Chapter 13: Chapter 7 - Good-Bye
"…Shin."
Countless silver hands, the color of liquid micromachines, sprouted out from under the Dinosauria's armor. The hands were the size of an adult's and had jointed fingers. The most striking difference was, however, that they were several times the length of a human arm and extended at a startling speed. Both the left and right hands sprang forth in search of something. As each and every one extended toward Undertaker, the Dinosauria howled madly.
"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!"
That bellow rattled even those Resonated at the lowest synchronization rate down to their cores. Even Raiden, the most experienced in fighting at Undertaker's side, broke into a cold sweat at the sound of this bloodcurdling roar. Anju shrieked and covered her ears. Only Shin turned to face the Dinosauria, as if it had simply called his name.
"…Shin?!"
"You guys go on ahead. I'm leaving you in command, Raiden."
His cold gaze was fixed on the Dinosauria; he refused to look at anything else.
"If you go into the forest, they shouldn't find you so long as you're cautious of the Ameise. Just get past here and keep going."
"What about you?!"
"I'll come once I defeat it. We can't move forward until we take it down, and I won't move on until I do… Plus, I doubt it'd let me go."
A chill ran through Raiden when he heard how Shin finished that sentence.
This idiot.
He just…
He just smiled.
Oh, dammit, this is bad. There's no getting him to turn back now. His heart was never here to begin with. He was always haunted by that lost head. Always searching for his dead brother's stolen head. All the way until now… Probably since the day his brother strangled him.
Raiden knew this, but he still growled a defiant response.
"Fuck you. Who the hell would just go along with that?"
As if he would ever accept an order to leave Shin to die.
"…"
"If you're saying it has to be you against him, there's nothing I can do… I'll handle the rest of 'em, so clean up your mess as soon as you can."
As he said this, Raiden suppressed the anger that welled inside him. So he's intent on doing this alone. If he'd asked for help or requested support, Raiden would've gone along with anything.
Why is this idiot so…so stupid, now of all times?
After a brief moment of silence, Shin sighed.
"You're an idiot, you know that?"
"Like you're one to talk… Don't die, you hear me?"
This time, Shin gave no reply. The shrill sound of a long-distance artillery cannon firing somewhere served as the signal opening this battle. Four armored units hopped into action, evading a barrage of bullets. Riding the quadruped spider, the skeletal knight leaped onward, like a beast lunging at its prey.
The Dinosauria rose to Shin's challenge, the Ameise serving as its escort deploying around it. Every model of Legion except the Scout types had low sensory capabilities and received information via a data link with the Ameise, who sacrificed firepower for superior sensors. The units scattered around the Dinosauria served as its eyes.
A pair of Ameise standing at the front perceived the charging Juggernaut, transferring all manner of data and the footage from their optical sensors to the Dinosauria, which proceeded to swivel its main battery in Undertaker's direction. The cannon roared. The Dinosauria's turret—its 155 mm caliber cannon equal to an artillery gun—fired savagely, unleashing armor-piercing shells at a velocity that left even sound in its wake, impacting just ahead of Undertaker.
But Undertaker's sights were set not on the Dinosauria—but on the Ameise serving it. Gunning down one and using the body of the next as cover while crushing it with a kick, he then finally fired upon the Heavy Tank type. The smoke grenade he launched burst in midair, momentarily blinding the Dinosauria's meager optical sensors. Taking advantage of this chance, Undertaker crushed the second Ameise and leaped at the blind spot created by the two destroyed Scout types.
The Juggernauts' primary weapon—a feeble 57 mm cannon that paled in comparison to the Legion's firepower—couldn't hope to penetrate any point of the Dinosauria's thick armor, even at close range. There was only one vulnerable spot, and Undertaker had to destroy the Dinosauria's eyes to even have a chance at it.
As the Dinosauria used pressurized air to blow away the smoke, its massive frame clambered about. Rotating its machine guns in the direction Undertaker was more likely to be found, it attempted to mow him down with superior firepower. Undertaker, who'd leaped back to evade the machine-gun fire, appeared on the other side of the smoke. A heat haze rising from the temperature of its cannons distorting its position, the Heavy Tank type swiveled its battery again, its headless shadow shifting and distorting. Undertaker scuttled about in what appeared to be an erratic dance, anticipating where his foe's sights would be fixed in what bordered on precognition.
The Legion were clearly moving to separate Undertaker from his comrades and, likewise, isolate each of the four to annihilate them. The Löwe and Grauwolf types attacked each Juggernaut in waves, and even if the Processors attempted to take cover, the Ameise scattered throughout the battlefield would track them down in a matter of seconds. Stier fired on their path of retreat relentlessly, and Skorpion types bombarded them from afar, pinning them down and limiting their freedom of movement. The Processors had gunned down the Legion near them in quick succession, but for every unit they took down, two rolled out to replace it.
The Legion would usually never engage in such a packed battlefield. There was no doubt that a Shepherd was commanding them—in all likelihood, the Dinosauria. In a pause between yet another flurry of slashes and gunfire, Raiden looked in the Heavy Tank type's direction. Beyond the surging wave of Legion swarming toward them like ants was the lone empty stretch of battlefield where Undertaker and the Dinosauria faced off one-on-one.
It was an unbelievable sight, more of a joke than anything else. Squaring off against a Dinosauria was an insane prospect to begin with, and the fact that it even looked like they were exchanging blows bordered on miraculous. A Juggernaut was far inferior in terms of firepower, armor, and mobility. Normally, this wouldn't even be considered a fight, but since it was Shin at the helm, Undertaker was just barely able to put up a resistance… No, even Shin shouldn't have been able to pull off this much.
The Dinosauria defied all logic applicable to armored weapons and simply stood still confidently while Undertaker skittered around it as if dancing on a razor's edge. The Juggernaut performed precise and reckless maneuvers and avoided attacks so narrowly that Raiden could feel his stomach turning from the terror and suspense. It was by no means an equal fight. Could he balance on this tightrope of a situation for long? Or would they all be killed by the Legion first?
A small fissure in his resolve began forming. He'd lost count of how many Legion he'd gunned down by now, but shot after shot, they still kept coming. His accumulated exhaustion and the dread of fruitless effort weighed down on him. Even battle-hardened veterans like them were being gradually worn down.
"Reloading! Cover me!"
Theo shouted in between erratic breaths, his voice chipped by fatigue. Fido purged one of its six containers as it zipped bravely between lines of fire. That container's stocks of ammunition had been depleted, meaning they'd consumed almost 20 percent of the month's worth of ammunition they'd been given in just this short period of time. The moment they completely ran out would be their last. That fleeting thought passed through Raiden's mind, and he forced a smile. Bring it on. Living and dying like this was all they wanted.
Suddenly, one more person, another Resonance target, connected to their conversation.
"First Lieutenant Shuga! I'm borrowing your left eye!"
