Sirei yes Sirei! (Hundred Line Last Defense Academy SI)

by UndeadFrog

Summary:

Being thrown into a new world and then basically dying is unpleasant.

Getting turned into a machine because of your otherworld origins is even less present.

Finding out your new masters are bloodthirsty monsters that want to clense an entire planet in fire, you bet thats not fun.

Learning that your main opponents are all superpowered beings immune to conventional weapons. Probaly one of the worst things ever.

When you figure out the only chance to stop any of this is a group of about 15 children? Well thats just the cherry on the horrible sundae now isn't it?

Chapter 1: The First Choice

I frown as I listen to the glasses wearing boy following behind me.

Eito Aotsuki, a deranged lunatic with a hatred of all of humanity born from a horrifying medical condition.

And by sabotaging the mission here via killing me absorbing Shion's hemoanima at the end of the 100 days he would technically be saving a lot of life, specifically the lives of everyone on this planet.

…. But as someone who raised that boy I personally want nothing more than to detonate Eito's bomb for the offense and sabotage the final attack some other way.

But the 'Will of Humanity' won't let me.

Stupid democracy simulator.

How much do the 'simulations' of these people actually know about any of this anyway?

Or are only the people in the know allowed to know in the simulation?

I'd always questioned that.

A human's decision can vastly change depending on the information you give them and the context they are operating in.

Hmp, oh well.

Whether the Will of humanity agrees or not I'm not letting that final attack go off.

Now where was I?

Oh right.

The lunatic is currently plotting to murder me when I let my guard down.

Now under ordinary circumstances I wouldn't even be able to hint about the truth of this war to a member of the SDU without some immense outside presumption or the Will of Humanity giving me the OK.

But Eito Aotsuki thinks differently from the average SDU member.

I think I can slip something through the sniff test.

"You know." I begin, making sure to keep 20 steps ahead of Eito at all times. "I have to admit Eito, I think your refusal to fight might just save half of humanity."

That causes him to pause for a moment and I hear his footsteps halt. "What?"

"Hmmmmm." I Place my arms behind my back. "Nothing I can elaborate on without my programming getting in the way, it's only due to your unique nature that I can tell you as much as I have. Hwafwafwa… of course even now I've probably said more than the higher ups want."

For all I know I might be on route 0, and the only way out of being sliced to ribbons would be to detonate the bomb inside Eito right now.

…But for all my furious internal posturing earlier I don't want to do that.

Just then the door flies open.

I turn to see the crimson haired protagonist of the OG game itself, and he looks pretty angry with Eito.

"Oh Takumi!" I decided to play it ignorant, who knows how many timelines he's been through already. "What brings you here at this time of hour?"

"Sirei, don't let him get close!" The red-haired future leader of the SDU urges me. "He's plotting to kill you. If takes you out in one hit it won't matter if you detonate his bomb, he'll just come back from the Revive-O-Matic."

Unable to help my self I glance at Eito, noting that he'd drawn

OVERIDE ACTIVATED!

Shoot…. I wanted to avoid…. Those degenerates in charge of the artificial satellite put extra restrictions on me since I'm… not nearly as ruthless as the original Sirei.

"Boop!"

"......What was that?" Eito must have seen my eyes flash red for a moment.

"That was me being forced to delete your data from the Revive-O-Matic, Eito." I crossed my arms and frowned at the glasses wearing boy. "From here on out if you get killed you aren't going to come back from it…. Of course it seems you have other problems to deal with right now Mr Aotsuki….. Very angry redheaded ones at that."

And Takumi was angry with Eito, the verbal beatdown the former was giving the latter was more than enough proof of that.

But I suppose it makes sense.

If this is Takumi's first loop then it's only natural that the sense of Eito betraying him, getting his sort of childhood friend killed, and utterly ruining everything the students thought they have been fighting for during the first loop had to still have been a fresh wound in his mind.

Naturally the confrontation between the two escalates into a fight which I can't actually do anything about because right now my only options are a dinky taser and the bombs implanted in both students…. Which I am not using for obvious reasons.

Still Takumi being by far the more experienced becomes very apparent about two seconds into the fight and he quickly overcomes the seething mass of hatred that is Eito Aotsuki.

"So." Eito begins as he stares down Takumi. "What are you going to do, kill me? I haven't done anything yet?"

"Well except kill your parents and everyone who tried to befriend you." I add. Technically he actually didn't do any of that but he still remembers doing it. "Lets not beat around the bush Eito, that cognitive disorder of yours has rendered you one very sick puppy."

"You knew about that?"It's less an expression of confusion or more a confirmation of something that he already suspected. "How?"

"My central AI has its ways." Mostly via being converted from the brain of someone who already knew about all of this. But I sure as heck ain't telling anyone here that. I had to make sure not to think about it when performing my mandatory consulting sessions with the Will of Humanity too, or I'd have been forced to delete his data and detonate his bomb earlier. "Terrible, terrible condition you've been burdened with really. Even looking at me or hearing my voice must be a tortuous experience

"No. Actually you'd be tolerable to be around if you weren't trying to save huma- Why do you look so upset?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I frown, well I guess that's confirmation that I've fully become an inhuman machine, well that sucks. I can't really stop Takumi from offing Eito either since the latter has pretty much just confessed to being a traitor. "Anyway…. Takumi, sick puppy or not, Eito Aotsuki is still a kid and one of the only 15 people able to use hemonanima on top of that. I've got the means to keep him prisoner so I'd recommend you keep him alive."

"Recommend?"

"Quite frankly." I begin. "If you really want him dead the only thing I can do to stop you right now is to detonate your bomb, which I'm not willing to do right now."

Takumi seems to pause for a mere moment…. But it feels like he takes an eternity to come to a decision.

Chapter 2: Spare Eito

In the end Takumi chooses to spare Eito.

"Good on you Takumi." And also good for me, I usually die on day 3-4 on routes where Takumi chooses to off Eito….. Something I really should have remembered much earlier all things considered. How did the OG Sirei even survive long enough to get to the comedy route anyway? Do I even want to be around for that given the horrifying smell of fish?... Wait, I remember now. He didn't survive, he just got rebuilt. "Now to take the prisoner somewhere safe."

"Boop!"

In a moment a trio of drones arrive and grab hold of Eito using previously hidden mechanical arms.

"You have your own personal drones?"

"Yep." I cross my arms. "Too bad they're utterly useless against anyone that can actually fight… really I wouldn't even be bothering with these things if you hadn't already beaten Eito here to within an inch of the afterlife already…. Anyway I'll be right back… I need to talk to you about this whole 'from the future' business."

XXXXX

The walk to the cages in the courtyard are mostly uneventful.

Mostly.

Because naturally Eito Aotsuki is the kind of kid that just loves to look for weaknesses.

"I know you can't tell more about this war." Eito says, his voice casually as if he were talking about the weather. "But you seemed upset that I didn't see you as some sort of abomination. Care to explain?"

".....Not to you Eito." I frown. Perhaps in the future but not right now. "You're a smart kid, infer for yourself."

"Well you are clearly a fan of humanity, perhaps you just don't like the reminder of how inhuman you really are." Owch. That one bites extremely close to home. But it's not entirely accurate so I'll let him keep believing it to throw him off. "I don't know why, humanity is a blight on this world."

"Oh I agree, humanity can be irredeemably awful." I shrug as we keep walking. "The fact you even have your condition is proof enough of that."

Even in this strange universe with blood magic, zombie space parasites, and potentially clown energy of all things Eito's condition is not someone that has any recordings about it. I'm not sure if the insinuations that Gotoh's backers had something to do with it had any weight, or if it really was just incompetence but it was certainly a man made issue.

"What are you implying?" Ooooh, I'm getting chills down my spin.

"You've done a lot of reading, Eito. Nothing like you has ever happened in the history of humanity outside of fiction." I cross my arms despite it being an entirely pointless gesture. "A condition like yours is so incredibly specific that it's almost impossible it happened by chance and no higher power worth obeying would deliberately inflict something like that on someone … I know enough of your background to also know that you've been hospitalized your entire life. Someone either screwed up big time with you or someone wanted you to suffer in a world filled with monsters."

I see one of his fists clench as we walk. He's either in denial over his 'divine gift' being the work of the very humanity he hates, or knows I'm telling the truth and he's processing some very unpleasant emotions right about now.

Eventually we reached the cadge.

"Now I'm sure you have a lot to think about." I say as I finish locking him up. "But I have a feeling we'll talk again at some point if we're both still alive to have the conversation."

XXXXX

When I return to Takumi, I see that he's talking with Shion.

Good…. Shion needs more friends close to his mental age.

Hmmmm should I wa-

"Oh Sirei, you're back." Shion's voice cuts me off. "I was discussing recent events with Takumi."

"You don't need an excuse to make friends, Shion." I walk up to the two. "Now… I just wanted to say from the onset… that I fully believe you've come from the future, or at least that you have knowledge of it."

"Whah?"

"Really Takumi? You think time travel is going to break my suspension of disbelief?" I smirk at the redhead. "Hemoanima is basically magic, we've got a machine that can revive the dead, and your own, recorded I might add, specialist skill is basically time travel already. If anything I'm surprised you didn't pull something like this on day one instead."

He's not the only one time traveling either… I really hope the fact that Hiruko hasn't tried to smash me herself at least means that I'm better at keeping the SDU alive than the OG Sirei was.

"Oh….ok." Takumi scratches the side of his face in embarrassment. "I actually thought it would be harder to convince you."

"Well like I said I was already primed to believe you." This time I shrug. "Just be careful, a small flap of the butterfly's wings can have catastrophic consequences… and what you just did was far more than a small flap."

"Yes." Shion is the next one to speak up. "The surge in our hemoanima both myself and Eito felt for one."

"Which I find very concerning by the way." I add remembering that little factor caused major upsets right from the start. Most notably causing the invaders supreme command to visit the main academy much earlier.

"Concerning." Takumi is the first to speak up. "Shouldn't you be happy that the team's stronger now?"

"Normally yes." I turn around. "But remember Takumi, the invader commanders are also hemoanima users, chances are they also got stronger from your trip to the past…. I don't think I need to say how that could change our future for the worse."

Takumi's face pales, most likely at the thought of fighting a stronger V'ehxness.

"But that's a problem we'll have to deal with when we get to it." I turn back to face Takumi. "What I actually wanted was your advice on a certain decision I've been mulling over."

"M-m-my advice."

"Yes." I tap my cane on the ground. "You see there are two issues with this academy I haven't had time to fix up until this point, and both are rather pressing."

I pause for a moment to let him ask any questions he has and continue when he doesn't "The first is that one of the cells in the courtyard has a tunnel underneath the floor panel. Not the one I put Eito in mind you but we only have the two cells in the first place."

"What!? That's completely insane!"

It's not the only strange thing about the academy really, most notably the large amount of English signage despite the fact that I'm the only one that can even read English in this day and age… makes it easy to encode my notes at least.

"Yes, the other thing is even more dire." I narrow my eyes. "You see it's something called the 'Stand Together Fall Together' protocol. Even with the Revive-O-Matic the chances of most of you getting killed off permanently are still very real so something was suggested for just such an occassion."

Takumi remained silent, but nodded to indicate he was still following me.

"Well theirs a giant self destruct button built into the school that can only be used if nearly all of the students from this academy are permanently put down. If one of you dies, a 'liver mortis code' becomes visible on your back. Input the entire code from everyone backs into a machine in a secret room and the whole academy goes boom!" I let out a sigh and clench my marshmallow colored fists. "The stupid thing is disguised as an SOS signal. It was, to put it frankly, a trick to use any last survivors as pawns to do some damage on the way out. My immediate subordinate and I objected of course, but we did some sniffing around and found out it was implemented behind our backs."

"That's diabolical."

"Agreed, but the 'unofficial' nature of the protocol does give me some leeway." I chuckle. "You see, since it's not in my programming I can dismantle it without the aforementioned programming getting in the way."

"Naturally I intend to deal with both of these issues." I frown again. "But I have limited time so I need to choose one to deal with, my question is this Takumi. Which problem do you think I should handle first? The tunnel in the courtyard or the self-destruct under the school?"

OOC: One of the main interests I've had in a Hundred-Line SI was actually the idea of an SI who while having a good deal of useful knowledge also has to deal with the fact that they are not a time-looper like the the main character in the game proper.

Chapter 3: Patching the Tunnel

“I think you should patch up that tunnel, Sirei.” Takumi looks me in the eyes. “In the last timeline we had a prisoner escape, it didn’t end well for us.”

 

Right, Ima getting absorbed and all that.

 

Not a happy time for the poor kids.

 

“Thanks, I’ll get right on it.” I turn and leave “Not like I’m going to let anyone use those codes while I have any semblance of fake-life in me anyway.”

 

Whether or not Takumi heard them didn’t matter, the words were more for myself than anyone else.

 

XXXXX

 

Of course I make good on my word to begin filling in that tunnel. It really annoyed Eito too since it involved moving several construction drones in and out of the courtyard all night.

 

And construction drones are not quit.

 

Not that I really care. 

 

See, the thing is, I really don’t like Eito as a person so annoying him is really just a positive in my opinion.

 

Regardless, it'll take a few days to get that stupid hole sealed up…. I’ll have to work especially hard if I want this done by day 6.

 

“..........”

 

Hmmmm, that’s strange.

 

Why do I have the feeling that someone is watching me?

 

Perhaps… no Takumi doesn’t go crazy with the buzzsaw in timelines that Eito is still alive in and I can see that Eito is still in his cage.

