ELO: 7CoH - Chapter 1

[Day: 1+ from Prologue]

Last night was incredibly eventful. Being assigned to manage a group of girls for some gang-busting. Great. I woke up to the monotonous beeping of my alarm clock, hitting the snooze button as I sluggishly rose from my bed.

Standard morning routine: brush my teeth, shower, get dressed for school, cook breakfast, then leave. This morning’s meal? Eggs and bacon, with some chocolate chips waffles. The waffles were microwaved, nothing super grand. Eggs were scrambled, lightly sprinkled with salt. Bacon was just bacon, cooked the only way I knew how to cook it. I sat down with my meal at my table with a cup of coffee, six sugars and creamer. Don’t ask about the insane amount of sugar in my coffee, it’s just how I am.

“Itadakimasu,” I mutter before eating.

A few minutes later, I’m done with breakfast and sitting at my chair, slowly sipping my coffee. Remembering I had to go to school soon, I looked at the clock. Only 6:30. Better get there anyway.

I left my apartment, and I saw a girl leave her apartment at the same time. The girl reminded me of the female Machina that I met last night and wore what looked like the female uniform of my school. She was rushing out the door with a package of food tucked in her bag’s pocket.

“Oh no, I’m gonna be late!” She blurted as she locked her door.

“Relax, it’s only 6:30,” I said. She turned towards me and stared for a moment.

“H-huh?! Ah, who are you?” The girl asked.

“My name’s Ichiro Kagari,” I reply. “You are?”

“Naoko Inoue,” she shyly replied as she got out her packaged bread and began to eat.

“Where do you attend school?” She asked me.

“Yokubou Academy,” I respond. “And you?”

“I go there too.” That explains the uniform.

“Why don’t we walk together then? Should be less lonely for the both of us that way.”

“Are you sure?”

“Would you rather walk alone?”

“Hm… I suppose your company would be appreciated.”

We both walked to school in silence afterwards, Naoko nibbling on her bread until it was all gone. I held my bag over my shoulder with one hand, while she held hers in both hands in front of her waist. Like we were total opposites… And yet… somehow intimately connected… Seeing Naoko walk alongside me brought a few flashbacks to me. Of days when I still had my family… When I had my sister… Naoto-chan...

I made no physical correlation to my emotional thoughts. My face remained stoic, as it normally is. It takes a lot to make me cry, especially after all I’ve been through. Once we arrived at the gates of the school, I took a deep breath and let the realization of arriving at school sink it. Yokubou Academy is known for having students that are usually incredibly talented and academically gifted. Great grades, high expectations, all that stuff. Well… the students here are like that, but they certainly don’t act like it.

Most of the student population here, for lack of a better term, are scummy. Girls here are always looking for a “good” time whenever they can. Boys are either picking on each other or organizing deals. Naoko over here doesn’t seem to be like any of the girls here typically do, so that’s nice.

“Um, Ichiro-san,” Naoko got my attention. “I’m off to class now.”.

”Hm? Ah, alright. I’ll see you later then.”

“Bye, Ichiro-san!” She called to me as she ran to class.

“Yeah, see ya,” I softly reply to her as I walked to my own classes.

As I'm walking to class, a smiling girl gets in my way. She looks like one of those typical girls at my school, but that smile of hers…. It was weird, to say the least. Unnerving, almost bloodthirsty. That’s the only way I could describe it.

“Why hello there,” she says calmly with that odd smile of hers. “What’s your name?”

“Ichiro Kagari, now can you move out of the way? I have class.”

“Ichiro…” I hear her repeat as I walk away. “Thank you very much, Ichiro-kun~!”

I pick up my pace and walk briskly away from her, before breaking into a full-out run after hearing the first bell ring. Thankfully, I arrive at my class just before the second bell rings. First class of the day was math, something I excelled at and particularly enjoyed.

When lunch finally arrived, I walked out of my class briskly with my headphones on to the lunch lines. Today’s special was some kind of sandwich. Except for the times where I cooked a week-long meal that I could pack and bring to school, I usually had to buy my lunches. Luckily, I made it to the lines before the majority of the school, so I got my meal early. Beat the lunch rush, now it’s off to eat my food.

I walked up to the roof of one of the school’s buildings, sat down, and ate.

“Itadakimasu,” I mumble before digging into my meal.

