7th Moon

Shuurikou’s head was spinning. He understood there was something special about these people when he had seen them fight the New Wave Elite and win, but he wasn’t prepared for this. As it was, it had taken him most of that day while they were sleeping to work up the nerve to approach them. He was ready to hear that they came from the Seventh Moon, that they were genetically engineered to be superhuman, that they were living weapons, even that they were espers with supernatural powers. But somehow, even accepting all that, he never imagined that the little boy now sleeping between him and the gentle giant Kichiku in the front seat of his truck as he was driving down the highway could in fact be a dragon. The other things, he had a scientific explanation for, he even had a hypothesis concerning the psychic abilities, but the manifestation of the dragon was beyond his ken. This was impossible, but he didn’t know what he could do, they had just killed four operatives over the past few days that had previously been thought to be invincible. No matter how intimidating this situation had become, no matter how far in over his head he was, he still needed them. That’s what being part of the resistance was, realizing that sometimes it really was bigger than you and you need to do whatever it took.

Shuurikou looked back at his passengers. Kichiku smiled, he was huge, twice the size of Shuurikou easily, pure muscle, and yet when he smiled, it showed his real personality, calm, warm and friendly. Douji also seemed impossibly harmless, a six year old boy barely a meter tall and only average weight for that height. And yet this tiny sleeping child had become a dragon so enormous that it dwarfed the Sakuma Dam. As Shuurikou thought about this, he realized, this gave him hope, clearly anything was possible.

After what seemed like an eternity on the road, they finally arrived at their destination. It appeared to be a forest of gingko biloba trees, but there was some sort of garage opening covered in moss. Shuurikou drove in, Hidariude and Keisei following on their bike, and they found their way into a vast parking garage and Shuurikou found his parking spot, Hidariude parked next to him. Shuurikou got out of the truck, Kichiku woke up Douji and the five gathered together for the walk out of the garage and into the great underground city where the Japanese resistance against the Seventh Moon was based. It was a lot like the previous town, only much bigger, and lit up much more brightly since the electricity had been turned back on. It actually kind of looked like Tokyo, only with a ceiling. People seemed to give them strange looks. Part of this was the way they were dressed as most people were dressed like the people in Tokyo, only much more ragged, and few if any were dressed like Shinto clergy, but mostly it was because of the usual differences, Hidariude’s arm, Keisei’s ears, and Kichiku’s size.

“Welcome to Hiroshima.” Shuurikou told his companions as they entered the city and walked down the streets looking at everything around them. “This city was destroyed in World War II nearly two hundred years ago by a nuclear bomb. It was the first time one was ever used in war time and not long after the second and last was dropped on Nagasaki west of here. In time people eventually rebuilt, but given the history, the Seventh Moon refuses to come here. My guess is they’re afraid that residual radiation could adversely affect their soldiers.”

“Does that mean we’re in danger?” Hidariude asked nervously.

“From the radiation?” Shuurikou reassured them. “Nah. There were only trace amounts and we actually made a point of cleaning up everything that was left anyway. My parents developed technology that isolated radioactive isotopes and removed them. We can’t destroy them of course, but they were stored and I found a way to make use of them, so it’s really a non-issue. But the clean-up happened after World War III, so Seventh Moon doesn’t know about it and we like to keep it that way.”

“Why doesn’t everyone live here?” Keisei asked. “Like the people in the last settlement, why didn’t they move here?”

“It’s a long journey, especially for people without vehicles or protection.” Shuurikou answered. “There’s no guarantee of food or water on the road, and even if you can find some, there are still scavengers and soldiers on patrol who can kill you. It’s safer to just stay in one place unless you’re forced to move.”

It wasn’t long before they encountered a stern looking woman wearing military fatigues. She addressed Shuurikou. “Ijirimawasu, what took you so long? And who are these people?” She was quick and cold, a personality not unlike their former superiors on Seventh Moon. She was in was in her twenties, and fairly attractive, but it was hard to tell from the way she carried herself. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and she had an air of authority as if she were much older. The way she dressed hid her body it was hard to tell her form though she was clearly muscular.

“I was collecting some parts for the mecha and it took longer than expected.” Shuurikou answered. “I ran into some New Wave Elite. Fortunately, I had some help from these people, Hidariude, Kichiku, Keisei and Douji. They are trained martial artists, Shinto mystics, and espers with psychokinetic abilities. They also happen to be rebels from Seventh Moon.” The woman had given a look of mild disgust when Keisei was introduced to her, but her expression became much stronger and fiercer when she heard that they were from Seventh Moon. Before she could respond, Shuurikou quickly finished introductions. “This is Zokushou Suki, leader of the resistance against Seventh Moon.”

