Tip: I'm going to totally ignore any and all edits unless I like what they've changed or (like Jintor's) improve the flow and syntax. Not if they change the point of the stuff I do.
I like most of Discreet's 'flow' edits, not so much the 'major change' edits. The flow edits are good though, I'll put it on the backlog.
By the way, I really appreciate you putting your edits in bold. It helps a shitload.
Ah, damn. I never watched the entire series, only the first three episodes on Youtube and the Tengen Toppa gattai, so I only assumed the "Genome/Spiral" thing in my last rewrite.
Anyway, here's my take on Ryo vs Yuu. Reveals some feelings for both Nagato and Haruki.
Spoiler for Ryo v.s. Yuu EPIC:
In an instant, a diagonal, metallic-white, crescent-shaped light flashed in front of Asakura . In addition to naturally blinking at it, I squatted down by instinct from the sound of a metal blade swishing in the air. When I heard something seem to cut into the teacher’s desk behind me, I scrambled halfway towards the door and faced him.
Smiling pleasantly, Asakura, still facing the blackboard, now before the teacher’s desk, had a straight, mid-length, metal blade that was sharp enough to cut into the wood of the teacher’s desk and get stuck in it. It was some kind of old Japanese sword, maybe a katana, but the blade was straight… A ninja-tou, an assassin’s blade.
I was very lucky to suddenly be granted with those ninja-senses. Because right now I'm on the ground on my backside, looking palely at Asakura.
Why didn't he give chase?
......No, wait! What on Earth's going on? Why is he trying to slice me in half? Wait a second, what was it had he just said? He wants to kill me? Kill?! But, why!?
I could already tell by how he butchered the teacher’s desk that he was serious, but I could only say this trademark sentence of mine.
"Wha - that was dangerous! Even if that were a fake sword, I’d still be freaked as hell! Put that thing away!"
I was really confounded. If someone knows what's going on, please come out and explain to me!
"I know that you know that I’m very serious." Asakura said in a very cheerful tone, not sounding very serious at all. Now that I think about it, a muscular high school guy smiling while brandishing a samurai-age sword is really scary... Looking at it another way, it’s also kinda hot, but at that moment I had no time for thoughts like that. So now you know how frightened I was.
"Hmph…"
Asakura forcefully pulled the blade out of the desk, swiped the blade once to get off the splinters and saw dust, and patted his shoulder with the dull side of the ninja-tou.
"You don't like dying? You really don't want to die? The death of organic entities means nothing to me."
Asakura is supposed to be the responsible class rep, who would only talk when necessary in class, and wouldn't go nuts even when faced with a problem. Why would he carry a ninja’s blade and say he wants to kill me all of a sudden?
Yet I need to remember the fact that that sword is real, because if I wasn't careful that time, I would be in two pieces over a red puddle right now.
"I’m not getting anything from what you’re saying. This isn't funny anymore, OK? It was never even funny to begin with! Put it away!"
At this moment, I was close to tears.
"I cannot do that. Rather, I’d rather not do that." Asakura smiled his usual innocent smile, "Because I really want you dead."
He held his sword outwards to his right, blade facing back, and started rushing towards me. He's freaking fast! This time I was prepared, because long before Asakura made his move, I had set sights on escaping through the classroom door - yet I ended up slamming into a wall.
????
That's strange, I can’t find the knob, where'd the door go? Even the windows are gone! There were supposed to be windows on the wall facing the corridor, now it's just a thick grey wall. It’s like a cave in here!
Impossible!
"It's futile."
Asakura's voice grew closer from behind.
"I now have control of this area of space, so all exits have been blocked. It was quite easy actually, all I needed to do was tamper with the molecular structure of this school building and I can change its matter at will. This room has now become a sealed room, and there's no way in or out now. Your crying can’t even be heard outside this room."
I turned around and noticed that the sunset has gone as well. The whole room is surrounded by concrete walls, leaving only the white lamps shining coldy on the desks.
This can't be happening!
Asakura's silhouette moved slowly towards me.
"I advise you to stop resisting; your death is inevitable."
"......Who are you, really?"
No matter where I looked, there was a grey wall. There's not a single door, a single window, nothing! Is something wrong with my brain? Could this be just a dream? Could Mitsuru be changing behind me as I embarrassingly snore? Oh great, I can’t think straight and my priorities are mixed up!
I frantically moved between the desks, trying to get as far from Asakura as possible. Yet Asakura calmly walked towards me in a straight line, moving the desks and chairs from his path at will, as if he had some sort of telekinetic forcefield around him. Compared to him, my path was always blocked by the desks.
This cat and mouse chase didn't last long, and eventually I was cornered.
If that's the case......
I decided to take a risk and threw a chair at Asakura, yet the chair turned in the air right in front of him, and flew off to the other end of the room. How can this be possible!?
"Impressive strength for a petite girl, but strength does not matter when against my kind. Didn't I tell you it's futile? Everything in this room now moves according to my will."
Wait... Wait!
What is going on here? If this isn't a joke or a prank, and neither me nor Asakura are crazy, then what is going on?
I have to kill you, and see what sort of reaction Suzumiya Haruki would have.
Why is it Haruki again? Haruki, my, aren't you getting a bit too popular?
"Sigh… I should've done this to begin with."
My body froze after Asakura said that, literally. Hey cheapo, that’s not fair!
My feet are rooted to the ground like a tree, unable to move. My arms are fixed like a wax statue - I can't even move my fingers. My face, stuck pointing towards the ground, could see Asakura's indoor shoes slowly entering my field of vision. Dammit, my nose itches!
"Once you die, Suzumiya Haruki is bound to have some sort of reaction. This might create a massive data explosion from which we could salvage something. This could be the chance in a lifetime for us."
I don't really care about that, ya know!
"Now die."
I could feel Asakura readying his ninja-tou. Where would he start? Beheading, straight across, into the gut? Maybe he’ll…ugh…toy with me? If I knew how I was going to die, I could at least be prepared. At least let me close my eyes...... No, I ’m unable to. W... what's this!?
I suddenly felt the air shake. The blade began to fall upon me......
At this moment, the ceiling gave out a loud cracking noise, followed by debris falling down. Some of which fell on my head – Ouch, Dammit! I was covered in white dust by the large amount of continuously falling debris, so I guess Asakura is covered in white as well. I wanted to see what the bastard looked like now, but I couldn't move......no, wait! I can move again!
I lifted my head and discovered......!
A shocked Asakura - just as he's about to behead me from my right side with a right-handed grip on the sword, as I suspected. Standing in front though, blocking the sword with his right forearm, making a cut in his uniform’s sleeve and his own arm, is the modestly masculine figure of Nagato Yuuki.
(Wow, the blade isn’t even barely doing to his arm what it did to that desk.)
"Your programs are too basic." Nagato said in his usual expressionless tone,
"The data lockdown around the ceiling area was a defense with holes, not complex enough. That is why I was able to discover it and enter."
"You want to get in my way? In the way of the objective?" Asakura sounded calm. "Once I kill this girl, Suzumiya Haruki is bound to have some sort of reaction, slight or major. Only then can we obtain more data."
"You are supposed to be my backup. Any independent action with risks of major interference must go through me, or be commanded by me before being executed." Nagato said in a mantra-like tone, "This sort of insubordination is forbidden; you must obey commands given to you."
"Tch. And what if I refuse?"
"Simple, then I will disconnect your data interface."
"Care to try? I have the advantage here, since this classroom belongs to the scope of my data control."
Nagato then spoke what sounded like garbled, sped up computer code.
"Processing application for data interface disconnection."
As Nagato finished, the ninja-tou blade in his forearm started glowing brightly. Then, like a sugar cube being dropped into a cup of hot tea, it slowly crystallized, dissolved and fell towards the floor like powder.
"!!"
Asakura released the hilt of his sword right before it disintegrated, and kicked at the ground, skidding five meters away on his left heel right before jumping back a few steps and landing on both feet, leaving a skid mark, and a trail of smoke rising from the ground. Seeing this scene, I couldn't help but realize - geez, these guys can’t be human.
As Asakura landed so gracefully after making distance between his opponent, he continued smiling as usual.
The space around began to distort – As far I can describe it. Asakura, the desks, the ceiling, and the floor all shook vigorously; overall, it had the appearance of what seemed like liquid metal, though I couldn't really see that clearly, since it was almost like I was experiencing a seizure.
Just as I saw thick shiny lines which seemed like spears fly through the air, a crystallized explosion occurred in front of Nagato's raised right palm.
The next second, there were continuous crystallized explosions around Nagato, followed by powder dropping onto the ground. The crystallized spear-like objects flew from all directions towards us with lightning-fast speed. It was already a moment later when I discovered Nagato facing those spears with the same speed using inhuman aerial acrobats.
"Don’t move too much."
Nagato dodged Asakura's attacks while pulling my ponytail so that I would kneel and take cover behind him.
