Elvira dipped her knees, leaning slightly ahead and holding her hand in a pinched half turn, then released her tech. Quick as a blink she found herself adjacent to the tip of a wall six times her height. She mostly didn’t slam any part of her body into it as she hoisted herself into a perch on top. She swiveled gracefully to her butt, then looked down, releasing a deep breath.

That was the tenth time in a row she didn’t end up toppling to the ground. A new record. It was very good progress, she had to admit, though a great many parts of her were too flush with anxiety about how far she had to go to be impressed by the comparatively minuscule distance she’d gone.

She was now up to two techs, each around the level of a Nova second year. That is to say, a twelve year old. If she wanted to do even something as simple as a precise dash, she’d need to learn a skill called ‘tech virtualization’. She wasn’t sure what that entailed, but it took at least a year, and apparently meant she had to take up painting.

She laughed, trying to wash out a bitter feeling. When she asked Li to help her develop a High Jump this morning, she actually briefly entertained the notion she was making real progress. Part of her wanted to curl up on top of this wall and hope the school forgot about her.

She sighed, pushed herself back up straight, then shook her head. She was sure Hitori would say something like, “Oh, it’s okay to feel discouraged,” and maybe, “Don’t be afraid to take one little step at a time.” Yeah, he totally would. And then she would throw that electric fuzzball of his straight as his dumb face.

She giggled softly. Well, okay, she wouldn’t actually, but she did rather miss giving him a hard time. Li, sweet as she was, took everything Elvira said far too seriously. It felt bad to mess with her.

“Welp, enough loafing around,” She said out loud. It felt nice to hear a voice outside her head from time to time. She dropped from the wall, rolling comfortably to her feet. She turned around, prepared to try another jump, when she found herself face to face with Li. The Nova Instructor was wearing her school issued uniform, in spite of there not being any classes this week.

“Ah, Li,” Elvira said. “Does someone need this room?”

“Come with me,” she said. Her face was as inscrutable as ever, though Elvira caught a strangeness to her eyes, like a hint of apprehension.

“Is something wrong? How is Hitori’s mission going?”

Li turned and put a finger to her lips, then continued to guide Elvira out of the room. She took her through the hallways out of the Training Center, then across campus to the main office. There was a large black helicopter parked in an empty field near the entrance. Elvira wondered if it was the same one that took her team captain away early that morning. She didn’t have long to ponder, as she quickly found herself in a basement level meeting room full of people.

“Ah, Elvira, my dear,” Gustaf said. “Welcome.” Li ushered her to a seat before turning to the door. “You can stay too, girly.” Li bowed, and sat down.

Elvira looked around the room. In addition to Gustaf, Li, and the rest of her team—sans Hitori—there was also Virgil, Reaper, and a woman she assumed to be one of the Templar.

“Now that everyone’s here, Mr. Reaper, sir,” Gustaf said to the man in question. “Would you kindly repeat what you told me?”

“Yes, of course,” Reaper said. He stood from his chair, turning to face the whole room. “We believe your mercenary agent Hitori has been possessed by, uh—”he looked at Virgil—“our best guess is something like a clone of his mother.”

A wave of befuddled gasps and mumbling filled the room.

“Sounds just as crazy the second time!” Gustaf laughed.

“What would even give you that idea?” Protius said. “I could see if you thought the doctor got to him, but his mother’s been dead for almost twenty years now.”

Virgil cut in, “I— uh, I believe we might be able to explain it a little better.”

“We?” Gordon said, then added under his breath, “You and the mouse in your pocket?”

“Ah, it’ll be easier to show you.” Virgil stood up, then closed his eyes as he turned his gaze to the side. “It’ll be fine, dear.” He pinched at a point around his neck, and a spark of light jumped from the air into his fingers. In unfolded into a delicate pattern on his hand as he lowered his arm. A faint web lit up down his limb, and then a swirl of multicolored sparks danced above his palm, eventually materializing into a tiny glowing woman.

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“Uh… hi,” she said, giving a small bow. “I’m— well, I guess I’m what’s left of Maia Seishin.”

The room exploded into questions.

“Ay, Ay, settle down kids,” Gustaf said. His commanding voice eased Elvira and her team to a murmur. He turned to the spectral figure claiming to be Maia. “Now that’s a right bold claim to be making. You ain’t on any kind of trick, are ya?”

“I think I can prove it to you,” Maia said. “Though you may want to keep it between us.” She beckoned him closer.

Gustaf leaned in and the tiny woman whispered something into his ear. He frowned. “Ah, yeah, I remember, unfortunately.” He stepped back. “Alright, I guess I can vouch for ya, strange as this is.”

“Can you at least explain to us how this is possible?” Protius said. Maia looked at Virgil from his hand.

