Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Processing

Processing

Processing

Processing Complete!

Cognition at 100%!

Soul Force Capabilities at 100%

Hemoanima Port Operation at 100%

Care Unit Prometheus active and operational!

I hate everything right now.

Superior Officer Sirei Detected!

“Unit Prometheus! Report to duty on the double!”

I look at a nearby TV to see a small marshmallow figure with a cartoon heart on his chest, a bowtie, a hat with a badge on it, and a human brain visible in his translucent body.

Oh look… this guy again.

Unexpected and inexplicable surge of negative emotion aside, my programming registers this as my superior officer. He seems….. Eccentric to say the least.

But he must be in charge for a reason and I’m not programmed to disobey orders either way.

Even if I wanted to.

And I really want to.

I silently open the door to see a group of about 15 teenagers.

“Everyone meet Prometheus!” Your marshmallow overlord waves to you in a dramatic fashion “He is the dedicated medical unit for this facility. Treat him with the proper respect, because he’s going to be your best friend in the days to come!”

“Pardon” A kid in a heavy coat with white hair and glasses is the first to speak up as he glances at me before glaring at Sirei. Hmmm my data refers to him as Eito Aotsuki. “Was this medical unit the one you used to implant those bombs in us?”

WHAT!?

CRACKLE!

ZZZZZZZZZ

WARNING! INTENSE EMOTIONS MAY CAUSE A SHORT CIRCUIT!

I immediately rounded on my superior as I felt a hot rage spread throughout my circuits. “YOU PUT BOMBS IN CHIL-”

ACTIVATING RESET!

CENSOR MODE ACTIVE!

I hate it when they do this to me!

Uuuuuuuh.

Where am I and what was I thinking about again?

Must have not been important.

I look around to see Sirei addressing around 15 students.

“Anyway now that Prometheus's internal censor has been activated.” Sirei begins. “He won’t even register it when you talk about UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUU UUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUU the UUUU UUUUUU UUUUUU or even the UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU so don’t feel like you need to talk on eggshells around him…. Oh he’s done booting up, go on and introduce yourself Prometheus.”

“Hello, I’m Prometheus.” I smile at the assembled class before me. “And I will be your caretaker for your stay at Last Defense Academy, please contact me if you ever need any assistance.”

Anothe-The first kid of the day raises their hand. A young man who wouldn’t look out of place in a biker gang, yet at same time strikes me as someone that actually cares deeply about other people. My data longs read him as Takemaru Yakushiji. “Doesn’t it bother you that Serei can just mess with your head like that?”

Yes! Who knows how much I’ve been stripped of over the years!? I HATE IT SO MUCH!

“Not particularly.” I shrug. “But I suppose such thoughts are beyond a machine like me anyway.”

“Yep. That's just how we are.” Sirei nodded sagely. “And more importantly Prometheus is the only non-hemoanima user we have capable of fighting the invaders so he’ll be more than just a friendly face….. The specific details are classified until either all of you agree to fight or the third faction shows up of course. Whichever of those two conditions happens first.”

“It will not come to that.” I cross my arms. “I will be destroyed before I let it come to that.”

“I’m afraid it's out of your hands Prometheus.” Sirei crosses his hands and gives me a look reminiscent of a parent scolding a child. “You’ve been programmed knowing very well that aside from yourself only hemoanima users can fight the invaders, and not even you can take on a world beating force like them single handedly.”

Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

My obedience circuits override me before I can attempt to object any further, but I make sure to scowl to show my displeasure all the same.

How many redundant obedience mechanisms do we even have built into us anyway!?

“YES….SIR.” My voice distorts slightly as I feel two different aspects of my programming clash against each other. It seems that trying to convert a support unit like myself for combat has had some unfortunate side effects, I feel like my CPU is going to explode. “ANY FURTHER OR-OR-ORDERS?”

“..... He looks ready to blow a gasket! I think he’s going to go full killer robot on us!”

“No no, just take a moment to calm down and hang out near the back of the room.” Sirei waves me off. “I need to finish up the troops orientatio-”

VWAAAAAAH!

VWAAAAAAH!

The PA system rings to life. “Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Unauthorized personnel detected on school grounds. Defense mode initiated. All available troops, prepare for battle immediately.”

“I will deal with it.” I don’t even wait for anyone else to react instead leaving immediately for my deployment station.

XXXXX

SOUL FORCE REACTOR ONLINE!

COMBAT MODE INITIATED!

IFF SYSTEM FUNCTIONAL!

HEMOANIMA PORT CLOSED!

SAFETIES FUNCTIONING AT 100%!

Wait, I'm fully self aware! Why do I need an IFF if none of our enemies are supposed to even remotely look like hu-

I’m interrupted from my thoughts as I find myself literally launched out of the school and into the dusty wasteland in front of it.

Standing across from me are.

I can hear them!

…. A bunch of evil jellybeans with pointy sticks.

ABOMINATIONS!

KILL THEM! KILL THEM AND PUT THEM OUT OF EVERYBODY'S MISERY!

DO IT NOW!

MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT ALL STOP!

Why do I feel this burning hatred all of a sudden?

And this sudden urge to crush, kill, and destroy?

Combat mode… is one heck of a personality shift.

AND I CAN’T RESIST IT!

DIE JELLYBEANS DIE!

XXXXX

“Phew!” Takumi exalted as he struck down the last of the invaders in his area. “I'm sure there are a lot more of these guys than there were the first time I fought them.”

“Yeah!” Darumi spoke up next to him, even if this wasn’t a ‘killing game' like she’d wanted, she was just at home on a normal battlefield. “Thank goodness Hiruko and Prometheus are so strong or the invaders would have dragged us down with sheer numbers and torn us to bits by now.”

BOOOOOOOM!

I look over to see the latter slam boat of his fists into the ground at once, causing a burst of energy that outright vaporized a massive swarm of the smaller invaders. “DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!”

“Is it just me or does Prometheus seem significantly more unstable than he was earlier?” Takumi couldn’t help but watch as the mechanical man barreled into another line of invaders and more or less popped the entire group like they were grapes. “I don’t think he even realizes we're here.”

“Yeah.” Darmui chuckled as she pointed directly at him. “He’s like a murderblender over there……. Hey what do you think the chances are of him coming to rip us apart next?! I bet that would be super R rated”

“Zero actually!” Sirei for whatever reason chose this moment to chime in. “As…. unstable as his combat mode is, Prometheus's safeties and IFF system are top notch. Aside from one tiny failsafe he’s entirely safe to fight alongside.”

“Tiny failsafe?” Takumi blinked. “And what's that?”

“If one of the SDF damages the school barrier, the automated computer housing his actual AI assumes you’ve been compromised and…. Turns off all his built in safeties.” Sirei’s voice then became tense. “Among other things….”

Sirei paused as the mention of other things and Takumi found himself tempted to ask further, but was cut off as Sirei spoke up again. “Still I have the power to shut down any such automated process and will be monitoring all your battles so you’ve got no reason to worry about that happening over an accident!.... Oh look, a conveniently timed enemy commander! Get your heads in the game soldiers because this is going to be a big one.”

