“Kenyya-kun? Kenyya-kun?”
A voice… I can hear a voice. Who could it be?
What was I doing?
Was I able to protect them…?
Kenyya slowly opens his eyes.
A familiar sight, inside the cockpit.
His blurry vision slowly clears, and the white light becomes dazzling.
“Huh? Me?”
“Kenyya-kun, thank goodness… Are you alright? Are you hurt? Kenyya-kun?”
The sound of a comms signal echoes in the cockpit.
That voice… is it Tanaka-san? Ah, that’s right. I fell asleep.
“I’m sorry, Tanaka-san. I’m fine, I just fell asleep.”
“That’s good! You wouldn’t wake up at all, so I was worried. You should come over here and rest. The transport truck will be a bit more comfortable to sleep in.”
Kenyya opens the cockpit as instructed and slowly climbs out of Takemikazuchi.
He looks at the machine again.
It’s a bit damaged here and there, but it stands proudly, still a pure white machine.
“Thank you, I survived because of you.”
Kenyya gently strokes the machine.
Then, Tanaka-san gets out of the transport truck.
“Good morning, and thank you for your hard work. And thank you, Kenyya-kun, for protecting everyone.”
“Tanaka-san… No, I should be the one thanking you. I would have died if you weren’t here.”
“I guess so… I’m quite reckless myself for coming here, really…”
Tanaka-san walks slowly over, and with his dirty white coat and tired stubble, he sighs and pats Kenyya’s head.
“You’re still just a kid…”
“Isshin-san said the same thing. By the way, Tanaka-san, can I ask you a few things? What about the Asgard Army soldiers? And Kaguya?”
“Well, calm down, let’s talk a bit.”
Then, he opens the back of the transport truck and makes it so they can lie down.
Kenyya and Tanaka sit there together.
It’s already late at night, and the stars and moon are out, making it a beautiful night.
“I think you’ve probably guessed it, but I’m a member of the resistance.”
“I thought so.”
“Yeah, I’ve been providing technical support, like making the KOG we seized in a previous operation usable.”
So, Tanaka-san was the insider Isshin was talking about.
Kenyya understands now.
Tanaka, who was at the forefront of KOG research, would know how to easily bypass security.
“Isshin and the others are probably heading to the Asian Union. I don’t know for sure since we have no way to contact them.”
The Asgard Army controls all the infrastructure, so there’s no way to communicate once you leave the capital.
Conversely, not being able to communicate means they’re far away.
From this, Tanaka guessed that they must have crossed the sea using the Asian Union’s connections, as he had heard beforehand.
Tanaka himself wasn’t involved in such diplomacy, so he didn’t know the details.
“I see… I’m glad they’re safe. I have to go see them someday.”
“Yeah, that’s probably your reason for living, right? Kaguya-kun.”
“!?!”
“Heh, I didn’t turn off the comms. You were shouting it many times during the battle. ‘I’ll protect Kaguya.'”
“Th-that’s…”
“You want to get lovey-dovey, don’t you?”
“Ugh…”
Thinking back, I was spouting such embarrassing lines.
I feel like I was repeating cheesy lines, my face is turning bright red.
“You were cool, Kenyya-kun.”
(Please stop, my life is already at zero!)
Tanaka praises Kenyya with a grin.
“No, really… I respect you. I truly respect you for being able to protect the person you love with your life. And you even have the power to do it.”
Tanaka looks sadly, as if remembering something.
He looks at the still-smoldering wreckage of the KOGs on the battlefield.
All the Asgard-made KOGs that Kenyya destroyed, along with the corpses of over 100 machines.
“I lost someone too, you know. Well, it was common in those days. A story that was everywhere. But I couldn’t bear what happened.”
Kenyya listened to Tanaka-san’s story and imagined.
He probably understood that Tanaka-san also had someone important taken from him by the Asgard Army.
Now, he understands that feeling all too well.
If, if Kaguya were to be violated in this war.
If she were to be killed.
I would never forgive that country.
Such common hatred overflows in the world.
And an empire that suppresses it with overwhelming power.
“Enough with the dark talk, how was it? Takemikazuchi?”
“Yes, it was amazing! It’s the best machine. I could fight as much as I want with this!”
“I see, when I was making it, I was wondering who could even pilot something like this… I never thought there would be someone who could actually master it.”
“I’m good at close combat. And… it’s the romance, isn’t it? To fight with just a sword.”
“Oh! You get it. This machine was made with the image of a Japanese Samurai. If it goes all out, it should have enough power to not lose to anyone.”
The two get excited with that conversation.
Kenyya and Tanaka, who had gone through a life-or-death situation together, were already compatible, and now they become even closer.
“So, Kenyya-kun. What are you going to do now?”
“What am I going to do… I haven’t thought about it at all.”
He throws his hands up in a surrender pose and lies down in the transport truck.
The temperature is just right, it feels good.
If it weren’t for the smell of gunpowder, it would be the perfect night.
“I wonder what I should do… If I go back to the military, I’ll probably be killed. I have nowhere to go, maybe I’ll go to Asia.”
“I’m probably exposed too, Zeke-san was there, and I’m the only one who can pilot this machine right now… I might be killed if I go back.”
Zeke knows Tanaka’s identity, and he probably knows Kenyya’s identity too.
“What’s the Asian Union like?”
“Well… I’ve never been there myself, but it’s a collection of Asian countries. Would you understand if I said it’s a democracy on a national level?”
“Democracy? What kind of system is that?”
Kenyya isn’t very good at studying.
He knows that Japan was a democracy, but he doesn’t clearly understand what Tanaka is saying.
“Heh, are you not good at studying? No, I’m sorry. You probably couldn’t learn that in school at your age…”
Tanaka looks sad, thinking that Kenyya’s ignorance is because of the war.
I’m sorry, I’m just an idiot.
“Simply put, it’s a union of Asian countries that have united against the threat of the Asgard Empire. Each country has different political systems and economies, but they have voting rights based on their population.”
“So, when they decide something, the countries of the Asian Union vote on it?”
“Yes, well, to be precise, the representatives of those countries have the power to decide. Those representatives are chosen through elections or are kings, and so on.”
“I see…”
Kenyya didn’t understand much about this world.
The Asian Union, a huge collection of nations, and the EU, another similar collection of nations.
And the Asgard Empire, the largest and strongest empire, where a single person controls everything.
He wasn’t very interested in politics in his previous world, but in this world, it’s a matter of life and death, so he has no choice but to be interested.
“So, what do you do? We have nowhere to go, but will you come?”
“Yeah… What should we do?”
Then, Kenyya’s KOG Device rings.
(There are only two people who know this number.)
There are only two people who know Kenyya’s contact information at the moment.
One is Kaguya, who is currently overseas and cannot be contacted.
Then, the other one is…
“Hello…”
Kenyya answers the phone hesitantly.
“Is this Kenyya-kun?”
“Yeah… What… is it?”
“I’m heading there now. To the place where that white machine is.”
“…”
He understands everything that those words mean.
In other words, the other heroine that Kenyya must protect, who he had just crossed swords with.
“Let’s talk.”
The Ace-class pilot of the Asgard Empire, known as the Silver Ice Princess.
Reina Sylphid was heading there.