A/N: Sorry about the late post, real life got in the way and I was too stressed to finish writing this, when I wasn't it fought me until I took a step back and suddenly it flowed well, I hope you enjoy I rewrote several scenes during my Betaing for various reasons, so there might be a little continuity issues, PM if you find some I will fix it. Anyway this is the last chapter before the coup takes place so there will be a long delay (not that you would notice :) it) between this chapter and the next.

Disclaimer: Muv Luv not owned by me.

V 1 (17.08.14)

PX - 1st December

The Valkyries were finishing breakfast and were now having their morning meeting, discussion of their deployment in the next few days to an abandoned town drawing conclusions about the nature of the mission, amongst them the newly minted 1st Lt Marimo Jinguuji, the forth in field command, the welcome party the night before had been quiet mostly.

No alcohol had been drunk, mostly to keep the two trouble makers from causing problems, Isumi herself had been told this from Yuuko whom had ordered no alcohol allowed as a precaution to insure the two drunks didn't pursue a certain male and grind his pelvis into dust and or end up pregnant, Isumi didn't need to be told who the male was or the one squad member, finding out Marimo was a bad drunk had surprised her though.

"So I've heard you're now in a relationship Marimo." Munakata grinned at the newest member.

"Wha? Who?" Marimo stammered and began to blush figuring out the only male she really spoke to on the base.

"Shirogane-kun obviously, you were seen eating with a man." The sound of chopsticks snapping broke up the rest of the sentence.

The whole squad looked at the offender Hayase whom looked annoyed and was glaring at her snapped utensils.

"Damn things are weak." She growled earning a knowing smirk off most of the group.

"It was just breakfast, I was early and he was at his usual time." Marimo defended vehemently.

"Looked like more than breakfast to me." Munakata pointed out grinning.

"Oh so Marimo likes them younger, some of you got competition and not just from his squad." Isumi joined in the banter.

"It's, it's not like that." Marimo tried to see if someone would come to her aid but the combined smirks, blushing and single glare were all she saw. "Be, besides I think Yuuko might have a thing for him too."

The sound of chopsticks snapping again broke the flow before they could point out she had admitted to liking him, everyone looked at Hayase again.

"These things break at the drop of a hat." The red faced officer announced picking another set off the table.

"Putting aside Hayase's hot desire for the 2nd Lt, I want to know when it happened, was it during one of your violent episodes? Were you kicking him and it just clicked?" Isumi smirked even at her own old misfortune at being on the receiving end of said foot.

"I've never kicked him, what kind of romance is that?" Marimo was going beet red.

"Oh so only I got that, didn't realise you were discriminating against others." Isumi continued smirking.

"I doubt Shirogane would stay down long anyway, he would pull Marimo down and pin her like he pinned Hayase last month." Munakata aimed a blow at the pair. "Though he looks like the kind that wouldn't mind a woman on top either."

Hayase continued to go red and tremble though in both embarrassment and rage the temperature at the table had gone up a few degrees by the two new human heaters the team now had, matching blushed from each side of the table.

"Why are so many people with the hots over Shirogane? I mean sure he's a good pilot, but that outburst." Takahara questioned halting any more teasing.

"I think few Eishi have fought as long or as hard as he has and lost as much, I think you reach a point where your choice is to protect the planet or protect what matters to you, I think he protected the world for too long at his own loss and decided it wasn't worth what he had lost."

"But, this is our planet, we should all protect it that's why we all fight." Takahara exclaimed. "Isn't it?"

"No, most people join up for that reason or for their country, most become disillusioned or can't hold that weight on their shoulders and fight for their squad mates, I believe Takeru fought for those around him while still trying to save the world but the bigger picture resulted in too much loss." Marimo spoke up.

"Oh, its Takeru now is it?" Munakata put on her best evil smile at the slowly reddening officer.

"Well maybe he is fighting for selfish reasons, but what about countries they ain't." Takahara continued.

"Not really, many countries are unsure what will be left if we win, many are trying to ensure they are one of those left standing, they try to get an edge while undermining other countries, regardless of what the general public think we are war with ourselves too."

"How are we at war with ourselves?" Asakura looked confused. "Ain't we at peace with the other countries?"

"Even in peace, war." Kashiwagi added poetically.

"Huh?" Came the reply from several members.

"It means even when countries are at peace or even allied they are waging war against each other in different ways, financially, technologically and diplomatically, every country wants an edge even against its friends." Touko spoke softly earning a nod from the older members.

"I wouldn't worry about Shirogane-kun much." Hayase spoke up. "He might be a bit mad but we fight BETA you need to be quite a bit yourself to continue fighting them, though throwing his life away isn't an option for him, he would protect anyone in his squad against the whole BETA horde solo if he needed too."

"Say we're having a meeting but now were discussing Shirogane? And where are the other three?" Akane decided to change the subject.

The conversation shifted from Shirogane to the other members not present, the three 2nd Lt's Miyuki, Aoi and Yumina were currently still in the infirmary getting final checks before deployment, after the last mission left the three injured the doctor had given them a green light for deployment for their next mission but an extra check would be needed, they would get a briefing with the rest.

"Hey maybe we can introduce them to Shirogane and give Lt Hayase more competition." Kashiwagi stated grinning, again the sound of snapped chopsticks came from the angry looking officer.

Corridor

As Takeru headed for his destination he spotted one of the people he needed to see in the distance, just before she rounded the corner he called out to her.

"Hey, Tsukuyomi-chan wait up." Takeru waved a big grin plastered on his face.

Tsukuyomi stopped and turned around sending forth an enormous amount of killing intent at the officer, for his purpose Takeru barrelled along the corridor ignoring the glare though he could have sworn that the two soldiers he just passed collapsed in terror in his stead.

"I didn't give you permission to call me that." Tsukuyomi hissed.

"But you didn't say I couldn't either, so since I called you it first I will call you that from now on unless you want me to call you Mana-chan? But how has your day been so far?" Takeru smiled noticing the glares from the trio behind her.

"It was fine until I saw you." Tsukuyomi's eye twitched at being called Mana-chan.

"And then it got even better." Takeru interrupted her next sentence. "I'm flattered perhaps we should have a drink some time get to know each other some more, I know a nice place in Tokyo that serves a good vintage wine."

"What about shots? Something I want to happen to you." Tsukuyomi snarled back somewhat pleased with her remark.

"What a lame reply." Takeru grinned back.

Tsukuyomi's face was rapidly turning the same colour as her uniform the man in front of her was insufferable, it reminded her of another tall mysterious person but he wore a suit and hat she shuddered to think what would happen if they got in the same room and pitied anyone that was within earshot of their conversation.

"Enough, I'm leaving." Tsukuyomi turned to leave.

"You don't want my present?" Takeru asked.

She turned again to see the previously smiling officer now looking at her with seriousness in his eyes, it reminded her not to take anything at face value with him, he was like an onion, many layers, and like onions brought tears to your eyes when cut, though tears of joy in her mind as she stabbed him repeatedly and it would have shut him up, maybe.

"What present?" She snapped before trying to regain her composure.

Takeru pulled out a small disk and piece of paper. "This is the new OS I developed here, currently only my squad and the Valkyries have it, I want you to have a copy for your TSFs, installation instructions are on the paper with a few notes on new concepts the system uses."

Tsukuyomi narrowed her eyes at him, it could be a virus for the system, though why he would do that was beyond her, still she rarely got a clear answer from him and every one that seemed like a true answer was worded in a way to make her even angrier.

"And why are you giving me this?"

"In about 2 weeks we will be doing some trials here at the base, should it pass, by early next year it will be standard in all TSFs new and old, I want your squad to be the first Honour Guard unit to have it."

"And there's no other reason besides that?" Tsukuyomi questioned.

Takeru slightly averted his eyes rubbing the back of his head before turning to look at her again a big smile on his face.

"Well I was hoping to trigger some flags and win some love points with you, having an Honour Guard member in my harem never hurt." He laughed.

Tsukuyomi's face went back to red, she wanted to snap the disk in half and throw the pieces like shuriken into his face but she doubted they would pierce that big head of his.

