Was it.... Snow ?
I am not sure, but they are cold.
I still remember, the bright blue snow, Me, Mommy,
I remember her warm hand holding mine,
The huge crowd, noises,
Light.
— — — — —
The crowd scattered to their posts, rushing here and there to finish the final preparations, jets and armored flight soldiers set off out of the wide opened hangar to the dark skies beyond, the skies raining bright blue.
A young girl stood,next to a armored Figure holding her hand, in the Night.
An armored Figure of Light.
— — — — —
The Lights, were bright.
It was a noisy place, with people talking loudly to one another.
Rushing all about.
Yet,
Everyone was hopeful. Mommy was smiling too.
So I smiled.
— — — — —
" Be ready, liutenant." Spake another Armored commander dashing by to the one next to the little girl
" For her future, for humanity's future."
" Right away sir."
The little girl stared wide eyed, moving not her glance away from the armored figure.
Her Mother turned to her, and knelt down.
— — — — —
Then while they were setting off,to the the skies and seas
Something flew in.
— — — — —
A screech of cracked armor sounded across the opened hangars, along with deafening explosions.
All eyes stared, at a Winged demonic entity of darkness swooping down to the many soldiers in defense,
one by one stabbed and mauled by the one in darkness.
More and more demons swooped in alongside huge tentacles made of nano ash crashing and pulling the military hangar down.
— — — — —
Everyone was not confident anymore,
Everyone was afraid,
Everyone was screaming,
And they ran, pushing me and Mommy back.
I was Afraid.
I cried.
And then, While they all ran away loudly, Mommy held me close, and said
" Yuri, are you Ready ?"
I was afraid.
" Good girl, Mommy loves you very, very much."
At that moment, there was something shining in Mommy's hand.
" Mommy....?"
Mommy was hugging me tightly now, holding the brightening light closer
as it bloomed greater and greater.
" Go, Yuri,
Find The Land of Light."
— — — — —
-BEFORE · LIGHT-
So I followed,
into the Light.
<Ⅰ>
Call him Bradson, Captain. He is a tough man, his bushy beard and dark grey eyes hides many unspoken hardships from the past. He is the Captain of the grave military Airship Betelgeuse, one of many that soared in the skies fighting against Darkness, and one of the most prominent of Airships that still sails.
He felt a disturbance in his ship even before it occurred.
An explosion happened somewhere in his ship.
" Firren." This Bradson Captain spake calmly to this Young uniformed soldier dude beside him in the bright glass captain's cabin
" The transposing operation is finishing. Make sure she's alright."
Silently this Bright Red haired Young man Firren nodded before leaving the cabin, in haste.
The captain's Secretary Reina, a motherly commander at her early thirties, long orange red hair tied to a side ponytail, looked on worriedly as the young soldier left.
Bradson Captain sat in his cabin of glass, brooding.
The explosion came from the Airship lab, breaking the lab glass and shattering the equipments, and among the broken shards of glass and smoke,
Was a young teenage girl, naked, on the sizzling cold floor.
Her pure white skin glowed under the dim flickering lab lights,
Her bright blue hair shimmered and flowed down her naked curved chest.
Slowly, groaning, this teenage girl of bluish light hair sat up on her thighs, looking at the world anew around her, dizzy and swirling.
She looked at her hands, and her naked self.
" ..... Who am.... I.....?" She asked.
A far distance, an eerie blurred sharp screeching whisper she heard, and she followed it, out of the shaken lab.
Young Soldier Firren bro opened many doors and passed many corridors, only to find nothing.
He was about to open one more doors when he stopped.
The silver door handle was cold, icy cold.
The girl, staggering against the wall, stumbled to a bridge of glass among this grave Airship.
She could see the vast clouds and the world under her feet, but she seemed to care not.
Her head was full of sharp blurred screeching whisper.
Pained by the sharp screeching in her head, She fell to her knees, moaning as the pain grew stronger, messing with her head as if turning her head inside out.
She screamed, and scenes she thought familiar but didn't know exactly what flashed quickly before her eyes.
Young soldier Firren backed, for the door before him turned into a tall tablet of ice and cracked.
Icy air snaked in through the thin crevasses.
The glass bridge where she stood then shattered into ice and the violent wind swirled with might around the screaming girl, pained to an extent that her senses were slipping fast and she lay, about to fall off the bridge,
Before Lo, warmth surrounded her in the form of a coat and a hug, of this Captain, Captain Bradson, coming to her rescue.
As Bradson caressed the the girl who curled in his coat, stroking her beautiful light blue hair that went down half curling below her shoulders , listening to her crying.
