Holiday in Enemy Territory - 1
Rendel woke from sleep gripped by an inexplicable tightness in his chest. The moment his eyes opened, the familiar white ceiling of the White Fang filled his vision. Against his back he felt the soft give of the seat cushion and the unyielding hardness of the armrest. Did I fall asleep here last night? He reached up to press a hand to his faintly fevered forehead and started to rise, only to realize something was weighing down on his chest.
“!!”
His gaze followed the small, pale hand resting there and slid sideways. “Uh… huh?”
Luna lay beside him in nothing but her underwear, the blanket half-kicked away. “Zzz…” She was even snoring softly. The moment Rendel realized she was sharing the very blanket he had been using, he recoiled in panic and toppled straight out of the pilot’s seat.
“Oof!”
Landing with a noisy clatter, he rubbed the sore spot on his back. Nothing happened, right? It couldn’t have. He scanned the cockpit in a rush and spotted the jacket of his suit. Lower half? “Phew.” At least the pants were still on, even if they were wrinkled from being pulled on while damp. Rendel shrugged into the jacket, leaned casually against the cockpit wall as though nothing were amiss, then lifted his head.
His eyes met a pair of dazed violet ones staring straight at him.
The White Fang’s cockpit glowed under faint, gentle lighting. A clattering noise had pulled her from sleep. She had no idea how much time had passed, but her body felt marginally better. She clearly remembered sharing the blanket with Rendel before drifting off—yet now she lay here alone. Where had he gone?
She sat up, steadying her slightly dizzy head, and looked around. Her gaze collided with Rendel’s. He was leaning against the wall, eyes wide with alarm.
“Lu-Luna. You’re awake?”
“Yes.”
Why did he look so flustered? Her mind was still sluggish from sleep and refused to assemble the situation. She sat there blankly until Rendel, who had turned his face away, spoke again.
“Shouldn’t you put some clothes on first?”
“Huh?”
His embarrassed tone finally cut through the fog. She glanced down and saw herself in nothing but underwear. The blanket covered her from the waist down, but everything above was completely exposed. She had definitely taken the suit off before sleeping… and of course there were no pajamas here, so she had simply…
Her brain finally lurched into gear. Heat flooded her face.
“Kyaa!”
The scream escaped before she could stop it.
She yanked the discarded suit off the floor, opened the bulletin board out of the corner of her eye, and zipped up. Luckily it wasn’t broadcast time; the board remained silent. Over the past ten months she had learned that if no anime-relevant event was occurring, the entire forum froze. If her every move had been airing live she would never have been able to use the bathroom or bathe. At least she could still read old threads to kill time during lectures. Thank goodness her humiliating display apparently hadn’t been broadcast.
“Phew.”
The sigh of relief had barely left her lips when she heard Rendel fidgeting and rustling behind her. She considered turning around to tease him, but something told her that if their eyes met she would be the first to look away. So she stayed put.
“Senior. Are you dressed?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Me too…”
After her answer an awkward silence stretched between them.
Beep—
At that moment the White Fang’s engine began to turn over with a low thrum, and the forward screen flickered to life.
“Wow.”
Sunlight poured over a vivid blue sea. The storm from the night before seemed like a lie; the sky was flawlessly clear. A palm tree claimed one corner of the display, casting a soft shadow across a narrow strip of sand below. The view could have belonged to any luxury resort. After a moment of quiet admiration she realized she couldn’t see the Limpid Fairy.
“Senior, where’s Limpid?”
“Your unit is positioned directly behind the White Fang.”
Probably to make moving between cockpits easier. Still, why did the memory of sleeping back-to-back with Rendel keep resurfacing? She really was losing her mind.
“I-I should drain the water from the Limpid’s cockpit.”
“I’ll help.”
Rendel sprang to his feet, opened the hatch, and lowered a rope. Sliding down a short distance brought her straight to the Limpid Fairy’s cockpit.
“How long is this going to take…” The water sloshing across the floor looked daunting. There was no obvious drain. As she wondered how to remove it, Number One flew over and delivered welcome news.
> Water discharge function prepared for situations like this.
“Really?”
“Yes. You might get a little wet though, Luna.”
“Why am I always the one getting wet…”
She was mildly annoyed, but it beat scooping by hand. She was about to settle into the pilot’s seat when a clever idea struck her. The item she had brought just in case might prove useful after all. She retrieved it from the cockpit storage compartment.