"Eeek!"
An unknown object flew over my head and smashed the blackboard to pieces.
Nagato looked upwards a little, and in an instant many icicle-like objects grew from the ceiling and fell towards Asakura's head. Asakura moved away with a speed that couldn't be seen with the naked eye, and instantly an icicle forest formed from the ground.
"There's no way you can succeed in this area of space." Asakura said calmly. He and Nagato stood a few meters apart, staring each other down, while I could only kneel on the ground hopelessly, not daring to stand up.
Nagato stood in front of me with his legs slightly apart, and it's only now that I notice he's so serious that he even wrote his own name on his indoor shoes. Then, as if chanting a prayer, Nagato mumbled softly in that speedy computer code speech,
SELECT serial_code
FROM database
WHERE code='data'
ORDER BY aggressive_combat_data
HAVING terminate_mode
Normal space no longer exists in the classroom. Everything has turned into geometric shapes, appearing twisted or cone-like. Seeing this surreal scenery is like entering one of those theme park house of horrors, I'm getting dizzy already from watching.
"Even if I must be rid of, you shall stop functioning before me."
I have no idea where Asakura's voice is coming from in all this colorful mirage of scenery. I’m close to getting seizures again.
Whoosh! The sound of the wind slicing through the air.
Nagato swung me around by my ponytail towards the floor behind him. I teared up from the pain.
"ACK! Dammit! What are you......"
Before I could finish, there was a spear so fast, I could just barely see it as it went past the tip of my nose and fell on the ground. At least the scratch made my nose stop itching. Ahh.
"We'll see how much longer you can protect that little thing. Try this!"
The next second, Nagato stood in front of me, facing me, impaled by about twelve brownish looking long spears.
"......"
In other words, Asakura attacked Nagato and me from all directions at the same time. Nagato managed to crystallize some of the spears and crush them with the grip of his hand or smash them with his kicks, but trying to prevent me from getting hit by the remaining spears, he'd shielded me with his body. But I didn't know that then, since it all happened so quickly.
Nagato's glasses fell from his face and softly bounced as they hit the ground.
"NAGATO-KUN…NO-!"
"Do not move." Nagato said calmly, with a stern undertone, pointing to the spears stuck in his chest and stomach. A pool of blood began to form under his feet.
"I'm fine, this is minor damage."
God, how can this be fine…Won’t you die from the blood loss or any vital organs that may have been pierced?
Nagato pulled out a spear from where his heart would’ve been without even flinching once. The bloody spear fell onto the ground with a clanking noise, and instantly turned into a desk. So that's what the spears are made from! Nagato could only say “Hm,” at this and turned the rest of the spears into crystallized powder by crushing them with the strong grips of his hands. He did this almost like a robot, with fast machine-like speed and stability.
"Don’t be modest now, with that much damage to your frame I don't suppose you can stop me now. Here's the finisher!"
At the other end of the twisted space, Asakura's silhouette faded in and out. I could see a smile from his face, which slowly grew sinister, as he then slowly raised his hands - if I'm not mistaken, his arms glowed all the way from his fingertips, and then extended to twice as long. No, even more than that...
"Perish!"
Asakura's arms kept on extending, wriggling like a bunch of tentacles, and then closing in from both directions. Holy crap, tentacles, I don’t want an H-scene! I covered my maidenhood. Unable to move, Nagato's figure shook violently...... The next instant, my face was splattered with blood.
Asakura's left arm had thrust into Nagato's right abdomen, while her right arm had thrust into Nagato's left pectoral area, piercing through her back and stopping at the classroom wall. Blood spattered from Nagato's mouth and down along his legs inside his pantlegs, making the blood pool below even wider.
"Muda." Nagato said softly, copying Asakura’s constant “Futile”, then grabbed onto the wide tentacles. Nothing happened.
"Eh?" Asakura said, sounding as though he'd won. "Are you just that self-centered as to get in a meaningless last word as if you’re about to turn the tables?"
"The tables are turning. In my favor. If you were human, you would repent for your unorthadox actions in Hell." said a seriously wounded Nagato, as though nothing had happened to him. "Commencing data interface disconnection. EXECUTE."
Almost instantly, everything in the classroom began glowing brightly, and then crystallized and dissolved within the next second, the desk beside me also turned into sand and collapsed.
"How......"
Crystallized sand fell from the ceiling nonstop, this time it is Asakura's turn to be stunned.
"I will admit, your skills were outstanding."
Nagato's wounds closed up and his blood turned to clear liquid and evaporated.
"It took me quite some time to penetrate the program. But, everything will end now."
"......You had already planted destructive factors around long before I penetrated this place, didn't you? No wonder you seemed rather weak. It was because you used up your attacking data beforehand......" Asakura said despondently as his arms began to crystallize.
"Sigh, it's such a pity, after all I'm just backup. I thought this would be a chance to break free from this deadlock."
Asakura reverted back to his normal classmate self and looked at me cheerfully.
"Hahaha…well well. It was fun, but I lost. It's good for you that you can survive now. But you'd better be careful, the Integrated Data Entity isn't as united as you think, there are quite a number like me with dissenting opinions. It's just like humans, there will be extremists like me next time. And who knows, even those who control Nagato-san might change their thinking and turn to kill you instead. Don’t think that that’ll be unlikely."
He's now covered from chest to toe by the glowing crystallized substance.
"Before that happens, I wish you and Suzumiya-san the best of luck. Farewell. Also, I’m secretly cheering you on."
Erm…uh…whatever that meant… Heheh. (Dammit, I’m not blushing, okay!)
While saying that, Asakura silently dissolved into small sandy dunes. And then, the smaller crystallized sand dunes continued to dissolve until they completely vanished.
Under a rain of crystallized sand, the high school guy known as Asakura Ryo vanished completely from this school.
There was a loud thud, suddenly. I was quick to find Nagato lying on the floor, so I frantically got up.
"Nagato-kun! Hang in there! I'll call an ambulance!"
"There is no need."
Nagato glanced at the ceiling with his usual half-open eyes.
"Physical damage is obsolete to me. Our priority is to restore this area of space back to its original state."
As he finished, the familiar 1-5 classroom reappeared before our eyes. It was like a tape rewinding: everything in the room reverted to the way it had been before.
The blackboard, the teacher's desk, the remaining chairs and desks all grew from the white sand and back to their original form as I had seen before school ended today. I can't describe what was going through my mind then. If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would've thought all these images were made with state-of-the-art CG special effects.
Windows grew from the walls, with the half-stained glasses intact; the sunset reappeared outside, bathing me and Nagato in an orange-red light. I tried looking inside my desk drawers, all the contents were still there intact, and all the blood that had spattered onto my face had now completely disappeared. This was too amazing. I could only describe it as magic!
"Are you sure you’re okay?"
I knelt beside Nagato who remained lying on the floor. All of the many wounds and holes in his uniform from being impaled by those spears were all gone now.
"As processing power has been converted into data operation, I have just reversed the linking interface for a short while."
Nagato sat up and put his index finger up to the bridge of his nose to push up his glasses, but they weren’t there.
"I forgot to reintegrate my glasses."
"You don’t have to......I actually think…you look kinda cute without ‘em."
I averted my gaze and blushed after I said this while he only said “Hm.” When I looked back, his finger was pushing up a set of glasses.
“…I’d prefer wearing them.”
I got annoyed at this and crossed my arms while I closed my eyes and turned my head the other way with a pouting face.
“W-Well fine then! It’s not like it was a request!”
Nagato then turned at me, suddenly with no glasses, and said,
“If you perfer it so much, then I won’t wear them.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hug him or strangle myself when I blushed harder all of a sudden. This strange feeling.
Ah, damn. I never watched the entire series, only the first three episodes on Youtube and the Tengen Toppa gattai, so I only assumed the "Genome/Spiral" thing. By the way, if you lurk inside the past few pages, I got out of my laziness and re-edited it myself before you, but you're free to correct anything in there too if you wish. Then again, you already did alot of work trying to fix the crappy version. Why did you have to delete "without electicity" and other additions like that, though?
Anyway, here's my take on Ryo vs Yuu. Reveals some feelings for both Nagato and Haruki.
Spoiler for Ryo v.s. Yuu EPIC:
In an instant, a diagonal, metallic-white, crescent-shaped light flashed in front of Asakura . In addition to naturally blinking at it, I squatted down by instinct from the sound of a metal blade swishing in the air. When I heard something seem to cut into the teacher’s desk behind me, I scrambled halfway towards the door and faced Asakura.
Smiling pleasantly, Asakura, still facing the blackboard, now before the teacher’s desk, had a straight, mid-length, metal blade that was sharp enough to cut into the wood of the teacher’s desk and get stuck in it. It was some kind of old Japanese sword, maybe a katana, but the blade was straight… A ninja-tou, an assassin’s blade.
