by Shouji Gatou
Using the lambda driver to reduce a thing’s weight... she’d known such applications were possible, but Mithril lacked the exact knowhow to make it happen. But to have a lambda driver, which fed off of its operator’s mental strength, operating continuously like that—it would truly require a special pilot. A dedicated pilot, with a mind strengthened through training and drugs... that was Takuma.
But to use the system to support the machine’s weight, while also activating that barrier to keep enemy projectiles out... whatever entity had created the Behemoth must have access to black technology on a level far beyond Mithril’s.
The Arbalest was kneeling down before the giant’s still-flaming wreckage. A round capsule about the size of a kei car—the Behemoth’s cockpit shell—was lying in front of it. Sousuke must have pulled it from the remains.
Kaname and the others were nearby, as well.
“Tessa,” said Kurz, the first one to notice her. “You sure you should be out here? After what you went through—”
“Positive. I’m just fine.” Tessa waved a hand and walked up to the cockpit shell. “Can you open it?”
“Sure. Just stand back.” Kurz pulled the gun off his belt and activated the shell’s manual release lever. There was a popping sound a few seconds later, as the shell burst open. Takuma was inside. He was lying right-side down, dressed in the spacesuit-like master suit that helped convey an operator’s movements.
“He’s still alive. What do we do?” Kurz had a gun pointed at him, but Tessa, beside him, slowly pushed it down.
She came close to the cockpit and crouched down. “Takuma-san,” Tessa said quietly, and Takuma’s head moved a little.
“I lost. Big Sister... Why?” His voice seemed to be fading away.
“I told you,” Sousuke began. “Licking your chops in front of your prey is—”
“You shut up!” Kaname barked, interrupting his attempted lecture through the Arbalest’s external speakers. The white machine’s shoulders slumped, and it fell silent.
Tessa responded as if she hadn’t heard any of it. “You haven’t lost. Sometimes these things happen.”
“It’s... too awful...” the boy moaned.
“Yes, it is,” she agreed. “It’s quite terrible...”
“I don’t have anything. I don’t have anything now...”
Tessa knelt down and touched Takuma’s sweat-stained cheek. Then she looked down, and whispered into his ear. “It’s all right, Takuma. I’m here with you.”
“Big Sister...”
“I will always be with you.”
“You... mean it?” he choked out.
“Yes. Now calm down, and go to sleep.”
“Okay... I’m... sorry.” Takuma closed his eyes. He never moved again.
Tessa didn’t cry. She knew that she wasn’t a kind enough person for that. It had been an empty performance, meant purely to satisfy herself. And yet, she told herself, this was for the best.
“Let’s see...” She stood up, stretched, and looked all around. “Well done, Weber-san. Your aim is as true as ever.”
“Heh, no prob.” Kurz held up a hand.
Then Tessa looked up at the Arbalest. I’ve really made a lot of trouble for him tonight, she thought... but it was partly his own fault, for bringing out her softer side. “Well done, Sagara-san.”
“Not at all, Colonel,” Sousuke returned.
“That machine is yours now,” she told him. “Take care of it, would you?”
“Yes, ma’am... Er?” The white AS saluted at first, then looked confused.
Tessa offered no further explanation, but turned to face Kaname. “And... Kaname-san. I need to offer you special thanks.”
Kaname folded her arms and snorted. “If you wanna thank me, I could use some explanations. I’ve got tons of questions, okay?”
“I’m sure you do. I’ll attempt to explain as best I can... another day.”
“Huh?”
“Well, I’m tired, too...” Tessa spread her arms in another big stretch. “But... there is one thing I want to tell you.”
“Tell me?” While Kaname tilted her head, Tessa cast a glance at the Arbalest.
“Sergeant Sagara, please shut off your audio sensors. That’s an order.”
Sousuke stammered in confusion. “Yes, ma’am...” but he quickly did as he was told, and shut the machine’s sensors off.
Now that he couldn’t hear them, Tessa walked up to Kaname, and whispered... “It appears I’ve fallen in love with him.”
“Huh?”
“I wanted to tell you... ‘let’s both do our best,’ Kaname-san,” Tessa said, then smiled in amusement. It was a smile appropriate to a girl her age, lacking any trace of ill will.
