“Easy. I know you’re frantic, but breathe first—”

Fear flooded her like winter water. Without the Stellar Crown, Chubu Risa curled small, shivering into the sofa like a sparrow in cold rain. Yekase tried to soothe her; Risa clutched her head, tears beading like dew, words tumbling too fast to catch.

“You said you usually have bodyguards—where are they now?” His tone stayed steady, a rock in a river. “Did you freeze because no one yelled a name and charged in?”

“B-b-b-because having two people behind me looked threatening, so to show sincerity I left them off-duty, told them to wander the mall downstairs, it’s my oversight, I’m really sorry, it’s all my fault—”

“Uh.”

Sincerity, huh…

If he’d walked in and seen two bodyguards looming like stone pillars, Yekase would’ve defaulted to enemy protocol. Cooperation would’ve shriveled like frost-bitten grass.

“It’s fine. You said it yourself—the special zone’s only so big. She won’t get far.”

“Nocturne Star Machina…”

“What?”

“The control of Nocturne Star Machina follows the Stellar Crown! That Crimson Field girl… she’s definitely going to steal the mech!”

“…Right.”

Yekase looked out the window, silence hanging like mist. Not the bodyguards—fine. But you didn’t lock your auxiliary brain? No identity check? Such confidence it gleams like glass?

If Risa hadn’t come alone, not knowing Yekase’s power, offering this open door like a lantern in night, he’d suspect she was playing a double act with Crimson Field.

Then he had to show equal sincerity.

“I’ll help.”

The words hit like a warm wind. Risa’s trembling paused; she slowly lifted her head. “W-why?”

“Why what? We already said we’d work together, didn’t we?”

“The contract isn’t… signed yet…”

Yekase glanced down at her, a quick smile like sunlight on water. “I stepped on it earlier. Consider that my seal.”

“…”

Risa couldn’t parse it. Who signs a contract without reading it? Aren’t you afraid of getting scammed? Or are you so strong you can tear any contract apart, so why sit here and talk at all—why not declare annexation like a storm front?

Yekase leaned by the window and called Ivaris, telling her the sudden situation. He returned, voice calm as a clear sky.

“Alright. If ‘helping’ feels hard to accept, let’s call it a ‘trade.’ Beyond our original cooperation, I want an extra condition, payment for recovering the mech.”

Ah. New terms—of course. Oddly, relief rose like steam. Since childhood, Risa knew there’s no free lunch; if Yekase insisted on helping without compensation, it would mean Chubu Planetary Tech wouldn’t live out the week.

“Yes—please, say it—no matter the price—please—I swear the Nocturne Star Machina is like my child—if I can get it back, I’ll do anything—”

“You did say ‘I’ll do anything,’ right?” His brow lifted like a blade of grass catching wind.

“Y-y-yes…”

—She’s doomed.

The stone will drop into the well—an unequal treaty. But it’s the harvest of her own missteps. If she hadn’t given the guards a holiday; if she’d foreseen someone tracing the ‘Tower’ to this place; if she’d considered the Stellar Crown being seized mid-use; if she hadn’t rushed the contract draft; if she hadn’t turned her back to the window…

A thousand careless moments overlapped like falling leaves, and Akano Souu’s miracle took root.

A sixteen-year-old ordinary girl crashed a secret meeting that could sway a planet, and tore the highest-permission key from a regional overlord’s hand.

Tell it and people won’t believe.

Now, Risa could only swallow broken teeth. No matter how excessive Yekase’s demand, she must meet it like a river meeting the sea.

“The extra condition is this: from now on, no more weapons manufacturing. Shift every factory line to space-development equipment.”

…

“Huh?”

“If it’s your ideal, cut away the parts that bow to reality, and do it with clean hands. The reduced revenue—convert it to raw materials. We’ll supply them. Our side makes small-life tools; they sell well.”

Risa forgot the terror of losing the Crown. She grabbed Yekase’s arm, knuckles white as chalk. “Do you know what ‘condition’ means?! It’s leverage to force the other side to yield benefits! Who pays the junior party out of pocket? You’re—you’re—”

“Then this is leverage too. I’m forcing you to stand beside me, to be more than two traders—I want you as my ally.”

“—”

How does someone like this exist?

How did she grow to this age without being tricked, used, swallowed by any Sinister Organization?

How did she carry a blazing ideal through storms, without being broken, drowned, bent into a pretzel by reality?

If humanity is a chaos deeper than the cosmos, then Yekase, who can plant a heel on that chaos—what is she? Dawn’s sun, or a greater chaos?

“In the past,” Yekase said softly, voice like night rain, “I was a lot like you.”

“I felt a world with Sinister Organizations was wrong, but I had no power to change it. I tiptoed through it, carving out a corner for myself.”

“Then, because of one meeting, I took a first step. I found many allies, and I lost a few. Now, here, I can tear off the mask of compromise, say no to senseless evil, and do what I truly want.”

No… it can’t be that simple.

Risa still couldn’t trust her; suspicion curled like smoke. She believed in contract spirit—both sides pay, then both sleep soundly. If their positions swapped, without extra benefit, she’d never lend a hand.

