Chapter 1: Project Rebirth

1

The end of March was fast approaching. It was spring, several months after the catastrophe in December, and Yu Ichinose was still in Maizuru. It wasn’t like he had any places to be or a way to get there anyway.

“Figures that all the boats and planes got burned up by the dragon.” Yu stared lazily at the sunset.

“Probably shouldn’t chance taking the roads. Too dangerous,” said Ijuin, sitting next to him on the grass. “Especially through the mountains. I hear lots of Anomalies are wandering around places like that.”

“Yeah, it takes them about a month or two to disappear once they arrive.”

“Right. Until they run outta magic. Use too much of it and they’ll get forced back to the other side. Like before.” The two boys got together to exchange information like this often. Their plan needed to be airtight. “No way am I spending the rest of my life in this rotten place! I can’t wait to bust outta here and run off to Kyushu or Hokkaido! If we can’t make it home, I mean.”

“I can’t go back to Kanto, Ijuin. It’s a pile of rubble now, and flooded even worse than here.” Compared to his hotheaded, Yokohama-born, Yamate-raised friend, Yu the Tokyoite city boy was quite calm.

The two watched the sun set behind a distant ridgeline from the top of Mount Gorogatake—the best seats in the city. Its brilliant, crimson rays stretched as far as the hills of the old province of Tamba and glistened on the waters of Wakasa and the Sea of Japan to the north.

But it was hardly a moving spectacle.

“Things will never go back to normal, will they?”

“Professor Chloe says that the five elements of Honshu—what were they again?” Ijuin racked his brain. “Earth, water, fire, wind, and...void? Anyway, the water element’s out of whack, and that’s why the rivers have been flooding. She said a bunch of other mumbo jumbo too, but I don’t get any of that magic-speak. Ex-mages, am I right?”

As the sun approached its final moments above the horizon, the sky burned red, illuminating downtown Maizuru as it rippled beneath the waves. Most of the city was dotted with hills and mountains, but the majority of the flatlands in between were now completely underwater. The summit they sat on was too high to conveniently launch any boats from, but they very well could have elsewhere. If only they’d had one.

Seven or eight meters below the clear surface, the vestiges of society rested on the ocean floor—the harbor, houses, the Maizuru Line railways, the train station, cozy shopping districts, temples and shrines, the old castle town, and even the ruins of the Defense Force base.

Yu sighed. “Just like Kanto. I can’t believe it happened again.”

“Wonder if it’s like this all over Japan,” replied Ijuin.

“We’re definitely not the only ones without water or electricity, at least.”

“Yeah, not a chance. Everywhere’s on its last legs. Pretty much all of Honshu’s on the brink, and things aren’t getting any better. Radio would be nice, though.”

“The portal-keeps interfere with the radio waves too much, so that might be a tall order.”

The boys picked themselves up and trudged across the mountaintop. What once was Gorogatake Park and then a Defense Force research facility, was now serving as a provisionary outpost for surviving members of the Force. A large warehouse acted as shelter for civilian refugees who had arrived via rescue boats.

“Didn’t some new people show up not too long ago?” Yu muttered.

“Yeah, they drove all the way here from Fukui prefecture. There ended up being less rescue boats than they said they’d have, so it doesn’t surprise me that some people missed their shot. No one’s gettin’ any food or help sitting at home,” pointed out Ijuin. “Sooner or later, Anomalies come knocking.”

“And anyone still around Maizuru’s gonna be here.”

“Think we’re at what, like, a hundred people? About seventy left in the Force, but you know what I don’t get? Why the military guys get beds and dorms while we and the refugees gotta squeeze into that warehouse like sardines! Just ain’t right,” Ijuin griped, as they arrived at the shelter.

With dozens of families crammed into the building, sharing tiny blue tarps littered with their personal belongings, there simply wasn’t enough space to go around. People were exhausted and tense; it would only take a small spark for an altercation to break out.

Yu didn’t share his friend’s sentiment entirely. “At least Aliya and Professor Chloe get to keep their distance from this place.”

“Yeah, true. There’s been a lotta bad blood with the elves lately. ’Specially from Takeda. That guy’s gonna cross the line one o’ these—”

“Quiet!” Yu hushed. “He’ll hear you!”

Leading Private Takeda sauntered up to the boys with his trademark tank top and pierced ears. His tanned skin and blond-dyed hair made him out to be more like a punk than a soldier, but he was a surviving member of the Force, and that made him valuable. Not to mention the fact that his charisma made him a favorite with the higher-ups. Unfortunately, though, he never extended that kindness to the small fry.

Yu and Ijuin, who were all too familiar with his abuse, prepared themselves for the worst.

“Hey, chumps,” he spat. “Got a job for you.”

“Sorry, we can’t. Professor Chloe is waiting for—”

The twenty-five-year-old smacked Yu with his open palm before he could even finish his sentence. Hard. He stumbled on his feet while Ijuin stiffened like a board.

“Didn’t ask for your opinion. I don’t give two shits about some pointy-eared bitch’s experiments. You know what you need to do? Make yourselves useful and bring that woman and her daughter over to us. Got a few words for those Anomaly-breeds,” Takeda snarled. “Maybe I’ll make ’em my slaves, get some payback for what they did to Japan. They’ve got some fine bodies, after—”

“The professor is on our side,” Yu interrupted, unable to contain himself any longer. “And the experiments are on the colonel’s orders, not—”

Another blow. Yu felt his lip burst open and the taste of iron filled his mouth.

Takeda looked down at the boy with utter disgust. “I said I didn’t ask for your damn opinion. Some brat’s gone missing. Find him.”

A young woman timidly peered out from behind the private. Yu recognized her. She’d arrived at the camp along with two children—a two-year-old and a six-year-old.

“Maizuru’s not the best place to be lost at night,” Yu said over the rumble of his motorbike.

“I just hope he’s alive.”

Ijuin and Yu rode along the dark road, down Gorogatake and into the western side of the city, with only their headlights to illuminate the path ahead. Neither of them had a license, for whatever it was worth these days, but given the state of things, it was hard not to pick up a few skills after all they’d been through. They were comfortable driving four-wheeled vehicles as well.

That said, gasoline was precious. The bikes they’d scavenged from the city were fuel efficient by necessity. They were exceptionally handy in times like these, though.

“This is the place.”

“God!” Ijuin groaned. “How did no one notice the kid wasn’t in the car on the way back?!”

Yu, on the other hand, was spent. “Everyone’s tired. We’re all just trying to get by.”

