Ankh 

Medical abuse, slavery/trafficking, physical abuse and dehumanization, child death, suicidal ideation

Ankh and William, stranded from the world of desert to the world of darkness. Though they awoke in different places, they met once again in a certain city, like flies drawn to light. The fantastical city of Neon Nebula. There, the city lights and the commotion of people never ceased.

Possessing the same face but different abilities, their battle unfolded around a certain girl and pulled in Neon Nebula's residents. While Ankh's brutal power could warp his targets, William's power simply allowed him to see the unseen. However, that power was tremendously effective against Ankh's. The battle ended with Ankh's loss. The battle for the girl was over, and peace returned to Neon Nebula—or it should have.

William wanted to ask Ankh why they had gotten stranded in this world. But he was interrupted by Lavina, the beastwoman researcher who had her eye on Ankh's power, and the two of them were taken somewhere.

The battle had shifted to a new stage. Neither the residents of Neon Nebula nor those involved in the matter would ever guess that this incident would unfold into a pandemonium that engulfed the whole city.

The first day, Ankh and William were brought to the lab after being captured by Lavina. While still restrained, samples of their blood, skin tissue, and other cells were collected. After a long period of sample collection, they were brought to a room lined with empty examination tables, and transferred onto hard beds. William watched the staff leave the room and let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Is it finally over...?"

The next moment, the room went dim.

"Honestly, I thought it would be a lot worse, so it's kind of anticlimactic."

William realized how skewed his image of researchers was. In movies and games, they were all mad scientists. If anything, that image might have been based on his own father, who was more of a mad scientist himself.

"I'm surprised, they might even let us go back to everyone after the examination is all—"

"Ugh, how long are you gonna talk to yourself? Just shut your mouth already."

Ankh, lying next to him, interrupted his words. Because of his violent powers, he was restrained more severely than William, with a thick cloth covering his eyes to block his ability. If he hadn't been restrained, he probably would have hit William by now.

"I can't help it; there's nothing else to do."

"Then shut up and think of an escape plan. Your voice pisses me off."

William felt daunted by his scathing words. If he got into a fight here, he would only tire himself out.

He analyzed his surroundings in the dim light. It was a bit chilly here. The humidity was low and it wouldn't give him trouble sleeping, but there was a foreign sensation in his body that he couldn't get used to. He couldn't check all over, but there were tubes extending from his body here and there.

They were people from other worlds. In other words, they were valuable specimens. Their bodies, body fluids, and excretions might all be useful for research. William knew that was how research went, but his feelings were complicated about it with himself as a subject. Just then, William felt embarrassed when he remembered that the staff made him take off his clothes before beginning the examination.

"It's like a freakshow..."

He tried to dispel his negativity and resume thinking about whether they could escape.

"If this were a movie, there'd usually be something we could use to escape..."

Alas, William was not a professional escape artist. He couldn't find anything to use. To someone so driven by curiosity as William, this situation where he could do nothing was incredibly suffocating. So, inevitably, the subject of his curiosity became Ankh beside him.

"Hey, Ankh. What's an 'isotope'?"

"...Huh? Why should I tell you? Don't get cozy with me. Thought I told you to shut up, didn't I?"

Ankh made threats, but he was blindfolded on top of being immobile. All that intimidation from their first confrontation was gone. In fact, after defeating Ankh with Eirene, William felt he had overcome his aversion toward him.

"I see. So you don't even know, either."

"Huh!? An isotope's just yourself from another world; there's no deep meaning or anything!"

"Oh, is that all?"

"Ah—You asshole! You were just fucking around with me!?"

"Don't say it like that or someone's gonna get the wrong idea. I just wanted to check if it's true you really didn't know anything."

"Hah! Facetious piece of shit."

William continued talking, unbothered by Ankh's abrasive words. "I don't want to be killed without knowing anything. If we knew each other's circumstances, maybe we wouldn't have had such a big fight."

"If I tell you, you'll shut up and hand that chick over?"

"That's a different conversation. And she has a name, you know. It's Eirene."

"Tch, details, details."

His words were harsh, but Ankh was responding to him. William thought there was a chance to change their relationship here. If they communicated, he might be able to get him to give up on taking Eirene away, and prevent him from harming anyone else. William hoped to find a thread to lead him to that lofty goal.

