"It would be irresponsible not to take every available opportunity for improvement," Queen Administrator neutrally stated. "You will have approximately three years before your value as a combat unit is more important than your safety. Be lazy at your own peril."
Koujirou blinked, but remained silent. He did not appear to know what to do with this information. QA took another few bites from her alou balou palaw while she waited.
"Queen Shaper's Concept deals with the manipulation, modification, and improvement of life. Mine pertains to efficient control of information, sources of information, and general authority. She also seems to think that deliberate misinformation is funny. It isn't. She's ruined more than one project by deliberately inserting errors I did not find until later."
"Note to self," Koujirou said quietly. "Never ever trick Taylor."
"That would be appreciated," QA acknowledged.
Sometimes moron harem protagonists can actually have an important conversation with a girl when it matters. QA is blunt enough that she stands a good chance of getting through even an especially thick skull. I wonder if this might be something of a wakeup call for Koujirou; she's entirely right. There's a
war on, and it's not going well. Humanity is winning, sure, but it's a bloody hard slog. The closest thing that the UN has to any sort of reserve Valkyries is the trainees, and if things go bad somewhere, those cadets have to stand up, because there isn't anyone else. Shuri knows that all too well. The UN would greatly prefer that its Valkyries get as much training in as possible before setting them as the sword of humanity in the face of extinction, but three years is all anyone gets at the most before they will be called to fight. He's The Protagonist; he has a job to do.
QA's extremely straightforward nature and Koujirou's... "less than complex" nature, shall we say, do have some good synergy here, though (which of course means that all the fans must ship them, and that anyone with their own pairing ideas must obviously be burned at the stake). Alivaril outright stated that QA is an unreliable narrator; that line of hers about Queen Shaper very much suggests that despite QA's preference for a very stoic facade, the moron harem protagonist found himself right in front of
a sad girl. Naturally, that has to be addressed. She's also a scary girl, but she was also a sad girl. Therefore, Koujirou decided to pointedly
avoid doing the stupid thing that would make the normally seemingly unflappable girl both sad and maybe inflict doom upon him for doing something unforgivable. He's a moron, but in those particular circumstances, he can't be
that much of a moron, not him of all people. Appropriately, he was correct, and it was the right thing to say at the right time. QA may have even stopped looking like someone betrayed her and murdered her puppy in front of her... not that she would
be in that kind of scenario anyway, because she would make sure that it eldritch'd at whatever tried and maybe eaten the offender.
"And before you ask, yes, we're pretty sure she could make combat units if she wanted to," Instructor Shapira added. "It just might take a little trial and error first."
Queen Administrator wrinkled her nose. She understood what Shapira had meant, but she didn't like the wording. All of her creations would be viable in some way even if they couldn't accomplish their intended purpose. They weren't errors.
For all that QA likes to pretend that she is some perfect bastion of absolute logic and unfettered rationality, she's really, really not. Shapira isn't even saying that QA's creations are errors. The process of creating combat units might take mistakes. QA's point that things can be repurposed for other uses is entirely sound, but the topic gets close to a sore point, so that's what she fixates upon. I wonder what all the unseen onlookers think of this, though. QA is something of an unreliable narrator, but she is none the less noted to be emoting in what sure looks like a response. From what people know, implication of flaws may very well constitute a pretty profound cultural taboo in Hell's Hand, for
dangerous reasons; the scenario here kind of implies that QA is highly vain—which isn't actually wrong—and disagreeable towards the notion of making mistakes, but did perhaps did not think Shapira's words to be as offensive and threatening as a declaration that she had
made something poorly. This might get flagged as something to note to Shapira if it hasn't already; from Big Sister's perspective, it looks like Shapira accidentally came close to saying something unfortunate.
"I was actually going to ask where her unicorns went," Setsuna admitted. "It's not a cafeteria rule; Monica and Anna still have their own with them. Are they having their weapons removed?"
Queen Administrator giggled. Why would she disarm her creations after losing an engagement? Doing so would make it even harder to win in the future. The very idea exposed Setsuna's inexperience.
"Of course not. Symbie is upgrading their weapons, not removing them. Please do not attempt this on your own; it is likely that only Symbie can safely store them."
