Sky Striker Ace, but Symphogear

"...Hm? Why is the Relic-related detection module reacting... Mm, I see. It's because there are Relic Fragments inside her body; the waves they emit interfered with the operating principles of the camouflage-type Drone Units... So this was just an accident."

The blonde girl still ignored Hibiki Tachibana's complaint. She simply continued scanning Hibiki with her strange machine and analyzing the results.

"A Relic? What's that?"

Hibiki wanted to know what exactly the girl had discovered after examining her with that strange machine for so long.

The blonde girl did not answer Hibiki's question immediately. Instead, she tapped the screen-equipped device hanging over her right eye a few times with her free hand.

"First, I have no hobby of casually taking other people's lives, and ending yours would be unnecessary for me.

"Second, even if you see yourself as an ordinary high school girl, that does not preclude the possibility that you have other secret identities.

"Third, a Relic is a Relic. If you want to know the specifics, I suggest asking your school's higher-ups. And don't forget to have them give you a physical examination."

A few seconds after tapping her device, the blonde girl answered every question Hibiki had just asked in one breath.

"Um, well... why did you wait until the end to answer everything all at once? And your name is...?"

Hibiki asked in confusion.

"...Nothing. I simply prefer to focus on finishing one task before moving on to the next. Also, I personally suggest that when you apply for a physical examination, you also request a psychiatric evaluation. I do not understand why you would have the strange idea of asking the name of 'a dangerous stranger who just pointed a weapon at you.'"

The blonde girl answered calmly, though her tone carried a trace of incomprehension.

"Ehehe... I don't really understand it either, but I just felt like you probably aren't a bad person, so I asked without thinking."

Hearing the blonde girl's question, Hibiki reached up to scratch the back of her head and answered with an embarrassed smile.

"..."

Facing Hibiki like this, the blonde girl fell silent for a moment. Then she hung the black-and-red blade at her waist, put away the machine she had used to scan Hibiki's body, and spoke.

"Raye."

"Ah? What?"

Hibiki had yet to react.

"My name. And goodbye."

The blonde girl explained, then ignored Hibiki completely, turning and continuing in the direction she had originally been headed.

"Wait, um, Raye-chan, I still have some questions... She disappeared?"

Seeing that the other girl wanted to leave, Hibiki instinctively wanted to say a few more words to the girl calling herself Raye. However, at that moment, the girl who had been standing before her vanished into thin air as if she had never existed.

"Am I that out of touch? Are high school girls these days really this lacking in caution?"

The blonde girl who had vanished from Hibiki's sight, Raye, muttered to herself as she walked.

She was an ordinary transmigrator. She had merely won a local tournament with a Sky Striker Ace deck, then, after exhausting too much brainpower, failed to notice a red light while crossing the street and got sent flying by a truck. When she opened her eyes again, she had somehow arrived in this world looking like Raye.

After some inner struggle, she chose "Raye," the name of a character she had always liked and the name of her current body, as her own name in this world.

Although she did not know what kind of world this was, she had eventually managed, through her own efforts and a little luck, to secure a fairly decent life and a job she found rather meaningful.

Right now, she was on her way to complete that meaningful job. Though a minor accident had occurred along the way, she still believed she could finish it.

"Alright, enough thinking. I should put in some effort and finish the job. The sooner I'm done, the sooner I can rest."

No longer thinking about that little interruption, Raye adjusted the device over her right eye until it felt more comfortable and looked toward her current destination.

"Special Disaster Response Section 2... Ah, no, it's Response Mobile Division. Whatever, the name doesn't matter."

This was Raye's current mission target: a special operations department established beneath the central building of Lydian Music Academy, using the academy as cover, dedicated to handling a type of disaster known as Noise.

After reaching the central building and arriving before an elevator door, Raye stopped and silently raised the black-and-red blade she had been carrying.

"Sky Striker activation, Engage."

With those words, Raye's outfit changed. Her long-sleeved black-and-white military uniform, paired with black stockings, disappeared, replaced by a close-fitting black combat suit with white external armor.

This was the ability of the blade in her hand, known as a Sky Striker. According to her collaborator, it seemed to be something called a Complete Relic.

