Chapter 33 – Catch Me If You Can!

The virtual space the simulator had generated was an asteroid field--silence and violence living side by side. Countless drifting rock formations, complex terrain, debris caught in the gravitational pull of a massive gas giant--all of it tangling Letaria Adeniam's line of sight from every direction.

"Let's begin, Letaria. No holding back."

Grain's voice through the comm--and Schuelle moved.

There was no other word for it: refined. He closed the gap along the shortest possible vector, and the shot that followed found Arden with machine-like precision.

"Catch me if you can!"

Arden fired its thrusters.

The simulator's Arden had been configured to match the real machine's full specifications. It tore through simulated space with the same ferocious acceleration.

"...She really doesn't get hit. Experiencing it directly is something else."

Admiration in Grain's voice--but he was not the kind of man to let admiration slow him down.

Schuelle locked the rifle.

The next instant, the sound that came was nothing like the single shots before it. A burst--rapid, sustained.

Not aimed directly at Letaria. Aimed at where she would go. The pattern was deliberately wide, laying down a net across every viable escape route before she reached it.

"What--?!"

Letaria wrenched Arden's heading sideways and scraped through the gap.

From the observation seats, voices erupted.

"Hey--that rifle--is that one of the prototypes?! We don't have a burst mode like that on our machines!"

Aland was half out of his chair.

"Now that you mention it--the captain said something about a prototype Photon Rifle, didn't he!"

Steshia remembered aloud, and the room immediately broke into noise.

"That's not fair, Captain! You had Milea-san give you the good one!"

"Favoritism!"

The heckling washed over the arena as, inside the simulation, Letaria kept being pushed back.

Grain's prediction was precise. No matter how brilliantly she evaded, the next volley was already waiting for wherever she arrived.

"Oh, this is infuriating! Have some of this--Photon Rifle!"

Letaria returned fire. Grain avoided it with minimal movement.

Merry, watching the monitor, gave a resigned shrug.

"...Her evasion is monstrous, but her marksmanship hasn't improved at all. Completely hopeless."

"Miss--at that rate, you're never going to hit me. How long do you plan to keep this up?"

"You dare--! Then I shall drag you into the range where my knight excels!"

Competitive pride, thoroughly ignited.

Letaria drove forward. The movement was nothing like Grain's--rough, aggressive, almost reckless--but she held that aggression all the way through the fire coming at her.

Evade. Evade. Evade again.

Grain found himself pushed, and raised Schuelle's output.

"Photon Saber--! How do you like this!"

Letaria activated the right-arm Photon Saber and swung it in a horizontal arc.

Grain, in the same instant, brought Schuelle's own Photon Saber up and caught the blow. Sparks flew. The two machines faced each other at zero distance.

"And this--!"

Grain snapped the free left hand around and fired the rifle at point-blank range.

Letaria avoided it. The reaction speed was impossible. Arden slid sideways so far it looked like it had skipped a frame.

Even Grain was taken aback.

"So that's how she dodged Blang too. ...She's genuinely outside normal parameters."

"I'm only getting started!"

Letaria, certain she had the advantage now, swung around to take Grain's rear--accelerating, turning--

And at the edge of her vision, a warning icon blinked.

WARNING!! WARNING!!

The screen lurched. An impact sound. Her view spun--

CRITICAL DAMAGE - SYSTEM FAILURE

"...What? What?! What happened?! I hadn't taken a single hit--!"

Letaria stared at the simulator screen, completely lost.

Grain's voice came through the comm.

"...Letaria. You lose. Collision with an obstacle. You were so focused on me that you didn't notice the drifting rock directly behind you."

"............Pardon?"

She sat with it for a moment.

She had sharpened every nerve to track his movements. And precisely because of that, everything else had dropped away.

When Letaria stepped out of the simulator, she had forgotten to fix her slightly disheveled hair. Her shoulders were trembling--visibly--with frustration.

"I refuse to accept this kind of defeat! It is completely unfair! Leaving a rock somewhere like that--that is not the conduct of a proper opponent!"

Grain climbed out on his side.

"That kind of thing is everywhere in a real battlefield. ...Though--your close-quarters work was extraordinary. Honestly, there were a few moments where I was the one holding my breath."

Letaria looked at her own hands and said something quieter.

"...The simulator felt different, though. Not quite the same as actually piloting Arden."

Grain's eyes narrowed slightly at that.

(The simulator is mathematics, layer upon layer. But what she's feeling in Arden--it runs through the black box. It's what Milea was talking about. Something else entirely.)

"...It is only a simulator. But your attention wandered--that part is true. When you're in the actual cockpit, pay as much attention to what's around you as you do to the gun pointed at you. Understood, princess?"

"I am not a princess! ...But. Yes. What happened there was my own failing. I shall apply myself accordingly."

Frustrated--but nodding, in her own particular way.

From the observation room, both of them were showered with appreciation.

"That was something, miss!"

"Pushing the captain that far--the Runaway Lady really isn't just a name!"

Surrounded by Steshia and the others, Letaria recovered her laugh.

"Ohohohoho--!"

Seldia's ordinary days went on, loud and full of life.

The sense of a coming storm was still there--still hidden, for now, in the noise.