I can barely contain my surprise. Standing right in front of me is the person I thought I was avenging a few moments ago. I don’t know if I’m feeling happy, relieved or angry but I do know that I’m confused.

“C…Chie…?” I sheath my knife and give her a smile. “You’re really Chie aren’t you?”

“What are you talking about hick?” The armored suit opens up its visor to reveal the face inside. “See? It’s really me. Who else were you expect..”

I rushed towards her and gave her a tight hug.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” I squeezed tighter. “I didn’t know how I would live with myself if you really died, idiot.”

I feel relieved. The burden that I was carrying in this world was lessened by Chie’s survival. I really thought that she died. I was willing to live with that fact and the fact that I could not protect her.

“I’m happy to be alive too,” She tries to pry me off of her by pushing me away. “but could you please let go of me? I might catch your stupidity you know?” She gives a light smile.

Her actions contradict her words so that confused me for a while but I let go of her nonetheless. This place, being covered in guts and blood isn’t really the best place to have a heartfelt reunion between comrades.

Though I say comrade, I’m more of a dependent on these people.

“By the way, though I know she’s tough and all” She looks into my eyes, seemingly worried. “but could you take me to where the captain is?”

I give her a nod. “Follow me.” I grasped her hand and lightly jogged with her in tow.

Her hand, even though it is covered by armor, felt warm. Chie really is alive. I smile and chuckle to myself, relieved of whatever burden or curse that I placed upon myself.

“Say,” She coughs and asks. “How did you do all of those things?”

“So you saw me.” I tensed my jaw, feeling worried. “I’m horrible, aren’t I?”

She thinks for a while. “No, you were kinda…” she pauses and looks at me, seemingly measuring my mettle. “..cool.” she added softly.

“I see.” I smile at her. “Cool, huh? Well that’s better than having you scared of me.”

“Don’t get so full of yourself hick!” She pouts and puffs up her cheeks. “So how did you do it?” she asks.

“I lost my memories but it seems that my body is familiar” I hesitate. “With warfare.”

It’s true. I’m not trying to make myself sound cool or like an anti-hero but that’s how my body felt. Everything that I do could be closely related to the art of warfare. I have no wasted movements, my breathing is incredibly steady and I have an inhuman amount of natural mana and stamina.

I look at the sky as I traversed the forest with Chie, navigating to where I kept Yuriko.

Even my battle senses are weird. I can almost predict an enemy’s action, as long as I can maintain eye contact with them. I can also hear and see things that normal people cannot.

“Made for battle, huh.” I raise my left fist as I eyed it with longing. “I’m nothing but a killing machine then.”

Suddenly, I felt my other hand being gripped tighter by the girl I was pulling. “That may be but I do know that you got mad for my sake and that you were fighting for the captain.”

She gives me her most honest smile. “So I know that you were fighting to protect us.” She looks forward and breathes the fresh forest air. “I hope you continue to do so in the future, hick.”

I hold her hand tighter and in response, her face reddens to an amazing degree.

“Thank you Chie.” I really am thankful.

“You’re welcome, Monmon.” She smiles again, dazzling me in the process.

I find myself incredibly stunned by Chie. Maybe I can fight. Maybe I can move on as long as I can protect that smile of hers.

Though the mood is great, I just have to ask. “Monmon?” Just what is a Monmon?

“It’s my nickname for you.” She averts her eyes. “Though I heard that soldier call you a monster, by calling you Mon-kun, I’m making it known that you’re m…our monster.”

So ‘be thankful that you have friends’ huh? I sigh in resignation and accept my new nickname.

She asserts herself. “But you can call me Chi”

“Chi, huh? Okay.” I made a new friend, I smile to myself. “Alright Chi! I’ll tell you what I know.”

I told her about ‘Laser Beam’ and how I can only use it in short bursts. I tell her about my adventure in the forest and about how I adapted to the situation.

‘Oohs’ and ‘Aaahs’ were given by Chi at all of the right times. She’s surprisingly a good listener.

So after telling her my story, I then ask her about hers. “How are you still alive? I saw your body Chi.”

“Oh that.” She thinks to herself for a moment. “Did you forget that I was carrying the hunt of the day when I entered the hut?”

I honestly don’t remember that. I nod at her.

“Well that thing got left behind when I was warped.” She calmly responds.

“Warp…?” I inquired.

She looks at me as though I was a..well..hick. “A warp basically transmutes the human body into particles and transfers them to a set location.” She gestures with her free arm. “From point A to point B, provided that the object of transfer remain motionless.”

I realize where this is going.

“So Chi,” I slowly hesitate and ask. “When I jumped to protect Yuriko, the warp process for our bodies was interrupted?” I gulped.