 

I have nothing to worry about.

 

“You weren’t just jumping at shadows, Sirei.” Eito’s voice drags me out of my thoughts. “Someone was watching us…. Both of us. From the shadows. And they didn’t look like they liked either of us very much.”

 

“Boop!”

 

Before anything else I called up a few drones and had them stand watch…. I don’t want whomever that was spying on us again.

 

“So we were being watched.” I frown. “Your point Eito?”

 

“Nothing much.” He smirks at me. “I was just wondering why someone would look at both of us with suspicion….. We are nominally after opposite things after all… And then I remembered what you told me…. About half of humanity.”

 

I frown…. Letting him talk is probably a mistake but I do so anyway. 

 

“The people behind this whole operation don’t fully trust you? Do they?” Eito’s smirk turns downright vicious. “They have someone watching you.”

 

“Nonsense.” I feel a chill run down my spine. “I am literally incapable of disobeying my programming, they have no reason to think I’m anything more than a loyal machine.”

 

“But your programming is not fool proof is it? It’s why you were able to ‘tell me too much’ and why you kept your back to me for so long despite knowing my plans.”  Oooooh I hate that smug Eito face so much…. Soooooo much. “You’ve been looking for ways to slip your leash, Sirei. And they know it.”

 

“That's a lot of assumptions, Eito.” I frown. Trusting this disturbed child is not going to end in any place good. “And not a lot of proof.”

 

“Fair.”

 

He doesn't say anything more.

 

XXXXX

 

When I start up the communicator I make sure to lock the door.

 

“Nigou.” The first thing I do is call up my loyal second in command and co-conspirator. The two of us have a shared memory and partially shared ethics system…. He was just as eager as I was to begin looking for loopholes in our programming. We even managed to isolate and deal with Gotoh before they could cause any trouble with his own programming. “Report.”

 

“Almost all things are going to plan at Second-to-Last Academy honorable Sirei!” Nigou gives me a solute. “Nozomi Kirifuji has infiltrated the school just as you suspect… but I’m afraid…. I caved in and let her use the artifice armor.”

 

I facepalm. “Nigou, you are the biggest pushover in the history of sentient robotics…. You know that right? Because to be blunt if we could harness the massive amounts of pushover energy you exude we’d probably have the power to defeat the entirety of the artificial satellites military, a swarm of at least 20 trillion G-ie zombies, and every ‘Paragon’ in the Futurums history all at once, and still have enough power left over to do it another thousand times. That's how big of a pushover you are.”

 

“I’m sorry sir!”

 

“Nevermind, it's not like I have much room to talk on the bleeding heart front myself.” I cross my arms and huff. “Anyway I came to tell you that Takumi has already started time looping. You know what that means.”

 

“Stronger commanders Sir?”

 

“Yes, and your team already has no answers to the stupid brainwashing dumpling as it is.” I lean forward. “The very first thing I want you to do tomorrow is to set up the remote detonator and get your students on the bus over here. Got that?”

 

“Y-yes sir.”

 

“Good.” I plant my cane firmly against the floor. “The sooner both teams are together the better for everyone's chances of survival. I’ll let my team know you're coming during tomorrow's meeting….. Oh and Nigou.”

 

“....Yes Sir.”

 

“Thank you.” I tip my hat to my loyal second. “I know dealing with such strong personalities alone is hard for you….. But I have full confidence in your ability to make sure everyone on your team makes it over here alive.”

 

“I-I-I….. I won’t let you down sir.”

 

“I trust that you won’t.”

 

XXXXX

 

I conveniently neglect to fill the Will of Humanity in on Takumi’s time looping shenanigans, after all I only need to check up once every five days and I’ve already done that to get permission to tell the kids the ‘truth’ behind this war in the first place.

 

….But I do need to check up on something else before I call the meeting.

 

“Morning!” 

 

“Ah!”

 

I love my ability to seemingly just appear wherever I want unannounced. It’s just so much fun catching people by surprise. 

 

“Sorry- sorry about that.” But I’m not. “I just had something important to ask you before I called today's meeting.”

 

“Huh… what's that?”

 

“Are you planning on telling the others about your time travel?” I cross my arms. “I plan to support you either way, but if you're not we’ll probably have to make something up to explain why you knew to rescue me… I mean I do have the footage to prove Eito’s malevolent intent, but the rest of the SDU can be pretty smart cookies… even the ones you wouldn’t expect.”

 

“I see.”

 

“Of course.” I tap my cane on the floor. “The time travel bit is your secret, which is why I’m making sure to check with you before making any plans… So what'll it be Takumi? Are you going to tell the SDU or are you going to keep your cards close to your chest?”

 

OOC: Funnily enough I got a comment suggesting the other route after I’d mostly already proofread this update. While this isn’t a quest I do take the audience into mind when I pick Takumi’s choice in chapters that have him make one, especially if they make a good point. In this specific case I choose filling the tunnel because even she didn't use it Takumi's been messed over by the prisoner escaping before while the 'Stand Together Fall Together' plan rarely becomes an issue.

 

OOC2: Of course SIrei’s point about butterflies also applies to his own existence, both for better or worse the SDU’s setup is going to have differences from the OG to account for SIrei’s changed behavioral patterns.

 

OOC3: A lot of these but a part of me wonders if all or most versions of Takumi that take the ‘kill Eito’ choice have G’ie data. I have a theory for it in the story but unless there's a major press for it from you guys  I probably won’t look into those routes until much later.

Chapter 4: Keep it a Secret

“....I think I’m going to keep the time travel information to myself.” Takumi pauses. “I’m not sure it’s all that believable of a story anyway.”

“Ok!” I smile and give the crimson head a thumbs up. “Have a good rest…. Tomorrow’s a big day Hwafwafwa.”

I still don’t know why I got that stupid laugh of his from the game, I had a different one back when I was still a brian in a jar after all.

Then again being forcibly converted into a machine against your will does things to a person.

Oh well! I have preparations to make!

Tomorrow the Second-to-Last Academy students arrive, I convinced the higher ups to give one of them programming skills

If I can’t find a loophole then perhaps I can get rid of my chains more… directly.

As long as they didn’t give those skills to someone perverted or with a backstory that stretched suspension of disbelief it would be massive help.

XXXXX

“Sirei is going to kill someone when he finds out Kyoshika Magadori is the one they choose to give the programming skills to.” Nigou moaned in despair as he watched the samurai hillbilly expertly manipulate the programming on a laptop despite the fact that she was utterly terrible at all of the skills that she should have needed in order to actually do such a thing. “I really hope it's not me.”

XXXXX

“Are you ready to meet the other students tomorrow, Shion?” I ask my spectral ward…. Ever since my brain had finished being mechanized I had been tasked with looking after the young Futuran.

He…. quite frankly he’s the only reason I haven’t fully overridden my self preservation programs and tried to destroy myself already.

“I am Sirei.” The ghost boy pauses for a moment. “Are you sure you're fine with me projecting an avatar like this so often?.”

Well it could slow down the missile charge rate and risk the mission.

Personally?

F%#@~! The mission!

I HATE THIS STUPID MISSION! HATE! HATE! HATE! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE! HATE HATE IIIIIIIIIIT!

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

“Shion, life isn’t just about being alive, it’s about living.” I tap my cane on the ground. “And you deserve as full of a life as you can get. If you can use that avatar to live a better life you should do it.”

“About that.” Shion looks at me, a pensive, almost hesitant look. “Sirei, you’ve done a lot for me…. I wanted to ask something about…. No nevermind.”

I frown. “Ok…. but if you change your mind I’m always here.”

But I won’t be forever…. And I only have so much time to make sure Shion will be able to live when I die.

After all, I’m destined for the scraphead when this is all over.

….. Great, now I feel like trying to peel off my own artificial skin again in the desperate hope I’d somehow have human skin under it. I'd better get busy myself before I actually try and follow through on that and get caught.

XXXXX

If Shion could frown outside of the usage of his avatar he would be right now.

He had so many questions about the machine that raised him…. That had encouraged him to use his abilities to learn so much even when he had next to nothing to work with on the artificial satellite.

The way Sirei acted, especially in his early days, it was almost as if he was uncomfortable with, and even disdainful of his own body…. It had gotten Shion thinking.

What if Sirei wasn’t a machine, or at least if he wasn’t always a machine…. What if he was a person turned into a machine?

And if he was…. Why was he turned into one?

Perhaps it was selfish of Shion… but wanted to know more about the person that raised him.

But a part of him was also afraid.

He’d seen the mess Sirei was during those early days.

What if he hurt his parental figure by asking?

He didn’t want to hurt Sirei, not like that.

So, even though he’d had the chance he choked at the last minute.

…. Maybe tomorrow would help him feel better.

XXXXX

The next day I gather the students to give them the ‘world death’ speech.

Uuuuuuuuuuuuh I hate that stupid speal…. Good thing I have it on pre-set recording so I don’t have to actually think about the drivel coming out of my mouth when I have to give the stupid tale.

I can't even specify that it's the ‘official’ story because the Will of Humanity was very adamant that I not try to undermine the narrative.

And it got all of the students so excited too…. It makes me just want to crawl into the recycler and rot there for however long it takes for someone to activate it.

Oh well….. Now for the part I actually want to do!

“Speaking of teamwork!” I smile, genuinely excited for the first time since this stinking mission started. “It's about time I introduce someone that has been with us from the beginning. Shion! Are you ready to introduce yourself?!”

In a flash of flaming light Shion…. Aka the ‘Ghost Boy’ in other timelines is their in flame.

And he’s sooooo awkward as he introduces himself too! I barely understand what he or anyone else is actually saying because I’m too busy focusing my attention on taking pictures of him being the most adorable thing in the history of forever!

The others all being super fascinated with him and asking loads of questions lets me do it without being caught too!

Hwafwafwa.

Great, now I’m doing it in my own head!

Oh look, things are calming down.

Better speak up.

“Anyway Shion’s wall of fire is the main thing keeping those abominations outside from just swarming us to death so make sure to keep that in mind.” I smile before crossing my arms and frowning. No need to bust out the taser for something like this even if it would be very dramatic. “And if anyone even thinks about hurting him they had better make sure I'm in the scraphead beforehand, because I promise you… I will not forgive and I will not forget. My vengeance may not come immediately but I promise this, I will do everything in my power to make sure they regret hurting Shion for the rest of their days.”

“Sirei.” Dawwwwwwwwwwww Shions blushing! “You're being an overprotective father.”

“I can’t help it.” I shrug. “Your happiness means a lot to me.”

Wait… does that mean he actually considers me a-.

“Wow Sirei is actually a big softie isn’t he?”’

“Softie? I think that’s the scariest he’s been this entire time!”

“Kyohoho.” Darumi of all people chuckles. “If this was a certain other game series it sounds like Sirei would execute someone just for looking at Shion the wrong way.”

“I will neither confirm nor deny that statement.” I say flatly before tapping my cane on the ground. “Anyway this mission has two secondary factors that I feel you should learn about before we have another major battle… the FU Protocol and the Abort Switch.”

“FU Protocol.?" The biker is the first to speak. “What the heck is that?”

“Glad you asked.” I hold up my cane and wave it around dramatically. “To put in the simplest terms the FU Protocol is a last act of spite by the creators of this little project. If the artificial satellite is destroyed for any reason, then regardless of how much undying flame is stored up, the school will enter attack mode, and unleash the final attack…. It's not guaranteed to wipe out the invaders but even if, for instance if the satellite blew up right now, the two days of charge we have in the tank can do a lot of damage. That damage is only going to increase as time goes forward…. Still if the FU protocol ever activates that means humanity is dead so lets hope it never comes to that!”

The FU protocol was one of the…. Bad butterflies that came about because of my presence, mostly me pointing out one of the ways this whole evil scheme could backfire, so I felt it important that the students know it exists so they can stop it if the infernal thing ever becomes relevant.

And now for the good butterfly.

“Now the Abort Switch is a bit different. You see we made it as a sort of contingency in case the arsenal used for the final attack is turned against the human species…. In such a case The Will of Humanity, think of it like a giant democracy simulator using the thoughts of every human being, is capable of overriding the Final Attack and shutting it down.”

I twirl my cane and then take out what looks to be a hybrid between a normal key and a HDMI port.

As I do so a large terminal with two big buttons on it rises out of the ground.

“This is a Gene-Key. If the Will of Humanity goes down or bugs out due a mass human death, certain humans.” In reality any non-futuran human can use it, but I’m not allowed to hint as to the students true nature like that. “Can use this to activate one half of the manual cancellation procedure. It takes both myself, or by my immediate subordinate and one of these ‘suitable’ humans to de-activate the Final Attack though.”

Aka-The SDU won’t need to feed themselves to the intercept system to stop it if we end up in a 2nd scenario situation…. We’lll still need to book it to stop the Final Attack before the FU Protocol activates it though.

“Any questio-”

“Bloop!”

“Wait nevermind something just came up….. But I think you guys are going to like it.”

“Oooooooooooh! Is it a killing game!?”

“Nope!” I smile and raise my cane to the air. “It’s reinforcements!”

XXXXX

“Ah Nigou!" I smile as I greet my second in command. “Glad to see you and your students all made it here in one piece!”

“Good to see you too, Sir!” Nigou waddles over to me as we watch the two groups intermingle for the first time. “....Do you think the other looper is aware yet?”

“No idea.” I say flatly as I notice that Takumi hasn’t talked to Nozomi yet…. Looks like he’s got cold feet. “Pardon me.”

