The site has now migrated to Xenforo 2. If you see any issues with the forum operation, please post them in the feedback thread.
Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com.
Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
For prospective new members, a word of warning: don't use common names like Dennis, Simon, or Kenny if you decide to create an account. Spammers have used them all before you and gotten those names flagged in the anti-spam databases. Your account registration will be rejected because of it.
Since it has happened MULTIPLE times now, I want to be very clear about this. You do not get to abandon an account and create a new one. You do not get to pass an account to someone else and create a new one. If you do so anyway, you will be banned for creating sockpuppets.
Due to the actions of particularly persistent spammers and trolls, we will be banning disposable email addresses from today onward.
The rules regarding NSFW links have been updated. See here for details.
[X] In which Chris has more happy unconscious moments.
Even if your body is mostly healed, the recent events have left your body at it's limit. Part of you rebels at the thought of being helpless in a stranger's room but this part is over-ridden by the wave of exhaustion that hits you, and soon you find yourself in the first true sleep you've had since before your battle with the Gungnir girl.
It's the dream you've had countless times before, your parents died to the guns of that petty warlord who's victims they'd just been trying to help but that was only the beginning of your nightmare. You were sold then sold again, eventually ending up in a facility that would be your personal hell for six years.
The days of needles, electricity, and other unspeakable horrors they used to perform the tests on you were brutal, stretching your mind and body to their breaking points but still you endured. Which could be considered better then the other kids that were brought in with you. You were never sure just how many of them were there originally, the scientists never allowing you to interact with any of them, but they made no effort to hide the fact that they were carting their broken bodies out to be disposed.
Everyday you begged for the sweat release of death, and everyday you were denied that escape. For six long years this continued, till the scientists were faceless blurs excitedly commenting on the progress you were making, not caring about the torture they were putting you through to get there.
Then came that day, where the tests were suddenly stopped.
Instead you were brought to a room with two doors opposite each other, empty except for a desk holding a now very familiar crystal. Oh how you hated that crystal, it being a central part of the majority of the testing you had been through.
As you sit there trying to make sense of what is happening a voice interrupts your thoughts. "Congratulations Chris Yukine, you have been deemed compatible to the Ichii-Bal Relic. Now, sing the Activation Song, because if you don't," at this point the other door opens and six grossly deformed bodies, each one different from the other but all clearly used to be children, shamble through. Their formerly pure eyes now only showing insanity and murder. "They will kill you."
Your mind freezes up, the years of torture leaving you ill prepared for this sudden development. Even as the deformed masses reach you, even as they push you down to the ground, your body refuses to act. Only as they descend, their claw like fingers reaching to end your life, do you react to save your life and the song that had been engraved in your soul reaches your lips. "Killiter Ichii-Bal tron."
The Armed Gear forms around you for the first time, blasting the deformed children away from you and into the wall, and you breath a sigh of relief, one that would be short lived.
One by one they get up and start shuffling towards you once again. The voice appears once again, "it's not going to be that easy Chris Yukine, they want the Gear that you possess, and will not stop until they have it."
Your mind snaps after that, no longer willing to process the horrors it was being subjected to. From there it's all a blur of white and red for a while, then the last thing you register is the broken body of a girl, the madness gone from her lifeless eyes as they peacefully stare up at you...
You lurch awake from your nightmare, to find yourself in the strange room once again. Your heart races for a few moments as you recall the last scene of your dream once again, those vacant eyes that will forever haunt you.
"Um, hello?" a voice snaps you out of memory lane informing you that you are no longer alone.
On instinct you go for the dagger strapped to your thigh, only to find that your normal set of clothing has been replaced by a pair of rather plain pink pajamas. On instinct you reach for your necklace and find some comfort in the fact that that's still with you.
"Hello?" The voice fidgets a little before trying again but you are still locked in your own little world.
The image of that girl continues to haunt you, a vivid reminder of why you hate to sing your song. A trail of destruction is the only thing it has ever given you.