So, this is the girl who deliberately and pointedly attempts to maintain "neutral" expression when not deliberately seeking to convey something in particular, such that she usually maintains a dull monotone save for when she gets a little uncanny in her exaggerated displays or surprised by Host's messy primitive organic functions. She
burst into giggles. Apparently, Cadet Hebert thinks her Friends disarming and/or Setsuna's "childish naivety" as she might see it is hilarious. That gets all the further reinforced by her response, too.
"Of course not." She goes on to explain that which in arguably should have perhaps to have been expected, but that's not what she starts with. QA doesn't just give a plain answer or reply with a concise clarification, because that was
funny, and may or may not have additionally merited mocking.
On a related point, QA noted that disarming her creations after losing an engagement would make winning in the future more difficult, and earlier that—in what may have been a time-specific statement—their weaponry was not meant to be viable for Valkyrie-level combat. She is also now upgrading the weaponry. The context thus implies a possibility that QA might perhaps be intending to make the Friends capable of that greater level of performance. I think a lot of people are going to be torn between either cackling or crapping themselves the first time she shows off what she can do with a whole swarm of minions.
"We also improved their IFF and added safeties," QA said dismissively. "More importantly, study subjects are more likely to pursue personal combat improvements when they're exposed to weaponry and/or the perception of danger. They should be able to keep themselves safe; they won't always have superior Valkyries around to guard them."
Instructor Shapira's head impacted (and slightly dented) the table. Her Impeller Field ensured she took no damage, although Anna's forehead did furrow (search match: concern, worry, anxiety, confusion). Perhaps she was only dedicating a small amount of her attention toward communications? The use of autopilot for eating might just be habitual.
Uh... "study subjects". That... yeah that line doesn't help. From an interpretation of the skewed perspective of someone who seems like a textbook VS case, it
sounds as though QA is (at least
trying to be) genuinely altruistic and helpful because she has a concern about an entirely valid point. She also sounds like someone from Hell's Hand. She has a logical argument, and is going about it
horribly. 
For their own good, the test subjects should be threatened, because only then will they become safe as is desired.
On a somewhat related point, there's the matter of QA's searches. Earlier, Shapira was evidenced to be keeping track of QA's search activities in realtime. She and a lot of other concerned individuals can be reasonably presumed to have caught what just transpired, and it's something that lends credence to certain ideas all the more. QA was looking up the significance of Anna's facial expressions as if, perhaps, she had some severe brain damage and memory issues like she said and seems to be the case. It isn't the only time she does it, either. Cadet Hebert quite obviously has trouble understanding and relating to people, and ever more evidence for that just keeps on piling up.
"This is your initial Flight, Cadets," Instructor Shapira said bluntly. "Cadets Rokusabe and Masaya, you two are the only ones present to know each other before yesterday. It's a given that you'll likely stick together. The question is if you're willing to stay with this particular Flight.
Well now, that's a thing, it seems. The grouping seemed likely enough, but now it's official. At least for now, Koujirou, Setsuna, Anna, Taylor, and Monica are a flight together. With six people, I find myself wondering if there will actually be a merge bringing in Sandra and Shuri later on per canon; a trio and pair forming up together worked quite neatly in the parent story, but six members is already at the scale of a proper flight grouping. That said, some flights do indeed just grow larger than average. Shuri initially had a lot of hangers-on in canon. From the sounds of it, too, Shapira fully expects QA to get similar treatment.
I think Sandra and Shuri might end up in the flight anyway eventually, with the flight thus just getting more focus on developing it into a big scary thing to be pointed at whatever problem needs their special attention by the time they finish training. QA probably will indeed get a lot of people seeking to join up with her, but anyone whom she thinks just wants to join in order to benefit from her and can't offer much—that being
most people, really—is likely to be summarily disregarded. Too, with the flight already having six people, no one
else is going to be motivated by the need to fill out the numbers, leaving the whole lot of them with high standards to need good reason to want more people to join rather than be opposed to would-be additions or ambivalent in the face of QA's rejection. Shuri and Sandra, however, very much fit QA's criteria for "personal worth"; Shuri is one of the very best Valkyries in her own right, and though Sandra herself compares less favourably alongside Shuri as more "good, but not amazing" in terms of combat ability, that's a
comparative difference, and one offset by her considerable abilities in areas beyond just combat. Shuri's initial flight kind of fell apart, and QA's flight would probably be pretty welcome to the idea of including them, so it may very well happen.