A moment later, the vision in his left eye went dark, and then the light returned to it immediately. The same voice spoke again:
"Shell fired! It's going to touch down—brace yourselves!"
The next moment, the sky flashed white.
A soundless burst of light filled the battlefield, and a second later, a thundering blast deafened them briefly. The Eintagsfliege dispersed, opening a hole in the veil they'd formed over the sky, falling like stardust from the heavens as the blast's shock waves blew them away and its flames consumed them. It was a powerful bombardment by a fuel-air explosive. A gap parted in the argent cloud, revealing a pale-blue sky—which then turned black as a swarm of guided explosives descended upon the battlefield.
Accurately chasing down and impacting their predetermined targets, the fuses on the projectiles activated, hatching the metallic shells. Every single one of the hundreds of small pallets was set to track its target via radar, and they burst out from above, propelled with an initial velocity of 2,500 to 3,000 meters per second, pelting the enemy mercilessly with shrapnel. The steel rain ate into the Legion, whose armor was brittle, from above, downing half the second wave of Legion within half a minute. Then came a second bombardment. Yet another shower of steel decimated what remained of the second wave.
Raiden, Theo, Kurena, and Anju were completely speechless for a long moment. They had never seen it in operation, but they knew what it was. The interception cannon. It was always behind the front lines the Juggernauts defended, sitting there like an overgrown hedgehog. Not once had it ever fulfilled its role and fired, remaining in the background like a useless objet d'art. And the one who'd fired it…? No, the only one strange and foolish enough to escort them even as they trod the path to death was her.
"Major Milizé! Is that you?!"
Her voice rang like a silver bell in response. It was filled with resolve and unable to contain its anger.
"Yes, it's me. I'm sorry for being late, everyone."
"I told you I never wanted to see your face again, Lena."
Lena was anxious she wouldn't come to the door, but Annette opened it surprisingly quickly.
"Yes, I remember you saying that, Annette. But I don't recall ever agreeing to it."
It was raining that night. Lena stood on the border between the darkness of the night and the house's illumination, her face wrought with exhaustion and fatigue, as she hadn't had time to fix herself up properly before heading out. Standing there with her lustrous hair disheveled, her uniform worn and battered, and her face pale and without makeup, Lena looked very much like a corpse. Only her silver eyes still shone with a peculiar light.
"I need you to reset my Sensory Resonance targets again and adjust my RAID Device."
Annette moaned, her eyes like those of an injured, cornered animal.
"I won't, and you know it. I want nothing to do with you anymore."
"Oh, you'll do it. No matter what."
Lena smiled. Some part of her thought her expression must be terribly frightening, cruel, and ugly right now.
"That childhood friend you abandoned."
She smiled like a devil… Like a reaper.
"His name didn't happen to be Shin, did it?"
For a moment, Annette's expression entirely crumpled.
"…How…?!"
Seeing the girl turn paler than she'd ever seen her, Lena pondered how she'd guessed correctly. It was a gamble, and Lena had tricked her. But at the same time, she'd been convinced she was right. He'd lived in the First Sector, where the Eighty-Six were hardly present even before the war, and had been the same age—or a year younger—as Lena and Annette.
But what ultimately convinced her was that Shin could hear the ghosts while the boy Annette described had an ability to communicate with his family's hearts. It was fundamentally the same ability, except the ones with whom they'd connected were different. The resemblance was simply too great—it couldn't have been a coincidence.
"How do you know his name…?! ...It can't be—!"
"Yes, that's right. He's part of my squadron. The Spearhead squadron's captain, Personal Name: Undertaker. That's Shin."
She'd had a chance to save him and abandoned him a second time. Lena didn't even budge when Annette grabbed her by the collar and clung to her fearfully.
"Did Shin tell you that?! He's still alive?! That boy… Does he, does he still resent me for what I did?!"
"What are you asking me for? I thought you didn't want anything to do with me anymore."
Lena stepped back, brushing off her hands and turning a cold smile on Annette, who stepped into the dark, rainy night after her. She'd never heard Shin mention anything about Annette. In all likelihood…he didn't even remember her anymore. His memories of Rei and his parents had been lost to the flames of war and the ghosts' wails, so there was little chance Shin had remembered a childhood friend. Whether that was a curse or a blessing for Annette was a question she didn't have the answer for, though.
"But if you do think this concerns you, then help me. And decide quickly. If you take your time, the roosters will start to crow."
And by the time they do, you'll likely have said you don't care about me anymore another three times.
Standing stock-still, Annette smiled. It was a smile stained with tears, and her expression somehow looked relieved.
"…You're a demon."
"You and me both, Technical Lieutenant Penrose. You and me both."
That's right—Lena was neither brooding nor overwhelmed by guilt. She simply hadn't had time to Resonate with the Spearhead squadron. She needed her Sensory Resonance reconfigured to allow her to share the sense of sight, to get the firing codes for all the interception cannons in the surrounding wards, and to gather every method possible to cover the squadron.
"…! Fifty percent misfires…?!"
Lena groaned, looking at the firing results. Thirty percent of the interception cannons were inoperable, and 30 percent of the guided projectiles simply crashed, their fuses not having ignited. They weighed one hundred kilograms each, so the fallen projectiles ended up crushing a few unfortunate Ameise, but that was a far cry from the firepower they should have delivered.
Faulty maintenance at its finest. Seeing how the Republic reduced its own armory to rust thanks to its own vanity was an absurd sight. She directed the remaining interception cannons to the same spot and fired again. Confirming the target enemy unit was destroyed, Lena exhaled in relief.
Shin had said they were finally going to be free, and Lena'd argued that wasn't freedom. Despite that, though, she couldn't have the Special Reconnaissance mission rescinded or save them in any way. So if nothing else, the least she could do was ensure the journey they craved lasted even a second longer, that nothing stood in their way. That was the only tribute she could pay them.
The freedom they'd finally earned.
It was only their first day knowing freedom. She couldn't let their journey end here. Not like this.
Raiden found himself shouting at that ringing voice while fighting the first force of Legion cut off from their supply chain. The third wave of Legion stood silent, judging whether it should advance after seeing the second wave decimated.
"You're a complete and total idiot, y'know that?! The hell were you thinking?!"
"I only shared your eye's optical information to confirm your location and fired the interception cannon manually based on that. Oh, I kept my own eye closed so as not to distract you, so don't worry."
Hearing her explain it so matter-of-factly just made Raiden rail at her even harder.
The hell do you mean, you "only" shared it?! You know it's more than just that!
"Don't you know Handlers avoid sharing sight because it can result in blindness, you moron?! And did you have permission to fire that damn thing?! You even being there is a breach of orders!"
Sharing eyesight confused both ends of the connection, as it made them see things that weren't near them, and on top of that, shared vision had too much informational content. Overusing it burdened the brain and could eventually result in loss of eyesight, so it was never used when commanding. She had fired an artillery weapon without approval to provide support for them on a mission during which she'd been explicitly forbidden from offering any kind of support. It was blatant violation of orders and certainly not worth it for a suicide unit!