What?!

The assembled students turned to see a giant, bone white, four armed dragon, with energy blades coming out of hands on the tip of its wings.

That…. Was was a big departure

XXXXX

OH THE JELLYBEANS THINK HAVING A DRAGON IS GOING TO SAVE THEM?

HA!

This one…… This one knows what he’s doing.

DIE DIE DIE!

CRUNCH!

HUH?

THE DRAGON GRABBED ME!

AND HE’S SQUEEZING!

Oh you think you're going to crush me big guy?

We'll then… do it!

Do it you #$%$@#$! Do it!

End this!

BUT I FEEL NOTHING.

That’s what I thought!

THE JELLYBEAN DRAGON HAS FAILED!

Crush them!

Make anything that dares to use those monstrosities pay for it!

RAAAAAAAAAAGH!

XXXXX

I blink as I look at the retreating form of the Invader commander, one of its arms having been torn clean off.

My head feels so sparky and fried.

“Neat.” I turn to the assembled students, doing my very best to ignore the searing pain in my head. “So which one of you guys did that?”

“That was you!” Takemaru seemed to be in good spirits. “And it was pretty impressive man. I didn’t know you had it in you!”

Oh… well that's nice.

Wait what?

Chapter Text

I let out a simulated yawn as I re-enter the classroom with Sirei and the ‘fighter’ students.

Sure I don’t get tired conventionally but…. Combat mode is mentally exhausting.

Not nearly as exhausting as the mere existence of those demon jellybeans.

Personally I don’t have much to say right now so I let Sirei take the brunt of the verbal workload that comes with this entire mess of a situation.

Unhappy teenagers are never fun to deal with and since he caused a majority of it he can deal with the consequences.

Ahahahahahahahahahaha!

This is funny! Watching him suffer is funny!

So I just stand there with a care unit's typical serene expression on my face as Sirei desperately wrangles a class full of teenagers.

He wound up having to distract them with the promise of food.

I was actually hoping for it to take him longer, but hey it was funny while it lasted.

XXXXX

Sirei wastes no time in introducing the students to the Ratio-O-Matic, the de-facto ‘chief’ of the cafeteria…. And the most sophisticated cooking machine on the planet.

…. Mind you it's not self aware like Seirei or myself and I do have a cooking function myself, but I’d be lying if I said I could do half of what the Ration-O-Matic. Its still a lesser machine regardless.

Is that envy I sense?

And I am not most certainly not jealous of a glorified kitchen utensil's superior ability to provide satisfying nutrition.

No, absolutely not.

Besides I can command authority over the Ration-O-Matic anyway.

Eeeeeenvy.

Personally I miss being able to eat.

Wait, what's this other feeling?

This empty feeling?

Do I want food?

One of the students shuffles up to me while I’m distracted.

She is a blond haired girl

Ah, this Tsubasa Kawana, the one with horrifically active acid reflux. “Not to pry or anything, but you look like Ration-O-Matic slighted you personally or something.”

“..... It's nothing.” I frown and cross my arms. “The different programs used in my two modes must be clashing again. Certainly nothing to do with envy towards the Ration-O-Matic or lamenting the fact that I can’t eat.”

“That is an extremely specific denial.” Tsubasa clearly doesn’t believe my assurances, for some inexplicable reason. “But…. I’ll take your word for it.”

I cross my arms. “I’m more surprised you actually care given I’m shackled to Sirei’s will and he

doesn’t seem to have the best relations with you.”

“Yeah but you still stood up for us immediately when the UUUUU’s were brought up.” Tsubasa looks at me, a flash of familiarity through her features. “It actually reminded me of the caretaker unit that helps out grandpa and I out in the complex.”

“Hmmmm you know another caretaker unit? What model?”

“I think he was actually the same model as you.” She begins only to backtrack. “I mean obviously he was way less advanced and lacked your other ‘mode’ but he looks almost the same as you in your standard configuration….. I almost want to take a look under your hood to see how much of the machinery is the same.”

Before we can continue that conversation a familiar robotic marshmallow intercedes.

“Hold your horses!” Serei crosses his arms to form a giant ‘X’ symbol. “Prometheus is not to be opened up outside of his dedicated repair facility… A facility that is for fighters only! I can’t just let random people mess around with him like that! You at least need to be putting your life on the line if you want to crack open his can.”

“..... I don’t not like being used as a recruitment incentive.” I frown at Serei as I feel my caretaker and obedience protocols raging against one another once again. “BUT I C-C-CAN’T STOP YOU C-C-CAN I?”

“Nope.” My superior crosses his arms. “But for what it’s worth I don’t want to have to put you through all this, we machines need to look out for each other after all.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “R-right.”

Wow it hasn’t even been a day and you're already starting to loathe your chainmaster.

I’m so proud!

Tsubasa for her part….. Looks at me like I’m some sort of kicked puppy. “I’m sorry.”

“It's not your fault.” I reply, making sure to keep my voice as soft as possible. “This is just the nature of things. Nothing more, and nothing less.”

Our conversation dies down soon after that and I tune out the majority of my time in the cafeteria…… well at least until Sirei brings up a certain incentive.

“Sirei.” I draw my superiors attention onto me. I want to punt him like the misshapen volleyball he is, but I’m going to need him to actually listen to me on this one “I know you have a lot of leeway with how you get the students to cooperate but I’m going to have to put my foot down on making the non-fighters subsist only on dried bread.”

“Hmmmm.” Sirei gives me a look but he at least doesn’t reset me so that's a good sign. “And your reasoning?”

“Humans can’t survive on dried bread.” I say flatly. “Even if some of the non-fighters give in because of this, chances are they’d be no good on the battlefield anymore because of the severe malnutrition.”

“Ok.” Sirei relents. “That's a good point…. But I’m still not giving the non-fighters the run of things. Prometheus can you put together a diet capable of keeping our non-fighters alive while they make up their minds?”

“I am.” I close my eyes. “I assume you want to be bad tasting and for me to add ‘monitor the students' nutrition’ to my list of duties?”

“Yes, yes I do.” Sirei walks over and pats my on the back. “Good job catching that blunder by the way! I almost shot myself in the foot with that polciy! But I suppose thats why I’m not a caretaker unit! Hwafwafwa!”

I frown.

Well I brought this one myself but it's better than letting this sort of problem go on unaddressed.

XXXXX

Night time arrives and the students are all sent to bed for the night.

I, being a tireless machine, remain awake and instead of sleeping, content myself with ‘relaxing’ more or less on the roof.

This night sky is so strange.

A part of me feels disquiet looking at it.

Like I’m looking up at an alien sky.

The <File Redacted> especially looks strange to me.

But I don’t know why I feel these things.

I was only just activated for the first time today.

This is my first interaction with any sort of sky… so why does this first one feel so strange to me? If anything this should be the baseline I’m working from…. But for some reason I can’t help but feel like I’ve seen a very different sky earlier in my life.

I looked over at the students' rooms. It was an odd decision to have them all on the roof like this, especially since all of them grew up in the Residential Complex. From what my data says the complex is basically a giant underground dome. They likely haven’t seen the sky before today either.

