A mechanical whirring echoed across the plaza, deep and smooth.
Like a camera lens focusing.
Then a voice crisp, female, clinical.
"Subject Ice breaker confirmed. Bloom pattern consistent with previous date. Begin containment."
Kentaro's eyes widened as he watched some of them fly down, making his blood freeze faster than the plaza floor.
"Cradle..." He whispered with fear, not taking his eyes off them.
High above, a female figure floated into view, black metal, blinking red at her core. And It wasn't Halcyon's.
Another voice followed, this one softer. Male. Confused.
"T-there's a kid down there next to the Alberline. Is he crazy!?"
From the rooftops surrounding the plaza, five dark uniformed figures dropped in, silhouettes, clean weapons humming softly with ether-static.
Cradle had arrived.
Tenka's voice crackled through Kentaro's earpiece, calm but urgent.
"Kentaro, bad news... Cradle has made an appearance, and with the world's worst timing to go along with it.
Kentaro's jaw tightened.
"I know..." He whispered, stepping protectively in front of Serica.
He raised a voice meant to sound fierce.
"STAY BACK!"
One of the cradle operatives looked at the other members before they cocked their head, clearly amused.
"What are you even doing here. Pervert? Move along and get behind us before she kills you."
Kentaro tilted his head.
"Pervert?" He thought to himself, confused by her insult.
Before it hit him.
He reached up...
And his hand brushed... The bridge of underwear.
He was still wearing the panties Serica had put on him.
"H-hey, wait!" He stammered. "T-this is a total misunderstanding!"
The five cradle agents exchanged smirks under their masks, then fixed him with what he presumed were stone-cold eyes.
"Look, kid, whatever shady stuff you're into," she said, pausing as she struggled not to burst out laughing, "do it somewhere else and with someone else. You're lucky she didn't kill you."
Kentaro swallowed hard, blood pounding in his ears. Her words, even though they weren't directed at him, stung deeply. She didn't even know Serica, and yet she was calling her a killer. The accusation made Kentaro's stomach twist and his heart ache.
"S-she's not a monster, she wouldn't kill me!" He shouted with conviction.
"She's a human, like you and me! S-she's in pain!"
The operators all looked at each other, clearly confused, before they looked back at him. One of the operatives sneered.
"Don't fall for it. She's playing you. Come with us. That thing is too dangerous."
Kentaro's fist balled instinctively, his legs trembling with anger and fear. His lips split open as he clenched his teeth, doing his best to keep calm, but not for long.
"You don't understand. Have you even talked to her!?"
He spat, voice trembling.
"She. Has... She has feelings!"
But before the cradle agents could reply...
Serica, who had been crouching on the floor doing her best not to lose it, shattered the moment with a scream that ripped through the plaza like an earthquake.
"AHHHHHH!" Her scream thundered through the air, so powerful that the very walls trembled and the ground shuddered beneath her feet.
Ice-laced force exploded from her, smashing benches and sending everyone scrambling back.
A chilly vortex formed around Serica. The wind from the vortex was so strong and had appeared out of thin air, causing both Kentaro and the cradle agents to fall onto their backsides instantly.
Kentaro, his body flung across the plaza, barely managed to grab onto a beam as shards of ice rattled down around him.
"S-Serica-I will save you!" he screamed, his voice strained against the howling wind.
Then, as suddenly as the roar had come, it vanished. The tremors eased, and her voice, fragile as fog, returned.
"Not again... Not again... Not again...." She repeated, over and over.
Kentaro, who found himself on the floor, quickly got up and steadied himself. He knew he didn't have time to waste, so without even thinking about the consequences or the repercussions, he sprinted toward her, just as Cradle operatives also began to get up.
"Kentaro! Now, move in!" Tenka urged through the comms.
He nodded, uncaring of ice beneath him. "SERICA! PLEASE, LISTEN TO ME!"
He skidded, feet crunching and squeaking, breath coming in sharp gasps as he reached her side.
