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ninoexchange2015-06-21 08:38 pm
nino-mod.livejournal.com) wrote in ninoexchange2015-06-21 08:38 pm
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natsunonamae (3/5)
For: natsunonamae
From:64907
Part 2
The Shatterdome celebrates their victory as the higher-ups declare Niigata as part of the prefectures now back in the hands of the nation. Nino isn’t much for attention, but he admits that all the appreciative smiles and joyous cheers he hears (some shout his name and Jun’s, some go for the Sentinel) help uplift the mood as he makes his way to Sakurai’s office for psych eval.
The moment Sakurai opens his door, Nino immediately raises his hands in surrender. He’s still in his drivesuit, though he already deposited his helmet with a drivesuit technician earlier when he and Jun got back from decontamination. Jun is somewhere with Aiba, already discussing some possible reinforcements to the Sentinel’s chest armor and adding a coolant fuse somewhere to her weaponry, but Nino knows that after his session with Sakurai, it’s going to be Jun’s turn.
Sakurai’s job is not as simple as Nino made it out to be some months ago. It’s his duty to make sure that rangers are coming back in one piece mentally and are able to put on their drivesuits the next time they’re asked to. Nino has just come back from his first field experience, and while it did turn out to be another victory for the nation, he still feels incredibly overwhelmed by the experience.
“You have to admit, Sho-yan,” Nino says, making Sakurai roll his eyes, “I kicked some ass back there.” He grins, loving every second of Sho’s reactions. He only calls the analyst Sho-yan when he’s feeling particularly good about himself, like now.
“Yes, yes,” Sho says dismissively, already asking him to lie down as Sho maneuvers some equipment for quick brain scans, “though I have to say, you still need to learn what it means to not engage.”
Nino scoffs as the monitor on his side shows readouts and highlights certain areas of his brain, and Sho flicks a finger to turn it to a holographic imagery. “If we hadn’t engaged, you guys would have been repairing three Jaegers instead of one.” The Diablo suffered a bit of damage from Yoshi Gone Wild, but it was deemed fixable in a week or two by the technicians and engineers.
Sho gives him the clear for active duty and Nino jumps off the cushions of the medical bed. “Don’t grow too complacent, Nino,” Sho warns, and he sounds so much like an older brother that it makes Nino cock an eyebrow. “We won today, yes, but we still don’t know what’s out there. We just got word that Tokyo is a hive when the air force did a government-ordered aerial sweep.”
Nino narrows his eyes, wondering if Jun already knows about this. “So, the surrounding prefectures are heavily infested by kaiju,” he says carefully, and Sho nods. “Why would they congregate in one place? You think they’re protecting something?”
Sho looks behind him, and Nino turns just in time to see Jun leaning against the doorframe of Sho’s office, his eyes as serious as ever. “Or they could be luring us to destroy all our Jaegers once and for all,” Jun says, the earlier elation from their victory mostly gone from his face. “It might be a trap. Today’s win might also be a trap, to make us believe we’re pushing them back when we’re probably not even close to it.”
Nino hates it, but Jun speaks the truth and he knows it as much as Sho does. Sho sighs, raising both hands. “I’m not exactly in the position to dispel theories and offer my input,” he says, already stepping aside and extending a hand towards the medical bed. “I’m just the brain scan dude, after all.”
Jun enters the room to sit on the bed and to allow Sho’s machines to latch themselves in different parts of his head. “You ever tried scanning kaiju brain with your machines, Sho-san?” Jun asks as the monotonous computer voice announces Jun’s ranger number like it did with Nino earlier.
Nino doesn’t feel like he’s intruding, in fact, Jun shoots him a glance that tells him not to go anywhere and he obliges, making himself comfortable in Sho’s office as he watches Sho shuffle about and tinker with his different monitors and input some data into his clipboard.
Sho suddenly grins at Jun’s question, like he’s the one who actually subdued a category IV and Nino finds a side to Sho that he likes. “Well,” Sho says, taking off his absurd-looking rounded glasses, “who do you guys think was responsible for the term ‘hive’?”
--
After two days of celebration all over the Shatterdome, he and Jun finds themselves in a meeting with all the other active rangers and Shatterdome officials, the proceedings and discussions they’re having being relayed to the higher-ups via conference holo. This is the part Nino dislikes, if he’s going to be honest. He’s okay with the training, the combat room, the drifting, even the part where they fight the kaiju. What he hates is the politics that’s bound to come after, and how he immediately becomes a part of it after Niigata.
“How many times did you sit in this room and watch those old men bicker amongst themselves when they’re not even the ones risking their lives?” he whispers to Jun who’s sitting on his right, and the corner of Jun’s lips turn up.
“Too many,” Jun whispers back, and Nino can tell from his body language that he’s as annoyed as Nino himself is. Nino likes that he doesn’t need to be connected to Jun to know, that he just knows. “Your sister hated this part too. She would chew gum and pop it loudly once the old men stopped talking.”
Nino tries not to laugh, but he can imagine it too clearly. It’s something he might be inclined to do provided he can get chewing gum somewhere around here. He makes a mental note to check the cafeteria next time there’s a meeting like this.
“Do we really need to watch them talk over each other as they figure out whether they want Tokyo back or not?” Nino asks out of the corner of his mouth when one man from the Defense Corps begins throwing around accusations to the other members of the conference. “I mean, we all know they want Tokyo back so is this part really necessary? Why don’t we just get to the part where we actually plan the plan?”
“Because we’re the ones fighting this war, not them,” Jun tells him, his eyes slightly narrowed, and Nino resolves to cross his arms over his chest as he eyes the scene with a bored expression.
“Gentlemen,” Ohno’s calm voice calls out, and Nino has no idea how he did it, but that one word from the small man managed to silence the ongoing arguments, “as you’ve all been informed by Air Force, Tokyo has become a nest. This Shatterdome did a preliminary sweep in the area using our scanners and we have determined three category V kaijus in Sumida, as well as kaijus of lower categories in surrounding areas. My colleague Sakurai here calls Tokyo a hive.”
One bearded man from the holo screen frowns at Ohno’s statement. “The Air Force refer to it as a nest and we agree with them. What’s the difference between our term and yours?”
Nino can see Ohno smiling before the fightmaster shakes his head. “Not mine,” Ohno says, stepping aside to give Sho the floor, “his. He’ll be more suited to answer your questions, I believe.”
“Okay, this part I like,” Nino whispers to Jun as they both watch Sho take Ohno’s place. Sho has his weird glasses back on, amplifying the roundness of his face, and Nino thinks the old geezers won’t take him seriously unless he says the right words. Somehow, he finds himself cheering for Sho inwardly, hoping that the guy won’t screw this up.
The bearded official onscreen turns to Sho, his eyebrow raised in obvious doubt regarding Sho’s capabilities. The ugly side of politics, Nino discovers, is that whoever has the power believes he has no time to listen to the input of someone he already deemed to be lower than him. Nino hates the guy already, knowing that while he’s risking his life along with his fellow rangers, this man is hiding in a safehouse in a confidential location, waiting for a chance to bark orders, knowing that the chances of those disobeyed were very low given his standing in the government.
But before the man can open his mouth, Sho speaks up. “I called it a hive, sir,” he begins, and Nino wants to applaud him for the sarcasm rich in his voice but he restrains himself, “because they’re congregating in Sumida for reasons unknown. We have never seen kaijus as high as category V assemble in one place before. I believe they’re there because something needs them to be there.”
“Something?” the man asks, still looking skeptical, “Clarify, Sakurai-san. We have no time for theories, not when kaiju activities all over the globe are increasing in frequency. Japan is not the only nation suffering at the hands of these monsters. We act in solidarity as we take a stand to fight for our future, and we have no time to listen to the ramblings of one analyst from Osaka.”
Nino sees Sho tilt his head at the statement. “Of course. Forgive me, I wouldn’t presume to know of the world affairs, not when those monsters are knocking at our doors every now and then and the war is happening right here.”
Nino would give it to Sho, the analyst knows how to keep his temper in check and mask it with humility, but he also knows how to remind people that he knows what he’s talking about judging from the way he speaks, and Nino’s respect for him increases because of it. Sho continues, his voice as even as before, “I believe the category V’s are there because they’re acting as bodyguards.”
That gets the higher-ups riled up, and soon enough there’s a barrage of one voice after another, something Nino rolls his eyes at for the predictability of it. He leans a little to his right for Jun to hear him. “Is Sho-chan this badass every time there’s a meeting like this? I should have signed up earlier if that was the case; this feels like something I should have seen ages ago.”
Jun grins. “He never had to speak up in the past because we never reached something like this before. But better late than never, right? I think beard guy is already pissed at him for being such a smartass.”
“Beard guy’s about to get hell from Sho-chan,” Nino says proudly, smiling wider.
“With all due respect,” Sho says, his voice loud enough to silence the already bickering officials, “I believe they’re protecting something that’s in Sumida. I have no idea what exactly, but I wouldn’t call it a hive if I didn’t have an inkling or two.”
Nino’s eyes narrow, and he sees the rest of the rangers straighten in their seats. He feels Jun nudging him with an elbow, and he leans a little to the side to hear what Jun has to say.
“A mother,” Jun whispers, and it’s exactly the same thing Nino’s thinking of. Sho’s talking about the primary component in a thriving hive, a queen. Nino has played too many games in the past to know that Sho’s theory has some merit.
“If you have doubts,” Sho continues as he scans his clipboard, “and I’m sure do, I will have you know that as an analyst, I asked for the brain scans of a kaiju subdued in Australia. The results of which were forwarded to me, and I compared them to the past brain scans I oversaw myself with my own team here. The brains had one thing in common, a connective tissue which functions as a sensor and a relay organ for transmitted messages. The method eludes me still; I assume it’s part of the things we still don’t know about the kaiju, but it allows them to communicate to something that’s not in the same area.”
One of the officials on screen, a bald man with thick eyebrows, speaks up. “You’re saying they’re using that part of their brain to communicate with a mother? A queen, a leader of sorts that commands them? This is like saying you believe the kaiju are civilized enough to have a system.”
