“What will you do with that knowledge? I suppose it wouldn’t be beyond you to do something if you had the facts. So, there is no reason for me to… A nanomachine womb camouflaged as an N-worm underground…” Suddenly, his mouth started moving against his will.
“What’s the penetration pattern?”
“The same as…this… argh!!” The man’s internal nano-security must have removed the invading nanomachines. He did not confess anything further. But it was enough.
“Now I know the security system over there will be enough. I’ll have to thank Prof. Ikuma… Huh?” Washu was distracted by something on the medical monitor.
A moment later, the monitor controlling the force field binding the man was destroyed.
“Eek! Wh-what?” It was a small explosion, but the force of the blast knocked Washu backwards. When she sprang back up, she caught sight of the man forcing his way free of the residual force field. “No way!!”
“Don’t underestimate our technology.” He lunged at Washu. The Guardian system inferred her emotions, activated, and came in between them. This Guardian was a special one; Washu had tuned it herself. But the man was powerful, and a few seconds into combat, one of Washu’s Guardians was destroyed.
Washu’s eyed opened wide, and the man shrugged. “Not bad, eh? A fusion between our technology and Jurai’s close combat skills. I’ve gained abilities beyond those of a Juraian Warrior. An AI controlled Guardian would be no match for me.”
“Then what about this?” The three Guardians multiplied to nine.
“Feh!” With three times the pressure, the man was kept at a distance.
“I must escape while I can,” Washu muttered. But then the man loomed before her. “…?!”
“I don’t care much for pride. I also brought Guardians…Washu-chan.” With a cruel grin, he approached her.
Seeing this, Washu realized that the man had no intention of capturing her. “Unh!” She stepped backwards in apparent resignation. The man chuckled repugnantly and reached for her bosom. But that was her diversion. In the next moment, the directional explosives she had camouflaged on the door’s surface exploded. Direct hit! Though she hadn’t hesitated to set a lethal trap, the man’s son’s smile momentarily flashed in her mind. I’m sorry, she mumbled to herself, and shook the image off.
Washu panted as the air vents discharged the smoke from the room. Then she saw that the man, who should have been blasted to the opposite wall, was gone. She did not have time to think. She fled the room through a gap in the door.
She heard the sound of metal on metal right behind her. One of the Guardians blocked the man’s attack. The sound revealed that Washu’s Guardians were superior to his. Run! Her survival instincts superseded everything else.
The man and the Guardian fought on equal terms, with tremendous speed imperceptible to normal humans. The processing speed was improved now that they were down to a single Guardian. Washu could only perceive the groaning in the air and the sounds of metal and destruction.
Crack! With a sound that could be physically felt through the air, Washu’s last Guardian was destroyed. That signaled death for Washu.
“Die!” The man was directly behind her. His hand slashed through the air and chopped off her head—or not. She was gone. “Teleported. But then…” The ship had anti-superpower functions. Her powers inhibited, Washu reappeared just a few meters away. “You’ll only buy yourself a few minutes doing that.”
Continued use of superpowers in combat caused great mental stress. And a distance of a few meters was nothing for the man. If he detected any loss in focus or a predictable pattern, Washu’s life was over. But she needed to buy less than a minute’s time. Her destination was the observation hall beyond the door, just a few meters away. She teleported repeatedly and appeared in the corridor before the hall. A moment later, the man closed in. She was trapped.
Then the man’s knife hand stopped a hairsbreadth away from Washu’s face.
“Who are you?!” The young rookie who had been with him on Kanamitsu was grabbing his arm. “I apologize for being late Washu-dono.”
“You had a lot to do, right? Thanks for saving me.” Washu had been distracted by the medical monitor. It had detected someone else moving besides the two of them.
“Nishia, who are you?” Washu’s shocked attacker could not even move. Unbelievably, Nishia had immobilized the man who had mastered the Shank Guild’s technology and Jurai-style combat.
“If you have the power of a Juraian Warrior, the only one who could do this is a Juraian Royal, right, Nishia-dono?” said Washu.
“R-royal?!”
Nishia shrugged with consternation. “I’m just a young benchwarmer. And considering the honor of all Juraian Warriors, a real Warrior is nothing like this.”
