A great metallic crunch claps across the courtyard, loud enough to send shockwaves under 11’s feet. It takes her one-hundredth of a second to process what has happened, but by then it is too late.

Halfway down the long flight of stairs, three armored knights are sprawled across the stone, their bodies indistinguishable from crushed aluminum cans.

They're all dead.

11 turns to the river.

No. Not all.

One knight is still sinking, his armor weighing him down like a straightjacket of steel.

11 takes a running leap and dives. She quickly locates the man flailing in the sand, clawing at the straps on his chest mail. She swims over, grabs onto him and with a mighty push, launches them both from the water, breaking through the river's shivering surface like a torpedo.

Once they hit land, the man sputters and begins to vomit out the water inside him. 11 doesn’t stop to check on his vitals. She doesn’t have time. The girl she only remembers as Hikari has already made it up the stairs and when she turns back, she sees the girl is holding another knight by the neck.

“Stop!” 11 sprints towards them. “Don’t!”

With a sickening snap, Hikari tears the man’s head right off his shoulders. Blood sprays against the grey walls, painting them red.

11 is so shocked she stops running. How can someone so small be capable of this?

Hikari lifts the head over her mouth, letting the blood run straight down her throat. The knight’s face is a frozen mask as his lifeless eyes stare out at 11.

Demonic Entity identified.

Damage Output Level: 61.

Threat to Humanity: Yes.

“Hikari…” 11 breathes. “What have you done.”

After a few swallows, Hikari tosses the head away in disgust. “Cheap ale and roast boar,” she spits. “What a delicious combination.” With a whip of her cloak she turns to the doors, just in time to see them bursting open. A swarm of knights pours out holding spears and swords. They all stop short as they confront the scene before them, stunned at the impossibility of what they are seeing.

Hikari moves first. Grabbing the nearest knight by the belt she hurls him out of sight, as if the grown man weighs little more than a cotton-stuffed doll.

With alarmed cries the other knights spur into action, stabbing and slicing but none even get close before they’re tossed up into the sky as well.

Down in the courtyard, 11 dashes under the falling men to catch them. But there are just too many. She activates her wings, bursting through the sky but even then she cannot get to all of them. All around her, people splat onto the pavement or through nearby rooftops, a few landing so far away she can barely hear the sound of their bodies being flattened against the ground.

Screaming in frustration she turns, cannons assembling from her arms. But Hikari is gone. And so are all the knights that were around her.

11 lands, dropping the knight she's carrying. The massively built man curls up sideways and begins wailing like a newborn child. 11 turns to him.

“Go get help,” she instructs. “Hurry. It’s going to get worse inside your base. More people are going to get hurt.”

The man screams incoherently.

11 tries to find someone else, but all the other knights in the courtyard are all either too busy vomiting, screaming, or being passed out. She runs back to the wailing man.

“Snap out of it!” She yells into his face, giving him a violent shake. “Your friends need you!”

The man stops sobbing just long enough to look at her. 11 takes this opportunity to cut through his hysteria.

“What is your name, soldier?”

The man’s thick lips quiver as he stammers, “D-d-d-danny, m-m-my lady.”

“Listen to me Danny.” 11 speaks slowly so the man will understand her. “Go to the Guild. There’s a receptionist at the door. Red hair, glasses, very hot. Tell her what’s happened here and ask her to send as many healers as soon as she can. Ask for Lady Thornrose if you must. Lives are dependent on you getting this help. Can you do that, Danny?”

Danny nods. “Y-ya,” he says, swallowing saliva and snot. “I t-t-take horse. Find hot gal.”

“Go then.” 11 lets go of him and watches as he staggers away. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save more of you,” she whispers to his back. “I’m sorry I let this happen again.”

The moment 11 pushes through the grand double doors she is hit with the cries of men being torn apart. Blood smears the open halls and the smooth polished floors are slippery with human remains.

It’s as if a train has run through the building.

She starts to run. Something like panic starts to seep into her chest as the ‘Living Entities’ counter on her display plummets. It’s the Wraith situation all over again, she realizes with dread. Except this time I’m not losing two people, but countless.

She breaks through doors and dashes down corridors, jumping over discarded weapons and broken bodies. Some are screaming, reaching for her as she passes, forcing her to dodge out of the way of their grasping fingers.

"Help is coming," she assures anyone alive enough to hear. "It'll be here soon."

I hope.

Then, through the walls a few floors above, she finally locates the tiny silhouette of Hikari. 11 skids to a stop, raises her arm and lets loose a blast of neon blue energy.

“ARC cannon, one-percent!”

A hole rips through the ceiling, raining down stone. 11 steps out of the way, spots a flash of silver hair falling and makes a grab for her, but her fingers seem to grasp empty air.

She’s gone?!

She turns when she hears the sound of a soft splash.

Behind her, among a pool of corpses and blood, Hikari stands on the tips of her toes like a ballerina.

She smiles when she sees 11. "Took your time, slowpoke."

She’s so small, yet she’s able to commit such atrocities without blinking.

Hikari points to 11's arm. “This is the first time I’ve seen a Reaper’s cannon. But it doesn’t seem very strong.”

