Aboard the luxurious civilian VTOL, I had much to think about on the night flight from the marina to the apartment complex in Ar Telica.
My decision to live as Isabel, and to fight in the Gun Princess Royale as Mirai, weighed heavily upon my mind because it meant I was temporarily abandoning my quest to return to my old life.
But what else could I do?
My options were few if any, and I wasn’t in a position to fight back.
Moving forward in life as both Isabel and Mirai was the logical course of action, and in truth it wasn’t one that I’d taken lightly. It was strongly influenced by Clarisol’s declaration that my life as Ronin Kassius was a thing of the past – an assertion that was supported by Erina’s reaction when I questioned her back on the boat.
Granted, I wasn’t abandoning all hope, but I needed to face the prospect that I was indeed stuck as Mirai for the foreseeable future.
So what kind of life could I look forward to?
Feeling as though I was living minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, reluctant to think of what the sunrise would bring, should I even allow myself to ponder my future? Could I live as a girl? Was it something that would come to me both gradually and naturally now that I was inside Mirai’s female body and brain?
As the VTOL flew over the harbor waters, I looked out the window beside me.
The windows were treated with an anti-reflection coating that prevented them from reflecting the cabin’s softly lit interior. This allowed for a clear view of the harbor, its waters glistening with light from the city-state’s megascrapers adorning the shoreline and far beyond into the mainland.
By chance, my gaze floated over one of the three islands poking their heads above water. I didn’t think it was Telos Island that I saw, but the sight of that island was enough to send an anxious jolt through me as I considered the prospect of attending school as Isabel val Sanreal, and not as Ronin Kassius.
But was it something I should worry over?
Was it not the least of my problems?
That depressing line of thinking made me turn away from the window to regard the plush interior of the passenger cabin with its forward and reverse seating.
The VTOL was moth shaped, with six landing struts and wedge-shaped levitator wings fanning out from the dorsal superstructure. With a body that was thirty feet long, it had plenty of space for a lavishly appointed passenger cabin outfitted like a limousine with comfortable leather seating, wood paneling, climate control, and noise dampening for a whisper quiet ride.
While I appreciated being in the lap of luxury, I was bothered by the company I shared.
The Cat Princess, to whom Erina referred to as Akane, was sitting beside me to my right and facing forward. For now, her stun baton was clipped to her thigh, and the handgun she carried was holstered and hidden beneath the windbreaker jacket she wore. This was a different gun, not the heavy caliber hand-cannon she’d threatened me with back aboard the yacht, but a smaller sidearm she could easily conceal under her jacket.
That said, I wouldn’t call it a lady’s gun.
My sister, Erina, sat directly opposite me and faced the rear of the cabin with her eyes closed and her head resting back against the seat. She had changed her attire to an all-white affair – an ensemble of slim trousers, a blouse, blazer, and kitten sling backs. Once again, she looked resplendent. Should I say, worth a fortune? In fact, she looked so good my feelings soured into a gloomy mix that swirled around in my stomach and gave me a belly ache.
The last of my companions in the cabin was Doctor Umi Pearson, a slender young woman dressed in a business skirt-suit, and a long summer coat. She was attractive but not in an overly conspicuous way. Her blonde hair was tied into a tidy bun at the back of her head, and she wore thin spectacles that rested lightly on the bridge of her nose.
Pearson had been waiting for us at the marina’s wharf, standing by the boarding steps to the VTOL, and Erina had introduced her as a member of the team that gave birth to Mirai. When she offered me her hand in greeting, I found myself unable to accept it. Knowing she was amongst those responsible for the mess I was in made me glare at her with such intensity that she actually took a step back.
Now, she sat beside Erina, tapping away at a large magazine-sized tablet resting on her lap.
“This is her schedule,” she said, before handing the device to my sister.
By ‘her’ she obviously meant me, and my mood darkened.
Had she said ‘it’, I was fairly certain I would have lost my temper and punched her.
Erina blinked absently for a while then wordlessly received the tablet with both hands.
I watched my sister study the contents on display, then snidely asked, “Do you need a blood and urine sample?”
With her attention on the tablet, Erina barely shook her head as she replied, “No, we obtained those while you were unconscious.”
I frowned at her. “When I was unconscious?”
Erina glanced up at me. “You were unconscious when you arrived aboard the Sanreal Crest. Remember?”
Seated beside me, the Cat Princess yawned. “This was after I knocked you out.”
Indeed, I did remember that incident quite well – something I would rue for many days to come.
However, rather than pointlessly scowling at the mechanical girl who’d already turned away, I scowled at Erina instead. “You just can’t keep your hands off me, can you?”
“It was less trouble getting the samples that way.”
“How considerate of you,” I snarked back.
Just like Erina. Always so efficient. Minimum effort, maximum gain.
However, being treated like a lab rat rubbed me the wrong way, and I had to swallow my anger down twice before asking, “Won’t the samples be contaminated by the tranquilizer?”
“We factored that into the analysis,” Pearson nervously interjected, then seemed surprised at having spoken so she quickly clammed up.
I glowered at her. “You thought of everything, didn’t you? You must be very proud of yourself.” I applauded her. “So what’s next? Do you want me in a hamster wheel?”
Pearson shied back a little, but Erina exhaled unhappily as she resumed reading the reports displayed on the tablet. “Isabel, grow up.”
“Into someone like you? No, thank you. I’d rather jump out of this VTOL now.”
In the corner of my eye, I noticed the Cat Princess yawn again. “Eri, just say the word—”
“And you’ll what?” I cut her off. “You’ll shoot me?”
The Cat Princess tapped her stun baton. “No. I’ll shove this up your—”
“Just try it—!”
