Kickstart My Sky II

Marina plunged into the sea, looking up as she watched Haruki catch a falling Anemone—like a gentle hand catching a shooting star, granting a loving wish.

All this time, she tried to keep Haruki far, and any feeling even farther. Keep him an arm’s length. He really was just some boy in the end. She buried her own feelings, saying their kiss was just “service” and a “thank you”. Nothing more, nothing less.

But when he caught the princess like that, Marina couldn’t stifle the thought:

He’s… kinda cool, actually.

She might’ve liked him.

Really, really liked him.

She was falling from the sky. She’d forgotten to cast a bubble spell to delay her fall. But she didn’t care.

She was falling. And she was jealous.

Intensely so.

Closing her eyes, she buried such silly thoughts again. A bubble formed around her, slowing her fall.

Then, Flare caught her. Grabbed her by the hand and sat her on the back of the griffon. She clung to Flare’s back as the griffon dived down and rose again.

“Are you stupid? Did you want to die?” asked Flare, miffed. “You got me worried when you didn’t deploy your bubble or whatever.”

To atone for the sin of hurting her sister, and the kingdom she belonged to—she did consider it. “No, I was just…” In a daze? Falling in love? Suicidal? “...I had it planned out! You’re such a worrywart.”

“I was just being cautious.”

“You? Cautious?”

“You don’t get to survive this long out at sea without being a little meticulous.”

The Kenichi Modern flew back up in a stylish loop. Showoff, Marina thought, but couldn’t help but feel a giddy in her legs seeing such displays of… accidental courtship.

“Hey, Marina!” Flare snapped her fingers in front of her face.

“Oh.” She returned to sobriety from love-drunkeness. “W-what?”

“What in Five Hells are you doing, being all quiet for? Lias is still up, and you mentioned something about him hatching some evil, evil plan right?”

“He can’t do anything without Anemone anymore, so—”

“Permission to kill.”

“Granted.”

Flare laughed. “You’re the best, girlie.”

Yanking the harness of the griffon, she and Marina ascended to chase the still-intact Isolde. Marina took notice of the red spots in Flare’s bandages and asked, “Hey, your wounds—”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

Marina pouted and pinched Flare’s sides. “Whatever happened to being cautious?”

“Ow!” Flare flinched. “By the Divines, I swear. I’m already in the battlefield, so—”

Thunder crackled. Its boom cut their conversation, and stopped all thought in the face of its deafening volume. It sounded close—way too close. Lightning hadn’t even struck anywhere they could see.

“What was that?” Marina looked up.

Nothing seemed to be wrong.

But when she looked in the direction of the Inverted City—

—It was coming closer.

As far as she knew, cities weren’t supposed to do that. Especially not that one.

“It’s not supposed to do that, right?” Flare kept a flat tone, but such an unnatural sight made her shudder. Marina hadn’t seen Flare so… spooked before. Her body was cold. The pirate princess hadn’t even used her magic yet.

“Flare. Look.”

A flood of light was pouring out from the Isolde above, like liquid crystal dripping from its sides. She had never seen anything like it her entire life, not even in her time in magic academy.

“Son of a—” Flare tapped the griffon with her heel, and it flew up faster. “What is that bastard doing?”

####

The Inverted City… is coming closer.

Haruki had spent most of his time in this world staring at the Inverted City—his goal. But now that his goal was coming within reach, why did he feel scared? Unsettled? He was used to chasing his goals, not the goals coming to him.

The Inverted City, still faraway to completely discern, still resembled the skyline of Tokyo City. But there were no lights. No people. No life. Just structure and cold, empty buildings At least that's what it looked like.

“He called Lacrimosa…” Anemone muttered.

“Lacri–what?” He couldn’t hear her from the sounds of cannonfire and the KM’s own engine.

“The Inverted City! The Lacrimosa!” she said, louder this time. “He’s opening a gate to another world!”

Wait. “What other world?”

“A world of sciences,” Anemone said. “It might be a door to yours!”

Isn’t that a good thing for me?

“Doesn’t sound too bad. So what if he opens the way in? Aren’t we going there anyway?” He didn’t think much about the implications of an airship driven by magic flying into Earth. His feet tapped on their own, excited at the prospect of going home with Anemone in tow.

“That… is true.”

Thunder cracked again. A ray of blinding light radiated from the airship’s bow. Haruki and Anemone looked away, shielding their eyes. Then, the light vanished. Silence.

Once more, thunder cracked. Then it roared.

An animal’s roar. It couldn’t have been thunder.

When the Inverted City sat overhead—close enough for Haruki to fly to—a hole tore itself in mid-air before the Isolde’s bow. Expecting to see something like Tokyo or even Hanamigaoka beyond the hole, he angled the KM to peek inside.

There was only darkness.

And a gaping maw.

A dragon’s head snapped forth from the tear in space, biting off a solid chunk of hull from the Isolde’s underside, exposing its wireframe.

The Isolde immediately steered to the side, evading its next bite. If it were the Cronqvist, that dragon head might have already had its entire body for dinner.

Haruki’s jaw dropped. A chill raced up his spine. He knew. It had to be. “Is that…?”

From the clouds covering the Inverted City out poured squadrons of gargoyles, most human-sized, just like the last time he encountered the Sky Legion. Accenting each batch of creatures was a single, giant creature that looked more like patches of flesh sewn together than a thing that should be moving. It floated and flew like a blasphemous hairball coughed up by the devil himself.

Anemone’s hands curled into fist, then groped the handle of the Lewis gun mounted on the KM’s back.

From the portal in the heart of the invasion, the rest of the gaping dragon’s maw emerged. A giant, flying lizard emerged, its scales red with blood and anger, talons clawing at air—ready to tear its foes asunder.

Standing on its back: a man, shirtless and muscular, fury raw in his evil, twisted smile.

“Guess who’s back, shitheads!”

Haruki chuckled. He didn’t expect a rematch so soon. “Well, if it isn’t the Dragon Lord.”

Anemone breathed deep, her words cold and tense.

“And the rest of the Sky Legion.”

####

Blood flowed freely from Lias’ ears. He was kneeling at the edge of the Isolde’s compromised bow, staring blankly at the Sky Legion rushing out of the Inverted City.

His body was weak. His vision was blurry, and his hearing, gone. The Inverted City granted him infinite knowledge of his own universe. So much so that even his self-proclaimed genius brain could not handle all of it. He knew everything and yet—he knew nothing.

He laughed to himself. He tried to parse the visions granted to him, but how could he? He was no god. No divine. He was just a man.

A man hungry for power, for dominion. One who touched the border of heaven, and came back with a soul torn asunder.

He watched the otherworlder’s plane tear gargolye after gargoyle with his guns, cleaving through the Legion’s minions like it were a casual weekday to him. Did he make a mistake, making an enemy of him. In fact, why did he try to eliminate him anyway?

Was this Haruki person a real threat to the Federacy, or did he simply deem him a threat to his eventual rise to power? Did this person make him feel like less a man?

It didn’t matter now.

The scenery before him played out like a soundless play. A book come to life; A nightmare with no sound.

He gazed into the dragon’s maw that was headed his way. Its jagged, gnarled teeth greeted him with the stink of breath that could melt steel. Oh, but it already chewed through iron. My Isolde.

And now, it comes for me.

Bloody tears streamed down his face. He couldn’t even feel the chill of the air. The infinite knowledge was taking his senses. And soon, his life.

The other world… wasn’t Lacrimosa after all.

The darkness of the dragon’s mouth came down on him, chowing on him like a snack. Like he never mattered. His final thought came to him:

We… are Lacrimosa.