Intro – II.
– I –
(Haruka)

My chest hurt so much I could hardly breathe.

I stumbled my way down the stairs, and after wiping away my tears, I hurried down the hallways.

To a great extent I was moving on instinct.

It was my body that remembered the way, and my feet that carried me to my classroom.

So as I turned into the open doorway, I wasn’t really seeing where I was going.

I bumped shoulders with a girl that was leaving.

On reflex, I apologized to her, and noticed through my moist eyes that she was a brunette with shoulder length black hair, and large expressive eyes.

She was shorter than I was, and nowhere near as top heavy.

The girl didn’t apologize back, but she did stop and regard me for a moment.

Then she pulled out a palm-slate from a skirt pocket, tapped the display a few times to call up what appeared to be the map of a building, and then wordlessly resumed walking out of the classroom.

Even in my emotionally addled state, I felt something odd from her.

I felt as though she’d recognized me, though I had no recollection of her.

Then I dismissed my unease because she was wearing our school’s uniform, and with our school being as big as it was, it was possible she knew of me yet I was unaware of her.

Walking to my Smart-Desk where I’d left my carry-bag and belongings, I noticed a few of my classmates clustered around it. At sight of me, they looked concerned, and being girls they intuitively put two-and-two together and realized that things between Caelum and I hadn’t gone well.

I told them the truth – I didn’t feel like lying – and then I broke down in tears again.

It was a while before I recovered, and a while longer before I made my way home, leaving the classroom with the girls escorting me in a show of solidarity.

In their eyes, what Caelum had done put him firmly in the den of scum.

I didn’t feel that way – not entirely – because I understood him better than they did, but I was in no condition to argue back in his defense.

I probably would have lost their support had I done so, and for the moment I needed their shoulders to lean on.

At the shoe lockers on the ground floor, I swapped out my indoor shoes for my outdoor ones.

One of my classmates, Miata, called out to me. “Hey, Haruka. Did you know that girl who bumped into you?”

“No. Why?”

“Hmm. I guess it’s nothing. But….”

“But what?”

“She was looking for Desanto.”

I frowned at Miata who toyed with her hair.

She looked slightly nervous, and when I glanced at the other girls joining me, I noticed they were curious.

“She seemed weird,” said Brianna, a brunette with a chest off equal caliber to mine. “Gave off this mission vibe. You know what I mean?”

I tried hard not to frown at her.

Obviously not, was what I wanted to say.

“She was wearing a first-year pin, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before,” petite Shiori remarked half to herself, half to the rest of us.

Indeed our school was big, but given enough students, surely someone had encountered that girl before, especially if she was a first-year like us.

Robyn, a girl with flaxen hair and cheeks smattered with freckles, looked uneasy. “If she was from our school, why was she walking around with a map?”

For a moment, a single heartbeat, I debated running back up to the rooftop courtyard.

But then my chest tightened and my feet wouldn’t move.

I couldn’t bring myself to seeing him again, not while the heartache was still fresh.

So I abandoned the idea.

When I finally relaxed enough to breathe easier, I said, “No, I’ve never seen her before. Don’t know why she would be looking for Caelum.”

After a breath, I added, “Not my problem. Not anymore.”

Whomever that girl was, she wasn’t my concern.

Caelum was Caelum with his own life to live.

He’d cut his ties to me, and though it hurt, I would respect his decision.

Thus with that resolution firmly in heart and mind, I headed for the building’s exit in the company of my classmates who dropped the subject of the unknown girl in a heartbeat, and moved onto the topic of ice cream and parfaits.

Walking with them to the school’s south gate, listening to them listing all the sweets they intended to order.

Apparently they had decided to cheer me up – and congratulate me – with an all-expenses paid trip to the nearest cake shop.

Maybe a sugar rush was the temporary relief I needed to get me through the afternoon. I’d deal with a night of crying into my pillow later when I arrived home.

A slender girl in an unfamiliar uniform loitered at the wide gate. She was standing outside the school grounds with a palm-slate in hand, her attention darting between the device and the faces of the school boys that walked by. I had the impression she was looking for someone, undoubtedly a boy since she was paying them close attention, while drawing a fair amount of interest from the boys. That was understandable since she was quite pretty, with long raven hair, and almond shaped green eyes. Her body was slender, and sleek, toned legs stretched out to the ground from beneath her short skirt.

I couldn’t help noticing the golden anklets she wore, attracting attention to her slim ankles, and well-proportioned feet.

With her heart shaped face and smooth skin, she looked like an exquisite, exotic doll.

