User blog:Roinelll/God Eater Next - Volume 1 - Segment 08

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======== G. E. N. - 1 - 08

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While waiting for the Instructor to finish keying in his account number, the hooded girl sighed and recalled the events that unfolded not longer than two hours ago



Hearing Matthias' whining, C shook her head as she scaled up the ARW with realative ease. This was due that the previous attacks of the Quadriga knocked off quite a bit of the protective shelling, so she could easily find holds to grab on without actually having to rely on her powers once again. The ascent took a bit more time than before, however in the end she arrived on top. Immediately irritation spiked in the girl as she cursed silently. The mask she took off was nowhere to be found and must have fallen off somewhere while the Quadriga barraged the outside of the ARW and most probably shattered. Even if it were to be in a single piece, she didn't have the time to search for it currently.

"Just great..." With a sigh she decided to rest for a bit before preparing mentally for the descent. Below the Quadriga roared for the last time and collapsed, in a few seconds the triumphant victory cry of the gaunt kid followed. C on the other hand didn't plan to stick around for long, gathering the strenght she required to get to ground level.

Gritting her teeth she flung herself over the edge of the wall and gripped onto the wall with her fingers, digging into the material it was compromised off. Nausea stormed her, but there was no time for that now. As quickly she was able to muster, the girl descended digging more and more holes into the ARW. C knew that most probably they will find these and hoped that they will be taken as the damage the Aragami caused, because of this she changed the patterns where she found a hold. Alternating between the distance each consecutive grip, and their forms she hoped that at least this will not make them conclude that someone barehandendly scaled it.

In a few minutes she was on ground level, slightly panting and greatly nauseaus. Still in a better shape than what would C be like, if she tried to descend on her own power. This was due to her taking a few other supplies from the God Eater while he fought with the large Aragami. Much to her annoyance the vials containing fluid that would have been able to restore Oracle reserves were almost ineffective for her, just as like the mixtures that had such a capability. However she could get her hand on a pair of Stamina Boosters and although their effect already started to vain, she felt grateful for their help. Without them she would have fallen from somewhere 6 or 7 metres high.

Problem was now that she needed help, something that with her reputation would be hard to achieve. Her nausea amplified and a throbbing headache accompanied it, making her stagger with each step taken. Although she disliked the idea to ask for help, but she steeled herself and ventured to the nearest lodging. Knocking on the door a few times C waited, albeit impatiently. Even if they open, most probably she will be either chased away or laughed at for being in such a miserable state. In the end no response came even though she waited for a couple of minutes.

Then it occured to her, that the residents of Fissure were evacuated because of the Aragami threat. Which meant that help now will be non existent, and if push cames to show she'll have to rely on 'that'. Something she wasn't keen on doing, but will have to do unless she somehow finds help. There was still the possibility of going to get help from the Branch, but she immediatelly discarded the idea due to her circumstances.

"What happened... you look awful. While I don't have much time, I could arrange help for you." Just as she wanted to start her search once more a mans voice struck her from behind. C turned away from the source and hunched a bit, in order to reduce the possibility of revealing her face. Her benefactor quickly stepped close and scooped her up, with a small shriek the girl covered her face with the arms and hoped that he didn't notice anything.

"Dan should be still at home, come let me take you there." The man was perplexed by her actions, but didn't voice it. With fast and steady steps he went directly for the house of the old doctor where he knocked on the door impatiently, still holding the girl in his arms.

"How many times do I have to tell, knocking is useless... Sound proo-- What's this?" Noticing the beeping that someone was standing again in the entrance the old man opened with a rant, then noticed that something was off.

"Found her in this state roaming across the streets. I'll have to go, but will be back later to pay for her medical needs." With that he put C down, who almost stumbled and grabbed onto the helpfully extended arms of Dan.

"Alright, girlie you come in right now." Her state worried the elder, but still he was patient enough for her to flounder inside.

"So, what can I help you with?" Dan went to the cabinet where he stored his medicines and took out a painkiller among a few others that he deemed necessary.

"Sh... ow... er..." C was leaning forward, panting heavily and trying to suppress her pain by sheer force of will, something that didn't really succeed.

"That's an unusual request in your current state, are you sure you only want a shower? Why don't you let me check you for--" His honest request was cut short with an arm held up in remonstrance.

"No... don't." Taking a few deep breaths, she managed to answer slowly.

"My, you're a stubborn one. Fine go ahead and take the shower, however I'll have to warn you. Should you feel unwell or anything happen to you I will not hesitate to bring you out of there and treat you." The old doctor pointed towards where the facility she required was at.

