Assault Lily: Last Bullet - Event Story: Mentor the Lily
Turning back the clock to some time before Chapter Two, Riri's desperation to grow stronger leads her to approach Hata Matsuri, the acting Ortlinde and captain of Team Hitotsuyanagi's sister Legion, Eir, to supervise her training. Their mentor-student relationship quickly proves fruitful... perhaps too fruitful, even, at least in the eyes of a certain black haired second year.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Also, some extra material that is relevant for this one, if you wanna give it a check:
@/leagueofgardens' post on Yurigaoka's Student Council.
My post on Takegoshi Chihana
The introduction video for that one girl mentioned at the end.
Assault Lily: Last Bullet - Main Story - Chapter 2, Part 1 ~Prelude to Warfare~
In the wake of the battle against the Irregular Gigant-class Huge, ÄvolvĆ, Tokyo now faces a completely different crisis as swarms of Huge relentlessly pour out in the city streets. In order to prevent Tokyo from falling into the Huge's hands, Team Hitotsuyanagi, Hervör and Gran Eple join the resistance efforts led by Odaiba Girls' School and Ludvico Private Girls' Academy, as omens of a new battle loom in the horizon.
"Prelude to Warfare" is now available in video form!
Massive thanks to GEHENA's subtitle labs and their expeditious work, we'll be very quickly catching up where the official English version left off at this rate!
Yurigaoka Fan Club is proud to present our English fansub of the stage play "Assault Lily: League of Gardens."
Synopsis:
Fifty years ago, mysterious creatures known as the "Huge" suddenly appeared all over the world, posing an existential threat to humanity. To defend against these menaces, soldiers in the form of teenage girls known as "Lilies" use the energy of magie within their bodies to power weapons called "Counter Huge ARMS", or CHARMs.
After being saved by a Lily two years ago while evacuating from a Huge attack, Hitotsuyanagi Riri vowed to become a Lily herself. She enrolls in the prestigious academy of Yurigaoka, a training ground for Lilies, in order to be reunited with Shirai Yuyu â the Lily who rescued her. Much to her confusion, however, the person she thought to be cheerful turns out to be quite antisocial and prefers to fight alone. Even so, Riri still wants to get close to Yuyu and is willing to do anything she can to reach that goal.
With Yuyu and the other Lilies by her side, Riri's journey to becoming one of them has just bloomed!
Download the subtitle files and other extras here
You will need the Blu-ray disc of the stage play to watch these subtitles. It is no longer available for purchase from Bushiroad, so you will have to look for a copy elsewhere.
Before watching, install all of the fonts in the Assault Lily LoG Font Pack for the best experience.
"[Yurigaoka] Assault Lily - League of Gardens.ass" is the recommended subtitle file.
"[Yurigaoka] Assault Lily - League of Gardens [No Names+FX].ass" is an alternate subtitle file that does not have character names above the dialogue, nor the fancy karaoke effects. This file may work better for watching on low-spec devices.
No PDFs this time, but consider reading Assault Lily: League of Gardens -full bloom- to see a different take on the play's story in manga format.
Assault Lily: Last Bullet - Main Story - Chapter 1.5 ~The White Lilies Under the Blue Sky~
In this brief interlude, Riri, Kazuha and Kanaho are once again brought to Tokyo as what was supposed to be a normal meeting turns to a manhunt for a rather familiar enemy. In facing this sudden battle as a team of Legion leaders, Riri begins to question her competence as one when compared to the Hervör and Gran Eple captains.
Assault Lily: Last Bullet - Main Story - Chapter 1, Part 3 ~Our Bonds a Bullet Leading to the Future~
With their final gambit turning out a failure, and with backup troops seemingly eliminated by the ÄvolvĆ, the three Legions are now trapped in a no-win situation. Still, Riri remains steadfast on defeating the massive Irregular and defending her friends, and she might have just grasped the means to make that a reality.
Assault Lily: Last Bullet - Main Story - Chapter 1, Part 2 ~Incubating Catastrophe~
Though tired from the several hours of continuous battle, our three Legions remain unwavering in their mission to protect Tokyo. While coming together once more renewed their hopes of victory, an omen of an even bigger conflict to come looms in the city's skyline
A couple of short, decidedly unserious scenes with our newly introduced characters. These originally came out before each story chapter as kind of like introduction scenes, but since their tone is so different from the actual main story, I think they work better after you already get a good grasp on what these characters are supposed to be like in the main storyline.
Pre Story: Akehi and Haruna
As it turns out, Haruna's arrival in Kamba went pretty much as you would expect.
Read it here.
Pre Story: Fujino and Suzume
Fujino may have loose screws galore, but damn is she a good cook (she should open a restaurant or something)
Read it here.
Pre Story: Yuni and Fuuka
The breadth of Yuni's romantic expertise is pretty much proportional to the amount of patience Fuuka has for her.
The Yurigaoka Lilies enjoy a moment of respite after their battle in Aogashima, but at the same time, something unusual seems to be happening in another of Tokyo's neighbouring islands.
Assault Lily: Last Bullet - Main Story - Chapter 1, Part 1 ~Legions Assemble!~
Following the events of Assault Lily: Bouquet and Assault Lily: League of Gardens, Hitotsuyanagi Riri and her Legion RĂĄĂ°grĂĂ°r once again join forces with Herensuge Girls' Academy's Legion Hervör and Kamba Girls' High's Legion Gran Eple, as what was supposed to be a simple joint mission between the three teams turns into a lethal struggle against a new type of Huge.
(The first three parts were already translated by @/lethekazhorai, and are already available on the GEHENA Subtitle Labs Youtube Channel)
Translation notes on Last Bullet's Chapter 3 (Part 2)
Before we continue: I guess this is really the only place I can put this but yes, I know that the previous part has a lot of formatting and spelling errors and is missing a couple links. For whatever reason, whenever I try to edit anything in that one, Tumblr won't process the post at all. I tried everything, even copying the whole thing into a new post and it didn't work, so I'm guessing I typed something weird and it just broke the whole post. The alternative at this point would be to retype the whole damn thing from scratch, and I'm sorry, I'm not doing that.
Anyways, here's the last few stuffs I couldn't fit in Part 1.
"Miss Akira"
Kureha: âWell, I... I feel like Iâve seen this handwriting before.â
(It couldnât be... Miss Akira?)
The person Kureha is thinking of is Akira Blanton, one of Odaiba Girls' School's Instructors
Akira's original illustration, by nauribon, and Akira as portrayed by Maikawa Miyako. Image credits: Assault Lily Stage: Official Website
As her name suggests, Akira is actually half Japanese, with the other half of her heritage coming from none other than the Land of the Queen, England. She is, in essence, Odaiba's Nick Fury, as I would say she's best known for going around and recruiting girls who she deems to have the potential to become Lilies, having actually travelled the world in her scouting endeavours. She also has a particular drive for rescuing captive Boosted Lilies, something she has been doing since she was a Lily herself.
Akira is a big muscle-brain, and as a matter of fact, Odaiba's current brawn-oriented culture is actually due to her influence. And while she puts her students through the wringer in her training sessions, that isn't at all for nothing, as Akira was a prodigy of her own during her time of service, and she pretty much raised the current generation of aces that integrate the Saints, HronesnĂŠsse and Coast Guard.
