Gear A2: Rusty Gears

Celeste woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. It seemed as though a nightmare had startled her awake.
Celeste: Damn it all…
It was that dream again. The one she'd had every so often about her past, about how her original parents died. She got up from the bed and walked out of her room. Search Engine perked up at her movement, waking him up as well. Celeste walked down the stairs, being careful this time around, and walked to the kitchen area of the garage. She splashed some water on her face, before pouring herself a glass and drinking it. The memories of that time still haunted her. As she sighed openly, she felt a paw on her leg. She looked down to see that Search had followed her.
Celeste: Sorry to have worried you.
Search simply whimpered in response.
Celeste: I suppose I never told you the story, did I?
Search simply sits and pays attention.
Celeste: The night I became an orphan…
Its so ingrained in my memory now, locked away so that I can function, but every once in a while, it resurfaces. Forcing me to observe once more, the trauma of that night. I was just a little girl, barely even two. Didn't even live in Kagutsuchi, I lived in Mizuha. We lived, my birth parents and I, in a house. The details of that house are so vague to me now. All I remember about it was that my room was on the second floor, and my room was pink. Everything else about the house is a blur. We lived peacefully until that night. I can remember the lightning and thunder, the pouring rain outside the house. It had been like that for days. I don't know how or why our house got overrun, but in a flash, our house filled with water. I can still hear my mom and dad yelling to each other as my mom held me in her arms. 'Where are we going to go?' my mother panicked. 'Just keep Celeste safe' my dad replied. The next thing I knew, water had begun to fill the second floor. Our house creaked under the weight of it, and gave way, sweeping our house away and in the wreckage, my dad, my mom, and myself found ourselves being whipped away in the torrent of water. Everything becomes sort of a blur after that. I remember us being pulled underneath the water as the lumber of the house kept us underneath. I remember losing consciousness. When I awoke next, I found the three of us washed up somewhere. Somehow, by some miracle, I was alive, and that I can attribute to my parents. My dad and mom had kept me safe through the ordeal, at the sacrifice of their own lives. Death is not something a two year old knows how to handle. I pushed at them, calling out 'mama' and 'papa' hoping that would wake them up, as if they had been in bed. However, they did not budge, their bodies limp and damp. Not knowing what to do, I cried. I was alone, lost in who knows where. I heard a rustle behind me as something crawled out from the bush. She was dressed in blue, I couldn't see her face, but her red eyes and teeth stood out. The hood above her head and the zipper all the way down the outfit, it was at that moment I learned what a kaka was. 'Poor Dear' she said aloud. She picked me up in what I could only believe were paws. 'Let's get you somewhere safe' she told me. With that, she took me away from that gruesome scene. As we traveled through the forest, she simply hummed a tune, every once in a while singing the words out loud, the only phrase I ever heard her sing. 'Isamu protect us, light our path so that we may find safety' she sang melodically, before returning to her humming. I fell asleep in her arms unsure of what else to do. When I awoke next, I found myself surrounded by her, she had curled up around me in a clearing to protect me, and to keep me warm. She woke up the moment I started to move, probably sensing I was awake. Not sure what to say to her, she simply said, 'My name is Teakaka. You may call me Tea. I'm going to get you to a place so you can be safe little one.' I reached out my hands and she placed me on her head, I grabbed on to her hood, as there was nothing else I could do. Again she hummed, singing the same song before, I asked her, 'Who is Isamu?'. She replied, 'an old friend, someone who looked over me when I was little, just like you.' I asked, 'was he nice?'. To which she replied, 'He was as sweet as food to a hungry kaka.' Not sure what else to say, I became quiet. She went back to humming, and I just took in the sights. In the light of day, I could see clearly. Trees were everywhere. Each step we took, the sun would try to force its way through the gaps in the tree branches. Around us was grass and mud, different flowers that were native to the area. Every once in a while the terrain would dip or get higher as she carried me through. The uneven terrain must have been tough on her, even carrying a little girl, but she hummed along, not saying a word unless I asked her something. The only other thing I asked her was, 'why are you helping me?'. Even as a little girl I was taught never to talk to strangers, so having a stranger like this help me, protect me, and carry me was a bit jarring. 