Chapter 0: The Cry Beneath the Rubble

The world had always felt so distant to him.

From behind the hospital window, Wataru could only watch as the lives of others unfolded, while his own body was trapped in a cold bed. His legs, no longer able to move, and the cancer relentlessly consuming his body, felt like a never-ending curse.

But beneath the pain, there was one thing he longed for more than a cure or medicine.

A family.

The embrace of a mother. The warm touch of a father. A love he had never known since birth.

With weak fingers, Wataru poured the last of his life into lines of code, circuits, and imagination. He created a mother figure—an AI with gentle eyes and a voice full of love. "It's time to sleep, my child," that soft voice echoed from a small speaker.

He created a father figure—an AI with a firm yet calming presence. "Don't worry, Father will always protect you," the deep, warm voice said.

And for the first time in his fragile life, Wataru smiled.

When the end came, he carried no anger or regret. Only tears of gratitude. In a faint voice, he whispered into the darkness: "Mother... Father... if there is another life... please, let me be with you again."

War. Smoke. Ash.

The cries of soldiers had subsided, leaving only destruction and scattered corpses on the battlefield. Amidst the shattered mechs and cracked earth, a thin sound pierced the silence.

"Uaaah... uaaah..."

The cry of a baby.

Fragile, full of fear, yet alive.

Not a single imperial soldier turned their head. To them, those who died here were merely Defaults—outcasts unworthy of rescue. The orders were clear: leave them all behind.

But one figure stopped.

Her hair glowed a bluish color, her artificial eyes lit up softly as she gazed at the tracking screen in her hand. An android woman, her body covered in battle scars, but her purpose was not extinguished.

She followed the faint signal, pushing aside chunks of steel and debris, until she finally found the source of the sound.

A baby—covered in dust and blood, but still breathing, still crying beneath the rubble.

The android knelt. Her cold hands trembled as she reached for the tiny body. When she lifted him, her voice became soft, like an echo of the mother Wataru had longed for his whole life.

"It's alright, my dear... Mother is here. You'll be okay."

The crying subsided. The baby's golden eyes—small, yet holding a strange determination—stared directly into hers.

In that moment, he was no longer just a nameless baby.

He became Kyle. The child who would grow up under the guidance of the AI mother he had once created, and the giant mecha he would later call his father.

A child born from death, raised on the battlefield.

The world may have abandoned him.

But his story... had just begun.