-

Rubbing where the notebook hit him, Lyle reached the nearest cabin and decisively swung the door open. Just to see the working screens and a helmet above the chair. Thankfully, the owner ignored the intrusion, so he silently closed the door.

He stepped back to look the door over. Not even a single colored light, painted word or even a piece of paper.

"Find a cabin, he said."

He walked alongside the doors then looped back, as if he was a picky chooser. But this excuse wouldn't last for long.

"Maybe there's an app for this?"

Recalling the map that led to the academy, Lyle took out the gadget. But instead of a home screen, the screen showed a dainty hand holding the device over a wooden floor background.

He poked the screen but it was as responsive as poking a piece of glass. Then flipped the phone and saw the faint lights. The camera was on. He moved the fingers to the sides and now the front screen looked like an empty metal frame. The illusion was broken where he felt his nails push against the backside, but the image was impeccable otherwise.

Waving the phone around to see if he could make the image distort, Lyle saw one of the cabins flash.

He glanced up and immediately returned to the gadget. The featureless doors and a device that turned the camera on by itself. He only needed to put two and two together.

"Oh, its augmented reality."

Proud of solving yet another problem, he inspected the digital paint for an empty marker. While he's stuck in this unknown place, he should be a good girl...

Lyle stumbled as he caught the subtle change in his thoughts.

But this wasn't the place for introspection. He entered the free cabin and, for the first time today, he had some time to himself.

-

Once comfortable, he decided to start with the idea he found the least unsettling. That he was dreaming due to a visor malfunction. However, he quickly realized that he first had to understand whether he was dreaming or not.

Unwilling to accept defeat so quickly, Lyle started to waste time by idly playing with unpowered console. Placement of its controls looked the same as the game's, so he tried the combos from the tutorial.

It was when he executed several of them that he made a strange observation. Despite the new height, balance and reach, his movements were in sync with Lyle's muscle memory.

Faced with the observable changes, he had stop beating around the bush to confront other changes.

As a mental test, he made two small speeches, one introduced him as Lyle, another as Tsune. The result was a lot less reassuring as both versions felt natural. The questions that raised... were quickly supressed as soon as he realized that the cabin could have cameras.

But there was a silver lining to this. Unless his visor was a secret prototype that affected the user on the subconscious level, it meant that she wasn't dreaming. Lyle caught a female pronoun and sighed; now that he noticed the change, using the male one took conscious effort. But once again, there was a silver lining, outside world that knew only Tsune, daughter of Reds.

-

Once the screens powered up, she saw the *Gunner* mech in a familiar grass plain. Even the usual loadout screen was the same, empty white circles overlayed its limbs, head and torso. And the parts inventory was on the side monitors. Her lips turned into a thin line.

Circles over one of the items and robot's hands flashed, prompting her to look through AR. With a quick swipe across the phone screen, she equiped the mech with basic machineguns.

As soon as she was done, terrain changed to forested rocky terrain, evenly split across all of them for a wider view. With the new AR prompts showing the purpose of the helmet and the rest of controls, the lesson began in earnest.

-

The bell rang and Tsune let go of the lever that controlled the simulated robot hand. She spent the entire lesson learning to move it finely enough to shoot the trees around her.

But now it was time to meet a class worth of people that could know her. Good thing that those changes helped with disguise, another silver lining into a whole pile of them.

They arrived to a classroom with a simple layout. Four rows of light tables with two chairs each, a large old table to the side of a whiteboard and windows that led to the street before the academy.

She looked inside through the phone, but nothing changed. So, she chose to sit near the window, sharing a table with a tall but thin boy. If another student asked a question she couldn't answer, she could pretend to not notice them by looking outside.

-

When everyone found their seat, a middle aged man, in the academy uniform, entered the classroom. He held a cap under his arm and a tablet with a heavy electronic pen.

He stopped behind the teacher's table to introduce himself.

'Good day, students. For the next two years I will be responsible for your theory classes.'

