AI: Warning!

Shizuno: An Aanval... No, wait!

Kyo: Is that human?

Shizuno: No, the demon soldier of the Gardsorm. It's destroyed countless Cerebrants. Abyss.

Kyo: Is he human? Or...?

Lu-Shen: Kyo, what do you think you're doing?!

May-Yen: Lu-Shen!

Lu-Shen: Running away?

Shizuno: Don't be fooled. He's stronger than anyone you've ever faced. What's wrong?

Kyo: Can it be? This is all real? And the Gardsorm are... human?

Shizuno: They're not human. They are nothing like us. They're artificial. Don't you dare think them as people.

Kyo: Artificial? You mean that guy's a...

Shizuno: Yes.

AI: Zegapain Garuda under fire. Q.L. Consumption level, critical.

Shizuno: The Garuda's hurting out there. Come on, time to go.

AI: Q.L., insufficient.

Kyo: You bastard! Quit trashing my apartment! You made a big mistake messing with a guy from Chiba! Damn, this guy means business!

May-Yen: Our main generator's damaged! And the weapon chamber coil is off-line! Our holonic armor isn't responding either!

AI: ??? Q.L. in ???

Lu-Shen: Damn you, Abyss...

Shizuno: Looks like he's after the Zega's...

May-Yen: Leg-section signal transduction level 15%! Ah!

Lu-Shen: So it seems. Hey, May-yen!

May-Yen: I'm trying! Activating Banishment Mode!

AI: Activating Banishment Mode. Transmission commencing.

Lu-Shen: Shizuno, be careful! Abyss isn't flying solo.

AI: Emergency transmission, commencing.

Kyo: They self-destructed?

Shizuno: We've taken some damage, but nothing's too bad. Kyo, we have to turn back.

Kyo: Just run away? How come?

Shizuno: We're playing into their hands. We need--

Kyo: This guy destroys my house and you want me to just let it slide?!

Shizuno: Kyo!

Kyo: Where did he go? Damn it!

Shizuno: Ah. Thermal signature, behind the tower!

Kyo: You son of a bitch, quit hiding! Get out of here. Fight me!

Shizuno: I'm sorry, I misread the signature. Sin was hiding behind Abyss! It's two against one.

Kyo: Huh! Trying to flank me, huh? That means one of you's gotta be over here! What the hell?

AI: Kobral 2, lost.

Shizuno: Above us! Kyo!

AI: Performing omnidirectional scan and probable--

Kyo: Aww hell!

AI: Warning! Mecha Q.L. declining. Warning!

Shizuno: Kyo! On our left!

Kyo: Get out of my face!

AI: Cockpit and left side of chest seriously damaged.

Kyo: Damn, took us both out.

Shizuno: It doesn't matter, Kyo. They won.

AI: Severe damage inflicted to Wizard.

Shizuno: Don't look! They've already stolen it. The Gardsorm have Zega's program data. Thanks to us.

Kyo: Sh-Shizuno...

Chris: Go to hell, Sin!

Kyo: So, this is what's going on?

Shizuno: Does this look like all a game to you? Like an artificial world?

Tomigai: Like, am I really alive or not? You know, stuff like that.

Mizusawa: Personally, it doesn't matter to me which is which.

Tomigai: Maybe both worlds are an illusion.

Mizusawa: However, if one world is reality, then it follows the other must be fiction.

Kyo: I'm in my room. Huh? What the hell? That's real? All this stuff is real. If those ruins I saw were real, what the hell am I looking at right now?

Fosetta: It's a construct.

Kyo: Fo-setta? What are you doing here?

Ricerca: Oh, come on! I mean, you called us here, didn't you, Kyo? You got questions, so ask 'em.

Kyo: Oh. Sorry about that. Okay, so tell me. This is reality, right? It is, isn't it?

Dita: One could define this as such if they wished.

Kyo: Gyaaaugh!

Dita: ...but if by reality you mean a world in which thoughts and actions lead to objective change, then no, it's not.

Kyo: Wait, but... But, my hand! In the other world, it was disappearing right in front of me. What was that all about?

Fosetta: Everything you see here is a fabrication. The city, and its people.

Kyo: I've got more questions if that's okay.

Ricerca: Sure, but we've already told you everything we are allowed to say about this particular subject.

Fosetta: But if you need any diet tips or wanna chat about the weather, we're here for you 24 hours a day.

Kyo: Yeah, what's stopping you?

