170Prologue: Egoist
A clattering of footsteps is accompanied by heavy breathing and panting. Every footstep stomped the floor filled with water. A person came into the view of faint lights lined across surrounding interiors.
Making a quick run through the long corridor of an underground tunnel, a pink-haired girl dressed in a bright red outfit with long sleeves and orange petal-like embellishments, and thigh-high black stockings came into the view of these lights. From a close-up of her face, she has delicate, pale features, blood-red eyes full of fret, and an earpiece for communication on her right ear.
The woman's hands grasped something in her hands. It is a vial containing a fluid made from an unknown substance. Having secured it and ran for her life, she drew the attention of a facility's security, which was hot on her trail.
Accompanying her is a small robot that one would mistake for a rice cooker. Picking up with the woman's pace, the robot raced on four-wheeled legs across a series of ceiling pipelines.
Upon spotting her robot companion ahead of her, the woman took a deep breath and jumped high into the air.
"Have you secured the key and escaped GHQ's Ward 24?" A man's voice called through the girl's earpiece.
"Yeah."
"Well done. I'll guide you out to our rendezvous point."
Having hopped out of the tunnel's end, she landed on a long and narrow platform. Halfway through the platform, the sounds of heavy gunfire bombarded the side of the wall, alarming the woman. Then, an artillery shell collided with the platform and exploded, throwing the woman forward with force.
As she stirred, the woman regained her bearings and barely discerned what looked like a mechanical vehicle with a smoking barrel beginning to open fire again. As the machine fired rounds, some bullets ricocheted off the pipes in its path. While collecting herself, the woman turned and dashed away as bullets shot the ground where she once lay and followed her path.
As she entered a dark tunnel, her entire body turned transparent and ethereal like a ghost, allowing her to blend and vanish with her surroundings. The camouflage tactic seemingly threw off her mechanized attackers. Gazing forward, she saw the lights of the Odaiba cityscape and escaped the tunnel.
Unbeknownst to her, one of the bullets grazed her to the point she left a blood trail.
Later, after leaving her attackers behind in the tunnels, the pink-haired woman made it safely on an empty freeway. She met her robot companion as it strolled up to her. Falling to a knee, she bit her bottom lip, willfully ignoring the wound she sustained.
Pushing the back of the small machine, she pried the machine's top hatchet open and slid the vial inside a slot.
"Here. Give this to Gai," she muttered until she heard the sound of heavy wheels strolling toward her. When she faced the other way, another mechanical armored vehicle launched a shell as it exploded roughly 30 feet from the girl, causing her to cover her robot with the vial safely secured inside it. The explosion left a fiery wave in its wake.
Finding herself in a state of shock, she couldn't move. Once the vehicle headed over to run her down, something was in its way. In response, the vehicle shifted into an upright position, gaining bipedal mobility as its front legs shifted into arms as they seized something. From the girl's vantage point, there was nothing in its way. Then, something quickly uncloaked its camouflage state and took on a solid form.
It was another vehicle similar to the one that just attacked the pink-haired girl. However, unlike the enemy vehicle with its cyan colors, this mechanized attack vehicle is mostly white coupled with red armored compartments on its shoulders and forearms. More red sections are visibly seen on its waist sides. Some sections of black armor are seen beneath the whiter exterior armor. A bright, shiny red visor adorns its face, which scanned the enemy vehicle. The white-armored vehicle's body frame is robust with its armor but possesses lanky limbs.
"I've got you covered! Now, hurry up and get that key to Gai!" Another woman's voice called out from the white and red mechanical vehicle. As the enemy vehicle attempted to fire rounds, the white and red-armored vehicle effortlessly pushed back the enemy vehicle. Seizing the enemy vehicle's arm, the savior tore the arm off the other. "Your outdated Endlave Gautiers are no match for my customized Endlave Steiner's firepower! Take this!" She howled with intensity as her vehicle released a bombardment of rounds that ripped into and blasted the enemy vehicle asunder. Instinctively prepared to combat multiple enemies, the woman's vehicle produced a combat axe-like blade. Another Endlave Gautier arrived, only to be gunned down and having its limbs cut from its mechanized sockets. "Now's your chance, Inori!"
Nodding, the pink-haired girl beckoned the smaller robot. "Let's go, Fyu-Neru." With that, she and Fyu-Neru turned and raced from the scene. She hastened the pace to escape the freeway, but much to her dismay, another Endlave Gautier, which bypassed the Steiner in a hurry, showed up out of the blue and ready to attack.
"Pull out of there, Aya! More Endlaves are coming!" Shrilled another girl's voice through the Steiner's communication network, warning the female pilot inside, who was occupied gunning down two more Endlaves.