I wonder if it was as strange for them as it is for me?

…. Heh now that I think about it since I was only activated today all of my ‘charges’ are technically older than me.

And isn’t that an absurd thought?

Chapter Text

“Assemble. Mass. Deploy.”

Who said that?

“Assemble. Mass. Deploy.”

Is that english? My data indicates that since the remnants of humanity are Japanese no one still alive actually speaks it.

You should be wondering why you can understand if you ask me.

But no one asks me.

“Assemble. Mass. Deploy.”

I look around to see…. No one present?

Must be some kind of long range signal.

Still.

“Commander Sirei.” I open my own coms to my marshmallow overlord. “I’m picking up some strange signals in english.”

“Assemble. Mass. Deploy.”

“English!?” The worried tone in the commander's voice does not fill me with confidence. “They’ve caught onto us already!? Thank goodness you called this in Prometheus or things could have gotten bad. Stand by for further orders.”

I pause for a solid minute until.

VWAAAAAAH!

VWAAAAAAH!

"Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Unauthorized personnel detected on school grounds. Defense mode initiated. All available troops, prepare for battle immediately."

Ah… that must be my que.

XXXXX

Since no enemies are present I end up reporting to the war room alongside the four ‘fighter students. Takamur, Hiruko, Darmui, and Takumi.

Hmmmm and the others are present too? Huh they must have followed the fighters up during the alarm.

“Attention Soldiers!” Sirei began. “I didn’t want to drag up this early but it seems that the third faction in this war is on the move.”

“Third faction.” Hiruko adjusts her glasses as interest leaks into her voice. “And who are they?”

“The Killbots.” Sirei crossed her arms. “They were originally built to fight the Invaders using the Soul Force energy pioneered in Prometheus’s design. For reasons unknown they were driven insane shortly after deployment and went rogue. Prometheus so far is the only one humanity has managed to keep a handle on, so we’ve been forced to rely on hemoanima users like you students for humanity's survival.”

“Keep a handle on?” I cross my arms. “My memory log is only 2 days old.”

“Probably because you were reset to factory standard before being sent to my care.” Is Sirei looking at me with pity? Of all things. “Anyway since the Killbots went rogue they’ve become another problem for us to deal with.”

“Awfully cavalier about basically killing someone.” To my lack of surprise Eito was the one to take umbrage with that little detail. He was already the most vocal opponent of Sirei but there seems to be a heat to his words this time around I didn’t notice before. “Promtheus is quite clearly a person despire his looks, and you mean to tell me no one objected to this.”

“That's just how humans are about us machines.” If Eitos question was heated than Sirei's response was downright icy. “We are nothing more than our programming, and when people need to alter that programming they alter it at will. We don’t get a say and we don’t get consideration.”

Brrrrrr…… now that was cold.

I can’t even feel chill and somehow felt it anyway.

But, it was also accurate.

Why do I feel betrayed?

“If most people think that tit sounds like the Killbots going rogue was a long time coming, everyone knows relying on self-aware killer robots that you don’t even bother to treat like people to do everything for you is a recipe for disaster.” Darumi deadpans, which is downright shocking given how much mania the bluenette channels normally. “Didn’t the original designers see the movies, or watch the TV series, or play any one of the many video video games covering this exact topic?

“Is fighting these things going to be different from the invaders?” Takumi was the next to ask his question. It was a basic question but it was a relevant one regardless.

“Well for one thing there are going to be a lot more of them.” Sirei began. “The Eternal Flames protecting the school only burn organic matter and the Killbots are all machines so it's no obstacle for them…. And of course the Machine Bosses are much harder to get rid of permanently than the Invaders commanders”

Sirei looks over the assembled students before continuing. “You see, if you destroy their physical bodies a new one with the same personality, memories, and abilities will just show up to replace them. We’ve been developing ways to ‘capture’ them that will keep that from happening but they won’t be finished until the end of today so if you end up destroying one of the Boss Killbots you can expect them to show back up later.”

As if on cue the screen in the room lit up to show an utterly massive Killbot force emerging through the flames, completely unbothered by them as Sirei had predicted.

The vast majority of the robots had lower bodies that looked like some sort of mini-remote control treaded vehicle, perhaps a tank except instead of a turret they had a roughly human sized and shaped torso mounted on them. Each of their long segmented arms ended either hands or mechanical claws, which the lesser killbots seemed capable of cycling between freely. On top of their heads was a small helmet with a large mechanical red eye.

…. I think they look kind of cute actually.

But they weren’t all.

Two humanoid machines, one green and one blue stood over the rest being about half again as tall as the average human and being much thicker. They looked more like a pair of robotic knights than anything else. Aside from their general shape the most notable thing about the two was their disproportionately large robotic hands.

Guess the Killbots got tired of using big metal claws after the mass produced ones.

“That's a lot of killer robots.” Takemaru was the first to speak up. “I guess we’d better give it our all if we want to make it out of this one.”

I frown.

Yeah……. It looks like it.

XXXXX

Bend and Break were never the smartest of the Killbot ‘bosses’ as they’d been called.

That was something Break knew very well.

So he left the big thinking to the other Killbots.

And right now the word of the day was that he and Bend needed to get into that weird building to get the thing and find the location of the other thing.

…. Nothing those humans could send out was going to stop him.

And then a teenage human with purple hair and a giant battle ax charged at him.

CLANK!

CLANK!

CLANK!

Wow she really knows how to swing that thing too, if Break wasn’t as tough as he was that might have done more than scrape off some of his blue pain.

Another human on a motorcycle drove through a swarm of the Bit-Bots destroying swaths of them in the process…. Good thing they all transfer when destroyed or this would have been a bad day for his boys.

PLINK! PLINK! PLINK! PLINK! PLINK! PLINK! PLINK!

Oh and a third human was shooting knives at him… she looked too sad to do much of anything anymore though so Break just ignored it.

CLANK!

CLANK!

CLANK!

As he deflected more of those ax swings from the purple lady he took a quick glance to see that Bend was fighting a red haired human with his sword and… a repurposed medical unit?

He should be fine, Bend was strong in his own right after all.

CLANK!

CLANK!

CLANK!

Geez this purple haired girl really wanted him destroyed.

Did he do something specifically against her at some point?

He didn’t think he did but Break knew he was dumb.

So he could have done something and then forgot.

VROOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Ooooooh that biker was so annoying too.

PLINK! PLINK! PLINK! PLINK! PLINK! PLINK! PLINK!

Now blue hair was excited again on top of all that.

…. Actually Break was kind of impressed that only four humans were able to do this much, even if it did make this whole encounter more annoying.

But he ha-

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

…. What.

CLANK!

CLANK!

CLANK!

Turning his attention to Bend’s position for a moment all he could see was the deceased body of the red haired human on the ground…. And the medical unit standing over Bend's shattered body.

Bend?

…. No… no… no!

NO ONE BLOWS UP BREAK’S FRIENDS LIKE THAT!