"You don't like?" Takeru put on a mock pout which didn't really fit his face. "Tell you what I will sweeten the deal, I will give you Mikoto from my unit too, I will even dress her in a boys uniform, will that work?"

Tsukuyomi managed to turn another shade of red, more so that he seemed to know her secret 'preference' a low guttural growl pushed itself from her throat as she tried to reign in her urge to kill the man that seemed to go out of his way to annoy her, instead she just turned and stormed off with the disk.

"A thank you would have been nice, but think on the offer too." Takeru smiled before heading off to his next destination chuckling.

Requisitions Office

Takeru walked into the combined armoury/ requisitions office, the heavy metal barricade and bullet proof glass blocking any attempt to jump the counter a small postal type window to allow paperwork and smaller objects to be passed over and a large parcel chute built into the counter for larger equipment.

The female officer sat bored behind the desk reading an almanac before looking up at the young officer.

"Ah, Lt Shirogane, what can I do for you today?" She smiled at one of the more known officers on the base.

Takeru blinked partly in surprise at being known, considering the base had around 15,000 personnel at any time, still he was known to be a member of Yuuko's personal staff and one of the bases best soldiers so a bit of celebrity was expected, he made a mental note that is could be useful later on.

"Yes, I need to exchange my Minebea for a left handed version, a holster for the left side too." Takeru placed the unloaded gun on the counter.

"Hmm, didn't realise people just switched to being southpaw, shouldn't be too big an issue we got a few shipped in last month, form GRX-014 in triplicate please." The woman smiled handing over the large stack of forms. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, I picked up a new handgun." Takeru put the unloaded pistol he had 'acquired' from Tomoe on the counter too. "Got, permission from the Professor to keep both, but I need the right sized holster and extra ammo, hollow point too, don't want ricochet in my TSF."

The woman picked up the larger gun through the slot before appraising it.

"H&K USP Elite 9mm Imperial edition, no wait 45 cal version American but made to look like the 9mm Imperial, that's a rare version how'd you get it?" The officer's eyes sparkled seeing such a gun.

"Uh, I picked it up after its previous owner had no more use for it." Takeru cast a gaze away from the woman and back to the third page of form 1.

"I will ask no more then." The woman replied knowing not to pry on potentially classified information. "Form GRE-001 for the holster, in triplicate, we got 45 cal rounds standard, you need form ARP-002 for them as they are different from the standard 9mm allocation you get. And SAR-027 to get hollow points, though you will need to pay a fee on them, let's see here."

Takeru watched as the woman pulled out a large file, deftly flicking through the pages before scrolling her finger down the list, pulling out a calculator she began working out the costs.

"Hmm, we have to ship from America, retail per bullet $2, boxed in 50's, military discount, conversion rate, 1700 yen per box, fill in the forms in triplicate and the amount will be deducted from your salary."

"Damn drowning in paper again, can you get a large supply in, like a few crates?" Takeru wryly smiled as his paper pile swelled like a balloon.

"Sure, if I get them bulk I can get a larger discount say 1400 per box for every 1000 round crates sound good?"

"Get 5 crates not like we're short of bastards to shoot." Takeru chuckled.

"5! Wow you want blood, ok fill the forms and bring them back and I'll start the process."

Takeru nodded grabbing his guns and sudden stack of paper and left for his office crying inside for giving himself more work to do.

Takeru's Room

Takeru waited on his guests to prepare for his current campaign against the coup forces and the CIA, he didn't want to call it a war, it wasn't, it was closer to pest control and implying it was a war would suggest that the enemy force was worth the effort, no they were leaches that sucked the life blood out of both their home country and other nations for cowardly reasons, he couldn't call the reasons selfish, his were too.

The water heater clicked announcing it had boiled the water and he proceeded to add coffee to the various cups for the three guests he had coming, adding the water and stirring he added a dash of cream to Meiya's mug and allowed the substance to infuse itself into the already swirling dark caffeine rather than stir it again, she didn't like stirred coffee with cream, so he made sure not to do it when he made her a cup, it was a rare thing from his old world with Tsukuyomi there, but their birthday, anniversary and valentines days he alway made her meals and the first time he had made it Tsukuyomi had shown him how to make coffee like a barista, he hadn't made that mistake since.

Extra sugar for Sumika and strangely enough Kasumi liked it black, he figured she would have picked up Sumika's taste and though she had a sweet tooth herself she liked the bitterness of the coffee a weird thing in of itself but something Takeru liked since she was becoming her own person and not a copy of Sumika.

A quick knock on the door brought Takeru out of his musings and he opened it up to see Meiya blushing slightly and fidgeting in the passageway, grinning at her he removed his tie and quickly hung it on his door handle, looking around he could see the barely concealed faces of the other members of the 207 quickly shoot back behind cover.

"Takeru!" Meiya protested, sheltered she may be, but even she knew what the tie meant.

"Joking, just the way you are acting looks like a tryst so I want to mess with their minds a little, it's a bad habit I've had since high school."

Meiya nodded blushing slightly as Takeru ushered her into the room, seating herself on the bed the sound of a bed spring squeaking was all that could be heard as Takeru sat down again and handed her the mug of hot Java.

Meiya eyed the two other cups, it was clear to her that more guests were coming so she would wait until then, she guessed they were due soon as there was no way to reheat the drink and since it was steaming it was clear they were to be here at the same time as herself.

"Takeru." Meiya spoke up then cut off.

"Yes?"

"Nothing." Meiya looked downcast.

"You know this isn't like you, ask away." Takeru replied looking worried at the young woman on his bed.

"It's, these memories, I am having a hard time dealing with them, so far I have been able to keep myself, myself, but it is harder and harder now, you were wrong, the stronger ones are starting to push through."

Takeru took a sip of his hot beverage allowing the liquid to flow down his throat, his eyes met the worried look of one of his closest and most beloved people, he always worried that his choice was wrong all those decades ago and morally it was, but he knew that to himself it was the right move.

"I'm...sorry, this is completely my fault, but there is nothing I can do personally for you, my actions across several loops have brought this about." Takeru sighed looking at Meiya with a weary gaze, it was at rare times like this that he truly felt his age.

A second knock broke the conversation and another pair entered the room, Meiya turned to see Kasumi Yashiro enter, the second person however she had seen only from the back, her memories or the picture on the desk, Kagami Sumika she almost shot bolt upright at this, the girl herself just gave a small smile.

Takeru handed the girls their drinks as the three sat next to each other on his bed, Takeru began to smirk a little and wondered if a joke about three girls on his bed would be in bad taste, he decided not to in the end even though he could think of a few.

Meiya however looked out of place amongst the group, sure as far as facial appearance went she fit in well with the two other pretty girls but when sat with three officer suited people her in her Cadet training outfit made her seem the odd one out.

"Ok, we're all here for a reason, now if someone could tell me what it is I would be grateful." Takeru chuckled to the annoyed look from all three even Kasumi, he could almost imagine her bashing him with her small fists in annoyance while he laughed and patted her head before he was on the floor clutching his head in pain a superior look on her face like some dominatrix, the face didn't belong on her and for some reason worked better because of it.

"Right sorry, ok introductions first, Meiya you met Kasumi-chan before and this here is Kagami Sumika, Sumika you know Mitsurugi Meiya for obvious reasons but this is Meiya." Takeru announced as the pair tentatively shook hands.

"So what is this about then Takeru?" Meiya asked holding her mug as if to keep warm.

"Well I thought since Sumika is now amongst the fleshy again I think a reintroduction is required, that and any questions you have could be answered if I don't know them, plus we need to plan for the coup."

Meiya nodded looking over at the red head and Takeru, a few questions in her mind needed answering about the jumping.

"I have one about your ability to jump, can anyone do it or is it just you?" Meiya asked before sipping her drink, she had to admit Takeru knew her preference to coffee.

"Well it's a bit complicated, only I should be able to jump as I lived over there and can picture the world, you need to be able to identify it, but because I fu." Takeru looked at Kasumi. "Messed up, a few others around here have the ability to follow me as long as they are in close proximity, naturally this means I can jump and not just drag anyone with me."

"How?"

"Causal information." Sumika replied casting a semi disappointed gaze at him.

