Last Re:Arise

It was a funny experience, falling down in that dark space, watching as all of his body turned into bits, losing his senses and even himself in the process. He couldn't speak, he couldn't even think, he had no awareness of himself. Just, a warm and calm feeling. That was the last thing he remembered.

But then, things were different. He could think, he was thinking at the very moment. He's aware he existed, there was no doubt he did. And certainly, he knew who he was.

Yet that was the question. How? He shouldn't be able to do any of that. He was nothing but a stream of zeros and ones wandering the endless space of the infinity net. Was he not?

As he asked the question, a light appeared in the darkness, and voices whispered to him. They were very weak, barely audible. And they were calling his name.

" Mizel... can you hear me?"

The light then turned into an image, one that was blurry. The voices were getting louder as he adjusted his sensors.

" Mizel?"

By his sides, he could finally see them, both Mirai and Eva looked down at him longly. It took a moment for him to process it before he looked around him.

They were in a LAB. William and Haruka were sitting down by a computer not far from them. " How are you feeling? Anything wrong with your sensors?" The woman asked.

Mizel looked at her and then down at his own hands, clenching and unclenching them to make sure they were really his.

" He's not responding? You think something is broken?" Eva turned back to the older blond to confirm it.

" It's just..." Mizel spoke for the first time in, he didn't even know. There was a lot he was missing on. " What happened?"

" Okay, don't freak out. You remember the fight with Black Mizel, right?"

The boy nodded.

" Well, that was three months ago."

" Huh? Huh!" He definitely didn't think it had been that long since the fight. He had a feeling it was just a few moments ago.

" But... I should have..."

" You should have been deleted forever when that server failed," Haruka told him.

" But as you can see, miracles happen in this world and you're still alive." William smiled

" And how exactly?"

Mirai and Eva looked at each other. " Well..."

Three months ago

Eva hit the keyboard hard, large droplets falling down her eyes. Her brother was dissolving before her and she could do nothing. Absolutely nothing to spare his life. There was no difference from years ago.

Everyone else wore bitter expressions on their faces at their inability to neither comfort her, nor lend a hand.

It was then that her CCM buzzed in her pocket. Taking it out, she was stunned to see Minerva's mark on her screen again. Everyone else got their CCMs out, even William and Haruka had their phones.

" My last part will be deleted soon. I no longer can do anything from here. But with your help, Mizel could be saved."

" Huh?" Eva questioned.

It wasn't just them, all around the world, everyone had the same symbol staring at them from their own screens.

" Humans, would you be willing to give a second chance?" A 'yes' and 'no' buttons appeared before them.

In N City, Lilyan looked up from her phone and to the crowd that gathered to watch Mizel's fight on the large screen, the fight that decided their fates. Some looked back at the large TV where Mizel was falling down, his form fading slowly.

Soon, everyone began tapping, answering the question. And by the look of it, most of them answered with yes.

Jessica and Lilyan exchanged nods before answering themselves.

" Look up there!" Up on the screen, they could see blue feathers falling down upon Mizel like snow, restoring most of his diminishing form.

Seeing that, everyone else hurried and answered the question as well. No one understood what was happening, but they knew that their answers were the only way to save him, and so they did, all over the world, thousands of people answered that question.

Eva and the rest in Goliath watched wide-eyed. They didn't understand what was happening either.

" Sir! We have an enormous data transfer! From somewhere in Country A!"

" Huh?" Kousuke looked back at his employee when she said that.

" I don't get it either. But..." looking back at Mizel's form that was glowing brightly as it was being repaired, they could make a guess.

" The mankind's will for you to survive is what's going to save you in the end, Mizel. This is the last of me, the Last Re:Arise that I'm giving you."

" And so you survived," William concluded with a smile as though he finished telling a story.

" Hold on! Just wait a second! I still don't understand how I survived like that!"

" It was Minerva," Eva said placing a hand on his shoulder. " Using the last of her strength while she was connected to you, she reached for the whole world. Their feedback on her question, regardless of the answer, empowered her enough to find your login address, track and move your data back to our server in Goliath."

" It was truly, the Last Re:Arise. Now Minerva is forever gone. A miracle like that might not happen again," William stated calmly.

Mizel looked down at his hands again before deciding to ask. " Then, why am I awake three months later? I should have been awaken long ago."

" Sorry, that was us," Haruka told him as she took the seat before him. " Even though you've been saved, the government wasn't yet keen on keeping you around any longer. So we had to keep you deactivated while we were dealing with them, to prevent them from getting to you by any means."

