Story Reader / Main Story / 33 Wither to Shine / Story
The first day at F.O.S.
The campus is adorned with welcome projections, while the school anthem drifts through the air above the auditorium.
Hey, hello there! Is this your first day at F.O.S.?
Here's the enrollment form. Make sure to fill it out using your terminal!
...I understand.
The girl with purple eyes impatiently takes the form and turns to leave.
Oh... Hello there! You're also a freshman, right?
Hahaha, looks like we've got quite a few interesting freshmen this year. You're already wearing our uniform...
The amiable senior student smiles and takes out an identical form.
Here's the enrollment form. Make sure to fill it out using your terminal!
After briefly pointing out a few things to note on the form, the senior student walks away.
Enrollment... registration form...
For some reason, everything before your eyes becomes blurry.
The surrounding laughter and bustling chatter slowly dissipate. In a daze, the campus scenery somehow overlaps with an unfamiliar structure where white fog fills the air and crimson crystals resonate with a distinct, metallic sound...
You rub your eyes. Perhaps due to excitement keeping you from sleeping well last night, your eyes feel a bit strained, but it should be nothing serious.
You blink, and for a moment the surroundings seem to waver, but upon closer inspection, nothing appears out of the ordinary.
Hello, do you need any help? I just noticed you seemed a bit out of it...
Receiving your reassuring response, the senior student moves on to another freshman who appears to need help.
F.O.S. Military Command College Enrollment Form
Name: ________
Strange, why is an unknown title appearing in your mind?
You shake your head and continue filling out the form on your terminal.
Gender: ________
Student ID: ________
Student ID... You think it was noted on the folder of your examination report. Where did you put that folder again...
The corner of a worn folder peeks out from your backpack.
Excuse me.
The girl rushing to submit her enrollment form accidentally bumps into your shoulder. You lose grip of the folder, and the report pages are scattered across the ground by a mysterious gust of wind—
In the upper right corner of the report, a handwritten code catches your attention—
931206
Why... would there be a handwritten code...
The deliberately stretched "9" drags behind it a long trail like some kind of scar, as everything fades back into silence.
A roar of thunder blasts in the air.
In the pitch-black, damp environment, a steady heartbeat pulses in your ears...
This is...
Memories resurface in a dizzying carousel, as Chaos seems to undergo an excruciating process of being shattered and reconstructed.
Your gaze clings to her consciousness as fleeing footsteps gradually quicken...
Hello, my name is Lucia. My frame designation is BPL-01, Lotus, and I'm also the team leader of Gray Raven—
I look forward to working with you!
My name is Lee, frame designation BPN-06, Palefire.
My original team... is not important. I have been assigned to Gray Raven. Dual guns are my weapons of choice.
I am equally adept at strategic planning and close combat.
My turn... um, my name is Liv, Support Construct.
I came from Egret... my preferred weapons are levitated weapons platforms. I look forward to working together.
This was the new Gray Raven.
At times it's memories belonging to Gray Raven, at others it's...
You're going to the Youth Center again next month? You've been on quite a few missions lately—maybe you should take some proper rest?
After all these years... that child must be all grown up by now.
Project Cthylla? What's so important about a crazy project that was terminated long ago?
The small purple Ascendant didn't off me, just chopped me up and dumped me in a heap of rubble.
Or perhaps it's...
My dream, that future we wanted, is right there beyond the seemingly infinite darkness.
Hope will triumph and fulfill its dream!
You remember the name "Noan", but not this incident?
There's another "real me" in Babylonia, right? Gray Raven Commandant?
And...
This is not my will alone.
This is... the will of civilization!
The fragmented illusions are endlessly shattered and reconstructed, as chaotic memories continuously appear and vanish within the "egg".
The pain, mercifully enveloped, hatches once more.
And...
This "story" has quietly changed the ending of fate.
Huff...
It's been so long... since I've done something this adventurous.
The simple delight of pulling off this clever deception briefly fills her consciousness, creating a ripple in her long, monotonous life.
And now...
The book pages open gently, turning to the page marked with a giant whale.
It's almost time...
Her index finger glides across the book, where crimson-gold threads twist and writhe.
Time silently leaps to April 1st.
Vonnegut never makes just one plan. On the book's projection, a gradually sprouting sapling is deeply rooted in the Red Tide.
The shrewd agent, like a cunning rabbit with multiple burrows, has already set up a new Tree of Life in another area.
The small Tree of Life emits an eerie red glow in the dim base, a crimson egg slowly pulsating within its embrace.
He hasn't noticed that the "consciousness" within has already been replaced, and the gaze of "Gray Raven" is now attached to the yet-to-hatch "Chaos".
After that...
The undersea cradle is thrown into chaos as a giant whale leaps from the water's surface.
What a... captivating "story".
With great interest and a hint of anticipation, she turns her gaze back to the book.
Can you really find the key to breaking this closed loop...
Thump—
The crimson egg once again pulsates with the rhythm of life.
The ending of the story has already been changed; the parade beneath the sea is never meant solely for the abandoned.
"We" will continue to search for our path even in death—
But what "we" truly desire is to endure life and see tomorrow.
Death is not the end.
At the end of "death" lies the tomorrow of "hope".
The torch will inevitably be rekindled, and the Gray Raven emblem will once again shine beneath the brilliant sunlight.