For several seconds, I felt distinctly challenged by her. I knew that I was no slouch in the looks department, but this girl had something on me that I simply couldn’t match.

However, there was one aspect where I had her totally beat.

As beautiful as she was, this girl had no bust.

Yep, she was as flat as a board.

No wind resistance to mention.

Feeling better about myself, I hitched my carry-bag’s straps higher onto the crook of my right shoulder, and pushed out my chest as I walked by her on my way out of the school grounds.

As I did so, I spared her palm-slate a long look, and my heart jumped forcefully in my chest.

All of a sudden I forgot all about being competitive, and all about my heartache.

Even at a distance, I recognized the boy’s face on the slate’s display.

Even at a distance, I knew it was Caelum she was looking for.

Two girls looking for Caelum Desanto in one afternoon?

Something was seriously afoot.

My feet had carried me past her for a couple of yards.

Turning around, I walked back to the girl, though you could say I strode up to her.

She blinked upon noticing me, and discreetly hid the palm-slate in a skirt pocket.

Too little, too late as far as I was concerned.

Staring at her hard, I spoke bluntly, “Who are you?”

The girl regarded me impassively with her beautiful green eyes but didn’t reply.

I became annoyed. “I asked, who are you?”

When she did reply, her words were delivered without inflection. She didn’t just look like a doll. She sounded like one. “Why are you asking me?”

“Because I want to know why you have Caelum’s photo.”

Her eyes blinked slowly but I noticed them widen just a little. “You know Caelum Desanto? Are you a classmate of his?”

In contrast, I narrowed my eyes at her. “Who wants to know?”

“Do you know where I can find him?”

The girl’s flat tone was unsettling me.

“I’m not telling you until you give me a proper answer,” I countered as I stood before her. “Who are you? What do you want with Caelum?”

My classmates had doubled back and now faced the girl as well.

“Hey, I know that uniform,” Miata said. “You’re from Galatea Academy.”

“Oh, she must be an Aventis,” Robyn opinioned.

“Well, obviously,” Miata said sarcastically. “Galatea Academy only has Aventis students.”

“No, Familiars attend it as well,” Brianna corrected.

“Who cares,” Miata cried out.

“That’s a nice uniform,” Shiori remarked approvingly.

“More like a posh uniform,” Brianna added.

I studied the girl who in turn was regarding my friends with keen eyes though her expression remained unreadable. “Why are you looking for Caelum?” I asked her.

“That’s a personal question. I’m not at liberty to say,” she answered flatly.

“Then I’m not going to tell you where to find him,” I replied brusquely.

The girl nodded. “Okay.” Then she pulled out her palm-slate and brought up Caelum’s photo onto its display surface. “Excuse me,” she bade us as she circled around my friends and I.

But I intercepted her and crossed my arms under my big breasts. “Not so fast.”

The girl showed the first signs of irritation. “If you are not going to assist me, then please don’t get in my way.”

Robyn asked, “Are you his girlfriend?”

My heart felt like it was being painfully squeezed, while the girl stopped blinking and grew still.

For some reason, seeing her blush while looking expressionless irritated me beyond the shock of Robyn’s words.

“His girlfriend?” she asked. Abruptly thoughtful, she looked down at Caelum’s image on her palm-slate. “His girlfriend...I wonder….”

Now I was truly irritated.

“You? His girlfriend? Over my dead body,” I declared.

“Why?” she asked unexpectedly. “Are you his girlfriend?”

Flustered by her impromptu counter, I floundered for a reply. “Caelum is my friend. That’s all. We’re just childhood friends.” I pointed at her. “And as his childhood friend, it’s my duty to keep him safe from strange girls.”

Miata gave me a puzzled look. “But didn’t you say you’d cut ties with him?”

I shot her a sidelong glare. “He cut ties with me. I didn’t cut ties with him.”

Shiori quietly muttered, “Isn’t it weird for two girls to be looking for him in one day?”

“Maybe he did something to them and now they’re hunting him down?” Brianna suggested while shrugging a shoulder. “I mean, he is a pervert.”

I sensed it then, a sudden change in the girl with emerald eyes.

Looking at her, it was clear she’d heard something interesting.

She stared fixedly at Shiori with unblinking eyes. “Did you say another girl was looking for him?”

Shiori hesitated before nodding.

The girl turned her attention to the school, but then she abruptly looked up.

It was my first time seeing her frown, so I followed her line of sight.

There was nothing up in the overhead sky but the ubiquitous donut shaped Enforcer drones flying on patrol.

