Ledger

This is the story of how I met Kirev and heard about Raito.

Ares and I walked to the magrails together. I had received a call from my little sister Hailey about a position in the Aspera team, which she was already apart of. Aspera was a group of agency-funded gamers who got paid to play the games I already played. It seemed like something worth at least checking out, seeing as I'm broke as fuck. Especially now that I have another mouth to take care of, in the form of Ares! These guys apparently paid pretty well and I've spent enough time gaming that I could probably solo queue some of these challenges that they're probably stuck on.

The agency was called Vestal. Vestal was a massive company. It was part independent military for the borders, as well as an enormous tech company.

The place I was told to check out was a facility located in the redzone. Normally, average pedestrians weren't allowed to cross into these redzone areas. This was actually the first time I'd be doing so. I was a little nervous but also excited. I couldn't wait to see what gaming setup they used at a facility like Vestal. They had a nearly endless supply of money so you know they would have some bleeding-edge rigs.

My little sister always bragged about her job. That's what felt strange to me. Why would she be giving me a job as good as hers? She never did anything that benefited me. I wouldn't be surprised if she had signed me up for some freak experiment.

Ares and I boarded. She was wearing a big oversized hoodie with the hood up, a gangsta baseball cap, and denim shorts, all belonging to my sister. The hoodie was very baggy, and the sleeves themselves nearly touched the floor. I think Hailey would kill me if she saw me giving away her stuff, but it's not like Hailey hasn't literally dumped my stuff on the sidewalk before. Ares sort of dressed like an urban street rat at the moment, which was hilarious to me because she knew nothing of the city culture. She kept looking at her outfit unenthusiastically. Whenever she would point to something the long sleeves of the hoodie would flop and flail around like wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube men.

Everything little thing seemed to interest Ares. She was like a little kid seeing something for the first time. We would be walking down the city streets and I'd look over -- she's gone! I'd find her staring into the window of a store, or buying fast food at the food trucks with all of her no-money, or rubbing her face up against the coarse fur of someone's mangy dog. Literally every few steps you'd hear a cute little gasp come from her direction. Ah! Oh! OOOH!

"Summoner, look!"

Streetwear Ares pointed over to a transportation shuttle.

"Ah, yep. It's just a shuttle. There's many of those," I said.

"But look, it moves without wheels!"

"Yep. They do that."

"And now it's carrying people!" said Ares excitedly.

"Ah, shuttles carry people. That's what they do."

"And the mangy dog boarded to!!"

"Yep. He goes with his owner," I said.

All of my replies were as dull as a butter knife. I had been answering so many questions about things at this point, I felt like my head wanted to run off and abandon me.

The magrail system took us from one part of the city to the next within a couple of minutes. My home was situated nearly 450 kilometres away from where we needed to go. That was 280 miles covered in only a few minutes of standing in the compartment of a spaceship-looking skytrain. The magrail had tracks all of the ways across the Pacific ocean to Japan as well, which was where a large portion of my cities people went for work.

The scenery from the view of the magrail changed drastically for the worst as we rushed towards the exterior of the city. The bustling city of Shinseiki started to turn in colour until it looked to be covered in mold and rot. As we approached our destination the city was absolutely deserted and covered in foliage. The exterior of the city was unkempt and slowly returning into the forest it once was. In the further distance there appeared to be a creeping black terrain, like black tendrils crawling towards the heart of the city.

Ding-dong!

An automated voice spoke to the passengers of the magrail:

"Thank you for traveling Vestal Civilian Magrail. Please form a straight line at the nearest exit point for scanning and clearance! Have a safe day and remember No One Dies Alone."

"Wait what the fuck did that automated message just say?"

I turned to the other passengers, who all looked unphased by the message.

I looked to Ares, who looked concerned as well.

With no other option, we formed into the line and continued our journey towards the heavily-guard redzone. We could have stayed on the magrail and returned home, but what good would that do. I'd still be broke and without any family ever home, I was the only one paying all of the bills.