Whirr— Vrrrr…
“Uwaah.”
Using the attitude stabilization system to dump the water—who would have thought of that? The fairies really were ingenious. She tilted the cockpit interior several times in exaggerated arcs. Water pooled on the floor rushed toward the entrance and poured out in a noisy rush. It felt exactly like riding a Viking ship or a front-loading washing machine; her stomach churned. Just as Number One had warned, she did get splashed, but it wasn’t a problem.
Because she had come prepared.
“All done?”
“Yes.”
“Then… *cough!*”
Rendel, waiting outside, took one look at her emerging from the cockpit and immediately started coughing. Had he been drinking in secret?
“Lu-Luna. What are you wearing?”
“Oh, this? I brought it just in case. You said I might get wet, so I put it on. What do you think?”
She gave a playful spin in place.
What were these people even saying? She was wearing a modest white one-piece swimsuit—an elegant, low-exposure design chosen through the refined taste of a certain kingdom’s princess. With this, she could stay calm even if she got wet.
“You brought a swimsuit?”
“Yes? Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
“When we crossed the border we were heading into a battlefield, weren’t we?”
“That’s true.”
“So why would you bring a swimsuit to a battlefield…”
Only after saying it aloud did she realize how strange it sounded.
“Senior. Did you forget the wish?”
“Huh?”
“You said we should go to the beach before summer vacation ended. I said let’s go to Karmanu.”
“That… was it?”
Rendel tilted his head, then let out a long sigh.
“I really can’t win against you.”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind. It’s nothing.”
He stole a quick glance at her, but the moment their eyes met he whipped his gaze away. Then he reeled in the rope and climbed back into the White Fang’s cockpit.
“Understood.”
She climbed into her own cockpit and settled into the pilot’s seat. They kept engine output to a minimum and advanced slowly.
“The island looks pretty narrow. Going inland won’t change much, will it?”
After the White Fang carved a path through the trees for a few steps, the peculiar terrain Rendel had mentioned came into view.
“It’s amazing.”
From above, the island was shaped like a donut. Cliffs roughly five to ten meters high encircled a lower central basin. One side of the center opened to the sea, but the passage was narrow and winding, making it impossible to observe the interior from outside. The central area itself felt a little tight once both the White Fang and the Limpid Fairy were parked inside, yet it was still far more spacious than the narrow cliff ledge above. They positioned the two mecha side by side against one wall of the basin and climbed out.
The outer perimeter held a sandy beach; from the sea-connected channel inward lay a lake of seawater. The crisp sand tickled her bare feet. The lake sparkled the same vivid blue as the ocean. The sunlight was pleasantly warm, the weather perfect. It genuinely felt like a vacation.
“Whew.”
Rendel seemed to find the suit unbearably hot in the sun; he had unzipped it halfway and was fanning himself vigorously. Wearing full suits outdoors during the day—when summer had not yet ended—would indeed be stifling.
“Senior, why don’t you take the outer layer off?”
“…Guess I will.”
After a brief hesitation he peeled off the suit. Then, as if remembering something, he ducked back into the White Fang and reappeared in much lighter clothes: a t-shirt and shorts. Those shorts, however, looked suspiciously like swim trunks. She stepped closer and gave the fabric a curious touch.
“Senior.”
“Yeah?”
“Aren’t these swim trunks?”
“Uh… yeah.”
“Then what was all that earlier about me bringing a swimsuit?”
“Ah, no, it’s just… During second-year training we have an exercise where you pilot an Aindium to the far end of Allob Island, swim out to a rock in the sea, touch it, and swim back. After that drill I forgot to take the trunks back to the dorm and left them in the White Fang. I meant to wash them, but…”
She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him.
She almost said something else but held her tongue. Why get angry over something so trivial? Actually, this was perfect. Since Rendel had swim trunks too, she could make him get wet next time.
“If you say so, Senior, then that’s how it is. By the way… aren’t you getting hungry?”
“Now that you mention it, it’s already lunchtime. We still have plenty of rations. Want me to bring some out?”
“No way. We came all the way to the sea and you want to eat preserved food?”
She flashed a mischievous grin and pointed at the lake.
“Since we’re here, I’d love to try some fresh fish.”
With that single sentence, their uninhabited-island survival story officially began.