Leo Makishima was born and raised in Sasebo, Nagasaki. These days, he kept his hair bleached stark white, but it used to be bright brown, courtesy of his American father. A man his mother had never actually been married to.
He considered his mother the witless type. Too childish for her own good. Too stupid to realize that the charming foreign soldier boy had been using her, that she’d be abandoned the moment his deployment was up, left to give birth and raise a child alone.
Leo was the only thing he had bothered to leave behind.
It wasn’t a particularly unique or uncommon story for Japanese military towns with American bases. In fact, it was probably one of the tamer ones. At the very least, he wasn’t a product of sexual assault. Leo didn’t have much to say about his childhood. No real pent-up emotions he cared to vent. If he ever met his father, he probably would have stabbed the life out of him, but that was it, really.
His mother had apparently gone through hell to raise him. She’d been on her own, disowned by her own parents, and left to fend for herself. All Leo remembered, though, was being hungry. He was intimately familiar with that feeling. Snacks and cup ramen had been all he subsisted on, and even now, he still had trouble keeping down meat and vegetables. Because of that, his body was small and emaciated, his bones far too thin for a fourteen-year-old, a consequence of his malnourished youth.
Still, he did appreciate his mother for trying, for what it was worth. Maybe she shouldn’t have spent all those nights out partying, drinking, and coming home to scream curses at her own child in a drunken stupor, and maybe she shouldn’t have told him she wished he’d never been born, and maybe Leo wouldn’t lose any sleep if he never saw her again—but he did appreciate the effort.
He had left home about a year ago, when he was ordered by the government to transfer to west Japan’s nanotech research facility. There, he received his nanomachines, and although he considered the blatant human experimentation less than subtle, he had been glad to be out of his house.
And then, in June of last year, the entire Tokyo Metropolitan Area was destroyed. Flooded and turned to rubble by magically induced earthquakes.
September of last year, however, was when everything changed for Leo.
This time, the floods and rain and earthquakes hit Kansai, and the region met with the same fate as Kanto. Leo had been at the facility in Kyoto’s Nishikyo ward at the time and avoided much of the disaster. And he remembered the sheer thrill he had felt.
“Finally! Finally this shitty country’s over! It’s every man for himself now, and the power to crush every enemy in my path will be mine!”
He had a plan. He’d felt it during the nanomachine experiments. Its call.
The elves had received the Asura Frame to conduct maintenance on it—a single belt with a peculiar buckle, and yet it was a weapon of mass destruction. Every time Leo would see it, biding restlessly from afar, he would hear its voice. Beckoning him.
Fight with me, it would say. Fight. Fight. Fight.
Leo knew the Asura of Flashfire had chosen him, and in the midst of the chaos and destruction, he had stolen away with it.
With that first armorization, he had become Devicer Seven.
Ein felt a strange sort of nostalgic comfort. But it was a comfort she had no intention of indulging in.
Once more she found herself floating in a pod of vital fluid, drifting between wakefulness and sleep. She was naked, like she had been at Maizuru. But little time had actually passed, so her slumber was light, and in the moments of awareness between those of listlessness she occupied her mind with thoughts.
I must contact Yu, she told herself wearily.
Ein recalled what little scenery she had seen while Leo and his men transported her. They had seemingly taken her to an airport, the very same one she and the others had used on their trip to Jakarta. These facilities seemed rather rare, so she believed it would be a vital clue to her whereabouts.
Yu... I am here... Where are you? Natsuki. Ijuin...
How she wished she could reach them by commlink, but it was impossible. Her nanomachines had been restricted, and their only capability now was communicating with Avalo for the purposes of transmitting Gospel Codes. Leo had configured the sleeper pod so. The functionality was originally meant for the purpose of reducing the strain on any Replicants inside, but in this case it only hindered her.
Were things different... Perhaps Leo’s cunning shrewdness could have seen him develop into a proud warrior. But any hope for the future, he had snuffed out himself and replaced with darkness. Ein grieved for him.
My mind...is failing...
She had to get in contact with Yu somehow. She had to. Yet there was only so much she could do in her current state.
And then she heard a voice.
“Where are you, Ein?! Tell us!”
Yu...
At last. Avalo had brought them together. Ein heard the pained cries of the one she loved, and it stirred her heart.
Yu... I am here...! I am here! Come to me!
The elvish princess put the last of her strength into a single message before she succumbed to the call of slumber. And so she drifted yet again.
✦ ✦ ✦
Leo clicked his tongue in frustration. He lingered on the top floor of the JCAB administration building. It was a small room meant for air control, and it had glass windows in every direction. This was where he had absconded to with the Replicant. The princess slept behind him, her every vital function cared for by the pod, and he was joined by a group of tight-lipped technicians and young soldiers who only cared to take orders from the strong. Most of the older military flunkies didn’t seem to take kindly to the fourteen-year-old Devicer, so he hardly trusted them enough to inform them of this location.
And especially not Kiriko Kaji. That girl liked to talk too much.
The control tower was also already conveniently stocked with radar and communication equipment. It was the perfect place for Gospel Code transmission. There was just one thing left to do.
“Now to get rid of Three and that red-haired woman, and then it’s mine for good,” Leo growled.
He remembered the girl with the guandao Asura Frame. She was impossible to forget, after all. She’d thrived at the nanotech lab as the constant center of attention and displayed the highest manifestation levels faster than anyone. She was bright, cheerful, had a million friends...
Leo clicked his tongue again. He hated girls like her. Viscerally. He had made a point to keep as much distance from her as possible back in his lab days. So it was no wonder the girl hadn’t recognized him.
“Just pisses me off to see her again. Now of all times,” he spat.
But the red-haired girl wasn’t the only thing that had lit his fuse. It was that cheeky Devicer Three and his mouthy Replicant. Before falling asleep, Her Royal Highness had made sure to say her piece.
“Leo Makishima, the path you walk leads to darkness, and it pains me to see you make such mistakes.”
“You have so much potential. You could be so much greater than you are. A hero in your own right.”
“I only pray that there comes a day when we might call you an ally.”
The elf woman had said all of this, staring at Leo the entire time with those pitying, self-righteous eyes. She had not cried. She had not cursed him.
After that, Leo had quickly put her out with his optical hypnosis.
“Mind your own business. All I want—all I need is power.” He spat at the pod. “I’ll show you darkness.”
If only she were awake. Then he would have done more than spit.