Sky Striker Princess, but the swan song of Valkyrie.

As dusk fell and night descended, darkness enveloped the entire city, with only the scattered streetlights providing a dim, yellowish light far less intense than during the day.

After getting away from the three girls who seemed truly illogical to Rei, she returned to the place she had set up for herself there, just as she had told Tachibana Hibiki before.

This is the residence that SONG arranged for Xiaoqiege and Tsukuyomi, but at this time only Tsukuyomi lived in.

click-

I opened the door to the entryway, changed into indoor shoes, closed the door, and stepped into the bedroom.

Then, Rei saw Tsukuyomi Chizuru studying at her desk so that she could keep up with the pace of learning when she enrolled in Lydian Music Academy.

"Sister Lingyi, you're back."

Noticing Lingyi enter, Tsukuyomi closed her book, stood up, and greeted her.

"Hmm, good evening. How are you doing, Tiao? Are you getting used to your current life?"

After responding to Tsukuyomi's tone, with a faint smile, Rei asked her if she felt any discomfort.

"There's nothing I'm not used to."

Tsukuyomi's quiet tone indicates that she is doing well.

"Really... Don't you feel uneasy about leaving Qiege? I remember you two had a pretty good relationship, right?"

Seeing Tsukuyomi's calm demeanor, showing no signs of anxiety, Zero asked her further questions after a moment's thought.

"Sister Lingyi, stop testing me. I trust Kiri-chan."

Tsukuyomi gave a calm response to this question.

"Don't you miss her even a little bit?"

Lingyi wanted to ask more questions, but at this moment Tsukuyomi fell completely silent, seemingly no longer intending to answer this question.

"Okay, I understand."

Seeing that Tsukito was completely unmoved by reason, Rei wasn't disappointed at all.

After all, from the moment they met, Lingyi had already sensed the unwavering resolve of the girl who had always followed her.

She had originally thought she could get some clues about Xiaoqiege and Finni's whereabouts from them, but after several attempts, Tsukuyomi Tiao didn't give her any chance at all.

If Lingyi had shown even the slightest sign of relenting, she could have used that as a breakthrough to break down Lingyi's defenses, but unfortunately, Lingyi's emotions were as hard to break through as a rock.

"To be honest, I have absolutely no idea where you got such determination to transfer. What's even harder to understand is that, besides you, Hibiki, Mirai, and Chris are all tough nuts to crack."

"I don't understand. Wouldn't it be better to be a little weaker, a little more relaxed? I haven't done anything bad to you, so why are you so resistant to my actions?"

Giving up on continuing to probe Tsukuyomi's emotions through Zero Fins's Gaze, Zero turned and lay down on the soft double bed, helplessly complaining about the setbacks she had encountered throughout the day.

"I believe they have already told you the reasons, Sister Lingyi."

Sitting down next to the reclining Lingyi, looking at the girl's disheveled hair spread out on the bed, Tsukuyomi quietly voiced her speculation.

"Ha, indeed, you're right, they all did say that, and for different reasons."

"Tachibana, as always, didn't think too much and just rushed over to help out of sheer enthusiasm. But I don't dislike her type, who likes to help others no matter what the reason is."

"Kohinata, she's still as gentle as ever, but beneath that gentleness lies a hint of guilt and emotions I can't understand. Honestly, I don't know how many times I've told her that the essence of that incident wasn't her fault. The people who should be blamed were basically all killed by Qi Sanleng in one night."

"Chris, I'm a little worried about her mental and physical health, and also, she's the most troublesome type, she's lived with me the longest, and her feelings and impressions of me are the deepest."

“If we were to abruptly remove her memories, it could very likely cause her mental health problems. Moreover, as time goes on, she seems to have developed feelings on her own, making her increasingly troublesome.”

"In short, everyone has their own reasons and their own purposes, but in the end they all ended up opposing me and refusing to cooperate with me. It's really difficult and puzzling."

Lying in bed, looking at the soft light on the ceiling, Lingyi helplessly summarized the day's events, concluding that she had suffered a complete defeat.

She originally thought that, while it might not be a sure thing, at least some progress would be made.

After spending half a day trying to persuade them, all they came to was the conclusion that the three guys from Lydian Academy were mentally inflexible. This failure left Lingyi feeling somewhat frustrated.

You know, usually no matter what the enemy or problem is, as long as she puts her heart into it, she can make some progress. She rarely encounters situations like this where she can't find a breakthrough even after racking her brains.

"What I want to say is to thank you, Sister Lingyi, for taking care of me and Kiri-chan over the years. Every time you, Sister Lingyi, do your best to correct and help us, it will become our way of repaying you. So we will never watch you, Sister Lingyi, continue to be so unfortunate."

