A week had passed since Deep went missing.
The two-week deployment had also ended.
During the week since Deep’s disappearance, Ran had finished preparing herself mentally.
Even if they returned to the Academy like this, the team’s pilot would still be missing.
There was no way a new pilot would appear right away, and there was no way any new pilot the Academy admitted would be as outstanding as Deep.
Ran’s talent was ordinary.
Without an outstanding pilot, maintaining their current results would be difficult.
She would fall back into being an ordinary student, or much of the sponsorship she had been receiving until now would be cut off.
Only such unfortunate things waited for her.
The movements and circumstances of House Luna were suspicious, or Deep might still be alive—things like that were not matters Ran could resolve with her own strength.
“Why isn’t he coming?”
Naturally, they were not matters Ian could resolve either.
Ian had claimed to be a commoner to escape the political power struggles within the imperial family.
Thanks to that, he had gotten away from politics, but he also had no way to make use of the imperial family’s authority.
So, of course, Ian must have given up too.
That was what she thought.
The train only made eight round trips a day.
If the train departed in five minutes, the next one would not be available for another three hours.
Of course, they could hitch a ride on a freight train, but that would damage the dignity of an Academy cadet, so she was not inclined to do so.
Beep.
It was Ian.
It was definitely Ian.
If he had even the slightest conscience, he would at least have made an excuse.
Hangar (11:55 a.m.)
Come here (11:55 a.m.)
“The hangar?”
The train was leaving in five minutes, and he wanted her at the hangar now?
Ran had forgotten for a moment.
Ian never had a conscience in the first place.
It took fifteen minutes just to get from the train station to the hangar, and around thirty minutes for a round trip.
Ian had never intended to board this train to begin with.
After hesitating for a moment, Ran picked up her bag.
Whether she went with Ian or separately, the Academy would still be in the same place.
In that case, it was better to go together.
She took one of the circulating vehicles inside the frontline base and headed for the hangar.
Ran, out of habit, moved toward the partition wall where Ailee had been stationed.
For a while, she had often visited the place where Ailee had been.
It had not been long since she had created a hologram model of the form Ailee had wanted, and now she might never see that form again.
No, she would not see it again.
Thinking that, she felt wronged.
“Not that way. This way.”
Ran stopped walking.
When she turned her head, Ian was not by the Titan hangar but over by the vehicle hangar.
“What are you thinking?”
Ian thumped the area behind him.
It was an armored vehicle.
“Get in.”
“Where did you get that?”
“Bought it from Karina.”
What a relief.
So he had not stolen it.
“You want to drive around? I told you, if you’re going to do something, tell me in advance.”
After operating on the front lines, some cadets ended up liking the place and used the rest of their vacation to travel around it.
It was not exactly common, but she had heard that upperclassmen sometimes did it.
On top of that, secretly buying an armored vehicle for a drive?
Was Ian trying to do some kind of romantic event like this…?
There was no way it was an event.
Ran lifted her gaze to the top of the armored vehicle.
“…What did you load on it?”
“Ailee’s small hydrogen fuel generator.”
“…And what’s that attached next to it?”
“A weapon.”
That was not a simple rifle or anything like that.
“That’s, that’s not what I mean. What are we going to do?”
Ian climbed the ladder of the armored vehicle and held out his hand.
When Ran took it, he pulled her up in one smooth motion, held her in his arms, and slowly lowered her into the passenger seat inside.
“To find Deep.”
Ian got into the driver’s seat and started the engine.
***
For a while, I suffered from phantom pain.
Fortunately, mirror therapy existed in this world too.
In short, it was a treatment that used a mirror to make a missing leg look as if it were there, relieving the discomfort in the absent part.
Even though I had lost my leg, the assistive device Professor Zeke had given me remained.
One leg had been crushed, damaging the device as well, but Locke said he had fixed it.
When I attached it to my intact leg and pretended it was my missing left leg, the effect was much better.
The human brain is dumber than you’d think.
Even while clearly understanding what exists and what does not, it still cannot accept it.
Thanks to that, for an entire week, the itching nearly drove me insane.
One leg was gone.
And Ailee was gone too.
Humans are far dumber than you’d think, so even if they understand that something is gone, they cannot accept it.
Over the course of a week, the urge to self-harm slowly rose, and I began having nightmares again.
There was no one I knew around me.
The only people here whose faces I was somewhat familiar with were Simon, Locke, and the two other former test subjects.
Even then, Simon was too busy to meet me, and the people who had been test subjects were, honestly, no different from strangers.
Locke came to me over every little thing and told me to say if I needed anything, but I did not know what I needed either.
What did I need besides Ailee?
It would be enough if I just had Ailee.
Ever since I came to my senses, my hands had kept trembling.
I would try to scratch the wound where my leg had disappeared, then bite my nails, and while biting my nails, my hand would go back to the wound.
Then, without realizing it, the moment I scratched over the bandages with my nails even once, it hurt so much I wanted to die, and I slammed my head into the wall.
