Blue Forests of Galantid
Blue trees and plants. Hunting down these little differences from planet to planet is pretty entertaining, actually.
Everything that grew on this world wore shades of blue, and Jincheon smiled to himself, treating the search for each planet's quirks as a private amusement of his own.
"Wait!"
"Hmm?"
Beatrix, who had been following close behind as he strode ahead, caught him by the wrist and pulled him short.
"Do you even know what kind of animals or plants might be in there, just walking in like that? At least run a search on your Bio Device first."
She was right. Landing on an unfamiliar planet meant checking its features and confirming whether any of its flora or fauna were dangerous to humans. Basic common sense.
Jincheon, however, answered like a man who had never heard of common sense.
"It's fine. I'm stronger."
"…"
Has this man always been this dense?
Jincheon was aggressive by nature, but once a fight started he used his abilities with real cunning. The moment he learned of the Reinforce Knights and Poltein's presence, he had charged straight in and stopped the disaster of the Rastold Silverion's flank being torn open—something no one without a true eye for the battlefield could have managed. Whenever a critical point appeared in combat, he was there, presence undiminished.
And yet here he was, walking into an unknown world with no information at all, without the faintest idea what might be waiting.
"First we need to find edible fruit or something like it. And even if we can't find any, we at least have to let our allies know we're still—"
Whhheee—!
"!!"
In that instant Beatrix felt a fighter screaming through the air overhead at high speed and dropped into a crouch on pure reflex.
"Took them longer than I expected."
Jincheon had already confirmed the fighters and ships heading for the crash site of Beatrix's machine. A short while later he spotted several vessels cutting across the ocean at high speed toward the same target.
So they do have surface ships. A lot faster than anything from the twenty-first century, too.
"Hold on. Let me check whether they're friend or foe—"
"No need. They're enemies."
"What? How can you possibly know that?"
"Too much killing intent for friendlies. This isn't just ordinary caution."
"Killing intent?"
Beatrix began to worry in earnest as Jincheon kept spouting things that made no sense.
Did he hit his head in the crash?
Any soldier who had tasted real battle could feel the murderous intent of an enemy trying to kill them. But no soldier alive would declare someone an enemy simply because they felt killing intent from a search party.
They're enemies.
Ignoring Jincheon, Beatrix focused her eyes. Thanks to her bio-augmented vision she could make out the markings on the distant fighters and ships. Confirming the crest of the rebel nobility, she settled in to wait quietly for the search unit to leave.
"Don't turn on your Bio Device. If they pick up a signal, we're prisoners."
"I know."
The two of them melted behind the trees and waited for the search party to move on. Watching the rebels comb the area with underwater mecha, it was obvious they knew the person who had gone down here was Beatrix. Would they really search this thoroughly for some ordinary pilot? Once captured, the captain of the Imperial Guard would make an extremely valuable hostage—they at least needed to know whether she was alive or dead.
Time passed. The underwater mecha were recovered, and the search unit began to show signs of withdrawing.
"Haaah…"
Beatrix let out a breath of relief—but the rebels did not leave cleanly.
Pssshhh—
From one of the ships, several small spheres fanned out in every direction. One of them settled near the island where Jincheon and Beatrix were hiding.
"Damn it…! They're going this far…!"
Recognizing the spheres, she clenched her fists until they shook with rage.
Radio detectors.
Devices that picked up every transmission within a radius of several hundred kilometers. Use a Bio Device to contact the outside and the signal would go straight to the controllers of those spheres. Communication with the outside world was now impossible—and so was accessing the galactic network to learn anything about Galantid 1's ecosystem.
Jincheon and Beatrix locked their Bio Devices so no external signal could reach them. The devices were now nothing more than offline computers. The only consolation was that the spheres detected radio waves alone, not sound or movement; they could walk around in the open without fear of being found that way.
"What do we do now…? If we don't know this planet's ecosystem, we don't even know what we can eat…"
Rustle. Rustle.
While Beatrix fretted, Jincheon left her behind and headed deeper into the forest.
"I told you to wait a second!"
She snapped at him, nerves fraying as he kept pushing into unknown territory.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Can't you hear me saying it's dangerous?!"
"I already told you. I'm stronger. Stronger than nature, so stop worrying."
With that, Jincheon spotted something on the ground.
"This'll do."
He picked up a stone that would make a decent axe head and began gathering branches and tough grasses from the forest floor. Setting the stone on a branch that fit easily in one hand, he bound stone and wood together with the tough grass until, in moments, a stone axe was finished.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
He swung it hard a few times to test the binding, then handed the axe to Beatrix.
"Take it. Better than bare hands."
"Uh… y-yeah…"
Startled by how smoothly he had made the thing, Beatrix found herself nodding without thinking. If they had still had a survival kit, it would have held fire-starters, defensive weapons, high-calorie bars and more—but all they had left were their pilot suits. Even a crude weapon like this was precious.
"Tch. This one needs a little work."
Crack! Crunch!
Jincheon struck stone against stone until he had shaped a proper axe head, then produced a second stone axe for himself in no time at all.
"…You're ridiculously good at that."
"I'd better be."