"Thanks for the heads up, Tsugumi!"
When the Steiner vehicle tried to intercept the second one, the enemy Endlave's slots opened and launched three homing missiles that flew straight for the fleeing girl and the robot.
"Oh shit! Pick up the pace, Inori!" The female pilot from the Steiner screamed, but it was too late.
After the three missiles crashed into the sides of the bridge, two more were fired at the pink-haired girl and her robot companion. One of these missiles crashed and exploded behind the girl and the robot, sending them sailing off the freeway bridge.
Once she fell, her red eyes listlessly looked up at the nightly sky and the fiery blaze spreading on the bridge. Below her, her body is set to fall into Tokyo Bay. In the background, she briefly glimpsed at a massive monolithic building with a dome-shaped center situated in the center of Tokyo. It looked like a conceptual skyscraper based on the X-Seed 4000. This is Ward 24, the GHQ headquarters that the woman and Fyu-Neru took the vial from and fled.
Closing her eyes, she shut her mind from the rest of the world. She visualized herself sitting down behind a crystallized wall and two crystal monoliths. She viewed herself singing a beautiful lullaby with a voice that could soothe a soul.
Then, her fantasy was swiftly disrupted as she and the robot plunged into Tokyo Bay. On the bridge, the smoke from the fire lifted into the air and covered the bridge. The sounds of the war machines' battles were drowned out by the crackling sounds of the fiery inferno.
Standing outside on a stairway, a teenage boy with short light brown hair with spiked fringed bangs covering his forehead stared at his tablet device. The light from his device displayed an online video posted on a website. With a soft smile adorning his face, the young man listened to the beautiful music from the online songstress.
Slightly turning up the volume, he scanned over the songstress. It was the same pink-haired girl who narrowly escaped capture and fell into Tokyo Bay. He watched the music video, showing vivid images of the pink-haired girl lying almost naked and wearing nothing but a black-feathered boa. The video then showed a provocative scene of her kissing a cow skull prop.
Falling entranced by the girl's beautiful singing, the teenage boy leaned back, shunning out every care in his current mundane life. His eyes hadn't left the screen with the pink-haired girl. The song he was listening to is Euterpe, named after one of the Muses of Greek Mythology. Her singing sounded as if that Muse had returned and became reincarnated into this enigmatic internet songstress.
"Thanks for another song, Inori. Goodnight wherever you are." With that, he shut off his device and headed straight to his place to sleep. With Inori on his mind, he planned on another pleasant sleep with her lullaby singing.
Upon returning to his home and closing his eyes, the young man prepared for another mundane school life.
Or, quite possibly a path that diverges from his usual routine.
A/N: Hello, and thank you for even reading this prologue. Now, what might be this Guilty Crown story be? You might already guess this is a retelling of some kind. Consider yourself correct!
A pink-haired songstress running through an underground tunnel as she's being pursued. A bunch of mechs fighting on a bridge. A boy watching a music video ft. the same pink-haired woman. That all sounds familiar to you, GC fans?
And why pick October 6th to post this? Because 10 years ago that was the launch day of the Guilty Crown Japanse broadcast. Yes, can you believe it has already been that long? GC is already 10 years old. This year marks the 10th anniversary. Yet, there hasn't been any fanfare. No official announcement for a sequel and/or a reboot. Not even a spin-off. The only new GC content has been a mobile game from a few years back and a piano arrangement of the first OP 'My Dearest'. Beyond those, there hasn't been anything else.
Why the lack of content? Probably since the show wasn't highly received as the show went on and the story's second half fell apart. It's also been called a Code Geass rip-off, which I can see why.
Anyway, I'm not going to parrot what others have said about GC. I have my deep mixed opinions about GC and saw it had squandered its own potential. I don't look for perfection in anything I watch and/or read, but consistency is important and GC lacked that through the course of its story. And the main character wasn't the most likable either. Even in 2011 alone, GC was outshone by Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Hunter x Hunter (2011), Future Diary, Tiger & Bunny, Steins;Gate, Aohana, and some others. By the mid-2010s, it had pretty much fallen off. Then, recently, I've seen many on social media reminiscing about GC being their first anime or an anime that affected them personally (be it positive or negative). And others who remember it fondly for its music, animation, and the relationship between Shu & Inori. Inori, especially, became the series' mascot and her unique aesthetic lends her to being fondly remembered.
With no new content, my friend, Allfather-Ford, was inspired to conceptualize a retelling of GC with new ideas and a chance to revise a heavily flawed show. Allfather-Ford already has prior experience writing GC fanfics, but they were mostly multi-crossovers with other series. And I have helped him co-write most of these stories. Now, I am taking the helm as the main writer and he will be the main contributor.
