"I'm sorry, but all of the seminars held previously were always by the government, not by DEM. The seminars were always announced a week prior as well. What caused these sudden changes?"Kenji tipped his fedora to reveal a single golden eye as he stared down the one girl who questioned the meaning and point of this assembly. Before he could say anything though, the AST commander herself solved the problem by rectifying the poor girl via a chop to the head. However, even as the commander apologized to him-with a little hint of repulsion he noted-Kenji felt no dissatisfaction. Instead, he simply maintained his innocent smile.
“Oh no need to be so formal Commander. ‘Sama’ is hardly fitting for me. However, I do feel the need to address some of the points brought up by your subordinate,” he said, glancing back at Chou.
“You wanted answers, yes? As of now, the Japanese government and DEM Industries have partnered up due to the rapid influx of Spirit activity in the past few months. That’s part one of this little gathering; part two is a gift from DEM to the AST!”
With a snap of his fingers, the men around Kenji moved forward to remove the cloth around the hidden object, revealing a new and pristine suit of armor. A brand new
CR-Unit.“As a token of DEM’s good will, we felt it was necessary to provide you the newest and latest innovations in Spirit combat. Thus, I give you <Aether> from our newest Ragnorak-classed set.”
After a few moments of expected applause from the various AST agents, Kenji looked over at Kyoko.
“And you young lady get to be the first one to pilot of such a machine. But…of course, we couldn’t really prove its superiority to the latter models without a show of demonstration. Therefore, I believe a sparring match is needed to show you just how powerful an ally DEM can be. Young lady, please place on the CR-Unit while I choose your opponent….ah yes. You will do just fine.”
Kenji looked straight at Chou.
Back in two shelters, events were slowly coming to a halt. In one of them, a boy with black hair did not respond harshly as Yoshikuni essentially ignore him. Nor did he react whatsoever when she promptly left to go tend to other business. That was quite fine by him actually, as this not so chanced meeting would be valuable information to report back to his own superiors.
They had located Shadow.
At another shelter not too far away, the Spirit known as Reaper began to wrap her arm around Suichi’s once more and clung on like the child she somewhat resembled.
"Last we met we made a promise to help you understand people. Where would you like to start? I can't say I know all the answers, but I can certainly help you out."“Reika does not care for the specifics; only that it is spent with you. Reika feels that you are being led by someone higher? If it is alright with you, Reika would like to meet your superior in person, though Reika thinks that will prove most unlikely given Reika’s status as being…non-human.”
She looked up at the boy with a curious, red-eyed look.