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Along the railways lading from Miyabigaoka into its neighboring cities, lies a train that was put out of commission not long after that which became the Glum Slum. It seems to not be in working order, and sits along the same unused railway as the Glum Slum itself, but it has been used over the years by many Storm Rider teams, and all of its cars retain good condition because of this.
On a well kept seemingly abandoned train car a girl with scarlet hair sat in one of the more furnished areas. This whole place was technically the hideout of her team and was situated on an unused section of railway which used to house the Glum Slum. As such her team was considered to be one of the higher up the charts. It was known as the Orient Express and this A-class team was one which didn't take many challenges because people often saw it as too much trouble. As she sat she looked out of the window her blue eyes catching the light as she leaned up against a large fan closed and propped up. "I think... we'll find less resistance on the way to the top this time." she said aloud to no one in particular. She crossed her legs at the ankle and simply waited, she had nothing else to do this day, so she was relaxing.
"That'd be fuckin' boring as shit!" spoke the guttural voice of a blue-haired man who sat beside the redhead. "I came back for this one to slice up some fucker's fuckin' guts!" he continued. In the meantime, a maroon-haired, shirtless male entered the car these two occupied, coming with a message for the young woman present. "Suzu! Kae says there's a group coming down the rails toward here. We might have a challenge coming."
True enough, the Sky King Shoichi was presently leading his newly-registered team, White Spell, down the train tracks. His ATs carried him along the power line above, and from where he was at present, he could see the full-length train ahead. "That's the stuff, Hana-chan! Let your ATs do the work, and you just keep balancing! Sawa-chan, strut that shit!" he said, providing a bit of encouragement to his teammates who were riding for the first time in what had to be ages. "This is gonna be a really sweet spot to make a base. I found it on R.E.A.D. while we were registering."
The young woman in her traditional style dress flickered her eyes towards the blue haired young man who seemed to express a great deal of interest in slicing up someone. While she wasn't for that sort of violence herself, his usefulness on her team could not be understated. Even so, she felt the need to speak on this matter, particularly how he worded his grievance. "That's a bit violent, Hisashi. Also fucker's fuckin'? Did you really need to say those two words back to back? No one will ever...." she started to tell him about how his general violence discouraged challengers which was sort of a double edged sword, but apparently that wouldn't be necessary. A red haired young man instead told her of a message which meant that they would soon have visitors. "Oh, never mind then." she said given the information that someone was approaching. "It seems you might get your chance Hisashi. Tell everyone to get into formation. We have to greet our challengers properly." she said reaching back to pull the large fan into her lap a bit of a smile on her face. She did like a challenge every now and again.
Meanwhile, the team presently riding with Shoichi towards this place was made up of a bunch of young women. Hanako a girl who seemed to have no hope of riding ATs ever again was rolling along steadily. "Hai!~" she chimed to the Sky King's encouragement as she allowed her ATs to carry the brunt of her run while she only concentrated on the balancing aspect. Meanwhile a brown haired girl with a sporty pony tail dressed in all green seemed to be having a much better time of this than her lack of riding would have let one to believe her capable of. "YOSH!~" she said performing a spin and riding the rails, adding extra speed and friction to the run which would look pretty solid to those who didn't know she'd been out of commission for a while before this point. There were two more young women in this group as well. One with purple hair was rolling along between the groups apparently getting used to the feel of them, she'd taken to conversing with another girl, wearing a utility belt with short cut black hair. Both of them seemed fairly good all on their own and seemed to simply be watching antics of the others from a safe distance. "You know it worried me for the first few moments that his team only had girls on it because of what happened with the last team I was on. I think... I may have been worried for no reason." she mentioned to the purple haired girl who nodded. "I have been a member of the Black Order since it started... Shoichi-san is strange... but he's not a bad person like your last leader was mentioned being. He feels right to me, if that helps you at all... Kaori-nee." she said as she rode along seemingly without resistance to anything but those around her.
"Fuckers fuckin' fuck while they fuck around like a fuckin' pair o' fuckin' fuckboys!" chanted the man called Hisashi in a loud, seemingly obnoxious manner. Even while making such a retort, though, he seemed moderately respectful toward the red-haired woman enough to immediately follow her order to rally the others. In a matter of moments, the top of the train housed the clawed male, the maroon-haired male who now wore an open shirt, a girl with thigh-high ATs and a school uniform, and a very peculiar-looking white-haired girl with a beanie and an array of tattoos from wrist to neck. The white-haired girl would be the first to speak once the group was assembled. "This ain't gonna be too fun. There are six of 'em, and only two of 'em makes my skin crawl. Short... definitely a girl. So's the other one. Only other good one is a Link Tuner with a lot of tech on her. She's one of them Kings, but only one of the others has a Subregalia."
"Of course, I say something about it, you use the word maliciously in a sentence. You know what... I respect that. Not many people can make a cogent sentence out of swear words." mentioned the scarlet haired woman as she herself went to claim her place which was surprisingly enough leaning out of the window of one of the train cars propped up rather nicely against the bottom of the opening with her sub-regalia under the front wheel of her left AT. When they were all gathered it seemed that their own Tuner had something to say about the group travelling towards them. "That doesn't seem right... a whole team with only three people on it worth any salt, and one of those is a Link Tuner?" she said thinking about it for a second she looked at the girl covered in her tattoos and offered a very sincere apology. "No offense, Kae~ But most tuners aren't as special as you." she said offering the girl a smile before going back to her thoughts. "How would they expect to win an A-class parts war that way?" Suzu said apparently not understanding how or why anyone without much more to offer would approach them in such a way. Regardless it would be amusing to see what kind of simpletons would attempt such a thing. Either way her entire group was now in place and looking the right level of menacing to accept any challenges that came their way.
"Mm. That's all there is to 'em. One of 'em has enough skill to ride the line, but I think that's about it. Only dude in the group. The other two are total plebs." This was the end of the apparent tuner's analysis of the oncoming team. From what she figured, there was a bit of fun to be had with a couple of these individuals, but the others were absolute trash.
Soon enough, this team would find out for sure what the White Spell was made of. When Shoichi reached the train, he hopped off the power line and landed on the rails themselves. From this level, he surveyed the five individuals before him with a grin. "Sugoi! You guys are the ones that have this spot, huh? Gomen, gomen. We're here to take your spot," he said. The first to react to this was, once again, the tuner of the home team, who showed a wicked grin and a general countenance the likes of which was unexpected from Shoichi's first look. "Kukuku~! Neh, Tsusu! I wanna peel 'is dick open!" The moment these words were spoken, the girl in her school uniform approached the tuner from the rear, looking a bit disturbed by her choice of words. "Ano... Takashita-san, you're showing your bad side again."
