"This is ARCH Elimination Unit B, requesting backup! The KKA ARCH has entered the 6th District, approaching HQ fast! I don't have anything against this colossal beast! I repeat, suitcase empty!!"
⠀
The transceiver sparks off again.
⠀
"ARCH Elimination Unit B Captain speaking. Without Unit A, we won't be able to save anyone. We're retreating and converting our mission to observation. Don't worry, I'll make something beautiful out of the grief."
⠀
The transceiver turns off. Antollio sits in silence.
⠀
"Good grief."
⠀
He leans back in his chair. He knows Units A and B can take down Gun, so why is there such a commotion now?
Suddenly, a member of Unit A storms into his office.
⠀
"Selia?"
⠀
"Mr. Galinozi, sir! The Gun ARCH is on its way to our Post!"
⠀
"Selia."
⠀
"Yes, sir?"
⠀
"Unit A Captain, you do know I only tell the truth, right?"
⠀
"Yes, I do, sir."
⠀
"This morning I told you, 'Stay with your unit, you'll be needed today.' Why didn't you follow my orders? Were they not clear?"
⠀
"No, sir. I only thought—"
⠀
A thin, bright, golden beam of light shoots through Selia's head from Antollio's finger. Her body falls to the ground with a thud.
⠀
"Looks like I'll need to rearrange some people's positions. That's a problem for tomorrow..."
⠀
Antollio snaps his fingers, and all signs of Selia ever being in the room vanish.
⠀
Argus Directorate ARCH Elimination Unit B Incident Report #1
ARCH: Gun
Threat Level: KKA (까)
Ability: Takes the form of an amalgamation of guns and metal. Can shoot infinite amounts of bullets. The 9th bullet fired will always result in the death of all nearby civilians. Elegies or people with intense ARCH resonance are immune to this attack.
Weight: 2,894~ tons
Height: 5882.71 cm
⠀
The following is an accurate report on the actions of ARCH "Gun" from 12 & 29 past midnight to 12 & 34 past midnight:
⠀
12&29&00: Gun enters 6th District.
12&29&03: Gun fires 3 bullets at nearby pedestrians, killing 562.
12&29&10: Gun begins to move toward Daeun Elementary School.
12&30&53: Gun arrives at Daeun Elementary School.
12&30&55: Gun fires 5 bullets into the school, killing 1,549 students, 161 staff, and approximately 253 unknown bodies(?).
12&31&00: Gun fires 1 bullet into the sky, killing 73,856 and 4,682 unknown bodies(?).
12&33&38: Young man (victim) approaches Gun, shouting.
12&33&55: Gun bows down to the young man (victim) and dissipates.
12&34&00: Young man (victim) collapses.
⠀
List of Deceased in Incident:
Thomas Stewart
Aiko Tanaka
Mateo Alvarez
Leila Haddad
Jackson Collins
Jamal Osei
Joshua Murphy
Freya Sørensen
Dmitri Volkov
Priya Sharma
Luca Moretti
Zahra Al-Saadi
Elias Bergström
Hana Nguyen
Malik Danjuma
Sienna Ellis
Sofía Rivas
Amir Farhadi
Giana Ramsey
Kiara Johnson
Tenzin Dorji
Cassandra Morales
Josh Lee
Nikhil Patel
Eamon O'Rourke
Angelique Gardner
Madeleine Cereno
Finn Atkinson
Elias Calkins
Selam Tesfaye
Ayumi Kobayashi
Jaxon Miller
Liyun Zhao
Sanaa Belkacem
Carlos Mendes
Haruto Fujimoto
Esther Baek
