31st of January 1999 – 23:54
"Evening," greeted Namikaze Yoshina as she climbed into the vehicle. "Thanks for picking me up. How's Haruto-chan? He's not been too much of a nuisance has he?"
"Not at all. He's been asleep for most of the drive," her husband replied as he pulled the car away from the sideway and started to head back towards mainland Iwatodai. "What did you find out?"
"It's not good," she admitted as she changed her view from her six year old angel to her hands. "I met up with Takeba-Senpai and he was right to ask me to look into this. Whatever Kirijo Kouetsu is planning with those things has nothing to do with time manipulation."
"Any ideas on what this is really about?" Namikaze Arashi queried as he turned the car towards the Moonlight Bridge.
"To be honest? No. These creatures seem to be based around negative human emotions and they prey on our minds, leaving only a soulless husk in their prey's place. We shouldn't be studying them, we should be figuring out ways of destroying them."
There was an uneasy silence for a few moments as the situation sunk in. "I asked around to see what I could find out about the Kirijo Group's interests in the area and I pretty much walked into a brick wall. Kirijo Kouetsu practically paid for the whole redevelopment of Port Island, the school, the mall, the monorail station and most of the residential housing. It's been funded by Kirijo investment groups, built by Kirijo building firms and most of the large companies are Kirijo business enterprises. With that much investment into an area it's no wonder that the local authorities are willing of overlook a laboratory being built within a school."
"We may be getting in over our heads," Yoshina admitted as she stared out of the side window.
"That may be true but we still have options," Arashi stated. "Even though using them will come at a price."
"Mochizuki-san?"
"Hai. Although I'm reluctant to even consider it."
"Arashi…" It took a few seconds of Yoshina to even gather the resolve to make the next comment. "Things have gotten better. It least he's trying to make things right now."
"No… He made his… Oto-sama made his decision when he refused to accept you as the woman I was going to marry," he replied. "He said things I'd rather not repeat, and if he thinks that all he has to do is turn on the charm and Mochizuki Enterprises gets the heir it needs desperately he has another thing com..."
The clock struck midnight.
The Six-year-old in the back of the car woke up to see that two coffins had replaced his parents in the front seats. This barely registered moments before the car hit the central barrier with an almighty crash, leading to the vehicle being tipped onto its side while it slid further down the road.
Namikaze Haruto would never be able to sleep on a moving vehicle ever again.
31st of January 1999 – DH:09
She was out of options.
Her only mission was to destroy Shadows.
That included the being in front of her, Death the thirteenth Arcana Shadow, the one that was not meant to exist. Her target was weakened; its body incomplete as its power had separated into 12 other beings. Even so this foe was beyond her capacity to deal with. This admission was already a blow, she was the last Anti-Shadow weapon; a machine designed purely to destroy Shadows. If she could not accomplish this task then what was the reason for her creation? She needed to neutralise her foe somehow, otherwise the results would be catastrophic
There was another way.
The Boy.
She had noticed his unaltered presence just before combat had begun but had not really placed too much attention towards him. However he had offered a solution to her problem which could at best; stop the Shadow's agenda or at worst: delay the Shadow for a short time until a solution could be devised and initiated. The option was available, the results far more favourable to other outcomes, the path was clear.
INITIATING SEALING PROCEDURES
Death must have realised her intent as it started to move from its current location, whether to stop her or to evade she did not know. Fortunately it was too late as she was already moving at full capacity and slammed into the Shadow before it coupld react. Even though it struggled in her grip she already had enough momentum to get her target where she needed it. With a glow and a scream that promised retribution it was done, Death was sealed.
Mission accomplished... For now.
She once again turned her attention to the boy who now served as a seal for Death, running a quick diagnostic on the unmoving child. He had fallen unconscious, not a surprise, after all the sealing process would have been traumatic and it would be a basic human defence to shut down the mind to avoid the feedback from the nervous system. There were minor scuffs and a small cut from the car accident he had been involved in.
He had been lucky. When the Dark Hour had begun his parents had transmogrified and the car's electronics had deactivated (a fate she would have shared if she had not been designed to work in these conditions) however this had not stopped the momentum of the vehicle, and as such, with its natural sight inclination to veer left, had crashed into the central barrier. The child, because of his potential, had been able to brace himself for the impact.
His parents had not.
In one way this was fortunate. Child welfare standard operating procedure was to move a child to a new location away from the scene of their parent's death. She did not understand the reasoning; it was not something they had included within the basic guidelines that was stored within her memory banks. Their reasoning was irrelevant, what mattered was that this practice would get this child away from Iwatodai and the twelve pieces of death that had escaped.
It was with that thought that the guilt hit home. That in itself was surprising; she was a machine, a weapon, and guilt would only impair her ability to operate at maximum capacity. However she did feel guilt for her actions to this small individual in front of her. She had sealed death within him, had made it so he could never truly live a normal life anymore. Would death corrupt him or would it slowly destroy his soul in order to escape? This was something she would have to monitor so she would be able to react accordingly.
WARNING: SYSTEM DAMAGE—OPERATION TIME SEVERELY LIMITED
The sealing had caused more damage than anticipated; she had only a small amount of time left.
HIGHEST PRIORITY: YOUNG HUMAN MALE, APPROXIMATELY SIX YEARS OLD IN THE YEAR ONE-THOUSAND, NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE. WHITE HAIR, RED EYES, LEAN BUILD (SUBJECT TO CHANGE FROM AGEING). STAY BY HIS SIDE, PROTECT AND MONITOR FOR...
SYSTEM CRITICAL: EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN INITIATED
Little did the Anti-Shadow weapon Aigis know that this unfinished command would one day allow her to ascend past her original parameters as a weapon of destruction.
It would allow her to live.