But Lena suddenly snapped back at him. It was first time he'd ever heard the Handler girl shout at someone.
"So what?! If I lose my eyesight, it'll happen God knows when, and I don't care if firing the cannon on my own is violating orders! What'll they do, dock my pay? This won't kill me!"
Her shouting caught Raiden off guard, rendering him completely silent. Breathing heavily from the anger and indignation, Lena spat out words with a desperation he'd never heard from her before.
"Headquarters and the government won't listen to common sense anyway. I have no reason to play by their rules, and they're welcome to criticize me all they want… I should have just done this from the beginning. To hell with authorization."
Her voice was steeped with bitterness for a moment as she ended her tirade with a haughty snort. Shaking off his surprise, Raiden found himself smirking ironically.
"You're a real dumb ass, you know that?"
"I'm not doing this for you guys, I'll have you know. If a force of this size broke through, the Republic would be in danger. I'm only fighting because I don't want to die."
Delivering that line with a clear voice, Lena finally laughed. It was the first time, he felt, Lena had smiled that day.
"Once the third formation moves, I'll fire. I can't fire at the first formation and guarantee you won't be caught in the blast, so don't expect any support there. I'm sorry, but you'll have to handle those on your own."
"Yeah, no problem. That's business as usual for us."
"…What about Captain Nouzen?"
Raiden's eyes narrowed bitterly at that question. The Reaper was still Resonated with the rest of them, but since he hadn't responded, it meant he wasn't aware of them at all. All Raiden could feel over the Resonance was the cold, savage presence of his fighting spirit.
"He's fighting with his brother, to the death. That's Shin's whole purpose in this. He can't hear us anymore."
Shin spurred his Juggernaut on, struggling to find a chance to land a crippling blow as his brother's deafening screams rumbled in his ears. As he danced upon the line between life and death with a precision that couldn't afford any mistakes, Shin's consciousness was focused only on the opponent before him. He couldn't see anything but his enemy and couldn't hear anything but its voice and the sound of the shots it fired. Shin couldn't even feel the passage of time anymore.
The Dinosauria aimed its cannon and aligned its sights. Undertaker bent his rear legs, which had braced back for support, deliberately slipping, making the Juggernaut tilt out of the Dinosauria's line of fire.
The Dinosauria's secondary armament was aimed to the right, where the cannon was, and if Undertaker kept dodging clockwise, he'd be fired upon, not just by the main cannon but also by the machine gun—
The Dinosauria fired its secondary gun. The projectile just barely missed Undertaker's right leg, and at that moment, the main gun aligned its sights. Undertaker, still skidding to the side, wasn't in a position to evade but narrowly avoided the shot that came his way, using a wire he'd fired into the ground a good distance away to tow himself out of danger. The shell hit a Löwe that happened to be behind him, blasting it to bits. The Dinosauria braced itself, as even with its massive weight and powerful legs, the recoil of two consecutive shots required it to regain its bearings.
Undertaker took advantage of that moment to leap at the Dinosauria. His gun shifted its angle of elevation, setting its sights on a section at the upper portion of the rear of the Dinosauria's turret. It was, as far as Shin could see, the point where its armor was thinnest, the one spot on its heavily armored frame where a Juggernaut's feeble main armament could hope to penetrate.
Undertaker squeezed the trigger. He fired an anti-armor round at a high angle, a fatal attack from above.
But one of the hands sprouting from the Dinosauria's turret simply brushed the shell away.
"…?!"
Shin's eyes bulged at this nightmarish development. The hand was crushed by the blast, but as it was made of fluid, it restructured itself in a matter of seconds, its fingers wiggling disgustingly. He could feel the Dinosauria's consciousness fixed on him. Undertaker leaped back while the ground where he'd just stood was ripped apart by machine-gun fire. A second barrage of lead came his way, then a third. Undertaker evaded, but now the Dinosauria was out of his range. The Dinosauria confidently swerved in his direction, having pushed him back with nothing but its machine guns, its weakest armament.
Its suppressing fire alone had forced him on the run while simultaneously cutting off Shin's sole point of attack. A shiver ran through his body, but in contrast, his lips parted in a smile.
One of the Grauwolf types had perhaps seen this as a golden opportunity, as it broke file and charged at Undertaker. It was, however, blown away mercilessly by the Dinosauria, as if its cannon's roar was forbidding the Legion to interfere. The sight only made Shin's smile deepen.
His brother's final words were still calling out to him, telling him it was all his sin, ordering him to die and atone. Even after death, he insisted on killing Shin with his own two hands.
…Me too, Brother.
Rei didn't know whether right now he was Shourei Nouzen's soul or a copy of his memories sampled from his decomposing corpse on that snowy night. He didn't know, and whichever it was didn't make much of a difference. All he knew was that despite dying, he got a second chance. That was good; that was all that mattered.
He could tell Shin was somewhere on the battlefield. He could hear his voice. But it was so small that it was drowned out by the tumultuous noise coming from the Republic's pathetic, decaying carcass. Additionally, the Republic had shamelessly thrown Shin into the battlefield and had the gall to call him their property, which made it even harder to distinguish Shin's whereabouts.
Whenever they would go out into the Republic's wards, Rei would use the Ameise's eyes to look for him. Rei, who was now a Legion, couldn't go against his directives, and as a commander, he had to remain in the depths of the Legion territories. But even so, if Shin was nearby, he wanted to see him again. To meet him, to apologize, to be forgiven, and then…
After a while, he finally found him, through the eyes of a broken, crippled, but still barely functioning Ameise. There had been a meteor shower that night, seemingly rather far from Rei's location. Zooming in allowed him to finally catch a glimpse of his brother's face. He'd gotten bigger and older. He was apparently speaking to one of his comrades, an Eisen. Wanting to hear his voice, Rei shifted his focus to the Ameise's audio sensors. Had his voice changed by now? Maybe it hadn't. It didn't really matter, though. Aaah, I want to hear him already…
The two were watching the sky full of shooting stars. Their Juggernauts were squatting on the ground, and the Processors were reclining against the machines' armor, their silhouettes like those of little children.
"Is your brother still out there?"
"Yeah. He keeps calling for me. So I have to go find him."
Are they talking about me? So you were looking for me, too…
Even though he'd been reduced to a machine, a shiver ran through Rei's body. He was sad to learn Shin had come to the battlefield, but knowing he'd done it to find him filled Rei with joy.
"But you already buried your brother, man. Isn't that enough?"
Oh… So you buried my corpse. Shin, you're too kind…
"…That's not enough. My brother wouldn't forgive me after just that."
Rei froze with shock.
Why are you saying that? If you can't be forgiven, what hope do I have of being pardoned? I have to tell you that's not true; I want to explain, to meet you, to meet you, to meet you, so much it drives me mad.
