A man without a machine is like a man without hands

Even the android was surprised by these words.

"What? Do I remind you of your brother? Ha! Is he dead or something!?"

Kamiko couldn't take her eyes off Ningen's face and relaxed her fighting stance. The enemy took advantage of this and rushed to attack. His quick movements raised columns of dust.

Ningen struck with lightning speed, trying to end the fight faster, since his batteries weren’t infinite either.

"K-Kamiko… what did you say?.." Mellow was still trying to establish a connection.

"This simply can't be, how is that possible!?"

Soda tried to comprehend what was happening, hesitantly blocking the blows. The girl retreated further and further, not knowing what to do in such a situation, and Ningen went all out, striking as if he were a training dummy.

"Damn Mukibutsu, why did they use that face!?"

I screamed furiously at Kamiko, trying to counterattack from above.

"Thank you for the welcome and goodbye!"

Ningen smiled ominously and struck from a low position.

The cybernetic arms faltered at the last moment, failing to bring the katana down on his brother's head. That moment was enough for Ningen to swing both blades upward and cut off Soda's arms. The momentum sent them flying towards the bridge, still holding the katana.

"Kamiko!" came loudly from the earpiece.

Soda managed to jump away from the finishing blow, although she was still in shock. She stood in the middle of the field without arms or weapons, raising her head to the sky, as if saying goodbye to this world.

“What a bright Sun today… How will I now pray for our brother, Fumiko?”

"Say hello to your brother in heaven!" Raising his blades behind his back to strike, Ningen jumped towards Soda.

But today is the last day of Obon… just like that time when we all wanted to watch the fireworks together.”

Kamiko lowered her head and looked pitifully at Ningen with his mad, bloodthirsty gaze, with tears in her eyes.

"Sister!" Fumiko tried to reach her sister.

"I still have something to protect."

"What are you mumbling about, the last word!? " Ningen said, closing the blades.

"Not so fast, samurai!"

Kamiko answered while chewing and showed her tongue with a small sphere on it to the enemy.

She immediately spat it out, the bomb exploded, creating a smoke screen in which Soda immediately disappeared while Ningen was confused.

"I’m a ninja after all!"

Soda ran out of the smoke and back to the bridge. On the way, she kicked the katana, throwing her arms out and grabbing it with her teeth.

"Neurogas? I can't see anything, just interference! Where is she!?"

"Producing an antidote, please stand by." The android's subsystem reported.

While Ningen was looking for her, the girl used the spring mode of her boots and, pushing off from the concrete columns, jumped onto the bridge. Soda's attention was immediately drawn to the cut nose of the Shinkansen, but before she could come to her senses, Ningen caught up with her and swung again to finish what he started. Dodging, Kamiko jumped onto the rails, transforming her boots, and rushed away.

"That's right! Run away, save your miserable life!"

Ningen shouted after Kamiko, standing in the middle of the train tracks.

"The object is on site. We need to contact headquarters, build a new route…"

"… in case of an unforeseen situation, retreat…"

Suddenly Soda remembered, running away from the enemy. But she was tormented by doubts.

“But I was going to complete the mission at the cost of my life! What can I do in such a situation?.. I need to recover and come back… No… I won’t have time and then he’ll deliver the suitcase to the destination and… I’m even afraid to imagine… Suzume, what would you do?”

Torn by doubts, Kamiko remembered another difficult decision she’d made. After the accident, when the car with her and Takeshi was thrown off the side of a hill, little Kamiko came to only in the hospital. She was horrified when she opened her eyes and saw her bandaged torso without arms or legs. Only Fumiko was there, her face sleep-deprived and tired from tears.

"W-where is f…brother?"

It was clear from Fumiko's reaction that he was in terrible condition. But before she could find out the details, doctors and some other strange people came to their room. They introduced themselves as scientists and engineers from a certain company called "Mukibutsu " and offered their help.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, albeit under such unfortunate circumstances. My name is Shuichi Yamanaka. I am the head of the advanced research department in Mukibutsu. These respected people behind me are top-notch experts in their fields. Matsuoka Suzume, Aoki Kazumi, and Aoki Makoto."

