Bickering
There was a squeezing sensation constricting my body from above. It was none other than Lira's massive weight pressing down on my entire frame.
Lifting my head was a struggle. Because of our huge height difference, Lira's enormous chest was squashing the top of my skull.
Someone might ask if this situation was actually pretty great. Nope, not at all. If anything, it felt like my airway was getting tighter by the second. No, seriously, I couldn't breathe!
"Could you back off a little?" I wheezed, desperately shoving at Lira's body.
"Like I said earlier, the camouflage membrane isn't that big. We've gotta execute the mission perfectly, right?" Despite my efforts, the brief relief in my breathing vanished as everything snapped back to normal.
Lira had a point. Assuming, of course, that everything she said was the full truth.
Something's off... No matter how I looked at it, this thing was plenty big enough for at least one person comfortably. Lira must've been waiting for a chance like this. With everyone else's eyes off us, she was clearly plotting to strangle me!
If words weren't getting through, I'd have to show her with actions.
I shook my head wildly, desperately creating some space. I twisted my body to exploit the gap. The massive lump of flesh kept interfering with my head's movement, but I didn't give up, wriggling fiercely.
The camouflage membrane shook quite a bit, but my short body didn't pop out.
She probably hadn't expected such violent struggling from me. Once I started thrashing for real, slipping free was surprisingly easy.
I caught a flicker of surprise on Lira's face. Did she think I'd be watching her mood or something? From the start, you're not the one evaluating me! I might worry about Platoon Leader Carlos's gaze, but I had zero reason to care about hers.
So I hadn't given a damn about the membrane shaking from the beginning. If the mission failed... well, it'd be a bit regrettable! Not that I'd mind, of course.
She wouldn't stoop to repeating that childish nonsense again, right?
I glanced up at Lira. She stared back expressionlessly, but as a master of Lira psychology, I picked up every subtle signal beneath it.
The slightly clenched fist, the hips fidgeting impatiently. She was definitely heated up! With the opponent showing such an opening, it'd be rude not to poke at it.
I narrowed my eyes and stuck out my tongue just a bit.
The reaction was instant. Lira froze solid, like she'd stared into Medusa's eyes.
"You..." Soon, she growled back in a low voice.
"What? Something wrong?"
I asked innocently, as if nothing had happened.
Flustered by my brazen attitude, Lira stiffened up again without responding.
Phew, what a relief. We might be stuck waiting here for hours, and I'd nearly been forced into endless mind games with a beast who wouldn't listen to reason. Just imagining it was nightmare fuel. Of course, with my victory sealed now, it was a non-issue.
In my glee, I started humming a little tune without realizing it. My legs swayed with the upbeat mood.
But then.
Suddenly, I couldn't breathe again.
This time, it wasn't just the weight crushing me.
Up until now, Lira's antics could be called subtle body pressure. Now she was openly choking me with her arm.
"What's your deal? Have you lost your mind?"
"The one who's lost their mind is you."
To secure some air, I desperately pushed at the arm around my neck.
What the hell was this? Was I dreaming of getting hired as an inspector or something? I never imagined it'd turn into roughhousing like middle school boys pulling pranks—out here on the Sector outskirts, no less! During a secretive mission tracking a special cadaver, of all things!
"Hey, do you even get the concept of rank? You think I'm your buddy or what?"
As if venting pent-up rage, the grip around my neck tightened. True to her pitbull terrier rep, even as I yanked at her arms with both hands, I barely managed to keep my windpipe open.
"I get it. But higher rank doesn't justify abuse, does it?"
"You clearly don't. Superiors have a duty to correct subordinates who defy orders."
So this was her idea of "correction"? I wondered if Carlos would buy that if he saw. Hell, anyone spotting the camouflage membrane shaking violently would tilt their head.
Did she have no idea how ridiculous we looked tangled up like this?
But me, Nera—I never refuse a duel challenge. Especially now, freshly kicked out of the lab with zero need to watch my step!
I let go of the hands gripping Lira's arm. Airflow cut off completely, but whatever. To claim the bone, you gotta sacrifice the flesh.
