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1. Tears at the Dock, or: The Shape of a Wound
The convoy of odd-job operators' ships cleared the debris field and the layered alert zones and finally made port at Subaru Station.
Alnilam Heavy Industries' private security force was already waiting at the dedicated dock — black armor, latest model, assembled in formation. The guards and pilot who had been locked in the Luna Geist's cargo hold had been released by Shutia before the final engagement and were already coming down the ramp under their own power.
The Luna Geist's hatch opened.
"Shutia—!!"
Ledea came off the Silver Anchor at a run and collided with Shutia at full force — arms around her, holding with a desperation that had no resemblance to anything her usual composure suggested was possible.
"Sis—?! Oh — that's — that's quite tight—"
"Don't move. Don't you dare move. Where did you go. What were you doing."
The moment was interrupted by the sound of weapons being raised simultaneously throughout the dock. The private security force had surrounded Shutia, guns up — from their position, she was the pilot of the ship that had abducted their employer's daughter, and that assessment was not unreasonable.
"Stand down. All of you — lower your weapons. Now."
The sharp voice came from behind them. Lumie had descended the ramp, and she walked directly to the front of the security line with the bearing of someone who had grown up being obeyed.
"Shutia is the reason I am alive. I do not know what state I would be in without her. Anyone who disrespects her will answer to me."
The guns came down. The line stepped back.
Shutia managed a loose, easy smile.
Ledea reached for her again — and stopped.
"...Shutia. Your forehead. That blood—"
"Ahaha, I got a little enthusiastic with the controls and bumped it, that's all—"
"Don't. And your arm — what happened to your arm—"
Ledea's silver eyes filled and overflowed.
The right sleeve of Shutia's jacket was torn open. Beneath it, a burn scar — raw, deep, the kind left by a near-miss from a high-energy weapon. It was from the moment she had been running through the collapsing base while Temperance fired after her.
"It's nothing, sis. I got out of the way in time — it barely caught me — it'll be healed before you know it—"
"You are absolutely impossible—!!"
Ledea pressed her face into Shutia's chest and held on — not with the force of before, but with the precision of someone who has decided they are not letting go under any circumstances. Her tears didn't stop and she didn't try to stop them.
"If you're not here I can't — I told you I can't stand being still — I told you that — don't ever leave me alone again—"
"Sis... yes. I'm sorry. I won't go anywhere."
Shutia wrapped her good arm around Ledea's back and held her gently. The warmth of golden hair against silver — the past's darkness dissolving in it, completely.
"Oh — oh, what a — what an exquisite display of sisterly love — I can't see a thing through these tears—!"
Nearby, Katrine was using her fan as a handkerchief and producing an amount of noise entirely proportional to her personality.
On the Aqua Ignition's hatch, Kanoa and Asphi watched all of it and smiled at each other without saying anything.
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2. The Wreckage of a Conspiracy, or: A Consistent Fang
The scene moved to a high-floor office that Alnilam Heavy Industries kept inside Subaru Station.
Through the window, the station's night skyline glittered. Inside, on sofas arranged around a low table: Shutia — forehead bandaged, right arm in a sling — alongside Ledea, Katrine, Kanoa, Asphi, and Lumie. Across from them, behind a substantial desk, Reinhardt Alnilam — the company's chief executive — had finally let the severity leave his face.
"...I find it difficult to accept, but the data says otherwise."
He indicated a holographic display showing the debris of open space.
"The Iron Horse — the transport Lumie was aboard. It was completely destroyed by an unknown attack approximately ten minutes after your group separated from it. Investigation is ongoing, but the optical weapon residue signature points to Vizalde military hardware with near certainty."
The air in the room went cold.
"In other words — Shutia's action of 'taking' Lumie from that ship is what saved everyone aboard. If the Iron Horse had continued on its original course, there would be nothing left of any of them."
"Father — then they were never going to negotiate at all—"
Lumie had gone pale. Vizalde's purpose had been retribution from the beginning — the destruction of a failed arrangement, the silencing of anyone who could speak to it.
"There's a fortunate side effect, however."
Reinhardt brought up a second display. On it: the remains of one Wahrheit interceptor, hull dissolved to slag over more than half its surface, barely recognizable as a ship.
"Of the three Vizalde interceptors, two self-destructed to destroy evidence. This one couldn't."
The reason was that the Silver Anchor had come at it head-on with the Anti-Annihilation Field fully deployed, and the self-destruct circuit had been annihilated along with everything else it touched.
The person responsible for this sat with her chin slightly lifted and her expression suggesting that this had been obvious. Shutia, beside her, turned the implications over quietly.
(Thanatos Net — my old organization. Their Vizalde connection is exposed now. Alnilam's network has hold of this. They won't be operating openly in this star system after today.)
But her thinking went further.
(Their pattern has always been consistent. When one connection breaks, they find another client and move on. They don't pursue people who leave. The probability of direct contact again is very low. But preparation — preparation is always necessary.)
Reinhardt had noticed the shift in her expression. He settled back in his chair and nodded with the weight of someone making a real commitment.
"You have my word. Alnilam Heavy Industries will bring our full resources to bear on station-wide defense coordination and will petition the management bureau for reinforced border monitoring. And — my genuine thanks. To the Mace sisters, to Katrine, to the Ryud sisters. Having operators of your quality at this station has meant more than I can say."
He allowed himself a slight smile.
"In fact — how would you feel about a formal arrangement? Our exclusive roster, top-tier monthly retainer. The offer is open."
"Oh! An exclusive contract with Alnilam Heavy Industries — my already unparalleled standing would ascend to entirely new heights!"
"...if the pay is good, I'd consider it."
"Hehe, would the maintenance costs for our ship be included in the arrangement?"
Katrine, Kanoa, Asphi — each responded in their own fashion. Ledea, in the middle of all of it, smiled with a quiet pride.
"We're a free odd-job operation. But thank you."
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3. A Knight's Baptism, or: A Frozen Living Room
The formal part concluded. The tension in the room found its way out through the exits.
In a quieter corner of the office, Lumie rose from the sofa and walked toward Shutia. Her hands, when she reached her, carried the particular warmth of someone who wanted to be careful.
"Thank you. For everything. Truly. Because of you, all of us are here."
Shutia met those direct, uncomplicated eyes and looked slightly like someone who had been caught doing something.
"I... used you and your people to accomplish something of my own. That doesn't change. You don't owe me thanks for that—"
She didn't finish.
"No."
Lumie smiled — small, certain — and closed the remaining distance in a few quick steps. She rose onto her toes, just slightly.
And pressed her lips to Shutia's cheek, just below the bandage, with the lightest possible touch.
"Fweh—?!"
Shutia's cognition stopped entirely.
What followed in the office was a simultaneous silence and upheaval that the room had never previously experienced.
"...what."
Ledea, who had been closest, had achieved a state of complete suspension — shoulders trembling, mouth forming sounds that were not yet words.
Kanoa, who had been drinking juice on the sofa, was frozen open-mouthed, the cup at a dangerous angle.
"Wh — wh — wh — wh — WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING—?!?!"
Katrine produced a sound that had left her usual register entirely and dropped her fan.
"My, my... hehe. How sweet."
Asphi alone had her hand at her cheek and her eyes gently, happily narrowed.
Lumie, face thoroughly red, maintained every fragment of her composure as an Alnilam daughter and looked up at Shutia with a look that knew exactly what it was doing.
"You are welcome to become my knight, you know. If you'd like."
She said it to Shutia Mace.
Not to Mail Noa.
It was the loudest, warmest, most thoroughly chaotic baptism that a new world could have offered — and it buried the ghost of the old one completely.