“Oh no,” Professor Toei said. “No, no, no. They can’t know where we are, the wards are still up!”

  A blaring alarm started to sound, and running footsteps could be heard outside. The professor stopped, frozen, trying to take in the new situation.

  “We’ve got to get you kids out of here,” he finally said. “Follow me.”

  They rushed outside, dodging panicking researchers and much more purposeful soldiers. Toei headed straight for a knot of soldiers at the edge of the cleared central area.

  “Commander!” Professor Toei said, addressing a slim man in uniform giving orders. “You need to get the helicopter ready, we need to evacuate these children!”

  The commander spared Toei a glance. “I’m afraid that’s impossible, Professor. The attackers are supported by Frames, the helicopter would be a sitting duck to the weaponry they carry.”

  “There has to be some way…” Professor Toei protested.

  “The perimeter is holding, for now,” the commander said. “I advise having them seek shelter until this is over.”

  “Some of us aren’t helpless,” Mitsue said, pushing forward. “We can—”

  He was interrupted by an enormously loud crash. James looked over to see that a Frame had landed on one of the outer buildings.

  Military Frame, he thought. The words ran through his head without any impetus on his part. Jump Jets. No military markings. Armed. Just like in the movies…

  The enemy frame braced itself and took aim with its massive gun. Not at James, not at the helicopter, but at the big marked stone that James had noticed before. Whatever magical powers it possessed, they didn’t include standing up to auto-cannon fire.

  “No!” Professor Toei yelled as the stone shattered into a thousand pieces.

  “Everybody scatter!” the commander called out. James couldn’t move, though. He was frozen, watching the Frame take aim at its next target.

  Him.

  Maybe because he was glowing? He wasn’t sure when that started. Professor Toei and the others were shouting at him, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. It was hard to focus on anything except the gun barrel turning to face him.

  James was aware of his hands throwing themselves forward as if to ward off the coming shot. There was a flash that filled his vision, a kick that knocked him back a step. A rush of air and fire all around him, and then… it was over.

  James was still standing on the parade ground. The Frame was still standing in front of him, about thirty metres away. Between the Frame and himself was… a sword?

  His sword?

  It took James a moment to understand, but he was holding a big version of his necklace in his hand. Despite being a metre-long chunk of absurdly shaped, sharp metal, it seemed weightless in his hands. Which were armoured.

  He looked down at himself. He was dressed in armour that looked a lot like the giant robot. Green and white, bulky in a way that armour shouldn’t be, but light. Not weighing him down at all.

  He looked around him. Everyone was staring at him in shock.

  “Did you just… parry a cannon shell?” Mitsue asked disapprovingly.

  “Um, maybe?” James said. Was that what just happened?

  James would have said more, but at that moment, the Frame pilot recovered from his own shock. Kicking its way out of the building, the Frame levelled its weapon at James again.

  Can I do that again? James wondered. He tightened his grip on his sword.

  Then a burst of fire exploded against the Frame’s canopy as a squad of soldiers showed up with heavy weapons. More soldiers poured out from behind the building the Frame had crashed through. Dressed all in black, they started firing at the regular soldiers.

  Everybody was shouting again.

  “Get those kids under cover!” the commander was yelling at Professor Toei. He glanced uncertainly at James in his armour but elected to ignore what he didn’t understand.

  “Sir!” Another soldier yelled out. “Dragon sighted at the outer perimeter, sir!”

  “No… not again,” Toei said despairingly. “How did they find us?”

  A body dropped from the sky. A live body, at least until it hit the ground—James could hear it screaming until it thudded at his feet. It was one of the black-clad attackers.

  Everyone looked up, but there was nothing there.

  Why does this keep happening? James wondered, before another disturbance caught his attention.

  Another frame stumbled out of the forest.

  This one was being attacked by a dragon.

  James was pretty sure it was a dragon. It looked like pictures of Chinese dragons that he’d seen— a long snake with legs. Black scales and a vivid blue mane. No wings, and flying somehow despite that. It was… ten metres long? More than twice as long as the Frame was tall, but it was difficult to tell, what with all the writhing and the biting and the—

  “What is it doing?” Toei exclaimed. “It’s attacking its own side!”

  With a screech of tortured metal, the cockpit cover was torn off the second Frame. Blood sprayed across the field. The first Frame turned its weapon on the Dragon and fired. Pockmarks appeared on the dragon’s flank, but it only appeared enraged, roaring with anger, and twisting to attack the remaining battle robot.

