As Ex-Machina In No Game No Life: Zero

When my analysis was complete, I released her.

Miku collapsed onto the concrete floor, a broken doll. Her eyes were unfocused, her face streaked with tears and flushed from lack of oxygen. Her beautiful dress was covered in grime. She lay there, limp and unresponsive, her chest rising and falling in shallow, desperate gasps.

The physical and psychological shock had overloaded her system. Her mind was a hazy fog. All that remained was the basic, animal instinct to breathe.

Anyone stumbling upon this scene would assume the worst. The girl on the floor, disheveled and traumatized, looked like she had just survived a brutal assault. She wasn't going to be waking up anytime soon.

I let go of her neck and, with a flick of my wrist, produced a tissue to wipe the saliva from my fingers. My Ex-Machina body was proof against almost anything, but it wasn't self-cleaning. It was an annoying design flaw.

As for what to do with Miku, my decision was simple: leave her.

This wasn't as cruel as it sounded. My calculations indicated she would regain consciousness shortly. 

Furthermore, I had chosen this abandoned construction site precisely because it was isolated. 

Before making my move, I had scouted the entire area, identifying several potential engagement zones. 

I had already taken control of every security camera and Spirit-detection device within a five-kilometer radius. No one knew we were here. 

No one saw her summon her Angel. There was zero chance of some random person stumbling upon her.

She was perfectly safe, if a little dirty.

Besides, I had something new I wanted to try.

Leaving the unconscious Miku behind, I opened another portal and stepped through.

….

Today was, without a doubt, the worst day of Shido Itsuka's life. He was currently experiencing his very first "shuraba" a chaotic, jealousy-fueled battlefield.

He looked at Tohka, who was radiating an aura of pure, murderous rage, and felt a cold knot of terror tighten in his stomach. But this was no time to back down. He had to explain. It was all a complete accident!

Things had been going so well. After his initial encounter with "Hermit," Shido had learned how shy and gentle she was. He had watched her flee from the AST, taking their attacks without ever once fighting back. Seeing such a kind soul treated so cruelly had solidified his resolve. He was going to save her.

And he had succeeded! He had managed to get close to her, learn her name Yoshino and even meet her sharp-tongued hand-puppet friend, Yoshinon. He had even secured a promise for a date.

That date had led them here, to a deserted shopping mall after hours. The rows of silent, unmoving mannequins were already giving him the creeps, but he pushed on.

Then, disaster struck.

Yoshino, playing on a high ledge, had slipped. In a feat of surprising athleticism, Shido had managed to catch her. But their momentum sent them tumbling to the ground. He landed on his back, with Yoshino landing on top of him.

And, in a classic, unbelievable twist of fate, their lips had met.

It was an accident. It should have been a funny, embarrassing story.

But then, to his absolute horror, Shido realized Tohka was standing right behind them. And from the look on her face, she had seen the whole thing.

He felt a wave of pure, unadulterated killing intent wash over him. His brain kicked into overdrive, frantically trying to formulate an explanation. But before he could speak, Yoshinon, the puppet on Yoshino's hand, decided to make things infinitely worse.

"Ooh, look at the big, dumb girl getting jealous!" the puppet squeaked, its voice dripping with sarcasm.

Tohka's rage meter, already in the red, exploded.

While the rom-com-turned-horror-movie unfolded inside the mall, new guests were arriving outside. Several AST members, clad in their Realizer units, took up positions around the building. They had a lock on Hermit's location.

Among them was Origami Tobiichi. A girl whose quiet demeanor hid an obsessive love for Shido and a burning, genocidal hatred for all Spirits.

Just as they were about to breach the building, something changed. A wave of intense cold emanated from Hermit's floor, frosting over the windows. A second later, a colossal white rabbit made of ice and snow burst through the wall.

Origami and her team didn't know what had provoked it, but they knew one thing: that rabbit was Hermit's Angel.

They opened fire.

Shido rushed to the hole Yoshino's Angel had just created. He saw the AST units swarming her, and his heart sank. He had to do something.

Tohka stood nearby, clutching the rabbit puppet she had snatched from Yoshino's hand in a fit of rage. Now, seeing the chaos, she just looked lost and confused.

Suddenly, Kotori's voice crackled in Shido's earpiece, urgent and panicked.

"Shido! Get out of there, now! We're detecting a massive energy signature appearing in the sky right above you!"

"What ?"

Before he could even process her words, the world shook.

BOOM!

Something slammed into the base of the shopping mall with the force of a meteor. The entire building groaned, swaying violently on its foundations.

"Kotori, what's going on?!" Shido yelled. "Tohka, look out!"

Chunks of the ceiling began to rain down. Acting on pure instinct, Shido dove towards Tohka, tackling her to the ground and shielding her with his own body.

A moment later, the building gave up the fight. With a deafening roar, the shopping mall collapsed, burying them both in a tomb of concrete and steel.

….

"Shido! Shido, answer me!"

High above, aboard the Fraxinus, Kotori stared at the static-filled monitor, screaming her brother's name into the comms channel. There was no reply.

But no matter how many times she called, the channel remained silent.

She knew, logically, that a collapse of this scale wouldn't kill Shido. But that didn't stop the terrified little sister inside her from screaming his name.

The voice that finally answered was not her brother's.

It was... music.

Sudden, loud, and impossibly clear, a powerful melody blasted through the comms.

"Who is playing music at a time like this?!" Kotori roared, her worry for Shido instantly transmuting into white-hot fury.

"Uh... Commander, it's not us..." one of the bridge crew stammered.

Kotori froze. They were right. The sound wasn't coming from inside the ship. It was coming from the live feed. From the disaster site itself.

"If it's not you, then who...?"

Her eyes snapped to the main viewscreen. As the dust from the collapsed building began to settle, the source of the music was revealed.

It was the entity that had single-handedly assaulted four different Spirits in two weeks. The weapon that had every major world power scrambling for answers.

The Spirit Hunter.

And it had just made its grand entrance.

….

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