“Ah... huh? Um, I...”
While Kaname stood there, flabbergasted, Tessa turned away and just started walking. “Now, let us withdraw. I’ve heard that Kalinin-san and the others are all right.”
◆
On the roof of a building a kilometer from the decimated International Exhibition Center stood two men, watching through binoculars.
“I feel a chill,” one of the men whispered, though it was an early summer night.
“I really thought he’d get a bit further,” the other man said. He had round glasses that sat snugly on his round nose.
“Well, we’d basically given a toy to a boy scout. We never should have gotten our hopes up.”
“Still, it’s such a waste. Two cruisers’ worth of budget down the drain in fifteen minutes... It’s absurd. What were the higher-ups thinking?”
“Don’t be so down. We got the data, as well as video. And it’s drastically increased public anxiety.”
“We also got to see all its drawbacks. Amalgam doesn’t need that machine.”
“True.” The man chuckled. “And there were other unexpected benefits...”
The man with the round glasses furrowed his brow. “Benefits?”
“Yes.” Another laugh. “I got to see my beloved darling and his girlfriend again.”
The other man was silent.
“I’ll have to say hello to them soon. Yes... I’ll give them quite the greeting.” With a bright smile, the man left the roof, trailing his artificial leg behind.
Epilogue
The battle in Ariake City. The mysterious giant AS that had run amok and self-destructed. The beyond-repair destruction of the Tokyo Big Sight. The involvement of the JSDF. Those topics were all over the morning news, so there was a fair share of discussion of them in class. Still, they also had a test coming up; they didn’t have time to just gossip all day.
Classmates were busy showing each other printouts about test questions, lending each other notebooks, and fervently studying vocabulary lists. Tokiwa Kyoko could usually expect Kaname to be her study buddy at times like these, but things weren’t quite going as planned today.
“Hey, Kana-chan. Hey!” Kaname was passed out on her desk, and Kyoko was shaking her as hard as she could. “Yesterday, you said you’d help me with my English. Come on, wake up!”
“Ugh... Please... Just a few more minutes...”
Noting Kaname’s lack of cooperation, Kyoko sagged. “Darn it... Did you pull an all-nighter studying last night?”
“Well, I didn’t get any sleep, that’s for sure...” Kaname groaned. “But I also didn’t... do any studying...”
“Then what were you doing?”
“Fighting.”
“Oh, sure. Fine, then. Forget it. Don’t help me.” Kyoko switched gears immediately. “Hey, hey! Sagara-kun!”
She approached Sousuke, who had grown up abroad—meaning he was fluent in English—in the hopes that he would help her instead. He was sitting in a corner of the classroom, arms folded, stock still.
“Sagara-kun?”
He said nothing. His eyes were fixed ahead.
“Hey.” No reaction. Kyoko waved a hand in front of his face, but Sousuke didn’t even seem to see it. She leaned a little closer, and noticed that his br
eathing was quiet and regular.
“N-No way...” she whispered. He was sleeping with his eyes open. The reminder that such freakish abilities existed caused sweat to bead on Kyoko’s forehead.
“Okay, everyone, take your seats! Class is about to start!” The classroom door opened, and their teacher Kagurazaka Eri came in. The students hurried to take their seats. They stood, then bowed.
Kagurazaka Eri seemed in high spirits today. “Good morning, everyone,” she said cheerfully. “It’s a dangerous world out there, but at times like these, it’s best to focus on our studies. Now, it’s the last class before the test! Let’s all give it our best! Open your textbooks to page 61!”
They were going to review all of the material to be tested. The students all quickly opened their textbooks— even Kaname, with great difficulty, managed to execute the task. Only Sousuke remained silent, arms folded, desk empty, staring vacantly ahead of him.
Eri noticed immediately. “Oh. Sagara-kun, did you forget your textbook?”
Silence.
“What’s wrong?” she asked in concern. “Answer me.”
Silence.
“Sagara-kun?”
Silence.
“Wh-What... Don’t glare at me like that.” With a slight wince, Eri walked up to Sousuke’s desk. “Sagara-kun. Are... Are you refusing to participate in my class? If you have a problem with me, I’ll try hard to fix it. But this behavior...”