“That’s enough—both of you!” Erina cut in loud enough to surprise both the Cat Princess and I into silence. She placed the tablet on her lap as she regarded me with a stern light in her eyes. “You assured me you would behave.”
I quickly reviewed my conversations with her. “I don’t remember saying that.”
“Then will you behave? You do realize you can make this a lot easier on yourself.”
“You mean a lot easier on you.”
Erina exhaled wearily. “You’re going to give me gray hairs….”
“I’d say that’s the least of your worries.”
Perhaps someone up there was watching down on me. Maybe they were listening in too, because a moment later, the VTOL abruptly lurched with enough force to cause Erina to cry out in startled panic. Within a heartbeat, she was clutching at her armrest with white knuckles.
Puzzled by her reaction, I absently listened to the pilot’s languid voice intruding into the cabin.
“Apologies, ladies. We’re flying through mild turbulence over the city. ETA is nine minutes to the complex.”
The VTOL jumped again and soon we were all clutching at the armrests fitted to the cabin doors.
Mild turbulence, my ass!
Surprisingly, the Cat Princess and I agreed for once. “He calls this mild turbulence? I thought this Hawkmoth could fly through a hurricane?”
“It can,” Pearson replied while nervously staring up at the ceiling, “but the ride wouldn’t be pleasant.”
The Cat Princess narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Okay. Then how do we know he isn’t doing this on purpose just to stir us up?”
Erina and Pearson shared a thoughtful, worried look.
Realizing that she’d spiked their fears, the Cat Princess hastily backpedaled. “Hey, I was kidding. Just kidding.” However, after another unexpected bounce, she grumbled unhappily, “Maybe we should get some of the Empire’s tech into these things.”
The bumpy ride grew violent for a few moments before calming down.
I wondered if we’d flown through a storm and into the eye of a hurricane. However, the view outside the VTOL was clear with no sign of clouds or rain, and the night was brilliantly illuminated by Ar Telica’s towering megascrapers.
At one time they’d been referred to as mega skyscrapers because of their extraordinary size. But as these buildings became the norm across Teloria and other colonized worlds, they gradually came to be known as megascrapers for lack of a better name. Frankly, it was the kind of terminology that used without context was totally meaningless. Regardless, as I looked out the window, the city-state with its thousands of megascrapers appeared extraordinarily vivid to me.
The millions of lights dotting and dashing the surface of the buildings created a panoramic portrait painted in Morse code. It was a brilliant view that stole my breath, and for a long while I forgot all about my troubles as I stared in awe at the magnificent city sprawled out before me.
“…it’s beautiful…,” I whispered as though seeing Ar Telica for the first time in my life. Then my heart skipped a beat when it occurred to me that I owed this experience to Mirai’s exceptional night vision.
So this is what it’s like seeing through Mirai’s eyes.
The thought dampened my exhilaration for a second, and in that moment, I noticed my sister in the corner of my eye looking as pale as snow.
I turned to regard her properly as I abruptly remembered something of note.
“Are you…still afraid of flying?”
Erina glared at me and clenched her jaw as the craft jolted with enough force to make my hips ache.
“Hah,” I mocked her when the ride settled down once again. “You hated rollercoasters as well. I’d forgotten about that….”
Erina’s glare intensified but I met it with a smirk.
Sucks to be you, I mouthed at her, then noticed Pearson studying me keenly with her lips pursed. Irritated by her scrutiny, I considered glaring at her, but then decided she wasn’t worth the effort, so I turned away to stare out the window again.
The scenery far below prompted me to recount a piece of trivia I’d learnt long ago.
“Hey, Erina. Did you know that water landings are the safest?”
“Thank you for mentioning that,” she replied through clenched teeth.
“Well, you’re out of luck.” I pointed down at the city. “We’re over Ar Telica now.”
Indeed, beneath the VTOL, the roofs of the megascrapers seemed close enough to touch.
Seeing Erina’s sour expression, I mimed the VTOL falling to the ground like a wounded bird, and then exploding violently in a mushroom cloud…which is something a wounded bird wouldn’t do. However, that’s beside the point.
“You’re out of luck as well,” Erina remarked.
I shook my head. “No, I’m not. Have you forgotten? Mirai has wings, but you don’t—”
Oops!
As soon as I said it, I regretted it.
That was because Erina’s sour expression turned thoughtful, and to my chagrin, she appeared to forget all about her fears of dying in a fiery crash.
Bravo, Isabel. Bravo! That really worked out well!
Erina continued to contemplate me in silence for a while longer before giving Pearson a sidelong look. “What did the data reveal?”
Twisted minds must think alike because Pearson appeared to immediately understand what Erina was asking about.
“Nothing,” she answered and gently shook her head. “It’s as though it never happened.”
“Then what did we see?” Erina questioned her. “That wasn’t an illusion. Those were wings that enveloped her body.”
“She has no additional musculature in that region. Nothing to suggest that she could spontaneously grow a pair of wings out of her back. However, I can’t deny that something inexplicable took place.” Pearson hesitated as she took a breath. “But there is one thing we need to consider. Those wings were black. Not white.”
Erina nodded slowly. “Yes, they were….”
The silence that fell between them was like a curtain being drawn across the cabin, separating them from me.
However, that curtain of silence was brusquely thrown aside when the Cat Princess rather flippantly said, “Why don’t we push her out the door? Let’s see if she can really fly.”
Erina and Pearson appeared nonplussed by her suggestion, but after sharing another silent look, they turned to face me.
“Well?” Erina asked.
“Well, what?” I asked back.
“Care to give it a try?”
For a second, I doubted Mirai’s hearing. “Are you serious?”
“If your life is indeed in danger, then maybe we can trigger the same response as back then.”
I hated to admit it, but she had a point.
