“Where do you think you’re going?”
I could hear the conversation between Arakawa and the captain through my radio. Because we didn’t trust Arakawa, the captain had arranged things so that everyone would hear all of his conversations. We were hoping this would give us a better idea of his true intentions.
“I was about to fetch myself a weapon,” Arakawa said. “I only know how to use a shotgun, but that’s better than being unarmed, right? And I might need it if worst comes to worst.”
“Worst comes to worst?”
“I don’t like thinking about it, but they might capture this building. If everyone else dies fighting, I’ve no intention of being taken alive. I’ll take my own life.”
Take his own life? He’ll commit suicide?
The captain must have been too surprised to say anything.
I was shocked, too. Arakawa intends to share our fate, no matter what? But why? Why would he go so far for us when we’ve only just met? It makes no sense.
“Captain, stop messing around!” he snapped. “I know that no one in Serp trusts me, but I won’t just run. You have to start sharing information with me! I’ve told you already, we’ll all be killed if we don’t all cooperate.”
“You’re the one who’s messing around!” the captain yelled at Arakawa in response. “You suddenly show up and expect everyone to trust you! You’ve given us no assurance that we’ll get asylum if we survive this! You’ve given us no assurance that your plan will even work! You’re in no position to demand trust from us!”
I understood what Arakawa was trying to say, but his motivations were beyond my understanding. The captain had said the same thing in a briefing two hours prior.
There was a sound from the radio like something being kicked over, followed by Arakawa’s voice. He no longer sounded friendly; he was enraged.
“I wish you’d shut up about assurance! I promised I wouldn’t lie, so let me be honest with you. This isn’t my first battle! I fought alongside Noa in an inter-racial war to prevent a genocide. I won’t get scared and run away. And saving you doesn’t have to be part of some grand plan. I’m here because Anton asked me for help and I’ll look bad if I let him down. So please... I’m not as intelligent as my mom, so I don’t know how to say it clearly, but you have to believe me... I want to help you.” Arakawa sounded tearful, and his last words were hard to make out. “At this rate, we could lose everything.”
When was the last time someone cared enough to cry for me?
I vaguely remembered that just before joining the army, my mother had cried when seeing me off from the station. She’d kissed me on the cheek and then said something that I couldn’t recall.
I looked to my side and saw that Ivan, the soldier assigned as the gunner, was sobbing.
“Ivan, are you crying?” I asked.
“Yes. I grew up in an orphanage. I joined the army so I wouldn’t starve. Listening to Arakawa reminded me of a nun who cared for me in the orphanage. She cried when I left to join the army. She was sorry for not sending me to school. I don’t know why, but somehow Arakawa reminds me of her...”
I placed a hand on Ivan’s shoulder as I looked at the other soldiers who were with us. Everyone was wearing a similar expression.
Maybe we should believe in Arakawa... If we were fighting for him, maybe we could go on fighting just like we always have. I need to tell the captain. I can only speak for the soldiers around me, but we believe in Arakawa, and we’re ready to fight for him.
I was about to hit the transmission button on my radio when someone else started transmitting instead.
“This is Squad 2. Captain, we trust Arakawa.”
“Squad 3, here. We feel the same.”
“This is the sniper outpost team. We believe in him, too.”
We were all having the same thought.
I took another look at the soldiers around me. My subordinates were tired, but they all nodded, and their morale was still clear to see on their faces. Seeing that made me remember what it was my mother had said between her tears.
“I hope you can make some good friends.”
And then I’d left to join the army in order to pay back the debt my father had left us.
How many years has it been? I wondered. It took a while, but I’ve finally found such comrades.
“Captain, this is Squad 1. We also believe in Arakawa.”
After sending my transmission, I heard two clicks from the radio. It was our usual way of signaling acknowledgement.
Now it’s up to the captain. Though something Arakawa said makes me curious. What does he mean when he says he fought alongside Noa to prevent a genocide? As far as I know, there hasn’t been a major conflict in several years. In that case, could it have happened when he was transported to the other world during the particle research that we recently learned about? I thought he was only gone three days. He’s so young, and yet I can’t imagine what hell he might have gone though.
It was chilling to think about. I took a cigarette from my pocket and placed it in my mouth.
“Arakawa, every member of my unit is listening to this conversation,” said Captain Yulia at last. “We didn’t trust you, but after what you’ve just said, I think we’re all ready to believe in you. I’d like to apologize on behalf of Serp. Please forgive us.”
“C-Captain?!” Arakawa exclaimed. “Please raise your head! I should be the one apologizing. I got over-emotional for a moment there!”
The captain herself is bowing to Arakawa?! I can’t believe this. I wish I’d asked to be there in headquarters! I’d love to see it with my own eyes.
“I wish I was there in headquarters,” Ivan mumbled to himself with tears still in his eyes.
As if she’d sensed the relaxed atmosphere coming over the unit, the captain began to yell at us: “Attention, all personnel! There’s going to be a change of plan. Objective 1 is to ensure that Arakawa... ‘Arakawa’ is hard to say. Let’s change Arakawa’s codename. His new codename is ‘Volga.’”
Volga... That’s the name of the river that flows through Russia and gives it life. Arakawa is giving us life, so it’s a fine choice of name for him.
“Objective 1 is to ensure that Volga can escape from the combat zone. You got that? Whatever happens, even if the last man standing has to resort to suicide bombing, we’re sending Volga back to Japan! And for Objective 2... we make sure every last one of us gets out of this alive. Once we’ve been given asylum by Noa, we’re going to live out our lives however we please.”
It sounds crazy. Objective 1 goes against Objective 2. But I get it. We’ll protect Volga with our lives, but we’ll all get through this. It couldn’t be simpler. The pigs among the top brass have always had us fighting for such vague goals that the most we could hope for was to live to see another day. But now we have something to fight for.
“This is the communications team. We have confirmed release of hostages in front of hotel. All three are unharmed.”
Looks like that moron, Anton, is safe. It’s all thanks to Volga’s good heart. The pigs would have abandoned him and run off to Japan by themselves. Now that he’s free, it’s time to fight for our survival.
I turned up the volume on the radio and concentrated on the voice of the operator from the communications team.
“New World immediately began moving from the hotel site. Our basic radar has detected six planes. I believe these are the V/STOL transport planes that were reported. And— What?! This signal... I don’t believe it! The enemy’s powered suits are already surrounding the old city. I count—”
There must have been an EMP strike, because the radio suddenly stopped working. Now the only equipment left usable would be new devices equipped with high output electromagnetic wave jammers.
But they were underestimating us. The enemy was powerful, but if they thought this was enough to throw us into disarray, they had about as much of a clue as a single-celled organism. It was rare that we were ever able to make it through a battle with our radio communications working until the end. In fact, I couldn’t remember such a thing ever happening.
A question came to mind. I turned to Ivan who was busy wrapping a grenade in tape to prevent it from being set off by accident.
“Ivan, does Volga know the official name of our unit?”
“I’m not sure. I doubt he knows. If he knew, he’d relax and leave the fighting to us.”
Good point. Volga mustn’t know.
The official name of our unit was the “Prototype Reinforced Solder Solider Unit, Serp.”
We were the strongest special forces unit, born out of the Reinforced Soldier Project that had achieved genetic improvements and the Alice Project that had achieved an advancement in evolution.
In this day and age, our unit was the only remaining unit designed with the threat of nuclear war in mind.
The enemy had already started shelling us. I grinned as the subway tunnel around me shook.
New World might think of us as little more than bugs to be exterminated, but they’re about to realize that they’ve messed with the wrong people.