The military presence was astounding here. Patrols of Vestal soldiers in SWAT gear marched on every street of the run-down and deserted city areas. The buildings were dilapidated and in ruin, besides the Vestal-owned structures, like the enormous tower in the background-- which was where we had to go.

The soldiers all seemed to march with a non-soldier looking person in the centre of them. Some sort of Vestal general perhaps, that wasn't restricted to company uniform policy. The person in the centre often did wear a military hat or have some form of a badge on their outfit, but some of them dressed downright weird, like mini skirts, or a literal bikini top on one of the females. The weather was warm right now, but definitely not hot enough for something so revealing.

If the redzone was so dangerous then why did the generals dress like Halloween sluts?

We managed to pass through clearance fine, with the help of a call to my sister. The soldiers seemed to be looking at each other strangely as they scanned Ares though. One of them even took the radio strapped to their chest during the checkpoint. I couldn't help but think that was bad news.

We continued to walk down the streets towards the ever-watching tower overhead. We kept our eyes low and away from the attention of the patrols. Ares was still quietly gasping at things and subtly pointing while pulling on my sleeve.

The app on my phone began to blink. Black Garden at Beacon Hill Park.

We were arriving at the rendezvous spot.

I looked out for my sister, but she didn't seem to be at the park where we agreed to meet.

We continued towards the lake that apparently was further into the park. The park was overgrown, but it had swing sets, benches, picnic tables, volleyball nets on the lake's sandy beach. The park was much nicer than it appeared to be from the outside, with its rusty old metal fence and dense coverage of vines and unkempt foliage.

A strange girl seemed to be swimming in the lake, but she didn't look like my sister. She had long straight black hair and red eyes. She had something about her though. It was as if she was surrounded by an alluring aura like a siren of the deep; she was the lady of the lake. I felt captivated by her sight and couldn't look away...

...A vague familiarity...

We approached the shore of the lake.

A shirt, a jacket, thigh-highs, a bunch of clothes bunched up were left on the bench.

I picked up the clothes, only to have panties fall onto my lap.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Was this girl skinny dipping? Wasn't she waiting for us? Why would she choose this moment to go into a lake in the middle of a park naked?

The girl began to wade out of the water and approached completely stark naked.

I turned away. Ares just stared, unphased by any of it, as if it was normal enough.

"Why are you playing with my panties? You're not a pervert, are you!" asked the naked girl.

I looked down at the clothes and quickly pushed them off of my lap and onto the bench.

"Just kidding. You must be Ledger. Everyone calls me Oni, so I guess you can too."

Oni narrowed her eyes at Ares but continued her conversation with me.

"Here's your clothes!!" I said.

"Nah, you can keep 'em," said Oni.

"Excuse me?!" I asked.

She let out a laugh before snatching them from me. I covered my eyes and averted my gaze as she towelled off and slipped on her panties first, followed by her long thigh-highs.

"I thought my sister was going to meet us here?" I asked her.

"Heh. Like she'd do something nice. That's a stretch. She doesn't like anyone, and especially not you."

I looked over at Oni confused. But, quickly turned around again, as she was still only half-dressed. Oni seemed to be enjoying herself because she had a devious smile on display. Despite having a cute smile, she had noticeable fangs.

Finally, she geared up, putting on her jet-black military jacket with a matching black military cap.

"Why do you say that?" I asked her.

"Well, she wouldn't have volunteered you for this if she did."

"Huh?"

"Did you notice that black stuff crawling over the horizon on your way here?" asked Oni.

"Yeah. What was that?"

"It's the End. We won't have much time to use the gates, because of it."

"What's the End? Gates? You aren't making sense," I said.

"It's the end of our story. *laughs* Follow me. I'll escort you to the real facility."

"Isn't it the... tower in the distance?"

"That old thing? Just a decoy. This park is our real base of operation."

