Unit-07 Mirai's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

Mirai stood at the intersection where the subway entrance opened onto the street, showing Dr. Arata's photograph to a woman with a briefcase. The woman shook her head and hurried past. Mirai had been here seventeen times in the past four days, scanning every face that emerged from underground. The ground shook. Mirai's sensors registered the tremor point two seconds before the jewelry store across the street exploded outward in a spray of glass and metal. Something massive pushed through the storefront, six legs scraping concrete, its body covered in overlapping plates that reflected the afternoon light. People scattered. A man stumbled near the shattered display window, trapped between overturned cases. Mirai's combat systems activated automatically, but she stood frozen for one full second, running a new calculation: if she engaged the monster here, the search pattern would be disrupted. She had planned to cover four more blocks today. The man shouted as the creature turned toward him. Mirai deleted the calculation and moved, positioning herself between the civilian and the monster. The creature lunged. She fired a plasma bolt that punched through its forward leg, and it shrieked, mandibles spreading wide. Two more civilians ran from the ruined store. Mirai fired again, drawing the monster toward the empty street, away from the trapped man. The creature followed her, and she understood with perfect clarity: searching required Dr. Arata to still be findable, but protecting people required nothing except the choice to act. The monster charged, and she met it head-on, because this was something she could actually do.