Story and art by Ryuko Azuma
See the original pages at Web NewType here
Narrative reads right to left
The chapter opens with a flashback; Nina calling out to Yu from the exposed lunar base as he flies off into the black hole that suddenly appeared over the moon.
“If you keep going, the black hole will swallow you!!! Don’t go!!! Yu!!!”
Right side: Abbey addresses the staff some time later.
“The black hole, which originated from Aegis and the Seireness expanded rapidly to 1800 meters in diameter, then stopped growing and is now in a satellite orbit around the moon. We are currently investigating the effects of black holes on the Earth and the solar system. The black hole’s gravity is extremely small compared to what we can expect from its size. It seems that some force is at work, but the cause is unknown. The black hole caused a huge gravitational wave on Earth, but the full extent of the damage is still unknown.”
Left side: Abbey continues…
“The upper facilities of the lunar base were severely damaged. Electric power, life support system, water circulation, have not suffered any major damage. The NerfThis fleet is currently repairing the damage at a rapid pitch.”
Hugo asks about a rescue mission to find Yu and Linne. Abbey only says it is currently under consideration.
“We can’t do that,” a morose Nina replies. “They fell into a black hole, right?”
Right side: Hugo protests that nobody’s in a position to decide if their teammates are dead, but Nina shuts him down.
“It’s the ultimate celestial object from which not even light can escape. If those two are alive…humans who have gone to the other side of the event horizon…tell me how to save them. I’ll do anything.”
He has no answer.
Left side: Nina stares out the window at the black hole, saying that if Seireness attacks now, it will be all over. Aisha and Abbey share the room with her.
Abbey speculates that the Seireness are gone.
“I think Nirvana called the black hole, home of Seireness, the cocoon of intelligence. And its collapse is imminent.” She concludes that this black hole is a new cocoon.
Right side: Abbey continues…
“The purpose of Seireness was to take Mark 7’s space-time crystalline body and create a cocoon of intelligence.”
Nina realizes that the Topness pilots were all camouflage that protected the original (Linne) and Abbey apologizes. Aisha asks how much time they have left.
“I don’t know,” Abbey answers. “But that black hole is accelerating its speed of growth again. It’s already sucked up 4% of the Earth’s atmosphere. And is beginning to affect the operation of the solar system.”
Left side: “Sooner or later, humanity will be swallowed by the black hole, along with the Earth.”
“I see,” Aisha says. “We…we lost.”
Chapter title: Humanity Defeated
Left side: Yu’s eyes open. He finds himself being cradled by Linne.
They are both in the dreamscape we’ve seen before. The huge sculpted image of Linne now matches her last position, holding the Seireness in a death grip. The statue’s arm drops into the water.
“There is no life or death here,” a vacant Linne tells Yu. “No beginning, no end. We are everywhere. And we are nowhere. An empty space filled with all possibilities…”
“A cocoon of intelligence.” A seemingly infinite number of Yamato hulls stretches out into the distance.
Right side: Yu stares at an illusion of his younger self with his grandmother, watching the Deus satellite fall.
“This is my present,” Linne continues. “It is also your past. The past and the future that accompany the passage of time…in the event horizon where the law of causality is lost.”
Left side: “I can’t believe you chased after me. You’re really stupid, Yu. Seireness bonded with me, forming a cocoon of intelligence. I am once again reduced to a space-time crystalline body. Eventually, the Diva will come here. This universe is coming to an end. I will be sacrificed for the next cosmic fine tuning.”
Right side: Linne drops to her knees, insisting that it’s all over. Yu says there must still be some way out, but she shouts that there isn’t.
“Because of me, humanity will be destroyed by Seireness again and again! What was I born for!?”
Left side: “I didn’t know being born could be so painful. Why didn’t Maya tell me?”
You tries to convince Linne that she’s not so bad, but she insists that he has no idea how she feels and repeats that it’s all over now.
Right side: a flashback of Maya saying, “It’s not over yet.”
Yu repeats the phrase, promising that he will come back here to save Linne. “Just hang in there until I get back.”
Left side: still in his ship’s cockpit, Yu awakens in a daze. The Mark 6 continues its flight in a mode never seen before.
A wormhole opens above the moon.