She has a keen eye for talent, too. Like for example, she found this homeless girl called Kawanabe Nazuna, who despite being a meek, traumatized girl with a Skiller Value of just 45, Akira still believed she had potential and brought her to Odaiba. Cut to a few years later, Nazuna was the very first Lily in Odaiba's history (kinda) to awaken to the Rare Skill Phantasm (which is like one of the most coveted Rare Skills in just about any Garden), and nowadays she integrates the Heorot Saints, which is like one of the finest Legions in all of Japan. Akira may be a knucklehead, but she knows what she is doing.
A couple fun facts about her:
It's kind of seen as a rite of passage for Odaiba newcomers to get the bejeezus beaten out of them by Akira in training
Kanaho's current main CHARM, the Claiohm Solais, was a parting gift from her
During her time as a student, she took the Blood Oath, Odaiba's pact of sisterhood, with none other than Principal Takashima Yakumo. But again, that's a story for another day
She has the Divine Possession Aberration
She is notably fond of cute girls, though assuredly not in the Araya sort of way
GEHENA did try to come after her at one point, but she just beat the hell out of them too
Incidentally, the reason why Kureha would be so familiar with her handwriting is because when she left Odaiba, Akira actually wrote her a letter of recommendation. So all in all, she is one of the adults in Assault Lily you can actually trust for once, though she does have this habit of keeping incredibly important information to herself...
In one of the not at all uncommon "we haven't thought that part out just yet" moments in Assault Lily, this "special tactical battalion" is later given the name of the LarrĂșn Expeditionary Force. Continuing Herensuge's Basque mythology motif, LarrĂșn is the name of a mountain in Spain where according to myth, the first ever serpent, Lehensugea, lives (there's like one source for this, though, so keep that in mind).
Much like the Gran Eple Special Missions Unit, the LarrĂșn Expeditionary force is a team assembled whenever the present combat circumstances exceed the capabilities of Herensuge's standard 5 Lily Legion formation, which is just a roundabout way of saying they exist pretty much as Herensuge's "can-perform-a-full-power-Neunwelt" team. It was in this arrangement that Herensuge participated in the Makuhari Recapture, which as a side note, included both Renka and Yoh, at the time members of this Legion called Basa-Andre.
Maki Wakana
(The sources for pretty much this whole section are the character bios in the Liberation of Niigata novel)
I'll be keeping this brief especially because we're about to be spending a bit more time with her in a jiffy, but Wakana, as suggested in the story, is Soraha's Schutzengel. Wakana has been Soraha's mentor ever since she arrived in Yurigaoka in junior high, and she is one of Ălfheimr's Reincarnators, which is the fancy name they give to their sub-members.
Wakana was the previous head of Yurigaoka's Disciplinary Committee, and also the former vice disciplinarian of the Kanto Inter-Garden Conduct Board (which also goes by the name "Justify", remember this one). And while that means she does display a remarkable level of poise and competence, she is, on the other hand, a big sweetheart, which is kind of unusual for third year Lilies, as they have this reputation for being more hard-lined, particularly towards younger Lilies.
Again, we're gonna be spending some more time with her right away, but if you're dying to know more about her, check out her bio in the Liberation of Niigata novel.
Miharu, Irminshines and Hakolberand
Miharu: âThis is Legion Irminshines of Irma.â
âWeâre already in active combat, so rest assured that ourselves and Legion Hakolberand shall halt the ones advancing from the eastern and southern sides. I pray for your successâ
Alright, one thing at a time
This right here is Nishikawa Miharu
Miharu's actually second illustration, by Kuroda bb, and Miharu as portrayed by Sato Haruka. Image credits: Assault Lily Stage: Official Website
Miharu is the captain of Legion Irminshines, the Top Legion of Irma Girls' High. If you're looking for the model student among model students, you really couldn't ask for anyone better, this girl lives by the rules, and just about everyone from Irminshines also follows in her seriously disciplined footsteps.
The Irminshines members. From left to right: Miyamoto Komuku, Nakabayashi Kaina, Nishikawa Miharu, Tejima Komachi, Hibino Waku, Hidai Miyazu, Yoshii Kasumiko, Kusakabe Murasame, Kusakabe Rengetsu, Ueda Imari and Iwaya Kukuri
Irma is notoriously rigid in its approach to combat. Just like Odaiba and Ludvico, they had the Irminshines as their sole Legion for pretty much their entire history, and to put it briefly, their Lilies are essentially taught to fight "by the book" as much as possible, the Irminshines in particular always adhering to one immutable battle formation, and prioritizing defense and stability when in battle.
(I had a lot of trouble finding sources that describe the events below precisely, but they are portrayed directly in the stage play "The Gleam of Dawn")
While Miharu adhered to that doctrine in full, Ichinomiya Himari, a close comrade of hers, had some issues with Irma's rigidity. Come the Odaiba Counteroffensive, Himari got to fight side by side with Fukuyama Jeanne Sachie, and she fell in love with how aggressive and versatile her fighting style was, quite literally calling it "the battle she always dreamed of". After coming back to Irma, Himari began advocating heavily for the Shines to change their rigid defense-heavy approach into one that valued offense and flexibility, something that Miharu, in her vehement belief in Irma's traditional ways, was against.
Now, if Himari was just "a" Lily of Irma, this wouldn't be much of an issue, but it just so happened that she and Miharu, as well as the Lilies Tejima Komachi and Hibino Waku, were the Garden's top aces, known as the "The Magnificent Four". So Himari did gain sympathizers among Irma's students, and as I believe you and I are painfully aware of how tribalistic humans tend to be, this led to a rift in the Garden's student body and between the Magnificent Four themselves, with Miharu's side arguing that they should keep things as they are, and Himari's side pushing for her offense-oriented, "gallant and freeform" fighting style.
Himari wasn't at all happy with this, especially as this divide was affecting the Magnificent Four's friendship. But because she wanted to realize her dream no matter what, she decided to leave Irma, and at Waku's suggestion, she enrolled in Ludvico in hopes of finding Sachie and sharing the battlefield with her again. Himari's sympathizers were devastated by her leaving, and decided to continue pushing to realize her ideals in Irma in her stead, with their efforts ultimately culminating in them forming Legion Hakolberand, Irma's first ever independent Legion which embodies the change Himari wanted to see in her now former Garden.
The Hakolberand members. From left to right, Miwada Rito, Higashikuze Tokuko, Tsujimoto Yuunagi, Tashiro Ayumu, Hirotsu Yuzutsu, Ueda Imari, Moroi Saho, Kamigoori Marimo and Tsuzuki Hisui
... Hold on.
Good eye if you caught it, but yes, Ueda Imari is actually a member of both Legions at the same time. Well, to be precise, she is a sub-member of the Irminshines while being a headliner for Hakolberand, so although it is a pretty unusual arrangement, there's actually not that big of a conflict of interests there.
Ălfheimr's expedition to Niigata
Fumi: âIn Ălfheimrâs Expedition to Niigata, they had to join forces with the Lilies of Ryuto and produce a Magisphere loaded with the Magie of over twenty Lilies in order to finish off that Ultra.â
(no but for real guys it's a really short read like you can get through the whole thing in a day)
...
And that's it for this explanation sesh. I could've gotten it all in a single post if I hadn't gotten sidetracked talking about stuff that's not really important to the story but what can I say, this is a fun series to just yap about.
