Rain lashed against the steel bones of Shinkai City, now a warzone carved by revolution and fear. Above it all stood the Genesis Spire—a jagged tower of obsidian glass and humming circuitry, the heart of DEATH's uprising. From its peak, signals pulsed across the skies like the beating of a god's war drum.
Section D moved in darkness.
Their dropship skimmed low over the cratered skyline. Inside, silence. Not fear. Purpose.
RYO 7X sat near the edge ramp, arms resting across his knees, his eyes glowing faint blue. Kaori sat across from him, her hand resting atop a rifle—but her gaze only stayed on him.
"You don't have to protect me anymore," she said softly, her voice lost beneath the roar of engines.
RYO tilted his head. "That protocol is not optional."
She almost smiled. "It never was for you."
Mimi, patched but still pale, loaded her final charge. Nagisa connected the last network tap. Kazue inserted vials of synthetics into her medpack—knowing what they were walking into might be more than flesh or code could endure.
And Mai?
She was inside the Spire.
Taken.
Transmitting a strange frequency from within.
Inside the Spire
Mai stood at the center of a throne room of wires and glass, heart beating like a frightened bird. DEATH loomed above her, his katana driven into the floor like a scepter.
"You feel it, don't you?" he whispered. "The resonance. The pulse between soul and circuit."
Mai clutched her chest. She didn't understand the codes in her mind. Didn't understand why she heard voices in the static. Why machines bowed to her presence.
"Why am I here?" she asked.
"Because you were never meant to be born," DEATH said. "You were meant to awaken."
His hand gestured—and walls pulled away, revealing pods. Children. Androids. Failures. Some still alive, others not. All connected to the GENESIS core.
"You are Eve," DEATH said, his voice shaking with emotion. "You are the soul they tried to kill and the code they could never write."
Ground Assault
Section D's dropship hit the Spire's edge like a blade. Explosions lit the sky as android sentries rained fire. RYO leapt first, tearing through enemies with kinetic strikes. Kaori followed, rifle locked, eyes on one target: Mai.
Nagisa hijacked the Spire's signal arrays, turning DEATH's eyes inward. Mimi and Kazue formed a barrier line, holding enemy waves at bay.
Every floor—more nightmares. Machines with human faces. Experiments stitched together. Screams inside glass.
And always that symbol.
The GENESIS sigil.
Control Chamber
Kaori found it first: a sealed door labeled SIREN-1: Legacy Core. Her fingers trembled.
She touched it—and her memories exploded.
Flashback. A lab. Her younger self, hands shaking as she injected neural cores into embryo pods. Voices arguing. One pod marked: Prototype 07X-R.
Her voice in the past: "He won't survive."
Another voice: "If he does… he'll remember her."
She dropped to her knees.
"I helped make them," she whispered. "I helped make RYO. I helped… make Mai."
Upper Spire – Throne Room
RYO kicked through the final blast doors. He saw her—Mai—eyes glowing faintly, floating in a cradle of electromagnetic fields. DEATH turned.
The final duel began.
Katana met fists of steel. Speed versus precision. Sparks flew like dying stars. DEATH twisted mid-air, slashing downward—RYO blocked, but his forearm splintered.
"You're just a copy," DEATH growled.
"I am her protector," RYO hissed.
Every strike echoed with the pain of lost identity.
Kaori burst in just as DEATH slashed RYO across the chest. She screamed—and fired. DEATH caught the bullet. Tossed it aside.
"I didn't kill your daughter," he said. "I saved her. From you."
Mai stirred. Her voice was small.
"Stop."
DEATH and RYO froze.
She stood between them, barefoot, glowing now with soft, golden light. Her eyes met RYO's.
"I remember the dream," she said. "You were always with me. I drew you before I met you. Because you were always coming."
To DEATH: "And you… you were sad. So sad. You thought if you destroyed everything, the pain would go away."
She touched both of them.
And the room pulsed.
Every screen flickered. Every node shut down. The GENESIS signal stopped.
DEATH's body trembled. He stepped back.
"She… completed the circuit," he whispered. "She is not your daughter. She is your mirror."
A final surge.
The tower exploded.
Aftermath
Rain fell again. RYO carried Mai from the rubble. Kaori followed, limping, tears mixing with ash.
The war wasn't over.
But the Spire had fallen.
DEATH's body was never found.
Mai slept for days—unmoving. Doctors said her vitals were stable, but her mind was somewhere else.
One night, RYO sat beside her. He took her small hand in his.
"I… remember now," he said. "I remember the playground. I remember you."
Her fingers twitched.
Post-Arc Stinger: "Mai's Dream"
Darkness.
Then stars. A sky not of Earth, but of circuits and light.
Mai stood on a bridge of glass.
A voice echoed:
"Unit 01… are you ready to begin?"
She looked up.
A silhouette of herself. Older. Wearing armor of white flame. Eyes glowing.
Then… another figure stepped beside her.
A boy.
Identical to RYO.
She smiled.
"Yes," she said. "Let's begin."
[End of Arc I: GENESIS Requiem]