July 26, 4021 03:18 [Matriarch 03 AB Side- Khar Khot]

“...Awake. He’s awake!”

Mirai squinted, still groggy, looking up at a circle of faces leaning over him.

Something jumped at him, wrapping him in a tight embrace.

“Gahhh!” he yelled.

“Step back, Aisha! Give him space! All of you, step back!” Ghost ordered.

Aisha relinquished her grip on him, sheepishly moving backward while mumbling an apology.

Mirai sucked in shallow breaths as he tenderly touched his battered body. Aside from a couple of bruises, he seemed to be fine. He slowly pieced together his surroundings. They were still on the helipad, his clothes soaked through as raindrops continued to pelt the city.

“I healed you up as best as I could but there was such an excessive amount of damage to your body that I’ll need to do a couple more passes until you’re fully healed,” Ghost explained.

“Urgh, everything hurts,” Mirai moaned.

Ghost nodded. “Yes, that’s normal. You’re looking good considering you had to hold your own against a Hyena. I’m surprised you’re still alive.”

The mention of a Hyena reminded Mirai why he was up there in the first place. “Uh, I may have killed him.”

Ghost shook her head. “He’s fine. As awful as he is, Gauss didn’t become a Hyena by accident.”

Mirai craned his neck, looking over to where he had struck down Gauss, only to see him standing upright, looking as if he hadn’t just been pierced by lightning. The only pieces of evidence that Mirai had even harmed him were the enormous scorch marks etched into his poncho, exposing his skin. His chest lay bare, a black mark where Mirai thought his last attack had landed. Surrounding Gauss were a few others, facing him with stern expressions. Kefka and Anari flanked a tall man dressed in a satin overcoat, protected from the elements by their umbrellas. Brilliant rubies dangled from his ears, matching the balayage of dark red running through his curtain bangs.

Standing further in front was another tall figure, his broad shoulders shaking with fury as he towered over Gauss. The man’s dark hair was tied back in a messy bun, loose strands falling over his face. He was powerfully built, donning a dark trench coat. Gauss looked up at him with a bored expression as the man scolded him. Mirai’s ears pricked up. Through the downpour, his hearing seemed even clearer than before. Another mutation?

“Explain to me why two buildings in the eighth district have been completely leveled. I specifically told you not to start any trouble while you were in my city,” the man spoke through gritted teeth.

“I already told you, I wanted to see if Cecil was telling the truth about him,” Gauss said, jerking his head in Mirai’s direction. “Guess he was right. The bastard ruined my poncho, too,” he grimaced.

There was a pause. “Where’s the wind seal? Weren’t you wearing it?”

Gaus shrugged “It broke.”

“How?!”

“You didn’t see it? The giant lightning attack? Lit up the sky? Parted the clouds?”

The man furrowed his brow. “This isn’t good. The Shogun’s son made that seal in good faith. It’ll be a while before we can travel back to Yoru, and I doubt the next trip’s going to be for diplomacy.” He turned his head, staring at Mirai, sizing him up. “Did he really break it?”

“Do you not see the scorch marks on my chest? Honestly, if I wasn’t wearing the seal, I might’ve needed Ghost’s assistance to heal me up. On second thought, that doesn’t sound too bad,” he grinned.

The man looked at Gauss with disdain. “Keep a close eye on him. If he was able to break the seal, then a Kami is likely interfering here. I’ll make sure to let Kǔ Shén know about this.”

Kami? The voice said something about that. It called me…Young Kami. Why? And what does this have to do with Yoru?

Gauss nodded, proceeding to walk away.

The man grabbed his collar roughly, pulling him back. They met at eye level. A flash of green flitted across the man’s irises.

“Don’t outgrow your usefulness, lest you get pruned.”

Gauss glared back at the man’s burning gaze, his own eyes glowing a brilliant silver.

“That’s enough, Temujin. I think he gets the point,” the man in red interjected, diverting his attention.

“You would do well to remember that you’re a guest in my domain, Hart. Be careful with how you address me.”

Hart put his hands up in surrender. “I apologize. I wasn’t trying to overstep.”

Temujin relented, accepting the apology. He turned his attention to the Bloodhounds, the other Hyenas likening their actions to his, acknowledging their presence. He walked over to them, greeting the four he was familiar with. They exchanged pleasantries, although Temujin’s gaze lingered on Mirai.