I was very lucky to suddenly be granted with those ninja-senses. Because right now I'm on the ground on my backside, looking palely at Asakura.
Why didn't he give chase?
......No, wait! What on Earth's going on? Why is Asakura trying to slice me in half? Wait a second, what was it had he just said? He wants to kill me? Kill?! But, why!?
I could already tell by how he butchered the teacher’s desk that he was serious, but I could only say this trademark sentence of mine.
"Wha - that was dangerous! Even if that were a fake sword, I’d still be freaked as hell! Put that thing away!"
I was really confounded. If someone knows what's going on, please come out and explain to me!
"I know that you know that I’m very serious." Asakura said in a very cheerful tone, not sounding very serious at all. Now that I think about it, a muscular high school guy smiling while brandishing a samurai-age sword is really scary... Looking at it another way, it’s also kinda hot, but at that moment I had no time for thoughts like that. So now you know how frightened I was.
"Hmph…"
Asakura forcefully pulled the blade out of the desk, swiped the blade once to get off the splinters and saw dust, and patted his shoulder with the dull side of the ninja-tou.
"You don't like dying? You really don't want to die? The death of organic entities means nothing to me."
Asakura is supposed to be the responsible class rep, who would only talk when necessary in class, and wouldn't go nuts even when faced with a problem. Why would he carry a ninja’s blade and say he wants to kill me all of a sudden?
Yet I need to remember the fact that that sword is real, because if I wasn't careful that time, I would be in two pieces over a red puddle right now.
"I’m not getting anything from what you’re saying. This isn't funny anymore, OK? It was never even funny to begin with! Put it away!"
At this moment, I was close to tears.
"I cannot do that. Rather, I’d rather not do that." Asakura smiled his usual innocent smile, "Because I really want you dead."
He held his sword outwards to his right, blade facing back, and started rushing towards me. He's freaking fast! This time I was prepared, because long before Asakura made his move, I had set sights on escaping through the classroom door - yet I ended up slamming into a wall.
????
That's strange, I can’t find the knob, where'd the door go? Even the windows are gone! There were supposed to be windows on the wall facing the corridor, now it's just a thick grey wall. It’s like a cave in here!
Impossible!
"It's futile."
Asakura's voice grew closer from behind.
"I now have control of this area of space, so all exits have been blocked. It was quite easy actually, all I needed to do was tamper with the molecular structure of this school building and I can change its matter at will. This room has now become a sealed room, and there's no way in or out now. Your crying can’t even be heard outside this room."
I turned around and noticed that the sunset has gone as well. The whole room is surrounded by concrete walls, leaving only the white lamps shining coldy on the desks.
This can't be happening!
Asakura's silhouette moved slowly towards me.
"I advise you to stop resisting; your death is inevitable."
"......Who are you, really?"
No matter where I looked, there was a grey wall. There's not a single door, a single window, nothing! Is something wrong with my brain? Could this be just a dream? Could Mitsuru be changing behind me as I embarrassingly snore? Oh great, I can’t think straight and my priorities are mixed up!
I frantically moved between the desks, trying to get as far from Asakura as possible. Yet Asakura calmly walked towards me in a straight line, moving the desks and chairs from his path at will, as if he had some sort of telekinetic forcefield around him. Compared to him, my path was always blocked by the desks.
This cat and mouse chase didn't last long, and eventually I was cornered.
If that's the case......
I decided to take a risk and threw a chair at Asakura, yet the chair turned in the air right in front of him, and flew off to the other end of the room. How can this be possible!?
"Impressive strength for a petite girl, but strength does not matter when against my kind. Didn't I tell you it's futile? Everything in this room now moves according to my will."
Wait... Wait!
What is going on here? If this isn't a joke or a prank, and neither me nor Asakura are crazy, then what is going on?
I have to kill you, and see what sort of reaction Suzumiya Haruki would have.
Why is it Haruki again? Haruki, my, aren't you getting a bit too popular?
"Sigh… I should've done this to begin with."
My body froze after Asakura said that, literally. Hey cheapo, that’s not fair!
My feet are rooted to the ground like a tree, unable to move. My arms are fixed like a wax statue - I can't even move my fingers. My face, stuck pointing towards the ground, could see Asakura's indoor shoes slowly entering my field of vision. Dammit, my nose itches!
"Once you die, Suzumiya Haruki is bound to have some sort of reaction. This might create a massive data explosion from which we could salvage something. This could be the chance in a lifetime for us."
I don't really care about that, ya know!
"Now die."
I could feel Asakura readying his ninja-tou. Where would he start? Beheading, straight across, into the gut? Maybe he’ll…ugh…toy with me? If I knew how I was going to die, I could at least be prepared. At least let me close my eyes...... No, I ’m unable to. W... what's this!?
I suddenly felt the air shake. The blade began to fall upon me......
At this moment, the ceiling gave out a loud cracking noise, followed by debris falling down. Some of which fell on my head – Ouch, Dammit! I was covered in white dust by the large amount of continuously falling debris, so I guess Asakura is covered in white as well. I wanted to see what the bastard looked like now, but I couldn't move......no, wait! I can move again!
I lifted my head and discovered......!
A shocked Asakura - just as he's about to behead me from my right side with a right-handed grip on the sword, as I suspected. Standing in front though, blocking the sword with his right forearm, making a cut in his uniform’s sleeve and his own arm, is the modestly masculine figure of Nagato Yuuki.
(Wow, the blade isn’t even barely doing to his arm what it did to that desk.)
"Your programs are too basic." Nagato said in his usual expressionless tone,
"The data lockdown around the ceiling area was a defense with holes, not complex enough. That is why I was able to discover it and enter."
"You want to get in my way? In the way of the objective?" Asakura sounded calm. "Once I kill this girl, Suzumiya Haruki is bound to have some sort of reaction, slight or major. Only then can we obtain more data."
"You are supposed to be my backup. Any independent action with risks of major interference must go through me, or be commanded by me before being executed." Nagato said in a mantra-like tone, "This sort of insubordination is forbidden; you must obey commands given to you."
"Tch. And what if I refuse?"
"Simple, then I will disconnect your data interface."
"Care to try? I have the advantage here, since this classroom belongs to the scope of my data control."
Nagato then spoke what sounded like garbled, sped up computer code.
"Processing application for data interface disconnection."
As Nagato finished, the ninja-tou blade in his forearm started glowing brightly. Then, like a sugar cube being dropped into a cup of hot tea, it slowly crystallized, dissolved and fell towards the floor like powder.
"!!"
Asakura released the hilt of his sword right before it disintegrated, and kicked at the ground, skidding five meters away on his left heel right before jumping back a few steps and landing on both feet, leaving a skid mark, and a trail of smoke rising from the ground. Seeing this scene, I couldn't help but realize - geez, these guys can’t be human.
As Asakura landed so gracefully after making distance between his opponent, he continued smiling as usual.
The space around began to distort – As far I can describe it. Asakura, the desks, the ceiling, and the floor all shook vigorously; overall, it had the appearance of what seemed like liquid metal, though I couldn't really see that clearly, since it was almost like I was experiencing a seizure.
Just as I saw thick shiny lines which seemed like spears fly through the air, a crystallized explosion occurred in front of Nagato's raised right palm.
The next second, there were continuous crystallized explosions around Nagato, followed by powder dropping onto the ground. The crystallized spear-like objects flew from all directions towards us with lightning-fast speed. It was already a moment later when I discovered Nagato facing those spears with the same speed using inhuman aerial acrobats.
"Don’t move too much."
Nagato dodged Asakura's attacks while pulling my ponytail so that I would kneel and take cover behind him.
"Eeek!"
An unknown object flew over my head and smashed the blackboard to pieces.
Nagato looked upwards a little, and in an instant many icicle-like objects grew from the ceiling and fell towards Asakura's head. Asakura moved away with a speed that couldn't be seen with the naked eye, and instantly an icicle forest formed from the ground.
"There's no way you can succeed in this area of space." Asakura said calmly. He and Nagato stood a few meters apart, staring each other down, while I could only kneel on the ground hopelessly, not daring to stand up.
Nagato stood in front of me with his legs slightly apart, and it's only now that I notice he's so serious that he even wrote his own name on his indoor shoes. Then, as if chanting a prayer, Nagato mumbled softly in that speedy computer code speech,
SELECT serial_code
FROM database
WHERE code='data'
ORDER BY aggressive_combat_data
HAVING terminate_mode
Normal space no longer exists in the classroom. Everything has turned into geometric shapes, appearing twisted or cone-like. Seeing this surreal scenery is like entering one of those theme park house of horrors, I'm getting dizzy already from watching.
"Even if I must be rid of, you shall stop functioning before me."
I have no idea where Asakura's voice is coming from in all this colorful mirage of scenery. I’m close to getting seizures again.
Whoosh! The sound of the wind slicing through the air.
