Suzuki’s Room,

Genaco Compound.

Suzuki rested his forearms on the railings of his balcony, damp hair rustling in the night winds. He observed the crowds mingling below with idle chatter, too far to listen to their individual conversations. He was surprised to see so many people awake by four in the morning, but he supposed just like him, their biological clocks had been screwed over by gaming.

Suzuki sighed as he watched their numbers dwindle, then increase as more retired to their apartments and even more awoke and came out to enjoy the morning breeze. He had guessed it before, but he was sure now. The number of participants had significantly increased since that first day, most of which were made up of young adults.

Suzuki wondered how Genaco managed to get away with it. Kidnapping so many people should surely catch the media's attention at some point, right? Then again, Jade had said she wasn't kidnapped but brought here of her own accord. Did that mean there was some sort of application process? Wouldn't such a thing destroy the 'secrecy' the company was so eager to pursue ? After all, their game system constantly checked each individual in case they tried to tell anybody of their predicament .

Suzuki scratched his head as he gave up. He had so many questions, questions, whose answers he could quickly obtain from any of the officials in this place. There was no need to rack his brain over it. Resigning himself to this, he retreated to his room, locking the balcony door and shutting the curtains behind him.

This action cast the room into total darkness, but the young man was unperturbed. He sauntered over to a wall and placed his palm on it. A section slid open to reveal a wardrobe with its own light. He selected, then put on a plain long-sleeved grey T-shirt. He closed the closet, picked up his phone from the workstation, then exited the room.

The corridor's automatic lights hummed to life as he walked down, his footsteps the only other sound to be heard.

Suzuki was glad for this. He had some matters he had put off long enough for Kashi's sake and was now eager to get to it. He breezed down the stairs , making nary a sound, through the dark living area to the kitchen, where he grabbed fruit from the fridge. He was about to close the refrigerator door when movement passed his peripheral vision.

Suzuki froze in place, ears pricked to pick up the slightest sound... but nothing.

"Probably my imagination." He shut the refrigerator, drowning the room in darkness again. He pretended to turn around, only to swing back and fling the fridge's door open. Across the counter, its light lit up a clearly disappointed Taiga.

"Che. Thought I could scare the pants off-" Taiga swiftly dodged to the side, a thrown apple barely missing his face. "Hey! What was that for?"

Suzuki regarded him with a blank expression, then clapped as if remembering something. "aaah~ I'm so scared." He said this in the flattest of tones, eyes deadpan.

Taiga stared at the teen for a second, two even, then burst out laughing, unable to contain himself. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen! Who does that!?"

Suzuki shrugged as he shut the fridge and turned on the lights. "Apparently, I do." He rounded the counter and picked up the fruit he had thrown.

"Yeah, apparently you do," Taiga seconded with a short laugh. "So what're you doing up anyway? Can't remember the last time I saw you logged out."

"Hmm..." Suzuki pondered whether to answer or not as he rinsed the apple. "Have some business to attend to."

"What business?"

Suzuki growled under his breath as he took a bite. People like Taiga and Jade exasperated him. If he said those exact words to someone else, they would get the hint. But th ese two… nope. They would ask and ask until their curiosity was satisfied. Well, in this case, there was no reason to keep it from him except for personal pride. "I want to get started on the Gladiator program."

"Oh?" Taiga remarked, grin dimming ever so little, but just enough that Suzuki caught it.

"Have something against the program?" Suzuki asked.

"Why, you ask?"

Suzuki raised a brow. "Figured you'd gloat about being able to control so many simultaneously."

Taiga laughed. It sounded weak even to his own ears. "They showed you that footage, huh?"

"Yeah. Don't like it?"

"Well, something like that."

"Hmm..." Suzuki tossed the finished apple into the bin. "Well, I'll see you later, I guess," he said as he made his way towards the main door.

"You're not gonna ask?"

Suzuki paused at the door. "Do you want me to?"

"Not particularly," Taiga admitted.

He shrugged. "Then it's none of my business. Everybody's got his secrets." With that, he exited the apartment, then made his way to the elevator. He got in, pressed his required floor, and waited for the doors to shut.

