Symphogears? Meet the Synchrogears!

The thing about this world, is that there was always, ALWAYS something going on behind the scenes. Whether one is just walking down the street of a town, village or city, up to sitting in an office room looking at documents. One may not always see it, but there are always things going on around them, things which they might not see as important or necessary, but they occur regardless. If one wants to make a comparison to it, think of it like a bustling beehive, every Bee inside of it always has a specific task in their minds, just like how the average person is mostly focused on how they will live their lives. Though, in a sense, that could be said to be the case for literally anything in this existence people call home. Whether that this lack of an uninteresting lifestyle is a good or a bad thing would be up to the individuals themselves, as in the end no matter what people say there was only one truth about the world: Good and Evil, they do not exist. Instead, there are only people and their ideals, the rules that they lived their entire lives by.

Colours are merely what people paint them as, nothing else.

"You're wrong. It's not the world that's messed up; it's those of us in it. Yes, some walk a path that leaves sorrow in their wake, but just like anyone, we can choose a different path altogether. We have a lot to learn, both your kind and mine. We need to stop fighting, and start talking. Because when it comes to the state of the world, you can't point your finger at just one person. We're all to blame."

"Acts of taking are equally evil. We, from the moment of birth, continue to take. Food, people that got involved with us, even our own flesh and blood. For as long as we live, we will continue to slaughter, kill, take. Life is to constantly sin. Life is evil itself. I am aware, I am evil... and so are you all. Now, come kill me. And I shall do the same!"

"You think you're the only ones who matter. You think you can put off death. But peace that made you foolish and thoughtless. If you kill someone, someone else will kill you... this hatred binds us together."

"People live their lives bound by what they accept as correct and true. That's how they define "reality". But what does it mean to be "correct" or "true"? Merely vague concepts ... their "reality" may all be a mirage. Can we consider them to simply be living in their own world, shaped by their beliefs?""

"There's no such thing as perfect in this world. That may sound cliche, but its the truth. The average person admires perfection and seeks to obtain it. But what is the point of trying to achieve perfection? There is none. Nothing. Not a single thing. I spit on perfection! If something is perfect, then there is nothing left. There is no room for imagination. No place left for that person to gain additional knowledge or abilities. Do you know what that means? For scientists such as us, perfection only brings despair. It is our job to create things more wonderful than anything before them, but never to obtain perfection. A scientist must be a person who finds ecstasy while suffering from that antinomy."

"Everyone who searches for power, without exception, searches for battle. Do you fight in order to become more powerful? Or do you want more power so you can fight?"

The ability to form an opinion of something... this was a trait unique to humans themselves, there are few other beings on the planet capable of such a feat.

In large part, a society's image stems from its overall opinions – its political, religious, and ethical beliefs – and how much diversity it tolerates. For example, how do some areas develop images of being either liberal or conservative, and, in others, liberals and conservatives live side by side? As a team of researchers explains, one's individual opinions both influence and are influenced by our surroundings. By following a set of rules, the researchers have modeled the opinion formation process in societies where individuals' opinions are strongly influenced by others they interact with. The scientists found that, depending on two criteria – how strongly individuals are influenced by each other and how many connections individuals have – a society's overall state can exhibit either large segregated patches of consensus, or areas with closely intermingled opinions.

Ideals… That's what truly shaped people in the end…

No matter what anyone else says.

The light of the morning sun blazed brightly upon the futuristic city during this summer season. According to the time, the day had just begun, making it an early to middle morning for the city's residents, marking the beginning of their everyday routines. People left their homes for one reason or another, filling the streets like ants coming out of their holes as they each travelled to their own destinations. Some travelled to get to work on time, others travelled to the various schools located throughout the city, whilst others just wanted to spend their time leisurely by going to various shops, arcades, spas etc. As a result of this, the entire city looked to be bustling with rich, vibrant life from a bird's perspective, several flocks of said creatures fluttering over the many tall buildings.

"… Whoo, the heat today's especially intense… wonder if people are still on about that global warming thing…"

One such person stood by a zebra crossing, furrowing their brows with slight exhaustion whilst swiping a hand over their forehead to clean it of any sweat. Judging from the person's words, it seemed that the summer heat had been especially brutal on their flesh, causing the person to exude sweat from their forehead. The fact that there were so many people around him either on their phones, remaining quiet with their heads down or chatting away to one another like two siblings before going to war, didn't really help things. Though this wasn't something which bothered the person who'd made the comment, as the nearby traffic light switched from red to green to allow the people to cross over. The sounds of feet patting against the ground filled the person's ears which he made to follow suit, knowing that there wasn't much time to be doing anything else.

