The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

In Shana's dream, the passage of time is sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Memories from different periods are sometimes clear as if they were just experienced, and sometimes chaotic and obscure—and the last days of the old civilization era are like that in her memory.

For that most terrifying and critical period, Shana could only remember a few things: the constant explosions in the reservation, the people rushing around in a panic, and the loudspeakers that kept playing upbeat music like "Ode to Joy" and loudly proclaiming "everything is under control" in an attempt to calm people down.

After a while, the explosions became more frequent, and the loudspeakers stopped playing "Ode to Joy" or confidently announcing "everything is under control." On one occasion, two large aircraft flew over the reserve, dropping thousands of brightly colored plastic leaflets with a picture of a cute fox-eared New Human girl and some text on them.

The texts mainly claimed that the new humans were only "forced to rebel" and hoped to negotiate and make peaceful contact with the residents of the reservation.

While flying over the reservation area, a drone was shot down by a missile before it could finish dropping its leaflets. Minutes later, the reservation's anti-aircraft beam turret shot down a drone—identified as the culprit behind the earlier drone. That evening, most of the plastic leaflets were taken away by the adults, but Shana secretly kept two.

The reason is simple: she thought the fox-eared girl was cute.

That night, the adults in the reservation were twice as busy, moving things and packing supplies everywhere. Shana's parents held important positions in the reservation, so that night, they took turns kissing Shana on the forehead before leaving.

"Mom and Dad have something important to discuss," the two told Shana. "See you later."

But no one expected that this "later" would actually be forever.

Shana was taken away by other staff members shortly afterward. This time, she and her companions didn't board the small hoverbus, but a specially made armored transport vehicle with enormous tires. The armored vehicle had no windows, and although the driver had a full set of observation and aiming equipment, Shana naturally couldn't see anything. She could only quietly fall asleep amidst the swaying of the vehicle, still carrying the leaflet with the picture of the fox-eared girl that she had picked up earlier.

After that, Shana felt extremely regretful for falling asleep on the bus: because of this, she didn't even have time to say goodbye to her classmates. Since Shana was still fast asleep when they arrived at the facility, the staff there injected her with sleeping pills and then put her into a sleep pod.

And so, when Shana woke up again, it was a thousand years later.

What awakened Shana was an accident: something had infiltrated the depths of the "Rotten Chessmen" base, where these hibernating individuals were housed, and threatened her. The facility automatically executed an emergency escape procedure, and Shana's hibernation pod was ejected from the escape shaft as the awakening process was activated—high-pressure inert gas propelled it at a 60-degree angle to a point eight kilometers away from the facility, where its buffer airbags deployed.

When Shana opened her eyes, she was lying inside the opened hibernation pod, next to a large, deflated airbag and several trees whose branches had been broken by the falling pod. Among the wreckage of the airbag was an emergency supply kit—that was all she had.

Her worst fears have finally come true.

After that, Shana wandered aimlessly through the forest like a lost ghost. She encountered people who warmly welcomed her, and she also encountered people who saw her as a "jinx" and shot at her—the latter of whom attracted an autonomous weapon that had escaped from the facility's ruins and was wandering nearby, ultimately resulting in Shana's tragic death.

Not wanting to harm others and be killed again, Shana chose to avoid the hunters. However, the forest became increasingly dangerous: strange, parasitized people and animals began to appear more and more frequently. Although she could receive protection from autonomous weapons in times of crisis, Shana still narrowly escaped death several times. Worse still, according to information on her personal terminal, Shana was forbidden from returning to her original facility.

Because it's no longer "safe" there.

Fortunately, Shana eventually met someone who wasn't hostile towards her and was willing to communicate with her: Meru. This new human girl with squirrel-like features might seem a bit simple-minded, but she was actually a kind-hearted person. After discovering Shana, Meru wasn't afraid of Shana's unusual appearance; instead, she made her a fake tail and fake animal ears, allowing Shana to safely infiltrate the orphanage.

Only then did Shana finally gain at least a basic understanding of the world at that time.

Indeed, her era, the so-called "Old Civilization Era," has completely passed. It is now ten centuries after the end of that war. Everything that existed in her memory—whether it was that high-tech civilization that veered into utter depravity or the reservation where she grew up—has crumbled like dust in the wind.

everything is over.

Of course, after the end of the old civilization era, although there was a huge regression in science and technology, the new humans also successfully established their own civilization. After interacting with everyone in the orphanage, Shana's fear gradually disappeared, because she realized that these new humans, whom her parents had previously called "the products of the most terrible twisted desires that desecrated life," were essentially no different from the people of the past.

They laugh, get bored, slack off, make friends, reject people they don't like, sing together, and share delicious food. Apart from many physiological differences, they are not much different from everyone in their previous school. For a while, Shana even felt that she had just temporarily transferred to a very, very far place.

But this routine was shattered once again.

When the orphanage was suddenly attacked and engulfed in a chaotic battle, Shana even had a fleeting thought for a few seconds that "it would be better to just be killed like this"—but that thought disappeared when Melu took a shotgun and blasted the head off a wolverine that had climbed up to the second floor with deformed tentacles growing from its back.

Because Shana realized something: unlike the past that can never be returned to, at this moment, she still has people around her who know her and care about her.

Even though they've only known each other for a short time, Shana doesn't want to lose anyone else.