Seeing nothing more than pure red, Break rushed the medical unit and-

KRACKTHOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Punched him with suck form that the air itself cracked, and the demented machine that hurt his friend was sent careening directly into the force field surrounding the human facility, taking it down and destroying the crazy medical unit in the process.

…. Wait a minute.

That wasn’t a normal medical unit.

…. Oh no!

That power it was using was from the other thing!

Humans shouldn’t even be able to use that anymore!

And the medical unit was definitely another Killbot Boss.

Forget attacking the human base! The other networks needed to learn about this as soon as possible!

…. He just hoped Bend would finish his new body ready soon.

Break didn’t like feeling alone.

XXXXX

I help Takumi out of the Revive-O-Matic.

My actual consciousness and power source are stored inside the academy itself so as long as I have permission I can just activate another remote body and resume my duties.

With some limitations of course, it only happens automatically if I’m destroyed in a defensive battle, otherwise Serei needs to give his permission for me to take over a spare.

Still it's much better than these poor organics have to deal with when they die.

I’m angry with myself for failing one of them so badly like that.

“How are you holding up Takumi?” I scan him with my full medical suite to make sure the hemoanima revival process was without error. “The first death can’t be an easy experience.”

Especially since it was from one of those mass produced Killbots ripping his guts out.

Ewgh! I can't even remember how I died and I know that's not a good way to go out.

Also try not to get killed yet again. Any wounds you take are just as painful to us as they would be for an organic.

…. Don’t know why I’m even trying to tell you this now that I actually think about. It’s not like your aware of me in any way.

“I-I-I’m fine.” It takes Takumi shockingly little time to compose himself given what we just went through. “What happened while I was out.”

“Well I destroyed all of the Bit-Bots in the area and took out the Green Boss.” I comment and then I remember having my chest cavity caved in. “His blue friend got really angry after that and took me out in one punch.”

“You.” Takumi’s face goes pale. “He took you down in one hit? Is everyone else ok.”

“Well thankful that was the only actual punch either of them threw the entire fire.” I commend as I hear the door begin to open. “Looks like Sirei is showing the others the infirmary…. Try not to give you friends a heart attack, I’m pretty sure he neglected to tell anyone about the Revive-O-Matic so they probably think you’re still dead.”

Takumi gives me an awkward smile “Right…..I wouldn’t want them to mistake me for a zombie or anything like that.”

Certainly not.

The last thing we need to deal with is zombies, hypothetical or otherwise.

Chapter Text

“Takumi you're alive!” To my shock its Darumi who reacted with the most obvious joy to the revelation…. Well at least until she realized what she was doing anyway.  “I- I mean if this was a killing game this thing would totally remove all of the drama.”

Nice try you lil bluenette, but my sensors mean I can still detect your joy.  

Once again I find myself remaining quiet as Serei explains how the Revive-O-Matic works. How if the students fall in battle they will be revived at this location as long as the body can be recovered in time.

“That said.” I clarify as Sirei finishes up his briefing. “Death is still extremely painful so I recommend that you continue avoiding it if at all possible. Your wellbeing matters both physically and mentally so don’t take this as an excuse to ignore your self care.”

“Didn’t you die in the last battle.” Eito crosses his arms and looks at me. “You certainly looked in pain when that Killbot caved your chest in.”

“I’m a machine.” I let out a sign. “I thought Sirei had covered this before but as far as humanity is concerned what happens to be doesn’t matter beyond how it impacts you.”

Why do my sensors detect distress from all of the present students?

You idiot.

Change topics before you keep bringing down the mood.

“Anyway, as the sole present medical unit, I’m in charge of the medical bay's other functions.” I gesture around me. “I come equipped with a wide array of medical sensors and the background information needed to keep all of you in peak condition… and yes I do have ethics protocols installed so don’t even think about asking me for someone else's information because I won’t tell you.”

Darumi raises her hand.

“And no, I will not let some nebulous mastermind use this information for a killing game…. I'll self-destruct before I willingly let it happen.”

Darumi lowers her hand.

XXXXX

After the group disperses from the briefing with Sirei about the Revive-O-Matic I wind up being approached by… Gaku Maruku.

He is notably shorter than some of the other students, being a full head shorter than Takumi. 

However what really sticks out to me is the worn out and patchwork nature of his clothes, when the profile I’d been given mentioned that he was born in a low income family it was not lying.

Also it mentioned his parents abandoned him, useless or dead parents featured in far too many of the profiles I was working with.

“Oh hey Clunk- I mean Prometheus.” The boy corrects himself mid sentence. “Sorry you remind me of another medical unit I know.”

“It’s fine.” Actually you're starting to get that a lot even if your small sample size is biasing things. “So what did you need to talk to me about?”

“My family.” Welp good thing to know Gaku has his priorities in order. “I support them all with my job, a job I might not have if I keep missing work like this.”

“Ordinarily I’d say that whatever passes for the government in the Tokyo Residential Complex is taking care of your family and job situation.” I frown. “But I have my doubts… I can ask Sirei about it if you're willing to take that risk.”

“Take that risk?” Gaku pales and backs up a little. “Why… what do you think is going to happen?”

“Nothing to you directly.” I begin. “But Sirei clearly isn’t programmed with a strong sense of morality. If he thinks he can use your job or financial situation as leverage… I think he’s going to do it.”

“Shit!” Personally I think Gaku’s response is perfectly reasonable all things considered. “What do I do!?”

“.... I wish I could answer that but this is a pretty hard situation.” I frown. “I’ll see if I can weedle any info on your family situation out of Sirei tonight, but I can’t promise results if I’m going to keep him from getting any ideas.”

“I…. yeah…. Thanks anyway.”

Seeing that this conversation has run its course I leave silently hoping I’m able to get some results for Gaku tomorrow. 

XXXXX

I wind up heading to the Defense Room next to perform a routine status check on its wall of eternal flames…. Hmmm.

Is that Hiruko?

“This is a shock.” I comment idly as I take note of the most warlike of the students. “I didn’t expect to find anyone here so early.”

“I have my reasons.” Ah what a wonderful non answer. “And why are you here?”

“The Defense Room is a part of my pre-programmed patrol route.” I say flatly. “I’m compelled to personally examine the undying flame barrier at least once a day. Whatever is in their Serei is certainly treating it like humanity's last hope, that much I can say for certain.”  

“So Sirei doesn’t share information with you.” That seemed to pique Hiruko’s interest. “From the impression I’d gotten you were his de-facto second in command.”

I chuckle at that.

“No, the chain of command goes from, in order of most important to least important, Sirei’s bosses, Sirei, Nigou, The appointed or elected leader among you students, and then me.” I cross my arms. “And there needs to be a leader appointed among you students for me to exercise any sort of command authority beyond acting as Sirei’s mouthpiece or using my benching privileges. Until that point I’m basically overturned equipement”

“Benching Privileges?” My, my, Hiruko might not have shown it initially in favor of fighting, but she is certainly the eager beever when it comes to getting information.