"When I, when I had my breakdown, I did things that I am ashamed of, to you and to a branch of my world, when I forced myself to remain over there past the time limit, events in this world happened over there in exchange to balance the worlds information such as memories came over here." Takeru explained.

"Each person I interacted with over there, the members of the 207's civilian counterparts began losing their memories of me." A sad smile played on his face. "Heh, I made a promise with Class Rep to go out on my birthday just to deal with an issue, well I waited and she didn't turn up."

"What happened?" Meiya could see a bit of self-depreciating smirk on his face.

"Oh, I found her around town, first she denied making the promise, I continued to insist she had and then she denied being anything more than a classmate rather than a very minor vitriolic friend but a friend nevertheless, I panicked and continued and within the course of a single conversation she denied even knowing who I was." Takeru laughed, it wasn't a hurt one either just a flat chuckle. "You ended up the same way after I ran off when she yelled out I was some kind of stalker, what hurt me most was your confusion about being in my house."

"Anyway, I told the Sumika over there everything and she believed me and told me she wouldn't lose her memories, the next morning I decided to leave the town and hide in the mountains, not like I didn't have the skills to survive, I went to school to finish up a few loose ends and well, I ran into Sumika who by then herself had lost most of her memories of me and the rest followed early that morning."

"When I returned later that evening to this world everyone here had memories of my old world but they were almost certainly in your subconscious, you were all probably having dreams of the other world, believing in that peaceful world as some sort of wish, might have explained a slight change in how they saw me."

"Well, that may explain why I had that dream about us meeting in a classroom the day you arrived." Meiya added.

"Huh?"

"The day you joined the group, that night when I went to sleep I had a dream where I was joining a civilian school and introducing myself to you, I guess it wasn't so much a dream as a repressed memory."

"Yes, since it was one that came over here after Takeru-chan returned here, it is one of the default memories." Sumika interjected.

"I just chalked it up to the fact we had a new member and a man, since the setting was familiar I didn't think on it at all, though me trying to get you to call me Meiya and then you calling me that in real life made me resistant to it, felt like some sort of warning."

"So I would say that quite a few people could be having these 'dreams' with me in them and mistaking the memories for fantasies though only the 207." Takeru rolled his eyes. "Seriously, you lot can't come up with original sex dreams, pitiful."

"Won't the others have the same problem with identity?" Meiya looked horrified at this.

"No, only the memories from the fix will return, anything after that will stay in the void until they jump over to Takeru-chan's world, only the 207, Kashiwagi-san and Yuuko-Sensei can jump." Sumika announced causing Takeru to look at her. "So only they could have that problem."

"Really Yuuko-Sensei too?" Takeru looked surprised by this.

"Yes she used the printouts to keep her memories, but some did follow, that was why the XO felt regret over instructor Jinguuji's death, she was feeling memories of your sensei's too, it was enough for her to suggest you kill her."

"How did you know that? I never said anything about it." Takeru was surprised by this.

"I read your mind during that time by the tree." Sumika blushed a little.

"Ouch, thank god for the blocker in place now, wouldn't want you knowing some of what I think these days." Takeru grinned wryly picking up his drink.

"So is there anything else I need to know?" Meiya asked the group.

"Well we have to deal with one issue about you." Takeru looked at her.

"Your memories, Takeru-chan told me this morning that you were dealing with issues from your jump." Sumika cast a sidelong look at Takeru.

"What can you do Kagami?" Meiya asked noticing a brief hollow look from the red head.

"I can control the flow of your memories, I can implant others into you, mine, and Takeru-chan's anyone I can read." Sumika replied as Meiya looked at Takeru questioningly.

"Sumika is the one that allows me to jump as I told you before, she has an ability to go into others heads and 'do things'." Takeru replied not noticing Sumika wince slightly at this.

"So how would it work?" Meiya asked.

"Well as I understand it, she would use your subconscious as a buffer, alternating high priority memories with low priority ones, you would no longer be at risk of losing yourself and another Meiya becoming dominant but you would be more susceptible to the emotions and habits of the other Meiya's instead."

"So you might take things literally for a while and try to cut down costumed actors playing villains and such." Takeru grinned remembering his date with Sumika at the theme park.

"So I would be more emotional for a while?" Meiya asked ignoring the comment, she would work it out later.

"Yes, it would be like a super period for a woman." Takeru replied before noticing the heavy glares from the three girls. "Oh shit, yeah, right, no, that was, uh, really? You get the idea ok. I'll shut up now." Takeru panicked he still needed to deal with his mouth running off occasionally before his mind caught up.

"Ok, ignoring Takeru-chan's case of verbal diarrhoea." Sumika cast another glare at Takeru whom tried to ignore the look behind the coffee mug. "The problem is, I can't do this now, I don't have the power to deal with this, I should be able to after the coup."

"What? Why?" Takeru asked confused.

"The impurities are building, so I will need to filter today, since we are using the human made one it will take some time until I am out maybe a few days."

Takeru nodded at this as he finished his drink and put the mug down only to see Kasumi had already finished her one.

"Ok, coup planning time." Takeru clapped his hands together causing everyone to look at him. "First things first, we need to ensure that we reach Yuuhi safely, I will have an Exo suit for her to lower the chances of motion sickness, with the suit she should be ok, she has more logged hours than you Meiya."

Meiya pouted a little hearing this, she had hoped that she had at least some us for her sister as a protector but if she had more logged time then it may be doubtful.

"Once we get her, we will be heading north, going south will bring us towards the Americans and possibly an enemy unit of them too, heading west will not help and east will be bad, the group tends to move between Atsugi base and Yokohama, so by moving north we can use the one base as a shield."

"Wont that put them in danger?" Meiya asked.

"Yes, but we will have the Shogun, she is more important overall than a UN base, she is the key to this incident, and if they go through the base, they will take losses allowing our unit more time and better odds."

Meiya nodded, she still wasn't comfortable with using people like Takeru was, but he was correct in this case so she would go with it, it was for her sister after all.

"That the outline, the chances of it working at less than 10%, but that's the nature of plans, anyone have anything to add?"

The girls shook their head before getting up leaving their empty coffee mugs on the desk, showing them to the door he bid Meiya goodbye after speaking a little to Sumika about another issue both her and Kasumi left too, closing the door he led on the bed and returned to his planning.

Meiya's Room – 2 hours later

Meiya led on her bed lazily, it was a far cry from her usual attitude, her right arm up on her forehead slightly, shielding her eyes from the bulb in the room that seemed to be lancing into her head and her long blue hair tied up loosely in a bun to prevent it from being pulled when she rolled over, her thoughts racing a mile a minute, usually she would go for a run as part of her 'independent training' but even that wouldn't help she needed to deal with the current issues and those issues were to do with Takeru and Kagami.

Takeru's introduction to the red haired childhood friend had stirred something inside her and Meiya could feel something growing in her heart at seeing the young man look happy at the girl beside him, the whole meeting had been difficult and she had done everything she could not to just reply bitterly and sarcastically to everything he said, her mind was telling her she was jealous but why?

Takeru wasn't hers and regardless of this time looping issue or the memories of past relationships she wasn't Takeru's, was the cause because she wasn't with him as more than just comrades and allies?

Pushing aside the idea her mind went back to the red head, Kagami seemed, no was a nice person, she had 'arrived' the day before and Takeru had 'settled' her in a new room, Meiya could feel her mouth tightening it wouldn't be too hard to jump to the conclusion they had had sex and again the jealously returned, she couldn't deny it much when it came back with those thoughts.

She couldn't understand why she was feeling jealous, was it these memories? Or was it from before? The first few days after his arrival, first the dream then she remembered how they had run together, he had seemed kind if a little odd, the new rookie with the arms like trees and the baggy vest top like he was hiding his true build which she knew he was, his attempt to call her Meiya had made her think something about destiny, it hadn't taken long before her mind would begin to wander to him outside of dreams.

And why not? He was an excellent Cadet, strong, skilled, smart and competent admirable traits and she found herself putting him on a pedestal, something she now agreed he wouldn't have liked, and then she had learned the truth about him and what she had built up came crashing down, something he would most likely be happy about and she felt angry with him, still she had judged him without all the facts, what would she know, she had no experience with the BETA or much in life.