"Fuck it!" the blue-haired man interjected. "That's the kind of shit I'm talkin' about! You deal with that, and I'll chop up the rest!"
"Plebs?" a giggle escaped the leader. If nothing else she could count on the members of her team to be full of random and amusing commentary. Still the waited for the arrival of this group, and once it was upon them it seemed that the Tuner had even more to say. Shoichi himself landed before this group and to be fair, his introductory sentence wasn't one that Tuner apparently agreed with. "Now, now Kae~ you know when you talk like that you scare Miwa. Besides, I'm sure you can find a better way to express yourself." said the woman who seemed to give the vibe of a fun aunt. Someone slightly older but cool to hang out with. "Hisashi don't encourage that." she mentioned before reverting her attention to the actual situation at hand. "Sou ka, that's what you're after. That seems fine enough, the Orient Express waits for all new challengers~" said the leader who didn't expect to lose her spot to a bunch of 'plebs'. "Well, we only roll A-class parts war, but I am sure you knew that before you came here~" mentioned the leader who finally sat up and raised her hand expecting a balloon canister to be tossed into it. "I assume that's fine with you." she said seemingly only mildly interested in any of this. There wasn't going to be much trouble here. Looking at the group.
There rest of the group that arrived with Shoichi came to a stop behind him. Sawa and Hana both seemed a bit stunned by the words spoken by the Tuner. "She's scary." whispered Hana. Sawa only nodded her agreement. While this happened, Masumi and Kaori both seemed to be looking at the team, overall Kaori was impressed by the strength and Masumi managed to be just as neutral as she always was. "A group of uncrowned Kings, I would say it's a bit much for an introduction." the purple haired girl mentioned. Kaori seemed antsy to start. "Doesn't really matter that much does it... I mean... titles and the like don't really stick that hard do they?" she asked seemingly unaware of the sort of problem such people could actually cause. All while this was happening there was soon a small murmur from the group. The girl known as Hanako spoke up for the first time since the introduction was made. "What's an A-class parts war, Shoichi-san?" she asked of their leader. Such a thing broke Kaori's initial concentration completely, she was now completely baffled. Masumi looked off into space waiting for the reply explanations were good for newer riders, and it was obvious by what these two newer members did, that they'd never made it to the upper rungs of the previous parts war.
"Uhh? Better way to express myself? Yeah, right! I'm with Sashi; let's gut some fools!" the girl in her late teens replied, seeming to be a bit off her rocker in her giddiness to crush the enemy team for such an arrogant introduction. When their team's leader opened her hand, Kaede was the one to produce and toss the balloon canister. "Meh. I don't think these guys are worth A-Class. We should do somethin' else. Ooh, I got it! I can fix us all up some guns so we can get it poppin' on some gangsta shootout level shit!" she suggested, lying atop the train to look down at the redhead with an air of pleading in those strange eyes of hers. "Can we please!? Or I could make like... robots to rep each team, and THEY have a shootout so we can watch! I won't rig theirs; promise!"
Shoichi scratched the back of his head when the other team's leader suggested an A-Class Parts War. In all honesty, he hadn't done an ounce of research on this team, and he was quite surprised that they were such a high-class team. "You guys are A-Class!? Sugoi... didn't expect that," he said. Moments later, he turned toward his own team; some of whom were unfamiliar with this tier of Parts War. Before addressing them, he gestured for them to huddle together, as to evade the ears of the opposing team. "A-Class Parts War: Balloon. It's a race that requires all five members of a team. That balloon she's got over there? That's the goal. Each member of a team has a specific role. Most important is the Panther, who goes for the balloon and is the only one allowed to touch it. The Decoy pretends to be the Panther and draws attention away to make an opening for the Panther. The Ultimate fights the other team in close quarters. The Middle plays support and helps the roles before it on offense, so they're basically a second Ultimate. Last, there's the Keeper, who works on defense for the whole team by stopping as many attacks as possible." With his explanation given, Shoichi retrieved from his pocket a pin of the team's emblem, and held it at the center of the huddle. "This is what the Panther keeps to mark them as the Panther. Hana-chan... you're our Panther, with Sawa-chan as your Decoy. Sumi-chan should be the Ultimate. Kaori-chan... play Middle. I'll be Keeper. That all sound good?"
As this huddle occurred, the maroon-haired man looked across the gap to where the challenging team stood. He found something particularly strange about a few of these members. "Three of them are wearing the Black Order's uniform," he said. This brought a response from the one called Kaede. "That's the tuner and the two decent ones. They probably got tired of not gettin' any action following that Takuji guy around, so they went for another group o' lame-o riders to try and get at the Sky Regalia again. And what's with the dye on that one bitch's head? Awww, don't be a weeb! She's the cute one!"
The girl who named Kaede, spoke as if she was a bit off her rocker. Of course, everyone on her team was apparently used to this, including the woman who led the team as a whole. As she listened to the girl's near manic set of ideas without judgement. "Even if they aren't, they are still a team, we run A-class so they have to meet us as such, it's advantageous." said the woman calmly. "Though, not going to play around with you... that robot idea is pretty sweet~" she said as adeptly slipped the balloon atop the canister which she'd subsequently toss towards the maroon haired young man. Though she couldn't help but let her eyes widen as the young man before her apparently didn't know the class of the team he came to challenge. "Tell me you're joking..." she said not believing anyone to be so bold or so stupid as to challenge a group without knowing what they would do. Still, the huddle would leave this group time to get their set up going if needed.
Shoichi would call a huddle which Kaori, Masumi, Sawa and Hana would circle around the man while he explained the latter two what the A-class parts war was. Of course, Kaori and Masumi both already knew with the dark haired girl having been rather excited to be part of a group that could get her into one. This was of course a bit saddening considering the general skill levels of all the riders involved in this, and the subsequent choices of the Sky King in the placement of these team members made Kaori look at him as if he'd grown a second head. While she did this Sawa and Hana both seemed to nod their understanding of the rules and positions as well as Shoichi's delegation of those. "I think I got decoy covered~ Activity rocks!~" this was all Sawa had to say in a hushed whisper of course. "I don't get why I should be the one going after the balloon I can barely move." mentioned Hana who thought she was probably better suited as Decoy. Masumi knew and understood her own role and had no problem with it though she knew the group thought oddly of the choice to allow her to fight close quarters. "Kaori-nee is also disappointed she wasn't chosen as panther, which is overall an obvious better choice. Also, I know I am small but that role will be fine for me." Masumi voice for the young woman which made Kaori take a deep breath and frown. "Now, I wouldn't have said it like that... but I can't argue your rightness. No offense by the way... but I've been burning for one of these." she mumbled, complete with apology to Hana who accepted it with a smile on her face. "It's no problem really~ I completely understand." the broken girl mentioned seriously having no hard feelings about the situation. "Really though, why?" Kaori asked directing her attention to Shoichi, it seemed even the girl chosen as Panther didn't understand the logic of the choice.