“Spot on.” She laughs to herself. “By ‘protecting’ her, you placed yourselves in even more danger.” She pauses for a while before continuing. “Though I can’t blame you for doing so.” She smiles. “You thought first of protecting her, someone you barely knew. I find that admirable.”

By now, we have been running for quite some time now but the both of us are still breathing normally. I then understood that it was her armor that was doing the heavy lifting for her.

“Say Chi, what is that?” I point to the armored suit. “It’s incredibly powerful but it looks too heavy.”

She gives me another smile. It seems like she’s a fan of these armored suits.

“Oh this?” She points to her armor. “This is an Exo-Armamental Suit. It’s for people like me who can’t use magic.”

“I see.” I made a mental note not to mess with the suit. I mean I did see it practically crush someone with very little effort. “Seems like an ultra-powerful weapon.”

Her smile only got bigger. “It is, it is. My squadron exclusively uses the exo suit and” she puffs out her considerable chest with pride. “We’re considered to be the best among all of the users.”

Her statement made me cringe.

“So you mean to say that there are a lot of you with that kind of powered suit?”

“Yup.”

“A whole squadron?”

She proudly corrects me. “Nope, my home’s military.”

“So when you say ‘Captain’…”

“Yup! Yuriko is the Captain of our elite Iron Maiden Squadron.” She breathes, seemingly to catch her breath. “Her title is Reaper. She’s the very best among the best.”

That beautiful woman is actually a beautiful goddess of death? I shudder at the thought.

“Actually she should be close, the captain.” Chi looks around.

As I was about to ask how close she was, I was interrupted by an intense heat coming from our 6 ‘o clock.

“What the fuck?!” I take out my knife and prepare for combat but again, what I saw stopped me in my tracks.

It was a godlike being covered in an intense fire, surrounded by a raging torrent of electricity as it gave off a most horrible feeling of killing intent.

The surrounding area started to wither away due to the intense heat and static energy being released by this God.

It seemed to be a white armored suit with a golden trim, seemingly better suited to being an extravagant decoration instead of a weapon of war.

“Captain! Jaguar 01 reporting for duty!” Without releasing my hand, Chi gives a salute to the Godlike being.

Yuriko returns the salute. “Reaper acknowledges.” She opens her visor and instead of smiling at me, gives me an irritated ‘why are you alive’ look.

“Geh.” Yup. That’s the only thing I said.

“So you two have gotten closer, eh Chi?” Yuriko smiles yet her eyes seemed angry.

Chi lets go of my hand and bows to Yuriko. “It’s complicated Captain! Forgive me.” I can’t let her take all of the blame, can I?

“I’m really sorry Yuriko,” I bowed to her. “I didn’t mean to leave you but I couldn’t bear to see you hurt.”

“You’re only saying that, Mr. Tonkatsu.” Yuriko pouts. “I know what kind of person you really are.”

“That was the old me, Yuriko. I don’t have any memories of the past so right now” I gaze into her eyes, showing her my resolve and sincerity as a man. “You are the only one I have. Chi, too.”

“But.” Chi tries to interrupt.

“E…eh?” but it seems Yuriko was only confused.

“Let me protect you. Let me stay with the both of you.” I compose myself and continued. “And should any harm or danger befall the either of you, let it be known that I would come to your rescue, wherever you may be or whatever danger you may face.”

The atmosphere around us was intense but the mood doesn’t feel bad.

“Do you understand what you’re saying?” Yuriko takes out her sword and points it at me.

I walked towards the massive sword and directed it towards my heart. “Yes, “I looked her in the eyes. “I understand.”

“Then,” She sheaths her sword. “I christen you with a new name. Not to replace your old one but to seal the vow between the three of us.”

She utters a few words and the armor around her breaks off, retreating to the pendant around her neck. Chi does the same.

“From here on out,” Yuriko takes out her sword and hands it to me. “You will be known as Alphonse, one who was born for battle.”

I take her sword and give her a smile. I take a deep breath, finally relieved.

“So what happens now?”

“Now, we find the enemy ship and we destroy it.” Yuriko walks ahead, pauses and smiles at me. “You with me, Alphonse?”

I laugh. Does she really need to ask me that?

“Through Heaven and Hell, Yuriko,” I smile at Chi. “You too, Chi.”

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Everyone's progress so far:

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Author's Notes:

Hey everyone. Alizoned here. Happy new year! How are things so far? Let me know in the comments below. And how many of you are happy that Chie's alive? Are things progressing the way you wanted them to? Sound off in the comments below. Thanks for reading this far and I hope you enjoy the chapters to come!