All eyes in the room are on Sho now, and Nino watches as the analyst removes his glasses to wipe them using his lab coat. Nino smirks. For all the reminders that the higher-ups have no time, now that Sho has their attention, he’s obviously milking it for what’s it worth.
That decides it. Nino likes Sho, and he likes Sho a lot for his cheek.
Sho puts his glasses back on, pushing the frames up the bridge of his nose. “They are civilized enough to have a system,” Sho declares, full of confidence. “And a highly advanced system at that. Our recent victory in Niigata proves it. Once the category IV was subdued, a category III appeared in the same area in a matter of minutes. Of course there’s a chance that that category III just happened to be lurking in the right place at the right time, but what were the odds? If we assume that all attacks happening around the globe are predetermined, planned by something of a higher level than those we can categorize in our scales and detect in our scanners, then we can only assume that their plan to dominate Earth entirely is carefully thought out, beginning from the first wave.”
Nino feels Jun tense at his right. “If he’s saying what I think he’s saying,” Jun begins, and Nino finishes it for him, “then you might be right about that claim from two days ago, that they’re simply letting us win because it was all part of their plan.”
“Well shit,” Jun says, shaking his head once. “We’re up for something far bigger than expected.”
Nino can only smile as Sho continues proving his point to those in higher positions. “No kidding,” he says, meeting Ohno’s eyes across the room. “I hope I’m ready for this.”
--
He is, in fact, not ready.
It took three days of endless bickering and laying out of proposals before the old men in authority decided on a plan, and it took Nino two more days to learn about it because he and Jun had to fight a category II that surfaced in Shizuoka.
Drifting with Jun had become something comfortable for Nino that they were able to kill the kaiju with no problem, but Nino wishes that the plan the officials decided on was as easy to execute as pummelling a category II to the ground because it wasn’t.
“You all know your geography,” Ohno says during another planning meeting. “But in case someone needs reminding, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, and Yamanashi are the areas surrounding Tokyo. The drop-off is Shizuoka. From Shizuoka, the first step is to reclaim Kanagawa. We’re sending the Inferno for that, with Cruiser and Sentinel for backup. Diablo and Thunderbolt, you guys are on standby. If the Kanagawa mission is successful, we’re dropping you guys off at Minato for a meet-up. I’m afraid you all know what happens next.”
“Hunger Games,” Ikuta, the co-pilot of the Vesta Cruiser, says from Nino’s right. “So what, you’re dropping us in the edges of the nest? Hoping we get to Sumida on foot? That’s suicide. And that’s assuming we kill the category IV at Kanagawa and make it to the meet-up.”
Ohno cocks his head. “Fortunately, Korea is sending backup in the form of two Mark III Jaegers which will be dropped off at Koto upon assurance that Kanagawa is reclaimed. That should make seven Jaegers fighting their way to Sumida. The Air Force will be sending in all functional fighter planes, but the most recent aerial sweep done by Air Force showed us that the kaiju are congregating indeed, and they’re doing it faster than expected. Perhaps they’re aware that we noticed something.”
“What, they’re all in Sumida now?” Nino asks, and Ohno nods, looking grim.
“With a few strays consisting of categories I and II in surrounding divisions,” Ohno clarifies.
Nino runs his hands down his face. The plan is simple: get to Sumida and nuke it, and provided Sho was right with his theories, they intend to nuke the queen, therefore shutting down all kaiju activity within the area or as far as the queen’s reach is. Nino is inclined to believe that Sho’s theory is more than right; they have received recent reports of similar patterns from different places across the globe. Paris, Frankfurt, Reykjavik, Washington, as well as other places Nino didn’t bother to know. If all the rangers in active service manage to kill all the queens at the same time, it might end the war for good.
But the chances of them dying are very high. Tokyo is a hive and the strongest, most resilient of the monsters aggregated in one place. Nino never fought a category V before, and while he and Jun are skilled enough to take down a category II without breaking a sweat and cut off the head of a category IV, Nino believes they’re not ready for something like this.
“Who carries the gold?” Jun asks, pertaining to the bomb. “Someone has to, and if the plan is to protect that Jaeger to make sure they get the bomb in place, then sorry to say, Leader, but I’m with Toma. This is suicide. Even if Korea sends aid, even if other countries send in their Jaegers.”
“You all carry it,” comes the voice of Aiba, who enters the room with Sho in tow. “Sorry we’re late, but Leader sent me to pick up Sho-chan and Sho-chan wouldn’t leave his scans until they were all done. Anyway, you all carry it. I mean, you all have one, the Jaegers all have one inside them.”
It hits Nino then. “The reactors,” he says, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Whoever gets to the damn queen overloads the reactor of their Jaeger. I got to say, that’s original. Nuking the queen by overheating a robot.”
“It’s not the best plan, but it’s a plan,” Sho acknowledges, and Nino notices the lines under his eyes. He probably hasn’t gotten a lot of sleep ever since he heard of the plan.
“It’s still a shitty plan,” Jun declares, earning the nods of the other rangers as well as their murmurs of agreement. “It’s not even that much of a plan. You think we can make it to Sumida, distract three category V’s, overload a reactor and actually live to tell the tale? Doesn’t the government have any nuclear weaponry they can fire from the sky? Should be easier to do.”
“They do, and they just fired it,” Sho informs them, flicking a finger in front of a monitor to show them a holographic map of Japan, where Mukojima is blinking red. “Yesterday, to be specific. It’s exactly why they congregated near Narihira. The target didn’t hit its mark because it couldn’t detect the mother since the sensors were made to detect kaijus, but whatever it hit, it was enough to make them panic. They know we know, and they’re providing the best protection they have because of it.”
“Which makes the divisions surrounding Sumida almost barren,” Aiba supplements. “Just a stray one or two from my scanners, and I’m doing hourly sweeps now. I’ve scanned Sumida and there are seven kaijus there. Three of which, as you know, are category V’s. Two are III’s, one IV, and one II. There’s some baby kaijus detected, but they’re mostly in Koto.”
Nino hears Jun sigh. “Even if you say there are seven of them versus seven of us out there, assuming we all make it, that is, there’s still a chance of us getting beaten into fine paste by a category V,” Jun points out, earning the grim nods of the other rangers. Nino hates the odds and he can feel he’s not alone in that aspect. “And there are three of them so… I don’t know, Aiba, do the math. Worst case scenario will be all of us nuking ourselves at the same time, hoping we’ll get the queen in that range.”
“Assuming there is a queen, of course,” Ikuta adds, earning him a glare from Sho. Ikuta raises his hands in truce. “Sorry, Sho-kun. It’s the nerves. I don’t doubt your brains; you’re the brain that scans all the brains here, even kaiju brain at that, but we don’t have proof that there really is a queen there, transmitting signals to her lesser followers and stuff.”
“We don’t have proof because we don’t have a design that will give us proof,” Sho states, sounding a little irritated. “Our scanners can only detect a congregation of kaiju in one specific place and that is close to Narihira. Whatever’s out there in Sumida, that’s what we need to find out and destroy if we can. It might be our only chance.”
Nino shares a glance with Jun, and he knows Jun will be expecting him in the combat room after this. Best to make the most out of what time they have left. No one likes the plan except those who planned the plan, and sadly, they’re not the ones fighting the actual war. Nino lets out a loud sigh, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
“Does the cafeteria serve salisbury?” he asks suddenly, and from his side he can see Jun frown only for him to grin immediately after, catching on to Nino’s meaning immediately. Nino looks at the confused faces of everyone else and smiles. “Might be the last time I get to eat that. I’d rather eat it before I blow myself up with Jun-pon here. I suggest we all do the same.”
“What?” Ikuta asks, slightly laughing now because Nino’s comment has successfully lightened the mood, “Eat salisbury? All of us?”
Nino snorts, already standing up. “Don’t be stupid,” he says, shaking his head, “the cafeteria can’t have that much if they even have any, so if any of you bastards eat it before I do, god forbid I get hands on a nuclear reactor before you.”
--
“So we are sticking with the plan,” Nino huffs as he ducks to evade a blow Jun aimed at his temple. “The suicidal plan. Great. If I had known earlier I would have remained in Fukuoka. At least I’d just be smashed under kaiju feet if I die, not blown to bits.”
He swings his staff to an arc, aiming for Jun’s side, but Jun blocks the move with practiced ease. Nino is yet to beat Jun in a sparring session, because while Jun calculates his moves to the point they’re almost always predictable, he manages to lull Nino into a false sense of assurance only to do something completely unforeseen at the last minute.
If Nino didn’t know any better he’d call it underhanded.
“At least you got to eat your favorite food before you get ‘blown to bits’,” Jun tells him, crouching down to strike at Nino’s pelvis, something Nino blocks with his staff positioned under his arm. “I doubt they have salisbury in the Fukuoka shipyards.”
Nino grins at that. “How about you?” he asks, sidestepping a lunge that’s aimed at his throat. “Already ate your favorite croquettes? What were they again, crab cream?”
He can see Jun’s smile before Jun pivots on his heel to land a strike on Nino’s lower back, something Nino blocks by flipping his staff to the side. “You remember more than I expected,” Jun comments in a pleased tone. “Those are good, I tell you.”
Nino twists his trunk to aim for the back of Jun’s knees, something Jun anticipated and avoids with little problem. For all of Nino’s applied spontaneity when fighting, Jun somehow manages to predict his moves accordingly. “I don’t doubt how good they are,” Nino says, shifting his grip on his staff to block a move Jun directed at his shoulder. “Just not my thing. Whatever. Anything else you feel like doing before you die? You know, just to be sure you did it before it all happened.”
He sees Jun’s eyebrows lifting in thought as he rolls over, putting distance between him and his co-pilot. They’re both panting from the exertion, and Jun’s shirt is soaked in sweat as much as Nino’s tank top is. Nino always wondered why Jun never wore tank tops underneath his Shatterdome-issued jumpsuits, but Jun always shrugged whenever he asked the question, insisting that he feels more comfortable wearing something with sleeves.