Ideals conflicted within her, she was the Shoguns sister her duty was to be her shadow to exemplify the ideals that people had for the Shogun, to protect the masses and serve them, the armed forces were to be their shield against the BETA all resources were to be used for such a noble goal, in a way she agreed with Ayamine's father about protecting civilians even if the outcome had been a disaster.

But a new part of her had appeared, a part that would use all those resources for Takeru, memories flooded her of helicopters dropping off men in white, of large numbers of moving trucks of one overriding goal that meant so much to her, the memories of another Meiya, one from his old world, she grimaced at this, sure the other her had run the company well, she looked out for her employees but seemed single minded in her attempts to win Takeru.

Meiya felt herself flush at this, the other her was quite a bit more in tune with her feelings even if she evaded the truth of why she had been there, the selfishness of the other her, turning the boys world upside down it was a weird form of calm yet feverish desire to have some control over her destiny, as Takeru had told her two weeks ago, she had bet almost everything on a slim chance, her mind showing her that sometimes it paid off and sometimes it didn't, she felt tears run down her eyes and the others failures.

The girl had given it her all and still didn't always succeed, memories of him getting closer to others and further away from her a hard truth that life didn't always give you a happy ending, Takeru himself knew this, he accepted this in a twisted sort of way, he knew he wouldn't get a happy ending, maybe a pleasurable one but his life would be one of hard choices and death, but all he wanted was to give her and the others a happy ending.

No that wasn't true he didn't want to give them one either, he wanted them to be able to make their own happy ending, to give them the chance to wake up one morning see the sun rise and not have the BETA looming over the horizon for them to think, 'What am I going to do today?' And for it not to involve risking their lives in what was looking like a doomed war.

She shook the thoughts out of her head, this was about Kagami and Takeru's relationship, had she really fallen for the man? But he was with her, again the idea she had shared him with others came about, images flashed though her mind of her and her sister with him the image was abruptly removed as her eyes widened in shock at this, whatever reasoning he had used Takeru had gotten her close to her sister, far closer that she would reasonably go she admitted, calming down again she went back to thinking but her mind was in those places.

Meiya held her head as the semi foreign memories assaulted her, this was by far the worst she had felt with the issue, usually they came in smaller sets now it felt like whole brains were being stuffed inside her head. Memories of her and Takeru inside a cave with her with a twisted ankle and him carrying her to the resort, their last few days together before she would leave feeling dejected that he hadn't realised she was the one he had made that promise too.

The image of a wedding and how a young boy had broken through a heavy barricade to reach her, as she ran off, he had caught her eventually and they had fallen through a roof onto a bed, his confession to her, she closed her eyes she could 'feel' his hands on her clothes as he removed each piece, his hands cupping her breasts, breasts that belonged to him only, she could feel his hands exploring her body as it reached the final barrier, and again her eyes opened to find one of her hands had slipped under her vest and another was reaching under her underwear.

A part of her hated that she had stopped, Takeru was right she was sexually repressed, the memories didn't help first-hand experience in vaginal sex but still a virgin it wasn't helping her state in any way, her mind went back to Kagami, the girl hadn't looked too pleased when she had called her that, a memory of the two making an open declaration about pursuing Takeru and to call each other by their first names, was that it? Did Kagami think that by addressing her as such she didn't think that she was a threat to getting Takeru?

Did she really want Takeru though, Meiya wasn't sure, there were others out there, it wasn't like the world revolved around him, well in a way it did, there was Ikaruga, memories flashed in her head again, the wedding in the other world, the feelings Meiya had over there a part of her wishing, hoping Takeru would storm into the building and take her away, and why not? It was the main reason she had chased him in the first place.

Another image filled her head, her standing behind Ikaruga, she felt nothing, standing in front of his desk wearing a green IJA uniform with several combat ribbons and a Majors ranks was Takeru his hand resting on a sword attached to his belt, but her mind told her nothing, she didn't know the man, a small part of her mind was banging on an invisible wall begging someone anyone to help her, but her mouth remained closed, not even that part of her knew him, but it could tell that somehow he knew her, a barely concealed anger and hatred was directed from Takeru at her 'husband' and a deep sadness, but nothing that could be done.

Her husband had made a remark about recruiting him into his group, something he had declined, each time the conversation stopped she had noticed his gaze had locked on her, behind his firm cold eyes she could see a torrent of emotions, sadness, pity and regret, Ikaruga had moved on to barely veiled threats only to have them thrown back in his face by Takeru, few people would do that to a member of the Imperial family, but Takeru showed nothing but hatred of the man, the woman next to him his attaché her long green hair tied back in a ponytail and nearly as tall as Takeru, she stood closer to him than was right and continued to say nothing but her hand was always present on her holster and her own sword.

The meeting has finished with Takeru walking out his last gaze before he closed the door was a challenging one to Ikaruga and a sad one at her, her 'husband' had ordered them killed somewhere outside the base after they had gone.

Tears flowed again, she wanted to know what he had thought as he left the room, had he wanted to take her away from that monster? Images of the things he had done to her, she jumped off the bed and quickly jumped in the shower, she felt dirty and used, completely different from being with Takeru, sure it hurt when they made love for the first time but a connection was felt something that would transcend time and space, but Ikaruga nothing but pain and disgust, she scrubbed herself some more until her ivory skin began to turn red.

Returning to her bed, she again took stock on the situation, the disgust had pushed the torrent of memories away for now and down to a trickle, Kagami said she could help with them but needed time, for now Meiya would struggle with the ideas and feelings, memories of the coup now entering her mind, the losses the squad suffered.

Meiya grimaced at this it was a bloody violent conflict, she wouldn't say she was close to her squad mates, something Takeru had tried to solve, she was closer to them now in the last month than she had been since joining the squad, even with his sometimes questionable comments he had built himself into the group well, though how much of that was from his foreknowledge was unknown.

His attempts to mould the future into something different for them, knowing that events would hurt the squad and trying to prevent or reduce them, she finally decided to steel herself to help Takeru fix the problems and if it got her closer to him the process then it was good too.

Takeru's room – 1 hour earlier

Takeru's mind wandered towards feelings and ideas that had sparked from the earlier meeting and memories in general, shifting himself on the bed to facing the ceiling he began contemplating his long journey toward where he was now.

The century and more that had passed was hell on his mind, Yuuko and Sumika were right it was destroying his mind, but not in the way they through, each early loop for his had lasted from late 2001 until late 2008 around 7 years, a total of 70 years from the girls but only 4 from Yuuko, the four decades since Kashgar had been mixed with hell and heaven, but the one thing that remained constant now was combat.

He lived for it, there was no getting away from it, the fight was something he lived for, the thrill of swinging a halberd at an enemy either BETA or human with his semi immortality he feared nothing and he took bigger risks to get bigger thrills.

The issue he had with this was it had caused the deaths of the girls on several loops, his first return after Kashgar he had tried to fix the problems with what had happened and because he had been wrapped up in himself during the whole loop he failed, the loops had continued until he killed Meiya.

It wasn't until the loop after that his enjoyment of fighting had really shown through, fighting humans always got fun, unlike the BETA humans panicked and flailed and there was always a good chance of death by enemy luck, with the BETA it was more to do with swarm tactics and overconfidence than anything they could bring.

Sighing again he turned over on the bed facing the desk he looked at the picture of his younger self and Sumika in their uniforms from school, the worst thing now was he 'wanted' to wish he could go back to those days, but couldn't even wish it, he had told Sumika this before she had left his room, it had shocked her.

A bigger shock itself had come from Sumika revealing she had been subtly mind controlling him during the Kashgar loop, it made sense now that he looked at it, his previous loops had shown he had accepted living in this world and open to starting a relationship with the girls, but that loop he had become obsessed with Sumika and returning to his old world something that didn't make sense unless someone had been adding it to his thoughts.

It had been Sumika, like she had made Hayase blow up the reactor through her mind she had sent desires into his, the fragile part of her that wanted contact with Takeru but realising she was torturing him inadvertently, she had sent a compulsion to return to his world despite her desire to see him again, but after the XM3 issues and the memories coming back she had gotten cold feet at even have any intimacy or contact with him and it was his desire that had resulted in their night together.