If the mysterious black Angel Wings believed I was in mortal danger, perhaps they would protect me like they had when I fought the Gun Queen of Ar Telica. If not for their intervention, that last explosion would have roasted me alive. However, I wasn’t chuffed about testing the notion solo, so I held out my right hand to Erina.
“Care to test that theory with me?”
“You’re a big girl. You can jump out on your own.”
I clamped my mouth shut as I wondered if she was being serious or not. This made me recognize the need to consider the situation carefully, and that meant I needed time to think it through.
Well, here goes, I thought to myself, then focused on overclocking my mind.
The problem was that I didn’t know how to trigger an overclocked state. On previous occasions it was something that simply happened in response to external stimuli, so how was I to trigger it now?
Looking down at the city scenery below, I forcefully imagined it slowing down but that had no effect on my mental clock speed.
Damn it—overclock. Overclock. Overclock!
Time continued striding forward at its normal pace.
I wondered if holding my breath would help.
Or perhaps I should find something else to focus on and throw all my concentration at it.
However, I soon admitted defeat.
Ah Hell! Fine! Better luck next time!
I wasn’t going to get those seconds back, and being eyeballed by Erina, Pearson, and the Cat Princess was making me feel claustrophobic.
Do they really need to stare at me so hard?
Ignoring them was impossible, but I tried nonetheless as I studied the buildings below the VTOL.
Ar Telica’s megascrapers had a large footprint at street level, but due to their pyramidal nature, their roofs weren’t as wide. That said, many of the buildings had very steep sides, so there wasn’t much difference in surface area between the ground and top floors. This improved my chances of landing on a building, rather than falling into the crevice between them.
I then considered the buildings ahead of us.
If the VTOL kept this course for another twenty odd seconds, we’d overfly a large megascraper with an Olympic sized pool on its roof. In the event Mirai didn’t sprout wings, perhaps I could live through a water landing. Improving my chances of survival was the fact that the VTOL had reduced its airspeed, probably adhering to some safety regulation when overflying a population center. However, not knowing the VTOL’s flight path presented a problem, especially if the craft banked away before it overflew that immense building with the pool. But if it held its course, then maybe – just maybe – I could splashdown safely.
Inhaling quickly, I made my decision.
“Fine.”
I unbuckled my belt then scooted to the edge of the seat to reach out for the door handle.
Glancing at Erina, I gave her a tight nod. “I’m game.”
Her eyes grew wide and she started to protest, but she was cut off by the Cat Princess.
“Get back in your seat, brat.” The mechanical girl unholstered her gun and aimed it at me. “And buckle up your belt.”
My attention was divided between her gun and the building with the Olympic pool. “This was your suggestion,” I reminded her.
“I was kidding. Now sit back.” She motioned me with the gun. “I ain’t got all night, brat.”
The VTOL would be over the building in a few seconds, so I squeezed the door handle to trigger the release mechanism, but when I tugged back on the door, it refused to slide open. I had expected as much, since there was a red light, not a green light, surrounding the door’s handle.
The Cat Princess sounded annoyed. “I’m not going to tell you again. Sit back and buckle up.”
I didn’t move.
Keeping my left hand on the handle, I continued to watch the Cat Princess and the building.
Seated to my right, she held the gun in her right hand and close to her chest. That made it harder for me to reach out and slap it away. But even if I could, there was the problem of having the gun accidentally fire. At best, the bullet would penetrate the fuselage and cause a minor decompression. At worst it would ricochet within the cabin and hit someone. I had no intention of being shot, and I wasn’t coldhearted enough to risk injury to Erina and Pearson – well, maybe Erina – so I had little choice but to comply.
And yet, I stubbornly refused to move as I met the Cat Princess’s glare.
“You shoot that thing in here, and there will be blood,” I told her.
Despite being a machine, the Cat Princess snorted in a very humanly fashion. “Relax. The bullets are electroshock rounds. They won’t kill you.”
That depended on whether she intended to turn me into a pincushion or not.
Electroshock rounds were shaped like short fat darts resembling the rocket ships from the silver screen of yesteryear. The kind that Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon would fly around in. Hence, they weren’t likely to penetrate the inner fuselage or bounce around. But an electroshock round discharging into the cabin was likely to cause a system failure or two within the VTOL.
Since we were flying thousands of feet above sea level, that wasn’t a good thing.
Unsurprisingly, I questioned the woman’s intelligence.
She’s a frekking idiot.
While arriving at that conclusion, I noticed the building with the pool disappear behind the VTOL. There was no longer any reason for me to jump out, so I calmly released the door handle and sat back in the seat.
Well, that’s that.
Erina cleared her throat audibly and then broke her silence. “Isabel, did you think I was being serious?”
“Honestly, I couldn’t tell.” After a bit of thought, I added, “But I’m inclined to think that you were.”
Hearing that seemed to wound her, and she grimaced ever so faintly.
“Have a little faith in me,” she said. “I have no intention of putting you in harm’s way.”
It was the perfect opportunity to remind her that I was an unwilling participant in the Gun Princess Royale. However, I chose not to because Erina would undoubtedly blame the Empress for my inclusion into the championship. Since I’d heard it before, I had no interest in listening to her sound like a broken record. Because of that, I turned my ire on the Cat Princess who continued holding me at gunpoint.
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“I’ve got one question for you,” I said to her.
“And what would that be?”
“Are you a guy or a girl?”
The Cat Princess froze. “Huh?”
“Are you a guy or a girl at the remote controls?”
Her eyes quickly widened in understanding. “Why the Hell are you asking me that?”
I shrugged lightly. “I’ve heard it’s common for male gamers to play with female avatars.”
Her mouth fell open in a very humanly way.
I finished off by asking, “Well? What are you? A man or a woman?”
