Hand In Hand

Amid the screaming blizzards of Antarctica, the covert Japanese research outpost Shirayuki Station uncovers something impossible buried 2,400 meters beneath the eastern ice shelf—a living gemstone that pulses like a heartbeat. The discovery traces back to a secret laboratory in Tokyo’s Shinagawa district, where Professor Yamamoto Haruki detected a rhythmic, non-seismic signal emanating from beneath the Antarctic crust. Believing it to be a “summons” rather than a mineral anomaly, he initiates a classified operation known as Project Hand in Hand, bypassing international treaties that strictly forbid resource extraction on the continent.When the Antarctic drill strikes the source, the extracted object—a radiant blue-and-silver crystalline core—demonstrates adaptive lattice structures and emits powerful electromagnetic interference. It reacts most strongly to Director Kisaragi Ren, as though recognizing him. During the station’s night cycle, the gemstone briefly unfolds and projects a focused beam of unknown energy into the sky, disrupting satellites worldwide for precisely 3.2 seconds. Though no official detection is recorded, Tokyo confirms the beam received a synchronized response from far beyond Earth’s orbit.Realizing the geopolitical catastrophe its existence could trigger, Ren orders the artifact secretly transported to Japan. As the aircraft vanishes into the storm, the gemstone pulses patiently—while, somewhere in deep space, an ancient dormant structure awakens in answer.