Chapter 3: Fog Blue

Chapter 3: Fog Blue

CHAPTER 3

FOG BLUE

“—Oh. There are girls here, too.”

The final checks for the Juggernaut’s new weapon, the Armée Furieuse, were happening. As Kurena was taking a break after completing one of the day’s checklists, she looked in the direction of the voices coming from behind the container.

The Merciless Queen, Zelene Birkenbaum, had finally responded to Shin, which meant he spent significantly more time questioning her. Zelene herself made it clear that she wouldn’t speak at all unless Shin was there. As a result, Shin didn’t have the privilege of taking part in the Armée Furieuse’s testing, so Raiden, Theo, Anju, and Kurena ended up covering for him.

Kurena had turned to face them, but the source of those voices—a group of Alliance soldiers, apparently—didn’t notice her and continued chatting idly. About half of them were Caerulea, with blond hair and blue eyes.

Just like Daiya. The thought crossed Kurena’s mind.

“They’re cute. But wow, they let them fight at this age?”

“I always imagined child soldiers who were forced to fight would be more…you know…like stray dogs—brats who curse everyone and everything.”

“Well, if the rumors are true, they’re monsters who fight just like those bloodless war machines.”

“But they’re cute, y’know? Almost normal.”

“…Tch. That one’s looking… She probably heard us.”

Some of them awkwardly raised their hand apologetically, while others scratched their heads uncomfortably. They then regarded her with frank smiles.

“Good luck out there!”

“Thanks!” Kurena nodded back.

Right, Shin had his hands full with other work. That was why she and the others had to work hard in his place. But still…

Her gaze fell on the Prussian-blue uniform sitting between the containers.

What are you doing, Lena…?

“Lena’s been acting kind of strange lately.”

Having spent their childhoods in the Eighty-Sixth Sector’s barracks and internment camps, where there was no real distinction between the sexes, the Eighty-Six had little understanding of the reasoning behind why pubescent boys and girls weren’t allowed to share certain spaces.

Michihi spoke, taking out the cosmetics she’d bought from the lakeside city. Shana, who had gone with her, as well as Yuuto and Rito, who had tagged along to carry their bags, nodded at her statement.

Michihi opened a few lipsticks she bought, comparing their shades, while Shana wasted no time in opening a bottle of nail polish and painting her nails. The big event was coming up, and they needed to practice.

“…Shana, you really don’t need to paint my nails, too,” Rito said.

“C’mon, you’re cute, Rito… I could just eat you up.”

“You’re scaring me, Shana…”

“I figured we’d set the two of them up so they couldn’t run off anywhere, but that won’t work when she’s that anxious. And it looks like Shin’s decided to bide his time for now, as well…”

Yuuto paused for a moment in contemplation.

“I think it’s because Lena’s the same as us,” he eventually said.

“What do you mean?” Michihi asked.

“Lena lost everything in the large-scale offensive. Her family, her home, all the people she knew in the Republic except for Annette. The Republic was her homeland.”

She didn’t have a country to call home anymore. No family to protect, nowhere to return to. Nothing to live for…save one thing.

“…Ah,” Rito whispered. “She’s just like us. All she has is her pride, so without that, she doesn’t know what to do with herself. But there’s one difference… Lena lost everything recently.”

Her wounds were fresh. They were still fresh, and the slightest touch could very well cause Lena to crumble.

“Hey, Shin… Did you notice Lena’s been acting kind of weird lately?”

“Yeah.”

Cuff links were accessories that acted as fasteners for shirtsleeves that didn’t have buttons. But they weren’t used on everyday uniforms, to say nothing of the panzer jackets commonly worn as flight suits. Shin was worried about his ability to fasten them, so he tried practicing today. As he confirmed that, true to his suspicions, he was terrible at it, Shin nodded at Theo’s questions.

“Ah, so you did… Ah, shit. I can’t get it off.”

“Maybe it’s because the Federacy’s cuff links use fasteners…?” Shin wondered aloud. “Anyway, she’s been acting kind of weird even before that, but ever since we got Zelene to respond, she’s been avoiding me outright.”

He’d noticed she left the interrogation room, and he insisted on chasing after her. He found her standing in the corridor, but she just shook her head and said it was nothing… So he simply told her he was always ready to listen if she had anything to say, and then he left.

If she wasn’t ready to talk yet, trying to force her to say what was on her mind wouldn’t do either of them any good. Shin knew this from experience. A month ago, they were effectively in the same situation, but the roles were reversed.

“I did tell her I’d hear her out when she was ready to talk,” Shin said with those thoughts in mind.

“Huh?” Theo stared at him, dumbfounded. “…Are you sure you’re Shin and not some Legion wearing his skin?”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Well… You’d never be that considerate,” Theo replied, still astonished.

