“I’m worn out...” I murmured.
“Kon...”
In the joint training performed with the Multi-Race Coalition Force this morning, Noa’s ground forces had gone through hell trying to survive an all-out assault from the air, and somehow they’d earned a passing grade from Clare. Now, everyone was exhausted.
Without meaning to, Kon and I drifted off to sleep in the officers’ lounge on Noa Island without having eaten anything.
“Buh hee!” Shingo cried when he found us.
“What’s up?” I asked him. “It’s not like you to get dressed up and come out all this way.”
Shingo was wearing a brigadier general’s uniform. It had been provided for him to use just in case he ever needed it. No one expected him to take part in battle, but he needed a high rank to be able to get into the research areas.
“I’m here to see the Type 0 suit! The whole thing has been kept secret. I knew it existed, but I didn’t get to see it. Now that its classification level has been lowered, I thought I’d come take a look.”
“That explains that.”
What my friend was saying sounded plausible, but I doubted he would have left the internet to come to G-88 just for that reason. Aikawa was going to be attending a G-88 space exploration strategy conference today, but even that didn’t fully explain it. Something had to be up. Why was he here creeping me out by staring at me with upturned eyes?
“Shingo, I’m sure Alice and Aikawa find that face cute, but to me it’s just creepy,” I said. “Let me guess. You want Satanachia?”
“Huuhh?! No... I... it’s... ah...”
“What language are you talking? I hope you realize they’ll be removing the flight unit. If you want it to fly, you’ll have to fit our prototype to it. I’m also guessing that the weapon control unit that my dad’s unit fitted to it will be removed. And the weapons too, obviously.”
No matter how kind my mom might be, there’s no way she’d give someone the eighth-generation suit Satanachia with all the military-grade weapons still installed. I’m not sure she’ll even want to hand over the frame, so the armor might be reverted back two generations to sixth-generation armor. Considering the current state of the world, it’s still cutting-edge equipment.
“Can I really have it?” Shingo asked hopefully.
“Sure. I have the Type 0 suit. But in exchange, I want you to help me come up with a name for the Type 0.”
“Why not just give it another demon name like Satanachia?”
I do like demon names, but Alice will be with me this time, so I’d prefer something different. But I haven’t been able to think of any other ideas, so now I’m stuck. In Russia, names of natural phenomena like Mirage, Storm, and Lightning are popular, while Japanese powered suits tend to be named after mountains like Fuji, Tsurugi, and Hiuchi. Everything here at Noa tends to get named using numbers, and that gets boring.
“Okay. How about a monster from Japanese myths?” he said.
“Something like Yamata no Orochi or Kagutsuchi? Those names sound cool, but they don’t suit Alice. I doubt Kon would like them, either. Would you? You’re a girl, after all.”
Kon was on the table and was having no trouble drinking vegetable juice through a straw. She gave a slow flick of her tail in response. Sure enough, she didn’t seem to like the idea.
“Well, what about the name of an angel? I’m sure Alice and Kon would both be happy with an angel’s name.”
“That’s a good idea! We could consider names of female goddesses, too.”
Kon used her magic to create a message explaining why this was a bad idea: “There are many within the multi-race coalition who tell tales of battles fought against the angels from these myths. I doubt they’d be pleased with such a name.”
I think some members of the spirit race have passed down stories like that for several generations, I remembered. Well, that rules out angels... Now I’m really stuck.
“What about Alice? Have you tried asking her?” Shingo suggested.
“My mom called for her after midday training finished. She’s stuck in the medical ward this afternoon so they can check what effects the equipment might have had on her brain. She also said that I could choose the name myself.”
“Right. Megu is busy working today, so I can’t ask her, either.”
Megu?! He’s started calling Aikawa Megu now?! I’m going to punch him! Lately, I’ve been too busy to get to know Alice better. Meanwhile, he’s messing around with Aikawa the whole time?!
“Sounds like you two are getting along great, you dirty rat,” I growled. “How far have you actually gone?”
“Buh hee?! You sound abusive all of a sudden... Lately, Megu’s been spending all of her time on the Manned Platform Project to launch a satellite into orbit around G-88. Something like that wouldn’t be possible back on Earth. Keep this to yourself, but I heard she’s busy with some sort of outer space childbirth project.”
“Wait, you mean...”
“Yeah. There were some experiments that she heard about back on Earth that she wants to try out here. This is happening with the consent of a married couple of researchers who are acting as test subjects. And if anything goes wrong, there are people ready to use healing magic. I’m more interested in the ‘equipment’ belonging to the members of Chernobog you brought back.”
“Some of them are part machine, aren’t they?”
“Yeah. Those people also want to do some things that would violate pacts on Earth. Too many people think they can do whatever they want now that pacts don’t apply to us. It caused some trouble when one of them was grumbling about wanting to have a chainsaw installed within their arm.”
I thought Macho Man’s unit just did whatever they wanted, but Chernobog is on another level... I reflected. I mean, just recently, a group of Chernobog members caused some trouble in the Merkava Kingdom, and the captain had to beat them senseless.
I told Shingo about it, and he nervously asked me what they’d done to deserve that.
“A while back, a horde of monsters appeared in an area where Noa was responsible for maintaining public order. A fast carriage was sent out with a message from one of the villages nearby, and then the members of Chernobog led an assault...”
“Buh hee, don’t you mean a defense?”
“No, it was more than just defense. They headed out with armored personnel carriers equipped with 20-millimeter autocannons! When they reached the village, they wiped out all of the monsters while shouting things like, ‘Hyahaa! Stay back you pathetic weaklings. Leave the monsters to us!’”
“That’s overdoing it a little, but I’m sure they meant well.”
“The problem is what happened next. They could have just finished the job and gone home, but instead they took the personnel carrier to a nearby post station town to have a drink. And they didn’t just carry weapons for self-defense; they took all of their heavy weaponry with them, still loaded with live ammo.”
Their guns all used biological authentication systems to prevent anyone else from using them, but that had still caused a lot of trouble.
In fact, the whole reason we’d started using authentication systems in the first place was because some members from Macho Man’s unit had allowed a mage from the Ursna Empire to try out their weapons without authorization.
I imagined that a good-looking female mage had asked if she could try firing just two or three rounds, or something stupid like that.
“But still, they’re well-liked,” I went on. “Whoever defeats a monster can use the monster parts however they like, and they sold all those for drink money and then packed what was left over into bags to give to an orphanage and a church. They were trying to be discreet, but it was obvious who’d done it.”
Back on Earth, I’m sure no one would have realized. But here on G-88, the only people who use military backpacks made of synthetic fibers are members of Noa. Packing backpacks full of gold and silver coins along with a few copper coins received from shops as change made it a little obvious. That’s why probably the captain beat them senseless and kept them in the detention barracks for five days.
While thinking about how shy that unit could be, I suddenly thought of a name. “Shingo, what do you think of ‘Lycoris’?”
“What? That’s a sudden change in subject.”
“I’m talking about the name of the Type 0! Lycoris, as in the red spider lily.”
“That’s a good name! Those flowers are striking and beautiful, and they’re considered ominous, so considering the enemy’s point of view, it’s a great name for a combat-use powered suit. What do you think, Kon?”
“Kon! Kyuu!”
Kon seemed to like it, too.
I liked the way lycoris flowers looked, but that wasn’t my only reason for choosing that name. In the language of flowers, a red spider lily means, “You are all I think about.” I’ve chosen that with Alice in mind.
But there was another reason, too. The red spider lily could have another meaning: reincarnation.
That second meaning made me feel as though the name was just right for me.