“I take it the resemblance is eating away at you.” I walk up behind the crimson haired time traveler. Much to his surprise. “It is an uncanny one isn’t it?”

“Wait, you know about Karua?”

“Of course I do, I was the one that recruited you after all.” I shrug before I begin moving. “Anyway, I actually have business with Miss Kirifuji myself, but if you need to talk about the whole ‘Karua and Nozomi issue I’ll be in the cafeteria later tonight.”

XXXXX

“Hello.” Nozomi greets me politely as I address her. “You must Sirei, Nigou told us a lot about you.”

“Well I suppose that makes sense.” I smile as I rest slightly on my cane. “After all, the two of us pretty much just interacted with Shion and each other for most of our lives, if we were talking about anyone… Nevermind I’m getting off track.”

I frown as my face grows serious. “Nozomi Kirifuji…. Did Nigou give you the full briefing before you arrived here?”

Nozomi nods.

“So you know about the Abort Switch?”

She nods again.

“Good.” I take out the Gene-Key and hand it to her… much to her shock it lights up indicating that it's active now.

Any satellite-born human will do, but she doesn’t know that.

“But… this is?”

“In good hands.” I say firmly. “I know you more than anything are committed to doing the right thing. It takes a lot of conviction to do what you have after all, and I know that if it comes up you’ll know what needs to be done.”

She remains silent for a bit. “I….I understand.”

Naturally I’m pretty sure she doesn’t…. But she will.

“Happy to have you onboard Nozomi…. Even if your being here in the first place wasn’t exactly planned by the people upstairs.” I take a glance at the artificial satellite. The reason they needed a human for the cancellation process was to me reliant on them sending someone down here to do it….. Too bad for them they didn’t plan for Nozomi. “Oh…. as a heads up, I’d double check my memories of Kamakura Hospital from time to time if I were you. A lot of important info was bundled up in that place and human memory is a fuzzy thing. You might just remember something that could save a friend's life!”

I can’t outright restore her memories…. But I can point her in a direction that might hold information useful for the mission.

Or for stopping it if she breaks through the memory wipe entirely.

Hmmm…. I overheard Tsubasa, Gaku, and oddly enough Shouma of all people all wanting to talk to Takumi tonight.

That… is a lot of potential areas of divergence, especially including my own offer.

Well… whatever Takumi chooses I hope it doesn’t involve some of the nastier potential butterflies.

Chapter 5: Familar Stranger Route Part 1

With Takumi talking with Gaku I decide to spend my time filling in that stupid tunnel.

It’s not the easiest work, especially not with Eito constantly trying to get under my skin like the habitual troll he is.

And those words he said about a handler are getting to me.

Mostly because I can’t discount the possibility of a double agent.

With the brainwashing technology available to humanity in this age.

We could have sleeper agents for the top brass that don't even know it themselves on our hands.

I shutter as I look at the rising su-.

…Rising sun.

Well shoot.

I missed the morning announcement.

Eh the auto-announcement will play.

XXXXX

Takumi woke up, as per usual, to the sound of Sirei’s morning announcement.

“Good Morning SDU! Congrats on making it to day number 4!. We’ve had some good weather lately, no rain, tornados, poor air quality due to wildfires, hurricanes, spontaneous combustion, acid rain. dust-storms, or hailstorms. Lets hope it stays that way!.... Hmmm maybe I should put together a lesson on proper harsh weather safety?”

The thing about Takumi was that he wasn’t a morning person.

Sirei’s wakeup announcements in this timeline were….. Much stranger and more varied than they’d been in the original timeline.

What even was hail anyway?

Then again the ones in the first timeline had been entirely pre-recorded so he suspected this might just be more of the marshmallow robots actual personality shining through.
When he arrived at the cafeteria he found that everyone else, including Sirei and Nigou, was already present.

“Two things of importance today.” Sirei looks over the cafeteria. “The first is that I’ve updated our severe weather protocols…. I trust that all of you will look at them when you have the free time… Even if we don’t predict something happening it never hurts to be prepared,.... And trust me when I say this, don’t underestimate the weather.”

“Whoa.” Takemaru was the first to speak up. “You take weather preparation seriously, Sirei.”

“Of course I do, my AI personality predates the TRC.” Wait…. Sirei was that old. “I actually remember the horrific damage bad weather can do…. But enough about me, we still have the second matter of business to attend to…. You need to pick a leader.”

XXXXX

In the end, the chosen leader ends up being Takumi.

Guess his ‘protagonist’ energy is just that powerful.

“Sir.” Nigou breaks me from my thoughts. “I… I probably should have told you this sooner… but Kyoshika Magidori is the one with the computer skills.”

“I see.” I turn around to hide the fact that I am absolutely livid right now. “So were the guys in charge of all this just stupid or trying to spite us?”

“If I had to guess.” Nigou let out a sigh. “Most likely a little of both sir.”

“That complicates things, not enough to ruin everything but it’s certainly going to make things harder.” I pause for a moment. “I want you to check this places network daily and make sure no internet connections with the satellite pop up.”

“Wait, you don’t think Kyoshika might.”

“I don’t think she might.” I say flat. “She absolutely will look up unmentionable things and get our entire network infested with viruses if she figures out how to use any of our comms equipment as a makeshift router.”

“Sir, isn't the network connected to….”

“Us?” I answer flatly. “Yes. Yes it is. That’s why I didn’t want anyone perverted to get computer skills…. One of humanity's most confounding traits is its ability to use its smarts to do very stupid things.”

“.....I don’t want computer viruses in my brain sir.”

“I know Nigou.” I sigh. “I know.”

XXXXXX

“What am I looking at?” I mutter to myself as I look at Hiruko Shizuhara. The problem is Hiruko Shizuhara is also in her room right now and hasn’t left. This one also looks visibly…. Sick with a large splotch of purple covering her face. “An imposter…. Or a traveler.”

Aaaaaaaaaaaand…. An angry Takumi was the first to see her.

I’d better intervene.

XXXXX

“Hey Takumi!” I greet as I appear in front of the red headed leader of the SDU. “What's up with the extra Hiruko?”

“Sirei keep your distance!” Takumi actually shoves me behind him and away from the second Hiruko. “That’s an enemy commander with a shapshifting ability!”

“What are you talking about?” The new Hiruko, for her part, looks very confused with his current predicament…. She might not all be here now that I think about it.

“Uuuuuh about that Takumi.” I raise a finger, not that he can see it. “In your…. Experience, so to speak, was the enemy shapeshifter able to fool the invader alarm.”

“No.”

“Right.” I pause for a moment. “Oh…. were they able to mimic the bombs in all of you?”

“....We never checked that.” Takumi doesn’t take his eyes off of the second Hiruko. “Why?”

“I’m still getting a return signal from hers.” I take out my cane and rest on it. “Seems like a pretty stupid move on the enemy's part if they went that far…. Or perhaps the lack of a bomb would have been a give away.”

“I’m not.” ‘Hiruko tries to take a step forward but stumbles as she does so. “I’m not an enemy commander.”

“Then who are you?” Takumi accuses, not willing to back down. “You can’t be Hiruko, I just talked with her in her room before finding you.”

“And I can also still detect her bomb too.” I shrug. “This is really quite perplexing; it's like there actually are two Hirukos running around.”

THUD!

“Sorry, let me amend my earlier statement.” I cross my arms. “It’s like we have one Hiruko running around and another laying collapsed on the ground…. Pardon the rhyme."

“We can’t just let her run free.” Takumi looks at the collapsed Hiruko. “Should I……”

He pauses.

Is he considering what I think he is?.... I’d better derail this train of thought now.

Even if she could be an enemy commander, the chances of this just being a version of Hiruko that’s still figuring out the ‘parallel timeline jumping’ thing are too high.

“We might only have one cage, but we actually have two options if we want to keep this new Hiruko under lock and key for a bit.” I begin. “For instance I could move Eito to the Pod Room and just lock it up. The room is sealed against hemoanima so he couldn’t get out and we could use his old cage for our ‘guest’….. Alternatively we could just use the pod room for ‘Hiruko’ herself… might even help out if you want to keep this whole incident on the down low if you know what I mean. I’ll just report the pod room as off limits and no one will have any reason to ask about a thing.”

Thankfully that seems to alter his line of thought away from killing ‘Hiruko’, which is good since I wouldn’t want to have to resort to the taser when he has good reason for acting the way he does… and I only have the suspicion that this is actually Hiruko and not an enemy commander.

Still….. Now that I’ve presented the choices.

I can’t help but wonder which one he’ll take.

OOC: And here we have start of the first proper ‘route’ of the fic, I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 6: Familar Stranger Route Part 2

“Congratulations Eito!” I wave at the glasses wearing boy. Takumi has chosen to use the cage for Hiruko 2, which meant that Eito had to be moved. “You’ve been promoted from ‘disgusting human’ to cave ‘dwelling troglodyte’…. And by cave dwelling I mean we’ll be shoving you in the pod room to make room for a new prisoner!”

 

“Oh…. I actually think I’d like that more.”

 

“That’s why I said you were promoted.” I shrugged. “More room, less chance of seeing actual people, seems like it would be right up your alley. I mean that sounds like paradise for a normal introvert let alone you.”

 

“.... An accurate assessment.”

 

XXXXX

 

Hiruko got out of bed shortly before Sirei’s morning announcement. 

 

“Good morning SDU! Congrats on making it to day number 5. Remember that a varied diet is important to proper nutrition so if you find you’ve been eating the same thing from the Ration-O-Matic try something you haven’t eaten in a while, or even something new to broaden your horizons. Sure you might not like it but if you do like it you’ve found a new way to add some variety to your life!”

 

Once again she was reminded that she was in a timeline with Sirei-H instead of Sirei-R.

 

That was both a bad thing, and a good thing.

 

Bad because Sirei-H was almost always accompanied by the handler. Since Sirei-H was of dubious loyalty himself, almost never used the bombs and flat out never used brainwashing, the handler would act as the human leadership's real eyes and ears within the SDU, making things far more complicated.  

 

However it was a good thing because when Takumi did reveal his time travel in some timelines, Sirei-H was smart enough to make sure no one talked about it when the enemy could overhear. The fact that he actively encouraged the SDU to find out the truth of the war and even sided with them over his own builders when freed of his programming also helped. 

 

Perhaps if she had time she’d put some more effort into understanding who Sirei-H actually was. 

 

“Attention all SDU members!” Sirei’s voice rang out over the comms system, it seems he’d had an additional announcement this time around. “Due to an incident last night I want all of you to report to the gym as soon as possible. Nigou is already down there to give you guys the nitty gritty.”

 

Hiruko got up and began to leave before the speaker powered up again.

 

“Not you Hiruko, you and I have a private matter to discuss in the Courtyard.”

 

Well, think of the devil and he will demand a meeting apparently.

 

XXXXX

 

Hiruko woke up.

 

In a cage.

 

How… How did this happen?

 

She remembered something about encountering Takumi… who’d seen her before.

 

….Wait, had the shapeshifting commander impersonated her while she was investigating that old lab?

 

“Morning Hiruko 2!” Sirei exclaimed happily as he walked in with another Hiruko…. And a bowl of recently cooked chicken noodle soup. “Want some? You must be famished after your ordeal, and while I’m not allowed to give you the good stuff I figured it’s better than nothing.”

 

“Fine.” She didn’t know what Sirei was up to, but right now he held all the cards, especially since her bomb was still implanted. 

 

“Here you go.” He said handing over the soup… it actually smelt very good.

 

Despite her best efforts Hirukos felt herself sleeping up a spoonful of chicken and noodles.

 

It… was actually as good as it smelt.

 

“Like it?”  Sirei gave Hiruko a happy smile. “I know a thing or too about cooking myself… I had a lot of time to learn.” 

 

“Sirei?” Hirukos double looked at her with disdain. “Shouldn’t we just kill this commander and be done with it? I don’t like being impersonated.”

 

“You're talking about the shapeshifting commander?” Hiruko narrowed her eyes. “I believe you are the shapeshifter here… you even had the perfect chance when I left the academy on reconnaissance yesterday.”

 

“I’m going to have to shut you down on that Hiruko 2.” Sirei crosses her arms “This Hiruko hasn’t left the academy proper since she first shipped in, and her bomb is properly synced unlike yours. I mean I’m still getting a return single from yours, but that's less real ‘signal’ and more my detonator telling me there's a new viable bomb in the vicinity.”

 

That… how Sirei was clearly unable to tell when students had their bombs removed in other timelines… What changed over the last day?

 

“....So she’s clearly the invader then?” The other Hiruko crossed her arms. “Why are we entertaining this farce?”

 

“Now, now.” Sirei was playing the reasonable one…. What sort of madness was this? “We aren’t sure she’s an invader yet…. And I now have three good reasons to doubt that she is one.”

 

“Three?”

 

“Well for one,” Sirei begins and not the first time Hiruko noticed something very different about him from normal. “She ate the meat in that chicken noodle soup without hesitation… you see the enemy commanders avoid eating meat for religious and practical reasons….. Remind me to tell you about the G’ie at some point in the future.”

 

Sirei walks forward and taps the bars of the cage. “Of course that's not the only reason… when she first showed up the invader alarm didn’t trip,  and I know it usually works on the shapeshifting  commander.”

 

“And finally is the fact she still has her bomb in her. Outdated or not that’s still a pretty stupid vulnerability to leave in given I have the detonation switch and that blast isn’t going to do enough damage to be worth sacrificing a commander for.” Sirei raises a finger. “If it was only one of these things I’d write it off…. But three in one instance like this…. Something is up and I want to know what.”

