The battle rages on under the cold, waning moon. Shells of mesmerizingly colored bullets fly through the air, their sparks of blue, green, and brown scratching the dark indigos of Saga's night sky.
The fresh smell of gunpowder scatters across the once-flourishing farmlands. Now, the fields are nothing more than a graveyard where the field men and the Seele fight ruthlessly.
Inside the safe, white lights of the base of operations at Saga International Airport, the members of U.W.D.S. Intelligence scramble. The SPINELs' hushed mumbles echo through the sterile room.
In the center of it all, overlooking the battlefield, a single Trochanter stands watching and calculating. Miss Gigi narrows her eyes.
"This battle is as big as we expected, but it seems like we've underestimated the number of men we'd actually need."
She looks back at the flickering data on the monitors.
"At this point in time, letting Squad 663 push themselves too early might put us on the edge."
She faces ahead once more, her mind racing.
"Need to let the field men take over first... That big ass one ain't movin' yet. Seems like it exhausted itself traveling below the sea."
She taps her ear, her voice commanding.
"Kirashi, Ryujin... Fall back. We're going to save your squad for now."
Through the other side of the comms, Kirashi and Ryujin reply.
"Copy that!"
As Miss Gigi cuts the channel, a specific set of footsteps begins to drown out the keyboard clicks and the mumbling of the SPINELs in the intelligence center.
She lit a cigarette as a man spoke to her.
"Miss Gigi!"
He called out.
She raised a brow as she took a hit of her smoke, her eyes focused ahead.
"Report, Aldrin."
The man was Aldrin, saluting. He nodded once before he reported.
"Ma'am! As we commenced rhythm, W.E.S.C.U. attacked us as we completed the operation."
He paused, taking a breath.
"Itoshi abnormally dropped cold. The other side took their chance to ambush us at that moment... We've lost five confirmed souls in the incident... with our Vice-Leader still missing in action."
Miss Gigi took a deep exhale, the smoke from her breath curling upwards.
"We'll continue our operation here in Saga. Right now, 663 is falling back into the airport. Look after them as they do."
She paused, finally turning to Aldrin.
"We'll take care of the Vice-Leader.. We're still positive with his signals, but we're unable to pinpoint where he is right now."
Her lime, empty eyes locked onto Aldrin's brown ones.
"CottonCandy and BlueTame are inside right now. I'll leave the reports regarding ShallowShadow to you."
She raised her hand, saluting with the smoke still tucked in her lips. Aldrin saluted back, straight and disciplined, before he turned and rushed outside.
Miss Gigi kept her eyes on Aldrin as her thoughts raced.
"This battle can easily be won... as long as we don't exh-"
— Before she could finish the thought, a bright blue hue glowed from the outside. Her eyes widened, and her head snapped toward the light.
The entire SPINEL headquarters came to a halt as they first laid eyes on it: The Blue flame of the Scarecrow.
"T-that's the b-blue flame?..."
"That's... That's what's gonna save us?..."
It wasn't just the airport; it was the whole warzone. From Point Alpha in Shintaku and Point Bravo on Hachihei, to the first encounter in Point Charlie at Higatayoka Park, all the way to Point Echo in Showabiraki. Everyone witnessed it. The coming of the Blue Flame Gifted. The Scarecrow.
Suddenly, mid-awe, the comms firmly placed in Miss Gigi's ears buzzed. It was Ryujin.
"Miss Gigi! Why is Itoshi out in the field?!"
Miss Gigi flinched, snapping back into reality.
"Ah! You continue falling back, Leader. Aldrin will fill you in. I'll take care of BlueRage for now."
On the other side, Ryujin gritted his teeth, confused by the mix-up of orders. Kirashi turned to him, the same confusion written all over his face as he shrugged.
"We'll fall back as Miss Gigi ordered,"
Ryujin confirmed. They started to run back toward the airport.
"Itoshi can't handle that with the Field-Men alone!"
Kirashi spoke, his breath barely holding up.
"I know!"
Ryujin answered.
"Something must've really happened in Kitakyushu."
Back in the headquarters, Miss Gigi sat in her chair, her eyes low as she pinched her chin.
"Fid Itoshi miss the order? What is going on?"
She paused, looking ahead at the glowing monitors.
"Did Itoshi drown in his emotions? Or... did something else happen?"
She pressed a button ahead of her. A single buzz followed, and a SPINEL was summoned behind her.
"Ma'am! You've called!"
She turned to him and ordered,
"Ping BlueRage!"
He attempted the ping, but there was no response. No radio return.
"Negative, ma'am!"
Miss Gigi gave a single, firm nod as her thoughts raced once more.
"I was right. In the encounter, Itoshi might've lost his comms. No ping from me and no ping from that guy..."
She paused mid-thought, the weight of the situation settling in.
"He completely missed the order. I'm afraid he won't listen to the field men either."
[Scarecrows POV]
"I'll take them all down..."
Flash. Flash.
"All of them.. those fucking hindrance's.."
Flash. Flash.
He was in a trance, his mind fracturing under the weight of his emotions. The sudden disappearance of Ayro had snapped something inside. The world around him blurred into a strobe light of traumatic memories and flickering azure light.
"I hate them.. I hate them all.."
Flash.
He saw them. Really saw them.
"It's them..."
The battle raged on. His breath hitched as he faced the wind-type Seele tearing through the fields, their invisible blades whipping the air into a frenzy.
"It's our crow!"
"The battle will turn now!"
The field men hushed, their voices filled with a desperate, sudden hope.
"That's right... the hero has arrived,"
Itoshi thought to himself, the irony lost in his deepening mania.
