10 Parent-Child Quarrel 3
Then Jin's rigidity broke.
He understood that his current turmoil had forced his daughter into the worst possible decision.
"That's impossible! You're my daughter! No one else could replace you! So come back!"
"I can't. I have to restore things to their proper form. It's surely for the best. Everyone will be happier this way."
"What are you...?"
"His plan... yes. It should work theoretically. Sending consciousness back in time. That's something only I can achieve. If that's possible, then past events can be undone. I want to be happy!"
As she finished speaking, Mio threw something toward Jin.
He caught it instinctively—her house key.
The penguin keychain they had chosen together trembled sadly.
The clearest possible sign of final separation.
This time, Jin's thoughts froze.
Like threading through a gap, Mio layers her words.
See you, Jin... thank you for everything. I really, truly love you.
Faster than Jin could leap across a mere distance.
"Initiate"
The whisper prompts Mio's awakening.
Vanishing like a cocoon dissolving.
The iron-like surface vanished, revealing a slender humanoid form within.
This one here...
Smooth white armor.
The form is feminine.
At first glance, there is nothing in common.
Why, despite that, is it so?
Jin bore a resemblance to the Black Knight in some way.
The chest opens like a cockpit, poised to receive something.
There, Mio's body settled into place.
Chest sealed shut, red light igniting in its eyes.
Understood without needing to ask anyone.
This is Mio's original body.
The innate form born of ASID.
Despite having no thrusters, her toes lift from the ground.
Some method unknown, she slices through the warehouse ceiling in an instant and ascends into the sky.
"Wait...!"
Jin follows behind.
He returns to the cockpit, launching through the hole Mio has made as the hatch seals shut.
She hovers midair, suspended as if standing on nothing.
"You understand, Mio. If your prediction is correct, saving the order means—"
that Mio will never be born.
At least one thing is certain: she will not exist in Jin's timeline.
"I know. If we do this, Chi's and Jin's wishes will be fulfilled. With future information, we could save even more lives!"
Words cannot stop Mio.
If given time, perhaps she could be persuaded to reconsider— that is what he hopes.
For now, he must not allow that time to exist.
"I won't let you go, Mio."
She is an ASID in human form.
Output is 2,000 Lammy. Queen-class.
No—rather.
Considering what has been seen among super-large variants, Mio is truly—
“If you’re going to interfere… even Jin will push through!”
A white silhouette dances, wrapped in etheric radiance.
Its elegance. One might call it princess-type.
Even if Mio herself lacks combat experience, her fighting capability is not to be underestimated.
Jin’s unit is pushing hard against the Second Fleet’s defensive net—exerting extreme strain.
It cannot withstand prolonged combat.
A short-term engagement—this is Jin’s only chance.
—The outcome was decided in an instant.
A single flash as they passed.
No weapon drawn.
Just a bare knife-hand.
Yet it severed Raven’s armor with ease, cutting through the thigh as if nothing.
“—!”
Reaction was impossible.
As always, one second ahead was visible.
The trajectory was known.
Yet reaction was impossible.
That Mio would never turn her fist toward Jin.
Still, he thought this even now.
The softness was pierced without mercy.
Using the remaining thrusters, Jin rotated the机体.
Exposing the vulnerable back in the crossing.
A rifle was aimed at it.
No hesitation.
Cut through the limbs—calculated with chilling precision.
Jin’s movement was uninterrupted.
Yet Mio was still faster.
A roundhouse kick delivered mid-turn.
The rifle barrel shattered under her toe, reduced to scrap in an instant.
The sequence of movements was identical to those taught in middle school—self-defense against groping.
A stark reminder: she was his daughter.
The ether dagger was drawn with the left hand.
At the moment he tried to aim it, Jin finally froze.
The left hand—always the one that held Mio.
Now using that left hand to stab his daughter.
His body locked up at the sheer impossibility of it.
Mio’s—princess-type eye camera seemed to waver.
The image vanished almost immediately.