" Eh!"

" It took a while to sway them." Eva sighed.

" And if it wasn't for the public who spoke on your behalf, saying you deserve a second chance it wouldn't have been possible," Mirai added.

" In the end, the Black Mizel's incident was a good thing, in a way."

Mizel blinked as he looked up at William as though to make sure of it. " So I..."

" You're allowed to live Mizel," the man told him with a soft smile. " You should use the most of it."

" What about this body?"

" You noticed huh," Haruka took off her glasses at that. " Even though they said it's okay, the government had some Conditions. One of them was this body, one which you can't use to hack or control anything. In other words, just an Android body. You won't be able to use your abilities from here on but..."

" It's better than having you dissembled right?" Mirai gave him a pat on the back.

" I think I might prefer the latter," Mizel groaned. " It feels like losing a sense. And I'm not much helpful like this."

" Don't be so gloomy about it." Mirai ruffled his hair. " It's fine this way. Even without all those crazy things you were able to do, having you around is just enough for us."

Mizel looked from Mirai to Eva, their faces beaming at him. It was warming to a certain point. Maybe he too didn't dislike existing like that much after all.

" Now we shouldn't hold him here longer. Hiro and Kirito are waiting for you all," Haruka reminded them to which Mirai jumped up to her feet.

" Right! Let's go, Eva! Mizel!"

The trio left the LAB and walked along the hallways of Tiny Orbit with the green head still gauging his new body.

" Is there a problem?" Asked Eva with a worried look on her face.

" Not that... it's just, I'm trying to get used to it that's all..."

" We're here," Mirai announced as a door slid open, leading them into the maintenance room. It was empty and all the tables were pushed away to the walls with only a large diorama placed in the middle.

" They're late," Eva noted upon entering the room.

" You're the ones who took your sweet time." From another door emerged Kirito and Hiro. " We literally went for three rounds on that new combat game while waiting for you," said the blond as he held his drink to his mouth.

"What matters is that they're here now, Kirito-san."

" What's the meaning of all of this?"

Mirai and Eva looked back at the younger boy. " We wanted to welcome you back with the usual," Eva began.

" An LBX battle!" Mirai continued.

A typical welcoming from them. " Yet, I no longer have the ability to control an LBX, nor turn into one." The boy shrugged.

" That's fine," Hiro assured as he walked up to him, depositing something in his hands and Mizel's eyes widened.

" When we heard of the condition from the government, we figured you would say that, that's why..."

Resting on his palms was a very familiar black and green unit with an axe strapped to its back. " Vector?"

" A gift from everyone. We tried our best to match it to the original one." Hiro smiled.

" And this is from us," Eva smiled as she put something in his other hand too. A green sliding CCM.

" From here on, you'll have to learn to control it the normal way," Kirito pointed.

" Sounds like a hassle," despite what he said, the boy wore a wide smile on his face.

" Welcome to the human world then." Kirito snorted.

" Then what are we waiting for!" Eva held his hand and pulled him towards the Diorama. " Let's begin right away!"

William and Haruka watched from the doorway as the five of them embarked on a match, with the older ones helping Mizel out with the control. " This is for the best, right?" Haruka seemed concerned as she looked at them. " They will keep a close eye on him, and if he ever made the slightest slip... Was this really the right choice for him?"

" It's," William assured. " Living a life while trying not to make a single mistake, it sounds like an arduous feat. But as long as he has all of them, he will be fine."

William gave a small smile as he looked at her. " The future is something no one ever laid an eye on yet. So we shouldn't ponder about it much."

Haruka looked from William to the five of them, joyfully clashing with their LBXs. " You're right. All that matters is that for now..." her lips curled into a soft smile as she took off her glasses. " Everyone is finally happy for real this time."...

The future is yet an unexplored adventure...

The end.

Author Note

Welcome everyone and thank you so much for your support to this series for so long. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did while writing it (though admittedly, there is a lot that could use some improvement.)

Is this the end of Danball Senki Re:Arise? Yep, unfortunately, it is. It had been quite a long journey for me, and I experimented with different writing styles during it.

However, it's not the end of the story. A new project is being cooked, though I don't know how long it will take before I get it out, plus being really busy with university and all.

So, if you're interested in a future set story of Ban's and the others' children, keep an eye out for any new releases. I will announce the new book here as soon as I have a good amount of chapters set.

Thank you all for reading this far, keep looking forward to the new project. See you soon~ ^w^/