The Second Challenge

Eight Years Ago

A bit over a year after Rei botched the opportunity Kakohime gave him, he was finally allowed another chance to work at Tokyo Sky. And unlike his previous job of selling weapons in the city, his role this time was that of a caretaker—a bonafide guard dog of a warehouse the Earthwall gang used to store their ‘products’.

“It’s a boring job, but it gives you time to explore the city between shifts,” Kakohime told him. By this point, the gang avoided Rei thinking he was the leader’s ‘toy’, even though the woman never actually made him do anything but pour her drinks and talk. Her sympathy towards a fellow exalted appeared to be genuine in the time he knew her. “Perhaps if you find what you’re looking for, we can share a drink and you can tell me the story.”

And so, while stationed in Tokyo Sky Rei searched for his past and his family in what little time he could afford. Money was never an issue, so he was able to travel all of the ascended city’s wards. Rei learned of a lifestyle people his age normally had.

In Ueno, he saw the zeal of students striving for their future.

In Akihabara, he saw the passion for culture.

In Asakusa, he saw the joy of family and tradition.

In Ikebukuro, he saw the comfort of having friends to laugh with.

In Shibuya, he saw the bliss of love between two people.

Rei learned that he had none of these things. He only had his past to look behind.

In Shinjuku, he saw the top of the world where exalts stood their tallest. Their proudest. He sat there on the steps that led to the highest torii gate on earth, watching the sun rise from the sea as the chromatic clouds faded from existence. He decided then and there that after he accomplished his goal he might finally look forward.

And so, Rei formulated a plan. There were places in Shinjuku that could potentially give him answers.

The government building. The police department. The research institute.

Rei needed to be careful. Having lived in the shadow of the ascended city, he knew that its flaws reflected on the very constitutions that dare govern it.

But those places offered him no answer, at least nothing a nineteen-year-old could realistically accomplish.

That was when an unfamiliar face offered his warehouse office a visit. An old man hired by the police to investigate who had been snooping around Tokyo Sky’s prominent establisments.

Kazuo Ninomiya.

Night of the second challenge

December 10th, 2050

Kanda Summit

“We are not letting a murderer join this competition!”

The participants all voiced their concern over the choosing. Hidenori and Gen’ichi argued about the danger of the choice, Ruby was pissed as all hell, Souichiro was laughing his ass off, and Rei… well, Rei could barely look Lucia in the eyes.

Of course, having Ayane Kujo join was impossible. For one, she was sedated and in custody somewhere in the city. But more than that, the police wouldn’t stand for such madness. Two of their representatives already stepped up to the tent to voice their protest.

Rei glanced at the woman standing at the edge of the summit garden. Detective Miyabi of Tokyo Police’s First Division. She was a short woman in her sixties, hair a mix of black and grey tied up in a knot, with round glasses and a resting scowl. She wore a brown trench coat with a white scarf and was almost exclusively staring at her phone talking with somebody. Rei hadn’t quite figured out why she was here, but it was probably a bad idea for them to interact. In his last phone call with Chief Ninomiya, he remembered the old man saying ‘The intel Miya-chan passed me was a trap’. Odd, considering their relationship, but he said it all the same.

“Please, everyone, calm yourselves,” the lawyer said over everyone’s claims. “The method of allocation was decided before we learned of Ayane Kujo’s involvement in last night’s incident. We won’t actually have her join the challenge, but…”

“But what?” Gen’ichi bellowed.

“Well, um,” the lawyer looked to the side. “We were given the right to decide the rules of allocation and believe we should stick to the rules. We’d simply consider Ayane Kujo as dropping out of the challenge.”

“But we have a perfectly able participant here,” Hidenori argued. “Miss Lucia should get the golden medallion.”

“Well…” Jirou’s eyes darted towards Keisuke and Ruby.

“I think,” Keisuke started, “that Jirou insists on the rule he set because it would be unfair to bend said rule in favor of a specific participant. As unfortunate as that is given the circumstances.”

“Y-Yes,” the lawyer said, “that is exactly it. We’ll only have five participants, but it would stay fair.”

