Combat-Use Simulator

This Serpo-built tool exists to drill its users in combat, summoning lifelike enemy projections to spar against. Its body blends a nautilus with some boneless sea creature: a coiling shell banded in alternating dark and pale segments, fronted by ten thick tentacles, five lining either side of the opening.

The units hover and can read imagery held in a wielder's retinas, storing it up to thirty-six hours before a session, then casting a 3D copy of the recorded foe. A hologram's blows deal no true wounds, yet they still land with genuine force and weight, as shown when Mantisian got knocked backward by a simulated projectile. After a scan succeeds, the device gives off a faint blip of sound and light.

Guided by Rokuro Serpo through the buried basement of the wrecked Nagi Hospital, the group was suddenly surrounded by several of these devices aiming at them. Momo briefly feared a setup until a unit scanned her eyes and conjured Imotako, the foe she had once fought at Moe Moe Kikoho. Their use was then spelled out by Rokuro, who called them vital prep for the invasion only five days out, and the retinas of Jiji, Aira, and a knocked-out Okarun were read as well. Joined by Mantisian, the four squared off first against projections of Suda Ko, Ta Komeshi, and Takonoka Ru Patcho, flopping badly, which set Aira off on a furious rant at her teammates.