Translation notes on Last Bullet's Chapter 3 (Part 1)
I would usually have another translation ready by now, as this was originally supposed to come out the weekend I got done with the final story chapter. But life got ugly and I completely lost the drive to do anything for the past two weeks, so I apologize for the big delay.
Once again, this is moreso explaining the references and namedrops that appear throughout all the story chapters. (with some unsolicited yapping as a bonus)
The Makuhari Recapture
Kureha: "Fujino-sama is one of Kambaâs long-staying veterans, with many field achievements on her belt! In fact, she was a star player in a battle that Kanaho-sama and Takane-sama also participated in, the Makuhari Recapture, and is known for being a genius all-rounder fighter!"
Warning! much of what is discussed in this section comes from a secondary source ("Makuhari Recapture" in the Japanese AL wiki), and therefore not only the accuracy of it cannot be verified, but it may be subject to change in the future!
The Makuhari Recapture is I would say the second most famous battle of the Assault Lily universe, just behind the Odaiba Counteroffensive. Unlike the Counteroffensive, however, it has not been portrayed in any media (bar a couple of isolated bits and pieces regarding certain characters) and all that we know about it is to this day still confined to text lore.
You might already know the name Makuhari from the ever famous Makuhari Messe convention center, but for the uninitiated, Makuhari is a region in the city of Chiba, kind of like a townlet that spans the Hanamigawa and Mihama Wards of the city.
So some two years ago (that's 2050 in the AL calendar), a Great Cave suddenly formed in Makuhari. The local Garden, the aptly named Makuhari Girls' School of Science and Engineering, is this sort of vo-tech school that specializes in Arsenal education, so they actually only had a single class per grade. This was 100% not a Garden equipped to handle a Great Cave of all things, so they instead decided to evacuate the civilians and temporarily retreat from Makuhari. Now that did work out (not least because the Heorot Saints just happened to be nearby to help), but leaving their territory in the hands of the Huge did mean they were eventually able to make a Nest there and lay claim to the area, not unlike how things went down in Koshu.
After this, Makuhari Girls' High was able to garner support from several Gardens for an eventual recapture operation, with some of the most noteworthy participants including several members of Yurigaoka's FĂłlkvangr, Odaiba's Heorot Saints, Ludvico's Temple Legion, and, as Kureha mentioned, Kamba's Gran Eple, which records state participated as the "Gran Eple Special Missions Unit", a 9 member arrangement assembled specifically for this battle.
But while they had a pretty killer lineup to work with, this multi-Garden alliance still took a full year to conduct preparations for the eventual recapture battle, and those were anything but a walk in the park. Most notably, Kishimoto Maria Mirai, who was one of the most pivotal players in this period of preparations, died before she could participate in the final operation. This is just me speaking here, but I would argue that her death pretty much changed the trajectory of everything that came after, as although it would become the trigger of all the bad things that happened to Ludvico later on (see: the Ludvico stage plays), it also inspired the people closest to her to see this battle through in her memory.
Y'see, over the course of this multi-Garden endeavor, Mirai had formed very close bonds with a couple of her peers, particularly, Odaiba's Nagasawa Yuki and a certain Yoshii Kasumiko of Irma. In Yuki's case, there is an argument to be made that Mirai singlehandedly gave her a reason to live, as she was a tad too suicidal after she had a falling out with the Funada Sisters (whom she saw as family) a couple years prior. Mirai was the one who encouraged her to keep on living for the sake of finding a chance to make things right with the two.
As for Kasumiko, Mirai had already met her before a year or so back, during this incident where one Irma's campus was raided by the Huge. Kasumiko, who back then was but a meek and cowardly first year, began seeing Mirai as her hero and pretty much dedicated herself to following in her footsteps ever since. So although Mirai's death hit them both very hard, both Yuki and Kasumiko were now more determined than ever to ensure the success of the recapture battle in her memory. Kasumiko in particular stepped up beautifully, and her burning desire to honor Mirai's memory proved quite inspiring for a certain junior volunteer from Kamba called Ishizuka Fujino.
Anyways, the recapture operation would finally happen some time after the Odaiba Counteroffensive (as a matter of fact, Lilies like Akehi got to participate in both battles). As stated in the final part of "Multicolored Tears", Fujino earned particular recognition when she led a mixed team of Lilies against a Greater Large-type Huge called "Dark Claw". The story goes that the Dark Claw was essentially the last obstacle blocking the way to the Gigant-class controlling the Makuhari Nest, so in order to ensure Kasumiko's team could reach the Gigant in peak fighting condition, Fujino volunteered to lead a team of essentially nine random Lilies against the Dark Claw in their stead. And, well, she did just that, as her team did successfully bring down the Dark Claw with a Neunwelt.
Hotaru and Subaru
Hotaru: âYou really into this, eh, Asagao?â
Subaru: âNot unexpected, given she has first years in her care.â
You might be already familiar with these two if you've watched Yurigaoka Fan Club's latest release, the subtitles for the stage play "The Singular Ability". But if you haven't, here's the cliff notes.
First, Kawabata Hotaru, this girl right here:
Hotaru's original illustration, by Arai Teruko, and Hotaru as portrayed by Tasaki Reina. Image source: Assault Lily Stage: Official Website
(The sources for much of this part are Hotaru's section in Volume 5 of the Assault Lily Magazine, as well as her feature in the "Mashima Moyu's CHARM Workshop series (which has actually been translated!)"
As her beaming smile in cast picture suggests, Hotaru is HronesnĂŠsse's ray of sunshine, and in a Legion where the average member is almost comically serious (Kiito, Subaru, Asagao, Yuki, Tomoshibi at most times), Hotaru's cheeriness comes as a refreshing dose of normalcy.
And you could call Hotaru the "life of the party" as more than just a compliment, as when i briefly went over her in my last notes post, I pointed out how she served as the connective tissue holding everyone together back when HronesnĂŠsse still had a pretty big rift between its members. And that is something that only ever happened because Hotaru was one of the few people that still held Kiito close to her heart even after her constant abuses of power.
Like I mentioned in that post, Hotaru is one of Kiito's closest friends, and she has always been there for her through thick and thin. Hotaru joined Kiito's Funada Reserve Corps and the Student Council back when Kiito was president, and even though she opposed Kiito during her authoritarian phase, she still did so out of genuine care for her. After Kiito and Ui left on their year long trip, Hotaru continuously refused to join the Heorot Saints because she was steadfast on waiting for Kiito to come back. And even throughout the Odaiba Counteroffensive, Hotaru's biggest motivation for fighting was so Kiito could still have a home to return, like I cannot stress enough how much Hotaru cares about Kiito.
Now, just energy does not make a Lily, so I should mention that Hotaru is indeed an excellent fighter (though she does have a habit of goofing around in the field). She has a Skiller Value of 90, which already puts her at the level of elite Lilies, then add the fact that her Rare Skill is the highly combat oriented Circlet Bless, plus her experience in the Funada Reserve Corps, widely considered to have been one of the greatest Reserves of all time, and it becomes pretty clear that as much of a goofball she is, Hotaru is absolutely not one to play around when it actually counts.
Now for Igusa Subaru
Subaru's original illustration, by Arai Teruko, and Subaru as portrayed by Yoshimiya Ruri. Image source: Assault Lily Stage: Official Website
Once again, the sources for this part also come from Subaru's section in Volume 5 of the Assault Lily Magazine, as well as her feature in Mashima Moyu's CHARM Workshop (translated here!)