"Tha... nks..." Albeit staggering, and having to lean on the wall C headed into that direction. The shower was a small cabinet with a curtain added in order to keep the water from soaking the outside area, where a single shelf was placed on top of it with a few towels and enough space for someone to keep their clean change of clothes. Although she disliked the idea of being so much exposed, she left the sandals outside the cabinet and stepped in pulling the curtains after her. After taking her clothes off she rolled them into a ball and threw them to the outside.

The girl grunted as the shower started, in order to combat her pain she decided to turn it to as cold as possible. Well, if only the pain would have been the only thing that coursed trough that body. C reached for her nape and undone the braids that kept her hair in tact. For as what followed she wasn't extremely happy about.

"Is... she the 'Devil'? Didn't think that such a frail girl would be the one." Dan on the other hand decided to check up on the knocked out Crimson and wondered how she managed to get into such a state. As the sound of the shower started he decided to be at the ready if help would really be required for the weakened girl. A buzzing of a phone came from the direction of the shower and Dan assumed that it was probably hers, he took a mental note of reminding of that once she is finished.

Shortly after that the shower stopped and he could hear the curtains rustle, apparently she took one of the towels prepared. Once again the curtain rustled, as she probably took her clothes into the cabinet and got dressed. He would have given her clean ones, but all he had was his own size.

"Feeling better now?" The doctor asked from her, who had apparently lost the staggering and didn't appear so much exhausted however instead she turned extremely pale.

"Yeah." She stood by the side of the pathway leading to the shower, leaning to the wall her head completely covered by the hood and the shadow it cast on. C felt a bit awkward in such a situation, not sure how to react. Furthermore she was aware that the jerk how provoked her earlier today was in the other end of the room, though she couldn't care less.

"I would really like to know, how can a shower help you in such a way." The elder voiced his admiration for this quick, albeit incomplete recovery.

"Maybe for... 20.000.000 Fc." C chuckled, afterall how could she explain that the anti-Aragami material was the cause for her state. She gazed at her hands, and noted her palms were aside from being bruised, and the fingers still sore they didn't look that much different.

"Ah, yea you're 'her' alright. I take that you still refuse the check-up." By the comment of the doctor the girl flinched realising that he heard about her before, yet still decided to help.

"Naturally, however I will pay for the comsumed resources." Feeling grateful C walked to the middle of the room, and for a short while glanced around.

"Wouldn't had it any other way girl. The register is right there, just deposit 500 creds." Dan pointed to a corner and watched as she walked to it and completed the transfer.

"Now I'll have to go, thank you once again for the help." She sighed and stepped to the door, apparently in a hurry.

"Your phone rang while you were taking that shower, and if you feel unwell you can return anytime." The doc called to her as she left.



"Oy!! We're still not done Chit!" This is as far she had gotten in her rememberance as the voice of Jack called to her.

"Yes, I was just sorting information." C didn't want to admit that she lost track of what's happening or how much time passed.

"Right so, how much does your name cost again?" Jack recalled that she had earlier claimed that an introduction is also coming with a toll.

"200.000 Fc." The girl chuckled, but gave her price.

"There, so... who have I the honour to get to know?" With the gadget still in front of the Instructor, he keyed in his account number and the transaction started up.

"Edelein Nimeria Chotte." As it beeped twice, the hooded girl nodded in acknowledgement and revealed her name.

"Chotte huh? Alright, I'll keep that in mind. So what's the deal with this Project that I don't know about?" Finally having grasped why was C used as an introduction he moved onto the third part of their contract.

"Well since I was in a good mood before but my generosity couldn't be applied, I'll let you have the same treatment aswell, but this is the last exception." Money kept flowing in and that made her giddy, ah wait it was partly due to earlier events too.

"Riiight... They want to reinstate us old Type-0's." Jack rubbed his chin and gave away all he knew, which was almost nothing. Even knowing this was something he caught as an accident.

"That's all? Okay so this will be a bit complicated." C sighed and started to order her thoughts how to explain it the best way possible, while still making it easily graspable.

"I don't have the access to such vast info network as you, Chotte." Although the name sounded a bit weird for his tastes, Jack had to recognize that she was a highly unusual one in the very first place.

"It's not just a reinitiation. They refer to it as the 'Next Project', it literally involves creating the Next evolution of the God Eaters. The Next Type or as they classidied it Type-2." Maybe she should have chosen to approach the topic from a different direction as what she meant was misunderstood by Jack.

"Variable Types? What's the point for that? Their matches are already extremely hard to find, not to mention that their God Arcs are already heavily customized to incorporate both Blade, Shield and Gun parts." The Variable Type when it appeared was shortly referred to as 'New Type', but was quickly cleared up as albeit slowly, but more such God Eaters turned up. While they retained all the abilities a Blade Type could muster, they lost some of the functions that a Gun Type had access to, but could freely switch between the two versions at will.