Rei crossed his arms an kept quiet. He understood why they wanted to uphold the integrity of the rules. Should Ana Lucia Armstrong win, the losing participants could potentially cry foul that the rule was bent for her sake. If anybody understood the legal complication of that it would be a lawyer. And yet something about this whole thing felt… off.

“Why don’t we use the tracker for the medallions?” Ruby asked. “Perhaps we can track down the missing one? If Miss Armstrong can somehow get a hold of that, then perhaps we can proceed as intended.”

“Yeah, fat chance,” Souichiro interjected. “Even if we know it’s location, I sure as hell ain’t sticking around all night waiting for the American lady to find it. We’re getting this challenge started right now.”

A series of arguments ensued amongst the participants. Ruby even threatened the lawyer’s employment and safety if he didn’t ‘reassess’ the situation. Probably not the best move if she wanted to win the competition, but at least Rei could see she tried to be true to her promise.

If it were up to Rei, he’d willingly give his medallion to Lucia and simply provide Ruby support from the sidelines. He never had a stake in the prize other than what she was willing to give him at the end of it.

As if to simply get out of the argument, the lawyer agreed to activate the tracker first and decide what happened later. He produced a tablet computer and nervously entered commands for it to—

A beeping noise echoed across the garden. And no, it did not come from the lawyer’s tablet.

Keisuke walked over to see what the tracker displayed. His eyes lit up in shock as he looked amongst the crowd. “I thought you said the medallion was stolen, Ruby?”

Ruby was the next to check. “It’s right here,” she said as people started moving away from the source of the sound. “The seventh medallion is—”

Standing alone in the middle of the garden was the tall figure of Gen’ichi Hirano. He looked perplexed as he hurriedly rummaged through his coat pockets. Lo and behold, he produced the last gold medallion.

“How the hell…” Gen’ichi muttered, “I-I don’t know how this got to me! I swear!”

The beeping finally turned off, replaced by the stunned silence of everyone else.

Souichiro burst into laughter as he clapped his hands. “No wonder you strutted around with confidence!” he shouted. “You’ve guaranteed your spot in the challenge!”

“I swear it,” Gen’ichi pleaded, “I had a silver medallion! You all saw it last night!”

That was when Lucia parted the crowd and stood next to the big man, stretching her hand out. “Hand it over,” she said in a serious tone. “Or do you actually detest exalts like Souichiro said?”

Gen’ichi growled his frustration but handed the medallion as if getting rid of something poisonous.

“I believe that’s all of participants accounted for,” Lucia said, holding her prize up. “Let’s begin this second challenge.”

*

“Each participant will be asked four questions and given one task to complete. The questions and task will be given in private, but it is up to the individual if they want to discuss the topic with other participants.”

“The goal is to complete the task and arrive at the third and final location of the challenge, which will take place at the highest point of Tokyo Sky—Heaven’s Reach Shrine, in twenty-four hours.”

“This is not a race. All who complete their task will qualify for the final challenge, but ultimately, only three participants will take part in it. If more than three participants complete their task, the winners will be chosen depending on how they answer the questions given to them.”

“As such, the participants’ answers will be collected at Heaven’s Reach Shrine. We highly advise the participants to take their time to consider each question carefully.”

The lawyer breathed a sigh of relief and folded the paper he read the instructions from. Quiet murmurs echoed amongst the crowd, not just from the participants but the spectators as well.

Rei stood at the edge of the group contemplating what he just heard. The first challenge was random chance, the second was a test. Why four questions specifically? He first thought the questions decided the task they will be given, but it seemed like winning the challenge hinged on the questions themselves. Curious.

Something felt weird about this competition, but Rei couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Then again, the very existence of such a challenge was weird. What was Daiki Tennojima up to when he made this part of his will?

If only Rei could access that part of the old man’s life from his vision. The longer time passed the more those memories faded in his head. What a useless ability.

No, he shouldn’t rely on it. He should rely on the skills he earned instead.

“What would the chief do…” Rei muttered to himself.

“Well, might as well get this started,” Souichiro said with a loud yawn. “Wasn’t expecting a damn test. Is that what the tent is for?”

“That is correct,” the lawyer said, nodding nervously. “You will, uh, be talking to a machine.”

“A machine?” Souichiro blinked repeatedly. “Well, whatever. Me first.”