I looked back down to question her, but the girl abruptly darted past me into the school with surprising speed, and this time I was helpless to stop her.

“Hey,” I called out to her.

Ignoring me, she pulled out her palm-slate as she ran toward the school building’s entrance, then jumped the ten steps up to the glass doors in a single bound.

A heartbeat later she had disappeared into the school building.

I stood still in shock over what I’d witnessed.

So too my classmates.

“Wow…,” Miata exclaimed.

“Did we just see that?” Robyn asked.

“That’s the power of the Aventis,” Briana replied dejectedly.

“Haruka, are you going to be able to do that too?” Shiori asked.

“I’m jealous of you,” Briana said, sounding even more dejected.

I swallowed, not knowing what to say, and looked back up at the sky over the school building.

Then I realized what had caught the girl’s attention.

A lone donut shaped drone with Enforcer markings hovered over the school.

It was motionless above the rooftop courtyard that was the setting for my parting of ways with Caelum.

I told myself it was just a co-incidence, but I couldn’t convince myself.

Uneasy, I started walking back to the school building’s entrance.

Just before climbing the steps, I glanced skyward one more time.

The drone continued hovering on the spot.

I pushed the entrance’s glass doors and hurried into the school.

– II –
(Caelum)

I didn’t notice the drone until several minutes after Haruka had left me alone on the rooftop courtyard.

Sitting on the ground, with my back to the fencing, I had looked up to see the Enforcer drone watching me from on high.

I guessed it to be around three feet in diameter, hovering about 50 or 60 feet above the rooftop.

A minute went by, and then another, yet the drone continued in place.

By then my curiosity had turned into outright worry.

I stood up and picked up my carry-bag, intending to vacate the rooftop.

At that moment, the door to the rooftop opened, and a girl I didn’t recognize stepped out onto the courtyard.

Her gaze swept over the place, before settling on me.

She was fairly pretty, with nicely toned calves and thighs from below her skirt that seemed quite a bit shorter than normal. I can say this because she was wearing a female uniform from Sanderson High that no doubt had been altered. Up top she was in the modest bracket, but overall, she was a solid seven point five out of ten.

I stood still, wondering what she was doing up here.

The fact that she was looking at me intently was both a cause for concern, and an opportunity to take my mind of Haruka.

“Hello there,” I called out to her, slinging the straps of my carry-bag over my right shoulder. “Looking for someone?”

“Yes.” Her reply was light and easily forthcoming. “And I’ve just found him.”

“Oh?” I was dusting my trouser bottoms. Hearing that, I stopped and frowned at her. “Really?”

She nodded. “You are Caelum Desanto, are you not?”

“That’s me. And who might you be?”

“The name’s Constance.” She let the door to the rooftop close behind her. “Constance Peligree.”

“Well, Constance Peligree, what can I do for you.”

The girl started walking toward me at a casual pace.

I noticed she wasn’t wearing her indoor shoes.

“Tell me,” she said. “Do you have a sister named, Celica Desanto?”

I stiffened, and a tiny chime sounded off in my head. “My sister is dead. She passed away a year ago.”
The girl stopped some three feet away from me. She was shorter than I, so she looked up at me as she asked, “Your sister—her name was Celica Desanto afil Lanfear, was she not?”

I dropped my carry-bag to the ground beside my feet. “What did you say?”

“Was your sister’s full registered name, Celica Desanto afil Lanfear?”

I didn’t understand why this girl would ask such a question.

To refer to my sister as ‘afil Lanfear’ meant that Celica had been affiliated with the Lanfear Pride. This was different to appending the Pride’s name directly to a person’s name. To do so implied said individual was an Aventis.

But to use the term ‘afil’ implied that said individual was neither Regular nor Aventis.

It implied they were a Familiar.

This girl whom I’d never met before today, was suddenly saying that my sister, Celica, was a Familiar in the service of the Lanfear Pride.

“That’s a lie,” I retorted, my voice low. “My sister was a Regular. She was a Regular just like my parents—just like I am.”

The girl’s eyes narrowed before widening. “Celica Desanto afil Lanfear was a Familiar who worked for the Sanctum. According to official records, she was killed in action during a cover operation against Crimson Crescent at the beginning of last year. Since then, you have been registered as an orphan, and your wellbeing supervised by the office of the Lanfear Pride.”

I staggered back a step. “No. That isn’t true.”

She nodded. “Correct. Only half of it is true.”

I swallowed hard as I steadied myself. “Which half?”

“Your sister did not die in a covert operation. Your sister was the subject of a covert operation.”

