2 Volume One | Chapter - A New Beginning

Aiko, wake up.

Aiko could hear the call of her name as she stayed in her deep sleep.

Hey, Aiko!

The voice raising in volume ever slightly with each passing feeling, a sharp flick against her cheek made Aiko shoot up, eyes wide awake as she held the left side of her face nursing the sudden pain going through it.

Next to her, Bethany her friend stared at her wondering if she was actually awake.

Aiko still rubbing her left cheek narrowed her eyes at Bethany, "The hell was that for Beth?"

Bethany took in a short quick breathe then sighed, "We're almost at the academy".

Aiko huffing just looked out the window seeing the beautiful green farm fields and the blue sky as their train continued on its course towards Essentia Japan Academy, an academy that specialized in the training of Familiars and Coordinators.

The Familiars were the frontline soldiers of all the Essentia branches utilizing skills beyond that of human nature. The same being for the Coordinators but due to their lack of compatibility with Nebula tissue they resorted to using skills that supported their Familiar partners.

Bethany's cyan coloured hair was short but, her side bangs were pinned up behind her ears.

Aiko sighing spoke up, "I'm really dreading this whole thing already".

Bethany just shook her head knowing all too well that Aiko got lazy and unmotivated if she didn't like something or it didn't go in her favour.

Uli, a girl with long wavy blonde hair and ocean blue eyes another friend of Aiko's, sat across from her.

Responding to Aiko's comment, "Well we are the girls that failed the compatibility test to become Familiars, be grateful that the three of us got to be Coordinators instead"

"That's not what I'm worried about..." Aiko replied bluntly "...it's just...I've never been good at making friends".

Both Bethany and Uli looked at one another then laughed between themselves.

Aiko's cheeks flustered. "Hey, what's with the laughing?" she sheepishly asked.

Once Bethany and Uli had their moment, Uli was the one to answer, "You say you're bad at making friends yet you have me and Bethany" her German accent coming through strongly despite the preceding years of living in Japan as a refugee.

Much like Uli, Bethany too was a refugee from the United Kingdom after the First Nebula Invasion, Europe was left in ruins or worse uninhabitable.

Even though the main body of the invasion force from all those years ago was wiped out, there were still pockets of surviving Nebula in Europe and on rare occasions outside of that continent. With the devastation within the European continent, many countries were rendered incapable of rehabilitating from the attacks so as a result many of the natives migrated from their homes to likes of Japan, China, United States and various other nations.

"Well you wanted to be my friend because you felt sorry for me" Aiko grunted upon saying those words.

Even now she considered Bethany and Uli very much acquaintances, as of today she had only known the two of them for a few months upon meeting them at one of the Familiar Compatibility Test Facilities.

But if there was one thing she could agree with herself on, was the fact that she could rely on the two of them for any help she needed.

Across the aisle sat a group of young JSDF soldiers roughly late teens the too early twenties wearing their typical military green uniforms and black boots.

Whereas the trio of girls wore grey and white corsets and short skirts, along with a white collar and a small red tie as well as thigh-high socks and short heeled shoes.

Aiko looked back towards her friends, "Has it ever occurred to you why the boys aren't compatible with Nebula tissue?" she asks.

Both Bethany and Uli sat there in deep thought, Uli answered first, "No not really, all I've heard is that when they implant Nebula tissues into boys the body attacks the cells and destroys them".

With her hand on her chin, Bethany intervened, "Now that I think about it no one really knows why girls are even compatibility with the tissue in the first place..." laughing nervously Bethany continued her statement "...there were rumours about it being due to possible reproduction of some sort but after so many years of doing this, and the case of it never appearing in research I think we're pretty safe"

"Jeez, Beth, nice way to ruin the mood for everyone" Uli muttered nonchalantly.

"Hey, I was just stating some useful information!" Bethany replied in haste.

"I think the last thing Familiars and Coordinators need to worry about is whether an alien organism is reproducing inside of them..." Uli's tired façade soon change to that of worry "...wait, you're into that stuff aren't you?!"

Bethany's face couldn't hide the confusion, "W-w-w-what are you talking about?!" she stuttered at first.

"You know..." without realizing it many people could hear their conversation, and most certainly the JSDF soldiers across the aisle from them "...hentai, ALIENS!"

Disgusted by the thought of it Bethany shouted out, "That's just sick and disgusting!".

Uli did an offhanded wave, "Say that to the thousands of doujinshi artists including Nebula in their works"

Shocked Bethany just had to ask, "How do you even know about that?!"

"Well when you have three brothers that talk about stuff like that in front of their sister, it's a bit hard to miss such details..." Uli wraps her slender arms around her waist, shivering "...I dread to think what those three are up to when I'm not around".

Before the conversation could go any further, Aiko intervened, "Um, I think it's best to stop talking about this because..."

Both Bethany and Uli looked around many people were just looking at them, a mixture of shock, disgust and embarrassment were written across their face "...you sort of gained quite the crowd" Aiko finished.

Both Uli and Bethany attempted to hide themselves away wishing to get rid of the humiliation the two of them had just garnered.

***

As the trio of friends disembarked off the bullet train, they were met with a column of Armiger Familiars, the elite of all the Familiars the ones that graduated from Essentia Academies from around the world. They answered directly to the United Nations and due to their elite status, they were mainly deployed as elite paramilitary between Nebula Invasions to keep order and peace around the world.