They had come to a stop in the parking lot of a large hardware store. A few Defense officers had stopped by here in the afternoon with a military truck and a minibus with roughly ten refugees on board, tasked with scavenging for supplies and nonperishables. Everyone chipped in, from elementary schoolers to senior citizens—anyone who wasn’t already busy with fishing, gathering, farming, or any number of the many jobs that needed doing.

“The military can spout all it wants about ‘protect and serve.’ I don’t know about you, but all I’m seeing is a lotta slave-driving and not a lotta serving! You and me, Ichinose, we’ve got it bad!”

“I’d call it straight-up bullying, personally. Guess that’s what we get for being around Professor Chloe.” Yu’s left cheek still throbbed. “It sure feels like the only way Takeda’s gang can get their kicks anymore, huh?”

“We gotta get the hell outta there, fast! Take some weapons, some food, and just go!” Ijuin urged. “But first, we’ve got a lost kid to find!”

After two hours of walking, the urban surroundings started to give way to overgrown rice fields and cracked pavement, split apart by rampant weeds. Much of the surrounding vegetation had grown even taller than Yu. Ijuin had had it up to here with the trek.

“So there’s this famous line from a manga,” he said. “‘There’s no such thing as a weed!’ It means you shouldn’t look down on people. Every weed has its name, right? Well, if you ask me, if it grows out of freakin’ nothing, I think it counts as a weed.”

“That happens around mountains. Lots of seeds and pollen in the wind.”

Neither Yu nor Ijuin had grown up around harsh wilderness. They were modern kids, raised in modern cities. But this was a mountain town.

The boys kept their Type 89 rifles close. A survival knife and a 9mm pistol hung from each of their belts, and night vision goggles were strapped over their heads. Maizuru may have been a modern city at one point, but now, danger could be lurking anywhere.

“Aw, crap, hold on. Something’s close,” Yu said.

Some sort of beast was barking and growling nearby. Wild dogs, by the sound of it. There was a child’s wailing too. By the time Ijuin had called out to him, Yu was already sprinting towards the commotion.

“I’ll meet you there! Don’t push yourself!” Yu called back.

“R-Right, sorry, dude!”

Yu was, to put it delicately, much quicker on his feet than his partner. His slim figure aside, he used to do a fair bit of running as a midfielder, so his childhood soccer experience gave him a bit of a decisive edge in that regard.

Yu followed the noises to an expansive, one-story house next to a rice field and quickly turned the corner. A plump, middle-aged man was huddled up against the wall alongside a young boy. The two trembled in fear as five large dogs gnashed their teeth and snarled at them from all sides. The once-domesticated pets had gone completely feral and were more like bloodthirsty wolves than man’s best friend.

The boy was familiar—he was the lost child they were after—but not the man. Of course, Yu hadn’t memorized every single refugee’s face, but his stubble, glasses, and timid demeanor didn’t ring any bells.

At last, Ijuin arrived on the scene. “S-Sorry about that. Whoa, hey, we gotta help them!”

“Wait, don’t shoot!” Yu warned. “You might hit those people. You know we’re not great shots.”

Ammunition was extremely rare, so the two had few opportunities to practice their aim. Given that, Yu couldn’t help but wonder why they had been the ones to get stuck with this job. He pointed his rifle up, switched it to semi-auto, and fired a few shots, each giving off a surprisingly pleasant pop with very little recoil. For an outdated model, it wasn’t a bad gun.

The effect was instant, and the wild animals began to cautiously retreat from the foreign sounds and the strange smell of gunsmoke. But one particularly vicious-looking beast remained. It growled and flared its teeth. Yu stifled his fear.

“The thing’s got eight legs!” Ijuin cried.

The monster had two pairs of front legs and two pairs of back legs. Although, all things considered, it wasn’t that far-fetched during an era of sorcery.

Yu pointed the muzzle of his rifle at the creature, his heart pounding. Slowly, he crept closer. And closer. Just until he could be certain that he wouldn’t miss. And then, he pulled the trigger.

Pop!

One bullet through the head. Enemy neutralized.

2

“You two look, er, awfully young to be in the military.” The chubby man eyed Yu and Ijuin’s rifles as he steadied himself against the house.

Yu looked to his friend. “Um, how do we explain?”

“So, well, we’re technically middle schoolers,” Ijuin said. “But a few months before the Evacuation, we got made junior operatives, which I’m pretty sure is fancy talk for child soldiers.”

“Child soldiers?!” the man cried.

Yu shrugged. “They’re short on people. We do what we have to.”

“We’re with R&D, though,” his partner explained. “See, before Japan sorta went to hell and all, the Defense Force was secretly gathering a bunch o’ preteens that scored high on some kind of nanomachine aptitude test. ’Cause you gotta be augmented young for the next-gen tech, after all. Anyway, that’s us.”

“These are troubled times, I suppose,” the man replied.

“So you from the refugee camp?” Ijuin asked. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

“At first, yes.” He cracked a dry smile. “But I didn’t stay long. Couldn’t stand the way the officers ran the place, so I’ve been living here.”

“Ah.”

“Yup, makes sense,” Yu nodded.

The bespectacled man’s nerdy appearance would have certainly made him easy prey for Leading Private Takeda.

“I’ve been getting by relatively fine with whatever food and water I can find, but then I heard a child crying and found him with those dogs. There’ve been a lot of wild animals around lately.” He sighed. “I guess I’ll have to drag myself back to the camp at some point.”

“We could take you back with us if you want,” Yu offered.

“Oh, no. I’m not throwing in the towel just yet. Although...” The man offered a pitiful grin. “You wouldn’t happen to have any food, would you?”

“Thank you so, so, so much!” the lost child’s mother exclaimed.

She was surprisingly young—about twenty-two or twenty-three. Despite the state of the world, she still bothered to maintain her bright hair and heavy makeup. Yu had a feeling he could tell what sort of student she must have been in high school. It was pitch dark outside the shelter and most of the hundred-plus refugees had long since gone to sleep. The boy Yu and Ijuin had brought back to camp was also probably already snoozing away inside the cramped warehouse.

“I-I should go,” the mother stammered. “Need to, um, report back to Private Takeda. And stuff.”

Yu and Ijuin quietly smiled back, daring not to ask any questions. It couldn’t have been easy—being a mother so young, losing your family, and then finding your way to a place like this where food and human decency were scarce. If dolling herself up and pandering to the boys in charge was what she needed to do to provide for her kids—perhaps even score a little extra—then no amount of external judgment would stop her. Everyone was struggling, including the bespectacled man, and Yu felt a pang in his chest.

Suddenly, the woman perked up with a start. “Oh! I nearly forgot.” She struggled to find the words. “There was...something I was supposed to tell you.”

“For the love of... Why can’t they clean their own crap?!”