A Republic transport then came and picked Shin up, and his brother's small voice was once again swallowed by the noise and disappeared out of reach. Rei would search for him everywhere, but each time he found him, the Republic would take him away again.
Rei was becoming desperate. He couldn't move away from his station at the depths of the territories, but he used all the Legion under his command. And Shin kept fighting. He kept charging the battlefield (where he would one day surely be abandoned to die), remaining composed as he survived battle after battle.
Aaah, but you don't have to do that anymore. There's no reason you should be fighting for those pigs, Shin. If that's the only place you can live, I may as well just bring you to my side. Leave that brittle human body behind already. We can transfer you to as many bodies as we'll need. And this time, I'll protect you. This time, I'll always keep you safe, forever.
Today, those filthy pigs had finally released Shin from their vile clutches. His voice wasn't faint and didn't mingle with the Republic's anymore. It was clear now. Rei knew Shin was heading into the depths of his Sector, so he went out to greet him. Finally, he could go and reunite with his little brother.
And now, at last, he was face-to-face with him. The dear, precious brother he'd searched for tirelessly was sitting inside that clumsy spider. The Juggernaut was too brittle to even be considered armor, so Rei gently, cautiously reached out with his hands so as to not break it. But as the spider kept running around and he couldn't seem to catch it, he fired at its legs to stop it from moving.
I finally found you. Now I can take you back, and we'll always be together. Your big brother will always keep you safe, so please come to me…Shin.
The Dinosauria aimed only at his legs. It didn't target its main battery, either, firing only armor-piercing rounds at him. Were it to fire its 155 mm cannon, it would have no way of controlling the splinters the shell released at high speeds, and a Juggernaut wouldn't be able to withstand even the shock waves from the blast.
Was it toying with him? No—it probably just didn't like the idea of blowing him up. Those slimy hands slithered and wriggled. Just like his brother's that night.
As if it's trying to say it can do it again, as many times as it takes.
Shin examined his optical screen, searching for a position that would be more advantageous. As soon as Undertaker stepped back, Rei stepped forward, going after him. Shin retreated, making small but precise changes in direction as he did, while Rei charged after him, rotating his machine gun in the direction of Undertaker's torso. He aligned his sights, ready to fire, and then—
The Dinosauria had reached the spot Shin had designated. He had him now.
A moment before the muzzle began spouting fire, Shin discharged a wire anchor that skewered a large evergreen tree to the left, behind the Dinosauria's frame. Retracting the wire at maximum speed, Shin zipped away and rapidly ascended. Kicking his way up the trees to the left, Undertaker moved along the trunks and branches as he made his way up directly above the Dinosauria. The Heavy Tank class's cannon was made to combat armored units at the same level of elevation, and while it was capable of rotating 360 degrees horizontally, it was terribly limited when it came to vertical mobility. It couldn't aim directly up and, of course, couldn't aim directly beneath its feet, making it incapable of counterattacking when approached from those directions.
Purging the wire in midair, Undertaker used the inertia to turn his body around and adjust his landing position. Using the seams in the Dinosauria's armor as a foothold, he clung to the top of its fuselage. The Dinosauria's own gargantuan frame impeded it, and the machine-gun fire wouldn't reach its target this close. Shin drove his high-frequency blade into the point where the armor was the thinnest. A shower of sparks erupted from the metal as it melted away like butter. Shin aimed his cannon at the exposed section, when suddenly two silver hands grew out of the wall and grabbed his grappling arm.
"Wha—?!"
It was just like that night in the church. He was swung up and knocked down. And then Shin lost consciousness.
Raiden's eyes opened wide as he felt his Resonance with Shin suddenly cut off. They had nearly finished dealing with the Legion in the area. Fido had purged its second container, and Lena continued firing guided projectiles at stubborn Legion that had sneaked in from the rear to see what was going on. The Legion had finally begun retreating when it happened.
"…Shin?!"
He tried resetting the Resonance, but Shin didn't respond. Raiden looked in the Dinosauria's direction, seeing it slowly turn in toward Undertaker, who lay crumpled unnaturally, as if bashed against the ground. Sensory Resonance operated by linking people's consciousness, so if one party was unconscious, a connection couldn't be established. Which meant he was either asleep, unconscious—or dead.
The Dinosauria approached Undertaker calmly. It didn't shoot him, but Raiden still had a terrible feeling of dread that told him they couldn't allow it to get to Shin. Raiden switched to a wireless transmission. It still worked, which meant the cockpit was intact.
"Shin! Wake up, you moron!"
But Undertaker didn't budge.
Rei had to be careful to not damage the Juggernaut's innards but was able to rip off both its brittle grappling arms. The rest of Undertaker fell, rolling away somewhere. He wouldn't be able go anywhere, though, so that was good. He was probably unconscious and possibly hurt, but Rei would apologize for that later, too. He drew closer to Shin, struggling to contain himself.
Finally, he thought, brimming with joy. Finally, I can take you back. We can be together now. So let's start by peeling away that frail human shell of yours…
Lena bit her lip, watching in horror as the Dinosauria's blip approached Undertaker's. Raiden and the others were on their way to help, but their weapons wouldn't be able to stop it. At this rate, Shin, and maybe even Raiden and the others, would…
Lena could taste blood. Apparently, she had bitten her lip hard enough to break the skin. Back then, Rei had said he wanted to return. Even though he hadn't put it into words, she could tell how much he cherished his brother. But if that was true, why was Rei trying to kill Shin now? Lena knew she had to stop him, but she had no way of doing it. The guided projectiles and the interception cannon were both too powerful; she had no means of destroying the Dinosauria that wouldn't kill Shin in the process. A Juggernaut's armor was far too brittle, and if she shot down the Heavy Tank type, the fragments would definitely penetrate Shin.
Anything. Isn't there anything I can do?
Think, think, think—! And then Lena's eyes widened, a memory flashing in her mind.
"Ensign Kukumila, I need you to observe the Dinosauria's position as accurately as you can and send me the data."
Those words made Kurena leap up. She was a sniper and realized what Lena was planning without any further explanation.
"We're going to have to manually guide the missile to it. I leave it to you. You just need to expose it to your laser sight, so…"
"H-hold up! Isn't that…?!"
"You're not thinking of bombarding it, are you?! Have you lost your mind?! Shin's right there!"
"Even if it's only nearby, there's no way the Juggernaut will withstand the blast! At that distance, Shin will get caught up in it for sure!"
Theo cut into their exchange, flying into a rage. Anju also joined in, her voice tinged with panic.
"I have an idea. I think all it'll do is give us a chance, but…I don't want the captain to die, either."
Hearing that earnest, almost desperate entreaty, Kurena found herself agreeing to Lena's idea.
Raiden began firing at the Dinosauria as soon as it entered his range, and Theo and Anju followed suit. Their bullets were deflected by the Heavy Tank type's armor, and its advance continued unhindered. They kept firing at it, mowing down the few Ameise still prowling the area in the meantime. Every bullet they fired was repelled by the armor or cut down by their target's silver arms, and the Dinosauria's forward march continued unabated.
