Blade Striker, but Symphogear Chapter 19

"Come to think of it, Chris, you're so well-developed. What do you usually eat?"

Just like now, Yumi Itaba had been drawn to Chris's slightly envious attention because one particular part of Chris had developed far too impressively. On top of that, they had been chatting for quite a while, so the question suddenly came up.

"This..."

[How did you even manage to ask such an embarrassing question?!]

When asked that, Chris thought this to herself and was briefly rendered speechless.

That was only natural. Having barely ever lived a normal life for any length of time, there was no way she would know how to handle this sort of topic between people her age.

Fortunately, however, she was not fighting alone. She had a reliable companion.

[Raye, how should I answer this?]

Through telepathy, Chris had now genuinely come to appreciate the benefits of this skill.

Whenever she did not know how to answer a question, she could use this method to shift the thinking over to Raye.

This not only allowed her to give relatively sensible answers smoothly, but also let her say things she normally could never voice by using the excuse, "I didn't think that way. Someone else just told me to say it."

[If you don't want to continue, say, "Sorry, that question is a little embarrassing." If you do want to continue, say something like, "I don't really eat anything special. But if I had to name something, it might be because I sometimes eat papaya," and so on.]

[Incidentally, eating papaya doesn't really do much. If you want something that actually helps, it's massage or surgery.]

Just as before, Raye's advice soon came through Chris's mind after a brief silence.

[Got it.]

"Um, I don't really eat anything special. If I had to name something, I occasionally eat papaya and things like that."

After receiving the advice, Chris quickly answered with confidence.

"Is that so? Then I guess I'll have to try harder too."

Hearing Chris's answer, Yumi Itaba looked down at her own chest and said that.

Thus, just like this, Chris had once again managed to get through a difficult question.

"Haha. Oh, right, speaking of which..."

As soon as one topic ended, another naturally began. As long as there were new topics, and as long as the bell announcing the end had not Hibiki, this whirlpool would continue.

[Raye...]

But with Raye's help, Chris believed she could hold out until the end of this battle.

"Sigh..."

Meanwhile, still holed up in the cramped restroom stall, Raye listened to the thoughts transmitted from Chris's mind and let out an exasperated sigh.

But there was nothing she could do. She was the one who had brought Chris here, so how could she refuse to help when Chris ran into trouble?

[Where do these high school girls get all this energy? Don't they have homework? This definitely means they don't have enough homework.]

Honestly, Raye had considered that she might run into all sorts of trouble.

For example, the Second Division might update its detection system and detect her cloaking technology. Her disguise might have a flaw and draw the Second Division's attention. Or perhaps the other side might develop an anti-spatial-teleportation technique.

But she had never expected to encounter trouble caused by Chris being surrounded by a group of energetic high school students and having to spend her precious energy answering their questions.

[Of the more than one hundred points, only the final nine remain. I'm just a little short of completing the visual transformation of this place. Once the work is done, I won't have to deal with this strange sort of trouble anymore.]

Shaking her head, Raye refocused her attention on her work.

Under her control, three remote units capable of deploying Blade Strikers tirelessly moved through the dead corners of the campus. In places such as sewers, ceilings, and stairwells, they set up monitoring units and recorded spatial coordinates.

[Raye, Raye...]

In the middle of her work, the telepathic communication rang out once again. It seemed Chris had run into some other strange problem.

[All right, wait a moment. What is it this time? I'll solve it for you right away.]

As she spoke, Raye adjusted the parameters while opening a search engine on a split screen.

Based on her accumulated experience, the topics these people discussed were either anime and entertainment or school and daily life, with perhaps some current affairs at most. In any case, they were all things that could be solved with a search engine.

"Actually..."

Before long, Chris once again handled a question with Raye's help.

"I see. Is that so? Chris, you know so much. You're like an encyclopedia."

Hearing Chris's answer, Sousei Ando nodded.

"Speaking of which, Chris, what do you think of the nickname 'Know-It-All'... Mmmph, what are you doing?"

As she spoke, an amusing idea occurred to Sousei Ando. But before long, the people beside her stopped that amusing idea.

"Chris, don't mind her. She just likes giving people nicknames."

Covering Sousei's mouth with one hand, Yumi explained to Chris.

"Sousei, as strange as it is to give a nickname to someone you've only just met, it's still too soon."

The other person covering Sousei's mouth was Saori Terashima, who usually did not participate much in the conversation.

"Mmph— I got it."

In the end, under the two girls' suppression, Sousei gave up on giving Chris a nickname.

"Guh, I just wanted to get closer to Chris. What did I do wrong?"

Although Sousei had been temporarily subdued, she clearly had not completely abandoned the idea.

"Let's forget it for now. At the very least, you should wait until Chris enrolls before doing something like that."

Saori Terashima said that.

"Yeah. Besides, Chris hasn't even decided whether she wants to enroll yet. Though I really hope she does."

Yumi Itaba pointed at Chris as she said that.

"Um, yes, that's true."

Hearing the topic involve her, Chris responded reflexively.