“This seriously needs to be done in the morning,” Yu grumbled.

It was well past midnight, and the boys sat cross-legged in the armory. Various Type 89 rifle parts lay neatly on the ground while Yu and Ijuin carefully scrubbed every piece with oil-soaked cloths. Besides soot and fingerprints, salt carried by the breeze from the nearby ocean needed to be diligently cleaned to keep the metal from rusting.

“You’d think they’d be worried about us jumping them, leaving all these guns lying around,” Ijuin said.

“Doubt it. They’re living it up right now.”

“Compared to the old SDF, the Defense Force really lowered the bar. All you gotta do to get in these days is have a resume and be eighteen. Whatever gets them more people, I guess.”

Power sources were precious and needed to be conserved, so they had to make do with leftover salad oil from the garbage to light their makeshift lamp. It didn’t actually make things that much easier to see, but it was the best they had.

Yu finished his work dexterously and started to reassemble the rifle. The most skillful soldiers could take apart their weapon and put it back together in about three minutes. But the boys were not the most skillful soldiers.

“Please take your time, Ijuin. If they find even a speck—”

“Yeah, I know! They’ll whip us both! I ain’t gonna screw up like that again.”

If they were lucky, they’d be forced to do a dozen laps and twenty push-ups, but it wasn’t uncommon for them to be pushed to the point of vomiting. At worst, they’d get to be the punching bags for every squad’s sparring sessions.

“I might not be as mad if we were aiming for baseball championships or something,” Yu complained sarcastically. “I wonder if teams who made it into nationals every year even got it this hard.”

“Dunno. I’m the indoorsy type. Never liked sports. You’d probably know better than me.” Ijuin glanced at Yu. “Didn’t you play soccer?”

“Not for school. I was on the Urawa youth team. I didn’t even bother checking out my middle school’s team, so I don’t have a clue how those guys do it.”

“What’s the difference?”

“We didn’t really have much of a hierarchy, you know? Didn’t have to clean up after the older members or anything.”

The hours flew by, and the sky was starting to brighten as the two finished and locked up the storehouse.

“Sun’s already coming up? Man, that sucks.”

“Let’s get back to the shelter,” Yu said.

“Eh, we’ll have to wake up soon anyway.” Ijuin looked out at the first cracks of lapis on the horizon, his eyes brimming with excitement all of a sudden. “Hey, come with me a sec! Got a new trick to show ya!”

Before becoming a military outpost, Gorogatake’s summit had been a popular park for tourists. These days, though, research labs and warehouses occupied the area. When power to the region had failed completely, the park’s own array of solar panels and large windmills equipped with superconductive motors managed to keep the site running. Even today, they continued to provide a sufficient, yet meager, amount of energy. Overlooking the monolithic turbines was the fifty-meter observation tower—the last trace of the park’s history as a sightseeing hotspot. A sort of huge, conch-shaped antenna rested at the top.

Yu tilted his head quizzically at it. “I wonder what they’re using this place for. Professor Chloe will never tell me.”

“My guess is it’s an observatory or something. The antenna looks like some kinda radar thing to me,” Ijuin replied. “Anyway, that’s not important. You know how only officers with the right keycard can get inside?”

The entrance to the tower—a thick, automatic door—was shut tight. Installed next to it was a console with a small slit, just big enough to fit a card in, and a hemispherical nanomachine interface.

Ijuin touched the hemisphere, and after a few electronic beeps, he muttered, “Watch this.”

Yu jumped as the door swished open. “How did you do that?!”

“The awakening experiments.” Ijuin opened his right palm, revealing the ring of light. “I think I picked it up somehow along the way. Been using the nanomachines a lot.”

“So what, you like, hacked the terminal?” Yu asked excitedly.

“Something like that, yeah. All I gotta do is touch something with a nanotech interface and I just kinda know how it works. You know, they kept talking about aptitude this, aptitude that, but I’ve never actually felt useful until now!”

“Dang, man. Nice going.”

Their pathway was clear. Beyond the mysterious door to the unknown was an ordinary reception desk. Perhaps a remnant of the tower’s days as a tourist attraction.

“So, Ijuin. What do you say we take a look inside?”

“Could always use more info for the escape plan.”

“I really hope there aren’t any security cameras in here,” Yu said.

“Lemme check.” Ijuin closed his eyes and touched a hemispherical nanotech device conveniently placed on a nearby wall. “There aren’t any in this hallway, that’s for sure. Actually, the whole tower’s in low power mode. Pretty much the only things that move are the front door and the elevator. I mean, even if there were cameras, there aren’t enough people to watch them anyway.”

Yu was thoroughly impressed. “Wow, you’re like a super hacker from some manga.”

“It doesn’t really feel like it, though. It’s less computer-y and more...tactile. I just touch it and I understand the mechanisms. ‘Don’t think. Feel,’ you know? Anyway, the top floor looks like the most important.”

They stepped into the elevator and rode it all the way up. They arrived on a floor enclosed with glass, wrapping around the full three-sixty degrees. They could see for miles. Sizable wooden boxes littered the floor and countless cables crisscrossed throughout the walking space, making the room a treacherous maze to traverse.

Yu carefully navigated his way up to the window and looked north across Maizuru Bay, over to the greater Wakasa Bay beyond. Although it was only the size of his fingertip from this far, he could even make out the enigmatic mass floating in the distance. Heaven-piercing ramparts sat distinctly upon the massive lump of levitating stone.

“I can see the portal,” he mumbled.

“Ichinose! Check this out!”

Ijuin pointed at a rectangular, glass case filled with blue liquid. A young girl was floating inside, completely naked. Her hair was a dark midnight blue, and despite her eyes being delicately closed, their striking beauty was plain to see. Bubbles occasionally rose from her peach-colored lips. But what stood out about her most were her long, pointed ears.

“She’s an elf!” Yu gasped.

“Her ears look just like Professor Chloe’s. What is this? It’s like some sci-fi cryosleep pod.”

There was another interface terminal on her container. Ijuin touched it and closed his eyes.

“Code name...” He furrowed his brow. “Replicant. Argh, that’s all I can get without the right credentials.”

“Replicant?” inquired Yu.

“Oh, I heard some rumors online a while back, actually. Stuff about people sealing migrant elves in capsules and using them like slaves for their knowledge and magic. I read that militaries around the world were in on the research.”

“If this girl is a slave, then this is wrong!”

“Let’s ask the professor about it the next chance we get. We can’t stick around here.”

The break of dawn was approaching. The sun was beginning to peek above the Tamba Highlands to the east, and it would soon be well and truly morning. The elf girl continued to sleep, even as the sun’s rays fell over her. She looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, and she wore not a single thread or object to hide her limp body from view. Yu looked away, blushing. Ijuin was right. It was time to leave.

