Inside a secret base, scientists and operators packed a dark control room.
Four huge screens filled the front wall.
All of them showed Akira's house.
"All Autonomous Intelligent Mobile Artillery units are functioning normally."
"All units moving toward target."
One of the younger scientists hesitated over his console.
"Sir… is it really okay for us to attack them with live rounds?"
The chief scientist—the same man who had once signed off on the old classroom unit—did not look away from the screens.
"Why bother? We are cooperating to save the world, remember? As long as we keep these two busy, the Reaper can finish his job. And besides…" His mouth thinned into something like a smile. "This is a perfect test for our new units. If they can beat two superhumans, these things could be worth billions."
Another operator sat up.
"Units in position. Ready to engage."
The chief lifted a hand.
"Fire."
The missile barrage started.
On the screens, the yard tore open. Turrets punched up through the ground and the roofline, filling the air with short, ugly bursts.
Every missile broke apart before it reached the house.
"Target house has counterattacked," someone said. "They have defense turrets."
The chief's eyes narrowed.
"I knew this would not be easy. It's fine. Use the Gatling guns. They can't shoot those down."
An operator said,
"Activating Gatling guns."
The Mobile Artillery units raised their arms. Rotary barrels spun. Tracers hammered toward the building.
The turrets tracked the stream and ate it.
Rounds sparked, tumbled, and died in the air.
Gasps went through the hall.
"How did they do that?"
"Is that even possible?"
The chief frowned.
"I may have underestimated them." He leaned forward. "But those turrets are stationary. We can still outmaneuver them."
The front door opened.
Someone stepped outside.
She looked human at first glance—but only at first.
Her body was covered in smooth metallic plating, shaped into that of a young girl. The face was Ritsu's. Familiar features, sculpted entirely from metal, with two glowing blue eyes shining from the sockets.
Two thin metallic cables extended from either side of her head, hanging past her waist like long strands of hair. They moved slightly as she walked, resembling the long strands of hair from her old student avatar.
It was unmistakably Ritsu's face.
Just mechanical.
The chief recognized it at once.
"…That android. Its face looks like the student avatar of the Autonomous Intelligent Fixed Artillery unit we created back then."
Silence filled the room.
Most of the people there had worked on that unit.
Which meant they understood what they were looking at.
That superhuman had done something to it.
The chief's voice came back harder.
"Change priority targets. I want that android captured intact. If that's impossible, destroy it."
One operator said,
"Changing target."
On the screens, all four Mobile Artillery units turned.
Their aim settled on the girl in the doorway.
---
The Mobile Artillery units turned all their fire on Ritsu.
She was still in the doorway, so the house turrets intercepted the first wave.
In the basement, Akira leaned toward the screen.
"Ritsu. Just saying. If you want to actually fight, you need to move."
Ritsu's voice came back sweet and annoyed.
"You're so pushy here, Akira-kun."
Akira looked confused.
"What?"
She didn't answer him.
"Alright. Time for action~"
She sprinted sideways off the porch.
The units followed her at once. Missiles and rotary guns opened at full power. This time, the turrets did not stop them.
Ritsu calculated every trajectory and slipped between them, each dodge tighter than the last. With no active weapons, she could not counterattack.
Erika watched from beside Akira.
"She's moving well. But why didn't you give her any weapons? You didn't even let me give her my Crescent Tear lightsaber thing."
"It's not a lightsaber," Akira said. "It's a laser blade. And no weapons because this is a test. I built her strong enough to beat them if she uses her body well."
On the field, Ritsu cut a wide circle around the units, then launched herself onto the nearest one's back.
She punched the head.
The plating dented under her fist.
It did not break.
The other three immediately switched to Gatling fire only, trying not to blow up their own machine. Ritsu raised an arm to block her face, but the rounds sparked off the metal and fell away.
Akira scoffed.
"Hmph. Do you think your little bullets can damage something I created? She can survive even a tactical nuke."
Erika turned.
"She's invulnerable to nukes?"
Akira looked shocked.
"No. I said survive. That doesn't mean she wouldn't take damage. There's a difference."
On the tank, Ritsu looked at her unmarked fist, then at the dent.
Punching through was not going to work.
She set her palm against the armor.
"Activating rocket punch."
