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Let's rewind to a few minutes earlier.
Itogami Island, city center — Keystone Gate.
The largest and tallest building on the island, Keystone Gate lived up to its name. Even putting aside the twelve floors above ground — which housed everything from the city hall offices to hotels and commercial complexes — what really mattered were the more than forty underground levels of artificial island control infrastructure.
The entire building acted like a massive anchor driving into the seabed. Beneath the surface, it was joined to the other four sub-islands of Itogami by reinforced structural arms, keeping the islands from drifting apart due to ocean currents and converting those shocks into usable energy.
—
Inside one of the facility's underground computer rooms, a dozen monitors flickered in the dark. Streams of data raced across the screens. The quiet hum of fans was accompanied only by the rhythmic clack of a keyboard…
…and the very frustrated groans of a certain blonde girl.
"Ughhh, come on—why is there still so much left?! It's already five o'clock! There's no way I can finish all this by six…"
"If you give it your all, Ojou-sama, you might just pull it off~"
With that voice, a pixelated creature—somewhere between a bear and a cat—materialized in the corner of one screen. This was Mogwai, the A.I. mascot of the system.
"Even if you wrap up by six, it's not a big deal, right? I mean, didn't you already agree to meet your boyfriend for dinner? Just finish up and head straight downtown!"
"…Like hell I'm doing that."
As soon as it sounded like a reasonable suggestion, Asagi Aiba shut it down with a snort.
Wearing her signature anti-blue light glasses, the golden-haired girl typed furiously while grumbling under her breath.
"I've been here since this morning. Didn't even get to do my makeup. You think I'm gonna go meet Bokue looking like a sleep-deprived corpse? No way. I gotta shower, wash my hair, do full makeup, pick an outfit—then I can go. I'm not showing up looking like this."
"…Do you seriously need all that?"
Even Mogwai, a literal artificial intelligence, seemed to lag for a second under the weight of her routine.
"Duh~!"
Asagi rolled her neck and cracked her knuckles. Then she raised her arms and stretched out long and hard, fingers interlocked over her head.
"Alright, Mogwai, zip it. I'm going full power now. If I hustle, I can finish all of this by five forty-five, jet home in fifteen, and still make it on time."
"…Yeah, no way that's happening."
The blue A.I. mascot on-screen visibly sweat-dropped.
Anyone who needs ten minutes just to get out of bed when the alarm rings has no business making that kind of promise.
But Asagi brushed it off with a confident smile.
"If you have enough spirit, anything's possible. Now shut up and let me—"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
Without warning, the entire Keystone Gate shook.
The quake was so strong, it rattled not just the building but possibly the entire island.
Asagi shot up from her chair like she'd been shocked, wide-eyed as she stared up at the ceiling.
"W-Wait, what was that?!"
An earthquake?
No—that couldn't be right.
Unlike natural islands, Itogami was artificial. It wasn't anchored to the seabed but floated like a massive aircraft carrier over a powerful leyline in the Pacific. Its design was so precise that even tidal waves couldn't throw it off balance.
Which meant…
"Mogwai! Pull up security feeds—trace the source of that impact!"
She didn't hesitate. If something had blown up nearby—especially this deep underwater—whether the island survived or not was beside the point. She'd be dead long before any structural failure.
Work? Deadlines?
Screw all that. Life came first.
"Already on it~"
The monitor instantly flipped from the streaming data to the facility's internal security feed.
Asagi took one look—and her pupils shrank.
It was the hallway deep within the administrative center—just outside her location.
A space that should've been strictly off-limits to unauthorized personnel, protected by keycard access, facial recognition, and—oh yeah—heavily armed security guards.
All of whom were now either unconscious or dead.
Several lay sprawled in blood. Some were twitching faintly, but most had clearly stopped moving. The walls were wrecked, pockmarked with bullet holes and impact craters.
One crater was so large, it looked like it had been made by a Behemoth-class ice wyrm doing a tackle move.
…Wait. Was there even an ice wyrm being kept down here?
Asagi's thoughts spiraled. Wild possibilities rushed through her brain.
Then Mogwai's voice cut in again—
"Ojou-sama! Look here!"
"…Huh?"
Asagi snapped her eyes back to the screen.
The footage rewound a few seconds. This time, it clearly showed two figures:
A golden-haired man with a giant battle axe on his back.
And in front of him—a blue-haired girl controlling a massive, white arm-like construct.
That pairing… seemed oddly familiar.
Even though she'd never seen them before, something about them triggered a strange sense of déjà vu. Had someone described them to her recently…?
She didn't have time to connect the dots.
A flash of Golden Spirit energy erupted into the room.
And two figures teleported directly into the room beside her.
"Sorry—ran a few seconds late."
!
She didn't even need to see the face.
The moment that voice rang out, a metaphorical exclamation point popped over Asagi's head.
Without thinking, she spun around and opened her arms—
"Bokue! You finally—eh?"
Her voice stopped.
Because the second she turned, what she saw… wasn't just Bokue.
He was carrying a girl.
A petite, black-haired girl in a short ponytail, princess-style in his arms.
Their closeness was one thing.
But she was flushed. Her skin was pink. Her clothes clung to her from sweat and heat. Steam curled off her breath like she'd just walked out of a sauna.
And… was that shirt slightly translucent?
It was super weird...
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