Raiden Ryoma continued with his last round of pre-start checks. All manner of tube and wiring snaked out from the metal chair that dominated the centre of the room. The wiring connected to supercomputer banks, cooling towers, Honkai reactors and finally the Gem of Lightning within its complex housing at the rear of the room. The execution of Ryoma's final plan could not fail. Before him lay the culmination of a years' worth of experimentation, testing, success, failure and dogged persistence. He would save his daughter and in doing so sow the seeds of a possible future. None of the big three organisations could begin to grasp what had been achieved by people of this Era. ME Corp stood upon a summit of its own devising. Ryoma absently tugged at his wedding ring.

'How would you judge me, Sachiko? I do this for our daughter. To give her a future. To give all who follow in her wake a future. What has happened was thrust upon her. In the future Mei should make these choices for herself. I can only hope that she is informed by wisdom and understanding rather than base emotions or calculating self-service.'

"Reactors are online," Dr Schwarz declared. "I'm powering them up to full capacity. The Honkai faraday cage is active. Connection to the Core of Domination has been confirmed. Preliminary tunnelling through Real Space to Imaginary Space complete."

"Fixed entry point established," Dr Orr added. "Variable exit point ready. Once Subject Mei has arrived, we can determine the end point."

"Modelling based upon Project-MEI indicates that the Imaginary Tree is the exit point."

Dr Orr shrugged.

"Who knows. How many surprises have we encountered this past year? I wouldn't bet on any outcome just yet."

Ryoma walked over to the main soulium supercomputer. Readouts were within normal tolerances. Honkai reactor output was at maximum efficiency. All they needed to do was synchronise the Gem with Mei's Honkai and Herrscher energy signatures. From there they could do a traceback and determine the endpoint on the Imaginary Tree.

"Fuck me," Dr Orr swore, "We're actually going to do this, aren't we?"

Dr Schwarz chuckled.

"Doesn't seem possible does it?"

Orr shook his head.

"I mean we're actually going to sever the connection between a would-be Herrscher and the Imaginary Tree. Sceptre of UWAS be damned. We're giving this girl a second chance at life, not a living hell where she has no mouth and cannot scream."

An announcement appeared in Ryoma's AR vision. Hanakawa and his daughter had arrived. He cleared them for access to the elevator and ascent to their floor.

"Ladies and Gentleman, we shall begin shortly."

The energy of the room shifted. The other three present focussed on their own matters. Ryoma scrolled through his AR vision to check on Hanakawa's completed itinerary. A chirp from the heavy door indicated the new arrivals. It slid back to reveal Hanakawa, Mei close to her side and grasping her hand tightly.

"It will be okay, Mei-ojou-chan," Hanakawa reassured.

"I. I." Mei struggled with her words. "I don't like that place."

"I know, Mei-ojou-chan. But this will be the final time. Then you can go back to your tutors. You need to catch up your studies."

Hanakawa gently stroked Mei's long hair.

"You want to go back to school eventually. Right?"

"Mmm."

"Then you have to be very well. Let your Father and the doctors look after you. We can go home. You can have some nice milk-tea and that mochi you really like."

"Dr Macaria," Ryoma settled the mood of the room. "My concern is her Stigma."

The hitherto silent fourth member of the project looked up from her own work. Dr Macaria was typing out notes into her tablet. She took the tablet over to Ryoma. Several holographic projections lit up the space above the tablet.

"We conducted enough tests to leave the girl positively anaemic," Dr Macaria explained. "The gem allows for mass manipulation of chemical bonds across an area of several metres. All the novel and unique proteins have been identified. Active intron sections have all been isolated. It's all in her supposed junk DNA."

"The possibility of bone marrow failure or suppression?"

"Within tolerances. There is the chance that not all genetic bonds are reconstituted. But it's less than a typical dose of gamma radiation."

Mei did not have a Herrscher core. This made severing her connection to the Imaginary Tree much easier. Sealing her Stigma was far more complex. Each of the computers would feed specific instructions and data into the Gem of Lightning. They would use the unique powers of the gem to strip away all the elements of a Stigma from Mei's body. Normally gene shears would be used to cut out the relevant sections. Instead the gem would disintegrate the chemical bonds and then reconstitute the severed sections. Mobile genetic material such as the new proteins and other novel cells would be destroyed wholesale. All that would be left within Mei were the elements that made her human.

'Our only danger is the Stigma redundancies contained within her genetic code. Within every human genetic code. We cannot tell if it will not awaken through other means. If it has occurred once then repetition is entirely possible.'

"Why don't you wait just inside the door," Hanakawa offered to Mei.

Mei bobbed her head. Ryoma's personal assistant walked over to the group and stood politely beside her superior. The woman was the soul of discretion and courtesy. She wouldn't even acknowledge her presence until Ryoma gave a signal. Ryoma gave a nod in acknowledgement to Dr Macaria's reassurances. He turned his attention to Hanakawa.

