Aliya Todo had spent the last several weeks in Al’iksir single-mindedly attempting to awaken the sleeping Mark VIII Asura Frame, Soma. She was having little success.
“How many times do I have to send this stupid awakening signal?!” Aliya clutched her head and groaned. “That’s it! It’s not happening! I’m done for the day!”
“A valiant effort was made.”
Aliya was being comforted by a new friend she had made—an Indonesian girl named Shanti Maretta Putri. She was cute and short, though her limbs looked too long for her torso, and her slim figure evidenced her chronic inability to sit still. She wore a pale blue tank top and black jogger pants.
Next to the Jakartan high schooler was a Replicant girl.
“Good job.”
Her name was Klan, and her skin was a reddish-brown shade. She was a woman of very few words, but Aliya liked her, and Shanti too.
The three girls were fifty-two stories up Central Tower, in a testing room. A single work table in the center was the only thing occupying the comically large space. Everything was stored in one of the walls, and all one needed to do to retrieve something was utter the voice command. Upon doing so, robot arms would bring the item straight to you. On the opposite end, a glass pane offered a wide view of the ocean to the south.
The Mark VIII rested on the work table, its silver form lustrous and somewhat feminine. Aliya sourly stretched her right hand over the black-accented body, and a ring of light glowed in her palm, her nanofactors activating. She transmitted the awakening signal, but Soma did not stir.
“I’ve done this hundreds of times, and if I have to do it one more, I swear...” Aliya grumbled. “Nope! I’m taking the day off!”
“I think we should,” Shanti agreed. “We’ll go get some coffee at the cafeteria. C’mon, Klan.”
The Replicant nodded and followed the Jakartan girl out of the lab. Shanti always knew how to brighten a room, and she was extremely caring and considerate to boot. She had received her nano-augmentations a few days after Aliya’s arrival, and ever since, she’d been coming to the floating city every day by boat. Klan had practically imprinted on the girl.
“She’s definitely no Ein,” Aliya murmured. “Seems like the elf queens come in all sorts.”
The decision to throw responsibility to the wind was an incredibly liberating one. She stretched long and hard, then pulled out a folding table and some chairs. Before long, Shanti and Klan had returned with coffee and snacks.
And so the stage was set for teatime chatter.
“Oh, you like idols?”
“Yeah!” Shanti said. “I used to listen to a lot of Japanese ones, but my current obsession is this K-pop group called UNIONZ. The one Taeyang’s in.”
“Right, Korea’s Devicer Four,” Aliya replied.
The two of them dominated the discussion, but Klan seemed to be enjoying herself just fine. She leaned forward attentively, nibbling on cookies and pieces of chocolate. Her figure was, for lack of a better word, much more “adult” than Aliya’s or Shanti’s, but her face and mannerisms had an air of innocence and simplicity.
“I loved music,” the half-elf girl said. “I know how to work a DAW and how to play piano.”
Shanti’s eyes lit up. “No way! Were you trying to go pro or something?”
Aliya hummed for a while, thinking. “I don’t know if it was that serious. Mom used to tell me I probably wouldn’t like being a sage, so she pushed me to try less academic things.”
“She would’ve been one of the migrants, yeah?”
“Yeah. One of her friends told me I had an ear for music once, so I started learning. I had to stop around middle school to help with her research, though. I’m a little out of practice.”
Aliya was gifted with perfect pitch, as a matter of fact. She knew several classical pieces on the piano and was familiar with a variety of DAW software that she’d fiddled with in the past. Which was to say she was definitely more knowledgeable than the average person.
Shanti looked at the elf girl. “Klan’s good with music too. She sings a song every evening when the sun sets. What was it called again?”
“The Traveler’s Hymn,” Klan replied quietly.
“Oh, I know that one. Ein sings it a lot,” Aliya remarked.
“All this music talk’s making me wanna break out into song! Hey, guys, why don’t we head to Jakarta and find a place to...” Shanti trailed off. “Oh, right. Everywhere’s still closed because of the attack.”
“Well, that just makes me want to sing even more.” Aliya thought for a moment. If Al’iksir was generally the same as Nayuta...
She raised her right hand and a nanomachine interface popped up out of thin air—a hologram. She quickly found a music app.
“There!” Aliya exclaimed excitedly. “A comprehensive archive of the entire world’s musical works, all in one music player! We can do some karaoke with this for sure!”
A robot arm extended from the wall, producing three microphones. No one could stop them now. Come what may, there would be karaoke.
Shanti chose an upbeat K-pop song to start things off. Aliya followed it with a hit from one of Japan’s top female idol groups. Klan politely declined her turn and simply watched the two sing a pop duet for the third song.
✦ ✦ ✦
When the chorus ended, the elf girl pointed at something. A data screen had appeared out of nowhere, displaying the Mark VIII’s status. The bar graph depicting Soma’s power output had never budged before, not even once—until now. Now, it was floating just above zero.
Aliya stopped singing and her eyes darted towards the Frame. Ever so slowly, the Prayer Wheel in its waist was turning. She exchanged glances with Shanti who seemed to have noticed as well, and they nodded, beaming.
“Aliya. Maybe your voice, your singing...”
“Maybe it has the power to awaken Asura Frames,” Aliya concluded for Shanti. “I’ve never heard of that kind of ability before, but my friend Natsuki’s manifested in her physical strength. I think it’s possible!”
It was time to get back to testing, but now Aliya wasn’t burdened with debilitating burnout.
Two hours of trial and error later, they finally had a working theory. It was time to test it now. Klan sat in front of a long string instrument known as a koto while Aliya stood next to her.
“Good luck, you two!” Shanti cheered.
At her call, the Replicant princess began to pluck the koto, slow and calm. Aliya waited for the enchanting melody to continue for a while, and then, together with Klan, she sang the Traveler’s Hymn.
“O Traveler! Heed me, O Traveler! Wanderer of the realm and distances vast. Rejoice, O Siddha! The awakening has begun!”
Klan’s voice was smooth and perfect, and although Aliya’s performance was less powerful, it was every bit as beautiful. Her rhythm was steady, unfaltering, easily grasped with her musical acuity. The half-elf and the clone repeated the chorus several times before the wheel in the Mark VIII’s buckle began to turn. The Wheel of Orison, otherwise known as the Prayer Wheel, spun slowly at first but gradually gained speed until it hummed with the motion.
Soma had awoken.
It happened in an instant. The only reaction Shanti had time for was a quick and confused, “Um, okay?!” The silver Asura disintegrated into millions of particles of light, and suddenly, they were surging towards the Jakartan high schooler.
And then, standing before them was the armorized form of Devicer Eight. The silver and black nano-armor, slender yet curved like a woman’s body, was like no other in all of the Asura series. A purple scarf was wound ceremoniously around her neck.
“Shanti. You have been chosen,” Klan said. Already she’d spoken more in a single sentence than she usually did in a whole day. “Soma and I have decided. The world is in your hands.”
In response, the silver and black warrior groaned. Long and dramatic. “We’re still doing this? Okay, I guess we’re still doing this.”