It was 9:58 AM, two hours before the operation was to begin.
In the 1st Storage Bay of the Imperial Air Force Jogen Base—formerly Jogen Maneuver Academy—a girl stood in front of the completed new Kiryu model. Someone came up behind her and spoke.
“Tooka.”
“…Onii-chan.”
Okegawa Kuon and Tooka Nürburg. Brother and sister in a previous life, sharing what would almost certainly be their last conversation.
Tooka had called him here, and he’d made up his mind to act upbeat about it, since it was their last time together. He stood behind his sister, looking up at the massive frame. “You finished her new Kiryu, then.” Tooka nodded. Kuon was impressed. Even with the Core, getting it built in this short a time? “You really are a genius,” he said.
But she shook her head. “I’m not.”
“What?”
“I’m not a genius. I just ‘knew’ everything from the very start.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Crystal II, the Heavy Magic Engine; these were all things researched over there. I got those memories from the Mother.”
“W-wait…‘over there’? ‘Mother’? What—” And then it dawned on him what that meant.
No.
“I remembered when I came in contact with them at Mid-Blue. I know who I am, where I came from, and why I’m here.”
“Over there” was the Jave world. The “Mother” was a Jave Queen. Kuon didn’t want to believe it, but Tooka said it anyway.
“I’m…” Suzuka Hachishiki’s sister, eaten by the Jave, and reincarnated. “I was born from the Jave and dropped into this world.”
It was unthinkable. The Queen who’d eaten Akigase Tooka thirty years before had made this fake thing, this monster, to resemble a human and investigate the world on this side. Tooka was half-human, half-Jave, a hybrid thing. Kuon nearly passed out.
“On the other side, there were people called Witches. They had powers that let them use magic without wearing a DM. But mankind used the Witches’ power for war and transformed them into monsters known as Gévaudan.”
Kuon didn’t realize how similar that power was to the Eight Hidden Forms. He just listened in stunned silence.
“The humans only maintained control of the Witches for the first three years. Then the Witches attacked, killed, and consumed the humans. In no time at all, mankind was completely wiped out. That’s why the Jave opened the Gate.” Tooka went on. “The Heavy Magic Engine works on the same principle as a Gate. That’s how I could develop it. Fragments of the memories of the Queen who bore me were copied to my body.”
“Copied…”
“That’s why both my body and magic are the same as they were in my previous life. I was dropped into Nürburg without my memories, let free for a single purpose.”
“And that is?”
“To find Okegawa Kuon.”
“Me?”
“More accurately, to find Suzuka Hachishiki’s new body. The one person on this side who stood a chance against the Jave. They knew the Gate had caused him to be reborn somewhere. That’s why I was given memories telling me I was the heir to Shichisei Kenbu, like Suzuka Hachishiki had been. If I told people that, then you’d find me.”
It seemed likely that at the end of his last life, when Hachishiki’s soul had mingled with the Queen’s, those memories had flowed into her. It was the same as how Kuon had known when the Queen would return.
Just as the enemy intended, Nanahoshi Kaede found Tooka. The rest, Kuon already knew. With no memories, Tooka discovered and developed Heavy Magic Technology, not knowing it was Jave technology, and eventually created an imitation Gate. She’d even secured the perfect position as Okegawa Kuon’s sister. And now…
“The Academy was destroyed, and Europe fell…because of me,” Tooka said. Tears streamed down her face. “When I opened that Gate, the soldiers that came out extracted data from me. Everything I learned over here is in their hands now. We’re an open book. They knew what was going on in Europe, they knew where Suzuka Hachishiki’s new body was, and they knew where the nest that threatened them was.”
The school.
The school where Suzuka Hanabi and her Kiryu were, where Okegawa Kuon and the Shichisei Kenbu were, run by Nanahoshi Kaede, the strongest humanity had to offer, the biggest threat to the Jave the military had—Jogen Maneuver Academy.
“I’m sorry.” Her expression never changed—perhaps that was the way she’d been made—but the tears flowed as Tooka apologized again. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I’m so sorry. So many of your friends died, Squad Leader Fuji’s fiancée died, Motegi Rin lost her leg, and it’s all my fault.”
Kuon couldn’t say a word. He couldn’t say anything to help her. It was all he could do to restrain the rage threatening to erupt within him. No, not her, Kuon thought, begging the part of him that was Suzuka Hachishiki for help. Not her.
Tooka sensed this struggle within him. “I wouldn’t mind if you killed me right now. I know just how much Suzuka Hachishiki hates the Jave. I know he won’t leave a single one of them alive. But…but…please wait until this operation is over.” She paused. “I will destroy them and their world.”
Even if it costs me my life, she thought. With that, Tooka turned and walked past him.
This was it. His last chance.
He could grab her shoulders; cut off her head.
Okegawa Kuon just stood there, unable to do either. His head was spinning. Hachishiki’s soul was screaming for him to kill Tooka. Kuon was using all his magic and muscles to control it. Not her, no. She’s not one of them.
How long did he stay like that? When he finally calmed down, Kuon checked the time on his Device. There was only an hour and a half left before the operation commenced. He still had time.
He turned to leave the storage bay…
“Kuon-kun.”
And found Suzuka Hanabi standing there, a look of grim determination on her face.