13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Part #78

Part 78: Natsuno Minami 6

Chapter 78: Natsuno Minami 6

Where’d he go?

Consider Aliens

(I saw a log made by me, but from 2188. In it, I spoke about a project capable of creating humans on another planet. And according to BJ… This is that planet. And we are those creations. But the log alone doesn’t leave me entirely convinced.)

Consider Sentinel No. 17

(There’s something else about Sentinel No. 17. There are logs from 2188 hidden inside it. If I can find this Sentinel… Then I can find out once and for all if these aliens are real.)

Consider BJ

(Turns out he wasn’t an alien. He was actually a futuristic robot made by a Japanese company.)

Consider Man in Black Suit

(The agents continue to lurk around the school. They gotta be searching for something. And I think I know. I’m almost sure of it. They still think BJ is an alien.)

Girl, come the fuck on

BJ immediately jumps out of the locker!

Music: BUDDIES (Azusa Chiba)

You actually stayed hidden this time.

……

Use Aliens on BJ

That we’re the ones who’re aliens. That this is a different planet… I… find that hard to believe.

…… Okay.

Use BJ on BJ

What kind of robot are you, anyway?

…… I am an AI. One integrated into a Sentinel. There was an incident. I had to transfer myself into this drone.

So when Miura-kun called you a… A piece of Sentinel technology… He wasn’t wrong, then.

Use Sentinel No. 17 on BJ

There’s more than one, isn’t there? The video logs from 2188…

Sentinel No. 17’s memory cell. It contains all of the logs.

Now that I’ve seen one… I need to know the truth. So I’m gonna be taggin’ along.

Natsuno…

Use P. E. Bag on BJ

Let’s go find it, little guy.

Now, to just covertly leave the premises…

SHIT

I, uhh… Listen, I’d really appreciate it if…

If I didn’t tell Senpai?

Well, the thing is… There’s something I reeeally gotta do, so…

You first-years are such slackers.

Natsuno, you made a commitment. You should have considered the looming kaiju invasion before you joined up.

And now I gotta deal with our track room getting trashed. Ugh.

M-Maybe a stray cat got in?

No. Someone broke the lock in the middle of the night.

I wonder… Were those men in black looking for BJ?

Here you go with your nonsense again.

Music: The Tower of Knowledge (Hitoshi Sakimoto)

If you’re wondering why I’m picking these options from the bottom up, it’s because I already know which one leads to progress!

It wasn’t there either.

No Sentinel found.

No. 8 was there. But we couldn’t find No. 17…

Where could No. 17 be?

Let’s go to Sector 1.

You wanna look there again? What year is it in Sector 1 anyways?

2105.

The 22nd century?

You said this place is underground, right?

Highly contaminated with toxic levels of radiation. The environment is too inhospitable for us.

Seriously!?

It was the government’s last-ditch effort after the city was destroyed.

…And we *still* couldn’t beat them?

There were too many of them. This underground facility is the last place of refuge. Nowhere else is safe.

……

Wow, I bet this game’s background artists sure were glad that Sector 1 coincidentally consists of exactly one room!

I’m searching for… memories.

…Like your own memories?

After I ran a self-diagnosis on this drone… I discovered my memories were fragmented and inconsistent. 72% of them have been deleted. They’ve been tampered with twice, possibly more…

By who?

Unknown. Though in all likelihood… the memory of the Sentinel’s location was deleted then.

…Is this era’s largest quantum computer. If anyone were to store memories here… they would be at least 300 meters bel—

Music: The Plot Thickens (Rikako Watanabe)

Someone just shifted to the hangar. They’re coming this way.

Ah! What do we do? Who are they?

They erased every last trace from the system…

Great hiding spot, Natsuno. Perfect.

Hard to say. I need more information. This D-Code is… problematic. It attaches to the part of the brain where memories are stored. It must be physically severed to be removed. The damage this procedure does to the brain… is lethal.

That program, the one that severs the code… That’s what’s infecting the Sentinels.

Right, Sentinels… I wasn’t aware that control over the automated factories could be partially adjusted. You did well to discover that detail.

Hm? Have you forgotten? We’ve restarted twice since the world ended…

The shifting range isn’t just limited to residential zones. Sector 0 makes that possible. In any case, we don’t have much time. …Where did you get all this information from?

…… …From the computer in the underground UFO.

Is that what you’ve been calling it these days? Well, can we go there?

…… Yes, we can… You *are* the one who made it possible, after all. Have you really forgottten?

Calm down, Natsuno.

Man, if you didn’t stop me… I totally would’ve jumped out at them.

Consider Gouto-senpai

(I saw Gouto-senpai in the past. I guess he’s able to time travel, too…)

Consider Chihiro-chan

(She was dressed like a kindergartener… That was Chihiro-chan, right? Miura-kun’s little sister? She didn’t seem like she was unhappy to be there. And there was something… different about her. Gouto-senpai was talking to her like she was a scientist…)

Never get tired of walking around with the :thunk:

thing going on.

BJ…

Music: Deafening Silence (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)

I’ve located it. It was in the access log’s history. My memories really were stored here after all.

Really?

Apparently… I predicted all of this… somehow…

What is it?

I’m unable to locate the memory data. They’re stored in the cache somewhere. But they appear to be hidden.

Can’t you do a quick search of it or something?

I know you’re from 1985, Natsuno, but here’s a tip from 2022: Windows’ file search function barely works, we’re gonna need a better plan.

After a preliminary scan of the cache… 9.216 million data units were found. If I were to trace every unit… I’d need about 80 days.