“I figure things are better now that the Banshee’s around.”
The conversation was over.
Robert kept offering me cigarettes and alcohol, so I simply said we were done talking and came outside.
If I’d stayed there any longer, I felt like I would have ended up accepting one or the other.
When alcohol and cigarettes come attached to stories of the past, I can’t refuse them.
“Why?”
“Don’t know who’s piloting it, but ever since the Banshee showed up, we’ve been fighting among ourselves less. You could say we’re watching ourselves. It feels like our dead mother came back to life, so it’s awkward to fight.”
I think I understand what he means.
Even if it wasn’t your mother, but just a photo of your mother, there’s no way you could fight in front of it.
If you were a normal person.
“And if that mother cracks our skulls open, it gets even harder to fight. You get me?”
“I, uh, think I roughly do.”
It really was good at hitting heads.
“That’s why I’m a bit doubtful.”
“Yes?”
“The Empire may be self-centered, but it ain’t stupid. So why would they connect the Banshee to us fighting? After the Banshee appeared, fighting among ourselves actually decreased.”
Now that I heard it, he had a point.
After the Banshee appeared, clashes between clans decreased. In that case, shouldn’t they view the Banshee as suppressing clan battles?
As I walked while thinking about it, I found myself back at the hangar before I knew it.
“Hey! Are the repairs done?”
“How are we supposed to finish repairs in one hour?”
“Do it with spirit! With spirit!”
After the conversation ended, I stepped outside.
The engineers were pouring out complaints, but it looked like the actual repairs were mostly finished.
To be exact, there wasn’t much to repair in the first place.
Everything critical had either been avoided or deflected.
“We patched it up roughly.”
“What, you already did it? Why whine and get yourself yelled at? Good work.”
I rode the lift up to Core.
Just as I was about to board Core, Robert, who had been standing behind me, suddenly grabbed my shoulder.
“Ah, so that was you?”
“Was what me?”
“The one the Blood Crows chased a few days ago and lost, then we nearly caught. That was you, wasn’t it?”
How did he know?
“Looks like you’re wondering how I knew, but now that I think about it, the way you move was the same. That one was a real fast Imperial style, and you were a real fast Imperial style too.”
“What’s a real fast Imperial style?”
“Hey, you know. That thing. Back and forth, left and right, all whoosh-whoosh, bang-bang.”
“Whoosh-whoosh, bang-bang?”
“You’re the one doing it, so what am I supposed to do if you don’t understand?”
Now I know why the Space Marine Corps Robert belongs to is larger than other clans.
I don’t know about his Titan piloting skills, but when it comes to his eye for things, he’s superior even to the professors at the Academy.
He just can’t explain it because he’s never been taught.
“So, am I right?”
“You are.”
There was no reason to deny it after coming this far.
And I didn’t think he’d be fooled even if I did.
“I, well, I think it was self-defense back then too.”
“No, no. I didn’t ask to argue. With your skills, you could’ve killed all our kids and left. I just wanted to say thanks for sparing them.”
Strictly speaking, I hadn’t spared them. I simply hadn’t tried to kill them.
Though that was more or less the same thing.
“But did you not know the situation in the South? Why were you in such a rush?”
“Uh…”
What should I say?
It took me a little time to choose my words.
“I said earlier that I have a girlfriend, right?”
“Yeah, you do.”
“She’s an experimental subject of the Empire, so to get her medicine, I needed the Southern Allied Forces’ help.”
Robert’s expression stiffened at once.
“…Did we cause trouble for you?”
“No, she can talk and move now.”
“You mean she couldn’t talk or move before?”
“Uh, yes.”
“You defected from the Empire and are suffering with the Allied Forces to save a girlfriend who couldn’t even talk or move?”
Robert tilted his head upward.
He seemed a little red.
“Are you crying?”
“Wh-why would a man cry over something like this? It’s just, my old… you know, that… it’s a bit similar to me, that’s all.”
He was kinder than I expected, so if I told him our situation, he might let us go with tears in his eyes.
“Is there, uh, anything you need?”
If I’d known that was actually true, I would have done it back then.
“Hey! Bring over the Banshee data! Send it here!”
In any case, it was a gain.
***
“Data on a Titan from forty years ago.”
Ian had a grave expression.
It was my first time seeing him look that serious.
That Ian, of all people.
“Why?”
“This is incredibly valuable data.”
His expression said otherwise.
It was the kind of expression where, no matter how much you talked to him, you would never get an answer.
When I looked at Kaya beside him, Clemens, who had been talking to her, opened his mouth instead.
“It’s history the Empire doesn’t readily disclose. The Empire’s rise to its current position also involved quite a long history of war. Information on the Titans used back then isn’t widely known.”
“Because it’s a history longer than the Empire’s?”
“That’s right. How did you know?”
I had only repeated something similar to what Robert had said.
The Empire seemed to be far narrower-minded than I had thought.
It provided information as if almost erasing history from before the Empire existed.
Or maybe it wanted to pretend something had never existed at all.
“Just a hunch.”
“Really? Judging only by the information, this Titan isn’t an object related to the war that founded the Empire. But it has a history comparable to that. It was used immediately after the Empire was established.”
