Kickstart My Sky IV

The Skytree. The monorails. The streets. Cars. People. The city.

The world beyond the portal was undoubtedly home. Why and how the Dragon Lord emerged from it when there were no dragons back on earth didn’t matter to Haruki.

In this new world, he met wonderful people. Seen amazing places. Witnessed miracles happen before his very eyes, to a nearly daily occurrence.

And yet, staring at the bustling streets of Tokyo from above…

The allure of home—of rest, peace, stability… was magnetic.

He reached out to the portal, grasping the faraway Skytree with two fingers like the cheek of a long lost lover.

No matter where you are, and what you’ve experienced in life, home will always call to you. Call to Haruki.

Even if there was nothing worth going back to.

Even if it was a place of endless monotony, of empty promises, of a boundless Kafkaesque struggle… It was home.

The boom of distant cannonfire woke him from his trance.

The Isolde’s cannon struck the approaching Dragon Lord, disintegrating its still regenerating limbs. It flinched and backed off, but the stream of strange paper cranes kept flowing forth from the portal, replacing every instance of damage the Dragon Lord took.

“Haruki!” Anemone called out. “What’s wrong? You were staring…”

“It’s nothing. It’s just,” Haruki grimaced. “Home. Home is there.”

“Home is where?”

“The portal.” His blood ran cold, the grip on the Kenichi Modern’s controls loosening. He wanted to just steer the plane that direction and go home. Anemone wanted to be there anyway, right? She wanted to see his world, see where he grew up?

Yes. She would want that.

Despite all the miracles of this magical world, in his world, there would be nothing like the Dragon Lord. No endless war, no pestilence, no slavery, no violence—only peace and stability. Endless potential.

…Or was there?

“The world beyond the gate… is that where you come from?”

“One and the same.”

The Dragon Lord lunged again, fire shooting from its maw. Haruki rolled the plane away to dodge, but kept a steady course around the portal.

“Haruki! The Dragon Lord is…”

He cursed. With a pained roar, he charged at the Dragon Lord, gatling fire blazing. The hail of bullets tore the beast’s flesh into ribbons—but with ribbons and paper did they return anew.

“Fucking hell! He just keeps regenerating.”

The Dragon Lord cackled. “You can’t kill me, artificer. Not when your hopes and fears fill the void of my stomach.”

“Hopes… and fears?”

The Kenichi Modern and Dragon Lord rushed against each other, exchanging machine gun fire and dragonfire in a brutal, back-and-forth dogfight. With each wound the Dragon Lord suffered, cranes replaced them. And with each pass through, fire damaged more of the Kenichi Modern’s body.

Anemone heaved. She had been using whatever energy she had left to enhance the plane’s abilities, but had also been using double to shield it from harm.

More cannonfire. More dogfighting. Endless regeneration.

“It just keeps coming back.” Anemone yelled out. “The cranes keep healing its wounds!”

“I know!” I know. Soon, ammunition would run dry. So shall the will to fight. They’d die. The Dragon Lord will consume them. The Sky Legion will be left in the hands of the Bellfry City. The Federacy can handle the Sky Legion like they always have, right? Even without the command of—gods forbid—Lias?

Haruki knew what had to be done. He just didn’t know if he wanted it. If he has the strength to do it.

The Inverted City—Tokyo. Home. It was so, so close.

Everything moved in slow motion.

It was as if he could see the magical bolts leave the cannons of the Isolde. The bodies falling from the distant granfalloons and into Bellfry. The churning of clouds. The vapor trails left by the Kenichi Modern.

Anemone’s fluttering hair. The Dragon Lord’s fire. All in slow motion. All painting a picture of suffering, of desperation, of war.

Anemone. Marina. Flare. Ako.

They all lived in this world.

This was home to them.

He and Anemone had escaped from Ka-Ilyah Kingdom, pretty much on a whim. He could do it again. Anemone might even appreciate it.

But why weren’t his hands moving the way he wanted them to? He wished to roll the KM in the direction of the portal, but he’d been circling it for far too long. Why?

Oh. Of course.

Because this place was their home, is it not?

Life wasn’t about escaping duty. Escaping responsibility. About running away for greener pastures.

No.

I make a decision, and I choose my own responsibilities.

The sights, sounds, and sensations of everyone he’d met so far etched themselves into his very skin. All their aspirations, trials, victories, and losses—all grafted into his soul. Isn’t that the same for all of you?

A fire missile launched itself from the KM’s nose. It struck the Dragon Lord’s body directly, obliterating him from the shin up. Cranes flew in place, beginning to replace him.

Haruki breathed deep, and glanced into the portal one last time, before returning his wholehearted attention to the world around him.

“We need to close the portal.”

Anemone gasped. “But that’s the way home!”

“It is,” Haruki said, weight bearing down on his chest. “But this world is your home. You welcomed me to it. This world, and every single stretch of it is my home now, too.”

Ako’s hands. The phantom feeling of them grasping his returned.

“Besides!” He tightened his neck muscles. “I promised to bring Ako her daughters back! I’m not breaking promises now!”

Anemone asked, slow but gentle. “Are you sure about this?”

“Yes. I’m sorry but—our tour of my home will have to wait just a little longer, yeah?”

Noticing the conviction in his voice, Anemone couldn’t help but nod in agreement. “Yes! That’s fine!”

