Prologue

Part I

Regina Claris Graduation Exam

“Levi, hey! Levi!”

The voice burst behind her ears.

“Dammit, girl! Stop daydreaming! This is the last exam!” The voice was that of a rugged man. Oh how she wanted to strangle him.

She held her head in distraught.

“Ugh…relaxant induced sleep is the worst.”

She patted around the cockpit until she found a Ammat grass stalk she was keeping and bit it. The grass released a bittersweet taste as its sap was mixed with her saliva. Right, keep my head together.

“Air pressure 6.5. Fuel level green. Condition green.” She tilted the stick she’s holding in an absentminded way. All clea- wait…what the-

CC-21 Homing Device! And booster engine!

“Shag! You dick! You’ve been tampering with my STIGMA again!” she burst out as she pressed a button on her handrest.

There was a brief sound like a broken TV, and then another voice. “It’s your fault for not caring your other body good enough!”

“Tch…”

“Stop bickering, lads. Target’s in sight. Prepare for drop off,” an elderly voice boomed and cracked from a speaker.

The girl caressed the weapon stuck on her arm. An artifact that her deceased parents had left her. It was a strange machinated glove, a machination with three gear turbines and a slot for cartridges. Tough and relentless, just like her.

“Bomb’s away, bitches!!”

She felt an influx of air and a sudden G-force pulling her down.

“WAHOOOOO!!!!”

STIGMAs are anthropoid machines resembling life forms made by humans for enhancing the capability of its rider. They were the new steps to the future…or so it was said in the commercials.

There are many types to it and the recent ones were indeed, pricy. But military trainees were only allowed a single old type STIGMA for each. As it were, only the high rankers got the new types. The higher you go, the better your STIGMA.

Levi grasped a handle and opened the viewing monitor. She saw the clouds whizzing past her. She took a deep breath and pressed a button with the legend, ‘Propulsion jet’.

A feeling of enlightened body, and then, a clumsy landing.

Another STIGMA held hers and said. “Landing’s a bit off, Red. Better get it fixed up next time.”

“Thanks, Marge.”

She could see the mark of the Holy Cross on her friend’s STIGMA. Situated on her left arm.

Every trainee was divided into groups to ascertain their ability for teamwork, battle, strategy, and leadership. And was balanced by the instructor.

Her group consists of Margaret Rottenheim, a noble from somewhere she never seems to talk about a.k.a Princess. Doug Rudderman, a science whiz from America, a.k.a The Shag. Michael Dalton, the brain of the team, a.k.a The Man. And last, and certainly least, Okita Mitsurugi , A braindead pretty boy a.k.a The Bishounen.

“Gyehahaha!! Better get that scrap to the dump, Red! You’ll never get anywhere with that junk,” a STIGMA zoomed past her while giving her the middle finger. She clenched her teeth in disgust. Levi had sworn that one day she’ll beat that bigheaded Klaus into oblivion.

“Sorry for that,” another one past her. Followed by a bunch of other groups.

A STIGMA with a large gun on its back cocked the machine loudly. “The mission is to defeat the Unborn terrorizing this village and secure the item in the shrine. Walk north approximately 20 kilometers and we’ll reach it, along with those other 5 groups. And thanks to our bonehead here, we are losing the race.”

“Sorry, Michael.”

“Getting up the mountain is always exhausting, don’t you think so, Margaret?” asked another STIGMA, it was holding a broadsword.

“I hope the night wind doesn’t ruin my beautiful complexion,” The STIGMA behind her was clicking its two knives.

“Let’s go.”

The night sky felt iffy. The moonlight barely made it through the high branches of the pin trees. Therefore, the group turned on their lamplight.

“Hey, Marge. Does it feel…wrong, here?” Levi asked.

Margaret answered through the radio. “Yeah…I felt it too. This place is too quiet.”

“Ain’t you bein’ too sensitive dudes? We’ll never catch up to those guys if you bein’ too careful,” Doug said, “Aanyway. What’cha gonna take?”

“Take what?”

“Don’t be stupid. You know? It’s been a custom for the trainee on their last exam to take something to commemorate their finding their road kinda thing. My old man’s got a piece of a Herodites jaw.”

“I seem to remember my brother showing me a beautiful pair of glassy eyes,” Okita said smiling in his mind. “I myself am going to find something more elegant. A shell maybe? I hope there are some there.”

The radio buzzed in all of their STIGMAs. “We’re here. Ready your weapons!”

The group moved warily through the village’s gate. Here and there signs of destructions could be seen. Sometimes with bare patches of dried blood.

“Nasty.”

Michael stopped, then said. “Protective circle, coordinate 2X-551. Doug, I want you to contact the other groups.”

Doug put on a headphone and spoke to a mic as the group circled around him. “Team Dingo here, respond Team Bravo, over.”

Something moved behind a burned house.

“Team Bravo, are you there? Over.”

No one answered.

“Team Dingo here, reply Team Alpha.”

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“What’s taking so long?” Michael asked.