“You three must be the new recruits,” he said, addressing the unfamiliar faces in the group. “It’s good to finally meet you. I’m Temujin, the person in charge of Khar Khot. I make sure things are running smoothly here.” A slight frown formed on his face. “Or as smoothly as I can,” he muttered, glaring at Gauss out of the corners of his eyes.

Aisha and Akula introduced themselves first to Temujin. He then turned to Mirai; the Hyena’s gaze made him feel uneasy, like he was under a microscope being carefully picked apart.

“Then you must be Mirai. Gauss told me about you. Going head to head with a Hyena, much less beating him… I have to say, I’m impressed.”

Mirai raised an eyebrow. “It’s not like I had a choice. It was either that, or die. I would happily choose the former every time, thanks.”

Temujin laughed heartily. “You’ll make a fine Hyena someday.”

Is there an option to decline?

“If it’s any consolation, you have my deepest apologies for Gauss’ actions. It’s not a reflection of my views or the people of the city.”

Mirai looked confused for a moment. What did the citizens have to do with this? Then it dawned on him. “Oh, it’s no big deal, really. I’m not even sure what he meant when he was spouting all that nonsense.”

Temujin nodded, closing his eyes in affirmation. “Regardless, I should explain that Gauss has been stationed in Yoru for quite some time as a diplomat for our country. Suffice to say, human and Sargassan relations in that country are tense, and civil discourse is rapidly deteriorating. Gauss has adopted some of their more radical views regarding Sargassans, although I’m working to have him unlearn some of the prejudice he holds.”

“Um, thanks?”

“Of course.”

I still have no idea what Sargassans are.

Mirai looked over at Gauss who stood back from the others, watching the city below, appearing as though he was deep in thought. He wondered what was going on in his head. The quiet reflection seemed uncharacteristic. Gauss suddenly flicked his wrist, sending an object flying past Mirai's face, smacking Dot in the shoulder.

“Ow!” he yelped.

Laying on the ground was a set of oddly shaped keys; cylinders with deliberately carved holes attached to a small ring.

“You said you wanted to do some maintenance on the Lancers, right? Then let’s go. We should probably get out of this rain anyway,” Gauss said, appearing next to Mirai.

Dot looked surprised but quickly nodded.

“We’ll come along too. We have business to take care of at the docks,” Hart added, followed by Kefka and Anari.

Gauss scoffed but held his tongue.

“Then it's settled, we’ll head to the Lancer Docks,” Temujin announced.

***

Standing at the edge of an enormous rock outcrop, cordoned off from the outside world by numerous gates and safety mechanisms, Mirai tried his best not to gawk. Carved into stone, were five enormous structures supporting what appeared to be giant humanoid machines. Thick wires ran along the length of the machines, hooked up to their abdomens, pumping what appeared to be concentrated Virya.

Akula was the first to make a sound. “They’re mechs!” he shouted in glee.

Skadi and Dot both grinned at his excitement.

“These are the Lancers?” Mirai asked.

“Yup,” Dot answered proudly. “When the expansion of the city was underway, construction crews accidentally came across these machines hidden in the stone. We had excavation crews digging here for months before we were able to analyze the machines. It fell on the technicians to figure out how to get these contraptions to work. We finally made progress about a month ago and we’ve been running numerous scans and preliminary piloting tests ever since.”

“Piloting?”

“That’s right, these machines can be piloted. There’s a small capsule on the nape of their necks that a person can slide into.”

“That’s amazing. Wait, if these were excavated, doesn’t that mean this is old technology? How is it even functioning?” Mirai wondered.

Dot grinned again. “You see, that’s what’s so fascinating about these things. They’re Uturian technology.”

Mirai’s eyes bulged. “How is that possible? Uturia is 2000 miles southwest of here.”

“I mean, they were the most powerful country in the world at one point. I’m sure they had the means of expanding their territory further than the dead zone it is now.”

“But that would mean this technology is thousands of years old! How did you get it to run?”

“That’s where she comes in,” Dot said pointing to Skadi.

Skadi looked proud of herself, smiling haughtily. “I can decipher Uturian Cuniform. There are markings etched near each Lancer describing what they’re called and what their purpose is, so it was actually pretty easy to get them up and running once Dot and his team of technicians ran the necessary code.”

Dot scoffed. “Easy, she says. It wasn’t some glamorous hack job. My team literally just ran brute force computations until something gave way in the code. It was a nightmare. Explaining things to a rubber duck didn’t help either,” he complained.