“Ichiro-san! Hello!” Naoko enters the roof by herself and sits next to me. Why is she here alone? Doesn’t she have friends? “Whatcha having for lunch?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s a sandwich of some kind.” I picked up said sandwich and inspected it. “I think it’s chicken or something…”

“Seems boring…” Naoko sat down next to me, opening her own lunch box and getting out chopsticks to eat with. “Itadakimasu.”

She dug into her meal immediately, fully satisfied by what she had. Rice with chicken and some vegetables, I saw.

“How’s your food?” She asked me.

“Not that pleasant,” I replied.

“Why not pack a lunch?”

“I didn’t cook anything last night, and I didn’t have much time to cook anything this morning.”

“Oh, I see.”

Out of nowhere, I see another girl burst onto the roof, this girl being blonde with a strange physical resemblance to the succubus from last night.

“Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooo ladies and gents! Touka Ichinose is here!!” That’s what her name was…

“H-huh?! Touka-san?!!” Naoko was genuinely startled. I almost choke on my inadequate meal from surprise.

“Can you not startle us while we’re eating?” I said after managing to spit out my school lunch.

“Nevermind that, whatcha two doing here? Perhaps a hidden romance~? Maybe something lewd?!” She was awfully hyper.

“Nothing of that sort is happening here. Calm down.”

“L-lewd?! There’s no way I could do anything lewd!!” Naoko blurted out.

“How would I know that?” Touka cheekily spoke.

“I’m not interested in those types of things.” I responded to Touka.

“Oh? So you’re just an asexual loner?”

“I’m not asexual. I’m just not looking for a girlfriend.” I finished the rest of my meal and got out my homework to finish early. Fortunately, there was very little of it, so I was able to finish what little I had.

“You definitely act asexual…” Touka mutters.

“Whatever…” The bell was going to ring soon, so I packed up all my stuff and prepared to leave. “I’ll see you all at a later time.”

“Bye-bye~!” Touka waved bye to me as Naoko packed her own things up.

[2 hours after Lunch break, 2:45 PM]

School was finally out, and I could finally leave. All the students rushed out to head home and do whatever. I was no exception, briskly walking home while listening to my music. The current track playing was a song from an old Tokusatsu show called “Ride the Wind.” I think it was from something with the word Decade in the title. I have to admit, Tokusatsu shows are my guilty pleasure.

When I arrived home ten minutes later, I put my bag down, ate a quick snack, and logged into ELO. Everything automatically fills itself out, and I’m then transported into the apartment behind my office. The sight that greeted me generated a mixed feeling in me. The neko of the squad I’m assigned to was curled up on my bed, wearing an amber blouse and grey leggings. She was completely asleep. I saw her ears twitch a little while she slept. I dared not disturb her sleep, but I wanted her to get out of my bed… Not gonna lie, she’s pretty cute when she’s sleeping. It didn’t take long for her to wake up, seeing as she opened her eyes slowly about a minute or so after I had arrived.

“H-hm... “ She woke up, still groggy from her cat nap. “A-ah, Taicho. Ohayo~”

“Morning, sleepy-head.” I gently reply. “Mind explaining to me what you’re doing in my bed?”

“O-oh, I logged in early today. But I got bored of waiting around, so I found your bed and took a nap. I was going to just lie around and wait, but your bed was so comfy, I fell asleep really quickly.”

“Really? My bed isn’t exactly the comfiest thing in the game…”

“Maybe it’s the way your bed is set up. It’s by your window. When I opened it, the sunlight poured in, and I fell asleep right away.”

“Alright then.”

“Sorry for not telling you, Taicho.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. Let’s go out and meet everyone else now.”

“R-right.” She got up, rubbed her eyes, and followed me out of my room and into the main office. We waited for the other four girls to arrive at the office. The Dullahan and Gorgon arrived together via the former’s bike, while our two support agents arrived in an APC that the government apparently assigned to us for missions.

“Looks like we’re all here now. Let’s get started.” I called the team to our first official meeting of sorts. “First course of action, contracts. As you may or may not know, I’m a mercenary. Contracts take priority over the Damasu-kai, but I’ve heard that a deal is supposed to be going down later tonight. Drug deal, two major members of the Yakuza will be there. One’s named Chaser. The other member, I didn’t get much info about.”

“Question,” the dwarf raised her hand.

“Yes?”

“Where did you learn about this?”

“Before we all met last night, I was on my own mission against the Damasu-kai. I interrogated a few of their members, and received this info.”

