15 A Soldier Comes to See Me

Author: Bishamon Mine
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n0664js/18/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

◆◇Sight: Suzusaki Suzuhi◇◆

 

“I showed you a pathetic figure yesterday.”
“That’s not true! I was so moved I cried! ——But the other person was too amazing too, that do, spaaan.”

While walking the hallway with Yachimata-san I mimic that Tachibana person’s do.
Then Yachimata-san suddenly stopped.

When I look back, her eyes are round.
Wondering what’s up, I ask before I know it.

“What’s wrong…… Yachimata-san.”
“Th-that movement. Suzusaki-san…… you were cheering behind me, right? Did you by any chance watch recordings or videos of Tachibana-san’s matches over and over?”
“Eh, not at all. I just copied what I saw at yesterday’s match……”
“Saw? You could see it!? From only yesterday’s match, Tachibana-san’s movement——!!”
“Eh…… what what, your face is scary, Yachimata-san.”

Yachimata-san put a hand to her forehead and looked down.

I heard a small voice, 〔Really, this person is outrageous.〕

“U-um, Yachimata-san?”
“Suzusaki-san, what do you think? On the first ippon, why was I, who moved first, struck first. If you could see Tachibana-san’s movement, do you understand anything?”

Ah, that movement I think I remember.

“I might get it——but I can only explain it in dogfight…… is that okay.”
“Why lose confidence there, of course. Please teach me lined up with Suu-san’s knowledge. Or rather you really are detailed about dogfights——are you actually a high-school girl?”

“The last bit bothers me a little, but then…… in a dogfight, you know taking the opponent’s rear is important, right?”
“Yes. I know that.”

“But even if you take the rear, missiles aside, with guns and such a gap is born between where the bullets fly and where the opponent’s plane flies, so you have to shoot where the opponent is going. At that time you point your nose ahead of the opponent and go, but”
“That is true.”

“But if you keep flying more forward than the opponent, you’ll eventually pass in front of them. Then this time you’ll have your rear taken.”
“An overtake that went too far, that kind of feeling.”

“Right right. And when Yachimata-san was struck first, Tachibana-san laid her shinai down a little, made an opening above her head, and lured Yachimata-san.”
“……Hah?”

Yachimata-san went blank like “the solution to the formula was different from what I thought.”
She seemed to stop for a while like a “↺ (round arrow)” spinning in her head like a video loading, then suddenly rebooted and grabbed my shoulders and shook me.

“She made an opening and lured!? ——Eh!? ……At that time I was being lured by Tachibana-san!? It wasn’t that I found an opening and struck first, I dove on my own into a trap the opponent had ready with everything prepared!?”

Yachimata-san grabbed my shoulders and rattled me.

“Eh, eh, eh, ah, u, yeah——I-I think so, that was the atmosphere, shi, shi. I-in FPS too there are people who sometimes do that with positioning, ra, ra,——”

While being shaken I continue.

“——If you chase after ‘it’s an opening,’ you get shot all at once from around, ri, ri.”

When I finished, Yachimata-san let go of me and suddenly seemed like she got dizzy.

〔At that time I thought I lured and found the shadow.——The opponent saw through it and made an opening on purpose…… or rather, come to think of it, they say strong people deliberately make an opening and make you strike there.〕

she muttered while wobbling.

(Shade? Me?)

I continue the explanation for now.

“In tactics too, showing an opening and luring is used a lot. So Tachibana-san could react at once.”
“I see.”

“And in fighter dogfights, taking the opponent’s rear is important, but entering inside the path the opponent’s fighter draws is important too.”
“Entering the opponent’s inside——that may be important in kendo too. Old sword masters also said the importance of entering the bosom. ‘Beneath crossed blades is hell; if you step in and look, the place beyond is paradise.’ And the candidates said to have said this are——Miyamoto Musashi-san, who founded Niten Ichi-ryu. Yagyu Munenori-san, who found the life-giving sword. Tsukahara Bokuden-san, who founded Kashima Shinto-ryu. A glittering lineup. It’s content where it wouldn’t be strange if every master said it.”