Mirai chuckled. He watched as Akula ran up to the Lancers, trailed by Aisha and Anari who ran after him with worried expressions, making sure he didn’t break anything.

“You said something about piloting tests. Does that mean someone already figured out how to control these things?”

“Yeah, speaking of pilots, you could probably ask him yourself.” Dot jerked his head, indicating Mirai to look behind him.

Mirai turned around to see that Hart had joined them, with Kefka standing by his side.

“You wanted to ask me something?” Hart looked intrigued.

“Yeah, did you actually pilot one of those robots?” Mirai asked pointing to the Lancers.

Hart nodded his head. “Yes, I did.”

“How did it feel?”

Hart pondered for a moment, stroking his chin. “It’s hard to put into words, but it’s almost like you’re reentering the womb,” he explained.

“What?!”

Hart chuckled. “I know it’s not the most eloquent explanation, but you’ll see once you get inside of yours.”

Mirai looked puzzled. “What do you mean get in mine?”

“Exactly what he said. You’re going to be piloting one of these things by the time we get deployed,” Dot said, slapping his back in a congratulatory manner.

“You’re expecting me to ride this fossil into war? That’s suicide!”

Skadi shook her head. “Uturian technology isn’t even on the same level as technology today. They reached a point of understanding with biomechanics that we still have yet to achieve in the present. That last Holy War really sent us back into the dark ages. Slowly, our technology is advancing again, but it’ll be a long time until we see civilization reach Uturia’s level again, if ever.”

Mirai sighed. It’s not like I can talk my way out of this. He observed the Lancers, neatly lined up, each one wildly different than the next.

“Which one do you pilot?” he asked Hart.

“That one,” he said, pointing to the blood-red Lancer in the middle of the pack. Its arms were crossed over its chest in an “x” formation. A crimson, pronged lance was situated at its side.

“So that’s why they’re called Lancers.”

Hart cringed at the comment. “I think we were a bit hasty with the name. Only this Lancer actually uses, well, a lance as a weapon.”

“Do we know what the other Lancers use?”

“We’re still figuring that out.”

Of course.

“Is there an Uturian name for them?” Mirai asked Skadi.

“‘Nergal’ was the only word all of them had in common carved next to their frames,” she answered.

“What does that mean?”

“It was the name for the God of Death.”

“Lovely.” Mirai’s stomach turned. “Alright, I’ll bite. Which one am I piloting?”

Skadi pointed to the pure-black Lancer farthest down the row. “That one.”

The machine had noticeably elongated arms. In addition, its shoulders and upper back had numerous white rings patterned.

“Why does it look like that? And where are its weapons? I knew it! You are sending me on a suicide mission!”

Skadi rolled her eyes. “It serves a specific purpose, we just need to figure out what that is using the right person. Cecil was helping us test that one because of his Trait. He recommended you to pilot it.”

“Me? Why?”

“Because you have a similar skill, right?

“So it needs electricity? Why not just hook up a battery?”

Skadi looked displeased. “Don’t you think we already tried that? It looks like it takes feedback from bioelectric signals based on Uturian DNA which is where you come in.”

“Right, because we’re spliced with your genes.” Mirai stared at the mechanical juggernaut, its blank eyes staring at an endless expanse of desert past the gates. “Does that thing have a name?”

“In Uturian it translates to ‘deceiving vessel’.”

“And what do we call it?”

“False//Frame.”

Temujin called out to the group, waving them over to the machines.

“Let’s get down to business. We have about ten weeks until the assault on Levante begins. That means we have ten weeks to get you all ready for war. This isn’t your standard border defense. We’ll be preemptively striking the enemy down so we need to be ready to carry out all manner of attacks. I’ll be training you on the basics of Shakti control and handling firearms. Hart will be training the pilots. If you’re a pilot, you’ll need to be learning both at the same time.”

“Shakti?” Akula asked.

“Think of it like organic Virya. It’s the energy that flows in all living things. Normally, living beings can’t really harness this energy because the means to control it takes too much of a toll on the human body. However, in the case of Homunculi, they can handle the strain of this burden, given that they’ve already manifested their Traits. All Hyenas know how to control this energy. So if you’re aiming to be one, then this technique will be useful,” Temujin explained.