Meanwhile, Kaede basically had a conversation with herself but the current formation of the group would allow the leader of their group Suzu to assign roles without having to think much about it. "Hisashi you can take your usual spot." she said referring to him as the Ultimate of this group for very obvious reasons. "Kae~ you can also take your usual spot, though I'd prefer you and Hisashi stay away from each other... at least initially." she said mentioning the girl's spot as middle. She didn't figure Hisashi would need any help and could think of better uses of the girl's skills than helping the blood thirsty clawed man. Moving right along the rest of them. "Miwa and Aki... you two should switch your usual positions. " she said of the two, the first of which normally played Panther should instead play decoy and the latter of which should do just the opposite. "And I'll keep my normal spot. Sound good?" she asked of the group.
Shoichi wasn't very surprised that there were some questions about the roles being assigned to his teammates. After all, he knew that he could see something they could not, and even in such a case, his methods were more than unorthodox. To the question of why he chose Hanako as the Panther instead of Kaori, he simply smiled. "Because we're a team. That's why," he said. And, with that, he turned away from the huddle. He wouldn't explain quite yet, but the meaning behind his words was simply attributed to the improvement of the chosen Panther and Decoy being better for the group as a whole; not to mention the individual values that would be gained from the other positions in their first experience having such a Parts War. This, too, would simply have to be discovered by the members themselves as the battle went on. Usagi, who had yet to speak on the goings on since arriving, finally stepped forward in this moment. "Sho-kun is one of those people you just have to trust when he says things. He'll come through in the end," she said, directing her attention to Kaori. "Oh... also, he said you were ready for this." Following Usagi's words, she slipped an object she had crafted en route to registration underneath the girl's cloak. What followed would likely feel like a ton of shifting happening beneath the garment at once for Kaori, when in fact, Usagi had swiftly taken apart the Subregalia worn by the lass, and pieced it together with a proper core and upgraded functionality all-around. "Crescent Rose. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu, Machine Queen~♪"
Meanwhile, at the train itself, the entire team belonging to Suzu seemed to agree to the parts they were to play. "Keh! Wouldn't fuckin' play anything else!" said Hisashi. Akira and the younger girl named Miwa discretely traded off the Panther badge for their team while the other group was in their huddle. Once this trade was done, Akira took up the balloon for the battle by first swinging what looked to be a modified club at it, denting the can and forcing helium into the balloon. "Ara ara!" Kaede said abruptly. "Lookey! That one over there just got an upgrade, and it's givin' me shivers! Like... shiver me timbers all up in here! Neh, Tsusu! I'ma put bot bits in 'em, 'kay!?"
Soon, Shoichi reached the point between his team, and the opposing team. He seemed more than ready, with neither arrogance nor wariness on his visage. "Osu! Sorry about the wait. I didn't expect us to be jumping into A-Class on day one," he said with a smile.
Kaori looked at Shoichi, and it wasn't entirely friendly. Masumi seemed to not understand why there was such a reaction. "That's a bit over the top..." she said which caused Kaori's gaze to shift. Such an answer was likely the least satisfactory to the girl. With that in mind she had been about to give this particular man a piece of her mind, but then Usagi spoke up, and since the girl had been quiet their entire ride over she decided to hear her out if for no other reason than to perhaps gain a bit of insight about the man who'd recruited her without even bothering to know her. "Blind trust isn't my thing." Kaori said. Which only made Masumi look at the girl. She supposed she could understand why she couldn't just trust someone, given the situation she'd come from before this one. Strangely enough though, Masumi herself felt like the entire group was trustworthy enough even without being around them for very long. What happened next Kaori seriously didn't expect and it was the complete revamp of the sub-regalia she'd pieced together for herself over the last couple of months. Unlike most she didn't need to ask what had happened, she was simply amazed by the speed at which it took place. "Machine Queen? Crescent Rose? What?" questions stumbled out of the girl's mouth. "How did you even do that so fast?! Seriously I've been working on it the last two months and it wasn't even half done." she paused. "Hell or even so well... what?!" she was stunned. This caused the purple haired girl wonder about the sudden shift in the girl's emotional state. Even so, it seemed there would be no further arguing. Kaori supposed she wasn't being asked for complete blind faith, and she supposed if she couldn't trust her leader's judgement she shouldn't have followed in the first place. "Yare, yare. Alright... but if we lose I swear I'm joining the fanged girl's army." It seemed the other two girls were a bit less stunned this time around as they'd already seen the Pledge Queen throw together multiple pairs of ATs and upgrade a regalia without much fuss. "Still impressive though." mentioned Sawa which made Hana giggle. Given the events of this afternoon both girls seemed to trust the Sky King implicitly, if for no other reason than because he'd given them no reason to distrust him compounded with his genuine love of ATs.
Hisashi's response was about what was expected by Suzu. "Hai, just don't do anything too crazy." she mentioned to the Machine King. Moving right along it seemed that Kae had witnessed the tuning of Kaori and had quite a bit to say about it. Since she knew her own tuner's capabilities, Suzu could only assume something monstrous had taken place, but this wouldn't keep her from properly addressing the white haired girl while watching the discrete trade off between Akira and Miwa. "Well, that is a much more descriptive expression of self. Not sure how I feel about the threatening nature of it... but it definitely gets points for creativity." Soon after the Sky King broke up his little meeting huddle and mentioned that they were now ready even though he apparently hadn't known before this moment that they were an A-class team. "You just put your team together, and your first act is challenging an A-class team... ballsy, I'll give you that." the woman said as she finally exited the window she'd been resting on and then pulled with her the large mechanized fan she'd been resting her foot on outside the window. "Crush them~" she mentioned to her own team, readying the rallying cry of the start of this Parts War.
"You'll get used to it. Trust me," Usagi said regarding the Machine Queen's faith, her own tuning speed, and being on this sort of team in general. When it seemed the Parts War was ready to officially begin, Shoichi grinned at the opposing team's leader. Sure, she could call his targeting an A-Class team a ballsy move, and perhaps it was when one considered the status of his existing team. However, this was simply how Shoichi operated. "That ain't ballsy. This is ballsy!" With his left thumb, he pointed over his shoulder at Hanaka. "That one right there. That's our Panther!" he declared.