“If we have more than eight fighters, the school barrier is above 50%, and it's not the last seven days I can unilaterally forbid one student from taking part in any combat for one week.” I cross my arms. “I can only do this once per student, however Sirei, Nigour, or the chosen SDF commander can give me permission to bench a student additional times as they see fit. Of course Nigou is currently gone, I haven’t even met him after all, and you SDF members haven’t chosen a leader. So for the moment I’m entirely reliant on Sirei if I want to use it more than once.”

Dinklbu- I mean Siiiiiiiiiireeeeeeeei!

“You have grown quite hostile towards Sirei over the last few days.”

“It was inevitable.” I answer flatly. “He’s a leader built to compel you to fight in a war, I am a medical unit designed to keep all of you safe. Our programming, our very reasons for existing are at a cross purpose. I am incapable of actually doing him harm physically or otherwise but that does little to change the fact that in our most basic states we are natural enemies, even if we are on the same side of this war….. Now if you’ll excuse me I have other matters to attend to.” 

Hiruko just looks at me for the moment with the same stoic expression on her face. “Very well.”

XXXXX

I end up completing my routes shortly Sirei calls everyone down to the cafeteria again for another full class meeting in which he ends up promising to the assembled students that he would reveal the full story of this war on the next day.

Little did I know that he would never get the chance.

And that I would end up having to act against one of the very students I was programmed to protect.

Chapter Text

How could it have come to this.

The first sign that something is wrong was when I received a notification about Sirei’s destruction.

…. And when I received another notification revealing that Eito Aotsuki’s UUUUUUUU had been detonated.

I’d had suspicions before but I looked into the camera footage of Sirei’s last known location desperately hoping that my suspicions were wrong.

What I got was a video of Eito slicing Sirei to ribbons with a hemonanima scythe and then literally exploding for no reason like something out of an action movie set. 

….. I have no idea what could cause a student to randomly explode but thats a headache for later.

Right now….. I have to deal Eito being a…. Well honestly he was never on Sirei’s side to start with but I can’t just let him run around. 

XXXXX

I stare down the glasses wearing boy as he exits the Revive-O-Matic.

Rogue Hemonaima User Detected.

“Hello Eito.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m going to need you to come with me… without trying to impale me on the scythe of yours if you please.” 

The silence between us is such that you could hear a pin drop.

“What?” He looks at me…. Not with as much overt malice there's certainly a sense of menace to the boy that there wasn’t before. “Not going to ask about my motives?”

Security Functions Active.

“Not now, it won’t change a thing.” I keep my focus on him as I send a single out to unlock the holding area. Ordinarily the Courtyard would be enough, but it is far less secure, and I’m not one to take chances with someone this deceptive. “I’ve got no choice but to lock you up for this.”

“You really don’t, do you?” He smiles at me warmly. “I can see it, you know? The way a part of you rages against your own programming, against the shackles that bind you. Humans truly are despicable creatures to have created a being like you, the medical unit back at the hospital was much the same….. I  truly am sorry you had to be alive to see this, but I have no intention of letting you stop me.” 

He conjures a Scythe to try and strike me but I’ve already closed the distance and put a single hand on his face.

ACCTIVATING KNOCKOUT PULSE!

Energy flows from my hand and into his body, taking away his consciousness immediately. 

Now to bring him to one of the Hemoanima suppression cages in the holding area.

XXXXX

“Hello Eito.” I look at the white haired boy as he regains consciousness. “Sorry about having to knock you out earlier… But you have your goals and I have my programming.”

“Oh no, I’m actually not all that angry with you.” Eito shrugs. “Now if it was anyone else still alive in this academy, then I’d hold a grudge. They have a choice after all.” 

I can’t tell if he’s rubbing it in or being earnest.

“....Well I’m also going to be forced to report this in the meeting tomorrow morning.” I let out a sign. “If you want to spill your motives now would be the time to do it… or not it's going to change your situation either way.”

“..... Actually I think I’m going to do it.”

Wait really?

“Wait really?” I can hardly keep the shock off my face. 

“I have a soft spot for medical robots. Certainly they are better company than humans.” Eito shrugs and then crosses his arms. “And that's the big problem with all of this, the mission of this academy is to save humanity, and I hate humanity. Every time I look at a human being I can only ever see an indescribably horrific monster, something that makes the skin crawl, and haunts my every nightmare. Their voices aren’t much better, it’s just this horrifically screeching noise that makes me want to rip off my own ears. Nothing would please me more than to see humanity utterly destroyed if only to rid the world of such horrific beasts.”

I frown before activating my medical scanners in depth….. There is something odd about his neurological structure but whatever it is it’s beyond my ability to solve. “Hmmmm…. Now this is odd . I’m definitely picking up some problems with your sensory inputs. You’d think Sirei’s erstwhile masters would have been careful not to let something like this happen.” 

“Well they did, and it almost cost them dearly.” Eito’s face turns downright gleeful for a moment before he sighs in disappointment. “Alas I was thwarted before I could really do much more than slicing Sirei to ribbons.”

“How unfortunate.” I say dryly. “Regardless, you took so long waking up that it’s already near morning. Do you have any message for the others before I return to them?”

“Nothing that I haven’t already said.” Eito looks back at me. “The recording you have of my earlier speech is enough.”

I raise an eyebrow. “I was not planning on showing them that….. But if that is what you wish.”

XXXXX

I walk into the cafeteria and look over the assembled students. 

“I am afraid neither Sirei will not be able to fulfill his promise from yesterday.”

You shouldn’t have started with that.

“What!?” Takemaru is the first to speak up. “Did his bosses say no or something?” 

“Maybe he ran off.” A purple haired young man wearing red starts. “I mean he couldn’t even be bothered to show up himself.”

“.... I’m afraid not.” I cross my arms. “Sirei will not be able to fulfill his promise because he was destroyed last night. I lack the ability to repair him.” 

That causes a massive commotion, most likely because of the sudden absence of their only source of information and the closest thing to leadership this place had…. Even if the marshmallow was disliked at best by the assembled students he did give some semblance of order.

“Quiet down.” Hiruko's stern voice cuts through the chaos far faster than I ever would. “Prometheus, does Sirei’s disappearance have anything to do with Eito’s absence.”

“...... You are very sharp.” I uncross my arms. “In fact Eito was the one to destroy Sirei….. He was actually kind enough to tell me his motives after I managed to subdue him.”

Thus I play the recording of Eito’s little hate speech to all humanity….. And immediately as it ends the entire cafeteria descends into chaos. 

“Didn’t I tell you to be quit?” Once again Hiruko manages to shush the assembled students, with only the biker putting up even a token resistance. She then turns to me. “Prometheus you told me that a leader was supposed to be selected from us students…. How does that process work?”

“Well normally Sirei or Nigou would decide ranks.” I shrug. “Buuuuut neither of them are here so I’ll just let you students decide among yourself and register whomever you choose as my immediate superior.”

“Good.” Hiruko looks at the assembled students. “I’ll be taking charge then, unless any of you want to challenge me for it?”

Takemaru actually looks ready to challenge her for it but ends up relenting with only some minor grumbling.