“B-Before I forget,” the lawyer followed, “the twenty-four-hour time limit starts after everyone have gotten their tasks! No need to rush!”

Souichiro waved his hand as if shooing the lawyer away, then vanished into the tent.

Rei wanted to see how Lucia was doing, but she was busy talking with Hidenori. Ruby looked like she was thinking the same. Their eyes met and she made her way towards him instead.

“So, are we just dropping the whole act?” Rei asked.

“No,” Ruby said. “As far as everyone is concerned, you are still Reiji Shimomura. By now, the institute must know I had a hand in stamping out the rogue scientist.”

“We can say Shinozuka’s son helped with his arrest,” Rei said. “He couldn’t bear the guilt of knowing his father’s bad deeds.”

“Or he fell in love with the woman who infiltrated his father’s criminal enterprise,” Ruby said with that smile of hers. “He decided to go with what his heart desired. Sounds a lot more believable don’t you think?”

“Hah. Are we sure Reiji isn’t simply succumbing under the woman’s heel?”

“If that’s how you wanted to play it.”

Rei chuckled. “So, are we openly teaming up for this one?”

“Seems like the best course of action, but we can wait after we have our tasks,” Ruby said. “Securing both our victories will give us sixty-seven percent chance of winning the last challenge.”

“I just hope the questions doesn’t involve ascension theory.” Rei eyed the security team led by Masa as they took Gen’ichi to the side. They were probably grilling the man about the gold medallion. “You don’t actually think the army guy did it, do you?”

“No,” Ruby replied. “I’m quite certain he’s being set up. But I also can’t discount the chance of him being involved with the A.E.F., given the things Souichiro brought up earlier. What do you think?”

“Former military, strict on the exalted, lenient on the previous rioters,” Rei counted. “That’s quite the checklist. If this was a detective story then I’d say he’s too obvious to be one of them, but that crap doesn’t fly in real life. I agree with your caution.”

The right question was, why set him up? Was it to expose Gen’ichi as a member of the A.E.F. or make him an open target? Rei already had a theory on how this happened, but given what he learned back at the agency, he didn’t know if he could simply tell Ruby. He had to come up with a way to check.

Suddenly, the tent entrance opened with a loud clap of fabric and Souichiro came stomping out, his aether flaring slightly. “What the hell!” he shouted. He walked near a table set up around the tent and kicked one of its chairs. “This game is rigged! I swear if I lose this thing because that crap, I’m tearing this competition apart!”

The security team went up and quickly surrounded Souichiro.

“The hell you want?” the man yelled.

“Uh, sir,” the lawyer started. “I advise staying until everyone finished getting their tasks. The timer starts—”

“Fine! Fine!” Souichiro grabbed one of the other chairs and sat himself on the side of the garden.

“Well, that was interesting,” Ruby said.

Nobody wanted to go next after that spectacle, so Rei decided to take ithe plunge. “I’ll take the hit for you,” he said to Ruby. “I’ll let you know if anything fishy happens in there.”

Suddenly the spotlight was on him. He walked across the garden, hands on his pockets with a confident smile on his lips. He nodded to the lawyer, parted the tent flaps aside, and entered the second challenge.

The first thing Rei noticed was warmth. The tent was spacious and bright, lit by a lamp that hung in the middle of the room. Beneath that lamp was a single table with a large monitor sitting on top facing the opposite way. Rei walked around the tent but there was nothing else of note, but a lone chair placed neatly in front of the monitor. He supposed it was positioned away from the entrance in case somebody barged in while a participant was inside.

Interesting. Ever the showman.

Souichiro stormed off in anger and frustration, yet everything was perfectly in place inside the tent.

Rei sat on the chair and as soon as he did the monitor lit up with a black screen and a white text that said, ‘welcome participant’.

“Now what?” he said out loud.

A metallic s0unding chime echoed from the monitor’s speakers followed by a voice. “Please state your name.”

“Reiji Shimomura,” he said. “Who’s speaking?”

“Thank you. I am an artificial intelligence service designed by the Tennojima Research Institute to help with their daily tasks. Tonight however, I am simply here to give you the questions designed by Master Daiki himself. Are you ready to proceed with the challenge?”