An order had been given to crush this team called White Spell, but all of Suzu's subordinates seemed taken aback by the white-haired man's declaration. None could fathom the amount of either idiocy, arrogance, or genius the man was showing in this moment. "Is he, like, for real? Or like... retarded?" Kaede questioned aloud, willing to keep nothing at all politically correct. "I vote fuckin' retarded, but that don't mean shit!" said Hisashi as he leaped from the train. The moment Suzu gave the attack order, Akira released the balloon into the air, and Hisashi had taken it upon himself to attack immediately. Baring his claws, he swiped them against one another until they caught fire. He was aiming to encroach upon Kaori with his right set of claws lashing out at her torso. "Aaaand you're it!" he called out. Shoichi, who stood motionless in this moment, spoke aloud when he was passed by the blue-haired man. "Obvious Ultimate is obvious. You just gonna take that?" he asked in a somewhat smug fashion. Meanwhile, Mira from Orient Express slipped away from both groups, darting across the side of a nearby building toward where the wind had blown the balloon.
"If you say so. Arigatou Gozaimasu, Usagi-san." this was all Kaori had to say, after all new gear, was new gear and given her own capabilities she could only appreciate what was done here. Moving right along the obvious enemy team leader complimented their group on an apparent show of bravado then rather amazingly their own leader revealed their panther. It took everything Kaori had to keep her face neutral as to not give away if he was being smart or dumb, but at this very moment she really wanted to palm her face wondering what she'd gotten into. Hana and Sawa both looked at each other after this utterance as if they couldn't believe this either and both were completely and utterly speechless. But they didn't get much time to consider this because apparently the battle was starting as the balloon floated off, Sawa immediately took off after it, her only aim to draw any unnecessary attention to herself. Hanako also left the fray albeit at a much slower pace, in fact, it wouldn't even look like she was going after the balloon she seemed to have a hard enough time simply moving at all.
"Fucking moron. You gotta be." these were the words of Suzu who normally wasn't one to swear at all. She simply couldn't believe what she was seeing and what she'd just heard. It seemed that her own Ultimate recovered fairly fast and the rest of the team was moving on their way to doing their things. As such she simply kept watch of the battle. Shoichi's statements about the statement of the other Team's Ultimate made a smirk cross Kaori's face as she removed the closed up weapon from her cloak tilting her body on her left hind wheel to spin out of the way of the coming claw while the weapon unfolded into a giant scythe and she fired an empty round at the ground shooting herself up and away from the attacker. "Gomen... I'll leave this to you." she said taking off after one of the others in the process. She understood what her job was and so she intended to assist where she was needed while getting used to what was apparently her regalia. Meanwhile a purple haired girl in her gothic lolita style dress stood at the side of the clawed young man looking completely apathetic. "No, I won't I'll take care of him. You can go do something else." she said to Shoichi specifically. There was nothing in this girl's countenance that changed but soon enough when she reached about arms distance of the young man there would be a bursting wave of wind powerful enough to blow him back in the direction he'd come from should he be unable to avoid it, caused merely by her rolling in close proximity to him. "I'm the Ultimate..." she mentioned as if knowing her position would change nothing about this situation.
"Wouldn't be the first time I heard that," Shoichi said in response to being called a moron by this red-haired lass. He was content to stand in one place while the battle ensued, and ensue, it did. Hisashi's claws missed their mark, and it seemed his target would not be participating in the fun with him. Instead, he was accosted by a strange young girl, whose simple presence near him caused him to be jettisoned away from her person. "Eh? Wind, huh? Well fuck me fuckin' sideways, you're one of the good ones too!" Without so much as a moment of hesitation, Hisashi lunged forward again. This time, he aimed to ram his claws into the abdomen of the girl before him. In the meantime, Shoichi was speaking to that very same lass. "Nah, I'll just chill here. You guys have this covered. Right, Hana-chan?" he asked of Hanaka. "Ya' gotta learn to ride before you learn to walk! Don't think about it; just loosen up and let the wind carry you!"
As the Middle, and while the Ultimate was busy elsewhere, it would have been Kaede's task to do something about the alleged Panther approaching the balloon. Since she wasn't sure the legitimacy of Shoichi's words, the girl appeared before both Sawa and Hanaka, speaking in a tone and cadence that would be expected of an announcer of sorts. "Lady and... lady! For tonight's entertainment, we have you two gettin' a couple o' mech implants! Where do ya' want 'em!? I can make yer butt cheeks self-heating!" she said with a wicked grin on her visage. At that time, she held out her right arm, which resulted in her forearm opening to reveal technology inside. The most notable of pieces to be shown was a pair of spikes that ejected from her wrist area as her left hand split into halves, folding around her arm. "Or I can do a whole do-over on that busted bod of yours, huh!?"
"I bet it's not." said the woman who was obviously watching this entire thing happen but she hadn't moved to do anything. She had more than enough faith in her team to be able to handle a group like the one that had approached them. Even with the couple of people who showed more than a little skill, there wasn't much to be done by this woman yet.
Meanwhile, Masumi seemed to be confronted by an overly battle thirsty young man. His reaction to being tossed away from her person was one she expected fully based on how he'd joined the fray in the first place. Even so, it didn't seem that Shoichi would be leaving her side anytime soon, and additionally she didn't seem to be at all worried about the clawed man who seemed to want to attack her more. "Well, I suppose if you wish to stay I'll enjoy your company." the girl said as the other boy aimed to ram claws into her person. Hana, seemed to think over what the Sky King had to say, and simply nodded thereafter. "Hai~" finding her own rhythm she began moving while concentrating only on her own sense of balance. Such a thing would lead to the girl soon enough catching up to Sawa.
During her fight as her opponent approached aiming to maim her center Masumi shifted to the left in a single sliding motion on one foot. "You're really excitable. Such intent to maim... such outright violence is not very common." she mentioned, though she knew of a couple of people who displayed similar traits from time to time in the Black Order's roster. This time it would seem to create something of a vacuum pulling the young man towards the side she'd shifted to, for the wind to burst outward once more as the pressure equalized and her weight shifted back to normal. This time was stronger than the first time and the blast from her person would touch all around her, aiming to blow him away. All the while, nothing changed about the girl's face nor her reactions. She really didn't seem to care at all.
