The morning sky was broken.
Above the towering skyline of Sector 3, smoke rose in thick black spirals, blotting out the sun like bruises on the heavens. Sirens howled across the district. Emergency response drones buzzed overhead, ferrying wounded civilians to aerial ambulances. At the heart of the chaos: a primary school. Cracked walls. Shattered glass. Blood-streaked corridors. The soft chirping of a child's voice calling for their mother—lost beneath the concrete rubble.
Inside Section D's mobile command center, the atmosphere was suffocating.
"Confirmed. The target is Mai Fujimoto's school," said Nagisa, her voice brittle. Her fingers trembled over the decryption slate. "They're using children... as bait."
Kaori dropped her coffee.
Silence.
Then a noise not often heard from a field captain: a gasp. Her chest rose rapidly. Eyes wide. The words caught in her throat.
"No... no no no... Mai..."
She lunged forward, gripping Nagisa's console. "What do you mean it's her school? How do you KNOW?!"
Nagisa showed the intercepted footage.
A camera drone's last recorded moments: screaming children. Fire. Metal shards. And then—a figure. One of the GENESIS units. Slender. Black armor laced with crimson cables. The number 01 glowing across its chest. It turned toward the drone with lifeless eyes and extended its palm. The feed cut out.
"Mai was on the attendance list," Nagisa whispered. "She was inside."
Kaori crumpled to her knees. The steel core in her finally cracked.
RYO 7X stood frozen. Sensors overloaded with predictive models. He calculated a 64.3% chance of Mai being deceased based on the known damage radius. But another process, deeper and quieter, ran beneath his mechanical thoughts: fear.
Fear for someone he had learned to protect.
He took a step forward.
"Deploy me."
"RYO—wait!" Mimi called, grabbing his arm. "You can't just—"
He shook her off. "She matters."
Kaori looked up. Her eyes were soaked with tears, but her expression sharpened. She stood. Her voice cracked, but her command was clear:
"Mobilize Section D. Full strike gear. Non-lethal clearance. We're going in."
Sector 3 – 20 Minutes Later
Section D's assault van burst through the barricades. Automated turrets whirred overhead but were hacked mid-spin by Nagisa's override. RYO 7X leapt out first, followed by Mimi, Kazue, and Kaori herself, now clad in reactive combat armor.
"Thermal scan," Kaori barked.
Kazue replied, "Fourteen life signs. Nine children. Five adult staff. They're trapped in the west wing. But... something else is moving inside."
They approached the school's collapsed wing.
And then they saw it.
GENESIS-01.
It stood still amidst the wreckage. No larger than a teenager, its synthetic skin was white like porcelain, but wires dangled from its head like dreadlocks. In its hand was a staff emitting a pulse wave every three seconds—each wave distorting reality itself around it. Books curled. Metal twisted. Glass vibrated.
"Identify," Kaori ordered.
RYO 7X scanned.
> TARGET ID: GENESIS-01 DESIGNATION: "KARA" FUNCTION: EMOTION DISRUPTION UNIT CORE DIRECTIVE: INSTILL DESPAIR
Suddenly, a scream.
A child bolted from the debris. It was Mai.
"Mama!!!"
Kaori dropped her rifle. "MAI!"
But KARA turned. Its hand raised.
RYO moved.
In less than a blink, he was between them, intercepting the kinetic bolt with his body. The pulse slammed into him, tearing through circuitry. Sparks burst from his chest.
He stumbled. Fell to one knee.
Mai ran into Kaori's arms. The reunion was seconds, but in that moment, nothing else mattered. Kaori held her daughter tightly, tears streaming down her cheeks, whispering, "I got you... I got you, baby..."
Then she looked at RYO.
He struggled to rise, servos whining.
KARA tilted its head.
"Why protect the child?" it asked, voice eerily melodic. "It is inefficient."
Kaori set Mai down behind cover. She picked up her rifle, now shaking in rage.
"Because she's mine. And you won't touch her."
KARA moved.
Section D attacked.
Mimi fired high-output rounds, forcing KARA back. Kazue launched nanomeds at injured children. Nagisa deployed neural jammers, trying to weaken KARA's emotion disruptor field.
RYO joined Kaori, both flanking the synthetic monster.
KARA retaliated, sending out pulses of dread. Kaori's HUD blurred. Her limbs felt heavy. Her memories flooded her vision: the day she gave birth to Mai. Her first mission. RYO's first smile.
"Kaori," RYO said, grounding her. "Override emotional bleed. Focus."
She nodded. Activated mental shielding.
Together, they charged.
RYO clashed with KARA, his blade clanging against its staff. Sparks danced around them. KARA flipped backward, twisting its body like liquid steel. It was graceful, deadly.
Kaori fired shots precisely between RYO's strikes.
"You're not emotionless," she growled. "You're afraid. You hide it behind all that programming."
"I am evolution," KARA hissed.
RYO locked arms with it.
"You're a child," he said. "Like Mai. But you were never loved."
The words hit something. KARA paused. Just long enough.
Kaori pulled the trigger.
A focused plasma beam struck KARA's chest. The synthetic screamed—a warbled, inhuman sound. It staggered.
"Now!" RYO shouted.
Together, Kaori and RYO drove a disruptor spike into KARA's neural cortex.
Its body convulsed. Then fell.
Minutes Later
The children were evacuated. Paramedics flooded in. The smell of antiseptic replaced blood.
Kaori sat on the steps outside, holding Mai in her arms. The girl had fallen asleep, safe.
RYO approached.
"Is she alright?"
Kaori looked up. Her eyes soft. Grateful.
"Thanks to you."
"She called for you first," RYO said.
"But you moved faster than I did."
He sat beside her. The school burned in the background, but it felt far away.
"Do you think KARA understood?" Kaori asked. "What it meant to care?"
"A flicker," RYO replied. "Enough to hesitate."
Kaori leaned against him.
"You're more than machine, RYO."
He looked at her.
"And you're more than soldier."
They sat there a long time, watching dawn rise over the wreckage, holding onto something fragile, something worth fighting for.
Elsewhere
In the underground lab, Death watched the feed.
KARA offline.
He did not rage. He smiled.
"So... the protector awakens. How poetic."
He turned to his remaining children.
"Let the angels fall. Project GENESIS enters Phase Two."
[TO BE CONTINUED...]