Just as Yu turned to follow his partner out, he felt a shock run down his spine like lightning. He whipped back around to look at the girl. Behind her closed, elegant eyes, he could have sworn he felt something. A message.

“Long have I waited for you.”

3

Yu and Ijuin met the morning after their long, sleepless night with punishment.

Leading Private Takeda beheld the pristine row of rifles, and all he had to say was, “You call that clean?”

The boys weren’t surprised. Frankly, they’d expected worse.

And so, they found themselves spending the early hours of their day cutting grass around the camp. When their battle against the rampant weeds was decided, however, the real battle began.

“I thought you played ball, boy. Where’s your muscles?”

Yu felt the impact against his headgear. Private Takeda stood opposite him, wearing the same sparring gloves and headpiece. Several others watched from the sidelines, everyone but Ijuin grinning sadistically every time Yu took a blow.

“T-Tag me in, Ichinose!” he shouted.

“Quiet, fatty!” Takeda shot back, throwing a few more jabs. “You switch when I say you switch!”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

Yu threw up his hands and endured the endless strikes to his head. The fight was laughably one-sided. He didn’t have a chance of landing a hit himself, so the best he could do was try to minimize the damage he was receiving. Takeda was an ace at hand-to-hand combat and a demon on the offensive, and if that weren’t bad enough, he was built like a truck at one-eighty centimeters tall and seventy kilos heavy. A little too far outside the weight class of a middle schooler.

“Look at you. All skin and bone. Careful, or the wind might blow ya away!” Takeda sneered and launched Yu away with a swift, spinning mid kick. “What’d I tell you?”

I’m doing it on purpose, Yu quietly argued. He’d learned something from all the constant beatings recently. Idiot.

Really, as far as Yu was concerned, actually taking hits was optional. The trick was to loosen up, relax at the moment of impact, and bend with it. Never take it head on. All the better if the shock blew him away. Anything to weaken the blow. That was Yu’s strategy. To him, weak didn’t mean helpless. Truth be told, he’d explained all this to Ijuin before, but according to his friend, he was nuts for even being able to think about that sort of thing while getting his brains knocked around.

Yu was prepared to stand his ground for however long it would take until his opponent tired himself out, but this time, he didn’t have to wait that long.

“What’s going on here?” a woman’s stern voice interrupted the ruckus. “I believe those two are on my research staff. There may not be enough hands to go around, but I don’t recall anyone giving you the authority to obstruct the work of my associates.”

Pointed ears jutted through her blonde hair that rested just above the shoulders of her white lab coat. Her handsome, yet delicate features appeared somehow both human and decidedly inhuman at the same time. The migrant sage’s Japanese name was Chloe Todo, on account of elvish names being notoriously long and difficult to remember.

She was a migrant from the other side, one of the many elves to have fled their world all those years ago. An architect of the advancements brought about by the harmonious fusion between elvish wisdom and human science, and an authority on state-of-the-art nanotechnology.

Finally freed from their own personal hell, Yu and Ijuin tailed behind Chloe through the freshly tended-to grass. Her skin was smooth as clay and pale white; however, her striking features weren’t quite as defined as a typical Caucasian’s. She kept her light gold hair tied up neatly in a bun. She always reminded Yu of a statue he’d seen of a bodhisattva on a school trip to a temple in Nara. Especially its sharp eyes and that mysterious “archaic smile.”

“Thank you for coming to find us,” Yu said, remembering they hadn’t expressed their gratitude yet.

“Don’t mention it. The colonel’s always worrying his hair off over ‘morale,’ but I’m more concerned with the state of order around here.” Professor Chloe spoke in flawlessly fluent Japanese. “I just wish I could do more to protect you.”

“Hey, it’s nice knowing there’s someone reasonable around here,” Ijuin said.

The colonel was the highest rank among the surviving officers, making him the camp’s de facto leader.

“So, what are the chances of help coming?” Yu asked flat out. “Realistically speaking.”

Chloe didn’t mince words. “Realistically? I’d say zero. We have no means of wireless communication as long as the portal-keeps are around.”

“Figures.”

“Yeah, they knew what they were doing, goin’ straight for Tokyo,” Ijuin grumbled. “Turned Nagatacho and Ichigaya into debris, and the government’s gone quiet ever since they ran to Kyushu. It’s not looking good for us, huh?”

“That’s certainly a part of the problem, but not entirely. Remember I said wireless communication. That doesn’t mean we couldn’t send a messenger or two.” Chloe hesitated for a moment. “I suppose there’s no point in keeping it a secret anymore. The truth is, the colonel’s isolating the camp from the outside on purpose.”

“Why?!” Ijuin cried.

“He doesn’t want to lose our last hope. What’s left of Japan’s government doesn’t have the resources to send out rescue teams, so if help ever does come, it would be from a foreign power. And if that happened, they’d almost certainly seize the Mark III.”

“Devicer Three’s suit?” Yu put the pieces together. “The thing we’ve been doing all these experiments to wake up?!”

The future the professor predicted was not a bright one.

“You’re late.”

The ivory-haired girl was waiting in the underground hangar beneath Lab Four with a subtle pout on her face. She wore the female counterpart to Yu and Ijuin’s black button-up—a white sailor uniform with a blue collar and ribbon, black knee-high socks, and a white, striped beret that completed the outfit.

“I hope the dynamic duo over there isn’t rubbing off on you, mom.”

Aliya Todo, thirteen, was the only daughter of the elf nanotechnologist Chloe Todo, as evidenced by her slightly longer than average ears.

In front of the huffy girl hung a full-body supersuit, but it wasn’t your average muscle-enhancing exoskeleton. It was an A-Type Exo-Frame. The Asura-Type.

Better known as the Asura Frame.

The jet-black ADAMAS-armored plating combined unrivaled strength with impossible, rubber-like flexibility and ease of use. Streaks of gold along the matte finish kept it looking rather stylish as well.

It was the ultimate weapon. The brainchild of twenty-first century science and otherworldly insight. An artificial titan of destruction.

4

About half of Maizuru was underwater. What wasn’t flooded was a ghost town, inhabited only by strutting birds and the occasional wild dog, monkey, or deer that had strayed from the mountains. The same poster was plastered at every corner, on nearly every derelict building, with the exact same message: “Protect Our Future! Join The Force!” The letters were as faded as their meaning.

Each recruitment flyer starred a face, but not of a famous actor, or even an anime character. Only a comely, mortal young man. A soldier outfitted in a pitch-black suit accented by gold streaks, carrying a helmet under his arm. All of Japan knew his title—you would have been crazy not to—but fewer knew his real name.

