Chapter 30: Shipbuilding Engineering Department

A few days had passed since the incident, and things had finally begun to settle down. Caught up in the whole Make-Up Work Club fiasco, I ended up preparing for my trip home several days later than planned.

I decided to take home just enough belongings that wouldn’t get in the way—my laptop, my favorite plushie, my Brown Bess rifle, and a few outfits I’d bought in Trinity. All packed and ready! But I wasn’t heading straight to my parents’ house just yet. There was one place I absolutely had to stop by first.

"Whew, here we are. The Shipbuilding Engineering Department…"

I parked the Royalty in a nearby lot, then headed toward the massive red-brick building dominating the coastline on the outskirts of the Millennium District.

"Oh, Aika-chan! Long time no see!"

"Yes, it has been a while. Hello, Seira-san."

Waiting for me was a tall girl with long golden hair tied into big, voluminous twin-tails and aquamarine eyes. Her shirt was unbuttoned three—no, four—buttons down, flaunting the deep valley formed by her impressive bust. Her Millennium-blue tie was loosened almost to the point of falling off, and though her black pleated skirt was only slightly short, she had tied her shirt up to show off her stomach. Every time I see her, I really wonder how she survives in cold weather dressed like that.

I hadn’t recognized her from the game at all, but in this world I was familiar with this place—the Shipbuilding Engineering Department at Millennium Science School, a club I often visited back in middle school. And the club president standing in front of me was this third-year student: Karaho Seira (唐帆セイラ).

"So the reason you came today is that, right? You came to see the Remarkable-chan?"

"Yes, that’s right. May I see her immediately?"

"Leave it to me! We worked with the Engineering Club and the Advanced Materials Development Club too. We pooled all of Millennium’s brilliance to make the ultimate ship!"

…Let me explain things in order. It all started when I entered my first year of middle school. After the previous year’s poor harvest, we suddenly had an excellent one—enough that even after paying back the loan we’d taken to update our farm equipment, we still had money to spare.

My parents told me I could choose something I wanted, so I pointed at something I’d seen online that had caught my interest.

"This is an RC crop-dusting plane, isn’t it? We don’t use pesticides since our crops are organic, so what would you even do with it if we bought one?"

"What do you mean? Obviously I’m gonna play with it! We have unused farm roads—if I turn one into a runway, it’d be super fun!"

"Hahaha… well, I did say you could pick anything. Just one plane? Or do you want a few of them?"

"Then… let’s start with ten!"

That was how I got my RC planes. I repainted and slightly modified them to look like Swordfish biplanes, and I was having a blast flying them and dropping mock grenades when even better news came.

Apparently my dad had a fisherman friend who was replacing his old boat—just like how we’d replaced our farming machines. He’d said, “If you want the old one, you can have it for free.” Since our house borders a lake connected to the sea by a canal, we actually had plenty of ways we could use a boat.

"Aika, you like this kind of stuff, right? So I brought it home for you. …Aika?"

"Thank you, Dad! I want to modify this boat into an aircraft carrier!"

"Eh—an aircraft carrier? For the RC planes? Well… size-wise it might not be impossible, but turning a plain old fishing boat into one seems unrealistic, doesn’t it?"

"It’s fine. I already have a plan."

And so, I submitted the request to turn the fishing boat into an aircraft carrier—to the place I knew best: Millennium’s Shipbuilding Engineering Department.

…To be fair, Trinity also has two organizations related to ships: the Trinity Sailing Arts Club and the Trinity Steamship Society. But neither of them actually builds ships. The former is a club for marine sports like yachting; the latter uses cruisers for tea parties and fishing.

They probably both have connections to shipbuilders, but their activity areas overlap on the sea, and they represent opposite sides—sailboats vs. steamships, sweaty sports vs. elegant leisure. The rivalry is so intense that if members bump into each other, they immediately reach for their guns. I didn’t want to get involved in that mess, so I turned to Millennium instead.

I made the request in my first year of middle school during winter, and by the summer of my third year, the hull and the minimum equipment needed for autonomous navigation were complete. The plain, rusty 35-meter fishing boat had, after a year and a half, transformed into a miniature Illustrious-class aircraft carrier: the Remarkable.

After playing around for a while, launching and recovering my Swordfish planes, the Shipbuilding Department contacted me in autumn. They wanted to collaborate with other clubs to create the strongest aircraft carrier possible, and asked to take her back for further upgrades. And finally, just a few days ago, they told me she was complete enough for a proper viewing.