Another part of me had to hurt for my mind to be less fixated on my leg.
Whenever I heard an explosion or the sound of something breaking, I flinched.
The sound of Ailee’s core shattering replayed in my head over and over again.
It hurt.
Even though it hurt, the memory replayed automatically again and again.
It was a repeating loop.
I tore at my nails, scratched the wound, slammed my head, Locke came running after hearing the noise, and I did mirror therapy again to somehow get rid of the itching.
Before I knew it, the sight of my ragged nails was so ugly that I filed them down completely, until there was no nail left to bite.
I bled a little while filing them.
I had thought things like this would not hurt anymore, but it stung so badly that I put bandages on them.
Once I filed away the nails I could bite, I started biting my lips instead.
I had removed the problem, not the cause of it.
“Fuck.”
Ailee is gone.
Ailee is gone.
Ailee is gone.
Ailee is go—
Kwaaaaang!
A roar.
I hunched my body, then raised my head again at the familiar sensation.
Soon, sirens blared throughout the entire Allied Forces base.
“What is it? What’s going on?”
“Is it a bombardment?”
“How would I know? Get out, hurry! Move the pilots first!”
I heard the sound of running outside.
As I opened the door while leaning on my cane, Locke grabbed the open door.
“Deep, you’re in danger too, so move to the bunker for now.”
“I have to go.”
“What?”
Kwaaaaang!
The roar rang out once again.
There was no way I would mistake this sound.
Aside from me, only a few people at the Academy even used that weapon.
Kwaaaaang!
A railgun.
It was a railgun.
“I said I have to go.”
“You want to sortie in that body? If I beg hard enough, I could lend you a Titan, but if you go in that state, you’ll die!”
“No, just put me in a car.”
Locke supported me with a puzzled expression.
Maybe it was because of the debt from the TB13 days, or maybe it was because it was the first time I had ever asked Locke for anything.
Even though he had questions, he did not ask and helped me right away.
Beep.
“This is Locke. Our guest says he wants to go to the epicenter.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know. Seems like going there will solve it.”
“Hey, hey! Stop him, don’t let him go!”
“I’m sorry, but I owe the guest my life, so that’s difficult. We’re departing.”
“Hey!”
Beep.
I got straight into the passenger seat, fastened my belt, and we set off.
Ian, you crazy bastard.
You really crazy bastard.
Kwaaaaang!
The sound was closer than before.
The trajectory of the shot was clearly visible.
He was firing toward the sky.
It meant, Look this way and come find me.
It was exactly the same as when I fired a railgun like a signal flare on the Western Front.
The moment Locke stopped the car, I got out.
My body staggered and was about to fall, but someone caught me.
I raised my head.
Bright blue eyes were looking at me.
I tried to hold back, but I really could not hold back these words.
“You crazy bastard.”
“Knew you’d be alive.”
Fuck.
He really was a crazy bastard.
Ran glared at Ian while tightly clutching her windblown hair.
“I told you there was no plan! Seriously! Who fires a railgun from an armored vehicle instead of a Titan?”
Ian first turned off the switch he was holding.
Perhaps because of the railgun’s recoil, both Ran and Ian were soaked with snow from head to toe.
“Got one favor.”
Ian tapped the car Locke had driven over.
“Load that into this and take it with you.”
“Why here?”
Ian pointed behind him.
The armored vehicle had been reduced to a pulp by the railgun’s recoil.
Of course.
Of course, it was not only the railgun.
“A generator?”
A small generator.
The generator that had been separated from Ailee before the northern operation.
“Ailee was captured by House Luna.”
Ailee was alive.
Ran approached from behind Ian.
Perhaps because the recoil from the railgun had taken the strength from her legs, she grabbed Ian and stood by holding on to him.
“The speed at which House Luna is moving supplies is unusual. They’ll probably launch a large-scale military operation within two months, and Ailee will move then too.”
“She might be operated as an unmanned craft by House Luna standards, but I think there’s a high chance they’ll run her as a manned unit. I don’t particularly like the Allied Forces either, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s okay for Allied Forces people to die.”
That Ailee would move.
Customized by House Luna.
To capture me.
“So bring a crane. Need to move the generator and the railgun.”
“Locke, can you do it?”
“Ha, damn it. Since you brought back some huge information, I’ll contact the commander. I’ll try, but—no, seriously, are all your friends crazy?”
“There’s no one normal around me.”
Ailee was coming for me.
That meant I would definitely be able to see Ailee.
“Ian, I’m asking just in case.”
Ian took a syringe-like drug from his pants pocket.
It was not the color of a stimulant.
“Amputation treatment drug. I only relocated one week’s worth.”
“You stole it.”
“I relocated it to the patient who needs it.”
“What about that armored vehicle?”
“I sent Karina money and took it.”
“Did you get permission?”
“I sent money. Do I need permission?”
Ran’s expression instantly stiffened.
Locke ended the communication and looked over at us.
“There really isn’t anyone normal around you.”
Agreed.