"Then again, its not really any of my concern, since I can hardly do anything about it solo. Now, if I were that Jin Sung Woo from Solo Levelling, that'd be a different story altogether, hehe…"

The person once again spoke to themselves, a chuckle escaping afterwards whilst they crossed the zebra crossing and ended up on the other side. The person then raised his right wrist close to his eyes whilst looking down, checking the black watch, which was attached to his wrist for the time, a thoughtful hum escaping his lips. "Whelp, looks like I have about 10 minutes before school starts, and at my current pace I should get there in 5… yeah, I'm good." The person remarked again. This person turned out to be a young male, at least 15 years of age although one might not be able to tell that about him from how… youthful he looked.

If one were to look at him, then they wouldn't assume him to be very much due to how plain he looked. What with his unkept black hair which reached the nape of his neck, with black thin rimmed glasses covering his greyish-looking eyes. The boy used his other hand to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose when he felt them having slid down, a habit he had developed since starting to wear them in public. The boy's facial features didn't look all that bad either and some thick eyelashes as well which his glasses hid, so it wasn't as if he looked anything close to ugly, either. He just looked like someone you wouldn't pay that much attention to, someone who didn't stand out in a crowd… something he didn't really mind all that much since he preferred it that way.

In terms of clothing, It wasn't anything out of the ordinary either, if anything it's the exact opposite. The guy wore a school uniform consisting of a black blazer which was closed, exposing only a small V section to show the white dress shirt underneath, a crimson coloured tie wrapping around his neck. The uniform had a single golden button on the cuffs of the blazer, giving it this smart and intellectual appeal to it, whilst it also sported a couple pins on its collar. For legwear, he wore the uniform's tanned pants with polished black shoes, whilst he carried a light brown handbag in his right hand. Around his neck, was a single black choker, which slightly showed pieces of what looked like a chain having been hidden within his clothes.

'Hmmm… Looks like the clearest path to school would be to cross into a side street, since these crowds are being a major pain in the butt…' he thought with a frown forming on his lips as he turned to walk down a different direction to the main crowd. If there was one thing he disliked in his routine, it would be having to deal with noisy crowds especially when he was in a hurry. Normally they were a source of discomfort, though nothing that the teen couldn't handle if he couldn't help it.

Whilst he walked down the street, he soon came to a smaller, narrower walkway, one which lead through a residential area if he wasn't mistaken. The teen smiled to himself at the sight, since he had come here more than a few times to get to school on time whenever he was in a hurry, his feet patting against the pavement beneath him as he strode through. The soft chirping of the birds and wildlife in what few trees grew around the neighbourhood filled his ears too, calming his agitated nerves and letting him exhale softly, his previous mood improving significantly. Well, then again going through this area was the quickest way for him to get to school, he didn't want to be late either otherwise the folks would grill his backside alive. It didn't help that he had slept in due to… reasons.

Not going to dwell on those though since he had other things to worry about…

Like this little situation he found here.

Upon turning a corner, the teen looked up from his previous staring at the pavement when his ears twitched upon picking up sounds of mocking laughter. Looking to the source, his eyes narrowed with a hostile glint shining into existence behind his glasses, especially since the sources turned out to be some guys in their mid-twenties dressed in punkish style clothing. They appeared to be gathered around something, and judging from the sniffles he picked up, it was likely a young child, all of them wearing these disgusting facial expressions which made someone who looked at them want to knock their freaking teeth out. Seeing this made the teen grit his teeth behind his blank facial expression, flames of similar emotion beginning to erupt within his eyes behind his glasses.

Well, I think we all know where this is going…

Moments later…

"You got a death wish pal? Nobody jumps one of my boys and walks away from it without some bones broken."

If there was one thing that these punks had expected out of today, it wasn't for someone to suddenly jump them by kicking one of them in the ball sack from behind hard enough to knock one of them out. That, well… it happened to them, causing each of them to turn to the source with looks of shock and outrage, whilst the ones they had been picking on (perhaps even extort for money too, they weren't too high on cash at the moment), a young boy and girl looked as well. Upon seeing the cause of the incident being nothing more than a high school kid judging by his apparel, and a weakling one at that with how slim his build looked, well one could just imagine how these thugs would have reacted.

