Fortune Cookie (17)

The weather that had tormented us from the moment we set off for the residential area until we finished our work suddenly calmed down the moment we safely left the residential area, as if nothing had happened.

This must be Titan's fickleness. The sky didn't suddenly turn blue or shine with dazzling light—even if it wasn't a picture-perfect day, this sort of weather was already rare here, and could be considered good.

With not a whisper of wind, it was one of those rare days when the biting cold didn't torture people.

And beneath that sky, a shuttle was flying in an unstable manner. Needless to say, it was the small shuttle, Medivac, that we were on.

The emergency medical evacuation shuttle was swaying left and right like a drunken person who consumed too much alcohol, seduced by the massiveness of the multi-legged tank.

Because of this, it was us inside who were suffering. The hull bobbed as if floating on water, making us feel constantly queasy.

"Ugh... I feel like I'm going to throw up..."

Nadia, her face pallid, covered her mouth with her hand. But with her respiratory mask in the way, she could only pretend to stifle herself.

If the wind had been any harsher, Nadia would probably have emptied her stomach entirely. That would have been a complete disaster.

Normally, the inside of the shuttle would have been artificially sealed so it was safe to take off the respirators. But now, with the multi-legged tank's anchor forcibly stabbed through the floor to secure us, that wasn't possible.

Our suits were caked in ghoul fluids, and the shuttle's interior had already been contaminated by the outside environment—none of it helped.

Sitting next to her was Carry, who had switched off flight mode the moment it realized we'd somehow made it through. White smoke puffed intermittently from its thrusters. Neither it nor the shuttle looked to be in a good state. The way they kept leaning to one side led me to wonder, "Isn't this some fault with the shuttle's structure? Didn't Kyle think to make it sturdier?"

If Kyle had heard my thoughts, he'd be foaming at the mouth.

I was lightly patting Nadia's back to comfort her while glancing at Eric, who was barely breathing as if dead. Or so I would have been doing—if Nadia hadn't suddenly seemed to remember something, scowled, and kicked me in the shin.

"Gyaa...!"

She was the one who hit me, but she was also the one in pain. Nadia jumped on one foot, tears welling at the corner of one of her eyes.

The glare she shot me was quite formidable—a foxlike shadow seemed to appear behind her. With a sharp sniff, she said to me,

"Did you come to your senses?"

"What?"

Having no idea what she meant, I asked with a blank face, and Nadia went to kick my shin again—but instead, with a tightly clenched fist, she punched me in the stomach.

"Argh...!"

She might as well have hit properly. She'd struck an armored part, so I wasn't hurt at all. Nadia, however, winced, cradling her hand, and moaned in pain. Tears gathered in her eyes, and her ears drooped down.

"Hey, did you come to your senses...?"

"..."

What the hell was this? Some new kind of bullying? Was she trying to make me reflect by acting like she was the one who got hurt?

'What "senses" are you even talking about?'

As I just moved my lips, unable to answer properly, Nadia raised her fist once more. Seeing her hesitate, remembering the pain, I hurriedly nodded.

"I did! No, I was always in my right mind!"

"Liar! Then what was all that back there...!"

"What back where?!"

"Who told you to make such a racket! It was dangerous!"

Up until now, I hadn't understood what she meant, but now it was clear: she was talking about how with the Alpha Series and the multi-legged tank, I'd rampaged through the residential area.

When I looked at her as if asking "Is that it?" all she did was grit her teeth and glare at me.

"... And you're only asking now?"

The work was all over, wasn't it a bit late to ask, I thought. Nadia shrieked in protest.

"Then when am I supposed to ask! With monsters swarming everywhere, should I have tried to catch your eye and say, 'What's going on here, I'm scared, Carry and Eric are hurt, I couldn't just stand by, so I fired a flare and waited for you to come—what on earth did you do, what's with that robot, explain it now'! Can you say that! With monsters! Coming at us like a blizzard!"

For some reason, it seemed like someone should add a "Dot dot da dot" refrain, but if I did, I'd probably die.

"... Take a breath when you talk."

"I did!"

Nadia panted as she flopped down. She quickly looked up again, her tail fur bristling—a sign of irritation.

Before answering, I crossed my arms and thought for a moment. Now that we'd really left the residential area behind, it all hit me. The prolonged exposure to the Blue Crystal's wavelength had made me less cool-headed and more aggressive than usual.

Looking back now, there were moments where I couldn't help but think, 'Why did I do that?'

"But in the end, we survived. Have a drink. Carry, right? You have a drink too."

『_】a(⩌ᴗ⩌ )】

"You've already had one, huh. That's Carry for you. Fast as ever."

"Not—I—argh...! Arrrgh...! Argggh...! Haaa..."

Nadia broke down as she watched Carry and me laughing and bumping fists.

She looked between us both as if wondering what to do with us, her fist clenching and unclenching. The heavy sighs were a bonus.

One more joke and she might really have made one of us a patient. So I hurried to speak, gently taking Nadia's hand to calm her.