After activation, it replaced her clothing with this armor, gave her body tremendous strength, and allowed her to control a variety of versatile Sky Striker weapons.

But for the current Raye, titles and classifications did not matter. All she needed to know was that the Sky Striker was extremely useful.

[Image: Raye]

PS: Ah, Sky Striker Ace is getting new cards again. I hope the new Link-4 boss monster is at least useful.

PS: It'd be great if the summoning condition were returning Link monsters from the Graveyard to the deck. (Fantasy time.)

Infiltration.jpg

Deep within an underground base of unknown depth, a black-and-red blade poked through the crack of an elevator's outer doors.

Then, starting from that point, the metal doors were gradually forced apart by some unseen power, revealing Raye in her combat suit inside.

Once the opening was wide enough for her to pass through, Raye slipped out.

"Armed Request, Sky Striker Mecha—Hornet Drones."

She landed steadily, then immediately issued the command. Soon, a human-sized polygonal white portal appeared beside her, and yellow-and-white aircraft roughly the size of arms continuously flew out from it.

"No one here? Then..."

After finishing that task, Raye closed the portal and immediately accelerated, moving unobstructed through the broad, flat octagonal corridor directly outside the elevator and heading for an iron door at the far end.

"...Then I won't hold back."

At the door, Raye drew her Sky Striker and slashed at the iron door. In the next instant, the security door meant to stop intruders protected absolutely nothing as it was cut open, and then...

"Hmm? I see. So this is where you're welcoming me. I thought your Second Division hadn't improved at all these past two years."

Raye spoke with sudden understanding.

Behind the security door Raye had cut open stood a burly man in a red shirt, with golden eyes and a battle-ready stance. Behind him was a group of black-suited duplicates holding pistols.

"Of course. After you came and went so easily last time, we were terribly embarrassed, Shadow Stitch."

At the same time, a short-haired brown-haired young man in a black suit appeared behind Raye with another seven or eight armed black-suited duplicates. The moment he appeared, he threw a dart-like object at Raye's shadow.

"Second Division Commander Genjuro Kazanari, Second Division Agent Shinji Ogawa. I didn't expect such an honored reception from the two of you. I'm almost flattered. By the way, where is Miss Tsubasa Kazanari? Isn't she participating in this arrest?"

As Raye spoke, she tried to move her body, but failed. Clearly, the dart Shinji Ogawa had fired had a restraining effect.

"Tsubasa Kazanari has other duties. More importantly, worry about yourself first. If you don't want to suffer, tell us where the Bronze Serpent Armor you took two years ago is."

Genjuro Kazanari pressed her, his body radiating an intense presence.

"Unfortunately, I refuse. I owe that person a certain debt of gratitude, so I won't betray my employer."

Facing his interrogation, Raye refused without the slightest hesitation.

"If that is the case, then although I dislike raising my fists against women and children, if you insist on staying silent, I can only beat you down before asking again."

As he spoke, Genjuro Kazanari's fist surged toward Raye with fierce wind pressure. Its violent momentum made one thing clear: taking that blow head-on would hurt terribly.

"Powerful. But..."

Facing the obviously powerful attack, Raye willed it, and in the next moment, several Hornet Drones rushed in from the side, barely blocking the heavy punch with their bodies.

"...It means nothing if it doesn't hit. And since I know Miss Tsubasa Kazanari isn't here, I don't need to hold back... First, I should remove these restraints."

As Raye spoke, the Drone Units struggling beneath Genjuro Kazanari's heavy fist suddenly erupted with blinding light. The shadow in front of Raye abruptly shifted behind her with the intense flash.

"Not good, Shadow Stitch has been broken!"

Seeing the sudden flash, Shinji Ogawa reflexively wanted to step forward and fire another Shadow Stitch. But a sudden sense of danger stopped him, and he rapidly retreated instead.

"Armed Request, Widow Anchor."

The next moment, he saw a black, spider-like grappling anchor appear where he had just been standing.

"Too bad, you dodged it. Then I have no choice. Armed Request, Tiger Shark Cannon."

At the very moment he saw the spider-like grappling anchor, Raye's voice came from beside him.

"What?"

Shinji Ogawa felt some scorching object approaching his body. Instinctively, he twisted away, but he still felt a powerful impact strike his side.