Nagato swung me around by my ponytail towards the floor behind him. I teared up from the pain.
"ACK! Dammit! What are you......"
Before I could finish, there was a spear so fast, I could just barely see it as it went past the tip of my nose and fell on the ground. At least the scratch made my nose stop itching. Ahh.
"We'll see how much longer you can protect that little thing. Try this!"
The next second, Nagato stood in front of me, facing me, impaled by about twelve brownish looking long spears.
"......"
In other words, Asakura attacked Nagato and me from all directions at the same time. Nagato managed to crystallize some of the spears and crush them with the grip of his hand or smash them with his kicks, but trying to prevent me from getting hit by the remaining spears, he'd shielded me with his body. But I didn't know that then, since it all happened so quickly.
Nagato's glasses fell from his face and softly bounced as they hit the ground.
"NAGATO-KUN…NO-!"
"Do not move." Nagato said calmly, with a stern undertone, pointing to the spears stuck in his chest and stomach. A pool of blood began to form under his feet.
"I'm fine, this is minor damage."
God, how can this be fine…Won’t you die from the blood loss or any vital organs that may have been pierced?
Nagato pulled out a spear from where his heart would’ve been without even flinching once. The bloody spear fell onto the ground with a clanking noise, and instantly turned into a desk. So that's what the spears are made from! Nagato could only say “Hm,” at this and turned the rest of the spears into crystallized powder by crushing them with the strong grips of his hands. He did this almost like a robot, with fast machine-like speed and stability.
"Don’t be modest now, with that much damage to your frame I don't suppose you can stop me now. Here's the finisher!"
At the other end of the twisted space, Asakura's silhouette faded in and out. I could see a smile from his face, which slowly grew sinister, as he then slowly raised his hands - if I'm not mistaken, his arms glowed all the way from his fingertips, and then extended to twice as long. No, even more than that...
"Perish!"
Asakura's arms kept on extending, wriggling like a bunch of tentacles, and then closing in from both directions. Holy crap, tentacles, I don’t want an H-scene! I covered my maidenhood. Unable to move, Nagato's figure shook violently...... The next instant, my face was splattered with blood.
Asakura's left arm had thrust into Nagato's right abdomen, while her right arm had thrust into Nagato's left pectoral area, piercing through her back and stopping at the classroom wall. Blood spattered from Nagato's mouth and down along his legs inside his pantlegs, making the blood pool below even wider.
"Muda." Nagato said softly, copying Asakura’s constant “Futile”, then grabbed onto the wide tentacles. Nothing happened.
"Eh?" Asakura said, sounding as though he'd won. "Are you just that self-centered as to get in a meaningless last word as if you’re about to turn the tables?"
"The tables are turning. In my favor. If you were human, you would repent for your unorthadox actions in Hell." said a seriously wounded Nagato, as though nothing had happened to him. "Commencing data interface disconnection. EXECUTE."
Almost instantly, everything in the classroom began glowing brightly, and then crystallized and dissolved within the next second, the desk beside me also turned into sand and collapsed.
"How......"
Crystallized sand fell from the ceiling nonstop, this time it is Asakura's turn to be stunned.
"I will admit, your skills were outstanding."
Nagato's wounds closed up and his blood turned to clear liquid and evaporated.
"It took me quite some time to penetrate the program. But, everything will end now."
"......You had already planted destructive factors around long before I penetrated this place, didn't you? No wonder you seemed rather weak. It was because you used up your attacking data beforehand......" Asakura said despondently as his arms began to crystallize.
"Sigh, it's such a pity, after all I'm just backup. I thought this would be a chance to break free from this deadlock."
Asakura reverted back to his normal classmate self and looked at me cheerfully.
"Hahaha…well well. It was fun, but I lost. It's good for you that you can survive now. But you'd better be careful, the Integrated Data Entity isn't as united as you think, there are quite a number like me with dissenting opinions. It's just like humans, there will be extremists like me next time. And who knows, even those who control Nagato-san might change their thinking and turn to kill you instead. Don’t think that that’ll be unlikely."
He's now covered from chest to toe by the glowing crystallized substance.
"Before that happens, I wish you and Suzumiya-san the best of luck. Farewell. Also, I’m secretly cheering you on."
Erm…uh…whatever that meant… Heheh. (Dammit, I’m not blushing, okay!)
While saying that, Asakura silently dissolved into small sandy dunes. And then, the smaller crystallized sand dunes continued to dissolve until they completely vanished.
Under a rain of crystallized sand, the high school guy known as Asakura Ryo vanished completely from this school.
There was a loud thud, suddenly. I was quick to find Nagato lying on the floor, so I frantically got up.
"Nagato-kun! Hang in there! I'll call an ambulance!"
"There is no need."
Nagato glanced at the ceiling with his usual half-open eyes.
"Physical damage is obsolete to me. Our priority is to restore this area of space back to its original state."
As he finished, the familiar 1-5 classroom reappeared before our eyes. It was like a tape rewinding: everything in the room reverted to the way it had been before.
The blackboard, the teacher's desk, the remaining chairs and desks all grew from the white sand and back to their original form as I had seen before school ended today. I can't describe what was going through my mind then. If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would've thought all these images were made with state-of-the-art CG special effects.
Windows grew from the walls, with the half-stained glasses intact; the sunset reappeared outside, bathing me and Nagato in an orange-red light. I tried looking inside my desk drawers, all the contents were still there intact, and all the blood that had spattered onto my face had now completely disappeared. This was too amazing. I could only describe it as magic!
"Are you sure you’re okay?"
I knelt beside Nagato who remained lying on the floor. All of the many wounds and holes in his uniform from being impaled by those spears were all gone now.
"As processing power has been converted into data operation, I have just reversed the linking interface for a short while."
Nagato sat up and put his index finger up to the bridge of his nose to push up his glasses, but they weren’t there.
"I forgot to reintegrate my glasses."
"You don’t have to......I actually think…you look kinda cute without ‘em."
I averted my gaze and blushed after I said this while he only said “Hm.” When I looked back, his finger was pushing up a set of glasses.
“…I’d prefer wearing them.”
I got annoyed at this and crossed my arms while I closed my eyes and turned my head the other way with a pouting face.
“W-Well fine then! It’s not like it was a request!”
Nagato then turned at me, suddenly with no glasses, and said,
“If you perfer it so much, then I won’t wear them.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hug him or strangle myself when I blushed harder all of a sudden. This strange feeling.
I felt like some stuff interrupted the flow...or something like that. I forget why.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jintor
We still love you, Grand Editor Beanbag! : D
Anyway, back to "The Tempest". I wonder what Haruhified Shakespeare would be like? D:
Ah, damn. I never watched the entire series, only the first three episodes on Youtube and the Tengen Toppa gattai, so I only assumed the "Genome/Spiral" thing. By the way, if you lurk inside the past few pages, I got out of my laziness and re-edited it myself before you, but you're free to correct anything in there too if you wish. Then again, you already did alot of work trying to fix the crappy version. Why did you have to delete "without electicity" and other additions like that, though?
Anyway, here's my take on Ryo vs Yuu. Reveals some feelings for both Nagato and Haruki.
Spoiler for Ryo v.s. Yuu EPIC:
In an instant, a diagonal, metallic-white, crescent-shaped light flashed in front of Asakura . In addition to naturally blinking at it, I squatted down by instinct from the sound of a metal blade swishing in the air. When I heard something seem to cut into the teacher’s desk behind me, I scrambled halfway towards the door and faced Asakura.
Smiling pleasantly, Asakura, still facing the blackboard, now before the teacher’s desk, had a straight, mid-length, metal blade that was sharp enough to cut into the wood of the teacher’s desk and get stuck in it. It was some kind of old Japanese sword, maybe a katana, but the blade was straight… A ninja-tou, an assassin’s blade.
I was very lucky to suddenly be granted with those ninja-senses. Because right now I'm on the ground on my backside, looking palely at Asakura.
Why didn't he give chase?
......No, wait! What on Earth's going on? Why is Asakura trying to slice me in half? Wait a second, what was it had he just said? He wants to kill me? Kill?! But, why!?
I could already tell by how he butchered the teacher’s desk that he was serious, but I could only say this trademark sentence of mine.
"Wha - that was dangerous! Even if that were a fake sword, I’d still be freaked as hell! Put that thing away!"
I was really confounded. If someone knows what's going on, please come out and explain to me!
"I know that you know that I’m very serious." Asakura said in a very cheerful tone, not sounding very serious at all. Now that I think about it, a muscular high school guy smiling while brandishing a samurai-age sword is really scary... Looking at it another way, it’s also kinda hot, but at that moment I had no time for thoughts like that. So now you know how frightened I was.
"Hmph…"
Asakura forcefully pulled the blade out of the desk, swiped the blade once to get off the splinters and saw dust, and patted his shoulder with the dull side of the ninja-tou.