“Got it. So what do we do?”

“The deal is going down at 9:30 PM, sharp. It’s currently... “ I check the clock above my desk and chair. “3:25 PM. We’ve got six hours and five minutes. If I don’t have a contract right now, we can do some team-building exercises and get to know each other better.”

“Like what?” Asked the Dullahan.

“Maybe… a King’s Game!!” Touka yelled out in excitement. Her suggestion was met with looks of disbelief. “No?”

“No.” I sharply responded while checking my contracts list.

“Aw, fine.”

“So, we’ve got no contracts today.” I close the list and turn my attention to the girls. “Time for some team-building exercises. I still need to associate your faces with the correct names, so excuse me if I make any mistakes.”

“So what are we gonna do until then?” The gorgon asked.

“I can’t think of anything… I guess we’ll just have to socialize like normal people.

“Aww, I wanted a King’s Game...” Touka pouted in disappointment.

In the end, we just sat around doing nothing, monitoring the time and our equipment. When the time arrived, Yoko and I got on our bikes and drove off while the other followed behind in an APC. I quickly glanced back at Yoko and saw Ira riding with Yoko. During school earlier today, I overheard a few things about the shipment I was looking for taking place at the local docks in my area. Once we were relatively close to the docks, I had the group stop there, then called a team meeting inside the APC to go over a plan.

“Alright, this is our first mission together. Let’s see how well you all perform,” I tell them.

“What’s the plan, captain?” Superbia asks.

“Ira and Gula, set up at the tower across the boat here,” I point at the aforementioned tower on a holographic display of the dock, then I point at one of the entrances. “You two will take out any guards in our path into the warehouse. Luxuria and Invidia, guard this entrance point.”

All four of them nod a silent confirmation, Luxuria going to get her BRSB-6000 Arcane Chaingun ready.

“Next, I’ll need our two Vanguard agents to follow me. All three of us will enter this warehouse and take out any enemies inside. Chaser and his contact should be meeting in here, so we’ll take them down too. Be sure to use non-lethal ammunition on our two vital targets.”

Acedia and Superbia nod with a serious look on their faces before going to get their equipment. I looked in the corner and saw two drones folded up along the wall, next to where Avaritia was sitting.

“Two drones, huh? What can they do?” I inquire.

“Well, Captain, I’ll introduce you,” Avaritia taps a few buttons on her wrist computer, activating the drones so I can get a better look. “The drone over there with the sword and shield is the Swordsman unit, he’s all the melee back-up you need. Our drone with the rifle is the Musketeer unit, she’ll provide cover fire for the Swordsman. I’ve got a Discus recon drone too.”

“Got it,” I look at the drones, taking note of specific designs. The Swordsman must be slow, but powerful with all that armor. Musketeer on the other hand, seems light on armor, so I assume that decent cover should be provided. “Avaritia, I’ll need you to guard the transport with your drones, keep yourself safe. I’m not sure about the statistics of your drones, so I’ll give them this assignment for the time being. Sorry for giving you the short end of the stick.”

“Was that a joke about my height, captain…?”

“It was not.”

“Good.”

“Everyone clear on their roles?”

A collective cry of “Yessir!” rung through the thick armor of the APC as I put on my mask and let the HUD initialize.

“Alright then. Sin Squadron, our first mission starts now! Deploy!!”

The door of the APC opened, and the Sniper/Spotter pair rushed out first, running to their sniper perch to set up. Superbia, Acedia, and I all walked out, shortly followed by Luxuria, Invidia, and Avaritia’s two drones. Luxuria and Invidia set up at the entrance point I told them to guard while the drones set up in a defensive position around the APC; the Swordsman held his shield up as the Musketeer jumped on top of the APC and laid down before setting up in a sniping position.

“Avaritia, disguise the drones and APC so you’re not spotted. Vanguard, move in,” I command, as my armor auto-equipped itself quickly. “I’ll cover you two.”

“Yes sir,” They both whisper, Acedia equipping her SCAR rifle and attached a suppressor to it as. Superbia grabbed one of her gas grenades in her left hand and deployed her right arm’s SMG. Acedia grabbed a spare suppressor and tossed it to Superbia, who quickly attached the item to her weapon’s barrel.

All three of us move in, Acedia taking point with Superbia and I following not far behind. I equipped Ruby and Lapis, and watched our six while following them both. Two guards were in front of us, one yawning and the other actually asleep.