"I know I went a little too far. I regret it. I guess I didn't realize because no one was pulling me back."

"... You had her with you."

"I did, but hearing someone's voice is different from having someone right next to you."

"... I guess that's true."

Holding her gaze, Nadia's intensity slowly faded. The bristling fur on her tail returned to soft curves.

"Next time, you shouldn't get separated from me. Even if we split at the tram station, we need to link back up quickly—unlike this time."

"I get it. I'll try."

"Not 'try.' You have to."

"Then I'll do it."

At my promise, Nadia's eyes softened visibly. Frustration and anger faded away, her tail curling like a hook and swaying ever so gently.

Nadia cleared her throat softly and turned her head.

"No, I take that back. Let's not insist on always linking up. We should be flexible, depending on the situation. I won't be stubborn. Just... just pay more attention to your condition. I don't want to see you get hurt, Hyun-woo."

"Okay."

It had been dangerous, but we made it through safely, and when I repeated we're three in one, nothing can scare us when we're together, Nadia hesitated, then nodded.

She murmured softly that she felt like she needed a drink, so I handed her a small water pack from the shuttle. But Nadia, claiming birds never drink water, said something inexplicable, tore the pack's corner, and sucked it down.

― What are you two doing... You must still have plenty of energy. I feel exhausted just watching."

As the escort robots dropped into the residential area and exploded in a chain, Licorice, who'd stepped out for a moment, returned. She sighed as if in disbelief.

"I swear, I feel like I'm about to lose my mind. I'm barely staying awake right now."

To be honest, I wasn't feeling great either. Nadia had every reason to be on edge. Even with an imperfect barrier, breaking through the energy field was no easy feat.

If someone else had been facing the mutant creature combined with the shield generator cube—formerly Ted—in my place, things might have ended in failure.

Thanks to its unique recoil, not only my arm but my whole body ached, from my shoulders on down. The throbbing almost made me groan.

― Take some medicine. Why are you trying to hold out like that?"

"It's not good to try and solve everything with medication."

― Stop arguing and take it."

"Natural healing—"

― Eat it."

"Yes, ma'am."

At Licorice's suddenly lowered voice, I quickly took off my respirator and gulped down a dose of intermediate medicine. As I chewed, the bitterness spread, and the throbbing faded a little.

Noticing me, Nadia's gaze turned sulky. Her look said, "You ignore me but do as Licorice says?"

Pretending not to notice as I rolled my shoulder, I glanced at Eric, who lay curled up in whatever space he could create. Sensing my gaze, he opened his eyes.

"What is it?"

"Ah, just... if it's too much, take another dose."

"Didn't you just say not to rely on medicine for everything?"

He'd been awake after all. I shrugged.

"Use it when you need it. And that's my philosophy for myself, not something I force on others. Refusing just for the sake of refusing is stupid."

When I said, "I know that much,"

Eric gave a wry smile. With his helmet broken, he wore only a basic respirator. He lifted it briefly and took the medicine. He looked much more at ease.

Looking displeased, Roxy leaned back from where he'd been gripping the controls and called to me.

"Hey, friend. I didn't get a chance to ask earlier: you did grab the cube, right? Please tell me you have it. If not, Kyle will kill me."

"Yeah, of course I brought it. Your life is safe."

While showing him, I also checked what Carry was carrying in its transport box. When Carry opened it, it was packed with all sorts of precision measuring tools, most of what Carrot had requested.

"Just my 'life'...?"

Raising an eyebrow as if to ask if that was all, Roxy clicked his tongue. Even he seemed out of retorts.

"But what can you do? It got beat up pretty badly, but this is how you have to use it. And since I got down here quickly, it all worked out, right? Have a drink."

Apparently, his life didn't mean much to him.

Roxy continued,

"Anyway, I think we need to make a quick landing. The thrusters can't handle the weight much longer. If we keep flying like this, we might just crash."

"Is it that bad?"

"It is. I'd rather go straight through in one shot, but we can't get up to speed, and the output keeps dropping. Maintaining altitude is tough. Unless we dump the multi-legged tank."

― No way. We went through so much to get it—now you want to leave it behind?

From here to the 1st generation Colony Town, we only needed to go as far as we'd already come. So, about halfway left.

"Can't we just set down the multi-legged tank for a bit and come back for it later?"

The rejection came not from Licorice, but Roxy.

"No, can't do. The shuttle will take a while to fix. If we try to recover the tank later, the anchor will punch through the bottom again. If I deliver the shuttle in this state, my brother will actually kill me."

"... So you just want as little blame as possible, patch things up, and move on?"

"Exactly! You get it. I'll bang out the dented armor, pick out the spikes stuck in 'Kkungkkung-I', realign the security robots for better balance—then it'll look better, and even Kyle will have to admit I tried."

"..."

Crazy Roxy.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=Having a drink after a hard day's work would be good.『_】a(⩌ᴗ⩌ )】

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