[LightDragonman]

Let me see if I can add a bit more.
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"Man, it is quite something getting to see yourself on television" Raizo boasted.

"We apparently have the highest ratings of all the news programs" Inuzuka added. "The Beast Up folk have seen their sales doubled ever since our return."

Indeed, it had been quite a whirlwind for the returning pilots. With the news that Shouko had arranged for a summit between her and President Jeffrey Anderson of ARUS, the Module was buzzing with activity. It seemed like not a single hour had gone by without a microphone in the face of one of the students, a sponsorship offer being made to one of the heads (something which pleased Inuzuka very much) or even a simple photoshoot being conducted (often centering around Takahi and her cohorts). It was almost as though a new holiday was being celebrated; one that many hoped would be the cementing of a new alliance between ARUS and New-Jior.

"This is incredible!" Inuzuka raved! "We've even gotten insurance companies that want to-"

"Who cares about television?!" Haruto interrupted tersely, having not budged from his morose sitting position.

The unofficial leader of the Valvrave pilots, despite also sharing in a bit of the excitement (getting to reunite with Shouko certainly helped) held a seemingly out-of-place melancholy expression. To him, it seemed like everyone else was crazy for not taking things as seriously as he was, with the events of the previous excursion still weighing heavily on his mind.

"You saw what was going on in that Phantom ship! They were draining runes from peoples' brains! Something has to be done about this!"

He simply couldn't get that horrifying image to recede into the back of his mind, no matter how easily the others managed to. Perhaps because it reminded him far too much of his inhuman nature, one that he still had yet to reveal to Shouko. He had hoped to be able to forget about this, and having L-Elf be there to take on his burden did accomplish that for a bit. Now though...

"Haruto," Inuzuka said, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "you know that that Phantom was only one out of who knows how many out there. How do you think you are going to even start looking for them?"

"It's not just that" Haruto replied. "If this is what the Council of 101 is doing to those people, we have to stop this before more people suffer as a result of this!"

"Just like I end up doing to others" he thought bitterly.

"Aniki, take it from Thunder here" Raizo added. "I want to kick the crap out of those Council bastards even more than you do. But I have to agree with Inuzuka here. Without knowing their location, we might as well be punching air."

Still, this did nothing to really help Haruto's mood. Especially as he started to remember the fates of two particular classmates.

"Marie's still dead" Haruto sighed. "And here we all are giving interviews and making sponsership deals rather than properly sending her off."

Shouko for her part had been devastated upon seeing the dead body of Marie shortly after reuniting with Haruto. Yet he, to his shame, couldn't tell her the truth about why exactly she died.

What could he say? 'Your friend died thanks to using too many Runes, and she was also a test-subject for the Valvrave project'? Not only would that reveal the truth about him to her (something he desperately wanted to avoid), but the terminology would most likely fly over the poor girl's head. So all he told her was that she suffered a heart-attack. It hurt for him to add another lie to the many he had told his childhood friend, but it that or risk losing all of her trust.

"Shouko has said that a proper burial will be held for her after the summit" Inuzuka said, his hand still on Haruto's shoulder. "It's not like we've forgotten her. The students have already been giving their respects to her like.....Aina."

He had to choke back a tear. The death of his first crush still weighed heavily on Inuzuka's heart. It's why he still kept on fighting after all.

Haruto paused at the utterance of Aina's name. While her death was a part of it, he was instead reminded of the one she was the only friend of. Someone who had been weighing heavily on his mind ever since Youhei mentioned her.

"Then's there's Rukino-san. She's still down on Earth behind enemy lines."

Indeed, it seemed odd to Haruto that aside from him and Youhei, no one, not even his fellow pilots, seemed all that worried about the former idol. Even L-Elf, before they set off to Dorssiana and undertook their doomed rescue of Lieselotte, simply told him that she'd be able to handle it, as he left behind instructions for her on how to get back.

Yet now, it had been almost a full day since the team had returned, and Saki was still nowhere to be found. It seemed as those the excitement of the summit drowned out any potential concerns the residents may have had regarding her whereabouts. Not even the media seemed to ask any questions about her.

"And I thought she was supposed to be our Minister Of Public Relations" Haruto thought bitterly. He didn;t want to imagine her reaction to finding out no one was paying attention to her at the moment.

"All we can do is trust that she's still on the way" Inuzuka said. "Besides, it's not as though we can do anything for her right now. All we can do is focus on what we can do."

"How can you say something like that?" Haruto asked sharply. "Are you telling me to leave one of my best friends out there all alone while we celebrate festivities?!"

"I've always been alone" Saki said, her eyes empty as she stared at the theater screen. "Family? Friends? No one chose me.

That conversation played again and again in Haruto's mind. He remembered just how lonely she had revealed herself to truly be that day, all while trying her best to play it up as just her reciting lines from one of her movies. Yet both deliveries were so achingly sincere, that he saw right through them like an x-ray. And now here he was, leaving her all alone out there again.

"Look, I don't like leaving her out there any more than you do" Inuzuka replied, raising his hand in defense. "But you don't even have a plan to try to find her now. What good is you going off without any sort of strategy going to do you or her right now?"

"A plan", Haruto thought, closing his eyes. There was only one person he could rely on to create that.

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Thoughts?