Chapter 1 - FIGHT_001: Recovery of an Angel.

No price is too high for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche. 

Volume 1: Rusty Angel. 

It was October 8th. 

As night fell, the horizon was tinged with a yellow-orange hue that gradually blended into twilight, marking the end of another day. 

In the distance, beyond vast wastelands of scrap metal mountains and dirt roads, hundreds of factories spewed columns of black smoke that polluted the skies, preventing stars from casting their faint evening glow. 

Dust rose as huge cranes and crushers mercilessly destroyed all traces of the previous century, buried underground for hundreds of years, which now lay scattered on the surface alongside red ruins. 

Piled up in huge heaps, the rubble formed a doughnut-shape ring around the perimeter of the Scrapyard. It was a surrounding landfill of gravel roads, iron mountains, Factory railroads, and dirt highways that twisted and turned endlessly, making the reddish land into a toxic labyrinth filled with the stench of sulfur, ammonia, decay, oil, and a host of similar gases and odors. 

At first glance, it seemed like a lifeless environment... However, it was also a treasure trove of valuable resources in a world where everything else had been destroyed. 

Amidst the hum of machinery and the clangs of steels in the distance, a lone figure made its way past piles of rubble and stacked rickety cars, humming happily as he advanced through the thick clouds of dirt and fog. 

When the dust finally settled, a thin man materialized like a shadow. 

In spite of his large build and fair-skin, Daisuke Ido was not exactly on the athletic side. He had a blond hair combed into a high quiff, and pince-nez glasses over his calm blue eyes. 

His long brown trench coat gave him the general appearance of a university professor going out for a relaxing stroll after a long day of classes, even if the location chosen for said outing was a huge landfill filled with soulless shredders, junkies, and potentially lethal chemical fumes. 

Despite this, Ido moved with a jovial gait that made him seem younger than he probably was. One could even argue that, in spite of his apparent middle age, Daisuke Ido was quite handsome. 

His demeanor suggested that he was a cultured man of some importance who had somehow taken a wrong turn in life and ended up here, at the lowest rung of society, reducing himself to rummaging through the remains and dregs of a world long gone. 

Back in the Scrapyard, no one knew much about Ido, except that he was a highly skilled cybersurgeon who offered his services to cyborgs at whatever price they could afford. 

His patients highly valued both his generosity as well as his skills, and Ido, in turn, appreciated even further not to be asked how he had acquired such skills, or where he came from, or how he had gotten the small circular tattoo that branded his forehead. 

He helped the cyborgs of the Scrapyard with their needs, and they, in most cases, paid him back. No questions asked. 

Outside of work, his usual pastime was rummaging through garbage dumps around the city in search of anything that could be put to good use, a hobby that might seem unattractive to most people, but which could yield considerable rewards to those with enough patience, luck, and daring spirit. Or failing that, a suicidal desire. 

Ido knew this all too well, being himself an experienced scavenger with more than a few lucky streaks in his record, reason why he spent the end of many days on the trash pile using a hand-scanner to catch any stray of electronic or biochemical signals from some bit of rechargeable tech. 

Following a route already familiar to him on the southeastern outskirts of the city, the area Ido hunted would often yield items that could be repaired, rebuilt, sold, or sometimes just cleaned. 

Far enough from ground zero so that he could hunt without the risk of being crushed by new arrivals, the continuous addition of new rubbish and regular scavenging activity meant that the contents of the dump were ever-changing; the people in the skies were quite the wasteful lot, so things buried in the depths always ended up being pushed out and up, meaning there was never a shortage of stuff to look for. 

Taking a break from his strolls, Ido stooped to pick up a corroded metal hand, peering at it through his round spectacles. 

... Unusable. Nothing but trash. 

He tossed the metal hand away with a gruff. 

A single red eye nestled in the socket of a burned metal skull caught his attention. The eye was in perfect condition, shining without a single crack. 

Ido bent down to have a closer look. 

... And will you look at that. 

It was a crystal eyeball containing a bright red ruby. 

The owner must have been quite a wealthy bastard in life to have his eye replaced for a literal gem. 

The skull looked fairly ancient, so the ruby must have been sitting there for quite a while. 

Ido wondered why no one had seen it before. 

Maybe it was a matter of chance. All sorts of things happened by chance, and this was certainly one of them. 

However, Ido decided that it now belonged to him. 

One more mark for his lucky streak. 

Handling the skull with the awareness of an expert, he reached inside the metal cranium and fumbled inside until he detached the little gem from its socket and dropped it into the small pouch slung across the front of his body. 

Ido smiled contentedly, feeling his new acquisition dance between his fingers inside the pouch. 

Once sold, Ido hoped to have enough money to pay off his debts and, if there was anything left over, to be able to live comfortably for a few more weeks. 

Throwing the now empty metal skull away, Ido pushed himself to his feet and looked around, trying to decide whether he should continue while there was still enough sunlight for him to see where he was going or quit while there was still enough night ahead for a few hours of sleep. 

Most of the other scavengers had given up and gone home, leaving only the desperate and the hardcore, like him, to wander around; those who were secretly hoping to find a real treasure hidden among the trash. Ido chuckled silently at the thought, once again feeling the little gem dancing between his fingers. 

Stopping at the edge of some stone steps, Ido wondered what to do next. 

The crushers had dumped a load about fifteen minutes ago. Perhaps he could search in ten-minute increments, scavenging for some five minutes, and then standing back for another five. 

Being the only doctor most of the city's cyborgs could afford, Ido took his duty as a cybersurgeon very seriously and normally didn't take chances. 

He was still pondering when his wandering gaze fell on something half-buried on a slope about three meters in front of him, across a sea of garbage. 

For a moment, Ido didn't dare move. 

If his eyes weren't playing wish-fulfilment tricks on him in the dying sunlight, he was looking at something worth more than all the money and rubies in the world. 

"Is that really...?" keeping his eyes fixed on the shape, Ido descended the stone steps and moved towards it slowly, willing it to stay real and not turn into an illusion produced by the arrangement of junk. "No way... I can't believe it!" 

When he was standing over it, Ido could tell it wasn't a mirage of any kind. 

Wiping the nervous sweat from his brow, Ido knelt down and began gently excavating the trash. 

It was fortunate that the crushers had not yet reached that particular spot. Those soulless machines were unable to distinguish between smashing metal and crushing the unwary travelers. 

For now at least, the coast seemed clear, although just in case, Ido tried to hurry, but the work progressed more slowly because his hands were trembling now, needing to stop sometimes to steady himself. 

After a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, Ido finally sat down on his heels and stared in disbelief at what he had uncovered, his eyes shining like a boy's at the discovery of a secret. 

"... My God." 

The joy of discovering a valuable piece of junk is something that every man, or even a young boy, can relate to... 

That feeling of ecstasy is something impossible to describe in normal human words... 

A fulfilled desire... 

An innocent wish upon a star come true... 

A single prayer turned miracle... 

Ah... A rusty angel sleeping among the scraps. 

Illuminated by the red sunset melting into the horizon, the girl buried in the slope was exposing half of her body to the surface. 

She had the face of a young girl around fifteen or sixteen years old; plump and oval, with no hair remaining, yet still beautiful and angelic like a fever dream. 

Her closed eyes did not appear to be almond-shaped, but they were large instead, and her nose was tiny but straight. 

In particular, although her mouth was small, both the upper and lower lips were plump and thick, making them very striking. 

She looked so utterly serene with her eyes closed and her mouth on the verge of a smile... as if she were dreaming of something wonderful. 

Although her skin looked like porcelain and by all means human-like, it was actually made of a thin synthetic material durable enough to preserve her overall features in a near-perfect condition. But as expected, the skin material had still deteriorated over time, and even a light touch caused fine cracks like degraded rubber to run through it. 

Based solely on his professional guess as a cybersurgeon, Ido could determine the model to be at least two centuries old. 

He gently touched the girl's cheek, taking care not to damage her features. 

After staring at her for some three minutes, he shifted his observation from the girl's face to her body to see if he could find anything functional. 

The girl's body may not have been of the highest quality, but it was still a marvel, created with technology that was several centuries old. It was easy to imagine that everywhere there were traces of cybernetic technology more advanced than today's outdated techniques. 

As a cybernetic doctor, Ido's heart couldn't help but race. 

Still, problems soon arose... 

Except for her sound asleep expression, many of her body parts were fatally missing. 

She had no arms or legs. 

The torso was severely damaged below the chest, and most of the artificial organs and neural bases were worn, broken, or directly torn away. 

More than half of the artificial nurturing system had been torn off, rendering its functionality undiscernible. 

What remained of this cyborg girl was nothing more than an old piece of junk. 

Nothing but junk... 

Ido exhaled lightly and scratched his head. 

What to do... 

He stood up and turned away to say goodbye to the rusty girl. 