God dammit. Turns out the big brother was just as annoying as the little one, seeing everyone around them as nothing but insects in the background.
One of the Dinosauria's machine guns was hit by debris and silenced, and another bit of shrapnel impacted one of the Heavy Tank class's optical sensors, rupturing it. For the first time since the battle began, the Dinosauria turned to face the other Processors. The moment he noticed the second machine gun begin to rotate, preparing to mow down the annoying Juggernauts pestering it, Raiden moved his unit aside at the last second, just as the barrage tore into where he'd once stood.
As that happened, Anju and Theo approached the Dinosauria and fired their wire anchors in its direction. They coiled one around its gun barrel and another around one of its legs. The Processors then braced themselves, planting their feet into the ground. Two Juggernauts, each roughly a tenth of the Dinosauria's weight, couldn't hope to drag it down even if they worked together. Raiden switched his ammo to short-fuse explosive rounds, firing them at a high angle, and eventually silenced the other heavy machine gun. Raiden then coiled his own wire anchor around the massive frame. The Dinosauria's progress finally began slowing.
Its rage and bloodthirst had become much more palpable and intense. Tearing away from the wires, the Dinosauria rotated its bound gun barrel at full force. Snow Witch, who'd failed to purge the wire in time, was thrown into the air and crashed into Laughing Fox, the two tumbling to the ground.
"Anju! Theo!"
"…I'm fine."
"Same here. I'm sorry, Theo!"
"Forget about that… Raiden! It's gonna shoot!"
In the moment he'd shifted his attention to his comrades, the Heavy Tank type's aim had locked in on Raiden. He didn't have time to dodge. Raiden gritted his teeth in suspense, but the Dinosauria's body suddenly jolted, and the shell it fired just barely skimmed Wehrwolf, who went flying off into the distance. Kurena had sniped it. The Dinosauria braced its front legs, stomping them into the earth as it angrily peppered the ground behind it at full auto.
"You all right, Raiden?!"
"Yeah, I owe you one! But back off now. If you get killed, I dunno if I'll be able to look Shin in the eyes… Major, much longer till you're ready?!"
Lena's voice was filled with tension.
"Shell fired! Remaining distance to target…three thousand! Ensign Kukumila!"
"Got it, taking over. Guiding commenced. Five seconds until impact… Three… Two…"
Gunslinger directed a laser sight, invisible to the naked eye, at the Dinosauria standing stock-still at Undertaker's side.
The Dinosauria's sensory capabilities were low. That applied even to a commander unit like Rei, who required a constant link with the Ameise to compensate for his relatively lacking visual sensors. But the Ameise deployed with him had all been annihilated, and he'd only issued simple directives to his other forces at the start of the battle. By now, they'd been routed and put on the retreat. Taking Shin back was Rei's first priority, and nothing else mattered, which was why by the time he noticed, it was far too late.
Just as his hands reached out to tear the canopy off Undertaker, a lock-on alarm blared up in his consciousness. The Dinosauria's optical sensors turned upward, only to be met with a massive shell falling its way. Its altitude-control wings spread out to maintain its swoop at a forty-five-degree angle—aiming directly at his upper armor. This shell—its appearance like that of a slug roughly the size of a human child—was a 155 mm anti-artillery guided projectile.
Rei was overcome by seething fury. This was, indeed, a shell with enough firepower to destroy even him. But at this range, Shin would get caught in the blast, too. Those bastards at the Republic weren't satisfied just using his little brother and then getting rid of him; now they were using him as bait, too!
He didn't have the time to take Shin and run to safety, so Rei kicked up his front legs, launching his upper half like a bucking horse. He wrenched his body around, deployed as many liquid micromachine hands as possible, and blocked the shell with the sturdiest parts of his armor. Even with his upper armor damaged, his front armor should have been able to withstand the blast. He would block the explosion and the shock waves with his own body—he would protect Shin, who lay behind him, at all costs!
The shell drew closer. Only a moment remained until impact, and then…
Suddenly, he found himself looking at the night sky, laden with stardust that sparkled across the black heavens. A girl was looking down on him with her back to the sky, her hair and eyes a beautiful silver. He had met her once before. She was roughly Shin's age.
"Don't you want to protect him?"
Yeah. I do. I have to keep Shin safe. He's my precious brother.
Then the girl asked:
"Are you going to kill him again?"
----------------------------------------------------!
The Juggernaut lay still.
Little Shin lay still.
I…
Not again…
Impact.
Making contact with Rei, the shell's fuse didn't activate.
It was a dud, an unexploded shell.
Guided projectiles carrying a shaped charge usually lacked the mass or propulsion to penetrate the Heavy Tank class's sturdy surface armor. The shell was crushed pathetically, and the fuse didn't trigger, leaving the explosives inert. However, the projectile had traveled at supersonic velocity, granting it a weight a normal shell would never have. The full force of that overwhelming kinetic energy mercilessly impacted Rei's body.
"Impact confirmed."
Lena kept her eyes fixed on the radar screen, watching as the guided projectile's indicator intersected the Dinosauria's blip. It didn't detonate. This was to be expected, since Lena knew the shell she'd fired had an inert fuse. Her father once told her, when she was younger, that even if a tank's armor could deflect enemy bullets, it did gradually take damage. A tank could deflect a shell fired its way, but the kinetic energy would still have an impact. Falling parts and equipment would rain down on the crew, and any bolts and rivets would tear off and ricochet inside the tank, injuring and potentially killing anyone inside.
Against the Dinosauria, it would only result in a powerful body blow. But this was the only method Lena could think of to attack it without getting Shin caught up in the crossfire. It would buy them a few seconds at most, and until then, someone…anyone…would have to think of their next course of action.
But it was then that she noticed.
Someone else was connected to the Resonance.
Raiden noticed he'd finally succeeded in reconnecting with Shin.
"Shin!"
The connection felt weak, as if Shin hadn't fully regained consciousness. Raiden called to him again and again, but there was no response. But he couldn't give up, so he kept shouting.
"Wake up already, you dumb ass! Shin!"
"Captain Nouzen! Can you hear me, Captain?! Please wake up!"
Hearing everyone calling him from afar, Lena shouted as well.
Please wake up. Get out of there and destroy the Dinosauria. Not because of this. Not for any reason that has anything to do with this situation. I already know. I've noticed by now. So you have to go out and do it, with your own two hands.
Shin had said it that night with a sorrow that felt like it was stabbing at him—that he would gun his brother down. But Shin didn't really want to fight him. The reason Shin fought Rei despite that was…
"You want to let your brother pass on, don't you?! —Shin!"
Faintly, they could feel a red eye opening.
Rei's hind legs crushed the ground beneath them as he braced himself. His steel body creaked as his thoughts turned to white noise, the impact from the shell causing errors in his central processor. Even so, his instincts as a war machine spurred him to continue firing.