  “It’s too small…” Toei said. “It’s black, but it’s too small.” Then he shook his head and turned back to the commander. “Get the helicopter up, now!”

  The commander shook his head. “The dragon will catch it,” he objected.

  Toei pointed. “As long as it keeps going for the enemy, they have a chance to get away,” he said. “If it doesn’t… we can lure it, keep it here for long enough for them to escape.”

  The commander stared at Professor Toei. “You know what that means,” he said. Professor Toei nodded.

  “We cannot lose the Jade Warrior at this point,” he insisted.

  The commander stared for a moment longer. “Very well,” he said and started barking orders to the surrounding troops.

  “This way,” Professor Toei said, leading them towards the helicopter.”

  “But I have this armour! I can fight!” James said.

  “Listen,” the professor said. “The Black Dragons can’t touch anything on this site. The Warrior is indestructible; they can’t move it, they can’t pilot it. Everyone on this island is expendable… except for you.”

  “Wait, what do you mean?” James asked.

  “You’ve been acknowledged,” Professor Toei said. “You are the Jade Warrior now. If you get killed, we’ll have to start from scratch… and this world doesn’t have that sort of time.”

  They got to the helicopter. Its blades were just starting to whirl. A soldier was holding the door open. From the crashing sounds behind him, the dragon was still fighting the Frame.

  “Expendable? Not you, though…”

  James was being pushed aboard, while Professor Toei stayed firmly on the ground.

  “Everything I know is shared by others in the Jade Path,” Professor Toei said. “I can be replaced. If I don’t come back from this… tell Matsuri I love her.”

  The soldier shoved James back and slammed the door shut. James felt himself get pulled back into a seat and saw that Mitsue and Suki were right beside him.

  “I—I don’t understand what’s going on,” he said.

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  “You better hang on to something back there!” the pilot called. “Gonna be rough!”

  The noise of the engine rose, becoming deafening. Just as the craft rose into the air, Mitsue handed James a pair of headphones. James took it, suddenly realising that his armour had disappeared at some point.

  Putting on the headphones reduced the noise to manageable levels, but they were supposed to have a radio in them as well… James tried pulling down the microphone and speaking.

  “Can you hear me?” he asked.

  “Sure can!” The pilot’s voice in his ear managed to sound cheery. “If you couldn’t hear me before, you want to strap yourself into a seat. Ride’s gonna be a little rough.”

  A fusillade of high-pitched spangs came from the outside, loud enough to cut through the engine noise.

  “See what I mean! Don’t worry too much about those, it’s just small arms fire. Our armour should take care of—glurk!” Suddenly, the chopper started slewing violently from side to side.

  “What’s going on! Did you get hit?” James shouted. He turned to the others, but Suki was already dashing forward, clambering over the seats to get into the co-pilot’s seat.

  “Mitsue!” she said brightly, her voice coming clearly through the headphones. “I’m afraid the pilot is injured. Can you get him out of his seat so that I can take over?”

  “Of course,” Mitsue said politely. He moved forward, unaffected by the violent swaying.

  “I can help?” James said. “I—whoa!”

  Just as he got up, the craft tilted to one side, sending him tumbling. Mitsue was unaffected, somehow making it seem like he pulled injured people out of their seats all the time.

  “Can you help with the closer end?” he asked James.

  “Right!” James said, staggering forward. He managed to grab the pilot’s shoulders and support them as Mitsue eased the pilot’s legs over the seat.

  “We seem to have stabilised,” he said. “Suki-san, do you actually know how to fly a helicopter?”

  “Not this precise model,” Suki replied. “But I think I’ve got the hang of it now.”

  Another spray of gunfire spanged off the sides of the chopper.

  Suki hummed through her microphone. “I’m not as confident in the armour as the pilot was,” she said. “But we should be able to get out of range quickly.”

  With a surge of power, the chopper started moving forward and up. Another smattering of gunfire hit the sides. Then there was a small explosion towards the rear of the craft.

  “Oh dear,” Suki said. “There are a number of red lights on the console now. How’s the pilot?”

  “He’s dead,” Mitsue said shortly.

  James backed away instinctively. He hadn’t even realised that Mitsue had been checking his vital signs.

  “Oh, that’s a shame, he seemed nice,” Suki said.