Right side: Nina and the others react, at first assuming the Seireness are returning to attack. Nina realizes it isn’t their enemy.
Left side: “…It’s Yu!!”
Right side: the Mark 6 is back in its berth, and the Topness gather around Yu, amazed.
“A black hole is the ultimate celestial body from which not even light can escape,” Hugo parrots.
“I know,” Yu replies. “Mark 6 switched to a mode I don’t know about and was able to open the wormhole.” Hugo thinks back to a previous battle and wonders if his ship can do the same.
Left side: Yu recounts what he learned to Abbey and the Topness pilots.
“Linne has stopped the growth of the cocoon of intelligence. I don’t know if I can go back to that place where Linne is again. But I have to go to try before Linne is completely fused.”
“Why Linne,” Aisha asks. “The purpose of Seireness is Mark 7’s space-time crystal, right?”
“Because,” Yu explains, “Linne herself is the original space-time crystal.”
Hugo accuses him of joking, but Yu is dead serious.
Right side: Hugo remembers the “giant made of light” that Linne turned into.
“But Yu,” Nina says, “now that the cocoon of intelligence has been generated, we’re out of options.”
He answers that there is a way.
Left side: “Hit the Seireness stronghold. Use the Seireness wormhole in reverse. We can use the Mark 6 to do what Seireness does.”
Right side: Abbey protests that it’s too dangerous, but Hugo immediately volunteers to join Yu.
“At this rate, the human race is just waiting to be exterminated. We’re here now because we didn’t despair against all odds. It may be a risky venture, but as long as there’s something to protect, we Topness will not give up hope.”
The girls smile in agreement.
Left side: Malina writes what may be a final message to her father.
“Papa, we are going very far from here. I think it will be our last fight. Maybe…”
Hugo approaches and apologizes for getting her into this.
“Actually,” she responds breezily, “You said something cool.”
Right side: Hugo thinks she’s being sarcastic insists that he meant his apology. She tells him to chill out.
“we’ve fought together to protect humanity. That’s pretty cool for a guy like you.”
He relaxes and remembers that Malina was once a figure skater. She asks what that has to do with anything.
“Seireness was a slap in the face. You have things to do back on Earth. You have a grandpa and a dad at home. I hope there’s a future where you’ll will win some great tournament, Malina.”
Left side: Malina listens as Hugo continues to explain himself.
“I think that’s what humanity is all about. Maybe that’s the future I really want to protect. If you’d been swallowed by the black hole, I might have done the same thing as Yu…”
She startles at the admission and he freezes, realizing what he just said.
Right side: He leaps up and jogs off, saying he can’t sleep and needs to go for a run. She is stunned for a moment and then yells an even louder “HUH?”
Meanwhile, Yu rounds a corner to find Nina waiting for him.
Left side: the two sit quietly as Nina makes a statement of her own.
“Yu…you ignored Abbey’s orders and headed for the black hole. As leader of Topness, I can’t overlook that.”
“Communication was cut off…but I made it back. Now we can fight back against Seireness.”
“Yeah! But what if you didn’t come back? We’re not children anymore! We can’t just let our emotions get the better of us! The future of humanity is at stake!”
Right side: Yu mutters an insincere apology, but Nina doesn’t accept it as her own emotions boil over.
“When you fell into the black hole…how do you think I felt? What is it we’ve all been fighting for? Yu…you don’t know anything! Please…don’t do that horrible thing again. Don’t go back to where Linne is…”
Left side: Yu tries to apologize again, admitting that he is just a child. Nina finally blurts out what she really means.
“But the most important person in the universe to me is…it’s you…”
He sits alone after she leaves, pondering what he just heard.
Right side: Nina gets a warm hug from Aisha, having finally unburdened herself.
Left side: later, Abbey presides over mission control as Nina addresses everyone from her ship’s cockpit.
“Anti-Seireness fleet NerfThis is going on the offensive against Seireness. Entering the wormhole of Jupiter and striking the target’s stronghold. This will be NerfThis’s last battle. The total strength of the enemy is unknown, and the battle will likely be fierce. But it is a battle for the survival of the human race. We will win, and we will all return to Earth.”
“ROGER,” they all answer in unison.
“Anti-Seireness Fleet NerfThis…Launch!!!”
To be continued