If only he had found her a few centuries earlier... 

Damn, she was such a pretty girl. 

If only the damage had been a little less severe, Ido could have brought her home and add her to his antique collection in the basement, displaying her like a trophy to remember for years to come. 

Ido felt reluctant to leave, but he began to descend down the slope, hunched over. 

After a few steps he looked back up again. 

The girl's remains were still there, nestled on a pile of scraps against the backdrop of an orange sunset. Her expression was peaceful. 

Among the countless cyborg wreckage, she was the only one who seemed strangely fresh. 

"What a strange girl..." 

Despite having already confirmed that she was nothing but junk, for some reason Ido could not bring himself to believe that the girl was dead. 

In an attempt to clear his mind of the uncharacteristic, illogical thoughts that had been troubling him, Ido stared directly at the sleeping girl and muttered a list of conditions that he had diagnosed and confirmed with his own eyes. 

Her heart and lungs had long since stopped working. 

The liver was missing. 

Her eye sockets were empty. What had once been the eyeballs had melted from the inside and turned into hard, black masses. 

The generator was gone; the emergency battery was half destroyed and useless. 

There was nothing in her body that could still count as functional. 

The only other thing that hadn't been checked was... 

"The inside of the head..." 

As Ido muttered these words, he suddenly realized. 

Perhaps... the brain has been preserved. 

Ido's mouth twisted in self-mockery at the thought and he shook his head. 

It had been a hundred years, no matter how young one might estimate it, since the girl had stopped functioning. It was impossible that a living brain could remain inside the girl's decaying skull without being maintained by a machine. 

It's impossible, but... 

"Haha, now way, it can't be." 

Ido's mind was filled with denial, yet he found himself drawn back to the girl's side. 

Even within the sealed skull of a cyborg, the brain itself is a 'living thing', so it was unlikely to remain intact for hundreds of years. Moreover, even if it had survived, it would have decomposed, turning into liquid or powder. 

"This is a waste of time," Ido muttered, nervously glancing around for potential crushers or junkies. 

Ido smiled wryly as he slowly lifted the girl's body and gently cradled her limp head in his palm. 

As a general cyber-physician, a rarity even in The Scrapyard, Ido had medical knowledge and experience with living organisms far beyond the scope of a normal cyber doctor. He could diagnose the presence or absence of liquid or powder movement by palpating or tapping the head. 

He carefully lifted the girl's head, moved it from side to side, and tapped it lightly. 

... It didn't take long for his eyes to widen. 

... This is ridiculous. 

"Hahaha! Long live my glorious hunches!" Ido shouted into the sky. 

The girl's head was surprisingly heavy. 

Moreover, the contents of her head did not shift in weight even when shaken, like a boiled egg. 

The exact condition was unclear, but it was possible that the girl's brain tissue may have been preserved inside her skull! 

This went beyond anything Ido could have imagined. A fully living brain, discarded like trash! 

"You're alive..." Ido said, unaware that he had spoken aloud. "You are really still alive!" 

He had never seen or heard anything like it before. 

How could a human brain that had been inactive for hundreds of years start functioning again? 

Wait, when I was in that city... 

A scene flashed through Ido's mind... And it soon led him to make a decision. 

Maneuvering his hands around the broken fragment of her form, he finally lifted the girl out of the trash and held her up in the fading daylight. 

Oblivious to the sounds of the approaching crushers, he began to laugh with joy, dancing back and forth with the girl's body held aloft until he lost his balance, fell and scraped himself on some sharp debris. 

Warm blood quickly stained his lacerated back, but Ido didn't care, feeling too overjoyed to worry about anything other than the present moment. 

Ido did not know whether it had been fate or sheer luck that had led him to make the find, yet the fact remained that the rusty little angel cradled between his arms was truly and undeniably alive. 

Sat in the sea of waste, Ido Daisuke stared at his trembling hands and knew, without a sheer of doubt, that this was the discovery of a lifetime, and one that would alter the course of his entire life forever. 

With renewed determination shining in his eyes, he carefully wrapped the cyborg girl's body in his trench coat and left the dumpster, heading home to collect his equipment. 

. 

. 

. 

By the time he finally arrived in front of his house, it was already night. 

Ido Daisuke's cybernetic clinic is located in a corner of a multi-tenant building in a relatively quiet residential area called Tempest Street, in the Eastern part of the city. 

The trip home had been longer and more arduous than usual thanks to the bulky load he had been carrying around for hours now. 

Knees aching painfully, Ido trudged up the six steps to the main entrance of the building, wheezing with every step. 

Above a heavy metal door waiting at the top of the stairs, a single wooden plaque affixed to the wall read in bold black letters: Daisuke Ido. Repairs: Cyborgs, androids, robots, tuning and maintenance for all models! Max Headroom 2.0M. 

The entrance followed onto a long hallway that curved to the right at the far end. This led directly to an old lift with a lattice door and four vertical buttons, labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

Once inside the lift, Ido put the heavy package on the floor to give his aching back a rest. He quickly pressed the fourth-floor button. 

Carrying the girl once again in his arms, Ido exited the elevator and hurried across the hallway to the operating room. 

As he rushed past the kitchen, Ido thought about making himself a sandwich to at least satiate some of his hunger, but quickly shook the idea out of his mind. 

There was more important stuff at hand. 

Lunch can come later. 

Ido walked into the room, where the ventilator coughed as if it had caught a cold. The machines magically awakened one after another and lit their lamps. 

When the multicolored light reflected off the pipes in the dimly lit ceiling, it produced a complex sheen reminiscent of the walls of some slimy organ. 

The half-dead girl was strapped to the operating table, where countless cables of varying thickness and length plugged to different parts of her body. 

Electrodes were wrapped around her head and were responsible for analyzing the internal components and the general state of her brain, respectively. 

Surrounded by monitors displaying various waveforms, her figure glowed phosphorescent in the light, making her look like a doll girl imprisoned by a mechanical monster. 

Doing his best to calm his pounding heart, Ido glanced back and forth between the scanned image of the girl's head and the data, trying to figure out what it all meant. 

As he read through the data that was shown to him one after the other, Ido's expression gradually took on a clear look of surprise, trembling at the realization. 

"I thought so... I can't believe a preservation method like this actually exists!" 

Would a room-temperature cold sleeve be the appropriate way to describe this state? 

Amazingly, the brain encased in the decaying girl's skull had been frozen and preserved while still alive, its tissue having been turned to plastic. 

Of course, with the brain tissue in such state, it had completely ceased to function. 

Still, it was amazing that it had survived the elements of hundreds of years of abandonment and still maintained itself in relatively good condition. 

Who, and with what intentions, had subjected this girl's brain to this special preservation process? 

It was highly unlikely that she could have done it alone. 

Perhaps someone had performed the procedure for some reason, and then discarded the girl among the waste. 

This was Ido's rough guess, but he couldn't be sure. 

"Now, the question is whether I can properly thaw her out of this state..." 

Ido had once read a clinical report in a certain facility's files about a case in which tissue had been deplasticized and the brain had been restored to its original state. 

The report was one of a vast collection of medical documents, and he remembered it as being about a hundred years old. 

"I never thought the special knowledge I gained there would come in handy now..." 

Ido touched the mark on his forehead with his finger. It resembled a circle with a square cut out at the top... the marking he had received in his hometown. 

Ido shook his head. Then, as if to regain his composure, began busily moving around the operating room again. 

Before initiating the thawing process, Ido set out to gather all the necessary components to ensure basic functionality. This included voice stabilizers, audio inputs for both eardrums, stability and balance systems, an artificial tongue, actuators, an artificial replacement for the spine, lungs, liver and heart, a nerve converter, and a deuterium oxide generator, among other things. 

Because the skin had deteriorated so much that her facial features were fading and falling apart, Ido had also decided to give the girl a full face change, making sure to maintain enough details to resemble the original model as much as possible. This process took considerable time, as creating a suitable facial mold that reflected the original's angelical features proved to be quite difficult. 

Ido moved as if possessed; darting in and out of the operating room; rushing outside to buy things he needed; typing codes on his keyboard and analyzing row after row of data. 

Even when tired, hungry, and full of sweat, Ido didn't stop a single time. 

He was a man on a mission. 

. 

. 

. 

A full day had passed since Ido had brought the girl into the operating room, and since entering, he had been completely focused on his work. 

Of course, the clinic had remained closed during the day. 

Ido changed into his wrinkled white coat and sat down next to the still-sleeping girl, tiredly rubbing his eyelids. 

Apart from occasionally operating the equipment, he stared intently at the monitor. 

Multiple parabolic waveforms were projected onto Ido's round lenses, creating gently waving lines of light. 

If the thawing went well, she'd be waking up soon... 

Ido exhaled the air he had been holding in his lungs through his nose, and felt his stomach grumble for the sixth time that day. 