“See the Louvre,” Jun answers after a moment, and Nino laughs loudly.
“Bit ambitious there, Matsumoto. But I suppose you and I can hijack a fighter plane if we live to tell the tale. We could use a vacation,” Nino says with a smile before assuming his ready stance.
Jun attacks first, aiming for Nino’s chin, but Nino blocks the move with his staff and ducks to aim for Jun’s cheek, stopping as his staff lightly rests against Jun’s skin. This close, Nino can see the scars left by puberty, and he remembers how pubescent Jun looked like, making him grin wider. “Did I ever tell you that you were a cute kid?” he asks, nearly laughing at Jun’s eyes narrowing at the change of topic. “All thick eyebrows and huge grin that could probably rival the sunrise. Real heartbreaker, I bet. I would have given you my chocolates.”
Jun’s response to that is to push his staff away and step back, only for him to lunge again, a move Nino didn’t expect. Nino finds the edge of Jun’s staff slightly poking him under the chin, and Jun smiles.
“That was the first thing you said to me, actually,” Jun reminds him, “that I was a cute kid. Didn’t think you meant it until now, but if you gave me your chocolates, don’t worry. I wouldn’t have the heart to turn down a snotty kid like you back in the day.”
Nino shoves Jun’s staff aside and uses his knee to knock Jun off balance, and Jun hits the ground with a grunt. Before he can move, however, Nino presses the tip of his staff to Jun’s collarbones in warning, a smug grin on his face. “Snotty kid is handing your ass to you now, heartbreaker. Back in the day this would have surely won me some of the die-hards from your team. They’d have switched to Team Ninomiya by now.”
Jun gives him a toothy grin before moving his legs, wrapping them around Nino’s waist to send Nino to the floor, and the impact makes his vision black out for a moment, the wind knocked out of him. Underhanded move that he totally didn’t expect, and he finds himself trapped by Jun’s weight on top of him, the edge of Jun’s staff right in front of his face.
Nino hates to admit it, but Jun wins the round. Again.
“I think you’d find that those in Team Matsumoto are well-taken care of,” Jun states, and Nino rolls his eyes at the cocky grin, “but should you feel inclined to join the club, you’re more than welcome to do so.”
“Fat chance,” Nino says, raising a challenging eyebrow even if he lost. “Just because I let you win doesn’t mean you’re actually winning.” Nino smirks at Jun’s frown, then continues. “For all we know I probably just like your weight on top of me,” he whispers, shooting Jun a haughty grin and moving his hips for emphasis, “and be honest, you like pinning me down like this too.”
Jun gets off him then, turning his back to him, but Nino can see his ears reddening as he gets to his feet. “Asshole,” Jun grumbles, and Nino laughs, placing his staff under his arm.
“And an incredibly charming one at that. Lucky you!” Nino says, already making his way to the racks to deposit his staff. Jun may come out victorious out of all of their sparring sessions, but for Nino, seeing Jun embarrassed and flustered and nothing like the Matsumoto Jun most people in the Shatterdome know, counts as his own personal win.
--
Nino isn’t shit at geography, but perhaps Sho was right about him growing too complacent because of their recent victories.
Just before “the plan” was put in motion, he and Jun were sent to deal with a category II that surfaced in Toyama, something they did with surprising ease. Surprising because Nino expected the kaijus to be more resilient bastards, and while it did take more than a plasma cannon fired at the right spot for the beast to go down, it wasn’t much of a challenge for them both. It was too much like Aiba’s simulations, and Nino regrets not listening to Jun when Jun pointed it out.
“That one was quick,” Nino commented then, with the both of them looking at smashed kaiju remains at their feet. It had six tails acting as tentacles, and he and Jun had to slice the things neatly before firing a missile down the creature’s throat when it let out a menacing roar.
“No,” Jun rebuffed, his face all serious. “That one was easy.”
Nino didn’t believe him then, but now that they’re in Kanagawa and fighting a category IV after it rendered the Xenon Inferno’s systems critical, Nino realizes that Sho was right about kaijus being civilized enough to have a system, because they are that advanced.
They’re playing with us, Nino thinks, and through the drift, he senses Jun’s disgruntled agreement. Much as Jun likes being right, he also hates being right about things like this.
The beast sends them flying with an unprecedented fierce sweep of its gigantic, spiky tail, and before Nino knows it, they’re out of Kanagawa and in the edges of Yamanashi, the flattened metal sign of the prefecture right in front of their viewscreen as the Sentinel gets sent to its hands and knees.
From here on is Yamanashi Prefecture, the sign reads, and Nino can’t stop his train of thought then. He vaguely hears Jun’s voice beside him, Jun’s frantic calls of his name and telling him to snap out of it. When Nino blinks, he’s back in a stormy night, the hard, unyielding streaks of lightning splitting the inky sky.
He sees Riisa bleeding and paralyzed on the ground, sparks flying over their heads because of snapped circuitry and malfunctioning machinery, bits of metal scattered on the floor of the Sentinel’s cockpit. There’s a hole at the Sentinel’s shoulder and water enters through it, dampening the metal ground near Nino’s feet. He follows the trail of water and sees it mix with thick blood, and he looks up as Riisa presses a closed fist right against Jun’s chest.
She’s heaving, clearly suffering in every second she spends breathing, and Nino goes down on his knees, feeling absolutely worthless as she lies dying. Nino can sense her pain and Jun’s. He can feel how she forces herself to look tough despite Jun knowing it’s all an act on her part. He can’t hear what they’re saying. It’s as if everything became muted and he is there watching it all happen frame-by-frame.
Riisa’s lips are moving, and Nino somehow understands what she says. It sends a wave of nausea in him, his regret and guilt building up, and when he shuts his eyes in desperation, he can almost feel himself tumbling down.
He snaps his eyes open and sees himself carrying a guitar and opening the door to their house in Katsushika, Riisa right on his heels. He’s back, he realizes, to being an ambitious dreamer ready to leave everything aside. Nino wants to scream, wants to tell himself how stupid and selfish he is but he can’t move. He can only stare at his young and clearly inexperienced self being insensitive and stubborn and he has to look away, fighting back the tears stinging at the corner of his eyes.
It’s not real, he tells himself, over and over. It’s not real, it’s just a memory. It’s not real.
But the guilt feels too real, and it comes hand in hand with regret. It tastes like bile coming up his throat, like acid running through his veins, rendering him immobile but sensitive to everything else. He feels absolutely vulnerable, like an utter failure even if it was only moments ago that he heard his sister claim that she didn’t hate him, that she never did. He feels helpless and completely worthless, shaking his head repeatedly to remind himself where he truly is.
The ground shakes and the next thing he sees, he’s in the Sentinel’s cockpit with Jun attached to the right. When he looks around, he sees the left empty, and he sees Jun trying to walk the Jaeger out of the Shatterdome, piloting it on his own.
Nino can feel the neural overload and it’s like having two brains inside his skull, both organs fighting for space and dominance. The pain is searing hot, like someone’s shoved a burning spike up his spine and he cringes, dropping to his knees once more. He’s breathing hard, and in his head he’s counting how many breaths he’s making as he wills himself to look up, seeing Jun almost making it out of the massive Shatterdome doors.
He forces his eyes to remain open even as he tears up, salt clouding his vision. His eyes feel like they’re burning and want to escape out of his sockets. The neural load is too much and he can see Jun’s hands beginning to tremble, Jun wincing at obvious pain he brings voluntarily upon himself. Jun trudges forward anyway, standing right before the Shatterdome doors before another wave of pain flares up through his body, making his eyes roll to the back of his head.
It’s not real, he repeats as he feels tiny pinpricks inside his head, like someone’s yanked him open and decided to play with what they see in there. Not real, I’m not here, I’m in the Sentinel, I’m with Jun. Jun.
Latching on to that thought sends him right back and he opens his eyes to the category IV charging at them as Ikuta’s voice booms through the intercom, saying, “Here it comes!”
Nino raises both arms instinctively and the Sentinel skids as the beast collides with them, its massive horn piercing through the metal. Alarms blare off at once and the Sentinel’s A.I. warns them of a hull breach, indicating the affected areas. The Sentinel’s forearms are damaged, rendering the sword and the missile launchers attached to it unusable.
Nino curses as the kaiju hits the Sentinel’s side with its spiky tail. They go flying, hitting a couple of shattered buildings in the process. There’s no time to look at Jun, not when the kaiju’s charging for them again, and Nino raises his right hand reflexively, praying the plasma cannon will go off at the right time and hit its mark accurately.
They fire thrice, one hitting the creature’s neck, the other two landing on its shoulder. Its blue, luminescent and acidic blood oozes out of its wounds but it charges at them still, and Nino crouches as he braces for impact.
The creature’s body collides with the Sentinel and Nino winces at the combined blow and weight. Somehow, he hears Jun’s order of “hold him!” and he bends both elbows, preventing the kaiju from using its clawed, scaly arms to scratch or swat at their armor and inflict more damage. It thrashes as Jun orders for the Cruiser to fire at it repeatedly, and Nino catches a glimpse of Jun enabling the coolant feature recently added to the Sentinel before Jun releases it on the kaiju’s tail.
The tail freezes and that only seems to make the beast angrier, elbowing the Sentinel hard on the side. Nino loses his grip on the creature, but he makes up for it by picking up an overturned bus and smashing it against the tail, shattering the part to massive crystalline pieces.
That earns them a deafening howl and Nino ducks, seeing Jun do the same as the kaiju whips around and tries to claw the Sentinel’s face off.
“Load the cannon,” Jun says, his voice hoarse and his fatigue obvious. Nino follows wordlessly, charging the two cannons on the Sentinel’s chest. He aims for the creature’s mouth and locks before asking the pilots of Vesta Cruiser to buy them some time.
