A warmth spread behind his eyes, writhing and restless. The sensation—a wild wave of power thrumming in his heart and vision—was so terrifying that Azuma closed his eyes.
His fingers slightly trembled but the wave gradually faded away. His heart was drowning in an uneasy coldness as it madly hammered against his chest.
Azuma took in a shaky breath and opened his eyes.
『I will be waiting.』
The message reached him a while ago but since it was from the Abyss, where time no longer worked the same, he cannot be sure about when it was transmitted.
But why?
After such a long time…
"Woah," the trooper whispered, her wide brown eyes looking at him in surprise, "You're really scared of syringes, aren't you?"
Azuma replied with a straight face, "Of course not."
Well, he was but they never made him feel that unnerved. The reason was something else, the trooper didn't know because she was acting as a temporary substitute for his usual doctor.
"The Abyss Squads have returned this morning," she had told him earlier, "so they need all the medical staff to tend them."
All the troopers were trained in basic survival skills and that included the medicinal field. And everyone from the small cities was a trooper. They were required to descend in the Abyss.
Three years ago, Azuma used to be one of them.
He sighed to himself and closed his eyes again.
There were two more dosages remaining and the complete medical scan would take around half an hour. Then it will take half a day for him to shake off the after-effects of those nauseating drugs injected inside his body.
He disliked this tedious process but it was a small price to pay for the freedom people like him won't easily get.
Azuma's thoughts went back to the message and something inside sank a little.
+ + +
Azuma was five years old when he became an orphan.
He was frightened but the fear was not caused by the loss of his father, it was something much more primal—the fear of being left alone in a collapsing world.
The fear of not being able to survive.
A familiar shadow of gnawing helplessness weighed his heart.
But those moments were only a haze in his memories, serving no purpose but to remind him of how easily things can fall apart, about the fragility of human life.
The days that followed his father's death were those he never looked back to. But he dimly remembered the time when he met Commander Amane.
Azuma knew him as his father's superior.
Commander Amane had a rugged expression that never faded, his face was scarred, and his hands were calloused when he saved the young boy from tripping inside a well.
The commander terrified his fleet, bellowing orders as soon as he brought Azuma inside the hovercraft. All his subordinates lived under his terror.
But the commander has always been kind to Azuma, he took him under his care and brought him to his house in Central Ashai; one of the last cities of Eastern Asia.
It was a beautiful place, carrying none of the dreadful skies Azuma was used to. That was all he remembered of Ashai, the clear skies, and the sakura tree that flourished in the terrace garden.
However, near the end of that year, another memory was deeply engraved in his mind.
Commander Amane brought home a young girl. She was a year or two younger than Azuma and deeply asleep in the commander's arm.
Azuma was slightly distracted by her flushed cheeks, giving in to his urge to pinch them.
The girl flinched and Azuma hastily drew his hand back.
Amane had a rare smile as he said the name of the young girl, "Shiro."
Azuma blinked, softly poking her cheek as he whispered, "Shiro…"
That moment he felt a strange feeling, a flicker of warmth. The emotion was indescribable, something the five-year-old Azuma could not put into words. But when he saw this creature who could easily shatter, something like a masculine sense of responsibility brushed his heart.
"Take care of your baby sister," Amane said, half-jokingly.
But Azuma gave a fierce nod, finger still lingering over her soft skin.
+ + +
After nine years, things are no longer the same.
Azuma was enlisted in the military at the age of six, Shiro followed two years later. But the two of them belonged to different places, which halted their contact.
Commander Amane took a break from his duties to take care of the two children, but once they were old enough to start their destiny, he too returned to his fleet.
Azuma was ten when Commander Amane returned from the Abyss. He was hailed as a hero for discovering new depths; the fourth level. But a few days after his return, he succumbed to a strange illness and died.
His funeral was the second time Azuma and Shiro met, both orphans seeing their last hope burning into ashes. That night she had cried into his arms, and Azuma too found his buried emotions trembling in the form of tears.
They briefly met after a year and then no more.