 

“You.” It was at this point that Hiruko was almost more focused on Sirei than her own doppelganger. The way this Sirei talked, the way he held himself, the fact he was going out on a limb for a relative unknown. These traits were all completely unlike the paranoid mission driven robot she’d known over several loops. “You're not Sirei.”

 

“I’m not your Sirei.” The new robot in the shape of Hiruko’s superior turns to look into the cage. “But I suppose you haven’t had enough time to use your other specialist skill to figure me out yet.’”

 

“What?”

 

It was odd…. Both her and her doppelganger were now looking at the machine in shock.

 

“Oh… yeah I know you also have the Redo specialist skill.” Sirei (?) shrugs like it's no big deal. “And even if one of you is the shapeshifter they get the target's memories, so no point in my playing ignorant.”

 

“Why.” This time it’s Hiruko's counterpart that speaks. “If you already knew, why reveal it now?”

 

“Simple, because I think I know the cause of this confusion.” Sirei’s eyes glow red for a moment. 

 

“Boop!”

“I’ve sent a request to Nigou… he’s going to ask the SDU team leader if I can take the two of you on a little walk….. I hope Takumi says yes for your sake Hiruko 2 because if you aren’t the shapeshifter this is your best chance to get out of that cage before the real one shows up and proves your innocence by dying.”

Chapter 7: Familar Stranger Route Part 3

“Boop!”

 

I get the return signal in short order…. Good.

 

“Now Hiruko 2.” I plant my cane in the ground and look at the Hiruko in the cage. “I think I might know how all this happened… but I want you to take me to the facility you were investigating.”

 

“You can’t be serious, Sirei.” Hiruko scowls. “Are you really going to leave the facility alone with a suspected enemy commander?”

 

“Well.” I fake wiping sweat off of my brow. “I can’t say I’m not nervous, if I’m wrong about this and she is the shapeshifter I’ll be reduced to scrap for sure… I guess you are free to accompany us if you want… not like I can actually stop you after all.”

 

The ‘second’ Hiruko actually raises an eyebrow at this causing the first one to shoot her a smug look….. The ‘I know stuff you don’t know’ look to be specific.

 

Looking at how Hiruko 2 frowns… She clearly doesn’t like it.

 

I guess Hiruko has gotten used to being the most ‘in the know’ person in the room.

 

Wonder how she felt on the Retsnom Ti-.... wait a minute.

 

Retsnom-Monster….. Oh my goodness, Retsnom is just ‘monster’ written backwards.

 

I feel stupid it took me so long to figure that out.

 

“Sirei.” Hiruko 1 pulls me from my thoughts. “I’ve decided I’ll accompany you and my… counterpart.”

 

“Oh good.” I pull out a set of keys and begin walking over to unlock the cage. “But if it comes down to you or me I expect you to save yourself…. Nigou can do most of the stuff I can if push comes to shove.”

 

XXXXX

 

I brandish my taser as myself, Hiruko, and Hiruko 2 enter the building the latter indicated, no sign of enemies…. And then I see it.

 

The machine, the one capable of transporting in between timelines.

 

Utterly useless to me of course, because I don’t have time to go running around like that, but still.

 

“Just as I suspected.” I say, unable to keep the awe out of my voice. “The Parallel Leap Machine.”

 

“What?” Both Hiruko’s say it at the same time…. And give each other slightly hateful glares.

 

Really not the type to play well with another version of herself I guess.

 

“A Parallel Leap Machine…. Your redo ability lets the two of you and Takumi jump back to an earlier point in time.” I begin. “This machine lets you travel from one timeline to the same point in another timeline…. For instance Hiruko, if you knew how to use this machine, you could theoretically jump to another timeline where Takumi decided to kill Eito instead of sparring him.” 

 

I glance at Hiruko 2. “If the enemy already knew about this machine, we’d be swarmed with parallel versions of the commanders by now…. It’s pretty clear, Hiruko 2 here is not an imposter, she’s the real Hiruko from another timeline. The purple splotches were even reminiscent of leap damage.”

 

“I see.” I hear Hiruko moving behind me, she’s not getting closer though. “So that’s why you were reluctant to kill her… you knew there was a chance she was the real real.”

 

“Yes.” I close my eyes. “And I will not kill a member of the SDU…… you all deserve far better than the hand you’ve been dealt.”

 

I hear Hiruko continuing to move, until she reaches a terminal. “This machine is fascinating, I wonder if it can differentiate between variances from before we started looping.”

 

“What do you mean?” Hiruko 2 takes her eyes off of me and looks at her counterpart. “What variances?”

 

“....You clearly haven’t been through as many timelines as I have.” I hear Hiruko huff. “Not all timelines are the same, some timelines even have differences that pre-date our arrival…. Sirei here and a certain problem for instance.”

 

I walk over to a nearby wall so I can keep an eye on both Hiruko’s at once. “Bingo….. And I am aware of the… other Sirei in different timelines…. I don’t think the two of us would see eye to eye.”

 

“No you wouldn’t…. The other Sirei would never even think to slip the leash of his programming nor would he try to reveal the truth to us.” Did Hiruko actually chuckle? “You do the former every chance you get… And the latter? You could not be any more obvious to someone with hindsight, especially when morning announcements from days 20 to 30 all involve talking about earth's moon.”

 

“............” Hiruko 2 remains silent for a few moments and then laughs. “He deliberately tries to draw attention to the biggest difference between Earth and Futurum?.... I can see why you said that this Sirei is a point of divergence.”

 

“He’s one of the better ones actually.” Hiruko adjusts her glasses. “You would not believe how shocked I was the first time around, when Sirei turned from a dangerous nuisance at best into a trustworthy and reliable ally.”

 

“............That suspiciously nice of you Hiruko.” I cross my arms. “But I’ll take it!”

 

She smirks at me. “Well you are the opposite of the other Sirei in many ways, sometimes a bit too eager to sacrifice yourself by comparison….. I still haven’t figured you out entirely yet.”

 

Hiruko 2 crosses her arms and looks at me. “Speaking of that…. How do you know so much? ”

 

“It’s a quirk of the unique origins of my CPU, long story short I was already aware of several possible routes before this whole timeline nonsense started.” Feeling comfortable I put away my taser and take out my cane. “Fortunately or unfortunately, high command found out that I had some level of ‘future knowledge’ and being willing to exploit any advantage they went and shoved me into this robotic body to look over all of you.”

 

I frown. “Of course this led to its own difficulties. My CPU takes up a lot of space and is intolerant of the Will of Humanity so they move it to a separate computer inside the academy…. Don’t worry the high commander doesn’t know that you and Takumi have been looping, nor do they know about all the ways you can shake off your shackles…. It was a pain to keep it a secret though, especially since they want me to commune with the Will of Humanity every 5 days.” 

 

“Several timelines.” Hiruko 2 pauses. “.....Do you also have some sort of ‘redo’ ability?”

 

“No.”I make an X sign with my arms. “I might already know about several timelines but I’m never going to ‘jump back’ and suddenly know more than I do now. All I can do is try my best to react to the butterflies ‘redo’ users like yourself and Takumi cause and hope that helps keep the SDU alive and in good health. I hope neither of you are stuck in this mess so long you flat out know more than me… but that is a possibility.”

 

“......Sirei.” Hiruko gives me a… weird look. “Thank you for your concern. I’d like to talk to you about some of these other timelines later if at all possible.”

 

“Yeah….. I understand.” I let out a sigh. “We’d better get back to the SDU…. perhaps if we learn more about how this machine operates we can send you back to your home timeline Hiruko 2… I’ll try and get you better living conditions in the meantime.”

 

XXXXX

 

By the time we return to the academy everyone has already gone to sleep.

 

I spend most of that night filling in the tunnel as Nigou finishes talking about how the day went.

Apparently the group is divided on what to do with the second Hiruko, but I can work on that as things are.

 

Hmp.

 

Given enough time and trust, I should be able to have her moved into Eito’s old room, not like he’s going to be using it as things are.

 

Nor would he really like it given how close it was to everyone else.

 

Speaking of Eito.

 

I’ll have to talk with him a bit more tomorrow…. With two people waiting outside.

 

XXXXX

 

“Are you sure you want to do this, Sirei?.” Tsubasa asks me as we walk up to the pod room. She and Darumi agreed to follow me and make sure that Eito doesn’t try to escape when I open the door “He tried to kill you on the second day… doesn’t it feel a bit dangerous to walk into a room alone with Eito like this?”

 

“I appreciate your concern Tsubasa.” I smile and close my eyes. “It means a lot, that you consider me a person instead of an object…. But I’m ultimately a machine….. It’ll hurt you and the others a lot less if I’m the one that gets destroyed instead of one of you….. Treat Nigou well if Eito does off me though ok?”

 

“......I Sirei is raising some major death flags right now.”

 

“Sirei!” Tsubasa scolds me. “Please don’t talk like that!”

 

“Don’t worry I’m not planning on ending in the scrap heap this early.” I pause. “.... If I spend more than an hour in there without giving you some kind of OK, go get Takumi before you investigate ok?”

 

And then I enter the room.

 

The glasses-wearing boy is standing right in front of me.

 

“Hello Eito.” I tip my hat to our prisoner. “I hope you don’t mind the checkup.”

 

“Not at all, Sirei.” Eito adjusts his glasses. “That is if you don’t mind answering some questions.”

 

“Well I literally can’t tell you anything outright.” I put my hat back on. “At least not without using a workaround.”

 

“A workaround?”

 

“Think of it like this.” I cross my arms. “My AI is adaptable, if you hypothetically make a correct guess I could hypothetically pretend that you are already in the know and hypothetically confirm things, depending on the hypothetical topic it would even free me up to give you other information without prompting…. This is all hypothetical of course.”

 

“I see.” Eito begins. “Well first I’d li-”

 

SHUT DOWN SINGLE RECEIVED!

 

“Shut down wha-”

 

Everything goes black.

 

XXXXX

 

“Eito.” Takumi burst into the room to see Eito looking over… a powered down Sirei. “What did you do to him?!”

 

“Nothing.” Eito raises his hands and steps back. “We were just talking when Sirei suddenly mentioned a ‘shut down’ of some kind and powered down…. If anything this to my detriment too.”

 

Takumi narrowed his eyes. “And what were you and Sirei talking about?”

 

“Nothing you need to worry about.” Takumi sincerely doubted that. “Let him know I’d still like to talk to him if you manage to get him back online….”

 

XXXXX

 

“Takumi!” Takumi blinked as he was immediately approached by a panicking Gaku holding a deactivated Nigou. “Nigou is busted! I swear I didn’t do it.”

 

“Hmmmm.” Tsubasa, who alongside Darumi had just been discussing Sirei’s shutdown with Takumi, hummed for a moment. “Ok Sirei being shut down is one coincidence but Sirei and Nigou both going offline at the same time…. Something's up.”

 

“Oooooh!” Darumi raised her hand. “Mayby villains are about to unleash a zombie virus on us and took down Sirei and Nigou because they’d be immune…. And also Sirei would trivialize it.”

 

“What?” Takumi raised an eyebrow. “How.”

 

“The bombs, remember?” Darumi raised an eyebrow. “It'd be hard for zombies to be a threat if Sirei could just blow them all up at will.”

 

“Ok.” Takumi paused. “I can actually see your reasoning… perhaps I should take the two back to my room for safe keeping.”

 

“Possible.” Darumi paused. “Oh we could also put them in that second cage Sirei just re-opened for use! As long as someone smart has the key no one should be able to get at them and we can all keep an eye out for our robot sabotager!" 

 

“I… was actually going to ask if I could take a look at them.” Tsubasa was the next to speak up. “I wanted to see if I can get them working again.”

 

That… That left Takumi with three options.

 

OOC: Which option will Takumi take? Who knows but if SIrie wakes up he’s not going to be happy with lacking several days of memory, that's for sure.

Chapter 8: Familar Stranger Route Part 4

I wake up…. Why am I in a cage with Nigou?

Why is it day 10!?

Did they find out the truth and rebel?

Good on them if they did.

But just in case.

I patch myself into the PA system. 

“Attention SDU students! If you aren't actively rebelling or going rogue…. Could someone please come and let me out of the cage in the Courtyard? ”

“Hello again Sirei.” Hiruko 2 speaks up from the cage next to me. “ I can safely say the SDU isn’t rebelling, they put you in that cage to keep people, like me apparently,  from tampering with you.”

“Sir.” Nigou is the next to talk. “I know the standard assumption for a case of memory loss like this was to assume someone uploaded a virus into one or both of us, and that we’ve been screwing things up behind our own backs…. But if we’ve been in these cages and shut down this entire time it can’t be the case.”

“I know.” I say as I pat Nigou on the back. “It means that we're flying blind.”

XXXXX

After about five minutes Takumi comes to release me from my cage. 

It was only a few moments later that I learned that Eito had been killed  and drained of his hemoanima.

“How.” I take off my hat and hold it over my eyes… My other hand is holding my cane, but I can’t keep it from shaking. “How did this happen?”

“We… we don’t know.” Takumi’s voice strained. “As far as we can tell it happened on day 8, but beyond that we have no idea who was involved in this and why.”

“Day 8.” Wait a minute. “Did you happen to fight any commanders during my…. Malfunction so to speak?”

“Yeah.” Takumi paused. “The dragon commander that escaped him the first time, we killed him and Moko drained him.”

Owch…. Poor kid…. He really didn’t deserve to be thrown to the wolves like that.

Especially since the ‘wolves’ in this case were the SDU.