The forearm detached, fired like a short missile, and punched a hole through the unit's neck plating. A second later, the fist snapped back onto her wrist and locked in.
Erika stared at the screen.
"You actually added rocket punch?"
Akira looked pleased.
"And as I said, it's useful."
Ritsu saw the hole she had made.
The two cables from her head slid forward, pushed into the opening, and bit into the machine.
"Connection is stable. Hacking in progress… complete. Take over~"
The unit's visor slit flipped from red to blue.
It turned on its former allies.
"Fire."
Every weapon it had left lit up at once.
The other three hesitated a half-second too long, then fired back.
Erika's eyes widened.
"She can do that?"
"She can do that," Akira said.
The hijacked unit's barrage wrecked one unit completely. It went up in a hard white blast.
That left two.
Those two poured everything into the hijacked machine. Ritsu felt the frame start to die beneath her, drove her hand into the rack, and tore out a single unexploded missile.
She jumped.
The captured unit blew apart beneath her.
The last two tanks launched heat-seekers at the metal girl now hanging in midair.
Ritsu opened her free hand.
"Activating EM field."
An invisible pressure folded around the incoming missiles. They jerked off course as she backflipped, dragging them around with her and flinging them back at the two remaining units.
The tanks shot the missiles down with Gatling fire.
The air between them turned into fire.
Erika pointed at the screen.
"What is that?"
"An experimental feature," Akira said. "Electromagnetic field. Magnetic force. Not like Magneto. She can only attract and repel metal, and if she overuses it or tries to lift something too big, she overheats."
Smoke swallowed the yard.
The last two units searched through it.
Ritsu used the cover, landed on the nearer tank's back, and adjusted her grip on the stolen missile.
"Now I know where your weaknesses are."
Charge crawled over the warhead.
She waited for the rack to cycle and timed the charge.
Then she threw.
The missile punched into the launcher.
The whole rack cooked off.
That unit vanished in its own ammunition.
Ritsu walked out of the smoke before the last machine finished turning.
Her rocket fist fired.
It went through the armor and crushed the power core.
"I already know where that is."
The last unit sagged and died.
Ritsu looked at the wreckage, cables swaying behind her like hair.
"Mission complete~"
After the last unit went still, Akira and Erika came up from the basement.
Ritsu ran to them, cables swinging behind her like hair.
"Akira-kun! Erika-san! I did it!"
Erika smiled.
"That's good, Ritsu. Congratulations."
Akira looked over the wreckage, then at her right arm.
"Yep. Not bad. You used that rocket fist well."
Ritsu flexed her metal fingers.
"I honestly didn't expect it to actually work."
Erika turned in a slow circle.
The lawn was torn up. A few trees leaned at ugly angles. Small fires still crawled over the blackened dirt.
"…The yard is wrecked."
Akira shrugged.
"Well, not that much damage. A few trees broken, some fires on the ground. We can fix it."
Erika glanced at him.
"So, did you find out who did it?"
"Well, yeah. I already figured out the main part." Akira's eyes stayed on the nearest ruined unit. "I still need time to find everyone involved. But Ritsu's creators and the Reaper are definitely in this."
A thin sound cut across the yard.
Beep. Beep.
Ritsu's head tilted.
"They're self-destructing."
Akira moved first.
"Take cover!"
He jumped on Erika and took her down into the grass. Ritsu dropped with them.
The units blew.
House turrets snapped up and shredded the flying scrap before it could reach them. Metal rang, sparked, and fell short.
Only when the guns went quiet did they get up.
Ritsu stared at the burning frames.
"I can't believe they self-destructed."
Akira brushed dirt off his sleeve.
"All machines should have that, you know."
Erika shot him a look.
"No. They don't."
Then Akira saw her hand.
A thin scratch ran across the back of it, bright with a little blood.
"Erika. You're hurt."
She looked down.
"Oh. It's just a scratch from falling down."
Akira did not seem to hear the second half.
"They hurt you."
Erika frowned.
"Akira. You jumped on me."
He looked past her, into the trees, toward the empty place where the trucks had been.
"They need to pay."
Erika looked baffled.
"What?"
Akira didn't answer.
His eyes were already fixed on something in the distance.
A target that wasn't there.