Shame (not really) that the boy before them didn't really have much of a reaction to their leader's words. Instead, he just looked at them with a blank expression, like he were looking at a bunch of idiots or ants on the side of the road. The teen added to his disinterested demeanour by rubbing the side of his head, as if he were struggling to think up what to do in this situation, or perhaps sheer exasperation. Either way, it didn't sit well with the leader, judging by how increasing red from anger his face got.

"Oh, a silent type eh?"

Eventually the Leader couldn't take the disrespect from the kid anymore, and in a fit of rage he leapt forth towards him, fist cocked back for a punch. The Leader's lackeys all had smug, arrogant looking grins on their faces, each of them aware of how hot-blooded their leader tended to get as well as how their victims usually got afterwards. Some of them remained in the hospital, at least the male victims… the females they would have some fun with before beating them within an inch of their lives, even if they were preteens. No discrimination here on the streets after all.

POW!

Just as the guy's punch looked to be thrown towards the kid's face, said high schooler reacted instantly by raising his leg up and planting his foot into the guy's face. All the while keeping his disinterested expression on as he kicked the guy onto the ground and began stomping on the back of his head, causing his lackeys to switch from smug arrogance to shock, horror and fear instead.

"Crap! The boss is going down! He's being treated like a ragdoll or a cheap whore! We got to help him!"

"Are you crazy?!"

"No way I'm taking on that sicko!"

A few more stomps onto the scumbag's head later, the kid's façade of calmness slipped off his face as it got replaced ab an utterly LIVID expression instead. Holding up a trembling fist which sported a bulged vein, the kid began to speak to them in an aggressive, pissed off manner. "Now listen up, assholes, I'm going to ask a couple questions, and you WILL be answering them. Now, first question, who are the kids here?" His glasses-covered eyes swept across the fearful punks, before focusing on one of them. "You, the one in the middle, answer!" he yelled in a mannerism eerily reminiscent of a drill sergeant.

"Huh?" Upon hearing his words, each of the trembling punks shuddered and trembled at the sheer animosity and intensity rolling off the kid before them. They weren't just thugs, they had experience in intimidation methods as their leader had done so a few times in the past, but the intimidation they felt from this kid FAR surpassed anything like that. In fact, it almost felt… raw, primal and like that of an animal, a predator which hunted its prey with bloodthirst. The mentioned punk, now dumbfounded of being yelled at, pointed to himself whilst questioning in a dumbfounded voice. "Y-You talking to me or something?" he asked, but quickly did what was told to him thanks to the kid's glare intensifying like a little bitch. "I-I guess these are just some stupid brats who live in this place- "

POW!

"Correct!"

In a single instant, the kid closed the distance between the four of them as the guy finished speaking, delivering a straight kick to his face to knock him onto his back. He then got himself into a position where he could launch a roundhouse kick from the back, but instead he opted for a better solution. "Now, next question. If those are just 'brats' to you, what are you doing near them?"

"We-We were just trying to show our dominance in this territory, get some money for our gigs and-"

POW-POW-POW!

Several kicks got launched in their direction in a manner which made it look like the kid before them had multiple legs, knocking each of them flat on their asses after they impacted various parts of their body. "You punks seem like you catch on pretty quickly, props to you for being slightly more intelligent than dumb apes." The kid spoke lowly with a sinister edge to him… before he looked like a demon summoned out of hell as he barked at them. "NOW MOVE THOSE LAZY, GOOD-FOR-NOTHING ASSES OTHERWISE THE NEXT ONE'LL BE FOR YOUR BALLS!"

"GUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Panic filled their minds and utter terror dominated their very souls, stripping away the will to fight back from the punks. Including their leader, each of them quickly fled between their legs, some sporting some stains on their legwear in the crotch area as they fled the scene. Upon seeing them get out of his sight, the kid sighed to himself, his shoulders dropping as the tension left him. "Phew, that'd stop them from showing their ugly mugs around here again." He murmured. Another thing he didn't like, delinquents, not only did they only have strength from intimidation and numbers, but they just behaved like dumb primates. To him, they would have fit in better in the caveman era, cause at least their idiocy would have been expected of them.