“Ira, two guards in front of us. Take ‘em out,” I tell her through the comms.

“Yes sir,” she replies with a hint of overconfidence and joy in her voice. Shortly after she replies, both the guards are hit with a projectile each before disappearing.

“Kills confirmed, good work Ira,” I notify her before the vanguard moves in.

We enter the warehouse. The place seemed like a standard shipping warehouse by the docks, equipment designed for loading shipping crates scattered throughout. A massive shipping container guarded by at least fifty men was on the left half of the warehouse, by some loading cranes and the docks. About fifty more men were spread throughout the place running patrols. A light shone from the upper floor, in a room that had an Orc guarding it. The Orc was fully decked out in heavy armor, with a shotgun next to him; knowing what I knew about the Damasu-Kai meant the shotgun was a DMSD-28 Arcane Scatter-rifle. I wondered what ammo type it was using.

“What now, Taicho?” Acedia whispers at me.

“Let’s see… There’s a good hundred or so men here… That container over there has to be their cargo. Lemme check something real quick,” I quickly radio to Ira. “Think you can take a few guys down in the warehouse, Ira?”

“I’ll have to pull off some wicked ricochets, which is something I can’t exactly do with my current rifle,” she replies.

“Aren’t you using a BRSB-model weapon?”

“Yeah… Yeah! I’ll see if I can reconfigure it to fire ricochet projectiles!”

“Good. Tell me when you’re done with that,” I turn to Superbia. “I’m gonna need you to throw one of the grenades towards the side of the warehouse closest to where Ira is positioned on my mark. Once it detonates, I’ll have Ira take out everyone there.”

“Understood.” She holds onto the grenade, pressing a button on it to activate the impact detonation and preparing to throw.

“Acedia, once the guards on the other half of the building go to investigate what’s happening, start taking them out. If you need to melee, go right ahead.”

“What about you, Taicho?”

“I’ll be dealing with the orc up there,” I reply. “Ira, you ready?”

“Almost…” She answers before Gula says something.

“One of the tripmines picked something up,” I hear in the background. “I’ll check it out, you go ahead and snipe.”

“Got it,” Ira confirms. “Rifle’s recalibrated, ready to go, Captain.”

“When you see the cloud of smoke in the warehouse, start shooting,” I tell Ira before turning to Superbia again. “Ready?”

“Yes sir.”

“Throw it,” She tosses it all the way towards the side where Ira is posted.

A few henchmen move to investigate what that was, only to be met with a faceful of tear gas. Some other henchmen rush over to check on that, but they end up coughing alongside their other comrades. Then, I hear the window break and some screams of agony. Ira’s shooting, and they’re hitting their mark. Nice work.

“Acedia, get ready to move,” I tell her.

“Ready to go, Taicho,” She has both her rifles out, suppressors off and ready to tear up some nameless henchmen.

Once most of the henchmen guarding the container move to inspect the commotion, I send in Acedia and Superbia. The two of them rush in, Acedia firing away and hitting targets left and right as Superbia punches the shit out of anyone Acedia missed or didn’t shoot. Ira’s long-range support was helping out too, picking off every other person neither of the vanguards didn’t get to. I had a feeling Lux and Invidia were getting bored, so I decided to reassign them.

“Luxuria, Invidia, you two move into the warehouse and help out the Vanguard,” I command them.

A few moments later, the whir of a minigun precedes the storm of bullets being fired towards the incoming henchmen that were targeting the Vanguard. Invidia jumped into the air and fired a few arrows at the enemies, hitting them dead-on in their weak points.

“Good work, girls,” I mutter to myself before the Orc jumps down, shotgun in hand. “Now it’s my turn.”

I make sure my mods are fully configured, then dash forward towards the Orc. I sprint at the guy, using the Gates to boost my speed so that I can jump up and give him a good punch to the face. That definitely did something, I hope. When I landed, I got kicked right into a wall.

“Well, that didn’t work out…” I get out of the crater I left in the wall, shake my head, and look up to see the damn brute charging right at me.

“Power Rush!!” He yells out, wincing slightly before charging even faster at me.

“Son of a-” I get hit by the Orc before I even get the chance to dash out of there. “Motherfucker!”

“Do me a favor and die!!!” He grabs me before I can get up, attempting to tear me in half after I’ve been lifted off the ground.

