The Ghost.
Though I had somehow read the postscript first, I skimmed the enclosed message out of the corner of my eye while backing away on reverse thrust.
“Urgh?!”
The g-force shot up.
It was enough to make me think the dampeners had been purged.
Since they were built around the core, that couldn’t be the case.
The speed had simply increased.
A system that activated at Ailey’s discretion when the generator overloaded, exposing the generator cooling rods to the outside and purging the armor.
“Just how long have you been hiding this?”
“No! I haven’t been hiding it that long, okay? It was added this time!”
“I’ll believe that for now.”
“It’s true! Deep, you like heavy, stacked ones! I hate being in this state!”
A leap.
As the armor was purged, the exposed frame thrusters ignited.
I could avoid Alex’s muzzle, kick off the wall, drive my foot into the ceiling, and slip in behind him.
“That mobility must be Ian’s work too.”
The moment I swung the heat blade, Alex blocked it with his forearm.
I cut through the Gatling gun, but failed to reach his actual forearm.
I see.
In the game, the pilot customizes their Titan every day, so they need an engineer of incredible skill.
Conversely, since the player often acts on their own arbitrary judgment, there’s no need for an outstanding operator.
An engineer and operator to support that within the setting.
Ian, the genius engineer, and Ran, ordinary but capable of speaking her mind.
That was the reason.
“With a Titan that fast, you won’t even be able to control it properly. You’d be better off getting out now.”
Hoo.
I had no choice but to bring out the magic words.
“You must be scared.”
I sheathed the heat blade and slipped into Alex’s guard.
Elbow Rocket.
Kkraaang!
When I drove my fist upward from below, the recoil made Alex stagger and retreat on reverse thrust.
“Deep! We don’t have armor, so my fingers broke!”
“The hydraulic cylinder on his side broke too, so it’s fine!”
The moment the distance opened, we both thrust out our gun barrels at the same time.
My rifle and Alex’s rifle pierced through each other.
At the same time, we both aimed at the floor and activated our hover units, grabbing the rifles as they bounced away from the recoil.
Neither of us held the grip. We both grabbed the barrels and swung them like blunt weapons.
“You don’t have the weight, Deep. Don’t you get it?”
Ailey had the generator overclocked.
Thanks to the magnetic coating, the joints no longer had to worry about durability, and they had become stronger as well, but what mattered in close-quarters combat was the weight of armor.
Even if the output increased, if the weight dropped, you couldn’t win a melee.
Ailey was pushed steadily backward, then increased the output of the hover unit.
“You’re the one who doesn’t get it!”
Ailey’s voice rang out through the speakers.
“You’re only using one medium generator, and you don’t even have Ian’s thrusters!”
The thrusters all over her body ignited.
Alex’s body tilted backward.
“Bullsh—!”
Kkraaang!
Alex slammed straight into the wall.
Ailey did not stop thrusting and kept driving Alex back.
With a grinding screech, Alex’s thrusters were scraped away against the wall.
Kkraaang!
“Ugh!”
At the sudden impact, Ailey was flung backward.
It was the mace hanging at Alex’s waist.
Since it had thrusters attached, he could move it by remote control without swinging it himself.
“Every single weapon having thrusters is seriously infuriating!”
“What’s the damage?”
“I held out with reverse thrust, so I’m fine!”
Meanwhile, Alex’s backpack thrusters had been ground against the wall.
His fuel tank should have cracks in it too, and if he charged recklessly, it would explode.
That was what I thought.
Alex began approaching while spraying thrust.
It wasn’t Alex’s backpack thrusters.
It was the thruster on the bazooka fixed beside his backpack.
“I didn’t think he’d use it like that.”
I pushed the sticks and pedals.
As Ailey accelerated, Alex increased the output of his hover unit and swept across the floor.
Parts from the damaged Titans flew up toward Ailey.
If we had armor, we could ignore them, but right now, we had to dodge.