After an uneven chorus of late greetings, he turned to the whiteboard just enough to see it without losing the students.

'I assume that you chose your path as an educated decision. But the first lesson is dedicated to the history of all three major pilot branches to clear any misunderstandings. Now, without any further delays.'

His pen touched the tablet and an image appeared on the whiteboard's surface. It was the first page of a text and photo slideshow.

'First, these are your future enemies, popularly known as mechamonsters. Their first appearance on Earth and Mars dates to several hundred years ago.'

Looking at the compilation of mechanical creature remains, the girl felt a chill run down her spine. They looked giant when compared to humans around them. Even their wounds, that looked tiny in comparison to the rest of the body, were big enough to fit crane held elevators.

'Next are Majin mechs, weapon platforms devised to destroy the mechamonsters as fast as possible.'

On the screen was a huge, easily ten times larger than the human at its foot, bipedal mech with a knightly appearance.

'Their humanoid look is attributed to the rise of *Space Knight* ideology that glorified personal combat. Their control devices were notorious for demanding a lot from the pilot's psyche, so a lot of was forgiven to those who could handle the strain in the time of need.'

The teacher zoomed in to show the human closer. He wore a costume so full of decals and accessories that there was no way it was a formal military uniform. And he had a bright smile.

'Your freedom to create your own combat style by customizing your robot stems from the tradition forged by these brave men and women.'

'What was his name?'

Not pleased with the sudden interruption from one the students, a boy with black hair, the teacher handwaved the question away.

'All in due time. Now, let's continue with smaller and younger cousins of Majin, the combiner mechs.'

The next slide showed a group of animal robots standing near a two storey building. Their size varied but even the smallest of them, a bird with folded wings, was the size of a train car.

'Exclusive to Earth, these mechs were the first step to avoid the use of Majin control devices. Now, who can say what is their current role?'

Tsune saw the teacher pointing at her and slowly stood up, to buy herself time. And to her relief she found the answer in the construction site she saw on her way here.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

'Construction is one of them.'

'Correct. They are multirole craft. Their regular forms all but ignore terrain, unlike Majin, and almost rival them in power when the group combines their mechs into one.'

While the blonde sat down, the lesson moved to the third branch.

An izometric view of a military base yard with conventional tanks, helicopters and other vehicles. It looked like like a military TV program in Lyle's own world and its contrast with the previous images was jarring. But looking closer, she saw that they had no crew hatches.

'The remote controlled combat units were the mainstay before the mechamonster phenomenon. They were pushed to garrison and escort roles by the abundance of enemy area of effect attacks. And the inability to deploy sufficient firepower quickly enough to counter enemies that appear out of the thin air.'

The screen reverted to the whiteboard and Tsune heard her phone release a subdued sound. Taking it out, she saw a text message about the lecture copy that was delivered to her device.

'Now that the introduction is over. In this class you will gain the knowledge of equipment, techniques and tactics that proved themselves to be successful in the past. Use it to fix mistakes in your practice lessons or draw inspiration for new ideas but remember to move forward.'

-

After the lesson, the students went into the hall. Tsune was thankful for it, as her mind swirled with the new info. To her surprise, once she started to rank it, the part that impressed her the least was the recording of an actual battle.

It was amazing how the teacher's dry and analytical voice, coupled with on-screen notes, turned a real mecha video into mere bullet points.

Having left the classroom next to last, she looked around the hall. Students have already split into groups but nobody showed any interest in her.

"Did her friends just assume that I'd find them?"

After a brief decision, the girl went to sit outside of the main groups but close to her class. She figured that if she did have friends, it was better to let them come to her. Otherwise she could make a mistake and need an explanation.

But she chose the place poorly, as nearby friendly banter heated up after a smug comment from one of the boys.

'Studying the history of those drone tanks was a waste. Who wants to become a guard anyway?'

Provoked, another boy couldn't help but retort.

'They look better than your huge walking targets. I could snipe them from another country.'

'As if you'll even scratch my armor!'