I don't think it'd be all that mistaken to describe Subaru as Assault Lily's very own gym rat, like, you think Kazuha is muscle-brained? Oh, you sweet summer child, you haven't met Igusa Subaru yet.
Put simply, Subaru is the most disciplined soldier you'll ever meet, no, scratch that, she is discipline incarnate. This girl takes studying and training very seriously, with "very" in that sentence actually meaning "unreasonably". And if that wasn't enough, Subaru is, incidentally, incredibly irritable, so you better not even think of making light of or skimp on these duties that she holds in such high regard, and God have mercy on your soul if she ever catches you skipping, oh boy, she'll make you feel the fury of a thousand battalions coming down on you at once.
But why is she so comically uptight in the first place.
If we go back a couple years, we will find Igusa Subaru not in the hallways of Odaiba's elementary division, but instead in their annexed Madec Academy. She pretty much started out at rock bottom, having lost her entire family to the Huge, and with a meager Skiller Value of 10, which is below the threshold to even become a Madec. What she did have, though, was guts. She was determined to one day become a Lily, fully willing to offer her own life to erradicate the Huge in honor of her family's memory.
So she grinded, like, she pulled herself by the bootstraps not just in training, but in all aspects of her life, pouring her every effort into one day becoming strong enough to be a Lily. Her unbreakable spirit caught the attention of a certain Odaiba Instructor (more on her later), and she eventually had Subaru transferred to Odaiba's main campus after the latter entered junior high.
Though now a Lily, Subaru was still nothing really special in terms of actual combat performance, but her ludicrous traning discipline and peerless tactical knowledge put her on the Funada Twins' radar, and by the time she was in second year of junior high, she was boasting a Skiller Value of 85, a far cry from the 10 she started with.
Come third year of junior high, Subaru joined the Funada Reserve Corps as a tactical commander, a position she shared with our own Kanaho. Not at all unsurprisingly, Subaru was one of the few Lilies who actually supported Kiito's Skill Ranked training regimen, and as a matter of fact, the whole thing was actually based on her own personal training routine, which as we've established by now would probably kill your average Lily.
Now, to add a bit of color to Subaru's dumbell-filled life, she is perhaps Asagao's closest friend, so much so in fact that the two of them actually took Odaiba's vow of sisterhood, the Blood Oath, with each other. Asagao is one of the few people Subaru will turn off her "strict-battle-general-mode" around and actually let herself be at ease, and as a matter of fact, although Subaru still saw Kiito in a positive light by the time she came back to Odaiba, one of her main reasons for joining HronesnĂŠsse was because Asagao would be joining too, and she was part of the "Team Asagao" side of the Legion when they were still in their internal split phase.
Another noteworthy relationship of hers is with the first year Imamura Yukari. I once saw her described as "blonde Yuujia" and that is in fact a very apt description of her. Now while Subaru's usual treatment of Yukari is anything but gentle, actions speak louder than words, and hers makes it quite evident how much she is actually fond of Yukari, a feeling that is absolutely mutual, as Yukari very deeply admires Subaru.
Minato and Legion Coast Guard
Minato: âKamba shall not fall into the Hugeâs hands as long as weâre here to defend it. Nay, I dare say that they wonât have the chance to take a single step into this Garden!â
Kamba Lily F: âOdaibaâs Legion Coast Guard!?â
As I mentioned in my first ever explanation post about Assault Lily, Odaiba Girls School has a trifecta of flagship Legions. The Heorot Saints, the once Top Legion which also presides over the Student Council, Legion HronesnĂŠsse, their high performance team which also upholds the Garden's morals, and lastly, Legion Coast Guard, their Garden defense team which also oversees all the other Legions in Odaiba.
Minato here refers to Hirose Minato, their incredibly polite and dutiful captain:
Minato's original illustration, by Yaegashi Nan (NSFW warning for their profile), and Minato as she appears in the stage play Assault Lily: The Empathy Phenomenon, portrayed by Tanoue Marina. Image source: pius
So in that post, i mentioned that the Heorot Saints was the only active Legion in Odaiba before HronesnĂŠsse was formed. Well, I lied... kinda, you see, while the Saints were indeed the only fully fledged Legion, there existed this one special team called the Odaiba Light Wall Defense Team, which as their name so graciously explains, existed pretty much exclusively to defend Odaiba's Light Walls.
You already recognize these girls if you've read Assault Lily Wunder, as they were the team assisting Banshoya Ena's Third Division in handling the several Gigant-class Huge prowling around Toyosu in Chapter 3, and you'll notice that, at that time, their captain was none other than Igusa Subaru, who we just discussed.
What Wunder doesn't tell is that, as it turns out, their fixation on defending the Light Walls no matter what meant they ended up not contributing much during the Counteroffensive. As such, they didn't earn the same recognition as, well, everyone else who participated in it. So you can imagine that being the sole underperforming team in a battle where everyone else became a living legend must've been soul crushing for these girls.
At the same time, Minato here and a certain Soga Suzuna, who at the time were members of the Heorot Saints, were having some disagreements with the Saints' way of doing things, which ultimately led the two of them to leave the Legion to pursue their own ideals. And so, come their second year of high school, Minato and Suzuna went on to found Legion Coast Guard, and while Subaru left to join HronesnĂŠsse, most of the Light Wall Defense Team members chose to join this new defense Legion. To this day, the Coast Guard is still responsible for defending the Light Walls, though that is in addition to the several other defense and overseeing duties they now undertake.
Boosted CHARMs and Extreme Boosted CHARMs
Yuni: âI never thought Iâd see such a functional Extreme Boosted CHARM... I suppose trying to avoid killing her is no longer an option.â
A Boosted CHARM is, as the name implies, a CHARM that has undergone performance enhancing modifications. Now, that in and of itself is not a bad thing, in fact, the B-Type Equipments, which we've discussed a long time ago, are an example of Boosted CHARMs. Now Extreme Boosted CHARMs are that concept pushed beyond its limits, wherein the CHARM's Magie Crystal Core is juiced up to such a point where there is really no assurance the Lily itself can withstand the sheer amount of Magie it outputs.
Coincidentally (or not), Herensuge' GEHENA lab in particular is known to have conducted extensive research into CHARM boosting procedures.
I'm pretty sure this is an error
Subject ID: HL-054B
Subject Name: Hatsukano Yoh
Current Assessment: Boosted Lily (procedure completed during second year of junior high)
It says here that the CHARM experiment done on Yoh was conducted during junior high (äžçéš), even though that should be referring to the events we saw in Lamentation of ChrysĂĄor and this story chapter. I'm pretty sure this is an error and they meant to say "high school" (é«çéš), but the fact they never went back and fixed this when they have done as such before made me uncertain, so i left it as is.
The Irman Lilian Labs
Yakumo: No, that much is true. I originally came to Herensuge as an Instructor, sent by the Irmin Lilian Labs, a much more moderate branch
As identified by its name, the Irmin Lilian Labs is the GEHENA lab integrated into Irma Girls' High School for the Fine Arts, which if you'll recall from my Odaiba and Ludvico posts, is one of the Great Three Gardens who spearhead Tokyo's defenses. Now, while we might come to associate having GEHENA installations on premises with bad news, the GEHENA faction that operates within Irma is, as Yakumo said, a much more moderate branch, and the Irmin Lilian lab in particular is renowned for providing care to Boosted Lilies who escaped the extremists' abuse.