"Hold on boy. Just a bit more," patting his belly, Ido turned his chair to face the girl sleeping on the operating table behind him. 

Strapped to the stereotactic frame, the cyborg girl's appearance, though still visibly worn out and battered, was completely different from what it had been a just mere hours ago. 

The front of her face had been replaced with a high-quality skin, retaining her small nose, and prominent, full lips. 

Her ruined eyeballs had been replaced with honey-colored ones customized to match her large sockets. 

She was still missing arms and legs, but those would be added later. 

An opening in her waist connected her to an artificial heart and lungs that constantly pumped oxygenated blood, nutrients, and vitamins to her fully restored brain. 

Just as Ido was about to resume his work, the door to the operating room creaked open. 

"Hey kid, what are you up to?" 

Shaking his bloated belly and holding a bottle of alcohol in one hand, a man in his fifties strode unabashedly into the room. 

Dark circles furrowed around his slanted eyes, while a metal plate resembling a manhole cover was riveted to the top of his balding head, leaving only a sparse mat of white hair that extended around his cranium and behind his ears. Other than that, he was completely human. 

The man's name was Gonzu, one of Ido's few friends. 

With Gonzu's intrusion, the air in the room was filled with the pungent scent of alcohol. 

Ido frowned slightly at the smell, but without turning around, continued muttering to himself as he operated the keyboard connected to the monitor. 

"Hmm, Gon... Look at this, this kid is amazing!" 

Gonz burped and moved his red face closer to the girl strapped to the operating table. 

To anyone, not just Gonzu, it was just junk. 

There were plenty of half-destroyed, non-functional cyborgs lying around the streets of The Scrapyard. 

However, these are quickly collected by a contractor, dismantled, and recycled in whatever way possible. 

"Now why'd you go and bring back a piece of junk like that, Ido?" 

Ido frowned. "Junk? Not at all. She's perfectly human, I'll have you know." 

Saying this, Ido pointed to the monitor he had been looking at. 

Gonzu stroked his chin with his thick fingers and peered into the monitor, blinking his eyes buried under heavy eyelids. 

"Hmm? What the... Is this worn-out brain still functioning?" Gonzu stared at Ido with a look of honest surprise. 

Ido smiled with satisfaction and nodded, continuing to type codes on the computer. "I found this child's brain on the scrap heap just yesterday. Her brain tissue was perfectly preserved, so brought her home and have been trying revive her," he turned and motioned to the cyborg strapped to the stereotactic frame in the middle of the operating table. "Based on parts alone, I estimate her model to be at least two or three centuries old!" 

"Yer a real kook, y'know that?" Gonz frowned his wrinkled old face and shrugged, gulping down half of his beer. 

What is the point of bringing a half-dead girl back to life in this fleeting world? 

Isn't that just meddling? 

Next to Ido, who was smiling and gazing at the girl, Gonzu downed the rest of the alcohol, pouring all the remaining cheap liquor into his stomach, then sighed in between burps. 

He needed another beer. 

. 

. 

. 

Ido's resuscitation efforts went smoothly, and it was just after 7:00 p.m. on the third day in the operating room when the girl finally woke up. 

Gonzu woke up Ido, who was taking a nap, and they both rushed to the operating room. 

The electroencephalograph showed that the girl's brain was in a REM state, a unique phase of sleep characterized by rapid eye movement, increased brain activity, and vivid dreams; a clear sign that she was close to finally waking up. 

Having confirmed this, Ido gazed upon the girl's face, barely blinking, eagerly awaiting the moment of truth. The moment where all his hard work would pay off. 

"Look, she's awake!" Gonzu pointed out, checking EEG monitor and verifying that everything was in working order. 

Ido's face lit up with excitement. 

Soon, the girl's eyelids slowly began to lift, and Ido spoke to her with a broad smile. "Hi there, I'm Daisuke Ido! What's your name?" 

Gonzu frowned and nudged Ido. "Lower your voice or you'll scare her, ya goof. 

The bald cyborg slowly opened her honey-colored eyes and blinked drowsily, struggling to process the previous question but making no real attempt to answer. "N... ay... m?" she said slowly, trying to focus her vision on the two people before her. 

"I dunno Ido, looks like she's lost her memory," said Gonzu, scratching his forehead as he watched the girl squint her eyes and seemingly struggle with her own thoughts. "Strange thing, earlier tests didn't detect any brain damage that would indicate amnesia." 

Keeping his expression from turning serious, Ido smiled gently and shook his head. "Relax Gon, she's been asleep for a very long time. I'm sure she'll eventually remember everything when her brain fully reawakens. Once her body is repaired and she is able to experience the outside world," he gently held the girl's head, patting her softly. "There, there. You are safe now." 

"What? Are you keeping her?" 

"Well, I'll need to fully restore all of her body parts and functions. Given the magnitude of all that I'll need, my budget will probably go down even more than usual. But first..." Ido thought for a moment, then smiled and nodded at the girl, who was still gazing at him with a drowsy expression. "Ah, I've got it! As of today, your name is Alita!" 

Drawn by Ido's smile, the girl smiled back, feeling the doctor's soothing caress on her cheek. 

Having lost everything, she felt neither unease nor doubt, and was simply satisfied with the name Ido had given her. She felt at peace. 

Gonzu arched an eyebrow. "Alita... Wasn't that the name of your pet cat that died last month? Yer gonna name her after a pet? Besides, wasn't that cat a male?" 

"No worries, it's just a placeholder until she remembers her real name." 

Gonzu sighed heavily, raised his hands in the air, and walked away. Once an idea popped into Ido's head, there was no stopping him. 

He needed another beer. 

"Ah, by the way Gon..." 

Just as Gonzu was crossing the door frame, Ido called out to him. 

Gonzu waited patiently as Ido rushed over to a corner of the room and searched for something inside a pouch. 

From the operating table, Alita watched everything closely. 

"Here, catch." 

As Ido turned, a small, red object flew through the air and nearly hit Gonzu in the face. When he looked down to see what it was, he almost fell backward. 

It was a ruby encased in a tiny crystal eyeball. 

"Ido, where did you get this thing?!" 

"Cool, right? It's a ruby that I found digging in the scrap heap. Due to its size, it may not be worth a fortune, but I'm sure it'll be of some use to you. Consider it my thanks for all your help this past few days. Just don't waste it all on alcohol, Gon." 

In a daze, Gonzu staggered out of the room with the ruby between his hands. 

. 

. 

. 

Five days had passed since the girl first woke up and was named Alita. 

"Is... th... is... me...?" 

As Ido held the mirror he had removed from the sink and reflected Alita's face on it, the girl opened her large, honey-colored eyes wide in genuine surprise. 

When Alita was first found, she looked weather-beaten and in poor condition. However, now that she'd been repaired, she looked like a flesh-and-blood girl without a single blemish. 

"Th... an... you... I... do!" 

Embarrassed by Alita's words, Ido scratched his head. "No, I'm not there yet. Just wait until I get you a proper body." 

Alita smiled lightly at Ido's words and looked down. 

Although her upper neck had been fully repaired, her outer torso, arms, and legs were still missing. Her head was completely bald. And while she already had most of the artificial organs and other basic internal components, Ido had not yet acquired a female torso, limbs, or other body parts for her. 

Even though the interior had been restored, Alita was still fixed to the operating table. 

Ido suddenly narrowed his gaze and a complex color flashed across the corner of his eyes, like a momentary shadow that quickly vanished. 

Alita didn't seem to see it because Ido had turned his face away. 

"Can you hold on a little longer, Alita?" Ido said, touching the girl's cheek. "I'll find limbs that fit you right away." 

"o... ok." Alita answered, smiling back at Ido. 

. 

. 

. 

When viewed from a high point, Zalem is a sight to behold. 

Suspended from a massive, ivory-colored pillar embedded in its top center, the bottom of the aerial city is spindle-shaped with an elegant slope reminiscent of a wine glass. 

However, the tip of this beautiful spindle is missing, as if a beast had bitten it off, leaving an open wound that continuously spills dirty blood onto the ground. 

Trudging up a steep mountain, Ido pointed off into the distance. "See that? Our home is right there! People call it "The Scrapyard." 

Tucked into a custom-made backpack on Ido's back, Alita peeked out with her face and bald head visible under a green beanie. This was a convenient and practical way to transport her due to her temporary lack of limbs, which made her lightweight. 

"Huff, and that huge thing up there in the air? That's Zalem, a floating utopia!" 

Alita had remained silent for most of the journey, having little to say, and therefore limiting herself to admiring the view. For some reason, Zalem in the distance looked to her like an overturned volcano. It didn't seem like a pleasant place to live, much less a "utopia," as Ido constantly called it. It was nothing more than an upside-down volcano surrounded by wires with a wide, ascending column on top holding it all up like a chandelier city. An ugly chandelier that did nothing but scar the otherwise pretty blue sky. 