“Alright, that sort of makes sense. Then who’s piloting those things?” Akula pointed to the Lancers.

“The pilots will be Hart, Mirai, Dot, Anari, and Kefka.”

Skadi snickered. “Looks like you didn’t make the cut, Gauss.”

Gauss glared at her but remained quiet. Akula looked slightly disheartened. Temujin patted him on the shoulder, knowingly. Mirai looked at the members of his team. His eyes landed on Kefka who gave him a nod of acknowledgment.

He leaned over to Dot. “Hey, how do you know Kefka in the first place? It seemed like you two have a history.”

Dot’s face went red at the question. “Look, that’s something I want to keep pri—”

“I found him out in the cold. He was shivering; a dirty little street rat with no food, and no money, sleeping on my curb. He was scaring away my customers, so I had to take him inside. Now look at him. Who would have thought? Head technician,” Kefka interjected, flicking Dot’s forehead.

“Hey! I don’t like that story,” Dot protested, as Kefka teased him some more.

A sliver of a smile crept up Mirai’s mouth and a twinge of remorse. Maybe this is what it was like with him.

Mirai felt a light tap on his shoulders. He turned around to see Aisha standing behind him.

“Can we talk?”

He nodded.

She motioned for him to follow her until they found themselves in a secluded corridor of the Lancer Docks. Aisha looked at him with determination.

“I wanted to talk about…us.”

Mirai raised an eyebrow. “What is there to talk about? We both want different things.”

Aisha shook her head. “No, that’s what I mean. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. So much has happened since our initial fight that I haven’t had the time to process how I feel until now. I admit that it’s my fault that things fell apart. I grew complacent. I thought…I thought that we would have more time together in Matriarch 07. But that’s not the case.”

“So what exactly are you saying?”

Aisha took a moment to muster up the courage to speak her mind. “I care about you…and I’d like to make an honest attempt at a relationship—only if that’s okay with you.”

Mirai was still skeptical. “Are you just saying these things because Indra’s gone and you’re afraid you’ll lose me too?”

Aisha shook her head again. “I’m fully aware of the risks that deployment brings with it and I accept that. I wanted to make my intentions clear and show you that I’m serious about this. I’m willing to put in the work to build trust and respect in order to foster a healthy relationship,” she finished, looking up at Mirai, hopefully.

Mirai tried to maintain a straight face but he could feel the heat rising in his cheeks. Aisha took notice, smiling.

“I-I guess we could try again. But we need to set proper boundaries this time. Otherwise, this isn’t going to work out.”

Aisha nodded, smiling even wider.

A light in the dark, he thought, smiling as well.

When they finally decided to rejoin the group, Temujin and Hart were in deep discussion, most likely going over the training plan. Anari walked up to the two, greeting them both, and then addressed Mirai.

“I d-didn’t officially introduce myself yet; I’m Anari,” she stuttered nervously. “S-seeing as we’re in the Lancer squad together, I-I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about Gauss. He doesn’t like Sargassans very much.”

Mirai scratched his head. “People keep apologizing about that. I appreciate the sentiment, I do. But I honestly don’t know what a Sargassan is.”

Anari looked shocked. “Y-you don’t know? They’re f-fish people.”

“I get that, but isn’t that just any aquatic-based Animalia Homunculi, then?”

Anari shook her head. “N-no, they’re a sea-based race. They have an e-evolutionary advantage like the Uturians. Except people don’t like them very much.”

“Really?” Mirai looked surprised. “How come I’ve never heard of them here, then?”

“T-they’re seen as lower class. It’s not a problem here b-but it’s an issue in Yoru where they have a h-huge influx of Sargassan immigrants,” she explained. “C-Cecil never told you?”

Mirai shook his head. “How do you all know Cecil anyway? Ever since I got here it’s been ‘Cecil this’ and ‘Cecil that’.”

“We all did b-border defense together sporadically, but w-we became acquainted with each other over time. He’s one of the strongest Homunculi we’ve seen in a long time.”

“Cecil? Strong? Are you sure you aren’t mistaking him for someone else?” Mirai laughed.

Anari laughed softly, shaking her head. “He wears a limiter when he’s in the country. It’s very small so it’s understandable that you haven’t seen it. I’m glad he’s finally been promoted, though. It was a long time coming.”

“Promoted? What do you mean?”

Anari looked shocked for the second time. “D-don’t you know? C-Cecil’s a Hyena now.”