I think one example that encapsulates this well is Maruyama Amane, one of the members of the Heorot Saints. She was a failed test subject, as her body rejected the Boosting procedure to such an extreme degree that she was very close to dying from them. She was rescued and brought to the Irmin Lilian Labs for treatment, and they were not only able to bring her back to health, but they were even able to remove her Boosted Skills. So although she is still a Boosted Lily, she doesn't really have the abilities of one anymore, and appears as just a regular Lily to an unsuspecting observer (well, she does have one of those Magical Inscriptions on her arm, but I think you get the idea)
So does this mean Yakumo here was a student of Irma in her time as a Lily? Well, not actually, but that's a story I'll save for another time...
Professor Amamiya and Inaba Mayumi
Yakumo: .... It would seem that all the work done to prevent the dissemination of Professor Amamiyaâs research data only amounted to a temporary impediment.â
(This is likely the same Huge assimilation procedure that Odaibaâs Inaba Mayumi performed once...)
I'd like to preface this bit with a spoiler warning, as the identities of these people are pretty much major plot points (one of them being literally the final twist) for both the Ludvico and Odaiba series of stage plays, so skip to the next section if you don't want to be spoiled.
Alright, think about it for a second, Amamiya, where have you heard that name before...?
If you answered Amamiya Sora, famous voice actress and member of supergroup TrySail, that's not a bad answer, but not really what I was going for. Y'see, Professor Amamiya here (we never really learn his first name) is the father of Amamiya Sophia Seren
Wow do I miss this era of the game
But more important than that, Professor Amamiya is the mastermind behind essentially all the stuff that happens throughout the Ludvico saga, and serves as its final antagonist. I wanna avoid going into details as best as I can, but pertinent to the game's story is that 1Âș: he was the one who experimented on Raimu's mother, causing her and Mirai to be born as Boosted Lilies, and 2Âș and what Yakumo is referencing here, he was the first case of a mind transfer we've seen in the Assault Lily franchise.
Y'see, although Professor Amamiya had been pulling the strings in Ludvico for the longest time, he was never really there in person. But then, the formation of Legion Ironside, as well as some of the few well-meaning Instructors in the Garden showing resistance to GEHENA's influence required a personal touch with moving his plans along. So, while tensions were escalating, Professor Amamiya hijacked the body of one of the Instructors so he could more directly orchestrate things without being found out.
Well, and again, spoiler alert, he does eventually get found out, and after a pretty intense battle, Sachie manages to lethally wound the Instructor he was possessing, causing him to abandon her body and leave her to die. I can't really say for sure whether he himself dies, and my reason for it connects directly to our second person of interest here
Inaba Mayumi's original illustration, by Hotaru, and Mayumi as portrayed by Ishihara Misaki. Image source: Assault Lily Stage: Official Website
This.... thing right here is Inaba Mayumi, currently the primary antagonist of the Odaiba series of stage plays. Now what warranted that introduction, you may ask? Well, it's because while her looks might initially make her seem like a charming femme-fatale sort of character, her actual personality is... uhh...
Imagine William Afton merged together with Bill SkarsgÄrd's Pennywise.
I wish I was kidding.
(Some of the information in this part is sourced from the "Flowers of the End" Setting Materials)
So Mayumi here is an alumni of Odaiba Girls' School, and as a matter of fact, she was actually the former captain of the Light Wall Defense Team (it all comes back full circle, see?). But after graduating, she went on to work for GEHENA, particularly in their lab annexed to this Garden called Kuramayama Girls' School of Environmental Science. The thing about Kuramayama is that, well, it used to absolutely suck. Much in the same vein as Ludvico and Herensuge, Kuramayama was human experimentation hell, and Mayumi here was a high ranking overseer, with one particularly nefarious Boosting project called the "13 Sisters Project" being her personal darling.
And Mayumi was a monster, like, the proceedings of the 13 Sisters Project could very well be compared to a slaughterhouse, where the Lilies who showed results from their experimentation were only subjected to further abuse, while the rejects were pretty much treated like disposable livestock. She was just so blatanly uncaring about the Kuramayama Lilies, in fact, that even a few of her subordinates started having second thoughts.
This all culminated when, one night, one rogue researcher named Komai Sasara arranged the escape of a particular reject named Shiba Tomoshibi. Mayumi was, as you can expect, not at all thrilled about this, so she killed Sasara for her betrayal. But because Tomoshibi had actually developed a bond with Sasara over her time in captivity, witnessing her be killed caused her to snap. Tomoshibi then turned right back around, killed Mayumi and all the other researchers present in the facility and brought the whole thing to the ground.
Thing is, though, this was like two years ago, so how the hell is Mayumi still alive?
We don't know the exact mechanism for it yet, but Mayumi has a bit of a Rei Ayanami thing going on here. In short, just about every body of hers we see is a clone, and whenever one of them is killed, she can just hop into another and pick up right where the previous one left off. For all we know, the Mayumi that died in Kuramayama might not even have been the original one.
So what of this "Huge assimilation procedure" that Yakumo mentioned?
Well, since Mayumi has no shortage of bodies to go around, it isn't really a problem for her to sacrifice one or two of them if need be, so in the stage play The Battle to Overcome, (which, chronologically, just happened) Mayumi has one of her bodies be eaten by a Gigant-class Huge, intending both for it to get stronger and for her to control it directly. Now it didn't really work out for her, as the Gigant-class rejected her consciousness pretty quickly, but that did set the precedent for what Noemi did with the Hutthurm (that's that Huge's name btw)
I do find it relevant to note that Noemi, Professor Amamiya and Mayumi all seem suspiciously aligned in their ideals and their ways of going about them. Both Amamiya and Mayumi were incredibly obsessed with Princesses of the Huge, and Amamiya had this almost religious awe of Raimu and how not only the Huge see her as one of their own, but how (and again, spoilers...) it seems Raimu can subconsciously control Huge to some extent. Meanwhile, Mayumi was hell bent on seeing the 13 Sisters Project through, like, she wanted to make a Princess so badly that she started burning through her supply of Lilies, to the point that her superior actually got pissed at her for doing that. It may be just me but those really remind me of Noemi, what with her treating Kazuha like her magnum opus and how obstinate she was about continuing the Hervör Experiment.
Also, when Mayumi got eaten by the Gigant-class, she had this line about how humanity's path to prevailing is by assimilating with the Huge and gaining their powers, and the language she used was suspiciously similar to this one quote by Noemi:
Noemi: âRight now, Aizawa-san is a Lily wielding the Hugeâs power on her hands! Do you see how wonderful that is!?â
It's not really confirmation that they were in cohoots or anything, but an interesting connection nonetheless.
The Galatea Program
Noemi: (... The Galatea program I loaded into her Blutgang isnât working anymore...)
Now this is a name you're all too familiar with if you've checked out the Singular Ability subs by the Yurigaoka Fan Club. Galatea, if you'll recall, is the name of the replacement CHARM that Hishida Haru used when she wrecked her Caladbolg (or better put, the CHARM she was given also used the Galatea system, and so that's what it became known as).