“…I’ve got a few things to ask you, Theo.”

Like what his impression of him was, exactly, but Shin managed to stop himself from bringing up that question. After all, he’d been agonized and conflicted so many times before, and every time, Theo and the others always left him be.

He’d been taking advantage of that attitude of theirs for so long. But now, he was the one who could only stand on the sidelines, not knowing what to say. Now he realized how they felt… So he wasn’t one to talk.

“…Being left alone until I sorted things out on my own was easier for me. But that only made it harder for everyone else, who had to wait quietly until that happened. Didn’t it?”

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty! How about putting this on for the big night ? Sexy, ain’t it?”

Despite knocking, Shiden still opened the door without permission and barged into Lena’s room. Spread out on the bed between them were articles of lingerie Shiden bought in the lakeside town. These were, as one might call them, “lucky” panties. Cute, erotic brassieres, corsets, and a chemise and panties, all meant for setting the mood.

Shiden expected a variety of reactions. Th-this is…shameless! I can’t wear this! or maybe These are your size! Or How do you know my measurements?! Either way, she thought Lena would go red and start stuttering.

Incidentally, Shiden could estimate Lena’s three sizes just by looking at her.

But Lena was completely out of it, not even sparing a glance at the black leather garter belt Shiden was holding, nor the silver chains dangling from it.

“Your Majesty…? What’s wrong?”

“Huh?”

“I mean… Your clothes for the final day.”

“Right…”

“You’re gonna have Li’l Reaper escort ya, right? So you better doll yourself up even where the sun don’t shine, y’know? I mean…”

Shiden cracked a vulgar smirk.

“…who knows? Maybe you’ll figure out a way for him to see ’em, right? Don’t worry; I’ll take Annette out for a night at the bar so you two can have the room to yourselves. Just relax and—”

Shiden expected Lena to blush and scold her for the risqué joke, but…

“No… I think Shin might take someone else instead…” Lena hung her head like an anxious child.

“…Huh?” Shiden didn’t understand what Lena meant.

“Shin doesn’t need me… After all, I’m…”

A white pig.

Lena bit her lip, not wanting to say the words. She didn’t have to be the person at Shin’s side. In the end, she was one of the white pigs who hurt him. So one day, they might grow apart.

The spot at Shin’s side didn’t have to be hers.

Picking up on the implication, Shiden sighed.

“…Your Majesty…”

She then grabbed Lena’s slender shoulders and forcibly pushed her down against the bed.

“…?!”

As the bedsprings creaked beneath her, Lena let out a yelp that was a mixture of shock and fear. TP jumped up in surprise and hissed menacingly before taking cover under the desk.

Shiden’s expression was simply that bloodcurdling.

“Shiden…?” Lena asked anxiously.

“…cut it out.”

Shiden glared at her with sharp, cold eyes. It was as if her gaze burned with so much fury that it had gone full circle and settled in subzero temperatures. So intense was her rage.

“How long are you gonna keep drawing lines and pulling back the second something goes even a little wrong? And you call yourself our queen? Sometimes, you gotta pull back. I ain’t gonna argue with that. But you know what?”

Lena was a commander. Sometimes, she had to order her soldiers to die. That was a line she often insisted on not crossing. A line she didn’t want to cross. And yet…

“The line you drew between yourself and us doesn’t need to exist. None of us are gonna call you a white pig anymore, so don’t call yourself one and close yourself off behind walls again. How long do you plan on living in the goddamn Eighty-Sixth Sector?!”

“But I’m from the Republic… The side that hurt you. I hurt you without meaning to… Without even knowing it… And that’s something that’ll never change… It’s all I have!”

Lena’s shout echoed through the room. Her mother died, assimilated by the Legion during the large-scale offensive. Her father died during his attempt to show Lena the cruel reality of the Eighty-Sixth Sector. Karlstahl, Annette’s mother, everyone—they were all dead.

She no longer had a family to protect. No home to go back to. And she even lost the pride she gained from fighting alongside Shin. She was obsessed with the idea of him relying on her, and now she couldn’t even play the role of false saint.

So with all that gone, she had nothing left to build an identity around, with the exception of her roots as a citizen of the Republic. She might have hated those roots to her core, but they were all she had.

“The fuck is that?” Shiden mercilessly scoffed at Lena’s shout. “Who the hell told you that’s all you have? Do you really think you can lose everything that easily…? Look me in the eyes.”

Shiden stared hard at Lena, one of her eyes the color of deep indigo and the other as white as snow. That was the origin of her Personal Name, Cyclops. A heterochromia that made it seem like she was blind in one eye from a distance.

“Both of my dad’s eyes were silver. Not that I’m all that attached to my Alba blood. The heterochromia, I got from my mom. My little sister and I got both of those traits. Wanna know what happened?”