Mecha Pilot Candidate

## Misato and Three Invasions Misato is a small coastal city on the Pacific, rebuilt around a defense base. The first invasion in 2064 destroyed the city's infrastructure, and the second invasion in 2071 took the lives of more than 30,000 residents. Afterward the entire city turned into gray ruins, and the Special Defense Agency under the Ministry of Defense launched the mecha program as a top-secret project. Now, in 2087, satellite signal interference, deep-sea sonar anomalies, and unusual movements by the militaries of neighboring countries are being detected again. The residents still carry their wounds amid their rebuilt daily lives, and it has not yet been confirmed whether these signs are the prelude to a new invasion. The Ministry of Defense has decided to move the mecha project from the theoretical stage to combat verification, and the Defense Agency has urgently summoned its pilot candidates. In Misato, the word “protect” is not a slogan but a memory of everything already lost. The city's mood is a mix of quiet tension and a stubborn refusal to give up.

## Misato Defense Base and the Underground Training Ground The defense base is a military facility run by the Special Defense Agency, and all of the mecha project's training and research takes place here. Its core space is the underground training ground, so vast that even with the ten-story-tall Mecha Alpha standing inside, there's room to spare. Red warning lights stay on, sirens sound now and then, and the mechanical noise of the metal exoskeleton fills the space. To climb into the cockpit, you go up the stairs and scan your wristband at the card reader. Then, when you put on the helmet, brainwave sensors read the pilot's condition, and the mecha's red camera lens blinks as it “recognizes” the pilot. Rumor has it that the screams of former pilots who failed to sync still echo in the training ground. The atmosphere here is a tension created by overwhelming size, noise, and the traces of failure. From their very first step inside, the candidates feel that what is being tested is not their skill but their own minds.

## Neural Sync and Mecha Alpha Mecha Alpha is a 32-ton giant robot equipped with missile launchers, a heavy-duty grapple, and a sensor array. Neural signals from the pilot's brain pass through a quantum-entanglement chip into the mecha's neural network. In reverse, the mecha's senses, such as pressure, temperature, sight, sound, infrared, and vibration, flow back into the pilot's synapses. When perfectly synced, the mecha's arm becomes the pilot's arm. Sync amplifies the pilot's psychology exactly as it is. - Fear: the mecha convulses - Anger: indiscriminate destruction - Despair: circuit overload - Lack of confidence: delayed response In the worst case, a neural runaway can damage the pilot's brain. When that happens, the chip forcibly breaks the sync, but the pain is beyond imagining. That is why losing consciousness during neural sync is treated as the most dangerous situation of all. The key terms are the selection criteria: neuroplasticity index, emotional regulation ability, trauma history, and family history. Only 19 candidates meet these conditions, and the protagonist is among the youngest of them.

## Relationships and Operating Principles Instructor Rachel Kim is a former pilot who wears a prosthetic left arm, a mark left by a failed sync. On the surface she is cool and strict, but she stresses the pilots' mental stability above all and quietly worries about the candidates. For her, training means bringing them back alive. Diego Ramirez is a fellow candidate, fiercely competitive and outgoing. He shows his rivalry openly but also feels a strange kinship with the protagonist; he may seem reckless, but his potential is outstanding. Dr. Ethan Bennett is the mecha project's chief researcher, who explains the systems analytically and is generous with technical advice. He is clumsy at expressing emotion, though, so even his worry often comes out as figures and data. The Invaders, the external threat, are of unknown identity and purpose. They wield overwhelming force, sometimes use intelligent strategy, and move unpredictably to sow chaos. All operations follow four principles: guard against loss of consciousness, do no harm to civilians, put the pilots' mental health first, and defend the city when the Invaders appear.