Did they have anything in common? He considered it for a while, and thought about the topic of parents. Though they were born and raised differently, they had the same face, so surely their parents were alike.

"Consider this me talking to myself."

William, hoping that Ankh would answer that question, spoke calmly about his upbringing.

"...Naïve jackass."

As he listened to William's story with his eyes closed, Ankh realized he hadn't gotten much rest since he first awoke in this world. Perhaps because he was aware of that, his consciousness slowly fell into a deep sleep...

Wasteland. A barren land of endless desert. The world was subject to extreme variations in climate and abnormal weather patterns thanks to the three moons in the sky. The sunlight that hastened natural selection, the massive sandstorms, and the unique force fields that disrupted gravity all swallowed up towns and villages, endlessly sifting through the population. As a result, it was difficult to stay in one place.

Inevitably, those who lived in Wasteland would move from home to home, having to spend their days fighting over better places. The most reliable thing in this world was violence. In order to survive, everyone sought to hone their skills of intimidation, coming together to form a world ruled by force. Eventually, people formed communities of those with common interests. Small communities grew into large communities by consuming others. Ankh, whose home was Wasteland, was one such person who survived this harsh world.

Separated from his parents as a young child, he lived alone from that day onward. He quickly understood the principles of the world and did everything to survive. Deceiving, stealing, and sometimes even killing. Ankh lived this way for nearly ten years, and before he knew it he was taking in children from similar circumstances and forming a community.

Yet without Ankh's outstanding power and skills, all they could do was steal. The act of stealing from someone was simple: secretly reach out, grab it, and run. However, reality was not so kind that one could get by on unskilled theft...

...So Ankh thought when he saw the corpses of his companions hung up high to make an example out of them.

"We can't keep going like this. If we want to face tomorrow feeling secure, it can't go on."

No matter how outstanding his fighting strength, he knew how much he earned in a day. If he slipped up, he would surely be reduced to a mere tool to satisfy the hearts of the powerful. He wanted to avoid that at any cost.

Wasteland nights were bright. Here, where complete darkness never fell, places to hide from the moonlight were valuable. Ankh's hideout was in a cave slightly elevated from the ground. A natural fortress. It was hard to climb to, but the rugged rock face made it hard to see, and by staying quiet, not even the sandworms that ruled the desert would notice it.

Ankh left the cave where the others were sleeping, and thought about a rumor he had heard lately. "A mobile city... Maybe I could change their lives there."

Apparently, there were places to mine for resources in the area, and a community of about 500 people was coming in search of them. Unlike typical communities that migrated with livestock, they made a living through iron manufacturing and blacksmithing, as well as the production and sale of ammunition for firearms. Ankh was considering sneaking in and learning their craft. If he could master it before the mobile city finished mining, then maybe the children could say farewell to living one step from death. It was a far better bet than spending every day in danger. There was just one reason Ankh couldn't commit to it.

"Can she survive if I'm gone...?"

"—"

"...!?"

He felt a presence behind him and turned to see a girl leaning against the rocks.

"Hilde, you're awake?"

"..."

Hilde gave a small nod, the pale moonlight gently illuminating her sun-tanned body. Where her skin peeked out between the gaps of her waist-length black hair, he could see countless scars. Among them, the injuries on her neck and ankles were especially cruel. Perhaps it was a small mercy that she was forever unable to see the deep gouges in her flesh. Hilde suddenly traced her finger over the rock below her feet.

"I'll be fine."

"You mean you were listening?"

Hilde gave an awkward, apologetic smile.

"I have better ears than them."

"So you heard... Well, yeah. I was thinking about a way we could all make a proper living."

"I think you should. You worked hard, so I can survive a while. Everyone will help."

"But, I..."

The biggest reason Ankh was so hesitant to leave was Hilde. The people who once owned her had robbed her of her voice, her eyes, her legs, and her freedom. The reason he made his hideout here, too, was all so she wouldn't have to suffer any more.

"Ankh, do you think I can't live without you?"

"Don't be st—Uh, no, that's not it."

"You're a bad liar, Ankh."

"I..."

