Silent Talk

by Shūsuke Amagi

  "It's a bit late for you to be asking that question."

  "That's......true."

  As if imitating Layfon, wanting to say something and deciding not to, Felli's lips opened and closed. She sighed, a sigh of one who knew how many times cuter and more beautiful that sigh could be.

  "Can't you stop......?" she murmured. Confirming Nina's condition once more, she left the room.

  Chapter 5

  Things in Life

  The tight armor-suit felt cool on his skin. The suits looked like they'd be heavy and hot on the outside, but didn't feel hot after he put them on. They had surprisingly good ventilation. He had worn something like this back in Grendan. Wearing the suit wasn't new to him.

  Under the light, one could just make out the color of his skin beneath the sheer cloth used for filtering pollutants outside the city.

  The fitting was done at the last moment, so this was his first time wearing this suit.

  He left the fitting room.

  "It feels fine," Layfon said.

  He was underneath the city, inside what was called the waist of the city, located beneath the Engine Room and connected to the multi-legs. A space that was basically a gap.

  A lot of work, mostly involving the maintenance of the multi-legs, started and ended here.

  And in here right now were Layfon, Karian and a couple other students.

  The student leader of the technology course let out a relieved sigh. On his face were traces of sleepless nights.

  "That's great, next is the helmet......"

  The helmet was made of two parts. The hard component that made up the outer part of the helmet pressed down on the same material as the cloth that made up the armored suit. The cloth was cut according to the contours of Layfon's face. Once he put on the helmet, his face was sealed from the outside world. Lastly, the student leader connected the piece of cloth hanging out from beneath the helmet to the suit to cover Layfon's neck.

  Nothing illuminated the helmet. In total darkness, the Student President sent out a signal to someone through his transmitter.

  A scene of somewhere else appeared before Layfon.

  Barren earth greeted Layfon's eyes.

  "Oh......"

  Right before him was the desolate and sterile earth, with cracks like spider webs across its surface. The dry smell of the earth drifted into his nose. Wind filled with a huge amount of sand beat against Layfon as it blew past him......Like an illusion, the clear images coming through the helmet gave him the feeling that he was seeing things with his own eyes and feeling things with his own body.

  "Does it work?"

  Felli's voice.

  But she wasn't beside him.

  "Perfect."

  "That's good," came the cool reply.

  The helmet was connected to Felli's flakes. They replaced Layfon's vision and conveyed to him all kinds of information. This way, he wouldn't have to see the world with his own eyes and risk burning them through contact with the pollutants, and he would also avoid the inconvenience of the sand sticking onto the helmet and obstructing his vision.

  "Then everything's prepared."

  In his harness hung the Dite he got from Harley. It differed from the normal Dite in that it was slightly longer. A small and thin slab of metal curved inward from the handle, and on it were three holes.

  This was the completed version of the Adamantium Dite......And its inventor still hadn't shown up.

  Lastly, Layfon equipped himself with four more Dites.

  "Please use the bike," Karian pointed at the thing beside him.

  It was a vehicle from the past that had long since lost its original function. Its design was wide but delicate. Underneath the dim light, liquid silver ran across its black outer shell.

  The rubber wheels could not be used on the barren earth. Long distances were out of the question, and there was little meaning in making or using the wheels for short distances only. The obvious conclusion was to adjust the design in a way that was similar to how the robotic legs moved. Even so, its movement far exceeded the speed of robotic legs. Every city had a few of these bikes for emergencies.

  The seat for the person needing rescue had been taken off this bike.

  Layfon took his seat and switched on the engine. A low rumble sounded out from beneath the vehicle as the bike vibrated.

  Karian and the others went to the control room, and the gate leading to the outside world opened. A lift lowered Layfon to the ground.

  Furious wind and the city's slowly moving multi-legs surrounded Layfon. As the lift descended, he gazed at the mountain protruding from the ground far away.

  The filth monster was there.

  It would take him one day to get there......The long and lonely journey began.

  Time rewinds to just a short while before Layfon's departure. This was the hospital room.

  "This is......"

  At the voice that sounded lost, Layfon looked away from the vase. It was Nina. The nurse had removed the needles from her back, turned her over and pulled a blanket over her. The remaining light of the sunset shone through the window. Light and shadow separated the room into two colors. Except for the dusky red on Nina's bed, everywhere else was dim.

  Layfon turned on the light. It reflected off the whitewashed walls and shooed away the darkness. Nina squinted at the dazzling light and saw Layfon's silhouette.

  "This is the hospital."

  "Hospital......?"

  "Don't you remember?"

  "......Uh......"

  She slowly shook her head as she watched the ceiling, followed by a light sigh. The sound of quiet movements from nurses, patients and visitors outside the room caused small vibrations in the air.

  Layfon looked at the vase again. In it sat Sharnid's flowers.

  "I see, so I fainted."

  "You overused your Kei, senpai."

  Layfon felt suffocated at the sparseness of the conversation. Nina gradually reached the logical conclusion she didn't want to accept ......A premonition of her struggling to escape and failing at it.