  “Y—yeah,” James agreed shakily. “What do the red lights mean?”

  “Hmm,” Suki said. “Some of them mean that an important part is about to fail. Some others mean that an important part has failed, and we’re operating on the backup system. Unfortunately, without a manual, it’s hard to tell which is which.”

  “Are we going to fall out of the sky?” Mitsue asked.

  “Well, yes,” Suki said. “That could describe landing safely after all. The tricky bit is when, and how fast.”

  “What do we do?” James asked.

  “Under most circumstances, I’d say go back to our closest landing spot, but that might not be best under these specific circumstances,” Suki said thoughtfully.

  James thought she was being incredibly calm. Even Mitsue’s demeanour was starting to crack.

  “Jumping out of the helicopter over water might be feasible, but I think only Mitsue has the skills to pull that off without injury,” Suki said. “We’d be relying on you in that case, Mitsue.”

  “I will do my best,” Mitsue said gamely.

  “And our final option is to hope that the engine lasts long enough to get us to the army base on Uoshima Island,” Suki said. “If that doesn’t work out, we’ll crash, of course, in the water or on land, depending on how close we get.”

  “Does the helicopter fly better if it’s higher?” Mitsue asked.

  “No?” Suki replied.

  “Then you should fly as low as is safe,” Mitsue told her. “That will make all our options… easier, at least somewhat.”

  “That makes sense,” Suki agreed. “Does that mean we’re going to try and get as far as we can?”

  “We should avoid ditching in the sea,” Mitsue told her. “There are sharks, and the sea was just recently filled with blood.”

  “Oh! I forgot about that!” Suki exclaimed. “We never got the chance to see, did we?”

  She flew lower. There weren’t any windows in the back of the chopper, and James couldn’t see the ground looking over Suki’s shoulders. She could, though, and squealed as they got to about fifty feet from the ground.

  “Eww! It does look red!” she said. “We don’t want to go swimming in that.”

  Just as she spoke, there was a high-pitched spang from the rear, and the ever-present thudding of the engine became less steady.

  “That’s bad. That’s very bad,” Suki said. “But I can see Uoshima! I think we’ll make it to land, at least. Better strap in!”

  Mitsue pulled James back to the seats and had him sit down. James knew how to fasten the belts, so he got on with that, while Mitsue levered the pilot's corpse into another one, as far away from James as possible.

  “Um, why?” James asked.

  “If the body is left unsecured, it could injure one of us when the helicopter crashes,” Mitsue said. He completed his grim task with efficiency and sat next to James.

  “Try to relax,” he said as he strapped himself in. “Tensed muscles are more easily injured.”

  James giggled inanely at the thought of relaxing even a fraction right now. “Are we going to die?” he asked.

  Mitsue shrugged. “People survive crashes all the time,” he said. “And Suki-san seems… unreasonably skilled.”

  A metallic screech filled the cabin, and an irregular whooshing sound joined the background roar of the motor. James gripped his seat as the craft started to shudder.

  “We’re over the beach!” Suki said excitedly. “We might—”

  There was a sudden bang.

  “—Never mind, we’re going down!” she called. “Hang on!”

  Crashing, James decided later, was like getting beaten up on a rollercoaster. It hurt as he got flung around. Something hit him in the face, and he only realised afterwards that it was his own hand.

  There was a lot of noise, and everything went dark, briefly. Then the door got torn off by a tree branch. Everything was happening too fast, so much was going on that it took a while for him to realise that it had stopped.

  He was still in his seat. The straps were pulling on him strangely. There was far too much green in his vision. Not green light, but green leaves.

  Mitsue was trying to attract his attention.

  “—Stay with me, James,” Mitsue was saying patiently. “I need you to be awake before I can release your harness.”

  “Wha?” James managed to say, “Not safe… harness.”

  “We need to get to the ground,” Mitsue said.

  “Are we still flying?” James asked. “I thought we crashed.”

  “We did crash,” Mitsue said. “Now we have to get out.”

  “Out,” James repeated. Things were becoming more clear. His seat was tilted at an angle. The straps were the only things keeping him from a fall into… a tree? They were in a tree, James realised.

  More memories returned.

  “Is Suki all right?” James asked, struggling against the straps.

  “She is fine. Unconscious, but with only minor injuries. I’ve already removed her from the cockpit.”

  “Oh. Good. How do I get down from here?”