"Are you awake?" Ido asked, a bit concerned by Alita's lack of communication. 

"yeah..." Alita said in a low tone, which reassured Ido a little. 

"Good. I want to know more about you Alita. I'm sure you had your own name, family and home before you ended up like this. I can't wait for you to tell me all about it when you recover." 

Alita squirmed to settle into her tiny space, watching a butterfly fly by. "my... real... name...? I... dunno," she replied, sounding crestfallen and clearly affected by having her mind a blank sheet of paper. 

Ido swallowed hard. "Well, no rush. Guess you're staying as Alita for the time being, haha." 

"yeah..." 

"Hm. Oh, and we also have to fix that speaker of yours. I came out here hoping to find something usable for your frame, but it's been slim pickings... DAMMIT! Ido furiously kicked a can. "DAMN, DAMN, DAMMIT! I hate making you feel so vulnerable!" After taking a few deep breaths, Ido regained his composure. "But don't worry, Alita. I'll make sure you get a proper body again. Whatever it takes. I promise!" 

Alita was touched by Ido's seemingly selfless kindness. 

Although she admitted that the doctor could be a bit odd at times, deep down, she knew he was truly kindhearted. While others might have taken advantage of her disabilities, Ido cared for her and continued to do so despite the hardships. 

Back at the clinic, Alita often saw him treat all his patients with the same kindness he showed her, regardless of their situation or ability to pay for treatment. 

He was a genuinely good man. 

They continued on their search for a while longer and found useful items like a "larynx programatron," a rare item which Ido gladly took for Alita, whose voice was slightly robotic and needed adjusting. 

As the day went on and darkness fell, they hurried back home. 

. 

. 

. 

Alita lay face up on the operating table while Ido finished adjusting the larynx programatron inside her throat. Once it was fully operational, all that remained was to try it out. 

"Okay, try speaking now. The voice box will allow you to adjust your tone as you speak, but it may take some practice before you get the hang of it." 

Alita moved her mouth, thinking of something to say. Finally, she decided on something simple. "I-I... dᴏOo," she said, frowning. Her voice kept coming out strangely. The modulator emitted strange beeps, changing the pitch each time. Chuckling, Ido encouraged her to try again. "𝙰aa...L-Liii...TAaaa.... A...LI...t𝘢𝘢𝘢𝘢!" Alita smiled brightly, sensing that she was approaching the right pitch. "Aaa... liii... taaaa... I... doooo!" she repeated, over and over again, relishing the moment. 

Ido beamed with pride as he watched the young girl slowly perfect her voice with each new attempt. 

Happy with the results, they both spent the next couple of hours trying out and perfecting different voices until it was time for bed. 

. 

. 

. 

In a dark alley filled with enormous pipes and industrial smoke, a tall, beautiful cyborg woman leaned against a stone wall, smoking casually in the moonlight. 

She was elegantly dressed in high heels and wore her blonde hair pulled back with a red headband. Her silver latex dress revealed the nipples of her ample breasts. 

A small flame sprang from her index finger, which she used to light her kiseru pipe. The flame emanated from her silver, rose-adorned artificial arms, the patterns of which spread across her elbows, palms, and knuckles. 

The woman's name was Steer. 

Steer was about to take another puff when she became aware of a presence close to her, lurking in the shadows. Stalking her intently... like a hungry predator. 

A client, maybe? Men were so predictable. They often used surprise tactics intended to scare her, so they wouldn't have to break the ice and could get right to the sex. 

Idiots, Steer thought, rolling her eyes. 

Although cautious, she was not necessarily afraid, as she had the means to defend herself if anyone tried to attack her. Her silvery arms were delicate, but she was familiar with some rather powerful self-defense techniques, such as her "Thunder Leg" martial arts, which she had learned from one of her lovers a few years ago. 

"Who's there?" Steer asked into the darkness, but a few seconds passed and no answer came back. 

Could it have been her imagination? 

Probably, she thought, ignoring the presence and resuming her smoke. 

A sudden breeze hit her from the left side, causing Steer to look around. 

In a matter of seconds, Steer's head was completely obliterated from her shoulders by an unknown devastating force, leaving her standing against the wall like a beautiful headless doll. Moments later, the still lit kiseru fell from her lifeless hands and hit the ground next to a street grate, drenched in blood and murky water, which soon put it out. 

. 

. 

. 

It had been two weeks since Alita's awakening. 

A black, asymmetrical bob had grown on her head, with one strand falling between her eyes and spikes on the sides. It was a neatly coiffed synthetic wig that Ido had made to replace her original damaged hair. 

Thanks to follicular implants, growth stimulants, and modern procedures, Ido had stimulated hair growth on Alita's scalp, which meant that in a few months, she would have her own hair and could get rid of the wig. 

Ido was making the final adjustments to the new pair of shiny silver arms belonging now to Alita, who patiently watched as the doctor worked on her outstretched limbs. 

"And that's it. Go on, give them a wiggle," Ido encouraged, wiping his hands with a sanitizer. 

Alita obeyed, slowly opening and closing her slender fingers as she grew accustomed to the new sensations sweeping through her body. "Such beautiful hands! Thank you, Ido!" she exclaimed, admiring the rose patterns on the sides. 

Having started her new life practically as a torso without memories, Alita found the sensation of having limbs strange. But at the same time, however, the metal texture felt familiar to her, as if her body had always been made of iron instead of flesh. 

To help her with mobility, she was attached to a four-wheeled scooter at the waist, and while this was practical for getting around, it was inconvenient when Alita wanted to sleep because Ido had to unhook her from the scooter every night and re-hook her the next day. For this reason, it was agreed that she would be taught basic mechanics so that she could at least do the detaching on her own. 

"But weren't they expensive?" Alita asked curiously, feeling the cold palms on her cheeks. 

Ido laughed it off. "Not that much, I got them from a dismantler. But now you need proper legs." 

. 

. 

. 

Alita slept peacefully inside her bedroom on the second-floor, curled up among blankets and stuffed animals, her dreams filled with dancing octopuses and puppies. 

Suddenly, she became awakened by a rustling sound. 

As her consciousness grew clearer, Alita realized that the hard clattering was the sound of shoes touching the floor. 

After some seconds, Ido's silhouette peek through her ajar door, silently crossing down the hallway towards the elevator. He was dressed in a pitch black trench coat and equally black hat, carrying along some sort of suitcase with wheels that he struggled to move around properly. 

Alita listened until familiar sound of the lattice elevator descending to the first floor echoed in her ears. 

Then, a while later, she finally heard the faint sound of the clinic's metal front door opening and closing. 

How odd, Alita thought. 

Could he have gone to the dump? 

But why at such an hour? 

Did he not want Alita to go with him? 

If so, then why was that? 

These and other questions ran through Alita's head as she stared at the ceiling. 

She couldn't deny her growing curiosity about it all, about Ido's mysterious escapades and what secrets held the outside world, but it was also true that there wasn't much she could do in her current state, she was still missing her legs, after all. Unfortunately, she would have to wait a little longer for a more suitable means of mobility. 

Ido would soon return with an extra piece for her, hopefully a new pair of legs, so it was only a matter of time. 

With this and many other things in mind, Alita rolled over in bed, closing her eyes and going back to sleep. 

. 

. 

. 

As night fell, the Scrapyard slowly lit up in neon colors. 

Emaciated men and women, dressed in ragged clothes and with partial or fully cybernetic bodies, gradually emerged from the darkness to gather in the streets and around bonfires, ready to participate in sinister nocturnal activities. 

Surrounded by crime and disease, they lived in destitution and extreme poverty, wallowing in a hellhole where prostitution, illegal trafficking, drug smuggling, human trafficking of all ages, and street violence ran rampant on every street corner and alleyway. 

Cybernetic enhancements were commonplace, including replacements for arms, legs, entire bodies, and even male and female genitalia. 

In the absence of morality, decency, or hope, the desperate masses embraced anything that could satisfy their collective desires, always on the look for something better, bigger, or simply more sexually satisfying. 

Late nights were filled with the putrid stench of death, sex, drugs, and vice. All of these things reached Ido's nose, making him cover himself jealously with his coat as he slithered through stone pathways and staircases, nonchalantly passing by clubs, whore-houses, gambling areas, bars, and the highly popular "love zones." 

Tightly clutching his wheeled suitcase, Ido walked among a jumble of cyborgs of all shapes and sizes, disfigured by the transplants and modifications they had chosen to undergo, whether out of necessity, personal taste, or most often, against their own will. 

In these decadent places, anything purely organic was highly prized, causing those who passed Ido to view him with equal parts contempt and desire. Aware of this, he was ready to strike down anyone who seemed suspicious and dared to approach him. He tried to avoid alleys and dark places, though the crowded streets weren't any safer. 