Rei whistled. Artificial Intelligence, huh? As expected of the institute. Technology of this caliber was practically unprecedented. He—

“There was a time forty-two years ago when technology was at a rapid growth,” Daiki Tennojima said. He spun the ice inside his glass of whiskey and drank. He was sitting in a dimly lit bar with the noise of passing cars outside. Next to him was another man, perhaps the same age as him, with long gray hair, a scruffy beard, and a loosely fitted suit.

“You still with me, Yoshi?” Daiki prodded. “Doctor Miura?”

The other man grunted, as if forcing himself to stay awake. “The ascension halted the world’s technological development, right? I heard this before, Daiki.”

“For at least a decade,” Daiki continued to say. “Afterwards the world set its focus on aether and the exalted and—”

“The world went a different direction. Yes, yes. I’ve heard all about…”

“…this.”

Rei blinked and shook his head. Dammit. That was another flash of memory from the late scientist. What triggered it this time? That was probably Souichiro’s grandfather, the so-called drinking buddy. And then there was this talking computer. An artificial intelligence program from the institute spearheaded by Daiki himself some years ago. Now that Rei thought about it, he made a note of the thing from his vision. As was common in the scientist’s latter years, he was very disappointed at how slow technology progressed, compared to… compared to…

Compared to what?

Rei shook his head.

“Shimomura?” the computer said. “Are you ready to proceed with your questions?”

“Yeah… hit me.”

“Understood. You may give me an answer if you like, but you will be asked the same things at the third challenge.”

“Sure.”

“Question one: If you knew the world would end, would you spend the rest of your life trying to save it?”

Rei blinked in surprise. That wasn’t a question he expected, and yet… it sounded familiar. Where did he hear it from?

As for his answer, of course he’d try to save the world if he could. Why not? He fiddled with his yellow-plaid hoodie, as if to thinking, then said his answer out loud. “Yes.” But refused to elaborate.

“Continuing to the second question: If history could be changed, and the ascension could be undone, would you make that choice?”

What the hell?

Rei’s head started to hurt. What kind of question was that? It sounded like something directed at the Anti-Exalt Faction. It invited painful memories of his own, not just of the night before but of his sordid past. Kakohime, Haruto, that fateful day at the gate of the city. Dammit.

For this question, he refused to answer. The computer actually waited a couple of minutes before moving on.

“Continuing to the third question: If the world could fully ascend and everyone becomes an exalt, would you make this choice?”

What?

This was the complete opposite of the second question. What was going on? What did Daiki Tennojima intend by these questions? Were they supposed to pick one over the other?

For this question, he also refused to answer. Maybe he’d get more context at the shrine over in Shinjuku.

Suddenly, the computer screen blinked, and the text displayed in it changed. It said, ‘This fourth question is special. If you answer it correctly in this room, you are guaranteed to advance to the third challenge.’

Huh. Rei’s previous confusion disappeared in an instant as his interest was piqued. Was it actually advantageous to go in early? What was the—

The monitor changed again, this time to show the fourth question.

‘What color is the moon tonight?’

Rei stood up in shock. The chair skidded and almost fell behind him. He blinked several times, thinking of the moon he saw last night when he fought against Ayane. It was a split second but behind the hazy smear of bronze… was a waning crescent hanging beautifully in the sky… bathed in a pale golden color.

Should he answer? But…

Wait a minute.

How would this computer know what the moon’s color was? Or Daiki Tennojima for that matter?

Rei felt sweat trickle down the side of his face. This was directly asking about his power. Did the institute know about him after all? Was this about the project Ruby told him about?

Wait, wait, wait.

Don’t jump to conclusions. Calm down.

The monitor blinked and—

“This concludes the round of questions. Please consider your answers carefully and cite them at the next location of the challenge: Heaven’s Reach shrine, Shinjuku. Thank you for your participation.”

The monitor displayed a new text: ‘Your task is to guarantee Souichiro Miura reaches the location of the third challenge’.

“What?” Rei said out loud, mostly out of reflex, but the machine did not respond.

What was it with these questions… this challenge was absolutely insane… and the task? Why the hell did he need to protect that punk in order to succeed?