Hearing Lingyi's seemingly complaining words, Tsukuyomi's lips curled up slightly.

Then, she followed suit and lay down on the bed, took Lingyi's hand and pressed it against her forehead, gently and quietly explaining to Lingyi why she was unwilling to submit to Lingyi.

"Taking care of others is just fulfilling my duty. Being in that position, there's nothing to be grateful for in doing my job well, is there?"

Rei was speechless at Tsukuyomi's words, and then said that she did not think it was something to be thanked for.

She simply followed her usual way of doing things, helping Finni take care of the recipient children, at most paying a little more attention to their physical and mental health, but that was only as a way of repaying the relics Finni had given her.

"Yes, that's right. Yes, Sister Lingyi, you're right."

Faced with Rei's seemingly reasonable but actually completely illogical words, Tsukuyomi simply tightened her grip on Rei's body, offering only perfunctory words and expressing her absolute disagreement.

"You... never mind, let's talk about what you're planning to eat."

Rei had no choice but to give up trying to persuade Tsukuyomi, who simply refused to accept her own perspective, and decided instead to make dinner for the evening.

"For dinner, what about the leftover vegetables and meat in the fridge... um?"

Seeing that Rei didn't intend to continue trying, Tsukuyomi didn't say anything more and prepared to cook dinner with Rei, just like before. But just before she did that, she noticed something was wrong with the way she was looking at Rei.

"Sister Lingyi, what happened to your shoulder?"

Pointing to Lingyi's shoulder, Tsukuyomi pointed to the mark on it, which looked like a bite mark made up of two crescent moons, and asked.

"Ah, this was Chris's doing. Apparently, it was because I angered her, so she inexplicably hugged me and bit me here."

Without much thought, Lingyi explained the cause of the wound to Tsukuyomi.

"Did Miss Chris make this...?"

Upon hearing this information from Lingyi, Tsukuyomi was somewhat puzzled. She knew that Lingyi was currently just an avatar, so she was curious why the other party still had this wound that had not been healed.

"Speaking of this... well, when you go online later, um... it's not that you can't look at those weird things, but remember to be moderate. Doing too much of that kind of thing is bad for your health."

When this topic came up, Lingyi immediately stood up, looked at Tsukuyomi, and solemnly gave her this warning.

"Why do you say that? And what do you mean by 'strange thing'?"

I have a slight doubt about Tsukuyomi Chō; I don't know what "Rei" refers to.

Having trained at FIS all along, using a clean version of the network set up by Lingyi, she didn't have much free time after being taken in by SONG. She hadn't even had time to go to school yet, so her understanding of some things was still relatively innocent.

"Don't you know? Well, how should I put it? You'll understand what I mean when you find out. For now, let's go cook."

Seeing Tsukuyomi's somewhat innocent gaze, Zero's eyes flickered a few times. Not wanting to taint the other's pure mind, she stopped talking about this unhealthy topic and instead shifted the conversation to healthy cooking.

"I understand, Sister Lingyi."

Blinking, Tsukuyomi echoed Rei's teachings.

[It seems that Sister Zero is still bothered by some of the things Miss Chris did, and doesn't seem to mind the bite marks Miss Chris left on her.]

[I don't quite understand this kind of thing. I'll ask Miss Chris about it when I have the chance. Maybe that will be a breakthrough in helping Sister Zero.]

However, having reached an age where she was beginning to rebel, she only superficially agreed.

Deep down, Tsukuyomi had developed a slight curiosity about what could make Rei so concerned and even want to remind her, and decided to find out more from Chris whenever she had the chance.

"For dinner, remember there's still cola and chicken in the fridge. How about cola chicken wings? You need to eat more meat. You haven't been picky about food while living with Qiege, have you?"

Lingyi's focus shifted to the nutrition of dinner, and therefore she didn't pay attention to what rebellious thoughts were swirling in her mind.

"Hmm... cola chicken wings, if you could add more vegetables."

Sitting up, she released Lingyi's hand, and Tsukuyomi added this explanation.

"I understand. As for vegetables, there are still some eggplants and cucumbers. I'll see how to handle them."

After opening the refrigerator, Rei finalized their meal plan for the evening in consultation with Tsukuyomi.

However, compared to the abundant variety of food available here, the diet of the people in a certain other-dimensional space can only be described as monotonous.

"Death..."

Looking at the fish and seaweed being roasted in bizarre shapes over the fire, Xiaoqiege let out a painful groan.

To prevent Zero from discovering this place, Xiaoqiege's side could not obtain even a trace of supplies from human society or places with dense human activity.

However, since there are still ordinary humans in this place who need to replenish their energy through food, they must also find food that humans can eat.