“Please, just once!”
I ran along the wall with only one foot, supporting the body with the thrusters.
It was possible because we were in an ultralight state with no armor and even the fuel nearly bottoming out.
No, honestly, even then, it was something we absolutely should not do.
I went straight for his back.
With Alex’s side drive cylinder broken, he shouldn’t be able to turn around quickly.
As I slipped behind Alex, the bazooka’s direction bent, and its muzzle came into view.
When I blasted the side thruster to avoid the bazooka’s muzzle, this time the rifle muzzle appeared.
Even if I’d moved the other way, the mace would have come flying.
“It’s common sense that high-mobility types are at a disadvantage in cramped spaces.”
Bang!
The instant the bullet pierced the generator, the left leg dropped to one knee.
The cooling rod shattered, and coolant began streaming out.
“Not yet!”
The moment I drew the handgun and fired, Alex’s head jerked slightly backward.
Then he looked at me again.
“Good judgment, but this one was a dual-eye type from the start.”
Alex stared at me with one eye shattered.
The moment I tried to fire again, the accelerating Alex grabbed my wrist.
When I tried to swing the heat blade with my left arm, he caught my elbow and stopped it.
We lacked weight.
With only one generator left, we lacked output too.
The lights inside the core flickered, then went out one by one.
To maintain the minimum output, the sensors began shutting down one after another, until only a single screen from the main image camera remained.
“I’ve been thinking.”
I couldn’t even resist.
“The fact that you’re alive pretty much guarantees a bad ending, you know? If your data gets handed over to the Luna Count family like this, and every unmanned unit starts moving at your level, that sounds horrifying too. I won’t have a place anymore.”
“So?”
“I was thinking I might kill you.”
The way he said it, as if he really was only considering it, gave me chills.
“Even if you get out alive, you’ll just keep getting chased from now on, won’t you? Living like that would be miserable. If you’re caught, you’ll be a test subject. It’d be easier for you if I killed you.”
“Don’t… give me that bullshit.”
“Who knows? Maybe you’ll die, open your eyes, and find yourself back in your original world.”
“Ha, ahaha, hh.”
“What’s so funny?”
How could I not laugh?
He was saying something even he didn’t believe.
“Honestly, Levan lost.”
“What?”
The condition of my machine was the worst, and the situation was the worst.
It was a fight I couldn’t win.
“In a space where a high-mobility type is disadvantaged, I started fighting with most of my weapons already spent, my generator overloaded, and no armor. On top of that, my sensors are defective. And even then, if this is how far I got, Levan lost.”
Then I wanted to at least get under his skin before I went.
“That’s funny.”
You bastard.
That hit a nerve.
Woooong.
The moment the mace sprayed thrust, I fired the reverse thrusters.
Clunk!
Something came down over my body from behind the seat.
The mace slammed down over the core.
At the same time, Alex was pierced by an armor-piercing round.
***
It hurts.
I feel like I’m going to die.
No, I really feel like I’m going to die.
“Deep, are you awake?”
It wasn’t a voice from the speakers.
Ailey’s body was covering mine.
The parts visible to my eyes looked intact, but sparks had been flying from behind Ailey’s back for a while now.
Because of the core fluid smeared all over Ailey’s body, it looked as if blood was flowing.
“Don’t look down. Even if it hurts, just ignore it.”
The moment she said that, I became aware of it.
But I could tell without looking.
It hurt so much that it was actually numb.
My left leg wouldn’t move below the knee.
“My leg…”
The instant I recognized it, the pain suddenly began.
I clenched my teeth and endured it.
Belatedly, the area around my knee hurt horribly.
Ailey was pressing down hard to keep it from bleeding.
I had to move.
No matter how many times I moved the sticks, the Titan didn’t react at all.
“Move. Move. Move, move.”
“The circuit connecting the pilot controls to the Titan is damaged. You won’t be able to control the Titan.”
It hurt so much I could hardly breathe.