  "Were you watching?" she said.

  Watching the vase, Layfon felt her gaze stab one side of his face, but the Nina at the edge of his vision was looking at the window painted red by the sunset.

  "No."

  "Do you find me ridiculous?"

  "I didn't laugh."

  "But I want to laugh at myself."

  He sensed the blanket move a little.

  "I'm so unsightly......"

  "I don't think so."

  "Why?" Irritation filled her question. Mixed in it was also the sound of crying, but he didn't attempt to confirm that. Perhaps......He didn't want to look at the Nina gazing at the sunset.

  "This might seem cruel, but I think some things can only be understood after a near-death experience. No one can help with that."

  "And this is one of them?" she asked in a mocking tone. Mocking herself.

  Layfon nodded.

  "......We have to give up on the next platoon match."

  "......I see."

  She must have understood it.

  "Did I waste my time?"

  "Waste?"

  "I want to win and become stronger. In that case, haven't I been wasting my time?"

  "Have you lost just because you can't participate in the next match?"

  "That's not it!" She tried to sit up, her face twisted. Her entire body hurt so much that she couldn't even sit up properly. She lay back down heavily, the pillow supporting the sudden weight of her head.

  "......Even so, I still want to win and get stronger. If I stop here and can't do anything in the real match, then nothing else is worth mentioning."

  "True."

  "So haven't I been wasting my time?"

  She didn't turn to him. Inside the blanket, her body seemed to become smaller.

  "......At first, I thought it would be enough if I used my own strength and helped out Zuellni in the next Military Arts competition," she said softly, still n
ot turning to face him. "But I got a bit greedy. Because you're so strong. I was scared when I first witnessed it. I wondered whether you were even human, but when I confirmed you were, desire came to me. I didn't want just to help, I wanted to become the driving force, the core of victory. I thought the 17th platoon had become stronger even though there was no proof of it. If you want to laugh, then go ahead."

  Layfon shook his head solemnly.

  "But I lost the match. Of course. And I feel it was fortunate that we lost. That match corrected my error, but I stopped moving forward after that......If that's the case, what do I have to do to win?"

  As long as the team became stronger.

  The answer was simple, but Layfon didn't voice it.

  He understood a little of Nina's line of thinking. Sharnid had a lukewarm attitude, and Felli clearly had no interest at all.

  Especially because Felli told him that she wouldn't use her true strength. She hated herself for being a psychokinesist.

  The strength of a team showed in their coordination. It was meaningless for one person to be strong.

  The opposing team had demonstrated this truth in the previous match.

  "I thought only I needed to become strong. Even if I can't fight alongside you, at least I can be strong enough not to become a burden, so......"

  So she increased the time spent training herself?

  The unusual training schedule meant she had a high evaluation of Layfon's strength.

  "But I might have wasted my time."

  Something quiet and heavy pushed down on the air in the room.

  "......Does senpai know about the irregularity in your Kei breathing?"

  "Huh?"

  "I mean the breath of Kei. Senpai was very painful in that last moment."

  "Ah, Aah......"

  The sudden change in topic confused her.

  "The irregularity of your Kei breath shows you've wasted your training, to a certain point. It's natural for that to happen because you lie to your body and, despite your exhaustion, you continued to use Kei. This is the same theory as how one can't breathe in at will while exercising. When a person first breathes with Kei, the Kei vein generates an amount of Kei that's larger than usual. The training method for the Kei vein is different from how you increase the capacity of your lungs. In the final phase of Kei training, you can live your daily life using the breath of Kei without having to use Internal- and External-type Kei."

  "Layfon......?"

  "It's hard work to maintain the Kei breath without generating a Kei flow, but if that can be done, then it'll increase the person's sensitivity to her Kei and the amount of Kei she holds. It's like the Kei becomes your nervous system. Kei breathing is the foundation of using Kei."

  Kei breathing is the foundation of using Kei.

  That was explained in the junior textbook in Military Arts.

  But he had said something that wasn't included in the textbook. None of the textbooks mentioned maintaining a daily life with Kei breathing.

  "If humans with a Kei vein want to survive by relying on Military Arts, then it's meaningless to live the same as normal people. They breathe differently, so the meanings are different. Please look at the flow of Kei as more important than blood. Believe the information from the Kei flow more than what you feel from your nervous system. Don't become a blood bag that thinks, but please become a formless body of Kei that thinks," he said lightly.

  Nina remained silent and inert as she listened. She watched him with surprise, her eyes slightly red.

  "If you want to live by the Military Arts, then give up trying to live as a human."

  He said that to the Nina who was at ease because he was a human – don't live as humans do.

  "That's all I can tell senpai," he smiled. It was a forced smile, so it must have looked quite stiff. He could feel the hard muscles of his face.

  "Have you noticed? Sharnid-senpai has a new Dite."

  "Huh?"