But Azuma heard the news, of how the famed commander's daughter climbed in her ranks and later became a squadron leader who is next to none but a Fleet's Commander.
On the flip side, Azuma was taken out of his military program. He ceased to be a trooper and was now a simple commoner.
He and Shiro had each other's contact but they never messaged because she was too busy. And her expeditions to the Abyss made it nearly impossible for their messages to ever reach each other.
But when her first message arrived, it made him more conflicted than ever.
『I will be waiting.』— Shiro
What does that mean?
His eyes abruptly opened at the cold sting of a neuro patch being removed. The trooper removed the few wires and leaned across his bed to type some quick commands on the report screen.
『Subject: LCFR 369/Ω 』
『 Code Name: Azuma 』
"That's an odd subject code," the trooper remarked indifferently before she closed the screen and got up, "You're free to leave."
As soon as those words left her, the door of the room suddenly opened. Yukine entered hurriedly, an excited smile hanging over his lips.
"Azuma–kun! We are both asked to join the Supreme Commander's meeting!"
He slowed down when he saw Azuma lying over a bed, "Are you alright?"
"Yukine?" The trooper had a surprised look.
"Woah, Haru!" Yukine exclaimed with the same surprise.
He walked beside her and Azuma noted how a soft blush crept over her seemingly nonchalant expressions.
"I am fine," Azuma tried to smile through a dizzying haze.
"How do you know each other?" Haru looked up at Yukine who was half a meter tall than her.
"Oh, he helped me train today."
Haru's expression shifted to doubt and Azuma couldn't blame her. She had seen his subject code and omega was a symbol only assigned to 'defected' subjects. Those with the omega symbol are not even eligible to be full-fledged seekers.
As a seeker, Yukine must be a sigma.
Then how could Azuma train him?
These doubts ran through Haru's mind.
She folded her hands, "Not to be rude Azuma-san, but have you ever received the proper training?"
The troopers were trained until the age of fourteen so Azuma's training was cut short.
Before he could reply, Yukine immediately came to defense.
"Of course!" He carried a determined look in his eyes, "He teaches very well."
Haru was taken aback.
"He is very kind," Yukine continued seriously, "But can also be rough sometimes. The technique he knows and stamina he has are enough to bring someone on their knees."
Azuma felt odd with the choice of words.
Haru's mouth was slightly agape.
"It was our first time today and yet we continued it until the evening!"
Haru's face was flushed as she cast an accusatory glance at Azuma.
"Training," Azuma burst out laughing, it made him feel even more lightheaded, "He is talking about training."
"Well, of course. What else?" Yukine was oblivious.
Haru cleared her throat and left without sparing them another glance.
"We are squadmates," Yukine completed her unfinished introduction.
'What a wild imagination.' Azuma chuckled, the image of her beetroot red face still lingering in his memory.
The two of them left together and Azuma soon learned how much Yukine loved to talk. He had been somewhat quiet after their training ended but not so much this time.
He had a bright personality.
Yukine was a few inches taller than Azuma with short unkempt blonde hair. Yet his age was less, his thirteenth birthday will be next morning–the same day when his squad will be dispatched into Abyss.
Azuma remembered he was supposed to return the Ethereum dagger in five minutes. There is a penalty for the delay and since he can not skip the meeting, he decided to drop a message to the person in charge.
『 Congratulations! You have successfully installed a new knitting skillset: Red Strings of Fate! 』
『 The system is updating. 』
» This might take several minutes. Do not turn off the system. «
"..."
The systems of beta-testers were modified to automatically install beta updates.
A giant pair of silver gates slid aside to reveal a vast circular hall.
There were several people in the hall, all in different uniforms that spoke about their status and jobs. Seekers, Soldiers, Squadron leaders—
Azuma's thoughts halted when his eyes noticed a familiar white uniform; the suits of Ghost Fleet.
Shiro was one of them.
A ding sound echoed through the hall, silencing all whispers and announcing their Supreme Commander.
Azuma's heart was uneasy.
Soon after that, his world changed forever.