"Your latest acquisitions?"

Hanakawa shook her head.

"Only the materials that were shipped two weeks ago."

"Concerning. So this is all you could find?"

"This was all that was on the market, Ryoma-sama."

"What about Los Angeles?"

"The Sovereign had them recover a number of fragments during the Second Impact."

"Do we have any other sources?"

"Moscow lies under Schicksal territory. Though Cocolia operates carefully under their noses. We could—"

"No. She knows too much already. Hanakawa, what of the Mariana trench?"

"Schicksal were very quick to send multiple deep-sea vessels into the area after the Impact, sir."

"Los Angeles remains our best source then. Hanakawa, continue to explore the American market. There are no doubt various fragments that haven't been located or sold. Investigate private operators and independent collectors."

Ryoma's face gave nothing away. He had discussed in the past his insistence on relying upon modern technology. He could not however dismiss the fact that Previous Era knowledge was a potent tool. For some time now he had been amassing a modest collection of information. His interest was historical in nature. He didn't wish to repeat the mistakes of the past. How they achieved their ends was immaterial. It was what they did wrong that was vital. A contingency for a possible future he had envisaged.

The quiet mutterings of Mei drew Ryoma's attention to the present. The girl was now inside the room and standing patiently to one side. Ryoma assessed his daughter with clinical eyes. He had been aware of the changes in his daughter since she had been hospitalised all those months ago. Her odd mood swings and mutterings. More than that, she possessed a preternatural awareness of her surroundings. Nearby conversations she could not possibly have heard and sights she was occluded from seeing. Ryoma knew it was not a form of clairaudience / clairvoyance. His own studies into the past indicated that the process of becoming a Herrscher included the creation of a secondary personality. Eventually this personality would overtake the original. Now embodied it would go on a path of destruction. The chairman of ME Corp was not a man much given to fear. But he feared what would happen once the Herrscher personality took over Raiden Mei. The wanton destruction it could manifest through his daughter would level cities. He would stop it at all costs.

Mei looked up from the blank space she had been talking to. Her eyes met his. Fear flickered in those deep purple eyes. Then Ryoma's attention shifted a little away from his daughter. He didn't need to see what was there. He recognised the presence for what it was. Years of Raiden Itto-ryo and Hokushin-Itto-Ryu gave him an awareness of his surroundings and the various forces within it. Ryoma had no imagination for singular flights of fancy or superstition. He felt the lethal intent of whatever stood beside Mei, either disembodied or projected by her subconscious. It was a presence soon to be snuffed out.

"Let us begin," Ryoma declared.

Hanakawa returned to Mei and guided the girl to the Throne of Fudo Myoo. The metal chair was large enough to fit Mei snugly. The child settled into the device with much apprehension. Hanakawa, as the one Mei trusted the most, was the one to strap the girl carefully into place. Medical monitoring devices were placed on various parts of the body. Cannula were inserted into either arm. The heartrate monitor indicated Mei was close to panic. It took more gentle shushing and reassurances from Hanakawa to settle the girl. Tears gently ran their course down Mei's cheeks. Only Hanakawa appeared uncomfortable by this turn of events. The scientists and Ryoma continued their busy work preparing for what was to come. Dr Macaria inserted a needle into the cannula and sedated the child before she caused any further trouble.

"Synchronisation with Subject Mei and the Gem of Lightning has been confirmed," Dr Orr announced. "Fixed entry point between Real space and Imaginary Space actualised."

The reactors, now at full capacity, hummed louder.

"One hour until Imaginary Space ethereal sensor reaches destination via tunnelling of n-space geodesics as applied to Newtonian Physics involving folded superspace vectors."

"It genuinely is infinite," Dr Schwarz said with awe. "We've actually managed to synchronise Mei and Gem of Lightning's connection to the infinite Imaginary Tree."

"Have the Throne ready for activation in one hour's time," Ryoma instructed everyone.

Ryoma twisted the wedding band. Of all the things to happen, Hanakawa taking his hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze was something he could never have expected. A glance out the corner of his eye revealed her confident smile.

"I have faith in Mei," she said in a low voice.

Ryoma did not squeeze the hand back. Nor did he free his hand.

"My daughter is a Raiden."

"Could the connection be re-established? Could Mei repeat what has happened?"

Ryoma's face was inscrutable.

'Just as we have used the Domination of Thunder to sever the connection, so too could it be used to rebuild it. Mei will have an permanent bond to the gem. Perhaps much as she awakened her powers previously the same factors could cause her to manifest a second time. With that in mind I shall keep certain contingencies in place. Her memories of this place will be wiped to ensure she does not recall what was done to her and how. Weaponry will be developed to counter her if necessary. And finally, I will leave a final seed. Something to plant the possibility of hope if all else fails.'