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Reserved for Ala Atra :(
Freezing 26
P33
Ch. 26: Cassie Lockheart
P34
Cassie: Here you go, sempai.
Mileena: My, what a pleasant scent.
>> Earl Grey, I see...
Cassie: I had the tea leaves shipped from my home.
Mileena: I shall help myself.
Cassie: By all means.
P35
Mileena: Hmm... how nice...
>> I feel a cleansing sensation that reaches all the way to the depths of my soul.
Cassie: By the way, it's quite late...
>> Is there something you need from me?
Mileena: Can I not visit you without a reason?
Cassie: N-No, of course not. You are always welcome here!
Mileena: You're trying to get promoted and...
>> become a Chevalier, right? Cassie...
Cassie: !
P36
Mileena: You've always been ranked 1st for three years now...
>> Just looking at your excellent grades up until now, it's only natural that you'd be aiming to be promoted from 4th year support to active duty Chevalier.
>> If I had to say, actual combat experience may be the only area where you are lacking...
Mileena: Well, we don't know when or where a Nova will show up...
>> So, I guess we can't do much about that...
Cassie: Sempai...
>> I don't plan to be promoted...
Mileena: What do you mean by that!? Cassie!?
>> If someone with your talent isn't promoted, then who would be!!?
P37
Cassie: I have another goal in mind.
Cassie: I want to meet and fall in love with someone... And with that person, I want to build a home together... And then finally, I want to protect that beloved family that we built together...
>> Of course, it is also important to stand and fight should we face a Nova threat, but...
Cassie: Rather than becoming everyone's hero...
>> I feel that protecting those who are truly dear to me suits me better...
Mileena: ...
Mileena: You understand everyone aspires to be you, right?
>> How would someone like you ever be considered normal?
Cassie: No one should think that I'm someone amazing!
P38
Mileena: If a genius like you isn't "someone amazing", then what happens to the ordinary people? What happens to nearly everyone else?
Mileena: You were one of the elites chosen to inherit the hero of the 8th Nova Crash Kazuha Aoi's stigma.
>> A supreme existence... everyone here at East Genetics acknowledges that fact.
Mileena: You are Cassie Lockheart of East Genetics!!
>> One of the people who will lead the Pandora and the Chevalier!
P39
Cassie: But, I don't qualify for that sort of thing...
Mileena: !
Cassie: No matter how many of Kazuha Aoi's stigma I've inherit... No matter how well I do on tests and in training...
>> Those are just mock battles and exams...
>> When it really comes down to it, I'm afraid of fighting... I lack fighting spirit as people call it...
>> Originally, I joined Genetics to aid my father's political career...
Cassie: However, if the three years I spent completing the basic courses here were of no use to father... then...
>> Maybe... I shouldn't have come here in the first place...
Mileena: ...
Cassie: When I finish my courses this year, I intend to hand over my inherited stigma to a suitable owner, and then...
>> I will quietly leave.
P40
Mileena: Cassie...
Mileena: But, no matter how much battle frightens you, your talent is simply too good, regrettably so...
>> Also, there is no absolute certainty that a Nova will appear. While you are active, a Nova crash might not even occur...
>> For your future and for the underclassmen as well, I think you should rethink this...
Cassie: It's not that I'm trying to avoid fighting the Nova...
Mileena: ...!
Cassie: The chosen few who are able to stand up against Novas that shake very existence of mankind... the Pandora...
>> I'm aware that I have that power within me.
P41
Cassie: If Nova were to appear, even after I've graduated, for the sake of my friends and family, I would be able to fight.
>> But, if I'm promoted to a high ranking status in the Chevalier on the basis that I'm a genius...
>> I fear that it will change me as a Pandora...
>> If... If...
Cassie: If that were to happen, everyone would place their hope in me...
>> That scares me to death, Mileena-sempai...
P42
Mileena: Well, if you've thought it through that far, there's not much left for me to say...
>> It's a real shame though...
Mileena: At the very least, I wanted to see you in active duty.
>> I was also looking forward to meeting with you after you joined the ranks of the Chevalier...
>> They don't say it's where talented individuals from Genetics bases all around the world gather for nothing...
Mileena: And then, within that select group of people, the only one suitable to be called the strongest would be you, Cassie Lockheart.
>> Honest. I wanted to see it...
Cassie: That's outrageous! Someone like me couldn't be the strongest...!!
>> There are many people in the world stronger than me...!!
Mileena: You're much too modest.
>> As far as I know, you definitely have the potential to be number one.
P43
Mileena: Genetics bases are steadily increasing around the world as well as the number of Pandoras...
>> Likewise, each of them is gifted with their own talents and strengths.
Mileena: But, there are those who have transcended the limits of imagination...
>> It may even be suitable to call their outstanding abilities "monstrous"
Mileena: However, there exist an unclimbable wall even amongst those Pandoras... Maria Lancelot, the mother of all Pandoras, and
>> Kazuha Aoi, who gave birth to high-end skills in the 8th Nova Crash.
Mileena: You possess three of Kazuha Aoi's stigmas, and a 90% compability rate with those stigma.
>> There exist no other Pandora in the world with a compability rate as high as yours.
P44
Mileena: Even if a part of her body is cut off, she can regenerate it and resume fighting. The "Immortal" of the American branch office, Roxanne Elipton.
Box (top to bottom): 1 Inherited Stigma / 3 Stigma / Compability Rate 29%
Mileena: She is able to create ten images of herself. France's "Young Tempest Phoenix" Charles Bonaparte.