An outstretched arm prevented that.

Suzuki looked up as Taiga entered, his usual cynical grin back on his face. "You are one cold fucker." Taiga mocked as he joined him.

"I'll try to take that as a compliment," Suzuki replied as he took a step back, allowing more space. With a low hum, the elevator finally began its descent. "Why are you here, anyway?"

"Man, that's harsh. I'd think you didn't want me around."

Suzuki's raised brow seemed to confirm exactly that.

Taiga completely ignored the gesture, though. "But that can't be the case, right? I mean, I'm so much fun to be around." Suzuki could not help overlapping his toothed grin with Syèl's. It made him seem even more of a psychotic serial killer.

"If I stick around, I'll get to kill..."

"You could say this world was created so I could fulfill these desires."

Suzuki eyed him, recalling Syèl's words. Unlike his own case, Syèl and Taiga were undoubtedly the same person. In fact, the older teen didn't even bother with a sliver of roleplay in his character. The two were the same persona, which meant his particular need to kill made him a dangerous character—however , also a little interesting he admitted. "Sure, why not."

"What?" Taiga asked, confused.

"We'll lie to ourselves that you're fun. That ought to be fine, no?"

Taiga suddenly turned serious as he studied the younger teen. "Say, Sukki-chi?"

It's chi now? "What?"

"Just now... That was a joke, wasn't it? Pfft . You were making a joke, weren't you?" Taiga struggled to contain his amusement, resolved to keep a straight face.

Suzuki grumbled. "Maybe? Wh-"

"Bwahaahaaha!" Taiga burst out laughing as he banged on the elevator walls. "That is literally the worst joke I have ever heard. Jesus, Sukki-chi, where the hell did you pick up your sense of humor?"

No one can survive being laughed at in such an enclosed space without falling to embarrassment. Which was probably why Suzuki made a swift escape once the elevator doors opened.

Taiga followed him down the pristine hallway-still, struggling to keep his amusement in check-into the room marked Gladiator Testing site 1. Suzuki paused abruptly as the door slid open, causing Taiga to ram his nose into the teen's head.

"Ow!" Taiga exclaimed as he massaged his nose. "The hell ma-"

"Oba-san, Do you ever sleep?" Suzuki's question cut the older teen's question short.

"Who are you-" Taiga peered over his shoulder to see Yukino poised at the head of the room, phone in hand. "Oh..."

"Good morning to you too, Mato-kun," Yukino greeted with a very forced, plastic smile. "Yes, I do ask myself that question sometimes too. Do I ever get to sleep?"

"Something happen with Seki-tan?" Taiga asked as he elbowed past Suzuki and walked up to the woman. "Say, didn't I tell you you need to be a little more forceful? Seki's a real idiot, you know?"

Yukino pouted as she flicked his forehead. "I'm not so bad off that I'll be taking love advice from a virgin."

"Oi! Already told you guys I'm no-"

A loud cough drew their attention. When did these two get so close? Suzuki's narrowed eyes regarded them with detached interest as he tapped the nearest Full Drive. "I'm here for the Gladiator series, not for info on your love lives." He looked to both of them, then corrected himself. "Ah, sorry, in your cases, it'll be lack of love life."

"Why you!"

"Now, now." Yukino placated Taiga by patting his head. "Why don't you cool off a bit." She turned her attention to Suzuki. "Now, Mato-kun, Shouyou-san woke me this morning because of you. So don't worry. I'll be sure to take good care of you, okay?" She finished with her usual cutesy smile.

This time though, there was a murderous undertone that chilled Suzuki's core. Maybe he'd taken his teasing a little too far. He was new to it, and she was such an easy target to practice on. Not that he'd ever admit that. "Sure. I'll be in your care," Suzuki accepted in his usual level tone.

However, his momentary hesitation did not escape the observant psychologist. Her smile warmed as she relented. "Come, we'll start in the hangar."

Suzuki frowned. "We're not starting here? Why?"

"Not yet," she replied.