And he has decided on the retelling's title: Akane no Guilty Crown. What's the significance behind the 'Akane no' part of the title? That will be revealed later on as it relates to one of GC's characters. Someone who had the greatest potential but fell to the wayside in favor of Shu, Gai, and Inori. It's also a nod to another in-progress fanfic I'm writing called Akane no Mai.
The full purpose of this story is indeed to retell the events, but there will be new characters (two OC protagonists) who'll drastically affect the story that alters the story's direction. New elements from the various GC media, including spin-off manga, will be incorporated. Other concepts will also be utilized to help refresh this new take of the GC story. There will be some deviations from the canonized GC. This fic hopefully will improve the show's flaws, fixes character personalities, and compresses the story. The first couple of chapters will explore some character studies and later ones will include some first-person POV scenes and perspectives. And certain characters who were overlooked in the original GC will receive an adaptational upgrade in AnGC. All I have to say, if you're a fan of Shinomiya Ayase, then you should be hyped!
As for the aforementioned OC protagonists, they'll be heavily featured but they won't overshadow the known GC characters. Hell, if anything, they may offer something new for this retooled version. One of them is planned to be paired with Ayase.
My friend, Allfather-Ford, who is a bigger GC fan than me, has helped me outline this fanfic's overall direction. So, I am writing according to his vision while at the same time, I am writing our take on GC's story and characters for AnGC.
Unlike the canon GC, we are treating this story as if it were a limited OVA-style series. It will be stand-alone with no spin-offs and sequels planned. It won't be 22 episodes like GC was either. Instead, we're condensing the story to about… oh, say about 19 chapters? With a focus on a smaller cast, chapters shouldn't get bloated either. I've been used to writing multi-crossover stories with long as hell chapters ft. a bunch of characters. AnGC shouldn't have that problem as I aim for a tighter novelization. Yeah, think of this if I've been handed a known property and asked to write an official light novelization. As I'm writing this, I am in the process of writing my first official novel. That said, AnGC, while it will be treated as a novel, will remain a fanfiction story.
There's also something with AnGC in the works, which Allfather-Ford will be working on: this story will be translated into different languages. So, yes, you'll be able to read this story in your native language! We're discussing where those translations will be posted. It'll take some time but we'll post updates.
The incredible cover art was commissioned and drawn by Santiago Rosas. Allfather-Ford was the one who paid for the commission. It was a 300 dollar commissioned art! It's a well-made piece, isn't it? Ideally, it's what a cover for a light/graphic novel would look like.
To recap, the prologue covers the entire cold opening of Guilty Crown episode 1. Notice any differences from the original anime's take? Well, you should. A certain Endlave pilot has an upgraded version of the Steiner and is already whooping more butt than in the original. That's quite a start, at least. Alterations from the original story will come noticeably and subtly.
Some nifty tidbits about this chapter:
-X-Seed 4000 is a real-life skyscraper concept created and developed by Martin Pascoe. Its appearance looks exactly like GHQ headquarters. One might say this concept was finally realized once GHQ seized control of Japan. It matches the X-Seed 4000's 4-kilometer (2.5 mi) height, 6-kilometer-wide (3.7 mi) sea base, and 800-floor capacity. Based on its real-life conceptualization, X-Seed 4000 was designed for Tokyo, Japan by the Taisei Corporation in 1995 as a futuristic setting that combined modernized and technology living. However, something like this was 'never meant to be built' based on architects. Moreover, its location was built in the center of the most active volcanic range in the world, making X-Seed 4000 vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis. Needless to say, while the concept is unlikely to be built in real-time, in the Guilty Crown reality, the concept was utilized and finished as the foundation of GHQ's rise to power.
For this story, I will also be posting a section called 'All There in the Manual', which will further elaborate on certain aspects, plot & character backstories, character profiles, and other heavy-handed information that won't be found in the story's context.
Starting with this chapter:
All There in the Manual - Prologue
-Egoist exists in-universe in GC, and in real-life. In AnGC, Egoist in the past had done a song for Psycho-Pass to first establish their presence (instead of Guilty Crown in real-life). Two decades later, new band members (and Inori added) have taken over the band.)
-In real life, 2039 is the 100th anniversary (1939 - 2039) of WWII.
And I leave you with this official preview for the GC retelling: Akane no Guilty Crown. I hope it entices you to follow, read, and review. Our plan is a weekly chapter release, but we'll see how everything plays out if we need time to produce new chapters.
Until then, leave a comment and review, loyal GC enthusiasts. Or, even newcomers who're just being introduced to this series. We hope AnGC will appeal to newcomers who might show interest in the actual show.
Take care!