Right now, everyone was a potential enemy. No exceptions. 

Alert to any possible danger, Ido continued on his way with a firm stride, soon becoming lost among the crowd of prostitutes and cyborgs swarming the neon-bathed streets. 

. 

. 

. 

"Oh, it's half-day already." 

As Ido peered into the distance from the clinic's roof, a rumbling sound reached him. 

In the center of the Scrapyard, Zalem's waste accumulated over countless centuries had formed a pile of garbage 1,000 meters high, known unironically as Mount Zalem. 

When new debris hit the summit, the impact caused tremors that resulted in distant rumblings and vibrations that reverberated through the Scrapyard. 

Therefore, the regular sounds of falling waste were used by the citizens as a way to measure time. 

The term used to mark the beginning of noon, using the distant rumbles as a reference, was "half-day." 

"Come on, Alita, come over here!" 

From her wheelchair, Alita looked at Ido with a slightly worried expression. 

She was unrecognizable. 

Along with her rose-motif silver arms, she had been fitted with a pair of new cyborg legs, and the exterior of her body had been restored to the lines of a typical young girl. 

Her usual white dress had been replaced by a big yellow shirt with a round-neck, sweater-like inner layer made of thick urethane. Below that, she wore baggy pants and white socks with sneakers. 

Ido had just gotten the parts for Alita's legs yesterday and had spent the entire morning trying to install them. Once everything was ready, they had gone to the roof to test them out. 

Taking a deep breath, Alita put strength into both of her arms and pushed down on the wheelchair's handrail to lift her hips. 

"Good job, keep it up, Alita!" Ido called out, clenching his hands in excitement. Seeing the girl take a timid step forward, he instinctively took a step forward as well. 

Alita carefully lowered one foot to the ground, as if dipping it into the water, then slowly lowered the other foot, holding onto the back of the wheelchair. 

"I... Ido." 

Alita looked confused for a moment, but then she started to walk slowly, staggering and holding out her hands towards Ido. She looked like a baby about to give its first steps. 

Ido's face burst into tears at the sight of her, and unable to contain himself any longer he went over to the girl, who was still walking a little awkwardly, and hugged her. 

"Ah, thank goodness... It seems my brain still remembers how to walk. Ido, I guess my body has become fully grown now!" Alita said, looking at Ido's teary face as he held her between his arms. 

The girl who was just a buried piece of junk a few weeks ago now stood proud before Ido, smiling at the joy of walking. 

Ido caressed her cheek. "The fact that your body has returned to normal simply means that you have reached the starting point of your life. From here on out, Alita, you have to start living for your own self." 

"Live for my own self...? Yes, that's right." 

Alita repeated Ido's words, pondering them as she gazed into the streets below, where cyborgs came and went casually. 

Right now, Alita was being kept alive by Ido. 

And now, perhaps, SHE was living for Ido. 

If Ido hadn't picked her up, she would have had no life, that much was clear. 

However, Alita didn't know if that was true life. 

As her body gained the freedom of movement, these questions carved deep into Alita's mind and heart. 

From then on, she would have to search for the meaning of life. 

Alita would have to find the true value of her existence. 

. 

. 

. 

"Hey, Gonzu!" Alita called out excitedly, hopping with her new legs around Gonzu's mobile instant ramen stand, where he served his famous Triple ramen and Zalem skewers. 

"Oh! Why, if it isn't Alita! I can hardly recognize ya anymore! How are those new prosthetics working out for ya?" 

"Awesome! It feels great to be able to move on my own now!" Alita swung her legs around Gonzu, who clapped his hands in amusement. 

When he was not with Ido, old man Gonzu used to sell ramen close to the clinic, since this was the place where he used to have the most customers, most of them patients of Ido who seek for something to gobble on after their appointments. 

Due to the changes suffered when mechanized, the biology of a cyborg is different from that of a flesh and blood human. 

The most essential nutrient for a cyborg is glucose, which allows their heart and liver to function properly. Therefore, there are the so-called "Glucose Cartridges," which eliminate the need to eat or defecate and are particularly popular among women. 

Alita herself was equipped with the "Ultra Digesto-Masticator Stomach Turbo Mk. 8," which allowed her to not only taste and digest all the existing food in the nutritional pyramid, but also to poop, something she didn't find enjoyable in the slightest. 

"Just make sure you don't go out at night, girl," Gonzu suddenly warned, pointing his chubby finger at her. "There is a serial killer on the loose, and all that sicko's victims are women. Be careful, Alita" 

Hearing this, Alita stood thoughtfully as Gonzu offered her a bowl of ramen. 

A serial killer... 

A nocturnal serial killer... 

Ido... 

. 

. 

. 

"Ido, I'm home!" 

Removing her shoes before entering the examination room, Alita uncovered the cubicle curtains, where Ido was busily performing maintenance on the back of a cyborg patient. 

"Ah, Alita. How are your legs feeling?" 

"They're great, thanks!" 

"Good... It's getting dark outside, so please don't go out anymore today. It's Saturday, so Gon will probably come over for drinks later. Could you be a dear and help me set up the living room before he arrives? 

"Sure!" 

Ido smiled and nodded at her before turning back to his patient. "This is just simple metal fatigue, sir. I'm going to prescribe you a daily dose of..." 

As Ido turned to grab some tools from the nearby tray, Alita noticed something that made her frown. 

"Hey, Ido... What happened to your arm?" Alita asked, playing dumb. 

"A-ah, this?" 

Ido's right sleeve was up... revealing a bloody gash tightly bandaged around his arm. 

He hurt himself going out last night. 

Quickly covering himself, Ido brush it off. "I just scraped myself on something. Clumsy me, hahaha." 

Liar... "Are you okay?" 

"Oh come on, don't you see I'm fine? Run along now and let me work, I'll see you at dinner." 

Uneasily, Alita left the room. 

What was Ido Daisuke hiding? 

What was the kind doctor, who had given so much to her, hiding? 

Who was really Ido Daisuke? 

. 

. 

. 

Gonzu had just stood up from the living room table when Alita came carrying the pitcher on a tray, skipping along with completely natural steps. 

"Are you going home already, Mr. Gonzu?" 

The chubby old man was completely drunk and staggering around, his face red and wrinkled as he nodded. "Well, dear, if I drink anymore here, I'll have to stay the night. I'll continue drinking at my apartment." 

Ido, who had been casually accompanying Gonzu as they shared stories about the past, leaned his elbows on the table. "I don't mind, Gon." 

But Gonzu laughed and shook his head. "Hehe, don't be so considerate kid, I know you hate that kind of things... I'll see you kiddos around." 

After seeing Gonzu off to the elevator, Alita returned to the living room, where Ido was stretching and yawning. 

"I'm tired today... I've had some alcohol, so I think I'll go to bed early," Ido said as he began to get up. 

When Ido stood up from his chair, Alita tugged on the hem of his jacket and looked up to him. "Hey, Ido, are you going to sleep already? Are you done with the outside stories for today?" 

Ever since Alita was able to move freely, she wanted to hear all kinds of stories from Ido. 

She was especially curious about the outside world, and would lean forward and listen to even the smallest tales about the Scrapyard. 

In Alita's worldview, which still only included a quick walk around the clinic and its exteriors, even minor town tales had the same value as the tale of a great adventure. 

"Well, sorry Alita, but we'll have to call it a day for tonight. But in a couple of days, when I have time, I'll take you to a bustling street. I promise. Don't stay up too late, alright?" 

With that, Ido left the living room listlessly, and no matter how much Alita puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction, she had no choice but to go back to her own room to sleep. 

"It's kind of boring to close your eyes and have another day go by..." Alita said as she closed her door. 

She spent the next half an hour writing in her diary about her day, and when she was finished, she turned off the lights and crawled into bed, but she couldn't fall asleep. 

After about two hours of struggling with the sheets, Alita was finally on the verge of losing her excited consciousness to sleep, when a small but strangely real sound knocked her out the dream land. 

She opened her eyes slightly, finding that the dimly lit room was bathed in the light of a full moon. 

Alita quietly raised her body from the bed and pricked up her ears. 

Hard footsteps passed in front of her room and went down the hallway. 

Ido... 

Next came the rumbling sound of the elevator, taking Ido along with it. 

Alita jumped out of bed, walking over to the drawn window curtains and gently lifting one edge. 

Peeking down through the gap, she soon saw a tall figure dressed in black exiting the clinic onto the streets, a large suitcase sliding to the floor beside him. 

It was an Ido that Alita had never seen before... 

An Ido she didn't recognize was going out into town... 

Why. 

The moment this single question hit Alita's mind, a fire of curiosity ignited deep inside her. 

With each beat of her artificial heart, the flames spread like a wildfire until they became uncontrollable. 

"Where is he going..." 