Sawa, on the other hand was a bit surprised to find the other girl so close so soon. But it was a bit more troublesome for both girls, when the Middle of the other team showed up before them. Seeming to not be able to tell which of them was which, she threatened them both. And both were unsure what to do about it. "Am I the only one frightened?" asked Hana who seemed to be looking for the balloon but her eyes were distracted by the robotic arm of the girl before them. Sawa could already see it and nodded towards the building. "I am too, but it's a bit exciting. Really you're kinda really scary and that's really cool, but you wouldn't really make self heating butts right?" mentioned the brunette girl. But as they looked at each other salvation would descend from above in the form of several rapidly fired smoke bombs from Kaori. But the girl didn't stop moving then and lashed out with her new weapon spinning in her hand. "Yo, both of you get moving~" Kaori said. And both girls nodded this time splitting up completely and taking different routes. Kaori planned to keep this particular girl busy until there was more than enough space between her and their Panther and Decoy. "That's some pretty nice gear you got going there. I'm a bit of a weapons nerd myself~ If we weren't on opposite teams, I'd swap stories~" she mentioned as she swiped the weapon sideways as if she intended to try and cut the woman before her only at the last possible second an empty shell was fired off instead propelling the girl around in a circle while she spun the weapon so the back of it could be used to sweep the other young woman off her feet intending to leave her on the ground and on her back. After all, Kaori was in this mostly to aid in diversions and right now she was helping the other two make progress. Sawa, ended up at the bottom of a building spinning herself up a fire-escape with multiple grinding motions and constant rotations of her wheels. While, Hana was still moving at her awkwardly steady pace to another building completely.
"You'd be surprised, though. Everybody usually is," Shoichi said while crossing his arms and shifting his gaze around the area, simply to inspect the progress of the others. "Yeah... I think I was right. My team's totally winning this," he asserted. "I'll say now, though, it's nice meeting ya'. Second Wind Rider I've met in the past week or so."
Hisashi was once again met with resistance which didn't obviously come from the girl before him, but instead seemed to spawn from nothing at all. This time may have been more forceful than the last, but Hisashi pressed onward against it nonetheless. His claws lost their flames, and he was virtually stopped in his tracks, but he still forced his own movement. Slowly but surely, he was cutting the distance between himself and Masumi. "Don't give me that shit. I've seen the real members of that team you wear the uniform of. You might have a couple of tricks up your sleeve, but you ain't got shit on those guys!"
"Kuku! I'll give ya' heated butts and put drainpipes in yer pussies!" the tuner cackled in response to Sawa's query, be it meaningful or rhetorical. She was fully prepared to deal with these girls here and now, but there was a sudden assault of smoke bombs in the area they inhabited. This marked the arrival of the newly-crowned Machine Queen, Kaori, whom Kaede greeted with a grin once the smoke cleared. "Oooh, ya' like gears!? We get to have good ol' fashioned girl talk about oil and nuts and bolts and screws!? OOOH, will there be tea and barbie dolls!?" she questioned with a laugh. Kaori's approach came with a series of interesting maneuvers, and a rather lovely showcase of her weapon. Soon enough, she found herself suddenly looking toward the open sky above, as she had been taken off her feet. This was, strangely, met with a smile as well. In spite of the girl's uprooting, she rolled back into her original position immediately after hitting the ground. When she righted herself, she swung her mechanical arm around wildly, firing off a continuous particle beam with no particular goal in mind, albeit with a path that would have it cross from Kaori's right hip to the left side of her rib cage early in the beam's firing.
The red haired woman's neck shifted backward and she managed to look a bit disgusted by the idea that anything about this man would be surprising to anyone. It was clear he was likely stupid but she had a decent bit of faith in her own team. "Uh-huh... Don't you think you are calling it a bit early." said Suzu as she watched her Ultimate press on through whatever form of trickery the odd purple haired girl was using. Beyond this the mention of her being the second wind user he'd met in about a week. "Wind riders are rare." she said in slight disbelief. "Oh, no... not you." she said as if she was disgusted by the idea of sharing such a similarity with the young man before her.
Masumi heard the words of this young man and nothing about her face changed. She'd been apart of quite a few races in her time as a member of the Black Order, but it'd been quite a while since she'd encountered someone who had a problem dealing with the people who weren't considered the Black Order's best. The generals themselves rarely dealt in Parts Wars all at once, so an attitude such as his would be annoying... if the girl felt such a thing. Of course, she had no problem showing him something to get him to stop moving properly. "I am a real member of the team. You have the wrong idea about how it works if you really think so little." she said with much apathy, instead of letting the boy struggle against being able to close the space between them, she felt the wind moving against her person and launched herself forward closing the gap between them. In so doing those odd wheels on the bottom of her ATs all applied an inverted pressure which would crush the young man further for about three seconds as Masumi came to a stop exactly outside of arms reach. This action would cause an explosion of gale force winds to occur between them as her wheels spun against the ground aiming to equalize the difference between the winds around this young man and the ones around herself. Such would be enough to pummel this young man with concussive force and send him flying into the train car hard enough that his body would dent the side of it if the trick went off without a hitch.
Meanwhile, Kaori was successful in her initial maneuver which got both of the others moving once more. But beyond that point it seemed that the girl she'd managed to knock over had made some major upgrades to her body as she soon got back up after saying some very interesting things. "Umm, you're a strange one..." she said with a small smile. This girl was at least funny but whens he got up from being knocked over the black haired girl's eyes widened. "Oh, with some major upgrades. Is that a particle gun?!" she said eyes widening just in time to see it activate. But the Machine Queen had some quick reflexes, she kicked down firing off another round with her scythe and while she was in the air from the backlash she switched the weapon in her hand into rifle mode. "Oh... this is new." with her weapon like this she managed to load it with a more compressed ball than her usual ones it was made when she reached into her utility belt. The round was placed into the bottom of the weapon then fired downward with much force directly in front of the young woman, it would create an flash bang reaction which would disorient and hopefully put this young woman out of commission.
Hana had begun moving much more regularly and was now at the top of a building watching as the balloon floated just out of reach, still she kept going. She didn't know why, but she had a great deal of faith that when she needed to reach the balloon she'd be able to, even as she headed towards the edge of the building. She was up higher than she had been when she was injured, if she missed this time it would likely kill her, but... she felt like this was a necessary thing to do.
"Nah. Early would have been before I got a proper look at you guys. No disrespect, y'know? Your crew's good and all, but my guys'll be better in a few minutes." With the root of his analysis out in the open, Shoichi returned his gaze to the Orient Express' leader. Still, he smiled in the most casual manner as the idea hit her that he, too, was a wind rider. "Yep! I don't wanna brag, but I'm pretty much as good as it gets," he said while rubbing his forefinger against his nose.
Hisashi's efforts to reach the girl again seemed to be paying off. He sneered when she claimed to be a 'real member' of the Black Order, and continued to reach out with his claws. He could see it... the five claws reaching the flesh of the girl's abdomen, and digging in, blood gushing from her tiny frame as he shredded vital organs and took solace in the blood-gurgling screams to ensue. Sadly, this was not to be. By some strange method, he was repulsed into the side of the train. The wind was knocked out of him as he caved in the metal and took quite a bit of heavy damage to his back. He'd have shattered a window if he went any higher, but more importantly, he felt there was some lasting damage done to his body from this. "Oi, Masu-chan!" Shoichi called out in surprise. "Tink's gotta fix that, y'know?" he concluded. Meanwhile, Hisashi worked to peel himself away from the dent in the train. "You gotta be fuckin' shittin' me. I dunno how the fuck these tricks are happening!"
