In the courtyard, a b.u.t.terfly of a rare color danced and a small bird chirped. A flower resembling a hibiscus was in full bloom.
If the engine of the helicopter stopped, the only loud noise you would hear was the water fountain: it was a peaceful, serene place.
Five of the Argentavis of the Flying Light Armor Unit were resting their wings, but the only giant birds there were used in practice for military use, so it’s not like they ran over a flowerbed or anything.
All around, there were also birds sleeping quietly. Amongst the flowers, the Black Hawk and Argentavis stood still there together; it was a scene you felt like smiling at somewhere inside.
“Heh, looking at it like this, it looks kinda cute.”
Ichinose went to scout around the perimeter of the helicopter when he casually got close to a giant bird. He pulled out his smart phone from his pocket. He started up the camera and tried to take a picture of the giant living creature. But…
“What have you done to my partner?”
At the sudden voice, he jumped up a bit in surprise.
“Oh ah ah ah, so-sorry, I just wanted to take a picture.”
Ichinose faltered at the threatening att.i.tude of the person who appeared in front of his eyes. She had red hair that was the color of a burning fire and her blue pupils that were the color of the ocean that she used to keep an eye on Ichinose.
Due to her intensity and her strong-willed face, Ichinose thought for a moment that she might be a boy, but by her voice he realized that she was a girl. By her small chest, Ichinose could guess that she was in her teens. She’s a pretty boyish girl, Ichinose whispered in his heart.
On the girl’s waist was a sword. Now it looked like she was about to draw it out. It was different from just being dressed in a costume; she gave off an intimidating air of knowing what she was doing with the blade, it’s the “real deal”.
“Picture? What is that? Wait, are you trying to cast some strange curse?!”
He was becoming an increasingly suspicious guy, and she kept an eye on him with her hand at her waist. And——
“Kyuua!”
“Wha!?”
The bush hat covering Ichinose’s head was taken from him. He confusedly turned his head to see that the sleeping giant bird now have his bush hat in its beak. Ichinose got desperate and went to take back his bush hat. But, getting up, the bird’s head is so high that a human can’t reach it.
“Tail!? It’s not good to take that guy’s stuff!”
“He—! If I lose official goods I’ll have to write an apology so please cut me some slack, seriously!”
“Kyuua!”
When he asked to be cut of some slack and made some motions, the giant bird returned his bush hat to him.
“Wa-was that some sort of a prank…”
Ichinose wondered if the giant bird was smarter that he thought. But, he was dejected at the bush hat he picked up being full of drool.
“To suffer like this…”
In the direction he was drawn to, the young girl laughed.
“Ahahaha!”
“W-what?”
Ichinose tried to shake off the drool from his punishment.
“Oh, no, it’s just that you’re a rare person for my hard-to-please partner to take a liking to you.”
The red-haired girl said marveling in a fun way.
“This is him taking a liking to me?”
“Yeah, very much so.”
The girl patted the head of the giant bird that was getting closer to him. Ichinose felt that there was a special bond between them. This was a parallel world. Despite this, he thought that this was a place full with compa.s.sionate people. He saw this scene, when suddenly the girl raised her head.
“Over there is a pretty gushing water way where the water is drawn off. You can wash it off there.”
“Eh? Uh, thank you.”
“But you shouldn’t go loitering around by yourself, so I’ll guide you. Follow me.”
The earlier threatening att.i.tude seemed to have been dropped somewhere and she would guide Ichinose to clean his dirty hat.
“What are you doing, Ichinose; it’s bad to cause trouble for other people.”
A tone like that of one scolding a child came over the radio.
“Sorry…”
He gave a report to squad leader Sergeant Yaegashi and saw him wave his hand on the other side. It seemed as though he saw the whole thing. He warned Ichinose to hurry and return, and Ichinose separated from the party. The story wasn’t so simple, so he was given permission to go.
“I never gave you my name. I am Rarona, Practice Officer of the Flying Light Armor Unit. Welcome to the Mariisua Southern Sea United Kingdom.”
The girl, walking ahead, said this without looking back. Ichinose also didn’t say anything then, but he opened his mouth.
“I-I am Ichinose. N-nice to meet you.”
In this place, it didn’t naturally come to him to give his name as a soldier. After he finished the Self-Defense cla.s.ses and took a break, whether it be meeting his peers at a higher education or in cla.s.s, no one had much interest in him saying his name.
This conversation could get him out of this rut, so to speak. So, after Ichinose told her his name, he acted tactfully. When the young girl told her name to the soldier, he initially acted without much thought. Rarona turned around, made a curious face, and peered into Ichinose. She did this without the desperate worry Ichinose has.
“So what’s your occupation?”
Again she asked, so Ichinose was surely going to give his name appropriately.
“Hm? Oh, I am a private of the Ground Self-Defense Force. This means I’m in the infantry, as a sniper.”
Rarona made a dubious face at these words that she was not used to.
“A private of the Ground Self-Defense Force?”
“A private, it means that I’m the second cla.s.s of non-commissioned military rank. I’m an underling essentially.”
Upon hearing this, Rarona was amazed.
