Story Reader / Interlude / Treasure / Story
M.I.N.D. to frame pairing in progress. Construct systems connected.
Surrounded by the sounds of pitched battle and the thunderous note of something shattered, I dodged and weaved around the Corrupted barring my way, my thoughts wholly focused on the M.I.N.D. pairing.
This frame has yet to receive its final calibrations.
Even if you re-read the data afterwards, you would only experience it as the actions of another, not your own.
That is to say, after this battle...
...I will no longer be myself.
That is why I have to recall all that I can, before that happens.
The time I've spent with Gray Raven, with Commandant, has been nothing short of eventful. First, there was Nozzle, the malfunctioning spray-painting mech that preached autonomy among machines.
By my reckoning, such a notion was not inconsiderable, as long as humans didn't come to harm.
Then it was Tifa from Suzaku, lost to the virus. Like Liv, I felt sorry for her, and if there's a way to save her, I would have gone for it.
But her grief from losing her commandant—a grief that I now understand—had pushed her too far. The final blow was all I could give her.
Then there were the estate guardians, turned to violence by the Ascendant. No matter their type, those machines all had memories of their own. It was for the sake of those memories that they lay there, upholding their mission.
Waiting for the past to return.
I have no mercy for the Ascendant who would corrupt these benevolent creations.
Item, tactical signal—Red.
After that, we passed through the desert and met the Forsaken, led by Watanabe. He seems to have slipped through the cracks of my fragmented memories. I cannot be sure what our relationship was with him.
I may not agree with his methods, but his motives weren't unreasonable. We never made peace, merely because Commandant's from Babylonia, and Watanabe's from the Forsaken.
Yes. Merely that.
In the underground city, we met the nun who had once taken care of me and Luna. Twisted as she was by the Punishing Virus, I still recognized her.
I knew that my memories of her were not my own, but I wanted to bear them nonetheless, and thank her for her care.
It was because of her, and because of these memories, that I came to be.
Item, tactical signal—Yellow.
Then came another discovery: Kamui's hidden personality, Camu.
Over the comms, he had said that he would fix everything, make everything right, but Commandant taught me the truth behind those words long ago.
No man is an island, and no one can put the world on their shoulders. It was for that reason that Gray Raven stood with Kamui, together.
Some time later, in the Arctic, I met the other me—the original me—once again. But this time it was different.
My feelings toward her became... complicated. There was fear, of course, but it was intermixed with a desire to understand what she had become.
To comprehend what lay between her and me.
Item, tactical signal—Blue.
After recovering Rosetta's frame from the Arctic, we were sent to the space station. We never stopped evolving, and neither did the Punishing Virus.
Heteromers forced us groundside, where we met the organization known as the Akdelik. There, we witnessed ways of life only the Akdelik could live.
And choices only they could make.
The same went for the Nighter of Kowloong. Thrust upon the world, everyone struggles to survive, to achieve their ends.
They were only making their own choices.
And so... for the first time, I made a decision of my own.
Frame pairing error... please retry.
There's no time to retry!
Deep-dive into my M.I.N.D. and keep the frame on auto-pilot—I'll cut through my clouded thoughts myself!
Deep dive commencing.