He was one of the few chosen to don an Asura Frame. A war hero who’d been bearing the brunt of the front lines for close to three years now. He was Devicer Three, and he was Japan’s savior.

Survivors around the city with nowhere else to go gathered at Gorogatake and were being kept in an emptied warehouse. But the makeshift refugee camp was just that, makeshift, and it could barely contain the population of over a hundred. People crammed together and slept on the hard floor without a hint of privacy. Of course, anyone could take up shelter in one of the many abandoned houses, but they would be giving up the regular supply of food, water, and electricity that only the camp could provide. It wasn’t much, but at least it was something. What kept people glued to the ruined military facility most firmly, though, was fear of the wild animals that roamed about. And of the enemy that could strike at any moment.

Life was hard, no one was happy, but they made it work. Power was precious, and when lights-out was called at precisely 1700 hours each night, they had to either grasp about in the dark or settle for candles or lamps fueled with salad oil if they wanted sources of illumination. But at least they still had him—the black and gold warrior.

A young boy clung to a matte-black figure of his armored likeness while an older man flipped through an antiquated, crumpled newspaper, skimming over articles from the past.

“Devicer Three Arrives at the Hokkaido Front!”

“Anomalies Neutralized”

“Swift Victory Against the Unidentified Life-Forms”

The man sighed. The black and gold warrior once toured all over Japan, defending the nation like a dream synthesis of mecha anime and American superhero movies come to life in one suit of armor. He was a symbol of peace. He was the one.

The only one.

Elsewhere, the few remaining commissioned officers of the Defense Force enjoyed their own private quarters. Lower ranking soldiers and enlisted refugees shared a common room, but were still provided crude beds to sleep on. It was a far cry from the warehouse, that was for sure.

Private Takeda was having the time of his life, surrounded by his so-called “war buds” and livening up the place with vulgarities about the women around camp that he indulged in “comfort” with. Most of the conversation consisted of obscene anecdotes that would have offended any halfway decent human being. Folks in the local Hokuriku countryside would have called his type “unsavory,” to put it lightly.

It was escapism, plain and simple. Belittling others, making someone else’s life worse than his—it all made it easy for him to forget the way things were.

He had a tattoo on his left shoulder—a cartoonish depiction of Devicer Three’s helmet. Nearly everyone in the Force looked up to the soldier of black and gold. They were proud of him, relied on him. He was their hero. And even men like Takeda had heroes.

The sun was far below the horizon, even when viewed from the top of the observation tower. 1900 hours. An older man stood where, unbeknownst to him, two fourteen-year-olds had that very morning.

“Devicer Three...” the former Defense Force colonel muttered. “Wearer of the Asura Frame. The centerpiece of our nation’s defense.” Even among the ruins of his country and military, he still made sure to wear his dress blues. “It’s been eight months now since we lost him.”

“And you’ve done a great job of keeping it a secret for so long,” Chloe Todo replied.

But her sarcasm was lost on the colonel. “Circumstances must. Believe me, we would have made a grand announcement of his death and lit a fire in the people if only we’d had a successor to take his place.”

“Over eight hundred candidates and the Mark III rejected every last one,” Chloe recounted matter-of-factly.

“And it’s thanks to that machine’s dithering that we’ve been pushed into this corner! We’re sitting ducks out here, Professor. Why in God’s name does an AI have that kind of power?! Why can’t it pick a Devicer?!”

“It’s not an AI,” she explained plainly for the umpteenth time. “It’s consciousness. The Asura Frame is a hybrid organism physically composed of ADAMAS nanomachines and artificial muscle fibers, coupled with a separate awareness linked to the liminal space between truth and falsehood. Under the right conditions, this organic nature is what allows such a high degree of adaptable functionality and...”

“Enough,” the man interrupted. “I won’t survive another lecture from you.”

For some people, no amount of modernization and no number of advancements in computer technology was enough to get them to learn. Some were just stuck in their ways and instead relied on family or coworkers to adapt for them. The colonel was one such person. Change, metaphorically at least, was a foreign concept to him.

Chloe gave up on the explanation. “Simply put, the Mark III was unsatisfied with its prior Devicer.”

“Unsatisfied?!” the colonel responded incredulously.

“Correct. Its last wearer was chosen for his image and patriotism, but he was unable to utilize the Frame to its fullest potential. This, ultimately, is probably why he was killed in action and why we nearly lost the Mark III with him.”

The professor glanced over at the clone elf resting peacefully within the sleeper pod beside them. It was likely that the Replicant had never truly accepted her Devicer.

“Perhaps it’s afraid to reawaken,” Chloe wondered. “The Asura Frame’s core strength lies in its ability to adapt to various situations, to improve itself in response to stimuli. If something is impeding that function, it stands to reason that the Frame would rid itself of the obstacle.”

“That Devicer was winning us the war!”

“I’m not so sure. Humans and elves created the twelve Asura Frames and spread them throughout the world specifically to defeat the archmages, but as far as I can tell, the Chosen Dharva still stand.”

The colonel went silent. The Dharva were the keepers of the portal-keeps, powerful sorcerers and fearsome fighters. Leaders of the anomalous threat and scourge of human civilization. They were all-powerful.

“My daughter had a funny idea recently that’s actually proving to be somewhat viable,” the professor said. “Tests will begin shortly. We’ll reawaken our shield soon enough.”

Aliya Todo was waiting in the Mark III Asura Frame’s underground hangar, impatiently checking her watch.

“Do you dunderheads have any idea how late it is?”

“Give us a break, they wouldn’t let us go all day,” Ijuin argued back.

Aliya liked to carry herself with grace in both mannerism and speech. However, that did not preclude her from insulting her friends, applying weird nicknames to them, and just being an overall joy to be around.

Her face went red. “I told you I could come and get you both! You don’t need my mom to remind those dolts that you have jobs to do! I can do that myself!”

“No.” Yu didn’t consider this up for debate. “Those guys are the last people any girl needs to interact with. You’d get it even worse than we do.”

“Stop treating me like a kid!” she growled. “You’re not my dad, you know!”

“Give it a rest. We can handle it. They can’t do anything we’re not already used to.”

Not even Chloe, essentially the camp’s second-in-command, was exempt from their lecherous gazes. And Aliya was a half-elf, which only made it worse for her. The blood of a beautiful race ran through her veins, and she looked the part. She was exceptionally seraphic, like an antique doll. The fact that her assisting with her mother’s research exempted her from daily chores was a very good thing.