I shook my head, demonstration my total lack of understanding.

The girl, Constance, placed her hands behind her back.

“Celica Desanto was the Meister of an Artifact, a type Valkyrie Maiden. She and the members of her Valkyrie team were the subject of a covert investigation examining ties to Crimson Crescent. Before they could be arrested, she and her teammates fled. They were hunted down and terminated. But before Celica Desanto could be brought down, she killed the termination squad.”

My mouth had fallen open as I stared aghast at the girl. “What…?”

“Your sister was a traitor. And my sister was sent to hunt her down.”

I felt my innards grow cold in understanding.

Constance smiled at me. “Your sister killed my sister.”

She removed her hands from behind her back, and showed me her right wrist.

An ornate bracelet now adorned it.

“This is my Fragment, Kavalier.”

I started backing away from her, my senses strangely in overdrive as I realized what she intended.

“There’s a drone up there,” I told her. “An Enforcer drone. It’s watching this courtyard.”

“Yes, it is. But you’re wrong. It’s not an Enforcer drone. It’s merely painted that way. It’s there to help me find you. It’s there to watch me kill you. It’s there so that we can send that recording to Hell where sister is waiting!”

A thick black mist abruptly swirled around her body, obscuring her from view.

In a heartbeat, the air became frigidly cold to the point that I could see my breath.

I knew what was happening. I had seen this before, both in person and on the news channels.

It was the summoning of a Sarcophagus and the Artifact or Fragment within.

Turning on my heels, I bolted across the courtyard, jumping over a bench and then onto a table as I ran for the rooftop hut.

If I could get out of the courtyard, maybe I could lose this crazy girl inside the school.

Perhaps, she would abandon her attempt on my life.

I was twenty feet from the door when someone jumped out in front of me, cutting me off.

I skidded to a halt, and time seemed to slow down around me.

My senses had been on the razor’s edge, but now they went up a notch.

It was unnatural and unlike anything I’d experienced before.

Because of this, I was able to recognize that it was Constance standing in my way.

She was clad in a body suit composed of gold and silver scales that added a foot to her height. A metal skirt like a folding fan extended out from her waist.

She had called it a Kavalier, and it was quite the sight to behold.

So too the long lance she wielded with two hands.

Though time had slowed down, my body felt heavy and responded sluggishly.

I was unable to avoid the lance that plunged into my chest, cutting through my ribs, and puncturing a lung as it penetrated out my back.

I was a Regular, not an Aventis.

Without the Symbiote inside me, I knew that I was mortally wounded.

My body was locked rigid in agony, but my legs could no longer support me.

Yet I was kept upright by the lance that had boned me.

With two hands on the lance, Constance was angled it upwards, lifting me off the ground.

She wore a cold smile that made her eyes appear lifeless.

“And now,” she declared, “the Desanto bloodline ends.”

She flicked the lance, and I was tossed off the end. As my body came off the lance, the blade did more damage on the way out than on the way in.

It took a second or so for my body to fly halfway across the hundred foot wide courtyard.

I landed on a bench table, bounced off, and then flopped to the ground.

Rolling twice, I came to a stop on my back.

With my lung punctured, I began to suffocate.

I would be dead in less than a minute, convulsing like a fish out of water, not drowning in air but in blood.

But as I lay there, in my mind I recalled the moments before and after I was flicked away by Constance.

Behind her, the door to the rooftop had opened and a thick, evil looking black mist had spilled out, spreading a few meters into the courtyard.

Through the mist, a beautiful girl with almond emerald eyes, raven hair, and no breasts worth mentioning had stepped out at a run.

Behind that girl was Haruka, flushed, out of breath.

She stood before the open doorway, holding onto something with one hand, and her magnificent bosom with the other.

I coughed up blood and yet I couldn’t help smiling.

I was going to die, but at least I would take that memory with me.

The memory of the unknown beauty rushing through the evil mist.

The memory of Haruka and her bosom fit for a goddess.

A glorious chest deserving ten points out of ten.

---

Dear Readers, I have been asked about this and so I need to make a statement.

As he was in the original series, Caelum Desanto is and will continue to be a pervert, at least for the span of Book One.

Girls, breasts, and lingerie are his passion.

I know this may disappoint many of you. But he must remain true to his source material.

Otherwise I need to rewrite the entire story, rather than update, revise, reversion, and improve upon it.

So, Caelum will remain a pervert for the short term.

Thank you for taking the time to put up with him, thus far.

Best wishes to you all.

Oh, and don't forget to read the reflections in order.