39 - Sisters End

The Sora-no-ken—the man in the eyepatch—immediately charges at me.

… He's fast.

In the blink of an eye, he's already closed the distance.

The first thing he does is disarm me, wrestling the Firmament's Edge out of my hands.

The Sora-no-ken holds up my sword high above his head, and brings it down in a quick, downward motion, and—

—breaks it over his knee, snapping the blade in half.

The blade's flame snuffed out, he casually tosses the two halves aside, like they were useless scraps of metal.

Then the Sora-no-ken grabs me by the head, and head-butts me.

I stagger around in the Hoshi-no-ken, dazed.

He follows that up with an elbow to the abdomen. Left hook. Right hook. Side kick. The Sora-no-ken leaps up in the air, delivers a roundhouse kick that sends me flying back into what remains of Parallax Academy.

I hear Saya scream behind me, as we're tossed around inside the cockpit.

Dammit, Odd-kun. Get up. … Get up!

I scramble back up as fast as I can—but already the Sora-no-ken is closing the gap, barreling toward us. Each of its stomps rattling the dwarven frame of the mech's chassis. My very bones.

I put my fists up.

I'm ready for him this time.

… Or so I think.

Once he's within range, I throw everything I have at him.

But he effortlessly dodges every single one of my jabs, my crosses, my hooks.

He's not reacting to me—he's not even anticipating my attacks, it feels like.

He just knows what I'm about to do, before I do it.

I can't touch him.

As I continue my futile assault, I hear the conversation that's taking place in the command center.

(Alex: "What … is it? The Sora-no-ken? Your military—they created a sister mech?"

Kaya: "No. No … The Sora-no-ken is … It's the Terror's ultimate form."

Valerie: "What do you mean, 'ultimate form'? You're telling me that thing's a Terror!?"

Kaya: "Yes. In a way. After we defeat enough of these things, the Terrors learn to adapt. One of the last Terrors we fight, in the penultimate arc, it's a slow-moving slug. We end up defeating it, but not before it attaches itself to the Hoshi-no-ken. This brief attachment gives the hivemind everything it needs to know about how it's built. And … as you can see … the final arc—the climax of the story—the final boss—is the sister model. … Sora-no-ken.")

Story …?

Arc …?

Climax …?

With each of these narratively-loaded terms, I begin to recall.

I begin to remember.

A world between worlds. A waiting room. Transmigratory hub.

… Point Parallax.

The revelation, the remembrance, coincides with the Sora-no-ken parrying one of my blows.

The eyepatch man grabs my robotic fist, stops it in its tracks. Begins crushing my hand.

I try to breathe through the pain.

And then I hear it.

His voice, in my head.

"You're beginning to remember now, aren't you?"

(Saya: "What's he doing in our Resonance!? That's impossible! Kaya, get him out of here!"

Kaya: "I … can't! I don't know how he's doing this!")

Kaya … Saya … They're not real.

They were part of another story.

Yes, yes—we met in a world between stories.

We had a club room there. Alex, Valerie, and me. Later, Sunny and Moeka.

They broke down our wall.

Saya wanted to … What was it?

… Experience school life?

And then we ended up here.

Man: "That's right, Odd-kun. Very good. And you should be proud. You gave the twins what they wanted. The smaller one, who only ever wanted to get along with her older sister. … And the other one, who wanted to experience what it was like to have a normal student life. Or, I suppose, what she considered one. And if that means tyrannically taking over every club in the school—well! Who am I to judge?"

I try to break free from his grasp, but he only squeezes tighter. I can hear—feel—the dwarven steel begin to bend, and warp, under his grip.

… He's in my head.

"Shall I show you more, while we're strolling down memory lane?"

He's in my head.

He shows me images of other people—people I don't know.

But for whatever reason, seeing their faces fills me with unbearable sorrow, and before I know it, I'm crying.

… I'm crying, and I can't stop.

A fox girl, dressed in traditional business wear. She's smiling.

A shy, bookish zombie, clutching a stack of hard-cover volumes close to her chest.

A dragon girl, dressed in a male bartender's outfit, wiping a pint glass with a rag.

A healer priestess, playing a guitar on stage, singing her heart out into the microphone.

A short mage girl with a tall, pointed hat, stir-frying rice in a wok.

… And more.

Many, many more.

Too many to count. All these faces flashing through my head, relentlessly, on repeat, like I'm stuck in the middle of a zoetrope.

I haven't the faintest idea who any of these people are.

… So then, why does the mere sight of them make me feel like my heart is about to tear in half?

Valerie, Alex, Sunny, Moeka—they're wearing the same sorrowful expressions, down there in the command center. … Why do we all seem to know these faces, cycling through our minds??

Man: "Yes, yes—your grief now is proof that the time you spent together was real. But they had to go. … It was simply their time. Nothing persists, Odd-kun. Everything fades."

Is that true?

(Saya: "Odd-kun? Odd-kun!")

Is that the fate of all that exists—to simply fade away?

(Saya: "Odd-kun, snap out of it!")

To dissolve into the aether?

Man: "Even energy disperses, Odd-kun. Such universal laws cannot be contravened."

