Editing BlazBlue:Calamity Trigger Part 2 Chapter 1 (section)

=== Part 4 ===
'''December 30, 2199 - 13:25''' 

A dull, low driving sound droned on.

It was a small sound that normally wouldn't be noticed. However, after more than an hour of silence, it was impossible not to notice it, and as she didn't want to return her consciousness to the silence, she strained her ears to the driving sound.

How much longer would she have to listen to this sound?

Sinking her slender body into the unadorned seat, Noel Vermillion, a warrant officer of the Novus Orbis Librarium's 4th Thaumaturgist Squadron, quietly sighed.

Wearing a blue and white soldier uniform, she spread a blue poncho for cold weather over her lap like a blanket and leaned her head against the wall. Despite having completed the officer school course properly, she looked somewhat younger than her actual age due to her girlish features.

Her long, straight, golden hair reached down to her waist, but now it was gathered into the blue beret she wore on her head for duty. Her distant eyes were a soft green. She looked a little sleepy, gazing out the small window beside her. White skin, slender shoulders, slender arms. If she were wearing different clothes, she would not look like a soldier working for the NOL.

This was a ship owned by the NOL, traversing the sky - an Ars Magus ship. 

Outside the small window that Noel was looking at, a white sea of clouds spread out, and the ship continued its smooth voyage to the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi, its destination.

There were only two people sitting in the passenger cabin with rows of seats. Noel, who was sitting in the front seat looking listless, and one other person. 

Although it was a relatively small Ars Magus ship, a considerable number of seats were available. Even so, there were only two people in the passenger cabin, which couldn't be considered narrow. And since they were not particularly close, there had been no conversation for a long time, and an awkward amount of silence continued between them.

She wondered what that person was doing now. Driven by such a slight interest, Noel fidgeted slightly on the seat and gently peered behind the shadow of the backrest.

The man sitting there was not wearing the uniform of a soldier like Noel, but a black suit. He was slender but tall, with a black hat on his green hair. Unlike Noel, he didn't seem to feel any awkwardness at all, and he crossed his long, thin legs and leaned back in his seat in a relaxed manner.

He was Captain Hazama of the Novus Orbis Librarium's Intelligence Department.

Right as the year was about to end, Noel and Hazama, who belonged to a different department, were heading to Kagutsuchi for a mission.

As long as you work as a soldier, you should basically follow orders from above. Of course, Noel had no intention of going against orders. However, that did not mean that such loyalty and sense of duty could dispel her anxiety about this mission.

''(Haa... why is it just me and Hazama-san?)''

Noel averted her eyes from Hazama, who was wearing a hat over his eyes and not moving as if he were asleep, and returned to the seat, grumbling in her heart while looking out the window again.

Noel belonged to the 4th Thaumaturgist Squadron, and Hazama belonged to the Intelligence Department. It was not very common for people from different departments to take on the same mission. And yet they were each sent to a land far away from headquarters.

[[File:BB_CT2_057.jpg|frameless|right]]

The reason for this lay in the details of the "mission" given to Noel. This was a top-secret mission that could not leak information to unnecessary personnel.

The objective was to search for a certain person. Jin Kisaragi, Noel's direct superior, Major of the 4th Squadron, and the one she served under as his secretary. He had suddenly disappeared from the NOL headquarters a few days earlier and was missing.

If it were discovered that the commander of a division was missing due to unauthorized actions, it would have a negative impact on many guards and expose the internal affairs of the NOL. Therefore, information about Jin's disappearance was conveyed to only a very small number of people.

A few days later, information came in that Jin seemed to be heading to Kagutsuchi.

Although the reason for this was unknown, there was no way Jin would be allowed to continue acting alone.

Jin was immediately ordered to return to base, and Hazama, who had obtained information about his whereabouts, and Noel, Jin's secretary, were chosen for the role of conveying this order.

...And now, Noel and Hazama were sitting alone in the seats of the Ars Magus ship.

''(But even so, there should be more manpower. Even if we're looking for Major Kisaragi, we don't have any information beyond that he seems to have gone to Kagutsuchi...)''

Could they really find a single guard in the vast Kagutsuchi?

Even if they were able to find him, would Jin Kisaragi listen to Noel's order to return to base and obediently comply?

''(No way, he would never listen.)''

Noel shook her head slightly. Although she worked as a secretary, she was always met with Jin's cold and harsh gaze. It could not be said that they had a smooth superior-subordinate relationship. Rather, it was safe to say that it was the worst.

