The anime and manga versions of Arpeggio of Blue Steel diverged dramatically. They could practically be considered two separate timelines.
Kain still couldn't determine which timeline the Kongou who had joined the Super-Dimensional Channel belonged to.
Kongou's characterization was broadly similar in both versions. In the anime, however, she eventually snapped and fell into darkness, lashing out at everything without restraint—including her own allies.
The manga's Kongou, on the other hand, retained her cold, queenly demeanor right up until her final defeat.
Iona, the protagonist of both versions, also differed greatly between the two timelines.
The anime's Iona was a quiet, expressionless girl with a delicate, almost pitiful appearance.
Her manga counterpart was nearly the opposite. She made sarcastic remarks, possessed a sharp tongue, and had a personality quite different from her anime incarnation.
Moreover, the anime version of Iona could essentially be considered an incarnation of the supreme flagship, Yamato.
That wasn't the case in the manga. Yamato had apparently allocated a portion of her processing power to Iona, giving her enough computational capacity to form a Mental Model.
A Mental Model was a body nearly indistinguishable from that of a human. Maintaining one appeared to consume a tremendous amount of processing power, which could slightly slow the Fleet of Fog's operational calculations. That was the disadvantage.
The advantage was that once they possessed Mental Models, they were no longer rigid programs that merely followed predetermined instructions. They acquired independent thought, which allowed them to devise and employ strategies.
They could also recognize humanity's schemes and counter their tactics.
That became particularly important when both sides possessed comparable military strength. Under those circumstances, strategy could decide everything.
Because the twenty-six-episode anime was far shorter than the manga, the Admiralty Code never appeared, nor did the anime thoroughly explain the origin of the Mental Models. As such, Kain had no idea whether their origins were the same as in the manga.
In the manga, the Admiralty Code had a creator—an absurdly ancient entity that had lived for more than one hundred billion years.
If the observable universe surrounding that version of Earth was only a little over ten billion years old, there had to be an explanation for that discrepancy.
The Creator was described as having seemingly mastered every phenomenon in existence. That description made it difficult to determine whether it was meant to suggest omniscience and omnipotence.
No, correction—it definitely wasn't omniscient or omnipotent.
After all, even the Creator didn't know its own origins. Tormented by that mystery, it eventually fell into a deep slumber.
Before going dormant, it created the Admiralty Code and charged her with finding the answer.
The Admiralty Code subsequently created the Fleet of Fog and observed five civilizations arise on Earth.
Whenever a civilization reached a particular threshold, the Admiralty Code would descend as an arbiter and subject it to a trial.
The previous four civilizations had failed.
Their punishment had been complete annihilation.
Present-day humanity was the fifth civilization, and its trial had already begun. Failure would bring the same result: extinction.
From what Kain had read of the manga, the theme formally assigned to the trial by the Admiralty Code was—
War.
She demanded that humanity and the Fleet of Fog wage war against each other so she could see whether humanity might produce the answer she desired through conflict.
The war wasn't limited to humanity fighting the Fleet of Fog. It also included conflicts among the Fleet of Fog themselves.
That was why the Admiralty Code hadn't stopped or interfered with the birth of the Mental Models. She had simply incorporated this new form of the Fleet of Fog into the trial.
If they failed, she would destroy them as well.
That was everything Kain knew. He had no idea what happened afterward.
Before the manga could finish its run, he had awakened in the Warhammer universe.
For now, he could only wait until the Cross-World Support function became active in Kongou's world and see whether she would actually send Takao over.
Once Takao arrived, they could analyze the technology of her world—particularly the nanomaterials that formed virtually everything she possessed.
Every component of a Fleet of Fog warship was constructed from nanomaterials, including its weapons, systems, and even the physical body of its Mental Model.
Those nanomaterials could form metal, yet they could also create a body almost indistinguishable from a human's. Without a comprehensive genetic analysis, someone might genuinely mistake a Mental Model's body for that of a human.
Once they mastered that technology, A2 and the other androids could undergo further upgrades, bringing them another step closer to humanity.
Aside from reproduction, Mental Models possessed virtually every function of a human body. They could even eat ordinary food without issue.
No, perhaps it wasn't necessarily impossible for a Mental Model and a human to produce a child together.
In the manga, some of the protagonist's cells and genetic material had been used to create a miniature version of him—someone who, in a sense, could be considered his son.
The protagonist himself had suffered severe physical injuries, and the damaged portions of his body had been supplemented with nanomaterials.
