—- Arakawa Kouki Point of View —-
“Oi, Arakawa”
After I talked with Shingo, he leave to see Aikawa-san. I was leisurely walking around the base with no clear purpose when I was suddenly called. I saw a woman with a displeased look on her face when I turn to the direction of the voice. The place around the woman have flowers planted on large vases and are neatly lined up in a small s.p.a.ce. She might be Noah’s PX sale clerk who sell flowers. However, everyone calls me by my name and I cannot remember anyone who calls me “Arakawa”.
“Eto~ May I know who you are?”
“Hm, it’s me. Yurya”
Yurya? She is not that Captain right? No matter how you look at it, her body should be different… To be specific, half of her face should be mechanized and every time she move there should be a slight machine noise that you can hear. However, the grumpy appearance of this person is certainly similar to that Captain.
“Are you Captain?”
“Isn’t that what I told you? Anyway, I am going out so come with me for a bit. I want to talk to you about our plans for the future”
After saying that, Captain began to clean up her store. Her store is not that big so she was able to finish cleaning up in no time. After closing the shutter, she put on a Russian scarf called platkiru(プラトーク) around her head and turn to me. (TN: I’m not sure if it really is platkiru. プラトーク is p.r.o.nounced as puratoku. I tried searching google but this is the closest I can find. Let me know if it’s actually different.)
“Why do you looks so surprised?”
“Ah, no… Why are you working as a florist now?”
“Its because you told me to live my life as I want”
Speaking of which, I did remember saying something like that. If I remember correctly, I did not hand over Captain and everyone of Chern.o.bog to the Maritime Self Defense Force and told them “From now on, you can live your life as you want”. Actually, what I meant was that they don’t need to be part of Noah and they can go wherever they want. It looks like these people has high probability of being lost in their path of life due to misunderstanding.
“That’s why I am now living my life freely. No, ‘All of us’ are now living our life freely. Actually, my dream when I was still a child is to be a florist”
“Is that so? Now that you are one, how do you feel about it?”
“It’s actually good. At the very least, it is hundred times better than doing a job for those pig b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Now then, we cannot stay here forever so how about we go to our destination”
I chase after the Captain who started to walk without waiting for my reply. I was walking slightly behind the captain and we are walking in a quick pace, soon we arrived to a newly built residential building. Inside, I saw the person who is in charge of weapon maintenance when we escape Russia. He was the person who played with me by throwing a knife into the apple which is placed on my head.
“This is a dedicated residence for us. We can talk freely since we have our own Anti-Intelligence Equipment here”
“That’s good to hear. However, I don’t have anymore secrets to tell?”
“Is that so? There are still opportunities where you would want to say something──── We are here”
The Captain and I stopped in what seems to be a private room. She prompt me to enter and I was surprised by the things that I see. The image of the room is somewhat similar to a prison cell.
“Most people are surprised when they see my room but even I have my own preference. I like to live in a room that looks like a prison. Sit down and wait, I will prepare some tea”
Could it be, this home is unexpectedly homelike? I think the sofa that I am sitting right now is not cheap. How can I explain this, the room give off a vibe of a nice and small hotel room. I wait for the captain while vaguely thinking of rude things. A tea which has a very nice fragrant was placed in front of me.
“Drink. Yoshi, I think you want to know and it can’t be help if you are really curious about it. You want to know about my new body, don’t you?”
“Yes”
“My body for a long time is half-machine and not a complete one. This body was originally a test model for robotics. So, I had my brain transplanted into it”
Brain Transplant? You are joking right? Since such technology should still be at theoretical stage. If I remember correctly, Alice also said something similar before and she said that it will be a while…… around 50 years worth of experiments before it can become possible.
“Captain, it shouldn’t be possible even with Noah’s current state of technology”
“Ah, that’s why I became the test subject. The success rate was 0.006%, the outcome was a success. The Medical Department was really happy, because of me their research progress advanced by 30 years”
“What the h.e.l.l are you thinking… The probability of that success was almost none”
“Fun(Nod), I’ll tell you the reason why I did it. This is something very important. Miki invited us to be part of ‘TMN’, Noah’s PMC” (TN: If you forgot, PMC is ‘Private Military Company’ and TMN is ‘Team Muscle of Noah’)
“That sounds good! It is an elite unit. You will receive better treatment compared when you were still in the military”
Macho’s unit does not receive any order that asks them to die. Besides, TMN is originally a special unit of UN so it should be easy for the Captain to keep up. The important thing about this conversation is probably, introducing them to Claire-san and the others. Of course, I will do anything I can to help. I think we should eat dinner together so that they can break the ice.
“What are you saying? It’s obvious that I will refuse. We, the Chern.o.bog, is under your command”
“…………huh?” (TN: Raw is ‘Hai’ which means ‘Yes’ but it can also be used like this)
“We have recovered everyone in the unit who was left in Russia during the negotiation. This means, Chern.o.bog with the official name ‘Prototype Enhanced Soldier Unit, Serp’ is now yours to command”
“Wait, that means…”
“Miki will officially notify UN tomorrow on Earth. Rejoice, even Miki is unable to freely command the soldiers of Noah due to Parliamentary System with the Military Department but you can order us anytime you like. We are the strongest private military that you can have”
“…………”
“Of course, we will also partic.i.p.ate in Antarctic Invasion Operation under your command. About that Shikan-dono, I know that states and armies are not allowed to have any nuclear weapons due to the treaty. That’s the point however, this means that we can use a tactical nuclear weapon as long as it doesn’t belong to neither of us───” (TN: Shikan = Commander, -dono = formal honorific similar to -sama)
Captain is somehow enthusiastic in saying something dangerous but I did not listen to it. In addition to Nuclear Weapon which is banned by treaty, I can also hear her saying something about Chemical Weapons. More importantly, I don’t need Chern.o.bog. Is it because I have a premonition that something bad will happen? Or rather, is this really what she meant by something important────
Author Notes: Only about Activity Log and some corrections on the chapter.