A little earlier.
Rhodes Island.
The transport convoy rolled across the wasteland, treads kicking up clouds of dust.
Inside one of the RVs, Amiya sat on her bed, playing around with the chat group system.
She’d frown one moment and giggle the next, her pink little toes curling and uncurling along with her mood.
Today was a very special day for her.
It was the first time her parents had agreed to let her travel along with the convoy, and on top of that, she’d stumbled onto this wonderful chat group.
The awkwardness from before was still fresh in her memory, but now Amiya had turned the tables completely, mastering all sorts of features.
Live chat, screenshots…
she was having the time of her life messing around with it.
It’s just that everyone in the group seemed pretty busy — it’d been almost half a day since the group was created, and still nobody was saying anything.
[@Viltrum’s Top Student]
She typed those words out again and again, only to delete them again and again.
Amiya wanted to start a conversation, but she just felt too shy.
“Still, ‘strongest alive today’…
what does that even mean?”
The girl flopped back onto the bed, her rabbit ears twitching in confusion.
Could it really be about being a pastry chef?
Last time Dad tried something I made, he praised it like crazy.
Or maybe —
Amiya glanced toward a corner of the room, where the birthday present her mother had given her sat.
A violin.
Mom said she’d find time on the trip to keep teaching me.
Maybe I’ll grow up to be the strongest violinist alive today?
Thinking of the Leithanien musicians she’d read about in books, she got a little starry-eyed.
A child’s imagination runs wild, and countless dreams cycled through Amiya’s head — until they all froze on a single image.
It was an infected child she’d seen while passing through a settlement earlier.
The black crystal growing on him, the dust hanging thick in the air, the hollow look in his eyes, that faint, rasping growl.
Amiya could tell he was about her age.
If only Oripathy could be cured…
“Amiya~ Time to eat~”
Her parents’ call broke the girl out of her thoughts.
Her nose twitched, and her eyes locked onto the carrot pie her mother was carrying.
She hopped into her slippers, ready to take the plate the way she always did.
Suddenly, her father glanced out the window, and for some reason his eyes went wide.
He grabbed his wife at once and ran toward Amiya together with her.
A violent tremor followed right after, slamming all three of them hard against the wall.
Amiya looked toward her parents, but all she could make out was their lips moving.
The roar of the explosion drowned out everything else.
Flames burst in through the window, and then a wave of white light swallowed her consciousness whole.
When she woke again, Amiya found herself buried in a heap of twisted metal wreckage, a single beam of light slipping in through a gap.
In that light stood a white-haired woman, reaching a hand toward her.
“Kid, open your eyes, hurry!”
Amiya reflexively reached back, but she couldn’t find the strength.
Today was a very special day for her.
Her fate had taken a sharp turn, and as luck would have it, she’d run right into another option that just might save her.
[Emergency Quest — Group member Amiya’s life is in danger.]
Time froze.
Amiya’s mind snapped fully awake.
She quickly found that name that put her at ease, and hit send:
[Mala Donkey Head]: @Viltrum’s Top Student Mr.
Leon, please save my mom and dad!!!
[Kansas Farm Boy]: Kid, are you okay?
[The Tiger of West Junior High]: What happened?
[Viltrum’s Top Student]: Tell us what’s going on.
Amiya scanned frantically through the messages, and only kept typing once she saw Leon’s reply.
But everything had happened so suddenly that, in her panic, she couldn’t give the others much useful information.
That went on until Leon opened up a video call.
He saw Amiya, weak and helpless.
And Amiya saw Leon too — a young man of mixed Asian-European descent, with sharply defined features and clean, delicate brows.
She watched as he spoke, slow and steady:
“Little bunny, I know you’re scared right now.
But think about it — in here, time is completely frozen.
No matter how bad things get, even if going there in person can’t fix it, we’ve still got all the time we need to search our own worlds for a way to help.”
“So, calm down, okay?”
“…Okay.”
The girl gave a weak nod.
Guess that’s just what you’d expect from one of the Strongest Alive Today — Reserves Division, huh?
Once she’d calmed down, Amiya quickly laid out a ton of information.
Including where her parents had been right before she blacked out, plus a rough guess at who the attackers were, based on secondhand rumors she’d heard.
Meanwhile, in front of his own screen, Clark pressed his lips together.
Even though he’d learned about his origins from his adoptive parents long ago, he still had his doubts about using his powers.
That day he’d saved the crashing school bus, the way his classmates had looked at him like he was some kind of freak — that was still burned into his memory.
But then he remembered something his adoptive father, Jonathan Kent, had once told him:
“Clark, all you need to do is decide what kind of man you want to be.
Because either way — good man or bad — you’re going to change this world.”
Clark wanted to be someone like his adoptive parents — kind, brave, warm-hearted.
So there was no reason left to hesitate!
Just as he started typing the first character, other members had already beaten him to it.
[The Tiger of West Junior High]: I can go.
[Orange-Haired, Gold-Eyed Menace to Humanity]: Should I give it a shot?
[Not-a-God Yellow Weasel]: My world’s a bit…
particular.
I’m not sure if me crossing over would draw the attention of certain malevolent entities.
So I’ll offer support from the sidelines instead — any kind of knowledge-based help you all can think of, I’m confident I can provide.
Clark was genuinely moved.
He really had landed himself in a good place.
So he typed along with the rest:
[Kansas Farm Boy]: Let me go instead.
When it comes to raw power, I’m not about to sell myself short next to Mr.
Nyos.
What a blood-pumping moment — one truly worthy of the group’s highlight reel.
The very first rescue mission for a group member, and everyone jumping in to help…
Too bad — by then, Leon had already hit the “join” button.
[Group member Viltrum’s Top Student has accepted the quest.
Establishing a connection between the two worlds…]
[Viltrum’s Top Student]: @Everyone I’ll probably need some medical advice once I’m there, so be ready.
[Orange-Haired, Gold-Eyed Menace to Humanity]: ?
[Kansas Farm Boy]: ?
[The Tiger of West Junior High]: ?
+1
[Viltrum’s Top Student]: Too slow, friends.
Leon typed that out with a grin, and then the city’s night skyline stretched away behind him as he vanished on the spot.
At the same moment, the white-haired woman — the Doctor — was straining with all her might to pry the sheet metal apart, reaching further toward Amiya.
“Kid, can you hear me?
Wake up!”
She hadn’t expected any of this — waking up after ten thousand years of sleep to her own cat rousing her, she’d only meant to wander around a bit, clear her head, and get a feel for this new world.
Instead, she hadn’t even gotten far before running into a bunch of Sarkaz robbing a convoy — one that happened to be delivering laser modules to Babel, no less.
In the end, she’d acted on impulse and rushed in to save them.
That was a reckless move — the attackers hadn’t gone far yet, and now they’d noticed her too.
The Doctor could hear it: after the sound of tires died down, footsteps were closing in on her — more than one set.
She glanced at the knife on her hip.
If I fight a Sarkaz, do I actually win this?
Right as she was working out a way out of this mess, something caught the corner of her eye, and she turned to look.
And there, she saw —
Under the sun, a tiny figure hung in the sky — perfect proportions, a battle-skirt with an almost classical kind of beauty to it.
Like some god descending from on high.
To be continued…