—Rrrr-rumble-rumble!

On the far side of Old Tokyo, the first foothold of Chubu Planetary Tech shuddered like a beast waking.

An earthquake? No.

Centered on a single coordinate, a whole stretch of ground and the buildings on it started to hum, a monstrous drone like iron bees.

Then—it heaved, all at once.

Nocturne Star Machina’s black-gold head rose from the ruins like a crowned serpent.

“Looks like your startup key is truly idiot-proof… no identity check, not even presence required—remote boot. Alright, I’ll be right back.”

Yekase tapped Risa’s shoulder, then strode past, leaving a slender silhouette like a streaking comet.

“The Stellar Crown—”

“Mm?”

“It’s actually… the first work of the Stellar Relic series. I only dare talk to people with it on… it was never designed for other users… Akano Souu, that’s her name? A normal person can’t handle a quantum computer’s flood. Her mind will be scattered into a sea of data, and Nocturne Star Machina will lose control!”

“…It’s not like things can get worse, right?”

Yekase vaulted out the window like a swallow into wind.

“Celestial Speech, Flight!”

In short—no more pretending.

Playing pig to eat the tiger is cute until the tiger is already biting your face; then you’re a pig, or your kink is tanking the plot. Yekase’s tastes may be odd, but she knows when it’s time to work.

Without the Polaris Staff, keeping posture was tricky; boost the speed and balance returns like a taut string.

“I feel you by my side!”

Ivaris swept up from below, a flash like cherry light. “What’s the call?”

“A bit messy. Might need to go straight to berserk forms—crank the strength to max first.”

“Understood!”

Ivaris slid side-saddle on the Polaris Staff, lifted the tip to trim speed, then closed her right hand on air. A bloom of sakura energy flared in her palm like a torch.

She slammed the energy into her chest.

“Beast Drive!”

In an instant, the hem of her sailor uniform lit the same color; the scarf’s gathered energy condensed into a flowing muffler—a twin to Yekase’s own.

Straight to the strongest mode.

Ten years ago, when Yekase designed the Magical Girl devices, she had to divide resources among multiple Magical Girls, leaving little budget for multiple forms. Only in Gen-3 did that loosen; Ivaris and Lalabel each got a single boost mode: Beast Drive.

In this mode, Infinite Power is driven to its peak; aside from doubled stats, every defeated enemy stacks more strength—built to drown swarms of off-world fodder.

…Yekase has none. Her Magical Girl form was made from leftover scraps for fun.

Nocturne Star Machina was still in single-machine mode. After surfacing, it stood in the rubble, inert as a mountain.

They closed in warily, like birds skimming a storm’s edge.

Akano Souu flickered into place atop the mech, hands on its antennas like a priestess at an altar. A pale-blue halo glowed above her head—the stolen Stellar Crown.

Her voice, riding the mech’s link, rolled across Tokyo Bay like thunder. “Don’t force me… I’ll tear down Chubu’s camp, stop once I confirm victory! I have to win… get tons of war reparations, or my mom has no hope!”

Tat-tat-tat-tat—!

After the first chaos, the fighters regrouped, firing in ranks like a steel rain. Souu didn’t care; bullets on Nocturne Star Machina were a cat’s paw, not even scratching paint. She tossed Yekase a final warning gesture, then began stomping and flailing through the camp.

Her piloting was a drunk dance, yet the mech’s performance crushed like a tidal wave.

“For Mom… please die.”

…

Suddenly, an alarm chimed from the Stellar Crown.

No icons, no sound—just raw data stamped into Souu’s mind like a brand. A dangerous orbital mass-weapon was racing in.

Orbital mass-weapon?

She knew only one—part of the Stellar Relic series, nicknamed “Steel Nail”: the Stellar Lance.

“If the Stellar Crown’s in my hand, why does some permission remain? No… the intel said Chubu Risa’s a shut-in who can’t function without her auxiliary brain, who doesn’t even dare speak to people…”

What made her brave?

Souu thought she knew. Before looking up at the black speck swelling in the sky, she spared a glance at Yekase.

Was it you? With that elusive rhetoric, bending a cold-blooded leader in so little time?

Without Yekase, she couldn’t have stolen the Stellar Crown. With Yekase, sitting Nocturne Star Machina didn’t guarantee victory.

A singularity in the wavefunction, a living avatar of possibility…

…Yet the miracle she stirred wasn’t meant for Akano Souu. That “possibility” turned cruel like a winter blade.

The Stellar Lance was about to fall.

Nocturne Star Machina couldn’t catch it; guided, it wouldn’t miss. The mech would be pierced on the spot, nailed into the earth like a black-gold butterfly.

Unless—like a spark leaping a dark gap.

"Seven-Unit Combine..."

Stellar Crown caught the thought like a net snaring a falling star. It flashed a confirmation window, hovering before Souu in the air like a paper seal.

[Execute combine?]

[Yes/No]

"Confirm—execute!"

"Miracle, if you insist on showing yourself, be fair—let Mom see it too. Let her see a future where the Akano family melts like frost, and roads open like rivers so she can go anywhere."

[Command received.]

[Initiating Seven-Unit Combine.]