My Second Partner
The moment I lifted the pot lid just a crack, the distinctive aroma of miso soup filled the entire kitchen.
Yuzuki stirred the pot once with the ladle and checked the seasoning.
Salty. A little strong, but she actually preferred it that way.
On the dining table sat a single bowl of rice, and the seat across from it remained empty.
She stared at that vacant spot for a moment before quietly lowering her head.
It was fine to eat alone.
But…
‘Still, eating together is better, isn’t it?’
The thought rose unbidden in her mind, and Yuzuki hesitated before picking up her phone.
She wavered over whether to send a message, then finally placed her fingers on the keyboard.
The reply came quickly.
Yuzuki stared down at her phone screen, hesitating for a long time.
Her fingers hovered over the message window before slowly descending.
A quiet voice whispered inside her heart.
‘Isn’t this too pushy? What if it makes him uncomfortable…’
But an even louder voice answered.
‘It’s fine. What’s so strange about wanting to see him and eat together? That’s just how I honestly feel.’
After wrestling with herself, she finally tapped out the message.
This time, the reply didn’t come easily.
Three dots appeared above the chat window, blinking slowly before vanishing and reappearing.
Watching them, Yuzuki suddenly imagined what Yuto’s face must look like right now.
Beyond the screen, was he silently reading the message and freezing for a moment?
Was he pressing his lips together in confusion?
Or maybe he was smiling like it was no big deal.
Anxiety and anticipation tangled together, making her chest tingle.
‘If I say something like this, won’t it seem too clingy…’
Regret washed over her a second later, but the message had already been sent. There was no taking it back.
Yuzuki turned her head to look at the dining table.
Beside the steaming bowl of rice sat one empty seat.
‘Still… I really wanted to eat together.’
The thought of eating alone left a deeper emptiness than she expected. It felt like a hole had been punched straight through the softest part of her emotions.
No matter what, meals had always been shared with family.
Whether it was Dad or her brother.
There had been days when simply hearing the sound of someone else’s chopsticks beside her made her feel less lonely.
Without thinking, Yuzuki’s gaze drifted to a picture frame tucked in the corner of the living room.
Inside was an old family photo.
In the half-faded image stood her father, her brother, and herself as a baby.
And in the center, their mother smiled brightly.
But strangely…
The faces in that photo felt so unfamiliar.
Yuzuki had no memories of her mother.
That was only natural. Her mother had passed away from illness not long after she was born.
The same went for her brother. Neither of them could fully remember the smiling mother in the photograph.
So everything about her—what kind of person she was, how she spoke, what she smelled like—could only be heard from their father’s stories.
—She was a genius. A bit clumsy with emotions, but no one could match her when it came to mapping out the design direction for Dracore.
For someone who was also bad at expressing emotions to say that, just what kind of person must she have been?
Anyway, that was what their father had said.
At a young age, she had established the foundational theories of Dracore, conceptualized the principles and structure of Coupling, and then, after giving birth to Yuzuki, her long-standing illness worsened and took her life.
Perhaps that was why their father had buried himself in research all this time.
The obsession to one day complete the unfinished legacy their mother had left behind.
It might have been the only way he knew how to carry on the work of the woman he loved, even if it was too late.
Maybe that was the shape his grief had taken.
Yuzuki had always hated that kind of life for her father.
It seemed like he was only ever clinging to someone else’s traces, like a person preserved in time.
But now she couldn’t say anything about it.
He had lived that way for far too long, and it had become all that he was.
She sat there, lost in thought—
Her phone vibrated.
The screen she had left face-down on the table lit up.
‘…Big brother?’
Yuzuki reached for it with a surge of hope.
But the moment she saw the screen—
Her face drained of all color.
Dimensional Rift Warning
Below the alert, a list of rift locations was displayed.
One of them caught her eye immediately.
Old City District, Block C. Only a few blocks away from the lab.
“It’s right by the lab…”
Cold sweat ran down her spine.
Yuzuki shot up from her seat.
Her body reacted first, and only then did her heart begin to pound wildly.
2
Of course. It looked like Yuzuki had received the Dimensional Rift alert too.
I wondered what her face must have looked like when she saw that message. How anxiously she must have been clutching her phone at the dining table.
Just picturing it made me sigh as I typed back.
I could feel the desperation in those words. It wasn’t simple worry. It was closer to fear.
I let a faint smile tug at my lips and typed back.
The moment I sent it, an odd strength entered my fingers. I had written it that way, but the situation was anything but simple.
I looked up at my father as he approached from the end of the hallway. His face was etched with a tension I rarely saw.
“Are you really sure about this?”
I gave a short laugh and nodded.
“In the end, all I have to do is buy time anyway.”
Father looked down at me with eyes still full of concern and slowly spoke.
“You don’t have to do anything. No one will blame you.”
“If I just stand by, the damage will only get worse.”
I spoke firmly, but my insides were trembling. Still, I had to hide it.
At my resolute answer, Father pressed his lips tightly together. He knew he couldn’t argue.
