-1: 60
A nondescript storage room in the depths of the Central Government.
There, a white-haired Nikke with violet eyes and a mole near her left eye stared at her datapad, a soft smile on her face. "The contract is complete. Although the circumstances are a bit... strange. I'll ensure its fulfillment, Miss Syuen."
On the datapad, a chatbox popped up along with a message.
*You had better, you scrap bucket! I risked everything I had for this!*
Snow Crane smiled. "Rest assured. The Veiled Order Squad always fulfills its contracts. Furthermore... Well, I personally owe your grandfather a favor. I am a Missilis Manufactured Nikke, after all."
*And that's the only reason I even trusted you with this in the first place!*
Snow Crane smiled and then gently placed a glowing black and purple Harmony Cube in a secure glass capsule before tucking it out of the way. "Although I'm not able to say when the contract will be fulfilled, you can rest assured. You will be safe here until it is. So until then, just remain discreet, Miss Syuen."
*Ugh... That's what I hate doing the most. Especially since that snake is going to be running around ruining my good name...!*
"Better a ruined name than dead though, yes?"
*...*
Snow Crane let out a gentle laugh and said, "Rest. We will resolve this situation in due time. And I will fulfill the contract and make contact with The Valiant when he returns to the Ark."
*The Valiant... Tch. Still can't believe they're calling him that... but fine. I'll wait. But that bastard better not keep me waiting too long! I'll never forgive him if he does! He promised!*
"Yes, yes." Snow Crane flicked off the lights in the storage room. "Until next time, Lady Syuen."
*Wait.*
"Yes?"
*Leave the lights on.*
"...Could it be that you're scared of the dark?"
*S-So what if I am, huh? I can't control anything like this! At least... at least let me see a bit...*
Snow Crane let out a soft smile. "Understood. Then..." She rummaged around the room and set up a small desk lamp next to the capsule with the Harmony Cube. "Here you are. Until next time."
With that, Snow Crane left.
===
Syuen... the REAL Syuen sat down in her virtual lab, staring at the grainy footage of the storage room around the Harmony Cube housing her soul. "...Dammit."
It was terrifying.
Syuen had barely managed to discover the truth about NIMPH and how they worked as well as set up a Harmony Cube to house her soul... or rather, her Fluctlight, when she was killed.
Her body, turned into a meatsack. Her brain, ripped out, injected with NIMPH, and then forcibly overwritten with some other woman's soul.
Lucky.
For once in her life, Syuen had been extraordinarily lucky.
The moment she finished setting up her backup life, she had contacted the commander.
And mere minutes after she did that, she died.
Syuen still wasn't sure how.
Was it a kill switch?
Was she injected with a nanite at some point to stop her heart?
Was it the Board of Directors?
All she knew was that she had been texting the commander, set up the chat to self-destruct, and then she was suddenly inside her virtual environment, looking out at the world through the distorted images reflected by the Harmony Cube.
"...Of all the things to be right about...!"
Syuen knew it. She KNEW that they had her by the neck. That a big enough mistake would lead to her death.
But she didn't think it was like THAT. Where her life would be snuffed out in an instant.
"...Was this what happened to Jien?"
Syuen had hated her older sister for it. She thought that it was because Jien was reckless. Caught offguard.
But this...
Terrifying.
Something that genius couldn't account for. An attack that came out of the blue. Almost like a phantom had directly stolen her soul. Reached into her brain and ripped her out to steal her place.
That sudden.
Syuen took a slow breath, forcibly calming her trembling body... or what passed for a body in this virtual environment.
"It's okay. It's... okay."
Right.
It wasn't over.
Although she didn't know what had happened... although she didn't know who did it...
Syuen knew one thing.
"Those bastards." Syuen let out a sharp grin. "If they think that they can pull one over that commander like this... if they think that he'll just stand by..."
Syuen had a good grasp on Commander Hoopa.
Although it was still debateable if he was a real genius or not, it was clear that he was definitely a man who returned kindness with kindness and malice with malice.
When Syuen reached out to him, he didn't spurn her. He calmly listened and treated her well. And he even agreed to a partnership of sorts.
That meant she was 'his.' At least, one of the people he considered under his umbrella.
And Syuen had personally experienced what happened to people who dared even look wrong at the people under that commander's protection.
So...
"...It's fine." Syuen sat back down in her virtual lab. "Nothing changes anyway."
This was a good thing.
Since she was disembodied, she didn't have to worry about the pesky biological limitations of eating or sleeping. Moreover, she didn't have to fear being killed since... well, she was technically dead.
And since she had the foresight to upload all her notes and necessary software to the Harmony Cube before she kicked the bucket...
"Just you wait, you bastards." Syuen gnashed her teeth. "The moment I get a body back, I'm going to ruin all of you."
She was the face of Missilis. SHE was the one who made Missilis Industries what it was today. HER, not anyone else.
And though she hadn't managed to make anything noteworthy in recent years due to the stress of dying if she made too big a mistake... Well, now she WAS dead.
But she was still here.
Which meant...
"I'll show you all what a REAL genius can do when she's got nothing left to lose."