Kneeling, he gently placed his hands on her shoulder and whispered.
"Serica... It's me. Kentaro. Please, wake up."
She didn't move.
Her eyes were blank.
Her words were a distant echo:
"Not again... Not again... Not again..."
A cradle operative's voice sliced through the white noise as they all got up from the floor.
"He's one of them. Kill him too. We can't have any witnesses or anyone affiliated with them."
But Kentaro wasn't listening to them, he didn't care about them right now all of his attention needed to go to the beautiful yet fragile girl in front of him.
He leaned closer, making sure her hollow eyes were looking at his, even if they were looking through him.
"Do you remember me? Kentaro? I'm right here. Let me help you." His voice was soft but steady.
Tenka's voice crackled urgently once more.
"Kentaro, anchor now! It's your breakthrough moment that can save her!"
"I know..." Kentaro whispered, his eyes narrowed on Serica's face, who was barely breathing.
He knelt in front of her, just a finger's width away from her lowered face, the way her hair trembled like wind against paper.
"Let me help," he said, softer than snowfall. "I promise you'll be happy with me."
He reached up...
With steady hands, he lifted the anchor circlet from his own head...
And as soon as he did that, he could feel himself losing it, like the world around him was falling apart, his stomach twisted, and yet it was still ignorable, "Come on, I can't fail now." Kentaro whispered as he shook his head, getting his thoughts straight.
And with the care of someone handling glass, he placed it over her ear.
Just above the temple.
Right where it belonged.
Click.
It latched, making a soft clicking noise.
For half a second.
Everything was still, like the world was holding its breath.
Then.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" A woman's voice, snarling, distant, aimed like a knife.
BANG.
The plaza cracked open with a thunderclap.
Kentaro flinched, just in time to see the muzzle flash on the other side of the building on a second-floor platform.
A sniper round.
High-Calibre.
Fast as death.
Time slowed.
Kentaro turned his head. It felt like time itself slowed down, and the world fractured into choices he couldn't make fast enough.
The bullet was coming towards him.
But Serica was right behind.
If he moved.
It might go past him.
Into her.
If he didn't.
It'd go through both.
He reached for her,to push, to pull, to do anything.
But her body remained unmoving, heavy.
Like stone. Or as if she wanted to take it instead of him.
"No. No. No. No!"
"Move, move. MOVE! DAMN IT!" he shouted, frustration boiling over. His hands trembled, slick with sweat, his head drenched despite the cold.
Neither his body nor hers would obey.
Kentaro's voice cracked, barely audible.
"Why... Is this really the end? Could I not save one girl..."
The world screamed.
The bullet closed the gap in less than the blink of an eye. Only a few feet away from him, Kentaro shut his eyes, waiting for the inevitable. He could hear Tenka's terrified scream:
"KENTARO!"
Then.
CRASH!
The air itself ripped apart.
A dome of Blue Teal energy exploded around him, glasslike and roaring, snapping upward like a flower blooming in reverse.
The bullet hit the shield with a shriek of metal.
BOOM!
It disintegrated against the barrier, sparks bursting in every direction.
Kentaro blinked, breath gone.
Serica was now in front of him.
Eyes open.
Tears falling.
But her hand... Was raised. With conviction.
She was shaking.
Fingers barely extended.
Like she'd stopped the bullet by reflex.
He looked at her from behind, his heart in his throat.
"Serica...?" He softly said as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
She was breathing hard.
Her voice came out like cracked ice.
"Not again..." She said softly in between breaths
Her hand fell.
"I....Won't let it happen again..."
Serica, with now the anchor on her head, looked forward, but her eyes were still wet; there was an angry factor to it, like she was upset at the Cradle team for attacking the person who saved her.
"You...People can't stop attacking me. Why! What have I done!?"
Serica's calm and quiet demeanour had shifted to a version Kentaro hadn't seen before.
She was Pissed.
"You tried to kill someone who understood me, someone, in this world full of people who want me dead, someone who truly wanted to save me!"
