Discord
B Team had been advancing toward A Team's base when, before they had gotten far, a signal flare rose from their own camp. They rushed back at once—and found Haydam alone, guarding the flag.
The flag is safe.
But the silence was uncanny…
"…Haydam? You're here alone?"
For a moment their hearts had dropped at the realization that two of their teammates were gone. Then the cadets of B Team noticed Haydam was covered in paint—A Team's orange.
One of them hurried over in alarm.
"Haydam! What happened?"
"Well…"
Haydam released his grip on the flagpole and spoke.
"Our teammates suddenly showed up and tried to take the flag."
"They ambushed you?!"
"The other two tried to stop them, but they were outmatched. The moment the flare went up, they grabbed Harry and Cohen and vanished…"
They had nearly been robbed blind. The cadets stared at one another in dismay while Haydam spoke with an awkward little shrug.
"I… still held the flag, though. Friendly fire doesn't count as a kill, so when I covered it with my body they just left."
"Haydam…"
A few of the cadets were just beginning to feel a lump in their throats when someone cut in.
"That's bullshit."
Bones. He had been suspicious from the moment they found Haydam.
"How does Haydam alone stop seven of them? This… this is a setup, right? We're getting played."
"What the hell are you saying? Look at him—he got wrecked defending our flag!"
But Bones was not the only one who found the situation strange.
"No, I thought it was weird too. We wasted time bringing Haydam in, remember? Looking back, that was more than enough time for them to hide near our base."
"Are you people insane? You're doubting Haydam now?"
"Just kill him right now. Then the exercise ends."
"You shoot Haydam and I'll yank that flag and put it in his hand before your bullet lands."
"Who's the crazy one here?"
"Enough."
It was Lucas who stopped the argument.
"Is this the time to fight each other? Our base got hit and Harry and Cohen are gone."
"So what do we do?"
"We stop suspecting Haydam. If he'd been deceiving us, pulling the flag would have been far easier."
"Well… yeah, but…"
Bones still couldn't quite let go of his doubt; he shot Haydam a sidelong glare.
"More importantly. They'll still be nearby, so we search the perimeter. This time I'll stay behind with Haydam."
"You're staying alone?"
Bones started to object again, but Lucas chambered a round and aimed his rifle at Haydam's head.
"Like this. I'll keep the muzzle on him. If they try another ambush, I fire and end the exercise."
"If that's how it is…"
"Lucas. We're counting on you."
The rest of the team disappeared beyond the perimeter. Alone with Haydam, Lucas noticed the boy's shoulders trembling minutely under the barrel of the gun.
He's shaking…
Still, he was only a ten-year-old child. Betrayed by teammates he had trusted, subjected to a group beating—of course he would be terrified. And after throwing everything into protecting the flag, he was being doubted on top of it…
Lucas opened his mouth to offer some comfort.
"Haydam."
"Yes…?"
"There's no need to blame yourself so much. Everyone makes mistakes."
"Lucas…"
Haydam answered, shoulders still trembling.
"You're right… everyone makes mistakes."
"Yes, so—"
"So you don't need to blame yourself too much either, Lucas."
For a beat Lucas suffered a mild cognitive dissonance and answered half a second late.
"…What?"
And in the next instant—
Thwack!
What slammed into Lucas's shoulder blade was an orange paint round from A Team.
What greeted B Team when they came running back at the second signal flare was a single upright flag—and nothing else.
"What the hell?"
"This time Senior Lucas is gone too… and Haydam isn't here either?"
"The flag is intact."
Confusion swept the team.
If A Team had ambushed them again… why was the flag still safe this time?
"Hmm… maybe while we were gone they hit us again and Lucas went after them?"
"Leaving the flag unguarded?"
"Then where did Haydam go?"
"He followed Lucas… or maybe A Team grabbed him again."
"Are you guys complete idiots?"
Bones, who had doubted Haydam from the start, finally snapped, his voice thick with irritation.
"We got played!! By that little shit! I knew he was too damn polite to be real. General Max said the kid's attitude is absolute garbage!"
"Why do you keep suspecting Haydam? Is it because your foster father is pro-Daphne faction?"
"Then what the fuck, does this look fine to you? Three of us are already dead!"
"Senior Lucas could still be alive."
"Oh, for fuck's sake, look at the optimism!"
"No—if Haydam did fool us, that's its own problem. That means eight of us got danced around by a ten-year-old."
"……"
Silence fell at that. The most senior cadet among them tried to salvage the cratered mood.
"Alright, calm down. Either way, we only need one kill to win. We're still ahead."
"Ahead my ass! We're down to five. No Lucas. They still have eight."
"Th-then for now, two guard the flag and three search the area again…"
"Did you not hear me say they have eight? You want to fight two-on-eight or three-on-eight?"