After centuries of making furniture and tools for ourselves by hand, this much is nothing.
Muttering the thought to himself, Jincheon pushed deeper into the forest.
"Fruit."
A short way in, he found small, translucent green berries nestled in a thicket. They were no bigger than wild raspberries. He plucked one, bit off a corner with his front teeth, and rolled it across his tongue while pouring sensory energy into it to read its composition.
No poison. Nutrition about average for fruit. Plenty of juice—could serve as emergency drinking water if we need it.
"They're safe. No poison."
He said it casually, then stripped a few more berries and tossed them into his mouth. A wild sweet-and-sour taste, with a green, grassy note underneath.
"Nothing to carry them in, so just remember the spot. If you get thirsty, pick a few and eat them."
"O-okay."
Beatrix was quietly astonished at how smoothly he was handling everything.
How can he stay this calm in a situation like this?
She was afraid to take another step, terrified of what might come next—yet Jincheon simply cut through the unknown as if it were nothing. The contrast was almost painful.
—In a moment of crisis, a person reveals their true self.
The words her sister had once spoken in Jincheon's defense, back when Beatrix still hated him, rose unbidden in her mind.
Is this his true self?
If Jincheon had been an ordinary man, he would have pushed Beatrix out in front. Her bio-enhancements made her far faster and stronger than any normal person. Instead he refused to force that duty on her, walking ahead himself and overcoming the unknown dangers on his own.
While her sister's phrase about a "true self" occupied her thoughts, Jincheon quietly spread his sensory energy.
The animals maintain their own independent ecosystem. There are birds, so we won't run short of food.
Having mapped the island's ecology, he glanced back. Beatrix was clutching the stone axe, nervously scanning the surroundings.
An unintended survival situation had begun—and Jincheon's mind was already turning over the realization that this was the perfect chance to make Beatrix his woman.
She hates me, and I could never even get her alone. This is an opportunity.
He had no idea how long they would be stuck like this, but one thing was certain: if he let this chance slip, he would never have her to himself again.
Just jumping her would be boring. I'll get her to like me first, then build the right pink mood.
He would make the woman who despised him spread her legs of her own free will. With that resolve fixed, Jincheon decided to start by testing her reactions in various ways.
First, find water.
If even a modest animal ecosystem existed, water had to exist as well. He turned toward the scent of it.
Trickle, trickle—
True to the island's decent size, they soon found a small stream.
"Water!"
Water was essential to countless forms of life across the galaxy. The stream was neither wide nor deep, but the mere presence of water meant they would not die of thirst—and Beatrix hurried toward the bank in open delight.
In that same instant Jincheon seized her around the waist and threw them both backward.
"Stop!"
"Kyaa?!"
In that moment Beatrix became acutely aware that she and Jincheon were alone together on an uninhabited island.
Don't tell me—
Convinced he was taking advantage of their isolation to try something, she drove an elbow into his face. The awkward angle kept it from landing cleanly, but it was still a blow that would have left an ordinary man in serious pain.
"Ghk?!"
"You filthy bastard! At a time like this, what the hell are you—!"
Pwah!
Just as she was about to pour out her fury, bizarre creatures erupted from the ground she had been about to step on—worm-like things with four tentacles each. They were the size of a forearm, segmented with regular ridges, and their mouths were suckers ringed with countless reverse-facing, hook-shaped teeth.
"Purrrrlk!"
"Hii—!"
The sight of those endless hooked fangs made Beatrix shove herself backward on hands and feet without thinking.
"Shh."
"!!"
Jincheon pulled her back against his chest and signaled for silence at her ear.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—
The worm-like horrors swept their tentacles through the area. Finding nothing, they sank back into the earth and vanished.
"Looks like they latch onto anything that approaches the stream. They probably sense vibration."
"Vibration? Then isn't this place dangerous too?"
"They didn't chase us, though. For whatever reason, they can only live near the water's edge."
As the creatures withdrew and her pulse settled, Beatrix realized she had just punched Jincheon in the face—and that she was still held in his arms.
He's warm… It feels like… I'm being protected…
For the first time in her life she was locked in a man's back-hug, and the heat of his body against her spine brought a strange, unexpected sense of safety—along with the rough, masculine scent of him.
"I… I'm… sorry… I…"
"It's fine. It was something easy to misread."
When she apologized for the misunderstanding and the blow, Jincheon simply patted her shoulder and accepted it. He took the apology so easily that she was the one left surprised.
"But could you get up soon? You're heavier than you look."
"You—!"
Thwack!
"Argh!"
At the casual way he had tossed out a word no woman wanted to hear, Beatrix punched him in the shin and scrambled to her feet.
"Don't use a crude word like 'heavy' about a woman!"
"Tch. This is why women are—"
"What?!"
"I didn't say anything."
"You said it loud enough for me to hear, and now you're denying it?!"
"Hey, I said I didn't."
The two of them bickered like children until the sheer childishness of it struck them both, and they broke into wry little laughs.
Jincheon held out a hand. Beatrix took it and pulled him to his feet.
The whole incident had lasted only a moment—but it became the turning point that began to rewrite Beatrix's entire evaluation of the man named Jincheon.