The Galatea was originally an experimental program for CHARMs that make use of "dummy cores", those being CHARMs with faux Crystal Cores that don't require a contract to be activated. That way, if a Lily damages her Crystal Core, she can just very quickly grab a CHARM with a dummy core and get right back to fighting without having to bother redoing her contract. The Galatea program essentially expands on that framework by acting as a "contract agent", presumably meaning that instead of requiring no contract at all, the Galatea program itself acts as a sort of pseudo-contract, linking the Lily to the dummy core.
If you work on IT, I imagine that's already setting off about 100 different red flags for you, I mean, a CHARM that allows for instantaneous use without the contract's authentication is already prime for tampering and exploiting, but a system that completely handles that connection in the user's stead is arguably even worse. So you do some Boosting on the CHARM to overload its performance, hand it to a Lily with high vulnerabilty to Negative Magie and its notoriously mind-altering effects, and voilĂĄ, you really couldn't ask for a better mind-control system.
Singular Lily
Noemi: Truly, Iijima Renka could now be considered a âSingular Lilyâ, even! That goes far beyond what I expected to get out of her as a test subject!
I mentioned this one before in my post about Tomoyo, but it bears a recap. Singular Lilies are kind of a broad category, but i think it's best described as Lilies who have naturally reached a level above what the average Lily can do. Sometimes this is achieved by developing Aberrations, like in Renka's case here, sometimes this is achieved by having an ungodly number of Subskills, like in Hasebe Touka's case, and sometimes this is achieved by reaching the S-Rank of their Rare Skill (since doing so will very often unlock a Lily a unique abilty related to their skill, Yakumo's "Targeting", for example).
What is very interesting about Renka's Aberration is that there is a Boosted Skill that is almost a direct mirror to it. Named "Drain", it's a Boosted Skill that very likely originates from an Irregular Huge called "The Drains" (which you'll recognize if you've read the Liberation of Niigata webnovel), and just like Drain Touch, it allows a Lily to absorb Negative Magie from a target. So there's some food for thought...
Armored Cavaliers
Mai: âI mean, do you remember how I told you about when a whole bunch of cats started to hang around the Armored Cavaliers in the Arsenal docks whenever they came back from testing?â
Mechs.
I'm serious.
Image credits: M-Ganzy
(The sources for this whole section come from the "CHARM Equipment" feature of the Assault Lily World Guide)
If you're like me and you ever felt that the AL universe was kinda similar to Pacific Rim, well, I don't think it gets more Pacific Rim than this.
A Lily's Armored Cavalier (LAC, for short) is a mechanized exoskeleton that Lilies can pilot. They're not really Jaeger sized, being just big enough to fit a single Lily in its cockpit (so like 3 to 4 meters tall, give or take). Despite the fact that, y'know, they're friggin mechs, they were originally meant to be used in construction, and even after they began being deployed to the battlefield, their primary uses were support roles, like setting up camps or civilian evacuations, because as any game that features mechs will tell you, being a big and clunky thing is not really ideal when you're in the middle of a warzone.
LACs operate with a Magie Crystal Core, so while they're essentially a humongous CHARM, that does mean that they're still only really good for killing Huge of up to Large-class by themselves, and, well, you can imagine that a Lily can't really participate in a Neunwelt while encased in a big metal cocoon. The one thing they're really good for, though, is taking a beating. These things are durable as all hell, so they're usually as diversions that tank hits for the rest of their team. It's said that they can even front a good couple blows from a Gigant-class!
So they're big, chonky hunks of metal, that on top of not doing too much that a Lily already can't do by herself or with her Legion, doesn't allow its pilot to participate in a Neunwelt, and oh! Did I mention these things are expensive as hell to operate?
So you can guess why we don't see too much of these guys, but hey, if they did catch your interest, they actually got a whole novel dedicated to them! It comes as a bonus if you buy a LAC action figure, which is... uh, not cheap, to say the least.
Now you can really guess why we don't see too much of these guys
The FĂłlkvangr
Yuyu: âSo for that, I presume weâd be required to enter the FĂłlkvangr council of Expeditionary Legionsââ
(Some of what is discussed in this section is sourced from the actually pretty recently released Assault Lily Record article on the FĂłlkvangr)
While they do offer a very quick explanation for it in the story, I still think it bears going over what the FĂłlkvangr is in a little more detail.
When Yurigaoka Legions start out, they're not allowed to sortie on Expeditions at all (think of how, in Bouquet, Team Hitotsuyanagi spent 90% of their time on standby in the Garden). For a Legion to gain Expeditionary rights, they first need to receive the Medal of the Holy White Lily, a decoration given to a Legion's captain after they successfully bring down a Gigant-class Huge.
Well, Team Hitotsuyanagi has done that, so they do have rights for carrying out Expeditions. However, think back to the Expeditions they've been on. They're never really alone in those, and they are never the ones formally spearheading the campaign. In fact, they were the only rookie Legion in pretty much all the Expeditions they've been in, as although their sillyness makes it easy to forget, Hervör and Gran Eple are the Top Legions of their respective Gardens.
That is by design, as only Yurigaoka's flagship Legions are afforded those privileges. These elite Legions are known as the FĂłlkvangr, who as Fumi notes, are Legions that have achieved a rank of S and above in the World Legion Ranking system. To integrate the FĂłlkvangr, a Legion must:
Reach a rank of S
Receive the Medal of the Holy White Lily
Have a surplus of members
Have enough influence to either lead or be a major player in an Expedition
Furthermore, upon entering the FĂłlkvangr, a Legion gains the right to nominate a representative for the Student Council, essentially also giving them political power in the Garden.
Yurigaoka currently has only thirteen Legions in the FĂłlkvangr, those being:
Legion Ălfheimr (obviously), one of only four SSS Legions in Yurigaoka
Legion Lohengrin, the second SSS Legion
Legion SanngriĂ°r, the third SSS Legion
Legion Reginleif, the fourth SSS Legion
Legion Schwarz Grail, ranked SS
Legion Eir, ranked SS
Legion Rossweisse, ranked SS (more on them in a second)
Legion Herfjötur, ranked SS
Legion SigrdrĂfa, ranked SS
Legion VingĂłlf, ranked SS
Legion Brynhildr Line, ranked SS
Legion Geiravör, ranked S
Legion Schwartleite, ranked S
Of these, Izue Shinobu of Brynhildr Line, Uchida Mayuri of Legion Schwarz Grail and Hata Matsuri of Legion Eir are also the Garden's Three Valkyries, which I will not explain what they are because there is already a pretty good post about them written.
Amatsu Marei
Moyu: âGet this, the one and only Amatsu Marei from Ryuto Girlsâ Academy said she wanted to make you a CHARM!â
This is someone you already know if you've checked the New Chapter subtitles, or if you've read the Liberation of Niigata novel, but again, just in case, this right here is Amatsu Marei:
Marei's original illustration, by Yaegashi Nan, and Marei as portrayed by Muto Shiori. Image credits: Assault Lily Stage: Official Website
(The source for much of this section are the character bios in the Liberation of Niigata novel)
Marei is, as you could glean, an Arsenal. But not just any Arsenal, no sir, she has to be the single greatest CHARM afficionado alive right now, like I cannot stress enough just how much this girl is into tinkering with CHARMs. To quote a few lines from her character bio:
"Unlike Mashima Moyu, whose theoretical and applied knowledge encompasses CHARMs, Huge and Magie alike, Marei exclusively specializes in CHARM development. With her talents and expertise fully devoted to this area, she does not show interest in anything else"
"Marei has a reputation for being awfully intricate with the tailor-made models she creates, [...] even when it comes to the most basic components, Marei will still take the time to design them from scratch, and will become incredibly restless if she cannot vet them personally in the factory. [...] in her words, 'not even a single screw is to be forged without my involvement in it.'"