“How about no?!” I struggle with literally keeping myself together, before deploying a set of shurikens to both hands, throwing them in his face, then detonating them. The explosion was enough to make him let go and send me flying across the room. “Fucking hell…”

“I’m going to kill you. Over, and over!” He exclaims out of nowhere as he dusts himself off.

“Are you mentally unstable?” I retort before dashing behind him and getting my guns ready to fire.

“Doesn’t matter!!!” He turns around and aims his shotgun at me, pulling the trigger just as I dash out of the way.

The spray of bullets that hit where I was left several mini-craters in the ground. What the hell is in that shotgun…?

“Get back here, damn it!!” he reloads and fires again, but I dash out of the way once more.

“Catch me if you can,” I fire a few shots in his face to distract him before dashing to a safe distance.

The Orc reloads, aiming at me. I start running around the building, trying to find an opening for myself while hoping I might make him go dizzy. He might not be getting dazed any time soon, so I'll just have to keep looking for an opening. While I'm running, I take note of his reload and aiming time. Perhaps I should find a way to get some headshots on him from a distance. When the Orc fumbles his reload, I stop running, fire a few bullets at him, then dash forward and get to cover. Most of the bullets are reflected by his armor, but two of them did manage to penetrate the armor and break the skin. He shakes it off, primes his shotgun, and fires again

“Taicho! We’ve cleared out the base!” Superbia reports. “Anything you need help with??”

“Yeah…” I reply and reload. “The Orc is as tough as he looks. I need Ira to get some headshots on this guy, Luxuria provide cover fire, and everyone else distract him.”

“Yes sir!” They all reply, immediately getting to work.

Luxuria lays down some cover fire while Ira recalibrates her rifle. Invidia sends in her drones, having the Musketeer take point up top and attempt to target the Orc while the Swordsman unit ran in shield first and proceeded to try and slash at the enemy. Half of the shots the Musketeer fired missed, and the Swordsman wasn’t getting many hits in… At least he’s a decent tank unit.

“Invidia, we're gonna need to upgrade your drones later…”

“I know, sir. I made them recently and I haven't had the time to fully calibrate them.”

“Explains everything…” I jump up and shoot a few rounds in the Orc’s face, just as a bullet flies right past my own face and nails the Orc in the eye.

“Argh!!!! FUCK!!!!” He cursed, holding his eye with hand and blindly swinging his shotgun around in an attempt to hit something or someone. No one was hit, so we had a moment to step back and assess the current situation.

“Nice shot, Ira,” I commend my subordinate.

“Thank you, Taicho,” she responds.

Okay, Orc guy is blind in one eye, and pretty weakened now. I guess I can use my finisher on him at this point. Holding out my left hand, I set up three gates and have them form a linear portal that would launch me at the orc.

“I’ll make this quick,” With a flick of my wrist, I jump up and perform a drop kick through the gates, my kick’s power increased with each gate I passed through.

When the Orc looked up to see what was happening, he was met with my two feet drop-kicking him; the built-up power behind the kick was discharged into his face and I could hear lots of bones cracking. I landed on the ground right after kicking him, standing back up and turning to look at the Orc I made as I dusted off my hands.

“Time to take out the head honcho of this little op,” as I turn around, I see two people walking out from the room that the orc was guarding. “Speak of the devil.”

“Who the hell are you?” asked the one on the left. He was wearing a black business suit with black gloves, a purple tie, and carrying a briefcase.

“Your worst nightmare,” I opened up a gate in front of me and another one behind the guy, rolling through the former so that I was behind him.

The moment he turned around, I kneed him in the stomach, causing him to keel over. When he did keel, I elbowed his back so that he fell on the ground. I looked up and saw the guy’s partner aiming a gun at me. Looked like a Mk.23 SOCOM pistol.

“He’s no one important. I’m Chaser,” the girl spoke with an authoritative voice, which kinda surprised me.

“Oh?” I casually walked up to the woman claiming to be Chaser. ”Wasn’t expecting you to be Chaser.”

“Surprising, huh?” She continued to keep her gun trained on me. I signalled the team to go upstairs and check the room. “Don’t try it. That door’s rigged to explode unless you have one of our fingerprints.”

“That so?” I looked at the guy on the floor, unconscious from my attacks. “He’ll do.”

“Did I say one of ‘our’ fingerprints? I meant my fingerprints.”