Before the argument could turn ugly, a dark haired boy walked in between them and her.

'Save your anger for the enemy. It's unbefitting for heroes of justice.'

'Heroes of justice? Are you from Mars, or something?'

Despite growing redder from being laughed at, the boy continued to smile until both opponents turned back to their groups. Then, after stealing a glance at her, he hurriedly walked away as well.

-

After the studies ended for today and she left the academy, Tsune half expected somebody to hug her from behind. Or simply to run up to her. But that hunch proved wrong both at the exit and all the way home.

-

'I'm home, mother.'

The older woman turned off the hall TV's volume.

'Oh my, how polite. Did you make any friends?'

'Not yet.'

'As usual. How about photos? You promised yesterday.'

'I'll do some tomorrow.'

With a sigh, the woman stood up from the chair.

'Don't forget, okay. The dinner will be ready in an hour or so.'

Tsune nodded, but before she went to her room, she made a quick tour around the house. She had no time to check in the morning, but if this dream family the one from the game's character creation, then she had a little brother.

But as the house had only four rooms connected to the hall, two bedrooms and two utillity rooms, there was no place for him.

-

Back in her room, she found another subtle change since the morning. And if moving freely and using a different pronoun she could shrug off, this one went even further.

She instantly found the change of clothes in a wardrobe several times bigger than her. And when the phone signaled its low charge, she reflexively reached for the bed cabinet. With the charger as the first item she found when her hand reached inside.

It was like she lived here for a long time. Despite inhabiting this body for less than a day.

"This is pretty helpful. I wonder how does it work?"

Interested, she chose to learn more about it, and whether the changes would continue. It was time to see if this world had internet.

But her vaguely worded questions brought only vague answers that ranged from muscle memory to subconscious habits. Even with all this time spent, she might've as well believed in souls. Or an impossibly long dream.

Although it wasn't a waste, as while browsing the phone, she thought of a way to learn more about the past. The device had an electronic wallet and that meant it had a purchase history. She could avoid the obvious pitfalls like not remembering birthdays or recent trips.

Unfortunately, while sound in concept, this plan fell through when she saw how lackluster that list was. No birthdays or phone numbers except for her parents and almost no travel expenses. But on the other hand, a whole array of memberships on sites that dealt with mechs, science or space.

In short, the life of the cool elder daughter wasn't so different.

"What about the world?"

This time, the answer came in the form of an interactive map. This city was built decades ago in a place with especially rare mechamonster attacks. And was referred to simply as a capital. Or in rarer cases, it was the metropolis, or just *M* city.

As she zoomed out, the map showed the region's other cities. Then showed other regions, each claiming semi-autonomy, and ended with a ring that surrounded the entire planet. That space station's name was Tek Terra and it held the majority of planet's industry and residents.

"Exactly as in the game too."

Throwing the gadget to the side, Tsune inspected the white ceiling. She felt so tired that she barely even processed the information, much less thought of any implications.

"If this is a dream, it'll probably end when I fall asleep. And that's probably a good thing. Or the mother might notice that I'm not her child. Not that I want to be like this either."

Grimacing at the mental image of the older woman, with eyes full of tears, asking what was wrong with her child, the blonde sighed.

"I'll just fall asleep right now."

-

'Wake up, you are going to be late.'

Tsune opened her eyes and saw the same strangely familiar ceiling. Throwing away the blanket, she went to the mirror on the bed cabinet. The same blonde girl looked back at her from within.

"This wasn't a dream?"

Her pulse quickened, but before her breathing and mind could follow the nervous rush, she heard the redheaded woman's steps.

'Do I need to pull you out again? Twice in a row is too much even for you.'

With a healthy dose of fear overcoming the panic, the girl took a deep breath, then another, and finally answered.

'I'm up already.'

She was still here. And that meant that today would be one of the longest days in her life.

But it would probably be fine if she kept out of the trouble and used her head. No, not even that. If she kept herself at a safe distance. With any luck, she would find herself back in the original life soon enough.

-