Syuen's violet eyes flashed with resolve as she pulled up a dozen holographic screens from her console.
Notes on Fluctlight, soul materialization, soul resonance, and more.
Schematics of overspec Nikke frames that she had been planning for Matis.
Theories and analysis of Commander Hoopa's RIDICULOUS feats as well as his medical record...
"Wait."
Syuen paused, carefully reviewing Commander Hoopa's medical records again. Specifically the paternity test.
50% from Deputy Chief Andersen.
48% from a woman whose name was redacted.
And 2% that was anomalous human DNA, but specifically in non-coding regions...
After that, Syuen reviewed the notes on his physical examination.
Increased muscular density and bone density. Near impossible VO2 max.
And that bloodtype that made it impossible for him to receive any transfusions if he was injured.
After that, Syuen quickly pulled up footage of Hoopa running through the Ark carrying Anis again.
"Could it be...?"
A thought came to mind.
NIMPH was shorthand. It stood for Neuro-Implanted Machine for the Protection of Humans.
As for the actual implantation process, it was an injection. The NIMPH themselves were a dark fluid-like substance that immediately flooded and expanded across the brain, retrofitting it to be suitable for Nikke bodies.
Though, it was still unknown why male brains rejected the injection process...
But anyway.
That wasn't what Syuen cared about. Instead...
"...What if?"
The key benefit of NIMPH... the main function was processing and connecting the brain to the Nikke body. It served as a form of pseudonervous system. And it was also why Mind Switches were a danger: the mental dissonance would cause the brain to reject the body.
But what if NIMPH wasn't injected into a finished body? Into someone fully grown?
What if NIMPH was injected to a developing fetus just as its DNA was formed?
Not a lot. Just a tiny portion. And not to structure the brain to suit a Nikke body, but instead to optimize it.
Instead of building a brand new body for the brain, leveraging the body's natural adaptation and the brain's own neuroplasticity to develop an ideal body organically. And at the same time, allowing the nanomachines to integrate as a key function of the body. Similar to how mitochondria became portions of human cells.
Syuen quickly reviewed her notes. She analyzed the footage she had of Hoopa. Then she saw her previous annotations on his battle against the Grave Digger EX.
Specifically, how he seemed to have preempted its attack.
This time, she reviewed that footage again.
Slowly. Frame by frame. Not from the moment of the electron beam launch, but a few seconds before.
"...There."
She saw it.
An autonomous motion. Like she thought, his attack was a reflex. Like blinking. He didn't consciously think to attack the Tyrant-Class Rapture or calculate the means to interrupt it. His body moved on its own.
The human nervous system could only send messages through its body so fast. The nervous system itself was hard-wired and had a physical cap.
At least... it should.
But.
"...That's not true with NIMPH- No, with nanomachines."
Syuen carefully watched the footage. Each muscle, each tendon, each movement.
And then she saw it.
A smooth motion that dispersed and controlled force so perfectly that the body wasn't strained at all. The upper theoretical maximum potential of the human body, executed as if it was natural.
Processing done not with the mind, but with the entire body.
Instinct.
AUTONOMOUS instinct.
Syuen reviewed Hoopa's medical records one more time. Then she noted how his muscular density and bone density were abnormal.
...But that was only according to the scans utilized at the time.
What if it wasn't 'muscular' density and 'bone' density?
To confirm her hypothesis, Syuen pulled the actual scans.
And then she saw it.
On the CT scan, the 'dense' muscles and bones were shown with darker sections. That, along with the increased weight, made the examiner assume it was simply biological.
But.
"...You magnificent bastard." Syuen laughed, having realized the lynchpin to all of his actions. How he could act like that while still being human. "You're the next step."
Just like how the Raptures evolved by imitating biology...
Hoopa was the bridge.
A human unbound by the limitations of normal biology due to adapting nanomachine technology on the cellular level. Of having it woven into his very DNA.
Or in short...
Biology imitating machinery.
Those anomalous unencoding regions detected in his DNA?
Nanomachines.
And nanomachines scattered across every damned cell of his entire body due to how DNA worked. Self-reproducing and transferrable nanomachines incorporated into the very foundation of humanity itself to be passed down in perpetuity. Ones that had grown, adapted, and changed to live in harmony with human cells, just like mitochondria.
Syuen laughed and then slammed her fists down on her desktop, a triumphant grin on her face. "Checkmate, you mechanical bastards."
So what if she had died?
So what if her body got stolen?
So what if some bitch was parading her skin around like a wetsuit and ruining her name?
It didn't matter anymore. Because right now, Syuen knew a secret that nobody else in the world understood.
Hoopa. That magnificent bastard of a commander.
He was a walking contradiction. A human who had integrated machinery into his very essence.
A heretic- No.
A maverick. A human who had taken a step away from humanity while still embracing all of its aspects in full.
Syuen burst out laughing, already counting the days until the rest of the world caught up and realized the dragon hiding in sheep's clothing.
But more than that...
"Oh, the look on that bastard commander's face..."
...Syuen couldn't wait to see Hoopa's expression when he realized how ridiculous he really was.