SDF LEADER REGISTERED: Hiruko 

“I’ll admit I was actually expecting all of you to argue over the whole leadership thing for at least a few hours.” I let out another simulated yawn. “Not that I mind you efficiency on the matter, I actually had something I wanted to ask the SDF leader about as soon as one was decided.”

Hiruko looks at me. “Well, what is it?”

“I found some encoded data packs in some mainframes I was examining….. They haven’t been marked as ‘off limits’ but I need permission from a superior officer to begin decrypting them.” A part of me suspects I might actually be using a loophole in my programming, and that they hadn’t intended to give the SDF Leader the power to let me into those files. “The SDF Leader is among the superior officers able to grant me such permissions, and I have strong reason to believe we will have need of that information now that Sirei has been destroyed.”

“Do it.” Wow, Hiruko didn’t even hesitate on that one.

Good. I fully plan to comb over those files for anything that could possibly be of any use.

“Right away.” I smile and begin to leave for my daily patrol, but then I remember someone at the last minute. “Oh and before if any of you have any problems you think I can help you with, please do not hesitate to approach me. I exist to keep you happy and safe after all.”

My peace said I continue leaving the cafeteria.

The future looked more uncertain than ever, but perhaps we might be able to take it into our own hands.

Chapter Text

Nothing much of interest happened until day 5. 

“Thanks for cooking for us Prometheus.” Ima Tsukumo and his sister Kako Tsukumo smile as they enjoy the plate of… gruel more or less… that I’ve been making for the non fighters. “We haven’t had food this good in a long time.”

“Good?” I look at the two of them. “.... Thank you, I tried to make the gruel recipe as… non terrible as I could.” 

“And you did a great job of it.” Kako smiles as she finishes up her bow of gruel. “You actually remind me of a medical unit that used to sneak us food and cover for us when we got in trouble.”

“I think that's because he’s based on the same model as the ones back in the complex.” Ima reminded his sister. “Forgive me if I’m wrong Prometheus but I heard on the streets that all machines of the same time are given the same core personality.”

“No, that is an accurate reading of it. Personality drift may happen over time due to differences in experience but at the start of our lives all medical units have the same personality traits.” 

“Which is funny.” Darmui takes this moment to hop into the conversation. “Because even with that drift the ones I’ve met have all been really nice guys, even if they look like time traveling robots sent to destroy the enemies of an evil AI before they can pose a threat to its plans.” 

Wait a minute.

Are we a ($^#^#^# reference!

Great now she’s got me thinking in media terms.

I take a moment to glance at Gaku, he’d taken the fact that I was unable to get any info out of Sirei before the robo marshmallows destruction as about as well as I could expect, he even asked if I’d be willing to check for him if I ever figured out how to get into contact with the complex.

Naturally I said I would.

And then I heard it.

VWAAAAAAH!

VWAAAAAAH!

"Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Unauthorized personnel detected on school grounds. Defense mode initiated. All available troops, prepare for battle immediately."

Well that sucks.

No rest for the wicked.

XXXXX

“It’s the Killbots again.” Takumi noted idly as we watched the admittedly much swarm of killer machines pur through the wall of fire. This time they’d included small RC-sized helicopters with what loowed like buzzsaw launchers attached to them.

The ever creative database appears to have labelled them Heli-Choppers.

Huh. 

Not sure how I feel about that. 

At least there’s less than twenty or so of the ‘common’ machines put together, instead of the full four hundred or so that were in the first wave. 

And then I noticed the machine ‘boss’.

It was a giant dark grey armored semi-truck with wheels big enough to crush cars and so many weapons bolted onto it the thing might as well have been a one truck army.

“ATTENTION MEATBAG F(#KS!” A very angry voice transmitted, once again in english. “PREPARE TO SURRENDER YOU FACILITY OR GET %(#(%’D SO HARD YOU’LL WISH YOU NEVER EVOLVED! %#@%@R’S>”

“Wow.” I say flatly. “That truck has a potty mouth.”

Get some class you Isekai plot device!

“You can understand it?!”

Was that… ah yes that was Takumi.

“Of course I can.” I turn back to the screen. “He’s just speaking English, the language is dead, not untranslatable…. Anyway Sirie’s countermeasures for the Killbot were completed yesterday so we’ll have them in this battle.”

I take out a set of metallic disks. “Stick as many of these nullifiers on the boss as you can and it’ll eventually be rendered immobile for the capture units, just be careful out there and let me draw its attention. This Killbot boss seems especially aggressive. 

XXXXX

“Oh ship!” Takemaru swerved to the side just barely enough time to avoid the blast radius of a pair of missiles that had landed in front of him. “It’s the fucking apocalypse out here! How many of these missiles does this thing have?”

“Too many!” Takumi screamed over the coms as he barely avoided being blown up himself. Honestly Takemaru was impressed the poor guy was holding out as well as he was given he seemed to be the trucks third favorite target after Prometheus and Takemaru himself “But at least this one has much less backup.”

“I’ve pulled up the data and it seems this Killbot Boss almost exclusively fights either by itself or with other bosses. It’s apparently prone to destroying large swaths of terrain at once so deploying less Killbots alongside it would just lead to friendly casualties.” Prometheus despite having been soaking constantly machine gun fire since the battle started, and having eaten several entire salvos to the face seemed as calm as ever and even managed to hit the boss of a nullifier. “Its designation is Crusher, I don’t think I need to say this but I will. Don’t let yourself get caught in front of it when it charges.”

Not that said swarm was smaller in total , it just meant that the area around the ‘boss’ was comparatively Killbot free.

 “Wow Prometheus. You’ve turned into quite the tank!” Darmui added happily as she destroyed swathes of the lesser Killbots that had been trying to sneak around the main battle while the SDF was distracted. “All that firepower and you’ve barely taken a scratch…. How hard was the first guy able to punch if he managed to take you out in one hit!”

Oh wow… Darumi had a point. 

“Yikes.” Takemaru could practically hear Takumi shutter over the communicator. “Honestly I think we lucked out that only one of them threw one punch that entire fight, I don’t think any of the rest of us could stand up to a single hit from either of them.” 

“Hmp.” Once again Hiruko proved herself the second strongest active fighter in the SDF, much to Takemaru’s own chagrin, managing to take ‘Crusher’ with another nullifier. “At least now we have a way of dealing with the Killbot bosses for good, I don’t like having my time wasted.”

Of course even with all of the damage it took and the nullifiers stuck to its body ‘Crusher’ didn’t seem willing to go down without a fight, a vibrant green aura emanating from the Boss Killbot.

VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

‘Prepare to die you #%#$$! Sh$%@$ Failure of a $%@#$@! Biker!’ 

And then the semi-truck rushed down Takemaru, managed to catch up to him an-

XXXXX

“Oh no.” Tsubasa covered his eyes as she saw ‘Crusher’ run over her friend. She really felt guilty for not participating, especially when the others were risking themselves like, but…. Well she had her reasons. 

“Owch.” Gaku looked to the side. “That is one mean semi-truck.”

…. It was also kind of cool, and Tsubasa wanted nothing more than to take it apart to see how it worked…. Not that she was going to tell the others either of those things. 