“......I see.” I put my hat off the top of my head. “Well, that’s unfortunate…. And we lost Eito for good too. I can’t help but feel responsible for that one.”

“Why?” Takumi looks at me in confusion. “You were shut down the entire time.:

“Yes, but early on Eito warned me about a potential handler roaming the base.” I close my eyes. “If I had taken his warning seriously perhaps he’d still be alive… Moreover, I had been talking with him about some rather sensitive matters, it’s likely this handler , if they exist, concluded that Eito was at risk of knowing too much with his current attitude and killed him for it.”

“.....What did you tell him?”

“Nothing much.” I open my eyes again. “But I made a suggestion that would have led to him learning more…. I wish I could tell you right now Takumi…. But I don't want you joining Eito, until the matter of his death is solved I’m going to have to buckle down and keep my cards close to my chest…. Please, I hope you can forgive me.”

“No, I understand Sirei.” Takumi nods. “That’s why I choose to keep my time travel a secret from everyone…. So you really think we have some fanatical agent running around the base?”

“That’s the most likely conclusion.” I tap my forehead. “And I believe this agent will do their very best to eliminate anything they deem a threat to the mission's success, even if they have to kill SDU members to do this….. Remember Takumi the higher ups consider this mission to be a matter of survival for all of humanity….. They will stop at nothing to see it completed.”

“You seem awfully anxious… Don't you work for the same people?”

“I work for our… leadership because I am programmed that way.” I turn away. “My core AI predates that programming, so I guess they just don’t trust me that much… Probably why they sent an extra person to watch me.”

“An extra person?” Takumi pauses. “But we haven’t seen any hint of an extra person. Are you sure it couldn’t be one of us?”

I pause and try to consider Takumi’s question.

But I can’t.

How… When did they put something like that in me?

I wouldn’t even have noticed if Takumi hadn’t pointed it out.

“I can’t even consider that.”

“I know it's bad thought Sirei, but I think it’s something we have to consider.”

“No, not like that, Takumi.” If I had any blood it would be draining from my face. “I literally cannot consider that possibility…… I’ll lend you what assistance I can, but unless you suddenly have the programming chops to remove my restrictions I’m utterly helpless so far as your suggestion is concerned.”

XXXXX

Hiruko looked at herself.

Specifically she looked at the version of her ‘native’ to the timeline.

“What do you want?” Recently… Hiruko realized that the world really was only ready for one of her. 

“I want your help.” The other Hiruko crossed her arms. “There's a problem unique to timelines with Sirei-H that I think you are uniquely qualified to help with.”

“Sirei-H?” That must be the name given to differentiate this version of Sirei from the one she’d known. “How do you come up with that nickname.”

“The H is short for human.” Her counterpart adjusted her glasses. “Not that I know his true origins but whatever he is destroyed and his CPU is exposed, it looks much closer to a mechanical version of a human brain than the computers present in our more familiar Sirei… Thus I renamed this variant into Sirei-H and the far more robotic original Sirei into Sirei-R.”

For robot?

How original.. 

“So.” This had to be leading somewhere. “What problem exactly do you need my help to deal with?”

“The handler.” I wait for her to elaborate. “Because Sirei-H is actually against the final attack and puts the SDU’s well-being first, the higher ups in timelines with him install a second personality in one of the SDU members… The person inflicted with this personality is utterly random as I can tell and can manifest in any member of the SDU, myself, Takumi, and even Eito included. Thankfully it can’t only manifest for a limited duration of time, but it is still infuriating to deal with since it can use many of Sirei-R’s tricks.”

That explained it.

The local Hiruko couldn’t trust anyone, not even herself in this case.

“But I’m not from this timeline.” Hiruko had to admit, she was feeling a bit of her own confidence surge forward, but that left one question. “But if your Sirei is reliable, why wouldn’t you ask for his help?”

“He is, but due to the shutdown commands and a programming block that keeps him from suspecting any of us as the handler he is utterly helpless against this kind of threat.” Her counterpart let out a sigh. “Now Kyoshika can remove both these blocks and the shutdown. I’ve also done it myself on occasion, but I don’t want to risk the chance that either of us are the handler so until their identity is discovered it’s better safe than sorry.”

Hiruko paused.

She didn’t have much to lose as things were, most of the SDU in this timeline were already convinced that she was a disguised enemy commander, and as long as the ‘handler’ was running around it was likely she wouldn’t be able to learn more about the Leap Machine anyway. 

Especially if something happened to her counterpart or Sirei.

“Fine.” She looked at her counterpart. “I’ll help you.”

Chapter 9: Familar Stranger Route Part 5

“Sirei.” On day 11 Tsubasa approached me, and right after I’d gotten an update from Nigou on the undying flame bomb. “Has everyone been acting…. More bloodthirsty than normal to you?”

I pause before addressing Gaku. “Gaku… What do you think of the invaders.”

“I think they all need to die!” Gaku shouts with murderous fury. “When are you going to get rid of that one in the cage anyway!?”

“That’s concerning.” I turn back to Tsubasa. “Did this start happening when I was… indisposed.”

“Yeah, Moko was the first, then Gaku, and then Nozomi.” Tsubasa crosses her arms. “It’s really starting to scare me.” 

They got Nozomi!?

Well that's not good, that's not good at all. 

Still… There's only one way this could have happened.

The brainwashing machine!

“Oh will you look at the time?” I take a look at an imaginary watch. “Sorry Tsubasa, I do share your concerns but I need to confirm something immediately!”

XXXXX

Ah ha!

Here it is.

“Boop!”

I pull the Dolmenic Cognitive Reconstruction Therapy Machine….. Or as I often call it the brainwashing machine from the floor with a single command.

Now I just need to look up the history on this stupid thing and- Ah ha!

It’s been used.

Three times.

Damn, that confirms it.

The handler knows how to use this thing.

If I could, I would destroy it right now.

But I can’t.

Stupid programming.

“THUNK!”

In my anger I give a good wack with my cane, not enough to do damage, because my programming won’t let me, but enough to show my displeasure.

“Sirei!” Tsubasa’s voice calls out into the infirmary. “What was th- what is that!?”

Well, I probably should have used one of the side passages instead of just running directly here… Tsubasa followed me.

Oh well.

“THUNK!”

“This.” I begin smacking the machine with my cane again for good measure. “Is likely the source of our aggression epidemic.”

“It looks kind of evil.” Tsubasa remarks inching closer.

“Good on you for thinking that.” I smile as I smack in again. “I hate it.”

“What is it?”

“In essence it’s a brainwashing machine.” I frown. “I’m not allowed to destroy it, or let it be destroyed, so I‘ve mostly been stuck seething in fury at the fact that it exists at all…… This does explain the shutdown at least.”

“It… does?”

“Yeah.” I point at my forehead. “I’m wired into all of the machinery here… if someone tried to fire that abomination of a device up while I was online? Or even while Nigou was? You’d bet we’d deny that nonsense ASAP…… Curse that handler!”

“Handler?”

“Oh shoot.” I facepalm. “Well you see between this and Eitos murder I’ve all but confirmed that we have a little….. Infiltrator sent by the higher ups to make sure everything stays on track… it seems they’re willing to resort to brainwashing, and of course murder to make sure that happens.”

“Brainwashing and murder?” Tsubasa looks ready to throw up. “That's crazy!”

“I know.” I frown. “The only reason I haven’t announced this little issue over the intercom is because I have no idea what this handler is capable of… So until we do I’ve been trying to keep my knowledge of this on the down low. I have no idea how they’d react if I just announced it willy-nilly to the entire SDU.”

“Boop!”

The Dolmenic Cognitive Reconstruction Therapy Machine lowers into the ground.

“Of course I have no control over what you say Tsubasa.” I look down. “I feel so useless right now. Even if I keep watch myself, use every camera, and put every drone on alert I can’t do anything to stop this ‘handler’ if they can just shut me down….  If I can’t destroy the Dolmenic Cognitive Reconstruction Therapy Machine then how can I keep it from being used against us in a case like this?” 

Tsubasa pauses. “Can’t you just… ask some of us to guard the infirmary? It’s pretty important so you wouldn’t even need to tell anyone about the machine.”

“I’m an idiot.” I facepalm. “Of course.”

I tape into the speaker systems.

“Attention SDU students! I hate to take time out of your busy schedules like this but I will be holding a meeting at 4:00 PM today. It seems we have a problem running around freely on the base, and no, it is not the second Hiruko. Thank you, that is all.” 

“Thank you Tsubasa.” I smile. “You're a lifesaver! With any luck we’ll make sure we don’t lose anyone else to that blasted handler!” 

“Uuuuh thanks Sirei.” Tsubasa rubs her arms bashfully. “Is there anything else I can do to help?”

“I….. Honestly I don’t know.” I close my eyes. “This whole handler ordeal is a huge mess, I’ve heard some consideration that the handler might be a member of the SDU itself, but I literally can’t consider the possibility myself.”

“It could be one of us!?”

“Well like I said, I can’t consider the possibility.” I shrug. “Take that how you will…. Whatever the case, I have only one thing I can ask of you for sure.”

She pauses and looks me in the eyes as I reopen them. “What is it?”

“Keep safe.” I say. “The last thing I need or want is to see more SDU students killed or subjected to that horrific machine.”

That's two students in the know….. Not sure how many more I can tell before I risk the handler catching on.

I hope that’ll be enough.

“Boop!” 

Several drones take up position around the infirmary.

Truthfully, it's a worthless gesture if the handler can shut me down… but I can make sure they’ll pay for it if they slip up.

XXXXX

“Ok.” I address the assembled SDU students. “The first order of business…. We have reason to suspect an enemy presence in the base… not the second Hiruko…. So I’m going to ask that if at all possible you all in the SDU set up a guard for the outside of the infirmary…. Preferably with three people on-guard at any given time…. Especially with the recent shutdown”

I take out a notebook with a timetable and set it down.

“The recent shutdown.” Kurara looks down at the sheet. “What does your shutting down have to do with the infirmary?”

“Because I control the guns used to guard the Revive-O-Matic.” Ironically the students in this time seemed to have learned that it actually worked from a casualty taken during the second fight with Murvum, I kept anyone from dying on day one so the Revive-O-Matics actual functionality was still in the air to them until that point. “If someone tries to mess with it while I’m operating, I can give them a very sudden lead transfusion…. But If I’m not operational at all.”

Honestly I don't think those things ever fire in the OG game, even when it would have been very useful like during the zombie infestation.

“The guns are worthless.” Kurara hisses before putting her name down on some timeslots. “Unfortunate.”

“Sorry, proper AI’s are expensive to make.” I shrug. “But that’s the other problem…. I take it that some of you have felt more aggressive or witnessed your fellow students being so?”

That caused a wave of nods among the class.

“Well I can safely say it’s from the work of a very hostile actor, even though I can't actually find the dirtbag that’s doing it.”  I growl. “From this point if any of you see a suspicious figure or someone acting suspiciously I recommend that you get help before dealing with it…. Especially if I’m powered off at that given moment.” 

“And the bad news keeps coming.” Takemaru frowns. “Any good news.”

“Well Nigou is going to show-off his special talent on day 16. I’ve also found some of the old ‘white powder that makes you happy’ but it was the extra harcore stuff instead of the normal powder so I can’t let any of you have it without clearance.” I cross my arms. “I guess I could also ask Shion if he’s up for doing the thing tomorrow.”

“The thing?”

“Glad you asked!” I chuckled. “Nigou, Shion, and I have formed a barbershop quartet…. We’ve actually been doing it for a while now on the artificial satellite.”

“Barbershop quarter?” Gaku points at me. “Don’t you need four people to do that!? There are only three of you!”

“Hmmm.” I pause. “Oh right, I forgot to introduce you to our fourth member.”

“Boop!”

A drone with a skimmer hat descends into the room.

“Meet Larry!” I smile. “He’s our fourth member.”

“Hi Larry!’ Tsubasa greets eagerly…. Right she named the bus in the OG timelines, guess she’d be excited to meet a machine that already has a name.

“Sirei.” Kurara looks at me like I’ve gone insane…. Which is fair. “Thats a drone with a hat glued onto it.”

“And it has a wonderful singing voice.” I paused. “And… admittedly a much simpler AI than everyone else, but still!”

“Why did you name it?!” 

I look down. “Other than Shion and Nigou I never really talked with people before this… I uuuuuh might have anthropamorphized a lot of the other machines as a result.” 

“I see nothing wrong with that.” Tsubasa begins, only to get strange looks from the rest of the students. “What!?”

“Anyway.” I ‘cough’ to move things alone. “Thats everything I have to say… well that I have to say to everyone … Takumi, Hiruko, could you two meet up with me in private.”

XXXXX

“Ok.” Begin as I look between Hiruko and Takumi. “You two…. Are going to need to figure out which of you should be the SDU’s team leader!”

“What?”

“Huh?”

Both of them reach with confusion and I shrug.

“Yeeeeah.” I begin “Technically I was supposed to do this by day three or four, but recent events took precedence, and you two are the top candidates.”

I turn to Takumi. “Your class skill is second to none, you are one of the strongest combatants in the class, and perhaps most important you are the more approachable of the two… no offense Hiruko.”

“None taken.” 

“Good.” I point at her with my cane. “Hiruko. Do I really need to say it? You are without a doubt one of the most formidable fighters and personalities on the SDU!”

I tap my cane on the ground. “In the end I haven’t had the time to decide between you… so I’m shoving that responsibility onto you. Hwafwafwa!” 