It was clearly a misjudgment in personnel selection. Even if they arrived in Kagutsuchi, what should they do and how should they start?

The more she thought about it, the more her anxiety grew and weighed heavily on her chest.

And there was one more major anxiety. The man named Hazama, who was sitting silently in the back seat. This was the first time she had met him on this mission, and he had a strange atmosphere, and she couldn't understand what he was thinking at all... somehow, he was scary.

''(If only everyone was here at a time like this...)''

Sighing once again, Noel hunched over as if trying to shrink her body.

She remembered the time she spent with her friends at the officer school before becoming a guard for the Control Organization. Those were fun times. A lot of things happened, and there were difficult times, but those were happy days that more than made up for them.

In those nostalgic days, her best friends were always by Noel's side.

Noel wasn't a very social person and didn't have many friends. But even so, the small number of friends she had at school were precious to her.

Her two closest friends were Tsubaki Yayoi and Makoto Nanaya, who were in the same room in the dormitory. Tsubaki called out to Noel, who was unable to fit in with school life, and took care of her in various ways. Makoto pulled on Noel's withdrawn arm and taught her many fun things. The three of them talked about many things.

Tsubaki was smart and had top grades, so before exams, she always studied with Makoto and taught them.

They also went out together after school. They often went to a cafe with a comfortable open terrace, located a short walk from the school. It had many types of parfaits, which were Noel and her friends' favorites.

Makoto was particularly fond of them. Whenever they stopped by, a chestnut parfait in a tall glass was always placed in front of her.

Even after they were about to graduate and their future paths were decided... when the three of them went to that cafe, there was a chestnut parfait in front of Makoto.

"So, it's decided? Noel will become Kisaragi-senpai's secretary?"

It was a little early to call it evening, and the area overlooked by the clear sky was enveloped in a gentle and warm atmosphere. Even though it was the graduation season, there were no extreme temperature fluctuations in the hierarchical city where the climate and temperature were controlled by Ars Magus. Therefore, they could fully enjoy the parfait with cold ice cream and the coat without wearing it, in their officer school uniforms, on the open terrace.

Makoto, who was carrying the chestnut cream to her mouth, asked the question, and Noel, who was sitting across the round table, nodded slightly with a frown.

"Yeah... it's been decided."

"I see... Noel as a secretary..."

What kind of reaction should she give? With such a troubled face, Makoto put the long-handled parfait spoon in her mouth and rested her cheek on her hand.

Makoto was not human, but a beastkin. Her face and figure were not much different from an ordinary girl, but her small ears that popped out from her head and her tail, which was larger than her torso, were unmistakably squirrel-shaped.

It seemed that she had been looked at strangely in the past because of her special appearance, but the Makoto that Noel knew was an active and straightforward girl with lovely deep brown hair and big, sparkling brown eyes.

Seeing the complicated look on the normally cheerful Makoto, Noel inadvertently looked down at her strawberry parfait in front of her.

"I don't think I'm capable of doing it myself. If it's Kisaragi-senpai's secretary, someone like me..."

"Oh, that's not it, Noel! It's not that you're bad or anything like that. It's just that if you're Kisaragi-senpai's secretary..." Makoto hurriedly tried to follow up, but in the end, even those words became blurred.

Noel and Makoto were thinking the same thing.

The beginning of the story was a little before their future paths after graduation were decided. Noel, who was simply intending to apply to become a soldier for the NOL, was suddenly called in and ordered to become the secretary of Jin Kisaragi, who was the commander of the 4th Thaumaturgist Squadron after graduation.

Noel couldn't refuse it. But she had been thinking about it ever since she heard the story.

Jin Kisaragi. A senior at the officer school who graduated two years earlier, a member of the Duodecim's prestigious Kisaragi family, and a childhood friend of Tsubaki, the daughter of the Duodecim's Yayoi family.

They must have thought the same thing at the same time. When Noel raised her eyes as if peeking, Makoto was also peeking, looking at the red-haired girl sitting between them.

"You two shouldn't talk like that. There's a good reason why Noel was chosen."

With a knowing look on her face, the red-haired girl in front of them, Tsubaki, chided.

Her strikingly colored hair was glossy, long, and reached her waist, and her blue eyes resembled the color of the sky. Her posture was upright and elegant, and although she had no intention of doing so, she inevitably gave off an air of being brought up well.