" What's.... Wrong... With me....?!"
Wailed Moe weakly, cold and shivering, with tears.
Bradson Captain helped her wipe those tears away.
" You have passed the procedure, Yuri. Well done."
— — —
Call her Yuri, pale of skin and light blue of hair to her shoulders while a single ponytail tied to her right, the One that just came out of the exploding lab, now lay in her bed.
As Bradson Captain sat beside her, looking grave.
Hospital Droids stood next to Yuri, scanning her body with lazers checking if her vitals were stable.
After the Androids finished the assessments, Bradson Captain checked the data entry with deep frowned eyes, then turned to Yuri and asked with gravity
" What do you remember,.....of That Night, Yuri ?"
Yuri blinked at this question,
Scenes flashing in her head, distorted.
Light,
People,
And someone.
Yuri shook her head slowly
" .... Except the blue snow, nothing else."
Bradson Captain jolted slightly.
Why doth he jolt but jolted so slightly like trying to keep himself still in such manner ?
Why ?
" ....I see."
Bradson Captain adjusted his seat, with deeper frown
" I am sorry, Yuri. I have hurt you. I should have considered this one of the transposing side effects.."
Spake the Captain like he had committed the most unforgivable crime in the whole galaxy.
Yuri shook her head and arms quickly in disapproval and took hold of Bradson Captain's rough arms
" No, papa!It's not your fault !"
Yuri said adamantly
" This is... The Quickest way to Grow up, right ? So I can be able to harness a Starbreaker armor and help you, papa ! Don't to be sorry, because I chose to do it"
INDEED. Bradson thought, Yuri has just underwent an operational procedure in a vessel which will enable her to link with a Starbreaking armor, a modified anti Demon armor to fight against the beasts of dark that now roam the skies seas and land.
But the operation still has its flaws, though Yuri is fine, her memories are not, but even so, Bradson Captain thought to himself, this might be a blessing to start over.
To let Yuri be less stressed, Bradson Captain concealed his worries.
But still Yuri could sense something Bradson Captain, her papa brooding in a grave worried manner
" I will be alright, papa. See? I still remember you, Firren, and Reina. That is all that matters , right ?"
" Of course, of course....." Bradson Captain spake with a weak chuckle, as he stood up to leave
" Rest now, Yuri. For soon it will be time for you to protect not only yourself, but many others out there. "
" Yes papa!"
Bradson Captain closed the sliding doors to the room.
The Young soldier Bro Firren was already outside, leaning to the Wall by the door with his arms crossed before his chest, waiting for long.
" You have something to say, Firren ?"
Bradson Captain asked.
" I thought its our mission to protect her, Captain !"
This Bro Firren spake seriously straight to his Captain's face without formalities
" Not turn her into Starbreaker ! Putting everything at risk !"
" The best way to protect her, is to teach her how. Yuri needs time, and practice."
Bradson Captain spake calmly.
" Train her , Firren. We cannot always be by her side."
" ...Yes, sensei."
Firren agreed with a sigh.
As Yuri lay in bed, she thought of Papa Bradson's question, and started to rethink of her memories on ship
— — — — —
" Have you heard of the StarBreaker, Yuri ?"
Bradson asked. This was days before she entered the transposing operation Vessel.
" No...." Yuri shook her head.
The two stood at glass cabin before the window, looking at the starry night sky.
" When Stars become old, they turn into a ball of Pure Light, we call it 「Star-Break」.
StarBreakers are those who can make such Light. To protect those dear in this last powerful resort. "
Bradson explained inventively
" The people, living down below, needs Light to enter the World of Love and Light. That is the Mission, Yuri."
" The... Mission..." Loli Yuri whispered.
" Yes. The StarBreakers'mission is to bring everyone to Paradise, the Land of Love and Light,
and protect it from Darkness."
Bradson Captain stared out to the skies in silence.
" Then Can I... Be a Star Breaker too ? And protect others from Darkness ?"
Yuri asked aloud.
Bradson Captain looked down, eyes wide.
Yuri stared back at Bradson with eyes so Bright and wide.
And Bradson patted Yuri's head and smiled
" Of course. Fear No Darkness, Yuri."
— — — — —
Yuri sat up from her bed and looked out her window.
It was New Dawn, and she couldn't sleep, because she was hungry.
So the teenage girl ventured to Bradson Captain's private Cabin.
" Papa〜〜?"
Yuri called, just to make sure Bradson wasn't in the room.