Suddenly brown eyes fill your view as the girl gets right up into your face, snapping you out of your thoughts, "hey, it's rude to ignore someone who's talking to you!"
Well Chris Yukine, it appears the girl that you saved has taken a few liberties while you were out and now wants to talk to you. It seems she won't take no for an answer, so what do you do?
[X] You must escape!
[X] Your clothes, where are your clothes?
[X] The girl is wide open! Take her down and interrogate her.
[X] Another voices it's displeasure about it's current state.
[X] Write-in here.
[X] In which Chris discovers another unknown person in the multiverse who's perfectly willing to get uncomfortably close while she's unconscious.
You stare into the eyes of the girl who has suddenly invaded your personal space. Dark purple stare into brown, no now that you get a better look at them they're more like a reddish-brown, eyes as your mind struggles to come to terms with this latest development.
It's at this point that your sudden movements catch up with what you are wearing, as the slightly over-sized pajama top shifts by about an inch, finally bringing you back to the here and now.
"Wh-where are my clothes!" Your voice does not squeak as you quickly back away from the girl you rescued not too long ago. This sudden movement causes the way too loose pajama bottoms to shift as well, revealing an even more troubling detail as you grasp them in order to keep them up.
You're not wearing any panties, the little elastic band you should be feeling at this moment is completely missing ...and now you are also NOT quickly becoming as red as a tomato as this thought filters through your head.
You quickly attempt to wrap the blanket around you as you attempt to hide your embarrassment, this causes the girl to give an indignant "hey!" as she tumbles off the side of the bed she'd knelt on to get to your eye level and sprawls out on to the floor.
The staring contest resumes as she looks up from the cast down trenches of the floor while you reside within your blanket fort on the bed, neither side breaking the silence that looms over the room, least that's how you see it until the girl starts to giggle before breaking into unconstrained laughter.
Your embarrassment quickly begins to be replaced by anger as this continues for a while, but just as you start to reach your breaking point she wipes away a the tear from her eye and speaks again. "My scary savior, embarrassed by a change of clothes."
This causes your mind to remember your current state, and attempt to retreat further into your blanket fort. Causing the unknown girl to chuckle some more and mutter to herself, "ah, I needed that," before beginning to pick herself off the ground. Brushing herself off a bit she smiles a little before extending her hand in a clearly American way, "hi my name is Akane Sumire and I should thank you for saving my life."
You stare at the hand for a moment until that smile becomes playful, "oh and if you're looking for your clothes, they're in the closet to the right. I washed them after removing the blood stains since they were so beat up and since you are so tiny I had trouble finding anything that fit you," some of the playfulness leaves her face as she grimaces a bit, "well in most places anyway," glancing at your much more sizable assets when compared to the girl, no her name is Akane you tell yourself.
"So, who are you?" She states as her eyes return to your face awaiting your response.
So Chris, this girl wants to know who you are, how do you respond?
[X] You move to restore your lost dignity and properly introduce yourself, you are better then this Chris Yukine!
[X] You wonder if you can build a basement to this blanket fort so you can bury your shame in it.
[X] The other voice in the room expresses it's displeasure at being ignored for so long.
[X] Nope, you are not going to deal with this till you're back in your original clothing.
[X] Write-in here.
[X] In which Chris discovers that blanket forts are not in fact defensible positions.
This girl, Akane Sumire, wants your name, but you are still fixated on the fact that this girl has taken liberties while you were vulnerable, and has to have seen the scars you would never willingly show to anybody.
You scoot all the way back on the bed, completing the roof of your blanket fort in the process, now all you need to do is build a basement to hide your shame and your blanket fort will be complete.
Too bad the other one in the room doesn't feel like accommodating, "oh no that's just about enough of that." Hands grab the edge of your fortress and you find your blanket fortress being pulled away from you.
Your desprate attempts to retain your fortifications only cause you to be dragged along for the ride as you are pulled forward with it's removal. Then you pass the blanket's threshold and are rewarded with a brief view of Akane's surprised face as you head right towards her.
