Prologue 2/2: the rebirth of a virus

after that one fateful night, the trio took care of the doll, even though they barely had room in their own home, witch was single room, small already, and held as home for the trio, and Yuki's younger and older sisters. the trio and their family also had to attend the mandatory school set up by the imperials, running for most of the day, from dusk till dawn, all while being patrolled and searched by officers of the imperial guard. Because of the consent searching, they left the doll at home during school, where it was never found by the imperials

then one month later, in the middle of the night, during a weekend (thankfully meaning no school), the human eSper was awoken

"hey, Yuki!"

"what...? what is it Fumbi-X"

"its the doll... its floating, and its moving"

Yuki stood up from his sleeping bag, Sherlock and Fumbi-X already awake at 1:15 AM, when Yuki saw something he couldn't believe at first

the at first seemingly lifeless doll had come to life, it was still in doll form, but it as able to move around the room, levitating over the ground, at first taking a look around. After a moment, it noticed that the trio was awake, then it flew to the door, and motioned its arm, as if to invite them to follow it

"i don't think we should... there are guards everywhere" said Sparky

Yuki and Fumbi-X didn't listen, they were both intrigued, and followed the doll, Sherlock eventually following suit and catching up

much to their surprise, the doll was able to think at a advanced level, and it thought well, being able to lead the trio in a fashion that the guards had almost no chance of noticing them, and the doll, after leading the trio out of the city, led them to what they thought they saw the last off...

...the moon alter

"wait, why do you want us here?" asked Fumbi-X

they heard the doll try to say something, but the, while gaining in strength, voice was too week to make out, after a while, the doll pointed at something...

they were the twin blades one of the viruses used, contently magnetized to each other. Yuki walked over to them, and, after sperating them, held them in both hands. This was the first weapon that Yuki held that seemingly fit well in his hands, despite being only a 5-year old child

then suddenly, Yuki made something out of the voice

"jump... alter... strike...restore..."

"hey, Yuki, I don't know about you, but this alter is a hell of allot older then we are, I don't think we should mess with..." said Sherlock before he made out the same phrase "you know what, forget what I just said, I think its up to something"

"meh... not to sound like a bad-ass, but I'd jump on that alter and stab it with both blades" said Fumbi-X

and that was exactly what Yuki did, he leaped onto the moon-shaped object on the alter, and with as much strength as he could muster, he stabbed the object with both daggers...

then the alter was bathed in a bright light... then it settled back down..., revealing Yuki laying on the ground, the twin blades, nowhere to be seen, and the alter, seemingly untouched

"YUKI, YUKI, ARE YOU ARIGHT?!" yelled both Sherlock and Fumbi-X

"heh, i'm fine, don't worry about it"

"... thank you" said the voice

this time, the voice was real, not mental, and the source was identified: it was the doll all along

"you... you can talk?!" said Fumbi-X, surprised by the doll that can now talk

the doll nodded, "listen, I will explain everything later, but for now, we need to leave, the light may have attracted imperial attention"

at this point, all the eyes on the trio lit up, if the imperials found them out during a time that was illegal without escort form a imperial guard, they could be arrested and desynced

the trio moved, no longer needing to carry the doll, being able to fly on its own, and avoiding talking in order to preserve their breath when they found a bright light coming their way

"ACK, QUICK, HIDE!"

the group dove into the forest brush that lined the road, and saw a squad of imperials, in armored vehicles equipped with .50 cal machine guns and Gauss rocket launchers sped past them tword the alters direction

"their all royal guard class" said Sherlock Sparky "i can tell by their uniforms"

"well..." said the doll "regardless of class, I do not want to enter conflict with a squad of imperials right now, we are all unarmed, and too week to take a decently trained imperial guard down"

the rest of the group nodded "i say we head home, while we still got the chance"

within a hour, (taking longer due to the number of patrols suddenly rising) they reached the city and made it home without being seen

"well... i'm beat, I say we get some rest... or at least pretend to, while the sun hasn't risen yet" said Yuki

at that point, the trio immediately went to bed, passing out just as soon as their heads hit their pillows on their sleeping bags

the doll, however, stayed up, reflecting on the night, and flew to the window next to the TV, and simply stared at the moon

"i find it awkward that I have to be cared for because I almost got destroyed back there...but... I think... I think that this very encounter may have changed their lives"

and for that time, the trio lived, with the doll (witch later revealed herself as Ophelia) hiding in the house ever since whenever the trio had to go somewhere that was under heavy security, though some other eSpers noted that the trio, despite being young, seemed to be gaining strength at a much faster rate, despite their power level being 1

thankfully, the imperials didn't question this. however as the years went on, the imperials began to pass laws that increased their grip on the netsphere, one such law being "if a residence has at least one human eSper that is of 30 years of age, that eSper must join the imperial army, unless another is already enrolled", in fact, one law nearly banned the S4 league, outraging the population

despite the protest, this was to continue for 10 years untouched...

this is Yuki Sena, Sherlock Sparky, and Fumbi-X...

and this... is their story