My girl is 100% on the spectrum
Marei is a member of Ryuto's Legion HiminglĂŠva, which is one of nine Ryuto Legions that are tasked with defending the entire Niigata prefecture, since Ryuto is the only active Garden there. Marei, though, is a free spirit. As Moyu mentioned, she travels around all of Japan to find any Lilies that pique her interest so she can build custom one-off CHARMs for them, something that earned her the title of "The Wandering Arsenal". Her reason for doing that is because she lost someone very dear to her, so she wants to keep making CHARMs and give them to the right people to ensure to the best of her ability that the tragedy she experienced can't happen again.
Because she is so damn intricate about her work, the CHARMs she makes are nothing short of works of art, and the fact that she makes them only to people that personally interest her means they are incredibly coveted. And although she isn't too fond of mass-produced CHARM (as she doesn't really care for the mass appeal of them), she has had a hand in designing a few of them, including some that you might know, like the Durandal (used by Himeka), the GĂĄe Bolg (used by Chikaru, Akehi), and I think more pertinent to the story here, the Gram
The Gram
Taniguchi Hijiri and her Gram
(Some of this section is sourced from the Gram feature on the CHARM Encyclopedia)
The CHARM that Yuyu gets in this story chapter is a newly built version of a model she had once before. The Gram, full name AC-28 Gram, is a second generation CHARM built by the Yggdrasil Corporation (who has an affiliation contract with Yurigaoka) and it is a model exclusive to the members of Ălfheimr (although former members of the first gen Ălfheimr still have and use theirs, see Hijiri above). It requires a Skiller Value of at least 85 to be activated, and its parts and maintenance costs are incredibly expensive, so it is very much a CHARM of the elites.
Yoshizaka and Jacobsen
???: âYoshizaka, Jacobsen, carry on with the searches, the other two Aberration holders must still be in confinement.â
This refers to Yoshizaka Nagisa and Chelice Jacobsen, two Yurigaoka Instructors who, for once, we actually know what they look like:
Chelice Jacobsen (left) and Yoshizaka Nagisa (right), as they appear in Assault Lily ARMS.
(Much of the information in this section comes from the Team Hitotsuyanagi and ARMS novels)
Both of them are actually quite a big deal considering how little we hear about them. Like Jacobsen on the left there, she is not just an Instructor, but a priestess (peep the nun clothes), a doctor, the head of Yurigoaka's special dorms unit and the overseeing Instructor for Legion Rossweisse (again, more on them in a sec). Call that girl a hydra for how many hats she wears.
Nagisa, on the other hand, is a bit closer to our main cast, as she is the head teacher of the first year Tsubaki class (that's Riri, Fumi, Kaede and Tazusa's class), and maybe most notably, she's the one who took in the little cookie Rokkaku Shiori after she lost her family in the Koshu Withdrawal.
They have a bit of a good cop bad cop thing going on, as according to Fumi, Chelice is kind while Nagisa is "scary". Most relevant to the story here is that both of them are close friends with Chairwoman Shiera, with the two of them actually being part of Shiera's squad back when they were Lilies.
"Child of mauve"
???: â.... You, child of mauve...â
???: âIn spite of it all⊠you live still!â
"Mauve" here is translated directly, the original word being è„玫 (Wakamurasaki, "light purple"). It's never really stated outright anywhere but this is widely accepted to be referring to Tazusa's mother. We don't really know if this is a title or her actual name (although è„玫 isn't really a first name, unless it is meant to be read a very specific way), so I just chose to translate it literally. If more information about her ever comes out, i'm leaving myself open to coming back and changing this one.
I would be remiss not to point out, though, that the characters that make the word Wakamurasaki mean "young" and "purple" respectively, and who did we meet that was color-coded *light purple* and was noted for their youthfulness....?
Legion Rossweisse
Yuyu: âYou neednât be so tense, Riri. For one, these special outfits weâve been provided for this mission possess the same technology used by Legion Rossweisseâs Legion outfits.â
From left to right, Rosalinde Friedegunde von Otto, Kitagawara Inori and Ishigami Mio, the three Rossweisse members with illustrations. Image credits: necömi
If Ălfheimr is the Legion that Yurigaoka sends out to deal with the worst of Huge threats, then Rossweisse is what they send out to deal with the worst of human threats. While their public identity is that of a support Legion of medics and first-responders, they secretly act as Yurigaoka's own secret service, deploying for the most top-secret of missions at the direct orders of Yurigaoka's high administration. These missions, as indicated by all the stealth functionalities loaded into Riri and Yuyu's new clothes, frequently involve infiltration and espionage into GEHENA installations, and a particular concern of theirs is rescuing and freeing any Boosted Lilies kept captive by them.
All of Rossweisse's members are Boosted Lilies themselves. They were pretty much all personally rescued from GEHENA by Chairwoman Shiera, and because of that, they are incredibly, and I mean incredibly loyal to her and Yurigaoka as a whole.
The Legion is led by Kitagawara Inori, the pink haired one. According to Fumi, she is very well mannered, "kinda like Shenlin", but has a bit of a short fuse. And while it does track that being the leader of a spec ops team would understandably require you to be quite the fierce individual, Fumi straight up said that she has some "Yandere vibes" about her, particularly when it comes to her Schutzengel, Ishigami Mio.
She is, by the way, going to show up in the next Assault Lily stage play, Assault Lily Sturm: Part 2!
Portrayed by Takahashi Ayane. Image credits: Assault Lily Stage: Official Website
Remnants
Tazusa: âI canât go back on this... not when Iâve already killed this many.... this many remnants...!â
A remnant is a Boosted Lily who has completely lost her higher cognitive functions due to repeated and/or forceful experimentation. You see, while a Lily can be Boosted multiple times and survive (for example), this is not really standard procedure even for the GEHENA extremists, as the more a Lily is boosted, the more she becomes vulnerable to the influence of the the Huge dna implanted on her. If a Lily is overboosted, or say, brought back to life, it becomes very likely for the Huge dna will completely take over, turning her into a completely mindless and violent zombie, a.k.a a remnant.
Now the thing about remnants is that the mind of the once-Lily doesn't completely go away. Like for example, they still remember proper combat technique and can even carry out strategies, like, we've once seen a group of remnants perform a Neunwelt before. While on one hand this means they can and have been weaponized, the good news, or I guess the silver lining is that it is possible to bring their consciousness back.
Sadly, as it was repeated extensively throughout this story chapter, it doesn't really matter how well they can control it, Negative Magie is still poison to a Lily. And so in general, there isn't much hope for a Lily that becomes a remnant, as the more they fight, the more they essentially burn through their life force and become more and more contaminated with the Huge's. Even in the event that their Magie is purified, all that can do is finally unshacke them from the chains forcibly keeping them in the world of the living, granting them one final moment of consciousness before they pass on.
But y'know what they say, every rule has its exception...
Aaand these are just about all the images I can fit in this post, so we'll continue in Part 2.