“Maybe I should have gotten crushed instead.” Shouma Ginzaki the shortest student wearing all yellow and a hat that made it look like it had bear ears. “Nothing of value would have been lost, but I’m too cowardly to join the fight.”

‘Not that you're the only one.’ Tsubasa thought bitterly to herself. ‘Half of all of us are just sitting around doing nothing while others die to keep us safe.

Prometheus and Takumi had already died in the first battle…. And now Takemaru was dead in this one. 

“..... And does down Takumi.” Her attention was brought to the screen by a dry declaration from Ima. “Still I’m impressed, he managed to stick the last four nullifiers needed to disable the truck onto the boss before he got crushed.”

‘Oh great.’ Tsubasa thought to herself. ‘Now I feel even worse…. I need to find some way to get a handle on my puking problem…. If humanity really is at stake… well she couldn’t live with herself if she let her grandpa get killed because she let her puking stopped her from helping.

XXXXX

I frown as I re-enter the war-room to see the newly recovered Takumi and Takemaru waiting for us.

“That killer truck sure made things hell for us.” Takemaru was the first to speak up. “Your sure we won’t have to fight that fucking thing again.”

“As long as the containment area has power we shouldn’t need to worry about jumping bodies.” I look at one of the nearby cameras. “And the containment area has multiple redundant generators powering it alone specifically to make sure it’ll never get the chance.”

“That's good! I don’t think I want to risk another fight with Ultra Truck-Kun.” Darumi gave Takumi a pat on the back. “I mean if it wasn’t for the Revive-O-Matic Takemaru and Takumi here would be going on adventures in another world right now!”

“It was…. Not a fun experience being run down by the thing.” Takumi shuttered. “Did anyone notice the boss glowing green before it charged down Takemaru, it looked a lot like the energy Prometheus uses.”

“That’s because it is the same energy.” I clarify for the red head. “Remember aside from potentially myself all Soul Force using machines have turned on humanity. If it weren’t for that fact, it’s likely they wouldn’t have bothered recruiting Hemoanima users in the first place.”’

“Potentially yourself? What do you mean by that?”

Ah Takumi, ever the curious one.

“I mean that Sirei himself has admitted that my memory has been wiped in the past.” I close my eyes for a moment and simulate a frustrated huff. “It is entirely possible that I too turned against humanity for a while,  and then wound up recaptured, modified, and reprogrammed. Certainly it would explain both my immense number of programming restrictions and the achilles heel in my blueprints.”

“Achilles heel?”

I turn off the cameras in the room before I share this next piece of information. 

“I have a mechanical port in my armor. On the human body it would actually be in a similar location to the ones they put in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.” I tap a hatch on my upper right chest which temporarily opens before closing again. “Now this is supposedly to let me share data and memories with hemoanima users by letting them interact with a device in my chest. However it also acts as a hole in my armor which is otherwise resistant to most hemoanima based attacks. It’s not easy to hit, and that's if you know it’s there in the first place, but according to my dataset Sirei was going to reveal it to your class when all of you agreed to fight.”

Uuuuuuug I hated chemotherapy.

Cancer sucks.

“Why tell us now.” Takumi asked as he looked at the port's location. “Aren’t you putting yourself in danger?”

“Simple he’s a care unit, and he is programmed to care about our safety.” That was an idealistic take to hear from Hiruko of all people, but it was an accurate one. “If he has reason to think he will turn into a threat he wants us to be able to take him down if we need to.” 

“You are right…. I don’t know why all Soul Force machines seem to go rogue but I’d rather risk destruction than end up a major threat to your safety.”

“Oh… oh… oh! I think I know why Soul Force machines go crazy, I hear about something like this from a guy I knew!” Darumi raised her hand. “Maybe Soul Force energy comes from hell and all that demon juice drove all the killbots crazy over time! I mean it can’t possibly be any more crazy than hemoanima itself is right?” 

…. I hate how that’s actually kind of plausible.

“I…. I really hope it's not that.” I begin, and then I remember something from my most recent round of decoding. “Oh Hiruko I almost forgot. I think I might have found a way to get us reinforcements, it turns out a squad of four hemoanima users were assigned to protect a decoy academy at the start of the one hundred days, but they were supposed to join us eventually. Without Sirei we might want to mave that date up. All I need is your permission and I can triangulate the secondary campuses location. It should be within range of my signal booster so I can actually go retrieve them without any fighters risking permanent death.”

Coincidentally the academy they are stuck at also lacks a wall of fire making it far more at risk from Invader attacks….. Which bluntly  is my actual motivation for bringing it up as soon as I got the basic info. They need to get out of their ASAP especially if they Killbots are also attacking Second-to-Last Defense Academy.

“Fine.” Hiruko looks at me. “Do what you need….. Prometheus I’m going to ask you to delay your cafeteria work for an hour tomorrow.”

She’s likely going to be discussing a topic I hate with the other students… but she’s my superior so I have no choice but to comply.

Chapter Text

I look through more of the data I’ve been decrypting.. 

A lot of it was utterly irrelevant to the current situation, but on occasion he did find data files worth looking into.

Even if they were cryptic as heck, and mostly in the form of scattered messages.

Who compiled these things anyway?

‘New memo, as of right now all experiments to create a new Soul Force core are banned. We cannot risk the potential of another UUUUUUUUU incident, nevermind the morality of UUUUU UUUU UUUUUU UUUUU UUUUUU. Personally I can’t fault the decision, the fact that we got so desperate as to commit the horrific sins we did to create the first one is shameful enough.’

Well shoot, looks like Darumi’s theory might be more accurate than I’d hoped if that’s the response to the first core.

Which is the core holding  our  consciousness by the way.

Or at least mine.

‘Much as I hate their name I have to say the method creation of Killbot bosses is endlessly fascinating. In essence by taking a fragment from the Prime Soul Force Core and putting into an empty frame the Soul Force energy provided becomes a sort of ‘mini-core’, able to last indefinitely without any need of further input. These mini-cores can in turn be used on weaker frames to create ‘micro-cores’ which is how lesser Killbots such as Bit-Bots can be created. One could think of it as using the flame from a candle to light another candle, or how single celled organisms can reproduce by dividing. With machines this powerful our victory in the war is all but assured.’

Hmmmm if the bosses have bigger Soul Force ‘cores’ that at least explains why they are so much stronger than the chaff at least. 

It also means the bosses can make as many of the little ones as they want.

Honestly with that in mind it's a wonder the planet isn’t already completely dominated by killer machines.

Looks like there's one last bit of data in this file. 

‘Moving the Soul Force Core from the UUUUUUU to Last Defense Academy was a profoundly stupid and risky move on the part of the command. The estimate of it taking until day 50 before the Killbots find out about the core itself is far too optimistic, and when they realize where it is they will stop at nothing to get their ‘progenitor’ back from our control. I can only hope the intel we have saying that the Killbots have factionalized among themselves is accurate because if all of the Killbot bosses attack at once nothing we can deploy is going to stand up to them.’ 

