23 Chi’s Advice

“Hey, Mio-chan.”

“……Chi-obaasan.”

“Ugh… please stop calling me obaasan…”

Mio showed no surprise.

Perhaps because she had already heard from Jake that Chi was in the Third Fleet.

Chi seemed slightly deflated at Mio’s flat response.

Age twenty-five. Just past the midpoint of her twenties, beginning to notice the passage of time.

Yet her appearance had changed little. She might still pass for a teenager if she tried hard enough.

“Is there something you need?”

“Hmm… no, I just thought I’d come see you since I’m here in the Third Fleet.”

“I see. Then, thank you for your efforts.”

No—flat might not be the right word. Perhaps it was better to say Mio simply lacked interest in Chi.

Or perhaps it was something closer to xenophobia, a sense that Chi’s face, so similar to her own, felt more like blood kin than her actual parents.

Mio and Chi share no blood relation.

Jin had declared it unequivocally.

Then Mio thought—

Where are my blood relatives—my parents—then?

She did not wish to claim kinship. She was not dissatisfied with Jin.

She simply wished to know.

Yet the fleet’s database returned no match.

Not just the Third Fleet.

She had used connections to access other fleets’ databases. Still, nothing.

Even Chi, standing before her now, had been one of those connections. Chi, too, had wondered about the resemblance to Mio—her sister’s likeness.

No connection.

The human known as Minato Mio had appeared as if from nowhere.

Logically, her parents must have been unregistered in the database. Or perhaps even her parents’ parents.

She wanted to meet them.

Mio thought this.

She wanted to know where her own existence had originated.

That desire had grown especially strong lately.

— She wanted to prove, beyond doubt, that she was human.

That urgent longing existed.

“Ah, wait, wait. It’s been a while since we last met… I was thinking, maybe we could grab dinner tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yeah. I heard there’s a good restaurant on Ship 3. But I’d feel a bit awkward going alone.”

“Um… sorry, but I’ve already made plans with a friend tomorrow…”

She was supposed to go shopping with Emissa and Ya.

Canceling at the last minute would be too rude.

“Ah, by the way, where exactly are you going?”

Mio answered honestly, though a flicker of caution remained.

“Ship 1’s city district.”

“…I see.”

Chi made a face, subtly troubled.

“Mio-chan, you might know this already… The Third Fleet’s defensive capacity has dropped. There’s a possibility of emergency. Please make sure you know the shelter locations and keep yourself ready to evacuate at once.”

“Uh, got it.”

“Yeah. Please. If anything happens, get to the shelter immediately.”

Mio nodded, though she wondered why Chi insisted so heavily.

Then, she thought of something she wanted to ask Chi when they met.

“Um, Aunt Chi…”

“Hmm, you can just call me Chi now… What is it, Mio-chan?”

“How’s the search for my father’s… um, the Third Fleet’s fleet going?”

Mio received little information.

She could guess it was restricted.

If even May—her instructor and family—received no reliable updates, then it was certain.

Then, beyond that.

The expectation that Chi, being a soldier of the Second Fleet, might know something.

"Tell me if you know anything."

Bowing her head.

That was why Mio couldn’t see it.

Chi’s expression, distorted with unbearable pain.

"Look up, Mio-chan."

After a pause, Chi said it, as if forcing the words out.

"I’m sorry—I can’t say for certain whether I know or don’t know. I don’t have the authority to pass on this information."

"Is that so…?"

Mio’s shoulders drooped, as she had feared.

"Um, would you like to come in for tea…?"

"Thank you. But I’ve already slipped away from duty—I should head back soon. Oh, there’s a call. Urgent."

Muttering mockingly, Chi pulled a phone from her pocket.

A type rarely seen in the Third Fleet.

The display seemed unlit. Mio wondered if the call was even real.

"Hello? Yes, yes. I'll be back right away. Yes. The matter of the fleet search, correct? Yes. As I said, the number of wreckage fragments found doesn’t add up to a full fleet. There’s no doubt survivors remain. Then I’ll—"

A one-sided conversation.

Mio froze for a moment, stunned by the pace—so unlike the rhythm of a real exchange. Then she realized.

That was the pretense. Chi had been informing Jin about the search status.

In other words, the Second Fleet had found the traces.

And from those, survival was possible.

If so, Mio thought.

If her father is the one who defies convention, he’s certainly still alive!

"Thank you, Aunt Chi!"

"What was that about, Mio-chan? I didn’t say anything."

"Right."

That was the formality. No thanks were appropriate.

Still, having gained a faint lead, Mio felt her mood lift for the first time in a while.

Declining the second invitation to tea, Chi returned along the path home.

It was not entirely untrue that he had slipped away during military duties.

And the call demanding his presence was expected.

"Hello?"

"Your actions were reckless, Lieutenant Kusunoki."

Chi narrowed his brows at the direct reprimand from his superior.

"...You were watching, then, Major?"

"To keep an eye on the fool who abandoned his post without permission."

"I apologize for that. I did not wish to involve an acquaintance in tomorrow's operation."

"You also spoke about the fleet's whereabouts?"

"I felt distressed. I wanted to ease their mind, even slightly."

Upon uttering this honest sentiment, the voice on the line exhaled deeply.

"The operation is at its final phase. Regardless of who is drawn in or who worries, all will be resolved."

"I understand that."

"Then do not be distracted by trivialities. Focus solely on completing the plan."

Understood.

The conversation ended abruptly after the brief exchange.

Chi exhaled deeply, releasing the breath she had been holding inward.

"Still, it's questionable whether one should cut oneself so cleanly."

Once the plan is completed.

Indeed, Chi's current concern will all be in vain.

But is it wrong, then, to care for even a fleeting moment?

Even if it ultimately proves futile,

if it has effect along the way, isn't that enough?

Well, the warning has been given.

Now, as Major said, it's only a matter of moving forward toward the plan's completion.

The ideal, long deferred for eight years, is nearly within reach.

"Almost there. Sister..."

Just thinking of that day brings a faint smile to her lips.

She has spent nearly a decade performing shadowy tasks, all for this.

Chi's original mission was surveillance.

To witness, unobtrusively, the safe delivery of a single container to Third Fleet Ship One.

The contents of that container are what are needed to initiate the final phase of the operation.

"Captured unit… I didn’t expect they’d actually use it aboard the ship."

Chi knows the contents intimately.

After all, she was the one who captured it.

Yet she never imagined using it in such a place.

An ASID, captured. Its processor removed, replaced with a human-made one.

In other words, a complete brain replacement.

If performed on a living creature, even livestock, it would raise ethical concerns.

But the subject is an ASID.

For an ASID, all ethics, all law, become irrelevant.

It is a beast. A creature that only seeks to consume us, to reproduce—nothing more.

Chi has been told this operation is designed to uncover the individual referred to as the successor.

That is the final missing piece of the Laitera Project.

The intention seems to be to conduct tests on the captured unit while at it.

The container is being moved into the warehouse.

Tomorrow, this will be activated.

Sudden awareness: Chi notices their hands trembling.

They have already endured enough darkness.

But—this is the first time they have caused harm to civilians.

A question forms: Are they afraid?

That is impossible.

They made a vow.

To see their sister again, no matter what.

“That’s right. The nerves of battle.”

Chi murmurs this, ignoring the tremor in their own body.