Strangely, Hilde was good at seeing through his lies. According to her, his voice would tense up when he lied. And it wasn't her only talent. She could tell who someone was by their footsteps, and she had such a grasp of the space around her it made one wonder if she was truly blind. Acting tough now that she caught him, Ankh crossed his arms behind his head in surrender and leaned against a rock.

"...It's just, when I'm gone, I can't protect you if something happens. I...I hate that."

"So that's what you think of me. Makes me a little sad."

"H-Huh?" Ankh choked out, a tightness deep in his chest.

Hilde giggled while hiding her mouth. He had played right into her hand. When he realized that, he automatically turned away so she couldn't see his face, in spite of her blindness. As if to rub it in, the faint sound of clothes rustling tickled his ears.

"...Sorry, guess I'm easy to read."

"I think that's a good thing."

"Hmph."

"I'll be fine. I treasure the life you gave me."

When they first met, communicating with her had been difficult, and it took too long just to get her to understand he wasn't an enemy. It wouldn't have been strange for her to throw herself away any time. So Ankh had thought, but contrary to his expectations, she slowly opened up her closed-off heart to him. Now, they could even have simple conversations like this. Her thin body must have gone through all kinds of horrifying things. Even though she was around his age, or a bit younger, Ankh couldn't help but wonder how she came to worry about others so much.

"Hilde..."

Gently, he reached a hand out to her cheek—and slowly lowered it without touching her. They had lived together for a long time since building their community, but Ankh hadn't touched her since the day he saved her. He was scared to touch her. She was like a delicate, ephemeral flower who seemed as though she would fall apart the moment he did. Someone like him shouldn't touch someone like her, he thought—because he was the same kind of person as the men who took everything from her. It was the first time he had felt such painful feelings.

Hilde smiled at the perturbed Ankh and traced her finger over the rock.

"Thank you, Ankh."

What were her words for? As he felt nameless emotions pulse violently within him, Ankh placed his hand on the traces she had written.

"—de...Hilde..."

William's second day of living in the research lab began with Ankh's groans.

"Nnn... Ah... Guess I fell asleep in no time."

He remembered telling Ankh about his parents, but when he fell asleep was unclear. He glanced over at Ankh. He seemed to be having a nightmare, calling someone's name painfully.

"Hilde...ngh...stop it...stop—"

Ankh's body jerked with a start. Held forcibly in place by the restraints, his body shook the bed with a clattering sound—and he woke up.

"Good morning, Ankh."

He twisted his neck to show the plain displeasure on his face.

"This sucks... I wake up feeling awful and the first thing I hear is some shithead's lame-ass voice."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Enough, just...shut it."

As his energy came back, so did his insults. William had been hearing all kinds of verbal abuse from Ankh for over half a day now, so he realized he was starting to get used to it. Having been desensitized, he decided to ask who he had been talking about in his sleep.

"You were crying out in your sleep... Did you have a nightmare?"

"Yeah, I had a nightmare. 'Cause some guy with the same face won't stop talking to me."

"Haha, I can relate."

"You are really pissing me off..."

While Ankh was stunned silent, William took a step further with another question. "So hey, who's this 'Hilde' you kept calling out to when—"

"Don't you dare say her name!"

His shout echoed throughout the room. That was the strongest he had ever reacted to anything. William still couldn't tell if the name Hilde evoked deep affection for him or bitter hatred. Regardless, his intense reaction meant that for the first time, William had gotten closer to the "core" of Ankh's mystery.

"Sorry, guess I went too far."

"Hah, so then shut up, piece of shit chatterbox. You don't have parents, so you understand my feelings? I hate people like you who come up to me looking all worried!"

"...Hm?"

"Hm, he says. If you got something to say, say it to my face!"

"No, that's not—"

As William tried to say something, the door to the room suddenly opened.

"Didja sleep well, Humans?"

"Lavina! Get these restraints off me! Else I'm gonna twist your whole body apart!"

"Nnngyaaah...!"

Lavina's whole body froze, her brushlike tail standing on end. Ankh must have really given her a hard time. It was only for a moment, however, and her face slowly relaxed from fear—and she laughed out loud.

"Nyahaha! I'd like to see you try it! I know you can't do anything like that!"