'Because its what I believe to be the right thing to do, Isamu would get mad at me if I left a little girl like you out there on your ow-nya.' she replied. I don't know who this 'Isamu' person is, but I can only assume that Isamu must have had a great impact on her life. We reached the end of the forest and found a cobblestone road that greeted us right at the end of the forest. We had finished walking through the forest and gone out into the country at this point. She continued to walk, with nothing but grass, the cobblestone road, and a valley in front of us. In the distance, I can only remember it as a mansion of a house, was the orphanage she was taking me to. We managed to reach that place before the night began with the sun just beginning to drift down into the nearby hill, casting a shadow of darkness on to the house. A woman, in a brown business like suit, came out and greeted us. She had long blonde hair and green eye. 'Who is with you, Miss Tea?' she said politely. 'I don't know, she hasn't told me her name yet.' Tea replied. 'I'm Celeste', I blurted out. The woman smiled and invited me into her home, Tea didn't join us. I waved goodbye to her, and she simply waved back as she turned around and left me with her. As we entered, I can barely remember many details of the mansion. I remember a red carpet went draped over the wood floor. It went up the stairs and continued for what seemed to me to be an eternity. 'Welcome to my orphanage.' She told me. 'What's an orphanage?' I asked confused. 'Its a place where wayward children needing a home can live safely until someone wants to adopt you.', she replied. 'Adopt?' the word piqued my interest. 'Yes, parents who want a child for their very own'. The thought of new people taking me away to god knows where made me fear for my life. Someone who would take the place of my mother and father, I wasn't happy about the idea at all. The place was devoid of children. It must have been a new orphanage when I was there, as I was the only child in the whole building. I followed the young woman, not sure who else to follow. 'Who are you?' I asked inquisitively. 'My name is Alicia.' she replied softly. Time quietly passed, I think it was three weeks in all before I met my adopted parents. And the rest, as they say is history.
Search Engine yawns.
Celeste: Sorry, did I bore you?
Search Engine places his paw on her knee. Celeste quietly scratches his ear and Search seemed happy about it.
Celeste: Thanks for listening to me. Let's get some sleep.
With that, Search Engine returned to his bed, and Celeste crawled back under the covers. It took a few extra moments, but she finally drifted off back to sleep. Elsewhere, a kaka was finding her way through a mansion, being led by a young man.
???: Do forgive me for the late call.
???: It's fine meow. I'm used to late nights.
???: Both yourself and Kagura wished to meet, is this about that subject?
???: I'm afraid so.
The two turn right towards a door, and the young man opens it. The both of them step through the door and the young man introduces the kaka to the person sitting off to the side of the room.
???: Lord Kagura, I've brought the kaka member as you have requested.
The chair turns to reveal a man with jet black hair staring back at them.
Kagura: I see… Good to see that she got here safely.
Teakaka: Tea is here to see Kagura, meow. Just like we agreed upon.
Kagura: Right.. I believe those were the terms.. I’m not sure if Hibiki should step out or not, but given the circumstances I think he may want to hear it even if we discuss it alone. Given who you’re fixing to track down....
Teakaka: Doesn’t matter to me, meow.
Kagura: very well then… Hibiki you may want to listen in on this if you wish. Otherwise your free to leave.
Kagura stood up from behind his desk and simply stretched for a moment, promptly reaching for a small bottle of water. Hibiki doesn’t move.
Hibiki: Understood. I shall take notes.
Teakaka: As you well know Kagura, you tasked me with keeping tabs on Tabor. As he seems to flee at the sign of failure, meow.
Kagura: I’ll be perfectly honest this isn’t anything new to me. But given who we’re against it feels almost similar to dealing with Relius Clover, though I doubt he’s run away in the face of failure before… Is there anything you can tell me about him that you’ve learned?
Teakaka: Quite a bit I have to report, meow. I’ll start with the most important bits first. Are you familiar with the ‘Burning Red’, meow?
Kagura: Not exactly familiar but I have heard the rumors.. The only person I’d think to ask is probably too busy to answer me..
Teakaka: No need to bother with that. I can report that Tabor has managed to get his paws on something very similar to that, codename: ‘Electric Yellow’. Another grimoire, meow.
Kagura: Electric Yellow, huh? It definitely sounds a bit ominous.. But why would Tabor need his hands on a grimoire like that? Or better question, why search for the burning red at all?
Teakaka: From what I found, it seemed he was simply researching the ‘Burning Red’ as part of creating this ‘Electric Yellow’, meow. The end product is already complete. This ‘Electric Yellow’ was simply a means to an end, meow.
Kagura: I have to admit this guy works rather fast… Well do we have an idea of its capabilities? Or does he need someone to test it on…?
Teakaka: I’m afraid you and I have already seen the end result of some of these test subjects.
Hibiki: Could you please explain that further?
Teakaka: As Kagura and I looked into an old lab of Tabor’s, we found a human whose soul and heart had been compromised, meow. As a result of Tabor’s experiment, the human become like a zombie, with black doll eyes. To our knowledge, there is no way of saving these people, meow.