Still, what he did today was reckless, and it could very well get him into deep trouble, not just with any allies these punks may have. Ever since a certain incident, he had been put on probation for an entire year, one with conditions attached to it. One of those conditions was the fact that he had to work a part time job as a means of 'reforming' him into a 'proper member of the hard-working society' we all know Japan is today. The sheer thought of this made him want to puke, but to his frustration ti wasn't like there was anything he could do about the subject. Should he go too far and his probation officer found out, then things may get a bit more... dicey, for him. Forget jail, he could go straight to juvie and, combined with the stain on his record, it would probably ruin his entire life. Well, more than it already was, but hey gotta think positive... somehow.

Thinking positive wasn't as easy as people make it out to be, especially in this day and age where people remained glued to their phones like drug addicts getting their fix, and those who DID think positive usually had reasons behind it. Reasons which... would be eventually revealed as kind of dark, sick and twisted. If one were to ask him if he truly thought there were good people, he'd probably agree to it. There existed few truly good people in the world, but there lay the problem: most of these people tended to end up living rather shitty lives compared to some of the worse members of humanity who use their own tactics to get far up the ladder in the business industry. Kindness may be a virtue, but it sure as hell didn't help you get your paycheck at the end of the month, only working and obedience did THAT for you.

Something which the teen knew for a fact...

Glancing at his watch again when he wondered what the time was, the kid noticed that he only had a few minutes left before the morning bell was about to ring. 'Whelp, I'm going to be late then…#SIGH# oh well, least I did my good deed for the day.' He thought to himself, making to turn to the two formerly harassed children. "You two alright?"

Upon hearing the teen ask them for their situation, both children (whom had been pretty much gobsmacked the entire time), blinked to themselves to snap their senses back into reality. "U-Um, yeah we're good mister!" the boy, whom looked to be the older of the two, responded quickly, not wanting to aggravate the teen who had saved them like those other guys did. "Th-Those guys were trying to take my little sister away, so I tried to stop them, but…" he tried to explain, before looking down at the ground in shame, his teeth clenching and fists tightening.

Seeing this, the older teen tilted his head in their direction, a slight smirk forming on his lips as his eyes adopted a pleasant expression. "That feeling your experiencing, that frustration?" he began to say, kneeling before them so they were of similar height. Wen he had begun speaking, the boy looked up at him, confused and curious as to what he was trying to tell him. "Don't forget it. Remember this feeling well and use it to become better. Do you know why older siblings are born first? Its so that they can provide protection and safety for their younger ones. Its your responsibility, alright? So, make sure to always be there for your sister, even if others disapprove." He told him, to which the boy stared at him in awe for a while before nodding resolutely. The resolve in his eyes made the teen smile as he stood up, lifting his school back (which had remained in his hand the whole time) onto his back. "Alright then, you two better head home now, your parents will be worried sick."

"Y-Yes mister!"

With their response give, the boy took his younger sister's hand and strode off down the streets, soon leaving his sight as well. The teen watched them go until they were gone, to which he gave a sigh once more. "Well, that went better than I had expected…" he muttered under his lips, before looking up to the skies above with a melancholic gaze. "Big siblings protecting their younger ones… that's what you told me back then, right big bro…?"

"…Late? That's not you Tai. You usually prompt…"

"Well, let's just say I had one of THOSE kinds of run-ins. Didn't get hurt or nothing, but I can safely assume they're going to come back for more."

"Ah…"

Sitting outside the main entrance of a tall school building eating some lunch, the black haired, glasses wearing teen answered the question of the student sitting beside him with slight exasperation and a slight foreboding in his tone after finishing off his carton of orange juice. His lunch consisted of a self-prepared bento box, which he had made himself the previous night which had all sorts of home-cooked foods put into it. Pretty standard, if he were honest, but then again, he wasn't someone who overly depended on others to solve his problems for him.