Saya: "ODD-KUN!"

SLAP!

I'm knocked out of my reverie.

The side of my face stings.

I'm back in the cockpit.

Saya's in front of me, out of her Resonance seat. Her eyes watering.

"Odd-kun … Don't listen to it. Please."

She places a tender hand over where she slapped me.

She wipes away my tears.

"Focus on me, Odd-kun. I'm right here."

She smiles weakly at me.

She unfastens my restraints, pulls me out of the Action Pilot seat.

"N-no," I protest, my mind still reeling, "Wh-what are you doing? I have … to fight …"

Saya hushes me, gently pulling me to the side of the cockpit.

Is she giving up??

I don't understand what she's doing.

—Until I realize that we're not alone in the cockpit.

There's a third person here.

Blazer.

Ponytail.

… Jessica.

She turns, and smiles at Saya and me.

"Hey, Odd-kun. Took you long enough, this time."

She steps over to the Action Pilot seat, and sits down. Straps herself in. Grabs the controls.

"… I'll take it from here," she says.

And with that, the Hoshi-no-ken comes to life once again.

She breaks free of the Sora-no-ken's grasp.

She kicks away the enemy mech, sends it stumbling back.

Then Saya and I watch in awe, as the Hoshi-no-ken, under Jessica's control, reaches behind its back, and materializes—

—a colossal railgun, almost as long as the HNK is tall, its glowing twin rails already crackling with blue plasma, the weapon's capacitor core humming as it begins charging up for a shot.

Jessica plants her feet into the ground, takes aim at the recovering Sora-no-ken, and then …

She pulls the trigger.

ZZZZZZZT-VROOM!

A bolt of blue.

Smell of ozone.

The recoil alone almost knocks the Hoshi-no-ken off its feet.

The beam of light that the weapon fires is so bring that, even in my mind's eye, I'm left blinded for several seconds. Like somebody tossed a flashbang into my head.

When I can see again, the Sora-no-ken is …

It's missing its entire upper half.

There's nothing left except two smoking, unconnected, metallic columns—what used to be its legs.

Jessica lets out a breath.

Saya wraps her arms around me, buries her face into my shoulder. I stroke the top of her head.

… It's over.

We did it.

I see the others, down in the command center, jumping out of their chairs for joy. Alex hugs Valerie. Moeka buries her face in her keyboard, exhausted. Sunny just smiles. Kaya cries.

But we barely have any time to celebrate, before a gunshot rings out in the hangar.

Everyone turns toward the sound.

Peaked military hat. Coat. Blue husky's eye.

… The man in the eyepatch.

Smoking gun in hand, pointed to the ceiling.

"That was quite the thrilling performance," he says. "But like I said. 'Universal laws'. … Remember?"

Nobody moves.

Time seems to stand still.

And then—

What follows after is too horrible to describe.

The sounds, the screams. The looks on our friends' faces. … The blood.

And the worst part is, we can't look away.

We can't just close our eyes and block out the sights.

… Because it's all playing out in vivid detail, at the forefront of our mind's eye.

And once the fight is over—no, not fight; massacre is the only way to describe it—the man looms over Kaya, the only one left, still seated in her chair.

Standing behind her, his gloved hands on her shoulders. His terrible grin.

Saya screams beside me, "DON'T TOUCH MY SISTER! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!"

Jessica is already moving toward the soccer field, where the shaft leading to the hangar is. Pushing the Hoshi-no-ken as fast as it will go.

We enter the shaft.

Down in the hangar, Kaya smiles sadly, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Onee-chan," she begins, voice trembling.

Saya is screaming in my arms, sobbing uncontrollably. Slapping me, clawing at me, as I try to restrain her. Inconsolable. Powerless. Forced to watch.

"… I'm really glad," continues Kaya, "that we got to grow closer, these past few weeks."

Jessica guides the Hoshi-no-ken down the shaft, one hand dug into the side wall, sparks flying as we descend.

"… and you too, Odd-kun. Thank you—for bringing Onee-chan and I closer together. And thank you for showing Onee-chan—…"

We're almost there. We're almost at the hangar.

"… Thank you for making Onee-chan's wish come true."

Just … a little … bit further …

"I love you, Onee-chan."

The man takes one hand off her shoulder.

He brings it up to his face.

He lifts up his eyepatch.

Blue and yellow.

And then—

—Kaya's gone.

The man is gone.

And in the cockpit, I'm holding …

… Nothing. Saya has disappeared from my arms.

We scrabble down the last of the vertical shaft, and emerge into the hangar. (… I know we've arrived only because of the sudden, bone-rattling thud as we hit the ground, since without the twins, I can no longer see outside the Hoshi-no-ken.)

Jessica lowers the robot to its knees, opens the cockpit hatch with a hiss.

We climb out the robot's open face, and scramble down the front of the mech, using parts of the battle-worn dwarven plating as footholds.

When we're on the ground, Jessica and I stand in silence, looking at our fallen friends.

"It can't …" I say, out of breath. "It can't keep ending like this."

Jessica doesn't even turn to look back at me.

"… Let's go back for now, Odd-kun.

"… Okay?"