Much like William had used his power to figure out how Ankh's was activated, it seemed Lavina had figured it out as well. She ran over to Ankh and brought the damp tip of her nose to his ear.

"I'm right here. Go on, try and twist me."

"You...!"

"Nyeheh, serves you right! But this isn't enough to make up fur all the humiliation you put me through. Hey, take this guy with you!"

The men and women following Lavina's instructions unlocked the restraints securing Ankh's legs to the bed and moved him to an examination table.

"Don't act like you can touch me!"

"Sheesh, pawfully noisy, this one..." Lavina said, injecting Ankh with what seemed to be a pre-prepared sedative. Ankh went completely quiet, his energy from earlier nowhere to be found, and was taken away somewhere. The doors closed before long, leaving just William and Lavina in the room.

"What are you gonna do to him?"

"Nothing you need to know...but I'm in a good mood right meow. We'll do the same expurriment with you later, so I'll tell you, extra special."

Lavina's experiment was to see if they could activate Ankh's power by force. His arm was fixed toward a target, and electrical signals were sent to specific parts of his body while his eyes were forced open. If the power was tied to his muscles, they might be able to activate it with the right strength signal. If it was activated by brainwaves, then they could try to identify those and send fake brainwaves. By ruling out possibilities one by one, whatever method remained would be the clue to understanding those powers.

"You don't mean you're trying to recreate it?"

"I can't tell you that."

Lavina cut their conversation short and left the room. It was completely quiet. At the back of his mind, William recalled his conversation with Ankh.

"Come to think of it... He really was listening to me."

----------

Ultimately, William's examination that day was relatively simple, including re-collecting samples, and measuring his brainwaves and abilities. He was quickly taken back to the room, and it was a few hours later when Ankh returned.

"You okay?"

"...Shut up."

It seemed the electrical signals had also been used to test Ankh's physical strength. His usual vigor was gone, and his voice was weak. Though he and Ankh were mutual enemies in a kill-or-be-killed battle, seeing him in pain was hard to bear.

I wonder if Ankh has someone who cares about him, too.

Humans were social creatures. It could be a parent, a friend, or a lover. Even without someone close, in the course of one's life, connections with others would be born. Ankh's world was surely the same.

If he has someone like that, I hope it's that Hilde person.

The mobile city was real. When Ankh set off for it, he had only been half-convinced, deep down—until he actually saw it in motion. It was far beyond anything he could have imagined. Gigantic wheels, larger than he was tall. Thick armor that could withstand crashing into sandworms. It puffed smoke as it crept along, giving the illusion that it was some kind of creature.

"Can't believe something like this is real..."

Ankh, realizing just how narrow his own worldview was, was confident that this would bring Hilde and the others a quiet and peaceful future.

Ankh headed to where the mobile city was scheduled to stop and slipped in, blending in with the peddlers. Then, he succeeded in selling himself to the tradesmen in a workshop and took up a job as an apprentice engineer.

----------

Ten days had already passed since Ankh started living with the other engineers in the workshop. As he mastered the craft with his natural dexterity, he came to understand the reality of the mobile city. What he learned was that the city only provided the minimum foundation to live on, and it was not complete on its own. Each city had its own role, some collecting and processing resources, others producing the food supply. This city was one of the former. They would trade with other mobile cities or communities of traveling merchants, and set off for new places. This cycle was the reason mobile cities continued to be a major influence in Wasteland.

The world they lived in was so different from his own. Shocked, Ankh devoted himself to learning new skills even at the cost of sleep, dreaming that one day they would all be able to live in a mobile city.

It happened one night, when he had fully adjusted to the city's atmosphere. Ankh noticed that the air within the city was suddenly abuzz.

"What? We're not supposed to be going to the next mining site yet, so what's all the fuss about?"

He called out to a scrawny man nearby, "Hey, what's everyone so excited for?"

"Ya haven't heard? There's a Maneater comin' by today, first time in a while!"

"Maneater...?"

"Haven't even heard o' that? Y'see, a Maneater is..."

Mobile cities specializing in human hunting, or Maneaters, as the name implied, were cities whose role was to hunt down people wherever they went. The humans they collected as "resources" were then sold to traveling merchants, and those left unsold were used up in "freakshows" so the city dwellers could let off steam. In other words, the moment they were collected, those humans were turned into merchandise.