We followed Oni along the dock, which led to a strange Clocktower alongside the lake. The building overlooking the crystal clear lake had what looked like thousand of powerlines tethered to it. It looked as if it powered the surrounding area.

"Welcome home."

Oni turned around, suddenly blocking the door. She pointed to Ares.

"She'll have to wait here."

"She goes where I go," I said firmly.

"Not this time," said Oni shaking her head.

"It's fine. I will stand watch from here," confirmed Ares.

"Are you sure?"

Ares nodded her head.

"Good girl," said Oni.

Oni opened the doors. Inside the Clocktower was just an elevator. You could now tell that this was truly a Vestal operation as the inside was bleeding-edge for sure. The elevator had a clear screen to the lower facility. Below we could see vats of water in two formations of seven, with teams of scientists in lab coats addressing younger people in strange bodysuits.

"What's going on down there?" I asked.

"That's what you'll be doing. You're new role."

"I thought I was hired on to be a gamer."

Oni laughed, while she leaned up against the wall.

"Same same but different."

"No seriously, what the hell is this."

"Aspera program, noob. You'll see when we get there."

We exited the elevation and approached the staff hard at work.

A young man about the same age of me begins to exit his pod, which is filled with water. He's dressed in a black bodysuit with a large helmet over his head. A dozen large tubes are attached to the suit at the head, shoulders, and back.

The man coughs violently, as he pulls off his helmet and hands it to a scientist. The man's wet hair hangs over his face. He begins to lean over and immediately starts throwing up on the floor in front of him, while still coughing.

A young, lanky scientist quickly addressed the man immediately, giving him no time to get his bearing: "Kirev, you've got to figure out how Freya entered Alpha state during that fight with Ymir. It's not a common occurrence. She may be the key to accessing Omega as well."

The man, called Kirev, wiped his mouth on his arm and looked over at the scientist while still leaned over and breathing heavy.

"Someone has kidnapped Freya. She's missing. I think it was the players I encountered at the bar," he said.

"Then, you need to skip your free block and go back in there," said the scientist.

"I can't. I'm tied to a fucking tree!" said Kirev.

The scientist sighed and shook his head:

"Misaka Yagami!"

A girl hurried over and stood at attention, doing a military salute. This girl, Misaka, also wore one of those bodysuits. This one was white, with cables hanging from the back of the helmet, which dragged along as she walked.

"Yes, Professor Aemon?!" asked Misaka.

"Enter Kirev's gate, log in and untie Kirev before he starves to death."

An assistant quietly came over to Oni and I and questioned Oni. She dressed completely different than a typical assistant, wearing what looked to be a leather racing jacket and a black skirt. She did wear a name tag though, as to stay true to her assistant role. Her name tag read 'Aspera Team Supervisor Kaya Kirasagi."

Miss Kirasagi looked me up and down and spoke:

"Is this Ledger?"

"Yeah, that's him," said Oni.

I watched as Oni casually walked away.

"It's nice to meet you, Ledger. My name is Miss Kaya Kirasagi. I'm Professor Aemon Green's assistant, for the most part, but also the Team Supervisor for Aspera. You're Hailey's brother, right? Let's go introduce you to the team."

"Okay," I said.

"Professor Aemon. This is Ledger, our new Number Seven."

"You are Reid Aerys' son, correct?" asked Professor Aemon.

"Yeah, you know him?" I asked.

The Professor adjusted his glasses.

"I used to work with him very closely. This is perfect. You'll be teaming up with Oni for her gate."

"Should I do an introduction?" I asked

My sister walked by my new team while sticking her tongue out.

"We don't need one. We all know you as my stupid brother," said my sister Hailey.

"Where you going, Hailey?" questioned the assistant as she followed Hailey off.

"Leave me alone! It's my free block. I'm going to have some lunch finally!" said Hailey.

Misaka leaned over to me, giving me a nudge.

"Don't mind her, she's not even part of this team. She's on Team Ad Astra"

"We've lost so many Sevens that I don't think an intro really matters. Just suit up and get in the pod. We'll see if it's worth getting to know you if you manage to survive through the first session," said Professor Aemon.

