Chapter 32: Division, Discovery, and Explosion

"Th-This is incredible…! A real battleship! It’s huge! Arona, take a pict—oh, right. They stole it from me. Kanna-chan, do you have a camera?"

"…I’m sorry. Unfortunately…"

"Imo-chan!"

"Nope, nothing here~"

"No waaay…"

Our fully grown adult—our teacher—was sprinting around at full speed, hyped out of his mind, circling what looked like a flying battleship: a warship straight out of an anime, half-buried in the ground and fitted with jet engines so it could soar through the sky.

He’s an adult and yet so childish… but I’m not about to make fun of him. Because I, Amari Komori, am just as weak to this kind of romantic dream.

After all, when I first saw this airship, my thoughts weren’t something boring like We can use this to get home or How much could we sell this for? Instead—

"So… so… big…!"

That was where my mind went.

Roughly 400 meters long—about one and a half times larger than the Missouri, one of the largest battleships ever built at 270 meters. There’s no other word for it but big. Its appearance? A battleship with a massive afterburner jammed in like a space shuttle, the whole huge hull encased in armor so it could fly, and extra gun turrets slapped on top. Pure romance.

Why something this stupidly designed could ever fly—well, considering it’s buried in the ground, we don’t even know if it actually can fly—but romance conquers all. Probably.

"…Can we get on with the conversation now? A flying battleship? Seriously? It’s just junk. A big pile of scrap metal. Look—Kanna-san looks so bored. Let’s hurry up and find out if there’s a communicator."

"I-I am not bored at all…"

"…Junk, you say? Scrap metal, you say?"

"Huh? Isn’t it? Why are you getting mad?"

…This little mutt.

"You don’t get it, do you…! This romance! A battleship soaring through the sky, trading blasts with those huge turrets… it’s cool, isn’t it!?"

"No, I don’t get it."

"…Y-You ignorant woman…!"

"Ouch!? Hey—don’t hit me!"

How does she not understand how cool this is? Battleships are cool! The main cannon firing a gigantic beam that overwhelms the protagonist’s machine! Ramming maneuvers! Gaining the T-cross advantage and unleashing a full broadside! Even crashing looks cool! Everything about it is cool!

"…Fine. Whatever. We need to move on. We don’t have much time."

"Whoa!? Don’t just snap back to calm like that!?"

I tapped the side of my head—tap tap—and the boiling heat in my mind cooled, my anger-narrowed vision clearing.

Be cool. Stay rational.

First: judging from the exterior, this flying battleship isn’t something from decades or centuries ago like the rest of this abandoned city. It’s only a few years old. Meaning it was built before I became “me”… before I became a perfect shut-in. Then it crashed.

And yet, I have absolutely zero intel on this ship. Something this massive—using technology completely unlike anything we’ve known—how could there be no information about it? Even if it crashed—even if it vanished—someone should know.

It can’t be a secret weapon. People forget, but I’m not just some shut-in—I’m a professional mercenary. I should know more than the general public about things like this.

And still… nothing.

"Well, I mean, I do think it’s pretty cool…"

The girl looking up lazily beside me—Imo—claims to be an information broker. Her intelligence-gathering skills rival or surpass mine. And yet even she doesn’t seem to recognize this ship.

"…It fell from outside Kivotos…?"

"Sorry, what?"

If that were true, ignorance would make sense. I stopped my thoughts there. No point overthinking. What matters now is whether this ship still has communications equipment. And whether that equipment still works. If the ship itself works, great—but first, let’s handle the mission in front of us.

"…Kanna-san. Go bring the teacher."

"Understood."

"Komori-san?"

I approached the towering black exterior wall, placing my hand against the smooth surface—no door, no hatch—and then—

「縺ｲ繧峨￠縺斐∪」

Geometric patterns spread outward from where my hand touched. Cracks formed, inviting me in, and a door slid open.

"What are you doing? Come on already."

I reached back toward the dumbstruck girl staring at me, and—

"…You—what did you just…?"

"…? What? Do I have something on my face?"

Imo was staring at my face like it was bizarre. What was that expression? Did her jaw unhinge?

"W-What do you mean, something on your face—you—!"

"Uh, are you mad or something? Did I—whoa!?"

She stomped toward me in huge strides. Startled, I stepped back—straight into something—and lost my balance. I toppled backward—but before my skull could crack against the ground, Imo grabbed my arm and yanked me upright.

Ow. What was that, metal plating? …Or her chest?