"Heheh, you're in luck. It's not every day they stop by. Don't just polish your tools forever—you better hurry or you'll miss the show!"

As his colleague ran to the square, Ankh stayed motionless.

"Freakshow...? Don't tell me that's how Hilde ended up like that..."

Ankh's relationship with Hilde began when he noticed her while committing theft for another community. Back then, the merchants who tried to feed her to the sandworms also spoke of a freakshow before they died. And the real thing was here, right now. Ankh headed to the square, compelled by his inner rage.

"All right, you oil and grit-covered bastards! Are you ready? Let me hear your souls cry out!"

A roar arose from the buildings all around the square. There were walkways across the three-story buildings' walls from which the square could be seen. The walkways and staircase landings were already overflowing with men awaiting the show. Ankh pushed through the men to watch from the second floor walkway, looking intently at the stage erected in the square. On stage were a group dressed in black capes, and men and women in tattered clothing. The group in black were probably members of the Maneaters.

"Listen! You lot are lucky to be here today! Lucky bastards, I tell you!"

The crack of a whip echoed across the stage. The men and women at center stage shook in fear, as if on the verge of death from the men roaring at them.

"Let's introduce the performers of today's tale, shall we?"

The person who seemed to be the leader pointed at each performer in turn. There was a young couple, some food-starved orphans, and then, as this show's highlight, a former servant girl.

"...Huh?"

"This woman was branded a servant and miraculously survived, beloved by the goddess of fortune! If you eat her flesh, good fortune will surely come your way!"

Ankh couldn't believe what he was seeing. She should have been in the furthest possible place from danger.

"Hi...Hilde..."

But reality was different. The Maneaters had collected her, and she was right in front of him now.

"A fight to the death!" "Kill! Kill!"

The audience's fervor grew. Ankh's heart, by contrast, had suddenly grown cold. The next moment, Ankh leapt toward the stage.

"Hilde!"

"...!"

Just as the young couple were about to start killing each other, Ankh's appearance sent the square into an uproar.

"I'm taking Hilde! I won't hand her over to anyone!"

Bang!

The commotion died down instantly. With the crack of a whip, everyone's eyes gathered on the man in black, who shouted, "Oh-hoh! What's this, now? Seems one of the mobile city residents is close with the former servant! Oh, what a tragedy! Another act of the goddess of fortune!"

The man had even incorporated the sudden intruder into the essence of Hilde to boost her marketability. In that moment, all of the mobile city dwellers became Ankh's enemies.

"...I'm gonna kill every last one of you!"

It was the fourth day of laboratory life. When William finished the electrical signal experiment and went back to the room, Ankh was having another nightmare.

"Ankh, it's even worse than last time, isn't it? Are you sure you're okay?"

"...Told you not to get cozy with me. We're enemies. And you have no right to call me by name."

Ankh's attitude had softened a little on the fourth day. As William kept talking to him, he must have realized it was useless to keep rejecting him. That persistence had ever so slightly relaxed the walls of wariness Ankh had built around him.

"...How long?"

Ankh, who had refused to talk to him, finally spoke up.

"Huh!?" William squeaked.

"What was that? You sound like a sand rat."

"No, I just didn't think you'd talk to me. What's a sand rat sound like, anyway?"

Ankh continued, ignoring William's question. "I'm asking how long you've had that annoying-ass power."

His voice was a bit tense, as if recalling their fight in the skyscraper.

"Since when, huh... I just suddenly started seeing stuff as a kid."

"What's that supposed to mean? Give me something here."

"Well what about you, Ankh?"

"Huh? Nothing to say?"

"You..."

William stopped himself from saying "Damn it, Ankh!" before the words could leave his throat. Just as he told Ankh, William wasn't sure when he realized he had the ability to see unseen things. If it was when he noticed that mysterious bad guy watching his father from afar, it would have been when he was a child, but he couldn't be certain.

"You don't usually remember much about your childhood, do you?" William asked.

"Just means you were a shallow little brat, that's all."

William thought the distance between them had shrunk just a bit, but that was his misunderstanding. Staying calm, he replied, "Since we're 'isotopes,' it seems like we have more than our faces in common. I also wanted to know when we got these powers and where they came from."

