First Person: The End of the World Protocol
"Initiate 'Eclipse' protocol."
The word resonated in the room, but for me, it was more than just an order. It was a sentence. In my world, in the bureaucracy of intelligence agencies, every protocol has a code name, and the most ominous ones are always reserved for the worst situations. "Eclipse" didn't sound like "we're going to have a friendly chat and then let you go." It sounded like "you're going to disappear." It sounded like a black hole from which there is no return. It sounded like a dissection table in a windowless room.
All the fear of imprisonment, all the shame of the recordings, evaporated. It was replaced by a much more primordial terror, the terror of a cornered animal realizing the cage is shrinking. My training, buried under layers of hangover and humiliation, surged to the surface with the force of a geyser.
Situation: Unacceptable.Objective: Survival.Method: Escape. At any cost.
Panic turned into a strange, cold calm. My mind raced, processing the room not as a prison, but as a tactical puzzle.
Threats:
Chifuyu Orimura (Commander): The primary threat. She doesn't attack, but she directs. Her intellect is the most dangerous weapon here. Laura Bodewig (Elite Soldier): The most immediate physical threat. Fast, strong, trained. Avoid at all costs. Guards (2): Professional, armed with stun batons. Trained obstacles. The other girls (Spectators/Wildcards): Unpredictable. Cecilia is furious, the others are in shock. They could intervene or obstruct. Ichika Orimura (Furniture): Not a threat. Could be used as a human shield if things get really, really ugly. Dismissed. Too much moral paperwork.
Opportunities:
The Chair: Heavy, polymer. Can serve as a barrier. The Table: Even heavier. An excellent obstacle. The Cuffs: My main problem. But during the IS flash, I noticed a flicker in the power diode. The overload might have damaged the regulator. It's a long shot. A gamble. The Door: My sole objective. Sealed, but has a control panel next to it. If I can reach it...
The System, as if reading my mind, flickered with its own grim assessment.
[!!MAXIMUM WARNING!!]["Eclipse" Protocol detected. Equivalent to "Black Site" designation in Host's world.][Host Future Projection:]
Vivisection for IS compatibility analysis: 78% probability. Permanent confinement for long-term study: 21% probability. Happy ending with tea and biscuits: 1% probability (system margin of error). [RECOMMENDED ACTION: RUN, YOU FOOL!]
Well, at least the System and I agreed for once.
The plan was simple, stupid, and suicidal. Provoke, create a distraction, break the cuffs, and run for the door as if my life depended on it. Because, in fact, it did.
I looked up and offered Chifuyu a tired, sarcastic smile. "You know, for an academy, your containment procedures are a bit dramatic. In my old line of work, we called this 'a boring Tuesday.'"
It was foolish. A meaningless provocation. And it worked. It diverted her attention, made her frown at my insolence.
It was the only distraction I needed.
Third Person: The Spark of Rebellion
As Leo's defiant words still hung in the air, his body moved with a speed no one in the room expected from a man who had been vomiting minutes earlier.
In an explosive movement, he rose from the chair, twisting his body. Using the momentum, he slammed his cuffed wrists against the sharp corner of the chair's backrest. He didn't aim for the cuff's metal, but for the small power box where the hum was coming from.
The impact was brutal. A flash of pain shot through his arms, and a dull thud resonated in the room. The cuffs held.
"Hold him!" one of the guards shouted, lunging at him.
But Leo was faster. Before the guard could reach him, he repeated the movement, striking the same spot with desperate precision. This time, his Rank A Luck intervened. At the precise moment of impact, the room's overhead lights flickered for a split second, a delayed ripple from the IS overload.
There was a burst of blue and white sparks from the cuff's power unit. The containment hum died with an electronic whine. The energy field linking the two shackles vanished. They didn't open, but they were no longer bound to the chair, and the paralyzing energy field was gone. His hands were still bound together, but now they were an improvised weapon.
The first guard reached him, stun baton raised. Leo, still with his hands clasped, swung them upwards, striking the guard's wrist. The baton flew through the air. The guard recoiled, surprised by the pain and the speed of the counterattack.
Chaos erupted.
"Escape attempt!" Laura shouted, her military training instantly activating.
Leo didn't wait. He shoved the heavy interrogation chair, which slid across the polished floor and slammed into the second guard's legs, knocking him off balance.
His objective was clear: the door.
He moved, not like a fighter, but like a fugitive. His style was a dance of desperation and efficiency. He wasn't seeking direct confrontation. He was a master of evasion, of using the environment.
He pushed the interrogation table with all his might. The heavy slab of metal and polymer overturned with a deafening clang, creating a formidable barrier in the center of the room and forcing the guards and Laura to go around it.
"Don't let him reach the door!" Chifuyu ordered, her voice calm but sharp, directing her troops.
Laura was the first to round the table. She lunged at him, her movements a blur of speed and precision. Leo, knowing he couldn't match her speed or strength, didn't try to dodge her head-on. Instead, at the last second, he ducked and slid across the polished concrete floor, using the slickness to his advantage.