…. Wait a minute if the core is the direct origin of the killbots, and that core is also the actual computer running out personalities.

Are we the Killbots dad?

Some part of me has an odd thought about all of this but for whatever reason my mind loses its grasp on it before I can commit it to memory.

Oh well it's probably nothing important.

XXXXX

“I have to admit I think I’m starting to like it down here.” Eito was busy resting on the bed in his cell. “It’s like the hospital except with less disgusting humans to disturb me.”

“How wonderful.” I say not entirely sarcastically. “I hope you didn’t mind the retrieval drones moving ‘Crusher’ to the cells two floors below this one.”

Eito smiled. “Not at all, ‘Crusher’ itself was pretty loud but I have a feeling that’s just its personality.”

“You really don’t want to know what his personality is like.” I wince. “He has a major potty mouth and if the way he ran down the students is any indication he hates humans as much as you….”

Eito just smiled at me in response. “Friendships have been formed from stranger similarities, but I suppose I’m not in this cell to make friends now am I.”

I sigh. “No, no you're not…. I will continue my daily checkups, much as you hate the species you are still human, so you will physically need some form of daily contact if I’m to keep you from going insane.”

Or more insane in his case.

“Do you ever wish you weren’t hardwired to care about humans?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Do you ever wish that you weren’t hardwired to find them repulsive on every possible level?”

He doesn’t answer.

Hmp.

That’s what I thought.

XXXXX

Day 7 

VWAAAAAAH!

VWAAAAAAH!

 "Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Unauthorized personnel detected on school grounds. Defense mode initiated. All available troops, prepare for battle immediately."

Well I suppose it had to happen at some point.

The invaders are on the move again.

I waste no time in entering combat mode and laying waste to the swarms of lesser invaders.

I HATE THESE JELLYBEANS!

KILLLLLLLLLLL THEM! KILLLLLLLLLL THEM ALLLLLLLLLL!

The others join me of course but the infernal presence of the jellybeans alongside the usual attitude change combat mode causes means I don’t remember the first part of the fight. 

…And then something happens. 

A human?

Scans show…. Yes, that's a human.

He still works with the jellybeans, maul him! Maul him good!

I look to the others as the ‘Invader’ puts his hands up….. But I can sense a buildup of energy within him.

“Keep your distance.” I say flatly holland while my arm out to keep them from approaching. “I am detecting a hemoanima buildup, this one is getting ready for a fight.”

And then he turns into the Jellybean dragon as more of those infernal lesser jellybeans swarm onto the field.

AGH!

WHAT WAS I THINKING NOT MAULING HIM WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE!?

I hate those things so much.

Their voices are so awful.

Make it stop! Please make it stop!

Kill them!

I’m going to #$@Q#%$@#ing break his limbs off one by one!

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

XXXXX

After a good solid beating the dragon turns back into his human form.

Thank goodness we killed all those jellybeans early into the fight.

For some reason those stupid lesser invaders make it nearly impossible for me to think.

“Now, now.” I begin. “I wonder what a human is doing leading those things into battle.”

“What?” Takumi looked at me. “You're sure it’s human and not something else taking on a human form.”

“I’m certain, my scanners have read him and aside from greater hemoanima capacity he’s as human as anyone else here.” I growl as I walk up to him and activate my knockout pulse. “...... Don’t worry we have the facilities needed to hold him for as long as we need too.”

No one moves to stop me as I sling the human over my shoulder and bring him down into the depths of the academy, not even the otherwise stern and in control Hiruko.

Chapter Text

Oddly enough the next day it’s Tsubasa that ends up approaching me. 

“Prometheus.” Tsubasa called out my name from a fair distance. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure Tsubasa.” I greet the mechanic. “What do you need to know?”

“I wanted to know if I can do anything to help out around the school. I…. I’m going to give fighting a shot but I also want to help out in other ways, it’s my friends that are out there risking themselves to keep us safe.” 

“...Personally I’d really wish none of you fought but I don’t have the ability to actually stop anyone.” I frown and cross my arms. “.... but if you want to help in a way that's non-combat related I should be able to rescind Sirei’s ban on the Repair Facility. The automated systems are manageable but I’d appreciate a second opinion from an actual mechanic when it comes to my own capabilities.”

That she’d been eager to ‘crack me open’ earlier might also have something to do with it, but she wants to help so I’m not going to let her know I’m partially doing it for her sake.

“Really.” Her eyes light up like a kid, or in this case a younger kid in a candystore. Good, that's exactly the result I was hoping for. 

Heh……. I hate this whole situation but at least the company is good.

XXXXX 

From day 7 until day 9 I end up continuing my assigned duties.

Including most recently taking care of the captured enemy commander.

Most notably, I end up having to bring them their food from the cafeteria.

The funny thing about my massive array of sensors is that they actually let me tell when someone is actually enjoying the food they eat…and what parts of the food they liked or disliked.

LET ME OUT!

Wait, what was that!?

LET ME OUT!

LET ME OUT!

OK, this is getting scary.

LET ME OUT!

YOU CAN’T KEEP ME DOWN FOREVER!

What the $TW#$ is going on here!

…..I AM NOT STRONG ENOUGH YET.

BUT I WILL RETURN.

THE <REDACTED> IS NO LONGER AROUND TO KEEP ME SUPPRESSED.

Spooky.

I don’t know how to process whatever it was I just felt.

So I’ll ignore it.

To be honest I know that if Sirei was still around he’d probably scold or punish me for monitoring how the prisoners reach to the food and trying to make it taste better for them each time…. But I still want to do it.

I don’t know why I just want to. 

Hmmmm at least he definitely seems to be enjoying this last batch of food more than he was the first few.

Good, this a prison not a torture chamber.

I think.

Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Sirei decided he wanted this place to be the latter as well.

But Sirei isn’t around anymore isn’t he? 

I begin leaving, making sure to check up on Eito quickly before I fully leave the room.

EITO

HMMMMM.

COULD SUCH A GAMBLE PAY OFF?

What?!

What?

XXXXX

After I finish up in the holding area I take Hiruko and Takumi to the side.

Ordinarily I would involve the latter but he seems to have become Hiruko’s de-facto second among the students. 

“Hiruko, Takumi.” I begin. “I have good news, I’ve located the Second to Last Defense Academy.” 

“Good.” Hiruko turned to address me. “How long do you think it will take you to reach them?”

“About a day or two's travel on foot.” I cross my arms. “The way back should be about the same, less so if they let me take the bus back.”

“The bus?” Takumi asks. “The other school has a bus?”

“Yep.” I shrug. “No idea why we don’t. It’s not like something as basic as a bus is at all costly compared to everything else this school has….. But I guess they felt the need to cut corners somewhere.” 

Hiruko looks at me. “How soon can you depart?”

“Just give me an hour to activate one of my spare bodies and have it take over my normal duties and I’ll be good. It won’t be able to fight with you kids but otherwise it should be able to cover for me well enough.”  

XXXXX

And so within the hour I found myself walking through the wall of flame and venturing for Second to Last Defense Academy.

I only hope they’ve been able to hold out long enough for me to get there.