Quietly closing her mouth, her expression darkened as she resumed glaring at me. When she took a deep, noisy breath through her nose, I could certainly see her chest swell up, so it made me wonder about her design. Was she a kind of infiltration model designed to pass as human? Why make something like her?
After another loud breath, she replied in a testy tone, “I’m a girl. Okay. You got that?”
“Prove it.”
The Cat Princess gave me a dumbfounded look before growing visibly angry.
Again, her reaction made it hard to believe that she was a machine, and not a young woman of flesh and blood.
“My name is Akane Straus. I’m a girl. In fact, I’m twenty-six years old. So you should be showing your elder some respect.”
“Twenty-six?” I frowned deeply at her. “Aren’t you a bit old to be calling yourself a girl?”
“What?”
“Never mind,” I muttered and dismissed her with a flippant wave.
“Hey, show me some respect,” she demanded but my attention had settled on Erina who was giving me an exhausted look.
“Got something to say?” I asked her in a challenging manner.
Erina closed her eyes and began rubbing her temples in silence.
Sitting beside her, Pearson had a puzzled frown crinkling her brow. While watching me, she half turned to Erina and cautiously asked, “I’m starting to wonder if the transfer worked. Perhaps the data was corrupted along the way.”
Erina rubbed her temples faster. “No, it worked….”
Pearson glanced at her, unconvinced. “Are you sure? Maybe I should review the data again—”
“It worked, Umi. It worked.”
“But I thought your brother was more—”
“More what?” Erina stopped rubbing her temples. “More what, Umi?”
Pearson inhaled deeply before releasing it in a rush. “I thought he was more compliant.”
Slowly opening her eyes, Erina gave Pearson a troubled look. “Compliant?”
The young woman nodded. “Yes.”
For a while, they regarded each other in silence, one looking anxious, the other thoughtful.
Eventually, Erina turned to stare at me. “Could it be…?” she whispered.
Pearson gently sighed. “Yes, something’s wrong.”
I couldn’t contain myself as my self-restraint snapped. “Hey, Glasses, of course something’s wrong! I’m a guy in a girl’s body all because of you and this megalomaniac.” I pointed accusingly at my sister.
Erina gave me a disapproving frown. “I am not obsessed with power.”
“Oh, really? From rags to riches, huh, Sis?”
My sister’s expression grew hard and sharp. “That’s enough.”
I crossed my arms, fully aware that doing so pushed up Mirai’s big breasts. “So, when do I get to meet this rich fiancé of yours?”
“When you learn to behave,” Erina curtly replied.
“Better make sure you put me in a lion’s cage, or you never know what might happen when I see him.”
I made clawing gestures at her before folding my arms again.
The Cat Princess snorted rudely. “Eri, put me in a cage with her. I’ll pull out her claws.”
“Why wait for a cage?” I retorted. “I’ll take you on here and now.”
She aimed her gun at me, frustratingly out of my reach. “And now the safety comes off.”
“Enough!” Erina yelled. “The two of you are seriously—!”
A frightened gasp burst out of her lungs as the VTOL bounced on touchdown.
Once again pale as snow, Erina clutched her armrest as the pilot reported, “Doctor Kassius, we’ve arrived.”
Briefly ignoring my travelling companions, I looked out the window and saw that the VTOL was resting on a landing platform atop a megascraper.
However, I had no idea where we were.
Obviously, this was Ar Telica, but which Habitation Ring and which district?
While I was wondering that, Erina had grabbed her head in her hands and sat motionless as though trying to compose herself.
Pearson sighed loud enough to be heard, then gently patted Erina’s back. “It’s all over now. We’re safe and sound.”
Annoyed, Erina scowled at her. “Umi!”
While watching them out of the corner my eye, I also watched a large, burly man wearing a ground crew jacket with fluorescent stripes approach the VTOL.
He quickly climbed up the steps to the craft, then slid open the cabin door beside Erina and I.
“Good morning, ladies. I trust you had a—” He stopped and stared at the four of us inside the cabin, particularly at Erina who was glaring while clutching her head. “Are you alright, Miss?”
Erina seemed to realize what she was doing.
Wiping the scowl from her face, she lowered her hands to her lap, then calmly asked, “Could you give us a moment?”
The man blinked erratically before eventually nodding. “As you wish, Miss—ah, but please be aware that we have another flight inbound. So please don’t take too long.”
Erina’s smile seemed exaggerated as though she’d simply meant to smile but ended up applying to much force behind it. “Thank you. This will only take a moment.”
The burly fellow sounded uncertain. “Ah, as you wish….”
He visibly hesitated before sliding the cabin door shut.
Through the window, I watched him descend the boarding steps. He walked away from the VTOL and met with his coworkers out on the landing platform. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their body language told me they were unhappy with the delay. Then I saw them joined by three young women of average height dressed in dark clothing – heeled boots, tight pants, black bomber jackets. They walked with measured strides and an uncanny economy of motion. Not machine like, but fluid and efficient.
The woman leading them drew my eye.
She was slender and wore her long hair in a ponytail that was blown about by the strong wind gusting over the landing platform. Maybe it was because of the surrounding floodlights, but I had the impression her dark hair had a bluish tint to it.
The crewmen tensed when she approached them, and after trading words with her, the burly man pointed in the direction of the VTOL’s cabin.
As she turned toward the craft, her face came into the light.
She was pretty – a real head turner – but that wasn’t what made my heart jump.
It was because our eyes met.
I knew that the cabin’s windows were designed to prevent outsiders from looking in, and yet I was utterly convinced she knew exactly where I was seated. More troubling, it implied that she’d deliberately sought me out with her eyes.
Did she ask the ground crew about me?
Captured by her gaze, I struggled to break free. But when I succeeded, I ended up facing the interior of the cabin where Erina was once again cradling her head.