“It’s… a bit complicated,” he said. “But the short answer is, well, Maia has, uh, or had, a special property to her nervous system. Basically, the whole thing turned into some kind of natural arte.”

“So, including her brain then?” Protius said.

“Ah, yes, exactly. It forms a kind of, like an echo, of her thoughts. It’s also how she was able to fight so well. We aren’t exactly sure, but something must of happened when she was pregnant with Hitori, that is, this echo of hers attached itself to him.

“We don’t know if it’s always been with him, or if something woke it up, but it seems to think it’s, well, a girl Maia used to know, way back when, Eve Taira.”

“So this Eve has Hitori?” Elvira said. Virgil nodded to her. “What’s she going to do with him?”

“We aren’t… exactly sure,” Maia said. After a barrage of expectation, she continued, “I think, based on what she said, that she intends to carry on Hitori’s mission. Ah, I mean, not Hitori my son, but an old… friend, from a long time ago. He was Taira-Saisho, before a change in branch.”

“And what exactly is this Hitori’s mission?”

“He meant to overthrow Seitoji, or rather, to destroy the Imperial System there.”

Gordon laughed. “That’s mental.” His team, and Gustaf, threw a sharp glare at him. “Might as well aim for emperor of the world while she’s at it.”

“It’s not so far fetched now that she has the two crystals,” Reaper said. “The Reaping Stone alone can besiege an entire city, if given enough time.”

“What’s it do, summon an army?”

“Yes, actually. You might have seen it in action at Monte Aldé, or at least your coworkers did.”

“It caused the metaflora?” Protius said.

Reaper nodded. “And that’s only the beginning. I fear the Ex Stone might be worse still, even without knowing what other features Dr. Magnus added to it.”

“What exactly is the Ex Stone supposed to do, anyway?”

Reaper looked at him hesitantly. After an encouraging hum from Gustaf he answered, “Put in the simplest terms, it can amplify an arte exponentially, limited only by the available malhahons.”

“So, giant explosions,” Gordon said. “That’s nice.”

“Yes, generally.”

There was a moment of silence in the room. Elvira spent most of it with a sinking feeling in her chest. Eventually, she shook her head a little, then took a deep breath.

“What are we going to do to help him?” she said.

“For right now I think you— we, will have to wait and see,” Reaper said.

“Though hopefully we’ll have something before Eve makes her next move,” Maia said.

“Unfortunately, we don’t any leads right now.”

“What about the wee lass you brought in?” Gustaf said.

“Who?” Elvira asked.

“We aren’t sure about her name,” Maia said. “Though we think she’s the girl the doctor possessed to escape his prison.”

“Right now,” Virgil said, “we… aren’t certain what her status is.”

“What do you mean?” Elvira said.

“She hasn’t woken up since we found her in the pass.”

“What happened to her?” Chandra asked.

“That isn’t clear either,” Reaper said. “I think Eve and Dr. Magnus got into a confrontation, and she must have emerged the victor. As for the girl, her Vital Net collapsed, and her body is in complete ruin. I’m amazed she’s survived this long.”

“Right now she’s with Ariel for treatment,” Gustaf said, then added for Elvira, “The head Paladin in Alexia Brigade.”

“She ain’t still possessed, is she?” Gordon said. “Evil ghost man waking up in our school don’t sound like a great time.”

Virgil chuckled. “Ah, no, I don’t think so. There is something going on in her head, but it doesn’t look like any kind of intelligence.”

“Does that mean the doctor is dead?” Chanda asked.

“So it seems,” Reaper said. He had a distant look in his eyes. “I think it’s long past time for that though…”

The conversation settled into silence, lasting a long moment. There were a great many thoughtful faces in the room. Finally, Elvira leaned in and said, “Is that it? We wait and see?”

“Yes, unfortunately,” Reaper said. “If the girl survives a few days, her Vital Net will reinitialize. Hopefully that will return her to consciousness, if she hasn’t already. After that we’ll see what she knows.”

Elvira sighed, and hoisted herself from her seat. “Alright, I guess I have to accept it.” She looked at Li. “I’m heading back to the training center.”

“Very well lassie,” Gustaf said. “Though before you go, I believe it’d be best to keep this unfortunate situation, ah, out of general distribution, if you will.” There was a general murmur of agreement in the room as everyone took to their feet and drifted towards the exit.

Chandra paused and turned around. “I… um,” she started. “Well, I have a question.” She looked at Virgil. “I’m sorry if this is a little insensitive—“her eyes darted to Maia for a second”— but… are you Hitori’s father?”

Virgil laughed awkwardly. Maia, who had migrated her projection up to his shoulder, gave Chandra a helpless shrug.

“Ah, uh, y-yeah,” Virgil said. “I… hope he’s been a good friend to you guys.”

The team gave various signs of agreement, though Elvira only hummed and nodded. She continued on her path out the door. There was work to do.