You tightly close your eyes before the impact and the world tumbles for a brief moment as the two of you fall off the bed and you land with your back to the floor.
Once again you open your eyes to see her reddish-brown eyes a mere foot from your own, though she's sporting a rather deep tint of red in her cheeks as well.
Then your brain catches up with the position you are in with the girl having managed to land on top of you. After that you register the feeling of something rubbing against your chest. This causes you to look down and notice the hand rubbing against something it shouldn't be.
The hand moves away from your chest like it's on fire, and you are pretty sure you are now red enough to compete with beets with how embarrassed you are.
Akane is quick to remove herself from you with an quick "sorry," and both of you move to sit up and regain your personal space.
Several minutes pass in silence as your heart races like a thoroughbred before the girl pulls herself together and you glare at the small chuckle she gives to breaks the silence. "Well this has been a fine way to introduce yourself to your savior, Akane. Anyway let's try this again shall we?"
From her seated position she bows deeply to you, "My name is Akane Sumire, may I ask the name of the one who saved my life?"
Your heart still racing, you manage to squeak out your name. This causes Akane to rise off the floor with a smile on her face.
"Chris," she uses your first name without asking but continues before you can voice a complaint about it, "thank you again for saving me, I would have been in real trouble if you hadn't come along. I haven't been a magical girl for long but that was nothing like was expecting." Her expression goes dark on remembering the confrontation.
For the first time you look at the girl herself, her petite form towers over yours by several centimeters. Her black hair hangs just below her shoulders with two small ribbons holding a little of it down the front. Her creme colored school uniform is one you are not familiar with bringing with it the question of just how far you've traveled. It also shows clearly that yes, she is severely lacking in some areas compared to you as she noted earlier.
Anyway, looks like you finally managed to get introductions out of the way, what do you focus on next.
[X] The basics like where the hell you are, the girls and why they attacked.
[X] Your clothes, or the current lack of wearing them.
[X] The other voice in the room expresses it's extreme displeasure at being ignored so long.
[X] ... wait a second, did she say magical girl?
[X] Write-in here.
[X] In which Chris is reminded of an important fact of life and her luck continues to hold.
Conversation stalls as the girl in front of you seems to fidget for some reason under your gaze as you look at her.
Now fully awake, if not exactly comfortable with the current situation, Chris's current situation comes to the forefront of her mind and your suspicious nature rears it's head once again. You don't realize it, but you start to scowl as your mind goes into overdrive.
Several questions flash through your mind like the who were those girls, and why were they attacking Akane, or better yet where did they get their Relics from, it couldn't be the Americans they wouldn't be pressuring Fine if they had access to their own functioning Relic users.
There's also the fact that Akane possesses one as well, along with the witch girl from your first confrontation since finding yourself alone on the rooftop.
Which brings you to your next thought how did she summon a Noise, and most importantly of all, why did none of them seem to have armor, it was almost like they were using magic, wait didn't this Akane girl say something about; at this point the silent monster in the room decides to voice it's displeasure at being ignored for so long...
A long and loud groan derails your line of thought, as your hunger makes itself known.
You blush fiercely at the noise and Akane's fidgeting is replaced by another small laugh.
"Ah, you've been asleep so long, it's no wonder you're hungry. It's the least I can do is feed my savior." For some reason she sighs in relief as you continue to look down in mortification.
"Why don't you get changed and freshen up while I get us some food. The bathroom is down the hall and the living room is the second door to the left, if you need anything just let me know." Directions delivered, Akane practically flees the room.
Chris takes a moment to get up, idly noting again how free of pain she is after all the thrashing she had taken, and walks over to the closet to retrieve clothes which are also remarkably free of the blood that had been staining them before. Leaving yet more questions to be answered, though you are mildly thankful for not having to break out of a hospital once again.
Then your stomach reminds you of a more pressing need, and you find your way to the bathroom where you remove the oversized pajamas and quickly wash up, then relax in the furo to soak for a bit.
