Youjo Senki: Falling is like Flying

I

The newly pinned medal glistened upon her chest, where it had been placed by the Kaiser. The silver wings assault medal, the highest honour for a flight mage.

The young girl was beaming with pride, standing between two men, also recipients of the medal. More than twice her age, they were undoubtedly wondering what she had done to earn a medal that they had struggled for. She didn't care.

She didn't..

Care.

—————————————

Something hot and sharp entered her gut.

She sat bolt upright in bed, sweating profusely. The Argent. Scared, terrified. It was fear. Tanya Von Degurechaff was scared. The Argent, scared.

Her memories of her past life, long since faded, did nothing to change her, she still held the experience, strength and fortitude of her early war days.

Next to her slept the form of Viktoriya Ivanova Serebryakov, currently her romantic partner. Despite Tanya not understanding love very well, she knew that, both mentally and physically, she was attracted to the other girl. It did help that she was also quite pretty.

Another spike in Tanya's gut sent the Argent flying off Visha,from her bed, landing in a crouch in the adjacent bathroom, the tightening of her gut an unwelcome vanguard to-

The unpleasant sound of a person throwing up filled the two story house in the streets of Berlun.

Now on the floor, Viktoriya rubbed her head, wondering how she had arrived on the floor, subsequently hearing Tanya being ill in the adjacent bathroom.

Viktoriya flicked on the light, the dull glow filling the room as she barely made out the figure of Tanya crouched in front of the toilet, retching and hugging the bowl like a mother would their child in an air raid.

The older girl shuddered. She remembered the bombings of Köln, the desperate attempts to stop it, the...

Viktoriya rubbed her shoulder. Marred by the wounds a decade old, it was the wound she took in the battle for the city. It kept her from the war for the next 2 years, slowly recovering with what was available to her, the adjutant of the lead mage battalion.

The Major was worse. She had nearly died for good. Three times, the Argent died on that operating table. Three times new newest device, something along the lines of defibligator... defibrillator.. Defibrillator! That's it. A defibrillator, something made in the Allied Kingdom, was used to restart her heart. Viktoriya marvelled at the achievements of modern science.

And here she was, the wounded war veteran, hunched over in front of her, Visha didn't remember even walking to the bathroom. Her arms wrapped around Tanya's bare torso, just under the younger girls bust.

"Feeling better, Tanya?" Viktoriya's tentative question escaped her lips.

A slight nod came as the response. Viktoriya subconsciously moves her hands lower, her fingers finding the scars from the life saving surgery Tanya had undergone.

Without her consent, she was torn backwards, hurled into a memory.

———————————

The duo flew down the street, managing the few civilians and the numerous soldiers remaining in the city. The bombs were falling faster now, a crime the high command of the François republic would pay for with their heads.

Viktoriya turned to the Argent, a blinding flash of white filling her vision, temporarily blinding her, searing hot pain in her shoulder and the feeling of a warm red liquid rolling down her shoulder all present.