Pearson resumed patting my sister’s back. “Eri? Are you all right?”
“Do I look all right?” my sister mumbled as she stared at the cabin floor.
“I’ll admit the flight was rough—”
“The flight?” Erina swiftly raised her head and stared at Pearson in disbelief. “You think the flight did this to me?”
Pearson searched Erina’s face for a long while, then glanced at the Cat Princess and I before giving her a weak, uncertain smile. “What if you think of them this way?”
“What way?”
“Think of them as two teenage girls who need parental guidance.”
Erina’s eyes narrowed into thin slights. “Then do you want to take over?”
Pearson visibly flinched. “Um…you know that I have trouble with children. I can barely handle my nieces and they’re not even teenagers yet.”
“Yes, I’ve seen how they run circles around you.”
She flinched again but then brightened as she struck upon an idea. “Why don’t we hand them over to Celeste? She’s good with mind games. I’m sure she can tame them.”
I butted in to ask, “Who’s Celeste?”
Erina glanced at me and replied, “You’ll meet her soon enough.”
“Ah huh. And what if I don’t want to?”
The Cat Princess had been quiet for an inordinate length of time, but unfortunately that ended when she angrily exclaimed, “Why the Hell are you treating me like her? I’m not a kid, damn it!”
Erina’s attention swung onto her. “Not a kid? Not a kid? Are you serious? Can you even hear yourself now?”
“Hey—!”
“Akane, you sound like a petulant little child! For the love of the gods, act your damn age! You’re the leader of Team Novis. How the Hell do you expect to take charge if you can’t control yourself? You’re acting like you used to back in high school after you lost your—”
Erina abruptly stopped and grew pale.
At that moment, I wondered if I’d almost heard something I wasn’t supposed to.
With that in mind, I peeked out the corner of my eye at the Cat Princess.
She wore a wounded look, yet after schooling her expression, she meekly nodded. “…fine, I get it….”
The strained, awkward atmosphere between them wasn’t lost on me.
It was indeed worthy of exploring, but I would have to wait because Erina then turned her sights on me.
“I will box you. Is that clear?” she said in cold tone that instantly rubbed me the wrong way.
“Box me?” I asked her with freshly simmering anger.
“I don’t care what happens. I don’t care how hard it makes things for you or anyone else—including me. But if you don’t behave, I swear to the gods I will box you. And you know what that will mean for you….”
Her voice trailed away as though carried off by a cold wind, and my anger cooled a little as I suspected her threat was real.
I imagined Ghost shaking his head at me, reminding me not to be foolish. For that matter, I hadn’t heard a peep from him. However, leaving him aside, I decided to swallow down my anger.
“Fine,” I muttered. “I’ll behave. For now—”
“Not for now!” Erina shouted. “Forever! Do you hear me! You will learn to act your age and behave like a lady of proper standing. Is that clear!”
I frowned at my sister who was trembling with overflowing rage because I couldn’t remember ever seeing her this furious. However, I just couldn’t stop from pointing out, “Proper standing? Me? Are you frekking serious—?”
“Isabel!”
“Okay. Okay.” I threw up my hands in surrender. “I get it. I’ll be good. For now.”
“Isabel!”
“For now!” I yelled back at her with sudden, barely restrained fury.
Pearson gasped and her eyes suddenly widened to the size of platters. “Oh, my gods!”
Her startled reaction cut through my anger, and I stared at her in confusion, wondering why she was gaping at me until I noticed the dark locks of hair framing my face.
I changed again?
Pearson palmed her chest, but the shock she’d demonstrated quickly turned to curiosity. “Is that it?” She didn’t dare take her eyes off me as she nudged at Erina’s left shoulder with a hand. “Eri, I know you asked me to look into it, but you never told me it was like this.” Her gaze grew more intense. “It’s amazing. It’s a like chameleon’s defensive response.”
At first, I was annoyed she was comparing me to a lizard, but then I realized her analogy was wrong.
Whenever I transformed, my senses sharpened, and I could see with unparalleled clarity. I could also see the lifeforce radiating from living entities, such as the golden aura that surrounded Erina and Pearson. However, the way my senses levelled up didn’t feel like a defensive response. Rather, it felt like Mirai was readying herself for battle – jumping to Red Alert or Condition One.
That was my take on Mirai’s transformation, but I chose to keep it to myself.
Let her think what she wants, I decided inwardly.
Pursing my lips, I quietly weathered the silent scrutiny from Erina and Pearson.
As for the Cat Princess, she was watching me intently with gun in hand, though oddly, she wasn’t aiming it my way.
It did make me wonder what she was thinking.
Meanwhile, Pearson’s gaze had started roaming over me. “What do you think, Eri?”
Erina was staring at me with concern. “I don’t know. I don’t know what that is. For all we know, it could be a dark side of her personality manifesting itself.”
“A dark side?” Pearson whispered, then her eyes brightened with a sudden passion that made me glare at her. “We need to examine her immediately.” Catching my glare, she hesitated before weakly asking Erina, “Do you think she’ll co-operate?”
“Co-operate?” It took a few moments for Erina to realize what Pearson was asking her. Then with a heavy sigh, she shook her head. “We’re not examining her now. Later, but not now.”
They were discussing me like a science project, and it was stirring up a fresh batch of anger within me. Thus distracted, I failed to notice that someone had come up to the cabin door until it was shoved open with a loud bang.
Mirai had already levelled up, but now she instantly overclocked.
I couldn’t help feeling a tad resentful.
When I needed her to speed up her brain, she’d stubbornly refused me.
That said, overclocking gave me time to evaluate the situation.
First, I realized the door had been slammed aside by the girl with the long ponytail who was now standing on the top step outside the VTOL’s cabin.
