinese stories, but all that heroism was broken when his hair, that were white at the roots and turning light pink at the ends, entered the girls' eyes. This caused him to look like a girl trying to pretend to be a boy, making both of them show a smile as if being healed.
-"What?"
-"It's nothing, Lord Schariac."-Rita bowed slightly, trying to cover a blush due to imagining some things that shouldn't be spoken aloud.
-"Just call me Eno. We are both Bianka's Vice-Captains and Adjutants, so there is no need for such titles."-I crossed my arms.-"I'll prepare the detailed report about the armor later and hand it to Bishop."
-"Cousin, are you sure that you don't want to follow us on the mission into the Sea of Quanta?"-Bianka asked, reluctant to part.
-"It's not that I don't want to; it's that I can't. My Master forbids me from entering there, and Bishop Otto also won't allow me to go with you."-I sighed, not understanding why they were so against it.-"Look at the bright side. With having so much free time and no one to take care of so many Honkai beasts, I should be able to catch up to you in missions, allowing us to advance to S-Rank together."
-"It's a promise."-Bianka smiled after hearing my mind, the sadness of parting disappearing instantly.
A few minutes later, a transport ship arrived near our location. Bianka and Rita leaped directly onto it, while I took a few steps as if I were walking onto stairs, swords manifesting under my feet.
A few hours later, I sat in a comfortable armchair, my armor back in the pod waiting for a command to be directly summoned onto me. Now I wore a uniform I received from Master; her version of it was called Taixuan Impression, while mine was Yìxué Impression, but aside from slight modifications due to our different genders, it was almost identical.
On the opposite side of a desk from me sat a handsome man looking about twenty, my superior and nominal 'guardian' and mentor second to Master, Otto Apocalypse, the Bishop of Schicksal. Despite my being part of the Schariac family and a designated head of this generation, I had little contact with that family, being raised by Master while Otto was my teacher in all but martial arts. It was only due to my blood and his assistance that I received the surname Schariac and was appointed as the next head.
-"So, Eno, now that you are officially put on leave from Immortal Blades, what are your plans?"-He asked, a smile present on his face as always.
-"Do some missions, continue learning, and maybe visit some places."-I answered vaguely.
-"Hmm… I'll take it that you have no plans at all. It's perfect, as I have a job that is a perfect fit for you."
-"Sigh. Please explain."-I knew that even if I tried to say that I had plans now, he wouldn't listen, so I just surrendered directly.
-"About a month ago, we detected strange movements from an Anti-Entropy executive happening right under our noses in Nagazora City, so I hope you can look into that."
-"Am I to go undercover, or just investigate?"
-"With your appearance, what's the use of going undercover?"-Otto looked at me with a strange gaze.
-"Old man, don't even start."-I instantly got annoyed.-"You are the last person who can say that; I saw your famous distraction act in the Virtual Reality Archives."
-"Desperate times call for desperate measures; we'll see if you can keep yourself clean from crossdressing."-Otto shrugged, anticipating the day when I'm also put in such a place.
-"Go back to the subject."-I told him while taking a sip of my tea.
-"Right. You were partly right. I'll arrange an identity for you other than Schicksal Warrior, so you can be considered partly undercover. Nagazora City is the hometown of one Anti-Entropy executive, and he developed quite a company there, but lately he has heavily invested in some secret research, so I want to know why and if he has any plans that can harm our interests."
-"Now that you told me those public reasons, you can start with the real why."-I told him with a flat face.
-"Tsk, where's my cute and naive Eno went?"-Otto acted depressed.
-"You killed him."-I rolled my eyes.
-"Ehem."-He stopped pretending and looked at me with a serious expression.-"While not fully confirmed, I have a high degree of certainty that a Gem of Conquest is hidden somewhere there. I suspect that a rival Anti-Entropy executive plans to use it to awaken a Herrscher while avoiding blame themselves."
-"Backstabbing from an ally, truly disgusting."-I scoffed.-"Sure, I'll do it, just be sure to give me enough merit so that I can take the S-Rank test together with Bianka, as I promised to do so with her."
-"Oh? Then I'll have to arrange some extracurricular activities for you so that earn that merit."
-"You do you, Old man. Any more tasks?"
-"Actually, yes. There is a lost kitten that might appear in Nagazora at some point; she could be considered to have some fate with you, so take care of her if you can."
-"Fate with me? Are you Catholic or Buddhist?"
-"Neither. But yes, fate; she is Kaslana after all."
-"Kaslana you say? Sure, I heard that they are quite good, so I'll happily see one in action."
-"Then I'll leave it to you, Eno."
With my next mission arranged, I took a quick vacation at the base, spending time with Bianka and Rita in the name of team building, as our Immortal Blades had formed just a month ago, yet I already had to take leave. And, in Bianka's vocabulary, team building means training together, so I spent almost the whole days in the Virtual Training Grounds. It was only after two of them left for their mission that I moved to Nagazora City.