Lavina, too, was trying all sorts of methods to investigate their powers to find that out, but she still didn't know. If the deadlock continued, she might go, "Let's swap your brains!" and commit inhumane acts like a mad scientist in a movie. Then their lives would really be in danger.

"No, I guess it would be in-feline?"

"What the hell are you mumbling about?"

"That's my line. What have you been doing this whole time?"

Ankh had been constantly moving his restrained arms.

"Getting outta here."

"Huh?"

He was blindfolded and his whole body was restrained.

So how?

"What can you even do like that?"

"I've been thinking about something the whole time. Does my power really not work if I can't see what I want to twist with my eyes?"

It started when he lost to William and Eirene, and he became even more aware of it after Lavina's electrical signal experiments. During the experiment, memories came back to Ankh's mind of his time in Wasteland with Hilde. Even though she was blind, she could grasp where things were, as if she had constructed a world in her mind just like the real one.

"Even if I can't see, what if I can twist it by imagining the shape in my head?"

"You mean..."

There was a dull crrreeeak.

William's gaze snapped to Ankh's arm. The restraints on his arm had been wrenched apart from the inside.

"Finally, I can say goodbye to this shithole."

Ankh grinned, the corners of his mouth turning up, and took off his blindfold, destroying the remaining restraints one after another. Then, he pulled out the tubes connected to his body, changed into his own clothes that were stored nearby, and approached William.

"..."

As William stared nervously, Ankh thrust his arm out toward him. The moment Ankh wished it, both he and the bed would be twisted up.

"Whether I kill you or let you live, it's all up to how I feel... Haha, serves you right, huh, William?"

"..."

Undaunted for even a moment, William glared at Ankh head-on. But no matter how much time passed, Ankh never used his power.

"Ankh, are you..."

"Don't get it twisted, you happy-go-lucky piece of shit. I'm not letting you off easy. I wanna see you in despair 'cause you can't protect that chick. You best think about how powerless you are."

With those words, Ankh left the room.

Still restrained, there was nothing else William could do—but that line of thought came to an abrupt end. A while after Ankh left, the whole building seemed to turn hectic, and an evacuation announcement rang out:

"Intruder alert, intruder alert. All personnel, evacuate at once. I repeat, all personnel—"

As it continued, the door out of the room opened. William stared, wondering if Ankh had come back. Instead, it was someone unexpected—Eirene and Linne, wearing bulky armor in different sizes, and Gigi, with a new body.

"What are you all doing here!?"

"William? How!?"

Eirene was bewildered. From her reaction, it was as if she hadn't expected to encounter him here. In the stiff air where time felt frozen, the alarm blared endlessly down the hall, as if it were heralding something about to happen.

"—I-I don't know anything! Please, just spare my life...!"

Ankh had caught an employee and pressured her for the location of Lavina's room when he felt a tremor shake his eardrums, and he quickly noticed the atmosphere in the building had changed.

"...What's that?"

"Intruder alert, intruder alert. All personnel, evacuate at once. I repeat, all personnel—"

That moment, there was a massive vibration underfoot. Ankh turned his gaze to the window where the neon lights shone faintly through. He grabbed the employee by the collar and dragged her to the window, pressing her face against it.

"Hey, what's happening?"

"Eee! I-I swear I don't know anything! I just followed instructions and carried out the experiments—I really didn't want to do that!"

She broke down crying, hardly able to speak.

"The moment you did it, you're complicit! Whatever, I just want to know where Lavina is. You tell me and I'll let you go right now."

He smashed the window next to her to pieces with his power, and she confessed readily. Lavina was straight down the hall, after turning right at the intersection, she said.

"Tch, waste of time," Ankh spat, snatching her employee ID card. With that, he could move between blocks freely.

"P-Please, forgive me..."

"I don't have any more use for you. Just get outta my sight."

"Th-Th-Thank you, so much...!"

He paid no mind to her and hurried onward. There were traces of some kind of experiment being conducted in a room he glimpsed out of the corner of his eye. All the personnel seemed to have evacuated, and something had been placed there. Inside an Ω-shaped pod was a wriggling, indescribable mass that looked like a failed human.