Quickly, she came to the closet behind Bradson's desk and opened it, fishing out a handful of small bars wrapped in aluminum, chocolate bars, Yuri's favorite. She had been eating those ever since she first came on ship, but she couldnt tell when was the first time she had her first chocolate bar that made her so captivated to its creamy nourishing flavor, each bite taking her to a place she knew was familiar and soothing but couldn't figure out where from. Also why captain Bradson always have these chocolate bars ready in packs is unknown.
Yuri teared open the wrapping, and with one bite into the brownish juicy crunchy substance, and sent it down her throat.
" So yummmyyyyyy !!!" Yuri squealed, sitting on Bradson's armchair and kicking her legs.
It is always her favorite, Chocolate.
While she ate, one bar at a time, she strolled around the captain's cabin, the untidy desk full of papers and research tools, and a book, the story book papa Bradson used to tell her stories from.
With a chocolate bar in mouth, Yuri opened the first few pages. Most of them were hand drawn sketches of landscapes, Demons, Starbreakers, with descriptions below that she knew so well after all those story times with papa Bradson.
But one such drawing caught her eye, something Bradson haven't told her or showed her before. It was a circular disc like object, runes of unknown meaning written around its surface, lines smoothly reaching out in spherical manner all circling that one disc like core of runes.
" The Herunis Carna..." Yuri read the description to herself in wonder, mesmorized by the drawing which seemed to beam and glow before her eyes
" The core of the Earth. Earth ?" Yuri wondered what earth meant, and why does it need a core.
Meanwhile, Bradson Captain on the other end of the Airship was at the control center, before many screens with urgent sirens.
His secretary in commend, Reina came to him
" We sensed unnatural movements underground from here, Captain."
Leina reported
" A Demon is approaching !!"
Bradson Captain calmly nodded
" Tell Firren to be ready."
" I am already waiting, Captain !!"
Came the voice of burning enthusiasm vibrating in the control center through the microphones.
Firren walked out, standing tall on top of great Airship Betelgeuse, in his flourished carved Armor of Star essence, a StarBreaking Armor of Red, staying vigilant with his twin handgun blades of sheer flame opened upon his two wrists.
" Good."
Bradson Captain motioned to all the others
" Now wait for my command."
Firren thinks otherwise, standing up from vigilant position on the back of the Airship, preparing to jump
" Wait for it....."
As soon as his lips stopped, there suddenly came a mighty bang from far below the dried soil surface, with a mammoth being leaping out, bursting with dust and debris to a thousand meters high.
The shadow of the colossus slowed down in mid air to the Betelgeuse's level, it's many paired chaotic eyes stared straight at every person that stared back,
Especially Bradson's firm grave glance.
A roar of Demonry it made with its grotesque mouth opened wide, and Lo !!
" Fire !!"
Flames and missiles shot out across the air and hit with marvelous burning explosion at the Demon's face as it roared.
The flaming Starbreaker dashed forth in action.
Firren performed a fire strike with his two fire handgun swords and the humongous Demon dropped back to the earth surface, rumbling earthquakes and smog all about below.
What was just a StarBreaking Armor, now burst in flames out of the flourish carvings, shimmering Red like lava were its linings.
A StarBreaker has awaken.
" Permission to further engage, Captain !!!"
Firren spake valorous and Heroic, readying at the edge of the airship.
" Permisiion granted." Bradson gave out the order.
and Firren leapt down with a skilled gymnastic body twist and dived down towards the earth to End this Demon in an earth bending showdown.
Bradson Captain sent Android troops to Firren's aid
" Analyze the Demon."
He spake quickly to Leina
" And search it's weakness, before it sees ours."
The bar of Chocolate dropped to the ground all of a sudden and so did the book with a thud.
Yuri shivered, painfully grasping her head, for the high pitched voice screeched all of a sudden in her head.
What's in her Head, she asked herself ??
She struggled violently to fight the incoherent voice, but instead pushed everything on captain Bradson's desk to the floor in hysteric manner.
" WHAT DO YOU WANT ?!?!"
Yuri screamed at the voice piercing in her ears and biting her nerves.
The voice answered in incomprehensible tone, echoing across to the next room.
Yuri crashed her body to the next room, and the voice lured her to the next, and the next through her curiosity.
...
.... .
" It's a Kau·Bog type Demon !!!!" Firren cried, dashing here and there around the huge Boar headed Demon with muscular arms but small legs and no chest.
It's boar like head is its body.
Firren whirled and Smashed his twin fire gun swords at the boar beast thrice his size, but seemed to just tickle, not burn.
For the Kau Bog type demon has hide thicker than an average Demon, able to withstand high tier heat.