Clemens’s eyes gleamed.
I think I know why Kaya hadn’t been able to answer.
Kaya’s eyes were gleaming in the same way.
They were similar to Ian’s eyes.
Blood really does run true.
Ian was the one who came back to his senses first.
“There’s one thing that’s certain. This Titan’s current state must be one of two things.”
Beep-beep.
At Ian’s gesture, two holograms based on the data appeared.
One side looked perfectly intact, while the other was practically a wreck, no different from scrap.
“The former. The Ship of Theseus.”
As time passed, the old planks on the Ship of Theseus were replaced with new planks.
Was that ship still the Ship of Theseus?
“It’s possible none of the original Banshee’s parts are left anymore, and it has effectively become a new machine.”
Kaya’s gaze turned belatedly.
“That would be the normal case.”
It was only natural.
If a Titan was operational, it would inevitably undergo repairs and customization.
You replaced things with better technology and fixed whatever was broken.
Old technology would eventually be replaced with newer parts if only because the old components were discontinued.
“But you said you heard something like a scream from the Banshee.”
“That’s right.”
Kiiiiiiiiii.
A sound similar to a woman’s scream.
It was the sound of the Banshee, as though it were sobbing or shrieking.
It wasn’t the kind of sound that should come from a Titan.
No, more than that, it made no sense for such a sound to come from a Titan.
Because no speaker could produce a sound like that.
“If it isn’t a sound coming from a speaker, but from the Titan itself, it’s possible.”
Malfunction in the joints.
Unreplaced rusted and damaged armor.
Most of all, the absence of lubricant.
“If an unrepaired Titan from the old era has been moving until now.”
Ian’s hands trembled.
It was a little frightening.
“We have to capture it.”
“Ian, capturing it isn’t the goal.”
It was no use.
Communication was already impossible on this side.
Kaya seemed to be in a similar state.
Clemens seemed a little shaken too, and the sanest person among them was Ran.
It would have been nice if Perez were here as well.
As the leader of the Southern Allied Forces, it couldn’t be helped that he was short on time.
“Ran, what do you think we should do?”
“Well. From what I’ve heard, the clans’ situation is unfortunate, but honestly, we have neither the leeway nor the reason to care about their position.”
If I looked at it coldly, she was right.
No matter what circumstances the clans had, we had no reason to show consideration.
They had attacked first, for one thing.
On top of that, the clans were an enormous threat to the Allied Forces, and they were nothing but an obstacle to the Empire as well.
There was no meaning in feeling pointless sympathy.
Right now, it was right to focus on my own work.
“Still, it would be better if we could avoid killing the Banshee’s pilot.”
“Yes. It’s probably the sister Robert mentioned.”
Sister.
Robert said that too much time had passed, so he didn’t remember the details.
He didn’t remember her name, and he had no idea how her appearance might have changed.
But if someone was riding the Banshee, it could only be that one person.
There was no way a grandmother in her sixties had miraculously survived cancer and was walking around piloting a Titan.
“In the end, we’ll have to start from these coordinates.”
Beep.
A set of coordinates appeared on the map.
They were east of the Allied Forces base.
It was a direction I had never been to before, but in the end, it was the same: thick jungle and clans packed to the brim.
Not every one of these clans could be Dolores’s sons.
If I thought of them as strangers, I could fire at Titans more decisively.
Though it was still hard to kill.
If it was truly necessary, I might have no choice but to kill.
I only hoped that wouldn’t be right away.
“Still, there’s one thing I’m a little worried about.”
Beep.
Ran enlarged the Titan hologram.
“I’m seeing what’s written on the generator correctly, right?”
Everyone froze there.
Even Ian hesitated for a moment.
“Nuclear power.”
Clemens shook his head.
“At the time, when hydrogen generators hadn’t advanced the way they have now, it was the most rational option humanity could choose.”
“What if this Titan hasn’t been customized with a modern hydrogen generator, and hasn’t received proper repairs either?”
“Well…”
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
“Conclusion.”
Ailey opened her mouth instead.
“There is a walking quasi-nuclear bomb in the South.”
“Hah.”
Kaya let out a sigh.
Since she was from the South, that was only natural.
“Proposal!”
Ailey hurriedly raised her hand.
“What is it, Ailey?”
“A question before that. Deep, how was it piloting the Titan alone this time?”
It was a question I hadn’t thought about.
“It was a little lacking compared to piloting with you, Ailey, but I’ve gotten much more used to it.”
As long as I wasn’t fighting the special cadets from the Academy, it was a sufficient level.
Even with my current movements, I had easily dealt with ordinary clan members.
Of course, I didn’t know what would happen if I really had to fight the Banshee.
“Affirmative. Deep is extremely dissatisfied.”
I said it was a little lacking.
“Therefore, proposal. I will go out with you on the next sortie.”
No.
Before I could even say it, Ailey made an X with both arms.
“Refusal is refused.”
Clemens lightly nodded.
It meant she was in the minimum physical condition necessary to ride in a Titan.
“Understood.”
Ailey threw both arms high into the air.