CH 45

The man who never learn his lesson

After finishing the meal, Kisei and Saki headed for the hangar. Schleer is not with them. Since she needs to discuss our future course of action with her staff and she was forcibly dragged away to a strategy meeting by Solana earlier.

“Ah, so you were discharged from the hospital. Glad to have you back.”

The Chief Mechanic in charge of the [Caliburn-Revive] greeted the two. While bearing a bitter smile on her soot-stained face, she urges them to come closer with one hand.

“Hey there. I heard that the cockpit was a mess right? Must have been hard on you.”

With the blood from Kisei’s damaged internal organs, the cockpit of the [Caliburn-Revive] should appear almost like a murder scene. The staff that has to clean it must have it hard.

“No, it’s nothing much at all. This is much better than seeing it come back as scrap metals. The inside seems to be in perfect condition after all.”

“Well, hahaha, it’s embarrassing that you had to see that but I’m back.”

Kisei shyly laughed.

“Actually, something like this is not the first time for me. I’m pretty much used to getting hospitalized, you see.”

“You, you always end up like that after every big battle……?”

Saki squinted. Among striker pilots, it is not common to have their internal organs damaged by G force. Setting aside the experimental strikers with maximized output setting, the [Caliburn-Revive] was designed with versatility and ease of use in mind. If Saki pilots it, she would be completely fine even while accelerating at full speed.

“Machines designed by Vuld usually have over-the-top specs after all. It’s not just this one striker.”

Said Kisei while looking at the pure white striker fixed to the maintenance bay.

“If a Terran pushes a striker’s output to the limit it will easily wreck their body you know. Well, I’m physically weaker than your average Terran so it’s even worse for me though.”

“Aah, I’ve heard something about that before. It seems that the strikers designed for Terrans have their specs toned down quite a bit right.”

“From our point of view, your race is much tougher than ours after all. It’s natural that we would want to lower the specs”

Unless Terrans undergo a cybernetic surgery which is prohibited by law, they would never be able to win against Vuld physically. It’s no wonder that they would have higher standards when it comes to the safety of their weapons.

“Aah, I get it now. I was actually puzzled about this for quite some time.”

“What are you talking about?”

Hearing the Chief Mechanic’s muttering, Kisei asks her what she’s talking about.

“Well, it’s about your battle data, Kisei-san…….honestly, it looked quite strange to me.”

“I mean, with the kind of movement he pulled during battle, it’s no wonder that the data would look strange right? Rushing into the enemy main fleet and overturning the battle by himself, that’s not something a normal person can do.”

Saki said in an astonished tone. However, the Chief Mechanic replied that [That’s not the case.].

“The strange part was the operating output you see. The output rate shown on the data was impossibly low. If I take a look at this data without knowing the circumstances then I would have thought that the [Caliburn-Revive] was piloted by an amateur pilot who couldn’t make full use of its power you see.”

“If I utilize the full specs then I’ll definitely die so……”

His life would be in danger even with the full output of standard mass-produced strikers. What would happen if he operated a Zenith at full power is clear as day.

“Somehow, it feels like this thing is wasted on you huh. Still……I think saying something like that to a person who’s stronger than me is disrespectful though.”

Saki has already accepted the fact that Kisei is a stronger pilot. Unlike Schleer who tends to have a lot on her mind, Saki’s way of thinking is quite flexible. If Kisei is physically stronger as well, she wouldn’t find him cute but not only is Kisei extremely weak physically, he’s totally defenseless as a man. To pay him back for looking out for her on the battlefield, Saki thinks that she should protect Kisei from all the thirsty beasts around him as much as he did for her during battle.

“Well, it’s true after all, unfortunately. I do feel bitter about it too. You see, if my body is a little stronger then I should be able to do more……..that’s what I’m always thinking.

“Stop it. The more you can do, the more you’d want to push yourself. You are that type of person. It’s enough as you are now.”

“You think so?”

Kisei frowned and crossed his arms.

“I mean, you’ve already pushed yourself too far in the last battle right. By the time we arrived, you were already seriously injured, I couldn’t even see you back then…..I was worried you know.”

“There’s no helping it right. If I didn’t do it, we would have lost. Back then, the only way to turn the table was to trust in my guts and rush in. I had to use everything I could.”

Saki frowned at Kisei’s statement. After all, if she’s put in the same situation, she would have done the same even if she had to sacrifice her life.

“It’s better that you don’t do that anymore you know? I would have trouble wondering if I should laugh or cry if a pilot dies when the striker is completely unharmed after all.”

“Even if you say that…….”

“Besides, reducing the burden on pilots is the job of us mechanics, don’t you agree?”

Interrupting what Kisei wanted to say, the Chief Mechanic said in a bright voice.

“That’s why when you were away, I’ve made some modifications to the [Caliburn-Revive]. I adjusted it according to the feedback you gave and the battle data from the previous battle. You can even call it the Kisei-Custom you know!”

“Ki, Kisei-Custom?”

Seeing the Chief Mechanic proudly presenting her work, Kisei gulped.