Her attempts to make him return home had solidified after his declaration and had nearly worked right up to the final moments, he had almost accepted the outcome but her weakening body and mind had lapsed and his pain had allowed him to break control and acted as a slight form of therapeutical hypnosis allowing some logic to make the decision to stay, feeling she had had no right to make any more choices for him she had agreed and now they were where they were.

Takeru stared at the ceiling, would things have been different if he hadn't been controlled? He doubted it in many ways but maybe the girls would have been hurt less by him, his fist clenched at this, his knuckled going both red and white and his palms too, he stopped before he drew blood.

The issue he had to deal with now was Sumika herself, how did he treat her? He was angry at this and had asked her to leave the room, her face a mix of sadness and acceptance filled his mind, was this her way of telling him he was crossing a line? As he began making choices that could affect millions of lives? Was she trying to stop him from going too far? He didn't know, the one thing he did know however was that he had tried the 'heroic route' and it failed, this was the only choice left.

Takeru knew he would forgive Sumika for this, sure he would give her some payback at some point, and maybe the dog ears could be put on her during her next filtration. The smirk spread across his face at this, he would let her stew for tonight before seeing her, a knock on his door shook him out of his plan.

"Takeru, can I speak to you?" Meiya's voice came from the other side of the door.

December 2nd

Tsukuyomi looked over the data from her squad after another training session, on a whim she had installed that 'man's' OS into her unit and been surprised by the increase in performance, the unit almost equalled the exalted 00R in terms of abilities and she could only wonder what Meiya's 00R would be like with the OS, even if she was loathed to admit the idea of that 'man' getting near the unit.

During the checking of the program she had found something worrying about the OS, a few tweaks and notes had been added to the base line system that had additional options specifically for the Type-00 including switching of performance sub routines for combat styles, including melee and sniping.

Whoever Shirogane was he knew more about the Type-00 than most, easily the same level as a veteran honour guard or the engineers if the new data could increase performance by another 12% while only increase wear by 2%, he had clearly been a member at some point.

Several of the programmer notes made comments to future updates for the OS and ideas that the OS could be further and personally changed to suit each TSF type, a note cause Tsukuyomi to narrow her eyes when a reference to the Type-00R had been made almost 3 weeks before it had arrived and questioning if the security lock could be broken just by having some DNA in a container and if so how to patch that hole.

She would have words with him later on this and hopefully she would get a straight answer out of him, though her estimations were he was likely to point out something against her and set her off again, it was infuriating that he could read her that well and push her buttons with no effort.

Boiling at the concept she found herself throwing the clipboard with the information on it to the floor, the clattering sound echoed around her room, picking up the notes she turned to the file she had on Shirogane, the file contained a photo of him in a school uniform and one from his enlistment on the base, the dates still didn't match up, how could he have been a civilian yet in the military unless the first photo was staged, but the build was of a civilian, he had clearly been fighting a long time it made no sense.

Shaking her head at this it was stupid for her to get worked up over this, he had pretty much confirmed he wasn't after Meiya in some enemy sense, maybe he wanted to get her in bed. Tsukuyomi clenched her fists at the idea before relaxing, he wouldn't harm her and if she wanted to it was her choice, even if she didn't like it.

He contact in the household department who had given her the file had informed her of potential unrest in the capital, she had wanted to go there to check on the situation, but her orders from the Shogun herself had been to watch over Meiya so leaving were not an option, stuck between a rock and a hard place he closed the folder and left for some training.

December 3rd

The day before had been a quiet training day on the base, Takeru had finalised most of the details regarding 'Operation Enduring Liberty' he quiet liked the name only because it sounded like an American plan, he preferred 'Operation Fuck Alt V' too but Yuuko had shot that one down though admitted to liking it.

Today was a day off for Takeru, though he had instructed the girls to do some training in the simulators and Takeru had spent the morning hanging with Kasumi while Sumika was undergoing 'purification' apparently she had some DNA containments inside her and required extra care, Takeru had denied any knowledge of why his DNA had wound up inside her.

Kasumi and Takeru had spent the early morning on the roof with him teaching her how to play cat's cradle, he was much better than his earlier years but considering the decades he had spent in the world if he couldn't manipulate a piece of string then he was doomed as a man at least that was his opinion anyway.

The later morning the pair had spent at the tree overlooking the town, Kasumi had been out of breathe and caused Takeru to project a though of a chubby Kasumi into her mind causing her some shock, he did this each time this happened but would improve the image clarity causing more shock until she would hit him with her fists, the waif like girl was to be treated as nothing more or less than a girl even if her circumstances were technically tragic.

Takeru had explained to Kasumi how the tree was one of his favourite spots in the whole town, a place where love and hope reign over anything else, where dreams of a brighter future gathered, it was the place where many memories of his past came from, a simpler time but an important one, these days the wish he made was a simple one, 'to remove the BETA from Earth and the solar system'.

Kasumi's bunny ears rose for a brief moment during their time on the hill and a brief overlay of the old intact town appeared before Takeru's eyes, sitting down to see the peaceful town with Kasumi sat in front of him he rubbed her head gently, it was times like these that he could imagine this was the future of Earth, a world where human kind could bring about its own destiny without it being one of war and loss, the future was one that would need human kind to have skills that didn't revolve around dealing death on a large scale, he vowed on the memory of his old world that he would make that happen.

"What do you want to do Kasumi-chan?" Takeru asked as the pair sat looking at the sea over the now again destroyed town.

"To...read the BETA's thoughts." Kasumi replied quietly.

Takeru chuckled a little she replied the same each time even with his knowledge for her to read.

"No I mean your dream, not the one you were told about, I will destroy all BETA on this world and the solar system with the help on those around me, then...well that will depend on what is left but I will accept the outcome that is decided for me, but what will you do after that Kasumi?"

"I...don't know. I am a military secret...everyone is afraid of me, even my sisters and my creators."

Takeru looked down, he had always remembered this, sure he treated Kasumi like a little sister but not everyone treated her well, the Soviets treated her as nothing more than a pawn, and her fellow 6th Gen ESPers were afraid of her, Takeru wrapped his arms around the small girl pulling her closer to him.

"I sorry Kasumi-chan, to me Kasumi-chan is Kasumi-chan not a weapon or anything , I want those around me to see a life like the one you just saw, but sometimes the past haunts us to the end of time, it's nice to say time heals all wounds but sometimes it doesn't, they just get deeper, but maybe you can fill that hole with new better memories, Sumika is alive and well now, you no longer need to use second hand memories you can make your own."

Kasumi lightly blushed at feeling the one called Shirogane Takeru hug her, she had never been embraced outside on him before, of all the people around her only three didn't fear her or her power, the Professor who only showed interest or disinterest and her main interest now was in Takeru, Sumika was another, but as the only person she could talk to during those days in the tube it made logical sense to not fear her and Takeru, who treated her like a sister, a small part of her wanted more, but many of her memories were of older Kasumi's and Sumika and she couldn't work out her feelings but she felt safe where she was now and would think on what her dream would be for the future without BETA.

Langley – Virginia

George Tennet director of the CIA sat behind his desk, the short cropped dark haired man shuffled paper around the desk, the report from one of his field agents in Japan had yielded just the spark to set off the plan 'Operation ocean fort, the agent had been part of the IJA forces sent to deal with some squatters around an active volcano, George had been annoyed hearing this at first as sending a valuable agent to deal with idiots that should be left to die was not a good idea.

The agent however had suggested using tranq rounds and using it to further the Japanese hatred of foreigners and foreign armies since the UN had passed the mission on to them, he had given the go ahead and informed his puppet in the Japanese royal family to inform his puppet of this after the fact to set him off.

George smiled his puppet was a snake, an ambitious one too and the promises that his people had filled the man's ears with had ensured his loyalty, the promise of both ruling the country and gaining both the Shogun and her bint of a sister for whatever reasons he wanted had caused the man to jump on board, the man himself had found his own protégée, the man was nationalistic and idolised their puppet it was easy to control him.