Secondly, and more importantly, overclocking allowed me to restrain Mirai’s reflexive impulse to lash out after being taken by surprise. If I hadn’t held her back, a single powerful kick from Mirai would have sent the young woman flying through the air.
Seemingly oblivious to all this, the girl swept her gaze over the cabin’s occupants.
Under the cabin lights, I saw that her hair did indeed have a blue sheen to it. She was also a lot prettier up close, but her expression was so stern that it detracted from her beauty.
After giving Pearson and the Cat Princess a cursory look – though she did seem to notice the latter’s gun – she turned her attention upon me.
As our eyes met, a faint shiver ran through me.
It was most puzzling.
I wasn’t afraid of this young woman, and I didn’t feel drawn to her either, but then I was even more confused when realizing that shiver had come Mirai.
However, I didn’t get to dwell on it.
The brunette – or should I say blue-nette – regarded me for a second or two, before addressing Erina in a cold tone that put my sister’s best to shame.
“Doctor Kassius, is there a problem?”
Seriously, she sounded so cold she frosted the air inside the cabin.
I glimpsed Erina stiffen as she stared back at the young woman. “Excuse me?”
“I asked, is there a problem, Doctor?”
Listening to her, I truly believed she held Erina in respectful contempt.
I looked over at my sister who returned the contempt with faintly veiled disdain. “If there’s a problem, I’ll let you know.”
“Then if there’s no problem would you care to disembark? There’s another flight coming in and you’re hogging the landing pad.”
She didn’t wait for Erina to reply.
Turning with eye tricking speed that made her ponytail scythe through the air like a scimitar, the young woman jumped down from the boarding steps, and then calmly walked away with a sexy, feline grace.
I stared at her retreating back in genuine awe.
Wow. Who the Hell is she?
Despite the wind and the sounds of the city drifting into the cabin, I nonetheless heard Erina swear under her breath.
“…bitch….”
However, that wasn’t all. The Cat Princess sounded clearly unnerved when she muttered, “Shit, I didn’t know she’d be here….”
My gaze followed the woman with the ponytail as she walked across the landing platform toward a plush waiting lounge enclosed in a transparent permaglass shell.
The golden aura surrounding her body told me she was human, unlike the orange aura of the two girls who joined her inside the enclosure, and judging by her countenance, she seemed to be someone in authority with little respect for Erina.
All this piqued my interest in her even more.
However, I didn’t get the chance to ask because the burly ground crewman who’d first opened the door once again climbed up to the VTOL’s cabin. This time he leaned in, and his voice carried a hint of urgency.
“Miss, I’m sorry for rushing you but we really need to clear the pad.”
Erina’s shoulders rose and fell heavily as she sighed deeply, then nodded equally so. “Yes, we understand. My apologies.”
The crewman pushed the door aside the rest of the way, fully exposing the cabin’s flank. Erina was then the first to alight from the VTOL, and she graciously accepted the man’s helping hand as she descended the handful of steps to the landing platform.
I waved off his help when I followed Erina out of the cabin.
The Cat Princess climbed out close behind me, with Pearson bringing up the rear.
There were other ground crew on the platform. Both politely and urgently, they ushered us away from the parked VTOL to the enclosed waiting lounge that occupied a corner of the landing pad.
The two Simulacra women who’d joined the girl with the ponytail were waiting for us outside the entrance like sentries on guard duty.
However, there was no sign of the human girl.
Through the lounge’s transparent walls, I could see it was deserted, so perhaps she had entered the megascraper through the connecting permaglass tunnel. But not knowing where she was, coupled with Mirai’s puzzling reaction to her, now made me distinctly uneasy.
I decided to be on guard.
That is to stay, I decided to be a little extra wary of my surroundings.
The Simulacra women silently followed our group into the lounge after which they kept their distance while watching me with unreadable expressions.
I stared back at them, studying their appearance.
Aside from dressing alike, both women wore their dark brown hair at shoulder length.
They appeared to be in their early twenties but were undoubtedly much younger since Erina had once told me that Simulacra had short lifespans.
I also noticed the sisterly resemblance between them.
Did that imply they were from the same production batch?
I knew nothing about how Simulacra were produced, so I decided to ask Ghost about that later.
For now, I chose to see just how approachable they were.
Cocking my head at them, I cleared my throat before asking, “Where’s the other one?” Waving a hand behind my head, I added, “The girl with the ponytail. Is she your boss? Where did she go?”
My questions were met with stony silence.
I smiled thinly as I wet my lips, then smoothly turned Mirai’s body toward them.
“You know…it’s rude not to answer a lady.”
Their stance shifted a second later. A distinct readiness to move in a heartbeat seemed to flow through them. However, something flowed through Mirai as well – an eagerness to do battle – and for a heartbeat, I found it distracting.
Strange…I don’t think I’ve felt this from her before…why now?
“Isabel.” Erina’s voice called out to me from nearby. “Stop antagonizing them.”
I angled my head slightly to peer at her out of the corner of my eye. “Rudeness begets rudeness—”
I was cut off by a low-pitched roar that rumbled through the air and rushed into the waiting lounge through the open doors. It was silenced when the doors closed, but by then I’d turned to watch the moth-shaped VTOL out on the landing pad.
The craft angled its levitator fins downward, revved up its engines further which caused the permaglass walls of the lounge to vibrate faintly, then smoothly bounded into the air. Once airborne, the VTOL spread its fins wide and gracefully banked southward while continuing to accelerate away from the building.
As my gaze followed it across the sky, I ended up looking out over the city, and for a short while I forgot about the insolent Simulacra women as I was once again swept up in the magnificent vista before me.
Not counting the recent scenic flight aboard the VTOL, and the few occasions I’d visited Ar Telica Tower’s observation deck, it was rare for me to see the city from this height.
