Chapter 3: New Work
1
Several days had passed since the mock battle where I had earned 1.2 million yen in a single day.
“Ah. Wait a moment today.”
“Huh?”
Just as I was about to start training in the simulator as usual, Mogami-san stopped me.
To put it simply, this was an extremely rare occurrence.
After all, the machine I’m piloting is one that Mogami-san built despite opposition from his wife and daughter.
It seems that the machine was no longer treated like garbage because I was able to pilot it, but his standing within the family was already low from the moment he made such a gamble. Therefore, Mogami-san is now devoting his heart and soul to obtaining data from this machine.
To be precise, he’s devoting his heart and soul to the work of determining how much of the data obtained from this machine can be reflected in the machines built from the next iteration onward.
And this machine cannot be operated by anyone other than me. Even in a simulator.
Therefore, Mogami-san’s objectives cannot be fulfilled unless I start up the simulator.
“…Has something more important than collecting data occurred?”
That would be the natural conclusion.
And Mogami-san’s answer to my question was affirmative.
“Ah, that’s right. It’s a request from above. They want you to experiment with this.”
What he showed me was special equipment used by soldiers who operate conventional weapons.
It was a proposal document for a powered suit—an enhanced exoskeleton created by adding artificial muscles made from monster materials to an artificial skeleton also made from monster materials.
“…Are you serious?”
“At least, they seem to be.”
“Haah.”
“By the way, this is a new model that we at Mogami Heavy Industries are manufacturing. Due to that connection, they apparently want to ask you to do it.”
“Haah.”
(Did you think I’d say something like “Well, that makes sense!”?)
As mentioned earlier, powered suits are built for soldiers who operate conventional weapons.
As a fundamental premise, medium-sized and larger monsters possess barriers called magic barriers, so conventional weapons cannot deal proper damage to them. Therefore, mech pilots and gunners are supposed to handle those.
Conversely, monsters classified as small don’t have such barriers—or if they do, they’re quite weak—so these are often dealt with by conventional weapons, namely bombardment by tanks and such.
If tanks can defeat them, what’s the point of powered suits?
You might think that, and in a way, you’d be correct.
Because the role of soldiers equipped with powered suits is to serve as escort infantry protecting tanks from approaching monsters.
Originally, tanks are a military branch with thick armor but poor visibility, making them susceptible to surprise attacks.
This weakness becomes more fatal as heavy weapons develop. For example, if an anti-tank gun is fired from the side, it could destroy the tracks or turret in a single hit. In other words, depending on the fighting method, they could lose to a single infantryman.
To prevent this and allow tanks to perform as tanks, escort infantry exists, whose duty is to deploy around tanks and prevent surprise attacks on them.
However, in this world, the role of escort infantry is not to watch for infantry carrying anti-tank guns.
They exist primarily to watch for surprise attacks by small monsters and their approach to tanks.
But even though there’s already a significant difference in physical capabilities between humans and wild animals, the fantastical enemies—monsters—are beings whose ferocity and various abilities are enhanced by magic power.
Moreover, while they’re classified as small, the large ones boast sizes close to three meters—former wild animals. Naturally, humans, who would be considered giants if they exceeded two meters, are not beings who can engage in proper contests of strength with them.
In fact, until not too long ago, the casualty rate of escort infantry, who were only equipped with things made for anti-human use like bulletproof vests and stab-resistant vests, was terrifyingly high.
In such circumstances, powered suits for anti-monster use were developed because infantry casualties were far too great.
These suits, which utilized all the technology used in the machines without reserve, not only enhanced mobility and defensive power but also offensive power, apparently succeeding in greatly increasing the survival rate of escort infantry and the number of small monster subjugations.
Also, the fact that monster materials, which had previously only been used in machines that only selected individuals could handle, were prepared for infantry of all things, meant that the field marshal of that time gained tremendous support from the military—or so the story goes.
Setting aside those circumstances.
Looking at this alone, it seems like equipment that mech pilots wouldn’t find strange to equip, but in reality, mech pilots don’t equip these powered suits.
The reason is simple. Because the cockpit breaks if you board while wearing a powered suit.
You see, the cockpit portion of the machine is composed of machinery and something flesh-like, and pilots connect to and operate the machine by inserting their limbs—precisely, up to their chest—into it… but actually, pilots move quite a bit during this process.
To give an analogy, it’s like how your body also moves to the right when you’re trying to make your vehicle turn right in a racing game—that feeling should be easy to understand.
Of course, the cockpit is built with some play allowed for slight movements during the design stage, but when the power of a powered suit is added here, even fine movements generate force that the play portion cannot cover, and the internal machinery breaks quite easily, unable to withstand the movement.
For this reason, instead of powered suits that assist strength and movement, pilots conventionally wear suits that use similar monster materials but specialize only in bulletproof and impact resistance performance—suits that look similar to what the boys and girls fighting mysterious giant creatures in the Third New Tokyo City in that world with red seas wear.
tlnote:evangelion
For the aforementioned reasons, there’s extremely little meaning in me conducting performance tests on powered suits.