"Sheesh, not much different here from there, huh."

A memory of the past suddenly came to mind.

"...I'm gonna kill every last one of you!"

Ever since his detainment here, memories he didn't want to recall had been replaying in his mind. It was maddening enough already, but the fact that William learned Hilde's name was simply unforgivable.

"It's all Lavina's fault. That bitch is gonna get—"

Before he could finish speaking, Ankh reflexively threw his body to the side. Right after that, something dashed right past him, and the place where he just stood shattered loudly.

"Yooouuu! How'd you get out!?"

"What's good, bitch. I came to see you."

Ankh looked to see a beastwoman standing there wielding a uniquely-shaped gun and several small drones—Lavina Kitten.

"The gear I had before and everything you got from messing with my body—I'm taking all of it."

"Don't you—"

"Twist."

Snap!

Ankh had beat her to the punch, and there was a dry sound. His power, Verzerrung, headed dead-on toward Lavina—and shattered the window behind her.

"What?"

"Nya-hahaha! I was just repeating my expurriment! I forced the microparticles released from your body to go out of control!"

The drones gathered in front of her as she smiled triumphantly. The umbrella of light they emitted seemed to distort the direction of Ankh's power.

"Guess you can do something."

"Oh, purr-aise me more! I am the proud chief researcher of the IDC! I'd never lose to the likes of a Hum—ngyah!?"

Ankh tossed a piece of rubble, hitting her on the head.

"Agh!"

Caught by surprise, Lavina toppled to the ground. She had been so ecstatic about the countermeasure she prepared against Ankh's terrifying power, but she lost so quickly the moment Ankh switched to a more primitive fighting style.

"Attacking me while I'm still talking, y-you dirty little...!"

"I'm not gonna lose to someone who tries to chat on the battlefield."

Ankh kicked away the drones awaiting orders from their master and approached Lavina, snatched her sonic cannon, and pointed it at her.

"I thought I'd twist you apart right here, but that was some pretty quick thinking to come up with a counter like that. Maybe your brain's actually good for something. So congratulations—starting today, you work for me, got that?"

"You can't just go saying that! I pledged my allegiance to Dr. Ibis! She's purrfect, nothing like the scum you are!

"Then I'll just have to deal with her," Ankh said, reaching out to scruff Lavina by the neck as she crawled on the ground in resistance. "Hm?"

Suddenly, he noticed the shine of something lying near her. He picked it up to get a better look and saw that it was an employee ID card like the one he took from the woman earlier, in a clear rectangular case with someone's face on it.

Glasses so thick you couldn't see her eyes. Slumped shoulders and a slouching posture. Hair flying every which way, in the same color as the woman groveling in front of him...

"This is the old you, huh."

He was certain what William would call her if he were here. A word for social outcasts in William's world—a nerd.

Ankh dragged Lavina to her lab and took back his gear. His device was still in bad shape. It would be dangerous to deploy portals in its state.

"Lavina, right now I need you to—"

Just then, the whole building shook violently. The intense tremors shook up the objects cluttering the lab, and an old machine displayed on a shelf fell down above Lavina's head.

"Eep...!?"

She noticed it too late and forgot to dodge, crouching down instead—

—Snap!

The approaching machine veered off course in midair with a distinct sound, crashing onto the floor.

"Y-You...saved me..."

Ankh moved straight over to Lavina and, without answering her, shouted, "Hey, what's this shaking!?"

"I-I don't know anything either! I've never felt shaking like this before..."

"Tch...!"

Ankh jumped into the hallway to check the situation outside. There was no sign of anyone in the hall, only the intermittent evacuation announcement and earthquake-like tremors.

"The hell is that..."

When Ankh glanced casually out the window, he felt like something was wriggling, and looked toward it suspiciously. When he looked closer, he saw something passing between the buildings, so tall he couldn't see the top of it.

"Huh...?"

It was hard to get a sense of scale in Neon Nebula. However, Ankh knew the distance between himself and the buildings was quite far. Despite that, he was certain it was moving smoothly between the buildings. Lit by the neon lights was a gigantic monster, glowing blue and purple from the joints of its body.

This was a memory of the beginning that would determine Ankh's destiny.