“They aren’t answering. Could be the bad connection here. Should we get the headquarter to check?”

Something jumped out of the forest. Michael shot two rounds on it. It exploded on contact. Leaving barbecued meat and splatters of blue blood.

“No, we’ll continue. But we’ll split up.”

“Shag, you go with Red and the Princess. Okita, you come with me. Search for the others, that’s a priority. Deal with the mission later.”

“Roger!”

“It’s just one thing after the other, eh?”

“Hunh…I’d have thought that there’ll be others stronger than the last one. But they’re just simply not good.”

Doug stabbed his broadsword at an incoming Unborn shaped like a panther and hurled it away like rag.

“How many have we killed?” Doug said, his snappy remarks gone as well. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. Levi thought.

“56, that isn’t including that one,”

Then something bashed Levi by the ear. It rocked her STIGMA a bit.

“What the hell was that!?”

“A Unborn!! The biggest I’ve ever seen!!”

An apparition with four legs and a huge spear appeared in front of them. Its eyes bloodshot and its long teeth dribbling with fresh blood.

“So the last one is the main course, is it? Fine by me!” Levi yelled.

She advanced with her mechanical fist outthrust. The creature took the impact straight on. The sound of her fist and the spear meeting was like thunder. A bewildered owl awoke from its state of nothing-to-do-at-all into save-your-sorry-behind mode.

“Red. Get back into formation!” Doug yelled into his communication chamber. Dashing with his steel broadsword upraised and arced until it met the Unborn’s arm. It felt like hitting a log. The sword dug but wouldn’t come off.

“HUMAN…STAYAWAY…EAT…”

“Tch!” Levi spun in mid air, assisted by a brief shot of jet and did a shovel kick on the broadsword.

“RARRGGHHH!!”

The blade was forced down by sheer power and chopped the Unborn’s hand like sheet of paper. Blue blood gushed out.

“Blast that bleedin’ bastard!!” Levi yelled.

Margaret took a handful of hand grenades and threw them at it.

When the recurring blasts died out and the smoke subsided, Doug swore. “Oh, yeah!! Who’s your daddy!?”

But Levi knew that the three of them were shaking like hell in the legs. But it was the shaking of excitement and pure ecstasy.

A great grunt and then suddenly Margaret’s STIGMA was slammed to the ground.

“Princess!” Doug drove the broadsword right through the Unborn’s shoulder. It squealed and then kicked Doug’s STIGMA with its hooves.

The impact threw him to a nearby house where it crumbled.

“Marge! Shag!”

The two of them groaned through the radio

“My STIGMA can’t move anymore. That last hit busted the IC.”

“Dammit! Mine too. I should have installed a stronger tank. My fuel’s wasting away.”

Levi looked at the distance, where the Unborn ran to. It was further up the mountain. Through a series of stone steps.

“Now or never.”

She swiveled the stalk to the other corner of her lips and pressed the jet button.

“You DOPE!!! Get back here! That thing’s too strong for you to handle alone!!”

“…I know. That’s why I need to go.”

That thing must be the last one. There isn’t any reading up here.

The last step.

“Come on!! You bastard! Face me!” she yelled.

But what she saw was something incomprehensible.

A group of STIGMAs were scrapped here and there in the vicinity of a traditional Japanese shrine.

Two other STIGMAs were standing cautiously with their back on her.

One of them noticed her. The radio buzzed. “Get back! This thing’s not human!”

“Of course! That’s what Unborns are!”

“No, it’s-“ The left STIGMA was suddenly thrown back to a tree just past Levi. There, it fell apart one by one starting from the arm. Shortly after that, a scream of terror, then it exploded.

A Unborn somersaulted from the explosion, landing beside the other STIGMA.

The STIGMA flailed its arm. But then a flash of steel, and then it became scrap metal in an instant.

“What is this!? Some kind of a joke!?”

The cloud in the sky parted its curtain to reveal the moon. Its light illuminated the Unborn.

If it was possible to make cloth to be the Unborn of black in color with the total absentness of white. Then this was it. The figure was dressed- no - draped in the epitome of blackness.

It was wearing a Japanese traveling monk hat. Under it, instead of two eyes, three yellow spheres. One on its forehead. It held a curved sword brimming with darkness.

“My blade thirsts for blood. You worms are not satisfying enough!!”

Behind it, the Unborn that fought with her was kneeling. “KILL…EAT…HUMAN.”

The figure barely moved and the Unborn was suddenly sliced in half.

“Weaklings deserve nothing.”

Levi felt the pressure emitted by the figure. She knew, her STIGMA’s no match for it. But hand to hand. Yeah, it’s a possibility.

She opened the cockpit of her STIGMA and jumped down.

Her sky blue raincoat touched the earth lightly as she landed on with a crouch.

“Are you a Unborn?” she asked.

The figure was intrigued. This one felt different. “My path is the path where the strongest live.”

“Huh?”

“You who smelled like me, are you strong?”

“Hey, I asked first!”

