Nikke: Nullable Type

"Welcome back."

I tilted my head, catching the noticeably warmer greeting of Chief Andersen as I walked in. "...Thanks? And I appreciate you letting Hana come in as well."

Hana walked in behind me, giving a crisp salute. "Thank you for allowing my presence, Deputy Chief, Sir."

Andersen chuckled and said, "It's fine. But I'm surprised." He looked at me and said, "You're with a mass-produced Nikke today and not your main squad?"

"Her name is Hana."

A reflexive response. I didn't intend to say it, but it struck a chord the moment he called Hana just a 'mass-produced Nikke.' And not a good chord.

Andersen blinked. Then he let out a faint smile. "I see. Hana then. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Y-Yes, Sir." Hana nodded. After she did, she gave me a warm smile. "...And thank you, Commander."

"It's obvious." Seeing that Andersen didn't mean anything by it, I relaxed a bit. Especially since the man seemed to have warmed up to me.

Maybe it was since I'd been getting good results?

Either way, since this conversation seemed to be a bit more casual, I let my guard down and relaxed.

"At ease. And sit, please." Andersen gestured towards the chair in front of his desk. "I'll brew some tea."

Hana relaxed a bit, but stayed standing behind me. "If you don't mind, Sir. I'll stand. ...Commander? Is that fine?"

"Of course, Hana." I sat down in the chair. "Whatever you're comfortable with."

"...Then I'll stand." Hana smiled. "...It feels like I'm being productive."

I glanced back at her. As I did, I just couldn't help notice how strikingly similar to Monika she was. Still, she WAS her own person. So I'll need to remember to stop thinking that... but it was pretty cool. It definitely felt like that old friend of mine had hopped back into my life.

Andersen grabbed a teapot and poured a cup of tea before sliding it towards me. After pouring himself a cup, he sat down and said, "Nothing beats a good cup of tea... Ah." He looked at Hana. "Did you want one as well?"

"O-Oh!" Hana quickly shook her head. "Thank you, but I'm fine. P-Please, ignore me. I'm just here to escort the Commander..."

Andersen chuckled. "No need to worry. It's just a bit amusing." He shifted his gaze towards me and said, "For a rookie commander, you sure have a way of winning over your subordinates."

I sipped my tea and said, "It's not hard. Just treat them like people."

"Mm." Andersen picked up his own cup of tea. "Yes. It's not that hard... and yes, so few manage to do just that."

For a moment, there was just silent in the air, along with the faint sound of fidgeting from Hana.

But eventually, Andersen said, "I wanted to thank you again for your last mission. It's been some time since I was in contact with Snow White. I'm glad to hear she's doing well."

"...Is it true then?" I looked at Andersen. "Are you the Legendary Commander?"

Andersen stared back at me with his murky blue eyes. Then he chuckled. "Legendary Commander... I still can't believe they called me that. If you want, you could say that. But I'm just me. These days, I'm a stuffy Deputy Chief. Calling me a Legendary Commander is pushing it a bit."

Hana gasped and then quickly covered her mouth, blushing.

Well, it seemed like someone here was a fan. That, or she was shocked at the admission.

I wasn't though. Instead, I just nodded and said, "That DOES explain your authority at least."

Andersen raised an eyebrow. "You aren't surprised?"

"Honestly, not much surprises me these days, Chief Andersen." I set my tea cup down and started counting off. "On my first mission, I technically died, had my assigned Nikke squad wiped save for one person, and then we took out a Tyrant-Class Rapture. Then... well, a lot's happened."

And that wasn't including my whole 'transmigrated into another body AND another world' bit.

Andersen paused. Then he chuckled and said, "I suppose that's true." After that, he sipped on his tea.

"So, I'm assuming this isn't just a social call, is it?" I raised an eyebrow and looked at Andersen. "Since you're still in uniform, this is business, yes?"

"Something like that. Rather than business, this is a bit of a personal request." Andersen stared at me, a warm smile on his face.

...Honestly, it was a bit weird. But better warmth than frosty chill, I guess.

But after that, Andersen composed himself and said, "Enikk informed me that you're quite capable of innovating. I took a look at the schematics of your monomolecular blade as well and it's quite intriguing." He shifted his cup of tea to the side and laced his fingers together. "Care informing me?"

Ah, there it was.

Since we were back to business, I moved my cup of tea to the side as well and matched him, lacing my own fingers together. "It's pretty straight forward. As you know, my squad and I are stationed on the Outpost. And there are quite a few Rapture attacks. Because there are excess resources there, and because we've been fairly free, I spent some time researching how to utilize those resources."