The last few hours had been… well, one could say eventful, to say the least. The teen had arrived at his school, an average one to be franks and its name wasn't really that important. However, just like he had expected after saving those kids, he had wound up late and thus got scolded by the homeroom teacher (even had the gall to call him by his full name Hageshī Tairitsu which meant intense conflict). It wasn't something he could have controlled, though, but when he tried to explain what had happened the teacher wouldn't have any of it. Lenience in this high school may as well not even exist, since it valued its public image as a well-off school quite highly, especially any sports teams competing in national tournaments. As a result, the teacher gave him a warning and told him to stay behind after homeroom, something which irritated the male but didn't say anything else about the subject. Of course, not like anyone would give a damn in this hellhole of a school…

Well, save for one saving grace, and one of his only true friends in this school, whom just so happened to be sitting beside him right now. The student, if one could call him that, looked more like a towering male giant than a teenager the same age as him, honestly. Not to mention how the guy looked positively jacked in the muscle department as if he were sculpted from a certain series about muscular macho men fighting against vampires. The teen had a tanned skin tone which hinted at an origin from a hot country, way hotter than Japan, with pronounced cheekbones and wavy brown hair with bangs that generally hung over his brown eyes. He wore the same school uniform as him, with the differences being that he had rings on his fingers, a piercing on his lower lip and some more on his ears. His schoolbag lay beside him on his left thigh, with the black-haired teens on his right thigh, whilst his hands clutched one of those ready meals one could purchase at a convenience store.

"Teach had the gall to use my full name, something I find annoying since it's a mouthful, Tai is much better. Still, it's not something I regret, never was one for leaving defenceless kids to scumbags like that." Tai remarked, remembering that incident well. Sometimes the law isn't that nice and punishes those who do good for the sake of maintaining order, something the teen had ample experience with and NOT just from the morning incident. It… wasn't something he liked to talk about openly, as he was still suffering under the effects of that decision till this day. Yet, even so he himself knew in his heart what he had done had been the right choice, even if the whole world said that it wasn't. "Speaking of woes, what about you Chad? I hear that some of the local bullies tried to threaten you again." He spoke, glancing over to his friend with a single eye.

Chad, or rather Yasutora Sado with the former being his nickname Tai had come up with, shrugged his shoulders in disinterest. "Its not a problem. They were just all talk…" he replied quietly, something which Tai nodded his head in acceptance at. It wasn't that surprising to him, but to anyone else who saw him and didn't know how he was, someone like Chad speaking in a soft, passive voice like a shy child wouldn't be what they'd expect from him. His appearance betrayed his actual nature, if one asked Tai anyways, though considering that the guy had foreign blood mixed in him, something he had learned shortly into their friendship which had lasted for a long time now. If anything, Tai felt like if it weren't for those traits he had, Chad might have become a hit with the ladies, though in the end he would rather Chad stay true to what he truly was in the end, since it wasn't right for ANYONE to decide that for him.

Still, people tended to pick fights with the large dude, thinking that he would be a dangerous threat to their everyday lives. However, upon them discovering how no matter what they did Chad never fought back, people had begun seeing him as a weakling, someone they could just topple over whenever they wished. As such, beatings became a regular thing for the large dude, although through them he didn't really get that injured instead. No, more like the ones beating him suffered from injuries they inflicted on themselves due to how jojo-like his body was. One of those times, according to some students whom Tai had overheard gossiping like a bunch of vultures fighting over some leftover meat, seemed to have happened today of all times. Whelp looked like he wasn't the only one having a troublesome day, then.

"Meh, they aren't that important, then. You sure you'll be able to make it to your job after school? Packing up packages for that delivery business seems quite demanding physical traits wise." Tai questioned after shrugging the incident off. Chad never seemed bothered by it, so he wouldn't either, plus if he REALLY got stressed out because of it, Tai'd do the bro thing and support him through it. He once heard a saying from one of his male classmates which, whilst crude like previously mentioned, summarized his friendship with Chad perfectly: 'bros before hoes'. Not something he'd like to describe girls with (they'd no sooner kick you in the balls like he did this morning or slap the ever-loving daylights out of you), but the pure sentiment made it worth it.

Upon hearing his question, Chad nodded with a small response escaping his lips. "Not a problem. It didn't hurt…" he replied, before looking back to him. "And you? Your job…" he questioned, gesturing to the food which Tai'd been eating for lunch. Although it was home cooked, it came from ingredients he'd gotten at his part time workplace, something he had been… required to do for his current lifestyle.