Excellent grades, impeccable behavior. Such words suited Tsubaki very well. Kind to everyone and loved by everyone, she was a proud and boastful best friend to Noel. However, only a very small number of friends, including Noel and Makoto, knew that she liked bitter sweets such as matcha and adzuki beans.

With a dignified demeanor that did not shame her birth, Tsubaki took a spoonful of bracken rice cake and matcha ice cream sprinkled with matcha powder, and then continued in a gentle tone.

"Noel is good at both studying and sports, and above all, she has excellent Ars Magus aptitude, the best since the founding of the officer school. Qualities that are inherent cannot be improved later. As the secretary of the division commander, she has the perfect qualities."

"Well, I think Noel's Ars Magus aptitude is amazing. But…" 

Despite agreeing, Makoto still had an unsettled look on her face. There was no objection to what Tsubaki said. But still, there was something that stuck in her mind. Noel had the same feeling, and she dropped her shoulders with a sigh.

"I... I don't have any confidence. I'm disliked by Kisaragi-senpai, and besides..."

Above all, she knew that Tsubaki really wanted to become Jin's secretary.

Tsubaki liked Jin. Not as a childhood friend or a senior at school, but as a man.

She had no memory of wanting to work by the side of someone she liked, wanting to be useful to that person. But she would understand, because she had seen Tsubaki, who had been studying hard every day to work next to Jin someday. She knew how pure and straightforward that feeling was.

However, she couldn't put that into words and throw it at Tsubaki.

It was not something to be treated so roughly.

So Noel swallowed the thoughts that came to her mind, along with the sweet and sour strawberry ice cream, before they reached her throat.

"Even if you don't have confidence, you have to work hard. You agreed to become Jin-sama's secretary for your parents, didn't you?"

"Eh?" When Tsubaki gently said that to her, Noel raised her face in surprise. At the end of her raised gaze, Tsubaki's blue eyes were looking at her with a gentle look.

"I heard. If you take on the secretary's position, your family, the Vermillion family's noble privileges will be restored. The Vermillion family will also be supported while you're in office."

At Tsubaki's words, Noel's heart skipped a beat. Driven by that momentum, her fingertips hit the spoon against the parfait glass.

She wondered for a moment how she knew about that, but Tsubaki was the daughter of the Duodecim. The internal affairs of the NOL would also reach her ears to some extent.

On the other hand, Makoto, who knew nothing, raised her body with a start in surprise and leaned forward.

"Eh, is that true, Noel!?"

"...Yeah. Actually..." Noel nodded, not wanting to lie to Makoto or Tsubaki.

Putting her raised belly back on the chair, Makoto slumped over the round table as if clinging to it. Her voluminous, fluffy tail also fell down powerlessly.

"Haa, I see. Then you can't refuse, can you? Your parents are... how should I say it, 'special' to you." Makoto's words, spoken with a deep sigh, were by no means sarcastic, compassionate, or anything that could hurt someone's heart. There was only simple understanding.

Makoto and Tsubaki knew, only in a rough outline, how Noel's family was "special," after hearing it from her.

Noel was adopted.

"About four years ago, wasn't it?" Makoto slowly raised her slumped body and asked nostalgically.

Noel nodded slightly.

"Yeah. During the explosion in Ibukido. I don't remember it well, but a person from the Librarium rescued me, and my current foster father adopted me when he'd heard about me."

Her foster parents, the Vermillions, were kind people. Noel felt a great debt to them for taking her in and treating her with love. At the same time, she felt a great pain in her heart for not being able to do anything for her foster father, who was struggling with his health in a life that could not be described as wealthy.

Therefore, the conditions presented by the NOL, "restoration of noble privileges" and "economic support," were too attractive for Noel, who wanted to repay her kindness in any way possible.

"I'm sorry, Tsubaki." 

Unable to bear it, Noel apologized weakly. If she became Jin Kisaragi's secretary at this time, it would be impossible for Tsubaki to become his secretary in the future unless something extraordinary happened.

It hurt Noel to think that she had crushed Tsubaki's feelings with the heavy weight of her family's situation.

Perhaps Noel's mental state was evident on her face. Tsubaki gave a wry smile at Noel's apologetic expression and shrugged her shoulders.

"Why are you apologizing? Just because you became Jin-sama's secretary doesn't mean I can't be his secretary. Besides, with this chaotic situation where the civil war still isn't over, I'm relieved that a reliable friend is by Jin-sama's side."

Tsubaki's gentle words somehow sounded lonely and painful. It wasn't Noel's career path that was the reason. There was a more direct and immediate reason.

