Partner Swapping: The Living Must Persist
Those who survive through partner swapping must keep on living. And so, the day after the farewell ceremony for the fallen comrades, the 393rd Unit had to bustle about as usual.
"Damn it. Turns out Netoru was right after all."
And so, around lunchtime, Asuna, the maintenance chief who had returned to base, entered the command office with a grave expression. She'd gone early that morning with some unit members to check out the "tunnel" Netoru had reported, under the guise of repairing the observation tower.
Asuna handled Holy Knight maintenance on base, but she was a full-fledged mage in her own right. Her report could be trusted.
"No matter how you look at it, that underground space beneath the observation tower isn't natural. It's a tunnel dug artificially by something huge."
"...Then."
Rien's face slowly hardened as she furrowed her brow. Asuna clicked her tongue, avoiding the commander's gaze.
"What else? It means there's some massive unidentified bug hiding underground, evading your detection."
"......"
Rien squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her dry face at Asuna's confident reply. She'd hoped it wasn't true, but reality was this cruel. When Netoru had submitted his report upon returning, she'd doubted it... but he was right after all.
A "mysterious" bug lurked somewhere in the 39th Sector. A massive monster that had merely observed their last battle from underground.
Asuna chewed her lip in thought for a moment before speaking.
"Rien. It's gotta be that thing, right?"
"...Probably."
"Hah... fuck. I don't know if it's the same one from Zone 47 or a different specimen, but either way, we're screwed."
Asuna's usual rough language spilled out unfiltered. She'd seemed a bit tamer lately, but that just meant the situation was dire. Still, this was an improvement. When Asuna first joined the 393rd, she was cursing nonstop, wondering how a shithole like this even existed...
...Who would've thought that monster would show up in our sector too.
At least it wasn't a complete unknown. They had a vague idea what the bug underground might be. Hadn't a suspicious battle report come in just recently? A colossal bug spotted in Zone 47, codenamed Death Worm. According to the report, it burrowed underground. So it wasn't strange for Asuna to think of it upon seeing the massive subterranean passage.
Anyway, the real problem was this: even knowing it existed, they couldn't detect it if it stayed underground. No mage could scan for something moving beneath the earth. That made it a truly lethal threat. They couldn't respond to a surprise attack. It was a monster utterly unlike the bugs they'd faced before.
...Is that why he told us to conserve tactical magic bullets...
That day, when Netoru had volunteered as bait, he'd insisted on saving the tactical magic bullets. He'd probably foreseen a crisis like this. A wise call.
"...Rien. Forget everything else—this isn't something we can handle."
Asuna thumped Rien's desk with a low, gravelly voice. Rien looked up wearily, her face etched with exhaustion.
"You know why the nobles pulled out of Zone 47 entirely because of this thing."
"Yeah..."
"If it attacks the base outright, how the hell are we supposed to stop it? We've already got massive gaps in our forces from this battle. Six pilots are heading to the hospital today alone."
"......"
Force gaps... An undetectable monster. Even if the unit was at full strength, they couldn't fend off a Death Worm assault out of nowhere, just as Asuna said. They'd probably fall without much resistance. That was why the Holy Knight units had evacuated Zone 47. A surprise attack from an unobservable bug was more deadly than any bombardment. Without their Holy Knights, humans were powerless. Strike before they could mount up, and it was a one-sided slaughter.
...Haa.
Rien clutched her forehead. Was this how her father had felt? Like the world had abandoned her, everything spiraling into the worst possible outcome. Trapped in a pitch-black void with no one to reach out.
The colossal bug... Had it been about two weeks ago? The battle report had felt like some distant, unreal tale. The sector was far off, after all. But facing it head-on now... Rien just wanted to break down and cry.
But she couldn't afford to despair.
"We need to address the force gaps first..."
The injured were a problem, but the real issue was the pilots left without partners due to coupling disruptions. Among the six heading to the hospital were pilots from entirely different pairings. That left six teams—twelve pilots total—partnerless, rendering six Holy Knights combat-ineffective.
This had to be fixed first. Rien steeled herself, composing her expression as she prepared to summon the unit members. Death Worm or whatever, they needed to reorganize coldly and rationally.
2. He'd seen the early-morning sortie team return. Probably checking the underground space beneath the observation tower he'd reported. Had they found anything? It was a nerve-wracking anomaly. Truth be told, he wanted to investigate it himself, but with the overheat and the aftereffects of Karen's forcibly activated mana nerve system, she couldn't fight for a while. Even with his help recovering her, she needed a few days of solid rest. It was a miracle it hadn't been worse.
...A crisis situation, huh.
Thinking about the unit's state just made him chuckle wryly. It wasn't just him and Karen on standby. Plenty of pilots had sustained minor to major injuries in the battle. Excluding the dead, combat losses from wounds were rampant.
It was a barrage of shells and bullets. Bullets might be manageable, but if a shell hit the Holy Knight's body, the shockwave hammered the pilots inside. And the prolonged, intense combat was brutal too. Roughly speaking, the 393rd had fought bugs nonstop for a full day. Once against the swarm at the tower, once against the night assault, and once more in the morning battle with Karen.
They'd been in near-daily scraps lately. In that buildup of fatigue, this battle was a knockout blow. In that sense, short-burst overheat like Karen's was less scary than the cumulative damage to mana nerve systems from extended Holy Knight operation.
Sure enough, several pilots—male and female alike—had severe mana nerve issues from this fight.
Around lunchtime, transport vehicles arrived to evacuate the wounded. Mana nerve damage didn't heal easily; better to recover in the city hospital... That must've been Rien's call. Without Netoru, Karen would've been on one of those trucks too.
As the unit gathered to see off the evacuees, Karen murmured quietly beside him.
"...So that's another six gone."
Then, as if struck by a thought, she slowly turned to look at Netoru. Her dark eyes held raw emotion, making her intent obvious.
"Netoru, just to check..."
"Karen, you think that'll work?"
"Huh? I haven't even said it yet."
"I know what you're gonna say. You're asking if you can do that 'treatment' you're getting on the other unit members too, right?"
Karen flinched at Netoru's sharp read, then nodded.
"Ugh... Yeah... Is it really impossible?"
Netoru sighed lowly at her cautious glance. She really believed it was just "treatment," huh. Otherwise, she wouldn't suggest it so casually. Unbelievable.
"Karen, straight up: no, it's not possible."
"...For real? It's just kissing, right? How hard can that be?"
No sarcasm in her tone—just pure curiosity. Netoru let out a hollow laugh. She saw "treatment" way too simplistically.
"You think it's really just kissing?"
"W-Wait...!?"
Netoru pulled her by the waist. No resistance. She'd grown used to it, leaning in naturally. But maybe noticing the other unit members, she belatedly shoved him away.
"Hey, are you insane? What are you doing here!?"
"Relax. No one saw."
"You and your shameless lines again...!"
Apparently, doing it in front of others was still too much. Netoru shrugged at her flushed, flustered face.
"Anyway, you wouldn't get it, but interfering with someone's mana nerve system isn't easy. It's exhausting."
"...So you have limits too?"
"Yeah."
"......"
Karen stared hard at Netoru's face, trying to spot a lie. No luck, apparently—she sighed.
As the wounded pilots were loaded up, leaving the base feeling even emptier, Rien summoned the unit. To propose partner swapping—pairing up the men and women temporarily partnerless from the battle.