“What?”
She innocently laughed.
“So the same as me.”
“Is that so?”
“Yup. By the way, what is an ‘infantry’? A special branch of the military?”
“It’s just an ordinary foot soldier.”
Rarona stared blankly and tilted her head.
“If you’re foot soldiers, why not just call yourselves foot soldiers?”
She asked in all seriousness. The response was a perplexing answer.
“Th-that’s because of, well, the situation of the Self-Defense Force…”
In the olden days of j.a.pan, the Self Defense Force didn’t use names with such a.s.sociations. Foot soldiers are infantry, the artillery are support soldiers, the military engineers are engineers, and so on; the names changed to support less of an image of warriors and the military.
(TL note: This doesn’t carry over easily into English. These are just different j.a.panese names but the English names of the j.a.panese positions aren’t so varied)
It is extremely difficult to explain to someone who knows nothing of the Self-Defense Force like Rarona. Ichinose was worried about how he could explain this to her. And then——
“Ah, it’s like that!”
Rarona clapped her hands together.
“In our nation, the name of the forces are named in a.s.sociation to courageous heroes and sacred beasts and can be named different things. This ‘infantry’ is some sort of special person or thing, right? Sorry, please don’t think badly of me for interrupting.”
Rarona seemed to be looking a tad too deep into it, and didn’t seem earnest in her apology. It wasn’t anything special, you could enter into it young and early, and so it was the infantry.
(TL note: this doesn’t carry over well. It uses the word infantry in j.a.panese, 普通科 and uses the word making it up, which means normal, 普通 It doesn’t make sense in English, but the line literally reads, “It’s normal, so it’s called the infantry.”)
But Ichinose figured that feebly trying to correct her would be uncouth, and so He decided to say nothing further on the subject. And then…
“She’s pretty straightforward amongst all of the confusion. That’s a first…” For better or for worse, Rarona was definitely genuine, he thought.
it’s here.”
Rarona called his attention. While, they were chatting, they made it to the waterway behind some shrubbery. While Ichinose continued the conversation, you could hear the splash of water as he cleaned off his hat.
While they continued talking, Rarona suddenly raised her voice in disarray.
“A parallel world? You guys came from a parallel world?!”
“Yeah, it seems that way. Now, Platoon Leader Kuze and company went to speak with your queen, but I wonder what will come of it?”
“A parallel world…if not, that ship made of iron shouldn’t exist, eh…”
Rarona had heard that the iron ship can’t be from this world, but she couldn’t believe that as she was sure she had seen it, but maybe this explanation could satisfy her. She saw the fleet of ships with her own eyes and felt the strange, overwhelming presence there directly.
“It’s fine like that. This country is hot, so it’ll dry off soon.”
Ichinose wrapped his still wet bush hat.
“That’s terrible. You’ve come to such a remote country…”
“No, if something’s terrible, it would be for you, no?”
“What is?”
Rarona looked puzzled.
“I mean, isn’t it unbelievable that even kids like you are in the military?”
“Why is it so unbelievable to join the fight to protect your country?”
“No, it’s just, normally, people your age would be going to school and what-not.”
“School and the like is just for n.o.bles and the rich, though?”
Ichinose was surprised. In this world, young soldiers like her would appear to be natural…
“In addition, I’ve got comrades in the military, and my partner. We get 3 meals a day. In addition, we get the honor of protecting our nation. To your average mountain person like me, it’s a place that offers more than what we could ask for.”
Rarona said this as if she were having fun. Ichinose felt as though he’d just seen something he couldn’t believe.
“We-well, is that so? Well, if you yourself say its fine then its fine, I guess?”
Not satisfied, Ichinose moved to go back to the helicopter.
“That aside, being able to ride giant birds and fly through the sky is incredible.”
While Ichinose saw the Argentavis resting their wings, she said this. Incredible, she said and she was happy as her boyish face made a laugh that was excessively like that of a young boy.
“Hehe, right? I don’t ride any other than the one I’ve already chosen.”
“Hm, so, is that one flying over there your comrade as well?”
Ichinose suddenly asked about something he saw flying on the other side of the ocean.
“Eh?”
Rarona stared in the direction he pointed in. She had no idea what it was. At this time, there shouldn’t be any Argentavis on the other side of the ocean on business. There also shouldn’t be any colleagues doing recon right now. Because, on the other side of the ocean is…
“Tha…t….can’t…be…”
Rarona was frozen in fear and her throat became dry.
“What’s wrong? Are they people you don’t know?”
He thought that these must not be normal circ.u.mstances for her. Ichinose carries his essential sharp-shooter items inside his duffel bag on his waist, so he took out his observational binoculars. He looked through the lenses.
“Eh?”
He noticed a terrifying number of things flying on the other side of the ocean. It wasn’t ten, nor was in twenty. It was more. And, they were…
Rarona, who was raised in the mountains where the people have much better eyesight than the average person, was able to verify it faster than the binocular-using Ichinose. She noticed the living things.
“It’s the Empire’s forces!”
She said this as if to wring out the terror that strung on her face.
This is the end of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 is on next page—-