From left to right: Yamanashi HibariâFunada KiitoâFutagawa FumiâKondo Misaka
Unassuming little Fumi is one of the most aggressively shipped characters in Assault Lily. She has:
Relatively popular and serious ships with Kaede, Araya, and Hibari
Niche ships with Kureha and Mai
Crack ships with Kiito, Riri, Shenlin, and Yuzuriha
Fumi is little, by the way. In the anime/game canon she's 138cm tall and the tiniest character in AL.
One of those serious ships, Hibari, might come as a surprise. Who even is this Hibari? In this post I'll be telling you all about her and her relationship with Fumi.
Hibari's Obscure Origins
I've talked about it in my other posts, but Assault Lily has a lot of lore, and characters, that we only know about from tweets by the official Q&A account. For three years, Hibari was almost one of these. In fact, the entire legion she's a member ofâLegion SanngriĂ°râwas mostly confined to Twitter until recently.
Originally, this wasn't supposed to be the case. Legion SanngriĂ°r was introduced at the Wonder Festival 2019 convention as the feature characters in a new project known as "Mashima Moyu's Arsenal Workshop." But then people began to say that one of the character designs, Kondo Misaka's, was plagiarized from a certain character in a phone game by another company. (Having seen both designs, I think they were right.)
The other legion members (including Hibari) wore the same outfit as Misaka, so they were tainted too. Legion SanngriĂ°r was quietly removed from the spotlight, and "Mashima Moyu's Arsenal Workshop" was reworked to focus on Funada Kiito's Legion HronesnĂŠsse instead.
But SanngriĂ°r didn't cease to exist. Several characters from it made brief appearances in Assault Lily Bouquet, dressed in the standard Yurigaoka uniform so there were no issues with their designs.
Yamanashi Hibari (on the far left) in Assault Lily Bouquet episode 8
Following the end of Bouquet, the official Q&A account (which roleplays as Fumi answering questions) talked about Hibari and the members of SanngriĂ°r now and then. Despite having never appeared in any AL story in an important way, they gathered a few fans, especially when people noticed Fumi sounded like she had an awfully close relationship with Hibari. More on that later.
For now, let's jump ahead a few years to 2023. Near the beginning of the year, Kondo Misaka unexpectedly got a brand new, non-plagiarized character design as part of her starring role in the Assault Lily Wunder novel. Later, they announced SanngriĂ°r would have a stage play made about them, and as part of this several other characters also got new designs, including Hibari.
The Magician of SanngriĂ°r
Despite her name, Yamanashi Hibari is not from Yamanashi Prefecture. She was born in Kamakura and her family actually lives close to Fumi's family. She's a second-year Lily at Yurigaoka.
As a first-year Lily, she was a member of Legion SvanhvĂt, a legion that no longer exists. As part of that legion, and additionally when she fought in the Odaiba Counteroffensive, she gained a reputation as a brilliant commander and is now known as "The Magician of SanngriĂ°r." Her Rare Skill is Regista, making her naturally suited for command roles.
Hibari also has a unique ability which is rumored to be a subskill version of Z, allowing her to rewind time briefly.
She was involved in one of the very few occasions at Yurigaoka in which a Schutzengel's Oath was annulled, and now has an ex-Schutzengel, Yanagisawa Ayako in Legion VingĂłlf. Some people have a low opinion of her due to this incident, but Fumi thinks that while Hibari wasn't entirely blameless, it's unfair of people to scorn her to this day for the oath dissolving.
Hibari does not have a Schild yet, though as a famous Lily she's under pressure to choose one.
HibaFumi
According to Fumi, Hibari first spoke to her at the Yurigaoka entrance ceremony, saying "Hey! You're Futagawa Fumi from the rumors, right?" This is actually very odd because Fumi wasn't a Lily until she entered Yurigaoka and it's not clear what rumors there would be about her. Unfortunately, Fumi hasn't provided further details.
She initially called Fumi "Fumi-san", respectfully, but now calls her just "Fumi" as one might address a close friend.
Since meeting each other, the two Lilies have:
Gone out for lunch together
Gone shopping for art supplies together
Gone camping together
Chatted about battle tactics and notable Lilies
Chatted about their favorite characters in "that anime about talking trains"
Stayed overnight in each other's rooms
Stayed up all night talking about battle tactics together
Gone to visit the shrine together on New Year's Day
Gone to a Lily-themed cafe together, where Hibari ordered the "Schutzengel parfait", saying she felt like parfait
Hibari has invited Fumi to go see an art exhibition and to the zoo with her
Fumi gave Hibari a birthday present, a handmade keyholder with an otter design
Hibari gave Fumi a birthday present, a necklace with a chinchilla design. (Fumi didn't say one way or the other, but since handicrafts are Hibari's hobby, the necklace was probably also handmade.)
Fumi gave Hibari Valentine's Day chocolate
Acquaintances of Hibari's often tease her that she should propose the Schutzengel's Oath to a certain somebody soon. Fumi, for her part, would very much like to have a Schutzengel, but wants it to happen in the traditional Yurigaoka fashion where the older girl proposes to the younger one.
Hibari's favorite flower is the linaria, which in flower language means "Please notice this love."
Acknowledgements
Virtually all the information above comes from tweets on Futagawa Fumi's Twitter account, and was gathered and summarized by an anonymous editor on the Assault Lily Wiki.
DISCLAIMER: the original images were incredibly low quality, so i did decide to use some upscaling on them so that the text I would overlay wouldn't also turn into a blocky mess. Now, I used the most subtle tool I could find to avoid anything looking too weird, but you'll notice that some places still have that weird smoothness to them, so I do ask that you forgive me for that.
Anyways, I was just going to make these for Fuuka and Mitake since they were the two main ones in this event, but since Makina and Yuni already got mentioned, and they will already be appearing in a major capacity the next time Hervör shows up in the story, I just thought "eh, I'll just do all four of them right now".
As you already know, Herensuge's Legions have five members, and so there is a fifth one I've omitted, but since she's not gonna be appearing in a good while, I thought it made less sense to include her here, so I'll just be appending her as a reblog on a later date.
Assault Lily: Last Bullet - Main Story - Chapter 3, Part 7 ~In These High Heavens Effloresces a Bouquet~
Gran Eple, Hervör, RĂĄĂ°grĂĂ°r, they've each shown their might in their own trials, and now the strings of fate pull them together once again for the closing chapter of this part of their journey, in which they stand against the most powerful foe they've ever faced.
And that's a wrap on the Chapter 3 tracks! This one is my favorite out of the many tracks Team Hitotsuyanagi has, and it's probably one of my favorite AL songs overall as far as lyrical content goes.
Incidentally, the vibe of this song really got me thinking about the Flowers of the End, and that ended up making me use a lot of language evocative of corpses and withering life and the like in my translation. But, well, the track is very clearly about Tazusa, and particularly with the context of the latest story chapter, I think it still fits.
Like usual, you can find "Adabana" just about anywhere (though I have been informed some of the links here don't work anymore so your mileage may vary)
Assault Lily: Last Bullet - Main Story - Chapter 3, Part 6 ~A Vow to Reconnect~
Team Hitotsuyanagi's search for Tazusa continues, and while the leads they've acquired in their previous mission promise to bring them closer to finding her, the situation has thrown Mai's emotions into utter disarray, something her best friend quickly takes notice of...
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
Incidentally, here's that certain final scene fully translated in video form (not by me, but still worth linking here because it's great)