“I’ve got a question for you, Miss Chaser,” I load up a set of smoke-cloud shurikens to my arm without Chaser noticing.

“And what’s that?” She kept her gun pointed at my head, switching to a single-handed grip to appear more intimidating; her attempts to intimidate me failed miserably.

“Why do you have such a lame alias?” Her expression went from calm and collected to utterly horrified.

“How DARE YOU?!?! I SPENT SO MUCH TIME ON MY ALIAS!!!”

“You could’ve chosen something better,” just before she pulled the trigger on her gun, I threw the smoke shurikens at the ground, releasing a smoke cloud that blocked her sight and prevented her from hitting me with her gun. “Ira, non-lethal rounds. Knock her out.”

“With pleasure,” I hear the bolt on her rifle cock, then the sound of a suppressed bullet fired, followed up by the thud of an unconscious body.

“Thank you very much,” I say as I activate my visor so that I can see through the smoke, pick up Chaser, and head upstairs.

I used her hand to unlock and open the door, then threw her knocked-out body onto the floor. Casually, I walked into the room. Nothing important, at least to the normal observer. I approached a computer console and stared at it.

“Hey, Avaritia, mind hacking into this?”

“On it, Taicho!” The screen on the console activated with streams of digital coding running vertically down, before a black screen with green text appeared.

Soon enough, the computer had been hacked into, and Avaritia was downloading all the data in the computer. While she did that, I walked back downstairs to check up on the guy Chaser had been with, and grabbed Chaser herself before walking down to be safe. With little concern for the guy’s safety, I used his hands to open up the briefcase, which held bills of money in them.

“Guess he got his cash… she probably has her goods,” I closed the case back up, then stood up and looked around.

“Now what, Taicho?”

“Something's not right…” That’s when I heard a bullet fired at me. I barely had the time to dodge, but when I looked up to find the source of the projectile, I saw someone wearing mechanical armor, wielding a heavy rifle of some kind. “Thought so.”

The entity looking at me had two different eyes, the left eye a dark cobalt blue while his right was a scarlet red closely resembling blood. He changed his magazine and chambered another round, ready to fire. Quickly, I equipped Ruby and Lapis and fired at the same time he fired at me. I couldn’t seem to identify the type of ammo he was using now, but I doubt he just loaded in a fresh mag of the same ammo type unless he was compulsively reloading. Silent warrior, it seemed… There must be more to this guy than what I saw. Then, out of nowhere, his right eye became the same blue as his left, his armor shifted to become more lightweight and speed-based, and he dropped his rifle, only for railgun-like weapon to appear in his hands.

“Anomaly armament: Plasma Railgun equipped,” a robotic voice echoed.

“Ain’t that something…” this guy must be Machina of some kind, most likely a Mobile Armory if he can construct equipment like that.

Before he could aim and fire, he put his hand up to where his ear should be, as if he was receiving a voice call. He nodded a few times as his visor reset to the heterochromatic design, then turned around and walked away after giving me one more look over the shoulder. The moment he walked out the door, a motorcycle revved up before driving away.

“That happened…” I noted before turning back to the girls. “You girls okay?”

They all nodded yes, which was good.

“Alright then. We'll head back to my place, debrief, then break.”

“That’s it?” Ira asked.

“You wanna stay over at my place?”

“Wha- What the hell kind of question is that?!”

“Then head back to your in-game homes after debriefing. I'm sure you don't want to stay the night with me.”

“Got that right…” Ira muttered.

“But what if we do wanna stay?” Luxuria asked teasingly.

“Go right ahead. But don't expect me to sleep with you.”

“Aww…” Luxuria pouted.

“We’re still allowed to stay, right?” Gula spoke.

“Yes you are. Feel free to stay in the bed, I'll be fine on the couch.”

“You sure?”

“Completely fine with it.”

“I can sleep in Taicho's bed again~” Acedia purred.

“A-Again?!” Ira blurted out before looking at me. “What did you do to her?!”

“Nothing, she just found her way into my bed and took a cat nap.”

“He’s right, Ira-san. I fell asleep on his bed while waiting for him.”

“So… nothing lewd happened, right?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I wouldn’t do anything like that.”

“How can I be sure of that?”

“Because I'm not a massive pervert.”

“How can I be sure of THAT?”

“Because I’ve made no perverted advances towards anyone here?” I looked over at Ira for her response.

