“Marie, do me a favor. Bring Hammer over here,” Aeon says.

“Okay.” She goes behind the counter to do just that.

“Is there anyone else that’s been injured?”

“Hm…” John scans the crowd. Nobody seems to respond. “I don’t think so. This is it, probably.”

“Alright. Sakura,” he calls out to the girl, “You stand close, as well. This will only take a moment.”

“Um, okay.”

“Good.” Aeon closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. As he does this, I see the light around him again. Somehow, I can feel that something in the air has changed. “Golden Grimoire, answer me! Lend us thy power!”

“W-what?” Now I’m lighting up. No, not just me. Marie, Hammer, and Sakura have that same light, as well. I don’t understand what’s happening. Whatever that change in the air was, there’s more of it, now. A certain, indescribable something, in and around my entire body. It only lasts for a brief moment. Then, along with the light, it is suddenly gone.

“There we go,” Aeon says, looking at everyone, smiling.

“Man, I’ll never get used to that,” Hammer says, getting up off of the ground. “Thanks again, Aeon. I’m gonna owe you big time, man.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Aeon says, with a chuckle.

“So, uh, yeah… what happened, Aeon?” I ask.

“Can’t you tell, Solo?” Aeon points to his head. I find myself mimicking him, and only now do I understand what he’s saying. “See? You aren’t hurt anymore.”

“Hm, yeah.” He’s correct. There’s no blood, and I don’t feel any pain. How, though? There’s no way I could have been treated so quickly and so well, right? “Did… did you do that, Aeon?” I find myself looking at him, my eyes wide with wonder. “How did you make that happen?”

“We’ll have to talk about that later.”

Hammer dusts himself off and goes back behind the counter. When he notices that we are all staring at him, he shrugs. “What? I gotta get back to business, people!”

Most of the people in the crowd must have known that was directed at them, because right after he said that, they started to disperse. I hear some of what they’re talking about.

“Holy shit, did you see that!?”

“There are people out here who can stand up to the Angels and live!”

“Boy am I glad I got assigned to #616! We’re in for one hell of a show!”

People are saying things like that as they walk away.

“I, uh… hope we haven’t attracted too much attention to ourselves,” John says, scratching his head.

Hammer clears his throat loudly.

“O-oh, right!” Aeon walks up to the counter, remembering what we came here to do in the first place. Hammer hands him something.

“This is his new Personal Card,” Hammer says, briefly glancing at me, then looking back at Aeon as he continues speaking. “Should be fully functional, and I got him the usual hundred stars.”

“Hundred stars?” I ask.

“Currency. Money. When you get to the Proving Grounds, everyone starts with 100.”

“Is a hundred a lot?”

“It’s barely anything,” Aeon says, chuckling awkwardly.

“It could buy you a few Nanomates, at least,” Marie adds. “Those will probably come in handy if you decide you want to keep fighting.”

“Yeah, I know it’s not a lot, sorry,” Hammer says, adjusting his glasses. “I would try for more if I could, but if any more than the default amount goes on to a fresh card, it gets to look suspicious. I can’t have too many people knowing what I’m up to in here.”

“That seems like it makes sense,” I say. “It’s alright, Hammer, I understand.”

“Glad you can see it my way. Don’t worry, though, I’m sure if you stick with these guys, they won’t let you go completely poor.”

Aeon finally hands me the new card. “Remember to be careful with this. If you lose it, we’ll have to do this all over again.”

“Heh. Don’t worry, I got it.” I put the card in my pocket.

“Well, it’s been nice doing business with you, bro. If you’ve ever got more tech you want messed with, you know who to come to.”

“Yup. Thanks, Hammer,” I say, waving goodbye. “Peace.” With that, I go walking out of Armitage with everyone else.

And right outside, someone is waiting for us.

“Sakura?”

She’s just standing there, next to the car.

“First of all, I want to thank the four of you for saving my life.” She bows. I don’t know if that’s normal around here or what, so I just try to roll with it. “Christina definitely would have killed me if you hadn’t shown up. I owe you one.”

“Meh. Think nothing of it,” says John.

“Second, I would like to talk to you,” she says, as she points directly at John, “if you don’t mind, that is.”

John seems to be thinking over something right now. Whatever it is, he hasn’t said anything about it to us, yet.

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“Hm… yeah, that’s fine. We’ll talk on our way to our next destination.” John says, now looking at Aeon, then Marie, then me. “Which is…?”

“Marie,” I say, “you mentioned, what was it, Nanomates, earlier?”

“Right.”

“What exactly are they?”

“They’re…” Marie brings a hand to her chin while she thinks. “…do you know what nanomachines are?”

“I can guess.”

“Nanomates are like med kits, but instead of being an actual set of medical supplies, they’re packages of small nanomachine colonies that do the medical work for you, and do it very quickly, too. Again, they’ll be very convenient to have.”

“Sounds nice. Where can we buy some of those?”

“There’s a pharmacy right next to West District Hospital where we could make such a purchase.”

“Alright.” I turn to John again. “Could we drive there next?”

“Sounds good to me. Everyone, get in the car.”

John is now driving us to the pharmacy as I asked. I’m in the back seat with Aeon and Marie. It’s a tight fit with the three of us back here, but it can’t really be helped. We all felt it would be best if Sakura got to sit in the front seat, since she wants to talk to John about something, after all.

“Funny how we just so happened to run into each other, huh, Sakura?”

Awkward silence.

“Hyuga,” Sakura says, eventually, “what are you doing out here?”

“Same thing as anyone else here, proving myself.” He laughs, probably aware that everyone in the car knows this is a lie. “Well, anyway, I’m not ‘Hyuga’ to the people here. I go by ‘John’, now.”

