Danball Senki Re:arise

EP 108: And Beyond Despair... is Hope

 The atmosphere in Tiny Orbit was so heavy that evening, one could easily suffocate. Not only that their raid had failed drastically, but also they were faced with losses. Lilyan turned in rather early, wanting some peace of mind and some time alone. Aya bolted into her room too since Takuya gave her some bad news. William was yet in the infirmary, having his broken leg tended to.

The rest of Seekers gathered in the dining hall and bend down on their damaged LBXs, fixing them in utter silence. No one of them spoke, their minds preoccupied with events from earlier that day. Their face-off against Leviathan, the hard truth he struck about their future, how he simply obliterated a whole tower with a single blow, it was all bothering them.

A clinking sound snapped them out of their silence and made them turn to one of the tables which were occupied by Gouda, Asuka and Sendou.

Asuka: " sorry, my screwdriver fell off. Didn't think it would sound that disturbing."

She halfheartedly joked as she bent down to pick it up but stopped when seeing her hand shaking. That was missed by neither of her neighbors on the table, or any of those who were paying close attention to her.

Sendou: " hey."

He picked the screwdriver and give it back to her as she sat straight.

Sendou: " you okay?"

He asked all concerned for her. Asuka merely bobbed her head multiple times.

Asuka: " yeah, yeah, great..."

But the fact that her hand was still shaking didn't help at all. She tried to stop it by grabbing her wrist with her other hand but to no avail. Seeing that, Sendou stood up and sat on her side of the table.

Sendou: " you know you're not fooling anyone in here. You're acting too docile since we came back."

Asuka sighed deeply at that and lifted her face so she looked at both boys.

Asuka: " I'm afraid, alright... you've all seen just how strong that thing is... It literally blew off the tower before our own eyes, and we could not move a muscle... How could we even begin to face it?!"

She admitted. Gouda and Sendou exchanged worried looks. That was bothering them as well. Not to mention that no sooner than they had come back, they were greeted by the news of Leviathan's weapon being scattered all over the world.

Huge tanks in almost every city as though standing guard over the citizens, making sure they were not to do anything funny. How he managed to spread and deploy them so fast was yet beyond them. It felt, as professor Yamano said, as though he had taken the whole world as a hostage so that he could prevent them from retaliating to him.

Many of them shifted uncomfortably in their seats, unable to shake off Asuka's words. Elie snapped when Jin beside her stood up and walked off.

Elie: " where are you going?"

Jin looked back at her.

Jin: " to check on Aya, she didn't even show up for dinner, so I'll see if she needs anything."

And with that, he left the hall. Elie merely sighed at that and went back to her work.

Elie: " he really can't help but care for everyone, right."

Ban: " that's Jin for you."

He said and heaved a tired sigh before looking back at his sister. Sensing his glance, she looked back at him curiously.

Elie : " is something on my face?"

Ban: " no. Actually... I'm rather worried about what's going to happen from here on so-"