Nor was the view from my dormitory as grand as what I now beheld.
From its vantage on a corner of the landing pad, the waiting lounge treated me to the resplendent panorama of Ar Telica at midnight.
Oh…wow….
While a majority of the city’s buildings were steep sided pyramids with flat tops, a great many were towering, knife-like megascrapers with permaglass exteriors. Others resembled giant spinnakers made of glass. The variety didn’t stop there and when combined with the clarity with which Mirai saw the world, the diverse architecture made for an eclectic skyline that was brilliant and mesmerizing.
I swallowed distractedly, consumed by the spectacle of buildings and lights before me.
However, after quietly basking in the city’s beauty for a short while, I came to my senses and asked myself a very important question.
Where the Hell am I?
The building appeared to be located close to the harbor’s shoreline. Therefore, we were somewhere in the city’s Ring Zero, with the harbor waters to the east, and a thousand more megascrapers to the north, south, and west.
Looking eastward over the harbor, I saw the city lights undulating with the waves, and my gaze travelled along the bridge connecting the shore to Telos Island. Shrunk by distance, the academy’s buildings resembled miniatures illuminated by tiny rooftop floodlights.
To be honest, I was tired of seeing the school by night.
It did nothing but stir up unpleasant memories that soured my feelings from corner to corner.
In short, the city lost its sparkle after I laid eyes on Telos Academy.
Feeling robbed, I turned around and found myself looking at the enormous building the VTOL had delivered us to.
From what I could see through the lounge’s transparent canopy, the megascraper was an octagonal, steep sided pyramid with an Aztec flair. Given the average height of the buildings around us, it was probably around two hundred stories high. If this was a residential complex, then I assumed the top floors would be home to palatial apartments, far, far larger than the rudimentary, yet cozy apartment I used to share with Erina when we were younger.
Remembering those simpler times, nostalgia pricked at my heart, and I unintentionally met my sister’s gaze.
Erina was watching me in studious silence.
I stared back without flinching, but I grew bitter and resentful the longer I looked at her.
I was on the verge of turning away when Erina calmly beckoned me to follow her. The casual gesture irritated me, and I momentarily considered making a run for it, but how far would I get? Thus with little recourse, I unwillingly fell into step behind her and Pearson as they walked through waiting lounge to a tunnel that connected it to the megascraper.
Sensing the Cat Princess slip in behind me, I felt a little crowded, so I threw her a warning over a shoulder. “Wanna give me a little room?”
She warned me in reply. “Why? Are you thinking of running away?”
I snickered at her. “What? You gonna miss me if I do?”
Glancing behind her, I saw the two Simulacra women trailing closely at the rear of the procession.
I really don’t like those two, I decided, then once more uneasily wondered where the young woman with the ponytail had ventured off to.
Addressing the Cat Princess, I bluntly asked her, “Who was that chick with the ponytail?”
“That chick?” She narrowed her eyes at me in reproach. “Have you forgotten that you’re a chick too? Show a little respect.”
“Yeah, whatever. So do you know her or not?”
“If you’re going to ask me something, say the magic word,” she snapped.
“The magic word? Oh, right.” I stopped walking, then turned around to face her. “Do you know her or not, Bitch?”
A pair of feline ears suddenly popped up on her head.
I was faintly surprised to realize she’d been hiding them within her long platinum hair. It certainly explained why the ground crewmen hadn’t noticed her cat ears when she stepped down from the VTOL. Then again, they could have assumed she was wearing a cosplay headband.
For a long while the Cat Princess stood completely still, except for her ears twitching madly as she glowered at me, but then she whipped out her gun in the blink of an eye.
I wasn’t conscious of overclocking of my own volition – especially since I didn’t know how to trigger it – so I assumed it was Mirai who shunted my awareness into an accelerated state. But now that I was overclocked, I watched in slow motion as the Cat Princess levelled the gun at my face.
A split second later, the two Simulacra women behind her stepped apart. Giving themselves room, they reached behind their backs and retrieved small handguns that they swiftly aimed my way, yet like the Cat Princess, their movements appeared sluggish to me.
In any case, whether slow or not, I soon had three guns pointed at me.
The ball was now in my court, so what was I to do?
Wisecrack, of course.
I grinned at the glowering Cat Princess. “You know, all this attention is making me blush.”
“Really? It’s hard to tell since I’m seeing red right now.”
“Oh, shucks. Did I get to you?”
She lowered the gun slightly to point the muzzle at my throat. “They say people turn blue when they can’t breathe. Let’s see what color you turn.”
“Isabel! Akane! That’s enough.” Erina’s voice cut sharply through the air. When neither of us moved, she heatedly shouted, “I said that’s enough!”
From the sound of her voice, I placed Erina at ten or twelve feet away to my seven o’clock. Being able to do so wasn’t something I was accustomed to, but I didn’t have the luxury to explore this talent further – at least not for the moment – because my attention was squarely centered on the Cat Princess while acutely aware of the two women behind her.
As I stared back at the mechanical girl, I pondered the likelihood of taking her down.
Not a chance.
I arrived at that dismal conclusion in a heartbeat.
Taking on the Cat Princess was one thing, but I suspected the two Simulacra women wouldn’t hesitate to open fire on both of us, and I had no idea what type of ammo was loaded into their guns. Maybe I could use the Cat Princess as a shield, but that was unlikely unless I could I overpower her.
Nope. Not a chance.
I will admit that without the Princess Regalia, I felt rather naked in this situation.
I also wondered if I’d pushed things a little too far.
I was willing to retreat, but unwilling to show weakness in front of the Cat Princess or the two Simulacra women seemingly backing her up.
With a faint chuckle, I slowly retreated a step while coolly raising my hands in surrender. “I’ll give you this round, Kitty Cat.”