“Heh heh, great! An Imperial Family member as your personal bodyguard. Eliminating a philosopher and a Royal at the same time would be a job well done.” As Washu’s attacker finished speaking, the ship shifted into normal space with a slight shudder. “If we don’t change course, we’ll head straight for a star. If we change course even a little, the ship Shippris, which is standing by, will attack.”
“Shippris, Shank Guild’s anti-Jurai flagship?”
“That’s right. You should be honored that our newest and most elite planet-class mothership is receiving you.” The man sounded intoxicated by his own words, though it was undeniable that Shippris was a large and powerful battleship that gave trouble to even massive fleets.
“There aren’t any planets around that star…which makes it ideal.” Nishia mumbled. His quiet tone sounded like a beast roaring out of deep darkness. Even Washu felt slightly afraid.
“What was that…?”
“Mizunagi, contact Shippris and recommend their immediate and unconditional surrender.” Nishia spoke not to Washu or the other man but as if someone else was also there.
“Unconditional surrender?! You think this ship could stand a chance?!” Washu’s attacker yelled, frustrated to be ignored. Just then, someone’s voice echoed in Washu’s head… Or, rather, an image formed.
Who is it? It can’t be…
“That’s right. The Jurai Imperial Family all have ships, don’t they?” At Washu’s inquiry, Nishia smiled.
“A Royal Ship?! Impossible!!” Nishia did not answer. “You said Mizunagi? Is there a Royal Ship outside? No, this ship is being guarded by regular battleships. And I shifted the timing of their jump into normal space. It would take an hour of Galactic Standard Time for them to get here, no matter how fast they were!”
“Senpai, it’s here, on this ship.”
“What?!”
In that instant, they saw beautiful sails of light unfurl from the observation deck windows.
“Light Hawk Wings…” The moment the man murmured those words, a flash of light enveloped his body.
“He self-destructed?!” Nishia and Washu both realized at the same time. With a Juraian Warrior’s reflexes, Nishia threw them to the floor and covered Washu to protect her. But the flash of light did not spread. A white wing covered the man’s body, blocking the explosion.
“This is a Light Hawk Wing? But…” Nishia looked out the window to confirm that they were there. The three Light Hawk Wings created by the Royal Tree shone outside.
There must be two Third-Generation Trees for the Light Hawk Wings to materialize. Then…who is producing this one?
Neither Nishia nor Washu herself realized that the three jewels in Washu’s pocket were shining brightly.
One early morning, on the third day after the incident, their ship arrived at the Academy’s satellite station. The ferry Washu was on had two Royal Ship cores on board. Royal Ship cores were extremely small and disguising them on a medium-sized passenger ship was simple. Not even the Shank Guild’s mothership stood a chance against two Royal Ships.
However, even a Royal Ship needed time to destroy a planet-class ship. There was a risk that the enemy ship would use her size to escape. Shippris would not surrender at first. But in a few minutes, once half their armaments failed, the recommendation for non-combatants to abandon ship was accepted without protest. Washu guessed that Shippris would use the escape pods as a shield, and Nishia had anticipated as much, too. By the time they escaped, one of the Royal Trees had already infiltrated the Shippris and taken it over.
“To think that the most advanced outer hull unit actually served to inhibit the core of a Royal Tree’s true powers.”
The core’s direct attack created a distortion field, which induced abnormal activity in the nearby star, shortening its lifespan by a few hundred million years. “As you saw, we can only rarely use direct core attacks. Please keep this matter confidential.”
“I know.”
“We know where their base is. By now, they’re under attack by their own Shippris, under Royal Tree control, plus the Juraian fleet.” Jurai’s offensive power would be overwhelming with that united front, no matter what the scale of the Shank Guild’s base was, or how much power they had.
“Oh…” Washu suddenly heard a voice in her head, similar to the one she had heard when they were rescued from Shank’s spy.
“What?!” Almost at the same time, Nishia spoke.
“Did something happen?”
“No…it’s nothing. I’m sorry, there’s been an emergency, so I must take my leave. Take care, Washu-dono.”
“You too, Nishia-dono.” It was clear to her that something must have happened, but she knew it was pointless to ask. She said her goodbyes to Nishia, shook hands, and hurried to the entry shuttle port. It would be a few years until she found out what had happened.