My freed hand went straight for Lira's hair.
From here on, Lira was about to become a much hairier person. A blessing, in a way?
"Gah—!"
A bigger scream than expected rang out. My blocked airway cleared in an instant, and in my hand was a tangle of golden hair.
Hmm... I hadn't meant to yank it out, just inflict some pain and slip away. Guess I failed at holding back.
Forgetting we were on a mission, I put distance between me and Lira. More like, I sensed a massive threat to my life that made the mission irrelevant.
Look at those eyes ahead. The feral glare of a bloodshot beast. I had no confidence I'd survive even seconds next to that.
But I'm the wronged one here! She started the childish fight first, yet I felt demoted to her level. Were we really forgetting our mission just to trade barbs? No, at this point, it was teetering on a life-or-death brawl...
-GYAAAAH!!
Someone screamed. It was the voices of our escort targets, the executors.
"Someone's screaming over there, you know?" So hurry up and get back to the mission, Lieutenant Lira? No way a lieutenant like you would ditch duty over personal grudges, right?
...Right?
Lira's fist trembled. Who would it target? A tense moment indeed.
Thankfully, she headed toward the scream. Though her heavy footsteps oozed barely contained fury.
One crisis averted!
Right now, in an abandoned house in the Remnant Site. Inside, Carlos and Nova were monitoring the bait platoon.
The reason for stationing the bait platoon in this ghost town deserted by residents was, naturally, to lure the special specimen.
Of course, they weren't watching from right next door. From the most remote abandoned house in the site, they observed the platoon discreetly.
"No signals. Clear."
Nova, staring at the detector, spoke up. She'd deployed a qubit in the sky, scanning the surrounding area via its emitted signals.
The target special specimen was a cadaver with Linker abilities. Naturally, standard detection methods couldn't spot it, so they'd resorted to wide-area radar via qubits.
The qubit was Nova's most powerful weapon—a universal shapeshifting unit that could morph into anything. There was good reason Nova handled surveillance in 1st Platoon. It was easy to mistake Nova for a pure combatant given the qubit's overwhelming firepower, but Nova's true role was clearly supporting the platoon.
As in any war, knowing the enemy's position unilaterally while hiding your own was a huge advantage. So even if the special specimen hadn't shown yet, it wasn't a big loss for 1st Platoon.
In the end, this was a test of patience. No matter how long it took, they'd wait until the special showed its face—a simple game.
But Carlos was uneasy right now. Not about the mission, though. The vague wait of unknown duration was almost bearable.
Can those two really get along?
It might sound like standard platoon leader worries. But considering their awkward dynamic—especially Lira, who loathed cadavers and despised the doctor running twisted experiments on them—how she'd view Nera was obvious.
Yet they'd been paired anyway. Surprisingly, Lira had suggested it herself.
Carlos had planned to pair with Nera himself, considering their relations, and stick the usually friendly Nova with Lira. But Lira had strongly objected.
He didn't know why. Lira, who claimed she'd observe the outer areas with Nera, still wouldn't even meet Nera's eyes.
Lira got emotional dealing with cadavers, but she'd never nitpicked a mission plan before. It just seemed like pure stubbornness.
But he couldn't think of a way to break her stubbornness.
In that situation, the last thing Carlos checked was Nera's expression.
Nera's gaze was on him and Lira talking, but her eyes were indifferent, like it was none of her business. It put him oddly at ease. Some petty bickering might happen, but it wouldn't escalate to a fight—he was sure of it.
So he'd made the pairs like this.
But looking back now, it might've been a clumsy call.
Yeah. It won't turn into a fight. But that judgment rested on the assumption that Nera could unilaterally withstand Lira's pressure.
Of course, he couldn't imagine Nera buckling to Lira. If anything, he pictured Lira fuming alone while Nera shrugged off any provocation.
But Nera holding her own didn't make the decision right.
In the end, he'd basically ordered Nera to handle it.
To deal with Lira. To absorb that unease and anger yourself.
-GYAAAAH!
A scream echoed from afar. His train of thought snapped.
Far earlier than expected. It had finally appeared.