“Tachibana-san always put her shinai at the center of Yachimata-san’s movement. So Tachibana-san’s shinai arrived at once.”
“I didn’t notice……”

“She was always tracking Yachimata-san’s movement……——and also, Tachibana-san felt like she was moving not shortest but fastest.”
“——Not shortest, fastest??”

“This is dogfight too…… you know what’s important in a dogfight is speed energy and potential energy? In other words, you fight over speed and height.”
“Yes. I learned after becoming a pilot that the one who stores more of both energies is stronger.”

“That’s it. Potential energy——in other words there’s acceleration using gravity, so you can convert height into speed. But when you replace this height with speed, there are times when chasing while descending in a curve is faster than descending in a straight line. This curve is called a brachistochrone.——It becomes the shape of a cycloid curve.”
“Ah, cycloid curves I think were in the math textbook table of contents——the thing you learn in third year.”

“Yes that!”
“But I don’t think the brachistochrone was in the textbook. Where did Suzusaki-san get knowledge of the brachistochrone?”

“……Eh, that’s…… I somehow remembered it from playing plane FPS……”
“I see, a game. A realistic game.”

“Recent ones calculate physics properly…… so I think it’s an application of the brachistochrone. If you let the knees go and move the hips like a curve, it isn’t shortest but it becomes fastest.——And light things less affected by gravity, fists and shinai, you move in a straight line, or something?”

I awkwardly rock my body like a pendulum.

“From muscle structure too there might be movements faster than a straight line.”
“Like this?”

While saying that Yachimata-san shifted her center of gravity like a pendulum with splendid knee relaxation.
As expected of an athletic club…… unlike exercise-poor me, her weight shift is good———.

“I think that’s the movement. Yachimata-san really is very good.”
“I got praised.——So Tachibana-san was converting this into linear motion at the joints.”

“I think probably. When you fly a fighter in space too there are times chasing on a curve is faster than a straight line, and if there’s a conservative force besides gravity the fastest route can take a cycloid shape, so it applies various ways.”
“……I see, I finally understand why I was struck first. It wasn’t a mysterious power; there was a proper trick.——Or rather I should have asked Suzusaki-san rather than the vice-captain……”

Yachimata-san said that and made a troubled face.
Then three girls from the same class who had been watching our exchange from the side came stomping over.

“Hey, Suzusaka-san, Yachimata-san is troubled!”
“Stop hanging on her!!”
“You and Yachimata-san don’t match!”

S-scary.
This isn’t even behind the school building——!
Do girls come crowding even besides behind the school building!?

But it’s true what they say, Yachimata-san and I don’t match.
This is too much of a righteous punch.

While I can’t say anything and look down, Yachimata-san lifted her face and looked down at the three girls. She’s tall, so the pressure is amazing.

“Would you be quiet? The one hanging on is me.——I’m the one hanging on Suzusaki-san.”

“‘‘‘‘Eh!? Is that so!?’’’’”

Then Yachimata-san sighed.

“Why are four voices harmonizing. Why is Suzusaki-san surprised.”

While I’m looking at the trio of girls, the school broadcast came on.

“Year 1 Class 1, Suzusaki Suzuhi-san——um, who was it——ah, United States Aerospace Force colonel——eh, America isn’t Aerospace Force, it’s United States Space Force? Y-yes. United States Space Force Colonel Victor Harrison is waiting. Please come to the staff room at once.”

Wh-what……?
I looked at the air with the face of a cat that just noticed a cosmic truth for the first time in a while.

————United States Space Force, colonel……?

Th——this is, maybe an international wanted notice!?

——I went pale at once and clung to Yachimata-san.

“What do I do, Yachimata-san! Maybe I’m internationally wanted!?”
“Eh, no, the United States Space Force isn’t Interpol or anything……”
“I-I-Interpol!? Zenigata-san!? Old man Zenigata came to catch me!?”
“That isn’t it, the United States Space Force and Interpol are completely different organizations. A lot of US soldiers play FateLege and they’re moving various ways, so I think they came to see Suzusaki-san related to that.”