Although she felt a little scared of being in an unfamiliar city at night, this did not stop Alita's unbound curiosity. 

Her unquenchable thirst for answers pushed her over the edge, and she could almost feel her ears smoking hot. 

"What secrets are you keeping from me? Ido, I want to know!" 

Unable to contain herself any longer, Alita quickly tied her shoes, snatched her metallic blue jacket, and dashed out of the room. 

Once inside the lattice box, she anxiously pushed the first-floor button. 

It was the longest elevator ride of her life. 

Swinging open the front door, Alita ran out into night, chasing Ido in his back-colored attire as he disappeared around the corner, towards the city. 

The wheels of destiny had been set in motion. 

. 

. 

. 

The entertainment district in the eastern part of the Scrapyard never slept. 

Illuminated by neon lights as beautiful as the sky and as toxic as hell, sex, violence, drugs, and fraud run rampant there, unregulated and unrestricted. 

As homeless people warmed themselves by lighting fires in oil drums, people stared soullessly at monitors lying around in the streets, showing cyber warriors fighting each other in brutal scenes. In the excitement, many people began fighting and killing each other on the side of the road. 

A prostitute who was watching and laughing suddenly had a bad trip from her cocktail of drugs, letting out a scream and collapsing on the road. 

Soon, a group of men in doctor-like white coats and masks appeared from an alley and quickly picked up the prostitute, still foaming at the mouth and convulsing, and carried her away somewhere. 

Another prostitute who appeared to be a colleague and had witnessed the entire incident merely shrugged her shoulders and did nothing, continuing to entertain her patrons. 

Witnessing such situations, people would cry, laugh, and get angry as they pleased, without really thinking about what was happening. 

"This is too much for me..." 

Alita was dizzy from her first encounter with the vivid colors of the entertainment district, which made her brain tingle. 

If she stayed there any longer, she would pass out. 

Oh Ido, where are you really going? 

Alita tried her best to swim through the crowd and chase after Ido while holding her unsteady head down. 

Her body was mostly buried in the crowd and out of sight, but Ido was tall, so she did not lose sight of him. 

She just needed to keep her eyes on the black Adamski-type disk-like hat that stood out from the crowd. 

As she followed behind Ido, words echoed inside Alita's mind. 

I'm sure you had your own name, family and home before you ended up this way. I can't wait for you to tell me all of it when you recover! 

Your body is still incomplete as it is. I'm hoping to give you proper organic parts soon! 

"Ido is all I have now. I don't want my memories back, I'd rather be with him!" 

All that sicko's victims are women. Be careful. 

"I'm fine being plain old Alita... but..." 

As of today, your name is Alita. 

Alita violently shook the intrusive thoughts out of her head. "I just want to know the truth!" 

Ido, unaware of Alita weaving her way through the crowd as she chased him, paused a couple of times to check the street before suddenly turning into a narrow alley. 

"Ah, no!" 

Alita desperately tried to make her way past the crowd and reach the place where Ido had disappeared, forcefully pushing aside the bodies of several people and squeezing herself through them. 

But soon, the crowd overwhelmed her. 

Hundreds of people around, their bodies made of iron and meat, held Alita hostage, crushing her between arms of cold steel and fleshy elbows. 

A fight had broken out on the street ahead, causing everyone to huddle together and talk loudly it. 

With her small body squeezed between the throng, Alita felt herself quickly running out of air, and no matter how hard she tried to break free, she found it impossible to even move. 

"Ido!!" 

Alita tried to call out through the gaps between people's necks, but Ido had already turned toward the alley without taking so much as a glance behind him. Then he was gone. 

As she furiously struggled through the crowd of people coming and going, Alita suddenly heard a soft voice. 

Momentarily confused, she stopped and lowered herself to ground level, remaining between the mob's feet and finally escaping their grasp. 

A thin hand reached out from the sea of legs, urging Alita to take it. She couldn't see who it belonged to, but her options were limited, so she went for it, letting herself be dragged away from that prison of bodies. 

As she was moved away from the crowd, Alita was dazzled by the sudden lights around, but she still refused to let go of the hand that was guiding her, which appeared to belong to a woman of long silver hair. 

Soon they arrived at a narrow street behind the entertainment district, in a rundown alleyway with no streetlights and full of trash. 

Glancing around, Alita turned to look at her savior, who was leaning against one of the walls catching her breath. 

There stood a slender woman of long silver-gray hair and blue eyes, chuckling as she panted heavily. She appeared to be older than Alita, between twenty-five and thirty years old. 

She wore a pink dress resembling a nightgown, and her face, adorned with dark primary colors, bore the resemblance of a raccoon dog. 

Though shrewd, her gaze also conveyed a sense of perpetual drowsiness, as if she were in dire need of sleep. 

"Um, ma'am?" Alita asked the woman, but she just smiled and chuckled again. 

"Oh please, don't call me that, it makes me feel older than I already am," the woman extended a hand to Alita. "I'm just a humble prostitute called Sig. How about you?" 

"I'm Alita..." 

It seemed that Sig had been watching the whole time as Alita was pushed and shoved through the crowd, and had decided to help her. 

"If a young lady like you goes out in the middle of the night, it's no surprise that she ends up in a dangerous situation like that. You could have been stabbed or robbed without even realizing it." 

Unconsciously, Alita checked the pockets of her baggy pants. Fortunately, all of her chips, her allowance from Ido, were still there. 

Watching the girl sigh in relief, Sig chuckled again and leaned against the dirty wall. "So, what is a kid like you doing out here so late at night, hm?" 

"I... I was following Ido... and then all those people started squishing me. I didn't know what was going on, so I got scared... Damn it," Alita grimaced in frustration and her shoulders shook violently. 

Sig laughed out loud at Alita's unexpected strength of will. "You are a funny girl, Alita, really funny... It seems it was worth helping you after all." 

In that moment, Alita sensed a hint of danger peeking out from behind Sig's gentle tone. 

"Huh...?" Alita said, looking up at Sig to find her eyes half-closed and cold as she stared at her. "Um, Sig, what's wrong?" she asked with a confused look on her face, taking a step back. 

But it was too late. 

Looking around, Alita saw several women, who seemed to be Sig's colleges, emerge from the darkness on either side of the alley, surrounding her. 

"You're such a softie... There's no way I would have helped you for free, right? Now, would you mind keeping quiet? We'd like to make this quick." 

Sig crossed her arms and jutted her chin. One of the women pushed Alita against the wall and dug a knife into her neck, the edge dangerously pressing against the fabric of her synthetic skin. 

"What... are you going to do to me?" 

Without answering, the women rolled up Alita's sleeves and examined her hands and feet. 

"Sig, there's no doubt about it. These arms belong to the missing Steer." 

"Her legs are from Warusa..." 

The women all said this as they looked at Sig, anger and fear dominating their expressions. 

Sig groaned and glared at Alita with an expression that was hard to imagine coming from her otherwise charming face. "Your arms and legs. They all belonged to our dead and missing prostitute friends. Alita, where and how did you get those limbs?" 

"W-where? Ido fixed all of my body for me." 

As Alita said this, Sig and the others all ruminated on the name "Ido," a strong hint of anger in their voices. 

"So it was this "Ido" who killed Steer..." 

"And Warusa..." 

"He killed Uzi too..." 

Exposed to the murderous intent of the prostitutes, Alita's mind became numb. 

What are they talking about? 

Sig took a step forward. "There's been a serial killer wandering around here lately, and us prostitutes are especially affected... Many of our friends and colleges have been killed by him. And just as we were thinking of doing something about this murderer, you showed up with many of our friends' body parts dangling from your body!!" Sig roared as she pulled a knife from her pocket. 

The blade of Sig's knife had a dark iron sheen that reminded one of reptile skin. 

Sig licked it up with her tongue and walked slowly towards Alita. 

"This... Ido... is a goddamn serial killer, Alita." 

"Ido, that's not right! What on earth are you talking about? I don't understand anything you're saying!" Alita said, shaking her head furiously. 

A chill ran through her back, and even though she was panting loudly, Alita's brain was starved of oxygen and dizzy, as if her heart-lung machine had malfunctioned. 

"I'll find that Ido and get my revenge... I even spent a fortune hiring an expert hunter for that purpose. You, Alita, are just the person for us to tear apart and use as an example for Ido." 

A faint light shone off Sig's raised knife, reflecting Alita's terrified expression like a mirror. 

"Time to die, Alita. And as a matter of fact, it was still nice meeting you... So long." 

As Alita's eyes opened wide, Sig's lips curled up into a cruel smile. 

Then, in one swift movement, the knife blade was swung down. 

As in slow motion, the cold, sharp tip approached Alita's forehead, ready to cut her in half, from the tip of her forehead to her chin. 

Alita was so terrified that she couldn't take her eyes off the scene. 