He could feel the annoying insects buzzing around him rush out of the way as his processor and sensors began to recover. And then Rei saw it.
Undertaker had risen to its feet without Rei noticing and now stood behind him—its muzzle leveled in the Dinosauria's direction.
Shin's left eye wouldn't open. He had apparently cut his forehead while he was unconscious, and now his eye wouldn't open because of the blood. His whole body felt numb and sluggish, and every attempt to move seemed a Herculean task. His mind was still hazy, and trying to think felt burdensome.
Shin held his head as he examined the dark cockpit through the mist clouding his thoughts. It seemed the sub-screen was busted. Propping himself against the inner walls to sit up, he glared at the main screen with control sticks in hand.
Someone's cries had brought him back to consciousness, but the effects of the blow he'd taken to the head were still tormenting him. He had no idea what was going on. He didn't understand how he was still alive or what had happened around him. There were only two things he knew. Shin and Undertaker were still alive. And the brother he'd sought for so long—the brother he needed to bury with his own two hands—was standing right before him.
His limbs were still numb, but he managed to grip the control sticks and place his finger over the trigger. That was all he needed.
"…Shin."
He could hear the ghost's whisper, the sound of his dead brother's voice. He lurked here, in this deserted corner of the battlefield, never forgiving him. When he'd first heard Rei's voice interlaced with the ghosts' lamentations, Shin had resolved to find him and bury him with his own two hands.
"Shin."
He grated his clenched teeth. The seven-year-old who should have died that day he was strangled was still weeping somewhere. His brother had said it was all his fault. That he should have died back then. That he might as well have killed him then. Shin would never forget it…
His brother would never forgive him.
But Shin wasn't a child anymore. He wouldn't allow himself to be murdered twice.
A long time had passed since that day, and Shin had managed to come to terms with many things. He thought about all that had happened, deeply, and understood. It wasn't his fault he'd been strangled that day. Neither his brother's death nor his parents' deaths, nothing that had happened was his sin. Rei had needed an outlet for his pent-up emotions. His brother had simply snapped under the pressure, and Shin just happened to be around and weaker than him: a perfect outlet for his frustration. That was all it ever was. Shin didn't carry any sins to repent for.
"Shin."
Shin could hear the ghosts' voices, but he wasn't afraid of them. They were only pitiful and miserable. All they ever did was moan that they wanted to move on, shouting with the borrowed voices of the deceased or perhaps crying out in some mechanical tongue only they could understand. They'd lost their homeland and their bodies, and they kept screaming that they didn't want to die, unable to return to death. An army of ghosts that could only weep that they didn't want to die, despite their fervent desire to move on.
His brother was lost in that army, unable to move on. He had died and then been stolen away, trapped in one of the Legion's murder machines. Shin had to reclaim his brother's lost head. That was why Shin went to the battlefield, why he fought for five long years. Not to repay a debt, not to repent for any sin of his own, but to find his brother, defeat him, and bury him once and for all. And still, he had to atone for the sin his brother had bequeathed him in his final moments. He had to atone for his brother's ghost.
Shin fixed his sights on the crack he'd etched in the steel monstrosity's armor—
"…Farewell, Brother."
—and pulled the trigger.
Rei watched everything unfold through his optical sensors. He could feel the trigger being pulled, the flames spewing from the muzzle. And at that moment, for some reason, he could feel the gaze of those red eyes fixed on him, filled with strength, will, and resolve.
He'd never known his brother's face like this, never known him to be capable of that expression. It was only natural. Rei had died five years earlier and had remained stagnant ever since, unable to move on. But Shin had lived. He'd changed, grown, and advanced. The little brother he'd sworn to protect at all costs was long gone. One day, Shin would grow older than his brother ever could. That made Rei happy and just a bit lonely.
Ah, that's right…
There was one thing I had to say in the end, wasn't there? Something I could never tell him until the very end. I tried to say it back then, that night in those snowy ruins, but died before I had the chance.
Just like that night, Rei reached out to his brother. A single hand extended from the crack in his armor.
Shin.
And then all he could see was light.
It all happened in the split second after he pulled the trigger. A liquid micromachine arm slipped through Undertaker's crumbling canopy, creeping into the cockpit. The hand moved with an odd slowness over the course of that long, delayed moment, seeking something out. It was his brother's large hand. Shin froze in terror, watching it trace the events of that night, but forced his stiffened body not to look away.
In less than a second, his brother would be immolated by the flames. The brother he had sought for five years. Shin had no intention of carrying the vestiges of his final thoughts any longer, be they hatred or wrath. But he had to commit them to memory. The fingers coiled around the scar on his neck, tracing it over his blue scarf. But just as Shin thought they would constrict and strangle him, the touch of those fingers that once tried to kill him became a kind and painfully sad caress.
"…I'm sorry."
And just as Shin's eyes widened in shock, time began flowing normally again.
The high-explosive anti-tank warhead impacted the Dinosauria, detonating. An explosion of high-heat, high-speed metal surged into the armored frame from the crack, engulfing it in flames of black and red. His brother's hand let Shin go, slithering back to its burning body.
"Brothe—"
Shin reached after the retreating hand, but his fingers caught nothing but air. He could only make out the sight of his brother's hand catching fire as it entered the inferno, while everything else clouded over.
"…Ah."
It took a moment for Shin to realize what the warm drops trailing down his cheeks were. Ever since the day Rei had killed him for the first time, Shin couldn't cry. He was incapable of understanding that the feeling rising within him, crushing his heart, was sadness. The tears simply fell one after another, without end.
"Major, let's shut down the Resonance… This isn't something we should be hearing."
"Yeah…"
Lena connected again after a while, after Raiden contacted her and told her it was okay. The others had reconnected as well, and Raiden spoke on everyone's behalf.
"You all right, man?"
"Yeah."
There was still something of a shiver to Shin's voice, and while he wasn't crying anymore, his usual detachment seemed to have disappeared as well. Raiden laughed.
"Now you can take your brother's name along, too."
Shin smiled, too, however faintly.
"Yeah. I can."
He then turned his attention to Lena.
"...Major."
"I'm here. Of course I'd be here. I'm the Spearhead squadron's commanding officer, after all."
She had a duty to see everything through to the end. Even if no one wanted her to do it, it was still her duty.
"…"
"Situation resolved. Good job, Undertaker and everyone else."
Hearing her refer to him by his Personal Name made Shin's lips curl in a wry smile.
"Yes. Well done, Handler One."
"Well, then," Raiden whispered as he stretched inside his cockpit. Lena blinked in confusion. It felt as if the five had agreed on something, with her being the only one out of the loop. Lena tried to understand. What is it? They'd just decided something critically important, and she was the only one clueless.
"Fido, you done connecting the containers?"
There was a gap in the Resonance conversation, as if someone unconnected had just answered them. Fido? Oh, right, that was the name of the Scavenger attending them.
