Ohori Park was located right on the water. The pond had once been a moat for Fukuoka Castle, and the wide area and plentiful nature made it a favorite spot for families and couples. After the Evacuation, though, the place was all but deserted. All that remained of the old park was a sad and desolate vacant lot.
The Nayuta group was gathered at the nearby remains of what used to be a popular neighborhood café. Making use of the long-neglected tables and chairs to create a makeshift base of operations, Natsuki Hatano, Speaker Nadal, and the two executive officers, Shiba and Sakuma, were holding a meeting. Along with...
“So,” Takamaru Ijuin said to the lone outsider, “you really don’t know where Ein is?”
“I tried looking, but I couldn’t find anything. What did you expect? I handle general affairs. I don’t exactly have much authority with them,” former representative Haruki Ijuin grumbled. “If they find out I was even here, they’ll have me gunned down. The government these days doesn’t mess around!”
Nadal nodded. “I told you, did I not? What you call a ‘government’ is little more than a violent guerrilla force that’s seized control of the city, much like what you’d see in developing nations. Luckily for you, dietman, we consider you not entirely worthless.”
“Oh, Speaker, it’s an honor to hear you say that!” Haruki blubbered without missing a beat. Incidentally, this behavior of his towards Nadal only began once he’d heard his position in Nayuta.
It was largely ineffective, however.
“Before you get too excited by such glowing praise, know that I only give it because you’re merely the foam on the surface of the festering party you belong to,” Nadal clarified. “Were you a more established career politician like your father, you would surround yourself with spineless yes-men who refuse to challenge your own beliefs, thus dooming yourself to spiral into the quagmire of anti-intellectualism. Ultimately, your sorry life would end with a whimper, forgotten by those who placated you and scorned by those you segregated when they refused to.”
“O-Oh.”
“Ah, but lest we forget that scion of the former prime minister and very sexy Minister of the Environment. The former Minister of Defense who failed to differentiate work from browsing social media too. Both of them were indeed model politicians in their first year in office. I would learn from their examples, if I were you. The censorship of dissenting opinions is the first step on the path to idiocy.”
“W-Well, the matter of the minister and his...unique description of the climate crisis aside,” Haruki stuttered awkwardly, “I believe it’s well within a politician’s duties to use the internet to inform the people.”
“Then the information must be distributed equally,” Nadal countered. “Frankly, though, I find blocking those offering entirely valid criticism utterly childish. It tells me they don’t belong in power.”
“W-Well, then...” Nadal’s long-winded rant had flabbergasted Haruki. His eyes darted around awkwardly.
Shiba smiled tiredly. “Leave it to a genius to remember every little detail and statement made by every politician from every party in the last thirty years.”
“Now if he’d just work on that attitude,” Sakuma added. Not too long ago, he never would have imagined speaking out against a superior so brazenly.
“Anyway!” Natsuki interjected. Her peony furisode fluttered as she gave Haruki a firm whap on the back. “Give it another go, eh? You want Nadal to remember what a good job you did with that big brain of his, don’t you? He’s already thinking about putting you up in Nayuta.”
“O-Oh, no!” Haruki denied. “I’m doing this for my little cousin, of course!”
“I’m sure that’s part of it, but I know how you are, Cuz,” Ijuin said.
“Everyone,” Nadal interrupted. He waited for the room to quiet down. “I have an idea. And you might just be our silver bullet.”
Natsuki recoiled. “Me?!”
Some time later, Kiriko Kaji was walking through Tenjin in uniform, when she turned the corner and bumped into someone she recognized.
“Natsuki?! Oh my gosh, what’re you doing here?!”
“Oh, nothin’ much.” Natsuki grabbed her shoulder. “Got a minute?”
She then practically picked the girl off the ground and lugged her into the electric van they’d brought from Nayuta. Had the judicial system still existed, Natsuki could have probably expected a few criminal charges.
Shiba sat in the driver seat with Sakuma sitting shotgun.
“Never thought I’d see the day I kidnap a comrade in arms,” the latter lamented.
“Wait, am I being kidnapped?!” Kaji shouted. “What’s going on here, Natsuki?! And where did you go after Kansai flooded?! I was so worried about you!”
