28 The End Long Awaited
Tilting the control stick repeatedly, confirming the机体 cannot move freely.
It was expected.
Jin releases the control stick without irritation.
Originally, this机体 was stripped of its space combat package.
It was known that maneuverability in space would be ineffective.
The机体 has expended all its weapons.
The Reactor has reached its limit, halting the refinement of ether.
If any ether remains in the机体, it could reach another airlock on the移民 ship.
With no interference, a slow but possible movement.
And now, here, that interference exists.
The lost right arm.
The left arm partially severed.
Even without these, the Black Knight retains intact legs and sufficient mobility.
Anger at being separated from Mio, perhaps.
The camera eye locks onto Jin’s机体 and does not release its grip.
Whether this unit, once expelled beyond the immigrant vessel, will attempt re-entry here remains uncertain.
Jin does not expect it.
The reason for targeting Mio is unknown.
At the very least, if it seeks to take her unharmed, it should avoid actions that risk involving her.
Re-entry from this barrier is impossible.
Then, could it re-enter from elsewhere?
With this damage, a second attempt seems unlikely.
Logically, retreat would have been the only rational choice.
And logically—there was no reason to overlook him here.
To consider logic against an ASID that disregards human thought was absurd, yet Jin held certainty.
The immediate threat to Mio had passed.
Jin was enveloped in satisfaction.
“Protected… this time, for real.”
Letting go of all tension, Jin leaned back into the seat.
Since that day two years ago.
Since the day he lost everything—Jin had not found meaning in continuing to live.
He had wanted a rematch with that colossal entity.
He had wanted to die—endlessly, without end.
He wanted to die in battle.
He did not want to die at the end of flight, after fleeing.
If there is an afterlife, he wanted to report to Rei that he had given it his all.
The girl he had failed to protect—he had finally managed to protect her at the end.
Wasn’t that an outcome beyond expectation?
“Considering my end… it’s not bad.”
There is no limit to what one might aspire to.
But from the moment he became a soldier, he never believed he would die in a proper way.
To die protecting Mio.
As Jin had just said—this ending, he could accept.
A shock struck the机体.
The remaining ether barely strengthened the armor, deflecting the blow.
But that was all.
Only the movement of the机体's limbs would remain possible now.
And with such movement, escape from the Black Knight was absolutely impossible.
Jin thought, biting his tongue against the impact.
He was slammed into the outer hull of the移民 ship.
Numerous残骸 of other機体 floated nearby, having collided with the same hull.
He would soon join their number.
The Black Knight slowly approached, raising its fist.
Perhaps attempting to instill fear.
A gesture meaningless to Jin at this moment.
The Black Knight's arm seized the neck of Jin's Leopard.
Dragged upward along the hull, carried all the way to the zenith screen.
Keeping pace with the vibration, he slowly closes his eyes.
He hesitates—whether to die gazing at the stars—but decides it would be better to dwell on memories of Rei.
"Ah... I forgot. The promise to visit the aquarium—still unfulfilled."
A forgotten obligation surfaces suddenly.
He won’t be able to go to the aquarium until after this assault has ended.
Then he recalls—so caught up in chaos he nearly forgot—that he had been arguing with Mio.
Reconciliation is necessary.
She’s entering elementary school next month—preparations must be made.
He shakes his head at the thought.
That is no longer his concern.
He believes Mio’s future will be secure.
The inheritance has already been designated to her.
The military lawyer has been entrusted with her care.
With that arrangement, she should be able to live comfortably until adulthood.
Perhaps someone will come forward to take her in.
That is why Jin thinks it will be all right.
Likely someone better than himself.
"Then it will be all right, Mio."
He does not know what happened in the past.
That opportunity never came.
Only two months spent together.
Even so, during that time, Jin was Mio’s guardian.
"May you be happy from now on."
He prays for her path ahead.
A wry smile touches his lips.
In the end, his thoughts were only of Mio.
The intuition that sees one second ahead.
The realization that this is what crushes the cockpit brings a strange sense of calm—.
"Wait, daddy!"
That voice reached him.
"!"
His body reacted instinctively.
The Leopard kicked off the zenith screen, barely evading the Black Knight’s fist.
Just a few seconds of extension.
Jin’s fate remains unchanged.
"Right now, your voice..."
It was Mio's.
It shouldn't have been audible.
She wasn't carrying a comm unit. No matter how loudly she screamed, the vacuum wall would not yield.
Yet it reached Jin's ears, unmistakably.
The echo still lingers within him.
Not a hallucination.
Papa...
Wait...
That's what she said.
He had believed he'd lost everything.
But perhaps that wasn't true.
Could someone still be reaching for his hand?
The camera on the still-living frame looked down.
Through the transparent zenith screen, the convoy came into view.
Zoomed in, magnified.
There she was—Mio, reaching out with desperate eyes.
What are you doing?
It's dangerous. Run to the shelter now.
The thought passed through his mind.
The Black Knight raised its fist once more.
The fragmented wreckage—Etherdagger, left behind by some other机体—touches Jin’s right arm.
Seizes it.
Without checking the remaining Ether in the Etherdagger, thrusts forward.
No more Ether to freely move the机体.
Counter.
A counter born of resolve—so long as the cockpit remains intact.
The Etherdagger pierces the Black Knight’s head.
The fist crushes Leopard’s abdomen.
Recoiling from the impact, they separate.
“Gh….”
Jin groans, his body half-crushed once more.
Through blurred vision, he sees the Black Knight—its camera-eye shattered.
Significant damage, yes.
But far from rendering it immobile.
And this time, Leopard has nothing left.
No Ether remains.
The机体 stopped completely, save for some residual sensors and the camera.
The next attack cannot be avoided.
Jin, who only moments ago had been ready to die, now searched desperately for a way out.
The thought of piercing through the Black Knight had vanished entirely.
He summoned every experience he had ever gained.
And every experience he summoned declared, with brutal clarity, that all paths were blocked.
—Yet the next attack never came.
The one-eyed Black Knight stared at Jin’s ruined机体.
Then, it withdrew the Long Sword still embedded in the wreckage, turned on its heel, and vanished into the distant cosmos.
—What… was that?
The battlefield had ceased its conflict.
Jin could see the cluster of humanoid ASIDs retreating from his position.
—Withdrawing?
Confused by the abrupt end, Jin looked up at the sky.
The battle was over.
More abrupt than when it began.
Confusion lingers, but Jin confirms his own existence.
The deformed ring, hanging from his chest, drifts within the helmet.
...Sorry, Commander. I don’t think I’ll be making it over there for a while.
He had intended to die.
That had seemed acceptable.
He believed he had nothing left to regret.
They called him father.
He would never become one.
He had thought that impossible.
It was supposed to last only two months.
Yet those two months were enough time to solidify Mio’s presence within Jin.
Enough time for Mio to reach out and stop him by the hand.
So then, he must protect her from now on.
Not because he stands in the Commander’s place.
Not because he is whole or certain.
Because she is his daughter.
Please wait a little longer.
He speaks these words into the warped ring.