"You don't like dying? You really don't want to die? The death of organic entities means nothing to me."
Asakura is supposed to be the responsible class rep, who would only talk when necessary in class, and wouldn't go nuts even when faced with a problem. Why would he carry a ninja’s blade and say he wants to kill me all of a sudden?
Yet I need to remember the fact that that sword is real, because if I wasn't careful that time, I would be in two pieces over a red puddle right now.
"I’m not getting anything from what you’re saying. This isn't funny anymore, OK? It was never even funny to begin with! Put it away!"
At this moment, I was close to tears.
"I cannot do that. Rather, I’d rather not do that." Asakura smiled his usual innocent smile, "Because I really want you dead."
He held his sword outwards to his right, blade facing back, and started rushing towards me. He's freaking fast! This time I was prepared, because long before Asakura made his move, I had set sights on escaping through the classroom door - yet I ended up slamming into a wall.
????
That's strange, I can’t find the knob, where'd the door go? Even the windows are gone! There were supposed to be windows on the wall facing the corridor, now it's just a thick grey wall. It’s like a cave in here!
Impossible!
"It's futile."
Asakura's voice grew closer from behind.
"I now have control of this area of space, so all exits have been blocked. It was quite easy actually, all I needed to do was tamper with the molecular structure of this school building and I can change its matter at will. This room has now become a sealed room, and there's no way in or out now. Your crying can’t even be heard outside this room."
I turned around and noticed that the sunset has gone as well. The whole room is surrounded by concrete walls, leaving only the white lamps shining coldy on the desks.
This can't be happening!
Asakura's silhouette moved slowly towards me.
"I advise you to stop resisting; your death is inevitable."
"......Who are you, really?"
No matter where I looked, there was a grey wall. There's not a single door, a single window, nothing! Is something wrong with my brain? Could this be just a dream? Could Mitsuru be changing behind me as I embarrassingly snore? Oh great, I can’t think straight and my priorities are mixed up!
I frantically moved between the desks, trying to get as far from Asakura as possible. Yet Asakura calmly walked towards me in a straight line, moving the desks and chairs from his path at will, as if he had some sort of telekinetic forcefield around him. Compared to him, my path was always blocked by the desks.
This cat and mouse chase didn't last long, and eventually I was cornered.
If that's the case......
I decided to take a risk and threw a chair at Asakura, yet the chair turned in the air right in front of him, and flew off to the other end of the room. How can this be possible!?
"Impressive strength for a petite girl, but strength does not matter when against my kind. Didn't I tell you it's futile? Everything in this room now moves according to my will."
Wait... Wait!
What is going on here? If this isn't a joke or a prank, and neither me nor Asakura are crazy, then what is going on?
I have to kill you, and see what sort of reaction Suzumiya Haruki would have.
Why is it Haruki again? Haruki, my, aren't you getting a bit too popular?
"Sigh… I should've done this to begin with."
My body froze after Asakura said that, literally. Hey cheapo, that’s not fair!
My feet are rooted to the ground like a tree, unable to move. My arms are fixed like a wax statue - I can't even move my fingers. My face, stuck pointing towards the ground, could see Asakura's indoor shoes slowly entering my field of vision. Dammit, my nose itches!
"Once you die, Suzumiya Haruki is bound to have some sort of reaction. This might create a massive data explosion from which we could salvage something. This could be the chance in a lifetime for us."
I don't really care about that, ya know!
"Now die."
I could feel Asakura readying his ninja-tou. Where would he start? Beheading, straight across, into the gut? Maybe he’ll…ugh…toy with me? If I knew how I was going to die, I could at least be prepared. At least let me close my eyes...... No, I ’m unable to. W... what's this!?
I suddenly felt the air shake. The blade began to fall upon me......
At this moment, the ceiling gave out a loud cracking noise, followed by debris falling down. Some of which fell on my head – Ouch, Dammit! I was covered in white dust by the large amount of continuously falling debris, so I guess Asakura is covered in white as well. I wanted to see what the bastard looked like now, but I couldn't move......no, wait! I can move again!
I lifted my head and discovered......!
A shocked Asakura - just as he's about to behead me from my right side with a right-handed grip on the sword, as I suspected. Standing in front though, blocking the sword with his right forearm, making a cut in his uniform’s sleeve and his own arm, is the modestly masculine figure of Nagato Yuuki.
(Wow, the blade isn’t even barely doing to his arm what it did to that desk.)
"Your programs are too basic." Nagato said in his usual expressionless tone,
"The data lockdown around the ceiling area was a defense with holes, not complex enough. That is why I was able to discover it and enter."
"You want to get in my way? In the way of the objective?" Asakura sounded calm. "Once I kill this girl, Suzumiya Haruki is bound to have some sort of reaction, slight or major. Only then can we obtain more data."
"You are supposed to be my backup. Any independent action with risks of major interference must go through me, or be commanded by me before being executed." Nagato said in a mantra-like tone, "This sort of insubordination is forbidden; you must obey commands given to you."
"Tch. And what if I refuse?"
"Simple, then I will disconnect your data interface."
"Care to try? I have the advantage here, since this classroom belongs to the scope of my data control."
Nagato then spoke what sounded like garbled, sped up computer code.
"Processing application for data interface disconnection."
As Nagato finished, the ninja-tou blade in his forearm started glowing brightly. Then, like a sugar cube being dropped into a cup of hot tea, it slowly crystallized, dissolved and fell towards the floor like powder.
"!!"
Asakura released the hilt of his sword right before it disintegrated, and kicked at the ground, skidding five meters away on his left heel right before jumping back a few steps and landing on both feet, leaving a skid mark, and a trail of smoke rising from the ground. Seeing this scene, I couldn't help but realize - geez, these guys can’t be human.
As Asakura landed so gracefully after making distance between his opponent, he continued smiling as usual.
The space around began to distort – As far I can describe it. Asakura, the desks, the ceiling, and the floor all shook vigorously; overall, it had the appearance of what seemed like liquid metal, though I couldn't really see that clearly, since it was almost like I was experiencing a seizure.
Just as I saw thick shiny lines which seemed like spears fly through the air, a crystallized explosion occurred in front of Nagato's raised right palm.
The next second, there were continuous crystallized explosions around Nagato, followed by powder dropping onto the ground. The crystallized spear-like objects flew from all directions towards us with lightning-fast speed. It was already a moment later when I discovered Nagato facing those spears with the same speed using inhuman aerial acrobats.
"Don’t move too much."
Nagato dodged Asakura's attacks while pulling my ponytail so that I would kneel and take cover behind him.
"Eeek!"
An unknown object flew over my head and smashed the blackboard to pieces.
Nagato looked upwards a little, and in an instant many icicle-like objects grew from the ceiling and fell towards Asakura's head. Asakura moved away with a speed that couldn't be seen with the naked eye, and instantly an icicle forest formed from the ground.
"There's no way you can succeed in this area of space." Asakura said calmly. He and Nagato stood a few meters apart, staring each other down, while I could only kneel on the ground hopelessly, not daring to stand up.
Nagato stood in front of me with his legs slightly apart, and it's only now that I notice he's so serious that he even wrote his own name on his indoor shoes. Then, as if chanting a prayer, Nagato mumbled softly in that speedy computer code speech,
SELECT serial_code
FROM database
WHERE code='data'
ORDER BY aggressive_combat_data
HAVING terminate_mode
Normal space no longer exists in the classroom. Everything has turned into geometric shapes, appearing twisted or cone-like. Seeing this surreal scenery is like entering one of those theme park house of horrors, I'm getting dizzy already from watching.
"Even if I must be rid of, you shall stop functioning before me."
I have no idea where Asakura's voice is coming from in all this colorful mirage of scenery. I’m close to getting seizures again.
Whoosh! The sound of the wind slicing through the air.
Nagato swung me around by my ponytail towards the floor behind him. I teared up from the pain.
"ACK! Dammit! What are you......"
Before I could finish, there was a spear so fast, I could just barely see it as it went past the tip of my nose and fell on the ground. At least the scratch made my nose stop itching. Ahh.
"We'll see how much longer you can protect that little thing. Try this!"
The next second, Nagato stood in front of me, facing me, impaled by about twelve brownish looking long spears.
"......"
In other words, Asakura attacked Nagato and me from all directions at the same time. Nagato managed to crystallize some of the spears and crush them with the grip of his hand or smash them with his kicks, but trying to prevent me from getting hit by the remaining spears, he'd shielded me with his body. But I didn't know that then, since it all happened so quickly.
Nagato's glasses fell from his face and softly bounced as they hit the ground.
"NAGATO-KUN…NO-!"
"Do not move." Nagato said calmly, with a stern undertone, pointing to the spears stuck in his chest and stomach. A pool of blood began to form under his feet.
"I'm fine, this is minor damage."
God, how can this be fine…Won’t you die from the blood loss or any vital organs that may have been pierced?