Her mind was numb with the fear of death. 

I don't want to die! 

I don't want to die yet!! 

Ido!! 

The moment her mind and thoughts melted into a white-hot light, it came. 

Something snapped inside Alita. 

Her eyes became as sharp as those of a wild feline, shining with a fiery light. 

As Sig swung the knife down with all her might, Alita blocked it with her fists in a quick movement. Before the blade could reach her forehead, she had caught it between her fists on both sides, causing it to explode into pieces. 

Exposed to Alita's sudden burst of killing aura, Sig let out a squeal. 

Like a little girl suddenly caught in the gaze of a tiger, Sig panicked and staggered backward, falling to the dirty floor. 

The sound of mismatched teeth clattering and a foul odor mingled in the alley air. A black stain of incontinence began to spread around Sig's buttocks where she sat. 

Alita stood unsteadily and looked around at Sig's fellow prostitutes. 

They were no better than frogs being stared at by a snake... even if they weren't staring at them anymore. 

Still shaking and trembling, Stig weakly dropped the broken knife to the ground, and the prostitutes did the same, running out of the alley with her in tow. 

Left behind, Alita stood quietly in the dim light of the alley. "What is this feeling?" 

She clasped her arms over her mouth to try to stop the trembling that was slowly spreading throughout her body. 

As if driven by memories of the past that suddenly came flooding back to her, she had used the knife breaking technique. 

A violent impulse instantly welled up within her, feeling proud of the skills she had mastered. 

Memories of battles that seemed so far removed from her current self, and yet somehow so nostalgic. 

All these things were flooding Alita's mind, so densely that it felt as if her brain cells were heating up and boiling. 

To think that the part of my heart that knows who I am can be so passionate... 

At that moment, Alita was confused by the waves of emotion inside her, unable to tell if they were those of joy... or fear. 

However, before she had time to calm her excited heart, a murderous intent like a sharp blade approached Alita from behind. 

"That's an incredible technique, little lady~. " 

In an instant, Alita was hit by a kick that swept across her like a hurricane. 

With freezing fear, Alita quickly ducked to dodge the attack, then rolled forward and turned around to put some distance between them. 

"Who are you?!" Alita's whole body tingled with goosebumps, staring sharply at the person who had kicked her. 

Hidden beneath an oversized brown coat was the tall figure of a cyborg woman, her entire body made of steel and ceramic, just like Alita's. 

However, as if it were a lie or an illusion, the woman who had delivered the kick had no murderous intent and looked down at Alita with a nonchalant expression, scratching her pineapple-shaped red head with her fingers as her plump red lips curled into a smile. "I can't believe such a cute girl like you is doing this... Even if I ain't going serious, it is quite an accomplishment that you could avoid that attack, m'kay?+" 

"... I asked who you were, right?" Alita said softly, further intimidating the redhead. 

Inwardly, Alita was trying hard to hide the fact that her entire body was trembling due to the electric shock caused by the pineapple-haired woman's kick, but Alita gritted her teeth so that her opponent wouldn't notice. 

Deep in my consciousness, fragments of memories have only just begun to awaken... but I still have no idea what extent they have. 

Will my unreliable fighting techniques work on this woman, who gives off such an unidentifiable aura? 

"I was hired by... a certain someone. A friend. My job is to track down and dispose of a serial killer of prostitutes. But now, it seems that my client has sunk their teeth into a lead, and when that happens I just can't keep idle, m'kay?" 

Alita's face was covered in sweat and her body trembled violently. The woman's eyes could clearly see Alita shaking. 

Who would have thought that this skilled kicker would be targeting Ido. 

"... Argh, even if Ido is a murderer, I won't let you kill him!" Alita shouted and dove straight into the woman, who opened her eyes wide behind her glasses upon hearing the words. 

"W-wait, did you say Ido-WOAAH!" 

Her defense against Alita, who had spun around and attacked with a kick, had been several tenths of a second behind. Unable to block the force of the blow, the redhead tumbled backwards and rolled. 

"Oh, prepare yourself!!" 

Seeing her chance to win, Alita waited for the red-headed to stand up and jumped at her, delivering a high-angle kick. 

The speed of the kick cut through the air, making a high-pitched whistling sound. 

"Enough!" 

There was a crash. 

Sparks flew in the dimly lit alleyway for a moment. 

A body was sent flying... and that was none other than Alita. 

The red-haired woman had countered Alita's high-speed kick with another kick of the same height, but the girl was much smaller, and the redhead's kick was aimed more accurately at the base of her leg, where the force was less intense, which worked to her advantage, so Alita had lost her balance and spun, crashing into a wall. 

The red-haired woman walked up to Alita, who was already in a daze after hitting the back of her head hard. 

She bent down and helped the girl up, leaning her against the wall. 

"You said Ido. "Ido Daisuke," right? Are you perhaps his daughter?" 

Alita grimaced from the concussion, shaking her head no. "I... was picked up... by Ido. He... saved my life... I won't let... anyone ha... harm him..." 

The red-haired woman looked at Alita in silence for a while, then sighed and stood up. 

Alita's consciousness was gradually fading. The woman said something but she couldn't hear her. 

This woman is... frighteningly strong... 

Ido... please... don't let her catch you. 

As her consciousness faded, Alita prepared herself for the red-haired woman to finish her off. 

I'm sorry... 

. 

. 

. 

"Hey... hey, wake up! Wake up already!" 

A distant voice suddenly hit Alita's consciousness with a sense of reality. 

When she opened her eyes, the red-haired woman from before was peering into her face with golden-colored eyes. 

Alita had passed out for about ten minutes. 

For some reason, she was lying in what appeared to be the roof of a building. 

"What is this...?" 

The woman was standing on the open edge of the building, gazing straight down. "Well, take a look. This is quite interesting, m'kay?" chuckling, she tilted her chin to get Alita to look. 

Alita was a little annoyed at being told what to do, but she pouted her lips, just as plump as the woman's, and staggered over, popping her head over the edge of the building. 

"Is that... No way!" 

"Yup, say hello to your dear Ido." 

A dark figure was lurking at a fork in the alley about ten meters below, leaning his back against the shadow of the building deviding it. 

The figure was undoubtedly Ido, dressed completely in black. 

Next to him was the large suitcase he had taken with him when he had secretly sneaked out of the house. 

He was also holding an unusually large hammer with a sharp point on its tip, not suitable for driving in stakes or anything like that. 

"Ido, what are you planning to do?" 

Just as Alita muttered this in confusion, she heard the faint, small, tapping sounds of footsteps coming from the darkness of the alley. 

A silhouette that looked like a woman walked towards the alley where Ido was hiding, and apparently noticing the footsteps, he pressed his ear against the wall and moved closer to the corner. 

The strange woman, with a long, eye-length mane of grey hair, walked slowly out of the alley, just behind and to the left of Ido. 

When he slowly raised the hammer without making a sound, Alita finally realized what was happening and trembled, becoming horrified. 

Ido's going to ambush that woman!! 

The moment the woman reached a fork, Ido stepped sideways, blocking her path. 

NO!! 

From the heights, the red-head woman watched everything unfold with a smile of the utmost pleasure plastered on her lips. "Mmm, just as I thought. Looks like your dear Ido is a serial killer," she ventured. "Heh, hey, hey, are you shocked, hm~?... Hah?" 

Alita was gone. 

When the red-haired woman looked down, she saw that Alita had jumped and was sliding down the wall just above Ido. "HOLY SHIT!" 

"DON'T, IDO!" Alita shouted, landing behind Ido, just in time to catch the hammer before it could fall with enough force to make stopping it impossible. 

Stunned by the girl's presence, Ido momentarily looked away from the woman, who was so taken aback by the sudden encounter that she had stopped moving. 

"A-ALITA?! WHAT ARE YOU-" 

"I FIGURED IT OUT, IDO! I KNOW YOU'VE BEEN KILLING PEOPLE TO GET ALL THE PARTS FOR MY BODY!" 

"W-WHAT!?" 

A struggle broke out as they both tried to gain control of the hammer. 

Alita desperately tried to seize the weapon, but Ido continued to overpower her. 

"PLEASE! STOP KILLING PEOPLE FOR MY SAKE!!" 

Finally, Ido managed to snatch back the hammer from Alita. He looked around for his target but found no one. The woman was gone. 

"Damn it! She's gone!" blazing with rage, Ido slowly turned back to Alita, raising his weapon at her. "ALITA!!" 

"WH-WHAT?!" 

Terrified, Alita covered her face with both hands and braced for impact, but instead of feeling the cold hammer smashing against her skull, she opened her eyes to see a pair of nasty fingernails hovering dangerously above her face, but held at bay by the handle of Ido's hammer. 

"ARE YOU OK, ALITA?" Ido yelled, struggling with the woman's raw strength. 

