“Master!” En yelled, appearing out of nowhere in a panic.
Kuon was about to yell, “Not now!” but…
“The Operation…the Squads!” En stammered. Both Kuon and Kaede realized the Guide was upset for an entirely different reason.
“What?” Kaede demanded. En looked at Kuon. “Go ahead and say it,” Kaede urged.
En broke the bad news.
“The Imperial Air Force, Lunar Defense Force, Capital Fall Squad main force…has been massacred…”
This time, Kuon’s mind really did go blank.
“Remember what I said to you before you began training!” Kaede said. “Are you going to make the same mistake again? Christ, get your head straight already, you idiot!”
After hearing En’s report, Kuon had run out of the training grounds, Kaede’s words falling on deaf ears. He didn’t want to hear them. If she kicked him out again, he would never be allowed back this time around, but who cared about that?
Kuon ran all the way to the school. A state of emergency had been declared, so all public transportation was down. The shopping district was a ghost town. He raced through streets he’d walked through with Hanabi just two days ago, headed toward the garage’s training ground at top speed.
The main force had been massacred.
In the Air Force, “massacred” didn’t mean everyone was dead; rather, the term was used when at least 60 percent of the frontline Cavalleria had been rendered incapable of combat. The remaining 40 percent might be rescuing injured compatriots, beginning the retreat, or otherwise unable to complete their operational goals.
Was the Fuji Squad part of that 60 percent?
Unlikely. They had been at the rear of the main force, and Hanabi said the plan was for them to drop down after the main force had cleared the enemies around the Gate.
But if that had changed? If the Fuji Squad had been added to the main force?
It probably hadn’t. They probably hadn’t. But he couldn’t say that for sure. He couldn’t predict every action Command would take. Perhaps Fuji, Rin, and Hanabi were out there right now, trying to escape the Jave, trying to save injured Cavalleria in other squads, perhaps grievously injured themselves, or even worse. The Jave might have…attacked, eaten…Hanabi, the girl from that day, the same fate…
Run! Run, run run run run run!
“Kuon-sama!” En shrieked. “What are you doing?!”
“Isn’t it obvious?! I’m going to fly out of the training ground and land in the capital!”
The black mist covering the capital repelled all invaders. It didn’t allow light or electric waves, and it disrupted magic. It even stripped the DM right off you. It was a powerful barrier.
But the higher up you went, the thinner it got. That’s why the Imperial Air Force had fired cannons down on the capital from orbit, scattering the mist, then dropped troops in…
“Are you a complete idiot? Think for a second! You’ll never get high enough without a shuttle!”
“Sure I can. I’ve got the extra boosters, a shield, the Witch Bubble and…and with that, a sixth generation DM can do it.”
His eyes locked on the academy training grounds, on its landmark, the object thrusting toward the sky.
The DM Rocket Booster.
“I’ll follow the same trajectory as the Mobile Mothership Kuou. Up to orbit above, then drop directly down.”
“Hnnngggh…”
“I did atmospheric descents several times in my previous life. No point in trying to stop me, I’m going.”
“Hnnngggggghh…”
“You don’t have to come.”
But the Guide shook her head. “No. No, Kuon-sama, I will be joining you.”
“Don’t blame me if Master chews you out.”
“I’m still moving, aren’t I? She hasn’t cut the magic link. That’s her answer: ‘Watch over my idiot student so he doesn’t die.’ That’s my purpose.”
“Sounds rough.”
“But Kuon-sama…try not to make her sad.”
He reached the training ground. The storage shed with the rocket was locked up, his entrance prevented by a heavy door and electronic lock with over 300,000,000 possible passwords.
“En…”
“Okay, okay.” The little fairy inserted a digital key into the control panel. There was a click and the door opened easily. “What was your backup plan if I wasn’t here?”
“Smash the door in.”
How violent, thought En.
The two of them raced down the dark hallway. After opening a third door, Kuon was able to minimally deploy his DM, and, after the fifth, in a dark, silent, windless hangar, he finally responded to En’s request.
“I don’t want to make her sad,” he said, his voice echoing.
“It sure doesn’t seem like it.”
“Master isn’t part of the operation because of the time limit?”
“That, plus a fair amount of spite directed at the military, yes.”
When Kuon was ten years old in this life, Nanahoshi Kaede, still officially part of the military, had been deployed with the Lunar Defense Force to fight Jave invading Jogen waters. The actions of humanity’s strongest Cavalleria saved Jogen that day, but the wounds she received in that battle had ended her military career. The magic release required to deploy a DM meant she could only keep one active for five minutes. The real reason she’d been so scornful in her mock battle against the Fuji Squad was because Fuji hadn’t attempted to force a long-term fight.
As Kuon and his Guide bypassed the final lock, they found themselves facing the giant rocket booster. Connecting his DM to it, Kuon asked En to crunch the numbers to find the best point of re-entry over the capital.
“If you can open comms to the squad, please do. I want all the intel I can get.”
“Sheesh, you sure work a Device hard.” Even as she joked, a vast number of windows popped up on his field of vision, channeled through the magic link to his DM. En quickly organized them, doing her best to let Kuon know the current status of the Imperial Air Force, Lunar Defense Force, and Capital Fall Squad.
Then she whispered, “Booster, fire.”
A satellite in orbit picked up the signal from the surface. Far to the southeast of the imperial mainland, in the school grounds on the eastern part of Jogen Island in the Pacific, a Division 1 bristling with additional boosters and thermal armor flashed a single light and launched an instant later.
With G-forces threatening to crush his organs, Kuon tried assessing the situation. The Fall Squad was beginning to retreat. The main force had been massacred, and the remaining 40 percent were scattered and fleeing, trying to get outside the range of the Jave. Mobile Mothership Kuou was on standby in orbit, as were the rear squads. So the Fuji Squad and the Lunatic Order…
He swore under his breath.
His squad had been dropped on the capital just before the order to retreat. Kuon’s Soukyu (Pleiades) became a shooting star, hurtling across the sky toward them. It was less a rocket launch than an intercontinental missile. He passed through the clouds and the sky gradually turned from blue to black. The main booster’s fuel ran out, and it broke away…
“Kuon-sama, bad news,” En said. As she spoke, his radar showed a swarm of manta-like flying Jave coming toward them, blocking their path. If he tried going around them, it could delay him for hours.
He never hesitated.
“Punching through.”
En sighed with what Kuon knew was half “sheesh” and half “attaboy.”