Epilogue: Your Name Is

The next morning, after breakfast, we packed up the IS and their gear. That lasted until after ten. Afterwards, we all boarded the buses, split up by homeroom. Lunch would be at a rest stop on the way back.

“Hah...”

As I slumped into my seat, I was, to put it bluntly, a mess. After almost an hour being chased around the night before, I caught the mother of all scoldings from Chifuyu for sneaking out. In the end, I got barely three hours of sleep. Waking up to heavy labor after that made me feel like I was going to die.

“Sorry, but does anyone have something I can drink?” I asked in an exhausted voice.

“Swallow your own spit,” said Laura.

“I don’t even know you,” said Cecilia.

“Yeah, but I’m not sharing,” said Charl.

Rin was in another homeroom, so she wasn’t here. I turned toward Houki, my last hope.

“Wh-Why are you looking at me?!”

Blushing, she hit me with a karate chop. Ow, that actually kinda hurt.

“Hmph!”

It looked like I wasn’t getting anything to drink. Was this my fault, too? Ugh...

◆

Maybe that was a bit too harsh. Even though her words were harsh, Charlotte’s conscience began to get the better of her as she watched Ichika’s dejection.

Nothing actually happened last night. I should just let it go. She searched her things for a bottle of tea, thinking it was a good thing that she had the idea to buy it from a vending machine earlier. No one else is going for it... Here’s my chance!

◆

Perhaps that was a bit cold? As Ichika’s shoulders slumped, Cecilia felt a bit nervous. It was a rare chance to be kind to him, but she’d let her memories of last night cloud her emotions. But seeing as all of the other girls had done the same, she could still turn this around.

If that’s the case— She slipped her hand into her bag, reaching for a bottle. She had gotten it for herself, but perhaps this was a better use. Time to, ahem, make hay while the sun shines.

◆

Maybe I should have found a different way to say that... Laura, her self-doubt a product of the new step forward she’d taken on the beach the day before, pondered. She regretted so coldly fixating on what happened the previous night. Perhaps, she thought, a warm smile was the way for a good woman to clear things up.

I know. He’s thirsty. I’ll give him the tea I bought this morning. She fiddled with the bottle in her hands, wondering how to give it to him. It was rare for the other girls to hesitate like this. She shouldn’t let the chance escape her. I know. I’ll just sit down next to him and hand it over. That way, we can be together the whole trip back.

◆

Wow, I really messed up. Last night had been going wonderfully, but ended up leading nowhere. Instead, she ended up so frustrated with Ichika as he pulled her around that she’d been in a bad mood all morning.

Oh no. Am I getting in the habit of just snapping at him? That wouldn’t be good. It was bad enough two months ago, but now she had Charlotte to deal with, too. She’d forever be on the back foot against such a fierce rival if she was just written off as ‘the violent one.’ All right! Now it’s time to be kind! Gripping the bottle of tea she bought while walking to the bus, Houki stood up.

◇

“Ugh, my head...”

“Ichika!”

“Yes?” Hearing four voices at once, I turned. Just at the same time, an unfamiliar woman stepped onto the bus.

“Is Orimura Ichika here?”

“Yes. That’s me.”

Fortunately, I was sitting in the front row. As soon as I was called for, I replied.

The woman was around twenty. Definitely older than us, with vibrant blonde hair which shone like the summer sun. She was wearing a blue summer suit. Not a business cut like Chifuyu favored, but a more casual, more fashionable one. The swelling mounds unique to adult women peeked out from its neckline. Tucking her sunglasses into her cleavage, she bent at the hip to turn toward me.

“Oh, so it’s you?”

She gazed at me intently. Not as if to criticize me, but seemingly more out of raw curiosity. Her perfume, a citrus smell, was so overwhelmingly feminine that I grew nervous.

“And you are?”

“Natasha Fairs. Pilot of Silverio Gospel.”

“Eh—”

As I was frozen in the confusion of such an unexpected line, she leaned in and planted her lips on my cheek.

“Hehe. That’s thanks for what you did yesterday. My white knight.”

“Eh? Uh, ah...”

“See you later! Bye-bye!”

“Uhh...”

Natasha waved as she got off the bus, and dazed, I waved back. Well, then...

“.........”

I had a really, really bad feeling as I turned around.

“You lecher!”

“You sure are popular, Ichika.”

“Fortune just greets him everywhere he goes.”

“Hahaha...”

The four stomped toward me. It echoed like the stomping of jackboots.

“HERE, TAKE THIS!” Four plastic bottles came flying. At half a liter each, that could have been deadly.

◆

As Natasha got off the bus, she found someone else she was looking for, and walked toward her.

“Hey, cool it, there. He’s just a kid.”

It was Chifuyu. Natasha gritted her teeth in embarrassment.

“He was a lot better of a guy than I expected. I got carried away a little.”

“Ah, kids today... More importantly. Are you okay walking around like that after yesterday?”

“Yeah, I’m fine— That girl protected me.”

‘That girl’ was Silverio Gospel’s AI, which had triggered the situation by going out of control.

“So it was like that, eh?”

“Yeah. She took a fight she didn’t want to protect me. Forcing herself into second shift, cutting off the core network... She threw away her whole world.” As Natasha spoke, every trace of her cheerfulness faded, replaced by a sharp bitterness. “I’m never going to forgive them. When I find who took away her mind, who turned the other IS against her... That person is going to get what they deserve.”

Although the Gospel’s core was unharmed, because of what happened, it had been ordered frozen before dawn that morning.

“She loved flying more than anything. And then they took her wings away... I don’t care who it was. I won’t forgive them.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard. There’s still the incident postmortem. You should see where that ends up.”

“Is that a formal warning, Brynhildr?”

Brynhildr. The title reserved for the champion of the international IS tournament called Mondo Grosso. Chifuyu was the first to receive it—and she hated being called by it.

“Just some friendly advice.”

“I see. I suppose I’ll stay quiet. For a little while.”

Parting with a quick, wordless glare, they went on their ways. Until next time. The words floated between them.

End of Volume Three.