"The Ikaruga Civil War... Kisaragi-senpai hasn't returned from the battlefield yet, has he?" Makoto muttered as if dropping the words, while poking the remaining parfait with her spoon and scooping up the melting ice cream.

Jin was currently on the front line of the Ikaruga Civil War, having been appointed commander of the 4th Thaumaturgist Squadron immediately after graduating. That was why Tsubaki was constantly gloomy.

"Yes. My father's also gone to the battlefield and hasn't returned." 

Tsubaki put a slightly bitter matcha ice cream on a silver spoon and brought it to her mouth. Then, as if spilling out her true feelings, she murmured, "...I wish the war would end soon."

"Tsubaki..." Noel called her name, but she didn't know what else to say.

The Ikaruga Civil War was a long-lasting war. Not only her father and Jin, but many people around Tsubaki were probably talking about who went to which battlefield.

Despite their subdued tone, the murmured words carried deep emotions that resonated heavily in Noel and Makoto's hearts.

"Oh, stop it! Stop this talk! Just because we're feeling gloomy doesn't mean the war will end, and even the parfait won't taste good!" With a vigorous movement as if shaking off the heavy atmosphere that had begun to drift, Makoto stood up and gripped her spoon tightly.

When gave them a cheerful smile, the heavy burden that had been weighing on Noel and Tsubaki's shoulders was dispelled and went elsewhere. Makoto's smile always lifted their spirits, no matter what.

"That's right, Tsubaki, what about your plans after graduation? You have to decide soon, right?"

Changing her mood, she sat back down and asked in a bright voice, while hooking her finger on the teacup she had completely forgotten about in her preoccupation with the parfait.

At the bouncy voice, Tsubaki relaxed her cheeks as if releasing tension.

"Well. I've been thinking about it a lot, but I haven't decided yet. But..." After closing her lips once, Tsubaki put down her spoon and opened her mouth again. "But, I hope I can go to a department where I can follow my own beliefs. I want to become stronger in such a place. So that I can protect what is important to me."

Contrary to her dreamy tone, there was a strong determination in the depths of Tsubaki's eyes. However, no one was able to find it in this place.

"What about you, Makoto?" As if trying to deceive something, Tsubaki turned her gaze away.

"Me?"

Noel also nodded, tilting her teacup towards Makoto, who was pointing at herself.

"Come to think of it, I haven't heard much about your plans. Have you submitted your application?"

"Well… sort of."

Though she'd brought up the topic herself, she was a little uncomfortable with this kind of talk, and Makoto scratched her cheek and laughed while taking a sip of tea.

"Um, for now, the Intelligence Department. I don't know what will actually happen, though."

"Intelligence Department? That's a bit unexpected."

While bringing her lips to the cup, Noel widened her eyes. Makoto was the most skilled in combat among the three. She had assumed that she would be applying for a department that would make use of this.

Putting down her cup, Makoto now scratched her head as if messing up her hair.

"How should I put it? I want to know more about this world. If it's the Intelligence Department or something like that, I feel like I can learn a lot of things I didn't know before."

"That's true, but..."

Even so, the Intelligence Department, which avoids people's eyes and hides in the shadows to act without being known, was far from Makoto's image, and Tsubaki looked puzzled.

Little by little, everyone would be moving in different directions from their student days. Such a thought suddenly passed through Noel's mind, and she secretly hugged the teacup in her hand tightly with both hands.

"Um, you know... it's almost graduation. Even after graduation, we'll still be friends, right?"

Noel had no memories before being rescued in Ibukido. So for her, Tsubaki and Makoto were her first friends in her life. There were other people she could call friends, but Tsubaki and Makoto were special. The time the three of them spent together was truly irreplaceable.

Noel watched her two best friends as if asking for confirmation, waiting for an answer, and Makoto and Tsubaki stared back at her before breaking into smiles as if bursting out.

"Of course, Noel! Right, Tsubaki?"

"Yes, of course."

Makoto's smile, which was like a clear sky, and Tsubaki's smile, which was like a blooming flower. Their kindness warmly enveloped her, and it was so, so happy.

Noel almost cried a little while drinking her tea.

The remaining few days of student life were coming to an end, and they would no longer be attending the same classroom, and they would no longer be able to wear the uniforms of this military academy. But even then, she thought that they could always get together like this and spend a peaceful time like this afternoon, surrounding a single table.

However, after that day, they never had the chance to visit this cafe together.