2025-07-12: Post-Premiere Experimental Summary

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  • Log: 2025-07-12: Post-Premiere Experimental Summary
  • Cast: Akane Shinjo
  • Where: South Britannian Alcazar
  • Date: U.C. 00100 07 12
  • Summary: A summary of Akane's final week in Gaia Sabers custody.

Extraction has been a short-burst process, thus far. The Gaia Sabers haven't done it with the indelicacy of Celebro -- whoever wants the Gaia Sabers to have access to all these kaiju has been pretty judicious.

After the Tarabaman: First Generation premiere, this changes. So too does where the process happens and who's put in charge of the process. Apparently, the USSA has gotten just a little too much traction for the happiness of the higher-ups, which means Akane is among those Heaven's Base residents who are sent to South Britannia.

She can't have all of the staff sent with her, either. While some of them have been regularly sent to South Britannia, some haven't -- and most notably, the engineer overseeing the Alter Gatcher hasn't.

So instead, she's got Chief Engineer Landry operating the devices.

It really only requires a periodic check to make sure she's not having a heart attack and dumping whatever hideous magical goop the device is outputting into the Alter Gatcher; it could be left to anyone.

But it's being left to Chief Engineer Landry.

The schedule shifts from an average of about an hour a day to twelve hours a day -- two sessions of six. Wake up, eat, extraction. Eat, extraction. Eat, recover, sleep.

Akane doesn't complain where Landry can hear it. She barely has the energy to complain where he can't hear it; by the time she's done for the day, she mostly wants to lie in her (newly smaller, less well-appointed) room and try, desperately, to recover.

This proves much faster than the previous methods, though it's likely due to simple zone-flooding rather than better quality of extraction. By the end of the first day, they've started seeing new Capsules; by the end of the second day, they have almost everything they'd hoped for -- only Zegga remains.

On the 15th of July, Chief Engineer Landry actually says something to Akane that isn't a direct order.

"I'm not supposed to tell you this," he leans in as he makes sure every electrode is secure, "but we got the neurotoxin kaiju from you yesterday. Enough for a few copies and some fusion experiments, in fact." He holds up one kaiju capsule, grinning.

Akane's eyes snap wide open in spite of her full-body exhaustion. She makes a futile attempt to reach up for the Capsule.

Landry pulls his hand back. "Ah-ah." He walks away, starting to prep the device as usual. "It turns out that it's more effective when we have it. Now, we'd already guessed this would happen based on data from the Garuda, but we now have confirmation that the reason it stopped working for you had more to do with Gridman's ongoing presence than something inherent to the ones that kept breaking out of it."

Akane feels her blood turn to ice on the spot. "No... No, no, no --"

"Don't worry. We haven't removed anything you'd care about yet. So far we just introduced her to Dr. Sumino yesterday, then erased her memory of having done so." His tone is as bright as it ever gets as he adds, "And we won't -- as long as you remain cooperative, anyway."

When their relationship started, Akane and Rikka had agreed that they had to live and die for things outside of each other. Akane clings to that. But... continuing to comply here -- that's for her own satisfaction. She couldn't forgive herself if she cracked and it hurt Rikka.

"Just... do the stupid thing again," Akane hisses, under her breath. "I won't move an inch."

She doesn't get to see him smile.

The process finishes. The Alter Gatcher bubbles and flashes, and with an unusually heavy metallic 'tink' --

Lantry looks down at the finished product. "In all likelihood, that's everything," he says, as he picks up the Capsule. "If you'll excuse me, Special Liaison Steinbeck, Dr. Ashton, Dr. Sumino, and I need to have a discussion about what we're going to do with you."

Akane doesn't say anything, or even move. All she can do is think of how her last bit of leverage just ran out.