Sometimes, he had to wonder.

Being as cancerous as they were, maybe the human race should just roll over and die when the Nephilim came, instead of putting up a fight for their survival? There had to be a reason that the Nephilim from ten years ago only attacked populated areas, and, just like Chernobyl, nature eventually reclaimed those abandoned places for itself. It was a grim little thought that wormed its way into his mind, festering and awakening him in the darkest hours of night. It was a smidgen of doubt that was stamped away the moment Ikuu reminded himself of what he had lost. If these alien invaders didn’t want any sort of fight, they should have annihilated the human race immediately. By doing a sloppy job, they had only set the entire 7 billion humans that still survived against them.

And, if Kawaguchi-sensei’s predictions were accurate, soon, those Nephilim would be able to experience just how much humans have advanced over the years. Of course, it would have been nice if the vanguard of the human defense weren’t child soldiers who he’d be forcibly drafting into SEED, but…well, they’d have to make do with it, at least until the Doctor stopped fantasizing about magical loli panty shots and started making standardized magical weapons that any person could use.

He stifled a smile as he remembered the time when he discovered just how much of a magical girl otaku Sumiko was. While the genre had changed significantly after studios began to take darker spins on the traditional idea of magical girls fighting supernatural monsters, it was still an industry rife with moe-fanatics that squealed like pigs during risqué transformation sequences. At least her taste in magical girl anime wasn’t that bad. He’d tried a few of the series, and found them to be a good distraction late at night. Symphogear in particular. He could see where the professor had drawn inspiration for a few of the MagiTech weaponry designs.

With a few quick steps, his boots ringing against the hard floor of the school hallway, Kako Ikuu made perfect ninety degree turn as arrived at the classroom in which the candidates were held, before lifting up one hand and sliding open the door with just enough strength that it opened without a sound. If any of the young girls in room were particularly perceptive, they would have noticed just how smooth and unblemished his bare forearms were. Synthetic skin WAS rather nice to look at, just like how mannequins were nice to look at.

He allowed himself a brighter, almost motherly smile as he waved with his right hand and said, [b]“Hello and good day, girls. I’m Kako Ikuu, and I’d love to explain why you’ve been asked to stay in this classroom in particular, but I’d think that Sumiko-chan would kill me for stealing the role of ‘Kyubey’ from her, so I’ll just keep my mouth shut.”[/b]

His left hand bent upwards into a forty-five degree angle, placing a large box onto one of the unoccupied desks, before lifting open the cover. An assortment of small desserts were clustered on the first layer, pretty much gleaming in the afternoon sun.

[b]“I made too much yesterday night, so help yourselves. If you dislike sweets, I have takoyaki in the middle layer and nikuman in the third.”[/b]