"IT'S A FUCKIN' PARTICLE GUN!" said Kaede who seemed to be in a state of ecstasy in this moment. Her tongue hung from her mouth as the beam she fired sliced through the air. It may have missed its target due to a crafty bit of evasion, but she always felt good simply firing it. Still, she had to cut this bit of fun short with Kaori hopping about. She had to admit that the weapon this girl wielded was quite the astounding piece of technology, and her skill with it to be capable of maneuvering by releasing shots was nothing to shake a stick at, as it were. A flash bang even existed as part of her arsenal, and as it came down, Kaede aimed what appeared to be a miniature rocket launcher from her forearm at the girl. The flash bang exploded in a flare of blinding light, and in that moment, the small rocket was unleashed. Its trajectory after the flash bang led through the air in Kaori's general vicinity, but nowhere near her bubble of personal space. Of course, this was intentionally done by Kaede. Her aim here was not Kaori, but instead to have her "Pocket Rocket", as she called it, curve around in the sky and descend upon the Panther Hanako. "Ooh, flashy! Tryin' ta play peekaboo!? Sucks! I'm fuckin' blind!" she stated. Kaede was not at all affected by this flash of light. Her eyes, though operational, were fully synthetic. There were more mechanical bits to this girl than her left arm alone.
"No disrespect huh?" this was the young woman's statement. She'd been watching the whole of these moments to get a feel for her usefulness in this. She'd let Hisashi take his hit because, she knew it would only make it worse if she interfered directly. She couldn't tell directly how the girl's trick worked, but she knew the purple haired girl to be changing the pressure around herself and her opponent. If this woman messed with the wind it would only make the strength of the attacks against her Ultimate worse. "You don't want to brag, but you're telling me. Ever been told you're contradictory?" she said with an eye roll. Still there was almost nothing to worry about as her own Panther was likely still doing his own thing.
Meanwhile Masumi's eyes shifted towards Shoichi. After her attack, the young man who seemed a bit surprised, went on to point out that the Pledge Queen would have to fix any damage she did to the Abandoned Train they were trying to take as their base. "Obviously, I am aware. I didn't break the window." she mentioned with about as much emotion as she'd always shown. This young man she was fighting was now trying to get himself together, he apparently didn't understand how her tricks were working and given the kind of personality he showed, she figured it wouldn't really matter even if she explained. "Every time you come towards me, your body creates a differential pressure because we are so very different. And when I touch the wind I alter that pressure causing either suction or blow out, making it easy to divert you, and your attacks. The damage to your body will only get worse, vacuums aren't good for people... even the tiny bit of vacuum pressure I create." she said seemingly without caring about any of these facts. "Basically I am turning your malicious intentions against you." she mentioned, unintentionally explaining to herself what the Storm Queen meant by calling her a prickly prey animal.
"And that is why I couldn't help you. It would have been worse." said their leader. Moving right along there was a battle taking place between Kaori and this other young woman the former of which had tried using less violent means of ending a fight but not gotten anywhere due to the apparent blindness of the Tuner she was facing off against. "Well, I never thought I'd see an actual particle gun. You went really hard for your upgrades... I'll give you that... I guess." she looked at the young woman firing off rockets which seemed to not be aimed for Kaori herself, but instead for the others. Hana, approaching the balloon. The shot couldn't be made in time to save the other girl completely and Kaori herself wouldn't make it across in time. "Blind faith." she smirked pulling a last kind of shell from her utility belt. She'd yet to try these out but she'd probably need to. It was full of dry ice and another chemical. She'd taken to calling it 'Gravity Dust'. Its only purpose to cause major widespread impact, like close range shotgun fire while Kaori herself hoped that something else would take care of the other girl. "You'll like this maybe." she said spinning the weapon around it regained its scythe but this time extended to double its length which the girl used to line up the perfect shot down on Kaede. This shot would have enough impact to practically bury the other young woman and likely break most of her robotic upgrades while shooting Kaori herself further up into the air. The impact this time was aimed for the center of the other girl, she was done playing nice and she wasn't sure how much of the other girl was machine or not.
Meanwhile, it was time for the decoy to do her job. She'd been trailing around behind Hana and was presently sliding up some rails on the building aiming to get under her in case she fell. But upon seeing the rocket coming her way, Sawa tossed herself up taking on a spinning top motion upside down above Hana to disrupt the rocket which would have fallen upon her during the leap of faith she'd taken. She extended her hand to the other girl. "That hit was mine to take. Up ya' go." she said throwing the girl up through the smoke with an extended arm, so that she could try and reach the last couple of meters for the balloon being carried by the wind.
During all of this the leader of this group saw the shell coming from above, and without any knowledge of what it would do moved to Kaede's side, she finally opened that large fan of a sub-regalia, not wanting her tuner to be shattered completely by the gravity based attack. Such an impact would instead be taken by the large spinning dome created by the 3 open vents on the giant war fan she manipulated as if it weighed nothing. "Tell me we aren't getting out-classed by a bunch of 'plebs' Kae." she said to the young woman as the pair of them were sunk into a hole a few meters deep from the mediated impact.
"Hey, just trying to keep it a little bit humble," was Shoichi's only reply to the red-haired lass. It then seemed to be the case that Suzu would move toward the battle between Middles for the sake of defending against a shot fired by Kaori. Having satisfied himself with the battle of Ultimates, Shoichi watched this interaction in time to see the defensive wind maneuver, and the reaction of the white-haired girl with a robotic arm and, apparently, eyes. "Kuso!" the girl spoke from within the crater. "I had that, Tsusu! Oh, but since you're here! Check out my new shit!" From the under part of her forearm, the girl produced what appeared to be another cannon, aimed toward Kaori from over Suzu's shoulder. It quickly launched a spray of thick liquid, which was in fact a muscle-relaxing agent meant to turn its victim's body limp. With this spray, she intended to fully disable the Machine Queen to allow a more up-close and personal approach thereafter. Kaede knew how this woman moved now, and had adjusted the width of her shot to adjust to her maneuvers. However, when it reached the halfway mark, the liquid was suddenly forced into hundreds upon hundreds of small bubbles, which all exploded in a chain reaction from the point closest to Kaori as to have all of its major impact where Kaede and Suzu stood. The result would be both the explosions, and the application of the liquid itself to the victims, while Kaori would have remained just out of the radius of both. "Uh... Tsusu, it ain't supposed to do that!" the girl exclaimed. As this occurred, Shoichi looked onward with a twinkle in his eye, and a smile on his face. He didn't seem to have moved at all, but this was most certainly the Sky King's doing via a method he discovered during training with the first generation's Water Queen.