They were all in Essence Form Armour, they had metallic digitized armour plating covering their entire body, and where they needed the movement at the limbs the armour was replaced with this orange lighted energy.

In fact, the design covered all of the armour making it look like arteries and veins that were glowing through the gaps of the armour and upon the surface.

Like Aiko and her friends, there were many other Coordinators travelling upon the bullet train.

An Armiger Familiar stepped forward this one with more fancy decals and attached armour plating upon her Essence Form Armour clearly depicting that she was a rank of authority within Armiger.

"Coordinators on your way to Essentia Japan Academy you'll be escorted by Armiger personnel! Get to your designated vehicles" the woman barked, and with that, the Coordinators complied with her demands and swiftly followed the Armiger escort.

Outside the station waited for a row of Armiger customized Humvee's, the Coordinator students were ordered to get into one of the Humvee's.

As Aiko and her friends got in one, they were quickly joined by a newcomer, her hair pure black and messy hanging down just past the nape of the back of her neck, her venom green eyes piercing into Aiko.

Aiko felt some form of bad aura emanating from this girl for some reason she had the urge to create a conversation with this girl, "So, hey" Aiko said in a quiet tone.

"What was that!" the girl responded, startling Aiko.

Waving her hands Aiko quickly responded, "O-Oh nothing j-just muttering to myself" Aiko laughed nervously.

The black haired girl gave her a look of pure disdain, "Weird klutz".

Upon hearing that it riled Uli up the wrong way, "Have you got a problem or something?" she demanded from the new girl.

"Huh?" the girl responded.

"Who heard me," Uli said through gritted teeth.

Bethany and Aiko were attempting to diffuse the situation before it turned into a fist fight, and when it came to Uli she never missed an opportunity for a good punch-up with someone.

The girl's face contorted into anger, "What's your problem all of a sudden?"

"Aiko was only trying to be friendly to you, then you had to turn around and call her a weird klutz!" Uli raised her voice.

The girl next to Uli turned to look at Aiko, sweating from the possibility of witnessing a punch up she just tried to laugh it off when the girl looked at her.

The black haired girl turned away her cheeks slightly red but still angry, "Well I'm not here to make friends..." glancing at Aiko "...but, thanks for the kind gesture I suppose".

Aiko just looked at her, shocked for a moment by how nice and innocent she was just then, but it wasn't long before that façade was taken away and replaced with her aggressive persona.

Uli still not satisfied still had a bone to pick with the girl, but she stopped when both Aiko and Bethany begged her to let it go.

Both Uli and the girl sat next to one another other clearly pissed, while Aiko and Bethany felt uncomfortable in the Humvee as it started moving.

To take her mind off what just happened Aiko looked out the window of the door on her side, staring up at the mesmerizing rich blue clear sky as they drove through endless busy streets of Kyoto.

***

In the middle of one Essentia Japan Academy's many gardens sat a girl on a bench, her layered hair blowing with the wind, her hair a glistening silver.

Her hair, in general, was short, down the back it only just reached above the nape of her neck, she had two bangs on either side just in front of both of her ears hanging past her collarbones, they closely resembled pigtails.

Along with a few strands of hair coming down between her eyebrows.

Her light grey and white corset and short skirt showed her well-defined average built body.

The small red tie attached to her white collar blew gently with the wind, and the thigh-high socks showed off her slender legs along with the short heeled shoes, as her dark grey sleeves showed off her slender arms.

Over her hair, she wore red headphones listening to her favourite artist, iMeiden.

They were wireless and the music was installed into the headphones themselves which is one of the things this girl loved the most about her headphones.

She sat there looking up into the sky feeling relaxed, her stoic expression strangely made her more attractive than most people would have thought.

Closing her eyes, she didn't realize her friend Hibiki was calling to her, trying to get her attention.

Hibiki with her short crimson red hair rushed up to her friend grabbing her.

This startled the other girl, she looked at Hibiki briefly before taking off her headphones the music still playing.

"Why didn't you answer me?!" Hibiki demanded an answer from her friend.

With her stoic expression she eyed Hibiki and with her left hand holding her headphones, she lifted them up her index finger tapping upon the edge.

Hibiki just sighed, "Could you at least try not to have them on all the time, Sachi?" she asked.

Sachika shrugged, "I like listening to music, it's calming for me"

Hibiki turned away looking up at the sky, "Anyway, the new group of Coordinators are arriving, you know what that means"

Upon hearing that Sachika bit her bottom lip a small trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth, "Yeah I know" she bluntly replied.

Hibiki turns back to look at her friend, "I know you lost your previous Coordinator in the last operation we went out on..."

A look of sadness came across Hibiki's face upon remembering that event "...but you're going to have to make a new Blood Contract with another Coordinator" Hibiki finished.

Clenching her fists in anger, "Forget it I'm not going through that again, I'll fight alone" Sachika hissed.

"You know the Mistress won't allow that, I know it's hard what you're going through..." Hibiki places a hand over her chest glancing at the floor before returning her gaze back upon Sachika "...you have to move on like everyone else"

Tears started to stream down Sachika's cheeks, "It's alright for you didn't have to watch your Coordinator get butchered by Nebula, unable to do anything to save her!"

She tried wiping the tears away but they still kept coming.

Standing up she leaves before Hibiki could say any more, she placed her hands over her face attempting to wipe the tears away to no avail as she continued walking.