"First, you’ll enter through this door—same as before. The inside’s been fully updated with new systems, including elevators. Everything from raising aircraft from the hangar to the deck, to launching them, to storing them again after landing, is fully automated now."

Whenever she talks about ships, her usually carefree attitude fades, replaced by a surprisingly serious expression. It must be her passion speaking.

"It’s true that last time I rode her, the interior felt… sparse. But now I can see all the machinery lined up everywhere."

We stepped onto the flight deck and looked at the assembled air wing. Somehow they radiated a sense of determination—as if ready to launch at any moment. Which is ridiculous because they’re just model airplanes, so how do they even radiate determination?

"We also upgraded these guys a bit. Their AI’s been enhanced so you can give them more intuitive and simple commands. With just these, they could neutralize an average group of students on their own."

"That is… truly impressive."

Seira lowered her gaze from the flight deck to the ship’s side.

"Take a look at this. Well? What do you think?"

"This is… a secondary gun, isn’t it? I’m certain this wasn’t here before."

Exactly. A section that had once been just a bare wall now had a newly installed high-angle gun and its mounting platform.

"The caliber’s 16mm, matching the ship’s overall scale. We built it as a dedicated piece of equipment just for this girl, working together with the Engineering Club. Gets your heart racing, doesn’t it?"

"Dedicated equipment… what a delightful phrase."

"Right? Though the anti-air machine guns are, well, still replicas."

Next, I looked up toward the bridge. It was packed with reconnaissance and detection systems, and size-wise it seemed just barely large enough for a person to fit inside. The most eye-catching feature was the radar spinning atop the structure.

"That was another addition during this round of upgrades. Just like a real radar, it can detect incoming enemies, and it’s also used to transmit and receive data from recon satellites for mapping."

We left the deck and went back inside. Near the bow was the same control room as before—a hub where you could access various AIs throughout the ship: the launch-and-recovery control AI, the anti-air gunfire control AI, and more.

"And this here is the dedicated controller connected to this room."

What she handed me was a slightly oversized tablet device. When I tapped the screen to wake it, an interface appeared. A map showing the area around the tablet’s current position was displayed in the top left; aircraft and secondary guns were listed on the right. The bottom area was divided into sections for reconnaissance and engines. Opening the aircraft tab revealed all twenty planes assigned to the ship. It looked like I could launch, land, or order bombing runs for sets of five at a time. Opening the engine tab showed that navigation was fully automated—just tap a point on the map and the ship would handle steering and speed on its own.

"You can zoom the map in and out too. You drove here today, right?"

"Yes, that’s correct."

"Okay then, let’s step outside for a moment…"

After we exited together, she began operating the tablet.

"Aika’s house is out in Trinity’s suburbs… around here, right? I’ll set it to auto-navigate to this point."

It was convenient to have the ship operate unmanned, but I asked whether it might, for example, open its doors on its own and let someone slip inside.

"Oh, don’t worry. No one can enter unless they’re holding the controller. And if someone tries to force their way in, the interception system activates and the high-angle guns will keep firing at them until they retreat."

On top of that, the controller used automatic fingerprint verification—only Seira and I could operate it.

"I… I see…"

"Also, since this is its first official outing, we’ve loaded a big stock of spare ammunition for the high-angle guns into the empty space in the hangar. Once you run out, you’ll have to come back here to restock."

That said, bombing runs were still the ship’s primary method of attack, so it was unlikely the ammunition would run out quickly. And as always, the aircraft used standard commercial grenades as their payload, which was no issue.

"As for fuel, both the ship and the planes still run on regular gasoline—same as before. Well… that’s about everything you need to know. If you have any questions, call me. And make sure you use her for a long, long time, okay? After all, Remarkable-chan and I go way back—I’ve been with her since my first year!"

"Yes, I’ll take very good care of her."

Once we confirmed the Remarkable had departed from the shipyard, I returned to the parking lot and pulled out the Royalty. This time, for real, I headed straight for home.

After several hours of driving, familiar scenery started coming into view. The peaceful countryside—the place where I’d spent most of my life.

Unable to contain my excitement, I left my luggage in the truck bed and, empty-handed, opened the door of my family home for the first time in ages.

"I'm home!"

"Oh, Aika! We’ve been waiting for you—welcome back!"

"It’s great to see you’re doing well. As for Trinity… hmm, let’s sit inside and I’ll tell you slowly."

Since moving into the dorm the day after the entrance ceremony, I hadn’t been home for months. Everything here felt completely new and nostalgic at the same time.

So much had happened at Trinity, but finally, I could spend a few weeks here just relaxing and forgetting about school for a while.