Kenji
The dorm common room was a sanctuary of warmth and light, a stark contrast to the cold, sterile white of the simulation room. The air was filled with the soft, inviting scent of Mei's recent baking and the sound of a sitcom on the television.
On the sofa, Mei was sitting comfortably, her attention on the show. While Kiana was lying down with her head resting comfortably in Mei's lap with a wide smile on her face, both of them were enjoying the quiet afternoon.
The domestic peace was broken by the sound of the dorm room door hissing open.
"I'm back!" Kenji called out.
The sudden noise made Kiana jolt. She shot up from Mei's lap as if she'd been electrocuted, her face instantly flushing. "K-Kenji! Welcome back!" she yelled, a little too loudly, brushing her hair down as if trying to pretend she had just been sitting normally.
Mei just chuckled softly at Kiana's reaction. "Welcome back, Kenji."
Kiana, overcompensating for being caught, scrambled to her feet and pointed at him. "You were gone for a while. How was it? Did you win? Did you kick her big robot's butt? Tell me everything!"
Mei smiled, patting the cushion next to her. "Calm down, Kiana. Let him sit down first. How did the training go? Was Bronya... was she easy to work with?"
Kenji grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and slumped into an armchair, a broad grin on his face. "It was definitely fun. Though 'Easy' is not the word I'd use. Her robot is no joke."
"Right?!" Kiana yelled, her flustered moment forgotten, now fully invested. "She's super strong! What'd she do? Did she do the big laser beam?"
"She did," Kenji said, "but she also has this new thing. It was like... a gravity vortex? It just sucked me right in. It definitely caught me off guard."
Mei's smile suddenly turned coy. "She's always had that, you know? Honestly, Kenji, I don't think you've seen even half of what she's capable of."
"Or me!" Kiana puffed her chest out. "I haven't shown you my cooler techniques yet! Next time, how about we spar and see if you can keep up?"
Kenji laughed. "Anytime you want, Kiana. I'm actually eager to see what you two can really do."
He paused, a more thoughtful expression crossing his face. The casual, trusting atmosphere of the room felt... right. It felt safe. Bronya's interrogation in the hallway had been weird, but it made him realize he'd been hiding information from them for no reason.
They were his team; he could trust them.
"Oh," he said, suddenly casual. "Speaking of the fight, I realized I never told you guys about another part of my power. I kinda... told Bronya about it. Well, sort of. So I should probably tell you two, so it's not weird."
Mei and Kiana exchanged a curious glance. "Another power?" Mei asked.
"It's... uh, it's kinda hard to explain," Kenji said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I just call it 'Danger Sense'. It's... basically a tingling or like a sharp jolt in my head that goes off right before something bad is about to happen. That's why it's so hard for most opponents to hit me."
Kiana's eyes went wide. "You can sense danger? Does that mean... You can tell whenever I'm about to prank you?!" Her expression was one of mock horror. "Is that how you knew I put salt in your coffee last week?!"
Kenji blinked, then laughed. "What? No! I knew that because you were hiding behind the counter and snorting, you're a terrible hider. And no, it doesn't work for pranks."
"Aww," Kiana said, slumping back in disappointment. "Doesn't that, like, defeat the purpose of sensing danger?"
"It doesn't react to things like mischief," Kenji clarified, his tone a bit more serious. "It only goes off when someone or something actually wants to hurt me. Like, 'life-in-danger' hurt. A prank isn't 'harmful,' so it stays quiet."
Mei's expression became more analytical, her perceptive gaze locking onto him. "So wait, it detects intent? It can tell if someone genuinely wants to hurt you?"
"Yeah, exactly!" Kenji said, relieved she understood. "That's the best way to put it. It detects harmful intent."
"So..." Mei continued, a small, thoughtful smile on her face. "When you're with us, when you're just walking around the dorms, or in class... Does it go off? With me, or Kiana?"
Kenji shook his head, looking like it should have been obvious. "No. Never. It's always been totally silent."
He paused, thinking back. "The only time it's ever activated around any of you is in a spar. Like just now with Bronya, or when I'm training with Himeko. But always when it's with you guys. It's just... quiet."
Mei's smile widened. That, more than anything, told her everything she needed to know. Kiana, on the other hand, just saw a new challenge. "So it only works if I really wanna hurt you, huh? Well, in our next spar, I'm gonna be so full of 'harmful intent' you won't know what hit you!"
"Sure buddy, how about you try and match my speed first?" He countered.
He brushed her off, and was about to focus his attention on the TV when he realised something odd about their appearance.
"Hold on a second—" Kiana and Mei turned their eyes towards him. "—You guys didn't exercise today, so why do you two look so flushed, and why is your hair messed up—"
"No reason!"
"Mind your business!"
/ — /
Bronya
It was late, past midnight, and the rest of St. Freya was asleep. The only light in her quarters came from the cold, blue-white glow of her monitor, painting her face in a clinical light.
The room was just as it had been at the start of the mission: controlled and silent. But the silence no longer felt like peace.
Her fingers moved with familiarity on the holographic keyboard. She bypassed the academy's light firewalls and opened a secure, encrypted channel to Cocolia's private server. A single, blinking prompt appeared on the black screen:
[FILE UPLOAD: PENDING]
It was time to file her report. Her task was simple. Compile the data. Upload. Mission complete. And this was just one of many more that she will have to send…
Her fingers hesitated for a split second before navigating to the simulation server log. The raw data from [TEST: AOYAMA, K.] was waiting. Her system, as programmed, had already sorted the files.