"Nice to meet you. We hope to be useful to you."

The Miyata family was quite wealthy and famous, although their influence wasn’t needed, as they insisted on "collaboration". Mukibutsu was already a cutting-edge technology company, offering the latest developments in prosthetics.

Kamiko had no choice but to agree. Her guardians, the head of the Shinto group and family friend Miyata, gave the go-ahead for the girl to have a new chance in this life. Kamiko lived in a special facility, Mukibutsu, where they carried out development and testing. To her own surprise, the girl quickly got used to her new limbs. However, Takeshi had more serious injuries: only his brain survived, and he was put into an artificial coma. At that point, Mukibutsu's strength was insufficient to do anything, so it remained to wait for better times.

One day, Kamiko disobeyed orders and tried to find her brother. By eavesdropping on other employees, she managed to track him down. Takeshi was hooked up to life support and unconscious. The staff she already knew were with Yamanaka.

"…that bad?"

"Yes, it wasn’t possible to save the vital organs. The limbs were covered in gangrene."

"We’ve two options on how we can use this…"

"U-use!? What are they talking about?" Kamiko didn't understand.

"I see. Head transplant or consciousness transfer, right?" Yamanaka clarified.

"What!? " Suddenly something burst out of Kamiko's mouth, but she was stopped by someone's hand covering her mouth.

Kamiko turned around and saw Matsuoka Suzume, who was personally taking care of Kamiko and helping her get used to the prosthetics.

"Quiet, Kamiko. We need to leave immediately."

Suzume helped Kamiko and Fumiko escape from the research center, and then joined the Sun Guardians and began working for their subsidiary technology company to confront the inhuman Mukibutsu.

"Don't despair, Kamiko… your brother is still alive… He's right here and right here." Suzume comforted the sobbing baby during the escape, pointing to her head and heart.

"I-I… I'll definitely come back… ‘brother’!"

"Okay, I'm leaving."

Ningen finished his conversation when he suddenly heard a grinding sound in the distance.

Kamiko pushed off with one foot and lifted it up, jumping on the other at high speed and spinning in the air, and then landing back on the tracks, skidding to a stop. Her movements resembled a ballerina.

"This is a real fight!"

She muttered, holding the katana in her teeth.

"Sorry, Fumiko!"

"Have you decided to die anyway?"

Ningen readied his blades again.

"Great, let's get this over with!"

The soda was gaining momentum, raising a column of smoke behind it, and preparing to take off. Ningen increased the resonating effect to the maximum and even from a distance it was visible as if the space around him was distorted, as if due to rising heat from the ground.

Kamiko lunged forward, her teeth clenching the hilt of her katana furiously, and Ningen swung, preparing to meet the blow.

"Probability of successful attack: 99.9%." The Ningenu subsystem reported.

"Suicide attack? People's self-sacrifice sometimes surprises…"

"I'll perform a miracle or die at this moment… Fumiko, take care of the rest."

The scorching sun was on Kamiko's side — behind her — and it was blinding Ningen a little, although it wasn't much of a hindrance to his robotic vision. The heat seemed to melt even the rails, especially after Kamiko had raced along them at the speed of a Shinkansen.

"Now!"

Soda sent a command.

Suddenly, a small explosion of nanobots occurred under Ningen's feet, and they flowed down the front of the train along with the molten metal.

"!?"

Ningen was able to protect his head with his hands, but his legs were melted to the sleepers, and he couldn’t move.

“Now I won’t be able to retreat and lunge… I’ll have to attack from this stance, she doesn’t have a chance anyway.”

Kamiko approached at high speed, swinging the katana in her teeth, and Ningen closed his blades to cut her in half. A collision was inevitable.

Cyborg Ninja or Android Samurai? Who will be faster!?