“On my mark,” Jun begins, and Nino waits for the count as the Cruiser pounces, narrowly avoiding a blow aimed at its neck. Nino keeps his eye on the charger, hearing the Sentinel’s A.I. call out percentages every now and then, and he begs for it to go faster in his head as they hear Ikuta and his co-pilot Oguri struggle through the open comms.
“Now, Nino, fire it now!” Jun screams, and Nino does, releasing the cannons as the Cruiser forces the kaiju’s mouth open, enabling the Sentinel’s cannons to hit its mark. The kaiju’s head gets blown off in the process, sending the Cruiser to its knees behind it as the Sentinel goes down on one knee due to the force of the blast combined with their exhaustion.
The Sentinel’s A.I. warns them of malfunctioning systems, and Jun addresses Ohno over the comms. “We can’t make it to Sumida,” Jun says, and Nino can feel how hard he tries to keep it together. They’re exhausted and the Inferno is in critical condition while the Sentinel and the Cruiser need repairs, most of their weaponry useless and malfunctioning. “We can’t. Not today. Cancel the drop-off. We can’t meet them. You have to postpone.”
Ohno’s agreement is immediate. “Can you move? Do you need us to haul you back?”
“No,” Nino answers, his eyes on the Inferno’s prone form less than a mile before them. “We can carry Inferno back. Cruiser, can you guys move?”
He hears Ikuta and Oguri’s grunts in reply, and he and Jun make their way to the Inferno to put one of its arms over the Sentinel’s shoulders. Soon, the Cruiser joins them, heaving the Inferno’s other arm over its shoulders, and the six of them try to bring themselves back to Osaka on foot despite it being a long walk.
--
Nino opens his eyes to Sho’s disapproving face looking down at him and he turns to his side, keeping his eyes shut. The last thing he wants to see is Sho’s disappointment, but because his life is series after series of bad luck, it happens to be the first thing he sees upon waking up.
He hears Sho sigh. “Plan is postponed and all functional Jaegers are on standby for any red alerts. The Kanagawa trio, yes, that’s what you guys are called now, are up for repairs, but you and Jun are grounded on Satoshi-kun’s orders.”
That makes Nino’s eyes snap open. He turns back to Sho, wincing at the sudden pain on his shoulder blade. Sho shoots him another disapproving look. “You tore a muscle. Actually, you tore a lot of muscles, even ligaments. But sure, keep moving and injure yourself further. See if I care.”
“You do care,” Nino snaps, shifting on the bed carefully so as not to put any further strain on his body. “You care because you’re here in the infirmary when you have other ranger brains to look after.”
Sho raises an eyebrow but doesn’t rebuff his claim. For a while Nino is just staring at the analyst and his circular frames that would be comical if the situation were different, until he can’t take it anymore. “How’s he?” he asks, shutting his eyes. The pain in his shoulder renders the entirety of his right arm immobile and every shift he does on the bed makes the pain flare up.
“Who knows? He’s probably taking it even better than you are right now,” Sho says, catching on quickly, his voice still as disapproving as before. Nino feels like he’s being scolded right now, though he supposes it’s better that it’s Sho instead of Ohno. Maybe Sho’s preparing him for that. “What happened in there, Nino? We lost you for a moment.”
Nino has to take a deep breath to get the words out. He keeps his eyes shut, not wanting to look at Sho. “I chased the rabbit,” he admits, and he hears Sho snort.
“Obviously. But I’m not the guy you need to talk to about these things,” Sho acknowledges, and Nino can hear him stand up. “You’re not getting inside a Jaeger until you have my approval, and sorry to say but I’m only giving you the clear for light duty. Same with Jun. You guys can beat each other’s asses in the combat halls for all I care, but you’re not putting on a drivesuit anytime soon.”
“And the plan?” Nino asks, eyes snapping open to glare at Sho. “What about the plan? You need all the Jaegers you have for that.”
Sho shoots him a look. He’s almost out of the infirmary, but he turned around to face Nino fully. “You’re right,” Sho says, tilting his head. “We need all the Jaegers we have for that. But we need functional Jaegers and capable pilots for the plan, and sad to say, Nino, you’re neither.”
Sho leaves after that and Nino curses inwardly, thumping his head repeatedly against his pillows. It’s all his fault. He relapsed when he saw Yamanashi, latching on to the memory of his sister’s death and throwing himself and Jun out of alignment. Jun obviously managed to pull himself back but Nino took longer than usual, staying trapped in his and Jun’s memories for too long and compromising not only themselves but also the mission.
Had he stayed a second longer he and Jun would have died.
Now the Sentinel’s up for repairs and he and Jun are grounded on Ohno’s orders. Ohno is well in his right to ground them. If Ohno was here right now, Nino knows he wouldn’t find the strength to say to Ohno’s face that it was a mistake that wouldn’t happen again. Sho was right about him growing too complacent. He grew cocky, confident, and when he least expected it, his ghosts came back for a second haunting with the worst possible timing.
He ended up becoming a liability and dragging Jun down with him and the pain it brings him is so much worse than the pain constantly flaring up in his shoulder. He wishes he could stop feeling because the sensations come flooding all at once: the regret and the guilt over what he had done, the anger and frustration at himself, and the sympathy for Jun and what Jun tried to do.
Somehow, because of his relapse, Nino managed to enter into Jun’s most guarded memories, the memories they were all trained to keep safe in officer training. Nino has his own too, a lingering fear he fiercely protects and is not willing to show to anyone, but since he threw himself and Jun out of alignment despite having a strong connection, he tapped into Jun’s memories without consent and saw something he knows Jun never wanted for him to see.
Jun tried to solo pilot a Jaeger after his sister’s death as a form of penance. It was eventual suicide to try to bear a Jaeger’s neural load on your own but Jun did it knowingly, even making it to the doors of the Shatterdome. Ever since Nino drifted with Jun, he has known of Jun’s guilt over his sister’s sacrifice, even how Jun felt upon seeing his face for the first time.
What he never knew until now was the extent of that guilt and how Jun tried to fight it, only for him to succumb to it in the end. Now Nino understands why Jun never loses the shirt in his presence, why he never wears anything other than a shirt in all their sparring sessions.
Jun has battle scars, physical and unerasable evidence of what he tried to do to atone for his guilt. This was a side of him that Jun never wanted for him to know for obvious reasons, but because of Nino’s miscalculation, Jun’s secret is out in the worst possible manner.
Nino wants to throw up at the onslaught of emotions, finding that he’ll choose physical turmoil over any of this any day. He can handle being tossed and pushed and shoved to the ground, he can take punches and kicks and blows delivered to any part of his body, but for the first time he realizes that he can’t bear the brunt of Jun’s guilt because while he has forgiven Jun over time, Jun still hasn’t forgiven himself.
And Nino doesn’t know how to fix that. He’s incapable of helping the person his sister willingly gave her life for, and it’s as if he’s causing her disappointment as much as he disappointed Jun. He feels worthless and when he turns around to face the consequences of his actions, it’s as if all the ghosts that were chasing after him finally caught up, swallowing him whole without hesitation. It’s as if locking the doors to prevent the ghosts from coming in failed and now they’re crowding him, suffocating him and reminding him that there was no point in running away.
He remains there in one of the infirmary beds, not getting a drop of sleep, thinking of his sister and how in the end, he’s nothing but a failure.
--
It’s Aiba who gives him the okay to leave the infirmary after two days. Aiba doesn’t necessarily have the authority, but he happens to be very good friends with the Shatterdome doctor, even calling the man “Kazapon” at one point.
Nino departs from the infirmary with bandages wrapped around his torso, and he’s tugging at a loose shirt to cover himself as Aiba’s gentle hand on the small of his back guides him outside. Aiba’s presence is comforting because Nino never heard any form of judgment from Aiba when he showed up in the infirmary. There was no disappointment in his eyes, just the usual jovial Aiba whom Nino got used to looking at when he was still trying to prove his worth in the simulation halls.
“A category II showed up in Fukuoka,” Aiba informs him as they sit across each other in cafeteria. Nino’s stuck on soft foods for a while, and he plays with his mashed potatoes as Aiba stuffs curry rice inside his mouth.
Nino narrows his eyes at the information and Aiba nods. “Pulverized Fukuoka. We were too far to be able to send aid immediately. Thunderbolt handled it as quickly as they could, but the damage was already severe. Whatever the shipyards were building, well, they’re not going to fly anytime soon.”
“They’re trying to prevent us from leaving Earth,” Nino murmurs, and Aiba hums before pointing at him with a spoon.
“Sho-chan was right about these guys being far more advanced than us, that while they don’t know whatever plan their queen has for us, they know how to follow orders well enough to carry them out efficiently.” Aiba picks his teeth using one of his nails, his face scrunching as he tries to remove a bead of rice stuck between his teeth. “Which makes the higher-ups panic because, as you and I know, those old geezers were the first ones on the list to leave Earth once the spacecrafts were finished.”
Nino can imagine how “Beardy”, the guy Sho easily floored in the last meeting, wouldn’t be too enthralled to hear that. He also catches on to whatever Aiba’s implying. “We need to move,” he says quietly, and Aiba meets his eyes. “We need to move fast because they’re moving. They’re taunting us and we have to do something about that as soon as we can.”
Aiba makes an annoyed face at failing to get the rice stuck between his teeth, but when he turns to Nino, he’s all serious. “You and Jun-tan are grounded though. Leader says you’re not ready and Sho-chan agrees with him. I’m afraid my connection only stretches as far as the infirmary so I can’t get you out of the Shatterdome’s doors even if I use all the tricks up my sleeves.” Aiba looks apologetic. “Sorry, Nino.”
Nino waves a hand to dismiss Aiba’s apology. Aiba went as far as getting him out of the infirmary ahead of schedule and informed him of the recent events as if nothing has changed. Aiba has done more than enough and Nino is thankful for it. “You think Ohno will listen to anything I might have to say?”
Aiba looks thoughtful for a moment. “No,” he says honestly, and Nino nods, already knowing the answer even before he asked the question. He draws an X on his potatoes using the fork, and it’s then he sees Aiba grin.