  With Mitsue’s help, James managed to free himself from the straps and climb down to the ground. They left the pilot where he was.

  “If the Jade Path is still around, they can find him later,” Mitsue said. “The next question is, where should we go now?”

  “Um, back to school?” James said. “We’re on the right island, right?”

  “I think so,” Mitsue agreed. “From the general shape of the land, I believe that we are on the opposite side of the island from the school.”

  James looked around the dense forest. He didn’t see how Mitsue could get the ‘general shape of the land’, but perhaps he had climbed a tree or something.

  Suki started to stir.

  “I’m sorry, Master,” she murmured. She moved her body slowly, experimentally. Then she opened her eyes and froze, panicked, staring at the wild undergrowth. Looking wildly around, her eyes lit upon James and Mitsue, and she relaxed.

  “Oh, James!” she said. “You’re all right! I was worried.”

  “I was worried too,” James said, rushing over to her. “Are you feeling okay?”

  Mitsue had already checked her for wounds. She had some bruises and superficial cuts on her face and hands, but nothing major. It was still a relief to see her awake.

  “I’m fine,” she said.

  “Thank you for your efforts,” Mitsue said. “Were it not for your skills, I believe we would be dead.”

  “I’m just glad I could help,” Suki said. “Why are we in a forest, though?”

  Mitsue chuckled and pointed to the helicopter hanging above them “We were just discussing our next move,” he said. “I was about to say that we shouldn’t head straight for the school.”

  “Why not?” James asked.

  “If those black-clad soldiers were truly after you, then they may have placed agents at the school to intercept you,” Mitsue explained. “I propose that we make for our hideout. There are some basic medical supplies there to treat our wounds, and the pair of you can rest while I scout out the school and that military base to see what has befallen the Jade Path cult.”

  “We could just call…” James said, pulling out his phone. To his relief, it was unbroken and even had a signal.

  “Do not,” Mitsue commanded. “Too high a chance of interception.”

  James blinked. He wanted to dismiss what Mitsue was saying as paranoid ravings… but after everything that had happened, he had to admit that Mitsue had a better idea of what was going on than he did.

  “All right,” James sighed. “Let’s do it your way. But I thought that you wanted to keep the hot spring a secret?”

  Mitsue winced. “Some things cannot be helped,” he said.

  It took them the rest of the day to find Mitsue’s hot spring. James wasn’t sure why Mitsue wasn’t doing the giant leaping thing. Either he was keeping the ability secret from Suki, or he just couldn’t do it right now. Mitsue’s warning glare when he tried to bring the subject up suggested the first reason.

  He did scout ahead, though, and quickly found a route for the much less capable James and Suki. They both slumped to the ground when they finally reached the place.

  “This is quite nice,” Suki said, looking around.

  “I have some emergency supplies,” Mitsue said, handing over some energy bars and bottles of water. “You can rest here, I’ll head out when it gets a little darker.”

  “Um, is that a bird?” Suki asked, pointing. “Because it doesn’t look like a bird.”

  James groaned as he levered himself up to a sitting position and looked where she was pointing. It didn’t look like a bird. It was more of a squiggly line than a black dot, and… it was getting bigger quickly. Very quickly.

  Mitsue sword, and pulled a short sword out of somewhere. “How did they find us so soon?” he said bitterly.

  James could see it more clearly now. It was the same black and blue dragon that he’d seen attacking the Frames. There was something different about it, though, a blue and orange dot on its back.

  Weary and sore, James staggered to his feet. “Stay behind me, Suki,” he said. “Hopefully, the armour will come back.”

  Even if it did, he had his doubts that it could stand up to a dragon. Steeling his resolve, he glared out at the approaching monster. It was getting closer, clearer… was that… Harue?

  It was Harue, but she looked different. Casually standing on the dragon’s back as if she were riding a surfboard, she looked down at them, grinning. The dragon came to a halt about thirty feet away, still flying twenty feet in the air.

  Harue stepped off the dragon’s back. Instead of falling, she flew, drifting down at a fast, but clearly not natural, rate. Even the skirt of her school uniform wasn’t disturbed.

  She looked like Harue, but the Harue that James knew didn’t have orange-furred ears poking through her hair. Nor did she have a big fluffy tail, let alone two, poking out the back of her skirt.

  Harue touched down in front of the group as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She grinned at them all.

  “Hey, everyone! I think it’s time we had a talk,” she said.