“But how can I be sure you won’t try something lewd with one of us in private?!” she replied.

“I’m gonna stop dragging this conversation out. Everyone, time to head out and debrief,” before I could leave, my visor started beeping. “Hm?”

“What should we do, Taicho?” Superbia asked.

“Head back without me. I’ll catch up soon enough.”

“Yes sir!” They all left as I put my visor back on and followed the beeping in my helm.

I searched all throughout the warehouse to find where the beeping was coming from. When I did find what I was looking for, I came across a case. It was a simple steel case, with two latches and a handle that allowed it to be carried for convenience. After I undid the latches, I opened up the case to reveal a new mod inside.

“Well, that’s interesting…” I pick up the case after closing it back up, then turn to leave. By this time, the squadron had already left, so it was just me and my bike.

“That doesn’t belong to you,” a robotic voice calls to me.

“Oh?” I turn around to face what it was talking to me. He wore a black bodysuit with purple vein-like lines and dark silver armor. He wore a mask that had two red eyes that looked like one of those hypnotic circles, in a way.

“That’s not yours. Hand it over,” He started to walk over towards me with his hand up. That’s when I noticed his bulky gauntlets.

“I think I’ll keep it, thank you very much,” I opened the case, grabbed the mod inside, and threw the case at him. “You can have this back though!”

“Very well,” He pressed a button on his gauntlets. A deep robotic voice yelled “Rev up!” as a chainsaw blade deployed from the gauntlets which he then used to cut through the thrown case like he was cutting through putty. “I’ll take it back by force.”

“Good luck,” I taunted him even though I had no clue how any of this worked. Uh… Slots, slots. What can I clear out… Overclock Trigger? I haven’t used that in a long time… I’ll get rid of that then. A display appeared over the interface saying: “Mod swapped, Multi-form Nanite Armor enabled.”

“Well, looks like I need to kill you AND take that back. What a way to make my job a bit more entertaining!” He ran out and attacked with his chainsaw gauntlet. I dodged in the nick of time, drew my Shoto, and slashed at him with an underhand attack. “Don’t get too cocky now!”

He jumped back, pressed another button on his gauntlet which made a deep robotic voice announce “Burst!” and a weapon deployed from underneath his wrist as his chainsaws retracted. He pressed a button on his thumb, which fired two energy beams one after another. I dashed out of the way and sheathed my sword. Well, I’ve got a new mod to use. Here goes nothing...

“Nanite Armor, activate.” I was a liquid metal, which then covered me up before adjusting to my body shape. A mechanical armor solidified on my being with a vermilion coat that was burnt all the way to the ends before everything clicked into place and fire was released from the armor. “Nanite Armor, active. Scorch permutation, equipped.”

“This is… interesting...” I took a look at what I was encased in before my HUD rebooted and gave me a quick run-down on my current equipment.

“Reigai isn’t going to be happy about this…” Who is this guy talking about? “Ugh, what a shame. We spent a lot of money on that.”

“Expensive mod? Cool,” When I tried to dash at him again, nothing happened. “Oh. It locked all my other mods. Goddammit.”

“What was he thinking when he incorporated that?” He fired more energy beams at me, which I dodged. “At least I can kill you easier now.”

“Uh… what can this thing do?” A series of weapons showed up in my head before three of them were selected and everything organized itself once more. One weapon looked to be an energy beam that was on fire, another appeared to be a sword set on fire, and the last looked like a fiery shield. “Okay, there’s a fire beam, a fire sword, and a fire shield. Let’s try ‘em out.”

I run up to my opponent and punch him. My fist is instantly engulfed in flames before I make contact with him. He retaliates with a laser beam that gets me right in the abdomen. I don’t feel much of the pain thanks to the suit absorbing most of the damage for me.

“Can I get your name?” I ask as I block his lasers with my fire shield.

“Don’t worry about it.” is his reply as he fires more energy beams. I continue to block with my shield before a warning tells me to close the shield before overheating occurs.

“Just tell me your name, dammit.”

“Classified info. Good luck guessing,” He switches to his chainsaws before running at me.

“Motherfucker...” I reply as I use the fire beam to deter his attacks. The beam hits and melts into his chest armor.

“Hm… You’re a definite threat. Who are you?” He took a moment to question my identity.

“‘Classified info. Good luck guessing,” I threw his own words back at him.