Nagato pulled out a spear from where his heart would’ve been without even flinching once. The bloody spear fell onto the ground with a clanking noise, and instantly turned into a desk. So that's what the spears are made from! Nagato could only say “Hm,” at this and turned the rest of the spears into crystallized powder by crushing them with the strong grips of his hands. He did this almost like a robot, with fast machine-like speed and stability.
"Don’t be modest now, with that much damage to your frame I don't suppose you can stop me now. Here's the finisher!"
At the other end of the twisted space, Asakura's silhouette faded in and out. I could see a smile from his face, which slowly grew sinister, as he then slowly raised his hands - if I'm not mistaken, his arms glowed all the way from his fingertips, and then extended to twice as long. No, even more than that...
"Perish!"
Asakura's arms kept on extending, wriggling like a bunch of tentacles, and then closing in from both directions. Holy crap, tentacles, I don’t want an H-scene! I covered my maidenhood. Unable to move, Nagato's figure shook violently...... The next instant, my face was splattered with blood.
Asakura's left arm had thrust into Nagato's right abdomen, while her right arm had thrust into Nagato's left pectoral area, piercing through her back and stopping at the classroom wall. Blood spattered from Nagato's mouth and down along his legs inside his pantlegs, making the blood pool below even wider.
"Muda." Nagato said softly, copying Asakura’s constant “Futile”, then grabbed onto the wide tentacles. Nothing happened.
"Eh?" Asakura said, sounding as though he'd won. "Are you just that self-centered as to get in a meaningless last word as if you’re about to turn the tables?"
"The tables are turning. In my favor. If you were human, you would repent for your unorthadox actions in Hell." said a seriously wounded Nagato, as though nothing had happened to him. "Commencing data interface disconnection. EXECUTE."
Almost instantly, everything in the classroom began glowing brightly, and then crystallized and dissolved within the next second, the desk beside me also turned into sand and collapsed.
"How......"
Crystallized sand fell from the ceiling nonstop, this time it is Asakura's turn to be stunned.
"I will admit, your skills were outstanding."
Nagato's wounds closed up and his blood turned to clear liquid and evaporated.
"It took me quite some time to penetrate the program. But, everything will end now."
"......You had already planted destructive factors around long before I penetrated this place, didn't you? No wonder you seemed rather weak. It was because you used up your attacking data beforehand......" Asakura said despondently as his arms began to crystallize.
"Sigh, it's such a pity, after all I'm just backup. I thought this would be a chance to break free from this deadlock."
Asakura reverted back to his normal classmate self and looked at me cheerfully.
"Hahaha…well well. It was fun, but I lost. It's good for you that you can survive now. But you'd better be careful, the Integrated Data Entity isn't as united as you think, there are quite a number like me with dissenting opinions. It's just like humans, there will be extremists like me next time. And who knows, even those who control Nagato-san might change their thinking and turn to kill you instead. Don’t think that that’ll be unlikely."
He's now covered from chest to toe by the glowing crystallized substance.
"Before that happens, I wish you and Suzumiya-san the best of luck. Farewell. Also, I’m secretly cheering you on."
Erm…uh…whatever that meant… Heheh. (Dammit, I’m not blushing, okay!)
While saying that, Asakura silently dissolved into small sandy dunes. And then, the smaller crystallized sand dunes continued to dissolve until they completely vanished.
Under a rain of crystallized sand, the high school guy known as Asakura Ryo vanished completely from this school.
There was a loud thud, suddenly. I was quick to find Nagato lying on the floor, so I frantically got up.
"Nagato-kun! Hang in there! I'll call an ambulance!"
"There is no need."
Nagato glanced at the ceiling with his usual half-open eyes.
"Physical damage is obsolete to me. Our priority is to restore this area of space back to its original state."
As he finished, the familiar 1-5 classroom reappeared before our eyes. It was like a tape rewinding: everything in the room reverted to the way it had been before.
The blackboard, the teacher's desk, the remaining chairs and desks all grew from the white sand and back to their original form as I had seen before school ended today. I can't describe what was going through my mind then. If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would've thought all these images were made with state-of-the-art CG special effects.
Windows grew from the walls, with the half-stained glasses intact; the sunset reappeared outside, bathing me and Nagato in an orange-red light. I tried looking inside my desk drawers, all the contents were still there intact, and all the blood that had spattered onto my face had now completely disappeared. This was too amazing. I could only describe it as magic!
"Are you sure you’re okay?"
I knelt beside Nagato who remained lying on the floor. All of the many wounds and holes in his uniform from being impaled by those spears were all gone now.
"As processing power has been converted into data operation, I have just reversed the linking interface for a short while."
Nagato sat up and put his index finger up to the bridge of his nose to push up his glasses, but they weren’t there.
"I forgot to reintegrate my glasses."
"You don’t have to......I actually think…you look kinda cute without ‘em."
I averted my gaze and blushed after I said this while he only said “Hm.” When I looked back, his finger was pushing up a set of glasses.
“…I’d prefer wearing them.”
I got annoyed at this and crossed my arms while I closed my eyes and turned my head the other way with a pouting face.
“W-Well fine then! It’s not like it was a request!”
Nagato then turned at me, suddenly with no glasses, and said,
“If you perfer it so much, then I won’t wear them.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hug him or strangle myself when I blushed harder all of a sudden. This strange feeling.
Hey, that's pretty good. You have pronoun issues, though.
I like the idea of Ryou having Razengann drills better, though. Not that you've seen TTGL.
My rewrite is way too long for one post, apparently, seeing as the board won't let me post the entire thing at once. Allow me to do multiple posts please?
Day of Sagittarius battle, this time with slightly more amounts of original content (including Kyon moe), Gurren Lagann refs, and text spaces.
Spoiler for 1st half:
The next day after school, we underwent what Haruki liked to dub, "special training" using the guys in the room next door as our imaginary enemies, even though we were only fighting NPCs.
Officially it's called SOS-Dan Battle Preparations; it's just another excuse for playing video games to me. Now allow me to explain in detail the game which the Computer Study Group has developed... Sigh...
<The Day of Sagittarius 3>
That's the ridiculous name of this game software. It would sound cool to any regular gamer at first, but then you get the feeling of how ridiculous indeed it really sounds, gamer or not. Never mind, names don't really matter here, what matters is the software itself. If I didn't say that, then the SOS-Dan would lose its meaning of existence. When it comes to meaningless names and non-existent founding principles, I don't think any organization out there can best our brigade. Anyway, since it's the third installment of the series, that means the game has two earlier versions as well... Even though it most likely doesn't, because truthfully, even I, a girl who doesn't even play electronic games, thought this looked like a piece of crap… Too crappy to be an improvement on anything.
But before getting into that, let us delve into the background story for <The Day of Sagittarius 3>.
The year is unknown, all we know is that it's set in the far distant future. Humans have expanded outwards into space and have occupied a sizeable portion of the galaxy already. This is basically a galactic-scale space battle set in a solar system. Two space powers have bickered with each other over border conflicts, as neither side is willing to back down, a war has been waged. For simplicity's sake, in our case, one side is called the <Computer Group Federation>, and the other the <SOS Empire>. As for the story, basically both powers, both possessing massive starfleets, have thrown all their military might into this endless war for a long time, and ends when one side is totally annihilated and the credits roll. Diplomatic and strategic commands don't exist in this game as they get in the way of battle, this completely suits Haruki's preferred mode of battle.
Getting to why this is such crap, the opening screen is pitch-black. The blue dots flashing at the bottom of the screen are the fleet that's controlled by us. The indicators are in the shape of little isosceles triangles. There are five of them in total, lined up in a row. This is the entire military force of the <SOS Empire> under Haruki's command. One triangle represents 15,000 star destroyers. So there're a total of 75,000 vessels. Each fleet is escorted by a small number of supply vessels. The conditions for victory are to command these vessels and annihilate the enemy, who also have the same number of vessels. But this time the rules are a bit different, and that is to destroy the enemy's commanding fleet - for us it would be the Computer Group president's fleet, while for them it would be Haruki's <Grand Emperor Haruki Fleet>. Regardless of the losses sustained or the number of enemy vessels destroyed, if one side's commanding fleet is destroyed, then the battle is over. Simple. Too simple for my tastes, as this looks more like a basic concept of the final product.
We're each allocated one fleet per person, and we can only control the fleet allocated to us. So no matter how unreasonable Haruki gets, there's no way he can interfere with anyone's notebook computer, most importantly my notebook computer. He'd probably be more comfortable with his expensive high performance desktop anyway.
One of the supposedly new features of this game is its reconnaissance function. If we don't use this function, there's no way we can know what space debris awaits us ahead, let alone track the enemy's position. So if we wanted to move our fleet but are afraid of colliding with any unidentified objects, we would have to send out intelligence vessels to scout the area ahead and wait for them to return before we can analyze the situation ahead. That's about the most complex part of the game.
