Chapter 12: Artificial Dual

"Vital signs stable. Dimensional energy stable. Optimal conditions."

"Project Nexus activated," announced a young technician monitoring the girl’s data.

The liquid inside the capsule began to drain little by little, and the cables connected to her body detached one by one.

She rose slowly, trembling, like a small fawn learning to walk.

Her eyes scanned the room, observing every movement. Some scientists applauded, others wrote frantically on their clipboards, while several simply stared at her as if she were some peculiar phenomenon.

"Clothes…" she murmured.

With a flash of light, she materialized a simple white dress with a soft glow.

"Interesting," Shepard commented, approaching alongside Dr. Himuro.

"Wonderful. She can manifest clothing with magic alone," said Himuro, astonished.

She turned her delicate gaze toward both men.

"Welcome, my daughter!" Himuro exclaimed with paternal excitement, though the young woman didn’t seem convinced.

"Daughter…?" she repeated, confused.

Shepard ignored the doctor’s comment.

"Don’t mind him. Do you know who you are and why we’re here?" he asked firmly.

"Not exactly…" she replied, looking around. "I know they call me ‘Project Nexus’… but my name is Juno."

She added this as she examined her own hands with almost childlike curiosity.

"Juno? How much do you know about Project Nexus?" Shepard pressed, now completely serious.

The young woman lowered her gaze to her bare feet.

"Project Nexus… is an attempt to implant duals artificially into a human."

"I know because I could hear you while I was in suspended animation."

"See?! I told you she’s wonderful! She even calls herself Juno! That proves superior intelligence!" Himuro said excitedly, almost ecstatic as he spoke to the general.

Shepard frowned.

"I didn’t know she had self-awareness… The product is supposed to be an artificial human without emotions," he murmured quietly.

Juno lifted her gaze, listening with an expressionless interest—almost disturbingly calm.

"Artificial… human?"

One of the screens began flickering erratically.

"Sir, the mental levels of prototype Nexus-06 are escalating," an assistant reported, clearly worried.

Shepard narrowed his eyes.

But before he could say anything, the young woman looked down at her own hands and murmured with eerily steady calm:

"Why do you say those things? I’m real… just like you."

A sudden chill swept through the room.

From her feet, sheets of frost began spreading across the metal floor, as if the temperature had dropped unnaturally in an instant.

"Yes, sweetie, we know… now calm down," Himuro said, approaching slowly.

But the ice kept expanding, and Juno’s expression grew increasingly alarming.

"Why do they look at me like a monster?"
"Prototype…?"
"I’m not artificial… I’m real."
"I’m not a thing."

Juno’s mind was a turbulent river of thoughts.

"Himuro, you said you could control her…" Shepard muttered, frowning.

"Yes, yes, she’s just confused, that’s all…"

"Confused? That thing has thoughts of its own! It’ll never work for fighting Duals!"

The ice crawled up a column and shattered several monitors instantly.

“Did he say ‘that thing’…?”

"Control yourself, NEXUS-06!" Shepard ordered with military authority.

Juno lifted her head. Her expression shifted.
Her voice became firm, serious.

"My name is Juno! Not ‘Prototype’! Not Nexus-06!"

"I am JUNO!"

As she shouted, her anger opened a small fissure in reality—one that grew larger with her rising fury.

The base alarms activated all at once. Red lights streaked across the room as loudspeakers boomed:

“ALERT! DIMENSIONAL ENERGY OVERLOAD INCREASING.”
“ALL PERSONNEL, TAKE PROTECTIVE MEASURES.”

Little by little, a sword began to materialize in Juno’s hands, a bluish electric current running along its blade.

"Himuro, shut her down right now!" Shepard shouted, taking a step back.

But Juno stepped forward.

"I am not an object. I am not a product! And I do not belong to you!"

With a swing of her sword, she widened the fissure, revealing a cosmic void— a landscape no human had ever seen before.

Without saying another word, Juno stepped through the rift and vanished from everyone’s stunned sight.

Silence lasted only a second before Himuro sighed in awe.

"Magnificent… she managed to open a portal to another dimension!"

Shepard grabbed him by the collar brutally.

"Magnificent? That thing went out of control! I hope you have a way to track her… or shut her down in an emergency. Right?"

"I-I’m sorry… I couldn’t do something like that to my daughter," Himuro stammered, trembling.

Shepard slammed him against the wall violently.

"Idiot! Your daughter died ten years ago! That thing is NOT your daughter! And now it’s out there loose!"

Himuro wiped the blood from his lip, dazed.

"Science is unpredictable… She has many spirits implanted within her … that’s why they’re called ‘experiments’," he panted. "I didn’t know she would develop self-awareness…"

Shepard released him, taking a deep breath to contain his fury.
He turned toward the operators.

"You, boy!" he pointed at the technician in front of the monitors. "If she reappears on the radar, notify me immediately."

"Y-yes, sir!"

Shepard raised his voice for the whole room.

"Listen up, everyone! Project Nexus is now a HIGH-priority extermination target."

"If the Japanese government finds out we released an uncontrolled artificial Dual… it will be the end of us."

Himuro slowly straightened his wrinkled shirt and approached again.

"We shouldn’t act hastily. She’ll come back; she’s just scared."

Shepard looked at him with a mix of rage and exhaustion.

"You’d better be right, Himuro. That product cost Liberty a billion dollars… and now it’s wandering out there."

Shepard left the room without another word, while Himuro approached his assistants.

"Alright, everyone. Time to get to work."
"Analyze changes in the dimensional particle pattern."
"I don’t think Juno went very far… Let’s gather all her data."

The assistants nodded quickly and returned to their stations, typing with visible tension.

Himuro, however, didn’t see a problem.
He saw an opportunity.