There was no similar food supply in the city of Difuzhine, so their only option was to find something nutritious in the deep sea desert that was difficult for the Zero Clothes Tentacles to reach, and then cook and preserve it using alchemy.

The final result was that during the few days Xiaoqiege lived here, her diet was greatly enriched, and she tasted some bizarre dishes that she had never imagined before.

"Are you alright, Miss Qiege?"

Elfne asked with concern.

"It's incredibly difficult for me to accept mentally. Miss Finney, can't you really come out and eat all this for me? Death?"

Unable to bear the strange smells, Xiaoqiege seeks help from another soul within her body.

Thank God, she really didn't want to have her taste buds tortured by these things anymore.

Compared to these foods made without seasonings and spices, she felt that the vegetables she used to dislike were simply heavenly delicacies.

[Without affecting your soul, Qiege, I have a limited amount of time to work each day, and that limited time must be devoted to work. So, I'm sorry, but good luck, Qiege.]

Finni said he was powerless to help Xiaoqiege in her suffering.

At this moment, she devoted all her energy to weapons development. She had to make a weapon as fast as possible that could defeat Zero, so as to defeat Zero before she could become stronger.

"Hmm, so this is the trial I'll have to endure after the battle? I'll do my best... But, Finney, I want to ask, when will this end? Death?"

Chewing on food with a strange texture and taste, but which was not poisonous, Xiaoqiege tried to distract herself by talking to Fini inside her body, hoping to relieve the torment.

[Pretty much, once a chosen opportunity arises, we can launch a counterattack against Zero.]

菲尼

"What does 'chosen one' mean by 'Death'?"

According to Carol, the high-ranking members of the Bavarian Light Society escaped during the battle with Zero.

[After discussing it with her, we concluded that Lingyi would definitely not let those four high-ranking officials go and would continue searching for their whereabouts.]

[And those four high-ranking members must be working tirelessly to prepare a counterattack plan. What we need to wait for is when Zero-Cloth clashes with the remnants of the Bavarian Light Society.]

[As long as her energy is briefly diverted to the Society of Light, we will have a window of opportunity to retaliate without having to confront her at full strength.]

Finnie briefly explained the plan she and Carol had finalized to Xiaoqiege, which was also a way to let the other party familiarize herself with the smooth process ahead.

"In other words, as long as we wait for Zero and Carol's alchemist companions to clash, we'll have a chance to defeat Zero's Death!"

Knowing what she was waiting for, Xiaoqiege had something to look forward to, and the terrible food in her mouth didn't seem so bad anymore.

Chapter Sixteen: Setting and Awakening

"Wait, Finney, even if we had a chance, let's not even talk about how Zero-chan took our Symphogear and we don't know where it is now. Even if we got Symphogear back, how would we possibly defeat Zero-chan's Death?"

The blonde girl's joy was short-lived; she suddenly thought of a very serious question.

Countless failures have left even an optimist like her with a psychological scar. Even if they seize an opportunity, if they can't gain an advantage on the front lines, then all their ideas are just ideas.

This is my job. I've been working tirelessly to design these weapons so that when the opportunity arises, they can be completed and delivered to you.

Regarding Xiaoqiege's concerns, Finni stated that it was her job.

"Weapon... what kind of weapon is it?"

Upon hearing Finni mention this, Xiaoqiege asked with some curiosity.

"Don't you know? It's the one that Carol and I have been researching these past few days."

Finnie asked curiously, as she didn't know that Qiege had vision within her body, allowing her to observe the external environment at any time.

"Ah... well, it's because Finnie and Carol discuss things that are too profound. Every time I don't understand, I fall asleep after reading for a short while."

Xiaoqiege expressed some embarrassment.

"Is that so? Let me explain it to you as simply as possible, so you at least understand the stats and costs of the weapons you'll be using in the future."

Seeing that Xiaoqiege seemed completely clueless, and knowing that she would have to explain things to her sooner or later, Finney took the opportunity to explain their plan to her.

The weapon's basic technology originates from Symphogear, Linker, and the Demon Sword Dainsleib, with Dainsleib being a fragment of a sacred relic prepared by Carol.

[The basic principle is to use a specially designed linker developed by Dr. Will to inject a fragment of Symphogear, which has been repaired and modified by the Demon Sword Dainesreb, into the subject's body to fuse with it. Both the linker and the fragment were items that I had Elfnein bring over before.]

[Thus, the fused subjects will not only be able to wear Symphogear without the pendant, but will also, unsurprisingly, unleash even greater power like Hibiki. Simultaneously, the Demon Sword Daines Reeb will be additionally added to their weaponry, granting it a decisive combat function called the Ignite Module, giving them even greater explosive power.] [So, Kira, do you understand?]