Driven by this thought, Shana forcibly suppressed her fear and rushed out of the orphanage, which had become a battlefield, together with Meru. Fortunately, some autonomous weapons seemed to have been attracted by the large number of "Tai Sui" that appeared, and after recognizing her as an old human, they began to protect Shana.

And so, with the cover of these autonomous weapons and a bit of just the right amount of luck, the two managed to escape from the vortex of chaos and death and began to flee south along the river.

Unfortunately, their escape soon encountered obstacles: as they approached the army's blockade, Shana noticed the unusually meticulous checks and immediately realized their purpose—the army was trying to find the Old Humans among the large number of refugees…in other words, they were most likely looking for her.

Thus, Shana and Melu, who dared not approach the checkpoint and had no intention of risking leaving through the roadless forest, found themselves in a predicament. They could only wander among the large groups of intercepted refugees and witness firsthand how the small seasonal logging village was "submerged" by tens of thousands of refugees in a short period of time, eventually becoming a temporary refugee camp accommodating tens of thousands of people.

After the refugee camp was established, with the arrival of security forces to maintain order, Shana couldn't even move safely within the camp. She could only hide at the edge of the forest in an inflatable tent equipped with the "Virtual Paradise" system, which had special effects on Newtypes. Meanwhile, Meru was tasked with gathering food within the refugee camp…

As a result, Melu, driven by desperation, attracted a group of pursuers due to her frequent thefts. Moreover, those people were not fooled by the camouflage provided by the inflatable tent! In a panic, Shana first used the "special equipment" left to her by her parents to repel the strange man who approached her first, and then used her authority to seize a "Goron" walking machine that happened to be passing by, and carried Melu northward.

Although Shana had considered the possibility that those who came looking for her might not have any hostile intentions during her hasty escape, it was already too late. With no other choice, she could only continue her frantic escape until the poorly maintained "Goron" broke down near a swamp.

After that, the two survived by gathering fish and berries from the swamp and continued to wander for two days. Finally, they were found by an army made up of dozens of scattered soldiers and refugees and taken to the defensive positions of Hill 503 for protection.

Perhaps due to the difficulty of contacting the outside world, the remnant army that took them in did not conduct a search for the New Humans. The fake ears and tail made by Meru on Shana could be somewhat used to deceive her. However, Shana herself was still constantly in a state of unease.

Noticing this unease, Melu first lied about her age and joined a militia temporarily recruited from the refugees. Then she secretly hid the extra food supplies and canteens given to the militia as preparations for her next escape... But before they could put them into practice, a large group of "Tai Sui" hosts suddenly swarmed out of the defensive positions, throwing everything into chaos.

Then... then...

Shana's vivid and frighteningly clear dream ended abruptly there. The last battle in her memory was chaotic, filled with screams, explosions, and the extreme tension brought on by adrenaline. Even in the dream, she couldn't recall the details, only remembering that at the end, she was separated from Meru and then captured by "something."

It wasn't the "Tai Sui" that captured her, but a self-regulating weapon.

"Wait... could it be...?"

In the swaying darkness, Shana muttered to herself. At that moment, she finally realized that she hadn't been dreaming at all, but had simply been escaping into memories because she couldn't accept reality—she was now being captured by a heavy autonomous weapon in the chaos and was being taken away.

Before being captured, Shana saw the markings on the device; it was a security device belonging to one of the six facilities related to the "Rotten Chessman" project—clearly, the three-thousand-year hibernation period hadn't ended yet. Therefore, after noticing the incident at Shana's facility, the other facilities immediately dispatched security devices to locate the evacuated hibernators. She would be taken to another facility, placed in a spare hibernation pod, and continue her journey two thousand years into the future…

"I don't want to! I don't want to go back!" Shana suddenly screamed, kicking violently at the dark space that enveloped her. However, the device was clearly set to "ignore the target's requests." No matter how much Shana yelled and begged it to put her down, the thing didn't respond at all.

Shana cried.

At this moment, she truly, truly didn't want to leave this era—although she knew that in other facilities, perhaps her old companions from the reserved area were also dormant. And two thousand years later, when the pre-set dormancy period ended, she might be able to reunite with them. But on the other hand, Shana also couldn't abandon Meru, and those she met in the orphanage, whose fates were currently unknown.

This put her in a dilemma.

Just as Shana's tears were about to dry, a sudden impact came from the outside of this large autonomous weapon. Then, something began to violently cut through the shell of this behemoth, slicing it open with a screeching sound.

Sunlight shone on Shana once more, followed by a cool breeze carrying the scents of pine branches, dew, and swamp. At the forcibly severed opening, a figure clad in red, intelligent combat armor, their face hidden beneath a closed helmet, held a longsword integrated with their right arm armor. For some reason, their movements seemed somewhat…clumsy, as if they weren't quite used to balancing the weight of the two objects protruding from their chest.

"Hey, you there! Are you Miss Shana?" the person in red smart combat armor asked. Her voice was pleasant yet somewhat cold, carrying a hint of the typical villainous rich girl from past anime, but her tone had a gruff, masculine quality, which, like her slightly clumsy movements, made her seem a bit odd. "Can you hear me?"

"I...I am..." Shana stammered, bewildered. "Um...who are you?"

"Hmph, me? Of course, I'm one of your victims," ​​said the person in red armor. At the same time, another person wearing heavy gold armor with exaggerated red wings appeared behind her. "What's wrong, Miss Shana? Don't you remember me?"

"Eh..." Shana suddenly had a bad feeling...

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