Chapter 2

Adaptation

A year had passed since their transfer to Earth and while Dozara and Ichigo were having an easy time adjusting to their new work sites Hikari and Takaru weren’t having as easy a time adjusting to life among their fellow students.

While they were educated to an effectively equal level to the other students in the class it was clear in some classes that they were going to have some trouble adjusting to specific things such as the differences between their history and Earth’s.

While there were historical parallels in Terran history there were pretty broad differences due to the idea of how on Valin the major land masses had all belonged to one of the four ruling families for as long as their history recorded and most of Earth’s history involved many conflicting smaller individual nation states.

At first they attempted to hide the fact that they were off worlders not knowing how common others like them were but by the end of their first year there they found out that many of the races had began entering their children into offworld schooling thanks in part to the fact that Earth was steadily becoming a central hub of the Federation’s diplomatic engagements since the Milky Way was at a central point in the star system which made transit to neighboring galaxies much easier than it had been prior to Earth joining the Federation.

While most of the students who attended the school in North City were various flavors of humans from the Emoltarians to Magia. Both races were very similar to humans but having their own biological quirks, Magia being capable of using what by most would be considered magic but in reality are simple feats of mana manipulation.

They use a highly advanced mix of science and rune technology to power their society and while they are newcomers to the federation they have a powerful array of military resources. Politically they are at odds with the Emoltarians due to disputes over their involvement in unwillingly advancing planets to a level that Magia could inhabit them.

The Emoltarians believed while it wasn’t unethical to help advance a more primitive planet to keep up with those around it. They did find it unreasonable to forcibly do so or to advance society without the natural inhabitants of the planet being aware of what was going on. In fact it's one reason why there were many off world banishments for Magia who were caught interfering in the development of under civilized planets in the time after they joined the Federation.

----

For Takaru and Hikari it was an average day, by the Earth Calendar system it was an unofficial holiday in the United States known as Presidents Day. While there weren’t any special celebrations associated with it. The main purpose of the holiday was as an excuse for government institutions to be allowed a day off, this included schools.

Dozara had elected to spend the day off to take Takaru and Hikari to a public demonstration some members of the Magia Intergalactic Guard had set up at the military base that lay on the outskirts of the city proper.

The base was largely vacant of military presence aside from the skeleton maintenance crews who maintained a few things around the facility like an emergency landing strip and a small military history exhibit in the old aircraft hangars. According to information Dozara had gotten from Sam the base had been as he said “Mothballed.” which was military jargon for taken out of active service but still being maintained for later reactivation.

As the crowds of civilians filed into the staging area a few people in varying dress uniforms stepped out and drew the focus of the crowd.

“Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to Genosha Air Force Base. We’d like to present to you a freeform air combat demonstration provided by the elite Magia Combat Command Division. I am Major General Aloysius Croft of the United Nations Joint Strike Forces, joining me in the announcing stage will be Lieutenant Commander Ichabod Durwood.” he paused a moment as the officer next to him bowed and presented himself to the crowd.

Then the female officer that was standing next to the two of them spoke up.

“And I'm First Regiment Drill Instructor Charlene Maxwell. Since the boys seem to be taking a bit too long to introduce things we’re here to present you with a series of combat demonstrations using Sentient Arm weapon technology. In the center staging area we’ll be hosting a sword fighting exhibition, on the north west platform we’ll present a ranged combat demo with a follow up advanced target shooting drill. Finally on the north west stage we’ll be showing off our elite air combat division’s top fighters. With that I think the basic introductions are taken care of. Have a great time and enjoy the event.” as the crowd let out a thundering roar of applause before being filed into the seating areas near the staging platforms.

Takaru and Dozara split off from Ichigo and Hikari so they could watch the swordsmanship exhibition while Hikari and Ichigo took in the sights of the gun combat drills.

----

Takaru watched the combatants in the ring, his eyes locked on the two swordsmen in the middle of the ring. At first the arena was a blank elevated platform that was shrouded in a barely visible energy shield.

As the two fighters squared off and began to feel each other out the area began to fill with particles as a light high above the platform lit up and the announcer called out over the intercom.

“As the fighters ready themselves we’ve prepared a more adequate fighting arena using our highly advanced spatial holofield projection system. It can generate a realistic holographic combat environment that can auto generate autonomously and produce completely unique backdrops for the fight generating events in real time. Let’s see what the combatants have chosen to use as a stage for this demonstration.” as the particulate matter assimilated into solid form and took the shape of a jungle clearing

One of the fighters raised his sword and performed a quick spinning flourish as a small portal opened up and he declared “Armor Up” a beam of light radiating from the portal as he was shrouded in energy.

Seconds later he emerged from the energized state and reappeared wearing an outfit which looked like a more heavily armored version of his dress uniform his sword changing from what appeared to be a simple bastard sword to a much more intricately decorated sword with a large gem in the hilt

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The other swordsman followed suit but his actions were different; he jabbed his sword into the ground before calling out “Equip!” as he did a short series of gestures as a large gem in its pommel began to glow and a faint robotic voice called out “Combat Suit transfer initiated.” as a simple set of high tech looking metallic grey suits of combat armor formed around him replacing his civilian clothing.

“Our combatants seem to be ready but before we start I should explain what just happened. The combatant on the near side is using a hybrid of Terran Covert Armor technology and Magia Barrier Suit armor. While his opponent is using armor developed for the Galactic Federation Space Police agency.” the fighter’s drawing their respective weapons and setting straight into combat.

Takaru watched on with an ecstatic glow in his eye as he saw the combatants trade blows. Dozara smiled as he sat next to him knowing this may be a useful asset in the training program he developed to work with the Valion System. He pulled a small terminal out of his bag and set it out on a small overhanging ledge in front of the seating area pointing its small inbuilt camera toward the fight.