"Th-Thank you…"

"Were you just thinking something rude about me?"

This is way too hard… seriously? Her lower half is stacked but her upper half is super scrawny? Actually, maybe she doesn’t even have that much lower half either.

"Is that how you treat someone who just helped you!?"

"I said it… I thanked you…"

"That’s not what I mean—ugh, whatever!"

More importantly—she didn’t bother hiding her irritation and got right up in my face.

"What did you just do!? Did you already know something about this airship!?"

"Uh… did I… do something? Huh? Wait—are we… inside the flying battleship now? It opened…?"

"Yes! Yes it opened! You opened it!"

"…When did that happen…?"

"Excuse me!? ‘When’? Literally just now—"

—and then she froze.

"…Wait. Don’t tell me—you don’t remember?"

"…Nope."

In the next second, Imo tore herself away from me like I was cursed, scrambling back so fast she practically left a skrrrrch skrrrrch skrrr sound behind her.

"St-St-St-Stop with the horror scenarios! Please!?"

"Huh? What?"

"What? ‘What’!? Then who was talking to me earlier!? A ghost!? Was it a ghost!? Are you cursed!?"

"C-Calm down…"

"D-Don’t come near meeeeeeeee!!!"

She was in full-blown panic.

"Hey, you twooo—!"

Showing up just in time: the teacher, who had apparently wandered off somewhere, and Kanna, looking exhausted. The teacher, on the other hand, looked shiny and energized.

A teacher. Someone who stands with his students. No matter who you are—if you’re a student, he’ll be your ally. Everyone says that. Even without source-material knowledge, rumors like that reached my ears in the underworld.

Meaning those rumors definitely reached the panic-stricken information broker too.

"S-Sensei!! Help me!!"

Naturally, she stood ready to sprint toward him.

And that was when a jolt shot through me. Or maybe “a really bad feeling” is more accurate.

"Wait!"

I grabbed the hem of Imo’s blouse right as she tried to bolt. She stumbled and almost fell—but—

"Ngyah!?"

Her face smacked flat against the wall with a loud wham.

A wall.

"Oww—wh-what the—why is it so dark!?"

The opening that had been there a moment ago was gone. More precisely—it sealed shut. At the exact moment Imo tried to run, the passage cinched together and became a solid wall.

Meaning if she’d kept running full speed, she could’ve been sliced in half.

"…Hm."

"H-Huh?"

"…Where’s my thank-you?"

"Excuse me!?! Absolutely not! Because of you, we’re basically trapped inside! Hurry up—say that weird magic word again and open it back up!"

"…W-Weird… word?"

"Y-You’re joking, right!?"

She shook me so hard my brain rattled. But come on. If I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t have the memory. I opened it? This ship? I’m a first-time visitor—how the hell would I know how to open it?

"Aaaah—why, why is this happening…"

"C-Calm down… First we need light. We don’t know what’s in here…"

"Right… give me a second—waaah!?"

Something crashed and clattered—crash–clang!—and she fell. See? Told you.

"Ugh… Komori-san, do you have a hammer or something?"

"No? You guys confiscated everything from me…"

"R-Right… guess the butt of a gun will have to do. Might hurt a little…"

A sharp clang rang out—metal striking metal—followed by a single pop echoing through the ship’s interior. Sparks burst to life, lighting the space around us. Apparently, Imo had slammed a bullet casing with the butt of her gun hard enough to ignite it, then used the flame to light some fabric scraps she’d gathered. After that, she tied the burning cloth to a stick she found—instant torch, mission accomplished.

Honestly, that shouldn’t be humanly possible… but she’s a mystical musclehead Kivotos girl. This sort of absurd trick is exactly her specialty. I definitely couldn’t do it.

"…For now, let’s look for an exit somewhere."

"Mmm… roger…"

I followed behind Imo, her footsteps echoing against the floor. As we walked, I gradually noticed bullet holes everywhere, deep claw-like gouges, and entire sections of corridor that were demolished. Clear signs of a firefight.

Maybe not the Arctic, but definitely a freezing wasteland—lost with no food or supplies. Maybe they fought each other over rations. A little Dredd-Hanger scenario.

If that’s the case, Imo might be right—ghosts wouldn’t be strange here. I just hope any lingering souls got tired of the cold and quietly passed on.

"Huff… wheeze… I—I’m dead…"

"Should we rest? …We haven’t actually walked that far, you know…"

"Rest. Yeah. Let’s rest. Right now. Immediately…!"