"Then what, we just sit here babysitting the flag forever?"
"That seems best for now. Until we have a better plan, we hold the flag."
"Rather than that…"
"No, better to…"
When no decision came easily, Bones exhaled a long sigh, gathered his gear, and started walking.
"Hey, Bones! Where are you going?"
"To catch that little bastard Haydam."
"What? You know where he is?"
"No. But I can't just sit here taking this. I'm at least bringing that kid down."
"Bones. No solo ops. We're short-handed as it is—what the hell are you doing?"
"This is fucking ridiculous!"
Bones whirled, eyes blazing, jabbing a finger at the cadet who had tried to stop him.
"If you assholes hadn't kept covering for that kid, we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"Look, this isn't the time to fight each other. Bones, I get how you feel, but could you just stay?"
"……"
Bones narrowed his eyes at his teammates, then spat the words out.
"If you want me to stay, promise me."
"Promise what?"
"The second you see so much as a hair of that bastard Haydam, you shoot him."
"What? We don't even know for sure whether Haydam tricked us… F-fine. I'll shoot. Hair shows, I shoot. Me."
Even after that, Bones shook his head, turned his back, and strode out of camp.
"Hey! Where are you going? I said I'll shoot! I promised!"
Urgent voices tried to stop him; he never slowed.
"The way you talk, you'd never pull the trigger. In that case I'll kill him myself."
"Hey!"
The cadet called after him desperately. All that came back was a middle finger raised over a retreating shoulder.
"Fuck!"
Bones, who had been combing the area for Haydam like he was hunting lice, was soon forced to turn back toward camp with a stream of curses. The direction he had come from had suddenly erupted into noise.
I thought they'd go for the smaller group—was I wrong?!
Four left at base; he was the one moving alone. If A Team had been watching, they should have come after him.
Bones's sprint toward camp gradually slowed. The base that had been so noisy only moments ago had fallen dead silent.
No way…
Had all four remaining at camp been taken out in that short time? The hopeful alternative—that the four had overpowered the ambushing A Team—did not even occur to him.
Bones crept as close as he dared, hid behind cover, and looked toward the flag. The moment he saw the person he had been hunting sitting leisurely beside it, he burst out into the open.
"Haydam."
"Welcome back."
Haydam grinned, teeth bared, and leveled his gun at Bones.
Bones flinched on instinct as the muzzle found him, then forced himself to stay calm and edged closer with care.
Paint guns have short range. Just don't enter the effective distance.
He put on a carefully casual tone.
"Where'd my idiot teammates go?"
"Who knows. One thing's certain, though…"
The polite manner from earlier was gone. Haydam now spoke with open, deliberate condescension.
"You're the only one left, Bones."
"Crazy…"
Bones swept the camp with a quick look. No teammates—and no A Team either. Not a trace. Hard to believe a firefight had just taken place here.
"Where'd your teammates go?"
Bones kept scanning the surroundings as he asked.
"I don't know what dirty trick you pulled, but… one-on-one, I win, right?"
Haydam's grin widened.
"You're waiting for me to call my teammates. In a free-for-all, if you tag anyone at all, you still have a shot at winning."
"……"
Struck dead on, Bones said nothing. Haydam tilted his head slightly.
"You were so eager to have me shot… but when it's your own finger on the trigger, you don't actually want to. Even now, you still don't like the idea of winning by shooting a kid like me."
He hated to admit it, but it wasn't wrong. Even after coddling Haydam had cost him every teammate and left him alone, Bones's first instinct had still been to bag an A Team member who might rush out to protect the boy—rather than simply kill Haydam and win.
"I've never met a more disgusting little brat than you."
"I've met people like you before."
"What?"
"I know one just like you—a foul-mouthed bastard who complains about everything."
"You little shit…"
Bones bristled for an instant—then realized Haydam was deliberately goading him and forced himself to stay level.
"That long tongue of yours means you're scared, doesn't it? If you're not calling your teammates, then fight me one-on-one."
"Oh, I'm not calling them."
Not calling A Team? What was he thinking?
I might have no choice but to kill the little bastard after all.
By the time that thought formed, it was already too late. Haydam wasn't finished.
"Because they're already here."
"…What?"
By the time Bones sensed something wrong, A Team members who had been lying under white blankets camouflaged as snowdrifts rose as one and trained their guns on him.
"Oh, you son of a—"
Multiple gunshots rang out, signaling the end of the exercise.
The day after the training simulation ended.
"There was a lot of talk even before this exercise started. That your team winning was impossible, Haydam."
"There was, yes."
"Then tell me."
The commander's voice was thick with interest.
"How did you turn the impossible into the possible?"