The trio who’d been on me are noisy too.

“Eh? Suzusaka getting caught?” “——Well it seems different somehow.” “What’s going on?”

I apparently failed my SAN check and let out a scream like I was being strangled.

“Why is a soldier from the rice country coming to see me!!!! I love bread and rice equally, you know!?”
“Suzusaki-san, please calm down for now. I’m sure it’s a scout.”
“A scout!? Become a soldier!? No no no!! If I get worked by a demon sergeant like in all those movies, I’ll break!”
“I feel you’re already broken.”
“Dear Sergeant, I understand that I am a fidgety maggot. Therefore I do not need training. I am a maggot I am a maggot I am a maggot I am a maggot I am a maggot”

While I’m becoming a maggot like that, the trio of girls took a step away from me.
Aaaah, sorry for being a maggot. Sorry for being creepy!

“Scouted by the military.” “Is Suzusaka maybe……” “——a scary person?”

Then Yachimata-san made a mischievous-kid face.

“That’s right——Suzusaki-san is strong enough to put soldiers to shame, you know?”

“Stronger than soldiers!?”
“Hii!”
“N-no way.”

The trio ran their gazes back and forth between my feet and the top of my head any number of times.

“Even I, who made best eight at the kendo nationals, don’t know if I could win.”

“Wait, for real!?”
“That’s bad.”
“S-sorry Suzusaka——san, we’re going.”

The three ran off almost falling, shouting “wait, don’t leave me!”
To the end they ran having misheard “ki” and “ka.”

Yachimata-san, watching those three, held her stomach with a “got them” face.

“Ahaha.”
“I——I’m not scary…… I’ll get even more loner……”
“I’m here. You can just ignore that kind.”
“You’ll stay with me?”

When I looked up, Yachimata-san covered her mouth.

“What an adorable languid sidelong glance!”

Ryuben? Like Beethoven?

“I’ll be with you the whole time.”

For the comfort of a loner like this, saying “I’ll be with you the whole time” is too kind.

Sorry I called Yachimata-san an angel. You were an archangel.

“I’ll come with you to the staff room too.”
“Th-that helps a ton!!”

 

“Ehh Suzusaki, this is Colonel Victor Harrison.”
“Nice to meet you. Are you Ms. Suzusaki?”

The colonel put a hand to his chest and bowed his head, so I,

“Sir! Yes sir!”

I salute Sir Harrison with my whole body at right angles and answer.
If I don’t stiffen my muscles as hard as I can, I feel like my hips will give out any second.

“Hahaha, a fine salute. But I am not your superior; I don’t want you so formal.”
“Sir! Yes sir! I am a maggot! I understand that!”
“Ahahha! The sergeant from that movie. I came up from private myself; I’ve taken a full course of demon-sergeant training——shall we go spank those guys’ butts together, cute young lady.”

Eh, what’s that, wait……

“Does the colonel spank sergeants’ butts!?”
“Well, I’m higher than them now.”
“Then are you a more terrifying existence than a sergeant!?”

I could tell my legs were shaking from too much fear.

“S-sorry sorry. A joke; did I scare you?”
“I offer my heart!!”

I put my right fist in front of my chest and my left fist around my tailbone and shouted.

The teachers in the staff room started making a fuss, “what what.”
Then Yachimata-san stroked my head.

“It’s okay it’s okay. This person isn’t scary isn’t scary.”

Somehow I suddenly felt safe, and my body relaxed as if melting.

Sir turned to Yachimata-san and thanked her.

“Oh, thank you——oh? Have I met you and me somewhere.”

Maybe they met in FateLege?

Asked, Yachimata-san’s eyes swam in the air.

“Ahhhh”
“Could you be……”

Then my homeroom teacher explained.

“She’s a famous model. She’s on TV shows and commercials. She sings too.”

At the homeroom teacher’s explanation, Victor-san’s face became like he was convinced.

“——Ah, I remember! That Crisp Sparkling! A truly cute CM!”
“I’m honored.”

Yachimata-san blushed a little.
Then I had butted in before I knew it.