The fight went back and forth for what felt like an hour, each of them using various fighting techniques in addition to their swordplay. Finally they both came to a stalemate in the middle of the clearing as the external sound systems broadcast their discussion.

“I guess it's about time to end this since we don’t want it dragging on too long. What do you say we let the next attack decide who wins?” the man in the Metal Sargent armor asked his opponent.

The other fighter nodded and added “Give it your best. Last man standing wins, sounds good?” The Metal Sargent nodded as he drew his sword out in front of him.

“Laser Blade!” The Metal Sargent called out, swiping his hand over the blade as it began to glow a vibrant blue, his hand infusing the blade with energy as it passed over.

The other fighter followed suit by plugging a small implement that looked like a gun magazine into the pommel of the sword.

“Load Cartridge!” he said as several small shells ejected themselves from a slot between the hilt and the blade with surges of energy pulsing through the blade with each spent shell. “Zwei Form!” a robotic voice said as the sword grew to double its size as its owner gripped the handle tightly with two hands adjusting for the drastic increase in weight.

“For anyone curious about what transpired just now the Magia combatant implemented one of the more advanced features of Sentient Arm weapons. Commonly known as the Accelis Cartridge Drive or ACD system it uses cartridges which contain a special alchemical compound that greatly amplifies the mana being channeled through the Sentient arm when they’re discharged. This allows them to empower the Sentient arm in a much more controlled fashion than simply dumping their raw mana supply into the weapon. It can also be used to unlock other functionalities in the weapon such as alternate modes. “ the announcer chipped in as the Magia fighter’s sword suddenly shrouded itself in what appeared to be flames as he began to dash toward his opponent.

The two dashed at each other briefly blinking out of visibility as they passed by before appearing on the side of the ring opposite where they’d started. The magia swiped his hand over the blade as the flames dispersed and it returned to its normal form.

“Well met but you have a bit of work to do.” he said as the Metal Sargent fell to the ground the magical flames exploding and forcing him to regress to his civilian form. The magia fighter followed suit as he walked over and helped the Metal Sargant back to his feet in a display of good sportsmanship.

Takaru looked impressed at the display as the hologram field played a slow motion replay of the two finishing attacks. Dozara smiled and said “I take it you enjoyed that son? It makes me think of one of our distant ancestors, a swordsman known as Hayato Inara. His skills were unparalleled in his time and he was believed to be the last known wielder of the legendary weapon known as the Fierce Dragon Blade. From what little I know of the history of the item it was a sword that contained a great power. It's not precisely known what empowers the weapon but it's rumored to be blessed by a spirit which entrusted it to the Inara family as guardians of peace on Valin along with members of the other three royal families.” Takaru listened eagerly as his father continued to detail what he knew of the weapon’s history.

“Those sentient arms make me think of the descriptions given of the Fierce Dragon Blade. Let’s piece this together, Weapons that have a great almost supernatural power.” Dozara thought to himself as he analyzed the replays of the fight that he’d recorded with his data pad. “They also have AI’s that guide their wielders and help them use their power effectively while it was speculated that the Fierce Dragon Blade was inhabited by a guardian spirit who served much the same purpose. That makes me curious as to whether or not the Magia have had some form of contact with Valin in our distant past. Seeing how far advanced their technology is compared to ours it wouldn’t surprise me. But before I start jumping to any substantial conclusions on the subject I’ll ask Norton about it since he’s well versed in Magia history.” he thought to himself.

Norton Cardiff-Armstrong the master archivist and chief operations officer of Sector Security on the Lunar hub station.

In the year they’d been on Earth, Dozara and Norton had become close work partners due to the similarities between the designs that Dozara had come up with for the Valion System and that of Magia Barrier Armor Technology.

As part of their work on the project Norton had approached Dozara and offered him tickets to the event as a way of letting him see how the Magia designed version of the system so he could look into refining his designs.

----

Later that afternoon at a display which showed off many of the implementations of Sentient Arm technology as used by the Joint Federation Defense Forces. As Takaru and Hikari looked over the different sentient arm weapons on display along with video streams showing the weapons in action.

Takaru’s interests seemed to lie in the various styles of sword type weapons on display. while Hikari on the other hand examined a display of ranged weapons mostly differing styles of firearms. She found them interesting but at the same time somewhat mundane as guns, even ones such as those on display were just that.. guns. While she did have an interest in ranged combat she found them to be something more in line with what a grunt in the military would wield over something a more subtle ranged weapon.

As they walked through the various displays Norton who was handling the security detail for the event was watching over the exhibit but at the same time he had an ulterior purpose in being there. He looked over at Hikari and Takaru his eye letting of a faint glimmer as he silently cast a spell known only to him and his family.

“Anya mentioned that she picked up some unusual readings on Takaru the day they ran into each other. While I’m a bit skeptical of it myself as she’s still developing into the family line of powers. But It does seem like she’s developing them rather quickly so some up close observation wouldn’t be out of the question. She mentioned that Takaru seemed to have a strong presence as though he had some sense of importance beyond just the circumstances that brought him here.” He thought to himself of his enchanted eye, scanning Takaru for any sign of an unusually strong presence. wd

As he observed Takaru he noticed while it was faint there was a present signature of something out of the ordinary although he couldn’t place it. After a while he began to observe Hikari and noticed a similar but more distinct signature in her. “They both have some connection to the balance of fate.” he thought to himself. “To what extent I can’t discern at the moment but it's definitely there. Anya may have been right. I think I may have her carry out some observing at a distance over the next year or so while I continue to work on the Valion project with Dozara and Ichigo.” he continued as he logged the information in his Sentient Arm’s data banks including evidence of the abnormal signatures.