They were in two distinct directories: [FOLDER: VALIDATED_DATA (1.4GB)][FOLDER: ANOMALOUS_DATA (0.3GB)]
She clicked on [VALIDATED_DATA] first. This was the clean report, the part of the mission that had gone smoothly. Her monitors filled with graphs and telemetry. She reviewed the numbers one more time, even though she was almost sure that everything was correct.
[IMPACT FORCE: 14,000N]. [ENERGY SIGNATURE: DETECTED. LEVEL: 25%]. [SUBJECT VELOCITY: 48M/S]. She watched footage of her CQC subroutines—SCYTHE, HEAVY SLAM—executing, along with Kenji's corresponding reaction. The data is valuable. The test was a success. Mother will be pleased with this.
She methodically packaged the report files. Then, she opened the second folder. [ANOMALOUS_DATA]. Her system had flagged three corrupt sub-files.
The first was the sensor log from the "PINCER" maneuver. She re-watched the data, her eyes narrowing. [SUBJECT INITIATED DODGE 0.7 SECONDS *BEFORE* VISUAL CONFIRMATION]. She watched it again. Her eyes scanned the footage, along with his body readings, for any anomalies.
And she found nothing…
The second file was the audio log from the hallway. She listened to Kenji's voice, tinny and artificial through the speakers. "...a 'tingling' in my head... just a feeling..." Bronya felt a flash of her earlier annoyance
While she was able to confirm some form of precognitive ability, she still had no idea how it actually worked. Further tests and interrogations will have to be done to extract more data.
And then, the third file. BIOMETRIC_LOG: BRONYA_ZAYCHIK. This was her own data. It was never intended for upload. But she had to review it. She saw her internal HUD log: [ERROR: ANOMALY DETECTED. PSYCHOLOGICAL STATE: COMPROMISED]. She saw her biometrics: her heart rate spiking to 170BPM, her adrenaline levels matching a life-or-death encounter.
And then, the video of her face. She watched her own face. She watched herself release an excited smile.
She closed the file abruptly, her mind swirling. That made no sense… Why would she be smiling? Why was she smiling?
Kenji was nothing more than another subject, another variable she needed to make use of to save Seelie… So why… Why does her heart feel so heavy?
Her gaze snapped to the small, framed photo of Seele on her desk. The girl in the picture was smiling too, an expression of pure innocent joy. Bronya would do whatever it took, betray whomever she must, to see that smile again in person.
So why does it hurt her?
Her mind began processing the "corrupted" data, searching for the variable that had caused the error. The variable was not the "tingling." It was not the "precognition." It was Kenji's voice in the sim room, "Not a fan, huh? Then I'll stick to Bronya!" It was his voice in the hallway: "We're a team after all."
He was an anomaly. Just another variable that appeared in her life, she didn't even know him as much as she knew Kiana or Mei.
Yet… even in these few months they spent together, she has already gotten used to his presence. His loud, obnoxious voice. His kind and welcoming presence. Just as Kiana and Mei did, he was able to bypass her defenses, worming his way into her heart.
The heaviness in her chest... it was the unavoidable weight of two conflicting loyalties.
…
'Enough.' Bronya told herself.
She was Mother's agent. She had a mission. She had to file her report. But just as she was about to send her report, her fingers stopped, her mind running a final simulation, a projection of outcomes.
Path 1: Upload all subject data. She would send the [VALIDATED_DATA] and the [ANOMALOUS_DATA]. She would report the truth: that the subject possessed an unexplainable precognitive ability.
Predicted Response: Mother's logic was as cold and predictable as her own. Cocolia would see him as an even more valuable asset. She would see Bronya's failure to acquire a logical explanation, along with Anti-Entropy's failures at studying his energy.
She would, inevitably, override the current "passive" mission and authorize a more... invasive... retrieval. Kenji would be in danger. Kiana and Mei would be compromised.
Path 2: Upload a fabricated report. She would send only the [VALIDATED_DATA]. She would delete the "precognitive" sensor logs. She would delete the "tingling" audio file.
She would lie.
Predicted Response: Mother would see a strong, fast, but ultimately simple fighter. An asset, but a "brute-force" one, not a high-risk precog. She would be satisfied with the CQC data and order her to continue getting closer to him.
One path was the truth, and it would endanger her new team. The other path was a lie, and it would protect them.
Her eyes drifted from Seele's photo to the blank, black screen. This wasn't an emotional choice. It was a purely logical one. Path 2 had the highest probability of mission success, asset containment, and team preservation. This was the only viable move.
She was protecting her assets. That was all.
Her hand was steady, she clicked the mouse, highlighting the folder: [FOLDER: ANOMALOUS_DATA (0.3GB)]. Her finger moved to the 'Delete' key. She pressed it.
A small, clinical prompt box appeared in the center of her screen. [ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO PERMANENTLY DELETE 2 FILES?]
She stared at the words. This was it. The moment of active betrayal. The first, definitive lie to her Mother. She was fabricating a report, an act of treason. All to protect a boy who was, by all accounts, a tactical threat and an emotional liability.
…
[YES]. The folder vanished.
Bronya's hands moved quickly now; the decision was made. She finalized the "clean" report package. She attached a single, summary text file, its contents a perfect, logical lie:
[Subject is a high-output, low-complexity CQC operative. Power levels are anomalous, but the tactical approach is simplistic and predictable. CQC Subroutines are viable. No immediate threat.]
She dragged the package to the blinking upload prompt and clicked. The screen flashed, the progress bar filling in an instant.
[UPLOAD: COMPLETE]