“The colonel can tell too!? How cute Yachimata-san is!!”
“Of course, Suzusaki-san!!”

The colonel and I exchanged a firm handshake.

“Colonel, please give me your address. I’ll send three cases of Yachimat-juice——I mean, that juice.”
“That’s welcome! Then my address is here, my messaging-app address is this. I use this one that’s encrypted. And my phone number is this.”
“Mine are this and this and this!”
“Thank you, I’ll treasure them!”

We exchanged a handshake again. Here the oshi alliance was complete. As I thought, Japan and America were bound by a solid alliance.

“Well well, half my purpose is already achieved.”
“Purpose? Come to think of it, Colonel Victor, why did you call me?”
“I’d like you to call me Vic, Ms. Suzusaki.”
“Ah, then please call me Suzu.”
“Oh. I’m honored, Suzu!”

Vic’s face shone.

“Likewise. Vic!”
“My purpose is to have a means of contact with you, and the other is——”
“The other is?”
“To add you to our United States Space Force clan Star Force!”

I bolted like a startled hare.

 

But I got cut off!
This person has definitely raised his stats!

“Wh-where are you going, Suzu!”
“Star Force is basically the military, right!? Sir, I have no balls, I dropped them in Dad or Mom! So I can’t become Sir’s subordinate!”
“It’s fine, missions don’t need such things! Even without such things we can carry out operations together! And I want you to call me Vic!”
“‘The balls are gone, huh’!”

Suddenly Vic’s face became serious. The rings carved in his brown skin deepened and his handsomeness increased further.

“Let’s speak honestly. We regard Fate Link: Legendia as dangerous——no, the extraterrestrial civilization running it.”

That I understand.
It’s shockingly super-science.

“These three years we tried various methods to unravel the science and technology they have. But all ended in failure. We could analyze pistols and pilot suits at least, but it barely means anything. We want to analyze fighters and such, but if we analyze them on Earth they vanish. So we tried in their space and they vanished too——”

Vic raised both palms lightly to his shoulders in a give-up pose.

“——We have no idea at all where in the galaxy their weapons are produced; we only know they get transferred from somewhere. Sending spies from our side wasn’t an effective means either; our body composition and theirs is decisively different. We tried approaches from various other angles too,——and the one thing we learned is only this. If we pick a fight with them, we will be destroyed in a blink.”

Vic bowed his head to me.

(Eh)

I panic seeing the colonel’s crown.

“Suzu, please lend us your strength.”
“Vic, please stop!”

Vic lifted his face and looked at me with a frustrated face.

“Even among FateLege super-tech, there are objects we can uniquely try to analyze on Earth. Those are things called MoB, and Memorite——in Japan called sealstones. So we want to obtain powerful Memorite——for that we need to dive into deeper floors. With your strength it will surely become possible——”

That’s unreasonable.

“Y-you don’t need MoB?”

This I feel like I could get as many as I want.

“That, see, we were warned by their civilization. ‘Absolutely do not bring MoB to Earth.’——The other day a US base got blown away suddenly in the name of a nuclear test, right?”
“Ah, I saw it on the news——that was?”

Colonel Victor laughed looking troubled and increased the wrinkles on his face.

“The Air Force jumped the gun and brought MoB to Earth. Then the MoB started multiplying at a terrifying speed. The president ordered the use of nuclear weapons.”
“———Eh.”
“That day was a crisis of humanity’s extinction. Oops, it’s a secret?”

Vic put an index finger to his mouth and gave a charming wink.

“C-could you please not leak world-shaking secret information like teatime gossip to a mere high-school girl!?”

Well, what Vic talked about is already rumor. Even if I affirm that rumor it’ll only be “another affirmer increased” level.

But inside me it’s a big incident.
Because a very high-up American military person affirmed a bad rumor……

“Suzu, you get it, right? Humanity right now is like balancing peace on a razor’s edge. We need your strength!”
“I-I understand peace is in danger——but me, getting scouted by a soldier……”
“I watched the stream. You are humanity’s hope! You can become a hero! Please become an existence like Superman!”

