Hmm. Okay.
Oi, Nate!
*throw*
For all the presumptious bravado in that declaration, though Ren had probably just blamed it on my quirkiness in general, things weren't simply going to start falling into place just because I'd decided on a particular course of action.
Before, the only thing I'd wanted to concern myself with had been reasearch into the Materialization process and exactly how it managed to pull Slaves and Robes into reality from across its barriers.
To that end, Black had been created ... well, not only to that end, but it was certainly part of the reason. Schwarz had been stockpiling and researching Materialization technology for as long as it had existed, and Miyu assured me that they'd been around for a very long time indeed. I was also convinced that their notes and reasearch data would be of more use than that which could be gotten from Garderobe. Honestly, what use would being able to call a fancy new set of clothes, even ones that gave a person prodigal personal power, be to me?
The irony was that everybody and their dog seemed to be drooling at the thought of getting their hands on Otome and Robes, and I'd been working my ass off for the past two years and change to get at uncovering the mechanics behind summoning Slaves.
Right now this was something that could be considered most fortunate. Both because Schwarz was stepping up its schedule, building towards whatever it was they'd been building to - something that, had they not been one of Black's chief points of focus, would not have been noticed - and because it looked like Black was going to have to become a little more active. A little more aggressive.
Maybe I'd need to give some of our technicians-on-call a more thorough debriefing.
I shook my head.
It was looking more and more like I'd be wandering headlong into another war.
So why was I getting this nigh-uncontrollable urge to grin?
***
She couldn't sleep. Not really.
It was, she reflected, not something she'd had great problems with back during the events of the Festival. Then again, knowing about the Festival and having experienced it were two different things, and she was not quite as deluded as to try and make herself believe that she'd not been unsettled by her part in it.
Oh, her actions had been genuine enough ... but at the same time, they bore the signs of the sort of heavy-handed excessiveness which came from desperation. Something she'd been walking on the very edge of during those last days.
And when she'd finally regained some equilibrium, she and Natsuki had ended up killling one-another like some sort of bad samurai-dourama throwback plot.
Then she'd woken up, and had been offered another chance ... hooks and all.
Now? A small, nearly hysterical chuckle sounded in the dark silence of the room she'd been given.
There was something oppressive in the air, so very much like the impending sensation of another Festival, yet different at the same time.
Fujino Shizuru had never been a big believer in Fate and Destiny in any way other than the one which said a person could make their way through life regardless of either. Yet this feeling, it had those two words written over the top in bold black kanji.
The similarities of this place, this 'Earl', and the players involved in the dance ... a different dance, yet one which seemed to echo with something deep within her chest ... with what she'd gone through once already were disquieting to say the least and ...
No.
She would not lie to herself.
She feared having to experience another rendition of the Festival.
If that had been the only thing on her mind, she would quite possibly have given up there and then.
But she hadn't. She'd not given up through the forced inaction and hospitality of Aries, she'd not given up when breaking out of that inertia inducing setting, and she would not give up now.
Because, even with all that fear, all that anxiety, Fujino Shizuru had a Reason.
A Reason which was currently, for all intents and appearences, in service of an organization which was similar enough, in the ways that mattered, to the First District of her home that she knew Natsuki would never willingly have done so.
In the darkness, Shizuru fell in and out of a troubled sleep plagued with dreams that were more rememberance than nightmare, but her determination never wavered.
She would see her Natsuki again.
And this time, she would not fail in protecting her most precious person.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
Oi, Nate!
*throw*
For all the presumptious bravado in that declaration, though Ren had probably just blamed it on my quirkiness in general, things weren't simply going to start falling into place just because I'd decided on a particular course of action.
Before, the only thing I'd wanted to concern myself with had been reasearch into the Materialization process and exactly how it managed to pull Slaves and Robes into reality from across its barriers.
To that end, Black had been created ... well, not only to that end, but it was certainly part of the reason. Schwarz had been stockpiling and researching Materialization technology for as long as it had existed, and Miyu assured me that they'd been around for a very long time indeed. I was also convinced that their notes and reasearch data would be of more use than that which could be gotten from Garderobe. Honestly, what use would being able to call a fancy new set of clothes, even ones that gave a person prodigal personal power, be to me?
The irony was that everybody and their dog seemed to be drooling at the thought of getting their hands on Otome and Robes, and I'd been working my ass off for the past two years and change to get at uncovering the mechanics behind summoning Slaves.
Right now this was something that could be considered most fortunate. Both because Schwarz was stepping up its schedule, building towards whatever it was they'd been building to - something that, had they not been one of Black's chief points of focus, would not have been noticed - and because it looked like Black was going to have to become a little more active. A little more aggressive.
Maybe I'd need to give some of our technicians-on-call a more thorough debriefing.
I shook my head.
It was looking more and more like I'd be wandering headlong into another war.
So why was I getting this nigh-uncontrollable urge to grin?
***
She couldn't sleep. Not really.
It was, she reflected, not something she'd had great problems with back during the events of the Festival. Then again, knowing about the Festival and having experienced it were two different things, and she was not quite as deluded as to try and make herself believe that she'd not been unsettled by her part in it.
Oh, her actions had been genuine enough ... but at the same time, they bore the signs of the sort of heavy-handed excessiveness which came from desperation. Something she'd been walking on the very edge of during those last days.
And when she'd finally regained some equilibrium, she and Natsuki had ended up killling one-another like some sort of bad samurai-dourama throwback plot.
Then she'd woken up, and had been offered another chance ... hooks and all.
Now? A small, nearly hysterical chuckle sounded in the dark silence of the room she'd been given.
There was something oppressive in the air, so very much like the impending sensation of another Festival, yet different at the same time.
Fujino Shizuru had never been a big believer in Fate and Destiny in any way other than the one which said a person could make their way through life regardless of either. Yet this feeling, it had those two words written over the top in bold black kanji.
The similarities of this place, this 'Earl', and the players involved in the dance ... a different dance, yet one which seemed to echo with something deep within her chest ... with what she'd gone through once already were disquieting to say the least and ...
No.
She would not lie to herself.
She feared having to experience another rendition of the Festival.
If that had been the only thing on her mind, she would quite possibly have given up there and then.
But she hadn't. She'd not given up through the forced inaction and hospitality of Aries, she'd not given up when breaking out of that inertia inducing setting, and she would not give up now.
Because, even with all that fear, all that anxiety, Fujino Shizuru had a Reason.
A Reason which was currently, for all intents and appearences, in service of an organization which was similar enough, in the ways that mattered, to the First District of her home that she knew Natsuki would never willingly have done so.
In the darkness, Shizuru fell in and out of a troubled sleep plagued with dreams that were more rememberance than nightmare, but her determination never wavered.
She would see her Natsuki again.
And this time, she would not fail in protecting her most precious person.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm