S-2878 • L6 Teceluna • D19 Unabe
"Teceluna weaves the sky in a ripened thread. Unabe kindles an axis in clear descent. The tide draws a route in living silver. The story carries on steadily, with a sure step."
HIKARU
All I knew about the white-haired girl was that mercenaries feared her more than the Matriarch and Patriarch. The same went for her brother. I had never seen her. Only heard that her presence could be unbearable. Such was the threat she exuded.
I thought they embellished those stories for entertainment. After all, that was what remained for the lower classes, whose missions were dull compared to those of the higher ranks.
Until the moon I met her.
My clan in the Ninkyō dantai gave me a very particular mission. As always, I sent the qn-robots to do field research. You know. Check the routine. Weaknesses. Anything to break the target's defenses.
Except they all returned damaged. Or never returned at all. The first time I had to go myself.
I barely remembered my last visit to Centrália. Rediscovered the region's joy. Almost refreshing, seeing people live their little ordinary lives. No mercenaries or crazed sadists nearby.
I'm not a mercenary. I can safely ascend to the upper floors, passing through the Aether Network's nanosystems. But I had grown used to Netheria. Preferred staying below.
The shops along the empty nighttime streets distracted me when the girl appeared. I hid in a dark alley.
She was far away, talking to someone. Leaned into a hug. Her companion got into a car. She turned to leave.
I narrowed my eyes, trying to understand what I had just seen. When I turned, she was face-to-face with me. A chill shot down my spine like lightning, taking me back to the last time I had felt fear. I had lived eight cycles. My mother had just sold me to the Ninkyō dantai.
Unreadable honey-colored eyes stared at me. "You are…?" Her voice was a cutting whisper.
I straightened and rested my hand on the katana. My body concealed it beneath the darkness hanging over us. Nobody anticipated a sword attack. Not in this world, at least. "Hikaru."
I waited for an opening. Eventually, everyone grew vulnerable. Lowered their guard.
The girl before me carried herself like an untamable force. She looked at me as though I were the target. As though she had been waiting for me. "Right… the quantum guy. Strangely, he talks about you a lot…"
My heart rippled. He? Who? How did she know about…? I nodded.
"Why're you after me?" Her eyes stayed open every second.
I cleared my throat. "Well, you displeased someone. They're unhappy."
Someone passed us.
She gestured for me to move deeper into the alley and stood before me. A little shorter, yet intimidating. Her narrowed eyes gleamed boldly. "Better be more specific. Keep that sword sheathed if you wanna stay unharmed."
She knew. I tightened my grip on the hilt. "Hmm… does the name Kotaro ring a bell?"
Maia smiled. Her expression grew more sinister. "Of course I remember that brat Kotaro. Got arrested because of him."
Shit. Baka Kotaro. Tadajaokanaizo. "I know. He can be difficult. Still, he's the nephew of the leader of the Ninkyō dantai's largest clan. Imagine breaking a few of his fingers, threatening him, and getting away with it." I held her gaze.
"Got it. Here to avenge him?" Maia's grin widened.
I gave a breathy laugh.
"Better succeed. You'll only get one chance." Maia stepped away, as though saying: Go on. Attack me.
My curiosity flared. A sword was about to run her through, yet she stayed impassive? Unrelenting?
Few people lacked a fear of death. At least she would spare me the begging everyone resorted to. The faces twisting into a disgusting mess of tears, snot, blood, and vomit. Yes, they vomited. Actually, they shit themselves in fear. The smell was horrible.
I could have drawn the katana and cut her. I made a mistake. "Hope you're sure about this. That person seems special… leaving her alo—" The words caught.
Something seized my throat and pinned my right arm against the wall. "Really wanna finish that sentence?"
I brought my left hand to the wrist choking me. My vision blurred. "I-I…"
Paralysis began spreading up my arm from my wrist. Painless. Like a disappearance. The world distorted. My lungs burned, but it was more than a lack of air. As though my body were being devoured. My very existence consumed.
Her touch was worse than physical force. Something that erased.
I had promised myself I would embrace death. Never beg to live. Too pathetic. I wanted control when I died. The tranquility of someone who faced death.
I had been terribly wrong.
Before that executioner's aura, her merciless gaze savoring the taste of my broken soul, the shadows' claws wrapping around me and trapping the air in my lungs, I knew I wanted to live. A deep urge to cling to life. I was just like them. The truth hidden in my heart, rubbed in my face in the harshest way. A truth difficult to swallow.
"P-please…" The pressure in my head was unbearable. Numbness reached my ribs. My legs threatened to give way.
Maia pinned me against the wall. "Work for the Yakuza and Netheria. Guess what? I give zero fucks about either. What you do, who you kill—it all means nothing to me. Even if it's me." She brought her face close to mine. Her fierce gaze could torment the most perverse soul. A face premeditating life's passage.
She barely needed to finish. I understood what it meant. Maia held my neck because of something beyond her own attachment to life… the mere mention of what lived in her heart. I had always heard love was these people's ruin. In her case, it was her sovereignty.
"I-I meant something else…" My voice struggled to emerge. "I-I'll do nothing… I barely know her…"
She released me. I fell to my knees. Touched my chest. Felt nothing. My arms. Hands. Nothing. What had she done? My body was there, but something seemed to have devoured my muscles, bones, and veins.
Maia crouched and lifted my face by the hair. "I hate killing. But if I have to, I will." Her voice emanated indifference. Far too familiar.
My breathing slowly returned. I would never die for a spoiled boy's whim. Or a group that had taken me in through violence until I grew strong enough to fight back. They had only treated me as an object. Always seen me as an instrument to achieve a goal. If I had the chance to live and betray them, so be it. My life meant nothing to them. It mattered to me. Enough. "My intention was different."
"Yeah, I know. How about keeping your mouth shut? I'll do the same."
I won't die for you, I affirmed, thinking of the Ninkyō dantai. I nodded.
Maia lifted me by the arms and took me to a car that landed out of nowhere.
"What did you do to me?"
She stayed silent.
The car stopped in an alley in Tentro.
Kiara stood against the wall, arms crossed. Whistled with a smirk. "Bringing me trouble… ♪"
Maia shrugged. Switched places with the android. Kiara supported me.
We entered through a nanometal door and climbed a narrow staircase into a spacious room. Traces of metal in the walls. Untraceable. Soundproof.
I know because knowing every nanotechnology developed or in development is my job. Including Project Jaburu.
Judging by your expression, I should explain:
I'm a nanoquantum nanoengineer. Yes, I know. Global organizations banned QN-Tec research. Well, we live outside the law. Membership in the Ninkyō dantai had its benefits. The only scientist with knowledge of QN-Tec was a member. That knowledge and my qn-robot weavings… well, Netheria kidnapped me to work for them.
The Patriarch possesses untraceable nanotechnology. Almost impossible to hack. Similar to the Aether Network's. The Ninkyō dantai only found me with help from someone inside. Despite its wounded honor, the organization saw an opportunity. I have to say, this business about underworlds staying out of each other's affairs is pure bullshit.
I became a double informant.
Developed qn-software, QuebraVeil. It accesses official information from all the world's militias. I obtained and sent information considered impossible to access or hack. That's how I know about CogniSynth.
Relax. I accessed two reports from three solar cycles ago and deduced the rest. I suspect I came nowhere near guessing how the tests went. Anyway…
Kiara laid me on a comfortable bed. "Where?" she asked Maia. Took a backpack from a cabinet.
The girl lay on the sofa and stared at the ceiling. "Arm and right side of his chest. Gonna need nanoprosthetics."
"Fuck's sake! Could've been gentler." Kiara picked up a syringe and a vial of grayish liquid. "Gonna inject this. It'll hurt."
"What's it for?"
"Keeping you alive. So?" She raised an eyebrow, ready to inject.
I assessed the situation. Reached no conclusion. Nodded. If it meant living, so be it.
"All right. Gonna hurt. Scream as much as you want. Nobody'll hear." She gave a biting smile and pushed the needle in.
I thought she was joking. Thought pain would be more bearable after cycles of enduring it. Eventually, it became tolerable. A blade could tear through me, and I would stay standing. Taken by adrenaline, exhaustion and burning would arrive hours later.
Once again, I was wrong.
When the liquid entered my bloodstream, pain pulsed at an atomic level. Thousands of tiny knives piercing me. My body shattered from within. Pain spread like a wave, undoing every part of me.
My chest was a battlefield between what I had been and what I was becoming. I screamed with all the strength in my lungs, but my throat burned. Tearing. My heart beating a thousand times a second. My flesh vibrating at reconstructive frequencies. I was becoming something else.
"A bit longer." Kiara pressed down to keep the needle steady. Her voice grew distant.
A deafening whine filled my ears. My vision darkened. I felt profoundly disturbed. Endless seconds.
"Easy. It'll pass soon." She turned to Maia. "He's the quantum guy he keeps talking about?"
Maia nodded.
Again. He. Could it be…?
"Gonna sedate you." Kiara administered the anesthetic.
I fell asleep.
When I woke, colored lights reflected on the walls. My head hurt more. Cramps gripped my whole body.
"Need to do this," Maia said distantly. "Wanna do this…"
I groaned in pain.
Maia fell silent.
Kiara approached and checked my temperature. "How're you feeling? Man, you'll need nanoprosthetics. Recovered next to nothing. Can you sit?" She turned to Maia. "He had no reaction."
Reaction? Recover? Chikushō. My dry throat and lips begged for water.
Kiara brought a bottle to my mouth. Cold liquid traveled down to my stomach. Reviving enough to steady my body.
I sat. A strange sensation weighed on me. I ignored it.
"So you're fucking Ninkyō dantai… relax. You can talk. We'll keep our mouths shut. Work for the Patriarch too, right?" Kiara sat on the bed.
"Yes." I cracked my neck. The numbness disappeared. Kuso. What was happening? Damn it.
"Patriarch's clever. How do you hide your connection to the 'chivalrous organization'?"
Something told me she already knew the answer. "The robots I coweave are QN-Tec. Some are atomic in size. By the way, how did you detect the qn-robots?" I asked Maia.
She lifted her head and smirked faintly. Returned to the holoscreen, as though that answered everything.
"Risky. Trix would spot one easily." Kiara rested her arms on the mattress.
I shrugged. "Even if she saw them, their essence would have shifted because of their quantum nature. She could catch them with nanoquantum vision. I know of nobody with that… until now." I glanced at Maia.
Kiara raised her eyebrows and stood. "If you say so… once you improve, we'll bring a nanoengineer to install the nanoprosthetics."
"Why are you doing this?"
Death was certain after an attempt on a mercenary's life. Even if they let me live, why the hell get me nanoprosthetics? Especially one of the ten most expensive. A partial rib cage. Hating killing was one thing. Helping someone who had tried to kill you was another.
Maia stopped what she was doing and walked toward me. "Think I know what he saw in you…"
Again. He. Who? Kuso.
Her eyes shone for an instant. Recognition? An echo of something she had seen before? Or perhaps…
Maia simply smiled warmly, as though she already knew the answer. "I like you."
For a second, everything stopped. Pain. Fear. Uncertainty. I was still alive. Still here. And for the first time in so long, I had someone by my side.
Caught completely off guard, I smiled back.