“You do plenty as it is. I mean, what you showed us was pretty crazy,” Ijuin said, skillfully changing the subject. “No one’s been able to get the Frame to budge since its Devicer died, but you woke the thing right up!”

“Eight hundred candidates couldn’t even get the power on, much less armorize,” Yu added.

“Well, I was a little...hesitant about trying it at first. Frankly, I still can’t believe it worked,” Aliya admitted.

The three of them moved to a table where a photograph, some freshly picked flowers, and an urn rested. The picture was of the late Devicer Three, and the urn contained his ashes. The role of Devicer Three had been bestowed to the most charismatic and charming man in the Force, and the winning smile in the photo spoke to those qualifications.

“I’m sorry I called you pigheaded behind your back when you were alive!” Aliya quickly apologized. “You were a total creep, but I’m still sorry I said it!”

“You schmoozed the higher-ups, but really treated us like dirt,” Ijuin followed.

“But still, that doesn’t mean you deserve to be treated like this,” Yu concluded. “We just don’t have a choice if we want to wake up the Mark III. Please understand!”

Aliya gently reached into the urn and pulled out a small, white, satin pouch filled with the deceased man’s ashes. “We’ll bring this back! We promise!”

The trio regrouped around the Asura Frame, which had been lowered onto the floor. It totaled 195 centimeters long and 193 kilograms heavy. Aliya removed the weighty helmet and placed the last of Devicer Three inside, securing it with tape. Crude, but effective.

She placed the helmet back onto the body and raised her right hand out over the Frame. “Mark III, awaken! Superconductive turbine, activate!”

Much like during Ijuin’s trick at the observation tower that morning, a ring of light started to glow from Aliya’s palm. The undeniable mark of the nano-augmented.

The Mark III reacted to Aliya’s order and the small wheel embedded into the suit’s buckle started to spin. Just because it was small didn’t mean it was weak, though. This little generator produced more energy than an entire power plant, enough to fuel the wrath of one man-made asura.

“That’s one way to do it, I guess,” Ijuin mumbled. “Don’t got a Devicer? Just shove what’s left of the last one inside and make the Frame think there’s one! How did Professor Chloe explain it again? The seventh...something. Something to do with the foundations of the body and mind.”

“I think she meant there are like, pieces of the soul that get left behind after people die? Maybe?” Yu guessed.

“Manas, the seventh of the eight consciousnesses in the alayavijnana doctrine. It refers to the ego,” Aliya elucidated. “But turning it on is one thing. Eliciting enough power to get it to move efficiently in battle is another.”

Yu suddenly tilted his head. While Aliya was talking, he could hear a different voice. A woman’s. Horribly faint, but audible and captivatingly beautiful. It sang, as if reciting a poem,

Oh, Traveler. Heed me, oh Traveler,

Wanderer of the realm and distances vast,

Rejoice, oh Siddha. The awakening has begun.

An image of the elf girl in the pod flashed through his mind and the wheel in the Mark III began to pick up speed.

“D-Did you do that, Aliya?!” Yu exclaimed.

“No! But I’ll take it!” she shouted excitedly. “Let’s hurry and bring it outside. Yu, man the long-range controls. Ijuin, weapons. I’ll provide assistance and reconnaissance!”

The boys hastily threw the HMD goggles over their heads. They were slim and sleek, like what you might see in a game of airsoft, but came attached with a pair of over-ear headphones. The goggle portion covered the wearer’s entire field of vision with a Head Mounted Display.

Various stats and numbers blipped directly into view.

5

A humanoid figure took off from the summit of Mount Gorogatake. The Asura Frame flew through the night sky, cutting through the air like a knife through butter. Even as it twisted and turned, there was never even the slightest change in speed. Silently, effortlessly, the Mark III soared to the old coast of the sunken city in no time flat. The only sound it made came from the supersonic jet streams that burst from the suit’s full-body thrusters whenever it accelerated.

The ultimate weapon—equipped with a fifty caliber anti-materiel rifle from the hangar—had no wearer this time, and yet it danced as if a Devicer were piloting it. But behind the controls were only two young boys and a girl, operating it remotely.

“Now this is what I’m talking about!” Ijuin cheered. “Anti-gravity lifters are the way of the future! You could make an actual UFO with technology like that! Man, eat your heart out, NASA! The age of rockets is over!”

“Among the many treasures the migrant elves brought with them, those lifters are some of the most priceless!” Aliya boasted. “Elves lose their powers on Earth, but vaunted magical artifacts are a different story. Mom says gravity modifiers and microscale superconductive turbines, like the Prayer Wheel, are impossible to replicate in this world!”

“I’m convinced. It controls almost like a video game,” Yu marveled.

“Like a shooter,” Ijuin agreed.

“It has to be intentional, right?” Yu’s HMD captured the Asura Frame’s field of view in real time. “You can even switch into third-person mode.” A screen to the side displayed the Frame’s back and surroundings, allowing them to easily survey the environment.

The three of them held controllers that became the connection between their will and the Asura Frame’s movements. Their right palms glowed as their respective nanomachines communicated directions to the Frame instantaneously. The controllers technically had touchscreen interfaces, but no one ever used them. It just felt weird not to have something physical to fiddle with.

“You needed a whole control room to do this just half a year ago,” Ijuin reminisced.

“Technology’s come a long way,” Yu remarked next to him.

The trio couldn’t see each other with the goggles on, but they could still feel the hard floor of the hangar beneath them. They all sat in a circle, like an after-school video game club.

“It’s not technology that’s advanced,” Aliya corrected smartly. “It’s the personnel. We’ve had these devices for ages, but no one had the right aptitude for nanomachines to make use of them. It’s a good thing your fitness levels have increased lately.”

“Dude, we’re like, full-on control room operators now!” Ijuin exclaimed.

“Mom never liked that place. Too much machinery.”

“I can’t speak for Ijuin, but I don’t think I’m anything special,” Yu said.

“You’re doing a great job with the controls,” Aliya reassured him. “Way better than Ijuin or I could manage. Keep doing what you’re doing.”

Yu wondered for a moment if that might have had something to do with the amount of exercise the other two got, or lack thereof, then refocused on the job at hand.

With the homes, stores, and street lamps of Maizuru now extinguished, the only light came from the humble stars and crescent moon above. However, the darkness was no obstacle for the Frame’s night vision. Yu blasted streams of air from the posterior thrusters and soared to his heart’s content.

But this could only entertain him for so long. Eventually Yu spotted a patch of land that had escaped the flooding and went in for a landing. There, he identified a pack of over twenty wild dogs. They seemed to have turned a portion of the old, overgrown park into their territory. The pack growled and barked at the invader from the sky.

Yu lowered into a combat stance.

“W-We’re shooting them?” Ijuin stammered.