The visibility radius for each fleet is only a few centimeters, on the computer screen at least, so if we were to move without scouting ahead, then we run the risk of being attacked from an unknown direction, and not even knowing where the enemy is.
On the other hand, the intelligence collected by individual fleets is shared between all allies, at least that's what I think, it's most likely correct. For example, the whole fleet can receive information on what Nagato's fleet and his surveillance vessels have detected. In other words, even if I sit back and not do anything, I can still see the map slowly expand to reveal the positions of various planets, asteroid belts and enemy vessels... Though everything but the vessels even appears at all in this game. That's crap for you.
Despite this, the whole battle map still looks very vast. So being able to swiftly detect the enemy's position becomes very important as it's the key to victory.
There are two weapons available, lasers and missiles. Lasers can hit any enemy vessels that enter its range. Missiles are much slower, but they have a homing device attached. So it's impossible to dodge them. In order to survive, one must shoot them down.
Summing it up, this is an Atari-esque two-dimensional space battle simulator. As this battle simulator is real-time and not turn-based, if one were to play in a relaxed manner, they would be wiped out by the enemy in no time, so it's kind of tricky here.
Facing the imminent battle ahead, we entered gaming mode the whole week, which was less fun than it sounded, and I will tell you why eventually. Only Haruki sat at his commander desk using the desktop computer, while the remaining four of us had to stare at the notebook computers on the long table, constantly clicking our mice… Looks like this surreal scene is going to be part of the SOS-Dan's activities for some time. We first practiced against the computer, and even though we had the difficulty set to "VERY EASY", it still took us three days to score our first victory. Our progress in gaming skills is just as fast as slowly piercing the heavens with an electric drill…without electricity.
"Man! I got hit again!? This game is makes me so friggin mad!"
It wasn't just Haruki, even I was extremely annoyed at getting such a score against the computer. But this had nothing to do with the computer difficulty, but rather due to someone who kept impatiently charging his fleet gung-ho into enemy lines and getting annihilated.
"We're REALLY going to have to rework our strategy."
I moved my eyes away from the screen, which was showing the words "GAME OVER" with melancholic Bit Tune music. And every time this would happen, Haruki would respond valiantly,
"WHO THE FUCK DOES IT THINK I AM?!"
As if the piece of crap cares about who you are...dumbass.
"We'd better reallocate the stat attributes for each of our fleets… Especially YOURS Haruki."
There are three adjustable attributes for each fleet, "Speed", "Defense", and "Attack". Each player starts with 100 points, and these points are allocated to the above three attributes at the beginning of the game. Like "Speed 30," "Defense 40," and "Attack 30." Haruki kept adjusting her fleet to "Speed 50," "Defense 0," and "Attack 50." As a result, the hull armor on her vessels were as thin as paper. I really wanted to tell that bastard, "Haruki, to be honest, you suck ass at this." That idiot just wants to rush in and sink the enemy, apparently, whether he succeeds or not. Even with me and Koizumi trying to shield him, if his commanding fleet gets wiped out as a result, then there won't be a starfleet for him to command, much less for anyone else to command as it's instant defeat.
"I can't take this anymore! This is such a goddamn drag! What's so fun about this game? Can't it be simpler?"
Despite complaining, Haruki still decided to restart the game. The screen on my notebook computer once again shows the crude logo for <The Day of Sagittarius 3>.
Haruki cheerfully clicked his mouse and said, "It would be better if this was a role-playing game. They would play the evil Anti-S****l, while I'd be the Fated Hero. It'd be great if we got straight to the final boss battle right after the crappy opening movie. I've always wondered, why do these bosses always hide in the huge dungeons? Wouldn't it be better for them to appear right at the beginning? I'd certainly do that if I were Lord G****e, leader of the Anti-S****ls. That way, the Hero wouldn't need to waste his time wandering around in the dungeon, and the story could come to an end quickly, and he'd unlock all of the secret H content."
I ignored Haruki's insane ramblings, and looked at what the other members sitting in a row were doing. Sitting nearest to Haruki was the Advising Officer Koizumi-san, followed by me and Asahina, while Nagato sat furthest away.
"Hmm. This game really is hard to play. Maybe it's because I'm not too familiar with video games. The controls are pretty easy, but the commands can get very confusing."
Koizumi commented in her usual way and gave the same smile as when she was playing Othello. On the other hand, Asahina, who still wore his degrading maid costume even though it was not necessary for this occasion, said,
"Ehhh~… I just can't move this thing as I want it to. I can’t fathom why this game is supposed to be set in space, but our movements limited to the second dimension."
He made an obvious, yet understandable statement, while amateurishly moving his mouse.
I can understand the concerns of these two members, but I was totally mystified by the remaining member.
"......"
Nagato Yuuki looked at the screen intently with his hand on his chin like a mathematician trying to solve a highly advanced math problem. He was the first to get used to the game; unaffected by Haruhi's fleet charging blindly, it was thanks to his precise command of his fleet that we were able to score our first and only victory.
Of course I took precautions. During lunch break I asked him not to use any tricks like magic or data manipulation. Nagato stared at me for a few seconds, turned back to his book, and then silently nodded his head. The burden on my shoulders instantly lightened a lot. Thanks to this, I was able to take on this game without any worries. If we really do beat the Computer Group, then it must be a mistake on their part. It's only natural for humans to make mistakes. Yup, I've even prepared dumb excuses to shirk off any responsibilities.
All that's left is to formulate a strategy where we can give the enemy a run for their money, then come up with a tragic script where all our efforts end in vain. Oh yes, I must remember to burn Asahina's secret photo album onto a CD-ROM as well. So damn hot... Eh?! Uh, forget what I said.
The week passed by like the tumultuous autumn weather, the fated day has finally arrived. I never usually pray like this...God help us.
Haruki led us to our seats in the Literature Club room and we waited for the battle to commence. The Computer Study Group also stood by in their club room, staring at their monitors, which were counting down the seconds before the battle began.
Before the battle begins, the screen shows the stats for each fleet. It's actually just the names and what types of vessels each fleet has. The fleets' vessel counts and positions were labeled “classified”.
Starting with the commanding fleet, the Computer Group's fleet names were <Teppelin>, <Thylimph>, <Adiane>, <Cytomander>, and <Guame> respectively.
Even the names sound so revolting, though familiar; I have the impression that they had a lot of free time on their hands making up such names. However, it seems I wasn't the only one who wasn't interested in how they come up with their names.
"Tch! I can't even pronounce that crap! From the right side we'll just call them Enemies A, B, C, D, and E. The commanding fleet is A."
Haruki swiftly gave the enemy fleet their new names, and completely discarded the egotistical sounding names. Speaking of which, if you could do that, why not change the name for my <Kyon Fleet> as well?
"The battle's about to begin. Everyone listen up, we must take the initiative, this is only the beginning. Our enemy is not only the Computer Group. Only by total annihilation of the enemy can the reputation of the SOS-Dan be spread all over the galaxy! Sooner or later, I'll contact the Education Ministry and have them set up branches for the SOS-Dan in various public schools nationwide. Just strong ambition alone is not enough; you need to learn to ask for a more well done piece of steak!"
I wonder what everyone here thinks of Haruki's megalomaniacal delusions. Koizumi flicked the loose muscles on her chin with her thumb; Asahina tucked the sleeves of his maid uniform; I pretended do some deep breathing and sighed deeply; while Nagato's brows lowered with very faint seriousness.
"Know what? Forget it. It's not like we'll lose anyway. I forbid you to show mercy on them! Showing mercy to the opponent is the biggest insult to them! If you want to fight, give it your all!"
I've always wondered, what is the raw ingredient for this confidence? How I wish he would share some with me, even two milligrams of it would do. Wait, did just say this out lou-
"-Really? Then let me accommodate you!"
I don't know what was going on in Haruki's head, as he began staring intently at me in a weird way, giving me chills. I seemed to blush a bit as well.
"Don't look at me like that so seriously. No matter how long you look, there's no way I can give you a lucky tarot card."
And so, we looked into each other's eyes for up to ten seconds, in the end I couldn't stand it anymore and moved my eyes away first.
At this moment,
"Well? You feel better now?"
Haruki gave a victorious smile. I didn't know that sort of staring game can raise one's spirits.
"What? I only mentally transferred a fraction of my almighty power to you! Don't you feel all warm right now? You should be sweating now, right? Use it well or there will be punishment! Next time, I think I'll do that to anyone else who looks depressed!"
"I beg you, please don't stare at people like that in front of others anymore, because my mind has misinterpreted Haruki's intention to channel his energy into me as an intention to plot something against me.
"The battle will commence soon."
Hearing Koizumi's enthusiastic voice, my vision returned to the computer screen. Asahina looked nervously at his own screen as he began to mutter to himself,
"......M...Man! I don't think I'm ready......"