Raven’s main camera, the head seized by a princess-type palm.
“Gh—!”
Head-mounted vulcans fired wildly.
But could not even scratch the opponent’s armor, the recoil from ricochets injuring himself instead.
Reactor output disparity.
The superior output, harnessed as brute force, crushed him in a single breath.
Jin was instantly rendered powerless—stunned.
This was the first time he had fallen behind in a one-on-one confrontation.
The fact that his opponent was his daughter shattered him beyond imagination.
“Not yet!”
Switched to sub-camera.
Reactor limiter released.
Exploit the remaining two Reactors here.
Jin seizes position behind Mio through maneuverability surpassing inertia control.
The blade of the Etherdagger, now gripped in his right hand.
He attempts to drive it into his left arm—
A silver gleam deflects the Ether blade.
“—!?!”
What appears is a ribbon-like object.
It multiplies, one, then two.
“Hair…?”
A part extending from behind her head.
The feature Jin recognized most strongly as distinctly feminine.
It extends and retracts freely, wrapping around Raven’s arm.
Strength too great to be severed even by the Etherdagger.
Could it be pierced if compressed further?
Narrowing the blade into a tight bundle, he closes the distance. Instantly, the frame tilts.
The shoulder armor, left behind, falls away—its surface impossibly smooth, as if cut by a blade.
The cutting force.
The hair, stretched in an instant, severed the space it had rushed through.
He had seen such sharpness only once before—since the time he’d beheld the Black Knight’s Long Sword.
“Mio…!”
Jin flinches, utterly humiliated by the genuine resistance his daughter has shown.
If this were an enemy, there would be no fear.
He could simply fire. Fire before being struck.
But how does one act when the target is family?
Scold himself: do not hesitate.
The speed is unavoidable.
In truth, Jin dodges each passing band by twisting his frame in succession.
Then, finally, she closes in.
The descending right arm.
In the next moment, it is cleaved through, severed into pieces.
“…What?”
Jin stares, stunned, as the arm falls apart in fragments.
He did not see it.
He did not perceive what had happened.
He could not see at all.
No—doubt the image in his vision.
A faint unease.
He realized its true nature shortly after.
“Threads…?”
The strands stretched so fine they defied description—hair extending from the Princess-type frame.
Jin recognized his own failure.
The hair-like appendages were ribbon-shaped.
That should have raised suspicion.
Hair, by nature, exists as individual strands.
Hair growing from the nape.
Each strand extends independently. The ribbon form was for defense.
The true attack—countless blades, nearly invisible, vibrating and extending at high speed.
Thousands. Tens of thousands. Cutting into Jin’s Raven.
He extended his left hand.
Believing that if he could grasp it, something might change.
As the left hand had always been special to Jin.
Likely the same for Mio.
The machine clearly recoiled, avoiding contact with that hand.
And then—
In an instant, it circled behind him.
The subcamera, with its limited field of view, registered only the absence.
Jin groaned under the force of impact.
He noticed the component streaming past the edge of his vision—the reactor reload unit torn from his back.
No spare reactor remained.
At an inopportune moment, the reactor reached its limit and ceased operation.
"Not yet!"
Still, Jin struggled.
He channeled the remaining ether into propulsion.
"Why?!"
Mio's voice carried irritation.
Jin's futile struggle—almost laughable—was evident.
"Return, Mio!"
The机体 had never been fully functional to begin with.
The reactor, unadjusted by Sharon, finally succumbed to the unlocked output limit.
Propulsion ceased. Yet the acceleration already achieved did not stop.
He extended his left hand, attempting to hold Mio back.
It was shattered.
A pair of luminous feathers emerged from his back.
The princess-type kick, accelerating to maximum velocity, shattered Raven’s left hand.
Still, Jin’s Raven was slammed into the ground by the impacting leg.
With limbs nearly severed, no soft landing could be expected.
A single moment of thruster ignition with the remaining foot just before impact—insufficient deceleration. The body struck the ground and fell silent.