“No. I have a different idea.”

This wasn’t like last night. He wasn’t afraid. He primed all of the thrusters across the Mark III’s body and activated them at full force. The cyclonic jet streams whipped the surrounding area into a maelstrom, the sudden change in pressure creating a massive shock wave. Any animals that couldn’t hold their ground were blown away and never got back up. The blast of wind had shattered their bones. What remained of the pack fled with their tails between their legs.

“I really don’t like having to do that to dogs,” Yu sighed.

“If you didn’t, someone else would’ve,” Ijuin said. “We have to. They’re too dangerous.”

“That just reminded me,” Aliya interjected. “Let’s go to the mall in the east part of the city. Where the monkeys have moved into.”

She transmitted the location data to Yu and a small map appeared in his vision. A single thought later, Go, and the Mark III sped off. The Frame zipped across ten kilometers of city, landing in the parking lot of a shopping mall in the eastern heart of Maizuru in just under ten seconds. It was barely even the equivalent of a stroll around the block for a unit capable of supersonic flight.

A few Japanese macaques with soft, baby-like faces quickly dispersed. Although they never showed trepidation around humans, the strange intruder from the sky was alien enough to frighten the wild monkeys.

“Too dangerous to scavenge the place by foot,” Ijuin muttered. “As if there’d be anything left, considering there are over two hundred of those little guys all over the place. You can’t really hunt that many with a few guns. Might be some canned food or other tools still lying around, though.”

“Normally, we’d simply have to wait for the animals to run out of food and move on.” Aliya’s grin was practically audible as she spoke. “But with the Mark III, we can dethrone these animal despots! It’s the biggest mall on this side of the city, just imagine how much we could— Wait.”

“What’s wrong?” Yu asked.

“Be on alert. I’m sensing a heat signature much larger than a regular monkey coming from inside the mall. No, two...”

“Ijuin, launch a star shell. The suit has some stocked, right?” asked Yu.

“Um, does it? Oh, there it is. Here.” Ijuin fired an illumination round from the Mark III’s left shoulder. It burst in the air, flooding the vast parking lot in light. “W-What the heck are those things?!”

The five-story mall lit up as if the sun had risen several hours early, and Yu watched in shock as over a dozen colossal figures crashed through the windows. They appeared humanoid, but were much larger than any Japanese macaque—more like gorillas than monkeys. Some had four arms extending from their torsos, others had six, like a band of asuras.

“Since when are there gorillas in Japan?!” Ijuin yelped.

“I’m detecting enchantment!” Aliya swiftly reported. “They’re probably macaques that have been altered by magic!”

Upon further inspection, they did indeed have the very same baby face.

“Magic?!” Ijuin parroted. “For real?”

“It’s likely that somewhere in the city, there’s an Anomaly that can alter a being’s shape, making them its thralls!”

“So what, it gave some monkeys a makeover and turned them into gorillas?!” Yu remembered the dog from yesterday, and it suddenly made sense. The eight-legged beast had most likely been transformed by the same sort of spell.

Without warning, one of the gorillafied macaques took a hard swing at the Mark III. Its fist slammed against the helmet with enough magically-enhanced force to dent solid metal. No doubt, this was no ordinary gorilla. But this was no ordinary metal either.

“Dang, that’s some hard stuff!” Ijuin hollered. “The Mark III doesn’t have a scratch!”

“It didn’t even budge,” Yu said, amazed. “It’s sturdy, that’s for sure.”

The gorilla seemed to have taken more damage than the Frame. It gripped its broken hand, bent a full ninety degrees in the wrong direction, while wailing and shrieking on the ground in pain. Yu visualized a kick in his mind, and the Mark III prepared to put the writhing beast out of its misery. Exactly as Yu had willed, the Mark III relaxed, then snapped its right leg like a whip, delivering a lightning fast instep kick without even a running start. The top of its armored foot collided with the massive creature and flung it towards the exterior wall of the mall faster than a speeding car. The gorilla crashed and fell to the ground, where it remained, unmoving.

“The Mark III’s power is insane,” Yu muttered in awe.

“I think we can take that warm welcome to mean they consider us intruders. Ijuin,” Aliya called, “let’s clean up this mess.”

“You got it!” he replied.

They were practically playing a co-op video game at this point. The trio’s HMD goggles listed seven “Gorilla Macaques.” After the Mark III’s surprising display of strength, though, the creatures weren’t so eager to attack anymore. According to the computer there were nine more on the way, but before long, they and all the other “Gorilla Macaques” were nothing more than targets.

“Targeting calibrations complete. Fire!” Aliya cried.

“Hell yeah!” yelled Ijuin.

The Mark III held the fifteen kilogram anti-materiel rifle in one hand like it was nothing. On Ijuin’s order, it pulled the trigger. Bang! The Frame pointed the muzzle at its next target. Bang! Another. Bang! Massive 12.7mm bullets ripped the gorilla macaques to shreds, one by one, and the Mark III made the intense recoil from every shot seem like nothing. With every sonorous blast from the rifle, a gorilla became minced meat. Like a needle popping a balloon.

A minute was all it took.

“Nice!” Ijuin shouted triumphantly. “Maybe we can actually take a look around now.”

“I hope there’s still some food left. Maybe some rice?” Yu said. “They keep cutting our rations down.”

“I wouldn’t count on it. The rats’ve probably gotten to that, but I can’t blame you for hopin’. Ugh, I could go for a steaming bowl of some right about now!”

“Hold on. Something’s not right,” Aliya interrupted the boys’ celebration. “Magic detected! Someone’s cast a spell!” A bewildered silence followed before she identified the threat. “L-Look!”

Ijuin let out a frightened scream. “W-What’s going on?!”

They started to rise. The eviscerated corpses of the gorilla macaques lumbered back to their feet, heads missing, stomachs agape, and arms torn to pieces. And then, they began to lug their dangling guts and organs over to their nemesis—the Mark III. Those without legs clawed their way closer, dragging along whatever was left of their torsos.

Yu shrieked. “This is a nightmare!”

“I wholeheartedly agree!” Aliya concurred. “I’ve identified the spell! Animate Dead! It turns nearby corpses into zombies!”

“Take this!” Yu willed the Mark III to slug one of the gorilla macaques, now a gorilla zombie, with its free hand.

The Mark III’s fist landed squarely in the zombie’s face and launched its head clean off. But even without a head, it clung on to the Frame unfazed.

“It’s still moving!” Yu cried.

“I-It won’t let go! Crap, there’s another one! We’ve been bit!” Ijuin howled.