Very quickly it became clear why her expression had changed. As the leader of the resistance against Seventh Moon, the last thing she wanted was a group of Seventh Moon soldiers in her headquarters, and that anger made her almost forget that Shuurikou had made sure to identify them as rebels on her side. The only thing that kept her from reaming him out where he stood was that in her impatience she had met him in the streets and did not want to make a public scene for fear that screaming about Seventh Moon would cause a panic. Instead, she directed the group to follow her into a secure building where she would reprimand Shuurikou.

“What were you thinking bringing them here Sora?” Zokushou screamed at Shuurikou.

“I was thinking we need them!” Shuurikou shouted back with surprising conviction. Hidariude, Kichiku and Keisei admired his bravery, they didn’t think they could have argued with Seventh Moon officers with his attitude. “They have killed three New Wave Elite since I met them, another five just before we were formally introduced, and took out their robotic shock troops as if they were nothing. We’ve been fighting for three years, ever since the Kanagawa Raid, and we haven’t gotten anywhere. The New Wave Elite are too strong for us to fight, we need something more!”

“That’s why you’re working on the mecha, so we can use them to fight!” Zokushou reasoned.

“We only have two and there’s no guarantee I’ll ever get them to work.” Shuurikou replied. “If it hadn’t been for these people, I wouldn’t have made it back with the parts I went for and I salvaged quite a few extra pieces from the robots they took out.”

“They’re from Seventh Moon, how can you be sure they’re not really double agents who are just trying to get your trust and turn on us later?” Zokushou pointed out. “Do you even know the full extent of their abilities? They could be holding back to give you a false sense of security.”

“I can assure you, they haven’t held anything back.” Shuurikou said, trying not to give away too much.

“Prove it.” Zokushou demanded. “You know how to run diagnostics on them, take them to the hospital and run them through to get some hard data, and when I can be assured that I know the full extent of their abilities, I’ll determine if it’s safe to let them walk around freely.”

Shuurikou led the espers out of the edifice and down the street to the hospital. It was a long silent march, Zokushou was so intimidating that they were all afraid to talk. Finally they reached the hospital, which actually was a hospital, though it was in a state of disrepair. Still, it was full of patients and doctors who hadn’t made it to Tokyo or were left over from the war and were still desperately trying to attend to those in need for the past two decades. Shuurikou continued to lead the silent march to the abandoned neurological research wing. There simply wasn’t any use for this part of the hospital, there were few maladies that could be treated here and fewer who even knew how to administer such treatment.

Hidariude finally broke the silence. “So, what was with those names she was calling you? Sora, and that long one…”

“Ijirimawasu, my real name.” Shuurikou answered. “Ijirimawasu Sora. I suppose it’s safe for you to call me Sora from now on. I’m sorry but Suki was right, I didn’t know if I could trust you so I used Shuurikou as an alias. I couldn’t use my real name because I do have a reputation as a known dissident. If you were enemies, you could have sold me out, so I had to be sure you were trustworthy. I trust you now. The truth is, I am a high ranking member of the resistance because I’m good with technology and machines and I have knowledge that can allow people to survive independent of Seventh Moon and choose to share it publicly. Seventh Moon doesn’t want anyone to know about alternatives to them so they hunt down people like me and give us a choice, work for them or die. The resistance consists entirely of people who, like me, understand the truth that Seventh Moon is trying to control the world. Zokushou, which is what you should call her because she’ll smack you up one side and down the other if you call her Suki, is the leader of the resistance because she knows the truth better than anybody. She was Han Toromi’s daughter, but she didn’t like his corporate greed and moved to Earth. She was behind the Kanagawa restoration, but she happened to be out of the village when it got attacked. She came back just after the attack and knew the truth right away. She tried to start the resistance right after that, but it wasn’t until she rescued me from New World Enterprises in Tokyo that she got her first recruit. They got me when they found out I was working on converting old cars and motorcycles to run on alternative fuels and that I’d figured out how to do it without any training from their educational institutions. They are invested heavily on keeping people dependent on the fuels they make, so my work threatened their monopoly. Han Suki claimed to come back to the company so she could get near me, but once we escaped we became public enemies numbers one and two. She changed her name and we went on the run, attracting every other rebel who had enough of New World Enterprises. We travel between Hiroshima and Nagasaki when traveling is safe, but mostly we gather the resistance here and attempt strategic operations to fight Seventh Moon.”

This was a lot to take in, but the espers understood the importance of Sora’s confession. Every day it seemed that Seventh Moon was an even worse force to be reckoned with and they needed to do something. They made up their mind that they would do whatever Sora told them to do to prove themselves to the resistance, they needed to end this nightmare once and for all.