"Ya need to know what exactly you're gonna be," Taiga elaborated. "Else, your brain might just... blurksh!" His accompanying gesture was a mix of something being crushed then exploding.

"Do not mind him," Yukino refuted as she led them out of the room. "We haven't had a case of a brain-"

"Blurkshering!"

"-Being compromised, for years," Yukino finished. "Our greatest concern is the compatibility ratio before Neuro Transfer. We try to increase this by having you boost your Neuro-Sync Levels in the Virtual World."

"But you also want us to be intimate with the hardware," Suzuki said. "That it?"

"In a nutshell. Knowing the body you are going to inhabit significantly raises your chances of gelling with it," Yukino explained. "Have you ever been an animal in any virtual game before?"

"A few," Suzuki confessed. "Been a dragon once."

"How did that feel?"

"Took a while to work out how wings actually worked, but I did eventually get the hang of it-"

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"You meant a winged dragon!?" Yukino interrupted, struggling to keep her tone level. "The ones where you actually have to learn the complex dynamics of using a tail and wings to fly?"

Suzuki shrugged. "Well, yeah. I had a good teacher."

Yukino walked in silence for a while, as she tried to process the young man's words. A serpentine dragon she could understand. When virtual reality was first introduced, there were many virtual simulators where people could choose to be whichever animal or beast they wanted, and some naturally ended up selecting an avian of some sort.

Ninety-five percent of those who chose avian classes quitted soon after, after experiencing disorientation from the particular degree of vision and the limiting frame, expressing fear that they could not feel their legs or arms. Those who could get through these initial problems found it difficult to actually work wings, finding out that there was far more to flying than just flapping up and down.

Eventually, animal simulators were taken off the market after several complaints of disorientation from users. It was never actually banned, though, and Genaco introduced it into King's Journey.

The most common were the Beast-clan, which shared a lot of human features to make assimilation as easy and quick as possible. But there were also a few hidden bonuses which allowed players to become actual animals.

Apart from Taiga, she hadn't met anybody she had felt would be capable of assimilating into the frame of an avian. Then there was the way Suzuki had said it. This wasn't something he had considered too much of a challenge.

"I think you broke her," Taiga loudly whispered.

"We're here!" Yukino announced in front of a door marked 'Exhibit,' as much to herself as to the others.

They entered the room, where Suzuki was glad to see the had ditched the pristine white motif. Dim lights shone on human-sized several display cases in the dark grey room, each holding a slightly modified version of the humanoid gladiator series.

Yukino inputted a command, and the glass cases were sucked into the ground.

Suzuki walked up to the closest, eyes wide in awe as he examined the war machine. The basic machine frame, though humanoid, resembled a cross between the aliens from Aliens and the drakul race. "Can I?" he asked as he raised an arm.

"Go ahead," Yukino allowed, as she proceeded to explain its various features.

To maximize the Sync-Ratio between humans and the machine, Genaco used living tissue and nerve systems similar to humanity's to create the base skeleton. This was so that the human mind became the system's CPU (Central Processing Unit). As long as the human was conscious, and just one of the many Neuro-transmitters was undamaged, the machine could still function.

On top of this basic structure, they had created separate frames and weapons to suit different strategies.

The frame Suzuki examined was built towards infantry/stealth missions. Its lithe frame masked an array of unique weapons embedded in its enclosing armor. Special attention was placed on its limbs and joints to allow maximum flexibility-even more so than humans. Its long tail was made up of sliding plates over living tissue that greatly maximized its flexibility, and in turn, improved balance.

This frame was vastly different from the one Taiga regarded with a boorish expression. This one was much larger in size, wielding much more firepower and armor than its lither brother. It also possessed a human - like arm, but the bulk of its frame was actually a barrel . Its fingers and palm were located j ust under the nozzle. While also maintaining some flexibility, it was clear this was primarily focused on tanking hits.

These two were the extremes. There were other models, each adapting from both styles for various purposes.

"Are you sure these are practical?" Suzuki asked when Yukino was done explaining the various armor types.

"Why do you ask?" Yukino questioned, brow raised.