The Unborn advanced with a single kick to the ground. The edge of the sword stroke sparks as it landed on Levi’s weapon.

“Hoo…interesting.”

She threw her arm back and took a stance. What speed…if it was a STIGMA I won’t even have a chance to defend myself.

Levi said out loud. “Loading catridge!!”

The turbines started to spin in opposite directions. Blue sparks of electricity crackled with a loud Whommm sound. Then the part behind it pulled away.

She tried to punch the man. But he eluded the hit with a jump and her fist hit the ground where he stood. The compressed air was released with a single pump. The fist left a gaping hole on the ground.

The battle went for almost half an hour.

She stabbed another one of the vial of green liquid into her neck. “That’s the last of them.”

The Unborn hit and was countered with increasing speed. Slash, cut, and stab. The combination was endless. It was like the blade was merely a flicker in the air.

She fell back and raised herself up with a swift spinning kick, earning the man a bruise in the chest. Then she continued with an electrically charged fist.

But it met the sword halfway through. The electricity crawled to the sword, shocking the unknown figure. Both fighters were engaged in a deadlock.

The light from the spark revealed both faces. One with surprise, and one with, for a given choice of word, was filled with indescribable glee and fiery desperation.

“GAHHHHH!!!”

“ARRHHHH!!!!”

Then it exploded.

It threw both of them far away.

Levi regained his stance for a while, but at last, fell on her knees near the Unborn’s corpse. New cuts leaked blood all over her body. Drips of blood stained her clothes. Giving the red clothes a bitter red. She spat out the blood that had pooled inside her mouth and cursed.

“You are strong. But not strong enough,”

The man suddenly was there, holding the sword threateningly on her neck.

She could feel the cold metal brushing against the weakest part of her body. She panted and laughed at the same time. It came out like a choking sound. “Ahaha…am I? Yeah, I…guess…ugh.”

Her eyes went blurry and tinted with black, then…nothing. Am I, she thought, going to die here? Just as well…I have nothing left anyway.

REALLY? YOU GIVE UP? JUST LIKE THAT?

What am I supposed to do? My body’s already spent.

YOU WANT TO FORGET ABOUT YOUR DREAM? LEAVING THEM UNFULFILLED?

Dreams…have I ever…had a dream? I’ve only been ambling along my life.

TO BE STRONGER, TO BE GREATER, TO BE…ACKNOWLEDGED. TO SEARCH FOR YOUR DREAM ALONE IS A DREAM.

…yeah. That’s right. I still want to live and find my dream.

WHAT IS YOUR DESIRE?

Just…

WHAT IS …YOUR…DESIRE!?

Let me…

SAY IT OUT LOUD!! YOUR ANSWER!!

Kick…his…ASS!!!

The Gauntlet whirred into life and shot a continuous round of elastic bullets at him. She spit the grass stalk out and took out a grenade, throwing it up into the air and said.

“I’ll take you down, you bastard…!”

She punched it with full power, it went several feet then exploded.

Up on the top of the shrine, a masked man scratched his chin. “The Kagemusha…’tis be interesting.”

Then he jumped into a rip in time and space.

When she came to. The first thing she saw was white. The white of the hospital ceiling. The white of the doctor’s shirt. The white sterile sheet that she was sleeping on.

“Ughh…” she tried to get up. But her body refused to cooperate. “Ahh…shit!”

“Yo, Red. I see you’re awake, eh?”

“Shag? Why am I here?”

“You lost your mind? You got beat. Bad. We barely made it there on time! Thanks to my homing device, of course!”

“Ah,” she paused, “I see…”

Memories tried to get itselves registered. I lost…to that man…why didn’t he kill me?...that man!

“Did you see a man in black when you got there?”

“What?”

She yelled. “Did you!?”

A collection of patients looked at them in annoyance. Doug grinned apologetically at them and glared at her. “This is a hospital! Lower your voice!!”

“Sorry.”

He scratched his bald head and said. “And what you asked earlier, no. We only find you and a small boy around 12. You seem to have protected him with your body from that Unborn.”

A boy? I don’t think there was a boy at that time.

“How’s the mission?”

He frowned and then scratched his chin in an embarrassed gesture.

“Out of the seven teams, only three got spared. Those Unborns really hit us hard, ya know? But not for long…not for long,” for a moment, his face turned into a contorted pain, but then he remembered himself. “But we made it. And we passed the exam…Ah, right. Everyone says congratulations. Not perfect, but hey, better than repeating one year. I came to deliva’ this to ya, Here.”

He threw a small badge at her. “Now sleep tight, ya hear?” Then he was gone. Then, he appeared again. “Your STIGMA is busted, so you’ll be rideless for three or four days.”

Levi inspected the small white thing in her hand. It was a tablet, and when she touched it, a hologram of a paper appeared.

A brief smile adorned her face. Tears trickles and dripped on her hands. “To think…to think I’d feel like this…even after being close to death.”

Then her body shut down. Sleep, that’s what I need. Right now, sleep.