“You really don’t know when to shut up, do you?” she remarked, the glare on her face undiminished.
“Isabel,” Erina called out to me. “Walk away now.”
Turning my back on someone pointing a gun at me – let alone three people – was not something I was willing to do, and the faint tingling sensation between my shoulder blades made me suspect that Mirai was of the same mind. Hence, after backing away another small step, I came to a stop. “That’s not happening until they put their guns away.”
The Cat Princess’s gaze flicked over my right shoulder, undoubtedly glancing at Erina standing a short distance behind me.
“Akane.” Erina sounded as though her patience had worn thin. “Don’t debase yourself. You’re better than her.”
Ouch, I winced inwardly. I’ll make you regret that since you made me this way, you conniving bitch.
After hesitating for a couple of seconds, the Cat Princess lowered her gun a few inches, pointing it at my chest this time. “Maybe I should shoot you anyway. Just to see how many shock rounds you can take before you pass out. I think that’ll be good to now. Don’t you agree, Erina?”
I started to retort with another wisecrack, but then swallowed it down when it became apparent that she wasn’t kidding.
She really was intent on shooting me.
In that moment, I dropped my confident façade.
Hardening my gaze, I stared straight into her lifelike eyes and met her threat with a threat of my own.
“You shoot me and I’ll make you regret it. I’ll find the real you, and I’ll repay you in kind.” I took a long step closer to her. It was a risk, but I took it nonetheless. “So if you’re going to point a gun at me, think it over.”
Beside and behind her, the two Simulacra women raised their weapons a little higher, and I tensed up in anticipation. Mirai’s abnormally wide field-of-vision allowed me to see them clearly without having to shift my gaze away from the Cat Princess. It also allowed me to give the impression that I was ignoring them, though that was quite far from the truth. However, I’d proverbially locked horns with the Cat Princess, and I wasn’t going to back down. So for a long, long while neither one of us gave away an inch as we glared at each other in silence.
“You’ll find the real me?” she asked before nodding faintly as though half to herself. “I’ll keep that mind.”
I kept my breathing steady as I waited for her to make her move.
Having a gun pointed at my chest from a foot away, all my senses were balanced on a razor’s edge, and Mirai’s body felt like a coil ready to spring at the drop of a pin. I’d already decided that I would slap the gun aside, but the problem was what to do about the two Simulacra women. Not knowing their specs – what they were physically capable of – made it hard to plan a contingency against them.
In short, they were an unknown that really put me on my back foot.
A sudden soft click reached my ears but not before I saw the Cat Princess flick her gun’s safety upwards.
Truthfully, I only noticed it because of Mirai’s preternaturally sharp vision.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t certain if the safety was On because different guns had different thinking behind their designs. For some, it was up, while for others it was down. Thus, I decided to play it cool and continued eyeballing the Cat Princess as though nothing had changed. However, because I was staring at her so hard, I saw something about her avatar that took me by surprise.
It wasn’t that she was breathing.
No, it was the fact that she was moving.
No matter how skilled or trained, no one can remain perfectly still. Muscles are constantly expanding and contracting, our hearts are beating, and the flow of blood within our bodies adds to a cyclical rhythm of movement. In other words, even if we try to stay completely motionless while holding our breaths, we are still moving minutely.
A machine should be different.
Turn off the engine. Switch off the power. Lock all the servos. No movement. But that wasn’t the case for the Cat Princess, and I found this fascinating, disturbing, and ultimately distracting because I was late to notice that she was grinning at me.
“You bring out the worst in me,” she muttered with forced cheer. “You bring out the worst in everyone.”
A couple of seconds later, she smoothly holstered the gun within the folds of her jacket.
I felt like punching her across the lounge for that remark.
Some people won’t recognize they’re part of the problem – or the problem – even if it was beaten into them. The Cat Princess, Erina, Pearson – that’s the sort of people they were. In their minds, I was the root of their troubles and no amount of convincing would make them understand otherwise. It frustrated and sickened me, and it took a fair amount of willpower not to clench my hands into a fist and sock her under her chin.
The only thing holding me back were the two guns that remained pointed at me.
Yet while they may have stopped me from striking the Cat Princess, they failed to keep my mouth shut.
“Then we’re two peas in a pod,” I quipped while icily grinning back at her, “since you bring out the worst in me too.”
Maybe she read the silent rage I was projecting behind my grin, because she snorted softly at me. Jerking her chin in the direction behind me, she bluntly commanded, “Get moving. We don’t have all morning.”
I shook my head slowly, and for the first time in a long while, I pointedly looked at the two women targeting me. “I’m not moving until they—”
At that moment, they both cocked their heads in unison.
It was a slight movement, one that Ronin’s eyes would have missed. However, Mirai’s keen vision caught it, and shortly afterwards I watched them holster their weapons behind their backs.
Are they communication with each other…or with someone else?
If it was the latter, then could it be the young woman with the ponytail? If so, then it implied I was being watched.
Slowly turning in a half circle, I looked around in the interior of the waiting lounge.
If she was using thermoptic gear, like the Cat Princess had employed back on the island and aboard the rescue ship, then she would be almost invisible to me until she chose to move. That was because thermoptic camouflage worked great when you were still, but not so great when you were in motion. That said, she wouldn’t be able to hide her radiant aura from Mirai, and after sweeping my gaze cautiously over my surroundings, I failed to see any hint of her lifeforce.
Realizing I should have done that first, I chided myself for being so shortsighted.
My failing left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Swallowing it down, I hid my feelings from the Cat Princess behind a thin, taunting smile, then quickly switched to an innocent expression as I turned around to face Erina.
“Well?” I asked her. “Lead the way.”
The look on her face said it all.
Had I been standing within arm’s reach, I’m certain that Erina would have slapped me.