When I let go of the sticks and barely managed to take a deep breath, Ailey slowly stroked my cheek.
There was the smell of metal.
Crunch.
With a sudden sound, the hatch area was torn away.
It was a white hand.
It wasn’t Alex. The parts corresponding to Alex’s frame were black.
That hand was covered in camouflage.
“You’re alive. Good.”
It was the White Reaper.
Around it, I could see several mass-produced Titans also wearing camouflage.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but since you were fighting each other, I shot our comrade’s enemy first. You, the Luna Count family seems to be after you. Follow us. We’ll keep you alive.”
The voice echoed.
No. It wasn’t the voice. My head was ringing.
I was so dizzy that it was hard to understand the words.
When I looked to the side, Alex was lying there.
They had shot the pelvic section again.
They hadn’t shot the core, so he was probably alive.
They should have killed him instead.
“We don’t have much strength to spare either, so you need to come out quickly. There are still a lot of Titans guarding this facility.”
The white mass-produced Titans were carrying glass tubes on their backs.
They were smuggling out the people who would be put into cores.
So that was why they were the Liberation Army.
People who liberated the sacrificed humans meant to go into artificial intelligences.
I clenched my teeth and barely managed to shout.
“Please, get the person in the core out too!”
“That’s difficult.”
The White Reaper answered mercilessly.
“To get someone connected to a core out, you need to dismantle an intact core, and that’s impossible here. Even if we could, there’s no time. The only one we can take right now is you. To begin with, your Titan is in a state where it could blow at any moment.”
“I’m asking you to save a person!”
“We have to save the people we can save first!”
Thoom.
From far away, the sound came again.
The sound of mass-produced Titans dropping down and moving.
“There’s no time.”
I can’t go without Ailey.
Even if I can, I won’t.
Defecting to the Alliance Army is fine.
In the worst of the worst cases, I had assumed that from the beginning.
But I can’t leave Ailey behind.
Even in the worst of my worst, Ailey was always there.
“Deep, you have to go. Go and live.”
“No. We have to go together.”
I had promised to buy Ailey something delicious.
“Pilot authority access.”
“…Ailey?”
I had handed several of the pilot’s authorities over to Ailey.
With that many permissions, Ailey could even take my authority from me.
“Pilot seat operation. Activating escape device.”
“A-Ailey.”
The core hatch of the White Reaper slowly opened.
Cigarette smoke billowed out.
“You said… you’d never let me go.”
Ailey smiled brightly and moved aside.
“Gyarus are good at lying.”
Thoom!
As my body was ejected forward, the White Reaper’s Titan immediately caught me.
Then the Titan pushed me into its core, and the hatch closed.
I was dizzy.
Sleepy.
My eyes slowly closed.
***
The White Reaper left.
“Mmm, I feel stiff. So this is what it feels like when the core breaks? Gives me chills!”
Am I going to die?
I don’t know.
Maybe I’ll be captured.
Which would be luckier?
Ailey smiled and sat down in the seat.
After all, the only one unable to control it due to circuit damage was the pilot.
If it was an artificial intelligence that could directly interfere with the control system—
No, that’s wrong. Artificial intelligence, my ass.
If it’s me, trapped inside the core and directly connected to the controls, I can pilot it as much as I want.
“I love you.”
I hadn’t been able to say it because I thought he might think an artificial intelligence was some kind of human-fetish freak.
Mm, I was definitely right not to say it.
If I had, Deep would have been crying and wailing and making a huge scene.
Thoom.
Thoom.
Footsteps approached.
The sound of falling approached.
I took the syringe from my pocket and stabbed it straight into the injector port.
The stimulant took effect quickly.
My personality, my memories, and even those familiar emotions gradually began to blur.
But I won’t forget my objective.
That’s what the stimulant is for.
“Shall I buy him some time to escape?”
For the otaku I love.
A gyaru who is kind to otaku rides a Titan.