“Of course you are.” Hiruko sighs. “Is this all?”

“Well.” I begin. “Nothing I’m not sure I should bring up in front of my present company…. Both of you have your own secrets. I’d be rude to just talk about them willy nilly without prompting!”

“Anyway.” I cross my arms. “I have to go help Nigou with something very important… and also write instructions for it if I end up smashed before you guys end up using it. Bye!”

XXXXX

Hiruko turned to Takumi as Sirei left.

“You know about the handler, don't you?” It wasn’t really a question and Takumi nodded along. “Good.”

“Yeah.” Takumi frowned. “I don’t need to read between the lines to know they’re probably the cause of some of the strange behavior we’ve seen.”

Hiruko or Hiruko 2 as some would call her… had to agree, Sirei and Nigou had been in the Courtyards cage for the entire time they were ‘offline’ so neither of them could have done it.

She was still suspicious, but it was very apparent this Sirei really was an entirely different machine from the one she’d known. 

“Good, I would ask Sirei about it myself, but I have strong reason to believe that the handler is one of us.”

“And Sirei can’t even consider that possibility.” Takumi let out a sigh. “Kinda frightening to think about, I mean the possibility that someone here isn’t who they say they are scares me.”

“Or, they are exactly who they say they are.” Hiruko was going to have to broach this idea at one point or another. “I have reason to believe the handler was an implanted personality.”

Takumi’s eyes widened in shock. “But… if that's the case any of us could be the handler, I mean I could be the handler and not know about it.”

“Yes.” Hiruko frowned…. This was a gamble sure but she likley wasn’t going to be able to do this on her own. “You might want to keep a journal just in case…. I’ve been told Sirei has some to spare if you ask.”

“Good idea.”

Well, apparently it was actually one of ‘Sirei-H’s’ ideas. 

According to her counterpart his first assumption was that humanities leadership had programmed a virus or secondary AI into him or Nigou, so other timelines with the handler he hands out journals to everyone and advises them to keep a track on what they were doing each day.

Something that surely would have led to him getting caught if he really had been brainwashing the students. 

Of course, while she was musing Takumi had been silent, as if considering something.

“Takumi, did you think of something?

“Oh! Yeah.” Takumi crossed his arms. “You see, shortly after I imprisoned Eito I was told about something called the ‘Stand Together Fall Together Protocol’,  the higher ups disguised a self-destruct as a distress signal… He was against the plan but they implemented it behind his back anyway.”

Hmmm, if it remains true in the timelines without Sirei-H, it’s definitely something to watch out for.

Some timelines had come to ‘bad ends’ but ‘blowing everyone up by accident’ was definitely not one Hiruko wanted to experience. “Go on.”

“Well I’m wondering if the handler also knows about it?” Takumi gulped. “They are here to keep Sirei on track, it’s one of the few things Sirei hates that he can do something about because it’s not official.”

“So why hasn’t he?”

“Oh I told him to fill out the tunnel beneath one of the courtyard cages when offered the choice.” Takumi rubbed the back of his head, clearly embarrassed by Hiruko’s question. “And I’m not sure if I should remind  him with the handler running around. I’m kind of worried the handler might try and remove Sirei outright like they did Eito.”

Hmmmm yes, that is possible.

But… It's also an opportunity.

“On the other hand.” Hiruko frowned. “If you were to ask Sirei to dismantle the protocol and you ask him to get help the handler won’t be able to stop it with just another shutdown. It might even be enough for us to lay a trap.”

“You mean.” Takumi pauses. “We use Sirei as bait.”

“More or less.”

Hiruko watched as Takumi paused, clearly taking a moment to think over his options.

OOC: What will it be, will Takumi agree to use Sirei as bait or not? Well thats for next chapter! Though I would like to here anyones opinions on the topic, or they would do if they were making the choice.

Chapter 10: Familar Stranger Route Part 6

On day 12  I’m approached in the command room by Takumi.

 

I really needed to unlock my room for the others to visit at some point, I didn’t convince the architects to build it, Nigou’s room, and the backup generator for no reason after all.

 

“Sirei.” Takumi calls out to me. “You remember when you asked me about dismantling the Stand Together Fall Together Plan?”

 

“Hmmm yeah.” I wonder where Takumi is going with this one. “Why? Want me to get started on dismantling it? I know I’ve been distracted lately so if you want me to bump it up on the priority list I can.”

 

“Well kind of.” Takumi paused. “I want you to dismantle Stand Together Fall Together… But I want you to ask one of the SDU members to help you.”

 

“Hmmm with the handler around? That sounds like it would draw their intention.” Unless, oh I get it, this is a trap. “Oh ho! Good idea Takumi! If it leaks, the handler is likely to try and stop me, or at least investigate to make sure I’m not telling my assistant something I shouldn’t ….. And I think I’ve got just the SDU member in mind… But speaking of the handler. How have things been going with the rest of the SDU?” 

 

“Well Moko and Gaku are mostly the same when not talking about invaders.” Takumi sighs. “But I’m not used to seeing Nozomi like this.”

 

“Yeah, she got hit a lot harder than the other victims.” I frown. “Don’t worry, we should be able to set things right after the mole is gone. I figured out how they were doing and luckily it’s reversible.”

 

“It is?”

 

“Yeah.” I look to the side. “My programming means I can’t talk about it to someone that hasn’t already seen it and isn’t already in the know but I can say that this is reversible.”

 

“That's good to know Sirei.” Takumi looks away before looking back at me. “When did you change your normal hat out for a skimmer hat?”

 

“While you weren’t looking of course. Hwafwafwa.” I chuckled. “But no really I have to go prepare! The barbershop quartet concert is today!”

 

XXXXX

 

The next day Shion, Nigou, Larry, and I performed our barbershop quartet concert for the SDU.

 

….It seems like they liked it.

 

Which I hope is correct.

 

The four of us worked very hard on it after all, and the students of the SDU could use something to cheer them up given their awful situation.

 

Of course, I make sure to call up Tsubasa for a one on one talk after the others leave.

 

Technically I could have Nigou around, but I personally don’t want him to worry too much.

 

“Hey Tsubasa!” I wave her over. “Just the mechanic I wanted to talk to…. Even if it’s over something I personally hate.”

 

“Is it the brainwashing machine again?” Tsubasa frowns, clearly no more happy with its presence than I am. 

 

“No, this is something I actually can get rid of.” I smile. “I mean I’m still angry that it is there in the first place but at least we can do something about it…. You see it’s not an official feature of this academy so nothing in my programming prevents me from having it dismantled like the monument to betrayal it is!”

 

“Monument to betrayal?!” Tsubasa takes a step back startled. “Wow you su-.... Actually not that I think about it. This academy has a lot of things about it that you hate.”

 

“There are a lot of things to hate about our situation, Tsubasa.” I say flatly. “In this case it’s a self-destruct button disguised as a distress beacon.”

 

“A what!?”

 

“A self-destruct button disguised as a distress beacon.” I repeat. “I called it a monument to betrayal for a reason…… I came to you because I want help dismantling it…. If you're willing of course.”

 

“Honestly, after learning about that other machine, and remembering the bombs.” Tsubasa frowns. “I think I’d like to dismantle something the ‘higher ups’ put in place.”

 

“Thats the spirit.” I pause. “Oh…. but before we get ahead of ourselves I should warn you I have reason to suspect our little handler might try and stop us. Are you still sure you want to go through with this? It’s not too late to back out and lay low.” 

 

“I’m sure.” Tsubasa paused. “But… Do you think it’d be ok if I brought an extra heavy wrench with me…. You know hypothetically if I were to run into this handler and wanted to take out a kneecap or two.”

 

“Good idea Tsubasa!” I give her a happy thumbs up. “That’s a hypothetical I can agree on!”

 

XXXXX

 

“Sirei.” Later in the day I’m greeted by Shion. “I heard you plan to use yourself as bait for the handler.”

 

“Yep.” I confess taking off my hat. “It’s partially my negligence that's let them run around thus far and brainwash the SDU members, so it’s only natural I do my best to solve the problem to the extent of my ability.”

 

“Sirei.” Shion pauses. “But what if…. What if you don’t survive.”

 

“Truth be told Shion.” I begin putting my hat back on. “Even if I make it to the end of this 100 day tour of duty, I know too much for someone not 100% with the party line. When this is over I’m as good as scrap, I even found the orders to have me decommissioned at the end of all this.”

 

But that doesn’t have to be the case for Shion.

 

Good thing I wrote down multiple backup plans to get him that capsule by the end of all this. 

 

“Sirei…. I had no idea.” Shion looks sad. “I…. why?”

 

“Simple.” I shrug. “Out with the old, in with the new. In the new era they have planned? A machine like me has no place in it, a reminder of the sins made to get this far both before reaching Futurum and after landing on it.”

 

Shion hovers their… looking sad.

 

Great, I made Shion sad.

 

I’m a monster.

 

“Naturally I’m not planning on getting scrapped before then.” I pause. “But… in the hypothetical event I do end up smashed, could you keep an extra eye on Nigou for me? The little guy is much less emotionally stable than you… Also could you  keep the SDU from bullying him too much? We both know he is the pushover king.”

 

“....Of the pushover kingdom, located on the pushover planet, in the pushover solar system, rotating on an arm of the pushover galaxy, in the very center of the pushover universe.” Shion finishes for me, a small smile on his face. “I know, you get like that whenever you think he’s being weak willed.” 

 

“Yeah.” I pause. “Do you think I’m being too hard on him? Don’t get me wrong I absolutely want him to stand up for himself more but I don’t want to put him down either.”

 

“....I get the feeling Nigou knows you're not really trying to hurt him.” Shion smirks. “He always speaks of you fondly whenever the two of us are talking alone.

 

“Hmmm.” Well, I think I should lighten the load on him anyway, just in case. “Well, regardless I trust the two of you to look out for each other…. You two are the closest I’ve had to a family in a long time….. Just the thought of anything happening to you makes me m-m-me.”

 

I have no tear ducts and I must cry. 

 

“Sirei?”

 

“Nevermind.” I quickly ‘reboot’ myself. “The point if I want both of you two to take care of yourself and each if I somehow don’t make it back. Can you do that for me?”

 

Shion slowly nods.

 

“Good.” I smile. “If everyone goes well I’ll see you both tomorrow."

 

XXXXX

 

Tsubasa looked around as she entered the hidden room, Sirei sliding down the ladder after her shortly after she reached the bottom.

 

This place…. Creepy to say the least.

 

Not nearly as creepy as the bio-lab, but still very unsettling in its own right.

 

“I swear.” Sirei muttered as he dismounted the ladder. “This school has way too many ‘dark secrets’ for my taste, don’t get me started on the bio-lab. I’d swear they put those brains in the tubs specifically to torment me if I didn’t know better."

 

“.... Sirei…. If I may ask why would that be targeted at you specifically.”

 

“Let's say it reminds me of a darker time in my life.” Sirei’s voice was filled with something, Tsubasa couldn’t quite place. “A much darker time when I was alone…. Maybe I’ll find a loophole in my restrictions and tell you about it later. Come on, let's get to dismantling this trainwreck.”

 

Tsubasa spent most of that night dismantling the ‘Stand Together Fall Together’ program with Sirei.  It was pretty fun working on a big mechanical project with someone, even if it was basically dismantling a doomsday device alongside a killer robot.

 

…..Sometimes she could forget about that part of Sirei, the fact that even without bombs he was a potent combatant. She’d remembered seeing how hard he fought alongside the other students during the first day. Honestly if it weren’t for the fact that the commanders could only be damaged by hemoanima she’d be wondering why they didn’t just build a few copies of him and use them to protect the school.  

 

For Tsubasa though, even with the fact in her mind the hours flew by and soon enough they were clearing up the remains of their work.

 

“Oh, Tsubasa.” Sirei’s voice drew her attention. “I just wanted to ask how you were holding up, you’ve learned a lot of terrible things over the last few days.”

 

Tsubasa paused, between the brainwashing machine, the handler, and the self-destruct… Sirei was right.

 

True she’d known about the bombs from day one, but all those other secrets really put her on edge. 

 

“These last few weeks have been horrible!” She watched Sirei, who maintained his earlier expression. “Makes me wonder what else everyone is hiding from us.”

 

“Honestly I wish I could say that was it, but I don’t want to lie to you.” Sirei took his hat off. “This whole operation is just one horrific revelation after another. I honestly don’t know if I'm more angry that my programming is forcing me to keep so much close to my chest, or if…. No nevermind.”

 

“Sirei….. If we found a way around your programming.” Tsubasas began. “Would you be willing to give us the full story?”

 

“Definitly.” Sirei looked down and then began putting the tools they’d gathered away. “And I suspect that day may just happen.

 

Tsubasa paused.

 

Sirei thought he’d be free of his programming.

 

That he’d be able to tell them everything.

 

He……would……tell……..them……..everything.

 

Tsubasa lost consciousness.

 

XXXXX

 

When Tsubasa woke up she found herself strapped to.

 

… The Dolmenic Cognitive Reconstruction Therapy Machine.

 

No, no, no, no, not this!

 

Panicked, she looked around to see Takumi, Hiruko, and Hiruko (?) all standing around her.

 

“W-whats going on?” Why was the second Hiruko out of her cage? Wait, this machine supposedly worked on invaders “...No, are you going to brainwash me like the others?!”

 

“Tsubasa.” Takumi seemed hesitant, but continued with his question. “Why do you know about this machine?”

 

“....I don’t feel like telling any of you that.” She paused. “For all know you all could have been brainwashed by the handler. I’m not outing anyone to any of you while I can help it.”