That’s too much——…… Me becoming a soldier and fighting space enemies or something……
Then Yachimata-san cut in between Vic and me.

“That’s far enough. Colonel Victor.”
“This is, Ms. Isshiki……”
“Asking her to cooperate with the military is content even I would hesitate at; Suzusaki-san couldn’t possibly accept it. Frankly, she is a timid girl. Because she’s timid, if you push and push she might nod, but I can’t imagine she’d put out a performance that would satisfy the colonel——more than anything it would be hard on Suzusaki-san.”

Colonel Victor groaned and nodded.

“Muu———well, that’s so——I’ve been feeling that somehow for a while.”
“Colonel, you’ve prepared other compromise points as well, haven’t you?”
“You see through me——ah, Suzu doesn’t need to join our clan. Just if you obtain rare Memorite, I want you to let us know. We’ll buy it.”

Not me, Yachimata-san answers Vic. Thank you, Yachimata-san.

“I don’t know if we’ll hand it over, but we’ll let you know.”
“I can’t beat you. Then that’s fine.”

Vic shook hands with Yachimata-san, bowed to the teachers with “teachers, sorry for the fuss,” and left the staff room.

After seeing off Vic’s back, Yachimata-san turned to me.

“Suzusaki-san, let’s hurry and make a clan.”
“Heh?”

 

◆◇◆◇◆

 

The streamer called Akakiba, who first in history cleared 〈Insanity〉 Death Road.
On the stream he did this day, he frowned looking at Suu info in the comments.

“Hah? Suu shot down a Floor 25 Grand Harpy mothership in two minutes? Even I have only gone to Floor 23 alone. Floor 25 enemies to that——ah, what, Crimson Flash Alice was with her——then it can’t be helped. We also——wait, nothing.”

Actually Akakiba had cleared Deathroad Papilio by a slightly unusual method.
That was remodeling the originally single-seat Swallowtail into two-seat and clearing it with two people.
And so it wouldn’t come out that it was remodeled to two-seat, he had remodeled the living space to look like a cockpit.
Then Akakiba did guns. His partner did piloting and drone control; they split roles.

But Deathroad Papilio training can be done on carriers and battleships that assume multiple riders, and you can play in two-seat fighters too.
So clearing in a two-seater itself isn’t a problem.

But few people would think hiding the fact that it’s two-seat is fair.

Also the rewards differ between clearing with multiple people and clearing solo.

Suu got the sealstone 〖Miracle〗 for clearing solo, but Akakiba stopped at the sealstone 〖Luck〗.
But no one can point out from this that Akakiba is clearing with multiple people.
Because there’s no one who can verify the acquisition conditions of 〖Miracle〗 and 〖Luck〗.

Anyway Akakiba thought this.
“We cleared Deathroad Papilio in a two-seater, so this player Suu did the same thing.” And with the help of a powerful helper like Crimson Flash Alice.
So he thought Suu was “a player far below me.”

Incidentally this is another story, but Akakiba used multiple accounts and, without watching Suu’s videos, wrote 100 anti comments.
He also smashed the bad button.

He thoroughly argued against comments trying to praise Suu.

He thought with this the player in that video would disappear, but that person caused an incident of consecutively defeating 〈Delirium Atlas〉 in a Swallowtail and became famous all at once.

〈Delirium Atlas〉 itself he could defeat in a two-seater, and there are probably about a hundred upper players who can handle it.
But the method was the problem. With outrageous technique and accuracy they instantly defeated 34 〈Delirium Atlas〉.

There aren’t many people who can defeat this many in only one hour. Top player Miles Humor might just barely be able to, that kind of feeling.
Because of that a stupid rumor is flowing that Suu’s piloting technique is better than his.

(I was going easy because she’s apparently a female player, and the two-seat bastard——anyway they borrowed Alice’s power to clear Deathroad Papilio and beat Delirium Atlas too! Deceiving the viewers……! ———I’ll definitely expose your cheating!!)

Setting himself aside, Akakiba let righteous anger toward Suu boil.