Dita: Miss Shizuno is responsible for the rate at which you awaken. Further discussion will require her consent.

Kyo: Her consent? But she was... Is she okay?

Dita: She needs a bit more time to recover. Her dry damage was quite extensive.

Arque: We didn't reach them quickly enough. If only we could have gotten there a bit sooner.

Chris: Couple of days of regeneration and just look at her. Pitiful, huh? Well, I guess it just comes to the territory.

Arque: Chris...

Chris: Hm? Oh, hey, sorry, hon. Guess I never know when to keep my mouth shut, huh? Please forgive me, Arque.

Tarbo: Forgive my interruption, but it's worth noting that in Miss Shizuno's current condition, there's no difference between humanity and A.I.

Chris: Uh, we're kinda having a moment here, Tarbo.

Tarbo: My apologies.

Chris: So, that's what she looks like...

Kyo: Meta... body?

Dita: Literally, it means a "phantom body." It's what all the humans living in this construct are called.

Kyo: So what, you're saying I'm a phantom now? Are you telling me that I don't exist?! Then what's this "me" that's here right now?!

Dita: The answer to that depends entirely on how you define existence.

Kyo: Where am I?

Lemures: Hope you don't mind me butting into the conversation, although I, too, am limited what I can say.

Kyo: Am I really a phantom? Answer me, Lemures! I need to know.

Lemures: Cogito ergo sum.

Kyo: That's your big answer? "I think, therefore, I am"? Tossing Descartes in my face ain't gonna cut it!

Lemures: All right then, "To exist is to be perceived."

Kyo: Berkeley is even worse! Cut it out!

Lemures: Ha, I miss our little talks. You are always full of piss and vinegar.

Kyo: Great, I'm possessed by a dead man. I feel like a ghost who's fumbling his way through a lecture about the immortality of the soul.

Lemures: "Ghost" is an excellent way to put it. A bit superstitious, but a good definition of a meta-body.

Kyo: Hmph!

Lemures: Notice, Kyo. You bypassed the dialectic process to reach a deeper, more innate understanding. Do you understand why that happened?

Kyo: Because I'm not learning anything new. Just remembering things I've forgotten.

Lemures: If that's the case, why do you persist in asking?

Kyo: Well, none of that should be possible!

Lemures: Perhaps, but you can see that the situation here is far from normal.

Kyo: Look, it just isn't possible!

Lemures: Knowledge is unhappiness. The man who knows much knows a terrible truth, and he cannot turn away from it.

Kyo: Pascal, huh? Ah! So then what about that guy Abyss? What is he supposed to be?

Lemures: A Gardsorm Reconstructant.

Kyo: A "Reconstructant?" What are those?

Lemures: They are the enemy.

Ricerca: All right, I'll answer any questions about approved topics.

Dita: Correct. The empty apartments that surround you were once home to many Cerebrants. However, more than half have been killed in battle with the Gardsorm.

Fosetta: Why don't you ever see your mother? She's been gone a long time. Does realizing she's gone make it any worse?

Kyo: The world I know is artificial.

Fosetta: Looking for Commander Shima?

Ricerca: Sorry, he's busy. Everyone's on the Oceanus.

Kyo: Fine with me. I don't want to have anything to do with him.

Kurashige: Your first end of term exam is coming up. But it's pretty much the same thing you saw in middle school. Nothing to freak out about. Okay, let's spend today reviewing the basics, shall we? You can go through ?? steps with these problems ??? , when you get ??? to worry about. Right?

Kyo: Ghosts. Phantoms. Everyone's a construct. Kurage's fake. And them. Even Kaminagi?

Kaminagi: Hey, not too bad, Mizuki.

Mizuki: Thanks.

Kaminagi: Have you thought about joining the swim club?

Mizuki: Nah, I'm not that serious about it. So what's up with Kyo?

Kaminagi: What do you mean?

Mizuki: He was just acting kind of weird earlier today. Walking around with a freaky look on his face.

Kaminagi: Really? He seems normal this morning.

Mizuki: Maybe he's just on his best behavior around you.

Kaminagi: Ah, why?

Mizuki: You know... Oh, it's Kaori! Incoming!

Kawaguchi: Kyo, you son of a--!

Kyo: I'm not taking your crap today! Check it out. Blood... Of course there would be. I mean, I'm only human, right?

Kawaguchi: That was weird. Wonder what crawled up his butt?