 

“Ms Kawana.” Tsubasa turned her attention to see Nigou was operating the machine. “I physically can’t consider the possibility of an SDU student being the handilerr…. But we’ve already used this machine on you…. To remove a malignant alternate personality.”

 

“What?” Tsubasa paused. “Alternate…. What happened to Sirei?”

 

“..........” Nigou remained silent for a solid minute and then broke into tears…. It was not a good sign for Tsubasa.

 

“Sirei has been destroyed.” One of the Hiruko’s addressed her coldly. “By you.”

 

“What? No, why would I!?” Tsubasa had an idea, but she desperately didn’t want it to be true. “Sure Sirei is strange at times but I wouldn’t just turn on him like that. You have to believe me!”

 

“I’m sorry Tsubasa.” Takumi met her eyes with his own. “But I’m afraid you were the handler.”

 

OOC: SIrei’/Sirei-H’s first death. I’ll probably follow this route a little longer to give you a show of how he impacted things but after I’ll be looking into which of Takumi’s other possible choices I want to start and work outward from with. 

Chapter 11: Familar Stranger Route Part 7

Nigou finally finished crying in time trying to see Takumi try to console Tsubasa after the latters……….????

 

Well it was bad! Nigou knew that much!

 

And…. he was already missing Sirei again… in many ways it was like a part of himself had been destroyed last night. 

 

That wasn’t just because of raw emotion either. Nigou shared at least some of Sirei’s memory even if his ability to access those memories was limited. That latter aspect was probably for the best, Sirei was by far the older AI and his memory pre-dated humanity leaving earth itself, all that information at once would wreak havoc on a younger AI like… well Nigou. 

 

For a moment Nigou thought back to those times when it was just himself, Sirei, and Shion.

 

The three of them were like family in a way.

 

But now it was just him and Shion.

 

He’d had to step up if he wanted to help get the SDU through these 100 days and to a happy ending afterward.

 

“Nigou.” one of the two Hiruko’s asked, likely it was the one native to this timeline.  “How much of Sirei’s data can you access?”

 

Hmmmm….. Nigou paused and searched over his files. “Not nearly as much as I’d like I’m afraid, a lot of Sirei’s memories are too classified for me to access, and even the non-classified data is vast and hard to work through.”

 

“Hmp.” Hiruko frowned. “Unfortunate. I’d been hoping to confirm some things with him.”

 

“I know.” Nigou looked down…. It should have been him that was the bait and not the honorable Sirei…… He’d never live up to his late superiors ability. “I know that both you and Takumi are time travelers, and I know that the Parallel Leap Machine exists but that is about the extent of things.”

 

Nigou looked at Takumi and Tsubasa. “Miss Shizuhara and Miss Shizuhara

…. Sirei told me that you prefer to keep your time travel, or time looping a secret, because it usually ends badly, but I’m not sure that’s going to be viable for you two from this point forward…. Takumi and Tsubasa are smart, you're going to need to get both of them onboard if you want to get anything done in this loop.”

 

“....I’ll take your word for it Nigou.” The first Hiruko to speak moved forward. “With Sirei-H and Eito dead I’ve already failed my initial objectives anyway.”

 

….Sirei-H?

 

XXXXX

 

Takumi blanked as he tried to process all of the new information that the two Hiruko’s had just given him. Not only was she a time traveler in her own right, but apparently the second Hiruko was actually a second Hiruko and not the shapeshifting commander.

 

Nigou would also join in occasionally but it was mostly just to confirm Hiruko’s words as the truth, otherwise the smaller robot seemed content to cry in the corner.

 

….Takumi felt really bad for letting Sirei get killed now…. Even more than he had before.

 

It took both him and Tsubasa a lot of time to process all this new information, but he found himself with another question.

 

“I noticed you mentioned that this version of Sirei was different.” He paused as he looked between the two Hiruko’s. “How could you tell?”

 

“Simple.” Hiruko 1 stepped forward. “Tsubasa?”

 

“Yeah.” Tsubasa blinked, apparently not expecting to be a part of the conversation. 

 

“Who fought on the first day?”

 

“You, Takumi, Takemaru, Darumi, and Sirei?” Tsubasa crossed her arms. “Why do you ask?”

 

Wait a minute. “Sirei didn’t fight on the first day.”

 

“Yes, he did, in this timeline.” Hiruko 1 adjusts her glasses. “One of the best ways to tell the difference between the Sirei’s is to ask about the first two days, for instance. Tsubasa do you remember what happened after Sirei mentioned the restrictions on the Ration-O-Matic for non-fighters?”

 

“Yeah he told us to ask him personally so he could put in our orders for us or get one of the fighters to share if we wanted more than dried bread.” Tsubasa smiled. “Now that I think about it… he was very eager to bend or subvert his programming to our benefit wasn’t he?”

 

“Yes.” Hiruko closed her eyes. “Of course that’s not the only thing, in fact even the speech patterns between the two AIs are different.”

 

“Right.” It had been weird seeing how differently Sirei talked in the second loop compared to the first. “You mean how the original Sirei exclusively used last names while the one from this timeline mostly used first names?”

 

“Exaclty.” Hiruko 1 paused. “Nigou.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“How soon can we fix the brainwashing Gaku, Moko, and Nozomi all went through.”

 

“Oh. Gaku and Moko should be easy fixes.” Nigou then frowned. “.....But Nozomi.”

 

That… sounded worrying.

 

“Go on.” Takumi’s voice was tense.

 

“Well it seems the handler thought Nozomi was potentially a great threat.” Nigou frowned. “So they put her through a much cruele r regime…. I’m not sure it’s safe to use the machine on her as it is….. But maybe.”

 

“Mayby?” Hiruko 2 speaks up next. “What do you have in mind?”

 

“It’s a long shot.” Nigou paused. “But I think there might be a way to break her brainwashing and deal with her rejection syndromes all at once…. Takumi, Hiruko….. If Eva surrenders I’m going to have to ask you to spare her if you can.”

 

“..........Of course.” Hiruko 1 seemed to understand something the rest of us didn’t. “How could I forget, that solution always was Sirei’s favorite way of dealing with Nozomi’s rejection.”

 

“That's right.” Nigou nodded. “No brainwashing is perfect, Sirei’s plan for this case should be able to break it.”

 

XXXXX

 

“Good morning SDU!  Congratulations on making it to day 13!.... According to the academy's computer system my CPU has been smashed so this is a post mortem recording. Don’t worry too much about that though, according to the computer Nigou is still operational so he can still fulfill most of the functions I previously provided. However, those of you still standing need to do the best you can to look out for and help each other the best you can. It might seem like the whole planet, like the stars themselves are against you, but I promise that together you can find an ending worth living in at the end of these 100 days… Good luck and stay safe.”

 

Day 13 was a harsh day for the SDU……. Darumi wound up sacrificing herself so that the Undying Flame Bomb could be used to drive off V’ehxness.

 

XXXXX

 

On day 14 Moko got up from the machine feeling weird. “Whoa! Talk about a bad week!”

 

“Moko.” Tsubasa bowed her head. “I….I’m sorry about what I did to you while I was the handler…. I understand if you never for-Ah!”

 

She was unable to finish her sentence as Moko picked her up in a crushing hug. “It’s fine Tsubasa, you weren’t yourself. The ones really at fault were the ones that brainwashed you like that.”

 

“Yes miss Kawana, you must not be too hard on yourself.” Nigou reassured the mechanic as Moko put her down. “A malignant personality like that developing could have happened to any SDU member, I only wish I knew what it was that caused it and why it chose to cooperate with the handler."

 

“Uuuuuh.” Moko looked at the smaller robot. “Is he ok?”

 

“He has a programming block that keeps him from recognizing an SDU member as the handler.” Tsubasa crossed her arms. “Saying my alternate personality was ‘working with’ the handler is the closest we can get to having him overcome it.”

 

“Huh.” Moko frowned. “Have you tried asking Kyoshika for help? She’s surprisingly good with computers.” 

 

“........Right.” Nigou paused. “Anyway, once we have Gaku cured we can proceed with the next phase of our operation to save the handlers' victims.”

 

“Next phase.” Moko looked between Nigou and Tsubasa. “What do you mean Nigou?”

 

“I mean.” Nigou began. “That I’m going to bench Nozomi.” 

 

OOC: In a darkly humorous way, Sirei/Sirei-H’s ‘so I’m dead’ announcement is generally something versions of Hiruko and Takumi familiar with him don’t like seeing because it means losing a genuinely useful ally instead of a pain.

Chapter 12: Familiar Stranger Route Part 8

Takumi watched from a distance as Nigou confronted Nozomi.

 

“Ms Kirifuji!” Takumi was not used to seeing Nigou trying to be stern, in the first timeline the Second to Last Defense Academy Team had been pretty able to push him around, and even in this ‘second timeline’ Nigou had always been reliant on the comparatively assertive Sirei to get anything done. “We need to speak immediately.”

 

“Oh….. Nigou.” Nozomi's voice was dull and lifeless, she’d been like that for a few days now. “How can I help you?”

 

“Ms Kirifuji.” Nigou frowned. “I’m afraid that I can’t in good conscience let you engage on the front lines with your hemonaima rejection.”

 

Nozomi’s eyes twitched and Takumi swore her voice sounded more on edge. “What?”

 

“You're benched! And that's a direct order!” Takumi noted that Nigou seemed to be gathering more confidence than normal. “I can’t let you fight in any more defensive battles until your rejection symptoms are dealt with!”

 

“What?!” Takumi watches as shock and outrage enter Nozomi’s voice. “That's insane we need everyone we can get!”

 

“Yes, but the recent losses have been bad for morale!” Wow…. Nigou actually looked adorable trying to mimic Sirei’s ‘X means no’ pose. “I am not sending you out on the battlefield with a terminal illness!”

 

“What…. Humanity is at stake here!” 

 

“Argue all you want.” Nigou frowned. “But the answer is still no!”

 

“THWAK!”

 

Takumi watched as a solid kick from Nozomi sent Nigou flying down the hallway and into the wall, knocking him out.

 

Nozomi silently stared at the collapsed form of Nigou for a few minutes before moving on.

 

A newly formed crack on his head leaving the implication of more prominent damage. 

 

…..Takumi frowned.

 

When she was like this….. she was more robotic than the actual robot on the base. 

XXXXX

 

“That could have gone better.” Nigou muttered to himself as he rubbed the newly repaired areas of his head as he looked at the now assembled SDU… Thank goodness Tsubasa had been willing to repair him after the incident. 

 

Was everyone present? Hmmm it looked like everyone was present.

 

“Ok! Everyone! I have two announcements to make!” Nigou paused for a moment to make sure everyone’s eyes were on him. “First off, I’m afraid Nozomi is no longer going to fight with us for the foreseeable future.”

 

“What?”

 

“Why?”

 

“Enough!” Hiruko, the local Hiruko, shouts everyone down. “Nigou, I assume you have a reason for this.”

 

“Yes.” Nigou let out a sigh, this was an important part of the plan, but he hated having to do this. “Nozomi is suffering from a unique medical condition, her body and hemoanima are rejecting each other, if she fights in her condition it's likely that it’ll kill her before the 100 days are up….. I don’t think I need to say how bad this is when she’s also the only one that can’t use the Revive-O-Matic.” 

 

That caused a commotion within the SDU, and for a moment Nigou was very worried that Nozomi was just going to rush right up to him and punt him again…. But thankfully Moko and Gaku stopped her before she could.

 

“Thank you two.” Nigou let out a sigh. “Nozomi please don’t be difficult about this, if we have to spend time and energy keeping you from killing yourself that’ll only make it harder to deal with the actual enemy.”

 

“Takemaru and I can rotate keeping an eye on her during defensive battles.” Moko helpfully adds. “I mean we don’t want to, but if it’ll keep Nozomi alive we’ll do it… I call first dips fighting though!”

 

“Hey!”

 

Nigou’s main focus was on Nozomi herself. 

 

The brainwashed girl seemed deep in thought for a few moments, before she let out a displeased grunt. “Fine….I know when I’m outnumbered.”

 

“Oh good.” Nigou smiled. “And for our next order of business, we have a temporary member!”

 

And then Hiruko-2 entered the room

 

Much to the displeasure of nearly everybody.

 

Nigou patiently waited for the arguments within the ground to finish before speaking up.

 

“I know it might seem…. Strange especially with the shapeshifting commander.” Nigou continued. “But we have confirmation that she is one of us and not a hostile force…. Just one suffering from extremely strange circumstances I’m not at liberty to talk about.

 

Technically he could if he wanted. “Either way our group isn’t in any position to turn down help, so I want you to keep it civil with her for the duration of her stay… ok everyone!?”

 

………And then more arguing.

 

How did the honorable Sirei deal with this?!

 

XXXXX

 

Hiruko frowns as she stands outside of ‘her’ room. 

 

A part of her had long since accepted that she probably wouldn’t be able to get back to her home timeline before having to loop again. 

 

That wasn’t good…. She’d been hoping to at least learn more about the parallel leap machine, but a part of her knew that probably wasn’t a good idea until they dealt with the shapeshifting commander.

 

After all, the enemy was sure to realize there were two of her and try to use that as an opening to infiltrate. 

 

“Hiruko 2!” That must be Takumi and the local Hiruko. “Good to have you formally on the team!”

 

“Aren’t you eager.” She smirked at Takumi’s blushing face. He was kind of like a hopeless puppy in that way.  

 

“Hmp.” Her counterpart on the other hand seemed less than enthused.