"Not too bad, and don't worry I can make it to my job just fine. Plus, I've got a day off today so I can do what I want till tomorrow." Tai replied, waving off Chad's concern, though that didn't mean he didn't appreciate his concern, nope exactly the opposite. To him, Chad could be a runner-up for best bro award, since he didn't have any friends other than him, Chad helped him as much as he could and stuck by him when others didn't, something which Tai would ALWAYS return the favour for. Like he'd mentioned, they were more than just friends, but bro's, even though the two of them weren't gay or anything like that. What was that word he'd once heard that one video a while back…? Oh yeah:

BROOOOOOOOMAAAAAAAANCE!

Shaking his head, another topic, this time much more influential, popped into his mind like a lightbulb being switched on. This caused Tai to look over to his friend fully, his serious look presenting the degree of the situation. "Speaking of jobs, the military's been sucking when it comes to the Noise, huh? What with those things being impervious to their firearms, or so I've heard." He remarked, getting a silent nod from Chad who understood his friend's opinion, for he too shared that opinion… with some questions of his own too. They were both referring to the recent news which got released to the public about another attack by something OTHER than humanity which had been a problem for a long time now:

The Noise.

These things no matter when and where one encounters them are bad news, as in REALLY bad news. These things were these slob-like, alien-looking motherfuckers which appear out of nowhere and attack anything human, once they do, they each dissolve into carbon along with their victims. The Noise appear in dozens of different shapes and sizes, though in general there wasn't that much known about them other than their tendency to attack humans, the fact that the laws of physics don't apply to them making normal weapons pretty much dog shit to them, and that there's generally little known about them. According to some internet research Tai had done in his free time, thirteen years ago the Governments of the nations recognized them officially as 'special disasters', with each of them working on their own terms to research into them to gain a better understanding of their workings. Sadly, things hadn't been so great on that front, which results in most of the Noise appearances causing many innocent lives to be snuffed out like candles. Of course, the Public is made generally unaware of the true scale behind these things in order to prevent mass panic, but those who DO survive don't really talk about their experiences, whether they were traumatized (often) or something else, who could say?

Though, there were other reasons why the Noise didn't cause people to go onto full-blown panic mode whenever they were brought up, and that had to do with the fact that A: they could self-destruct after some time, so military usually try to evacuate civilians to shelters built under the city whilst they held the Noise back, and B: idols were a thing in this city, which housed the Lydian Private Musical Academy, one of the more well-off schools compared to the one he and Chad attended. They say that most of the student body there were females who wanted to get into the music industry or had a talent for it, basically every hormonal pervert's wet dream. Speaking of Idols… "Yeah well, those two Idols, I think they were called 'Zwei Wing' are doing a decent job of keeping people's spirits up…" Tai mused thoughtfully, putting an index finger on his chin. "Apparently those guys came onto the scene around 5 years ago, looking back on it, and they've become quite popular ever since. Just from a merchandise point of view, their sales are like nearly half of America's Marvel franchise." Tai remarked further, nodding his head when weighing the calculations in his mind.

"People love idols… what about you…?" Chad questioned, to which Tai looked at him curiously. Knowing his friend well, he interpreted that look to silently request him to elaborate, something he did after collecting his thoughts. It wasn't often that he talked, and when he did it was always in a calm, quiet voice, but when he hung with Tai, he found it much easier to talk to him thanks to their shared experiences. "Most guys I see… like idols due to the… outfits they wear, alongside their songs… but I've never heard of your opinion on them. What do you think of them?"

Taking a moment to hum, Tai responded significantly quicker than Chad's earlier response. "I'd say that they perform one big purpose, one which many of the populace don't seem to acknowledge as much." Tai replied, igniting the curiosity of his friend. So, he continued whilst heaving a sigh and looking up at the skies. He remembered watching a video of one of Zwei Wing's concerts online, and though he didn't get the same experience as seeing them, it was enough for him to make an accurate assumption. "An idol may be someone who sings some song they have created, maybe even do a little dance sequence to go along with it, but the bigger picture here is something I want to bring more attention to. An idol is… an idol is a communicator. If music helps convey meaning and messages through words in a way people can understand, then idols are the communicators which allow their music to reach their audiences. They bring people together in order to listen to what these Idols say in their songs, and if you ask me, that is both a very beautiful feat humanity has pulled, and yet also deadly. Music and Idols can bring people together, yet it can also divide them, though It all depends on the songs and what they are meant to convey in all honesty."