Up in the roof, the red-haired woman took on the scene before her with a mix increasing curiosity. 

The killer deflected the hammer, leaping from her position to reveal her monstruous mutant face. 

Her eyes were those of a psychotic beast, with pale, sickly features and grotesque black nails on both hands and bare feet. She leaped at incredible speed across the closed walls, searching for an opening to attack while screaming like a wild animal. 

"It's her! She's Asuna, the serial killer!!" Ido shouted, skillfully dodging and deflecting a flurry of blows, but he soon lost his balance when one of them cut his hat in two, causing him to drop the hammer. "Ugh! No!!" 

The red-haired woman was preparing to jump into the fray, but before the killer woman could finish Ido on the ground, something else happened. "Well, I'll be damned..." she muttered, sitting back down on the edge. 

In a desperate moment, Alita had pushed the murderess back, tackling her like some kind of football linebacker. 

"I WON'T LET YOU HURT IDO!!" 

With quick leap, the killer escaped again, making Alita fall to the ground. 

Landing nearby, the madwoman screeched, preparing her claws to attack once again. 

"DON'T, ALITA-" Ido called out, seeing the girl get up and take a fighting stance. 

The madwoman pounced, as did Alita, who tried delivering a high kick similar to the one she had employed with the red-haired some fifteen minutes ago, but her movements were still unexperienced and sloppy, allowing her opponent to easily dodge and deliver a powerful kick to her back. 

For the second time that night, Alita was sent flying, 

... But something else occurred. 

As if in slow motion, still airborne, Alita closed her eyes... and allowed herself to remember. 

. 

. 

. 

She was dreaming. 

It was a silent, soundless scene, like a black-and-white movie painted entirely in red, with parts of the view becoming blurred and impossible to see. 

A vast expanse of land, strewn with large boulders. 

Alita stood there, in that land of flying sand. 

She looked around, taking in her blurry surroundings. 

At one point, she saw a silhouette standing with its back to her. 

It had shoulder-length dark hair, below-average height, and a slightly stumpy build. She was clad in a black armor with metallic trim on the shoulders and elbows. 

Although she couldn't explain how, Alita recognized that it was her very own self she was seeing. A "her" from a distant and forgotten past, locked deep inside her memories. Her original self. 

The "Alita" turned slightly, muttering something that Alita struggled to comprehend. "Haben Sie keine Angst, Yoko von der Rasierklinge... Es wartet auf Sie," she pointed to the sky, "damit du nach... Hause kommen kannst." 

. 

. 

. 

The wall of concrete was closing in fast. 

Building on her initial momentum, Alita pushed off the ground with both hands and launched herself vertically into the air, feet-first, positioning herself above the airborne killer. She then somersaulted in mid-air, extending her legs to strike the base of the killer's neck. The force of the impact sent the killer smashing into the alley wall face-first, killing her instantly. 

Alita landed on the ground. 

"Ali... ta," Ido murmured, impressed by the girl's sudden display of agility and skill. 

Having watched all this unfold in a matter of seconds, the red-haired woman's mind raced and her jade eyes widened behind her glasses. 

The hail and wind had subsided. 

As silence returned to the alleyway at night, the sound of Ido swallowing echoed. 

Was that... ancient martial arts...? The red-haired woman gave a slight shiver and just continued to stare at the Alita. 

"This technique of mine... Panzer Kunst... Ah, I finally remembered it," Alita stood up and muttered this softly, bringing a hand to her head. 

The various martial arts techniques that had suddenly returned to her mind were also slowly sinking into the fog that settled in the depths. 

It seemed like the memories were brought back to her by random events, or very desperate situations. 

The memories of battle, are they inside of... me? 

Turning around, she became startled upon seeing the bloody remains of a killer woman embedded in the wall above her, her head driven into the surface as though it were a nail. 

The body soon detached from the head and fell to the ground, starting Alita even further. "Yuck, what is this?!" 

"Alita..." Ido called, almost unconsciously. 

Upon hearing the faint voice behind her, Alita turned. 

"Ido!" she yelled, running over and checking him for any wounds. "Are you alright?! Are you hurt?!" 

Ido stood thoughtfully, taking a closer look at the girl. Those movements... That was Panzer Kunst, ancient martial arts! 

Panzer Kunst was the German term for "Armored Art." 

That fact had faded into oblivion, but in the former space age, humanity had reached Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, and had built unique cultures on each planet. 

Among them, the Martian martial art "Panzer Kunst," wielded terrible power, resulting particularly effective in wars through assassinations and guerrilla warfare. 

Thus, the saying "Mars has Armor," became feared. 

Of the many types of martial arts developed by humanoid cyborgs, Panzer Kunst was considered to be the strongest and most practical of all, being efficient at disabling and destroying larger, and usually heavily armored, opponents. 

Although there are certainly records of the existence of Panzer Kunst, most of them, as well as their powerful techniques, have been periodically destroyed or lost to the sands of time. 

"Come with me, Alita," Ido finally said after a few thoughtful moments, standing up and walking over to the killer's corpse. 

. 

. 

. 

The red-haired woman watched Ido and Alita leave and remained speechless for a moment. Then, as if silently praising Alita for her good fight, she smiled. 

"Such an interesting girl," she muttered. "Martian Martial Arts, m'kay? Quite impressive." 

The woman pulled a wrinkled cigarette from her coat pocket, lit it, and let her jade eyes drift away. 

Purple smoke dissolved into the night sky. 

It seems you found someone else already, Ido, and such a strange girl at that. You are quite the lucky man. Frowning, the woman scratched her hair. Damn, I didn't even get to tell her my name. Should I go down and introduce myself? She answered her own question by slowly shaking her head from side to side, a few thin strands of hair swaying against her pale forehead. 

Melting into the darkness, the cyborg woman with the pineapple-shaped red hair and glasses walked away without looking back. 

. 

. 

. 

Sat on the stairs outside a huge white building, Alita waited in silence. 

Currently, Ido was inside receiving the rewards for Asuna, the crazy woman from before. 

According to Ido, Alita could only enter the building if she worked there or went to apply for a job, so waiting outside was her only option. 

She noticed that the place was very ostentatious, with a handful of stone statues placed on either side of the long, wide staircase, and another one rising from the centre. 

... I'm bored. 

Being brutally honest, Alita couldn't remember almost anything about the recent fight. It was as if her mind had gone blank, allowing her body to move freely and without restrictions. 

Could it have been some kind of vestige of her past? 

Was she once some kind of super cool warrior-girl who punched bad guys and gave hope to the innocent and weak? 

That would be cool. 

Alita's mind also went back to the strange red-haired woman she had met earlier. 

When she went to look for her at the spot where she had seen her last, she could no longer find her. 

By how she reacted, the woman seemed to know Ido, though she also tried to trick her into believing he was indeed a serial killer. 

Alita puffed out her cheeks. "How mean..." 

Despite everything, she had to admit the woman was kinda cool. Her movements, and her kicks, were refined, polished and powerful. 

I hope that we can meet again someday... 

With nothing else to do, Alita drifted off into dreamland. 

. 

. 

. 

"Beep, so the killer was a mutant who went out of her mind, eh? Given her looks I guess I can see why she had such a vendetta against pretty women, beep." 

The cylinder-shaped robot, designated as twelve, imputed the corresponding codes on the computer, verifying the necessary info before throwing the small bloody bag inside the incineration chamber. 

"You've been on the warpath hunting down all these wanted targets lately, Ido. Can't say that I'm impressed because I don't have emotions, but it's still very impressive, beep." 

Ido didn't utter a word. His vision was lost in space. 

"Well, here's 100,000 chips, your bounty payout." 

Ido took the bag of money and quickly turned to leave. 

"What? Not gonna buy any female parts this time?" the robot asked, but Ido was gone. 

. 

. 

. 

"Many ages ago, there was an agency called "the police" that managed crime in cities. Alright, you can move them now. How do they feel?" 

Alita moved her newly restored legs up and down, testing them out. "Great!" 

Ido smiled. "In the Scrapyard, the Factory puts out the bounties on criminals and sends out Hunter-Warriors, like me, after them. So we go, kill who we must kill, take their heads as proof, and then we get rewarded." 

"I'm sorry for getting the wrong idea, Ido," Alita answered, sticking out her tongue. "I really thought you liked killing women for sport." 

"Oh come on, do I really give you that bad of an impression?" He playfully fiddled with Alita's hair. "And here I thought I was saving you, and then you go and save me... Thank you, Alita." Through his round glasses, Ido smiled warmly, to which Alita reciprocated. 

"Anytime." 

Well, he was the one who gave me this life. How could I have been so dumb as to not trust him? 

Ido's voice became severe. "Just don't try pulling off moves like those with this body ever again! It's too much strength, and these parts weren't designed for them, ok?" 

"Yes, sir!"