Kagura: Which is rather unfortunate… The fact we have no idea how to save them almost sounds as futile as how I felt about our rebellion against the former imperator. There has to be a way somehow, but we don’t have much to work with…
Teakaka: From my own research, I have found that these people, these ‘Corrupted’, as I have named them, were simply failures in Tabor’s experiments. Where their bodies could not handle the power of the grimoire, and thus it was removed before the body was completely destroyed, creating a lifeless zombie that Tabor can use as nothing but his own zombie army, meow.
Kagura: Yeah… The fact that even a slight touch of that grimoire can corrupt any normal person just makes me wonder what kind of wasteland the world would be if it were filled with those damn things. The fact he has command over them like their mindless drones doesn’t make it any better.
Teakaka: While some residual effect of the grimoire might linger, these ‘Corrupted’ would not stand a chance against those with ars magus proficiency. The only thing that Tabor could mostly use them for would be to induce panic, which is why Tabor simply just leaves them behind for others to deal with. Just like the one you had to deal with Kagura, meow.
Kagura: Yeah, that thing was… A bit of nightmare fuel if I had to write anything home about ‘em. Sure they weren’t as insane as that blob Arakune, but they are still a bit of a mere decoy given how, as you said, Tabor would use them for panic.
Teakaka: If I may, I’ve noticed a trend in Tabor’s targets that he uses to ‘feed’ his grimoire, if you will.
Kagura: So he has a sort of pattern then.. Would you mind explaining it?
Teakaka: It seems as though Tabor likes to target those who would ‘never be missed’ in a sense. Those who have no family, friends, or relatives to speak of. Leading him to have some sort of privacy in his experiments.
Kagura: If we knew that sooner then I’d probably have the zero squadron in the ikaruga region keeping their eyes out for the scumbag… But now that we do know this we at least know where to find him if we know any person of the sort..
Teakaka: There’s no guarantee that he’ll hit the spot I think he might, but I would be encouraged if you would take my recommendation and go there anyway, meow.
Kagura: May as well, but given we now know where he might be able to pop up, we can find him and probably catch him in the open..
Teakaka: Some knowledge of her first so you’re aware of who she is. Her name is Celeste. The daughter of two people who were swept away in the flash flood several years back, if you recall. Due to a malfunction in the weather generator, some houses in the lower level had to be evacuated, but a few didn’t make it, meow.
Kagura: Yeah, I remember the dispatched forces we had to bring down there… I’m still trying to figure out how the generator malfunctioned like that, it’s not a case of Ragna destroying the cauldron like in Akitsu either.
Teakaka: I have located where she currently lives. In Kagutsuchi, a garage in the lower levels in a small town. She lives with a fox. Her parents are well known due to selling their wares across the country. They refuse to work for any government or agency and prefer the freedom of working on their own time. I fear she may become a target.
Kagura: So their freelance… Well great, now I gotta be careful with revealing my position. Though I don’t think it’d be exactly ‘hard’, hopefully anyways.
Hibiki: Lord Kagura, you could always hire her, pay her money, and bring her to the Mutsuki mansion as it would be a better means of keeping an eye on this young lady so she isn’t in the open.
Teakaka: That’s true, meow. You’ll have to be persistent in your offer, however, because she is much like her adopted parents. Not liking to be tied down to something, but it would be a perfect cover to keep an eye on her in case Tabor did strike.
Kagura: Very well then.. I’ll see what I can do with the situation… I just get this bad feeling my persistence might net me a few choice strikes… But that’s only if I let my ‘instinct’ get in the way… Not like it should be with something this important.
Hibiki: Lord Kagura, if your ‘instinct’ gets in the way, we will have a long talk.
Kagura: Hibiki now is not the time. It’s not like this is the second coming of Makoto on our hands.
Hibiki: Lord Kagura, I will give you an ultimatum. There will be no Tequila should your ‘instinct’ get in the way.
With that, Hibiki quietly leaves the room, his notes taken.
Kagura: … *sigh* I’m probably not going to screw this up anyways. I know next to nothing about the girl aside what you told me so I might have a chance… So when am I going to meet this girl?
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On the next episode:
Celeste: What a creep! This guy comes into my place, can't respect my privacy, and has the gall to try and hire me. Wait, who's the other freak? What the hell?! What is that thing?! Why are all these creeps coming my way?! Next episode: Gear A3: Foray Into the Unknown. What's going to happen next, Search?
Category:Anime Episode
Category:Turning Gears