The phone on his desk rung once before his aide informed him of a video message from POTUS himself, pressing a button on a small controller the blinds shut, turning in his chair he stood up towards the screen that showed a spinning image of the CIA seal before switching to the Presidents crest a moment later a man in a blue suit sitting behind a desk in one of the most famous houses in the world stared back at him.

"George my friend, how are the kids?" The President asked amicably.

"Good Mister President, I trust your wife and daughter are too."

"Well the wife wants a vacation but is getting sick of Camp David, and my daughter, well you know what teens are like." The grey haired man smiled.

"True, these days 'daddy is lame' and 'fishing is lame' and boys are no longer 'icky', I wish they could stay little."

"No argument from me." Chuckled the President. "Up for a round of golf in the new year? I can give you a handicap."

"Certainly Mister President, but I think we need to move on to less pleasant topics." George replied earning a nod from his boss.

"Currently we are on schedule, we had some report on a Shirogane Takeru that was assigned to the Professor's unit, our data showed him as deceased before his arrival at the base, our agent ran afoul of him and wound up in a cell for a few days."

"Is the man a threat then?"

"No certainly not, our agent attempted to get information out of the squad but this Shirogane intervened and threatened him and the Soviet spy that thinks he is in the dark about her but did nothing else to them he seemed to have issues with our agent circumventing him, though he is apparently a trained pilot, he did accuse them of being spies but it was clearly only an empty threat, our agent is keeping a low profile at the moment and keeping out of sight of Shirogane."

"Why is Shirogane not a threat, he has cast doubt on our agent."

"Sir, he is apparently a good pilot, but his scores are terrible, as a solider he has skill so he is nothing more than the muscle of the Professor, the combat information on his record is false but digging into it shows he was living in Yokohama when the BETA attacked his death was a clerical error, he fled to Australia, we got records of him in one of the camps pictures too, the information is time stamped over a year ago."

"So just a bodyguard then?"

"Yes Sir."

"Do we know if the others are moving against us?"

"Yes the Soviets seem to know something and are getting their agents to burrow in, MI6 agents are also preparing for this, most likely in response to the Commies."

"Then we either have a leak or they are just lucky, I don't believe in luck find out who they are and have them brought in for a MAP."

"Understood, should we abort? Though one of our agents has given us information that could bring our plan to fruition we may never get the opportunity again."

"No, the longer we delay the more chance that 'woman' has to complete her plan and we lose, and George, kill those enemy spies, frame the others too I want MI6 on the Soviets and the Soviets on MI6."

"I'll send the word tonight Mister President, it will be a slam dunk for us."

"Any other reports?"

"Yes we found out that the HSST lockdown at Andrews was due to orders from Yokohama, it seems they had secondary orders to shoot it down if something happened."

"Do we know why?"

"No Mister President, the UN under-secretary was at Yokohama base that day so we think a threat had been made and they reacted to that but no information is known."

"I see, then we continue as planned, keep me appraised."

"As you wish….Mister President."

The screen returned to a spinning logo of the CIA and George sat back down at his desk, he had a lot to do in a short time.

December 4th – PX

Sitting at the usual table for the 207 Tama watched as Takeru attempted to balance his now empty tableware, the glass balancing the dish balancing the plate, he started on the cutlery before Mikoto arrived.

"Oh, Takeru why are you doing that?" Mikoto asked.

"Fuck if I know, I'm eating late today and I can't play bean bags with food around." Takeru replied placing the tableware back to normal. "Class Rep off somewhere pouting after being beaten yesterday?"

"I believe so." Meiya added arriving at the table casting a semi bitter smile at Takeru.

The TV in the corner that had finished another episode of chop-kun turned to a news report.

"Imperial army disaster relief squadrons evacuated several squatters when the volcano showed signs of activity early yesterday morning. There were no serious difficulties, and all fourteen civilians are now safe and secure." The anchorman announced.

Meiya looked at Takeru who just shrugged at the news.

"The area they resided in had been declared very dangerous, and no civilians were granted permission to live there. However, even confirmed reports of former residents who had illegally returned home number in the."

Takeru quickly cast a gaze over to where Ayamine was still in line at the PX.

"Regarding the treatment of squatters who ignored several past evacuation warnings, some members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were of the opinion that saving them was not an option, but the Imperial Diet disregarded them and decided to act on its duty to protect lives and possessions of all its citizens."

"Wow someone made a decision rare for the government to act fast rather than sit on its ass arguing over the point, maybe the leadership isn't totally incompetent." Takeru chuckled.

"You really believe the news report?" Meiya asked drawing Tama and Mikoto into the conversation.

"Of course not, this is the PBC channel which is instead of the Public Broadcast Company should be Propaganda Broadcast Channel or better yet Pure Bullshit Channel."

"So it's a lie?" Tama asked looking down.

"Yes and no." Takeru replied. "Most likely they kidnapped the squatters during the night using tranq rifles, considering the IJA is under manned due to the invasion they most likely used green Cadets or Privates too, depending on the branch sent, after all they wanted the UN to deal with it first."

"Still in a way there was no right answer in this situation, the Government fucked up either way, however the squatters were told to stay away before they went there, so the squatters are in the wrong period removing them in force is lawfully correct, morally its grey."

"It should have been their choice and theirs alone, they knew the risks." Meiya replied.

"Your wrong here Meiya, true they knew the risks but still broke the law, your angry due to the way the situation was resolved, had they gone of their own free will you would be fine, but remember more people risked their lives to save them."

The memories of her trying to get the old woman to evacuate came to the front of Meiya's mind, the danger her and Takeru were placed in because of her own stubbornness to help the woman, the result of her leaving because they both got injured and Takeru nearly dying and getting a week in jail filled her with annoyance, did Takeru see these memories every time something similar came up? Still she knew what Takeru was aiming for with him glancing at Ayamine she continued for that.

"Imperial soldiers exist to serve the people, risking their lives is natural."

"True risking our lives is part of our job, but most of them signed up to kill BETA not deal with a bunch of stubborn old people, sadly the democratic nature of the government is both its strength and weakness."

"How so?" Mikoto asked joining in.

"Simple as a democracy it's a majority rules sort of thing, the squatters are in the minority, sure they can think and say what they want but that's all, they follow the rules, if they had been left there the public would cry out and demand to know why they didn't save them and the backlash could topple the cabinet."

"In the end we can't and shouldn't grant everyone's wishes, it is impossible so the minority in this case the squatters should follow the rules or be dealt with."

Meiya sighed. "The burden of this war has been placed on the powerless men and women of this country by saying it's for the good of the nation, the leadership doesn't know what it's doing."

A smirk from Ayamine as she sat down hearing the last part.

"I will agree that the leadership is incompetent but only because of the falsehoods that we are feeding ourselves, the military higher ups have lost the plot. But this time no outside threat was happening, the call was right, had this been a battle with the BETA then it's another thing."

Takeru looked at the three others squad members as they listened in to the conversation.

"What do you think Ayamine?"

"What?"

"Mt Tengen evacuation, Meiya reckons they were kidnapped in their sleep, I agree, the IJA asked us to deal with it showing they don't have the resources to handle the operation, yet they went ahead anyway, despite that Meiya thinks we should have let them die."

Ayamine's eyes widened as she cast a cold gaze at the samurai girl.

"Takeru, that was not what I meant." Meiya replied slightly alarmed at Takeru twisting her words.

"You want to both protect the lives of the civilians and cater to their wishes, in this case they conflict so you would only run yourself into a circle, if I was sent I would save their lives and arrest them from breaking the law, if they hung themselves afterwards…well if we didn't see it." Takeru left it open.

"I couldn't do that, I would try to save her while allowing her to stay where she was." Meiya responded remembering the mission to Tengen. "I couldn't force them like that."

"Her?" Tama asked questioningly.

"Yeah Meiya, her? You know someone there?" Takeru grinned.

"But true, you are not like me, you care too much about the people, it's a good thing for you, personally I can't bring myself to do that anymore, I would have left them to their fate, instead I would rather build up and keep military assets alive than throw them away for civilians, it's a human nature thing."

Takeru's eyes hardened. "We can't priorities civilians lives at the expense of military lives if it endangers the mission or humanity as a whole, its common sense to sacrifice that which doesn't help the battle like civilians to maintain an army that can fight back, who divides their own force willingly if they have faced the BETA when it's clear they will all die?"