 

On some level Hiruko knew how stupid it was to be so petty towards herself, but she couldn’t resist.

 

And she noticed something in Takumi’s hands, a letter. “What’s that?

”

“Oh this.” Takumi looked down at the letter. “We found it when we were going through Sirei’s room…. I… I wish we had earlier. It was a plan to detonate the undying flame bomb without sacrificing anyone. Apparently ‘Sirei-H’ had been preparing just in case he couldn’t finish the detonator in time.” 

 

Right…… Darumi sacrificed herself this time around.

 

But that wasn’t the only thing of interest.

 

“Sirei-H has an office?” 

 

“Yes.” The other Hiruko frowned. “It usually unlocks whenever he’s destroyed, most of the of the notes and other information he keeps in it are written in english, which is a dead language outside a few of the words used in the signage around the academy.”

 

Takumi pulled out his ‘confused puppy’ look.“....Why would he write all his notes in a dead language?”

 

“I asked him that once.” Her other counterpart adjusted her glasses. “His programming stops him from writing classified information in Japanese, but apparently a dead language is considered ‘encoded’ so he can bypass his own restrictions if he uses it… I’ve been meaning to learn it for a few timelines, but Sirei-H is usually either too busy to teach me or dead so I don’t get many chances.”  

 

That caused Hiruko to pause. “Do you think he has anything else useful written down?”

 

“I mean.” Takumi frowned as he took out a letter. “I found some undelivered letters hooked up to some drones, apparently if Eito actually managed to kill him on day 2 they’d alert Hiruko and I to the fact so we could stop him….. I really wish something like that had happened on my first timeline.”

 

“Considering that I end up dead by day 10 in the first timeline.” Hiruko raised an eyebrow. “I think I have to agree.”

 

“So, how do you plan on solving Nozomi’s brainwashing?” Takumi turned to Hiruko’s counterpart. “It sounded like Nigou and you had a plan. Please?… I don’t know how long I can stand seeing her like this.”

 

“Oooooh…. You’ll see.”

 

“You really like holding me in suspense, don’t you?” Takumi asked.

 

Normally Hiruko would be smug about this herself… but since the local Hiruko was also holding her in suspense she was more annoyed than anything.

 

OOC: Nigou-H doing his best to try and pull out a happy ending for everyone still alive. Do you think the lil bot will succeed, or will he bitterly fail. 

Chapter 13: Familiar Stranger Route Part 9

Takumi groaned as he heard the morning announcement.

 

“Good Morning SDU and good job making it to day 20! Ya know, sometimes in the past I’d go outside and look at earth’s rocky moon… you could even kind-of see it during the day at some points. It was always so mysterious, probably why it was important in so many of earth's cultures.”

 

He had to admit.

 

It was kind of interesting to see how Sirei-H’s announcements differed from his ‘main timeline’ counterpart. 

 

“Mr Suminio!”

 

“Ah!” Takumi jumped back as Nigou appeared right in his room. He thought that was a Sirei only thing! 

 

“Ooooops… Sorry I just figured out how to do it and I was so excited to try it.” Nigou rubbed the back of his… body?.... Awkwardly. “I should have asked first. I’ll have to ask next time then!” 

 

“Please do” Takumi let out a sigh. “Why are you here Nigou?”

 

“Well, first I wanted to check up on you since….” Nigou paused as if considering his next words carefully.. “Well anyway the second thing is that if we capture Eva we should be able to get Nozomi back to normal!”

 

“Finally.” Takumi had really missed her, it was hard enough with Darumi dead, and Sirei-H reduced to scrap, seeing Nozomi act like a heartless warmachine this entire time had really taken it out of him.  

 

“Just hold on a little longer.” Takumi could see a fire of determination in Nigou’s eyes. “I will do everything in my power to bring Nozomi back to us! This I swear as the honorable Sirei’s assistant!”

 

XXXXX

 

Eva frowned as she looked at the small marshmallow-like machine in front of her. 

 

It was a demon if she ever saw one… if not for its leadership position among the invaders than for the horrible thing it asked of her.

 

“Your demand. The one my life is conditioned on.” She frowned. “Is to let a girl drink my blood? That’s forbidden! Absolutely not!”  

 

“.......I hate to resort to this.” The small machine let out a sigh. “But your cooperation here isn’t just for your own life, you clearly have a family to live for too.”

 

….So that was its game.

 

“Using my family against me.” Eva frowned. “You're despicable.”

 

“Sorr-” The machine began to apologize but stopped. “No… I am afraid this is something I need to see done. Miss Eva? It's the only way to save Ms Kirifuji’s without outright killing a commander, and more importantly it might be the only way to save her mind.”

 

“-If anyone asks I didn’t do this willingly.”

 

“Of course not!” The smaller robot waved her off. “Now let's not dilly dally.”

 

If anything about the next events were any comfort to Eva it was that ‘Nozomi’ seemed to hate the idea of her drinking Eva’s blood almost as much.

 

…Well it was a comfort until the memories flooded in.

 

Memories of a small girl, willing to suffer at the hands of her own mother, willing to sacrifice her own health at the altar of her mothers ambition… all to try and make that terrible woman happy. 

 

Visions of that same young girl talking to a boy in a pod, of sneaking into those same pods to join a war despite having a terminal illness, being told the ‘story’ behind the war’ and of being handed a unique key by a strange robotic commander.

 

And most recently a very odd memory of worry as two of her friends changed under her watch, and of being ambushed and changed herself against her will. 

 

That last one especially was horrifying.

 

Eva looked at the smaller machine, Nigou, as the girl she now loved as a daughter fell unconscious in her arms. 

 

The look on his face was not one of shock or even displease.

 

It looked happy.

 

"Good." Sirei takes out a Gene-Key and hands it to me.

 

What?!

 

"But… this is?"

 

I’m not even supposed to be here!

 

"In good hands." The machine says with a firm certainty. "I know you more than anything are committed to doing the right thing. It takes a lot of conviction to do what you have after all, and I know that if it comes up you'll know what needs to be done."

 

“Your leader… Sirei.” She watched the robot intently. “He gave my dear Nozomi a key that could stop the final attack your entire SDU has been fighting for. And you don’t look very upset over any of this? You're not worried she could try and use that key?”

 

“Miss Eva, the entire point of that key is to stop the final attack. Nozomi having a motive to do so entirely intended.” Nigou's smile is gone now, the machine has a sad, almost melancholy look. “I’m sorry to have tricked you and Ms Kirifuji like this, but…. No… There is no excuse for what I’ve done. Feel free to hate me with all of your heart if that will satisfy you”

 

Eva looked at her newest daughter. “..... I think there are worse things you could do to someone.”

 

XXXXX

 

“Good Morning SDU and good job making it to day 21! Earths moon sometimes turns a creepy red? We called that a blood moon back in the day, kinda funny to think about given how hemoanima is basically magic blood.”

 

‘Hiruko was right’ Takumi yawned as he thought to himself. ‘Sirei-H really does his best to clue everyone in that this isn’t earth even when he can’t outright tell us.’

 

“Takumi.”

 

Takumi jumped back as Shion manifested in front of him.

 

“Shion!” He exclaimed partially in shock, but partially in joy. “I haven’t seen you since….”

 

Sirei’s death… Takumi had to admit, seeing Sirei-H dead was significantly more disturbing than seeing Sirei-R destroyed. Probably because of all that hot pink liquid that was squirting out of the former's body. Especially with the faint smoke that filled the air around it as the liquid itself evaporated on contact with room temperature air.

 

Hiruko had told him it was just a cooling liquid used because Sirei-H’s CPU ran significantly hotter than Sirei-R’s… but it still felt like blood to Takumi.

 

Apparently it was also the sort of thing that caused frost burns on contact, Tsubasa’s handler personality was just lucky enough to be wearing proper protection at the time.

 

If someone else had destroyed Sirei-H outside of class armor?

 

They’d be sporting a nasty burn from that point forward… at least until they used the Revive-O-Matic.

 

“I’m sorry I made you worry.” Shion closed his eyes. “I just needed some time to grieve… Sirei was like… No, he was a father to me in every way that mattered. I wish I’d told him that seriously before he was destroyed, instead of just joking about it.”

 

“Do you blame me?” The thought left Takumi’s mouth almost as soon as it entered his head. “For getting Sirei destroyed.”

 

“No, and I don’t think Sirei would blame you for his destruction either.” Shion looked down. “The truth is, neither Sirei nor I were going to live for longer after the 100 days are up, I was to burn up in the final attack and Sirei was to be decommissioned soon after.”

 

That…. Takumi’s knowledge of previous timelines was starting to come back, but it was still painful to hear it from Shion himself. 

 

“....I see.” This version of Sirei was so different from the one Takumi had come to know from those past timelines. Hiruko truly was right when she’d said that the two were entirely different people. “That's good to know…. I feel like I brought down the mood.”

 

“I’d say it’s better we had this talk than remain in suspense.” Shion smiled. “And speaking of suspense I see that Nozomi is back to normal… she even seems happier than she used to be.”

 

Right, Takumi actually remembered something like this before in the timeline with the killing game. 

 

Odd of Nigou of all people to have pulled it off.

 

Sure Takumi himself would do it, and Sirei-H clearly had both the inclination and the personality.

 

But Nigou?

 

The robot in all the other timelines he’d been in had always been rather weak willed….. He was surprised he’d managed to get Eva to let Nozomi drink her blood. 

 

XXXXX

 

“So you're the boy my dear Nozomi likes.” Eva looked over at him appraisingly. “Good taste.”

 

“Mr Sumino! Ms Eva!” Nigou shouted out in panic from his spot next to one of the two Hirukos, the other was keeping the rest of the SDU busy. “That is not appropriate behavior in a school setting!”

 

“Sorry.” Eva smiled. “Your commanding officer…. He is rather fond of moon facts… almost makes me wish I could see it myself.”

 

Actually…. Now that Takumi thought about it.

 

He kind of felt the same way.

 

….And now Nigou was crying.

 

Right.

 

“Sorry about that.” Takumi looked down. “Sirei was destroyed recently, and Nigou still misses him a lot.”

 

“He gave his life acting as bait to draw out the handler behind Nozomi’s brainwashing.” Hiruko adjusted her glasses, frowning as she did so. “If he hadn’t, the rest of us, perhaps even you, could have suffered the same fate.” 

 

“.....I see.” Eva frowned. “I…. I actually had a few questions I wanted to ask him.”

 

“Well all did.” Hiruko crossed her arms. “.....The closest we’ll get is his notes, but we don’t have anyone capable of translating english to japanese….. Not even Nigou here was able to access that part of Sirei’s old memories.”

 

“Sorry Miss Shizuhara.” Nigou looked down sadly, it kind of made Takumi sad. “If I could tell you the location of the will of humanity I would, but that was above my head.”

 

“The will of humanity?” Eva frowned. “I remember that from Nozomi’s briefing. If it goes down Nigou and Nozomi should be able to stop the Final Attack right?” 

 

“Yes. It's supposed to be located somewhere on the base.” Hiruko looked down. “But Sirei’s notes are all in english, unless we know someone capable of learning english in less than 100 days, we may not get the chance to find it before the final attack… and if we try to deal the weapons system before the Will of Humanity is destroyed, it might launch a partial Final Attack or activate the Intercept System early, neither of which are good outcomes.”

 

“.....I might know someone.” Eva's voice was tentative, but she was gaining confidence. “I….I want to know more about all this too, especially if it can help Nozomi and save my people from the Final Attack.” 

 

“....You mean your other daughter.” Takumi was reluctant. “She has divine wisdom right?”

 

“How did yo… No it doesn’t matter. But yes, if you have a communicator with a visual feed I could bring it to her and she could translate any documents Sirei has from her end.” 

 

Takumi frowned. “It would probably need good resolution, Sirei’s handwriting is… odd for a machine.”

 

“I could fabricate something that works with the communicator we have at the academy.” Nigou began. “But it might be heavy…. Eva if you don’t mind I’d probably need to drive you using the bus.”

 

“That works.” Eva smiled. “Besides, if the trip is fast enough I should be able to rejoin the rest of you… I don’t want to leave my dear Nozomi to fight on her own after all.”

 

“Some us can escor-”

 

“No!” To Takumi’s shock Nigou shut him down. “You all need to stay at the academy and look after each other in case something happens on the road, we can’t have you splitting up with V’hexness on the prowl. The last thing we need is for her to kill you and steal your hemoanima.”

 

“......Nigou, but isn’t it dangerous for you to go alone?”  Hiruko crossed her arms. “You are not nearly as combat capable as Sirei was… and even he couldn’t do anything against the commanders.”

 

“Oh… Don’t worry about me.” Nigou smiled. “Even if they capture me, I have one advantage over Sirei in that I can activate my self-destruct at will!”

 

“....That’s not why we were worried.” Takumi let out a sight. “I….I’d just really rather not lose anyone else if I could avoid it.” 

 

“Still.” Hiruko paused. “This could be our only chance.”

 

Nigou for his part remained quiet and looked to the side. “I…Don’t worry Takumi you have my full support regardless of what you choose…. But I would appreciate it if you trust me to take on this task alongside Miss Eva…. we won’t let you down.

 

Takumi once again found himself confronted with a choice.

 

Did he keep Eva and Nigou on the base…. Or did he let them take a communicator relay and try to find Eva’s other daughter?

 

OOC: The final choice for this route, it’s still early total day wise but after this expect a bit of a thunder run. As per normal I want to know what choice you guys think Takumi would make in this case.