"Ignoring whether they could function effectively over long-range missions, wouldn't a network jammer render these inept?" In modern warfare, the use of E.M.P.s and jammers were fast becoming staple products of a mechanized battlefield. The use of drones had been rendered inept during the years of crisis for those very reasons.

Yukino smiled. "Well, you certainly know your stuff. Naturally, we prepared for such a contingent. Place your phone on that Gladiator's chest."

Suzuki did as she said.

Recognizing Personnel ID …

Sixth Rank Mato Suzuki, Recognized.

Civilian, All Weapons Offline.

Entering Suit Mode: Exhibition .

Suzuki took a step back as mechanical arms came out of the walls and took apart the magnificent machine piece by piece. The surreal scene reminded him of an Iron Man movie. The dismantling stopped with only the back piece left on the stand.

The young man could not help himself. He stepped forward and ran a finger along the fiber that lined the machine's interior. The material lit up, revealing a vast network buried beneath, the billions of nodes resembling the branches of Yggdrasil. Unlike his initial thought, the living tissues that made the operation of this machine possible were inlaid between the fabric and the outside armor.

The machines' interiors were hollow, to accommodate a wielder.

"The helmet works similarly to the virtual drives," Yukino said. "The armor can thus be manned and still achieve the same result as it would if it was controlled from a full dive."

Suzuki admired the complexity of the machine's designs. "This is incredible," he remarked honestly. "Why haven't we displayed these in any of the Expos?"

Yukino shook her head. "Our C.E.O. demands perfection. With an assisting A.I built-in, we could have released these much sooner. However, he demands the A.Is be a luxury and not a need."

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Taiga started. "He wants humans to control the damned things without help."

"In a nutshell," Yukino agreed. "A.Is can be a security risk for several reasons. They can malfunction, be hacked, or otherwise, and no other software can calculate the unpredictability of the battlefield and respond accurately in kind."

"So, he wants a human mind to be able to take complete control of the entire suit if the A.I should fail. That it?" Suzuki asked as he took a step back and watched the android reassembled.

"Exactly."

"That's where King's Journey and Line come in , right?"

"Yes," she confirmed. "Already, most players can easily process events happening at triple the speed of their daily experiences. Some of them even retain this ability in the real world in what we call very minor cases of Parallel."

Suzuki nodded as he remembered his earlier experience with the Taser, amongst several others he'd previously gone through. "Yes, sometimes I do experience heightened senses akin to the game world. Doesn't mean my body can replicate the feats, though."

"They don't have to," Yukino said. "Your bodies will be safe in the Full-Dives as you operate the Gladiators. With these, you should be able to near the feats of your in-game characters."

Suzuki thought of Razznik. "Hmm... I don't know. Doubt they'd be able to wipe a city off the face of the earth."

"Maybe not on its own." She flashed a knowing smile. "Compress a nuclear warhead into its weapons systems, though..."

"Fair enough," Suzuki admitted with a small smile of his own. "Well played."

"Alright," Taiga interrupted. "Nobody likes theory anyway. Why don't we start some practical." His toothy grin unnerved Suzuki. "Really wanna see him puke."

"Puke?"

"Nothing to worry about," Yukino assured. Her twitching smile really did not affirm her words, though. "It happens sometimes. Some people can't handle the initial synchronization. I'm sure it won't happen in your case."

Taiga held up crossed fingers. "Here's to hoping it does."

Yukino scolded the young man as she led them back to the Gladiator Testing Site. "Now remember," she said as Suzuki entered one of the capsules. "Keep a strong image of the Gladiator you saw. The clearer the image, the smoother your synchronization will be."

"Got it," Suzuki replied as the helmet covered his head.

Suzuki swallowed hard as his consciousness was launched into the virtual world. Much like with L.N.E, he had to accept some disclaimers and verify his identity. Once the system had all the information it required, everything died out.

Suzuki consciously prevented himself from panicking, though it was by no means easy. Sight sound, every form of stimuli disappeared at once, leaving him in disoriented in the void.

Thankfully, Yukino's voice broke the silence. "Can you hear me?"