Nagazora City looked like every other modern city, high-rises covering the sky and endless shops trying desperately to attract your eyes. After arriving here, I put away my things in a house Otto arranged for me and decided to walk around the city. Even in normal clothes, my appearance was rather eye-catching, so wherever I walked, many people would stare at me.
Being already used to it, I ignored them and proceeded to quite enjoy my trip. I tried some local sweets, finding them adequate, then made my way to the school I'll be attending to establish my identity. The school was a prestigious school that, not even twenty years ago, was aristocratic all girls' school; then, due to financial difficulties, it looked for governmental assistance and was forced to expand its student body to include academic admissions and males.
Since then, Chiba Academy has turned into one of the best schools in the region, recruiting only the best of the best, or the rich. Despite allowing male students, the majority of the students remained female, thus becoming what others on the internet called a 'holy ground'. But when I entered its grounds, I couldn't feel any of that holiness, only constant gazes of girls looking at me with hungry eyes.
Accelerating my steps, I found the teacher's office and then was led into the director's office, where I finished all the procedures for enrolment, entering the high school's freshman year, skipping five years according to my age.
But this wasn't an issue; under Otto's tutelage, I had already finished high school and even most of college material in fields of physics and biology. According to my Master, I only needed to remember what I had already learned long ago, while Otto praised me for my talent. But returning to the present, I listened to the teacher explaining some things I needed to watch out for before he sent me back, telling me to come on Monday to start classes.
As today was Friday, and the clubs were still open, I decided to look around before returning. The few clubs that interested me were Judo, Kendo, and baking, first I visited the baking club, but after observing their techniques for a while, I decided that it was a waste of time to stay here. The next was judo, but after I entered, some guy identifying himself as a vice president started hitting on me, so I trashed him and left.
This caused me to enter the kendo club with minimal hope, and at first I indeed was disappointed with the level of people I saw. I wasn't a martial arts purist, so I could tolerate competition styles existing solely for tournaments. But even looking at the people present through such a lens, they were bad, almost pathetic.
I was about to leave when a figure caught my eye. A rather tall girl with thigh-length black or dark purple hair styled in a hime cut, with half tied in a ponytail, paired with indigo eyes. I had to admit she was a beauty, still a little short compared to Bianka or Rita, but she perfectly met the character of a Yamato nadeshiko, giving her a unique, homely aura.
But for whatever reason, I felt attracted to her on some deeper level, as if I genuinely thought she was someone close to me. While I was in thought, she also observed me, also having a strange impulse, but calming down and behaving reservedly as a girl should in her eyes, not noticing that she already subconsciously didn't want to leave a bad impression on me.
Soon, it was her turn to fight, and when she entered the stage, my eyes instantly brightened, noticing that her skill with a sword was far beyond others here. As I thought, she easily won her match, not losing even one point. As the matches continued, someone finally decided to approach me, inviting me to try a match to see if I wanted to join.
As I had already planned to do so, I moved to the changing room to change into a kendogi that matched my size. After returning, I was directed to a side stage that was free, where a girl who appeared to be the president of the club stood. She introduced some terms and rules before handing me parts of Bōgu that were a little too big, but as it was already the smallest size, I had to do with it for now.
After that, I stood in my position and waited for a signal before attacking the girl in front of me. Even without using any Honkai or Imaginary energy, defeating such a half-assed opponent was easy, so not even five minutes later, I had won the match, causing a gasp of amazement from surroundings spectators. The president seemed not to mind her loss, and she suggested that I fight someone else, as she admitted that she was in her position due to being good at organizing, and not with the sword.
So I agreed to her idea, and soon, another person stood before me, someone I wanted to face. Without any speeches, we attacked the moment the signal was given, exchanging a few strikes before she managed to score a point. Noticing my mistake, I corrected it and took revenge not long after. As the match was now 1-1, we continued to exchange blows, but before we noticed it, the time had ended, causing our fight to end in a draw.
After returning the sword and Bōgu, I quickly got changed back and prepared to leave the club, but as I did, the girl I had just fought with also prepared to leave together with a few of her friends. Noticing me by the exit, she nodded in greeting and spoke softly.
-"Hello, Junior, it's rare to see someone talented in swordsmanship. I hope we can exchange pointers in the future."
-"Hello. A good spar after learning is indeed a tempting suggestion. But excuse me, have me met before? I seem to know you, yet I can't remember why."
-"Pfff."-One of the girls on the side laughed.-"Even for a girl, you should learn a better pick-up line."
-"No…"-I tried to defend myself, but before I could, I heard the girl step in to help me instead.
-"I also feel that I met you before, Junior. But as neither of us remembers why, let's treat this as our first meeting. I'm Mei, Raiden Mei."-She extended her hand to me.
-"I'm a newly transferred student; just call me Eno."-I shook her hand.-"But something I have to point out: I'm a boy; please don't confuse me for a girl, as it's rather annoying."
And that's how history started yet another cycle.