Wearing the Operator's Suit
Operating a Giganoid requires two people—a man and a woman. The combatant role usually falls to the man, while only a woman can serve as the operator. And right now, I was biologically, completely female. I could probably handle the operator side too. But… hmm.
Wait, thinking about it properly—the fact that he had reserved a training unit meant for mixed use meant Lee Hyun-woo had never planned to come here alone today. The fact that I ended up coming with him is nothing more than coincidence. Which meant this guy had originally intended to show up with a woman. And who else could that have been—obviously, nine times out of ten, it was Han Seo-ah. At this stage, she was the only woman he would have any reason to meet.
But Han Seo-ah wasn’t here right now. This was awkward. Somehow I had accidentally erased one of the events that was supposed to tie her and Hyun-woo together. Was there an important scene between Han Seo-ah and him in the novel today? Things that are supposed to happen need to happen.
Nothing specific came to mind. It wasn’t that I’d forgotten; the novel simply hadn’t described what the characters were doing today. It wasn’t like the story showed every single action. Most of the time it just skipped ahead with lines like suddenly a week had passed. My best guess was that they’d planned to work on the poor synchronization from the last sortie… but even that was uncertain. So I asked him directly.
“Did you have plans with Han Seo-ah today?”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t exactly a plan… but I did make a reservation and was going to call her.”
…So he really had been planning to meet her. In that case, should I call her now?
“Want me to call her? What time is the reservation?”
“It starts at eight-thirty. But it’s already past nine…”
Hyun-woo looked troubled. It was already that late? I must have played the game longer than I realized. Past nine o’clock made it awkward to call someone over for training—especially sync training, which held zero appeal for the woman involved. Dragging her out after she’d already been relaxing somewhere just to say, Hey, come help with this sync training real quick and then you can leave… that took a certain lack of conscience.
Calling Han Seo-ah felt wrong, but no-showing on a reserved slot was also problematic. Canceling a day in advance was one thing, but failing to appear after booking resulted in a one-month ban from the facility. It wasn’t a devastating penalty, but it would still create a deviation in the novel’s plot. The fact that Han Seo-ah and Lee Hyun-woo had already missed each other today couldn’t be helped, but preventing him from training for an entire month would cause its own problems.
“Can’t be helped,” I said. “Let’s at least go log our names.”
Of course, simply logging our names wasn’t going to solve anything. The staff member’s attitude was already sour—probably because we were late.
“You students know this isn’t allowed, right? Other people couldn’t book because of you. We’re going by the rules, so keep that in mind.”
“It’s just that the person who was supposed to come with us couldn’t make it…”
Our explanation fell on deaf ears.
“Absolutely not. And even if I wanted to overlook it, the machine needs a usage record.”
“But we want to do it—we just don’t have anyone—”
The staff looked me up and down, then narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean you don’t have anyone? You can do it, student.”
Wait, that’s not—excuse me…
Operator Suit Assigned — Female Cadet Only
Somehow it had come to this… but there was no avoiding it now. If I was being honest, I did need to learn the operator-side knowledge. During the last incident I had panicked because I couldn’t undo Han Seo-ah’s restraint device. There was no guarantee it wouldn’t happen again.
“Looking at it that way, this might actually be a good opportunity…”
I stood in the women’s changing room, holding the operator suit. It seemed my updated administrative status hadn’t reached the staff yet; they had shoved me into the female side without question. At least the late hour meant no one else was around. Small mercies.
I unfolded the suit, which had been crumpled like a deflated balloon. “This design is… pretty embarrassing, though.”
The thin plastic one-piece clung skin-tight once worn. In other words, it was basically a bodysuit. And you weren’t allowed to wear anything underneath—completely naked. I could already picture exactly how it would look.
“Haah…”
How had it come to this? I had no idea how I’d ended up in this situation, but there was no other choice. I grabbed the zipper of my tracksuit and pulled it down. Then I unhooked my bra, slid my panties to the floor, and—Fuck…—lifted my bare legs and pushed them into the open back of the suit.
It was my first time wearing one, so it was surprisingly difficult. After a fierce struggle I finally got my limbs roughly into position and pressed the button on the back. With a sharp zzrrrp the suit shrank and clung to my body.
When I looked in the mirror after getting it fully on… it was even more humiliating than I’d imagined.
The suit followed every curve, squeezing tight and revealing my slender frame in explicit detail. Breasts, waist, hips—nothing was hidden. The body in the reflection looked so small. Compared to the glamorous, voluptuous figure of Han Seo-ah still burned into my memory… my chest and hips were noticeably smaller. Or maybe my overall frame was just too delicate?
No, no—what am I even thinking?
I let out a small, self-deprecating laugh at my own thoughts and stepped out of the changing room. It’s fine. It’s not like any bare skin is showing… Wait, even if it was, why would that matter? I didn’t know anymore. Not really.
With quiet footsteps I walked toward the simulator where Lee Hyun-woo was waiting. The moment our eyes met, I instinctively covered myself with both arms.
“Place your hand here to register… then do the voice recognition. Input the set command and the release command. All the plugs are numbered, so just match the numbers. After you insert every plug, slide your hands and legs into the binders and speak the set command you entered. It’ll lock automatically…”
He seemed strangely familiar with the process.
“…How do you know all this?”
“Huh? Oh, it hasn’t been that long since I learned it myself.”
Is that so?
“The ones on your back will be hard to reach by yourself… I’ll do them for you.”
True to his word, when I turned around his hands touched my back. A few metallic clicks later, cables connected along my spine. Each insertion brought a sharp, static-like sting.
“I’ll head up first. The rest you can handle. Call me if you get stuck.”
Then he stepped away. The remaining connection points were definitely not something I wanted anyone else handling. One under each rib just below my breasts, and… a thick cable each between my hips and crotch.
Wow. These really are embarrassing spots… Why the hell are they placed here?
Every time a cable clicked in, a tingling current raced across my skin. After finishing the connections I slid my legs into the restraints known as binders, then my arms, and finally the one above my head.
Seriously… what kind of control posture is this?
“Set.”
I spoke the preset command quietly. There was a heavy clack as restraints locked around my wrists and ankles. Then the inside of the binders began to pressurize and swell. As they pressed tight between every finger, a beep sounded and the monitor panel lit up.
PREPARATION COMPLETE
SYNC LINK ESTABLISHED
Lee Hyun-woo’s voice came through the speaker.
“Then let’s begin.”
“…Okay.”
As I mentioned before, sync training is boring. From the woman’s perspective, it was genuinely miserable. All you could see was a tiny panel filled with numbers. There was nothing to do. Even if you wanted to move, your hands and feet were essentially locked in place. Of course saying “Release” would free you… but you weren’t allowed to during training. All you could do was endure the periodic electric currents that flowed through the cables embedded in your body.
“This feels good… Seems stable.”
Hyun-woo’s voice drifted from the speaker.
Stable my ass.
“Hng… ah… haa.”
I barely managed to swallow the sound trying to crawl out of my throat. Listening to his occasional comments, watching the numbers on the digital panel rise and fall, twitching every time the current hit… before long I was completely drained.
By the time I changed back into my clothes and stepped outside, the training center was already pitch black. On the way back to the dormitory I grumbled the whole time.
“Wow, I’m never doing that again. Ever.”
“Was it that bad?”
“Yeah, seriously… I thought I was going to die. It was awful. You really need to treat Han Seo-ah well.”
But he gave me a puzzled look.
“That doesn’t make sense… Today actually felt better than usual for me.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. I’m serious.”