With a shrill, steel-on-steel scream, a massive sword split open a mechanical lifeform's abdomen.
It was a cut that nearly bisected the body. The machine had been mid-leap, trying to pounce on something, but before it could even land, its systems shut down.
A heartbeat later, it hit the ground with a heavy thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The one holding that near man-height slab of metal was an adult woman.
Silver hair, blue eyes, features so refined they barely looked human.
A lithe, shapely body wrapped in something like a black, skin-tight combat suit, except the outfit was torn and ragged now.
It looked more like a black tank top, black leather pants, and thigh-high black stockings, giving her an oddly alluring, dangerous kind of sex appeal.
The skin exposed to open air should have been smooth and pristine, yet now it looked grimy and stained.
After sweeping her gaze around again and confirming there were no more machines nearby, the young woman walked up to something that resembled a vending machine.
Another metallic, piercing slicing sound rang out as No. 2 hacked the transport device open with brute force.
She pried along the cut and exposed the materials stored inside.
According to the intel she'd acquired, these materials could be used to construct new YoRHa bodies.
She was an older model, and she didn't know whether they would fit her specifications, but taking them was still the right call.
After stripping the contents quickly, No. 2 left at once, putting distance between herself and the site.
Because the moment she destroyed the device, the alarm had likely gone out. The pursuit units hunting her would already be closing in.
Strictly speaking, No. 2 couldn't be described as an "adult woman," because she wasn't human.
She was a YoRHa-type android, Type A No. 2, commonly known as A2, an attack-model prototype that had once belonged to YoRHa.
However, ever since the events of 11941—the Pearl Harbor Descent Mission—she had broken away from YoRHa and become a wanted criminal.
She could not forgive their betrayal.
The betrayal by Command.
From the very beginning, her batch had been meant to be discarded.
The original objective of the mission had been to destroy the machines' server at Mount Kaʻala on Oʻahu.
To that end, twelve experimental YoRHa Type A units were deployed. She was one of them.
Their drop to Earth went wrong from the start. Enemy anti-air interception meant only four units reached the target zone intact.
Because she was No. 2, she assumed command after No. 1 was eliminated, taking over as squad leader and continuing the mission with No. 4, No. 16, No. 21.
Under normal conditions, the four of them had no chance of completing the objective.
Command forced them to proceed anyway.
Only at the end did she learn the true purpose of the mission.
It had never been about success.
It was about collecting combat reaction data from the YoRHa experimental units, analyzing it, and writing the results back into the newly manufactured official YoRHa forces.
From the start, there had been no plan to retrieve them.
They were disposable test bodies, nothing more.
After learning the truth, she could no longer trust Command.
She became a fugitive, and the target of a relentless manhunt.
As a result, A2's enemies were not only the machine lifeforms that had destroyed her sisters, but also YoRHa units sent to pursue and eliminate her.
After returning to her current hideout and stashing what she'd taken, A2 sat on a tree branch in a daze, staring out at the ancient city ruins beyond the forest.
It was boring.
No machines showed up for her to kill.
So she brought up that strange thing again: the [Cross-Dimensional Channel].
At first, she thought she'd been breached—infected by a machine logic virus.
But later, she realized it didn't quite fit.
Even so, she still couldn't be certain. She continued to suspect some kind of infection was causing an incomprehensible communications glitch.
So what was this channel, exactly?
She still couldn't say.
If what it claimed was real, it was genuinely shocking, completely overturning everything she understood about reality.
It was called a "channel," but it didn't feel like a simple voice link.
It had windows. Interfaces.
A2 took a slow breath and, after a moment's hesitation, chose to open it.
[Fallen Angel Kuroneko: This is bad. Really bad. I hope "Busujima Kendo" gets online soon.
Whisperer: What is it, Ms. Fallen Angel Kuroneko? Do you have intel from her world? Is something major about to happen there?
Fallen Angel Kuroneko: "Major" doesn't even cover it. If what I'm seeing is the plot, her world is about to hit the apocalypse.
Dr. Katsuki: An apocalypse? What kind of apocalypse? Worse than our world? A swarm of bugs.
Tendo Civil Security Company: Just logged in. What are you talking about? Apocalypse? Is it going to be like our world, a crisis caused by an apocalypse virus?
Fallen Angel Kuroneko: It is a virus apocalypse, but it's different. People turn into zombies!]
That was the exchange filling the channel window.
Each speaker had a different name, claiming to come from a different world.
It was so bizarre that, even now, A2 still suspected she was being invaded by a new machine bio-logic virus—one that produced this kind of impossible cross-talk.
And since she was now "a member" of this channel, she had a name displayed as well.
Simply: A2.
As for the others, she'd figured out that most of those names weren't real names.
They were more like handles. Codenames.
And within the channel, a strange pattern had emerged.
Some people could somehow learn another member's origin.
For example, through a game in their world, someone might realize a channel member was the main character of that game.
Others learned someone's background through something called a manga.
But not everyone knew everyone.
So far it was mostly one-way discoveries, one at a time.
For instance: A learns B's identity through a game.
Then B learns C's origin through a novel.
Then A learns the future direction of B's world—something terrible is about to happen.
If B's current point in time is still before the disaster, then A can warn B in advance, allowing B to avoid the crisis.
So could someone learn about her world as well?
In theory, yes.
But only if she revealed some information about her world first, enough for the others to search their own worlds for related material.
A2 was cautious.
Since joining, she had remained silent, watching everyone else talk.
[Fallen Angel Kuroneko: Hm? This is—!
Dr. Katsuki: Is someone else joining?
Whisperer: I don't know what kind of world it'll be, but I hope it's peaceful too, like Ms. Fallen Angel Kuroneko's.
Seventh Heaven: Another new member?]
Something changed.
The channel window vanished, replaced by a radar-like hologram.
At its center floated a complex multifaceted crystal. It swept outward like a radar array, sending expanding search waves.
Suddenly, a point of light appeared.
A line shot out from the crystal, linking to that point.
Once the link formed, the line began retracting, pulling the light inward.
But halfway through, it stalled.
…?
Like the system had crashed?
No.
It hadn't crashed.
It was just extremely slow—so slow that some people couldn't wait and logged off.
Finally, after who knew how long, the point of light reached the core.
In the next instant, the radar image faded like a mirage, and the channel window returned.
[New member "Golden Toilet" has joined…..]
(End of Chapter)
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