Having finally removed himself from the train, Hisashi stumbled forward to return to his previous post. The explanation of this girl's abilities was ludicrous at best, and though he wouldn't admit it, there was nothing in his arsenal that could deal with such a Road. "Che!" he muttered. "Well ain't that dandy? So, what, we're just gonna stand here and look at each other?"
In the meantime, Hanako may have evaded the rocket via Sawa's support, but there was another pair of individuals emerging from the smoke left in the explosion's wake. Akira's resurgence came in the company of Miwa, whose speed had taken the pair of them up the side of a different building directly beneath the balloon. The maroon-haired man received a boost great enough to reach beyond Hanako, while the blue-haired lass took herself on a slightly different path. If left uninterrupted, her body would go crashing into the Panther of White Spell, throwing them both off the given path to the balloon while Akira reached out for it. As this occurred, Shoichi had something to say to the pair of Panther and Decoy. "Oi! I forgot to mention, but Tink gave you guys a pair of sleeper ATs! Those ain't normal; ya' gotta be you, and they'll do... stuff!"
Suzu made a noise of displeasure akin to the sucking of air between her teeth. This man before her was distinctly annoying but she had a job to do on this team as well. And she did it rather easily, though Kae wasn't exactly appreciative of her help. "Eh, you say that but that force was body shattering." she mentioned. When it was further mentioned by the white haired girl that she had something new to show Suzu there was nothing that could be said by the fan wielding woman. "Show me." she said watching as the girl fired from over her shoulder with some liquid that she'd created within an extra arm canon. But surprisingly enough the outcome of this didn't go the way she thought. The muscle relaxing liquid meant for Kaori didn't go so far and instead exploded and came back down. The surprise of this woman the girl seemed to say this wasn't how this was supposed to work. The fan came up again, all the way up aiming to blast it back with the same wind wall while leaving it overhead to act as an umbrella for the pair of them. She looked around to find Shoichi looking a bit devious and scoffed. "This smug bastard."
Meanwhile the battle of the Ultimates had come to an end and Masumi rolled on her wheels turning her head toward the sky with her arms extending and hands clasped behind her back as if she didn't have a care in the world. Still, her face and countenance were completely neutral and the girl gave a shrug. "Well, you can look at me if you want, but I simply plan to watch the rest of the match. We should be about done by now." she said calmly. And with that Masumi's eyes were on the Panther and Decoy who were exactly as Shoichi had named them at the start of the fight, and Kaori was also well on her way to assist the pair of them.
The words of the Sky King reached both Hanako and Sawa, the former of who seemed to think about what he had to say. "Eh, he's really a strange one huh? But he believes in us... and I believe in him." she said as the others approached. Of course, Sawa understood instantly, both what Shoichi had to say and the sentiment Hana felt, but the brown haired girl had felt this way since seeing this young man this afternoon. She understood fully why such a diverse group of people followed this Sky King, he was a nice guy. "YOSH!~ I'm in business." she said as Kaori had made it across by firing an empty shell to jettison herself across the gap, as Sawa righted herself the wheels of her ATs made contact with the Crescent Rose's blade which was used to catch the girl as Kaori herself moved about. "I gotcha keep going." she said to the decoy whose wheels spun rapidly until they glowed green and black breaking apart and moving up her legs until of course the multiple wheels separated and the girl herself gained access to several of these layered looking wheels which were actually Yo-yo attached to electric piano wires, but they fit her hands perfectly and were very comfortable. A pair of these were grabbed by the brown haired girl and spun outwards, one aiming to capture the girl with the spoilers on her legs the other aimed at the red haired male aiming to capture him by the ankle as well. "Sorry guys, Hana-chan hasn't done this in a while, I can't let ya' stop her." An empty shell fired would rocket Sawa away from Kaori and allow her to pull the other two with her at rapid speed if the maneuver worked.
Meanwhile the end of that maneuver would shoot Kaori towards Hanako who wasn't quite able to make it to the balloon as it moved a bit further out of her grasp. Still the Crescent Rose would be under the wheels of the girl's ATs as she wasn't allowed to fall this time she looked. She dropped more pressure back on her wheels, activating her ATs as well. Hanako's extended becoming heels with thrusters and a special kind of front to them. A quick push forward would allow an odd liquid to course through the new mechanism allowing her the extra strength to jump even higher and this time when she reached if nothing else was in the way, she'd make it. The backlash from the kick would push Kaori down but she'd be fine, the girl was a movement specialist. And Hanako, the broken girl was flying all on her own again... with the full support of her team backing her.
"Just gonna watch that, huh..." Hisashi said with a grimmace. He, too, looked toward the ongoing battle for the balloon, and what he saw left him unable to sit back for long. As such, he leaped into the fray, delivering his parting words to the girl as he did. "Then watch me gut these friends of yours!"
"Don't worry about it," Shoichi said calmly to Masumi as her opponent darted off. The goings-on above had become quite entertaining, and the girls Shoichi had brought back into the world of ATs via this team were blossoming. Orient Express' Panther and Decoy were ensnared by the wires of Sawa, and Hanako was quickly closing in on the balloon. Of course, the encroaching Hisashi was not her only problem. Now that Kaede was no longer the target of Kaori's attacks, she was able to join in as well. And so, she did by switching the mode of her particle beam to that of a wind cannon meant to blow Hanako away, while also pushing the claw-baring Hisashi toward her for the kill. The wind in this attack was severe; severe enough that Shoichi finally moved into the fray. "Osu! Shoichi Showoff Time!" he announced while facing the wind and Hisashi. "Bakuryuuha!" With nothing more than a clap, Shoichi caused the wind blast to spiral and turn in on its original trajectory, taking the form of a dragon's head at the end of a tornado, with Hisashi inside. It held about triple the power of the original attack, and as it aimed to crush Hisashi, Kaede, and their leader Suzu, Shoichi stood in the air with a finger toward the sky. "Kakeru!"
As her opponent stated he wasn't really satisfied by his defeat, he seemed to take off for the people who were closest to winning this battle in favor of the newly formed team 'White Spell'. Unlike most thought, Masumi's face didn't change at all as he took off in the direction of the fray. And when Shoichi spoke telling her not to worry about it, she didn't even move. Her hands were still the way they had been up, until this point. "Shoichi-san, I never worried in the first place. I've been a member far too flinch over something like this." mentioned Masumi as she passively watched what was to come.