The whole time, Sora was collecting small electrodes, pads and wires. “These are for recording your brain waves. My theory is that I can collect some data and get a better understanding of how your psychic abilities work. I will need you to actually use your abilities to get a reading though.”

“We can perform a kata.” Hidariude volunteered. “It’s a rehearsed series of movements that allows us to practice our skills without risking harm to anyone. We have arranged one that involves us using all of our abilities, and we have practiced it enough that we can guarantee no harm comes to anyone.”

“But Douji does not know this kata so he cannot participate.” Kichiku added.

“That’s okay.” Sora replied. “I don’t want to include him anyway. I don’t know how to test his powers and I’m afraid it would scare Zokushou to even attempt it. She doesn’t know he has powers, so we’ll pretend that all the boasting I made about your abilities only applies to you three. So, the way this will work is I’m going to stick these to your head and you will perform your kata and then I will interpret the data for Zokushou, hopefully she will be satisfied with the results. You will perform your kata in an observation room where Zokushou, some doctors and other curious members of the resistance will watch.”

They nodded in agreement and let Sora place the nodes. Kichiku didn’t mind too much because he was bald, but attaching the nodes through Hidariude and Keisei’s hair was a little more difficult. Keisei couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to clean the adhesive out her hair and was hoping she wouldn’t have to cut it. Sora led them to the observation room and directed them inside. He closed the door and took Douji to the audience hall.

The observation room seemed eerily familiar to Hidariude and Kichiku, it was just like the rooms where they had trained back on Seventh Moon. This made them feel uneasy, yet at the same time, they felt nostalgic about all the training they had done and were confident they could perform without any difficulty. Keisei was comfortable enough with her sparring partners to follow their lead.

Hidariude took his stance to prepare for an attack from Keisei. When the attack came, he parried with his sword just in time, blocking Keisei’s fans. She somersaulted over his head to attack him from the other side. He quickly turned around to continue the duel. As he turned to block her fans, he found that Keisei was simply holding still. He knew immediately what was going on and in one movement he turned to look behind him to see the paper bomb she had left and jumped out of the way as Keisei said “Kayakujutsu detonate!” Kichiku then came at him from his other side. He blocked Kichiku’s fist with the flat of his blade just in time. Keisei gave no quarter as she continued her attack and Hidariude had to block with his cyber blades, using his long blade to parry one fan and then twisting his claws to push the other out of the way. Hidariude then brought his cyber blade to cross with his sword and unleashed an electric attack on Kichiku. Kichiku started his jump as Hidariude’s attention returned to him and just barely dodged as lightning struck the spot he stood on only a second before. As he landed from the jump, he punched the ground, causing a tremor that split the ground. Hidariude jumped out of the way before the splitting ground caused him to lose his balance, but Keisei wasn’t quite so lucky. She didn’t dodge by jumping, but still had the grace to perform a split, maintaining balance on either side of the fissure. She drew another scroll and threw a fireball at Kichiku. Rather than dodging, he blocked the attack with his bare hands. Hidariude, Keisei, and Kichiku came to a three-way draw in their sparring match, Hidariude was blocking Keisei’s fan with his sword while striking Kichiku with his cyber blade, Kichiku was holding Hidariude’s cyber blade with one hand and punching Keisei with the other, and Keisei was blocking Kichiku’s attack while striking Hidariude and closing the loop. At this point they had done everything they needed to do so they withdrew their weapons and bowed to each other.

Sora came back in and took them back to the first lab and removed the nodes. He then directed them to yet another room. “I’m sorry guys, but you’ll have to be quarantined in here until I get the results of this test. I’ll try to get this done as quickly as possible.” Sora closed the door behind him as he left them. Hidariude and Keisei had flashbacks to when they were in the prison cells back on Seventh Moon, and held each other feeling comfort that at least this time they were together. Kichiku simply sat in the corner and meditated. At times like these, his Zen attitude was kind of annoying.