Bradson gravely sent more Androids, planning a air to ground missile strike, but Firren might be caught in the middle of crossfire.
He won't do it.
...
....
Yuri was led by the painful incoherent voice to a dark metallic chamber full of machines and wires, dark and dank.
Yuri felt cold and her pain numbed her senses and weakened her spirits as she fell to her knees, leaning to an icy glass wall, her breathing slower and slower
" What do you want.... From me...."
Yuri asked the voice with her last breath.
The wall of glass,
The one that she leaned upon,
Then glowed.
Yuri looked up.
Painful screeches turned to chiming song,
Incoherent screams became soothing Whispers,
As the glass door opened, with icy vapor spreading, kissing Yuri's pale skin and tender cheeks with comfort,
Out revealed,
A White Star Breaking Armor.
She touched it.
Yuri felt at Home that instant, reminding her of the blue falling snow
from her first vague memory.
Is It you, Star Breaker ?
You have been waiting for me, for a long time.
Sorry For keeping you waiting so long.
And Yuri slowly pulled the strings off her tunic, letting the soft thin cloth run down her clean pinkish shoulders, and joined with the armor in one.
...
...
" Bradson Captain !!! The second launcher... it opened !!"
Reina cried in shock.
Bradson was expecting this to happen , but not this soon.
...
.....
As the chest plate of the Starbreaking armor opened like nanoparticles spreading open like a hug, caressing Yuri all over, Yuri lay back, and let them connect to her, as she felt a current of unseen energy swim through her veins and nerves, up to her eyes which flashed instances of memories Yuri had no idea of what and when..
She wasn't ready, but her body and instincts took over control.
The launcher sequence loaded, and the hangar gates rumbled in opening.
The light of the outer world dazzled through her visual visor.
Three. She heard the hangar robot say firmly.
Two.
Yuri closed her eyes.
" YURI ! ! ! ! ! !"
Yuri opened her eyes wide.
It was Bradson Captain, his wrinkled expresion said it all. As he stood at the gangway of the launcher, his captain's cloak flapping with the vehement winds.
Yuri looked at Papa Bradson.
Papa Bradson looked back.
And She Smiled
" Fear No Darkness, Papa!"
And Lo she went, the howling winds at her ears, and the gravity her helping hand.
Bradson Captain watched the skies below, the lands, and Her.
It was he, who set her on this path of no return.
...
Firren was a good fighter, but even a seasoned warrior has times of misjudgment.
This is that moment.
The Kau Bog demon had him good, and the Android troops were wasted.
Firren was forced to a cliff.
" oh shoot" Firren cursed.
But Lo, Yuri The White StarBreaker descended, with her eyes closed, she pulled out a pale blade out of her wrists and pointed downward, aiming at the top of the Demon boar's Head.
It Striketh down with bone crashing smash. The blade, half through the Demon skull, was shaken off and broke with the Demon's frenzy swagger.
Yuri was thrown away. Hard.
Firren rushed forth and shouted angrily, shouting something Yuri couldnt hear for her senses dazed and shaken hard by the crash.
Yuri staggered to her feet, she didn't run.
But pulled out another energy blade out of her wrist armors.
The Kau Bog strikes in an eye blinking pace, grabbing Yuri by the thigh and swung her high with tremendous force.
Firren followed her as quick as he could,
Reina screamed, hot tears at her cheeks.
Bradson Captain watched with his heart full of prayer .
Yuri was in the air,
The Demon swung her that way, so it could eat her in one gulp after her fall.
Yuri saw everything that's happening around her, but she was amazed, as if her body was with someone else, guiding her every step in her head.
It was so natural, her body, underneath the armor, doing everything the StarBreaker armor led her to do.
It was all so right. She felt nothing wrong.
She was curious of where this StarBreaker will lead her, what she will do right now.
Yuri twisted her body around in the air, facing her back at the Demon boar,
Then, with a arm spreading wide, energy Grappling hooks of icy blue burst out of her back, sailing in mid air full speed and crashing down on the Demon, penetrating its hide, and turning it to ice. Ice blue.
The Kau Bog was frozen stiff like a lone stone mountain.
Firren saw what Yuri was doing, and quickly knew what to do next.
" Seriously...like this ...?!"
Firren commented, unconvinced but turn all the fire in his twin blades and held then like real swords.
Then with all his might, He smashed his weapons at the Demon icicle, bashing it to pieces until all that was left, were cold frozen flesh engraved inside ice cubes.
Firren panted at the victory, that was not all his.
And heard a crashing sound behind him.
Yuri had fainted.
[....To be continued]