If he were honest, then Tai would say that the reasons why most people liked idols weren't as important as the bigger picture in his mind, to the point where he kind of felt annoyed at others who don't see it. They only see idols in a narrow-minded, primitive way, like they were objects for entertainment. That statement could be taken in SO many ways, but nonetheless it can be considered true. There WERE some…. Unique individuals like that in the world after all, some of them holding positions of power too. You just can't tell people like that apart these days. Of course, Tai wouldn't say he didn't get those people, since idols can sing some great and interesting songs, which was why here existed people on the internet who tried to decipher the meanings behind different songs.

The fact they each wear exotic, beautiful outfits wasn't as important to him, though he guessed that served the purpose of keeping the attention of the audience.

By the time school ended, Tai and Chad separated to go their respective ways. The former had decided to head back home whilst the latter had to go for his shift at his part-time job, something which Tai had understood since the dude was a hard worker to the core. As for himself, he… didn't have that much to do right now, his homework assignments had been completed a few nights ago, his grades were average, so nobody came to deal with him on that front, so he pretty much had the day to himself. Not to mention he had a curfew imposed on him which limited the time he could spend outside, too, something he didn't necessarily appreciate but Tai didn't have a choice on that one. So, what could he do in this time then….?

That question bothered him all the way back to his house, a small single-story house at the opposite side of the city. He had to get there by going through a Train Station like the Metro he had heard the British used in their home country. Which was how he had come to possess a travel pass which, as long he had the cash to spend every 4 weeks, could let him access all the stations and buses for free. Afterwards, Tai had to walk the rest of the way, and by doing so he had a few run-ins with some gangsters, not connected to the ones from this morning but he took care of them easily enough. Unlike Chad, Tai himself had no problem fighting back against those who tried to take from him, he wasn't as kind as that guy as one might be able to tell. People may call what Chad did naïve; those people could just go fuck themselves as far as he was concerned.

By the time that he arrived back in his house, though, Tai had already figured out his game plan for the rest of the day. His house, as stated, looked to be one with one floor with everything essential one might need: a living room, bathroom, kitchen (attached to the living room), a bedroom with one bed and a shower room. The kitchen and living room shared one space to the house's left side when one entered, with the bathroom being at the very back of the corridor connecting the rooms together. The bedroom was located at the back-right section, whilst the bathroom was directly opposite it, each section connected to the corridor by a door. On the outside, the apartment had a tanned colour with a small yard and a small dark brown roof.

Oh yeah, game plan.

Well, it wasn't like he was surprised by his current situation, since Tai had experienced this whilst living alone. Times when he didn't have anything to do and as such, a sense of emptiness would fill him inside. People who didn't live alone wouldn't understand the feeling, and even then, it would happen rarely due to the chaotic nature of adult life, but when it did it usually caught people off guard. Since he had prepared some spaghetti bolognaise the night before, in case he would be late to school the following day (which he had been), Tai didn't have to worry about dinner, so all he had to worry about would be entertainment. He had a few consoles, some computer and others handheld, so he could pick from the games he had from them or he could just surf the web on his Laptop.

As such, he decided in the end to spend the time he didn't spend eating surfing the web on his laptop after changing out of his uniform into a pair of comfy sweatpants. Tai, like a lot of guys his age and even adults, liked to be shirtless within his own home, plus he wasn't exactly unfit either since in his living room he had a small amount of exercise equipment he would use in the morning. In the end, Tai spent the rest of his time this way, listening to music whilst working on his… hobbies, something which he REFUSED to let anyone else know about until the day he died, not even Chad would know this. If someone were to find out what he did as a hobby, whilst it wasn't anything criminal, he'd likely die of embarrassment if anyone found it out.

That night, Tai lay on his bed over the covers, within his bedroom. Like most of his house, the bedroom had little in it, with there being a bed beside a window at the back, a wardrobe build into the wall opposite the bed side, a desk opposite the bed's bottom, and a small set of draws directly beside it which had a small lamp. Said lamp currently kept being used as the sole source of light in the room, since the light would be cheaper on the electric bill. He currently stared up at the ceiling, a hand on his bare abdomen with the other resting its back on his forehead.