Meanwhile there was a double threat attack going for their own Panther who had finally found her movements once again. But she had focus. Both Kaori and Sawa had done their parts and even Kaori wouldn't have been able to get between the girl and the clawed man, but it appeared she wouldn't have to. "Oh my god." mentioned Kaori as Shoichi began showing off as he called it. Causing a massive dragon like wind to turn towards the enemies aiming to engulf them. "Well shit." said Suzu as she opened up her fan once more, this time she aimed to engulf the entirety of the front of this trio in a large scale wind blast if only to protect them. All vents of her sub-regalia were active, she tried to cushion the blow for herself, for Kaede and even for Hisashi as he was tossed towards them again. It would only work a bit as the whole of the group was abruptly stopped by the wind crushed in a pile of dust and bodies which wouldn't be clearly anything for a few moments.
After as happened, Shoichi mentioned Hana should fly with one finger up to the sky. The other girls did the same along with the chant. "Kakeru!~" which helped the girl find what was left of her resolve and this time when she reached out she captured the balloon can. "I GOT IT!~" she chimed happily and as such this parts war would be over in favor of the White Spell.
"Osu! That's how ya' win a Parts War!" Shoichi shouted when Hanako mentioned having the balloon. Just like that, the battle was over, with the team having grown stronger throughout it. "We got ourselves a base, ladies!"
Down below, Kaede was the first to begin pulling herself together. Hisashi seemed to have taken one to many joggs to the brain, and had nearly passed out because of it. "The fuck is this!? We just lost to some no-named buncha losers with tricks up their sleeves. And I'm one to talk about a tricky sleeve; lookit!" she said, emphasizing her point by revealing her now malfunctioning left arm. "Anyway! What the dick, man!? Are these like some Black Order spec ops? BLACK OPS!? ARE THEY THE BLACK OPS!?"
Hana was elated as she worked her to make her way back to the ground she seemed to feel like she'd accomplished much. The whole of the group seemed to be in celebration. Sawa and Kaori and landed near each other and were hugging even they weren't the best of friends before this point. Masumi was casually looking over the scene and for the first time her expression included the slightest upturns of her lips. "Hai!~" this was from Hana who landed and jumped the other two seemingly excited at her now functional ability.
Meanwhile, it took a few seconds longer than Kae but Suzu seemed to pull herself together. While the tuner was showing off her apparently completely blitz'd arm, Suzu had a look at her own gear and frowned. It was beyond damaged, seemingly torn and and the vents were completely blown out. Her own body hadn't taken more than a beating though. "Yeah, Kae, I don't think it's that big a deal. I don't know what they are, but they won." she said it was a bitter moment for the young woman, she hadn't expected to lose her base. "Miwa, Aki... someone get Hisashi and grab your stuff... time to clear out." she said. She'd leave this moment behind with nothing else to say about it. It was how she was.... except one thing. "You're still an idiot. We'll be back for it... ya' know." and those would be her parting words to Shoichi as she drug her broken Sub-regalia along after her body and abandoned the base she'd just lost with her team.
Instead of landing right away, Shoichi used the wind to slowly descend unto the area inhabited by the other team. Usagi also approached, reaching them at roughly the same time. With the Pledge Queen's arrival came the sudden repair of the broken Subregalia wielded by Orient Express' members.
Meanwhile, the less-damaged members of Suzu's team went about grabbing Hisashi and pulling him into the train to retrieve all of their personal belongings from it. Kaede, with her newly-repaired arm, stared at it while holding an expression of disgust. "And now we get handouts. 'Kay! Whatever." Whatever the case, it seemed Suzu was in the right state of mind for a rematch at a later date. Shoichi greeted this with a grin. "Any day! I'm always game!"
After they were done the Orient Express packed up but soon the Pledge Queen was repairing their gear which was a rather strange thing to do. Kaede seemed to have no problem with it, and Suzu didn't understand why but she had more than reasonable manners. "Arigatou... Kae... manners." she said with a smile, and then a side ways glance at the now fixed up girl. Having collected all of her people and their belongings the leader of the Orient Express took one last look at her hideout. "Come on guys..." it was rather strange, though they'd lost she didn't necessarily feel bad. She was a bit sad thinking about having to find another place to hold up, but... it gave her hope that there would be more fun to have for them as a group while they struggled on their way to the top. Her fan repaired she tossed it over her shoulder and disappeared with her crew into the horizon.
The celebration of the other girls hadn't seemed to stop. They were now all holding hands spinning each other around giggling about their win and congratulating each other for their awesomeness. Even Masumi was in the circle though her face maintained its general neutrality. Still she couldn't help but comment. "This group happiness is strange."
"Plehh!" Kaede blurted out as her tongue protruded from her mouth and her right forefinger pulled down her bottom right eyelid. This was her reaction to being told to mind her manners, and it was directed at the White Spell team before Kaede ultimately joined the rest of her own crew in leaving.
With the departure of their opponents, Shoichi turned around to find that there was a group celebration of sorts occurring. Though Shoichi himself had been a participant and victor of many such Parts Wars of this caliber, there was something heartwarming about seeing individuals new to such a class obtaining victory on their first attempt, and in general. He looked at this team of his with a bright smile, simply taking in the joy he gained from once again having a small team of people who knew how to have fun. "They're about as excitable as we were years ago," said Usagi, who joined the Sky King's side instead of interfering with the others and their apparent happiness. "Aa. I'm lovin' these guys already. They'll share the sky with us, no doubt. I just gotta convince one more to come with us."
The girls were still having fun but soon they broke up their little group to consult with their leader who seemed to just be watching the fun they were having while not contributing. Kaori seemed to have the most to say, and she approached the Pledge Queen offering the woman a smile. "Arigatou Gozaimasu~ I'm in love with the upgrade~" she mentioned of her new combat rifle/mechanized scythe. "Us too!" this would come from Sawa and Hana who both then immediately aimed to hug the Pledge Queen. Kaori would leave them to this, because she wasn't one to deal with that kind of personal contact, to be fair she didn't like being touched anymore. "Yosh! I got my wires and yo-yos back~ Didn't think I'd see that again... nor actually did I think they'd be part of my gear... I used to just have them made separate~" chimed Sawa who was overly excited about it. "Yes! that's pretty cool too~ I can't wait to tell Mika-chan!~" said Hana who seemed to be really excited as well.
Moving right along, Masumi watched with her passive face, moving herself immediately to Shoichi's right. "Ah, you're happy too. So... now we have a base, what's next?" she asked seeming to wonder their general direction.
"Now..." When asked by Masumi what was next on their team's agenda, Shoichi first looked into the R.E.A.D. system on his phone. They were freshly registered, and had won their first Parts War within an hour of signing up. And now, there was something worth turning his phone toward the others for. "Now we celebrate being a D-Class team!" he said with the widest of grins. "You guys are awesome! Check it out!"