Laura swept over him, her attack missing by centimeters. She had to correct her posture, giving Leo a precious second.
He was already back on his feet, running. The girls who had been observing instinctively recoiled, some with gasps of surprise. Ichika, true to his nature, simply stood there, wide-eyed, yelling a useless: "Hey, stop!"
Leo ignored him. He was only a few meters from the door's control panel. He saw the card reader. In the chaos, the technician who had been manning the screen had stepped aside, and his ID card hung from a lanyard around his neck, swinging.
That was his chance.
He lunged towards the technician, a frightened man who blanched with terror. Leo didn't attack him. He simply darted past him and, with his hands still cuffed, hooked the card and yanked. The lanyard snapped. He had the key.
He turned towards the door, the card in his hand. Victory, freedom, was a single gesture away.
Second Person: The Lady's Fury
You've been observing everything from the back of the room, Cecilia. At first, you were paralyzed. The sensation of his touch, the explosion of blue light, the violation of your Blue Tears... it had left you in a state of shock. Your world, built on pride, lineage, and absolute control over your IS, had shattered. You felt vulnerable, exposed.
But as you watched him move, the shock began to transform into something hotter, sharper. Fury.
You watch this barbarian, this vandal from another world, sow chaos in a room full of elite pilots. You watch the guards stumble, you watch the great Laura Bodewig fail her attack. You watch him humiliate the order and discipline that are the very foundation of your existence.
And worst of all, you watch him about to succeed.
He has the card. He's at the door. He's about to escape, to laugh at all of you, after what he did to you. The thought is an unbearable insult. He touched your IS. He made you feel powerless.
You will not allow him to be the one who gets away with it.
A switch flips in your head. Protocol, waiting for orders—all of that disappears. Only a primal instinct remains: restore honor. Reclaim control.
You don't think. You act.
Your gaze sweeps the floor for a weapon, anything. You spot the stun baton Leo snatched from the first guard. It lies on the floor, a few meters from you.
While everyone else is focused on the door, you move. With a grace and speed that would surprise your fencing instructors, you lunge for the baton and snatch it up. It feels heavy, solid in your hand. It feels good.
He's turned his back to you, completely focused on swiping the card through the reader. It's his fatal error. He has underestimated the "spectators." He has underestimated you.
You run the few meters separating you from him, your low heels making barely a sound on the floor. He doesn't hear you coming.
You raise the baton over your shoulder, channeling all your fury, your humiliation, and your wounded pride into a single movement. You don't aim for his legs or his back. You aim for the head. The off switch.
"This is for decency!" you whisper, and the word is a vow of vengeance.
First Person: Blackout
It was there. The card reader slot. I had it. Freedom.
The plastic of the card felt slick in my sweaty hands. I chuckled, a breathless gasp. Despite everything, I was going to make it. I was going to...
My first inkling that something was wrong was a sudden shadow falling over me. The second was a slight whoosh in the air, the sound of an object rapidly displacing.
I had no time for a third inkling.
An explosive, white pain erupted at the back of my skull. It wasn't like passing out from alcohol, a gentle drift into nothingness. It was like someone had flipped the universe's master switch.
The lights went out. The sound cut. Thought ceased.
My body disconnected from my brain. I felt, in a strangely detached way, my knees buckling and the access card slipping from my fingers.
The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me completely was the clean, polished white floor of the academy rushing up to meet me.
...
Silence fell once more in the interrogation room, now a miniature battlefield.
Leo lay face down on the floor, unmoving, a trickle of blood beginning to seep from the back of his head. The broken cuffs still linked his wrists.
Standing over him, her chest heaving with ragged breaths, was Cecilia Alcott. The stun baton hung from her hand, humming softly. Her knuckles were white from the force of her grip. Her blue eyes, normally filled with aristocratic pride, now blazed with a ferocity that surprised everyone present.
The guards paused, unsure how to proceed. Laura looked at Cecilia, a new expression of respect on her face. Ichika simply stared at Leo's unconscious body in horror.
Chifuyu Orimura slowly approached. She looked at Leo, then at Cecilia. She didn't scold her. She didn't praise her. She simply nodded, once, an almost imperceptible gesture.
"Good," she said quietly. "Now that the... interruption is over. Get him to the infirmary. Put him under maximum level surveillance. I want a full report of his physical capabilities on my desk within an hour."
She turned to Cecilia, whose breathing was beginning to calm. "Miss Alcott. Good instinct. But next time, wait for the order."
Cecilia nodded, though her eyes remained fixed on Leo's unconscious form. She had regained control. She had stopped the barbarian.
But as the guards moved in to collect the prisoner's inert body, everyone in the room felt a new, chilling truth. They hadn't really stopped him. They had merely hit the pause button. And by knocking out the only other man in the world who could touch an IS, they had just made the biggest secret on the planet even more complicated.