“Touche,” He looked up for a moment, as if he was receiving a message. “Ugh, low suit energy… I’ll be back for you.”

A demonic looking motorcycle drove up from behind him. Then, he got on the bike and drove off, fading into the shadows. I stood in awe for a moment, considering what just happened and all. So, let’s process all of this. I picked up a new mod. I used said mod to defend myself from some random guy, and he just left. Alright, cool. This game is escalating to a whole new level… A dangerous one, it seems.

[30 Minutes after Damasu-kai raid. 10:19 PM]

I returned to my office to see the girls all relaxing, scattered throughout the office. Ira and Gula were lying on one of the couches, Avaritia tinkering with her two drones, Invidia and Superbia sitting on another couch, Luxuria lying down on my desk in a lewd manner, and Acedia was nowhere to be seen in the main room.

“I’m back,” I said as I walked through the door.

“Took you long enough,” Gula said.

“I was held up by something.”

“What’s with the armor?”

“Hm?” I looked at myself and remembered that I was still using the mod. “Oh, this.”

“What is it?” Avaritia questioned after closing a panel on her drones.

“New mod,” I replied, opening up my mods list and showing her.

“Multi-form Reconfiguring Nanite Armor? Sounds… expensive,” She looked puzzled as she read through my mods. “What’s Agneyastra?”

“Last resort armament. Deals passive soul damage to me, but I get to shoot fireballs out of a cannon in exchange.”

“Interesting...” She looked through the rest of my mods, then told me to deactivate the armor. “A multi-form armor made of a nanite alloy should allow you to access multiple configurations, as the name implies.”

“The only configuration it seems to have is this. I think it’s called ‘Scorch.’”

“Do you know if there’s any other configurations?” She asked.

“I don’t think so…” I brought up a list on the HUD and looked for other configurations. No luck. “Just this ‘Scorch’ config.”

“Guess I can’t do much else with it. Though, it is possible that the armor can learn to reconfigure itself and save specific loadouts once the new design is combat-tested and such.”

“Meaning I have to make the new loadouts myself.”

“Exactly. Did the armor mention any other weapons installed?”

“There was a massive list of weapons. About three rows of shields, ranged weapons, and melee weapons.”

“That so? Well... You should be able to enter a neutral state in that armor. A way to manually select weapons and shields, as well as assign suit statistics.” She sat down at her workspace and returned to recalibrating her drones while finding new parts for them.

“Hm,” I looked at the dimensions of my office, then looked at the team. “I wonder if the two neighboring buildings are for lease…”

“And why would you be asking that, Taicho?” Superbia asked.

“Expanding my office.”

“What for?”

“For all of you. It’s obvious that my current office isn’t gonna be enough space for all eight of us. Speaking of us, where’s Acedia?”

“She said she was gonna take a nap on your bed.”

“Huh, she really wasn’t kidding about that.”

“Are we gonna debrief?”

“Uh… Well, I’m not sure what needs to be debriefed… We should address loadouts and equipment upgrades. Especially on Avaritia’s drones…”

“I know, I know! You don’t have to remind me!” She called out as she scrolled through lists upon lists of mechanical components.

“That aside, I need to upgrade my office. More space for all of us to work with and such. I’ll be back.” I went outside to check and see if the neighboring buildings were for lease.

The one on the right of my office was for lease, but the left was for some law firm. Don’t know why that’s there, but there seemed to be a large-enough customer base that led me to the decision of leaving it alone. I’ll take just the right building then.

[27 minutes later, 10:50PM]

I negotiated with the NPC realtor on buying the building immediately, for the price of a couple hundred-thousand units of in-game currency. My day job as a mercenary for-hire paid enough for me to afford the building, and still have plenty left over. So, I now owned two buildings, and with their total space, I think I’ll be able to accommodate the squad. I returned to my office and saw everyone asleep.

“Tired out, huh?” I muttered under my breath to no one in particular. “I think we can call this a successful mission, girls. Get your sleep, you all deserve it.”

I sat down in my chair, putting my feet up on the desk and taking care to not put my feet on Luxuria’s body; I don’t wanna wake her up and have her do something lewd to me. Sooner or later, the girls would automatically log-out since that’s how the ApexGear works. I think I’ll get to the renovations once they’re logged out. Eventually, a yawn escapes from my mouth. Checking the time, I see it’s nearly 11 PM. Perhaps I should get some sleep myself… Looks like the renovations will have to wait.