“But I think Leader will listen to what both pilots of the Sentinel might have to say.”
Part 4
natsunonamaeFrom:
64907Part 2
The Shatterdome celebrates their victory as the higher-ups declare Niigata as part of the prefectures now back in the hands of the nation. Nino isn’t much for attention, but he admits that all the appreciative smiles and joyous cheers he hears (some shout his name and Jun’s, some go for the Sentinel) help uplift the mood as he makes his way to Sakurai’s office for psych eval.
The moment Sakurai opens his door, Nino immediately raises his hands in surrender. He’s still in his drivesuit, though he already deposited his helmet with a drivesuit technician earlier when he and Jun got back from decontamination. Jun is somewhere with Aiba, already discussing some possible reinforcements to the Sentinel’s chest armor and adding a coolant fuse somewhere to her weaponry, but Nino knows that after his session with Sakurai, it’s going to be Jun’s turn.
Sakurai’s job is not as simple as Nino made it out to be some months ago. It’s his duty to make sure that rangers are coming back in one piece mentally and are able to put on their drivesuits the next time they’re asked to. Nino has just come back from his first field experience, and while it did turn out to be another victory for the nation, he still feels incredibly overwhelmed by the experience.
“You have to admit, Sho-yan,” Nino says, making Sakurai roll his eyes, “I kicked some ass back there.” He grins, loving every second of Sho’s reactions. He only calls the analyst Sho-yan when he’s feeling particularly good about himself, like now.
“Yes, yes,” Sho says dismissively, already asking him to lie down as Sho maneuvers some equipment for quick brain scans, “though I have to say, you still need to learn what it means to not engage.”
Nino scoffs as the monitor on his side shows readouts and highlights certain areas of his brain, and Sho flicks a finger to turn it to a holographic imagery. “If we hadn’t engaged, you guys would have been repairing three Jaegers instead of one.” The Diablo suffered a bit of damage from Yoshi Gone Wild, but it was deemed fixable in a week or two by the technicians and engineers.
Sho gives him the clear for active duty and Nino jumps off the cushions of the medical bed. “Don’t grow too complacent, Nino,” Sho warns, and he sounds so much like an older brother that it makes Nino cock an eyebrow. “We won today, yes, but we still don’t know what’s out there. We just got word that Tokyo is a hive when the air force did a government-ordered aerial sweep.”
Nino narrows his eyes, wondering if Jun already knows about this. “So, the surrounding prefectures are heavily infested by kaiju,” he says carefully, and Sho nods. “Why would they congregate in one place? You think they’re protecting something?”
Sho looks behind him, and Nino turns just in time to see Jun leaning against the doorframe of Sho’s office, his eyes as serious as ever. “Or they could be luring us to destroy all our Jaegers once and for all,” Jun says, the earlier elation from their victory mostly gone from his face. “It might be a trap. Today’s win might also be a trap, to make us believe we’re pushing them back when we’re probably not even close to it.”
Nino hates it, but Jun speaks the truth and he knows it as much as Sho does. Sho sighs, raising both hands. “I’m not exactly in the position to dispel theories and offer my input,” he says, already stepping aside and extending a hand towards the medical bed. “I’m just the brain scan dude, after all.”
Jun enters the room to sit on the bed and to allow Sho’s machines to latch themselves in different parts of his head. “You ever tried scanning kaiju brain with your machines, Sho-san?” Jun asks as the monotonous computer voice announces Jun’s ranger number like it did with Nino earlier.
Nino doesn’t feel like he’s intruding, in fact, Jun shoots him a glance that tells him not to go anywhere and he obliges, making himself comfortable in Sho’s office as he watches Sho shuffle about and tinker with his different monitors and input some data into his clipboard.
Sho suddenly grins at Jun’s question, like he’s the one who actually subdued a category IV and Nino finds a side to Sho that he likes. “Well,” Sho says, taking off his absurd-looking rounded glasses, “who do you guys think was responsible for the term ‘hive’?”
--
After two days of celebration all over the Shatterdome, he and Jun finds themselves in a meeting with all the other active rangers and Shatterdome officials, the proceedings and discussions they’re having being relayed to the higher-ups via conference holo. This is the part Nino dislikes, if he’s going to be honest. He’s okay with the training, the combat room, the drifting, even the part where they fight the kaiju. What he hates is the politics that’s bound to come after, and how he immediately becomes a part of it after Niigata.
“How many times did you sit in this room and watch those old men bicker amongst themselves when they’re not even the ones risking their lives?” he whispers to Jun who’s sitting on his right, and the corner of Jun’s lips turn up.
“Too many,” Jun whispers back, and Nino can tell from his body language that he’s as annoyed as Nino himself is. Nino likes that he doesn’t need to be connected to Jun to know, that he just knows. “Your sister hated this part too. She would chew gum and pop it loudly once the old men stopped talking.”
Nino tries not to laugh, but he can imagine it too clearly. It’s something he might be inclined to do provided he can get chewing gum somewhere around here. He makes a mental note to check the cafeteria next time there’s a meeting like this.
“Do we really need to watch them talk over each other as they figure out whether they want Tokyo back or not?” Nino asks out of the corner of his mouth when one man from the Defense Corps begins throwing around accusations to the other members of the conference. “I mean, we all know they want Tokyo back so is this part really necessary? Why don’t we just get to the part where we actually plan the plan?”
“Because we’re the ones fighting this war, not them,” Jun tells him, his eyes slightly narrowed, and Nino resolves to cross his arms over his chest as he eyes the scene with a bored expression.
“Gentlemen,” Ohno’s calm voice calls out, and Nino has no idea how he did it, but that one word from the small man managed to silence the ongoing arguments, “as you’ve all been informed by Air Force, Tokyo has become a nest. This Shatterdome did a preliminary sweep in the area using our scanners and we have determined three category V kaijus in Sumida, as well as kaijus of lower categories in surrounding areas. My colleague Sakurai here calls Tokyo a hive.”
One bearded man from the holo screen frowns at Ohno’s statement. “The Air Force refer to it as a nest and we agree with them. What’s the difference between our term and yours?”
Nino can see Ohno smiling before the fightmaster shakes his head. “Not mine,” Ohno says, stepping aside to give Sho the floor, “his. He’ll be more suited to answer your questions, I believe.”
“Okay, this part I like,” Nino whispers to Jun as they both watch Sho take Ohno’s place. Sho has his weird glasses back on, amplifying the roundness of his face, and Nino thinks the old geezers won’t take him seriously unless he says the right words. Somehow, he finds himself cheering for Sho inwardly, hoping that the guy won’t screw this up.
The bearded official onscreen turns to Sho, his eyebrow raised in obvious doubt regarding Sho’s capabilities. The ugly side of politics, Nino discovers, is that whoever has the power believes he has no time to listen to the input of someone he already deemed to be lower than him. Nino hates the guy already, knowing that while he’s risking his life along with his fellow rangers, this man is hiding in a safehouse in a confidential location, waiting for a chance to bark orders, knowing that the chances of those disobeyed were very low given his standing in the government.
But before the man can open his mouth, Sho speaks up. “I called it a hive, sir,” he begins, and Nino wants to applaud him for the sarcasm rich in his voice but he restrains himself, “because they’re congregating in Sumida for reasons unknown. We have never seen kaijus as high as category V assemble in one place before. I believe they’re there because something needs them to be there.”
“Something?” the man asks, still looking skeptical, “Clarify, Sakurai-san. We have no time for theories, not when kaiju activities all over the globe are increasing in frequency. Japan is not the only nation suffering at the hands of these monsters. We act in solidarity as we take a stand to fight for our future, and we have no time to listen to the ramblings of one analyst from Osaka.”
Nino sees Sho tilt his head at the statement. “Of course. Forgive me, I wouldn’t presume to know of the world affairs, not when those monsters are knocking at our doors every now and then and the war is happening right here.”
Nino would give it to Sho, the analyst knows how to keep his temper in check and mask it with humility, but he also knows how to remind people that he knows what he’s talking about judging from the way he speaks, and Nino’s respect for him increases because of it. Sho continues, his voice as even as before, “I believe the category V’s are there because they’re acting as bodyguards.”
That gets the higher-ups riled up, and soon enough there’s a barrage of one voice after another, something Nino rolls his eyes at for the predictability of it. He leans a little to his right for Jun to hear him. “Is Sho-chan this badass every time there’s a meeting like this? I should have signed up earlier if that was the case; this feels like something I should have seen ages ago.”
Jun grins. “He never had to speak up in the past because we never reached something like this before. But better late than never, right? I think beard guy is already pissed at him for being such a smartass.”
“Beard guy’s about to get hell from Sho-chan,” Nino says proudly, smiling wider.
“With all due respect,” Sho says, his voice loud enough to silence the already bickering officials, “I believe they’re protecting something that’s in Sumida. I have no idea what exactly, but I wouldn’t call it a hive if I didn’t have an inkling or two.”
Nino’s eyes narrow, and he sees the rest of the rangers straighten in their seats. He feels Jun nudging him with an elbow, and he leans a little to the side to hear what Jun has to say.
“A mother,” Jun whispers, and it’s exactly the same thing Nino’s thinking of. Sho’s talking about the primary component in a thriving hive, a queen. Nino has played too many games in the past to know that Sho’s theory has some merit.
“If you have doubts,” Sho continues as he scans his clipboard, “and I’m sure do, I will have you know that as an analyst, I asked for the brain scans of a kaiju subdued in Australia. The results of which were forwarded to me, and I compared them to the past brain scans I oversaw myself with my own team here. The brains had one thing in common, a connective tissue which functions as a sensor and a relay organ for transmitted messages. The method eludes me still; I assume it’s part of the things we still don’t know about the kaiju, but it allows them to communicate to something that’s not in the same area.”
One of the officials on screen, a bald man with thick eyebrows, speaks up. “You’re saying they’re using that part of their brain to communicate with a mother? A queen, a leader of sorts that commands them? This is like saying you believe the kaiju are civilized enough to have a system.”