Too soon, a call of "Dinner is ready," fills the air and you quickly remove yourself from the bath.
After drying off you quickly redress into your clothes and head to living room where you are greeted by the smells of baked fish waiting for you on the table.
You barely hear the girl speak up as you quickly sit down and begin to tear into it with all the grace of a hungry wolf, "I hope you don't mind the simple meal, with my father away I didn't plan to cook for others."
The simple meal of fish, rice and beans quickly disappears under your assault, leaving the girl speechless as you constantly pass the rice bowl for more.
What can you say, using your Symphogear takes a lot of energy after all.
Meal completed you move on to the next thing on your agenda, namely getting answers, you'll begin with the more immediate issue and work your way up to the questions you really want to ask, namely where the hell all these Relic users came from. Fine stated that just finding them was a feat, not to mention how rare compatible users are, you could testify to that yourself.
Yet in the last little bit, you'd run into five of them in one city, which you still don't know the name of, now that you think about it, that's a good place to start, "So, where are we anyway?"
Akane gives you a strange look as she replies, "my apartment of course." Which you reward her with a glare that causes her to flinch back while wondering why anyone would bring an unknown back to their place of residence.
"No, what city are we in." You try again.
"We're in Asunaro City," she replies slightly off balanced while you try to remember where the hell that is located, "Why where did you think you were?"
"I was in Tokyo before I woke up on a roof somewhere around here," you leave out the fact that you were fighting the Gungnir girl.
The girl gapes at you in surprise for a moment before regaining her composure. "that's about 200 Kilometers to the east, what were you doing to get that lost?"
That still rings no bells, but that means your basically somewhere near Kobe with no idea on how you got there.
"I was in a fight," of course leaving out the majority of the details while grumbling at your inability to stop the Gungnir girl from retrieving Durandal.
"Wow, must have been some witch to be able to teleport you so far away." She uses a term that means nothing to you, maybe the organization behind her uses different terms then you are used to, lets try to narrow it down a little.
But just as you start your next question you are interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing, "Coming!" Akane starts to go see who it is with a small apology to you on the way, she doesn't even appear to register your warning to be careful.
With how your week has been so far, it honestly does not surprise you one bit when shortly after Akane refuses to let whomever is on the other side in, the door explodes through the living room wall, the battered and unconscious body of Akane landing in a heap next to you.
From the new entry way a girl, in a long white dress and a single long ponytail flows down her back from the top of her head, walks into the room with a sword in hand and you just know you've run into yet ANOTHER unknown Symphogear. Your head hurts a little as you wonder where the hell have they been hiding all this time just to suddenly pop up like weeds anyway?
The new girl takes this moment to speak up, "I really don't like it when people try to get in my way," she seems to be addressing the unconscious Akane.
Her eyes light up as she notices you, "Ah my fellow dual gemmed warrior, may I be so bold as to inquire to your name?"
"And why the hell should I give you that?" You ground out while moving closer to Akane's body.
"I am something of a collector of beautiful gems," at this she pulls out a box with several filled glass eggs and displays them to you as if some great revelation has occurred, of course they mean nothing to you, "and beautiful things need names right? So I would really appreciate a name to go with my future prize."
The box disappears into the folds of her dress as she raises her sword towards Akane, "It doesn't need to be this way you know, just hand over your gems and she can walk away, I promise, I only want pretty ones after all."
So Chris Yukine, seeing as you don't have this gem thing, it looks like another girl is going to be after your head for some reason, what do you do now?
[X] Meet her head on with the Nehushtan Armor, getting her clear of Akane is top priority.
-[X] Lead off with the chain and draw her deeper into the building.
-[X] Blast her with a Nirvana Gedon and go straight for the kill.
-[X] Something else?
[X] Much as it pains you to do so, grab Akane and jump out the window, sing your song and bring out the Ichii-Bal to play a game of keep away.