Andersen raised an eyebrow. "Excess resources? How so? ...Ah. Is it due to your rather efficient means of routing the enemy?"

"Pretty much." I nodded and then leaned back, crossing my legs. "Since my squad is trained in efficient extermination with the least 'input' required, you could say there's a high yield of 'output' we obtain. Since we don't destroy the Raptures with overwhelming firepower but instead precision strikes, the units are fairly intact, allowing for us to repurpose them as needed."

I was pretty proud of that fact, actually. Mostly because it meant that I was able to save quite a bit on our budget.

...Still couldn't do anything about the lack of Goddessium, but the Rapture alloys were proving a workable substitute.

I was still iffy about using them as complete substitutes for Nikke parts, but I had no qualms about making them armor or weaponry.

"Hm." Andersen rubbed his chin. "I suppose that WOULD be true. But you realize this is unprecedented, yes?"

"Of course. That's why I brought this." I slid a copy of the Rapture Bestiary that I made to train the iDoll girls, one refined with input from Raptilion. "This is a draft of a Rapture Bestiary devised with my expertise and the input of a friend. While I haven't addressed tactics directly, this should serve as a great help towards revisiting tactics and the war efforts overall in conjunction with what I've previously reported."

Andersen's eyes flew wide open as he took the book from me. "This..." He quickly flipped through and murmured to himself, "...I see. This is accurate. Yes, this is how they usually went down in the past... So that's why it was effective." As he flipped near the back, he paused when he saw the sketches and suggested weakpoints for Tyrant-Class Raptures as well, along with hypotheticals for Heretic-Class Raptures like Anachiro.

That last bit was an interesting thought experiment.

Sophia pulled up Anachiro's records for me when I asked her about Heretic-Class Raptures since I couldn't find much information.

It seemed like the recycling center's databases at the Outpost were fairly extensive.

Either way, it was a fun thought experiment.

A Nikke, hybridized with Rapture technology and inflicted with corruption. One whose specs far outclassed anything in the current era...

On paper, it would be impossible to win.

But...

"...Inducing counter-responses by taking deliberately telegraphed actions that reveal openings the opponent has no choice but to take, thus collapsing the decision tree of the opponent's combat actions to a single moment, allowing for effective precognition..." Andersen murmured. "You do realize this is impossible to reproduce in practice, yes?"

I blinked. "Is it? That's how I've been fighting this entire time against the Raptures."

Andersen raised an eyebrow. "...It is?"

"Well, yeah." I nodded. "I mean, I'm just a human. Obviously I don't have the specs required to beat a Rapture in a frontal combat. But if I show clear intentions to act in a certain way, then I can take advantage of the fact that the Raptures pursue efficiency, therefore collapsing their actions into a single course of action. And since I know that, I can also preempt that action since I anticipate them anticipating me. Then, in the delay that appears from the miscalculation, I can close the gap and perform either a fatal blow or a series of incapacitating blows."

Hana cleared her throat. "...Not to be rude, Commander. But... permission to speak freely?"

I glanced back. "Yes, Hana? Go ahead."

"...That sounds like a lie. I KNOW it's true. I've seen your footage with the seniors. But... Still."

Andersen chuckled. "...Yes. It's quite unbelievable. But..." He looked at me, almost as if he was seeing someone else. "Well. I've seen one other person fight like that before. So I can believe it."

"...Really now?" I tilted my head. "Who's that?"

"Someone very close to my heart. You wouldn't know her. But you two are quite similar."

I blinked. "Really now... Huh. That's the second time someone's told me I'm similar to someone else."

"Really now?" Andersen tilted his head. "And who is this other person that you're similar to then?"

"Well, Enikk said that I'm similar to you. I don't think so though. We're pretty different."

Andersen blinked. Then he let out a soft chuckle. "...Yes. I suppose I can see that. But I agree with you. We're very different. For one..." He gazed into my eyes and said with an uncharacteristically soft voice. "You would be able to save them, if you had been in my shoes."

"...Huh?"

Andersen chuckled. "Nothing. Just think of it as the ramblings of an old man. But we've drifted quite far off topic." He finished his tea and then said, "Back to the main issue... I have a hypothetical for you."

I nodded. "Alright. What is it, Chief Andersen?"

Andersen slid a thick manilla envelope across the table. "A medical report of a certain John Doe. Given his injuries, what would your approach be in rehabilitating him?"