Samuel Okonkwo
Mireille Fontaine
Leo Griffith
Zahid Rahman
Ivana Petrovic
Marisol Vega
Kaito Yamashita
Anika Khan
Rowan Clarke
Fatimah Al-Hariri
Thierry Kouassi
Naomi Feldman
Gideon Weiss
Layla Abadi
Tobias Madsen
Thandiwe Khoza
Marcus Pietersen
Rosalie Becker
Nasser Al-Qadir
Irina Sokolova
Miguel Santiago
Dae-Hyun Park
Aya Ben-David
Rohan Desai
Tatiana Smirnova
João Ribeiro
Eun-Ji Kim
Henry Thompson
Amina Yusuf
Kenji Sakamoto
Rose Dupont
Imani Mbatha
Jorge Castillo
Isolde Reinhardt
Farid El-Amin
Keisha Robinson
Junpei Nishimura
Malik Washington
Mireya Solís
Yukiko Mori
Isaac Barton
Siti Nurhaliza
Rahul Banerjee
Diego Navarro
Nadia Bashir
Stefan Popescu
Mei Lin
Nikolai Orlov
Carmen Ruiz
Abdulrahman Khalil
Lisa Kappel
Kai Henderson
Rika Watanabe
Sergio Luna
Hafsa Chaudhry
Liam Walsh
Chinedu Onu
Brigitte Schäfer
Arman Nazari
Emiliana Costa
Takumi Arai
Aaliyah Greene
Bashir Ibrahim
Soraya Khatibi
Alejandro Torres
Min-Soo Choi
Nuria García
Trevor Knight
Zainab Qureshi
Remy Laurent
Adisa Adeyemi
Keanu Silva
Xinyi Huang
Omar Benyoussef
Valentina Garza
Pavel Zaitsev
Maya Boudreaux
Jibril Mahmud
Aoife Byrne
Kana Suzuki
Leonid Petrovski
Nubia Afolayan
Matteo Romano
Yui Shirosaki
Jackson Rivera
Nour El-Rashid
Thiago Costa
Sanae Fujikawa
Saif Mirza
Helena Brandt
Kwame Mensah
Gabriela Nascimento
Rei Ueda
Veronica Silva
Jae-Ho Kwon
Khaled Abdelkarim
Lila Stone
Oskar Jensen
Anesu Moyo
Mirella Conti
Hiroshi Nakahara
Aminah Noor
Caleb Ortiz
Daria Kuznetsova
Chloé Martin
Waleed Al-Mansour
Ingrid Dahl
Roberto Castillo
Xiaoming Li
Yara Moura
Samson Okeke
Elodie Marchand
Rami Barakat
Fiona Gallagher
Haruka Minami
Linus Berg
Kiana Farrokhzad
Omar Sheikh
Daniela Contreras
Emeka Eze
Bahiyyah Moghadam
Andrej Pavlov
Tariro Ncube
Brandon Pruitt
Kian Ng
Cynthia Burns
Karlie Woodard
Isabel Pearce
Russell Wyn
...
⠀
"Oh, sir. That's the final part, you don't have to read the names of all the deceased!"
⠀
Antollio raises his head from the document.
⠀
"And this is the only report of the incident?"
⠀
"Yes, sir. The other recorders were all killed in action, sir. I hope that's not a problem."
⠀
"Did anyone in Unit B die?"
⠀
"No, sir."
⠀
"Then, there's no problem. Thank you. Could you bring the boy here?"
⠀
"Yes, sir."
⠀
The Fixer leaves the room, leaving Antollio Da Galinozi alone with his thoughts. Antollio takes a deep sigh before uttering a single word.
⠀
"Barony."
⠀
The world shifts around him as he enters a serene land of gold.
⠀
"So, Truth? Do you think that boy actually made a contract with Gun?"
⠀
He peers into the shallow water on the ground as auric letters appear, one at a time.
⠀
"I T I S P O S S I B L E , Y E S ."
⠀
"Hm. Then I'll need your help to get as much information about Gun from him as possible."
⠀
"Y E S .
. . . B U T . . ."
⠀
"But, what?"
⠀
"M A K E H I M F IX E R."
⠀
"A Fixer? You must have made a mistake in your wording."
⠀
"I S P EA K T H E T RU T H ."
⠀
"Hm. You don't mind if I dabble in a bit of deceit, do you?"
⠀
"A S Y O U WI S H ."