The mindless beasts all turned toward him. Though they were no bigger than his own size, they moved with a predatory twitch.
Itoshi stood in the center of the chaos, unmoving in his outfit, the blue glow of his Gift casting long, distorted shadows across the dirt.
His hands were firmly gripped at his sides as he whispered three names like a prayer.
"Mom.. Hishiki.. Ayro..."
A deafening screech suddenly echoed across the field, a sound that rattled the bones of every man present.
It was a twenty-seven-foot wind-type Seele, a towering monstrosity of condensed air and malice. Its eyes locked onto the small, glowing figure of the boy below.
A flash came to Itoshi as he turned his head.
In the midst of the heat and the screams, he saw a woman. She was faceless, a blur of a memory standing in the tall grass. "Itoshi..." she muttered softly.
Itoshi's eyes widened, his pupils trembling.
But underneath his mask, a jagged, terrifying smile quickly returned.
"Y-You're calling me!"
His palms sparked in blue as he kneeled down, the heat searing the damp earth beneath him. He grunted, a guttural sound of pure exertion, before he started running.
The Seele surrounding him surged forward, closing in from all sides to tear him apart.
"That's right! That's gonna make my work easier!"
He launched himself at the nearest Seele, his fist bursting with blue flames as he connected.
The beast dropped into the damp crops, its head caving under a single burning punch. Within seconds, it faded into a pile of drifting ashes.
"Pathetic."
Another screech pierced the air. Without a moment's hesitation, the Crow turned toward the sound.
"You want that too?!"
The beast rushed him on all fours, its body a grotesque distortion with limbs protruding from places they shouldn't be.
It was a fast, twitchy nightmare, but Itoshi was faster. He swung his leg, his damp shoe connecting squarely with the creature's chin and snapping its head back.
The beast's neck cracked, but it wasn't dead. It needed the flame.
He spread his right palm, aiming directly at the creature's core. A concentrated burst of blue fire erupted, and the beast went down with ease, the flames cackling through the cold wind under the waning moon.
The other wind-type Seele remained in a circle around him, but they didn't move.
They simply watched as the lone blue flame wielder stood at the center of the darkness, a flickering beacon of violence.
"There were more of you earlier..."
he muttered, his eyes darting from one shadow to the next.
"COME AT ME! FUCKING COWARDS!"
he shouted, his bark echoing across the silent fields.
Then, finally, it moved.
The Crow's head snapped toward the sound of shifting earth and displacement. The twenty-seven-foot Kolassal-class, wind-type Seele was on the move.
"You're finally coming?! Huh?!"
Its humanoid form was uncanny, totally unusual for a Seele. Normally, their grotesque, dark forms with inhuman proportions were the standard.
But the bigger they grew, the more human they began to look—even while carrying that same shadow-like essence that defined their existence.
"Come! Face me!"
As it rose from the salty Ariake Sea, its sheer size blotted out the low, waning moon. The massive silhouette cast a heavy darkness over the field, but the Crow just stood there.
He kept his arms wide, intentionally allowing himself to be swarmed by the human-sized Seele.
The monsters surrounded him in an instant, pinning him down under a mountain of snarling, twitching limbs.
But with ease, his blue flame shot high into the sky, a pillar of heat incinerating most of the wind-types that had pounced on him.
"I've gotten stronger! Hishiki!" he shouted as he steadied himself, his feet digging into the dirt.
He reinforced his legs with a surge of power before rushing headlong toward the Kolassal-class Seele.
It was the same type of beast that had taken down his friend, and his eyes burned with the memory.
"Tomo-san! I told you to sit down!"
Kara shouted. Her helmet was back on her head as she pouted, her palm curled into a firm fist just below her chin.
Tomori sat in the sterile hangar of the airport, scratching the back of her head as she endured a firm scolding from Kara in boss mode.
Aldrin joined them, breathless.
"Kara-san! Where is everyone?"
Kara and Tomori both faced him.
"They're all out in the field!" Kara replied.
Aldrin gave a single, firm nod.
"Okay! I've got something to report... let's wait for the Leader here!"
They all shared a look before nodding in agreement.
At that very moment, a call came from the outside.
"ALDRIN!!" It was Ryujin.
Beside him was Kirashi. They had run all the way back through the airport, with Kirashi barely able to draw breath.
The moment they stepped into the hangar, Kirashi collapsed, falling face-down on the floor.
"Let me heal you, Kira-san!"
Kara shouted.
"Yes, please~"
Kirashi replied, a weary smile of delight surfacing on his face.
"What happened back there, Aldrin?"
Ryujin asked, his voice firm and commanding.
"We got attacked by those White Suits... Ayro covered our rear as we escaped,"
Aldrin reported.
"What about Itoshi? He's engaged alone on the battlefield right now!"
"W-what?..."
Aldrin asked, his eyes widening.
"H-he's alone? Did he not get the order?..."
He paused as a realization hit him.
"W-wait. Earlier, he wasn't responding to me either. We had to shout just to communicate... I think he may have lost his comms,"
Aldrin theorized.
Ryujin took a deep breath before giving a single, firm nod.
"Okay! He won't be able to take that Kolassal alone. I'll be backing him up. Report that to Miss Gigi."
Aldrin nodded.
Ryujin rushed toward a single motorcycle parked in the hangar. With a single kick, the bike roared to life.
He pulled the throttle a couple of times, the engine whining, before he launched off back into the field.
Aldrin, Kara, and Tomori all watched him as he faded into the dark night. Soon, the red glow from the back of the bike was all they could see.
They all went silent, except for Tomori.
"Eh... I thought they banned all combustible engines years ago..."
~~~To be Continued~~~