“I just kinda wandered a bit, you know.” The kabukimono girl smiled awkwardly. “I’m hanging out with the elves these days, and my friend Devicer Three. They had a bit of a favor to ask me, since I was at west Japan’s nanotech facility. Said I’d probably find some familiar faces in Fukuoka, so I went looking for ’em.”
“It’s a good thing you knew where the Fukuoka lab was,” Shiba remarked.
The building Kaji had emerged from was likely the government’s own nanotech laboratory. Shiba started the van and quickly left the scene.
Natsuki smiled impishly. “What can I say? We got sent around a lot, back in our lab rat days. Yu and the others too, I bet.”
Kaji rested her face in her hand wearily. “So that’s how you found our base.”
“Yup. Shiba and my pal Ijuin worked a few stealth droids around the area and took pictures of the people coming and going. Then I just checked to see if I knew anyone.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on! What do you need me so badly for?!”
“C’mon, you should know that,” Natsuki said. “We want to know where Ein is. Why do you think I chose the chattiest person I could find?” This time, however, Kaji went quiet, frowning. “Hey, we’ll settle for the tough guy if you know where he is. Devicer Seven, I mean.”
“I don’t know,” Kaji said reluctantly. “I don’t know where he is or where he hid the Replicant. He’s a crafty, selfish brat. He barely manages to keep his own team informed on a need-to-know basis.”
“Fair enough. Something’s been bugging me, though,” murmured Natsuki. “He was at the nanotech facility too, wasn’t he? I don’t remember him at all. Which is weird, ’cause the kid definitely stands out.”
“He was...quieter when you were still around.” Kaji sighed. “Never made any friends. Never talked to anyone. After Kansai fell apart, though, he took off with the Mark VII. And ever since, he’s been in his own little world.”
“Well, either way.” Natsuki grinned at her. “With you here, we got ourselves some leverage for a hostage exchange!”
“You’re crazy if you think Leo’d agree to that!”
“Don’t worry, we’ve got some brains on our side too. We’ll get Tough Guy out in the open one way or another.”
Natsuki waved off Kaji’s protests with a devil-may-care look on her face, until a commlink from Ijuin wiped it away.
“H-Hey, do you got a minute? ’Cause Avalo just sent me a warning message, and something bad’s headed straight for Fukuoka.”
“What? Heading from where?” Natsuki asked calmly. Be it from air, sea, or land, she was ready for anything.
Well, almost anything.
“From space!”
“From what now?”
Before Yu stood an archmage of the other side—the beautiful and handsome Quldald of the Whirlwind. The Mark III displayed a window next to his form.
“Illusion magic,” Yu murmured. “What, I only get a projection this time?”
“For now, my esteemed enemy,” Quldald responded proudly. “The moment of truth is not yet nigh. Today, I come to you with news of a new opponent that I hope will tide over the ennui until our final battle.”
“I think I’ll manage on my own,” Yu shot back. “What are you up to this time?”
“This.”
A staff-like thing appeared in his hand, but not the one he typically carried. It was small, about half a meter long, and made of metal. Yu recognized it.
The archmage had called it “Starcaller.”
“That meteor summoner again!”
“Indeed!” Quldald exclaimed. “But this time we shan’t settle! I will call a shower of stars to rain down upon this earth!” The mage declared this boisterously, almost theatrically. “I was busy conducting rituals these past several days, you see. Offering my prayers to this wand. ‘Breaking it in,’ so to speak. Prepare, champion, for the stars will come tonight. Perhaps even before the sun sets!”
“What have you done?” Yu growled. “Are you trying to destroy the entire city?!”
“Oh, no! Perish the thought! It would be horribly rude of me to challenge the heroes of Earth with one measly dungpile at stake. What I plan to do is annihilate half of this entire island!”
In other words, he was targeting all of northern Kyushu. The staggering power this man wielded and the irreverent grandeur with which he did it made Yu feel sick to his stomach.
Quldald’s ghost grinned the entire time, even as it started to vanish.
“Until we meet again, warrior of black and gold! Send my regards to the warrior with the dragon’s blade!”
With that, he left Yu to tremble in the empty hotel room. An alert message appeared in his visor.
“It’s from Avalo,” he muttered. “Meteor cluster confirmed heading towards Earth. Estimated atmospheric entry at...sixteen hundred hours?!”
The projected impact zone was, as promised, all of northern Kyushu. Yu took a long, deep breath from the pit of his stomach. It was currently 1526.
He didn’t even have an hour.