  "He seems to know how to use Close Quarter Gun Combat. I don't know what level he's at. You can check later. Perhaps we can have more variation in strategies now. But all the formations we've used so far have used everyone to attack; maybe you can do it another way and stay at the back. My brain's terrible with strategies, and they probably aren't right, so I have to leave it to Senpai."

  "......"

  "I'm good at fighting alone, but I'm terrible when fighting in a team. It's not easy to fight while thinking of the comrades fighting alongside me. Frankly, I feel that the battle arena is too small."

  "Layfon......"

  "Please give me orders, and I'll try to act them out to the best of my ability. Sharnid-senpai seems to have his own thinking on this. As for Felli-senpai......Well, let's work hard together."

  He stammered out those last words, so he laughed to cover them.

  "It's all up to senpai whether we can become the strongest platoon, so please don't abandon us."

  "Abandon you......How could I......"

  Nina recalled her recent actions.

  Yes, it wasn't strange to think she had abandoned them when she was training to become strong by herself.

  "Yeah......I've nothing to say."

  "I'm not against senpai getting stronger. I'll help out the best I can if there's anything I can do. Although all I can do is teach you how to train your Kei......If you can find anything more useful than this, then learn from me as much as you can."

  He smiled, a bit embarrassed. This time his smile might have been even stiffer. Please don't abandon us......That felt just like a kid not wanting to part with someone.

  Had he come to like the 17th platoon this much......? Without knowing himself......?

  Or was it because of......her?

  He didn't want to leave Nina Antalk?

  (Which is it?)

  He wasn't sure himself.

  "I see......So I'm the only one who's wavering."

  Her soft voice stopped his train of thought.

  "We're comrades, so let's get stronger together."

  He couldn't deny the other him who was happy thanks to the intense light in her eyes.

  "It was like you were saying your last words."

  "Huh?"

  The bike moved forward, bumping across the deserted earth. He was already driving on the smoothest surface, but he wasn't sure what good it did. He'd had training back in Grendan for driving, but he had never driven for so long a distance. There was a spare tire. If possible, he didn't want to encounter a situation where he had to use it.

  The sun had sunk down in the west. The headlights cut out a circle from the darkness around him.

  As long as he got the location right, he'd arrive there, so he constantly checked the compass on the bike's dashboard as he drove.

  And Felli was guiding him, so things shouldn't be confusing.

  He still hadn't taken any action at this distance regarding the filth monster. One reason was because of the limited preparation time and movement, but the main reason was his need to coordinate with Felli's information.

  Felli's voice came through the flake on his helmet. "I heard......What you said in the hospital room."

  "Those weren't my last words," he laughed.

  "But it's not strange to think so in this situation, right?"

  "Is that so?"

  "Yes."

  "But I don't plan to lose."

  "You didn't say you wouldn't die."

  "I don't know anything besides the fact that the filth monster is male. I can't say what isn't certain."

  "See?"

  He felt the low howling of the wind through his armor-suit. The pollutants beat against him.

  On the other side of the skin-thin suit lay a dead world.

  Nothing lived except the filth monsters. On the barren earth, shards of soil jutted from the ground. Pollution poisoned the air. Contact with pollutants would cause burns, the skin peeling off in flakes. If one breathed in the air, one's lungs would rot.

  One person was in this d
ead world.

  The uneasy feeling of being in a place he shouldn't be invaded Layfon.

  He had fought in this dead world numerous times, fighting continuously in an arena that was far wider and vaster than any city, but filled with a sense of suffocation. Was he truly alive right now? Even that feeling of "Of course I'm alive" was fading.

  His mission was all that kept him going in this place, so when he faced battle, he always felt his life was somewhere far, far away from him.

  "I don't plan to say my last words here," he repeated.

  "Really?"

  "Really."

  "Fon Fon......"

  He almost crashed.

  "Have you really decided on that name?" Embarrassed at the nickname that didn't suit the current atmosphere, he steadied the vehicle.

  "I've decided."

  There was stubbornness in her icy voice.

  "Can you not use that name?"

  "No......I remember. We were deciding on something to call me. How did we end up deciding on your nickname?"

  "......Don't ask me."

  He didn't even get a say in the name of Fon Fon.

  "Ah......I get it, because my brother showed up. He has to interfere in everything I do. My emotionless and tearless brother is the cause of my misfortune. I pray daily that he'll be forced to withdraw because he's been exposed using public funds for private purposes and other crimes he's committed."

  "What are you saying......"

  Her solemn expression surfaced in his mind.

  "Then you decide."

  "Now?"

  "I'm bored, so you can either talk to me, or you can make some funny jokes?"

  Yes, there was still some time before he reached his destination.

  "Um, I can't, but......"

  "Please don't make jokes. I'll get a headache if you turn into Sharnid-senpai."

  "......Then what do I do?"

  "Just think of what to call me."

  "Um......"

  "Hurry......"

  He was troubled. Anyway, all he needed was to say what he thought.

  "......Felli-chan?"

  "I'm already used to that. I've been called that since I was very little. Use more creativity. This name's denied."