"Ogawa!"

Genjuro Kazanari shouted, instantly tearing free of the steel cables that had somehow wrapped around him and catching Shinji Ogawa, who had been blasted spinning into the air.

Everything had happened in the instant of the flash. When the light from the Drone Units faded, the blonde girl they had just surrounded had disappeared. In her place were Shinji Ogawa with burns on his side and black-suited duplicates scattered everywhere.

"Goodbye. I'll come again someday."

By the time Genjuro Kazanari noticed Raye's trail, the culprit responsible for all this was already about to run into the elevator shaft she had descended through.

Clearly, she had no intention of fighting them head-on. She had only wanted to escape, and she was about to succeed.

"Next time I come, I'll make more preparations."

As she spoke, Raye kicked off the ground and moved to flip smoothly into the elevator shaft.

"That won't do, little Raye. Since you've come all the way to visit our base, how can you leave without taking a proper tour?"

At that moment, a voice came from an unknown location over the loudspeakers, followed by the sound of something falling through the air.

"What... Hey, isn't this a bit much?"

Raye, who had flipped into the elevator shaft, instinctively looked up, then immediately retreated back out through the elevator's outer doors.

A few seconds after Raye backed out, the elevator she had previously sent upward crashed down in front of her without slowing down at all. Had she retreated a few seconds later and been hit directly, Raye would have been dizzy for quite a while.

"Nicely done, Ryouko!"

Genjuro Kazanari's excited shout revealed who had caused the current situation.

"Surrender peacefully, Miss Raye. We won't let you escape this time."

Shinji Ogawa raised his pistol and aimed it at Raye, who stood silently facing the elevator wreckage.

"...Things have become troublesome. But it's not a big problem."

Turning around and looking at the hostile group before her, Raye merely calmly adjusted the device over her right eye and raised the black-and-red blade in her hand.

"If I defeat all of you, I can get out of here, can't I? I dislike pointless fighting, but if it comes to it, I might not lose... Tiger Shark Cannon!"

As she spoke, Raye suddenly let go of her Sky Striker, grabbed the strange half-human-height cannon that had appeared beside her at some point, and opened fire.

Battle, Then Victory

"Everyone, watch out for the cannon!"

Faced with Raye, who had clearly taken a close-combat stance before suddenly beginning suppressive fire, Genjuro Kazanari immediately stomped hard on the floor, using the debris kicked up by the impact to block the attack.

However, although everyone was shielded by the cover, the barrage did not stop. Instead, it fired in other directions.

"Her target is the lights!"

Ogawa quickly realized what she was shooting at, but it was too late. The Shark Cannon soon blasted out every light, plunging the entire underground chamber into darkness. The only source of illumination was the faint glow from the screen over Raye's right eye, but even that quickly vanished as if something had covered it.

"Well, Mr. Ogawa, your ninjutsu can be pretty annoying sometimes, so to keep you from throwing some crowd control at me in the next fight, I figured I'd do this first."

Raye's voice came from the distant darkness. Meanwhile, Genjuro Kazanari, standing behind the rubble, instantly turned and blocked a black-and-red blade attacking from behind with his arm.

"Blocked, huh? Too bad. I wanted to see if I could trick you."

Raye withdrew her blade and spoke with some regret. The earlier voice had come from the Hornet Drones she had left in place. She had wanted to see whether she could bait out an attack.

"Are cheap tricks like this all you know?"

Having somewhat adapted to the darkness, Genjuro Kazanari followed the sounds of wind and footsteps and threw another punch at Raye.

"Well, Mr. Kazanari, you're really strong. If I fought you head-on, I probably wouldn't last even a minute."

Raye's voice came as she blocked Genjuro Kazanari's heavy punch with her Sky Striker.

"Then... thank you for the compliment!"

As he spoke, Genjuro Kazanari thrust his arm forward, trying to seize Raye as she attempted to use the force of his punch to pull away from him. But his movement was once again stopped by a small aircraft darting in from the side.

"That was close, that was close. If you caught me, things would definitely get painful, right?"

Raye's voice came from in front of Genjuro Kazanari again. In response, he simply kicked away the black-and-red blade trying to attack him from the side with a sweeping leg strike.

"Don't use the same trick twice."