MTLNOVEL Chapter 16: EPISODE 16: “The Bytecutter Code”
🗡️ "If they erase the memory... it's like you never fought. Never loved. Never lived."
🎬 [Scene 1 – Underground Metro Vault, 4:00 A.M.]
Flooded, humming. Rows of glowing crystal tablets hover in midair like floating mirrors. SHIELD's Tokyo memory backup vault — an ancient-tech fusion of spiritual wards and quantum servers.
NICK FURY (via comm):
"Null's targeting this site. If they slice this vault, they erase SHIELD's record of everything — the demon invasion, your team, even Mephisto."
ONMYO FLARE (checking charms):
"Then let's make sure we're not just ghosts in someone else's story."
🕶️ [Scene 2 – Starwave's Fracture]
Starwave sits alone before the battle, listening to static in her earpiece. Her phone plays old concert footage — but her image has vanished.
Her voice is gone. Her fans can't remember her name.
KURO ŌKAMI:
"Even without them remembering, you're still you."
STARWAVE (quietly):
"But what if I forget me too?"
🗡️ [Scene 3 – NULL Returns]
NULL breaches the metro vault.
Their coat flutters like TV static.
They draw Bytecutter, which emits zero sound.
Every strike removes a chunk of the vault's glowing archive.
NULL:
"History is written by liars. I'm just correcting the page count."
⚔️ [Scene 4 – Vault Battle Begins]
🔥 TEAM FORMATION:
Onmyo Flare seals the north gate with a Flame Barrier Kanji.
Scarlet Onna weaves a multi-thread spiritual net across the server lines.
Kuro Ōkami prowls the shadows, waiting for a strike opening.
Starwave is hesitant — her power unstable after the deletion.
💻 NULL vs TOKYO AVENGERS – ROUND TWO
Null moves like a ghost between blade slashes, glitching in and out of physical space.
Bytecutter erases every seal Onmyo Flare casts before it even activates.
Scarlet Onna's thread spell — "Memory Lattice Trap" — barely slows Null, who slices the past 5 seconds out of her mind mid-battle, causing her to stagger.
🌀 [Scene 5 – Starwave's Stand]
Null targets her next.
"You're forgotten, Starwave. You're nothing but white noise now."
STARWAVE:
"Even if I'm gone from their memories…
My voice still hurts you."
She activates Raw Resonance Mode — not polished music, but vibrations of pure identity.
🎤 STARWAVE'S COUNTER: "SHOCKRIFT FREQUENCY"
Her sonic pulses reverberate in real-time and memory space.
Null staggers — sound is the one thing they cannot delete once it's been felt.
Her mic-staff glows blue. Her kicks echo into mirrored afterimages, striking from multiple angles.
🔁 [Scene 6 – Bytecutter's Secret]
Null stumbles — and for the first time, the mask flickers.
Behind it: the same child seen in the pod last episode.
Half-mechanical eyes. Tears. Emotion.
KURO ŌKAMI (growling):
"They're not just a weapon. They're… a prisoner."
ONMYO FLARE (realizing):
"Bytecutter is feeding on the child's mind… to power its deletion."
🧵 [Scene 7 – The Data Bind Ritual]
Scarlet Onna activates a dangerous weave spell:
"Thread Bind: Echo Remembrance Seal."
Her threads wrap around Null's midair form — sewing memory glyphs into reality itself.
For a moment, the vault remembers what was erased — glimpses of Starwave's concerts, Kuro's first howl, Renji's childhood shrine, Sayo's mother.
🗡️ [Scene 8 – Null's Escape]
The data reaction causes a void rupture. Null screams — static tearing around them.
NULL:
"You think you can stitch truth?
You haven't seen what they deleted first."
They teleport mid-slash, severing one last memory…
A file containing SHIELD's knowledge of Nick Fury's true location.
The vault cracks. Fury's coordinates disappear.
🕯️ [Scene 9 – Aftermath]
The team saves 70% of the archive.
Starwave regains partial visibility online — a flicker of her name appears in old playlists.
Scarlet Onna collapses — the memory-weaving took a toll.
ONMYO FLARE:
"They know we're getting close. That's why they're unraveling more."
KURO ŌKAMI:
"Then we hunt faster."
📡 [Final Scene – Null's Crypt]
In the Data Tomb, Null clutches Bytecutter — now overheating, covered in fractured code.
The child inside the pod opens her eyes.
CHILD:
"Why do they fight so hard… for a story that'll be deleted anyway?"
NULL (whispers):
"Because they still believe…
I can be saved."
🎴 [End Card – Tokyo Avengers]
EPISODE 16: "The Bytecutter Code" — END
🌀 Next Time: Episode 17 — "Threadfall"
Scarlet Onna's powers are unraveling. Null launches a trap using the corrupted memory of her mother's final spell. To win, she must face what she buried… or risk being erased next.