'Hmph… another day of boring uneventfulness gone…' The teen thought to himself, a soft exhale escaping his nose. Annoyance filled his mind as he closed his eyes, letting his head practically sink into the pillows behind it as if he were sinking into the ocean itself, letting it take away the presences of the problems currently plaguing him. 'Only one more year till the probation ends and I can move on with my life…' he thought, his lips twisting into an ugly scowl as, just by the word probation, memories he NEVER wanted to think about right now filled his mind:

A woman screaming.

A man shouting.

A surge of anger, actions taken without hesitation.

Police Sirens.

A couple seconds later Tai shot his eyes open and a light gasp escaped his lips, causing him to bounce somewhat on his bed. His breathing became uneven as a light bead of sweat formed over his forehead. 'Again… damnit, that bastard must be living like a dream right now, probably has even forgotten what he has done to me…' the teen thought as hot fury burned within his eyes, causing him to quickly snuff it all out, banishing the flames of anger before adopting a depressed expression instead. 'No matter how much you want to, Tai, you can't do anything about it now. Guy's too powerful, and nobody will believe you anyways. Chad was an exception cause the guy's much better than me…'

It was quite often that he thought things like this, things relating to the past. When one lives alone and had only their thoughts for company, they tended to drift off down memory lane more often than not, and Tai himself wasn't any exception to this trend. Its been seen and done in literature and to an extent the entire entertainment industry, so much so that it could be considered a cliché at this point. However, to Tai he couldn't help but sink into the dark abyss that was his mind, the pool of darkness which he dwelled in to escape the madness that was his life. If anyone were to describe his background, they would consider it like struggling to ascend up a rocky treacherous mountain, there had been so many times where he had stumbled, fell and hit rock bottom, so many times when he had been beaten down by those around him. However, those times had been exactly how he had wound up where he was today, especially that ONE time which completely screwed him over, although there wasn't anything he could do to remedy that situation. Wasn't like he regretted it though.

Nope, not one bit... plus, there was always something he held on to in those times, something which reminded him of why he had gotten so far in life.

Upon thinking about that, Tai's eyes then shifted to his draws set, where he spotted an item he hid under his uniform from view. The item involved looked like a necklace, one attached to a chain with its end being a black jewel with a red centre. Grasping it, Tai drew it to his chest, a soft smile slowly spreading onto his face. No matter what time or place he had it, the moment he focused on this necklace he always felt a sense of relief, his troubles being put at ease. This necklace, although bland, to him it was more priceless than the most expansive jewellery. If he were to try and weigh its worth to him, then he'd fail epically as there was next to NOTHING which it could compare to, it just had THAT much value to him... not just money wise, but emotional and symbolic attachment too. His eyes gradually began to close, his last thoughts before falling into slumber being the following. 'Mom… big bro… I'm sure I did the right thing… but, do you guys agree…? I wonder…'

Chapter end!

Alright guys, here's a new fanfic I decided to write, and if your seeing this posted on the Symphogear section then I've finished my OEG side story. I have been getting into Symphogear for a while now, having watched the first three seasons by recommendation by my fellow writer King Carlos. For a while I've been focusing on OEG, to the point where my imagination has been slowing down, so I decided to take a crack at another section on fanfiction as a means to refresh myself. There ARE going to be some similarities to OEG here, most of them coming from the whole concepts department. Original power systems, original characters (some inspired by anime ones like Chad from Bleach who to me is bro material), and the like. I'm going to try and do some good romance, maybe Tai'd gain a small harem but if I make more male OC's I might have them have some pairings of their own, for example Chad would probably go with Miku or something. There'll also be some crossover elements from different series, so if you can spot any let me know,

Now I know that this isn't something which has been attempted yet on the Symphogear fanfiction section, a story with such a slow start like this. This approach to writing a fanfiction here runs the risk of being boring, but I chose this approach EXACTLY because of this reason. I feel like this approach succeeds on doing something I like to do with my fanfictions: making my characters seem like actual people, with thoughts feelings and opinions outside of their roles. Examples include the idol talk between Tai and Chad. humanizing characters like this is interesting to me, and I'd like to keep at it cause I feel it makes them easier to relate to. This is mainly meant to establish the introduction of Tai and his best bro Chad as characters, something I don't see a lot of happening in anime and Manga these days, entire chapters/episodes dedicated to these characters introductions in such a way. So, I'll try to keep the pacing slow and enjoyable, possibly explore some avenues the main series doesn't but I'll try to do my best regardless.

Hope you all enjoy this and let me know what you think.