All eyes in the room are on Sho now, and Nino watches as the analyst removes his glasses to wipe them using his lab coat. Nino smirks. For all the reminders that the higher-ups have no time, now that Sho has their attention, he’s obviously milking it for what’s it worth.
That decides it. Nino likes Sho, and he likes Sho a lot for his cheek.
Sho puts his glasses back on, pushing the frames up the bridge of his nose. “They are civilized enough to have a system,” Sho declares, full of confidence. “And a highly advanced system at that. Our recent victory in Niigata proves it. Once the category IV was subdued, a category III appeared in the same area in a matter of minutes. Of course there’s a chance that that category III just happened to be lurking in the right place at the right time, but what were the odds? If we assume that all attacks happening around the globe are predetermined, planned by something of a higher level than those we can categorize in our scales and detect in our scanners, then we can only assume that their plan to dominate Earth entirely is carefully thought out, beginning from the first wave.”
Nino feels Jun tense at his right. “If he’s saying what I think he’s saying,” Jun begins, and Nino finishes it for him, “then you might be right about that claim from two days ago, that they’re simply letting us win because it was all part of their plan.”
“Well shit,” Jun says, shaking his head once. “We’re up for something far bigger than expected.”
Nino can only smile as Sho continues proving his point to those in higher positions. “No kidding,” he says, meeting Ohno’s eyes across the room. “I hope I’m ready for this.”
--
He is, in fact, not ready.
It took three days of endless bickering and laying out of proposals before the old men in authority decided on a plan, and it took Nino two more days to learn about it because he and Jun had to fight a category II that surfaced in Shizuoka.
Drifting with Jun had become something comfortable for Nino that they were able to kill the kaiju with no problem, but Nino wishes that the plan the officials decided on was as easy to execute as pummelling a category II to the ground because it wasn’t.
“You all know your geography,” Ohno says during another planning meeting. “But in case someone needs reminding, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, and Yamanashi are the areas surrounding Tokyo. The drop-off is Shizuoka. From Shizuoka, the first step is to reclaim Kanagawa. We’re sending the Inferno for that, with Cruiser and Sentinel for backup. Diablo and Thunderbolt, you guys are on standby. If the Kanagawa mission is successful, we’re dropping you guys off at Minato for a meet-up. I’m afraid you all know what happens next.”
“Hunger Games,” Ikuta, the co-pilot of the Vesta Cruiser, says from Nino’s right. “So what, you’re dropping us in the edges of the nest? Hoping we get to Sumida on foot? That’s suicide. And that’s assuming we kill the category IV at Kanagawa and make it to the meet-up.”
Ohno cocks his head. “Fortunately, Korea is sending backup in the form of two Mark III Jaegers which will be dropped off at Koto upon assurance that Kanagawa is reclaimed. That should make seven Jaegers fighting their way to Sumida. The Air Force will be sending in all functional fighter planes, but the most recent aerial sweep done by Air Force showed us that the kaiju are congregating indeed, and they’re doing it faster than expected. Perhaps they’re aware that we noticed something.”
“What, they’re all in Sumida now?” Nino asks, and Ohno nods, looking grim.
“With a few strays consisting of categories I and II in surrounding divisions,” Ohno clarifies.
Nino runs his hands down his face. The plan is simple: get to Sumida and nuke it, and provided Sho was right with his theories, they intend to nuke the queen, therefore shutting down all kaiju activity within the area or as far as the queen’s reach is. Nino is inclined to believe that Sho’s theory is more than right; they have received recent reports of similar patterns from different places across the globe. Paris, Frankfurt, Reykjavik, Washington, as well as other places Nino didn’t bother to know. If all the rangers in active service manage to kill all the queens at the same time, it might end the war for good.
But the chances of them dying are very high. Tokyo is a hive and the strongest, most resilient of the monsters aggregated in one place. Nino never fought a category V before, and while he and Jun are skilled enough to take down a category II without breaking a sweat and cut off the head of a category IV, Nino believes they’re not ready for something like this.
“Who carries the gold?” Jun asks, pertaining to the bomb. “Someone has to, and if the plan is to protect that Jaeger to make sure they get the bomb in place, then sorry to say, Leader, but I’m with Toma. This is suicide. Even if Korea sends aid, even if other countries send in their Jaegers.”
“You all carry it,” comes the voice of Aiba, who enters the room with Sho in tow. “Sorry we’re late, but Leader sent me to pick up Sho-chan and Sho-chan wouldn’t leave his scans until they were all done. Anyway, you all carry it. I mean, you all have one, the Jaegers all have one inside them.”
It hits Nino then. “The reactors,” he says, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Whoever gets to the damn queen overloads the reactor of their Jaeger. I got to say, that’s original. Nuking the queen by overheating a robot.”
“It’s not the best plan, but it’s a plan,” Sho acknowledges, and Nino notices the lines under his eyes. He probably hasn’t gotten a lot of sleep ever since he heard of the plan.
“It’s still a shitty plan,” Jun declares, earning the nods of the other rangers as well as their murmurs of agreement. “It’s not even that much of a plan. You think we can make it to Sumida, distract three category V’s, overload a reactor and actually live to tell the tale? Doesn’t the government have any nuclear weaponry they can fire from the sky? Should be easier to do.”
“They do, and they just fired it,” Sho informs them, flicking a finger in front of a monitor to show them a holographic map of Japan, where Mukojima is blinking red. “Yesterday, to be specific. It’s exactly why they congregated near Narihira. The target didn’t hit its mark because it couldn’t detect the mother since the sensors were made to detect kaijus, but whatever it hit, it was enough to make them panic. They know we know, and they’re providing the best protection they have because of it.”
“Which makes the divisions surrounding Sumida almost barren,” Aiba supplements. “Just a stray one or two from my scanners, and I’m doing hourly sweeps now. I’ve scanned Sumida and there are seven kaijus there. Three of which, as you know, are category V’s. Two are III’s, one IV, and one II. There’s some baby kaijus detected, but they’re mostly in Koto.”
Nino hears Jun sigh. “Even if you say there are seven of them versus seven of us out there, assuming we all make it, that is, there’s still a chance of us getting beaten into fine paste by a category V,” Jun points out, earning the grim nods of the other rangers. Nino hates the odds and he can feel he’s not alone in that aspect. “And there are three of them so… I don’t know, Aiba, do the math. Worst case scenario will be all of us nuking ourselves at the same time, hoping we’ll get the queen in that range.”
“Assuming there is a queen, of course,” Ikuta adds, earning him a glare from Sho. Ikuta raises his hands in truce. “Sorry, Sho-kun. It’s the nerves. I don’t doubt your brains; you’re the brain that scans all the brains here, even kaiju brain at that, but we don’t have proof that there really is a queen there, transmitting signals to her lesser followers and stuff.”
“We don’t have proof because we don’t have a design that will give us proof,” Sho states, sounding a little irritated. “Our scanners can only detect a congregation of kaiju in one specific place and that is close to Narihira. Whatever’s out there in Sumida, that’s what we need to find out and destroy if we can. It might be our only chance.”
Nino shares a glance with Jun, and he knows Jun will be expecting him in the combat room after this. Best to make the most out of what time they have left. No one likes the plan except those who planned the plan, and sadly, they’re not the ones fighting the actual war. Nino lets out a loud sigh, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
“Does the cafeteria serve salisbury?” he asks suddenly, and from his side he can see Jun frown only for him to grin immediately after, catching on to Nino’s meaning immediately. Nino looks at the confused faces of everyone else and smiles. “Might be the last time I get to eat that. I’d rather eat it before I blow myself up with Jun-pon here. I suggest we all do the same.”
“What?” Ikuta asks, slightly laughing now because Nino’s comment has successfully lightened the mood, “Eat salisbury? All of us?”
Nino snorts, already standing up. “Don’t be stupid,” he says, shaking his head, “the cafeteria can’t have that much if they even have any, so if any of you bastards eat it before I do, god forbid I get hands on a nuclear reactor before you.”
--
“So we are sticking with the plan,” Nino huffs as he ducks to evade a blow Jun aimed at his temple. “The suicidal plan. Great. If I had known earlier I would have remained in Fukuoka. At least I’d just be smashed under kaiju feet if I die, not blown to bits.”
He swings his staff to an arc, aiming for Jun’s side, but Jun blocks the move with practiced ease. Nino is yet to beat Jun in a sparring session, because while Jun calculates his moves to the point they’re almost always predictable, he manages to lull Nino into a false sense of assurance only to do something completely unforeseen at the last minute.
If Nino didn’t know any better he’d call it underhanded.
“At least you got to eat your favorite food before you get ‘blown to bits’,” Jun tells him, crouching down to strike at Nino’s pelvis, something Nino blocks with his staff positioned under his arm. “I doubt they have salisbury in the Fukuoka shipyards.”
Nino grins at that. “How about you?” he asks, sidestepping a lunge that’s aimed at his throat. “Already ate your favorite croquettes? What were they again, crab cream?”
He can see Jun’s smile before Jun pivots on his heel to land a strike on Nino’s lower back, something Nino blocks by flipping his staff to the side. “You remember more than I expected,” Jun comments in a pleased tone. “Those are good, I tell you.”
Nino twists his trunk to aim for the back of Jun’s knees, something Jun anticipated and avoids with little problem. For all of Nino’s applied spontaneity when fighting, Jun somehow manages to predict his moves accordingly. “I don’t doubt how good they are,” Nino says, shifting his grip on his staff to block a move Jun directed at his shoulder. “Just not my thing. Whatever. Anything else you feel like doing before you die? You know, just to be sure you did it before it all happened.”
He sees Jun’s eyebrows lifting in thought as he rolls over, putting distance between him and his co-pilot. They’re both panting from the exertion, and Jun’s shirt is soaked in sweat as much as Nino’s tank top is. Nino always wondered why Jun never wore tank tops underneath his Shatterdome-issued jumpsuits, but Jun always shrugged whenever he asked the question, insisting that he feels more comfortable wearing something with sleeves.