Silence.
“This behavior... it’s a little excessive, don’t you think?”
Silence.
“Please say something, Sagara-kun. Please.”
Silence.
Half in tears, Eri pounded the desk hard with her textbook. “Sagara-kun!”
Sousuke snapped awake, and then into action. He leaped out of his seat, pulled a pistol from his hip holster, grabbed the teacher by the neck, dragged her to the floor, pressed the gun to her head, and—
Kaname leaped in from the side with a flying kick, knocking him out cold.
If not for Kyoko’s quick reassurances, Eri would have probably run out of the room crying.
The End
Afterword
So sorry for the wait. Sousuke and Kaname are going about their usual peaceful(?) lives at Jindai High, when they’re attacked again by a powerful enemy. Almost all of this volume took place in the city, and over the course of one day. I hope you enjoy Rampaging One Night Stand, the second story of the long-form adventure-style Full Metal Panic! series.
I think character is highlighted more in this story compared to the last one. The plot itself may be less complex because of that, but I still ended up with a tome that’s far more than 300 pages. That’s very thick. I was originally aiming for 260, but... strange how things happen.
Authors are timid creatures. We worry that our books won’t sell if they’re too thick. But Fighting Boy Meets Girl certainly sold (thanks to all of you, of course), so I can rest easy knowing I don’t need to worry. Most booksellers ended up short on stock, and I kept hearing “I can’t find your book,” and getting scolded for that. Sorry to everyone who had to search around for Fighting.
As for other things to write... hmm. I can’t think of anything. I have no other choice but to call in a guest. It’s our protagonist, Sagara Sousuke. Let’s give him a round of applause.
S: “You need me for something?”
—Yes. Say something interesting for me.
S: “Very well. I will compare the proposals by Lockheed and Boeing in the development of America’s latest Joint Strike Fighter, currently undergoing trials.”
—Please don’t.
S: “In that case, I’ll explain why the AS’s head-mounted machine guns use depleted uranium rounds. Since they’re also used to intercept ATMs—”
—Stop.
S: “...... Shall I tell you about the incredible Korean Marine torture techniques that I heard from an acquaintance returning from Vietnam?”
—You know what, never mind. Forget it. You can go.
S: “It’s true that I’ve received no training in the art of conversation. But I can listen. Tell me a story about yourself.”
—Hmm. About myself... Actually, two days ago was Valentine’s Day. I got chocolate from fans, and from some people in the Fujimi Editorial Department. It made me happy.
S: “I see.”
—But it was all brought to me by my supervisor S-san when we met up for idea discussions. S-san is a woman, and there was no chocolate from her.
S: “I see. (pop)”
—All I needed was some obligation chocolate. It felt a little lonely.
S: “...... I don’t understand why you want chocolate so much. But this editor of yours will probably be the first to read these lines. She’ll recognize that you’re calling her out.”
—Yeah, but yesterday, when I told her, “I can’t think of an idea for an epilogue,” she said, “Why not write about what’s going on in your life? Like about Valentine’s.” And she was grinning.
S: “She sounds like a splendid woman.”
—You don’t understand the sensitivities of a man’s heart. Darn it. I’m feeling sad.
S: “Not that it matters, but speaking to you reminds me of Kurz. (pop)”
—Don’t compare me to that idiot.
S: “I expect he’d say the same thing. (pop)”
—By the way, what is that ‘pop’ thing you keep doing?
S: “I’m eating chocolate.”
—Chocolate? Who gave it to you?! Tell me!
S: “I cannot. I was asked not to.”
—Hmph. I think I can guess. And I’m sure she insisted it was obligation chocolate, too.
S: “(sweating) How did you know?”
Ah, we’re out of pages (I don’t know why I looked at my watch there).
I’ll be asking for all of your support while I write my next manuscript. Thank you all again (bows).
See you next time for another round of Sousuke in hell.
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Copyright
Full Metal Panic! Volume 2
by Shouji Gatou
Translated by Elizabeth Ellis
Edited by Dana Allen
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © Shouji Gatou, Shikidouji 1999
Illustrations by Shikidouji
First published in Japan in 1999 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo
English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: July 2019