I was out of breath. How many hundreds of meters had we gone? I genuinely thought I might die here—until she offered me a saving hand. Huh… was she always this nice?

The chocolate bar she handed me was delicious. Under normal circumstances, something this dry and bland would barely count as food, but in a survival situation it seeped into my exhausted body like a blessing.

"S’good… s’so good…"

"There’s more if you want seconds."

"Your kindness is physically healing me…"

So good… so, sooo good… I stuffed bar after bar into my mouth—munch, munch—as she passed them over. That was when I noticed something at the edge of our torchlight—something metallic catching the flame.

"Mm—hey, that…"

"Hmm? What is it? Looks like rubble to me."

"It’s bothering me. Go check it out…"

"So I’m doing that, huh…"

With an old-man grunt, Imo stood and walked toward it—then suddenly shot straight upward like a startled cat.

"C-c-c-c-co-co-co-co-co!!!"

"A chicken…?"

"No! Komori-san! This is—!"

Her panic was enough for me to stand, chocolate bar still between my teeth, and follow after her.

And what I saw was an automaton—slumped against the wall, torn apart and motionless.

Basically—a corpse.

"Ah… yeah. A corpse. Looks like it?"

"Why are you so calm!?"

"I mean… I’m used to them…?"

From my previous life’s perspective, a dead robot barely registered. More like, “Wow, cool wreckage,” than fear. Even now, I still find it weird that robots in Kivotos walk around acting like adults.

Is that robot discrimination? I didn’t say it out loud, so it’s fine.

"…Its shape—it resembles something made by Kaiser PMC… but not quite. Not Kaiser-made."

Using what scraps of hardware remained, I tried to identify the model. It might be a precious lead—something that could reveal what this flying battleship really is.

Its weapon looked like an AK-47. Famous rifle. Even though it was broken, I’d used that kind before—solid gun. The frame looked standard, like the soldier models the former director used to drag around. But the internal structure was different. Not the simple mass-production style Kaiser uses. This thing looked like each individual unit was built to operate as a competent combatant on its own. Like an actual engineer put serious thought into it—

"No—wait…"

"Komori-san?"

…I’ve seen this structure before. No—more precisely, this little “quirk” in the creator’s construction style is something I’ve recognized somewhere else. When? Where? And who—?

"…No way, could it be…?"

—Was it… me?

"Komori-san!!"

Imo’s sharp shout cut through my thoughts. I snapped out of the mental spiral—and finally noticed it. The robot I assumed was a corpse was standing, an army knife clutched in its hand, the tip aimed straight at me.

"Whoa!?"

I threw my hands up to shield myself—at the same instant, the robot’s head was smashed by a marksman rifle. Imo. She mounted the robot as it staggered and yanked out the handgun at her waist—her Peacemaker—and pulled the trigger.

The gunshot cracked, smoke rising. The robot convulsed—and this time, it really did become scrap metal.

"Phew…"

"T-thanks…"

"Of course. Getting careless doesn’t suit you."

I took the hand she offered and got to my feet.

"…So you could actually fight, huh? I thought we were both non-combatants."

"I was SRT once, you know. Kuk-kuk-kuk. The super-hacker of the now-defunct Wolf Pack—yes, that was me! That day, I—"

"Is this going to be a long story? I’m trying to see if the remains still have usable data…"

"Ah. So you’re not interested. I see…"

The robot’s head was completely blown apart. That meant hooking it to a computer and extracting data was pretty much impossible. But there were still other ways. For instance—the neck unit. If my guess was right, there should be numbers inscribed there.

…There. Found it.

"Hm? What’s that?"

"The year, month, and day of manufacture."

"Ah, I see. ………Huh? Wait—wait, wait, hang on?"

That couldn’t be right. Cold sweat formed on her brow as she stammered:

"Because this is…"

—it was a date from the future.

That’s when it happened. A deafening blast nearly tossed us off our feet. A shockwave slammed through the room. Freezing outside air stormed into the ship. And the robot—now even its fragments were erased by the explosion.

"H-hey! I did say we needed to find a way inside, but blowing it up defeats the whole purpose—we can’t survive the cold like this!"

"Eek!? F-forgive me! I shall atone with my life—!"

"Stop that—Komori!? And Eisen, the information broker!?"

"…It’s Imo."

Beyond the blasted opening, I saw four silhouettes—people I’d been desperate to see again. The sight hit me so hard I forgot everything serious from moments ago. My vision blurred with tears of pure relief.

"A–Alyusaamaaaaaaaa!!!"