More than a hundred Corrosive Torpedoes had been launched. Although not all of them detonated, well over half had exploded successfully.
Then there had been the beam fire on top of that.
How could the nearby Fleet of Fog vessels possibly have failed to notice such a commotion?
At first, they assumed another secret human warship was attempting to cross the ocean. Before long, however, they roughly pieced together what had happened: Kongou was probably teaching Takao a lesson.
After all, Kongou had issued an absolute order forbidding anyone from approaching the waters where Takao was located.
Fortunately, the disturbance ended almost as quickly as it had begun.
As the closest observer—and the only one who knew the truth behind the battle—Kongou couldn't hide the faint astonishment on her beautiful face.
She had never expected Takao to lose so quickly.
If that man's experiences were real, then Kongou had no doubt that he possessed enough strength to defeat Takao.
She simply hadn't expected him to overwhelm her so thoroughly.
Kongou had assumed he would deploy some kind of aircraft or large-scale equipment to oppose Takao. Instead, he had broken through her defenses with nothing more than what he had carried on his person.
Had the Admiralty Code witnessed what just happened?
Before arriving, the man had revealed another piece of information to her.
The Admiralty Code had never fallen dormant. It had been observing this world all along.
Furthermore, the Admiralty Code wasn't merely a program like the Fleet of Fog had been before developing Mental Models.
The Admiralty Code—or AC—actually possessed a humanlike form and might even be operating somewhere within human territory.
As for AC's true purpose, the man claimed to know it, but he intended to keep that information hidden as a bargaining chip.
Still, AC hadn't mysteriously vanished. It had deliberately concealed its activities in this world from the Fleet of Fog.
It wasn't only observing humanity. It was also observing the development of the Mental Models, and not even the Supreme Flagship knew about it.
That made matters considerably more interesting.
The man had also told Kongou how the Mental Models had come into existence.
If the higher-order system known as the Admiralty Code failed to establish active contact for more than ten cycles—approximately one century by Earth's calendar—the Fleet of Fog would be required to search for a replacement commander to serve as its higher-order system.
The candidate they had selected was a human named Kotono Amaha.
However, Kotono Amaha wasn't entirely human. She could be described as an existence similar to AC.
Should something ever happen to AC, someone like her would become the replacement higher-order system.
If AC malfunctioned, people like Kotono Amaha would continue to live among humanity through successive generations. They wouldn't even realize they belonged to the Fleet of Fog, instead believing themselves to be ordinary humans.
When the Supreme Flagship found Kotono Amaha, she concluded that she needed to adopt a suitable form in order to face and communicate with her. She used Kotono as a reference and read everything about her.
Thus, the Fleet of Fog—entities that had previously possessed neither emotions nor human forms—acquired Mental Models.
That was the truth behind the birth of the Mental Models, at least according to the "work" the man had seen in his own world.
Whether the truth of Kongou's world was genuinely the same would become clear after Supreme Flagship Yamato and Kotono Amaha arrived for a private conversation.
Of course, they might have another purpose for coming.
To prevent any unforeseen complications, they could attempt to "reset" Kongou and erase everything she had learned.
Hm?
Already?
Kongou detected something approaching at tremendous speed.
She couldn't allow them to discover the man's existence.
For one thing, the Supreme Flagship had concealed information from her and treated her like a fool. Kongou had no intention of immediately revealing the man's existence in return.
More importantly, if the man came into contact with the Supreme Flagship, he might decide that dealing directly with her was preferable and bypass Kongou altogether. The Superdimensional Channel system embedded in Kongou's core might even transfer itself to the Supreme Flagship.
Kongou would be excluded once again.
That was something she could never accept.
Before the approaching presence could observe him, Kongou terminated the man's visit to her world.
In simpler terms, she ejected him.
Meanwhile—
Aboard the heavy cruiser, the blue-haired girl Takao remained pinned to the deck.
She compared the man's appearance with her memories once again and confirmed that the young man restraining her—the one who looked barely twenty by human standards—was indeed the same person from the recordings.
She had experienced them so many times that she knew his appearance intimately.
There was no mistake.
They were the same man!
"Hm?"
The man released her, then returned to the empty suit of power armor still trapped inside her Klein Field.
"Would you mind lowering the Klein Field?"
"Oh... okay."
Takao nodded rather blankly and dismissed it.
At almost the same moment, she received a communication from Kongou instructing her not to interfere with the man's equipment recovery and to remove him from her list of hostile targets.
However, Kongou's words went in one ear and out the other.
Takao obeyed the man simply because...
She didn't know.
Even she had no idea why she had listened to him so readily.
Once he had put the power armor back on, he noticed Takao was still lying on the deck. He walked over and held out his hand.
Takao stared at it for a moment before accepting.
He pulled her to her feet.
For some inexplicable reason, however, her body didn't seem to be obeying her properly. She stumbled forward and fell straight into his arms.
"Um... I... This is..."
After regaining her balance, Takao stood there blushing, fidgeting, and stammering as she tried to say something.
Then her eyes widened.
The man had vanished without warning.
Takao reached into the empty space before her, but her fingers touched nothing but air.
"Kongou! Kongou, what just happened? Tell me! Where did he go?"
Takao immediately began shouting at Kongou. Only now did she finally pay attention to the message Kongou had sent earlier.
"Quiet. Your current task is to eliminate every trace of that man. Delete all combat data stored aboard your vessel, and completely destroy any objects or debris he may have left behind."
"Why should I do that? If you don't explain everything to me, I'm not doing it!"
In truth, almost nothing physical remained.
The only significant object had been the heavy suit of power armor, but that had served as a decoy and was subsequently destroyed by Corrosive Warheads.
Aside from that, there might be a few tiny fragments left from the bullets and four missiles he had fired. Even those had mostly destroyed themselves in the explosions.
"Suit yourself. If you don't want to clean everything up, then forget it. You'll simply never see the man who defeated you again, nor will you ever learn what just happened."
Kongou's calm, unhurried response made Takao grind her teeth.
D-Damn her!
Despite her frustration, Takao had no choice but to begin erasing the evidence immediately.
She needed to eliminate every trace, then coordinate with Kongou's story when the Supreme Flagship questioned them later.
They would claim that Takao and Kongou had merely been "playing."
That itself raised an interesting question.
The Supreme Flagship didn't know about this man either, did she?
Then how had Kongou discovered him?
Oh, right. Takao had nearly forgotten something important.
If Kongou wanted her silence, fine.
But in exchange, Takao wanted the rest of the data she hadn't finished downloading.
She wanted to learn more about that man!
She wanted to know everything—right now!
(End of Chapter)
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