They had first met at the tower in Maizuru. A public facility converted into a military installation for transmitting Gospel Codes.
Yu knew exactly where to look.
Surveying the airport from above, he spotted several iron constructs on top of a building near the runways. Radio towers, perhaps. At the very highest floor of the building, he spotted a room surrounded by glass like some sort of observation deck. That had to be it.
He and the Mark III burst into the room, scattering shards of glass everywhere. She was there. Sleeping exposed in that horrible pod again.
“Ein!”
Yu ran to her at once and placed his armored hand against the sleeper pod’s outer casing. Initializing the ultrasonic oscillator at its lowest setting, the exterior quickly gave way. It and, surprisingly, the rest of the device cracked, crumbled, and fell apart. The liquid inside gushed out onto the floor, and Yu caught Ein in his arms.
“You came for me,” she rasped. “Yu...”
“I had to! I...I won’t lose any more family!” Yu cried. “When I thought I might lose you, I... It felt so empty. And I don’t really know or understand what we are to each other or anything, but...” Yu was a child. Matters of love, relationships, it was all beyond him. “But what I do know—what I learned today is I don’t ever want to lose you. You’re my partner. My family. And I’d do anything for you. Anything to keep you by my side!”
Ein giggled weakly. “Shall I put that down as your wedding vow?”
“Wait, is that how it came off?!”
He’d only spoken his mind. Yu had somehow not even remotely considered that it could be construed in a romantic way.
Ein’s voice was still weak and feeble, but she was clearly regaining some of her old confidence and wit. She nuzzled her face against the Mark III’s chest. Their embrace was a tender one, as if between two lovers.
“I suppose I’ll count my blessings, given the circumstances,” she breathed suggestively. “Thank you, Yu. For rescuing me. And for your words.”
“I’m just glad to have you back. But there’s no time.”
“I know. I surmised most of the situation between bouts of sleep, and it seems things are dire.”
At last, they separated. They looked into each other’s eyes and nodded resolutely. The real battle was just beginning.
Yu tore off a piece of the Holy Shroud around his neck, and the mystical cloth swelled to the size of a blanket. He draped it around the princess’s naked body and steeled his mind as Devicer Three once more.
“I need to go,” he said, standing and turning around. “Natsuki’s waiting for you too.”
“Right. I will assist you and the Asuras as well as I can!”
With Ein’s voice at his back, Yu took off through the shattered window. The sun was beginning to set, and the current time read 1548.
“Hurry, Rudra!”
Yu shot for the stratosphere, together with his second and equally trusted companion.
Natsuki pumped her fist in the air. “Nice! Three pulled through!”
The second she got the commlink from Yu, she made sure to let Kaji know.
“Awesome! Now Leo won’t be the only one out there!”
“Yup, and me and my Asura Frame can go all out!”
“I still can’t believe you’re actually a Devicer.”
The girls plus Ijuin and Executive Shiba had stayed behind while the others left for the airport. They were on a bit of reclaimed land, an artificial island built on the northeast side of Hakata Bay, called Island City. It had been the subject of major redevelopment projects spawning numerous businesses and high-rise condos, but it was abandoned after the Evacuation.
Natsuki and the others had set up camp in a wide vacant lot on the island’s edge. It had probably been the site of a construction project before, but it was just a pile of unoccupied dirt now, far from the city’s urban center.
“I hope the speaker’s made it to Ein safely,” Shiba said anxiously.
“I’m sure he has,” Ijuin replied. The overwhelming certainty in his statement betrayed the truth of his doubt. “I’d be worried if it was just Nadal, but he’s got Sakuma with him. Right?”
The brilliant sage might have had a mind for plots, but he most certainly was not the knight in shining armor he may have thought himself when he’d decided to go to the lone princess’s aid. And his terminal lack of any sense of direction didn’t bode well for him arriving in any sort of timely manner.
The others had decided to come out here to try and keep the fighting as far away from the people as possible. As noted by Ijuin to Shiba some time earlier...
“The archmages are definitely wising up to the Asura Frames, don’tcha think? They could try to come after us. Or Natsuki, more specifically.”
“I definitely wouldn’t rule out the possibility of an Anomaly ambush.”
Natsuki had agreed. “I can handle myself well enough, but I dunno if I could while surrounded by refugees.”
And so they had relocated to the deserted island by means of an armored car provided by Officer Kaji. It was outfitted with the old JSDF’s Network Electronic Warfare System, though Shiba was the only non-augmented person who would have found use in such outdated technology. For what good it would be with Asura Frames, anyway.
“All right, think that’s our cue, Vritra!” Natsuki said. Armed with a masterfully crafted guandao—the Asura Frame Mark VI—Natsuki thrust the blade into the air and transmitted her voice via commlink. “Let’s do it, Ein!”
“At once!” she replied. Although she sounded weaker than normal, her voice still carried all its regal weight. It was more than worthy of reciting the Gospel Code.
—Witness the truth. Envision vajra.
—See, says the Enlightened One, true strength in tathata.
—Give form to invincible serenity, flawless as the full moon.
The Prayer Wheel at the Green Dragon Crescent Blade’s ferrule whirred. With every turn, the turbine could produce energy enough to power an entire city. Or perhaps a swarm of adaptive nanofactors.
The sparkling cloud drifted up to the sky, a swirling galaxy of countless stars directly above their heads.
Kaji looked up at the beauty in awe. “I’ve never seen so many of them in one place before! No wonder Leo wanted one of those elves!”
“We’re just getting started!” Natsuki declared.
Indeed, the particles were beginning to converge. Together, they formed an auxiliary droid of incredible scale unlike anything anyone present had ever seen before. It was a massive serpent, its longer than two-hundred-meter body coiling as it rose into the sky.
“Kinda looks like a giant floating saucer,” Ijuin remarked. “The way it wraps itself up into a circle.”
“I think we’re witnessing the Dragon King himself,” Shiba muttered. “All of the Mark VI’s firepower—the entire glass cannon Asura’s offensive capabilities condensed into a single entity. It’s not so much a droid as it is a manifestation of the Frame itself.”
“Don’t let me down now!” Natsuki cheered to the serpent. “Turn that star shower into a star drizzle!”
She thrust the Green Dragon into the air, its tip pointing high into the heavens. At once, the enormous, coiled snake shot upwards.
MUV Avatar: Vritra. The beast was truly befitting of the Mark VI’s own name. Animated by antigravity lifters and powered by the Prayer Wheel itself via magnetic resonance, Natsuki commanded the god-given form completely. For the true Asura of dragons was in her very hands.
“Tough Guy’s already up there, so between the two of them, those meteors should be no problem,” Natsuki said cheerfully. “At least that’s what the boss said. We’ve got this!”
If only she had known what was to come.