"...What do you mean? You've lost people doing this? Like they've died?"

The group chuckled quietly like I was really showing just how out of touch I was.

"It's the gate. It's impossible. No one ever survives in it for more than a few days. Raito was the only one that could. None of Oni's partners has lasted more than a week," said Kirev.

"What do you mean by gate....?"

"Oni is working on the Advent Trigger gate," said Misaka.

"The game Advent Trigger: Reckless Abandon? I've played the shit out of it. That's a gate?" I asked.

"Someone get this kid a piloting suit. The gates fine, there are players playing it as we speak. We're just not working effectively enough," assured Professor Aemon.

"Yeah, but those players play from the safety of their rooms. I've played that game plenty. This isn't the same situation if you're losing people though," I said.

"He's right. Anyone can do well when they're playing without anything at stake," said Kirev.

"We've just been dealing with amateurs ever since we lost Raito. Vestal won't bother giving us any competent replacements anymore," said Misaka.

"He just doesn't understand any of the science of the operation, but he will in time," said Aemon.

"You're right because none of this sounds like science to me. Seriously, what sort of operation is this? How are people even dying in these gates if it's just a game played by millions?" I said.

A scientist handed me my suit and a helmet. The bodysuit, which was dark blue had the words "Zwei" in white on the chest with a bunch of Japanese lettering below it.

"You'll be in pod marked Aspera Zero-Seven."

"You can take this gear back. I'm not going into that without some proper information on what's at stake here," I said.

I watched as Misaka plunged into her water tank. She closed her eyes as the cables attached to her suit connected to the sockets of the tank. With a sudden burst of energy, like lightning striking against a metal pole, she vanished from sight. The water in the pod shot out from the tops like a geyser as she seemingly disappeared.

"Did she just vanish?!"

"Misaka's been injected into the gate," said Kirev.

"But, where did she go…"

"The physical form is tied to the soul. If a soul exits from a body completely then the body ceases to exist in our reality," said Professor Aemon.

I continued to stare at the empty pod where Misaka just was. How could she just vanish from plain sight? Was she really injected into the game after all?

SHHHHW!!

An empty pod behind me shot out some water from the top. Another girl appeared inside, who looked rather shell-shocked. Her eyes were very distant like she had been scared half to death.

This girl had long blonde hair, which was tied in a ponytail. Her suit was dark purple.

The girl exited her pod and sat against the clear glass of the vat of water.

"What happened to you?" asked Kirev.

"Amelie's been in a gothic dark fantasy gate," said Professor Aemon.

"Like Dark Souls?" I asked.

"They spawned me in as a child... It felt like I was in there for five whole years…!" said Amelie.

"Well, you'll probably be back in there tomorrow. So, go have a bowl of cereal in the bath or something and find your sanity," said Professor Aemon.

Amelie, who still stared absently into the void, shook to her senses and shouted:

"ERRR. I don't do that!"

Kirev leaned in and whispered to me:

"She actually does, it's so weird!"

"Someone get Miss Crane in here. If Ledger won't go in his gate today, someone has to," demanded Professor Aemon.

"Orianna is still wounded from her last trip! You can't put her in there!" said Kirev.

"She's our only other option here," said the Professor.

"I'll go. I don't care," said Kirev.

"You're far more valuable in your own gate. We need Alpha. It's your task to get it. It's either Orianna or Ledger," said the Professor.

A girl entered covered in bandages. Her left side of her head was tightly wrapped, as well as her arm, leg, and waist. She looked beat up and sore, completely on the brink of falling apart and shattering into pieces.

The Professor pointed to the girl.

"Orianna, get geared up. You'll be up next."

"Sure, right away, boss."

The girl reached over for her gear, despite being weak and in such a fragile state.

I couldn't let her go through with it.

As much as I feared death, I couldn't let this girl go in there.

I'd be the cause of her death if I did. I couldn't live with that.