"No, that's now what I was talking about... Variable Types are actually Type-1's second generation. The Next Type will be Anti-Aragami specialized." C was amazed by this, since this Branch had no access to the valuable Variable Type, they had to do everything the old fashioned way. However knowledge about them apparently wasn't as scarce as their presence.

"Okay, so what's the difference?" Getting interested in the topic finally leaned closer.

"Type-0 had no God Arc limitations, you could easily use anyone else's without fearing rejection since they were mass produced models. Type-1 on the other hand has specifically tuned models for each individual, while there are some cases when said God Arc can be reused by  someone else the possiblity for that happening is rather low or rather I should say almost non-existent, furthermore there are already over a thousand God Arcs stored and waiting for retrieval by someone." Chotte brought up the summary for the first two Types.

"And the Next? What makes them special?" The instructor nodded to that, but still didn't quite understand what she was aiming at.

"Synchronization." Not being too confident on how to explain it in a much simpler way, she just chose to start from the beginning.

"Stop pulling my strings and just tell it outright." While Jack was interested in the topic, he disliked that it was a drawn out process only slowly revealing information bit by bit.

"The ability to synchronize with different God Arc parts, and freely swap them out before going onto a Mission." With a sigh she compressed most of the knowledge into a simple sentence.

"That sounds like a hassle, what's the point?" The Instructor never heard of such a thing before. Changing God Arc parts? Sure there were times when they had to get a spare part for a God Arc from certain Aragami, but that's different completely. If they really wanted to get a God Arc with such capabilities, just how much will it cost to maintain it? And how exactly will they do it?

"You don't send someone with a Short Blade against a Quadriga, or someone that has it's equipment tuned for Fire attribute. But what if said person could just swap the parts making up the God Arc and bring along a Buster Blade attuned for Ice?" She noticed that the man was trying to figure out how would that work or exactly why would it have to work in the first place and gave and explanation.

"Okay, I get it. Basically the Next will be a lot of hassle to handle, but great investment yields great return... So what does it have to do with the Type-0?" That gear swapping sounded more interesting that he was thinking about it, still the question harbored him of how will they contain the parts.

"The Bias is derived from their, as it holds the key to allow different gears to synchronize with the core of the God Arc." Actually that wasn't quite the whole truth only a small part of it, but Chotte didn't want to reveal too much information at once.

"So where's the catch?" After stopping to think for a moment Jack came to a single conclusion. If this Project is really so awesome as it sounds, why wasn't it implemented yet?

"While there are thousands of existing God Arcs already, the problem is since this would incorporate a new technology... they can't be used as materials. However their blueprints are handy for recreating these weapon parts, although most probably for each Type-2 God Eater. Even if two were to request the same part due to their different Synchronization the required materials would be guaranteed to be different." The girl though about talking more indepth about the Synchronization, but since that will have to be explained to them by the team which will be sent to work with them, she forego that part.

"So basically, Those who get to be the Next type, instead of jumping right into the fray with a high powered God Arc, will have to work themselves up from the very base? That's going to be annoying." Jack knew that even though if someone were to acquire a high ranking God Arc, would that guarantee to turn into a powerful entity. Most of the time the new recruit gained lower rank God Arcs which they could evolve gradually by gathering requested materials.

"What does it matter to you? You've been using the Dagger and Pistol prototypes it's not like you're going to get suddenly profecient in any weapon that you'll be given. Plus, they will have to monitor our status and Bias behaviour, don't forget we'll be their lab rats." The argument she brought up made Jack realize that's it what it really boils down into.

"Is there more to it?" Most of it was already explained by her, but just reinforced that her knowledge is vast.

"Actually yes. There goes on another Project in the back ground, which apparently has a higher sway in the eyes of the executives... I couldn't collect that much on it yet though, it seems they are also experimenting with what they refer to as 3rd Generation, codenamed 'Blood'." C was a bit ashamed of this, since there was clearly something fishy going on with that Project. However it was too well protected to gather anything about it, but that doesn't matter she had given up on it.

"How many experimental Projects do they run at the same time?" In outrage Jack cursed silently, but still voiced his annoyance. Sure, Fenrir was all about saving humanity and winning the war, but their methods sometimes weren't that clear. Though possible if he were in such a position, similar decisions would have been made by him.

"Quite a few in fact, but there is one more thing you should be knowing about the Next." A few dozen easily, but this wasn't for the ears of Jack without the proper price that is.

"Go on, I'm all ears." With a sigh the Instructor gestured for her to continue.

"Our success will depend on Sierra Declaine... And our willpower..." Although wanting to say more, she stopped, not really keen to continue in the current situation.

"Who's she, and how is it related?" The name caught Jack's attention, and felt that her role will play an important part of their future.

"Just another victim... And she is the reason why we have to wait a few days before 'they' arrive..." 'Unless something happens in the meantime', but this she didn't dare to add to her sentence.

--- End of Chapter 2015,07,10

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