The sound of fists slamming on the table and a spilled cup came from Takeru's right, the scrapping of a chair followed before Ayamine ran off.

"Well the tray isn't inserted in me that's a plus, I deal with her, you guys eat her food or clean it up." Takeru replied before walking off.

Corridor

Heading for the area he knew Ayamine was he was still surprised by her speed as he headed for the 4th floor basement casting an inquisitive glance around he continued to look at the various typical posters denoting brave soldiers and Saturday morning villain BETA.

'Wonder how much of our budget went into this? Enough for a few TSFs or Eishi I would wager.' Takeru shook his head at the poster of an alien claw reaching for the Earth.

Rounding the corner where he usually bumped into Ayamine he collided with nothing but air, looking around confused he moved on towards the barracks, maybe because he moved quicker than usual he was ahead and she was picking up her latest letter.

Arriving at the dorms he noticed her leaving her room and turn towards him, her eyes widened in shock as she turned and began to move away.

"Cadet Ayamine, halt." Takeru barked marching towards her.

Ayamine froze at the command and turned to the officer and glared at him, Takeru walked until he was only a foot from her looking down at the girl with a hardened expression.

"Well Cadet, want to explain to me why you stormed off like that? And why you didn't clean up your mess either?" Takeru levelled at the raven haired girl. "Didn't like that I took a shot at your father huh?"

"What you said was mean Shirogane." Ayamine tried to look hard at the man.

"Mean yes, but true too." Takeru continued casually. "Your father tried to be a hero and save the civilians rather than 'follow incompetent orders', if he had met up with the rest of the unit and cleared those attackers he could have turned on the others and pincered the BETA, we would have taken losses to both military and civilian but it wouldn't have been a massacre."

Ayamine looked down, she hated what her father had done, but didn't like people dragging him through the mud when he was dead, her squad leader had done that she didn't like that he was using hindsight as reasoning but he had emphasised the follow incompetent orders part something she wouldn't do, a retreat or be annihilated scenario was against her values.

It was the one thing she didn't like about Takeru, he was a career soldier, he aimed to become a higher ranking officer, to lead the soldiers the chances of him losing sight of the front line issues as he moved up were high, but he too was against the same rules as her, so maybe he would be different, maybe she could trust him rather than just fear him.

Takeru watched as Ayamine tightly clutched the envelope in her hand, the pained looked spreading across her face as he looked at the opened letter as she tried to casually hide the object from his line of sight.

"Hiding something Ayamine?" Takeru looked pointedly at her letter. "I would say you are sending something, but it is clear it's been opened by you, and I know you haven't been receiving letters from outside because I would be informed, yet it says it's been checked, interesting."

"How?" Ayamine started before clamping her mouth shut.

"Simple, with the exception of top secret documents all letters coming in get checked and stamped and all commanding officers are informed of letters, me more so after the Tama issue, and I have not been informed of you getting letters, so someone is smuggling them in and making it look official."

Ayamine stepped back looking scared but knew running would only make things worse though it was her first reaction, her second was to throw him, but again he was stronger and he was an officer and it wasn't a spar, it was an offence to attack him.

Sighing in defeat she shoved the letter at him and looked down, Takeru felt saddened by this Ayamine didn't look good with a crestfallen look and he hated hurting her but he needed to have a reason to pry and convince her he trusted her when it mattered so she would trust him in the near future.

Reading through the letter he could now read the hidden meanings behind the almost poetic verse, Sagiri was playing up the tragic hero looking for a place to die like some old fashion Ronin.

'Stupid fuck, just try talking normally, you had the same issues in the old world, you need a solid boot up your ass.'

"Oh an admirer eh? Seem to be quite popular with the guys sending you poetry." Takeru grinned to the relief on Ayamine's face. "Though it sounds like he intends to declare war on someone and possibly die, at least the last four lines indicate that."

Ayamine's eyes widened again as she snatched the letter from his waiting hand and read the letter herself, a flood of emotions crossed her face from sadness to anger and betrayal before she regained a small amount of composure.

Grabbing Takeru by the collar she dragged him into her room before closing and locking the door with her back to it, the audible click on the lock the only sound to be heard.

"Oh a private rendezvous Ayamine? How bold." Takeru smirked lightly. "Wouldn't be the first girl to drag me into their bedroom."

Storming over to the desk Ayamine picked up a large number of letters that were unopened off her desk and thrust them towards Takeru, looking through the letters he could see each one was stamped with the 1st of each month except the last one which had the 3rd on it.

"Wow he's punctual, well except this month, did he have an accident, and was that why you opened only this one? Still these are unopened completely so someone is passing along letters without checking them, we got a security breach here."

Takeru stepped forward putting the letters on her bed before placing both arms on Ayamine's shoulders, he could feel her tense up, her muscles twisting ready to defend or attack at a moment's notice.

"Ayamine, you know this is wrong, if we got someone smuggling letters what else are they 'checking' seditious reading material, poisons or even bomb components, I want to trust you on this, but this letter is sending me alarm bells that 'he'." Takeru nodded towards the letters. "Is ready to pull off some form of attack or coup, we know there is a lot of anti-foreigner sentiment in Japan amongst the general populous so a UN base is a viable target, look me in the eyes and tell me you ain't part of some plot again us or the government."

Ayamine looked away biting her lip, she wanted to deny that 'he' was doing anything wrong but couldn't, he was still bitter about what happened to her father, realising she couldn't get away with lying to her squad leader even if she was a good liar, she looked him dead in the eyes before replying.

"I am not part of some plot." Ayamine stated clearly.

Takeru nodded, removing his false tension since he knew already but needed her to buy it. "Ok I trust you on this, but I need to know who is checking these letters, I'm sorry for asking this, but I can't allow a potential threat to stay this close to home."

Ayamine nodded reluctantly before giving the name of the clerk in charge of dealing with her letters. Takeru picked up the open letter and held it up to her.

"And I would get a message to him to tell him to stop whatever plan he got, I am active roster, he starts shit I will have to put him down, and put him down hard I will." Takeru replied coolly to her before unlocking the door and opening it. "Oh and Ayamine, I will still have to discipline you, expect pain, because painless punishment isn't punishment.

As Takeru shut the door behind him Ayamine just slumped to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut at dealing with the pressures of her commanding officer in 'leader mode' she didn't like the thought of Takeru facing 'him' as good as 'he' was Takeru had shown he was in a whole different class and while real combat turned these things on their head Takeru's experience kept him ahead of most.

Takeru's Quarters

"Is it done?" Meiya asked as Takeru walked through the door.

The confused expression on Takeru's face as being accosted by Meiya in his own room first thing near lunch time was new, though by now he would usually still be chasing Ayamine around and then trying to bribe her with his newly invented Yakisoba bread.

"Uh, yeah better than expected I guess, I managed to get he to realise she should trust me on this, considering I know she isn't guilty of anything serious. Well nothing I can't protect her from anyway, I managed to prove I trust her, so I think I can get her more stable for the coup tomorrow, though it will still be hard on most."

"I see...So it is happening." Meiya asked solemnly.

"Yeah, Sagiri's letter was the same as usual so within the next 24 hours he will be rounding up the Imperial cabinet for his execution, should be fun."

"Takeru! People's lives are at stake." Meiya cried out indigently.

"I could go for a steak, please don't talk about food so close to lunch." Takeru put on a lop sided grin as Meiya scowled at him again.

Takeru moved from by the door towards his desk, the seat squeaked as he sat down and faced his friend and ally in this, his face switching from bemused to seriousness without warning.

"Still, if things go well, and I believe the person I got on this is highly competent though odd, he should be able to save most if not all the cabinet members not involved in this coup in some way, the ones rounded up are those that need to die."

"So what are we to do now?"

"Well, tell the squad to take it easy today, some light exercise, nothing strenuous, I need everyone at their best it will be a long day tomorrow and I will need you bodies at their best even if I can't have your minds there."

"And you?"

"I have to finalise some things with Sensei and see if Sumika is good and insure my TSF is ready to sortie, I will probably be working late."

"Then by your leave." Meiya replied getting up from the bed.