As promised, Sora did not take long. He returned with a clipboard after a few hours and took them back to the observation room so that he could read off the results to Zokushou. “The results as predicted showed that they do in fact have abnormal brain activity. They showed some uniformity in terms of sensory input, their brains actually seem to be detecting their surroundings by a sort of echolocation only instead of sound waves they use their brain waves. Unlike most people their brainwaves are not actually limited to their brain, they are able to generate a field that surrounds them. This level of activity peaks during combat and otherwise seems negligible. I would deduce that it is primarily sensory, and they have limited ability to affect their surroundings. As we witnessed they do have psychokinetic abilities but these abilities are extremely limited. Hidariude seems to be the weakest in this regard, his abilities stem mostly from an electro plaque in his arm that powers his cybernetics. Through rigorous discipline he can manipulate this electricity beyond its normal confines, but he is only able to use his own natural electric charge along his own metal conduits and he loses this control once the charge no longer has contact with him. What he demonstrated earlier was the full extent of his electrokinesis, and it is doubtful he has any potential to ever become more powerful. Kichiku is the next most powerful; his brain waves actually resonate with seismic waves, which allow him to manipulate the earth by extending these waves to generate tremors. However, like Hidariude, he requires a physical connection to his medium to maintain this resonance, if his connection with the ground is broken his powers fail. Keisei seems to be the most powerful, her brain waves resonate with the infrared spectrum, or heat waves. She has superior abilities because she can manipulate fire without touching the medium, but she is not able to generate fire without a combustible substance to ignite. This seems to be her only limitation though, once she has access to fire, she can manipulate it to her will by extending an electromagnetic field of a very specific frequency and amplitude. In this way fire becomes an extension of her body. This seems to be because her brain waves come from higher brain function, including the cerebrum, instead of merely the cerebellum as with the other two.”

Zokushou took a moment to consider the findings. She crossed her arms, held her chin in her hand, and tilted her head as she looked at them. “Very well, Keisei and Kichiku are free to go as long as Keisei stays away from anything flammable and they both avoid using their powers. As for Hidariude, I trust him as much as the other two, but for good measure, examine that arm before you let him go.”

Again they cooperated. Sora took Hidariude back to the lab and pulled out his tool kit and some medical examination goggles and rubber gloves. He asked Hidariude to sit still and put his arm out. His first step was to apply a local anesthetic for good measure in case what he did actually hurt. He used a screwdriver to pry open the arm at the seams. The chassis looped around connecting on either side of the long blade shaft. Once it came loose, he disconnected it from the wrist and pulled it back against Hidariude’s elbow. He saw pretty much everything he needed to see right away. There were two metal rods in place of the bones that should have been there, the ulna was stationary while the radius was rigged to rotate around it in a semicircle. In addition to that there were cables coated with red and grey plastic that connected nerves and muscles to activate full range of motion in the hand. There were also a series of extremely tiny wires connected in a meshwork to the chassis, which Sora figured was an artificial nerve matrix that allowed Hidariude to feel through his artificial arm as if it were his real arm. He could see how the blades were connected with extra wires and these wires had caused some swollen nodes in the connective tissue at the elbow. In a normal human, this could be a problem, but for Hidariude, it was clear this augmented anatomy was a necessary adaptation. Sora took some photos and did some scans to collect some data, then explained to Hidariude. “I am a mechanic, and as long as I have the chance to look at the inner workings of your arm, I want some records so I can figure out how to repair it if it gets damaged.” Then he closed the arm back up and sealed it using a very small blowtorch. His skill was so fine that it looked as if he had never opened the arm to begin with.

Meanwhile, the others were waiting outside. As Zokushou was waiting to hear from her subordinate, she looked over Keisei. She did not like this woman. She was beautiful and shapely, her red silk kimono was rather form fitting and showed off her figure quite well. She was slender yet muscular, rather busty, and yet completely balanced. She seemed too perfect, and the fact that she could fight with a giant and a cyborg as if they were equals demonstrated a power that actually seemed more significant than her pyrokinesis. Zokushou would not admit it, but she was envious, and afraid that Keisei would take her place. She was strong and she led her people, mostly men, by presenting her strength, but if Keisei could present herself as stronger she could lose her standing.

The espers might have been able to sense what Zokushou was thinking, but right now, all of their thoughts were on Hidariude. They could sense that he was okay, but still, they hadn’t been apart since they’d all met for the first time at the shrine. He was Keisei’s husband and Kichiku’s brother, they were a family and they belonged together. Keisei, Kichiku and Douji breathed a collective sigh of relief when Sora brought Hidariude out. “I’ll make a copy of the report for you later chief, but there wasn’t anything unexpected, he’s safe. Are they cleared to go now?”

“Welcome to the resistance.” Zokushou kept her stone cold stare on them as if to say, “I’ll be watching you.”

Sora led them through town and showed them the Hiroshima Gokoku Shrine that had been all but abandoned since World War Three but happened to survive over the years. “You’ll be staying here the night, but first I want to show you something else.” He led them down the street to an extremely dilapidated building, even worse than the others. It clearly showed wartime damage in addition to decay. “This is the Genbaku Dome. It was made in memorial of the bomb drop back in World War II. Traditionally it was supposed to represent peace and should be the last place to store a weapon, but it’s also the only place big enough for the mecha.”

As he opened the door, they looked up in awe at an enormous robot that towered over all of them. It was over four stories tall and its foot alone was larger than all four espers put together. It appeared to have its own proportionate guns and swords. There was no doubt that this monstrosity could easily take on the New Wave Elite. “I present to you, the mecha Hiroshima.”