Suzuki had no mouth, so he shouldn't have been able to speak, but then again, he had no ears, so, fuck it. He decided to give it a try. "Yeah. Don't know how. But I can hear you."

"You are receiving my words as electrical impulses," Yukino explained. "You are also replying the same way. It is the same process applied to your virtual games. You didn't know that?"

"Never had to think of how it worked. What you say does make sense, though." He was far more relaxed now that he was communicating with someone. "What next?"

"You are currently Synched to an offline Gladiator. We will be booting its systems systematically, so you can get a feel for it. Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"Booting Neuro-System. How do you feel?"

Suzuki felt a momentary blast of intense shock, but that soon subsided, replaced by slight disorientation. "I can feel something here with me."

"Good. That is the System A.I." Yukino explained. "You are not yet ready to take full control of the Gladiator, so it will be running all back-up programs. Imagine it as a friendly N eighborhood Operating System."

"Okay. What do I do then."

"You will be handling primary controls like you do your own body. Are you ready?"

"Primary controls. Got you. I'm ready." Suzuki held a clear 3-D picture of the frame he'd just seen, remembering its exact dimensions, joint locations, etc.

"Okay. Syncing Nervous System."

Suzuki stifled a wave of nausea that enveloped him as a brand new nervous system belonging to a frame different from that he was used to , meld ed with his mind. He could feel every single joint in the machine, from the tail's shifting plates to the rotating joints on its fingers. His mind was also assaulted with information on every single facet of the machine.

No wonder Yukino hadn't once mentioned a manual.

Suzuki was somehow aware of the suit's internal and external temperature, the location of every weapon embedded in its frame, and their respective purposes. This far cry from controlling the everyday body. It felt like his mind would explode from all the added mini-body parts he suddenly had control over. But still, he did not falter. Not yet, this wasn't his body yet...

Outside, Yukino stared at her phone with disbelief. Was this boy genuinely human? Suzuki had — knowingly or unknowingly—overthrow n the A.I that was supposed to handle the back-up software. What's more, apart from an initial dangerous spike, his Neuro-Sync levels and vitals were steadily stabilizing. He was taking complete control of the entire machine.

This made no sense. His Neuro-Sync numbers were not high enough to obtain such a quick synchronization. How was he then becoming something entirely different with such ease? She made a mental note to really interrogate Shouyou on this boy's story.

Suzuki mentally grinned as the optics came online, allowing him to view his surroundings. He soon familiarized himself with the zoom function, then began turning the secondary cameras on. Soon he had more than a 360-degree view of his surroundings.

He was situated in a hangar of some sort with a large clearing at its center. A single Gladiator that stood there turned its head to meet his eyes and raised its arm, beckoning his approach.

Suzuki attempted movement...

----------------------------------------

An Hour Later,

Suzuki slowly opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling above. Light green curtain drapes around the bed he laid on, let him know where he was located. A news reporter droned on about something regarding worldwide nuclear disarmament, but his rattled brain could hardly pay attention.

"Well, you like ta surpass expectations," Taiga mocked.

Suzuki looked to his left to see the young man seated on a chair next to him, leisurely munching on a banana. "What happened?"

"You took on too much at once idiot. I'm surprised your brain didn't-"

"Blurksh?" Suzuki simulated with a short laugh.

"Yup, exactly that. Well, at least ya didn't puke."

Suzuki sighed as he sat up. "Not sure fainting's any better."

"You kidding?" Taiga joked. "First time I synced, I was out for a month. We didn't have helpful A.Is back then. Should have let yours carry the grunt work."

Suzuki shrugged. "I do not like the idea of surrendering my body to an external influence."

"Your body? Dude, it's a machine."

"Not when I'm in it." Suzuki tossed the sheets off his body and got to his feet on the opposite side of the bed. "When I'm in, it's my body. My responsibility."

"Where you going?" Taiga asked as he chucked the peel into a nearby trashcan. "Yuki-chan will be back to check you out soon."

Suzuki shook his head as he lifted his phone from the bedside table. "I only have a week. I can't spare any time to rest..."