"We'll handle maintenance and repairs after we find somewhere to sleep… I gotta level with you guys. Burning through this much ammo on the first day kinda sucks."
"Look on the bright side. We probably wasted like a million Legion out there."
"I guess… Well, either way."
She could hear the distinctive noise of a motor as well as the sound of something heavy moving. Everyone's idle Juggernauts rose to their feet.
"Let's go, fellas. —So long, Major. You take care of yourself."
Raiden's parting remark was so casual Lena couldn't immediately understand what he meant. The battle had just ended, hadn't it? The enemy was on the retreat, and none of them had died. So now they just had to return to base like always, right?
"Um."
The young soldiers set out, leaving Lena to her confusion. The Juggernauts marched forward—their steps a bit unsteady due to battle damage—as their pilots chattered like students on the way to school.
"You sure we should be going through here, guys? There are duds lying around all over the place."
"Yeah… I'm a bit scared; this place is pretty much a minefield. Shin, can you find a detour that doesn't go through this ward?"
"There are no Legion in the area, so we can pretty much go in any direction… Wait, duds?"
"We'll explain later. Fucking hell, Shin, you really weren't paying attention to anything else, were you…?"
They marched on to the east, to the unknown battlefields controlled by the Legion.
Oh, right…
They can't go back anymore…
"Wai—"
A sense of fearful urgency burning through her body and a feeling of loss that chilled her very soul drove her to speak.
"Wait. Please, please wait…!"
She could feel them turning to face her. They stopped, waiting to hear what she would say next, but Lena didn't have the first idea as to what that would be. She was from the side that had driven them out, after all, the side that had ordered them to march to their deaths. She could apologize and condemn herself all she wanted, but those words wouldn't mean anything to them now. So what could she say? And yet, the words spilled from her lips.
"Don't leave me behind…"
Lena stiffened, unable to understand the meaning behind her own words. Did she just tell them not to leave her behind? That, of all things? She couldn't believe her own shamelessness. But they just laughed gently at her words. For the first time, she felt they'd truly smiled at her, like elder siblings watching their little sister throw a tantrum.
"Ah, feels pretty good, hearing that."
Raiden smirked, his smile filled with the strength and pride of a beast on the battlefield, one that relied on nothing but its own power and the help of its allies.
"That's right. We're not being chased out. We're moving forward, until we reach our final destination."
Everyone's focus shifted away from Lena and toward the horizon, their gazes and hearts fixed once again on that faraway place. Lena's breath stuck in her throat. The emotion she felt from them was neither resolve nor serenity. If she had to describe it, it was what one felt when gazing at the clear, boundless expanse of the ocean for the first time. Like children seeing the endless fields of spring, having been told they could run as far as they pleased and play for as long as they wanted. It was endless excitement and pure, unblemished joy. Excitement and expectation that simply could not be contained.
Ah.
I can't stop them. There are no words I could say to form chains binding them to me.
Because for them, freedom meant being able to decide where you died and willingly choosing to travel down that path. They knew how precious a thing it was and how hard it was to achieve.
Lena fell silent. No words were left unsaid. Sensing she'd accepted their parting, the young soldiers resumed their journey. But noticing Lena biting her lip in frustration, unable to come to terms with reality, Shin turned toward her with one final smile. It was serene, one she was seeing now for the first time. Carefree, relieved, and bright.
"We're off, Major."
And then the Resonance quietly shut down. Five blips disappeared from her radar. They were out of her command range, and their Sensory Resonance target records had been erased.
And with that, I'll never meet them again…
Droplets streamed down her cheeks. One after another, the tears flowed without pause. Unable to hold back the pain that rose from the depths of her heart, Lena lay against the console and raised her voice in a sorrowful wail as she openly wept.
A large, faded drawing of the five-hued flag, with its colors arranged backward from left to right, was scribbled on the barracks' wooden wall. No, its colors weren't just reversed from right to left—the flag itself was also reversed vertically. Probably to stand for oppression, discrimination, intolerance, atrocity, and vulgarity. Beside it was a drawing of Saint Magnolia holding a chain and shackle—where a sword that severed tyranny should have been—smiling as she reduced others to pigs and trampled them.
That was how they saw the Republic. Lena's unblemished fingers traced the drawing that adorned the damaged, frayed wood. It was noticeably old, probably drawn by the Eighty-Six first assigned to this barracks, nine years ago. The Republic was dead. The Republic Lena and the other civilians took pride in and believed in had all but died a long time ago. It was torn to shreds and abandoned by its own citizens.
Lena closed her eyes and sighed softly. Her thoughts wandered to the boy that had left, wondering whether he could hear the voice of the Republic, too. After everything ended, her commanding officers put her under house arrest until they could decide how to deal with her, to which she responded by boarding a transport that brought her to the base where the Spearhead squadron was stationed. It was the same transport that collected those destined for execution. Lena had to practically threaten the timid, kindhearted personnel officer to let her board.
"…You're Major Milizé, right?"
Lena turned around, her gaze falling on a maintenance-crew member who looked to be in his fifties. It was Lieutenant Lev Aldrecht, this base's head of maintenance.
"Heard about ya from the brats. Never thought you'd actually come all the way out here… You're as weird as they said ya were."
He spoke with a deep, slightly hoarse voice as he jerked his chin in the barracks' direction.
"The brats cleaned out their rooms before leavin', but there oughtta still be some of their stuff left behind. The new kids should come take their place in a bit, but feel free to have a look around before then, if ya want."
"Thank you very much. Pardon me intruding like this; you must be busy…"
"Heh, don't let it bother ya. We've seen more kids go to their deaths than we can count, but an Alba comin' to mourn 'em is definitely a first."
Lena suddenly looked up at his tanned, stern face.
"…Lieutenant Aldrecht. Are you…?"
His hair wasn't graying with age. It was silver hair, stained by black oil.
"…an Alba…?"
"…"
Aldrecht removed his sunglasses, revealing a pair of eyes the color of snow.
"My wife was a Colorata. My daughter looked a lot like her, too. I refused to let the two of 'em go alone, so I colored my hair and went after 'em. After that, I volunteered here to have their rights restored, but…heh, that didn't work. While I was working my butt off here…the two of 'em got sent to the battlefield and died."
He heaved a long, deep sigh and then scratched his head before parting his lips to speak again.
"…Did Shin tell ya about his ability?"
"He did."
"That ended up being a pretty famous story here on the eastern front… So I walked up to him when he got posted here. Asked if he heard any Legion lookin' for their shitty husband or dad."
"…"
"I figured if he said yes, I'd go out and have 'em kill me… But he said he didn't. There weren't any Legion callin' my name out there. Hearin' that… I think it kinda saved me. My girls weren't trapped on the battlefield even after dyin'. So when I do go to the other side…they'll be waitin' for me there."
The old crewman smiled faintly. It was a sad yet somehow relieved smile. But when he turned his gaze to the east, where the battlefield spread out as far as the eye could see, the only word for his expression was lonely.