Yuuko's Office

After swinging by the PX and grabbing a take-out meal, Takeru proceeded down to Yuuko's office, the continued knowing smirk from the woman as he slowly ate his self-formed riceballs about the DNA found in Sumika continued.

"So what can we expect tomorrow Shirogane-kun?"

"Well, the base will go to Defcon 2 around 0410 hours tomorrow, you, the General and Undersecretary will be in the command centre discussing the 7th fleet and American and UN intervention and the Security Council." Takeru paused to take a bit of his lunch. "The General isn't too please with having the US here or dealing with this without the Japanese requesting it, too much of a hornets nest."

"Hmm, we need to find a way to prevent the Americans from coming here, already the 7th fleet is closing in and will be here around an hour before that. Shirogane-kun, I think we can convince the UN to prevent American aid, at least legal aid."

Takeru nodded as he finished off his lunch, he had a few other plans to help keep the coup from boiling over but he doubted that the CIA and their allies would just sit on their hands.

"How is Sumika anyway sensei?"

"She will be about tomorrow, I doubt you will see her much, but I will have her working communications with your squad for me, but for the next few hours she will be indisposed, come back later and no more DNA injections." Yuuko smirked to the contemptuous huff from the officer. "For now I will get a report together you can bring to me near the end of the discussion tomorrow, dismissed."

Takeru stood up and left the office brushing the random rice grain off his trousers as he left before heading to the firing range.

Abandoned Town (Otsuki)

The old town of Otsuki sat nestled between the four mountains of Mitutouge, Gongen, Gangaharashuri and Omuro, the area had been in the path of the BETA during the invasion several years earlier and had never been reclaimed.

Around the area, destroyed buildings and gutted forests, the area had little in the way of large concrete structures, but still had its railway line intact, the area was now abuzz with activity as a large number of TSFs moved around setting up a defensive fort for reasons that were only known to their leader.

A large number of trucks drove around carrying ammo supplies and fuel which were to be arranged around the area for fast collection should the group be spread out during a fight and need quick access to them, a single truck however had brought out a weapon that was these days rarely used.

The SA-3 Goa was an old relic from the cold war when it was still official, the vehicle it was part of had been scrapped down and now the device was jury rigged to an advanced radar and trailer.

The S.A.M itself was quite obsolete though capable of going Mach 3 and being effective against low flying aircraft, with the BETA using direct energy weapons most aircraft were out of the war leaving only ground hugging support gunships, Ospreys and supersonic crafts like bombers and HSSTs that could outpace any currently designed missiles, the gap was now only filled with TSFs using their rifles due to S.A.M's being shot down by BETA.

The closest weapons to S.A.M's now were the SSMs used by MRLS as a means to saturate an area in heavy metal anti laser material so didn't have the sophisticated tracking needed to pursue high speed aircraft firing flares and chafe, or the multipurpose missiles that were part of the TSF armaments neither particularly good at anti air.

The Valkyries that were busy fortifying the area were not too pleased to have this two shot, barely usable weapon but the commander Professor Kouzuki had insisted they take it as with them between mountains they would certainly have some TSFs flying over mountains as a means to get them, at least that was her reasoning fishy though it was.

"Damn it, why are we preparing for an invasion? Who are we fighting?" Hayase grumbled over the channel.

"Calm down Hayase, we have our orders, the Professor told us to dig in here and dig in we will." Isumi replied.

"Got to admit this has Shirogane written all over it." Munakata added before grinning. "Maybe he wants a real fight to steal away Hayase and their sparring can take a more horizontal approach."

"Ok, cut it out, we got work." Isumi interrupted before Hayase could retort.

Yokohama Base – Indoor Firing Range

The sound of a singular handgun firing were heard in the spacious room, kitted out with the latest safety equipment, the gel/foam pads lining the walls, floor and ceiling which were each a meter thick and just as deep and over lapped to increase the protection, the risk of ricochet was reduced and firing accidents were almost unheard of.

The armoury officer watched as the young officer known as Shirogane fired off rounds from his left handed gun, few used the range opting for the outdoor one as few engagements took place inside, even the officer knew this was wrong, if the BETA got here they would be fighting in corridors and getting used to fighting in narrow confines was important.

Finishing off another magazine and bringing the target forward Takeru could see a neatly grouped bunch of hits, he thanked his Eishi training for helping bring him to near perfect ambidextrousness, pulling off the target he replaced it with another and sent it back to its location.

Pulling out his 45 he took aim with both guns at the same time and fired off rounds into the target from both guns, the rapid fire put large holes on either side of the bull's-eye before running dry.

"Nice try kid, you either took out both arms or missed its head completely." The Officer chuckled through the headset.

"True just testing something, aim is shit akimbo, only use for this is pinning down two people in separate locations." Takeru replied through the mike. "Just realised reloading is next to impossible too, looks awesome but impractical."

Reloading both weapons separately he continued to empty the guns for over an hour before he was satisfied with both left handed firing and his new 45, turning in the ear protectors and goggles he left to finalise preparations for tomorrow starting with his TSF.

It was several hours later that Takeru found himself wandering down the dimly lit corridors of the base after hours heading back to his room, a few sheets of both 'encrypted' and 'decrypted' information of both true and false data.

Entering his room, he quickly shed his clothing and fell onto the bed his mind shutting down and drifting off into a deep sleep ready for the long day tomorrow.

Takeru's Quarters – 5th December – 0400

Takeru had learned to awaken on command when something needed doing or something was wrong, today something was very wrong, the first being as his eyes opened the shocked look from Kasumi as she came to wake him as ordered was something only seen under certain circumstances, the second problem was the arm lazily draped over his chest.

This was in itself not unusual, over the years he had shared a bed with most of the Valkyries, the entire 207th, a member of a certain British based squad and the girls of the 89th IJA, only Rei and Sumika had ever shared a bed with him earlier and neither was here.

Turning his head to the right his eyes glued to the impressive cleavage of one familiar bluenette, sleeping soundly and attempting to make her chest an integral part of his arm, usually this would be a good thing, but not only was today not a good day to wake up to this, but knowing that this action was 'her' desire suggested the problem had gotten worse since the jump.

"Morning Takeru." Meiya opened her eyes and gave a bright smile to him causing his heart to skip before she noticed Kasumi. "Morning Yashiro."

"Uh morning Meiya, Kasumi-chan, I guess it's time to get up." Takeru replied trying to remove himself from the warmth of both the bed and the young woman. "I think you had better get back to your room Meiya and get dressed, we are on standby now, right?"

Kasumi nodded before looked with curiosity as the woman as she pulled herself out of bed and walked towards the door, her dark black underwear hugging her figure and vest top slightly rolled giving Takeru more reason to stay under his covers until Kasumi left.

"Bye-bye." Kasumi looked at Takeru getting a reply before following the other girl, as the door went to close the loud gasp of Sakaki was heard along with a greeting from Meiya to her.

"This is not good." Takeru muttered to himself before diving in the shower quickly and dressing in his uniform, grabbing the data he left the room only to bump into the assembling squad.

A quick roll call was had all the while ignoring the glare from the Class Rep, while Meiya just looked confused as being glared at by the second in command too.

"Takeru-san, why have we been put on standby?" Tama asked.

"Because." Takeru replied just as the alarms sounded causing all but him to jump, looking at the group he smiled. "Of that, report to briefing room 6, I will be along soon, dismissed."

The squad saluted and left to the briefing room as Takeru headed for the command centre.

A/N: And cut, ending here before anything happens, we got issues all over the place now with the coup, I got big plans for it so I hope you will enjoy, and I hope you liked this chapter too, Imperial is about 50% complete with chapter 2 and will solely be the C.C.S.E and is looking to be about 15k+, and I currently got plans for a Muv Luv cross over with Mass effect, it could be a sequel to this too, but no spoilers would be around, I got most of the time line written down so far and the protag would be Shepard the descendent of Takeru (maybe).

On that note I would say the poll is going well, Tsukuyomi is leading with over twice the votes of second place, so she will feature quite a bit (several scenes with her are reason for this.) but this doesn't mean she's in the harem just that she will get more scenes and possibly her own arcs.

Please review let me know what you think.