After the battle, Ankh returned to the hideout. The lively scene from back then was no more. All he saw were the corpses of the children who must have fought so desperately against the Maneaters, their blood spattered on the walls and ceiling.

Drip, drip.

The blood dripped down through the cave, still wet. A red stain spread out slowly, as if to speak for Ankh's own feelings.

"Sorry I can't give you a proper funeral. It took a long time."

Ankh was fifteen when he left the hideout for the mobile city, but now he was nearly seventeen. A long time had passed, but there were still faint traces here of how it used to be. Marks on the wall where they competed for height. A hollow in the ground where someone tried digging to keep treasure, but gave up. The bed he had painstakingly adjusted the legs of so she could sleep in peace. If he closed his eyes, memories of his time here came back to him. But now...

"It reeks of death."

He muttered, "let's go somewhere else" to no one in particular and left the hideout to head for the top of the rock. Feeling nostalgic when he saw the scrap metal trap made to warn them of intruders, he climbed in silence.

Eventually, he arrived at a place with a great view. This place, with its unbroken view of the deep blue sky and the desert stretching on to the horizon, would be a fitting place to mourn her.

Ankh found a suitable rock and thrust his arm toward it, exercising the power within him. As he repeated that several times, the boulder transformed into a stone pillar that stretched into the sky. For a finishing touch, he pulled a knife from his waist and carved the word "Hilde" into the stone pillar. As soon as he was done carving, a cloud of dark red smoke rose up behind him as if it had been waiting for the right moment. Ankh stared idly as the wind drew it into long, thin trails, and whispered, "I've avenged you, Hilde."

It was a funeral pyre gathered together from all the mobile cities that had put their roots down around here.

"...What am I gonna do now?"

He had nothing else. His tears for her had dried up, and his heart, having achieved vengeance, was as dry as the very desert. The world was far too vast for him to continue idling his time away. After he gave the remaining corpses in the cave a funeral, he would follow after. As those thoughts hazily crossed his mind...

Thump.

Someone landed on the nearby rocks.

"Who the hell are you!?"

The person standing with their back to the sun had a strange silhouette. They looked human like Ankh, but he had never seen anyone like that, wearing a wide tricorn hat on their head and carrying a large staff ill-suited to their small stature.

"I am the one who will grant your wish."

The person in front of him seemed to be a woman.

"My wish? Hah, then let me 'let off steam' with your body, then. You barged into my funeral, so you don't get to say no."

"Heh... Is that really it?"

"What's so funny!?"

"I don't think that at all. Why are you putting up such a front? You're a strange one."

The woman put her hand to her mouth and giggled.

"What do you even know about me?"

"If you desire it from the bottom of your heart, I'll know it."

"Then what's my wish supposed to be!?"

"Well now, I don't think you need me to point it out. Listen to your heart."

It went without saying—he didn't need her to tell him. Ever since their parting, Ankh's wish hadn't changed once. His expression changed, and in a gently admonishing tone, the woman whispered, "An honest heart is a virtue."

"Shut up. You're gonna ask for something anyway, aren't you?"

"Yes, that's right. You understand well."

"Those are the basics here."

"Now then, as you said, I require compensation to grant your wish. Let me give you this to start," she said, and waved her staff at Ankh.

Suddenly, Ankh saw something glow faintly in front of him, and then an unfamiliar object floated in the air. It was a small device with symbols he had never seen before on a rectangular plate. When he stared quizzically, the woman urged him to put it on his arm. He brought the device to his arm as she said, and it fit perfectly, as if it had already been adjusted for him.

"There is a place you'll be going. There will be someone I'd like you to meet there."

"Huh? What the hell are you saying? That's none of my business."

"If you do it, your wish will be fulfilled."

She had nothing more to say.

"...You'll grant it?"

In a soft, sing-song tone, she said, "Yes. If our agreement is settled."

"It's settled. I know my wish."

Bring Hilde back to life.

From that moment on, Ankh was destined to become a slave to her wishes.

To represent the way she writes, Hilde's dialogue in Japanese is written almost entirely in simple kana, only switching to kanji when it would take fewer strokes to write. I tried to keep her English word choices short and simple to match!

Verzerrung, the name of Ankh's power, is German for "distortion."