If Shuri and Sandra do join, however, I'd be quite curious to see how the interaction would work out. Monica getting hit with the full force of Sandra's Sandra-ness sounds amusing. Monica and Anna have some similarities, so canon might be something of a measure of how that would turn out, but getting engulfed in her...
Sandra-ness would probably do some real good for Monica, to be honest; Sandra is just a right decent person. Similarly, Sandra might be quite the boon for QA herself as well. In the DanMachi fork, QA benefits from having Hestia, which is a factor difficult to really overstate. Hestia is, most unfortunately, not a part of this setting, but Sandra did fill something of a team mom role in canon, and did so quite well. As for Shuri, her injuries also present an interesting prospect; Shuri got hurt pretty badly prior to the start of the story and has replacements for parts of her that, well,
needed replacing. Shuri is already using significant compensatory augmentation
anyway, and QA can whip up some very fancy augmentations, something that Shuri might find an attractive prospect and QA might be happy to provide for someone in her in-group that is already personally capable and seeking self-improvement that would help her help QA. Shuri might be pretty intimidating to Monica, though, should Monica not realise Shuri's reasoning for being so demanding and harsh... though Monica might be used to QA logic enough to translate that, so it may not actually be an issue.
"Not just combat ability," Queen Administrator protested. "Non-combat and likely future abilities are also important."
Instructor Shapira's face twisted oddly as she oriented both palms toward QA with fingers splayed wide. The odd gesture was dropped a few seconds later. QA's attempt to search for the gesture returned too many possibilities for the shard to sufficiently narrow it down.
"Harbors incredibly unique views."
Queen Administrator blinked rapidly and stopped improving her current project. This demanded all the cycles she could spare from essential activities.
"Correction:" QA interjected as soon as an opportunity presented itself. "My name is <Queen Administrator>. Queen Shaper is a frequent friend. Why did you think I was her, and how did you learn that name?"
Oh my. That happened. Even just from the perspective shown which may be somewhat more limited that the full extent of what transpired, QA quite evidently got upset and troubled over that. She also (extremely loudly) delivered her name, too, which might prove significant for the future; though it cannot be parsed well at present, QA's identity tag is available for reference, and now there is further the relevant title given in shardspeech to go with that. Anna at least already knows that there is an identity distinction between one person going by the name of Taylor Hebert and another one, and she herself additionally has the key to making sense of shardspeech, but now, others might make headway in determining a definitive difference between QA with her identity tag declaring association with the identity itself isolated from the rest of the tag in a different sample and Taylor's own identity tag. Anna felt that something was just kind of "off" when trying to associate the wrong tag with the wrong person; with more to work with, ambiguity might be supplanted by certainty now, to make obvious to others that QA and Taylor are distinct individuals.
This also brings up another intriguing point. Queen Administrator has a "frequent friend" in this Queen Shaper person. She has previously made particular claims about what she remembers, but people might be reviewing those and the information available now. Supposition was offered that the girl might be recovering to some degree, and she obviously knows
something from her past. If earlier inquiries were worded poorly to the person whom everyone knows to take things extremely literally, she might have given an honest answer for which the information actually desired was just not categorised as applicable, and she might have simply recovered awareness not available at the time of such questioning.
The situation with Queen Administrator and Queen Shaper is itself something warranting consideration as well. QA claimed a positive if also perhaps contradictory or complicated relationship with Queen Shaper. The girl blatantly has all sorts of problems. Queen Shaper was probably someone whom she considered fondly... and as far as the UN can tell, there's an emphasis on
was. VIP Pandora is the only survivor. I think a lot of people are pondering the scenario of the girl who went through all the horrors of Hell's Hand learning that the one person who was any kind of light in that abyss is dead, and just how goddamn
sad it'd be if she doesn't actually feel much about it for not having the memories to give that the right significance anymore. Hell, as far as they know, there's a decent chance that
she had to kill Queen Shaper in the presumable breakout, and that she just clawed that out from her mind in the aftermath. If she remembers Queen Shaper, though, what if she remembers more?