"I always tell the kids here I'm an Alba before they go on their Special Reconnaissance missions. I always say they have a right to hate us and can kill me if it'll make 'em feel any better… But no one ever takes me up on it. Same this time. Thanks to that, I got cheated outta dyin' again."
She almost felt like he was going to say he'd been left behind again. By his wife and daughter…and the countless children he'd met here while servicing their machines. Aldrecht put his sunglasses on again, as if trying to suppress something, whispering "What am I doin'…?" to himself.
"There isn't a whole lotta time left… If ya got somethin' to do there, do it quick."
"Yes… Thank you very much."
Lena bowed respectfully to Aldrecht and entered the barracks through the door at his side. The place looked like it had been thrown together with scrap wood, gray and brown being the dominant colors of the tasteless, unadorned interior. The corridor creaked as Lena walked through it, the surface of its walls and floor having turned white from years of dust clinging to them. The wood had a rugged, rough feeling to it. The kitchen and dining hall were both caked with oil and soot stains no amount of cleaning could ever hope to remove. It was anything but hygienic.
The showers were a damp, gloomy space that reminded Lena of the gas chambers she had seen in documentaries. A black, writhing mass Lena couldn't identify was squirming at the edge of the room. There wasn't a washing machine or vacuum cleaner to be found. A broom and dustpan standing at the edge of the hallway and a jagged board and wash bin in the barracks' backyard served as their unworthy replacements. This was no way for a civilized human being to live. That this was the sort of life a country so proud of its innovative and humanitarian practices would foist upon citizens filled Lena with shame.
The Processors' rooms were on the second floor. The staircase squeaked in protest as Lena ascended. The small rooms were filled with pipe beds and closets, their colors faded from years of dust, deterioration, and exposure to the sun. The rooms were all tidied up, robbed of any hint that people had once lived in them. The beds were made with newly laundered sheets and pillowcases, silently awaiting the arrival of their new occupants.
The room farthest down the hallway, as well as the largest, belonged to the captain. The uneven door opened with an audible creak. In addition to a pipe bed and closet, this billet was also equipped with a desk and a small open space where a number of objects were placed.
A guitar. A deck of cards and a set of board games. A collection of handicraft tools. A crossword puzzle magazine missing several pages, leaving only the unsolved problems. A sketchbook, completely blank without a single drawing remaining. A basket full of lace and knitting needles, with no sign of the item they'd been used to create. A plank was nailed to the wall to form a makeshift shelf, stacked with books. There were various genres and authors, lending no insight into who might have owned them.
These had probably been set aside here so they wouldn't be thrown away, preserving them for use by the next squad members. But they'd gotten rid of all the things they'd made ahead of time, knowing they would be disposed of anyway.
Lena thought she could hear those young soldiers laughing, having chosen to live their lives to the fullest without leaving behind a single memento. Never submitting to despair, never letting hatred sully their pride. They stood tall and strong even in the face of cruelty that threatened to stamp out their dignity, and their lives stood as shining examples of what it meant to be human.
Lena walked up to the bookshelf, only to stop halfway. A black kitten, with splashes of white that didn't go past its paws, stood stock-still, as if helplessly wondering where everyone had gone. Outside the window, she could hear the sound of soldiers who'd apparently just had their pictures retaken. Lena reached out for the books. She didn't expect to make any discoveries but at least wanted to see what they'd been reading. She pulled out a book by an author she recognized and began flipping through it, when something slipped out of the pages.
"Ah."
She leaned over to pick up what turned out to be several sheets of paper. The first was a picture: a group photo of several figures standing in front of a building. She recognized that reversed flag; it was this barracks. The maintenance crew stood there, dressed in overalls, next to twenty-four boys and girls in their mid to late teens.
"...!"
Lena understood even without any explanation. These were the members of her Spearhead squadron. These were Shin, Raiden, Theo, Kurena, and Anju, and everyone who'd passed away, probably taken the day they'd been assigned here. The format of the image was the same as those taken for the Processors' personnel files, and the photo included everyone, even the maintenance crew. It was too small to make out any faces among the many figures standing there. For some reason, an old-model Scavenger was standing alongside them, too. Fido, in all likelihood.
It was the first time she'd seen her squad members, but the poor quality made it hard to discern their features. They weren't standing in a row, either, but rather, each took whichever position and pose came naturally as they looked at the camera. But Lena could tell they were smiling calmly.
The next sheet was a page from a memo pad, with a message written hastily in gruff, masculine handwriting.
If you actually went to the trouble of finding this, you're one crazy dumb ass.
And this time, her breath really did catch in her throat.
It was Raiden. And even though it didn't say to whom the note was addressed, Lena knew he'd written it for her.
The feeling is mutual, Raiden. You actually went to the trouble of writing this and putting it here on the off chance I'd find it.
The next note had a list of names arranged unevenly. It didn't take much thought to discern she was meant to match it to the group photo.
I wrote down everyone's names for you. I bet you're crying your eyes out right about now because you can't tell which of us is which.
Theo.
Take care of the cat. Might as well, if you're gonna insist on being a saint.
Kurena.
We still haven't decided on a name yet. Give it a cute one, okay, Major?
Anju.
Her hands trembled as she held on to the paper. Feelings welled up in her chest, threatening to burst.
They all left this behind for me. Even though I could never fight by their side. Even though I couldn't save any of them. Even though all I could ever do was spout powerless, idealistic nonsense while walking all over their lives, they still left this for me…
The final sheet of paper was Shin's. It was a single, characteristically curt line, written in his tidy, typically handsome handwriting.
If, one day, you make it to our final destination, would you please leave flowers?
The intent of the letter was clear and, at the same time, carried another meaning. The freedom Shin and the others sought was the freedom to press on for as long as they could, until death finally claimed them. And Lena would never reach their final destination unless she followed in their footsteps. She, too, would have to set out to become someone who never gave in to despair, who did not besmirch the dignity of man. Someone who fought and kept on fighting until her life burned out.
At the very end, he believed in her.
A single, warm tear trailed down her cheek. Lena smiled in spite of the sadness and loneliness flooding her heart.
Shin had said the Republic would inevitably fall. That its own hubris would herald its demise.
That may indeed be this country's inescapable fate. It may even come tomorrow. And for that very reason, fight until the final moment. Never give up. Never forfeit the will to live. Remain standing until the final moment. Honor the values those brave soldiers stood to represent.
Fight on. Until fate itself grows weary. Fight on, until the very end.
No country would ever consider it an act of evil to deny a pig human rights.
Therefore, if you were to define someone speaking a different tongue, someone of a different color, someone of a different heritage as a pig in human form, any oppression, persecution, or atrocity you might inflict upon them would never be regarded as cruel or inhumane.
It was when we believed this to be true, when we allowed this to come to pass, that the Republic of San Magnolia's demise began—and the moment it ceased to be.
—VLADILENA MILIZÉ, MEMOIRS
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