Although this area wasn’t a densely populated residential zone, if the Outers began rampaging unchecked, the outcome was obvious.
If even a single Dracore was late to deploy, the number of innocent casualties would skyrocket in the meantime.
On top of that, rifts had appeared simultaneously across the country again, just like last time. The Defense Agency’s response teams alone wouldn’t be enough.
We had to buy even a little more time. That was all we could do right now.
I looked at my father’s still-stern face and forced a joking tone.
“Since it’s come to this, we might as well think of it as collecting some proper combat data. There’s nothing more accurate than real battle, right?”
“You’ve barely done any combat training, let alone proper simulation experience, and that’s what you’re saying?”
“Sakuragi will cover for that. I heard she has real combat experience, didn’t she?”
“Even so, that doesn’t mean Luna is seasoned. There are still too many risks.”
“Still, it’s better than two complete rookies going in together. That should be enough.”
Just as I finished speaking, soft footsteps echoed from the far end of the hallway.
When I turned, Luna was approaching.
The pilot suit clung tightly to her skin, tracing her supple curves, while her silver hair cascaded down the nape of her neck.
Instead of her usual relaxed expression, her gaze flew straight at me, piercing. A strange sharpness flickered beneath her blank face.
…Yes. This was the Luna I sometimes saw in the anime.
In real combat, she became strangely calm and sharp. A face stripped of emotional weight.
Luna finally stopped in front of me and lifted the corner of her mouth slightly.
“I never thought my first Coupling would be in actual combat. I was just waiting for my turn at the academy, you know?”
“Yeah. I didn’t expect this either.”
In truth, thanks to my father’s advice, I had deliberately postponed Coupling with Luna until now.
I knew how dangerous she was, and at the same time, she felt burdensome. But in the end, we had come face to face like this.
“Since you’re a beginner, I’ll lead you properly. Don’t worry.”
Luna spoke as if joking, but her tone carried a strangely firm resolve.
A literal will to take the lead.
“That’s reassuring. Since I’m a beginner, please be patient with me.”
I answered with a deliberately light laugh. Tension had spread all the way to my fingertips, but I didn’t let it show on my face.
Right now, I didn’t want to show any weakness in front of my partner. Especially not when what lay ahead was a battlefield where lives were on the line.
3
When the entrance opened, a heavy, low metallic sound vibrated throughout the entire underground hangar.
Deep beneath the research lab, in the damp concrete walls and cold air, a massive Dracore stood silently holding its breath.
Under the lights descending from the ceiling, its imposing silhouette was revealed.
Training units were generally designed small and agile for quick operation and repeated drills, but the real-combat Dracore before us was the complete opposite.
Built purely for battle, its frame looked far thicker and more solid.
Like a medieval knight in full armor, kneeling on one knee and offering a prayer before heading to the battlefield—it had that kind of dignity.
If the training unit was a machine for ‘movement,’ this one had been born for ‘endurance’ and ‘destruction.’
“Did you know?”
Luna, who had been walking beside me, suddenly spoke.
I turned my head. She was smiling with the corner of her mouth slightly twisted, but her eyes were not simply playful.
Somewhere in her clear, transparent pupils, a deep, ripe heat flickered quietly.
“The moment I like most during Coupling is when the tension with my partner seeps into my skin.”
“Why?”
“Because… when the smell of sweat, the sound of heartbeats, and every breath mix together… that’s when I think, ah, I’m really alive right now.”
It wasn’t something you should casually say to a man, but Luna showed not the slightest hesitation.
Instead, she slowly licked her lips and added, as if savoring the words.
“So far it’s only ever been women, though…”
She whispered softly as she brushed past my shoulder.
“I wonder what a man will feel like? I’m actually pretty excited for today.”
At that moment, the lift arrived below us with a low mechanical hum.
The two of us stepped on side by side. As the platform slowly rose, the cockpit hidden in the Dracore’s chest opened smoothly like a living membrane.
“Can I go up first?”
“Sure.”
When I nodded, Luna leaned forward without hesitation.
She slipped inside the machine as if being swallowed.
I took a deep breath and followed her into the cockpit.
The machine responded, the hatch slowly closing, and the air inside settled quietly.
The familiar structure, the familiar interface. But today, everything felt a little different.
I couldn’t say exactly how, but it was definitely different from the practice units we rode at the academy.
As if to prove it, the tension that crept up from beneath my peripheral nerves completely engulfed me.
Luna had already assumed a kneeling position at the front of the cockpit.
The moment she pulled her knees inward to steady herself, the supple curve of her hips brushed against the cushioning, and I unintentionally followed the motion with my eyes.
Like something tugging emotions up from the very tips of my nerves, Luna’s seductive allure and the low vibration emanating from the machine crept subtly down the back of my neck.
Still in that position, Luna slowly turned to look at me and spoke.
“Can I ask for one thing in advance?”
“Permission? What is it?”
She lifted the corner of her mouth slightly.
“At the academy, I was always deliberately suppressing the Synchronization Rate. But this time, I might not be able to hold back. Is that still okay?”