Understanding by God Arcs

Sano began his work on his god-arc. The other mechanics and technicians didn't bother him without request and went about their business. All but one, who stood behind peeking over his shoulder every minute or less.

"(Not like I expected privacy anyway.)" Sano thought bitterly as he peeked behind to see Licca watch him work. His black buster-blade was slightly disassembled, as the shield and blade were hanging on by the tendrils of the main core.

"Do you have everything you need?" Licca said.

"Yeah." Sano looked at the welding kit accompanied by a wrench, screwdriver, and even a torque wrench. In prison, he'd never be allowed around a welder or blow-torch. Not a good one at least.

"Ya know, I don't mean to brag, but I'm the best god-arc mechanic in the Far East, I could help." Licca teased childishly.

"So I've heard." Sano said bluntly, as he ignited the blow-torch and hovered it over the shield. It had seen better days, but it was still standing. A rectangular form, with two "horns" coming from the top and a faded eye at the center. The Faded silver was the only thing that shined on it.

Glory be to tower shields.

"If you'd be willing to trust my expertise, I could give your god-arc a good lookover, because of the armlet system you can't use the entire maintenance deck." Licca encouraged, annoying Sano without fail.

"Ya know you weren't this talkative yesterday." Sano said sarcastically, as he undid the torch.

'Yeah well..." Licca looked down at the floor unable to give a response.

As Sano continued, the room fell silent, bar the sounds of other workers inspecting other god-arcs. Sano at first found this comfortable, but as the minutes rolled by it occurred to him that throughout most of yesterday's antics Licca was abnormally silent.

The type of silence that implies a heavy weight on one's mind. Then it clicked to the inmate.

"You know everything." Sano didn't mean to assume, but one look at the reflection in his blade and Licca's face was revealed to him. She didn't look up at him as she tightened her first.

"Yeah." Licca said.

"Then why are you trying to help me?" Sano asked, putting a hammer to his blade.

"You saved Erina." Licca said, grabbing the ears of the other workers.

"You've given me enough. You don't have to pretend to like me." Sano said.

"That's not what I'm doing." Licca said, as her voice started to elevate.

A pang of guilt hit Sano, but he avoided turning around to face her.

"If you know, you could be endangering other god-eaters." Sano said,

"I don't pretend to be a good judge of character, at least for god-eaters. The way I get to know someone is through their god-arc." Licca said, lifting her downcast head.

Sano halted using the burning torch and turned to face Licca.

"You do that? You talk with them?" Sano asked.

"I mean sometimes, it can be weird, I mean what if they can actually understand me? They're living creatures turned to weapons." Licca said with a giggle.

If only she knew.

"Your record said you're going away for about 5 lifetimes. You look mean and all, but I just don't get THAT kind of vibe from you. I want to understand how the person who saved Erina was pushed to murder..." Licca said.

Sano looked at his blade. Seeing Licca's reflection shows her earnest face eased his hesitance.

Ya know it's not ideal, but you could learn a few things from her.

Sano looked at his god-arc up and down. Then as he looked back at Licca he noticed not just her staring at him. The hallway of mechanics all stood waiting for a reaction.

"Did they know about his crimes too?", he thought.

Then the inmate thought, "If they knew, did Kanon and Erina as well?" Doubtful considering how they've acted, but there was no telling.

Sano commanded his god-arc to reassemble and moved towards Licca. At the sudden action, Licca's heart tightened but remained still.

At the clang of his god-arc hitting the ground, she jumped with a startle.

"You get one look. ONE." Sano said presenting his god-arc.

After a double-take, Licca raised her arms and started skipping around. The rest of the crew, all aimed their smiles at the inmate and nodded in acceptance.

"You won't be disappointed! Please follow me, and someone clear a station for me please!" she said as Licca led the inmate down the hallway.

I don't think you'll regret this. The others had some stuff to say in her favor.

Sano gripped his god-arc feeling the prying eyes of the technicians, but not one hint of hostility. In fact quite the opposite, with his "timid" face they didn't talk to him directly, but they praised Licca over and over again.

Along with that, a mountain of thanks.

Thanks for saving Erina!

We really wouldn't know what to do if she didn't make it.

Thank you for saving Erina!

Thank you so much!

"(How long have they been holding this back?)" Sano thought, bewildered at the constant gratitude. These people clearly didn't know his criminal record, right?

He eyed Licca as she hummed to herself entering a few keys on a terminal.

"Alright, let's go! Please put your god-arc on the conveyor rack." Licca held her hand out to the display next to the terminal.

With a deep breath, Sano slowly placed his weapon on the conveyor and it was moved along the console and placed on a flat stand. The mechanism then unhinged the god-arc by the handle, blade, and shield while it was still connected by the tendrils.

"By the way where are Kanon and Erina?" Licca asked she peered into the terminal screen.