⠀
"This is going to be one of the biggest experiments yet. It'll take a lot of mental fortitude, Truth."
⠀
"P E RF E C T ."
⠀
"Reality."
⠀
The world shifts back into Antollio's office, where a young man sits across from him. The young man is waving his hand in front of Antollio's face, concerned.
⠀
"H-Hello? Are you alive...?"
⠀
"Hello."
⠀
"—!"
⠀
"Did I frighten you?"
⠀
"Y-Yes! Why were you just sitting there staring at me?!"
⠀
"It's a trick of mine, nothing to worry about."
⠀
"Well, I think I understand why I'm here... You want to know about the Gun ARCH, right?"
⠀
"Close. I saw what you did, boy. My Post needs your talent."
⠀
"M-My talent?"
⠀
"Yes. You were able to not only stop the Gun ARCH in its tracks, but also contain it. What is your name, boy?"
⠀
"Mori Ryunosuke, sir."
⠀
"My name is Antollio Da Galinozi."
⠀
"A-Antollio?!"
⠀
"Yes. I'm sure you've heard of me."
⠀
"Y-You're the-"
⠀
"The Golden Truth."
⠀
Antollio's eyes shine gold for a moment, his power reaching into the deepest corners of Mori's mind.
⠀
"Hm. So you're all alone?"
⠀
"You... You read my mind!"
⠀
"You're quite the observer, Ryunosuke."
⠀
"Then you know..."
⠀
"Your parents' deaths? Yes."
⠀
Mori's voice catches in his throat.
⠀
Antollio doesn't look away.
⠀
"The Ring isn't kind to people like you. Not when you're alone."
⠀
He leans back slightly, folding his hands.
⠀
"But you don't have to be."
⠀
"...What?"
⠀
"You can stay here."
⠀
Mori blinks.
⠀
"This Post has space. Food. Structure. Community."
⠀
A pause.
⠀
"A place for people who have nowhere else to go."
⠀
"...You're letting me stay?"
⠀
"For now."
⠀
Mori exhales, his shoulders trembling slightly.
⠀
"...Th-Thank you..."
⠀
Antollio watches him carefully.
Then...
⠀
"You stopped it."
⠀
Mori freezes.
⠀
"The Gun ARCH."
⠀
"...I..."
⠀
"You walked up to it. And it disappeared."
⠀
A slight tilt of the head.
⠀
"That isn't normal."
⠀
Silence.
Antollio leans forward just a bit.
⠀
"There's no shame. It's useful."
⠀
Mori looks up.
⠀
"...It is?"
⠀
"Yes."
⠀
A small smile.
⠀
"And I'd like you to demonstrate that ability to me."
⠀
"...Demonstrate?"
⠀
"Become a Fixer."
⠀
Mori hesitates.
⠀
"A... Fixer...?"
⠀
"Yes. Someone who's needed by others."
⠀
Mori grips his sleeve.
⠀
"...Me?"
⠀
"Yes."
⠀
Antollio straightens.
⠀
"Of course, talent alone isn't enough. There's a process to these things. There's a competition tomorrow."
⠀
Mori looks confused.
⠀
"Competition...?"
⠀
"People will come."
⠀
Antollio's eyes glint faintly.
⠀
"They'll want to see what you can do. And, if you impress them..."
⠀
A small pause.
⠀
"They'll take you."
⠀
Mori's expression tightens.
⠀
"...Take me?"
⠀
Antollio smiles slightly wider.
⠀
"Unless you already know where you belong."
⠀
Silence.
⠀
Mori looks down… then nods.
⠀
"...I want to stay here."
⠀
"Good."
⠀
Antollio relaxes back into his chair.
⠀
"Then tomorrow, you'll prove it."
⠀
"...Okay."
⠀
"Good!"
⠀
A brief pause.
⠀
"I'll have someone show you to your room."
⠀
His gaze lingers just a second too long.
⠀
"Settle in, Mori Ryunosuke. It's going to be a long few months ahead."