Even so, if I were to give a reason why I would do it, it would probably be something about pilot survival rates.
But if that were the purpose, they should first ask someone with martial arts background like Taguchi-san—who has expertise in martial arts—or someone like Isotani-san or Mutou-san who can do both martial arts and shooting, rather than a martial arts amateur like me—while I think I can do a little, since I haven’t officially attended a dojo or anything, I’m nothing but an amateur from the perspective of military professionals who are experts in that field.
Furthermore, I’m currently in the middle of conducting performance experiments on the only machine of its kind in the world.
In other words? This is definitely not work that I should be doing.
Yet they’re telling me to do it. Moreover, this apparently isn’t Mogami-san’s hobby but an order from above.
The answer derived from these facts is…
Yes, yes. I understand roughly.
I thought it would come eventually, but I didn’t expect it to come this early.
I couldn’t see through it. Even with these eyes of Keita.
The intention of the person who issued this order. It’s to kill me.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
If others heard this, they would tilt their heads wondering “Why would you think that?”, but Keita had conviction.
This was because Keita understood in his own way the rare value of being promoted ahead of people from other factions and being able to operate the world’s only machine, and above all, because his own nature was telling him so.
First, regarding promotion, it goes without saying. Even his classmate—mainly Obata Kenjiro—shows obvious malice, so it wouldn’t be strange at all if upperclassmen and their families recognized Keita as an eyesore. Rather, it would be more natural to think they do.
Next, regarding rarity, to researchers, Keita is a bundle of mysteries. Therefore, like the boy who cooperated with the Second Messiah Project, it wouldn’t be strange if there were people who wanted to examine him thoroughly.
Rather, it would be stranger to think such people don’t exist when there’s a precedent.
Additionally, we mustn’t forget the possibility of people who think more simplistically that “if Keita disappears, we can use that machine.” Specifically, that would be Obata Kenjiro and the people around him.
And third. While those around him don’t understand it correctly, because Keita has memories from his previous life, he has bad habits carried over from his previous life.
It’s not about not knowing existing common sense, nor about showing a blank expression saying “Eh? This is how you operate robots, right?” when people around him are surprised by his actions.
The bad habit Keita carries from his previous life. That is something generally classified as chuunibyou or delusions of grandeur, said to be common during adolescence—in other words, “the habit of analyzing things unnecessarily.”
People move according to “desire.” Therefore, if you know what someone “desires,” you can also read their intentions.
Having this thought in mind, people with this habit come to believe in others’ “desires” and never stop doubting.
In short, they become suspicious of the hidden side of everything.
To give a specific example, if suddenly given a large sum of money, they would suspect: “Are they planning to make me do something bad with this money? No, is receiving this money itself already some kind of trigger?”
If told “I have a good opportunity” out of nowhere, they would think “Ah, they’re planning to trap me.”
The reason Keita distanced himself from relatives who approached him when his parents died, and why he doubted their eyes, has this habit’s influence at its root, though he also doubted their gaze.
It was the same after entering military school.
After enrollment, the reason Takafumi made him a special second lieutenant was to conduct machine experiments, and the military approved it because they wanted to see the actual machine after learning about his high performance in the simulator.
He was promoted afterward because he defeated large monsters, and he received a 2 million yen bonus to keep him—the world’s only tester—tied to them.
The reason Isotani Shouko pays money at every opportunity is because she understands it’s the most reliable and swift method to obtain the information she wants.
It’s fine if there are “reasons” that come from such “desires.”
It’s precisely because he understands this that Keita gets along reasonably well with Takafumi and Shouko, and the reason he goes along with their schemes while knowing them is naturally because there are benefits for him too.
But what about this current situation?
What benefit is there for me, a mech pilot, to experiment with powered suits?
Improved powered suit performance? Improved survival rates accompanying that?
Can that defeat large monsters? Is it more important than familiarization training and data collection for the Mikage-type?
No. Absolutely not.
Furthermore, the fact that the requester is “above” is also problematic.
Those above are asking a person who knows nothing about martial arts to conduct performance experiments on equipment that mech pilots don’t originally need?
Moreover, they’re asking me—someone whose promotion is envied—to conduct an experiment that has no danger and would be a reasonable achievement if successful?
(Yes. Out. Not just three outs, but five outs. Please start from two outs next time.)
In Keita’s values, this is definitely a “sorry to deceive you” case.
(Overthinking? What’s wrong with that?)
Currently, this is nothing more than Keita’s delusion, but at least Keita decided to think so.
(Now then. Who gave this order? How far is Mogami-san involved?)
Of course, Keita had no intention of quietly getting killed while knowing this.
He intended to counterattack once the opponent’s betrayal was revealed, and he was prepared to counterattack against those he found suspicious even before it was revealed.
Whether that could be called a counterattack is beside the point.
On this day, Keita became convinced that “a clear enemy exists within the military.”
—Whether this conviction was correct or mistaken.
That would be judged by none other than future Keita himself.
TLNOTE:
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