The KM flew up, confusing the Dragon Lord’s attack and tangling it on its own axis.

“Marina!” he called from their communications wind tunnel. “Can we close the portal? We need to stop the Dragon Lord from regenerating!”

“Huh?” Marina’s voice shook. “W-Well… Lias manipulated mana currents in such a way that—”

“Can we, or can we not?”

“We can,” she said, but added, “But I’ll need the same faculties he did. I don’t have Anemone’s blood, so I don’t have access to her power.”

Anemone shot back. “Yes, you do! You, me, Haruki, and Flare are all under one Sky Link!”

“What—?” Marina’s voice suddenly sprang back to life, like she’d been blessed with a eureka. “Y-Yes! Of course! I can draw power from your Divine Blood for the procedure!”

“Do it!” she replied.

“Of course,” Marina said. “Lias was a much better magician than I am. So I’m going to need a lot more water…. The sea! I need the sea!”

The Isolde began descending. When the cranes reassembled the Dragon Lord, he belted out a deafening roar. “Foolishness. You are all merely delaying the inevitable. That…” His dragon body’s winds flapped, and the air screeched in its power. “...And I can hear what you’re saying, you know! As if I’ll let you!”

With a single skyrending cry, the Dragon Lord called the attention of every remaining flying creature attacking Bellfry. At his mark, battalions of winged abominations pounced at the Isolde.

Flare and Warren, both on their griffons, intercepted the incoming monsters. Each swing of Warren’s axe cleaved one after another. Flare’s cut down two after two.

The remaining soldiers on the Isolde took battle formations, lined up in rows of two, and took turns shooting the creatures down with crossbows.

The Dragon Lord grunted in frustration. With sharpened talons and furious flames frothing at the mouth, he charged at the Isolde.

“Where are you going?”

Explosive fireball missiles incinerated the dragon’s wings, throwing it off-balance. Haruki pelted the length of the dragon’s spine with ruinous gunfire. Paper spurt where blood should have with each inch of ruptured dragon flesh.

Haruki laughed maniacally. “I thought you had a bone to pick with me.”

The Dragon Lord alone turned towards Haruki, his gnarled, mangled teeth reforming into a picture-perfect human smile. “Bastard. You’re still challenging me? Your efforts will amount to nothing!”

“How do you know that? Can you predict the future?”

“Of course I know. My might is absolute.”

“For an absolute being, you sure take too long wiping out kingdoms, you know?”

With bubbling fire, the Dragon Lord lashed out with infernal, putrid flames. Haruki swung right, tracing the edge of the fire like a daredevil. “Now!” he signaled as, flying over its open jaw, Anemone tossed in a bottle of gunpowder.

A second later, the dragon’s mouth exploded with uncontrolled force. It groaned in pain as it flinched backwards, dismembered horns and muscle falling into the sea.

While the cranes rushed in to reassemble its constitution, the Sky Legion redirected half of their fighting force at Haruki.

Haruki singled out creature after creature, but with every kill, two more took their place. He clenched his teeth and dug in his heels, gargoyle claws ripping the linen covers of the KM every other corner.

More cannonfire came in, sending more creatures to their demise. Airships—at least three of them, fresh from the Bellfry harbor. About time. Relieved, Haruki took a breath, but still lamented the damage on his plane.

He watched the Dragon Lord slowly reconstitute. His eyes darted back and forth between the giant reptile and his massive fighting force. He glanced at the KM’s fuel gauge. Empty. He knew he still had fuel, but the new make of the fuel tank didn’t allow him the luxury of knowing exactly how much time he had left.

From now on, every second was a gamble. Every minute was a risk. Each move had to count.

He grinned. When was the last time he’d been this close to death? His hands grew cold, all the strain on his muscles vanishing in the face of adrenaline. He was scared. Frightened. And yet—

His fingers tingled.

Excited.

For what was life without knowing he could die at any second?

“Anemone.”

“What is it?”

“Let’s do this.”

His hands groped a tiny control panel beside his radio, with the symbol of “Play” beside “Rewind” and “Fast Forward”. There was a slot for a cassette tape there, which he and Mr. Junk worked hard to integrate. Just in case he wanted to play some music mid-flight.

And that time was now.

At first, nothing came rewarded when he played the play button. But after a second, the sound of a guitar played from speakers in his underseat. The sound of a motorcycle. An engine. High-pitched and deafening. But that wasn’t what it was.

The noise became rhythm. An electric guitar. Rock. Then, an energizing, daring melody.

“W-What is that noise, Haruki?”

He laughed. “Just one of my favorite songs.”

A song said to have been composed after a certain band’s member died—then miraculously brought back to life when doctors injected adrenaline into his heart.

“Kickstart My Heart”.

The song sent electricity through every nerve, every bit of flesh in him. Though in his now-translated mind, the lyrics of the song, once barely understandable, had become incomprehensible gibberish. But even then, he understood what the song was trying to say—in his very soul.

He stared down the competition before him. All he needed to do was buy time for Marina to do her thing. Every ally—likely and unlikely—was behind him, fighting for their world’s safety.

Haruki was dead.

Dead from his own world.

And this new world had given him new life. Resurrected him from the dead. Kickstarted his heart, giving him a second shot at his dreams.

His fingers twitched at the guns’ triggers.

“Let’s plow the road!”