>> "The robots appear to be targeting sections of the brain responsible for long-term memory recall, fear, and pain. Partial functionality for each remains intact, but there is also some collateral damage. Please do not attempt brain surgery in the field." <<
Well, that's one way to make an impression. It fits the situation and scenario well as an understandable explanation and justification for Taylor's similar black flower malware habits, but the demand for quality therapists as this story continues is probably exploding exponentially. At the very least, Liz and Elise deserve some ice cream after this. Then there's the added matter of Taylor quite possibly ending up making this seem like a disturbingly
good thing that is just profoundly wrong all the same by presenting the image of a girl who is actually kind of chipper and okay with everything... because her earlier self decided to mutilate her identity. Taylor Hebert decided that she would rather not be who she was, so she blended her own brain to end up unarguably happier and better off for it. Also, presumably so did the other one, because that's a thing. Ain't Hell's Hand just a wonderful place...
This does offer greater validity to QA's own cover, though, at least. She claimed to have suffered brain damage, and that seemed likely to be the case based on observation of her behaviour and mentality, but this is all but explicit confirmation, and in a manner that could allow for it to be true even if QA herself didn't realise the specific details because of it being indeed brain damage that further may have been imposed or self-inflicted independently of the actions of another party. The kind of brain damage suggested does in fact demonstrably happen at Hell's Hand.
Being a walking terror weapon wouldn't help any.
Hm. I wonder if we might have some parallels with the DanMachi fork occurring here. This presents a major change in the relationship dynamics between QA and Taylor. Thus far, QA has been acting as a caretaker for "Host's body" for Taylor while waiting for them to switch places again upon recovery from the initial trigger complications. QA has made some alterations to Taylor's body, but they have been done as improvements
for Taylor, things that QA considers responsible management of the body in her keeping, rather than whatever QA herself finds desirable; there is a degree of crossover in QA benefiting from those improvements as well since those changes are in fact so enacted that the proper occupant of the body can meet certain needs, but QA does it with someone else in mind rather than her own preferences. Now, however, the situation is simply no longer the same; QA may or may not trust Symbie with managing her own shard body, but regardless, she no longer has the purpose of maintaining someone else's stuff for them. Taylor has her own body now, and QA is stuck with Taylor's old one unless she can convince Symbie to give her her shard body back and actually wants to pursue that option.
So, what becomes of this? Symbie is apparently under the impression that Taylor should have a body with
extensive deviation from a typical human meatsuit just from what has been observed thus far, and the assessing Valkyries probably have a very limited understanding of the extent of the results of such an altered composition, given what Symbie could pull off with shardtech and implied stolen Type Zero material. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Taylor turns out to be up to Valkyrie-level combat with nothing more than her new body; she certainly stands to be
way better off than a squishy vanilla human, at least. Taylor herself may very well be entirely okay with this, too, as despite the statistics pertaining to such drastic alterations, she is
decidedly an outlier far from the average control standard. Taylor had body image issues to begin with, but that then got compounded by just "body" issues for getting kicked out of it entirely and further turned into something a lot more
inhuman than merely transhuman, giving her a perspective downright alien in a lot of ways. QA, by contrast, might at once approve of Taylor's body (if perhaps be troubled by its actual existence) and maybe experience
jealousy over it, to have all kinds of people pondering the psychological implications of the apparent scenario; her earlier commentary about armoured hair suggests that she might be quite keen to turn herself into "a walking terror weapon" and share ideas about weaponised blood of disintegratory/invasive doom, but where the other girl—whom people might think of as perhaps some "Taylor Hebert v1.1" born of Hell's Hand's Hell's Hand-ishness and think of—has all the bells and whistles, her own body that she didn't want in the first place... kind of sucks, really.
I suspect that QA's therapist brigade will have some reservations if QA makes known a desire to start heavily modifying herself. It's a legitimate concern about regular Valkyries, but in QA's case, the ideas about inadequacy could be all the worse. Some Valks who modify themselves probably do so out of a sense of not being good enough, but they also don't have "the better them" staring them in the face. Worse still, Taylor may be quite happy with herself, to contrast all the further to make her appear to be the better and more successful version of QA, and that itself could get exacerbated by QA's ideas about deviant sources for new ideas and the perception of Cadet Hebert being that she felt that she
should be miserable in order to have worth, a view that she only just agreed was not necessarily sound on account of already being unique... which happens to not be the case if there's another one of her.