“’John?’” she echos.

“John Ricdeau.”

“Ooh, so it’s like that, hm? Well, good to meet you again, John.”

“Likewise,” replies John.

“You know this girl, John?” I ask.

“Only a little bit. I was more familiar with her father, Doctor Tsubasa.”

“Doctor Tsubasa?”

“He was a scientist who worked for the Metal Star Empire. When I met him, though, he was hoping to defect to the Earth Nations Alliance with his wife and his daughter, Sakura. Before he got a chance to anything, however, they…”

“W-what happened?” I ask, though I can already feel, to some extent, what the answer is.

“The Empire had father assassinated,” Sakura says. “As soon as word got out that he was going to try to leave, a hit squad was sent after him, and he was gunned down.”

“Damn!” I thought it’d be something like that. Why did they have to kill him? It’s so unfair. “I’m sorry, Sakura.”

“Don’t worry,” she says, wiping her tears away.

“So, why are you here, again, Sakura?” John asks. “You haven’t turned 16 already, have you?”

“No, I’m only 14 years old. Still, mother said that I should be here,” Sakura says, feeling a bit uncertain about that. “She said that I was ready for the Proving Grounds, even though it’s a bit earlier than everyone else.”

“What do you think? Have you been handling yourself out here alright?”

“It’s been kind of difficult. I know how to use Aether, but I’m not a great fighter, and I don’t really have any other useful skills. I feel like I’ve been spending most of my time running away from any danger.”

John lets out a sigh. Is he going to ask her what I think he’s going to ask her? “Well, Sakura, I wish I could tell you that you’ll be safe with our group, but we might actually end up putting you in even more danger.” I can hear him hesitating as he speaks. Can’t say I blame him. Still, considering what we have to do, even I feel like there might not be another choice. “I lied to you, Sakura. Sorry. I do have my own goal that I’m shooting for, here. I’m trying to take Nero out.”

“R-really!?”

“Everyone else in this car is on board with it,” John says, managing to still sound calm. “If you don’t want any part of this, I can let you out of the car right now and we’ll forget all about this. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to get involved.”

For a long while, Sakura goes silent, perhaps thinking it over in her head. It’s at this moment that I realize that not only me, but Aeon and Marie also seem to be pretty curious as to how she will respond.

“I’m already involved,” Sakura says, finally. “Christina attacked me because I wanted to try and save Hammer from her. The Angels don’t forget about stuff like that.”

“Are you so certain?” John asks. “It could be that you might get off easy since you’re one of the younger ones here. Would you be okay with throwing yourself into more danger alongside us, when that chance exists?”

“I have a feeling that it doesn’t,” Sakura says, sadly. “It’s not the Imperial way to spare an enemy, no matter what. I should know that much.” A heavy atmosphere presses down on us.

John takes a deep breath. “So that’s how it’ll be, then? Will you join us in fighting back against Nero Regal?”

“It only makes sense,” she replies. “You and your friends have saved me, already. I must repay you for the help I’ve been given, and, I wouldn’t want for you and your friends to get hurt anymore. If you’re going to risk your life doing this, it’s not fair for me to silently stand by. I’ll help in any way I can.”

“Well, I guess I can’t convince you to just go back to hiding, huh? Besides, we’re gonna be needing more help to beat Nero, anyway.” I can tell John’s pride might be a little hurt asking Sakura for that help, though. “Alright, then, welcome aboard. Just like you’ll be helping us, We’re gonna look out for you, too, okay?”

“Yeah!”

“Good.” John pulls over. “Yep, this is the place, Solo.”

“Cool, thanks.” Since I’m sitting on the right, I can get out of the car pretty easily. “Oh, Aeon? Are you getting out, too?”

“Uh huh,” He says, climbing out through my side after me. “There are a few things that I’d like to buy here, as well.”

“Well, now that you mention it, I should look inside, as well.” Marie gets out into the street, but quickly makes her way to the sidewalk with Aeon and I.

John sighs. Was my desire to shop contagious or something? “Yeah, I guess everyone’s getting out.” He undoes his seat belt. “Sakura?”

“Hm, yeah, me, too.” Now, Sakura is exiting the car.

Now that we’re all standing on the sidewalk, there’s something of an awkward silence between us. Well, not completely silent, mind you. Other cars continue roaring down the street. Other people are walking around us, murmuring about this or that.

“Well, you all know who I am, but I feel I should properly introduce myself, regardless.” I think this is the first time I’ve seen her smile. “I am Sakura Tsubasa, 14 years old. I’ll be counting on you from now on, but I also want to help in any way I can.” Again, she bows. Again, I wonder if it’s normal. “I look forward to it.”

“Pleased to meet you, Sakura. I’m Aeon. This is…”

“Marie. Thank you for joining with us.”

“And I’m Solo, the Mystery Man. I’ll need all the help I can get, so I’m glad to have you here, as well.”

Sakura tilts her head. “’Mystery Man?’”

“Wha—oh, that’s right, you don’t know, yet,” John says. “Solo here’s got amnesia; he can’t remember much of anything.”

“You lost your memory? Oh, that can’t be good.”

“Well,” I say, with a shrug, “for now, I’ll just take things one step at a time. Eventually, I’m sure I’ll get somewhere.”

“Yeah, I hope so, for your sake,” Sakura says.

“Anyway, I think we’ve stood around long enough,” John says. Let’s get to shopping.”

“Yup. Gotcha.” With that, alongside John, Aeon, Marie, and Sakura, I go walking into the pharmacy.