That also revealed something else: the Fleet of Fog's biotechnology wasn't particularly advanced.
When Yamato first created a Mental Model, she accidentally leaked energy and caused an explosion that nearly killed several humans.
It had taken her more than two years to barely restore them to health.
Their bodies hadn't even suffered catastrophic damage or widespread loss of tissue. Their injuries were admittedly beyond the medical capabilities of a normal twenty-first-century civilization, but considering the Fleet of Fog could construct bodies almost identical to those of humans, taking more than two years to heal them demonstrated how underdeveloped their biotechnology was.
Their medical techniques improved later, but only because the protagonist had essentially been used as a test subject.
"Is the night sky here the same as the one above your homeland, Mr. Kain?"
A gentle voice reached him, rich with the warmth and elegance of a mature woman.
Kain lowered his gaze from the stars and looked toward the woman approaching him—Captain Murrue.
Half a day had passed since his arrival in this world, and it was now deep into the night.
Although Lacus trusted Murrue and Cagalli enough to tell them about the connection between their world and the fictional work based on it, she still hadn't revealed the existence of the Super-Dimensional Channel.
It wasn't because she distrusted them.
The problem was that the Coordinators existed in this world.
If they discovered that Lacus was the true key and killed her, Kain would lose his ability to come here.
By presenting a different explanation for his origins, their enemies couldn't be certain that killing Lacus would prevent people from parallel worlds from crossing over.
"I accidentally bumped into a chair on my way here, but no one even reacted," Murrue said. "They're all sleeping soundly. It seems your presence has finally allowed everyone to relax."
During his absence, everyone had constantly been on edge. Lacus in particular had begun to look somewhat haggard, and Murrue had easily noticed it.
Now that Kain was here, the princess was probably sleeping more peacefully than she had in weeks.
His arrival had given everyone a sense of security.
"Does that mean you still don't feel safe?" Kain asked.
"I do. I'm simply working late to prepare contingency plans for tomorrow's reception. If anything unexpected happens, we'll be able to intervene immediately."
After explaining, Murrue stopped beside him and leaned against the balcony railing, gazing up at the stars.
From the corner of her eye, she studied the man's profile.
The longer she stared, the more entranced she became.
This was the protagonist who appeared in the background footage accompanying Lacus's songs.
In most of those scenes, Kain had been wearing power armor. Whenever his face was visible, it was usually covered in blood and grime from the horrific battles he had endured. As a result, very few people would recognize the clean, uninjured man before her as the same person from those images.
As for why they had used his experiences as the background footage, Lacus had offered an explanation.
The special device that allowed travel between parallel worlds operated on energy converted from emotions. The more strongly the people of their world reacted to the "story" of that other world—particularly when those emotions were focused on Kain—the stronger the connection between the two universes became.
It was essentially like boosting the signal between the two worlds, making it easier to transmit data across them.
When Murrue thought about all the horrifying experiences this man had endured, she felt a faint ache in her chest.
Then she remembered how he had once drunk the MURU produced by her unique physiology, and heat began creeping across her cheeks.
Kain suddenly turned and caught her staring at him.
Flustered, Murrue hurriedly looked away.
She had been watching him for far too long.
"Is that for me?"
Kain's gaze settled on the thermos in her hand. She had carried the same thermos last time and shared what was inside with him.
Murrue froze for a moment before answering.
"There isn't any of th-that in here."
It contained nothing but hot water.
After she spoke, Murrue noticed the hint of expectation on his face turn into faint disappointment.
"There's some in my room," she added quietly.
A short while later, Kain was sitting on the couch inside a simply furnished room, waiting for Murrue to bring him the wonderfully delicious drink he remembered.
He had assumed she had already extracted it and stored it somewhere.
Her current behavior, however, made him suspect she was obtaining it right now.
Murrue had claimed that it didn't taste as good when cold, so she needed to warm it first. From the way she was behaving, however, Kain suspected she was preparing it fresh.
After all, if she merely needed to heat it, why had she gone into the bathroom?
She had explained that the bathroom's water heater allowed her to control the temperature more precisely, letting her warm it evenly by placing the container in hot water.
No matter how Kain considered it, that excuse sounded rather dubious.
Suddenly, an unusual noise came from the bathroom.
It sounded like Murrue had slipped and fallen, followed by a muffled groan of pain that she hadn't quite managed to suppress.
(End of Chapter)
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