Progrising Beyond Stratos

Chapter 11 - Breaking the Chaos

Earlier...

Mizuki flies far and wide throughout the area, as she tries to find any IS Officers around. But so far, she didn't encounter any of them, as if they're no where to be found. She panted and took a rest at a nearby abandoned café, deactivating her IS while praying for the safety for both her mother and Zero One.

'Where could they be?!' She pondered over the mystery of the missing officers. 'Shouldn't they be nearby in crisis like this?'

And then, a rumble. Sounds of giant mechanical footsteps are heard, and with it, rumble. Mizuki took a cautious peek, only to see a giant black metal in front of her. The metal then rises up and moved, as the same notion happened. Mizuki then take a clear look above, seeing a ten meter giant mech walking towards a direction.

'Is that... an IS?!' She thought. At first glance, it looked like an oversized IS, but on closer inspection, it's clearly not. The black giant continues its path towards a direction, smashing any buildings nearby with its arms. Mizuki panics and goes back inside, fearing of the falling debris that could hit her.

'Mom...' She thought in worry, fear and worry setting in once more. Little did she knew that outside, her mother has just encountered the black giant.

Outside of the cafe, Kotona sees the black giant, now realizing what the danger that Zero One alluded to. Her mind screamed of using her weapons to attack it, but her rationale stopped her from doing so, seeing that it might not work due to both its size and its unknown type of armor.

'Damnit! What should I do?!' She thought. Unfortunately, the giant spotted her, and proceed to aim its fist towards her. Kotona gasps and flies away to dodge it, but the giant instead hit the building, causing debris to fall onto her. Realizing the intent, and with no time to react from the debris, Kotona closed her eyes and raised her IS' shield level to brace herself, but...

"Miss Kotona!" A magenta blur tackles her in high speed, getting her away from the debris, but instead crashes into an abandoned café. The IS Officer clenches in pain from the impact, before seeing her savior, being none other than Zero One himself, back into his Flying Falcon form.

"Zero One..." She said, feeling relieved from the saving.

"Guh... Made it in time." The Rider said in return.

"Mom? Zero One?" From a distance, Mizuki emerged from her hiding spot, as her face then turn to relief of seeing the two. "You're okay! What happened?!"

"I was trying to find the other Officers to warn a potential danger, but I found the danger instead..." Kotona explained. "It's using the debris to attack me, but thankfully Zero One came." She then alluded to the recovering Rider. When the Officers were mentioned however, Mizuki ran to her mother in tears.

"That's the thing, mom. I can't find them anywhere!" She sobbed, "And it's horrible! All those people and buildings that are ruined..." She continued to cry, as the scene that she saw earlier while finding the Officers came back to her.

"Damnit!" Kotona slammed the floor in anger. "What are they thinking?! Why are they not doing anything right now?! Are their lives far more important than the ones that're in danger right now?!" As Kotona continue to rage, Mizuki hugged her mother tight to calm her down, which the latter then does so after seeing how worried her daughter is.

"... If anything, that proves that Horobi's right about something." Zero One's next words shocked the two. "It's not that I agree with her and her way, but since the Officers are not here, they might be ordered to not get involved in the crisis. It's like..."

"A corruption..." Kotona concluded. She wanted to rant more, but Zero One then held her shoulder to calm her down.

"I know that it's hard, but we will get to the bottom of this." He then said. "But first, we have to stop Metsuboujinrai's terror as soon as possible. We can't let more lives end because of this."