One gorilla zombie after another grappled with the Mark III, punching and gnawing at the armor. If this were some American TV show, this would’ve been the clincher with blood and guts flying everywhere. That is, if the Frame’s plating weren’t more than durable enough to handle the assault.

Yu envisioned new orders for the Mark III. “Let’s see what happens this time!”

The Frame ejected jet streams from its thrusters once more. The incredible gust of wind swept the zombies away on all sides, rending limbs from many of the once-dead corpses. But this only slowed the undead horde’s attack. Undeterred, they began to trudge towards the Mark III all over again.

“Tenacious!” blurted Ijuin. “Yeah, those are zombies, all right! Whadda we do, Ichinose?!”

“I-I’ll try to find some sort of anti-undead weapon! Buy us some time, Yu!” Aliya pleaded.

While his friends panicked around him, Yu found himself perplexed. “What the heck is this message?”

English text had appeared in the middle of his display.

[Need assistance?]

“I don’t know what that means, but if you want to help, please do!” From what Yu could deduce, the foreign words seemed to be offering aid, but their sender was unknown.

Immediately after his reply, more English text began to fly across the bottom of the screen from right to left.

[Mantra Server Startup Complete. All PRAJNA running.]

[System Now Booting Spellbook “PRAJNA HEART SUTRA”...]

[Set Forth This Spell — Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha...]

“W-What’s happening?! I’m not doing this!” Aliya sputtered. Regardless, the Mark III was changing. Particles of light started to pour out from the Frame’s right hand. “Adaptive nanofactors?! What are they doing?! What is going on?!”

The mysterious particles, reminiscent of the very same machines that composed the Mark III, joined together and solidified into a single object. A long, thin, yellow piece of cloth that was strikingly evocative of something thoroughly mundane.

Yu blinked. “A scarf? What— Why— Whatever, there’s no time!”

The mangled bodies of the gorilla zombies were clambering on the Mark III, trying to weigh it down. Shake them off! Yu ordered the Frame. In response, it whipped one of the creatures with the yellow scarf in its right hand. Hard. It struck with a surprising amount of weight, similar to a wet towel, and the moment it made contact, the zombie burst apart in a shower of blood, guts, and other visceral liquids.

“It turned that corpse into chunks!” Ijuin shouted.

“Th-That could be our anti-undead weapon!” Aliya stuttered. “How did you do that?!”

Yu, however, had regained some measure of composure. “So the scarf’s a weapon, huh?”

Swing! he willed. The cloth promptly drove itself into another zombie and yet another deluge of gore followed. Again. Wham! And again. Wham! Somehow, amid the carnage as corpse after corpse exploded, the scarf remained spotless, unmarred by even a single crimson stain.

It only took twenty seconds for the Mark III to wipe out the gorilla zombies. But there was no time to rest. Once the immediate threat was gone, the Frame entered surveillance mode and positional data blipped into the lower-right corner of Yu’s display.

“On the roof?” Yu muttered. “There’s an enemy up there?”

The wheel affixed into the buckle of the Mark III’s belt—the superconductive turbine that powered the Asura Frame, referred to by Professor Chloe and Aliya as the Prayer Wheel—suddenly began to spin. Faster. Faster. When the turbine reached peak velocity, Yu commanded the Mark III to leap into the air. It shot up far above the top of the five-story mall, and there on the roof, he saw it. A fae, standing on the edge and observing the lot below.

It was stout, with arms long enough for its knuckles to scrape the ground and legs comically short in comparison. On its face was a stone mask, decorated with mysterious, alien designs. It carried a wooden staff and wore a horn tied to a string around its neck. Its clothes were made of animal pelts.

“It’s an Anomaly!” cried Ijuin. “A fae from the other side, Ichinose!”

“Analyzing species,” Aliya followed. “Got it! It’s a sub-species of goblin—a bugbear! They can use magic!”

Yu, however, was focused on another message that had popped up in his view.

[I recommend Excalibur Mode.]

“In Japanese, please!” he pleaded.

Then, he heard a woman’s voice flowing from the headphones on his HMD goggles. Captivatingly beautiful and in perfect Japanese.

“Unsheathe the queen’s blade. By the Holy Shroud, it is now yours to wield.”

“S-So I’ve got a sword. Okay. Got it.”

“I shall sing the traveler’s hymn. A song for the wanderers of the path, guided by the Perfect Wisdom of prajna to the far reaches of the realm—Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha...”

Yu was certain. It was the same voice he’d heard during the awakening experiment. Her song was strange, seemingly improvised like jazz music, and the lyrics made no sense. It was a gentle song, yet majestic. Divine.

“The Gospel Code?!” yelped Aliya. “Who’s sending it?! Mom?!”

The scarf began to harden in the Mark III’s hand, straightening out and condensing into something long and metallic. It had transformed into a sword.

Yu realized at last. “That’s what you meant!”

The sword’s handle was cylindrical and easy to hold, just like an actual hilt. The tip was tapered into a sharp point.

Yu roared, fighting spirit boiling inside him. He activated the posterior thrusters and jet streams rocketed the Mark III downward as fast as a whirlwind. Below, the bugbear waved its staff to cast a powerful lightning spell, but the electricity dissipated as soon as it struck the Asura Frame.

“Not even magic works against this thing! You got this, Ichinose!” Ijuin hollered.

Aliya could hardly contain her excitement either. “The anti-magic shell is doing its job well!”

By the time his friends’ encouragement reached Yu’s ears, the battle had already been decided. The whetted Holy Shroud pierced the enemy fae’s gut, and its body dissipated in a cloud of hissing mist.

“Look at that! Such clean maneuvers, and from long-range too! And that weapon!” The colonel was beside himself. They had just finished witnessing the artificial awakening and remote operation test from the top of the old observation tower. “I didn’t see the last Devicer use it all that much, but I’m impressed. It’s a fine addition to the arsenal.”

“The Holy Shroud can...” Professor Chloe remembered that what she was about to say would be lost on the man, but continued regardless. “It can only be bestowed in the name of the queen. It’s rarely, if ever, given to someone unworthy of it. As I recall, the previous Devicer only had the honor twice.”

“Oh?”

“At any rate, this means we can move to step two of the awakening experiments. Project Rebirth can proceed.”

Long gone were the days of monitoring the Asura Frame’s status from messy control rooms. A 3D stereographic projection on the desk reenacted every detail of the Mark III’s movements, as well as its surrounding environment.

Chloe could feel a bud of hope burgeoning inside her. She glanced back at the pod, where the elf girl with midnight blue hair slept without a word or even so much as a twitch of the eye. Her lips were still now, but moments before, they had been moving, ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly, spilling tiny bubbles of air as she murmured whisperings to her new chosen one.