“See the Louvre,” Jun answers after a moment, and Nino laughs loudly.
“Bit ambitious there, Matsumoto. But I suppose you and I can hijack a fighter plane if we live to tell the tale. We could use a vacation,” Nino says with a smile before assuming his ready stance.
Jun attacks first, aiming for Nino’s chin, but Nino blocks the move with his staff and ducks to aim for Jun’s cheek, stopping as his staff lightly rests against Jun’s skin. This close, Nino can see the scars left by puberty, and he remembers how pubescent Jun looked like, making him grin wider. “Did I ever tell you that you were a cute kid?” he asks, nearly laughing at Jun’s eyes narrowing at the change of topic. “All thick eyebrows and huge grin that could probably rival the sunrise. Real heartbreaker, I bet. I would have given you my chocolates.”
Jun’s response to that is to push his staff away and step back, only for him to lunge again, a move Nino didn’t expect. Nino finds the edge of Jun’s staff slightly poking him under the chin, and Jun smiles.
“That was the first thing you said to me, actually,” Jun reminds him, “that I was a cute kid. Didn’t think you meant it until now, but if you gave me your chocolates, don’t worry. I wouldn’t have the heart to turn down a snotty kid like you back in the day.”
Nino shoves Jun’s staff aside and uses his knee to knock Jun off balance, and Jun hits the ground with a grunt. Before he can move, however, Nino presses the tip of his staff to Jun’s collarbones in warning, a smug grin on his face. “Snotty kid is handing your ass to you now, heartbreaker. Back in the day this would have surely won me some of the die-hards from your team. They’d have switched to Team Ninomiya by now.”
Jun gives him a toothy grin before moving his legs, wrapping them around Nino’s waist to send Nino to the floor, and the impact makes his vision black out for a moment, the wind knocked out of him. Underhanded move that he totally didn’t expect, and he finds himself trapped by Jun’s weight on top of him, the edge of Jun’s staff right in front of his face.
Nino hates to admit it, but Jun wins the round. Again.
“I think you’d find that those in Team Matsumoto are well-taken care of,” Jun states, and Nino rolls his eyes at the cocky grin, “but should you feel inclined to join the club, you’re more than welcome to do so.”
“Fat chance,” Nino says, raising a challenging eyebrow even if he lost. “Just because I let you win doesn’t mean you’re actually winning.” Nino smirks at Jun’s frown, then continues. “For all we know I probably just like your weight on top of me,” he whispers, shooting Jun a haughty grin and moving his hips for emphasis, “and be honest, you like pinning me down like this too.”
Jun gets off him then, turning his back to him, but Nino can see his ears reddening as he gets to his feet. “Asshole,” Jun grumbles, and Nino laughs, placing his staff under his arm.
“And an incredibly charming one at that. Lucky you!” Nino says, already making his way to the racks to deposit his staff. Jun may come out victorious out of all of their sparring sessions, but for Nino, seeing Jun embarrassed and flustered and nothing like the Matsumoto Jun most people in the Shatterdome know, counts as his own personal win.
--
Nino isn’t shit at geography, but perhaps Sho was right about him growing too complacent because of their recent victories.
Just before “the plan” was put in motion, he and Jun were sent to deal with a category II that surfaced in Toyama, something they did with surprising ease. Surprising because Nino expected the kaijus to be more resilient bastards, and while it did take more than a plasma cannon fired at the right spot for the beast to go down, it wasn’t much of a challenge for them both. It was too much like Aiba’s simulations, and Nino regrets not listening to Jun when Jun pointed it out.
“That one was quick,” Nino commented then, with the both of them looking at smashed kaiju remains at their feet. It had six tails acting as tentacles, and he and Jun had to slice the things neatly before firing a missile down the creature’s throat when it let out a menacing roar.
“No,” Jun rebuffed, his face all serious. “That one was easy.”
Nino didn’t believe him then, but now that they’re in Kanagawa and fighting a category IV after it rendered the Xenon Inferno’s systems critical, Nino realizes that Sho was right about kaijus being civilized enough to have a system, because they are that advanced.
They’re playing with us, Nino thinks, and through the drift, he senses Jun’s disgruntled agreement. Much as Jun likes being right, he also hates being right about things like this.
The beast sends them flying with an unprecedented fierce sweep of its gigantic, spiky tail, and before Nino knows it, they’re out of Kanagawa and in the edges of Yamanashi, the flattened metal sign of the prefecture right in front of their viewscreen as the Sentinel gets sent to its hands and knees.
From here on is Yamanashi Prefecture, the sign reads, and Nino can’t stop his train of thought then. He vaguely hears Jun’s voice beside him, Jun’s frantic calls of his name and telling him to snap out of it. When Nino blinks, he’s back in a stormy night, the hard, unyielding streaks of lightning splitting the inky sky.
He sees Riisa bleeding and paralyzed on the ground, sparks flying over their heads because of snapped circuitry and malfunctioning machinery, bits of metal scattered on the floor of the Sentinel’s cockpit. There’s a hole at the Sentinel’s shoulder and water enters through it, dampening the metal ground near Nino’s feet. He follows the trail of water and sees it mix with thick blood, and he looks up as Riisa presses a closed fist right against Jun’s chest.
She’s heaving, clearly suffering in every second she spends breathing, and Nino goes down on his knees, feeling absolutely worthless as she lies dying. Nino can sense her pain and Jun’s. He can feel how she forces herself to look tough despite Jun knowing it’s all an act on her part. He can’t hear what they’re saying. It’s as if everything became muted and he is there watching it all happen frame-by-frame.
Riisa’s lips are moving, and Nino somehow understands what she says. It sends a wave of nausea in him, his regret and guilt building up, and when he shuts his eyes in desperation, he can almost feel himself tumbling down.
He snaps his eyes open and sees himself carrying a guitar and opening the door to their house in Katsushika, Riisa right on his heels. He’s back, he realizes, to being an ambitious dreamer ready to leave everything aside. Nino wants to scream, wants to tell himself how stupid and selfish he is but he can’t move. He can only stare at his young and clearly inexperienced self being insensitive and stubborn and he has to look away, fighting back the tears stinging at the corner of his eyes.
It’s not real, he tells himself, over and over. It’s not real, it’s just a memory. It’s not real.
But the guilt feels too real, and it comes hand in hand with regret. It tastes like bile coming up his throat, like acid running through his veins, rendering him immobile but sensitive to everything else. He feels absolutely vulnerable, like an utter failure even if it was only moments ago that he heard his sister claim that she didn’t hate him, that she never did. He feels helpless and completely worthless, shaking his head repeatedly to remind himself where he truly is.
The ground shakes and the next thing he sees, he’s in the Sentinel’s cockpit with Jun attached to the right. When he looks around, he sees the left empty, and he sees Jun trying to walk the Jaeger out of the Shatterdome, piloting it on his own.
Nino can feel the neural overload and it’s like having two brains inside his skull, both organs fighting for space and dominance. The pain is searing hot, like someone’s shoved a burning spike up his spine and he cringes, dropping to his knees once more. He’s breathing hard, and in his head he’s counting how many breaths he’s making as he wills himself to look up, seeing Jun almost making it out of the massive Shatterdome doors.
He forces his eyes to remain open even as he tears up, salt clouding his vision. His eyes feel like they’re burning and want to escape out of his sockets. The neural load is too much and he can see Jun’s hands beginning to tremble, Jun wincing at obvious pain he brings voluntarily upon himself. Jun trudges forward anyway, standing right before the Shatterdome doors before another wave of pain flares up through his body, making his eyes roll to the back of his head.
It’s not real, he repeats as he feels tiny pinpricks inside his head, like someone’s yanked him open and decided to play with what they see in there. Not real, I’m not here, I’m in the Sentinel, I’m with Jun. Jun.
Latching on to that thought sends him right back and he opens his eyes to the category IV charging at them as Ikuta’s voice booms through the intercom, saying, “Here it comes!”
Nino raises both arms instinctively and the Sentinel skids as the beast collides with them, its massive horn piercing through the metal. Alarms blare off at once and the Sentinel’s A.I. warns them of a hull breach, indicating the affected areas. The Sentinel’s forearms are damaged, rendering the sword and the missile launchers attached to it unusable.
Nino curses as the kaiju hits the Sentinel’s side with its spiky tail. They go flying, hitting a couple of shattered buildings in the process. There’s no time to look at Jun, not when the kaiju’s charging for them again, and Nino raises his right hand reflexively, praying the plasma cannon will go off at the right time and hit its mark accurately.
They fire thrice, one hitting the creature’s neck, the other two landing on its shoulder. Its blue, luminescent and acidic blood oozes out of its wounds but it charges at them still, and Nino crouches as he braces for impact.
The creature’s body collides with the Sentinel and Nino winces at the combined blow and weight. Somehow, he hears Jun’s order of “hold him!” and he bends both elbows, preventing the kaiju from using its clawed, scaly arms to scratch or swat at their armor and inflict more damage. It thrashes as Jun orders for the Cruiser to fire at it repeatedly, and Nino catches a glimpse of Jun enabling the coolant feature recently added to the Sentinel before Jun releases it on the kaiju’s tail.
The tail freezes and that only seems to make the beast angrier, elbowing the Sentinel hard on the side. Nino loses his grip on the creature, but he makes up for it by picking up an overturned bus and smashing it against the tail, shattering the part to massive crystalline pieces.
That earns them a deafening howl and Nino ducks, seeing Jun do the same as the kaiju whips around and tries to claw the Sentinel’s face off.
“Load the cannon,” Jun says, his voice hoarse and his fatigue obvious. Nino follows wordlessly, charging the two cannons on the Sentinel’s chest. He aims for the creature’s mouth and locks before asking the pilots of Vesta Cruiser to buy them some time.
“On my mark,” Jun begins, and Nino waits for the count as the Cruiser pounces, narrowly avoiding a blow aimed at its neck. Nino keeps his eye on the charger, hearing the Sentinel’s A.I. call out percentages every now and then, and he begs for it to go faster in his head as they hear Ikuta and his co-pilot Oguri struggle through the open comms.