-[X] Run through the city till you lose her, slow her down with explosive crossbow bolts if you have to.
-[X] Find some place with more open ground to unleash maximum firepower.
-[X] something else?
[X] Maybe you can throw her off somehow with words
-[X] This one's completely up to you bring out your write-ins here!
Chris hasn't looked at it, so you don't know. It's strong point is high regeneration though, so it's useable for the fight. You can figure it being in a better state then the first battle, with Chris also not being beat to shit (and this time you hopefully won't get a natural 20 for damage from the first attack). As an aside, Yuuri/Airi was not content with knocking you out, so the armor took a bit more damage after that, vindictive bitch and all that. Pretty much both are equally viable, you just have to decide which situation you prefer.
[X] Meet her head on with the Nehushtan Armor, getting her clear of Akane is top priority.
-[X] Blast her with a Nirvana Gedon and go straight for the kill.
Here goes nothing. Though I fully expect Chris to get ganked when it turns out that things which would kill a normal person don't quite work on puella.
Hey, at least you're playing the one person in the series with experience killing people, the others don't have the ruthlessness for it. Hibiki would be trying to talk things out at this point, imagine trying that with Ayase. They tend to gloss over the fact that Chris is the direct cause of Kanade's death, so she knows what it takes to kill Symphogear users, which is what she's basing her thoughts on.
[X] Much as it pains you to do so, grab Akane and jump out the window, sing your song and bring out the Ichii-bal to play a game of keep away.
-[X] Run through the city till you lose her, slow her down with explosive crossbow bolts if you have to.
Sorry guys. We need MAXIMUM FIREPOWER against her.
[X] Much as it pains you to do so, grab Akane and jump out the window, sing your song and bring out the Ichii-bal to play a game of keep away.
-[X] Run through the city till you lose her, slow her down with explosive crossbow bolts if you have to.
[X] Much as it pains you to do so, grab Akane and jump out the window, sing your song and bring out the Ichii-bal to play a game of keep away.
-[X] Run through the city till you lose her, slow her down with explosive crossbow bolts if you have to.
Unlike most other Symphogears, Ichii-bal does have enough thrust to fly.
[X] In which Chris decides that discretion is the better part of valor.
Once again you find yourself facing an unknown Symphogear user, the body of the girl you went through so much heartache to save sprawled out on the ground next to you. Though you could probably fight her head on with the Nehushtan Armor, the collateral damage would probably bring the building down around you, with Akane unable to protect herself.
That leaves running away, and unless this unknown girl can fly, nothing beats Ichii-Bal at running away, much as it pains you to admit it. Though in order to pull that off, you'll have to delay her to get into position, the window is on the opposite side of Akane, and with a quick look, determine it's probably high enough to finish transforming.
"Isn't it only proper to introduce yourself before asking someone their name?" You snark while bending down to gather the unconscious form of Akane.
"Oh how rude of me, my name is Ayase Souju and I must say, you really shouldn't worry yourself with such uninteresting trash such as that." Her condescending tone really pisses you off.
"Well bitch, my name is Chris Yukine and you said you hate people who get in your way, well I hate people who pick on those weaker then themselves." Your blood boils as you secure Akane against your chest with one hand, firming your will as you get ready for the next step.
"Oh you poor girl, you don't even know do you, the fate of magical girls and witches? I figured with the level of combat experience you showed, you would have had to found out by now. That girl wanted me to play with the Saints, but I found this instead, this really is a lucky day for me."
There are those words again, they obviously mean to the relic using girls in this area for sure but now's not the time to look into it. For at this moment Ayase has let her guard down, twirling like she's on center stage instead of in the battleground of a ruined apartment, which is the moment you act.
Cracked glass shatters as you plunge through the window of the sliding glass door, singing the song in your heart, "Killiter Ichii-bal tron."
