From the author of the Gun Princess Royale, comes the continuing saga of a young man that should know better and the girls who toy with him...

That’s how I died and was resurrected as a Familiar, and came to be affiliated with – or under the thumb of – the Lanfear Pride.
After the incident, I spent three weeks lying unconscious. and every waking month afterwards deep in physical training all the way to the beginning of the subsequent school year.

But returning to Sanderson High School for Regulars was out of the question.

The Lanfear and Avenir Prides had succeeded in using their legal clout to suppress the fact that Haruka and I had been involved in the incident. But they weren’t able to hide the damage to the school. Nor were they able to keep a lid on the truth that the battle had been between Familiars with Fragments fighting on public property.

By the way, Sanderson High is a public school, not a private school, and luckily for it the incident happened as the school closed for the mid-year break, so there was a five week period during which repairs could be carried out without the risk of interrupting the teaching curriculum.

As I was saying, they couldn’t hide the fact that Familiars had ripped up the school, and though no students were injured, many of them claimed they were traumatized and demanded compensation. Of course, it was monetary compensation that they were after.

To keep me out of the spotlight, Arisa had already enrolled me at another school so that I could complete the remainder of my first year in high school. It was situated in Island Three, Habitat Three, and close to her apartment. I also had to move out of the apartment my sister Celica and I had lived in for ten years, and relocate out of Island Two to take up residence in Island Three, Habitat Three.

It was another connection that I cut with Haruka, and for the first time in ten years, she and I would no longer be neighbors, and it was fair to say my childhood friend and I were moving away from each other in more ways than one.

My sudden departure from Sanderson High had sparked some rumors that I was involved in the fight on the rooftop and school courtyard. These rumors circulated amongst the student body – I knew this because I read the talk on social media – but without hard evidence, they never gained momentum.

As for Haruka, her disappearance was easy to explain.

She was an Aventis now – a member of the Avenir Pride – so it was natural for her to transfer to a school for Aventis students, and she wasn’t the only girl to be accepted into a Pride. Thus, she was one of several students to transfer out of Sanderson for greener pastures.
I asked Arisa which Academy Haruka was now attending, but Arisa claimed she didn’t know. She did say she could find out for me, but in the end I decided that wasn’t necessary. I’d cut my ties with her, and she had been forced to do the same. And considering that Arisa said I was probably still a target, it was better if Haruka stayed as far away from me as possible.

As for me being a target, that was because not all the individuals involved in the attempt on my life had been apprehended.

But…that’s something I’ll save for later because there’s more that I need to tell you.

As Arisa is prone to saying, everything in due time.

For around six months, I attended my new school as a Familiar incognito amongst a flock of Regulars.

That is, my identity as a Familiar was suppressed.

This wasn’t a unique occurrence. I learnt from Arisa that many Prides enrolled their Familiars in schools for Regulars for a period of time. But once those Familiars officially gained their Fragment and were entered into the registry as Specials, then they were required to attend one of the five Aventis Academies of Pharos. This is because as Specials, they were authorized to wear their link to their Fragment. But after the incident at Sanderson High, there was much heated debate and argument regarding Familiars running around loose with Fragments and Artifacts. In response to this, the Primogen Council agreed to strengthen the regulations governing the conduct of Specials.

The biggest change to the rules was that Specials were now required to wear a restraining collar.

The collar would react to any use of a Fragment’s abilities such as the summoning of their effect-fields.

At its maximum output, the collar could deliver a paralyzing shock that would even incapacitate an Aventis. Yes, it was that strong. However, it delivered the shocks in warning stages that escalated the longer a Familiar summoned their Fragment’s power. If an unauthorized attempt to remove the collar was made, then it would discharge all of its energy in one hit, either killing or severely injuring the Familiar.
It was supposed to make people feel more secure around Familiars that were armed with Fragments or Artifacts.
Instead, it made them wary of Familiars, and it changed the way both Regulars and Aventis interacted with us.

Quite frankly it sucked, but there was nothing I could do about it.

Eventually, I too was required to wear a collar when the Imrehs and Lanfears assigned me – imprinted me – to a Fragment and registered me as a Special.

Eventually, I was to feel the subtle discrimination and aversion that other Familiars were experiencing.

As I’d mentioned before, I spent months enduring physical training to toughen me up, and prepare me for using a Fragment.

This training is ongoing, and it’s something I attend to everyday though the format and place has since changed. But back then while I was living on my own near Arisa’s apartment, I trained with Caprice at a small refurbished warehouse located in a light industrial zone within Island Three, Habitat Two. It served as our personal training complex, and had been outfitted with protective effect-field emitters that prevented or at the least reduced the damage to the structure and surroundings as Caprice and I endured long hours of training each day after classes.
Our training was conducted by Instructors appointed by the Imreh Family, and the two of us were quite privileged to be receiving such personal training. It was akin to having private tutors or coaches, except that these Instructors were teaching us the basics on how to use our Fragments without hurting ourselves.

Actually, I was the one being taught the basics.

Caprice was further along the learning curve, having received her Valkyrie Maiden at the beginning of the year. So she had a lead of several months on me.

During that time my compatibility was tested with a number of the Lanfear Prides’ Artifacts to see which one responded to me best, and vice versa. These items were also locked down in a Fragment state, and the imprinting I received was temporary as it was only intended to teach me the basics of how to operate a Fragment and summon its various effect-fields.

It wasn’t until a month before the new year that the Lanfears and Imrehs came to a decision on which one I would use.

The Artifact I was ultimately bonded to was a weapon – a Ruler Class armor – dating back to the War of Supremacy between humans and Aventis. Apparently it was supposed to be quite powerful, even amongst other Ruler Class Artifacts, and Arisa told me it had been wielded in battle by a famous general, but she wouldn’t elaborate further and when I tried to inquire on my own, I was suspiciously stonewalled. But as powerful as it was, or may have been, with its Core locked down it wasn’t an Artifact anymore, but a Fragment.

The name of this Fragment was Kaiser’s Blessing.

Apologies for the delay. Have been busy working on GPR 2 so this was sidelined while I sorted out problems with the plot.

Best wishes to all.