Ushio: Hm? Yeah... you fight about the swim club. But that was different.

Tomigai: July 9th, 1943. At Aktan Island in the Aleutians... the U.S. Navy sighted a Type-21 Zero, a hitherto unbeatable fighting plane, making an emergency landing due to mechanical failure. After thoroughly testing and analyzing it, the Americans developed numerous techniques to counter the Zero in combat. Destroying the legend of its invincibility. Well, that's why an enemy would wanna steal data -- to find a way to beat you.

Kyo: Yeah, I figured. I got a bad feeling about this.

Tomigai: But how come? There's no scene like that in the Zega game... Ah! What's up?

Kyo: You really are a nice guy, you know that? You're no ghost or phantom, you're the real deal.

Kaminagi: Ahh!

Kyo: What?

Kaminagi: Quit looking at the camera. Your bruise looks gross. Eww!

Kaminagi: Something is wrong with him...

Kyo: Kaminagi. Wanna go for a walk?

Kaminagi: Uh, sure! Give me a second.

Announcer: The unidentified vehicles that attacked the United Nations forces yesterday were attempting to steal military secrets. According to officials investigating the incident, security forces have taken the appropriate countermeasures.

Ricerca: Sound familiar? There's a strong correlation between the real world and this one.

Dita: You don't see them because you have no need to do so. For those who need to see customers and the shopkeeper, both exist.

Kaminagi: I'll just leave the money here. You totally bored?

Kyo: Nah. I'm good.

Kaminagi: Does your cheek still hurt?

Kyo: Not really.

Kaminagi: It's so peaceful.

Kyo: Tell me, Kaminagi... You really are "you," like you're you. Am I right?

Kaminagi: Huh?

Kyo: Ha, ha, ha. What the hell am I saying? Aw, screw it!

Kaminagi: Look! You can see Tokyo!

Kyo: Tokyo's right next to us. Of course you can see it from here. Tokyo?!

Kaminagi: I was thinking... Sometime next semester... I promised Mizuki I'd go hang out with her in Shibuya. I suppose we could go during the summer, but I got this weird feeling like... maybe we should wait till then. Oh, that's the train we'll have to take.

Kyo: We should go now!

Kaminagi: You're crazy!

Kyo: Ow! Come on!

Kaminagi: Hey, wait! No, we shouldn't! It's so late! We'll go next time, okay?

Kyo: What's with you? We're not little kids! We'll just go and come right back!

Kaminagi: No, it's wrong. Kyo, we're not supposed to go. Can't you feel it? Please! Don't leave me here!

Kyo: Forget about it. I'll just go by myself.

Kaminagi: Kyo! Wait!

Kyo: Unless I've forgotten something, I haven't gone anywhere outside Maihama since I entered high school. I'll see it. I'll see Maihama from the outside. And the moment I do I'll know that we're not phantoms, constructs or ghosts! I'll know that we're real!

Kyo: Kaminagi...

Kyo: It's impossible... All of this... It's impossible!

Shizuno: It's no use.

Kyo: Shizuno! But you're--

Shizuno: You can't go beyond the city limits; it doesn't exist. This world you and I inhabit is a closed system consisting of "here" and "now" and absolutely nothing else.

Kyo: You are lying!

Shizuno: Is that what you think, that I'm lying? I'm not! The only place that Maihama city exists is within a quantum computer server! We live on as meta-bodies within the servers because our physical bodies or real selves are gone. We're nothing more than data. We are extinct. The Gardsorm wiped us out. Do you understand me? There's not a single human being left on Earth!

Kyo: Do you even hear what you are saying?

Shizuno: We're all ones and zeros living in a phantom city inside a machine! Memories of a dead human race! Forgive me.

Kyo: If everything you told me is true... then when I open my eyes, everything in this phony world...

Shizuno: No, don't!

Kyo: ...will all disappear!

Shizuno: Are "here" and "now" what's right in front of us? The only things we can accept?

Kyo: What a mess... huh, Kaminagi? You and me both, we're just ghosts in a machine.

Kaminagi: Kyo seems really sad lately. It's like, it's like he's covering something up. You don't think Shizuno rejected him, do you?! It's tough for me to see Kyo feeling so blue. I can't just let him mope. Hey, I know! Come location scouting with me, Kyo! Nothing like a date to cheer you up again!
Next time, on Zegapain: "Lost Souls."
My thoughts never to be erased.