"Don't worry, it's just a game. No one's really going to die. Even if there are casualties, it'll just be the command screen."
This time, let us pray that Haruki won't end up throwing all the computers out of the window in anger once we lose.
1600 hours.
The marching tune signaled the commencement of the battle for the computer's ownership.
At first, the <SOS Empire> starfleet had devised the following strategy.
<Yuuki Fleet> would take the vanguard position, with the <Koizumi Fleet> and <Kyon Fleet> behind covering the sides. Much further behind would be the <Mitsuru Fleet> and <Grand Emperor Haruki Fleet>.
......That's it, really; nothing complex.
Upon being asked to send surveillance vessels to scout the area, Haruki simply replied, "No time for that in the heat of battle!" since he's only interested in charging forward and destroying the enemy. It was a fact that he wasn't going to be of much help even before the two fleets had clashed.
"Don't believe in yourselves! Believe in me who somewhat believes in you all!"
I got totally nothing out of that statement. Asahina was of even less help than Haruki, so we allocated all the supply vessels to his fleet. Hence the triangle indicating the <Mitsuru Fleet> was slightly larger than the others, and as a result, his movement was much slower. I gave him a clear instruction, "If you are discovered, hurry up and get away." I believed that to be the most suitable action for him.
Besides, Haruki's fleet attributes have now been set to "Speed 20," "Defense 60," "Attack 20." This was mainly due to the fact that if Haruki's fleet gets destroyed, we would lose the battle, so raising her defenses became a priority. Fighting in the front lines, Nagato, Koizumi and my fleets were all given even attributes of "Speed 33", "Defense 33", "Attack 34". It was arranged this way because we had intended for Haruki to stay behind while we stall for him. But in no time, the situation has now become like what was described in the beginning of this story.
Right now, as I had mentioned to everyone in the beginning, the simulation battle between the Computer Study Group and the SOS Brigade is imminent.
"All right then, I'll retreat to the back first while you all take care of the enemy. Mitsuru-kun, let's sit back and watch the show."
"Ah......al...alright then......"
Sitting to my right, Asahina nodded his head obediently, then said in his usual feminine voice which I was strangely allured by,
"Don’t die on me… Kyon-chan."
That was really an effective motivational call. If the commanding fleet was the <Mitsuru Fleet>, then I would block all the missiles that came his way, without hesitation. Yet I had to be in charge of protecting that tyrannical despot. If I were a feudal lord with a sizeable military force of my own, I would definitely turn against him, imprison him, and torture him with friendly fire. Sadly, this game doesn't provide a "Mutiny" option. Oh well, I'll just have to do my best and take on the enemy ahead.
1615 hours.
Nagato suddenly began typing fast on the keyboard. He was so fast, it was hard to see with the naked eye, literally. It looked as though He regarded the mouse to be too inconvenient... Almost as if he was some insane pro gamer. I don't know when he began, but Nagato had created his own Macro program for <The Day of Sagittarius 3>, allowing him to command his fleet more directly and precisely through the keyboard. Thanks to this, the bravery and tenacity of the <Yuuki Fleet> was certainly an eye-opener. Its ferociousness in battle could probably match that of V***l of the BeastmenKingdom under Lord G****e's rule. Unfortunately, they were easily defeated by a bunch of undergrounders who had a galaxy-sized weapon. We sure need one of those right now.
The only fleets engaged in battle for our side were the <Yuuki Fleet>, <Koizumi Fleet> and <Kyon Fleet>. The enemy had four fleets engaging us, save their commanding fleet <Teppelin> (Enemy A) which was hidden. From all the past battles, we have learned one basic lesson: the outcome is usually decided by the numbers of both sides. Being three against four, our chances of uncorking the champagne bottle to celebrate were very slim. Our chances would hardly increase even if we threw Haruki's and Asahina's fleets into the front line. If we did that, it would just make the enemy's work of destroying us all at once much easier.
"Oh, the enemy seems to be luring us with a crane wing formation."
Advising Officer Koizumi said, then whispered to me,
"If we chase them, we'll fall right into their trap. I suggest we stay put and concentrate on our defenses, what do you think?"
It's useless telling me, I think it's a good idea, but of course, what matters is Haruki's opinion.
Besides......
I looked over Asahina's shoulders and at Intelligence Officer Nagato's face.
I don't know what the reason was, but Nagato was surprisingly more proactive than usual. His face was about as blank as always, yet, since the battle began, his eyes had been fixed on the screen, and the vessels of the <Yuuki Fleet> were already in active battle. What inner emotion of Nagato's had <The Day of Sagittarius 3> triggered?
"Analysis" - Nagato hadn't been lying when he said that. This emotionless alien-created living humanoid interface has now fully understood the Computer Study Group's self-developed game like the back of his hand. He probably knows the game better than its original creators, an emergent gamer. As long as he is here, all computers created by modern Earth civilizations are like antique clocks made before the Industrial Revolution for him, and can be dealt with easily.
Yet, Nagato's pupils have gone from his usual glowless obsidian black to a glittering chromed silver color. I was beginning to miss his old self......But I have to admit, he's the first pro gamer to turn me on like this. Maybe he should stay this way.
Showing an energy never seen before, Nagato continued typing on the keyboard, with swift motions. His eyes were moving around the screen, never stopping once. He had discarded the Graphical User Interface for the game and had opened a small window of his own, where he insanely keyed in his commands nonstop.
"......"
The <Yuuki Fleet> moved swiftly, constantly sending out surveillance vessels which worked hard searching for the enemy fleet's position. We now knew that ahead of our empire's fleet lay <Enemy B> and <Enemy C>. Nagato engaged them both on the front line, all on her own. I'd better go and help him; I can't just stay behind and watch.
Just as I was about to move, the <Kyon Fleet> got showered by a rain of lasers from its side.
"What the...!?" I exclaimed, almost with a girly squeak in my voice.
"Ah...damn! Haha." Koizumi shouted as well.
I looked carefully and noticed that the <Koizumi Fleet> was under heavy bombardment on its port side. <Enemy D> and <Enemy E> had suddenly come out of nowhere and attacked us both left and right. In no time, the vessel count for the <Kyon Fleet> had dramatically decreased.
"What the hell are you doing!?"
Haruki yelled at me using a yellow loudspeaker he seemingly pulled out of nowhere.
"Now go retaliate properly! Show them what you've got!"
“I know…sigh… I'd do that even without your reminding.”
These guys sure are gaming professionals, to be able to sneak through Nagato's surveillance network, but we can't go on getting beat like this. I gave the command for the <Kyon Fleet> to change directions. At once the entire fleet turned 90 degrees to the right. Then, when I had locked down the enemy within my shooting range, I fired......but, just as I tried to do that, <Enemy E> quickly turned around and disappeared into the darkness of space. Now that pissed me off, and I sent out surveillance vessels to scout for her position, but I could not find a single trace of an enemy vessel.
"Damn, they got away."
It seems like they have employed a hit-and-run strategy using fleets with high "Speed" attributes. <Enemy D>, which was attacking the port side of the <Koizumi Fleet> also took its cue and disappeared without a trace. Now I get it, Enemies <B> and <C>, which were engaged in battle with the <Yuuki Fleet>, were diversions, while their main forces were <D> and <E>. In that case, their commanding fleet, <Enemy A> doesn't even have to fight and can hide safely in the depths of the galaxy. That seems to be their overall strategy.
"Wah~...... I'm getting out of here like you said Kyon!"
Despite his clumsy movements, Asahina had precisely steered his fleet to the corner of the screen. Though, he was a bit too far away to be able to provide supplies to our fleet's depleting defenses. Even then, at this rate, our fleet would be wiped out before we would even have to worry about running out of energy and missile supplies. The <Computer Group Federation> had seized the initiative.
From then on, like wild dogs returning constantly to the scent of a sweet bone, <Enemy D> and <Enemy E> continued to harass the <Kyon Fleet> and <Koizumi Fleet> with their hit-and-run tactics. Every time we gave chase, they would release their homing missiles and disappear without a trace. We were currently struggling to deal with these frustrating tactics. Slowly depleting our strength while avoiding a one-on-one showdown is the sort of tactic that Haruki hates most.
On the other hand, fighting on its own, the <Yuuki Fleet> has tactically evaded the wave attacks of <Enemy B> and <Enemy C>, and provided us with some much needed relief. If it hadn't been for his fleet, we would already be floating in the virtual galaxy as space debris. Even if we should lose this battle, he should at least get an award for bravery.
"......"
Nagato didn't even look like he was breathing as he stared into his screen; never once did his hands stop typing on the keyboard. I bet the girls from the Computer Group were looking surprised as well, since I was surprised myself.
Had Nagato been infected with Haruki's unyielding attitude?
BTW, the forgotten posts. Second coming up.
EDIT: Nevermind, board is fagging out and won't let me post the other one. Just click the blue arrow.
2008-03-22, 23:29
