2022-12-25: Promise the Future
- Log: 2022-12-25: Promise the Future
- Cast: Koji Kabuto
- Where: Tsutsujidai - Junk Shop 'Aya'
- Date: U.C. 0096 12 25
- Summary: Trapped inside a broken heart with no way to celebrate with his family, Koji Kabuto nevertheless takes special care to prepare for reunion.
According to the chronometer in his Ichinana, it is 2AM. He has been working for six hours on this project.
Some might call retreating to the junkyard behind Aya, while Tsutsujidai descends into crisis, a distraction; for Koji, this serves as motivation.
The mysterious things that just happen to show up in the junkyard defy explanation; as with many things in the isolated PLANT, Koji chalks it up to the peculiarities of the Cognitive Realm. Sheltering under an awning stretched from the chassis of Syncrotank against the constant rain, a Photon glow lamp pulsing at his feet to properly illuminate his work, he carefully files and carves two coins of Super Alloy Z into familiar shapes, laser scalpel carving the stern visage of Mazinger Z and the graceful countenance of Sayaka's new machine, Aphrodite Areia, onto the discs.
Studying the coins, and deeming them complete, Koji flips over the Mazinger Z coin, inscribing on the back: 'To Sayaka, from Koji'. On the back of the Aphrodite coin: 'For Sayaka'.
Threading loops of fabric through holes on the top of each coin, Koji places the Aphrodite coin around his own neck, tucking it under the collar of his Guard Suit. Then, picking up the Photon lamp, he climbs back into the cockpit of his Ichinana parked nearby, opening a compartment under the yoke and storing the Mazinger amulet.
Sitting back in the Ichinana's pilot seat, Koji looks up towards the strange greenish-blue artificial sky, towards where he guesses Earth should be.
"Merry Christmas, Sayaka."