"Outside running laps." Sano said

"No kidding? Don't you wish you could join them?" Licca asked as she pulled a lever on the console. A robotic arm rose up with a blowtorch attachment. Then another with some sort of barometer, and then a third arm with a camera.

"Yes. So I could make sure they don't slack off." Sano said, making Licca flinch.

"That's too bad, but you must get to go out once in a while in prison." Licca said remembering the inmate's circumstances.

"Outside is either missions or inside the building. The rest of the time is in a cell." Sano stated, so bluntly that Licca mistook for hostile.

"I'm sorry..." she said sadly.

"You know what I've done right?" Sano asked sarcastically.

"Yeah...but since we're here, maybe you can tell me your side of the story...." Licca said quietly, keeping her face on the screen.

Sano silently contemplated her suggestion. Every day here had lead to something unexpected. Nothing like in a prison meant for the scum of the earth.

If Licca wanted to spurn him, she's had too many chances to do so. There was no reason to answer considering her and her peoples' hospitality thus far.

But before he could get one word out, a scream interrupted him.

"WHAT IS THIS!? ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" Licca screamed, startling others across the hall.

Yesterday had gone so long, it felt like it would never end. The inmate had a feeling today would be similar.

Oh too similar.

"Who in their right mind would let a god-eater fight with this chaff!? This is awful! Explain this!" Licca yelled as she pointed at the screen.

Sano looked to see the camera on his shield's back section and a reading extend across the screen.

"I do believe I said, I didn't get good parts or equipment." Sano said, happily drinking the water Erina left for him.

"But this!? Look you actually did a pretty good job on the blade, I can validate that. But the shield is basically JUNK! Its integrity is barely on par with a buckler, and that's only because you worked on it. A tower shield is supposed to have 3 times the armor and yours is basically paper mache!" Licca ranted.

She went on and on and on, about god-arc maintenance, proper safety standards, and disgraceful mechanic practices.

The inmate was no fool, he knew what he was working with. It didn't take an expert like Licca to explain that.

"Whenever I got something good I couldn't prioritize my sword and shield. I only had enough to upkeep one, and when I did I had to give up the rest to my friends." Sano said, irritated at Licca's constant ramblings.

"You have friends in prison?" Licca asked, finally starting to calm down.

"...Yes." Sano answered.

"ARE THEY ALL LIKE THIS!?" Licca screamed.

Sano wasn't sure to feel irritated or touched at her response.

"More or less, it's easier to maintain the guns. We're given the bare minimum and if we're short we gotta deal with it." Sano explained.

"Well, you're certainly not dealing with THIS! This shield needs a complete replacement!" Licca said typing away on the terminal and more robot arms appeared holding an assortment of machines.

"That's safe?" Sano asked, getting more concerned for his god-arc.

Those look painful...

"You can leave this to me! Come to the console and pick something from our pre-made stock." Licca commanded, motioning him to the terminal.

As Sano approached, the screen filled with lined-up shields. There were 3 types of shields commonly used on melee god-arcs.

A buckler, light-weight that wouldn't give much protection to heavy hits, but it's good for maneuverability, and fast protection against precise attacks.

The mid-tier shields could take heavier hits, but only so much, and while not as light as a buckler still didn't require much effort to use. It also deployed at decent speeds.

Then for maximum protection the Tower Shield, heavy enough to endure any damage across multiple battles, and of course the heavy set of the shield types. This shield's only drawback was the time needed to deploy it before being hit.

The inmate already knew what he wanted.

"You can skip to the tower shields." Sano said, not giving another glance at the light stock.

"I shouldn't be surprised, alright." Licca said with an obnoxious snort.

A few keystrokes and the screen displayed bulkier shields.

"Next page." Sano said and Licca complied.

Many of these models were familiar to him, but none of them were a reproduction of his current god-arc's shield.

"Is there an updated version of the one I have?" Sano asked.

"Depends on where it was made." Licca said, going to the next page.

"HQ." Sano said with a hint of bitterness.

"Really? So that would make it a European-made model. I"ll see, but I doubt we have it in our database." Licca said.

Sano watched the screen change again and again waiting for Licca's response.

"There are a few European god-arc shields like this one, but they're not Tower Shields." Licca said.

"Then never mind, I can make the rest of the modifications myself. Show me your Tower Shield with the fastest deployment mechanism." Sano said.

"Oh, that would be THIS!" Licca moved away from the screen, with a smirk. Sano needed to check his vision at the sight of this shield. Compared to his old one, it was fleshy and bony. In the center was a half-morphed skull melded into the rib cage that made up of the outer shield.

"You picked a real nasty one." Licca teased.

"There's more to this thing than deployment speed isn't there?" Sano asked, intrigued by the shield.

"The oracle data says all." Licca said, holding her hand to the screen.

Sano moved beside reading the various text windows.

His eyes widened in disbelief?

"Are you serious!?" he said.