“Now, Nino, fire it now!” Jun screams, and Nino does, releasing the cannons as the Cruiser forces the kaiju’s mouth open, enabling the Sentinel’s cannons to hit its mark. The kaiju’s head gets blown off in the process, sending the Cruiser to its knees behind it as the Sentinel goes down on one knee due to the force of the blast combined with their exhaustion.
The Sentinel’s A.I. warns them of malfunctioning systems, and Jun addresses Ohno over the comms. “We can’t make it to Sumida,” Jun says, and Nino can feel how hard he tries to keep it together. They’re exhausted and the Inferno is in critical condition while the Sentinel and the Cruiser need repairs, most of their weaponry useless and malfunctioning. “We can’t. Not today. Cancel the drop-off. We can’t meet them. You have to postpone.”
Ohno’s agreement is immediate. “Can you move? Do you need us to haul you back?”
“No,” Nino answers, his eyes on the Inferno’s prone form less than a mile before them. “We can carry Inferno back. Cruiser, can you guys move?”
He hears Ikuta and Oguri’s grunts in reply, and he and Jun make their way to the Inferno to put one of its arms over the Sentinel’s shoulders. Soon, the Cruiser joins them, heaving the Inferno’s other arm over its shoulders, and the six of them try to bring themselves back to Osaka on foot despite it being a long walk.
--
Nino opens his eyes to Sho’s disapproving face looking down at him and he turns to his side, keeping his eyes shut. The last thing he wants to see is Sho’s disappointment, but because his life is series after series of bad luck, it happens to be the first thing he sees upon waking up.
He hears Sho sigh. “Plan is postponed and all functional Jaegers are on standby for any red alerts. The Kanagawa trio, yes, that’s what you guys are called now, are up for repairs, but you and Jun are grounded on Satoshi-kun’s orders.”
That makes Nino’s eyes snap open. He turns back to Sho, wincing at the sudden pain on his shoulder blade. Sho shoots him another disapproving look. “You tore a muscle. Actually, you tore a lot of muscles, even ligaments. But sure, keep moving and injure yourself further. See if I care.”
“You do care,” Nino snaps, shifting on the bed carefully so as not to put any further strain on his body. “You care because you’re here in the infirmary when you have other ranger brains to look after.”
Sho raises an eyebrow but doesn’t rebuff his claim. For a while Nino is just staring at the analyst and his circular frames that would be comical if the situation were different, until he can’t take it anymore. “How’s he?” he asks, shutting his eyes. The pain in his shoulder renders the entirety of his right arm immobile and every shift he does on the bed makes the pain flare up.
“Who knows? He’s probably taking it even better than you are right now,” Sho says, catching on quickly, his voice still as disapproving as before. Nino feels like he’s being scolded right now, though he supposes it’s better that it’s Sho instead of Ohno. Maybe Sho’s preparing him for that. “What happened in there, Nino? We lost you for a moment.”
Nino has to take a deep breath to get the words out. He keeps his eyes shut, not wanting to look at Sho. “I chased the rabbit,” he admits, and he hears Sho snort.
“Obviously. But I’m not the guy you need to talk to about these things,” Sho acknowledges, and Nino can hear him stand up. “You’re not getting inside a Jaeger until you have my approval, and sorry to say but I’m only giving you the clear for light duty. Same with Jun. You guys can beat each other’s asses in the combat halls for all I care, but you’re not putting on a drivesuit anytime soon.”
“And the plan?” Nino asks, eyes snapping open to glare at Sho. “What about the plan? You need all the Jaegers you have for that.”
Sho shoots him a look. He’s almost out of the infirmary, but he turned around to face Nino fully. “You’re right,” Sho says, tilting his head. “We need all the Jaegers we have for that. But we need functional Jaegers and capable pilots for the plan, and sad to say, Nino, you’re neither.”
Sho leaves after that and Nino curses inwardly, thumping his head repeatedly against his pillows. It’s all his fault. He relapsed when he saw Yamanashi, latching on to the memory of his sister’s death and throwing himself and Jun out of alignment. Jun obviously managed to pull himself back but Nino took longer than usual, staying trapped in his and Jun’s memories for too long and compromising not only themselves but also the mission.
Had he stayed a second longer he and Jun would have died.
Now the Sentinel’s up for repairs and he and Jun are grounded on Ohno’s orders. Ohno is well in his right to ground them. If Ohno was here right now, Nino knows he wouldn’t find the strength to say to Ohno’s face that it was a mistake that wouldn’t happen again. Sho was right about him growing too complacent. He grew cocky, confident, and when he least expected it, his ghosts came back for a second haunting with the worst possible timing.
He ended up becoming a liability and dragging Jun down with him and the pain it brings him is so much worse than the pain constantly flaring up in his shoulder. He wishes he could stop feeling because the sensations come flooding all at once: the regret and the guilt over what he had done, the anger and frustration at himself, and the sympathy for Jun and what Jun tried to do.
Somehow, because of his relapse, Nino managed to enter into Jun’s most guarded memories, the memories they were all trained to keep safe in officer training. Nino has his own too, a lingering fear he fiercely protects and is not willing to show to anyone, but since he threw himself and Jun out of alignment despite having a strong connection, he tapped into Jun’s memories without consent and saw something he knows Jun never wanted for him to see.
Jun tried to solo pilot a Jaeger after his sister’s death as a form of penance. It was eventual suicide to try to bear a Jaeger’s neural load on your own but Jun did it knowingly, even making it to the doors of the Shatterdome. Ever since Nino drifted with Jun, he has known of Jun’s guilt over his sister’s sacrifice, even how Jun felt upon seeing his face for the first time.
What he never knew until now was the extent of that guilt and how Jun tried to fight it, only for him to succumb to it in the end. Now Nino understands why Jun never loses the shirt in his presence, why he never wears anything other than a shirt in all their sparring sessions.
Jun has battle scars, physical and unerasable evidence of what he tried to do to atone for his guilt. This was a side of him that Jun never wanted for him to know for obvious reasons, but because of Nino’s miscalculation, Jun’s secret is out in the worst possible manner.
Nino wants to throw up at the onslaught of emotions, finding that he’ll choose physical turmoil over any of this any day. He can handle being tossed and pushed and shoved to the ground, he can take punches and kicks and blows delivered to any part of his body, but for the first time he realizes that he can’t bear the brunt of Jun’s guilt because while he has forgiven Jun over time, Jun still hasn’t forgiven himself.
And Nino doesn’t know how to fix that. He’s incapable of helping the person his sister willingly gave her life for, and it’s as if he’s causing her disappointment as much as he disappointed Jun. He feels worthless and when he turns around to face the consequences of his actions, it’s as if all the ghosts that were chasing after him finally caught up, swallowing him whole without hesitation. It’s as if locking the doors to prevent the ghosts from coming in failed and now they’re crowding him, suffocating him and reminding him that there was no point in running away.
He remains there in one of the infirmary beds, not getting a drop of sleep, thinking of his sister and how in the end, he’s nothing but a failure.
--
It’s Aiba who gives him the okay to leave the infirmary after two days. Aiba doesn’t necessarily have the authority, but he happens to be very good friends with the Shatterdome doctor, even calling the man “Kazapon” at one point.
Nino departs from the infirmary with bandages wrapped around his torso, and he’s tugging at a loose shirt to cover himself as Aiba’s gentle hand on the small of his back guides him outside. Aiba’s presence is comforting because Nino never heard any form of judgment from Aiba when he showed up in the infirmary. There was no disappointment in his eyes, just the usual jovial Aiba whom Nino got used to looking at when he was still trying to prove his worth in the simulation halls.
“A category II showed up in Fukuoka,” Aiba informs him as they sit across each other in cafeteria. Nino’s stuck on soft foods for a while, and he plays with his mashed potatoes as Aiba stuffs curry rice inside his mouth.
Nino narrows his eyes at the information and Aiba nods. “Pulverized Fukuoka. We were too far to be able to send aid immediately. Thunderbolt handled it as quickly as they could, but the damage was already severe. Whatever the shipyards were building, well, they’re not going to fly anytime soon.”
“They’re trying to prevent us from leaving Earth,” Nino murmurs, and Aiba hums before pointing at him with a spoon.
“Sho-chan was right about these guys being far more advanced than us, that while they don’t know whatever plan their queen has for us, they know how to follow orders well enough to carry them out efficiently.” Aiba picks his teeth using one of his nails, his face scrunching as he tries to remove a bead of rice stuck between his teeth. “Which makes the higher-ups panic because, as you and I know, those old geezers were the first ones on the list to leave Earth once the spacecrafts were finished.”
Nino can imagine how “Beardy”, the guy Sho easily floored in the last meeting, wouldn’t be too enthralled to hear that. He also catches on to whatever Aiba’s implying. “We need to move,” he says quietly, and Aiba meets his eyes. “We need to move fast because they’re moving. They’re taunting us and we have to do something about that as soon as we can.”
Aiba makes an annoyed face at failing to get the rice stuck between his teeth, but when he turns to Nino, he’s all serious. “You and Jun-tan are grounded though. Leader says you’re not ready and Sho-chan agrees with him. I’m afraid my connection only stretches as far as the infirmary so I can’t get you out of the Shatterdome’s doors even if I use all the tricks up my sleeves.” Aiba looks apologetic. “Sorry, Nino.”
Nino waves a hand to dismiss Aiba’s apology. Aiba went as far as getting him out of the infirmary ahead of schedule and informed him of the recent events as if nothing has changed. Aiba has done more than enough and Nino is thankful for it. “You think Ohno will listen to anything I might have to say?”
Aiba looks thoughtful for a moment. “No,” he says honestly, and Nino nods, already knowing the answer even before he asked the question. He draws an X on his potatoes using the fork, and it’s then he sees Aiba grin.
“But I think Leader will listen to what both pilots of the Sentinel might have to say.”
Part 4