11 waits for her arm to cool before reassembling it. “I don’t want any more casualties. The madness ends now.” She draws one of her mage-blades. “I warn you. Whatever history we have together I do not remember, so it will not hinder the speed or strength of my cuts.”

That seems to strike a chord with Hikari. She bristles, anger flashing across her heart-shaped face, but the look is quickly replaced by a cheeky grin. “You can try,” she says and then turns and runs the other way.

As 11 chases the girl down the winding corridors, she hears the Synapse-Mother-System’s voice washing through her like an icy wave.

Permission to kill granted, Gier 11. Weapons hot.

Casualties and collateral damage are allowed.

You must terminate the target at all costs. Order effective immediately.

As the silhouette of Hikari turns red on her scanners, the strangest kind of pain starts to drum in 11’s chest. She tries to push it away but the throbbing does not let up, like a splinter is lodged inside her Core, prickling whenever she breathes.

Doors and people blur past her. From the corners of her vision 11 catches sight of the phantom faces of Allastair and Fennald, but she pretends not to see them.

I’m just feeling rusty, 11 tells herself, unsheathing her other blade from her belt. Once I exterminate this target everything will make sense again.

She pulls back her arms and throws.

There will be no more ghosts today.

She watches the blades spin through the air, piercing straight into Hikari’s tiny back.

While my sister spent the next three years in various places in the hospital, I studied for the entrance exam to get into the Eternal Heaven Academy.

I snuck in a tablet to work. Hidden between the towering databanks, I’d spend the whole day reading about war tactics and practicing fighting moves. I planned on doing this all behind Daddy’s back because instinct told me he would not approve, but only two weeks after meeting Dr. Oswald, Daddy came knocking on my door.

I was watching videos about fighting techniques under my covers so didn’t hear him. It was only when I felt the blanket being lifted up off of me that I knew I was caught.

“Aiya.” His voice sounded even raspier as usual. He’d started smoking again. I stared at him, embarrassment and fear all rolling into a single thought of defending my actions. Under the dim cabin lights, Daddy's hair was a muddy color and his eyes were so dark I couldn’t see their pupils. But when he spoke again I realized he wasn't here to confront me.

“Is this really what you want?” was all he asked.

I nodded. “It’s for Hikari’s sake.”

Daddy came to sit on the edge of my bed. He was wearing his brown suit and looked like he was heading out. I asked him if he was.

He sighed. “I’m going to talk to Dr. Oswald.”

“Why?”

“To talk about your enrolment, see if there’s any other way.”

That night, I learned that adults had this uncanny ability to find out exactly what it was you didn’t want them to. There was nothing I could say to him then that he didn’t already know, so I just nodded and told him to be careful.

Daddy turned to face me. The light of my lantern glanced off his glasses and hid his eyes, but his smile was sad.

“Good night, Aiyano,” he said, then leaned down and kissed me on the forehead.

He came back in the early morning, reeking of smoke and something else. Spicy and flowery. Perfume, I think, but he only poked his head into my room for a second before he was gone again. I turned off my tablet and listened. From between the walls I heard his bed creek, the sheets rustle, and then he was snoring.

Daddy never talked to me about the Academy again, and I gradually stopped hiding my studies.

Two years later, Daddy was promoted from his archive job to teach at the Academy. One year after that, I was enrolled to take the Academy’s entrance exam. I ended up placing eleventh out of the two hundred in the entire Academy, but we didn't celebrate because neither of us wanted to acknowledge the fact we were both being used by Dr. Oswald.

It’s for Hikari’s sake, we’d tell each other through silent glances and Compact Dinners. It doesn’t matter what happens to us as long as Hikari gets the best treatment available.

The evening before the first semester began, I visited Hikari in the hospital. She was six then, and was in that developmental stage of questioning everything she was told.

“Why are you going there, Aiyanee?” was her first question. We were watching the sunset on the roof, her in a wheelchair and me behind her, holding onto the brakes even though they were already locked tight.

“This way we get better stuff,” I told her. “And if I keep my place in the top one-hundred by the end of the third year, we can get a new home in Haven after it’s built.” Then I added with a smile, “But mostly it’s because I’ll get a bad-ass mech to fight the Demonic Entities in.”

“Cooool,” said Hikari, twisting in her wheelchair to stare at me with those huge brown eyes. “You’ll be like a superhero.”

“Exactly.” I reached past a bundle of wires to mess my little sister's head, making her squeal.

A wind picked up, tugging at our hair and clothes. I glanced up at the sky. The sun was hidden behind grey clouds far in the horizon, so the blue above was as dark as the water around us. I started to push Hikari and her machines back towards the lifts.

"No sun today, Hikari."

“Noooo. I don’t wanna go yet,” she started to complain, but when I told her we could get pudding from the cafeteria downstairs she was happy again.

“Is that a promise?” she asked, swinging her legs as we waited for the elevator doors to open. “You don’t make promise if… um, you can’t make if… you promised to keep it.”

I laughed. “Yes, Hikari. That’s a promise. And I'll never make a promise if I can't keep it.”

The doors dinged and I pushed us through. Beneath us, the carrier ship started to turn, chasing the sunset over the sparkling ocean.