Box (top to bottom): 2 Inherited Stigma / 3 Stigma / Compability Rate 48%
P45
Mileena: The German "Maverick", Julia Munberk. Her attack called "Sonic Web" is capable sending long distanced shock waves in every direction.
Box (top to bottom): 2 Inherited Stigma / 2 Stigma / Compability Rate 36%
Mileena: She inherited no stigmas, but devised her own unique "Turn" technique, the "Illusion Turn". West Genetics' "Monster", Shiffon Fairchild.
Box (top to bottom): 4 Stigma
P46
Mileena: And then, there's you...
Mileena: With three inherited stigmas and two normal stigmas... capable of the "Quadruple Accel"...
>> East Genetics' "Godspeed"
>> Cassie Lockheart!
Mileena: With a total of twenty stigmas in her body, the Pandora hero Kazuha Aoi was the first to compose the concept of "high-end skills".
>> And after her death, the person with the closest compability to her stigma is none other than you.
>> You are different from others... A destined talent given to you as a Pandora...
P47
Mileena: But that strength... it's something only a chosen person, you, would understand. And then, there's your withdrawal...
>> You want to quit without even consulting me?
Cassie: I... might actually not hold the true meaning of strength...
Cassie: The courage to stand up against any threat without yielding.
>> Believing in yourself and the iron will to carry out the mission. That is a Pandora's true strength.
>> But... as for me, I lack that factor... I learned that from a person before me.
>> That and my inner weakness...
Mileena: Your inner weakness? That person taught it that?
P48
Cassie: To be exact, when I fought with "her"...
>> I realized it...
Cassie: She was the center person involved in the Brooks Levon's case...
>> Satellizer L. Bridgette
>> Since confronting her, it...
>> It made me realize how cowardly I was.
Mileena: Satellizer L. Bridgette...?
>> !
P49
Mileena: You mean that psycho girl!?
>> Oh! Now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure that she also inherited stigma like you...
>> Around six or something...
Mileena: I know that she does possess ability to a certain degree, but if we compare her to you...!!
>> Not only that, being the daughter of president of L. Corporation, she forcifully acquired those stigma using her father's power. What an uncontrollable girl!
>> What the hell would prompt her to do such a thing!?
>> Her capability with those stigma wasn't even 5%. She should've just dropped out.
Cassie: Back then...
>> She lost her mind and went berserk. In order to stop her, I was sent in being a fellow 2nd year...
P50
Cassie: At the time, the difference between our abilities was obvious, but...
>> All she was concerned about was victory or defeat. She would not stop fighting...
Cassie (text): No matter much I knocked her down, she'd get back up... an intense undying will...
>> Eventually, she even forced me to use Quadruple Accel, but...
>> When I did, she clearly conveyed her will to me...
Satellizer: I won't... lose...!!
Satellizer: I... won't lose to anyone!
>> I can... never lose...!!
P51
Cassie (text): ...!?
Cassie (text): ...
Cassie: I was frightened...
>> Regardless that I was stronger than her, I turned face and ran away.
>> Would someone like me be able to lead and fight off the Nova...?
Cassie: Me, who acts high and mighty behind the shield that is my ancestry...
>> Me, who When confronted by that opponent turned into a coward...
Mileena (text): ...!
Mileena: You're thinking way too much! That was just...
Cassie: No. Afterward, a group of 3rd years came and settled the matter because I couldn't!
P52
Cassie: I ran away!!
Mileena: Cassie...
Cassie: This is the true face of Cassie Lockheart...
>> Someone like me being promoted, being a sempai, being a hero...
>> It pains me to no end...
>> I'm honestly scared from the bottom of my heart...
Cassie: Someway, somehow, please understand... Mileena-sempai...
Mileena (text): ...
P53
Cassie (text): That is the weakness that dwells within me...
>> Fear...
Cassie (text): It was as though she was her own self in the mirror...
>> Despite that, she was not weak...
>> With her strong and unyielding will...
P54
Cassie (text): That made me see...
>> I can no longer turn back anymore...
Cassie (text): Kyouichi-kun... if I'm with you...
>> I can leave and make a new place for ourselves, right...?
Cassie: !?
P55
Cassie (text): The siren!?
>> What!?
Alarm: Warning! Code 1 alert!! Warning! Code 1 alert!!
>> Warning! Code 1 alert!!
>> Attention all Pandoras!!
Alarm: All students are to put on their battle uniforms and gather in the assembly hall!!
>> Repeat!!
Alarm: All students are to put on their battle uniforms and gather in the assembly hall!!
>> Maintain code 1 alert!!
P56
Alarm: Repeat!!
>> All students are to put on their battle uniforms and gather in the assembly hall!! Maintain code 1 alert!!
P57
[...]
P58
Text in the black trapezoid above "Ranking": [West Genetics / 3rd Year Ranking]
**In order of: white hexagon (rank #) → bold text (character name) → smaller text above the name (character title) → the small black rectangle below the name (limiter)**
1: 1st
>> Shiffon Fairchild
>> The Unmatched Smiling Monster
>> Limiter / Yujin
2: 2nd
>> Elizabeth Mayberry
>> The Academy Reigning Fixer
>> Limiter / Andre
3: 3rd
>> Tish Phenyl
>> The Watchful Hitman
>> Limiter / Abel
4: 4th
>> Annette Maximilion
>> The Blood Spewing Trickster
>> Limiter / Morison
5: 5th
>> Creo Brand
>> The Fists that Fear No God
>> Limiter / Gorou
6: 6th
>> Atia Simmons
>> The Manipulative Schemer
>> Limiter / Mark
7: 7th
>> Ingrid Bernstein
>> The Invincible Defender of Order
>> Limiter / Leo