Her breathing was shallow as she stared right into the souls of the Cradle members who were just as shocked and speechless as Kentaro.
"I WILL NOT LET YOU TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME!"
She roared. Breaking the nearby ice and turning them into projectiles, throwing them straight at the Cradle members.
The Cradle team dodged the attack without any trouble, but there was one soldier who moved even faster than the rest. She landed lightly before springing forward once more.
"YOU ARE A CALAMITY DESERVING DEATH!" She shouted as she charged toward Serica.
Kentaro's heart stopped, and his mind blanked out. "That voice..." He said, as he recognised that voice, but couldn't quite place it, at least not yet.
The Cradle soldier hit the ground hard, her blade slicing straight toward Serica.
But Serica was ready.
A barrier flared to life, catching the Strike inches from her shoulder.
Ice whirled outward like glass dust, sharp, weightless, deadly.
Serica's eyes narrowed. Her breath came shallow, her body trembling not from fear, but control barely held.
"So you're the one…" She hissed,
"The one who tried to kill him."
The Cradle operative scoffed, resting her blade on her shoulder as if this were merely a formality.
"It would've been a necessary sacrifice. He's a nobody, just some idiot who got in the way."
She paused, and her next words made both Serica's and Kentaro's blood boil.
"His death would've meant something… If it happened beside yours."
Kentaro's heart skipped a beat.
A nobody.
"My life? Just a disposable line in someone else's mission log?"
"So that's all I am to them? A tool. A footnote." He slowly said.
He froze, eyes wide, breath caught in his chest.
But Serica didn't freeze. Her jaw clenched, hard.
Something inside her snapped.
"If that's how you see it, then. No more holding back."
Her hand rose, fingers curled in perfect fury, and the temperature plummeted.
In a heartbeat, the air shimmered and crackled with wintry energy. Frost spiralled and condensed in her grasp, sculpting itself into a magnificent blade unlike any ordinary weapon. The sword pulsed with a chilling radiance, ethereal engravings glowing faint blue along its crystalline surface. Each facet glistened with icy light, so pure it appeared almost celestial, like a sword forged from the heart of a glacier under the light of a full moon.
Her own reflection fractured across its flawless edge, ghostlike and spectral, as if the blade held a world of frozen echoes. Elegant, but with an undeniable menace; it seemed to hum with the promise of winter's wrath.
"Glaceria," she intoned, her voice crystallising in the air, as she lifted the blade, its cold aura swirling in mist around her, and pointed it squarely at the Cradle member, the very atmosphere around the sword growing brittle and still.
"You'll never get close to him again." She muttered.
But the cradle member didn't care what Serica said; she charged again.
CLANG!
Blades clashed.
Metal against ice.
Over and over, the sound rang like firecrackers across the plaza.
Kentaro could barely track their movements.
Serica fought fiercely, every strike driven by desperation, grief, and fury.
"I have nothing, nothing but HIM!"
"You won't take that too!"
Her words echoed with each blow, her tears falling between swings.
The cradle squad watched, stunned.
"Captain, should we back her up?" One of the members asked with a worried tone.
"No," the commander said. Staring at the worried cradle soldier.
"She's always hated them more than the majority of us. Let's allow her to finish one, and besides."
"We're not equipped for this level of response."
Kentaro gripped the frozen ground, speechless, his eyes never once leaving the scene unfolding in front of him.
"She's.... Pushing her back..." He whispered with surprise.
This cradle member was fast and strong, but Serica was relentless.
Then, an opening.
The cradle member went for a high side slash. Serica ducked.
Time slowed.
She rose from the crouch, blade in reverse grip.
SLASH!
Her Glaceria tore through the front of the mask. Not deep, barely skin. But the mask split like a cracked eggshell.
The Cradle operative stumbled, grabbing her face.
Kentaro's eyes widened…
The mask broke fully.
And the member's face was revealed in the moonlight.
He gasped…
"It's.... You....."