By now, Chris had handed all external thinking over to Raye, abandoned her sense of shame, and evolved into a pure conversational intermediary.

"Oh, right. Speaking of which, Chris, do you have any social media apps? Should we add each other?"

Without even mourning the end of the previous topic, Yumi Itaba immediately launched into a brand-new one.

[We probably won't contact each other much afterward anyway. There's no harm in exchanging information.]

With that thought in mind, Chris was not particularly resistant to the idea. Besides, with the other girls being so enthusiastic, it would be difficult for her to refuse.

"O-okay."

Chris took out her phone and exchanged contact information with the others.

Ding-ding-ding—

Just then, the warning bell Hibiki, indicating that class would begin soon.

"Ah, class is about to start."

Seeing that class was about to begin, Yumi had no intention of continuing to chat with this girl who might become a future classmate. She decided to say goodbye and return to her seat with her friends.

"Well then, Chris, if you ever get the chance, contact us. Chris?"

However, just as she was saying goodbye, Yumi noticed that Chris seemed to be staring intently at her phone, her expression as if she had seen something incomprehensible.

"Um, Yumi, may I ask where this photo in your profile picture was taken?"

Before Yumi could continue asking, Chris picked up her phone and enlarged the picture used as Yumi's profile image, then urgently asked her that question.

In the photo she was pointing at was the back of a girl with waist-length platinum-blond hair, holding a scarlet blade and walking toward somewhere beneath dim Tomori.

P.S. I'm a little stuck.

The Strange Object of Worship

"This photo... Chris, don't tell me..."

Hearing Chris's question, Yumi looked at the photo on Chris's phone in confusion, then revealed a surprised expression.

"Ah, yes, I just... Ah, no, that's not quite right. I wasn't especially curious."

Seeing Yumi's reaction, Chris finally realized that her words had perhaps been too direct. She should have slowly probed the origin of the photo instead of asking outright.

However, before Chris could figure out how to explain what she had just said, Yumi, standing before her, excitedly grabbed Chris's hand as if she had found a kindred spirit.

"So you were also saved by the 'Golden Flash Who Appears in the Night and Shatters the Darkness with a Scarlet Blade'?!"

Yumi's eyes sparkled as she spoke to Chris in the tone of someone who had met a fellow believer.

"Ah, what?"

Chris had still been racking her brain for a way out, but at that moment, the short twin-tailed girl's words left her confused for a long time.

"What's wrong? Aren't you surprised because you were saved by the 'Golden Flash Who Appears in the Night and Shatters the Darkness with a Scarlet Blade'?"

Yumi asked the confused Chris.

"Um... I suppose so."

Although she had no idea what was going on, Chris somehow felt that she had inexplicably managed to explain away what had just happened.

"Wait, Yumi. Chris is acting like this because the name you came up with is so strange. I told you before not to make names so long and bizarre."

Sousei Ando, who had watched from the side for a while, cut in to complain.

"That's not it at all! The name is obviously incredibly cool. You should know that I watched anime for three days straight, then spent another four days refining and organizing it before finally coming up with such a cool name."

Hearing Sousei's complaint, Yumi turned around and retorted angrily.

"Not to mention that watching anime was something you wanted to do anyway, Yumi. If you spent four days refining it, why is the final name still so long?"

Saori Terashima added with a kind yet helpless smile.

"But someone thinks it's great..."

Yumi still seemed determined to defend her opinion.

"Um, wait. So, do you know the background of the person in that photo?"

Seeing the topic veering in a strange direction again, Chris hurriedly asked that.

Although asking this could expose her identity, Chris felt that finding out why Raye's photo had appeared on a student's phone at Lydian Music Academy was more important right now.

"Hmm... I don't know."

Hearing Chris's question, Yumi, who had come down from her excitement, answered with a somewhat dejected expression.

"Ah, you don't know?"

Chris tilted her head, unable to understand.

"Because aside from this photo, the 'Golden Flash...' hasn't revealed any information at all. Even this photo could never have been taken without a coincidence. Sniff."

Yumi spoke in a near-crying voice.

"..."

Seeing her like this, Chris did not know what to say.

Seeing how excited this short girl had been, Chris had thought she might know something about Raye. But after all that talk, she actually knew nothing at all.

"In that case..."

Although she still had some questions, Chris wanted to end the conversation. If they continued, she could not guarantee that she would not reveal something.

"But that doesn't matter!"

Just as Chris was about to end the conversation, Yumi, who had been dejected moments earlier, suddenly said that. Her eyes then lit up as she rallied herself once again.

"Even if I know almost nothing about the 'Golden Flash...' on my own, I'm not fighting alone."

With fire blazing in her eyes, Yumi Itaba took Chris's hand and said that.

"As long as we gather the strength of everyone who has been saved by that 'Golden Flash...,' we will definitely be able to meet her someday. So, Chris..."

Yumi spoke with a strange fervor.

[This girl...]

At that moment, in Chris's eyes, the silhouettes of many girls seemed to tower behind the short, twin-tailed girl. But when she blinked, there seemed to be nothing there.