The minor cuts you receive on passing aren't even worth mentioning, the sudden heat from the fire from Ayase's attack of "Audiso Del Stoine" pass meer centimeters from your head barely registers, even the feeling of of the wind as you enter freefall means nothing as you focus all your attention on the goal you choose, saving Akane. Your transformation finishes just a few meters above the ground and even as Ichii-Bal finishes forming around you hit the boosters, first to stop you from ending up as a pancake on the pavement, then to launch yourself in the air away from the apartment with a lightly burning hole now in it.
But you don't stop there, even as begin to launch into the air, in your free hand your crossbow Armed Gear appears, and you turn to take aim at the place where you can see the Ayase girl calmly walking towards the opening, as if not having a care in the world.
Even as she spots you aiming in her direction, even as your five explosive crossbow arrows are launched at her she just gives a playful smirk as if guessing your intentions, "Your magic is interesting, I think I like you, let's play again sometime. I might even introduce you to my sister." Then the bolts explode around her and you have no more time to pay any attention to her as you put all your energy into the boosters and focus on running away.
The roads and buildings blur pass you as you flee into the late afternoon sky, carefully holding on to the girl in your arms. You'd looked back once and hadn't noticed the girl following, but still you continued to put as much distance between the two of you as possible.
Using the armor requires energy which unfortunately for you is something you do not possess an infinite supply of, especially when you add rocketting through the sky to the mix, so you are eventually forced to put down on top of some small cafe called Lepa Macha deep within the city.
A quick check on the condition of your cargo reveals that she suffered no real damage from being launched through the apartment wall and is meerly sleeping peacefully, which causes a flash of annoyance that she gets to sleep peacefully while you were off risking your neck for her once again, but then you catch yourself for thinking like an adult. Honestly you are unsure how she managed to go through a wall without injury and chalk it up to just being lucky, thankfully that means it's now simply a matter of waiting for her to awaken, so you start to carefully watch the scenery for any trouble.
You let go of your transformation after a while as nothing of note occurs and your mind wanders to what you'll say to Fine after being gone for so long, you honestly have more then a few questions for her at this point.
You hate being left in the dark, and resolve to get some answers out of Akane as soon as possible.
Time passes as you have nothing better to do then watch the streets and rooftops for an attack that you are pretty sure isn't going to happen.
As you sit there pondering the mess you've gotten yourself into, as if you didn't already have enough on your plate before all this happened, you notice a girl in tears approaching the shop, and you realize that you know that head of black hair. Then you happen to notice her shadow and have to bite your lip to stop yourself from jumping out to attack her in rage.
It's that military girl from before, and after watching her for a bit you almost have to laugh at how bad she is at being sneaky. You know, now that you think about it, you have yet to get the full story about what is going on around here, maybe you could stir the pot by going into the store with the black one, and a quick check shows that even if it comes to blows the Nehushtan Armor is completely repaired and ready to go.
Or you could sneak around and have a friendly chat with military girl in the alley she's hiding in, who's focus is completely on the scene in front of her, you'd swear she's acting like a lovesick puppy if you had to take a guess. It'd almost be child's play to pull off, really.
Lastly you could just wait for them to go away, obviously the girl made it out of the encounter alright somehow, so it's really none of your business who she hangs out with.
And... Of course Akane chooses this moment to stir herself awake, a groan that thankfully won't reach street level causes you to rush over to cover her mouth and tell her that...
[X] "How would you like to have some ice-cream?" You'd like to check up on black hair and it's only one of them. It's not like they'd dare attack on a busy street right? That would be stupid.
[X] "I'm going to have a little chat with one of our friends from the other night." You could easily sneak up on her from the alley she's hiding in and you want answers, and don't feel like being gentle in getting them.
[X] "I saw one of the girls from last night, stay low until she leaves." In the meantime you can continue the question and answer session from earlier.
[X] Got a better idea?
Well ain't this just a wonderful coincidence Chris, wasn't there some American saying about jumping from the pot and into the fire?
[X] "How would you like to have some ice-cream?" You'd like to check up on blackie and it's only one of them. It's not like they'd dare attack on a busy street right? That would be stupid.